HARVEST TIME IN FRANCE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 253, 28 November 1914, Page 7

HARVEST TIME IN FRANCE.

Miss iC. Ward describes in '' Jus Suffragi" iier- impressions of the countrywomen in France. '' The order for mobilisation in France was read in the market place and posted on all public buildings on Friday evening, July 31, and Saturday, August 1. Groups of men and women clustered round and listened to the tounding news, hardly believing the evidence of eyes and ears for a"moment. The order was received with a deadly silence more eloquent and more full of feeling than would have seemed possible in gay and laughing France. The' air was charged with a suppressed fury that showed an intense realisation that this meant something inexpressibly terrible —there was no fear, no tion, no excitement, but a dull, deadly calm. Women turned away, still in silence, walked home with their husbands, sons, and sweethearts, packed their, Very few permissible belongings, and sentthem forward bravely—in many instances in less; than an hour after the call. I did not see a.single woman weep, though the tragig sijferice was more eloquent than any noisy demonstration could have l3een. Their country "needed their men; they obeyed their country's call, and sent them forward without protest, though many realised they would probably never see them again. The woman's part is certainly .the hardest in such cases. "Two days later came another proclamation, or, rather, a declaration couched in glowing terms/ expressing the cer-, tainty that the: women would aid in" the salvation of the country by gathering in the harvest," which -this year is Exceptionally good, and on which the nation must depend ■.for -its .food supply during the coming stress. To an Englishwoman this; appeared an almost'impossible task. The military authorities had requisitioned eVery horse, cart, carriage, ,and waggon, and though a few horses were returned; they were generally so old as to be almost useless. Did these women hesitate? Not a protest did one hear anywhere, but at 4 a.ni. the following morning \these. women —some with tiny children, others old grandmothers bent nearly double, some ladies not used to hard work—were in the fields doing all the work by hand. At 5.30 many of them went to the churches to inass, and then returned to the fields to work till dusk in the broiling heat of an exceptionally hot August. One.saw them

return at evening in no wise-east'down, but • still with that look of steady determination.;, and this will continue until the. necessary work is complete, without protest, without comment. It is just their part in the great war." ■ ~ .