Adequate arrangements are made for outdoor games, Except when on special duty they do no work in the afternoons, they can amuse them} selves writing letters, cleaning their kit or sleeping. Some of the Shanghai recruits, as stated before, have extra work in the way of lectures and instructions, which for the first few weeks may be felt somewhat wearying, yet it is absolutely necessary to give them this condensed training.
For those in barracks near the city there is the YMCA. and various other centres where certain facilities are given, and attached to all barracks irrespective of where they are, there are NAAFI. depots where they can get supplies of almost everything they require, For those who live some distance away from the city, transport is rather expensive to get into town but by joining together they can hire a taxi ata reasonable individual cost, and in most cases there are bus services which take a little longer.
Every few months Commanding Officers of various regiments, etc,, are asked to recommend candidates for the Officer Cadets Training Unit, It therefore naturally follows that our ina recruits, with the concentrated ing of only three to four weeks against regular men of several years' experience, must not expect to be recommended by their commanding officers before completing recruits' course, as they naturally cannot expect to show up nearly as well. They have, however, the advantage usually of having had better education than the majority of regular soldiers, and if they recollect that the minimum probationary period stated was three months (six in the U.K.) and then get down to work properly, and study really hard, they eventually must get their chance, This is the answer to any young men who may grumble because they do not immediately get recommended to be prospective officers, Looking over the list of the few men I contacted and heard of, the percentage of Shanghai Boys so far recommended is extremely good, those who seem disappointed are deluding themselves that they can run before they can walk and, sorry to say, show a tendency to think they know better than their superiors,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.