SAYING THE SOLDIERS

Southland Times, Issue 17756, 6 September 1917, Page 2

SAYING THE SOLDIERS

DANGERS OF LEAVE IN LONDON. WORSE THAN ENEMY BOMBS. HOW THE Y.M.C.A. COMBATS THE STREET PESTILENCE. (By Triangle No. 1). LONDON, June 20. When the House of Commons reassembled a week ago Mr Pemberton Billing asked pointed questions which inferred that the aerial branch of the service was not being conducted with a maximum amount °f energy. Some New Zealand soldiers visiting the House under Y.M.C.A. auspices were surprised to note that the questions were not taken seriously either by the Minister who replied (Mr Bonar Law) or by a majority of the members. Since then London has experienced one of the worst raids on record, and when references are made to the matter of aerial defence the tone of the House is much more serious. Mr Bonar Law has gone so far as to state that the Government is in communication with the military concerning the advisability of raiding certain specified places in Germany. The facts of Wednesday’s air raid will have been cabled to New Zealand. At high noon a dozen or more aeroplanes approached in two formations and from an estimated height of 1500 ft. rained bombs on the East End, killing 104 and injuring 510 persons, many of them children in attendance at a County school. Within a hundred yards of where one bomb exploded several New Zealand soldiers were sight-seeing with a YJtf.C.A. party, and they rendered great assistance in helping to remove the wounded. “I used to think," said one, “that I should like to be in London when an air raid occurred, but never The scenes were more pitiful than can be imagined and it is small wonder that on the day following the raid a public meeting was held on Tower Hill to demand reprisals. Some of the parents of the slaughtered innocents were present. THE BLACKEST BLOT. The object of this article is not so much to discuss the aerial menace as to illustrate the difficulty of moving Parliament by anything short of disaster. If the most wideawake man in London were asked to name the gravest danger of the hour he would probably say the enemy of the streets. This is the true position. England is not decadent, neither is the greatest metropolis in all the world, but a crisis has been reached when the nation must grapple with the demon that has come as a legacy from the easy-going past and is now thriving on the opportunities afforded by the calling home of so many of our sons of Empire. On the four winds comes the call to protect those sons. The only response up to the present has been the passing of legislation which is sadly difficult to enforce. The stumbling stone is the old fetish of “the benefit of the doubt.” Meanwhile the skeletons of wrecked lives are piling up; the isolation camps for soldiers are fuller than ever; and the tragedy is that nothing is being done to isolate the sources of infection. What of the future of the race “unto the third and fourth generation !" “SAVE THEM FROM THEMSELVES.” “We must save the soldiers from themselves; we must save the next generation,” writes Max Pemberton in the course of a stinging article in the Weekly Dispatch. The writer pays a warm tribute to tbe Y.M.C.A. workers who are striving to protect the soldiers, and pleads with those in authority to “act immediately with that sanity and commonsense for which the British people are famous.” Yes, the Y.M. C.A. is tackling the social problem in London with the same tireless energy that has made its efforts so -successful in other spheres of action. Not the least energetic is the New Zealand section of the Association which specialises on the care of the men from “God's Own Country.” And they are worth caring for, comparing as they do with the best. As in the case of all mixed armies, however, there are flyaways to be curbed and weak ones to be strengthened. A glass of wine, a taxi ride, and a tempting supper start off many a fine fellow on the downward slope to remorse. A few evenings ago a lad with a fiancee in New Zealand allowed himself to be ogled away by two girls in their teens. Heedless of advice he went his way and next morning was without the price of a meal. For the three remaining days of his leave he was dependent upon financial help. This is but one of thousands of such cases. They are happening every day and night in full view of all who have eyes to see. But the authorities see not. THE COUNTER STROKE. The Y.M.C.A. plan of action is to get into touch with the men as they reach the city—New Zealand troop-trains are always met —and so fill up the four days of their leave that they have neither the time nor inclination to fall in with undesirable companions. The great majority of the men readily accept invitations to join parties for sight-seeing, visiting the homes of worthy people, or passing away odd hottfs at places of healthy amusement. Thus are they guided past the death traps of the streets and on through those more wholesome parts of London so rich in historic interest and in the inspiring examples of great lives. The British and Overseas Guide to London department of the Y.M.C.A. is directed by a committee of four, representing the British, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian associations. “Each for all and all for each” is the motto. In addition to the numerous accommodation and canteen huts (with their wonderful staffs of honorary women workers), inquiry kiosks have been erected at various strategic points in the city’s surging traffic where outdoor workers keep constant vigil, befriending the lonely and warning the wayward. Every day fifty honorary guides are available for showing soldiers round the places of greatest interest, either by coach or foot; in the afternoon parties are taken to tea at some of the best homes in London (how they do appreciate the atmosphere of home life), and in the evening free seats are obtained for large numbers of the men at the best concert halls and theatres. Entertainments are also provided at the Y.M.C.A. huts by the best talent in London; Messrs Pathe Freres give without charge the use of their cinema theatre in Wardcur street; and for the special benefit of soldiers and their lady friends the Y.M.C.A. now conducts the one-time famous night club— Giro’s. When the crowds are leaving the theatres the night motor transport of the Y.M.dA. becomes busy, no less than sixty honorary motorists participating in the rescue work. During the six months just i ended 30,808 soldiers have been carried to \ places of safety between midnight and day- ; light. When these big efforts are backed by official action, as sooner or later they , surely must, London will be a cleaner and grander Empire city.