THE CASE OF THE COWARD.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 87, 24 September 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CASE OF THE COWARD.

Take the case of the "coward." Mnch is spoken very stupidly and ignorantly on this subject. The present writer, - for example (says Sir William Ra:a#ay in the "Daily Chronicle), would be absolutely useless in a modern battle; the sounds would kill all his capacity for service.

Many years ago lie was an officer in the Volunteer Artillery, and remembers the agony of waiting for the sound of the gun which was about to be fired, even though the gun which was allowed then to Volunteers was a mere toy; in a railway station, when an express train rushes through, he endures half a minute of long-drawn-out torture until the train has passed; in the New York Overhead Railway every station through which the express thunder is to him a martyrdom. Such a person would be worse than useless on a modern field of battle, and would probably act in such a way as to be called a coward; but the same person has passed through narrow escapes from death and often been in really dangerous positions without feeling the slightest tremor, or losing one whit of coolness and alertness, and would probably have been quite useful in a battle of the lod kind wher swords and shields were in place. Plenty of men are afraid lest they might prove cowards who have no reason to dread the test, and some men plume themselves on their bravery without justification. There are, however, some that are really cowards all through, T suppose; but I have not met them in this country; and they «re embarrassment in every system, whether voluntary or conscriptional.

The health of 'lie Expeditionary Force •' i.mpares net only favourably with the health of any previous campaign, but nothing approaching it has ever been done in the annals of tiie pasf.— Mr. Tennant.