The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1913. "OUR BOYS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 280, 18 April 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1913. "OUR BOYS."

The annual training camp in connection with the Territorials will start at Oringi to-day, so far as the Wellington district, of which Taranaki is a unit, is concerned. The camp has already been opened for the four days' extra training of those who have not attended the statutory number of drills during the year. We cre< sorry to learn that the opening has been marred by a display of misbehaviour that is liable to discredit all the men connected with the movement. V telegram from Dannevirke reports that on Tuesday night about a hundred nen on leave from the camp visited the town and painted it a very pretty shade of red. Their conduct in the streets is reported to have been disgraceful. Women and girls, wc are told, were the objects of coarse remarks, and the pandemonium caused was heard half a mile away. On returning to camp by train the revels were continued, several windows being broken by youths under the influence of drink, drawing from the guard of the train the statement that "the conduct was worse than a Maori's at a taligi. 1 shouldn't have liked to have had the mess to clean up." Quite naturally a number of arrests followed Ytheit the men reached camp. But this, of course, will not allay the natural aiiScie'ty of parents as to what the camps are to be. This is the first big camp for the Wellington brigade since the Territorial scheme.came into operation, aYid we are anxious that it should be a success, in the interests of . the whole movement. H must be remembered that tlve men who have created the preliminary disturbance are those who have failed to attend the stipulated number of drills during the year, and that they have been putting in what is practically punishment service. Probably they include a number 'of young fellows who are giving their service against their will, and who are adapting these methods of protest, along lines similar to those of the militant English suffragettes. But their action is, calculated to bring the whole of the movement into disrepute, and it remains for the main body .cf the eanip to -see that its general prestige is properly maintained. Several hundred young men will depart from Taranaki this morning to join the camp, and we hope that they will leave with a proper sense of their responsibilities. The Territorial camps, are not. in any sense picnics or pleasure excursions. They are intended for work of a serious nature, arid while nobody will grudge these citizen soldiers of ours a little relaxation in camp interludes, we sincerely trust that the Taranaki men will realise that they are "on duty," and that they hold in their hands not only the-sanctity l 6f their own homes and theii" own people, but the honor of the province. The Territorial movement is not playing at soldiering; it is 'preparing for soldiering, and it has to be taken, seriously. The men must .accept the' Act in the patriots gpirit in which'it l was'framed, and if Ihey are not prepared to do so they will probably find , that the powers that J><\ instead of continuing their present • considerate attitude, will see-that the innis enforced 'down to its strictest letter, and that privileges that have been accorded will be. summarily stopped,' There can be no kid-glove administration in a movement of this sort. We are sparing our boys cheerfully'enough,'though in many cases at considerable inconvenience, and We are desirous that they should realise that they are oil' on work that is of far-reaching importance, work that affects not a township or a province, but that 'has its hearing on the whole of the world's politics. The camp at Oringi impinges 011 the peace of the world, and we trust that our Taranaki boys will realise this fullsand comport themselves aecordiiiglv.