BRITISH SOLDIERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 122, 5 March 1936, Page 9

BRITISH SOLDIERS.

A HAPPIER LIFE. To increase the number of recruits the Army Council is to provide greater comfort and more attractive facilities for soldiers, states a writer in the "Daily Telegraph." The changes now in progress include better accommodation, well-planned restaurants, swimming baths. Opportunities for sport, with wellequipped grounds, are already available for the troops on a far more lavish scale than in civil life. There are cycles .of good and bad recruiting, which are just as difficult to account for as cycles of trade. Over a period of years, however, the Army has been able to obtain, roughly, the numbers that it required. There have been disturbing influences. The entry of a young and popular service like the Royal Air Force into the market has undoubtedly produced competition where, the Army had previously a monopoly. There is, too, the question of the standard of living. It has not always been easy, therefore, for the Army to make the amenities in barracks' and married quarters keap pace with the increased comfort in civil life, for reconstruction on a large scale is expensive. The recruits are far more carefully selected than they used to be in the days when I joined the Army, and the higher standard is no doubt partly responsible for recruits not being so plentiful. The public as a whole has not yet realised what an admirable institution the Army is. The annual regimental "At Homes" have been a revelation to parents of how much is done for the soldier. , The mechanisation now taking place will add enormously to the interest of the soldier's life and help to provide h i m AV ith a trade. The vocational training centres also teach trades to 3000 men a year, and more than 70 per cent, of them get jobs immediately they leave the Army. Publicity regarding what the Army really is cannot fail to ho tho best recruiting agent.