July 27.
AT last week's meeting of British officers and non-commissioned officers of the 5. V. C. to discuss recruiting, considerable dissatisfaction wag expressed with the condition of the Drill Hall and the state of headquarters generally. Such dissatisfaction is not difficult to understand, Although more than seven years have elapsed since the foundation stone was laid, the hall, except as a place that men can drill in, is still far from complete. There are no proper doors, the entrances being closed by bamboo gates. There are no offices or armoury, the Commandant still transacting business at the Town Hall. And worst of all, from the point of view of the social life of the Corps, the flats at the southern end of the hall, which are designed for club rooms, library, etc., remain an empty waste of rough floors and walls, with the ground floor littered with building materials. There is no place to which men can go for refreshment and to get to know each other after parade, no place where prospective recruits may be comfortably introduced to their future comrades. And inasmuch as a considerable number of the men who join the 8. V. C. have no club,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.