THE CHILDREN OF FRANCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 20 May 1915, Page 2

THE CHILDREN OF FRANCE.

For all the children of B'rance there ix one ot>ject lesson of war's meaning wnien has sunk into their hearts (v.iiies Philip Gibbs in the Daily Chroniilo." It is the sight of the wounded who ha:ee come back—all these officers aud n en who limp along the roads of France, leaning heavily on crutches and slicks, all these fine men who have ie'.t a frot or an arm behind, "la-bas," as iliat mysterious place is called where men kill eack other. I havo seen children watching these men wit'x pave, thoughtful eyes, • t.ut ■ b-3'iauss liUdreu hide their thoughts I never hoped to know what -Jeas wers- wording in those little heads.

Yet now I know what one little girl thinks, for she has written it all down for me and others who would like to read it. I believe this child of eleven speaks for all the children of France, though she writes only for herself. She is a little "tricoteuse," one of those innamerable knitting girls who spend their evenings after school hours in making caps and vests and socks for the soldiers at the front, and seeing her so busy, the question was asked, "What will you girls do with your nesdles Avhen the war is finished ?'"

This, translated into' English, is the answer she wrote:—

What shall we do with our knitting needles when the war is finished? Well, the only thing we can do, it seems to me, is to go on knitting for the little ones who have been left without their fathers, and for a long, long time fchero> will be knitting in France. When we take our work to a poor family, if one of the children thanks us. we shall say, "Little ones, you needn't thank us, it isn't worth the troub'e. What have we given you? A little bit of wool, a little hit of our time. But think of what you have given! You have given us your father, who. after your mother, was dearest to you in the world, because it was to defend all of us that he gave his life." . . The child will go away warmly clothed, and when he gets to school he will find other children who. not having lost their fathers, will be able to go with their mother to buy their clothes in big shops—fine clothes of gay colors, with striped collars and cuffs. But he, the orphan boy, won't envy them; he will be all the more nroud of his black jersey— net very well made, perhaps, because he will think tha* thi? jersey, giren im memory of his father, is almost as though his father had sent it himself, his father., the hero, whom all th<s world admires.

And that is why, with so many orphans of the war. no French girl will put away her knitting- steedles.