NEW YPRES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 August 1928, Page 5

NEW YPRES

PILGRIMS ASTOUNDED.

CHANGES THAT HAVE OCCURRED THU PRICE THAT WAS PAID. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) LONDON, Aug. 5. “Ypres lias become the headquarters of thousands of men trying to Keep an emotional appointment witli the past, men who had seen the Ypre® sector sime the war gazing there to-day were dazed to stupefaction, some moved to the verge of tears when they saw it,” says the “Sunday Express” correspondent-.

“Nature has smoothed out man’s insanity. Ground which lay fallow for tour years, ploughed by the guns of Europe, is now bearing the richest crops in its history. Many ex-soldiers stood at the site of the old dug-outs and wondered whether it was all'a dream. “They were comparing notes sitting in cafes in the Grand Place, telling how they went to seek the old headquarters .and found shops selling camisoles and silk nighties, and even cheap little vulgar shops which had sprung up selling souvenirs of the Great W ar. Helltire Corner has become a tidy little farm with chickens running about. “The pilgrims, including over a thousand mothers, widows and fiancees of soldiers, headed by Lady Haig, were l>ewildered by the new Ypres town. Hill 69 is little changed, and the'past is easily recallable. Vimy Ridge, thanks to the Canadian Government, is exactly as it was, while Thiepval is still a place of skeleton trees. “Occasionally muddy buttons and badges are .prodded up, but pilgrims seeking-memories are finding them until their hearts ache, long white rows, like battalions on parade, in the cemeteries in lovely places of green turf and beautiful flowers. Though these bring heartaches, there is peace and beauty there, locked away front the world’s sorrows in earth which is ‘forever England.’ ”