SHIFTING CAMP.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1915, Page 4

SHIFTING CAMP.

TROOPS MOV IXO TO NEW QUARTERS. (By Wire.—Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Last Night. "What stampeded the Uovernment'/" was the question to lit) heard 011 all sides in tlie lobbies of I'iirliament, When members began to assemble to-day. Yesterday afternoon the -Minister for Defence and iiis weie insisting (as the;,- had done for weeks past) that there was nothing wrong with the camp at Trent/ham, and a lew' hours later tliey were arranging to move every soldier from the plate. In the interval the Ministers had received the report of a committee of military and medical experts regarding this cunt)), und they had heard the views of the lieform 'members as expressed at a caucus. The deduction is obvious. Either the Ministers yielded against their better judgment to party 'pressure or else they discovered that they had blundered, and that the carap really vr'aa the dangerous disease-laden spot that Dr. 'Phaoker, M.P., and other critics 'had stated it to be. The Minister for Defence, the Hon. J. Allen, informed your correspondent late this afternoon that tflis sew arrangements were working smoothly. The men vrero being moved fcway from the camp in detachments, and lie believed that Bomo thousand*) of thorn would Inoccupying now quartor* to-night. The rapidity with 'which thn movement IIIIA been planned and executed was a demonstration of t'lio efficiency of the military organisation that) the <Vminion had created largely sinco tiia outbreak of the war. An inexperienced staff and raw troops could not possibly 'have- undertaken so extensive an operation at such short notice. The change that had been mado wiu going to Involve a good many difficulties. Tha fact had to be faced, for example, t'hat the distribution of the troops over several camps was "oing to place a Before 'handicap upon the training staff, -which had already been taxed to the full. The new campß would lack many convenience* which had been provided at Trenthiim, and which could not be duplicated elsewhere at short notice, but tha diiljoulties would be overcome.