“ON A CUP OF COFFEE.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4815, 12 March 1918, Page 6

“ON A CUP OF COFFEE.”

WHERE MORALE WAS FOUND. “I have known morale to he found in a cup of hot coffee,” a staff officer once said. “Is victory always'on the side of the biggest battalion?” he was asked. “Not always,” was the reply. “There’s something else. • something you cannot chart, or weigh or express in any military figures. Napoleon knew what it was, and he called it ‘morale.’ ” “You can describe morale in a score of ways. It lhav come from faith in a future life, or the thought that the soldier is protecting loved ones at home. I have seen morale created by a man’s taking a Mg risk, I have seen it sustained by the writing of a letter home, just before going into action. Yes, morale conies in many different ways, but if you want an. easy and short definition of it. take the four letters Y.M.C.A. and all the world knows what they have done for the troops going in and 'coming out of the trenches, and in the. trenches, too. That is what I mean when ,1 say that I have known morale to he found in- a cup of hot coffee.”

Every cup of coffee, then, that is handed out to weary soldiers from these front line Y.M. Huts contains the rare essence of morale. It is the business of every non-combatant at home to see that there is no lack of hot coffee. One and all von must make the boys a substantial gift on Red Triangle Day. It will give you morale, too, to feel that vou, are helping them to win the war. Seating accommodation for about 4300 soldiers is provided in the huae Red Triangle hut at Blaclcboy Hill camp, a few miles out of Perth, W.A. This Y.M.C.A. lint is sa ; d to. he the largest building used for social purposes iu any military camp in the Empire. It is 270 feet long by.so feet wide, and in one year, during the war, it seated. altogether half a million of men.