BATTLEFIELDS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 56, 15 September 1928, Page 17

BATTLEFIELDS

PILGRIMS IN FRANCE! SPEECH BY THE PRINCE yiMY RIDGE TO-DAY (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 10th August. , Eleven thousand British pilgrims have been visiting the battlefields during this week. The Prince of Wales, who has been accompanied by Earl Jellicoe, has led the pilgrimage. At a great gathering in a theatre in Lillo the Prince explained the reasons for their visit J0 Flanders. "I am happy to join you in this pilgrimage to the battlefields as a fellowmember of the British Legion," he said. "It is a groat event in the history of the British Legion. "Some of you arc wondering tonight why you should have taken four perfect days of your holiday to come to a place which so often, stalking along, generally in the winter time, waiting for the 'strafe' to come, we hoped we should never sec again. "The .first reason is the obvious one —to pay a tribute to the hundreds of thousands we left behind in foreign soil. The next reason, I think you will all agree, was the intense interest on the part of those who knew these regions so well ten years ago to see them under much happier conditions, and the progress which has been made, and for the women of the Legion to see the places in which we have been. "I am sure there is full admiration for those who have changed the aspect of this battle region, COMRADES OF FRANCE. "Then again, we have come over here, in a way, to cement the wonderful comradeship and the wonderful fellowship we had with our comrades in the French Army. 'And I know that those of you hero to-night would like me just to express in a very simple way to the Association dcs Anciens Combattants our thanks for their kind help and their kindness to us during our four days' visit over here. "I feel, fellow-pilgrims, that this is a wonderful tribute for them, although I know that some of you got a bit hung up on tho way. I think wo can only say in return for all we have received, 'Vive la France!' " In a score of towns and numerous villages over which, this army of peaceful penetration was scattered, there were almost identical ceremonies of welcome. ' Bands played "God Save tlie King," then the "Marseillaise" or "Brabanconne," and shouts of "Vive l'Angleterre" were responded to by cries of "Vive la France!" and Vive le Belgique!" In the evening there were concerts or banquets, and everywhere the fraternity of the battlefields •vas sustained. ON VIMY RIDGE. ■'. Intermingled with 'much rejoicing and feting was a graver nolc, which was emphasised iii visits to Vimy and Benucourt. About '0000 Pilgrims came in by train from their billets to Vimy, and 'lhence marched up tho ridge of immortal memories. .In radiant sunshine the processions ;m:it-bed over ground, every inch- of i-,-;i>ii w;iß, in: fi sense, a part of England. Wild flowers —yellow daisies and blue cornflowers —were growing ■ everywhere, but, there nre still grim reminders. An occasional pill-box; parts i>f guns; Bully-beef: tins and steel heluiets were still to be seen here and there amid the grass, corn, and blossoms. The communication trenches behind the British front lines run back to a series of shafts leading down to a marvellous system of underground tunnels which extend for several miles. These tunnels were excavated by the Canadiins during the many months they held this position before tho great attack in April, 1017. The passages and chambers aro cut out of the solid chalk, and the walls nre covered with the names of those who perchance spent their last night there and whiled away their time waiting to go over the top by carving their epitaphs with their own hands. At the entrance there is a notice which runs: "These walls are sacred to tho memory of those who inscribed them during their occupation in the war. Please i omit yours." j ONCE FAMILIAR TUNES. j For hours pilgrims were winding | along the cobbled road that led through wheat fields to the battlefields, and as .they walked they sang the songs the soldier's used to sing as they marched over the same stones between soas of mud: "Pack Up Your Troubles," "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty," "Good-bye, Tipperary." Workers in tho cornfields ceased from their labours as they caught the cadence of the once familiar tunes, tho marching tunes of the deathless army. Singing there was, too, in tho cemeteries where groups of men and women, stood by the graves they had come far to see. ' They sang softly, "Abide With Me," "Lead, Kindly Light," and other hymns. There was a ceremony near the Moroccan divisional memorial, in which the Mayors of tho surrounding communes welcomed Colonel Crosfield, chairman of the Legion, and later a French procession marched to the top of the ridge. It was led by an infantry regiment band, while in the rear came a body of schoolgirls, carrying poppies. A Legion band was there, too, and it let the French hosts know they were as familiar with the Marseillaise as French musicians are with "God Savo the King." At the end of the ceremony Colonel Crosfield cried, "Vivo la Franco" five times. Mingled with the pilgrims were many other visitors, French and English. IN HONOUR OF FRENCH SOLDIERS. Another ceremony on the hill of Notre Dame- de Lorotte was in honour of the 100,000 French soldiers who fell there. The proceedings took place at the base of the great white memorial lighthouse, the illumination of which, to quote- its very beautiful inscription, protects the spirits of the fallen against the blackness of night. From its great eminence the lantern sends its rays over an extensive area. In tho little chapel at the foot of tho monument every morning prayers aro offered up for the souls of the departed. Under its floor lie the bones of 75,000 unknown French soldiers, while in the adjoining graveyards repose the other 25,000 whose identity was established. It was in front of this abode of the dead that the British Legionaries paid their tribute of remembrance. Marshal Foch had with great regret to abandon his intention of being present. He j was represented by Generals Gouraud and Weygand. The troops of tho 3rd Arras Regiment, in steel helmets, with band and colours, were drawn up in front of the . memorial. A large number of French officers, the Mayor of Arras, the Bishop of Arras, and a number of civil dignitaries, were present. On behalf of the Legion, Colonel John Brown laid a wreath on tho memorial inscribed: "To the undying memory of France's glorious dead, from their comrades of tho British Legion. Wo shall never forgot the friendships forged in fire." The ceremony took place under a blue sl:y in bright sunshine. Many] of the pilgrima visited Tv_ne;

Cot Cemetery, Passchendaelo, which contains the names of 34,957 missing and 11,871 graves, each grave being a garden sot in a groen English litwn and marked with a white headstone. Hero beside the Cross of Sacrifice and the Stone of Remembrance pilgrims camebearing wreaths and flowers from their own gardens to place on the garden graves of their dead. CONCERT AT LILLE. The concert in tho Grand Theatre, Lillo, will remain as an outstanding memory of tho pilgrimage. When about 9.30 tho Prince of Wales made his appearance in a box he had a vociferous reception from the crowded gathering of pilgrims, and there was an equally hearty greeting some time later when his Royal Highness was joined by General Gouraud, Military Governor of Paris. It was a most extraordinary experience to hear familiar- English tunes played with the vivacity with which they were by a French infantry band. The French musicians were as faultless in "Take Me Back to Blighty" aa in "Mademoiselle From Armentieres." The community singing also was a tremendous success under tho direction of Mr. Batcliffe. In response to repeated cries, the ' Prince made the speech quoted above. Earl Jellicoo also made a brief speech.