THE HUN TASKMASTER.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 January 1918, Page 3

THE HUN TASKMASTER.

TURKISH GENERAL DESERTS.

General Bailloud, who lias arrived in Paris from Palestine, relates the following anecdote of his sojourn in Syria:—"At dawn some days before the resumption of the British offensive against Gaza a Turkish General sprang across the short space of ground which separated the Turkish and British trenches on the coast. Tt» general was followed by an orderly carying his valise. When asked why he had deserted, thus abandoning the troops which it was his duty to lead, he replied:— "I was through the Dardanelles campaign, where I learned to appreciate the same adversaries who to-day confront me. Being sent from the Dardanelles to Roumania with my division, I was incorporated in an army corps which was commanded by a German general, and which consisted of my division of 16,000 men, a Bulgarian division, and a German division. This state of affairs did not last long, and was not to the benefit of us Turks.

"Of my 16,000 men 12,000 disappeared, killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, whilst the Bulgarians did not lose many more than 1000 and the Germans about a dozen This was a bit too much. Now that I am in Palestine I consider that the wisest course for me is to preserve in the interests of my country my life, which I must devote to a more useful task, and which I do not wish should be stupidly sacrificed for the German cause.

"Moreover, even if I was lucky enough to escape being shot, I woulc certainly have died of hunger, as provisions are no longer reaching us."