'I applied to a famous London hotel for a job as a waiter, and was told that if I could manage to acquire a Cockney accent my application might be considered. 'It is a well-known American in London who has at last given me a chance. I am paid £2 a week as a beginning, but am being taught the business, and when I am bet qualified I am to have a better salary. Now I am hoping to make good quickly. and am looking forward to getting married in a year's time. 'I have come to the conclusion that, while it is not half so difficult as people imagine to get promotion on one's own merit in the army, it is the hardest thing in the world to make one's way as a civilian without the backing of special influence.' This is not by any means an isolated instance of the difficulty which ex-officers are meeting in their search for work. At the headquarters of the Ex-Officers' Union a Daily Chronicle representative was given accounts by an official of very many men who have been out of work for months. 'Of several members whom I have seen recently,' he said, 'one told me he was about to apply for a job as a chimney sweep, as he had come to the end of his gratuity; another, now penniless, has been looking for work since March without result and has a mother and sister dependent on him; and a third tells me that after being told he was eligible for free legal training he has spent a good deal on legal books, only to be told that after all he cannot be trained. 'We hope by working together to better conditions for all ex-officers and to obtain work for those who, after giving up all to serve their country, are not offered even a living wage.' BY A. H. O have you been to Limehouse The bowsprits of the ships stick out And some ships come from China (It's a long, long way from China!), Hong Kong and Valparaiso And Cork and Callao! Do you know Jim the Limper's house O ship that came from China, The Spectator That clings about the shadowed white Ghost of the hawthorn with a sweet delight. To see upon the painted mist To watch the new-born shadows st. The hill to breast, the road to tread, And feel the rain's soft goodness shed On face and body, hands and head. To see beneath the sunset glow, The sheltering house, the lamp beam glow, To welcome, and at night to know The talk of friends beside the fire, Such is the sum of my desire. The Westminster Gazette OUT OF CAPTIVITY BY GERARD HOPKINS (A prisoner of war recently in To hide beneath a little hill To climb th' enchanted Down and lie To see the little roads again THE WELL BY ELLA YOUNG With oziers straight and long That slips away That we are fisherfolk Cunningly staked and set Or better, cease to care For any kingdom there, The Nation OUT OF CAPTIVITY BY GERARD HOPKINS (A prisoner of war recently in To hide beneath a little hill When April brings the earliest daffodil, To walk, and ride, and run, and eat my fill. To climb th' enchanted Down and lie And watch great clouds swell lazily Full-bosomed up the English sky. To see the little roads again Drop from the ragged woods and strain Into the colored patchwork of the plain. THE WELL BY ELLA YOUNG With oziers straight and long That slips away That we are fisherfolk Cunningly staked and set The Nation |