PRAISE FOR HIS SOLDIERS

Evening Star, Issue 19778, 31 January 1928, Page 5

PRAISE FOR HIS SOLDIERS

INHERENT FIGHTING QUALITIES HAIG'S EULOGY OF BRITISH ARMIES What Haig thought of his soldiers and of the efforts of Britain in the Great War is plain from his masterly address at the conference of the B.E.S.L. in London last year. He said:—

“ 1 think that it is sometimes forgotten (indeed, I doubt if it has yet been fully realised by the general publie in these islands) how truly great was the work of the Armies of the British Empire in the War. A national tendency to belittle our own achievements, fostered and encouraged by consideration of policy (which 1 forbear to criticise) has led us (as a nation) to ascribe our victory in the Great War to the fortunate destiny of our country; to the military genius of Allied nations; to the mistakes of our enemies; to the intervention of America; to anything rather than the true cause—namely, the inherent lighting qualities of all ranks of the British Armies and the endurance, loyalty, and Armeis and the endurance, loyalty, and discipline of the British peoples in all quarters of the world.

“Jf America had not como in we might - not have forced the enemy to surrender in 1918, for, without the American reserves in existence, Jt would have been unwise for us to risk throwing the whole force of the British Army in Franco and Flanders into the tremendous series of battles which brought the war to a sudden, and, by many politicians, unexpected end. But we should have won in the end all the same. As regards the mistakes of our enemies, my own private opinion is that the enemy made only two serious mistakes ■—the first when ho began the war under conditions which brought the British Empire into it, and the second when he lost it. . , ‘‘ As for the Allies, but for them and the sacrifices which they made in the opening years of the war, wo might never have been given time to mobi ise the armies of the Empire; and tor that we owe a great debt of gratitude to our Allies, and perhaps also to the special Providence which presides over the destinies of the improvident, and which we can never sufficiently acknowledge. “Yet when all is said and done, the fact remains that for the last eighteen months of the struggle the British Armies in France, the_ Armies ot the Empire, carried on their shoulders and carried tn victory the mam burden ot tho war.’’