"WILL THE ENGLISH NEVER COME?"

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 237, 16 March 1915, Page 2

"WILL THE ENGLISH NEVER COME?"

A NUN'S STORY OF THE RELIEF OF YPRES.

One of the most dramatic stories of ! the war is told in the diary of Dame Theresa Howard, 0.5.8., which is pub lished in The Weekly Dispatch. Dame Howard, who is a niece of Mr John Redmond, is an Irish nijn, and went through the siege of Ypres while at the convent there, experiencing all the terrors of German occupation. The story, which recalls the familiar incidents of the relief of Lucknow when the distant skirl of the pipes told of the approach of the Highlanders, gives a vivid account of the dread felt by all in the little convent of the Royal Benedictine Abbey at Ypres, until the song of the English troops fell upon their ears marching into the town to the lilt of "Tipperary." Writing under date, October 17, Dame Howard describes the growing fears in the convent. "Last night," she says,' "there was a terrible terror over the abbey. About one o'clock there was a loud banging at the street door; it was the Uhlfins. We could hear their drunken laughter, and trembled, thinking of tiic atrocities perpetrated on other convents like the one at Peck, where they had torn the clothes from the nuns' backs. . . . "Mother Prioress ordered that no one should answer, in the hope that they would iTOt dare to break the doors down. What moments! I was cold with perspiration, and to-day we have spent in special prayer. When will the allies come ?

"Oil! it's getting worse and worse. Tlio Allies have C(imc and gone. We are abandoned. . . . No, I was wrong. What lias happened is this. The British sent word to the burgomastetr that they were outside the town with 12,000 troops ready to deliver us, but he was afraid for the town that any battle should take place within the walls. They would only blow it to pieces, and he refused, though there were a couple of Germans with mitrailleuses at the gates, so the English commander has gone o'f to see if they cannot meet the foe in the open.

THE ALLIES HAVE COME.

"Hurrah! We are free—the Allies have come. God has shown us that He is ever watchful; but it was strange how wo first got the news. As a mattetr of fact the German occupation was becoming more and more terrible. Every day brought fresh atrocities, and every moment we thought we were to be the next victims, and we would hide in the cellars for fear they should see us in the convent garden or at the windows. "We were actuallv engaged in the litanies, with the words, 'From all evil, good Lord deliver us,' etc., each sister joining in the responses, 'Good Lord, deliver us,' with a full sou!, when we suddenly heard the heavy tramp, tramp, tramp of soldiers and the sound of singing.

"HERE WE ARE AGAIN"." "We trembled, thinking of the terrible Uhlans answering: 'Good Lord, deliver us' in their midnight carouse; but judge of our surprise and amazement when we found out that it was an English song, and lo! mingled with our cries of supplication camo as if it were in answer—

'Here we arc, Here we are, Here we ore again.' Wc almost joined in, but, of course. we daren't. But imagine the thriil cf joy that went through our hearts. Then outside in the street we heard the clam-' ours of the populace joining in witli 'Alo Alo, and cries of joy. , OVERJOYED TO HEAR TIPPERARY. "We were just wondering in our Irish hearts whether or not it was an Irish' Regiment that was tlie first to enter, thinking of the dear old standard with the harp on it in the days of the Irish Brigade. "Suddenly, we got our answer. In' gruff brogue we heard the song which everyone seems to be singing everywhere else and always— It's a long way to Tippcrary, It's a long way to go.' "The British have come to stop— j Yprcs is to be the headquarters of the! Allies.

"The whole town is rejoicing. A week ago rtycryone thought that everyone else had left. Now it seems as full as during the 'Kemesse," and everybody is ringing bells—we rang ours with a will. Everyone thought everyone was starving, but as the soldiers pass through the streets, everyone seems to throw them chocolates and cakes, they tell me, and my heart aches not to be able to cheer them, though, please God, we shall be able to show them our gratitude." RUINS EVERYWHERE. Before Dame Howard left Ypres for England, however, nearly everything was in ruins. "We saw the great tower of the Halles ablaze," she writes. "The whole thing is a mass of ruins, ruins, ruins everywhere; but no, not everywhere, for our gallant soldiers when they came, to make it their headquarters, swore they would retain it, even though a stone were not left standing upon a stone; and they have kept their word, and. will as long as a man is left standing behind a stone, please God. "The people remark how strange they all are, as compared with the Germans, who occupied the town before. They have no big, loud choruses like the Germans, they have no brutal swagger like the Prussian officers; they are always laughing, and 'toujours ce'drole de cantiquc a Saint Tippcrary,' as the old washerwoman of the, abbey put it, thinking it was a hymn." I