when new organizations were formed. As a matter of fact, as the war progressed, many appointments as non-commissioned officers were made, the commanders of Negro soldiers ultimately realizing that they as well as other soldiers were prompted to do better work when there were even remote possibilities of securing promotions. The kind of treatment accorded the men was due almost entirely to the attitude of the officers who immediately commanded them. In some organizations commanding officers were more like foremen and overseers over railroad gangs and plantation workers than like officers in command of American soldiers. Very frequently little interest was taken in the personal appearance of the men, and military law was practically disregarded in dealing with them. One commander did not hesitate to say that if the men did not move as he thought they should, he helped them with his foot, and the soldiers were placed in the guardhouse on the most trivial pretense. “The spirit of St. Nazaire,” said one officer, “is the spirit of the South,” and in the early days of this great camp there were constant clashes caused by racial feeling and by drinking. There were several colored French women at this base. White officers and soldiers were frequently seen with them, but if a Negro was seen with a white French woman a good deal was likely to be said, and trouble was generally started by the marines. Discriminatory orders were often issued, and stevedores experienced difficulties in visiting cafés and other public places. Sometimes they were also forbidden to enter French homes or to be seen in company with French civilians. With the military police there was special trouble, as the men received the impression that they made a special effort to use their authority to abuse Negro soldiers. Sometimes they conducted an “era of ruthlessness,” and many of the fights and “near riots” were due to such efforts. In the railway terminal in one cantonment city, when large numbers of soldiers were returning to camp, every Negro was required to show his pass, but the passes of the white men were not required. This sort of thing made for friction, as did also the manner in which the soldiers were often approached by the M. P.’s. On the other hand, the Negro soldiers themselves were not without faults. Some of their difficulties were due to their own ignorance and to customs that they brought into the army from civil life. On plantations and public works some had been used to “ducking the boss” and slipping away, and attempts to continue this practice in the army sometimes resulted in their being placed in the guardhouse.