THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13619, 25 February 1915, Page 8

THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE.

PEACE IN THE TRENCHES.

LIEUT. WALKER'S ACCOUNT.

One of the most interesting narratives of the "truce" observed by the British and German troops on Christmas Day has been given by Lieutenant H., J, I. Walker, of the Royal Wanviclphire Regiment, m a letter to his mother, Mrs &. O. H. Walker, of Remuera. Several descriptions of the festival m the trenches have been published, but Lieutenant Walker not only relates incidents which he personally observed, but also emphasises, the farcical nature of such cordiality between enemies. The preparations for the Christmas season were described by Lieutenant Walker m a letter written on December 22. "I am going to spend this Christmas m the trenches," he wrote. "We have two turkeys, a ham, some mince pies, eight plum "puddings, and sweets and chocolates galore— so. I shall not. be hungry, even if I aril atis*thing else.* I hope you people had a, good lime, because really I am, m a way, enjoying myself. It is pretty cold, and very wet, but 1 have warm clothes and good food, and I have haver beeri so fit before. It is, of course, dull yvork.in the trenches, but it has to bfe gone through with. We have a day m Brigade Reserve, then four m tfie front trenches, then one m Brigade Reserve again, and then two days' complete rest right out of range of all guns — we can only just hear them. During our two days' rest, we have our bath and change . our clothes and dean up generally. During our stay m the trenches, we cannot get more than a lick and a promise for a wash, so we get a bit grubby towards the end of the four days. ' The Christmas presents for the regiment are enormous," Lieut. Walker continued. "I have, of course, only had a few, but others have had such a lot that I have done very well, m fact, too well, and. am now a bit short-tempered when annoyed. The men have had so many things sent them that they cannot carry them all." "■■'' GERMANS PROPOSE "LOCAL PEACE."

"I suppose 1 have spent the most unique Christmas that I ever shall spend or want to spend," Lieut. Walker wrote m a letter dated December 26* "On marching tip to relieve the Dublins on Christinas Eve, we noticed, that there was little or no bring going on; When we got there, they said the. Germans wanted to have a 'local peace,' being Christmas Eve. When -we,. had taken over and. got everything straight, we answered the enemy, who were, shouting at us from their trenches- 80. yards away. They said they would noti.ftre if we did not. We were . a bit - suspicipus at first but at lftst.. we. agreed— rlqiid cheers from the Germans. To show they meant what they said, they .put lights along the tops .of . thejr. trenches so that we could .see the^r. movements. Then they asked our men. to go. across— but agaiu we' smelt, a rat,., but .two of our men slipped across &ctually..iritq thb German trenches and were taken, before an officer. He asked them what they were doing there ; they • said .they had been invited over. JHe was rather a sportsman,- gave them a couple '. of cigars each, said they had jnore. pluck than sense,, and &6rii them back to tell us we would be, frJenUa for 24 hours. CHEERS FOR TJpL KENp, .- '\os course through the night we were very, very careful m case of. surprise, but nothing happened. During ihe night the men. grouped together round the fires and sang carols, . hymns and very 'low' funny .songs almost m the. same breath. The Germans from their trenches applauded our singing, and we did the same for them. sing very well, and have better taste than, pur men m the class of songs. At midnight I' hopped oh.* -to the ifcpp of the trench and called, fof^hree cheers for the King, and then we sang the Rational Anthem, I'm blowed if tne Germans didn't join m. I turned m about 1."a.m., and tpey were still at it. Next morning the n>ost farcical affair took- piece. Qur. men: and the Germans met Half-way between the trenches, shook hands- e&cnanged cigars and cigarettes, £hd> talked r "matters over. The Germans ih frorift''of us .belong to the (four) Fixon oorpS'.y They are either absolute kids (some owned up to being 16£ . years old) or elde funny, fat, old things. They gave us photos of themselves and we. gave them bully beef, jam, .etc., •which they -were mighty pleased to get. - EVEN.TS, OF CHRISTMAS DAY. "Many funny things, happened. One of our sergeants— a gre^t burly fellow and a ■ real good sort- — saw quite a .kid walking about. 'He. looked at; him, and dived into his dug-jout and produced a stick of chocolate and gave it to the boy, who was delighted. Later on someone must have been doing a bit of shooting m the wood just behind . us, and fired his rifle. It almost caused a panic, but when I explained matters they quieted down. Most of them can talk English fairly well. During the morning they had! an ■ impromptu soccer match, England v, Germany, with an old cap, which ended m one of the Germans being pushed into their own barb wire entanglements and getting rather cut about. About; 4 p.m. I was m our trench having' tea, m fact . wei were all back m our trenches with sentries posted, when I heard a shout, j 'Muster Walkeir, vilt you spare me a moment?' I looked, over . the trench, and saw a German officer about 60 yards away — I suppose the men. had told him my name. He wanted, to know when "peace" was to be.ove.i\; I paid! we did not care, so he suggested 4.30 to-day (26th), as they had a, holiday up to then. At 4.30. p.m., we were all well down, 'but nothing happened, and not a round has been fared for the last 48 hours. It is absolutely ajbsurd to my mind. This morning' w© were told that our guns were going to shell the Germans, .so we got back into our trenches, and so did the Germans, t^hen ! the shelling was over, they came ,out and told us how they had got t»n, ; !etc. j Isn't it, ridiculous? Things have gone on the same for all four days we were \ i,n- the trenches. Last night the Get- i mans sent a message to the regiment on our" right, and asked th^m ta .get well under cover as they (t'he Germans) wanted to tune up a machine gun. When they had finished they let :the Rifles know, and thanked them for getting out of the way. •*Both sides have taken advantage pf the lull to dig new trenches/: put; up wire entanglements, v etc, wiiich could not have been done if firing had been going on. We are so dug m and wired m now that neither side can advance from their own trenches even if they want to."