The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1918-02-21
THE OBSCURE ARMY.
From the Lon den Spectator.

from eno Lon
One Of these days 1t will happen. we may
quite confidently expect; the spirit of
Gallo irony will poise moment over the
British western front and wing hack to
Paris gay with the discovery that there
are English soldiers fighting there. Ono
can imagine, though one dare not try to
initiate, the impish wit with which the
theme will be developed. Jean Pas de
Nom will record how, on going to the,
battlefield to see the heroic deeds of the
Australians, Canadians, Irish. Newfound-
landers, New Zeaianders, Scottish, South
Africans and Welsh in the British army.
he encountered unexpectedly another tribe
Of fighters, the English, hitherto un-
KNOWN and unrecorded. He will tell of
their habits, customs, speech and manner
or fighting with the glee of a discoverer.
Not more glad was Sir Joseph Banks find
Ing new world Of botany opened to him
on landing at Botany bay.
1t Is not given to an English pen to ven
ture on such irony. So I must be content
In duller way to state explicitly that
there are English soldiers on the British
front; that indeed there are more Eng
ilsh soldiers than all the rest combined
"a quite natural fact, since the white
population Of England is greater than that
OF the other parts of the empire); and try
to give a reason why this fact has been
so much ignored in popular comments on
the war.
The reason lies in what may be called
the philosophy of publicity. A great New
York editor. seeking to explain to a cub
reporter" what is news, illustrated: IF
this afternoon on Broadway a dog bites
9 man, that is not news. But IL a man
bites dog. that is news" 1t is the unus-
ual. the abnormal. that newspaper must
seek to record. 1t Is not its business to
write history, but to provide day by day
some OF the raw material of history. A
newspaper that sought to give con-
sidered and well balanced record of Il
days events would take year IL going
TO press, and would then be suitable for
the library rather than the breakfast
table.
Look backward at the campaign on the
British front in Flanders and Artois in the
light of newspaper conditions. At first
very little publicity of any kind was al
lowed We heard nothing at all of that
modern Thermopylae when the first five
divisions held the allied left flank. CThe
first five divisions were made up of Eng
lish soldiers in excess of the due racial
proportions in the British islands,. When
the ban on news was a little less severe,
contemporary English newspaper records
gave the casual reader the idea that the
British army was almost wholly made up
Of Indian troops, or at least that the In
dian troops were doing most Of the work.
The Indian troops were the unusual feat
ure of the army. They stood out from the
mass. They had paragraph value. Their
place was taken for brief while by ter
ritorial troops-the London Scottish in
par.icular-for the same reason. Later the
Canadians arrived at the front. and they
had, as newcomers, as colonial volunteers
the chief paragraph value for a time
When the Anzacs made their appearance
first, they held the stage. Now at differ
ent time one group or another OF the great
ilnnarial n Ia M a
snap shot camera with which the journal
list records the events of the day. But the
mass OF the army. which is English, rarely
gets special attention, because It Is the
mass, and as the mass its news function"
is to provide the background for some
group or other. Yet in every great battle
the English troops. naturally have been
the most numerous. have done their full
share Of the work in hand. and have not
been backward in gallant emulation among
their imperial brothers to do deeds OF
shining courage. When considered HIS
tory Of the war comes to be written this
fact will be plain. But 1t Is not. and never
will be- made plain In current popular
accounts.
And the high command. for other
reasons than those governing newspaper
conditions often has to assist in but
tressins an incorrect ana disproportionate
View of the English work at the front
II in q dispatch special merhion Is made OF
the gaflaltry OF Canadian or Australian
troops In seme action. nothing in the way
OF tnformation is given 10 the enemy. But
special rnention Of 'XEnglis11" troops would
be so vague az to be almost useless: the
mention needs to be Of Kents. OF Wor-
cestershires. or Lorsfe.crs, or Yorkshires;
and that miea1t communicates to the enemy
really valuable Information as to the dis
position Of our troops. and so Is not
always possible. great amount Of the