A WONDERFUL ORGANISATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17091, 24 August 1917, Page 7

A WONDERFUL ORGANISATION

WORK OF THE T.M.C.A. An opportufaity of 'meeting Mr H. M. Smeeton, of Auckland, who aoted for 12 months as hon. Y.M.Cf'A. commissioner in England and France, was given to Bailed in business men yesterday, when tho Young Men's Christian Association entertained Mr Smeeton at luncheon. Thero was an attendanco of about 60 persons. Mr P. R. Sargood, who presided, said that Mr Smeeton was president of the Auckland Association, and at his own expense had gone Home to see for himself how the monejr subscribed had beon and was being administrated. Mr Smeeton stated that tho association Was an. organisation of the vory greatest magnitude, the sums entrusted to it running into the neighbourhood of £2,000,000. The accounts were audited every- six months, and the _ balance sheets published in six of the leading English papers, while in addition the War Oifice auditors had the right to examine the books. Tho trading department of the organisation had developed into a prodigious business, the record of ??o period of six months showing that i i packages, representing 9686 tons dead weight, . and worth £606,172 were shipped by rail or steamer to the various liuts ip England, Scotland, France, Mesopotamia, Africa, and elsewhere. The letters_ of the men who benefited by the organisation (hundreds of which could be and the appreciation expressed by the higher command wore the best in- . terim receipts that the Y.M.C.A. and its supporters could desire. When ho left Enerland General Richardson had personally written to him stating that ho had seen tho work of the association among -,the New Zealand troops in England and EVance, and asking him to convoy to the association in New Zealand and its supporters the thanks of every officer and man in the N.Z.E.F. But the greatest compliment naid t.ho Y.M.C.A. was tho request of Generals Smuts and Botha that the association should undertake the supply of the dry canteen stores for the huts in British and German East Africa. The association accepted this undertaking,-- orders were conveyed through the War Office, and some single orders filled represented, a value of £20,000. The bills for tho goods were, of course, footed by _tho War Office, but the cost of administration was borne by the Y.M.C.A. Mr Smeeton asked his hearers not to confuse the canteen department of the Y.M.C.A. with the trench comforts soheme, which was our New Zealand specialty. The canteens run in connection with tho Y.M.C.A. were wholly under the • oontrol of the British. Association, and the goods •were sold. But the trench comforts scheme was worked from here, and everything was given to the men in most need of such helj)—the men in the front lines. The "forward stations" where the trench comforts were dispensed were within from 400 to 1000 yards of tho front trenches. Touching upon other matters, the speaker said tfiat the association did not benefit by one penny piece from its trading activities. Moreover, it would get nothing of the profits that might accrue from these trading activities. It had been arranged that the whole of the trading department's profits would be devoted to some soldiers' •work of a character which received the approval of tho War' Department. An attempt had been made -to compel the association to comply with! the general rule that portion of the canteen profits should be contributed to regimental funds. This attempt had been successfully resisted in oases, an<J after considerable correspondence Mr Asquith, during his tenure of office as Minister of War, had issued! an . Army Order that the Y.M.C.A., during the ■war, should not contribute from its profits to regimental funds.—(Applause.) These funds were largely supported, "he added, by profits from the wet canteens—by profits from beer—whiph he regarded as an entirely wrong principle.—(Applause.) The finest hut in London was the Shakespearean hut, so called because the ShakegKJare Club had bought a 'site from the' Duke of Bedford for a memorial theatre, and upon the outbreak of war had handed over the site to the .Y.M.C.A. for five years, and had built a fine concert hall on it, which would jhold 700 soldiers. The New Zealand Association had spent something like £4000 on buildings upon this site, and this hut was headquarters of the New Zealand Y.M.C.A. In conclusion, told how magnificently the Y.M.C.A. had risen to the necessity for providing safo harbourage for the soldiers coming- to London on leave. Some 10 000 men slept in the London Y.M.C.A. huts nightly.

Ths Chairman, in thanking Mr Smeeton, said ho had told them just what thsy wanted to know—how the money was being spent—and he was sure those present would ' n the determination to help the funds of the association to be maintained at fighting "level.—(Applause.) •