The Ypres Times.
183
the League and its objects are safe if each man will roll in two or three members we
can easily hold the position to the end.
Even since Christmas the position has been so far consolidated that we have
secured the initiative and have launched an attack with success. Last week we paid
for seven of the stones which will mark for all time, from the Swiss border to the sea, the
extreme advance of the Boche, the line from which he was finally thrown back.
A year ago the Touring Clubs of France and of Belgium announced their schemes
for marking by 240 solid, red granite pilons the extreme advanced line of the Invasion,
the line from which our offensive of 1918 thrust back the Invader. Maréchal Pétain and
the Belgian General Staff had decided the spots upon the main roads at which to erect
these stones, the whole forming a string from the Swiss border to the sea. Through the
British Embassy in Brussels the Ypres League was invited to erect the seven stones destined
to mark the flattened Ypres Salient of 1918. Last spring we had not yet burnt our fingers
financially, and we undertook to do our best to collect the £400 or £500 required. The
financial problem became somewhat acute when we learnt a month ago that the stones
had to be erected this springbut as always happens when one takes the trouble to
stick it out," fortune came to our side a sum of £323 came to us specially earmarked
for this purpose from generous sources. And at the same moment the Ruhr episode
began and the value of the franc fell until our fund more than met the cost of the seven
stones.
In this issue of the Ypres Times we can only show a photograph of one of the stones
on the French lines; ours will have a British tin hat and water-bottle, the legend will be in
English, French and Flemish, while at the base will be carved the words, Erected by
the Ypres League," the name of the Touring Club of Belgium being placed at our special
request upon the side of the stone to show our appreciation of the trouble that Club has
taken in arranging the scheme, to show also that our stones form part of the whole string
of 240. Each pilon is four feet six inches in height.
The sites we have secured will I think be approved by everyoneOn the St. Jean-
Wiltze road, the way to shell trap farm near Potize on the Zonnebeke RoadHell Fire
Corner on the Menin Road the railway crossing by the Zillebeke River on the Hill 60 road
near Trois Rois on the Lille Roada point near Voormezeele on the road from
Vlamertinghe to St. Eloiand the seventh near Vierstraete on the Kemmel Road.
In the next number of the Times we shall have I hope a map of the exact positions
and a photograph of one of our stones.
At all events we have begun to commemorate the Defence of Ypreswe are also
investing at 5 per cent, a sum of four figures earmarked for the Hostelry. If individual
members of the League will put their backs into it and get all old comrades of the Salient
days and relatives of our friends who lie in the Salient, to join up, we shall very soon be
able to put up a substantial memorial of the defence and one which our poorer relatives
and friends will thank us for.
I may add that the reorganised office thinks first of Ypres and secondly of the office
and that our Secretary has one failing he was badly wounded at Ypres and consequently
works about twelve hours a day for the League.
That last remark about our distinguished Secretary serves to emphasise an important
point. The whole purpose of forming a League such as ours is to unite in one body a
number of people who look at Ypres each from his or her own point of view. One joins
it in order to put up stone monuments in honour of the tenacity of the defence that is
because he is an old man who wants to do honour to a younger generation. Another
joins because he or she wants to honour the memory of a son who gave his life there.
Another, in order to help his poorer companions to visit the graves. Another, in order to
print the war diaries of men in the line. Another to get a history written and illustrated.
Another to help collect a museum of souvenirs. Another with social faculties, to organise
the reunion of old comrades. But I think the majority have joined in order to lend a
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