THE administrative headquarters of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt was situated for the first years of the war on a hill in Maadi Camp. The combatant soldier, goaded by irritating restrictions, and the officer, plagued by frequent demands for statistical returns, have always said hard things about their administrators, and so it was quite natural that this hill came to have a vulgar name, a name which must not sully the august pages of a chaplains' history. It will be referred to as ‘Upper Maadi’, and it deserves mention for it introduces the problems of Departmental organisation, as it was on this hill that the Senior Chaplain had his quarters. Bishop Gerard was here only occasionally, but later it became the permanent home of the Senior Chaplain.

The onerous duties of the Senior Chaplain have already been described, and it will have been appreciated how much administrative pioneering was necessary before the Department could run smoothly. In fact so much of the Senior Chaplain's time was occupied in building a firm foundation for the Department that some important items of routine administration were almost entirely neglected till the end of the war. When the Department had achieved corporate efficiency, and after Headquarters 2nd NZEF had moved to Italy, an experienced chaplain was sent back to look after affairs in Maadi Camp, which had now become a training ground for reinforcements and a transit camp. This chaplain, Padre Underhill, had time to examine some of the less urgent matters of administration and to try a few experiments.

Contact with New Zealand

Each month the Senior Chaplain sent a report to the Chaplains' Advisory Council in New Zealand and, in addition, had much correspondence with the civilian Church leaders. The denominational Senior Chaplains also sent regular reports to their own Church leaders. But most of this correspondence can be dismissed as routine administrative business. A much wider system of reporting was needed before the ordinary Church member in New Zealand page 123 could appreciate the work of the chaplains and the spiritual life of the soldier; every other phase of Army life was described by the war correspondents of the Public Relations Service and their reports found their way into most of the newspapers and journals in the Dominion. It is true that a few chaplains had written articles for religious papers, and sometimes extracts from their letters had been published, but this did not give an adequate picture of the chaplains' work. In the first place, chaplains were too modest to describe their own exploits, and secondly, most of these descriptions concerned work at Base.

In 1944 an attempt was made to encourage all the chaplains to put on paper some description of their work. These articles were edited at Base and sent on to New Zealand for as wide a distribution in the newspapers as possible. In the editing the articles became anonymous, and the chaplains wrote more freely when there was no suggestion that they were trying to advertise their own individual actions. Moreover, by editing it was possible to keep the subjects in proportion and individual chaplains could be mentioned by name when their work was worthy of praise. This method of reporting never grew to adequate proportions and yet its possibilities and importance were clearly shown.

The Keeping of Records

Practically nothing in the nature of a Departmental war diary was attempted till Padre Spence became Senior Chaplain, and by that time many things of interest and importance had been forgotten. In addition, few records were kept of denominational and sacramental work. Particulars of baptism and confirmations, etc., should have been kept on an official roll at Base.

In the British Army in the Middle East, chaplains sent a regular routine report to the office of the Deputy Chaplain-General, and in the American Army every chaplain serving overseas sent a monthly report to the office of the Chief of Chaplains in America.

The multiplication of paper forms and returns is an evil of this age and for long it has been a danger to the smooth working of an army in the field, but for all that there was room in the Chaplains' Department for some reasonable collection of religious facts and figures. For example, facts about the number of services and page 124 attendances, whether voluntary or compulsory, together with a description of religious activities and experiments and a list of routine duties, would have been of practical and historical value if they could have been recorded throughout the whole Expeditionary Force at various times.

The Denomination as a Unit

When the New Zealand system of unit chaplains had been in operation for several years the Department became a team of friends, and it was found possible to encourage denominational loyalty and teaching. Of course, the Roman Catholics were always more of a separate entity than the others. Among several enterprising experiments was a very successful Retreat they organised in the period between the campaigns in Tunisia and Italy. The Retreat lasted for a whole day, from seven in the morning till seven at night, and over four hundred men were present.

At an early date a list of candidates for the Christian Ministry had been prepared and circulated to all chaplains but few of these candidates had much instruction or encouragement in their studies. In 1944 these candidates were put in touch with the nearest chaplain of their own denomination, and they received information on the special study courses organised by the Royal Army Chaplains' Department.

Communicant Forms

The Communicants' Fellowship introduced by the 4th Armoured Brigade in Italy showed that the communicant members of the different denominations were usually the keenest supporters of religion, and that through them the chaplain could exert a wide influence. Accordingly a system of simple paper forms was introduced and these were handed around and filled in after services of Holy Communion. On these forms the man wrote his name, denomination, military address, and the name of his Church in New Zealand. These forms were sent back to Base, where they were sorted and passed on to representatives of the different denominations. A roll of these communicants, mounting in one short year to over three thousand names, was kept at Base.

This information was put to various uses. The Church of Eng- page 125 land chaplains used it in three ways. Firstly, by reference to Base a new chaplain to a unit could be informed of all his communicants. Secondly, at the great Christian festivals a circular letter was sent to every man on the roll, pointing out the significance of the day and the religious duties expected. These letters were received with warm approval by the soldiers. Thirdly, as soon as the communicant form was received at Base a specially printed letter was sent to the vicar in the man's parish at home. Sometimes the vicar then wrote a letter of encouragement to the soldier and visited his family. This system of communicant forms was of value and could work well provided there was a chaplain at Base with time to deal with them.

Helping the Chaplain

The chaplain serving in the Division lived a hard life cut off from religious reading and the company of other chaplains, and it was difficult for him to remain spiritually and mentally fresh or to keep himself abreast with movements in the civilian Church. For example, a great religious movement, which was organised by the National Council of Churches and known as the ‘Campaign for Christian Order’, made a profound impression in New Zealand and yet was hardly heard of by the men overseas. In 1944 arrangements were made for Church magazines to be sent regularly to the chaplains by air mail.

A regular letter, enclosing religious pamphlets and magazines together with Departmental news and gossip, was later sent by the chaplain at Maadi to a number of chaplains serving in the Division. This served a useful purpose in giving the Divisional chaplain an unofficial link with the outside world, for whereas he could always write to the Senior Chaplain and be certain of getting a helpful reply, yet he felt that the Senior Chaplain was too important and too busy a man to encumber with a stream of questions and a formidable shopping list.

The Ideal Organisation

In each war it must take a lengthy period for the different parts of the Army to discover under fresh circumstances the best system of administration, and when something like perfection has been page 126 gained it is only natural for the administrator to look back wistfully and wish that he had known as much at the beginning of the war. Looking back on the life of the Chaplains' Department—admittedly being wise after the event—it would seem that there was a real place for a small administrative headquarters consisting of a staff chaplain with a telephone, a clerk, and an office next door to the Senior Chaplain, Great care would have been needed in the selection of a staff chaplain. The type of man needed was one who had served with a combatant unit, with a mature character that would at once stand up to the deadening atmosphere of Base and also enable him to help his brothers in the field. His duties would be to evolve a system of records and religious statistics; he would keep in close touch with every chaplain and pass on to them important news and descriptions of successful experiments. He would also keep a roll of keen Church members and candidates for the Christian Ministry, passing this information on to the Senior Chaplain of each denomination. He would be responsible for everything that might be termed ‘chaplains' publicity’ and could help the Senior Chaplain in keeping some continuity in the work at Base.

The chaplains often discussed Departmental organisation, and several times it was suggested that there should be one senior Chaplain-General in New Zealand to control chaplaincy work in the three services and formulate matters of high policy with the Minister of Defence. But the chaplains always realised that if the wrong man was made Chaplain-General things would be worse than ever, and no doubt too little administration is better than too much in affairs of religion.