THROUGH FRENCH EYES
THE IMPERTURBABLE BRITISH. 'Lieutenant.Paul Levy, of the French I Artillery, who was wounded at the Battle of the Aisne, has sent the following appreciation of the British Army to an English friend:— "There has been great .admiration of the equipment of,the men; it is worthy of all praise. And then their martial hearing, their handsome faces, their well-built forms. . Moreover, their, phlegm, which has always been recognised as an English quality, wins them all. the bravos of the people of our country, more emotional than you, although not quite so emotional as English imagination depicts us. The British troops show an extraordinary concern for hygiene. Your men who make a profession of warfare,- find moans, in an interval between two battles, to shjive themselves and take a tub, They' outrun the imagination of our most extreme military sybarites. This, though admirable, is detail and a side matter. "The Teal cause of tho popularity of your troops' is that they are almost exclusively composed of fine . elements, that they know how to fight, and how to hold on with the utmost obstinacy, that there is 'bite' in their attack, and that they never abandon themselves to panic in the little partial checks inherent in all military action. I saw British troops in action near Senlis. They wore particularly brilliant—and extraordinary sangfroid, jokes under shell-fire, and a calm assurance that one would wish to see everywhere! Since then I have chatted with several of your officers. They have all been very agreeable and .sympathetic, • and extromely optimistic. Indeed' it would seem that optimism is always on their Order of the Day."
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Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2350, 5 January 1915, Page 6
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272THROUGH FRENCH EYES Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2350, 5 January 1915, Page 6
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