DISCOURAGING THE VOLUNTEERS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12479, 16 April 1906, Page 6

DISCOURAGING THE VOLUNTEERS.

The operations in which the volunteers have boon engaged at Balmoral appear to have been of a. useful character, and to have been carried out ivith considerable success. In this re?prct tho camp will help to encourage volunteering by.inducing men to stick to their corps. Nothing disgusts volunteers so much as being trifled with in camp, wasting time by manoeuvres the futility of which is perfectly obvious even to tlio recruits, while, on the other hand, no objection is mado to hard work if the men realise that it has some definite aim, and ie useful training for what may occur in war time. But (here Rooms a tendency, in carrying out Easter manoeuvres under ''Service conditions." to imitate too faithfully the hardships of real campaigning. It might be necessary, in the CBi?e of an enemy's raid, to transport troops in covered trucks under conditions of extreme discomfort. But there ie no ser.se in compelling three or four hundred volunteers in peace time to sit and .shiver in such conveyances for nearly five hours of a tediously slow journey with the thermometer below freezing point, which describes the condition of tilings on the journey to Culverden. We do not know who is responsible for causing the men such wholly unnecessary suffering, but whoever is to blame should bo made to understand very clearly that the health of the volunteers miir-t-not bo endangered in that way again. If the resource*? of the Kail way Department are unequal to providing second-claps carriages for the rank-and-file on such occasions, the Defence Department should so arrange its Easter camps as to be independent of the railway altogether. Other details of the management of the Balmoral camp appear to leave something to be desired, for, although the mounted men already in camp did what they could to help in getting the tents ready for the infantry, some of the latter, when they at last reached the camp, had to sleep on the Ijare ground. To men who wero already "cold, weary, and worn out,' , this must have been a miserable ending to a wretched journey. Matters seem to have been managed somewhat bettor in South Canterbury, though even there the men had to travel in covered trucks. The effect of the mismanagement at lialmoral will ten:l to dishearten and diegitft even volunteers who are keen on their work.