COMRADES IN ARMS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2515, 17 July 1915, Page 6

COMRADES IN ARMS

The shores of England are very near to France in these days, and whatever goes on across the Ohanuel is of vital importance to the people over here, states a correspondent .in "The Queen." The pity of it is that tho mists which lio between the -two nations are not merely • those of. air and water; there are also tlioso of the mind,- and it is 60 difficult to see cach other fairly. Every day wo got proofs ■of misunderstanding of each other's motives,' and the .'business of casting out the . beams which lio in our own-eyes does by . .no means prevent u's from raging against the motes which aro in each .others. Incidents, grave and gay, are for ever coming across our paths to show how widely our point, of view differs' - on Email, comparatively small, matters; oa the big, broad, abstract _ lines' of thought we are more akin. . The "people" in France seem to understand Englishmen and ' women ■ much better .than .t'ho' intellectuals, perhaps because their instinct is not completely obscured by their intelligence. It is a very pleasant. thing in these hard days to talk with tho "people" of 'France if you happen to be born English, for their soldiers have fought side by side with'our soldiers, - they have realised their good'fellowship, they have seen them die, and even the Germans acknowledge that, our men know how to •die. They havo shared their Jam and biscuits, they have exchanged cigarettes, .and they have saved each others', lives, or tried to. Only last week a mild-look-ing Zouare, whose hard-working little wife is a friend of.miiie, came to say good-bye beforo leaving for the front, where lie now is, and said that he hoped to be alongside the'.English, for he had ■ a great desire to make for himself an English friend- among our soldiers, in memory of the one ho was leaving behind. He carried with him a' photograph of himself , and his wife ivith our little cocker spaniel sitting between them, He is a gentle-minded man if ever tliero is one, but lio is a good soldier for all his domestic virtues, and his kindly eyes looked stern when ho clenched his fists and vowed vcngeanco on "les bodies." ■Tliero are many such men among the soldiers of France, and when the war is over it will be the soldiers of Franco and--the soldiers of England who will speak for each others' qualities; and neither need fear the day of revelations. It will be the sailors, too, who.will tell each others 'stories; and the armchair critics will bo the ones to bid© burning cheeks. Since the war tho inner lifo in all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, has changed very much. It has been simplified without our permission. Wo aro forced _ to recognise certain truths, and artificial fetters have vanished. . .