TRENTHAM INQUIRY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IV, Issue 429, 7 August 1915, Page 6

TRENTHAM INQUIRY.

SCARES AND PSYCHONECROLOGY. BONDS OF DISCIPLINE BROKEN DOWN. Wellington. Aug. 6. The Trentham inquiry was continued to-day. Colonel (’. M. Gibbon. Chief of General Staff, said he considered Trentham camp suitable in every wax . He had been in ( amp on Salisbury Plain, and elsewhere in England, where there was much more mud for drilling purposes. Five thousand men could be handled in the vicinity of the Trentham camp. Colonel Gibbon continued: "In all my soldiering 1 have been taught that the great principle is t<> handle men from the psy chologh-al point of x iew. In a cholera eamp. for instance. the whole aim should be to keep tlte men’s spirits up. On June iisth when, t<> my personal know ledge, Colonel Valintine was working day and night, we had people coming out to the camp and instead of assisting us by doing work themselves wo found every endeavour made in the

press to find fault with what we were doing and to impress on the men that they were not being properly < Hooked after to try and break down' the bonds of discipline, with the result that on July Ist we had a record number of men admitted to hospital. If you applied the same principle to a cholera camp you xyould have half the regiment dead in a few days. How are we to carry on I the training of recruits in this counit ry if we are to have the whole of the Press and other people trying to impress on tlm minds of the men j that everything we do is wrong; that they are absolutely neglected .’ The result will be that we shall lose all hold over the men. All this outer}' has had an immense effect on the 7th reinforcements, and Trentham Regiment. I put down 50 per cent of the sickness to the effect this outcry has had on the men. It is quite true that complaints should be j looked into. When we don’t try to rectify them it is time for a public i outcry. If we are going to continue ! to handle men at all we should have | the chance to do it, and the whole of our discipline and authority should t not be undermined, as has been ( done.” |