Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/755

WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 739 abandoned every sort of violence. A large number of the more active members of their societies formed the Women's Emer- gency Corps, who were ready to undertake all kinds of national work which the exigencies of the situation demanded. The N.U.W.S.S. Executive Committee meeting on August 3, the day before our own country was actually involved, resolved to sus- pend immediately all political propaganda for its own ends. Under normal circumstances we should have summoned a Coun- cil meeting to discuss the situation and to determine the course to be taken by the Union. This being impossible owing to diffi- culties connected with railway communication we consulted our societies, then numbering over 500, by post, placing them in possession of our own views, viz. : that ordinary political work would have to be suspended during the war and suggesting that our best course would be to use our staff and organising capacity in promoting forms of work designed to mitigate the distress caused by the war. We felt that our members would desire to be of service to the Nation and that the N.U.W.S.S. had in their organisation a special gift which they could offer to their country. This view was endorsed by our societies with only two dissenting. On receiving this practically unanimous backing we further proceeded to recommend distinct forms of active service. The Local Government Board had addressed a circular to Lord Mayors and Mayors and Chairmen of Town and County Coun- cils directing them at once to form Local Relief Committees to deal with any kind of distress caused by the war. We suggested to our societies that they should offer their services to help, each in its own district, in this national work. We also opened in different parts of the country forty workrooms in which women thrown out of work by the war found employment. We estab- lished bureaux for the registration of voluntary workers and gradually our work spread in all directions ; help for the Belgian refugees, the starting of clubs and canteens for soldiers and sailors, dubs for soldiers' wives, work in connection with the Sailors' and Soldiers' Families Association, patrol work in the hborhood of sol- lining camps, Red Cross work, con- ducting French classes for our men in training. A very large