Evening star., 1918-07-28

to which thereafter they were more
or less strictly confined and whore
entertainment was conspicuous by its
'.rhs majority Of the American
transient troops,a wrote Qoulding to
some one In authority, "pass ON to
France after having spent In Eng
land week Or more OF absolute men.
the music OF . band, or by any at
tempt whatever ct sntsrtainmeht or
by q mail from home" So can one
won Ter that these Sammies left with
4 Crouch"
diately proceed to explain, In Justice
to England. that she IL blameless In
the matter. a. are all concerned in
producing the .dsplorable situation
which until recently undoubtedly ex-
listed. Sir Randolph Baker, D. q O.,
who is head Of the British official
COMMITTEES for Entertaining American
dealt with the case quite frankly
when discussing it with the writer
the other day.
What has always made It difficult
to give American troops such a greet
ing as We should like when they ar.
rive" said he, rs th9 secrecy that not
only our admiralty, but yours, rightly
is obliged to preserve regarding the
movements OF conveys. Nothing
would please everybody concerned on
this side Of the Atlantic better than
to give every single shipf0ad of your
fine fellows b really tremendous well
come. but not only is the notice that
ing the arrival Of convoy Of the
very briefest but you can easily see
that the drawback to arranging ex-
tenstve programs Of welcome is the
difficulty OF keeping everybody con-
cerned absolutely mum" about 1t.
However, I may say that we are now
doing our very utmost to see that
your soldiers, when they disembark.
do get some kind Of q popular, as
well 'as an oHcial welcome.
"As you know. every American sol-
dier, when he first sets foot on our
shores, now IL handed q message of
greeting from the king. in his maj
ranging To- have bands on the quay
and good turnout Of people. too. and
shall in every way DO our very best
to bring bone TO your men how
warmly we Welcome them and how
much we appreciate their presence
here"
~
Now az to the 'rest camps for the
American troops that pass through
England. So far as they are con-
oerned, writing a. an American. I
cannot help thinking that our own
7. N. C. A. had until recently missed
some golden opportunities. At the
outset the Y. n. c. A. was rather too
inclined to concentrate its work upon
where the number Of our men
on leave Is comparatively small, ap-
parently forgetful of the big rest
sands Of our soldiers. for lack of or
ganized entertainment, have until now
been twiddling their thumbs from
sheer boredom. / believe 1t Is an ab-
solute fact that, until a short time
ago, In two OF the biggest OF these
the activities of the Amer
lean Y. NJ. c. A. have been limited to
running a shop for the sale of re-
cigarettes, etc Now that
the situation has been made clear to
them, however, the Y. NJ. c. A. is CO.
operating finely in the big arrange
ments for giving cinema, theatrical
and other varieties OF entertainment
suit, originally. OF the work OF this
one man @. NJ. Sergt. Goulding.
The military restrictions to which
our men become subject when they ar
rive in England are wise and neces-
sary, Of course. The whole subject
is one Of which 1t IL dinacult to write
without appearing to "knock" where
knoohs are wholly undeserved.
MY comment upon the Unfortunate
effect Of all the circumstances" said
Gou1ding. in talking to the writer.
"aooumulates merely as means OF
my own suggestion that
the rest campo themselves should be
into places far less dead
ening than they are at present in
their mental and moral influences. The
local commandants OF the camps
have done everything in their power
to cooperate with the American COM
manders Of the troops. but their hands
have previously been rendered power
less by lack Of programs and official
recognition Of the situation.
The result has been that an i'm.
mense opportunity has been neglected
land and the English In the hearts of
these American soldiers. Their let
tefs home might well have contained
Tor : the, British. (which
would ,haYe effectively reused, ad-
miration and real affection in the
hearts Of the citizens Of the United
States, and particularly of those
American mothers waiting tremulous-
1y to hear that their sons have been
received on this side with hospitality.
But the impulse Of fraternity has
never been given and, 4 tremendous
opportunity has. been utterly neglect
ed.p a. !. -, ..,..:,. ~ ssq.s@.. s-tls,.
The response of the people of. Eng
land. high and low alike. first .tsa
newspaper campaign inspired by this
An A - rkn~