The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1914. CHEERFUL TOMMY ATKINS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2298, 31 October 1914, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1914. CHEERFUL TOMMY ATKINS

"Like all the soldiers whom I have met since landing at Boulogne a few days ago he was unaffectedly cheerful." > With these words a war correspondent concludes the account of a conversation he had with a British soldier who had come into Paris from-the front. This testimony to the unaffected cheerfulness of our troops-who are undergoing the hardships of one of the most desperate conflicts in history is fully borne out by the personal observation of officers and civiliansBritish, French, and Belgian—official dispatches, newspaper reports, and private letters _ ■pi the men themselves to their friends at Home. Tommy Atkins is well aware that he carries his life in his hand. ' Ho has no illusions on that point, and no one knows better than he does that war is not a picnic. Neither ignorance nor bravado _ is in _ any way responsible for. his unfailing good spirits} for he has his fair share of intelligence and common sense, and there is nothing of the swashbuckler about him. He _is cheerful because he has an instinctive belief in the philosophy of making the best of things. A long face and a gloomy heart-will neitherlighten his load nor make rough places smooth, whereas tiio most irksome phases of a soldier's life are made more bearable by the capacity to sec the bright side of things.' A keen sense of humour is a, splendid asset to a soldier on active service, and the spirit of cheerfulness is one of those moral factors upon which the success of' an army so largly depends. The good humour of Tommy Atkins is not the result of. any conscious process of reasoning. It is a gift. He is cheerful just because ho is built that "way. Though ho- may _ enter the jaws of doath with a smilo or a joke, he is neither brutal nor callous. Ho has a very . human, sympathetic heart, but that does not prevent him from fighting with the most desperate determination, and no ono knows bow to use the bayonet more effectively than ho docs when ho gets into close grips with tho enemy. Writing just after the magnificent retreat from Mons, Loud Sydenham remarked:

In the long history of tho Dritish i Army I cirn recall nothing equal to the magnificent display of -fortitude, endurance, discipline, and fighting power which lias now been given to the nation. Attacked with special animosity by far superior numbers, never allowed time adequately to fortify its positions or to rest, and forced to successive retirements always ■trying to the morale of tho best troops, the little Army of Sir John French has covered itself with imperishable glory.

This retreat wag a tremendous test to tlic morale" of Sir John French's men, and the successful manner in which they extricated themselves from their perilous position was in no small mcasuro due to their cheerful obedience and unquenchablo optimism. Tbey were convinced, as a war correspondent pointed out at the. time, that :the retiring tac-

tics would lead to triumphant victory, and that the Allies were merely waiting their time to deliver a crushing blow. Subsequent events have gone a long way to justify Tommy_ Atkins's unshakable confidence in his leaders.

1 The letters of the men themselves provide a most interesting insight into the mind and character of the British soldier of the Twentieth Century. -They show us the real Tommy Atkins, and how ho fights his country's enemies. "I have never seen our lads so cheery as they arc under great trials," writes a sapper. Life in the trenches is not too comfortable at its best, and at its worst jt must bo very hard to bear. But the men have invented all sorts of ways of lessening tho monotony. The game of guessing where tho next German shell will drop must be a decidedly oxciting form of amusement. "Sometimes we have bets on it," the sapper tells-us, "and the man who guesses _ correctly the greatest number of times takes the stakes." The opinion has been expressed during the present war that there is something wrong with the army that does not sing. Our troops certainly have_ the gift of song, but they do not sing about battles and slaughter and the tramp of armed men, but about lads and their lassies, and the "Long Way to Tipperary." A corporal, after describing "a .terrible bit of work," when the Germans, thick as Hielan' heather, were forcing our men back by sheer weight, goes on to say that "in the thick of it all wo were singing Harry Lauder's latest. Every now and then the German shells would burst, and as we peppered away at them we sang about 'Eoamin in the Gloamin and _lThe Lass of Killiecrankiec' _ Many's the song about the lassies we sang as tho shells broke." Another British Tommy seems to have, endeavoured to open up a little cheerful conversation with "forty German prisoners" whom he saw at Rouen, tmt he appears to have received no encouragement, ' for he states that they looked very savage and careworn, and would not speak. "You can't see us for dirt," he writes, "but like the other troops we are all in good spirits, but very dry." Men who go to battle in this happy frame of mind, who simply will not allow themselves to be crushed by adversity, and whose good humour rises triumphant over ' hardship, danger, and discomfort, are very hard tc beat. This is one of tho discoveries that the Germans' are inaking. The special attention which the Kaiser has ordered his troops to pay to tho British is a high compliment to Tommy Atkins, who has proved that the great traditions of the British . Army_ are quite safe in his keeping. "Fighting is harder by a long chalk now than ever it was," says a corporal of the York and Lancaster Regiment, "but you may take it from me that the British soldier has lost nono of his old grit and gives aa good as he gets any .day." Ho gives with all his might, and takes what he gets without whining. Cheerfulness, obedience, cqurage, and endurance are the characteristics of the ideal soldier—and Tommy Atkins has a full share of all of them.