CAMBRIDGE CAMP

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 91, 14 October 1940, Page 9

CAMBRIDGE CAMP

HUNT CLUB RACES

INTERRUPTION OF TRAINING

(Special to the "Evening Post.") CAMBRIDGE, October 13. The necessity for "the 500 Territorials at present in camp at the Cambridge racecourse having to vacate their quarters for the Labour Day meeting is causing considerable concern in the district. It is evident from the. structural and other alterations made to the course that considerable work will be involved, both in getting it ready for the hunt meeting and in readapting it for camp use afterwards. Already more than £1100 has been spent in adapting the course for military purposes.

Partitions have been built in the secretary's office to convert it into an orderly, room. The space under the grandstand is now the officers' mess. The totalisator building has been completely stripped inside, arid is now filled with trestle tables for the troops' mess. At the back of the totalisator, a large cookhouse has been erected. It has a concrete floor, and is equipped with two very large ovens. MUCH WORK INVOLVED. j Part of the public bar has been conj verted into a recreation room, and the ! remainder has been floored in concrete (preparatory to conversion into a shower room. A large boiler to ensure a plentiful supply of hot water is being installed. Several large marquees have been erected in front of the totalisator to give additional messing room. These will have to be dismantled and re-erected after the meeting.

Without equipment such as groundsheets and. field' kitchens, it is not possible to take the men on trek during the Labour Day weekend. Being drawn from various parts of. the province as far south as Taumarunui, it is not practicable to send the men home for the weekend. It is considered 'that at least three days will be required to dismantle the camp sufficiently to allow the course to be used for the meeting. Another three days will be required to make the camp fit for reoccupation. Realising the difficulties which will be occasioned by the holding of races at Cambridge on Labour Day, the Waikato Hunt Club has done everything possible to . get permission to change the venue of the meeting, but without result.

In reply to a protest to the Minister of Internal Affairs by the Mayor of Cambridge, Mr. Edgar James f the Minister gave an assurance that "the Territorial training of men at the Cambridge course would in no way suffer serious interference by the holding of the meeting there."