"IF I ONLY HAD YOU."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7, 7 September 1915, Page 2

"IF I ONLY HAD YOU."

I AN OFFICER'S BRUTALITY. | ! One phase of the story of the armistice granted to the Turks, when they buried 7000 killed by the Australians, was told by Sergeant Major Ayling, I).CM., who has returned to Australia. '

"Some of the Australians," he said, "mixed with the enemy; and one of the Turkish soldiers was chatting to us in quite a friendly fashion when a German officer came up, and with his clenched right fist struck the man a fearful blow on the head."

An Australian private, who saw the blow, w;as so enraged that lie said to the German officer, "You dirty hound!"

i " 'Oh, I say," said Major Denton, of West Australia, turning to the private, 'you should not have said that.' "The look the Australian private got from the German officer meant in as many words, 'Oh! If I only had you under me for a while.' "Later on, during the armistice, a Turk came up to us and said, 'Never mind! when you get to Constantinople you get plenty of beer and no rifles, i "They all seemed coivinced that we ■.jvould eventually reach Constantinople. A Turk asked us during the armistice how he could best give himself up, and we told him to march towards our trenches, and wave a white flag; He did so, but foolishly came at night, and waved his flag from behind a bush. Unfortunately, lie was shot."