WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS REGIMENT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 29, 27 February 1909, Page 4

WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS REGIMENT

'['ho Krcneli "Foreign U'giou, M about which so much is being hoard jii.-t now, is ]iiubul)ly the best-known regiment in it 11 v or the 'world's armies.. Nevertheless, there is « lot of misconception concerning it. iluo principally to (luiiln. who drew an altogether fancy picture* of if in ''l 'ml<T Two Flags.' As a matter of fuel, tile life of an ordinary private of the legion is about as hard 1 and monotonous a one lis it is to conceive of. Discipline is enforced with pililcs, severity, death being I lie o-ily punishment for mosi olfences. Moreover. the ollicers are all T'ronelimen. so thai no "ranker" can ever hope lo oarn a eoiunii.-Moii. no matter lifnv much merit or liravory he shows. Although u-uallv tonuod a regiment, it is really more in tin' nature of what we should Mil a. brigade. for it numbers some 12.(1(111 nion of all ranks. Store Mian, halt' of IJie-c are Germans. deserters. from the Kaiser's army, or natives of Alsace-l.oriitine. The remainder is largely made up of Hie rilf-rair and oll'scoiirings m Kurope, wiili a sprinkling- of "well-born advenlurei*. who -have enlisted into the Legion "'for the fnn of the thing," and* boeaii-c (hey know thoy are sure of sec-J inj.- some Amongst these latter | are. usually io he found a small pel'-1 outage o/ Englishmen, one of whoin.j (ioorw Slaniiiiigton by name, published* ill liooK form the best account in our I language of the Legion from within, 1 The force, it may lie mentioned, dates j hack no further than the year 18M.I vlicn If was raised for service in the ' then newly-conquered colony of Algeria.] —Home paper. . ;