SOLDIERS LETTERS.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13728, 17 March 1915, Page 2

SOLDIERS LETTERS.

"I am sending you a Gorman helmet. It came off the head of a young officer who was wounded on the day the London Scottish, made their charge. I claimed it-, as I thought I was entitled to compensation after carrying him for a mile. You should hare heard him talk when I took it off his head. I bet he was calling me sorae nice' names, but I did not mind, as I could not understand a word. I don't suppose it was any worse than I called him. He weighed quite list, so you can be sure I said something sweet. 7 '■ — Private B. Weston, R.A.M.C.

"Tommy, whom you see at home on the march, looking spick and span, and as bright as sixpence, is a different being out here. Hid clothes and equipment are shabby and torn and covered with mud. His boots are doubled up and down at heel. Underneath his pack is his entrenching tool, and dangling below at the back • f his legs his drinking vessel. If he is on convoy work, a 71b bully beef f.u, with holes in it- and a wire handle, and filled with cinders, completes his litchen equipment. Tea and sugar are carried in old 'bacca tins. His face has lost its colour from sleepless nights. Wherelever you go you hear the old familiar cry: 'Are we down-hearted?' 'No!'" --Corporal Jones, sth Border (T.F.) Regiment.

An Irishman's vsmart capture was described by Private George at Brighton. He said "Paddy Kennan, an Irishman serving with our regiment, was surprised one clay !:y a German scouting party of si:< while he was taking it easy a little in advance of our lines. He saw there was no choice between bluffing it or a little trip to Berlin or the grave, so he chose the former. Jumping to his feet, he called on the Germans to throw down their arms, as they were covered by the rifles of his friends. Paddy ordered them to march in single file towards our trenches. He followed behind with his wife ready. When the Gel-mans found that the trenches were so far away they were waxy, but as they had previously thrown away their arms they could do nothing against Paddy and his rifle, so they made the best of a bad job, and were brought into camp as prisoners."

"Our adjutant shouted: 'There's a lot of Germans in that wood, and we are going to charge them. Fix bayonets!' I should think there were a lot—thousands of them. Led by Captain Boyle, we started to charge, but we never got to them, as we got the order to retire. The odds were too great. Captain Boyle had evidently not heard the order, for he rushed pellmell into the German lines, and was bayoneted in . dozen places. We must have been outnumbered by 20 to 1 at least It was a second Balaclava Charge, for there were net many more than 700 of us all told."—Lance-cor-poral M'GVeady, Royal Scots Fusiliers.

"What about this for lucky 13? I belong to No. 13 Battalion, D Company, No 1 Section, with 13 men to start out with. We had 13s pay, and we sailed from Ireland on the 13t-h, so that you can tell the number is lucky for me. I was at the battle of Mons, also the Aisne."—Lance-corporal H. Beaumont, West Riding Regiment, who has since been killed

A pathetic story is sold by Lancecorporal T. 1). Bates, 19th Hussars, who is now at home on special leave. He relates how, after a light with the Germans, he found a young -enemy soldier who had got run through with a bayonet. "I asked what I could do. 'Nothing,' he said, 'except take a message to my sweetheart.' To my surprise he gave me an English name with a London address. I was to tell the girl that being called out to fight against her country had nearly broken his heart, and from the first day he went into the firing line he had given up hope of coming out alive. He had recognised one of her brothers among a party of English wounded in one of the fights. His last prayer was that she would forgive him for doing his duty to his country."

An Anglo-Indian Staff officer takes a very optimistic view of the situation in Flanders. He writes: "By what has happened we have gathered experience; we know their strength and know what they can do. There is no one behind the lines who does not feel secure, and that with ordinary numbers —they are probably from three to four to one as a rule—they will never penetrate our lines. For real stamina and bearing the hardships of active service the Indians compare favourably with the British troops. All the British and Indian troops are taking things stoically and calmly. No one can see how quietly and methodically things are done and remain unmoved. There is no finer body of troops in the world than the British troops, and it is novel to see the happy-go-lucky way they go about their duties."