CONTENTS PAGE Notes...................1. A Kipling Shrine—The Rev. Sir Henry Denny, Bart. . . 5 , Kipling and the Humble Folk of the World— Lieut.-Gen. Sir George MacMunn, k.c.b, k.c.s.i., d.s.o. 9 Uncollected Kipling Writings IV—Captain E. W. Martindell 15 More about H.M.S. Kipling—Francis McMurtrie . . 19 Answers to Kipling Questions...... 22 Our H.M.S. Kipling Fund Accounts..... 22 Rudyard Kipling and the British Army—Major R. H. Hughesdon 23 A Kipling Register of Shipping—T. E. ELWELL ... 27 " Song of an Outsider "—Colonel C. H. Milburn ... 30 A Kipling Study—B. M. Bazley...... 32 Letter Bag .......... 34 Reports from Branches . . . . . . . 36 THE KIPLING SOCIETY SALES DEPARTMENT Badges : Gold 15/- ,, Silver 3/6 Gilt 2/6 Postcards : Burwash or Kipling's Grave. 1d. each or 9d. per dozen. Kipling Pencils : 2d. each or 1/9 per dozen. Binders for Journal : 3/6 each. Christmas Cards, 1940: 5d. each, plus ½d. every three cards postage. 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Receipt No................... Indexed ..................... ii IMPORTANT NOTICE TO MEMBERS The Kipling Society's Annual Conference and Luncheon, arranged for June 19th in London, and the members' Meeting fixed for the preced- ing evening, have been cancelled owing to the war situation. CHARACTERS FROM THE JUNGLE BOOK illustrated in the cast lead plaque by Benno Elkan, which adorns the centre gable, south front, of the new Kipling Memorial Buildings at the Imperial Service College, Windsor. (Photo. by courtesy of THE PARTHENON) THE KIPLING JOURNAL published quarterly by THE KIPLING SOCIETY Vol. VII. No. 54. July, 1940. Notes THE EMPIRE'S STRAIN. IF Rudyard Kipling were alive to-day, we are fain to believe he would be proud of his countrymen, because of their buoy- ancy and fortitude in bearing the greatest strain, perhaps, ever im- posed upon a race. Above all men, he could testify that the ordeal was none of their seeking, for it was he who warned them of its coming, and sought to awaken and prepare them well in time. Shall their gratitude be in proportion to the value of the message, or the slowness with which it was received ? Fortunate- ly there is no means of assessing either quantity, so the query is vain, except as a measure of national self-reproach. Besides, from end to end of the Empire that Kipling loved and served, there is at present too much doing to allow time for abstract question- ings or party blame. OUR ALLY, FRANCE. Kipling himself would be the first to insist, by way of correction, that whatever may be said of the war-task and its gravity applies to France as well. From the days of boyhood, when his father gave him the run of that queenliest of cities, Paris, he was a chivalrous friend and champion of " France beloved of every soul that loves its fellow-kind." His reading of history and national character, like his downright sense of justice, went to confirm this advocacy and admiration of the French. The more he travelled about the earth, and pondered on its problems, the more he grew convinced that France was our destined ally and comrade in the all-important struggle be- tween good and evil, and in M. Reynaud's words "misfortune has always made France greater." THE YOUNGER SON. Apart from race and affinity, there were elements in Kipling that fitted him peculiarly to be the fore-runner and the prophet of a war like the present. He set the highest possible value on those qualities which British and French have always shared—valour and mettle, idealism and vision, a passion for humane ideas and tested principles. All his life he loathed beyond expression the sullen misanthropy, the degrading 2 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 cruelty of the Hun and the Slav. A first-hand study of three con- tinents taught him to appreciate the responsibility vested in one or two races as trustees for so many of the rest. Yet he had pre- eminently the spirit of the younger son, and it was this endowment of mind and soul rather than of pelf or privilege, that made him feel at home among the overseas Dominions, and rely on them with unerring foresight as willing and gallant and devoted helpers in our day of trial. DUST AND DIAMETERS. It is considerations like these that knock the bottom out of current attempts to assign Kipling his niche in the world's Valhalla. They certainly dispose of shallow verdicts like the one set down in all solemnity by one stereotyped reviewer, to the effect that " Kipling had not a mind of great diameter." Yard-stick generalisations like these are useful merely to make us realise one of the commonest symptoms of war-time, and this is the tendency among defective minds to obscure great issues with excess of fore- ground dust and detail. Shell- shock is not confined to the front, nor monotony of mind, either ; nor does age or place or enter- prise confer infallibility. WRITING THAT LIVES. We must all heartily sympathise with the special aviation corres- pondents who have been withdrawn from the western front because of the difficulty, it seems, of compassing the necessary know- ledge or conveying it to the public in a few brief words, so as to satisfy at once the censorship and the strategist who has an almost superhuman job in hand. There was only one man whose war-time dispatches by sea or land have stood the test of time and live as classic writing still, and this was Rudyard Kipling. Two of the contributions in this number of the Journal remind us of this association with ships, and one wonders if a selection from his naval and military and air dispatches during the last war would not make a stirring bit of patriotic propaganda to-day. H.M.S. KIPLING. And in this connection, it is gratifying to record the forging of a further link between H.M.S. Kipling and the Kipling Society, when on April 6th members of a deputation from the Council were entertained by the Captain and officers on board the destroyer. The occasion was the unveiling of the plaque of Rudyard Kipling (illustrated on our front cover) presented by the Society to H.M.S. Kipling, which now hangs in a place of honour in the ship's wardroom. After the unveiling ceremony, performed by Mr. J. H. C. Brooking the founder of the Society, the Captain and his officers July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 3 had reserved a delightful surprise, for they in turn presented to the Society a corresponding plaque in bronze of the ship's boat badge, in recognition of the association of the Society with H.M.S. Kipling, and the generous support its mem- bers gave the fund to provide war-time comforts for the ship's company. THE SHIP'S LIBRARY. In a charming speech, the Cap- tain referred to the gifts of Rudyard Kipling's works made to the ship's library by the late Mrs. Kipling and others. " At least two or three of these volumes," he said, " are in daily use." " In whatever part of the world the ship may be in harbour," the Captain added, " I hope that members of the Kipling Society living in the locality will get into touch with us, so that we may welcome them." Mr. R. E. Har- b or d, Vice- Chairman of the Council, and Sir Christopher Robinson, the Hon. Secretary, replied on behalf of the Society. Since that happy ceremony, H.M.S. Kipling has been en- gaged in stern work, and her Badge, now treasured at our A GIFT FROM H.M.S. KIPLING The Boat Badge in bronze, presented to the Kipling Society by the Captain and Officers of H.M.S. Kipling. central office in London, serves as a constant reminder to visiting members of the part she is play- ing in the present struggle. R.K. & R.M.S. QUEEN MARY. The little known association of Rudyard Kipling with the Queen Mary, the sister ship of the Queen Elizabeth, the fourth anniversary of whose maiden voyage was celebrated on May 27th, is recalled in the Londoner's Diary in the Evening Standard. " Sir Percy Bates was the creator of the Queen Mary," writes the Londoner, " but the man who egged him on was Rudyard Kipling. The two men were friends, and as a reward for his encouragement Kipling was asked to devise a Latin motto for the Queen Mary medal. After some deliberation he submitted a text, and Sir Percy, being a man of caution gave it to the late "Bobby" John- son, then Master of the Mint, to have it "vetted" by the best Latin scholars of the Civil Service." " INDIFFER- ENT" LATIN. "In due course the Master of the Mint deliv- ered his report. Whitehall ad- mitted the ap- propriateness of 4 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 the text, but considered the Latin indifferent. It recommended a simpler phrase : Maria Regina mari me commisit (Queen Mary committed me to the sea), and this motto was eventually selected. Sir Percy had, therefore, to write to Kipling to explain the situation. The next day he received the following postcard : " Do you suppose I was ass enough to try to compose a Latin motto of my own ? Tell your Whitehall pun- dits they'll find it in Horace's Odes. R.K." IDEAS WORTH ADOPTION. In preparing for press, it is not too much to say that every word which goes into the Journal is considered in the light of its appeal to far-distant readers, just as much as to those who dwell near at hand. That is why there is an appealing touch of nature in the news upon another page that one of our recent contributions was read out for discussion at a meeting of the Society's branch at Victoria B.C. Another feature in the same report that seems worth emulation and adoption is the practice of opening every meeting with a roll-call of the members, each of whom responds with a Kipling quotation which the rest trace to its source. Such a test of reading and memory may be a counsel of perfection for many a younger branch. Nevertheless, there must be some measure of satisfaction to the member whose citation eludes identification, and the game of challenging quotations like this has much to commend it, especially if a particular volume is made the happy hunting-ground for each occasion. THE BURNING TRUTH. Our good friend, Mr. B. M. Baz- ley, has sent to the Society's Library a four-page leaflet issued by the Royal Society of St. George, and nothing surely could be apter or timelier. It consists of a full tran- script of the speech that Kipling delivered at its annual banquet in 1935, when proposing the time- honoured toast, "England and the English." Naturally, it will not be found in the volume of his speeches entitled "A Book of Words," be- cause this had appeared seven years previously. Yet it is to be doubted if he ever delivered an address more replete with rallying patriotism, stinging irony, or characteristic eloquence than this quiet reminder of what the last war left unfinished, by way of evil legacy for the sequel we are waging now at such a fearful cost. Here, for instance, is a sen- tence or two typical of the rest— "The abiding springs of the English spirit are not of yesterday or the day before. They draw from the im- memorial continuity of the nation's life under its own Sovereigns. They are fed by a human relationship more in- timate and more far-reaching than any the world has ever known. They make part of a mystery as unpurchasable as it is incommunicable." July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 5 A Kipling Shrine By THE REV. SIR HENRY L. L. DENNY, BT, Rector and Vicar of Burwash. BATEMAN'S, which has now been dedicated by his widow to the memory of our " poet of Empire," is one of several de- lightful houses of much the same type and period in this part of East Sussex. The number of sub- stantial ancient houses which, in addition to a Rectory of about 1480, are to be seen in the picturesque village of Burwash itself bear wit- ness to the former prosperity of the place in the great days of the iron industry. The most remarkable of these houses, " Rampyndene," a gem of William and Mary architecture, was the residence of Kipling's close friend Col. Feilden. Many letters and drawings of the poet's are still preserved there. Of the early history of Bateman's little is known for certain. It is said to have been built by William Langham, who was buried Sept. 25th, 1652, after having been Churchwarden in 1636, and to have been completed or enlarged by John Britain, or Brittan, one of the local ironmasters, who was buried May 3rd, 1707. The date 1634 is on a stone over the door, but the writer was assured by BATEMAN'S: KIPLING'S HOME FOR THE NATION A stone house, with mullioned windows and brick chimneys, Bateman's appears to have been mainly built at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The estate, which has been left to the National Trust, is of about 300 acres, and the gardens were beautifully laid out with yew hedges and rose beds by Mrs Kipling. 6 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July 1940 Mrs. Kipling that there was archi- tectural evidence that part of the house is much earlier than that year. It formerly contained some " dogs," or " endirons," bearing the date 1585, which were removed by Mr. Stevenson, a former occu- pant, in 1873. It is said to have been called "Lane Bridge" until about 1760. The plan of the house was originally H shape, with a porch in the middle of the east side, but wings and some other additions were erected and some of them subsequently pulled down at later periods. There are some specially fine brick chimney-stacks. The porch on the east front is three-storied and gabled. Its round arch is within a frame of pilasters and cornice, a triangular pediment of reversed scrolls enclosing a circular recess with the date already men- tioned. There are gables at the ends of the south wing. Nearly all the windows, with moulded jambs and labels, are original. The hall and two of the principal rooms have panelling of about 1634 and ceiling beams and joists exposed. The three-flight stair- case has moulded and turned balusters and its hall is also panelled. Most of the first-floor doors and the fire places, five of them with fire-backs, are 17th century. In the grounds is a double oast- house of brick, probably built about 1730. At the bottom of the garden is the little Dudwell river. Skirting the river and the adjoining wood, by the remains of the forge " said to have been worked since the days of the Phoenicians ' ' and " a Fairy Ring," by that little corner " alive," said Kipling, "with ghosts and shadows," runs what is now an ill-defined track, leading towards where " Pook's Hill " rises to the west. It was in " the spacious days of great Eliza- beth " " The Gunway," along which were transported the cannon forged in Burwash to check the menace of Spain. One of the most delightful chapters in Kipling's autobiography is that in which he describes the finding of " The Very Own House " and " how patiently the cards were . . . dealt into my hands " in making it an ideal home. " We found," he says, " no shadow of ancient regrets, stifled miseries, nor any other menace, though the ' new ' end of her was three hundred years old." Kipling's residence at Bateman's was destined to shed an immortality on some places, people, houses and things in the vicinity, which he lifted from their native obscurity. " Pook's Hill " has already been referred to. In the south aisle of the ancient parish church of Burwash there is a bronze tablet " To the memory of John Kipling lieutenant second battalion Irish July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 7 Guards the only son of Rudyard and Caroline Kipling of Bateman's who fell at the battle of Loos the 27th of September 1915 aged eighteen years and six weeks : Qui ante diem periit." In the corner by the altar in this aisle is what is believed to be the most ancient known gravestone of Sussex iron. It bears the inscription, in raised Lombardic lettering of the early 14th century, " Orate P. Annema Jhone Colins." Of this only " P. Annema " can be clearly read. Hence the children's name "Pannema Corner," as des- cribed in " The Conversion of St. Wilfred " in Rewards and Fairies. Opposite the church and the War Memorial (in lighthouse form, which can be illuminated on anni- versaries of deaths, and bearing the large number of 61 names) is ' The Bell Inn,' its ancientry much belied by its present ex- terior. Here, we read in Hal o' the Draft, Ticehurst Will and other gun-runners " wagged their sinful heads over their cups of ale " in rooms, with great oak ceiling-beams, which still " smell of antiquity." RUDYARD KIPLING'S STUDY at Bateman's. In leaving the property, and much furniture, Mrs Kipling expressed the wish that her husband's study, seen in this picture, should be left in its present state. The furniture is mostly of oak. Photo. The Times. Copyright 8 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 The old mill by Dudwell Bridge is described in the same work, and it appears in " Below the Mill " in Traffics and Discoveries and in several of the Puck stories. 'The Bear Inn,' in the High Street, has a special " Kipling Room." In the second quarter of the 18th century Pevensey Bay was much favoured by smugglers, and Burwash, which lay right in their line of communication inland, was much linked up with them. Their road lay, it is said, beside the present Rectory and the inn named after Admiral Vernon, who became a national hero after his taking of Porto Bello in 1739. Traditions of use for smuggling activities attach to several of the ancient houses in the village, which have large cellars. The Bell Inn, al- ready mentioned, is said to have been a favourite house of call with " the gentlemen." There is a strong tradition that they used for storage purposes a vault beneath one of the old tombstones (carved with a most repulsive skull and cross-bones) in the churchyard and that from it an underground passage ran in the direction of Bateman's, at times one of their headquarters. It is more than probable that these local traditions inspired Kipling's Smugglers' Song of the " Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark ... Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by !" The Land is a poem which enshrines Kipling's vision of the continuity of English rural life through the centuries. There is every reason to believe that its hero, " Old Mus' Hobden," was no imaginary figure, but an actual member of an existing Burwash family, now cottagers but once wealthy iron-masters and land- owners (" the land the Law calls mine ") who recorded their pedi- gree and arms at the Heralds' Visitations of Sussex in 1634 and 1662 and whose " names were old in history when Domesday Book was made." The writer has published recently, in the Burwash Parish Magazine, an out- line of the quite remarkable descent of this family, the Hepdens, from Saxon times downwards. Careful search would doubtless lead to the discovery of further local allusions in Kipling's works. But those which have been mention- ed here will suffice to stress the appropriateness of the bequest of his home, the "one spot," "be- loved over all," as a national shrine of the poet, as well as to show the actual provenance of much that is familiar to English and English- speaking admirers of his genius all the world over. (Copyright) July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 9 Kipling and the Humble Folk of the World by LIEUT. GENERAL SIR GEORGE MacMUNN, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., D.S.O. [The following address was given at a meeting of the Kipling Society in London on 27th March, 1940.] THIS talk of mine this after- noon, must be something of an ersatz talk, for I think I have exhausted most of the topics for which Kipling, to me, has special charm and interest. I was, however, at our Council meeting the other day when the question was raised of how some goose has asked ' Was Kipling a Socialist ? ' ; and then again I was talking to a chatty lady not long ago who remarked lighthearted- ly that she had been very surprised when someone had told her that there had always been a humble and put-upon folk in the world. That had greatly surprised her, as she thought all that was the invention of the capitalist in modern times! That is a good instance of how propaganda leaves its poison trail, but the two remarks together suggested to me that ' Kipling and the humble folk of the World ' would perhaps make an interesting talk. Now we all know that Kipling was the very reverse of a Socialist, in the 'Lenin-Stalin-herrings-heads- in-hot-water-for-workers ' senses of the word and the 'well-to-do- slaughtered - at - their-breakfast - tables ' sort of régime of Bolshevism and Russet Reds. But Socialism is a very big wide word, and we are all socialists in the same sense that we welcome uplift and pros- perity for all, as fast as that can be done without destroying all credit, on which alone daily bread depends. Kipling is full of stones and verses in admiration and praise of the world's humble folk, always conscious of their sacrifice, merits, and devotion to duty. But let me, before I explore that further, turn for the moment to the remark of my chatty lady friend, that the world had always been full of humble people. Let us look at the story of these Islands and also of India. Here in Britain, the tin islands, wave after wave of fierce pirate races have invaded these lands, conquering, massacring the resisters, enslaving, enserfing, en-concubin- ing the remainder. We have had probably Iberian and Neolithic folks, and the people who were and are the Picts,—there are still plenty of Picts. There were the Gael or Goedels who subdued the Picts and drove them North and West, there were the Brythons, 10 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 the Welsh, who drove Gaels in their turn North and West too, enslaving, enserfing and retaining in the same position the serfs of those they ousted. When mighty Rome came, she came to rule and organise and not to enserf, but when she left the land bare to the Saxons, the same old process went on. I live on the edge of the Weald in East Sussex ; there among the Weald villages I rarely see the Saxon type save the farmers. The people are small and dark, the Saxons who are prominent enough in West Sussex are not to be seen much in the Weald, where the Celtic blood remains. In India those millions of untouchable people are the remnants of the crushed earlier races, enserfed from all time. The remark of my chatty lady was of course right because as a result of the impingement of stronger folk on weaker folk, there have been enserfed races for thousands of years. The result of such a state of affairs can be remedied but slowly. That this is so, Kipling, the realist, soon recognises and devotes much of his work to telling of the great worth and devotion of these humble people. " Thy peo- ple Lord ! Thy people ! are good enough for me." They and their outlook entrance him. " God's Chillun all got wings," Harijans that old cup of tea Gandhi calls them, for Harijans means " God's child- ren," The only note that Kipling ever struck which showed a leaning to the Socialism of the platform variety was written in 1900 in The Wage Slaves, written when there had been some glaring trans- fer of big works, say from the Tyne to the Clyde, for some reason of company fusion rather than of Economics, and one set of workers had been left to starve thereby. Kipling voiced the popu- lar indignation. But even if he felt the urge of Utopian schemes of betterment, his judgment knew that the Harijans could not be brought up at once, and all en masse, or the world's old system would crash. But in The Wage Slaves he lashes the view that was dying even forty years ago, viz., that welfare of operatives was not almost the first charge on industry. He girds at the captains of Industry :— " Oh glorious are the guarded heights Where guardian souls abide An ampler arc their spirit swings— Commands a juster view— We have their word for all these things, No doubt their words are true." and then his sympathy wells for " The men who merely do the work For which they draw the wage Beneath the sun we count on none Our evil to assuage, Except the men that do the work For which they draw the wage. Each in his place, by right, not grace, Shall rule his heritage— The men who simply do the work For which they draw the wage. That is his only venture into 1 July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 11 this train of thought. Both realist as well as idealist, he sees the world as, up to now, since time began, it has been, with the teaming sons of older races, whose hearts are all gold, in doing the world's work, and whose status can be slowly improved and never quite remedied. " If you be Queen and I be Queen, who will bang the butter ? " which is an old Punjabi saying. He recognises this in The Sons of Martha, which is not a reference to the clever ones who do no work that others will do for them, so much as to this ancient law. " The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part; " But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart. " And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord, her Guest, Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest." " It is their care to embark and entrain, Tally transport and deliver duly Sons of Mary by land and main." and then comes the little sarcasm on Mary's sons. " They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and— the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!" Happily with the modern world the sons of Martha may climb and they will. By the bye, let me here mention the mis quotation of those who say that religion tends to keep folk down, claiming that the Catechism makes for stagnation and slavery by directing the Church's sons to "do my duty in that state of life to which God has called me." But the real quo- tation is " Unto which it shall please God to call me " so that the Sons of Martha, as they do by the thousand, may join the Sons of Mary, rise to any height, and perhaps think less of their com- rades than the Sons of Mary do. Anyway, that was Kipling's view. Always he devotes himself to the admirable qualities of the world's humble folk. He deals with it fully in the long-ago story " His Chance in Life" when the spark comes for a few minutes to one Michele D'Cruze for memory of his tubby dusky sweetheart, to the most recent stories of the World War. The Three Musketeers were all gold, even Mulvaney " who had been a corporal wanst," Dinah Shad and old Pummeloe, Gunga Din, The Bushman's Daughter and the faithful Indian Postman or dak-runner, of outcaste race, carrying the mails of the Empress. " Up, up, through the night goes the Overland Mail, Fly the soft-sandalled feet, strains the brawny, brown chest, In the name of the Empress, the Overland mail !" In his inimitable descriptions of old England's feudal ways we have old Hobden, the pre-Saxon wood- man, who in reality has held the land for ever. " 1 can fish but Hobden tickles, I can shoot but Hobden wires . . . Whoever pays the taxes Old Mus' Hobden owns the land." Humble but not downtrodden they 12 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 " Blythe to turn at their pleasure . . . bitter to Cross in their mood And set on the path of their choosing . . As the hogs on Andreads wood." Yes, Kipling loved the ways of the simple folk, and as he moves from East to West, from The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows, or the sad story of little Muhammed Din, goes straight into slum heroes in his astounding Record of Badalia Herodsfoot. Then you will remem- ber the story of the old conquered races that we learn on the Wall, the Picts, and their Irish kinsfolk, the Scots, free of Celtic blood and inhabiting Western Scotland to this day. How Rome treats them all, A Pict Song tells us : " Rome never looks where she treads Always her heavy hooves fall, On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads ; And Rome never heeds when we bawl. But in recognition of the long history that lies behind the world's workers, Kipling voices also their own feelings towards one of their own kind who may rise before he has learnt. In a Servant When He Reigneth The nearest mob will move him To break the pledge he gave— Oh a Servant when He Reigneth Is more than ever slave! Though that phase of ' the jumped-up-one ' is passing fast with education and character build- ing. Those verses that have been so wickedly perverted by the ill- informed and inferiority complex- motived writer, The White Man's Burden, visualises surely what the raising of backward races, victims of centuries of slave-raiding means. As a matter of fact the verses were written when Westerners, of little knowledge, had been peculiarly ill-judged in her criticism of our Indian edifice, and then took on that haunt of misrule the Philippines, and were going to hold the baby themselves, instead of yapping at others. They were allowed to manage and help " On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child." and they would now know what it meant. The Song of the Women stamps in another way his understanding of the Indian life—the mass of the people who are neither Hindu nor Moslem, but worship nature and devils wildly, and to whom medical assistance fifty years ago was almost unattainable. " By Life that ebbed with none to staunch the failing, By Love's sad harvest garnered ere the spring, When Love in Ignorance wept unavailing O'er young buds dead before their blossoming." Then there is that other ap- preciation of one sad aspect of the world's small pots. It comes in The Liner, She's a Lady, when the great liner passing the tramp is compared to the great and small fraternity of the sidewalk. " Plyin' up an' down, Jenny, 'angin' round the Yard, All the way by Fratton tram down to Portsmouth 'Ard." July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 13 I have travelled a little from my subject in my endeavour to show how deep has been Kipling's sympathy in good and evil, in shame and in service, for all that mysterious leaven in the world, that is roughed together in the phrase " The Lower Orders," the descendants of conquered races re-inforced by those fallen from among the conquering races, and how he recognises the hitherto permanence of the condition. In that great country of Freedom, in the New World, it is as marked a condition, if more changeable, than in the Old World, proving how true were the words of my lady friend aforesaid, who had ' discovered ' that there had always been these inequalities and how fallacious in general application are the lines :— " When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then the gentleman ?" It is to show how worthy are the world's workers that Kipling wrote so many of his stories and verses. Discussion IN the discussion which followed Sir George MacMunn's address the question of Kipling as a " Social- ist " was debated. Mr. R. E. Harbord said that this epithet was first applied to Kipling by Mr. Gerard Fox who attributed to him socialist views. Although this word was not meant in its strictly political sense, it had led some people to believe that Kipling was in fact a Socialist, which was nonsense. Mr. Brougham referred to Thack- eray's "Newcomes," in which Colonel Newcome, as a candidate for Par- liament stood as a Conservative, but had always been a Liberal. In the same way Kipling, who was a Conservative, was said to be a Socialist merely because of his sympathy with the working classes. Mr. B. M. Bazley thought that Kipling was not at all in sympathy with Socialist politics, though he had always champ- ioned the underdog, in all walks of life. (cf. M'Andrew's Hymn). Mr. Griffin said he thought that the Wish House might well have been bracketed with Badalia Herods- foot as an illustration. He agreed that the Sons of Martha was a notable example of Kipling's sympathy with the underdog, but he suggested that here, especially, it was those who were underdogs by vocation and temperament, rather than by accident of birth, who were referred to. He had always felt convinced that Kipling had engineers chiefly in mind when writing these verses. The correct pronunciation of the word " Mulvaney " was a point raised by Miss Marks. The word should, she thought, be pronounced " Mulvar- ney " and not " Mulvainey." In reply to a question as to the progress of the " Hundred Best Poems," Mr. J. H. C. Brooking referred to the volume recently published by Messrs. Methuen at 2/6d., "Sixty Poems by Rudyard Kipling." This he said, approached very nearly to what the Society had in mind, but not quite. He added that the same publishers proposed to produce a book on the lines suggested by Sir George MacMunn in his paper on " Kipling's Prophecies " which would consist chiefly of war poems. Replying to Lady Cunynghame, who welcomed Major-General Dunsterville at the Meeting, the President observed that Kipling was of no use as an author of bed-time books, as he always kept him awake ! " Quiet, and count our laden prey, The convoy and her guard ! " " The Destroyers " This is a reproduction of the illustration in The Kipling Society's 1940 Christmas Card which is beautifully finished in 4 colours Members, and particularly overseas members and Branch Secretaries, are requested to order very early this year on account of the postal delays due to the War. Price: 5d each plus ½d postage on every three cards. Each card is enclosed in an envelope ready for posting. Orders should be addressed to the Kipling Society, 45, Gower Street, London, W.C.1. 14 July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 15 Uncollected Kipling Writings. IV Although Kipling himself was no Fred Archer he had an intimate knowledge of sporting terms. [ This is the fourth of the articles on Kipling's uncollected writings, con- tributed by Capt. E. W. Martindell] THE late Mr. E. Kay Robinson recorded in an article on Kipling in India that a sport- ing " vet ", who had lived in the pigskin all his life, used to go wandering about the Lahore Club asking people ' Where does the youngster (Kipling) pick it all up ? ' as Kipling showed such an intimate knowledge of sporting terms, though he himself was no Fred Archer nor Jorrocks. The following poem appeared in 1885 in " The Quartette," entitled " At the Distance." " 5th Race. Lad- ies' Nomination. For all bona-fide polo ponies, owners up, 13.2 to carry 10.7 ; 4 lbs. allowed for every ¼ inch under. Distance, ¾ mile on the flat. Prize a gold locket."— Any Gymkhana Prospectus : Green, on Jezebel, g.c.b.m., 13.2, to himself excitedly :— Can she stay ? Here's the chestnut behind us—he's trying to pass to the right, And I daren't pull her out from the railings ! Daren't touch her ! Can only sit tight, Hands low on the withers, head forward, and watch with the tail of my eye The chestnut's blue brow-band creep nearer. By Jove ! How the beggar can fly ! He's fit to the minute—I know it—and Jezebel's not running steady. (And I want the gold locket for Kitty) I fancy she tires already. There's his fiddle-head up to our throat-latch. I can't suffer longer.— Here goes ! One welt for you, close to the girth, dear ! You won't shut up now, I suppose ? You will ! Swaine and Adeney, help me ! Another—and over my boot The chestnut's red nostrils are snorting. I wish I could shake off the brute I If only old Brown wasn't on him—he gives me three good on the flat— But I'm racing for love and for Kitty, and don't care two pice for my tat, If cat-gut and spurring can do it we're landed. Go on then you jade ! Go on if I cut you to ribbons ! No good ! Her bolt's shot I'm afraid. Where the deuce have we got to ?—I'm blinded and dusty and sweating and done, With a mouth like the roof of a lime-kiln —who's shouting behind us ? I've won ! Queer—Brown dying off at the finish— his chestnut's the best of the two— Suppose 'twas my riding that did it— I squeezed the last ounce from my screw. She's strained a back-sinew, I'm certain! Poor beast, how I've cut her! Who cares ? I've won the gold locket for Kitty. Who-a-up, then, you sweetest of mares ! Brown. Confidentially to his mount, Robin, ch.c.b.p., 13.2 :— I can romp in alone when I please. I can leave him behind when I will. I could give him a furlong with ease ; and I'm three times his equal in skill ! But I'm rolling about in my seat. (They'll think that I'm out o' my wits) And I'm working my hands and my feet like a Cabuli dealer in fits. No, Robin, you mustn't get nearer. This wasn't our form I admit, When we fluttered the dovecots at Dehra, and won by two lengths and a bit. I don't care a rap how it goes. His heart is one stake in the race, (Miss Black's in the Stand I suppose) and he'd slaughter his mare for a place. 16 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 I'll save the old screw all I can, though my arms are nigh wrenched from their socket— Was ever a race since Gymkhanas began yet " pulled " for the sake of a locket ? Well, I've got a wife of my own, and I rode for her once in our wooing With a man who could give me a stone, and who—did pretty much what I'm doing. Come back, Bob ! You're pulling like sin ! (Poor tat, how he's making her bleed !) Come back !—It's an eight-anna "spin," to be finished at twelve-anna speed. You leather-mouthed son of a caster ! I daren't pull you more than I've done ! My faith ! but we'd very near passed her—-All right ! Go ahead then ! He's won. You know your own business too well, Sir ! Put it all down to wicked Miss Black ! I ran to lose. Don't you tell, Sir! He's ruined a second-rate hack. So far as is known that is the only horse race depicted in verse by Kip- ling. Another poem about horses concerns the tragedy of ' King Solo- mon's Horses,' and is in a very differ- ent vein. It appeared in The Cal- cutta Review of July, 1886. ' When the horses standing on three feet and touching the ground with the edge of the fourth foot, swift in the course, were set in parade before him, King Solomon in the evening said :— " Verily I have loved the love of earthly goods above the remembrance of my Lord : and I have spent the time in viewing these horses till the sun is hidden by the veil of night. Bring the horses back unto me." And when they were brought back, he began to cut off their legs and their necks.—Al Karam.' The black Egyptian coursers of the sands, Grey stallions from the North, the beasts I love, Red-nostrilled, river-maned, I slew them all As a child smites in anger. Oh ! wise King ! And foolish past the folly of fools. Not anger wholly. Hiram at the gate Reined in his chariot crying :—" Let them go," And I, because I knew the minds of men, Who cannot rule my own, bade strike afresh. Assured the fame of such a sacrifice Would spread to Tyre and the isles beyond. My "honour and not God's I sought herein— My honour and men's wonder. Who but I Dare slay a thousand horses of the best, As Hiram slays his score of starveling goats To Ashtaroth ? What sin was theirs who lie Gaunt carcasses beneath the moonlight —speed, Strength, and the glorious beauty of their kind ; The thunder of the storm was in their feet ; The lightning of the storm was in their eyes ; The power of ten thousand men was theirs ! And one old man, chafed at his own neglect, Has taken strength and beauty, speed and power. Yea, they fought well. My reeking spearmen ran Thrice from their furious onset, when we penned The flying hundreds in the Palace Porch, And I had slain the fairest steed of all— The great grey stallion with the iron mane. I chose him for my chariot ere the dusk Fell and my wisdom left me. Mild was he ; Kingly as I have been. He bowed his neck To the sharp point and stumbled at my feet, Still kingly, pleading with great liquid eyes, And died in silence. Then I saw ray sin But dare not stay the slaughter. Hiram's eye Alight with wonder at the gate forbade ; July 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 17 And some old lust of bloodshed spurred me on. Wherefore I loosed my spearmen, till the Porch Filled with the tumult of the flying steeds, The screams of men and horses, kicks and blows ; The sharp, quick bubble of the stabbing spears ; Fall of great hoofs that plashed in pools of blood And the low gurgle of the dying. Last, Out of the press a red horse reared himself Black with the sweat of horror, white with foam. (Accursed be my knowledge of brute speech !) Crying :—" What sin is ours that we die, My brother ? " Then I would have stayed the spears, But that none heard me till the last was slain ; And I was left alone among the dead— The raw, sick smell of blood upon the air— And Hiram's voice across the silent court, Crying :— " All honour to King Solomon ! " All honour to the wisdom of the King ! Wrath and mad lust for honour— honour these ! Small profit unto God the sacrifice ; And to myself the gain of ray own scorn. All honour to the wisdom of the King ! The grey was beautiful above his kind, And Hiram's fleet has sailed, nor brings again Another steed as fair .... Oh ! most wise King ! Our friend Pagett M.P. or his double turns up again in " The Burden of Nineveh," which appeared in the Civil & Military Gazette of June 6th, 1888. " It was the Patient East, but not quite as Arnold has painted her. She was thinking, it is true, but there was no dignity in her attire. In the first place, they had given her a beautiful British check-pattern shawl to hide the shoulders that had driven mad Alexander and one or two other gentlemen with armies and aspirations. In the second, they had put a mortar-board atilt on her dark hair, but through some little error it was hind-side before, and the deep part was scratching her nose .... Al- together, the Patient East did not look her best." When the British M.P. found her there with a bundle of Educational Primers at her feet he was very pleased and addressed her as follows. '' We are advancing madam ! We are advancing . . . Be-autiful. In another year or two, my dear madam, we shall be in words of three syllables ; and ere long, I see no reason why we should not arrive at stand-pipes in all the main thoroughfares, coffee-shops, omnibuses, local- option and—and all the refinements of civilisation, including a complete dress of Liberty's fabrics. You shall walk, my dear lady . . . down Westbourne Grove exactly—- er-hum—like One of Us ; and I'll introduce you to my wife who will, I am sure, be delighted to make your acquaintance. My wife takes a great interest—ah-hum— in the heathen." " How kind of her ! " said the Patient East without a smile ; and her thoughts wandered away to some other wives that she had known. "Is it not ? " said the M.P. blandly——" But then she is a Vicar's daughter of Enlarged Sympathies. Still, I think, she 18 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 would not quite approve of your walking about—pardon my saying so—barefoot." " What is the mat- ter with my feet ? " said the Patient East putting out a shapely gold-ankletted foot that had been set on the neck of some few not altogether undistinguished persons. " Well," said the M.P. " I observe that you adhere to that poetical, but still barbarous, custom of dyeing the soles. Lac dye is it not ? ' The Patient East smiled inscrut- ably . . . The M.P. then went on to suggest that she removed the dye as his wife wouldn't like it. " I'm sorry for that," said the Patient East gravely. " Is there anything else ? " The M.P. next expressed regret at the amount of intoxicating liquids drunk in the East. "Ah," said the Patient East with a queer look in her eye, " I have drunk strange drinks in my time—very strange liquors." The M.P. then rummaged in a bag and pulled out a handful of books and enquired why she let these things lie about the bookstalls. The Patient East turned over a few pages of some of these books— they were bad Yank translations of Zola's novels. " Aren't they dreadful ? " said the M.P. " My wife says so." The Patient East only burst into mirthless laughter, then threw the books from her and laughed anew. " Shocking deprav- ity ! " murmured the M.P. " And you bring your penny-farthing suggestiveness to me ! " said the Patient East ..." Before your ancestors knew what woad was, my Zolas ". . . " Oh this is posi- tively awful ! What shall I tell them at home ? " said the M.P. " No it is not shocking," said the Patient East. "It is you who are so young—ah so young ! When you go home tell them that you have seen me wearing their shawls and mortar-board gracefully. They will believe you. Tell them too. ." She broke off suddenly, for the day was dawning, and there beat up to the stale hot sky the noise of her servants going to work. They filed past to the tramp of booted feet, the ring of spurs, the rattle of horse-hooves and tum-tums, the thunder of railway trains, the chipping of gravestones, the bubbling of camels, the cries of the children, who were suffering from prickly heat and the wails of the mothers, who watched their babies dying in lonely out-stations— one by one swaggered, galloped, crept or crawled her captains, councillors, administrators, planters and merchants : and each as he passed her throne said briefly— for he had no time to waste— " Ave Imperatrix ! Te morituri salutant ! " But in the M.P's ears it sounded like " Humph ! Another beastly hot day to pull through." The Patient East point- ed to the crowd. " Tell them that," she said simply " and don't bother." E. W. M, July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 19 More About H.MS. Kipling by FRANCIS McMURTRIE [On an earlier page, we refer to the close and happy association of our Society with H.M.S. Kip- ling. The following article is con- tributed by the editor of "Jane's Fighting Ships," who is also Naval Correspondent of the " Daily Tele- graph " and a member of the Kipling Society.'] I HAVE been asked to supple- ment our Secretary's most interesting account of his war- time visit to H.M.S. Kipling (vide the April issue of the Journal) with some particulars of the ship herself, to the publication of which the censorship offers no objection. Had a suitable photograph been available, this might have been given as an illustration. Instead, the builders have very kindly allowed me to use the accompanying picture of H.M.S. Jupiter, the Kipling's, sister ship, which is of identical appearance. To distin- guish between them, it should be noted that, in common with other destroyers, each has her " pendant number " painted on either side, level with the bridge. In the case of the Jupiter, it will be observ- ed that the number is F 85, while that of the Kipling is F 91. Other- wise the two destroyers are in- distinguishable. The two white bands around the funnel are an in- dication of the flotilla to which the ship belongs. The construction of the Kipling was authorised under the 1937 programme, her cost being estimated at a total sum of £500,632. This expenditure is analysed as follows in the Navy Estimates for 1939. Dockyard work : Labour £5,000; Materials, £15,700. Contract work: Hull, £181,248; Machinery, £220,562 ; Gun- mountings, £73,200. Oncosts and services, £4,922. As already recorded in the Journal, the ship was laid down on October 20th, 1937, the eve of the 132nd anniversary of Trafalgar, and launched on January 19th, 1939. Her completion very nearly coincided with the outbreak of war. Her builders, Messrs. Yarrow &: Co., Ltd., received the contract for the first destroyers ever built. These were the Havock and Hornet, ordered by the Admiralty in 1892. The former name, it should be noted, has nothing whatever to do with havoc, but is the English version of the Dutch word " Havik " (meaning Hawk), a ship of which name was captured in 1796. Since that date a great many more destroyers have been built by the firm for the British and foreign Navies. The Havock and Hornet were vessels of 240 tons displacement, insignificant in comparison with the Kipling's " standard " dis- placement of 1690 tons. Nothing, indeed, has been more striking 20 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 than the growth of the destroyer, especially in recent years. The Kipling is altogether surpassed in size by the latest British design, for the destroyers of the Lightning class, now under construction, are to displace from 1920 to 1935 tons ; while the French Navy's biggest destroyer is of 2884 tons. Such ships as these would have been classed as cruisers 40 years ago. Standard displacement, it should be explained, is the method now adopted almost universally for com- puting the size of warships. It represents the displacement of the ship complete, fully manned, engined, and equipped ready for sea, including all armament and ammunition, equipment, outfit, provisions and fresh water for crew, miscellaneous stores and implements of every description that are intended to be carried in war, but without fuel or reserve feed water on board. Dimensions of the Kipling are : length, 348 feet ; beam, 35 feet ; and mean draught, 9 feet. Her complement in peace-time numbers 183 officers and men, and her armament comprises six 4.7 inch and as many smaller guns, with ten 21-inch torpedo tubes. Like most modern warships, she is propelled by Parsons geared tur- bines, steam for which is supplied by two high pressure water tube boilers of the Admiralty 3-drum type. Her designed shaft horse power is 40,000, equal to a speed of 36 knots. As will be seen on examination of the photograph, the 4.7-inch guns are mounted in pairs, four forward and two aft. Each pair of guns is shielded by a steel splinter-proof gunhouse. The tor- pedo tubes are arranged in two groups of five, on deck amidships. At one time torpedo tubes in destroyers were always mounted in pairs. Towards the end of the last war triple groups became H.M.S. JUPITER, SISTER SHIP TO H.M.S. KIPLING. The two destroyers are indistinguishable, except for their numbers. July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 21 the fashion, and in the Acasta class, completed in 1930, quadruple mounts were introduced. The first destroyer to be given quintuple mounts was H.M.S. Glowworm, completed in January 1936, and sunk in action against a greatly superior force on April 8th. Such information as I have been able to gather from friends afloat conveys the impression that the destroyers of the class to which THE DAILY ORDERS OF THE SHIP which contain, each day, a quotation from the works of Rudyard Kipling. This is a reproduction of the Orders for a Sunday. Details regarding the ship's position, the date, and the names of officers and ratings concerned are erased for obvious reasons. 22 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 the Kipling belongs have proved most successful in service. One of them, H.M.S. Kimberley, took part in the battle of Narvik on April 13th, proceeding right up the Rombaks Fjord, into which long inlet the last three survivors of the German destroyer flotilla were chased before they met their end. Whenever the occasion arises, there is no doubt H.M.S. Kipling will acquit herself with equal distinction. Our H.M.S. Kipling Fund WE thank the many members of the Society who have so gener- ously contributed money and gifts to this fund, of which the follow- ing are the accounts to date. Money contributions have been spent upon dart boards and equipment, football jerseys, shorts, stockings and wool. As pre- viously mentioned in the Journal, pre- sentations to the Ward Room include a silver cigarette box and ash-trays en- graved with the ship's crest and an in- scription " Presented by the Kipling Society." The knitting of garments undertaken by lady members has been very greatly appreciated. Balance from 1939 £ . 17 s. 17 d. 6 Appeal circulars and postage Subscriptions for January 1940 . 51 13 7 Cigarette Box ,, ,, February ,, . 31 15 9 Football kit, etc. ,, ,, March „ . 22 1 4 Silver ash trays ,, ,, April ,, 3 3 0 Dart boards, etc. ,, May ,, 2 0 0 Wool for knitting Carriage on heavy stuff Percolators, tankards, etc Inclusive Verse Stationery, etc. Postages 4 months Balance in hand £128 11 2 £ 1 s. 15 d 0 6 5 0 20 0 0 11 2 0 8 7 6 2 11 0 15 0 23 3 4 18 9 1 1 S 1 2 10 51 9 4 £128 11 2 Answers to Kipling Questions IN our last issue (No. 53, April 1940, page 18) we published a list of ten Kipling questions, with the offer of a prize of Kipling interest to the com- petitor whose correct solution of them all reached us by May 30th. In spite of the special knowledge of Kipling's works possessed by our mem- bers only one entry has been received, which though admirable as an attempt to provide the answers, did not in fact complete the list. This leads us to be- lieve that the questions were more than ordinarily difficult. Here are the answers :— 1. (i) The Maharaja Kanwar, Crown Prince of Judhpur in Letters of Marque, (ii) The Maltese Cat in The Maltese Cat, (iii) Ham in Ham and the Porcupine. 2. Letters of Mark. Ch. VIII. 3. Kim to Mahbub Ali in Kim. Ch. VIII. 4. (a) The Tomb of His Ancestors. (b) False Dawn. (c) An Habitation Enforced. (d) Teem, a Treasure Hunter. 5. A Walking Delegate in The Day's Work. 6. " Cleared "—Something of Myself, p. 83. 7. It was not written by Kipling though attri- buted to him, when it appeared, during the Great War, in The Times. Something of Myself, p. 224. 8. (i) Souvenirs of France. (ii) His Apologies in Thy Servant a Dog. (iii) The Winners. (iv) To the Companions, Horace Bk. V. Ode 17. (v) The Masque of Plenty. (vi) On the City Wall. (vii) England and the English in a Book of Words. 9. (i) Henry Augustus Ramsay Faizanne a sub- altern in His Wedded Wife and also in In the Pride of His Youth 'The Worm' is referred to as being mentioned in a previous story, viz. His Wedded Wife, (ii ) Governess in His Majesty the King. (iii) Chief in The Man Who Would Be King. (iv) The first sailor in A Book of Words. (v) Head trek- ker in Toomai of the Elephants. (vi) Kip- ling's dog in Her Majesty's Servants, My Lord the Elephant, Garm, a Hostage and Home. (vii) The sow in Beauty Spots. (viii) Private Copper took this name in The Com- prehension of Private Copper. (ix) A war correspondent in The Light That Failed. (x) The Tailor Bird in Rikki-tikki-tavi. 10. " The Tragedy of Love and Death" in The Calcutta Review, June 1886, July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 23 Rudyard Kipling and the British Army The first portion of an Address by Major R. H. Hughesdon, M.C. to the Cape Town Branch of the Kipling Society. THE British Army has had its historians. There are official documents from which the stu- dent of arms today can study tactics and strategy. Great poets have written for us stirring verses about the soldier, and the nobility and sac- rifice of his calling, that will live, I hope, for all time. But when it comes to writing about the man in the ranks, telling the civilian how he lived, what he thought about his own regimental affairs, and his view on things in general, Kipling has had no equal. He has left us an immensely valuable collection of story and verse, in language that the men he writes about can under- stand and appreciate. The Great War generation has given us some splendid stories and verses of that upheaval. Rupert Brooke's " The Soldier " and Sher- riff's "Journey's End" can never be forgotten, but they account for a different period. To those who fought in the Great War I would suggest that a great deal of the sterling quality of the " Old Con- temptibles" and the great National Army that followed them in I914- 18 was fostered by the good offices of Rudyard Kipling. Many a civilian joining the Army in 1914, having read his Kipling, would have as a result, some knowledge of the sort of life to expect. If he joined as an officer he would have some knowledge of the men he would have to lead. That same good value applies today and is available to all who care to make the study . . . I cannot find any expression of a desire on Kipling's part to become a soldier. It is supposed that his eyesight would have ruled out any possibility. But there is no doubt that the United Services College at Westward Ho, where some 75 per cent. of the boys were the sons of officers, and destined for the Army themselves, would have left its impressions. His first real contacts came, still at an impressionable age, for he was not quite 17, when he joined the Civil and Military Gazette, in Lahore, and no doubt looked upon the regiments stationed there as good for " copy." He would report their comings and goings, their games, social functions and in fact get to know as much about them as they knew about themselves. I say this because I feel sure that a number of his early stories must have been founded on facts which could only have come from a mutual respect and good will. The Army, including Thos. Atkins, is not easy to get to know, and I often wonder just really how Kipling managed to acquire that vast knowledge of all ranks. It is knowledge that would have made 24 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 him a very valuable officer and leader, but " the pen is mightier than the sword " and so he set out to serve the British Army in his own way. I will endeavour to tell you how he did it. Arriving in India in 1882 he found things going on which perhaps came as a shock to him. He mentions the North- umberland Fusiliers and the Sur- reys as regiments he became very fond of, and as he got to know them he began to realise the dreadful conditions under which they served. I don't think the discipline was particularly hard or brutal in those days, but barrack conditions were undoubtedly bad. There wasn't much attention paid to the men's food, amenities and welfare. The private soldier of today is a " spoilt child " when his lot is compared to the conditions under which poor Private Mulvaney had to serve. There is no doubt that Kipling felt all this rather keenly, and he tells us that " It was the proudest moment of my young life when I rode up Simla Mall beside Lord R. on his usual explosive Arab, whilst he asked me what the men thought of their accommodation, entertain- ment rooms and the like. I told him, and he thanked me as gravely as though I had been a full Colonel." The great man, for Lord R. was then C-I-C in India, had evidently been reading some of Kipling's stories in the Civil and Military Gazette, and realised that here was someone who knew his subject. It is a great tribute that Kipling pays to " Bobs Bahadur " when he records the sympathetic hearing he received as a youngster. Who knows that it was not that little encouragement that decided Kip- ling on making further efforts on behalf of his soldier friends ! These early stories I have just referred to were " Plain Tales from the Hills " and were written about 1887. They were afterwards published in book form. He tells us he sold them for £50. You know them as a mixture of stories of life in India in those days, but with an accuracy of detail that in the ones relative to the Army, reveals a wonderful understanding of Thomas Atkins, and service life in general.... They introduce those three great characters and likeable scoundrels, Privates Mulvaney, Ortheris, and Learoyd. They include the "Daugh- ter of the Regiment "—the story of " old Pummeloe " and her surviving daughter Jhansi Mc- Kenna. She and her husband Col.-Sergt. McKenna had buried five children in fourteen months and " Old Pummeloe " dies her- self after ministering to dying soldiers on a cholera-stricken troop train. Years later Pte. Mulvaney orders Corporal Slane to marry Jhansi for the honour of the Regiment. I have seen plenty of evidence in old burial registers in Cantonment Churches in India to convince me that such a story is not mere fiction. In lighter vein " The July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 25 Rout of the White Hussars " and the story of Lieut. Golightly make good reading. The description of Golightly's sufferings when caught in the monsoon rain are so related that one can picture the hideous apparition, dyed all colours from his sodden topee, arriving at a railway station, to be arrested as a deserting private soldier, and handed over to a particularly un- sympathetic escort for return to barracks. And so Kipling was able to gather and store up this knowledge of the soldier in the East ; and when he returns to England in 1889, he finds he has taken rooms over- looking Gatti's old Music Hall near the Strand. This old music hall, with its chairman and old-style programme, was a great rendezvous for soldiers, mostly of the Guards. At this period Kipling was having a pretty hard time, and as the price of admission to Gatti's was only 4d., which included a pewter mug of beer, he tells us he continued his studies of T.A. here, the outcome being the first series of Barrack-room Ballads. Now we all know the private soldier of those days was not far removed from a complete social outcast. That he was " A tough guy," as we should say these days, is a mild description. But as far as one could see there was very little to encourage him to be otherwise. Conditions in bar- racks, even in England, were still bad, but apparently considered good enough for the soldier. The training consisted mostly of drill and marching, with not much to develop the young soldier's intelli- gence. It must be remembered that quite a number of the men could neither read nor write, and no Regimental Schools existed, so is it to be wondered at, that outside the barracks, had little interest for the men ? They would drink and make a nuisance of themselves. What could Kipling do ? He could state the case for T.A. and this he did in " Barrack Room Ballads," writing as the prelude :— " I have made for you a song, And it may be right or wrong, But only you can tell me if it's true. I have tried for to explain Both your pleasure and your pain, And, Thomas, here's my best respects to you. O there'll surely come a day When they'll give you all your pay, And treat you as a Christian ought to do ; So, until that day comes round, Heaven keep you safe and sound, And, Thomas, here's my best respects to you." I think you will all agree that Kipling succeeded very effectively in his explanations. One of the first of the series, " Tommy," is straight from the shoulder, and one can imagine its effectiveness as compared to ques- tion and answer in Parliament. I will give you a verse or two as it puts the case for " Tommy " very plainly. " I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer, The publican 'e up an sez ' We serve no red-coats here,' 26 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 The girls be'ind the bar they laughed and giggled fit to die, I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I : O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' ' Tommy, go away ;' But it's ' Thank you, Mister Atkins when the band begins to play. You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all ; We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational. Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier man's disgrace. For it's ' Tommy this,' and ' Tommy that,' an' ' Chuck him out, the brute ! But it's ' Saviour of 'is country ' when the guns begin to shoot ; An' it's ' Tommy this,' an' ' Tommy that ' an' anything you please; An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool—you bet that Tommy sees ' " If an appeal couched in such strong terms was published these days, one can understand the uproar it would cause. It is almost incitement to mutiny and violence. But it had its effect, for from the early ' 90's onwards Thomas Atkins's lot was improved slowly, and he was thus enabled to build up that respect for himself and that admiration we all have for him today. " Barrack-room Bal- lads " go on to write the Army's story of peace station and war, from recruit service to ' time expired ' ; every rank and arm of the Service has something special for itself. It is in the men's own language, it interests them and they can under- stand. Kipling doesn't forget to express for him " Tommy's" ad- miration for a worthy foe in "Fuzzy Wuzzy" and his apprecia- tion of Indian followers in " Gunga Din." He includes verses about the "Commissariat Camel" in "Oonts " tells of cholera, gives wise counsel to recruits, includes humorous verses like " The Shut Eye Sentry " and " The Jacket," and lays bare Thomas's views and associations with the ladies. But to return to " The Shut Eye Sentry." It con- tains those very human lines :— " For the wine was old and the night is cold An' the best we may go wrong." Probably written by Kipling after having turned out the Guard himself—as he tells us he did once in Lahore—they illustrate the men's feelings for a popular officer in the days when getting "Blotto" was apparently as fashionable amongst the officers as it was with the men. It is another way of saying what is said in the Army today about it being the men who write an officer's Confidential Report. " Barrack-room Ballads " are a study in themselves, and this particularly applies to the ones written when Kipling was in this country. One of the first in the series covering the South African War " The Absent-Minded Beggar," was written for the Daily Mail Appeal for comforts for the Troops. It brought £250,000 into the Fund. The verses give a complete story of the War. How it was fought, the nature of the country, lessons learnt, what Tommy thought of Piet. In fact Kipling missed nothing .... (To be continued) July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 27 A Kipling Register of Shipping By T. E. ELWELL [The writer of the following article read his first Kipling story in 1897, when beating round Cape Horn in a wind-jammer.] THE following list of ship's names, compiled from Kip- ling's published works, is as com- plete as close reading can make it, but it does not claim to be definitive. Its sum of over three hundred will no doubt surprise many readers, and certainly no other writer fathers such a fleet. Some of the names may be chal- lenged, but all appear as proper names in capitals or italics, and chapter or verse can be given for each. Those who think they know their Kipling could spend a quiet evening in tracking the Bradford Leslie to her well-concealed back-water. She lurks in just about the last place they will look. The Drum- mond Castle also is not quite as prominent as the rock that wrecked her, but she is not really difficult to hail. It would appear that Plain Tales from the Hills, The Naulahka, Kim, Stalky and Co., and the Second Jungle Book contain no ship's names, and any found in these books should be added to the register. The same may be said about Departmental Ditties, and The Years Between. Soldiers Three and The Jungle Book contribute an item apiece, thus giving an average of over twelve each to the remaining volumes. No classing, as in Lloyd's Regis- ter has been, or can be attempted, but the following remarks may be made about units of the three sections. Beginning with the fishing schoon- er Carrie Pitman, her ground- tackle's efficiency and value was almost nil, being valued by those best qualified to know at less than a halfpenny. Identifying ship with crew, then H.M.S. Archimandrite was avowedly a ship to be trusted, while the names marked with an asterisk could not be relied on beyond their own lengths. The S.S. Bolivar sailed with depleted crew, and excess cargo, also she was very much overdue for a Board of Trade re-classing survey, as was, though in lesser degree the S.S. Grotkau. Yet by the deter- mination of the former's crew, and a well-arranged salvage scheme laid for the latter, no lives or goods were lost. A rear-admiral of the old school considered Torpedo-boat No. 267 to resemble the refuse of an abattoir, and totally unfit to take part in manoeuvres but she lived such aspersions down. Dockyard sabotage wrought the Mary of 28 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 the Tower much more damage than did years of keeping the seas, but the trouncing of one worker seems to have squared the account, and to have set a thief high above his fellow thieves. S.S. Visigoth's bottom appears to have fallen out as easily and silently as that of a floating card- board boot-box, though she was less than six years old. No record exists of a Board of Trade enquiry into her building or loss, nor into the loss of five hundred lives. The whole McRimmon fleet, though deservedly classed 100 A.1. as to hulls and equipment would, from a spectator's view-point, be shamed by any derelict. The S.S. Lam- mergeyer's outside decoration was for an ulterior motive, quite apart from the Line's settled policy, and no evidence exists of increasing paint bills after her owner's success- ful salvage plot netted him thous- ands of pounds. The Guadala's stranding was in consequence of the deliberate re- moving of channel markings by the agent of a foreign power, but little loss was suffered by her, except in her coal and paint lockers. The trawler Agatha's head-gear was slily severed by a petty-officer on the high seas, but this unlawful occasion seems to have been con- doned by the trawler's crew in consideration of the liberal dis- tribution of a naval officer's private stores ; moreover, the fishermen afterwards aided and abetted the Navy in the making of a memorable double capture. The Victor Pirola's blinding light and ear-splitting sound, were probably suggested by a country pedestrian's experiences in a narrow lane on a Bank Holiday evening. The loss of the air- freighter Halma proves that in 2,000 A.D. there will still be " cheap repairs for the cheap 'uns " just as in 1850. But cheapness is the last thing in any sense to be associated with the volumes from which this Register was extracted, whose price has steadily risen from 6d. and 1/- in the early 90's, to 50/- each in 1937-8. Highly commendable in execu- tion, if not in objective, were the efforts of the crew of the Haliotis to render her sea-worthy after engine-room damage unique in the annals of steam navigation. It is to be regretted that her crew, officers, and engineers alike were of the self-effacing, silent breed that almost reaches our naval standard, so that no public recog- nition could be awarded. Doubt- less, emulating the univalve their ship was named after, they soon obtained a firmer foundation. The name of the earliest craft mentioned is lacking, an omission not surprising as she was built about 12,500 B.C., with a play of 2,500 years on either side ! But the name of her captain and half (the better half) of the crew, comes down to us as Clark. The better half doubled her job as mate July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 29 with that of sail-maker. Their craft measured 25 feet between uprights, and a beam of 42 inches gave a freeboard of ten inches when fully loaded. She was built, of course, for pleasure cruising and exploration only. Probably, like her master, she was nobby. The Register Naval Mercantile and Fishing. Afrite. T.B. Agaric Albion Anson Archimandrite Arrogant Asia Audacious Ascension Assyrian (Aux.) Astrild Barracoota Bedlamite Belligerent Blake Blenheim Blucher (German, Brisk Britomarte Britannia bulleana Carthusian Caryatid Clampherdown Claribel (Aux.) Cobra COMUS Cordelia (Aux.) cormorang cornucopia Condor Cripplf Cryptic (12,000 tns) CULANA (Aux.) Cygnet Devastation Devolution (12,000 tns.) Dreadnought Dirk Djinn Dupleix (French) Early Bird Eblis Eliz. Huggins (Aux.) Embuscade (French) ETHELDREDA (Aux.) EURYALUS E. 1 E. 2 E. 9 E. 11 E. 12 E. 14 Fantastic Florealia Furious Gardenia Gehenna Genoa Gemsbok (U.S.) Ghoul Gibraltar Goblin Grace Dieu Golden Gain (Aux.) Gnome Goneril (Aux.) Great Ark Great Britain Guadala (Foreign) Henry of Bristol Hercules Hierophant Hilarity (Aux.) Howe Incredible Inflexible Insupportable Impossible Jaseur KOBBOLD Landrail Marroquin Martin Frobisher Mary Fortune Mary of the Tower Mercury Minotaur MOLTKE (German) Mongoose Nightmare No. 267. Torp. Br. Ohio (U.S.) Orontes (U.S.) Palladium Paralytic Pedantic (15,000 tns) Penelope Peridot Petruchio (corvette) Phlox Philomel Pinafore Polycarp Polyphemus (Ram.) Postulant Powerful Raleigh Redoubtable Resilant Resistance Revenge Rose Santa Catherina (Spanish) Serpent Shaitan Squirrel (Training brig.) Sovereign Stephanotis St. George Stilleto Stormcock (Aux) Superb Sweepstakes Sycophant Terrible Theseus Thrasher Undockable Unity (Aux.) Vandalia Victorious Viper Vortigern Vulcan ( Tender) Warrior Wraith Abbie M. Deering (Sch.) Active Africa Agatha (Trawler) Aglaia* Alert Amboina (Dutch) Ancona Anthony of Rye ARCTIC (Icebreaker) Ark Arizona Baltic (Seal sch.) Bancoora Bandoorah Barralong Berthe Aurette Betty (sch.) Bhutia Blackball Blenkindoon Bolivar Bradford Leslie Breslau Byfleet Calais Douvres Camaralzaman Carrie Pitman (sch.) Caspar McVeigh (sch.) Chyebassa City of Paris City of Peking Clarindon Cockchafer Colgong Columbia (Steam Ycht.) Countess of Stirling Crocodile Cyclonic Day's Eye (Sch.) Daisy (boat) Dimbula dollabella Don Doric Druid Drummond Castle Dreadnought (sch.) Eastwind (sch.) Edith S. Walen (sch.) Eirene (Greek) Elector (sch.) Ellora Empress of india ESMERALDA (Ycht.) Ezra Flood (sch.) Fairy queen Ferdinand Florida Fi.orrie Anderson (sch.) Flying Dutchman Gilbert Hope Golden Hind Govindpur Gravelotte Grotkau Guiding Light* Hamlet Haidee Haliotis* Harry Randolph (sch.) Hattie S. (dory) HAVEL Henry Clay (sch.) Himalaya Hoor Hope of Prague (sch.) HO-NAM Jackson (sch.) James and Mary Jennie Cushman (sch.) Joan Haskens (sch.) Julia McGregor* Jumna Kaiser Wilhelm 11 Kathleen (sch.) King Philip (sch.) Kite Kaltzau Lammergayer Long Serpent Lucy Holmes (sch.) Lucania Lusitania Mackinaw* Madura Magdalena Maid of the Mist Majestic Malabar Mauretania Mamie Douglas (sch.) Margie Smith (sch.) Margaret Evans Marilla D. Khun (sch.) Marietta (boat) Mary Chilton (sch.) Mary Gloster Martin Hunt* May Flower Moor Myra Narwah Nerbudda Northern Light (Seal sch) Orontes Paris 30 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 Members of the Kipling Society who possess letters, press cuttings, photographs or sketches associated with Rudyard Kipling and his works, which they think might be suitable for publication in the Journal, are invited to send particulars to the Hon. Editor, The Kipling Journal, 45, Gower Street, London, W.C.1. " The Song of an Outsider " A note by Colonel C. H. Milburn. CAPTAIN MARTINDELL'S article on "Uncollected Kipling Writings, III " in No. 53 of The Kipling Journal, reminded me of an occasion in June, 1930, when I had an opportunity of seeing " The Song of an Outsider " in Rudyard Kipling's own handwriting. I was staying in Pershore at the next house to that of Mrs. Willes, widow of the Rev. C. Willes, (the " Rev. John Gillet," in " Stalky & Co "). She showed me various letters written to her husband by R.K. in 1882-3. She very kindly allowed me to copy them, and I spent the whole afternoon of June 16th doing so. She also promised me the first refusal, in case at any time she wished to dispose of them. I sup- pose that, in the lapse of time this pro- mise was not recalled ; for on April 24th, 1936, these letters were sold at Sotheby's. I do not know now who has them. The six letters and sketches are described in some detail on page 45 of the Sale Catalogue of March 24th, 1936, which also gives full details of some thirty other Kipling letters, first editions, etc. Various interesting points emerge, however, in comparing the copy I have, with that in Captain Martindell's article. The former, I think must have been original or earlier written. In the former, there are eleven verses, whereas in the latter, there are only ten quoted. Also there are certain differences, alterations and variations of words in some of the verses. In order to show this, I append the two versions side by side : " The Song " was undated, and simply begins :— " how does this strike you, Padre ? " (Then follow the eleven verses ; and it is signed) " R.K. Giger." I think this must have been written soon after his arrival at Lahore, and before the strong school influences had faded ; for note in the third verse the word " spidger " is schoolboy slang, and it would be fresh in his mind, as also the word " tweaker " ; and in the fourth verse, the word " rock." The words " sparrow " and " catapult " Parthia Pembroke Castle Parry Norman (sch.) Pioneer Prince LEBOO (sch.) Persia Andorra (Fulton Line) Argol (Danish) Asteroid (Planet Line) Atlantis Audhumla Berenice Quetta rathmines Rewah Ripon Rose (sch.) Rupert (sch.) Carducci ( Valand- ingham Line) Cymena(Freighter) Cyclonic Dominion of Light Draco Saarbruck Safieh Sarah Sands Serapis Servia Shah-in-Shah* Spand\u Air Geisha GRISELDA † (Bat boat) Halma (Freighter) Ivemona (Bat boat) Jane Eyre Spickeren Stralsund (Seal sch.) Swallowtail Thunder Torgau Mabelle (Bat boat) Marvel of Peru Perseus (Plane) Postal Packet 162 santander Tarpon ( Bat boat) Touraine Visigoth We're Here Whangoa Werkendam Worth Tontine Ullema Victor Pirolo Valkyrie V. Edmundson Wu-Sung †Bat Boat = A small Yacht of A.D. 2000. See Actions and Reactions pp 146 and 164. July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 31 used in Captain Martindell's version, may have been the result of a later revision, as apparently the Song was sent out to friend? in more than one edition. In verse four. I do not understand what " N.H.S." stands for. It might be " U.S.C." wrongly inter- preted by me, in the copying. Nor do I know who "J. Short " was, in the fifth verse. Perhaps some old U.S.C. boy might be able to explain ? The biggest alteration occurs in verse 10 (Padre) and verse 9 (Captain Martindell) where the third line is changed from " More mystic than C—t's list of fines " to " More crabbed than Euclid's worst designs." (Presumably ' C—t ' refers to Mr. Crofts, Kipling's housemaster). The Two Versions THE SONG OF AN OUTSIDER CAPTAIN MARTINDELL'S VERSION. E'en now the heron treads the wet Slush swamps of Goosey pool, Now proses vex my Latin set, That first set upper school. E'en now, across the summer air The call bell's clamour floats, Down to the weed-hung rock pools where The Juniors sail their boats. E'en now the gorse is out in bloom Along the Torridge Valley, E'en now the sparrow meets his doom From catapult and '" Sally." E'en now to Cory's bath they flock Old comrades, after three, E'en now, the lower schoolboys " rock " The Bideford bargee. (No Corresponding verse) For me no call bell rings, alas ! For me no proses are, No lounging on the playground grass, No sails across the bar. The hot winds blow, the punkah flaps Incessant, to and fro. Ah well for those most lucky chaps Who lark at Westward Ho ! The sunlight thro' the palm tree falls, Full on the whitewashed roof, And worse than any College " calls " Are printers' calls for proof. More dread than any sudden squall A careless prose could raise, Are people who drop in to call And take my busiest days. Grimmer than any " thousand lines " The lines that I must read More crabbed than Euclid's worst designs A correspondent's screed. What wonder, while the punkah flaps And hell-like hot winds blow, I envy those too lucky chaps Who work at Westward Ho ! THE PADRE'S VERSION E'en now the Heron treads the wet Slush swamp of Goosey Pool, And proses vex my Latin Set That first Set, Upper School. E'en now across the Summer air The call-bell's clamour floats Down to the weed-hung rock pools where The Juniors sail their boats. E'en now the gorse is out in bloom Along the Torridge Valley, E'en now the " spidger " meets its doom From " tweaker " or from " Sally." E'en now to Corey's bath they flock, The College, after three : E'en now, the N.H.S. boys " rock " The Bideford Bargee. E'en now, that heavy College ' crock ' Brings round the College tea : E'en now, the hungry first form mock J. Short's economy. No call bell rings for me, alas ! For me no proses are, No loungings on the playground grass No sails across the bar. The hot wind blows, the punkah flaps Incessant to and fro. Ah well, for those most lucky chaps Who lark at Westward Ho ! The sunlight through the palm tree falls, Down on the whitewashed roof : And worse than any College " calls" Are printer's " calls " for " proof." More dreaded than that sudden " squall " A careless ' prose ' could raise, Are people who drop in to call And take my busiest days. Grimmer than any " thousand lines " The lines that I must read— More mystic than C—t's list of fines, A correspondent's screed. What wonder, while the punkah flaps And coolies puff and blow, i envy those too lucky chaps Who work at Westward Ho ! 32 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 A Kipling Study RUDYARD KIPLING : A Study in Literature and Political Ideas. By Edward Shanks. (Mac- millan—7s. 6d.) MR. SHANKS is one of the few English critics to discuss Kip- ling's work from the purely literary point of view ; this alone is noteworthy, as so many others have expressed merely prejudice. He broke the ice in 1927 in his " Second Essays on Literature ; he now gives us a longer and more elaborate contribution to the proper understanding of Rudyard Kipling and his work. The view- point of this study is, in many ways, pleasingly original. The author begins by asking why Sir Max Beerbohm displayed something like malevolence towards Kipling's writings ; he then demolishes those who don't like Kip- ling's literary work because they don't agree with his politics ; thirdly, (I agree, though many of our members will disagree) he says that " The very crown of his work is to be found in A Diversity of Creatures and Debits and Credits, the two collections which preceded the last." My own opinion is that Kipling's best work begins a little earlier, about 1900; ça va sans dire, I prefer Pyecroft to Mulvaney. On our way through this book we are refreshed by a number of good comments. We begin with the state- ment that " Mr. Wells, in particular, has never been able to get quite away from him ; " that he (Wells) owes the inspiration of " The Shape of Things to Come " to Kipling's two tales, " With the Night Mail " and " As Easy as A.B.C." (This was mentioned in The Kipling Journal No. 27). Mr. Shanks rightly gives prominence to these tales of the future, though it may be questioned if his assumption that Kipling condemned all forms of democracy be correct ; it seems more likely that he had a preference for something on the Athenian lines, with the elimination of the mentally unfit from control. As may be expected the author is rather puzzled by the three versions of life at the U.S.C; but there is no reason to doubt that the accounts of early childhood, given in " Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," are accurate—Mrs. Fleming vouches for these being correct. A note is made of the similarity between Kipling and Dickens, both of whom began as journalists : " Both infected their own generations like a fever, both have left their marks behind them even to this day." Mention is made of Kipling's know- ingness, that his philosophy of life is too assured for a young man. Quite so ; but, supposing that we did not know that this early work (" Soldiers Three," etc.) had been conceived by a young man, should we not judge the result rather than look at the personality of the writer ? Incidentally, Mr. Shanks does not like " The Story of the Gadsbys," a piece of work which suffers when compared to other things in the same book and of that period ; perhaps, if someone else had written this, it might be valued more highly. One might say the same about " The Light That Failed ; " if one of the clever young people of to-day had produced it, it would have been hailed as a masterly psychological study. All the same, I don't think Mr. Shanks is quite fair to that book ; most readers would agree that the ending, as originally conceived by the author, is very good indeed. Still, Kipling is given a permanent niche in the Temple of Fame, in spite of certain immature efforts :— " But it would be looking too far ahead to imagine a day when he will not be considered one of the great writers of the English language." While one can see faults in " The Naulahka " (perhaps due to collaboration), one cannot agree with the judgment on " Captains Courage- ous." Anyone who likes a dramatic incident, well told and with a wealth of interesting detail, cannot fail to enjoy this book ; what is more, it bears re-reading ad infinitum. Here is a verdict which will make some of the lesser critics writhe. The Cockney dialect poems are described as "an irremovable addition to English literature." " For to Admire " comes in for high praise ; so, too, does " Boots" and " Ford o' Kabul River "—one wonders why Mr. Shanks omits " Ses- tina of the Tramp-Royal " and " Chant- July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 33 Pagan," both of which justify his general findings. But he does commend, though in quite another style, " The Dead King," one of the best royal elegies ever written. Mr. Shanks takes note of Kipling's love of England, not only of the England that is the centre of a mighty world power but of the England called to mind by poems such as Gray's "Elegy." After noting that Kipling's general outlook seemed to change and enlarge with " Recessional," Mr. Shanks points out the beauties of poems such as " The Way through the Woods " and of the many excellencies of the Puck stories. None of us will quarrel with his taste in prose tales ; he has much to say about " An Habitation Enforced," " Friendly Brook," and " The Wish House ; " particular mention is made of the exquisite little poem attached to the first of these tales. The love of humanity manifested here displays itself in " Kim," which is described as "a remarkably sunny book, with a surprising dearth of dislikeable characters." This is, perhaps, the beginning, in obvious form, of Kipling's love for, and toleration of, humanity in general—"The people ! Lord ! Thy people, are good enough for me !" Proof is given that Kipling was never bitter against persons, however venom- ous the younger (and some of the older) critics may have been towards him. He preached love of England and the English because he liked them and because he thought them worthy of the high place to which destiny has called them. In the same way, though he is no blind observer, he loves France. He never liked the Germans :— " It was the destruction of good, useful and innocent loves which above all tormented him—even before he lost his only son." " But Fritz can't fight clean," he says in " Sea Warfare." On the whole, Mr. Shanks has written a careful and dispassionate criticism, founded upon knowledge of his subject, with most of which the most enthusiastic member of our Society will agree. A good deal of attention is given to Kipling's spiritual outlook. One must take exception to some things : the line, " our blunt, bow-headed, whale-backed Downs," does not conjure up an incongruous image ; nor is there any mention of Kipling's great gift of le mot juste. But it is a sound book in the main, and the last few lines sum up what the author has tried to bring out :— " Kipling's life provides a remarkable example of the artist who is not content to go on doing what he has already done well, of the artist whose style changes with that changing view of the world which it exists to express." B. M. B. The Bookman of 1912 MR. John Sanderson, a member of the Council of the Kipling Society has enriched our Library by pre- senting a rare copy of The Bookman " Christmas Double Number" for the year 1912. The volume is lavishly illustrated and decorated with a " port- folio of drawings in colour" by Edmund Dulac and other artists of the day. The well-known portrait of Rudyard Kipling with his pipe (a photograph which, by the way, was specially taken for The Bookman) forms the frontispiece. The imposing list of " principal literary con- tents " is led by an article entitled " Rudyard Kipling," by Dixon Scott, who wrote : " Instead of depreciating, the quality of his work has constantly improved,......his technique has never been so amazing as now, nor his artistic integrity more Lutheran; .... instead of immensely precocious and worldly-wise—" born blasé " as Barrie once said—this young poet has always been, far more than Barrie himself, one of those who never grow up, who are never quiet at home in the world, but who wander through it, like Haw- thorne or Poe, a little alien and wistful, a little elf-like. This " quality of envy of "the happy folk in housen," of the practical grown-ups and worldlings, is indeed the essential characteristic of the man and the key to and core of his work." We also have to thank Mr. Sander- son for the gift of a number of old editions of Kipling's works which will be a most valuable addition to our Library. 34 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 Letter Bag Correspondents are asked to keep letters for publication as short as possible. '' INTOXICATING BEVERAGES '' I AM interested in the closing paragraphs of the article in the December Kipling Journal, " The Earliest of the ' Plain Tales '," which tell of the protest of the editor of " Appleton's Magazine " to Kipling that " One of your sea captains drinks a glass of hot rum when he is at sea. Could you not substitute a non- alcoholic beverage ? In reply Kipling cabled, ' Why not try Mellin's Food? ' " In our collection of Kipling auto- graph letters is his correspondence with Edward Bok, then editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, relating to " William the Conqueror " which was to appear in that magazine. After the story was accepted and the terms agreed to, Editor Bok objected to the mention of liquor in the tale. Kipling replied, May 11th, 1895, as follows : I am in receipt of yours of the 10th instant with proofs of " William the Conqueror " and very much regret that you did not open the question of intoxicating beverages before accepting the tale. If you refer to my letter you will see that I offered you the tale as it stood and on these terms did you accept it. Had you hinted at the existence of office rules I should never have sent you a Ms. for inspection, because my one theory in regard to my work is that writing to order means loss of power, loss of belief in the actuality of the tale and ultimately loss of self respect to the writer .... I am sorry that the tale does not meet all the requirements of the L.H.J., but you will see, I trust that, having offered you a full in- spection, the fault is none of mine. That the rigid office rules of the Journal gave way is shown in the following paragraph in the story, immediately following William's accept- ance of Scott's love : But when Faiz Ullah brought him a drink, he found it necessary to support one hand with the other or the good whiskey and soda would have been spilled abroad. The American Chap Book of about that time tells the story of Bok's telegram to the " brawny jungle-man " and, to make a good story, adds R.K.'s alleged reply " Make it Mellin's Food." —(Mrs.) W. M. Carpenter, Evanston, Illinois. AN INTENTIONAL PUN ? Admiral Chandler's articles in The Kipling Journal are always interesting and worth while, as is to be expected from so devoted and acute a student of Kipling's work, and I find the last one, in which he deals with " Dayspring Mishandled," especially so. He says some of his friends think his inter- pretation of Manallace's Latin acrostic is " wild." I do not think it is myself, but here is a suggestion that readers of the Journal may consider as the very superlative of wild : The last word of the acrostic is fecit. This is pronounced fake it, and it is the past tense form of the verb. Certainly Manallace " faked it," —-the manuscript which so completely took in the hated Castorley. Was the pun intentional ?—Sturges S. Dunham, 233, Broadway, New York. KIPLING'S WORST SLIP. Kipling says in " Brugglesmith " when they reached St. Clement Danes, " I had leisure to think of a thousand things as I ran ; but most I thought of the great and god-like man who held a sitting in the north gallery of St. Clement Danes a hundred years ago. I know that he at least would have felt for me. So occupied was I with these considerations, that when the other policeman hugged me to his bosom and said : ' What are you tryin' to do ? ' I answered with exquisite politeness : ' Sir, let us take a walk down Fleet Street.' In the " Life of George Augustus Sala " we read " To this periodical I gave the name of ' Temple Bar,' and from a rough sketch of mine of the old Bar, which blocked the way in Fleet Street, Mr. Percy Macquoid drew an ad- mirable frontispiece. As a motto I imagined a quotation from Boswell. " On the cover of ' Temple Bar ' is printed the imagined quotation : July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 35 " Sir " said Dr. Johnson, " let us take a walk down Fleet Street." To the best of my knowledge and belief, Dr. Johnson never said a word about taking a walk down Fleet Street ; but my innocent supercherie was, I fancy, implicitly believed in for at least a generation by the majority of magazine readers." I, too, have searched Boswell and the nearest I can get to the above quotation is a remark of the Doctor's to Goldsmith when discussing luxury. " Let us take a walk from Charing Cross to Whitechapel." Whether Kip- ling fell into the trap set by Sala, or whether he intentionally made this slip, I leave to your readers to decide.— E. W. Martindell, Oaklea, Hook, Hants. FROM GENERAL SIR ARCHI- BALD WAVELL, K.C.B. In No. 53 of The Kipling Journal I saw something on ' Kipling's Worst Blunder.' I have no Kipling by me for reference, but it has always seemed to me that he made a very curious blunder for a man who knew India so well, when in " The Man Who Was " he makes one of his characters (the Cossack colonel, I think) in what is obviously meant for Peshawar—though I forget whether it is so named—point to the North Star over the Khyber Pass. The Khyber is due west of Peshawar. If I am wrong about its being Peshawar, what station could it have been ? I don't think Kohat had a railway station in Kipling's time, and was it a cavalry station ? I have always meant to ask if anyone else had noticed this blunder or could explain it.—A. P. Wavell, G.H.Q. Middle East, Cairo. TISANE With reference to the note headed "Kipling's Worst Slip" in the April issue of the Journal, may I say, with all respect, that your correspondent is wrong when he mentions a palpable error in Kipling's use of the word " tisane." The word in itself means decoction, as he very rightly states, but when the context leaves no doubt as to its reference to champagne, modern usage does not demand that it be follow- ed by " de champagne." In a word, when people are drinking sparkling wine, they may quite well call it "tisane"—-meaning simply a light variety of champagne—as Kipling im- plied. There is really no slip at all.— Jules Castier, 31 rue Jouvenet, Paris. MORE ABOUT TISANE. Mr. Bazley's letter in the April issue makes not good reading—it savours of a criticism without good grounds. Now M. Voiron would surely not be so " crude " as to compare what his guest had drunk in the past (" our better class tisanes ") to a druggist's Chamomile or Elderflower Tea. My dictionary gives Tisane as " A Diet Drink," " a cooling Draught." Tisane de Champagne— Light Champagne. Both the English words "Decoction" and "Infusion" are rendered in the same spelling in French. I think Rudyard Kipling was right. M. Voiron was sipping at ease and was using a word which would indicate that the "30/- a bottle pre-war beverage" was a pretty good drink, but not by any means a druggist's Tisane.— " No. 1. Africa." Bulawayo. " A KIPLING SHRINE " Mrs. Kipling, as The Times leading article on the bequest of Bateman's Burwash, to the nation said, " has given more than a house and garden and money." " She has perpetuated an idea "—her husband's vision of this fair ground as England, " his own England," which he would make England for others ; and myriads of readers have found " very vivid and very clear " his local embodiment of the England that they love and are sworn to defend.—H. L. L. Denny, St. George's Day, 1940. [The Rev. Sir Henry Denny, whose article entitled " A Kipling Shrine " appears on page 5, sends us this note with his manuscript.—Ed.] A KIPLING MAP OF INDIA. I am preparing a large map of India. The map is designed to show only those places, rivers, etc., mentioned by Kipling. It is quite easy to give the large places mentioned by their correct names, but will readers kindly send me names of obscure places mentioned, and identify any places to which Kipling gives fictitious names? —R. E. Harbord, 32, Stanford Road, London, W.8. 36 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 Reports from Branches Members who are remotely situated from a Branch, are invited to consider the local possibilities of Branch formation, and to communicate with the Hon. Secretary in London. VICTORIA, B.C., CANADA. THE first fifteen minutes of the October meeting held by the Victoria Branch were spent in listening to the Kipling broadcast from the local broadcasting station which was relayed to the meeting room. The speaker on this occasion was Mrs. Barclay who read the story, " The Return of Imray." The meeting open- ed with the roll call, to which each member present responds with a quotation from Kipling's prose or poetry, the source of which other members have to cite. After the business session. Mrs. D. M. F. McArthur gave a ten minutes' talk on the story " The Debt " followed by Mrs. Haney and Mr. Cornwall reading selections from an article written by G. E. Fox :—" Till the Sure Magic Strikes," in the July copy of the Journal. At the November meeting the members listened to a talk by Mr. George Murray, M.P.P. for Lilloct, B.C., and a member of the Central Society. Mr. Murray (who told the meeting that he was born in the backwoods of Ontario, and traced his love of Kipling back to the time of his boyhood, when an aunt gave him two copies of the author for a present) took his audience with him over the route of his travels in recent years in China, Singapore, and the East Indies, and quoted from Kipling's writings to show how the poet had seen these places " with the prophetic vision of Empire," when he toured there some fifty year? ago. "In writing the Songs of the British Empire" the speaker said, "Rudyard Kipling had made a greater single contribution to that Empire than had anyone who wrote its laws." A CHEERING PROPHECY. Following the talk some beautifully coloured moving pictures were shown by T. A. Simmons, showing the scenery of British Columbia, and the recent visit of the King and Queen. The annual dinner was very successful with a larger attendance than on previous occasions. Lt. Colonel F. Q. St. John, D.S.O., M.C, F.R.G.S., was the guest speaker. With twenty- five years' experience of India, he gave a vivid description of a soldier's life on the frontier, and of various aspects of Indian life, with references to " Kim," a book which he declared, must be read and understood if one is to know anything of Indian life. With reference to Kipling he said. " In one thousand years men will still find him young and new." Mrs. Wilfrid Ord recited a selection from Kipling and Miss Sheila Conway sang " Just So " songs, and the " Reces- sional ", Mr. James McGraith sang a new rendering of " Mandalay " and recited three of Kipling's poems. Mr. K. C. Symons read Kipling's poem " The Explorer." A standing vote of sympathy, proposed by Colonel H. T. Goodland, a personal friend of the Kipling family, was passed to Mrs. Bambridge on the recent death of her mother, Mrs. Kipling, and a letter of sympathy was sent from the Branch. After the business session at the January meeting, Mr. T. A. Simmons gave a short sketch of the story, "Bread upon the Waters " after which the members read in turns " The Brush- wood Boy." At the February meeting a Kipling quiz programme was arranged. The members were divided into two equal groups under a leader, each group being asked questions alternately. Marks were awarded for correct answers. Mrs Barclay's group won by a narrow margin. At the March meeting a short paper—"Kipling at Home," written by Colonel Goodland, one of our members, and given over the radio by him as one of the Kipling broadcasts, was read. This season we have allowed ten to fifteen minutes at each meeting for a Kipling story. At the January meeting Mr. T. A. Simmons took the story, "Bread upon the Waters." Mrs W. C. Mann gave an interesting talk on " The Woman in his Life." At the March meeting Mrs. W. J. Neal gave " The July, 1940 THE KIPLING JOURNAL 37 Church at Antioch."—M. Neal, Hon. Sec. Treas., (Mrs. W. J. Neal). AUCKLAND, N.Z. The Auckland Branch celebrated its fourth birthday on Tuesday, Novem- ber 21st, 1939. The Chairman, Rev. C. E. Perkins was our host. Forty members and friends were present including an honoured guest, Mrs Wm. Stuart, wife of the Chief Justice of Samoa, a niece of Dr. Jameson and a personal friend of Rudyard Kip- ling. Mrs. Stuart made an interesting speech and related anecdotes of Kipling's visits to South Africa. During the season 1939-1940 the activities of the Branch have been most successful. Mr. D. W. Faigan arranged a programme for the eight monthly meetings divided into eight periods of Kipling's life, illustrated with his works. The first of these meetings April 1939, began with a ten minutes' lecture by Mr. Faigan on Kipling's earliest productions, tracing the influences of heredity and environ- ment upon the poet during the period 1865-1889. Stories and poems were read then from " Wee Willie Winkie," " Plain Tales from the Hills," " Depart- mental Ditties," etc. This was the model for subsequent lectures. Mem- bers quoted biographical information from "Some- thing of My- self" "Rud- yard Kipling : Craftsman, ' ' "From Sea to Sea," etc. In this way Kip- ling's life work was im- pressed upon the members, cumulative- ly month by month : the climax was re ac h e d in the period 1914-1918, which happ- ened to fall in October, 1939, at the beginning of the present AT AUCKLAND, N.Z. The Executive Committee of the Auckland Branch of the Kipling Society, at their farewell luncheon to the Rev. C. E. & Mrs Perkins. For two years Mr. Perkins has been Chairman of the Committee. Left to right: The Rev. C. E. Perkins, Mrs. A. Buchanan, Mrs. D. W. Faigan, Mr. Norman Boyes, Dr. Hilda Northcroft, Mr. K. R. Buchanan, Mr. D. W. Faigan. war, and Kipling's message rang with the same sincerity and profound sense of warning as in 1914. We have been fortunate in having as Chairman of the Executive Com- mittee during the past two years the Rev. C. E. Perkins. During that time he has attended every meeting and we regret that he has been called to Wellington to take up duties there : we shall miss Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, two enthusiastic members of this Branch. The members of the Exe- cutive Committee assembled on January 27th to bid them farewell. The paper with which Mr. D. W. Faigan opened the season dealt with the first period of Kipling's life and with his earliest works. He referred to Kipling's amazing hereditary endow- ment, to his association by birth with so many notable English families and individuals, and to the influence of his first days in India and of the unfortunate period in England before his enrolment at the United Services College. Extracts from Rudyard Kip- ling's works were read to show how deeply these early years had left their stamp. Beetle at school, his compan- ions, his masters, and the Devonshire setting of the schooldays of Stalky and Co. were described, with schoolboy literary eff- orts in verse and prose. The next phase touch- ed on was that of the young Anglo- Indian learn- ing his job in the hard school of journalistic e x p e r i ence, and his gain- ing notice through the publication of the Rupee book Our Presi- dent, Sir Ste- phen Allen is serving with the Imperial Forces in England. We are grie- 38 THE KIPLING JOURNAL July, 1940 ved to learn by cable of Mrs. Rudyard Kipling's death and wish once more to express our sympathy with Mrs. Kipling's family and with all members of the Kipling Society.—(Mrs.) Edith M. Buchanan. Hon. Secretary. OBITUARY. We much regret to record the death of Mr. A. V. Waitt, to whose enthusiasm and energy the formation of the Manitoba Branch of the Kipling Society was due. Unfortunately, after a comparatively short life, the Manitoba Branch had to be dissolved, as it was not found possible to maintain the minimum number of members laid down in the Society's Rules. To Mr. Waitt's family and friends we extend deep sympathy in their bereave- ment. MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. The Branch held its Second Annual Meeting on 28th March, 1940, which was attended by members and visitors from the other literary societies in Melbourne. The Hon. Secretary read a report of Branch activities of which the following is a summary. Since March, 1939, we have held eight successful meetings, which were all well attended, and membership increased to seventy. Of the subjects discussed that of " Kipling and the Doctors " proved the most popular. This was taken by Dr. J. F. Mackeddie and Dr. Boyd- Graham and the attendance was a record. Other subjects were " Kipling and the Bible," " Kipling and India," " Kipling and the Sailors," and the paper given by Miss Strom has been published in the Journal. " Kipling as Parodist" a paper sent us by the former Editor of the Journal, Mr. Bazley, was greatly enjoyed, and we concluded our year with a Junior Members' Night in February. At this meeting, our first junior member, Mr. Arthur Burns, gave a paper on " Kipling as a Romantic Poet," and some of the " Just So Songs " were sung by Miss Margery Ekins. This junior night was such a success that it is proposed to make it an annual event. Discussion at all these meetings has been very encouraging and shows that members are making a real study of Kipling's prose. The Library generously present- ed by Mr. O'Day has increased with book gifts from Dr. Joske, Sir Julius Bruche, Miss South and Mr. Bazley, and now contains 28 volumes, many magazines with Kipling verses, and a paper cutting book of Kipling's writings as a boy in his school paper, the United Services Chronicle. Mrs. Joske presented a full set of copies of the Kipling Journal which had belonged to Dr. Joske ; these have been bound in six volumes and now make a valuable addition to the Library. Our Librarian Mrs. Brown, had to leave for England but her work has been carried on by Miss Strom. The social side of the Branch has been well cared for by Mrs. Hall and her helpers, and thanks of members are gratefully tendered to them. During our first two years we have carried on under the Rules of the London Society, but this year the Committee felt that local by-laws were necessary. These have been compiled carefully and made as simple as possible. We suffered a serious loss in September when our Originator and first President, Dr. Joske, died very suddenly. His place was taken by our two Vice-Presidents, Sir Julius Bruche and Dr. Boyd-Graham, who have kept the Branch well together, Sir Julius acting as President till the Annual Meeting. We regret that we can no longer count on his services in this office, for among his many war activities he has been co-opted by the Australian Comforts Fund as Liaison Officer. He will remain, however, as Vice- President. Dr. Boyd-Graham, who has done so much for the Branch as Treasurer and Vice-President, will take Sir Julius' place as President. The outlook is not as bright as we could wish, for we are losing twenty of our members this year, so many of them being occupied with War work. The Committee decided that in spite of these set-backs, the Branch would carry on as usual. The Committee looks specially to those remaining to help to make the year successful. After the adoption of the Report and the election of office bearers for the year, a delightful talk on " Reminis- censes of Kipling " was given by our Guest Speaker, Mr. Herbert Brookes, who had visited Kipling in his home in Sussex. Kipling Songs were then sung by Mrs. John Dunbar and Mr. John Chilton.—(Mrs.) Grace Brough- ton, Hon. Secretary. Printed by H. F. Lucas & Co., 151, North Road, Southend-on-Sea,