Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1940. COMFORTS FOR FIGHTING MEN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 February 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1940. COMFORTS FOR FIGHTING MEN.

THERE will he no Ittek of sympathy with the idea of providing comforts and amenities for the members of all onr fighting forces, wherever they may be—in New Zealand training camps, on the fighting fronts, or in areas between. It should follow that there will be a full and representative attendance at the public meeting, convened by Ihe Mayor (Mr T. Jordan) and the chairman of the Masterton County Council (Mr R. Coicon Lee), which is to be held in the Municipal Social Hall this evening in furtherance of the appeal now being launched by the Salvation Army and the A.M.C.A. Here, as in. other parts of the Dominion, members of Iho community are being invited to get together and to put their hands in 'their pockets in order to provide, for the comfort, welfare and recreation of our soldiers. A good deal has already been done to those ends in this country, where substantial and well-equipped buildings have been set up in various camps. Means have to be found of maintaining these buildings and the services rendered in them and it is even more important, that the work should be extended adequately overseas. It is work, too, that may be done far better, in the right conditions of organisation, with the support of free-will community oft erings than as a branch of military routine, financed by the State. Developed as it ought to he, the work that is being undertaken by the Salvation Army and the Y.M.C.A. will give our soldiers in distant war areas an opportunity of getting away now and then from military routine, of enjoying pleasant social entertainment and perhaps some touch of home atmosphere. Incidentally it should afford them a convenient means of keeping in touch with their individual homes. Tn times like these, all good citizens who are staying at home should be prepared not only to do what they may to support by donations the extension of the work for the members of our fighting forces that is being undertaken by the organisations named, but to interest themselves as far as possible in a practical and helpful Iway in seeing that the work is carried on and developed as it ought to be. Every means that offers of mitigating the inevitable, hardships, limitations and deprivations of war service should be welcomed by those upon whom these burdens do not fall.

Members of our civil community who are capable of doing more should not be content merely to contribute to the funds that are needed. It is just as important that, a keen and active interest should be taken in the measures that are devised for the welfare and comfort of our fighting men in camp and field. The aim should be to make our soldiers feel that the soul of their homeland goes with them to the fighting fronts and the question of how that may best and most effectively he done is worthy of earnest thought and effort.

The immediate aim is to raise a sum of £lOO,OOO as a Fighting Services Welfare Fund and a considerable amount of detail responsibility is 1o he delegated to the Salvation Army and the Y.M.C.A. The money raised, however, is to be administered by the National Patriotic Fund Board and dispensed in grants for the work being carried on by these organisations. It is wholly desirable that the community should maintain an active interest in this extremely important work, and if need be in seeing that it is directed on right lines. There should be a good muster of veterans of the last war at the meeting this evening, for none can be belter fitted to help in maintaining the effectively intimate contact in which the people of the Dominion ought to be linked with the members of their fighting forces.

This district has an honourable record and reputation where patriotic effort is concerned and in the grim ordeal of war by which we are once again confronted there should be no question of any'falling away from the standards that were set a quarter of a century ago and in the years that followed.