DEVASTATED FRANCE

Evening Star, Issue 16991, 13 March 1919, Page 3

DEVASTATED FRANCE

ON Til]*: HUNS’ TRACKS

TRIALS OF ILL-FATED LENS,

[By R. Sot'Tnwisr.Ti, Representative of the Sydney ‘News.’] On our next long trip we wore bound for Douai, and the day was the last of war, as the armistice was signed at dawn We travelled through Careney and into what was quite new country for me once we had j passed Souehez. Wc halted at jthai I dreariest spot on earth, solemn and still. • duo to absence of life of any sort, the scattered remnants of homes, and the relics of abandoned collieries on Vimy ; Ridge. There we stood on the site of the stricken village at 11 o’clock on November 11, m the loneliest possible surroundings, and in silence that could be felt. At that I moment the whole world that we cared : about was bursting with jovfui clamor ; over the conclusion of the dreadful war ; | and we were standing ,at one of its mosc . hideous reminders, and not quite certain that the important deed was accomplished. We drove on towards Lens, rapidly becoming acquainted with the colossal iu- . juries received in the whole district. Lens i itself used to be the centre and most important of a string of coal-mining towns, such as yon find between Newcastle and ‘Wallsend. They are all now merelv depots i for deb its of red bricks and plaster, and I don’t believe there is one whole, uninj jured house in 9 or 10 miles of one-time ; continuous dwellings. Here and there, j often in a back yard, was an ugly gun pit. 1 and now and again a huge, monster prone and twisted into scrap iron. “Well,” said our companion officer, as wo drove through mutilated Lens, “there you are. the most destroyed town in France—a- fellow-martyr to Ypres in Belgium." MILES OF CRUMBLED WALLS. The original inhabitants—poor mortals—were'numerous on the roads in Ibis vicinity, and many were already poking about the ruins, like treasure-seekers in dustbins. Wo drove through miles of crumbled rod brick walls that once were houses, moderate in size compared with those, of Cambrai, and had all suffered wholesale ! destruction. But the poor people sifteu i tlie rqbhish. hoping to find some few reI mains of their modest propcity. There was no indication of rejoicing over armis- ; tice signing anung them, and their hearts : wore 100 full to permit of singing out i Hooray or waving flags. They inst kent I plugging awav at (heir melancholy job. | We left this dismal scene, as our chief aim i was Douai, and. after passing througn | several village? like BiUy-Montigny (wiped i cut), we arrived at the old city, which has ] often endured the worries of war in past, a ges. AT DOUAI. It is a strong tow n, but had to yield to Marlborough earlv in the !B*h century, and it has been in pnsso-sion of the Germans from the beginning of the war tilt three weeks before we got there. Its name is well known to Catholic;! in every country, as it was in the English College of Donai that the version of the Old Testament known a? the Douai was com piled and first published in 1609. Wo drove straight to the Cathedral of St. Pierre, and inside witnessed the intended robbery of church property by the enemy, happily frustrated by the Allies’ rapid advance. But the interior of the building had been systematically stripped. On the floor lay in rows every ertieje that could ho moved—-vestment?, altar cloths, crucifixes,, candlesticks, and the most i sacred vessel? used in the Mass. A HORROR. i Pictures were tied up ready for removal, I and fastened up in bundles wan every | single, pipe of the great organ, whose mag I nigeont, handsome case was simply a huge | shell. All the music-making machinery j was on the floor. To Catholics the straight i evidence of desecration would be a horror ; to everyone else the wanton despoiling of such a collection of rare and beautiful things hardly loss detest able. Some fine frescoes that could not bo shifted wc reft tabbed in unaccountable desire to injure. Near the entrance, door there had been a large statue of St, Peter, an exact reproduction of the famous and much-visited statue at St. Peter’s, in Rome. The pedestal alone remained. Owing to their permanent occupation of Douai mid tiro surprise they received by our swift progress, the Germans had not at first the inclination to damage the town, and in the finish had no time to Jo it. Consequently most of the houses still .-fund firmly," though there is much broken glass, and a deal of petty robbery had taken place. “THE WAR IS .ENDED," j We had lunch in a house where the furniture was thrown about, goods strewn everywhere, and many signs of rummaging by the methodical thieves. in the window of a shop I saw a life-size wooden statue of the ex-Kaiser, clad in armor bold, but with his nose chopped off—as a beginning. I was much taken with this handsome old-fashioned city, whose antique buildings and quaint street easily capture attention. We walked through many of them,, and then turned hack, with a 70-miie drive before us, and many other towns and villages to pass. Vv e had no means of obtaining news, being quite cut off from regular civilisation ; but the inhabitants of a few places wore just taking it for granted. As we got near these towns shrill voices id small boys rung nut in the night, air. “ La Guerre e'est fini?" but we’couldn’t tel! them ii the war was over. Out from narrow streets pushed crowds, with flags, to the town centre, just like the chorus in ‘La Bnhemc ’ and ‘Carmen,’ and the strains of the ‘Marseillaise’ seemed to last from one town to the next. It is surprising how close they are to each other, in cue I saw an Australian hat on a girl’s head, and knew one of my countrymen was near. When wo readied the chateau we let off rockets from the drawbridge, and then went inside and drank the King s health. LILLE. Next day wo made an early start for Lille, a long wav off. and by a road that led through Poperinghe and the ashes of annihilated Ypres, stopping just near the fragments of the Cloth Hall, to allow of a

scramble over the rough heaps of stones that once formed part of th©_ beautiful building. Wo saw a gang of Chinese laborers passing through, and on every day we witnessed others filling up trenches and dugouts, and, of course, they had already planted thousands of cabbages'near their 1 quarters. More satisfactory was it to see Gorman prisoners in large numbers engaged in this work of restoration. Though it will be years—so to ICO years, some American agricultural experts recently slated—before the soil can be cultivated, ' a big start has been made to level it. It ia considered that the safest solution 'wn bo to plant trees, and leave tho permanent euro to Nature. This appears to apply to the great extent of country from the sea ; to tho Alps-a wide belt of miles ot once , fertile soil made incapable of production by the upheaved chalk, the countless miles of tangled, rusty barbed wire,_ and thousands of tons of war refuse mingled with i the earth. AT MENIN. We drove along the Menm road, along which the defeated German army only two weeks before was hurrying towards tho Rhine. Menin was beginning to look fairly normal, and as we drove through the streets the women were out with their I baskets to buy, and I saw a number ot butchers’ and linkers’ shops _ full of customers. The little inns of this town bear similar 1 names to those of England; so ! that we saw the “Lion Blanc, the i ‘ 1 Cheval Blanc,” and two queer ones—- “ I/Anguille du Mer M ( the Conner hel; and “ Oupauvre diable ” (at the sign of the i poor Devil). -A useful custom in j village is to print its name on the first and j last house in large black letters in a white i ground ; and also a notice guiding to the next village. On most of those near Lille ami Douai these directing words were in German: “Nach Ypres,” or “Nach Arras ” FACTORIES LAID WASTE. What a delightful city Lille must have been. In bondage for over four years, j it has only suffered in its surroundings ; where the factories have been laid waste, 1 and tho manufacture of women’s veils > (famous the world o’er), and other delicate fabrics, stopped for u time. But the city itself remains uninjured, except for results of bombing. October 17 saw its delivery, and the boisterous welcome accorded to General Birdwood and his army. Flags hung from every house still, and the people all looked cheerful, though they have had their own special grief. It was from this city that the Germans tore eight thousand young girls, many of whom will never return—a black and unforgivable crime. : But the streets were crammed with rapid- : moving citizens, and,a general air of relief was very noticeable. We walked through j the streets, looking at the buildings, and went into shops to buy. cigars and post cards, just to meet the people and see their pleased faces. Prices were not high, and some just said : “ Oh, anything will do.” We went to a restaurant for lunch, ; and though I grudged any time for eating when this town was so well worth more detailed examination. I was glad afterwards, because in that dining room we met tho climax of public content. As usual with ; the French, men and their wives lunch in | restaurants invariably together, and the i place was crammed with happy families. Also soldiers were there—French, English, ; Belgians, Italians, American—all except ■ Germans. And the life was so sparkling that wo might have been seated at the Cafe de la Paix, in the Paris Boulevardes. ; General Sir Bryan Mahon, the distinguished soldier, and just then Military j Governor of Lille, sat at our table, the ■ room rang with laughing, and the life of | the place cavtf us a buoyant hour. Food I was plentiful, varied, and not too dear. Land I got two large nobs of sugar for my | coffee—but I stuck to them as sweet aouj venirs of Lille.

A WONDERFUL MEETING. After lunch I went for a walk in the Grand Place, and, spotting three Australians, went over to them. One of them was from Sydney, and said I ought to know him—Jack Warner, who had some fame as a boxer. (I forward a photo, of the group.) He is a bright young fellow, and wc all enjoyed meeting in such a place. One of them said: "Well, this is wonderful. If Lille, Douai, and Cain bra i had fallen to use at six months’ interval between each, tho whole world would have gone fair balmy, and here they arc all bagged in one. week.” It was good for us to see at least one fair city of France free from wounds. Some say that the Germans refrained from injuring it because they wanted to show neutral journalists how conaideraie they were: but one of the most distinguished Australian generals (old me that it was ‘'because they hadn’t time, fie pushed them out too quick.” Wo returned through La Bassee, one more heap of rubbish, with broken bricks as the chief relic of the wrecked town. Next day we left Boulogne'for En'land, and as we passed out of th» busy harbor saw a dozen trawlers starting for their peaceful work of gathering the harvest of the sea,