The Tented Field Taking it all round, the Territorial camp
from which I have just retuned was the best in the battalion's experience. The weather was almost flawless, the accommodation was good and the training area was extensive and well-found. Also, of course, the battalion itself makes more sense than it did in the early days of the National Service intake; so that during training muddles and delays are less endemic than they used to be, and a vague sense of achievement is sometimes avail- able to those who have a use for it. But even this camp shared with all its predecessors one major drawback, which was that for the first four days no one had enough to -eat. This always happens. On paper it is perfectly sensible, if you expect 700 men to arrive at Severdfrog Heath Camp for a sojourn of two weeks, to issue them every day with 700 rations; and if there existed at Severdfrog Heath Camp a permanent staff of experienced cooks, adequate cookhouses and arrangements whereby the meals could be served expe- ditiously to the men, this system would work. But in fact one of these amenities does exist, and you will never, by dumping 700 rations in bulk on the Quartermaster, enable him to produce satisfactory meals for 700 extremely hungry men until he and his staff have had time to get the primitive cooking and serving arrangements' organised in the light of experience and of the fluctuating requirements of the training programme. The -remedy would be to start every camp off with an expendable reserve of (say) 48 hours' rations in hand. I don't suppose the bureaucrats would entertain this idea, but it would work.
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