BRITAIN'S FIRST FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 122, 16 October 1914, Page 6

BRITAIN'S FIRST FIGHT.

A jAiiN'ST 'EXomiOUB ODDb.

CUULNESS UXDEK IIRE. LONDON, 'August iliouga tin-, mm* from the wen tern theatre of war reecivßd dining tiio piut few u.tja 'ha,; not. been of a nature to tjicouiayc us in the belief that" we aje g'o-i.g lo make li:;y" of the Kxiser's on the Freiieii frontier, ihe news received concerning the Britiwh .Expeditionary iorce on tho north-west irontier has ceruiiniy lifted tho hea.ru 01 people here. At or about Alons, in Belgium, we axe told ithat tihey were in contact for tlurty-six Jiours with a superior force of Germans, held their own and all the while "maintained Ui 6 ura-' ditionß of British soldier's and behaved with vho utmost gallantry." So 1,0.rd Kitchener told the House of Conjauoaiß Membeiß' oheerod, for they knew that the War Secretary is a man i iU( p on they can rely not to paint the liiy or gild gold. Atam'bcrs cheered again when the Secretary read ouit. his message to Sir John French; "Congratulate troops on their splendid work. /We ar e all proud! of them," for Lord Kitchener had | already mformod the House tilimt the movements the troops had been called . upon to exoßutc had been those duniiand- ' ing ;ilhe gireatast steadiness in the soldiors' as wcJl as skill in the eoni/ni" mlI era. _ 'From independent sources we axe hearing much praise of "Tommy Atkins." What numbers of British troops .. were engaged it is impossible to say at present, and one can place no reliance on the fanciful reports in which some of the newspaper correspondents, now apparently "interned?* in Paris or Antwerp, conjuro up visions of their Mafci 111104 of heroes repelling .horde after horde of the flower of th e German Arrow with leaden hail or irrieistible bavonet .charge, until the field of Charleroi was piled th.dk with ihe invader's corpses. Of the disposition of our troops, those correspondents can know n more than we mXqaidon do, and as regards the details of, the lighting lsoni e of them supply it te very obvious that they are drawing upon tho well of imagination and using the rusullts of observation.-* jiuul'e in campaigns which were carried out under vastly different conditions, both as to the countn\] and to 'the forces engaged. ,SLi]l it svms beyond doubt, that the conduct e British soldiers engaged in the ncrhlmg in the area round about Mons oa Sunday and Monday was splendid, -that they (held their own mnnst a numerically much superior force, and inllicted severe losses upon the Ceairjans It also seems clear that whether they were fighting ai long or close ranee e infantry exhibited the greatest coolness, and Wiat their rifle fire was much more effective tlhan the Germans who apparently wore either had marksmen or fired indiscriminately in .the direction of the British linos. There aewns no good roason U douht the statements concerning tihe Superiority of the Brith ish artillery im action, or that when opportunity offered it inflicted severe losses on t'he enemv.

, It was stated that the British force was faced by 150,000 of t'he best Ger man troops, and that the foumht with a bravery and a complete di&regard for life that was magnificent, hurlin~ compact, mawes of men .upon the British linos time after time in a vain endeavour to break through. If these tilings are true, the estimate of 2000 British casualties would appear small lor t'heire mwtf lave been niaieh m oro desperate liand to hand fightins and | short range rifle work. But the great ' thing it that the Gorman* won not an ! mc 1 of B>™nd by fighting at tho expertse of the British force, aiul tfiat when our men sullenly retired from the position they held so gallantly held, it was because tlie French right could not hold back the Germain miasms thrown upon it, and their inability to do so Jiecensitatcd a Irearrangemenb of the whole position of the Allies. With the l'rench right holding its own, the British force might ihave pushed back the opposing forces and secured some real advantage, but in view of the condition of affairs on the Frendh right 'General French bad; no alternative but to withdraw. And we have no reason whatever to believe tlhat this withdrawn! was mot Mcamplishml in a imastwlv fashion and With n cool Utoad : ncs s that," consider-' ing the gal!r.n<; circumstances was oven more to be admired than our soldW rosiKianefl to the fierce shucks of the German attack.