“All the way down our lines... Scots and Huns were fraternizing in the most genuine possible manner,” Lieutenant Edward Hulse wrote to his mother after Christmas 1914. “If I had seen it on a cinematograph film I should have sworn that it was faked.”
The centenary of that moment in World War I is now being celebrated as a triumph of shared humanity over the butchery that engulfed Europe, a day when troops along the Flanders front line met after four months killing each other to sing carols, exchange gifts and play soccer.
Less well known is that some British soldiers would later face punishment for an hour of friendship with their enemy.
In one largely forgotten incident, a repeat of that first famous ceasefire the following year saw one of Hulse’s fellow officers in the Scots Guards put on trial at a court martial.
Unlike Hulse, killed at 25 in March 1915, Captain Iain Colquhoun survived the war and recorded how he faced military punishment for again exchanging Christmas cigars with his German foe, and allowing both sides to bury their many dead.
“The Major-General [Lord Cavan] is furious about it,” Colquhoun wrote on Boxing Day 1915.
His commander wanted to know why specific orders had been disobeyed that there should be no repeat of the 1914 camaraderie that so shook the general staff.
On Dec. 25, 1915, the 28-year-old Colquhoun had written in his diary: “A German officer came forward and asked me for a truce for Christmas. I replied that this was impossible. He then asked for three quarters of an hour to bury his dead. I agreed.”
“Our men and the Germans then talked and exchanged cigars, cigarettes etc for quarter of an hour and when the time was up I blew a whistle and both sides returned to their trenches,” he wrote. “For the rest of the day... not a shot was fired. At night, the Germans put up fairy lights... and their trenches were outlined for miles... It was a mild looking night with clouds and a full moon and the prettiest sight I have ever seen. Our machine guns played on them and the lights were removed.”
After another 10 days on the front line near Lille, Colquhoun returned to a billet in the rear to find himself under arrest.
Charged with conduct to the prejudice of good order and of military discipline for “approving of a truce with the enemy,” his five-hour trial on Jan. 17, 1916, heard evidence in person from General Douglas Haig, the British supreme commander.
Found guilty, Colquhoun escaped with a reprimand.
That British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was his wife’s uncle and Asquith’s son was his defense counsel may have helped.
He also felt the army understood the spirit of Christmas, writing: “Everyone who knows the facts of the case all say that it was a monstrous thing that the court martial ever took place.”
The case did not blight Colquhoun’s career. He rose to high rank, but remained popular with his troops even after the war, showing concern for the welfare of those who fought alongside him, like Private Alexander Macdonald — this writer’s grandfather.
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
RSS