PAGEANT IN LILLE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 14096, 3 January 1919, Page 5

PAGEANT IN LILLE.

ENTRY OF BRITISH ARMY. A MEMORABLE SCENE. War’s pageantry on its chivalrous and entirely grateful side was witnessed in Lille, when the Fifth Army, under General Sir W. E. Birdwood, made its formal entry into the city. Hundreds of thousands of people were in the streets, writes Mr Philip Gibbs, and crowded in every window and in every high balcony, and only the centre of the Grande Place, round the Statue of Liberty, placed there in the time of> the French Revolution, was empty. It was empty because it had been left free for the entry of the British troops in triumphal procession when the city of Lille was to be presented with the flag of our Fifth Army by its commander. General Birdwood, as a souvenir of the men who had liberated it from hostile rule. There was a glint of sunshine in all the windows of Lille, and blue sky above the housetops and a warm, moist wind, from which there fluttered down “patines of bright gold” from the yellowing trees. There seemed a song in the air—the song of peace after these years of war rising from the hearts of people who were glad after long suffering. For them the worst of war was at an end, and here they were gathered to give praise to the men who had released them from its spell. Stands had been built and draped with British colours in the Grande Place, and were crowded with British generals and staffs from the Fifth Army and other armies, divisions, and corps, and with thousands of citizens of Lille. GENERAL BIRDWOOD ARRIVES. I stood on the steps of an old building. looking down upon the scene, and it seemed as though it had been arranged by some historical pageant-mas-ter with a sense of drama. Some of onr aeroplanes came as patrols above the square, with diaphanous wings as they flow in the sunlight, and they swooped low and turned somersaults above the telegraph wares and did boyish stunts over the heads of the people in Lille, who waved their handkerchiefs and flags, and cheered to them. The Bishop of LilV? came into the square, and the tall old prefect and many dignitaries of the town, strange to see in their black coats and tall hats. They grouped themselves round the flag of Lille, w T hieh they were to give to the Fifth Army in exchange for the army flag. There was a long wait, and then round the corner of the Rue Nationalo came a number of horsemen with pennons fluttering above their mounted escorts. They were spaced as in some pageant, and at the head of them rode General Birdwood—"Birdie” of the Dardanelles’ and the Australian Corps, now commander of our Fifth Army. Behind him was General Haking, of the Eleventh Corps, and other generals and staff officers. THE MARCH PAST. Cheers rose from every window and balcony of the Grande Place and from the crowds round the square, and thou- ■ sands of flags fluttered. Our generals and their officers carried great boquets of flowers, and they saluted the crowds looking up to the high balconies and the smiling eyes up there. Then orderlies ran out to their horses’ heads, and they dismounted, and General Birdwood advanced on foot to the Mayor of Lille and his councillors and gave them the fanion of the Fifth Army, speaking in French, and expressing the gladness of the British army at the liberation of Lille, and the admiration of the army for the courage of its citizens. At exchange of flags the cheers rang out again, and all the Grande Place was twinkling with little flags. Then came the march past of the troops, and that w r as what went most to the hearts of the crowds in Lille, for these were the men who had fought for them through four years of war, in fany battles, in dark days, through, fire and blood. They wore their steel helmets, and their jaws were square in the straps, these boys who never dreamed of soldiering five years ago. They came with their bands at the head of each battalion, and played Old English march tunes to the people of Lille, and then suddenly, as they passed the statue of Liberty, the “Marseillainse. ” It was as though some electric spark fired the crowd. They roset and cheered louder than before, with a shrill fervour, and then thousands of voices took up the old hymn, whicn once sang of ic\on and m*v sings of liberty and the love of France, and its music passed down the streets with a passion in it. The soldiers had flags in their belas and rifles and flowers on their guns and wagons. In Lille it was a day of festival and thanksgiving, and we saw the pride of England in its streets.