AFTER 14 YEARS

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10907, 7 August 1928, Page 5

AFTER 14 YEARS

OLD “ HELLFIRE CORNER ”

A PATHETIC PILGRIMAGE. United Press Assn —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON August 5. “Ypros lias become the headquarters of tl mu sands of men trying to keep an emotional appointment with the past. Aten who had not seen the Ypres Sector since the war gazing there to-day were dazed with stupefaction. Son:© were on the verge of tears when they saw it.” So says the Sunday Express correspondent. “Nature lias smothed out nian\s insanity. The ground which fallowed four yeans ploughed by the guns of Europe lis now hearing the richest crops in his history. Many ex-soldiers stood on th.e site of old dug-outs and wondered whether it was all a dream. They were comparing notes sittinr in cafes in th© Grand Place and tellinw how they went to seek old headquarters, and found shops selling camisoles and silk nighties, and even cheap little vulgar shops which had sprung up selling souvenirs of the Great W ar.

“Hellfire Corner” has become a tidy little farm with chickens running about.

The pilgrims, including over a thousand mothers, widows, and fiancees of soldiers headed by Lady Haig, were bewildered by the new town of Ypres/ “ ‘Hill Sixty’ is little changed. The past here is easily recallable. ‘A r imv Ridge,’ thanks to the Canadian Government. i,s exactly as it was. “Thiepval’ is still a place of skeleton trees. Occasionally muddy buttons and badges are prodded up. “But pilgrims seeking memories are finding them until their hearts ache—lying white rows in cemeteries like battalions on parade in lovely places of green turf and flowers. Though these bring many heartaches there is peace and beautv there, locked away from the world’s sorrows in earth which is “For Ever England,”