THE LAST WAR

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20955, 7 November 1939, Page 2

THE LAST WAR

SOME REMINISCENCES NON-BOASTING COLONIALS (From a Correspondent) LONDON, Sept. 30 The North London Recorder has an article by Mr Alastair Campbell, who C recalls personal reminiscenes of the last war. Many memories returned I , to him as he stood on the kerb a few days ago, watching a company of r bronzed young men swinging along to the tune of “John Brown's Body”— r the old familiar air to which he had marched so often under the tall pop- ( lar trees along the muddy, twisting lanes of the Aisne and the Somme, ( and the water-sodden duckboards of Passchendaele. £ Alastair Campbell recollects the New Zealanders as being a fine crowd of x fellows. “They always struck me as £ being gentlemanly fighters perhaps 1 because they did their job and never shouted the odds about it. They went about the business with a quiet determination and always seemed so selfcontained and efficient in everything 1 they did. 1 “They, too had a tough time in the T East with the Anzacs. And they ac- 1 quitted themselves with remarkable c effect on the Western Front. I shall € always have a warm corner in my * heart for the New Zealanders.” £ At one period the writer was close- s ly associated with the Australian i Brigade. Tough? Phew! They were whirlwinds.” t I The Irish Fought Each Other f The Irish, it is related, were a law * unto themselves. “Our interpreter, a gentle little Frenchman, was transferred from our lot to the 36th Ulster Division, and I i did not see him again for some ] weeks. When I did he was in tears, j “ ‘What’s the matter. Pierre?’ 1 t asked. “ ‘Ah, it is ze Irish!’ £ “ ‘Why,’ I said, ‘the Irish boys are ( wonderful soldiers and great fight- ( ers.’ * j “ ‘Fighters! Yes,’ he said. ‘God only j knows what will happen when they l get among the Germans. They have ( a war every night amongst themselves. Tonight they chase me out of . !my billet, I go mad. I want to come , /back to you:’ * i “Whatever happened to Pierre, we | all know what happened when the * Irish boys were let loose on the Ger- • mans. It wasn’t a war. It was a massacre. “I hear that the Irish boys from ] both North and South are itching to ( get at the Germans again. You can I depend upon it, if there is a fight on, 1 the Irish want to be in it.” 1 1 Putting the Wind Up “And what of the English and ] Welsh regiments? Their records ‘ speak for themselves. They put the ( wind up Jerry so often that to at- ■ tempt to enumerate even their out- - standing achievements would; be something like an effort to gild the lily.”