Arizona republican., 1915-07-19
Of the Fifth Royales. Crack Canadian Regiment of HOO Men Only Thirty seven Are Alive ana They Are Prisoners
THEIR OPINIONS
 OF THEIR ALLIES;
French Were a DisapDoint- ncnt, BelGians Good Fighters But the Asiatica and OrientaIs Were RanA COWaTdS
ASSOCIATED PRESS D1spArcHl

lA7Sp' Ia lhD PRESS DISfA ifsft ] GOETTINGEN, Germany. July 18- Late in February the Fifth Royals one of the crack Canadian regiments. HOO strong, left Montreal. en route for England and the great European war. Less than four months later after weeks sin the trenches at Ypres. only thirty of those HOO men were known to remain alive and they are prisoners m the great military camp here.
 Overpowcred by the gases waited toward their positions, deserted by colored troops supposed 10 come To their support all but decimated by the deadly German fire. the little band of four non commissioned officers and 33 privates was easy prey Before they regained consciousness they were in captivity.
 The thirty-eeven at Goettingen hope that some Of their brave regiment may have escaped and mag still be fighting. but they do not believe it. They We're on the outskirts of the gas columns that swept over the trenches. and they escaped with their lives because they did not have To breathe the noXious fumes in their
 full strength
 Many of them have as yet not been able to establish communication with their families in far-off Canada, and are not sure whether mothers. wives and sisters know that they have es- capped death.
 The men portray the fight at Ypres as one of indescribable horror. they cnafe at confinement and the lack of assurance that England is winning; they eEpiess in NarSin degrees sur prise that the Germans are not the "barbarians" they had believed them to be-
 Harry Aiming, a Montreal boy. serves as well as any other member of the little group Co describe their feelings as they now loaf about in captivity.
 There isn't any question" he said. but that we all have had tp wise our opinion about the Germans. though not all of us we're prepared to believe all We had heard and read about them. The worst thing about being in prison camp is the inac- uvity and for that the Germans nat uraIly are rot responsible.
 The food is fair. though as mat ter If course monotonous l for one haven't any complaint though l man age to get a good many extra things from England to piece out with imagine that the man who hasn't any friends and who doesn't get any eX- tras does a certain amount of suffer iI.g.
 But mail. money and packages come regularly and reasonably quick ly We all have to admire the thor oughness of the German system in vogue here Those of us who are able to take matters philosophically appre- ciate that though being prisoners of war is far from being a joke. we are well treated on the whole. Those who are the least unhappy are the ones who are able to sit back, con fdent that England is going to win and that this can't last forever
 Another member of the Fifth Royals gave a brief glimpse into the relations among the allies. He said:
 Let me tell you that the French as fighters have proved big disap pointment to Us. Whenever the two have been together French and Eng fish and Canadians it has been the latter two who have had to bear the bunt of the work.
 The Belgians. on the other hand. have proved the finest little fighters in the world. If the French were any where near as good. with their mum bcrs, the war would be over"
 What do you people think of the colored troops?" the Canadian was asked as two oddly clad soldiers, black as ebony and speaking a hor- rible jargon of French. sauntered by the barracks.
 "Theyre towards. At Ypres they sent up a lot of these so-calIed sol diers to relieve us. and they promptly turned and ran. We had to shoot a lot of the beggars ourselves to pre- vent demoralization.'
 Aside from the Fifth Royals the Cc1adian troops now imprisoned at Coettingen belong to the 18th High landers of Toronto and the Second Fuffs. There are approximately 125 of the former left out of the original HOO, and less than that number of Bluffs.