LOURDES PILGRIMAGE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16473, 17 March 1919, Page 5

LOURDES PILGRIMAGE.

SOLDIERS' EXPEDITION,

(from otjr own correspondent .) LONDON, January 24

Since the fighting has stopped, ovcr-t . sea soldiers on this side of the worldl have been given liberal opportunities of pajUng visits and carrying out mis- , sions which they would regard as an. essential part of their tour in EuropffUS civilians. " . ' An . interesting visit of this nature; was the pilgrimage of a party of New, ! Zealand soldiers to Lourdes, in the South of France, a week or two ago.' It is only one ot' various visits of -the kind arranged for different bodies ofi soldiers. ( The honorary secretary of tho Soldiers' Lourcies Pilgrimages (Miss Lynch) gays in the '•Universe": —"The New Zealanders came all the way from Lon-. don, and, strange to say, they took a' shorter time to come hero than manyi .of those who come from France. They, left London on Saturday afternoon, ar-j rivod at Havre on Sunday morning, caught a train to Paris, had several hours there, and came on by the nighfl train, arriving here on Monday afternoon. They brought provisions wit!* them for the train journey, and so were not a bit tired or hungry when they arrived. We wish all the soldiers would take a day or two's rations with them' when leaving their unit, as the train! does not stop long enough at Bordeaux; to get anything to eat, and jt is too Jong (even for Pilgrims) to fast from 8.30 at night, when they leave Paris, until they arrive here next day at 1.40.\ The New Zealanders thoroughly enjoyed their time in Lourdes, and thoughtj it well worth coming all that way to visit. We had a beautiful service on New Year's Evo at 8 o'clock, in the Basilica, to bid good-bye to the Oldi Year tuid to ask a blossinc on the New."