Evening star., 1926-08-22

enough money with which to hire a
drill hall. which comes frst in the
military scheme.
veteran officers OF the Guard. now
ever. point out that to make militia
| really successful there must be pro-
| Vided some recreation for the men to
relieve the monotony of the routine
drills. Such development always raises
| The morale by encouraging the men to
| remain at their armories after their
| duty is over
| The lack of such facilities. in the
| opinion of veteran officers Of the local
| Guard. has largely been responsible
/ for the difficulties in keeping the or
ga nizations already organized up TO
| full strength required by the War De
partfpent in order to obtain Federal
| recognition. The local Guard has ah-
sOlutely nothing. II was pointed out,
| TO offer prospective recruit except
the bare military instruction.
AS a matter of fact there We're sew
eral compa MES of the engineer reGi-
ment which faced the possibility of
not being allowed TO go to camp this
year because of the fact that they did
| not have the requisite number OF men,
| and there were instances where men
| were transferred from companies over
| strength to those below strength so
| that the outfits could fill the Militia
| Bureau requirements of having SO men
on the rolls of each company, 60 per
cent Of which number must be taken
into camp.
The local engineer regiment has
! two battalions Of three line compa MES
each and headquarters and service
| company. and difficulty of keeping II
up TO strength. TO this is compared
! by officers the situation before the
| war. when athletics were on the regu-
| lar routine and a place in which to
conduct them. when there were two
| full regiments of infantry, consisting
of three battalionS of four companies
each. a squadron Of field artillery. a
signal company and field hospital.
Several additional units have been
allotted to the District of Columbia
Guard on paper. in the national de-
! fense scheme. but authority to or.
ga nize them is being withheld by the
| War Department because of lack of
! funds. In the face of this situation
there have been requests for units
already orga nized to he permitted to
increase their allowed strengths, hut
these have been turned down by the
comma nding general. At the present
time the District has heen allowed
to recruit total number Of men,
the comma nding general to certain
units. Any authority to increase the
size OF this allotment. it was pointed
ont. would merely mean that some
other outfit would have to have its
individual allotment cut. The refusal
to make any increa seS for any unit
! has been laid down as policy for
the local Guard until such time as the
| Militia Bureau authorizes an Increase
1, ,t,,lN
to come until Congress becomes more
liberal in it's appropriations for the
National Guard.
However that may he, ii was point
ed out. there would he little use of
! increa sing the allotted strengths of
the various units. until it can he
shown conclusively that they can
maintain full enrolment Of the
present strengths. 1t was added that
| il would he foolhardy TO attempt to
have the Militia Bureau provide for
! an increa sed strength for any unit
when the unit cannot now maintain
! its enlistments. for a larger enroll
ment allowed would mea that a much
! larger number of men, under the per
centage rule. would have to go TO
camp.
staff Seret W. r. Lightfoot of the
| Headquarters and Service Company.
l2lst Engineers. has been transferred
to the District administrative staff
and his title changed to that of tech
nical sergeant. He is working in
camp under the direction of Capt
F. r. BernsdOrff. quartermaster de-
partment. catering to the needs Of
the regiment. He is spending most
of his time running between the
camp and the armory here gathering
paraphernalia left behind. but which
the troops found they needed while
in the field.
Private Fen iamin c. Stevens Head