A VISIT TO THE ARMY.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4627, 7 May 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

A VISIT TO THE ARMY.

NQ_ PANOPLY OF WAR. Graphic and illuminative accounts of how the business of modern war is conducted are given by some English correspondents who have been permitted to visit Sir John French’s headquarters. Mr. Ashmead Bartlett, writing in the “ Daily Telegraph,” says : All . lovers of the sensational and showy in war would be bitterly disappointed if they came to headquarters. The great scenes so beloved by the painters of 100 years ago are gone forever. There are no Napoleons riding about surrounded by immense staffs on prancing steeds, rivalling one another in the picturesqueness of their attire. There are no aides-de-camp or orderlies dashing up every minute on warworn steeds-conveying messages straight from the field of battle. Neither do you hear the thunder of guns or see long processions of wounded saluting their emperors or generals as they are conveyed to the rear.

ALL COLOUR GONE. All colour, all show, all the glittering noiVessentials have disappeared from war for ever. It is, just a great business proposition, which must he carried through with a maximum of efficiency and a minimum of waste and delay. You can only get the excitement of tho war by staying in London. To visit headquarters is like going on a rest cure, so quiet and dignified is this little French town in comparison. There are n.o special editions, no rumours, no bands, no masses of recruits marching to martial music, no darkened streets out here. Everyone, from tho Com-mander-in-Chief downwards, has a definite duty to perform, and his mind has no time to waste on the thousand and one trifles and possibilities of air raids and submarine attacks, or the timelimit of Italy’s neutrality, which send us into ecstaeios of delight or depths of despair at home.

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. Immediately on our arrival wo were received by Sir John French. The Commander-in-Chief of the greatest Army England has ever placed in the hold, an army six times as large as was over led to victory by Marlborough or Wellington, lives in a very small house, which can only be distinguished from its neighbours by the two sentries at the gate. On entering you find yourself in a tiny hall filled with comforts which have been sent out for the troops. On the right is a small dining room, and, opening from this, the Field-Marshal’s private working room, which contains a large table covered by a huge map, on which are marked the latest positions of all the units under his command.

SIMPLICITY OF LIVING. For the immensity of the task and the huge responsibilities which Sir .John French hears on his shoulders, his quarters seem ridiculously humble and small. But in this respect, as well as in so many others, the Field-Marshal has set the 'whole Army a notable example—namely, extreme simplicity in living and a determination at all costs to keep fit.

For instance, the rations issued to the last newly joined recruit and to the Commander-in-Chief are identical. The soldiers are just as well fed as the generals.