LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR.
112
The Ypres Times.
successful season, but Wembley has probably been
responsible for the fact that we have sent far
fewer pilgrims to the Salient this year than we
did last. However, we had a successful pilgrimage
on August the 4th, of which an account appears
elsewhere. But we did not number eighty, and
we travelled by ordinary trains and boats. What
we ought to do, and what I, as Secretary, long to
do, is to establish a big pilgrimage, such as we
had in 1922 as an annual event. If we could
only muster a party of at least five hundred, who
need not necessarily all be League members, we
could have special trains and a boat to ourselves.
We could leave on Saturday night and get back
early on Monday morning, and we could do it at a
price which would include all meals and a visit
to a cemetery, or a battlefield tour. No passports
would be necessary. Only to do this we must have
Numbers. Will members, please, consider the
matter, and make any suggestions that may occur
to them I should be especially glad of sugges
tions as to the date, which must not be a bank
holiday. Let us think it over this winter, and we
shall then be able to make a success of it next
summer. There is no better manner of bringing
the League before the public eye, and so increasing
our membership.
To the Editor of The Ypres Times.
Dear Sir,If any of your members can tell
me anything about the 8th Battalion York and
Lancaster Regiment that fought on October 22nd,
1917, I should be very grateful to hear from them
My son (Pte. Stanley Lansdale, 10th Platoon) was
killed in Polygon Wood and left in the trench to
be buried by another regiment, but we know no
more. We know nothing of his grave.
I am. Yours faithfully,
Ai.ice M. Lansdaee.
2, Victoria Street,
Derringham Street, Hull.
To the Editor of The Ypres Times.
Dear Sir,I cannot let the article by your
contributor, M.i.7b," in the July issue on How
the Boche Got Home," go unchallenged. I was an
active participator in the affair, yet I hold the
same views that he ascribes to the imaginary
armchair critic. First, I must say that I have
seldom read such a counsel of despair. I hold
that the Peace Treaty should have been signed in
Berlin and nowhere else. Did we not win
Who asked for the Armistice Was it the Allies
or the Germans They were given 72 hours in
which to accept it or decline it. What was the
alternative Unconditional surrender, of course.
They snapped the chance, and we celebrated the
Armistice on Sunday night, not Monday, the day
of the Armistice. Your contributor suggests that
the number of prisoners we took was a brake on
our progress. Would Germany have let any such
consideration have kept them from their goal
SIGNBOARDS IN THE SALIENT.
Our readers will be interested to hear that there
is a proposal on foot, initiated by Mrs. Fitzclarence,
to erect a signboard at Gheluvelt commemorating
the deeds of her late husband, Brigadier-General
C. Fitzclarence, V.C., and the 2nd Worcesters, on
October 31st, 1914, as suggested in The Ypres
Times for April.
The League signposts to the number of forty,
which mark famous points such as Shrapnel
Corner, are now in course of erection.
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.
We would draw our readers' attention to our
list of corresponding members, which appears
on another page, and we ask them if they cannot
help us to increase that list. The duties of
corresponding members are not arduous. They are
asked to answer four letters a year from the
Secretary, to do what they can to form a centre
for their group of members, and to be ready to
supply enquirers with information. The League
refunds postage whenever asked to do so. Surely
more members might volunteer for this very simple
duty! In many large towns, and notably in
Leeds, Nottingham, and Bristol, we are unrepre
sented. Will no one come forward
He says we had not the men. Who were we
He seems to be implying that Britain alone was in
the job. Does he seriously think that Britain,
France, Belgium and America could not find
sufficient men to finish the job I assert, on the
contrary, that America had nowhere near reached
her climax in this direction. Further, I assert
that Germany had not the material to keep on
with, on your contributor's own showing. He
compliments Germany on her successful retire
ment. Rot! Sir, Rot! Each time we advanced
she left prisoners and material in our hands.
Unless my memory plays me false, the docks at
Dunkirk alone, when I left in May, 1919, were a
mass of German guns. I have not yet met a
man outside a mental hospital but who knows
that had Germany won, she would have had
reparations from us right enough, and Britain
would have been occupied until they had had
them. Did not Lloyd George win an election on
Search their Pockets and Try the Kaiser,"
to the utter rout of the pacifist M.P.'s? So much
for the spirit of the people. There were too
many fingers in the pie at the finish, but if the
job had been finished properly, no other nation
would have declared war, for fear of losing.
143138 R.G.A.
84TH Brigade, R.G.A.It is proposed to hold
a Re-union (subject to sufficient numbers being
forthcoming) of all old members of 297th, 276th,
336th, 34th and 77th Siege Batteries and 24th
and 152nd Heavy Batteries. Those interested
please write to D. N. Gow, 48, Chandos Road,
London, N.W.2.
