secured for British manufacturers, it will mean that, having this certain market, the British manufacturer will be able to produce articles in larger quantities, adopt methods of mass production, and thus be in a better position effectively to compete for foreign trade throughout the world.

If Imperial Preference means, as it should mean, preference to the producers of the entire Empire, British, Dominion and colonial, the British manufacturer should find himself, as a result of the application of these principles, in a position to do far better than he is doing to-day in foreign markets.

Imperial Preference is not a selfish aim, but one that should appeal to everyone who has the well-being of the British race at heart.

It has been adopted in the Dominions primarily to safeguard our standard of living from the competition of the more highly developed industrial countries, from cheap labour and from depreciated currencies. Should not Britain and the Dominions jointly adopt Imperial Preference to safeguard the Anglo-Saxon standard of living from the latter types of competition ?

The peoples of the Dominions are strong adherents of the ideals embodied in the League of Nations, but they are profoundly convinced that, at the present time and in the future, the greatest factor for the peace and security of the world will be a strong, powerful, united British Empire.

We feel that the strength and security of the Empire are primarily dependent upon its commercial basis, and that a deliberate and continued policy of Empire development would confer great benefits not only upon the inhabitants of the British Empire, but ultimately upon the peoples of the world.

S. M. BRUCE.

ENHAM AND THE DISABLED MAN

In its inception and conduct the Enham Village Centre embodies a great ideal. It seeks to restore the disabled soldier to a position of usefulness and independence, and it refutes the taunt, so often levelled at us as a nation, that we too frequently forget the men broken in our wars.' Here in this quiet Hampshire village, amid cheerful and healthy surroundings, a work is being carried on, both humane and practical, which deserves and should receive willing and generous support.

Nothing more useful could possibly be done for our disabled soldiers, whose services every Englishman respects.

I AM privileged to quote the above observations by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught. Ever since the earliest days of the Centre's existence His Royal Highness has taken a great personal interest in it. He was the first of its patrons, who now include Their Majesties the King and Queen, Princess Mary, Princess Alice, Lord Athlone and Lord Lascelles; he has visited the Centre; and he has at all times been well informed as to the progress of its work. That he should have formed so definite an opinion as to the necessity for this institution, and that he should so whole-heartedly commend it, is therefore a source of peculiar satisfaction to those who have striven, and are still striving, to demonstrate in practice the success of the theories upon which the work is based.

On the inception of the scheme it is not necessary to dwell at great length. It is important, however, to note that the idea of Enham was conceived only as a result of much earnest consideration and logical forethought. The Great War was extraordinary, not only because its reactions and repercussions left no individual unaffected, no State unshaken, but also because of the stupendous and largely unanticipated problems which it produced. This statement may appear platitudinous. It will be said that these problems are all too grievously patent. Whereas the obvious consequences of war were clearly anticipated, it was not imagined that the strain of war would incapacitate enormous numbers of men whom no bullet had pierced and no shell struck. For serious casualties all nations were heroically prepared. They were regarded as part of the inevitable cost, and it was resolved, with the utmost solemnity, that those who suffered injury should be generously compensated. The course of the war, however,

produced not only vast and unprecedented disablement, but also complicated and still more unprecedented disabilities; and although there already existed machinery for treating the more general types of disability-the armless, the legless, the physically shattered and defective-there was comparatively little machinery for dealing with the extensive nervous disorders which began to manifest themselves within the first few months of the war.

It was to consider this special problem that in 1917 a Committee was formed, under the guidance of Dr. R. Fortescue Fox. This Committee was largely composed of medical men who had made a study of the effects of shell-shock and kindred affections, and it made searching inquiries, both at home and abroad, as to the work that was already being done for the types of disablement mentioned. Gradually the opinion was formed that the needs of such men could not adequately be met by any scheme of pensions or grants, but that special conditions of life were postulated. It became more and more clear that men so disabled could only gain a measure of contentment or independence-and the two are closely correlated-if a new and sympathetic world could be constructed for them to inhabit.

Since it was manifestly impossible to remake the whole world in order to satisfy an unfortunate minority, there emerged the alternative of a self-contained' colony' of such men ; and exactly such was Enham intended to be, and exactly such has Enham very nearly succeeded in becoming.

It will be well to specify some of the reasons why the need for special conditions was conceded. In many cases men of these types of disablement had practically no physical disability at all. Many, indeed, were physically unscathed. The only thing which prevented them from being able to take their rightful place in the community which they had so well served was a set of mental inhibitions and reservations, prohibitions and vacillations, which either greatly weakened or entirely destroyed the power of the mind to direct the body. They were rendered unemployable because they had been so affected by the strident and clamorous horrors of war that they were incapable of functioning normally in ordinary circumstances, the result being a loss of mental and bodily vigour. In effect they were comparable to an engine whose machinery is intact, but whose source of power is diverted and wasted; and the Committee came to the conclusion that the only chance of conserving and redirecting the power of mental application lay in the creation of unusual and sympathetic circumstances in which such men could live.

The Committee did not content itself with the contemplation of nervous disorders. The case of the neurasthenic has been described at some length here, because it is, generally speaking,

imperfectly understood and inadequately appreciated; and the Committee was particularly concerned with it because its treatment had not then approached perfection and was far less effective than that of definite physical disabilities. But the Committee was of opinion that its hypothetical colony would be essential for men suffering from almost every form of war disability whose earning capacity had been seriously impaired though not utterly destroyed. It foresaw that such men would neither receive pensions on which they could live nor be able to work to supplement them; and the abnormal and sympathetic conditions which the Committee prescribed did not merely visualise a vague general benevolence and a benign toleration of bodily or mental infirmities, but comprised the provision of mechanical devices and all kinds of ameliorations and substitutions, aids and contrivances, designed to increase the earning capacity of the disabled by enabling them to perform work of an order and in a way that would without them be altogether beyond their powers. It was clear that certain types of disabled men would be unsuitable for the proposed colony: the blind, because their treatment and care constituted a different and highly specialised problem; the insane and those suffering from infectious and contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, because their disabilities precluded their becoming part of any community not similarly affected. These types, however, were being dealt with elsewhere.

Having reached their conclusions, the Committee then sought a suitable site for such a colony, and, after several had been inspected, the Enham estate of 1027 acres, on which were one large country house and two smaller ones, forty cottages, a postoffice and a smithy, was purchased for 30,000l. This sum was advanced by the late Sir Ernest Cassel for one year free of interest, and at the end of this period the loan was repaid, 10,000l. having been secured in donations and the balance being advanced by Enham's bankers against a mortgage on the estate.

Then followed a period of consolidation, and Enham's attention was devoted to providing concurrent treatment and training for numbers of men. Some required re-education in their pre-war trades; others, robbed of their old skill, required to be taught entirely new trades; and concurrently with this training they received medical treatment and careful individual supervision. Enham is still dealing with cases of this type, but their number is, happily, declining. About 750 have been received at Enham from all arms of the service and all parts of the United Kingdom. The majority, restored to health, have left and found employment. Some, unfortunately, are unemployed. They are mostly those who cannot benefit from any further treatment, and who are destined to remain unemployable in normal circumstances.

They sometimes obtain employment; but they cannot keep their jobs, and the effort and the continual disappointments frequently have so severe an effect on their health that they are forced to return to hospital. There are, of course, some men whose pre-war aversion from any form of work still persists, unabated; but they constitute a very small proportion of the whole, and their existence only affects the situation in so far as it provides an argument with which the uncharitable endeavour to resist the claim which the disabled have upon the resources of us all.

During this period the financial position of Enham was slowly strengthened. The Ministry of Pensions made a capitation grant in respect of each man admitted for treatment and training, and this covered his maintenance. The British Red Cross Society gave quite invaluable assistance by way of large grants for development, and such other money as could be raised was devoted to reducing the mortgage on the estate, building cottages and workshops, and generally adapting the estate itself to the requirements of a village centre '—the phrase by which it was decided to term the colony. The Village Centres Council was established as the administrative body charged with the governance of Enham, and became an incorporated society on February 16,

1921.

For more than a year after the incorporation of the Council the work of treatment and training went on. The raising of funds was most difficult. Institutions dependent upon eleemosynary support felt the reaction of the continued and universal dislocation of trade, all seriously, some disastrously. Enham still carried on, sustained more by confidence in the absolute necessity for its work than by any definite prospect of financial relief.

The necessity for Enham's work was not felt exclusively by those who were associated with the scheme. The Report of the Select Committee on Pensions contains, on p. 9, the statement that

there will be a residue [of disabled men] for whom no provision at present exists, namely, those who possess some potential earning capacity, but could only exercise it if some special arrangements were made for enabling them to do so.

Among that Committee's recommendations, which follow the citation of the evidence in substance, is the following:

We recommend . . . 8. That special attention be given to the cases of men who, though not requiring treatment and therefore not eligible for the convalescent centres, need some form of training or employment in special workshops or under special conditions in order to exercise their earning capacity, and that such arrangements be made for them as may be found to be necessary.

This Committee also strongly urged that the provision of