MORALITY AND MARS

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 46, 22 February 1917, Page 2

MORALITY AND MARS

WEST END SOLDIERS

THOUGHTLESS ALARMIST

RUMOURS.

It is only natural, writes an officer in the Daily Mail, that when the manhood of a nation is taken froni its peace-time avocations and mustered to arms something in the upheaval is bound to reflect upon the national morals.

The worst of it is that the few good folk who are the mainstay of vigilance movements and anti-snmething-or-other groups give tongue to alarming rumours. These folk arc tliose who can never hear the word "soldier" without mentally coupling it with the adjective "licentious" and. imagine that a regimental canteen is a place of alcoholic saturnalia. They are only a handful, but they have the power, as every irresponsible individual has, to start mischievous and groundless rumours and to spatter the honour of the Army. : The press has. done the. country excellent service in dispersing these calumnies and in bringing, forward 1 the evidence, the clear facts about the moral standards of our soldiery; and the public as a whole know' exactly what value to place upon the misguided individuals who were responsible for the vapid clamour that was Taised ■ '

PURITY PROPAGANDISTS. ' The medical man and. the expert in social problems are both. aware of the types of mental instability from whom the self-styled "purity" 'propagandists draw their supporters, and both' .will tell you frankly that these campaigns do more harm' through their suggestiveness than would result.from the matters, they combat if left alone. To treat the soldier as a man o{ evil life, to hedge him about with restrictions and make him feel that so long as ho wears, uniform he is an. outcast from the ranks of respectable people— that is not the way to strengthen his moral as a warrior. Yet the cranks talk _ and publish ' unpleasant, little brochures about the segregation of numbers of young men in military areas and the need for careful supervision over the young women of the neighbourhood. This is exactly what the Germans want them to do. Anything that contributes directly or indirectly to lowering the self-respect of the British soldier is sure of German support, and you may find names identified with these obscure movements and propa- _ ganda .that were before the war equally 'well identified with policies of disarmament and rapprochement' with the Hun. A VERY HIGH STANDARD From time to time Tumours spring up and go the round of clubs and gos- | siping circles, and you hear it whispered that such and such a set of overseas troops are drunken and undisciplined; that such and such a London terminus is a terrible sight when the leave train pulls out. Then all the nasty tongues start wagging with tales of soldiers' wives, of love children in quie'fc villages, of scenes of drunkenness, and all the unpleasant cases they can remember or invent.

In an army of millions of men it cannot be expected that every individual will wear tho halo of a saintly life,' though even the 'meanest dare not abuse their : honourable death upon the. field of battle. The. average man knows that the Army is .fundamentally sound and does not bother to look up exact facts, make enquiries, or investigate statistics. It is only the " antis" whp dp that, and who parade all the evil that, they' can rake-together, omitting and suppressing the vast and much greater mass of good. The facts are astonishing, a lasting tribute to the sterling qualities inherent in the race. . -

.Drunkenness, crime, and immorality in the Army have come down to a percentage so low that no civilian community could rival it.' The standard of military good conduct is exceedingly high, framed as it was in the past for a regular picked Army. It has not been' lowered or modified in any way to meet the freer standards of the vast crowd of citizens now .entering military life. Indeed, if one takes into account the severity of military discipline when overseas upon active service it will easily be seen that, the standard is a higher one than civilians have ever had to live up to. Taking" a general census of opinion throughout all ranks and classes you will find that the Army training and Army life have effected a wonderful reformation in the morals and enstoms of these very civilians who," the muckrakers feared, would be defiled by contact with the uniform. If you need to know what effect this national training has had upon the ordinary crime average compare the Old Bailey Sessions for this year with their forerunners of the years before the war. They show an extraordinary, almost unbelievable, improvement. SAFER AND BETTER CITY. In order to get absolute information with regard to the general behaviour of the troops in the most unfavourable circumstances, I was allowed to look into the mechanism of the Provost Marshal's control of-the London district. ■ The Provost Marshal himself spoke highly of the general conduct of the men and the; willing and good-hearted cooperation of the various trades, such as the licensed victuallers and theatre managements. I was also shown the various police reports for the districts, a pile of returns practically'• unanimous in their statement that the public houses were well conducted, the laws were not infringed, and no help given to those who desired to assist convalescent soldiers to evade the drink prohibition.

I was allowed to choose my own time and place to go round with the military police, or stand, if I cared, on picket duty watching the London streets for any sigil of bad behaviour. I chose an evening in the centre of all things—Piccadilly Circus—and everyone who knows London will admit that the beat from the Hippodrome to the Pavilion should show the largest proportion of sin. The purity pamphleteers. •themselves would bo lost without this area.

I was fortunate in picking two fine, jbright nights—one in the middle of the week, the other at its end. Through this congested area poured the evening crowds; I saw the closing of the various bars and cafe restaurants, saw the soldiers come out into the streets perfectly sober and wander along to a. cheap seat at a theatre or-kineniatograph show. I entered various resorts and admittedly .hunted for "drunken" or ' "licentious" soldiers. It was pure waste'of time: the place was "stiff" with soldiers; but they were not drunk and not. to the iinjaundiced eye, more licentious than when they were civilians in 1914 and wcnl, to church in place of church parade. 1 watched Piccadilly that evening for two solid hours, and "saw only one man | siigW.lv vociferous. ■He was a. civilian I and a. foreigner. Thousands of soldiers passed and two were halted by i he picket, in each case for some minor inaccuracy in the adjustment' of their uniform. At midnight I played my trump card and paid- an unexpected visit to the cells ajid guard-room of the military police. They h«d only one guest, an absentee who ha<l bocai arrested in a dairy.

To sum up the whole tiling, the behaviour of the British and overseas troops is little shout of marvellous vi its excellence. Take .note o£ it for yourselves, and, having, seen it, pridfe yourselves upon it us a feather in the na-

tional cap. London to-day is four times a. safer and better oity than it was fthree years ago When you hear talk of "purity leagues" and campaigns rehnember the people behind them, the subtle German influence and the mad-brained, unpleasant foils who see dirt where no dirt is. Tho nation is proud of its soldiers ; let us, then, guard their honour from such underhand attacks.