MOST MOVING LETTER OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 214, 17 February 1915, Page 8

MOST MOVING LETTER OF THE WAR.

j This is tho most moving letter writ- ■] ten during the war. The .Writer was a 11-reach cavalry officer, and the letter: j was addressed to his ..fiancee, a yowi" ; ; American girl, in Paris. It was written ■ as he lay dying, after being wounded in a cavalry charge. It i s a wonderful letter. This is how. it runsi— - . "There arc two other men' lying'near me, and I do not think then- is much ; hope for them either. One is an officer m a Scottisli regiment, and the o'thej a private m the Uhlans. They were struck down after me, and when I came i to myself I found them bending over me, rendering first aid. "The Britisher was pouring water down my throat from his flask, wiiild the German was endeavoring to staunch my wound with an antiseDtic preparation served out to them by their medi- I eal corps. The Highlander had one oi , his legs shattered; and the German had several pieces of shrapnel buried in his. side. J "In spite of their own sufferings, they were trying to help me, and when 1' was fully conscious again the German gave us a morphia injection and took ono himself. His medical corps had also provided him with the injection and i the needle, together with printed.' ih- ■ structions for its use. After the injection, feeling wonder-. | fully at case, we spoke of the lives we j had lived before the war. We ill! spoke l English, and we talked of the women we i had left at home. Both the German and I the Britisher had only been married a j year. I "I wondered, and I suppose the others .'did, why we had fought each, other at 1 all. I looked at the Highlander, who I was falling to sleep, exhausted, and in I spite of his mud-stained uniform he looked the embodiment of freedom. Then I thought of the tri-color of France all that France, had done for liberty. Then I watched the German, who had ceased to speak." He bad taken a prayer book from his knapsack, and was trying to read a service for wouud.ed soldiers in battle. " And . . . while I watched him I reabtfed wlint we were lighting for. . . He was dying m vain, while the Britisher and myself, liy our deaths, won] 1 probably contribute something toward the cause of civilisation and peace." The letter ends With a reference to the failing light and the roar of the guns. It was found at the dead officer's side by a Red Cross file, and was forwarded to his fiancee.