THE RED TRIANGLE IN THE EAST
The Y.M.C.A. is doing excellent work--its efforts
are appreciated immensely by all ranks in this
force. Experience of Y.M.C.A. work in the Army has
long since convinced me how invaluable its
services are to us, both in peace and war.--THE
LATE LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR STANLEY MAUDE.
THE Macedonian call 'Come over and help us' has been repeated in our own
days, and has come from near and far East. The Red Triangle has been
quick to respond to the call, and a few incidents of its work are
recorded here, though the story itself must be told after the war. The
Chief Executive officer of the Indian National Council is himself an
Indian, and not only has he, with the assistance of his Council, been
responsible for the great work of the Red Triangle in India, but also
for the extensive programme of work the Association has undertaken for
Indian troops in East Africa, Mesopotamia, and Europe. In addition to
work for British troops in India, the Y.M.C.A. has established work for
Indian troops in a number of cantonments, where service parallel to that
undertaken for British troops is carried on, with the exception that no
religious work is done, unless in the case of Christian Sepoys.
The number of branches with British troops on August 1, 1917, was 43,
worked by 40 European and American and 9 Indian secretaries, and 1
honorary lady secretary. With Indian troops there were 8 branches,
worked by 1 European and 8 Indian secretaries. These figures do not
include the temporary work undertaken by the Army Y.M.C.A. with the
Waziristan Field Force, which terminated during August 1917, and which
included 4 British and 4 Indian branches, with 3 European and 2 Indian
secretaries. There was also 1 European secretary at Headquarters on
August 1, 1917, for Army work in India; and in addition secretaries
engaged in civilian Y.M.C.A. work in several stations gave part of their
time to Army work, as well as many voluntary workers.
In Burma a large barrack-room, made of wood and bamboo with a
grass-thatched roof, houses the Association, which works amongst the men
of the newly formed Burmese regiments. The whole building is on piles,
and stands about six feet off the ground, thus preventing snakes and
other unwelcome guests from coming inside. The regiments comprise not
only Burmans but Karens, Chinese, and Arakanese. Most of the men are
from the deep jungle, and very few of them can read or write. The
gramophone interests them enormously, and they look inside it to see
who is producing the sound, and will sit round in a circle listening to
it for hours. Picture papers interest them, but usually they prefer
holding the pictures upside down. The better educated men write a good
deal on the free notepaper provided by the Y.M.C.A. Quartettes are sung
by Karen and Chinese Christians. At the far end of the building is a
huge image of the Buddha which was there before we came, and is used by
some of the boys as a sort of chapel for private devotions. The boys
have to take their choice between Christianity and Buddhism, and as we
have three exceptionally good lamps there is much more light at the
Y.M.C.A. end of the hall, and we have the better attendance in numbers
at all events.
Egypt, handicapped at first through lack of money, has also done
magnificently. There is no more important centre of Association activity
in the world than the Esbekia Gardens in Cairo. Ever since the early
days of the war, night after night, thousands of khaki-clad warriors
have congregated in these lovely gardens, which under other auspices
might easily have been one of the danger spots of Cairo, instead of a
kind of modern 'City of Refuge' from the temptations of the city. The
Anzac hostel is another striking feature of the work in Cairo. In June
1917 no fewer than 6893 soldiers slept in it, and that was not by any
means a record month. The money for the purchase of this hostel as the
permanent property of the Y.M.C.A. has been subscribed by members of the
Baltic, but the discovery of the existence of a third mortgage has
delayed the completion of the purchase. At Alexandria, Khartoum, Port
Soudan, on both sides of the canal and far into the Sinai Peninsula, the
Association outposts have been busy. A Red Triangle hut in the desert
was destroyed by a bomb dropped from a hostile aeroplane, but when the
smoke subsided, the centre pole was still standing and the Association
flag flying. The huts at Kantara are amongst the finest in the world,
and neither here nor anywhere else has it been necessary to put up a
notice intimating that the Y.M.C.A. is 'open to all,' Tommy knows it,
and regards the Red Triangle as his own peculiar possession. One cannot
conceive of any place on earth where it is more needed than in one of
these desert camps, where there is nothing to do, nowhere to go, and
nothing to see but endless stretches of monotonous and dreary sand.
Under such circumstances the Red Triangle is Tommy's tuck shop; his
church--with the chaplain as the parson; his post-office, concert hall,
social room, school, and home. This is true of every fighting front, and
that is why the Association has won for itself a lasting place in the
affections of the manhood of the Empire.
A young soldier writing home the day after his arrival in Mesopotamia,
said the first thing he struck on landing was the welcome sign of the
Red Triangle. 'And,' said he, 'if we are ordered next to the North Pole,
I am sure we shall find it there!' The Y.M.C.A. secretary for
Mesopotamia tells of a visit he paid to a centre on the way to Bagdad.
It was a big bare marquee, crammed with men, with very little furniture
in it--the difficulties of transport being so great in those days--just
half a dozen tables and a few chairs, a heap of books, and a number of
games. There were six inches of dust all over the floor, and the
temperature was 120 degrees in the shade, yet one thing that attracted
the men to the Y.M.C.A. marquee was that it enabled them to escape the
heat of their own bell tents. Through the kindness of Sir Alfred Yarrow
a Red Triangle motor launch has since then been provided for use on the
Tigris, and has greatly simplified transport. The central Y.M.C.A. at
Bagdad is one of the best of our war buildings, and is situated on the
banks of the Tigris. An Association centre has been established on the
reputed site of the Garden of Eden.
* * * * *
The story of the Red Triangle in Palestine is an epic in itself. For
months the Association occupied dug-outs along the Palestine front, and
in those days one secretary devoted the whole of his time to making
personal purchases for officers and men, who could not themselves get
away to any centre of civilisation to make purchases on their own
account. Gaza was the first centre occupied in the Holy Land; Beersheba,
Jaffa, and Jerusalem being occupied later. At Jaffa the former German
Consulate was fitted up as a Y.M.C.A., and the Red Triangle as a matter
of course has made its appearance on a big building in Jerusalem.
Malta was a very important centre in the early days of the war, and the
Y.M.C.A. flourished in its numerous hospital camps. In Macedonia the
work has been difficult, but greatly appreciated in Salonica itself, as
well as on the Varda and the Struma. The need has been urgent, and every
effort has been made to meet that need. Transport difficulties have led
to inevitable delays in the delivery of stores and equipment, but there
are more than forty centres now, including five for Serbian soldiers.
The Y.M.C.A. had its part in the ill-fated expedition to the
Dardanelles. Mudros, Imbros, and Tenedos were centres of importance in
those days, and the Red Triangle was at work in each island. The urgent
need of the troops was for soft drinks, and those ordinary canteen
supplies that give variety to the soldiers' menu, and make the official
rations palatable. The official canteens were powerless to meet the
demand. We were anxious to help, but transport was the difficulty. At
last, through the kindness of Lord Nunburnholme, we were enabled to
charter the s.s. _Nero_ of the Wilson Line, and despatch it with a cargo
of canteen supplies to the value of eleven thousand pounds to Mudros. A
few days later the Peninsula was evacuated, but whilst they were there
the men availed themselves to the full of the opportunity of buying
supplementary food at British prices. When the _Nero_ reached Mudros,
Greek venders were selling our Tommies tinned fruit at twelve shillings
a tin, and other prices were correspondingly high.
In the centre of an official photograph of Anzac showing the Bay, the
camp, and the surrounding sandhills, are to be seen the letters
'Y.M.C.A.' They appear on a tiny marquee and close to it a big dug-out,
measuring 30 by 19 feet, in which the Red Triangle carried through its
programme of friendliness and good cheer, always under shell-fire. One
night a fragment of a Turkish shell, weighing twelve and a half pounds,
found its way through the roof of that dug-out. At Cape Helles there
were three tiny tents fastened end on end. Had they been larger they
could scarcely have escaped the attention of 'Asiatic Annie,' the big
Turkish gun that dominated the position. As it was, the Officer
Commanding the advanced base at Lancashire Landing wrote to Headquarters
to say how much the men appreciated those tents, and explained that the
previous day an eight-inch high explosive shell from a Turkish gun had
burst in the centre of the middle tent and completely destroyed it.
'Fortunately,' said he, 'it didn't damage the piano, and still more
fortunately,' he added, 'it didn't harm the gramophone.' That was
curious, and we thought of some of the gramophones we had known, and
felt it would have been no disaster if a shell had destroyed the lot!
This gramophone was different, however, for it had only just been wound
up when the shell burst, but regardless of the bustle and confusion
caused by the explosion, it kept on playing until it had finished the
last note of the tune! What a splendid object lesson for the Allies, to
stick to the job they have on hand to the finish, or in other words,
till victory crowns their efforts. Many months after the incident here
recorded the Irish Y.M.C.A. was invited to open up at Rathdrum. The
secretary responsible interviewed the O.C., and learning that he was a
Catholic, asked politely if he knew the work of the Y.M.C.A. 'Indeed I
do,' was the reply. 'I was at Cape Helles when a shell burst in your
tent. I was the officer in charge, and it was my duty to remove
casualties. I went up to the tents fearing the worst, and shall never
forget the smiling face of the Y.M.C.A. man behind the counter. It won
me over completely.'
A distinguished officer wrote:--
'Your work has been of inestimable value to the
troops, filling a gap which it is impossible for
the Military Authorities to provide for. "Always
first up, always working hard, and always
welcome--the Red Triangle will always be
gratefully remembered by the soldiers in the Great
War."'