RAGGING

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 276, 18 May 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

RAGGING

By A SUBALTERN

Ragging in tlie Army in its old mischievous form has long sinOe died a well-ti.ned death.

1 say well-timed, because the type of ragg'ng to which I refer, and wine i had disappears 1 almost completely somo few years before the outbreak of tlio present war, was of a kind which did no good to the victim and seriously interfered with the discipline and efficiency of the Army. The idea of rugging originally was that it was a means of getting rid of an unpopular officer. But it has always been quite unnecessary to employ this means, as there arc quieter, more orthodox ways of achieving this end. An officer is either fit to hold his Majesty's commission or he is not. If he is not so fitted, his commanding officer should tel) him so; if he is lit, then his brother officers should treat him as gentlemen treat gentlemen. They should not give him an ink bath nor smear him with seccotme and break a feather bed across h's back and pretend his is a parrot. However, nowadays, as 1 have said, raggmg is of a gentler kmd. It is employed in the more delicate cases whero the discipline of the orderly room is not called for and where hints havo been of no avail. I have in mind the classic example of the young gentleman who grew side-whiskers. He was quite a decent youth, the junior officer of his regiment, but he got his head turned through a fortnight's visit to London. Tliere he saw in a smart rescertain super-nut with a growth of hair on e'ther cheek reaching to a point level with the lobe of the ear. He admired the idea, and a young lady with him said that she thought he woudl look very nice too if he grew whiskers. SOAPLESS SHAVING. By tile t'me he returned to his regiment he had done his best to do so. The senior subaltern remarked that night in mess that he had not shaved uimself properly. The next day the adjutant told him on parade to get his hair cut. He replied that this had been done three days before; to which the adjutant answered that it was too long over bis ears. The following day as he was still flourishing the offending tufts ho was sent for to the orderly room, and told by the commanding officer to shave his whiskers off. He answered that lie did not know it was against the King's Regulations to wear whiskers. The King's Regulations were sent for, and sure enough it was written in black and white that "whiskers! if worn must bo of moderate length."' The regulation, whicn had been framed in the Early Victorian era, had for some reason never been amended.

For a whole day the regiment was nonplussed, and our young gentleman strolled the town magnificent in his side ornaments. But retribution followed swiftly that night. At 10 p.m. he was arrested in his quarters by the orderly officer and marched to the b'lliardlsroom, where a subalterns' court-martial had been hastily assembled. Here ho was tried under Section 17 of his Majesty's Army Act, in that he did on certain spocified dates act in a manner prejudicial to the good order and military discipline of the 190 th Regiment of foot by wilfully making his appearance grotesque and calculated to inspire tear iu the children of his company ser-geant-major. The defence that whiskers were allowod to be worn by military law was not held to be valid, and he was sentenced to have them removed without soap. Which, I may add, was promptly done, much to the amusement of everybody, including—when it was all over —the victim. This sort of ragging is all very well and harms nobody. It goes on in every regiment, and is the unwritten law by which junior officers learn good manners. A wise colonel never nterferes with the unofficial authority wielded by the senior subaltern. He draws his own conclusions as to how things are soaping with his flock. If on a guest night as ho s'ts at the head of the table he can look down and see nothing but happy, smiling faces round him, he will not pay much attention when, later in the evening, his game of bridge is disturbed by yells and cat-calls, and there bolts down the corridor a junior officer shorn of most of iris clothes, pursued bv a pack of halloing fellow-subal-terns. ' Not that this is by any means a nightly scene in a well-ordered regiment, but still it has been known to happenthe teddy bear game. A great game when I joined my regiment was Teddy Bears. This, now I come to think of it, was rather dangerous, but still it was all meant in good part: Providence looked after us, and noobdy ever got hurt. Outside the anteroom there was a large coconut mat; ins'de there were some heavy round match-stands. The game was for the Teddy Bear —usually some-unfortunate secondl-l'ieutenanti —to go> 'out«id|o itjie ante-room, cover himself as well as ne could with the mat, and proceed on all fours as fast as possible caross tho anteroom to the dining-room door. The rest of the party, who wero the big game shooters, took pot shots at him by trundling the match-stands along the floor, lie guarding himself as well as lie could by manipulating the mat. One Teddy ifear, 1 remember, who though fresh from Sandhurst was of considerable s'ze, got rather annoyed at being hit on the ankle by a match-stand, and with a snarl sprang on the big-game shooter who had done it and hugged him nearly to death before he coul bo pulled off. Another game equally perilous widen we used t:> play was billiards-room cricket. The pitch was the length of the iblliard-rooni, the ball a billiards) ball, and the bat a short cut. From tip and run the game quickly degenerated into boundary letting, and woe bet'do the unlucky bowler it he could not rea>"h cover before the ball left the bat, Nowadays, with a sterner game to play and window glass ;it its present price, these rags have dropped out, but tliev were rowdy, liappv times which d'd no one any harm. The pitv of it is that so manv of the good fellows who u-'od to join in them are now between the Maine and .Mens.

ly enough set-to, quite welcome break in the monotony of battling through a gale on night patrol. And though I've done my i>e u t I 111 afraid 1 have not managed to eonvev a very realistic idea of what a. night fight between destroyers in this wintrv weather is like, Heallv. it 's a thing thatcannot be adequately pictured in words nor on < invas cither. There it. would be till blacks and re Is. Only by going through th's ev!>: s rienee ean auvone understand e\a"t!v what it i- like." JACK ST A FF.