|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 47
* * * * *
_May 5th._--Since the preceding lines were written, the "Military Service
Bill" bringing to the Colours "every British male subject" between the
ages of 18 and 41, except when legally exempted, has passed the House of
Commons by an overwhelming majority, and will be law immediately. And the
Prime Minister informed Parliament three days ago, that "the total naval
and military effort of the Empire since the beginning of the war exceeds
five million men."
With these two facts, these Letters may fitly close. Those who know
England best, her history, and the temperament of her people, will best
appreciate what they mean.
VII
AN EPILOGUE
_August 16, 1916._
I
It is now three months since I finished the six preceding Letters, written
in response to an urgent call from America; nor did I then anticipate any
renewal of my work. But while a French translation of the six Letters has
been passing through the Press, an appeal has been made to me from France
to add an Epilogue, or supplementary Letter, briefly recapitulating the
outstanding facts or events which in those three months have marked the
British share in the war, and played their part in the immense
transformation of the general outlook which has taken place during those
months. Not an easy task! One thinks first of one's own inadequacy; and
then remembers, as before, that one is a unit in a nation under orders. I
must therefore do what I can. And perhaps other readers, also, of this
little book, in America and England, as they look back over the
ever-changing scene of the war, will not find this renewed attempt to
summarise Britain's part in it as it has developed up to the present date
(August 16, 1916) unwelcome. The outstanding facts of the last three
months, as I see them, are, for Great Britain:--
1. The immense increase in the output of British Munitions of War;
2. The Naval Battle of Jutland;
3. The Allied offensive on the Somme.
The first and third of these events are, of course, so far as the latter
concerns Great Britain, the natural and logical outcome of that "England's
Effort" of which I tried--how imperfectly!--to give a connected account
three months ago.
At that time the ever-mounting British effort, though it had reached
colossal dimensions, though everybody aware of it was full of a steadily
growing confidence as to its final result, had still to be tested by those
greater actions to which it was meant to lead. After the local failures at
the Dardanelles, and in Mesopotamia, Great Britain was again, for a time,
everywhere on the defensive, though it was a very vigorous and active
defensive; and the magnificent stand made by the French at Verdun was not
only covering France herself with glory, and kindling the hearts of all
who love her throughout the world, but under its shield the new armies of
Great Britain were still being steadily perfected, and wonderfully armed;
time was being given to Russia for reorganisation and re-equipment, and
time was all she wanted; while Germany, vainly dashing her strength in men
and guns against the heights of Verdun, in the hope of provoking her
enemies on the Western front to a premature offensive, doomed to
exhaustion before it had achieved its end, was met by the iron resolve of
both the French and British Governments, advised by the French and British
Commanders in the field, to begin that offensive only at their own time
and place, when the initiative was theirs, and everything was ready.
But the scene has greatly altered. Let me take Munitions first. In
February, it will be remembered by those who have read the preceding
Letters, I was a visitor, by the kindness of the Ministry of Munitions,
then in Mr. Lloyd George's hands, to a portion of the munitions field--in
the Midlands, on the Tyne, and on the Clyde. At that moment, Great
Britain, as far as armament was concerned, was in the mid-stream of a
gigantic movement which had begun in the summer of 1915, set going by the
kindling energy of Mr. Lloyd George, and seconded by the roused strength
of a nation which was not the industrial pioneer of the whole modern world
for nothing, however keenly others, during the last half-century, have
pressed upon--or in some regions passed--her. Everywhere I found new
workshops already filled with workers, a large proportion of them women,
already turning out a mass of shell which would have seemed incredible to
soldiers and civilians alike during the first months of the war; while the
tale of howitzers, trench-mortars, machine-guns, and the rest, was running
up week by week, in the vast extensions already added to the other works.
But everywhere, too, I saw huge, empty workshops, waiting for their
machines, or just setting them up; and everywhere the air was full of
rumours of the new industrial forces--above all, of the armies of
women--that were to be brought to bear. New towns were being built for
them; their workplaces and their tools were being got ready for them, as
in that vast filling factory--or rather town--on the Clyde which I
described in my third Letter. But in many quarters they were not yet
there; only one heard, as it were, the tramp of their advancing feet.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|