TERRITORIAL CHAPLAINS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10595, 29 March 1912, Page 5

TERRITORIAL CHAPLAINS

AN OFFICIAL MEMO. (By Telegraph—Pnss Association.) AUCKLAND, Last Night. Colonel Alton Bell, officer commanding the Waik'ato Regiment, in a printed official memo to chaplains attached to Ms regiment, says:—. Chaplains, with a few notable exceptions, have- been a useless excrescence on'the-various regiments, as the class have net displayed any initiative tor ability to strike out on modern lines. They do not seem to recognise that if they are going to do any good 'work they will have to cast aside the useless methods cf the past and work on. lines that appeal 'bo the citizen soldiers of a democratic country. The form-ail service held in military caimps .on Sundays is merely a par- j ado, productive of unuttered proflauity on the part cf most of tililose attending, and doing no really good work for the betterment of the iforces. Colonel Bell suggests that chaplains should not be officers and hold anv military rank. They should be trained to 'the work of running the reginHMitail institiutious of camp life. Military camps -should be made more attractive than: the notel bar or the st-ccts. Beil'iure any gtood win be oVme bv ehan!ia.ins they must oast aside drv /rot, producing obsolete method's, vhidh lower theia' status in the military forces of the Dominion .