The value of properties, etc., held for the use of our Social
     Operations is:—­

At Home (U.K.)           L228,000
In other Countries        747,000

        Total L975,000

2.  In the history of the Social Work, nevertheless, there have been, as you will know, any number of shortcomings.  We have not realised all our expectations, nor fulfilled all our dreams.  It was not to be expected that we should.  This is an imperfect world; the Movement has been imperfect, and the people who have carried it on have been imperfect also.  Consequently, it is only natural that we have had imperfect results.

     (a) Many things have been calculated to cause these shortcomings. 
     For example:—­

     i.  There has been a great lack of direct aim at the true goal of
     our Social Work on the part of some Officers who have been engaged
     in its direction.

Some of our comrades have been content with a “soup-and-blanket” regime.  That is to say, they have too often been satisfied with the alleviation of the miseries of the hour, and have stopped short of the removal of the evils that have caused the poverty, vice, and agony from which the sufferings sprang.

     Consequently, the work, being superficial, has in some cases only
     had superficial and temporary results.

     You get out of a thing as much as you put in—­and no more, and
     that, not only in quantity, but in quality.  If you go in for
     root-and-branch efforts, you will get root-and-branch results.

     ii.  Another cause of our shortcomings has been the lamentable fact
     that some of our Officers have been deficient in personal religion.

Our Social Work is essentially a religious business.  It can neither be contemplated, commenced, nor carried on, with any great success, without a heart full of pity, and love, and endued with the power of the Holy Ghost.

     iii.  Another of our difficulties has been the scarcity of suitable
     people for carrying the work on.  This was also to be expected.

If we had been content with hirelings, and had sought them out from among the philanthropies and Churches, we should have found plenty in number, but it is equally certain we should have had considerably more doleful failures than those we have experienced.

     We are not only making but are now training the Social Officers,
     and we shall doubtless improve in this respect, whilst the work
     they turn out will be bound to improve proportionately.

     iv.  Then again a further reason for our shortcomings has been our
     shortness of money.