If a man cannot obey orders when
there is danger to all he must be mad. But it is difficult for a man
to be obedient at such a time if he has never learnt to be obedient in
ordinary times, and that is why discipline is so strongly kept up in
both the Army and Navy in peace time.
A man is taught to obey even the smallest order most carefully and
without hesitation, until it becomes such a habit with him that when
an order is given him, a big or dangerous one, he carries it out, at
once without any question. And, when everybody can be trusted to obey
orders, it is an easy thing for the commander to manoeuvre his troops
and conduct the battle with some chance of success.
You remember the story which I told you in _Scouting for Boys_
about the ship _Birkenhead_, on board of which discipline and
obedience were so splendidly shown by the soldiers.
The ship was carrying about 630 soldiers, with their families, and 130
seamen. Near the Cape of Good Hope one night she ran on to some rocks,
and began to break up. The soldiers were at once paraded on deck
half-dressed as they were, just out of their hammocks.
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