herein referred to as a ruse, but, if that term can be
accepted, a distinctly illegal ruse.

"During a recent night attack," the order reads, "the Germans drove a
column of French prisoners in front of them. This action is to be
brought to the notice of all our troops (1) in order to put them on
their guard against such a dastardly ruse; (2) in order that every
soldier may know how the Germans treat their prisoners. Our troops must
not forget if they allow themselves to be taken prisoners the Germans
will not fail to expose them to French bullets."

Further evidence has now been collected of the misuse of the white flag
and other signs of surrender. During an action on the 17th, owing to
this, one officer was shot. During recent fighting, also, some German
ambulance wagons advanced in order to collect the wounded. An order to
cease firing was consequently given to our guns, which were firing on
this particular section of ground. The German battery commanders at once
took advantage of the lull in the action to climb up their observation
ladders and on to a haystack to locate our guns, which soon afterward
came under a far more accurate fire than any to which they had been
subjected up to that time.

A British officer, who was captured by the Germans and has since
escaped, reports that while a prisoner he saw men who had been fighting
subsequently put on Red Cross brassards.

That irregular use of the protection afforded by the Geneva Convention
is not uncommon is confirmed by the fact that on one occasion men in the
uniform of combatant units have been captured wearing a Red Cross
brassard hastily slipped over the arm. The excuse given has been that
they had been detailed after the fight to look after the wounded.

It is reported by a cavalry officer that the driver of a motor car with
a machine gun mounted on it, which was captured, was wearing a Red
Cross.

Full details of the actual damage done to the cathedral at Rheims will
doubtless have been cabled home, so that no description of it is
necessary. The Germans bombarded the cathedral twice with their heavy
artillery.

One reason it caught alight so quickly was that on one side of it was
some scaffolding which had been erected for restoration work. Straw had
also been laid on the floor for the reception of the German wounded. It
is to the credit of the French that practically all the German wounded
were successfully extricated from the burning building.

Th