LUCK AND PROMOTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 15, 12 October 1918, Page 13

LUCK AND PROMOTION

SOME WAR "FLUKES." ■;. (By John Steel, in the."Daily Mail.") The ladder of uiilitnry promotion is as■ steep and tall as over, and to-day its rungs are particularly crowded, iion can get. to. the very top of it by sheer merit. -You'.can get-a good startup it if you have friends l in high places. You .can skip a rung hero'and there by judicious'' ''wangling..'' But what every climber wants is a fair'share of pure, unadulterated Tuck.. Merit, of course, can never bo, squeezed .out. The pilot' who "crashes" 50 Huns, ,tho ; 'infautr.v brigadier who:has never-lost a.trench, ..tho stibmnriup commander who bail round up. tho shy Him cruiser aiid get a "mouldy" homo on : it—-such men cannot -be hid. "' - . But all tho same; your bc-ribboncd "ace" possibly crossed the.- lines'• .a score of times before he ran into the Richthdfen Circus;'; and by then he luiow the ropes.!. Your "boy brigadier" —where 'arc.' tho : -rest ofhislOli'incas now,' and was 'it his fault that :they "stopped one"'and ho came through? . As ;f matter of- fact; luck' begiivs .its work'-.before over you-get measured (or yorir.firstHunic. ■• '' ' . •' ■ Two ' brothers applied ■ for. commissions .in 1914.'.' One— the ' younger--was gazetted' to the- R.A.0..; : each increase in its "establishment"'has spelt a iise'iji rank f or.tho'old brigade,'Tlj'e elder brother,- jomed-;the", infantry; stopped a piece of H.E. at Neuvo Ghapolle, spent month's-'-in"'hospital, and now hobbles daily to a"commandeoied hotel with just two pips on:his sleeve. When ho meets .'''the- kid" he salutes a crown and star.-. These are normal caseSi'-'. ; Every' now -arid .tlieri luck' ;i.s abnormal. A, certain Grade B man;' so the talo.:goes, was shivering .under the shadow of conscripti.oil, 1 and afc > the eleventh hour "wangled" a 'commission in a technical corps..->-In.his "civvy" days he-had-owned several small eating houses, whore, lot us say, '■ sundry Czeclio-Slpvak lvaiters were .employed, and. in running the-show ho naturally picked up their: language. Events oxalted the political -importance-of the Czecho-Slovaks, 'There,was a call for liaison officers whoi knew the language. A 2nd lieutenant :would hardly he a lit representative ,of a great Power; so the' whilom', restaur'a'hteur., '. blossomed out into', red tabs and'a, gilt drown; and ho soon earned them; too.

Most s'trhnge of'all; real .bad work is sometimes .the .open. sesame to promotion. Brown was ; 'a-young, doctor, a born fighting man, and'-Grade'o3. For months no board would' pass' him. At last the supply of'doctors ran short; and- a personal friend ''vetted I ', him as sound. Ho was posted ,as medical,pflir cor to an •undistinguished lome..service uiiit on the cast'coast, whero'iiis work was limited to the .issue of. Number Nine pills and the- weekly, bunion parade. r .Brown toiled', like "a nigger': There. was. no; mbro." swinging' the • lead'', in that unit, and sickness practically cvapouratcd. Brown itched to get overseas, but every application for.a.transfer was turned dowii,'. and an unsytripathctic- War. Office remained deaf and dumb. , ..,.....' .'■..

At last''-a candid friend, versed in the ways of commanding officers, eiir lightened him: "You're far /too useful to your C.0." ': :' . : - :■ ;

Brown took-, .the hint. • The parade strength of his unit shrank visibly from day to day. The'-next transfer went through. Brown is in France now,;coni : mandihg stretcher-bearers; arid the ribbons on his breast almost dazzle you.