CANTEENS OVERSEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 March 1941, Page 6

CANTEENS OVERSEAS

THE SERVICE IN EGYPT MEW ZEALAND SOLDIER'S SURVEY. WTTAT THE ESTABLISHMENTS ARE LIKE. (2) A second and concluding' in- > sfalinent. is given below of a letter in which a New Zealand soldier, writing to his parents in Masierton, gives a description of the canteens available to oui' troops .in Egypt. Perhaps you may be interested in what the canteens themselves are like. A few words about the canteen in our lines have a general application because these.canteens, as far as our camp is concerned, are as alike as sleepers on a railway track. Ask any First Echelon man what he thinks about his canteen and he will probably tell you that it is the worst of a bad lot —but you are inclined to get that way living here. Actually no one could argue that our canteen is not immensely superior to the so-called canteen we had in Trentham camp during our training. Il is a somewhat rudimentary wooden structure of the Egyptian type of building, suited only to Egyptian conditions. The main room for the men has something of the air of a big stable with whitewashed walls, concrete floor and two lines of posts supporting the ceiling (which is also the roof) but there are windows with glass, as well as shutters, school-room like pictures in green wooden frames on the walls, and curtains of floral cloth, of dust-concealing hue, at all the windows. The main space of the floor is taken up with tables like the ordinary card tables, but with hard composition tops. Around each of these are placed four little basket chairs. Along the walls are more basket chairs, some of them of the low-slung lounge type. On a little stage at one end stands an upright piano (hire for which is deducted from our rebate). A radio loud-speaker (which you can scarcely ever hear) and a dart board, which is never used, about complete the appointments. The whole room has the size and shape but rather lacks the ceiling height, of a small parish hall.

AN OPEN-AIR CAFE. The concrete floor extends to a wide path, around the outside'wall and this is shaded by a secondary roof, shopverandah style. In the hot weather, soldiers can often be seen sitting outside there in lounge basket chairs, with bottles of beer and big 20oz. glasses handily placed on little stands, provided for the purpose. At such times the NAAFI looks comfortable in an “outpost of Empire” sort of way.! Being at present an office worker, I go to.the NAAFI every morning for my morning tea. I have to walk only a short distance over the sand passing a big post on which is mounted the NAAFI standard. They apparently forgot about this when they became E.F.I. —(Expeditionary Force Institute) and into the canteen. If I were to arrive by mistake an hour too early I would see nothing other than what I have already described except perhaps a coloured gentleman swilling the floor or tidying the place up. The canteen is open for business only at certain hours and at other times troops are seldom to be seen in it. On one of the Jong sides of the room there is a line of half a dozen large black panels. More or less promptly at 10.30 each morning there is a scuffling noise behind this wall and one of the panels swings in-, wards on its overhead hinges to reveal the affable Grecian (in the modern sense) features of George, troop server No. 1. The panel alongside will be pulled back by No. 2, Jack, from Armenia. Both these of course speak English fluently, in addition to all sorts of other languages. They are paid about £1 or 30 shillings a week and are away up the scale from the working natives of this country.

ATTENDANTS IN NIGHTGOWNS. Not speaking much English and probably lower down but still much elevated from a workman are the two floor walkers in the canteen who gather our empty cups, plates, bottles and glasses. These men wear white nightgowns, sometimes over European socks shoes suspenders and so on. and always fez or some other head gear. The latter is a custom of the country and I am told that a house servant would have little respect for you if you permitted him to appear bare-headed. George and Jack, who do not come in the scope of this convention, stand in a kind of corridor between the main room and the kitchen.

There is a big 'gap in the wall to permit handling of stuff from this department and shelves on which arc arrayed the goods of the dry canteen. For half a piastre George or Jack will sell you a largish glass of tea or a small cup of coffee or cocoa and to go with it a piece of shortbread or bun or such like for the same money. If you want a not very large piece of not very good jam tart you must pay a piastre. At 11.30 the slide at the otter end of the line is opened up by the Sudanese negro who is the barman. At one o'clock the whole show closes down. It reopens again at 4.30, closing finally at 9.15 p.m. In addition to the staff already mentioned there is a manager and some boys in the kitchen. There would be a few more if the canteen were working at full pressure, but these days it is seldom other than very quiet. TIMES OF PRESSURE. As a general rule however these canteens suffer a pressure of business On the occasions when the men have money (that is when it is Friday night or when they have just arrived in the country) and trade falls off to a relative trickle as the money becomes short. When crowded the canteens, particularly since blackout precautions were instituted, lose any air of spacious comfort they may have during the day. Pay day evenings not infrequently finish up in some sort, of a brawl, not. as a rule though of very serious, tempo or proportions. For some months the traditional Crown and Anchor "Kings" were with us and there would be several boards going in any canteen on any night not too far from last pay day. Authority however has put a great deal of determination into suppressing' this game and it is now not nearly so common a sight. Its place has been taken by an Institution known as “housic housie.” not disapproved of by authority but disliked by all rank and tile non-players because it involves a

continuous chanting of "Number 11 — legs eleven; 66, clickety click. No. 9— the doctor's friend." The gentlemen who run these outfits decide their own worth and as a rule appropriate a sizeable share of the takings as reward for their work. However the game has the advantage of providing a somewhat slower method for our "real gamblers" to become separated from their money. On the far side of the kitchen is a room similar to the main room except that it has (or in our case had) some better chairs and is equipped with a ping pong table instead of a darl board. The idea of (his is to provide for corporals. In the early days in our battalion there was a little trouble over this system and duly sergeants repeatedly' found it necessary lo chase corporals out of the men's canteen. Apparently at headquarters no such steps were taken and corporals showed little inclination to play in their own yard. SHORTAGE OF MAGAZINES. Anyhow the room lias for a long! time now been officially a recreation I room for all other ranks, the furniture! shifted cut and the ping pong table j taken over by a club which has been I formed here. Other features of the' canteen are the Y.M.C.A.. a smaller' semi-detached room intended as a

place for (he troops to write letters and the still smaller magazine stall, which has not for a long while had much in the way' of magazines. These canteens of course operate only at base camps. In the battle area, units have to organise their own. So far they seem to have managed successfully enough, supplies being obtained partly from the N.A.A.F.I. organisation and partly from other sources.