THE BRITISH OFFICER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1915, Page 7

THE BRITISH OFFICER.

I I (To the Editor.) Sir, —Anyone -who is obaeremt must have noticed the enormoue proportion of officers killed and wounded to those of the rank and file. The reason for this slaughter of the commasioned is ex-' plained when one remembers that the Englishman leads his men <*nring an advance—he orders them to take cover, though not seeking it for himself. The German, on the contrary, leads not —he drives, kicks the ahirfcer out of ditches, furrows, hedgerows, and touches up the skulker with the point of lug sword. The British officer is apt, during a bayonet charge, to outpace bis company, thns finding himself; at grips-with the enemy :before his men arrive to sogport him. In England during the last five months, 30,000 cotnmJaßHffis have been granted, a number equal to thirty-five battalions. Now, if each, of *th«e«oificers was armed with an automatic .450 in place of a more or leae uaekee *pieoe of steel, he would-be less of a mark for t*" , unpleasant sniper, and could the better defend himself against unfair odds. Thirty thousand automatics ekilftilly used might easily account for 100,000 Germans before the war shell be ended,; —I am, etc., " H.J. .-/