WHAT FRANCE HAS SUFFERED

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 42, 13 November 1918, Page 10

WHAT FRANCE HAS SUFFERED

FI!IGIITFUL DE\'A STATIO.\

Sir Edward Carson thus describes a visit to the- war zone in Fraiice: . No written account can unable _oim to conceive the frightful devastation iliat las been wrought by tii<* Germans: iuu may read ot defiled and ruined churches, of crumbled villages. 01 dfstvoyed" woods, of deserted fields piltetl wiin »xurlogged shell-holes, biirnot tfie most viv.tl imagination can picture the reality 'which these, phrases try to describe, liven when one stands on the ground itself, among thistles knee-deep ami stretching in every direction as far as sight, aided hy field-glares, can reach, ;indWhen one tries to thread ones way between holes, the smallest of w.hicn would hold u tasicah and the largest a church it is ".difnnult- to . behev.? tluu what looks/like a vast expanse qf rough moor or fen, covered with every conceivable kind of litter ant! filth, and without a sign of humnn habitation -or .human care, was. untii' the coming of the Hun, a rich plateau of wheat and rye, of heet and potatoes, of hops and apple nn(! mlu-hs. ith bri?'-' littl" cluster.'; gardened cottages, of which it is now difTicult even to find a 'race by searching anions the rank weeds for the lime and brick dust that alone mn'-Jv 'the s : .te of former prosperous village hfc. .Vv """ regret, is th.it this nlxviiiiiable isolation cannot T** by even' T, M?iishman. if there he any such, who for one' moment tolerates the, id-i of a peace without full reparation. This wiM«-»w* crinnot, nt all events for some generations to come, h? nnde -t.-v '-- --"l lil.-n th" rose. It will probably he afforested, if : t can Ik> sufficiently levelled even for suc.h use.

What, is to become of its former inhabitants no.one k" n "-<, "Many fmiilirs have rli.w.npf"">(l T l '" men have 'b»e'i k'"cd: the «T"ira wVi sn--vived"have been denorted. T-i ot'"eatfs they are refugees to other ni- 1 * of "France, wVre tlier •'fl'-o m*' " v *° find sor'e sort of subsistence, and where they wi'l probiblv mii'iin Occasionally, some owners are :iPni>-,-l lo make a tpp<r>o-i"T h ««■-''> for pos s c*s'on t; "biir'°d. ppi-'ii";-. in irn!" riorchard, but vVcli «re l-ut Ir, l-p found, since it w | n 'll'tel'"'!"" A V n| l til" iifi of P"v >v'r'-K'M. lnr plot of cf""'d now m o, "i'eil ;, i t'i" surroiiidinn' wi'il"""e«s. • fienuany ]!<w ;suffer f ;d none of thic 'pr-iMp end hns hnd the ndvnnt"-*' «'f on tin." 'lesfrt'" f; rp wor 1 - <>u '-V of BeHum and France along, the Western front. No ■ reparation ji ever *•■>'-« w.'.i n'liiit fWnin"v's crime neni'ist 'Hiii'"<'' : tv has but "o o»" p-.-'i w : ti'<"->-'lie wrk of Hi" I!'" 1 w!thr>i fliet the rewntrm *mi be as cp.-'nM'. as Frnnpp and her Allies can exact from Iho despoiler.