Y.M.C.A. IN EGYPT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2743, 11 April 1916, Page 3

Y.M.C.A. IN EGYPT

ATTBE EZBEKIAH GARDENS

AN INTERESTING REPORT

Tho following letter was received last, mail by the National Committee of the I.M.C.iL, from : Mr. James L Hay, of Christshurch, the first representative of the committee which : was sent to Egypt with the 2nd Reinforcements:-—

"Ezbekiah Gardens, Cairo, February : 19, 1916.—Since last I wrote many important changes and developments have taken place at tho club. In one or two of my .letters to you r mentioned the' possibility of our starting something in the nature of canteens, to be connected with our club, and.to be under tho control and direction of British and colonial women helpers—-voluntary helpers. The Ezbekiah Gardens canteen has now Keen established, and ne you have doubtless heard from other sources has proved an unqualified success. The women helpers come from England, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand, and the canteen they run' has proved: a 'great contrast to the restaurants run by, the natives, which were previously the only places in Cairo where men could l get refreshments. To such an extent has the ivork- developed that wo have found it , necessary to make extensive alterations, 1 and wo. have just taken quite a large portion of the Ezbekiah Gardens to accommodate, the men. who frequent the club. It )'b rather significant v that we should have been allowed to take this ground, as it is Government propertyj j but when tho Minister of Public' Works was approached he quite readily agreed to give us as much ground as we wanted entirely, free of rent. "During the Christmas holidays we did everything possible to make the club attractive for the'men, and as you can imagine, wo |had large crowds right through the whole ,of the holidays. -.■ I had the club specially decorated with electric light,; and the men seemed to appreciate our endeavours to make them feel; at home. You may be interested to know that we .organised a . ;lioir of soldiers, and during Gnristmas these men visited sdveial hospitals, in;luding Pont de Kubbeh (No. 2 New Zealand Hospital), and wherever they vent they were much appreciated. /'Some weeks, ago wo had rather an liiusual request. At 5 p.m. one evening one of \ the officers from the Scotiish Horse Brigade came to us and jsked l if it were possible for us to provide tea and buiis for, .his .regiment ;i2OO men), which was arriving atCairo ;roni:the Dardanelles at 5 o'clock next jiorning. We put the job up to the ladies, and'like true sports they said unanimously. 'Yes.' ' In less time than it takes to tell, we had ordered bunß to be baked for this crowd of men, and . made arrangements about supplying the tea. It meant an- all-night job,' but the appreciation of the men was ample compensation for all the work involved. It was a cold night and_ the, men were mighty pleased to receive a cup of hot tea immediately they disembarked from the train.: I enclose a copy of the letter : we recoivedjrom the regiment,- thanking us for our'trouble.,. . Postal Business. ' ''Our postal 'business,has. now grown to enormous proportions, and in' addition to having had to make extensions for bur canteen we have b.adalso v to extend."the-,facilities for .writing and. posting letters. This'involved an expenditure of £60, -but;, as I have said before, I consider it money well spent.. A few. weeks ago we took a count of the letters-put ;through in one 'week. Tho total was over 20,000. , Wbon you consider that each of these letters has -to .be franked, and signed, l you can form-some•idea-,of the-amount-of work -involved. We supply tho men with paper and envelopes, pen and ink, and '■' writing tables, and every letter is sont post free. This is due ty the courtesy of the looal chief postmaster, who has been a very good, friend to us right through. , : "I suppose Mr. .Tamieson has referred to the Rest Hostel, which the military "authorities have asked;.us to co-operate with them in establishing and maintaining. 'As you may know, a large number of men come to Cairo from the 'surrounding- camps, having been granted twenty-four ■ hours' leave, and as hotel accommodation at Cairo is anything but good; it is very desirable that some such place should be .started. Men are also granted a few dayfi' sick leave, 1 and want some suitable place in which to stay. This Rest illostel - will. prove a veritable boon to many thousands of soldiers. We hope to be able to accommodate one thousand men nightly. 'A large building, known as.Tho. Bourse, ' will probably be taken over, and within a few weeks everything should bo in - full swing. • "The spiritual welfare of thomen has been the subject of earnest consideration, and wo aio having a:_good deal of success in the various meetings which are being conducted. Our Sunday

afternoon tea has developed into quite a splendid meeting, and 1 am sure it is | ono of tho most appreciated of all the activities of our club. Wo can only accommodate 65 men at present. The ladies set tho tables, and serve tho tea, and altogether there is o genuine homo touch about tlin whole thing. Tlwse, teas are made possible by the genorosity of various, piivato subscribers m Cuiro. - . "The Sunday evening meetings are now well attended, and the. men seem to appreciate the services very much indeed. Inquiries. "I am still receiving a very largo number of inquiries from Now Zealand about wounded, killed, and missing men, and for a long time now I have wanted to establish some organisation which will deal with these in some adequate manner. As you know, thero is no New Zealand branch of the Red Cross Society 'in Cairo, .arid all New. Zealand inquiries are at preftont handled by tho Biitish Red Cross Society, which also has:to deal with huge lists of inquiries iii'regard to British men. Australia, has. a separate branch■ of the Red Society to deal with _ Australian- inquiries, and Australia is therefore in a, much better way of getting information about her own men. But New Zealand is not so fortunate, and all New Zealand inquiries have to be made through the British Red Cross Society. I have been considering a scheme for obtaining personal details from men who are actually now m camp round about here, but up to the present my difficulty has been the getting of sufficient help to prosecute these inquiries in an adequate manner. As you will know, Miss A. E. Rout, of Chrlstohurch, is now in Cairo and after talking-the matter over, she has.kindly consented to undertake the secretarial work in connection-, with these New Zealand inquiries. ' By next mail we hope to have this scheme in full working order, and be able to send away our first lot of reports and replies to many anxious inquirers. We. feel that this work is particularly urgent m view of the fact that the whole of the Now Zea-land-men are in Egypt, and may be shifted at any moment, so wo are going right ahead with tho scheme immediately. ■' ■.. . . , "Of course this extension involves a considerable outlay of _ money, _ but knowing how the work is appreciated by the soldiers we felt justified in going ahead with - the alterations. _ From your letters to me I had sufficient indication that the people of New Zealand are at the back of us in this undertaking, and I am confident that the money could be expended in no better way. Tho' (who include six of the New Zealand Volunteer Sisters) are doing magnificent work, and on all sides one hears nothing but the highest praise from the men. These few comments taken from the Visitors' Book are sufficient evidence of that;— "A Home from Home Sweet Home"; "Very nice, very clean, very good, as the Arabs" say"; "The soldiers' place of rest and oheer"; "Best institution, in Cairo"; "An oasis in tho desert of Cairo"; "Y.M.O.A. doing grand work ■ here"; "When hungry, visit the Y.M.C.A. canteen"; "After the Peninsula; this is Paradise" ; "A great blessing to the troops and'.a reminder of home"; "A real home from home"; "Good luck to the Y.M.C.A. canteen"; "Can't be beat; best place in Cairo"; "Cheers for the Now Zealand girls here''; "Y.M.C.A. appreciated by all denominations of soldiers, and by many-of us Jewish soldiers" ; "Never thought to see a bit of home in Cairo"; "Decent"; "Tip-top" ; "Al." • "To give you some, idea of tho amount of food we put through, I may mention that on any ordinary Saturday, our takings run to over £100, made up of piastre (2Jd.) 'and J-piastr'o (14d.) purchases.' We estimate that this means at least 6000 men served with refreshments In the one day. We make'a "point of supplying the food : to the men, the very best we can. procure, at a price barely sufficient to cqver our expenses."