80
The Ypres Times.
terms indeed to members. Our return trips to
Ypres are a speciality as we have secured special
terms at two of the hotels there. We can now
quote a four-day trip to Ypres and back including
principal meals and tips at a hotel for £3 17s. 6d.,
with third class travel. This does not refer to a
conducted tour which so many dislike. You
travel independently any day you like. Parties
of from 24 and upward can, however, be arranged
for on specially lower terms. Send for our printed
leaflet.
NEWS FROM THE SALIENT.
We have arranged with a Correspondent
residing in Ypres to furnish interesting items of
news concerning the Salient as it is to-day.
The first batch of these tit-bits is given below
On Saturday, January 7th, the weekly butter
market was held amongst the ruins of the Cloth
Hall. This is the first time since 1914 that stalls
have actually been erected in the precincts of the
Cloth Hall, and comments were made in all
Belgian papers to this effect.
The famous Potsdam Redoubt between Frezen-
burg and Zonnebeke has now been dismantled.
This was captured by us in the third battle of
Ypres.
Most of the dead trees along the top of the
ramparts from the Menin to the Lille Gate have
now been cut down and fresh ones planted it is,
however, still possible to visit the dug-outs and
tunnels in the ramparts,which will not be disturbed
for the time being.
February, 1922.
Work has now actually commenced on the re
construction of St. Martin's Cathedral.
Reconstruction at the village of Wytschaete
has been brought to a standstill owing to the
discovery of large German tunnels, hitherto
unknown, under the ruinsseveral houses already
erected show signs of sinking.
The temporary wooden Church erected at
Vlamertinghe was totally destroyed by fire a short
time ago.
At St. Julien in the centre of the village close
to the river Steenbeck there is a large German
pillbox which was erected on the site of a house.
The owner of the house has now returned and not
seeing the means to erect his house at present,
has fitted up, and is now living in, the pillbox.
March, 1922.
Owing to the heavy rains many roads have
fallen in at places and disclosed old dug-outs, this
is especially the case along the top of the Ram
parts here, one place being over fifty feet deep.
A small detachment of Australian soldiers are
still stationed in Poperinghe, these men are for the
most part engaged in work in connection with
Graves registration also a detachment at Zonne
beke working on the large Australian monument
at the Butts Polygon Wood. These are the last
troops in the Salient.
An estaminet has been erected at Messines
called the Estaminet Lord Plumer. There are
several hundred persons living in the village now.
LECTURE by Miss E. VAN DER NOOT.
The members of the Belgian Section of the
League residing in Brussels were invited to attend
the Lecture given by Miss E. Van der Noot on
the 25th February, under the auspices of the
Anglo-Belgian Union, entitled, With the British
during the First Battle of Ypres."
Miss Van der Noot, who was living at that time
with her aunt at Zonnebeke Chateau, related in a
simple but touching manner the first meeting of
the inhabitants of this peaceful Flemish village
with the British troops about the 16th October,
1914.
When the villagers beheld for the first time
those splendid regiments, the Household Cavalry,
the Northumberland Hussars, the R.H.A., and
the Gordon Highlanders, moving towards Ypres,
they all stood there as if nailed to the ground,
awestruck by this almost silent display of strength
and power.
On the 16th October, Miss Van der Noot and
her aunt received in their Chateau part of the
staff of the 3rd Cavalry Division H.Q. She well
remembers individual staff officers who were
billeted thereGen. Kavanagh, commanding the
3rd Cavalry Brigade, the Officer commanding the
R.H.A. Major Brinton of the Life Guards, Col.
Fred Cavendish of the 9th Lancers, and others,
including Lieut. The Hon. John Bigge, A.D.C. to
General Sir J. Byng, the son of Lord Stamfordham,
private Secretary to H.M. the King, who was
killed later on.
The troops left the village on the 19th October,
and the inhabitants fully believed that these
splendid units were going to completely vanquish
the execrated Huns. Zonnebeke is the safest
placethe Germans will be driven back a mile or
so to-day the staff officers had confidently
assured them, as they left the Chateau in the
morning.
But very soon afterwards the villagers heard
the sounds of battle drawing nearer, and refugees
from Moorslede and its surroundings poured into
the village. On the morning of the 20th, at
6 a.m., the order was given to clear the village,
Miss Van der Noot being one of the last to leave
it, just as the first German shell fell near the
Church.
Not a single one of the poor inhabitants of that
village ever saw their homes againfor not a
stone was left at the time of the Armistice
But now the villageknown as a mere heap of
ruins by the veterans of the Ypres Salientis
being restored, and the old villagers have come
back to this heap of rubble and ruin to build up
their hearths afresh on ground which, watered
by the blood of heroes, has also so strong a hold
on their love of home and patriotism.
Miss Van der Noot's interesting lecture met
with the success it deserved.
When you have finished with this copy of
the "Ypres Times pass it on to a friend.
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