YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17111, 5 April 1921, Page 8

YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

TO the editor of "the press."

Sir, —May I say a word or two on behalf of an old and honoured acquaintance, viz., the Y.W.C.A. As I know it, the Association exists for two things, (1) to help—along certain definitely stated lines —the young women of the world, and (2) to teach and to encourage the same young women to help and care for each other; there are many of us who would say that the second of these is greater than the first. ' "By love serve one- another," was, and is, one of the foundation mottoes, and in every Y.W.C.A. Club, class, and hostel that principle is inculcated. The hostels were instituted to proride a safe and sheltered residence for the young, the inexperienced, and the stranger (the Association has never, undertaken to provide' permanent lodging houses), and in many of them there is a regulation to the effect that any boarder who has been six months or a year in residence may be asked ,to vacate her room in favour of a younger girl or a stranger, the idea being that the girl who has been a certain time in the city, and connected with the Association, has learnt her way about, has mado friends, and is better qualified to, look after herself than the stranger. I do not know any of the residents of the hostel in this city, nor do I know any of the circumstances/Of the case of which your correspondent, "A Mother," writes, but I know enough of the principles of the Association; and of the spirit that actuates the local director and committee, to feel assured that in asking those four girls to vacate their rooms in favour of strangers, tha highest "possible honour was done to them. It is practically certain that those girls were chosen, not became of their large salaries, nor yet because.of their length of stay infthe hostel, but because pf their stability of character and their self-sacrificing qualities. It is evident, therefore, that in asking them to look out for other rooms, the director had nothing to gain. She was not thinking of her own ea'se or acting to her own advantage, in their stead she will have four others who probably for a time will be a care and a responsibility,' but she knows that one of the primary functions of her office is to care for those who have not yet the discretion to care for themselves. It is not a matter of a girl's earnings-7-thero are girls of nineteen and twenty in this city who are earning over £2OO a year, who are not as well fitted to look after themselves as girls a few years older who aro earning not much more than a quarter of that amount. It seems to me fhat the Association will fail to fulfil,, its purpose every time it says to a,younger girl and a stranger:' "Sorry, we have no room, the house and even the class-rooms are full," if, when doing so, it has amongst its residents "old timers" and fine, well-tried characters; furthermore, those _ some residents will fall short of their very best if the next time such an opportunity antees, they do not go to the director or their own accord and say: "I can look after myself, give the new chum a chance."

The Founder of Christianity came to earth not only to serve to the uttermost, but also to teach others to do the same. As long as the Association works along those lines, so long may it prosper, and when it seeks to serve a wider circle than.it is capable of doing at present, may it find every thoughtful man and woman in this city and district ready to help it in a practical way. —Yours, etc., ALICE BLACKMORE.