AT SLING CAMP

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3112, 16 June 1917, Page 3

AT SLING CAMP

JOYS AND JOLTS

NEW ZEALAND SOLDIER'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS

A great deal has beeu written about the excellence of the training and the rigidity of tho discipline exeroieed in Sling Camp, on Salisbury Plain, but whether' the effect of it all ie too (surprising or not, few of tho soldiers from A r ow Zealand havo committed themselves to the inipreseions they form during the firafc few days they are there. It' they don't do so, then tho impression morgM into 'routine and becomes fogsed. jind lost in tho fagging work of learning to bo a real soldier. Ono Wellington soldier line writton to his frien<ls a- most interesting letter, which gives a capital idea of the big camp aid its ways. Ho writes: "J'vo l>ceii hero nearly threo weeks now. The passage ovor was splendid—hardly a ripplo on tho water most of tho time. Wo wore glad, however, to get tho monotony of slip life over, and wero counting on a fairly good timo when we landed, but -we noon found out that we wcro part and parcel of tho' British Army, and tho chaps chosen to point out the fact to us knew their jobs from A to Z. Wβ lanHed in 'canip at 2 a.m" and turned out at 6 a.m. (the same morning). Before two days had passed £) out of our oompany had landed C.B. (confined to barracks), myself among them, for dirty boots or dirty buttons, neglecting to shave, untidy bunks, inattention on parade, and sundry other high crimes and misdemeanours that new soldiers are prone to. Saturday, Suinday, and ever/ other day ie the same hero. 'At tie double!' all the time—sergeant-majors barking, sergeants yelling, and officers demanding 'Whafs that man doing there?' 'Stand steady, there!' from morning till night, "Wo have passed through what is known as 'tie Bull King,' nearly three weeks of it, and I'm not anxions to go through it again. Either the officers, sergeant-majors, or sergeants have got tired, or we've brightened up, as thinga nre not nearly so hard or unpleasant now. We go to C next week, I think, where tho trained soldiers await transport to ■France. I think it will be some timo, however, before I get away, us the baso depots in Franco are said to be full up, there having been no heavy casualty lists lately. . . . Wo were all. congratulating ourselves on liaving escaped the subs., but on the second day in the Bull King we did not think we had been half eo lucky, as we bad first imagined, and on the third or fourth day we began to think we had jolly bard luck indeed. However, we're all right now, and aro on a comparatively peaceful course of musketry, which we will finish in a few days. "There is no waste of bread or anything else in camp. It is a, crime to throw away a. slice of bread. Everywhere notices are placed Tirging economy and advising everyone to eat only what is absolutely necessary for health. New Zealand doesn't know there's a war on.

... I have just come back from the scene of an aeroplane accident. I heard a shout whilst 1 was writing, and went put to see what had happened. A biplane which was flying round the camp (the sky is alive with them, juet like so many sparrows), collapsed and came_ to the ground. The pilot (a captain) , was smashed up, dying almost instantaneously. It is a fairly common sight to Bee an aeroplane hit the ground with a bump, but even if it came down 300 or W yards away from you whilst on para/de you daro not turn your head to look ,iimeeß you want C.8., and C.B. is no picnic here. I have been in the best of health all through—tlirivinj; on the hard and 6canty fare—wo are reduced to rations— and have come to the conclusion that you are all overfed ftrid underworked in New Zealand. I haven't seen butter, let alone lasted it, since we have been here, very little sugar, and an Qdd potato once a week.