WOMEN SCOUTS AND DISPATCH RIDERS.

Wairoa Bell, Volume XXXI, Issue 215, 11 January 1918, Page 1 (Supplement)

WOMEN SCOUTS AND DISPATCH RIDERS.

ROMANTIC CAREERS. The Allied Armies have suffered verely from the work of women whose coolness and resource have ■cf the greatest service to the But m many wars women have their worth as spies. the finding them vary useful in Eastern campaign. But Japan did not- have own way, as the story cf *' Helena Smolko shows. She a private of Cossacks, and casion led a reconnoitring which obtained useful in Having previously qualified a terpreter in Chinese and proved her value again and On another occasion she a party of scouts who fell the end of a •liardr' day’s Chinese sent off ho inform that, if they cn .re quickly, take the lot prisoners. But heard the Chinese talking- and tHHH| her comrade-s in time, and •cn their main body, they were •beat off the enemy when he A heroine of the wiar of Madame May, who was living at when the war broke out. She || her services as scout and spy, were accepted. "Driving about in she- was able to obtain valuable ation and carry despatches to isefllHSHß posts. She adopted the dress of a man, asshe found it helped her work, hut finally she fell into the hands of the Germans when carrying despatches to a. besieged French force. They treateo' her well, and released her on promising never to enter their lines again, but it is 'doubtful if she would have been so leniently dealt with if the letters sliewas carrying had been found. In spite of a strict search she was able to conceal them. DE WET'S WOMAN MESSENGERA woman who fell into the hands of the Bradford (Eng.) police several years ago declared she had acted as dispatch-runner for De Wet an the South African War. Bora in India of Austrian parents, she married an office]’, and had an adventurous career. He left for Capetown, andi she followed him, though they were not on good, terms. Obtaining some useful information,, she sold it to the Boers, and wes engaged by De Wet as a despatch-runner. After a time, however, she regretted what she had done, and, posing as man, enlisted in a British irregular corps, being mentioned for carrying a mama cross the Modder River. • w As mighty be expected, the American Civil War provided several examples of women who acted as soldier and spy according to circumstances. One of the most famous was Pauline Cushman, an actress, who enlisted in the Federal Army. On one occpsion she was captured by the- Confederates, and on her sex being discovered was tried as a spy and sentenced to death. Preparations for hanging her were actual—ly made when the timely arrival of a Liuon force, wh’ch defeated her captors, set her free. Eventually, she was granted the honorary rank of maioi* for her services. "Hien there was a u Frank Thampa private in the second Michigan Regiment. Noted for her gpdlantry. she was always taken for a man. and proved an excellent intelligence officer. At Fredericksburg she was orderly to General Pee, carrying messages to offiin the thickest of thp- fighting, coming and going unscathed amidst a storm of shot and shell. Then one day she disappeared, to everyone’s amazement, and was regarded as a deserter. Long afterwards she told her secret, and said she. deserted because she knew she would! have to go into hospital, and dreaded her s-~-x being discovered. 'She was eventually awarded a pension, and died in IS9S.