THE NEW ARMIES AIDS TO RECRUITING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 57, 9 March 1915, Page 3

THE NEW ARMIES AIDS TO RECRUITING

MILITARY MUSIC. (FROU OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 19th -January. There are still, it seems, some idealists who believe that the British soldier wants better martial music than Tipperary, and that it would be a work of patriotism to provide more lofty songs for him. Some time ago a wellknown poet appeared in The Times with a number of songs which he had composed in the hope, one can scarcely say the belief, that Tommy would be glad of them. They * were certainly high-toned and patriotic, 1 but it showed a woful lack of irisight into the character of the British soldier to suppose that he wished to sing such stuff. The German may indulge his patriotism in the formal lines of song by shouting "Die Wacht am Rhein" and "Deutschland über Allesj" but the British soldier fights no less cheerfully and well upon the latest favourites of the music hall. It has been candidly recognised that it is useless to try to train up" the Tommy to high-class music. LONDON AND MUSIC. A meeting -was held in London the other day to promote the very* necessary object of providing some kind of music for the units of the new armies, which up to the present have had to march through .life with only their inherent joy in their souls, and not a note of martial music to lighten their steps. The War Office has in this respect shown a deplorable lack at perception, and London is determined to alter things. Mr. Douglas Sladen took the initiative, and he said that the nation had felt seriously depressed that its soldiers should have no music to cheer them in their camps, to turn their Saturday route marches into labours of love and into the finest recruiting agencies in the country. He thinks that drum and fife bands, concertinas/ gramophones, ocarinas, and mouth organs are better than nothing. Even penny song books, containing the words of the songs the men like best, would bo of great value, for, he pleads, "We must teach our men to sing. Lusty singing begets lusty fighting." The Chief Recruiting Officer for London wrote to say that the services of one band which had been tried as an experiment had proved really successful, and that practically every street in the wide London command bad been played over by it. Sir Charles Stanford still hopes that something greater than Tipperary may be found to inspire' the soldiers, and he is invoking the assistance of Mr. Rudyard Kipling to provide suitable words. The trouble about Mr. Rudyard Kipling's best known songs is that most of them go on the assumption that the Army has the same moral character as it seemed to possess when they were written, whereas to-day it is an eminently sober and well-behaved Army. RECRUITING FIGURES. The following figures regarding recruiting were used in the House of Lords by Lord Midleton (a former War Secretary), though the Government declined to give them confirmation : — Up to 4th November the southern districts of Scotland furnished 237 recruits per 10,000 of the population, and stands at the head of the list.- In the case of the counties of Warwick, Gloucester, Worcester, Bucks, Oxford, and Berks the figure is 196 ; Lancashire, 178 ; the home counties of London, 173 ; Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, 155; Cheshire, part of Lancashire, and the neighbouring Welsh counties, 135 ; and the north of Ireland, including— fn order to avoid any sort of political bias — the maritime counties of Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, and Carlow, 127. Coming to the agricultural districts, the percentages per 10,000 of the population are : North of Scotland, 93; west of England, 80; east of England, 88; and the south and west of Ireland, 32. Those are men who have actually joined the colours. The figures are subject, of course, to two qualifications — first, that in iome counties further efforts have been made ; and, secondly, that the counties which have given most largely to the armies of the past, especially the counties drawn on most largely for the Navy, naturally have the smallest surplus population for the new armies. " Let it not be supposed," added Lord Midleton, "that I am trying to make a case against any part of the country." Lord Lucas, Under-Secretary of State for War, while refusing to give any figures, remarked that the districts which had done best — the south of Scotland and a group of Midland counties — were both of the agricultural-industrial type. The highest district which was purely manufacturing — Lancashire — came third on the list; and it was recognised that the depression of the cotton industry at the beginning of tbe war must have a great effect on recruiting. THE KILT IN DANGER. The kilt is in danger, and the Highland regiments are indignant. The

official explanation that enough tartan could not be woven is discredited, and regiments are preparing " round robins," protesting in the strongest possible manner against any interference with the historical Highland dress. " Scotland, said a sergeant of the Cameron Highlanders, " has come out well in connection with the recruiting census, and the Government is showing its gratitude by insulting Highlanders through tampering with the tartan kilt which has waved on so many famous battlefields. It is a suicidal policy. Not only in Scotland has the kilt gained recruits, but in many English counties, and in Canada and the colonies. To do away with the tartan would put the biggest affront on the Highland regiments that was ever attempted, and such an affront would not be taJien lying down." IN CASE OF INVASION. The Norfolk villages are now being posted with instructions telling the civil population what to do in case of a German landing. All horses, mules, donkeys, and motor-cars, bicycles, carts, carriages, and other vehicles, as well as harness, petrol launches, and lighters, are to be removed to a preconcerted place, _ directly the military authorities proclaim a state of emergency in the district. If they cannot be removed they are to be destroyed or rendered useless on order by the authorities. Live stock must not be driven along public roads without order. Stock in the vicinity of the enemy is to be rounded up and . driven to some indicated place where it can be defended, but if necessary it will be destroyed. Unless speciaL directions are given, unthreshed cereals are not to be destroyed. Unless otherwise directed, the civil population should remain quietly in their houses. MYSTERIOUS SUBMARINES. The appointment of Lieutenant B. A. Beal to submarine. W8 directs attention to a craft which is something of a mystery. The W class of British submarine is a new and special design evolved by Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., at Els wick. The German naval annual Nauticms stated in the spring that they were to\be 450 tons displacement. British works of reference give no details, but agree with Nauticus in saying that only four of the class are under construction. Wl has been officially recorded as in commission since the beginning of November, and the first of another new type, SI, built at Scott's yard, Greenock, and stated by Nauticus to have a speed of 18 lcnotß on the surface, has been in commission for more than a year, according to the new Navy List, but has never been mentioned publicly during the war.