DEVASTATED FARMS

Otago Witness, Issue 3277, 3 January 1917, Page 12

DEVASTATED FARMS

HELP FOR THE FRENCH. (Fnoii Oub Own Cobbespondsnt.) LONDON, October 10. A wide appeal is b< ing made throughout the British Kmpiro tor help to re-establish the French whoso tarms have been devastated by military operations. Recently a deputation representing the British Committee for the Agricultural Relief of the Allies paid a visit to the war zone, one of the members being Mr Charles Elgar, of Isew Zealand. The proceedings of the deputation were confidential, but Dr Robertson, who represented Canada, has now made a fairly complete statement of the result of the investigation.

He says: "What is left of the rural population lias begun the work of reconstruction. For example, at Sommeilles, there are many temporary hut dwellings, probably 12ft by 24ft in size. In front of one of these a Canadian mowing machine was observed, one of the recent gifts of the British committee. From the bits of ruins of the front and walls of the Town Hall one could estimate that it had been a commodious place of considerable dignity. Not any part of the walls as such may constitute part of a new structure.

" Meanwhile the residents have erected, at a cost of some £250, a very plain, simple building, with one room for the town business, two rooms for the school, and small living apartments for the teacher. The women and children who are carrying on their simple tasks were examples of how resolutely these people are making the best of things for themselves. The personal appearanco of those remaining gave the impression that, although they have been impoverished by loss of property, they have been enriched in bearing and spirit. I did not see one woman or child who was not neatly clad." The devastation of village property was not less severe in the Somme region than at the Marno. It is very difficult to imagine how tho land is ever to be used again for agricultural purposes, where trenches have been dug or mines sprung, or where tho bombardment has been particularly fierce. In several places mine craters extended for two or three hundred yards, and they were as deep and wide as the space between the ridges of two-storey houses on each side of an ordinary street. Dr Robertson suggests that, as this terrain has been consecrated by the valour and heroism of thousands of men, it may eventually become a forest park to remind Europe for all time of the might of justice and the valour of men. APPEAL FOR HELP.

Dr Robertson says that the farming population of the British Empire have not suffered at all, whereas many of the French have lost everything. They need seeds, live stock, agricultural implements and tools to enable them to resume farming. Farmers need help to set up temporary homes, small ready-made houses to tide them over for a time. They require kitchen equipment, and they require clothes for men, women, and children. v

"It is expected that the overseas dominions will do their part in this humane and important work. There are special reasons why Canadians should be particularly interested in France. There are over one million and a-half of Canadians of French origin whoso mother tongue is the French language. "On this side of the ocean people in Britain and Franco wonder why they did not spring to the side of their Mother Country as the British born (native Canadian, English, Irish, Scotch, and Welsh) rallied round their Mother Country. There has been amazement at the apparent indifference of French Canadians to the fate of Franco and to the fate of modern civilisation in Europe."