PATRIOTIC CONVICTS

Nelson Evening Mail, 24 July 1916, Page 8

PATRIOTIC CONVICTS

Shirkers everywhere would surely fen ashamed of themselves if they knew that among tDe French the spirit of patriot ism burns so fiercely that even the convicts have been clamouring for permission to "do their bit." In the dread -penal settlement of French Guiana itseir the convicts have, according to the Pans correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette. Tunshort of clothes and bnots, ; an-I occasionally, of food as well, for supplies are difficult to keen up with shipping -is scarce as it is. Flour sacks had to be served out to take the place of the French . equivalent' to broad arrow suitingSi and the convicts have had to awav'at the land to grow what they could fo rtheir own sustenance. Their behaviour, ruffians as most of them arc shows that the lowest of us are not without a spark of eood when comes the caW of the blood. Three-parts of the "warders have had to go off to the war; three parts of the convicts ask for nothing better than to follow them. About a, thousand of them, known at the "Desperate Gang," have done their utmost to "get to the front. They are rjif n "while all guilty of heinous and often most appalling crimes, are not hardened criminals, but victims of a sudden access of fury, jealously, or the liko that made them "see red," as the saving goes. They would make a fine regiment, and' the Governor seems to regret the impossibility of using them. Baulked in their desire to defend their country, the convicts have resolved h>t no reproach of any kind could be brought against them during the war. Their conduct is more than exemplary : it is simply perfect. The men even stinted themselves to subscribe to the "War Loan and the Red Cross funds. One penitentiary alone amassed 5,000 franc in this way. The monev was refused. Deudonne, the anarchist, has made himself "prominent in the agitation foi the right to serve the country. If the law does not permit of them being armed /and incorporated, he declares, they should at least he allowed to act as noncombatants in the danger zone, employed upon trench-makinsr. tending the wounded —anything, in fact, which will allow" them to share the common danger and give the men opportunity of proving that they are as ready as anybody to die for the country whose laws they have so grievously wronged.