rk in the open air brought great and welcome changes.
The men talked of their food, anticipated it with a zest which came from
realizing, for the first time, the joy of being genuinely hungry. They
watched their muscles harden with the satisfaction known to every normal
man when he is becoming physically efficient. Food, exercise, and rest,
taken in wholesome quantities and at regular intervals, were having the
usual excellent results. For my own part, I had never before been in such
splendid health. I wished that it might at all times be possible for
democracies to exercise a beneficent paternalism over the lives of their
citizenry, at least in matters of health. It seems a great pity that the
principle of personal freedom should be responsible for so many
ill-shaped and ill-sorted physical incompetents. My fellow Tommies were
living, really living, for the first time. They had never before known
what it means to be radiantly, buoyantly healthy.

There were, as well, more profound and subtle changes in thoughts and
habits. The restraints of discipline and the very exacting character of
military life and training gave them self-control, mental alertness. At
the beginning, they were individuals, no more cohesive than so many
grains of wet sand. After nine months of training they acted as a unit,
obeying orders with that instinctive promptness of action which is so
essential on the field of battle when men think scarcely at all. But it
is true that what was their gain as soldiers was, to a certain extent,
their loss as individuals. When we went on active service I noted that
men who were excellent followers were not infrequently lost when called
upon for independent action. They had not been trained to take the
initiative, and had become so accustomed to having their thinking done
for them that they often became confused and excited when they had to do
it for themselves.

Discipline was an all-important factor in the daily grind. At the
beginning of their training, the men of the new armies were gently dealt
with. Allowances were made for civilian frailties and shortcomings. But
as they adapted themselves to changed conditions, restrictions became
increasingly severe. Old privileges disappeared one by one. Individual
liberty became a thing of the past. The men resented this bitterly for a
time. Fierce hatreds of officers and N.C.O.s were engendered and there
was much talk of revenge when we should get to the front. I used