SAVING THE SOLDIERS.
DANGERS OF LEAVE IN LONDON. WORSE THAN ENEMY BOMBS. HOW THE Y.M.C.A. COMBATS THE STREET IPESTILENCE. (By Triangle No. 1.) London, June 20th. When the House of Commons reassembled a week ago Mr. Pemberton Billing asked pointed questions which inferred that the aerial branch of the service was not being conducted with a maximum amount of energy. Some New Zealand soldiers, visiting the House under Y.M.C.A. auspices were surprised to note that the questions were not taken seriously either by the Minister who replied (Mr Bonar Law) or by a majority of the members. Since then London has experienced one of the worst Taids on record and when references are made to the matter of aerial .defence the tone of the House is much more serious. Mr. Bonar Law has gone so far as to state that the Government is in communication with the military concerning the advisability ol raiding certain specified placed in Germany. Tiie facts of Wednesday's air raid will have been cabled to New Zealand. At high noon a dozen or more aeroplanes approached in two formations and from an estimated height of 1500 feet rained bombs on the East Enct, killing 104 and injuring 510 persons, many of them children in attendance at a County School. Within a hundred yards of where one bomb exploded several New Zealand soldiers were 6ightseeing with a Y.M.C.A. party and they rendered great assistance in helping to remove the wounded. "I used to think," said one, "that I should like to be in London when an air raid occurred but never again." The scenes were more pitiful than ciin be imagined and it is small wonder that on the day following the raid a public meeting was held on Tower Hill to demand reprisals. Some of the parents of the slaughtered innocents were present.
THE BLACKEST BLOT. I The object of this article is not so much to discuss the aerial menace as to illustrate the difficulty of moving Parliament by anything short of disaster. If the most wide awake man in London were asked to name the gravest danger of the hour he would probably say the enemy of tho streets. This is the true position. England is not decadent, neither is the greatest metropolis in all the. world, but a crisis has been reached when the nation must grapple with tho demon that has come as a legacy from the easy-going past and is now thriving on the opportunities afforded by the calling home of so many of our Tsons of Empire. On the four winds came the call to protect these sons. The only response up to the present has been the passing of legislation which is sadly difficult to enforce. The stumbling stone is the old fetish of "the benefit of the doubt." Meanwhile the skeletons of wrecked lives are piling up; the isolation camps for soldiers are fuller than ever; and the tragedy is that nothing is being done to isolate the sources of infection. What of the future of the race "unto the third and fourth generation!"
"SAVE THEM FROM THEMSELVES." "We must save the soldiers from themselves; we must save the next generation," writes Max Pemberton in the course of a stinging article in the Weekly Dispatch. The writer pays a warm tribute to the Y.M.C.A. workers who are striving to protect the soldiers and pleads with those in authority to "act immediately with that sanity and common sense for which the British people is famous." Yes, the Y.M.C.A. is tackling-the social problem in London with the same tireless energy that has made its efforts so successful in other spheres of action. Not the least energetic is the New Zealand section of the Association which specialises on the care of the men from "God's Owr Country." And they are worth caring for, comparing as they do with the best. Aa in the case of all mixed armies, however, there are flyaways to be curbed and weak ones to be strengthened. A glass of wine, a taxi ride, and a tempting supper start off many a fine fellow on the downward slope to remorse. A few evenings ago a lad with a fiance in New Zealand allowed himself to be ogled away by two girls in their teens. Heedless of advice he went his way and next morning was without the price of a meal. For the three remaining days of his leave he was dependent upon financial help. This is but one of thousands of such cases. They are happening every day and night in full view of all who have eyes to see. But the authorities see not, THE COUNTER STROKE. The Y.M.C.A. plan of action. is to get into couch with the men as they reach the city—New Zealand trooptrains are always met—and so fill up the four days of their leave that they have neither the time nor inclination to fall in with undesirable companions. The great majority of the men readily accept invitations to join parties for sight-seeing, visiting the homes of worthy people, or passing away odd hours at places of healthy amusement. Thus are they guided past the death traps of the streets and on through those more wholesome parts of London so rich in historic interest and in the inspiring examples of great lives. The British and Overseas Guide to London department of the Y.M.C.A. is directed 'by a committee of four, representing the British, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian associations. "Each foi 4 all. and all for each" is the motto. In addition to the numerous accommodation and canteen huts (with their kiosks) have been erected at various strategic points in the city's surging traffic where outdoor workers keep constant vigil, befriending the lonely and warning the wayward. Every day fifty honorary guides are available for showing soldiers round the places of greatest interest, either by coach or foot; in the afternoon parties are taken to tea at some of the best homes in London (how they do appreciate the atmosphere of home life!); and in the evening free seats are obtained for large numbers of the men at the best concert halls and theatres. Entertainments are also provided at the Y.M.C.A. huts by the best talent in London; Messrs iPathe Frerea give without charge the use of their cinema theatre in Wardour-street; and for the special benefit of soldiers and their lady friends the Y.M.C.A. now conducts the one-time fatpous night club—Giro's. When the crowds are leaving the theatres the night motor transport of the Y.M.C.A. becomes busy, no less than sixty honorary motorists participating in the rescue work. During the six months just ended 30,803 soldiers have been carried to places of
safely between midnight and daylight When these big efforts are backed by official action, as s oner or later they surely must, London will b9 a cleaner and grander Empire city.
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Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1917, Page 7
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1,153SAVING THE SOLDIERS. Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1917, Page 7
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