TOMMY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17287, 30 September 1916, Page 12

TOMMY.

FRENCH VIEW OF BRITISH SOLDIER. (Translated by Professor F. W. Haslani.) You asked me in your last to give you some idea of the impression that your “Tommy” gives to us, his French comrades. Well, I don’t know that I’m very good at that sort of thipg. Personally, all I can say is that if A were in a “tight place” I’d sooner have Tommy at my back than anybody else, bub that isn’t exactly what yea want! So I shall fall back upon a much more elaborate description' which was communicated to one of our French journals,by an officer of our army. You may not agree with it, perhaps, but how it strikes him. “Tommy,” he says, has not'got the same idea of military discipline that “Poilu” has. For Tommy his commanding officer is simply a gentleman who tells him what to do, and hus tho right to punish him if he doesn’t do it, and that’s all. In the midst of war he retains the mentality of the civilian, and his notion of discipline i* simply a combination of his respect for a policeman and his belief in a gentleman. In civil life the one thing he hates is to seem what he calls “mean”; and this leads him into generous, not to say wasteful, habits. He is admirably equipped, .lie is liberally provided with necessaries, and what “ Poilu ” would call superfluities—lie gets about 1 franc 80 centimes of our money per day. “ Poilu ” has to account for every gaiter-button, but Tommy seems to have no fear of any regimental “inspector of details before his eyes. So when he is quartered, sa.y, in one of our villages, he sheds his possessions right and left most recklessly. He gives away his rations, he will cut off his last button and give it to any .girl who asks him for a “ souvenir • ’ —he gives away his last shirt, his - underclothes, and even his greatcoat. This assures him of a cordial reception wherever he goes, and tlie inside of his haversack contains many a proof of tho affectionate gratitude of our rural population in tho shape of cigarettes, fruit, and many a flask of the wine of the country to mix with the water in his water-bottle. . Nobody possesses like Tommy the art of making himself comfortable and welcome by the fireside of the family on which he is billeted. He is not-great at- conversations, but ho simply can’t do without “company”—and he lays himsolf out to be “good company” himself. His ignorance of our language doesn t eeem to be the least obstacle. He knows all sorts of wonderful tricks with cards,, he plays tho metith-organ or the concertina, ho tolls tho f° l '~ tunes of every member of the family especially tho girls —- by the aid of a handful of coppers and a box _ of mafbehes. He always . carries on ' him a wonderful' collection of photographs and a mascot of some sort, and this last is, I really believe, the only thing which Tommy will not part with to a French child who asks him for a souvenir. . Tommy does not go in for general

ideas about things and takes no interest ;in other people’s politics, iior very much in those of his own country. Ho takes-a philosophic view of his.eneip.v. except when tho Bocho 4 ‘ acts dirty,” as he calls it to a. comrade or a. woman. Then . Tommy sees red, and Gbc! brfp tho Boche., When the Bopho rt i?ts dirty” to hint himself, he doesn’t get angry as a rule.. He •” supposes tho bloko can't help hisself, poor beggar.” But, all tho same, he never fails to polish oft' ‘-'the bloko” with the bayonet as a, pure matter of business, because, ns he said to mo. once, “ it Won’t do to have a-brute of that sort around. Ho don’t play tho game and a feller dunno where ’e are—it ain’t safe.” I hope I’vo spelt it right. I got him to write it down as it is hero after much difficulty. Tommy doesn’t like committing himself to written statements, but at tho prospect of a handful of cigars ho heaved a sigh and squared Ills elbows and scrawled the above reason with a stub of a lead pencil on my writing block; and, when you eomo to think of it, I don’t know that you epuld find a better business reason. for the summary removal of a Bocho. •

Tommy has not tho feeling towards the Bocho that “Poilu,” has, because lie has not seen his country suffer. England for him remains a country apart, unique, unassailable; lie has crossed the Channel to fight in a good eaitso to which-his country was committed by English faith and English honour. To him' it is simply a question of a fight in which one side or the other must win, and one feels that he means to “ stick it ” to tho end, and nothing stops him, nothing discourages him. In order that Iris sido may win, he will cheerfully lay down his life and nob think a great deal of himself for doing so. “ It’s all in the day’s march,”- he says. So much for Tommy, you will saw; but what about Tommy's officer? Well, at first sight tho English officer strikes us as being a combination of- dandy, soldier and sportsman. But wo very soon find that he is none tho worse soldier for being a bit of a dandy and a sportsman. Nothing strikes -us so forcibly as iiis adaptability to all circunfstances. and bis exceptional intelligence. What he lacks in military experience he makes up for by quiet intelligence and common-sense. I'have' known numbers of officers of the “ Now Army” who up to middle ago had had nothing to do with military matters at all and who fin'd themselves perfectly at case in their new “metier m a very little time. The relations between tho English officer and his men are all that can possibly be desired. Ho.never spares himself, lie shares all the hardships and difficulties of his men. Often and often when a regiment is on the march you may see the colonel himself marching on loot with his men and sleeping rolled up in a blanket on tho hard ground when, he might have a billet in a comfortable, farmhouse. Ihe English officer in short is a wonderful combination of stoicism, simplicity and sympathy, and his men will follow tins quiet, undaunted figure with an eyeglass in his eye and a bit of a stick , in his hand to tho very gates of Hell itself. The English Army, such as it now exists at the front with us, has been most wonderfully transformed in the last year and a half. 1 hat u Inch the Kaiser referred to as the contemptible little British army, has now grown to a force of more than a million splendidly trained men, and it has Germany by the throat in a death gup which grows stronger every day. I promised in my last to tell you something about Tommy and Ins football which lie takes into action with him. Ho really is the most amazing person. At tho sound of his officer s whistle he is out and over his parapet like a shot. Then ho starts not at a run, but at a smart walk to cross perhaps some three hundred yards of No Man’s Land and storm the first line ot the German- trenches. The whole ot tins space is swept by rifle fire ana ma-chine-guns. But Tommy doesn t hurry, ■that N what beats us Frenchmen. « o couldn’t keep lip that steady walk. We must run and we advance at the double. But this is not all. Tommy has jut upon a wonderful way of keeping his dressing as he advances. A little in front of tho line leisurely trots a man dribbling a football. And it is a point of discipline to keep a' few paces behind him and never get in front of him. If ho is knocked over another takes lnplace. If the football is bit and cotlapses, the dribbler stops and sings out “ jScw hall,” and a new ball is produced from somewhere or other. If any man in a fit of excitement hurries and get in front of the dribbler there's a perfect howl of execration-along the line. I asked a’Tommy friend of mine what it was they howled and lie said, “ Well, sir, it’s like this. When tlio bloke gets in front of tho ball he’s off-side, and so they yell at him, Get oh sido you and that jolly soon straightens him up.'”' “ But suppose it didavfc?”"said I. “Suppose ho went on?” “Well, it would bo a free kick for the Bodies," said Tommy, “ and that -would bo. all.” By this time I realised that my ignorance of tho technical terms of “le sport,” as represented by the game of Rugby football had. got me out of my depth, so I will leave it at that, and return to tho dribbler. When he is about fifty yards from the German trench he sings out “On tho ball blokes,” and sends it flying with a mighty-kick into tho very midst of tho enemy; and Tommy having saved his wind for this glorious moment come tumbling after it with his; “pals” like the avalanche of Hell tipped w;ith shining stool. I believe it is said that your great Duke declared that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, but if he were alive now I believe he would say that the stormers of the Gorman trenches were trained on the football fields of the Rugby Union game.