Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 29 April 1915, Page 34

Notes

♦—— — A Suggested Pledge The following, from the ‘ Bulletin of the Catholic Federation of New South Wales,’ is a pledge which Catholic papers everywhere will cordially endorse: ‘lt is the principle of the Catholic Federation that it requires no political pledge from its members. If Catholics thoroughly understand the principles for which the Federation is fighting, and the stigma placed upon them by State laws, which discriminate against civic rights, there will be no need for a pledge. But there are two voluntary pledges or premises which every Catholic Federationist ought' to make; ‘ 1. —I hereby promise to take and read one of ourweekly Catholic papers, which; will enable me to learn of Catholic activities, and to reply to anti-Catholic slanders. .

* 2 .7—1 ' hereby .promise • to take \ my / opinions as * to" the aims and ‘methods of the ‘ Catholic r Federation from i those appointed to explain them, . and :■ not from antiCatholic newspapers.’ . ,■ - , y Catholic Schools in the Firing Line . _ All the great public schools of England are well represented at the front, and every Catholic school now has its Roll of -Honor, but the record of the Catholic school conducted by the Oratorians at Edgbaston is surely unparalleled -and unique. An- ‘ Old Oratorian,’ in a letter to the London Times , states that at an outside estimate there, may be 430 Oratory - men between the ages of 18 and 40. Of these, 250 have served or are serving in the Army or Navy. Sixteen have been : killed at the front or have died of wounds, and twenty more have been wounded. ‘What is, perhaps, more remarkable is that no fewer than seven Old Oratorians are in command of battalions; while one, George Morris, of the Irish Guards, was killed while in command. If you take the average number of boys at the school as fifty-six, it means that there is one colonel in command to every seven boys. at schoolan almost unbelievable ratio. It is also curious that in Mr. Arthur Pollen" and Mr. Hilaire Belloc the Oratory has produced two of the best naval and military critics of the day.’ The ‘Reckless Irish’ : A Scottish Tribute The story of a fight in which Irish and Scottish combined against the enemy with deadly effect has been graphically told by Private Robert McGregor, of the Gordon Highlanders, in a letter to his father at Parkhead, England. It is interesting as being a spontaneous and generous Scottish tribute to the irresistible valor-of the Irishmen. The account was crowded out of our last issue, and is now a little belated ; but it is emphatically one of those items which are better late than never. * Private McGregor writes:—‘On the night of the 26th December we were informed that- the Germans would make an attack on our trenches, so not an eye was closed that night. About 4 o’clock we thought it was a false alarm, and settled down to enjoy forty winks, when their artillery opened- fire on us. Our trenches for two miles were a V shape, and the enemy seemed to direct all their guns on this part, but, thanks to their marksmanship, our immediate neighborhood didn’t get much attention at first. We were near what I think you call the apex of the V, and howling and screaming shells passed well over us until we heard the throbbing of an aeroplane. Then we saw the Germans advancing as unconcerned as if on parade. On they came in close formation, and there must have been ten to one against us. We fired as hard as we could, but they seemed to come out of nowhere, and never halted. When they were getting too close we charged. It was our only chance. When they saw us leave the trenches they halted for a moment, but afterwards came on to meet us. I don’t remember much of what took place then. It was a stab and hack, hack and stab. You could hear the smash of gun against gun, the thud, thud, but beyond this there was an uncanny 'silence broken sometimes by an oath and groan. ‘ We drove them back about one hundred yards. Our officers saw the Germans reinforced, and sounded the retreat, but owing to a few machine guns we couldn’t get back to our trenches. The Germans, now greatly increased, came on again, and our fellows, only about 170 left, got ready to meet what seemed certain annihilation. * " ■ But just at that moment we heard the sound of singing, and the song was “ God save Ireland." It was the Connaught Rangers coming to our relief. Well, I have seen some reckless Irishmen in my time, but nothing to match the recklessness and daring of these gallant Rangers. They took the Germans on the left flank. The Germans now would probably number about- 2000 against 800 Connaughts and 70 of us, but had there been 50,000 Germans I don’t believe in my soul they"* could have stood before the Irish.' " They

simply were i irresistible, and all the time they kept singing - “God save Ireland.” One' huge red-haired son of Erin having broken his rifle, got possession of a 'German officers sword, and; every that came in the way of this giant went down. I thought, of 2Wallace. Four hundred and seventy Germans were killed and wounded, and we took seventy prisoners. .. - Had it - not been for the Irish I wouldn’t be writing this, and when it comes to a hand-to-hand job there is nothing in the whole British Army to approach them. God save Ireland and Irishmen.’