DISCIPLINE LAX

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20863, 15 August 1942, Page 3

DISCIPLINE LAX

AUSTRALIAN ARMY DRASTIC ACTION URGED SYDNEY, July 22.' The recent Australian Army order requiring stricter observance of saluting in public between officers and other ranks will be regarded with resentment only by those who have not learned the need for inculcating soldierly bearing and conduct at all times as an essential factor in military efficiency, says the Sydney Morning Herald ’ln an editorial article. Discipline is primarily, of course, a state of mind: and the state of , a soldier’s mind is revealed by his behaviour. Two thousand years ago Julius Caesar insisted on .the same truth to his legions: “Least of all in‘armies can discipline be relaxed, because wrong-doers corrupt the excellent, and the insolent element has the advantage.” Nobc dy can pretend that there is not need for the enforcement "of this most ancient lesson in the Australian Army to-day. We do not believe indiscipline to be general, but the public has had visible evidence in streets and trains that among some units, or in some train* ing camps, it exists. Not long ago the Minister for .the army mentioned it from “personal observation,” and said investigations had been ordered. A Herald war correspondent at a base “somewhere in Australia” drew attention to it in an obviouslv restrained despatch. Army leaders have issued orders that soldiers must be dressed more neatly: absence without leave must be stopped: drunkenness andunvulv hehaviour in men on leave must be policed. Some good effect , horn attention to fhese matters is observable, but does not the very necessity for issuing such orders weight as. a reflection on the whole Service? Is it not a punishable military offence for any soldier to disimpp his uniform bv his conduct’ While it is true that the extent of ‘he indiscipline extant may be exaggerated it is also true thaf the gtl’rhs of this disease are deadly in nnv army, and their appearance calls for rhe most drastic treatment when the nation is fighting for surivial.