RANDOM REMINDER
SINGULAR SOLDIERS
Whatever one's opinion may be of the man, there is no denying that Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery has a knack of getting into the news. His most recent contribution to the cables was his scheme to have only bachelors in the British armed forces. This, he said, would do •way with married quarters and therefore save money, although he also saw the need for very high rates of pay as an inducement for bachelors to join the services. Not unexpectedly, the proposal was rejected by the British government. The actual cost of conversion would have been enormous. It would not have been possible, for
instance, to install the new, bachelor recruits in the vacant married quarters, without first doing away with the chintz curtains, the wail mirrors, the collections of vases: and the distinctly feminine colour schemes. Perhaps also the faint aroma of perfume. The view that Viscount Montgomery’s scheme would have a disastrous effect on recruiting had to be respected too. There may be a monastic streak in some, but not all the jokes about mothers-in-law, placed end to end, can prevent the average young man from sailing in a sort of catamaran on the troubled waters of matrimony. It would have been interesting, of course, to
have watched the gradual replacement of married officers with single ones. It could have brought some woman considerable distinction, when she became the sole survivor of the army wives. She might even have appeared in the camp concert as the Last of the Red Tab Mommas. All in all, there was not much prospect of success for the field-marshal's proposal. It cut, for instance, clean across the image a whole generation has of the British Army. How could there be an army without the Colonel’s Lady? And what would have happened to Mad Carew? Collecting tea coupons seems a bit pale after the green eyes of yellow gods.
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Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31086, 15 June 1966, Page 32
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320RANDOM REMINDER Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31086, 15 June 1966, Page 32
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