AUSTRALIA IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 104, 27 January 1920, Page 5

AUSTRALIA IN FRANCE

THE ST. QUENTIN MEMORIAL,

The bronze figure of an Australian soldier, standing higli upon a massive slono nedestat. and thrusting his bayonet into a huge German eagle, is to perpetuate the. meii.urv ot rue men of the 2nd Australian Division who fell. in the moment of triumuh at Mont St. Quentin. The statue is to occupy a commanding position bv the roadside, and stands on a ridge high above tue surrounding ccun'rv. Tlio figure of the soldier is to be executed bv the Australian sculptor, Mr. Web Gilbert, but the panels around the base are being designed by .Miss -May. Butler George, who returned to Mel-, bourne yesterday by the Aeneas, after un nhseuco of six years. The oaliels are to represent actual battle ocenp*. and, in order to obtain accuracy. Miss George was given special permis:.iim to visit tlio Wtst lront-immediately after the armistice was signed. She claims to be the first woman to see the devastated battle areas, and gives an interesting account of tho way the poor peasants filed back to their ruined homes.

"I was in Pennine when the first of the townspeople arrived," said Miss George Yesterday. "The beautiful square .was i all shattered, and there was a ghostly I silence among the ruins. I was sitting in mv motor-car making sketches, when all of a sudden I heard footsteps echoing no tho street. It was a weird sound—as if somcc-ne whs walking through an empty house. ' Then a sad little procession of thirteen or fourteen people, all in mourning, came into the square, looking round them in a dazed way An old woman stopped close to me and began to poke about in the ruins with her stick. 'What, aro you looking for?' I asked her. 'Mademoiselle' she answered simply, 'this was my house.' Suddenly a thrush began to sing on a beam un above. 'Listen,' I said, 'that is the first bird I have heard since I came to l'eronne.' The old woman smiled. That bird, mademoiselle she answered, 'is the spirit of Peronue. 'Hie eood God Irishes it that we should be brave even among our ruin?.'" Miss Georec eays thai the French do not need anv statues to remind them of the Australians. They have the most irrateful and affectionate admiration for the "Digger" as a fighting man, and whenever she made it known that she came from Australia she received an almost embarrassingly hcartv welcome from tho French people. She says that her mnrnorv of her trip over the battlefields or tne Sorrnno remains as n nightmare. Foi mil" after mile one travels through i n sea of mud. only relieved here and there bv a forest of crosses. As a result of her tour of vlio battlefield, Mi.-'s George has brought back an interesimi nortfolio of sketches. She intends p:o----ceedimr with her work for the m?ir-'i!- : vi immediately, but hon"-t to hold ae exl-i- ' liition of pictures shortly. While abread j she achieved success with a vnrsf-iilf: i ranee of work, rnngino from delicate miniatures or, ivory to vigorous btack and while studio, and broedlv treated impression?, of English country landscane.s One of her pictures-'-:, ctu.-ty of a nesrro—was hung or. the lim- at the Paris Salon. She has received fla'terin» criticism from Sii .Win T.avnr.y (fh<> eminent Enslish portrait pairii'cr)'fof a miniature of his grandson, 'and hnd the honour of painting Yiscnunt .Inilicw'3 nicture for presentation to his wife.