Republican farmer., 1918-01-18
DELIVERED FROM THEIR MASTERS
 AFTER 3 YEARS
Masnieres and His People in German Hands Are
 Rescued.

Paris, Jan. 15-Georges Laselin, who, since Aug. 26. 1914. has been acting as mayor of Masnferes one of the villages recently taken by the British troops in their surprise drive toward Cambrai, has related the ex- periences of himself and the small population of his village under Ger man dominGtton.
 The rescue of these French citizens was doubly fortunate for Nj. Lasselin, for he was to have appeared before a German court-martial on Dec. for refusing to give to the German au- thorities 60 young village girls.
 All the rescued inhabitants of the villages retaken from the enemy are now in the south of France, where the various municipal authorities are doing their utmost to make them for get the cruelties and hardships they have undergone and make them feel that once again life is worth living
 Though we were less than two miles from the actual firing ine," said M. Lasselin, 'our sector for some time had been comparatively quiet But how monotonous life was! The days, weeks and months passed by and we could see no hope of getting away from the iron rule of the Ger mans.
 "Once, on Sept. 21, 1914 during the battle for Bonavis farm we caught sight of French soldiers and signaled to them our plight and our desire to risk crossing the lines But we were motioned to remain, that the French would soon be in Cambrai. We never saw them again.
 ''But at o'clock in the morning of Nov. 20 of this year we could hear the roar of the guns getting louder and louder, and I thought to myself at the time the hour of our deliver ance had perhaps struck I thereupon ran from house door to house door warning the inhabitants to remain in their cellars.
 'At 3 o'clock in the afternoon the British entered the village and had to face the murderous fire of German machine guns. In the evening the firing slackened on account of the Germans running short of munitions. 'The upper part of the bridge over the St. Quentin Canal was blown up, but the Germans had not time to destroy the pillars. The same hap pened to the footbridges over the canal. It was over these footbridges the British came, and advanced into the village during the night of Nov. 20.
 "At about a. m. the English ad- vance guards fired their first shots in the village streets. At o'clock the village was completely in their pos session. A little later I saw the first | British tank, attempt to cross the canal and fall in.
 q then realized that the right mo- ment had come for us to act as | quickly as possible, and, encouraged | by courageous population, crossed the canal and went to report to the i British authorities, who immediately took steps for our safety and evacua- l ton.
 Carrying a white flag, to warn i British gunners of our presence, and running the gauntlet of German bull lets and shells, got together some 300 persons from neighboring will Iage.
 Some were old, enfeebled men women and children, two of the lat ter being two months old. There were also two blind persons.
 'tNo thought could be given to car rying much away with us. The Ger mans had often warned us and told us to be ready to evacuate the village at 30 minutes notice. Consequently everyone had prepared his little bum dle of linen and family souvenirs in | the event of the Germans taking us 1 with them, where we should have been treated as hostages.
 "The two blind persons, a woman and her baby, were placed in wait | ing motor car, the only one the Brit ish could detail at the moment, and were driven away. The rest of us had to walk to Gouzeaucourt, a dis tance of 10 miles.
 l During this march we had to cross the whole battlefield, then swept by
 machine gun fire and still strewn with barbed wire. Many women tore their clothes and lost their hats, and some of the younger girls tore their skin so badly that many of them are l still under treatment.
 "Yet, with all their troubles, every one was happy in the thought of once again belonging to the mother coun- try.
 NO description of mine can con- vey to you what our first step toward freedom was like. Doubled up, some times on our knees, other times lying down flat, we had to cross the she'll 1 swept area. We got into communi. cation trenches where, in places, sol- diers were still fighting desperately