EDITORIAL.
Vol. I, No. 5. Published Quarterly. October, 1922.
THE JOURNAL OF THE YPRES LEAGUE.
WHEN this number of the Ypres Times appears, the League, of
which it is the organ, enters upon the third year of its existence. What
ever it has done, whatever function it has fulfilled, it has at least
disproved the contention that the British people are as a people
emotionally unresponsive, that the memory of the soldiersthe
old crowd," as we called them in our Pilgrimage issueof all they
did and suffered, all their hopes, their losses and final victory would fade and dwindle
in the press of material things. As Matthew Arnold wrote
For each day brings its cloud of dust
Our soon-choked souls to fill
And we forget because we must
And not because we will.
But there are some things we do not forget. There are some experiences, some
trials, some visions which have become so woven into our being that henceforth they
form a spiritual part of us. Ypres means just that. Those who thought otherwise when
the League was founded were wrong and as our League grows, adding each quarter
thousands more to its membership, the doubters doubt no longer. The memory of our
people does not fade, it does not dwindle. It was a proud memory and as the Great War
recedes it grows prouder. It is prouder because it is based on Duty and Sacrifice. Our
League embodies the idea of which Ypres is the symbol.
An eminent Belgian writer, describing the recent Pilgrimage to the greatest war
shrine of our race, has said
Though hidden under an apparent phlegm, English sensibility is not less
profound, and attentive observers can convince themselves of this truth on this spot
to-day. Moreover the simple idea of this pilgrimage could only germinate in the
bosom of a people great in heart, great in the spontaneity of their affections and in
the admirable tenacity of its memories."
