TILLING THEIR PLOTS IN THE DEATH ZONE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3155, 6 August 1917, Page 7

TILLING THEIR PLOTS IN THE DEATH ZONE

BELGIAN PEASANTS aiNG TO THEIR HOMES . PATHETIC SCENES . f i (From Malcolm Ross, Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces in the Field.) ...'..'■',■ Belgium, Juno 5. In jEhe little corner of Belgium that Temafns unencumbered by; the enemy I made several journeys with a Liaison, officer. witE tho Now Zealand Division. He .himsGir has greatly siifferod at the hands of ffie invader. But on , this beautiful warm spring morning of whioh, I now write he was •]cs3 ' concerned ' with his own troubles • .than with those:of the Belgian peasants in an'area that was being shelled, and - that was likely, in the very near; future, . K-be; much more shelled... A winding Toad through unfenced' fields in ■» hich. the corn" was springing took us to. a typical Flemish, farmhouse. As wo went, wa watched the great hursts «f German shells fired at an adjoining farm. Inside the cottage to which we had come was an old,, old lady, sitting in the ingle-nook; a, dark-haired Belgian woman, tnisy with her cooking; and a girl of about eighteen, paralysed in the lewer limbs. The girl had boon living in the neighbouring farm, which ,was being daily shelled, and when all the others were able to get away, she, poor girl, ha'd to remain throughout the first day's shelling. As soon afterwards, as possible they took ho'r. to this other and the old lady and the other woman made her welcome. They told us that she was a very good girl, and industrious, engaging herself in sewing and such other work as she' could do.. But this farm also was likely to bo shelled, and the officer" TtaJi come to see about getting her away to a home : further behind tho lines. If. was .arranged 1 that 6he should be.carried to a that could come along an at*jacenc road, and on to a place where she wouH not have to lie alone listening -fo file German shells bursting about, her -.'dwelling, probably in it. Her eyes be- •- came moist, partly with tho thought of leWlng her home,' partly with the ffiou'ghts of the solicitude of others in' ■ her behalf. Rooted in Their.Soil. 'But many of thV villagers, and the .-" ■peasants in this fertile land are rooted in their soil, and are IoBHo leave, even wlen they are well within the fringes ..of battle.- Thero Is, for instanco, the .. bacSelor Burgomaster of shattered Neuve '. BgHse, who has lived- there in a most ' dangerous spot since' tne beginning of 'the war. His house has been hit time '•'and.'again, but he simply patches up the holes, and stays onr " At Eioegsteert, well within the zone . of. deaCy fire, there isj an old woman of eigHty, fed by the soldiers, who absolute- .'. ly refuses to leave. , All her .life'she has lived there, and'apparently she will die 'there. In view of our attack, and the chances that 'in that' particular locality' •. hell will soon be let loose, attempts are /.being made to get her away to a safer place.. But she refuses- to be_ either ' threatened-o,r cajoled into forsaking her , o*3 home. How to deal with the old ■ lady, is indeed a problem. I ! think I can see her. being carried away, kicking, . and perhaps scratching, by a couple of tHe sturdy gendarmes, ■ upon whom no ' doubt the final solution of the problem will devolve. ' • . In the meantime the old men and boys : are tilling the fields and mending, the roads, and the French and Belgian peasant women are doing their share—even, more than.their sliare. This corning .' as we came home from our,visit to the cripple girl, wo passed two old Tionien wifS bent backs ' planting potatoes in furrows newly opened, well within range of the German artillery. In a. field bordering the Ploegsteert Wood two women went ploughing at night. ' In the daytime they dare not. plough. They would ■. have been within, range of a. German machine-gun! rJeit, day. '' The -Liaison officer went back, to'the cottage this morning and got the paralysed girl away. She departed tearfully, and the oTd people, too, seemed ?orry. for hor - going. ' She believes that her. father and mother are safe and well in the occupied . territory. They have not.told her that her father was shot by,the Germans for Refusing to work for them, and that her mother died of the shock. Her brother ■is in the Army. The old woman who : sat by the stove in the chimney corner is SS. Her mother lived to a nundred.