SUBALTERN OFFICERS. 
385 
The next morning they are brought up direst before the officer 
commanding the battery, without (except in very special cases) appear¬ 
ing before the officer commanding their division. However convenient 
this system may be, however calculated to secure uniformity in punish¬ 
ments, it is clearly inconsistent with the maintenance of that chain of 
responsibility, the value of which in modern military organization it 
has been the endeavour of the writer to demonstrate in this paper. If, 
however, certain * minor powers of punishment—such as the 
power to award confinement to barracks for 3 days, the power to 
sentence a man to perform an extra guard or picquet, and other small 
disciplinary powers—were conferred upon all subaltern officers com¬ 
manding divisions, and if these powers were recognised as legal in the 
Army Discipline Act, all prisoners might in the first instance be 
brought before their own divisional commanders, who would keep the 
defaulter sheets of their men, and who would either dispose of the 
prisoners themselves, or would bring them before the major commanding 
the battery for further punishment. The subaltern officers would thus 
be answerable to the major of the battery for the discipline of their 
divisions, exactly in the same way as the major is answerable to his 
lieutenant-colonel for the discipline of the battery. The possession of 
disciplinary powers, and the constant necessity for exercising those 
powers, would surely bring home to us subaltern officers in a practical 
way the responsibility of our position. We should be compelled to 
interest ourselves more than we now do in the character and lives of 
our men, our authority and influence over them could not fail to be 
strengthened, and we should daily gain that tact and experience in 
dealing with our inferiors, which it is so necessary to acquire before 
being promoted to fill positions of higher trust. In view too of the 
altered conditions of enlistment and the difficulty of obtaining non¬ 
commissioned officers of experience, this change seems to be particularly 
expedient. On all sides we hear complaints of the want of judgment 
on the part of the young non-commissioned officers of the present day 
in their relations with the men under them. If the junior officers were 
brought more into contact with the men, checks would in this way be 
imposed upon the arbitrary conduct of non-commissioned officers, 
military law would be more impartially administered, and the general 
tone and discipline would surely be improved. 
11. If this system of decentralisation were carried out as has been 
proposed above, the battery commanding officer would be relieved of 
* It may be objected that subaltern officers are too inexperienced to be trusted with 
these disciplinary powers, and too young to carry out the details of executive work. The 
answer to this obj ection is that real work and responsibility have always been found to 
sober men down, and fit them for their position. A subaltern officer will never gain 
experience by simply following his major round the stables, and watching the sergeant, 
major drill the battery. The best way to learn is, as we all know, by teaching others. As 
long as a man is kept in a state of tutelage he will never really exert himself to the 
utmost of his powers. It is only when he is brought face to face with the difficulties of 
life that he will settle down in earnest to his work, and that ha will show what sort of 
stuff he is made of. “A man soon grows on the battle field,” was Napoleon’s reply to the 
French Directory when, after applying for a command, he was taunted with his youth. 
