WITH THE AMERICANS IN ENGLAND

Levin Daily Chronicle, 8 January 1918, Page 3

WITH THE AMERICANS IN ENGLAND

i, WHAT THEY TRHTK OF THE KING. A MODEST AND QUIET CROWD. "It isn't real!" said the captain. "It can't be real. Those dinky little houses, these precise gardens these villages, where every pebble is polished up every morning are just like a scene out of a Belasco play. And your white cheeked children before. I suppose I really am in England, but sometimes I feel inclined to pinch myself and make sure that I am not dreaming. '' We are standing on the borders of a heath outside a Surrey village. The Stars and Stripes was Hying from a new flagstaff not far off. IJundrcds of tents proclaimed the presence of soldiers. One needed only to look at the men and to mark their uniforms—the plain khaki arid the slouch hats, and the khaki distinguished letters —to tell that they were from the United States. They had landed on the previous after-noon. They had reached hero during the night. In the morning they had had a route march of 3Y 2 hours. In the afternoon they had been at drill for three hours. They marched past with tlje poise .and air of veterans. An old corporal of the Lancashires gave his verdict in a sentence: "These ain't no bloomin' rookies," said he. And he was right. For they were United States Regulars, professional soldiers. What do you think of us,? What are they here for. I discussed this with many of them. Some people told me before I arrived that the "Yanks" (incidentally very few of them are "Yanks") would spoil themselves by their "swanking" and big talk. I found them, on the contrary, a modest and quiet • crowd. Man after man took me on one side to emphasise one thing. "We have no delusion," they said "about ourselves. If you find any of our boys shouting that he has come here to finish up your job for you, knock him out. Most of us understand that we are here to help in a very big business. We realise something of what England and France have done. We know how big the task is, and how hard you have worked at it. We want to help you. We are going to learn from j

'ou because you have had experience of

this game and wo have not. We are studying what you have dong.. and what

you have discovered and we hope that you will find us good fighting stuff We

think you will, because our boy's hearts are really in this business.''

What impressed them. most. The King! The visit of the king to their camp is still talked over and discussed in all its aspects. "We thought before the King came," they told me, "that there would-be a lot of fuss. Some of our boys expected to find him strutting about with a golden crown on his head, and most of us thought that there would be a good deal of ceiemony. We expetced him to be surrounded by a big staff, and hedged in and very much on his dignity. But what happened was quite different. He came along just like you or me. There wasn't any crowd, and there wasn't any Court around him. He didn't strut, but just behaved like a straight common «scnsc kind of man. He was wearing no frills and was right down to his job. He knew all about us. He knew many of our names. He went into the Y.M.C.A. tent and stayed there a long time. He talked with the boys who were around just like anyone else might have done. He made everyone feel at home, and I can tell you he made us all feel good. He is 'some' King." "I'll go aand clean my boots, ana then I'll look a bit tidier," said the major. , "Haven't you a batman Doesn't he do things like that for you?'' I asked. 'Sure," **j»lied the officers. "I have a man all right, but I always clean my own boots. I think that it an insult to the dignity of another man to ask him to clean my boots. " When you are at the front you will come back regularly from the trenches covered with mud from head to f00t,." I persisted. "You must either devote aboht four hours to cleaning your own things, get a man to do it for you or f ditry. Now, 'do you mean to say that you arc! going to waste for hours of your time out there cleaning up every day, or twice a day?" '' Well,'' said the major, '' we will I \v;ut until the problem comes, and then wc will find a way of tackling it. Of course wc know that wc will have to revise some of our own usual customs. For instance, the American Army travels on the 'water wagon,' but when our boys find that everyone around them gets a tot of rum in winter-time and they don't —wel,l maybe wc will have to consider that matter, too." What do most of these American soldiers think of us? Their great disappointment is the absence of skyscrapers ,and their great difficulty is the British money.

"Why," said one Westerner, "even a fourth-rate Texas city has a ten-stor-ey skyscraper. Where arc yours? All the buildings in your big cities look as though they were cut clean off close to the ground. What's the matter with the sky, anyway? And your money! Well, most of us just pull out a handful and hand it over to. the girls we are bvying from and say, 'You take what is right.' We had lectures aboard ship on your money coming across, but the

florin and hal: -rown ,and then that great lob yru <?a!l a crown, arc two stiff a proj-i'.sitioi: for most of us. Our money si-fin - " stiff fur ; -u. The railroid girl ••• ■ ay down ln-re told mo ?f> cents r; *0 .■ "h 9'id. '3c•'•(; when I v->- pay 3;- for a ■i'r.rier basket. i . .. ;nc a shilling change.' > Ktiii-ii'iicy! Th; is the impression the American soldis Iwc .>n on''. T-:,, cihcit:ncy extend•• lions. ,i''o; jxample, 4 ■ t!■.::) 3 h: Vv been with ru- . •is on the sick list. It has jr-'stor*.;. problems of health. Its t sJic.v its soldiers the main cjmsi:- ' (Jim; and explain to them li>r.v d>. is - ;.:n be avoided. Every man ha? •>! impressed on him that prev.-iuibk Unci's is a military criand '■ hut IK ct-n cealment of illness wb.eu it can b>' ci «*cti is unpremiss: j'l-. Tbvy pro tri: :*.od -is men, and ;kh. ;>s i ildron, and the resuit stands revealed in tlieir hiu'h standard oi c < 'n't 7il i .vlii i. <■ it t.--■V. A. Mc-Ken:-.ii\ ii' t.uc '' Daily < lirorJcle."