PYJAMAS IN CAMP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20084, 2 November 1939, Page 2

PYJAMAS IN CAMP

RETURNED MAN'S WAIL. MATTRESSES AND PILLOWS "IN THE LAP OF LUXURY" Having heard that the army recruits now in camp at Trentham are given proper mattresses, pillows, and pyjamas to sleep on or in, a Stratford returned .soldier of the last war considers that the modern New Zealand Army is being pampered. He described to a Taranaki Herald reporter the reports he had heard of the conditions under which the men in camp live. Compared with the treatment of the men put into camp for the last war the present generation was wallowing in luxury, he considered. A strong supporter of the "good old days" theme, he bemoaned The effect that modern conditions would have on the condition of the men.

In his day, he said, there were no mattresses as such. A man was given a canvas bag and told to fill it with straw. At first the straw worked out, found tender spots in the anatomy and caused discomfort. Later it degenerated into chaff and sleepers awoke in the morning with hip bones stiff from contact with hard boards or ground, the chaff in the bag having taken the-line of least resistance overnight and left the angles for the curves. This was another source of discomfort. Pillows were unknown in the old time camps, he continued. A tunic wrapped round a pair of boots served instead.

But the crowning crime in his estimation was the use of pyjamas. Why, in his day, soldiers slept in their shirts if they bothered to make even that condescension to comfort. S.oldiers in pyjamas .... he's never heard of anything so crazy. What would these men do under active conditions? he asked. After wallowing in the lap of luxury how would they fare in trenches or dug-outs? He shook his head sadly. Men could not be hardened for war time conditions on mattresses and pillows and in pyjamas. "Pyjamas . . . .!" he spluttered.