DEVOTION TO DUTY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14391, 1 September 1917, Page 3

DEVOTION TO DUTY.

There is a remarkable story concern- ; ng the cool bravery of one of the Canadian artillery observation officers at Lens. The pqst. from which -he had been observing ithe effect of ; our gunfire was an excellent one for the purpose. The German gunners, knowing it was being used as an observation post,,' determined to destroy the building and began shooting at it early m the morning with 5.9 shells, their most effective projectiles. They continued firing on the structure throughout the day, using m all more than three hundred rounds, at i cost of many thousands of dollars. The building rocked and swayed unaYr the impact of bursting shells, but only. twice '(luring the day did the observer leave his post. Once he did so to report Uiat the top of his periscope had been carried away by a bursting shell. On the second occasion he told his battery commander, over the telegraph wire, that the Germans had forced him out for a few minutes by throwing part of an adjacent building -upon that m which ln's post was located. His devotion to duty under constant peril, the nature of which cam be fully appreciated by men who have/ heard heavy shells explode within a 'short distance of them, enabled ■jur gunners to continue their work on a day when aeroplane observation was impossible.

Mr. Frederick Palmer-, who has been appointed chief censor of the American Army, has been one of the American correspondents at British Headquarters. Hia .two- war books have won for him 1 a great reputation t in England. He is a spectacled American of forty-four, who looks and 'thinks like President Wilson, and has some of the beauty of expression that characterises Mr. Percival Phillips. Mr. Palmer is a great traveller, and hag seen mamy wars.

(The cable news In this issue accredited to the London Times has appeared i> that journal, but only where expressly stated In $urh news th« Editorial ■jjinnui .if th« flinwi.i