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The Soldierly Spirit

alt Whitman wrote something like this:—" I could turn and live with the animals: they are so placid and self-contained; they do not fret and whine about their condition.": However, he turned and lived with soldiers during the American Civil War, and found that they, in the darkest days of suffering, by wounds or sickness, left the whining and fretting for civilians. Thus it is with New Zealand's soldiers, in camp and overseas. They have that great cheerfulness which characterised many men in history, who made a supreme sacrifice for their country.

It is wonderful how quickly a man can develop a better body and mind by a change from mufti to khaki. In the work-a-day world he strove in mufti for himself, but he fights in khaki for others, particularly the women and children of his native land When he steps into camp he comes into the big work and he grows with it. The heart expands, and the liver seems to contract. Whey faces, and fiddle faces, and other unlovely faces are left for the civilians, some of whom are apt to worry about little things, even hen the whole world is racked by the greatest war of history. A man can go into the camps by night or day, and if he received a shilling for every gloomy face seen there, he would barely bag enough to "shout" for himself once. Of course, one can hear a grouch now and then, but it may end in a jest; it is not a doleful moaning and groaning.

The men sing going into camp as recruits, and they sing coming out, as trained soldiers. On the railway run to the transports they have more cheers for the folk in passing trains than the civilians (except the school boys and girls) have for them; the civilians somehow seem to be too surprised to cheer much.

"Here we are, here we are, here we are again," is a line which the soldiers sing heartily anywhere and anywhen. By those words the soldiers do not consciously convey any reproach to any civilian eligible for military service, but the converse line (which can be easily imagined) is: "There you are, there you are again " (not in camp, nor on the way). It is a fact that hesitating "eligibles" receive much more prompting from non-eligibles than they do from soldiers, for the great majority of men who have chosen sturdy manhood's page 12 duly to the State do not usually seem eager to gibe at any man in mufti.

Next to the cheerfulness in Trentham and Featherston is the healthfulness. The camps, with their varied exercise and the open air, give a good riddance to indigestion and insomnia. The life makes for burliness. Faces that were once pale become brown, and the upper chest gains girth while the lower one declines. The food is plain, but it is good, on a scale to fit the appetites which the vigorous life creates. Moreover, the men can have prompt and efficient treatment of any physical trouble, from a sore toe or an aching tooth onward. The hospital equipment and medical staffing ensure far quicker attention to any ailment of a man in camp than he would have ordinarily arranged for himself outside.

And always there is the air of a great fellowship, a mighty camaraderie in arms for one national purpose—survival of the State. In the camps all politics are one politics—national service. Working for the war, the men do not talk much about the alleged mistakes of one general or another on the Entente side; they mostly leave to tramcar strategists and armchair marshals the responsibility of pronouncing praise or blame for the leaders on the Eastern or Western from or elsewhere.

"Variety is the spice of life," is one of the true platitudes often heard. So much has to be crowded into the syllabus for the four months' training that the days pass quickly; time flies on rapid wings. The men have a joy in their work and a keen friendly rivalry. Each reinforcement tries to eclipse the best predecessor; within each draft the companies are in competition; and within each company each platoon strives for the premiership in military merit and smartness at appearance.

This article cannot fairly conclude without a word of well-earned praise for the military folk who have evolved the excellent training machinery of the camps, where the administration and instruction thoroughly deserve that much-used word "efficient." The camps make hardy disciplined soldiers, well schooled in the art and craft of war These soldiers, too, have the higher kind of discipline they have not been bullied, nor cowed; the authorities have a firmness when it is necessary, but it is a fairness too. Any man charged with any breach of regulations has an opportunity to state his side of the case.

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