SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 13 June 1918, Page 17

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

• ♦> GENERAL. Lieut. Auatole Jousse, a French Jesuit priest, exiled from his native land before the beginning of the war, but who returned to his regiment after war was declared, was a guest at Georgetown (U.S.A.) University last week (states the Brooklyn Tobht of April 27). From Washington he will go to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to instruct American artillery officers. Father Jousse lectured before the students of the University last Friday, describing the preparations and scenes attending an artillery engagement. lie told the students of his first battles and of his efforts to crack the German pill boxes, from which linn gunners operate with dread effectiveness against the Allied battle line. Father Jousse was awarded the Gross of the Legion of Honor in 1915. lie also has been decorated with the French War Cross and mentioned for bravery in action. When the war started he was teaching in England. The correspondent of the Associated Press with the American Army in France cabled on April 17 as fol-lows:—-“Commanders of units who participated in the several days of fighting last week in company with the French, in the Apremont wood sector, are finding it difficult to pick out men who especially distinguished themselves in the operations. One commander said that every man acted like a hero, and it was hard to choose the most deserving cases. One of the most popular men with the soldiers on this sector is Rev. des Valles, a Catholic priest of New Bedford, Mass., who is living with the men in an unofficial capacity, he having come to France as a representative of the Knights of Columbus. “When the attacks began Father des Valles, braving the dangers of shell and machine-gun fire, went to the casualty clearing station near the front line to administer to the wounded, lie assisted in dressing the injuries of the soldiers and gave each man a word of cheer, lie handed out cigarettes to the men who smoked. ' lie’s as game as they make them, and every inch a soldier,’ said a soldier, while

other soldiers spoke of the inspiration furnished by the priest. Most Rev, Edward J. Hanna, Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, opened the United States Senate on Monday, April 22, with the following prayer: O God of our fathers, in whose hands are the lives of men, and in whose power is the destiny of the Nation, look down upon Thy children gathered here in Thy name. In the way of Thy love Thou hast again visited this body and taken from it one whose power was our glory. Make us recognise that with Thee are the issues' of life and death. Make us submissive to the decree of Thy divine providence. Thou alone can bring strength, to those who mourn. Thou alone can bring peace to hearts oppressed by grief and pain. O grant that his loved ones may find strength in Thee to bear their loss. Grant that his loved ones may, through (heir tears, look rip to Thee as the only source of joy and consolation. Chosen representatives of a mighty people, we come to Thee in the most crucial day in the history of our civilisation. O give ns light, that we may see Thy way among the nations. Give us strength that we may follow the light whithersoever it

may be. Make our laws reflect Thy divine wisdom, any may they direct the issues of this world into Thy greater glory. Give strength unto our President and to those in whose hands are the affairs of our mighty people. We pray, above all things, that they may have strength and power to endure and to fight to the end. Give strength to our men who, in fields afar, battle for our rights. Give' strength to their arms that they may win victory, and that, through victory, there may come peace. And grant, O Lord, that in the days of peace we may grow in power and righteousness and unto the glory of Thy holy name. Amen.

THE CROSS AT NEUVE CHAPELLE. Whatever may be our views about the erection of crucifixes by the wayside and at the crossroads, no one can deny that they have had an immense influence for good on our men during the war in France.” This declaration is made (states the Ave Maria) by Thomas liplady in an article— an exceptionally illuminating and well-written one—contributed to the current number of the Atlantic Monthly. (‘‘The Cross at Neuve Chapelle. ) In explanation of the influence thus exerted, he says: — The Cioss has interpreted life to the soldier, and has provided him with the only acceptable philosophy JT 16 war It has taught boys just entering upon life s experience that, out-topping all history and standing out against the background of all human life, is a Cross on which died the Son of God. It has made the hill of Calvary stand out above all other hills in history. . . Against the sky-line of human history the Cross stands clearly, and all else is in shadow The wayside crosses at the front and the flashes of roaring guns may not have taught our soldiers much history, but they have taught them the central fact of history ; and all else will have to accommodate itself to that, or be disbelieved. The Cross of Christ is the centre of the picture for evermore, and the aroupiim of all other figures must be about it. To the soldiers it can never again be made a detail in some other picture. Seen also in the light, of their personal experience, it has taught them that, as a cross lies at the . basis of the world’s life and shows bare at every crisis of national and international life, so at the root of all individual life is a cross. They have been taught to look for it at every parting of the ways. Suffering to redeem others and make others happy will now be seen as the true aim of life, and not the graspiim of personal pleasure or profit. They have stood where high explosive shells thresh out the corn from the chaff he true / 10111 the false. They have seen facts in a light that exposes things stark and bare; and the cant talked by sceptical armchair philosophers will move housetops ” tt e aS the chitterin S of sparrows on the Referring to the cross at Neuve Chapelle, a village of which nothing is now left save the solitary figure of our Blessed Lord looking across the waste of -No-Man s Land, Mr. Tiplady writes- . . “And when the battle of Neuve Chapelle was rimmg, and the wounded, whose blood was tuniiim red he grass, looked up at Him, what thoughts must"have been theirs then? Did they not feel that He was their big Brother, and remember that blood had flowed from if 1111 as from them; that pain had racked Him as it racked them: and that He thought of His Mother and of Nazareth as they thought of their “fj Wh fl !n cottage they were “never to Se again? When their throats became parched and their bps swollen with thirst, did they not remember how a ’ ; h , d f ied . for water? ‘ And, above all, did hey not call to mind the fact that He might have for e Hi HimSe i f ’ a ' they m i§ht > if He had cared more for His own happiness than for the world’s? As their spmts passed out through the wounds in their bodies svould they not ask Him to remember them as the now homeless souls knocked at the gate of His King, n™ ? Sit e ? v t0 ° d by them a " through the long and around Hm .' llUrr Calies of shells swept over and

The article concludes with these solemn words, evidently written with deep conviction of their truth The Cross of Christ is the arbiter, and our attitude toward decides our fate. I have seen the attitude of our soldiers toward the Cross at Neuve Chapelle, and toward that for which it stands; and I find more comfort in their reverence for Christ and Christianity than in all their guns and impediments of war. The Cross of Christ towers above the wrecks of time; and those nations will survive which stand beneath its protecting ” U the trenches of righteousness, liberty, and The Rev. Thomas Tiplady, the Methodist chaplain of a British regiment, is the author of two volumes of war sketches. Many passages of both afford proof that sectarian prejudice has waned, at least where guns are thundering. We gladly do the justice of saying that unlike a great many who profess the Christian haith, he has strong faith in it. The Ave Maria then goes on to quote the following from the same writer “In peace time the music of the church bells had floated out over the rolling downs and through the sleeping valleys that lie around the village. As the people ploughed the laud, gathered in the corn, or tended the stock, the sound of the bells came to them as a voice from Heaven. On the first day of each new week they had left their fields at the sound of the music, and, donning their best garb, had sought in t ie church the absolution of their sins, and a fresh start. , Mothers, Poking on the picture of the Virgin and Child, had felt a new sacredness in the duties of motherhood. Fathers had gazed upon the crucifix, and become reconciled to a life of self-renouncing labor for t ieii offspring. Children had looked upon the picture of the angels surrounding the ascending Lord, and felt the power and glory of the world to come. All had listened to the simple words of the village priest, and been reminded that they were but pilgrims, and must set their affections on the things which are beyond the chances and changes of this mortal life. Even Napoleon, Bourrienne tells us, wept one evening when he heard the bells of a village church. They reminded him of a little church in Corsica which he had attended when a boy. The churches of our childhood may be destroyed, but not their music. The bells will still linger among the ruins.”