THE "OBSOLETE" SWORD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 10

THE "OBSOLETE" SWORD

OFFICERS COMPLAIN OF USELESS PURCHASES. Officers in England are complaining of the cost of many of the little things they are forced to buy—without which no officer ifi comnlete, though he could very easily do without them and never miss them.

"I know war is waste, but why should the hereditary high priests nf war— those Aldershot minds who draft the Army regulations and orders—mako the waste worse than it is?" writes a correspondent to the "Daily News."

"Here at the front we never use a sword—never even see one. Rut wo havo to buy these stupid encumbrances —and leavo them at home. I know one huge factory employing (or rather wastinc) .a vast quantity of energy and skill in turning out ornamental weapons, which are at once wrapned nn when bought, and nut out of sight. All we bring to the front is the leather 'frog,' for carrying an instrument v<i haven't got—and leather and boots so

"It is iust the same with spurs. All officers above a certain rank must wear them. Even if doing only clerical work at th» War Office they must out them on, when their only opportunity' to use them would he on the lift attendant.