VOLUNTEER OFFICERS TITLES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11876, 25 April 1904, Page 9

VOLUNTEER OFFICERS TITLES.

TO THE EDITCJB OF THE PRESS. Sir,—l am much obliged to your correspondent "Informer" for his letter appearing in your issue of this morning. ihe letter of your other correspondent, "Pro Patria," in tlie tame connection, is merely nonsense, and calls for neither thanks nor comment. • Judging by the information pivt-n in the third paragraph of "InformerV letter, I am afraid there enn be no doubt that theuse of Volunteer titles ha* been too general in the past, and tended rather to ridicule. Perhaps Yc!unt**r9 have not been wholly to blame, but I think that now attention has been drawn to the matter they and— may I add—the Press, too. shuuld endeavour to regulate matters a little, and strictly conform to proper usage. Thanking you for your courtesy, and promising not to further intrude the matter on your space.—Yours, etc.. IMPERIAL CLAIMS. TO THX EDITOR 07 THE PBESSSir,—A recent letter in "The Press." signed '"Imperial Service,' 1 on the subject of amateurs using military title.*, calls to mind a passage "in Shakespeare's "H tiry V.," part of which I will quote:—"He a captain! hang him rogue! He lives upon muuldry stewed prunes and acrid cakes. A captain! thesa villains* will make the word captain as odious as the word cccnpy, which was an excellent good word before it. v.a.! ill-sorted; therefore captains had need look to it."' Perhaps the military authorities might do worse than take the above quotation to heart, and pat a sto£ to the parody on military titles.—Yours, etc., CIVILIAN. Timaru, April 20th, ISM.