THE FOREIGN LEGION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 239, 5 January 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FOREIGN LEGION.

FRANCES FAMOUS REGIMENT OF ROMANCE.

France's famous picked corps of fighting men of all nations, not inaptly describes the world-renowned Foreign Legion, says "The Scotsman." It was in this regiment of "hard-bitten," dare-devil fighters that John Ford £l- - who has just been reinstated by the King in his rank of LieutenantColonel in the Royal Warwickshires, "made good." The story of how this "very gallant gentleman" redeemed himself is one • f the most romantic of the war. Jn 1886 he was gazetted as ft subaltern to the "Warwicks," his first and only regiment. Seven years later he was promoted captain, obtaining his majority in 1901. He served with considerable distinction througout the South African War and at the outbreak of th? present conflict his regiment was one of the first to leave for France, Colonel Elkington being in command of the Ist Battalion. Less than three months afterwards he was cashiered by sentence of a General Court-martial. He left the Army to the great regret of his fellow-officers and of his men. Instead of returning home to probably fume and fret at his hard luck, he, a man turned fifty,.joined the Foreign Legion of the French Army as a private soldier. He made no atempt to disguise his identity, and rapidly adapted himself to the altered conditions of life-

A GOOD SOLDIER AND COMRADE

Reticent and unassuming, Elkington proved himself a good comrade and an exemplary.soldier, who did his share of the ordinary duties readily and cheerfully. He did not look for favours, and would accept none. On one occasion, for instance, during a long night march, it was suggested to him by*, the sergeant of his platoon that his kit (the kit carried by Legionaries is. the heavies kit borne by any infantrymen) could be placed on one of the wagons that accompanied them. As x matter of fact, a lieutenant had, on account of Elkington's age, instructed tho.sergeant to do this. But Elkington, while! agreeing that the kit was heavy, refused the offer, and stuck to it right through the whole march. No man could have .been more anxious to get into the firing line, and seldom a day passed without him asking the sergeant, " When arc we going into the trenches?"

His wish was gratified at last. He had an experience of many months in the trenches, during which lie fought with that corps of adventurous spirits in some of the stiffest battles in Champagne. On many occasions the exBritish Colonel displayed bravery of the highest order. In September of last year, during an attack on a strong German position in Champagne, he greatly distinguished himself. A bullet shattered his leg, unfortunately, and for nearly twelve months he has in a French, hospital. His military career —at least so far as service in the field is concerned —is probably ended. But he is content. He has "made good." In his possession has the Medaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre, earned by great gallantry on the field. His one mistake <>i two years ago has been wiped out. He has regained the confidence of his King and the high command of the Army, and —the one thing necessary to make him a supremely happy man—he has bene reinstated to his former rank in his old beloved regiment.

CONSTITUTION OF THE FOREIGN LEGION.

f"" Very few people in this country have even a remote, idea of the constitution and methods of the Foreign Legion. It is composed of the most extraordinary medley of soldiers you will find on the face of the earth. Someone has described tho Foreign L?gioii as an international congress of brave men who have come croppers, and to a large extant it is true.

The senior officers are, practically without exception, French, but the rank'and file are drawn from eveij part of the globe. As Colonel Elkington said to ta Press representative: - "We had the Turk standing shoulder to shoulder with the Armenian —a strange combination indeed, in view !of their relations,in the Near East. Representatives of the country too proud to fight wero there, in abundance. There were also Spaniards, Swiss, Swedes, together with men who cloulci only be described as cosmopolitans." Some of those men, no doubt, had 1 one drawn to the Legion by the passion, for danger and adventure in their blood; most had joined to find an escape from the world and from the liveV broken by their folly or. worse. Fighting in the ranks !of this wonderful corps there are men, some 'if them connected with great and titled families who had once cut a brave figure in th-3 fashionable world of great capitals; there were others who had wen i£o little fame, in a wide range of professions, from arms to medicine and the Chourch; thero are actors an<l acrobats, pugilists and poets — eveix typo of man jon can think of; and among them not. a few iwho had run foul of the law and its legislation, and for which thci.'- lilierty, at least would have paid forfeit. Ami without exception, all are desperate men, ready and eager to fate death at any moment. One can easily ndersland the appeal that-'.ife in the foreign legion has tor such a tough, adventuresome clase :>f men. Ma.iv who join could assure themselves good pay and relatively easy times i > the volunteer armies of ether commies. If they join a corns in which lhe drilling s of the hardest kind, tha fighting a.most constant, with ca.-jii iliies exceptionally high, the discipline thie most severe of whioli Lheiu is any record, the advancement slow, the pay practically nil, it will be understood, that some men are born for hard soldiering. HARD SOLDIERING. Soldiering is .what they get, and they get also the title to the proud bflas: that they aie Legionaries. Tin, man who can make this boast among soldiers know- that his standing ..- at once acknowledged. Tlioir drill is something to be remembered. One who (qualified as a I. gionaire under the blazing sun of Algeria, says, ''Talk about drill! why, the British soldier doesn't know the meaning of the word. From dawn to dusk I was kept hard at it. beginning . the day with a couple of hours of excr <!-;• at the double; followed by lon« hour- of polishing aecouti'eni.'iits, and oi :(!::ng I,arracks, and more and still more drilling. " [ji:t, the killing part was the marchin:.!:. Often for eight hours on end we had to march, inarch in the heaving beat of th.' African sun. over roads -o hoi that they hlister.sl tl.M> feet, and i:,!t; ing .■ biire! n of nearly a hundred |i ir'ids --rifle, b nonet, and two huncli'id round- ill ammunition, uniform. and ii.wvy blue v .it. blanket, fuel', tun a days' rati m«. and .1 tent and P'm, s. ('-an \oo v.i nder that ev;n strong men fainted and Ml by the way, ; reduced t<> the last stige of cxhausj turn? Somo died; ethers were driven

mad: a fa»v deserted; but the large majority won through." The term of enlistment is five years. Most mon re-enlist. There is a pension after thirty years' service, practically, fifteen, as one year's campaigning counts fox two, and campaigning is almost constant.

The age limit prescribed is 18 to 35 years. Ail recruits are entered somewhere between these two limits, but a remarkably large numl>er of men are round about 40 when they join—they show no birth certificate. The Legion upsets many established theories. legionaries between 40 nod 45 make far more desirable and reliable soldici-s than men between 20 and 30. SUPERLATIVE OFFICERS. Marshal MacMahon, Marshal Canrobert (of Crimean fame), and many other officers whose names are writ large across France's roll of fame, have l>een officers in the Legion. Nowhere else is the test of an officer so severe. Not only must he l>e a man of superletive militairy qualities, strong, courageous, highly skilled in the science of war, capable of obtaining and holding the esteem and respect of the hard, strong men whom he commands, hut ho must also be endowed iwth rare qualities of judgment, with a profound knowledge of human nature, with a capacity for reaching prompt and accurate decisions, iand with infinite tact and common-sense.

The legionaries are taught two things superlatively—to march and to fight responsibly. Each man must learn all there is in the ant of fighting. He must learn to use his initiative, to be always ready to play w lone liana, to fight "on his on hook." He sums up his training as "the system D," the initial standing for debrouillez-vous — '•look out for yourself. - ' AVhat demons they are to light, the world knows. They go into battle like so many tigers unleashed; but to get them to come out so long us there is a man to light or an enemy to kill is ,i very difficult matter. Not once, but scones of times they bare turned a d«af ear to the trumpet-call to retreat. They are as men mad with the lust of blood-shedding. And for then - services and their valour they receive—a halfpenny a day. THEIR WAR RECORD. But in spite of paltry pay, stern discilpine, and almost superhuman labour, officers and men are full of enthusiasm for their work and of pride in their legion; and their dearest wish is to face death in battle. Their record in the present war is a glorious and a costly one; for pitifully few indeed are left of those who so eagerly and gallantly rallie dround the tricolour of France at the outbreak of hostilities. Four hundred Britishers, who were in Paris when the first blow was struck, at once joined the Legion. And a strangely-mixed crowd they were, too —young business men, tutors, journalists, poets, artists, athletes— but all full of fight and eager to get a whack at the Hun.

And in what more superb company* could those aoughty sons of Britain fight than in the ranks of this far-re-nowned regiment-the most cosmopolitan crri" Mi the '••(•rid —the famo is Foreign Legion of France?