THE NEW ARMY OF OFFICERS.
[To TIM Ems. or Tan .Srscrxroz."] Sra,—Many young rankers in our company have received commissions. As an old Public School boy of mature years doing orderly sergeant'. work, I have often advised these young men as follows :— "Remember that these are war times. A vast number of you young officers are billeted out in big town and country houses, enjoying luxuries quite foreign to anything you have known in
your own civil life. Let the men under you realize that you also are training for the stern realities of war by retiring early to bed and putting out your light also when the 'Last Poet eounds. Let the men realize that you also are preparing for hardships by accepting the rougher conditions of a sleeping sack, blankets. and the floor. Give the men this example, end yen will have done much to win that respect which is worth quite as much to the country as it is worth to you individually."
It is not possible to give twenty-nine thousand commissions in five months, raising roughly twenty-nine battalions of officers with a stroke of the pen, without fairly stringent rules and regulations governing the lives of these men in their billets. In my non-commissioned duties I have seen enough to justify me in believing that one of the gravest temptations open to our young officers is the softness of their billets.—
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