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member of the Electric Light Department. Considerable difficulties
have also been experienced in getting suitable sketches for our
electric light sign and our pamphlets, but after several trials we
have succeeded in getting what we wanted. I might say that, in
connection with these sketches, the ideas came entirely from the
Propaganda Officer, and the details were carried out by professional
artists in the advertising world.
These examples suffice, I trust, to convince the Committee that
they should not expect too great results at first. lam glad to say,
however, that we have now made a good start, and anticipate that
during the coming year we will reap the benefits of the spade work
of the last six months. It is one thing, however, to erect your
school, provide your teachers and lay in a supply of material, but
it is another thing to get the scholars. In the case of the ordinary
school we have got the Elementary Education Acts which ensure an
audience, but in our case the audience is a voluntary one. They have
got to be persuaded to come in, and when we have got them in they
must be provided with instruction of such a sort that they will come
again. So far we have been very successful in this part of the work,
especially as we have not aimed too high. Suggestions were made to
us at first that we should start in a big way in the " Town Hall," but
we have followed what I consider a wiser plan and have begun in
a small way and gradually increased our audiences as we went on.
By next Summer I have no doubt that we will be able to fill both
the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe Town Halls, but we must be largely
guided, not only in the lectures we give, but in the steps we take to
secure larger audiences by the interest which is shown in the various
subjects by the public themselves.
At each of our meetings questions have been invited, and I have
been frequently amazed at the interest shown by both young
and old, and I think more especially by the very young. There
were certain members of a juvenile audience at a meeting at which
I was present who showed that they had profited by the instructions
of the Propaganda Officer by lustily singing all the verses on the
electric sign to the well-known tune of " My Sweet Hortense."