SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2263, 24 September 1914, Page 6

SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

WIRELESS STATION AND PIER BLOWN UP. - According to information received by the South African mail, much excitement prevailed in Swakopmund, German South-West Africa, after the declaration of war. , • . ■'. . An Englishman, employed as a gunner on a whaling vessel, had reached Cape Town before the mail left. He stated that he was in hospital at Swakopmund when the wireless station was blown up by 'tho On tho following day he was allowed out, and on proceeding to the. water-front found that the tug boats had been sunk, after their engines had been removed and buried in tho sand. The fine pier had also been blown up, after the cranes and other cargo handling appliances had been dismantled. The whole German population was making its way inland to Windhoek, the capital. Usually only one train a week runs between Swakopmund and Windhook, but at this time three trains a day were carrying tho population and stores inland. ' . . ' The British residents received 24 hours' notice to leave, and were eventually taken to Windhoek. At the finish the only people left .in Swakopmund were the German doctor, the butcher, the hotel proprietor, and about 200 out of the 2000 troops which usually form the garrison. . The English settlement at Walfish Eay was in a state of distress owing to the' lack of provisions.

The usual religious services were held at the Epsom camp on Sunday morning. Bishop Cleary gave a stirring address to tho.troops of the Roman Catholic denomination. He held up before the men, as the beau ideal of tho soldier, some of the military men of the Bible, such a-s Cornelius the Centurion, and, from tho pages of secular history, the valiant knights of the best days of chivalry. Four'of .the-fundamental laws of those knights were loyalty to faith, truthfulness, .courage, and chivalry towards women,.,children, the defenceless, and the unjustly oppressed. Each of these laws of knighthood was applied in detail to the troops before him, togother with a statement as regards morally just and morally unjust killing in war, the treatment accorded by the laws and usages of war, to spies, plunderers of the dead and dying, and those of tho enemy -who would treacherously abuse the white flag, or, by assuming the uniform of friends, endeavour to lure brave men to destruction. The speaker expressed the confident hope ttot the New Zealand troops would, in their degree, bo Bayards, without fear and without reproach, and that, as they kept their weapons clean and bright, they would also keefp fheir honour unsullied by any_ mistreatment of women, children, or innocent non-combatants, or b,v any lack of the chivalry due to enemies who lay down their arms and surrendered, or to wounded men out of action. The speaker pointed, out how the spirit of chivalry may also be manif opted by the men'in bearing with each other's shortcomings and showing a helpful disposition to others in camp, on sea, on the march, and in all the details of a soldier's life.

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