THE EIGHTHS IN CAMP

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2618, 13 November 1915, Page 6

THE EIGHTHS IN CAMP

FINAL ADVICE

IN VIEW'OF ACTIVE SERVICE

Nearly 2000 visitors went out to Irentham yesterday to: lisit tho Bth 'iiemioreeinoins. The day was beautifully fine, and friends and relatives of the men of thia draft spent an enjoyable afternoon in oa-mp. Duriug the u.orning Her Excellency' tho Countess or Liverpool visited the camp, and Mrs. Massey and the Mayoress (Mrs. J. P. Luke) were also present, with many xraher ladies. An interesting event '■took place then, for all the men of the draft were presented with the leather /waistcoats which the ladies of Now 'Zealand have been busily making for •some timo past, to guard the men 'against the rigours of a .winter on Gallipoli. Tho men appreciated these gifts, and were not long in donning "them. Address by Colonel Clbbon. . In the afternoon Colonel Gibbon, Chiof of the General Staff, addressed .tho Bth Reinforcements on the parade ground. Ho said that he , spoke to overy body of reinforcements that left ..Trentham just to give them an idea-of (what the Staff thought of them, and .give them some kind! of advice from /their • point of view, on their way to the front. "Now; the Bth Reinforcements,' I tell you right away, are quite : equal to any draft that .has gone before," said Colonel Gibbon. "I will give. the reason later.- The Mounted l Rifles have not been through the full course; as far as they havo gone they aro. fully trained, but they want'more training in riding and horse ' management. That they will get in Egypt before tihey ieavo. Each reinforcement draft of mounted rifles es it goes to tho front relieves tho preceding draft, 'looks after horses, and gets trained itself. Their musketry .puts up a '■record for the camp, a very creditable ■ Iperfonnance. The Artillery I consider . tho smartest draft we have sent. Tho draft wants more experience in actual training . with • . tilie battery, but that wo cannot ' give them here. The Engineers' ' draft is quite up to tho.average.- Tho infantry, unfortunately; have • not had their full . training '.period, but ,at the same timo .they had no interruptions, very little bad weather, and no sickness, and \ everything has gone straight ahead. As a. result, the men in their training ;'are'very'little behind thoso of the best draft wo have yet sent. Their musketry i;, is better than that of any draft, with ■'' the exception of the .sths, and those • ' they aro only half a point behind. 1 Best Disciplined Draft."Now, what I particularly/ wish to tell' you about is that you are going • away from here to keep up our reputation, and that is a , very high reputa- ; tion to beep up. In Egypt and at the ,'ffont they nave .come to_look for each : draft to ho better than the preceding , draft, and you have a record very high I to keep. I don't think you will bo very ; far behind, for this reason,- that, this draft is tho best disciplined draft we' ■ fhavo sent, and by its best discipline 1 it has. gained, an advantage in train- ; . ing, -because the men, who are'-discip- . lined don't suffer the same amount of ' ■sickness, nor are they' absent without . leave. Tlioy will find this not only an . advantage in training, but an advantage when they get to the front. One of the generals at the front said that the best disciplined regiments are the best fighting regiments, and havo tho ■least losses. .-That lias been shown in the wars of the past, not only in "obis war. Discipline)) articularly comes out in a retreat. The army which iis not disciplined, and which hus to taJfe part in a retreat, is lost.' If they have got discipline they aro all right. One officer said that the best disciplined regiments have the least losses" because they can mako their men dig in when they are . so fatigued that otherwise they ;ivould lie down and do nothing. "In. connection with discipline, I tvoiild ask you to remember that the man who gives way to. drihi mSiy be absent from t'ho firing line at the decisive moment. ' We had ,ono draft hero of 29 men absent-without leave, when they were going to embark; The men did not intend to bo absent; -they eimply went to get a drink,' but they were not there when the time came; 'At ports of call one draft lost as many as eleven men for tho same reason; Tho succeeding drafts have made: up'their . minds that they are not. going to have losses, and they have'managed-it pretty .well.: The last draft, consisting or over 5000 men, had only two drop out without leave at tho first port of call, and ■I, want }'ou to beat that Tecord. If you are going to .do so you will have to drop nono. ' Temptations of the East, "'Now thero. is another way by which men may bo absent from the firing line, and that is by giving way to temptation in' the lower parts of those' towns of the East, particularly Cairo. 1 M,en who are fbsent from the rani® from a preventable cause, whether sickness or drink; or whatever it may be, are guilty of desertion. I don't know length of ; . your stay will be-in Egypt; it.depends ' ■a god deal, on yourselves, tut I want you to keep up' tlie liigli reputation we have, and I hope that you will receive the honour that out past reinforcements, the ■ 4th, sth, and 6ths, have had. in being sent'to the front without jelay for i further training -in Egypt, as a body. A Marvellous Performance. "Tho Fifths have put up a great record. An officer high in. the service has written about them as follows:—'The 6th Reinforcements wero quito the finest body of men sent as reinforcements. Their discipline and training seem to be very excellent. Their reinforcements pf the Auckland Battalion wero absolutely suporb—they only arrived on tho' morning of the 9th and ' were sent straight up under Major Hume into,tho firing line, wliero they arrived just in time to save tho New Zealand Infantry Brigade Headquarters from being "scupr pered." Out of 150 that wero sent lip, •including Major Hume, only,three survived. It was a marvellous performance on tho part of raw men who had not been under_ fire before.' That is a performance of which we may all be proud, so you see you have got something very high to live up to; and you are expected to beat what has been done in the past. "A word about comradeship. There aro not only Now Zealanders at tho front, bnt other troops, and you have got to get on with them. Give tho other man credit for doing his job as well as he can, as you aro doing the best yon can. Don't try to pick holes m him. And always salute the officers. .When yon come to ports of call; maybe in Australia, maybo in India, maybo in Egypt, saluto tho officers you meet. Also tho officers of the foreign army you may sec. As I told tho 7th Roinforcements, a little courtesy costs nothing, and goes a long_ way to build up a reputation for courtliness. Wo have ■ 'got a reputation in the field of battle, and also' have got ono for discipline of ! our troops beforo they got there. I want you to keep it up, and oven mako it higher.-

In the Pages of History.

"I toll each Reinforcements that wo fl re not concerned with tho opinion of tho men.who write to tho newspapers at tho present timo; what we want to look for is tho considered opinion of tho men who writo the real history of tho war. Wo w&ut it said that of flill tho troops sent out by tho Empire tho Now. Zedandexft.

to none, whether regular or improvised. They havo done much already to cam a reputation, and it rests in your hands as to whether it will bo kept up. You aro a strong draft, and collectively what you do will leave its mark on the forces at the front. 'What you do will all have its effect on what will bo written when the time comes. I won't say more than: Do your best. No ono caii do more than that. I have nothing more to say to you except 'keep fit.' Don't fall out by tno fray; get to the firing line. Don't got into hospital; hospitals are for the men who have been wounded, not for men frho aro sick through, their own fault. Keep up the liauio of tho men we turn out of this camp, and improve it."

TO-DAY'S ARRANGEMENTS. MARCH THROUGH THE CITY. The Bth Reinforcements will march through the City this afternoon. A start will be made from the King's Wharf, via Bunny Street, into Lambton Quay, passing Government, Buildings at 2.30 p.m. They will then proceed along the-Quay, up Willis'Street, along Manners Street, down Lower Cuba Street, and along .Jervois and .Waterloo Quays to the King's Wharf. Special points along the route and about the wharves will be lined by the Wellington City troops and Senior Cadets, who will parado specially for the purpose. The Stlis will be under the command of Major F. Ross, and mil march in the ..following'order:—Mounted Rifles, Artillery, Engineers, Infantry, Army Service Corps, Medical Corps, Veterinary Corps. It is expected that business premises will mako -a good display of bunting, in . honour of the occasion,. and there is sure to be a large crowd lining the route of march/ At the wharf, too, a good number of next-of-kin will be present, for each soldier has been given concession tickets to admit his relatives ,to tho enclosure. When the troops aro re-em-barking tho next-of-kin will be admitted on to tho - wharf alongside the transports, but will not be permitted to board tho ships. Next-of-kin are advised to present/ their tickets for admission to the next-of-kin enclosure before 3 p.m. They can reach the wharf through the Pipitea shed.