The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-11-03
BRIT0N ANALYZES
GORDON CONFESSION"
Says Construction Of Letter Re
yeals Its Germanic
Origin.

To THE EDITOR OF THE SUN--Sir. "
making many German scraps OF paper
there IL no end and much exposure of them
IL WEAKNESS Of the flesh To you be
longs the merit OF exposing to the general
view the most brazen of all the multitudi-
nous scraps OF paper which the Germans.
who, as Mr.. Chestcrton well observes,
appear to have adopted AS their guiding
principle the determination to be un-
principled, have scattered over the world
refer OF course to the Fac-Simile" which
THE SvN reproduced yesterday Of what
purports to he confession 10y Colonel w.
T. Gordon Of the Gordon Highlandcrs Of
the use by the British army of soft
nosed bullets" II is a truly marvellous
document full of delicious Germau-EnE
fish idioms which 1.-THE Colonel" Is sup
posed to have acquired, while forgettiur
his own language. in brief month Of cap
tivity. / have heard it said that Their"
are three degrees OF liars--lars. damned
liars and expert witnesses. II will now BE-
necessary to add a fourth category to the
list to embrace those ineNpert German
witnesses who would have the world he
would demcan himself 20 the extent ~
writing English as she is spoke" AT the
Berlin Krlegs- Academic.
Il was issued at plymouth" this won
derful fac-simile" makes him say with
revolver ammunition We must all hope
he was issued" In tho proper measure,
and that when the war is over his instruc-
tor In the English language Mt the Kriegs-
Academic will clear up the mistake. He
then goes on t. observe that In the alb
sence OF information from superior au-
thority." evidently meaning "durch hoe
here Autoritaet." he put this revolver am
munition in the ground Why, wonder,
didn't he bury it? Presumably because
the "hoehere Autoritaet" desired that ~
shn ss1ia ~ N dan Rn6np al o.
or something else decidedly German. After
that the gallant Colonel "confesses" that Il
placed my revolver in my heavy baggage
and never carried II acain"-a sentence
which may be passed as "tadellos," i'm
macuately framed after the pattern o'
the exercises in the German English gram
mar used Mt the Kriegs- Academic. He
then quickly relapses into tho 1argon 81
English as she is wrote" al German con
centration camps. for his next admission
Ia that THE revolver ammunition was o'
the Same pattern az issued 70 me ana
other officers OF the Gordon HiEhlarders
in June last to Are their (italics are NOT
the Coloners) annual revolver course.
Could we. | wonder. induce some patient
German Schmelfungus TO inform us whnn.
| In all their military history, tho Gordon
IIghlanders ever fired their annual re-
volver course? why indeed should they
do such an essentially German urt
when they could with far less trouble
| indulge In little target practice THIS
/ farrago OF Teutoni2ed English Is s-H''
with that attention to detail which char
acterizes German military operators b.
wv Il. Gordon. Colonel Gordon High
landers, A d c. 10 the King
When will! our German friends lc1-n
that while they themselves insist on ire
display everywhere and at all times.
on scraps OF paper purp0rtiuE fU %
] go NaIr V,tA - s
! Il IL British custom in indicating
to do so IN an abbreviated form
"a, u, c" without further ,NplHnN....
| would have more than SuillCrt f"r
signature of an un-Teu,Onized colonel an'
even that would he considered u dH
full taste at home. But the c0n.H'
OF this precious confession evidcu I'
sired to impress on the world o..
portance of the scrap of paper i
they meticulously added the magic S."
! Ito the King" Is there anythiu-
! in this, according TO German siHl
| Seemingly not, for n careful sDrN' .. or
this fresh piece OF truth made in ~
many dscloses the interesting fI.' ' y
above the signatures of the win "'
stand the words I'm English and ''
man written in my presence" c'' ''
| not the slightest doubt that the WHO'S"
document was written In their i'..
ence." But by whom was It write"
| That they do not say. 1t certainly N1@
not written by Col Gordon, whose name"
while he is condemned 10 silence m ol'
tivity, his ultra-Chivalrous Captors have
not hesitated to employ In the mnnuia'.
turo OF this most hrazen Of all German
SCRAPS OF paper" W, + Hul LOCK
Correspondent of the London Ddiiy Mon
New YORK, November 2.
T. $, In view of tho fact that auto
rNHtic pistols have entirely replaced 'r''n.
der rnvolvers IN The equipment Of m"i"rn
officers, may I suggest that don tn'
future editions of this "tncsmile' ~"
German military authorities would hs
well advised TO substitute the word pIs'o
for revolver