Evening star., 1932-07-19
AMERICAN CAPTAIN IN FRENCH
FOREIGN LEGION HITS MOVIES
Only u. S. Citizen to Attain Rank-Likes
Life and Says He Hasn't Seen Sand
Dune Since He Joined.

| but thought Doty's book a square por-
trayal of Legion life.
A tall, spare, weathered soldier in
his 30s. Capt. Hamilton was educated
at the Old Cheshire School, now Rox-
bury. Later he took three years of min
ing engineering at Carnegie Tech. He
was around 20 when he enlisted in the
ambulance service. Transferring to the
Legion, he was private, corporal, SER
geant, adjutant and second lieutenant.
He went through a motor school, was
somehow connected with the Lafayette
Flying Corps and became an instructor.
Hamilton stayed in the Legion after
the war. partly because he still was
young enough to be drawn by adven-
ture, partly because he had the feeling
that he must justify his elevation to
officers rank by more active service
than he had seen.
Liked Life in Legion.
Asked why he continued in the Le-
gion, he replied:
What is there for me to do here? I
stay partly for economic reasons, but
largely because I have grown to like it.
A captains life in the Legion is not so
bad. He has money enough to live
comfortably in Morocco, four servants
and a fair amount of amusement
DO you know how the Legion is run?
Well, headquarters is situated in a large
city. There is the headquarters troop,
and there each battalion spends one
Winter out of every three. The Legion
campaigns every Summer. There are
still tribes which put up good fight,
although in couple Of years every
thing will be quiet. It's like the old
Indian campaigns on this side OF the
water.
The Legion also builds roads, does
border patrol and frontier service
This is the hardest job of all. The
frontier posts which the Legion must
build and guard, are cold, isolated.
often at an altitude Of 5000 feet or
more in the Atlas Mountains. One
telephone wire is the only connection
with anything approaching civilization.
This may ultimately put you in COM
munication with a base camp, where
there are barracks.
Learn Languages on Frontier.
1T is when you are at one of these
frontier posts" said Capt. Hamilton,
that you study your languages. Aside
from my early Connecticut dialect, 1
speak the Moroccan, German, French
and Berber languages st. Augustine
was Berber. and Roman citizen.
wonder whether the people of Florida
know that. The Berbers were the origi-
nal inhabitants of the country they
occupy. but nobody knows where they
came from"
The captain reads also Spanish and
Italian. As he is on his way back to
his command, he expects soon to have
time to learn little Russian or Chi
nese. He insists that discipline in the
Legion is not as rigid as it is in the
United States Army. The French, he
says, do not like military service and
are not, at heart, a military nation.
Their army system, therefore, is found
ed on social justice. and an appeal from
lower to higher authority always Is pos
sible to a French soldier.
It is only the colonel OF a regiment
who can order man to solitary con-
finement, and he can only put him there
for a maximum of four days. Food is
prescribed by regulations. even in the
case of prisoners. Non-coms rarely hit
men; officers never. About the only
time a corporal or sergeant uses force
Is to break up knife fight.
Noblemen Serve in Legion.
There is good blood in the Legion.
One captain is prince of Denmark.
certain John Smith died. When his
papers were examined and forwarded
a warship came for his body. He was
the grandnephew of an emperor. There
are many such stories.