NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1915, Page 3

NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

THE RECRUITING BOARD. RETURNED SOLDIERS' HANDBOOK. DESTINATION OF THE "TRENTS." - < (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 22. The first meeting of the new Recruiting Board will be held during the next day or two, if the Minister for Finance (Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward) is able to attend. Sir Joseph has been laid up for the past eight days or so with a slight illness, and though he was able to visit his office to-day, he is not yet fully recovered. The first business of the Board will be tUie appointment of officers, headed by a secretary. When the Board is directing the operations of scores of recruiting organisations and is receiving reports from all over the country regarding the progress of the campaign, the secretary will be a very busy man There will be a contral recruiting office in Wellington, with an adequate clerical staff. The Defence Department has just issued a "Returned Soldiers' Handbook," containing all the instructions, directions, and information that the man is likely to need after he returns from the front. The boCk has some fifty closely printed pages, and it seems to answer all the questions that the returned soldiers have been asking during recent months. People who are accustomed to the manner of the military man will not be surprised at the introductory note:— "Every returned soldier will be held responsible that he makes himself acquainted with these instructions. Ignorance will not be accepted for an excuse. . . . Soldiers must clearly understand that the instructions given in this pamphlet are only provisional, and may be varied without notice at any time." The soldier who has to maintain an intimate knowledge of instructions that may be varied without notice at any time appears to be in something of a difficulty. News of the movements of the first two battalions of the Rifle Brigade, I which, left here on October 9, ought to be available for publication shortly. It seems to be a matter of general knowledge now that the "Trents" did not go to Egypt, and that their ultimate destination was not Gallipoli. Letters that have come to liand, after being passed by the censor, indicate that the transports which conveyed this force reached points not previously visited by New Zealand troops. But no announcement has been made yet regarding the whereabouts of the riflemen. Inquiries on the subject in Defence circles are received with a profession of entire ignorance.