WORLD'S DEBT TO THE 'BRITISH ARMY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 81, 31 December 1918, Page 6

WORLD'S DEBT TO THE 'BRITISH ARMY

THE BATTLES THAT FINISHED THE GERMANS

"AT THE TOP OF OUR FORM"

While the air is thick with armistice talk, and negotiation talk, and abdication talk, the British Army is getting on with the war, in common with the rest of the Allied troops in the field (wrote Mr. Loval Fraser in the "Daily Mail" a fortnight before the signing of the armistice). No longer little, the British Army lias gone ;v very long way in tho last few weeks. The farther it goes the better it becomes. In spito of all its desperate work last year, in spite of the strain and the losses of the retreat in March, it is now at the very top cf its form. The battles of the last few weeks are the high-water mark of British military endeavour (and staff work) in tho war. It is clear now that the general conception of the events of March and April will have to bo revised. Those of us who were in England could not'quite understand the serenity and evi'n cheerfulness of officers in high plaees who came over in that black time. , We raw the mapspectacle, we were painfully conscious or the dangers which threatened the Allied armies in France. We did not rightly know, we could not tell, how cheerfully, confidently, and indomitably our men faced the menace which confronted them. We wore unable fully to appraise (he resolute determination with which the French came promptly to 'iir aid and the burning ardour of the young, untried American reinforcements.

Let it not bo' thought that the dangers of March were exaggerated. The enemy very nearly did the trick, and few know'oven now what hasty tentative de cisions had to be reached in those anxious days. When Sir Douglas Haig issued his historic order, "Our backs are to the wall," he summed up the situation in six words. Nothing said or written in England exceeded the terse and justifiable gravity of that warning.^ But we must revise our views, for it is now plain that the downfall of Genual! military power dates from the March retreat of the Allies They yip'ded, but, only, to conquer in the end. The enemy was fought to a standstill by the end of April. They had spent the immense strength they had accumlated, and could thrust no farther. Thereafter the Germans had no solid success. Their breakthrough on the. Chemin-des-Dames . is now known to have been a fiu.ke.

It was not the retreat which brought us victory. A desperate situation was retrieved by the loyal co-operation of all the Allies, 'but,- above all, by the imperturbable valour and steadfastness of the British soldier. Our men had the heaviest losses, they bore the brunt of the lighting, and their unconquerable confidence carried \ the Allied . cause through a time of the severest trial. Tha teft wing of the Third Army, hardly budged, and wrought prodigies.

Ever since the turn oiirue the British Army has been doggedly fighting on in the only way which will finish the war. This war is not going to be, stopped by Notes, though tho Notes serve a highlj valuable subsidiary purpose, for they show the German peoples where thej stand and tell them with cold sternness the choice which lies bcfr.re them. The end will only come when the German armies are so hammered and pursued and harried that, they can fight no longer and lay down their arms.- Judging by tho stubborn resistance of their centre and left, that day is not jet in sight; but it is coming, and the irresistible pressure of the British Army is constantly bringing it nearer. In the last few weeks the British Army 'has done the lion's share of the fighting. Our Allies say it, tho whole world seta it. It has liberated a spacioiw domain in France and had a great share in the task of releasing Western Belgium. City after city, rescued from brutal Hun oppression, ■ has acclaimed its .conquering banners and cheered the weary veterans who have brought back freedom to its. gates. It has fought battle after battle.

If the public at home have not yet fully realised the actual significance oi these recent glorious weeks, they are not really to blame A war of movement so extensive aud so complex can only be rightly seen by those at a distance as it recedes' into perspective. They will understand it better when the battles pass onwards and the result.'; become visible. Meanwhile it is enough for them to know that our troops are doing well, that each dawn brings us nearer that ultimate and decisive victory for which the whole nation, resolutely and unfalteringly craves. Our people may overlook some of the recovered villages, but their hearts aTe with our men, not forgetting the victors of Aleppo and the Piave. If I have written here of the great and wondrous deeds of the British Army, it is because these men aro our own flesh and blood. We cannot say and think too much about them. Perhaps wc have said too little in the past: Wo are fully consciou'i of the glories won by our undaunted Allies. We have been thrilled by the stories nf the struggles of the French on the Oise, beyond Eeims, and around the S':. Gobain heights. We know full well the stiff and deadly conflict in which the Americans arc locked in the Argonne and on the Meuse. We have heard with joy of the blithe courage of the Belgians, who have iistonished all by the eagerness with which they press onward and will not be denied.

But if for once, after four i.cary years, our tongues are loosened, end we give our proudest and most grateful salute to our own gallant men, who shall blame us? Not our generous Allies, who of late have almost shamed us into speech by their glowing praise of the valorous British Army. '