wlL vs'e grS the principle of doing good to others by 
^'^I r e^diefore that the obloquy is ^^P^^^^j;!;^;;^ 
fashion of the day turns on the man who beheves »} ™"f '"^ 
his mvn business The obloquy falls on the opposite party 
our bdlver is not an idle pers'on he works longer hours than 
hi^ ODDOnent and produces a better article. He »\not m 
5 ffeS to the welfLe of others ; he dpes them good in sm t 
all dav long. He is not a superior person who bid, the who 
wor d go to the devil ; he sees it going to the devil ""der t ^, 
influenzae of the opposite principle and tries to save ,t by .U kn g 
tn hi^ nost He is not a se fish man ; he is the true pnuan 
thropi.? though he never seeks the reputation of bemg one. 
LAND & WATER 
December 28, .1917 
and greatlv dislikes hcaunj^ mm^At called by that name. 
He <loesn't practice laissez-faire; he leaves that to the 
pcoi)le who neglect their own business under the pretext 
of doing good to others. He is not a troublesome member 
of the community ; he gives less trouble than anybody 
else, and at the same time performs more social service than 
anybody else. His job is not the easiest ; it is the hardest, 
but he makes no fuss about it and seldom complains. Taking 
him all round he is the best/bf good fellows— staunch , neigji- 
bourly, cheerful, healthy-minded, unpretentious— a pillar 
of society in every sense of the term, an excellent citizen and a 
true patriot. To be sure, he is a trifle disagreeable when he 
finds himself in the midst of talking men, especiaJly if they are 
talkingVibout social ser^'ice ; but, otherwise, you will find 
him tiie most pleasant of companions, and be very glad you 
liave him alongside pf you in the world. 
Comrades of the Great War 
By a Comrade 
WE can look back through the brooding cloud of 
three years of war, to the beginnings of our army 
of to-dav— the Uttle handful at which a powerful 
enemy "laughed then, boasting like the giant 
Harapha— and his jest is immortal and our glory. Sniall as 
it then was, it was grouped and divided with an mtimate 
difference from the millions now massed on all our hattie 
fronts. In the old days before 1914. " The Regiment was 
all-in-all to the soldier. It had the best of him, and he was 
part of it ; it got into his very bones. 
Short service altered that ; and the sudden outbreak of war 
and the country's unprepared state and urgent need, brought 
in a different state of things, different types of men m all 
ranks. The recruits in the first army of 1914 were mostly 
small boys when we were fighting at Spion Kop. They had no 
regimental tradition^, and they did not learn many, tor every- 
thing was under new emergency conditions, and earned through 
—crammed and hustled through if you like— against tinu-^ 
and in the rush old names, old prestige and sentiment, seemed 
minor matters. For the first time in the memories of hving 
men the country was in danger. And England became all at 
once an upstanding reality to EngUshmen. 
Every sailor and soldier, behind his more immediate 
pride in his own craft or his own company, his particular 
R.F. A. Battery, or armed trawler, has that dominant idea, we 
believe • he" is fighting for his country. No bond holds closer 
than suffering and danger shared for the sake of a common 
faith. The ordeal of war has so knit together the men of 
our forces that they mean to keep their war-time fellow-ship 
through the coming years of peace. " The Comrades of the 
Great War " is a league founded for and founded by old sailors 
and soldiers, on equal terms, for intercourse, for mutual help, 
and for keeping in mind the great lessons of patriotism learned 
in these rugged days; for raising a hving memorial— 
the noblest we can— to the brave who have given tl\eir hves 
for home and for honour. ... _ 
Victory will bring peace, and peace demobilisation. For a 
short time the five milUon or so of discharged men will be 
publicly regarded as heroes. They will be no less heroes 
when we have been at peace for five years. But nobody 
supposes that the tumult and the shouting will go on all 
that time. The disbanded forces will be just so many millions 
in our population, dispersed and absorbed. Their life will 
become the hum-drum round of working citizens, just the 
same as if they had never taken a trench or sunk an enemy 
destroyer ; a daily-bread affair, rush times and slack seasons, 
shop disputes. Bank HoUdays, the wife and children, the bus 
chock-full on a rainy morning, and all the rest of it. 
" The rest of it " will be fairiy complicated too ! Relations 
between the discharged men arid those who have not served 
with the colours, for good and sufficient reasons, and (often 
against the grain) had to carry on at home ! Relations be- 
tween employers and employees, between Government officials 
and the men whose affairs they deal with and regulate ; be- 
tween men and women in the labour market. Altogether 
a coil of problems. 
In this dispersal and turmoil, this inter\veaving and clashing 
of claims and interests, it is the purpose of the " Comrades 
of the Great War " to stand for a national ideal. It is the 
first association of men of all ranks meeting and co-operating 
with the good of the country as a whole for their great objec- 
tive. The league has an economic side, a special bearing on 
the interests of the discharged sailor and soldier ; but though 
every local centre will be an actively functioning organiser 
working for their benefit, it is not estabUshed only for material 
and economic pu^oses. Every Di\'ision, Branch and post 
will be a social club : there will be friendly and family inter- 
course, amusement and interest and good cheer. Do these 
homely humanities belittle and weaken a strong public spirit :» 
\\'c know better. On those ultimate plam things the great 
societies of mankind stand fast. 
The fellowship is, as its charter says, a' strong and demo- 
cratic constitution. There is no preference for the commis- 
sioned over the non-commissioned officer, " no class, rank, or 
party " is recognised, stoker and commander may sit side by 
side on the Executive. Privates and N.C.O.'s are holding 
many official posts of importance and responsibility, especiaUy 
as organisers in provincial centres ; and they form about one 
half of the numbers of the General Committee. 
We may sketch here some of the society's activities on the 
practical'side. Employment and Pension Bureaux are al- 
ready in working order in connection with the National Head- 
Ouarters in London, and it is intended that this will be ex- 
tended to every division and important branch, at all events, 
throughout the country. The Government Pensions machinery' 
is largely— is bound to be— for sorting and sifting purposes, 
rejection of bogus claims and much necessary work of a similar 
kind. And the claiming of legitimate dues in form often 
involves— again inevitably— much paper formality ; and 
there are endless small personal difficulties, urgencies, pecuhar- 
ities, that special and personal help can more adequately meet. 
Then there is the training of the discharged men in new 
moves of activity. There are, too, a httle farther on in the 
future, schemes of industrial enterprise. 
As the league gets on a firm footing, it is intended to affiUate 
similar societies formed or forming among the ex-Servicc men 
of the Overseas Dominions. Who are our Comrades if not 
they ? And, further, centres will be established in foreign 
countries whence British residents have come to fight under 
the flag. So that wherever the returned soldier goes home 
he will find a foothold of fellowship and recognition. 
A word here specially as to one section of the "Comrades" 
.honourably distinguished. No man can surely have come back 
as he went— these tremendous experiences must have seared 
brain and nerve and left unseen traces on the strongest ; but 
some have paid heavily indeed "for valour." Every 
wounded man knows his own hardship best, and none, I 
think one can say, make any complaint. 
Now their fighting days are over they ought to feel that they 
can be of some use. Life, especially to a man badly damaged, 
is of little value without that. He may be made as com- 
fortable as circumstances will permit, may even be in In.xury 
and have his path smoothed for him by every kindness and 
consideration ; but if he has to feel that he is a drag and a 
burden and a bore, he will be sorry he was not finished off alto- 
gether. But the wounded Comrade has a great place and 
purpose in the league. More than any other man he pan keep 
his fellows in mind of that supreme sacrifice of the individual 
that is sometimes for the common good. 
The Comrades will make that common good, that national 
well-being their principle of outlook and action. They risked 
death for their country — and they will risk hving . for 
her. They know this war will have been won in vain if men 
relapse into a base tooth-and-nail scramble of self-interest. 
The rights of " The Comrades " have to be studied, their 
claims adjusted, in connection, in a reasonable proportion, 
with those of all others. They are to be a band of brothers, 
but not such a devoted family (one has known families like 
that) as to be shocking bad neighbours to everyone else. 
Let them use their brains and their wills, let them bring to all 
problems of national life the generous spirit, the good will, 
patience, and indomitable resolution that kept them unbroken 
in the field ; and they will rout many a bullying injustice, and 
make impregnable the strong white heights of peace. 
