THE AUTHORS’ CLUB.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20290, 24 December 1927, Page 13

THE AUTHORS’ CLUB.

WAR-TIME REMINISCENCES. PLUCK AND CHEERFULNESS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 16. “ The Spirit of Heroism ” was the topic of discussion at a “ Remembrance ” night held at the Authors’ Club. The club lost -over 50 members killed and wounded in the war, and had more than 450 serving at the front. Lieutenant-colonel F. S. Brereton was in the chair. Lieutenant-general Sir A. Sloggett (director-gen era] of the Army Medical Service, 1914-1918, and medical historian of the war) was the guest of honour. The Chairman said it did not often fall to the lot of a junior officer to be able to stand up and tell his old chief exactly what he thought of him.—(Laughter.) He first met Sir Arthur in Egypt, and he had the remarkable record of having been through seven campaigns —(Cheers.) He began his military career as a sportsman, and perhaps it was because of that that his work went so extraordinarily well dur. im r the last war. “ Sir Arthur ought to bo dead. In Hie Gindin man campaign ho was shot through Ihe heart and was laid out with the dead ready for burial for many hours, and it was only the fortunate chance, that the burial had to be put or until next morning that gave him an opportunity of reviving.—(Laughter and cheers.) It was th c fact that he was laid out, and his name recorded among the killed in action.” One of the things that struck him about Sir Arthur Sloggett’s headquarters in Franco was his wonderful facplty for choosing officers. He had reminded Sir Arthur of a night when he remarked upon the placid way he had of carrying on during severe fighting. He. replied, ”My dear boy, a man chooses his staff carefully, and when h 0 has done so he lets his dogs bark.”—(Laughter.) Press correspondents at the front talked of .the vital necessity of battalions and visions of men and ammunition, but he (the chairman) suggested that there was another service, without which the war could not ho carried on—the medical service, of which Sir Arthur was the honoured head. During the war there was no doubt that one of the most difficult problems, and one of the most essential, was tho organisation for the evacuation of the wounded and their care and treatment. H c had heard it said that part of Napoleon’s success in war was that every man who went into action knew that if ho were wounded he would have splendid treatment. And he believed the men of this country know that if they wore unlucky enough to bo wounded they were assured of the best treatment. Union el Brereton recalled an evening in 1917 when Sir Arthur gave a dinner, at which a guest was the local padre, and great efforts were made to entertain him in such French as they had at their command. But after dinner, to their great surprise, the padre began to speak In the most cultivated English.—(Laughter.) GENTLE TREATMENT OF WOUNDED GERMANS.

In response, Sir A. Sloggett described the spirit of heroism that was displayed by all ranks during the war as marvellous. And above all was the extraordinary cheerfulness that was shown. It was a matter of wonderment to him as ait old professional soldier that Kitchener s men, the “riff-raff” whom they thought would be no good at all, proved to be just as good as any others, (Cheers.) It was most amazing to witness their British pluck and wonderful cheerfulness all through. Another '.lung that impressed him was the kindly spirit those men showed to their prisoners. Whenever they brought in a batch of German prisoners they treated them just like tame rabbits. They gave the prisoners food and cigarettes, and he had to stop one man from taking off his coat to give to a German. It was perfectly wonderful, and it showed the kindly spirit that was manifested by “ the man in the street." Gas, attacks were a frightful experience, and it was astonishing to see how well the men behaved under that terrible ordeal. The unselfishness of the R.A.M.O. orderlies, who had a larger percentage killed than any one else, was wonderful. They were called into the" trenches, and that was a thing that had hardly been known. It only came out in the history of the war. Wonderful devotion was shown by the nurses, and not only the nurses, but the women of Great Britain displayed heroism which was marvellous. As to the future, ho did not think anyone was sanguine enough to think that We were going to do away with war. We were not, and it was absolute nonsense to think so. Ho paid a warm tribute to the chaplains, no matter what their religion was, for they displayed wonderful courage. THE CHEESE RATION.

Referring to fin occasion when he was supposed to be dead at Omdurman, Sir Arthur said: “Wo had Bishop Brindle—he was not then a bishop—in my mess. We were short of rations in that campaign. When I was supposed to he killed wc had t -ly a piece of cheese in the mess. Brindle said: ‘Have you hoard that poor old Sloggett has been killed? Abominable thing, don’t you know. (Laughter.) Dear old Sloggett. Killed! Well, 1 am out to eat his cheese.’ ’ (Laughter.) THREE GENERALS ON HORSEBACK. Mr Edmund G. Cousins (New Zealand) took the first opportunity he had had of paving a tribute to the New Zealand divisions in the war. Of the Medical Corps ho said: , “ I had the good fortune to be mildly wounded twice, and I cannot imagine better treatment than I received, right from the trenches to thr hospital in England. The only , complaint I have to make against Sir Arthur Sloggett is that the ambulance in which I travelled from the Hooge crater to Yprcs was not so well sprung as it might have been, but the shell-holes in the road might have had something to do with that.” (Laughter.) Ono of the bluest funks he ever experienced during his army career was at a time of manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain, when he was adjutant of infantry to the New Zealand divisions, and he was suddenly confronted by three generals on horseback. (Laughter.) A friend of his once remarked that the only thing he liked about the front was that one did not see many army generals there. (Laughter.) Mr Ernest Short, speaking on sacrifice, mentioned the names < f members of the Authors’ Club who laid down their lives in the war. Ho referred to E. Wyndham Tennant (the poet nephew of the Countess of Oxford, from whose poem, “ Home Thoughts in Lavontic,” ho quoted) Captain Sydney Brookfield, dramatic critic; Dunbar Brunton ; Captain Lagdcn, son of Sir Godfrey Lagdon ; Captain Gouldsbury, Captain Blair Oliplant, Lieutenant Stagg, and others.

“ A STRANGE WAR.” Colonel John Shakespear put in a word for the share taken in our wartime history by two widely-separated classes of people. First, he spoke of women who, in the villages of the land, undertook the duties of the men who had gone away to light, particularly instancing the work done in their ullage by the two daughters of the elderly vicar, ho organised the local women to can - yon while the men were away. Then there wore the men who came from the other side of the world—from the hill districts of India people we were fighting twenty years ago —to help us in the war. Rrought by some mysterious force they did not understand, they knew nothing of the causes which they served. Nagas, for instance, were persuaded to come all the way to France to serve in Labour Corn", often in great danger, although all they previously knew of us was that we had gone over Ihe border to hum their t illages when 1 hey had burnt ours. (Laughter.) One of these Nagas, writing home, and speak-