TRAINING NEW ARMY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 14, 19 February 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

TRAINING NEW ARMY.

set seriousness, and yet again. They were used to the pick—won their living bv it in fact—and so favoured it mors than the rifle; but miners don't carry picks at the trail by instinct, though they can twiddle their rifles as one twiddles walking-sticks. They were clad in a blue garb that disguised all contours, yet their shoulders backs, and loins could not altogether be disguised, and thesp, were e x " colient. Another company, at physical drill in shirt and trousers, showed what 6uperb material had offered iteelf to be worked upon, and how much poise and directed strength had been added to that material in the past three- months. When the New Army gets all it* new uniform, it will gaze at itself like a new Narcissus. But the present kit is indescribable. That is why, English fashion, it has been made honourable by it s wearers; and our world in the years to come will look back with reverence as well as affection to those blue slops and that epileptic cap. One far-seeing commandant who had special facilitieshas possessed himself of brass hut-tons, thousands of 'em, which he has added to the men's outfit for the moral effect of (a) having something to clean, and (b) of keepin git- so. It has paid. The smartest regiment in the service could not do itself justice in such garments, but I managed to get- a view of a battalion, comma from a walk, at a distance which more or less subdued the—er uniform, and they moved with the elastic swing and little, quick ripple that means sc much. A miner is not supposed to be as good a marcher as a townsman, but when ho gels set to and pa°e and learns the economy of effort hi(? developed baek and shoulder muscles take him along very handsomely Another hat t alien fell in for parade while I watched, again at a distance. They came to hand quietly and collectedly enough, and with only that amount of pressing which is due to a fear of being late. A platoon-or whatever they call it—was giving the whole of its attention to its signalling instructors. with the air of men resolved on getting the last flicker of the last cine-ma-film for their money. Crime in the military sense thev do not know any I more than their f< How-innocents up the road. It is hopeless to pretend to he

THE MEN AT WORK. SERVICE BATTALIONS.

By RUDYARD KIPLING in th# London "Daily Telegraph."

This was a cantonment one had never seen before, and the grey-haired military policeman could give no help. "*My experience," ho spoke detachedIv, "is that you'll find everything everywhere. Is it any particular corps you're looking for?" "Not in the least," I said. "Then you're all right. You can t miss getting something." He pointed generally to the North Camp. "Its like floods in a town, isn't it?" He had hit the just word. All known marks in the place were submerged by troops. Parade-grounds to their utmost limits were crowded with them; rises and sky-lines were furred with them, and the whole length of the roads .heaved and rippled like bicycle-chains with blocks of men on the move. The voice of a sergeant in the torment reserved for sergeants at roll-call boomed across a bunker. He was calling over recruits t'o a specialist corps. "But I've called you once!" he snapped at a man in leggings. "But I'm Clarke Two," was the virtuous reply. ... , Oh, you are, are you? He pencilled the correction with a scornful mouth, out of the corner of which he added, " 'Sloppv' Clarke! You're all Clarkes or Watsons to-day. You don t know your own names. You don t know what corps you're in. (This was bitterly unjust lor they were squinting up at a biplane.) You dfln't know anything. "Mm!" said the military .policeman. "The more a man has in his head, the harder it is for him to manage his carcase—at first. I'm glad I never was a sergeant. Listen to the instructors! Like rooks, ain't itP" . There was a mil© of sergeant* and instructors, varied by company officers all at work on the ready material under their hands. They .grunW, harked, yapped, expostulated. and, in rare

ca-ses, purred, as the lines broke and formed and wheeled over the vast maidan. When companies numbered off one could hear the tone and accent of every walk in life, and maybe half the counties of England, from the deep-throat-ed "Woon" of the north, to the sharp, half-whi6tled Devonshire "Tu." And as the instructors laboured", so did the men, with a passion to learn as passionately as they were taught. Presently, in the drift, of the foot traffic, down the road, there came another grey-haired man, one foot in a bright slipper, winch showed he was an old solr.ier cherishing a yore tie. He drew alongside and considered these zealous myriads. . "Good?" said I, deferentially. "Yes," he said, "Very good'—then, half to liimsetf: "Quito different though." A pivot-man close to us haa shifted a instead of marking time on tlie wheel. His face clouded, his hps moved. Obviously he was cursing his own clumsiness. "That's what I meant." said the veteran "Innocent! Innocent MarK vou. thev ain't doin' it to.be done with It and get off. They're doin it M-'au-o —because thoy want to do it. "Wake up! Wake U P there ißbheiwood!" This wap a young subaltei n s reminder flung at a back which straightened itself. That one human name cornin.' UP out 0 fall that maze of impel sonal manoeuvr'ag stuck in the memory like wreckage on the ocean. •< .\n< it wasn't 'ardly even necessary to caution Mister Uslicrwood. my companion commented. Pro >l\ » terlv ashamed of lmselr. ' I asked a leading question because the old soldier told me that when Ins toe was sound, he, too, was a militan policeman. ; , , |J TllflV "Crime? Crime.-' .sa tlH hc - 1 '• don't know what crime is —that Jot don't —none of 'em!'' Ho i"""™ ! " them liko a benevilcnt °K i„g into a busy Eden, and Ins las. woiU j Wl ThornworM hor wa >,' thro "'' ! ' 'of men—men roiite-marclung. 01 goim, !to dif' or build bridges, or wrestle u > ■ spi es' and transport-four or hvo mdes i «>f men. and every man with eager (J - I There was no 111 us'e—not evn drums and j (iIV, I beard nothing but a distant ! skirl of pipes. Trust a >cot to, <t lii • national weapon as long , a ;i,l; f "A tl„, North! " »-ur i» .1 »"">"» tasiiio.,*. uk-ci. i],o man who is being fought f"> • « « ; that it mny be right to r f ilro and contribute to relief turns iUvK should lie laid on flu- National l)(bt. it surely could do no han cheer the mm "'it!: a few bands. Hall t| lo money in treating, foi examj vlo • • THE NORTH IN 7 TILUE.

I Tlu' r o whs ;i Timor among tin* woods v-ith a pond in a hollow, tho centre ot world of tents whose position nas North-Country. Olio heard it from afar r ,r "Sv niun trail t» pick an' V rifle at t' same tune. Try again,' said the instructor. . ... An isolated company tried again *ith

other than what one is. because one's soul in this .fife is as e x P oS ed as one s body. It is futile to tell civilian liesthere are no civilians to listen —and they ha-o not yet learned to tell service ones without being detected. It is useless'to sulk at any external condition of affairs, because tlie rest of the world with which a man is concerned is facing those identical conditions. There is neither poverty nor riches, nor any possibility of pride, except in so far as one may do one's task a little better than one's mate.

DUTIES AND DEVELOPMENTS. In tho point of food they are extremely well looked after. quality and quantity. wet canteen and dry. Drafts come in all round tho dock,and tliey have to bo fed; lato guards and sentries want something hot at odd times, and the big marquee canteen is the 8 Ratliei ng place, where food, lifes first interest to man in hard work, is thoroughly discussed. They can get outside of a vast o' vittles. Thus, a contractor who delivers ten thousand rations a day stands, by deputy at least in the presence of just that number ot rather fit. long, deep men. They are what h called " independent —a civilian wcakne-s which they will learn to blusli ( ;ver in a few months, and to d scon rage, among later recruits; but they are. also quick to pick up dodges and tricks that make, a man more comfortable m camn life, and their domestic routine runs on wheels. It must have been hard at lirst for civilians to see th-? necsess,ty for that continuous, apparently pernickeiv house-maid:ng and "following-up which is vital to the comfort ot large bodies of men confined in quarters In civil life, men leave these things to their women-folk, but where women are not, officers, inspecting tents, feet and suchlike, develop a she-side to their head and evidently make non-eom». and ni<» develop it too. A good soldier is »l\va>s a Pit of an old maid. 15ut. as I heaid a priya.e say to a sergeant 111 the mattei of somo kit chucked in a corner . 1 canna' k«p out redd up ony P'opu ,r,t ■ (.11 a sand-hill. To whom Ins superior officer: -Ah know yo canna . but yo' niun try. Hilly. trvintr And heaven knows they ale t }i g hard enough-men, non-coms., amil ..Jhcers —witli all the marked and undo-voic-d effort of our peoples when «e arc rea^v at work. They start at the V i rv lie"'inniug of things: creating oi.t of 'chaos, meeting emergencies as they ZiT handicapped m .every <■- ~ i/'n and overcoming t nol > handicap by sunple goodwill huniour. self-sacrifice, common-sense ami such trumpery virtues. I watt; k f'ic\i in the camp, and at lun< h looK. .1 down i line of some twenty men in i< "s tent wondering how many would 'urvive to see the full splendour and significance of the work bere so no >l> Hut tliey were not lntei ;-X future beyond the next min edi inb Thev at<v quickly and wont out ,"i n,u l.'v tlTo t'.no I<W »»y an'n I 'van ivertakinp: th™ Mtslmns 'u J roa< ] Nr-t unrelated units lug-to-thcr for foot-slogging but real battalions, of a ep:?xt in themselves

which defied even the blue slops—wave after wave of proper men. with undistracted eyes, who never talked a word about any war. But not a note of music—and they North-countrymen!