IDEAL OFFICERS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15773, 14 December 1916, Page 9

IDEAL OFFICERS.

WHAT THE MEN LIKE,

(By a Subaltern.)

A little while ago I happened to sit at mess next to'one of those men to whom both the new Army and the old are eternally indebted. He was a second lieutenant of some thirty-five years of age, powerfully built, with a closely cropped head and a seamed, weather-beaten face.

.By a coincidencc, which made that evening for mo singularly pleasant, this man happened to have been the company sergeant-major of the company in which I was a platoon commandor on tho Aisnc. He had been one of tho first to receive a commission when it was decided to pronioto a certain number from the ranks.

This was tho first time wo had met since we had been out together in France, and naturally we had a great deal to talk about. Dinner over, wo lingered on at tho end of the long mess-table with tho port and biscuits between nsJ The situation bad its humorous side, for many a time in tho past had I, as a young officer full of bounce, poured my wrati* on the head of the unfortunate company sergeantmajor, who had been fighting in South Africa before I left my preparatory school, but who nevertheless in those days as a well-disciplined noncommissioned officer could only stand to attention whilo I spoke to him, and now here ho was sitting beside me at mess, a brother-officer.

"Yes, we had some funny times out there," lie said. "Do you remember the time you 'strafed' me in those billets behiml the Aisne?"

"No," I answered. "That tijne we'd been in. the trenches about a week, and came back for four days' rest in billets. Wo got in in the morniug and wo were all pretty tired. After lunch I came round to your quarters with a. bundle of the men's letters that wanted censoring. You were asleep and mad at being woke up. You •strafed' me to hell and told mo to take the blanked letters away, and asked if I thought you wero a side-show man trying to. go seven days without sleep." I remembered the incident then and how furious I had been with the company sergeant-major for coming out waking mo up. "Well," he continued, "I wasn't exactly fresh myself. I had not had a wink of sleep since getting baek from the trenches, and had been running round all the morning getting the men into their billets. 1 tell you, I could have cried when I saw you lying there and telling me to bring the letters back later in the afternoon." As my old company sergeant-major told this -story to me I must confess to a feeling of shame. It showed how easy it was to override- one's position as an officer and be unjust or harsh to those beneath one without ever being properly conscious of one's conduct. "Considerateness" is the thing that the men most appreciate. If you are sitting in a front lire trench during a lull and v have a newspaper out from home it will bo appreciated if you pass it down the trench when you liave finished reading it, instead of putting it back in your haversack. Do not, if you can help it, order a party off on fatigue just as you see them settle round a canteen of tea. It may not be a recognised mealtime; it may bo just a casual -'drum up"; but the sticks collected for that? fire have probably been gathered with' ji good deal of care, and maybe they arc using j up the last handful of tea scraped toi gether from tho day's ration. So if they are ordered off to fill sandbags, I before they have had time to drink j their brew they will be disappointed. | Perhaps, however, the sandbags had I to be filled in a hurry and there was j 110 one else to do it. Then it is ■ another matter. To consider the men's comfort to the exclusion of military exigencies is a worse fault than not considering it at all. There are times when, no matter if it is the last bit of dry wood in France and the last lot of tealeaves in Europe, a fire must bo put out in a hurry. I remember once seeing my company officer, who was | belayed by all the men and always considering their comfort, go up to a little party that were having a quiet "drum up" in a hollow behind the trench, stride through them and kick their dixie \eky high, cursing roundly and telling them to put out the fire at once. We- had just moved up to new ground, and as he said to me, "A fat lot of good a cup of tea would do them if the smoke from their fire brought down a packet of enemy high explosives." Another time during a night attack (which the enemy were making upon , us) my. "skipper" was standing beside |me in tho trench. Next to me was ; a corporal leaning against the parapet fast asleep over his rife. The attack being a pretty warm one. it hardly • seemed to me the moment for the 1 corporal to sleep. • I wcke him, but j a minute afterwards he was asleep again. I then drew my "skipper's" attention to the man. "Let him be." said lie. "he has been up all the last two nights as orderly corporal. I expect he is pretty tired." I ought to have known myself, of course, that the man was orderly corporal. Half the battle in dealing with men is to know just what each of them is doing, has been doing, or is supi posed to do. To acquire the habit | of always knowing this, it is well for I the young officer to begin early, from i the moment ho joins the training unit at home. Then, during working hours, if he spends plenty of time in I his company rooms, the cook-house, or 1 the square, and in the transport I stables, and gymnasium, he will get a ; working knowledge of regimental life j that will 6tand him in good stead when he goes on active service.