THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1929. TROOPING THE COLOURS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20235, 20 April 1929, Page 12

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1929. TROOPING THE COLOURS.

Seldom in Auckland, seldom in New Zealand as a whole, is seen the little bit of oldtime pageantry to be performed in the Domain to-morrow, that of trooping the colours. Thirty years have elapsed, indeed, since the. ceremony was last performed in this city. Then the Auckland Infantry Regiment received the colours that since have become worn by time, and now these are to be replaced by two new flags generously presented to the regiment. These Hags consist of what are known respectively as the King's colours and the regimental colours —one the Union flag with the regimental badge worked in the centre, and the other of hues taken by the regiment as its own, bearing scrolls with the names of actions in which its men have fought. They are not meant to be carried into battle. That practice died out fifty years ago. At the battle of Isandhlwana, on January 22, 1879, two lieutenants lost their lives in trying to save the colours of the 24th Regiment, and thenceforth it was decreed that so great a hazard likely to result in loss of life for no substantial gain or vital principle should not be run again. The decision has been criticised as mistaken. In warfare with savage tribes, as on that occasion, no good reason is served, possibly, by carrying the colours into battle and exposing them to risk of capture; but in warfare waged by civilised peoples, it has been held, the case is different. The Russians and the Japanese carried colours into action in their war of 190-1-5, and these were supplemented by smaller flags or camp colours. British practice has not merely abandoned the old custom: it has supplanted it with another—the ceremonial reception of the colours as a sacred trust by a church, when the regiment departs on a campaign, that they may be guarded until it returns. The age-long idea of the sanctity of the colours remains inviolate The fact that they are no longer hazarded on the field is in accord with that idea, although it is not deemed expedient to imperil lives needlessly there in their defence. The critics of the practice now established declare that there is lost to the men in action the inspiration once gained from the presence of the colours.

That this inspiration has been gained thus is proved by the experience of many centuries. From time immemorial some sort of insignia has been borne into battle as a rallying device. So the Roman legions had the eagle, the vexillum and kindred emblems each fixed upon a tall staff—whence has come the word " standard" so often used now of a less rigid symbol—and these, seen by all the men engaged to serve a common cause, time and again rallied waverers and turned the tide of conflict. Down the intervening years the custom came, the flag- a flaccid thing, waving like the slender leaf of a plant to which the name " flag" also applies—taking the place of that earlier device which was usually made of unbending metal. All through the years the idea has been the same, that of a sacred symbol reverenced by every man in the organised army a symbol sometimes held to be endowed with a magic charm and always regarded as a shared possession and responsibility. The psychological value of the practice is evident. Military history is full of incidents impressing this social fact, and British records abound with recitals of heroic deeds inspired by the danger of the flag. No wonder is it that, in fashioning the devices themselves, care has so frequently been given to make them vividly symbolic, not merely capable of easy descrying in the murk of battle. No finer example of this can be found than in the King s colour of our infantry regiments, its blended crosses being charged with religious significance, while even its hues have a meaning understood by the thoughtful throughout almost the whole world—the white of pure intent, the blue of constant fidelity, and the red of loyal love prepared to sacrifice itself in an ardour of endeavour.

In the pageantry of to-morrow's ceremony there is therefore much more than a military spectacle. The guarding of the old colours on the left of the line, the fixed bayonets, the bearing in honour of these worn Hags along the whole front of the assembled troops and their placing in the rear: the forming of the encompassing, three-sided square, about tho new colours placed upon the piled drums, and then their solemn consecration and their reception into guardian care and their saluting. Viewed merely as a spectacle, tho ceremony is impressive beyond words, but this focussing of rapt attention on the flags conveys a sense of a common cause instinct with deep appeal to every man on parade. It is easy, of course, to treat it all as belonging to a phase

of life doomed to- wane and vanish, when human fraternity becomes so deep and broad that war is outgrown The desire for peace is as instinctive as it is diflicult of attainment. Nevertheless, in this honour paid to symbols reverenced by a company of men is betokened a capacity for united service in a cause held in high and wide esteem, and this capacity lies at the root of all social endeavour, whether in war or peace. This it is that gives the spectacle its deepest significance, and makes it, in spite of its association with strife, vocal with promise of the widening fraternity without which peace can never come to abide and serve the race. Rare as the ceremony is, it belongs to an enduring order destined, all must fondly hope, to win an invincible sway.