HUMAN NATURE AT THE FRONT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 209, 15 September 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

HUMAN NATURE AT THE FRONT.

MILITARY LIFE AND THE BRITISH WORKING MAN.

By "lAN HAY" in the "Daily Graphic."

Known to liis countless readers as "lan Hay,'" the owner of that penname is retorded in the Array List as Captain John Hay Beith, and in his own person at the Caxton Hall, he'"l a crowded audience enthralled by his experiences as a soldier. All the. qualities of tender pathos and inimitable humour which hard delighted si many in the pages of "The Right Stuff," "A Man's Man," and his other books shone through the address of the brilliant writer and gallant soldier. We append a few entertaining extracts: — The first thing the British soldier does on entering a trench is to yell for his rations. Each day he paints a new"" name on the trench, .such as Casey 3 Court, the Cyclists' Rest, etc., and decorates his dug-out with picture postcards. Every morning the soldier do?s house maid's duty—cleaning up and throwing bottles and cans over the parapet. In the afternoon, while the big guns are in action over a combined straf.'. he has a nap. One of the types of recruits was represented by Pte. A., who in civil lifa was a waiter in a third-class restaurant. He joined in the days when there was a lack of equipment, and paraded daily in a swallow-tail coat, slightly decolleto wastcoat, and minus his dickey, whic'i early succumbed to the rigours of military service. He was very polite. H* how,9d from the waist when he ought to have stood at attention, and it was with difficulty that he restrained himself from taking his hat off to his offi cers instead of saluting. He ultimately got his uniform and fought at Loos. Tha second type was Pte. 8., of whom there were hundreds. He was an excellent specimen of the free and independent elector before whose frowns the Parliamentary candidate heavily bowed his head. He regarded the officers as rapacious capitalists, and his platoon officer, or " foreman" as he cailed him, as a higher bully. Pte. B. considered it his duty to assert his inde- •' pendence, and he began by taking forty-eight hours off, expecting that he would lose a couple of days' pay, as he had often done in civil life. On returning, however, he found himself undrr arrest for absenting himself.

Dissatisfied with the treatment, l.e endeavoured to found a mutual aid so-

ciety within his platoon, the a : m ;f which was, by constitutional agitatioi and an occasional strike, to get redress. He was agaih unsuccessful, and embarked en a course of dissipation which mortgaged his income for wee»is ahead. On the fifth weak, when he protested, he was informed that he owed

the King ss. The mention of the King * name shed new light on military discipline for Pte. 8., who shouted to the officer, "The King get it? Dae ye no get it verse! ?" In common with 90 per cent, of his comrades, Pte. B. thought the fines went into the officers' pockets. Eventually he turned out to be one of the best soldiers and disciplinarians. A Scotch joke s to prepare for a surprise attack in full view of the en.3my. There are barbaric yells, pipes skirl, and then sandbags with Scotch caps go over the parapet, while the Germans line up to meet the offensive. Nothing further happens. The methodical Boche now regards this joke as it fr'volous abuse of the sacred culture of frightfulness. The German infantryman is a mosb

sociable character and is anxious to make friends. He frequeatly calls out from his trench, and he is always prophesying the early appraoch of peace. One dark wet night at Hill 60 he heard a plaintive voice shoi.it, "Are you dere. .Jock? Have you any whisky? W« have plenty water." The outstanding characteristics of Kitchener's Army are the cheerful endurance of all ranks in every kind of danger, discomfort and hardship, their extraordinary good behaviour in a foreign country, when, so to speak, they have the opportunity to unbend the bow, and the perfect spirit of understand:ng and sympathy and confidence which exist between officers and men. When the war is over and the new armies go back to civil life, and tha tug-of-war between employer and employed is resumed, each side will enter on the struggla with a feeling of new and wholesome respect for the other.