HISTORIC PLACES

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 105, 31 October 1933, Page 10

HISTORIC PLACES

BATTLEFIELDS VISITED

MENIN GATE MEMORIAL

While abroad Mr. and Mrs. E. Watson, of Nelson, who returned to the Dominion yesterday, visited battlefields in Belgium and Trance, and they gave an interesting account of these in an interview with a "Post" reporter today. It was marvellous, \they . said, the number of tourists who visited these historic fields.

. "We visited Messines, Passchendaele, and Hill 60," said' Mr. Watson. "Hill 60 was one of the most deadly places, I think, in the war. Wo went into the trenches bur boys wore in. With the exception that the passing, years have played a hand, they are little different from when the boys walked out. There arc rifles and rusting machineguns there, pointing in the direction of the German trenches. There is water underfoot, and conditions in this respect are frightful. There are helmets and bayonets lying about, ■ and pieces of tunics. The field all around is just one mass of metal, and people take stones and cartridge cases avray with them as mementoes. I myielf brought back a cartridge case."1 Continuing, Mr. Watson said they went-dowri the Menin Road, which was 26 miles long, to Ypres. Since the war rows of trees had been planted on each side of the road, and these were now about 9in through. Mr. Watson described the Mohih Gate, on which he said were carved the names of 56,000 missing men.' It was an everlasting and very fine memorial. At Messines they,saw a huge mound of earth. It was British soil, sent from Britain, and under it British soldiers were buried. They saw also the-wall which bore witness to the shooting of Nurse Cavell, and then they went on up to the field of Waterloo. There was a house there where Napoleon spent his last night, and in a little village close by there was a house where Wellington stayed. ■ Another striking spectacle, which was described by Mrs. AVatson, was a monument 300 ft high, built by Belgian women, who carried the material in

buckets. It was about 400 ft / square > at the base and it rose up like a pyramid. At the top there was a representation of the head of a British lion. The monument was erected to celebrate the victory of the Battle of Waterloo. Mr. Watson sard they saw hundreds of cemeteries, particularly in Belgium, and all were beautifully kept. The names of well-known places in the war, such as, for instance, Hellfire Corner, were still to be seen posted up.

Another interesting place visited by Mr. and Mrs. Watson was 'the Cloth Hall in Belgium. "They have rebuilt on the outside of tho remains of , the old walls," said Mr. Watson, "and a quarter of a million has.boen spent on the work up to now. Belgium is a new country, with new houses arid new streets, and the streets are up-to-date."