THE FOREIGN LEGION.

Shannon News, 9 February 1926, Page 1

THE FOREIGN LEGION.

FAMOUS FRENCH. FORCE. men who saved morocco. There is little enough glamour and glory in war as we know it to-day, but even now there must be few of us who can read of France’s Foreign Region without feeling a tinge of romance so rare in those prosaic times, writes the Paris correspondent of a London paper. In the early days of the war when the French forces, in Morocco consisted almost entirely of native troops it was the Region which stemmed the tide of the Itiff advance and saved Fez, and later when France embarked upon a really serious campaign and troops poured in from the home garrisons and from the Rhine the Region became the shock troops .of the army. They were used unsparingly; to their lot fell the most dangerous posts, and the worst parts of the line; but never once did they fail to respond. Abd el Krim, in sore need of European instructors for his tribesmen, offered many inducements to deserters to rally to his standard, and the fact that only a few stragglers broke away and that recruiting for the Legion increased as the war progressed bears striking testimony to the esprit-de-corps of a regiment of foreigners who can have little personal interest in the success of France's cause . The Regionary is not an easy man to handle, but his French officers, specially picked from the whole of the army, manage him admirably and take a real pride in him. Discipline is very rigidly enforced, and punishment is usually severe, but this is hardly avoidable when one considers l.hu rough, lawless type of man of whom the Region is chiefly com. posed. Figl itiug uiid Marching. > Oil duty the Regionaries have many queer unwritten privileges which distinguish them from tlic rest of the army. They have never professed to be peace-time soldiers, they are enlisted to fight, and'they seldom make much attempt at a smart turnout. The Regionary is usually to be seen in a disreputable uniform, coat invariably open, with a shirt more the exception than the rule, while compliments are seldom paid to officers outside the Region. . Fighting- — and inarching—is 'their speciality. Oil those grounds they will defy challenge, and'they care for little beyond that. In Morocco one meets Legionaries of every type and nationality ,and ah though one never inquires into reasons for joining the Region, the gift of a packet of cigarette or a drink will often bring forth a story that would provide many a plot for a novelist. In a cate in Fez I chatted with a Dane from Quebec, once an N. 0.0. in the Canadian Army, and now a chauffeur to a French General and 1 found in the trenches at Taounat a Hungarian Legionary attached to a battalion of Chasseurs Alpins, who had formerly served In the German Army; One Englishman 1 met was a boy of about twenty, who, after tramping the streets of London in vain searching of work, had enlisted in the Region rather than go on the dole at home I believe-there are not more than fifteen genuine Englishmen in the Region to-day, although it seems the fashion for anyone who can speak a few words of the language to call himself English ,and a very Teutonic figure once greeted me with the words, “I am Scotch, and haf in London often been!”

The German Element. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of all is the proportion of Germans in the Lesion. To-day tney comprise something like 70 per cent, of its strength, and the German element has always been one of the chief characteristics of the Legion ever since' its formation. It is .difficult to account for this, and I have never yet heard a satisfactory explanation. It cannot be mercenary instincts, for the pay is a mere pittance; is it that the Germans are more adventurous than their fellows, or was the remark of the French officer who said: “Perhaps is is because the Germans love discipline” more to the point? Whatever, the reason, the German element is the backbone of the Legion; the majority of its N. C. O.’s are German ,and many of theifimave served with the German Army. I have never yet heard a complaint from all the Legionaries with whom I have talked against their treatment by the French, and there is no doubt that their lot has been much improved since pre-war days . The period of enlistment has been reduced to five years, the pay is higher, the food and clothing better, and one or two 'welcome innovations have been -made. It is now possible for an ex-officer of a European Army serving in their ranks to rise to commissioned rank and a recent experiment has been the formation of a cavalry branch of the Legion.