Sullivan letter diary, 27 October 1915-9 October 1917 / Eugene Sullivan - Page 265
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[Page 265]
Certainly we are a cosmopolitan army. Another private whom I met recently was a P.M. in private life. Jack Hassal is his name but I do not know what district he comes from, I think it is Moree way.
He is a University man as are also a couple of his pals in the battalion, and yet they are only privates. They are very decent fellows with apparently no vices to curb their progress.
Promotion in the infantry is often meteoric (excuse the word) and yet men like these are overlooked. I know of at least three cases in which men in the ranks have jumped to Lieutenant without any intermediate steps. None of them were geniuses and one distinctly slow. It would be interesting to know what friends, or relatives they have further up the ladder.
Stars have been falling fairly plentifully lately, some of them earned a dozen times over but the majority distributed promiscuously. It seems to be the rule to give the promotion and afterward require the recipient to attend a school and qualify for the position. In such cases it would be impossible to recall it although the pass obtained would probably count when considering further promotion.
Military Medals &c. are bestowed in much the same way. Some of the men earn them a dozen times over but for want of an officer to witness their acts of bravery, and recommend and push their case, they receive no reward, whereas others, for the merest flash in the pan, are so boosted up, and made much of, that they receive the highest honours.
A couple of such decorations were bestowed on members of the Ambulance lately, and I verily believe that if some of the recipients were to spend a night in the front line trench, they would be suffering from severe shock the next day. Yet the scouts in the Infantry spend most nights crawling about No-man's land.
I was watching some of the signallers sending back messages by