156
The Ypres Times.
been severed by taking the Allied line in flank and rear, and the whole character of the
war would have been changed with possible disaster for us in the end.
How fateful for our country and civilisation was that first battle especially has been
acknowledged by many authorities. The highest acknowledgment of all came from
Field Marshal the Earl of Ypres, who has put it on record that it was the obstinate tenacity,
the superb spirit, the refusal to own defeat which has ever animated the British soldier
that saved our land through these desperate hours while a little force of 30,000 men had
the terrible task of holding at bay, till our reinforcements were brought up from the
Aisne, an immensely larger number of the enemy's foremost and best army corps, the
odds being about eight to one. Well might Sir Arthur Conan Doyle say that the stand
before Ypres was "one of the decisive moments of the world's history." Neither did
Colonel Sir John Buchan, one of the most brilliant historians of the war, exaggerate when
he characterised the first fight at Ypres as the greatest defensive battle in British history
and one of the greatest in all history. Nor was it a mere flight of eloquence but too
truthful a metaphor when Mr. Lloyd George, in one of his characteristically impassioned
speeches in admiration of the Old Contemptibles," declared that that grand old Army
gathered the spears of the Prussian legions into its breast and in perishing saved
Europe."
The sacrifice of life not only in the first battle but in those that followed at this part
of the Western front was awful. It is recalled appropriately enough at this time that
the four years' struggle at Ypres has made that corner of Flemish soil the greatest grave
yard of our race, there being 200,000 of our dead lying there. It is fitting therefore that
the sacred spot should be carefully tended and made easily accessible to the thousands
of poor people, widows, mothers and other relatives, who may wish to pay a pilgrimage
thence. With this object, the Ypres League has decided to establish there a permanent
hostelry replete with every means of guidance for the British pilgrim, and with endowed
beds so that visitors may be accomodated free of cost. But as this scheme is somewhat
beyond the resources of the League it has been resolved that the requisite funds should
be raised by means of a flag day as an appropriate celebration of the anniversary.
Artificial cornflowers made by ex-Service men are to be sold in place of flags, the corn
flower which waves over those graves having been adopted as the badge of the League.
The greatest effort for this object is to be made in London, but every city or town or
village throughout the whole country ought to bear its share in this laudable commemora
tion of a great event.Yorkshire Herald.
The Times
Ypres to-day rendered homage to the memory of the many soldiers of the Great
War who died in the Ypres salient.
Flags were hung from all the houses, the British and Belgian colours mingling
together. The weather, unfortunately, was cold, and rain fell. A procession of several
thousand people, headed by flags, left the Grande Place at 11 o'clock, and after visiting
the Belgian cemetery, proceeded to the British cemetery, where a great number of
graves had been covered with flowers by relatives and friends of those who there sleep
their last sleep. On the grave of Prince Maurice of Battenberg clusters of chrysanthe
mums were scattered.
Before the assembled crowd, M. Colaert, the venerable Burgomaster of Ypres,
hailed the memory of the British soldiers, and recalled the part played by Great Britain
in the war. In the name of the Municipality of Ypres, he then laid a wreath near the
cross which has been erected at the end of the cemetery. To-morrow, the Day of the
Dead, a requiem service will be sung at Ypres for the soldiers who fell in the war.
