BATTLEFIELDS REVISITED.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17633, 9 December 1922, Page 13

BATTLEFIELDS REVISITED.

YPRES AND THE SALIENT. THEN AND NOW. (WEITTE* FOE "THB PRESS.")

(By T. J. Pemßerton.)

LONDON, October 19. A double band of polished steel flashed in the moonlight as the French tram drew in towards the spectral town of \pres. Poperinghe, where we had lingered for a few minutes at tho new station, had brought back memories of leave and the less pleasant return to the railhead a fortnight later. But, these bands of steel, bright under the autumn moon, provided the finest element of contrast with former years, l'hey had lain rusted and twisted, tho line a constant target tor the German guns, until me later months of 1f1.17. ao we came to rest in the Hotel Splendid, jma outside tin. Memn Gate.

A pilgrimage to the battlefields for those wuo cover saw them when tho nations of Europe were flinging steel at one anotaer may have its melancholy interest, but it is filled with innumerable emotional thrills for thoso who ■ knew • tho wilderness as it was belore the great carnage had ceased and tor those who had found shelter in its mud holes. For them there are always the two pictures—the memory picture of the past and the living present picture. It is this constant comparison which makes the pilgrimage of absorbmg interest. There is never-ceasing wonder that the energy of man and the healing hand of nature could make this traasformation. The love of the peasant for the land he called his own has made it possible to coax the poisoned earth back to health, and cornfields and root crops are flourishing where hideous devastation reigned. St. Barnabas Hostels. While writing some account of the battlefields to-day, from the point of view of reparation, and bearing in mina the soldiers' regard for certain localities which must still possess a deep sentimental interest, one must also be mindful of the pilgrims whose purpose is to look upon the patch of earth beneath which their loved ones lie. It was largely owing to the courtesy of an organisation formed to provide for the wants of these pilgrims that this present tour was made possible and pleasant. Hence for those who may follow on the more serious quest some reference to the work of this organisation is desirable. I refer to the i=lt. Barnabas Hostels, organised by Captain M. Mullineux, M.C., late chaplain of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces. A word as to the means and methods. Ones desires are intimated to the High Commissioner's officials. Within a day or two there come back from the headquarters of the hostels at Calais the details of the itinerary desired. Three hours from the time one leaves London Calais is reached. But you arrive not as strangers in a strange land. There are the voluntary lay workers of the hosteji awaiting you on the quayside. Your handbag is hurried through the Customs by a short cut, and a white mule, once employed in hauling shells through the mud to the gun-pits, drags your faded voiture with more or less dignity through the harrow streets cf Calais to the Rue dea Marechaux. "Ichabod" is writ large over Calais. War gave it dignity and importance. Peace has left it looking faded and forgotten.

•i There are but two hours to spend in Calais, but there is time to learn something of the work of the hostels. Number three Rue res Marechaux is a portion of the old palace _of the Due de Guise, famed in history! He led the successful army in times gone by against the English, and Calais passed again into the possession of the French. The old castle gate is still extant, the old courtyard is still tnere, there is something of the dignity of the ancient palace in the rooms now devoted to the use of the English and .Colonial pilgrims. The atmosphere of the hostels is harmonious. The restfulriess and homeliness that pervade them give the pilgrim a pleasant confidence, and he feels from the first that his particular needs and desires have been anticipated and carefully considered. A Hive of Industry. There will be something further to say concerning the St. Barnabas Hostels. In th& meantime let us return to Ypres. We had the company of Captain Mullineux on our journey, for he himself had several missions to perform in taking photographs of graves for relatives—a by no means insignificant part ot the Society's work. Moreover there is a lady artist on the staff whom the Queen has honoured by accepting some of her war grave pictures. They are certainly very beautifully executed and may be obtaned by any refor a most reasonable amount. Ypres to-day is a nive of industry. Nowhere in France is ohampagne so freely flowing. Money—paper money—is plentiful. As we motored from the station through the town the cafe's—temporary wooden buildings—cast their bright lights aoross the street and the merry sound of music and dancing could be heard in more than one of these mushroom places of amusement. Strange names have been given to these new hostels —English names for the most p?rt —and one hopes that it is out of respect for the British armies, and not to attract the patronise of the British tourists. Hotel Splendid holds a reputation for sobriety 'and comfort, and it was there we found a resting place for the night. The Cloth Hall. No gate of Ypres in the old days was a place near which to linger for any length of time. A sprightly step and a keen desire to get inside as quickly as possible, especially when going on leave, were the principal memories associated with this Menin Gate, and so there was a strange pleasure in wandering unconcernedly across the causeway and down the principal streets to where the ghost of the ooth Hall stod out clear in the moonlight. Today it is a tidy ruin. All the debris has been cleared away and much of the fallen stonework has been built into such walls and towers as remained, thus making the ruined structure safe. Some 1 day the great hall Is to be rebuilt according to the original plans, but it is safe to say it will remain as one of the most interesting memorials of destruction for many years to come. No Unemployment. Before the war Ypres had a population of 20,000. To-day there are 10,000 people living there. Where 10,0(J0 find roofs for their heads it is difficult to say, for not a great many permanent brick houses have been rebuilt yet within the walls. Every site Has been cleared, however, and'the work of reconstruction is now in full swing. Wooden structures have risen up in all directions, and outside thet city walls there is a new suburban area. Workmen's cottages have been built according to the English garden city plans. But even all these new cottages and the temporary structures could hardly shelter 10,000 people with comfort. Still they are there, and they comprise repsenentatives of practically all the nations of Europe. Work is plentiful in these devastated areas, and the unemployed from all other parts of Europe,

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except Germany, have come to aid in the work of reconstruction. Those former inhabitants who hard money enough to rebuild their homes may get on with the work, and in due course the Government will give them three times the value of their houses before the war. Those who hove no money must await their turn, or construct such temporary premises as will provide a shelter, if nothing more. Strange Contrast In Ypres men are working with a wonderful energy. It is only this year that a real start waa made with rebuilding, but before the year is out a new city will have risen on the eite of what two years ago was a gigantic pile of bricks and stone. The clearing process demanded its toll of casualties, and it-is bound to, since the unexploded shells of four years' bombardment lay buried beneath the ruins. This night there seemed a strange silence when the songs of the roysterere in the neV cafe down the road had ceased. No half circle of fireworks and Verey lights on the horizon, no boom of distant guns, no crash of our own coins in the city walls, or out towards Zillebeke, no rumble or lorries and G.S. .vaggons passing out of Menin Gate. Everything now silent and the scent of the harvest was wafted gently in from the fields about Hooge and Hell-Fire Corner.