November 30, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
II 
Ihe " permanent margin of temporary wastage," tliat is, 
the floating supply of unavailable hospital men, which 
in all previous calculations published here were rightly 
regarded as off the strength. 
It is clear that the men who come back to an 
army from hospital do no more than replace new 
cases of men who arc continually going into hospital 
from the army, and that therefore the floating population 
of men convalescent or due to return within a few months, 
though, as individuals only, a form of temporary loss, 
remains as a mass a permanent margin of deficiency 
which must always be deducted from the enemy's total 
strength. At any given moment this permanent margin 
of temporaries is unavailable and must therefore be 
counted " off the strength." Why then did I include 
it in " the reserve ? " 
The reply to this criticism is that my calculation was 
not concerned with the losses of the German forces or 
their chance of increase, but only the reserves behind 
them, and in these reserves convalescents really count. 
Supposing, for instance, that of all men sick half a 
million men return cured to the German ranks between this 
and July 31st, 1917, and suppose that the rate of wastage 
from the German army in that period is not more than 
this half a million, then this reserve of man-power repre- 
sented by the present convalescents is clearly available 
to keep "the anny at full strength. It must clearly, 
therefore, be counted in any calculation of reserve power. 
The real interest of the position lies in the rate of 
wastage which can be imposed upon the German Empire 
during the winter flighting. If that wastage could be kept 
up at the rate which has been imposed during the summer, 
the reserves would be nothing like sufficient to maintain 
the present effectives up to the next open season. It is 
not possible that the wastage can be kept up at the same 
rate, but it may yet be kept up at so high a rate that 
reserve of man-power shall prove insufficient and that the 
effectives upon the fronts shall diminish within the next 
nine months. But whether this rate of wastage can be 
imposed or no only events can tell us. 
Field Punishment 
I 
By Centurion 
SEE the brutal and licentious soldiery are getting 
it in the neck again," said my friend, Colonel 
K . 
He had dropped his newspaper, and was staring 
reflectively at the horns of an ibex. The ibex with other 
trophies of migratory members adorned the walls of a 
well-known service club in which we were sitting after 
dinner. I knew that expression of his. K. has been in 
the army twenty years, and the sudden change in the 
pubhc temper at the beginning of the war from habitual 
depreciation of the service to one of impassioned flattery 
had left him surprised, but incredulous. Wherefore, 
when the sacramental words about " the miHtary caste " 
made one of their inevitable appearances in a new.spaper 
" leader," the colonel alwaj's went one better and 
penitentially referred to himself and all officers as 
brutal and licentious. 
" Well, what ha\e we been doing now, sir ? " I repHed. 
" Field Punishment," said K. laconically. " Some 
fellow in the newspaper says it's the mark of the beast. 
' MiHtarism,' you know and all that. It reminds me," 
and he measured the length of the ibex's horns with his 
eye. " That soldier was a holy terror," he added inconse- 
quently. 
" Go on, sir," I said, encouragingly. I knew he had a 
story at the back of his mind. 
" So I will in a moment. But, talking about P.P. and 
particularly F.P. No. i. I see thev say it's degrading. 
Perhaps it is. But is there anything half as degrading as 
being cashiered — eh ! what ? " 
" I have yet to hear of it," I replied. 
"Well, what's the penalty for an officer being drunk on 
active service ? Cashiering, or Dismissal which amounts 
to much the same thing. And then Fixis. He's a marked 
man ever afterwards— l^lackballed in clubs, ostracised in 
society, an object for the contempt of some and the pity 
of others. And what's your private get ? 84 days F.P. 
and forfeiture of pay— rarely more, usually less. And 
who's the wiser ? His Field Conduct-sheet isn't public 
property. He's got to square the account with his wife, 
of course— when she writes and asks why her allotment 
has been stopped — which he does by teUing her some 
cock-and-bull story of having lost his haversack and being 
' crimed ' by a brutal court-martial. And then the local 
M.P. is got at and puts a question in Parliament : 
' Whether the right honourable gentleman's attention has 
been drawn to the vindictive and degrading punishment 
inflicted on Private John Jones by Field-General Court 
Martial, and whether he will take steps to put a stop to 
the brutal and barbarous practice,' etc., etc.' Faugh! 
Fetch me an ounce of civet — I mean a liqueur brandy. 
Waiter ! Damn that boy ! 
" And then as to being drunk. If a private's drunk 
he's drunk. But if an oificer's taken quinine and gets 
dizzy, if he's had sheU-shock and gets excitable, if he's 
taken morphia and gets dazed, if there's a lack of muscular 
co-ordination— well, the Lord help that officer if he's 
taken a single glass of whisky that day, for the A.P.M 
won't ! In the army there's only one rule for the officer — 
he's either sober as a judge or drunk as a lord. A court 
martial recognises no intermediate shades of distinction. 
None of your pohce-surgeon's tests about the ' British 
Constitution,' no trials of tendon reflexes, and all the 
rest of it. ' Sentence promulgated, accused to be handed 
over to A.P.M. at Boulogne, notice to Messrs. Cox and Co.' 
And then — as I say — Finis. Very necessary, of course. 
Many a poor lad's gone that way, and for a first offence, 
too.'' 
" Yes," I remarked, " dismissal from the service is 
death to an officer, but discharge with ignominy seems 
to be meat and drink to a certain type of private— or 
it* was before the Military Service Act and the cancellation 
of discharges. But that doesn't stop some of 'em trying 
to get to Parkhurst all the same. I remember a Tommy 
saying to me the other day, ' There are fellows who say 
''distance is better than cover " and commit these crimes 
so that they wiU be sent to prison.' Cold feet evidently." 
" Well, of course. Why, if you'd been in the army as 
long as I have, my friend, you'd know that getting 
' crimed ' and jugged was one of the favourite dodges of 
a man with cold feet. Do you know the reason for the 
rule that an accused is not to wear his cap when in court ? " 
" Ceremony, I suppose." 
" Ceremony be damned. It was to prevent his throw- 
ing it at the President. That used to be a favoiirite 
dodge with cold-footed wasters who were afraid the court- 
martial would acquit 'em. Yes, I mean it. Look here, 
my friend, lawyers may talk shop till they're blue in the 
face about Jeremy what's-his-name and theories of 
punishment — the reformative, the retributive, the de- 
terrent, and all the rest of it, but there's only one theory 
in the army, and it's the preventive. You've not only 
got to prevent crime, but you've got to prevent crime 
committed as a means to punishment. You've got to 
punish the criminal in the way he least expects or most 
dislikes— see ? Now, Field Punishment is Punishment 
in the Field. D'you follow me ? Consequently, the 
fellow who commits a crime in order to get jugged should 
not be jugged — he should get F.P. And as you can't 
give C.B. in the trenches you must give F.P." 
" Yes," I said, " but why F.P. No. i. Why not F.P. 
No. 2 ? Why tie him up ? Why not put him on extra 
fatigues ? " 
" Why, because every man's doing extra fatigues in the 
trenches as it is ; it's the daily round, the common task, 
latrines included. And you can't put liim in a Guard 
Detention-room. There's no guard-room in the trenches 
even if you could spare men to look aftcl him. Besides, 
the chances are with a real bad hat that he wants to hit 
the sergeant in the ej^e just to get jugged. Oh ! yes, I 
know the penalty for that. Death ! But it isn't often 
inflicted and the men know it — there'd be a holy row in 
Parliament if it was 1 " 
" Well, but what about the new Suspension ol 
