A VISIT TO THE ARMY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 209, 17 May 1915, Page 7

A VISIT TO THE ARMY.

Graphic and illuminative accounts of how the business of modern war is conducted are given by some English correspondents who have been permitted to visit Sir John French's headquaters. Mr Ashford Barti'ett, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says:—

All lovers of the sensational and show in war would be pitterly disappointed if they came to headquarters. The great scenes so beloved by the painters of 100 years ago are gone for ever. There are no Napoleons riding about surrounded by immense staffs on prancing steeds, rivalling one another in the picturesqueness of their attire.

There are no aides-de-camp or order, lies dashing up every minute on- war worn steeds conveying messagjes straight from the field of battle. Neither do you hear the thunder of guns or see long processions of wounded saluting their emperors or generals as they are conveyed to the rear. All colour, all show, all the glittering ncr*-e;ssentials have disappeared from war for ever. It is just a great business proposition, which must be carried through with a maximum of efficiency and a minimlum of waste and delay. You can only get. the excitement of the war by staying in London. To I visit headquarters i s like going on a ' rest cure, so quiet and dignified is this little French town in comparison There are no special editions, no rumours, no bands, no masses of recruits marching to martial music, no darkened streets out here. Everyone ■ from the Commander-in-Chief down* wards has a definite duty to perform, and his mind has no time to waste on the thousand and one trifles and possibilities of air raids and submarine attacks, or the time limit of Italy's neutralitp, which send us into ecstacies of delight or depths of despair at home. Immediately on our arrival we were received by Sir John French. The Comma ?Hlei>-in<-Chietf of hn.e Army England has ever placed in the field, an army six times as large as •/•■as ever led to victory by Marlborough or Wellington, live?, in a very small house, which can only be distinguished from its neighbours by the two sentries at the gate. On entering you find yourself in a tiny hair filled with comforts wjhich have be'en sent out for the troops. On the right is a small dining room, and, op'ening from this, the Field Marshal's private working room, which contains a large table covered by a jhuge map, on which are marked the latest posl- i tions of all the units under his com-1 mand. I

For the immensity of the task and thje huge responsbiili,ties which Si|r John French bears on his shoulders his quarters seem ridiculously humble and small. But in this respect, as well as in so many oth,er, the Field Marshal has set the whole Army a notable example—namely, extreme simplicity in living and a determination at all costs to keep it. For instance, the rations issued to the last newly joined recruit and to the Commander-in-Chief are identical. th e soldiers are just as well fed a s the generals.