GENEEAL AND DOLL

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 55, 6 March 1934, Page 11

GENEEAL AND DOLL

THE ARMY WAYOUT I

There are many good stories of incidents in the war that have never found their way into the writings of historians of the great struggle, says "The Post's" Paris correspondent. Mr. H. Bach, who is the partner of Mr. H. C. Welma'n, president of the British Chamber of Commerce in Paris, in the insurance firm of Bach and Welman, told me casually, of one vrhieli was recalled to him by the presence of General Sir AVilliani Birdwood at tho British Legion dinner in Paris lately. ■ Soon after the Australians occupied Villers-Bretonneux in the Somnie, the general received a letter vrhich set him a stiff problem. It was from a little "French girl in Bordeaux, and translated, ran something like this:— "Dear General, —When the Germans drove us out of Villers-Bretonneux, we had to leave in such a hurry that I left my dolly behind. Do you think you could find it and send it to me as I miss it very much?" The general tossed the letter over, to Captain Bach, who was liaison officer with the Australians. "Here Bach, there's a job for you—go and buy her a doll." " • The captain went off and bought one that was attractive enough he thought to please any child. But the general knew children better than the captain. "JSTo, we must be sure to send one that looks like tho missing one. Write the little girl and tell her we have found so many dolls that we don't know which is hers. Ask her to tell you all she can remember about it." In due course, back came a letter giving a most painstaking description, and armed with this, the captain went off and managed to buy one that agreed closely with "the description. "Excellent," said the' general. "But, look here, Bach, just toll the little mademoiselle when you write, that it was in such a state when we found it that we had to give it a good wash before sending it. Like that she may think it is the old one."

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