NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16272, 24 July 1918, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

j One striking incident mentioned in ! one of the cables describing the Allies' | counter-offensive, is that of the discovery by French troops of Frfinch prisoners who had been compelled to ; work within the German lines. The prisoners at once j6ined their comrades and helped them in their attack on the enemy. The use of prisoners of war . within the firing line is, of course, opposed to all principles regulating ! the treatment of prisoners m civilised | warfare, but the Germans are not civilised fighters, and they have fiequently compelled their unhappy cap i tives to perform military work within reach of their countrymen's guns. The 1 report of Sir Robert Younger's committee, published recently, revealed a number of examples of German inhumanity and broken faith, and a subsequent' report, referring particularly to breaches of the agreement tbat prisoners should not be employed within thirty kilometres of the firine line, stated that since the issue of the first report there had accumulated a long list of atrocious violations of this agreement. One man captured on the morning of March 28th, this year, was made to work for two hours immediately after being taken prisoner, serving a German field gun with ammunition -md digging out a position for it under British fire. In the working party were warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and Royal Army Medical Coips men, who were made to work on roads and light railways under shell-fire t.nd knocked about with rifle butts or sticks. One man was beaten 3s he lay on f he ground groaning. One working paity had a corporal wounded by shell-firo. Many men working behind the lines died of weakness. When fresh batches of prisoners weie captured they were kept working behind the lines instead of being sent to registered camps.

"As for the cavalry," wrote the London "Times'! correspondent, in a cable in Monday's issue, referring to the French attack on the Germans, "they came into their own at last. It was a sight for sore eyes as they rode eastwards along the valleys. Airmen saw the cavalry fighting in villages so far ahead that I dare not name tL",n." This is not the first time this year, however, thai, the French cavalry have been of great service to the Allies. They maintained contact most hrilliantly between the British and French lines during the last week of March, over a distance of nearly 40 jiiles. Their work during this time emphasised the fact, as remarked by one of the American correspondents, that since the beginning of the war the French cavalry has changed completely its organisation, armament, and methods of fighting to meet the exigencies of present, day warfare. During the first few months of the war, it had its first and. as it appeared subsequently, # almost its last chance, to assume "the dominant part expected of it. On more than one occasion the cavalry saved both the French and her Allies bv keeping up contact' between broken portions of the line, and by arriving at menaced points with the speed of which cavalry alone is capable. When the war changed from one of movement to one of trenches, the French cavalry disappeared, at least, in its original role. While France at all times maintained o certain proportion of her cavalry for the time when open warfare might again be resumed, the rest of it did duty in the trenches aa infantry.

In March last year, following the German i etreat on the Hindenburg line, the cavalry again came in for a brief period of activity, but it lasted only a week. After that it was not until the British line, was forced back at St. Quentin on March 21st this year that the French cavalry, as such, again came into action. They dashed forward to maintain contact between the retiring British and the French left. - "Once, there, their horses were left behind, and they took the field as foot soldiers. It was in this way that? thousands of the finest cavalrymen of France leaped into the shell holes of the devastated areas about Ham Guiscard and Nesle, fighting with knives, bayonets, and hand grenades after their last cartridge had been fired." F4nch cavalry as it exists to-day is thoroughly trained in infantry lighting. Each regiment has a greatly augmented contingent of machine-guns and "75" batteries, while armoured cars mounting both machine-guns and the French trente-sept, or "baby cannon," constitute one of their principal equipments. The cavalrymen themselves are likewise supplied with rifles, bayonets, grenades, and entrenching tools. But when occasion demands they can drop all these and once more resort with their former brilliancv to the "white arm," the cavalry sabre which even in modern warfare is so effective on a shaken foe.-