ENTRE NOUS

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 915, 25 January 1918, Page 9

ENTRE NOUS

A GUNNER in the New Zealand ■J~*- Field Artillery sends the Free Jjancb a most interesting and graphic description of "Packing on the Ypres Salient," as he experienced it during the heavy fighting of October last. He pens his impressions as follows : — Packing on the Yfkes Salient, October, 1917. "Reveille for men going packing." This, accompanied by shrill blasts on a whistle, arouses even the soundest sleeper at 3 a.m. It is always cold, ■ often with a biting east wind, and, more often still, raining. We dress somehow, pulling on boots as hard as boards with frantic tugs and grope our way through mud and water to the lines where the shivering mules stand tail to the wind, the picture of dejection, as the gun flashes light them up for the fraction of a second. Having fed them we have a hurried and distinctly sketchy breakfast at the cookhouse and then saddle up and put on the canvas shell pateks. Before daylight the pack train of perhaps fifty animals is well on its way towards the front. Early in the vmorith it was possible for a man to manage two animals, but latterly it was all one could do, with luck, to get a single beast through the mud, with -eight shells up, to the 18 pounders, in their advanced positions facing the Passchendael llidge. Just as the dawn, shows greyly we ■cross the great paved and tree-bordered Poperinghe-Ypres road, generally as •crowded with traffic as the Bank of England corner at mid-day, but now absoltuely deserted, and Continue along -a plank road, often slippery with frost. By the time we reach and skirt the ruins of Ypres another working day has begun and innumerable motor 'buses, officers' cars, and waggons ■crowd the humble pack train into the right hand gutter. Arrived at the forward ammunition dump. we dismount and load up, and then, having received orders to take "the juice" to a specified battery, each man starts off more or less on "his own. At first the going is good, for the labour companies have repaired the old road and are busy filling-in any fresh shell holes, but soon the way de:generates into a slushy track over the honeycombed surface and the fascines and planks thrown down are a snare for man and beast rather than a help. We push on past both heavy and light howitzers and come to a- regular Sargasso Sea. of wrecked tanks, a dozen or more in an acre or so of shell "holes. Further still are many animals, and here and there a man, stretched "by"the track, proof, if any were needed, of Fritz's activity during the night. If all goes well half-an-hour of extra, •effort drags the mules through the last -£ew hundred yards, and the shells are dumped as quickly as possible beside "the guns. Then after leading back ■over the worst portion, we mount up and reach our lines again by noon. „ But it is not always like this. Occasionally "the Hun permits us to cover all but the last few hundred yards and then suddenly opens with salvos of 5.9's so hotly that we all have to turn back. We push out of the shelled area anyhow, hoping his gunners will not search by succession fifty yards, for

when they do the "donks" seem to know what's coming and take charge. Struggling drivers and beasts fly in all directions, and soon some of the animals are sinking out of sight in the larger shell craters. More titan once, our luck was.out, and the salvos landed on the road, scattering stones and splinters in all directions, and at the end of the day there were absentees from roll call, as well as many gaps in the mule lines. Narrow shaves are common, and more than one man has been smothered with' mud from a shell not five yards away, without receiving a scratch. But, shells or no shells, the packing goes on, for it is the only way of getting the ammunition up when the ground has been turned over a dozen times and everything covered with a sea of mud. * * * # Not being able--to parlez-vous Francais is apparently no handicap to the young Anzac in France. At all events that is the experience of a recentlyreturned Wellington soldier. He was asked the other day bj r a friend who was questioning him as to his adventures abroad : ' 'How did you manage to get on so well with the French girls when you couldn't speak the lingo?" "Oh, dead easy," replied the returned. "You don't need a dictionary, you know, to kiss a pretty girl." e . * * yr Dear Free Lance : Bonnie Scotland is doing her, bit all right—not only in Scotch brawn and muscle, but in Scotch whisky also. Perhaps the Pro-

hibs. haven't told you that the British War Office has "'demanded" the dis- - tillers to supply them with 70,000 cases of Scotch whisky per month— the strength to be 20 to 25 over-proof —for each of the next six months. This whisky, ye ken, is for the troops at the front. —probably to help keep the cold out from winter's icy blasts. And it is quite distinct from the spirits required' for medical purposes or for the manufacture of munitions. Also, the British Admiralty have just bought 20,000 puncheons (each. puncheon containing about 100 gallons) of rum. What has the New Zealand Alliance to say to this? —Yours, etc., "Say When, M'on."

Opinions vary as to when the war will end and, when it does end, just what the terms of peace will be. But noiiody, observes "Life," has thus far ventured to predict whether the Kaiser's six sons will hold out until it is over. Ever since 1914 these intrepid heroes have braved the intense rigours attendant upon looting castles and carrying off the spoils, and, under the guidance of a miraculous Providence, have escaped the chances of being ruthlessly killed by some enraged civilian whose daughters have been sacrificed by the stern necessity of the German military system. Almost every other family in Germany has lost one or more of its sons; but the Crown Prince and his brothers, far behind the

lines, still struggle on, intact, tempting Fate day after day. It is getting to be pretty tough on those* young men, to fatten and to live so long and so persistently. A few simple wounds would help. But even that consolation seems to be denied to them. Most of the returned men bring back a souvenir—apart from their wounds —of some sort or other of the fighting front. A returned private belonging to the Rifle Brigade wears in. his breast pocket a trophy watch —a watch of unusual design. An enquiring friend to whom he was showing it the other day wanted to know where he got it from. "A German gave it to me," replied the returned "Liverpill." "A German," queried the man in mufti increduously; "What did he give it to you for?" "He had to," was the laconic reply. * * ■* * In the Christmas issue just to hand of "The Masseydonian Stretcher" (the bright little soldier magazine published by the New Zealand Stationary Hospital in France), we notice that the Unit have formed a debating society amongst themselves. The girls that the "Unit left behind them will be particularly interested in the subject of a recent debate, viz., "That this Unitis of the opinion that New Zealand soldiers should not marry outside New Zealand." Chaplain Watson was in the chair. The following abbreviated particulars of the debate we glean from the "Stretcher's" own report: — Sergt. McConnell opened the debate for the affirmative, eulogising Maoriland's fair daughters and advancing many reasons why New "Zealand girls would make better wives than their English and French sisters with whom soldiers might meet. Private Bissicks took up the running in the negative. Hβ quoted 1911 statistics to show that New Zealand's population was about equal as regards

tW S ?ff' lea r. in S * to be inferred that the creation of a surplus of the .blench brides was desirable. He also proceeded to counter Sergt. McGon nell's praise of New ZeaW girls W lii-er^Tl 118 °^erso na l likes tad dtl kes. (These the Editor of "Stretcher" leframs from reporting in detail for the very good reason that Private BisywS Urn t0 tMS D ° mini - J"f, Slieehan (for the affirmative) quoted Jater statistics than those of 1911, provuig that women were in the majority m New Zealand. He pinned Ins faith in our girls by disparaging the fair sex of all other countries. Private Randall (against the motion) made an excellent speech, advocating the fredom of the individual £> please himself He combatted the statements of the affirmative by declaring that education and economy were really not so high amongst New Zealand girls as had been stated. Those in the audience were then invited to 30111 in the debate. Amongst those who accepted the opportunity afforded was Staff-Sergt. Prentice! who said he was convinced that New world" e n ° equals in *k< s The debate closed, Chaplain Watson put the motion to the popular vote of the audience who, had hearkened with interest—and probably with some anmsement-to tf the pros and con! ruged by the different speakers. Our girls will be rather surprised and perhaps even disgusted to learn that the motaon was lost by 20 votes to. 49 Just- wait until those 49 imfaitlifui renegaaes return to God's Own!