THE TRAGEDY OF YPRES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2515, 17 July 1915, Page 3

THE TRAGEDY OF YPRES

DESOLATION AS A MEMENTO OF. "KULTUR." 'A corporal of the Royal Engineers, in a letter to his parents which is quoted in the "Nottingham Guardian," gives the following description of Ypres, and makes.an interesting suggestion:— "Tho most wonderful thing of all is Ypres. IJnless you actually seo it you could not believe such a thing could exist. . . . There is not a single houso that is habitable. They have either been smashed by shells or burnt out, and there is only just room in some of the streets for the passage of a car, the rest of it being blocked up by fallen masonry. Thero are certainly 110 windows left in tho town, and in some places the stench is far from pleasant. The road has some big shell holes, too, and when you have no lamps on, and don't know the road, you get terrific bumps, and wonder whether the car will break up ; and this even though you are going at about walking pace. "I think tho town ought to be preserved as it is as a memento of 'Kultur.' There is nobody , living there, and it is most weird to go down street after street with not a soul about, and deserted and gutted houses on'cither side. The absolute silence of the placo is uncanny." .