YPRES COMMEMORATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18235, 31 October 1922, Page 8

YPRES COMMEMORATION.

FIRST OBSERVANCE TO-DAY. GREAT BATTLES IN DISTRICT Ypres Day will be observed to-day for the first time. The Ypra League, of which the King is patron-jn-chief, and Field-Marshal the Earl of Ypres, betterknown as Lord French, the president, will in fv-ure commemorate on October 31 the great battles fought in the Ypres district. The motto of the luague is " Forget," and one of its aims is the cementing of comradeship of all who fought at Yp:res, and of relatives of those who died there. It is proposed to erect, in conjunction with the Belgian authorities, a house in the town for the accommodation of persons visiting the graves and battlefields nearby. The principal military operations which took place in the vicinity of Yprej between October, 1914, and October, 1918, fall into three division*. The first was a powerful German otfensive, a counteratroke to £ne battle of (the Yeer. This was a very definite effort to capture Ypres. Tno part of the Allied armies was at that time purely defensive. The second stage was marked by a British and Franco-British offensive, in which tioops from the Dominions played a leading part. This was begun in the latter half of 1916, and developed considerably during the numm-ar and autumn of the following ye&ir. The object of these operations, which ended in November, 1917, whs the clearing of Ypres. This object was obtained and the plains of Flanders were opened to this AUits. A final effort to capture the town was made by the Germans in great strength in 1918, and was checked t>y the .Mlies in April of that year. In September and October, 1918, the enemy troops, under the pressure of the victorious Allied offensive, finally evacuated the country.