Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1914-12-31, Page 6nista iC, ,,tel IS ;sit said sail S;a: , :t;S,i;tatisa2S SI:Staielme; ? ,fM. .i. .. lg's'^ •WAR AS IT IS • el'blade %1rea rteiireitta'es iiti sfeia:tra este at rabic."s.'.'ani:etts'a!is:•ugisa; rata. Sege . [In 'the following story of a simple They fled un all sides with fright - country woman, set down as nearly tine cries. The street was a horri- ble sight. The cries uf wesne' , groans of wounded, the ineee•saut noise of volley firing, made a terei- fyiog accompaniment to the roaring of fire andthe ceas.'h of falling build ings. Ph. irliabit•ants sought refuge in their cellars,' twenty or thirty, of- ten more, erowded together. They heard in the street the, pattering of the firing, the eves of metiers, the headlong gallop of animals eseap€d from their stables. They dared not go out. Above all they were in ie,ar of being discovered, and trem- bling with terror, they crept close to each ether and waited for death. How many hours, days, did this hell last, I' don't know. I, was out of my mind. Twenty-five of us were !shut in a cellar, men, women, chil- dren, rid folk. One night when it was dark we marls up our minds to go out. Without xnakmg a noise we raised the trap-door which opened on the street. Nobody there. Quick, quick, let us get out cf here. We were seen, and voices Cried to us: "Heraus! Heraus Get out!" German soldiers with revolvers it th,jr hands came runni•lg from all Bides. "Get out !" We came out. Wo- men and children first. We fell on our knees and with joined bands pleaded "Pity! Pity! We're not soldiers." Still the voices ordered, "Ilei aue !" • Monsieur Chardin the deputy was hardly out when he was killed by a revolver shot, then after him an olcl man of seventy, then before the eyes of his mother, a lad of fifteen. His mother eried, "He's not a French soldier—he's not a soldier," but he was killed all the same. Everyone was strieken with fear_ Some tried to escape, running, leap- ing ditehes, climbing walls, but the soldiers fired oh them and they fell. That made the :o'.cliers very angry. They dalled out words which we did not understand, and they latish - ed us back against a wall. We thought our last minute had some. Some officers passed. We threw ourselves on our knees and showed them our little children. They turned away their heads, was their. Thee were exacting scattered us with shoves of the feet eta posuble '1n her words by a Frenall newspaperman, is revealed mere of the horror andwickedness of war than we have known. We feed nothing of the meaning of war as we read the reports of so many advances, so many retreats, sieges and surrenders, so many thousand dead, so many thousand wounded. We read aur papers and put them down, almost unmoved. It is a dream, it is fist on, ea colossal that we can hardly believe it true. Suf- fering in mass does not touch our hearts, bet the story of one poor mother mourning heir aeon, or wife her husband, does. And so the story of OM pour woman who has known war affects us terribly. Its cimpllc.tty and direetneets is superb. Translated by Robert W. Sneddon.] Was was hardly declared before German soldiers appeared in No- meny. One day all the village was working in the fields. It was har- vest time, and the m,en with bent backs were cutting the corn; the women were binding the sheaves. Harsh voices behind them made them start: ."Have jou seen the Frenchi" They turned round. There steed a dozen great red-faced Bavarian soldiers, with revolvers in theis hands. They spoke angrily and looked about them with watchful glances. They had come out of a little wood and crept across the fie?dts. "Have you seen the French 1" Nobody had seen the French troops. So the Bavarians retired, crouching and gliding through the corn, and disappeared into the lit tie weed. Next day and for days after pa- trols of Unions scoured the Gauntry, pilaging and robbing as they pleased. The four gendarmes of Nomeny wanted to stop the exploits of those highway robbers. They risked remarks and v -entered threats. That made the Bavarians laugh. It was too funny, sae to amuse themselt es they made the gendarmes prisoners. One of them managed to get away The Germans were masters of the country. Nonenv and all about it masters. The peasants were indig- and reviled us. One of then' had pity en ns, "Let them go," he said to the sol- diers, and to us, -If you don't want to be sbot, get out of here where you wigh,' We hurried away as fast as our legs could carry us. We ran to the house, We shut ourselves in the cellar, myself and my husband, my daughter and her three children, e. buy of fourteen, a girl of twelve, and a seven -months' old baby. A little later an old man of seventy- four came to join ns. "Have you room for me?" he asked. "Yes, come in. the more the merrier." I don't know how many days we were shut up under ground... We heard the German soldiers coming and going, in the house above our heads. We knew their heavy steps, and without seeing we guessed what they were doing. They were taking out and carrying away my furni- ture. pillaging and clearing out my honse, And I saw through a crack that they had all my things outside, all my poor little things, my mat- tresses, my pillows, my dresses and those of nay daughter, all my linen, even the baby's little shirts and the baby carriage. I saw other soldiers busy pillage ing in other houses, top to bottom, in the kitchen, the bedrooms . . . smoking their pipes, drinking, sing- ing, shouting. They were filling their pockets to bursting with mon- ey and jewelery that they found. They were carrying away every- thing--fui'nitu re, sheets, b edding, linen, even women's underclothes. They were taking off the window shutters, putting everything in a cart. We watched them, with tears in our eyes, rage im our hearts, But what was it in comparison with the misery we were enduring in this black. hole, in this profound night, where we could not see each other, moving like blind people with our arms outstretched ess as not to bump into each. other or bruise our- selvee on the walls, We spoke in a whisper, mouth to ear, as if each word that we had to say was a se- cret for our ears alone, We 'had only water to drink, plums to eat. It was enough for us, but fol° the children! My daughter had no more milk, we had only wa- ter to nourivia het Belles one, and it made him ,sick. Our little girl kept saying, "I'm 'so hungry, mamma, no hungry," and ery:ing. To eremite her I said, "Don't ery, these gentlemen will Genre and bring ua eandy." I said that., but I wished in my heart that those gentlemen would never creme, We lived tilde way for daysand days. One afternoon I heard a strand sound in the street. It was like volleys of firing, like the crackle of quisskftres. "My God," Ithought the and have wine are fighting in Nomeny," Then I fell clown and began to Pray, nant, seeing their homes pillaged, their fields laid waste, their stores stolen. They could not understand why our soldiers did nut come. One day the French did come. The inhabitants were beside them- selves wa;h joy. Their eyes were filled with tears of happiness. They threw flowers on them and loaded them with cakes and dainties.. The women held out their aprons full of ehocolate,fruit, tobacco and cigar- ettes. A grocer threw his store open to them. The soldiers were implored.: "Pity its, we are so unhappy. Protect ns. Don`t abandon us." And they answered: "Don't be afraid. we'll defend you. We'll stay with you." Alas! they had to leave us. On the 12th of August fur the first time artillery rumbled near No- meny and first one shell, then an- other, fell en the school -house, transformed into a hospital and protected by the Bed Cross flag. The Germans were bombarding the town. It was their intimation that they were coming to visit the town. They came goon and began to pillage. Immediately this strange desire which they have for time- pieces same to light, an inborn an- cestral mania. They demanded twenty-five wateltes. A search was made. There weren't twenty-five watches in Nomeny, After trouble four were found at the watch- maker's, poor steel watches, old and weary. They were given to these dangerous maniacs who were eatisfied and took them, Then in the wreeked houses they took the bandages prepared for the wounded and all the medicines. They drag- ged ten French soldiers out of their beers and took them away in spite of their cries of suffering. "We'll ll come back for the others to -morrow," they announeed. Birt next cloy the other wounded were gone. Some good people had put hem in a safe place during th,e nigh. Three drays later, tine cannons be- gep to boom again. This time it was our own big guns talking, The inl{ttiiatants of Nomeny, hiding in then' cellars, listened with snin.glgd hops and fear. Towards the erose of th,e day our soldiers re-entered Nomeny. They were toe few, and some hours later they retreated, to return the, next day and again re- tire. And the Germans returned• and they too retired. Tlhis hide and seek lusted five days, Freneih and Germans occupying Nomeny in turn. Our cavalry hunted the Ufa - lane, and p,ata'ols meeting exchang- ed shots. At last on the morning of the 20th the great blow struck u.9 Sudden- ly the :air was apiit and the .earth shaken. Cannon thundered, Shells and Gern,,an shrapnel screamed, in space and fell upon Nomeny, It wales an avalanche. They knocked down walla, tore orf roofs, split ceilings, bettered +houses, and eel fire to the rules, The inhabitants, terrified by title hurricane of iron and Inc. did not know ehere to turn or what, to do. Soon the heat became ineuppert- able in our cellar; we could rr_t bre•athe the air. We were el ,king. We opeeed the &thole a little. mare. As 50,;11 ne we et'd that a thick :make ievasted our refuge and I saw that the beige opp. s. a was o fire, I b g 1 t belt:eget.' eii t r a. sabot t maker, and it was the Weeden shoes and the dry weed wish which the house war filled that, bureleg, made this crackling, this fusillade I had heard. Scme soldiers were moving about the fire, and in order to keep it going they threw bask into it the glowing embers which had rolled at their feet. Other sol- diers were dancing anent' the fur - 1111e5, Then we felt that our horse was burning, too. We knew it by the frightful heat which was around us, by the choking smoke in our throats, the nose of falling plaster and atones toppling down. And we were still living., The wall of the henhouse had just given way and by the hole w•h; ch had opened der poultry tumbled into the cellar. What a piece of luck, I thought. We will hare eggs. But next day at daybreak the cock crowed. This beast is going to give us away," said my husband, and he ctrl its throat, Then • a hen began to call her ehiokens, clucking mournfully. ''She, toe," said my husband, "the Will betray us." And he cut her throat. He did the same to as many of the bens as be could catch, for he dare not chase them on account of the noise they made beating their wings and sereeching. And then my daugh- ter's little one, the seven months' cicl baby which had eaten nothing for days and was almost a skeleton, began to cry, to cry oflunger, and would not stop crying. Th calm it we took a mouthful of water, kept it a few minutes in the mouth to warns it, and mouth to mouth made the little one take it. But when it put it out again the next minutes it began to cry again. "'Phis little one is going to kill us," said my husband. One day at last—ah, how afraid I was that day ! we heard great heavy steps stop in front of our air hole. We waited with halted breaths, and then. my God, the trapdoor slowly, slowly opened. .1 shaft of light skewed in our d•arknese. a. "•You'll waken me up," the +,aid, "I will waken you tip," She put her arum round nay neck and slept gently. But I tilde't wake her. Others teak care of that. 111 the miming we heard loud voices' talking on the other side of the gar- den, and heads in spiked helmets appeared over the wall, Some sol- diers climbed over the wall, others broke down the tloor5. Soon the orchard was invaded, They pushed us with their rifle butte and put us out. I fell again at their knees and implored their pity. 1 showed them the crying children and our poor little baby, se pale, thin, wasted to a shadow, but they laugh- ed and led us out. They led ue tc before the cemetery and made us sit against the wall in three rows, our legs out, jammed against each other; packed with the barks of others on our cheats, We were for- bidden to speak, move or sleep. And even to eat, for they left us without a morsel of food, We were dying of hunger. An officer creme along. He had a little round piece of glass fixed in one eye, He was tell, and raised himself on tiptoe to look taller. He looked at its a long time as if he were reviewing his soldiers, and said affectedly: "Have the little children all they want? And those ladies? Do they need anything?" His voice was soft ars butter but his heart was full of spleen, fur when his back was turned we heard him slay : "The French need nothing, They're all soldiers." We stayed like this for a night aisd a day. Now and again one of us, worn out with fatigue and sleep, let fall their head on the shoulder or back of aneighbor. A blow from a rifle butt roused them. I prevent- ed—the horrible thing—my little ones from sleeping. We expected to be shot every minute. One of our. companions, a, M. Muller, who had come to .spend his vacation at No- meny where the war had surprised him, saved ue leen death. He spoke German perfectly. He talked with the officers and succeeded in ap- peasing them. "You won't de .that," he said to them. "Think what a horrible page you would add to the history of this war." At last one morning we were or- "Heraes : Helens! ' cried a voles, tiered to get up. Our cramped We were beadles' in a corner of ankles refused to support us. We the Cellar . We Clare not move, and we held cur breaths. But our teeth chattered and we trembled in every limb, The children were enfolded in my skirt, :and I pressed the baby against my breast as tight as 1 could to keep it quiet. A soldier came down the steps softly and warily. I saw his large fell at every step. They raised us with blows from rine butts and kicks. We went through Nosneny on fire. "Don't look to right or left," we had been told, "Don't turn round, or stop, if you don't want to be shot." But I saw in a garden an old shoes, towered with mud, first of man, a poor paralytic, stretched all, then his grey coat, then under dead on his couch. I saw a child lying in a doorway—the skull was open. I saw a French soldier lying near the fountain. His chest was crushed, he was stripped of his clothes, half naked. I saw a store- keeper of the town lying by his store. I saw and others sa.w. We passed alongside of a• row of corpses • thirty of them lay along a wail. At the corner of a street, six little pigs were sucking a dead SOW. When we came to the end of the town, we were made to retrace our steps. We saw again the same hor- rors. At last we came to a 'rouse called the Mission Cross. "Halt!" cried a non-commission- ed officer, Then the party stopped. M, Mul- ler got up on a. milestone and said : "I have secured your liberty. They are going to put us on the way to Naney. We are going to eet out, but nobody must turn back or we shall be shot. Come along now•." We went on our way. M. Muller led the way, carryings white handy kerchief like it flag tied to a stick, Behind him came the cure of No- meny and another cure. The sol- diers escorted us to a kilometer from the town. 'When they left us they wanted to take the children Error ue and take then with thein., bet the priests intervened, and af- ter a long discussion the soldiers re- tired. A little further on wo slaw many French wounded, in .a field. Hear- ing us pees, some of them raised themselves up and signed to us, to call tis and, ,ask irid, but we dared not go to them. At Manonoourit, which was full of German ,soldiers, we were steppe,d•. An officer came up and made the cure step out of the ranks,. He pointed to a• stretcher on the ground in front of a houes. You wok] guess true shape of a body under the cover which was over it from head to foot. The face was [hidden, Alt that wasp visible was •t'ha cover stir- ring a little, rising and, falling. "A Frene�h officer," said the Ger- his cap his terrible bearded fate. He had a revolver in e:aeh hand. At the bottom of the steps he stopped, said something I did not under- stand, came forward a. little in the dark with his arms out, then he made a half turn, went back to the open door, spoke to his comrade who had remained above, went up and away. Only then did we dare to breathe. Then after a little when we thought the soldiers were far enough away we determined to leave our cellar. But who would go out first. We ar- gued for half an hour, myself, my daughter and my 'husband. In turn each of us went to the, stairs, but stopped on the first step and came back. We were afraid. Finally the old man ventured, mounted the stairs, looked about him and dis- appeared. We heard his footsteps going away in the distance. No cries, no firing. He was safe. Our courage returned to us. There was no more reason for de- lay. 1 went out first carrying the baby in any arms, my daughter fol- lowed with the other two children, then my husband. We took a few steps in the street. My heart wars beating with joy. We ran at full speed to a big orchard .at the end of the town. Two or three hundred in- habitants of Nomeny were lying there flat under the ,trees. We lay clown beside them. We said noth- ing. We hardly dared to breathe. From. time to time bullets whistled over our heads. Some shells burst beside us. We never stirred, with our proses to the ground. We pass- ed two days and two nights like this. Once. at nightfall I felt someone rub up against me softly. A small hand caressed, my face and a weak voice murmured : 'I'm. hungry, I'm hungry, and my head isso sore." I turned my head, and recognized one 01 my little nieces. "Hush 1" I said to, her, "etay there and don't make any noise, I will give you something to eat, all in good time," man. "He ie dying. Give him ab- solution." The euro bent, raised thne cover slightly to look at the faee of the dying man, thee he raised his head, made the sign of the cruse and ex- tended his hand„ in prayer above the stretciher, And •when it was over the German officer stiffly sa- luted the priest and retired. We went on our way. At night we reached Nancy, Our miseries were at au end. THE SUNDA SCII �l STUDY AY 0 INTERNATIONAL LESSON, JANUARY 3. Lesson 1. God's; Patience with Is- rael. Judges 2. 7-19. Golden Text, llos. 14. Verse 7. And the people served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that out- lived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of Jehovah, that he had wrought for Ise -eel. -Joshua. was so strong a servant of Jehovah that he not only kept the people of Israel true to Jehovah during his own life, but so influenced the elders who were associated with him that they too kept Israel true ere their Get]. This mark of Joshua's leadership stands out very strong, It is also to be noted that Joshua. and has elders had seen the great works of Jehovah that he had wrought for Israel. Because they served Jelto' vah, they were able to see what Jehovah_ was doing; their eyes were open. People in rebellion against God or indifferent to God have their eyes closed and are not able to see, 9. In the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, i.n the hill -coun- try of Ephraim, en the north of the mountain of Gaaeh.—Timnatih-h•eres is the Timmath-serab of Jo•eh, 19. 50; 24. 30. This city of Joshua. leas been placed at I%efr Haris, nine miles south-easterly from Sheehem, 10. Another generation that knew -not Jehovah.—The succeeding gen- eration after Joshua and his elders were tete and less true to the reli- gion of Jehovah, and so it was in- evitable that a time would comes when the Israelites had entirely re- ceded from the religion of their father:-. . 11. Served the Baalim.—Baalim i5 the plural of Baal and means more than one god of lord. There are many evidences that Ierael was familiar with the worship of more than one heathen god. See Judges 3. 7; 8. 33; 10. 6, 10. 12. The Gcd of their fathers, who brought them out el the land of Egypt.—The hisl'or_cal writers cif the Old Testament never permitted the people, of those clays, nor do they permit as, to forget that God was kind to the early Israelites in Egypt. 13. Baal means owner or lord, and is used of both gods and men. Baal, however, was more particularly tie god of the Tyrians. Ashtoreth is the plural of Ashtoreth, who was the principal goddess of the Zidon• ions. 14. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled . and he delivered therm . . , and he sold, them . . , so that they could n,ot any longer stand before their enemies—This, is a picturesque description of the writer, Of course, when the Israel- ites became weakened through re- ligious corruption, they were not able any longer to withstand their enemies, ,and as Jehovah would no longer have any protection er in- fluence over them, •as• 01,8y were exercising their own free will against 'hire, it was natural that they should be beaten by their enemies and so weakened that they could no longer fight for their honor and eafeite. We can well un- derstarnd that the children of Israel in their time of mi.ely and consO- quent repentance realized that the. anger of Jehovah vase upon them. 16. And Jehovah raised up judges who waved, them.—A remnant of the righteous • is always left among the people. History shows no period when there was total ,and absolute apostasy, And out of this remnant ,always has appeared a leader, strong in religious conviction and insight, asci capable to rally the batekslidden people to the standard of the true God. This, was the great week of the judges. They saved their people at eritica.l times. They saved them because they could bring them back to a belief in God, to a worship of God ,and•, hen•ee, strengthen their wens to strike the enemy. 17. And yet they hearkened not unto their judges..— One judge would arise and be it strong teethe in bringing the people together, but as soon as the, danger W114 over, back again into the evil practises would 'the people go, Before the rise of Deborah there were. a. DM^. ber of tninar judges, who arra only incidentally named, or not named at all. This w•as the beginning of tbs period of the judges, when it was more difficult for any leader to impress fully acrd finally upon the minds of the people that they muse be true to God if they 'would be safe from their enemies. But be. cause these, judges are only inoiclen- tally named or not named at all, we must not conclude that they were nob great leaders. . 18. When Jehovah raised them up judges, then -Jehovah w'as with the judge.—"I will neither leave you nor forsake you," A steady stream of testimony from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation shows indisputably that God always has been with his people, that he has never raised up a man for any particular position and left him to his own resources. The leaders in the world's history have been great because God hes been with them. When they turned from God or when. other influences dominated thean, their greatness began to wane, and finally disappeared. 19. But it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers.—The perversity of the leraelites is strongly shown here. Every retrogration or backsliding was worse and further than the preceding one. WEATHER AND STRATEGY. Cold Not Altogether Unfavorable to Fighting. T : ARD ENGS COA:�i l� U l AI�Df DEEP-SEA FISHERMEN WO'iili IN l)ANGEROUii CALLING. Catch German Mitres in Place of Fish—Mine. Sweeping Very Perilous. Manned by Great Brihaia's deeps sea fishermen, hundreds of tiny ves- sels are patrolling England's coast, from Harwich to the Pentland Firth. From beats in which only as few weeks ago ther were catching herring and trawl fish they ore now fishing for menaces to navigation and maintaining a, daily "sweep 'for mines, Day and night the drift- ers' patrol and tihe mine -sweeping• flotilla are engaged in a work" which, if it is lees glorious, is not, en unimportant pant of the work of England's navy. What a perilous task the mins "sweep" is is evidenced by tihe number of disasters• which have overtaken members of the fleet:. Tho strain of the work is tremendous, as each mean realizes that every turn of the propeller may send him to the bottom. For mine "sweeping" the vessels work in pairs; steaming abreast of eaaah other, a:nd drag- ging between them a heavy chaste that sweeps as a trawl net along or just above the bottom of the seat. When e mine is found it either ex- plodes or is dragged to the surface and put out of action. The danger is in the vessels striking with their hulls the mines that they are seek- ing to discover with their trawls,. Through the .roads of the North Sea a centro ta.l procession of mer- chant shipping, bringing supplies of all kinds to the various ports, is passing with regularity and. com- parative safety. As fax as the North Sea is concerned, it is only mines, comparatively speaici:tg, that constitute a danger to the coastwise and oversea traffic, for the seas are well cleared of hostile ships. Fitted with {tireless. That the coming el winter will have its effects on the strategy of the contending armies of Europe is but natural, but contrary to the general opinion, the results o£.cold weather will net be altogether . un- favorable. This is pointed out by a writer in the Scientific American, who says From the strategical point of view, wintry weather is not an un- mixed evil. In western Europe the worst weather for military opera- tions prevails in autumn, when the rainfall is at its maximum. Call weather sets the roads, makes the sodden fields practicable for march- ing, and the bridges over small bodies of water. Only in the moun- tain passes are these advantages offset by the obstruction due to snow. In the interior of the Con- tinent—e.g., on. the East Prussian and Austrian frontiers—heavy snowfall occurs even over the plains and lowlands, and opposes an obstacle to military movements. Here also, the intense cold freezes over the larger rivers; thus the Vis- tula is normally frozen at Warsaw From late December to early March.' On the other hand, when not frozen over but filled with floating ice, these streams become impassable even by boat. Again, it is difficult or impossible to dig trenches in :frozen soil, such as may •ba found in the -dead of win- ter in the interior of the Continent. Under such conditions armies have, however, sometimes used blocks of ice to good advantage in building breastworks. 0.4 A Future General. "Good-bye, Mick. God guard you! And if y-c:u beat the Germans half as well as you beat me you'll becoming home a general," were the farewell words et an Irish Fusi- lier's wife, whish a correspondent says he overheard. Plenty of Time. Oa,kle;y--Wesn't the tailor willing to give you time ? Owens—Give me time? He said I'd get six months if he could have his way. 'Yet the deaf and dumb can bear and speak the language of love. Irri•ta,ble Schoolmaster — Now, then, .stupid, what's the next word 7 What comes after eheese7 Dull Bey—A incense, sir, • "Which one of the Ten Command- ments Grid Adana 'break when he ate the apple 1" asked the Sunday Siehool teacher. "He didn't break any," replied one little fellow, "'Cause there wasn't any then." Teacher—Tell me what lesson can ;be ilearnecl tram the parable of the ,prodigal song 'Small pupil (thinking of the thtesks)--It teaches People to stay where they are eom- 1 rtatble. bern an Prisoners at Itergon, in Northern holland, Enjoying their M melting I cremes. Many of the drifters engaged in patrol work 'have been fitted with wireless, eo that they quickly get in touch with the, authorities when minelayers or other hostile vessels are sighted. The coast is divided into districts, and Lowestoft, Nurtth Shields, Folkestone, and other enc fishing ports have become head- quarters for the mine destroyers. Hundreste, of ether fishermen, members of the Royal Naval Re- serve, have -been mobilized and are now in barracks waiting to be draft- ed into vessels as they are comntie- sioned in the ttokehold or on the deck, Not a'1 of the fisherm•elt bave been able to find pieces in the various branches. of sea Eel'y1ee.. Thousands uf them are out of work and the outlook is. anything but bright fee very many. "In other years at this. time," Toilers of the peep, the magazine of the ]loyal National Misaston to Deep Sea 1 islaerm;ea, says, "the great herring harvest of the east cutlt should be fn full swing. To- day the quay ie. lined with vessels, but there is no sign of life on board; also they are idle because the markets .ten the other side al the North Sean• are closed to them, aid because their work at sea would be a menace to themselves and casts serious hampering to the rapid movements of his. Majetty''s shpt that come and go continually. North Sett Cleared. "At the outbreak of the was, the. North Sea was cleared for a .time of all fishing vessels, and many= of us think it would have been well had the prohibition been maintained tenger than Id was. There can be no doubt that numbers• of fishing vessels have been captured and turned into mine -laying ves.oelF, while outwardly, to all appearwnce, they are English, trawlers, enga•gecl in their ordinary routine of fish - Many of the fishing ports have re- ceived blows through the nee -re- turn of a large part of their ftcahing fleets. The vessels. have simply disappeared. Whether they been been sunk or captarecl no ono can say. Bouton, Grimsby and Hull have been particularly heavy suf- ferers through vessels strikes mines. Thirty vessels were repasts ed destroyed from Grimsby and ten from Boston. In the carer•:, et early two vessels were the crews all saved. "We lead a• rare) time e. few weeks ago," one •fiehermat'e wife wrote from North Shields, "'when two of our nt^_nee-sweeping trawlers were blown up armrest simultaneously by mines; a morning of a,axioas .us - perm:, •when, lit was_ impostihlo to get cortect• information, then a hur- riedmeraage from 41110 Board of. Trade and the red task of gcin; to waiting wives, one after another, with tite news, h•: t their husba,:ids W510 :amoalg the ,Hissing, Hien hags teeing over to she South Shields infirmary (1 see the wounded, Otter mil scenes have taken pia•ce cm our quay with the landing of snrvivarrs of cells! mine t'�ieastei',1 . One clay the survivors of an Iceland trawler with furs miesi'ng, aaad Imo thee same niurnitg four stu'- s c si's from a resent, tateirnaer, eight l c L . Thti mine .weepers will eentinnue their week all through the winter or until the 515 > of the wa^, ilium than 1100 vessels are cairyieg .on the work le the North F?i`s,..