PARIS LAUGHED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 237, 6 October 1937, Page 13

PARIS LAUGHED.

WHEN STRIKE WAS ON.

NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD.

WAR SCENES VISITED. %

(By E. J. HOWARD, M.P.)

So that's that! The Coronation is over and done with. We return with a load of memories and a lot of clothes which will be of no use to us in New Zealand.

We saw Enjrland and Ireland and ScotInnd and Wales and Paris. We saw Kings and Queens and Emperors. They arc just human like you and me. Three meals a day, a bed, and that's pretty well all. In an open swimming bath you could not distinguish the Shah of Iran from any other Eastern man.

I have never seen so much beef eaten before; and the cooking has not always been of the best. I could name a dozen places in each of our New Zealand cities which will provide a well-cooked, well-served dinner for half a crown. It was not my fortune to discover even one in England.

However, we leave with memories that only time can rob us of. We saw our late friend Julius Caesar killed in the open air in Regents Park. We .sat huddled in a blanket, for the loan of which we had paid sixpence. We saw the Roman rabble changed from a howling mob into a sobbing crowd of sorry citizens. We saw "A Midsummer Xighfs Dream" played as it was iutended to be played, in the woods.

Then to Paris. Then to Paris! And here, may I say, there is nothing like it on earth. At each corner of each street and in the middle were bunches of policemen. There was a strike on. There are hundreds of what one may tern , open air cafes. The tables and chairs are on the footpaths. These employ hundreds of waiters and cooks and barmen. They were out on .strike for a 40-hour week, but it did not seem to make much difference to their trading.

Outside each cafe was a bunch of policemen armed with revolvers and thick, batons. There did not appear to be any anger anywhere. But Paris has thousands of ornaments to remind her of past riots.

So Paris went on laughing and loving and drinking, and the men won.

We went to some of the battlefields. We went to Belleau Wood. We saw the shell holes and trenches. We saw German guns rotting away in the woods.

We saw Hill 108 with its tremendous mine craters. We were told that there were 3000 men under that heap and also a village.

They are quarrying away the hill. The dead will sleep in rows if they can be found. Armistice Glade.

We went to Armistice Glade, where Marshal Foch received the application and granted an armistice. In a wood of thick trees there has been cut away a space large enough to form a glade which has been grassed. There are two sets of _J*nes leading to a hall and in this ball is housed a railway carriage. In this, carriage was signed the agreement to cease firing until the nations could talk peace. Wars end that wny— round a table. It would be as well if wars started round a table. That is to say, if there is going: to be war let the representatives of IMF nations meet and talk the thing over, with pictures of the million dead, or at least of their graves, about them.

This* glade has two sets of railway lines in it. One was Marshal Fooh's line leading to his headquarters; on the other the German representative arrived.

Now the two sets of lines converge on the hall wherein is housed the railway carriage where the armistice was signed. The carriage contain* the table, the chairs and copies of papers. Facing the hall, at the end of the glade, is a memorial arch. At the foot is a dead eagle on its back with wings outspread. We were told that original!.* a crowing cock had been on the top of the arch, but it appeared to be ouch a display of bad sportsmanship that it was removed.

We visited Rheims and saw its battered cathedral. It is being restored. All these high-towered churches make targets for an enemy. We saw Soissons and its cathedral. There again it had been uoed as a target and ie now being restored. We visited, dozens of French, British. German and Italian cemeteries. ■ Thousands and thousand* of what were men are sleeping there.

"For Evermore." One stone read: "And their names shall live for evermore." That's aM right,, the dead have no caree, but w«s should make it an oath that their names shall live "for .evermore." If they died to abolish war then let the war-mongers be for ever faced with the sacrifice. We visited these graves and lifted our hats. We gave them the two minutes of silence, believing that thoughts are things. We could do nothing else except resolve to do our part to abolish war. We visited Napoleon's grave. It is a show place ami he is buried in a pit. To see the casket you have to look down and a Frenchman said. "Bow to the greatest man who ever lived." We bowed to the Unknown Soldier because he represented the blood and misery nnd dirt and slime. He represented the men whose bodies were never found and whose bone« mingle with the soil of France.

Pretty France! Lovely Paris —and the millions who have died to make her and keep her free!