FOR BELOVED FRANCE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 872, 25 November 1916, Page 8

FOR BELOVED FRANCE.

BRAVERY OF THE POILU. "In Macedonia with the French i Army" is the title of an article con-1 tributed to a recent issue of the "Correspondent" by Lieutenant Lebedow, a Russian officer, who praises the bravery of the French soldiers, j He says:— "Read the innumerable commenda-] tions in the regimental or army orders of the day, and you will find out how the soldiers, officers, and generals, all of whom the people like to include in the one category of ' Little Fighters of France,' offer up their lives for their beloved country. What to some of us, who are not familiar with the soldier's beautiful expressions of sentiment, may seem like affectation is encountered daily in the French army. Captain RousseLacordaire, led his company into battle with the cry:—'Forward, let our wives weep over us as heroes at | hast,' and had hardly uttered the I words before a bullet laid him low. j "Their last letters to the folk at jhome disclose the lofty sentiments of j these fighters. One, from a Parisian j cook to his wife, will ever be count!ed among the classical literature of ; France. Then let us remember the incident of the tobacco smoking i soldier, whose right hand was shot | away while he took part in a charge. [What did he do but lean down and, 'with his remaining band, disengage ' the pipe from the lightly closed lingers of the severed limb lying there on the battle-ground. Putting j tlie pipe in his mouth, he hurried ahead to catch up with his charging I comrades. ! "'I have done my duty' is tbe dying soldier's usual farewell. Tbe French fighter always is fully

cognizant of the indispensibility of conscientiously performing that duty. He knows why he goes to face death. It is not for the sake of fighting or for adventure, hut for the defence of his country. Right or wrong, such is the sentiment of the soldiers and officers, the flower of France's male population, ranging in age from eighteen to forty-eight years. And this feeling that he is lighting for the rights of his own nation and for justice in the world endows the French soldier with a singular strength. It is for this reason thai he lias so willingly gone to faraway Serbia, the country which, like Belgium, refused to let itself be trampled to death under the big boot of the invader."