SCARS OF WAR.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17219, 30 September 1927, Page 2

SCARS OF WAR.

REMARKABLE HEALING. NO FLANDERS POPPIES NOW. Dr. Coiquhoun, New Zealand Red Cross Commissioner in London, who recently attended a meeting of the League of Red Cross Societies in Paris, writes of his journey there as follows— “I went by way of Belgium, and spent a few days in and about Bruges, visiting Zeebrugge and the district about Ypres. Zeebrugge about twelve miles from Bruges, shows few signs of war. It is situated on a flat, sandy coast looking out on the. North Sea. A long mole, still with German block houses of concrete and one shattered gam used by the Germans against aircraft, is united to the mainland by an iron bridge which was destroyed during the British attack. Twisted iron girders beneath the new bridge are the only signs of that attack. The sea way is open to traffic with other ports—only some relics of the Vesta sunk in the channel, can be seen at low tide. At the short end of the mole a museum containing a complete history of the U boat campaign lias been formed. It contains reproduction of the quarters occupied by the U boat officers before and after their raids. Here are many flags, ships' hells, chronometers, etc., taken from sunken ships, models of men in protective uniform, photographs and plans of Zeebrugge during the by the Vindictive, runny manscripts and drawings dealing with all the phases of German occupation. 200 British Cemeteries. “In and about Zeebrugge and in ail the parts occupied by Germans during the war, behind the actual field of operations, no damage was done io towns or villages. The country houses, villages and fields are much as they were before the war. This part of the country is fiat, carefully cultivated, With good roads, llanked by rows of poplars and other trees. As we approached the Yser Canal and Dixmude and Ypres, only recently planted trees could he seen —every bouse and village had been rebuilt, a wood blasted by poison gas, where 3000 Belgians lost their lives, is a melancholy relic of war, and cemeteries containing the dead of Allies and Germans are numerous. The Belgian Government has given to the British the land on which their dead are lying. There are 200 of these cemeteries, containing 250,000 British dead, 50,000 more are not yet gathered in. and almost daily at Hill GO and elsewhere bodies are found. We stopped at the cemetery known as Essex Farm and walked through it. It is, our guide, an cx-Brilish officer, told us, eared for in the same way as ail the others.' Ex-soldiers keep the graves in order, and flowers arc planted everywhere. Over each grave is a durable monument of Derby stone, with the name of its occupant—in many cases “to an unknown soldier,” with below this inscription. “Known to God,” an addition suggested, we were told, by Kipling. Hill GO, .famous in the war—it was taken by the British from German occupation, by mining, and was held throughout the war, although the Germans lost 10,000 men in trying to retake it —is the only part of the battlefield which has been left as it was in 1918. It is a very little hill, a mere elevation of a few feet, rising from the plain. No doubt some of it was blown away by continual bombardment. The ground is full of shell holes, and barbed wire makes walking difficult. Peasants and their children offer “relics” and every turn of . the spade’brings up something of the kind. Passchendaele ridge, in the distance, brings back other memories. The visitor is more impressed, however, with the way in which most of the land has been brought back into careful cultivation. No poppies grow in flanders fields now. The characteristic of the Flemish peasant and farmer which strikes everyone is his careful handiwork. Every field is cultivated, free of weeds, and has its appropriate crop. The houses are clean and neat —the children and adults healthy and neatly dressed. Ypres Entirely Rebuilt. "Ypres has been entirely rebuilt in substantial brick —with wide streets and handsome buildings. The commission which made the awards to the ruined districts out of the first friuts of the German indemnity, have been liberal, some say lavish, in their allowance for new houses and farm ipaterial —but if their work had not been seconded by a hardy and industrial people there could have been no such resurrection as is to be seen to-day. In Ypres the Cloth Hall, one of the finest medieval buildings in Europe, remains as it was after the bombardment of four years. It had long ceased to be a place of exchange, and was kept as a historical monument. Whether it can ever be rebuilt is doubtful—it may be kept as it is, a few straggling walls of stone, as a monument of what war can do to a peaceful country. “We visited the emplacement of the gun known as ‘Long Mac,’ which bombarded Dunkirk, 28 miles away, and did a good deal of damage. It was of the same model as ‘Bertha,’ which bombarded Paris, and these two guns, capable of sending shells 38 miles, were intended for the Channel, where they could attack shipping and send shells into Kent. The emplacement carefully camouflaged is very strong—a roof of concrete ten feet thick, sheltered the gunners—the gun lies in a deep pit, and was worked by electricity. Some idea of the force exerted at each firing of .the gun may he guessed from the fact that at the first firing out of a crowd of men who surrounded the gun in the space round the pit in which it lay, more than 50 were killed by the concussion of the air. They are buried in the compound. Afterwards the gun was discharged from a distance by electricity. “On their retreat the Germans tried to destroy the big gun, hut failed —it now lies in its pit, rusting and expos-