FRENCH REFUGEES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 272, 6 August 1918, Page 9

FRENCH REFUGEES

A SIGHT FOT? CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS. tho course of an interesting letter, Rifleman Konald Iv. Lyon, of Wellington, gives a vivid description of the trelc ] of refugees from the Hnn-invadcd dis- 1 tricts of Northern France, following upon ! a German push.' Rifleman Lyon writes: ; "Ii was here that I. witnessed a sight 1 I shall never forpct—the fleeing of re- ' ■ fugees. old men. women, and children, j I with their goods and chattels, before j tho ruthless invasion of a cruel foe. •. | A long white road stretching as far as , the eye could see in a perfectly straight j I line, bordered on ei'her side by rows of i I tall, stately trees, the whole making a ■ great avenue such as you see in many I ; parts of France. On one side of the j i road going in one direction was a con- i j tinual stream of military traffic, great i • lumbering motor-lorries full of dusty' j troops, batteries of light guns, great naval guns I drawn by traction engines, Army Service wagons full of the hundred : | and one things an oraiy needs, pack ! mules laden with shells for tnO' batteries, and lastly the human pack mule— i infantry on foot—all being rushed fori ward to reinforce that thin lino of khaki \ holding the Huns at bay. On the other : i julo of the road going in tho opposite : direction, was traffic of a very differ- j j out nature—a continual line of refugees, j i old men, veterans of 1870, old women, i ! young women, and children. A typical ; : example of the many groups that passed 'us that evening is as follows: An old : farm wagon—o real old hay wagon with ; its high wooden sides—driven by a little 1 boy of eight or nine, the man of the . family; his mother with her youngest! baby sits alongside of him in front; on ; . top of a ftrange collection of bedding, i clothing, household furniture, crates of: fowls, and bundles of hay is perched ■ grandma, an old lady of eighty summers, j surrounds! by her grandchildren; tied to the axle of the wagon is a goat; to the . I tailboard are tied two cows and an old i horse; and as a rearguard comes the : eldest daughter Carrying a hatbox and j leading a calf, while at, her heels is the. ever-faithful dog. Another of the many pathetic sights I witnessed that evening , was an old lady, every bit eighty years ; of age, wheeling a wheelbarrow in which : ■ was u great bundle tied up in an old , quilt, and folio rin.j her camo her hua- . hand, older if anything than Tiis wife, , carrying an eight-day clock. Suspended from the axle of one wagon J noticed a largo crate containing ,i f!it old sow ; and family. It was, as I have seen it ,• described by ono writer, 'a grotes<iuo j ■ procession full of infinite pathos.' I, , only wished a few of onr conscientious ■ ■ objectors had been standing alongside of i 1 us as wo watched these poor brave souls