TOMMY GOING HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

TOMMY GOING HOME.

AND TAKING HIS PET, TOO. FAREWELL TO THE RHINE. BRITISH OCCUPATION ENDS. Mr. Thomas Atkins is leaving the Rhine and going home, taking his cat or his dog with him. Kiplingites who remember how addicted Ortheris and Learoyd were to dogs will not Le surprised that the men who have been keeping a watch oil the Rhine have taken unto themselves canine pets. Let us hope they got possession of them more honestly than Ortheris did. One thing is pretty certain; it is safe, to lay odds that none of the Tommies homeward bound with a pet would have fixed his affections upon that monstrosity of the breed —-the dachshund. No could imagine Tommy with a yard of dog following him. This occupation of the Rhine area has been a very sore subject with the Germans all along, and it is not difficult to imagine the feelings that have been aroused at the reported intention of the French to take over the area that is being evacuated by the British troops. It will be remembered that at the armistice the Germans were forced to submit to the occupation by Allied troops 0/ the lett bank of the,, river with, bridge-heads on the opposite side as a guarantee against any attempt to renew the war. This occupation was endorsed by the Peace Treaty as a security for the execution by Germany of her obligations under the Treaty, the period being fixed at 15 years, but a~ clause was added setting out that "if before the'expiration of the period of

fifteen years Germany complies with all the undertakings resulting from the present Treaty, the occupying forces will be withdrawn immediately." By the adoption of the Young Plan (with important modifications insisted upon at The Hague the other day by Mr. Snowden) the way lias been cleared for Britain to withdraw her troops. The area in occupation of the French and British troops runs from the Dutch border just north of Aix la Chapelle down to a salient of the French frontier near Karlsruhe, covering, in fact, the most vulnerable side of France and Belgium facing Germany. The Allied "front" measures about 220 miles. Originally the area occupied comprised about 12,528 square miles, with a population of some 7,000,000. By January, 1920, the Cologne area, of some 2527 square miles, and about 3,000,000 people, was evacuated, and now the British are clearing out. Their zone was the most advanced, centring on Wiesbaden, just about the middle of the "front" covercd by the occupation.

According to the cables this week the British troops "during the eleven years spent on the Rhine have borne an unblemished record, to which a tribute was paid by General Sir William Thwaites, Commander-in-Chief of tile British Army of Occupation, in his farewell ' order." The last of the British troops are to leave about the middle of December next, when a member .of the .Roya,l Fusiliers will haul down the flag. We are told that when the first of the troops left for England "there were no signs of bitterness" on the part of the Germans, who bade them farewell. Then the cables told of the rather elaborate bother to which the British authorities had gone to ensure that Tommy would not be parted from his dog or cat pet to which he had become attached during his sojourn on the famous river. Would any other nation .on earth have gone to the trouble of helping its soldiers to get over quarantine regulations in order that mere cats arid dogs might accompany their masters to England Some people would 110 doubt laugh at the "sof t-heartedneas" of Tommy, but this love of animals is a very characteristic trait, and to us who understand it makes one like him all the more/, . . ... ...