CHILDREN AND THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 62, 13 March 1915, Page 10

CHILDREN AND THE WAR.

NOTES FROM A SCOTTISH SCHOOL. (By "MARGARET," in the "Scptaman,") While Empires tremble in the balance; while our. soldiers make history on,the greatest ■battlefield the world has ever known; while their anxious j relatives with heroic patience play the waiting game at home; while the shadow of bereavement clouds innumerable homes; while trade depression drives many a bread-winner to the verge of desperation, it ie refreshing to turn for a while from such stupendous ■ ' issues to study the quaint ideae of those who ac yet do not understand the full I significance of war. . | There is nothing of the personal in the ■ war to the children here. True, many of -them read with avidity the summaries and headlines of the daily papers, and though tliey chow a marvellously accurate knowledge of the hietory and , I progirees of itihe war. yet eaoli day's news is only a fresth instaJmemt of a fasoinaitin? serial. i QUEER XOTIOXS. Others, too lazy to read for . themselves, lend partial attention to the cole topic of conversation of their adult friends, and thus get queerly garbled ideas of war. From this type of child the following has been gleaned. "Holland is took, and her men are put in the gaol." This was the grave announcement of a little boy when news came of the internment of the naval men in Hollnnd. "Antwerp is ca'ad ower wi' a bomb, and as the hooses are broke," said another in broad native Doric when he innde public the fall of Antwerp. "If you touch the telegraph poles you'll be gaoled for n spy, and neither you nor your folk will ken where you're buried." "The soldiers want us* to eend them socks and'chocolates and pigs. You don't need to kill the pigs—they can do that fine themselves." WHERE "GERMANS" ARE SCARCE. In the playground the favourite game born of the war is "Battles." As soon as the children congregate you hear the cry, "Come on, boys, w-ha's fur battles." "Kight, O!" answers one; "I'm a British," and immediately the cry is taken up and all vociferously assert their nationality. Her© a hitch oocuts; ail axe Britons, none arc enemies. "Huts," impatiently ejaculates the leader, "Aa you wee yins his to be Germans or we'll no lat ye play. Aa them ablow eleven years his to be Germans." This makes the enemy three to one— just tlie right proportion apparently for an equal combat. But the sullen "Germans," resentful at the ignoble part assigned to tliem, mnke but n half-hearted struggle. The battle is soon over, and the hills re-echo with the triumphant cheers of the victorious British, and again the Kaiser has to drink the bitter draught of defeat. A favourite game of the younger fry is that, of "Aeroplanes." The playshcd is the headquarters of General French, nnd the aeroplanes run along the top of the low retaining wall of the playground, mnking a curious whirring noise and flapping their giant wings. The enemies run in one direction and drop bombs (gravel) on the corrugated iron Toof which shelters the British staff, and in the opposite direction run the British airmen with dispatches and reports. When two opposing , airmen meet on t!ic top of the dyke a struggle..--ensues, and lie who drops into the playground first is considered hors de combat. "Here, John, nae cheatin'. You bide whaur ye are till there's a new game. You're deed, man, an' you can mi join in the noo." So John, thus admonished, gives up the struggle nnd n waits the start of a new game .with what patience he may. And so the game goes on, nnd the happy children draw fresh inspiration for their fun from the griih tragedy of war. They are still optimistic, untroubled, and wholly unafraid. Great is their faith. There is not tlie slightest doubt in their minds as to the ultimate result of the war.. . SOLDIERLY AMBITIONS. Of course, it is tlie ambition of nearly every boy here to foe a soldier. Recruiting sergennts would do a roaring trade if only they would lower the minimum age. One boy, however, thought he would be a farmer, for to quote his own words—"l've »nae stunimick for feclitin.'" Where he got the expression I know not, for 1 am certain he never read Henry IV. before Agincourt. "I'm gaun tac to be a sodger as sune as I am fourteen and can - leave the schule." "Not you," retorts a conipanion to whom this, boast was made. "They'll no tak' you afore you're nineteen." "I'll never lat on my true age, and the King will never ken," ' comes back the crushing retort. As a matter of fact, the would-be soldier is only in his seventh year, so his ardour may cool and his ambition soar to other heights before he arrives at the age for the' consummation of his present hopes. A BOY'S ILETTER. : , Here is a little boy's letter, written last year before war -was in the air:— "I am eight years old, and in my afterlife I am going to be a soldier, for I like to fight, and in the battle I would cover myself with glory. A soldier has- to learn a lot of drill to make him emaTt. A soldier , dare not. speak back, to hie officer, so he ie juet like a little boy at school. A soldier gets a poor pay, but be is pleased to think 'he i« the defender of his country. It would be a fine thing if there was war, and 1 could show my ■bravery. Our history tells ue of Wallace and Bruce and -Nelson and other great heroes, and I mean to be as great a hero ae'any of them." A little girl gave the following definition of a-gun:—" A gun is a thing for shooting hares, rabbits, weasels and Germans." . ,'...' -There is a striking similarity between this answer and the extract from -an essay which rah thus:—''"Rabbitg are co numerous, arid have so many young, that they would coon overrun our country if not kept down by foxes, dogs, men and other vermin." "A map is the place to see whar the British bate the Gennins." "Germany is where spies come from." " A epy is a man that counts all your horses, and sheep and hens." "I am going to ehoot every German I see," proclaims a youthful .belligerent. ''Hoo'll ye ken them?" queries a companion. "Easy," is the complaisant reply, "111 ehoot every, ugly man in the place." ! . . THE JTAVT. Strange to " say, the 'Navy, does not appeal to our hill bairns.. Perhaps they have lived too far inland to have any real conception of its utility.; Their ideas of the sea are very crude.

"There's nae pad (beaten track) across the sea," remarks one boy. " There is far too much" water In the eea." . .

" "When you are buried. at. sea you don't .know where yon will'go. to."' ; "The ships are .bound to be always wet, antf "damp "feet "gives' you rhcuanother argument against a Beafarmgtltfe. , - •- ■ ■-.-•--- r .-.'..- ; . A general', idea lis that each'- foreign country has a huge signboard like that seen,.af a railway station, and if the sailors do not land .exactly opposite the signboard they will be in utter ignorance of their locality. ' ■ - • - PIXK AUSTRALIA. " What do you -know of- Australia?-' was asked of a kittle girl who was reading a pretty little story about an Australian bear. "It as 'the pinkest bit in all the world," came the astonishing reply. On the whole, hietory is a far more attractive theme than geography to children of school age, though some of the • elder ones are altering their geographies as one colony after another is being wrested from the Germane. These sidelights on the! lighter 6ide of war are very interesting as a character study, because running through them is a strong-vein of that insular egoism, for which we .are famous—" As the old cock crowe the young yiris'learn." Black is very black, and 'white is very white, with children. There are no intermediate shades, and between the savage, wicked enemy and the bVavo, good British soldier lie all the higher civilisation and chivalry which our. rising generation think 'is'"the prerogative only of a Briton. . . J IAOS'S OUBS. Who says patriotism is dead, or that we arc an. effete and played-out nation? The lion's cubs with their war-games and war stories prove that the lighting spirit is still dominant even among the very young. _, Though they cannot help in the defence of their native land, these children are doing their best for the soldiers and sailors.by adding to their cotnforte. All _are knitters, boys and girls alike, and the amount of socks, belts, mufflers, euflV, and gloves, the outcome of their industry and eelf-dcnial, ie almost incredible. Their motto,, you see, is—Do the w*rk that's nearest, though it be dreary whiles.