As I look back I find that the one thing that stands out with
distinctness above everything else is the quality of the men that
constitute the British Army in the field. I had seen thousands in that
one day. But I had seen them also north of Ypres, at Dunkirk, at
Boulogne and Calais, on the Channel boats. I have said before that
they show race. But it is much more than a matter of physique. It is a
thing of steady eyes, of high-held heads, of a clean thrust of jaw.
The English are not demonstrative. London, compared with Paris, is
normal. British officers at the front and at headquarters treat the
war as a part of the day's work, a thing not to talk about but to do.
But my frequent meetings with British soldiers, naval men, members of
the flying contingent and the army medical service, revealed under the
surface of each man's quiet manner a grimness, a red heat of
patriotism, a determination to fight fair but to fight to the death.
They concede to the Germans, with the British sense of fairness,
courage, science, infinite resource and patriotism. Two things they
deny them, civilisation and humanity--civilisation in its spiritual,
not its material, side; humanity of the sort that is the Englishman's
creed and his religion--the safeguarding of noncombatants, the keeping
of the national word and the national honour.
Pages:
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336