RUDYARD KIPLING AND CONSCRIPTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 316, 17 January 1902, Page 3

RUDYARD KIPLING AND CONSCRIPTION.

(By “ The Brushwood Boy.”)

About a week ago, the cable informed us that Mr Rudyard Kipling, the “ Laureate of the Empire,” had, in a ringing, passionate poem, published in the London Times, appealed to the British nation to face the necessities

of Imperialism by accepting conscription. The poem condemned the senseless importance attached to football

’ anu ciickcl, anu accuseu int ilisii ui fawning on the younger nations for ’ men who could shoot and fide. Now, Mr Kipling has hosts of admirers wherever the English language is spoken, and everyone readily admits the great good he has done in working for the consolidation of the Empire. Who could but be stirred by the word picture he draws in “ The Seven Seas,” of the Old Sea-Wife, who sits surrounded by her Sons, who have come from the ends of the earth to the open door of the Mother with gifts. Throughout the whole of this book, the author sings the song of Empire with a voice of genius : “ One land from Lion’s Head to Line.” But while we admire Mr Kipling’s prose and rhyme immensely, we at once join issue with the sentiments expressed in his latest poem. He condemns the Englishmen’s love of field sports, which every thinking man must consider one of the chief factors which have gone to build up that bull-dog pluck and dogged determination which has always been the chief characteristic of the Briton, and has made him feared by the armies of the world when they have met him in hand to hand encounter. No less an authority than the Iron Duke himself attributed the victory on the hard-fought field of

Waterloo to the training his men had undergone on the playing fields of Eton. These were no idle words of the great Duke of Wellington. With his clear perception, he saw and acknowledged the vast advantage which the indulgence in robust, healthy outdoor physical exercises imparled to the men under him. The lessons in endurance, determination to succeed, and strict obedience to discipline which were taught on the English playingfields stood the men in good stead when called on to face the great Napoleon in the great Titanic struggle, and the Iron Duke was quick to acknowledge it. And since that time the heads of the Great English Public Schools, the authorities of the Church, and, in fact, all right thinking men have done all in their power to inspire and encourage in the British lads the love of such games as crickGt and football, in order that their sinews and muscles might develop with their mental vigor. It is no “ senseless importance ” which has been attached to the great good these sports have done for Britain, and it will be a dark day for England when her sons grow weary of such healthy, physical training. But the chord which jarred most in Mr Kipling’s poem was the appeal to the

nation to face the necessities of imperialism by accepting conscription. Surely, the war which is being waged in South Africa has proved conclusively that Britain requires no such system to enable her to place a sufficient number of men in the field. Why, every member of the vast empire “ on which the sun never sets,” was ready, if need were, to respond to the call to arms, and the volunteers who proceeded to the front were admitted by the best British generals to be equal to, if not superior, to the regulars in the class of warfare in which they had to take part. There is a deal of truth in the old axiom : “One volunteer is equal to ten pressed men,” and, with reference to the Briton, we agree with the words of the patriotic song “ The Volunteer ” “By a very slender thread lie so easily is led ; but he won’t be driven half an inch, not he.” The Briton has only to look across the Channel and view the state of France in order to see what the result of making a nation a huge fighting machine leads to.. What can a nation hope for when it finds its military authorities defying and setting at nought the decision of the highest Civil Court in the land, as was done in connection with the Dreyfus case such a short time back in France. No, Rudyard ; Britishers want none of conscription. What is wanted though, is that more encouragement should be given to volunteering, and more ammunition dealt out to the army and navy in order that they may become more proficient in straight shooting. Let us have less of staff college theories and more of the Rugby football element about the preparation of our soldiers ; less lace and feathers, expense, and ‘ mess. Let the officer’s only right to promotion be merit; give the men exercise in all classes of country, instead of parading on the plains, and, above all, give them plenty of football and cricket and we shall have no need for conscription. With regard to Mr Kip ling’s assertion that Britain fawned on the younger nations for men who could ride and shoot, we think it scarcely just. The Mother is not gmen to fawning on her Sons, nor the Sons to cringing to the Mother ; but, in Mr Kipling’s own words, they speak to each other, “ after the speech of the English, in straight-flung words and few ” The majority of Englishmen can'ride as well as colonials and shoot better ; but our men had the advantage possessed by the Boers of being more used to hilly country, judging distances, and shooting at moving objects ; and, above all, they were not cursed by having the right to think denied them, and were thus able to individually exercise the brains God had given them in extricating themselves from the tight places they got into. As a last word, I would ask Mr Kipling to re-write that poem- It >s not worthy of him. It is more like something ' that would emanate from the pen of the Poet Laureate Let Britain relv on voluntary enlistment and volunteers for her fighting men. filer Sons would rise to a man were ever occasion to arise which required them In the meantime, let us all learn the use of the ride, and keep our physical forces fit by indulgence m cricket and football, and all manly games. Then shall the day be far distant when ICngland, like Rome, shall decline because her Sons have grown oo wealthy, and fat, and indolent.