ARMY SCANDALS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9605, 21 December 1896, Page 3

ARMY SCANDALS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir,—l think "Janus" is getting indignant in too great a hurry. Let him read my letter again. Ido not defend the brutality, and cowardka of the officers mentioned, and if I had been Hodge I would have shot one or two of them before they put mc in the horse trough. . But he must have taken a lot of insult and snubbing before they got that far, and they evidently knew their man. Further, Ido not defend cliquisra, but still I know it has existed from all time and will exist. Every club maintains its right to blackball candidates for membership. Did not the Oarlton blackball Cecil Rhode* the other day 1 If you admit the right of the members of a club to choose their associates why not the officers of a regiment, who are thrown so intimately together. Hodge would have been received in many other regiments where- the conditions were not so heavy, and probably had peace ; but no, he mast try to get a position which was only attainable by the wealthy. My ideas may be wrong, but they are nevertheless thesefythat a man should have such respect for himself, as to deter him from pushing in where hewas not wanted. On further consideration, therefore, my verdict must remain that Hodge was a snob and a fool for his pains.—Yours, &c., Common Sense.