SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIII, Issue 1, 6 January 1916, Page 29

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

GENERAL. The Rolls of Honor of the Paisley Catholic churches now total 1121, made up as follows:—St. Mirin’s, 700; St. Mary’s, 304; St, Charles’, 117. , The Republic of San Marino has thrown in its W . lot with the Allies. As San Marino,’ the smallest independent republic in the world, has a total population of but 11,000, and an army of 1000 men, the numbers are not likely to count for much amongst the millions engaged in the present war. ' The war has had an extraordinary effect on the shipping industry, old vessels for which only breakingup prices could have been realised eighteen months ago finding ready purchasers at Cardiff and other ports at £lO and £ll per dead-weight —considerably more than they were worth when newly built. A ten-year-old steamer of 6500 tons, which sold for £25,000 in 1911, changed hands recently for £60,000.

SOLDIER’S ROSARY OF SHRAPNEL. The •“ Bridget!ne nuns of Zion Abbey, in Devonshire, England, tell a war story in the little monthly magazine they publish. A French soldier who had been, wounded by shrapnel conceived the idea of using the pellets that had nearly cost him his life as beads of a rosary to be sent to Ins mother. In the hospital he collected bits of shrapnel extracted from the wounds of others, and being expert with his fingers, made a very serviceable rosary. His mother uses it now at her prayers, and when she touches the beads on which the five Paters are said her hand trembles a little, fog those are the bits of shrapnel that nearly deprived her of a son. This community of Bridgetine nuns has an interesting history. It was founded by Henry IV., who gave the nuns he invited from Sweden, where the Order originated, Zion House, now the property of the Duke of Northumberland. In the reign of Henry VIII. the nuns fled to Flanders, returned at the accession of Mary, and went back to Flanders when Elizabeth became Queen. » Wars drove them from Flanders to France, whence they went to Portugal. The community, which has always remained English, returned to England some fifty years ago, and is now established at. Chudleigh, where one of their greatest treasures is the carved capital of a pillar of their original home on the Thames. They have taken it ab ( out with them in all their wanderings.

A VISIT TO REIMS. A visit to Reims is described by a special correspondent of the Central News, who writes: The living accommodation at advanced headquarters, "strikes one as a mixture of yacht, London tube railway, an cl coal mine: electric light and a little engine to generate it ; different compartments, one for the doctor, with a dispensary and operating-room, a salle-a-mangex’, officers’ room and bedrooms fitted up like a steamer berth : an observation tower, and a large bell from the church to sound the alarm when asphyxiating gas attacks are imminent. These quarters are* of course, underground, and are rendered shellr proof by means of iron plates and mounds of earth. The front opens on a garden, with apple and pear trees, a grotto, a cat curled up in a comfortable chair, a statue of Joan of Arc, and some beautiful chrysanthe:mums. , '■ ‘ „ . ‘At 7 ' a.m. we went to Mass at the local church. Church it: still is, though German shells have battered it out of all likeness to one. It has no roof or tower, its windows are smashed, its pews demolished, and the only two pillars left ’‘standing rise amidst a heap of ruins and rubbish. But in one corner there was an altar, with tricolor flags and a beautiful statue of Joan of Arc. .

i ‘ Soldiers sang the Mass beautifully. There was no organ or harmonium, but the twittering of birds mingled strangely with- the hear reports of snipers’ .rifles and the distant booming of cannon. . Three ladies who still remain in the place were at Mass. 1 ‘ Walking about Reims itself is something like walking about Pompeii. It is good, however, to find that the Cathedral is not altogether destroyed, arid is even not beyond repair. The outer wooden roof, which was needed to protect the stone roof from the weather, has been burned, but the Cathedral looks better without this ugly hump on its back. The stone roof, except for a small hole, is entirely as it was. A new roof will probably be made of- slate and asbestos. Half of the celebrated orange window is broken, but much glass has been saved wherewith to renair it. The two organs are untouched, as are the paintings, the pulpits, and the chapels, and the Cardinal goes very often to pray in his private chapel.’

REIMS CATHEDRAL. Although the exterior of this celebrated cathedral has been grievously injured it is good news to learn that much of the interior has been spared—not, we ( Universe) are sure, by the goodwill of its barbarian besiegers. * Wordsworth tells us of the unsophisticated young man without imagination: 4 A primrose by a river’s brim, A yellow primrose was to him,. And it was nothing more.’ So with the Hun. A cathedral, venerable with antiquity, fires no spark in his unimaginative brain. On the contrary, his pastors and masters teach him the direct opposite, as is proved by the fact that, when the outcry arose about the shelling of this cathedral, a leading man in Germany wrote to the effect that the simple slab of wood or stone which marked the last resting-place of a Pomeranian Grenadier was of more consequence to Germany than all the Reims Cathedrals and Louvain libraries put together.

AMENITIES OF WARRING RACES. At St. Louis the German-Americans were holding a bazaar to raise funds for wounded German soldiers. To this fund the French Society of St. Louis* (G. V. R. Mechih, president), sent a cheque for 25 dollars, saying that its sympathy for France was not inconsistent with sympathy for the suffering soldiers of Germany. Thereupon August A. Busch, prominent in connection with the German relief bazaar, sent his cheque for 100 dollars to the relief fund which the French Society of St. Louis is arranging. All this shows, says the Catholic. Citizen, how fraternally the warring races can dwell together here in free America. Why should not Christianity and civilisation enable them to-behave in like manner across the water

FOOD SCARCITY AND HIGH PRICES. IN GERMANY. According to information which we (Catholic Tunes) have received from a - native of a neutral country who has just been on a visit to Germany, the sufferings of the German people, owing to high prices and the scarcity of food, are much more severe than is generally imagined. It is sought to save them from absolute starvation by insisting on the rigid observance of edicts. The us© of meat is forbidden on Tuesdays and Fridays. Fat may not be used on Mondays and Thursdays. Pork is strictly forbidden on Saturdays. The prices of milk, cheese, eggs, butter, and margarine are so high that the poorer classes— is, the great majority of the population—have to do without these articles of food and be content with bread and potatoes. Coal and petroleum are so dear that the hours of attendance at ’ school hay© been shortened for children, and it has been found necessary to dispense the pupils from home lessons. From the knowledge that these hard conditions are telling . decidedly on the health of the old gnd tfye yppng, people in this country 93,^- 4fi*

rive no pleasure, but it is to : be "hoped the Germans will learn from what they have to endure how wicked it was on the part of the Kaiser to provoke the conflict and will let him know how -bitterly they feel the cost of prolonging it. -. ' "" <

WAR TOLL OF THE MISSIONS.

A mission journal referring to the losses sustained by the Catholic missions owing to the war gives some interesting statistics of the number of French religious of different Orders serving under the colors in various capacities (says America). The White Fathers, the Lazarists, the Fathers of the Holy Ghost, and the Lyons Mission Seminary have each furnished approximately 200 men. The Paris Mission Seminary has sacrificed even a larger number, sending 200 missionaries, 4 directors, 2 lay-brothers, and 103 candidates. On September 19, 1914, only 8 candidates received Holy Orders, and only 3 new missionaries have been sent to mission fields since the war began. During the year 1914 the Seminary lost by death 36 of its apostles. The Franciscans, according to their own organ, have 182 men in the service, of whom 86 are under arms. The missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Marists together have 100 men serving as soldiers.It is impossible, we are,told, to obtain figures from any of the other missionary Orders and Congregations, excepting the Society of Jesus, which by July 31, 1915, had 615 members in the country’s service, of whom 281 were priests. The Jesuits have suffered by far the greatest losses. The cost for them of the first year of the war has been 47 dead, 18 prisoners, 7 missing, 37 wounded but on the way to recovery, and 22 whose wounds will cripple thorn for life. The organ of the Lyons Mission Seminary writes that there is great danger that the Seminary itself, the fruit of 75 years of labor and sacrifice, will be utterly ruined, since the sources of supply are failing, one after another. ‘The need is greater and more pressing than we can say.’.

CAPTAIN A. J. SHOUT, Y.C. I (From our Wellington correspondent.) The following description of the death of Captain A. J. Shout, V.C., is interesting, because the deceased was a cousin of, Mr. 3. C. Turner, a member of the Hibernian Society, Wellington, and was educated at the Marist Brothers’ School, Boulcott street, under the late Rev. Brother Mark, M.A. The late Captain Alfred John Shout, who has been awarded a Y.C. for his gallantry at Lonesome Pine, where he was severely injured, from the effects of which he died, was well known in military and rifle shooting circles in Sydney. For some years he was a member of the 29th Infantry, and held the rank of sergeant, but when the regiment was mobilised in August, 1914, he was made a second lieutenant, a rank which he held when he left Sydney for Egypt with the First Battalion. He took part in the original landing at Gaba Tepe, and was wounded on the first day. On recovering from his injuries he again went to the front, having in the meantime been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Later on he was appointed to a captaincy. On the day on which he received the injuries which resulted in his death, he and another officer and eight men seized a trench from the Turks, and in endeavoring to hold it, the captain and his men threw bombs. The captain was - lighting - two or three at once, handing them to the man beside him to throw or •throwing them himself, when one of them exploded in his hand, blowing off the hand and shattering his side. Captain C. E. W. Bean, the official correspondent at Gallipoli, said that Captain Shout was ' one of the gamest officers who ever lived. From. the first day he was ready for any adventure, plunging into the thick of it, light-hearted and laughing.’ This opinion was borne out by many of the returned soldiers who came in contact with the deceased officer.