THE WAR ZONES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10962, 26 July 1921, Page 3

THE WAR ZONES

FRANCE & BELGIUM TO-DAY MARVELLOUS WORK OP RECONSTRUCTION. "LEST WE FORGET.” (By Miss Amy Kane.) ■To realise the meaning of the word le* construction one must visit the war zone. I have just returned from a second visit within three months to some, of the devastated areas of Prance and Belgium’* and the progress made in the ■work of reconstruction in that short space of time is impressive. Round Ypres, one of the worst areas, where the town was a mass of broken bricks and morter, the country a personification of Dante's "Inferno” less than two years ago, to-day there is orderliness, activity, even some small degree of comfort. As one drove along the roads last February men were working everywhere clearing the land. One one 6ide would be a ploughed field, a mass of barbed wire, old iron, etc., stacked as high as a house in one corner ready to be carted away, on the other are uncleared field, devastation unspeakable, shell 'holes full of stagnant water, and ground looking as though no plough had ever touched it, and men beginning to work upon it with fork and spade, for every foot of this ground has to be dug by 'hand first to clear the rubbish before a plough can be put on it. Just imagine, five hundred miles of battle front, ranging from five to ten miles in width, which the patient * 'farmers ' of France and Flanders have dug and cleared by hand, for 80 per cent, of the devastated areas are under cultivation this year. And the crops are in wonderful condition. Corn, breast high, newly planted vines everywhere, and everything growing in profusion, from land - wellmanured for five years by the blood of men and horses. THE MARKS OF WAR., Now and again one sees the lines of old trenches, mostly filled in now, or in the middle of a wiring -field of com an old rusted tank* too heavy to move, or a German pill box not yet blown up, or a cross marks a lonely grave, awaiting removal to one of ‘the hundreds of cemetries everywhere. The Graves Commission is doing wonderful work in concentrating these isolated graves, and in identifying those found whenever a field is cleared which is a work of much difficulty. •The number of those concrete strongholds, built by the Germans, christened "pill boxes” by the British troops, seems innumerable. They still number hundreds, and by them the battle line can still be traced. The size and strength has made the work of destroying them a long one, but gradually they are being blown up, and the debris used for road mending. And doubtless this will absorb all the stone available, for remaking the roads has been olfe of the most difficult and successful works of reconstruction^ A FAMOUS ROAD. In New Zealand we all remember the Menin road, under constant fire a for ye.ars. After being five times relaid it js one of the best in Belgium. That* portion of road running from Ypres to Kemmel Village, not very far is also in fine condition, but the amount of damage can be gauged by the fact that 700 men were employed for fifteen months remaking this few miles of roadway. But it is going to take as many years to repair what was the glory of these roads, their avenues of trees. Travellers in France everywhere find these fine lines of trees by the roadside, often meeting overhead like the nave of some great cathedral, and lending much to the joy of road travel. One of the most poignant sights in the war areas are the few bare stumps where formerly stood pleasant woods and fine avenues of trees. But the roadsides are rapidly losing this feature of war. The broken and limbless trees are being cut down for firewood, and already young saplings are planted in many places, promise of better things to come. Of course where time .will be required and money also is in the restoration of thg wrecked homes and-in-dustries. But alreadv wonderful strides have been * made. There is phenominaJ activity in the brickfields themselves, part of the battle area. Positively miles of bricks are to be seen stacked ready for firing. Many of them are of poor quality, sometimes .hand-made and sunbaked only, but they are material for the much needed homes, which many are building for themselves after the day's work in the fields is done. For at present the inhabitants are living in wooden huts, many old ai ay huts answering the pnrpose, patched up with iron from the cleared fields or anything handy. A ditch before the door serves as drainage, such as ever existed having been completely destroyed. The townsfolk of Ypres etill get their water in army waggons, but the finishing of the culvert is promised for next year. A PLUCKY PEOPLE?. The traveller about these areas cannot help but admire the pluck of these people. not only turned away from tneir homes during war time, but coming back to live for years in the greatest discomfort in a one or two-roomed huty carrying water, sometimes long 'distances, washing in the open- living and working under harder conditions than gny ’of ‘ dur pioneer settlers, and this at an*uge when the average New Zealander would be thinking of retiring from hard work, Even in this direction one marvels at what has bqen accomplished. Ih the mining villages near Lens, where already several newly, sunk coal shafto-are working (the old ones were all blown up by the Germans) there- are. .streets -of neat new brick cottages. In the villages in Belgium dozens of houses have been started during the last few months, and others finished. In February last, passing through wh%t was once the village ,of Paa9chen<daele, a mound of rubbish with a few blades of grass already sprouting on it, was pointed out as the remains of the church. In May that mound was cleared, bricks neatly stacked on either side of the foundations, which could ibe clearly seen with the broken pillars in the floor, all ready for rebuilding. By a referendum among these people thedr churches are to be among the first buildings restored. Meantime the sight of church services in the open air (a confirmation service was taking place at Kernel in the rain as we passed through) or in wooden hutments, is a strange sight in these old world parts. "THE HOME BEAUTIFUL.” Even in these trying circumstances one sees the attempt to beautify their homes, usual among tneee hard-working French peasants. The barest hut . has a tiny garden planted round it and clean curtains adorn its apology for a window. At Arras, though one dined in a room where the glass was still shattered and the walls spotted with shrapnel marks and one side of the courtyard was a wreck, the gardener was planting out flowers in the centre. And everything is to be rebuilt, what courage that determination conveys can only be realised on eeeing the extent of building required, for it will take many years. But it will be accomplished, the spirit of the people is Arm on the matter, and if only the Allies stand firm on the question of reparation, in a few years time there may be little to tell that the most devastating war in hist cry raged over! this fair land. Except the cemeteries. | they will remain always ns places of pilgrimage for our people, "Lest we Forget.”