"THE LAUGHING BOY FACES."

Taranaki Daily News, 4 October 1915, Page 8

"THE LAUGHING BOY FACES."

FRENCH NAME FOR OUR BOYS. LETTER FROM A CHAPLAIN. Mr. F. E. Harper, of Dunedin, whose son Donald was killed in action at Gallipoli, has received the following interesting letter from the Rev. C. J. Bush King, Chaplain with the Forces in Turkey. "Here at the front we are rather handicapped because we are so far from our base at Alexandria, and we on the battlefield sometimes know less than those further away. Will you please accept my sincere sympathy with you (and Mrs. Harper) at this time Here on the battlefield we see so much real bravery that it shames our former life of ease and pleasure in New Zealand. How splendidly our boys fight! How wonderfully cheerful they' are when wounded—glad to have 'done their bit.' The French call the New Zealand troops by a quaint name—the 'Laughing Bov Faces'—and this is typical of them. I have seen them suffering- some awful wounds, but their first thought is about someone else.

"I remember one case amongst others. A big fellow was hit a ghastly wound, yet while we were carrying him away on a stretcher he wanted to get 'up. 'You are taking me away from the trench,' he said, 'and I want to go back.' I persuaded him to lie down and go to sleep, as he was very tired, and he went to sleep. And then when we look upon the dust-stained, blood-stained, torn bodies of our beloved dead we are reminded that they in their death look just like Him Who died on that memorable day, and who said, 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' . Such is His estimate of our brave dead, and of your dear son."