WAR CEMETERIES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 263, 2 August 1929, Page 10

WAR CEMETERIES

INSPECTED BY AUSTRALIAN PILGRIMS TOUCHING DECLARATION OF A MOTHER ANNOYING INCIDENT (United Press Association— By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Australian Press Association. (Rec. August 1, 7 p.m.) London, August L In connection with the Australian Pilgrims’ inspection of the battlefields, one incident caused annoyance. The Pilgrims were detained for ninety minutes in rain by French Customs officials minutely searching individuals while crossing from Belgium to Lille. Workers leaving the Menin factories congregated, making insulting references to “money-making foreigners” who prospered as a result of French sacrifices, whereupon an ex-Dlgger replied in emphatic English: “Then it is a pity we ever fought” The scene which followed was unprecedented. The Pilgrims toured the battlefields and saw the graves of millions who had been slaughtered. One delegate remarked: “If the League of Nations saw this sight they would give up petty bickerings.” One mother who saw the graves of her two sons at the Somme and Ypres fervently declared: “Only fiends could favour wars after seeing the cemeteries.”