FORTY EXECUTED.
FOREIGN LEGION MUTINY. DEATH SENTENCE ON 400 MEN. United Press Association —Copyright.) LONDON, August 24. A sensational dispatch from Fez has been published in Berlin. It gives details of an alleged mutiny in the Foreign Legion, resulting in 400 being sentenced to death, the sentence being actually carried out in 40 cases. A whole battalion mutinied when about to go into action. Every man was disarmed and was sentenced. According to the French custom, one m every 10 was told to fall out and was shot. The survivors were sentenced to penal servitude for life. Among those shot, it is alleged, were 24 Germans, three Australians, two Bulgarians and 11 Russians. The French Foreign Legion consists of four regiments of a varying number of battalions. It is recruited from foreigners of any nationality, out is officered chiefly by. Frenchmen. The headquarters of the Legion is at Sidi-bel-Abbes, in Oran, but the battalions are sent to any colony in which they may be required. The normal period of enlistment is for seven years, which may be renewed for a further period of three years. The pay is very small, one sou (a halfpenny) a day, the conditions of life are most arduous, and the discipline as indicated by til? cable is very severe. , The legion provides an outlet tor tne activities of over-adventurous spirits, and possibly a place of refuge for those who have come into conflict with the law of their own country. Thus it will bo seen that the strictest discipline is necessary to maintain the efficiency or the force. Again, the heat of Northern Africa, the monotony of existence, and the hardness of life generally combine to make of the legionnaire a character that fears neither God nor man. Life in the Foreign Legion has been the subject .of many a novel, and many are the tales told of the hardships and experiences of those warriors in the desert. It is sufficient to say that there is probably no better fighting force in the world.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 268, 26 August 1930, Page 5
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339FORTY EXECUTED. Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 268, 26 August 1930, Page 5
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