These lines are written at the largest recruiting and training center in the Middle East, which is located “somewhere in Palestine” and which we, a group of Jewish and Arab journalists, were permitted to visit today in order to see soldiers in the making.
It does not take long here to get acquainted with the stages in the life of a soldier from the first day of his arrival at the camp as a recruit in civilian clothes to the hour when he is to leave for the battlefield. The soldiers come from all the various walks of life and social standing, but in camp they are all as one family, high-spirited and well-satisfied.
We were especially impressed with the wall-climbing exercises of the units of the Auxiliary Training Service which we witnessed. “We shall need wall-climbing to overcome the walls surrounding Berchtesgarden,” the commandant of the training center told us smilingly.
The military authorities in the center highly praised the intelligence, efficiency and steadfastness of the soldiers of the Auxiliary Training Service. The soldiers themselves had nothing to complain about. “Send us more men and women into the service,” was their unanimous demand, to which the Yishuv is acquiescing gladly.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
