THE PREVAILING TOPIC 



good-natured outsiders chartered conveyances to 

 bring them to the show, and the number of maimed 

 men who accepted the Society's invitation was a 

 melancholy testimony to the pain and suffering 

 for which the war is responsible. 



H.M. Office of Works, too, had a pavilion for 

 interviewing farmers and others with a view to 

 helping them to fill up the gaps in labour caused 

 by absentees on active service, whilst a further 

 reminder of the war was afforded by a display by the 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries at their pavilion 

 of a collection of dried vegetables, such as are 

 being sent out to the Expeditionary Forces. In 

 addition, many implement firms showed on their 

 stands exhibits designed to meet war emergencies. 



All other topics naturally gave way to that 

 of the war wherever friends met in the yard, for 

 it was difficult to find anyone, from the President 

 downwards, who had not a direct and deep 

 interest in it, owing to their kith and kin having 

 devoted themselves to the national cause. 



Very fittingly, the social side of the gathering 

 was relegated to the background, and civic and 

 other festivities were in abeyance. The key-note 

 was struck at the show inauguration, the speakers 

 emphasizing the fact that the show was held as 

 a matter of duty and certainly not as a concession 

 to the pleasure-loving public. As at all other 

 gatherings, the war could no more be kept out 

 of it than could the head of Charles I. be eliminated 

 from Mr. Dick's vocabulary. The Council Mess, 

 though impoverished in numbers, was reasonably 

 cheerful, with the war holding the field as a topic, 

 and the same could be said of the Council and 



311 



