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preparing for another war, instead of preparing for peace
and a liveable world. The process is probable but fortunately
not inevitable. This much can be said, that only
public opinion, and public opinion of the educated man,
most of all the university educated man of this generation,
who has been given, however imperfectly, some
knowledge of world history and world culture, can
prevent such a disaster."
Jacob Cominsky was re-elected president, along with
Rev. Harold Pattison, '91, Rev. Willard S. Richardson,
'94, and Elmer C. Walzer, '23, vice-presidents; and
Harold E. Truscott, '26, secretary-treasurer.
--R--
British Women Toil at Heavy Tasks;
Few Blitz Traces Left, Nurse Finds
Marjorie B. Storey, '2I, formerly assistant director of the
Visiting Nurse Association, Rochester., is an Army nurse, with
the rank of second lieutenant, and is serving overseas as a
member of a General Hospital Unit. Present whereabouts of
the unit are unknown, but her address is: APO 8I3 NAC, c/o
Postmaster, New York City. Here are extracts of letters written
home to her sister, Norma Storey Spinning, ' I8:
" ... We have joined forces with a group of Red Cross
people who are going to work with the troops overseas.
It includes medical social workers and secretaries to be
assigned to hospital work; a group of recreation workers
who are to organize clubs in the big centers where the
men go on leave; a number of men, most of whom have
been doing physical education work with high school
and college age groups, and who are to be assigned to a
task force later. To our surprise we found two New
Englanders going to the Harvard Unit with us and also
in our uniform. They were being sent over by Harvard
Medical School as replacements, one as a laboratory
technician and the other as a secretary.
"Our Red Cross group and the Army nurses on board
are in comfortable quarters. On the first sunny day we
were so pleasantly sunned and blown on the top deck
that I made up for any arrears in sleeping. This has been
like a prolonged vacation, an unlimited variety of interesting
people with a nucleus of men and women that
we knew well before we started, and all the fascination
of an ocean trip. The nights on deck without a light
showing and the August shooting stars in full view; or
an overclouded sky with only the phosphorescent waves
breaking near the ship. The days are like Adelaide
Crapsey's verse-
'Wind and wave and beat of sea­
White sands stretching endlessly.'
only of course we weren't looking for white sands but
for whales or porpoises.
"This has been an uneventful trip. If you want to
travel with speed and efficiency, plan your trip with the
Navy at sea and the Red Cross on land. Far superior to
Cook's Tours!
8
" ... We are now in London at the Nurses' Club which
is an 'on leave' residence sponsored by the Red Cross
and Mrs. Biddle (wife of the ambassador) for American
Army nurses and Red Cross workers. It is a fine old
residence in the Mayfair district not far from Berkeley
Square.... The city was so much lovelier than I had
been prepared to find it. I didn't dare hope that it could
have all the charm and interest that you have talked
about for so long. The longer we stay the more aware
we are of the good cleanup job that has been done.
There has been no 'proper Blitz' since May of '41 here
and the Londoners pride themselves on making everything
as shipshape as possible.
.'Thursday we visited a district nursing settlement in
the Limehouse section in East London. It is near the
Pettycoat Lane district. The nurse with whom I made
rounds is a Danish nurse who was in London when the
Germans occupied Denmark. She is a fine little nurse,
bright and interesting. We saw some of the families that
survived the nine months of the worst raids and they
are just as matter of fact and plucky about it as the
accounts you read in magazines and books. And always
so entirely unselfconscious. One woman of 91 prided
herself on never leaving her apartment for a Shelter.
The British insurance and relief funds seem to be efficient
and adequate. The organization of dispensary and home
medical care and of medical supplies seemed to be very
well set up.
" ... I never expected to be as comfortable, or as well
fed. You can forget all your worries about poor food.
Even the British rations are better than they were and
the hospital, patients, staff, etc., are very well satisfied
with Army food.
". . . You can't put in words the courage and determination
the English people are showing. And entirely
without heroics-very matter of fact and working hard.
The women are marvelous-in the different services for
the Army, the Air Force and the Navy, but also hauling
heavy luggage trucks in the railroad stations, cleaning
streets, working as guards in the underground railroad
and on the farms. We visited one factory to see what
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