THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1915. BRITAIN AND HER ALLIES.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13730, 19 March 1915, Page 4

THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1915. BRITAIN AND HER ALLIES.

If the recent visits to England of M. Millerand, and M, Augagneur, French Ministers of War and Marine respectively, were, undertaken for the purpose of viewing the stupendous war operations in progress in Great Britain and reassuring the doubting ones among their compatriots, their object must have been achieved. The two Ministers returned to France with a very deep impression of the spirit in which Britain is attacking her task, and the magnitude of her operations, which even they had imperfectly appreciated. M. Millerand, in his statement to the Army Committee of the Senate, said he was "simply astounded at the results achieved in England. "It was not only the military efforts of our Allies which he had admired; it was also the methods with which that effort had been organised. That which he had seen had surpassed his hopes and justified the confidence which France had always felt in the courage of the British Army, as well as the irresistible power of the British Fleet." M. Augagneur , whose visit followed that of his colleague, was equally enthusiastic in his admiration of the zeal and devotion with which Great Britain has devoted herself to the preparations for the great effort that is to come, and the subordination of all interests to the prosecution of the war to a successful* conclusion. These visits were timely, jfor it seems that the absence of clamj our in connection with the British pre- j parations had given rise to the impression among the uninformed, not only in France, but ia Russia, that Britain's preparations were too deliberate, and that she was taking matters too easily. These impressions were not j shared by the French and Russian Governments nor by the army headquarters of our Allies. Mr Lovat Fraser, writing on the subject in the "Daily Mail," blames the cry of "Business as Usual" as the cause of an infinity of mischief and misunderstanding. Business can never be "as usual" when the nation is waging the greatest struggle has ever known, but France and Russia resent the cry because in their countries nearly all business has stopped save that, of work I for the war. Such impressions, however, if they had gained considerable acceptance in. France and Russia, must have been completely dispelled by the evidence to the contrary adduced by MM. Millerand and Augagneur, and by the frank and generous admiration expressed by the Press of both countries for the way in which Britain is setting about the accomplishment of her stupendous task, and at the same time supplying to a large extent the necessities of her Allies in war material. Britain's undertaking is indeed one to marvel at. All her military preparations had to be made after the war had commenced, an army of a couple- of millions recruited, trained, and equipped, and to a large extent the machinery for the manufacture of their weapons and equipment had to be laid down. We had not the necessary artillery, and we had not got the ammunition for the immense new armaments which were required. Britain is working night and day to supply these wants and to ensure her new armies when they are put in tile field having sufficient ammunition to keep on fighting all tihe way to the Rhine and beyond, and sufficient artillery for their task. Such an undertaking has never before been attempted in the midst of war by any country.