To indicate the nature of the training and the discipline required, Mrs. "ompsitt quoted the case of her niece, who gave up her medical course to join the A.T.S. "She was sent to a training centre at one of the coastal towns," she said, "where the girls were billeted in three fine hostels. Before being allocated to any special duties the girls are put through a three weeks' course, during which they must do anything required of them. My niece's first job was to pluck eight or nine turkeys. In one day she washed 800 dishes, at another time peeled what she described as umpteen' sacks of potatoes, and bád to wait at table. After three weeks she was made chief recruit and had to see that the other recruits cónformed to all the regulations. Now she has been drafted into the Secret Service division.
"This preliminary course enables the officers to judge a girl's capabilities, her personality and temperament, so that they are able to place her where she will be most useful.
"The camp where I was stationed was situated in a huge park which had been cut in half and where about 30 or 40 army huts had been erected. The camp included 300 men and officers and about 200 women and their officers. At first there was no accommodation for the A.T: S., and the girls were billeted in the district. Now, however, they have three fine: hostels. Girls whose homes are nearby are allowed to live Lat. I lived. with my people, and' ised to bicycle to the camp every day.
"There were all types of girls in the-camp, some who had been out better than anything you could buy in civilian clothes. Medical and dentel services are free. Everyone, Of course, has to pass a pretty stiff a medical test.
The work done in our camp covered eight or 10 regiments in the southern area. We had to keep all the records, not only of the men, but of their wives and children. We also looked after the men's pay and the allowances for their dependents, and the money for the men on leave when they came over from France. All the records from the field cashiers in France also came back to the pay office.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.