RESPONSIBILITY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16289, 13 August 1918, Page 8

RESPONSIBILITY.

"Smart fellow that," said the major as our visitor departed. "You've met him before ?"

"Yes," replied the adjutant; "he was a gunner in my old battery. I take somo of the credit for the making of him." "How?"

"Wed, he enlisted in tho ranks: hai too much money and no sense of discipline. Quite willing to work, but no idea that an order was an order;— and had to bo obeyed. He seemed to think that the proper thing to dowas to have a high old time and help others to do the same. We. had a deuco of a lot of trouble with him in England. Nothing very serious, you know, but little acts of insubordination and absence that we couldn't pass by. If he were put on 'jankers' he'd wait until his punishment was over and then he'd got revenge by taking half the battery down town and getting everyone most hopelessly drum:. As you can see, he has had a pretty good education; that, and his cash, gave him a certain standing with 'the men, and it seemed that he was on the way towards putting the whole unit on the rocks.

"We thought that when we came to France he would settle down and wo could handle him, but he went from bad to worse. "The climax came when we were on the Somme. He got drunk and raised a row that we could hardly bverloofc. We talked it over, and the Old Man decided on a court-martial as the best* means' of disposing of the case and getting him away. "I Had an idea and put it to vhe colonel. 'Why not give him a stripe and make him responsible for something?' They thought I was mad, but finally consented to'the experiment for one month. "It worked. Bv George! the way tliat fellow bucked up was surprising. He became an awful disciplinarian ana put the fear into every man under him. After a time he found his feet and learned how to handle men. We made him sergeant, and soon he had the best sub-section in the battery Last year he got the D.C.M., and aow his commission. I feel a bit proud ot that."

"Bit of a gamble all the same," said tho major. "Sure it was a gamble," returned the adjutant, who is rather yonns. "But don't you think we could do with a few more gambles like that?"