REDEEMED FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 February 1919, Page 7

REDEEMED FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

THE JOY OF THE DELIVERED PEOPLE ON THE ARRIVAL OP TELEIB DELIVERERS. London, Oct. 22. No word can describe the joy and. relief which have come to France and Belgium this week. For they are free! The hated enemy is 011 the way home and the Allies are on hia heels en route to the Rhine! What tongue can tell what all this means to men and womea and children, to fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives—to lovers! How little they ask of life—merely to he free.—to rest at home! "The re-birth of Belgium has begun" says a special correspondent of the Morning Post. "After four tragic years the country is almost free of tha brute beaata who have roamed and ravaged it at will. But the high spirit of the nation has never failed, and wonld not have been quenched even though the term of its slavery had been fourteen or forty years." BRUSSELS FREE. "Brussels is awaiting the return of her warriors in a state of trembling enthusiasm, and the scenes that will greet King Albert and his men when they enter the capital will beggar description," says Reuters correspondent. "I travelled by motor-car from Ghent, and the scenes en route were very remarkable. The whole of Belgium seems to be on the road, and joy radiates from every face. Everywhere are to be seen groups of soldiers on leave, returning to their homes with their wives and children, and threading their way in and oat of the crowd. 1 constantly met those little carts drawn by carts or by men laden with the household goods of their owners. Enormous numbers of people were lined up along the sides of the road waiting the march-past of the troops and frantically cheering each motor-car which passed through. "The last German left Brussels about midday, and their exit from the city over which they have held such ruthless sway for over four years was preceded by some extraordinary scenes." "I must have seen thousands of the 1 younger generations preferring to play truant from churah on Sunday morning in order to play spectators at the moat fascinating film play in the world," says the special correspondent of the .Morning Post, writing of his ride to Brussels. 'ln tliis way, you may say, the Brussels road has been the leit motif of the war, for it served the Boche for his mean invasion, and it is serving us for his meaner departure. There is another spell about the road for the people hereabouts. Ever since the armistice set in there has been a never-end-ing stream of French and Belgians returning from bondage, and at present that stream shows no sign of diminution. "Women go out daily to meet their husbands returning home, and a weary wait it is. They come back escorted by knots and groups of all sorts and conditions of men. Artisans, clerks, professionals, and nondescrips swarm back along this tragic highway. Mostly they carry every conceivable kind of bundle with their belongings, or else they push the strangest medley of go-carts ever seen. These range from the common or garden wheelbarrow to carts that are equipped with everything but horses. In one case to-day I met a gala affair that was decorated with grasses and greenstuff up to the frame top until it looked like a harvest home on tour." "I LIVE IN A DREAM." A French official communique on Sunday said:— "Crossing the frontier on the whole front our troops entered Belgium and the annexed provinces. At the present moment there is not a single enemy on the national territory. The liberated populations everywhere accorded their liberators an enthusiastic welcome." What the arrival of the French means to the people of Alsace-Lorraine will be perhaps best imagined by reading the comments of the people themselves. The special correspondent of the Temps telegraphs:— "I got ahead of the soldiers in order to choose a good place to witness the entry into Chateau Salins. The commotion in (lie town was indiscribable. A woman ran out of her house; a child's voice was heard inside: —'What about the soup, mamma?' —'A pretty time to think of soup to-day,' was the answer. A farmer leaning against the garden palings presented anna with a shovel, and shouted: —'If you'd come three days sooner you might have killed any amount of them.' In front of the barber's half a dozen women were talking excitedly. One said, 'When the boys called out that thu French were arriving, I left my work in the lurch, and now j I've lost my head and my bro«m.' And junpfto" 'Sine* we've been rid.

of those pests'—she called them ce»choleras—'l live in a dream.'" LORRAINE IS FREE. M. Louis Forest, a French journalist ■born in Metz, has achieved the distinction of being the first Frenchman to enter the capital of Lorraine after the return of the two Provinces to the fold. In telling his adventure in tho Matin, he says:— "A dozen boys were clinging to me. 'Tell us about France,' they said. "At last I reached my old home. Some one called to me, 'I read the.Matin every day. We had it in spite of them.' Now I am on the square in front of tho Cathedra], where stands the pitiful imago of William dressed up as a saint. The crowd nearly suffocates me. I am carried away to tho Cafe de la Lune. The people are mad with joy. "The old father of the sculptor Hanau asks me for news of his son. The people call out for newspapers. Some one aays, 'Bring us white bread.' I shout over the heads of the crowd, I'd rather have ten years of black bread with the French than one month's whito bread with the Bodies'—thunderous applause. Then I, who had not shed a tear for four years, broke down. Think of it—these people fighting for 48 years. What more can I say? Vive la France! Vive ma pauvre Lorraine, libre en fin'" DELIRIOUS ENTHUSIASM . "French troops have entered Mulhouse hi Alsace amidst the delirious enthusiasm of its 50,000 inhabitants. The streets, the roofs, and windows of the houses, even the trees and lamp-posts, were black with people who had waited patiently for hours the coining of their deliverers, and when the soldiers of France arrived such a roar went up as Mulhouse has certainly never heard before. The Poilus were literally mobbed. Hundreds of enthusiastic'admirers seized the reins of their horses and jumped on the gun carriages, while kisses, ftowers and cigarettes were rained down i on them from the windows by cheering men, women and children. HE HAD WAITED LONG. "The Deputy-Mayor welcomed the j new garrison of Mulhouse, and affirmed : the attachment of the town to France. General Hiischauer, who. led tho French, alluded to his Alastian origin, and recalled memories of those old Frenchmen who, like his father, sleep their last sleep beneath Alsatian soil. "The Cure Cetti, the venerable doyen of Mulhouse, who was waiting at the Town Hall to receive the officers, was completely overcome, and afterwards succumbed to his emotion. This was' the only sad note in a day of great rejoicing.'" "Tho brave priest, Abbe Cetti, who since the provinces were torn from France has never lost faith in their ultimate restitution, and had spent his life in keeping aglow the flame of French patriotism under the German heel, was so overcome at the great news that he actually died from sheer joy," says another correspondent. "The thunder of acclamations which began at the first houses rose irresistibly in a occasional cresendo," says Router's correspondent. "Those who were waiting for the troops joined their shouts in advance to the chorus of those who already saw them, and still continued after they had passed. Old men in frock coats, or dress coats, wearing tho IS7O j medal, shouted "Vive la Republique" and waved their hats. Young girls and children, picturesquely clad in the French - uniform, waved flags and mingled their shrill voices with those of their parents."