BLUE CROSS FUND

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – May I once more make an appeal on behalf of the Blue Cross Society for their quarantine kennels for officers’ and soldiers’ dogs at the Charlton Kennels, Shooter’s Hill, near London I have only recently heard from the Secretary, Mr. Coke, that they already have some dogs in the kennels belonging to soldiers from India and more were expected for which licences had been issued. At the present time the length of quarantine for dogs in England is 6 months, for which the charge made by all veterinary surgeons is from pound 15 to pound 20. It is to help those who are unable to pay the fees that the Society has opened these quarantine kennels and it is expected that they will have to be kept open for at least another year. Donations, however small, will be most gratefully received and may be sent either to the Society’s account at the Alliance Bank of Simla, Lahore, or to me.

C.S. WILKIN,

Hony. Secy., Blue Cross Fund,

Punjab.

ARMENIANS AND THE WAR

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – We have heard a great deal both during and after the war, of the devastation of Belgium, but the evils that have befallen this brave nation pale into insignificance when compared with the horrors perpetrated on a defenceless though undaunted nation, the Armenians. Drawn to Europe by the ties the closest and the most far-reaching down the past centuries, Armenia now bleeding and torn, craves help from her brave Allies, for the sufferings she has undergone from the time when she took her place beside the forces of liberty and righteousness against tyranny and barbarism. Recently an appeal has been made in London by the great leader General Andranik and with him many true sympathisers for the homeless refugees, numbering 400,000 souls in Trans-Caucasia. An appeal for these refugees, than whom there can be no more deserving objects of charity, should not be in vain, especially in such a cosmopolitan portion of the British Empire as India.

P.Z. MARTIN.

Calcutta.

THE RAILWAY CLERKS’ASSOCIATION

To The Editor Of The Statesman

SIR, – May I be permitted to point out a serious discrepancy in the leading article of the issue of The Statesman, dated 1st October. The article in question dealt with the railway strike now in force in England and stated that the railwaymen comprise three unions, viz, The National Union of Railwaymen, The Amalgamated Society of Locomotive Engineers and the Railway Clerks’ Association. The Railway Clerks’ Association is totally distinct and apart from the other two unions and is not amalgamated with those two unions, the clerks of English railways not taking any part in disputes between what is called the “outside grades” and railway employers, or, in this case, the Government. The executive of the Railway Clerks’ Association have instructed the members of the association to remain at work and carry on, not, of course, performing any work ordinarily done by the strikers.

RAILWAY CLERK.