TOMMY’S TALENTS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 150, 28 June 1916, Page 3

TOMMY’S TALENTS.

“METEORS AT THE CHARGE.” Some of the characteristics x»f British soldiers have been humorously portrayed by one of the Italian war correspondents who has been at the British trout. He writes thus: “The English arc over reserved, with the air ‘You can never surprise me.’ They are well-balanced, imposing confidence, and yet, like Didymus, diffident, and, as the old Romans, they bear Law in their knapsacks, and they are, unequalled as soldiers of occupation. If Fritz has to be crushed, he has best, for his own sake, be crushed by an English soldier, whose eye is cold and clear, and who-will look at everybody, if only passingly, with that inscrutabe sense of superiority. “The Scotch are hardy and dry and lithe. They are magnificent. They adapt themselves to any eventuality save that of fighting otherwise than in petticoats. None better to initiate an attack) guard a retreat, or make a sortie. Instead of carrying Law in their knapsacks they carry ‘their’ Law. They lack that queer ‘humanism’ that makes the English so tactful and at ease anywhere, and their gaze differs —it Is philosophic. They look on life’s scenes as being important, perhaps interesting, but it has only limited importance for them. “The Irish are soldiers of breed, and these who'consider ‘dash’ to be the greatest warrior vritue, greater than balance of responsibility, would deem them the finest in his Majesty’s forces. Among them every fifth man is of kingly descent, of Royalty a thousand years ago, when Ireland boasted more kings than subjects. Every fourth ■ man will speak of his grandfather’s duel, when that Saxon duke was killed in fatal combat. Andthe trio remaining will tell great stories of their princely ancestors, especially their throats be none too dry. They have no need for honours —decorations. Those of the past dwell •with them, and because of this death to them is but a joke, for a liking never dies, and the battles of to-day are also jokes to them, because their forbears were often engaged in doughtier actions. They are the Lacedemonians of the Greeks and ‘meteors at the charge.’ The Canadians seem the youngest, the liveliest. Their talk, being nasal, is monotonous, and they never gesticulate; yet they are alert, active, and nerve s ready. They must be doing something, and if the command provides them nothing, they provide themselves. Their trenches are the liveliest of any. A captain offered 500 francs to any one of his troop who* would bring in a German prisoner unhurt, Next morning twelve ‘Fritzes’ paraded before the captain and his astonished colonel.