BEHIND THE LINES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 April 1927, Page 5

BEHIND THE LINES.

HIDDEN BRITISH SOLDIERS. HEROIC FRENCH WOMEN. (British, Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 8. Four gallant .French: women who sheltered British soldiers at the nsk of their lives in their homes behind the German lines during the war w r ere honoured by the citizens of London today. The French women were Madame Cardon, Madame Belmont-Gobert, Madame Lesur (her daughter), and Madame Baudbuin. The Lord Mayor ■recited their acts of heroism at the gathering at Mansion House. Madame Cardon, of the village of Bertry, and her husband, concealed Corporal Hull .of the 11th Hussars, for 13 months. Then Hull was betrayed and shot by the Germans. Madame Cardon was condemned to death, but the sentence lyos commuted to 20 years’ hard labour. Monsieur Cardon escaped, but right up to the armistice led a. life of incredible suffering. He died a few years ago, the victim of his courage in harbouring British soldiers. Another tragedy followed the shooting of Corporal Hull. When his mother heard of his death she lost her reason, and never recovered it wholly. When she was told last Friday that her son’s benefactor was coming to London she seemed overjoyed at the prospect of seeing Maclame Cardon. Then she suddenly fell back and died. Madame Belmont-Gobert and her daughter sheltered for four years Trooper Fowler, of the llth ; Hussars, concealing him in a wardrobe. They were incessantly faced with the problem of obtaining food for Fowler, and a large portion of the food which caTne into the poor home was purchased with the proceeds of embroidery and other work.

Madame Baudhuin sheltered Private CruPkshanks. of the Cameronians, at Le Cnteau. She and the soldier were brought before a German court-mar-tial. She made so impassioned an apnea! for the British boy that the tribunal commuted his sentence to one of imprisonment.

TROOPER’S PRECARIOUS REFUGE Writing in February concerning a visit paid to the home, at the little commune of Bertry, of Madame Bel-mont-Gobert, who with her daughters Angele and Euphemie contrived to secure the safety of the fugitive Trooper Fowler, a correspondent of the lain don “Daily Telegraph” stated : “In a corner is the arraoire, and on it a, portrait of Troper Fowler, in a. silver frame, and a clock, both of which bear the identical inscription: ‘Aveo I’admiration la plus cordiale des soldafcs du lime. Hussards Britarmiques.’ “Trooper Fowler, who had his horse shot under him at the Battle of Le Cnteau. unde invent many adventures and privations after being cut off from his regiment. Eventually he was in hiding in woods near Bertry. and it was there that he- was seen by Louis Basouin on the afternoon of January 15. 1915. The English hussar was in a sorrv plight, and Ba.squin, though he knew that German patrols were about, obtained some food for him, got him to hide in a haystack, and arranged to r n tum for him at nightfall. This lie did. and fit the peril of his life took him to the village and into the house of Mmc. Belmont-Gobert. The widow, ns lecklesslv brave as her son-in-law, had no hesitation in taking the British soldier in. and fm remained concealed in the house until a. month before the armistice. GERMANS IN THE HOUSE. “Incredible' as it mar seem, Fowler spent most of bis time during three ven.rs and nine months in a section of the wardrobe., and. still more incredible. he was there at times when unsuspecting Germans were actually sitting mvmnd the film in the same room. 0vf"• 29 of them were billeted in the miner part of the house, but often they came down info the ground floor quarters of the Pelniont-oohert familv snd made '■ofiee at tlm- fire there. The dark oak nrmoire. which T have inspected oloselv. is about s}ft high, j-],n same length, and perhaps 20ip wide. Tt i° divided perpendicularly into two sections: He right section has several shelves, while the left section, intended for hanging clothes, is free from anv shelving. “Tt was within this left compartment—in a soneo. that is to sav, of a little ewe 1- f-ff, liirrl). ?lft long. and abc’d I’ft wide—that Fowler ermvhed during the davtime. At night, when jill wa« oujet. he came out of his most uncomfortable cachette, but there were even nights when be was compelled to

remain in it. The terrible anxiety of the hidden soldier when the Germans made their periodic perquisitions for food, etc., within a few inches of him may be imagined. . . “The widow thinks that suspicion was diverted from the wardrobe by the fact that she always kept the door of the right section slightly open. Often, indeed, when Germans_ were in the room she would open it wider and ostentatiously take serviettes or other articles off the shelves. The door of the other half, needless to say, was kept closed, hut unless a close examination were made, anyone- seeing madam© going to and from the near section’s shelves would not imagine that there was a vertical division. Madame had a special pride in drawing the attention of. the visitor to a semi-cir ’ular hole which she had made in the near side of the partition. This give the huddled-up occupant a chance to breathe—though it must have been out of the question to ‘breathe freely’ —and, moreover, I was assured by the plucky woman that .sometimes food was passed through this ‘iron’ to . Fowler while Germans were seated a- few feet away. AN UNFORTUNATE VISIT. “While the practice) of having one of the doors invariably open had the effect generally of. so to say,. investing the wardrobe with an air of innocence, there were critical moments when some special effort had to lie made to curb ah inclination on the part of the Germansl to make a close inspection of the furniture. One of these means, adopted more than once by Mmc. Belmont-Go-iiert. was to take down from the man-tel-shelf a photo of the then absent Euphemie and show it to the admiring Prussians.

“Apropos of Fowler’s frequent illnesses. it was recalled by Angele that the Hussar made attempts to keep himself comparatively fit :bv exercising with heavy sticks on nights when he could leave his hiding place in safetv. Sometimes, too, but very rarely, be ventured out of doors in the evening with Basouin. Then, on at least one occasion, he dared to pay a; visit to another British soldier who was hiding in flic house of a family named Cardon at Bertry. This was Corn.oral Herbert Hull, also of the Uth Hussars, who was betrayed to the Germans in Octoba’\ 1915. and was shot.”

f’om men ting on tlm action of these and other heroines, the correspondent states : “These women ex pe re lived a mnr+vrdnm which would more than irstifv the erection of their statues in Great Britain. And now they are in most straitened circumstances. They cannot surely lie allowed to remain thus; thousands of British imaginations, rnust be stirred, thousands of British hearts moved, when their present plight is understood.”