THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3265, 11 October 1916, Page 53

THE WEEK.

The visit of Mr J. J. Virgo last week has called our attention to the Work that the Y.M.C.A. is doing amongst the men at the front, work of which those who have belongings with the forces have long known something. The red triangle so often beading the paper on which those anxiously-awaited letters are written has carried the name and fame of the association far and wide into many homes, and is an outward and visible sign of an influence which, as Mr Virgo puts it, has helped to mak3 life more bearable for the millions of "men at the front and in training. It was good to hear his racy and cheerful account of the way in which the association has made use of the opportunity for service that the Great War has brought it, of the -difficulties that have been overcome, of the keenness and enthusiasm of the workers, the ready response by those who stay at home to appeals for help; and the appreciation of the men themselves, many of whom a few years ago would never in their wildest dreams have imagined themselves entering the doors of a Y.M.C.A. institution. To many at home, too, the association was but a name, and they had no conception of the work that it has been steadily engaged in for many years; but they have no excuse for ignorance now that it has so enlarged its sphere and it is to be found following the flag into every corner of the world where British troops are fighting. Sometimes, Mr Virgo tells us, it has actually got ahead of them, and has been waiting tor them with a friendly welcome, and as much of comfort as ~ it can provide. In the wellequipped " hutments " or " stations " up in the firing line in France, or in places like London and Cairo, it is able to supply almost any and every need of the weary soldier, from tea and coffee and hot baths to concert parties and other recreations, and a spiritual help and friendly counsel which is the greatest possible safeguard against the evils that threaten fresh, hot youth plunged suddenly into new and often terrible experiences. These evils are, alas! always with us; but the war has accentuated them in some degree", - though it also has, by this very accentuation, opened our eyes to the gravity of the peril and the necessity for combating it. Mr Virgo, in his address on Friday afternoon, had something to say of the help that women at Home have given to the Y.M.C.A., both by the good influence they heip to create and by their practical work in running canteens, driving motor ambulances, organising concerts,'" and so on. Much of it is extreraelv hard and trying work, yet it is taken "up by "society ladies" who freely confess that two years ago they were concerned only with their own pleasures, and who now 'state that they would, not exchange their present life of service for the old one for anything. The Queen, too, takes a great interest in the Y.M.C.A. work, and has a report given her everv week of what is being done. It was r verv interesting to hear all this ; but out of all that Mr Virgo told us that afternoon there are two ideas that impressed themselves very firmly on _ my mind, and have remained there ever since. He spoke at one time of his present mission, which is principally to arrange if possible for a unification of all the branches of the Y.M.C.A. throughout the Empire under the headship of an Imperial Council in London, and later on he referred to the personal responsibility which every woman has to do what she can for the men who have gone to the front to fight, especially in the matter of creating an influence for good that will be strong enough to reach them when they come back and counteract the evils

which will be lying in wait for them. Now, although these two things had no particular connection with each other in Mr Virgo's speech, I was very much struck by the way lie thus, more or less unconsciously, emphasised the two ideas which seem to me to be the keynotes of the future—co-operation and individual responsibility. The two, though seemingly contradictory, in reality go hand in hand. The more keenly we feel our own responsibility for what goe.i on in the world the more eager we will be to use our responsibilities aright by joining with others and working in witli them for a common good. Never was there an age when there was so strong a feeling for co-operation and union on every hand, for there never lias been an age when the means of communication could so easily bridge the distance which makes for isolation. We see the idea working out on every hand—in the continual amalgamation of such things as Red Cross and other patriotic societies under a central authority, in this new scheme of the Y.M.C.A., in the possibilities of a closer political union of the different parts of the British Empire. At the same time the spread of education has made people more able to think for themselves, to realise the far-reaching import of their actions, and to demand a share in the governance of the world, so that the idea of a universal manhood and womanhood suffrage will probably soon be put inte force not only in the' British Empire, as suggested bv'my correspondent last week, .but all over the civilised world. These ideas are not new, for they haTe been working in men's minds with increasing force as in Lev-communication has developed ; but the shock of the war has crystallised ihem into shape, as it were, much sooner than would otherwise have been the case. Things happen quickly nowadays. We are on the verge of great events, and though it is like trying to see through a glass darkly when we try to forecast the future, i feel sure that things will move along the lines that I have indicated. We seem to have come a long way from the Y.M.C.A., don't we?—it is wonderful how far we can travel in a column, as I have noticed before —and yet not so very far either, for the Y.M.C.A. with its very name of "Association'' bears out the truth of what I say. ELIZABETH.