THE VANDALS OF CAMBRAI

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 118, 12 February 1919, Page 9

THE VANDALS OF CAMBRAI

Y- '"■■: '' > .' ■« —~' ' .'' .NEW ZEALAND WITNESS OF HUNS', HANDIWOEK. . One of tRe brightest.. writers and ske'tchers among the New Zealanders is Lieutenant G. ,I'. Hanna, of' Wellington, ■who/has achieved a wider fame since ho has been at tho front and in "Blighty." At a recent social gathering, attended when.Lieutenant Hanna was in London on leave, he was "lightning.sketched" by the great Hassell, and the, product is now in Wellington—a little masterpiece in "what to leave out" in -a'sketch. ' : . -Writing before the final victory, Lieutenant Hanna said: "Wo attack to-mor-row.- Hush! ;The air is full of rumours of 'peace about' theKaiser abdicating, etc.. but if it be true no one here is-payiiig any attention to it. Instead, there is a nasty vindictive"feeling abroad, ..for the \illage we are .in has been a d —r rabble of Huns,who did not liave'time to. properly d.e-; ptroy the place, but ransacked it instead.. C'ambrai, which I was through tivo'davs ago, would make you weep. It was'pillaged to a skeleton, and wantonlydestrpyed. I have never felt , so vicious against ■the-Huns as'a't; this incmenr. I wiis able to'slip thrqiigh the city while the division'was working further to the iVest, and ■as far as I know I was the first 'digger' to , see the place on' the day it was. entered. To see a town t! at has becii>ackved by Huiis is "to. witness'a scene, that chokes one with.rage. The house we are ■ staying, at has beeirdealt with. I picked up a locket'to : day containing three piecen of children's hair. IVom the smashed ,photo of the family in the room you can' pick out the two little cirls tkl the'iboy ■ to , whom-the hair Ijelonged. Wliere hail they 'gone?./What y.as their fate? Who ■can.-eay?-■ And round us were sewing; machines smashed with axes; .pianos- \ (sonie of them, noble, instruiuents) vindictively smashed by tho Hun brutes."