Details of the Scheme.
Every voluntary aid detachment will be so arranged as to admit of dividing into two complete half detachments, thus:
Men—Commandant, medical officer, quartermaster, pharmacist, assistant pharmacist, under officer and 12 men; assistant commandant, medical officer, quartermaster, pharmacist, assistant pharmacist, under officer and 12 men.
Women—Commandant (medical officer), quartermaster, lady superintendent, ten women (including one trained nurse); assistant commandant (medical officer), assistant quartermaster, lady superintendent, ten women (including one trained nurse).
Under the commandant will be two sections, each commanded by an officer, who ought to be the village doctor. Their under officers will again be the chemist and his assistants. The men of the sections will be made up of tradesmen and workmen. Each will have an assigned duty. The carpenter and the smith would train to convert the church and the school into a hospital, make ready carriages and carts to convey wounded and sick, and fit up railway wagons, coal trucks, and the like for a similar use.
Others would prepare in peace time, so that when mobilized they could go to a house here or a house there, obtain beds promised beforehand, and fit them up in the temporary hospital, procure tables for operations, lay in the necessary food and fuel. Under the lady superintendent is to be the trained nurse, and her associates are to include those who have volunteered as cooks, and others who will look after the cleanliness of the hospital, wash clothing, and do all those thousand and one tasks which make for the comfort and the restoration to health of ailing men. In the larger towns and cities there may be dozens of these splendid organizations for making less terrible the dreadful results of war.
The Red Cross detachments have no place in our regular service. Because our forces serve over seas the War Office itself provides the necessary chain of hospitals and communications for bringing the wounded to the base. But the Territorial Forces are created only for service at home, and the hope is that those who can not for any reason join its ranks may at least render valuable assistance as members of their local Red Cross detachment.
The Central Council of the Red Cross Society will superintend the scheme, and the local Branches in the counties will cooperate with the various Territorial Associations in carrying out arrangements. The main object will be the base hospital, which is even now part of the Territorial Force organization. Beyond that, however, it is hoped that the Red Cross organizations and the general public may provide a convalescent hospital, where the men wasted by war may recruit before, if necessary, returning to the fighting line.
In time of war the organization would be: Fighting line, Territorial Army Medical Service, field ambulances, clearing hospitals, voluntary aid detachment, rest stations, ambulance trains, general hospital, convalescent depot, and homes.