The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1920-07-29

The BurOgOmaSter and the City COun-
Gil of Ypres urge to remember that the
ground you walk on is hallowed by the
sacrifice of 100000 British officers and
men, who were killed or wounded in four
terrible years of battle endured in the
Salient of Ypres, and whose heroism Bel
GUM can never forget"
And when at last the traveller stands
in silent awe before the majestic ruins of
the Cloth Hail. he will read second no.
tice put up by order of the Town Major
of Ypres:-
"This is holy ground. No stone of this
fabric may be taken away. 1t is the hertz
age for all civilized peoples"
This is holy ground, not Ypres alone,
but Armentieres, Lens, Arras, Albert,
Peronne, and the broad lands which
stretch in front and on either side of the
once fair cities whose names will be linked
for all time with the valor of the British
race. There is happily little need to i'm
press this truth upon the parties of British
visitors who are now passing over the
country in motor-car, char-a-banc, or con-
verified Army lorry. In a recent tour of
the battlefelds l never heard Earring
word or saw ghoulish action.
1t is a question whether the decisive
part played by the troops of the homeland
in the campaigns in Belgium and North
ern France are being fifty commemorated
on the spot. Monuments, which will en-
dure for centuries, are now rising on
commanding positions on the old British
front. The Canadians have comment
Grated their victories at Vimy Ridge and
on the high ground by Passchendaele by
noble memorials which can be seen for
miles around.
Australia has set up wonderfully fine
series of monuments to the valor of its
sons. Go where you will in any part of
the vast expanse of the Somme battlefield,
and you will never be long out of sight of
an obelisk to remind you of the contribu-
ton which the Commonwealth made to
the common cause. The Australians have
three monuments each of extreme SIM
plicity, in the Somme area, and they are
so placed as to command wide views of
three different sectors of the battlefield
The finest site of all is Mont St. Quen-
tin, above Peronne. When the monument
now building on the hill is complete it will
be seen for miles down the valley of the
Allies when the Australians, in one of
the most gallant feats of the war, stormed
this key position.
The other monuments are at Poziers
towering above an Australian cemetery
in which the foremost graves were
glory of paeonies at the time of the visit
and on the Bray-Corbie road, with
downland outlook towards Morlancourt.
They will serve to keep green the memory
of brave men from overseas when every
village for which they fought has been
rebuilt and the last scar of war has dis
appeared from every field which they
trod in the battle array.
One looks Ill vain IOi any Hdtiohoi
monument to the millions who crossed the
narrow seas from Great Britain to uphold
the honor of their native land. Here and
there the story of brilliant feat of arms
or of superb act of self-sacrifice is told
by divisional or regimental memorial.
But few of these are of permanent char
acter.
The British race has no holier shrine
than the long line of cemeteries. which
stretches from the Belgian plain to the up
lands of Picardy. These burial-grounds
of the flower of our manhood are the most
moving spectacle of any to be seen in the
wide sweep of the Western battlefront.
Still, although nothing can dwarf them
or lessen their poignant appeal, the Eng
lish visitor cannot resist the thought that
something more might have been done to