FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1918. BRAVO THE Y.M.C.A.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 920, 1 March 1918, Page 10

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1918. BRAVO THE Y.M.C.A.

The Latest Red Triangle Appeal. TT is the duty of every ]NTew Zealander -**- to> respond as generously as he can afford to. the latest appeal of that invaluable institution, the Y.M.C.A., for an additional £100,000 to be devoted to the splendid activities of the Red Triangle at the Front, in the Old Country, and right here in the Dominion, for the welfare of New Zealand's soldiers. So far as £100,000 being forthcoming, double that sum ought to be subscribed. The* country has abundance of money. At the Masterton A. and P. Show last week the motor cars on the ground represented, it is estimated, a total value of £400,000. At the Wanganui hotel fire the other day there was over £3000 of jewellery, the property, of visitors to the races, stored in the hotel safe. As to general evidences of wealth, one has only to turn to the packed theatres, the crowded racecourses, to take note of the costly dresses affected by so many New Zealand women —millions upon millions of extra money has poured into the country through the war, that war in which, alas, so many splendid young New Zealanders have made the supreme sacrifice, that war in which so many more are still fighting gallantly in the sacred cause of true liberty, of justice, and righteousness. » * * * Let there be no niggardliness in the response of those who have made and are making huge fortunes out of the war to this latest appeal of the Y.M.C.A. Auckland is excluded from the appeal for the reason that Auckland patriotically set its own ball rolling. Some time ago £25,000 was asked for and the response double that amount. On a population basis, Wellington and the rest of the Dominion must come up to the fine standard set by our fellow countrymen up north. By every mail come eloquent tributes from our soldiers to the splendid work done under the Red Triangle banner. There is no sectarianism about the work ofi the Y.M.C.A. Only the other day we perused the letter of a New Zealand soldder who told how in the latest dug-out rest house, established by the Red Triangle workers right within the actual firing line, Anglican clergymen, Presbyterian ministers, Roman Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbis all equally availed themselves of the opportunity for meeting and ministering to the soldiers. In London the Y.M.C.A. watches over the moral as well as the physical welfare of our men, and many a New Zealand lad has been saved from succumbing to the allurements of vice by the kindly counsel and careful guardianship of Y.M.C.A. officials. » * * e Here in Wellington the Soldiers' Hostel in Bouloott-street, with its beds occupied almost nightly by men on leave from the camps, with' the big Y.M.C.A. headquarters in Willis-street, fitted up with comfortable blinks for the overflow from the Hostel, with

that excellent institution, the Red Triangle Hiit. in Lambton-quay, where soldiers can obtain light refreshments, can write letter and play billiards, the Y.M.C.A. work well under the public eye, and no hole can be picked in. its management. Women of education and refinement are self-sacrificingly derot ing themselves to work at these institutions, and shrewd business men are seeing to it that there is no waste of money but that full value is being obtained for every penny subscribed. * * * * Still more money is ever being wanted for extension of the Y.M.C.A. activities; in France, in England, in Egypt, in Palestine, and Mesopotamia. New fields of usefulness are constantly being opened up, and the calls upon the Y.M.C.A. funds are ever increasing. Hence the new appeal. Surely that appeal will not be made in vain. From all classes of the community there should be a most liberal, a most generous; response. It is for , our brave patient. self-sacrificing soldier lads that the appeal is being made. Everyone should give and give freely, according to his or her means. Never was money given in a better, a nobler, a more sacred cause.