ONE PHASE OF WORK

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 24 January 1918, Page 3

ONE PHASE OF WORK

'walking wounded, this way. 1

It is no wonder the soldiers say ' V.M.C.A. men are not quitters !' " remarked a well-known American manufacturer after a tour of the British fighting area in France. "The V.M.C.A. secretaries stand under fire and shell as steadily as the soldiers themselves, and go right along with the troops as they make their charge, and set up their dugouts, quickly getting ready for work. The minute wounded soldiers, who were able to able to walk, came , back' from the trenches the V.M men were on 'hand, ready to serve them with tea and cocoa, to give them words of cheer, to find resting places, and perhaps warmth from a fire. In one district our men served 90 gallons of coffee in one day— 29,000 cups of coffee in a single week —to men who were going back and forth to the trenches. In all dressing stations to which wounded men were taken before being sent to hospitals toward the rear, were signs reading: ! Walking wounded, this way.' And in every dressing station the As r sociation had a tent. The conditions are such that all wounded men whq can walk have to walk —and a man cai) walk a long distance if he has to. ?>