The Press., 1920-02-12


 which my division has been
 on overseas service. much of this
 time has been spent in the trenches
 in the front line, and we have had an
 excellent opportunity to know and
 appreciate the value of the work the
 Y M. C. A. is doing, said Maj. L. D.
 Turner, Infantry, 90th Division,
 U. s. R., in a recent statement made
 here.
 q have personally witnessed the
 Y. M c. A. delivering cigarettes,
 chocolates and newspapers to our
 men while in the front lines under
 almost continuous artillery and ma
 chine gun fire.
 The highest compliment you can
 pay soldier is to say that he did his
 duty Can I say more when 1 say that the Y. M. c. A. workers have
 not only done their duty, but have gone often times far beyond that and |
 been an inspiration to all who saw
 them.
 The Y. M. c. A. workers have
 taught the soldiers of the United
 States army many lessons in self sacrifice and have left memory Of deeds we'll done which will never be forgotten by those who saw the."
 Capt Dudley T. Dawson, .357th Field Hospital, A. E. F., supplements Maj. Turner's statement with this opinion of the ~"
 While the general tendency to criticise the Y M. c. A. service with the army exists, let me pay my re- spects to the loyalty and devotion which was characteristic of the vast majority of their workers, in the at tempt to do one of the hardest jobs of the entire war program They had received no preliminary training for this work and it is only fair and reasonable to assume that perfect ly working system was absolutely impossible under the circumstances"
 Capt Dawson calls attention to the problem of securing, transporting and delivering canteen supplies for an army of 1,500 000 men, especially when troops were being rushed from
 one point to another under secret orders and |. M. C. A. department heads were not informed by military authorities where to send their sup plies. That the Y. M. C. A., in the amount of stationery alone that it distributed to the soldier, deserves great credit is the statement made by the officer.
 If the average critics will only take the time to compute the enOr- nous amount of work done by the Y. NJ C. A. for the good of the American soldier and his family, he will be greatly surprised by the volume of things actually accomplished" states Dawson.
 During three weeks in which I was located at Baccarat I had the pleasure of meeting the majority of the Y. NJ. C. A. men who were with our Division, and aS whole I found them to be patriotic and sincere in their efforts to accommodate and serve the American officers . nd sol diers. One of my duties was to go to the forward areas for the purpose of familiarizing myself with he roads and terrain, and in all these trips l made it a custom to look up the Y. M. c. A. hut in every little vi lage where our troops were quartered
 
 the character and size of the stock i in his canteen, and his general capac ity to meet the needs Of the soldiers. The last two weeks of our occupancy of this sector I was stationed at Mervillon, a little village some four kIlometers toward the front line from BaCCarat, and my cOmpGNy had charge of the abulance service of | the whole sector. This gave me a splendid opportunity to observe the work of the Y. NJ. C. A. in this sector and I would say that on the whole it was highly satisfactory.
 After a total stay of five weeks in this sector the Division was taken by convoy into the Argonne Mouse sector Realizing with what diff culty as an army made this move, I can easily see that it was quite a difficult task for our Y. M. c. A. unit to follows us, for there was always such a shortage of transportation in our Division that we could scarcely move ourselves and maintain supply department. so we were usually unable to offer assistance to the Y. M. c. A. i'll the transportation | of their canteen supplies.
 Yet, l recall quite vividly my com plete surprise to find on the next day after our arrival in the Bois de | Hesse that the Y. M. c. A. had opened large stock room and canteen only two kilometers to our rear in the village of Recicourt I immediately went to the canteen and purchased a goodly supply of cigars, cigarettes, ?akes and chocolate for the mem