parade,
inattention in the ranks, tardiness at roll-call, and others of the
sort, all within the jurisdiction of a company officer. The punishment
meted out varied according to the seriousness of the offense, and the
past-conduct record of the offender. It usually consisted of from one to
ten days, "C.B."--confined to barracks. During the period of his sentence
the offender was forbidden to leave camp after the parades for the day
were ended. And in order that he might have no opportunity to do so, he
was compelled to answer his name at the guard-room whenever it should be
sounded.

Only twice in England did we have a general court-martial, the offense in
each case being assault by a private upon an N.C.O., and the penalty
awarded, three months in the military prison at Aldershot. Tommy was
quiet and law-abiding in England, his chief lapses being due to an
exaggerated estimate of his capacity for beer. In France, his conduct, in
so far as my observation goes, has been splendid throughout. During six
months in the trenches I saw but two instances of drunkenness. Although I
witnessed nearly everything which took place in my own battalion, and
heard the general gossip of many others, never did I see or hear of a
woman treated otherwise than courteously. Neither did I see or hear of
any instances of looting or petty pilfering from the civilian
inhabitants. It is true that the men had fewer opportunities for
misconduct, and they were fighting in a friendly country. Even so, active
service as we found it was by no means free from temptations. The
admirable restraint of most of the men in the face of them was a fine
thing to see.

Frequent changes were made in methods of training in England, to
correspond with changing conditions of modern warfare as exemplified in
the trenches. Textbooks on military tactics and strategy, which were the
inspired gospel of the last generation of soldiers, became obsolete
overnight. Experience gained in Indian Mutiny wars or on the veldt in
South Africa was of little value in the trenches in Flanders. The
emphasis shifted from open fighting to trench warfare, and the textbook
which our officers studied was a typewritten serial issued semiweekly by
the War Office, and which was based on the dearly bought experience of
officers at the front.

We spent many a starry night on the hills above Folkestone digging
trenches and building dug-outs according to General Staff instructions,
and many a rai