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Press, Volume LV, Issue 16422, 16 January 1919, Page 6

The opening of the Peace Conference makes it appropriate to renew the suggestion we put forward some weeks ago that adequate preparations should' bo made beforehand for tho proper celebration in Christehurch of the signing ofi the Peace Treaty. We commend, in this respect, to the consideration of tho Mayor and tho C ity Council the example that has been >;et by Wellington, where the City Council has already adopted) plans for a three-days' celobration onl a scale worthy of the occasion. The only defect of any consequcnco that we see in tlio Wellington plans is that they aro set, Tor definite days of the week—Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday—which means that if the news of tho signing of the treaty were received early in the week, tho public -would have to waiti several days before beginning to celebrato the event. This, we think, is asking a little too much of human nature. •Special religious services should certainly form a part of tho proceedings, but .they might well be held Sunday

following the other celebrations, allowing these to begin on the receipt of the news.

From now onwards, possibly for a month or two, Paris will be the scene of the greatest conference that has ever assembled —a conference that may mark the beginning of a new era in international relations. Paris is reported to be full of visitors and officials from all parts of the world, and this may well be the case, for six -weeks ago it was estimated that, including the officials accompanying the delegates, the personnel of the Conference "would number close on a thousand. Newspaper correspondents from the four corners of the earth will have gathered there in scores, and there will doubtless be present also innumerable people anxious to "assist," even in the remotest way 4 ab this memorable gathering. The delegates themselves are to be lodged, it was stated, in the Grand Trianon, and for the British officials the British Government have taken the Majestic Hotel. The Food Ministry was to undertake the catering for them, in consequence of the fabulous prices demanded by hotelkeepers, and tho House of Commons lias lent many of its servants for the purpose. <, The Conference itself, according to latest reports, is to bo held in the Hall, or Gallery, of Mirrors at Versailles, tho palace built m tho 17th century by Louis XIV., tho "Graind Monarch," i whero he maintained the most gorgeous j Court in Europe. A recent description of the Hall of Mirrors, which was the ballroom of the palace, states that it is 240 ft long, 35ft wide, and 42ft high, andt lavishly embellished by the most famous painters and sculptors of tho day. Seventeen large arched windows command a view of the beautiful gardens, and opposite each is a great Venetian mirror set in a sculptured frame. The walls are faced with marble, covered with gilded trophies, artd adorned with statues in arches, while the great vaulted ceiling is filled with frescoes. » One incident, out of many, makes tho meeting of the Peace Conference in this Hall of Mirrors peculiarly appropriate in the eyes of Franco. It was in that room that tho preliminaries of tho treaty that closed the Franco-Prussi:m war were accepted in February, 1871, forty-eight years ago. That treaty robbed defeated Franco of Alsace and Lorraine; the treaty th'at will bo signedj there in the course of a few weeks will confirm her re-possession of tho "lost provinces." It "was at Versailles, also, that the Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and her revolting American colonies was signed in 1783. and thero the parties to that treaty now meet in the closest accord to frame a treaty which it is hoped will restore to the world that liberty which is the common ideal of both.

While th 6 question of a suitable memorial to coinmemorato our part in the great war is being so much discussed Jocally, it may bo of interest to mention a form of memorial -which a French lady, Mdllc. Soubeiran, recently suggested at a meeting of the French-Aus-tralian League of Help in Sydney. She pointed out that now the war was over, France was in greater need of help than over, for' tho people who had formerly lived in the invaded territory woro turning homewards again. If, she said, the whole of Australia joined in an effort, in which' everyone gave a little, it would he possible to rebuild Pozieres as a monument to Australia that would last throughout the ages. There would bo great appropriateness in such a movement, for Pozieres was the scene of one of the Australians' earliest and most brilliant victories in France, and outside the ruined little town are buried the remains of over five thousand of Australia's sons. From what was said by others at the meeting, it seems possible that the idea of rebuilding the I town for France will' be taken up.