New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-11
A CIVILIAN AT THE FRONT MAY BE
ANYTHING-EXCEPT A SPY.

Armies objected to civilians at the beginning
Of the war because they feared them as spies.
It is now thought however, that spies with the
armies have been practically eradicated; and if
there be any spies at the front they are not
50 foolish as to wear the ordinary overcoat and
zap Of civilian life, inviting as they do a de-
mand for passports and other papers at every
turn.
During my six visits to the war l have al
ways worn civilian clothes. am not regular
correspondent entitled, therefore, to wear uni
form, nor am | soldier.
have often, however, been tempted to Dor
row a khaki coat and cap, or blue French
pesse and steel helmet, to avoid the ceaseless
and proper attention of vigilant sentries.
Ones first impression of war is chaos and
confusion and the immensely of it all.
Miles back from the battle line it may be
ahundred miles or only twenty, are the bases at
which all the army supplies are first assembled
and stored. We will say that the base is the
port of --, and from that base supplied
one hundred thousand men. with their horses,
If they have them, their motors bicycles, rifles,
guns great and small, machine guns, bombs,
aeroplanes. observation balloons, clothes, medi-
cal stores. beef bacon, butter, cheese, jam,
pckles pepper, salt. shells of all sizes cart
ridges. forage. harness, carts, portable hos
pitals ambulance wagons, games, and hun
bred and one other things which will suggest
themselves to any person who has had some
thing to do with the equipment of single
soldiers since the war began. All these
supplies have to be kept at high water mark
IN regular daily rotation, and easily
understands how it is that in the British
army the all-round cost of a soldier is between
five and six pounds a week. Realizing that what
one sees before one are only the supplies for
one hundred thousand men, it requires very
little effort of the imagination to picture the
colossal stores needed for the four millions OF
men who are fighting in Belgium and France
alone.
The first impression, therefore, of war, is the
immensely and complication of it.
The next and more mature impression that
one gets is that now war has settled down to a
regular business. it proceeds at the bases with
the clockwork regularity of great business.
Near most of the bases are the base hospi-
tails On what a gigantic scale are prepare
tons made for the casualties in modern war
How truly wonderful are these hospitals,
whether they be of the Royal Army Medical
Corps, the Red Cross or the Order of st. John
Of Jerusaleml If there has been much fight
ing recently. the hotels which have been turned
into hospitals and the remarkable hut hos
pitfalls will be filled. There never was more
wonderful work done in the worlds history
than the care of the wounded soldiers of the
British Empire in this great struggle. On
the northwest of France, between Etaples and
Wimereux. are literally miles Of hut hospitals
situated on high, dry ground, on well built
foundations. with we'll made roads, electric
light and perfect operating theatres and den
tai parlors-hospitas just as good as the very
best Of their kind in our great cities at home,
and stated by men of the highest position in
the medical profession, many of them having
given up large practices in London, Montreal
OF Sydney, as the case may be. Elsewhere
behind the lines are other hospitals of various
types. To these establishments are attached
wonderful convoys of ambulances.
THE SCIENCE OF HEALING HAS KEPT
PACE WITH SCIENCE OF MANNING.
Though the precision and violence of mod
ern weapons may have greatly increased the
danger of warfare, science, Listerism and me-
chanical ingenuity have come TO the rescue
by providing all sorts of means by which the
lives of the wounded are saved. Chief among
these i. the motor ambulance, which swiftly