ARMY RECREATION HUTS NOW A NECESSITY IN WAR ZONES

"Recreation centers for the soldiers are now a military necessity," declared Mr. Edward Clark Carter '00, in the Trophy Room of the Union last night. "When we first applied for permission to accompany the Indian troops to Flanders, we were firmly refused. However, we went to Bombay to be on hand when the transports were sailing. A division of troops, who had been flooded out of their regular quarters, had sought temporary shelter in a dock shed in most unsanitary, immoral conditions. The men were getting sick. The commandant wired headquarters for advice. Back came the laconic message: "Consult Y. M. C. A.," and before night the first 'army hut' and the germ of the entire system was started. When it came time to sail the association secretaries had made themselves so useful that it was decided that they should accompany the ships. But when they reported to the commander on the day of sailing he greeted them with the order, "Go away; I don't want to see you. Orders came from headquarters this morning forbidding me to take you. But I failed to see them and they were destroyed. We shall have sailed before more orders arrive. I don't want to see you.' So the first Y. M. C. A. secretaries reached Flanders as stowaways.

"At first the British government looked askance at the army recreation centres which we were establishing," said Mr. Carter, "but we persevered and one day Mr. Asquith paid a visit incognito to a 'hut' at Aldershot. He was so much impressed that immediately upon his return to London he had a check drawn for $125,000--the first government contribution to the work."

In describing the actual work of the Y. M. C. A. among the soldiers, Mr. Carter emphasized the importance of letter writing, between one and two million sheets of writing paper being distributed among the men every day. Nor is paper alone supplied. Many of the Indian troops are illiterate and people to write letters in all Indian dialects have been provided. Nor is the work alone among the men on the firing line. There are over 5,000,000 men in hospitals today. These men sleep but little and the association has done great things in ministering to their wants. Moving pictures shows have been arranged for the convalescents, readers to entertain others, and also the inevitable letter writing.

"But perhaps the most important work," continued Mr. Carter, "is done in the great concentration camps which have grown up. Lectures by professors of local universities have been arranged, thereby starting a bond of friendship between the prisoners and their captors.

"But what is the duty of America in this crisis?" Mr. Carter asked. "It is this--an awakened sense of the seriousness of affairs in Europe, a development of national freedom, national democracy, which shall enable Americans when the time shall come to be in very truth citizens of the world."