B.O.O. AND D.A.D.O.S.
SIR,—Was Mr. M. Clark-Hall, in his contribution under the above heading, attempting to be seriously funny or funnily serious? Was he giving information about the methods of the R.A.O.C., or was he merely joking with difficulty? We all know that Service terminology, with its devotion to initials, often has a puzzling effect on the lay mind, which, in its confusion, seeks relief in the comedy of contractions. But Mr. M. Clark-Hall has gone farther ; he has set up absurdities as facts, and in the guise of humour has given a distorted and malicious impression of the working of the R.A.O.C. Among all units in the Service, the R.A.O.C. prides itself on getting right away from old-time restrictions and red tape. It is a business organisation run on business lines and, to use Mr. M. Clark-Hall's own words, "D.A.D.O.S. usually is a business man." The R.A.O.C. methods are as much removed from Mr. Clark-Hall's absurd examples as these examples are divorced from accuracy. In the latest instructions issued this year to Ordnance Services in the field, it is expressly ordered that indents from forward units may be accepted in any form, written or verbal.
As there are over half a million different items in the R.A.O.C. range, many looking exactly the same, the advisability of using the provided form is obvious. But no red tape is used to strangle efficiency. Mr. M. Clark-Hall has been pleased to say " Boo " to R.A.O.C. methods, but results both in this country and in landings in enemy-occupied countries have proved that these methods have been employed with pronounced success and handsomely acclaimed by competent observers in the Press. Mr. M. Clark-Hall's reference to an R.A.O.C. officer with "a pistol, a compass, and a pair of binoculars ... and clad in a brand new battledress, and wearing black Army boots," is vulgar without being funny. Would he have the officer wearing pyjamas and holding a bouquet of sweet violets?- On the eve of what promises to be the greatest invasion in history, it ill becomes anyone to play the clown at the expense of the R.A.O.C., which is responsible in the highest degree for the fate of the expeditionary forces ; and by ill-timed and ill-informed gibes endanger public confidence in a Corps. whose proud motto proclaims that it
"Thunders with Victory."—Yours faithfully, R.A.O.C. OFFU1R.
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