HEROISM OF THE FRENCH

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 261, 23 July 1918, Page 2

HEROISM OF THE FRENCH

TRIBUTE FROM A SOLDIER, Corporal Verne'Jewell, son of Mr. W. Jewell, of Rangiotu, writes an interesting letter to Mrs. Jewell from "somewhere in trance,", under date Mav 25. Corporal Jewell, who left with the Twenty-fifth Keinforcements, was wounded during the fighting nt Ypres, and after a spell in England returned to the firing line. Corporal Jewell writes: This particular spot of Picardy, where we are at present, is absolutely one of the prettiest places I have seen, and to think that at any moment it. may he turned into a shambles like the other war : stricken areas ■ of France is a while, I had ono of the most enjoyable rides of my life from Elnples to hero. Flanders is nothing like France, and Flanders at its. best could... never equal•■France as- it is now. I can quite understand the Frenchman's love of La Belle France, and if I were a FrenchmanI think I would bo content to fight and die for a country so unquestionably beautiful as thi.?. Our way van through/snug littlo villages, sleepy little towns, aiul green leafy forests that were rnado a feash of bjauty by the magic touch of spring. Franco is absolutely the heaviest wooded country I havo seen, and all these elms, beeches, and other trees that I don't know were a picturo of green and glorious beauty. And the cosy little villages, didn't they harmonise perfectly with thrir environment! The white plaster walls, dazzling white in the sun, and the red'tiled roofs with ■ wisps of snioko curling lazily out .of the tiled chimneys, were at once in perfect harmony and absolutely in tune with the beautiful natural surroundings amidst which they had been built; Now and again we would pass some magnificently wrought-iron gales, and thiv-'i gaps in the leafy woods we could ?: 'imposing i'acai of some noble < •.. You have no idea what a peace .■.ltentcd aspect the couutry bore, uu :\-._: .t of per : feet peace and contentment with every-, one, and yet not a dozen miles from where we were tho cruellest and. most damnable war in history was raging. And it is such a beautiful.and harmless country as this that tho Huns,- in endeavouring to lay their "kultured" fist, have turned first into a land of sorrow, and then into a land of desolation,/destruction, and death. If what wo are told is true, and there isj« Bay of Judgment, I should not care to stand in the shoes of the infamous monsters who are responsible for tho destruction of. one of tho fairest of God's countries. After this war, what a tale of suffering and woe will bo told about these patient, enduring, and heroic French pople! With a passionate love for the land that has been theirs from birth, they stuck to their homes to the last moment,, and men l>.ireiy escaped' with their lives-mothers carrying their babies in their arms, or on their backs, the older : children wheeling away all the 7 could in barrows or haudcarts, or trudging behind their parents, barefooted, and cloth, cd just as they were in the moment of flight, wearing a child's innocent expression of misunderstanding and yet not complaining. Jftheso innocent iittio kiddies know anything they know tne Hun, and sooner than fall into his devilish clutches they tramp'miles with their parents, enduring all o.hrdships, going without, food, and sleeping under Ike stars. It's cruel to think that at such a state of civilisation 'such a thing (s war should exist, and really one can hardly call it war. One naturally associates war with all the panoply and glory of men under arms, of gallant charges, and glorious aeath, but never can one bring his mind to associate it with monstrous, awful shells that rob a man of any fighting chance he has, of diabolical poison gns and liquid fire, of killed and maimed children, of tortured, outraged womca, and of burnt and destroyed cities, towns, and homes. Yet, in this year of grace, when we are supposed to be a civilised, intellectual people, when all our minds and vices and desires are supposed to be under control by virtue of knowledge, learning, and religion, such a state_ of I warfare us I have just mentioned is raging in France, and the things I have mentioned I have seen with my own eyes. If you ever thanked God for anything, thank Him for living where you are, and keeping you well out of the clutches of these devils of iniquity—tho Huns. They are heroes, these French; nothing too great or glorious can be said of them, and their patient, never-complaining old women are the heroines of the heroic. For theirs has been tho greatest burden of sorrow; it is their sons who have been killed, their children and daughters who have been maltreated, their homes that have been wrecked, and yet they toil and work on-patient, enduring, and true. True to France, true to: their honour nnd their word, and to the high ideals of iove and faith which have ever inspired them onward. through their darkest hour-true ■,c ..'-pni tli- liackbone of the most glorious most tried, and mast suffering country'on God's carth.-'iManawatu Evening Standard."