Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1917-4-12, Page 6• SEES DEATH OF GERMANY'S HOPES •. NEW BRITISH ARMY WILL LEAD ALLIES TO YICORY. Troops of King George Come to Res- cue of Noble France, Bled White. An American correspondent in France writethe following article:— As I left the British front for Paris early in March, an English officer said to me; "Stranger things could happen than that the final blow against these bar- barians be delivered by the armed force of the great English-speaking nations of the world, two nations with laws and customs of approaching similarity." I had spent forty-eight hours with his command, and I take off my hat to the King's army. They are the real goods, They have that which France had in 1914 and now lacks— youth. And every man is in the game heart and soul, not only for the honor of England and the cause of France and right, but as a sporting proposi- tion, full of enthusiasm, grit, gayety and the stuff that wins. The marvel of it is that they are all trained soldiers; there is absolute- ly nothing of the recruit about them. While with them I was permitted that rare thing for a correspondent, to ad- vance in their conquering company upon territory relinquished by Ger- many. I was deeply impressed by their earnestness, their eagerness; and I could not but think of the doggerel, the slogan if you will: We don't want to fight, but, by Jingo, if we do We've got the men, we've got the ships, we've got the tummy, too. There were not any ships around, although a boat would not have been by any means an inappropriate thing in the sea of Somme mud and water, and I did not see any money; but the , men were there by the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands, each alert, bright-eyed, vigorous, im- bued to the core with the spirit that counts. I saw in it all sure death to • Hun hopes; for the Boche is always a Hun to the Englishman. Recovered Territory. They have taken in the last seven days almost 5,000 prisoners and ninety officers in addition. They have plant- ed the flag of right over what is left of the villages of Ligny-Thilloy, Thol- loy, Le Barque, Warlencourt, Pys, Miraumount, Petit-Miramount, Grand - court. Puitieux-au-Mont, Serre, Gorn- mecourt and some more. They have advanced upon a front of thirty-seven kilometres long and from five to nine deep, changing the German line from a crooked zig-zag that would measure thirty miles on a straight line, to the ' half of an eccentric elipse measuring less than twelve. They hold every , road to Dapaume (Bapaume has fall- en since thio was written) and the railroad from Arras to Peronne is at the mercy of their heavy guns. The road to Cambrai, twenty kilometres away, is all open book to them, and the town with it. Look at the map and see what this meane. Huns the Only Dead. I was with their advance as it tered two of these villagers, a privilege as yet given to no other correspond- ent ie this Wee. These two villages are but mutilated effigies of the peace fel hamlets. of early 1914. But they are part of the greet objective of re- deemed Frauce. And the only Beetle, the only Hun, within and about them, is a dead one. Off in the distnnee, bevmet the new German line 1 aw Bapaume through my glass; Bapaume, the ,wene of a Prussian victory in 1871, and soca, to he the scene of an English victory of 1917. Its church spire reached up into the gray eky, while before and behind It shells tore the air, • 1 saw thousands of khaki -clad Eng- liehmen covering thousands of square seekers as I remember seeing upon the seashore at Nome. They were mine seeking, indeed, but mines of death, For the Boehe is a gentlemai who plants little mime to kill the hated enemy after he has taken ground, comfortably installed him self and' is enjoying his cup of tea I won't say how many of these mines I saw unearthed, It would take thre figures alone in a space 2,000 meter long by 75 deep. Devastation Wrought by Shells.. One sector that the Boche relin quished was most exceptionally fora fled months and months ago. At two occasions during November and Janu ary, it had been unconquerable. It rests upon o front of three kilometers deep, a vast and practically demolish I ed fortification, not a single square yard of muddy ground about it being free from the pot mark of shell, Its trenches no longer existed, the shel- tees were crumbling holes, the barbed wire a mass of tangled nothing. There was not a living thing about, not even • a trench rat. But there were a lot of dead ones, and dead horses, and some unburied dead men. I saw where three German 240 bat- teries had worked. The guns them- selves were still there, intact save for spiking and missing essential parts. Beside them were a quantity of per- fectly good unexploded shells that presently will go upon a death jour- ney in the osite direction. The prisoners I saw, three lots of them coming in under Tommy escort, were not the second and third rate men I had seen on other sections of the front. They were from twenty- two to thirty years old, giants in stature, and seemingly well fed. One • would say they were the very flower of what is left of the Boche army, and in the shell -torn hell they had evacuated only the best type of aol- dier could stand the gaif. Meny of them spoke either French or English. As I said et the outset of this story, I take off my hat to the King's men. No man who has seen its youth, its vigor, its splendid morale, its stu- pendous amount of artillery of all calibers, its acres and acres of unex- ploded shell, and the soldierly quality of its officers, can do otherwise, They hold the Boche on their section of the front, an increasing section, too; and; the Boche knows it. They have men in France and more coming. BOOKS OUR BEST FRIENDS. Wonderful Amount of Consolation in Our Books. In the passing days of our lives, when the fires of passion have been well burned out; when we have corne face to face with the vicissitudes of life and find out that we have either won or lost the battle, let our best friends be books. We can commune with them so long as we please, and when we . are tired . we can them p. This is moro than we can do with our friends of the human family. When a man comes home at night,' harassed and hacked with the worries of life, he wants not only rest for the body; he wants rest for his soul, for his heart, for his mind. 1 The wife who hopes to develop in the home a perfect atmosphere of con- tent, will study her husband's moods. When he is worried; when his mind is a hit distraught and he desires men--; tal rest, he will read. There is a W011- derful amount of consolation in our books. Sometimes he may yield to light literature. At other times he will place his thoughts on more sin- ecre and heavy topics. Our books are real friends. It does not make a bit of difference how sick a man may be, if he will have read to him a chapter or two of "Pickwick Papers," he will smile. Read your little one juet a page or two of "Little Men" or of "T.ittle Wernen" and see the reel, that will eproal over his face, that beautiful expression of soothed pain. Let any One who be in trouble, and who him no friend, gather himself ineolitude with a good book. There is much consolation in it. It has that unexplainable source) of relief. It is like the tender touch of a woman's hand mi a parched and fevered brow. 11 rests the mind, it bring, for the time being at least surcease to sor- 1 feet of martyred ground with pick I --.S..--- and shovel. They were like a crowd , 1 rib, temperature of a new eleetric of ants, each touching the other; or flatiron can be regulated to four W- ilke a great crowd of feverish gold ferent degrees. THE EMPIRE'S FOOD. The Fine Achievement of one Can - adieu Railway. What appears to be new light upon the policies back of the construction of railways in Canada is furnished in a paragraph in the last annual report of the Canadian Northern Railway Issued recently, This paragraph deals with the handling over the rails of the Can- adian Northern of some 132,000,000 bushels of grain destined chiefly for the feeding of the Allies overseas, and runs: "Inasmuch as many of the security - holders invested their funds in the company's undertakings, believing that the heart of the Empire would some day need to draw heavily upon the wheat fields of the Canadian West, it is with pride that the directors pre- sent these figures, illustrating the extent to which the prairies have been opened up, made productive and the produce marketable by the company's railways. There were probably few iwho thought that the crucial necessity would come so soon; but having come, it must be considered fortunate that the Canadian Northern system and ithe country tributary to it were sae! ficiently developed to take an import- ant part in supplying the Empire's food requirements." Twenty years ago a new epoch commenced in Canada, and also ap- parently in the Mother Country. In I the "Tight Little Isles" across the Atlantic, earnest minds were occupied with the problem of feeding the peo- ple of Britain, a problem that would be a very sober fact in the event of that country being involved in hos- tilities with any European power of the first class. The policy seems to have been arrived at then, to iely upon the power of the British navy to keep the seas open for the passage of cargo vessels, and also to rely upon the opening up of vast areas of wheat lands in suitable localities overseas, in order that an adequate supply of food I products be produced to fill the holds of e ships for the people of lea Britain for all time to come. Towards the close of the century, the people in the west.began to clam- or for rail facilities for the vast areas without railways lying to the north of the Canadian Pacific, and therein lay the cause of the origin of the Can- adian Northern Railway system in 1890. Apparently the ability to grow wheat of the country it proposed to open up, and the backing the people of Manitoba granted the enterprise, were sufficient inducements to the men directing the surplus gold of Britain, and the funds necessary to complete! the initial construction were readily forthcoming. Until the commence-; ment of hostilities in Europe in 1914, British gold continued steadfast, and as the Canadian Northern extended its network of lines throughout the Prairie Provinces, before reaching out with its easy grade lines to the sea- ports on the east and on the Pacific, a steadily inereasing supply of wheat was moved out from the territory cul- . tivated for the first time by the settlers who had poured in hard upon the heels of Re construction gangs. j Miring 1915, when Canada harvest- ed the largest crop in the history of the ceertry, and incidentally the meet valuable, the yield along the lines of the Canadian Northern be the west was enormoits, and from this terri- tory came the 132,000,000 bushole of grain that were handled over the lines of the system during 1916 as outlined in the company's annual report, But the effect of the investment of thie British gold in the Canadian Nor- thern Railway is not confined to the production of food -stuffs transported across the Atlantic to feed the war - occupied nations of Europe. Every settler in the vast regime opened up by the lines of the railway has been a customer for the goods produced in the industrial establishments in east- ern Canada, in the United States and in Europe. It woull Itt almost im- possible to compute the number of the army of workingmen who have drawn their wages in this direct way from! the western wheat bin, and no figures have been compiled to show the ex -1 tent and value of the business provid- ed the manufacturers of eastern Can- ada by the opening up of that vast western market. As the prospects of peace become brighter, the expecte- tion that there will be a movement from abroad to the fertile lands of weetern Canada greater than any. . =3 MM WWWW Mt PS ItO MMMMM Vas WWWWWWWWWWWWW MM .1,00 MURA CIGARETTE aeivy.lwe qbe mending p/vecceiotional eteatecgagesse eseniminigenctarotesteeeteeer_sgeeceita thing the country has yet experienced, is growing into a fixed belief on the part of Canadians generally. Should it develop, this potential development —made possible solely because the railways have furnished a network of lines serving the lands which will be developed by the incoming tide of hu- manity—will add enormously to the new business of the industries in On- tario and Quebec, and new armies of workmen will be engaged upon the task of supplying the needs of the western people. British gold—and, since the war, American geld --has been the means of facilitating a great deal of the de- velopment in Canada in other ways, but there can scarcely be any doubt that its greatest achievement in this country has consisted in the furnish- ing of the funds for the building of the railways opening up unpeoplod territories within the Dominion. For upon the development of thole territories hinges a great deal of tbe prosperity of all the people in Canada. TOMMY ATKINS, ACTOR. Army and Navy Strive to Counteract the Horrors of War. Tommy Atkins is an inveterate actor. Whenever he can manage it he gets up a show at the Front, making the theatre, writing the play, and act- ing the parts himself. Every day the theatrical costumiers are bom- barded with requests from officers and men to send them wigs, dresses, grease -paints and other paraphernalia. Some of the recent productions just behind the firing -line have been of quite an elaborate description. This Christmas saw a new pantomime, en- titled "Cinderella Torn Up," written by a rifleman; there has been an all - soldier -star performance of "The Critic"; while Shakespeare, revues, modern comedies, and even propa- ganda plays receive their due atten- tion. Only the war play is banned. Not only in the ramshackle, tent. porary theatre does Tommy delight to play the actor. He loves to do a little imitation in the ttenches, too, and there is a great demand from indi- viduals for Harry Tate moustaches. Charlie Chaplin "bowlers" are also popular, not to mention Crown Prince noses, Tirpitz whiskers, and George Robey eyebrows. If he cannot get anything more lifelike he makes what he can of Guy Fawkes masks, some- times putting these IT over the top of t1,e parapet for the Germans to lire at. The Navy, too, is very keen on ama- teur theatricals, and besides giving performances on its own is extremely well catered for by what is known as the "stage ship." This is a ship specially fitted up as a theatre, and possessing a stock ecerniany of actors and a stock repertoire of plays. It patrols the North Sea, calling at our various men-of-war, and Jack Ter is never more delighted than when this travelling theatre draws up alongside of his vessel, announcing that a per- formance will take place to -night at eight, Huns Piling Coal Up. Piles of coal, covering scores of acres, are being heaped up around the collieries at Charleroi, Liege and Mons, where nearly 50,000 Belgians are working in night and day shifts. Although there is great shortage of coal at places less than a hundred miles away, none of the coal is being moved, as the Getman authorities re- quire all available means of transport, for military purposes. A PROFITABLE INDUSTRY. Plan for Assistance and Encourage- ment of Poultry Keepers. The present year will see a great increase in the number of poultry keepers. The almost prohibitive prices of eggs and poultry during the past winter have caused many con- sumers to seriously consider the home production of these very necessary and useful commodities. It is import- ant also that any efforts put Ithis direction result satisfactorily. I Many difficulties present themselves in attempting to rear chickens suc- cessfully on a small let, Experience has shown that the best way for poul- try keepers to enter the poultry busi- ness is by the purchase of pullets in the fall. Well -matured pullets are the most reliable winter egg pro- ducers and if well cared for will not only produce plenty of fresh eggs for the breakfast table but also return a reasonable\profit on the expenditure • entailed. Ordinarily, well -matured pullets are rather scarce and difficult to 01,- tain in the fall of the year. It is be- , tiered, however, if the matter were • taken up systematically by poultry Associations that the difficulty could be overcome, and, incidentally, serve as a means of increasing interest in the poultry industry. Practically event large town and city has its local poultry association. It is suggested that each association give some pub- licity to the suitability of thrifty, !well -matured pullets for profitable winter egg production and advertise the fact that the association is prepar- ed to constitute itself a medium to arrange for the hatching and rearing of pullets this spring and for their delivery in the fall. It could be an -I nounced that orders would be taken ' during the month of April and the first part of May. All those desiring! pullets in this way could be required I to join the association and make a ' small deposit covering the number re - inured. ! The association could then make! such arrangements as might be tweet- , sary with nearby co-operative associa-I ' tions, farmers nand breeders for the! growing of the pullets, a minimum price to be decided upon for the dire! feront breeds and varieties. In the fall these could be assembled at some central depot iti!.each locality and the distribution made in time to permit , of the proper housing of the stock in, , permanent winter quarters before the, Isevero weather set in, say by the last of October. In order that greater effectiveness may be given to this proposal, the Dominion Live Stock Branch is pre- pared to extend, to all associations qualifying under these provisions, tho! sante assistance that is given to as- !sociations desiring to purchase other! kinds of pure-bred live stock, namely, the payment of reasonable travelling , lexpenses, during the time required to 1conclude the purchase and transport, the stock to destination, of representa- tives of associations, in any section of ICanada, desiring to parchase pullets in lots of 300 and more. Should it be desired, the Live Stock Commissioner will also nominate a suitable person who will be directed to accompany this representative and assist hint as far as possible in the seleetion and shipping of the pullets, In the general interests of the pout - try industry throughout the Dominion • and the urgent need this year for 10- t'eased production of eggs and pout- • try and the releasing thereby of a al ge surplus Itt export to (deal, Bile tain, it is hoped that as many associa- tions as possible will take advantage of this propositien. All associations desiring to become active in this direc- tion are requested to write the Live Stock Commissioner, Ottawa, at once for further advice and instruction in the matter. ODD MISSIONS OF RED CROSS. Activities Not Confined to Caring for Wounded and Prisliners of War. Help in the locittion. of Brigadier - General Victor Williams,formerly of Toronto, in a German hospital after the' "June show" along the Canadian front, Upkeep of a grave at Cologne. Search for the whereabouts of the late Lieut. John Galt of Winnipeg, also a prisoner in Germany. Distribution of illimitable quantities of biscuit to hordes of hungry captive Russians. Payment of interest on pawn tick- ets for goods in the hands of bro- kers in Germany and Belgium. Renewal of life and fire policies in Belgium. Collection of a court tailor's bills and release or his household furni- ture upon which the Kaiser's emissar- siesesitacl already set the deadly tax Funds sent to Jerusalem for the up- keep of tombs and for the Evelme Rothschild Charity Schools. Negotiations for the removal of two children of disputed nationality from a convent in Strasburg to Eng - d. lalving of the stocks and shops of British .subjects in Germany, whose property was about to be seized by the Huns for outstanding taxes. Personal escort to 'England of a young English lady from a convent in onRes. c overy from the Royal Palace of Potsdam of presents, the property of foreign ladies who had been attach- ed to the German court prior to the war. Location of a missing Scotch farmer believed to be in a German hospital about to undergo an operation for ap- pendicitis, and whose signature to cer- tain documents was necessary to se- cure the lease of a Highland farm. Surely, indeed, a diversity of com- missions. Yet these are some of the activities of the Red Cross. Money remittances to British pri- soners through the Red Cross trebled within the last six months. It has lately been arranged by the American Express that British officers interned in Germany may have thee cheques or drafts up to a limited amount cashed by the German cantp command- ants, who forwarded them for pay- ment to the company. Doubtless scene fond parents wonder when they see the drafts how so much money can be spent in a Getman prison camp, Money remittances have also been transferred from Germany to Ger- man prisoners of war in England, and through the same agency the ef- fects of German prisoners of war de- ceased have been returned to Ger- many. If any orchard planting is to he done this year it is now time that or- ders for trees ,should be placed. Mess Bright (to her small brother); "Willie, put Mr. Boreleigh's hat down, you might damage it. Besides, he will want it in a /few minutes." The needle of 'a commis:, does not point true north, The north mag- netic pole does not coincide with the north pole. 'IC' la te rel colicwo:a. cf 1151-1. CO OM 1-0fre, LeTS 6E1 -Some FRESH AIR 600Ness kNOWS OW NoU'il.-GotI451 'Th Eel' ANY MR_ WITH THAT R1661te ot4— ('SBOSe- IT'S 111E L.A.Tarr THit.IG -r HouGA r-- 1 Vieut____I TOM , 5eLt. MA6AZINaS PP rt CERTAII4LNI, I cAre-r vlou -(:•1 („)) :ED -91.1.1rffis. NI Li ISN'T MAT A FAsihold MA6A1114r-f WANT TO Ge'r olsiK ) wArn ILL NW' \loll OUT sae, yoU Wier WANT TINS ohle, h—s NEARLY Tho *Vs ol.b RI PI ill ill to youn• a. I III' 11 • —Ceeol.Weefeeeie.' Front the Ocean Shore BITS OF NEWS FROM THE MARITIME PROVINCES. Items of Intereet From Places Lap.. ped By Waves of the Atlantic. There is no surplus of agricultural labor, except in Prince Edward Island. The residence of Mr, M. F. Reid, of Marysville, was damaged by fire to the extent of $4,000. At the meeting of the Sydney City Council it was decided to raise $22,- 600 for Patriotic Fund by tax. Thirty thousand dollars was voted by the City Council of Amherst, N.S., for the Canadian Patriotic Fund. The total increase in mining 1.0 - venue in the Maritime Provinces in 1910, as compared with 1915, was about $87,000. A fine of twenty dollars was im- posed on a St. John man for assault- ing an agent, all on account of a fifty -cent picture. The third annual convention of the New Brunswick branch of the Retail Merchants' Association of Canada was held in St. John last week. Mr. II, V. Cann, a Cape Breton man, formerly of North Sydneee has been appointed assistant general manager of the Bank of Ottawa. A Digby, N.S., man found a fuse bomb plugged in a hole in one of the chairs of the ss, Matatua, which was sunk in St. John harbor over a year ago. According to the latest bulletin of the Marine and, Fisheries Depart- ment the rough, cold weather of January interfered greatly with the New Brunswick fisheries. / Major J. II. Parks, of St. John, a veteran of the Boer War and an of- ficer of the Canadian Engineers, has been decorated with the Order of the White Eagle by the King of Serbia. SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. Everyone Should HaVe Some Knowl- edge of Scientific Principles. I cannot think that, for general purposes, any attempt to impart high proficiency in science is necessary or even desirable, says a famous writer. It is not necessary, to be. a skilled physician in order to appreciate the value of public health. But, just as every educated man has some knowl- edge of the benefits conferred by medicine and surgery, so he should, I think, have some knowledge of scien- tific principles, of the 'constitution of the Universe, of the operations of the great forms of physical force, and of the reasons of underlying phenomena of deity occurrence which are apt to pass unheeded by reason of their familiarity. A boy who is able to ex- plain why a wet patch on a towel looks darker than the dry surface by reflected, and lighter by transmitted light, or how a rainbow is formed, or what is implied in the -fact that diffeve ant surfnces are of different colors, will have had his mind open for the admission of many new ideas, and will look upon the world with new interest. His curiosity will be awakened, ansi. curlosity, wisely guided and adequately satiefied, is the parent of intelligence and comprehension. A conception of the laws which govern alike the ' oc- currences 41! daily tire and the whele order of the universe will invent the trivial things with a new significance, and will preeent them in their true relations to mankind and to each other, The mind which has been in- structed to this extent will be lifted above the blindness of the ignorant and the pettiness of daily He, aid will be set upon a place which was inae- cessible to the greateet thinkers of antiquity. 11 1 RINI; ESE LAJIOI1. Ten Thousand Coolies for British Manufacturing Plante. British consuls in Shantung pro. viece, in China, have been in deeded to recruit ten thousand Chinese labor. ars at Tsingtuu, Cnefoo and other ports in their provinee within the next three months. Thele laborers at' , be sant to England to work in manu- facturing plants, They aro to be raid a monthly wage of twelve dollars s11 - yea together with a monthly allow- ance of ten dollars rtilver for their families. Passage money till it' de- frayed by the British Coe( rinnent, and the term of service 1:4 lo be three years, British army °Mears beve been ' recruiting laborers at Wei-Ilai-Wei foe some time. Barracks have been erected there for the accommodation of the laborers, and Thal port will also be used as a point from which the Chiense coolies will embark for England. Fixieg the Blaine. A glue factory stands near a cer- Lein mammy, Be Olathe; are not for the nose, and therefore a lady often cerried with her a bottle of lavender salte. One morning an old man took the seat besido her. As the train neared the factory, the lady opened her bottle of suite. Soon the whole car WitS. (16d with the horrible oder. The man put tap with it as long as he could, then shouted, "Madam, would you nibul puttinthe clerk itt thut 'ere bottle'?"