Great bliss

It was October before Hilda and her comrades obtained permission from the French and British authorities to travel to France to support civilian victims of war. They arrived in Paris on 5 November and, after several delays, found themselves running a maternity hospital for refugees at Châlons-sur-Marne.

Here's one of Hilda's first letters from France, written to her friend Edith Pye.

I am reposing in great bliss as the worst anxieties of failures and muddles are over and we have succeeded both in being enough use ourselves to justify coming out, and all the expenditure, and in opening up the way to help the awful suffering which we knew all along was here.

We have got the confidence of both civil and military authorities and if in the next few weeks we can make this good, I think the limits to our work will be those of the capacities of ourselves and the volunteers who are waiting.

We have struggled and groped here till we have begun to see more clearly, and evolved a committee which met on Thursday at Vitry and showed some corporate power and some grasp of the large issues before us. We all felt better after it.

Fortunately the military authorities here are so pleased with us all that they are renewing their permits, although they are not supposed to do so till the supplementary list has been authorised at the Grand Quartier General.

I believe we have paved the way for other more competent people. I dare say it will always be difficult to reconcile the desires of our volunteers at home, who want an outlet, with both economy and efficiency of work.

It is an extraordinary problem to have these huge numbers of people turned out of their country. France is evidently full of them and can do nothing to help those in the war zone, except the small government grant. The Prefet and his staff are eager to do all they can. They will take any trouble to help us. It is wonderful how little jealousy and difficulty there is at such a time: “the sad those sadder still console.”

Caption: The first group of volunteers organised by the Friends War Victims Relief Committee. © 2014 The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain

Of course it is ghastly beyond all belief to these peasants to lose their homes and to be in such constant fear for their children. Oh, how thankful I am that we were here in time to do something before the cold.

The people are getting desperate with the winter coming on, the excitement is over now and there is nothing to help them in their forlorn squalor. We must do what we can and try to pass on to them the generous spirit behind us in England.

Of course, now the way has been opened, and we have been able to show people that there is work needed and that the work will be welcomed, it will be easier to get really well-qualified people in England to volunteer, and to get the right people in the right places.

The organisation that Hilda set up was called the Friends War Victims Relief Committee. It did not attract the same criticism as the Friends Ambulance Unit, as it worked with civilians and thus could not be seen as helping the war effort.

There are many organisations today that continue to provide relief in war zones, as well as to monitor human rights or support reconciliation. Is this more effective than campaigning against war, or can the two go together? What do you think?