ABSTRACT
It has always been a pet cry of military philanthropists that something should be done for the widows and children of soldiers dying in the Service. Of course we for our part should be only too glad to see some scheme set on foot which would benefit a class of people amongst whom a great deal of ill-deserved distress exists; but we are well aware that the difficulty which stands in the way of any relief being offered is the want of a satisfactory solution of the problem of where the money is to come from, and at this point any scheme that has yet been attempted for the amelioration of the condition of soldiers’ families has fallen to the ground. We are ready to give the War Office every credit for its good intentions, and we doubt not that if the authorities could see their way to the establishment of a Widows’ Pension Fund, everything would at once be done to carry so desirable a project through to a satisfactory issue; but the want of money puts it out of their power. In fact, as the official phrase has it, “the Secretary of State has no funds at his “disposal” which could be applied to such a purpose; so the matter is regarded at Pall Mall as equally desirable and hopeless. It is strange, therefore, that the War Office, which openly professes itself to be so benevolently inclined towards the families of dead soldiers, should make a questionable use of the small means it possesses to benefit soldiers’ children. The Military Orphans’ Savings Bank is the only institution connected with the administration of the Army which has it in its power to assist soldiers’ children, but this charitable fund—for in such a light it is viewed by Act of Parliament—fails lamentably in its mission; indeed, instead of proving an advantage to the children who are taken under its august protection, the principle on which it is conducted tends more towards driving them into workhouses and prisons than helping to make them respectable and useful members of society.
