Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1919-05-09
SIGHTS AS
REFUGEES RETURN
HOMES HEAPS OF BUBBLE, THE
FIELDS RUINED, YET THEY
ARE GLAD TO GET BACK

VI ioh lhCN WuNSh OI thO INNING
Official Paper. Third Division,
American Army of Occupation
At the time of the signing of the
Iarmistice there were two classes Of
refugees in France: firstly those
from the invaded districts, and Sec
ondly, those from the towns and vii
lagos Just behind the firing line;
towns and villages which, though
never occupied, nevertheless suffered
considerable damage from long-range
Smelling and from air raids.
The refugees belonging to the lat
ter category have now nearly all re-
turned to their old homes. There
are many thousands of others. how
ever. whose homes are heaps of rub
BILE, whose fields are pitted with
shell craters and Scared with trench
es, whose farm machinery has been
carried off to cultivate German land.
The more courageous among them
are beginning to venture back, re-
lconstrcting temporary shelters from
the ruins and endeavoring to dig over
their fields by hand.
A few days ago train took some
of these refugees to Montdidier.
Although there Is not one unchanged
house in the town, the inhabitants
we're so overjoyed to find themselves
back in the familiar streets and to
meet their neighbors again that the
lamentations we're few and it was for
the most part happy crowd that en-
Icamped among the ruins.
Even jokes were heard, and much
merriment was caused by the sight OF
a house, the roof of~which had been
lifted off and was lying intact at
some distance from the building. 1t
was the ruined church rather than
the battered houses which gave rise
to the most bitter expressions of in
dignation.
1t is perhaps the towns on the
Somme, however, which have suf-
fered most. In Amiens the work of
Reconstruction has been begun but is
going on very slowly on account OF
the immense amount of debris to be
cleared away and the difficulty of Sc
touring sufiicient material.
At .Peronne there are as yet very
few inhabitants, the few there being
for the most part wOrkmen engaged
in patching up those buildings which
it is possible to repair.
| Various societies and nursing sis
1terhoods have set up distributing
lcenters from which medicines and
comforts Are being dealt out to the
Inhabitants from all the country
around. and proposal has been
made to open general hospital at
Peronne for the whole district.
At Athies an attempt Is being
made to recultivate the fields and
lplows are already at work.
Eight hundred Inhabitants have
already returned to Nesle, but the
conditions there are still of the great
est misery and hardship.
| At Moyencourt the church has been
practically razed to the ground, but
otherwise the town had not suffered
much and $50 refugees have re-
turned.
1 Further north the same slow re-
awakening is taking place. There
are still number Of houses in
Valenciennes which are habitable
and every day army lorries pass
Through the streets taking families
hack to their homes.
The work of reconstruction has
thus been begun. but It is gigantic
task and 1t will take France and all
/, her resources for many years, to re-
establish what were once some of the
biggest industrial towns and her
most prosperous villages.