By FREDERIC COLEMAN,
A Member of the R.A.C. Contingent at the Front.
50 Illustrations taken there. Sixth Large Printing in hand.
Crown 8vo., cloth, gilt, 6/- net.
Mr. Coleman gives his actual experiences in the thick of the fighting during the first four months of the War.
A REVIEW BY LORD CROMER.
Reprinted with permission from "The Spectator," May 20th, 1916.
English politicians and journalists deserve some credit for the manner in which they have dealt with the attitude assumed by the United States of America during the present war. The policy pursued by President Wilson has unquestionably caused some surprise and disappointment on this side of the Atlantic. But the discussion has always been characterized by great restraint. Language calculated to wound the national susceptibilities of Americans has been studiously avoided. By far the most severe of President Wilson's critics have been his own countrymen. Several causes have contributed to bring about this result. Of these, the most important has been the fact that the genuine friendship entertained by most Englishmen for their Transatlantic kinsmen has made them very reluctant to criticize. Then, again, incipient criticism has been checked by a feeling that we owe some atonement for the harsh judgment most unfortunately passed by some sections of English society on American policy during the great struggle of half-a-century ago; by a just appreciation of the fact that, whatever we might think, Americans are not only the sole, but also the best judges of the conduct of their own Government; and by the reflection that the difficulties which beset President Wilson cannot be fully realized on this side of the Atlantic. But, in addition to these causes, there has been another which has largely contributed to prevent any estrangement between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race. Englishmen, although they have been somewhat astonished at the equanimity with which the frequent German outrages against American life and property have been endured, have never resented the neutral attitude adopted by the United States Government; but they have felt that President Wilson failed to rise to the situation, that he did not adequately appreciate the extent to which the greatest democracy of the world was interested in the struggle against absolutism, and that, without any departure from an attitude of strict neutrality, a greater amount of sympathy might have been displayed for those who are the champions of progress and civilization against retrogression and an abhorrent State morality. At the same time, they felt that the attitude of official America did not accurately represent the real feelings and sentiments of the American public, or at all events of that portion of the public whose views were most entitled to respect. Hence, it has resulted that the opinions expressed by individual Americans, who were untrammelled by official responsibilities, have served as a healthy antidote to the acts and language of their Government. Amongst this class Mr. Frederic Coleman is entitled to occupy a distinguished place. In the very spirited and graphic account which he has written of his personal experiences with the British Expeditionary Force in France, he speaks with no uncertain voice. "Friends and readers," he says, "do not forget that most Americans feel much the same as I feel about the war. An overwhelming majority of those of my countrymen who know the truth would do what lies in their power to further the success of the Allies and their righteous cause." Moreover, he arraigns the criminal monarch who has been instrumental in bringing about the greatest catastrophe the world has ever witnessed before the bar of human and Divine justice. Speaking of the gallant Grenfell twin brothers, both of whom were sacrificed on the altar of German ambition, he uses words which should find a responsive echo in many a sorely-stricken French and English home. "Fine men of noble character, the Grenfells. Surely the monarch responsible for a war that mows down the flower of the world's manhood in the fulness of its youth must one day answer for his crime, in this world or the next."
Mr. Coleman was not, as is usually the case with civilians who are attached to an army in the field, constrained to keep out of the fighting line. On the contrary, it is clear from his stirring personal narrative that most of his time was passed within the region in which a hail of "Black Marias," shrapnell shells, and Mauser bullets has been asserting Germany's right to occupy "a place in the sun" by slaughtering the youth of England, by devastating the fair homesteads of France, and by reducing to ruins the sacred buildings and historic monuments of which French soil is so prolific. Mr. Coleman does not profess to write a history of the operations of which he was a witness. He frequently dwells on a point which is too often forgotten by those who read the accounts given by the actors in the great struggle. It is that each individual can only bear testimony to what passes before his own eyes. Very few are in possession of information which would enable them to judge of the relative importance of events. "No one," Mr. Coleman says, "would imagine how little regimental officers, or Brigade commanders for that matter, know of the broad plan of operations." But Mr. Coleman provides us with a very vivid picture of what he himself saw, and thus enables us to realize the general character which the war must have assumed elsewhere.