CLEARING THE CAMP.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 March 1917, Page 7

CLEARING THE CAMP.

WILL THE WAR END THIS YEAR? Lieut. A. C. A. Sexton, of Mount Albert, who was wounded on the Somme and invalided to England, in the course of a chatty letter home remarked that he was acting-adjutant of thc.Rifle Brigade in Sling Camp, and found the work very interesting and useful from the point of view of experience. Orders had just come in that all trained men were to proceed overseas, am! the brigade officers had been very busy getting out rolls, completing equipment, and arranging medical inspection. The whole Xew Zealand group was beingi cleaned out of men. Nearly 500 men left the camp for the trenehes. The best considered .opinion in Britain was that the war would end this year. Everything was now being put on a' satisfactory basis, and the army would be free to develop its full strength. There was no doubt but that they could break the (.Jeriuan line this- spring whenever and wherever they wanted to, the uncertain factor being the distance that could he penetrated after the break through. That, of course, could only be determined by trial. This year there would ho many times the number of guns available that there were on the Somme, and the Army was much more experienced.