THE HOME TOUCH.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1917, Page 8

THE HOME TOUCH.

NEW ZEALAND SOLDIEKS IN LONDON. WORK OF Y.M.C.A. SOCIAL ORGANISERS. London, July 20. When as a stranger in this city of strange . contrasts you surge with the human tide down the Strand or wander by night through the region of Piccadilly Circus you are apt to judge London by the excessively garish show of the footways. But a fuller acquaintance with the_Empire's capital tempers disappointment with fairness, and you realise that for every dark spot there are many bright ones. How to make these latter accessible to the soldiers who are rushed in on four days' leave' is a big task that the Y.M.C.A. has tackled with distinct success. Last week no less than 2500 New Zealanders were in town, and the peaked hats and the colored pugarees were bobbing up everywhere. One draft alone consisted of ISOO men who had been called to France from Sling, and the New Zealand Y.M.C.A. workers in London were only warned of their arrival on the previous day. How the telephones buzzed in anticipation of the rush There were special entertainments to arrange, brakes to order for tours, honorary . guides to commission, hospitality to bespeak in private homes, and many etceteras which are understood only by specialists. In due course the troop train deposited its. lively freight at Waterloo Station, and hundreds of men were piloted by Y.M.C.A. secretaries through the mysteries of the Tube to the Shakespeare and other accommodation huts. For many a man those four days of sight-seeing and entertainment will form a life-long memory; hundreds were taken to places of foremost interest, introduced to the homes of charming people, and provided with tickets for places of wholesome amusement.

THE WAR WINNERS. . "What do tlie fellows most appreciate?" some may ask. Why,* the atmosphere o'f a home and association with wholesome women. Here is a case in ,point. A few days ago a big strapping corporal over from France was asked by 'one of the principal lady workers at the Shakespeare Hut New Zealand Y.M.C.A. headquarters—to visit her home for dinner. After declining with thanks he confided to a male worker that as he had been away from home for nearly three years he felt nervous of mingling with company. Almost against his. will he found himself at a home over tho week-end, and before returning to the grim work of the trenches he confessed that not for worlds would he have knowingly missed those few days of homely hospitality. This young New Zcalander, like scores of others, has come to realise that back from the false glitter of the London streets are hosts of worthy men and women who are not only helping to win the war, but are desirous of extending kindly hospitality to the men who have come 12,<X>0 miles to champion the same causja. Overt half a million of English women aro engaged in war work and more than 25,000 are rendering ivoluntary service of the constant energeVie 'kind. Time and again a soldier on Icavo from France goes into raptures over the qualities of thees English women, particularly on the first day of his •arrival here. "The finest sight since leaving home," ho will say, and by the far away gaze you can tell in which direction his thoughts are moving. It is impossible to place on paper an estimate of the far-reaching service which these splendid women-folk are rendering to the men of the Overseas Dominions anc indirectly to the nations as a whole. '•Long and happily may they live" is the wish of all New Zealand soldiers.

MEMORY WEAVING. During the long summer days our toys have been given some delightful outings in the brighter parts of suburban London. One day a party of sixteen went by river steamers to Kew, where they were the guests at lunch of a titled lady who afterwards accompanied them through the remarkable Kew Gardens (now festooned with millions of summer roses) and thence alon<r the shaded Thames Embankment to the home of a relative in Richmond where tea was provided iu an Old English garden. Friends in New Zealand would have smiled to have seeii the natural way in which their heroes lay back in the old garden chairs as the smoke rings curled skywards. On another day a large party of New Zealanders were taken for a short railway run to an ancient lodge in Middlesex. One can see them now, reclining on a terraced lawn and chatting freely with the group of ladies who had provided the tastiest of al fresco raeaN, the shade of a spreading chestnut tree toning down the sunshine, roses and other summer blooms in rare production; a stray aeroplane manoeuvring overhead, and "Baldy," the humorist of the party, evoking ripples of laughter with his droll recital of what sometimes happens to the Germans. On stilt another day a large number of our fellows spent the afternoon pleasantly in Hyde Park and ended up with music and tea at the home of a Scottish lady, who throws her richly furnished London house open to our soldiers at least once a week. Lady friends helped to entertain the boys in a manner which gives them a more elevated conception of English hospitality. The Y.M.C.A. goes still further by introducing men on leave to private homes where they are entertained over the week-end or for the full term of their leave. "Nobody knows and nobody cares" is a fatal feeling to come over a man, and this is what the Y.M.C.A. is striving to avoid. In London it is the personal touch that counts.