Wipers, Easter, 1933.
74
THE YPRES TIMES
WHEN I was asked to make the fourth in a party to visit the immortal
salient at Easter, I had difficulty in reaching a decision which involved
the necessity of striking the balance between the following reasons for
and against
Pro.
Personal reproach to myself that I had never visited the battlefields since I was
demobbed "in 1919, so that
When I had the opportunity of joining the three cheery fellows for such a trip, I should
be all kinds of a fool to miss it.
(c) A pleasant change from ordinary Easters, with their inevitable golf and other normal
distractions.
Contra.
Uncertainty of weather over Easter.
Cowardice against possible nausea on a Channel crossing of three hours each way.
(c) Dislike of travelling at a time when crowds are probable.
dReluctanceunselfish, I thoughtof leaving my wife and family for four days. (This
was easily overcome by my wife who strongly recommended me to accept, and no
doubt welcomed heartily my absence
Finally, and fortunately, the ayes had it, and as it turned out, all pre
conceived fears proved to be groundless. The weather was perfect, the sea
behaved itself, and there were quite few travellers. Everything for one's comfort
was quietly and efficiently organized by Captain de Trafford, the League's energetic
Secretary; reserved accommodation each way on the train to Dover, an 8-cylinder
saloon car to meet the train at Ypres Station, available for us to make our daily
trips, and driven by a splendidly-informed guide, and, finally, excellent hotel
accommodation with a lavish table.
It was a well set up party which fell in at 9.30 a.m. at Victoria Station on
Good Friday morning; Graham," looking ascetic and gaunt, was immediately
mistaken for a plain-clothes-man from the Yard; Feathers although without
the short stubbly growth of beard which used to cheer up the troops at nightfall
daily in the old days, an impressive figure from whom Belgian porters and police
men kept at respectful distance; Willie a despatch rider in August, 1914, in
France, but now looking rather like an impresario on a sly jaunt, whilst the
scribe's comfortable proportions so admired in China (where a fulness in the "dining
room is considered beauty in the male) were perhaps mirth provoking, although
certainly devoid of vulgarity. After kit-inspection, we entrained and left at 10 a.m.,
and in due course arrived at Ostend at 3.15, giving us nice time for that liquid
sustenance which maketh to rejoice the heart of man. Our train left the Central
Station at 4.44, and Ypres was reached at 6.50. Troops were billeted by 7.0,
rations at 7.30. Willie discovered an Alsatian wine in the wine list, which
he ordered and drank in large quantities and with a great relish. On his' strong
recommendation it was sampled, but the writer's more refined palate detected it
to be obviously an early 1932 vintage. Its fulness of body (or bodies) no doubt
made up for its extreme youth and rich vinegar content. Lights Out midnight.
