THE CONSCRIPT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 177, 26 May 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE CONSCRIPT.

FIRST THREE DAYS OF THE "HAD-TO-BE-FETCHEDS." Uy ONE OF Til KM. It came ten days ago. a plain paper, yellow in colour. ARMY FORM V.' 3 23C. . . . You are hereby warned that you will be required to join for service with the colours on March 4, 191G . . . . You should therelore present yourself at Recruiting Oflice 011 the above date not later than 11 a.m.

So I was to be fetched: My days as a cleik it. .'l.v office stool were over. No mere- would I sit in the nincpeimv .e.v.-. in ::iy favourite cinema, a c:ga"'tiii l-.-tw. en my i; p.-\ The skating rink wouln know me no more, for ! was to be a soldier—-a eoiisciipt so'diei---cue of thos:: who wouldn't cjmt In the. .jut-.' loom of the lterulting ofiice I ;■■■' dt-vn en a wooden bench and waited my turn to have my papers made out before I came in front of the recruiting officer. Several other conscripts were seated on benches, some of them scowling and defiant, others moody and restless, men of all classes, navvies and ploughmen, clerks like myself, a cinema porter, a bar tender, a gasworks manager. ... 'Come over 'ere, you!" A big sergeant called me over to a table, where 1 answered the questions on my :, Rocord of Service" paper. This done, 1 was placed alongside the ploughman, papers in hand, to wait my call to the recruiting officer's table. SILENT CROWD. '•Next two men." We found ourselves piloted through a door to the front of a table where sat an elderly officer and .a sergeant-major. Sign here," said the latter, and he pushed two half-crowns and a six-pennv-bit across the table at me—my two days' rations and pay. "Don t drink that," said the officer to me; -you'll need it before you leave the depot. Next two!" "Back 'ero 3.30 sharp, mind, called the sergeant as 1 left the office to cool my heels nerore we went off, under escort, to the depot. It was a very silent and undemonstrative crowd that watched us leave the recruiting office. As we marched down to the station there were no bands for us as there had been for the grouped men who left the same office a week ago. We were told off. eight of us to a carriage, with a sergeant to see that we " 'adn't left nothing behind." The rergt-ant told us in a few choice sentences what he thought about us and our ancestors and gave us much advice, which, useful as it was, fell on unheeding ears. At nine o'clock in the evening we arrived at the dopot barracks, cold and miserable, and 1 thought with sorrow of my sent in the cinema, for just aooiu tills hour Charlie Chaplin would be on. the screen to make others laugh. We fell in inside -the barrack? gate, end a big voice showed in tlie darkness, "Answer yer iu.rr.es now.

end smart about it." Then we were marched off to our sleeping quarters, a big barrack room, where we pui our kits on a nick, and sat. clown on our beds, rather tired and strange. At ten o'clock wc were told to get into bed, and a Soulier with a stripe on iris arm came and pur out the gas jet which hung from the ici ing.

THE LOST CHANCE. After our breakfast next day we were marched over to the hospital, v.-hero I came. nakect as Adam, hefore three medical officers, who punched me and felt me. 1 asked them if they could pass mo for uii'y as a clerk in the Pay Corps—l rather pride myself en my xandwrsting. and think I am quick and intelligent. "Look here, young fellow," said the eldest of these to me. • you're going wherever I choose to put you. Ycu had your choice o' joining the Pay Corps months ago—now it's too late. fc'erge.T.it, next man. please." So 1 dressed, and was marched back to barracks, where 1 spent the remains of my ~>s. (id on lunch in the coffee bar. There were several other soldiers in the coffee bar, and I felt I ought to begin my career well, so 1 risked a little corporal to have a cup of coffee and a bun with me. "No, thanks, mate," said he. and left the bar, muttering something about "conscripts.'' In the afternoon I was brought, with my companions, before the colonel, who told me I was fit for general service abroad. "Right turn —quick march," bawled a voice in my ear, and 1 was marched out of the orderly room and up into the quartermaster's stores to Ik l fitted and clothed in niv uniform. Then I was marched down to the barber's shop at the request cf the sergeant-major, who told the barber to "take his blooming curls off." .My cap is much too large for me now.

When the barber had finished with me 1 put a cigarette in my mouth, and. hands in pockets, strolled over to the parade ground to watch the men drilling. The Army has funny customs. I had not been more than half a Minnie when a sergeant, came up to me. "What the 'oil are you standing 'ere for? Take v.'T 'anils out of yer pockets and throw that fag away- and 'EKE. just you pul your 'at on square, and (lean your buttons before you give us the pleasure of soeoig yon a.-'in at ."..: , ,0 outside the orderly room. I'mlerstiind? All ris.iit. sbarn new. :>.'\i>. and bring yer kit-luv? «itb yer." !X THM TIN !!I"!Y. ]•:;!r:v on the i ;on,i!ig i r : ! ■:■' 'i' ; '''' (I: , v ,!,,. ;,.;•.;„ .;t,..->nied into a station •■Honii-wliPiv in K'-uland." lli-ci we ,-, innr.ed and wh« handed oxer to . ~ ~-■ ~,.( ,-.;• brmr.v.l you: :■;• i""n. :■,; f) uniei:!-.' and v. ilhou! n'iv prd"- • ~-,.j,.,,,,-. • niivl.cd rs i ff Ce !'!:•- .-,., : ,| -..).! jiliMig rows of streets ir.'o r i n ,■ •. ;■■■• we turned a cor; er 1 >"' C- ■; -.:■ : ; -.'f>v t'li huts rural!. I ,' in- - ..:■•>.'. I'i< '. n' the long ii"'-s of !: '■ ■:■ - !!;:•.;•.■• i !"',(;!. with a see n w rd r.f <ommaud. ve halt ■ ! ir. front of a !;;;• \,h< .e d'splayl on a w od.--: !..-;i.-d were (he ,-,o; Is. "".'. •''.'■■:■ i::or.;,i.- Here wo ] .:■■ cd : .;■; ;." from our escort. it is wonderful low much colonels

and sergeants can compress into a few words. In the evening I saw my name in orders as posted to B Company, and, under the supervision of a sergeant, 1 moved my kit to my company hut. Here I was landed' with three men like myself and received by the other inmates with a grin. "Fetched at last, eh Yes, there was the rub. I was a conscript, a pressed man, one of the had-to-be-fetched. If only 1 had joined before how different my reception would have been, for no explanations are given to conscripts. The conscript soldier is addressed, "Ere, you. go and do so-and-so and TRRY I'l' ABOI'T IT." The conscript is given no chances. He is given an order, and that order has to be obeyed —or he has to take the consequences, and they are not K&'ht ones. This evening I asked an X.C.O. "Why?" "Why?" said he. "That's why!" His boots had hobnails.