RECITALS IN WAR ZONE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10086, 27 September 1918, Page 6

RECITALS IN WAR ZONE

INTERESTING EXPERIENCES ENTERTAINING THE SOLDIERS UNDER FIRE. Mr Alexander Watson, tho popular reciter, returned to New Zealand by this week’s Sydney boat. During his stay in the Old Country, Mr Watson did'a considerable amount of war work in the way of giving recitals, not only in the various military camps and hospitals in Britain, but also in many places in France, so a “Times” representative took advantage of his presence in Wellington to interview him in regard to his experiences. ‘‘l gave,” he said, “eighty recitals at the front alone. I was. out there for just a trifle over three months. I went out undep- the auspices of tho Y.M.C.A., quite alone, just doing ?ay ordinary recital work. Voluntary work, of course. I was taken to quite out-of-the-way spots that few civilians up to that time had ever been in. I, therefore, got a good few experiences that I had never in my wildest dreams expected. AT THE FOOT OF KEMMEL HILL. “I was taken out to the Ypres sector first, and spent a considerable time there, giving recitals in the various towns and tallages our men were occupying. While in that sector I gave two recitals at the foot of Kemmel Hill, which has figured largely in the recent fighting, and where, I ithins, New Zealanders wore engaged. After tho first recital at the foot o? the hill two German shells came over and dropped in a wood unpleasantly close by. After one of The recitals, I was taken up the hill to get a view of the German lines. My recitals were given the whole of the time in the shell zone. Not that I want to make out that I ran any very great risks. They took every care of me, as a matter of fact, but it was quite a novelty and very interesting to give one’s recitals under such circumstances. I visited Armentieres, and stayed there also for some time. It was there that I mot the New Zealand forces. I gave three recitals there to audiences composed entirely of New Zealanders. While I was staying at fiirquinglicm, on tho Lys, where there has also been a lot of fighting in recent months, 1 was billeted in a house near a school building which was, in 'tho early days of tho war, the. Crown Prince’s headquarters; and whilst there I walked over one day in company with an Australian Y.M.O.A. man, to give a recital at Rue Merle, which is a suburb of Armentieres, and where were situated the brigade headquarters of General Fulton, one of your New Zealand generals. While wo .wore walking over to Rue Merle, the Germans started shelling dangerously near the road that we were on. Evidently they were trying to got some of our guns, which were very cleverly camouflaged in the neighbourhood. It is perfectly wonderful what they do now in that way to conceal guns- Some of our most prominent British artists have been at work on camouflaging. PLEASANT YET SAD REMINISCENCE.

“My companion was rather nervous about walking that road 'back again to dUr billets at Hrquinghem, so he rang up to ask brigade headquarters if they could lend us a car so that we could make a long detour and avoid the shell neighbourhood. Ho told them toy name, and a voice came /back. ‘ls that the gentleman I heard recite in Wellington two years ago?/ ‘Yes,’ was the answer. ‘Bring him along. 1 would like to see him, will send a car with pleasure.’ said the voice. It turn, ed «ut to be Captain Purdie (son of Lieutenant-Colonel Dr Purdie'), to whom I had been introduced after one of my Wellington recitals. That is a reminiscence which is exceedingly pleasant vet exceedingly sad. .1 had a chat with him. and General Pulton came in. Captain Purdie introduced me to him. and General Fulton asked me to stay to dinner, but I could not do that. He placed his car at my disposal, however, and wo went back to JSrquinghcra in style. General Fulton was exceedingly kind in what ho said about mv work. He said that I was of real service to the men in taking their minds off, theif inli for a time. While on ray way to Australia from Canada, just after leaving Auckland, I was looking over files of the ‘New Zealand Times,’ and was greatly shocked to too the annoo.nccmunts of the deaths of both General "Fulton and Captain Purdie.

“ Armen tierea at the time I was there was right on the line, always under shell lire more or less, a very smi.stoj spot. After visiting the Somme battlefields. 1 proceeded to Amiens, and gave a recital to the wounded and medical staff of the Now Zealand hospital then located there. • And, bv the way, talking about Amiens reminds me of another very remarkable incident, which shows .how in this war romance comes into the lives of men whose civilian occupations were of a very monotonous and commonplace character. I was sitting in some public gardens at Amiens when two soldiers passed, one a New Zealander and the other a Britisher. I saw the New Zealander say something to his companion, and he then came up to mo and said, ‘Excuse me, you are Mr Alexander Watson?’ I pleaded guilty. ‘Yon were staying in Wellington in 1914. You were at the Empire Hotel?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘1 wou|d liko to shako hands with you, • said the soldier. ‘I was "hoots” there.’ He told me that he had been torpedoed in the Mediterranean, that ho had been in Egypt and at the Gallipoli landing; and now he was engaged in fighting in Franco and Flanders. A marvellous ARRAS OOTOTYAKU. “Amongst other places,” added Mr Watson, "I was in Bethuno and Albert, the latter famous then lor its golden Virgin hanging over at right angles to the tower of the church. A ghastly hole 1 I also stayed m Arras, which was a great oxeprience. h ' va s there that I -gave a recital to British soldiers at night in the courtyard o an 18th century mansion. ‘ihe centre of the courtyard, instead of being, as usual, a flat, grassy plot, was a high, grassy mound, on which the soldiers hod build a stage for me and covered it with camouflaging, so that it could not be seen by the hostile aeroplanes. They had also arranged lights, witu kerosene reflectors to throw the light on mo, but not outside. The audience was ranged all round the courtyard and in the windows of the three sides of the mansion overlooking the courtyard. Beyond the stage all was dense darkness. I could not see the audience, except, now and again, tor

the glow Of a cigarette; and, f* course, the much-valued applause also showed that they were there at uas a very curious experience giung a 1 oital to black darkness. I was jus going to recite ‘The Highwayman,, by Alfred Noyes, when the British guns began to speak, and I changed it to Tennyson's ‘Siege of Lucknow, to the accompaniment of our guns, “ occasional German gun. I'doubt it the poem has ever before been recited to such fin appropriate accompaniment* Strangely enough, the bombardment started'just as 1 was starting, ana finished just when the last word «a. ottered; just as if it. had all -been prearranged. , „ ■ “X gave recitals under all sorts ot strange conditions. Perhaps the strangest of all wa s that I delivered ono recital on ; a battlefield on ground which only a very short time before was in the hands of tho Germans, has since been in their hands, and now is in our hands once more—to remain in them, I hope. That was a battlefield near Fricourt. TWO OUTSTANDING IMPRESSIOMS “I think tho two outstanding impressions ono gets at the front—it has been mentioned again and again by othenf, but ono could not but bo impressed by them—are the imperturbability of the French peasants, who go on doing their ordinary, everyday work under shell fire, and the astonishing cheerfulness of all our armies under the most appalling conditions. The men formed the best audiences I ever had in my life, or ever shall have.”