BENEATH THE KILT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 9

BENEATH THE KILT.

MODESTY PROBLEM. TRADITION SAYS "NO." HIGH COMMAND -WORRIED. i I The formation of a Scottish regiment ■in New Zealand has confronted the High ; Command with a delicate problem in I modesty. j Certain officers are most distressed to i learn that no underclothes are worn ■beneath the kilt. This appears to be ! jrra vely immodest; one of the major I military problems of the moment is ! whether the New Zealand Highlanders jean be allowed to go abroad in kilt i alone, or whether New Zealand stanjdards of modesty demand that they wear panties or scanties underneath. I In plain fact, underclothes beneath ithe kilt are as grave a sartorial offence las a made-up tie in Bond Street. A I veteran of the Argyll and Sutherland j Highlanders recalls the day, during the ;(ireat War, when the regiment received jits first draft of recruits. Some of the recruits were modest even to the extent Jof spending money on their modesty— .they bought little silk panties of "the ,j regimental tartan to wear under their . kilts. ;i But on Saturday morning the colonel > saw these effeminate articles of attire ljhanging on the lines. He nearly had a tjflt. The lines were stripped by a* fatigue j party, and the offending underwear .was 5 j fed into the cookhouse stoves. The orders i|Of the day, on the morrow, contained a jiterse instruction to the guard, and. t::ere--6 after, when a man was leaving camp on ei leave, his kilt was lifted by the serd geant of the guard to nutko Mire that he was not wearing any effeminate n.clothing. y! Traditions ..f nn..1.->ty are to-day, in 'a , military «in-lis. U-ing "weighed against J the tradui.m* .if the Highlands. If tie , e prudish Sassenach wins, there will » <,a Highland regiment of sorts, but ™ r c will be a joke amongst all true Scot,, d if Highland tradition wuis, the msj°r '[will be ell of * bluet.