SOUTH AFRICAN ARMY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16123, 11 January 1916, Page 8

SOUTH AFRICAN ARMY.

EQUIPPED FOR ITS TASK. SUCCESS ASSURED. Johannesburg, January 9. A great review was held of the new force which has been raised for a special purpose. General Smuts, Minister for Defence, who will accompany the force under the supreme command of General SmithDorrien, congratulated the troops, and addressed them in the following words:—"You are going to fight hordes of barbarians, scientifically trained by German officers. But we are thoroughly versed in that sort of work and know what to do. It is impossible for me to say whether the campaign will be long or short, but I know that we shall carry it through successfully." GERMAN BRUTALITY. TREATMENT OF WOUNDED. DUTCH NURSES' TESTIMONY.

The Dutch Red Cross sisters, who recently arrived at Amsterdam from Servia, give lurid accounts of the German entry into Kraguievatz. They returned because they were informed by" the Germans that they -were not needed. After the departure of the English sisters the Dutch sisters remained and hoisted the Netherlands flag over the Red Cross. It was fired on, however, and a messenger was despatched to demand its removal. The sisters experienced many hardships and dangers during the German entry into the town, and the two days' fighting that accompanied it. Eventually high German officers came to speak with them, asking many questions, and informing them that "little Holland would no longer exist after the war." The officers asked had not this war most clearly proved that the independence of small States belonged to the category of impossibilities. One sister calmly replied, "Holland still exists. Should it ever cease to exist I shall go to France." An officer wearing many decorations laughed, and replied, " France ! After the war France will no longer be an independent State." The sisters stated that every one agreed that dum-dum bullets had been used against the Servians. That was evident from their wounds. The Germans quickly monopolised all supplies and so caused terrible suffering among the Servian wounded, who died like flies. One sister said:—

" You cannot imagine the appearance presented by a transport of slightly wounded prisoners such as I have several times seen enter Kraguievatz. They bore on the forehead a large cross painted with tincture of iodine and on the cheek a cross made by nitrate of silver. They were branded like beasts destined for the slaughter-house. Of one transport load of slightly wounded men 14 were shot dead because they were unable to drag themselves alone quickly enough. One patient, whose okuQ had been fractured by gunshot, was unable to keep up with the other wounded, and he was repeatedly urged on by a bayonet being stuck into his body, which was covered with red, bleeding wounds." ° " MADE IN CANADA." Canada's share in the war has taken many forms, but next to the supply of munitions she is sending to the front perhaps the most welcome is the store of warm winter clothing from the Dominion that is now being distributed among the men in the trenches. One of these, writing home a .few days ago, said : "We have been served with iackboots and jerseys and skin coats marked 'Made in Canada,' and they are certainly first-class and much appreciated by us." Canadian , supplies in a wide variety of forms are finding their way to the trenches in steadily increasing quantities.

WOUNDED AT SIXTY-EIGHT. OLD CAMPAIGNER'S EXAMPLE. One of the -wounded soldiers just admitted to the Norwich Hospital is a man sixtyeight years of age. He is Sapper Elijah Vaughan, of the 17th Company, Royal Engineers, who had been at the front for four months. He was wounded recently. Vaughan, who belongs to South Staffordshire, Is a miner. In his early days he was fond of soldiering, and went through the Egyptian and Burmese campaigns, claiming his discharge after thirteen years' service. When the present war broke out' he thought that, as a miner, he could be useful at the front, and that his example might be stimulating to some of the younger men. His employer tried hard to dissuade him, telling him to stand aside and let the younger men go first. Vaughan succeeded in establishing the official fiction that he was only forty-five—whether the doctor winked is not recorded—and found himself once more under arms.

A bright and cheerful man is this fine veteran, despite the fact that long days of heavy work and nights spent in the open, usually under shell fire, have had their inevitable effect. He contracted rheumatism, gastric catarrh, and other maladies, and finally one of his officers made him declare himself sick*