18 ago. How have these hopeful anticipations been realised ? Must the question be answered merely by the gloomy statistics at the end of the report of Lord Onslow's Committee, showing that in India the admissions to hospital for venereal disease have leapt up from 191 per 1,000 in 1872 to 522 per 1,000 in 1895? The facts would be heart-breaking if it were really true that everything had been done which could be done to raise the moral tone of the Army. Of course it is true that many officers have done splendid work in this direction; but that is not enough; we want to see the whole body of officers earnestly desirous of raising the moral tone of their men; we want even more than this: we want the subject to be taken into consideration in the whole organisation of the Army, so that whether it is a matter of keeping the same officers in authority over the same men, or of sergeants and other non-commissioned officers inhabiting barrack rooms, of providing the soldiers with the most suitable kind of food and drink, of regulating the hours off duty, of keeping the health statistics regiment by regiment, not station by station, and a variety of other details of varying degrees of importance, attention should constantly be given to their influence in raising the moral tone of the soldier.
There is some evidence already as to what can be done by the officers demanding a higher standard of conduct from their men. In Lord Roberts' own account of his Afghan Campaign (1879-80), he stated that he issued a General Order to the officers under him impressing them with the necessity for constant vigilance in preventing irregularities with the women of the country, and reminding them that the natives of Kabul were of all races the most susceptible as regards their women. He adds in a note that it was a matter of most intense gratification to him that during the whole time he was in Afghanistan not a single complaint was made by the Afghans of any soldier having interfered with the women of the country. We find in the report of Lord Onslow's Committee (note on p. 12) that the admissions to hospital for venereal disease among Lord Roberts' troops in Afghanistan was less than 70 per 1000; the proportion for the whole of India in the preceding year having been 291. Major Mayne, R.E., points out that the low proportion of venereal disease among our troops in Afghanistan in that campaign would have been lower still but for the fact that one British battalion brought up a number of regimental prostitutes with them to Kabul. It is impossible not to see some connection between this extra vigilance on the part of the officers in regard to conduct and the satisfactory results in the reduction of disease; though of course some of the reduction ought to be attributed to the good effect of active service in leaving the soldiers less time for idleness and its attendant mischief.
There can be no doubt much good would result from any circumstance which made officers more generally recognise their responsibilities in this matter. If they demanded good conduct from their men they would get it. The effect of discipline in discouraging vice can hardly be said to have been even tried at present. The Indian Government has recommended that men in hospital for venereal disease shall be punished by stoppage of pay; we hope this recommendation will be adopted, but at present no information on this point has been made public. We would urge on the Army authorities that a man who invalids himself by vice should be punished as for breach of contract. He has been fed, clothed and paid by the taxpayer at a high cost on the understanding that he is to be ready when required to go into active service. The taxpayer has fulfilled his part of the bargain; and it is the soldier's plain duty from the point of mere honesty not to incapacitate himself from fulfilling his.
*
Forty-one Years in India, pp. 205-6. Vol. II
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