The Ypres Times.
143
The Ypres Ball is to take place at the Royal
Albert Hall on the 30th November. Tickets for
the Ball and Supper are 2 guineas each double
tickets, 3 13s. 6d. Boxes from 4 guineas to
10 guineas. Tickets to Gallery only (to look on)
from 7/-.
H.R.H. The Prince of Wales has graciously
promised to patronise the Ypres Ball.
H.R.H. The Princess Beatrice is the Chairman
of the Special Committee to organise both the
Ypres Ball and the Grand Matinée which will
take place in December at the Palladium.
There will be two big episodes at the Ypres
Ball. I.An Eastern Revel, consisting of a
cortège of oriental splendour representing the
Queen of Sheba and her Court, followed by the
Court scenethe Queen seated on her throne,
dancing of a special nature taking place in front
of it. Princess Astafieva will impersonate the
Queen of Sheba, and Dacia (of "Chu-Chin-Chow"
fame) will perform the special dances. The
whole of this original spectacular show is under
the management of the Marquis de Chateaubrun,
who is famed for his management of the Court
dances in Russia during the old régime. II.The
30th November being at the same time St.
Andrew's Day, there will be a fine display of
Highland Reels by the pipers of the Scots Guards
earlier in the evening. It is expected that two
bandsone, a leading Syncopated Orchestra, and
the other being the massed bands of the Grenadier
and Scots Guardswill attend the Ypres Ball.
The decorations of the Hall are being designed
by some of the leading artists of the dav.
A novel feature of the Ball is the taking of
many of the boxes by the Divisions that served
at Ypres. Officers who are secretaries of annual
Divisional Dinners who have not as vet applied
for a box are invited to do so at the earliest
possible opportunity. There are still boxes vacant.
Over each Divisional box will appear a sign
bearing the well-known war-time symbol of that
particular Division.
Dress for the Ypres BallEvening Dress or
Fancy Dress optional.
Dancing from 10 to 4 a.m.
For full particulars and tickets, apply to the
Secretary of the League, Major H. E. Murat,
100, Eaton Place, Eaton Square, London, S.W. I.
DON'T LOSE THE POSTCARD.
The Ypres League will do a great
thing if it succeeds in establishing an
annual commemoration of the sacrifices
made at immortal Ypres. But it can
only do this with your help. You
must wear a Cornflower on October
31st, and if you will send the postcard
inserted in this copy of the "Ypres
Times" to a friend you will be broad
casting the efforts of the League.
THE UNEXTINGUISHED TORCH.
Standing in the shadow of the shattered Cloth
Hall, on the spot where, eight years previously,
the Prussian attack had been broken, Lord French
recalled to his listeners the splendid record that
was written in the stones about them. There were
men there who could have translated line for line
and word for word the story of the ruinswho
had watched the edifices of centuries crumple under
the blast of war, who had crept at dead of night
across the shell-swept square and had defied the
treachery of the Menin Road. Hundreds of
thousands of British manhood had passed through
the purgatory of the salient, and though many
a fearful field had witnessed their prowess, it
was in this amphitheatre that their deeds are
most exclusively recorded. Of the original
defenders who knew Ypres in the early days of
her tribulation, hardly a handful survive.
Unextinguished, the torch was passed from
hand to hand down the long line of deliverers
from 1914 to 1918. Each successive company
clutched the brand and, unfalteringly, held the
light aloft. And so Ypres was saved, and the
men that saved her are many of them sleeping
within gunshot of her rampartssome within
hail of the spot from which Lord French delivered
his memorable address on Sunday. Those of
them who survived to listen to the Field-Marshal
must have been sharers in a rare and wonderful
communion. It was a communion, however,
in which the whole British Empire has a spirit
ual part. In voicing the noble sentiments which
characterised his speech, Lord French was
interpreting the thoughts of the men and women
to whom the salient, despite its sinister impli
cations, came to be regarded as ground conse
crated and made precious by the blood of kith
and kin. From that crimson seed there has
sprung up an inspiration that has defied the
grim disillusionment of peace. We feel," de
clared Lord French, addressing himself to the
Belgians, almost as if we were your fellow
citizens, by virtue of a sacred charter and sealed
in blood." That is a sentiment in which every
British soldier who ever trod on the via crucis of
the Menin Road will join. It is a sentiment, too,
that might well be invoked to irrigate the parched
field of international affairs. Were it not for the
men who died at Ypres there might be no diplo
macy in Europe to-dayonly the iron heel of an
intolerable despotism. It behoves the nations to
tread humbly over the graves of the fallen. Peace
alone can atone for their shattered bodies. It is
the monument without which all other emblems
are insignificant and unreal. Something ot this
may have been present in the mind of the veteran
Field-Marshal when he declared that if we
endeavour to forgive and forget the evil things
that were wrought by the war, we are resolved to
remember eternally the good and noble things."
Forgive the evil and cling steadfastly to the good
such, on the morrow of the war, is the counsel of
a brilliant professional soldier. Where are the
statesmen who will courageously follow out this
advice.The Western Daily Press, Bristol.
