FIFTH MARCH OUT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2487, 14 June 1915, Page 3

FIFTH MARCH OUT

SOLDIERS FULLY TRAINED WHOSE THE CREDIT ? How many of tho thousands of people who stood by watching the Fifth Reinforcements march through the City Streets 011 Saturday had an idea of tho significance of what they saw?—a body of well-nigh perfectly-trained fighting men'. Such phrases as "Uphold the honour of New Zealand" come readily to the tongue in such circumstances, but to say that the Fifth are going to uphold the honour of New Zealand is to do them less than justice. For the first time New Zealanders have been fully-trained in their own country as soldiers to go forth to fight in the armies of the Empire. Perhaps this is doing the Fourth Reinforcements a little injustice. They were supposed to bo fully trained when they left here, and they were, in fact, the best' troops that had left up till that time, but they wore many grades below the Fifth in merit. The Fifth are simply splendid. Tha Infantry, The infantry are tho best. They shoot better than the average of the British Army, and in all essentials their work is as good as that of any regiment of the Line. Perhaps in ceremenial they lack that finish which has been put on British regiments after years of peace and war training, a finish that can be given only in years. This does not mean that the Fifth are not smart. The truth about that is that they have achieved in four months a degree of efficiency and smartness that even experts would not have dared to hope for a year ago. We thought the Mam Body and the First and Second Reinforcements were trained in at least some measure before leaving here, but after seeing the later drafts we know now that they were quite untrained. These men were trained for weary months on the Egyptian desert, and tho news from the Dardanelles tells us what that training has done for them. The Third Contingent were partly trained, but it was not until after the Third were in p camp that tho present training scheme I at Trentham was fully established. The Fourth were the first to benefit by it, but there were reasons why they did not benefit as much as have the Fifth. To begin with, the scheme was new, and perhaps it did not therefore worls easily or effectively at once. The camp is now a thoroughly organised training establishment, and that is why any troops leaving it in future will be thoroughly trained. Those who do not know about Trentham did not know, , perhaps, what a lot of work goes to the ' making of the raw recruit into the soldier. How well this work is being done at Trentham now is to anyone who has known anything of defence affairs in New Zealand up till more recent years simply matter for amazement. Some men are working very hard to get this result. In the last resort the troops get their training at first or second-hand from the officers and instructors of the training staff at the camp, but without co-ordination of tho training staff, and of this staff with the Department and the political head 'of the Department, these instructors could have achieved little. For this reason it is perhaps safer not to suggest who is the man or who ore the men who have been mainly responsible for making the Fifth what they are. The Men's Part. So much for the officers' part. 'A great deal, perhaps the greater part, of the credit for their own efficiency is due to the men themselves. There has sprung into being at Trentham a competitive spirit, a desire to excel, which is almost general, and in order to get better the men do subject themselves to discipline and apply themselves to the task of the day or the moment the more zealously. Every unit has the spirit, and the units which have proved best are very proud of their achievements. In the 'Fifth, B Company is the best. It happened that they were a little above strength and when it was either suggested or rumoured that the surplus would bo drafted to another unit, there was gravo anxiety in B Company. Not only is there esprit de corps in the competing units. The feel-' ing is over all tho camp—something like the tradition of a big school or college. It is a greater and stronger feeling, however. Youths at school think of prowess in the mock battle of the i sports field. These men at Trentham think nothing at all of whether their company can beat some other company at football, but they are very keen about their company being able to shoot better, march better, drill better than the other company. Their uppermost ideas have to do with soldiering. They are more interested in making themselves good soldiers than any boy could ever be about his football. They are no machine-made soldiers, compelled by iron rule. The rule is strict enough at Trentham, but the submission of the men to it is of their own will as much as of their officers' will. Tho March. The Fifth Reinforcements do credit to themselves, and to everybody who has been _ associated with them in their training period. In their march through the city on Saturday they were cheered and cheered again along most of their route. Never has a Wellington crowd been so demonstrative. The r heartiest cheers came from the crowd - collected near the Government Buildf ings. As they swung along to the music of the Fifth Regiment Band these onlookers were at times wildly enthusiastic, waving hats and generally forgetting themselves in their admiration for the soldiers. In Cuba Street, where • the troops were marching at ease, peoi pie on the balconies threw lowers and s fruit to the men, and people in the roadway bestowed little gifts on friends 1- in the lanks. But there was 110 disorder. The soldiers have learned their >- lessons too well to forget them on a. occasion, t