GREAT WAR FRIENDS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 183, 30 April 1940, Page 8

GREAT WAR FRIENDS

Former Frenchwoman Visits Dominion Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, April 29. Friendships made with many New Zealand troops behind Hie firing line in France in 191 G and 1917 have been renewed during the past fortnight by Mrs. S. A. Jacob, a former Frenchwoman now living in Sydney, who, accompanied by her husband, is visiting Auckland at. the conclusion of a Dominion tour. Living with her parents for the greater part of the war near Bois Grenier in a cottage known as the “Little White House,” Mrs. Jacob and her sister were known as Germaine and Madeleine to thousands of Allied troops whom they were able to help and entertain. 'l’he “Little White House" was Hie second of three homes near Bois Grenier which tiie family occupied during the war, each one being in turn destroyed by the Germans, Soldiers from almost every part of Hie British Empire were entertained at the “Little White House,” but it was tiie New Zealanders and Australians who arrived in 1916 that Mrs. Jacob and her family came to know best, for bv then Hiev had become fairly proficient in English. Mrs. Jacob recalled yesterday how, in the confined space of their‘cottage, they had entertained scores of men at a time, providing them with food ami coffee, doing laundry work for them, even writing their letters. Since going to Australia in 1919 with her husband, a former Australian soldier whom she married in Paris, Mrs. Jacob has met many soldiers who had enjoyed Hie hospitality of Hie “Little White House.” With innumerable New Zealand soldiers, she lost touch, however, and it was not till after the Dominion party of returned soldiers visited Sydney for the Anzae Day ceremony in 1938 that many friendships were renewed by correspondence. At the request of many, she promised to visit New Zealand this year. “I have been living for this tour,” said Mrs. Jacob, She added that she had travelled from as far south as Invercargill. and at almost every centre she and her husband had been entertained by groups of ex-servicemen whom she bad known in France. A reunion of special interest had taken place on her arrival at Auckland when she met again Mr. E. M. Pofae, a wellknown interpreter, of Te Araroa. East Coast, who, according to French war custom, she had adopted as a war brother.