THE FOREIGN LEGION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17329, 18 November 1916, Page 10

THE FOREIGN LEGION.

The romantic story of LieutenantColonel J. F. Elkington, of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, whose return to . his former rank in the Army was the result of his gallantry while serving in the ranks of the French, Foreign Legion, has, says “ The Times,” naturally re-aroused interest in that famous corps. The old idea that the legion is ‘ a- regiment of wrongdoers is exploded, most of those who compose it joined from pure love of adventure, for it is a regiment teat is always,on service. By far the greater number of the men serving in the Foreign Legion are Alsatians and Lorrains,. who consider themselves Frenchmen, although they have been born under German (rule. It is for this that they have enlisted. All Frenchmen who enlist have to produce their papers, and this is often the reason that one finds men on the strength who call themselves Belgians or Italians, when they were horn and reared in the Republic. It is said by competent authorities that the legion is tho finest foroe the world has ever seen. It is the “ Old. Guard ” of to-day, and its prestige in the French army is wonderful. Its men arc regarded by the average poilu with the same avje and, wonderment that a child bestows on a tall guardsman in his busby and full regimentals. In this it is of incalculable benefit to tho army of France. It is recruited from men of all ages, and the man who gives his age as eighteen is sure to be younger than he says; the man who says he is from thirty-five to forty is bound to be older. AVe in England hold that a man over the age of forty-five is a doubtful man to send on foreign service t and yet there are thousands of men in the service of the legion who are over that age—fighting, marching, and standing -hardship better than younger men in other armies. _ ■ , In his enthralling book on the legion Frederio Martyn tells of an ex-bishop, a professor “ who was fond of war.” a German nobleman, a barrister, and an ex-diplomatist, all of whom served with him. Of Englishmen in the legion he did not meet more than half a doaen in the whole course of his service. All of them with (the exception of two had served in the British Army. At the same time the, regimental rolls of that time said that there were fifty-one Englishmen and twenty-eight Americans serving then. There are battalions known as the “ Zephyrs.” These are the penal battalions, and ate as a rule sent to serve in Algeria, or at any rate in some colonial station where life is not a bed of roses. There is a story, too of a French officer of the regular army who enlisted in the legion. One day on parade he was noticed by his general and recognised. The general asked him his name, and he gave his alias. This the general knew was not his real name, and he pressed him for , the truth and got it. He had been an officer under this particular general, and the .latter knew that it was not any disgrace. that had made him join under another name. H® promoted him sergeant on the spot, arid soon after-from sergeant this man rose to commissioned rank through an act of' gallantry.