WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 159, 11 December 1914, Page 3

WAR NOTES.

WAR ON PRIESTS. The heroic death of Abbe Delebecque, curate of the parish of Maing, is described in the "Echo de Paris" of September 24. The abbe, who had gone to a religious ceremony, was cycling back to Maing when he was arrested by a German patrol. The abbe was searched by soldiers, who found some letters given him by soldiers for their families. He was court-martialled at mid-night, and sentenced to death for spying. The priest confessed to a German chaplain, and spent his last night in praying at the front altar of St. Nicholas's Church at Valenciennes. He took the communion, and then started on foot towards Dampierre, where he was going to be executed. While walking, he recited the prayers for the dying. It was five ('clock in the morning. When he arrived at thw spot of exe cution, he knelt down and handed over to the German officer a letter for his mother, saying, "I am offering my life for Franco without regret," A feir minutes afterwards, he fell down, pierced by twelve bullets. The inhabitants of Dampierre piled up stones in the shape of a Cross, and strewe,d flowers over the martyr's grave. The Echo de Paris adds: "This is the seventh priest iii the diocese of Cambrai shot by the Germans."

BRITISH SUBMARINE IN THE KIEL CANAL. I have ju&t seen a letter from a naval lieutenant on duty in the North Sea (writes a London correspondent). He says that on the 7th of September last he entered the Kiel Canal in charge of a submarine. Once inside, his presBBM. tan Snip SJI.Vi y SUAV ODUO drawn across the entrance, while another swept down the canal from the landward side. The nets made two hauls m his direction, but missed. Thft first attempt proved too high for the swift-diving "sub," the second missed also, as the gallant little vessel rose to the surface and scooted out to sea. This scrap of private information only proves that the young bloods of the navy are not sleeping quietly in their bunks at night.

LOVED BY THE PEASANTS, The French peasants love the Army Motor iransport. TJicy have fairly taken them to their hearts. When the army motor-lorries are oil the move, the villagers wait all day long in the front of their houses with baskets of apples and pears and loaves of bft'ad bottles of wine and cigarettes The children dance round t'.e vans ts they rumble through the winding village sticet, and the driver mostly slows down so as to allow himself and lus pals M give a hand to the youngsters—"makes one feel a bit homelike'— up. wou'd probably- say. Not al) the drivers are 'bun-men, of c -*' rs,! Many are the original drivers 01 tlupe private commercial vans. ''ll the cutl/rrak of war, they, drove ILp vans to army headquarters for K-lin-quishing and enlistd themselves, sometiling like the Arab and his steed of'crth "n-;«;lves for service. Rain or f.liir.e, they are all indomitably r/ias-fu; w.iii' fljweiv in tlicr caps and snatchces t' French on t. 'tj*7 lips. I he'i''o of a detachment of the Army Moojr Transport which arrived at 10 o'clock the other night in a village, and found thev had to camp in the open, their muddleheaded officer having omitted to send on in advance to secure billets ir. the houses which, with an hour's notice, the villagers would have been delighted to place at the free disposal of the men. With very little grumbling, they cooked their bits of meat and boiled their tea in petrol cans, thrm lay down composedly to pass the night in the open. A frosty dawn found them eheerv and joking, as usual, just as if they were starting out from the London 'bus yards after a good night's rest. The frost was on their tunics and their eyes wem red and weary, but they never lost heart.

WOMEN AND THE WOUNDED. j There are wounded soldiers in Paris,, but till now it lias not been considered advisable to transfer the great mass of the hospitals to the capital. An or-1 der to that effect has mow been given. The British Refl Cross Society is of incalculable service. The various hotel hospitals in the Champs Elysees are in excellent working order, and are so comfortably equipped that they will form one of the various chapters in the history of this war which will be a credit to Britishers abroad. While it has been long acknowledged that woman has a very important part to perform in war, it is amazing when one comes to realise their actual work. A well-known Paris hotel in the same avenue (which I referred to in my article of last week) installed entirely by women, brings liome the realisation of her work to humanity. These women felt that it seemed a pity that the hospitals were all begging for wounded to All the thousands of empty beds when there were so many thousand wounded on the battlefield to be cared for, and the lady superintendent with lier medical staff, has been of great assistance in this respect.

BATTLEFIELD EXPERIENCES. | With their ambulance, they were able to assist in a very grave situation. Six nurses, a physician, and two officers motored down to the firing line. There they found seven thousand wounded soldiers on large beds of dirty straw, in an old and deserted china factory, filled with pots and broken china, dusty and dirty. Until the arrival of these ladies with their ambulance, the only means of transporting the unhappy men from their bed of straw to some pluee where they could be cared for was an old cart, over which boards had necii •placed. You can imagine the agony they must have suffered when jolting along in the cart. Many of the men were dying of gangrene. Four were dying of lock-

jaw. Most of them had no clothing at all. There were only three surgeons to every thousand men! Now, thanks tc the untiring efforts of the Women Hospital Corps, a good number c? rufferers are installed in comfortable quarters, and everything in the hospital is mil with remarkable smoothness. The various and difficult cases are attended to with gentle feminine care, their soft Voices soothing the, wounded. While the majority of the cases are British, the wounded confided to their care are attended to without distinction of nationality.