The Hokitika Guradian THURSDAY, AUGUST. 10th., 1922. SPIRIT OF VERDUN.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 August 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guradian THURSDAY, AUGUST. 10th., 1922. SPIRIT OF VERDUN.

Tjik society known ns the British League of Help, which arranges for tho “adoption” of French towns of the battle zone by English towns organised celebrations in London to oonunemorate the heroic defence of Verdun. At the gathering Marshal Petnin told ft thrilling story of the struggle at Verdun. Under a hurricane of shells, and in a whirlwind of mud and iron, flame and gas, baffling description, the combatants fought their dogged battle for every inch of ground, not knowing what was going on around them. Before the physical body was inevitably destroyed the nerves were worn out, and the spirit crushed. In this hell it was only the highest moral obligation dominating the instincts of our men which held them to their ground. “Oiir determination,” he said, “sprang from a purer source than that of Germany, who served an ideal of might and pride. We were fighting for our very soil, for our wives, our children, and for that civilisation of ours, without which life itself would be unendurable. On the battlefield of Verdun bayonets may be seen rising from the ground, fixed on rifles still grasped by dead hands They mark the trenches in which the battalions of le Vendee, one of the old (religious provinces of France wciro cut to pieces. The men who fougbt there, under a terrific bombardment, remained unflinchingly at their posts and waited for death, praying aloud like the martyrs of old. The majority were killed or buried alive by shells. The bayonets which bristled from the trenches ivow the tomb of these heroes, tell their own story of the fierce determination displayed by these workers of the soil resulting from their high sense of duty and their ingrained qualifies of patience and endurance. “Verdun,” lie concluded, “that ancient citadel, tho stake for which the Battle wps fought, as so often before, in the course of our age-long struggle with Germany, remained inviolate. For our enemies it wjih tho Promiswl l/iind, by reurhinK which they hoped to secure peace. For us, it was the symbol of our country. Around its old walls all those spiritual forces which go to make up the noul of a people woro massed for the supreme endeavour. A breath of heroism, emanating, as it were, from the very heart of our country, and from tho pages of our age-long history, camp to roWndlo the courage o'? our soWiors, To-day, Vorflup in one y&*s cemetery, On' the ■

heights hared of soil to the very rock, and yielding only a harvest of bones, the families of France wander in sorrow. You will he able to understand those feelings of pride and grief, for they are the same which you feel when you go to the battlefields of Flanders and Artois. These slopes which belong to Great Britain, are your Verdun. In the fields, sown with your_ flesh and

blood, you come, like ourselves,' that you may revive your grief, and feel the thrill of pride. The war has laid the flower of your race in eternal sleep by the side of ours. Your graves are mingled with those of our own sons, and they share the same place in ouY hearts. We gather around thejn with the same reverence, for it is our desire that all who fell in the defence of Franco may find in her soil the same quiet resting~place. Always, and whatever befall, our men will stand in true gratitude before the mounds beneath which lie the soldiers of Britain; their brothers in war from the first day to the last, whom they love for their lightheartedness, their stubborn courage, and their fine contempt of death. For all time the women and children of France will scatter over your graves, as over ours, the flowers of the battlefield, in the stems of which flows the blood of these departed heroes. In future days around the same sanctuaries tlie people will meet, brought together from your country and from ours, by memories which nre one. Such meetings "-ill servo to draw our two nations ever closer, by ties of grief and sorrow which bind more firmly than those of triumph. May the living, remembering that the dead so generously -hared all sacrifices, be determined in the struggles of peace to help each other with the same confidence.”

There were over a million less sheep in the Dominion on April 30th. last than there were at the same period last year, according to the returns of the Government Statistician. The figures this year were 22,245,473, of which 12,182,415 were in the North Island and 10,063,028 in the South Island. In. April last year the total was 23,285,031, and the actual decrease is 1,039,558, fairly evenly divided between the two islands, itors’s numbered 331,855 (337,259). dairy cows 1,128,979 (1,004,666), total cattle 3,273,126 (3,139,223), pigs 380,026 1349.892). Figures in parentheses are for previous year. From 1913 to 1918 an average of about 2l million car. 1 cases of mutton was exported annually falling to 1,211,000 in 1919, when there were huge stocks in Great Britain and the Go\eminent had considerable difficulty in disposing of it. In 1920 the figure rose to 4,199,000, increased a further million and a half the following year, hut for the last year decreased by nl>out 40 per cent., the figures being 3,373,018. On the other hand the exportation of lamb has shown and maintained a considerable increase since 1919. in which year the total was rather less than a million, compared with a previ'ms average of about three million In 1920. exports reached a little, over normal at 3.780,000, in 1921 they reached 4,327,000 and for the year ending April 30th. 1922, the total was 5,192.392, in addition 20,703 cwts of legs and pieces. These figures indicate a growing demand for New Zealand lamb in the Home country where it has for many years past been very popular, maintaining good prices.