Religion: Bigger & Better War Prisons

A good, little-publicized job the Y.M.C.A. did in World War I was its work with prisoners of war. World War II has given the Y another big job in this field, and last week Director Tracy Strong clippered back from Europe with the first report of how the work is going. High spot of his news: People who have worked with war prisoners in both wars agree that conditions in the prison camps are better in 1941 than they were in 1918.

Thirty-nine neutral Y secretaries are visiting prison camps in ten countries, find the churches in all of them more cooperative than last time. Most highly organized are the French and British officers’ camps in Nazi Germany, with facilities for cricket and football, theatricals, and educational courses as varied as the curriculum of “any small college.”