INTERESTING NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 263, 5 August 1915, Page 3

INTERESTING NEWS.

REFUGEES FROM THE WAR ZONE J^inc c . th e German Invasion of Bc.lgimn and France began, a number of temporary newspapers Ini', e appeared in Paris The, “Bulletin dos Hefugles des Departments du Nord’ ’is a journal that is published twice a week, in crdisr to kc;3p refugees from th v j invaded region in touch with each other, and with what little news filters through from the territory he’d by the Germans. Th e props ietor lias turned over the upp-er room of a fairly large caf e opposite the, Gave clu Nord to the Relief Committee over which a srnatefr cr deputy from the invaded region presides. Outside the cafe the people who have bean driven from their homes by “lea Bodies,” and over whcsia country the cannon balls arc daily whizzing, stand in a long line;. Through the doorway, up the stairway, and into the billiard hall upstairs goes the lino Old men. very young men, and women and children stand patiently waiting to gef, information about relatives and friends Most of these people are looking for work, and once in a way there conics a demand tor working men to till the places of th G soldiers* in the slowly j recovering industries. They are grimy and sad-eyed, these people who have lost everything through the war. They don’t make ranch outcry, those French 'people from the North; they will stand in line all clay, d mse the business at th G head goes so slowly. The French have no instinct for organisation. They will block each other’s way until someone conies and straightens things out. A sort of temporary directory has b£|3n published. It gives names under the headings of towns of origin, and then the temporary address in Paris. Once in a while help is sent to people who have not left their homes, but who prefer to stay and run the great risks. In a. village near Rlieims, there i=j an old couple who refuse to leqve the, house wher s they have lived for ever half a century. Both the man and the woman ar f 80 years old, and when friends urge them to leave, they say: ‘We stayed here all through IS7O. We hav e lived to a good old age. If the time has com G for us to die, then we wiT die. But we will not elave the hom.y whcr e w e have passed cur liver,.’ Often, in the minds of people who hPV3 passed through great trouble, ther G is sonm small derail that It is so with the refugees. Many a sad story ends with: “And w G had just 'finished playing for it.” The reference [ may be to a new house, a barn, or a plot of land. One poor man keens shaking his head and saying: “We had just finished paying for tlm covg and now the; Germans have her.” Then thorp is a young girl who has seen her bo-re burned, and her friends shot down before heir eyes, and yrf she keens ranoa.tlnr, slowly in a voice shocked and “rp p , think they took my first dre'-s i r f ’onn ♦hem rrmm.” o—< —p- p'vain she sr-'s it. f r> " ‘o Rho has b«en 'given the clothing which s hr. so badly needed, but, never again

;au she have a “first” communion dress.