THE COLOURS IN GERMANY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17552, 22 April 1919, Page 6

THE COLOURS IN GERMANY

WHY THEY REMAINED AT HOME

For the first time for close upon forty ! years the treasured colours of the regiments of the British Army are being carried into an enemy country in token of victory. Many famous corps have already received their flags from the hands of the civic or religious custodians to whom they were entrusted over forty years ago when their rightful owners crossed the Channel and went into battle, and now these many-col-oured strips of silk, bearing the names of bygone fights that have added lustre to our soldiers' glory, have been raised in Germany as symbols of the triumph of the Allies. When the standards are brought back by the troops it i will be to have new geographical terms 1 embroidered^on them—the "honours" gained in the greatest campaign of all time. , In the historic wars of the ipasfc the British Army carried its colours into action, and though, the ancient meaning of the flag as a rallying point for its supporters had long since disappeared, many a bitter fight took place where its guardians were gathered. It was the heavy losses caused by the determination of our gallant men never to surrender their beloved colours that i led to the abandonment of the old cusitom of taking standards on to the battlefield. First Tsandhlwana and then Laing's Nek definitely decided the War Office to order that all flags should be left at home, and thus, though many new "honours" have been added since the eighties, the emblems upon which they have been inscribed have not witnessed the victories of which they tell. Lord Wolseley, a great upholder of the former practice because of its influence upon the regimental spirit, declared that to command a man to carry' colours into battle was equivalent to ordering his assassination, and there is no doubt of the truth of this dictum. STANDARDS AND GUIDONS. Theer are several varieties of flags in use in the British Army, although some of its finest units have none. Each of the three regiments of HousehoM Cavalry rejoices in three regimental colours and a "King's" standard —brilliant affairs of crimson and azure, with gold fringes. The "honours" are shown on the regimental standards bel6w the Union badge—a Tudor rose, a thistle, and a shamrock on one stalk, with a crown above. The Royal Horse Guards have an additional crimson silk guidon —a guidon is swal'ow-tailed, with the upper and lower corners of the slit fly rounded off, "while a standard is rectangular^—which was presented to them by William IV. Lancers and Hussars have carried no standards since the time of that monarch, but every regiment of Dragoon Guards treasures a crimson damsak silk flag, and every regiment of Dragoons a crimson guidon. Every regiment of infantry, with the exception of rifle corps, which have no colours, possesses two standards —the King's and the regimental. In the Guards .the' King's colour is a crimson flag, and the regimental colour is the Great Union, the "honours" being embroidered on both. Regiments of the line have t,he Great Union us their King's colour, the name of the unit be ing in the c entre of a crimson circle below the Royal Crown; while their regimental colour, on which alone the "honours" are displayed, is of the same colour as that of the facings of the regiment, except that the red cross of St. Georgo on a-white ground is used by those corps -whose facings are white. The Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers, likp the Royal Air Force, have no colours, but the Royai Marine Light Infantry own a standard similar to those of line regiments,for each of tl'<? three divisions, tne Royal Marine Artillery being flagless. REGIMENTAL HONOURS. While the Artillery and the Engineers are not given " honours" —for the simple reason that they earn them in every engagement in which a gun is 'Jired or n.ochanical work is required— the various horse and cavalry regiments which do not possess flags upon which to inscribe their "honours" place them on their accoutrements. It is indeed one of these units that possessed the greatest number of "honours" before 1914! those won since have yet to be apportioned. The King's Royal Rifle Corps fahow upon their Maltese Cross no fewer than 39 names of fights in which they have i^dined special distinction, while the Rifle Brigade have H2 of the«e notable decorations, being only one short of the record of the Gloucestershires. The Highland Light Infantry can point to 30 historic fights, while 29 are shown on the colours of the Royal Scots, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the South Staffordshires, the South Lancwshires, the Black Watch, and the Gordon Highlanders. It will not be long now before vre know which of these splendid corps hus risen to the premier position by reason of special bravery during the past four years, though the task of distributing