AN OFFICER'S SPPRECIATION.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 243, 13 October 1917, Page 2

AN OFFICER'S SPPRECIATION.

"BEYOND MY POOR VOCABU-

LARY TO EXPRESS."

Recently a prominent Wellington business man wrote asking his son, who is an officer in France, his opinion about the war work of the V.M.C.A. The father has received the following answer :—- ---"You were asking my opinion of the work of the V.M.C.A. It is beyond my poor vocabulary to express in words what this institution is doing both here and in England. It is just 'it. 5 "Of course, the officers don't come in touch with the V.M.C.A. as much as the other ranks, but even they are at times dependent on them for comforts, etc. For instance, at Sling the V.M.C.A. provided a room for officers where they were able to get tea and cakes night and day, with cosy chairs and a billiard table for a rest or recreation. There was no place of its kind available in the cam]). "From what my fellow officers tell mo the V.M.C.A. is the only crowd in the advanced lines. .Here the work is- felt everywhere. - What is more to the point,' the V.M.C.A. does r«ot confine itself to camp and the firing line, but gets at tho men in the cities. That is, when men go on leave to London or other cities the V.M.C.A. is everywhere in evidence. A troop train of leave men coming into a London station with men who haven't been in the city before is always met by a V.M.C.A. staff mei*■ber, who adviso the men as to board, cafes, etc., and you do not know what that moans to tho average soldier reaching London for the iirst time. It is simply a nest-bed of immorality to the man who is unprepared, and the V.M.C.A. with other institutions everywhere, in evidence helps a long was in keeping the men in the sale places. I think when this Mar is over, if the V.M.C.A. goes about it in the right way, it can do more for bringing about'the united Church that-in my opinion is the only way of thoroughly Christianising' tin's world."