Y.M.C.A.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 24 February 1916, Page 5

V.M.C.A.

LETTER FROM BISHOP WELLDON

The following letter from Bishop Welldon (Dean of Manchester) appeared in the London Times on the 2btn of September: . Maj I, as the result of a short visit to the British Expeditionary Force in France, offer my testimony for what it is worth in support of tribute so generously paid a i:ew days ago by your special correspondent to the work or the V.M.C.A. Association. It is indeed work which cannot easily be overpraised- It is not, of course, the sole, but perhaps the chief, means by which the soldiers in, their various camps are provided with the opportunity of healthy occupation and recreation in their leisure hours. Nobody who has spent an evening in the huts of the \.M.C.A., who has seen the hundreds of men, when they day's work is over, sitting at the tables, reading the newspapers or writing letters to their friends at home, or playing games of chess, backgammon, draughts and dominoes, who has watched the leader of the hut going to and fro with a kindly- word for every man, or the ladies (who are not at all ashamed to be officially registered a* cantmieres) selling buns, sandwiches, or nonalcoholic drinks at the bar, who has been present at the concerts or theatrical entertainments, such as Miss Lena Ashwell's parties give at regular intervals, or at the cinematograph shows, some of which, I am told., are specially designed for the Indian troops, or, above all, who has taken part in one or more of the simple, bright religious services with which the evening frequently closes, can, I think, feel any doubt that the V.M.C.A. is exercising a widely diffused influence for good upon the' British Army. The praises of the Association were sung in my ears by all sorts of people—by officers, by ministers of religion, and by nurses, as well as by the private soldiers themselves. The magical letters the V.M.C.A., which must, I think, be almost unintelligible to many Frenchmen, seem to act as an> "open sesame" in the camps. Nor is the V.M.C.A. solicitous for the welfare of the soldiers alone; it is equally mindful and careful of the numerous laborers who are engaged at the permanent base in the loading and unloading of ships and trains, and in all the operations indispensable to the feeding and comfort of the army at the front. Out of nineteen huts erected in and around Havre alone, five, I think, are situated at the docks. It was a dock laborer who said to me of the V.M.C.A. : "Sir, we couldn't live without it." There are, of course, other philanthropic and religious agencies doing nofcle work in France; I do not forget or "disparage them: but it happens that my own experience lay ohiefly within the sphere of the V.M.C.A., and

I feel sure that the Church of England could hardly commit a greater llistake than if «he were to drift out of sympathy with this valuable and beneficent organisation. Happily, the •haplains of the Church whom 1 met were alsnost without exception as friendly to the V.M.C.A. as the V.M.C.A. was to them.