THE WINDFALLS OF SOLDIERING.
THAT there is a way of getting into the fighting line for those who have the will to be there has been hitherto a common experience of warfare. Campaigns, since war is com- posed of surprises, run unexpected courses ; and before they reach their end they generally provide openings for adventurous and persistent men which would have seemed blankly impos- sible at the beginning. One might take any past war waged by Britain since the Army became a highly regular body, and the War Office a strict and jealous controller, and not fail to find instances of the irregular soldier or amateur having found his way to the front after taking his own line across country to get there. We are talking, we repeat, of past ware. This war is different from any other ever waged by Britain, and the casual adventurer bee no right to try to break through the strict and necessary rules which are framed for the very purpose of putting the whole of the national resources to the best possible use. All patriotic men should abide by these rules and serve just as they are asked to serve, understanding that irregularities are an impediment to the smooth progress of the whole machine. The first law of success in the past seems to have been importunity ; and by this we mean not importunity towards the War Office, but towards what seemed to be fate. The "Nay " of circumstances was never to be taken for an answer. The ordinary procedure was to write to the War Office or to call there, and then to be civilly informed by letter or in person that the applicant's case was being noted, and that it would receive consideration if events rendered his services necessary, but that there was already a long waiting list. Ninety-nine men out of a hundred who had gone so far as that waited—waited till the end of the war ended their waiting. But the hundredth man acted differently. He knew that the War Office must be governed by rules, and that it was precisely rules which barred the way of all casual or amateur seekers of jobs, whether they were real soldiers who wanted to be seconded temporarily, or civilians who wanted to add a taste of fighting to their experience of life. Accordingly the hundredth soldier left the Service and turned up at the scene of fighting, and, sooner or later, wormed his way into employment; or the hundredth civilian went straightway to the scene of the fighting, and was sure to discover that the red-tape which fettered his limbs at home was very fragile and of a very mild colour in the neigh- bourhood of camps. If we are not mistaken, Lord Kitchener himself was a "butter-in" in the first Egyptian campaign. The War Office bad placed him elsewhere, but when, with his great knowledge of Arabic and Arabic.speaking tribesmen, he turned up at the scene of action, his services were far too valuable to be refused by the men on the spot. At the beginning of the South African War hundreds of young Englishmen went out to South Africa by the mail steamers on the chance of picking up a job on their arrival. They mostly kept their own counsels on the voyage, and their fellow-passengers did not know whether they were going out for pleasure or on business, or for what purpose. All of them found places in the Imperial Light Horse, the South African Light Horse, Thorneycroft's or Bethune's Mounted Infantry, or similar corps. True, they might after all have joined the Yeomanry and have taken part in the war just the same, but they made sure of their soldiering, and entered the field earlier than most of the other amateur soldiers. No one knew at the opening of the war that an army would be improvised at home.
Englishmen have furnished classic examples of the value of being on the spot if a man's desire is to get into military employment by back alleys. We referred to two well- known cases last week, and each of them is worth tell- ing with a little more detail. William Fenwiek-Williams, an English officer who had lived among the Turks and could talk Arabic, was appointed British Commissioner with the Turkish Army in Anatolia when the Crimean War broke out. His business was simply to observe and report. If be had requested to be made a General in the Turkish Army, his request would certainly have been refused. What he did was to make use of his opportunities on the spot, so that be gradually gathered power into his hands and transformed the ragged and discouraged Turkish troops. He impressed his personality so deeply on Turkish officers and men that his example was nothing lees than an inspiration to them. When he was appointed a General in the Turkish Army in 1855, the appointment was merely a giving of official sanction to what was already a reality. Fenwick-Williams fortified Erzerum against the Russians, and then went to Kars, on which the main Russian attack was developing. The defence of Kars is one of the well-known chapters of military history. When the town fell through famine, the Russian General Muravieff said to Fenwiok-Williama who was allowed to emerge with all the honours of war : "You have made yourself a name in history, and posterity will stand amazed at the endurance, the courage, and the discipline which this siege has called forth in the remains of an army ! " A. similar case was that of Charles Naamyth, the "Defender of Siliatria." He was a Lieutenant in the Bombay Artillery, but was travelling on sick leave, when the Crimean War gave him the opportunity of becoming a correspondent of the Times. On March 28th, 1854, he entered Siliatria, and was as much shocked as Fenwick-Williams was at Erzerum and Kars by the destitution and disorganization of the Turks. Helped by a kindred soul, Captain J. A. Butler, he rapidly put a new heart into the defence, and in his rollicking, jovial way took the whole thing as excellent fun. Yet this fun kept the Russians in check, and on June 22nd, 1854, they raised the siege and abandoned their Danubian campaign.
In spite of all the rules, there have been some windfalls in the present war. The writer has in mind, for example, the case of a professional man in London. He was tied to his work and his family, and was over the military age; but he gave up his spare time to being trained as a member of a gun crew of one of the anti-aircraft guns. He never expected his military experience to go further than that But it so happened that an anti-aircraft gun new were required recently somewhere within the British lines abroad to fill a temporary gap. Our friend's crew were invited to go. They consulted one another with unbounded joy. Hem was a windfall! To go to the war under the ordinary rules had been impossible for them all. But all could get away for three or four weeks, even if an annual holiday were .on- sumed for the purpose. These amateurs went and gave an excellent account of themselves. Who knows when a similar invitation will come to others ? It is certain that others are holding themselves in instant readiness.
The moral of all this is fortunately clear enough. This war is unlike all our previous wars, in that it was known from the very beginning that a vast number of men would be required. Thus it was plain at once that the only speedy way of reaching the front for the civilian of military age was by enlistment. But for the man over military age who has never had any military training, yet burns to do something active, the wind- falls of soldiering still seem to be just possible. No doubt the vast majority of the older men would find it impossible to leave the country, or give their services for the whole war, even if they had the opportunity, but they can be drilled in Volunteer Training Corps. No man can yet foresee the end of the war, and no man can say with certainty that there will not be fighting on English soil. If windfalls come, they will unquestionably come to the men above military age who have been trained, and not to those who have not thought it worth while to submit themselves to any drilling. Meanwhile, the spectacle of men, of whom no one would think badly if they said that they had no time for drilling. deliberately making time to be drilled on the off-chance that a brief military employment may offer itself, will be an incen- tive to the younger men. The latter will be shamed—those who are capable of shame. A few days ago a friend of the writer's was walking in a London street when a soldier in the Regulars asked him the way to another street. They walked together talking for a time, and then our friend announced that he most go to his drill. The soldier seemed surprised at these words coming from a comparatively elderly civilian. When, however, the nature of the drilling, for a few hours every week in a Home Guards Corps, bad been explained to him, he said: " Well, Sir, you are doing all you can, and you ought to be proud of it." And they shook bands upon it.
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