REAL WORK IN FRANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 August 1921, Page 3

REAL WORK IN FRANCE

AN INSPIRING EXAMPLE. (My .Mrs Horace Tremlett. the Novelist and Traveller). BETIIUNE, Northern l iaiuc. It would do a lot of British people ~,,„d if they could be transported over here for a few hours—just to see what real work is like. In these devastated war areas U French are working with a steady, passionate perseverance trom dawn till dark like a horde ol busy ants, clearing away the debris of their broken homes and'building them up again brick by brick, living on the barest necessities and saving every possible sou; eacli man, woman, and child "it's but one single purpose —to get hack home. The soil, after its long rest, is yield ing amazingly rich crops; all ioiui.l 1 ethane fields now heavy with corn Mere only a short time ago shell-racked waste areas. Trenches have been fillo.t in, emplacements levelled, and m i “ now remains but huge heaps of t'usi\ barbed wire to mark the passage ol in inies. A few miles away, however, oiu» can still see the piled-up sandbags, the broken duck-boards, and tin* grassgrown dug-outs where our men lived and died. On Givenchy Ridge there are still the vast open craters made bv the largest, land-mines in history. A trolley lim' has been rim there and they are being g,initially filled in, but hundreds of tons of earth are still untouched, each loot with its grim relic of the human life that perished in those mighty upheavals. With amazing rapidity, considering the nature of the work, the battlefields me being reclaimed. Very soon there will be nothing left of the " in ' but certain show “ruins” which are being specially preserved. Tourists will be tenderly conducted to historic spots by professional guides, and there is little doubt that many who have long Iwei*. looking forward to a visit here "ill be bitterly disappointed, for the trench from which Bill threw bis last bomb, the dug-out where Tom wrote Ins la.-t, letter, will he there no longer. * * * * * Now, this summer, is the time to see the battlefields. A visit to France as it now is would nut only be a poignant and comforting memory to thousands of us, but would also give us an inspiring example of thrift and industry. Politically also it would he ol the greatest advantage if individually "e could got into closer touch with the French, who, it must he admitted, are feeling very sore at our feeble efforts to make the Boclie pay up.

Perhaps if we saw with our own eyes | the misery and destitution he has cans- j ed, even in this district, and looked into j -he haggard, hopeless fates of the older j people —many of them still waiting !"> I their share of his reparations before j they can even begin to rebuild their ; "homos -wo might more eagerly urge our Government in the right direction. There are, of course, a few visitors arriving daily, chielly through various ' religious or tourist agencies, hut lor | the majority of us this is a pilgrimage j t„ he taken alone or not at all, and, indeed, there is, in fact, no reason why anyone of any class with, say, £lO in hand should not come here, it only lot a f C w days, whether lie can speak French or not. Those who will carry their own handhug and a simple phrase book will find whatever; the route is direct, except for a simple change at 1-lazebrouck, and expenses at the best hotel here are about 15s a day at tee present rate of exchange. Such -memorable spots as Givenchy Ridge’s Windy Corner, and Eestubert are within easy reach by road or rail, an I j |„r those who wish to go farther afield, ~ couple of ex-officers, who know every

inch of the ground, run cars at about j a shilling a mile. } Now is the time to come over. Next year file cheap “tripper” of all nationalities will be here and the precious solitude of those empty trenches will bo ours no longer.