THROUGH THE BATTLEFIELDS.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 June 1919, Page 5

THROUGH THE BATTLEFIELDS.

A JOURNEY BY TRAIN. l For those who have eyes to see, the I trip from Paris to Brussels by train! ,pel'forlned mnid Conditions of pre-war | comfort, provides the traveller with: an 4 extraordinarily complete and inter-i esting picture of the phenomena, and} physical eifects of War. Signs of war} rare visible so soon after leaving Paris i that one nlarv.els anew at the na,rl'ow-‘ ness of her escape. But it is .notsuntil l the train crawls into C}_launy'.th'at one sees the first 13118.00 ofllany size that has not 3. single inhabitable house. Fl-om‘there onwards almost to_..'l.e Cateau the Country is dead. Soon it is clear that the reason why the train goes so slowly is that every single’ bridge hasbeenblown up by the enemy in his retreat. Every telegraph post has either been sawn ‘through or blown in two, and the cut wires lie in festoons. The line has been rel.-aid all the way to Where, with the coming of tlie armisitiee, the Germans shopped destroying. Temporary bridges have been erected, and gangs of grinning: Annamites with :2. few squalid-looking. gloomy and bespeekled German prisoners, are working as plate-layers. A few signal posts have been restored. Hour after hour, the tnain creeps along this trail of destruction. The scene makes one sad, but not particularly .'nlgl'_\' for it is all ‘part of the game. \\"lmt does make one furious is the sight of the felled fruit trees and the barked poplars. It is not only gx'|'Jup.‘< of fruit. trees, which might. (’(.lllCt‘i\'ilbly have afl'=orde<l cover, but single tl'<\3~7. standing here and there and in meadows. All alike are sawn throu::fh. One is struck by the careful \*.-''=.\' I]: which -the battlefields have been tidied

I-‘fltish troops abound in rmfl armmd 2.11 11+: going about their buSiT‘:(;SS with fhat air of large serenity wt (-‘.l disti.r‘.gn3.s'l‘.es them in whatever q.l‘-afar of the Globe they nmay 11:1p’»r.1: fa Vic. \V}lon ‘Jar Germans retired {mm (‘Annbrni t‘nC~y blew up/. quite gl*at-xifinasly. a large part _of the ‘town. .\'othing huf :1 \'iSit_’fo Cambrai can give -may idea of tlie amount of damgo.