THE TERRITORIALS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 57, 9 March 1914, Page 7

THE TERRITORIALS.

THIS YEAR’S GAMES. Following are extracts from a special district order regarding camps, issued by the O.C. Wellington district:— Units having musketry to complete m camp during the first four days, must bring in their own targets, ammunition and musketry appliances. Blank Ammunition. —80 rounds per rifle, 30 per IS pounder, and 20 per Howitzer will ho reserved for the inspection of the troops by the In-spector-General Oversea Forces. The compensation paid at Oringi last year was very heavy. The majority of the damage was duo to gates being loft' open or fences pulled down and stock getting mixed. It is imperative that steps should be taken to stop this. Every Squadron, Battery- and Company should tell off a small permanent party whose duty it should be to see ttyat all gates are closed, all fences repaired and staples replaced. In the absence of a permanent party, the duty devolves on no one in particular, as the O.C. Squadron, etc., has many other things to think about, and the result is that damage is done and the goodwill of landowners and farmers is lost.

A supply of maps of the Manoeuvre Area will be issued sufficient for every Officer and Sergeant to have one. Every possible use should be made of the comparatively rare opportunity to study a contoured map with rei'er>nce to the. actual ground. Several claims for .'compensation have been received, in respect of kits or baggage, lost in transit to and from last year’s Camps. Os.C. Units mould issue any instructions deemed accessary to ensure proper supervision if Territorials’ personal effects, when in transit, not under their personal mire, to prevent loss and minimise ■laims for compensation. In this connection it is noted that claims, in some instances, included portmanteaux or travelling bags, and Units should bo induced, where kit bags are not available, to adopt a uniform system of packing blankets aid other personal Camp necessaries in a piece of American cloth or other 'heap waterproof material. Claims received reveal that the personal articles taken to camp were not restricted' to uniform essentials, i.e., ilankets, change of underclothing, spare, pair of hoots, etc. ( .Definite instructions should be issued defining the personal effects necessary, and 1 s to what should be carried in haversack or packed in kit. Definite in4ructions, should also bo issued as "■gards marking and addressing kits. Brier to entraining or embarking all kits should be inspected in this connection by the Office or N.C.O. in ■banre of each detachment.

In any future case of loss, compensation will not be recommended : n respect of any articles in excess' of oho necessary list laid down.

As regards transit, where small 'todies of troops are proceeding, and it is possible for the men to retain their kits in their own custody, no further action is necessary, and men must bo hold personally responsible for any loss, but in the case of larger bodies on crowded trains, etc., where necessary to load kits and hag>;age into luggage vans or trucks, an flicieut and uniform system of conrol should be established in all cases. This does not moan simply the nounting of a formal baggage guard, but proper checking on loading and unloading, systematic loading and stacking of baggage for the different units, at various detraining stations, and thorough arrangements should he made in all cases to ensure this. On troop trains, etc., or where special carriages, trucks and vans are reserved for Military purposes, the Railway authorities cannot he hold responsible for baggage not consigned and checked in the usual manner, and any loss resulting from neglect to ensure strict supervision ami custody of its members’ baggage should, properly speaking, fall on the unit concerned itself, and not the Department, unless the circumstances were not under tho unit’s control.