BEN TILLETT AT THE FRONT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 245, 26 January 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

BEN TILLETT AT THE FRONT.

WORKMEN-SOLDIERS OF BRITAIN AT THEIR BEST. ROADS AND REST. (By BEN TILLETT.) One's impressions of the battle front are so vivid, so tumultuous, that the only thing approaching unity is just the sense of wonder at the courage, the patience and, abovo all, the cheerfulness of the men. Trenches are both death-traps and life protection at tne same time. Modern howitezr fire is so accurate as to take away the efficiency of the trench defence. Masses of men become the giant iu multitude, and this latest advance on the Somme has introduced a new and terrible feature into warfare. So intense, so titanic is the struggle, the armies being at death-grips, that it leaves ono appalled and confused, without power properly to define tho purposes of the new form of fighting. We have beaten-in the trenches oi tiie Germans; captured with trenchbomb, bayonet, rifle, dagger, machinegun, the supposedly impregnable trenches and dug-outs of the Germans; the immediate fighting front of th© Somme is shejl-holed and dug up. Thousands of earthmen burrow into the earth, and in spite of the discomfort of wet, slippery mud and even tho hail of shells, tiiey maintain almost a humorous indifference. The pick and shovel have taken their place among the great implements of warfare. And as of the mass of men involved 96 per cent come from tho industrial classes, it necessarily devolves upon them to make, build, and rebuild the roads and repair the trenches. This work is often done m circumstances of great difficulty, and must be done at night.

BEHIND THE FRONT. Tho ridiculous assumption that the work of tho soldier is mere fighting, with combatants more or less in proximity. is an illusion and a mistake. Very seldom is it possible to have 2o per cent of the effectives at the actual front—the other 75 per cent are occupied in resting; and resting at the front is a mere farce. " Rest" means repairing trenches, often under shell-fire; making new roads, and repairing old ones, frequently under fire. The roads present an interesting feature; on one side transports, horse and mule-drawn, motor and heavy traction, are everlastingly dragging ammunition, food, fodder, guns and men to feed the lines of battle front. On the other side is the return traffic— soldiers going to rest with depleted companies, their attenuation giving one pause. With all this traffic tho roads constantly need repair.

One of the surprising features of the front is the initiative left to the men. Tho mutual sympathy and co-operation of officers with tho men is also a marked feature, as also is tho indifference to fatigue and danger. Labour is so intensive and concentrated that it often pays a platoon or a company to fight the enemy for tho possession of a shell-hole or crater. On the Somme front shellholes are so universal that whole townships and villages have been wiped out, leaving no trace of building or street or path. The very stones and bricks which are buried are recovered only to make roads. If one could imagine a town like Manchester or Leeds or London churned back into mere earth, without a blade of grass showing, paralysed by high explosives, everything uprooted and destroyed with fearfulness — that would be a good simile of the Somme battle front. Structures are rent and torn to atoms, trees —whole woods—are eliminated. There is even no repose or sanctity for death in cemetery or churchyard. THOSE AT HOME, Through all this, our Tommies are being buoyed up by the belief that their pastors and masters at home are doing their best, that their comrades in workshop, and factory and field, are doing their utmost. They are fighting to beat an enemy to civilisation and humanity as well as a would-be oppressor of their country.

There can be no regularity in going into or coming back Irom action. Men may be sent back for three, four, five, or ten days' rest. But as I have said, tiiere is very little reai rest. Sometimes rest means waiting for ammunition. Time and opportunity and vantage ground are often lost, not so much through the fatigue of the men as through thu interniittency of tho supplies. This is the one great and determining factor in war (although it may sound paradoxical to say so) —that not only would actions be won, but lives would be saved were it possible to maintain an intense barrage. Even the hustle and the bustle or moving masses of men, with the attendant frictions, are undertaken with more or less good humour, and although the rough edges jar, the resultant anger is easily forgotten. Even in the event of tho overturning of a lorry of food, after the first break of bad language and temper are over, the men are tackling the job of restoration with energy and co-operation. SOME CHANGES. Controversy, politics, racial animosities, class distinctions and differentiations— if they are not obliterated, at least they have been smothered to allow of the growth of truer, higher natures. The blackguard has become a saint, tlie selfish man has lost his sense of sordidness; there is an altruism, a sacrifice, more eloquent than orator ever conceived. A new sense of the leligion of life has awakened; its value ii understood even at a period when its waste is most prodigal. The extremes and contradictions are merged into something that approaches human oneness. J.iking the place of tho iron discipline of the German system, there is a resourcefulness, an energy which, ii generously recognised and directed, iiiu-t win this war.

''One touch of nature makes tlio wlfoTe world kin.'' There is in our men a Ijclief which I hope will lie honoured—that the dependants of those who have died and that the disabled and their dependants, will h ( > cared for. They roalisQ their bodies are the ramparts defending our physical and spiritual -a.ely ns well u$ our eeonomie wellheing.