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Proper and Improper Uses of the Letters "O.H.M.S."

5th November 1914
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Page 1, 5th November 1914 — Proper and Improper Uses of the Letters "O.H.M.S."
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We are glad to find that the War Office has recently issued a notice in regard to the wrongful use of the letters " 0.H.M. S." on motor vehicles of marious types, as a means of identification. The use of these letters is in certain cases authorized, but only in conjunction with the ordinary plates of identification. The text of the official notices from the War Office is given on page 179 of this issue, and we trust that all owners of commercial motors will read it closely. We believe that offences by drivers of heavy vehicles have been few and far between, hut we cannot express the same view about drivers of lighter machines. The amenities of civilian life may legitimately be disturbed temporarily by the passage of vehicles at high speed when on. urgent military errands, but the.maslsing of improper driving under the protection of the letters " 0.H.M.S." deserves nothing but the severest condemnation by everybody. A motorcyclist, at Kingston-on-Tharnes, has apparently been the first Of the thoughtless offenders to come within the long arm of the law, by reason of the use of the letters " 0.H.M.S." when he had no right to employ them. We are able to record, on the other hand, a beneficial and pleasing use of the letters' by several leading members of the industry who are busily engaged upon output for war purposes. In the Thornycroft works at Basingstoke, for example, every man has been furnished by his employers with a metal badge upon which is engraved suitable wording to the effect that the wearer is engaged " S." on " War Service." A talisman of this kind is a great protection to workers who, whilst they are apparently fit for military duties, are still found pursuing a civilian occupation. Thousands of men the country over are doing much more valuable work in every sense, by sticking to the jobs at which they are expert, than by enlisting and beginning to train as soldiers. The skilled artisan and mechanic should not be lost to the productive capacity of the country, especially at such a time as the present. Any people, women most of all, who gibe or sneer a,t men who are engaged in the heavy-motor industry are certainly making a• grievous error, not only of taste but of judgment. The finger of scorn might justly be pointed back at them for their false assessment of fact and misplaced zeal. The men themselves, none the less, occasionally feel hurt by idle comment and ill-informed remarks about their staying at home when they should be fighting. For these reasons, amongst others, the outward and visible proof of their being actively employed upon the manufacture of vital war material is fittingly testified by a metal badge of the kind to which we refer, and this simple scheme of notification is one which will probably be adopted more widely in the near future. In no industry is the distribution of such buttonhole discs more appropriate than in that which is responsible for the. supply. of heavy motor transport to the allied armies. The issue of a badge of service is recommended by us as a" campaign comfort " to the men at work on the wagons, as a small consolation for the fact that they cannot go with them. They cannot be confused with badges of no significance which can be bought over the counter.

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Organisations: War Office
Locations: Kingston

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