THE "CONTEMPTIBLE ARMY."

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 70, 21 November 1914, Page 5

THE "CONTEMPTIBLE ARMY."

INSULT ACCEPTED AS COMPLIMENT. LONDON, October 9. The publication in Paris of the Kaiser's order to his troops to " Walk over Sir John French's contemptible little army " was, the correspondents there of our papers declare, received with shouts of laughter. The French are the first to acknowledge the great part played by the British Army, and are frankly delighted that they have given the Kaiser's troops a badlyneeded lesson. The German disdain for "British amateurishness" is the occasion for an amusing article in the Intrasigeant, which remarks: "We accept for our comrades this insult, and consider it a great compliment. It is precisely professional militarism on which Europe is waging war. It is true that the British practise war as sport before going to the front. They are accustomed to lunch at a restaurant near the Madeleine, real shooting lunches they are too. Let us not forget that General von Kluck and the Crown Prince were tc "sup in the same restaurant towards the end of the month before last. Up to the present I have met there only English and Scotsmen." Commenting on the German Emperor's phrase the Petit Parisien says:--This army is worthy to be ranked among the finest which ever appeared on a battlefield. All the men comprising it are incomparably trained by sporting exercises, and their endurance is wonderful. It is truly unfortunate for the enemy that the German troops are not like the miserable expeditionary corps of which the Kaiser spoke."'