MAORI CONTINGENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15748, 24 October 1914, Page 8

MAORI CONTINGENT.

THE TROOPS INSPECTED.

COLONEL ROBIN'S VISIT.

The general officer commanding the New Zealand Defence Forces, Colonel A. \V. Robin, accompanied by Captain F. Hudson, D.C., and assistant military secretary, arrived in Auckland yesterday morning by the Main Trunk express.

During the morning Colonel Robin conferred with tie officer commanding the Auckland military district, "Colonel C. T. Major, D.S.O. In the afternoon, with Colonel Major and Captain Hudson, he visited the Maori camp at Avondale and inspected the troops. He also arranged details in connection with the organisation of the Maori contingent. The members of the force are considered by Colonel jttobin to be a fine body of men, clean an& stalwart. With training, he believes they will make excellent soldiers, Colonel Robin will again visit the camp this morning, when the Minister for Defence, the Hon. James Allen, will review the troops. DEATH OF WAIUKU TROOPER. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Friday, j Trooper Clement McDermott, of Waiuku, a member of the expeditionary force, died in the Wellington Hospital yesterday from measles and pneumonia. The body was sent North to-day. Trooper McDermott was 20 years of age. j DIABOLICAL CRUELTY. GERMANS ILL - TREAT BELGIANS. [by. telegraph.— correspondent.] Dunedin, Friday. The following is an extract from a letter received from a well-known Dtmedin lady, who wrote from Harrogate, England, on September 14: —"The Germans seem to have no sense of humanity at all. There is an instance of their cruelty only two doors away from here, where a kind woman has taken in five refugees. Amongst them is a little boy of 12 years, whose hand was cut off because he was found holding on to his mother's skirts. Tho mother and the baby she was nursing were then bayoneted before the boy's eyes. That is only one instance of hundreds. Another woman in the same house I has her wedding-ring finger and the one next to it chopped off. They took the ring." HATRED OF BRITISH. PRISONERS INSULTED. " When I was at the junction called Lohne," said a Dutchman, who has returned from Germany, "a train arrived with 20 cars full of wounded and prisoners. Outside the luggage van was written that it contained English prisoners, and that it was strictly forbidden for anyone to show them little acts of kindness 1 This was due to the German women having on a former occasioi handed flowers and comforts to French prisoners as they passed through the station.

"I noticed that someone had printed on the van ' Going to Hagenbeck,' and it was suggested, without success, by those on the platform, that the door of the van should be opened.slightly, so that they might hare a peep. " Oh, they hate you English; thev call yon stupid, and say that England was behind everything that led to the war. They say that Sir Edward Grey must be hung"; that he is the most disreputable man in the whole world, but I never heard a word against Lord Kitchener or Field-Marshal French.

" Your soldiers they call shilling men, and declare that it is all very well for England to instigate a war. She does not feel it much, her soldiers being all 'bought' mon and the ' scum of the country.' The Highlanders they call ' ballet rats' or ' ballet girls.' Every time the general staff announces that the German Army has won a victory the school children are given a holiday, and they have had 16 days off in these six weeks!'