ed has been urgent, and every
effort has been made to meet that need. Transport difficulties have led
to inevitable delays in the delivery of stores and equipment, but there
are more than forty centres now, including five for Serbian soldiers.

The Y.M.C.A. had its part in the ill-fated expedition to the
Dardanelles. Mudros, Imbros, and Tenedos were centres of importance in
those days, and the Red Triangle was at work in each island. The urgent
need of the troops was for soft drinks, and those ordinary canteen
supplies that give variety to the soldiers' menu, and make the official
rations palatable. The official canteens were powerless to meet the
demand. We were anxious to help, but transport was the difficulty. At
last, through the kindness of Lord Nunburnholme, we were enabled to
charter the s.s. _Nero_ of the Wilson Line, and despatch it with a cargo
of canteen supplies to the value of eleven thousand pounds to Mudros. A
few days later the Peninsula was evacuated, but whilst they were there
the men availed themselves to the full of the opportunity of buying
supplementary food at British prices. When the _Nero_ reached Mudros,
Greek venders were selling our Tommies tinned fruit at twelve shillings
a tin, and other prices were correspondingly high.

In the centre of an official photograph of Anzac showing the Bay, the
camp, and the surrounding sandhills, are to be seen the letters
'Y.M.C.A.' They appear on a tiny marquee and close to it a big dug-out,
measuring 30 by 19 feet, in which the Red Triangle carried through its
programme of friendliness and good cheer, always under shell-fire. One
night a fragment of a Turkish shell, weighing twelve and a half pounds,
found its way through the roof of that dug-out. At Cape Helles there
were three tiny tents fastened end on end. Had they been larger they
could scarcely have escaped the attention of 'Asiatic Annie,' the big
Turkish gun that dominated the position. As it was, the Officer
Commanding the advanced base at Lancashire Landing wrote to Headquarters
to say how much the men appreciated those tents, and explained that the
previous day an eight-inch high explosive shell from a Turkish gun had
burst in the centre of the middle tent and completely destroyed it.
'Fortunately,' said he, 'it didn't damage the piano, and still more
fortunately,' he added, 'it didn't harm the gramophone.' That was
curious, and we thought of some of the gramophones we had known, and
felt it wou