THE SERGEANTMAJOR

Hokitika Guardian, 2 September 1929, Page 2

THE SERGEANTMAJOR

HIS secket OUT. The sergeant-major’s secret is out, says the Morning Post. For a long time ambitious men of the ranks anxious to make good and wear a crown on their sleeves have wondered why sergeant-majorships never came their way. They have said'to themselves: I know all the drills; I-can get-, a bull twice in three shots; my are the brightest in the company; and yet I’m still only a private. What can be wrong? Mr Justice Swift has supplied the answer. “You are. ruining your chance of promotion in the Army by not speaking up. You will never be a sergeant-major,’’ lie said to a soldier witness who spoke .in a low voice. That is the crux of .the matter. The sergeant-major ; must have lungs of leather and a larynx of brass. He must be able to make a machine-gun sound like a gentle accompaniment to his commands, and his vocabulary must be the fenvy and pride of his men. ilt is the voice that makes the sergeant-major. Does the sergeant-major surreptitiously slip throat loozenges into his milk ? Does he strengthen his voice by singing in his bath? Does he creep out for lessons in voice production while the battalion is sleeping? These are questions which only ser-geant-majors can answer—and they never tell. But off the parade-ground over a cooling lemonade, the sergeantmajor can bo as soft-voiced as a whispering baritone or a bookmaker the day after the Derby. If you go to Kew Scotland Yard where recruits are enrolled, you .will hear pleasant-faced and gentle-voiced sergeants calling young fellows “sonny,” and directing them to comfortable cafe-like tables where cups of coffee are to be had. “We always make the lads at home” a reporter was told. And it certainly seemed that the post-war sergeant came up to the ideal of the old song and was “father and mother, too.” “Yes, a powerful voice is one of the most essential qualities in a sergeantmajor,” said an ex-sergeant-major in tones which at close range were like approaching thunder. “On the par-ade-ground a woa.k voice would 'be a terrible handicap, and words of command coming in a piping tone, for example, would be almost ludicrous. In the war it was found that coalmen and fish hawkers made the best seigeants, as they could address 800 men in the open air with ease. They had wonderful carrying voices, due to their trades.”