PREMIER IN FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1927, Page 7

PREMIER IN FRANCE

(From Our Own Correspondent.) YPRES, 18th December It is only natural that the Prime Minister should desire to pay a visit to the battlefields and to see again ■those localities which for him and for his old comrades hold so many poignant memories. ■ Here, in Ypres, -where we stay to-night, one has a feeling of possession. After all, it was virtually ours for four years, and no soldier of the British Empire who fought in the salient will visit the place in the years to come without experiencing this sense of spiritual ownership. He will feel ;that he knows Ypres more intimately than those who have raised a new city on the ruins of the old. There is only one ruin left to-day—the Cloth Hall. Even the Cathedral is being shaped anew, largely out of the stones that lay piled up on .the site. ■■-.■■■■ Yesterday we came to Boulogne, accompanied by Major-General Sir Fabian Ware (Permanent Vice-Chair-man of the Imperial War Graves Commission) and Sir Herbert Ellissen (Con T troller and Financial Adviser of the Commission). It was characteristics of the French that the Sous-Prefect and other officials should be on the quay to meet the Prime Minister. They stood with their hats off while they expressed their friendly sentiments. The SousPrefect said he welcomed Mr. Coates as an old comrade of the war. Although 'the Prime Minister was travelling incognito he wished to extend a welcome from the French Government, and from the people of Boulogne. He was delighted to welcome a fellowsoldier. Colonel H. T. Goodland, head of the I.W.G.C. in France, also met the party with\three of the Commission's cars, and after lunch we started on our pilgrimage.. .Practically every British soldier who came to France will have memories of Etaples with its encampment of 50,000 men, and its many hospitals.. It was ■hore, by the way, that "Julius Caesar set out for Britain. Except for the largest British cemetery in France ■there is little more indication of the four years of British occupation than tiere is of the Eoman. There are a Sew piles of old irons and one or two concrete foundations, tut nothing more of that great restless city w,here men Jcame and went and were; forgotten. Jfhoge who.never left Etaples lie in the great cemetery beside the main railway -lina from Boulogne to Paris. On the (raised ground above the cemetery are the two great cenotaphs with the Jfesped flags of Britain , done in irtone at each corner.: As a 'background to this handsome group f»i stonework there is the belt of pine trees. . Although the country here J» all sand the gardeners have managed $o cultivate a beautiful sward of green grass, and the flowers flourish exceedingly in spring and summer. It was at Staples that the Prime Minister struck the trail of the New Zealand dead, TRrhich we shall follow for the next few 'flays as far as Le Quesnoy. In every British cemetery in France the legend in French and English is carved on the stone work near the gateway: "The land on which this cemetery stands is the free gift of the French people for theperpetual resting place" of those of the sAJlied Armies who fell in the war of 1914-18, and are honoured here." In Belgium a similar inscription, in English, French, and Flemish is seen.

FBIENDIiY CAIiiS. Terlincthun Cemetery, oil the hills above. Boulogne, was the first to be dedicated in the presence of the King. Here, too, New Zealanders are buried, 39 in all. It lies below the.brow of a ' tiitl on which stands the 100 ft monument to Napoleon. There are 3327 graves accumulated here from June, ■0918, to July, 1920—mainly those of ■men. from the British hospitals at Boulogne and Wiraereux, but there are also ;-H3ie graves of British seamen whose -(bodies were washed up along the coast. It is a rectangular site 19,000 square yards ia size, ;the v western side flanked ,by a high brick wall picturesque with ago, up which rambler roses and other icreepers are trained. A third of the .area is unocciipiod "oy graves—an unusual circumstance in any' British cemepfliery—and this part is now a level lawn ;«if English grass. After the New Zealanders had congplidated the lines about Warneton in l August, 1917, they came ■ cut to rest and train in the Lumbrea area in the .;galley of tha Aa. Daring ttie first •■.weeks of September one of the villages occupied by lie battaHons was Setques, a,nd here were the Auckland men. .Though it was dark when we arrived there yesterday M*. Opates was able to find his way straight to the billet he occupied nine yeara ago. The old lady, his hostess, had changed but little, and well remembered the names of a number of the New Zealand officers. / She extended the hospitality of coffee and cognac to Eer three visitors, and chatted of the days of the war while she ground the coffee and heated the water over the kitchen stove. Before we left the Prime.Minister was able to convey to her the thanks of New Zealanders for her hospitality during the war. No doubt on the following day the other inhabitants of ,the town would hear of .the surprise visit of the "President de ;Nouvelle Zelande,'.' and know that Jeven a££er all these years the men from overseas were not unmindful of those who helped to make their stay ;iv the rest areas of Prance pleasant and comfortable.

„ EOAD TO BAZLLEUI,. Before arriving at St. Omer last jnigit we passed the site of the New Hospital at. Wisques, and the . convent on the hilltop so long used as an army school. " The latter is again serving its original purpose. Leaving St. Omer this morning, we passed on our left the Forest of Clairmarais, where Julius Ceasar used to have his ships built. Inside the forest there are the ruins of a inonastry to which, it is recorded, Thomas a Beeket used to come for sanctuary. On the opposite side of the road is the Chateau de Benescure, a brick castle, still occupied, which was built in 1116. The present owner possesses the original plans of the castle. Not long afterwards we were passing through Hazel - brouck, and presently arrived at Vieux Berguin, which is a centre of a rest area used by the New Zealand Division in August, 1916, and several times in 1917. At the little village of Bleu Mr. Coates made another call at one of his old billets, afterwards tracing French friends to Bailleul. Bailleul, badly damaged in April, 1918, during the German advance, has been completely rebuilt. Many New Zealanders will remember this town as a shopping centre, and the site of an officers' club in the first three years of the war, but it is the 2nd Entrenching Battalion which will have most vivid recollections of the locality. From the 12th April to the 17th, 1918, they helped to stem the German invasion through Bailleul and Meteren. In the centre of the town to-day there is a handsome memorial of the 25th DiYfeion. to the. 625. ©£&cers ami 12>.665

BATTLEFIELDS REVISITED

FROM ETAPLES TO YPRES

men who fell in France and Belgium. Last Armistice Day all th~ inhabitants of the town met in the local British Cemetery, for the dedication service, and every Sunday after church

many of the townspeople make the cemetery a place for a quiet pilgrimage.

ROUND ARMENTIERES.

Near to Pont Nieppe, which will be remembered as the site of the Divisional baths in 1916, there is a cemetery known as Trois Arbes. Here 230 New Zealanders, killed mainly in the occupation of Ploegsteert trenches in 1917, are ■ buried. It is a long irregularly shaped plot with the Cross of Sacrifice in the middle and the Great Stone at the far end. Around the Cross cypress trees are planted, and wild quince trees are growing in other parts of the. plot. Passing the old bath house at Nieppe, and crossing the river, near the spot where Buckingham's lady was drowned —according to the story told in "The Three Musketeers" —we were soon in Armentieres, a depressing and dirty town, though its white sheeting factories are now re-erected and .in full work.. Cite Bon Jean Cemetery is on a site inside the town. The section had been reserved for obtaining clay for brick malting, but it passed into the hands of the Imperial War Graves Commissioner. ; Armentieres, it will be remembered, was the first sector the New Zealand Division occupied on coming

to France, and they turned a quiet sector into something much more restless, with. the resulting casualty list. Some -452 New Zealand soldiers are buried, in the cemetery, and 2130 British in all. In addition, there are 510 Germans who have not received headstones from" their own nation, though

the gardens over their graves are kept with the same care as those over the British dead. A visit was then paid to the cemei'teries in the region of Ploegsteert— Motor Car Corner, London Bine Brigade, Strand, and Hyde Park Corner. In all these New Zealanders lie buried. Nothing could be more beautiful than the Hyde Park Corner Cemetery. It covers sections on both sides of tha road, the one being circular in shape, the other a square. The paths and the gardens are so arranged and the surroundings'are such that the twin cemeteries must be most . attractive when the flowers are'blooming. On. the ridge overlooking the cemetery are the ruins of Hennesy's .Chateau, which has never been rebuilt. From Ploegsteert it was a short journey to Warneton, whore the Prime Minister renewed, his acquaintance with the country that was won at tho Battle of Messines. MESSINES MEMORIAL. On Ist August, .1924, the King of the Belgians flew from Brussels to' unveil the New Zealand Memorial at Messines. A few weeks afterwards a full description of this ceremony, and an apprciation of-the beautiful monument, appeared in the newspapers of the Dominion. It is unnecessary, therefore, to speak of it at length. But a word as to the excellence of the chosen site may not be out of' place. From the foot of the monument one. may see Mount. JEemmel sis kilometres to ttie north-west. ' Eight" kilometres. to the west is the tower of the new church at Dranoutre, and on the horizon further south is the resurrected Neuve Eglise. To the south-west just three kilometres away is Hill 63, and down from this the long line of Ploegsteert Wood. In thj distance to the south may be seen the towers of Armentieres and to the south-east the town ot Warneton. No monument is more appropriately placed, taking into consideration the action and the men it commemorates.' All the plants, many of them of New . Zealand origin, are thriving well. There are the broom, and gorse, veronicas, olearias, berberies, spiraea, lilac, veronica, and. even the New Zealand flax is.growing well. Juniper trees are planted at the rear of the obelisk, and in, the years to come these will grow as high as the monument itself, and frame it. A wreath of ivy, mahonia, and coloneaster berries, prepared by the 1.W.G.C., was placed on the monument by the Prime Minister on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand. From. Messines we journeyed north towards Yprea. passing ( Wytschaete and. St. Eloi, and so across the canal which is still derelict Bedford. House, a name known to everyone who" fought or worked in the salient, has never been lebuilt, but the whole of the grounds have been taken over for a British cemetery which will be one of the most beautiful in the locality. Not all the property will be used for the cemetery, but it will be kept in order by the War Graves Commission, and will thus form an attractive parkland with the cemetery "among the trees. 'Branching to the right before entering Ypres we skirted the railway embankment towards Zillebeke. The cemetery at Transport Farm between the railway and the lake, though pounded and its wooden crosses shattered during the war, has yet been put in . order s and.completed. Etang de Zillebeke, surrounded with many trees even before June of 1917, now lies bare on the landscape. Saplings have been planted, but it will be many years before it becomes again the pleasant ren•dezvous of the people of Tpres.

THE MISSING AT TYNECOT.

Before evening had closed in we were in Tynecot Cemetery, on the slopes of Passchendaele, the most tragic locality in France for the New Zealand Division, and indeed, for other divisions, too. Tynecot contains 11,828 graves, of which at least half are those of unknown dead. When the King was pre-

ae'nt at the dedication over two years

ago he made the suggestion that the Cross of Sacrifice might bo placed on the top of a concrete dug-out which is in the centre of the area. This has

been done, but by enclosing the "pillbox" within the masonry of a handsome pyramid some twenty feet in height. On the top of the pyramid-J;he Cross stands. One section of the "pillbox" is exposed through the masonry of the pyramid, and thus though the roughness of the dug-out is hidden it remains as a part of the memorial. Two years ago, when New Zealanders who were present for the unveiling of the Gravenstaf el Memorial, visited Tynecot. the Cross had not been erected, nor had the semi-circular wall at the head of the cemetery. The wall has a peculiar significance for New Zealand, for in the central alcove on eight polished stone panels are engraved the names of about 1400 New Zealanders whose bodies have never been identified. Of Greek design, with double columns at intervals, the wall is about 14ft in height, and 150 ft in length. At each end is a chapel, and the alcove in the centre is entered under an arehivay with twelve supporting pillars. The whole structure is built partly of rough flint and partly of grey stone. On the central plaque are engraved the words: "Here are recorded the names of officers and men of New Zea^ •land who fell in th% -Battle of Brood-

seindo and the first Battle of Passchendaele, October, 1917, and whose graves are known only to God." No pains have been spared in the construction of this, the largest concentrated cemetery in the battle area, and though it is not yet easily accessible, it will always be the chief place of pilgrimage for all British people who visit the Ypres sector. GRAVENSTAFEL MEMORIAL. Night came on after leaving Tynecot, but there was' light enough to see that the New Zealand veronicas and flax plants and other shrubs are flourishing in the garden about the Gravenstafel Memorial, unveiled on 2nd August, 192-1. That the memorial is still with difficulty approached by a direct route in winter was well indicated when the three cars plunged into a road axle deep in mud. Two of them ploughed through the quarter of a mile of Flanders mud on their own power, but the third stuck fast, and was only dragged through with the aid of a requisitioned farm horse.. . ■

Now we are back in reconstructed Ypres overlooking the station square, where howitzers and tanks are mounted as memorials. It is a strange sensation to open the window towards Zillebeko, where the sound of battle hardly ceased day and night for four years, and to mark the silence and the darkness which broods over the land which holds so many of the men of the Empire for all time.

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