MR. HUGHES IN FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1921, Page 5

MR. HUGHES IN FRANCE.

TOUR OF BATTLEFIELDS. RECONSTRUCTION OF VILLAGES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn Copyright London, August 24. Mr. W. M. Hughes, on his tour through the battlefields, found conditions vastly different from those on his previous visit, when the guns werfe roaring and signs of the destruction of tnen and material were everywhere. The countryside is now peaceful, (though battle-scarred. Labor gangs fcre busy reconstituting the villages, though it will be many years before the mins are completely effaced. Roads have been the first consideration, and they are in surprisingly good repair, not indicating the eroding traffic of war time.

Several acres were purchased on a hill overlooking the Villers Bretonneaux battlefield with the view of erecting a monument costing £lOO,OOO. Recent reports, however, were against the site, which is unfrequented and invisible from the main road. Mr. Hughes de itermined to see for himself and inspected every viewpoint. He dislikes departing from the settled plan, but the Weight of opinion is against the site. Jdr. Hughes deferred his decision. Speaking at Bonnay, Mr. Hughes said it was a privilege to unveil the noble Emblem of the Cross of Sacrifice to the jnemory of the heroes who fell there in the war, the majority of whom were Australians. Yea* by year Australians were coming to the distant country on p l27 images to the graves, and they < view the monuments through tears of gratitude. This significant emblem symbolised Australia’s homage to her magnificent soldiers, who were among the foremost, bravest and most devoted in the titanic struggle against the oppressor?. Many of them slept there in the soil of France, gratefully and generously consecrated in perpetuity to their memory by the French Ration.