The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, March 11, 1916. FRENCH AND BRITISH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1521, 11 March 1916, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, March 11, 1916. FRENCH AND BRITISH.

A Frknch soldier writing In the Journal de Geneve of his British comrades at the Dardanelles, says : The coldness of the British soldier covers qualities which at first we would not suspect ; this reserved soldier-man is the most homeloving of all men and has the image and thought of home ever present in his mind, Eet him strike up a conversation with one of bis French comrades, and let the conversation go on long enough for them to get to know one another; then out of his pocket comes the little book that contains his treasure; he opens it, and then he lays forth before the eyes of the Frenchman, a bit astonished at first, but quickly charmed, the family portraits that he always carries with him ; father, mother, sister, fiancee. A spontaneous “niceness” this, which makes him show bis domestic hearth to his comrade from France, and which never fails to win him all hearts. Now, when an English soldier spreads out his treasures in this fashion, he has still another thing to show, of which he is no less proud ; a piece of paper which he unfolds carefully. It is the evidence of his enlistment in the army. For Tommy (as we call him) is almost always a volunteer. This to speak frankly, caused no little astonishment at first to our men, for whom the idea of military service seems to be necessarily tied up with that of being obliged to it. Tommy might, if he liked, have gone on leading his quiet life in business or at the bank ; he might have known the war only through the newspapers; why did he enlist ? Was it for the pay ? Remember that he gets three to five francs a day—a fortune alongside our five centimes up to lately, 25 centimes for the last fortnight. But, if you put it to him, the Englishman shakes his head disdainfully ; no ! it was not for the money. Then what was it for ? More than once I have heard one of our troops put the question, and what has always surprised me has been the embarrassment the Englishman had in replying. “Why did I enlist ?” He hesitates and tries to think. It seems that he has never asked himself this question. Sometimes he says, “It was because of Kitchener and the placards.” More than once, too, when the question has been put to him, “Why did you enlist ?” I have heard Tommy reply, “I don't know” ; just as if he had come out here not after a process of reasoning, but as if impelled by the very instinct of his race, or even as if for him deeds alone counted ; and wishing and talking and discussing of no good to anybody. What a splendid disdain of phrases, theories and explanations !