THE REFORMED BRITISH OFFICER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13748, 10 September 1908, Page 8

THE REFORMED BRITISH OFFICER.

The Rev. E. J. Hardy. M.A., Chaplain to the Forces, describes in Chambers Journal the new British Arm? officer. From thjs it appears that, among other services to the Empire the Boers of South Africa have created a new type of British officer. Mr Hardy snys": — "It is a lon« time since the British Army could be truthfully described as 'an army of lions led by asses.' Tndeed, if an army is what the officers nre, there is much hone for our Army. The Boer War taught such n lesson that there is no profession now that works harder thnn does the profession of arms in Great Britain. T!i< microbe of energy has bitten almost everyone in it, and an officer now who does' not lead a strenuous professional life must go nt least on half-pay. Witness whni happened in the Fifth Lan cer<4." Mr Hardy quotes p barber at Aldcrshrtt to Dip effect that officers now have no hair to cut;* "it has been worried off their heads; nesirly everyone of Diem is getting bald." Another

testimony is from the editor of a wellknown magazine, who told the writer that there was no class of men from whom he liked to get manuscripts more than from British officers ; they are so natural and healthy-*nunded, he says German officers cannot understand how British officers can play games with their men, and in other wayb associate with them. Germans c-cTuld not <!<> it without destroy ing discipline.