"LEGION OF THE REDEEMED"

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13656, 26 August 1916, Page 8

"LEGION OF THE REDEEMED"

y.C.'s WON BY NAMELESS HEROES (By Tiglie Hopkins in the Daily Express). What the war yet holds "of marvel or surprise," who shall predict! 'lts past and present hold already not a little of both. ■ When a year or so ago, the headmaster of Harrow told his audience on Governors'-day that'among 2318 living Harrovians of enlishmeut age 2,000 had taken the rifle, we may have felt proud, but.were perhaps not greatly astonishcdi At Harrow and Eton and all such places this is traditional; it is more or less in the blood. .When at about the same time, it was announced that more than 19,000 lads of reformatory ami industlial schools .were in the trenches, and winning honours there, it was a matter for a thrill or two." From the'slums they came, or mostly, J suppose; assuredly not from the stately homes of England, What was their record' up to that date'.' Three of these splendid youngsters from tenement or rookery hiul achieved the Victoria- Cross, Twentv-live had carried off the D.C.M. Twenty had received mention in idespatehes. Three had been decorated' by the French Government. Eight had received commissions. Not so dustv, I think, for vouii" Alt'? ' • ' ° Stick and Skilly. Look a little deeper, and what it really means is'this: that on a sudden, in war's lighting, the reformatory, with, its drab history, its traditions of.stick and skilly,' had placed itself level with those' ancient, and proud foundations, the public' schools, May I not say that, in the moral sense, it had' placed itself immenselv higher *■ From now on we should think no small things of the reformatory. We should be ■ jealous of its management, and of the way it nurtures and rears its little homeless fellows. Three of them, who never pulled an oar at Henley or bowled a ball at Lord's, or shot for a shield at Bisley, are to-day Victoria Gross njo». Kiglit of them, if they liveeight reformatory lads-are' leading British troops against the enemv. But it has been for the Daily Express to give, us what is perhaps the best surprise of the war; the storv in brief of the roll of honour of the'''Legion of the Bcdeenied." The glory in brief, I.say, for it cannot be told in full. The reason why is a reproach to nil of us. The "Legion of the Redeemed" is a legion of ex-criminals. There is not, 1. believe, a conscript among them; every man was a volunteer. But every man, before ■ lie facoil the Germans, had faced a judge, had taken his sentence, and gone into penal' servitude or imprisonment. To do thisis to become a social outcast'; so unjust wc we to those who have sinuedaud paid the penalty! ■ The monstrous fact results that, for the lirst time in history, a man wins the Victoria Cross ■ I whose name, for his own sake, Scotland- I yard is compelled to withhold from us. ■ May we learn more of charity, more of I wisdom! • . ■ •

A Glorious Deed, | The details of the ease have been confided lome, but I may not enlarge on them. I am restricted to-saying that since Hie war began there has been uu more heroic deed. Single-handed it was, done, and the man who for some years had been a Thing in. the infamous livery of prison saved the lives of I know not how many comrades, by some of whom, doubtless, had they known him for an ex-prisoner (though, "us offence mis none of tkii gravest), lie Would 1 have been avoided. When', itwas reported to; his colonel, he said, I would not—l could uol-havo asked any man in the regiment to attempt it. And lam to deny this hero's name to you, this man who saved his regiment from massacre-iu the hero's bwn interest! Let us Do a Jittle ashamed of ourselves, •Since the opening of this war twelve hundred men known to. Scotlaud-vard (unknown, however, to the recruiting officer) have gone-., out for the King; Iney share a good many decorations fobravery, including, besides the V.C., a Cross of St, George bestowed by the war. By the way, I read only tlie Other day that the (fear had presented this Cross to an English work-house bov of sixteen. The roll of honour of the Region of the Bcdeemed," at once he most pathetic and the most romantic 'at the war has yielded, contains the names of seventy-three men who Ml in action. [ jcuiwed it w i t „ || u , deepest interest, wondering wlie l lu»\ 0 -\ some visit to prison I had seen auv of l-n«sH ; a«r eliaps-hwiCiir % taid'iv and terribly rcsta-e I to them .on i|,' c battJofielil—in cell, or workshop.. or quarry. '

Were- the law of the l n „ t | ai ,,| th'i harsh law of society at one, tins womli not be so. But the two ta arc'hope lessly at variause. ,'J.. the ex-convic Ihelnwof the laud says: "Yen* .-rear isjvstorod >to yo'i.' : ' Society *avs "Viuir position is jiaturaiv j.ir.l-" \ v < «''" make it so much harder that fom recovery shall be impossible." 1i,., v then, tomes in the element „r (he m prisintr; the unlooked !'ni ; , in a ]| t| li( | concerns this "Legion of the. Kedcim oil.

Honour Re-Won; 1 may say that within ve-jn* montlx certain select young larikins at Ikrslal have had their terms shortened to the end that they might, join the colours this is eminently proper; I have seen at Borstal a great deal'of very he young human.material. B„, „ nlllv ; ( . t released from l%llau.|, after seven years or so. of pcai soivitade, would he no creature f nr (|,o drill 5.p, ( ..,„f He has lost initiative, individuality manhood itself. For seven vrnr« ~■ ;„'• l' uimsi : 1 « Thing. I sh.ii; not "f l lolllt ' HoN-iiiiiiiiit,„| ls ;.a.s Hie Daily Express ,|, v by day remin is [is and Will, I l, ;)p e, 1,,,,;, ~, remi)|(| . »'g «».), are out of place; but readers who remember « correspond-:,,,, „, these columns on the effects of miprisonment and penal. servitude will need no.' non- assurance that prison is not quite the ideal rurso-v for «»[. diers.

How will the future reckon nith these men, who have given us |, o ti.» r "»•» «-e have given them;' Mh;il| w c think a little different- iibnul : ud"e< and punisliineiit, and the !'..olisii'''waste of public inoney-my .'iiuiin.y t ,„| V cur money—on prisons that limn hut irv.'r heal? Will it be possible for us to remember, when (he war is mx-r, thai not Eton and Harrow only, hm the reformatory and Portland also hay ■- ' V «C. in the knapsack/