LIFE IN THE LEGION

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1930, Page 7

LIFE IN THE LEGION

d AUCKLANDER /TELLS VIVID ® STORY OF THE' HARDSHIPS. I i, “Mutiny in the Foreign Legion and o its cause, you ask I Oh, perlinps lack •- I of water, or food, 1 perhaps too much e continued active service, or perhaps 1 i the ‘caffard.’ It is difficult to say, but life out there is hard, and cafc fard’ is common.” It is some six- ; teen years since th© speaker was out t in Morocco, serving in the Foreign > Legion, and lie says things have - changed since pre-war days, “It seems to me things have been exaggerated,” said the former member of the Legion, who lives in Auckland. “It seems scarcely likely that an entire "bat-tali an could have risen.” He added that since the war there had been a large- influx of Russians to the Legion, and it was possible that Soviet propaganda had something to do with the matter. ' ■ ■ “Conditions have changed, and for the better,’’ he said. “When I was in the Legion we used to get on© sou —a half-penny—a day. Now, I believe, they receive about a franc. Many tales get about concerning the life in the Legion, and people get false' ideas of the life cut there. In the main the books written a'bout it are true but the writers over-colour their stories. For instance, I have read about men . lying in the desert without a hat, THat is absurd, A man would be mad in half a day.” “FINEST WALKERS IN WORLD.” As for the food, it was plain, but there was enough of it. There must have been for the Legion to Held the name of the finest body of walkers in the world. They would walk, he said, five kilometres, or about 3| miles, an hour all day, carrying all their gear. He believed they were the finest 'body of fighters in the world. “What did death matter to them?” lie asked. “They have all to gain and nothing literally nothing, to lose.” The Leg/-, ion held many of the outcasts from society, /who probably, joined in, desperation, and continued to do every- 1 thing from desperation. Resides, I fighting meant not only relief from I the terrible monotony of barrack I life, but, the chance l of loot to supple- I ment their/ pay. 'lf a village ref us- | ed to pay its taxes the Legion would be sent along to bring the chiefs to their, senses. In the village, as well as well-aimed rifiles, 1 there would be skins, arid' wine and gold pieces. . These could be sold for money, which, whatever its amount, was wealth to those whose pay was a sou a day. In comparison with those things death weighed but lightly indeed in the balance. f “When a recruit joins the Legion c asks no questions. If he has a sound r heart, a healthy body and good teeth o a man can give what age he likes, a and he can say his name is whatever c first comes into his head. The Legion f

(leaves all to be said until he tries to escape.” • - --

IMPOSSIBLE RISKS TAKEN. Escape, he said, was most difficult., although lie managed it. But the monotony of life was such that the legionnaires took impossible- chances. Some of them seized the opportunity offered by transhipment to another part of the world. When a. fair distance from the land they would jump overboard and chance the sharks. One man he knew deserted and Hid in a ,barrel on the wharves for several days. He eventually got away by stowing away on a British cargo vessel. It was very largely a question of luck, and exceptionally good luck. He spoke- of the risks run by those who fled into the desert. Some of

them, afflicted with the “caffard,” the madness brought on by. the heat and the utter sameness of things, would go off and run the .gauntlet of death by horrible torture by the Arabs on the one hand, and of death by thirst on the other. It was a question which was the more merciful. When the men went to sleep at night -they used to tie their rifle straps to their wrists to prevent them being stolen bv th© marauding tribes. It was not unknown for an Arab to take the rifle and the wrist with it.

Still, back through sixteen years he remembered perhaps the . more pleasant side of the life. “They were a magnificent body of soldiers. The life was gruelling, but it left one fit and as hard as nails.”