Evening star., 1918-03-29
LONDON CREETSH
WOUNDED HEROES
W|THBRAvE CHEERS
Roses at Hospital Trains
Bearing Victims of Hun
Steel and Gas.
HAGGARD, BUT SMILING,
MEN REACH "BLIGHTY"
'We're Hoping for Decision This
Time" Says Major, Waving
Arm in Sling.
BY EDWARD PRICE BELL.

| BY EDWARD PRICE BELL.
Cablegfam to The Evening Star and
Chicago Daily News. Copyright. 1918.
LONDON, March 29-Hospital trains
are continually steaming into London
laden with wounded officers and men
from the British lines east of Amiens
Whether these trains arrive in the day
time or in the night they are greeted
with roses, hand nd-elapping and cheers.
Some Of the faces show small traces of
suffering. Others are hollow-eheeked
md haggssds ;but all are smiling. For,
tie wounded British soldier there is no
medicine like the medicine in "blighty."
ave are hoping for decision this
time" said q brown, hard featured ma
jor to me, as he walked from the train
with one of his arms in sling.
"Fritz' Seeks Decision, Too.
Fritz has his heart set on making
an end Of It, He has done well. but not
well enough" he continued. His onset
was resistless for the first three days
He carried iron rations sufficient for four
days. This enabled the German COM
mand to keep its roads open for am
munition and reinforcements instead of
choking them with food and water trans
ports, but in due course of time the iron
rations were exhausted, and the expected
German victory still faded away toward
the west.
Then the Germans were compelled to
occupy their lengthening roads with food
and water transports and to slow down
ireinforcements and munitions. The
further they came the harder was the
going, and the hungrier thirstier and
! more tired their troops, while we were
falling back on our bases cheered by
the thoughts of fresh reserves eager to
enter the fray.
Foe in Perilous Position.
| Il think the enemy is in position of
cannot as quickly as he came He is in
! a desert full of mine and shell craters
Improvised roads would be painfully
awkward in the retreat of hundreds Of
| thousands of men and countless
vehicles. All this Fritz knows as well
as any one. He is taking frightful
| CndHCeS because ne must. Neither the
| hungry German millions nor the Ameri-
! cans will wait. 1t is dare everything or
/, accept defeat with it's deadly menace to
those who force the war.
! our offcers and men are enjoying the
| new movement. We seem suddenly TO
! have slipped back into an earlier age.
At first we were somewhat dazed. but
| within few hours we found our feet
and since then have kept them quite
| well. Things behind the retreatjnp mill
/ tary screen move with much sneed
| Field headquarters are changed fire.
| quent1y. Telephones and teleeranbs are
relayed. and new exchanges and Juno
| tons are constructed. The work our
| tsignalers do with rapidity is hard to
| realize. -
| Pathetic Crowds of Refugees,
| Moreover, food. water and war ma
terial. with the stupendous traffic in
volved. must be moved back. Here and
there In our long lines of TRANSPORTS
march mutely and pathetic crowds of
refugees These outcasts. many of them
worn with years Of war, are treated
with all possible tenderness. Our SOL
diers render them every assistance in
| getting forward with their overloaded
| perambulators. goat carts, bird cages
| and shutter stretchers, bearing those
unable 10 walk. Villages in the fight
itants are pouring out of Amiens. where
the Germans were seen briefiy early in
the war, but whence they were soon
driven forth. French homes back of the
nghting zone show every possible kind
ness to the refugees"
Famous Editors View.
Britons who clung to the view that
| the war would be decided in the west
and nowhere else rejoice especially at
| this hour. saws T. Stole Strochov the
famous editor Of the Spectator He
adds:
1T makes one feel sick at heart to
look back and think how strongly we
were urged to leave a comparatively
weak. containing force in France and
Flanders and galivant on to the ends
| of the earth. What would have hap
pened II those councils had been fol-
lowed? The German blow undoubtedly
would have succeeded. The French
tarmy would have been sundered from
Continued on Ninth @a9s.l
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