rmy Pay Office asking to have the allowance stopped to his wife.
The Army Pay Office never acts on any such letter without securing a
report from the Chief Constable, and again the woman is needed,
and there is frequently the question of the children as well. Their
allowance, of course, never ceases but they may go to some relative or
be disposed of in some way.

These cases are infinitesimal in number.

After the outbreak of the war there were many scares. Every one in our
country knows now how a myth is established. We have left the stage
behind where people told you they knew, from a friend, who knew a
friend who knew some one else who saw it, who was in the War Office,
etc., etc., etc.--that England was invaded--that the Navy was all
down--or the German Navy was all down--that we were going to do this,
that, or the other impossible thing.

Dame Rumour had a joyous time in the early days of the war and
we suffered from the people who were not only quite certain that
everything was wrong morally, but told us that the illegitimate birth
rate was going to be enormous. Their accusations against our ordinary
girls were monstrous. There was some excitement and foolishness, but
anybody who was really working and dealing with it as the Patrol were,
knew the accusations were ridiculous. The illegitimate birth rate of
our country is lower than before, which is the best reply to, and
the vindication of the men of our armies and our girls against, these
absurd attacks.

Another scare was about the drinking of women. Soldiers' wives were
attacked in this connection and the same kind of wild accusation
made, so much so that a committee was appointed to go into the whole
question (1915), presided over by Mrs. Creighton, President of the
National Union of Women Workers.

In my experience a great deal of this talk was caused by the fact that
many women, who had never done social work, and who knew nothing of
real conditions, started to go among the people and were shocked and
overwhelmed by what were unfortunately normal wrong conditions, and
lost all sense of perspective. Some women did drink--true--but I found
they were generally the women who always had done it, and who perhaps
in some cases, having more money of their own and no husbands to deal
with, drank a little more.

The findings of the Committee showed this clearly and they made some
recommendations, especially recommending that the Central Board for
the Control of