THE "VISION" OF MONS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 85, 4 January 1919, Page 8

THE "VISION" OF MONS

■. —-—» —-— • : . TESTIMONY'OF GERMAN . PBISONEES. The Bishop of Durham, in a letter to the "Spectator,".-tells a remarkable story of "superhuman ■interposition in our favour" in "that dire autumn" of 19H, when our heroic "Contemptiblcs" were in retreat, pressed hard by ' overwhelming forces. . . ■ ■ : ' "To myself," he writes, "nothing has come in the way of evidence on that subject with such a claim on attention nnd; I tUink, on credence as'what Fheardnot many weeks ngo'from n\y friend the. Rev. W-. Elliot Bradley, Vicar of Crosthwaite, Keewick, a reporter whose accurate memory and sober sense I entirely trust. "Hβ got a practically identical account of a certain incident of that crisis from each of three soldiers, old 'Conlemptibles,' to whom he talked 'on three several occasions. Tho first two men were, at different times, in a .V.A.D. hospital near, Ulverton, Where Mr. Bradley was rector between three and four years ago. Tho third man was seen not many months ago working on a farm near Keswick after discharge from the Army. , "Mr. Bradley asked in each case.whether the soldier recalled 'anything unusual' at the crisis of the. retreat! , And each man without .hesitation gave this answer. The Germans were coming on in massed formation,- and the men of the thin Britislt line were preparing to sell their lives dear; it was the one thing to do; the Teuton host could not help walking over them on the way to Paris. ' "Suddenly tho grey masses halted; even the horses of the cavalry jibbed, and reared; and the collision did not take place. German prisoners, taken a littlo later, were asked why they failed to attack at suc.h an advantage. The answer was straight and simple; they saw strong British reinforcements coming up. Such was the story told, without leading or prompting as to detail, by these'three isolated witnesses at first hand. Two, if not three, added quietly tho comment; 'It was God did it." J