(Transcription) Pall Mall Gazette • 07 May 1918, page 4

Note.– It is our pleasure to give this column today to the ladies who are collecting the Gift Pearls for the Red Cross Society.

A PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.
By Callisthenes.
When the British Red Cross Society set itself the task of collecting gift pearls I do not believe that even the most sanguine among the promoters of the idea ever imagined that this appeal would meet with the extraordinary response from the public which it has done.

There are already more than 1,500 pearls in what has now become known as the "Red Cross Pearl Necklace" – a rope of priceless value which should serve to bind a nation's sympathies for ever with those brave sufferers for whom those jewels are given.

From June 26th to July 2nd the complete collection will be on view at the Grafton Galleries – and by the side of the pearls with be the Roll of Honour of those who have contributed. It is with the hope and intention of making this a truly wonderful exhibition of patriotic unselfishness that the Society appeal today for more and more pearls.

There can surely be no need, after nearly four years of war to emphasise the worthiness of the cause for which these pearls are being collected. There is little enough of the glory of War in this terrible conflict of nations, but there is much honour in those who have played the part of men, and to whom each pearl donated is a measure of our pride and sympathy with their sufferings.

For who shall value these pearls that you and many another have given? Who shall say this little pearl, given in proud memory of a fallen son or husband, is not of equal value with that fine jewel of 75 grains – the largest yet received?

Is not every pearl given in this cause a chapter in the book of life with its own history, its own story to tell? Here are two pearls given by the Countess of Rothes, taken from an old family necklace, with a history of more than three hundred years – a necklace that survived the disaster of the Titanic – and which was worn by the Countess during the terrible scene of the wreck.

Here is another great pearl from the Countess of St. Germans, taken from a necklace which formerly belonged to the Empress Josephine – a pearl which, brought to its original owner by the fortunes of war, has survived to aid those who suffer the misfortunes of war.

Another heirloom pearl, given by the Duchess of Rutland, is accompanied by a letter from the giver, in which she says: "I know the present wearer, and I hope the future wearers will see in their necklace an added lustre by reason of the pearl which has been given from it."

These are the big pearls &ndash some few of them, for there are many more, and I cannot give you a story for each, though it is there to tell, but I may hope, for the sake of our wounded men, that there are many pearls yet to come, even if their history is of no later date than this war – pearls of memory to add to that great Red Cross Necklace. One woman sends a pearl, "In memory of her only son, a pearl beyond all price."

Your pearl, reader, should be addressed to one or other of the following Official receivers for the Pearl Necklace Fund:—
The Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Co., 112 Regent-street
Messrs. Garrard and Co., Ltd., 24 Albemarle-street
Messrs. Tiffany and Co., 221 Regent-street
Messrs. Carrington and Co., 130 Regent-street
Messrs. S.J. Phillips, 113 New Bond-street
Messrs. Boucheron and Co., 180 New Bond-street
Messrs. Cartier and Co., 175 New Bond-street