THE GLORIES OF WAR

NZ Truth, Issue 509, 20 March 1915, Page 6

THE GLORIES OF WAR

Dy "An Alien Enemy.") A large crowd of German subjects stood m the court- y,ard of our police station waiting to be registered as ■'unfriendly aliens." From their appearance you would hardly havo taken them to be Germans. Here and there a reservist who had not succeeded m getting away betrayed his Teutonic origin chiefly by his gestures and the cut of his clothes. The great majority had been m Great Britain for muny, many years — ten. twenty, thirty, forty years — and hud become British m everything save their names. They were workmen arid business people, inextricably mixed with their British neighbors by marriage and other ties. Some of them looked such typical Britons that it seemed preposterous to put the-tu down •as Germans and "unfriendly aliens." The conversation was conducted m English, with now and then a word m German from a reservist. There were "Germans" who could not speak or understand a word of German, having been brought to this country as babies. Yet, Hie Order m Council insisted that these were "unfriendly aliens" with the rest. What would become of Tom m. the British Navy, or Fritz m the German Army? Some German shopkeepers m various parts of London, one* hoard, had fared badly. The mob had smashed their businesses, which hnd to bo closed, lint moat ot the "unfriendly aliens" were pleased with the kindness they had been shown by their British neighbors, who treated them iim if nothing had happened. But would that feeling tmlure? They hoped Oenmmy would lose, It would be bettor fur them. "The llring Jtm't the worst," one man said, "once ym get used to it. The worst I 'me Is the Hist flvo minutes under sholl fire. You stand there trembling and .shaking nil over, holding your gun like a hot potato, not knowIng whether to drop it or stick to it. But you soon get over that first fun!;. In time you become such r burdened, callous, and bloodthirsty brut* that you afterwards wonder whether you nre the. Mime man. and whether everything was after all nothing but a bad dream. "No; the. most terrible thing m war is* the continual marching. It Is simply infernal. We had the Zuendrmdel rifle, weighing 13 pounds. Whichever way you carried it it simply converted your body into a mass of bruises nnd blisters. And the boots that' will stand such ill-ÜBago have yot to be Invent^]. When my soldi were gone Itied ih-i uppers under my feet. It wns of little uae. The skin came off my feet, und 1 found myself walking m my own bloud. Falling out of the rank* could not help you. If the French villagers found you ihey killed you. Death thronu-ned you from all aides. Puns water whh more precious than gold. Whon we found some they wanted It for the horHt'H; Tor a horse co»t« money, and k mnn contH only n «tip of paper. We iiHod to drink out of wtngnant pooln nft»r having mnoped off the green »llmo with our bund*. "Tho mom awful ournag*! that I wltj nesued took pluce In Jbe Bourgct, be-

foro Paris. The French hod killed our wounded, hihJ we were raving mnd. We. stormed a house full of French soldier*. There was no room for shooting. We dashed their bruins out with the butt-end of our rifles nnd threw the Frenchmen out or the window* on to the bayonelH of our feHows below. That houne looked like n ahumbles when wo hnd finished with it. There wns h French boy of about 10 In the house who had volunteered for th* war. He threw hlmaelf on his kneefi before me and begged n\< ; u> spare him. I took him to another hoime and told nome Holdiers to see to it that no hnrm wn« done to tho Jud." "You wouldn't like to K<> Ibrough a war-Hgnln?" Honieone aKked. The old man nnvimirrd tUe tiuostionur with v scornful look «nd replied: "Ho you think I wuM to be « uavnge again V"