"OUR BOYS."

Northern Advocate, 19 April 1915, Page 2

"OUR BOYS."

EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN. A- GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION. * (All 'Rights-Reserved.) (Continued.) Hellopaliej* Surtday,-."2Bth -February.

Things move with Btartlins denness these days I Yesterday morning at half-past • seven - our battalion W as having its --breakfast' at -lemailia and discussing-* with • -itself the- signs of the times, for although-we- knew little more tUan that our tents were already on the way to Heliopolid, there was = manifestly "somfething doing." The generally accepted prediction that we ; soon to- say good-bye to Egypt certainly seemed td have a-lot-of evidesce-to-back it up, and perhaps it was a reasonable deduction that the warm woolleasmittens issued 'the previous evening meant our going to a colder climate, but there were many. who, arguing from the experiences of past disappointments, maintained that we were only to suffer "more damned fooling about," and would have to remain In Egypt till the war was over, after which-we might ibe takeniHome to-be received by the King. Amongst the tumult of voices the wiser men and the old - Boldiers ? rmunoh*d -their "biscuits and bully" in silence, and regarded? thei disputations ofMheir-more impulsive ->comrades* with fan-; air. of bqred indifference.

Ten o'clock—"Fall in;" 10.30, "All ahpard;"3:3o,;pnce more, comfortably settled at, Heliopp(is 1 K with teatavpitchedi andcookThouses: isr fuiligomg order.

When one comes to think of it; this is a wonderful age. imagine a bat.talion of abput;l26Q{ jpien *elngamoved, I wi.th all their belongings, from Is-, I miilia to Helidpolis (about the same distance as from Auckland to W,haogarei) in four hours , actual"tratfel,'lin'g time and aboutnplght hours altogether from the time the old camp was tillnth»«new one was pitched! Kitchener had an eye to the future, and knew what he was doing, when n« organised the, JEgyptian- railway-.sys-r tern.

And. so here we are again, once '.moire almost under the> shadow 'of'the Sphinx and Pyramids, and regarding ,at ithe same* time; accofdirigly as we ;are] individually theglaniouri of what l-think.m(ust»be the wick-edest-city..on -earth:—for* when I- speak •of sHelippolia its•-,must -be- remembered ._that ; Oairo -is ipnly.. eight uniles away, less than half-an-hour by tram or train, ; and* granted pretty freely now that.pur training,is (over. ' So far we have heard nothing de- ; finite as «to our next destination: Some declare "on -the--best^of-•- «uthority" that we are to move in a couple of 'lays-and go t while others "incline to - the 'pardanellfiss; buti as a matter of fact I cannot conceive how-We can move at all under a week or so. •' However, it is something to look forward to, that at last we i are to see the "real thing." It doepn't matter much where, so long as we get a fair chance to-earn, for the,country we-love-so; welltthe right to |an- honoured ; place amongst , the honoured- nations of the earth. «

"THE SOUL OF AN^ARMY." It is wonderful* what a* national -ppide has been awakened >in pur fellows of late. Long before was dreamed of in our peaceful homes und-er the Southern Crqss. I ,read in some book or' magazine a reference to "The Soul of an ; Army," a curious abstraction (as I thought,then); which s lefti me wondering what could be the nature- of ; this inpeliing force; and since then I--have read ac-; -counts of military engagements nearly all iof which conveyed suggestions of t the same strange "soul" which enters <not the MAN individually, but the iarmy as a collective body of men. Now, I think, 1 1 can understand it. "Most of us have mothers, ; sisters* sweethearts, ~or. wives .and .children—rsomer, ,one, at anyrate, to whom we are -bound by the strongest bonds of affection; and undoubtedly in the. MAN, or in his life apart from the "SOLDIER'S," those loved ones at home are a powerful factor in the moulding and retaining of a spirit of selfreacriflce in him io whom they looked for protection in the hour of peril; but my .mother or sister is not my comrade'e mother or sister, ofathose at home we think differently. But my /homeland comrade's homelaud, and there are, jtheii itomes i of j all we love most dear; so that when we think of New Zealand we rthink'. together, ■.-. as all, Enlgli&hmenfithiinki of England or* as Scotsmen'),of itheir bef \loved Caledonia; and as our love of country grows, so also grows our hate of the enemy and our determination j that-no tyrant invader shall <ever trample roughshod over the coil of dear old Maoriland while even one man lives to guard it. That is "The Soul of an Army," the-in tense fervour of a common love which inspires every man to give his best, and his need be, so that the-object of his love may tcome to no harm,' though he may perish to save it; and this must surely be the broadest, arid* aoblest <>aiid best love of which a man's heart is capable. "Greater love hath* no , ,roan than this, that he lay down hie life for. another," and T sincerely belieTe

that out of the whole of our battalion —those thousand men*? woo presented so strange a mlxture>of gosod ande>il -afcEpso'ra—not one could a©w be fouinJ Jwhose""greater love' ,Ji thei4ove -a>t ibis homeland —could not brave his heart .* and steel bis nerve to march to certain deaths knowing -that in the sacrifice «df his life- he had done all Hhat • was- humanly possible for, him to -do, ■for* his--country's sake. ..Perhaps it is too soon to make this boast of our men from the North, but I feel more | than confident that it will be justified j ere long. Sometimes we growl and complain when there is nothing to do, for all soldiers are growlers, and whetlier, there is* anything to .growl jat or not; but when the band strikes up "Ninety-five" (our Regimental March) which we remember as the acconij paniment of our adieux as the troop- ) ships steamed out of Auckland harbour, every man stands with should- • ers braced and~head erect; and a different light is in his eye—a light that comes from the depths of strong men's hearts, and reflects the strength of a manly and noble purpose. "Ninetyfive!" What a world of meaning there is for the boys from Auckland in the stirring strains of' that quickstep march! ' Just as Highlander* are stirred to the limits of human fervour at the* sound of the pipes playing theirs own regimental' so our fellows "spring to it"* whether on the march or after the evening's band programme, at the fir3t bar of "Ninety-five." Sometimes-we get it for "musical reveille," always at the start and. finish of a battalion march, for a every night, and we whistle it on the march •when only small detachments are out and there is no band; but it never grows staler because we have; come to regard it as an inalienable and almost sacred element in the routine of our lines. Let Turk or German look for the nearest way to-safety if the Aucklanders march out to meet them to r the strains of "Ninety-five!'■'

I have heard of at least two chaplains who have complained that the men have more reverence for their •regimental marches than they have for the hymns prescribed in the service books; and 1 have also heard >it deplored, (this latter on our own parade ground, but not by our own Pad-ro) that more is thought of the Colours than of the Cross. 1 intend when opportunity presents itself to meet one or all of these learnei. and fenlightened gentlemen, who are the ministers of (God to a lot of benighted soldiers, and argue this matter out. ■the statements"mayi have made thoughtlessly,. for I- do .not -believe i; they could have been uttered, serinusr ly by: anyone'who, > understood the dii- . ference-between ar soldier of fteeh and 'bleod and ,the soldier of the imaginative idealist. Personally I • wish a great many of our chaps had had the benefits of- good home training and religious instruction in their early youth, and less of the influence of the Devil; but they hadn't, and so we cannot - either blame them or endeavour to, shame them because their strongest armour is "the strength of their;good right arm," and their god the; man< whom -they-could follow through the hottest hell of any battlefield. Anyway,- when it-comes to reverence :of the Cross,- the) "soldier who inscribes "In hoc signo vinces" on his colours, actually pins hie faith to THREE crosses, and—this point may have escaped the notice of some of our-Spiritual Guides—there, is a trinity of colours as well as a trinity of crosses on our Flag,'each of which colours has a significance <*hat ought not , to be lost sight of r—Red. stands ,for sacrifice; white for purity and blue for truth ("true blue"). So-we find that the man/who loves his Colours and "quits himself like a, man" ia as good (in my opinion at anyrate) as he whose "religious scruples "are hie only excuse for staying at home. I do not for a moment suggest that religion would not makcany man better, jno matter: how-good a soldier he might .be without it; but I do know that we have good and brave men amongst us who have never attended a church ; parade without complaining thas -they could have* occupied the tinie more profitably playing cards. >&nd yet I not bring-myself to think that when" we stand before the guns of the enemy these men will be forgotten by Him to whom we pray as "Our Father Who art dm Heaven."

I'll caflclude this ■ first instalment now, and have it ready to go by the first post after the removal of the the movements of troops," under which heading comes almost everything one can * write in a military _ camp. It is not what I had' hoped to make but the experience may'stand me in good' Stead with the next, which I intend to write on different lines altogether.— J.M.S.