RETURNED BY THE FRENCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16050, 16 October 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

RETURNED BY THE FRENCH.

FLIGHT-LIEU TEN* AT GILBERT. Thb Swiss Minister called on M. Deleasse and M. Millerand to express to them officially the thanks of his Government for the courtesy and chivalry of the French Government in sending back Flight-Sub-Lieutenant Gilbert, the aviator, who had escaped from internment in Switerland. Sub-Lieutenant Gilbert, -who had previously left for Switzerland, was cheered by the crowd as he departed. On Lieutenant Gilbert's arrival at Berne accompanied by Captain Dufour, of' the Swiss Army, he was received at the general staff headquarters, where he was informed that he was regarded as an interned officer not on parole. All the newspapers state that the decision of the French Government, and the return (f Gilbert to Switzerland, have produced an excellent impression. Commenting on the case of the aviator Hubert, the Figaro says: " Everyone knows of what a splendid unit the aerial service is being deprived bv tlje action of the Minister of War ordering one of its best pilots to give himself up as a prisoner in Berne, but no one protests, because the honour of France's name is involved If any further proof were required of the gulf which separates the two races, it would be found here in this> sure delicacy of national conscience in this prompt and delicate example c moral sense. r