essary to make it public. But
we may assume that there are several battalions in Great Britain which
were not in existence at the end of last July, and some of them are in
London. Nor is it any part of our national policy to explain how far
these battalions are prepared for the work which is ahead of them. They
were born quite rightly in silence. But that is no reason why they
should continue to walk in silence for the rest of their lives.
[Cheers.] Unfortunately up to the present most of them have been obliged
to walk in silence or to no better accompaniment than whistles and
concertinas and other meritorious but inadequate instruments of music
with which they have provided themselves. In the beginning this did not
matter so much. More urgent needs had to be met; but now that the new
armies are what they are, we who cannot assist them by joining their
ranks owe it to them to provide them with more worthy music for their
help, their gratification, and their honor. [Cheers.]

I am not a musician, so if I speak as a barbarian I must ask you and
several gentlemen on the platform here to forgive me. From the lowest
point of view a few drums and fifes in the battalion mean at least five
extra miles in a route march, quite apart from the fact that they can
swing a battalion back to quarters happy and composed in its mind, no
matter how wet or tired its body may be. Even when there is no route
marching, the mere come and go, the roll and flourishing of drums and
fifes around the barracks is as warming and cheering as the sight of a
fire in a room. A band, not necessarily a full band, but a band of a
dozen brasses and wood-winds, is immensely valuable in the district
where men are billeted. It revives memories, it quickens association, it
opens and unites the hearts of men more surely than any other appeal
can, and in this respect it aids recruiting perhaps more than any other
agency. I wonder whether I should say this--the tune that it employs and
the words that go with that tune are sometimes very remote from heroism
or devotion, but the magic and the compelling power is in them, and it
makes men's souls realize certain truths that their minds might doubt.

Further, no one, not even the Adjutant, can say for certain where the
soul of the battalion lives, but the expression of that soul is most
often found in the band. [Cheers.] It stands to reason that 1,200 men
whose lives are pledged to each other must have some common mean