A MODERN EPIC.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16348, 4 February 1924, Page 10

A MODERN EPIC.

HOW RAWLINSON BLUFFED AT BAKU. CAPTIVE IN HANDS OF TURKS. Colonel ltd wl in son's boOk "Adventines in the Near East" is one of the finest series of war stories yet issued. The author, after service in Franco, was sent with the Hush-Hush army to Persia, and subsequently to Baku, wheie the word Republic was a polite synonym for chaos. During the Turkish shelling of the city, Colonel Rawlinsou contrived to embark quantities of ammunition in a, two-huiidred-ton Russian steamer, the Armenian. Flying tin" Bolshevist flag, and manned by a Bolshevist crew, this ship at fust attracted little attention; and by the lime the evacuation of Baku by our troops bail been reluctantly decided upon, Colonel .Rawlinsou not only had. (he Armenian filled to the hatches with high explosives, but lie also had embarked some of the must valuable guns, which he was determined should not fall into the, hands of the Turks. How he made his way through the mob, bluffed recalcitrant officials, and at last got out to sea, is worthy of a modern Sir Francis Drake. Persons who cherish the theory that all men and all races are ocjual should read how ten Englishmen—with one' Ameri-i can citizen (Mr. Dana) —kept in hand

a crew of ninety-six euemy Bblshev--1 ists, all fully armed; and how Colonel Rawlinsou made these Bolshevists I obey his orders in their o\vn ship. It | was necessary to use tact and a revolver to prevent a mutiny; and tact 'in this case consisted of barricading the bridge with boxes of dynamite, 'fitted with detonators. It became obvious even lo Ihe not very bright intelligence of the Bolshevists that if they shot at Colonel Rawlinson. who' 'was controlling the captain on (he bridge, their own ninety-six lives would be forfeited in the general conflagration. Thus he was able to get safely to port, with his. Cargo of French Cfuesot guns. Russian field guiis, machine guns, ammunition, breech blocks, detonators, electric exploders, fuses, and what not; and great was the delighted surprise of the British troops, camped at Eu'zeti, wh'6n he came proudly by the-entrance clia'nncl, flying a' small Union .lack from the mast-head, above the Bolshevist flag, in token that the ninety-six Bolshevists had been completely tinned by. one British officer, backed by his handful of men. That night Colonel Rawlinsou slept, the peaceful, sleep of the victor, after fnrty-eiglrt hours "so crammed throughout with sensations and incidents of every kind that I fear I can never expect to see their like

again." I After the armistice Colonel Rawlinsou was sent to Armenia to report upon Turkish demobilisation. The tour of in'spection led him over rocky and rug--1 ged country, deep valleys, and snowy mountains, where the 'Winds blew with ; terrific force, the piercing cold defied all furs, and the words dismal, dreary, desolate, and damnable suggest themselves irresistibly as a concise description. The colonel and his men suffered from scurvy, fever, and dysentery. Early in 1920 they were arrested by the Turks in Erzeroum—in. violation of ttll the hvws of nafiOnsy and were subject to close confinement and very harsh treatment. Then began a' period of fever, "dysentery, and extreme physical exhaustion. A CHRISTMAS IN CAPTIVITY. By December 18, in piercing cold weatlicr, Colonel liuvluisoii noted in. his diary that he and his men' had been sixteen days without meat, and had not had bread or any supply of food for six days.

"In jthc first grey of the . winter dawn on Christ mas Day I suddenly awoke, and, to my infinite surprise, heard a very weak and trembling voice addressing me, saying, 'A merry Christinas, sir' . . . On the woriia being ropetated, I crawled from my little camp bed, and found my r batman, Leadbeater, standing in the doorway, supporting himself iii his weakness, by holding on to the post. .''.'Ho was dressed in full uniform . . . every tin 11$. was scrupulously clean, to the last' strap unci fold of his puttees, -whilst Ins boots and his brass buttons and badges shone like stars hi the dim light of the winter' morning. >\s soon ;is I got over my astonishment, I congratulated him upon the appearance of my 'army' (the men always spoke of themselves as such), on Christinas' morning. He then said, iii rather quivering tones, that the 'Army wished to know at what time I would prefer to take my 'Christmas dinner'; and again I gasped with astonishment, and then begged him. for the Lord's sake, to tell me what it was all about, for, as far as I knew, we had nothing to eat, but a piece or two of black bread: He then told me that the 'Army' had been preparing a surprise, for me." . .

Accordingly, us soon us Lcudbeutur Lad gone downstairs, Colonel Rawlinson opened his trunk, got out his one' good tunic, and with a brand ,iicw set of ribbons, and well-polished belt and boots, he made ready for tho "Buiram," as the Turks call a national feast. Each of the Army (now reduced to throe)—Ankers, Carter, and Lead beater —brought up an. especial dish; the first'course was a "wonderful production suggestive of eggs.?'; the next a plum pudding 'made, of crumbs which had been saved for tho purpose for weeks; the third a tart '' made I know not how. •'' The Colonel tasted ono dish' and then suggested that, according to'the immemorial custom of the British Army, he Would like to cohie and sec the .men's dinner; and he sent each downstairs with his marvellous dish. The problem then wa» how to get downstairs himself, as he was almost too weak to stand. The Turkish sentries being mercifully oiit of sight, he crept, doWn backwards, on his hands and knees, then managed to regain his feet, aiid knocked' at' the men's door. The table Was ready spread with lik: three dishes, aiready described (a towel for tublo.cloth) and the men stood to "attentioii ,, >s their. Colonel entered. >.'■ ' ■ . . ,

"The first proceeding was,,of .course, 1o sit dow n as soon as possible, before anyone had time to fall; down." Colonel liuwlinson then nrg'cd"4heiii to tell him how they had managed to provide the repast in which he saw signs of 'eggs mid raisins. At' first they would not say, but he insisted, "and at last the secret came out, told in almost a whisper, as they knew I should never have allowed it hud ' I ; -known what, they proposed to do." They hud sold their socks, rather- than 1 be unable to keep up the traditions of.the British Army by some attempt to celebrate Christmas Day.

Meantime, the Turkish guards, whooccupied tho next room, begun peering through cracks in the wall, aijd finally (hey invaded' the "furious all of them at our undefeated aspect, and also at the fact' that they could .not understand a word we were saying." Then Colonel Rawlin--80)i and'his throe men stood- up, and taking oft* their caps, gave three cheers for the King-. "They were very weak and quavering cheers, . . . but. T feel -confident thai if His Gracious Majesty could have heard them he would huvo appreciated them. . . Our humble effort came from loyal hearts, indeed, but - from men cut" off entirely for many' weary months from their homes and thoir

comradCß . . . weak and ill, and 'blue' with cold, but still undefeated, and, as such, commanding the respect of even the wild guards around them. The corporal of the guard, when our small cheers died c.own, asked me what it was all übout, and J had then the great satisfaction of telling him , that, it was our national 'Bairam' (feast), and that we were cheering , bur 'Padishah' (the King of England) , and the British Army her znman galcet (the ever victorious;! On that , I made my way back again to my , room, thoroughly exhausted, but in a . mood (o defy and fight any Turk or any other man or beast, and so musl have been feeling much the better for our glorious Christmas effort." FURTHER PR] VATIONS. On March l!4, after further great privations, it was announced that . Rawlinson was to be sent to Trebizond, and exchanged for some Turkish, prisoners . . . that they should have to walk 200 miles. The country lay deep under snow, and the men were so weak from starvation that he hired a wretched carriage. "Hell of a day—over our waists in snow —cart overturned — icy wind —temperature below zero." This is a typical description of the journey, which took nine days in snow till the time. At Trebizond they were allowed baths and a doctor, but on April J") / were informed that orders had come jto send them back to the interior. This was a terrible blow, but Colonel Rawlinson received it with composure. His men met the shock in horrified silence, but with great courage, and Colonel Rawlinson wrote a letter to

the British Commander-in-chief cni- . phasising that they had "behaved splendidly in the face of the greatest ! hardships," and had "done their utmost to maintain the best traditions ■ of the British soldier." He went on • to remark that the way he and his men had been treated had been "a disgrace to,any nation." The marches back were long, the guards brutal, the weather bitterly cold. On arrival at Erzeroum they were thrust in the siimo cells as before, and spent the night without light or food, nearer to despair than ever. But the end was not yet. Colonel Rawlinson, feeble and broken as he was physically, had still the spirit which refuses to admit defeat. He devised a means of communication •with a Bulgarian officer, another prisoner; and as this officer expected to be released, the British Colonel arranged 'with him to take a message to British Headquarters. During the Armenian roll-call parade, he contrived to drop out of his window a cigarette, which the Bulgarian was to pick up. Rolled inside it was a brief note to the British general, concluding, "We have kept the flag r.yiug. God save the King!" At this time, August .1, 1921, Colonel Rawlinson had had no news of the j outside world for fourteen mouths. But the darkest hour is proverbially the ' hour before dawn. The next act ofj the drama sees the prisoners back at j Trebizond again; this time under j charge of jiolito guards, billeted in , the hguse of a Greek lady, Madame Cosvekis —"Maman" as the British; officer called her—who was the incarnation of kindness and sympathy. The cigarette had reached its des-

tination; and "Our fate >wus now in the hands of the military authority 011 the spot. . . . We could rest assured that a very different style and rate of progress would bo achieved I<lian had previously been the case during the 'many weary months during which the civilian clement had been in charge of negotiations." On October 31, a British warship anchored off the port; and, in a steam launch, manned by smiling British blue-jackets, Colonel Rawlinson, Aukers, Leadbeater, Carter, and "George," were taken from the pier to H.M.'s destroyer Homme, /flic*welcome given by "the great British Navy, from the highest to the lowest," glowed with "that deep sympathy for suffering which is inseparable from true courage. ''

Colonel Rawlinson's journey in H.M.S. Centaur, with his devoted "Army," under the White Ensign, was as it should have been, a triumphal progress; and his wife, who had refused to despair even when he had been given up by everyone else for ljost, hail the joy of (welcoming I him. home. He managed to go to the War Office with his report, before collapsing entirely. He was then ill for a long while, from absolute exhaustion, and it was a considerable time before ho could obey the King's gracious command to come to Buckingham Palace, or, could present his three men 1,0 the Sovereign thev had served so well.