New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-25

-- tnames probably deleted). Let
US hope that we shall be the lucky ones
next time.
"During the first two days of the
battle ] had only one piece of bread
and no water. spent the night in the
rain without my greatcOat. The rest OF
nv kit was on the horses, which have
been left behind with the baggage and
which cannot come up into the battle
because, as soon as you put your nose
up from behind cover, the bullets
whistle.
"'War is terrible. We are all hoping
that a decisive battle will end the war
as our troops already have got round
Paris. If we beat the English, the
French resistance will soon be broken
E~ssia will be very quickly dealt with;
Of this there is no doubt,
owe received splendid help from
the Austrian heavy artillery at Mau-
beuge. They bombarded Fort Ger
fontaine in such way that there were
not ten metres of parapet which DID
ncv show enormous craters made by
the shells. The armored turrets were
found upside down.
Yesterday evening, about 6 o'clock,
in the valley in which our reserves
stood. there was such a terrible can
nonade that We saw nothing OF the
sky but a cloud of smoke. We had
few casualties
Air Scouts Have Adventure.
Among the items of news are the
following: Recently a pilot and OBJ
server Of the Royal Flying Corps were
forced by a breakage in their aero
rlane to descend in the enemy's lines.
The pilot managed to pancake his ma
chine down to earth, and the two es-
capped into some thick underground in
the woods.
"The enemy came up and seized and
smashed the machine, but did not
search for our men with much zeal.
The latter lay hid till dark, and then
found their way to the Aisne, across
which they swan, reaching camp IN
safety, but barefoOted.
Numerous floating bridges have by
now been thrown across the Aisne, and
some of the pontoon bridges have been
repaired under fire. On the goth, Lieu
tenant name deleted), of the Sd Sig
nal Corps, Royal Engineers, was un-
fortunately drowned while attempting
to swim across the river with a cable
TO open Geographic communication on
the north side.
"Espiorage is still carried on by the
enemy to a considerable extent. Re
Gently the suspicious of some Of the
French troops were aroused by coming
across a farm from which the horses
had been removed. After some search
thew discovered telephone, which was
connected by an underground cable
with the German lines, and the owner
Of the farm paid the penalty in the
usual way in war for his treache~y.
after some cases of village lighting
which occurred earlier in the war, 1t
was reported by some of our officers
that the Germans had attempted to APP
proach to close quarters by forcing
prisoners to march in front of them.
! The Germans have recently repeated
the same trick on a larger scale against
| the French, as is shown by the copy Of
an order printed below, It is therein
referred to as a ruse, but, if that term
can be accepted it is a distinctly IL
! legal ruse.
Use Prisoners as Shield.
"During a recent night attack the
order reads, the Germans drove a
column of French prisoners in front OF
them. This action is to be brought to
the notice of all our troops, o., in
order to put them on their guard
| against such a dastardly ruse; (2), in
order that every soldier may know how
the Germans treat their prisoners. Our
| troops must not forget that if they al
low themselves to be taken prisoners
the Germans will not fail to expose
them to French bullets.
signature of commander.
Further evidence has now been col
/ lected Of the misuse of the white flag
and other signs Of surrender. During
an action on the 18th, owing to this,
! one officer was shot. During recent
! lighting also some German ambulance
wagons advanced in order to collect
the wounded An order to cease fire
was consequently given to our guns
which were firing on this particular
section of ground. The German bat
| tery commanders at once took advan-
| tage of the lUll in the action to climb
up their observation ladders and on to
! a haystack to locate our guns, which
! soon aftCeward came under a far more
accurate fire than any to which they
| had been subjected up to that time.
"a British officer who was captured
| by the Germans and has since escaped
| reports that while a prisoner he saw
men who had been fighting subsequent
! ~ nut or Red Cross brassards.
! "That irregularity of the protection
afforded by the Geneva convention is
| not uncommon is confirmed by the fact
| that on one occasion men in the uni
| form Of cOmbatant units have been
captured wearing Red Cross bras
sard, hastily slipped over the arm. The
excuse given has been that they had
been detailed after the fight to look
after the wounded.
at is reported by cavalry officer
that the driver Of a motor car with q
machine gun mounted on it, which was
captured. was wearing red cross.
"Full details of the actual damage
done to thr cathedral at Rheims doubt
less have been cabled home, so that no
description of it is necessary. The
Germans bombardcd the cathedral
twice with their heavy artillery.
zone reason it caught alight so
quickly was that on one side Of II Was
some scaffolding which had been erect
cd for restoration work. Straw had