KEEN AS EVER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 60, 11 March 1915, Page 5

KEEN AS EVER.

UNCOMPLAINING BRITISH.

FRENCHMAN'S TRIBUTE.

(Times and Sydney Sun Services;)

LONDON, March 4.-

A Frenchman living near La Baesee, in the French Department of Nord, writes:— - .:."•;■:

"Our undesirable ne'ghbouns are only two or- three miles away. Night and day we can hear the thunder of cannon and the crack, crack of rifles. Never a week passes without-two attacks on Aix Lt>ulette and lia Bassec. The wastage of men is out of all proportion to the territory gained, but every time the Bodies arc forced back their losses far exceed ours.

."We are. beginning to understand the spirit of your Tommies. One day they lose several but it does not upset them or.us; for we know they will keep their.pledged word that they will retake them to-morrow, or, at tbe most, in two or three days. The other day I met a British company coming into barracks after four days in the trenches. The}- did • not look like human beings. There was no trace of uniforms; in fact, I they were walking blocks of mud. They could hardly walk, poor fellows. We can never over-estimate what they are) | doing for us. Despite all their discomfort they never complaint hut are just as , keen as on the first day."