A VAST UNDERTAKING.

Colonist, Volume LVIII, Issue 14481, 13 August 1917, Page 2

A VAST UNDERTAKING.

V.M.C.A. WAR WORK

HOW A GREAT CALL HATS BFi<"\ MET.

"V\-hen tho time .comes.'to look back dispassionately on the great war if nay be said with ct-rtainty that the YounJ/ Men s- Christian Association will rank high among the organisations that rose to the height of the occasion and splendidly met the demands created by this [ vast upheaval. Early in the first week lof the war a. young Now Zealander i seeking accommodation- at the worid's | headquarters-.of the Association at Tottenham Court road, London, -was surprised to be stopped at the door* by an armed military guard. They were informing all-comers that no ' admission was possible as the building had been handed over to the military authorities tor use as a barracks. That-policy of serving, the army thus entered upon at the very earliest moment has been steadily pursued, in face of the enormously expanding task involved, from tnat day to tins. In those early days there were some who questioned the wisdom of a religious association enter--ing so whole-heartedly upon war work but that criticism is lon<r since dead !he plain facts of the case have killed it. _-■

vTi «c. years a"° t};ero was- no y.M.U.A. war work. To-day tfie Association is busy in over 1600 centres of military activity in all parts of the Empire ' It has a staff oF some 26,000 workers, 23,000 of whom am women J ho great majority of them are employed m, a voluntary capacity and as many as 300 have actually found their way over- to -.he huts in France. YVnerevcr soldiers or sailors or muni-tion-workers of any description are there the V.M.C.A. has its own special sphere of usefulness and there its wellequipped agencies will be found. England is now an armed camp, and x\\q Association has a thousand centres to enable it to keep in touch with all the men on service. The New Zealanders at Home get their full share of the assistance that the V.M.C.A. has lp offer. At the Sling. Infantry training samp, at the Convalescent Homes at Codford and ■Hornchurch, at the Waltoh-on--1 names and Brockenhurst hospitals, ™<?y all halve their own NeV Zealand 1 .M.C.A. service. In the composite camps like Christchurch where the engineers are trained, Granfcham whore the machine-gunners are, and among the signallers at. Hitchen and" the artillerymen at Chaddorton, the' New Zealanders are looked after aloii" with the rest by tho British V.M.C.A."