New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-17

10 the Editor OF Inc lrlDune
Sir: The great majority of Englishmen
admire Mr. Roosevelt, and when few years
ago he severely criticised our rule in
Egypt very few in this country showed any
annoyance, for We all knew that If he had
not had a strong affection for the British
people he would not have troubled himself
oil Anglo Egyptian affairs.
Last week he criticised adversely the
manner in which we had conducted the great
war preparations, and thinks We have man
aged very badly.
He gives great credit to the work of the
British navy, but believes that neither the
government nor the army have shown to ad-
vantage and declares that the English people
do not realize the terrible nature Of this
titanic struggle which the Allies are now
making on behalf of liberty and humanity.
It would be wrong for any native of these
islands to say that the government had not
made blunders, for they have made some
serious ones, but We have to remember that
all the members of the Cabinet lived for
peace and had not been schooled to even
think Of war; indeed, am fairly correct in
|
has declared that he thought war was not
possible, at least in form that would have
entangled the British Empire.
The army also has made plumbers, but Mr..
Roosevelt should come over to England for a
month and then visit the battlehelds on which
we are engaged, and he would see every
town and village in Great Britain occupied
by soldiers getting ready to fight or by
wounded returned from the war. He would
see at our chief ports and also those of
France, and at the Dardanelles, huge piles of
food, war material, equipment, horses, motors,
men and ships, that would stagger him, and
probably II America attempted such q gigan-
tic task she would make far more serious
blunders than have been made In this
country We have trained and partially
trained considerably over three millions of
men, and the task of equippng such num-
Der for foreign service is so huge that prob
ably no country in the world which was not
a military one could accomplish it. am sure
that no other nation could attract such vast
voluntary force to the colors. Besides this
large army, We have some hundreds Of thou
sands of men from forty to seventy for home
defence. being drilled constantly; these in
clude men who are the sole support of their
families and others beyond military age.
We have more than doubled the normal
numbers Of the navy, and some thousands en-
gagged In trawling, mine laying, coast guard
ing and large numbers are voluntarily assist
ing the fighting units in various ways. We
have cleared tho seas Of the world Of enemy
ships and so allowed all neutral countries to
carry on trade as in times Of peace, and at
the same time protecting the food supplies
so that all friendly nations may have enough
and to spare.
Then our third arm" is engaging the atten-
ton Of some thousands Of Great Brtain's
best and brainiest young men, the results Of
which are most credtable, for our air men
have at all times shown their ascendency
over the enemy air forces.
As regards our army Mr.. Roosevelt and
the American people have to remember that
while we had no treaty with France it was
understood between the two nations that If
the independence Of France were threatened
the very outside number that she could ex-
pect from US was 900 men. while our
feet was to protect the coasts Of both
countries.
Now, sir. that 100000 has been swelled into
800 000. just ten times the number that we
had allowed her to expect. besides another
100000. which is almost ready to supple
ment the former million and half. Surely
this is q herculean accomplishment, especially
az these forces have all 20 he equipped in
every way necessary for fighting away from
their own country.
Then to . certain extent our strength had