SALVATION ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 11

SALVATION ARMY

RECREATIONAL INSTITUTES

WORK IN CAMPS

Details of the war work being carried out by the War Emergency Department of the Salvation Army were given to '.'The Post" today by Brigadier A. Greene, organiser of the department.

. The Army had started work at one of the Wellington forts, where-a permanent building for a recreational institute had been obtained, he said. Furnishings had already been put in the building, and a library had been established. A billiard-table for the use of' the soldiers was installed, and it was hoped soon to Supply a piano and a radio set. At the present time the soldiers at the fort were being given a cup of coffee in the evenings. Another building near the railway station would soon be used for similar work, and would provide a rest room and a place where soldiers could see their parents arid relatives when they came into i town.

Two marquees were being used at the camp in the South Island and had been fully equipped. Reading and writing requirements for the soldiers were being provided. Another marquee 80ft by 40ft would shortly be erected at a camp in the North Island near Wellington on a site granted by the military authorities, and it was intended to establish two more institutes at camps in the Auckland district, where permanent buildings would be erected as soon as the materials were available. Lieutenant-Colonel G. W. P. Grattan. Chief Secretary of the Salvation Army in New - Zealand, was most keen that the appointments for the' institutes should be in place before the main body of troops reached the Camps, so that'they could have a place for rest and recreational facilities when they arrived..

r Brigadier Greene added that many offers of help had been received from volunteers both inside and outside the Army. A fine response had been : made by the public to the appeal for battery wireless sets,. and the Army new had a sufficient number to meet requirements. They were now asking for three or four electric sets which could be installed in camps where . electric power was available, and for some pianos. .