"IN A CUP OF COFFEE."

Taranaki Daily News, 12 March 1918, Page 8

"IN A CUP OF COFFEE."

WHERE MORALE WAS FOUND. '"I have known morale to be found in u cup of hot coil'ce,'' a staff officer once said. ''ls victory always on the side of the biggest battalion?" he was asked. "Not always," was the reply, "there's romething else, something you cannot chart or weigh or express in any military iigmvs. Napoleon knew what it was, raid he called it "morale." "You can describe morale in a score of ways. It may come from faith in a future life, or the thought that the soldier is protecti'"'- loved ones at home. I have scon moruio created by a man's taking a big risk, I have seen it sustained by the 'writing of a letter home, just, before going into action. Yes, morale conies in many different ways, but if you ■ want an easy o.r.d short definition of it take the four letters "Y.M.C.A." and all the world knows what they have done for the troops goimr in and coming out of the trenches, and in the trenches too. That is what I mean when I say that I. have known morale to be found in a cup of hot coffee." Every cup of coffee, then, that is handed out to weary soldiers from these fro/it line Y.M. huts, contains the rare essence of morale. Tt is the business of every non-combatant at homo to sec that (here is no lack of hot coffee. One and nll'you must.make tho bovs a suV r.tantiaf gift on Red Triangle' Day. It will give you morale, too, to feel that you are helping them to win the war. Seating accommodation for about 4300 soldiers is provided in the huge Red Trir.nTle hut at Blackhqv Hill camp, a few miles out of Perth, W.A. This Y.M.C.A. hut is said to be the largest building used for social purposes! in any military camp in the Empire. It is 270 feet long by iJO feci wide, and in one year, during Hie war, it seated altogether half a million of men.