Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-09-26
CAMP MEADE men
FIRST TO co ABROAD
VIII See Service In Europe Before
February l, 1918.
TRAINING In BACK OF LINES
indications Point To Much American
Activity on Western Front
By April !
IN BACK OF LINES


Iected men being trained on Mary
land soil, will be the soldiers from
Camp Meade, who viii probably be
sent 10 France by February first
This statement was given out IN
officially by an army officer familiar
with the workings OF the Department
at Washington.
1t was explained that these men
will be taught only the rudiments of
soldiery here discipline, carriage,
regulations-an viii be given also
an insight into the modern methods
of warfare. Then they will be taken
back OF the battle lines, where their
course OF instruction viii be intensive
and where they win have the environ
ment and the enthusiasm to get into
the melee.
No Let-up At Home.
All of the environments will be going
concerns. Certain details Of officers
and men will remain during the pc
riod of the war, but the officers and
men who go to make up the fighting
units will be sent away as early as
expediency permits and other selected
men will be sent to fill the gaps. 1t
is said to be the purpose of the mill
tary authorities to have a very large
army (for military reasons numbers
are not given) in France by the first
of April and during the period of the
war TO keep the environments filed
with men being trained for service.
This officer explained that all idea
that the war will be of short dura-
ton, with few casualties for Ameri-
cans, is wrong, and that it is the duty
of Americans to awaken to the cold.
hard truth of the situation He has
been abroad as a military observer,
and he declared that Germany was
in a position to put one million fresh
men into the fight every year. For
obvious reasons, he explained, Ger
many has kept down her census fig
ures, and that instead of having a
population Of seventy million there
are at least one hundred million.
This officer also confirmed the re-
port taht Major General Joseph e.
Kuhn, the commandant at Camp
Meade, could have been made chief
of staff, but that ne asked to be per-
mitted to remain in his present ca
pacity so that he could later take the
field against the Germans. General
Kuhn spent several years in Germany
during the early period of the war,
and it is understood that he has some
scores against the Kaiser, which he
would like to count.
Camps To BE Enlarged.
1t was announced that the canton
ment is TO be enlarged, and when COM
pleted it will provide for fully As
900 officers and men. There will be
five regiments of infantry formed from
the selected men; -four regiments OF
artillery and one regiment of en-
gineers. III addition trench mortar
batteries and other fighting units will
be organized.
The military authorities have let it
be known by their acts that all forms
of gambling have been tabooed on
the reservation. Sunday night score
of worlxmen were discovered playing
poker and "rollin' the bones" A de-
tachment from the Tenth New York
Infantry. swooped down upon the
gamblers and they were turned over
to the Anne Arundel county authori-
ties to be prosecuted under the State
laws In the. past those worlmen
caught gambling have been ordered
off the reservation and not permitted
to return. 1t was found that this was
entirely too lenient way to deal with
them.
A corps of medical experts from the
Medical Reserve Corps have been or
dered to Camp Meade to pass upon
the physical qualifications of men
classed as doubtful by the regular
medical examiners of the army, who
are making a careful investigation for
physical defects among the selected
men. The experts will look out for
diseases of the heart and
eyes and mental disorders
Down To Routine.
The selected men have taken to
their new life with exactly as much
facility as the young bird takes to
the air when he is strong enough to
fly. All of them figure that they have
been selected to perform an unpleas-
ant task, and they are anxious to
learn how to do it; then do it and go
back home. Those who have OBJ
served the men might think that the
new soldiers have had generations of
military ancestors behind them
There were no arrivals at the camp
yesterday, and there will be none un-
til today, when the first of the Mary
land contingent arrives. The band of
the Tenth New York Infantry viii
greet these first arrivals as they greet
ed the first arrivals from Philadelphia
last Wednesday.