Miscellaneous.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 168, 28 June 1909, Page 4

Miscellaneous.

FRANCE'S FOREIGN LEGION. /Men of all Nations.

In the first davs of the troubles in

Morocco a brief despatch said that the soldiers of the Foreign Legion having shown a little too much dash they were to be replaced at the outposts by Algerian sharpshooters, and that some of them would have to stand a court-mar-tial. No details were given as to what form the dash took,but no one knowing anything of the legion was surprised at the despatch. The Foreign Legion is composed of two regiments of four battalions each; as a battalion consists of a thousand men this means 8000 men for active service. The legion is a relic of the monarchy. In the famous days of July, 1830,

the Swiss regiment which formed the private guard of Charles X, defended the Tuileries against the people of Paris. This naturally made them unpopular. The people decreed their dissolution as a Royal Guard, and offered them the choice between being set free or serving in Algeria. Most of them, soldiers to the core, chose Algeria.

These Swiss soldier formed the nucleus of the French Foreign Legion, and it is to them that the use of absinthe is due in large measure. They found that most of the wells in Northern Africa contrnined water charged with sulphate or lime, and bethought themselves of the cordial of their country, and took to mixing a little absinthe with the water.

This habit was thought to be so beneficial that the army instructions of the time directed that each company should carry a bottle of absinthe for the men's use at halting places. Officers, after leaving the service, introduced the absinthe habit into France, where it quickly spread to ail classes. At the present time there is hardly one Swiss in the Foreign Legion. Its backbone is formed by men from Alsace and Lorraine, who thus seek to avoid serving in the German army and to obtain French naturalisation, which they can claim after service under the flag. Next in number are Belgians, whose object is similar, and \vlio make as good soldiers as the men of Alsace and Lorraine.

The rest are of all races, Germans, Austrians, English, or rather Irish, Poles, Russians,.. Croats, Spaniards, Greeks; even a Malay from Sumatra has worn the uniform. Nobody asks who the}' are or why they have enlisted.

Not long ago a simple private ,just before he died in hospital, sent his papers to the Colonel. The Colonel forwarded them by diplomatic channels to the sovereign of a foreign nation. One day the men of the foreign Legion saw, without much surprise, for they know that anything is possible in their, corps, a stately man of war, with its flag at half mast, stop before their camp, which was by the Mediterranean. A procession of officers landed and bore off the coffin of their fellow-soldier, who had not even the worsted stripe of a corporal, with all the honours that could have been paid to a prince binder the French flag. He was the son of a king, and his father had led armies against France. Another tale, though tnis may be only a legend, says that one day a Lieutenant in charge of a burying party said to his men as they stood beside the grave dug in the African sand —

"It's disgusting all the same to bury a comrade like a dog—no service, no chaplain, not even a prayer. Well, I must say a prayer, for I'm sure none of you can."

Then one of the party stood out and saluted.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant," he said "I*have been a bishop."

And one Legionary at least, had the burial service spoken over his grave. During the Franco-Prussian war the Pontificial Zouaves and the Foreign Legion were ordered to cover the French retreat after the battleg of Orleans. Of 370 Zouaves on the morning of October 12, 1870, there remained 17; of 1500 Legionaries, 36 alone answered the roll-call.