LATE WAR NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 127, 1 February 1915, Page 3

LATE WAR NEWS.

WOUNDED GERMAN’S TREACHERY From the letter of a private of the North Lancashire Regiment. “We occupied the trenches all night without anything happening, and early next morning saw one of the Germans in. front. This man was waving the white flag, and when brought in he said there were scores of their wounded in front who wanted to come to the British lines, “They looked the most pitiful objects anyone could possibly see. We were bringing them in all day. One of cur officers was bringing one of them in and got in front of him,when the German, drawing a revolver, shot him in the hip. “One. of our privates, who was doing escort duty, seeing the action, •promptly drove his bayonet through him. The treachery of some of the Germans is indescribable.

‘'SCOTLAND FOR EVER.”

A wounded member of the London Scottish gives a vivid account of the now famous charge of that crack Territorial Regiment.

“We were now near enough to see the fierce glare in the eyes of the enemy as they waited for us. We gave them on e great volley, and then bayonets were fixed, and in a long line we charged down on their trenches. “The madness of that charge I shall never forget. There was no .time to think of fear or danger. We were mad drunk with the excitement. The blood was coursing in our veins at express speed, and our only thought was to close in the death grip with the foe. Some cf our beys yelled out, ‘Scotland for ever”; others were as silent as the grave. “Their lines were strengthened at every point, and they made a great stand against us, but we were fresh, and we slashed right and left with a will. • ®

“They weakened after the first shock and gradually fell back, fighting inch by inch, but each step we forced them back their pace became quicker, and then they broke into a made race for life.

“Our chaps were well satisfied with their first day’s hand-to-hand fight with the Germans and were eager for another when I started for home.” PAID IN HIS OWN COIN. Shortly before the war a German and a Frenchman sat. opposite each other at table de hete in a certain hotel in Switzerland. “You are a Frenchman, I suppose?” inquired the German, at the commencement of the meal. “Yes,” was the reply, “but how did you manage to find out?” “Because you eat so much bread,” said the German. There was a long pause. When the dinner was over, the Frenchman in his turn questioned his vis-a-vis. “You are a German,” I presume?” “To be sure, but tell me, pray, how you made that discovery?” “Because you ate so much of everything,” was the dry retort. THE GERMAN OFFICER The arrogance of the German officer towards mere civilians is thus described in the “Outlook”;

One \ery painful but not uncharacteristic episode will serve to illustrate at once the relations between soldiers and civilians and the singular ‘code of honour’ prescribed fclr officers. Certain tables in a popular ‘kneipe’—i.e., tavern —were by custom reserved for the use of the students, one being assigned to the members of each corps, and it was a matter of unwritten law that no other customer, military or civilian, should occupy these favoured places One evening, a young lieutenant, unfortunately just, sufficiently the worse for drink to care nothing for custom and less for courtesy, strutted into the room, and, seeing a vacant table, which, having been stationed a year or two in the town, he well knew to belong to the “white caps,” flung himself into one of the empty chairs, calling for beer. A buzz of expectation went round the room when the rest of the company realised this breach of etiquette, and this was followed by a more significant hush when three students rose from an adjoining table and politely requested him to be so good as to sit elsewhere.

At first the young fellow took no notice of them. Then, when one of the trio laid a hand on his shoulder, he sprang up, kicked away his chair, and half drew his sword. The denouement was rapid, for the three unarmed youths threw htemselves on him, one slapping his face, while a second held him, and the third broke his sword. Then they released him, and, white as death, he picked up the dishonoured weapon and loft the hall. That night he was found in his quarters with a revolver in one hand and a hole through his forehead, the sequel, it was said at the time, to a short and sharp interview with his colonel, who pointed out that death was the one salve for the disgrace of being disarmed by civilians.