DARK DAYS IN ARRAS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2293, 29 October 1914, Page 5

DARK DAYS IN ARRAS

VIVID PICTURE OF RUINED CITY • ("Times" and Sydney "Sun" Services.) London, October 27. ' '£ correspondent who has visited Arras says;—"lt is the same tale.as of , a hundred "other towns, and. villages where the Prussians are feared. The dream is visible in the people's eyes. On the outskirts of the town hundreds, of women and girls can bo seen pushing perambulators and other light vehicles, old men stumbling wearily aloug, and, i childreu carrying chickens and ducks. On the approach of evening the refugees tear the straw stacks to pieces to build shelters from the wind andj-ain; ■ •"Inside the town the destruction wrought by German shells is visible overywhero. Tlioro is hardly an unbroken pane of class. Everywhere there is an acrid smell, distinctive • of burning houses. The scent of jiowder floating over from tho neighbouring French guns is almost invigorating compared with this heavy snioke. A few peopld slink about tho town. Tho majority are living in vast subterranean cavities, originally built under the town by tho monks. Venturesome spirits in the night time hand food and water to their imprisoned friends through the ventilators.