IN GAOL FOR A FRIEND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2402, 9 March 1922, Page 1

IN GAOL FOR A FRIEND.

SERVED ANOTHER’S SENTENCE. How a former British soldier repaid his debt to an American soldier who saved his life on the French battlefields, was revealed when the British ex-soldier, Harry Haley, was released from the militia prison 'at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Haley and the American, Thomas Jones, joined the British Army together at the outbreak of war. Sevei’al months later the two men took part in a raid at dawn. On the way back to the British lines under heavy machine-gun and artillery fire, Haley fell with a bullet in his leg. Jones bound lip the wound and remained in No Man’s Land with him the whole day until it was dark, when he carried him to shelter. On the entry of the United States into the war, Jones transferred to the United Sates Army. The next time the two men met was a little more than six months ago in’l Toronto. Jones was still serving in jthe Army, but he told Haley that in order to visit his wife, who was seriously ill in Toronto, and needed him, he had deserted and was afraid to return. v

Haley immediately offered to impersonate him, took his papers, donned his uniform, and, crossing the border, surrendered to the nearest garrison. He was sent to Kansas, where he was sentenced by court-martial to imprisonment. - After he had served six months, Jones arrived at Fort Leavenworth and discovered the deception. Asked by the commanding officer how he came to be there instead of Junes. Haley simply said, “I am a'single .man, and have no responsibilities. Jones has a wife and family, who needed him. It was a chance to pay him back. I took it.”