CHRISTMAS AT CODFORD.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 964, 14 March 1917, Page 4

CHRISTMAS AT CODFORD.

A VOLUNTEER SISTER'S LETTER. Miss Clara Rogers, who lefl with the Volunteer Sisterhood for Egypt, and who. later on, went to England in connection with the New Zealand Y.M.C.A.. sends an interesting letter from Walton-on-Thames. to a Wellington friend. Tt was written principally to acknowledge a draft of £250, sent from Weill ntrton for the purchase of Christmas gifts for the boys at Codford. Miss Rogers is now attached to the Soldiers' Club at Walton-on-Thanies, which is being run by Hie Y.M.GA. In the course of the letter, she describes a "high tea," provided on Christinas Day for the convalescents in No. 11 camn at Codford:— "We knew they were getting a good dinner iu the cam)), so we arranged to have the tea and entertainment after. We asked for twenty volunteers from the camp, and with us, they worked all day, making sandwiches, fruit salad, jellies, and cutting cake. We laid the tables right down the hut in good old tea-meeting style, decorating them with red paper and lovely red hawthorn berries and beautiful autumn leaves. Then we piled the food on, finishing the spread with lollies, oranges, Tints, dates and bon-bons for all. The boys wore the funny caps, etc., out of the latter, and were very gay with their decorations. Tea finished, the boys still sat at the'tables, while cigarettes were handed round, and the evening resolved itself into an informal kind of concert, Captain Burridsj;e presiding. As it was our last night, the opportunity was taken to say good-bve to Miss Ballantvne and T. who were leaving next, day for London, to onci this flub at Mr Varnoy's renuest. We lifld a lovely day and night. Everything went joyously, the boys at the finish giving three cheers, and singing, "For they are jolly good fellows," etc-, anil declaring that "<t was worth coming to the war for a. Christmas like that." Describing the new Soldiers - Club. Miss Rogers say?:--"Tt is. a. sixteen-roomed house, standing in lovely grounds about half-way between ov.v two hospitals, which arc about a mil" a.) art. The house is built lengthwise, ro Hint all the rooms get 'the sin and " ! i;;!:t, and nearlv s*Jl the ! windows are of cathedral glass. We lave a drawing-j.">oni, lounge, writingroom, dining-room, for the use of the 1 soldiers downstairs, while our bed- | rooms, sitting-room and a billiard-room ;-"ill lie on the second floor. It is a plastered house with figured' oak panelling, staircase, etc- -a perfectly beautiful residence. This is what we have come into at last, after all our hardships and discomforts. It is a haven of rest and comfort, and now we will just be able to care for the wounded boys and do what we have always wanted to do —give them an easy chair or lounge, land make them feel they are at home."