“WIPERS TIMES”

Hokitika Guardian, 19 November 1930, Page 3

“WIPERS TIMES”

HUMOUR AT THE FRONT. PROOF CORRECTING ON THE SOMME. LONDON, September 22. The “Wipers Times” is a volume containing the facsimile reproduction of th° complete series of those tfench j magazines—the “Wipers Times,” the j “New Church Times,” the “8.E1.F | Times.” incorporating the • “Somrhej Times” and the final “Better Times”— which are the finest And most con elusive evidence of the cheerful couri age of the men in the front line, in spite of appalling conditions. The editor himself says that “the hilarity was often more hysterical than nntu ral.” b"t no history of the war or history of English humour could afford to | ignore these magazines, for they reflect the spirit of the great body of fighting men, and have that flavour of •roodtempered irony and .schoolboy hoistero"sness which has found expression in I “Punch,” and is so innate and strong | in the nation that it survives all mani ner of pain and hardship. The book is dedicated to “The 'Soldiers of the Salient and The Truth About the War,” and Lord Plumer in a foreword says that although the book is not a “serious narrative of the events which took place in the Ypres I Salient during that period (1915-1918), a. perusal of its numbers will give the reader a vivid and correct impression of the wonderful spirit of cheer‘illness and sacrifices, hardships and privations the troops were called upon to under--1 go.” The editor, Lieutenant-Colonel F. J. Roberts. M.C., gives an account of the history of the psper, its birth in Wipers in the early days of 1916, the days when only one page could be done at a time, and they had no “y’s” and “e’s” to spare when one page was in the “chase,” proof-correcting in the middle of a battle on the Somme, and the abandonment of one issue during a bombardment in 1918. Two photographs of the editorial sanctum give an idea of its shortcomings, and the paper has the distinction of never having been printed out of the front area, and on one occasion the works were within 700 yards of the front line. Men who were at the front will delight in the advertisements, with their witty allusions, the diary by “Lieutenant Samuel Pepys.” the doings of Herlock Shomes, and Teach Bomas and the wisdom of Bellary Helloe. ■ The editorials show the progress of the war as it appeared to the soldier, and iv the last of them there is an interesting paragraph on how the end of tlm war was received at the Front—with absolute apathy—and then this sentence which people will do well to remember: “Anyway, though some may be sorry it’s over, there is little doubt that tlm lino men are not, as most of us have been cured of any little illusors we may have had about the

pomp and glory of war. and know it ifor the vilest disaster that can befall mankind.” >*-