GERMAN’S PIPE OF PEACE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 64, 9 December 1936, Page 9

GERMAN’S PIPE OF PEACE

Search for Sergeant Fails A search on behalf of Herr Paul Keil, arising out of the unofficial truce on the Western Front on Christmas Day, 1914, for a sergeant whom he presented with a pipe, has been unsuccessful. “We felt when we began on our inquiries on Herp Keil’s behalf nearly a year ago that it was well-nigh an impossible task,” an official of the British Legion told a London newspaper representative, "and we have accordingly bad io abandon them. “It seems likely that the sergeant who belonged to the Scots Guards, was killed in action or died shortly after the war. Her r Keil originally bad his name —fie recorded it in a small notebook in No-Man’s-Land—but when he was made prisoner in 1916 tlie book was lost, and in tlie course of years he forgot its contents. “The Guards sergeant apparently offered Herr Keil a fill of tobacco, and Keil, accepting, brought from his pocket a new pipe he had received from home as a Christmas gift. The sergeant admired the pipe, and Keil pressed it on him. They talked for a long while exchanged names, shook hands, and parted. . , , , , “In a letter we have just had from Herr Keil he tells us that he has received many letters from British exservicemen. and also communications from the private secretaries of the late King and King Edward. He had hoped to Visit Glasgow—where lie believed the sergeant came from and where, the Pine was on loan at a museum-but was unable to afford the journey.