"JEUNES HEROS."

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3463, 17 April 1920, Page 7

"JEUNES HEROS."

DIGGERS AND DAMSELS.

A. FRENCH LAMENT.

The following is a. translation of a short article appearing in the Gazette de Charleroi, Belgium, of recent date: Do you know that a.ftel' the armistice {re had an army of 30,000 Australians scattered about the district and over the country between the Sambre and the Meuse? .

This army is now dc-mobilised. The greater part of th'os’é" brave fellows who covered them‘se Ives with glory on the fields of battle have once moire reached their homeland. ‘

But not all of them ‘have left. as single men. ‘ Several thousands have ‘gone over there with a French or Belgian girl, married, according to all the requirements of the law, before M. the Mayor, and with all the formalities provided for such affairs. . Whilst waiting at Abbeville or in England ‘their embarkation ‘for Oceania :some.o:f the demobilised men, seized by a nostalgia that comes of a charming smile, the memory of which still causes a thumping of the heart, have been coming back to our villages to forget. It is quite clear that our little Walloon damsels have conquered these rough soldiers, who on o'thcr fields were impregnable and insuperable. W" Still, they have not all gone back. The other day "an Australian officer was making inquiries in tonnection with certain damages done by the soldiers, who do -not always _either exercise the same care or exhibit the same capacity as good housewives in safeguarding the furniture and the appearance of the house. ' ‘ “You have no damages to claim?” he asked a. young lady of a house which he had just entered. “Yes, monsieur—unfortunately. ” “What. Are ‘the damages as serious as that?” “Alas, yes. ‘ One of, your soldiers has gone away with your heart. That ‘is Worth at least ten thousand francs.” “Oh! Mademoiselle, "that amount is altogether insiuflicient‘. Not ‘all the gom the world could make up for suc xi, misfortune! _.. ..” . ’ As a. matter of fact, our young fel-. lows have not been very happy over that welcome which the fair sex rcserved for the heroes who had come across the rolling seas. They have nutured .9. resentment which has not yet been eifaced. 2"‘ '*. In one little village la:>tx~.-eefiaglrhgs Sambre and the Mouse. the Usual fair has not been held this year, because_ the Y0"-1118" lflellows ‘have refused £3)

have anything to do with it, or to dance with the girls. “They have only to call back their Australians, ” say the boys with cold cruelty. Poor little girls! . . . Nasty jealous fellows!