AN ARTILLERYMAN’S TRIP HOME

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11667, 12 September 1916, Page 6

AN ARTILLERYMAN’S TRIP HOME

IN CAMP AT SALISBURY. The following letter has been received from his brother by a member of the Expeditionary Force now in camp. Writing from the Military Camp at Salisbury, dated July 81st, he says:—-“Very likely you won’t get this beforeJyon leave New Zealand, but I’ll give it a go. It took us exactly eight weeks to get here. We had a, very decent voyage, and I wasn’t a bit sick, but we were beginning to get a, bit tired of the sea. We disembarked at Plymouth on the 2Gth and were brought straight en to this place, which is on Salisbury Plains. The last few days on the ship were a hit more exciting as there were supposed to be a lot of submarines about and we were dodging them, bat we didn’t get a smell of them. We had a 13ponnder quickfiring gun waiting for them and 60 men with rities always on guard, and no lights allowed on the ship, and we were well prepared for them. This is a tremendous big camp. I haven’t seen the end of it yet. It is something Jafter the style of Trentham and seems a decent enough place so far. The officers "here, though, shake the tar ont of you. You’re frightened to look at them for fear they’ll put you iu the clink. It took about an hour to read out the laws of the camp. Most of the infantry are somewhere in France. (-The British have a big base camp over there and the infantry finish training there. They come back to England for seven days’ leave before going • into, the firing line. We will also get leave before we go over there. I don’t know, when that will ba, perhaps, not for a long while unless they do as is rumoured, and that is to put us in with the Tommies, There are lots of aeroplanes about here; they are buzzing about over the camp all day, especially in the early morning and evening. There is a flying school‘somewhere near here. I tnink the huts they have here would get blown away if they were in Featherston as they are flimsy affairs. All the drill is done here in full-dress uniform, and if you happen to leave a button undone or don’t shine them up they come down on you like a heap of bricks (I mean the Sergt.-Majors and officers). We have to grow a mow whether we like it or not, and shave the rest every day. We were all inoculated for typhoid the other day. It’s not bad getting it done, but it is rotten afterwards for about 4b hours. We ■have done again in a week and again every six months. It makes you feel very stiff and sore next day; still it’s nothing much; its all in the soldier’s life and you get a day’s holiday. This place is 78 miles from London, and it takes the train an hour and a half to go there. The trains don’t waste any time here. 1 must end now, [hoping yon have a real good voyage. Perhaps I’ll see you either here or in France. England is a grand place for a holiday ; only everything is just as dear as New Zealand.