A SOLDIERS' INSTITUTE FOR CAWNPORE. [To THE EDITOR OP TIIC
SPECTATOR.")
Sm,—The difference that a well-worked soldiers' institute makes in the life of a soldier has been truly described by an officer to amount not merely to a clainge, but to a revolution. The building of such institutes is still in its infancy in India, though, from the very nature of the country and the conditions of the service, the need there seems to me to be tenfold greater than at home.
Comparatively few are aware of the dangers surrounding our soldiers in that country. It is not only the necessary dangers incident to the climate—sunstroke, enteric fever, malaria, and, perhaps, cholera—but the awful moral dangers that must occur when over-a thousand young unmarried men are kept in barracks in eight large rooms, isolated from all refining influence. In England the soldier's pleasure begins with his leisure hours ; in India they are necessarily longer; but most intolerably dull. In India there is no health-giving social and home life to preserve him from the horribly conspicuous temptations of the native bazaars, and it is no exaggeration to say that the victims of these voluntarily incurred dangers are far more numerous than those who suffer from the diseases inherent to the climate.
Is it not obvious that every conceivable form of innocent relaxation should be offered to men serving under such conditions in order to counteract these temptations ? Yet in Cawnpore, not only is nothing of the kind provided outside barracks, but the men have not even a ground of their own on which they can play the ever popular games of cricket, football, and hockey except the uneven open plain, baked to a dangerous hardness by the Eastern sun. If the readers of the Spectator really care for the well-being of our soldiers serving their country in an enervating climate, then let them help to fill up their leisure time with every kind of innocent amusement. It is a missionary work in the best sense, a work amongst our own kith and kin, responding to the truest aims of patriotism. Cawnpore is not only noted for its Mutiny associations and its enormous modern growth of factories of every description, but it is noted as the birthplace of the greatest soldier of our modern Empire,—Lord Roberts. I have received his kind permission to call my projected institute sitter his name, and what more happy memorial could we raise to the man who spent forty years in India, and whose whole heart was in the well-being of his men, than by building a recreation ground and institute that will be of such enormous advantage to the garrison of his birth-town as long as the British Empire lasts in India?
To carry out this project we need £2,600. That sum will enable us to level and lay down with grass a recreation ground for the use of tie whole garrison, and to build an institute with largo concert-room, temperance bar, tea and supper room, billiard-room, room for regimental and garrison temperance societies, classroom, games-room, devotional room, and lodgings for sixteen men on pass and furlough, all open free of charge to any one wearing his Majesty's uniform. The institute will be affiliated to the Church of England Soldiers' and Sailors' Institute Association, and will be managed by a representativecommittee of eight officers and civilians, and the accounts will be audited annually. I may add that every General Officer coming into contact with Cawnpore, from the officer com- manding the !dation to Lord Kitchener, the Commander-in-Chief, has been personally interviewed on the subject, and all have
given their heartiest sympathy to the scheme. Copies of letters from these Generals and any further information will be gladly given by the secretary. Donations are earnestly invited, and will be most thankfully received and acknowledged by the RevAtt. W. Ragg, care of Messrs. Grindlay and Co., 54 Parliament Street, S.W., or may be paid straight to the " Cawnpore Soldiers' Institute Account," at the same address.
—I am, Sir, &c., M. W. RAGO, Hon. Sec.
(Chaplain, Indian Ecclesiastical Establishment).
' [Though, as a rule, we cannot print appeals for subscriptions for objects however worthy, we make an exception in the present case. It seems to us, nevertheless, that it is the duty of the Government of India to provide a proper recreation ground for the British soldiers. The institute is another matter. It is probably better that it should be maintained by voluntary effort.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
