" CONCHIES " AT THE FRONT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17294, 18 October 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

" CONCHIES " AT THE FRONT.

UNREASONABLE PREJUDICES. BY MAJOR C. MINT. When I first obtained command of my battalion I was brimming over with enthusiasm and self-confidence, and the information that three conscientious objectors were to be added to my charge, gave me a pleasurable anticipation of satisfactorily persuading these people to renounce their foolish notions. When they arrived I met them with a fatherly heart and a smile —knowing what I do now I would have met them with a flame-projector and a bomb. They were a queer-looking trio. Number one was short, fat, dull-eyed, and lowbrowed ; number two was shorter and lean with a hatchet face and a fanatical gleam in deep-set eyes, while number three was a long, evil-faced slouching individual who looked the perfect criminal. They were all filthily dirty and unshaved. I started by asking each his reasons for disobedience, and when 1 saw how extremely simple it was to convince them of their errors my heart warmed with conceited satisfaction and I began a softly persuasive discourse. A " Military " Persuasion. I -talked for two hours, and my patience and self-control, if displayed in the field, would have gained me three promotions : and two medals, but the position when I finished, as far as I could see, was that I had persuaded them to do the noncombatant work I suggested, but owing to the persuasion having come from one whose nation was at war, it was a military persuasion, and therefore not to be allowed influence with their peaceable minds. I despondently asked if my talk had affected their opinions a little, and number one said that all the cruel persecution (!) in the world would not alter his views. Number two piously added that even I would soon perceive the light. I half believed him because I was beginning to see red, so I went home to recover. They had been under arrest and in confinement for over six months, so I decided that liberty and kindness would soften their prejudices, and I accommodated them in a large comfortable hut and gave them complete liberty. They availed themselves of their privilege by squatting on the sunny side of the hut, basking in the warmth, and as the day wore on they followed the sun ! round the hut, avoiding the shadow. After j three days of this sunflower-like behaviour ; my interest changed to resentment, and I I reminded them of old national customs, j such as the use of soap and water and the I cleaning of clothes and living places. The j stream near-by seemed to awe them by its i size or temperature, though perhaps it was ! that " soldiers " washed therein, for they I shodderingly conveyed small quantities j into their hut and there performed their toilets.

A Differential Gear. I decided that in order to prove that fear did not influence their scruples they should at least accompany the men on their daily task, which at that time consisted of trench-digging behind the lines. Then I discovered that their " conscientious objections " operated on a " differential gear," for they refused to march with a party moving towards the "line," but would slay with their hands any man seeking to hinder their move homewards. In this respect they showed a marvellous instinct for direction, and I yearned for their conversion, for this faculty would have made them of priceless value as scouts. They would walk willingly when the journey lay towards safety, but should the party turn linewards oar " conchies " would at once sit down by the wayside, and no artfulness could trick them into making a move. Forcible measures obtained their presence in an area where shells were possible, and their eagerness to return sometimes induced them to work with their comrades. One of them came back with a salvaging party, which was returning early for this purpose, and I had the minute satisfaction of seeing him deposit a damaged helmet and a shell-case on the camp's salvage dump with the air of a queen-bee turned worker. The net value of his efforts was about a shilling, and I reflected i I that the six men it had taken to carry him : up the line had been excused work for a day, since their exertions had so tired their bodies, and their language had so besmirched their souls. • Number one helped the cooks by peeling potatoes, but when I suggested digging i the garden he became aggressively obstinate. Apparently the spade came under the heading of weapons, and he was a man of peace —I suspected the hard ground had a share in his scruples. Number three had vehemently declared that he did not believe in anything connected with war, but whilst with the party at work a number of German shells J fell near, and he displayed by his actions i that he accepted those at least as concrete I facts. It was not to be wondered at for I a five-point-nine high explosive is convincI ingly assertive. On his return he offered I to do work in the back areas, and his offer J being accepted he left us without tears ] on my part. I Deserted by the Spirits. Number two had continuously declared ; that he did not fear death, as he knew | that spirits from beyond would keep him ! from harm, but one night four gas shells j fell in the camp and he donned his gasi mask with a speed and slickness which j showed good previous knowledge of its construction. Apparently he doubted the up-to-dateness of the spirits' protective power. Number one had displayed the greatest terror of the line, and I had judged him to be an arrant coward. One day, how- | ever, after chopping wood for the cooks ■they sent him into the cookhouse for a feed j and he gave proof of a courage as subi limely magnificent as any displayed in the war. He ate three tinfuLs of cold pork j and beans ! We evacuated him to hospital, ! and I hear he has recovered. ; My experience with these people em- , bitterer! my mind as only a fretful wife i could have done, and it has taught me j to classify the three horrors of war as: Loss of life, destruction of property, and conscientious objectors, and the greatest horror is the conscientious objector.

A curious case of a wanderer's return has occurred at Sunderland. In 1900 a five-year-old boy named Thomas Carr, the son of working-class parents, disappeared from his home and left no trace. Two theories were formed to account for his disappearance ; one was that he had wandered away with a circus and the other that he Fad fallen into a culvert which was being made. The authorities, however, had the trench reopened and no trace of the boy could be found. His mother died from the shock of his disappearance. A few weeks ago a young man came to Sunderland from another part of Durham to work in a shipyard. His name i? Thomas Carr. He made the acquaintance of another young man named Robert Carr, and the similarity of names led the latter to state that he had once lost a brother. The stranger listened to the story, but could neither confirm nor deny it. He knew nothing of his parents. His earliest recollection is of wandering about with camels, horses, and other animals. Then he was sent to a home in the south of Durham, where he remained until he left to go to work. From certain facial characteristic., he has been, identified, as boj.