KIPLING ON FRANCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144826, 2 November 1915, Page 7

KIPLING ON FRANCE.

LAND THAT LIVES THE WAR. The following extracts from a private letter of Mr. Kudyard Kipling arc published in tho London Daily Telegraph of August 27: “. . . I thought I realised something of what was being done by Fraucc. I see now that I am only beginning to understand what Franco is. 1 can only plead in self-defence that 1 doubt if France herself knew twelve months ago. France is not merely fighting this war, she is living it, and living it with a gaiety and a high heart that, when you got to close quarters, doesn’t for a second hide the cold, deadly earnestness and tenacity of her purpose. “I have been in their towns, etc., and I can testify that they bear themselves, men and women, equally resolute—without parade or self-pity. Wo had tea, tho other day, in a town which tho Bosches shell daily because it is full of women and children and has a fine old church. Tho cellars of tho house were a hospital. But not ono word round that chcory tablo upstairs, wiiero not ono shade of daily etiquette was missing, suggested, or even hinted at, tho perpetual strain under which they live. They wore French; and so long as work was to bo dono they worked. And they do work! As far as I can see there is not a single action of any individual from ono end of Franco to the other which is not coloured and guided and soaked through bv their strong determination. . . Wo shall como to this ourselves in time, but at the present moment wo haven’t wholly realised the way in which tho French, as 1 have said, are living this war. Wo English must bo made to understand this for our own cakes as well as for theirs; and the example that the French are sotting ns can’t bo rubbed in too often or too hard. A MILITARY ORGANISATION. “Of course, you know tho state of affairs as well as any stranger can; but have you ever really conceived Franco as a country where thcro is not one single young or middle-aged man except at the post of duty assigned to him by the military authorities, nor a woman who is not, in her own way and walk of life, engaged in duties directly connected with the war ? There is no questioning about woman’s action in France. No woman has any doubt of what is expected of her. None of them have dime for anything except tho war, and still they lose, nothing of thoir charm and their grace. . . “If it is hard for us to understand the French, it has been harder for tho French to understand us. I don’t blamo ’ora! For example: You remember S. talking about that hellish business of ours last April? Couldn’t ho got to say anv more than that it was ‘damned unhealthy.’ And he is like all tho rdst of us. Well, what on earth are the French to make of this sort of thing, which they have known now for the past year? And ws are just ns inarticulate as we were at tho beginning. Yet there isn’t much difference really between ns. Our hostess at the tea party said, with a delightful smile, that, on tho whole, bombardment ‘docs not add zest to life.’ It might have been S.'s own sister speaking. And it’s the same with their men all along tho lino.' But behind tho laugh and tho outrageous understatement of things there is tho spirit that moves mountains. . .

LIGHT-HEARTED AND BRAVE. “The readiness and endurance, and again tho light heart, among their men, are marvellous. They don’t stop to argue about things. They are agreed that the only good Bosch is a dead Bosch, and they joyously and zealously do their best to make it so. I think their abundant health and poise (it’s a vile word, but you know what I mean) and ‘dovil’ struck mo most. Next to that was tho state of their trenches, which are built and drained and kept as though the war was going on for the next five years. The trenches are full, too, of useful little ideas and gadgets, which I mean to talk over with you when I come back. . . “I had the luck to see a very rare thing in this war—the review of an army—4o,ooo on parade. There was no ceremonial. It was simply the passing of hard-bitten men, and that made it all the more impressive. Once more, it was their radiant health and fitness that made mo so happy. Also. I have watched the 7S’s. They, too, do not deal much in ceremony, hut their work is beautiful, and the brooch mechanism is a dream of simplicity and efficiency. So, too, is the sighting. Their officers are a cheerful folk, who can work to thirty yards’ clearance over their own infantry. . . “Bat when nil is said and done it is the men and. the women who aro the wonders. I could fill a book with details of the life behind the lines and up to the lines—how would you like to graze a cow under big-shell fire?—and the patience and the fervour and terrific industry of all the land. But you must see it to believe it; and when you have soon it you must testify, as I hope to that nothing that England can do is enough to keep abreast of such an. Ally.” .