Sidelights On The War

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 11, 12 January 1918, Page 15

Sidelights On The War

BRITISH SPY HERO. I ■

The King of Bavaria is selling in a neutral country family pearls said to be Vorth £ 25,000. For giving cigarettes to German prisoners at Leigh a canal-boat 'boy, aged 16, was sentenced to a month's imprisonment A speaker in the Reichstag bewails the fact that German soldiers have been -cheated out of victory" by the number and strength of the Allies. The further sum of £10,000 sent to war funds by the Paramount Chief and the Basnto nation is being used for the purchase of aeroplanes. His Majesty has expressed high appreciation of the gift. Information has reached the Serbian Red Cross in London that in Dalmatla flour Is fetching 12/6 a lb; wheat, from 7/6 to 8/6 a lb; and even maize flour as much as 5/ a lb. Coal Is already being sold at 30/6 per cwt. In one village alone, with a prewar population of only 1100, there have been 70 cases of death through starvation. AID FROM BRAZLLBrazil is soon to make her first contribu- I tion to the fighting forces of the AlUes. in response to an invitation from tbe British Government that Brazilian aviators complete their course of instruction in England, twelve naval aviators will leave Rio de Janlero soon for Europe. AMERICAN SHOT BY FIRING SQUAD. An American soldier, found guilty by court-martial of criminal assault on and murder of a Franch woman, has been executed by a firing squad. All details of this, the first death penalty imposed since the U.S. troops landed in Europe, are being withheld by the war department. FREFERS TRENCHES TO WIFE'S "DISH FTJEtE." "I'd rather go back and face the fire in the trenches than face the fire o* crockery my wife turns loose on mc," William Overberg, pensioned Britlsa soldier, declared in a Chicago court. Mrs Over-berg said he had not supported her since he returned from the front in 1915. He was ordered to pay her 30/ a week. FLOT TO CRIPFLE ARMY MULES Double guards with orders to shoot on sight any intruders have been placed at the army post stables, Vancouver, and other points, owing to the discovery of evidence indicating a plot to disable army animals. Several mules were crippled within the last few weeks by the insertion of needles into their joints. These mules were so badly hurt that they were shot. NO USE ARGUING. An Australian N.C.O. in control of road traffic had orders not to permit troops to use a certain stretch during specified hours. Along came a colonel at the head of his battalion, and was promptly checked. "Do you know who we are?" he snorted. "We're the Guards!" The sergeant should have shrivelled to a cinder. But he never even blinked. "I don't give a hang if you're the engine-drivers—you can't use this road,"' he Eaid. DOGS OF WAR. AH blooded dogs and those of value through their special training for police work, have been given to the French Government for the duration of the war. ■However bred or drafted for duty, they nrast first undergo a test for health, strength, and intelligence oy a Jury before they are accepted. Those choser as* then placed In dog camps for pregr l.ton, instruction and training. -Exj-sg trainers teach them retrieving and fss* irlse the dogs with, rifle, pistol Are, and Si |b explosions, and show them how to t llge gas waves. "WATER FOR THE WOUNDED. Water, In spite of its proverbial "weakness" and Instability, Is one of the chief of the sinews of war Dr. Woods Hutchinson In a recent article). First, the soldier needs water to fight on; a regiment In action without water becomes useless almost as quickly as one without ammunition. Second, because the wounded are desperately in need of water, on account of the "drainage" of their bodies by loss of blood. Hence, the apparent paradox that the wounded who have to Ue out on the field in rain and even In snow suffer far less and keep in better condition than those who fall In hot weather. Numerous instances are on record in this war of men ' ■who have faUen wound-ed in some remote ' or hidden shell crater and have laid there ' in rain, sleet and even snow for from five ' to seven days, and then been picked up ' not merely alive, but in condition to make ' a rapid recovery. A man will stand a lot ' of cold and a lot of soaking, but he bears ' drying very badly. 1 A UNIQUE RELIC I Devastated Arras possesses an ancient ' church, Notre Dame dcs Ardents, which re- ] mained uninjured despite the recent terrific ! bombardments, and which contains a unique relic that is nearly 1,000 years old. ' The relic is known as the Holy Candle. It Is guarded in a richly enameled sUver casket, and a curious history is attached to It. It appears that in May, 1105, the Holy Virgln appeared during the night to two minstrels. A terrible plague depopulated . Arras at that time, and the Virgin—so goes the legend—gave the two minstrels a candle c (which they in turn gave to Bishop Lambert . of Arras), and told them that the hot wax of this candle mixed with pure water would . cure the Inhabitants of Arras of the dreadful malady. The remedy proved efficacious, and a grateful populace erected the Monastery of Ardents. The candle has been carefully guarded, and it is the firm belief of the inhabitants of Arras that :t frequently saved them from utter destruction. HOW THE JOB WAS DONE. Lance-Corporal F. takes six men, three shovels, a pick, and a tin of chloride of lime, and tbe job gets done. Then he returns aad reports the completion of the job to Sergeant E. Sergeant E. steps up to Second-Lieutenant D, salutes, and reports: j "I've done that job, sir." "I," mark you. Ko mention of Lance-Coroporal F, with his | six men, three shovels, pick, and tin of| , chloride of lome. Second-Lieutenant L) wires to Captain C: "Have done job." Captain C sends a message by orderly to the . effect that he—"he," mark you—has completed the allotted task. Colonel B takes 1 pen In hand and writes: "Ref. your B.M. j 3427 I beg to report that this work has been b brought to a satisfactory conclusion by mc." Still no word of Lance-Corporal F. General A, replete with a good dinner, receives the message. "Good fellow that Colonel B." i he murmurs. In due course Colonel B be- ■ comes Colonel B, (J.M.G. Lance-Corporal < F remains Lance-Corporal F. until a kindly i Shell carries his head away.—-"Temporary, 1 i Heroes," by Cecil Sommers. s

a Bota, the Basuto -Chief, has written to c a Bath resident saying that he and Chief Mamabolo are serving as privates with the South African N.L.C. s — s Applications for more than £110,400,000 of life insurance for United States fighters have been received by the U.S. Treasury B Department. 2 r BLINDED IN THE WAR. Statistics furnished A>y the French and British authorities show that there are in r England, France, aud Belgium more than 2 3000 soldiers who have been totally blinded - In the war, and nearly 25,000 blinded in s one eye, a large proportion of whom wUI eventually lose the sight of the other as tbe result of shock or of the wounds themselves. • 3 MAN WHO INVENTED GAS. I "Do you think," asked a Prussian officer J captured at Hill 70, "that if w e bad not - first used gau he English would not have b tried it?" "I'm sure they wouldn't," . replied one of his captors. "Then I wish we had the swine who began it," said the officer. "Our men have never gone in for crucifixion, although some of you Canadians think we have, but I think the troops In 1 'Lens would willingly crucify the nan who ' invented gas."—Olr Beach Thomas. GAS TESTS FOR RECRUITS. In all the armies, after the recruit has got thoroughly accustomed to the feel and wear of his mask In the open, and drilled to get it out of its case and on his head securely Inside of ten seconds, a large hall or chamber arranged for the purpose Is I filled with chlorine gas and a squad of fifty . or a hundred men marched into It and put through various gentle drills and exercises , in the stifling fnmes in order to give them confidence In their masks and prevent any risk of panic in their first actual gas attack In the field. A STRAIGHT FIGHT. Asked to explain the chivalrous under--1 standing that exists between the airmen of the opposing forces, a British FUght Commander replied:—"l think, in the first place, that the immensity of space in ! which an airman operates has the effect ■ if impressing him with his absolute selfdependence and individuality, and also that of his opponent. It is a straight fight, man to man, with only a practical equality of mechanical aid. Both suspended In midair, between life and death. Instinctively feel that the issue rests, not with any i mean advantage, but with a clean and fair test of skilL" OUR CANINE SOLDIERS. Dogs are being used in the war for numerous purposes'. In the w-anitary Corps they seek out the wounded and carry "succour to men isolated or missed. This - 'is a lesser duty than It was at the commencement of hostilities. They act as sentinels; . as dispatch-bearers to carry messages "to and fro between detached squads or-pelts; as guards for prisoners, camps, and supply stations: as convoys and haulersoorf r small vehicles, such as light guns, mitrailleuses, and sleighs. They are perhaps the "only effective means to destroy tbe 'dreaded trench rats and other four-footed vermin which infesrt the underground works and trenches In France and Belgium. THE FIRST GAS MASKS. The earliest gas masks which were hurriedly prepared and rushed to the front as soon as the chemists had been able to determine by rough field tests what was the main composition of this new horror which Prussia was unleashing on civilisation, were . simply thickish pads of gauze, or cheesecloth, dipped In strong solution of soda, roughly shaped to cover the mouth and nos- , trils. and provided with strings or tapes a» , tie on with, says Dr. Woods Hutchinson, In . a recent article. One of the quickest popular responses ou record was the nation-wide reply In both England and France to the telegraphed appeal of the War Office for a gas mask for every soldier, to save blm from a horrible death by the new inhumanity. Every mother, wife, and sister in tbe land set Instantly to work, and within forty-elsht hours In England alone over three million homemade gas masks were not merely made, but delivered at the War Office, and new messages bad to be sent out to stop the deluge, which threatened to literally swamp them. HOW "WAR CORRESPONDENTS WORK. In his volume, "With the New Army on the Somme." Mr. Frederick Palmer gives us a glimpse of the way in which tbe work of the war correspondent of to-day ha.i to be done:—"Those whose business it was to observe went and came always with a sense of Incapacity and sometimes with a feeling that writing was a worthless business when others were fighting. The line of advance on the big map at our quarters extended as the brief army reports were read Into the squares every morning by the key of figures and numerals with a detail that included every little trench, every copse, every landmark, and then we chose where we would go that day. At corps headquarters there were maps with still more details, and officers would go over the previous day's work with us. Every wood and every village, every viewpoint, we knew, and every casualty clearing station and prisoners" enclosure. At battalion camps within sight of the ridge and within range of the guns, where tbeir blankets helped to make ' shelter from the sun, you might talk with the men out of the fight, and lunch and | chat with officers who awaited the word to go in again." TEACHING HIM HIS LESSON. , A short time ago, says the "San Fran- , Cisco Argonaut," a private at the Platts- j burg army camp passed a young lieutenant , without saluting. The Plattaburger was ( one of those whose honours sit heavily on j rather narrow shoulders, and he at once s called the private's attention to his over- - 6lght. The private apologised, explained . tbat he was a raw recruit, and was think- j Ing of something else at tbe moment, and j promised that he would not again fail In - showing proper courtesy. But the Hen- ( tenant, a 9 the report goes, saw fit to im- ~ press tbe lesson on the new arrival more . forcefully, and ordered him to make amends on the spot by saluting 200 times. Tie 2 soldier began his task, but the officer In j his haste had set a rather high figure, and c after a few minutes many other men of the x camp had come along and stopped to watch t the performance. When quite a company had collected a colonel came that way. and paused to learn what was going on. Arter J hearing the lieutenant's report, the superior officer asked the private for his version Upon hearing it the colonel, turning again to the lieutenant, inquired, "And when a t private salutes yon. what do you do?" "1 t return it," was the reply. Tbe colonel then i quickly concluded his own part of the in- o cident, which, on the whole must have been r quite entertaining to the bystanders, Dy a saying, "Return the salutes." jt

CAPTURED BY ARABS. 3 I BLEW UP THE TURKISH ARSENAL AT f BAGDAD. 1 I have beard from Sir Robert Holmes , the most romantic and thrilling story ol . tbe war. .Mr Holmes is the famous policecourt missionary, and tbe boys and men who have passed through his hands have done great things for England, says a correspondent of "Lloyd's News." Of an these men Walter Greenway's name will shine In tbe pages of history as tbe doer '• of the most daring, mysterious, and dangerous work ever given in the service of 1 England. j Convicted through the stupid folly of a s magistrate at the age of five-and-twenty, this brUliant young man, educated at a famous pubUc school, became a housebreaker, and it was not until the war came, with all its strange chances, that he brought glory to the name which be r adopted, and by which he wIU always be - known. It was Waiter Greenway who 2 lived as an Arab, and whose mastery of the Arab. language and of Arab ways was so 1 complete that he deceived the very Arabs - themselves. It vvas Walter Greenway wbo married an Arab woman, ana who wrote some of the most wonderful words of love ever penned In Engllsb. And it was Walter Greenway who, masquerading as a German officer, fclew up the Turklsn arsenal in Bagdad, destroying thousands of shells that would have wrecked English lives. 3 "I resolved," Mr Holmes told mc, "to 1 give blm a start on a salUng ship, and for ■ twelve months I heard nothing of him. ' Then he went ashore at Colombo, and was 1 left behind. No more news came of him 1 untU November of 1915, when a most extraordinary letter, written on flve-and-twenty scraps of faded paper, reached mc." ' In It Walter Greenway describes, from 1 somewhere in Mesopotamia, a poor dear mute, a slender, swarthy, agile Bedouin— ' who is, indeed, Walter Greenway himself, with the British Forces as a spy. Here Is his own picture as he described It to Mr Holmes:— Somewhere In this blessed land an afflicted creature warmers, all unable to comprehend what his Mohammedan countrymen, their Turkish masters, and the German super-bosses are about. Respecting his affliction as by the hand of Allah, they sufler him to wander among their camps and entrenchments. They gaze upon him, half-amused, halt In pity; they lead him along labyrinths of trenches for the pleasure of seeing his terror at the engines of destruction ; which bristle In concealed places, and as he eats they talk over their plans, and the German and Turkish commanders issue Instructions, for be Is deaf and be cannot hear: he Is dumb and Illiterate, he cannot tell. And this was Walter Greenway, public school boy, understanding German perfectly, rendering absolutely Invaluable service, as It turned out later, to the British forces. For in his eight years' residence In the East Greenway, always a clever linguist, had learned to speak Turkish and Arabic as a native, and his assumed affliction was so cleverly done and so consistently kept up that he never excited the least suspicion. Indeed, when be visited the British lines soldiers of our own forces thought him to be an Arab. TERRIBLE TORTURES. It was inevitable that the enemy should know of this visit to the British Hne«. and a Turkish deserter who came over to the British forces told of tbe terrible tortures to which Greenway was subjected In tbe endeavour to find out If he were really deaf and dumb. All this is told by Greenway himself in a letter to Mr Holmes. In which he stUl talks of tbe Arab beggar as if be were another person:— He was received back by his brethren with some suspicion. They tired ritles Immediately behind his ears to sec If he would start at the sound; It was evident that he heard not tbe semblance of a sound. They were satisfied about his hearing, but could he spehk, after all? Hot irons appUed to various tender parts were reckoned one good means for proving this: these being Ineffective—though he" wUI bear their scars to the grave— they tried tearing out a Anger-nail or two. Tears rained down bis cheelts, bnt he uttered no more than a guttural moan. They were convinced. . . . A week later Greenway, suffering agonies from gangrene, which nad supervened the wrenching out of the flnger-nalls, returned to the British lines. The doctor had to take off the left arm. And then this great hero, still in the guise of an Arab, told all the enemy's plans, described their positions, their batteries and encampments, giving to our officers information which they could have secured In no otner way, and which was of Incalculable value. He did not reveal tbe fast that he was an Englishman. He told of a home of his own. not a thousand miles from Aden, bow he wished to return there, and of the waiting wife and children. In his letter to Mr Holmes he shows how deeply he loves the little family. "I have a wife," he writes. "If I brought her to England people would turn up their noses because she Is not white-skinned, but she Is as pure as a lily and her heart Is Uke gold. She Is much more British, too, than many of her white sisters who call themselves Englishwomen. She did not demur for nn instant when she saw I longed to take a hand In the tight. Nay, she made It easy for mc to go, letting mc understand tbat she was quite able to take care of our little plantation whilst I was away.' In April of last year there came another letter to Mr. Holmes, in which Greenway described how he reached his beloved and tbeir little children. It was a perilous journey, and very difficult because he was weak from dysentery and privations, But eventually he got to Basra, where by luck he met bis father-in-law, whose ship made sail for Mocha, calling at Aden late in March. But his home was gone. The Turks, discovering his service to Britain, had determined to be avenged, and they had swooped down from the north, fifty horsemen strong, to destroy his home and carry away his family. By chance the wife and children were working nt a field at tbe time, and were warned of the danger to flee into the wilderness. She sought refuge In familiar places later, but all her home was gone—house, plantation, coffee crop, everything. Another home had to be made, and for weeks Walter was nursed there, with love and care, by the woman he had made his honoured wife, and who loved her husband as few men have ever been 'loved. " MORE FOR ENGLAND." I But his heart was restless. He wanted to do something more for England. And the way was pointed out as he strolled about one afternoon In Aden. Here he overheard a conversation between two German officers, who were disguised as traders. Tbey were talking of—a great arsenal which the Turks had filled with German muni-

tions near Bagdad, and of plans they had for blowing up ships with devilish tlmeexploslvcs hidden In Aden. "I am dreaming of Ilrltaln," he writes at this time, "and chafing to be doing something for my country. Allah would seem to be giving mc one more chance. News of the arsenal up the Tigris has set mc off again. I hope a little plan I have made will work." In the book entitled "Besieged In Kut." by Major Barber, the explosion of the arsenal Is described, while a letter from a prisoner of war in Kut from May to August of 1916 gives corroborative evidence of the character and time of tbe explosion. We may well accept, then, the wonderful story as he himself tolls it. again in a letter to Mr. Holmes:—"He left hLq family at the mouth of Sbat-el-Arnb. going up to Basra in a boat his father-in-law had purchased. His Idea was to test tbe possibility of firing that enemy munition store near Bagdad. His objective lay 300 miles up the Tigris." HIS DEADLY CLOCKS. He bad secured a German uniform in Aden, and, luckily, it had a map In one of the pockets of the very district to which he was journeying. And the deadly bombs be carried were none others than those which the Huns had hidden in Aden. The river trip was without mishap, and eventually, after seven days afloat, tbe date palms and minarets and domes of Bagdad came to view. Steering for a palm-grove by the waterside be made fast bis boat, then roused the sleepers In a hut close at hand. No longer mute, be maae them o'oey the powerful but disguised German officer confronting them, showing the uniform nn>- rr his cloak. . . They unquestionably accepted his claims, and he was conveyed with his goods (these were the terrible clocks) inside of the very gates of the arsenal he sought, some mties down the river. Marching to the Turkish colonel in charge, ho was received with true Oriental courtesy. A few German junior officers who bung about enabled blm to demonstrate bis importance. He remembered German tastes, and had brought strong drink with him. By nightfall he was master there. None, he knew, would dare disobey certain directions he gave for tbe safe keening of his additions to tbe stores. Tbe day hail passett pleasantly. His clocks were wound up and going beautifully, and the guard slept off their Uquor. He betook himself to Bagdad for an hour or two. . . . About midnight the arsenal blew up with a tremendous roar whicb shook the earth, while flames ascended hundreds of yards to illuminate an inky sky. He heard and felt and saw from his boat as he tore down the river. "Alas!" he murmured, "alas! for the Faithful who trusted a German. Surely there be few of them left. These clocks worked well." After this amazing adventure he rejoined his family, but it was to die. He organised an expedition to punish the Turks who had stolen his home, and he irecaptured the booty, but the accursed dysentery returned, and nothing. it seemed, could save him. Not even the unceasing care of the beautiful Arab wife who adored him, could keep him alive, and the tragic story of his last hours Is told by the doctor to whose hospital Greenway was brought at the point of death, and where he finally died. A fortnight yesterday an Arab woman brought her husband, an Englishman, to this hospital. He was suffering from acute dysentery, from which he died on August 26. . . . He had lost an arm recently. His wife, whose English is very imperfect, made us understand that for some twelve months be bad served with the British forces In Mesopotamia. . . . She was the picture of despair when he died, and for eighteen hours she mourned at his grave. A few hours later her father, an Arab sheik, seems to have conveyed the children to his own home. She thanked us with tears for what we -had done for her husband—little enough—and then ran to the graveyard.