EDITING IN RHEIMS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 17 August 1917, Page 1

EDITING IN RHEIMS.

THE THRILLING LIFE. IN A BOMBARDED CITY. (By Clatoe HEiixri-, in the * Daily Mail.') M. Claude Helluy, editor of the ' Courier do l.i Champagne' the oldest daily jKipev in Rheims, recently arrived in Paris from that city. He had been obliged to suspend publication of his journal, which had come out regularly all through the war, even during the eight days' occupation by the Germans in September, 1914. Although I have closed down my printing office, the inhabitants of Rheims are not without a newspaper, for the "Eclaireur do l'Est' continues to appear in the bombarded city. Produced on a pedal press almost daily, it consists of a, small sheet, quarto size, printed in two columns on both sides of the paper. Its contents are chiefly made' up of the official war communiques issued by the French and British Governments, the number of shells which have fallen on the previous day, the list of lulled and wounded by the bombardment, municipal notices, and some scraps of local news. From September, 1914, to April, 1917, these_ two Rheims papers contained, in addition to items of a. parocliial character, extracts from the Paris Press. There was no original news, nor any interesting information ■ from outside. For 31 months wo had. to do our work without the telephone, without the telegraph, without correspondents. Our rotary presses were stopped for lack of an electric motor, and our linotypes were silent because we had no gas. One or two old compositors, unmobilised, and several young apprentices set up the journal by hand. It was also printed by hand, relays of men following one another at the work of turning the antiquated presses, similaar to those employed by 'The Times' in 1800. The ' Eclaireur,' more fortunate than the ' Courrier,' was able to keep its machines going by means of a petrol motor, installed some time after the death of one of its "turners," killed alongside the press by a shell which came through the glass of "the roof of the building and exploded in the centre of the office."* i At the beginning of the war the staff on the 'Cburrier' numbered 150, but before we shut down it had fallen to 15. M. Gobert, technical manager of the paper, himself replaced the five members of the editorial staff and two employees, all mobilised. When. M. Gobert, called np in his turn, left for Verdun, he was replaced bv myself, liberated while I was at the Verdun front because I am the father of seven children. I thus became editor, manager, printer, and staff all in one. . . FORCED REMOVAL. During the last two years the ' Cburrier ' was obliged to change its address twice. It moved first to the premises of a photo-engraver, whose workshop was situated in a part of Rheims which enjoyed a certain amount of tranquillity. When we left there it was for the centre of the city, a conuoercial printing office opposite the little door of the cathediaL Our removel was due to the following circumstances. The ' Couxrier' was originally accommodated in the premises of a wcll-kniwn English firm, Sir Isaac Holden and Sons, of Bradford, important woolcombers in Rhehns. The journal had acquired Sir Isaac's private residence, near the wool-combing factory on one side, and not far from the Colbert Barracks on the other. This proved to be doubly dangerous, for it received on the one hand the sheila falling too short, intended for the barracks, and, on the other, those too long, meant for the factory. lOne day when we were busy printing •off the edition a shrapnel shell struck the cylinder of the press, and the fragments flew in all directions. By amiracie no one was hit. As the staff fled into the adjoining shop they were followed by another shell, which exploded in the middle of a roll of paper. They were about to take refuge in the publishing department when a third shell anticipated them, coming through the ceiling and destroying the machine used to print addresses. The workmen only reached the cellar, 40ft <U?ep, in time. The same cellar served shortly after for a battery of artillery, which was passing on the neighboring boulevards when a shell fell in their midst. After we had settled down, near the cathedral I occasionally revisited our old premises at Holden's and every time I went there I noticed new depredations. A shell, landing at the foot of a wall, tore a hole in a brick partition and, striking a linotype machine, threw it forward nearly 2ft. I traced the marks of 50 projectiles on the house, which is now partly destroyed. Behind our office the Holden factory, which covered several acres, had been burned by a shower of incendiary- shells, and the chimney stack, 250 ft high, had been knocked over by a shot at the base.' This happened three weeks ago. Under the shadow of the cathedral we spent a less agitated time than in the zone of projectiles destined - for the woolcombing factory of the "accursed English." The fury displayed by the Huns an 1914 against the cathedral had somewhat calmed down. In 1915 and 1916 the only sensatioual visitors were some 150 shells, one of which pierced the arch of the transept. Another ripped the roof off the 'Eclaireur' office; and a third broke m three the electric standard on the pavement ontaide and blew in our windows, replaced so often that thev consisted of tracing paper instead of "glass. l*or a similar reason the tiles on the roof had mostly been replaced by tarpaulin, which in its turn was riddled by machinegun bullets from German airmen" MERCILESS BOMBARDMENT. A fortnight before the beginnini; of the Franco-British offensive the Germans began to grind the city to powder bit bv bit. Each quarter in turn was mercilessly pounded on .systematic lines. In the ruins ; accumulated by the 210 mm (B.3in) and 305 mm (12m) guns the 77mm (3.lin) in- ! cendiary shells lighted flames which com- : pleted the disaster. Asphyxiating bombs, distributed in profusion,' prevented the • firemen and rescue corps from approaeh- . mg the groups of burning houses. ■ j The conduct of the Rheims inhabitants i during this period of redoubled Bosche - fury was superb. I cannot here record f all the instances of bravery of which I : have been a witness or which were ieported to me. But I must mention the . heroism of a noble woman, Mme. Bamlet- ; Dnpuy, wife of the director of the cham- ; pagne firm Veuve-Pommerv. She, with ' four other people, was killed while placing a wounded soldier in her motor car. Such was the intensity of the bombardment

hat the chauffeur, who -was instantly ailed, remained dead at the wheel and ,he occupants of the car lay stretched on :he seats from 11 o'clock in the mornn'g until 9 o'clock in the evening before clieir bodies could be removed. Jlr Lloyd George, your Prime Minister, is one of the distinguished visitors I have seen in Rheims during the past year. He was standing, apparently deep in meditation, on the square in front of the cathedral before the monument of Joan of Arc. With his cloak turned aside, and 'r:s hands thrust into his pockets, his head and chest thrown back, his attitude was that of profound admiration. For a long time he gazed at the face of the national heroine, to whom Bheims has erected a statue. In the same attitude and with the same sentiments mauy other Englishmen—who know what chivalry- means—will in future look upon the city of Rheims, or, rather, what remains of it. For the intention of the Germans to reduce it to a heap of stones and ashes is evident. Since the first of April the city has received more than 80,000 shells, and has suffered more than Verdun. Its cathedral, mutilated and charred, has in the mass resisted up to now. But to-day its vaults and buttresses are being rudely shattered by bombs capable of levelling any kind of rampart. If the Germans, three weeks from now at the latest, have not been cleared out of the massifs of Berru and Brimont, from which they dominate the martyr city, there will be nothing left (if the oldest town in France and the most beautiful church in the world. -»v—^-»—i————»»