in on such a scale that, even with the best endeavours, it took many days before they could be acknowledged and classified. Eagerness to help the victims whose suffering was part of the price Belgium had to pay in her fight for honour was England’s tribute of admiration. The next question was the momentous one of temporary accommodation for the refugees on arrival. With the assistance of an ever-increasing group of willing volunteer workers, the War Refugees Committee soon arranged for beds and food to be prepared in the buildings placed at their disposal. These were hastily improvised as hostels, with the help of generous loans of linen and crockery. If the accommodation at first was sketchy, there were at least beds and food for all who came, and eager sympathy and welcome. They needed all the help and comfort which could be given to them, these dazed and terrified people, with the haunted look of horror on their faces. They had endured experiences which our civilisation could have ascribed only to a bygone age, and which we little thought could pollute the earth again. During the next weeks the stream of refugees flowed into London in ever greater numbers. The work of the War Refugees Committee soon classified itself automatically into departments. The clerical department had to cope with correspondence which, within a fortnight, had mounted to many thousands of letters a day containing money contributions and placing accommodation for 100,000 people at the disposal of the committee. Refugees had to be received on arrival and temporarily housed. The question then arose of their allocation to more permanent quarters and of arranging that offers of hospitality from all over the country should be responded to by suitable allotment of refugees. From the first it was found advisable to decentralise as much as possible and to allow the local committees formed throughout the country to make most of the detailed arrangements for allocation. These committees numbered before long between two and three thousand. Questions of transport and clothing were in the hands of other rapidly organised departments.