THE FOREIGN LEGION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10536, 18 August 1910, Page 6

THE FOREIGN LEGION.

DISMAL EXPERIENCES. Erwin Rosen, a young student at a German university, made the mistake of his life when lie joined the French Foreign-Legion. He was doing fairly well in the "United States as a journalist and novelist, when he seems to have fallen, into bad ways. What he did he has not told us, but he lets us know that "finally a time came when even his wife to be could no more believe in him. The jewel happiness was lost." In a fit of despair he determined to have a wild life of adventure, and did the worst thing he could possibly have done. . He joined that last refuge of the reckless and miserable, the Foreign, i Legion of. France, which is composed of men of all nationalities. Many books have* been written on this extraordinary body of men, but the account of his experiences given by Erwin Rosen in his book "In the Foreign Legion' surpasses them all in vividness and realism. To those who contemplate enlisting in the Foreign Legion may be addressed the words of Dante, "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." For five years the shortest period of service, they condemn themselves to a terrible life, one which they would never dream of entering upon if they realised wlwit it meant. The writer of this volume tells us: —"I had no hopes, no aspirations, no thought for the future; I worked and marched, slept, ate, and did what I was ordered ; suffered the most awful hardships and bore all kinds of shameful treatment." A man had better sweep the streets or break stones on the road than cast in his lot with the Foreign Legion. The headquarters of the Legion's FirstRegiment was Sidi-bcl-Abbes, in Algeria, and the sight of the immense gravel-covered barrack yard, the huge buildings, with their naked fronts and bare windows, struck a chill to the heart of the recruit. A weird feeling crept over him. . . "Shut in by these walls, I must spend my life. Must I live among these uniformed human machines, amongst unthinking, unfeeling automatons? A feeling of despair came over me." The young German soon learnt what those who were to be his comrades thought of him. A negro in the uniform of the Legion walked up and looked doubtfully at him. "Talk U.S.?" he asked. "Guess I do," answered Rosen. "Gollv," yelled the nigger; "here's another'! You'se a of a fool! Now, don't get mad. You'se surely is a fool! What in you want to come here for?" The darkie could not understand why a decently-dressed, re-spectable-looking white man should join the Legion.

—Hard Work and Low Pay.— The Foreign Legion is a body that was formed by the French 80 years ago for hard fighting in foreign countries. The legionaries are not allowed in France. They are sent to Algeria, Morocco, Tonkin, Madagascar—wherever the conditions of life are most

intolerable, and the fighting most brutal and barbarous. The pay is wretchedly small; live centimes a day, or 25 centimes in American, or 2id in English money. Every fifth day, when the men are paid, is humorously called the regiment holiday. Then the men assembled at the canteen and enjoyed themselves in their own fashion, 'drinking, singing, yelling, dancing. They have what they consider a good time. The writer gives a graphic description of the canteen and its inmates. "The smoke of hundreds .of cigarettes tilled the place with a heavy bluish vapor. The noise was indescribable. Everybody was yelling, and everybody seejned to be in high glee. They jumped on the tables, kicking and dancing, jingled their glasses, threw empty bottles about, and made fun of everybody., and everything. Every minute the uproar increased." There would be no legion, one of Huron's comrades told him, but for the cheap wine, which is dispensed by "Madame La Cantiniere, a young woman of twenty, who. although married, is, according to tradition, the official head of the canteen. What the soldier of the Foreign Legion works for is one bottle of wine and one package of tobacco every five days. Here is a picture of the punishment inflicted on legionaries, not for serious offences, but for small, breaches cf discipline. About thirty men were marching in a continuous circle, to the sharp commands of a corporal, "A droit —droit. A droit—droit. Right about march; right about march." The prisoners marched round their narrow circle in fast, quick step, almost at a run. Their knapsacks were filled with sand and stones, every man carrying a burden of from seventy to eighty

pounds. All the men had a hard, strained look on their faces. Their fatigue uniforms were torn and soiled. Guards with fixed bayonets stood at the

I corners of the yard, guarding the i marching prisoners. The offenders were not only imprisoned, but had to keep up this intolerable march for three hours every day, the stones in their knapsacks causing bad sores on their backs. —How the Legion Marches.— The great object of all the training and exercise of the soldiers of the. Legion is to enable them to fight and march. The day's routine, the "Legion's breakfast," as it is called, began with the "double-time" march. The men went round the drill - ground five minutes, ten minutes, "one two, one two—always in sharp time. Even if the breath came and went in short pumping gasps, if the eyes pained, and one began to stumble from exhaustion, one ran on until the lungs had got used to the extra-exertion, until one had the feeling of being a machine, and could go on running for ever. The command, "as you please," and a race finished 30-minutes' exercise. The Legion's breakfast has cost many a man his lungs. It was impossible to stand still. One was obliged to walk up and down quickly in order to gradually quieten the pumping lungs. The body had to expend all the strength it could in this morning drill. The morning soup, the first of the two daily meals, was the same every day— l bread. soup, boiled together, with potatoes and vegetables, and a piece of meat. With it was served the grey-white French military bread, and every other day a quarter of a litre (1J pints) of heavy, red wine. After the soup came potatoes, which everyone had to peel as best he could. Several times a week the men make practice marches, on which-they are interfered with as little as possible, as long as they /get through the _ distance at the prescribed rate. The object of this endless marching is to make the legionaries the best marchers in the world. The Foreign Legion is a body of cheap, splendidly-trained mercenaries, with whom the most daring- military operations can be undertaken without consideration of the sacrifice of life involved. No nation, no Parliament, asks for an account of the dead. The Legion marches, acts independently, and dies without attracting attention. Everything is sacrificed to marching. The man may

be hungry, thirsty, completely exhausted, his feet may he bleeding, or the soles burning, but his marching pace must not slacken. It is a merciless system, remarks our author, but it produces wonderful soldiers. If a legionary fails on the march lie may fall into the hands of the wild Arabs of the desert. The worst fate that can befall'him is to be taken by the Arab women, who mutilate him and inflict horrible tortures on the wounded. The soldiers of the Legion, mad with the sight, and thirsting for revenge, give no quarter to Arab women, but retaliate in kind. Instances are given by the writer of the awful cruelties committed by,these women, whom the soldiers regard as devils incarnate, and of the terrible revenge they take. As showing the disgusting work which the soldiers have to undertake, Rosen mentions that, on one occasion, lie was a member'of a detachment that had to clean the sewers in the-Arab prison, a task which was loathesome beyond measure. —Survival of Feudalism.—

, A chapter on "Heroes and Victims" sketches the history of ■ the Foreign Legion, and gives an - account: of the various nationalities that compose it, the distinguished officers who have commanded it, the remarkable talents that have been found in its ranks, arid the campaigns in .which it has fought. After mentioning ■ the hardships • and privations which the legionary has to endure and the paltry reward:he:-gets ior his services, the author remarks ihat lie has spoken to hundreds and 'thousands,of these soldiers of fortune who have/served their time, and, with >few exceptions—for there are some who renew their term 'of'service —they' ali'rejoice 'that they■ have' done

with the Foreign Legion f«r cvci. Some of the worst aspects ol the lcgionai> s life are described in the chapters on "The Madness of the Legion, IHe Deserters," and "A Chapter on J W»mcute." Koscii concludes that tho Foreign Legion "is an antiquated, litiiculously out-of-date survival ol tin feudal svstem," and that, according to modern 'jdens, it is monstrous that one of the most cultured nations of the world should have, in its pay ", corps composed of men of all nations lio enlist to save themselves froifl staivation. There has been a good deal ot discussion lately in France as to the future of the Legion, and doubts have been expressed as to whether its loiigoi continuance is desirable or not ihc author of tins volume says, One can be quite sure that it will in course, of time bo recognised that the I'oieign Legion will be done away with.