PLAYING THE GAME.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15894, 7 May 1917, Page 3

PLAYING THE GAME.

• . ENGLAND'S NEW OFFICEBS. THE SYSTEM OF TRAINING. '."••ROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) J/ONDON, March 4. When England made up her mind that she had to raise an army that counted more than twice as many millions as her old army counted hundreds of thousands, sho was faced with a series of problems. They were to get the men, to get the equipment and munitions, and. to get the officers. How these three problems were solved is shown by tho splendid work which tho new British army is doing to-day in France and Flanders, in Macedonia and Egypt, Mesopotamia and Africa. Everywhere it is out fighting the enemy, who had been training for years for tho struggle which he hoped to win in th© first rush. The first of the two problems to be solved was easy. Tho men Tgero there and flocked to the colours when called on. Tho factories to inako the equipment -were in oxistence, aud only had to be converted from peace work to similar work for the war. Munition factories could be, and were, built " double quick time, but the supply officers was the rock on which Goring..,.

hoped thab Great Britain wonki founder. Great Britain, however, supplied tho officers needed, and to-day the young British officer of the new armies-—and even the generals aro young, too—is as good as tho best of tho old army or of any other army... m Europe. , , How did England grapple with nor new problem? She was not able to wait for a year until her now army was fully trained and use her old army to train the new one. The necessities or her Allies mado it imperative for her to throw her whole professional army into the furnace, and that army largely perished in stopping tho German ™ s '| to Paris and the coast. She bad practically to begin making her new army from the* ground up, instead of grafting it on to the old organisation.

"WON ON THE PLAYING FIELDS." Tho Ihikc of Wellington lias been credited with the saying that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of 32ton. Probably tho Iron Ihiko never said it, but who ever coined tho phrase ( crystallised a great truth which is as true to-day as it was "when England, broko-the might of Napoleon. Waterloo was won, and tho present war is being "won, by. men led by officers who have inherited the great tradition of playing the game even if they did not all go to one or other_ of the great public schools. The British army has also been ablo to preserve tho procious regimental tradition which counts for so much in inspiring th e men to stick in a tight placc. Nearly every British regiment has its nickname based on some of its exploits in former and as the regiments arc raised territorially tliere is a local as well as a regimental pride to bo kept up. Thus the Middlesex licgimc-nt, which now has somo thirty battalions instea4 of the three of the pre-war days, is known throughout tho army as the ''Die Hards, - ' while the famous Dublin Fusiliers are better known as the "Dirty Shirts/' and so on. The new officers, who had the instinct for tradition which is bom in every healthy young Englishman, seized on this regimental pride and instilled it into their men. 1 remember meeting a company of a Yorkshire regiment stationed near London in the early months of tho war. There had been a row in camp the night before, and those men wero sent on a fifteenniiio march as a punishment. They wero in charge of a little subaltern of 18, who liked his job no better than the men liked their punishment, but he was determined to play the game. The men wero sloucliing along, grumbling and discontented; and about as unsol-dierly-looking a lot as could be met in a day's travel. They were Yorkshire miners, and did not take kindly to discipline, and they resented their punishment being placed in the hands of a boy officer. The boy marched them through tlie suburban town near which they "were stationed and then halted them and addressed them. "I am nottaking you on this march for fun," ho said, "but because it is orders, and I as well as you have to go through with it, but I am ashamed that the finest company of the finest regiment from the finest county in England should be laughed 'at by a lot of cockney nursemaids, and, by God. they have been laughing at us." The effect was electrical. The men squared their shoulders, slopt;d their rifles, and stepped out as smart a lot of soldiers as could be found in the army. They did their fifteen miles and came back to camp singing and dressed as if on parade.

FINDING THE NEW OFFICERS. Where, then, did Britain find the boys of this type and how did she train tljem? The answer is that she found them everywhere. At the beginning there was not much time for selection, and there was little selection. Almost any boy who could prove tlic possession of a fair education and could get the requisite introduction to the officials at the War Offieo received his commission. Of coursc. a good many got in who had to be weeded out afterwards, but the percentage of "misfits" was remarkably small. The school and college cadet corps supplied many officers, but they were soon swallowed up in the vast new organisation. It goes aimost without saying that all

tho young men of the old aristocracy joined up at once, but they ffc,o no. j nearly enough to oinccr tho now ; Then camo tho young men ot t-no, middle classes, tho boys from the hanks and insurance offices, tho newspapei offices, and the groat commercial bouses, tho sons of well-to-do farmers, aud so on. They received their commissions and -were posted to their battalions. which they generally found to be a mob of men in civilian clotnes, who had just arrived in camp and knew no more about soldiering than the newly-joined subalterns. llicy found the colonel usually an ancient gentleman, ivlio had retired years ago to the enjoyment of a well-earned pension, but who was now ca l*®£ on lj his country's emergency. lheso old gentlemen were known as dug-outs, and tho major, perhaps, was a dug-out also. In tho circumstances about all that these two men could do was .look after tho routine work of organising the battalions and inspire the new oliicers with the tono and the traditions of the regiment. The first real lessons in soldiering were given by hoarsevoiced "dug-out" drill sergeants from the old armv of tho, 'days long before the war, for all the men recently discharged had rejoined tho colours, 3iid wero fighting in Franco. These old soldiers had a hearty contempt for tho new levies, but they soon changed, to respect when they found how quick to learn and eager were these men who had joined not from a love of soldiering, but from a sincere desire to fight for their country. THE FIRST MAKESHIFT SYSTEM. It is with ihe young officer, however, that wo are concerned. He learned his drill from tho dug-out sergeant, and some other things, quite as valuable, from the dug-out colonel, but from neither of these could ho learn tiie art and scioncc of modern war. England, of course, had a number of military academies. Tho chief of these were the staff collego at Camberley, near Aldershot, the artillery and engineering school at "Woolwich, and the cavalry school at Sandhurst. In tho old days officers took a threeyears' course here, hut in these hustling days of war tho course was reduced to six weeks. After the young officer had been passed as efficient l>y his colonel ho was sent for sir weeks to ono of these schools, and worked for about sixteen hours a day. While thero lie was closely observed by specialist officers, who picked out the men who showed promise of becoming good gunners or sappers, and sent them for a further course of training. | That, in brief, is the story of tho first makeshift system of training the young officers, and tho men trained in this way were thoso who boro the brunt of the "fighting after the regular army had gono through tho furnace. They fought splendidly. That makeshift system has now been replaced by a scientific machine for picking the best ! talent in the Army for its leaders.

THE NEW SYSTEM. To begin with, no ono to-day can obtain a commission because lie knows somebody at the War Office. That system was necessary at the beginning, but it has served its purpose. To-day no ono can obtain a commission who has not served in the ranks, either in a lino regiment or in an officers' training corps. Certain territorial battalions have been set aside as officers' training corps, among them being tbo Inns of Court Regiment, known as "The Devil's Own," bocauso in the old days it was entirely composed of lawyers, the London Scottish, the Honourable Artillery Company, and the Artists' Rifles. Theso were all composed of men of education, and therefore, the natural' training ground for officers. A man may either join one of theso battalions direct or, it' he is in another regiment, and his colonel picks him as a likely man for promotion, he is transferred to a training corps. In the corps ho must do all the work of a privato soldier, and, at tbo same time, study hard. His officers report on him from time to time, and if they decide that he is "unlikely to make an'efficient officer," back he goes to the trenches. If he passes all the tests he receives his commission, and then goes to a series of special technical schools, such as musketry, machine-guns, bombs and so on, which are conducted bv men who have learned their business in the stern school of actual war experience. The result is that at the end of six months or so under such conditions the young officer knows more about the realities of his job than the old officer in any army learnt in the three or four years of his education at the military academy.

But it is all due to the spirit of playing the game. The game now is to beat the enemy, and tho boys are straining every nerve to learn the rules and to make themselves fit. It is a point of honour with them to learn all they can and to do their full duty and more than their duty if that is possible.