HUGE BUSINESS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 198, 22 August 1942, Page 4

HUGE BUSINESS

THE MODERN CAMP

QUARTERMASTER'S JOB

, well, house them well, clothe them well—those are the three basic essentials in the complicated business of turning a civilian into a soldier.

That is the foundation upon which training is built up in the Dominion's largest inland camp, and in their capacity of universal providers it is the daily job of the camp quartermaster and his staff to ensure that every one of the thousands of soldiers in camp is properly fed. quartered and outfitted, on the principle that a soldier with a grouch is poor training material.

/I tb, 0 business of war this army establishment represents an investment of hundreds of thousands of pounds in construction alone, and the maintenance of its material assets at peak efficiency is in the hands of the camp quartermaster, working in conjunction with the Public Works Department—buildings, roadways, power plant, water supply, sewerage system, fire fighting service and numerous minor details.

Many more thousands of pounds are involved in the daily turnover of food and supplies, and though the final distribution is made progressively through unit quartermasters' stores, both the initial and final responsibility for efficient arfd equitable disbursement is the camp quartermaster's.

In this military municipality, largely self-contained because of its isolation, the quartermaster's branch takes over the new recruit as soon as he has been checked into camp. Most drafts, up to a thousand at a time, arrive at night, and the first maxim, "feed 'em well," is applied at once by the provision of a hot meal in the mess rooms.

Quartering has already been worked out and the newcomers file out from their first army meal to their huts under the guidance of n.c.o.'s. Each man's place has been marked, and on it is waiting his palliasse (which is army for mattress), plus issue of blankets. Assembling of Hats A newly developed type of portable hut is rapidly replacing tcntage in this camp, and the assembling of these is one of the jobs the camp quartermaster has in hand at present.

On the new recruit's first day in this camp he sheds his civilian guise and is fitted out with his army issue of clothing and equipment. "Clothe 'em well" is interpreted literally here. No effort is made to break records by putting as many men as possible through the clothing store in the shortest possible time. The idea is to give each man the best possible individual fit, so that there will not be a series of "change parades" later to replace hastily fitted clothing.

Such changes not only involve losji of time, but are economically wasta* ful, because if clothing is worn anc? then has to be changed it becomes second-hand, and must be overhauled and fumigated before being put on issue again. This procedure is followed in all cases; for instance, when a man is discharged and hands back his equipment to the army; but by careful fitting in the first place much unnecessary reconditioning is avoided in the ordinary way. First item of army wear which the new recruit tries out are the

socks, and he must wear the army issue while being fitted with his army boots. Because a man takes a certain size in civilian footwear, that does not necessarily mean that his army size will be the same. Most men do not wear such heavy-weight socks as the army provides, and most of them are not used to wearing heavy Having got what they consider a fit, the men are sent outside in their new boots to run about in them as a final test.

From the boot section the n«w recruits move down the long counter of the clothing store, gradually shedding their civilian clothes and replacing them with army issue. First item handed over is a canvas kit bag, which is a man's suitcase, wardrobe, secretaire and general hold-all while he is in the army, and into it in succession go his cast-off civilian gear and the army clothing he does not don immediately.

Having received his underwear the new recruit moves on to receive his battle dress, cap, hat, greatcoat and ground sheet, and at each section the fit is carefully checked. In battle dresses 30 sizes are carried, a range sufficient to meet most of the vagaries of the human form, but should a man have one of those perverse figures which stock sizes can make no provision for, he is measured and a uniform is made specialfy for him. If only minor alterations to a standard size are needed to get a fit the work is done in the camp tailoring shop, another branch of the quartermaster's section. £40 Worth of Equipment Having come into the clothing store a civilian, the army's new hand emerges at the other end in uniform. He is on the way to being made a soldier. Before he leaves the store his issue is checked under the supervision of an officer of the unit to which he has been posted, and he signs for more than £20 worth of clothing and blankets. By the time the new recruit has received the rest of his gear—web, haversack, rifle, respirator, tin hat and the like—he has been debited with nearly £40 worth of material on his clothing and equipment card.

There are always about 1500 complete outfits and 8000 pairs of boots, £30,000 worth, held in the clothing store, and as stocks are distributed they are replenished from what is virtually the camp quartermaster's warehouse, the ordnance store, which handles not only clothing ana equipment in bulk, but also a wide variety of other material.

The movement of the vast amount of food and material involved in a camp of this size and type is the subject of constant check to prevent losses and leakages. There is a continual internal audit by the section headquarters itself, and in addition an independent investigation is carried out periodically—but not at fixed intervals—by the audit department.

In the wide sweep of activities which make up the daily job of the quartermaster's section, there are many—such as the rationing svstem, cooking methods, etc.—which can only be dealt with in separate articles. Here the idea has been to give you some general idea of the size of the job involved in providing for thousands of men gathered together in a modern camp. When all the factors are considered—initial cost, upkeep, quantity of stores handled, and the value of the human material involved—it is no exaggeration to say that this establishment is a £1,000,000 enterprise in the business of war. The dividends which its resources are made to pay are the most important dividends a nation can have these days—a steady output of thousands of keen and efficient soldiers.