Evening star., 1918-02-17

II
wing held by the Americans. the center
by the French and the left wing by the
British. each having it's own Independent
organization and communications and
fensive or offensive operations on its
own front without relation to the needs
or emergencies of its neighbor.
1t was in part at least because of the
problem of communications, l believe,
that our troops were sent to Lorraine
To put them elsewhere would have
meant to reorganize the French and
British front. in Champagne, Artois or
Flanders while that front was active
and thus disarrange all allied opera tons
last year, for the work had to be begun
just as soon as an American contingent
was ordered to France. But the. Lor-
raine front was inactive. had been in
active for nearly three years and, un-
til the Russian collapse was complete.
Germany had no reserves to use IN an
offensive there.
So much for the reasons why Perish
ing's Army is in Lorraine: if you add
that the French naturally appreciated
the moral value Of placing our troops
opposite their lost provinces. both be-
cause these troops would see and In
form their fellow countrymen of the
basis of French desire to reconquer
their own and because they believed
auered by American troops it would be
retained for France in any peace nego-
tiations with American approval, I
think YOU have summed up the whole
case. but the sentimental considerations
seem TO me far less important than the
material. We were put in the one place
where we could be put with the least
difficulty. and greatest advantage. in a
place where no immediate attack, dan
gerous for newly trained troops. was to
be expected.
Many Invasions for Centuries in Gap
Now as to this country itself. what is
the region like, the region in which so
many thousands and even hundreds of
thousands of American troops are to
represent us in our first European cam
paign" Actually the Americans hold
some little stretch of front between the
Vosges and the heights of the Meuse. in
the great gap between these two natu
raj obstacles through which so many
turies. the gap through which the Ger
mans sought to penetrate in 1914 as
they did in 1870. In this gap were
fought in August and September some
OF the bloodiest engagements of the
whole war, and on either side Of the
present battle line stretches a district
of destroyed villages and towns. of
which Nitrimont and Gerbeviller are
but the most famous examples
This region is in reality great
plateau. shoulder of the Vosges. ex-
tending to the Ardennes. cut deeply by
many swift flowing and clear streams
which gather to make the Meurthe and
the Moselle considerable rivers even
before they unite below Nancy. In this
rolling country there are high hills
from which you have broad outlooks,
and two of these hills or groups of
hills. the Grand Couronne east and the
Sanais-Belchamps plateau west of the
Meurthe, were the bulwarks of the
French resistance. when they made
their last desperate stand after their
heavy defeat at Morhange in August.
1914.
1 know of no American countryside
quite like this. The little villages are
mainly without shade trees, they sus-
gest vaguely some of the sunburned
| towns have seen in the suburbs of AL
giers. towns of Spanish not French
colonists. for the French colonist plants
his trees and organizes his central
place before he begins to build his
house. These villages stand on gently
rolling hills, many of them with hardly
more than single street. They sue-
sest proximity to an open frontier by a
certain lmpermanence. as if their in
habitants. foreseeing long the charac-
ter of the invasion that was to come
hesltated to waste effort in adjoining
them.
Looking eastward from the Grand
Couronne or from Saffais plateau one
sees succession of rolling ridges, on