"SKY PILOTS."

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 161, 31 March 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

"SKY PILOTS."

BRAVERY OF FRENCH PRIES'I S One of the outstanding features of the present war, as a multiplicity of incidents, reported and unreported, lias already shown, is the cool heroism or the chaplains serving with the troops at the front. Nobody who had experience ol it will ever forget the magniicent devotion shown by the pr e»ts of Belgium during their-country s agony. Nolio:.y who reads the frequent lists jf "citations' in ttie French papers can deny the existence of the same spirit among tiie clergy of France, w hose act'ons on the field of battle haw won the expressed admiration of even tne meat litter anti-chricals. Many British chaplains, too, have been mentioned in dispatches, anc. l stories told by officers and men indicate that the "Sky Pilot" ill khaki knows, as a rule, the surest way to win the heart of the soldier. Not only <..« the chaplains pertorm their normal duties with unfailing regularity, but they are ready to turn tiieir hands to any act of service, and frequently assist m the removal ol the wounded. Indeed, it is often a matter of difficulty to keep them from going right into the firing line, such is their anxiety to help the men who may need their assistance, and administer spiritual consolation to those who meet death in the trenches. ERECT AMID THE SUKLI.S. A ljttl.e time ago an open-a'T service for British troops was being held at .v certain spot only a short distance behind the front. The chaplain was in the act of addressing a large body of men when he nut with a startling interuption in the shape of enemy shell fire. One shell fell within a few yards of where the troops were at worship. The solders, with the instinct generated by training und experience threw themselves flat on the ground as soon as the warning drone ot the projectile was heard, but the chaplain remained standing, and appeared to take no notice of the incident. He madie a brief pause, and after the explosion ot the shell, which, as if by special providence, hurt nobody, went calmly oil with liis address. Probably he would lie surprised did he know to what . pinnacle his flock have exalted 1 i'm since this incident. The war lias, of course, com? rigr.t into the parishes of many a French priest. In such cases the same braver ; and devotion have asserted themselves. The former euro, of Vaumotse, a pretty little town in the o : se Department, is one of France's village priest heroes The German invaders brought the battlefield to his very doors and he rose nobly to the occasion. At Etavigny he succeeded in rescuing eight French soldiers who were actually within tlv enemy's line-. He was afterwards captured shortly nfter the battle of Our.<j and sentenced to death by the Germans, but he managed to make h ; escape and regain the French lines. The French Academy, to mark its ppiv.iation of h;s courage, decided to avid him the Charles Blouet prize, an honour carrying with it -a not incons'derable sum ot money, but, this wee* the Abbe Jicolas, for such is the cure's style and title, has written to the Secretary of the Academy modestly de 1 ning to accept it. He asks that the prize may instead be entrusted to M. Dupont, Senator for the O'se, 111 y-der that it may be handed by him to General Gallieni for the benefit of the War Orphans' Fund. The good Abbe remarks : —" The gratitude of the eight soldiers whom I had the consolation of saving on the battlefield of Etavigny in the enemy's lines is my joy. Slaughter brought me this honour; let the value of it go to the little ones who are the innocent victims of that slaughter." EXCEPTIONS AND CONTRASTS. No doubt on (he enemy's side similar ucvoted men are working. There are, however, exceptions and contrasts. The " Stra-burg Post," the leading German organ in the annexed portion of Lorraine (the nativo Lorraine papers have all been suppressed,) announced a short time ago that the parish priest Hosp of Sollrain, in the Tyrol, had been decorated with the War Cross for services accomplished in face of the enemy. The journal a deed: —Father Ho-p is a crack shot who, from positions menaced by the enemy, has brought down many Alpint. Priests in AustriaHungary are not as in the case in France, compelled In serve in the Army. Father Hosp's abilities with the rifle have been displayed, therefore, out of pure patriotism, alloyed by the joy of trying his weapon at a liv'ng target.