FRANCE AND BELGIUM

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 141, 12 December 1923, Page 14

FRANCE AND BELGIUM

BATTLE GROUNDS VISITED

DR. WALKER DESCRIBES CHANGES.

Although over five years have passed aince active hostilities ceased, the sounds of war can still be heard in Belgium. At 12 o'clock noon on every Friday the countryside .echoes the boom of bursting shells—the blown-up "duds" collected during the week—for these shells are still to be found on the farms in and around the forward zones of the war area. How numerous were the "duds," and "how risky is present-day fanning in Belgium, will be gathered from the fact that in a comparatively small area Dr. E. A. Walker, medical superintendent of the ::New Plymouth Hospital, saw ten heaps . .blown up one Friday while he was touring the war zone on his recent trip. The : farmers, however, as in the days of the war, when they drove their ploughs al•most in the midst of the field artillery, and certainly in front of the "heavies," still maintain the phlegmatic "C'est la '.guerre" attitude. They are quietly but ■steadily bringing the shell-torn land back ■to fertility, and where the shells at one time reaped, a harvest of human life scythes are now reaping a harvest of "corn.

.'-While in the war zone, Br. Walker ; ,-*j*ite* the Ypres, Thiepval, Somme, and ,' .'.Ciiemin dcs Dames sectors among others, * expressed the opinion to a "Daily - reporter that Belgium was more ;,speedily bringing back the war-stricken ' i2jea to fertility than waß France. Bound •■•about Ypres, up- the Menin road, the .once shell-pocked ground has been drain- ; < r e.d and ploughed, and has yielded crops. ■ -To the New Zealander who remembers . Tiooge Crater, Clapham Corner, the Cor- ' rduroy road through Chateau Wood, and ■ duck-walk track over Mule Gully to 4 .the Butte, this will come as a surprise, ■; :as, even the draining of the land seemed ; rto present insurmountable difficulties. * -TEe .broken trees are still to be seen, I ,T3tft, Sanctuary Wood, where the Cana- * jdians were gassed in 1915, is beginning < .to-i show signs of life with small trees. * -Th"s absence of: anything in the nature of ' > .big tree is something to be noted in * -the whole-of- the sector. i' ',~The city of "Ypres itself is fast remov- \ *"g'.ita battle scars.; Substantially-built j Jiouses and business premises of brick "■ Save been erected on the site of the for- . :mer ruined houses, but the historic Cloth * I?? 11 and the Cathedral stand as they did * in"the last days of the war. Id Albert, ' tthe: Cathedral, famous during the war ; ;years with its falling Madonna, has been . Jaffc. untouched,, while the trenches -ound' : Jahput. ThienjraKhave" >.een left; undisturb-, ; [cd.' as a reminder to posterity. ■-■ While he V (Was around Albert, Dr. Walker'saw the i- "first crops since the war ready to be ; brought in.

'.' ;.':Dr- .Walker paid a tribute to the way .. an, which the war cemeteries are being " -looked after. Stones are replacing the ; wooden crosses very quickly, and the • -grounds are being kept in beautfiul orr'jdell."- In one large cemetery near Poper--1 ;ihghe, a large area has been made into

a rose garden, the %vhole cemetery; with .its archway entrance j and huge cross of jacritice with bronze sword, being an inspiring sight. The same car Sis also b«-.-IHg.."bestowed' on the*cemeteries in Eng:jland '.. .. - ••■■■- .• •■.

i 2.:.^ e? lor!'es of the New Zealand Division 4.«8ti1l linger in the minds of the people of ...France and Belgium, Dr. Walker added, '>): and he was satisfied from his observations >.that there is still a deep feeling of re"gard between the people of England and of those countries. The French, he said, ; while trusting the British people, are ■'.no*, too sure'of the British Government, g>vhije the British on the other hand are inclined to think that M.: Poincare, in his. invasion of the Eubr, may have gone a little too far.