BRITAIN'S CITIZEN SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3119, 25 June 1917, Page 6

BRITAIN'S CITIZEN SOLDIERS

A CLOSE VIEW AT THE FRONT

BY AN OFFICER

[Tlie following article has been issued by the British Press Bureau for publication, and is sent on to us by the Royal Colonial institute.] „ To record the estimate formed by hnglislinien of their Army prior w> the war li«s become almost a historical necessity. It will soon be forgotten that popular opinion, concerning the immortiils who retreated from Moiis, tolerated a very indifferent altitude 10-. wards them. Once wo were willing to allow to our soldiers, smartness, heroism, and sometimes intelligence, but never the promptings of patriolism-ii little then out of fashion. Xnw, of course, householders are soldiers, and things have much changed. / Whether the change is in the Army or the householders, or whether all men are much alike, is a matter that the war will solve. Thn folly of judging tlie Army, as separated from the nation in morals and habits, passed in part when the nation beoanie the Army, but even now a tribute of justice is needed to the eloan-living and" clean-thinking manhood of the past, who formed England's , ' "Mercenary" Army. I was fortunate enough to have sixty of them in my first command, a very isolated post, six miles from anywhere, with niiie miles of marsh and seaboard to patrfol, .'<n<l guard duties to perform over devices that need not be mentioned in detail. The. men were nil of tho Nutionnl Reserve, and all old soldivre, toughened veterans of fifty to sixty years of age, creaking \vith rheumatism and loyalty, who hud volunteered at the beginning of the war.,-- Many of tueso had earned their soven pounds a week in civilian life, but had been attracted back to the Army, in the days o< , their ' grey hairs by the brjbe of llnve and sixpence- a day. Some , wore the r-Kyp-tia-n Medal of 1882, others later decorations, a few the marks of recent wounds, for they had served round Tpros in' tho days when .the conscientious objector was still cheerfully leaving his grandfather to'fight hjs battles. If "grandfather be considered exaggeration,,! that one of these left ten grandchildren at home when he went out, and that ho hopts to see three generations serving in the same regiment as privates before he goes home. For an officer; it is, in some measure, with men us with horses, one cannot win their confidences suddenly, and the hardest thing of all is to approach thorn, lying down. The time came, however when conversations were not broken oft as I canio' nqar, and the fishing by tho estuary would not bt> disturbed because of tho proximity of myself in my even•ing strolls with the. chief petty officer. If anyone marvels lit the oxistenco ol a chief 'potty officer in the Army, his wondorment most remain. He was a inaritiino clement in our ranks, who persuaded a brigadier-general to substitute dog-watches and such strango periods ot time for the hours of guard; no was a torpedo gunner's mate attached to a mounted brigade, tbo only horse marine who ever existed to ride the starboard mule of a Iranspdrt wagon in its disengaged hours. /

Just Grit! * In' his leisure he and I would stroll to the "limits of our areas, and stare over the boundary towards civilisation. It was in such hours that 1 learnt from, ~..:..„,„ how he had stayed at the So' duty with «-hole-fhro W hhi. head from one. side to another. I saw the wound, and it had traversed the brain He.suffered excruciating head■mhes'froni time to time, but never asked rcleasofrom duty; ho said that the "you wish for the rum ration," Sa Tha h t e 'same dislike of appearing -too much like a hero dominates much of the Welsh town where he dwelt, lears avA hope have gone for him awry Aftoi fifty-six years in, the Army-for he was bom iiPit, ho has become a civilian, and may £t receive a white feather from a flapper. . + . His special companion was a private who told me that he had onee been a churchwarden. Hie hobby came out strongly on Sundays. On those days a rotund local clergyman came to us in our wilderness, and Price of Llanfihangel then played the concertina to lead the hymns. The remaining orchestra consisted of a. whistle and a mouth-organ. Luckilv, tie worthy rector was destitute of a sense of humour. His first sermon was on "Kemember Lot's Wife. Hβ warned those poor old men who dailytramped endless distances in black darkness and bitter rains, and returned soaked throu»h to chill nlank beds, against the sin of Jiixnyy. His practice was infinitely better than his preaching, tor lie followed up the discourse with » provision of luxuries he had brought, and or»nnised an . excellent concert ,that quite atoned fov the. sermon.

The Hard Cases, Of courser amougr sixty men, there were some, liavd, cases, but .none, .1 tan certainly say; touched with brutality or anv i"noble meanness. The most troublesome that i had was a thorough-going drunkard, but an excellent soldier, i-arly in the first week of my experience ot him I sent a party with ropes to get him out of a deep dyke in which he was embedded. AYlicu he had reached home, I repronched him thoroughly. 'It you think," I told him, "that you are going to sleep with decent men in your beastly state, you are mistaken. You can go niut sleep with tho dog." The dog he had rescued from a brutal owner, ly tact and threats and bribery of threepence. It had been trained to supplement break-"tou.-minutes later the corporal -came back to me, saluted, and said: Iho do" won't sleep' with Private , sir. When I saw him nest day. he strove to convince it\e that hfi had not been really duiTik, h» had had a drop 100 inucli, and was unused to it. T stopped him. "Weren't you drnnk when 1 saw yon in tho ditch?" I iwked. "No, sorr'," he replied ."if you remember. 1 sat up and saluted you.' ' That test of sobriety sealed his fate. Tho timn came when 1 was able to him why he had rejoined tue Army in his old age. "Iff. difficult to say. sir." he answered. "Merely duty, .1 think." A First Aid. My memory of them will always bo of j a cheery \crowd, incapable of fear or disloyalty.' uncomplaining in privation and pain. ",Only once did I come across a shirker. A water-cart had passed over Private Smith's leg. It was enormously swollen, but' T thought rightly, that onlv one of the lower bones'was broken. T did my best for it. for no doctor eoulil be had' in the, awful weather. ,As I bandaged it. Smith called on the heavens in terni3 lintheological, but T finished the iob whilst two men held his head. .\ext clav-T was surprised to see him limpinß towards me. T asked the meaning of his conduct, for I fell: that *s rcting-medicii! officer, it was ljy duty to nut dmvn unauthorised recoveries, no lm=s tlmn unnecessary sickness. He told me that lip wanted'to po on (rnard. Ho woiiirt rather that than l-,« bandaged nuain. Up resumed duty, and so far as I know was never Ihe worse for it, but lie remained my onlv sl.ii-ker. the man who evaded my first aid! , , 'Our Army of the past, was good to live with-tlmt. T knew as a privateclean in life and honour and. in vast numbers of cases, drawn to the colours ,fof this fislit asainst tune's wrsl evil bv Hint which' the dnniknrd fitly rermPil "mereiv ilutv." ' it vrn<: in tlioir m<votiii" with such men'at Tnrfq that fiorniany first leurnl trufli about "our nicrcenary army.