NORTHERN FRANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1916, Page 2

NORTHERN FRANCE

j HISTORIC; BATTLECnOUNDC. i f . | . neakixg the cqvmv (From Malcolm Ross, War Corrcspjsaeut v.-itli tiie X.Z. Forces). Northern . rmcc, 23. T'ivo hundred t l .ll d seventv years ugo to-day, on ground not fr.r from whore 1 write, was fought a battle famous in history—t!io battle of Crecy. The Forest of Crecy still stands, as is the wav with forests in the Old World, and a little to the north of it is the hamlet Creey-en-Ponthieu, which murks the field. It 'is interesting i-i this vear of grace to open your Froksart, nnd in the light of what is' happening on another battlefield only a few miies awHy, to read how the English, encamped on the field, took i-p their positions beffiimes, ate. drank and rested, and await!«d quietly the onslaught of the French. There were only three, divisions of the Publish. To-day there are three divions from 0113 of England':; youngest find farthest co'.onies, numbering more men, fighting in the great battls of the Somme,'" Five hundred and seventy years ago to-day, when the French King sent iiij Genoese cross-bovraies, fifteen tlior.sand of them, into the lattlefront, they were awed by the rigi.l stillness that reigned in the British rank-. Today on the Somme there u no r'.gV stillness in the British ranks. Their guns are thundering to som-s p«rpo«. In the battle of long ago the Irish mid the Welsh, who formed . great .nu't of Xing Edward's forejs, nrmed with Ijng

knives, brought many tu.ihc "round. To-day the Iris:: . m .j tli". Welsh, who form no teconsidersWe ..art o:' our King? forces, are bringing many '■•. nights to the ground The dili'orence is that they aTe not so chivalrous cii.s-c German knights, as were tko ."rencli knights of old. It was on tlmt field, at the corner the wood of Crecy, that the iPrineo of Wales—Edward the Black Prince—who commanded the first division of the English, won his spurs. "Is my son hurt, or dead, or on the earth felled?" asked the King, when -j message for help was sent to him. ''No, Sire, but lie is hardly matched, and hath need ot your aid," was the reply. "Return to them that sent you," said Edward, "and say to them that they «nd no more to mo for any adventure that falleth as long as my sou is alive; and also say to them thf.s they sutler him this day to win his spurs; for, if God be pleased, ,1 will that this day be his, *nd that ithe honor thereo.', r.i:d to them that bo about him."

A cross ner.r the village marks ihe ,;pot where the oody oi John, the blind King of Bohemia, was found. Hi* knights had leu iisfti on-his horse into the fight, "to strike ono more good blow." and ..e and a'l those about him were killed. It i- irom him that the Princes of Waled got their crest and motto. Only a few days ago . preos.ii prince, with his father, were on tile battlefield where the descendants of tile soldiers of Edward 111. were winning immortal renown in the greatest war of all time. But the French, who were our enemies at Crecy were now our friends, and each is proud of the valor of the other.

In the villages all about this region where 1 now am the New Zealanders are billeted, and assiduously training before g'Jing into the big fight. It is a beautiful land, with rolling downs, clumps of forest, and splendid road 3 shaded by stately avenues of tall trees. In the (ie.ds, where the corn is half cut, old men and old and young women and children are busy with the burden of the harvest. Nearer the lines you may see women cutting grass in fields in which the German shells nre actually falling. You may even see a woman binding the .vound of a cow that is ,i victim to a splinter of high explosive. With the patient industry of these people and with the splendid agriculture of the country our men are tremendously impressed, and the lesson, one hopes,

v.'iil not be lost to New Zealand farmers and farmers' sons .viio have couic this way. Wo have conic through country of historic interest. The ecclesiastic, monu mentis alone 'arc an inspiration, and even under the dti-ess and strain 01 wsr one finds numbers of our men taking an .nterest in them. A town 1. i:o longer a pities Where you can buy bread and beer. Near-by is a village where a famous, abbey was founded towards t'le esd of the fourth century. ChaTlcmagne and Hugh Capet were identified with it. Normans, Burgundians, I'rencli, English, and Germans have in the past laid their destroying hands upon it. The Abbey, 'which"v:as burnt in the eighteenth century, became a seminary. It is now hospital. In 1."3G the women of the town were instrumental in repelling an attack by the troops of Charles the Fifth. The Gothic church ha? p. beautiful front, that passing motorists going to and from the front stop to fee. Though the ravages of time have eaten into the soft stone, the carvings are still beautiful, and on the ' high-altar there is a ilgttre of Christ carved in wood by Girardon. Abbeville, through which, we parsed, rich in historic.' incident. Coder Capet it pot its girdle of rampart?. It was the"meeting for the leader:, of the first of crusades. It was vnder English dominion for two -Hundred years. The Bukes of Burgundy held it, and then, in 1477, it final 1 .- passed o y ra -,- c? . There Loui:; XTI. warned iiary Tudor, .lad Wolsay and Francis I. si-red their alliance iigauist Charles V ) nd now the new Crusaders have come to Abbeviile. It was a strange ssg.it to g 33 the New ZcHkndsrs marclnn,,' through the old town. To-day they are marc.urg clou;? roads where -Philip rod; titer Cr>ey with .1:? few Barons i.o t.ie Castle nf Labrnve, and thence to Aniens. In that great battle U princes, SO ban-iii-rets, 1-00 knights arid 30,000 footmen were slain on the Frenchl -side But todav we are friends wit.i the Frsr.cn, and any Frenchman will tall- to you quite calmlv about it all. in part of Northern France, near my 01 let of a, few davs ago, there is an old chateau at which our present King called, mid was hospitably entertained. The Baronne who is the owner told me that i,i her cellar were some of the missiles thrown bv the English in a former fighting She' laughingly told the King that she had put' them all out of sight ugftinst his coming—all but oiie, which she uses as a vase for flowers in honor of his visit. And the King laughed, and signed his name in an old hook that contained a picture of the chateau with its great walls &nd its moat in days before 6b« Eoc'Jih came. It bai Ukfs v y).ji UiM to fetMSM ttv

■"a>.t r.'i-'inls wo now are of iFip French. One wonders liow many «lo;-a(tt*s it will bi' iwfoM" we onu!d be again of one mind with the (jennaii.-!