ACROSS THE RHINE

Otago Witness, Issue 3397, 23 April 1919, Page 19

ACROSS THE RHINE

HISTORIC SCENE IN COLOGNE. (By Philip Gibes, in tho Daily Telegraph.) COLOGNE, December 12. This morning at 10 o'clock our cavalry passed through tho 6treets of Cologne, crossed the Hohenzollern bridge, and went beyond tho Rhino to take possession of tho bridge-heads. For some days not many British soldiers have been, seen in the city of Cologne, our troops being camped in the outskirts, and it was only yesterday afternoon that tho British Governor made his entry and established his headquarters in onoof the hotels which has been taken over for that purpose. Crowds, of German people gathered to see tho man who will,control their way of life during the British occupation, and wero kept back in a hollow square by their own police when tho Governor's motor oar drove in with an escort of Lancers, while a band of Scottish pipers played a greeting. This morning the passing of _ the cavalry over the Rhine was an impressive sight for all the people of Cologne, and for us was another historical episode on the long journey of this war, which has led at last to this river flowing now behind our lines. To the German people the Rhine is the very river of their life, and down its tide comes drifting all the ghost memories of their race, and its water is sacred to them as tho fount from which their national legends, their old folk-songs, the sentiment that lies deep in their hearts, have come forth in great abundance. SUPREME SIGN OF VICTORY. In military history the Rhine has been their last line of defence, the moat round the keep of German strength. "So to-day, when British troops rode across the bridge and passed beyond the Rhine, to the further outposts, it was the supreme sign of victory for us and of their defeat. They are a proud people, and they did not show by any word of rage or cry of bitterness the emotion they inusf have felt when our men went over the bridge. There were not large crowds about. Many people of Cologne did not come out to see the actual crossing, though" they were in the streets through which the cavalry rode. But there were lines of people on each side of the way, and groups of them at each end of the Hohenzollern Bridge. ' Among them were many ex-soldiers in uniforms altered to civil clothes, and these discussed tho look of our troopers and their horses in a professional way, quietly and without any demonstration. The Hohenzollern Bridge is a massive structure of German character, with castellated towers, each end like those outside a mediaeval fortress. At tho city the pedestals below the towers are enormous equestrian figures of William I of Prussia and his son of the House of Hohenzollern, which has now. fallen with a crash that has shaken off the crowns of other German kings,.PLUMER TAKES THE SALUTE.

Below one of these statues, oh the southern side of the bridge, General Sir Herbert Plumer, commanding the Second Army of the British armies in the field, the Army of Flanders which has fought so many battles since the first battle of Ypres, stood in the midst of the generals and staff officers of his corps and divisions and brigades, and received the salute of the cavalry as they rode beyond the Rhine. Hardly once during two hours' did this gallant old general give his arm any rest as he stood there, rigid with his hand to his cap. It was an' ordeal for any man, but Sir Herbert Plumer, who has known the sacrifice of»his men through bloody years, saluted each of them to-day, colonel or corporal or trooper, horse gunner, bugler or signaller, with all the honour ho could give' them on this last ride to their journey's end. It was a picture which belongs to history. A guard of honour of Lancers, with red and white pennons at the lance tips, was on one sido of the bridge below the statue of William I, sitting there motionless as though also made of bronze, like that great horseman, except when their beautiful animals pawed the ground and tossed their heads. A band was close to tho army commander's place, and when he came it played tho old tun© of " Rule, Britannia," and then when the cavalry passed tho song of the " Long, Long Trail.." There were Lancers in the first escort squadron, arid the officers rodo with drawn swords, and as they came near to the saluting base, turned in their saddles and shouted in the high long drawn voice of the cavalry command : "Carry swords," and then "Escort squadron, eyes right," and every trooper turned hi< head sideways, so there was a gleam or steel helmets down tho lines with that fine stern look of men which gives a thrill to one's spine. KILTIES PLEASE THE GERMANS. These men have seen a lot of fighting sir.ee they rode into Franco, and as cavalry patrols and cavalry screens, fighting mounted and dismounted, in retreat and .in advance, have taken their due share in the battles of the last eight months. But they looked fresh and fit and hard to-day, and their horses were as silky as though they had come out of racing stables. Lancers and Dragoon Guards and Hussars, with their horse artillery, in which etch gun was polished as a pretty toy for pageantry and not for death, they passed in a steady stream which took two hours to flow by across that bridge. Down below on the quayside was another procession which I happened to see when I looked over the bridge. It was headed by two German officers in full uniform, with, a white flag on the front of their motor car, and behind them came a long line of other cars, with the German eagle painted on their panels. They had come into Cologne under a Gag of truce, to deliver up the cars, according to tho terms of armistice. Cologno fa orderly and submissive to tho regulations under British authority. Tho people go about their way with as little notice as possible of the foreign troops in their midst, though in cafes ana restaurants ono sees them stealing glances at tho British officers and men who como in to listen to tho music of tho orchestras which nlay on gaily, as though no tragic thinghad come to Germany. The kilt of the Scottish officer breaks down their mask of indifference, and they cannot hide their smiles at its strangeness to them, and now and again the breezy way of Young Tommies or Jocks and their goodnatured humour so soften the looks of people who, naturally enough, are not inclined to beam at us.

Here and there English-speaking Germans, who were soldiers until a weak or two ago, sfit as guides to our men who

lose their way in a maze of streets, and I have heard them exchanging reminiscences of battles in which they fought against each other. But thero is no fraternisation —thero are the commander-in-chief ordera against it. THE CHRISTMAS TREES.

The British soldier has not established a lingua Franca such as he used in Franco. The German language beats him altogether, and he finds only one blcssel word in it which helps him at all. It is tho word "bier," but tho shops speak to him through then- lighted windows, and ho stares into them like a child outsido a toyshop, wondering at tho richness of them. Tho German shops are displaying their Christmas goods, and war has made no outward difference to tho spirit of that day soon coming, which is kept in Germany as tho feast of hornelifo with as much sentiment, or more, as in our own. There are thousands of Christmas trees in the shops lighted, when darkness falls, with little bulbs, and all spearkling with coloured balls and cotton wool snow.

Girls with their hair in pigtails and small boys in soldier caps stand with their noses glued to the window panes staring at blueeyed dolls and gnomes and hobgoblins and mechanical toys. They are the children I met in the* Rheingassc and the market and the narrow alleys, with not too much to eat and tho wolf at the door.

In the great shop of Tietz, tho biggest stores in Cologne, there is floor upon floor richly laden with the accessories and adornments of German home-life, fine porcelain ware, beautiful glass, embroideries, and things that women love in their drawing rooms. And Christmas trees, greener than those that grow in the Forest of EupcnJ taper high alwvc the counters, with Santa Claus as their guardian angel. The German Christmas is coming, and the German people are preparing to celebrate it, for tlieir children's c-ake, in tho old spirit of their national traditions. But it will bo a tragic Christmas for Germany, and there will be more tears than laughter round the green trees, with their coloured lights.