SOME INCIDENTALS
The subject of disciplinary battalions is not a pleasant one in the
opinion of the French soldier, but the formation of such battalions is
a necessity in the conscript army of a nation which demands military
service of all its citizens. For in such an army the criminal classes
and bad characters are included with the rest, and, if they do not
conform to military rules in a better way than they submit to the
ordinary restrictions imposed on any law-abiding civil community,
then some form of discipline must be adopted in order to coerce
them. When the regimental authorities of any unit in the French Army
have ascertained, by the repeated application of ordinary corrective
methods, that it is impossible to make an efficient soldier of any man
in the unit in question, the man concerned is taken before the _conseil
de discipline_, which has power to recommend that he should be sent to
service in the disciplinary battalion stationed in Algeria.
The _conseil_ consists of a major as president, together with the two
senior captains and two senior lieutenants of the regiment to which
the man belongs, exclusive of his own squadron or company officer. The
case against the man is presented by the senior officer of the squadron
or company to which the man belongs; this evidence for the prosecution
having been taken, the prosecuting officer retires, and the accused
man is brought in to make his defence. Then the court, after due
deliberation, makes its report, recommending either that the man shall
be given another chance in the regiment, or sent to a disciplinary
battalion. The report is then sent to the colonel of the regiment,
who either endorses or rejects the decision of the court. Should his
decision be favourable to the accused, the man is given another chance,
but if, on the other hand, he endorses the recommendation of the court,
the sanction of the general commanding the station is required in order
to complete the proceedings. With this sanction the offender is sent to
Algeria, where the disciplinary battalions are known as "Biribi" and
are stationed on the most advanced posts of this French colony. Owing
to their shaven heads, the men in these battalions are known as _têtes
des veaux_, and their release from this form of service is entirely
dependent on their own conduct. In one historic case, the son of a
general served four years as a private in one of these battalions,
which include, in addition to men of a distinctively criminal type, a
number of social wrecks. A disciplinary battalion is a veritable lost
legion.
Some years ago one of these battalions was on the march from Biskra
in Southern Algeria, and on the march one unscrupulous ruffian, who
cherished a grudge against the major commanding, fell back to the
rear of the column, pretending to be ill. He feigned greater and yet
greater exhaustion, and at last sat down as if unable to march further.
The major came up and inquired kindly what was the matter, and on the
soldier stating that he felt too exhausted to march, the major handed
him a brandy flask, from which the man took a drink. As the major was
occupied in returning the flask to his saddle wallet, the soldier fired
his rifle at him, but fortunately missed, owing to the swerving of
the officer's horse. At this the major realised with what a dangerous
class of man he had to deal, and, drawing his revolver, he blew the
man's brains out. Some time later another officer of the same battalion
found a stone placed on the spot commemorating the memory of the
soldier criminal; the stone was removed, but was replaced; six times
in succession this was done, and yet it was never ascertained who was
responsible for cutting inscriptions on the stones, or placing them
there.
A very common mistake is made in confusing the disciplinary battalions
of the Algerian frontier with the world-famous Foreign Legion of
the French Army, and consequently the Foreign Legion has gained an
undeserved reputation for iron discipline and unduly harsh treatment
of its men. The chief disabilities attendant on service in the Foreign
Legion consist in periods of service in some of the peculiarly
unhealthy localities included in French colonial possessions. The
Foreign Legion suffered more than any other unit of the French service
during its period of active service in French Cochin-China, while
inland in Algeria its members are subjected to a peculiarly trying
climate, and in other parts of French Africa the Foreign Legion does
duty in company with a considerable amount of epidemic disease.
Service in the Foreign Legion is, of course, a voluntary matter,
and the fact that the Legion is always up to strength is sufficient
evidence of methods adopted with regard to the discipline of the men
and the treatment accorded to them. For, although the Legion itself is
famous, its individual members are not, and it cannot be said to offer
any conspicuous attractions to intending candidates for admission.
It is probably the most cosmopolitan body of men in any part of the
world, and the formation of such a body, in which the distinctions of
nationality are abolished, is peculiar to the French nation. The Legion
includes natives of every country populated by the Caucasian races,
and especially of Italian, German, English, and French citizens. It
is an agglomeration of adventurers, of whom the largest proportion
desire only obscurity; it may be said that the Legion is made up of
the bad bargains of half a world, but it is good fighting material,
for all that. Ouida has drawn a highly coloured picture of service in
the Foreign Legion in the book "Under Two Flags," but this picture
consists mainly of romance with the soldiering left out, while actual
service with the Legion involves soldiering with the romance left
out. Hard soldiering, in various climates and under many conditions;
in company with various kinds of men, of whom one never asks details
of past history; one is accepted in the Legion for present soldierly
qualities, and by tacit agreement the past is given the place allotted
to most sleeping dogs. The period of service in the Legion has the
merit of being intensely interesting to any man who, consciously or
unconsciously, is a student of the psychology of his fellows. The
Legion itself affords instances of devotion and self-denial as heroic
as any that Ouida has penned, but it may be said here with regard not
only to the Foreign Legion, but to all the armies of all the world,
that such systematic persecution on the part of an individual officer
toward any individual man as Ouida has pictured in "Under Two Flags"
is a rank impossibility. The system of decentralisation of command, of
interlinking authority and supervision, and of central control by heads
of units, renders impossible the persistent gratification of spite by
an individual officer against an individual soldier.
In this connection, stories of persecution of individuals who have
done nothing to merit the punishment inflicted on them, especially in
military service, should always be accepted with the proverbial grain
of salt. For there is never smoke without fire, and the man who is
unpopular with all his officers and non-commissioned officers to such
an extent as to incur a succession of punishments is usually deserving
of all that he gets. Humanity is so constituted that sympathy almost
invariably goes to the individual who is at variance with the mass,
and in the exercise of sympathy one is apt to overlook the qualities
and characteristics of the object on which it is bestowed. We hear,
usually, the story of the man who considers himself aggrieved or
unjustly punished, and, without listening to the other side of the
case, we immediately conclude that his statements are correct in
all their details. As a rule, the man who thus attempts to secure a
reversal of the decision against him has some inherent quality which
makes for unpopularity. He is inclined to curry favour, which renders
him a marked man among his comrades, or he commits acts against
discipline in such a way that, although it is practically certain that
he is the offender, the evidence against him is insufficient to warrant
punishment. These and other characteristics of the man concerned bring
heavy punishment on him when is finally caught, and, although the
punishment is perfectly just, the offender immediately whines over it
in such a clever way that sympathising outsiders accord him far more
consideration than he deserves, and consider that his just judges have
been inhuman brutes, though they merely fulfilled their duty. The
offender makes sufficient fuss to be heard, but the individual or body
of individuals who ordered his punishment are not able to advertise
themselves in similar fashion, and thus a one-sided view is taken.
To return to the Foreign Legion, it may be said that any attempt to
quote incidents typical of its members and their ways would be quite
useless, for there is in the Legion sufficient material to furnish
all the novelists of this and the next century with plots to keep
them busy. To outward seeming the soldiers of the Foreign Legion are
average men, engaged in average military duties, and it is not until
definite contact with them has been established that any realisation
of their exceptional qualities and curious defects can be obtained. As
is well known, the Legion includes every class of adventurers from men
of royal blood and noblemen of the highest rank downward, and many an
assumed name conceals a story which would be worth untold gold in Fleet
Street, or in the journalistic equivalent of Fleet Street in some other
European capital.
It is not generally realised in this country that the extent of
the French colonies is such as to necessitate the maintenance of a
considerable body of colonial troops. With the exception of the troops
stationed in Algeria and Tunis, service in the French colonies is
a voluntary matter; the natives of the various French dependencies
have been induced to accept military service on a voluntary basis to
a considerable extent. In addition to the famous Algerian Turcos,
battalions of Senegalese troops have been formed with excellent
results; it has been found that the natives of this dependency make
good soldiers, particularly suited to service in the interior of
Africa, owing to their immunity from diseases which render tracts of
country almost impenetrable to white troops. The numbers of native
colonial troops given in Chapter I are constantly and steadily
increasing, for, in addition to making good soldiers, the natives of
French dependencies come forward readily and in increasing numbers to
recruiting centres.
As regards the regular army, matters have been much better with
reference to discipline and punishment since the system which permitted
of _volontaires_ was abolished. The _volontaires_ were men who, on
payment of a certain sum to the State, were permitted to compress their
military training into the space of one year. The payment of this sum
was supposed to guarantee a certain amount of social standing in civil
life, and the _volontaires_ were always regarded theoretically as a
possible source from which to promote officers in case of need. In
practice, however, the experiment worked out quite differently. The
_volontaires_ were found to be men of varying grades in life, with
varying degrees of education, and equally varying mental qualities.
They were extremely unpopular among the ordinary conscript rank and
file, on whom many of them affected to look down as inferior beings.
The more unscrupulous of them would attempt to evade duty by bribing
non-commissioned officers, while those who were unable to compass
bribery railed against the unequal treatment meted out to them in
comparison with that enjoyed by their comrades. Their one year of
training was insufficient to make practical soldiers out of the raw
material submitted, and altogether it was a good thing for France
when the whole system was swept away, and, consistently with the
Republican principle, all citizens were regarded as equal under the
drill instructor. The _volontaire_ system was no more and no less than
favouritism on the part of the State.
It must not be overlooked that, although the initial period of service
in the French Army is compulsory, quite a large percentage of the
men remain in the Army of their own free will at the end of the two
compulsory years. For such as elect to make a career of the Army in
this fashion, there is a materially increased rate of pay, ranging
from an approximate equivalent of 8d. a day upwards, with a pension,
and usually with Government employment if desired, after only fifteen
years of service. These _re-engagés_ very seldom stay down in the
ranks, but form the chief source from which non-commissioned officers
are obtained. Kipling's phrase with regard to British non-commissioned
officers is equally applicable to the Army of the Republic, for the
non-commissioned officer is the backbone of the French Army just as
surely as the officer is its brains. The sergeant-major of a squadron,
or the French equivalent of a British infantry colour-sergeant in a
company, is the right hand of the captain commanding, adviser as well
as intermediary between officers and men. The sergeant in charge of
a _peloton_ or troop is not only the principal instructor with whom
the men of the troop have to deal, but is also counsellor and guide
to the young lieutenant who comes straight from a military school
to take up his commission, and needs experience of the ways of men
in addition to the theoretical knowledge he has already gained. The
corporal, who does not hold non-commissioned rank as in the British
Army, and counts his position as an appointment rather than a definite
promotion, forms a sort of go-between for men and sergeants, imparting
individual instruction to the men, and supervising their welfare in the
barrack room, while himself qualifying for the rank of sergeant. The
revolutionary proposal to abolish corporals in the French Army rose out
of an idea that men resented being governed by one who had formerly
been a comrade with them, but could no longer be so regarded after he
had assumed authority over them. It is to be hoped that the proposal
will never be acted on, for the principle of entrusting matters of
individual tuition and supervision to the old soldiers takes no account
of personal worth or fitness for command.
The life which the conscript must lead during his two years of service
is determined largely by the garrison to which he is drafted. Life in
a sunny and sleepy garrison town in the wine-growing district of the
south is--granted reasonable military conditions--quite ideal; the
monotony of the life spent in drill in a frontier fort tends to make
the conscript bad-tempered, while men stationed among the French hills
of the south and eastern frontiers gain most in the way of physical
fitness, and also, in their work of making new roads, clearing passes,
constructing frontier obstructions, ascertaining distances, and
carrying the heavy loads incidental to their work from point to point,
acquire a certain quality of mental celerity of which men stationed
in the sunny garrison towns of the south go free. But the various
attractions and drawbacks of the twenty great garrison towns, together
with their situation and special characteristics, are sufficient to
merit separate consideration.