On being Crimed 99 in the Army.
THE YPRES TIMES
135
ONE thing that must have impressed and sometimes amused many of us on
quitting civil life for military service during the war was the subject of
"crime" in the Army. I had been joined up but a few days when one
morning, whilst tidying up the hut in which I had been appointed orderly, the
camp sergeant-major stepped in to have a look round. On learning that I was a
raw recruit he gave me some hints about the keeping of a hutHow essential it
was to cleanliness to have the floor swept as often as need beHow imperative it
was that all tins and platters and such like things be washed and polished and put
away or hung in their appointed places. I appreciated his remarks until, on
turning to move away, he advised me to be careful and not "drop into crime."
In my greenness I hastened to inform him that I was not in the habit of committing
crimes, at which rejoinder he smiled faintly, and remarked that of course crime
in the Army was a somewhat different thing from the samples of it reported in the
daily newspapersand, with a further observation to the effect that I would soon
be shedding all my civilianism, he took his leave.
The Army, I found, winked at sin but punished crime. There appeared to be
a difference. Any act that tended directly to lower discipline was a crime.
Language the most blasphemous could be indulged in with impunity, but if a man
lost his cap badge he was taken under escort before his C.O., and if no good
explanation of its disappearance was forthcoming he paid the penalty by forfeiting,
let us say, two days' pay, and, in addition, the cost of a new cap badge was charged
to his account; and all this because he could not produce an article of Government
property which as likely as not his neighbour had pinched from him.
Again, of an evening, some half-dozen soldiers might have been seen under
going hard drill for a couple of hours under a corporal. Like the bad schoolboy
who. gets extra lines to commit to memory, these men, in expiation of their
crimes," were sentenced to extra drills. In full accoutrement they are
manoeuvred and marched about keeping the parade ground warm for various
offences. One of the men had probably come on parade the previous morning
with a three days' growth on his chin; another may have been found with a dirty
rifle, while a third, imagining that he was unwell, had gone sick the day before.
The M.O., however, certifying him to be quite well, he is promptly crimed for
thinking he wasn't, and is made to pay for his mistake.
These are, perhaps, a few of the lesser crimes in the Army code, but between
these and the great capital crime of desertion, there are varying offences, such as
drunkenness, late for parade, insubordination, etc., with corresponding penalties
for the delinquents. And not many escaped with a clean sheet during their term
of service.
In the eye of the military no man is faultless, which of course is good horse
sense. A fault is as essential to the man as his pay-book. He may be able to
conceal it for a time; it may be stowed away in his haversack with his Field-
Marshal's baton, but sooner or later it is brought to light. If, however, by some
mischance any man should have joined up without a fault, you may be sure the
sergeant would have no difficulty in finding one for him.
To put it in a sentence, the Army looked for crime. A watchful eye was there
fore kept upon the troops' illicities, and that "non-com." was suspect if he had no
crimes to report over a given period. He was lax with wrong-doers and would
no doubt be interrogated closely by his superiors.
Pondering this, one sees there is logic in it. Where large numbers of men
are gathered together under such conditions and such stern control, breaches of
