Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-11-02


of this fact their pay is just l half
penny a day less than that of the white
soldier.
The Sikh places caste above every
thing. He will not drink from any
thing that has been used by a white
man, for If he did he would lose caste.
If be happens to be eating and a white
mans shadow falls across the Sikh's
food he will starve rather than touch it
again.
The Indians got along very well with
the French people. and some of them
could even talk a little broken French.
The suffering among the Indians dur
ing the first winter was terrible, but
they bore it all fairly cheerfully and
did their duty well. They are not
trench fighters, though, and cannot
play the waiting game. They want to
get out at the enemy, and the officers
have their work cut out to keep them
in the trenches for very long.
The Germans certainly did not like
the Indians a little bit. The Indians
belief regarding no quarter is not es
pecially nice to think about, and their
natural instincts are hard to control.
They have a weakness for cutting off
ears and heads and keeping other little
souvenirs. The Germans know this.
and naturally it puts the fear Of death
into them.
/ spent Christmas day of 1914 in the
trenches just south of Ypres. Christ
mas eve was a beautiful night. and the
Germans who held the trenches oppo-
site left us very much alone the entire
evening. We didn't bother them either.
There was a beautiful moon, and
with everything SO quiet and peaceful
1t was hard to realize that there was
a war on. During the evening the Ger
mans started singing. and l heard
some of the most beautiful music
ever listened to In my life. The song
might start just opposite us, and 1t
would be taken up all along the line.
and soon it would seem as If ali the
Germans In Belgium were singing.
When they had finished we would ap-
plaud with all our might, and then we
would give them a song in return.
A regiment in the trenches started
"My Old Kentucky Home" The men
were getting. well along with 1t when
some one In the German trenches join
ed the singing in just as good English
as any of us could speak. 1t was beau
tiful, but 1t made me awfully home
sick. After they had finished the same
German voice sang Dancing Around
and, believe me, that fellow could sing
ragtime. He was a%pplauded uproari-
ously, and then we sang some more
popular songs for them, and so it went
until the wee small hours of the morn
ing.
During the night a couple of our
chaps crawled up almost to the Ger
man parapet, and with them they took
a monograph and a record. They
wound up the machine, put ON the rec
ord and attached a piece of string to
the starting lever. Then they crawled
back, unwinding the string as they
came. The next morning they pulled
the string, and 1t started the machine
playing the song which was SO popu-
lar In England at that time, when We
Wind Up the Watch on the Rhine
You a bet that that monograph was
filed full of lead In short order.
During the few weeks directly after
Christmas / was In the trenches just
south of Ypres most of the time. When
on duty In the daytime it was not SO
bad, but the nights were awful. The
Germans had the advantage over us
In that their trenches were ON higher
ground, and they drained all the water
down into our own. We had only
buckets to bail with, and 1t was very
slow work, as well as dangerous.
Then, too, the cold weather increased
our troubles.
/ notice in my diary. which l kept
from time to time, that / entered an
incident which shows our state. l will
quote you just what l wrote:
"Dec. 81. 1914. = Was talking with
two boys of the Royal Scots today.
They have just come down from the
Hollebeke trenches, and they are in ter.
rible condition. Their casualties dur
ing the last engagement were light, as
they lost only four killed and nineteen
wounded. but forty-two died from ex-
posture.
zone poor devil tells me that he has
three brothers and fifteen cousins in
his battalion. Two of his brothers
died during the past two weeks. One
stopped a bullet, but the other one
drowned right by his side in the
trenches, and he was unable to aid
him.
IA lot came In on their hands and
knees, and many came dragging them
selves on their stomachs through the
mud 1t was terrible"
One of the saddest things l have
ever seen is the last roll call Of a reg
iment which has been cut to pieces.