HOSTESS HOUSES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23621, 3 April 1940, Page 3

HOSTESS HOUSES

NEED IN MILITARY CAMPS PROPOSAL BY YAV.C.A. That the work of the Young Women's Christian Association, as with other organisations with a world-wide membership, had received an added impetus because of the international situation was stressed by Miss Grace I. Carr when she passed through Auckland in the Monterey on Monday. With branches of the organisation in 60 different countries, there were many opportunities for the association to be of assistance to various Governments in the present critical times. Miss Carr, \vho is the general secretary of the association in Melbourne, is returning to her home in Ohio, United States of America, for further study. The members of the national association in Australia were at present exploring the possibilities of establishing hostess houses in military camps in the Commonwealth, Miss Carr said. The idea of tho hostess house was to provide a place, equipped with rest rooms and lounges, where the men could meet their families when they came to visit them in the camps. Nothing .pr this type bad so far been provided in Australia, Miss Carr continued. In working on the scheme, the association was following the _ lead of the American Y.W.C.A., which had done excellent work in this direction during the last war. Hostess houses, staffed bv trained Y.W.C.A. workers, had been established in military camps both in the United States and in France, and had been extremely popular with the men, filling a definite need.