WITH THE FRENCH ARMY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 105, 26 September 1914, Page 6

WITH THE FRENCH ARMY.

ON THE FRONTIER. ■MOBILISATION SCENES. (By H. Hamilton Fyfe, Special Correspondent of the Daily Mail.) Sunday, August 2.

The astonishing thing about the French frontier towns is that they are so quiet. I have been up and down the frontier for some days now. Everywhere I have seen the same aspect of the French character—its seriousness, its sense of discipline, its aptitude for solid, hard work.

There has been no fuss, no hurry over the preparation for the war which loomed threatening and black on the eastern horizon as soon as Austria's attack on Servia, encouraged by Germany, was begun. Instantly there started a steady drive of troops to the frontier from all available centres. The Government did its parr, quietly, without ostentation. The people responded by doing their's without excitement.

The only time I have seen anything like bustle even was on Friday night here. At a very late hour postmen went round delivering summonses to reservists to rejoin their regiments. Immediately the streets were filled with men making their way towards their different rendezvous. At the Post Office I saw a crowd of then) in high spirits. But there were women with them; they were not chaffing or singing; they were wiping tears from their cheeks, trying not to let big drops form in their eyes.

GRINDING A SWORD. . All night military motor cars hooted their way through the streets. In the cafes there were lights, and groups of reservists still drinking and talking. A .grey-haired man, carrying a sword wrapped up in newspaper, was cheered as ho passed by. There was much joking about a Major in the Reserve of Ollicers who made a needy knife-grinder put an edge to his old sabre in full view of an admiring crowd. There was much recollecting of old days in the regiment. Sonic hastened to put on their uniforms at onee, and were laughingly complimented on their warlike appearance. In many places yesterday and to-day I have seen men recalled to the colors', and have everywhere been struck by tiie difference between them and the men who are serving their first term in the army. The latter aro bronzed and have an air of vigorous health. Many of the former are pale through working in offices or factories; very few of them have the trim, alert bearing of the Frencli soldier of to-day. lie is exercised on an admirable plan, encouraged to shine as a gymnast; ho is vastly more sober ami more self-respecting (which always goes with athletic training) than the pioupiou of popular romance no further thaj ten years back.

"WOMEN MUST WEEP." Soon the reservists will be hardened and bronzed too. They are taking their places in the second line of frontier defence immediately. But as I .saw them arriving with their pathetic little parcels; as I saw them leaving their villages some on bicycles, some on foot, some in such farm carts as had horses left to draw them, I could not help feeling the pity of it. They went with a good heart—in high spirits even, many of them—and they went for a good purposeto defend their country against a wanton attack. But there was no blinking the fact that they were being taken from their homes and occupations to be shot at, to offer themselves as marks for the men behind terrible guns. And everywhere women with red eyes. Outside every barrack yard wives and sweethearts catching at their husbands' or their lovers' hands through the railings. It was such a fine day, too—the sky so limpid, the sun so generous. The cornfields smiled, the woods rannnured pleasant sounds. Yet, in a quarrel not of their own seeking, millions of men, it seemed, were going to do their best to kill ono another, to trample the cornfields, to leave in the woods shapeless bundles with staring sightless eyes, that once were men.

, WHAT MOBILISATION MEANS. ITere is an example of what mobilisation means. Last night the Grand Hotel here was in full activity. There were a number of guests. The dining-room was full of cheerful chatter. Came the order to mobilise, and there was no staff left — no cook, no waiters, no "boots." All the guests but myself and another man had lied. Our footsteps echo through the silent corridors. In the dark hall sit the manager and his wife gloomy and furious. It is no use being furious. Mobilisation is mobilisaton. War is war.

The manager and his wife are suffering in common with many—in common with almost all. Shops will be closed, factories must be closed down, no business can bo carried on. All the men of able body will be swept into the army. Men of forty to forty-livo and upwards will guard the lines of communication. The rest will go forward into the firing line. Scarce a family in any position but sends one to represent it. Most families send many of their members, and the women, for all their tears, in this part of the country at any rate, would not bold them back.

Here they can never foiget that their fair province of Lorraine was torn asunder by the Germans and one half kept to be Germanised. "It had to come," they say here. When the deed of general mobilisation was posted up on Saturday afternoon, following the partial mobilisation of the frontier department on Friday night, there was little excitement. They have thought of this moment so often. This has discounted the alarm, the surprise of which the rest of France feels. They are sitting in the cafes now, or standing about in the soft summer darkness near the military headquarters, talking quietly. "It had to come," and now it has coaie they are resigned- even relieved.

STRANGE QUIETNESS. The quietness is strange. They believe fighting has begun already. There is a rumour, generally accepted, that 21)00 have been killed. Headquarters know nothing of any skirmish even, but the populace is convinced. Yet the populace is more than usually calm. After Friday night's stirring hours this change of temper is astonishing. I can only explain it in 0119 way. After the tension of the days past; after the reports hourly changing; inclining now to war, now to peace; after the suspense and strain, they are relieved because they consider war certain.

ALL READY. They are satisfied too, that on this side all is ready, and I believe they arc right. The first line of defence a few miles from the frontier is in its place, strong in artillery, all soldiers in tho present arms nearly 300,000 in sum. Thesecond line some wiles further back will be completed by to-night. Tho Territorials, the older men who have passed out of the Reserves, were to march this

morning. In ilie other frontier garrisflons the orders were the same. All the hill forts in this second line are well equipped. Within three days the railways will be carrying trainloads of soldiers from every part of France. Carefully the General Staff laid its plans. So far they have been carried out with a smooth celerity. Over a million men will bo available to repulse a German attack wi tli in a week.

Already to-day, as if by magic, a large part of the population has turned out in uniform. Roads are barred, and all who wish to pass along them on foot or in conveyances, must explain who they are. I have been stopped constantly, but always politely. The roads are patrolled by middle-aged men, fathers of families, men of ''fair round bellies, .with- good capon lined," many of them bearded and bowhiskered, but active and eager enough. They have left their counter and counting-houses, their study tables or their professors' chairs, or perhaps thqy have just laid down their scythes and mattocks, to put on uniform again, submit themselves to orders, help in the country's defence.

"MOBILISED" BICYCLES, On the roads I have passed a great many waggons laden with uniforms, red trousers, and blue coats. These are always kept ready. To serve them out is a matter of a few hours only. The rosorvists arrive in all sorts of clothes. Some are smart young men of fashion; some are clerks and shopmen; some, workmen in bhie blouses. Tlicv disappear into the barracks and they come out again into the square all looking very much alike. ''The clothes make the man." They, fully justify Carlylc's philosophy of clothes.

i Driving about tlu country is fu'l of interest. There are soldiers everywhere, guarding everything that possibly can be guarded. As I said just now, it makes mo feel as if magic had been at work, if dragons' teeth 'had been sown and thqy 3iad been the resultant crop of armed men. Here is a farmhouse being rapidly turned into a hospital. Here a horso fair is being held at seven o'clock in the morning. All those who own horses have to bring them up for inspection. AH that the army can use are at once bought up. In any place of any military importance this scene will be repeated morning after morning until the country is cleared of all the animals that are wanted.

The army takes whatever it wants now. Owners have to part with their property whether they like it or not. They will be paid, of course, but the price is fixed for them. I saw a bicycle shop cleared the other night, and the proprietor rejoiced. It is the end of the season. He has got rid of his surplus stock! But owners of other kinds of property are not so easily satisfied. Mobilisation is mobilisation. War is war. Daily Mail.