MOSLEM CALL TO ACTION
London, To-day.
A message from Beyrout states that the Grand Mufti has publicly declared that there is a strong feeling of re- sentment in the Moslem and Arab worlds at the entry of Italy into the war on the side
forward 60 yards, firing as they did of Germany. BO, and captured three machine-
gune.
"At close quarters nine Nazi ma- chine-gunners stopped- firing and ran before the menace of cold steel.
"One of the British men ran almost
whole the
distance with a bullet
through his left groin, a second was shot twice through the shoulder, the
third was unscathed.
"Turning the machine-guns round, the men fire on the retreating Germans and were afterwards joined by more Guardsmen,
**Within ten minutes the Germans A major described his particulared and bombed. The English Channel had abandoned eight machine-guns. journey in a ship crammed
with has been a storm of steel for days, but The Guardsmen were thoroughly en- troops, some of them wounded. sailors have come through it, and re-joying themselves when I left."
"Our ship, was shelled while we turned again and again. were loading and while we were pro-. ceeding to sea," he said. "We were bombed from the air and attacked by submarine-but we got through safe-
ly.
"This was possible because the fire of our warships and the attacks of our aeroplanes subdued the efforts of the enemy.
..
"Warships bombarded the German lines and fighters attacked the
bombers.
I
One ship was so packed with men that they were standing back to back --and sleeping.
..
In the coast town where I am now women shopping peacefully come across parties of Royal Marines and Navy men bearing unmistakable signs of battle.
Some wear captured German hel- mets while shopping in multiple stores; some wear tennis shoes and odd clothing before refitting,and_go-
"Hundreds of us have had to fighting back to the job. our way to the coast and continue the For days past men of the Royal Navy fight almost to the point of embark-have had but a few hours' sleep before ing."
BOMBS DODGED
Another man described how a ship he was in, designed for 13 knots, steamed out at 15 knots with several thousand men on board, including a party of wounded.
The ship was' straddled with shells and bombs, but every salvo was dodged.
Men of the mercantile marine man- ned some of the ships, and their be- haviour under terrible conditions was magnificent.
There were Lascars and Chinese among the crews, but, in the words of one man, "the Lascars laughed and the Chinese smiled."
German sples in every kind of dis- guise added to the difficulties. They directed the fire of German guns and the bombers of Nazi planes on our
men.
Later, quaysides were demolished to two feet of rubble and the water be- came thick with the oil from crashed enemy machines.
If the courage of the British troops was grand when marching and fight- ing for 14 bomb-filled days and nights, it has been magnificent during the time of embarkation.
They have come ashore with thumbs up, their main desire for food and a smoke and a sleep,
One man said: "When finally we reached the coast and embarked Ger- mans were close behind us and a Bri- tish warship turned back and fired on them before escorting us away.
"We found the strength to cheer because we saw the Gormans were getting pretty, average heli." For days and nights the ports have been an inferno, but our men have fought their way to safety against in- credible odds and in face of an over- whelming barrage of iron and steel.
It would be idle to pretend that this large number of men has been.
returning to more of their dangerous ferrying. I have seen men return from blood and death, eat a quiet meal at
a table where men and women are talking, and slip off again.
BELGIANS TOO
"It has been simply hell," a naval" rating said, "but we are getting off the boy who have stood in the triangle and resisted the worst that the Ger- mans could do to them.
"It's not only: British troops we are bringing off, but French and Belgians, too. The Belgians don't want to give up fighting."
Five Belgian officers said they were astounded when the order came for the Belgian Army to cease fighting.
"I was asked to hand over my re- volver," said one, "but I immediately refused. With my companions here I made for the coast, and after many ad- ventures we reached the British and French.
"We do not intend to cease fighting on the order from King Leopold, and there are thousands of other Belgian soldiers who are of ghe same opinion." BICYCLE ESCAPE Three men told of their escape by bicycle.
"We found ourselves cut off,” said
""The towns -through. one of them. which we were passing were almost deserted. We walked into a cycle shop which had been left as it stood, took a cycle each and made full speed for the coast.”-
The heroism of three. Guardsmen was described by a corporal in the Buffs.
“On the outskirts of Arrás,” he said, "the Guards were fighting brilliantly in the face of dive bombers and machine- guns.
"Suddenly, three Guardsmen, with fixed bayonets, emerged from their position behind a lorry.
“it wemed suloldal, but in the the face of terrific, fire the mon ran
"God will see that the cause of Jus- tice is victorious over barbaric inva- sion," he said.
The head of the Syrian Government says:-
"At this decisive moment, the Arabs and the Moslems are more on the Al- lied side than at any other time, for we realise the dreadful consequences to which we would be exposed if the Allies should fail to win the war."
Reuter.
that "the great hour has come
Hour Has Come
Beyrout, To-day. Thousands of pamphlets disseminat- ed remind Moslems all over the world when Sergeant Harding, of the Middlesex
we can revenge from the Italian beasts Regiment, chuckled as he recalled one of his company's encounters with Ger- poli, Burqa and Benghazi, killing eld- who destroyed chosen youths in Tri-
man infantry.
"After fighting tanks and dive-ers and children, raping women
desecrrating mosques.-Reuter. bombers for several days," he said, "it was refreshing to encounter smoke Nazis on foot.
and
Appeal In Mosque “We had previously seen women and
Beirut, To-day. children mowed down by machine- In the great Omari Mosque here, gunning low-flying aircraft and ruth-thousands of Moslems heard a ser- lessly trampled down by tanks. mon denouncing the atrocities com- "A company of German infantry ap-mitted upon their co-religionists by We fixed bayonets and the Italians in Tripolitana, Ethiopia and Albania, and warning the faithful of the ambition of Italy to occupy all the Arab countries including the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina.-Reuter.
a
peared. charged.
"Quite a picnic," commented young Second Lieutenant, with his left arm in a sling.
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