WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 11 November 1914, Page 3

WAR NOTES.

THE TRIBUTE. Not by the valour of Belgium, nor the lightning sabre of France; Not by the thunder of Britain's Fleet, ,and the Bear's unchecked advanee; Not by these fears, Lord Kaiser, tho' they shatter a tyrant's lust, Is your heart most darkly troubled, and your soul brought down to tho dust.

But by the grot affirming of the land we have knit as one; By the love, by the passionate loyal love, of each separate free-born son. Canada cries, "We are coming!" and Australasia, "We come!" And you scowl that no Boer is rising at the beat of your German drum.

And the sons of Ind bear witness—We have grumbled, but now no more; We have shared your plentiful righteous Peace, we will share your righteous -War.. Trust us to guard your Honor, one with yours is our breath; You have dealt us an even justice, we are yours to the gates of Death.

Here in these rain-swept islands, where we fought for the things of peace; When we quarreled and stormed in factions, at a stroke all factions cease. And there in the va«t Dominions, more free than your Prussian lords, The women are shouting for England, and the men are drawing their swords. —Harold Bcgbie. COLONEL UN'DRE THE TAP.

CAPTURED WHILE ASLEEP. There are some amusing stories being told of the ways in which German soldiers have been captured. In otic case a patrol of French troops entering the village of Nanteuil, from which the Germans had retired, heard a mysterious noise coming from tho cellar of a, villa. With their rifles ready to fire they went down the steps and opened the door. There, all snoring loudly, were 17 Bavarian infantrymen and a colonel, who had turned into the wine cellar to try the vintages laid down there.

The colonel had even placed .himself flat on his back with his mouth open under the spigot of a cask, from which the claret dripped rdowly between his lips. It was impossible to wake the Gor_ mans from their drunken slumbers, and they did not regain consciousness until they were in a train, disarmed and under arrest, on the way to the south of France.

During the fighting round Menux a sergeant who was changing the guard on the outskirts of the French bivouac icnrid one of his enfences almost petrified by fright. The mitu pointed to a tield of lucerne in which the crap had already been cut and was lying in heaps. "Those heaps, sergeant." he said, "I swear they are moving by themselves." The sergeant watched them for a moment and saw, too, that the heaps were gradually moving over the ground. Calling to the rest of the guard to follow him lie ran towards the nearest of the uncanny piles of grass. Before lie reached it, however, there rose out of its midst a German soldier with arms outstretched, who made signals of surrender. The sergeant arrested liifii and told his men to fire into some of the other heaps around. They had only fired one shot when live more fievmans sprang up from the lucerne and threw down their rifles. They were stragglers from'the army who had tried by surrounding themselves with grass, in creep awav from the French lines unobserved.

THE MEDITERRANEAN FLEET. The Pivsn Bureau annaunced early last montli that tlie Commander-in-Chief of tlie French fleet had "assumed command of the combined Anglo-French fleet in the Mediterranean'' and that "a? a eon'sequence 'Admiral Sir A. Bcrkeley-Milnc, who is senior to this officer, has given over tlie command of the Mediterranean fleet and returned home." The official statement was worded badly, since it gave an impression that some controversy has arisen between the admirals on a question of seniority. The truth seems to have been (remarks tlie Lyttelton Times! that tlie British admiral left the-Mediterranean with the force of battle cruisers under his command simplv beciiHe th<>i-o whs no use for the Im; shin-i in tliat part of the war area. When tlie war beuan Britain was represented in the Mediterranean bv the buttle emi-ers -Inflexible, Indefatigable, and Indomitable, supported bv four armoured cruiser.-;, tour light cruisers, and a force of destroyers and submarines. These shins chased the two (Icrman' eruisers, the (locben and the Breslau, into the Dardanelles, and then functioned with tile French fleet for operations against the Austrian*. But France had overwhelming force in armoured sliips, and after the Austrian fleet had taken refuge at the naval bases in tlie Adriatic the British Admiralty thought that the buttle cruisers could be employed more usefully in the North Sea than in the Mediterranean, where the French ! had the situation thoroughly well in hand. Admiral Sir Berkeley-Milne, ■ therefore, was recalled with the big ships under his command, nnd the smaller • British cruisers, under the direct control of Rear-Admiral Trohridge, were left to I work under the orders of thp French Commander-in-Chief. The French fleet happens to be short of cruisers for scouting purposes.

THE CANADIAN TROOPS. An interesting description of the de"urture of the Canadian troops from is telegraphed to a New York paper. ''Thirty-one vessels were required to tarry the men, the guns, the horses, and the supplies of the Overseas Expeditionary Force. To convoy that number of ships a fleet of eleven war vessels was requisitioned, the whole movement being the. largest and most important ever effected on the Atlantic. It was carried out in splendid manner. Tile movement from Valeartier was effected in fine style, and the emlj.rkation and sailing followed as a part of a well-ordered plan. The movement of ;t1,30i) troops and SOW) horses was the biggest war action that Canada has ever ' undertaken, and it was performed al- | most faultlessly. J

"The movement from Yalcarticr start- | c<! with the mustering of the left .half of the 12th Battalion, which was sent to Quebec to perform guard duty, and ended with the departure from rump, eight days later, of tiic right half of the same battalion. The troops that moved in took possession of the wharves and breakwater, and when they disappeared in one day the red coats of the 87th Regiment replaced the khaki suits of the' men of the 12th Battalion. "In the oii>ht days the division had moved out of Valearticr. Horses, artillery, and transport waggons came over the eighteen miles of road, while the .troops were sent by train. It had been intended to march all the men to Quebec, but the. weather was vile, and plans were hastily made for the movement by i train. It required five days to transfer

the various units, an average of ten troops moving away from the camp each day. The trains ran directly to the breakwater, and the transfer to the ships was anade promptly. As the ships were filled they moved off and steamed down the river to the anchorage previously agreed on,, and there met the convoy. Afterward the great fleet sot out to sea. There was little of the picturesque in all this business. There were no cheering} crowds. In fact, comparatively few people knew of what was going on.