The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-11-27
Tuesday, November 81, 1917
THE BRITISH ARRIVE.

something to say about the British
soldiers, and the efforts in certain
quarters to depreciate the work o:
the British army and navy. Undel
the above title, the Atlanta Journal
in it's Sunday morning issue, so wei
says some of the things we attempt
ed to say that we reproduce in full
its remarks. That they speak the
truth no unprejudiced mind viii
gainsay. Here is the editorial ir
full:
"Those half-hearted American:
and thinly disguised pro-Germans
whose pastime it has been to pick or
the British will find in the recent
events between Arras and St. Quen-
tin particularly pungent food for
reflection. The British, we are told
BY those who looked through spec
tacles of, prejudice or Prussianism,
were a nation of slow-going mud
dIers, concerned, chiefly with their
commercial stake in the war and
leaving to others the burden and
heat of the actual fight. Even after
the United States entered the lists
and made common cause with the
Allies, there was a persistent ef-
fort on the part of yellow journal
lists in this country to beget dis
trust and antipathy toward Eng
land. These scribes, whose methods
strongly suggest the Pharisee as
we'll, could not praise France with
out slurring at her great ally across
the Channel, could not profess that
they were pro-American without
adding in a louder tone that they
were anti-British, could not view
any phase of the war except from
this strangely prejudiced point OF
view.
Whatever others may think of
Britain's fghting-will and fighting
power, the Germans have come to
an entirely different opinion from
that which they held in the late
summer of 1914. Even before that
summer had ripened fully into au-
tumn they had learned much of ''the
contemplate little British army"
and they have gone on learning ever
since. The recent victory between
Arras and st. Quentin is but a eli
max in the slowly rising, patiently
planned work of British prepara-
ton. The same resolute spirit, the
same matter-of-fact heroism was
present along all the dark miles of
the retreat through Flanders, three
years ago. The difference is that
now we see a Britain prepared, and
accordingly see the once supercili-
GUS pride of the Huns crumbling be-
meath "the tanks"
Whatever the immediate conse-
quences of the battle of Cambria, if
50 it is to be called, one fact looms
clear: the Hindenburg line has been
pierced-not simply bent or pricked
rs the vast system of trench forti-
fcations frequently has been, but
pentrated and broken. 1t was to
this line that the Germans retired
last spring in their "stragetic" re-
treat from the Somme. They chose
their new position deliberately and
fortified it, both before and after
assuming it, with all the resources
at their command. 1t was impreg-
nable, they declared; and certainly
they had every reason to do their
utmost to make it so. This is the
line that the Third British army,
composed of English, Welsh, Scotch
and Irish regiments under command
of General Sir Julian Byng, has
pierced. The British, who entered
the war with hardly handful of
soldiers compared with their foe,
have smashed the vauntedly immo-
yable defense of the Kaiser's chief
war lord. In its immediate aspect
the achievement may be diversely
explained, but the ultimate expla-
nation is simply this: the British
character, armed and equipped at
last, is expressing itself. "The
Contemptibles" have arrived.
But suppose her land forces were