A COSMOPOLITAN NON-SECTARIAN WORK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1014, 16 November 1917, Page 4

A COSMOPOLITAN NON-SEC-TARIAN WORK.

Tho Prime Minister and Sir Joseph Ward alike have borne strikin'; testimony to the value of tho Army’s work in the direction indicated, and Mr Massey has spoken in no half-hearted way of the admirable work it is doing amongst onr soldiers in Britain and Franco. Out of its comparative poverty it has furnished, and maintains, a hundred fully equipped and fully staffed motor ambulances in the field in France and Flanders, has opened hostels lor the soldiers in England, and, through its many agencies, has interested itself in their welfare. So far as its Army Chaplains are concerned, like its cosmopolitan brother of the Rod Triangle (the Y.M.C.A.), it never asks a man what his religion is, nor seeks to influence him in any way in joining its organisation. In the Training Camps in ilds country it is out to help the men all the time. The Salvation Army Institute, with its five stories and clock lower .is a feature of the Featherston Camp and one of its most appreciated institutions. Some idea of its popularity, and the use made of it by tbc men in camp, may be gathered from the very interesting sidelights thrown upon the men’s correspondence by ChaplainCaptain Greene last evening, in the statements he made that, during the previous week, no loss than 17.000 sheets of headed letter paper, provided by tho Institute (which sots apart 84 writing tables for the men and has them fully occupied every evening, with other men waiting to take their places at thorn) had been used by the soldiers in their correspondence, and his last return showed commissions received for the sale of penny stamps to tho amount of 07, representing actual sales of the value of £‘2Bo, and these not in quantities. but in ones, and twos, and threes, the librarian finding bis hands full in attending to the requirements of those buying stamps and using the library. In addition to the large ball used for musical and other meetings, and in which the Sunday services are held, other rooms are set apart for reading and games, and others again for devotional purposes. But the Army, true to its principles, will not permit the use of cards or other games in which gambling forms an element, and. all through, its great aim is to influence the men spiritually—not on a, sectarian basis, hut in the broadest sense of Christian life and doctrine. And that its labours are rewarded in this direction goes without saying, for there is marked sympathy between the Salvation Army “padres” and onr citizen soldiers, who feel that these very worthy representatives of “muscular Christianity’’ belong to the class once described as “Men’s men”—men amongst men. .Epongh has been said to show that the Salvation Army is more than maintaining its usefulness during these strenuous days of war and that, in the latest sphere of ’its activities, it is doing > work which should command the respect and admiration (as it has that of tho military authorities) of every citizen of the Empire.