IN THE BATTLE LINE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3165, 17 August 1917, Page 4

IN THE BATTLE LINE

Y.M.C.A. WORK AT THE FEONT. Mr. 11. Hart, of Wellington, has received an interesting letter from Mr. Harry Holmes, who -was secretary of the Y.M.C.A. in Wellington for some years, and has since been national secretary for South Africa, where, on the out-' break of war, he was personally asked by General Botha to take charge of the Y.M.C.A. work with the troops going forward to the from. Now Mr. Holmes is supervisor of the whole of the Y.M.C.A. work in the Second Army area (which includes the front on which the New Zealand troops are operating). In the course of the letter, which is dated May 25, Mr. Holmes says: "Life has been strenuous during the last year, and since mv taking over the supervision of this area. I came to it thirteen months ago, when it had fifteen centres of .operations, and now it is more than twice the size of any other area in France. It has been an unspeakable joy to me to see it so develop. I fancy they regard it as a sort of model work so far ■ bs advanced S is concerned.. 1 want tc, give you something of its size. I have 188 men torn England alone with me. and that number of men includes To »«"§££ They are, in the majority, great fellows I have sixteen men with me,<m tt* YMCA. headquarters staff; four men in' the accounts department. Our .e----ceipts from refreshments this last week to ailed 170.000 francs, and they are incrS". We have nine motor vehicles. new one recently P™^ I mv own use, costing 11,500 Irancs. Js%££&& men - I ™ve way SO.OOO francs' worth. year ,ve gave away A Varney S—: and Jam* f d £>me thrilling vhnt ".,J r „V m™ met dozens of old , at tllo sTnck and Billy Fowlds ljoys. George btiack. « t] rae; frequently come to omo m have just put Cou &rrac MC A ""Tf M<Kay Eric Daniels, Billy Bold, look im differcnt n „d Blamires mobr t hadßr! kelman. the Ssl, with mo for a month Wo