THE FOREIGN LEGION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20075, 12 October 1928, Page 17

THE FOREIGN LEGION.

OUTPOSTS! IN LONELY LANDS.

NUMEROUS GERMAN SOLDIERS.

WITHOUT KIN OR COUNTRY. Many interesting stories of Hie famous Foreign Legion of France have been related. The latest, is contributed to the Daily Telegraph, London, by Mr. Arthur Mills. He writ es• It was 174 kilometres distant from Haiphong, along tho wonderful French railway which leads up to Yuunan-Fui, in the heart of China, that I came upon the Foreign Legion. Every country has its corps d'elite, of which it is justly proud, but La Legion Etrangere must surely rank as the most famous regiment in the world, and it was something to see them in this remote post of the French colonies. Vietri, their station, is a Tonkinese village, consisting of a few native houses and shops. .It lies at the junction of the Red River and the River- Claire. Ricofields stretch for miles around; the natives spend their time in tilling these and catching'fish, which aro plentiful in the rivers. There is no European population and there are no distractions of any kind. In fact, Vietri, in the opinion of tho authorities, is an ideal place for two companies of Legionaries. Tho Legionnaire is a rum bird, whom only his own officers properly understand, and the more remote the spot to which you send him the> more he thrives. Far down in tho desert lands of Morocco you will find tho Foreign Legion, and away up in Indo-China, ou tho Toukin-Chincse border, but not in other places. Big Proportion oi Germans.

I was told that 60 per cent, of tho battalion was composed of German soldiers and that this was a fairly representative percentage throughout the Legion; the rest were Russians and various other races. Tho C.O. knew of no English or Americans in Indo-China, but said several of his N.C.O.'s were oxofficers from crack German and Russian corps. Tho Germans formed the best material ho had.

Vietri is not an example of the hardship of life in the Foreign Legion. The men are well housed and cared for, they havo their own gardens in which they work, and only sufficient work to keep them healthy. Their food is of tho best, and oven the private soldiers are waited on by native "boys" at meal times, whom they pay out of their own pockets. "You see," said one of the officers, "the life of the Legionnaire is not as you describe it in your English books and magazines!" Perhaps not at Vietri. But what about those posts' in tho far corners of the Sahara, of which I heard talk when, later, we gathered in the officers' mess and drank our aperitifs looking out over tho Red River? Life can bo pretty hard in tho Legion at times. One grizzled old captain, who had passed most of his life with the Legionnaires and loved them, told how in the desert ho had had to take his men a forced march of forty-five kilometres in nine hours to get water. Picture those thirst-tormented men. in full marching order, averaging five kilometres an hour for nino hours! No Country or Family. I lunched with tho commandant at his house, and when we were alone he talked freely. He said that the commanding of Legionnaires, was a special thing in itself. They wore nearly all men without country or familv. To inquire into their private lives was against every tradition of the corps. If a man's relations traced him to the Legion and wrote to tho colonel for news, it was the colonel's duty to send for' the man, show him the letter, and ask if he wanted a reply sent. If ho did not, tho letter was torn up. From the day a man joined tho Legion, his officer became his family; thenceforward little else in the outside world existed for him.

Unlike the British Army, wherein a private soldier may buy his discharge, tihe Legionnaire, even if he becomes a millionaire, must stay and serve his time. Also, onco In the Legion, whatever misdeeds he has done—excepting murderhe is safo from justice. The Legion will give up a man who can be proved to bo a murderer, but not a thief. In Judo-China the pay of a Legionnaire is good. A sous-officer gets from £.17 a morjh (after four years' service) to £27 a month (after ten years), which I think is considerably better than the corresponding pay in the British Army. A private will draw from £1 a month to £5 a month, according to his merits. A Bolshevik in tho Legion. The Legionnaire as a rule is fond of drink, but as long as ho does his work a blind e.yn is turned to this weakness when he'is off duty, especially just after pay day. The'"cafard" is his greatest enemy—an infinite world weariness that seize# the lonely soldier in desert places. At such times tho Legionnaire will do things he would not do when in his proper mind, and again allowance is made for him. We were on the station platform, and waiting the train to take mo to Hanoi. The commandant asked if I had any baggage. A tall, fair-haired German sousoflicer of the Legion spoke a sharp order, and there crept out from some obscure corner a miserable, shambling, khaki-clad figure, carrying my bag. He put down the bag and cowered back into his corner, lie was a Russian Bolshevik, the commanding officer told me, who had been giving his N.O O.'s trouble. From the look of him the poor devil evidently realised that ho had picked the wrong centre for his energies. I do not fancy the German sous-officers in the Legion are very gentle in their ways. Deadly Climate at Lao Kay. That is the picture. Now this is the story. An officer of the Legion, whom T met elsewhere some days later, told it to inc. "Ves, you have seen tho Legion a* Vieti'i," he" said, "but you should have gone to Lao Kay. We have a company there: it. is on the borders of Tonkin and China—not healthy, no—very bad fo>' white men. Of the company of 150, 20 per cent, are evacuated every month to Hanoi, and 3 per cent, of theso die. Three per cent, die a month; 36 per cent, die a year! You can go and see tho Legion naires' ward in the hospitalj they are skeletons with fevered eyes and hollow cheeks, those Legionnaires who have been sont up to hold the frontier of Tonkin for Franco. That is why some believe that when they are sent out to Indo China they are being sont out to die. And that is why, of a draft of 900 men being sent from France some time ago, 23 flung themselves into the canal, at Suez and escaped into tho desert. It is an appalling percentage Rather a grim end for a' Legionnaire, who has served France faithfully in the Moroccan wars, to be sent to die of palludian fever in Lao Kay.

Perhaps it will he denied (hero is any truth in this account. But whatever others may say. whatever figures may ho quoted to prove Lao Kay is not so deadly, those words of the officer of the Legion will live in my memory. Yet, in spite of all, many a Legionnaire asks to reengage after ho has done his five years' service. i