the
roofing of some of the least damaged cottages; for this temporary
reconstruction they provide the materials. When I was there, the place
was well within range of enemy shell-fire. The approach had to be made
by way of camouflaged roads. The sole anxiety of these brave women
was that on account of their nearness to the front-line, the military
might compel them to move back. In order to safeguard themselves
against this and to create a good impression, they were making a
strong point of entertaining whatever officers were billeted in
this vicinity. Their effort to remain in this rural Gomorrah was as
courageous as it was pathetic. "The people need us," they said, and
then, "you don't think we'll be moved back, do you?" I thought they
would, and I didn't think that the grateful officers would be able to
prevent it--they were subalterns and captains for the most part. "But
we once had a major to tea," they said. "A major!" I exclaimed, trying
to look impressed, "Oh well, that makes a difference!"

There was one unit I wished especially to visit; it was a unit
consisting entirely of women, sent over and financed by a women's
college. When I was in America last October and heard that they were
starting, I made up my mind that they were doomed to disappointment.
I pictured the battlefield of the Somme as I had last seen it--a sea
of mud stretching for miles, furrowed by the troughs of battered
trenches, pitted every yard with shell-holes and smeared over with
the wreckage of what once were human bodies. I could not imagine what
useful purpose women could serve amid such surroundings. It seemed
to me indecent that they should be allowed to go there. They were
going to do reconstruction, I was told. Reconstruction! you can't
reconstruct towns and villages the very foundations of which have been
buried. There is a Bible phrase which expresses such annihilation,
"The place thereof shall know it no more." Yes, only the names remain
in one's memory--the very sites have been covered up and the contours
of the landscape re-dug with high explosives. It took millions of
pounds to work this havoc. Men tunnelled under-ground and sprung mines
without warning. They climbed like birds of prey, into the heavens to
hurl death from the clouds. They lined up their guns, tier upon tier,
almost axle to axle in places, and at a given sign rained a deluge
of corruption on a country miles in front, which they could not even
discern. The infant