REVELATIONS OF HAZING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18730, 9 June 1924, Page 7

REVELATIONS OF HAZING

EXCITEMENT IN CANADA. MILITARY COLLEGE AFFAIR. COMMANDANT'S ADMISSION. [from our own cokeespokdent.] TORONTO, May 3. William Bowen, formerly of the American Expeditionary Force, but lately a trooper in the Royal Canadian Dragoons, stationed at Stanley Barracks, Toronto, attended a Baptist revival meeting and, in the exultation of an "experience" interlude, described the difficulty of leading a, Christian life in the army, surrounded by drinking, gambling and other • degrading conditions. Bowen's narrative was reported to his comrades in barracks, who forthwith held a barrack-room courtmartial and sentenced him to flogging and other punishment. The victim finally landed, unconscious, in a : snow bank whence some Samaritan ' had him conveyed to the hospital.

When the story leaked out it, created a considerable disturbance, particularly as Bo wen contended he had not in his "experience" narrative referred to conditions in the Canadian barracks, but to those he had experienced in the •American army. The comrades who had disciplined him were severely punished by their ; military superiors. But public opinion not satisfied. Civil authorities were also impelled to act. The unhappy troopers were hailed before a judge ,and were obliged to undergo the indignity of seven in a civil prison. ' . /

The incident was the beginning of a nation-wide agitation against hazing in ail forms and, in all institutions—whether, in the army, the military colleges, the boys' schools, or tha universities. Flight of a Recruit., A second incident added much fuel to. the flames. It. occurred at the Royal Military College, Kingston, which is the Sandhurst of Canada., Arnold, a recruitaged 17, ran away, and escaped detection or capture by walking many miles in the bitter weather across the' ice covering the eastern end of Lake 'V Ontario into--. the United States. Eventually he was found' in the home of a relative in ,"New York City. ' . . . ' ; ' • '

; Immediately the searchlight of publicity was turned on hazing conditions in the Royal Military : Colleges. Arnold, it appeared, had been flogged lying,- his senior said, about the score at a hockey match. • Arnold said •he did riot object to the caning, but that he had} deserted because lie wanted to get an education and conditions were such at the Royal Military College that he. had decided success there in his object was impossible.

Scores of boys have run : away from college, but ordinarily they just went, home, made what explanation they could to their parents and;, nothing was ever heard of their deseriionit. ' The case of Arnold, however, became;-a nation-wide issue. His father, himself a military man, wrote a letter to General Macdonnell, the commandant at the college, making a series of charges against conditions existing among the cadets. Part of the letter was published— net all of it-. ; : V Mental and Physical Ordeal. ,

It had been ; generally known that the hazing in vogue at the college, was rigid, .extending throughoutthe whole of ,tho first year and including incessant fagging, much of which appears foolish to mature ytars. Graduates of the college, without exception,, were known to be- intensely loyal to it, not hesitating to ascribe much of their success in after life to the training they got as recruits. The £e;ieral Impression on the part of the public was that it must be : a pretty good institution to produce such graduates and that the hazing,, even if it required a physical and mental stoutness reaching almost to perfection, was all right. The letter from Arnold's father made serious : charges. The portion published .declared that far from lying being regarded as a major sin, lying in a highly elaborated system was actually encouraged arid required of the recruits. The system of hazing, it declared, was so far-reaching that it was almost impossible for a recruit to get on with his studies. It was in other respects offensive. What charges were in the part of Arnold's letter not published is not known. A .bombshell was dropped in the ranks of the critics of Arnold when the commandant issued a statement, declaring that, as a result of a preliminary investigation, he had found conditions such that Arnold had been justified in running away, that he proposed to introduce a new regime and that under the new conditions he- would be glad to have Arnold return to the college. : This statement—described by Arnold's father as showing the courage of a soldier and the courtesy of a gentleman— taken the glamour off hazing .as practised at the Royal Military College.

College Students' ."Court." Another incident, aggravating' to youthful exuberance, occurred at Queen's University. A reporter in a local paper had criticised the conduct of undergraduates at dances. Masked students thereupon apprehended the reporter, took him to a students' "court" filled with "00-eds" as well as undergraduates and submitted him to considerable humiliation. This incident also "leaked out" and the students responsible, including some of the Canadian champion football stars, were taken before" a magistrate and fined. . ' Publicity given all these affairs aroused a wave of public sentiment against hazing and every form of lawless' punishment, which has swept across Canada. The heads of the leading universities, including Toronto and McGill, have issued statemerits declaring that they countenance no form of hazing and that if any relics of it- can be shown to survive in their institutions, they will take , the necessary steps to exterminate every .last vestige of it. It is obvious that the Ku Klux JKlan has less chance than ever of . obtaining a foothold in Canada. . ' , =