FROM PRISON IN GERMANY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11447, 29 January 1918, Page 5

FROM PRISON IN GERMANY.

SOLDIERS FROM FAR COUN TRIES.

I got on the bus that snowy day in the Strand and .took the one vacant seal beside a koldlvt. Foi n moment I noticed nothing particular about him, though h-df-consci-ous somehow that there was something. Then all at once I saw the brass letters on his shoulder, ami my heart glowed and thrilled. For the name there w. s not “Australia,” “Caurda, ” or “Now Zealand,” proud as seeing those names in similar pi-; cos in kes ns B' itons feel to-day. No, it was the far rarer one of “Fiji Islands.” “Fiji!” The “Ultima Umle of Pacific romance”; the scene, of our boyhood’s dreams of adventure; the spot where the cannibals less than sixty years hack killed and devoured the missionaries we sent to them! Fijilslands! And hero was one of t*io descendants of those very canni-

bals who had come nil those thous »nds of miles over the soa to tight for Britain.

“Yes, 1 feel the cold intense!} - ,'' ho said. “This keen frost qjidsnow have bothered mo much since I returned worn dod from Franca. I had never seen cither frost or snow before, you se. I know nothing about such weather ts you have

here in England! It is so different from the blue skies, warm sun, and delightful climate of Fiji, where I was born and always lived till I joined up.

AYby did I join? Oh, well, wo nil wanted ro do what we. could for our

Mother’ when she needed ns, don’t you see? . . flt iui3' rate, that was liow wo in Fiji looked at it.

There weren’t many of us Islanders there of military ago, hut we had a meeting, and determined wo too must take our pirt in standing up for the grand old Empire. So we all joined there and then, and I came over with ft 5 others. . . Yes, many of them —poor chaps—will never go buck to our lovely Fiji Islands again; they sleep beneath French turf. But they have shown Germany we in far-off Fiji are as good fighters, as true men, ana rs devoted to Britain as ■ any of you, eh:”

WE CAN THROW STONES. Ho smiled proudly, and shook his hand warmly when he bade ‘‘Goodbye” on getting down at "Charring Cross. And I waved to him and he did the same laughingly before ho disappeared down Whitehall. But lie made my soul open more to see the wonderful tiling ‘‘the New Resurrection” that so many people have passed by almost without seeing at all; or at least not fully grasping that this is the greatest and most astounding miracle the '■

world has witnessed for 2000 years anyhow. For my Fiji friend was but a typo of many others not from Fiji, tiis tatnors had killed and oaten Brilish folk not yet 00 years ago ! Nevertheless, here was lie, proud of Britain, fighting and bleeding for Britain, eager to servo Britain in any possible way, leaving his home, relatives, and work >2,000 miles behind in order to come and do his hit for the Empire “in the great struggle! », Then I thought of what I had read not long before in many newspapers. The Zulus had held a mass meeting of some 20,000 in the jungles of South-East Africa, and “had sent a message begging the ‘‘Mighty King” to lot them come and help us against the Germans, so that they might be able to say they ‘‘had done their part too for Britain! And,” they added pathetically, “we know, O Mighty King, that we cannot shoot with guns; wo cannot drive cars; wo c nnot ride in aeroplanes; wo cannot .sail ships; but we c-m throw’ stones! Let us come, mighty King, and throw stones for Britain at the Germans !”

Think of it! Isn’t it wonderful? Here is a nation whoso tens of thousands of black warriors set fire to the hospital full of wounded at Rorkc’s Drift; who killed the gallaut Mevillo ami Coghill with their assegais whilst these officers tried to s rve the colours;• who inflicted every spec ion of torture on hundreds of British prisoners. But* wo heat them, took their ruler, Cetowuyo, captive, and placed their Bind end people under our control. . . And now they are so glad, so proud of us ami of wJvit wo have done for them since,, that they object strenuously to being left out when Britain needs help. And they plead—surety their simple plea goes homo -to every heart and makes it. thrill to-day—“ Lot us come and throw stones at the Germans!”