NEW ZEALANDERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 250, 17 October 1918, Page 5

NEW ZEALANDERS

SCENES IN CAPTURED VILLAGES DELIVERY OF THE FRENCH. NEW ZEALANDERS* EXPERIENCES. i(Special from the Official N.Z. War ( Correspondent.) (By Cable.) October 10. Continuing their advance to-day, after ocupying Fontaine and Beauvois, the Otago and Canterbury troops, swinging to the right, captured Herpigtcea Farm, and. are now at Viesly and.on the Mils overlooking Seile River. From the" heights beyond the Cambrairoadwe saw Qnievy burning, and still farther oil there were fires about, Solesmes. These are most probably dumps that the enemy cannot get away. In to-day's advance our men had practically no lighting. In the captured villages, where we found. French civilians, there were memorable scenes- "We, found some who had been for ten days hiding in cellars and living on potatoes in order to escape the Boche captivity. Daily they could hear the of our guns coming nearer, but they judged our advance best by the fact that, whereas the enemy balloons were gradually going further back, the English balloons came day by day nearer. The inhabitants of the liberated villages greeted our soldiers with tears of joy in their eyes. This morning, when they first saw the New Zealandere advancing, they felt sorry for them, as they thought they must bo prisoners. Theq they noticed that they were carrying rifles, and slowly it dawned on them that, after four years of bondage, their deliverers had arrived. One old lady of over 80, who is still young in heart and quick-witted, darted with. joy. A husband meeting his wife later asked if she had seen the New Zealantters entering the village. "Yes," she replied j "I kissed the first one I saw."

There were strange scenes in Cau-dry-It is a town, of considerable size, but only two thousand civilians, are Jeft in it to-day. Tri-colour flags that had been bidden- away for years, or were hurriedly made in anticipation of relief, were flying from many buildings. The town was not greatly damaged, but in the anger of his impending retreat the Boche had smashed furniture and mirrors, clocks, aud .a hundred other articles in private houses. One woollen factory that we went through had all the looms recently broken. The Germans had. evidently gone right along the lines of looms with hammers, smashing as they went v Yet the building, even to the glass roof, was; untouched by shell-fire. The inhabitants complained of the severity of their treatment by the iu>vaders, and one heard, stories of young women taken away from their own villages that one 'would rather not believe. People of Caudry were well w clothed, and were certainly not starved; but for their food, they were, except for what they could. grow, indebted to the American and Spanish Committee. The Germans entered their houses at any time and took from" them any little store of surplus food they might have acnmulated. They made the girls work in the factories, nominally for two and a-half francs per day; but the committee was ultimately made to pay. A few days ago they took away all able-bodied males between ages of fifteen; and sixty, to work behind the German lines. They wanted at first to take even boys of fourteen. Some of the soldiers became arrogant and brutal a few days before their retirement. Some soldiers insulted a young girl in the main square, and on her father. remonstrating he was bound with ropesIh. one street we saw numerous red crosses on houses. This was a street in which all the sick had been herded, so that the enemy might shell or burn: the rest of the town. They were now retiring to their own homes- in other streets, for. the enemy had not time to greatly damage this town. When the enemy saw that he had to retreat he started looting, and carried away anything of value that he could possibly take. One maii who had been in •Gambrai said that latterly the discipline' of the Germans had in many cases become poor. He himself saw 700 men with their officers who had refused to fight marched back to Cambrai. The German soldiers got- meat only when they were in the front lino; none when they were in rest. One man spoke in admiration of the wonderful bravery of the British aviators. They flew right down over the houses, firing at .croups of soldiers, showing no fear. There was one wonderfully successful exploit, when an aviator hit a train of fifty trucks and sat-" on-fire an enormous dump of foodand other stores. It was one of the biggest German udraps in France. To-day all the troops were in high spirits-. It is a strange experience for them, well behind the Hindenburg line, to come suddenly upon vil'lages with the houses almost undestroyed, and to be joyously treated by people they themselves have delivered from bondage.