The Postmaster-General (Mr. Herbert Samuel) was struck, on visiting some of the camps and on seeing the men in the trenches, by the great value to them of the books already sent out. It occurred to him that the post-offices of the country might be used to become collecting depôts for the Libraries, and in consultation with Colonel Sir Edward Ward and the Hon. Mrs. Anstruther a scheme was evolved by which anyone could hand a book or magazine, unwrapped and unaddressed, over the counter of any post-office in the kingdom for the benefit of our soldiers. The collections thus made are divided in agreed proportions between the four societies already mentioned. The War Library started work quickly. In the first week of the war, Mrs. Gaskell, her brother, Mr. Beresford Melville, and a small group of friends, made an appeal in the newspapers for literature for the sick and wounded. This was the first of all the great war appeals. The response was so rapid and so overwhelming that, even in the large house lent by Lady Battersea for the accommodation of the books, problems of space and of methods of distribution at once arose. But a satisfactory system was quickly evolved, and with the assistance of Dr. Hagberg Wright, librarian of the London Library, it has developed into an organisation of clockwork perfection. Started entirely as a private undertaking, the War Library reached such proportions that by November, 1915, it was considered advisable to affiliate it to the Joint Societies of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John, thus ensuring financial support and official facilities of distribution. The work, however, has been carried on throughout by Mrs. Gaskell and a voluntary staff of women helpers, whose duties include the unpacking and sorting of the books; the cleaning and mending of soiled and torn copies; the selection of books by a careful system which ensures that each package shall contain a choice of books and magazines to suit varied types of readers; and the packing, addressing, and despatch to the hospitals. Under the present arrangements 1810 hospitals are supplied in England and a fortnightly consignment of books is sent to 272 hospitals in France, besides the cross-Channel hospital service and hospital ships for the Colonies and foreign service. Hospitals in East Africa, Bombay, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Salonika, and Malta receive every month thousands of books and magazines, the continuous supply travelling smoothly to its destination of ambulance, casualty clearing station, or base hospital. Under the post-office scheme, several thousand books, papers, and magazines are received weekly, but in addition many gifts of books are sent direct to the War Library. There is also a large department of the War Library for the purchase of new books to mix with those given. A touching and remarkably successful feature, a suggestion of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, is a thin scrap-book for men who are very ill, made by devoted helpers