SERVICE TO THE TROOPS

The Canadian Y. M. C. A. early made its presence felt as an auxiliary in the war. It penetrated Valcartier camp at the first call to arms in Canada in August, 1914, and with the first contingent that went overseas, sent six officers with the honorary rank of captain. Thus began the "service to the troops"—the motto of the Canadian Military Y. M. C. A.—which extended from Valcartier to the Rhine, and from Archangel to Palestine. In Canada it had thirty-eight centers of operation, including camps, barracks, red triangle clubs, hospitals, naval stations, and troop trains. In England it had seventy-six centers—regular camps and units, base camps, convalescent camps, and hospitals. The "Y" officers had some difficulty in becoming affiliated with the British military establishment, where, being concerned with the Canadian contingent, their work lay. The British system did not provide for "Y" officers as army units. They acquired some sort of military status by their activities in the Canadian training camps in England; but there were army obstacles to their following Dominion troops to France. The British War office at length recognized them, but declined to admit them in the military organization. Nevertheless they got there. Each Canadian division was allowed a number of "Y" officers and aides, and the services they rendered duly drew an admission of their value from the British military authorities, the effect whereof was to endow them with all the privileges of the army establishment. The British were chary of "outsiders" in the army, but the Canadian "Y" officers soon proved that they were indispensable "insiders," and were recognized accordingly.

In the field the Canadian "Y" service became an enterprise on wheels. Consider its main purpose at the battle front. It was to feed, amuse, comfort, and succor the Canadian soldier. The Y. M. C. A. had ever to be at his heels. It served, among other things as a dispenser of morale. It was concerned about keeping the Canadian trooper braced up by supplying him with physical comforts and luxuries, and, when acceptable, with spiritual help. The "Y" contingents, therefore, had to keep on the track of the Canadian divisions, and were as much a mobile organization as the army it served.

"Everything," said a government report on their work, "turned toward the fighting machine facing the Germans. Over there, in France, was the real struggle to keep the advantages offered by the organization at the elbow of the soldier. Growing weekly with the increase of funds, the opportunities afforded, and the knowledge of the work required, the organization might easily have become too unwieldy for the rapid moves which have taken the Canadian Corps from Ypres to the Rhine in the course of its career.

"It was the solution of that problem, added to the lack of transport consequent on the requirements of immense armies, which taxed the ingenuity and resources of the 'Y'. It was a simple enough matter in general to provide for the needs of a corps at rest. That was merely a question of huts, marquees, tents, and determination. But when the Canadian corps moved—as it did from Ypres to the Somme, from the Somme to Lens, from Lens to Passchendaele, from Passchendaele back to Arras, from Arras to Amiens, from Amiens to Arras again, and thereafter advanced, guns, horse, and foot, miles a day at times—it tested the personnel, equipment, endurance, and ingenuity of the 'Y' to the utmost. It was not merely the closing in one place and the opening in another. There were always immovable huts in the old place, and nothing but ruins in the new. The huts had to be left—for some other organization to make use of for the incoming troops—but the provision left by the predecessors of the Canadians in the new area was naturally insufficient to the needs of the Canadian 'Y'."

Every army unit of sufficient size was reached in some way despite obstacles. The "Y" organization adopted a regular scheme of service by providing huts, entertainments, and reading and writing facilities, except in the few cases where detached units were constantly on the move. In running its canteens it conducted an immense retail business under all the disadvantages of instability. Stock had to be moved; new housing found, and fresh supplies were always subject to uncertain and irregular delivery. In 1918 this vast enterprise on wheels, pitching its moving tent, everywhere where Canadian troops (it might almost be said), stayed longer than five minutes, did $5,000,000 worth of business in its canteens; but to do so the "Y" headquarters' stores—a huge quantity of goods with corresponding equipment—had to be moved seventeen times. It had to keep pace with an army equipped with everything requisite to secure mobility.

Imagine, for example, a "Y" officer with his stock of comforts and luxuries trying to keep pace with a Canadian cavalry brigade. Yet the service was so successful and appreciated that the cavalry canteens were handed over to "Y" management. An outstanding incident turned on a "Y" officer's lack of a conveyance to transport his stock so as to keep in touch with the moving brigade. The commanding officer came to his rescue by finding him a horse, an old buggy, and a man, and with this outfit he trundled along with a case of tea, two cases of milk, two bags of sugar, a tea urn, and some cigarettes. He would set out well ahead in order to be in at the finish, but could not choose his routes, the cavalry having to move at night to conceal its operations, and smooth going was accordingly not easy.

The success of the "Y" men, in fact, was largely due to the facilities willingly afforded by the army authorities to enable them to keep pace with the troops, and the army's cooperation, it must be added, was a recognition of the value of the "Y" service in sustaining morale. Both the British and Canadian military establishments perceived that the "Y" was needed.

The men themselves took an occasional hand in an emergency to assist the movement of the "Y" service, an example of which occurred at Arras in August, 1918. The "Y" officer at the base was warned only a few hours ahead of the impending German attack, but had no supplies on hand for the free distribution of food and comforts to the wounded a "Y" service rendered after every battle. The supplies needed were at Boulogne. The drivers of the only two army lorries available had been on duty for twenty-four hours without rest, and the commanding officer refused to order them out to get the supplies in from that port, though he was willing for the drivers to go if the "Y" officer could prevail on them to go as a voluntary task. The exhausted men were undressing, apart, to retire, when the "Y" officer told them of the approaching battle.

"We've neither cigarettes, chocolate, hot coffee, nor biscuits for the boys," he said, "but there's any amount at Boulogne."

It was enough; to Boulogne, instead of to bed, went the tired drivers and their assistants, leaving the port at midnight with the needful supplies, and they were back in Arras at 4 a. m., a few minutes before the attack began. So that the "Y" could have the stores for which the fighting troops would be in urgent need, they sacrificed their rest and toiled forty-eight hours at one stretch. The Arras operations were typical of the steady fighting of 1918, when the Canadian "Y," like the troops it cared for, had little rest. They kept right up to the front lines, always on hand with free comforts at those points where the troops could be best served, the "Y" officers at times even going over with the attack bearing chocolate and cigarettes. Some were officially rewarded by the bestowal of medals and orders; but their real reward lay in the unofficial thanks tendered them by the men themselves.

The "Y's" activities on the western front, both in the fighting and rear zones, were far-flung, but they extended farther—everywhere, in fact, where there were Canadians. Its brotherly hand reached Dominion railway troops in Palestine. Isolated Canadians with the mixed Allied forces operating at Archangel and on the Murman Coast in northern Russia also found "Y" officers at hand, the latter carrying on their Samaritan mission under the most trying conditions of climate and distance.

In the rear areas, away from the excitement of battle, the scope for the Canadian "Y" service was as great as on the fighting front and as equally needed. At base camps the "Y's" presence was conspicuous and its social-religious activities widespread. The familiar huts were there, with their canteens, entertainments, and reading and writing facilities. At the base camp of Aubin St.-Vaast was a Canadian "Y" athletic ground—one not to be equaled in Canada—an ambitious enterprise built with the invaluable cooperation of the Canadian engineers. It contained, in one area, a football field, an outdoor baseball diamond, a running track of a quarter of a mile, three quoiting pitches, five tennis courts, a tug-of-war ground, a boxing and wrestling ring, a jumping pit, and fields for lacrosse, cricket, badminton, and gymkhana or mounted horse events.

Behind the lines, too, were the railway troops and the forestry corps units—the latter being scattered over France from Bordeaux on the southwest to the Jura Mountains in Switzerland—who were not overlooked by the Canadian "Y" in the bestowal of its many-sided services. Units of the forestry corps were also scattered over Great Britain, from the south of England to the north of Scotland. Many were isolated from the entertainments and social diversions afforded by towns, and their situation accordingly gave the Canadian "Y" great scope for rendering the brotherly service to which its personnel were devoted. Their enterprise in installing rooms and canteens in thirty-eight scattered locations compensated for many of the deprivations incidental to such lone camps.

Perhaps the most concentrated work performed by the "Y" behind the lines was not in France at all, but in England. It gave itself the task of keeping in close touch with the Canadian soldier during the months of his stay there. He might be in training or wounded or convalescent or on leave, or in stationary units such as the London permanent force and the forestry corps. Whatever his status, he was looked after.

In the training camps, where the "Y" work grew rapidly, more than keeping pace with the extension of enlistments and arrivals, and where recruits, fresh from Canada, were isolated in segregation for several weeks, the Canadian "Y" provided the only facilities available for amusement to the immured men, as well as enabling them to buy things they needed. Their morale and spirits were braced by entertainments. The camps were located at Witley and Bramshott. At the former three concerts a week were given by professional entertainers in eight different huts.

Similar provision was made for the wounded in the Canadian hospitals throughout England. Concerts were given in wards, while at one establishment—the Canadian military hospital at Orpington—the authorities placed a theater seating 550 at the service of the "Y".

The Canadians on leave made London their Mecca. Into London they poured, and they needed a rendezvous, a club, a home-from-home, and wholesome diversions. The Canadian "Y" personnel undertook the task; that was what they were there for. The Beaver Hut, situated in the Strand, in the heart of the metropolis, and the most famous hut overseas, was the outward and visible expression of their activities. It became the center of Canadians. There the soldier's every want could be gratified; there he left his kit in safety; there he dined, slept, played billiards, bought his Canadian titbits or his theater tickets (at about half the regular prices), read the papers and current periodicals, listened to an orchestra, or saw a play or moving picture, exchanged his French money for English without loss, obtained information about a multitude of things of which he was ignorant as a newcomer, and obtained facilities for sightseeing trips about London or in the provinces. Most important of all, there he ate. The Beaver Hut had a spacious dining room, which provided as many as 4,800 meals in a day, served in relays, at a price well below that charged by the most moderate of London restaurants. The meals were cooked and served by over 800 well-known Canadian and English women, who gave their services. More than that, the Canadian soldier could sleep there, though the space was limited to 180; but when the Hut lacked a bed for him the Canadian "Y" got him quartered elsewhere. Then if he was in want he was cared for.

With the Armistice and the demobilization period that followed the "Y" work was rather amplified than lessened. The troops had less to do; the "Y" officials had more. The American movement up the Rhine called for the provision of entertainments on an extensive scale, the troops having more time on their hands. There were theaters, and light and heat, and German orchestras to be requisitioned. Three large units were entertained in Germany—two divisions and the corps troops. Twelve theaters and fifteen canteens were provided for one division alone. For one brigade four moving pictures were nightly in operation, the men being entertained in relays of 2,500. Suppers and vaudeville were also among the diversions provided, while the canteens were so well patronized that in thirteen days the takings amounted to over $50,000. In Belgium a striking feature of the Armistice period was the free entertainment by the Canadian "Y" of an entire division at Liege, extending over two days.

Amusements were also furnished on an extensive scale for the Canadians in process of demobilization in England. New camps were taken over in Rhyl, Liverpool, and Ripon, and a wider organization for entertainments was developed in sections not hitherto touched.

The funds that provided such a colossal service came from two sources—Canadian contributions and canteen profits. Canadians at home gave liberally; but the scope of the work, even with the great help afforded by their generosity, would have been restricted but for the aid derived from canteen sales profits. It was decided that no better way of applying the "Y's" profits could be found than in employing it to procure additional necessities, comforts, and entertainments for the Canadian soldier, and in providing him with physical, mental, and spiritual help which no other organization was able to give.