IN THE DIN OF BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 27, 26 October 1918, Page 3

IN THE DIN OF BATTLE

WAR ZONE EXPERIENCES OF MR, ALEXANDEE WATSON.

Surely never in time has so extraordinary an experience been vouchsafed any professional elocutionist as that which befell Mr. Alexander AVatson in Fianil?rs some two years ago. After leaving New ZcaLfnd in 1915, Mr. Watson went to England, and found his services in eager request at the various great camps in the Old Land. Then it was suggested that he should visit the war zone across the Channel, and he did so under the aegis of the Y.M.C.A., the value of whoso work at the front Mr. Watsoii says could not be overestimated. He stipulated'that, he was not to perform at the buses, as he wished to get as near to the fighting men as he could. He got all the excitement he wanted during (ho subsequent three months. He was for the first nnsnth located in the Ypres sector, where many of tho bravest and best had fallen that the world might be free the German blight. "I know ull those towns in the sector ttuitn welL" said Mr. Watson, "and it was agony to me to read of their capture by tho enemy in the big push of March last. At Armentiercs I gave three recitals to the men of the Now Zealand Forces, and could not wish for better audiences anywhere. How and where I recited was dictated by circumstances. At times it was in the Y.M.O.A. huts, and often from the tail of a munition lorry or transport wagon in tho open air—at times actually under shell ire.

"At the foot of Kenimel Hill, which became so famous, I gave two recitals, and during, my recital two big German shells came whizzing overhead, and landed in a wood only a few yards away. Luckily they were both duds. Thero I was taken to the.top of the hill ami shown the menacing German linos. ■VV lien reciting at Fricourt, on . the Somme, I could see, as I recited, the* big howitzers plugging away at the Huns only a hundred yards away. They seemed to mo to resemble giant toads of some prehistoric age, as thev lunged forward, spat out fire, and then recoiled. Whilst that was going on a huge British gun, which the men called 'GrandI mother,' was throwing monster shells over our heads into the German lines beyond. How weird and terrible it all was beggars description. The din was <wtni-at times, but it never seemed to distract my audiences. "It was at Arras, even then a mass of ruins, that I was just about to commence one of two recitals, when our Runs commenced to play quite near at band. I was about to recite Noyes's Highwayman,' but suddenly changed my r 1 ? '* t 1 " 1 ! 1 gave tll6m '-Tennyson's 'Relief of Lucknow' as being more suited to tue scene. Curiously enough the guns ceased as I spoke the last line in the recital, leaving a silenco that was absolutely uncanny. Of tho peoplo who wore left in Arras most of them were living underground, and it was a common sight to seo iron pipes emerging from the broken pavements of the streete and emitting smoke, showing that peoplo too living below. And in the great crypt ot the cathedral wero rows and rows of shake-downs being used by tho men of tho defending forces. It was there that I recited on a grassy mound in the grounds of a fifteenth century mansion a place with a camouflaged roof so that tho Hun airmen would not seo anything." Mr. Watson said ho had' the pleasure of meeting tho late General Fulton and Major Purdy, and ho was intensely grieved to learn that both had paid the lull toll for King and country. . Mr. Watson also speaks in terms of' the greatest praiso of tho wonderful work which, had been dono at the front bv Mr. Harry Holmos, of tho Y.M.C.A., who was then in charge of tho Ypres sector and also of Mr. Hay (another Now Zealander), who was adored by the men for the perpetual sunshine ho diffused wherever ho went. ■>