THE Y.M.C.A

Te Aroha News, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5501, 18 June 1917, Page 3

THE Y.M.C.A

Parents of soldier boys cannot help noting that the Y.M.O.A. looms large iu most of the letters from Peatherston camp, from the plaius o! Salisbury, from Egyph aud from Prance, If ever an organisation is worthy of support it is this. Before the war, the Y.M.O.A. was looked upon by people who didn’t know any better as a kind of “ wowser ’’ institution, or, in other words, a “gospel temperance club for good young men.” Those, however, who have watched its progress for the past ten years, know the immense amount of good it has accomplished, even in the area of peace and quietness. But with the outbreak of war, its great opportunity came to show the world what the leaders were ;made of, and tho marvellous organising powets of capable business men set to work, and “made good” iu a marvellously short time. Thousands of men who two years ago would have treated the very mention of the Y.M.C.A. with contempt, to-day cannot expruH their admiration of its good work at the front iu teims consistent with their thoughts. It is the “ one bright spot iu tho Hades of war.’’