BRITISH SOLDIER THE BEST MATERIAL IN EUROPE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 281, 1 June 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

BRITISH SOLDIER THE BEST MATERIAL IN EUROPE.

By FRANK H. SYMONDS, (Aut-hor of "The Great War," "Thou Shalt Not Pass.") Jn a very able and very interesting art> ](> in the New York " Tribune" for March lb, Mr. Symonds, who knows the war zone a* very few laymen do, deal-, wtih the "Britisn Armies somewhere in France." It will Ik? recalled that ho \ra* quite recently on the Western front, and. alter describing the details ;uid the organisation of the British Army in France, lie goes on to say:—'

Jhe new ground which the British have taken over SO ut£ 0 f the Somme i* less broken and has heen more heavily fortified by the Germans than anv portion of the Noyon salient; that *. tho IRirtion of the'r line nearest to Paris. As it stands, the British now occupv something like one hundred and twentyfive miles out of a total of four hundred and fifty miles ol the westornfront. But the portion held by the British lias been the scene of almost all of the severe fighting, aside from the attack of the Germans at Verdun and the French in Champagne, during the last two vcars ot twonch warfare. It lis, too.' tho mort difficult stretch, long sections of the French front, notably the Vusges districts, be'ng totally unstiitod for any operations. BRITISH EXTENSION TO THE ELBOW AT NOYON. The question of a further extension ot the British front remains open. My guess would be that some time this year the British may take over as far south as the Oiso. This would make a natural dividing po'nt and would greatly simplify the question of transport, tor the British would thus occupy all tho sectors between the Channel' and the great liend or elbow in the line at Noyon. This would mean but a slight increase in British linos, materially less than twenty miles. If the Germans should attack the French, as they did last year, it is probable that this extension would take place promptly. On the other hand, tho demands upon Bnt'sh numbers elsewhere are considerable: there is a strong force at Salonika, another in Egypt, and a third in Mesopotamia, while the British navy requires many hundreds of thousands of men. British man power for the front is al>o limited, lecause Britain is supplying her allies with many things from her workshops and mines. It may be doubted, therefore, if the British front will ever be extended beyond Oise, but Itotwoon Boye and Ypres on tho present British front, and fighting is likely to be more desperate and more sustained than any fighting so far in the British field of operations, and there is a calm recognition in Britain that British losses, which last year amounted to about W/0,000 at the Somme alone, will pass the million mark. It remains now to d ; >ouss the condition of the Britisn army. I think there is a general agreement that its morale and its efficiency liave reached the point where it has become one of the effective national armies. All that I saw of it reminded me of tho accounts that 1 have read and heard of Grant's army in 18(54, when he started his great campaign from toe Wilderness to Petersburg.

,'t i.s well to remember that til's British army, like Grant's, is now mainly a volunteer army. Only a tew of the recruits that were obtained by conscription have begun to arrive at the front. A very large numl>er of the officers have conio from -civil life and the men themselves represent the very best of the British population. THE BEST MATERIAL IN EUROPE. Physically, my gues6 is that the Britisn army to-day includes tdie best material in Europe. Watching the thousands and thousands of troops along the roads, in the training camps, and back of the front, the impression is unmistakable of young physically fit and welltrained soldiers. I was in France during a period of zero weather, unprecedented in recent years. Nothing was more striking than the impression of health and of vigour given by the men I saw along all the roads. They seemed well fed, well cared for, and in striking contrast to the soldiers one saw in our own camps during the Spanish War. Certainly the question of health has been settled with marvellous success by tho British. As to the spirit of the army, it is hard to exaggerate the confidence of officers and men. For two years the Brit'sh army held its ground in the face of an army superior in numbers, possessing every kind of implement of modern warfare that German prevision could supply. The British infantry was only in a ridiculously slight degree helped by its artillery, because the-e were lacking both the guns and the high explosive munitions whi>?h had become the prime essentials of modern war. They also lacked machine-guns, having only a very few. perhaps one to twenty as compared with the Germans. Through all this period, largely through the grit and determination of the private solider, who made bombs out of meat tins and who used all his ingenuity to prov-ue weapons to meet his too armed with all the Krupp resources, the British stuck to it. They opposed flesh to machinery, and either died where they stood or were sacrificed in hopeless attacks —attacks made hopeless by the absence of artillery support. To-day the British are sending four shells to the German one. British artillerv outnumbers and outroaches the German. The supply of munitions far exceeds the German! At the battle of the Somme the British aviators had control of the air. and German artillery ''shot into the blue." It was the Germans who were then handicapped by the failure of their artillery to support them.

•TOP DOG" AT LAST. To-day. from one end of the British front to the other, there is going forward an endless and ceaseless pounding, and under it the German strength is beginning t<> weaken. The British soldier >ees dav after day German deserters coining'in: he has the confidence which a Mow but sure progress forward .nve-- and be feels himself to be "top dog."' Having held his ground through all the terrible months when he was destitute alike of munitions and of implements of war. having held the German at the moment when the German or"auisalion and morale were at their highest point, the British soldier now feel-i that \\'<-> superiority must iiivo him •i vi-t«rv whore, while still inferior, lie chocked' the most powertul German thrusts. .... There is little foolish optimism in the mind of the man in the trench. He does not talk in terms of the capture ol Merlin or the eollap-e of the German •\ii,iv He docs not talk much rhout ••starving Germany out" or about internal in Germany But so f.,rn- he talks at all he talks ol specific uYlin'uo evkhmes of German wenkeni„„ Lirgelv vi.-ilile through his peris,ir>o aml disclosed to him when he goes on raids.