A CARELESS OFFICER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8824, 28 May 1907, Page 4

A CARELESS OFFICER.

Ou the evening of Tuesday, April '3ud, small squads of troops, iufnufry and cavalry, arrived at about a oczea, police stations in Paris, to report ■according' to orders, • The . police officials looked blank. The : officers in charge. of the detachments said they had been : told Off to. ■ certainpolice stations to , keep the streets during tho general strike. The police officials looked still blanker, and said they had* never hoard of any general strike. " “Ordersare orders,” said the'officers, and tho troops invaded tho stations. More arrived, and tho stations could not hold thorn. Crowds collected and wondered what big military funerals there were, or whether it was a re- | volution. The telephones worked ! furiously. Every few minutes the i Prefect of-Police was rung up by | the police officials imploring an ox--1 plnnation of troops sent to put down j riots when there were no riots. Tho i Prefect telephoned to tho Homo Office, and M. Olemcucean in turn ; ang up General Picouart, who in turn rang up the Military Governor of Paris. This cycle of telephone message was repeated every few minutes, as tho police all over Par's kept ringing up to know what was the matter. The feelings of everyone may bo imagined. Tho .'Military Governor of Paris throttled the supposed hoax by declaring that lie had given no orders of the kind, had never hoard of the necessity of giving such orders, and thirsted to discover tho joker. The troops were ordered back to tho barracks, looking very foolish, and Paris took a certain amount of pride in tho thought that France nossossed an extremely smart hand at a hoax. Tho true explanation came next day. “The cause of all tho trouble, says tho Daily Telegraph's correspondent, “was Lieut.Colonel Bon, second in command of the 13th Artillery at Vincennes, and the worst of it is that ho did it unintentionally. If ho had meant it as a joke one would have admired his audacity. As it was, lie only blundered grossly. Orders . for calling out troops in tho event of strike disturbances had lain for some time in tho colonel’s office. The Lieut.Colonel casually opened the despatch, saw tho instructions, and, never noticing that they were drawn up with a view to possible eventuality, had them executed at mice. Ju less than 45 minutes tho orders had been completely carried out.” A hard-hearted Minister for War insisted ou the. colonel retiring. It is just as well, perhaps, that the colonel had not access to tho mobilisation plans of tho entire army.