may have the consequence of depriving of their employment
workpeople who would have been engaged for wages in the making
of the same garments for contractors to the Government. A very
large part of the garments collected by the Guild consists,
however, of articles which would not in the ordinary course
have been purchased by the Government. They include additional
comforts for the soldiers and sailors actually serving, and
for the sick and wounded in hospital, clothing for members of
their families who may fall into distress, and clothing to
be distributed by the local committees for the prevention and
relieving of distress among families who may be suffering from
unemployment owing to the war. If these garments were not made
by the voluntary labor of women who are willing to do their
share of work for the country in the best way open to them,
they would not, in the majority of cases, be made at all. The
result would be that families in distress would receive in
the winter no help in the form of clothing, and the soldiers
and the sailors and the men in hospitals would not enjoy
the additional comforts that would be provided. The Guild is
informed that flannel shirts, socks, and cardigan jackets
are a Government issue for soldiers; flannel vest, socks, and
jerseys for sailors; pajama suits, serge gowns for military
hospitals; underclothing, flannel gowns and flannel waistcoats
for naval hospitals. Her Majesty the Queen is most anxious
that work done for the Needlework Guild should not have a
harmful effect on the employment of men, women, and girls in
the trades concerned, and therefore desires that the workers
of the Guild should devote themselves to the making of
garments other than those which would, in the ordinary course,
be bought by the War Office and Admiralty. All kinds of