BRITISH IN FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1917, Page 2

BRITISH IN FRANCE.

HOW THE INHABITANTS APPRECIATE TlDillt ALLIES. The special correspondent of the Paris •J-emps," M. Jean Lefranc. .ends an interesting study to his paper of the relations between the English soldiers and the I'iviicii population who have now spent nearly three years in such close proximity to one another in (,',« villages and the countryside jist behind the firm" line. What do they think of each other and how do they get on together? An exhaustive answer to this question, asys \,. Lefraiic, can hardly he given until the soldiers are back again in their own homes and have taken up their old wava and can compare the custom,, of the two countries. But at least the conclusion may be drawn from a study of the French and English, when seen side by side with one another, that the phrase ''ontont; cordialc" has, since the beginning of the war, taken on a meaning which is no longer purely diplomatic. "Our Allies," M. Lefranc states, "may he lieved when they say that before they came to France they, for the most part, regarded the French as a frivolous nation, and (lie evidences of hard and laborious work shown in the condition of the country came to which they share for Ihe land was what first showed the French and English that they had something in common, he continues. The cultivators of tireat Britain enjoyed helping the farmer's wife in her work round about the outskirts of the camps. The English soldier respects his hosts and their home. He brings with him indeed a care for cleanliness"which pleases the French housewife, and sometimes astonishes her; he is careful of the furniture, and the destructive soldier is not his prototype. It is true, he is subjected to a severe discipline, and it is impressed on him by his superiors that lie must remember he is not at homo. The French are struck by the comfortable appearance of the English army, it can be seen that there is no Jack of anything there, neither of food, clothes, nor armaments. The Englishman is not mean, and is much sought after as a customer by all the little 'businesses behind the front.;' The English bases are formidable machines, of.which the working is astonishingly regular. The Englishman, who seems to be slow, knows quite well howto get his job through in a given, time. What he lacks in spontaneity he makes up by application and persistence. He is methodical, even in battle, the discipline with which he endures shrapnel cannot be surpassed. He faces the supreme dangers with a calmness which is '•English." The French "poilu" at once admitted, this quality in ''Tommy," which pleased him, for although he had himself perhaps attributed, more faults to the Frenchman than he possessed, he had never doubted his courage. The English officers cxfo.l the military genius of the French, they generously declare that the study of the military reports of the French High Command have been. of. gre.at service to them. One thing separates the two nationalities, and that is discipline. Apparently relaxed aumng the French, it is rigorous among the English. When, the English soldier, who had previously been rather surprised at "him, saw the French soldier, under fire, lie changed his opinion. Probably he finds it hard to understand how anyone can at the same time combine the mis;dd qualities which he sees in the French'.'soldier, but as the art of war consists'in ''beating the enemy" at whatever risk to oneself, he approves of the "poiln" who knows, passing well, how to do tin;;. The Englishman has the religion of Hi., fact; he is practical and judges by results. M. Lefranc ends his article with the reflection, on the invitation lately given to him by an English officer to come to England after the war and get to know them, that he regretted that that which could and should have been done yesterday must now, perforce, be put 'oil till to-morrow.