UNDESTROYED VILLAGES FALL INTO HANDS OF BRITISH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16980, 14 October 1918, Page 5

UNDESTROYED VILLAGES FALL INTO HANDS OF BRITISH

REPORTS OF DAMAGE AT CAMBBAI EXAGGERATED. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, Oct. 11.

Mr. Philip Gibbs writes: Earlier reports of the damage caused by explosions at Cambrai prove to have been exaggeration. Th» damage is not extensive. The British have now taken, for the first time, undestroyed villages after traversing a 40-mile belt in which not a house remains intact. Beyond Villers Outreaux we found clean country, ploughed fields, and smooth roads. The inhabitants, still occupying the shops and houses, try to give utterance to their inexpresisible gratitude for their deliverance. We found 500 civilians in Sevigny, though all males between 16 and 60 years of ago had been deported. They told how the Germans stole everything valuable from their farms and houses, even curtains and linen. They killed fowls or fined the owners if fowls did not produce enough eggs. The Germans also requisitioned milk, butter, and vegetables, and even took lard and fats from the International Relief Committee's stores. The Germans ordered the people to flee at the approach of the British, but the > people took refuge in cellars while the Germans looted their houses and smashed the furniture. A priest at Selvigny states that he saw bombs affixed to a church on Tuesday, but he crept out at night and cut the wires so that the church was saved.