MARCHING THROUGH BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 141, 10 March 1919, Page 5

MARCHING THROUGH BELGIUM

A sergeant of the Twenty-ninths, writ- | ing' from Thuin (Belgium) on December (J last, states:—"On November 28 we ; left Fontaine, France, and marched (with full packs) up to Beaudiguies (15 miles march, and hard), where we billeted lor the night in an old barn well ventilated with shell-holes, through which the rain sprinkled in a liberal manner. Next dav we marched through Le Quesnoy (the town which we captured in our final stunt, when our division did such great work, and which was to bo the most successful stunt tho New Zealand Division had ever taken on) to War Guies Petit,' near War Gives Lo Grand. Here we billeted in a large chateau, anil really it was cruel to see the handiwork of the Boclie. Every windowsill, n: .Intel piece, door, and particle of woodwork from the interior of the building had been torn off and either carted away or burnt. . . "On November 30 we marched on to La Lon Gueville, and billeted in a very tine house, the interior of which was beautifully decorated with artistic paintingi and mirrors. We stayed in this town on December 1 and 2, attending church parade on Sunday m a hall formerly used by the wily 11 un as a kinema house. On December 3 wo matched on. livery junction of road, every entrance to a town or village, every bridge has been blown up by Iriltf in his retreat, and aro now being formed up again by the British. We caiue to Bou.ssons, passing through the outskirts of Maubeuge, aixl billeted in what was formerly the .model workman s townshin. Bousson' was a great glass manufacturing centre before Jerry came along, but he soon settled things. I went through the glass factories, which covered acres of land, and it was fearful lo see the great engines, machinery, poweij houses, dynamos, etc., all silent and gradually rusting into decay, owing to the fact' that Fritz took the roofing iron off the great buildings, and,! let the weather in. .Tons oi glass were smashed to atoms, lhe whole industry is at a standstill. Pieces of plate glass are lying around, 100 feet square,and 3 inches thick. In this town tho Allies captured a. trainload of aeroplane bombs, some of winch were 12 feet long. I inspected these, and was gliul that they were no longer u danger to humanity. In the model town Frit/, had shown his contempt for it jjv stabling his horses in the comfortable villas, anil by contaminating it in a hundred and one ways. "On December 4 we crossed the Belgian border and'ulleted in a school at Solve Sur Sambre. What a diftarence here \H the flour mills, sugar refining works, etc., are in full working order. The people look healthy and comfortable, the houses are undamaged, tho furmtuio intact, the ships liavo a stock ot goods strange, very strange, and vet so close to the ruined France, ihuibda}, the sth, wo marched to this Belgian town of Thuin-a very fine town lying close to the beautiful Tluiin \ alley. Ihe town looks very prosperous, the shops luuc full stocks, the butcher shops have meat m plenty. Goods are very dear-Is. Sd. foi £ New Zealand penny bun; fats aro very scarce; evidently the Hun took them all. Candles aro Is. Sd. each, a small cake of soap 7s. Gd„ and so.cn. Luckily as wo go ilon* the Y.M.C.A. follows us up. AVhat we would do without the Y.M., goodness oiilv knows. They are good angels to us. Eations aro very light, and. if it wa.s not; that we can buy biscuits at the 1..M. I don't know what we would do. "To-morrow we march 15 miles to Oharleroi. This marching business with full paclr is no joy rule, and a great number of us have a pretty rotten time, but they keep going. I am keeping wel , even though 1 don't enjoy the l ); jek business much. Wo v-ere promised the train for part of the distance, and it hasn't come oil' yet, and I don t suppose it will now. The weather is keeping up splendidly, and to-day tho sun is shining quito brilliantly.''

A parson's wife, who has solved the servant question for herself, offers advice to the harassed housewife. U'l: her give up if possible (she writes to the "Spectator"), all other pursuits for a month and do lior own work. At the end of that time she would, according to. her temperament, either be so keen on tho job that she would never want to give it up, or she would, having realised the difficulties, lio much more lenient and considerate, and so become one of the good mistresses. 1 was obliged, for iiix uncial reasons, to give un keeping servants three years ago. and 1 must own I quailed when a very excellent general servant left the house and 1 had all sorts of unaccustomed drudgery to cope with; hut I soon found it was very interesting and 'could lie done quite quickly. There are many labour and timesaving "dodges" as veil as appliances that one learns to use when one is keen to keep one's house spotless and one's family well fed, and yet have, leisure to do lots of other things as well. 1 should nev?r keep a resident maid again unless compelled to by ill-health.