BRITISH ARMY.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17105, 29 March 1921, Page 10

BRITISH ARMY.

FORTITUDE AND PATIENCE OF THE SOLDIER. (FROM Orß OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, February 10. In the- second lecture of his series before the Royal Institution on "The British Soldier Since the Restoration," tho Hon. J. W. Fortcscuc, King's Librarian! at Windsor, and Historian of the British Army (at one time in New Zealand on tho staff of Sir "William Jervois) made references to Moiis and Gallipoli that evoked expressions of much approval from his audience. Mr Fortescue' said that tho British soldier had faced great disasters .as well as won great victories, and better lessons might be won from our retreats than from our victories. The retreat from Holland to Ems under the Duke of York was a terrible rabble —it was difficult U> learn how bad it was. "Wellington was in it—a young colonel commanding the 33rd—but he never said a word about it. The officering was a scandal. Boys at school were given the rank of lieutenant-colonel on their parents paying for the crimping of a certain number of men.' Mr Fortescue touched on Moore's retreat, where officers and men. as was usually the case with the British, strongly objected, to retire, and got out of hand. He had to pass through what was the largest depot of wine in Spain, and the whole army got "blind," while the French cavalry cut them down at their leisure. In AVellington's retreat from Burgos again they did not behave well, yet that was regarded by foreign critics as one of the biggest things we did in the Penin■sula. The. retreat from Kabul was the most dismal.story in the history of the army. On the other hand, the retreat from Mons was a feat of arms of which any army in the world might be proud. (Applause.) He especially praised the work of the 2nd Corps, which, after fighting the battle of Le Cateau under Smith-Dorrien, were able to break it off at three o'clock in the afternoon, and, in 48 hours, were 60 miles away behind the Oise. The North Lancashires, after a march of 30 or 40 miles, were halted and told they would march back five miles to take the outpost lines, and they went off cheerily whistling. (Applause.) Beyond all question the retreat from Mons was the greatest of our retreats. The greatest, disembarkation was. that' in the Dardanelles in 1915. Sir lan Hamilton profited by Abercrombie's system of disembarking by companies and battalion's, but Hamilton's ships were loaded as they were in the 18th century—horses in one, their harness in another, guns in this ship, ammunition in that —all was mixed up. That was the fault. of tho General Statf -at home. Hamilton had to repack his ships at Alexandria. "Yet the disembarkation of the Australians' in the north, and of the 29th Division in the so,uth of the Peninsula, is one of the finest feats that any army has ever performed,'.' said the lecturer. ''l doubt if any .troops other than British troojj'S could have accomplished it.; The thing, however, was mismanaged at home. It was entirely the fault of the people at home. Had the General had then the troops he was given later we-would- have been • masters of Constantinople in July, 1915; (Applause) It was a failure, but one that must always stand high in the history of the Army." (Applause 1 ,) - It was significant'that the. Germans had never said a word about the terrible effect of our musketry in the eariy days of the. war. They could not .believe that we had not got endless numbers of machine-gun's, whereas we had only rifles, which they found much more difficult to face. "Yet had we had machine-guns,". Mr Fortescue remarked, "tho Mons retreat need not have happened. (Hear, hear.) The British soldier is learning his trade again with those weapons; that is, indeed, if he does not ceaso to exist," He had been expected to do strange things. There were often wild civilians at the "War Office—(laughter and ap-1 plause)—and one of them ordered a force of British infantry to land 3000 men on the east, and 3000 men on the west coasts of South America, and march some 3000 miles to join each other. Fortunately, we were defeated at Buenos Aires, and that mad scheme was not carried out. In the recent war the British soldier had been sent as far a's the Arctic Circle, and into the Dardanelles, Asia, and East Africa. "We had .known better than before how to clothe our men for different climates'. "When Quebec was captured the Highland soldiers were wearing kilts, and had it not been that the modesty of the nuns was,offended by the dress, and that the nuns knitted stockings for the men, most of them would have been frozen to death. (Laughter.) All our experiences of clothing for climates other than our own had been gained by the deaths of soldiers. \ Mr Fortescue spoke of the discipline the British soldier had shown in wrecked transports, such as the Birkenhead, and said that that tradition had spread from the Army to all of us, as was shown in the wreck of the Stella. He told liow, in the AVarren Hastings wreck, when the sentries below were called, up on deck, one of them, a GOU, Royal Rifles, was overlooked. The officer was returning to the deck when the sentry said, ''Beg pardon. Sir, may I come up, too? ' Ho would not move without permission. (Applause.) ''These," Mr Fortescue concluded, "are the examples which we have, as a race, taken consciously or unconsciously to heart. Patience and fortitude are' tho characteristics of the- Army, and I have never been prouder of my countrymen than during the worst years of the war. when they also showed these virtues. (Loud applause)