18 AUGUST 1939, Page 6

Echoes from Territorial camps come drifting in. The last Friday

in most camps is pay-day, and the men are more than ready for a little relaxation, and the money to pay for it. Last Friday a certain battery, which had been hard at work since early morning, was ordered to parade for pay at 6 p.m. Duly presenting themselves at six, the men were told to come back at eight. That pretty much wrecked the evening in any case, so that it mattered less than it might when at eight they were told there was no money available, but they would get it the next morning. Simple inefficiency? Or a dodge to keep the men in camp? Or the belief that it was in good army tradition to give the men something to grouse about? Incidentally (the connexion is not obscure) I am told that, to judge from one camp at any rate, the Territorials seem to make a point of emulating the regulars In the incredible violence of their language. That, I know I shall be told, is an outrageous libel. It is not. I make no general charge. There may be only one camp in the king- dom where bad language is ever used. But from that one have received a convincing report from an entirely reliable Witness whom lurid epithets rarely perturb. In the last fortnight he has learned a lot.

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