LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3000, 10 February 1917, Page 15

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

THE Y.M.C.A. AT THE FRONT

Sir, —Writing for tlio National Committee of the Y.M.O.A;,' Mr. C. : It. Smitli has made a clear statement of what tho Y.M.C.A. has dono for our Goldiers at tlio front. This excellent lotter is backod up by tho testimony of well-known soldiers who have witnessed, tho work done and realised its benefits to tho men. I havo heard quite a number of goad peoplo cast aspersions upon tho Y.M.C.A. They, it has boon said, collect a great deal of money, but tlio cost of collection provides "fat things" for a fow favoured ones. They cannot havo much out of two per cent, for collecting, and it is quito wrong to assert, as lias boon dono, that tho Y.M.C.A. is an expensivo organisation. Tho workers at tlio front connected' with tho Y.M.C.A. (I refor to tho N.Z. Section) contain sonic of our ablost and most successful. business' men. Thero is, for instance, Mr. J. AY. Jamicson,_ of Messrs. Jamicson Bros., of Christchurch, and tho very fact that a man of that stamp is at tlio head, of affairs in the NJZ. Section .is an adequate guarantee that tho money. from this country will bo well ,and faithfully applied. Tlio Y.M.C.A." is running canteens at tho fighting centres for tlio men, and they aro allowing no fads to interfere with tho conduct of these canteens. In these canteens, • which are not like thoso at Trentham and Peatherston, tho men can got what they want, from biscuits and chccso to bread and. beer, and .even wine, rum, and whisky. As Mr. C. .R. Smith says, "At theso canteens tho men get every possible comfort at practically cost price." There fs a broad-mindedness about tho conduct of canteens by tho Y.M.C.A. that narrow-minded, faddy peoplo are objecting to; and they are finding fault with-tho management because tho men bto being supplied with "every possible comfort at practically; cost price." In their appeal for funds for trench comforts for the men, tho Y.M.C.A. has been taken to task for citing the fact that' soldiers returning from the trenches breakfasted on hardboiled eggs, somo bread and neat whisky, and for this they havo been thrown stones at and upbraided. But thoso who thus criticise the Y.M.C.A. for . providing every possible comfort for our men do not roalise the necessities of trench warfare in suiter. Lot them read tho late Lieut. H. Mi Butterwortli's letter (written to his relatives at. Wanganui), and if they have any sense combined with somo imagination they will realise something of tho sufferings and hardships of trench warfare, and they will cease their winnings and criticism about tho grand work being done by one of the finesjb organisations at tho front., Mr. C. R. Smith's lotter : ought" _to close tho mouths' of Y.M;C.A. critics, for not only do their canteens supply every possible comfort at cost price, put they supply tea and biscuits, and cigarettes free. —I am, etc. A Y.M.C. .