BERNHARDI REFUTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15916, 13 May 1915, Page 9

BERNHARDI REFUTED.

TRUTH ABOUT BELGIUM.

AN OFFICIAL REPLY.

The French Ciovernment has issued a reply to the series of articles written for American 'consumption " by General Bernhardt, the German war expert, in ™ he, seeks to justify Germany's action «'. the war. The' official nolo ays:—. General Bernhardi claims to prove that mo concentration of our principal forces ('" or r left wing demonstrated the fixed resolution of the French Government to i woiate Belgian neutrality in concert with •Wit Britain. To this allegation of *'«.era Bwnhardi the French plan of voncentraWon « a conclusive reply. All the French armies were confronting and nothing but Germany n'V ls so true that «hen the violation of * <ian neutrality by the tinman troops n /car known the French General Staff Ms obliged to vary the plan of concentration. The eventuality of these variations lad naturally been studied, for numerous iid.cat.ons had ma us fear the violation of Belgian neutrality bv Germany. thanks to this variation the French General Staff was able to meet the German shock west of the Meuse by bringing up .our principal forces to that point If there had been any premeditation on its pan this sudden movement of our troops woulu not have been necessary, and we should have been able to arrive' in time to prevent the enemy in Belgium from cross»lg the Meuse.

j As for the British Army, its support I was only assured us on August s—that is, I after the violation of the Belgian frontier by the Germans on August 3. The concentration of the British Army was carned out behind the fortress of Maubeuge between August 14 and 24 S no?wi (t J, ! ,y / ft 6 Fwneh Government, notwithstanding Germany's military mcares. ordered our frontier troops to keep flS' distance of ' X milos from the frontier. On August 2 a second order commanded our troops to leave the entire responsibility for hostilities to the £ | mans and to confine themselves to rep IsSnch'terrK 11 " 18 tr °° pS P-Sft I Only on August 5, at file request of the Jelgia,, Oovemment, formulated „A„g U8 4. were he French aeroplane, and air hips authorised to fly over Belgian tenT ' X a ;; d OUI . reuomioltl - dela 4 ments

CANADA'S SHARE.

TROOPS HELPING EMPIRE.

STATEMENT BY PREMIER.

[from ora own- roRRKspo.v.nKXT.J

Sa-v Francisco, April la win t%T a hstS T th , er Km?' a " on " lnal ioi <* of 50,000, plus 00,000 sent overseas >>i. .. : c ' * nliis V) (Yin ;., 7- s^ 1 reinforcements, plus 60,000 in Carina under training ™S ™™menv *» made in Bit ?ln J„ y th ° Pren ? irtf > S * Richard Borden Sfl-n; i Kltc <*«W | lad called on the Dominion for o, secon/ J expeditionary, force. SKJnff u afi ° Lwl Kitche "« ™ vasTead' r ° T° nd 1 ,,0ta » f troo l«' was read-, , 'J, Canada to board troopship, j and nil 4 Euro*, but for reasons wh& are generally understood, this force was not .summoned until now. -,fr Richard Borden, in a statement to Wife House as to the progress the Canadian Authorities have made in raising, aiming, 'training, and despatching troops since the beginning of the war, said that in the Dominion and abroad on the pay-roll of Canada 101,560 men are bearing arms or performing military service. Officers and men numbering 33,420 have been despatched "as "thTfir'sT expeditionary force and as reinforcements to" it. The Royal Canadian (Regiment was sent to garrison Bermuda. A detachment was sent to garrison St. Lucia. In Canada, the i™ C £™ expeditionary force numbered 22,272 officers and men. Reserve infantry battalions' and the Canadian Mounted Rifles numbered 27,079. There, are recruited and organised for overseas service but not mobilised, 3500- Thus the number so. far enlisted for overseas service totals 89,353.

In addition there are in Canada units o f active militia on garrison and outpost duty, numbering 8777, and a permanent training force of 2430. The Premier said there have been established in Great liritain training depots for each arm of the Canadian sertice.

Two armoured machine gun units are being mobilised, one at Toronto and one at Montreal. It has not yet "been decided whether they will accompany the second division .-.broad. The Counted Rifles are being mobilised in, \-> regiments for service in Egypt.

BTOi OF RECRUITS.

AUSTRALIAN ENTHUSIASM.

EXAMPLE OF THE DARDANELLES.

l The baptism of fire the Australians are . undergoing in the Gallipoli Peninsula lias acted as a spur to those who so far had 1 not come forward to tight for the Empire, says the Sydney Morning Herald. It would be no exaggeration to say that yesterday the enrolling office at Victoria barracks was besieged, for over 200 men passed through b'tween the hours of ten and one. There was a certain percentage of country-men, but the majority was from the city, cleiks, engineers, motor-men, and those wiio in ordinal life put m their time behind the counters of shops, or in the counting-houses of large businesses in the city. It was a great, and enthusiastic muster, and there was no doubt about the fe?liiij/« of the recruits, their ouh wish being to get to the front in the lead possible time to avenge the deaths of those who had gone- before.

ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY.

L'A 1.1, EX AUSTRALIAN" OFFICER

Associated with the life of Captain (,'hurle* Edward Leer, who was amongst the Australian officers to fall in the pieliminaiy military operations at the Daidandles, is a story which begins in romance and ends in tragidv, For many years Captain Leer had beet, a teacher ill the New South Wales Depaitment of Public Instruction, and it was while stationed , • the Rockdale Public School that be me the lady who was to become his wife. She was a pupil at the school, and at one time was in the class taught by him. An attachment. sprang up between the pair, but subsequently, when the captain's duties took h-ni to another school, they drifted apart. . Eventually, however, they met again, and were iminird. The romance of their courtship continued through a portion of their married life, and when the captain, then an ordinary soldier, went to South Africa to fight in the Boer war, his wife and baby gill took up their residence near the scene of hostilities. It was the next war in which the Empire was involved which was to bring the romantic career of Captain and Mrs. Leer to a close in a succession of tragic events involving them both, as well as the captain'* mother. Captain Leer had not been in camp long before his wife became ill. It was 11 serious illness, and Mrs. I>eer, realising that there was 110 possibility of recovery, expressed to her 1 --datives the belief that it would not be long before her husband would be sent after her by an enemy bullet, and thei" would be a happy reunion hereafter. A short time afterwards, or about a fort".'it'ht before Captain Leer sailed, she d : ed: and now. after a lapse of less than eight months, her husband has been killed Captain Leer went away a very griefftricken man, because the sorrow of the death of his wife was accentuated by the loss of his mother a week later.