OUR FORCES AT THE FRONT.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1916, Page 5

OUR FORCES AT THE FRONT.

QUKSTIOX OK PROMOTION '•Sigma' writes from South TaranaJti as follows:—I have the privilege of read"'S nni ' hearing many extracts from 'letters written by our young soldiers at the Western irunt, and have also more than a pa-sing interest in a few of these youngsters and their doings. Kadi of tile letters has the same tale to tell', anil, if not written directly" the impression h conveyed, that i s a vast majority ol the soldiers would be -lad to see the war hawing to a close, but, at the tome time, they are determined to stand to t ieir mus until a satisfactory solution is atlained by ihc dictation of terms by the Allies that u ill allord an assurance of a lasting pence and the annihilation of kaiser William and his iniquitous ministers and generals. Hut there is also a marked current of discontent visible in some of the letters, and the reason of' the ill-humor is that those New Zealanders who were first oil', the mark on the outbreak of the vvai have not, and are not now, bein<,' privileged with the sumo opportunities of promotion as are afforded the soldiers of the Lnited Kingdom. This, from what can be gathered, b being attributed to influence* that should not be allowed to. intervene being used to advance the interests of individuals who are being "sent out"—to quote from one letter—"and lose the lives of good men gaining experience. The more one sees of this lighting the more one teal- ' ises how little can be learned in training camps and how necessary it is tc have practical experience in tin trenches before it is possible to effectively handle tlie men. The military authorities of the Old Country have long ago realised this, and no man has a chance of obtaining rank now unless he ha: 6erved a, satisfactory apprenticeship in the trenches na a soldiei or as a cadet from the training schools."

All extract from another letter:— "At the head of the present War Office administration is a rankei in the person of General Robertson, and with tin army in the Held are dozens of men who were privates and non-coms, in the regulars, but now hold commissions. It is not ! hard to pick them, Sor they, as a rule, compare more than favorably witr the olliecrs plated in responsible positions by claims of pedigree or political or other weighty influence." Again: 'The sooner our Xew Zealand fiovernmeut realises that we have to win the war by hard fighting, and not by training amateur officers at the expense of those whe have borne the hardships 8f the war so far, the better it will be for all concerned.'' ' _ My attention was attracted some time ago to this subject by a question asked in the House of the Minister of Defence anent promotion in the X'ew Zealand branch of the army. The reply did not appear to be r. satisfactory one, and as this matter at such a time is one of vital importance I have devoted attentipn to noting the straws which- show how the wind blows. - The query in the House related to the large number of officers appointed, to the Inter reinforcements, and pointed to the fact that this would be detrimental to the hopes of promotion of those who had preceded the more reluctant recruits, many of whom •admittedly stipulated that they should receive a commission to induce them to go. Also the subject is of much importance to many of our lads who gave up more or less lucrative billets at the very outset and are still in the enjoyment of the pay of the full private altor enduring one or two years of 'hardship and danger. The man with money cai! go Home, and by skilfully manipulating the strings obtain the desired commission in some British regiment ,vhere every attention is given to the advancement of the interests of these colonials in the desire to propitiate the colonies from which they spring, as .we have every day evidence is the ease, but what we wish to see is the poor man's son. to whom no such side doors to fortune are available, put on a more satisfactory footing in comparison with his more favored fellows. That many of the appointments made before the various reinforcements sail are awarded on the personal merit or capability of the recipients, je must emphatically decline 'to' believe from our own knowledge of what has already taken place. That promotion under fire continues with' the same disregard to the requirements of, at least, our quota of the national army is too serious a' thought to he lightly set aside. There will he an aftermath when this greatest of all wars draws to a close, as there has been after every great wot of the past; and the survivors who return to this country will be a power to be reckoned with. We hid fair to rival the United States after the Civil <*Yar, when every second man was a major or a colonel, and we have evei extended the mania to our clerical and medical,staffs, to say nothing, of the militia', who, to our bewildered' eyes, appear io be all officers. Our fellows at the front are not worrying .ibout that. It ,is a mat,tor of .-C's.'d. with them, and they say \hat a Oovernmeni;'which can he so lavish in its distribution of appointments should be called upon to make the 'monotonous, haunted lives of their veteran soldiers, living as they do surrounded by all the honors which the fiendish Germans liiavc utilised less unendurable by making their opportunities of advancement more attainable lija steady attention to duty and a show of capbilitv as officers.