The English officers felt that the rules of the game called upon them to lead their men.

They became targets for the guns of the foe, until one of the present embarrassments in England is the unprecedented loss of officers.
This has now been changed and Kitchener insists that both officers and men shall regard themselves as property of the Empire, that the exposure of a single life to unnecessary hazard is a breach of discipline.

For this reason Victoria Crosses are not numerous, less than two dozen having been conferred thus far; and it has been quietly announced that no Victoria Crosses will be conferred for single acts of bravery or where only one life is involved.

It must be team work and results affecting many.
For this reason also it has been decreed that the 33,000 Canadians in training at Salisbury Plain shall not be put in the front until they have learned discipline in place of the American initiative.
These Canadian boys receive their home pay of four shillings, or $1 per day, while the English Tommy gets one quarter of this amount.

The Canadians are fine fellows, feeling their independence and anxious to be on the firing line, but the War Office recognizes that soldierly independence cannot be allowed in this war.