GRATES OF THE FALLEN.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15464, 17 December 1915, Page 8

GRATES OF THE FALLEN.

HONOURED IX FRANCE

(From the Paris Correspondent of the

"Daily Telegraph."')

PARIS, November 2.

Tho first days of November .since many centuries have been devoted in France by everyone, rich and poor, to the commemoration of the dead. Pious and anti-clerical alike visit tho cemeteries on these days and lay flowers on tho graves of their ancestors. These have been the second "jcurs des morts" since Germany unloosed war all over Europe. They have, therefore, been more moving and more reverent days than ever. In every cemetery of France, at the front and behind the front, flowers were laid on the graves of the men whetc death certilicates, by a now law, bear the words ''Morts pour la France." 'Wreaths were laid in four cemeteries round Paris upon the iombs of British soldiers who diet! for their country in France, and I'nion .Jacks float over their grave.*. In every cemetery round Paris small tricolours mark the place where soldiers killed in the war lie.

The President of the Republic and Madame Poincaro visited .several of the cemeteries round Paris and left wreaths on the graves of French soldiers and on those of English soldiers. Hut it wjis in the cemeteries at the front that the day of tho dead was be-t observed. 1 have seen scores ol these cemeteries just outside ruined villages, or hidden in woods, or meetting one's gaze suddenly in a'ploughed held. There, in these days, the soldiers left alive have tended every grave with care. The tribute has been sometimes a bunch of such field flowers as are left—sometimes some such curious soldierly offering as a German helmet or an exploded shell. All theso graves at the front right up in the firing line are kept with touching care. I have seen hundreds where the dead man's can still stands on a stick over his gi'ave, or where an empty shell serves as a flower-pot for a nosegay, renewed whenever there is a chance. The record of all these graves at the front is kept scrupulously in double entry. One list is kept by the commanding officer of the nearest corps and the other is sent back to headquarter.-. Thus, after the war, those -who have lost their relatives at the front will, in almost all cases, he able to trace their graves. The same care has been observed with the English dead who lie buried within tho French lines.

Anatolo Franco writes to-day in the "Petit Parisien" upon the dead whom Franco commemorates, and this is the prayer which ho says the men who died for their country tell to those who live :—

'•Brothers, livo. fight, see our work through; bring victory and peace to our shades. Drivo away the enemy whom we already thrust back. Free France, avenge right, justice, and humanity, and bring back your ploughshares m the fields soaked with our blood. Frenchmen, love ono another, and, that you may be stronger against the foe, put together your powers, your wealth, and your thought. Let the greatest and strongest among you servo the weak. Do not spare your riches or your blood for your country. Bo equal by your goodwill, your sympathy, and your devotion. You owe it to your dead; you owe it to us to ensure that the holiest of causes shall succeed. Frenchmen, to discharge tho debt you owe to us you must win tho war, and you must do even more: You must prove worthy of victory." Maurice Maeterlinck writes to the "Excelsior" in memoriam :—

"Those who fall for their country should not bo called dead. They should bo caUc"d by another name. There is nothing common botween them and those to whom comes in their beds the end of a worn-out life, generally too long and often useless. Death is an object of tenor and horror everywhere, everywhere, except upon tho battlefield, and brings every where else only nothingness and despair, but in tho throes of fame Death becomes more beautiful than birth, and breeds more life than love does. So life will ever give as much as the youth of those gave who gave in one instant .the days and the yeais they had before them. There is no sacn'ficc comparable with that which tney have made. Now it is in us that their lifo suddenly stopped must begiu again. Whatever faith wo believe, and whatever God we worship, one thing i s almost certain, that death and fife aro the same,, that the living and the dead are but scarcely different moments of one infinite existence. Our dead are not under the ground in thei r hallowed grave 3, but in our hearts, where whatever thoy were will carry on its work. They livo m us as w c die in them. They see and hear us more closely than should we hold them in our arms. Let us then be careful that they shall see only deeds and hear only words worthy of them."