THOUGHTS ON THE FIELD

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13473, 2 May 1917, Page 2

THOUGHTS ON THE FIELD

NOBILITY OF THE FALLEN. I have to-day been to Beaucourt-sur-Ancre, and though I am now an old and tried soldier accustomed to every aspect of war, I am still capable of being infinitely moved by the M'ghts of a l>at.tlciicld. I have a drawing which I did of the valley of the Ancre as it was last summer, which I described to yon. 1 also have a drawing as it is to-day, a bitterly sad landscape with a winter mind, writes an officer in the London Times.

It is a curious thing to walk over enemy trendies that I hare watched 1 ke a tiger for weeks and weeks—but what of the boys who" took those trenches with their 11 rows of barbed vri ein front of them? I don't think I ever before to-day rated the British soldier at his proper value. His sufferings in this weather are indescribable; when he is not in the trenches his discoTiifoit? zr.c :--i\igV. te 'v' 11 ary. mortal, when he is in the trenches it is a mixture between the North and Hell; and yet when the moment comes he jumps up and charges at the impossible, and conquers it, and he is grateful to the country who feeds him and clothes him well enough to give him heart to die. Some of the poor fellows who lay there as they fell looked to me absolutely noble, and I thought of their families who were aching fur news of them, and hoping against hope that they would not be left unburied in their miserv.

All the loving and tender thoughts that are lavished on them are not enough. Therefor* no words can describe the large hearts of these men. God bless 'em. And what of the French on whose soil they lie ? Can they ever for. get the blood that is mingled with their own ? I hope not. I don't think England has ever had as much cause to be proud as she has to-dav.