CHAPLAIN IN THE FIRING LINE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1917, Page 8

CHAPLAIN IN THE FIRING LINE.

fBISHOP CLEARY'S NARROW I ESCAPES. I AN INTLIWSTINC LETTER, i AUCKLAND, March (i. A letter has been forwarded by i)vClcary, Komaii Catholic Bishop o| Auckland, to the clergy of his diocese, in which he gives particulars. of his adventures at tne front while doing duty as. chaplain to a brigade of New Zealand troops. Bi&hop Cleaiy e:\preases surprise that in so wet a country ''even our skilled engineers could have provided such dry shelters and sleeping places fur our boys, and made it possible to go i'rom one end )f our present New Zealand front with comparatively little inconvenience .Tom mud and water. There are miles

Itnd miles of duck beard.i —really tingle and double tracks—and the men n our front lines, its a further precaution, arc supplied with rubber thigh ooots, and are handed each morning I dean and dry nock* Another highlyI oilued comfort hi the brazier, general, y made from an oil drum. It ia fed J.vith dead wood (the trees being torn ILo splinters by shell live). Indeed, j ('runt-line conditions ;' l( '- ;l " ihingri {considered, wonderfully comfortable. "1 spend a great pan of cacti aay in the tiring hue," writes the Jii.ihcp. "The roads leading to the umiclks near which 1 live are all siuhed from time to time by the enemy s guns, but uinu risk also arise:; from tlie almo.it daily tiring of anti-aircraft artillery

! right overhead by tnciid and toe, but cliidlv liv foe, as our airmen are nioi\> numerous and mure daring than their:;. Fragments of bursting au projectiles come buzzing at great velocity through the air with a mu.ueai note, and may inflict very ugly wounds. One oi these dropped between me and a young Aueklander, failing to get me by only a portion of an inch. I now have it as a souvenir. Our front lines are more built up than dug down. 1 make it my business each day to see personally every Konian Catholic along the seetors visited. This duty is done while jjthe air above is bmi uy the mighty ?din of war and the ground behind is ; thrown up in thickly-crowded geysers of earth, stone, and fragments 1 of wood and Hying metal." Bishop Clean-, proceeding, says: 'My own escape from a high explosive 0.0 (iennan shell may perhaps present some point of iiite.rent to you. The shell exploded only Bft from where three of us (one young English artil-

lery officer) were standing side by side in the front line in the height of a bombardment. The shell explosion made a great hole—fortunately of soft earth. AH three of us. werthrown down, and great quantities <>f earth and mud were cast over us. There was a highly unpleasant singing in my ears. The young artillery officer never rose again. 1 drew him into cover im two oilier shells burst near by, cwri'ag both of us with earth ami rubbish. I looked jit the wound in the officer's head, but found lie was past all human aid, a;; a fragment of the shell had taken off a great part of the left side of hi.-: head. During the bombardment in question a piece of shrapnel .itruek my <,tao\ helmet and denied it. A 7-7 exploded right over the heads of a lieutetnant and invsclf."