THE PERFECT SOLDIER.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 284, 15 June 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE PERFECT SOLDIER.

By AN OFFICER. Tlicro is a general ic'ou that the perfect sold'er is tlio man with the big chert and the smart salute, the man who can shoot well, use a bayonet to advantage, and drill like an automaton, on the barrack square. And this, like most general ideas is absurdly incomplete, for the perfect soldier is much more than a man who knows his drill.

lo stare with, ho must he an engineer. His trench is lull of water —ho must tleviso some method of emptying it; ho must pavo it with branches, bricks, tins an dsandhags; he must drive in stakes and run a little dram along at the side: lie must, if possible, direct all superfluotij water over towards the Bo( lie. Ho arrives at a spot for the night and discovers that tiie.ro is nothing to shelter him from lie rain; ho doe.-? wonders with his waterproof rheet and a litrlo .string, or lie cuts down trees, •.'•hops off branches for a roof, and in an hour or two has a cosy i'ttlo log .hut with a chimney, a doorway, and a -.eat outside to be used if ever the fine weather comes.

He must. learn to diy; at night in No Man's Land without nearly "braining" his inimediato neighbour at each stroke of his pick: he must know that skill 1-4 needed to uso a spade, that sandbags must be placed like the bricks of a house if his parapet is to have any stability at all; ho must bo able to build a complete city of dug-outs in the course of a lew days: and be must master the art of putting up a pit-prop and of revetting the side of a trench.

He is not only an engineer—he is also a norter of no little skill, for he must learn iitx.v to carry two sheets of corrugated iron in a how ling gale, and, from time to time, he will probably find himself faced with the necessity of bringing two boxes of ammunition over a mile up to tho trenches. He is a cook who can boil tea without "stewing" it and prod us a Welsh rarebit that as not black and tough like shoeleather. He is a diplomatist and a tactician : ho can see liko a cat in the dark ; 110 can march for miles over rough cob-ble-stones ; and he oils and cleans h's rifle, when he comes in wet and tired, before ho tninks of drying bis clothes or cooking his supper. And, greatest of all, he i s cheerful. Ho laaighs when he falls into a shellhole full of wafer; lie plays on his mouth-organ when the men pine for a tune to help their feet along the road: he is good-tempered when he is called upon to dig trenches for the fourth night in succession; and 'he refrains from swearing when tho ration party brings him his 217 th pot of plum and applo jam. Ho knows at least a dozen comic songs; lie does not grumblo and ask " why there's a blooming war 011"; he does not lo.se his equipment : lie never uses his bayonet a.s a toasting fork; and lie cleans his teeth, r.nd not his boots, with hi.s tooth-brush.

So that, you see, the perfect soldier is a very extraordinary being after all.