The Brecon County Times Neath Gazette and General Advertiser for the Counties of Brecon Carmarthen Radnor Monmouth Glamorgan Cardigan Montgomery Hereford

A LOOK ROUND. "Glorious France." BY "SENTINEL." SUNDAY next is the National Fete Day in France. Our Allies cele- brate the storming of the gloomy prison of the Bastille in 1789—the Prison in which the tyrant Kings con- fined their prisoners without trial-and the birth of the constitutional liberties (If France. The cruelties and crimes With which the French Revolution was stained for many years hid from the world the real meaning of that great Popular upheaval. But now that we are joined with France in a determination to overthrow a tyranny worse than any of which the French Kings were guilty, We can see the events of that time in a Nearer light. Prussian tyranny is Worse than Bourbon tyranny, because it oppresses the minds and souls of men t\nd not their bodies only. Moreover, the Prussian seeks to bring the whole W,Drld under his yoke, and seize upon its wealth for his own enrichment. France, the land of chivalry and 4Gble ideas, is in the van of the fight Against this evil thing, and we of Britain, the old home of Liberty, are Proud to be standing by her side. Grievous as our own losses have been, it is France which has bled and suffered roost, and bleeds and suffers still. The tichest fruit of her fair land is under the heel of the Hun; her cities and Dihedrals are in ruins; she has suffered Very abomination which the most ruthless of foes can inflict upon her. tut she stands with her proud head rect in the forefront of the battle still, nduring all things, hoping all things, the steadfast cry still upon her lips They shall not pass!" If there is °ne thing in which the French have I Surprised the world it is in the dogged- Qess of their defence, the tenacity with which they have held on when things were going against them. No Army in I the history of the world has so immor- Iised itself as that which bears upon Its grand colours the glorious names of the Marne. Verdun, and Rheims. j r Nothin- can break the soul of France. The fiercest storm of Hun fury beats •^pOn her in vain. With a population little more than half that of Germany, she took the shock of the first assault, waiting till the Armies of Britain were ready to take their full share in the struggle. And when that was accom- plished, she was called upon to endure once more, owing to the collapse of Russia, until another great and free- dom-loving nation had prepared its Armies. Once more, proudly and without complaint, the glorious French people took up the burden. That hour is now drawing near. The Americans are ranging up alongside the French and British, now old and tried com- rades-in-arms. The Italians, freedom- loving as these three, have rallied to the defeat of the Austrian enemy. The dawn of victory is seen, and the victory will be complete :— Yet, Freedom, yet thy banner, torn, but flying, Z" Strives like a thunderstorm against the wind France, the glorious, asks but one reward: that her faithful children of Alsace and Lorraine may be restored to their mother's home. In another column the story is told which shows why the people of the Lost Provinces will not tamely settle down under the German yoke which was inflicted upon them nearly fifty years ago. It shows the great gulf fixed between French liberty and German tyranny. The cruel wrong which snatched Alsace and Lorraine from France was the most signal triumph of the Prussian doctrine of Might which Europe has witnessed. The restoration of the Provinces to gfFranee will be the sign and seal of the ■triumph of Right over Might which the I free nations are banded together to win. When the long agony of Europe is over and the last drop of martyr blood has been shed, the enduring gain to the world will be that France, Britain, America, and Italy, the four great free nations of the world, will be knit to- gether by a bond of common sacrifice, common thought, common worth, for the world's welfare. Vive la France! I

UNDER THE HUN. The Story That Taught Europe. A FEW months before the war began, all Europe rang with the name of Zabern, a little town of 8,000 inhabitants lying in the folds of the Vosges Mountains. The reason was that Zabern is in Alsace, and that its experiences had o-iven the world a. vivid reminder of what it meant to the Alsatians to have Germany for their master, and showed how impos- sible it was for any self-respecting race to I live contentedly under Prussian rule. Zabern was a garrison town, and-as we shall see-had good reason to know it. The 99th Regiment of Infantry was quartered there, and its officers swaggered I about the town with the offensive arro- gance that makes so revolting an impres- sion on every nation but their own. One in particular—Baron von Forstner, a lieutenant of the 5th company—had made himself conspicuous by his overbearing manners and his readiness to make scenes by way of asserting his dignity. One day in a restaurant, finding that the bill of fare was written in French, he drew his sword and thrust it through the offending document, to show how intoler- able that language was to the proud sou! of a German officer. The people of Zabern laughed at the story, and at a dozen other performances of the same kind that came to be related of Forstner and his col- leagues. They got into the habit of laughing whenever one of them made his appearance in the street. The Valiant Lieutenant. That eternal smile began to get upon the nerves of the German officers. The greatest offence you can commit in the eyes of a Prussian is not to be frightened at him. Forstner felt obliged to take strong measures, and set his men to chase a troop of giggling children, who took refuge in a neighbouring belfry. When the pursuers reached the belfry door they came upon a lame shoemaker, who was the only person in sight, and brought him before their indignant officer. That hero forthwith drew his sword, and while half-a-dozen soldiers held the prisoner safe, dealt him a furious cut across the forehead. When he was tried afterwards for this cowardly assault upon a crippled man, the defence put forward was that he acted in putative self- defence." That is to say, that he was justified because the cripple might have struck him, and, it was added, that his men, having their rifles to hold, might have been embarrassed in defending him At last the public good temper was broken by a report of Forst- ner's insulting language about the Alsatian recruits. Enquiring of a soldier one day why he had received a sentence of imprisonment, he was told it was for striking an Alsatian in a quar- rel. "What! he exclaimed, for hitting one of those Alsatian blackguards? Two months in prison ? Why, I would have given you ten marks for your trouble! When this story got about, a crowd of some fifty people, mostly women and chil- dren, gathered about the barracks and made their sentiments known by hootmg and jeering. Inside there was a terrible to do. Ball cartridges were distributed, bayonets were fixed, drums were beaten, and the Com- manding Officer, Colonel Von Router, or- dered his men to charge. They sallied forth into the street, and after a confused melee returned with a mixed bag of some thirty prisoners. They seem to have ar- rested every one who did not run away- persons chiefly who were wondering what it was all about. Two judges and a barris- ter coming out of the Law Courts were in the collection: also a fireman on his way to duty. One Lieutenant Schad afterwards admitted that he arrested everybody whom he "suspected of laughing" (that insup- pressible and unpardonable crime ) German Justice." Except for the judges, who were liberated at once, the prisoners were shut up all night in a filthy coal cellar, and brought next day before the local court, which promptly released them. The out- rage upon them was a glaring one, for a military officer had no right to make ar- rests except at the request of the civil authority. So clear and so scandalous was it that the Reichstag passed a vote of censure by 293 votes to 54. But the sequel showed how little anybody in Germany counts for as against the military caste. Nobody resigned because of the vote. The Crown Prince telegraphed his congratula- tions to Colonel Von Reuter, who was acquitted by a court-martial, although he had admitted saying that it would be a good thing if blood were shed, because it would help to restore Government authority." As for the valiant Forstner, he was sen- tenced to 43 days' imprisonment for his assault on the cripple, and then, when public feeling had subsided, the sentence was annulled on appeal, on the ground of his putative self-defence and his hav- ing vindicated the honour of the Army! So that was how Zabern enabled the world to understand the Alsace question.

FATHERS OF FRANCE. A group of the famous "Daddies" in the French Army.

GENERAL FOCH. ttsmi ■ 11 4 i The Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Annie* on the Western Front.

CHILDREN OF FRANCE. PAriS children leaving the city for country places, where they will help In gathering fruit and other crops.

A I A SHEAF OF WAR STORIES. Great Deeds Performed by all the Services. -0. Faithful unto Death. In the great fights against odds in which British regiments had to make good their retreat from the Aisne and from their advanced positions in Flanders, there were many units whose instructions might be summed up in selling their lives as dearly as possible so that the main body of their comrades might be safely extricated. Some of those who devotedly fulfilled this supreme commission are commemorated in the latest list of V.C.s—an honour which will be all the more cherished by their friends because they did not live to receive it. One of the number was Cap- tain Jitlian Royds Gribble, of the War- wickshire Regiment, who was in command of the right company of his battalion when the enemv attacked, and had orders to hold on to the last. His company was eventually entirely isolated, though he could easily have withdrawn them at one period when the rest of the battalion on his left were driven back to a secondary position. His right flank was "in the air owing to the withdrawal of all troops of a neighbouring division. By means of a runner to the company on his left rear he intimated his determination to hold on until other orders were received from bat- talion headquarters—and this he inspired his command to accomplish. His company was eventually surrounded by the enemy at close range, and he was seen fighting to the last. His subsequent fate is un- known. By his splendid example of grit Capt. Gribble was materially instrumental in preventing the enemy for some hours from obtaining a complete mastery of the crest of the ridge, and by his magnificent self-sacrifice he enabled the remainder of his own brigade to be withdrawn, as well as another garrison and three batteries of field artillery. A similar story attaches to Captain Manley Angell James, of the Gloucester- shire Regiment. Having already been wounded, he was ordered by tho senior officer on the spot to hold on to the last in order to enable the brigade to be extri- cated. He then led his company forward in a local counter-attack on his own initia- tive, and was again wounded. He was last seen working a, machine-gun single- handed, after having been wounded a third time. Captain James, by his dauntless courage and magnificent exampla, enabled the battalion to be withdrawn before being completely cut off. All By Himself. When your officer's dead, and the sergeants look white," that is the time, as Kipling says, that proves what a man is made of. It was in this situation that Private William Beesley, of Nuneaton and the Rifle Brigade, found his golden hour and gained his Victoria Cross. His platoon sergeant and all the section com- manders having been killed, he took com- mand, though but a young soldier, and led his comrades to the assault. Single- handed he rushed a post, and with his revolver killed two of the enemy at a machine-gun. He then shot dead an officer who ran across from a dug-out to take their place at the machine-gun. Three more officers appeared from the dug- I out. These he called. on to surrender. Seeing one of them trying to get rid of a map, he shot him and obtained the map. Ho took four more prisoners from a dug- out and two others from a shelter close by, disarmed them, and sent them back to our lines. At this moment his Lewis gun was brought up by a comrade, who was acting as a carrier Pte. Beesley at once brought it into action, and used it with great effect. For four hours Pte. Beesley and his comrade held on to the position under very heavy machine-gun and rifle fire. Then the other soldier was wounded. Pte. Beesley carried on by himself, and maintained the position until dark. IIa then made his way back to the original line from which the attack had started, bringing with him the wounded carrier and the Lewis gun. A Wireless Hero. During the latter part of last year a ship was some 140 miles from the coast, when she was attacked by a submarine, which launched a torpedo at her which missed. Very soon afterwards tho submarine appeared on the surface, and commcnced to shell the ship. For an hour the operator remained in his cabi:i and got into communication with a land station, from which he was promised the immediate assistance or a destroyer. lie still stuck to his post in the hope of getting into touch with a ship which would be able to give earlier help. The captain sent him a. message that, having obtained the pro- mise of assistance, it was advisable that he should take shelter. The operator replied that he was getting into touch with an Aifl^rican light cruiser, which was likely to give earlier assistance. Mean- time he could not leave his cabin. Within a few moments the submarine abandoned solid shell for shrapnel and fired a shot which passed directly through the cabin, decapitating the wireless operator. When the captain and officers went later to the wireless cabin they found the headless body sitting in the chair with the com- pleted message from the American cruiser in front of him. Only the timely arrival of the American vessel prevented the ship from being sunk. An Emergency Weapon. The manner in which Sergeant G. II. Pollington, M.M., of the Norfolk Regi- ment, freed himself from his German captors is illustrative of the many uses of the "tin hat." He was in command of a post when a large raiding party of the enemy penetrated our front line and fired into the post from the rear with a machine-gun. He immediately led some of his men into a communication trench, where a hand-to- hand struggle ensued, during which he was knocked down and dragged half-way across "No Man's Land" by the enemy. He then pulled off his steel helmet, hit his two captors in the face with it, and made good his escape. Thanks to his initiative and great courage the enemy were pre- vented from capturing the post, and Sergeant Pollington now wears the D.C.M. Went Down With His Ship. While heroically attempting to save the British steamship Birkhall," which had been torpedoed by a U boat in the Mediterranean, the master (Captain Neil Mackinnon, of Leith), and the first officer (Mr. M. G. Hunter) lost their lives, while other officers and the crew narrowly escaped drowing. The vessel had been struck at night by a torpedo, which caused a violent inrush of water into the engine- room. The boats eventually reached a trawler, and as the" Birkhall remained afloat a French trawler at considerable risk sent four men on board the torpedoed vessel with a hawser, and prepared to tow her. On seeing this, Captain Mackinnon her. On seeing this, Captain Mackinnon called for volunteers to go back, and there was a wholehearted response. The cap- tain, chief officer, chief engineer, and boat- swain reboarded the vessel. As a result of his inspection the captain, who was stand- ing on the ship's deck, told the boats to keep off, as the vessel was sinking. While the officers were making a final inspection of the ship to ascertain if anyone remained on board, a second torpedo struck the Birkhall." Nothing more was seen of the captain and chief officer, who must have gone down with the vessel. The Other Way About. There was considerable astonishment at a certain headquarters in France when an American soldier named Lennart, from Chicago, walked in with five German officers and seventy-eight men. Private Lennart, it appears, lost his way between the lines, and found himself faced by a battery of enemy machine-guns. He took what shelter he could in a shell-hole, and, conscious that he had little protection, lifted up his hands slowly in token of sur- render. A German captain beckoned him to come over, and, when lie arrived, gave him cigarettes and seemed very cordial. The captain explained that he and his unit were willing to surrender, and asked Lennart to take them to the American lines. But," he protested, I am lost, and have no idefl where I am." Oh, I will help you to find the way," replied the German, and with the aid of a compass the whole convoy reached its destination.