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Show I GREAT ARMY OF I OFFICERS READY B More Men Offer Their Serv- Ht ices as Leaders Than Can R Be Accommodated. H WASHINGTON. May 8. More than V 200,000 men, flvo times as many as H can bo accommodated, have applied H for admission to the sixteen officers' Hj training camps which opened today Hj to begin developing the men who will H lead new American armies to be rais- H' cd within tho next four months. About Hj 60,000 have been ccrtiGcd as qualified H for admission, and from theso -10,000 Hj will be selected and placed under ln- H! tensive instruction within the next Hj ten days. Hi Men already holding commissions in m the officers' reserve corps began re- porting at the camps today. The ro- i mainder of tho 2,500 assigned to each Bi camp will report by next Monday, j when organization of infantry compa- H nies for tho first month of hard drill- H ing will begin. 1 Those reporting today found work m of preparing for their reception well M advanced. Modern cantonments have been constructed wherever necessary From among the 40,000 men under training, 10,000 will bo chosen at tho end of three months to become officers offi-cers of the companies and battalions of tho first army of 500.000 men to bo called to tho colors about September 1 under tho selective draft system. The remainder who qualify will bo assigned to fill vacancies in the regular regu-lar army or national guard, or will bo commissioned in tho reserve corps and held to fill up gaps in tho commissioned commis-sioned personnel of regiments at the fighting front when American troops get Into action. War department officials are highly pleased at the flood of applications. They declare that with the opening of the camps that the nation now is started start-ed on its road toward adequate military mili-tary preparedness. |