The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-10
AMERICANS | IN BRITISH ARMY |All Have Enlisted as Being Born in Canada RECEIVE COMMISSIONS
 Many Are Former West Point or An n <Rf
RECEIVE COMMISSIONS
Many Are Former West Point or An napolis Men and Soon Become Off, ficers-Showing Britishcrs the American Way


 London, Aug. so.-(speciaL)- many Americans are fighting for the allies is common knowledge. There are lot of them in Frances Foreign Legion and a lot more in the various Canadian con thgents. This week the writer was told by one in close touch with the British war office that 1900 Americans are now members of the British army. The war office. of course has to notify the rela- lives of these men in case they are killed, wounded or missing. as some of them have been, and it is thus that an ap- proximate figure as to their number can be given.
 This. of course. is not a matter that the war office talks about One is guilty of an indiscretion in even mentioning it. No American is allowed to enlist as such; i; that might make diplomatic complica- tions. Most of the sons of the United States who join say they are Canadians. Of late one has heard of a number of young southerners who have enrolled Themselves under the Union Jack. When one of them went to the recruiting office the following conversation took place.
 Where were you born?"
 T was bawn, sun, in Spartanburg, 1outh Carolina"
 "The United States? We can't take you if you are an American Can't you take little stroll and think hard and zee if you weren't born somewhere else?"
 The walk is taken A few minutes later the candidate returns.
 Well, suh, I've thought that matter pvah. and realize now that I was bawn In Hamilton. Ontario
 Good man! Righto! Now come and zee the doctor"
 Many Get Commissions
 good number of these American-born recruits are West Point and Annapolis men, and thus get commissions practical ly at once, for, of course, the crying need of the British army at the present time Is for officers. One of the southerners, this time Virginian. was badly wounded Rt Neuve Chapelle. He told an acquaint- hnce of the writer's that a shell which exploded near him there killed 23 men and l6 horses While in England he mada this remark to an American woman friend pf mine:
 I'm making collection while I'm here. Yes, ma'am I'm making a collec- Jon or eGg-ShellS.
 Egg shells? Whatever for?"
 Well, ma am, it does seem to me that those are the only kind of shells that the British war office thinks we need t1 throw at the Germans"
 heard a very good story of another young southerner, a member of the Richmond Light Blues, and now cap lain in the British army who listened Spatiently to lecture on "camp sani- tation," given by his colonel, and then, kcry courteously and deferentially. |6sked his superior officer If he might [te allowed to demonstrate to the men some of the things he had learned In the American army. The colonel, Ia bit on his dignity, but with good thumor, asked the American if he really Thought he could add anything to their The southerners' reply Twas a question as to whether any of 1 Itnem ever had been in a hot country, lellke Cuba or the Philippines. where |there really were flies? The British of Ulcers confessed they had not.
 The American Way "The defect in the sanitary arrange Pnents you propose" went on the south PErner, "is that they are adapted to Eng, Hand where you have no flies. Every body in this country fan |<Bies that flies here are kind of f-plague, but the ratio as compared with me Onlted states Is dctudliy dpOut one Fly here to thousand there. In Fland- 'ers" went on tho American, you will Pget flies, so I wish you would let me to the men our ideas of |latrines, fly traps and incinerators to keope with the conditions that will ob- Rain there"
 E The colonel gave his consent forth f~ith. A bit later. he found the Amer 1can surrounded by a crowd of the men Demonstrating the matters he had men, 5kioned. In order to work better he had Bhed his tunic and was working in his ehirt sleeves. The scandalized superior officer held his peace at the time but later appraised the amused American khat 1t was not considered good form for an officer to remove his tunic. He baid 1t simply wasn't done.
 Why have all these young Americans Thrown in their lot with the British hrmy? Do they all feel in duty bound ko do their bit toward putting the ki- bosh on German kultur? These ques- kions I put to an American woman who knows many of the men concerned.
 "Well," she replied, T know of ono base in which a girl is at the bottom |bf the mans enlisting here. and with khe others I guess it's sheer devil- ment." Other Americans have told me That they joined the army for the sake bf the "excitement." Still others. how. Ever, have affirmed. with lower jaws let, that they enlisted just for the sake bf seeing to 1t personally that "Kaisei