LIFE AT COLOGNE.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1920, Page 3

LIFE AT COLOGNE.

DISTRACTIONS OF A YOUNG ARMY. With certain obvious differences—chief among which are the reduced er/.e of the British Army of Occupation and the attenuated exchange, value of the German mark—life at Cologne, both amongst tile foreign garrison and the native, inhabitants, remains very much what it was a few months ago, before the process of demobilisation had begun. General Sir William Robertson is still the Commander-in-Chief of the now comparatively small force on the Rhine which, in case it became necessary to take further military action against Germany, would form the vanguard t.nd nucleus of the British contribution to the Allied armies. The men under his command aro mostly young soldiers who will eventually return to civilian employment at home.

Tlie conditions of their life here are abnormal. When" their few hours of professional work and training are over t' ey have every clay long- spells of unoccupied time on their hands, which might easily lead them into mischief. Greatly to their credit and thnt of the Con'mamler-in-Chief, and the many soldiers and civilians who are working with him in their interest, they have stood the test wonderfully well. Their discipline arid general behavior in public places are excellent —decidedly better than when I was last here, before certain undesirable elements had !-een dealt with and removed.

Many of then make full use of the wide and wise scheme of education devised by the Army authorities for their benefit Theatres and the opera, boxinsr competitions and regimental football matches, dances, concerts, cinema shows, whist drives, lending libraries, gymnasiums. and many other panics and amusements are commonplaces of their existence. When the? go home tliev will find village and even town life very tame in comparison with the delights of Cologne.

Some little time ago it was wisely decided, thanks, I believe, to the initiative of the Commander-in-Chief, that both officers and men who could afford to support them, wonkl be allowed to bring their wives arid children out to the Khirie. About (K) of these children go To a school which has been specially started for (hem by the Y.M.C.A., where you may see the son of a General and the son of a private soldier learning their lessons and singing and dancing side by side.

• The highest testimony to the standard set up by both officers and men of our ■ •' Hie Rhine is that, the Germans amongst whom they live anpear to have a decided preference for our Administration over that of the other All : cd armies. It is iiot too much to say—with obvious reservations—that they like it better, or-at least dislike it less, than the castirMi methods of their own military caste, as they knew them before the warThe arrival of our military police on the scene of some local disturbance with which the Ccrman police have vainly tried to deal will at once restore order without rousing any resentment in the r»iuds of the public.