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Show FIGHTING WITH THE HIGHLANDERS IN FLANDERS . V By Capt. Alexander B. C. Weel. H Late of 13th Battalion, C. E. F., Royal Highlanders H of Canada. H (Beginning with this issue Captain Alexander H B. C. Weel, a native American, and a resident H of Brooklyn, -whose father, now deceased, was a H well-known member of the Brooklyn Bar, will con- H tribute in serial form to Goodwin's Weekly his ex- H perlences while at the front with the British army, M , under the title, "Fighting With the Highlanders in H Flanders." Captain Weel sailed from this city for H'j England at the outbreak of the war to throw in H'' his lot with tho Allies, haying previously spent H several years in Mexico. Ho saw service on the H continent with the first Canadian Contingent until H wounded at the second battle of Ypres, when K after considerable time spent in the various hos- B' pitals, he came home again. He has since beep B devoting his time to lecturing and is now for the H first time having his story put in print. Captain H Weel will also give, from a military point of view, H. a (brief, summary each week of the cardinal events H in the great campaigns being waged abroad. M l Editor.) I;N writing of my own experiences while fighting .' with the British army, that is the First Cana- H dian Contingent in Flanders I am writing first of Hj all as a native American of direct American par- H entage and thus reviewing my actual experiences H through American eyes. It is my intention to H write my story in a simple, authentic fashion so Hj that my readers will have little or no difficulty H ' in following my varied career, nor will I bore them H with intricate detailu covering the various phases H of the political and military situation. I am going H to start at the very beginning and go right through H to the day I returned to my home in Brooklyn, i: N! Y. 1 On September 2G, 1914, the R. M. S. Olympic H majestically slipped out of her berth, aided by a Hj score of puffing tugs into the historic Hudson H river. Her bow was pointed toward Merrle Eng- H land and her sirens were tooting incessantly. It Hr sounded as though Bedlam had turned loose. n This was not her first nor her second nor even H her fourth voyage from New York, but it attracted Hl' considerable attention. Excitement was keen both H V on land and aboard, as this was the Olympic's first "' trip from New York in her dull battle-paint. She V, was no longer the immaculate trans-Atlantic liner, H f but was now tho true greyhound of the deep. She f had other perils beside those of nature to avoid H for the German cruiser had not as yet been elimi- H nated from the high seas. H In her steerage she carried a large number of H reservists for the various allied belligerent nations m ft'' and these enthusiastic patriots were congregated aft upon tho poop-deck, and amidst the cheers of those on the dock and tho waving of many flags they all commenced singing their respectiv national nation-al anthems in turn, led by a tall Englishman waiving waiv-ing a huge Belgian flag. On tho port side going toward Sandy Hook were concentrated various French and British vessels which proudly dipped their colors in recognition rec-ognition of these brave men, while on the opposite side of the river were quartered the huge Vater-land Vater-land and other Teutonic ships. Their acknowledgment acknowl-edgment to these men was the calling of Jibes and taunts of all kinds to them by their crews. Tho reservists appeared overjoyed at the prospect of soon being homo again. From where I was standing on the promenade deck of this mighty steamer I cofild see practically everything that was in progress. And that glorious glor-ious sight filled me with pride 'and made me rejoice re-joice that I, too, was going to Europe to participate partici-pate in that mighty struggle. Although an American by birth as well as breeding and in no way under obligations to fight, I like thousands of others of my fellow-countrymen heard the call of humanity and could not or would not refuse its incessant demands. I could not sit idle while might was attempting to dominate domi-nate right and innocent people were being driven from their homes into misery and poverty. Devastated De-vastated Belgium I looked upon as a sister, and as a brother and protector I felt it my duty to assume as-sume the burden of contributing to her support by offering all that I had. Sandy Hook had barely been passed when three British cruisers, the Essex, Lancaster and the third I believe either the Berwick or the Suffolk, were sighted. We got into wireless communication communica-tion with them and then continued on our way undisturbed, un-disturbed, until a few hours later we were stopped by the converted cruiser Caronia, a former Cun-arder. Cun-arder. She held us up for about thirty minutes and then we were permitted to resume our journey once more. Shortly afterward it was officially announced that instead of sailing for Liverpool as was originally orig-inally intended we were going to Glasgow. The trip was uneventful barring a few details such as a delightful concert in aid of the Prince of Wales Fund given by the reservists and our sighting a small German tank steamer on our fourth day out. As we wee in no position to cap ture prizes wo paid no attention to her but continued con-tinued our course unmindful of the uncomplimentary uncompliment-ary signal flags that she was flying for our benefit. bene-fit. When off the coast of Ireland we wore picked up by several torpedo boat destroyers and conveyed con-veyed through the mine-fields of the tricky Irish sea. On the morning of October third we awoke "to find ourselves safely anchored in the Clyde between be-tween Grenock and Courock, Scotland. It certainly certain-ly was a beautiful sight, sunrise on the Clyde. A small government vessel came alongside of us and several officials boarded us and interrogated interro-gated many of our pwwengers including myself. The steward informedme that my presence was required immediately in tho saloon by these officials. of-ficials. Needless to state I hastened forward to see what was wrong. When I arrived at the sa-lopn,a sa-lopn,a tall canny Scot arid a dapper little Englishman, English-man, both in tho government employ and arrayed in the full splendor of their uniforms, put me through a miniature third degree to determine whether or not I was an enemy. They questioned me very closely as to what my reasons were for coming to England and what motives had actuated me in desiring to fight for Great Britain. I finally convinced them of my sincerity, but they warned me that as an American citizen I would exper-VCfa exper-VCfa great difficulty in enlisting and they ad- id me to go right through to France. Several of my fellow passengers were not so successful as myself and were either held as alien-enemies or were remanded to be deported t to tho port from whence they had sailed. Later several tenders came alongside and took us ashore at Grenock. The Duchess of Fife was the name of the tender which so tenderly do-posited do-posited me on the banks of Bonnie Sc6tland. y Grenock being a small place and therefore not used to receiving vessels the size of the Olympic " -was naturally in rather a chaotic condition. Several Sev-eral platoons of Highland Light Infantrymen in their picturesque tartan trousers and khaki tunics had reinforced the permanent and truly inefficient " staff of porters who were hovering about tho gangplanks gang-planks awaiting the arrival of their victims. They reminded me of a hawk gazing upon a chicken and exhibited quite as much sympathy for U3. . , After our luggage had undergone a superficial examination at the hands of the customs officials we marched down to the train that was to carry - ( us to smoky London. As we had an hour or two at our disposal I took my camera and strolled , ' 4I down the Clyde side intending to take some photographs photo-graphs of the camps along the river bank. I had just succeeded in securing two snap-shots when a burly Scotch sergeant dropped a haiid the size of a ham upon my shoulder and said in tones like the rumblings of an angry volcano "At last I have you; I've been waiting for you for some time." This was said in the broadest possible brogue, but I understood him just the same. If he had spoken in Chinese to me then I would have grasped his meaning. In spite of my terror I was compelled to laugh at the ludicrous figure that wo cut and I said: "It's strange that you have been waiting for me so long, when I only arrived here twenty minutes ago, and a week ago I didn't know such a place as this existed. This angered him more than ever and with a . snarl of rage he snatched the offending camera from me and began marching me toward the nearest near-est military depot with every intention of turning me over to the authorities as a spy. Things began to look rather black for mo and I was very nervous indeed. Justthen I chanced to see Captain Thomson Thom-son of the Middlesex Regiment, who was returning from Vancouver to rejoin his old regiment and whoso acquaintance I had formed while on the Olympic. I called to him and explained tho awkward awk-ward position I was placed in. He said that he found that quite obvious and that explanations were superfluous, laughing loud the while at what he termed my folly and Yankee inquisitiveness. After introducing himself to my burly, self-satisfied captor he secured my release on condition that I would surrender my camera, which was to be returned to me after the war, and that I would remain in a railway carriage compartment until my train pulled" out. As there was no other way out of it, I consented to this, a sort of "Hobson's ' choice." To make certain that I would be perfectly perfect-ly harmless, my former captor took it upon himself him-self to mount guard before my compartment, greatly to my annoyance and discomfiture. Captain Thomson very kindly provided me with reading material and a large bag of fruit to aid me passing the time away. So when at last our train began slowly to draw out of the station' I selected a large, rather ripe pear and leaning out , of the window threw it at my Scotch friend with -such good aim that it caught him full in the back of the neck. This aroused his fighting ire and with a bellow of rage he ran down the platform in pursuit of the train and myself in the vain hopes of catching us, but alas for him, he was juBt too late and was forced to content himself with, shaking his fist at me and shouting blessings, bless-ings, which fortunately I did not hear. In London I established myself at the Strand Palace Hotel and made many unsuccessful attempts at-tempts to enlist, some of them most amusing. At the first place that I applied for enlistment when they asked me my nationality and I replied that I was an American, I was promptly refused, so at the next place I uald I was an Englishman and I was sent into the medical officer to be examined. ex-amined. Everything -went along splendidly Until when he was examining my vision he placed a placard containing various letters of the alphabet on the wall and I was told to read them first with eye and then with the other and finally with both. When I reached the last letter of the alphabet alpha-bet Tsaid that it was zee at which the doctor said, "What is that'letter?" I replied: "Zee, sir." He looked at me for a moment then shook his head rather mournfully andsald "You are no Englishman, English-man, my friend; if you were you would have said zed." Therefore I was again refused. Finally I felt rather desperate and while in a fit of utter 'dejection I purchased a ticket for Paris intending, as the British would not havo me, to j " enlist in the Foreign Legion. This necessitated my securing an emergency passport from the American ambassador and having it vised by the I French consul, which I was able to do through the courtesy of the Rev, Len G. Broughton, an American, who was the rector of Christ Church, Westminister Bridge Road, London. He gave - me a letter of introduction to Walter Hines Page, . our ambassador. But on my way back to the J, hotel I saw an advertisement announcing that " gentlemen sportsmen were required for the Sportsmen's Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and desirous candidates were to report themselves at the Indian room of the Hotel Cecil. Somehow - this made an impression on me and as my ticket was good for thirty days I decided to take another an-other shot at the English army. The next ,day I journeyed over to the Hoteli Cecil and succeeded in passing the doctors as a Canadian and was attested, receiving the King's Shilling. No uniform was issued to me and my training consisted simply in marching through the streets of London to Hyde Park, where we went through some rudimentary drills such as forming fours, saluting, etc. I continued to live at my own quarters, receiving a small allowanco for my expenses. (To be continued) |