THE DEFENCE FORCES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16994, 3 May 1917, Page 6

THE DEFENCE FORCES.

Br Sentry. .Did tho soldiers of the Now Zealand Main Body enlist for a. definite period of three yearsT\ is a. question that has been submitted. The, questioner referred to letters from -two Main Body men, who spoke nf the time of their return being due soon, at the expiry of. the three years for which they assumed they had enlisted. One of the questions in the original attestation form signed by the members of tiio Now Zealand Expeditionary Force includes this clause:— Aro you willing to serve in the Expeditionary Force in or beyond the Dominion of .New Zealand under the following conditions, provided your services should so long be required: For the term of the present 12uropea.ii war, and for such further period as is necessary to bring the Expeditionary Force back to New Zealand and to disband it?"—A clause in the Act runs thu c • ' Tho period of enlistment of n.c.p.'s and men of an Expeditionary Force shall be the duration of the present war with Germany and six months thereafter, or such shorter period as the Governor in any oase thinks nt." Possibly tho correspondents referred to havo confused the term of their enlistment. with the late Lord Kitchener's preparation for a three years' war. Major. F. Waitc, D.5.0., was one of the principal speakers at the Anzac Day celebration hold under the auspices of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association at the Opera House, Wellington. Sir James AUen, -who presided, introduced Major V\aito as "onp ho had known as an excellent officer in the old volunteer days in Utago, and an excellent officer he had P r ?. h\ IT iself in actual warfare, on Gallipoli. • With a splendid sot of slides (mostly from photographs taken by himself) and an historical story to tell at first hand, Major Waite, who, according to the press reports, spoke with graphic' directness and force, was followed with the keenest, interest throughout. His acute sense of the humor--0,'6.> ,a? revealed in tho little sto'ries with which he punctuated his narrative, was also relished. - '

Camp notes not infrequently reflcct the officer viewpoint. Here are the impressions of a young- soldier of tho rank and file wlio attended tho camp of No. 2 Dunedin Field Ainbulancc at Palmerston North:— On account of the -raccs being; held at Awapuni, we camped at the. Palmerston North Show Ground. When we arrived the Expeditionary Force Ambulance men had everything ready for us. Tea was enjoyed after our long trip. The daily routine comprised reveille at 5.0 a:m„ parade from 6 to 7.30 for squad drill: breakfast 7.15 till 7.40; fatigue drill till 8.30; buttons cleaned, boots cleaned, shave, and on parade at 9.15; lecture 9.15 till 10; stretcher drill 10.15 till 11 o'clock; . company drill till 12.15; dinner from 12.15 till 2 o'clock; more squad drill till 3 o'clock; 3 till 4 o'clock physical drill, and plenty of it; 4 o'clock the companies all parade tog-other, and then are dismissed for the day. On Monday night the Expeditionary Force gave a kill. The hall was decorated with the England and her allies. Dancing 'was kept going till midnight. It was a great success. The young ladies of Palmerston North turned out in great numbers. Leave was granted till 2 a.m.—that was if you took the young ladies home. None of tho boys missed that part of the programme. I can tell you. At inspection in the morning, if you have a button undone or your tapes on your put-, tees undone, you have to fall back a pace and_ fix them, and " don't let it happen again." If you do not shave you are up on the mat and fined 2s 6d, so it is not worth while going without a shave when it costs 2s 6u. _On Anzac Day we paraded at 2 o'clock, with greatcoats rolled and boots and buttons cleaned, to take part in the Anzac Day. Headed by the camp band (pipes), the parade moved off for the square to pick up the Territorials and Cadets of Palmerston North. Tho whole then marched, via the main streets, for the Opera House, headed by the Salvation Army Band, the Palmerston North Silver Band, the camp band, and the Cadet Bugle Band. At the Opera House speeches were delivered by the Ma,yor of the town and many prominent citizens on .the glorious work done by our brave soldiers who fought on Gallipoli. After the service was over the parade fell in and marched through the crowded street back to the square, whore we were dismissed with leave till 11 o'clock ■that night. On Thursday there was a Rugby football match, 26th Reinforcements v._ No. 2 Dunedin Territorials. A very friendly game was won by the 26th by 6 points (two tries) to nil.- The 25th Reinforcements played a soccer match against tho No. 2 Dunedin Territorials, and lost by 1 goal to nil. King scored for Dunedin. In the afternoon, headed by the pipe band, we went for a route march to Awapuni and back. The distance was about six miles altogether. We went to see the sanitary arrangements of the camp, and we had everything explained to us by the commandant. In the evening the Dunedin Company, assisted by the Wanganui Company, gave a concert to the Awapuni men, and it was enjoyed by all. On Friday it was pack kits for home. Reveille for us was at 4 o'clock, breakfast at 5.45, and parade at 7 o'clock. The Awapuni men gave us a good send-off. We arrived in Dunedin at 10 o'clock on Saturday night. We, have to thank the commandant, adjutant-, and the instructors and men for tho kindness they have shown.us..in the training, and also for the good time we had off parade. Written by a sapper in the 2nd New Zealand Engineers—a correspondent who has previously illumined this column,—the following illustrates at once the dangers that form the common round of the soldier and the sang froid with which he views them: — It was a nice mild morning, and the sun was shining, presaging the glorious spring weather soon to be ours. We were undergoing a little bit of training just outside our billets, and thinking how much better ■it would have been had we been having a rest from all things military, when out of the sky came a familiar warning, and two shells, passing over, dropped in the field across the road,

" After those batteries again." remarked our officer. "They are still a shade right." Some little time after a single shell came humming over. We turned lazily to watch where it would land, and instead of the usual cloud of dirt which accompanies the explosion wo saw a great red flame shoot up and felt a mighty concussion. " Landed the ammunitiory, shouted someone, and all laziness vanished. We made a dive for cover as the great lumps of frozen earth, pieces of shell, and other debris.came crashing down. The roofs for 300 yards round were all broken by the falling pieces, and the poor frightened women and children came running out on to the roads. We thought it inadvisable to continue our training ior a bit, an untrained soldier being considered preferable to a badly bent one. Only two more shells came over, and the firing ceased. , ' ''Aha!" remarked the wiseacres. "A spy ! _ Tho explosion occurred, and he just had time to get the message through when the firing ceased." Gradually tho inner man drew us back to our billet again, and lunch time found us with a full mess. Wo had hardly finished our third course and sent the waiter out for our coffee and cigarettes, when "Crunsh! crunsh!" came two more shells, shaking our bairn. " Hullo! They are at it again," said the corporal. "We may as well go out and see the fun. Besides, if one drops short— l -" But we were already out: This time old Fritz was in earnest. In came tho shells as fast as his battery could reload and train its guns. No sooner had one shell burst than the whino of tho next one caught tho ear. Then he commenced searching. Searching is a very discomposing ' operation (for the fellow that is being searched for). First, tho range is lengthened, then shortened, then to the left, then to the right. One never knows where tho next shell is going to land. Two landed alarmingly close, one on our "side of tho road.

"By jove!" said one, "I'm going to hop into these demonstration, trenches. I'm not hankering after a ' Blighty,' and—well, I lovo my wife"; and gradually even tho most foolhardy sought the friendly shelter of the trench. From it, even, we had a pretty good view of the object of Fritz's iiatred. Occasionally, when one fell close, wo had to duck while the ' fragments whinged over. The officers' quarters were over the road, and nearer the battery than ours.

"I say," said one of tho officers, "you and Smith toss tip to see who'll go over to the mess and bring our lunch over here " "No tossing up required," replied, the other laconically, and then ducked as an approaching shell sounded ominously near. "Oh that's well over!" reassured one of the sappers as the shell exploded across the rqad. "All very well for you to philosophise oyer it, 'Thompson," returned an officcr, 'but my bivvie used to be over there somewhere." '

. Just then one of our .fellows came hurrvmg over from the billets. "That List one was a bit too hot for me," ho explained; it fell in between the cookhouso and the officers' mess," at which announcement the officers turned a bit pale, and began speculating as to the extent of 'damage that the mess; had incurred. The most awful suggestion was that the cheese had got shellshock. Strangely enough, that was the last shel! that fell. Wo were soon out of our refuge and examining the effect of the bombardment. Miraculously enough, neither our nor the officers' billets had received any material damage, so again the pessimists were disappointed. The only one who thought he had cause for grievance

■was that sapper who had in the morning 6pread his blanket out ,to air, and in the evening discovered it in tho topmost branches of a tree, and so full' of holes as not to bo worth climbing after. But what about the battery? Well, Fritz would like to know that. I can only say that just after midnight tha.t night we were wakened by suspicious sounds of heavy traffic on the road, and that next morning tho empty battery position half a mile ' up the road was found to have guns in it, and* from the way these guns. were firing there appeared to be nothing wrong with ill ' I'm not an. artilleryman, and the heavy traffic sounds may have been merely the distorted effect upon a sleepy. JJ™. ° noi sy rat keeping its teeth in yourself alows? You musfc judge for TV^'j 10 • ', ntorosfc i n g instructions concerning f cam P s ,*re published in genersS w*h J™* )SSUcd ' ? nd compliance fhoin ;? Js enjoined. In acoordance with i I . ns,tr . uctl l ons tl: e syllabus of training y ,lc l adc l ua,t «s is to be closely act J a "d any attempt upon the part <?f unit commanders to proceed to higher training • before _ the squad section and other minor training of a unit is entirely satisfaotory must be rigidly discouragod. A crusade against inefficiency on the part of officers and non-commissioned officers ia indicated in the following instructions:— Officers, who aro obviously unfitted to instruct will be placed in a. squad and drilled by the sergeant-major of a unit until passed as efficient by the adjutant. They are not to • be permitted to drill a unit until so qualified. The practice of permitting young officers to assume the control of a unit on parade, or the role of ia spectator, niust be abolished. Non-commissioned officers who are not qualified to instruct will be pjaced in a squad under the best available instructor until passed as efficient - bj* the adjutant. They will not be per-' mitted to drill a, unit until si) qualified. . . It is obviously better than one efficient instructor give good and practical instruction to a hundred soldiers than four incapabje instructors give bad and useless instruction to. the same number. Inexperienced officers and non-commissioned officers must not be to experiment and practise upon inexperienced soldiers. The practice of permitting a large number of all . ranks to escape 'training by unnecessary fatigues, guards, and other duties in camp, ' and of allowing; officers' servants and mess, orderlies to remain off all parades has to be stopped. duties in camp, such as those of cooks and sanitary men, \ which keep soldiers from attending parades, should be fulfilled by trained men. One officer's servant only should be allowed to remain off parade, who ; will be responsible for all the officers' tents, and all mess' orderlies, with-* the exception of those absorlutely necessary, should attend every parade. In one camp recently it was found that over 50 men were idling, in camp during training hours. In a well-organised battalion of 1000 • men the maximum number of soldiers allowed off parade or camp duties would be under ,20. To allow untrained soldiers to escape, training in this manner is most reprehensible.