SPIRIT OF THE ALLIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16021, 13 September 1915, Page 10

SPIRIT OF THE ALLIES.

NO PESSIMISM AT FRONT.!

"BRITISH IN NO HURRY."

I have come back to British headquarters, after an absence of something over three months, during which I have been studying other aspects of this war, as it affects' soldiers and peoples along the French front, and in the French capital, and for a few days at home in London, wrote Mr. Philip Gibbs, special correspondent of the .London Daily Chronicle last month. When I -was here before. Neuve Chapelle was being fought and the casualty lists showed the price of that victory. Since then the enemy's guns have never been silent, and the strain has gone on and the drain of blood. How is it possible. I used to ask myself, that human nature should continue in this way day after day. month after month, without reaching the breaking-point? The truth is that the human nature of our soldiers shames men like myself, over-sensitive, realising the suffering too much and the strength of endurance too little. I got to the truth of that to-day as I motored about the countryside, meeting many soldiers on the way. Some of them were new men, who have come to fill up gaps in broken battalions. They knew the risks, and had come to take them. Others were veterans of this war, who have gone through its worst, knowing that more u to come. They have no illusions. They face the stark reality, and in their eyes— the eyes of those hundreds of bronzed men baked to the brownness of their khaki, who lay along the roadsides for an ** easy"—l saw how they face it— the spirit with which they stare out upon it: It is a hard, grim spirit. These boys* mouths have, taken on sterner lines since' they came laughing through the cheering crowds on the way to the boattrain. -~-■••■'

To Calais? Never! Something of their youth has gone, and k they have the gravity of a manhood -which '„, is under the burden of a heavy task. But .;. ask them how things are going, and they ; answer " All right. ' Ask them whether "••-* the .'Germans .will ever get to Calais, and they laugh with a cheery contempt for what seems to them a rather foolish joke. Ask them what will happen when the Germans make a new offensive against us. as foretold in the newspapers, and their eyes light up Tjith a queer kind of hopefulness.' " We're asking for it. and we're ready for it." said one of them and I believe that one might get the same answer a hundred thousand times, in less crude language, with more detail of argument and explanation. The officers—those that I have spoken to— the same thing, and I should be glad if their voices, so strong and clear and confident, could reach as far as cafe tables in Paris or dinner tables in London, where people who brood over reverses and movements of German troops westwards are haunted with the shadow of a great fear. The confidence of this British Army of ours, in spite of its full and absolute knowledge of the German strength, is bo strong and calm, without one tremor of secret apprehension, that one must believe in it and share its faith. They are certain beyond or argument that the enemy's army will break itself against our lines and not get through. That, after all, is as much as we may ask at present, and the further question as to when we shall smash through them is not to be answered yet by men whose optimism goes no further than the facts-

Doom on Germany's Track. On the other side, in the German trenches, what must they think, those professors and scholars, who have studied the map of the British Empire? Can all their _ valour and all their mastery cf organisation break a nation which can call for soldiers from the farthest places of the earth, and then, when those are finished, call for more and have them? The blood is draining from the German lines. How long can they 50 on before they are bled to the white? They must be very quick to win. They are in a great hurry, because doom is on their track, following up. But the British ■Army in the field is in no hurry at all. Since my arrival here I have seen that - it- is our deliberate intention to go slow. Xt is not the soldiers, but the lookers-on the waiting peoples are feverish for the. finish. To them the waiting is an intolerable agony. Here in Flanders the army is doing its daily job as the seasons change, as the fruit ripens and drops. There is something very awful and very wonderful in this settled state of war and the unhurried patience of our troops. WAITING FOE THE WOBO. SPLENDID FRENCH SOLDIERS. Among the splendid French soldiers at the front there is a sort of subdued excitement over the prospect of the supposed imminent great attack which augurs well for the enthusiasm with which they will fight, writes another correspondent." It is notable that all ranks and all classes are grimly looking forward to the second winter campaign with no sense of repining. Not long ago their thoughts were of joining their families at the end of the summer; now they speak in just the same way of plans for next spring. nT™£ fierceness of their hatred of Germany has become all the stronger. of .^e-never before seen such a spirit bw r S amon . l? t ; hem since the ™ r army TW f' d 1 7 here is °"lv one of Active, • ' Reserve 0 ' S<? -T diS -r- i ? 1 " All have indti/ f ' Territorials.' France " TV i ,nto , one-the army of In an attack to-day you 11 accomplished. tinguish the youn/ " MariJ? t " ~d ls" the 1915-16 classes from h- }' omse of torial of 40. le vete ra n terri- „ "suiter'• b^» !. h p which now 1> T , , ° fac£ of' f r^r h i e y fixld tp g ht a tLt n tcfid bl for W a n h th" a-going 10 settle -Si is is' 1 ;:; 6 " ene ral belief is that. a LT.-at effort is in course of preparation TIT rt are beinjr sent from Ka i •V^ guns to bo on the e\ e of" t ?, al v • and -e m«r fettle. But the spirit . croafc SUm " is magnificent, and even i„ " h™"" - n ° n srr.r; h »f gon^ ttwlaunted <* the &