A SOLDIER’S LETTER.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 28 July 1917, Page 6

A SOLDIER’S LETTER.

.WITH 22ND. REINFORCEMENTS.. SLING CAMP.

(By Private C. Jeayes.) After perhaps three months’ comparative idleness on a troopship, it will be understood that we were anything but fit on arrival in England. But we were glad indeed to leave the old M—, not that she had caused us any greater. /discomforts than are inseparable from a troopship, but the life was getting very monotonous. A short trip in the lighters brought us to the railway wharf, and without any waste of time we were bundled into a train, and set off for Sling. It was a merry crowd on the train that morning. In an hour or two we stopped at Exeter for lunch, where the Mayoress and Ladies’ Committee provided buns for all hands. About four in the afternoon we reached Bulford, which is the nearest the railway goes, at present, to Sling Camp and once disembarked, we shouldered our kits and set off for the camp, which was about ten minutes’ walk so we were told. Well, we walked and walked and still no Sling was in sight, then we walked again, and stopped for a few minutes’ rest, then set off again, but still no Sling appeared, and heavy kits were shifted from shoulder to shoulder in an endeavour to lighten the burden. Then the ranks began to break as stragglers edged to the roadside, too done up to carry on. Another short rest, and then oh again. Sling was now' at hand, and, feeling mighty thankful we straightened up for the march on. But our hopes were dashed to the ground; this was No. 1 Camp, and our destination was No. 4 Camp, about three-quarters of a mile further on. Eventually we reached our “diggings” and paraded in front of headquarters. A short inspection, and wo w r ere dismissed to our huts, but hardly had we dropped our kits w'hen the w'histle went to “fall in.” The smiles of the morning had faded now; they faded still more as time passed. “Spring to it” is hardly forcible enough to describe the way we had to rush, round that first night in Sling. Officers and N.C.O.s were roaring and bellowing everywhere, and the boys were running about drawing rifles and equipment. A brief respite for tea, then fall in again, and so we carried on till 9.30. p.m. We had no M to rock us to sleep that night, and we did not need Any. Reveille at 6.30 next morning saw us tumbling out; breakfast at 7, and parade at 7.30, with full packs. A route march "followed. While at this stage I might remark on the quickness with which all gear, rifles, etc., are issued. There is'no tedious waiting and signing as in New Zealand; the party to whom the gear is to be issued march up to the door, pick what they require as they pass by, then away again. In the matter of clothing it is exactly the same. If anything is required you have but to ask to receive it. On arrival the reinforcement is di-

vided off to the different regiments, one ialf of whom start their course of instruction in the “Bull-ring” the other half carrying on with musketry. After the usual “application” and “rapid fire” at the ranges field exercise are carried out. The first is the “Cockney Sportsman.” After this is “barrage and covering fire.” the sections advancing in turn by rushes, the other section meanwhile Covering their advance by a rapid fire on the enemy, (the targets.) Then comes firing while wearing gas helmets. Looking like fiends in their gas helmets, the boys jump into the trenches and give twelve rounds rapid. At first the helmet gives you a very uncomfortable feckng until you learn to breathe properly, but that soon passes away. On the completion of the musketry course you make your entry into the bull-ring. Each lesson lasts an hour, and by the time you have finished a day here yon have had enough of it I don’t I think I ought to speak of the language of these bayonet fighting instructors. All the instructors, are pretty forcible in their expressions, but those chaps are the last word. In language of a blood curdling nature. For a start they inform you that you are “homeless, friendless, and completely at their mercy, and before the pour has passed you have heard all about what you have to do to the Germans, in language that leaves its impression on your memory. The following appeared in the Journal of the TLZ.E.F., in reference to the training staff at Sling Camp: THE SWEARING OF “THE GEEEN.” jq- ote.—The 0 te. —The Instructional Staff in Sling Camp wear a green armlet with a white ‘/T,” hence their nickname. Some instructors have a habit—though it pains us to admit This nasty, vulgar habit —though we’re curing them of it; They’ve a horrid way cf using many jpithets obscene. And the privates have objections to* The Swearing of the Green,

Tho’ we know know it’s hard to al- i ways keep a manner that’s polite, With a man who really doesn’t know his left hand from his right, Still, remember when instructors have a sense of rising spleen, That privates simply cannot bear The Swearing of the Green. For such conduct, naturally, seems unusually queer, To men who 'never’ use bad words, and never ‘ think ’ of beer. Oh, their innocence is wonderful —such saints they’ve always been Can you wonder that such men dislike The Swearing of the Green. Now, imagine Billy Bludger —a sweet character, we think — Tho’ admittedly his soldiering is mostly done from “clink.” Just ponder on his feelings in a common Bull-ring scene When his shcll-likc ears are poisoned by The Swearing of the Green. And there’s “Kauri Joe,” a Maori, who mainly made his name, By kicking fallen policemen—a most gentlemanly game, Would you have his pure and simple soul robbed of its pearly sheen By such polluting habits as The Swearing of the Green. Now Instructors, one and all of them, mostly surely must agree, That such ruining of innocents should never, never be So we trust that they’ll conduct themselves with much more courteous mein, And privates never more will hear The Swearing of the Green. Before going out in coid wet weather, take NAZOL on sugar. This will keep coughs and colds away. Thousands use NAZOL. Sixty doses 1/6. For Chronic Chest Complaints, Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. 1/6 2/6

“I think we" are far too modest,” said the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives when referring to the need for better advertisement of the Dominion’s products in England. When in England he had been impressed with the necessity for doing a great deal more than had been done. For the present the best advertising New Zealand could hate was to place before the B'ritish public through the newspapers the fact that there were enormonus quantities of meat, cheese and butter Tn ,lSfew Zealand stores awaiting shipment, but this method would not last - after the war. The matter would have to be taken in hand as Australia and Canada had taken it in hand and the Dominion would have to spend as much as those countries in proportion "to the population. '