LATE WAR TALK.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 126, 30 January 1915, Page 7

LATE WAR TALK.

The Eussian Soldier. "The mote one sees of the individual oi: the Russian Army, the more otic comes to like the common soldier here," says a London Times correspondent. "They are the most good-natur-ed,, child-like, playful creatures in the world, and in the month I have been with the army and in constant association with troops I have not seen a single fight among the soldiers or any disorder whatever. On the road and in .their camps at night, all seem contented and happy when the weather is fine. It must be admitted that they do look a bit dismal in the rain.

''Tor the first time on this trip we have seen considerable numbers of Cosflasks, and have talked with quite a lot of them. Personally lam of the opinion that the terrible name given to the Cossacks is a libel.'' When tfp Against Big Things. The noble words of Captain Norman Leslie, of the Rifle Brigade, in which he pleaded in effect that the weary and anxious watchers of the bulletins at home should show the forget fulness of self which is exhibited by your fighters in the field, —"we live our little lives and die . . To some are given chances of proving themselves men, and to others no chance comes. . . Whatever our individual faults, virtues, or qualities may be, it matters not; but when we are up against big things let us forget individuals and let us act as one great British unit, united and fearless," finds a responsive echo in the United States.

"Whatever one may think of England as compared with the nations ranged against her and her allies, these are fine brave words,-'' comments the New York Times. "No mere mankiller wrote them, but a soldier willing to die for the nation and cause, and to count death a small thing. It were easy to say that his is an easier task, a lighter burden than they have at home, but the statement, even though true—which probably it is not—leaves unchanged the eompletones of his sacrifice, the nobility of his mental att: hide. " "Not Destroyed, Only Looted." M. Henri Bergson, at a meeting of the French Aeademie des Sciences, stated that he had reason to believe that, although the library buildings had been burned down, the contents of the Lou vain Library had not been destroyed, but simply looted.

M. Lourie, in the Temps, says that in the summer of 1913 ho spent a holiday in Switzerland, where lie met two German university professors, one a-pro-fessor of pathology and the other a professor of literature. The professor of literature was constantly talking about the new Royal Library in Berlin, built to house five million volumes. On M. Lourie observing that such a library would take a long time to fill, the professor "quite seriously" replied: "Oh, that will be very easy after a war." Repairs in Belgium.

"As undoubted evidence of the favourable position of the Allied troops it is stated that structural engineers and bridge builders all over the country are being asked to stand ready to rush forward repair works in Belgium and France,' 'says a Glasgow correspondent of the Daily Citizen.

German '' Chivalry.''

The Matin, referring to the action of a German officer in striking FlightCommander Briggs in the face with a riding-whip when he and his machine recently fell while destroying a Zeppelin shed, says:— "At first one could not believe that a» officer, instead of saluting so brave a man, would assault him. The fact is, however, perfectly correct.. How many blows in the face of the Emperor will wipe out the insult? What chastisement may not the army of drunken 'Reirers' expect which counts such officers among its leaders "What definitive abasement is not duo to the race of curious insolents who cannot understand true courage, the disinterested devotion, the imperturbable stoicism of soldiers who give their lives for the fulfilment of their duty? There have been illustrious scars; never one that will henceforth eclipse the red weal left by German cowardice on the brow of British bravery." The German God. Professor Max T,enz, who fills the Chain- of History at the Wissensehaftliche Stiftung in Hamburg, discusses "the German God," who is (says the Morning Post) apparently a wholly dif-, ferent divinity from the Russian God, and one in every respect superior. v\fter duly depreciatng the Russian God Professor Lenz proceeds to explain that the God "in whose name the German armies have gpne forth tP war, ** the God who caused iron to float, and who would have no slaves. It is before him that we bowed when the Emperor callod us." Germany must win "because sViv, ought to win, God cannot desert His children.''