OFFICERS' MANNERS

Evening Star, Issue 16992, 14 March 1919, Page 2

OFFICERS' MANNERS

AN ALLEGATION AND A REPLY. . “ I don't know what to think of my ex-officer friends,” a lady said to a ‘ Daily Chronicle ’ representative recently. “ When they were in uniform they were awfully polite and well behaved, but now they hardly ever take off their hats when they meet me in the street, and they often forget to remove them when they come into the house. From an “officer and gentleman, you know, you don’t expect that sort of thing.” Of course, the trouble is mere forgetfulness duo to force of habit, which is quite understandable. “The fact is,” said an ex-officer, “that we have got so accustomed to acknowledging our friends of both sexes or our superior officers, by giving a smart military salute, that we now touch our hats instead of raising them. The action is mechanical; we do it half unconsciously, and we forget that we are no longer in uniform. 1 When you come to think of it, I don’t consider it very surprising in the circumstances, and, of course, no rudeness is intended. As to removing the hat when you enter a house, that, again, is due to military habit. When you go into a room to see your C.O. or sumo ‘li-.iss Rat ’ you do not remove your cap. The reason is that you are expected to stand to attention, and salute directly you get inside, and no soldier must salute unless he is wearing his cap. “ The only time when a soldier goes into a military office minus hat is when he is brought before his commanding officer for some offence. The hat is then deliberately removed by the military police, according to army rule, because once in the dim ages an angry prisoner snatched his cap from his head and hurled it at the 0.0., who had given him three days’ C-D- So it becomes a fixed habit to walk into a room with one’s hat on—but give us time and we'll soon get back to the recognised customs of civilian life.”