OUR SPORTING ARMY

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 203, 8 May 1915, Page 3

OUR SPORTING ARMY

A FINE FRENCH TRIB'. .-2. "MEN WHO ALWAYS D- THE PROPER THING." "T-he creation of tile Eug.'oh Continental army under the Ger mn lire —for an army only really comes into being at the front —is one of those national feats which will be recalled with surprise in history. It is wonderful to have succeded, and better still, to have done so with a laugh." The work accomplished by Great Britain in maintaining the splendid Expeditionary Force which is at present fighting in France and Flanders from Ypres to Arras, and at the same time in forming and equipping the million men of Kitchener's Army, is at the present moment being keenly discussed and admired in the French Press, and the sentence which is quoted above is taken from a long article in the "Liberte," written by a French journalist who has had the opportunity cf making a close acquaintance with the English soldiers already at the front.

"It is first of all," he says, "a sporting army. From the base to the front one can locate it by the wonderful succession of motor-cars of all sines and of the most varied but luxurious build. There are ambulance palaces on wheels which slip noiselessly between great staff limousines, while swift sidecars and motor-cycles shoot along in two's and three's. "The cheery lads in khaki march from their bases to their exercise ground— the trenches —with sounding c'heer s and time their march to shrill whistling choruses. In the trenches their wonderful leather work of straps and belts and holsters gets worn and los'e s its pristine gloss, but the men jfctill remain 'the five meals a day

man,' the well-fed eaters of meat of whom Kipling has written. "Between two attacks,at each change of troops in the trenches, there is a 'revue' or an amateur performance. The staff officers cannot go much to th e theatre, but they shoot pheasants instead. Several officers have sent for their packs, and if foxes are wanting between Bethhun e and Armentiercs I understand there will be a special mobilisation "order for them. As the captain of a Sucolk regiment said the ether day: 'We have plenty of fun each time we attack; we must, not let ourselves be bored between times.' "Everywhere the British Army goes it seems to take its gaiety with it. Wherever the khaki uniform appears you will find the pastrycooks opening and the grocers devising schemes for. obtaining stoves of pickles, the local haberdasher and general stores shows i English'papers with pride in her winklov". pnd the young girls at the post ! office show n most surprising aptitude for Indian geogrphy. "But we should realise fully all that L -ii* brave show of gaiety means Deipite Wio daily distribution of jam this is most terribly hard for "ur brave .. Allies. We must remember that they were taken more by surprise than we were by the hour of the great

duty. To the accomplishment of this duty they ar-e new pouring out generously all the living forces- of their nation with all their geniu s for improvisation. "We can best estimate the value of the services of our Allies by the furious Inured, by the savage perfidy

shewn Llicui by our German tees. At the end ol October Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria issued, or, at any vale, countenanced an order to the Sixth Army i which spoke of 'the little interest that! attached to information given by Ehg- ■ lish prisoners.' In December this order, which amounted to a covert invitation to masacre, was renewed in a mor 8 explicit form. No more English prisoners ware to be made. 'The men or the detachments which surrender must be shot.' A saving clause was. added indicating that Indian troops \v'er e an exception to this rule. "The order to assassinate was at last understood, and at Christmas a convoy of twenty five British prisoners who were, being marched down, a road near Lens wer e mowed down by a quick:-fir e-r alt a distance of twenty yards. "To this unjustifiable crime our Allies made an heroic reply. The Indians were to be spared and the English shot. Henceforward only £ English troops were placed in first-line trenches. "The murderers have not gained anything. The Indian troops, alert Gurkhas, have mapped their course in their midnight sorties by bloodstained piles of corpses. "And the English play hard, but they always play the game. They mark ; rints as they advance or fall back, and as they are sporting, they always »vant to be advancing. ■ "The other week one of our brigades which was acting in liaison with a. British regiment managed to push the Germans back for about six hundred yards. Th e general commanding the neighbouring division of Allies saw the result, and communicated it to his staff, who were just organising an afternoon off with the hounds. " 'The French troops have advanced cix hundred yards,' he said. 'To-morrow w e will do the same. I think it is the proper thing to do.' The next evening the British lines were en a level witjh ilhat of their French neighbours, and the officers, or those who were left umveunded, were able to have their afternoon r.ff with the hounds. "The British Army always does the proper thing."