New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-16

With the British Army in France. via
London, Aug. 10. King George has
been at the front for week. He left
to-day for England. and the news Of
his departure was the first that most
OF the troops had of his presence. As
a matter Of precaution the visit was
kept a secret and there was no display
or big review. as on his visit last fall.
The King simply went about seeing
all sections of the army at work and
the fields won. The Prince of Wales
was with him. Neither wore any dec
orations, and, but for their features,
which were recognized everywhere, they
might have been taken for officers max
ing n round of inspection.
The King met General Sir Henry
Rawlinson, commander of the fourth
army, which delivered the main attack
on the Somme, and Major General Con-
greve. whose corps stormed Montauban
and Mametz.
I1lHc ITeUCU.
Alighting from his automobile neal
Fricourt, the King went into the
trenches from which the British made
their charge
Now | will breast the parapet as my
men did" said the King, mounting it.
He walked across the old no mans land
and saw the effects of the British she'll
fire on the maze of Notifications and
trenches wrested from the Germans.
Standing on the edge of a big shell
crater, the King looked with a sailors
telescope across the foreground of des-
olation toward Pozieres, the Bazentins,
Longueval and Delville Wood. He
watched the curls OF black smoke which
signified that the German guns were
busy, while near him battery of Brit
ish guns was sending screaming an
swers.
"You seem to have missed that" he
said to General Rawlinson, indicating
a silver Of wall still standing in Ma
metz.
"But there is nothing that is not
down in La Boisselle, as ecu will see,
your majesty" said General Rawlin-
son. eve improve as We advance"
Goes Down Into a Dugout.
When the King wanted TO descend
into one of the deep German dugouts
General Rawlinson warned him that
they had not all been cleaned out yet,
and when the King came up the steps
shifting he sail: at smells pretty
strong" Remarking on the depth Of
the dugouts, with their beds. tables and
chairs, he said TO some soldiers: "Evi-
IDENTIFY the Germans expected to make a
long stay, but you gave them a surprise
and they are not so comfortable now"
AS the King was walking across
field swept by a British charge, he
came to grave at the bottom of
shell crater with a cross bearing the
inscription: unknown British soldier"
Both the King and the Prince Of Wales
halted and saluted the cross.
The King took away some empty
shell cases and bits of German equip
ment.
Visits Bombarded Town.
Sir Douglas Haig, as the Kings host,
told him what was worth seeing, and
the King laid out his own programme
each day. This led him to have look
at a town which had been shelled re-
Gently by guns Of big calibre. AS he
and the prince went about examining
the enormous crsters in the square
and the ruins of the old town hall his
attendants were considering what might
happen if another crater was made
where the occupant and heir of the
throne were standing. Etiquette did
not permit them 10 tell royalty to
move on, but they suggested il politely.
Royalty, however. persisted in remain
ing in the square until curiosity was
satisfied.
When the King visited the men of
the Scottish Division, which has seen
such desperate fighting at Delville, or