"OLD SOLDIERS"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23809, 9 November 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

"OLD SOLDIERS"

THE war is over. The transport glides into harbour with its cargo of returned Diggers; all are eager, to exchange for a suit of "hand-me- . downs" the khaki which has been their unvaried wardrobe for the past few years. Each and. everyone is resolved , that never again will he don uniform; never again will he be fool enough to grace with his presence "a war. No more rush to be on parade ; no more buttons to polish; 110 more officers to salute. Not on your sweet life 1. Of all these war-weary men. none was keener to terminate his military career than Digger Smith. So keen was lie to discard the khaki that he could not wait until the ship was berthed, but must fling a rope over the side, scramble down to the wharf, and dash up the street 'to buy his mufti. Roll on the years

Economic. upheavals, wars and rumours of wars awaken not in Digger Smith the martial spirit that characterised his youth. His matured wisdom now seems to" indicate that he lmist have been a young fool. Yet there a're: times when he finds fcimsplf in retrospective mood.

By M.J.G

As he sits back in his cosy armchair enjoying the comforts which so appeal to middle age, he does sometimes miss the wonderful comradeship of those faraway years. What pals those chaps were! How they had all shared and shared alike. Yes, they'd shared their rations, shared their piastres, their francs, their fun, their toil, their danger. Gosh, he could recall how that quirt lad —a" clergyman's son —and himself had struck a spot of bother in Cairo.

Could that quiet boy scrap? Can ducks, swim! How that same lad joked and smiled going oyer the top to meet that piece of shell inscribed with his name. There was the time when they had all pooled their few francs to let old Bill go on Paris leave; poor old Bill who was knocked out in the first stunt after his return.

Then old Charlie, who, when Smith was off colour, took Smith's turn on front-line fatigue; and ; Charlie got sniped through the head. There was that senior officer who strafed Smith for not saluting, when ho was carrying two heavy dixies of water across half a mile of sun-baked dessert. "What an old bite! Not a bad chap-though. Poor «old boy took a shell all to himself. So, in procession, march through Smith's mind, Charlie,. Dick, Bill, Tom and a host of others of all ranks. . Yes, good scouts: God bless them.