Llais Llafur

  ? Right and Wrong | Methods of | Methods of ? ecruitfDg. i ♦ PAGE 4. .v.

Didn't Know They were British Troops. •Germans Greatly Surprised. ".Llais'" man Interviews a German Officer at^the Front. Considerably censored, we have re- ceived. from Mr. W. S. Collins, who, as many readers will know, was the chief reporter of the "Llais" until the out- break of the war,-a letter which in its entirety must have been of absorbing in- terest. What remains is, however, suffi- ciently interesting to repeat, and we are sure Mr. Collins'' many friends in the district will be glad to hear from him. Mr. Collins describes the arrival at of a large batch of German prisoners. Aroused by the accounts of "German atrocities in Belgiiun, and by the experiences of the inhabitants of the townships and countryside around the civilised population was in an ugly mood. Mr. Collins continues "Heralded by a shouting, gesticulating mob, the prisoners were escorted by a strong force of British troops. Yells of anger, contempt, and fury ware hurled at the Germane, and but for the strength of the escort they would undoubtedly have had warm treatmemt. even if only I the women had succeeded in breaking through the cordon. "Tommy," how- ever, despite his well-known gallantry to the fair sex, refused to be cajoled into allowing their charges to be approached too closely, and with fixed bayonets and loaded rifles they guarded the Germans probably as loyally as they would their own sick comrades. GERMAN PRISONERS JEERED. I From the Gare to the Plaoe de Deten- tion the demonstration grew in num- bers, and forceful ejaculations were Juried at the unhappy captives: Cochons! Barbares! Saaivages! etc. I have no doubt that the prisoners were glad that they were so closely surround- ed "After a march of a mile or so the escort and prisoners arrived at the Compagnie de Messagesrie, glad of a haven. The Germans were a motley crew, and no mistake. They belonged to various regimetnts, of all arms, and were dressed in all kinds of kit. Some wore the hated German helmet, others the cap comforters served out to "Tom- my," others the headgear of various units of the British Army, whilst others sported the same kind of hat as worn by the Belgian forces. One officer wore 1 the cap of a Cameron Highlander. "In stature they compared with British koops, and bore themselves in a soldier-like manner, despite their posi- tion. "If there was variety in the head- gear, the footgear was even more diverse. SoIDÆi wore jack boots, others ordinary boots, whilst the majority looked as if A visit to tike cobbler would improve their capacity for marching. GERMANS IGNORANT OF BRITQSH I FORCES. J "One of the officer&-who spoke English ApeDtly-mfyre verbose than his fellowii, was indignant at the treatment meted out to them by the French civilian since tfcev were taken prisoners. They Dot only had no complaint, but gave un- atijated praise, for the manner in which they had been treated by the British, and admitted that the military authori- ties throughout had treated them far differently to what they had anticipated. I succeeded in getting into conversa- tion with this oiffcer, &nd in the course *f my questioning I gleaned that the greatest surprise he had received was when, in the first t In which he had taken part at — the rifle and artillerv fire had. shown itself to be 'vm-Frenchlike and accurate. (He, sf, course," was expressing himself aa a Ger- man). Like all the. other officers con- nected witb his regiment he was totally ignorant of the fact that they were op- posed to British troops! They were soon sdiaiHusioned, however, and to ,thei very severe cost. Expecting little, if any, resistance, they realised that they were 'up against' some 'hot. stuff,' before they had advanced is action very far. "This officer stoutly maintained that had Great Britain kept out of the fight the war wosld have been over by now, >&s it was only the magnificent strategy ,of the commanders and the marvellous endurance of the men of the army they were opposed to that had kept intact th-a North-West of France. 'W e woul d have maroke(f through the Fremeh with- little resistance,' was his op inion. "I wondered! But refrained from ar- ming the point. BRITISHERS STRIKE TERROR. I "The bayonets of the British infantry wtruck terror into the bearto of the ''Germans, he admitted, 'and we don't Tike your Highlanders. They are devils!' he remarked, and even he spoke I oould see a look ef fear creep into this big, brawny officer's eyes. 1 "If there be 8QY carping oritics who hold that onr Army's arrangements for secrecy are too stringent, I wonder what they would say it they were in Germ=y? Here we had an offioer of high rank, whose knowk<lg« of operations was so limited that he knew nothing of the farces arrayed against the Geruiaa Army! The silence of -the Admiralty in compari- son with the Berlin Beureaux is like the elappil)g of cymbals- "You should have seen the men of one of the Highland regiments throwing 1201b. Backs of oata about this after- noon. It was a eight for sore eyes, and trhilH vo'i- dertUfi *c. liai-ulei

THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME "AND PAY! PAY! PAY!" I" The War Office delay in forwarding separation allowances would mean absolute starvation to many families if it were not for the timely assistance given by the Soldiery and Sailors' Families' Association. 4 My husband went off on Wednesday,' a little woman told me 'and since then myself and my two children have had nothing to eat, except what a friend almost as poor as ourselves could spare us. I bad to borrow a penny to come here."—" Daily News and Leader." By kind permission of the Daio Herald.

MR. REDONP AS RECRUITER. I Mr. Redmond will speak with Mr. Asquith at a recruiting meeting in Dub. lin shortly. The date has not been fixed. It is anticipated fcat Mr. Redmond and Mr. Asquith will afterwards tour the soutil and west of Ireland addressing re- cruiting meetings. The Nationalist Party orgamsatioH will also assist. ————— —————

A war correspondent in Franrse says he has seen innumerable refugees eat- ing bully beef find drinking English tea, gifts of the English troops. German women aud girls who have treated French and Russian prisoners with kindness are denounced in the German newspapers as "unnatural women" who "o-&ght to be put in front of the troops." The Canadia-n Overseas Expedition- ary Foræ are to Be inerea?d bT two t-iT?hv rp^nwor^ts, each of 575 men and ea(.,I i of 575 m e n and

ENGLAND HAS NEED OF you. I ) I MR RAMSAY MACDONALD'S CALL FOR RECRUITS "England has need of you." 80, in a letter read at a recruiting meeting in Leicester, says MT. J. Ramsay MacDon- ald to his constituents in Leicester and to the young men of the Trade Union movemoot throughout the country. The letter Was as follows :— "My dear Mr. Mayor,—I am sorry indeed, that I cannot be with you on i Frida.y.My opinions regarding the war are pretty well known, except in so far as they have been misrepresented, but we are in it. It will work itself out now. Might and spirit will win, and in- calculable political and social eoneequen- cea will follow upon victory. "Victory, therefore, must be ours. England is not played out. Her mission is not accomplished. She can, if she would, take the place of esteemed honour among the democracies of the world, and if peace is to come with healing on her wings, the democracies of Europe must be her guardians. There should be no doubt about that. STRAIGHT THROUGH TO VICTORY j "Well, we cannot go back, nor oan we turn to the right or to left. We must go straight through. History will, in due time, apportion the praise and the blame, but the young men of the country must, for the moment, settle the imme- diate issue of vistory. Let them do it in the spirit of the brave men who have crowned our country with honour in the times that arc gone. Whoever amy be in the wrong, men so inspired will be in the right. The quarrel was not of the people, but the end of it, will be the lives and liberties of the people. "Should an opportunity*ar»& to enable me to appeal to the pure love of country which 1, know is a precious -sentiment in all our hearts, keeping it clearof thoughto which I believe to be alien to real patriotism—I shall make it for myself. I want the serious men of the Trade Union, the Brotherhood, and similar movemeats to faee their duty. To such men it is enough to say 'England has need of you*; to say it in the right way. They will gather to her aid. They will protect her, and when the war is over they will see to it that the policies and conditions that make it will go like the mists of a plague and the shadows of a pestilence. "Yours very sincerely, "J. RAMSAY MAODON ALD," I

"When t-h-o Cossacks attack you it is as if a, whirlwind descends upon you," is an Austrian prisoner's description of his capture. French journalists assert £ hat this war has already caused more damage to Belgium than was dOIle in France by the whole of the war of 1870. Seaching for the enemy's cruisers and protecting the trade routes, H.M.8. Melbourne from August 1 to Septem- ber 12 covered 11,170 miles, mM" in the tropics. > ■ Arrangements have been made for the transmission to Germany of letters written by German prisoners in this country. ,¡>Ii:

Maesydderwen County School, Ystradgyoiais I CENTRAL WELSH BOARD RESULTS. Eight Senior certificates and 20 Junior Certificates have been obtained. The Supplementary ceijtifiates results are not yet to hand. Senior: Ronald G. Dawes, Ellis Jones (1 distinction); Esiah Jones (1 distinc- tion), Ithel Llwyd Llewelyn (2 dis.); J Phillips (2 dis-.) Novella Rankin, Jshn Samuels (1. dis.); David- Isaac- Erasmus Williams (2 dis.); R. G. Da.wes, ánd Ithel Llewelyn have secured exemption from Welsh Matriculation. Junior Certificates: D. J. Gladstone Da vies (dis.), Elwyn Davies: Nesta Dawes; Brinley Edwards (1 dis.); J. Bdward Griffiths (1 dis.) Elizabeth M. Harris, Ethel Jones (2 dis.); S-oldiis Jooies, Mabel Lewis (2 dis.); Eme 'Lewis, Edward Morgan (3dis.); Edward Morgan, Elfed Morgan. Gwladys Mor- gan, Maggie Morgan (2 dis.); .f)bert H. D. Owen (1 dis.); Cassie (2 dis.); M Thomas (1 dis.); Cliarles Ware, John FXwyn Wat-kins, Llewelyn Williams (1 distinction). ————- —————

A wounded private of the Ktng's Qwn Royal Lancaster Regiment, who was within twenty yards of Colonel Dykes, when that officer vroa hit, says- his last words were, "Goodbye, bofs." "This is the best summer holiday I have had for a tong time," writes a corporal in the motor-cycle section of the Royal Engineers.

LONDON CHAT. I From "The Daily Citizen." Mr Arthur Henderson, M.P., Leader of the Labour Party, who is giving his services to the country by speaking at "recruiting" meetings all over the country, is not going to appeal to his junior fellow-countrymen without making great personal sacrifices him- self. Three of his sons have volun- t-eered and been accepted for foreign f^ervioe. Few members of Parliament oan say as much as this. A correspondent witnessed a "human" incident the other day, which we give in his own words: "I saw Mr Winston Churchill on horseback riding from the direction of the Admiralty. On ar- riving at the archway of the Horse Guards leading to Whitehall he beck- oned to the sergeant on duty, who I promptly came forward. 'Tell Colonel X—— I want to see him and am wait- ing for him.' 'Yes, sir,' answered the sergeant. 'What name shall I give?' 'Oh, just Winston Churchill.' "The blush that. overspread the sergeant's face would have done credit I to a prize- beetroot. And I may add that the siuile which came to Winston's face took a" long time to come off, while the bystanders agreed among them- selves that a prophet is not always known in his own coiintrte" Says a correspondent: "I spent all Sunday in Manchester, and a few hours ) on Monday morning in Liverpool. The war spirit in those cities is bo less keen than it is in London, but there are few J exterior indications of it. During the whole of Saturday, though I was driving about in taxig and on trams both in Manchester and the suburbs, I did not, see m&iiy men ia khaki. A stranger from Wot her planet could not ) have guessed that Britain is in a state of war, for there was not the slightest indication of anything being out of the normal. A new international crisis was pre- cipitated at one of the London stations the other night while the various com- mittees were awaiting the arrival of & refugee train. It all arose out of a rumour that German and Austrian sub- jects were passing into this country by the simple expedient of displaying little American fla in their button- holes, so that as soon as they set foot on the platform the American com- mittee took charge of them. A robust Briton commented on this as follows: "The American flag Means nothing." What he was driving at was that the American Rag in a man's j buttonhole hardly made that man an American d.tizen It 80 happened that j a member of the American committee heard the isolated remark quoted, and in a second hie blood was up. "Moons, notbing?" be oi*oxit-od. turniner on the! unon?nding Britisher- "This is what j we've come to! You run down the American flag. I'm ashamed of you!" Protest was useless. "I could not have, imagined an Englishman saying a thing like that," pursued the Yankee, all conscious that he was merely making himself and his friends ridiculous. They by the way, had now gathered round, and received the bowdlerised version that the English committee had II said the American flag m?ant nothing at all! With angry faces the two com- mittees dr^-&part and held close con- eultation. "< Piide kept them from making advances one to the other, and only the arrival of a particularly heavy train of refugees saved the situation. Immediately they were all about their respective duties, helping, co-operating mutually useful-and the international crisis was over! Scattered throughout Belgium and Franee there awe a number of London newspaper men who, finding that the ranks of war corresponderts attached to daily ne fwspapers are filled up, have bean consent to go out "on their own" with the idea of seeing things. One of them had a unpleasant experience the other da N. He. managed to get well to the front of the French lines, and was there arrested as a spy. He had only his English passport to prove identity, but this was insufficient for the oiffcer who captured him. He was given very short shrift, and was being marched off with a file of in- 'I' fantry men to be shot. Fortunately for him, just at that ,,nwment there came on the scene in his motor-car a properly aecredited war correspondent of a Lon- don paper. He knew the supposed tpy, and his explanation was sufficient to obtain release for him. Among the free-lance newspaper men just returned from Belgium is Mr. George White, the well-known sporting journalist, who in peace time conducted a boxing agency and frequently wrote for "Tlte Deiilv Citizen.' He has had many ad ventures, and twice he has come into contact with patrolling Uhlans, but managed to convince them $hat he was just an ordinary travelling Englishman and no spy. I wonder if a music-hall song has over been played in the grounds of Bucking- ham Palace before this war broke out ? I watched the guard bWng changed there to-day, and it was to tune of "It's a Long, long way to Tipperary" that the the new guard marched through the Palwo gaim. I was told the other day that the King had expressed a desire to hear the w,,ng wb;cb has nearly ousted all the rc^iraciital The Prince of Wales's Fund is creep- ing up, but, all things considered, it is creepijig up very alowlv. Most 6f the contributors, quite naturaJly, are capi- talists of one kind or another, and the greater proportion of them belong to that class which forces the ordinary clerk and labourer into the fighting liaie. But are they themsel ves giving as much as what they demand from those dependent upon them? I could name six large firms who have given "notice" to all their unmarried employees who re- fuse to join the Army if they consent, their positions are kept open for them until the war is over; if they refuse they are turned out "nsck and crop." Now, the directors of most of theee ifrms figure prominently in the list of subscribers to the- Prince of Wales's Fund. To he just, they give money o&- cause they are too old for personal ser- vice. But do they give enough? I doubt it, for I am one of those who be- lieve that two and a quarter millions is ft very shabby sum to represent the generosity of our ten thousand and one capitalists. They ask their dependents for life and limb, but they themselves provide only quite modest cheques* 'Twas ever thus. I do not guppoee it would be possible for Great Britain to obtain the services of a more popular man than SuJ. -,I. Barrie for the purpose ef ensuring that the case lor Britain ahall be presented effectively to the American peopl Ber- lin is doing its vile utmost to misrepre- sent London in the State&so far with- out any great success. But the author of "Pttea- Pan" is wise in looking to the future and preparing for all possible eventualities. He enjoys the confi-detioe of hundreds of thousands of readers in the Stages, and his word is trusted- in quarters where few Britons could be sure of much influence. He take with him Mr. A. E. W. Mason, a fellow-craftsman and an ex- M.P. I understand, from a friend of Sir J. M. Barneys, that neither novelist h.g any intention of addressing meetings. They will apek out men of authority in the journalistic and political world, ex- press their views fully, and trust to the Fabian Society doctrine of "permeation." This story was told by a speaker at a recruiting meeting at which I was pre- sent the other night. A woman was at the station seeing the laei of her husband —a Reservist on the way to the front. "Well, good-bye, Bill," she saidi "suid if you beat the Germans half as well as you beat me, it'll go hard with thean." A friend just returned from the North- East coast tells me that a new thrill has arisen in consequence of the war to re- place the normal amusements which, from the same cause, have dis- appeared. It is watching the searchlights at night. Folk go down t. the sea front in parties to witness the sight which, taken in conjunction with the serious issues at stake, is mor than a little im- pressi ve. The searchlights sweep the sea, de- scribing slow, regular area. Suddenly cffw of them lights upon a steamer, parses it, hesitates, and returns. Then, tfootkd from 8tf'm to stem with a blinding white g lare, looking I:ke tlki bleac-ied skeleton of a ship, the vessels steams slowly into harbour, tho searchlight following h?r all the way, picking out in minute distinct- new each tiny figure on her decks. In normal times the deabh of Wiihdm Ganz, the distinguished composer and pianist, would have teen announced in the Press with at least a column of bio- graphical comment, but I notice that most of this morning's papers give but a paragraph or, at most, a quarter of a column to the memorable work he did. Such are the fortunes of war. I wae first thrown into his company 20 yean ago, when I was a mere boy and he was more Mian 60 years of age. In recvit ye-am he could talk of nothing else but Mme. Melba, whUnl ho claimed .HI I not without good reason) to have di. covered. Unfortunately, he was a real and unjjrustakeabie fwiob. and ho was in- finitely prouder of the pa*rf)pa?ft of tba Royal Family than he was of the ftim-i- aftip of men of greater gwnius than his own. < f I feel rath fir sorry for the shopkeepe r at Bresleu who has an advettisement in his window promisirg te pay 30,000 marks t-o the German soldier who firrik lands in England. He appears to have made that offer without considering primmoi-3 oi war, of whom we have more than one in this country at the pre&eiit moment; But I imagine the 30,000 marks are quite safe in. any case; I don't quto see it being paid to a German prisoner. There are two ways of doing 4 business of administering relief in Wllif' time. Let me point to an instanoe of ) the better way. To a street not far from that in wkich I reside came a gentle- voiced woman this morning. "I hope yoa won't me tmpertinent," she said, "but there must be ma* people who need help from the war fund but do not j eare to ask. Do you mind telling me if you require assistance?" CcaiW any- I thing le done better? ————— —————

I According to a Central News tojegram from Rome the great German orauuneBt firm of Krupp baa underwritten of the German war loan. The German newspapers are issuing appeals to the public oowjuring all to support the loan. It woul d appear that so far the subscription list is very meagre. Residents in tenement houses in Gott- rock, Scotland, were alarmed on Satur- day by the dropping of a shell a*noi>g the buildings. It appears that a steamer bound for Glasgow had failed to etc;? when challenged by a. sentry tug. and a shot was fired ncros-s her bows. The sh-IT I roee hilh and landed in Gourock. Lucki- Iy liit-lc dar.:age was done.

hundreds of tons of forage and grain in I very short space of time, the ladies l viewed them with admiring glancea whioh would have melted the hearts of a less susceptible person than a Scottish Jock. "I ani Still putting in 16 to 17 hours a daiy, and must consider myself for- tunate in comparison with the work be- ing done by othera of the Expeditionary Force. The troops, generally speaw np, never enjoyed themselves more than they are doing now. Plenty of work, plenty to eat, and plenty of fighting. What more do soldiers "ant?