TALES FOR THE MARINES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 281, 1 June 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

TALES FOR THE MARINES.

ROBERT BLATCHEORD ON THE "BOWLING OUT" OE PROMISING YOUNG RANKERS.

GentJo reader, will you do me a favour? Will you lay your hand upon your heart and tell me, without consulting any book of reference, what you know about Abigail Hill? Nothing? Thank you. Then you arc unfit to hold a commission in the Roval Marines.

If you ask me what Abigail Hill has to do with the Royal Marines, or with tho European War, I shall answer with becoming modesty that J do not know. I huvo never served in the Royal Marines, and I cannot remember anything about Abigail Hill, although the gentleman's name has a familiar sound. Before I proceed any further with this subject I should like to ask another question, but feel that it wow Id hardly be playing the game. I should like to ask who draws up the examination papers for the Naval Board of Education; and is he a conscious or unconscious humorist. Instance? Certainly. Our readers may or may not know that before a private or non-commis-sioned officer in the Army or the Royal Marines can become eligible for promotion to commissioned rank lie must obtain the regulation First Class Edul- - Certificate. WHY THE BUDDING OFFICER IS "FLICKED.-' Ono of tho subjects hi the examination for that certificate is history. The candidate's knowledge of history is tested by a number of questions on the paper. If lie fails to answer a due proportion of these questions ho is plucked ; lie fails; he does not get his commission. Now, into the question of whether a knowledgo of history is pscntial or useful to military or naval officers I shall not presume to enter. To be sure an officer might storm a trench, or sink a submarine, without any knowledge of the strategy of Tigiath P'lescr, or tho origin of the first Funic War. But culture is culture, though "Two thousand pounds of education" did "'drop to a ten-rupeo jezail." And although tho Kings of England were a mixed lot, a knowledge of all their names has the one advantage of assuring us that we know the worst, and thero arc no more of them. Let us return to our muttons.

A correspondent of the "Morning Post" has added to the gaiety of nat'ons by quoting in that paper some of the questions from a history paper sent to tho candidates for commissions in tho Royal Marines. He gives four questions, and 1 propose to deal with them, " in the order of going in," as we used to say at Old Trafford. Here is the first over: six "snorters." " What do you know of the following-. Sarah Jennings, Ab'-gail Hill, Christopher Wren, Queen Anne's Bounty, the "Daily Courant," St. John (Bolmgbroke), and Hurley ? - ' QI'EEN ANNE AND THE WAR. Honest confession being good for the soul, I make confession and declare that J could not stop more than two of the six deliveries, and could not score off those. Christopher Wren was an architect, w,ho budt St. Paul's and many of the City churches. 1 cannot say what were his politics, whether he attended the State Church or the Baptist Chapel, nor wheher he was married, and. if so, how he stood it.

Tho names of Abigail Hill and Sarah Jennings; have la hauntCiJg ring, as though 1 had been bored about them somewhere 'n my youth. Bollingbroko I once met as a casual acquaintance, but it is a long while since we were on speaking terms. OP Queen Anne's | Bounty I know nothing, except that ] it never came my way. Harley. per- : haps, wa.s a doctor, or am 1 thinking of Harley-street? | DOES THE COLONEL KNOW? I ! I saw in the paper ;hi- morning a long I list of majors'who had been promoted ! to lieutenant-colonels; and another list i of voting officers who have been decorati ed'for acts of gallantry, or promoted I for daring and efficiency in the held, i 1 am not a betting man. but I would' ! adventure two pieces of eight that not I one of those promoted majors, or decorated subalterns nad captains, could ; t.'ll off his own bat a single ciivumI stance about the demand for I'arlta--1 mentarv reform in the reign of Ceorgo IV. 1 will give odds- against the double 1 event of anv one of the.se officers bemg ' acquainted 'with both Sarah Jennings and Abigail Hill. Who was Abigail Hill, or what did he over do? If we, or the Sergeant ol Marines, were asked about Francis i "Drake or Horatio Nelson, or Napoleon, ! or Mcltke. or even Caesar or Hannibal. ! or George Bernard Shaw, or Harry i Lauder, tho question might have some ! distant practical bearing upon the duty I of a journalist or a sohlier. I ABSIKD Is it possible that at this nine of day ! tho officials of a Naval or Military Kdui ration Board hold fast to the eld peJa.ntie error that education consists m learning a number ol irrelevant fsvts and figures by heart'r 1 |)o the examiners hold that before a ■ non-coinniissionetl officer is lit tor a com--1 mission he should have studied one 1 period of history «> exhau-tively as to i Ik) able to deal with its nrn-i unimport- | aiii persons or details without reference | to anv book or map? ' \part from the fact that knowledge I crammed is only knowledge swallowed ! and not knowledge digested it is true I that knowledge crammed :- km.w.Mlgo j easily forgotten. 1 Kiirtv odd years ago a nmnlier ol us. I voung'sergeants ol the Ramchundors wont to the S.hooi of Musketry at I lube to got c-rMf.cat. s as mstnii-wrs in" musketry. One day we were at the ,;,,„,, ~,,;,„> wlun |i.<; commanding I olheer rame no and eluded u- thai «<• j W ore not sufli'icently smart in getting ! down on the knee. ' -Look at MI'V hj! eer with twenty years' s-rve. Now, | then. Heady!" 11,. went down on his. knee with woii- | .Willi snertness. Hut he bad lorgot-t-n Irs spi.lM. When lie remembered ! them he -ot U|. -till iimre niniblv and i walked awav. N..w. J have for»otien the rau.il "f ,> -in Inll. "nn llio mI triencies of musketry percentages, am I wliat.il «a- «-edi.! with ih'"Ugh's and ! <i„. s,.m;.c' ; but I can renv iiiHt the

old colonel sitting down on his spur. -13LT Cn/lIRIC IS CO/TOE. ()t course us I smiil just now, etilture ls culture, and if Abigail Hill or Sarah Jennings an- like the S'lcni, little ~ irw boxes ■■.•ontaimng a heavenly ehxi, thru it was a shame to starve Joe tho. Marino by hiding those boxes Irom Vi 1 sav. luck is luck-«r did I Ki> tlint culture is culture? -but it I-were i,n examiner, and if I set such a booby lr ,p ol a paper as the o.k> wo have , MV ' n ( , ; „sidering. and it a Sergeant or Corporal ol Marines answered the question's about Ab.;:a;l Hill, .and Sarah ..onnings. and the Pragmatic Sanctum. P „,l reform in the reign ol (.*Hir«o 1\ .. and answered then, rornvtly, \ should |„. tempted toviy 1.1 that • -andidat.-, as Herbert Spencer said to the voting man at billiards : ", out.-man ~„.,, |(r(l (i,iency ai-ue, a. misspent y<; \ t ! , .'. n .oral who knows all. the things m ,..|,t to be fined with a gramophone ~„"> ~„ e'e-trV li-bt and exhibited in Trali.tgar-s.piaro. S.Hi a m;n is not a ~,.,-e tidier or -Marine; lie '* an >"- i-utliMo fortuitous conceut-o ol negative atoms of u,H,v,- ; .ry knowledge. Meanwhile, ii is the custom ot out Ari-iii-s in France and Rnmlors Utgve -oininissienstomen^hode-Yyetlmm It. > net at all likely that Abigail HM B -il| l,e .ailed upon in the Great Purdi.