KING UNDER FIRE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1740, 26 July 1917, Page 4

KING UNDER FIRE.

HIS VISIT TO,THE FRONT. OFAR’D OF AIRMEN. London, July G. Router's correspondent at head* (|iiarl(‘i's in Fra nee writes;— The King'ami lhe (,>llOOll crossed lo Prance on 3rd July. The Priju-e of Males was among' those who received them. The Queen proceeded to tour the hospitals, while the King began his tour on -Ith July by visiting Messines Ridge. He climbed the slopes while German shells were llashingand crumpling upon the other side. His Majesty was heartily greeted by the British and Dominion troops. Accompanied by the Prince of Wales, the King walked from Vierstraat to the Ridge. He halted upon the threshold of the battleground of a month ago, and passed through a scene of desolation, with innumerable craters strewn over with broken rilles, unexploded grenades, helmets, bandoliers and gruesome objects, which did not invite closer inspection. The scene affected the King visibly. Away northward.-; a German battery was shelling, overhead enemy “Archies” were searching the heavens for our airmen. IK A GERMAN DUG-OUT. General Plumer, acting as guide, took the King to the old German

front line. The King paused to inspect a ruined chateau, which had been-redueedto a mound of reddish dust. He stepped into the entrance of a wrecked dug-out, and saw with an electric torch how the Germans had been disturbed at their meal by the-' historic explosion. He stood several minutes silently beside a gigantic mine crater. Meanwhile the Germans wore shelling tlu* crest near Wyteschaete, just 1,000 yards away. There the King spent hours in the old German defences. He was conveyed along a narrowguage railway by a dwarf engine, the Royal saloon comprising a rough wooden ear with open sides, a solitary chair, and plank benches. Thence, via an oieetrie-lit tunnel, he moved to the shell-proof observers’ posts on the ridge, whore he got a view of the Plain of Flanders and (lie adjoining valleys. Returning, the party met a group of divisional Generals, artillery commanders, and others who had contributed to the victory of Messinos, drawn up beside a peasant dwelling. The woman occupant continued her work at a creaking mangle a few yards away, while the King talked to the officers. Subsequently the King visited the miniature Wysehacto battlefield, where the attack was rehearsed for weeks beiVn'charid. ANZAC GUARD OF HONOUR. The King had luncheon in an oldworld town. Anzae troops lined three 1 sides of the market square. The Anzae corps commander, with his staff, and the Premier of Now South Wales (Mr Holman) were present. The King dialled with them, and subsequently drove off, amid outbursts of Australian codecs. He motored thence through fields and villages alive with Australians and New Zealanders. They i• aiae binding through the hedges, tl.mked on the fences, and swarmed trees to give a throaty welcome to His Majesty. On tlie second day the King had luncheon with the King of Belgium at the hitter's coast villa. He visitel naval and military aerodromes, and drove through camps of voeifi evens Belgians. At the aerodromes the King was most in wrested in prodigal exhibitions of freak Hying, machines tumbling about like an artist in a variety knockabout turn. He dialled with a batch of Naval Volunteer Reserves just back from a successful raid. All day airmen overhead accompanied the King, keeping the sky dear of foes. The King on the (sth -July visited an establishment where he witnessed the art: of deception carried to amazing lengths, induding the disappearing trickery which is specialised here. He inspected workers employed iu disguising.snipers as holly bushes. Then he watched a practice battle, the features of which included a horseman slowly advancing, representing a creeping barrage, behind whom drummers were realistically ralaplamiing a bombardment. The drummers were preceded by hundreds of laden soldiers guiding their pace by a horseman. The troops dashed headlong at a trench parapet lowered bayonets, swept over the trenches, capturing Tommies who represented Germans, j ml(ing their hands up and crying “Kainerad.” His Majesty subsequently watched another practice attack under different conditions. The King heard later that enemy aeroplanes had dropped bombs over one place he had visited earlier. The Times correspondent at Headquarters, who accompanied (he King and the Prince of Wales in their tour, tells of fearful engines of war. They saw an exhibition of chemical abominations, and the latest type of llamo-projeetor, 'which is more devastating than that the Germans Hung across the field. It has a vile red tongue, with a scorching Ha me, which consumes and shrivels whatever is in its path. They saw boiling oil projectors 11 ing great Hoods of (hiniing liquid, which char and devour whatever touches them. Further, gas of a thick greenish vapour rolled sluggishly over supposed German trenches, in which no one would have been alive after the vile Hood had passed. A smoke barrage—a dense, white certain, behind which the movement of troops and guns is invisible —was also demonstrated. The King spoke disgustedly of the barbarism of the enemy, which compelled us lo meet them with uncivilised weapons. Ours were now much more potent than theirs.