STRESS MILITARY WORK IN ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES

"Military training at the large English universities often plays a very important part in the life of the undergraduate", declared Nathaniel Thayer 2L when interviewed by a CRIMSON reporter recently. Mr. Thayer has been studying law at Cambridge University since his graduation, and is now back in Cambridge completing his law work at the University Law School.

"Many young men", Mr. Thayer continued, "come to Cambridge primarily for the military courses, in preparation for an army career. They consider their military work the main part of their university career, other things being secondary".

The Officers' Training Corps at Cambridge, said Mr. Thayer, while not so complete or extensive as the great military schools of Sanders and Aldershot, which correspond to West Point, gives a man a thorough three year course in one branch of military service, and leads to an active commission in the British Army.

Unlike the Military Science courses here, the Cambridge system is not one of a number of courses, but is a special field to which the student gives most of his time. His day, for example, begins at six o'clock, when he is required to ride for an hour if he is in a mounted branch of the service. The Cavalry and Infantry detachments are strongest at Cambridge, though a great many branches are represented. Besides the regular winter work, each student is required to spend one month every summer at a military camp. The work here is of a more practical nature, but still does not take up all of a man's true. The afternoon is almost always devoted to outdoor sports, much as it is in the R. O. T. C. camps in this country.

In addition to the ordinary branches of the service, there are at Cambridge a number of technical detachments. The Engineering and Medical Corps have a fine training course. Many medical students follow their studies in conjunction with the O. T. C.