TEACHING PATRIOTISM IN RUMANIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3280, 24 January 1917, Page 61

TEACHING PATRIOTISM IN RUMANIA.

THE SCHOOLBOYS’ SUNDAY MORNING DRILL. There is no prettier sight in all Rumania than the schoolboys’ Sunday morning drill. The lads are so proud of themselves, so sure they have work of importance on hand, as they inarch off straight, when Mass is over' from the church door to the soldiers’ field. Mere they all Generals, Lord High Admirals, or even War Ministers, they could not demean themselves with greater dignity. The very way thev hold their heads proclaims their sense that heavy responsibility rests upon them. Not that there is any trace of gloom or depression about them. On contrary, whenever I saw them at drill they seemed all aglow with gladness, and their great dark eyes were sparkling with enthusiasm. There was, it is true, a touen 01 solemnity alike in their gladness and their enthusiasm. I should have thought, incised, from their faces, had I not seen that they were being drilled, that they were taking part in some religious ceremony. Nor should I have been mi wrong if I had: for. in Rumania, learning how to fight is regarded as a religious dut\. This'"Sunday drill is something very like a continuation of the Mass. There is hard y a little peasant in tire land who would not think it a much graver sin to absent himself from the drill-field, waere ne might learn how to defend his country, than to absent himself from church. The lads whom I used to watch, Sunday after Sunday, as they went through their manoeuvres, * were peasants for the most part Their fathers and grandfathers, who watched them 100, and with admiring api>v«,Vn 1 in their e;. os. almost all wore peasant dress. They wore evidently every whit as proud of the’} descendants as their descendants were of themselves. Little wonder, either, for they were a fine, handsome set. with lithe, active figures, beautiful hair and delicately cut faces, faces of marked intelligence. They were always neat and clean, quite smart, indeed, for j even those among them who go to school in rags always manage to find —their mothers see to that-—white blouses embroidered with many bright colours _ for the field-drill. They wore only little fellows, the youngest nine or ten, perhaps, the eldest not more than 14. More they Rnglish, they would, the chances are. have been Bov Scouts or M’olf Cubs. In towns.

[ indeed. Rumanian schoolboys are now I beginning to cat] themselves Boy Scouts; ! and. under the leadership of their Crown j Prince, to adopt Scout rule. When I was among them, however, they j wore all buy soldiers : and soldiers ihey ; «i;l remain at heart, whatever be the name ihoy bear. One has only to glance |al their faces to know that. Even the j youngest of them had a very fair notion lof soldiering. I soon found. They all took j up their places and stood at attention the I moment tao drill-sergeant appeared ; and then threw themselves into their work J with an eagerness and a vigour that would have won Lord Kitchener's heart. The j whole time the drill lasted they had not I a thought in their heads, it was easy to see, beyond learning how to fight, to fight well. For even little boys in Rumania are fervent patriots; even to them their country is something that must be not only loved, but watched over, fought for, if needs be. 'They are as fond of play as other youngsters, as eager for pleasure; still, never would it occur to any of them to grudge the time they must give up to learning soldiering, Sunday morning playtime though it. be. Patriots mav, as folk say, be born, not made; none the less. 1 very much doubt whether Rumanian schoolboys would bo quite such ardent patriots r.s they are were it not that their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers all combine with their teachers in fostering their patriotism. In their land there is nardly a town or village but some old man or woman is there who remembers the days when it was a mere Turkish province, its people at the jyercv of foreign rulers (1 have often stood side by side with one of them at these Sunday drills). Now these old people have terrible tales to tell of what they saw in those days, of what they had to suffer—how thev must stand aside helpless while Turkish marauders drove away the cattle they had reared, gathered in the crops they had sown, nay, snatched the very bread from their children's months, slaughtering ruthlessly whoever dared raise a protest. And they tell these tales to their children's children and grandchildren, just as they used to tell them to their own children ; say how they saw the old homestead pillaged and burnt, those nearest to them led away captive, or murdered. There is hardly a peasant family but has its tradition of horrors, a fact that explains why it was that among the peasants' indignation, blazed forth most fiercely, when the rumour spread that there were men in Bucharest' bent on fighting side by side with the Turks. Most of those boys who marched off so eagerly to be drilled have, no doubt, living relatives who have seen with their own eyes their land laid waste, and who therefore cherish it the more passionately. They have known from their babyhood—had learnt it from the songs their mothers sing even before they heard the tales their grandfathers tell —that Rumania has at her very gates, foes who did her great wrong in the past, and will do her great wrong in" the days to come, if ever they have the chance. Thus the fact was brought home to them, long lief ore they went to school, that they would have to defend their country if they wished to keep it. Were it otherwise they might be loss devoted to it than they are: for it is always what one fears to lose and must defend that one loves best. Still, the seed sown at home is certainly well fostered at school. For Rumanian teachers, most of whom arc themselves the sons of peasants, and as staunchly patriotic as their fathers, are keenly alive to the fact that the children whom they teach will one day have the fate of Rumania in their hands'. It. is therefore their delight as well as their dutv to see to it that these children shall n:.f only love their country, but be proud of it, convinced that it has' had a glorious past, determined that it shall have a still more glorious

future. These teachers are born orators, j many of them : and they never miss a chance of lavishing prai.-e on their • country as the most beautiful and fruitful of countries, of lavishing praise on their race as the noblest of races. It is but right that they should exult in their land, for it is a land that the people of other lands envy and covet, Rumanian schoolboys are taught; but right that they should exult in the nation to which they belong, for it is a select nation, one destined to do great things in the world. They are, however, also taught that, while exulting, it behoves them to demean themselves wisely and worthily, and thus set an example to the nations around thorn. It is always impressed upon them that, as a race, it is their special mission in life to spread Western civilisation. The old tradition that (he Rumanian folk are descended from the legions Rome sent into Dacia, and that they have therefore as much right to call themselves Romans as any folk that live in Italy, is much made of in Rumanian schools. That their forefathers were all noble warriors of high renown many poor little Rumanian peasants firmly believe ; and they hold their heads the higher for believing it, realising the more clearly the while the duty they owe to their country. I have seen in Rumanian villages the veriest little ragamuffins throw back their tattered mantles with an air that made one think instinctively of Brutus or of Caesar in the Forum.—Edith Seixebs, in the Graphic.