Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 23
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[Page 23]
every available opportunity of proceeding home & seeing friends was taken advantage of to the fullest extent.
As a rule the time spent in the Training Camp "at Home", is easily the most pleasant, the soldier has & so for months the time sped merrily along till the improvement in the training clearly indicated that our stay was soon likely to be very short, but one incident occurred while our Company was in Camp that brought about a lot of trouble & damaged the public good opinion the soldiers had created.
A new office had been created Inspector General of all Expeditionary Forces, and one of the very first acts that the officer holding this position, did, was to give notice that it was his intention to extend the hours of drill & curtail largely the leave granted, also that every man was to pay the full Railway fare when proceeding to Sydney. Hitherto soldiers had been, carried free, although willing to pay say 1/- per week they would not pay 1/- per trip, & on refusing always referred the Ticket Collector to "Kitchener".
As an indication of how the men felt about this suggested innovation the following may be related.
On Christmas Eve 70 members of D Coy 4th Battn had been taken to Sydney for the day, to act as markers for certain units, who were firing their Musketry Class tests, at Long Bay & at about 4'oclock in the afternoon a telephone message was received from Head Quarters at Liverpool by the Officer in Charge, saying that owing to some difficulty these 70 men were to be asked to volunteer to act as Camp Guards on Christmas Day.
The Officer explained & put the matter before the men saying that Tuesday following would be given as a holiday instead of Christmas Day, the men notwithstanding that every one had made arrangements for spending Christmas Day (some in the Country) all