INCREDIBLE STORIES.

Northern Advocate, 26 November 1914, Page 5

INCREDIBLE STORIES.

"Reader , ' writes

.Surely some of the accounts of the fighting at the front cannot be true. Wte are deluged with stores of German atrocities, and certainly some of them )e.-.r '"ie 'i'aM-r.-ark of truth. But what :>f our own side, particularly the Gurkihas, the fighting race ifironi the Indian Empire now at the front? The New Zealand press solemnly records tales of the Gurkha fighting spirit. A irecent cable stated' how the Gurkhas advanced in the night, and cut the throats of the keeping foe, and how" th)py use lopped off ears as coat buttons. 'Another cable states that a returning Gurkha was discovered with a severed head in a ihelm'et, and that he was loth to part with his grim l trophy. The young New Zealander is invited to believe that these stories are true. If tihese accounts are reliable, then we must admit the fact ,that allied troops have committed cold-hlooded murder, and it would, be inconsistent to rail at any Genmian atrocities in the future. My own opinion i» that the Gurkha stories are inventions, and concocted for the sole purpose of sensationalism. But >t is a pity that the British press censors, who have shown such firmness in many directions, should allow such "news" to he circulated for the benefit of a people who have at least always "played cricket" wihen it came to meeting a foe upon the field of battle.