NEW ZEALAND TROOPS IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 239, 4 July 1940, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS IN ENGLAND

Services Given By Y.M.C.A.

(From The Official War Correspondent Attached To The New Zealand Forces Overseas.) LONDON, July 2.

With the commissioning yesterday of the motor tea-van presented by the New Zealand War Services Association, and the opening tomorrow of the London headquarters at 22 Charing Cross Road, a stone's throw from Trafalgar Square, the shore activities of the New Zealand Y.M.C.A. with the second echelon will be in full stride. The camps are being served by eight large reading, writing, and recreation marquees, and five smaller chapel tents. There is no canteen service: this is being provided, both “wet” and “dry,” by the Navy, Army, and Air Force Institute.

The mobile tea-van will [hove a great boon on route marches and manoeuvres which it accomiiauies, providing hot tea free.

Eight hundred troops arc served at each half-hour’s halt. On the first run of a motorized reconnaissance column the van travelled 173 miles and served tea five times in the course of the long day. The London headquarters are staffed by New Zealand women, resident in England, and include facilities for reading, writing, and games, information and accommodation bureaux, showers, and baggage storage, Nearby is Gatti’s restaurant, now run by the British Y.M.C.A. It is proposed to establish n cafeteria and also central rooms in the chief town in the training area for the convenience of New Zealand troops on evening leave. Electric irons are available in the camp marquees, and also a free sock-darning service, the gift of local women helpers. Padres of all denominations and the Church Army are co-operating in all the arrangements. In one camp where there is no Y.M.C.A. tent the Church Army is supplying equivalent services.

The field secretaries with the forces are Messrs. G. F. Briggs (Wellington), J. Kennedy (Christchurch), and I. Mclvor (Auckland), whom the military are assisting with the necessary staff. Because of the future of the New Zealand division being uncertain, Mr. T. IT Lowry’s gift of £lO,OOO for a base Y.M.CIA. will not be expended in the meantime. The Lowry family’s practical interest in the welfare of the troops was well illustrated when, after the presentation of the tea-van, Mrs. A. P. F. Chapman (formerly Miss Lowry) drove it to the London camp, and said she would like to continue driving it on the job.