DISCIPLINE.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15407, 15 June 1922, Page 3

DISCIPLINE.

GENERAL BRAND'S VIEWS. Before the members of the United Service Institution at Sydney, Major-General Brand delivered a lecture on “Discipline and Leadership.” Dealing with his subject, Major-General Brand said the discipline of the army of a democracy could not ba the discipline of the mailed fist. The good sought for was a discipline, the component parts of which were respect for the leaders and confidence in iustice and fairness. To- be a leader and maintain discipline in our Australian army required backbone, character, and moral courage. It meant firmness, determination, and decision without crushing severity or overbearing mastery. It meant a relationship of kindness and interest that was not coddling, weakening, or patronising. It meant maintaining “the distinction that prevails in all armies between officers and men” without resorting to barriers, but yet perpetuating the human touch and spirit of fellowship. Men had as little respect for an officer who obviously forgot his place as officers had for men who obviously forgot theirs. Many men regarded the rendering of a salute as a sign of homage or vassaldom, but it they were imbued with the idea that it was the symbol of greeting between members of a oig, loyal and patriotic fraternity of men, who had one and all pledged their lives for the defence of their country on land and sea, apd that, instead of being a sign of inferiority, it was an honoured tradition and a bond of fraternity, and the equality of truo worth, they would be proud to salute. The same salute was prescribed for the General as for the private, and naturally one must give the salute first. Instead of being a duty it was the privilege of the junior; and it was the duty incumbent upon the senior to return the salute in the same manner. '