Ypres British Church. I7° THE YPRES TIMES THE dedication of the Memorial Church of St. George, on Sunday, March 24th, marks the beginning of another era in the history of Ypres. Those who were privileged to attend the ceremony will ever be grateful that they were present at a service which is unique in the history of the Christian Church. Can anyone recall another instance when the consecration Bishop was assisted by a Presbyterian and a Free Churchman? But to appreciate the full significance of the ceremony, one needs to go back over the years to 1914. Let us do that One of the chaplains, assisting in the ceremony, arrived in Ypres on the Friday and spent the whole of Saturday in a tour of the Salient. He had been there during those dark years when the face of the countryside was distorted with agony; and our armies moved to and fro in the Valley of the Shadow. Many of our readers will understand the impulse that compelled him to visit again the places which will always recall the names and faces of old comrades who, like their Saviour, died that others might live. As we follow him out of the city along the road to Boesinghe, up to Lange- marsh, across to Poelcapelle and Passchendaele, then down Zonnebeke and Hooge right on to the Wytschaete Ridge returning again to the city via Kemmel, La Clytte and Dickebusch, we find a tide of memories sweeping into our minds. We recall those anxious days in 1914 when, by reason of its overwhelming strength, the German Army came so near to breaking through and reaching the Channel ports. We remember that month in 1915 when we first faced the horror of poison gas. No troops have ever given a finer instance of heroic courage than our Canadian army displayed at that time. Is there one of us who will ever forget the inconceivable horror of the rain, the mud, and the air-raids of 1917? Some of our London friends are never tired of describing the horror of the air-raids. Nor would we dream of suggesting that the picture is highly coloured. They do not realize that from June, 1917, to March, 19x8, we were bombed day and night up in the Salientto say nothing of the mud, the shells, the rats and the gas. Yet no German soldier ever set foot in Ypres except as a prisoner. Britain had said, "We will keep the German Army out of the city." But the seventy cemeteries in the Salient, with their thousands of British graves; bear silent witness to the cost of victory. Yet no one could visit these Silent Cities without experiencing a thrill at the thought of the courage to which they bear silent testimony. In and around Ypres here is quite a colony of British residents who are employed mainly in tending the graves of the fallen. In this task they have displayed and are displaying the most outstanding skill and devotion. In making the original appeal for a church to be built in Ypres, the late Field- Marshal the Earl of Ypres had the spiritual need of these men in his mind; as well as the thought of the many pilgrims who would welcome a Place for Prayer." Shortly after making his appeal, Earl Ypres passed away; but Field-Marshal Lord Plumer, General Sir W. Pulteney and the Bishop of Northern Europe took up the scheme.

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1929 | | pagina 12