THE DRAFT CONDUCTING OFFICER.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 284, 15 June 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE DRAFT CONDUCTING OFFICER.

HOW THE MAN IN KHAKI REACHES FRANCE.

"Did you get my (hit, Mac?" "Mo, sir/ , U V !1 » 11 "-i 1 -' just to tell vou a "out tiie drafts ycu're taking 'Out/ " 4 Heady ! When, to-morrow?" • No, this alternoon." " What time?" "In about half an hour. Parade with the draft at 2.30 eharp " "K)ght-ho."

I iiad just returned from leave the day 011 wluch this little dialogue took place between the Adjutant and myself and having travelled all night and fallen ioid of the amended train service I xi 13 ledin y jartieularlv energetic. Jhe Adjutant, after hunting high and low all morning, had at length rim me to earth in the mess as I was finishing iuncn.

It is characteristic of the change which Army life works on one's temperament that, instead of getting excited, and raving over the impossibility of being ready in t'me, as would surely havo happened on receipt ot a .-imilar message, say, a couple of vears a"o as a matter of fact by 2.20 that afternoon I had written home telling tho old folks of my impending departure on draft-conducting duty, also to Campbell cancelling the week-end which we had aranged to spend at his place in the country, and was ready for the road, my luggage comprising merely a liarersaek, in which were packed by mv servant —paragon ;n any emergency—a cake of soap, a towel, tooth-brush," and tho inevitable air-cushion. EN ROUTE ] OR THE TRAIN. At 2.30 to the minute we leit the parade ground, accompanied by the pipe band, en rout? for tne speoial troop train awaiting us at the loc-al station. I'll© work ot enti{lining was speedily accomplished. The C.O. handed me sufficient read}' cash to provide tea en routo for the men. The whistle blew, and a< we moved away from the station tho brass band diverted their effort® lrom the latest musical rag to the more appropriate strains of Auld Lang Syne, which mingled witii the cheers of'the men left behind. Well do I remember what thrill passed through my frame the first time I leit for France with this old Scots tune ringing in my ears. Even on this occasion, with the' assurance cf being back in camp again within a day or two, one felt strangely moved. Other drafts filled up our trauj on the way Soutn, end at , which we reached late in the evening, the men got their tea, which had been jordered Ijy wire, l'he efheers £ot some grub, and after smoking a pipe we iniust have fallen fast asleep, as the next thing we remembered, was waking up in in the cold grfcr dawn of.a January morning about /"a.m. From the station we marched to the Rest Camp, where breakfast was served, and immediately afterwards embarked on the transport for France, arriving safely, under the escort ot a man-o-war, at a Frencii seaport about 12 noon. IN A STRANGE LAND. It is at this point in the journey, 1 think, that the novelty of the experience really grips men going out for the first time. Any foreign country is so different m reality from .what one conjures up beforehand. Marching by tho right and on the right of the road teems a strange anomaly after the timeworn injunction which falls so glibly from the sergeant's lips at home, " E»:h section of fours by the left. Keep to tho left of the road." The noisy tramcars, tho rough cobblestones even in the main thoroughfare, the squalid alleys, the boys of nine years smoking "fags" with the .ur of men of twentynine, the countless cafes, and still more numerous estaminets—all this is strrngo to most <.f the personnel of the draft, so different from ieh they had left but three short hours before, tnat they fail to realise just at once tliat they are actually in the land in which the war is being waged.

So tlus is Finnic, la belle France, of which one lias heard so much. Frankly, the new men are disappo : nted -with tneir welcome. They thought there would bo cheering and some enthusiasm, whereas all that is evinced is friendly interest. Do not think the Entente Cordiale is weakening. It is >.trongeir than ever, but one can hardly expect our Allies at tli's stage of the war to bo really thrilled at the sight of British troops' marching ctawn their streets ,a scene which thev have witnessed daily for the last thirty months. The station was reached at length. We .were bundled into a train, and eventually arrived at tlio base, some fifty miles distant, the same evening.

A WELCOME AND THE RETURN. Of course it was dark, ;uid of course it wa.s wet, b.it the Adjutant of our base depot—cheeriest and most hardworking of mortals—was waiting to welcome us. Ti:e documents are handed over, and when he hears that a mefll is ready for his men. the draft conducting officer, his task completed, wishes them good luck, and takes leave of his charges. After a snack in the mess he makes his way l»ack to the station alone, and returns to England with all speed.

Tim above describes briefly how tlio trained soldier h smoothly and comfortably conveyed from his camp in England (or may lie in Scotland) to the base in France in a little over twentyfy11r hours, and it says a gre.at deal for tlio organisation by the staff and other official.; \vhu7i makes it possible for the 1).('.(). to leave with his draft on. say, Tuesday afternoon and he back at his regiment again by Thursday night.