The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1916.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16228, 26 March 1917, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1916.

THE lliOH; DEAD

Tlie "rich dead" of Eng-land who have falleiL in tlie war, poets, soldier saints, and budding- statesmen, rich in all gifts of heart and mind, are a great and glowing company. To name Rupert Brooke, exalted in his death at Lemiios, Frederick Sams, the "fighting parson," who was killed while crawling to fetch water for his wounded men at Hoogb, Donald Hankey, charging to death with that fine cry to hi* men "Mind, if you're wounded it's Blighty, if you're killed it's the Resurrection," Captain Julian Grenfell, Charles. Lister, and Raymond Asquith, is but to name those who leap first to mind. jMo nation has passed its great age when it breeds such men. They have been called the "new Elizabethans." But the story of i Walter Greenway, ' which must . live with' theirs, affords a yet J more striking example of the i strength, of national spirit, be- [ cause he _was never taught by birth, environment, or training - to regard self-sacrifice as his high callinsr. The, story was told In by Mr Robert Holmes, the British Police Court missionary, in his book named after' Greenly. It is concluded liv him :'in' tlie latest number, of "Blar\kV wood's" magazine, its astonishing development having 'only come to the author's knowledge since he wrote before. The' "drunken private of the Buffs," who died as "firm as Sparta's king," because his soul was great and fraught with English instincts, might have been the prototype of. IWalter; Greenway, but , with differences. Green-way was worse than a drunken rough; he was a house-breaker with nine convictions, shamming the -"art of a deaf mute to escape conviction, when ■..Mr. Holmes first became acquainted with' him. On the other hand he was not "unlettered." _ He had a fine aptitude for learning languages, and had mastered German.' His housebreaking exploits seem, to have been due as much to an eccentric , humourous sense and nassion for adventure as.to any criminal -"o----pensities. He delighted to s.cale water pipes, and surprise --onle who, with windows onen, thought their possessions safe in hio-h attics. So much he told MiHolmes after serving bis tenth sentence—the deaf mute rase only lasted a few days. A plane was found for him on board a sailin ~ shir>. and for eifi'ht years the Police. Court heard no more of him until letters, written on scraps of paper and in various way« concealed, bep'an -to come to ha l-i d ' from Mesopotamia. ,It was on s+nrv which tiey told. The adventurous soapecrace had absconded from his ship, married an Arab wife, who proved\ a devoted and was brinsiiis - up a dark•skinned family, dearly loved, near Aden, when the war broke out. Then, in his own words, he remembered that the "sfam-n of n deaf unite" had.-"British blood and British pluck in him." and he felt he would like to take some part in the war "for George." The deaf mute trick had been played once, unsuccessfully ; invaluable information might be gained if he could nlay it now with success. As a deaf and dumb Arab he visited the enemy's camps and lines, unsuspected by tlie German officers, and, as one afflicted by Allah, receiving a special tolerance from the Turks. There was not much he did not see and hear, but suspicions were aroused, quite naturally, when he returned to learn more from the Turkish lines after visiting- the British camp. His disguise as a deaf mute was nut to a severer test than it had had to meet in Eng-land. His flesh was seared with hot. irons, and three finger-nails were torn out to make him speak. The most cruel tortures failed to extort from him more than tears, which could not betray, and "-voaus. Gangrene followed on the tor-

tures, requiring- one arm to bei amputated, but Ms disguise was riot broken down, and after that Ms visits to the British cainp ceased to excite suspicion. His final and most daring- exploit was suggested to him when, climbing a water pipe at Aden, he heard Some Germans planMng- to place "clocks" in British trading l ships. Having marked their place of keeping, to enter by night and abstract the infernal machines,together with a German officer's Tiniforai, was not difficult for thej ,ex-burglar. The "clocks,"' hethought, might be well used if he could blow up with them the Turkish, arsenal 'at Baghdad* hundreds of miles away, and, Mimbugging sentries this time: with his German talk/ and uniform, the feat was actually Ti er _i formed- by Mni. "The arsenalblew up with a tremendous roar: wMch. shook the earth, wMlsfi flanies- ascended hundreds or yards to illuminate an inky sky."'

. An Arab once again,. Greenway contrived to get back to his -wife and children, but his health was 1 shattered by the tortures and ra'i«j ■vations'.le bad borne. A doc-tor, writing to Mr Holmes, described the death from dysentery, in a. mission hospital, of a one-armed Englishman, his ' body badly scarred byburMngs, attended by an Arab wife, who told his story and showed letters which her hus-> band had received from the coui-5 missionary. , She liad assisted' his activities, and her grief was heart-rendins- when he died. Tha trip up the Tigris to Baghdad is. confirmed by other evidence. Greenway's own. letters, recount-* ing Ms remarkable describe them as an artist niis-hfc have done. -He begins by attri-« Miting them to another man pre-! cisely like himself, who had attracted Ms attention by the resemblance and by possession b£ like gifts, but tMs pretence of; modesty or humour is soon given, over. The humour, and dangers! of Ms strange role plainly ap-: pealed to him, but they were noti the main incentives of Ms war; services. His letters reveal a simple passion for the land of M 3 birth. He was content to beau tortures and death if he could, in! Ms own words, "put in a bit,"' or "get in another day for England." His story wotild seem* like an invention of fiction if iii were not so well corroborated., The{wdrd Would have to be; ap-i plied in a new sense before Green-* way could be called a "new Elizabethan'," but they, we can feel sure, would have been glad to. hail-, him of >their number.

The repulse of German eoun* ter attacks has? been followed' by a determined French offensive'between the Soinnie and the Qise, ; and progress of from li to' 2amiles is claimed on a wide front., The French object, will be to prevent the Germans taking root or* the La Fere—St. Quentin line, chosen probably as the present) limit -for-their retirement. IB the French could break through! here they would turn the positions north and south, but tha inundations may be a strong-pro-tection of the German lines. Ati the same time, assuming that the Germans have been fallingf back to prepared positions. tli3/ floods must hamper any plans' which they mi<rht have for turning ag-ainst the French, with' such defences in their rear, before the latter should have time* to " dig in." ■ ■ '

Tha't is the possibility whichi 'the British,.as well as their have had to guard against in their*, pursuit of the retreating Germans. The rapidity 0 f the French armies' pursuit has evidently em abled them to grapple with the main forces of the enemy before die has well reached his new Positions. The position on the Bri-i tish front is less denned, butl strong patrol actions are ported. If the Germans invito open fighting on the western fronfj the Allies will be well uleased with that policy, since the Germans have been outmanoeuvred generally, alike in the Trench" and Russian theatres. Their" strength has been almost wholly due to a preponderance of "-uns, now vanished. The Russians believe that- the Germans are shortening, their lines in France to free men for nn offensive on their front, and a defensive role in the western thpfitre se°ms to be +ho most probable on their part. Tliei enemy will be stronsly tempted; to tnhe advantage of the disorganisation which must exist: still, to some extent, as a result of the revolution in Russia, but* if he has just been cured of hones of a separate neace with that country, an offensive on the east--ptii front can hardly have beeif long prepared for.

The Russians .have recovered trendies lost at Inda, on. their, northern iront, but a withdrawal under pressure is admitted in ltouniama, where the (jemramj niust nave a special incentive 10. complete their conquest. Eiarma, sixty-five miles inside the Persian frontier, has been captured from the Turkish army, wiiose retreat is threatened by a .British force, sent northward li'om Uaghdad, a«J well as by the advancing- Russians. An enemy offensive, aided by reinforcements, against Atonastir has been repulsed. An eleven year old I'reneh battleship, the Danton, has been torpedoed, with loss of nearly ihree hundred lives. A supplementary list of ships sunk by the Moewe includes

tho Otaki, owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company. War between Germany and America is ■plainly forecasted by the withdrawal of the .United States Ambassador from Belgium, and arrangement by which Holland takes over relief work.