ROUND PEGS IN SQUARE HOLES.

Taihape Daily Times, 18 October 1918, Page 7

ROUND PEGS IN SQUARE HOLES.

SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE FRONNT. Someone in the Army is a great genius (rites “Serving Soldier'' in the Daily Mail.) .He has been assigned the task of putting round pegs in square holes, and he does that duty right well. Once I had a servant appointed to me. Rather it was a share in a servant, for nowadays a “batman" has to attend, to at least five officers at once. Many of these men in labour battalions, have been only «, week or ten days in the Army, land know absolutely nothing of their duties. But this man was good, and I had some recollection of having seen him before. Then it dawned on me that he was a man who had ridden one of the finest horses ever brought from America by a millionaire, and that. he had made the record jump at Olympia in the last Horse Show before the war Probably no man would be more useful in ta remount depot, because he has wonderful “hands" and has spent , his life among horses. But that is not the way in the Army. The Round , Peg Genius steps in and makes a batt man of him. | One day a man cropped up detailed for duty as a fireman. He knew nothing of the work —had never seen a house on fire! “What on earth are you in civil life." I asked, “that they gave you this job?" “I am a shoemaker, sir," he said. He was an experienced craftsman, , and his calling was so sot out on his papers. No if there is a man prized above tanother in a battalion or a camp above another in a battalion or a camp it is a qualified shoemaker. Yet that man remains an inefficient fireman in a centre where a shoemaker is urgently needed. The Round Peg Genuis will not permit him to follow his trade. Another made his appearance as a medical orderly. inquiries and his papers showed that the man was a I skilled cabinet-maker, and just the very man required for an aeroplane centre. A skilled cabinetmaker in these days is to be prized above rubies. Once more the Round Peg Genius gives him the square hole. Even the “Waacs” are not exempt. In an aerodrome there were two girls who were sailmakers. The Round Peg Genius decided that they were so gooe at their job that their position and pay must be improved. He sent them to be clerks in a depot headquarters: 'An officer spoke Spanish as~well as he did English. He had lived with Spaniards for years. A call was made for a Spanish-speaking officer for propaganda purposes. He applied. The post was given to a man whose sore qualifications were that he once spent three weeks in San Sebastian. Scimetimss tlje Round Peg Genius is animated, apparently, by philanthropic motives. A man in khaki was seen painfully crawling along supported by a stick and twisted all sideways. Pie acknowledged to hip disease for years. He is so bad that when he washes he has to use his stick to keep him upright. He is only four days in the army. He is ordered for a “board” in a week or so, and will say he was quite well when he joined. Result. Disease incurred on service and a life pension. Nice for the man. but what nbout the taxpapers? One begins to think that even the Round Peg Genius may be in a square hole himself.