"The Red Watch": With the First Canadian Division in Flanders

by John Allister Currie

Now that men have to act largely for themselves, the system of discipline in the British army has been changed. The idea now is that the men must be taught to obey from a sense of duty, not from fear of their superiors. Armies have obeyed their leaders from time immemorial, from various motives. The Roman legions obeyed because of their regard for their citizenship; the soldiers of Cromwell and the Japanese from religious motives, the Germans from fear of their superior officers, and the British and French armies of to-day from patriotism and a high sense of duty. When a soldier obeys from a sense of duty he will "carry on" even if his officers are killed or disabled. His courage is much higher. In previous wars when a battalion was decimated or had lost ten per cent. of its numbers, it was not considered a disgrace to retire, but in this war such losses are not considered. Battalions in the Canadian army have suffered losses as high as seventy per cent., and have still held their ground undaunted, and responded most cheerfully to the orders of their remaining officers to counter-attack and charge with their bayonets.

It took some patience to bring about this discipline. It often took several visits to the orderly room to teach a man that it was one of his first duties to try and keep his "conduct sheet,"—that is the page on the regimental records, which tells of his deeds—clear of any entries for misconduct.

Another troublesome matter was to teach the men that they could not go away from camp without "leave" and a "pass," and that it was wrong to overstay a "pass." When a soldier wants to leave camp he has to get permission from the officer commanding his company. He then gets a "pass" signed by the Officer Commanding the Battalion and armed with this pass he is at liberty for the period named on the pass.

The next big event in which we figured, after the King's visit, was the Lord Mayor's show. The Canadians were to be represented, and there was quite a flutter of excitement and much interest as to who should go to represent each battalion. I gave the honor to Lieutenant Frank Smith, who had worked very hard and had shown much ability.

The Lord Mayor's show is one of the annual events of London, and we were all anxious to see it. I had the good fortune to be invited by Sir Joseph Lawrence to view the procession from a balcony close to Temple Bar. The procession has been described so often that everybody knows all about it. The Canadians made a very fine showing. They were under the command of Colonel Williams. Our Highland detachment, under Lieutenant Frank Smith, looked exceedingly smart and got a full page in a number of the London illustrated dailies next morning.

One thing that struck me very favorably in the parade was the way in which the British regulars covered each other as they marched in fours along the street. Their rifles formed four ribbons of steel. There was no straggling.

The battalion soon settled down to a hard syllabus of training and instruction, beginning with squad drill. It was drill, drill, drill, all day long, rain or shine, and it was almost always rain.

We were much struck at first by the fact that in England farmers paid no attention to the rain. They kept on ploughing in rain, that in Canada would have sent the hired man to the shelter of the barn. After a while it dawned on us that if they did not plough in the rain they would not get any ploughing done at all.

Not only did the battalions give their days to drill but after they got through their squad drill they took two nights a week in training. All this soon began to get the men in shape.

On Thursday, November 19th, the 3rd Brigade had a visit from Mr. Rudyard Kipling. I sat at lunch with him and formed a friendship which I regard very highly. Mr. Kipling is one of the great men of the age, the first Imperialist of the Empire. He said very nice things about the Canadians.