TAKING PRISONERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 June 1918, Page 6

TAKING PRISONERS.

.COMPARISON OF METHODS. .WHY GERMAN FIGURES MISLEAD. The British people as a whole nave not yet acquired the habit of viewing ■war happenings in the right perspective. If they had one would not hear So much perplexed comment upon the number of prisoners taken by the Germans, says a writer in the Daily Jfail. An aspect of this matter that should he kept in mind is that the totals quoted by the enemy include wounded as well as others. The Hun believes in big figures when they show to his own advantage. Nor is he by any means scrupulous as to how he swells them out. I have never known of a British soldier walking over the top and surrendering voluntarily. Nor have I ever met anybody who could tell me •Of such an occurrence. But Huns have done this frequently. They are always quite ready to put up their hands and yield in the most lamb-like manner when cornered.

Upon one occasion I saw a curious Instance of their docility after being captured and of the odd, half-contemp-tuous tolerance with which our Tommies treat them. 'A party of Huns who had been gathered in somewhere •‘forrard” were making their way towards our rear. Nobody seemed to be troubling much about them, all being too busily occupied at the moment in hilling others of their kind. On their Toad the Huns met a sergeant from overseas. Without spedking"a word he motioned them to continue and directed them to the prisoners’ cage merely hy jerking his thumb towards it. Then he went on to the fight and the Huns to the cage. The gesture had been sufficient for them. But would any British soldiers have been waved into captivity in' this casual way? Not once in a thousand years! Par more likely would one find them frying to break free. Usually they do, and often successfully. In one case that I came across a 19-year-old trooper belonging to an English Yeomanry regiment killed eight Huns who were holding him in a dug out, scrambled through the German front line trenches, and got safely back to his unit. ' When Considering the prisoner question one should bear in mind what a modern battlefield is like. It is rather difficult to visualise this with accuracy unless one has seen the thing itself. Bursting shells, rolling screens of smoke, rifle bullets flying around as thick as clouds of locusts over the veld, machine guns making impassable barriers in all directions, great multitudes of soldiers at deadly grips In a battle line scores of miles long and many miles deep. Is it surprising that in conditions such as these a few thousand of the combatants should be captured on either the one side or the other?

Men get isolated in small batches. Dazed I / heavy shell-fire, which differs from hell-fire only in the way It is spelt vand that is no great difference either), probably out of ammunition, and finally borne down by sheer weight of numbers, men are picked up in little scattered hunches here and there. When all these are mustered they may make a considerable total. “But a thousand British soldiers captured,’ ’or whatever the number may be, does not mean that these were all taken in a heap.

AUSTRIA’S PROBLEMS. THE SOUTHERN SLAV MENACE. LONDON, May 27. Router’s correspondent at Amsterdam states that the importance of the southern Slav movement in Austria is shown in a Vienna telegram reporting that the Emperor and the Premier —Dr. Seidler —received deputations, one representing the Slovene Party, which advocates the maintenance of the Austrian Imperial system, and the other of tho Styria, Carniola and Trieste Germans, Both emphasised the danger of the southern Slav propaganda, and tho necessity for encouraging the German element. Tho Emperor, in replying, said that I tho grounds for racial friction must be removed, but whatever changes occurred in State institutions, the firm framework of the State must not be loosened. The sacred inheritance of their glorious past must be preserved The Government would, therefore, combat to the utmost the agitations menacing the strength and unity of the State. 1

The Emperor admitted that there was much in the conditions of the national cultural development of the individual races of the monarchy that needed improvement, but a solution was only possible within Austrian limits. There must not be the slightest prejudice of the historic peculiarities of the different States, the firmness to their union, or the unity of their strength. He impressed on the deputation the need for watchfulness lest the agitation, against the maintenance of these- principles should spread unhindered. The Emperor, addressing a deputation from the German Women’s League at Styria, said that a great and important share was destined for the German people in Austria, worthy of its great achivpmonts in the war. The rights of the German people, and the conditions requisite for the preservation and development of their nationality in Austria, would never be prejudiced.

TROOPERS IN' PALESTINE. FIGHTING ON THE JORDAN. ! Writing from Palestine, a trooper ‘ in tho New Zealand Mounted Rifles 1 states: “We were sent to the Jerusalem district to give the infantry a hand on the right flank to move the Turks back from between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. We succeeded, as you no doubt have heard before this. We pushed them right off the hills into tho Valley of the Jordan, and beak to tho Aiver Jordan, and beyond Jericho. It was a very hard affair —the liardest I have been on. yet. It is hill country, 1 rough and covered with limestonfc) rocks. For miles we had to lead our horses over the hills, which on an average are about 2600 ft. above sea level. It was not too warm, but that was not the worst of it. We did not have any rations for two days, and some of us were without water for 30 hours. “ After this we descended into the Valley of the Jordan, which is about 12000 ft. below sea level. Wo stopped in tho vicinity of Jericho for a couple of days, and then went back to Bethlehem, through Jerusalem. Wo climbed 4000 ft. that night. The distance in. a straight line is 15 miles, but by road it is about 25 miles. The Turks had blown up a few bridges on that when they retired. We left Jericho at 6 p.m. * and go to our bivouac area at 4 a.m. ( Before entering Jerusalem we passed < through the Garden of Gethsomane and \ around tho side of the Mount' of | Olives, on which the Kaiser has his " palace.