KIPLING ON THE WAR HELL.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 June 1923, Page 4

KIPLING ON THE WAR HELL.

WON DER El.'L I IC I t R E HE THE YOKES SALIENT. [u Mr Riidyard Kipling's "The Irish (Lunds in (he Great Ware’ published in Ap ii. v.c have at lung la-l an epic narrative to’d by a genius (says the I,midi.:i "Daily Express’"). 'lbis Lock call have 11■ > peer. It is lint in-', the truih about the Biigmle e|' Hoards, it is (lie truth about even lighting unii. There emerges from a wealth of detail a clear image of an amateur race ul war. magnificently unprepared, knowing untiling oi what was happening anywhere, "in-nli-itt ly pel I’ecl on that "damn ceremonial parade’ that followed every "long divert c irom the decencies," heroic and uncomplaining ill action, mill to i rumple up under hearl-hreakiiig fatigue, possessed nf an unconquerable humour. dreading |he enemy far less than the thigliih'cp -water and mud n! the trenches, lighting all the lime in a soil oi nightmare Imze qi’ilc ine.qisoqm-nlly till ocelli came as a mercitul rebel. The I-I. fla! i a li- n of (In Hi b Guard- began in male history in lhyb twelve days' retreat ol I 111 mi!.'—, i/nin Molls.

"I shouldn't mind them berries, lads," saiil the sergeant as some of the men, quite serene under idle lire, stopped to pick hhn-khen ics ; "there s maybe wnrroiiins in ’em.”

In |0 Iff |ho v were back in tlie Salient. v, liicli Kioliiig d'-.i-rilics in language uf extra, rdiieirx power. "'lhe wluih• Salientlie ‘-avs, "was a death-trap throng nit. "I h" great shells cros-.d each other's path at every angle, lmek ami forth, single or in (lights.

"For ti l certain cause that our lmr could guess, fire would concenl rale ifself on -miie iialf-ohiilfi’iilt'd leiifiir' of the landscape—a bank, the pom stumpage of a woo l, a v.-nni:int of a village, or the angle of road, ibal went out in smoke, du-i. and flying clods, as though devils \tere Hinging il up with invisible spades. "Tl," < oiioenti'irto'l elammus vvonld die down ami reive: tho single shells would resiime their aimless falling over a line of fields, with the monotony of drills from a tap, till, again, ii seemed a.s though one el them hail found something worthy of attention, and shouted hack the news to its fellows who, crowding altegetliei in one spot, roared, overturned, and set alight for live or Leu wild minutes or through a mctliodbal half-hour. "If tiio storm fell on hare ground, thal, was churned and torn afresh info smoking clods; if upon men in trenches. on relief, or viith the Iransnnri. no eye could judge what harm had keen done, for often where it had seemed as though nothing could live, dispersed units picked themselves tip. and reformed almost- untouched after inconceivable escapes. "Elsewhere, a few spurts of stinking smoke in a corner might cover afl that remained of a platoon, or have ripped the heart out of silent, waiting com-

pany. "By night, funlastie traceries ol crossing lii't'-iines ran alung the shoulder of a i idge—hrapiicl, bursting high, ielted a tiail of swift sparks, as it might lie sleel striking Hint ; dropping limes outlined sonic tortured farmhouse among its willuwsl limp-, or ihe intolerable glare of a big s' ril framed itsell behind a naked doorway, ami coloured light.- dyed the bellies of tlie low clouds till :ti! seli.-c cl distance and direction was lost, and the bewildered l roups stumble:: and (tallied from pave to pot-hole, treading upon their old death "Dawn brought dirty while desolation across yellow mud pitted with slate-coloured water-holes, and eon fused by senseie-s grey and black lineand curled tangles of wire.

"There was nothing to see, except —almost pearl-coloured under their mud dyed helmets—the tense, preoccupied faces of men moving with wide spaces between their platoons to wa-ter-flooded cellars and shelters chillier even than the grave-like trenches they had left, always with the eonseiousnes' that they were watched by invisible eves which presently would choose certain of them to be killed. "Those who came through it sav that the sense of this brooding death more affected every phase of life in the Salient than in any other portion of the great war-field.”