THE MARCH TO THE RHINE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14840, 18 February 1919, Page 2

THE MARCH TO THE RHINE.

.. A Gisborne officer writing fro'iil Naihur on December 12th states : We aie steadily wending our way to Gcririaiiy, aria; a very interesting" trip it is titi'nmg out io be. We have left the Charleroi area with' all! its Jtirge factories and coal mines and are iiott m » semi-manufacturing. semi-agricuJiiW ?'i district. The people are extremely kind *and cannot do enough for us. They are not so terribly short of supplies as we had been led to imagine, but everything is fairly high m price. The shops are well stocked, but they arc all Gfiriiiafr goods. Dotted along the roads are miiidrtjds of .broken-down German fiidtor iorries and cars; They Hhvc ii-ll been damaged by the occupants fceiW*? they left them. We have been tra'vfc'iling so quickly that we have not been able to put any mechanics on to fix ttienl up ; m fact, our own lorry column has kept all Engineers available very hard at work keejjirig the vehicles on the road. At ihe pi-eSeht tiirie 1 have. 39 fittefs, 12 biacksriiittls,. ahd 12 strikers going night . and ; day ifi tlte mobile workshops, ail-doing repair work. We aan repair a broken chassis m 12 hours. That is the biggest job on the road just iiotv, and it does your heart good to sefe the felloes ire t>he workshops going hard at it and so cheerfully, day after day. The valley of th© Tattlbte and valley of the Meuse are delightful spots, and I only wish that it was spring instead^ of winter. So far we have been exceptionally fortunate with the weather. There has not been much sunshine, but on the other hand there has been little .rain. The days are overcast and quite doOl fof walking, The march is, gbirig ill easy stage's df about id miles pfer day; To drtte we have done about ldO miles since leaving Beauvois. The Headquarters Wove th bounds of about 20 miles. The tales the civilians have to tell of their treatment by the Boche aje pitiful indeed. At Tammies I saw the gi*aves of 360 men, women, and 1 children whom the Hun. collected m the church m 1914 and shot with machine guris after he had driven them out o;£ the chufrch and crowded them m a square. M* Leon, I a wealthy glass manufacturer, lost, his fatjier and mother there. . He told), me that the Ham soldiers refused to fire on the crowd" and' a Ckirinah officer took chat'ge of the machine gun and did the execution. It was alleged by the Germans that ihe people were ; planning a revolt. At Fleurus . the doctor With whom 1 stayed told' me that just before the Boohe left h& invited all the divi-* lians to help themselves to a" Supply train di*awn up at £he station-i HUhdreds of people gathered rotind [ the f ttain and the Boches then fired a bigf. airiniunitiott train drawn, alongside the supply train. Many people were injured, but fortunately none killed. His .daughter, a charming girlj who spoke English,' had been a nurse m the Fleul-us hospital, m which, there had been, itutny British prisoners. ' She said they used I .to afi'ife m the hospital m a shocking condition. On one occasion she gave some British soldiers m^ the street a bit ot bread. The Hun soldiers immediately took the bread away and gave the soldiers a terrible thrashing with sticks for taking it. They fined the girl 50 francs for giving the bread. These are only a few of the tales of Hun behavior, and I can tell you our fellows are getting filled up with these stories. The Hun has been making the people cash, a mark at 1 frknc 25 centimes (equal to ll^d). Its real value is 7d. He has issued dozens of communal notes* which he is now being made to honor.