Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-02


German gun is certainly as good a.
any in the field, but the new English
gun is said to be very fine. And
Jthere are plenty of them. 1t Is nc
provided that the men who run it
have the sort of courage which faces
unblanchingly greater chances Of death
in each action than any other men in
kindly. 1t is too early as yet to say
, whether they will be equally efficient
; with the big guns.
Before the British move could be
started new gun was designed and
| made and gunners were trained for it.
1t is sheer suicide to attempt offensive
action without plenty of the machine
guns. in face of the lavish German
plenty. This accounts for some part
Of the delay on the British part.
Moreover. the stocking Of that vast
establishment for killing was mat
knew perfectly well. of course. that
something was going on, but it was
desirable that they should not know
Just what was going on. So that the
German hiers out of the air When
they failed. movement ceased until the
watching bird was brought down.
Men Packed in Bunks.
When Fokker was in the air we
Were like so many chickens hiding
from the hawk" said a man of the
transport department.
To conceal the massing of men back
of the front the farmhouses in which
they were billeted were packed full of
hunks built two and three stories high.
Otherwise the cantonments would have
grown in size until even a blind enemy
would have known what was going on,
Germans
blind. Much of the work was done at
night. An Intelligence department was
created to deal with spies. and was
of it's members said.
Flanders is full of spies. because the
peasant population is largely German
in blood and sympathy. The English
have preferred to suffer the annoy
evacuate them. For all that. they are
not softly pitiful in dealing with spies
once caught. They have been executed
by the score. perhaps by the hundred.
a French officer with whom 7 rode not
long ago had been unfortunate noush
to have been called on to preside at
five court-martials of spies. The fiv.
were shot.
One was a woman" he said, sadly.
land French. She did not die we'll
but what would you? BY her treachery
she had endangered the lives of 40
men,.
Now a Question of Leadership.
All this having been done, the sue
cess of the move comes down to a
question of leadership. The men of
the British army are beyond doubt all
right They have lost trenches now
and then. but either side loses trenches
whenever the other side is prepared
to pay the price. Robertson and Haig
have continued the old plan of blood
ing regiments. by sending them green
into a first line trench and letting
them kill a few Germans and get few
of their own men killed in the process.
When the fracas is over and the rock
les calm down they find they know
more about war than they were ever
taught at Aldershot. Approximately the
same process is pursued with the Brit
ish officer. His weakness has always
been a dislike for taking cover, and an
arrogant contempt for the other fel-s
low. Broadly speaking. if he persists
in this attitude on the front he does
not live long enough to be a real men,.
ace to the safety of his command.
1t is upon the officers that the re-
plans have been carefully worked out
with the French general staff, to the
last item. Gen. Foch is the representa-
tive of the French with the British.
Haig viii be in command, of course
under Robertson-but Foch will be
listened to with the respect that his
positive genius for war demands. In
the "powerhouses" of the British army
are big maps. in which every inch of
trench and road on both sides is
lost their lives in taking the photo
graphs of the German outf1eld from
which these maps were made The
schedule for the drive itself will be