SOLDIERS AND A GENERAL ELECTION.
(To THE F.otron OP THE " SPECTATOR.1
SIR,—With reference to the talk of a General Election towards the end of this year and the part that the Army is to play in voting, I cannot but think that to put the Army into the controversies of an Election would retard if not defeat all the aims of modern discipline. The Army is young and its training is not yet complete, and on this account can any man, understanding the system of our Army, ask a soldier to vote one way or the other ? What would Lord Kitchener have said ? What did ho say on his first appearance on the Government benches in the House of Lords in the early days of the war ? " As a soldier I have no politics." Some say that the opinion of the Army in a General Election is absolutely necessary and is the most valuable of all and cannot be lost. If this is the case, why not let every soldier vote by proxy ? It would be a huge scheme and would cost thousands, but any sacrifice in money is well worth nicking that will preserve the absolute unity at present existing in the Army. Voting by proxy would get over the greater part of the problem, and reduce to a minimum the trouble likely to creep in. For an example of what might easily be a daily occurrence were the Army to vote direct, consider the position of an officer or N.C.O. ordered to tell a dozen men engaged in some political argument to make less noise. Not that any of the party would say anything, but they would think, and " tho thought is father to the decd." A " Tommy " who has been out here for some time loses a good deal of interest in home affairs, and his thoughts are divided among the following in order of importance to him : Homo ; shells ; food ; money (pay). Is it abso- lutely necessary to add to this list a heading that in the peat has always meant strife ? " Tommy " has quite enough to think about without giving trouble a loophole into his existence.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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