Pen Pictures of the War.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 40, 17 December 1920, Page 10

Pen Pictures of the War.

SERIES III. PITILIP GIBBR ON THE AUSTRALIANS. Philip Gibbs eviaces the greatest admiration of the Australians, with whom ha usually couples the New Zealanders. The foliow ing description will probably kindle reminiscences in the mind of the Digger who has mixed up with the A ustralians : — - THE SALUTE. "Everywhere on the streets anj on the esplanade there was incessaut saluting. The arms of the men were never still. It was like the St. Vitus disease Tommies and Jocks saluted every subaltern with an automa-tic gesture_ of convulsive energy. Every subaltern ackncwledged there niovements and in turn saluted a maititude of majors, colonels, and generals. Tho thing becarne farcial, a monstrous absurdity oi liuman relationship vet pleasin.g to the vanity of men lifted up above the lowc-st caste. It seenied to rne an intensifjcation of the snob instinct m the sout oi rrtan. Only the Australians stooa out against it and went by all officers except their own with a carelcss slouch and a look oi 'To hell with all that hand waggin-g.' " . Australians slouched up the street of the Thres Pebblcs with a grim look under their wide-brimmed bats having come down from Pozieres, where it was always hell in the days of Somme fight - ing. I liked the look of them, dusty up to the evec in summer, mud up to their ears in winter — these gipjy fellows, scornful of discipline for diseipline's sake, but despera'e f't.i-t.r.'. as sunple as children in their v/ay.s of thoaght and speech (exgept for frightful oaths) and looking at life, this iife of war, and this life in Araiens, with frank, curious eyes and a kind of humorous contcmpt for death and d;sease, and English Tornmies, and Freneh girls, and "the whole damncd show," as they called it. They vvere lawless except for the laws -to which their sotils gave aliegianee. They behaved as the equals of all men, givirg no respect to generals or staff officers, or the dcvils of hell. There was a priniitive spirit of mauhood in them, and they took what they wanted, and were ready to pay for it in coin, or in disease or in wounds. They hau no eonceit of themselves in a little, vain way, but they reckoned themselves the only fighfcirg me:i, simple, and without boasting. Thev were as hard as steel, and finely teropered. Some of them were rulfians but most of them were. I imagine, like those English yeonien who carae into France with the Biack Priuce, men who lived "rough," close to natnre, of stnvdy independence, good-humoured though ficroe in a fight, and ruthiess.* That is how thev seemed to me, in a gcneral wav, though among them were boys of a mere delieate fibre, and sensitiv.?, if one might judge by their clear-cut fcatures and -wistful eyes. They had rrioney to spend beyond the dreams oi our poor Tommy. six shiliings and sixpenee a day and remittanees from home. Ro they pnshed open the doors of anv restaurant in AmYns and sa-t- down at tables aext to E*i7g!:sh officers, not aba.-hed, and ordered anything that pleased their taste, and wine in plenty. In that ITigh street of Amiens oue day 1 saw a crow d gathered round h'n Australian so fca.ll that he towered over all other heads, It was at the corner of "the street of the Na'ked Body without a her.d," and I suspectcd trouble. As I presced on the e.lge of the crowd I heard the Australian ask in a loud, slow dravvl whether there was any offieer about who could speak Freneh. He asked the question gravely without anxiety. I pushed through the crowd and said, "I speak Freneh. What's the trouble?" I saw then that, like the Freneh poilu I have descrihed this tall Australian was in the grasp of a Freneh agent de police, a small rnan, of whom he took no more notice than if a fly had settled on his wrist. The Australian was not drunk. 1 could see that he had just drunk enough to make his brain very c-lear and solemn.. He explained ihe matter deliberately, with a slow choice of words, as though giving rvidence of high matters before a court. It appeared that he had gone into the estaminet opposite with four friends. They had ordered five glasses of porto, for which they paid twenty ecntimes each, and drank them. Then then ordered five more glasses of porto and paid the sam,e price and drank them. After this they took a stroll up and down the street, and were bored, and went into the estaminet again, xnd ordered five more glasses of porto. It was then tae trouble began. But it was not the Australian who began it. It was the woman behind the bar. Rhe served

five glasses more of porto and asked for thirty eentimes each. "Twenty eentimes," said the Australian. "Vingt, mact.me." "Mais nonl Tren-e eentimes, chaqne verre ! Thirty, my old one. Six sous, comprenez ?" "No comprermey," said llie Australian. "Vingt eentimes, or go to hell." The woman dema ided the thirty eentimes; kept oa demaudmg with a voi.ee more shrill. "It was her voice that vexed me," said the Australian. "That and the bloody injustice." The five Australians dranic the five glasses of porto, and the ta-11 Australian paki the thirty eentimes cach without further argument. Lile is too shcrt ior argum.ent. Then, st .11 without woros. ne took each cf the five glaises, and broue 't at the stem and drcpped it over tlie counter. "You will see, sir," he said gravely, "the injustice of the matter was on my side. ' ' But when they left the estaminet the woman came shiiekmg into the street aftcr them. Hence the agent de police, and the grasp on the Australian's wrnst. "I shall be glad if you would explain the case to this little Frenehm.an," said the soldier. "If he does not tak.e his hand off my wrist I shall have to kiil hini." ••Perhaps a little exp'.anation might serve," I said. I spoke to the agent de police at sorne length, describing Ihe incid,ent in the cafe. I took the view that the lady was wror.g in increasing the price so rapidly. The agent agreed, gravely. I then pointed out that the Australian was a very large-sized nian, and that ia spite of his quietude, he was a rnan in the habit of killing Germans. He aho had a curious dislike of policeman. "It appcars to me," I said poktely, "that for the sake of your health the other end of the street is better than this." The agent de police released his grip from the Australian's wrist and saluted me. "Yous avez raison, monsieur. Je vous remercie. Ces Australians sout vraiment formidabLes, n'est-ce pas?" He disappeared through the crowd, who were smiling with a keen sense of understanding. Only Ihe lady of the estaminet was unappeased. "They are bandits, these Australians!" she said to the world about her. The tall Australian shook hands with "me in a cornradely way. "T'hanks for vour trouble," he said. "It was the injustice I couidn't stick. I always pay the right price. I come frora" Australia. " I watched liim go slouching down the Rne des Trois Cailloux, head above aU the pasaers-by He would he at Pozieres again nest day.

His comment on the staff of the FiPh Army, which met with much disasW at St. Quentin, will prove of interest ; - ■ I found a gencral opinion among officers and men, not only of the Irish Division, under the command of the Fifth Army, that they had been the victims of atrocious staff work, tragic in its consequences. From what I saw of some of the Fifth Army staff -officers I was of the same opin ion. Some of these young gentlemen, and some of the elderly officers. wero arroganl and supeicihous, without tevealing anv symptoms of inl eliig^nve. If they had wisdom ii was ikspiy ca.moufla.ged by an air of inefficiency. If they had knowledge they hid it as a secret of their own. General Gough, commanding the Fifth Army in Flanders, and afterwards north and south of St. Quentin, where the enenriy hroke through, was extremely courteous, of most amiable character, with a high sense of duty. But in Flanders, if not personally responsible for many tragic iiappenings, he was badly served by some of his subordinates, and battalion officers, and divisional staffs, raged again st the whole of the Fifth Army organisation, or lack of organisation, with an extreme pas. sion of speech.

Here are two samples of Gibbs's many excellent stories : — In one section of trenches the men made a habit of betting upon those who would he wounded first. It had all the uncer-taint-y of the roulette table. . . . One day, when the German gunn,ers were putting over a special dose of hate, a sergeant kept coming to one dug-out to enquire about a "new-clmm" who had come up with the drafts. "Is Private Smith all right?" lie asked. "Tes, sergeant, he's all right," answered the men crouching in the dark hole. "Private Smith isn't wounded vet?"

asked the sergeant again, five minutes later. "No, sergeant." Private Smith was touched by this interest in his wel.l-being. "That sergeant seems a very kind man," said the bov. "Seems to love me like a f ather ! A yeT of langhter answerecl him. "You poor, Lleeding fool," said one of his comrades. "Ee's drawn you in lottery ! Stocd to w.hi if you'd been hit." One tale most popnlar, most mirth-arous-ing in the early days of the war. "Vv'here's your prisoner?" asked anintelligence offieer waiting to receive a. German ser.t down from the trenches under escort of an hcnest corporal. "I lost him, on the way, sir," said the corporal. "Lost him?" The corporal was embarrassed. "Very sorry, sir, my feelings overcaxne me, sir. Ifc was like this, sir. The man staited talking on the way down. Said he' was thinking of his poor wife. I'd been thinking of mine and I f.elfc sorry for him. Lhen he mentioned as how he had two kiddics at home. 1 'ave two kiddies at 'ome, sir, and I couidn't 'c-lp feeling sorry for him. Then he said as how his old mother had died a whi'e ago and lie'd never see her again. I 'ave an old mother at 'ome, sir, what may never see me again. When he started cryin', I was so sorry for him 1 couidn't stand it any longer, sir, so I killed the poor blighter."