cruiting sergeant is bound to hand to every applicant for enlistment, sets forth in detail the soldier's finanical position. Having given particulars of the rates of pay for the respective arms and ranks this publication sums up the situation as follows: 'In addition to money wages, a soldier receives a ration of bread and meat, lodgings, fuel, light, and medical attendance . . . and on first joining the army is supplied with a complete outfit of clothing and a free kit, and he is afterwards periodically supplied with the principal articles of clothing without charge. He is required to keep up his underclothing and necessaries at his own cost, and to pay for repairs to his clothing when in wear, and for his own groceries, vegetables, and washing, but not for his bedding.' There is no loophole for misunderstanding here. It would certainly, however, be more explicit were the deduction for groceries, vegetables, and washing to be specified, since that is a fixed charge, not to be diminished or increased by any economy or carelessness on the soldier's part. The soldier is partly fed by Government, partly feeds himself out of his pay. The Government ration consists of meat lb. with bone, weighed uncooked, and 1 lb. bread. He cannot live on this ration, and he therefore supplements it, or rather it is supplemented for him by the deduction from his pay of 3d. a day expended in the purchase of such additions to his fare, in the nature of 'groceries' and vegetables, as are considered to make it adequate. Whether that condition is fulfilled or not, the reader will presently find the opportunity of judging for himself. He will not permit himself to neglect certain factors in the calculation. If the soldier does not habitually work so hard as does the navvy or even the day labourer, he by no means eats the bread of idleness. He rises early and is much in the open air. He is now for the most part young, and often indeed growing; frequently he has been poorly fed before enlisting, consequently may be imperfectly developed, and it is for the national interest that his physique should be improved, to produce which effect good and sufficient nourishment is essential. And again, the soldier is not, as a prisoner is, restricted for his sustenance to the ration scale which authority has devised for him. He has at his absolute disposal a free surplus of pay after deduction of all fixed disbursements amounting to sixpence a day on the lowest reckoning. Is he entitled, however large may be his capacity for food, to eat and be filled, and yet to possess his free surplus intact? If he be, then he is the unique member of the community thus privileged. The day labourer when he takes his pay does not make the hard and fast allotment of so much of it for beer and skittles, and let what balance may be over go to pay for the necessaries of life. If he is so foolish, he may come to suffer from inanition. Now, the soldier, if he resolutely refuses to spend on food a fraction of his free surplus, cannot possibly suffer from inanition; his rations stand between him and that mischief. Only a few words need be said of the Government rations of bread and meat. The bread is fairly good; at large military centres it is made in military bakeries; at out-quarters it is supplied by contract. The meat for the most part is also fair; since there are adequate means for enforcing compliance with the conditions of contract, there is no reason why inferior meat should ever be accepted. At the great military station of Aldershot its quality is secured by quite a chain of inspection. The commissary officer passes or rejects the live cattle supplied by the contractor. A board of officers, at the head of which is a field officer, daily visit the slaughter-houses, and inspect the carcases hanging there, passing or rejecting according to judgment. Everywhere, the right to take exception to meat tendered for the consumption of his regiment or detachment vests in the regimental orderly officer for the day, among whose duties it is to be present when the meat is cut up for the different messes. The regimental quartermaster is also present at this operation; he sees that the weighing is just and the allotment fair; and it is his duty as an experienced critic to direct the orderly officer's attention to inferior meat. The loss for meat rejected falls on the contractor, and also the cost of meat purchased in lieu of his condemned supply. The contracts prescribe that mutton be furnished occasionally, usually once a week; that is the only change from the otherwise invariable beef, except that in Ireland sometimes pork is supplied, at the request of the men, and by arrangement with the contractor. Hind and fore-quarters are sent in on alternate days; the quarters must come whole, pieces are not accepted, but there is no rejection of the inferior portions of quarters, and each mess has to take its proportion of shin, brisket, and skirt. The orderly man of each mess is present to draw its meat, and has the right of protest against an undue proportion of bone and inferior pieces. One pound in the hundred is allowed for loss in cutting up. On an average in the soldier's nominal meat ration of twelve ounces there is twenty-five per cent. of bone and other uneatable substance such as gristle and sinew. The loss in cooking averages about another twenty-five per cent.- quite that in baking and roasting, a little less in boiling. There remain six ounces, which may be taken as his actual daily ration of butcher meat on the plate, and that of rather mixed character, since it includes shin, brisket, and other inferior portions. What then of Government rations goes down Tommy Atkins's throat daily is one pound of bread and six ounces of meat. As a simple matter of quantity this amount of food is obviously inadequate. So threepence-halfpenny a day is deducted from the soldier's pay, and expended in adding to, padding out, and in a measure civilising his fare. It may well surprise the reader to know how much may be done with these few coppers, carefully and economically administered. The pittance would not go far if disbursed individually, but when the collective threepence-halfpennies of a troop or company are brought into the budget, the advantages of Tea 8. Oz. £ 8. d. 0 17 6 0 17 6 0 17 6 10 1/4 0 0 10 Coffee. 1 4 1/0 0 1 7 Sugar Raisins Currants Spice. Lemon peel Salt, 1 packet Mustard Butter Barley Bread, 15 loaves. 8 2 0 1 63 combination come to the front. A modified home rule obtains in the disbursement of these collective coppers, the administration of which, under prescribed checks and supervision, is vested in the orderly corporal of each troop or company. Certain statutory investments have to be made; should the accounts show a surplus after these are met, the disposal thereof is prescribed by general suffrage. The statutory purchases are daily per man; lb. bread for the afternoon meal, tea oz., coffee oz., sugar 2 oz., salt oz., pepper 3 oz., milk (for tea and coffee) pint. Of these quantities that of the tea bread is immutable; the rest of the scale may be somewhat modified and in practice generally is, mostly in the direction of increase. Potatoes are a necessary daily purchase, on the scale of something over a pound per man, and however simple the day's dinner may be, some vegetables must be bought. The orderly corporal's ledger is a monthly account-book, known as ' Army Book 48,' each page of which. is headed Company Daily Messing Account.' It might be supposed that the indispensable items I have enumerated would absorb the Company's collective threepence-halfpennies; but, to show that this is not so, a sample page from a 'Daily Messing Account,' in which these items only are set down, is given in the margin. The dinner of the day is 4 0 1 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 11 0 Issued: G. SMITH, Canteen Steward. P. WILKINS, Capt. Com. Co. 'Bake,' with no extras. It will be seen that this budget of what may be termed actual necessaries, these costing within a fraction of 24d. per man, brings out a balance to the company's credit of 68. 53d., or a little over 14d. per man. It is astonishing to what account, under good administration, may be turned this petty sum. Presently I shall give some examples of its profitable investment; but first it ought to be explained how and where the orderly corporal makes his purchases. In the old days he resorted to the little shops outside the barrack gate, where the prices were high, the quality of the goods was bad, and the corruption attending the dealings was scandalous. There was an interval during which the groceries,' i.e. the tea bread, tea, coffee, sugar, salt and pepper, were supplied at large stations by the Commissariat at a charge of 14d. per ration, or within a trifle of cost price; and this is still done at certain foreign stations where other means of supply are inaccessible. But some twenty years ago the canteen system was radically changed-perhaps the most important boon to the soldier of modern times; and thenceforth the troops became customers of the canteen for all their messing,' the Commissariat ceasing to supply anything except the Government ration of bread and meat. On its present basis the canteen, in effect, is the co-operative store of the regiment. It is managed by a committee composed of officers and non-commissioned officers under the supervision of the commanding officer. The canteen steward is a pensioner of approved character, who works under a system of efficient checks. The canteen has its treasurer and its accountant, and the money taken is lodged in bank daily. The canteen profits for the year average per regiment about 400l., and the soldier gets the benefit of every penny. The money is expended in supplying extras for the Christmas dinner, in furnishing bread and cheese on field days and coffee for the guard, in providing extra clothing, in supplying papers and games to the regimental news-room, and in the encouragement by prizes of the regimental sports. There is a wet canteen' and a 'dry canteen.' The selected brewers furnish the moisture for the former, the latter, which is in effect a general shop, procures its stocks generally from one of the service co-operative stores. Under the hospitable roof of his canteen the soldier enjoys all the advantages of a tolerably fair club in return for the infinitesimal subscription of twopence per month. He finds a well-supplied news-room, and a lending library, whose contents are frequently renewed. In the games-room he may play draughts, chess, or bagatelle. He may call for his pot and call for his pipe; the fiddlers three are not on hand, but he is free to sing his song and raise his chorus. If he desires refreshments, he has the range of considerable variety at a very low tariff. A cup of tea, cocoa, or chocolate will cost him a penny; a cup of coffee half that amount. The charge for a boiled egg is a penny, for a portion (small, of course) of bacon and egg, two-pence; for a pint of pea-soup a penny, for a plate of liver 1d., for one of liver and bacon twopence, for a herring a penny. If he would season his dry ration-bread in the barrack-room, the canteen sells him cooked bacon at 10d., cooked ham at 1s. 2d., and German sausage at 8d. per lb., smaller quantities in proportion. And he has the consciousness that by every penny he spends in the canteen he is contributing to his own advantage, since the canteen is simply the co-operative store of the regiment of which he is a member. The dry canteen' is the establishment at which the regiment now deals for its messing,' at whose counter is disbursed the threepence-halfpenny which each soldier contributes from his pay in supplement of the Government ration. The orderly corporal of each company sends in every morning to the canteen steward his requisition for the day's supplies on the messing' form printed on margin of page 827. The canteen steward weighs out the quantities and has everything ready for delivery when the bugle sounds for 'Orderly Corporals,' who then, accompanied by the orderly man of each mess, go to the canteen, exercise their right of having each article weighed if they care to do so, and then see the supplies conveyed direct to the cookhouses and given in charge of the cooks. Since my day the system of army cooking has been reformed and in a measure civilised. A school of army cooking has been established, and every regiment has now its sergeant-cook, a graduate of this establishment. He instructs and supervises the assistant cooks, who no longer are changed weekly, but remain in office for varying but considerable periods. The culinary appliances are modernised, so that the range of possibilities in regard to the soldier's dinner is no longer limited to the old bake, boil, or bedevil.' In my own old corps the commanding officer of to-day offers from time to time a money prize for the best-cooked troop-dinner, which is awarded by a jury composed of officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates. In every regiment the sergeant-cook is responsible for the cleanliness of the cook-houses and the cooking utensils; and on him, in the first instance at least, falls the burden of complaints made in the barrackroom of bad cookery. All has not yet been done that could be done in improving the methods of military cookery and cooking appliances; but at least it may be said that the soldier now gets his honest ration cooked in a decent, cleanly, and fairly appetising manner. On page 827 I have given a specimen of a company's messing' budget, showing the disbursement in commodities which may be regarded as necessaries,' and exhibiting after their purchase a surplus of a few shillings. Such a surplus (varying in amount, of course, with the market prices of the time, and also in so far as the prescribed scale is departed from) may be taken as normal. It may broadly be said that as this daily modicum of 'messing' surplus is |
