SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 11 July 1918, Page 34

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

Prefacing the subjoined incident, narrated in one of the English papers in regard to a society devoted to the help of wounded French soldiers, “Monachus Minor,” writing in the Holy Cross Magazine, remarks; “There are certain kinds of war literature of which one grows utterly weary ; but the stories that come, and keep coming, of the goodness of God and the apparently miraculous answers to the prayers of His people make a literature that can not soon be forgotten oy those who believe that God’s hand is in this conflict”: A representative of the fund heard of a poor convent. hospital near by. She bicycled out, climbed the steep path to the convent, and rang the old clanging bell at the gate. The place seemed deserted ; she rang again, and at last the gate was timidly opened, and a pale face looked out. ‘I come from an English Society which gives help to the French wounded ; do you want anything here ?” The face blanched even whiter, looked amazed, incredulous. ‘‘Come in, come in!” was all the poor Sister said, and led her visitor to the chapel, where several of the sisterhood were gathered, and one knelt in prayer before the altar. “I represent an English fund which gives help to the French wounded,” repeated the lady, when to her astonishment all present burst into tears, and clung round her knees. They had come to the 'end of their resources, but had decided to keep a novena of prayer before arranging to leave the convent and dismiss the wounded ; and this was the ninth and last day ! They were saved as by a miracle. ‘‘War weary,” hardly expresses our ideas of the present state of the world (says the Brooklyn, Tablet). Disgust and despair over the blind wilfulness of mankind is more to the point. It isn’t the failure of Christianity, but rather, as Chesterton says, “the world hasn’t given Christianity a chance.” Future generations will read the utterances of President Wilson with the same reverence with which we now read those of Abraham Lincoln. The recent proclamation for a ‘‘Day of Prayer and Humiliation,” to be observed on Decoration Dav, is a sound and sanely Catholic utterance. The King of the Belgians in passing through Paris on his wav to join the Queen in the South of France, en route for Italy, took the occasion to personally confer on General Leman (lately repatriated) the defender of Liege, the Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold and the Cross of War. to which President Poincare has added the Legion of Honor on behalf of France. The King was received at the Belgian Legation, and welcomed the great soldier with emotion, expressing his joy to see him again and tell him of the nation’s gratitude for his splendid services. In testimony of this and of his own profound admiration he presented the insignia of the Orders above referred to. The general, deeply touched, thanked his Sovereign and renewed his expression of attachment of which he gave so signal a proof three years ago, when he blew up the fortress of Liege rather than let it fall into German hands, expecting himself to perish with its defenders. FAITH IN THE CRUCIFIX. A German submarine attacked and sank two fishing boats off Howth recently. Four men and a boy, who composed the crew of one of them, are missing, and are believed to have been killed by shellfire or drowned when their vessel was sunk. , There were 11 persons on board the second boat when shelled, and they had a remarkable escape. Patrick Caulified, a member of the crew, said to a Freeman’s Journal reporter: ‘‘When the firing commenced I had a crucifix in my possession, and said it would protect us, as I heard Father Colohan, our late parish priest, once say in a sermon that Constantine, even before he became a Christian, when he went to war was told that in the sign of the crucifix he would conquer. I produced the crucifix, and I believed that then we would be safe. I told the men to pray, and that the prayers and the crucifix would

save us. I put the crucifix on the stern of the boat, and though the timber all round it was torn away by the shells the cross was untouched. All of us joined in prayer, and it was through the intervention and by the mercy of the cross our lives were saved.”

-A FRENCH ANTI-CLERICAL. A local innkeeper in France, who prides himself on his easy-going religion of a freethinker and anticlerical, had the surprise of his life when some American troops arrived in his village. He was looking forward to some profit, and to his disappointment found that the Americans were not drinking men. So he looked forward to revenge next day, which was Sunday, when, no doubt, the Americans would show no little contempt for priests and churches, but his further disappointment was greater still. Near the village church there were gathered some 50 American soldiers chatting and smoking. After a few moments there appeared a black figure walking on the road leading to the church. It was the priest supplying for the cure, who had been called up for military service. There was a sharp word of command, and the men sprang to attention and saluted the mudcovered priest as he passed, and to the surprise of the innkeeper they followed him into the church. It was too much for the innkeeper, who could not imagine that such enlightened men as the Americans could possibly want to pray. So his curiosity led him to the door of the church, where he looked in to see what they were doing. To his surprise and indignation the American soldiers were kneeling before the altar, their prayer books or rosaries in their hands, and they were singing with all their powers the Credo of the Mass. He is not the only Frenchman who has been surprised in this manner, and the surprise will probably work to their benefit. CHAPLAINS HONORED. The Military Cross has just been awarded to the Rev. Peter John Burns, C.F., a Scots priest, for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When the evacuation of the wounded was held up owing to heavy shell re on the roads Father Burns remained continually in the open, giving both spiritual and material assistance to the wounded, and keeping up their courage by his inspiring confidence. On March 31, another Catholic chaplain, Rev. Edward Daly, was taken prisoner, and is now in the hands of the Germans. The Vincentian Fathers have lost one of their members, Father John McDonnell, who fell in action during the discharge of his duties on April 9. Father McDonnell came of a well-known Cork family, and before joining the Vincentian Order received his education at Clongowes and Castleknock Colleges. Other military honors that have been awarded to Catholics for distinguished service are the Military Cross to the Rev. Francis Bickford and the Rev. George Craven, chaplains to the forces, of the Westminster diocese, and the Distinguished Service Order to the Rev. Joseph Whitfield, of the new diocese of Brentwood. Some of the Trappists of the Monastery of our Lady of Compassion, near Kingsbridge in Devon, have been summoned to the firing line, and one of their members, Father Gabriel, has fallen in action during the recent battle. Captain, the Rev. Robert Milroy, Catholic chaplain to the British Forces, has been reported severely wounded, and is now in hospital in France. AMERICA’S CATHOLIC CHIEF OF STAFF. Major-General James W. McAndrew, a graduate of St. Francis Xavier’s High School, conducted by the Jesuit Fathers in New York City, has been apnointed Chief of Staff of the American Expeditionary Forces in France. In a letter to a New York city friend, Major-General McAndrew stated recently that he was proud that he was one of the 500 fighting alumni that St. Francis Xavier's School now has in the service of the United States. Lieut.-Colonel Hugh A. Drum, one of the Adju-tant-Generals on the staff of General Pershing, is also

a graduate of St. Francis Xavier’s. School, as is Father Francis Duffy, chaplain of the 165th Infantry, of the Rainbow Division. The school is represented in Europe by more than 100 officers, of whom four are Lieutenant-' Colonels, eleven are^Majors, sixteen Captains, and the rest Lieutenants of the Army and junior officers of the Navy. Of the remaining 350 alumni in the service, two out of every three are non-commissioned officers. Military training has been a compulsory course at the school for more than 30 years. General McAndrew was born in Pennsylvania in 1862, and entered West Point in 1884. After graduation he was a Second Lieutenant of the Twenty-first Infantry in 1888. In 1895 he was promoted to First Lieutenant and transferred to the Third Infantry, the unit with which V j has seen most of his service in the line. He received his Captaincy in 1899, and was promoted to Major in 1911. He was a LieutenantColonel when Congress declared war on Germany. The newly-appointed Chief of Staff has long been recognised as one of the brilliant infantry officers of the regular Army. He is a West Pointer and an honor graduate of the Army School, as well as of the Army Staff . College and the War College. As an officer who knows him well and served with him in the Third Infantry expressed it: “McAndrew has been specially trained for the big job that he now holds.’’ TRAPPIST MONKS UNDER FIRE. The Mont des Cats, one of the little hills looking out over Ypres, is the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the German offensive. And under fire still stands the monastery of the Trappist Monks, who still maintain their life of prayer and labor, undisturbed by the bombardments and machine-gun fire. At the beginning of the war the German armies occupied the monastery, but the Fathers refused to abandon it, and they have lived on there ever since. It is said that a German prince, a relative of the Kiaser, who was wounded in the cavalry fighting when the enemy was driven back beyond Ypres, was taken into the monastery and tended there. He died of his wounds, and there is a report that he lies buried in the garden of the abbey. The big guns are still booming in Alsace, and the little village ot Thann lies just about a mile from the German front. Rut although Thann is under fire of the guns all day, it still goes on its way with a cheerful resignation. The women wash clothes in the river, and 50 yards away the shells are bursting. It is a village where every one, even the smallest children, lives in his gas mask. The first thing a baby has to do in Thann is not to learn how to walk or even to talk, but to breathe through its gas mask. But of all this unmoved and imperturbable population the most resigned and unquailing is the venerable nun, who still teaches the village school. Recently she told a correspondent of the old days, when they sang the “Marsellaise’’ behind bolted windows and locked doors. Under the German occupation French was not allowed to be taught, save to those who were able to pay for it. But now even the poorest peasants are learning to speak the tongue of their motherland. The good nun has the hardest task possible in teaching the children while all around the village shells are bursting daily.