WAR SOUVENIRS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 118, 12 February 1919, Page 8

WAR SOUVENIRS

4 PORTRAITS ON PAPER'SANDBAGS "LA LIBRE BELGIQUE" 'An altogether' '-uniciue display of a novel form of 'Tart nouvello," direct from the war zone, may be seen at present in the window of Mr. F. J. Pinny's warehouse in Willis Street. This is a . series of clever sketches in faint colour by Lieutenant G. P. Hanna (of Hanua and ; King, Wellington), whose artistic work has been published in most of tho leading English illustrated papers. Tho novelty of tho-sketches referred to consists in the fact L that., the canvases' used are German, sandbags,-made of spun paper into , ii , sort of loose harsh canvas. Lieutenant Hanna writes that he found '. v the bags' and' the paint in a German duglout, and.amused himself with painting types of German prisoners and studies of other subjects. Two of the best sketches are of tho Hon. W. F. Massey, •■■ as "the Chief Savage visiting. Picardy" . (whi#h is for tho Wellington Savnge Club), and a fine sketch simply called "A Digger." ' Lieutonant Hanna' has elso forwarded a lot of souvenirs from the fields covered by the last great ad- . ,- .vance of the New Zealandeis. , These consist of German soldiers' caps, a mask worn, by the British tank crews (an irqn mask with meio slits for the eyes, arid a. steel fringe covering the lower part of the. - face, uoisame German tobacco (found in a German brigadier's dug-out), an assortment of post-cards found on the field or on dead Germans, and, most valuable of all, a complete filo of "La Libre Belgique," tho famous paper that was published, every week in Brussels under the nose of Generalvon Bissing (the German , Governor-General of Belgium). A copy of this paper always found its way into the general's office, though the death penalty' was promised anyone found to be concerned in the writing, publishing, ■ or distribution of:the papor. To rub it in. one of the last copies of "La Libre Belgique" published a .portrait of General von Bissing reading the condemned paper.