WHERE THE FLAGS CAME FROM

Taihape Daily Times, 15 January 1919, Page 6

WHERE THE FLAGS CAME FROM

'A. British officer, just returned from the newly-liberated portions of France and Belgium, tells a curious tale regarding the flags with which the people celebrated their redemption, There were flags everywhere, thousands of them —Union Jacks, Stars and Stripes. Japanese, Belgian, French.; ana Italian. The officer, struck by the variety and number of the emblems, remarked to a native that the people seemed to have been well prepared for the victorious return of the Allies -and their own soldiers, and asked where the flags had been hidden. "Hidden" replied Frenchman "They were not hidden. We bought them from the Germans:" Here, indeed, was a curious manifestation, of German psychology, or perhaps trading instinct. Did the Germans anticipate their own retreat, and come prepared to equip the French and Belgians with the means of celebration? Ii would appear that they did so, and were willing to utilise the occasion for earning an honest penny, the only honest money thev had earned for many a day!