Camden, Jan. 27 – Plans leading toward attaining the co-operation of owners of approximately 80,000 acres of Kershaw county land, on which trespass rights for large-scale army maneuvers next spring are being sought, got underway here today.

Maj. A. R. Wellwood, Fort Jackson rents and claims officer, conferred with Mayor F. N. McCorkle, President John K. de Loach and Secretary Frank Heath of the chamber of commerce, and Mrs Kathleen Watts, county superintendent of education.

Mrs. Watts announced afterwards she would write the trustees of the school districts in which the land is located, inviting them and other interested citizens to a meeting to be held at 3:30 Friday afternoon at the Blaney high school.

President de Loach announce the appointment of J. Team Gettys, Camden attorney, as chairman of a central committee from Kershaw county that will serve in co-operative capacity between the army authorities and the landowners.

To Announce Members.

Mr. Gettys said he would announce the full membership of his committee, to be composed of six or seven persons, tomorrow.

The 80,000 acres in Kershaw county are part of the total area of 265,000 in Kershaw, Fairfield and Richland Counties, bordering the main Fort Jackson reservation of 55,000 acres, on which trespass rights are being sought.

The area is being sought so the troops stationed at Fort Jackson, their number eventually to reach about 43,000, may be given the proper training in mass field maneuvers in which actual wartime conditions would be stimulated.

The urgency of the national defense program, which involves the necessary training of the nations armed forces in the event of any future emergency, has been cited as a force that should sweep every patriotic landowner in the three counties in their decision to co-operate.

Not Buying Land.

The army is not seeking to buy the land. It only asks that it be permitted to use the land for camping purposes and therefore the movement of troops. There is no money involved in the acquisition of the trespass rights. The landowners, however would be paid for whatever damage is done to the land by the troops.

Major Wellwood said that claims for damage would be expedited as rapidly as possible and that the troops might be able to carry “money bags” them to pay off any damages that occur at once. At the meeting Friday

At the meeting Friday at Blaney high school, Major Wildwood, members of his rents and claims section, and members of the Kershaw County Central committee will be present to explain in the urgency and the machinery of the trespass rights acquisition to the landholders.

Statement in Columbia.

Prior to going to Camden yesterday morning, Major Wellwood issued the following statement:

“The co-operation of the land owners we have contacted so far has been 100 per cent. These people realize that their boys at Fort Jackson must have the best possible training and that the landowners can do their part in this training by allowing troops to use their land.

“Then, too. I have found that people in general deeply appreciate the fact that General (Henry D.) Russell, Fort Jackson post commander, fault for, and got, the maneuver area for South Carolina.”

Following a meeting Saturday at the Hotel Columbia, at which plans for acquisition of the trespass rights were first broached, George W Sceley, a landowner of near Blaney, told major Wellwood he wanted to be “the first to sign up.”

Acres Available.

Mr. Sceley said he had 1,000 acres available for the troops to use during the maneuver period.

He said he understood the government would not pay him one cent for the use of the land, except for any possible damage that might be occurred, but he felt that the least he could do for the national defense was to co-operate in “this fine program.”