COMRADES IN ARMS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2966, 3 January 1917, Page 6

COMRADES IN ARMS

; A FRENCH SOLDIER ON THE ' '■ - BRITISH Captain Philippe Millet, who has served for a year as French Officer of Liaison with a British division on the Western front, has been particularly struck by the ease with,which the French and the British soldier can and do [ fraterniso together. His twelve mouths', experience, of which he writes in the November "Nineteenth Century," has taught him tho great fact —astonishing, I no • doubt, to many people—that the differences between tho British and the French temper are, on the whole, superficial. It took him a little while to . realise this truth, but, as he says, war is a great master, and reveals many hidden things. Half-jestingly ho remarks that draughts are the,' only subject on'which the French and British -armies thorough!v disagree. "Be he a private or an officer, the Frenchman always avoids draughts if he can help it. IV is, just tho reverse with the British Army. They have a real genius for inventing draughts, even when there is only.one window in tho room. Curiously enough, this does not prevont them, from catching cold. Tho most striking demonstration of /this fact was given me in March, 1915. We were billeted, in Vielle-Chapello, a primitive place, where the general's mess bad to bo in the kitchen; so that ray friends arranged that both the window and tho entrance door, which faced each other, should remain open and provide us with a cold wind, while the kitchen stove Was- beating us from behind; in consequence of which they all fell ill, one after the other, beginning with tho general and ending with the A.D.C. My revenge for all I had suffered was that I was tho last io be laid up with tho 'flue'." From what he had read, more especially in English novels. Captain Millet expected the average British officer to be "a silent, slow-minded sportsman, full of manly qualities, such as selfrespect and self-control, but admirablo rather thaii amiable, and on tho whole not very human." Ho was surprised, therefore, when several senior officers proved to be very talkative—one, a colonel, "the best of men, who talked himself to death at every supper, with a variety.of gestures that a Southerner might well havo envied." General topics, including literature end politics, were discussed every night, and in tho 'matter of politics the British officers "co'uld beat any officer in tho Fiench Army, for they cursed their own Government with unabated vigour." One of the writer's British comrades, "a most cultured and delightful fellow," was a good pianist, and "each time ho returned from tho trenches would fling himself on the piano and gratify us with'a selection of Italian music." "Where/ , asks Captain Millet, ''was my typical English hero ?" As for selfcontrol, tho British officers had, of course, a good deal of it, but "they did not overdo it in any way," as Captain Millet discovered when, on a slippery road, his car ran into tho car of a British army corps commander. Little damage was done, but "the general jumped out like a tiger, followed by two staff officers, who carefully imitated his voice and gestures." He had completely lost his temper. Although the unfortunate captain (or, rather, lieutenant, as ho • then was) had never met the irate general before, tho latter declared that it was not tho first time such a thing had occurred, and that he would have to report tho delinquent to his French superiors. No apologies seemed to soothe him, but a few days later when he again met Captain Millet, tbo general laughed over tho incidentj and thereafter always hailed him with a smile, and the words, "Hello I hero is tho fellow who ran into my carl" "I liked him better with his occasional fits of ill-humour," says the Frenchman, Tt than if ho had been tho Iron Duke." Under fire tho British olficers Tverc, of course, all very bravo nien./'lndecd, they behaved in a very peculiar way, in the most unpleasant circumstances— as if they wero playing golf on a peaceful green. We had a brigadier in tho division who was uncommonly remarkablo in that respect; for ho would, in tho midst o? a hot battle, carefully pick out- the most dangerous spot and make it his report centre, as if he were enjoying a shower-bath." Yet tho British officers did not attempt to conceal that they found the game as beastly as tho French did, their '''human, feeling expressed itself sometimes in a picturesque way," as was tho caso with an R.E. officer who, when surprised by !i burst of shell-fire while inspecting wire entanglements, sat him down in the first-lino trench, and muttered indignantly to himself, "I suppose I had better-wait until the'blighters have done." Like tho French, the British ivero equally modest about their own courage. Not a few of them spoke of being frightened as they would have mentioned a, headache. "One day," says Captain -Jiillet, "during a battle one of tho staff officers, who had just gone aheafl to reconnoitre tho ground in a most unwholesom'o place, and was starting again on tho same errand, said tome with a smile, 'It's beastly out thero. . . . Not being personally brave, I hate it.' I shall never forget that word spoken by one who never showed the slightest hesitation*, in exposing his life.". Indeed, the genuine humanity of tho British soldier seems to havo come almost as'a revelation to this French officer. Hβ was amazed to find officers and men in the.British Army so like officers and men in his own, tho only great difference being that the British spoke English and the French' spolSJ French. "Tho truth is, it is impossible to havo watched the two armies in the field without coming to tho conclusion that a common civilisation, as well as a common cause, has created links between us," says Captain Millet, "that are stronger than any barrier a difference in tongue can raiso between two peoples. For we are both at bottom 'mado of the same wood,' as people say in Franco; wo are equally human, we havo the same defects, and the same trick of kicking when a, bully, comes across our path."