TRUCE OF THE DEAD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3873, 9 March 1915, Page 3

TRUCE OF THE DEAD.

FRIEND JOINS FOE AT BURIAL SERVICE. OFFICER'S STORY OF THE AMAZING CHRISTMAS. The following letter from a subaltern at the front has been received by Reuter’s Age fey:— " December oL. Christmas has come and gone—certainly the most extraordinary celebration of it any of ns will ever experience We were due back in tho trenches on Christmas Eve, and the battalion’s official Christmas Day was consequently held on Wednesday, the 23rd. There were stacks of presents for officers and men, and no lack of comfortable hampers full of good things. In the yard of the farmhouse where my company was billeted there is a huge cauldron. In this no less than 1251 b of puddingin tins were boiled at h time. We turned out to see them dished out. It was a Gargantuan spectacle. The next day we returned to the trenches groaning under loads of comestibles and condiments destined to alleviate our lot on the morrow. That night it froze hard, and Christmas Day dawned on an appropriately sparkling

landscape. A truce had been arranged for the few hours of daylight for the burial of the dead on both sides, who had been lying out in the open since the fierce night lighting of a week earlier. When I got out I found a large crowd of officers and men, English and German, grouped around the bodies which had already been gathered together and laid out in rows. I went along those

dreadful ranks and scanned the faces, fearing at every step to recognise one I knew. it “was a ghastly sight. They lay stiffly in contorted attitudes, dirty with frozen mud, and powdered witli'grime. Tho digging parties were already busy on the two big common graves, but the ground was hard, and the work slow and laborious. BLAND INNOCENCE.

In the intervals of superintending it wo chatted with the Gormans, most of whom were quite - affable, if one could not exactly call them friendly, which, indeed, was neither to lie expected nor desired. We exchanged confidences about the weather and the diametrically opposite news from East TTussia. The way they maintained the truth of their marvellous victories because they were official (with hated breath) was positively pathetic. They had no doubt of the issue in the East, and professed to regard tho position in the West as'a ciefinite stalemate. It was most amusing to observe the bland innocence with which they put questions, a truthful answer to which might have had unexpected consequences in the future. One charming, lieutenant of artillery was most anxious to know just where my dug-out, “The Cormorants,” was situated. No doubt lie wanted to shoot .his card, tied to a “Whistling Willis.” I waved my hand airily over the next company’s line, giving him the choice of various mangel-lieaps in the rear. They spoke of a bottle of champagne. We raised our wistful eyes in'hopeless longing. They expressed astonishment, and said how pleased -uey would have been, had they only known, to have sent to Lille for some —“A charming town Lille. Do you 1 know it

“Not yet,” we assured them._ Tho:i laughter was quite frank that time. “ GOOD HEALTH ! ”

A tiny, spruc-e little lieutenant, ! spoken of—to his manifest chagrin—j as “Dor Kleine” by his comrades, attached himself to me and sent his Bursche back for a bottle of Cognac, and we solemnly drank _ “Gesundliciten.” He was an amiable little soul really, with tiie typical Prussian officer snap in his speech. It very few words were punctuated with “Nidi Meanwhile time drew on, and it was obvious that the burying would not be half finished with, the exoiration oi the armistice agreed upon, so we decided to renew it the following morning. \t tho so't hour everyone returned to the - trenches, and when the last man was in, mv little lieutenant, and 1 solemnly shook hands, saluted, and inarched back ourselves. They left us alone that night to enioy a peaceful, Christmas. On Boxing Day, at the agreed hour, on a prearranged signal being given, we turned out again. The output of officers of higher rank on their side was more marked, and the proceedings were more formal in consequence. But while the gruesome business of burying went forward there was still a certain interchange of pleasantries. The German soldiers seemed a goodtempered, amiable lot—mostly peasants from the look of them. One remarkable exception, who wor>the Iron Cross and addressed us in slow but faultless English, told us lie was professor of earlv German and Ensrlish dialects at a Westphalian University. He had a wonderfully fine head. . They distributed cigars and cigarettes freely among our digging party, who were much impressed by the cigars. I hope they were not disillusioned when they came to smoke them. Meanwhile" the officers were amusing themselves by taking photographs of mixed groups. The Germans brought copies to send to the English illustrated papers, as they received them regularly. THE FUNERAL SERVICE.

The digging completed, the shallow graves were tilled in,, and the German officers remained to pay their tribute of respect while our chaplain read a short service. It was one of the most impressive tilings I have ever ed. Friend and foe stood side ay side, bare-headed, watching the tall, grave figure of the padre outlined against tnc frosty landscape as he blessed the poor broken bodies at his feet. Then with more formal salutes we turned and made our way back to our respective ruts. Life runs rather in grooves here! By the way, if there is ever another armistice ray little lieutenant has promised me a case of Rhenish. Though he would certainly be as good as his word, 1 fear I shall never see it.

Elsewhere along the line I hear our fellows played the Germans, at football on Christmas Day. Our own pet enemies remarked that they would like a game, but as the ground in our part is all root crops and much cut up by ditches, and as. moreover, we bad not got a football, we liad to call it off. That night the frost turned abruptly to rain. The trenches melted like butter on tho fire, and all was slime and water instead of good hard surface. A shuffle of company lines has now given me a-captain as stable-com-panion at the ‘’Cormorants” —a gay young soul with a penchant for building improvements. He constructed a top-liole fireplace inside with a reai chimney and an up-to-date sloping fir.c back, and utilised .the last hour of the armistice to make the roof seaworthy with an ingenious arrangement of derelict waterproof sheets. Wo liacl a homely evening, and towards midnight were blissfully rejoicing In our dry, spot ani'icl the welter of mud, lie asleep on iris bunk, I reading by the light of a candle. Suddenly a horrible cracking like two or three clips of cartridges firing off made Toth of us jump out of our skips. It was not a German infernal.machine, but merely a centre prop of tho dug-out and the' beam it supported that had given way. Tlie, roof sagged threateningly three inches from our heads. A hasty retreat with a few valuables was beaten and a digging partv put on to clear off the earth to save a complete collapse. In the course of ' the next night the carpentry part was made as firm as a rock, but the -waterproofing was a farce, and we never knew a dry moment till we were relieved. It was a lesson in trying to he too comfortable, but as usual, when things seem quite hopeless, all we could do was to indulge in shrieks .of laughter.