MILES OF RUINS.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 January 1919, Page 5

MILES OF RUINS.

THE TRACK OP THE ENEMY

FRENCH TOWNS REVISITED. The allied thrust has brought to yiew the grim reality of suffering and destruction, the measure of the Germans’ unrestrained barbarity, wrote Mr D. H. Illingworth, Director-General of the British Committee of the Red Gross, recently. Starting from Rheims, now a shapeless mass of ruins, the great cathedral a thousandfold more impressive as alone It stands defying humain power to destroy; through the plain, remembered resplendent in waving com, now indescribably desolate,. the fertile soil hidden by the upturned chalk and covered with countless miles of barbed wire rusted and tangled; past the shattered Fort of Brimont, which resisted the heroic assaults' of succeeding years, to fall at last, outflanked, in the advance; through the charred remains of familiar vilages; passing with increasing difficulty- the mine craters? at cross roads and shattered bridges, we approached the receding front. From Vouziers right along the line, past Berry-au-Bac and the Ch'emin des Dames region to Soissons past the St. Gobs in Massif, Laffaux Mill and score' of other places with names of tragic and triumphant memory; everywhere through utter destruction oi buildings, trees, and the land itself, an oasis in the desert, with its cathedral and houses intact, and its peoj,'.-> beaming with joy in their deliverance a wc c k before. 'And so it must be fnmi the sea to the Alps—France lacerated to the bone. BRITAIN’S GREAT ID If there are endless miles i*F ruins, there are thousands of beaming faces. Wounded filtering back from the front,

reserves -waiting their turn, old men ■and women a(n'd their garndchildren huddled, with the remains of their possessions, on a creaking card drawn by a lame old horse, returning perhaps to heaps of ruins which they may still fondly claim as home—ome and all bear the stamp of trials bravely borne and of the light of final triumph near at hand. It might have been difficult for Englishmen to witness these signs of France’s agony, which the freedom from invasion has spared us, had not Britain's sympathy and help from the first days* of war been unstinted. Of all the parts played by our Empire in the great war, surely no men and women will, in years to come, look back on theirs with greater satisfaction and perhaps wonderment than those who have toiled alongside the French on Red Cross and civilian relief work. The task, with the double barrier of language abid our national shyness to be surmounted, has cost a great effort, exhausting perhaps, but not lost; for the French are quick to respond to sympathy. During the dark years when Britain’s share seemed but a mirage ip the desert of sufferings through which the French were toiling, a lasting link of understanding was forged between the nations by these Good Samaritaats and those at home whose generosity has supported them.

LASTINO G RATITUDE. The sum total accomplished is recognised to the full in Franco, and has earned gratitude wide, deep, and lasting. Our motor and ambulance drivers arc given the place of honour and danger, where the fighting is thickest; our surgeons and doctors have set a new standard of devotion, especially in the after-care of their cases; onr trained nurses and V.A.D. "s in the field ambulances, behind the lines and in base hospitals throughout France, are so many Florence Nightingales; our canteen workers are held as fenunes-saintos; onr cases of hospital stores, dressings, bedding, and comforts—and the Brit-, ish Committee jalonje .sends out a thousand packages a month—arc welcomed as the best;, the generous parcels from London have been gratefully received by thousands of sorelytried prisoners of war—on all sides, from soldier and civilian, tokens of appreciation and gratitude throughout the country are unstinted. WORK FOR THE FUTURE. If great things have been ac.eom plished much remains to be done .Re-

construction of homes, churches, mid. factories may he beyond the realms of voluntary aid; but the millions of people returning to their homes can be helped in a score of ways— the blind, and maimed, the fatherless, and those suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases as the result of privations and exposure, still call for our sympathy. 'So, even when peace comes, this work, by a final effort, can crown the devoted endeavours of those who have given their time and energies to it during the past years.