The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-07-07
gNoLANp's FAILURE in WAR
Record on Both Land and Sea Has
Been Discouraaina.

mas DeeH the part toodJcu ny Ile
British. Plucky little Belgium laid
down her life at the threshold and it
was ruthlessly taken. France gave
up the richest of her industrial sec
ton, risked her capital, shed her
blood in rivers, but, never wavering,
has proved a formidable antagonist
to the powerful Teuton. Russia has
fought valiantly and with greater
measure of accomplishment than any
of her allies, never sparing sacrifice.
But from the outset Great Britain has
seem dazed, like a pugilist who re-
ceives in the first round a straight
jolt on the point of the jaw. She has
staggered and wobbled, taking ALI
kinds of punishment, but seldom get
ting in telling blow herself.
1t is apparent that Great Britain,
| like an unframed man in the ring,
was in poor condition for such an en-
counter But worse still is has APP
| peared with the progress of time since
| the war began that she lacks the abil-
| ity or the system or whatever it is to
| whip herself into shape under the
| stress. She is making sorry show
ing in her attempts to overcome her
| initial handicap. Though spending
billions lavishly, and wasting the
lives of her soldiers and sailors reck-
| lessly, Great Britain with all her ire
! mendous resources has not yet reach
! ed the stage of even figuring in the
first division amongst the Allies.
Consider her record on land. She
| despatched with commendable celeri-
| ty an eXpeditionary force of about
| 10000 men to Belgium and France at
the outset. This represented practi-
| cally all of her first line troops avail
| able for service then In the battle
| of Mons they were routed and but
| for French assistance then and later
would have been annihlated by the
| German host. In the retreat on
Paris they made good records as pc
| destrians, but their fighting counted
for little. 1t was the French, not the
| Marine. Soon afterward, in a fruit
less attempt to succor Brussels, con
siderable force of British troops was
broken up, only fragments escaping.
In the succeeding months the world
was told that the British giant was
girding up his loins. Soon he would
burst forth in all his strength and the
! puny line of Germans would go down
before him as by breath. From ali
quarters of the earth came earnest
volunteers of the British colonies:
| Canada sent them, and India, and
| Australia. by shiploads and thons-
ands. In Great Britain, too, there
was a great stir of recruiting. The
| secrecy maintained only lent conyic-
ton to the stories of tremendous re-
| May, Kitchener said, the war would
begin-a characteristic British boast
that then England would take hold
in earnest
May came, and with it Neuve
| Chapele-and that was all. At one
single point the British concentrated
such a tremendous artillery fire that
| they cleared the German trenches for
| some distance and their infantry had
no great difficulty in taking posses
sion of what was left, but found it
| absolutely impossible to get beyond
the range of gun support and had to
| retire with but small gain to show
| for several thousand lives and such
| an expenditure of ammunition that
| the supply ran short, and ever since
the British have maintained almost a
constant defensive. They did not
even dent the German line. Indeed,
from the first of May down to the
present, they have lost more ground
! than they have gained.
1t is given out that Great Britain
has anywhere from one million to
four million men under arms. How
| many she has in Flanders the public
does not know, but it must be very
large force. Yet she is holding only
| twenty miles of front very insecurity
| while to France and the Belgian rem
| nant is left the task of holding the
! remainder of the four hundred miles.
| And the French are plugging away
| day by day while the British seem TO
| be perfectly contented if they are on
| ly let alone 1t is no wonder the
| French are beginning to query when
their great ally is going to take hold.
| And the Dardanelles! Even in Eng
land this CHASTITY joke. Following
| the disastrous naval failure, has
come the long and costly and thus far
unpromising land campaign. Great
Britain has thrown in heavy forces
here, largely from her eastern colon
| les, but with little to show and faint
hope ahead, unless the Balkans can
be stirred to join against Turkey
Unprecedented authorities say that the
Dardanelles can never be carried by
working on the lines now set.
1t was at sea, however that Eng
land was to deal the really crushing
| blow to her adversary. What she may
do, or what she might have done If
Germany had unwisely allowed her
| self to be drawn into a decisive feet
action, is speculation What she has
done is not altogether gratifying to
| British pride. In no case where there
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