AN ACT OF CHIVALRY

Evening Star, Issue 16550, 9 October 1917, Page 8

AN ACT OF CHIVALRY

Sapper J. E. MacManus, writing to his ! wife from. Prance, relates tho following :-liuohing incident: You may remember me tolKng you :>ut a bombing r?id which took place" in ptember, 1916, in which Lieutenant i iirant and Sergeant Powncenby, oi the ! 'C-w Zealand Engineer Tunnelling " Comj j ln y, took,part in and were missing. I j then expressed the opinion it was unlikely 1 :hey were taken prisoner, as thoy were j jiilt of such stern stuff that they would , iie rather than surrender. I The conclusions I arrived at were cornet. Sinco the great advance here, prelously referred to, I and a number of -mere from my section visited tho graves I,J these men. Not far from a river, on i '- gentle rise, the Germans had buried our jflicer, our sergeant, a Tommy corporal, ml a private side by side amid the ruins )i a historic village. They bordered the ■.veil-kept grave with roof tiles, and planted on it some rose'bushes. If loving hands had kept the graves in order, fchey could not be kept in a better condition than they were when left by the Germans. They placed at the head a beautiful wooden cross, and in the centre of the cross fastened an oval board, on whioh they wrote the following inscription:— Hier ruhen vier tapfere Bnglander, Leutnant W. M. Durant, New Zeal. E. 4/1223, ans Dunedin, New Zealand, Sowie Zwor Untffz u ein Mann, gefll a.m., 14/9/1916. What grcatsr tribute to the memory of the fallen can bo paid than an inscription stating "Hero rests four brave Englishmen." Such an act of ohivaky is the ono bright contrast to tho horrible tales of German brutality which have disfigured their campaign saico the commencement of the war. When ono thinks of their hymns of hate, their corpse utilisation factories, t|ieir desecration of the dead, their violation and destruction of sacred edifices, their rapings, barbario cruelty to prisoners, whom they work under shell fire, their slave traffic with the conquered peoples, their acts of vandalism and unnamable horrors, _ their violations of treaties and international law designed to guide the conduct of belligerent nations; when one thinks of these acts, which have blackened their namo in the eyes of civilised people, and contrasts them with their action in paying such hornag© to the memory of these fallen New Zealanders and Englishmen, one would be inclined to conclude that the heroic conduct of Lieutenant Durant and Sergeant Powncenby, the Tommy corporal, and private, Who all fought to the doafch, must have wrung from the Germans the admiration of a stern and unrelenting foe. Suck chivalrous tributes to brave foemen have at all times been considered to be the,custom and guarantee of_ a brave people. Weknow the heroic airmen of both .sides have invariably paid homage to fallen opponents; but thea a iran, to bo an airman, under modern war conditions, must in- ; l-o a brave man. And such chivalry is the outward and visible expression of bravery. This is tho first tributo it has been my lot to witness that has ever been paid by the Germans to a soldier. And when it is remembered that one of the soldiers from New Zealand was born in New Zealand, was a product of Otago's soil, one must thrill with pride at the undaunted' spirit and heroism of men that won admiration and respect from adversaries whoso overwhelming numbers he faced to tho end. The pride felt is greater not only because it proves Now Zealand's sons possess the same indomitable spirit as the men from tho British Isles, but also because these New Zealanders are members of the company to which I belong. It is an immortal witness to the veneration paid by at least some of the German race to a brave opponent, and it implies that there are some who, by such an example, can bo said to show thev possess "kultur" in spite of deeds of " Irightf illness " that have made tho name of German hideous to those who have followed their vile deeds. It is proof that in spite of the barbaric manner in which war has been waged the spirit of chivalry still lives in one or some, at least, of our opponents. It is evidence that Lieutenant Durant, Sergeant Powncenby, the Tommy corporal, and private met foemen worthy of their steel, for no coward could pay homage to a brave opponent. While hymns' of hate are being sun, It takes a bravo man to do a chivalrous deed Kke that in his own country. Nearby is another grave, well cared for, and on the cross appears the following inscription : Hier ruhet ein Englisoher offlzer, Leutnant G. I. Slinger, 159 Brigade Koncgl Feld Art! Ret.: gelf im - K Ocktb., 1916. I have witnessed many burials— I have noticed the touching regard of tho French women for the venerated' dead—but never have I witnessed an incident eo touching as these unexpected expressions of admiration and respect by the Germans to fallen foemen.