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[Page 20]
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saying that they would be glad if they could put up a married couple for the time stated & would they call the next after-noon & take them away. They wrote back saying they would call at 2 sharp. Mr & Mrs Turpin left home about 12 & arrived at the Office to time. – The secretary was very sorry but Monsieur & Madame had not yet arrived – would Mr & Mrs Turpin kindly wait. They waited till about 3.30 & then went out to get some tea & said they'd return at 4. They did so & shortly after enter the poor homeless poverty stricken Belgians. The man spoke English well, Madame only spoke French. Mr Turpin welcomed them, introduced his wife & suggested the two ladies should go off right away, while he & the Belgian went for their luggage which was at their hotel. The man was immaculately dressed, like wise Madame who also wore most beautiful diamonds – he said "WE will get a taxi & all go out together" Mr Turpin said "oh we can get a motor bus for 3d & tram for 2d & its really an hour & a half's run so why waste money on a taxi, - surely you & I can carry the few clothes you'll need for four weeks".
At that Monsieur Belgique nearly exploded – he turned on the Secretary & said "I told you I expected to be put up for the duration of the war & this gentleman says for three weeks" & then turned to Mt Turpin said "I expect to be housed till the war is over & if you are not prepared to take us for that time, we would sooner stay at our Hotel" mentioning some fairly swagger Hotel & went on to say that they had 20 trunks of personal effects as well as other boxes & luggage & altogether this poor (?) refugee was most annoyed & Mt Turpin said that as he was well enough off to stay at that hotel he had better continue doing so, & the Belgians left in great dudgeon.
Then the Turpins said to the Secretary "have you no poor Belgian, some who if we dont take them will be homeless". He came back presently & said "we want a home for a family of seven, but they won't be separated" so the Turpins said their home could'nt contain 7 extra & the secretary said he was sorry, but apparantly he had no others needing help & the left arriving back at Finchley about 7 pm, tired out & feeling that they had had quite enough of Belgians.
Then I heard of some who were taken in by a family at Liverpool, & after they had been there about 11 weeks butter went up, so these people bought salted butter for themselves, & the Belgian family who had meals with them had to eat it too, & the Belgians wrote to the London Headquarters, & complained, & when the English people found what they had done they wrote & said they would'nt help them any longer & they did'nt, & on every hand in England are well authenticated cases like this – great strong able-bodied Belgians expecting to be kept – refusing to make their own beds or help wash up & grumbling & growling all the time – their habits are bestial – failing a handkerchief they use the curtains & have other equally disgusting habits, & I suppose in every hotel & boarding-house in London & fairly well off Belgians who don't give a penny to any charity fund & don't do a hands turn for their own people. "We saved England" – let England keep us" is their whine.
And we Australians over here used to read of the thousands being subscribed by our people for Belgium, we used to gasp & wonder if you were all dotty. What about funds for our own who will come back maimed & crippled ? – what about money for the families of those who will never return ? – What about the starving poor in England to-day ?. Everyone we talked to at home took the war seriously & alas too often did we hear the sad tale of "not enough amunition" – how frequently in letters from the front did we not read "after terrific fighting losses we took such & such trenches, but had to fall back as the enemy's guns got our positions & our artillery was unable to silence them" & those who knew would say "ah, shortage of amunition again." One of my mothers cousins has a son in the artillery & he was at Neuve Chapelle after that engagement, he wrote home & said that if they had sufficient ammunition they could shell the Germans out of Belgium without the loss of another infantry man & he also said they were given 50 rounds of amunition a day whereas the German battery opposite them had often fired 70 rounds before breakfast – & of course its ancient history now that a lot of the wire entanglements were not shelled at all & our poor men were held up by the cruel wires & picked off like rabbits, not because the artillery failed, but because the amunition gave out.
On every hand in London are organisations for helping the Empire & the supply of helpers is greater than the demand. Nancy Norris wrote to 7 Committees offering her services in any capacity, for any time, as a voluntary helper & all refused as they were surfeited with offers of help.
About 70% of the men in London were in Khaki & at night the streets were in semi darkness. At Bayswater only one lamp in fact was alight, but up the city there were even fewer lights – just one dim gas lamp at a street intersection – no head lights on motors & no big electric lights – no arc lamps, all shop windows shrouded, & at intervals a band of light crossing the sky – the search lights on different vantage points looking for the enemy in the air.
Buckingham Palace, the Abbey, Parliament House, G. Post Office & other important places looked like huge caged animals, being covered with a sort of scaffolding, with wire netting fixed over it – to keep bombs off – & of course at all important buildings the armed guard on duty – sentries everywhere & thro' it all, the ordinary "business as usual" Londoner carried on his work, as tho' there were no such thing as Germans & a life & death struggle going on at his very door. – But the social life had changed – women who would usually be getting their frocks & frill ready for the season were busy knitting – working for other. Making sand