A WAR INCIDENT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1923, Page 9

A WAR INCIDENT

Out on the red horizon of war; -in 1916, a young Australian digger, Private X._ A. Barrett, of the 18th Brigade, A.1.1., was engulfed in the tragic army of missing men. Now, after the' lon* years, the first definite news of him has just come,to hand in a letter to his parents from-a German soldier. Thus, in a very human way, the pitiless soul of war has revealed its secret. Young Barrett- fought against the Gernrnn eoldier, - probably: without ever seeing him-or feeling the slightest hatred for him. The latter, in his letter, states that Barrett s company took two of the enemy's positions at Fromellea. The Germans retook them, and in that fight the hoy lost ms life. He was shot- through the heart the-.bullet passing through his coveted pay-book, which the German soldier ha» sent to the boy's parents, along with a, kindly and. sympathetic message. He thought the boy'e parents would like'th« pay-book as a keepsake. The letter "tell» also how the German and some of his comrades buried Barrett and'others who fell with him. Barrett was under 17 years of.age when ha enlisted and was not 19 when he was"c St.down- The Daybook which he was wearing in his tunic l^J*?, 1"3 heai"t> has the mark where the bullet passed through, it. Youmr Barrett, cut down in the flower of h« youth, lives afresh to-day in a little household. In that pay-Book, in that kmdly letter, sent by a German eoldier, there will be visualised the boy who marched oft to war with all the zeet <rf heroic youth. - - ■