Arms and the Man.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13874, 10 April 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

Arms and the Man.

AT QUEEN'S HALL, WESTMINSTER. -• \ There are two Queen's Halls in London. One qf them is devoted to serious music and suffragists. It is rather a melancholy place at times. The other, at Buckinghamgato, is a place where they are jolly, free and easy sing-songs, and where the merry music of military bugles rings out in the evenings. As a place of highclass entertainment foi;. young men° it is elevating and ennobling in its influence. Outside it is a dingy building. Inside everything is cheerful, and on a Monday evening especially the whole building is alive; with activity and gay with sound. From behind closed doors leading into the stone corridors there comes the pleasant noise of laughter or a good old chorus shouted lustily—"John Peel," or "Wrap me un in niy old stable jacket," or "Back'to the Army again " —and down the stairway come clattering a number of smart fellows. They keep their hair short, and they have square shoulders and straight backs and keen eyes.. They belong .to the best type of English breed, and not to the degenerate stofck of loafers and idlers. ! For, as will be guessed, the Queen's Hall is no ordinary hall of entertainment.' Its ' theatrical performances and smoking concerts (with real soldiers as the chorus) iare not licensed by the London County Council. They are by kind permission, of the War ■'Office ; and the director of the Qneen's Hall, Buckingkamgate, is his .Majesty the King. COMRADES ALL.

It is the headquarters of the Queen's "Westminsters, now officially'.known as the 16th Battalion, County of London, Territorial Force, and.it is'one of the best clubs in London. It is a club of good fellows, who are also first-class fighting men, ready to do their duty to the country when the call comes. Many of tliem are old comrades-in-arms, and the youngest recruit comes into the, inheritance of a great tradition.

For the Westminsters are of no mushroom growth. A tablet hanging up in their great hall shows that they obtained their title of "Queen's" in 1860, when Sidney Herbert, then Secretary for War, signified the gracious wish of Queen Victoria that the corps formerly known as the Pimlico Rifle Volunteers should be called the Queen's Rifles. Bui their history goes back farther. They are the successnrs of the Westminster Light Horsp of 1787. of the Royal Westminster Volunteers of 1793, of the Pimlico Armed Association of 1797. of the Queen's Royal Volunteers of 1803, and of all'the. Westminster parish companies who' fn 1860 were united under 'the command' of Lord Grosvenor, afterwards first Duke of Westminster. But the traditions of the regiment are not to-be put down in black and white. It is the indefinable esprit de corps of men who have served in the ranks together, some of them—-have gone through all the grades of command, who have marched along many a dusty -road together, who havevspent many aVgreat night in camp, and who are 1 jealous of the pride arid honour of their name. The officers mess on a Monday night is-part of the tradition. From twenty to twenty-five men sit dowiv at a long table in a room which contains many relics and records of the regimental history—silver cups presented by commanding officers and, others, pictures sent to the Westminsters by Queen Victoria and King Edward, ■ portraits of former officers and men who have now gone into the, great river. The colonel, or the second in command; takes the head'of the table. At the other end is one of the captains who, as secretary of the mess, keeps a watchful eye on the menu. There is no order of precedence, but by an ■unwritten law the'senior officers sit on either side of the CO.< the subalterns taking lower places. The toast of the King is not honoured. With only one or two other regiments of the Regular Army and Territorial , Forces the Queen's Westministers are permitted to dispense with this ceremony, their loyalty having been well proved. There are oth,er points of etiquette at the officers' mess which belong to the traditions of the regiment, but otherwise all is free and easy. The officers call eacli other by their Christian names. These men are of good social positionrepresentatives of many great professions and businesses —but most of them have been through the ranks, and-seve-ral of them can claim from twenty to thirty years' service. Some of them have been born into the regiment, as it were, being the sons and the grandsons of men who once more the grey and scarlet. .

AT MESS. . Good stories are being told as the bottle passes round. The youngsters are being'taught the'traditions. The senior officers see the ghosts of old comrades as the cigarette smoke curls up, and tell of long marches under a hot sun, and of concerts in camp under the silver moon, and of adventures when men, now gone, played the game of life with gallant hearts: South Africa is mentioned. The public has forgotten their heroes, perhaps, but these men remember their comrades who answered to the call in the dark days of the Empire. The Queen's Westminsters sent ninny, men to the front, and some of them did not come back. But" those who came back and now sit at this table raise their glasses silently to unseen presences. . . . . The meal goes on. Captain Lambert is telling a good joke. Major Canning is in the middle of a reminiscence. Major Comerford is keeping his side of the table in a. merry mood. To-night, as week after week, and year after year, good friends keep up the old traditions of camaraderie.

Down below tho canteen is crowded. | Sausages and steaks are frizzling on tlie gridirons. The lights are gleaming on the coloured pictures of British generals round the wall, and on the faces of young men with keen eyes, who are doing knife-and-i'ork drill on each side of a deal table. A crowd of good fellows are round the bar clinking glasses and there is a haze of smoke in the room, and the noise of many voices talking and laughing. "Who are all these fellows with goodiooking, clean-shaven faces They are dining on bare boards, but they behave like gentlemen. They are solicitors' clerks, insurance clerks, architects' clerks, engineers, and the sons of well-to-do business men. They are the boys who have pretty sisters in the suburbs. But they are not the weedy youths who sit giggling at the dancing girls in London music-halls. These boys are well set up with good chests. Clerkship does not injure their physique. As citizen-soldiers they have learnt to hold themselves like men. It is good to see a crowd like this inspired by the spirit of good fellowship, and to hear tho boyish laughter ring out. It reminds one of old college days, when the wine of life was sparkling. It is good to find that vintage again in the heart of London. KEEN AND READY!

In the great hall there is a rattle of arms on the hard 'floor. The old words of command are ringing out. The recruits are being put through their paces by the sergeant-instructors —nou.-coms. of the Regulars, who know their work, and have learnt the trick of pulling a likely fellow into shape. The squads take themselves seriously.

They have thrown out their chests, f like' pouter pigeons. They grasp their | rifles as though they loved them, but are a little nervous of their loves. They i have the haughty look of heroes in their eyes, and, knowing that those who wish to commqnd must learn to obey, they do not flinch at the gentle satire of the sergeant, who generally allows himself a sense of humour. After a, dozen drills a young man is able to look the world in the face with a stiff lip, and to handle a rifle as-though it were not a dangerous animal of uncertain temper. After six months in. the Queen's Westminsters he has a contemptuous pity for all poor beggars with narrow chests, who have not the pluck of a mouse, and who would be no good to the country, or to their best girls, in days of peril. The great drill hall is hung with shields emblazoned with the arms of the Westminster parishes, and there are two great boards on. which, written in gold, are the names of those Westminster men who fought and died in South Africa-—a long, and splendid roll-call. The spirit of those men calls to the young recruit when he first puts his heels together at the word of command.

Queen's Hall is a big nlace, and it is not soon explored. The sergeants' mess is not less comfortable than that of" the officers, and they have their own trophies and their honourable records of service and achievements. Close at hand is, the men's recreation room. It is cosily furnished, and from the pictures oji the walls to the carpet on the floor every tiling here has been bought by the men themselves out of the profits on the canteen. Down below are the stores in charge of the quartermaster, who at two hours' notice could turn out the regiment ready for the field.

The ; Queen's Westminsters take a pride in being ready for any emergency. A few years ago they were put to the test. The German Emperor was in London. In his quick, characteristic way he expressed a wish to inspect a ■Volunteer regiment early the next morning. The authorities were startled. There was' no time to make arrangements. It could not be done. . . . .' "I will do "it," said Sir Howard Vincent, colonel commandant of the Queen's Westminsters. The word was sent round. The men slept in the drill hall. At 6 o'clock next morning they paraded in the grounds oi Buckingham Palace, where Kaiser Wilhelm inspected them. AH went well, and the Emperor was so impressed by their soldierly : efficiency that. he sent them a fine portrait of himself; which now hangs in the officers mess. Colonel Trollope, the present commandant, has kept up this spirit of alertness. The Queen's Westminsters are never going to be left behind.

1 EXAMPLE TO EMPLOYERS. There is-one remarkable fact about this regiment- which should set an example of, patriotism to all great employers of labour. For years "A Company" of-the Westminsters has belonged entirely to the great firm of Shoolbred. The partners in that firmhave been the senior officers, the chief clerks have' been the non-commissioned officers, the young employees have formed the rank and file. Tbey have their own drill-hall and armoury in the Tottenham-court-road, whenever an opportunity offers batches of men are drafted down to the butts, year after vear they have been taken to camp by their own clu'efs, and for many years A Company has held rank as being the first shooting company in the kingMa ior -Schooibred still ' upholds the tradition "of his firm, and his name should be honoured among all who believe in patriotism and public spiritt And the spirit of the men themselves is admirable. . One of them in the rjcanteen raised" his glass the' other".'fflpST and said "Here's to ourselves. ... .. friends and comrades, all. The best happiness of my life has been in the old regiment I think it is the duty of every honest fellow to learn the use of a rifle, but-here duty goes along with pleasure. We' have good fun all the year round, and it is the best of holidavs to go into camp. . . . What's the matter with' all the young men who shirk their duty, and miss the pleasure? Tell some of them to come and join us."

But/ it is not easy to make the young men hear. %