H. P. LOVECRAFT, President.
October 28, 1917.

THE UNITED AMATEUR JANUARY 1918

REPORTS OF OFFICERS

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Fellow-Amateurs:--

The dawn of the new year discovers the United in what may, considering
the general condition of the times, be called a very enviable position.
With a full complement of officers, and with the recruiting machinery
fairly under way, our course seems clear and our voyage propitious.

The November Official Organ deserves praise of the highest sort; and
will remain as a lasting monument to the editorial ability of Miss
McGeoch and the mechanical good taste of Mr. Cook. It has set a standard
beneath which it should not fall, but to maintain which a well-supplied
Official Organ Fund is absolutely necessary. If each member of the
Association would send a dollar, or even less, to Custodian McGeoch,
this Fund might be certain of continuance at a level which would ensure
a large and regularly published UNITED AMATEUR.

The publication of lists of new and prospective members should arouse
every amateur to recruiting activity, and cause each newcomer to receive
a goodly number of letters, papers, and postcards. It would be well if
the line of demarcation between Recruiting Committees and the general
amateur public were not so sharply drawn; for whilst it is the duty of
the official recruiter to approach these new names, any other members
confer no less a favour on the United by doing so unofficially. We must
remedy the condition which permits able writers to join and pass out of
the Association almost without a realization of the fact of their
membership. How few of these gifted amateurs who entered in 1915-1916
are now with us!

Publishing activity is strikingly exemplified by the appearance of
=Spindrift=, a regularly issued monthly from the able pen of Sub-Lieut.
Ernest Lionel McKeag of the Royal Navy. When a busy naval officer in
active service can edit so excellent a magazine as this, no civilian
should complain that the present war has made amateur journalism an
impossibility! The number of papers expected in the near future has been
increased by a plan of the Second Vice-President to unite the members of
the Recruiting Committee in a co-operative editorial venture. It is to
be hoped that this enterprise may succeed as well as similar papers
conducted during former administrations. Of great interest to the
literary element will be