e top,' yet, unlike the
soldier, he has not the privilege of hitting back. His day's work will
vary according to the camp. In all probability he will have to be up
early in the morning, to get the coffee ready. The hut must be cleaned,
and there will be a lot of canteen work to be done. The buying will
occupy some time, and then there will be the evening programme to
arrange and carry through. He must maintain personal touch with the men
using the hut, so that the ideal leader must be half a dozen men rolled
into one.

Our greatest difficulty during the war has been that of getting a
sufficiency of workers of the right type. Every male worker is
registered with the Director of Recruiting, and we are unable to recruit
new men classified A between the ages of 18 and 52, or 18 and 45 for
service overseas.

Twelve members of the Y.M.C.A. have won the Victoria Cross, 3 the
D.S.O., 33 the M.C., 25 the D.C.M., and 53 the M.M., whilst registered
at Headquarters are the names of 1223 who have made the supreme
sacrifice. We think of many whose war work for the Y.M.C.A. has earned
the title of 'Gunga Din,' as, for example, the young leader of the New
Zealand work in France. He looks a boy, but is a genius for organising,
and the pioneer of the work of the Red Triangle in advanced positions.
Another man who has the instincts of the pioneer is the leader of the
Australian workers in Egypt and Palestine, and yet another, a well-known
Y.M.C.A. worker who, after doing good service in England in the early
days of the war, went to represent Headquarters in Egypt. Torpedoed _en
route_ he took up his new work with characteristic enthusiasm and made
good. Hundreds have rendered equally valuable service, so that it would
be invidious to mention names.

In the great retreat, it was the D.A.Q.M.G. of the ---- Corps who asked
us to open up a Stragglers' Post at Westoutre. 'You are the people who
can cheer up the men,' said he; 'I want you to get hold of the
stragglers before they become deserters.' It was 'Gunga Din' he needed,
but this time with cocoa-urn instead of water-bottle, and it was only an
old bank to which our workers fixed their Red Triangle, but it was just
what was needed. A bursting shell forced them to quit, but half an hour
later they had opened up again in the village shop, opposite the church,
and the mayor thanked them later on for their successful efforts.

Our officers' hut at Romerin was set on fire by a shell; shells