EVENTS IN EGYPT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1940, Page 8

EVENTS IN EGYPT

Y.M.C.A’S. WORK IN FIELD CANTEEN SERVICE. COMPREHENSIVE ARRANGEMENTS MADE. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) EGYPT. August 20. Members of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. returning from special duties in the Western Desert have spoken with enthusiasm and gratitude of the work undertaken in the field by the New Zealand Y.M.C.A. organisation attached to the First Contingent. In spite of difficulties experienced in matters of supply, a comprehensive canteen service was established by the association’s officers as soon as the New Zealanders took up their stations in the desert. Three canteens were opened in areas occupied by different detachments, and an army truck and a driver were placed at the disposal of the Y.M.C.A. officer in charge, who “stocked up” each morning and supplied each centre with its requirements. A fourth and more widely-spread area was more difficult to serve. It was not possible to set up a central canteen, since to bring about concentrations of men at any given point would have been against the interests of security. The solution lay in using the truck itself as a mobile canteen, which was driven about the area daily and made almost “tent-to-tent” deliveries. The truck and the three canteens stocked cigarettes, tobacco, soap, sweets, foodstuffs and similar comforts. Every effort was made to supply additional articles for which men expressed a special need. Fishing lines, for instance, were stocked for the benefit of parties working within reach of the Mediterranean coast. Because it was recognised that the New Zealanders were serving not only “in the field” but in a particularly trying area, the prices of essential comforts were fixed below cost, the difference being made up by the National Patriotic Fund Board. In addition, parties proceeding closer than usual to the border were supplied with free issues of cigarettes, chocolate and chewing gum. Calls were made by the Y.M.C.A. on advance hospital posts, and men evacuated to towns and cities were visited weekly and supplied with free comforts. Another of the association’s services in the desert was the delivery of daily newspapers, allocated on the basis of one to each tent. Full and active co-operation was extended to the padres in the holding of special services, and on its part the Y.M.C.A. acknowledges the outstanding assistance given it by the padres in the supervision of the canteens. Just as it has done in the training camp near Cairo, the Y.M.C.A. proved in the desert its readiness and ability to meet eventualities which might arise outside the “routine” phase of its activities. An illuminating example of this occurred when credit to the extent of some £450 was given to troops during a period which elapsed before pay arrangements were completed. No names or amounts were recorded. “It will stand as an everlasting memorial to the honesty and appreciation of New Zealand soldiers,” ' commented one of the association’s officers, “that all, and more, of the money was repaid when the first pay was issued.” It was not an uncommon experience for the officer to become, in the course of his rounds, a sort of agent for soldiers who wished to have private affairs attended to and decided to “ask the Y.M. bloke to fix it up.” Thus he frequently gave advice on personal problems’ and even arranged for cables to be sent to New Zealand on urgent matters. The daily appearance of the canteen truck was hailed gladly by the men on service in the field.