ALWAYS ONE BETTER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2482, 8 June 1915, Page 7

ALWAYS ONE BETTER

THE TRADITION OF THE CAMP. "I am advised that the quality of the successive drafts of reinforcements is improving," said the Minister of Defence to a reporter yesterday. "I am informed that the 4th were better than tho 3rd, that the sth aro better than the 4th, and that the personnel of the 6tli is equal, if not superior, to that of the sth. And the shooting record of the sth is the best we have yet had at the camp. "There is one thing I should like you to take notice of with respect to Trentham camp," Mr. Allen continued. "It is an argument, and a very powerful ane, against the demand that is being mado for tho establishment of other j camps. I am informed—and I can realise that it is so—that there has grown I lip in Trentham a sort of tradition belonging to the camp, an esprit de corps amongst the men which can be produced only after some months of training, and the training of various reinforcements. It is a very powerful influence In Trentham to-day. One lot of reinforcements goes away, and tho lot that comes in wants to do better than those that have gone. It is inducing wen to submit themselves more readily tt> discipline, and to work even harder at their training than they otherwise would in order to get better than those who have preceded them. This spirit could not exist in a new camp. It would have to be built up. Moreover, bs I have said already, we can't face these new camps with the small staff we ' have, and I hope the public won't ask for them."