If the town major is within ten miles of the German trenches you will usually find in his office a bell or horns which he has sounded in case of a German gas attack. On the whole his work is not hard, and both he and his staff have no reason to complain of anything on account of the war.
A railway transport officer is also supposed to have a bomb-proof job, although he must be on duty all hours of the day and night to attend to the troops as they entrain and detrain. It is his duty to see that the French authorities have sufficient accommodation in the way of either box or passenger cars for the troops and to arrange all matters pertaining to railway transportation of same. He is kept very busy and has little time to "swank."
The divisional gas officer has a nice position, although he may be in the danger zone. He has quite a number of men under him who know their jobs thoroughly, so he is seldom overworked.
The officer in charge of divisional baths has also a nice appointment. His work is important. He is usually in the danger zone but has very little work to do about the fighting in the trenches. His chief job is to have everything ready when officers and men come out of the trenches.
The paymasters have a pretty fairly safe job and certainly the men in the line do not begrudge it to them. Everybody likes the paymaster and it is certainly amusing when we are out to rest to see the way that the men try to wile out advances from the paymaster for all kinds of frivolous reasons.
The instructors at the various schools of instruction have all fairly bomb-proof jobs, but these jobs as instructors are usually given after a man has been in the line, although there are instances where probably a specialist in some branch of the service may hold one of these jobs without having to go in the line to secure it.
We now come to the brass hats. This is the term that is used by the Tommy to all staff officers, and their entrance into a trench usually is the forerunner of an advance. So Tommy always looks with a certain amount of suspicion when any staff officer makes a tour of the trenches. Even these staff officers are not always immune, many of them having been killed in the course of their duties.
