AT SLING CAMP.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 292, 13 July 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

AT SLING CAMP.

JOYS AND JOLTS.

NEW ZEALAND SOLDIER'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

A great deal has been written about the excellence of the training and the rigidity of the discipline exercised m Sling Camp, on Salisbury Plain, but whether the effect of it all is too surprising or not, few of the soldiers from New Zealand have committed themselves to tne impressions they formed during the first few days they are there. If they don't do so, then the impression merges into routine, and becomes fogged and lost in the fagging work of learning to be a real soldier. One Wellington soldier has written to liis friends a most interesting letter, whioh gives a capital idea of the big camp and its ways. He writes: "Ive been here nearly three weeks now. The passage over waa splendid—hardly a ripple on she water most of the time. We were glad, however, to get the monotony of shiplife over and were counting on a fairly good time when we landed; but we soon found out that we were part and parcel of the British Army, - ana the chaps chosen to point out r the fact to tfo, knew their jobs from A„to L. We lanJed in camp at 2 a.m., and were turned out at 6 a.ir.. (the samemornrag). Before two days had company had landed C.B. (confined to barracks), myself among them, tor dirty boots or dirty buttons, neglecting to shave, untidy bunks, nattention on parade, and sundry other high crimes and misdemeanours that new soldiers aro prone to. Saturday. Sunday, and every other day is the same here. At the double!' all the time-sergeant inaiors barking, sergeants yelling, aud K™ dcmandtng What's that mnn doing there?' 4 Stand steady, there! from morning till night. "We have passed through what is known as 1 the Bull Ritjg." nearl ? weeks of it and I'm not anxious to go through it again. Either the officers, sergeant-majors ,or sergeants have got tired, or we've brightened up, as things are not nearly so hard or unpleasant now. We go to C n , week, I think, where the trained soldiers await transport to trance, think it will be some time however, before I get away, as the base depots in France are said to be full up, there having been no heavy casualty lists lately. . . • We were all congratulating ourselves on having escaped the subsl, bat on the second day in the Bull Ring we did not think we had been half so lucky as we had first imagined, and on the third or fourth day wo began to think we had jolly hard luck, indeed. However, we're all right now. and are on a comparatively pc^' 1 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 cr "J w to throw away a slice of bread. Everywhere notices are placed urging 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 como back from the scene of an aeroplane acct, dent. I heard a shout whilst I was writing and W6nt out to se© vhat baa nappened. A biplane which was hying round the camp (the sky is alive with them, just like so many sparrows), collapsed and came to the ground, lhe pilot (a captain) was smashed up, qyfng almost instantaneously. It is a faJf_ ly common sight to see an aeroplane hitthe ground with a bump, but even it it came down 300 or 4UO yards away from you whilst on parade you dare not turn your head to look, unless you want C.B.—and C.B. is no picnic here. I have been in the best of health all through—thriving on the hard work and scanty fare—we arc reduced to rations—and have come to the conclusion that you are all overfed and underworked in New Zealand. 1 haven t seen butter, let alone tasted it, since we have been here, very little sngar, and an odd potato once a week: