Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-20
ONCE PROSPEROUS,
! NOW ABASE CAMP
Havre, France, Now Given
Over Entirely to Business
of Making War.
Three NATIONS CONDUCT
PORT CITY SUCCESSFULLY
No Bustle, Gun-Firing or Confusion
Marks Manufacture of
Raw Material.
BY HERBERT COREY.
Copyright, 1850


as large Syracuse or New Haven or
Birmingham-much larger than Day
ton, Ohio, or Richmond, Va, or Omaha
utterly given over to the business OF
making war. If you can put that pic
ture before the eyes of your mind you
can see Havre as it is today. No flags
or hurrahs, understand No hustle,
Fun firing, dust, confusion. general
officers, epaulets or music. Merely a
factory town which takes in raw ma
terial over the pier and sends it out
in finished form over the railroad.
AS commonplace as one of our Ameri-
can steel mills. which are not COM
monplace at all, but miracles
Fifty thousand English soldiers
reached here one week and were sent
on to the 'front.' said a resident who
has had unusual opportunities for OBJ
servation.
The town must have been hysteri-
CAL"
Not at ALL You would hardly know
that anything was happening. War
has become a business"
Havre is the fourth of the great
channel cities the English have taken
over to facilitate the work of fight
ing the German. Boulogne and Calais
and Dieppe are the principal gateways
for troops and supplies. Havre Is at
a greater distance from the fighting
lines, and therefore is used as a base.
Tenderfoot troops come here to be
hardened for little time before they
are sent forward to the TRENCHES. y
circle of convalescent camps surround
the city. Millions of pounds worth of
supplies are received here and held
against orders. The city has become
a storage place, in which is warehoused
men and motors, and food and cannon.
1t has no business except war.
Visitors Held Up by Detectives.
The visitor makes this discovery be
fore he is fairly in the town. When
he attempts to leave the railroad sta
tion his laisser-passers and his pass
port and his tickets are examined by
officials If he is native born French
official attends to them. If he speaks
English he is turned over to a Scot
land Yard man. The yardsman wears
a British uniform, but he is London
detective to his last inch. He is in
Quisitive, courteous and efficient.
Sometimes the visitor stays right there
in the station, waiting for the next
train out. Sometimes he gets his Or
ders:
Go to the Hotel Moderne."
1t may be the visitor had formed
other plans. Possibly he doesn't like
the Hotel Moderne No matter. He
goes to the Hotel Moderne. There he
discovers that all the hotels in town
have been taken over by the military.
Some are in use as hospitals. The
guests at the other for the most part
wear officers khaki. They are fresh
faced English boys. a rule, not yet
scared and hardened by the ordeal of
the trench. With them are many Bel
gisns, indistinguishable as to the uni
form nowadays from the British, but
quite different in appearance. There
are occasional Scotchmen. The en-
thusiasm the Scotch knee arouses in
the native breast is very remarkable
A Scotch knee is rather a disagreeable
object to me, personally. But the
Havrais look at them fondly. When
the Scotch knee fexes and refiexes
across the screen at the nightly movies
the Havrais always cheer. 1t is very
odd.
Havre is under dual control that
on occasions becomes tripled. The Eng
lish are in complete charge as to GER
tain phases of the local government.
The French are in equally complete
control of other phases The Belgian
capital is now located here. SO far as
Belgium has a capital The various
Belgian departments are housed here
and there about town, and all the dip
lomatic representatives once accredited
to Belgium are here, except the Ameri-
can and Spanish ministers and, of
course, the ministers of the central
powers. Ones first conclusion is that
q WHO CONFUSION is lneVltdDle Later on
one discovers that this tripartite ad-
ministration is not only efficient, but
courteous.
You will report yourself to the
French military authorities" was the
order i received.
Triple Control a Success.
In the course of the day l reported
myself all over the lot, to French. Eng
Roll mi
where else. l found they all knew all
about me in advance, and all sought to
do what they could to make things easy
for me. 1t seems perfectly easy now
adays to make an efficient organiza-
tion in one army. But when three ma
tons undertake to run one town for
the purpose of making war, as France
and England and Belgium are running
Havre, and manage to do with so
little fuss, noise misunderstanding
II seems to me the fact is worth re-
porting. There must be a marvellous
giye-and-take somewhere.
There are perhaps 100000 English
soldiers in Havre. That figure is the
purest guesswork. There was a time
when there were 100000 soldiers of all
nations there, gossip says. The mill
tary population fiuctuates. But no one
asks questions in a base camp" There
is vague rumor of a German Ameri-
right. but who had an itching curiosity
about the movement of ships in the
harbor. Nothing happened to her which
could disturb international relation
but she felt an urge TO get out of town.
In places like Havre one is well ad-
vised not TO neglect a hUnch like that
1t saves time always. and sometimes IL
prevents an attack of cell-rheumatism.
and occasionally ii obviates the need
OF floral tributes. To return to the
100. 900 soldiers.
Not one was drunk That is of
course. hazardous statement But
have been in Hayre several DAYS, and
1 have not seen single soldier who
hao an edge on. Recollections of
training camps in which so many men
were gathered are accompanied by
memories of Mr.. Atkins battling in
bars and becoming unsteady disturb
ing on his way home. This Hayre tenn
pefance may be accounted for by disci-
pine The man who does not deserve
Town leave does not get it, Nor does
any OF Inc stun that sometimes trans
the English soldier into song get into
the camp. Nothing gets into camp that
Is not wanted there. One of the mos,
prominent American residents of France
wanted TO see that camp. He has mil
lions. place in society, letters from
ambassadors of all sorts, and he has
been infinitely helpful in this war.
Turning Down a millionaire.
What do you want to visit the camp
for?" asked the British officer in charge
OF the issuance of passes.