COLONIALS IN KHAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 103, 24 September 1914, Page 7

COLONIALS IN KHAKI.

60MES GLIMPSES OF CAIIP LIFE. "A GREAT EXPERIENCE." We have been permitted to make tlis following extracts from a 'private letter received in New Plymouth from a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force:— Work here lately has comprised two littlu marches of 14 miles each way, with two nights in the open on each occasion, so that the available time for •orrespondence has been cut into. Then there is washing—which I did yesterday —and mending—which I did this afternoon. The last two days have been mainly occupied with a more or less frenzied attempt at making up full equipments for each man, and with preparing pay rolls, embarkation rolls, etc. I had the satisfaction to-day of ascertaining that I am on the roll of those to go from C Company to the fighting line, and am not amongst those who will liave the consolation of an assured return to home and mother to weigh against the inglorious work of "details for base," namely, the 25 from each company who will stay at our base in France, or elsewhere, to look after baggage, stores and gear while we take our chance among the Teuton bullets. Wonderful how we all rush over each other's heels to the chance of an untimely end, ie it not?

On all hands there is a. feeling ol ; "staleness" after such a long spell of j camp life, but we are all fit, despite epi demies of colds and such minor impediments. Wc have marched our twelve I miles in three hours, and our 28 miles I in two days, wjth, skirmish and attack B " route, and We have slept out of doors on the hard ground. it? awake with frost on our single blankets; and j we have had, on the whole, a very good, healthy time. "Since I came to camp I (have been j drilled by a boot factory hand, owned unquestioning allegiance to a barber's assistant and obeyed the every behest of a bank clerk and a graduate from the turnip fields. Also, and by the way, I have myself drilled and handled squads ! and aided slightly in teaching my fellow men to fear God (and me), honor the King, "form fours," keep their rifles | clean, and their mouths shut. I have i dug drains and pits, stolen firewood, i peeled potatoes, darned socks, refused | 'irate M.P.'s admittance to the troop- . ships, arrested and incarcerated in a f guard tent one drunk and extremely dis- i orderly Imperial reservist, and stood j solitary guard over three such prisoners in a small tent from 2 a.m. till 6 a.m., and seen the humor of things. It is, and will be, a great experience. All the traditions of one's past life arc cast aside, and one is just a unit in the Bri- . tish Army—a man with a number —and | •oue's private mind and opinions arc kept i •in one's kit bag and trotted out for I. exercise when one is off duty.

As to what lies beforo us—well, I agree that we shall see lot work, unless the period of English training which I fully expect is unduly protracted. .... Work in plenty, and dangerous work, no doubt, there will be for us to do, and if you could see the fellows licre you would rest assured that our share will be done. As to the Germans, who could have believed that a nation so high in the scale of so-called civilisation, so lofty in the arts and -sciences could have descended to do tine i.barbarous work of a military maniac in so savage and ruthless a manner? Kaiser Bill the 11. has made the name of his nation stink in the nostrils of the world, and his lesson will be, and shall be, sharp and final. The turning point of Ue war and the cockpit of the strife, will now lie on the German frontier, and it must infallibly be stubborn. Even a rut will fight for his skin, and the Germans have all to lose by defeat.