BRITAIN’S NEW ARMY

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 June 1936, Page 3

BRITAIN’S NEW ARMY

CAMPAIGN FOR RECRUITS

I In the midst of a re-arming Europe ! there are various signs of the times j that mean quite as much as the scareI heads about a £350,000,000 budget to (place England on a war footing, Ger- | many putting a tentative shoulder to 1 the leaning pillar of the Locarno I Pact and giving a few rhythmical shoves, or the scramble for military understanding among the Little Entente and the Balkan Entente. Here in England there are at least two small, almost surface, phenomena that are eloquent testimonials about what j is in store, writes a London corresI pondent to the “New York Tinies.” I The first is a greatly increased solicitude about Mr. Thomas Atkins. A recruiting campaign with all the trimmings is now under way. It is rapidly closing up the gaps in regiments and putting them at almost waist’, ength. Whereas in 1914 and 1915 resort was had to the sense,of shame, what with girls on the street handing civilians white feathers, the new psychological approach to a recruiting prospect is “Join the army and j have ail the girls crazy about you.” In New Scotland Yard, where the main recruiting office in London is located, there is a mannequin parade of uniformed stalwarts constantly on duty. There is a representative from every well known regiment of the line, in full regimentals. When a*recruit is lured in from the streets by the gorgeous posters that dot the heai dings throughout London the recruiting sergeant takes the neophyte [gently in hand, conducts him to a | room full of gorgeously caparisoned [ soldiers that make the place look almost like the opening chorus at a Viennese operetta and tells him that he has only to choose the uniform (and regiment) he likes best. The guardsmen and the hussars and bombardiers line up in their crimson finery, befrogged, belaced and bebuttoned, bekilted and bebusbyed, and the recruit gets his first chance to inspect a guard which has been turned out for him—and likely his last. To an undernourished (and recent statistics show ’that the average amount which the lower classes have to spend on food is four shillings a person a week) and a poorly clad young than with a frayed knotted scarf around his neck, the appeal is irrestible. s DAZZLING INDUCEMENTS As he goes down the coruscating line-up, the sergeant tells him that by a new dispensation of Government, he will be allowed to wear his fulldress uniform with increased frequency out of barracks and that he need never, never wear khaki when l\e goes to see the girls. There’s a liew “walking-out” uniform which is issued to recruits almost as dazzling as the full-dress uniform. Filthily, at the end of the line, the! recruit has the choice to make. “Will I it be the Royal Horse Artillery, me I lad, with the tight-fitting coat of blue ' with yellow facings, tight breeches and riding boots,” the sergeant beams, i “or the Dragoon Guards with the blue patrol jacket and two-inch red stripe down the leg?” The recruit cannot make up his mind, and asks an Irish Guardsman model in towering bearskin to step out of line so he can get a better look at him. “The only consideration- against that,” croons the sergeant, “is that you must be six foot of more. How [

about a nice Inniskilling Fusilier? Look at the drape on that walkingout coat.” Forthwith the recruit takes the King's shilling, and within two days is out with a swagger stick on the Mall.

There is every effort made to satisfy the prospective recruit, not only ■about the uniform he likes, but about the regiment he has a predilection toward. If a lad whose father was a Coldstreamer comes in and says he wants to be one, they will overlook a fractional under height or underweight to oblige him. Even though the regiment may be technically up (o full strength, they will find some way to make rom for him. The British Army has gone rather old-school-tie, and all that sort of thing about its common soldiers for the duration of the peace. When war comes they won’t have quite so mjich time for the frills.

Fetching styles (in the Army) are not the only lure which the service is holding out. Its army transports have been remodelled with an eye to comfort and even the amenities. Once a voyage to India in British troopship was described as “purgatory between decks, hell in the forecastle, drink up alo.t, and the devil at the helm.” Two months ago the motor ship Dilwara was launched and took her place in the India service.

Between decks where the troops live there’s a special heating and ventilating plant so that a steady temperature is maintained even when crossing* the equator or pushing through icy storms in the Bay of Biscay. There will be space for games as well as parading, for canteens as well as Sunday services. The refinement of refinements, however, is a playroom and nursery for the children of soldiers who are taking their families with them. The playroom is fitted up with a squadron of rocking horses, the blankets and accoutrements of which are modelled after those of famous Indian cavalary regiments.

‘‘DEFENCE AGAINST GAS.”

Another sign of the storms to be over Europe are the issuance by His Majesty’s stationery office of a little orange-coloured book called “Defence Against Gas.” Its appearance has caused scarcely a ripple in this nonalarmist country, but it deals with the grimmest of realities. Its description of the various gases which not only affect the lungs and blind the eyes, but which penetrate the clothes in ten minutes and the shoes in 30 minutes and cause burns all over the body (when the body is as much as one-third covered with burns, recovery is very doubtful) is quite scientific and matter of ract. It urges citizens to form themselves into units for instruction in the nature of gas warfare and the known means of defence against it. Already such bodies are forming and going through gas mask drills, and some newspapers have carried stories about the Government aiming at the supply of all persons in metropolitan areas with masks. This has occasioned a few articles in the Liberal and Social Press pointing out that in modern gas warfare a gas mask is about as useful as a savage’s amulet. They rather wonder who is going to get the contract for supplying the 20,000 gas masks.