NEW YPRES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 August 1928, Page 5

NEW YPRES

"LIKE A DREAM"

BRITISH EX=SOLDIERS AMAZED

PEACE-TIME CHANGES

United Press Association—By Eleotrio Telegraph—Copyright. Australian Press Association

LONDON, sth August, "Ypres has become, the headquarters of thousands of men trying to keep an emotional appointment with the past. Men who had not seen the Ypres sector since the war, gazing there to-day, were dazed with stupefaction. Some were on the verge of tours when they saw it," says the "Sunday Express" correspondent.

"Nature has smoothed out'man's insanity. Ground which was fajlowed for four years and ploughed by the guns of Europe, is now bearing the richest crops in its history. "Many ex-soldiers stood on the site of 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 a*nd found shops selling camisoles and silk-nighties, and even cheap little vulgar shops which had sprung up, selling souvenirs of the Great War. 'Hcllfire Corner' has become a tidy little farm with chickens running about. "The pilgrims, including over 1000 mothers, widows, and fiancees of soldiers, headed by Lady Haig, were, bewildered by the new Ypres town. Hill 60 is little changed and the past is easily recallable. Vimy Ridge, thanks to the Canadian Government, is exactly as it was. Thiepoal 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, lying in white rows in the cemeteries like battalions on parade, in lovely places, with green turf and flowers. Though these bring heartaches, there is peace and beauty there, locked away from world's, sorrows in earth which is for ever England."