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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 166, 19 August 1914, Page 4

A delightful vagueness as to the ports of embarkation and disembarkation surrounds the transport of British troops to the Continent. In all the secrecy can be detected the hand of Lord Kitchener, who has his own way of carrying out such deliea,te operations as the landing of the Expeditionary Force. That the transportation has b»eu effected -with expediency and success is a tribute to the organisation of the )|S»n at the head of affairs. Lord Kitchener has managed this matter well. It is not improbable that the troopships left, not from the well-known ports of Southampton or Dover, as from a more obscure port on the south coast, so that the enemy might have no inkling a* to what was going, forward. However, the British "Tommies" are on the right side of the Channel, and, according to report, fraternising most heartily with the French soldiers. The landing of the Britishers must have been a memorable scene. The cable message states that there were similar scenes at other ports. This suggests that the troopships were discharging sections of the Expeditionary Force at certain of the seaport ( towns .along the Franco-Belgian coast.' The arrival of the English "Tommies" will greatly encourage the valiant forces in Belgium, Avhich have done such excellent work in the face of a numerically superior army. It is very probable, considering the comparatively short distance between Brussels and the French frontier, or the Channel coast, that the Britishers are already right up at the front. If this is so, then the long and anxiousry-awaited test of strength should not be much longer delaved.