CAMP LIFE AT TRENTHAM.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 28 October 1916, Page 5

CAMP LIFE AT TRENTHAM.

WHAT RECRUITS GO THROUGH ON ARRIVAL. The following letter received from one of the recent batch of recruits from Taihape gives a glimpse of camp life and their initiation thereinto: No doubt you have heard a lot about insanitary conditions at Trentham, which would lead one to think that the health of recruits receives no consideration. It is all pure bosh. Almost the first thing to strike a newcomer is the perfect cleanliness of everything about the camp. The discipline in this respect is stricter than at drill, and to my mind it would be impossible to take fuller preventive measures in respect to disease. On arrival here we were immediately paraded before the doctor, stripped, so that any disease could be detected. Next day we had another parade before the doctor, with bared chest, so that measles, or any other infectious i disease qould be detected. The same day we had a “gargle parade, ” each of us getting half a mugof stuff to gargle, the same being repeated the following day. There was, I believe, three deaths in camp the day before we arrived; but all I can say is that if anyone contracts disease it is mainly their own fault. Some of the chaps here try to dodge the “gargle parade” as much as possible, and if they “peg out” later on we hear a squeak about it. The first day in camp was rather easy for us, but as soon as all gear had been issued and the different forms filled up, such as next-of-kin, etc., we soon settled down, and each dav now we are hard at it. drill of all kinds, both j physical and military, “slow march,” sounds like a soft job, but it only needs a trial, when you find out it ts | a good deal harder than ordinary quick time. It is not un’ike the Gor-

man “goose-step.” Then, again, wo get the quick step—l4o paces per minute. This, and all other kinds of exercises, continue all dav long, and by the time you have finished (he day your feet feel as if you were standing in quicklime, due, no doubt to the heavy new boots, I have heard that the second, week in camp is the most

trying. For some reason F 0 nnpany is being hurried along, why, I cannot say for certain, but ever since the Reinforcements started F Company has been the crack company, and sticn uous efforts are made by F Company of each Reinforcement to keep up the name. Usually it is two or three weeks before the best uniforms are issued, but we received curs three days after arrival; aga.n, instead of having to wait a month before issuing rifles, we got ours almost inwuediately. None of-the other companies of the 22nd’s have received their I dst uniforms yet, neither is their drill as forced as ours. We have been told the 21st Reinforcements are short of men. and perhaps it is intended to utilise us to make up the deficiency. The night we arrived we were paraded, and a call was made for volunteers for the machine-gun section. I knew this is called the “suicide section,” but was willing to chance that, so I stepped out with five more. The C.O. got us together, and explained the position, saying we would be going to almost certain death, as the average life of a machine-gunner svhen he enters the firing line is one and a half hours. He added that we would not get away until the 23rd’s left, which would be in about nine months’ time. I, with three other, decided to stick to the 22nd’s, as this would mean our getting to work at least 4 months earlier.