Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-12-28 | Page 25 | Desecration of War Graves by Visitors Shocks Friends

Desecration of War Graves by Visitors Shocks Friends Bv Universal Sc-rvice. PARIS, Dec. 21. Severe l.-ytrictions must be imposed upon the trippers who regard a jaunt to the battlefields battle-fields of France and Flanders as on a level with a visit to Coney Island. Pleasure Beach, Blackpool or some other haunt of gaiety. Blackpool, or some other haunt of gaiety. ' Not lonsf aRO tnree wagons containing I the bodies of British soldiers removed from the Ypres salient for reburial were held up at Menln gate hy a string of churs-n-banc fnll of sightseers. Im'orma-tion Im'orma-tion was b'inp retailed by a fruido who used a megaphone. Broken -hearted relatives, whose dead lie in scattered praves from a retaliation cemetery, have he-n distressed beyond measure when their poipnant meditations were disturbed by hordes of sightseers. The fteel helmet or some other pitiful relic, placed by a comrade upon Wie hatity grave of his pal, Is filched away by I souvenir hunters. AL Fayschendale some j tourists were found by tlie officers in charge of graves busily stripping the last resting place of twelve men of the War-wirks War-wirks of some shell nosecaps. On be-! be-! lng remonstrated with, one of the looters replied : ''O, we thought, it didn't matter." mat-ter." Trains are now running from Os'end to near Ypres. On the outskirts of tiie ruined town thut was once the capital of ancient Flanders 122 new estaminets have been opened. No license is required for these cafes. Ail these tourists are not British. There are numbers of excitable Belgians, a good many Frenchmen, and a sprinkling' sprink-ling' of neutrals. There is no more sacred spot for South A frlca than DelvUIe wood named "Devil's "Dev-il's Wood." There more than 1000 South Africans fell in action. Amid the great trees stripped of foliage and twigs by shot n nd shell the eonf lict raged. Two hundred lie buried in hasty graves that cannot always be identified. This is the vaihalla of the South African poldier. A few days a so a party of tourists were noticed in this wood, hallowed by memories of conflict and sacrifice. Chat-terlng Chat-terlng like excited jays, they had spread tiiffr luncheon in the open air. Corks popped and champagne flowed, followed by empty discordant laughter, the party junketing upon the graves of heroes, while the guide did a brisk trade in souvenirs filched from the battlefield.