SPRING-CLEANING THE BATTLEFIELD.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 July 1919, Page 5

SPRING-CLEANING THE BATTLEFIELD.

CHINESE BUSY IN “NQ MAN>g I LANDJ’ 3

Two _<iuys ago I \\'a,'li{c(l out Ilflllll Cilulbmiy through the golden mist or", an April morning, writes a special cor-i 1"'3SP011d011t- The road that leads toi Arms is White and strait, and linedl on either side with the grotesque splin. § tered reninants of magnificent fl-ees_‘ For fifty months, back and forth along ; this road, yet reaching to neither end: 10f it‘, ithere had flowed {he ghastly‘; tide ofhrrnageddon. ’ j There was a strange silence on thel battlefield -as I walked onwards. The: little world that ‘it has of his own? was not yet awake. At least, not all? of it. _A weird shape loomedlsuddenly 2 towards me through the curling mist,E like some huge inverted V. A poplar’: tree hit full in the centre by a shell,; had its‘ entire upper half hanging limply by its ‘side. In the branches a ‘thrusnjand its mate were arguing volubly, The.'f.—yellow sun, helped by a light breeze, was beginning to charm away the watery vapours of the early morning. Far behind the spire of Cambrai pointed steadfastly away from the sacred treasures that lay ruined below. To the left a hill rose up, covered with twisted shapes that had been trees, and bearing a. name tlrat. will live While the British race endures, the name of Bourlon Wood. Away {to the right, a faint blue blurr on the holizon marked the crest of Vimy Ridge. ‘There were motor lorries on the road now bumping recklessly over the scarred pave. " The spring cleaners wéi-E conl~ ing. And they threw up so great’ a cloud of white dust that I ‘struck across through the shell-torn grass land. Here there were great belts, hundreds of yards deep, of rusty German wire, with now and then a pathetic, ‘little bit of khaki, or ‘pe‘;ll._ap';s.'_. fieldrfj:iv‘_"grey,‘.,stillß fluttefring_,.c'>n the “b;al'bs';”j 7." .‘ -‘ <__':; ' 7 -’ ~ "Gaps tlirou-gli..th'e wire wer.elnot'}di’flicult’ to filld.“'Son'le had becn7_to_rn by high fexplosiveikshell ‘wi_tll‘_. the new tact sljfuses. Others had bcenibeaten‘ flat by British tanks. I took the latter as oliering the more attractive route. In -Tthe next belt of 'Wire_ ‘there was a party of Hun .prisoners hard “at work. With the aid of ropes and grapnel hooks they were c-ollec-ting the rusty metal into great: heaps. At each heap there was a clever machine, where, ‘under. hydraulic pressure, the ugly tangled mass was squeezed into solid blocks, easy «to handle, and easy to cartaway to some factory, where it could be melted and converted into‘ something of less evil purpose. Beyond the wire a French peasant was ploughing. Half a mile away stood a heap of bricks, which once had been his cottage, and by its side the =tiny little wooden lluf:-W‘hlCl1‘|:'h_C had built to carry on. [He had only been; able to find a couple of acres, or so, capable of yielding to the plough. . .-He hada happy smile on his ,t‘ace,F this French peasant, the smile of a man ._wllo builds a. new worla*- =ov’erll.~th‘e'§ ruins of the old. And his work was‘ not without danger." Every now and‘ then the cutting edge’ of his ploug-11,3 so he;,to.ld.xnc, encountered a hard "ob-1 jcct, ,gl.nd dud shell was turned up, beddedin the moist brown soil.‘ < , VTHE DEBBIS or ARMAGEDDON. ' E The sun was high in the heavens; now, -and little .'brown figures were; scurrying hither and thither over “No Man"s Land” which my pat.ln\‘ay was ‘ about -to cross. Their yellow faces, peering black eyes, an.d close—littingl round woollen caps gave one the im-E pression of irnps from the -nether" regions come up to gloat over the, white. man’s great tragedy.

They were a’ Chinese L3,‘b°“r B'%ttal' ion, and, under the watchful eyes Of their hefty British N.C.O.’s they WCTO sorting out the debris Of ."xl‘lll3'§oddoll, some into neat piles by the roadside‘ rows- of unexpl-oded shells marked “D:lngel'ous”-and some into bonfires whose smoke came curling along tlle trenches where once a more deadly fume had crept. ' ~ ‘ I stood on the edge of a great mine crater, and marvelled at the healing handiwork of Nature. The lip was ringed with {L bright girdle of daisies, coltsfoot, and little clumps»: ‘of red nettle, ain ampliitheatre for ifairies to dance in. At. the bottom were‘ twu primrose coloured splashes. Primroses! I tlmught, and, finding the "temptation irresistible, started to climb down the steep side, - My foot ‘caught: on something, and I stumbled, bringing with 'me a. great slide of earth that. blotted out theyellow'V’bloollls. Above, I became conscious of two squat figures who had crept up silently, and stood there pointing. At wh’at‘§ I looked round. The fall of earth had lineovered ‘:1 d-I'eadt'u,l thing-——fx mass of decay and grey field régs. The Orientals knew their work. They had 3. barrow of some sort. with them. Anned with spades. and gibbering alistixange tongue. they fell upon this ghastly relic and moved it away in theidirection of the smoking-boxy fim and the neat piles by the roadside. Thev were spl'illg—cleanin;_7; the battlefield——and the bat=t:lefie’ld has got to be spring-cleaned.