UTTER DISDAIN FOR DEATH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11671, 11 April 1916, Page 4

UTTER DISDAIN FOR DEATH.

AMERICAN PRAISE. Colonel George Harvey, the distinguished eciitor of tho ••North American Review," who recently returned fronts trip to tho European war zone, publishes the first- of a scries of war articles in the January issue of that magazine. In his first article Colonel Harvey recounts a thrilling story regarding the character of the. war told to him by a Princeton University man whose military experiences'enabled him to obtain a recond lieutenant's commission in a battery early in the, year. This American officer ho saw in London, whore ho was on six months' ler.vo for repairs to a broken jaw and other bones, plus the effects of being " gassed." At the expiration of the first six weeks of his leave, says Colonel Harvey, he was haunting tho War Office for a chance to return to his old battery. Ho was as lean as a racehorse, but socmingly fit except for occasional spoils of coughing, for which he apologised as mere "hang overs" of the. ''gassing.'"' I asked him about the relative merits of tho soldier. "Tho German." he replied, "is a machine, and needs a machine to fighb with. Put him behind a rapid- tiring gun, and he is the most efficient in the world. But he has no taste for cold steel. When it comes to close quarters on equal terms, Tommv Atkins is a marvel. And the Scotch. My God. man, it is inconceivable. Over and over again I have seen .squads of them swing out in front of those damnable machine guns to certain death as blithely as if they were en parade in Hyde Park.

'* I don't say the "English" are not as good. All I mean is that disdain for death must have had its origin in the Highlands."