CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6362, 17 December 1898, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

There is a very general tommy opinion that the IJritish atkins and soldier, considered as an his example of moral excelcbitics. lence, Jeave3 something to be desired. Granted that Tommy Atkins has lost nothing of his former valour, it does not follow that he has become a model of all the cardinal virtues. It was Eudyard Kipling who said that " Single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints," but the opinion prevailed before Eipling. If we are to believe the statement of a high authority, however, the British soldier is a much maligned man, and is certainly far better off as regards ethical principles than his critics have led" the world to believe. Last month Lord Wolseley formally opened 1 a home for soldiers in the Buckingham Palace Road, and in doing so made a few remarks on the character of the men who wero likely to occupy it. He said he remembered what the Army was years ago, and he was certain of one thing— if he was certain of anything in this world — viz., that if they went to any parb of our great Empire they could not find more sober, moral, and good men than they could find in the army at the present time. Taking tho whole of our army at home, he was prepared to say that they were the mos sober, best behaved, and moral of all tho people he knew in Great Britain. The utterance is a significant one, and it is supported by a voice from Soutli Africa. The point at issue is the alleged injustice done by Mr Kipliug to the British soldier. " Atkins and C 0.," writing to the " Cape Argus," asked permission to express, "as representing Tommy Atkin? en masse, the utter disgust we feel towards Mr Kipling for attributing to us language that Whitechapel costermongers of the present generation would, as a body, ref pudiafci as being spoken by that fraternity generally." This letter being reprinted in a London paper produced a small crop of criticisms, mainly approving of it " Ex-Sapper," for instance, wrote that " Neither bouilli beef nor Omdurman dead donkeys upset the ' Lads in Red ' half as much as when some brainless ' Gussy or Algy ' gets up and says something ' awfully funny ' about ' Tommy Atkins.' " Another man remarked that he had talked to hundreds of soldiers, and if the vulgarity of them all were invested in one man' " that one man would barely come up to the worst of Rudyard Kipling's charming types." All this is interesting and original, although the statement that Kipling has "lowered" popular opinion of the army borders on the farcical. Kipling is said to have " discovered " Tommy Atkins, and the latter is not likely to repudiate his discoverer yet.