LITTLE PICTURES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16793, 22 February 1915, Page 4

LITTLE PICTURES.

VIVID FLASHES OP AVAR.

i. WITH THE BELGIANS. I ought to say at once that tho "morale" of tho Belgian Army is excellent. Some of these soldiers had been, in the firing Hue for Jive months without a day's rest. They had been at Liege, at Tirlemout, at Louvain; they had seen all the fighting before Antwerp; they hud been swopt hack in the great retreat; they had finally struggled fiercely during a fortnight on the Ysor; they wore still tramping in the mud', sleeping in wet trenches, exposed at any moment to the shelling of the enemy, and they retained, in spite of all these defeats, of all these fights against tremendous odds, an unshakable confidence in their final triumph. Among the officers I met some schoolfellows, amongst the men some old pupils of mine. Nearly all of thorn when we parted said: " A bientot, a Bruxelles.

Them is a wonderful elasticity in the soul of man! Among the first soldiers I had met on the way I noticed a few who seemed somewhat discouraged. Once in the trenches, however, every sign of depression disappeared. One would think tha.t their state of mind in tho cantonments ought to be brighter than in the firing line, where they are, at any time, exposed to the shelling of tho German batteries. Nothing could bo more misleading. On the contrary, among all the soldiers to whom I have spoken in the trenches, T have not met one. whoso laughter could not be kindled by the mildest joke. J would knock at tho little door of their improvised shelter, for instance, asking them if I could come in. On the door being opened, T would' make some excuse about not being able to ring the bell. They woujd at once follow tho cue and offer me a bundle of straw, saying. " Do take this chair," or would call an imaginary servant: . "Amelie. apporte.z unc chaise pour monsieur!'' On some of the shelters

I noticed jocular inscriptions, such as: IC Entrance forbidden to Rhrapnel"; or the sign of an inn, such as this: "The Six Bachelors" (aux six sans femmes). In the villages near Fumes I heard a few men complain of the state of their equipment, of the want of boots and socks, of the bad weather, and of the prices at which. retail traders sell them tobacco and matches. Although these complaints are perfectly justified. J never heard a. word of them in the trenches. The "moral" of the men improves in proportion to the danger they are running. Once under fire

every selfish feeling disappears. The soldier does not feel so much the want of clothes as tho want of news from home. As one of them explained to me, in a. childish way: " One cannot always sleep when the guns are booming. When 1 lie awake watching the. smoke of our fire it seems to mo that I see all the dear ones at home. Last

night .1 saw my mother, not as she is now. as she was when I was a baby and when she put me to bed at night with her hair hanging down her back." No news from homo! Such is the

only complaint in the Bolgian trenches. Some of them have not heard since September. They know the German methods, and they shudder at the thought of what might havo happened to their mothers, to their brides, to their wives and children, which they had been obliged to leave behind. "When I think that they might be starving," a boy of eighteen told me—a pale little Brussels clerk with burning, eager eyes—" 1 almost reproach myself for being here comfortably warming my feet in tho trenches.'' We were sitting on soaking .straw. A j

Taube was hovering oyer, ns as he-\ spoke, and .1 could see, in the field behind iis two deep fresh holes made that same morning by the German " marmites." What a lesson to the voung Belgians who are. stiil " warming their feet" in England!"—Emile Cammaerts, in the " Observer."

n. A CHOLERA PILGRIMAGE. A journey half round Europe for a few bottles' of cholera microbes would strike one as' heroic at any time, but especially in time of war. LY John Freeman, a well-known bacteriologist of St Mary's, Paddiugton, bus returned from Galicia laden with this curious trophy, and Mr Louis Cahen, who went with him as interpreter, has given some account of their varied experiences. They bad to go round the Gulf of Bothnia, as tho Baltic was " up" with German mines, and no Swedish Iwats would cross. They took with them seven big cases of antisepsis as a- present to the Russian army medical service, and this precious consignment caused endless trouble on the journey out. They got tired of waiting lor their special permits in Petrograd. and completed their expedition without. They got within sound of the guns at Mosciska, near Przemysl. "What is more, they were created officers oi the Russian army, which is an honour that comes to few, and certainly a godsend to men who want to do a double-quick traverse of the Czar's dominions in time of war. Cholera, like influenza, is protean m its character, and never takes the same form in two different epidemics, so that the microbes in one epidemic are useless for combating the next. The bacillus "cultures" (horrid word!) must he freshly obtained to be efficacious for inoculation purposes, and that is why it was necessary to send to Galicia for the means of protecting our troops on the western trout ot war. Kver since cholera was reported irom \ustria it has been feared that the deadly germs were liable to be imported to' the west by the " tiger-springe which Germany is making im transporting her troops from Poland to France and back; and while there may be some doubt as to where the epidemic arose, cholera is sufficiently serious at any time to warrant heroic and strenuous precautions. The An strums say it arose with the Cossacks of the Don; the Russians that it invaded the Russian ranks through the Austrians, having arrived there, stage by stage, from Brio-aria. Rumania, and. in the first instance. Turkey. At any rate, Dr Freeman conceived the idea ,«*«»? mission, and Mr Lloyd George s Medici 1 Research Committe found the fluids The main results besides the "cultures" obtained, is that the outWreak has proved to be less t virulent than in any previous campaign, and that while the death-rate has _ never risen above 30 per cent, the winter is reducing it well below that level | n everything but allowing the travellers to seo the fighting the. Russian j authorities were complaisance ✓personified It is true that there was the usual delay in procuring the necessary permit* in Petrograd, and the travellers utilised the interval in the best possible way. They started oft and succeeded in reaching the all-important destination on their own account, with the result that when they got back and reported progress the Embassy expressed its good-natured surprise at British initiative. But, as I>r Freeman explained, the need for the culture was urgent and time was pressing. Moreover, they could never have done as thev' did if Prince Oldenburg, head of the Russian medical service, had not obtained for them the rank of lieuten-ant-colonel and lieutenant in the Russian army, with field service uniforms, swords and badges, there and then. The sensations are not unenviable of Flngrishtnen suddenly endowed with Russian military rank like this, but the experience has its duties as well as i its pleasures. One had' to remember on entering the company of brother offi-

cers to salute to duo form, bow. and click their heels to every comrade present. But it was no less important to remember when one passed troops on the road, and the cergoant in charge called '" Smirno!" (" Attention ,r ),

that it was imperative to answer "Vohio" (or "Carry on") unless you wanted those docile troops to remain at strict attention till the next officer came along and gave them their release. Such is discipline in Russia. The scope for observation was endless throughout the trip. At Lvov (or Lemberg), the Governor-General is Prince Orbeliani, a Caucasian Prince who was at school at Eton, and he entertained T)r Freeman for two delight-

ful hours in excellent English with a full account of the army medical vice in Galicia, which he controls. At the same centre. Professor Zaboulotny, the renowned bacteriologist, is the lend-

er of a distinguished group of experts in this lino, and revealed himself as a veteran of conspicuous cordiality and humour. "They have mobilised me," he said, "against the Triple Entente." Pi" Freeman expressed' .surprise. •'Yes." said the professor, " the Triple Entente of Cholera, Dysentery and Typhoid." The same evening Dr Freeman a.nd Mr Cahen were invited to a conference

of the group, and the doctor was invited to give tile results of inoculation among our troops in India. The reply wa*< encouraging and affirmative, and it was a pleasure to learn that this verdict, fresh from London, was regarded as likely to be of the greatest value in routing the older and reactionary school of Russian opinion in these affairs.

One day a Hungarian woman was found in possession of five bottles (of the lemonade sjixe and shane) filled with what looked a suspiciously medicated lion id and bearing Hungarian labels tt'hieW contained the word "cholera." Suspicion spread that this was a plot for poisoning the wells with germs, and iky woman was arrested. TDie bottles

k<w sealed and' packed off to Lvov, where Professor Kutchera, a renowned expert, represented Austria in a group of renowned bacfcoriogolists. Professor

Zaboulotny, perhaps the most famous of them all. undid the seal, sniffed the contents, and boldly took a big swig, simply as what he called "a. first test." It seems he had detected a faint odour of carbolic, and knew from this that the bottles were filled with anti-cholera vaccine for benevolent purposes. The woman was released and sent back to Austria.—" Observer."

TIL BEHIND THE FLOODS.

Though relatively sheltered by the floods against any German aggression, the Belgian Army has still a very hard task to accomplish. Beside tho trenches it holds a series of advanced posts, above the level of the inundated country, only connected with the main line by narrow paths, which are every day the scene of some skirmishes against the enemy. The depth of the floods varies from place to place, and' some stretches of ground, being free from water, aro guarded by small detachments', badly sheltered against the enemy's fire, and obliged to stay, day

and night, knee deep in tho mud. Wo visited one of these places, north of IVrvyse, and from the observatory in the roof I. could see, hall' a mile "from, there, a farm, where tho Germans have established some machine guns. I saw our men tramping slowly over the marshy ground, exposed'to the enemy's fire, ami if 1 had still kept any illusion concerning the hardships of warfare on the Yser, 1 should have lost them at once.

Ft is quite true to say that the floods which stopped the German advance stopper! also, for some time, our own progress. Even the steady pressure exercised at the advanced posts costs every day a few lives. Any offensive, with the help of rafts or in the heavy ({round of the marshes, must be stopped by an enemy which keeps carefully Mlder shelter and which is well provided with guns and mitrailleuses. In this region the Allies can only progress along the coast, where they have crossed the Yser canal at Nieuport, and near Dixmnde, nfc the limit of tho inundations, whore, according to the latest reports, Koine ground has been gained by tho Belgians. Until the Germans are. driven from the Yser it seems almost beyond hope thut any definite change should occur. Until then the mud-stained Belgian soldiers will continue to " warm their feet" in the trenches, patiently waiting for the first opportunity which will be given to them to purge their country of the invader's hordes and to deliver their families and' friends from the humiliating yoke of the hated oppressor. —" Observer."

THE SOLDIER SPIRIT.

A young officer attached to the Yorkshire Light Infantry writes on December 6:—

One wonders, when one sees a Gorman face to face, is this really one of those devils who wrought such devastation—for devastation they have surely wrought. You can hardly believe it. for he seems much the same as other soldiers. I can assure you that there is none of that insensate hatred that one hears about, out here. We are out to kill, and kill we do, at any and every opportunity. But, when all is done and the battle is over, tho splendid universal "soldier spirit" comes over all the men, and wo cannot help thinking that Kipling must have been in the tiring line when ho wrote that " East 1 is East and West is West ;: thing. Just to give you some idea of what I mean, the other night four German snipers were shot on our wire. The next night our men went out and brought one in who was near ami get-at-able and buried him. They did it with just tho same reverence and sadness as they do to our own dear fellows. I went to look at the grave the next morning, .and one of the most un-couth-looking men in my company had placed a cross at the head of tho grave, and had written on it:—

" Hero lies n. German, Ave don't know his name} He died bravely fighting For his Fatherland." And under that, "gott mitt uns" (sic), that being tho highest effort of all the meii at German. Not bad for a bloodthirsty Briton, eh? Really that shows tho spirit. 1 don't believe there is a man living ■\ilio, whou first interviewing an llin howitzer shell, is not pink with funk. After the first ten, one gets quite used to them, but, really, they are terrible! They hit a house. You can see the great shell—a black streak---just bofore it strikes, then, before you hear the explosion, tho whole house simply lifts up into the air, apparently quite silently; then you hour the roar, and tlie whole earth shakes. In the place where the house was there is a huge fountain-spout of what looks like pink fluff. It is tho pulverised bricks. Then a monstrous shoot of black smoke towering up a hundred loot, or more, and, finally, there is a curious willow-like formation, and then—-you duck, rs huge pieces of shell, and house, and earth, and haystack tumble over your head. And yet, do you know, it is really remarkable how little damago they do against earth trenches. With a whole morning's shelling, not a single man of my company was killed, although not a single shell missed what it had aimed at by more than fifty vards. That makes all tho difference, that fifty yards. If you only keep your head down, you are as safe as houses; exactly, you will remark, "as safe as houses." _______^____ — _