The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-05-02
Mrs. Humphrey Ward De-
ClareS 1t Neither Wish Nor
Power Of Great Britain to
Cross U. S. in War Or Peace
OLD WORLD IS ANXIOUS
NOW TO SHIFT BURDENS
island Kingdom, Weary Titan,
Is for League and Willing to
Welcome Kindred Nation in
Work of Civilization.
BY MRS. HUMPHREY WARD.

Aoo NOSt otVVY WV VI pOuIdllOnt men,
women and children, through the war.
The fighting operations alone have
cost her over 1900, 900, at least, Of the
best manhood of France. One million
and a half! That figure had become
a familiar bit of statistics to me; but
It was not till l stood the other day
IN that vast military cemetery Of Cha
ions, TO which Gen. Gouraud had sent
me. mat, to use a phrase of Keats, it
was proved upon ones own pulses"
Seven thousand men lie buried there,
their Wreathed crosses, standing Shout
der to shoulder. all fronting one way,
like a division on parade, while the
simple monument that faces them ut
tiers its perpetual order of the day:
Death Is nothing, so long as the coun-
try lives. En- Avant!"
Il with that recollection goes also
another which l owe to the same gem
%eral-one Of the idols of the French
army--of a little graveyard far up in
the wilds of the Champagne battefields
the cimetiere de Mont Muret, whence
the eye takes IN for miles and miles
nothing but the trench-seamed hill
sides and the bristling fields of wire.
Here on every. grave, most of them Of
nameless dead, collected after many
months from the vast battlefields, lie
heaped the last possessions of the SOL
der who sleeps beneath-his helmet,
his haversack, his water bottle, his
spade,
Those rusty spades were to me a
tragic symbol moi only of the endless
heartwearing labor which had pro-
duced those trenched hillsides. but also
of that irony of things by which that
very labor which protected the mys-
ferrous and spiritual thing which the
Frenchman calls "patrie' was at the
same time running and sterilizing the
the soil-Whlch the Frenchman loves
with an understanding ~,tenacity such
as perhaps inspires no other country
mar in the world.
Our own British graves also lie
thickly scattered over he murdered
and heroic dead in the battlefieids Of
scissors and the Marine, of the Ar
gonne and Bellicourt, have given it
this last year a new conservation.
Britain Still Untouched.
But here in England our land is
fruitful and productive, owing to the
pressure of the submarine campaign,
as 1t never was before. British farm
ing and the American fields have cause
to bless rather than to curse the war.
Only in France has the tormented
and poisoned earth itself been blasted
by the war, and only in France, even
where there are no trenches, have
whole countrysides gone out Of cult
walton, so that in the course of a long
motor drive the sight Of a solitary pillow
at work, or meleiy a strip Of newly
less waste, makes ones heart leap.
France Ia quite right. Her suffering
her restoration, her future safety, al
against Germany, these should be, these
must be, the first thoughts OF the al
lies in making peace. And 1t is diff
Ill cult f0r thnca uyhn haya MT Gaan II
feel as 1t is politically necessary, !
seems to me, they should feel.
Since l was in France, however, The
proceedings in connection with the ex
tention OF the armistice, the new re-
striction and obligations laid on Ger
situation in the direction that France
desires.
League Materializes.
Certainly the whole grandiose con
e oeb1,Hn OF vh aee 1 ths eres Sc ntss seri Se'
in Europe, has been m~arvelousl,
brought out Of the mists, into SOM
sort of solidity, during these weeks
Not, l venture to think, for the -ea
sons expressed by one Of your ables
journalists who seems to have bee
In France at the same time as my
self.
Mr.. Frank Simonds, for nstance
writing to the Times" ascribed IN,
advance Of the league Of nation
project to the close support given t
the president by Mr.: Lloyd Geory
explains this support as due to tn
changed the whole position of Grea
Britain In the world. The costs |
men, in money, in prestige of tn
struggle have cut very deeply.th
fare in its later phase, and the las
years desperate campaign have LEI
their marks upon the Englishmen an
find expression in his conduct.
Britain Welcomes America.
: British comment frankly recognize
that it will never again be within tn
power Of Great Britain, even If ther
were the desire, to challenge Americ
In war or iii peace"
: In other words. the support given b
Great Britain to President Wilson
conscious Of a loss of national powe
4 and prestige, and of a weakened en-
pire behind them.
These were not wise words of NJ
Simonds, and, what is more, they ar,
r in my belief, entirely inaccurate. Dui
been in contact with many leading me
in many camps. English, French an
American, and both military and dir
o lomatic, especially with our own arm
" and it's chiefs. And so far from pc
ceiving In the frankest and most crit
cal talk of our own people-and no
critical we are Of our own doings thos
know who know US best-any sense
. lost prestige or weakened power, N
l. own impression Is overwhelmingly Il
Il other way.
! We are indeed willing and anxio1
n to share responsibilities. say in Afric
and the middle East. with America
with France. Why not? The nigh
I elder power is eager to see Ameri,
!, realize her own world position, al
4 come forward to take her share in
- world ordering which has lain t
heavy until now on E%ngland's sc
shoulders. She Is glad and thankful
the weary Titan"-to hand over sor
of her responsibilities to America, a.
to share many Of the rest.
She wants nothing more for hers,
the great mother of n~ations-w
should she? She has SO much. But 10
of prestige? The feeling In those wi
whom i have talked is, rather, t
feeling Of Kipling's recessional-a pr
found and wonderful recognition tn
the imperial bond has indeed stood
magnificently the test of these fo
years, Just as Joseph Chamberlain,
empire builder, believed m hoped
would stand, when the day Of testi
came; coupled with the stubborn res
luton, which says little and mea
everything-that the future shall