Officers without Ties

Colonel Charles Ralph Bingham, D. S. O., son of the Honorable Sir Cecil Bingham, is a product of British tradition. He went to Eton and in 1914 became A. D. C. to his father in France. Back home from war, he joined Fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, but later abandoned him. He yachted in summer and sat with equally well-bred companions in the posh Carlton Club in winter. In the best Tory tradition he represented the cult of the old school tie. When World War II began he was made commander of Officer Cadet Training Unit No. 168. Last week he broke into print in the London Times letter columns.

"Never," wrote Colonel Bingham, "was the old school tie more justified than it is today. Our new armies are officered by classes of society who are new to the job. Middle, lower middle, and working classes are now receiving King's commissions. . . . Man management is not a subject which can be taught: it is an attitude of mind, and with old-school-tie men this was instinctive and part of their philosophy of life. These new officers will be just as brave and technically efficient, but they have been reared in an atmosphere in which the State spoon-feeds everybody from the cradle to the grave and no one feels any responsibility for his fellowmen."

Bursting at a time when class distinction is carefully soft-pedaled and most old school ties are in mothballs, Bingham's bomb raised hob. "Since when," asked the Mirror's acid columnist Cassandra, "has Democracy, fighting for its life, been a spittoon for an elderly brass hat?" "If," suggested the Herald, "only the youths from public schools prove to be efficient officers, it would be well if the public schools, which were founded for the poor . . . should be given back to the classes for whom they were intended." "The views expressed . . . do not reflect those of the War Office," announced the Army spokesman.

Smoked out, Colonel Bingham was unrepentant. "I stand by every word," he said. "Speaking as the perfect snob,* I contend that old army tradition--call it old-school-tie tradition if you like--has much to recommend it. . . . Every army must be run on autocratic, as distinct from democratic, principles." He did not recall that the officers of two of the world's most successful armies, Napoleon's and Hitler's, were almost all recruited from the working classes.

* Snob apparently derives from S. Nob. (Sine Nobilitate), which was appended to names of commoners attending English schools and colleges before the 18th Century, when education was commonly regarded as the prerogative of aristocracy.

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