We believe there are more than five hundred large cemeteries in France and Belgium, made to contain the bodies of men slain in this War. We have walked through many of them, and read some of the inscriptions. On many, alas! the writing was “Unknown British Soldier,” “Unknown Canadian Soldier.” The poor remains exhumed on the battlefield, and all traces of identity lost. We were thankful to see the reverent care exercised in the exhumation and burial of the dead. We met motor-lorries containing the dead soldiers covered with the Union Jack, and saw them laid to rest. They had been picked up on lonely battlefields, and brought to their last earthly resting-place. I read the names of nobles and of those in high command on the simple tablets at the head of the graves. They had been buried side by side with the men they led; the same care exercised in the case of the Tommy as of the officer. And all along the countryside as we passed along we saw sad, lonely graves. One we saw yesterday in France left in the midst of a cultivated field. The farther had tilled all the land around, but there the simple monument to the dead stood to tell its story of war and tragedy all alone.
The tortured earth, scarred with thousands of miles of trenches, seamed with shell holes every yard in many places, with rows of barbed wire stretching out in every direction; with vast underground dugouts tunneled under its surface, with great redoubts on every hand built upon it, and with all the debris of vast and relentless strife spread over its surface―such as shells, grenades, helmets, bullets, tanks, rifles, etc.―this poor earth is being made to give up the mangled dead beneath it. The dead that are living in eternity now.
At one of the Labor Companies as I was leaving I asked the men if they would like to fill in our ‘Testament cards for Testaments to be sent them. They were very willing, and one took my offered pen and filled in card after card at the eager request of the men gathered around, until all were gone. Thousands of our soldiers are in France and Belgium and in Germany still. A great number are without Testaments. We must continue our work amongst them unceasingly. I shall be glad indeed of your prayerful sympathy and help in this work. At another place where I left postcards for the men the sergeant said, “I hope the men appreciate what has been done.” I said, “At home I have files filled with hundreds of grateful letters from soldiers.” But I must close for this month. I hope to speak more of these things in other issues of the “Message.”
Yours for Christ’s sake,
Heyman Wreford