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.
