THE MAJOR'S STORY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 26 October 1917, Page 1

THE MAJOR'S STORY.

'BiiAUITES OF A "BLIGHTY WOUND.

WHY BRITISH OFFICERS SAY " COME ON." [By Hey wood Bbowx, in the 'New York Tribune.'] J

He was 26 and a major, but he was three years old in the big war, and that' is the only, age which counts to-day hi the British Army. The little major was the only man I ever met who professed a genuine enthusiasm for war. It had found him a black sheep in the most remote region of a big British colony, and had tossed him into command of himself and of others. Utterly _ useless in the pursuits of peace, war had proved a sufficiently compelling schoolmaster to induce the study of many complicated mechanical problems, of subtler ones of psychology, not to mention two languages. It is true that his German was limited to "Throw up your hands" and "Come out or we'll bomb you," but he could carry on a friendly and fairly extensive conversation in French. The tuition fee was two wounds. He was a fine, fair sample of the slashing , swankuig British Ai-mv, which backs its boasts with battalions "and makes its light words good with many guns. We rode together in a train for several hours, and when I told him I was & newspaper man he was eager to tell me somethiu" of what he had seen in the war. Later I became more convinced that British, reticence, if, indeed, there is such a thing stops short of the Army. I have found no British soldier and no British officer in i ranee or Flanders who is not willing and anxious to tell what the British Armv has done, is doing, and will do. "If they'd cut out gas and trenches and machine guns and General Staffs," said th ; e httle major, "we'd win in two months. Without these common concessions he did nonexpert, to see the end for at least a year. G.LAD TO GET BACK TO WAR. Howerer, he was concerned for the most part with more concrete things than predictions, and I'd best let him wander on as he did that afternoon, with no interruption save an occasional question. He was returning to the front after being wounded. There had been boating and

swimming and tennis and " a deuced pretty girl" down there at the/resort where he had been recuperating, and yet he was glad to be back. "You"see," the little, major explained, "I have been in all the shows from the beginning, and Td feel pretty rotten if they were to pull anything off without me. The CO. wants me back. I have a letter /here from him. He tells me to take all the time I need; but to get back as soon as I casi. ,

"The CO. and I have been together from the beginning. It isn't that the new feUow isn't all right. Quite likely he's a better officer than I am; but the CO. wants the old fellows that .he's seen in other <shows and knows all about. That's why I want to get back. I want to see what the. new fellow's doing with mv men." - ' ■ J

He limped a little still, and I pressed him to tell me about his wound. It seems he got it in "the April show." "There was a bit of luck about that," he said. "I happened to take.my Weblev with me when we went over, as well as my cane. They've got a silly rule now ohat oflicers mustn't carry canes in an attack, and that they must wear Tommies' tunics, so that the Fritzies can't spot them. They say we lose too many officers because they expose, themselves. Nobodypays much attention to that rule. You won't find any officers in Tommies'' tunics ■ Mid you will find 'em out in front with tneir canes.

But there's sense to it. I've always said that I wouldn't ask inv men to go any place I wasn't willing to go to, and to go first. "Come on!' that's what we say m the British Army. The Germans drive then- men from behind. Some of their officers are very brave, you know: but that's the system. I remember in one show we were stuck at the-third line of barbed wire. The guns hadn't touched it: but it wasn't their fault. There was a German officer there, and he stood up on'the parapet and directed the machinegun fare He'd point every place we were a httle thick, and then,they'd let us have it. We got -lik, though. I got a machine gunner on him. Just peppered him. He was a mighty brave officer.'' I reminded the little major that T wanted to hear about his wound. +/ TVTt « ol ? in e through a German trench that had been pretty well cleaned out, but close up against the hack there was a, soldier hiding. When I came-by he"; let me have it with his bayonet. He only got me in the fleshy part of my leir and I turned ; and let him have it with my « ebl f;, Blew the tO P of hi* head right oft. Silly ass, wasn't he? Must have known he'd be killed."

I asked him if Ms wound hurt, and he said no, and that he was able to walk back, and felt quite ; chipper until the last mile. - • ■ , ■

i -P 1 ,? ? rst \ tluil S a wounded man wants to xlo, he explained, "is to get awav. It lies been hit he gets .a sudden crazy fear that he's going to. get it asain. Most wounds don't hurt much, and as soon as a man is out of lire and got a cigarette in his mouth he cheers up. He's at his best if its a bhghty hit." Here 1 was forced to interrupt for information.

~"A h } igh P', Mt! Don,t vou linow what that is ; Its from the song they sine w'w' C^ Ty , M , e Back t0 Blighty' Bhghtys England. I think it's a Hindustani word that means home but i' wont be sure about that. Anyhow, a mighty hit s not bad enough to keep you in France, but bad enough to send vou to England. Those are the slow injuries that aren t so very dangerous. "Next to getting to Blighty a fellow wants a cigarette. I never saw' a man hit so bad.he couldn't smoke. I saw a British plane coming down one dav, and the tail of it was red. The Germans fix up their machines like that, but I knew this wasn't paint on. a British 'plane. He made a tip-top landing, and when he got out we saw part, of his shoulder was shot away and he had a hole in the top of his head. ' That was a close call,' he said, and he took out a cigarette, lighted it, and took two puffs. Then he keeled over."

The little major and I got out to stretch our legs at a station platform,, and I noticed that salutes were 'punctiliously given and returned. "I suppose," I said, quoting a bit of misinformation somebody had supplied, "that out at the front all this saluting is cut out." SALUTING RULE STILL STRICT.

"No, sir/' said the little major, sternly,.

" Somebody, told that to the last batch of recruits that was sent over, but we ta.Ufhfc 'em better soon. They don't get the lay of it quite. It isn't me they salute; it's the King's uniform. Of. course, I <ion't expect a man to salute, if I pass him'.in a trench; but if he's smbiing a cigarette I expect him to" throw it away and I expect him. to straighten up." E .■