SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 8 April 1915, Page 26

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

:. GENERAL. i Mrs Farrell, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, lias been informed that her son, Corporal J. Farrell, of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, has been doubly honored, having received the Distinguished Conduct Medal' for conspicuous bravery and the Cross of the Legion of Honor for having saved a French officer. News has reached Johnstone of the death of Private John McGinley, Royal Scots Fusiliers, who has been killed in action. His brother, Private Joseph McGinley, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, is at present home wounded. Sergeant McGhee, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, has also been killed at the front, leaving a wife and family; and still another Johnstone soldier, Private John McCluskey, of the Black Watch, was killed iii action at the Marne. Needless to say all these were members of the Irish Catholic community of Johnstone. THE LOSSES AT SEA. The Pall Mall Gazette publishes some instructive figures regarding the respective losses in men of England and Germany. It says that one aspect of Germany's naval losses has been quite overlooked—the serious decrease in personnel which they have entailed. Taking the official figures of the complements of the 33 units of the German Navy which have been sunk during the war and deducting those known to have been saved, at least 11,000 officers and men have lost their lives. As the total effective strength of the personnel of the German Navy before the war broke out was less than 80,000, the death-roll already amounts to about one-seventh of the whole. THE GURKHAS' SURPRISE. An artillery officer writes:—The other night I went to the headquarters of the Gurkhas and asked for someone to hold my horse. ' One of the Gurkha guard ■was wakened up to do it. He did nut know what his job was to be, but he came out prepared for anything, with his kukri in his hand and his eyes gleaming. He was quite disappointed when he found lie had to put his armory away and only hold a horse. They were very funny coming over in the boat, I believe. When they had been on the sea for two whole days without seeing land they became very perturbed. ' Without doubt the captain of the ship has lost his way,' they said, but they counselled together and decided at lastthat all was well. Someone asked them how the captain knew where to go. They led him to the stern of the vessel and pointed to the long wake of water boiling behind them, and with a smile as broad as the greatness of the discovery—' Without doubt he follows the path.' Two Sikhs, finding themselves tired of sitting still, wandered forth the other evening and returned later to the commanding officer. ' Sahib,' they said, we found a man with a rifle; here is the rifle.' IRISH RECRUITING. At the present time, when so many misstatements are being circulated in certain circles anent Irish recruiting (says the Melbourne Tribune), the following letter, received by Mr P. Tracey, North Fitzroy, from his father, Color-sergeant P. Tracey, 6th Battalion, Connaught Rangers, Fermoy, County Cork, will be of interest. It may be mentioned that Color-sergeant Tracey came to Victoria 28 years ago to take a position on the military instructional staff, on which he served for 18 years as sergeant-major. Last June he took a trip to the Old Land, and on the outbreak of the war he volunteered for service. His offer was accepted, with the right to retain his Imperial rank. He has since been employed on the instructional staff at Fermoy barracks. This is what the sergeant-major has to say

in regard to Irish recruiting: —' The 6th Battalion Connaught Rangers is complete. They are going up to Dublin in a few days. Then we start on the' 7th Battalion for the same regiment. We have now completed three battalions for the Connaughts in Fermoy- alone, each battalion consisting of 1500 officers and men. We bad a mission here for the troops, and in all my long life I never saw anything more beautiful; Our colonel and officers at the head of the regiment approached Holy Communion in a body at the close of the mission. It was a sight that made a fellow's heart swell out to witness it. The priest here has obtained a commission in the regiment, and will go to the front with the boys.' A TRIBUTE TO IRISH BRAVERY. His Excellency the Governor-General, on rising to address the audience at the St. Patrick's Night concert in Melbourne, was accorded an ovation. After thanking his Grace the Archbishop for his kind words, he said he was glad to have the opportunity of expressing his and Lady Helen's delight and pleasure at being amongst that great Irish gathering on St. Patrick's Night. Lady Helen had the advantage of being Irish. Her father was said to be by origin a Scotsman, but was greatly improved by his many years' residence in Ireland. He had not the advantage of such culture. But he could well imagine how he had improved Scotland by bringing Lady Helen there. She,* despite the attractions of Scotland, would say, as did the Irish emigrant in the song they had just heard, ' I shall not forget old Ireland were it fifty times as fair.' Even in Scotland, where there was once an Irish colony, they still wore green coats brought from Ireland. " They could join with them in reverencing the name and memory of St. Patrick, who, with the Irish missionaries, carried the light of the Gospel to Scotland long before it came to England. There was nothing so famed as the old chapels built by the Irish missionaries who Christianised Scotland. He had noticed the great progress which had been made in Ireland recently in regard to agriculture, in material well-being,' in art, of which there had been an extraordinary revival, in her public policy, and in the better understanding which existed between the sister islands, which had undoubtedly been accelerated by the war. In this the Irish regiments had fought bravely in the trenches, defending the cause of Belgium and the public right of the whole world. These Irish regiments had shown themselves second to none in kindliness, cheerfulness, and courage, and in their determination to overthrow that power which has sought to crush the whole civilised world. Hence on this St. Patrick's Day celebration they could say with one voice, as perhaps they never could before: 'God save Ireland!' and God save the King!' SUPPLIES FOR THE ARMY. i ' Eye Witness ' present with General Headquarters, in a despatch, deals with the important work of supplies. The term ' supply,' he points out, does not apply only to the feeding of an army. The furnishing of food for man and beast is the duty of the Army Service Corps, furnishing of drugs and .appliances necessary for sick and wounded is carried out by the Royal Army , Medical Corps, assisted by various voluntary organisations; while the provision of stores for disabled animals falls to the Army Veterinary Department. Broadly speaking, the Ordnance Department supplies the. army with all the clothing equipment, arms, ammunition, tools, appliances, machinery, and expendable material that can be required, from guns weighing many tons to tin tacks. In one month there were issued to the troops —■ 450 miles of telephone wire, 570 telephones, 534,000 sandbags, 10,0001bs of dubbing for boots, 38,000 bars of soap,

* : • 150,000 pairs of socks, and '•\\v. 100,000 pairs of boots. /. . In ten days the, number of fur waistcoats given out amounted to 110,160, while during the same period 315,075 flannel belts were distributed. H ..The weight of the average weekly issue of vaseline for the feet is five tons, and that of horse shoes 100 tons. Demands have been made as those for bitter aloes —to put on head ropes to prevent horses biting them, and permanganate of potash for dyeing grey horses brown. Even such things as watercarts are now fitted with an elaborate .arrangement of filters. For the testing and repairs of machinery there is a specially and technically trained staff of officers, warrant officers, and men, and stationary and travelling workshops. The problem of distribution, whether it be of food, ordnance stores, parcels, or letters, is one of great difficulty. There are two points which make the distribution of ordnance stores less easy than that of food, and that is the variety of the former and the fact that some of them have to a certain* extent to meet the requirements of the individual. For instance, it is not sufficient that a soldier who wants a coat and boots should receive a coat and boots of good quality, lie must have the particular sizes of these articles which fit him. So far as the Ordnance is concerned, the base, besides being a depot, includes huge workshops, where all kinds of stores are manufactured and repaired. There is another side of the work which cannot be neglected, though it is less vital than prompt delivery, and that is the accounting for the stores expended. This entails a vast amount of dull and arduous clerical labor at the various depots, advanced bases, and bases, the latter far away from any possible excitement. This work, however, loses none of its value as an aid to the successful prosecution of the campaign, because it is not in the limelight. The vocabulary of stores is a perennial source of amusement. The system of nomenclature adopted, though the only one which, lends itself to ready reference, is at first sight cumbrous, the actual name of an article invariably preceding any adjective or qualifying description. For instance, no ordnance officer would ever think of referring to a tell-tale clock as such. He would call it clock—tell-taleportable—six stations—mark two—one. There are indeed many stories current regarding the addiction of the department to this invented phraseology. According to one, an official is supposed to have asked at a restaurant for a choke—asusalem je. There is no body of officers, non-commissioned officers, and men who work harder and do more for the efficiency and comfort of the whole army than those of the Ordnance Department. A FIGHTING RACE. When I read attacks in English newspapers upon the young men of Ireland based upon their alleged reluctance to fight for freedom in Flanders, I lose patience (writes Mr. James Douglas in the Daily Xcws). The Irish are a fighting race, and there are Irish soldiers in nearly every British regiment. Mr. Redmond's figures prove that Ireland more than holds its own against England, Scotland, and Wales. Not long ago I spent some weeks in Cork, and in my hotel one day there was a young Irishman who had won the Legion of Honor for valor in action. He was present at a dance, and the Irish girls clustered round him, clamoring to see his Cross. He denied that he was the man. He protested that the real hero was another man of the same I name. The Irish girls did not believe him, but I am sure they liked him all the better for him modesty. Different From Others. Just as an Irish Rugby team is utterly different in its temper from an English, Welsh, or Scottish Rugby team, so is an Irish regiment utterly different to an English, Welsh, or Scottish regiment. I do not say that its temper is finer. I say it is different. At Lord . Roberts' funeral I stood .on the Thames Embankment

beside an English war correspondent. As the soldiers went by in the rain we' tried to identify the various regiments. One very smart regiment puzzled us. Suddenly we fixed our eyes on a great strapping soldier, with „a roguish eye, and a devil-may-care glint in it. His khaki cap was cocked rakishly over one eyebrow. ' Irish, of course,'' said the English war- correspondent.: 'You can't mistake that fellow!' It was the Irish Guards. Even in the mud and rain they -looked uproariously and outrageously Irish. And 1 remembered how, not many months ago, the Irish Guards cheered John Redmond and John Dillon. A Live Thing. In the rain-sodden twilight one evening I stood at the corner of a street in Cork and watched an Irish regiment swinging past on its way back from a long route-march. Were they leg-weary ? Not a bit of it. They went up the murky hill to their barracks with a rhythmic dash that sent my heart into my mouth. I have thrilled to the rhythm of the Grenadier Guards at *the end of a route-march. But the rhythm of this Irish regiment, though not finer, was different. There is only one word for itthere was more devil in its rhythm. It reminded me of the rhythm of a rush down the field by a pack of Irish forwards. The corporate soul of the regiment was in the rhythm, and the soul was Irish. The drums and flutes were playing a queer wild Irish tune, and at intervals each section barked like a pack of hounds. That fierce bark went down the regiment from front to rear, bark after bark, like a, series of volleys -the vocal attack, as a musician would say, being perfect. As I heard it, I knew that I was not listening to a mob, but to a regiment— Irish regiment, and there were tears of pride in my eyes as the long pulsing line of steel swept like a live thing round the corner up the dark hill.