The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1915. GERMAN TRIBUTE TO TOMMY ATKINS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2360, 16 January 1915, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1915. GERMAN TRIBUTE TO TOMMY ATKINS

Tommy Atkins has achieved marvels since the commencement of the war, and now his victories on the field have _ been crowned by , the enemy's tribute to his fighting qualities. When tho British soldier made his first appearance at the front tho Germans declined to take him seriously. Their intellectual leaders had fostered the belief that Britain was a decadent race and that her soldiers had not the necessary courage and endurance to mako them foemen worthy of a German's steel. The Kaiser is reported to have referred to our troops as Sir.John French's "contemptible little army," and to have ordered his men to walk over them. In their- endeavours to obey that order the Germans have learned by "bitter experience that Tommy Atkins knows how to fight. They have been very slow to admit their mistake, but at last the error has been frankly confessed, and tho confession has been made by no less a personage than Herr Maximilian Harden, a most whole-heatred and enthusiastic hater of Britain and all things British. A cablegram which appeared in yesterday's issue of the Dominion announced that Herr Harden has declared that "the British Tommy has amazed us all. We thought his first lines were something funny from England, but now we all take him seriously," Such an admission

from such a quarter is a real moral victory for Tommy Atkins. He did not loso his temper, when the Kaiser said he was contemptible." He took it as a joke, and had the grim satisfaction of knowing that an unpleasant surprise was in store, for' the picked regiments of the German Army. His adversaries were soou compelled, however unwillingly, to revise their original estimate of the British soldier. His pluck, endurance, and determination, combined with unfailing cheerfulness, have amazed and confounded the Kaiser's men, and won the enthusiastic admiration of his French and Belgian comrades.

The manner in which the British troops have hurled back the German march to Calais forms one of the most inspiring chapters in tho history of the British Army. "Always outnumbered, but never outfought," says the Pall Mall Gazette, "they have seen fresh masses of the enemy piled against them, and nerved themselves to resist anew while their most trusted leaders and their bravcst comrades dropped beside them." Calais at all costs," was thfe Kaiser's order. The costs have been tremendous, but the road to Calais is still 'blocked to the Gorman hosts. No more arduous taek has ever been assigned lo British soldiers (writes Sir John French in his memorable dispatch), and n\ all their splendid history there is no instance ol' their having answered so magnificently to tho desperate calls which of necessity were made upon them. Words fail me to oxpress the admiration T feel for their conduct, or my sense of tiio incalculable services thev rendered I ?enturo to predict that their deeds during these days of stress, and trial will furnish some of the most brilliant chapters which will lib .found in tho military history of onr tinie. J ft is no wonder that the Germans have been amazed, for they have found that the real Tommy Atkins bears not the remotest resemblance to the caricature of him which their professors and journalists had drawn for the edification of those who knew no better.

,The British soldier has always been,a riddle to foreigners. To those who do not understand his temperament and his way. of looking at things ho appears' to he a mass of contradictious. Even in the most serious situations his levity is quite iriepressihle, and yet lie has a, very human heart, though he absolutely refuses to wear it on his sleevo. Ho is quite able to be sorious in his own way, and the stories from the ticliches show that he is not unmoved by the scenes of suffering and death with which he has become so familiar. The chaplains tolls us that their work at the front is wonderfully interesting as well as cnwuMgittg. rh«y mo buintnu' In gleutyj, out, as pub of tlisai te

stated, the realities of war arc not cqnducive to sham and pretence—quite the contrary. "All is too terrible; death is too near and too vivid for that." Tho letters from the trenches give an illuminating insight into the mind of Tojimy Atkins. They are a delightful mixture of humour and pathos, and some of the writers have a marvellous gift of lucid narration which makes the incidents described live again in a most impressive manner. Without any striving after effect, the men in the trcnches have given some striking illustrations ot tho possibilities of simple English when combined with a touch of humour, and a lively imagination. They have certainly proved that letterwriting is not yet a lost art—far from it. Living dangerously seems to develop faculties and qualities that lie dormant in more placid and humdrum times. A French officer in a letter to a friend describes how war changes a man's outlook on lif«.. When shells and bullets make a void around him he feels how frail and powerless a,rc the strongest human wills and what a fugitive possession life is; and the soldier "whoso life almost escapes him clings to it with all his might." It becomes better and richer, and he learns to sec things in their true proportions. He realises that "life formerly so much criticised, is well worth living " The average British soldier would probably express his thoughts very differently from this, but that battlefield experiences stimulate the imagination, and often give a man unexpected glimpses into the depths of his own personality is beyond doubt. A man who has gone through such experiences can never be quite the same as he was before.