ANTHONY COTTERELL - A Newspaper Man in Service Harness
Extract from "What! No Morning Tea?"
Anthony has been made acting NCO for his hut. Here he describes one particular challenge to his authority:
One or two people started singing and beating time on the iron bedsteads. It developed into a crescendo.
"Shut up," I shouted.
They did. Except the footballer, who went on tapping mildly.
"I told you to stop that," I said.
One or two of them complained that there was nothing to stop them singing or tapping.
I said, "I suppose I shall have to make a test case to get some response to my orders. I don't want to victimise you, but I shall have to."
"But you can't stop me tapping me foot."
"The question is that you are making a challenge to my authority. I am telling you to stop doing something which I prohibited because people were doing it too much."
A voice: "Ask the sergeant if we bain't allowed to tap our feet."
"Ask him by all means, But I think you will find that he and the rest of the hierarchy will support me."
There was a silence.
Someone said, "Go on, sing, boys," but no one did.
There were murmurings of "He knows no more'n us," and "Are we a lot of kids?"
I stood up and pacing nervously up and down, said,
"In deference to the exquisitely witty Mr Stockley and others, I should like to make it clear that I am not trying to stop you singing, playing musical instruments or otherwise making fools of yourselves. I merely prohibited a man from doing something other people had been doing too much."
This was a complete success. There was dead silence for more than a minute broken by an admiring, "Hasn't he got a big mouth?"
"Shut up," I shouted.
They did. Except the footballer, who went on tapping mildly.
"I told you to stop that," I said.
One or two of them complained that there was nothing to stop them singing or tapping.
I said, "I suppose I shall have to make a test case to get some response to my orders. I don't want to victimise you, but I shall have to."
"But you can't stop me tapping me foot."
"The question is that you are making a challenge to my authority. I am telling you to stop doing something which I prohibited because people were doing it too much."
A voice: "Ask the sergeant if we bain't allowed to tap our feet."
"Ask him by all means, But I think you will find that he and the rest of the hierarchy will support me."
There was a silence.
Someone said, "Go on, sing, boys," but no one did.
There were murmurings of "He knows no more'n us," and "Are we a lot of kids?"
I stood up and pacing nervously up and down, said,
"In deference to the exquisitely witty Mr Stockley and others, I should like to make it clear that I am not trying to stop you singing, playing musical instruments or otherwise making fools of yourselves. I merely prohibited a man from doing something other people had been doing too much."
This was a complete success. There was dead silence for more than a minute broken by an admiring, "Hasn't he got a big mouth?"
Anthony was such a rara avis that the majority of his hut mates seem to have accepted his despotism with a tinge of affectionate pride. Anthony's intellectual calibre was so dazzling that when he turned it on at full power, there was nothing someone less literate and articulate could do except give in and subside in silence.
