Y.M.C.A. AT THE FRONT

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 355, 22 February 1918, Page 1

Y.M.C.A. AT THE FRONT

The calls upon the funds of the Y.M.C A. are becoming greater and more insistent as the war drags on. The work in our NZ camps, the soldiers' hut and hostel in Wellington, troopship service, the English camps, London work and the evergrowing opportunities in France mean much money. As showing just one phase of the work the following is of interest: " The biggest single phase of the whole work that the Y. M.C.A is doing on the Western front at present is ministering to the walking wounded," says one who has visited every portion of the Western front, from the Channel to the Swiss frontiers. He reached Ypres just as a big 'push' was being launched, and under heavy shellfire tramped about over the ground that the British had just won. It was there that he witnessed the

Bed Triangle work among the walking wounded. "Let no one think," he says, "that walking wounded means the lightly wounded. Any man who can possibly stagger along comes under this class. I hate seen 'walking wounded' who could only crawl, making their way back between the white posts that are staked out after every advance to show the route to the dressing station. Every man who can possibly do so must get himself back, for there are always those who are so badly done up that they have to be carried "

He explained that the white stakes u&mlly lead into a communication trench, at the end of which is the dressing station. At regular intervals along this communication trench are Association stands where a Y.M.C A Secretary and a number of orderlies hand out hot tea, coffee,

and biscuits to the men as they pass No wounded man is permitted to stop, for then a crowd would gather and that would attract a German shell. As they pass, the men grab their tins of tea or coffee and the biscuits, drinning the tea as they go and depositing the tins in a box further down the tiench. When enough tins collect in this receptacle it is brought back to the dug-out and

the tins used over again. At every dressing station behind the Biitish front, the Association maintains facilities for feeding the wounded men. The walking wounded are invariably ravenously hungry. The Association feeds them while they wait to have their wouuds dressed. This sometimes takes a

long time during a big attack. Moreover, no preference is shown, but officers take their turn 9 with the men in leaving their wounds dressed. One man was so badly wounded that he could hardly stagger down the white-post marked path that led to the dressing station. His trousers had been torn and ripped in getting through the barbed wire. His legs were ba:e and shattered by shrapnel. He was covered with blood, and he reeled from side to side as he made his way to the rear. It looked as if each step must be his last. As he came nearer he was seen to be carrying his chum, worse off even than he, whom he would not leave out there in 4 N«> Man's land.'

"I Btoqd there that day," the narTator said, "and taw more wounded pass through the dressing station than lam permitted to indicate. With it all I hardly hear! a groan. I can't understand it."

In this and uany other ways, the Y.M.C.A is rendeiing a service for our boys that we at home cau mver forget.;