DRAMATIC MEETINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1916, Page 11

DRAMATIC MEETINGS.

OX THE FIELD OF BATTLE. The present war has yielded a rich crop of unexpected meetings on the held of tattle, but few more dramatic than that of which Captain Bruce Allnutt, K.A.M.C., tells the following' story: "A curious incident," writes Captain Allnutt, "occurred last week. The enemy started shelling the patch of ground I was on, 1 made for a little hole in the ground for shelter, unci saw someone else there,, but threw myself down with lamias there was just room. When the hail of shells had burst round us, and for a moment we could put our heads up, we both said, 'That was a close shave!' ami simultaneously recognised each other. J-Ie was at Bart's with me, and we had not met for live years until that moment, and neither knew that the other was at the front even." A TRAGIC RE-UNION. A story of & strange romance and tragedy is told of a young French officer who, a few months ago, was sent out with a dozen of his men to reconnoitre in Alsace. , Advancing towards a wood which lay between them anil the German lines, the party crept stealthily through without catching a glimpse of the enemy; and were emerging from the wood when they suddenly found themselves face to face with a party of Huns twice their number. The Frenchmen, raising their rifles, were about to fire, when, to their amazement, they saw their lieutenant rush forward and fling his arms round the neck of the officer in cljarge of the enemy's force. The two men, although fighting on opposite sides, were brothers, who had met under such dramatic conditions for the first time for years. But the lieutenant's impulse of -affection was to cost him dearly: for at the moment a company of French soldiers dashed from the wood, surrounded both parties and carried them off prisoners. Tlie lieutenant was. tried by court-martial; and the following morning he v.'as shot as a traitor to his country.

A similar story is told of a young Polish Jew who had covered himself with glory while fighting for Russia against the Austrians in Galieia. One day, nfler an Austrian attack had been repelled, the bugle sounded the charge, and the Czar's soldiers dashed forward through a tornado of fire towards the Austrian trenches.

The young Jew. witii raised bayonet, was about to run it through one of the enemy, when the doomed man eried out the first words of a Jewish prayer, "Hear, 0 Israel!" In an instant the bayonet was lowered, the Pole looking intently at the Austrian, and, recognising his brother, fell unconscious at his feet. Half nn hour later, when the Austrian was found, bending tenderly over his still unconscious brother, they were taken back to the Russian lines, where it was discovered that the gallant soldier had lost his reason as the result of the shock. THE COLONEL'S SOtf. The battlefield near Ypres was, a few weeks ago, the scene of a little less dramatic meeting. A platoon of Canadians was on its way to the trenches when it came across a wounded colonel lying on the ground, unable to move; and two of the men were detached to carry the officer back to the field hospital. Tlie colonel, recognising something familiar in one of the bearers, asked him his name. A few more eager questions followed: and the truth flashed simultaneously on .both. The father had at last met on the battlefield the son who had gone many years before to Canada, and of whom he had lost all trace. Kven more remarkable is a story told of a youthful private of Hussars. While enjoying a. few days' rest in a village behind our lines after a spell in the trenches, he made the acquaintance of a Canadian sergeant some twenty years his senior. During conversation one day he discovered that his new acquaintance was a Yorkshireman. "So am I," he said. •, "What part do you come from?" "From Bradford." "That's odd. I come from Bradford, too. Do you happen to known John B ,of Mannington? He's my father." "Know him! I should think so," was the startling answer; "he's my father, too!" Thus by the whirligig of war two brothers, who had never before set eyes on each other, were brought together; for the Canadian had left his Yorkshire home just before the birth of his brother, whom, until that day, he had never even seen!

In another case two wounded soldiers were lying in adjacent beds in a hospital at Malta. Each had been severely wounded in the Gallipoli Peninsula; one. whs an Australian, the other an Englishman. IWhen the two men were comparing notes, the Australian mentioned that he had left a wife and two children in Melbourne. "Why," exclaimed the Englishman, "I have a sister married there and she has two children; and, now I come to think of it, her husband's name is the same as yours, Davies!" "What was your sister's name?" asked the roan from Melbourne. "Annie Hughes." "That was my wife's maiden name," calmly said the Australian; "if your name's Jack, you must be her only brother, and my brother-in-law." And so he was! His sister had gone out to Australia a few years earlier and there had married a man, whom her brother first met in a ward of a hospital at the other side of the world! THE <PAST FORGIVEN. A hospital in France was the scene of another meeting no less strange. A Devonshire girl had, a few years ago, married a man, from whom she had been obliged to part in consequence of his dfssipated habits. When the war broke out he joined the army, and a few months later was sent to France to fight; she, who meanwhile had become a {rained nurse, was attached to a hospital near Boulogne. After the terrible battle at Hooge a number of wounded soldiers were sent to this hospital, at Etaples; and among the new patients the nurse was amazed to recognise her husband. For days, in his semi-uncon-scious condition, he failed to recognise the woman who ministered so tenderly to him; then one day his eyes dwelt on her with a look, first of curiosity, then of growing recognition. Then, with a cry of gladness, full recognition came; the stricken man held out his arms to the woman, who. with streaming eyes, was bending over him; and the next instant 'husband and wife were locked in a long embrace.