A VERDUN DUGOUT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17193, 13 June 1916, Page 8

A VERDUN DUGOUT.

DINING WITH THE GENERAL. \ A special correspondent of the Unit* ed Press of America with the French Army at Verdun writes: — Outside the bombardment is going on. The Germans aro throwing some 250 shells a day into the city, most of the shells hitting in the business and residential districts, an average of one shell every four minutes. Some of the.' shells are incendiary, and the town is on lire at six or seven different points, ine ctvit pupuiuuion gone, only a few cats and dogs are left behind to remind one tuat only a lew weeks ago men and women and cnil* dren sat by their firesides in. this town and caressed their pets. It is luncheon time. In the steam* heated corridors, 100 ft from the sur* face, the defenders of Verdun, off duty, are eating their noon-day meal. If you know anything about farms and harvest time, you have seen a similar sight on many an occasion. There ara long tables, with scores of men on oither side, eating and talking contentedly. There is no excitement; only everybody seems interested. At the table of the general twenty guests sit down. As is the h rench custom he sits at one sido, instead of at the end, and the oldest visitor sits at his right. The next oldest is At his left. Opposite him is his second in command. My seat is by this officer. On mv right is a major. The tablecloth is spotless, the service faultless, wine and all. No better dinner could bo had anywhere than this, served by the Blank Artillery Canteen though it was, part or the Army commissariat. Our bread was warm and delicious-smelling, fresh from the citadel’s underground bakery. Tho lights wo ate by, the water we dranK, were from’ the citadel plants out of harm’s way and independent, of tha city’s supply. The ventilation was perfect. Between tho bricked arches and the rock-and-earth through which the tunnels were bored are spaces, and the spaces aro connected with the outside world by chimneys. I have seen many a, theatre or church less well aired. On all sides there was the hum of* voices. I listened. It would be curious to hear what the defenders of Verdun were talking about while the Germans hurled themselves against tho city; while the town burned; while shells fell, about them. DUG-OUT TALK.

“ Our school system is very defective in that respect,” a French captain was saying to his neighbour. “Our children are not taught the languages properly. They should be given English, Italian and other languages while still young, by native teachers who know no French and who always speak to tha children in the language being taught. )J . '

This captain had distinguished himself in the fighting around Verdun. He was shortly to leave tho table to start on a perilous mission. The general commanding Verdun was now sneaking earnestly to the guest or honour. He was saying: “ No, I’m not from the Midi; I come from the department of Pas-de-Calais. So I am very fond of shrimps—the little rose-colour-ed ones fresh from the sea. We have them very fine up my way. . . • One officer, a/ captain, was discussing the classics of university days; Homer, Ciesar, the Iliad, When lunch was finished and wo found ourselves outside we discovered a shell had struck the corner of a little brick building in which a soldier w&a roasting fragrant-smelling coffee. “Ijliirt you?” someone asked.,* He laughed. , . , “ Nof; a bit. Little piece of shell went through the bottom of niv pant* there (he showed a ragged hole neaj the turned-up part of the left leg) and a box of matches was set on fire in ray pocket. That—and the hole you s®* in the wall there —is the extent of tha damage.” ... He went on roastim? his coffee. One’s impression, after sucli an experience. is that the onlv way to hurt what military writers call the moral of an nrmv is to let it nlone. not to firdit it, esnecinllv if that army is of tha French k>nd. which seems saver and less inclined to doom the more it hap to do in the wav of scrapping.