ROBERTS MEMORIAL SOLDIERS' INSTITUTE AND CLUB.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."1 Sig,—Theae of your readers who have followed the correspondence you have kindly printed in your paper will doubtless be interested to hear that the "Roberts Memorial" was opened by Major- General H. B. Sclater, C.B., commanding the Lucknow Division, on January 7th last, and has now been working for more than five months.
My contention has always been that it was our duty as a nation to provide the young soldiers we send to India with some reason- able relaxation outside barracks ; and further, that if we provided them with a convenient and well-furnished institute and club on a good site, and it were managed in a sound way, the whole would be entirely maintained by the soldiers themselves, and that there would be no further need of appeals to the public.
"The Roberts Memorial" was therefore designed not only to be a magnificent memorial to the great soldier who was born at Cawnpore, but also a model institute and club, on whose pattern it is to be hoped that many others of a similar nature will gradually grow up in our larger Indian military stations. It is with great pleasure that I am able to report that, as far as five months' working in exceptionally difficult circumstances can count as proof, my contention has been amply justified. For seven days in January we had to pay our full staff while earning nothing, and for five of the most paying weeks of the winter months, January-February, the whole of the available garrison were absent on divisional manoeuvres, a thing which has not happened before during my six and a half years' residence in
Cawnpore. Nevertheless, the clear profits on these five months' working have amounted to £88. Perhaps one can best show the immense popularity of the Club by stating that the actual gross takings on our trading account for the five months amounted to £458, and this in spite of the low prices possible in India when dealing with large quantities. For instance, we sell a plate of beef or tongue or cutlets, with two kinds of vegetables, and a large cup of tea for 2d. The popularity of the Club one can put down without hesitation to the excellently designed and furnished building equipped for every kind of reasonable relaxation, and to the fact that in its daily routine it is managed by an elected committee of soldiers. Its financial success is mainly due to a reliable and capable manager, and to the fact that the accounts are kept in a business- like way, and are carefully scrutinised at regular intervals by a financial committee consisting of some of the most prominent business men in Cawnpore. In spite of this working success, we are severely handicapped by a debt of £600 on the building and furnishing account, which cramps the usefulness and development of the Institute in very many ways. When this is paid off, we need an additional £600 to build and furnish a block of eight residential quarters for the use of soldiers on furlough. This is an integral part of the scheme, and will not only prove of the very greatest value to the soldiers who are there, but will also be a source of considerable profit to the Institute.
No one can regret the necessity of frequent appeals more than I do, and, indeed, on looking back I cannot be sufficiently grateful to the numerous friends of the British soldier in India who so generously entrusted me with 42,200 when the scheme was as yet a castle in the air. I feel confident, however, that now that the scheme is in real working order, and has proved to be up to the present a financial success, many more of your readers will help to subscribe towards the £1,200 necessary fully to complete the experiment. After all, £3,400 does not seem to be an exorbitant sum when one considers that the providing of the Institute and recreation ground secures to the soldier in Cawnpore not so much a change in life as an actual revolution.
An illustrated Report which will give a duly audited account of the building fund since its start, and also an account of the first six months' working, is in preparation, and will be sent to all
interested by H. B. Reiss, Esq., 19 Queensberry Place, S.W., who kindly came out at his own expense to help with the organisation of the Institute during the cold-weather months, and is now its organising secretary in England, or by ins at 37 Cantonments, Cawnpore. Cheques for the building fund may be sent to either, or to the Bank of Allahabad, Cawnpore.-1 am, Sir, &c.,
M. W. RAGG, Chaplain of Cawnpore,
Hon. Secretary Roberts Memorial Institute and Club.
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