THE NEW BELGIUM.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3441, 22 March 1920, Page 7

THE NEW BELGIUM.

WORK PROGRESSING SATIS- , FACTORILY. I’ A VISITOR I)II’RESSION. A great deal of thb reconstrucItive Work now in hand in France and ißelgium has bkren seen by Mr E. R. !Picot, managr of a large manufacturing concern in Sydney, who, with his \vifl.‘., arrived‘ by the Makura on 'l.‘hul-sday. Mr and Mrs Pieot have been away for more than :1 3,i:nul', and in that tim have nxadflcu a rapid but c-.mnp'rcsensive trip of England, America, and the old war zone. ’L"heir ace:-ount of the latter di.~;tri::.: of sl-c-rzini interest. “We have be-cn in I‘z«.ri:a, Brussels, and right thl'oLlgll QB»-lgiulxx,” said Ml‘ Picot, “in~':md".ng a tent of almost fifty miles «f the

Hhudcnburg line, We also yard 21 visit t.o~Ypres, which is being ret Linell as it now stands for a Inonu:n3.lt (f the war. The army of reconstruction has some thousands of Chin.lr.lell under its direction, together with Gerlllall"‘prisoners, all under the orders of British cleaning corps, who are removing who rubble from the streets, and propping up the walls of the Cloth Hall. In the other towns, rebuilding is going on at an astounding. rate, and it is my firm belief that,‘ within eighteen months, ,t.here will be nothing left for the souvenir hunting tourist ‘to See. Nature is covering the blemishes very rapidly, and the unsightly gaps in the ground that were once shell holes are new small lakes, with bullrushes -growing in them.

“'l‘here is :1 huge amount of broken iron, steel, an (barbed wire yet to be found«.,ou the battlefields,” continued the visitor, “but I°l3 is all zealously gua‘r(led, and will presently be utilised in connection with "the large shlpnlents of machinery ‘that are entering Belgium every day. The Belgian peasant, tllrif’ty as of yore, is hard at work trying to‘ discover his farm. and isvleacly to put it under ('nl’rivation. ’ ’ _