y. 'I have been at sea
since the early days of the war, and have had no opportunity of getting
ashore and using the Y.M.C.A. until three months ago, when I was sent to
Egypt and stationed at the Mena camp. There I used the Association hut
within sight of the great pyramid, and I appreciate the work as much as
anyone to-day.'

A young soldier who was formerly a Y.M.C.A. worker wrote from
France:--'We came upon the Prussian Guard about ten days ago, and for
five days and nights we fought hand to hand like demons, but in the end
we gained our objective. You talk of the work of the Y.M.C.A. at home as
splendid. I know it is, but here the Y.M.C.A.'s are more. In this place,
famous for its wonderful bell tower, the Y.M.C.A. is in full swing,
although only yesterday it was shelled heavily and shrapnel was falling
pretty thick along the road. Cheero!' Another young soldier wrote from
Malta, and gave his experience of the Y.M.C.A. 'The Association is the
finest thing that was ever instituted without doubt. The Army has
blessed the fact many a time. I have served in France and a few other
countries, and am in a position to know.'

In the early days of the war Y.M.C.A. secretaries learned to adapt all
kinds of premises, no matter how primitive, to meet the needs of the
troops. A cow-house amid the trenches of the East Coast; a pigsty in the
south-west of England, neither of them much to look at, but doing good
service and helping to blaze the trail; a dug-out at Anzac and three
tiny marquees at Cape Helles; a cellar at Meroc, just behind the British
lines in the neighbourhood of Loos; a chateau formerly the residence of
the lord of the manor at Mazingarbe, and a palatial but ruined Technical
Institute at Armentieres. It was fixed up in a convent at Aire--the
first Y.M.C.A. to be opened in a forward position in France, and inside
a ruined hospice at Ypres; in a Trappist monastery on the Mont des Cats;
in the most southern city in the world at Invercargill; above the clouds
with the British troops in Italy; inside some of the German prisoner of
war camps in Germany; in the old German Consulate at Jaffa, in the heart
of the Holy City, and on the Palestine lines of communication at Gaza
and Beersheba. 'The Jolly Farmer' near Aldershot, and the more notorious
'Bolger's' public house in Sackville Street, Dublin, made their
appearance early in the war under the sign of the Red Triangle, whilst
Ciro's, the once famous night club in the h