MEN OF THE SHIRES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16285, 19 July 1916, Page 8

MEN OF THE SHIRES.

MAGNIFICENT COURAGE.

HOW THEY LAUGHED AT DEATH.

LONDON, July 7.

Mr. Beach Thomas, the Daily Mail's correspondent at British headquarters on the western front, describing the wonderful attack by the British at Gommecourt, writes—

"The Surreys, the Devons, the Yorks, the Gordons, the Inniskillings, the DorBets, the Leicesters, the Bedfords, and the West Kents lie with a scroll of glory on the battlefield. I watched the new army division begin an advance lasting for three days and nights without intermission. The men fought up a hill, and over a crest, against the bitterest opposition. The Devons and the Gordons faced equal odds with equal "success. There has been no greater sacrifice in the fighting on the northern sectors. It was a tale of death and gallantry, a tale of men advancing in the open against shells and machine-guns without hope; but never for a moment wavering one hairsbreadth.

"About a hundred Lancashires got through the murderous fire and occupied a village. It was one of the greatest miracles of the day. Of all the strange and pitiful events, one of the most strange and pitiful was the firing of a star signal by a small group who had charged through the blast. It is not known who Bent it, how few they were, or what hope was theirs, or what fine despair. Some units' losses were very heavy, but what stirs a man's spirit more than all is to find in the survivors an ecstasy of sacrifice and an exhilaration of mind, as if they had outlived human measure and transcended human effort.

"The price of immortal courage was paid by all parts of Great Britain. The Seaforths, the Warwicks, the Irish Fusihers, the Hampshire*, the Somersets, the Rifle Brigade, the Lancashire Fusiliers the Warwickshire Territorials, the West Riding King's Own, the Essex Regiment the East Lancashires, and others, shared in the peril, suffering, and death.'! "SCIENCE OF DEATH." BRITAIN'S RALLY TO FRANCE. "You will see," paid Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, in welcoming a deputation of French professors to England, "that our universities, like yours, have not hesitated to sacrifice for the future the flower of their youth. Like you, to-day we confer degrees on the dead. Like you, we are confident that these young martyrs are the forerunners of victory. "In our empty treasury, our depleted class-rooms, and our laboratories devoted to the pursuit of the science of death you will see proof of the reality of our effort to use the ,T hole of our powers in the greatest of all wars."

M. Joubm, Rectear de l'Academio de Lyons, replying, said that h e M pleased to answer a speech made by a vice-chan-cellor who wore military uniform under his university robes. It was a symbol of the alliance of science and the army It was marvellous how England had rallied to the succour of France. Whatever Germany might have hoped for when she defied the world with her insulting motto *' Deutschland über Alles," that hope was defeated when France and Britain stood together, as they would, till victory came. COMMODORE HALSEY. [FROM Ont OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, June 1. The position which Commodore Halsev «—formerly captain of H.M.S. New Zealand—now occupies is that of " captain of the fleet." This is one of three posts immediately associated with the Com-mander-in-Chief, viz., chief of staff, flagcaptain, and captain of the fleet; and it •carries the right to wear a rear-admiral's uniform. The captain of the fleet occupies a position in the navy very similar to that of the adjutant-general in the pray.