FLYING BEFORE THE HUN ADVANCE.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 3940, 5 July 1918, Page 1

FLYING BEFORE THE HUN ADVANCE.

PATHETIC SCENES IN FRANCE,

A letter from an Australian soldier in France to a friend in the "Sunday Times" office iells of the heartrending scenes amongst the-French peasants fleeing in front of the German offensive.

"It's awful," he writes "to see the beautiful homes that have gone to ruin in a few days. As we came into action, and all the day previously, we were passing, aged men and women, kiddies, babies, cattle, sheep, and thousands of other things, going in the opposite direction. The women and girls for the most, part were crying bitterly, and I can tell you the, tears welled up in my own eyes. I've seen some distressing scenes since I've been fighting, but this was my worst experience. " I saw one particularly bad case. There was the husband, wife, and about five very pretty little kiddies, all girls. Hubby was wheeling a bar. row full of pots and pans, clothing, and odds and ends, while the wife—a mere girl, and very pretty—was: staggering under the weight of a" barrow-load of bed clothing. She sat down on the roadside evf.ry fp*v minutes and cried bitterly,-while the eyes of the kiddies, as they «■ traveled Ton behind, clutched their dolls and other cherished possessions, were red and swollen from sobbing. I felt so sorry for them that I hopped off the gun and put the last five-franc note I had in the hand of one of the little rmtes. "But I doubt if all the gold in France would compensate* *.hose people for having- to leave their homes and everything that was near ana dear to them." .