GREAT BRITAIN AND HER FOES.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 924, 28 March 1918, Page 6

GREAT BRITAIN AND HER FOES.

My Head is Bloody but Unbowed. WITH proud: . defiance Britain is facing her strong and savage foe. The long threatened great offensive has come at last and brought in its train anxiety for the Allies. Such a desperate onslaught by such a colossal host as that which now threatens the British positions in France could not be expected to be unaccompanied by some local and temporary success. That such temporary successes have been gained by the enemy it would be futile to deny. But Britain still possesses her unconquerable soul, and again turning to Henley's memorable lines, her "head is bloody but unbowed." In 1914 we suffered disappointment and disaster. But the hideous Hun was hurled back none the less, thanks to* the fact that the British and their gallant Allies possessed an "unconquerable soul." "Bloody, but unbowed," is the British head to-day. Not for us any pessimistic thoughts. For us rather the noble spirit of confidence which animated French hearts in those sore days of Hie advance on Paris, of the first and second great onslaughts on Verdun. The

British armies have been "in the fell clutch of circumstances" these last few days, but neither the armies nor the nation display any wavering heart. "I have not winced nor cried aloud Under the bludgeonings of chance; My head is bloody, but unbowed." From every quarter—even the enemy press ungrudgingly admit it—comes testimony of the splendid gallantry, the deadly determination of our men. At certain owing to the imposl- - of stemming the tide of the Hun's countless battalions, we have lost ground. But the enemy ha© purchased that ground at so' heavy a cost in human life that tens of thousands of German homes must be in mourning. The tide will turn. Of that we are assured. Before the turning comes we may have to go through a period of anxiety. But let it be said of us that as a nation we "have not winced nor cried aloud." ■ ' '■ ■■■ . ■-' In 1914 the position was far worse than it is this week, and the enemy may and will, we firmly believe, rue the day he commenced his great offensive. The nation must prove that its morale is equal to that of its gallant sons now engaged in deadly cpmbat with our thrice hateful enemies l . ' Courage, friend, courage, and confidence, confidence! Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them: naught shall make us rue If England to* itself do rest but true.