BACK FROM FRANCE.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15174, 12 January 1915, Page 7

BACK FROM FRANCE.

EFFECTS OF THE WAR.

INTERVIEW WITH Di:.\N

IIEGNAUU"

to <; rHK ruEss.* , ) AUCKLAND, January 11. Having viewed tho ruins which werP kfr in tho wake of tho retreating Huns as they scurried backward from the Marne. and also observed much of interest in connexion with tho doings of tho Allies, tho Very Rev. Doan Rognault returned to Now Zealand this morning by the Niagara. He was accompanied by tho Very Rev. Dr. Kennedy, and the Very Rev. Dean Holley, of Wellington and Wangonui respectively, who accompanied kirn as delegates to the Chapter of tho Marist Order, which was to have taken placein Belgium, but which had to bo hod in France, owing lo the outbreak of hostilities on tho Continent.

CONFERENCE ARRANGEMENTS UPSET. Dean Renault explained that Tvhon war was declared, ho was on bis way from Lourdes to Paris, after having attended a Eucharist Conference* in company with Archbishop Redwood, of Now Zealand. Ho had some difficulty in tracing his co-delegates, who had lpt't Ports when ho arrived, but eventually tho trio found their way to Lyons, whero tho conference "was hold some days after it was to have taken ptaco in Belgium. "My greatest difficulty in Rotting from Pnris to Lyons," said the J>e.an, ''w.'is not in procuring roy ticket from the authorities, but in gettingthrough the crowd of 2000 Italians who had been oatiug and sleeping at the railway station for some days in their eagerness to board trains going in the direction of tho Italian frontier. You can have no conception of what the ' congestion was like. "Why, tho trip to Lyons occupied three.times as Jong as was usual." HOW FRANCE ROSE TO ARMS. The Dean went on to bay that in thoso early days of hostilities between Germany and Franco, tbo question of the moment "was: What will England do? Largo numbers of people, ho among them, rose in tho early hours to visit tho newspaper offices, in the hope of tidings, and when it was learned that England had decided to join in tho conflict, a -wavo of joyful confidence swept over France. "What struck mo most," added Dean Rcgnault, "was tho absence of wild excitement during tho process of mobilisation. In Paris all we could hear through tho night was tho tramp of marching troops; there was hardly a shout." The Dean paid .a warm tribute to tho achievements of ' General Joffro in mobilising the whole* of tho French army in loss than 2Q .. days, without as much, as an accident of a lato running train. PRIESTS .PLAY THEIR PART.. * No sooner had tho conference ended than somo of tho delegates joined tho French Colours, and among the number was tho Provincial of Lyons. Somo went as hospital attendants,. others as officers, and yet others as simple, soldiers. Many of the last-mentioned had since been promoted tp official rank, because they •wore- considered to bo thd most intelligent of tho men, who. were loft in the trenches when the officers of " I^' r regiments were shot down. In fact.-tno •war had brought tho priests into closer touch with the people than over be*' ■ fore, and there was less sneering at re- ' ligion and morality than was tho case some years ago. Tho Dean epoke of tbo revival of tho military spirit, which, had . resulted in tho appointment of General Joffro as Commander-in-Chief of the ' French, forces somo two or throo years ago and to the beneficial effects which. ■ had resulted from hie action in publicly dismissing generals who Mα at- , tamed to office by political influence, arid in promoting sterling officers like t , General Pau and others, who wore fton- -' proving to bei the salvation or" I'ranee. . Itoli?ious feeling was intense among tho soldiers, and there were no less then 25,000 priests in the army. ; WOMEN* DO THEIR SHARE. After tho Conference, Dean K«ginaulb visited some of tho French pro- ■ vinoes, and h© was filled with admira- -.. tion for tho way in which tho womcu were seconding "the patriotic doings oftheir husbands. "One day," ho eaid, "I went to the farm of an old friend. , ; Thero was a threshing machino at work, and out of twenty-five persons attending it, seventeen or eighteen wcro * women. Tho rest were elderly men or ■ boys. Everywhere the women, bad gone ■ into tho fie'lda. and they prided them-.,,., selves in tho fact that they wcro not' a day lato with th© harvest." The Dmh 1 also "mentioned tho enthusiasm of. .The women in supplying the wants of: tho soldiers, French, and British aliko. Members of the Red Crose Society were at <>very railway station read}* t<! . receive the wounded, and never a, train wi»nt by but French women werq! there with flowers, fruit, and wine the soldiers. "I believe." smilingLy added tho Dean, "that English Tommies are tho favourites." .' - PULSE OF OTHER COUNTRIES.* The generosity of the--' French was al.«o applauded by Dean- Regnault, bo- . cause of the eymnathctfc way in which they were receiving refugee* from Bel- = gium. Similar kindliness was also noted iin England, where private houses ai I well as public institutions had been . I placed at tho disposal of the outcasts. English people wcro receiving the Uclidans as wannlv as though they were long-lost friends. Peonlo in England . also were quietly confident of tbo ultimate success of the Allie.*. With regard to America, there was a predominant foeliug in favour of *ho Allies among tho people, and tho Press was almost entirely symoathetic, as wa* only to bo expected." However, considerable jprcGernian feeling existed among citf*en« of European extraction, but. happily • this was confined to a minority. 7>ean Regnault added that leading items of war news were conveyed to tho l»v wireless during the from Vancouver, and tho new* obtained from British sources was much more favourable to the Allies than that which camo from American quarters.