TEL-EL-KEBIR SOLDIERS' CLUB

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2874, 12 September 1916, Page 3

TEL-EL-KEBIR SOLDIERS' CLUB

A VALUABLE WORK. ■ Writing from Egypt to Lady Godley on August 3, Miss Rout, secretary of the Tel-ElKebir Soldiers' Club, presents the balance-sheet (receipts and expenditure) for the period of July 5 to July 31. Tho position on July 31 was as follows: —Credit balance with Wagon Lits, £246; credit balance with Anglo-Egyptian Bank (including £E2OO now returned from New Zealand), £400; amount in safe kept for "change," £50; cash in hand (after allowing for payment of all debts), £70; contribution being forwarded from Dannevirkc, Now Zealand, as per telegram from Mrs. Gurr, £70; stock in hand (including some three hundred pounds' worth of tinned fruit), etc., say £500; total, £1336. (Since July 31 a further payment to Wagon Lits Co. of nearly £200 has been paid.) The average takings were £E63.25 per day. "This," Miss Rout states, "is wonderfully good. We have sold everything at low prices, and have still made sufficient profit to re-establish us in our new home without any financial worry at all, and as we get more money wo can make further improvemente for the benefit of the soldiers. "Including the money you gave me, we have' now about £900 for the Soldiers' Club, £500 of which we -have made here since May 24 —in fact, if we count the value of marquees, etc., we have made a good deal «nore than that, and yet all the time given far better value than the native canteens —the only alternatives. ''The financial aspect, however, is not the most important—not trade, but patriotism, is our concern; and what has made me more glad than anything else is the assurances I have had repeatedly from medical officers that we have improved tho health of body and contentment of mind of the troops here i<i this desert camp. As for the men themselves, they could not be more helpful or more appreciative. The club has been their club in every way: they have helped to make it financially, aild their cheerful and ready work day after day and night after night, often on irksome and monotonous "jobs," has been at onco an incentive and a refreshment to tho womenfolk here. "Now everything here is about to end. We shall be moving on—probably in a few days—to Moascar. And there I • want to start with a hot-water service for kitchen and bath purposes, a gymnasium with recreative equipment, and a free picture theatre (openair). Some of the Australians have promisert to help us ,in the way of transport, and they will also supply electricity, I hope, and I think we can get plenty water from C.R.E., as here. I was not able, after all, to feel sufficiently assured of our tenure here to erect the baths, nor did I buy the horse and trap. Instead I gave each of the women £5 (£2O in nil) for a holiday. Two of them havo just como back from Port Said, and two have just gone to Alexandria—Miss Rogers and Miss Murch. These two, with Miss Ballantine (from Wanganui, another member of are probably going on to England, and I have given them introductions to take to ypu, in case you would like to have their ser* vices. They are, however, all connect-

Ed with tho Y.W.C.A., and may prefer to work with that body;.l havo loft this matter to their own judgment. Mrs. Allison Brown and Miss Florcnco Jones havo just arrived from Christchurch, Now Zealand, so our numbers remain the same. Miss Jones I want to send, for a time at any rate, to relievo at Soldiers' Institute, Alexandria, whero Mrs. Dawson is badly in need of help in tho honse-majiagement auu control of tho institute. "I would much liko to have gone to Kantara, but recent fighting there, abouts makes it difficult. I may go there by myself, and work with a fatigue party only later on; but I would not care to take women helpers; it is too risky. At present our work is clearly at Moascar, so Kantara must be in aboyancc.. "1 have sent two of our women over to Salonika—Sister Kerr and Miss Mil-. dred Stephens. They went on board a hospital ship, so had no fares to pay, and thoy aro to connect with tho Scot* tish Women's Hospital Unit, to arrive there shortly under Dr. Jessie Scott (she has beon retained for this work again). As' Dr. Jessio Scott was acting as our foreign medical adviser, I am, of course, delighted to eend her some of the women. Later on others may go forward; (I don't believe tho war is going to end for years myself.) If I hadn't promised you to do this work, I'd bo off to Salonika myself by now. It's —oh, well, this is my 'job,' and I'm going to stop on it. Please don't think 1 am ungrateful in speaking thus, for I do appreciate fully all the help and trust you have given me, but Salonika, Serbia, or Mesopotamia, there's tho danger lure which is immensely difficult to overcome. But it is overcome, so you need'not worry. I've sat on myself most effectively,, nnd I'm staying on here indefinitely." Mrs. M'Naughton Christie and Miss Erica Bayley arrived in Wellington on Saturday from New Plymouth.