"The Islanders," and Some Considerations on Conscription.

100 view of

THE LANCET. LONDON: SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1902.

"The Islanders," and Some Considerations on Conscription. DURING the

early period

of the

war

in South

mother of those colonies in a needless manner ; but the Africa, when admonishment was required-at least, we think so. The

suggestion of conscription as a possible future increasing our army, we commended military training as an excellent thing, speaking from a strictly medical point of view. The young recruit learns discipline criticising

the

of

means

arousing in this country some such spirit of patriotism, Mr. RUDYARD KIPLING has written, and the Times has published, his remarkably outspoken poem"The Islanders." The author, however, seems greatly to .have missed his mark and to be regarded by the public not only as a depreciator of manly pursuits but as a. slanderer of his country. To our minds Mr. KIPLING’S poem constitutes a timely warning that without zeal strenuously exercised, and self-denial exhibited in a practical form, na European nation can hope to hold its own among its rivals He has used unduly blunt language, and, in his desire to record the services of our colonies, has depreciated the

and self-sacrifice, and while, as a rule, he is well housed and well fed he is exercised so as best to develop his physical powers. These desirable ends are attained in no other calling, except of course in the navy, thatis open to the of the humbler classes who has completed his school education. He may earn more money in other directions and will certainly enjoy more freedom, but the moral and physical benefits of a military training are undonbted.

youth

criticism evoked by " The Islanders " appears to deal with it largely as an attack upon sports in general and cricket and football in particular. Such criticism appears to us to be unfair. The two expressions flanneled fools"and "muddied oafs" are to be regretted if only because they tend to obscure the real issue; but at the same time

no

man

who

and discretion will

public attention day. We do not number of young

has

deny

to

an

attained to years of reasonthat cricket and football engross absurd extent at the present.

say that but for cricket and football a would have joined the South African

men

army who

have not done so, but certainly the ranks of our But conscription is a thing so. foreign to the British volunteers might well be recruited from among the devotees, cast of mind that its adoption in any rigid form is highly of athletic sports. To say, as certain of Mr. KIPLING’S improbable. Various methods by which the strength of our critics have done, that some good cricketers, such as Majorarmy may be increased have been suggested and discussed since those dreary days when the ill-fortune of our arms in

South Africa more

or

political

was so

And forms of

pronounced.

less modified leader can

are

hope

still to

freely face

conscription

talked of, but no the constituencies

Islands, and advocate even a modified for compulsory military service, with any ex-

of the British measure

pectation

of

success

at the

polls:

so

that it is vain

conscription while it is practically certain that a majority of the voting members of the community will never be persuaded to sanction it. The Boer war began badly, had a second stage that was not as it promised to be, and as successful means by any has passed into a long and dreary struggle. No man worthy of the name of British citizen will forget that his country is engaged in this struggle and that lives are being daily laid down on the veldt ; but as the ultimate issue is certain there is no reason why a panic of apprehension should change the national attitude towards a constitutional question. Moreover, the country is not unmindful that our powerful navy ensures us against effective invasion. Undoubtedly the nation is against compulsory military service. to talk of

a form of compulsion that will direct towards young military service while it is independent of Parliament ; and this form may establish itself even among those to whom a system even distantly approaching

There is,

however,

men

that of France

Germany public opinion

pulsion of urging upon

or

would be detestable-the comis meant. Public opinion is

our young men the duty of training themfor selves the defence of their country, even though to do so means to deny themselves other more pleasant diversions at an age when pleasure is most attractive. And with a

General SPENT and Major PooRE, have distinguished themselves in South Africa is beside the point. These are not men who have given up the best years of their lives to a game : they are men who have found leisure to play games while pursuing their profession. The bulk, however, of the most distinguished cricketers and football players of our public schools do not enter the army or any other pro-

fession that necessitates an early devotion to serious. work. Some proceed to the universities, impelled by a school-boy enthusiasm to win further athletic distinctiod rather than by any desire for an academic career. Others, whether they go to the universities or not, handicap themselves for life through their desire to continue gameplaying when they should be facing the manly task of earning a livelihood. But for the present exaggerated athletic craze, many of them might make good soldiers, or might, at any rate, devote some portion. of their manhood, their strength, and their intelligence to the service of their country. As members of the would find in the prothemselves regular army they fession of all others in which bodily strength and activity, and the qualities developed by their school-boy pre-eminence at games, would aid them in the path to distinction. As. volunteers they would find themselves compelled to forego some of the personal pleasures they now hold dear, and tcsubstitute for games exercises which are at least equally healthy, and which might make them of greater use to theif country. Their example would be of value in attracting to the opportunity for physical development offered b)7 military training those who now find their principal amuse-

watching the exertions of others, in calculating averages, and speculating upon the issue of cup-ties-a class ment in

101 The court is admittedly a bad one-bad for the purpose to serve which it was built-namely, the trial of prisonersand bad from the point of view of sanitary science-a matter

of persons upon whom Mr. KIPLING might well have specially emptied his vials of wrath and scorn. If anything that Mr. RUDYARD KIPLING has written, backed by the weight of public opinion, should tend to lure the young men of the British Islands to regard a period of

healthy training

as

soldiers

an

as

essential

portion

of

which

doubt did not

largely occupy the mind of its It is not, by the way, the court in which in 1750 two judges, the Lord Mayor, and about 60 jurors and others no

architect.

a

young man’s education great good will be done. Mr. KIPLING will have helped Great Britain to the attainment of a

caught gaol distemperand died ; nor is it, as that court was, subjected to the pestiferous innuence of a contiguous better force for home defence than an army composed of, or prison filled with malefactors and debtors huddled together in leavened by, unwilling conscripts will ever be. The men circumstances of filth and disease that we can hardly realise It is, however, a court who have served as volunteers will be healthier men and in these more enlightened days. if at to ventilated windows each cannot be opened citizens than had devoted their leisure which better end, by they watching others compile record scores and win challenge during the sitting of the court because at the one end they cups, or even than if they had themselves won are immediately over the heads of the jury and at the other fame for a season by performing feats that another almost as close to the representatives of the press. A judge generation will surpass and forget. We regret that might disregard the convenience and remonstrances of the Mr. KIPLING, who is a real patriotic force in the land, latter, but he could not hope to bring his trials to a proper should have represented the inhabitants of these islands issue if he insisted on the former being subjected to as profoundly indifferent to the national fame now that draughts against which they would inevitably protest. As a the day of peril is over ; in his desire to do justice to result the windows of the particular court at the Old Bailey the colonial contingents of our South African army he has of which we are speaking are usually opened during a day’s ridiculously overstated their performance ; while to frighten sitting for about half an hour in the luncheon interval, or for less time if the judge chooses to give, as judges us into being volunteers he has forgotten the existence of navy. But with these reservations we consider that his much discussed poem of " The Islanders " is a cry of timely warning. If he has made the cry too shrill for sensitive

have been known to

our

tympana, he is

sluggish

sense

all the

more

likely to have aroused slowly or imperfectly.

no

do, orders

to that effect.

other outlet for foul air than the

substantial value ;

windows,

while such"fresh " air

as

There is either of any

or none

from time to

time may find its way into the court does so through doorways opening on corridors or from the premises below the-

the

of those who hear

dock, up the stairway by which the prisoners enter ; but in

The

Atmosphere

the absence of any established exit for the air the can hardly be replaced in appreciable quantities.

of the Old

atmosphere Meanwhile,

Bailey. prolonged

in sensational cases the usual audience is increased by eager trial of BENNETT, thespectators from the general public, some privileged to occupy Bailey had as its con- seats (that is to say, introduced by the authorities to whose of the Lord Chief Justice who custody the court and the health of those in it are

EARLY in last year the Yarmouth murderer, at the Old

sequence the indisposition presided at it. We called attention to this in THE LANCETt

entrusted),

some

and questions asked in the House of Commons elicited the

reply

that the

building

was

under the control of the

to whom the site of

City

Newgate

,

1

THE

LANCET, March 9th, 1901,

p. 724.

barristers in robes,

pressmen and artists, in waiting. The result is that,

and others, perhaps, jurors instead of only the seats being

Prison was to be handed over for the construction of a Central Criminal Court The date for more worthy of the metropolis of England. the commencement of this work was not indicated and we are not aware of any visible signs that it i3 in progress or that its inception is any nearer than it was nine months ago. Since then the trial of the HOROS case has been followed by the indisposition of Mr. Justice BiGHAM, and it is still possible that before a new court has been built the loss of valuable life may be the price paid for the dilatoriness and lack of proper precaution exhibited by the civic authorities. They have had plenty of warning. The BENKETT trial was not the first occasion on which attention has been directed to the evil atmosphere of the Old Bailey. It was, however, a typical instance, and Dr. HOLMAN, a personal friend as well as ihe medical attendant of the Lord Chief Justice, and himself a frequent ’.isitor at the court during crowded trials, expressed strongly in public the opinion that the foul air inhaled during the six days that this case occupied was the cause of Lord ALVERSTONE’S illness. His view was confirmed by Sir Rl;HARD DOUGLAS POWELL, but nothing has been done.

authorities,

being

some

occupied

which the architect

designed for those destined to be present at trials, every inch of standing room is filled by persons who not only breathe and re-breathe the foul atmosphere, but also appropriate many cubic feet of space which otherwise would at any rate be filled with atmosphere of some sort. There are, therefore,

points to which the attention of the city authorities may well be directed, should they consider it worth their while to protect those whose duties take them to the Central Criminal The ventilation of the courts, or of the particular Court.

two

overcrowded, should be improved as possible by temporary measures not necessarily

court most liable to be

far

as

it is

large pecuniary outlay. Steps should also be taken to avoid overcrowding by limiting the number of those admitted to the seats above and below and by forbidding the filling of the gangways with spectators. It may here also be pointed out that, unless such steps for the preventing

involving

of

a

overcrowding are to be taken in the future, the architect of the proposed new courts should be instructed that his scheme for providing them with fresh air must take into account the fact that every inch of the floor, and not only the seats which he has introduced into his plans, will be liable to be filled by the audience. ! What measures may have been taken with regard to the