THE RIGHT SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2954, 18 December 1916, Page 8

THE RIGHT SPIRIT

RECRUITS ENTERING CAMP

OLD HANDS' ADVICE

Already a number of men of tho Twenty-fourth Reinforcements arc entering camp, and the mobilisation of tho draft will begin in earnest after tho holidays. There will be many men among the recruits to -whom entering a largo military training camp is a source of some anxiety. They wonder how they will get on, what they will be expected to do at first, and whether they will be able to stand lip to tho rigorous training. To these men, old hands at the game can give a good deal of useful advice, and one of the points which they would stress would" be that recruits must enter camp in the right spirit, if tlioy wish to enjoy camp life. A man makes or mars his prospects of contentment aud happiness by his own attitude towards the camp and all it contains. Not that there is any interference with a discontented or unhappy soldier. It is rather the reverse. Ho is left alone, unless "some goocl souls in liis hut try to lift him out of his gloom and make him see the bright side of life, which is staring him in the face. When the recruits onter camp/ tliey are somewhat in the position of new boys at a school. Tliey are chaffed good-naturedly as they march in, but never individually. And' the men 'in khaki, themselves recruits only a fewweeks ago, take pleasure in shoeing thorn round and in chumming up with the newcomers.This is tlie_ time when tiie sunny nature makes its impress and the gloomy one discourages friendly advances. "Wo are into the game, let's push on with it," is the motto of the cheerful soldier, and ho will find in the military training and the life of the camps so much human^ nature and kindly manliness that he will wonder why, he did not enter camp before.' The donning of tho khaki brings about a psychological change and indescribable difference which'the training and camp life accentuates, till the soldier might almost look down on the civilian wero it hot that the good health which ho enjoys makes him look on life with tolerance. Few soldiers worry. That is one of the things which they ieavo behind ithem when they step out of nvufti into khaki. They may growl at fatigues and other little frets, but only the very few nurse their grievances, and those few Have not the right spirit. Fatigues, it has often been said,' should ho done by unfit men, so as to allow the soldiers to go on with their field training. It seems a reasonable proposition, but it isn't really. In the field there will vbe no unfit camp followers to do fatigues. There is only room for fit men at the front, and they must learn to do their own'"chores" ; "'it/ is part of their training. And so with other items in the syllabus.' Everything has been well planned out, and if the soldier follows his orders he will presently find himself approaching the status of a trained soldier and feeling as fit as possible.. _ "Keep : going 1" is another good, soldiers' maxim. If he feels off colour in tho morning,, it is better for the recruit to turn out at parade and: see whether the symptoms won't work off. Very often they, do, while a day spent glooming in the' hutment might make a man feel worse. .

Soldiering is a profession and a trade. The novice'must not expect to become expert at once,- nor be downhearted he isn't. His first thought when he begins camp life should. be to take care of himself, to make his bed properly, eat judiciously, and wear dry clothing, Young recruits come from comfortable 'homes, iv-here everything has-been done for them. In the first .days of camp lifo these men may' losg> sleep ,through npt having made their beds; properly. This loss of sleep wearies ■ them, and they got depressed, and probably catch cold. And they go from 1 bad ,to worse if the weather is inclement. "Keep cheerful" is the advice of .the old hands. '-'It's a good life if you tako it in the right spirit."