SOLDIERS' CLUBS.
[To TVs EDITOR or TER "NrEcTATon."]
you allow us to draw the attention of your readers to a movement approved by Lord Kitchener and the Army Council, already initiated with striking success, and which is to be laid before the public at a Mansion House meeting to be held on July 9th, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor ? The provision of clubs for the rest and recreation of our soldiers is recognized as one of the great needs of military training camps. The Y.M.C.A. and other religious and philanthropic organizations have done splendid work in this direction, but a large demand has lately arisen for clubs which, subject to the control of the General Officer commanding the camp, shall be under the management of the soldiers themselves, and the upkeep of which they will provide.
Tho Soldiers' Clubs Association, on -whose behalf we issue this appeal, has been founded to make good this demand, which the General Officers commanding twelve districts have already made on behalf of their men. We propose to set up in each of these districts, and wherever our soldiers need it, a comfortable building which shall be a place of recreation and refreshment, and which shall be under the management of a committee of the soldiers themselves. The Association will supply the necessary building and furniture ; the clubs to be maintained by members' sub- scriptions and the profits on the sale of food and other com- modities.
Tho first of these clubs was opened on March 27th last by Her Royal Highness Princess Alexander of Took at the Crowhorongh 'Camp for the First London Territorial Division. _It has been so much appreciated by the men that it has already reached its maximum membership and is fully paying. its way. The cost of establishing a club of this kind, where a new build- ing has to be provided and equipped, is about £1,000, and the Committee appeal to the public to furnish them with the initial sum of £10,000 in order that ten more clubs of this kind may be immediately put in hand. Where it is possible to rent buildings for the purpose, the cost of starting one of these clubs is very much reduced. This has been done in the case of a club established at Shoreham-by-Sea.
Subscriptions may be sent to Miss Constance Bloomfield, Honorary Secretary, Soldiers' Clubs Association, 25 Victoria Street, S.W., or to the Honorary Treasurer, R. H. Cox, Esq., Cox's Bank, 18 Charing Cross, S.W.—We are, Sir, &o.,
PORTLAND (Chairman) ; RUTLAND; E. W. WARD ; EDWD. C. BETHUNE (Lieut.-Gen.); W. A. APPLETON. Soldiers' Clubs Association,
25 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.
Previous page
