SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 3 June 1915, Page 17

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

", r GENERAL. ', t , v •.' " ••./■. - Four of the French Trappist of the Monastery of Our Lady of Compassion, near Kingsbridge, are in the trenches. Altogether eight members of the community are serving .in the French Army. The only English - novice there has also joined the Colors, linking up with the Devonshire regiment. Surgeon Raymond O'Connell Redmond, R.N., who,, was lost at sea, on active service, with H.M.S. Clan McNaughton, was the son of Dr. O'Connell Redmond, F.R.C.5.1., of Dublin. He had a distinguished course at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, and volunteered for active service at the beginning of the war, being granted the rank of Surgeon-Probationer. He laid down his life at the age of only twenty-one. Among the names in a long list of Catholic officers mentioned iii Sir John French's despatches is that of Lieut. St. John Coventry (Stonyhurst), the youngest son of Mr. John Coventry! of Fordingbridge, who' was wounded in the fighting at La Bassee, and was officially reported ' missing ' on October 20, since which date no news of him has been received. He is presumed to be a prisoner in Germany. Another Catholic officer mentioned is Captain Cogan, R.F.A. and Royal Flying Corps. Wo have Id lament (says the London Tablet) Jill loss also of Lieut. Charles Tyndall, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, killed in action on March 2, after a night in the trenches. Born twenty-three years ago, the second son of Mr. Joseph P. Tyndall; of Monkstown, Dublin, he was educated at Castleknpck College, and joined the Dublin Fusiliers four years, ago. His eldest brother, Lieut. William Tyndall, also volunteered for the war, and is at the front, attached to the R.A.M.C. Many military associations attach to the name of an Irish officer whose death was reported early in the war. This was Lieut. John Denis Shine, of old Downside cricket, hockey, and football teams, and later of the Royal Irish Regiment. His father, Colonel Shine, has a distinguished military record : he had, for two uncles, Captain Shine, now of the Indian Army, and the late Lieut. H. V. Shine: and his own two brothers are in the service—Lieut. J. O. W. Shine, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and Second Lieut. 11. P. Shine, Royal Irish Fusiliers. , Among the Catholic officers lately killed at the front are Major John Simeon Ward, of Princess Patricia's Canadian Regiment: Major Jasper J..Ho\vley, of the Lincoln Regiment: Capt. W. A. Gallagher (an Armagh man), East Lancashire Regiment : Capt. T. A. Fitzherbert-Brockholes, of the Rifle Brigade; Lieutenant Gilbert E. A. Parker, South Staffordshire Regiment; Second-Lieutenant 11. P. O'Donou'ghue, King's Liverpool Regiment: Major Cecil Eustace Harrison, Rifle Brigade; Captain Nigel Williams Francis Baynes, Second-Lieut. Bernard Francis Got eh Berrill, Royal Fusiliers; and Second-Lieut. Wm. J. Wolseley, of the East Lancashire Regiment. BRITISH OFFICERS AND JOAN OF ARC. The Church of St. Louis at Versailles possesses a statue-of Joan of Arc. The British officers under treatment at the British .hospital created in that town, having remarked it, procured a magnificent sheaf of white roses and deposited it at the feet of the image of the patriotic heroine. The sheaf was bound together with a ribbon bearing the inscription: From the officers of No. IV. General Hospital, British Army, Versailles, in remembrance .and admiration of their French comrades.' FROM A FRENCH SOLDIER. A French soldier, "writing to his sister, says: 'Last Saturday a bullet fell two yards from me. I- was covered with dust, but did not receive a scratch. What one sees here forces one to believe in the Providence of

God,! • You can be sure that at this ; moment ,there are neither pagans nor unbelievers to be • found ".-y Every •mail is pleased to have> five minutes free 'in? order to spend them in the church. Before the war many were ashamed to be seen kneeling?down or; making • the sign of the Cross, but these men are not to be found now. On Sunday, when we are close ,to? a church- and can attend Mass in it, we find it difficult to secure a place, 1 } so large is the attendance. '■' After Mass one feels so happy; it gives courage; a man feels much braver-.' A PRIEST'S REFLECTIONS EROM THE' - : • n TRENCHES. " ".' , ""J/^' From the French trenches, where he is serving the Colors, Father Falguieres-already wounded in his country's service—writes hopefully concerning the situation from all points of view. 'As priests,' he says, 'we have a wide field for our charity, what with wounded. to dress and heal, and we pass easily from the care of bodies to that of souls. Here our work is more consoling than can be imagined. Most of those who come to us in the ambulance seriously wounded have prepared themselves- for the trenches by a good confession, and many are the soldiers who tell us how happy they are to find a priest beside them before they die. A large number of those who were without faith before the war have found it again at the sound of the cannon. The long days and nights passed under shot, and shell give time for salutary reflection, and the' grace of God is doing its work here, sometimes with very marvellous results.' NUNS' REMARKABLE DEVOTION. ' The courage of the women is as great- as the courage of the soldier (writes Mr. Harold Begbie in the Echo). An Englishman was telling me (he says) about that one frightful night at Ypres, when German shells rained without cessation hour after 'hour upon the already battered town. At last, he said, the order was given for the French nuns to leave the wounded and retire' to Poperinghe. They begged the authorities to be allowed to stay — some of them indeed refused to gobut in the end they were marched out of the hospital and shepherded to Poperinghe, about six miles away. Two of those nuns, directly they were left alone at Poperinghe, started off and tramped back through the rain and the darkness to Ypres, where the shells were still falling with the most horrible racket you can imagine. lie paused for a moment, then added : And the men they were nursing were Germans.' « ■ .» BRAVE HEEDS HONORED. The name of the Abbe Castaing, military chaplain, serving in an ambulance at the front, has been mentioned in the military order of the day of the French Army. This honor has been rendered to this priest because ' since the beginning of the war he has given evidence of much zeal, tact, and courage 1 in the fulfilment of his duties. He has been ready to. go frequently into the front line of firing to attend the wounded, and he has also been of great assistance to the military authorities in securing suitable burial for the dead.' The. same military distinction has been conferred on the Superioress of the Sisters of St. Thomas, who have charge of the hospital at Soissons, Mother St. Prosper Lenioin, for her splendid example of courage and selfsacrifice in keeping her Community at Soissons during the occupation by the Germans in September and the successive bombardments of the town. All the nuns were most devoted in nursing the wounded and the sick, even under fire. i - DISCOVERING THE ENEMY. The great war is full of surprises: the methods of our enemies and those, we have been obliged to adopt are methods hitherto unused : the war is, in reality, a series of sieges, and the trenches have tried and proved the steady endurance of, the French soldier, who was.

supposed to be more dashing than patient. Another unforeseen feature of the great conflict is the good ser--vice ; rendered to the Rallied forces by dogs, trained for the purpose. They are trained by j and receive, their orders ,; from the ;\same, soldier, as they" only fulfil* their ■ mission' when under the direction ; : of a familiar voice.' Near Dixmude .there was a thick wood that it was im- ; portant to capture; : it was too - thick for the" airmen to observe it /thoroughly v and -.for the cavalry to explore it. The dogs were assembled by their trainer and shown the • German v soldiers' headgear- that they were to bring back. , They were also shown the wood," and, -in order to escape \ observation, their cloth coats were cunningly covered with fern leaves,- so much so that when in motion they resembled moving bundles of fern branches. Having learnt their lesson, the dogs made for the wood when they returned ' Bac' brought the kepi of a German private, ' Riff had a colonel's kepi, another the headgear of an artilleryman, and the last a French kepi, stained with fresh blood. . The dogs' trainer drew his conclusions. In the wood,*" he said, 'there is one regiment, but one only, of German infantry, a few artillerymen, and a wounded French' soldier. There is only one colonel, whose kepi is here. "Riff" always makes for the headgear of the man in command.' One hour later the Germans were dislodged from the wood, a wounded French soldier was carried away safely, and among the German prisoners was a red-faced, bareheaded colonel, .whose kepi had been carried away by 'Riff' and whose v anger, at having lost it thus greatly diverted the French soldiers. TOUCHING STORY. The .Bishop of Nevers told the following touching story, in a sermon which he preached at a funeral service, held in the Cathedral at Nevers, for the repose of the souls of the soldiers who have died during the present war: ' Two young soldiers met on the battlefield, -fighting side by side. They had been school companions in childhood. The years had passed since then, and one man had kept the Faith, the other had lost it. The friends were mortally wounded, and lay on the ground dying, when, in a weak voice, the one who had been unfaithful to the teaching of Holy Church, said to his comrade: "You have not forgotten your prayers. Recite one, and I shall repeat the words." Immediately the other dying soldier commenced the "Our Father" as best he could, and his companion re-echoed the prayer until he had uttered "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us." He could say no more; his spirit had flown before the great white throne, whilst repeating these words of contrition.' i__ 4 JESUITS IN THE FRENCH ARMY. Amongst the twenty thousand priests in the French Army there are at present 442 Jesuits, of whom 263 are serving as soldiers, 133 with the Red Cross, and 46 as military chaplains. Twenty-two of their number have fallen, 11 disappeared, 14 are prisoners, and 31 wounded. Four have been decorated with the Legion of Honor, two with the Military Medal, and a dozen mentioned in despatches. Amongst those who have received the decoration of the Legion of Honor, Ph. de Blic deserves mention —a subaltern in the marine infantry. Those who got the medal included Father P. Gilbert de Giroude, who fell on December 7. A despatch speaks of him as follows: —- ' De Giroude, Sub-Lieutenant in the 81st Infantry Regiment, a priest in civil life, who joined his regiment as reservist, showed himself soon a devoted to his officers, and to his comrades a friend who could impart counsel, courage, comfort. . He was always ready to undertake difficult tasks; he succeeded by his daring in bringing in valuable information about the enemy. He was made corporal on. September 8, 1914, received the Military Medal on September 30, and was promoted sergeant on October 16, and sub-lieutenant on November 26. He received his death-wound on December 7in a trench as he was about to offer up. prayers over the bodies of two men of his company.'

\. - It ;< is -characteristic of "a- certain—fortunately-small' -^section-of the >* French press, that-a paper like -the 1 Depeche -de' Toulouse suppressed the fact that De Gir.oude: was a priest and met his death "whilst offering up prayers. The Depeche does not wish its readers to hear of the heroism of priests. Very different, to- judge from the following notice," is the attitude of the Petit Parjsien, which no one can accuse- of clerical \ tendencies: —• ''::'['%■ - J> ; 'Last July Father': Rivet was Professor of CanonLaw- at the Gregorian University, Rome,' when he received his orders. The; Jesuit, formerly a "pupilf of Saint -Cy : hastened to \ France and donned his "-lieutenant's uniform. Soon afterwards he was promoted captain in, the I. Regt. of the Foreign Legion. Since that time he has been leading the Garibaldians into action.' _- . ' ■ 4 ■ ' " AN ABBE'S CROSS* OF HONOR. 'S~ It is worth noting the imposing ceremony at which Abbe Thibault received the Cross of the Legion of Honor, not only because lie had earned the distinction well by his heroic devotion and courage, but because the Abbe's admirable conduct elicited from the commander of the Army Corps, who pinned the cross on his cassock, the expression ;of heartfelt admiration for the whole French Catholic Church. That high officer, who, in the name of the President of the Republic, had just presented the insignia of the Legion of Honor to the military chaplain, said:—'Whatever be the opinions each individual man may profess, it is impossible for anyone not to acknowledge that in the present war the clergy have done their duty, and all their duty.' The ceremony. took place in a little village-of the Champagne region in presence of a regiment which had returned from the fighting line for a few days' rest. All the soldiers and all the inhabitants of the Cambrai region know Abbe Thibault. He is a young man of 29 years of age, whose sweet face has, nevertheless, an expression of courageous determination. Since the very beginning of the hostilities he has been constantly in. the front, braving shot and shell in the accomplishment of his Christian mission. Abbe Thibault was on the battlefields of Belgium, and at so many sanguinary engagements in the department of Aisne and the hilly region of Argonne. He went on his bicyclette, careless of the projectiles raining all around him, to administer the Sacrament to the dying, consolation to the wounded, and giving words of encouragement to all the men in the fighting line. It is scarcely necessary to add that he is loved by the soldiers and most highly esteemed by their, chiefs.