MESSENGERS OF TRUTH

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 84, 3 January 1919, Page 6

MESSENGERS OF TRUTH

. ' ♦- —— AERIAL PROPAGANDA IN. THE ■ : WAR ZONE. (By Lacey Amy, in'the "Daily Mail.") « It is' no surprise to me to hoar that the Germans frankly nscribo their defeat in part to the Allies' propaganda tyy special balloon. l''or months I have been waiting: for tliis news, because for months I have been, watching these flimsy missionaries. v ■ ■ I first saw tho uncanny propaganda balloons on the way to their mission-field on the second day of the great Canadian attack before Arras. It was August 27. On the previous day the Canadians had thrown the enemy from M'oncliy had a score of other strongholds. But out before the little village on the hill-top the Germans were standing their ground with all their old stubbornness. Backed by tho network of defences before the'Drocouft-Queant Sine, they were hitting back. Every wood and trench and ridge and ravine was a. nest jif machine-guns. From the north of. tlie Scarps Tiiver a thousand guns were raining whistling, ripping shells. All that stretoh. about the Arras-Cambrai road was heaving with bursts. In the-midst of it two paltry toys white and gleaming rose from the suburbs of Arras, shot Swiftlv into the sky, and floated on the wind over tho thick of the fight. .Up there liugo observation balloons and darting, spitting aeroplanes were their only compansions. Into the distance the small balloons disappeared. A week later the Cai\ndirins drove across the Drocourt-Queant line and hundreds of Germans ran to meet them with uplifted arms. During tho weeks that followed I became more familiar with' the airy bubbles. Singly , and in groups, they drifted carelessly on .their tremendous mission. One day the air paths were white with them. It was towards the end of September. The sky was clear. . A brilliant sunshine was struggling to urge ,a glow into that chaos of destruction left by the enemy before Arras. , The observation balloon warfare was at is height—l saw seven of ours brought down in one day, and our own successes were greater—but I,lie fluffy balls up there sailed 011 undisturbed. A score of them were in sight. Ovor the German lines n. flight of enemy planes dropped about tliem from the clouds. Presently something broke loose below each ball, and a fluttering cluster of tiny, white spots spread wide and slowly descended. . ' The next day two German a»rop!anes shot across our lines in the early morn- ' ing at a great height. And from here "nd there came reports of rival leaflet s dropning from the sky on .our men. T saw the ennmv propaganda. I heard the l»it"htpr. of the Canadians os tli"v read fighting should cense, and "a neutral commission was settling the terms of' nenee!" But if the Canadians persisted they would face "oil'' iro'i Guards aiid rimrs of bl'Mid will flow." ■ Tlin Canadians hnd Guards; and the rivers that flowed were nn concern'of theirs. Two davs later the Canadians nttnclr«d Bourlon Wood, many of them with the of peace in their pocketc a« n souvenir—po*"e said a mascot. T cto«d !*«"rlo natlis frop* flirt fi'-ht, I"" the n" ; -on"rs camp —thousand of Tiwn came Conhri" . . ■ thin Vn'-ti. KiVnnnc . ; . then Hons asain, andsurrender!

The Rev. C. F. Askew acknowledges a ,ClO war loan certificate for the Cathedral Fund from an anonymous donor "in memory of a dear brother killed at Gallipoli." A man who died recently in Brooklyn. N.Y., requested in his will that a hand nmputaled in Bussin bn_ brought to America and buried with him.