Country Canteen To civilian town-dwellers it may seem an exaggeration
to say that the rural canteen is, to the average soldier billeted in the country, about the most important thing in life. Thousands of soldiers are now quartered at out-lying farms and mansions, in parks and in countryside of which the beauty is unquestionable, but which are, unfortunately, miles from the nearest fox-trot, Ginger Rogers or plate of fish and chips. In such situations the village canteen, with its dart-board, games, cards, tea and trestle- table of food, has something of the atmosphere of a school-neat. I suggest in fact that the village canteen is more important than the village Spitfire fund. No village should, or need be, without one. If a charge of a penny per head is made for admission it will be found that food, and very good food at that, can he at cost price. What that means to men in the heart of the country may be gathered from the fact that in a village where the nightly attendance at the pub (no piano, no wireless, no food, and no noise on the accordion please!) is half a dozen, the
sold
average attendance at the canteen is a hundred.
H. E. BATES.
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