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Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1916, Page 4

DISGRACIXG THE KING'S UNIFORM. The accounts published in the Sydney papers concerning w%at is called a "sensational soldiers' mutiny" form very sorry reading at a time when it would

naturally lie expected that the volunteers who have responded to the call of their King and country would he filled with loyalty and imbued with discipline befitting the great cause for w'hicli their aid was enlisted. It sccuis almost incredible that thousands of men in training should be so lost to all sense of decency, and he so wanting in even the elements of manhood, as to resort to a strike against an extra hour and a half training a day. They must, indeed, be totally devoid of ''the spirit of Anzac," an well as of tSie material of which heroes are made. Had they merely struck by way of protest, their offence, serious as it would have heen, might have been condoned, but to proceed to pillage and rioting, resulting in the pickets having l - i fire upon the mutineers, brands the offenders witfh an indelible stain that will unfortunately spread to those who have so worthily maintained the honor and glory of the arms of the Empire. Soldiers of such a stamp are a disgrace to their country, and it is witfh feelings of tlie deepest sympathy with Australia that the report of this discreditable escapade will be. read in all parts of the Empire. The civilised world lias been ringing witfh the highest tributes of praise for the Australian volunteers, whose glorious achievements will ever be remembered with pride by the whole Empire. What a ghastly contrast is presented by the behaviour of t'.ie Casula recruits! ''OTie men at the front," said (i recent writer, ''walking on the very edge of the world, are close to the dread realities. They do not talk the conventional language of piety, but there is many an indication that the really great things have become very real to tfhem; many an indication, too, that the glorious tradition of chivalry among men of aims,'of which the history of our land is full, and of whitfi we are so justly proud, still lives." These are the ideals that inspire deeds of heroism, instead of the mean, paltry spirit wriich evidently animated the Australian mob of unruly hoodlums, w%o were actuated by their own pleasures or interests for the moment instead of weighing them in the scale with duty. We are in the midst of the greatest, the most ruthless and terrible war of all times, and it is the saddest of spectacles to see the flower of the" young manhood of Australia so bereft of all realisation of what the present crisis means as to afford the enemy material for rejoicing over such a woeful exhibition of self-assertiveness as was the case with tfho mutinous recruits—and all because of an hour and a half extra drill per day. The event will doubtless be magnified in Germany to an actual mutiny against fighting for Britain, and the most will he made of the incident in order to affect neutrals. We deplore the incident, and sincerely trust it will not be the forerunner of any further unbridled outbreaks. There is nothing more reprehensible than disgracing the King's uniform, and it will take I brave deeds to efface the stain caused by the men in question. The offenders have good cause to congratulate themselves that flhey are not under German rule, or their punishment would have . been short, sharp and decisive.