I want you particularly to understand also that it is a difficult job to take an army of horse and foot and guns across even so short a bit of sea as the English Channel. It takes many big ships, called transports, and they have to be most carefully guarded by warships while they are crossing.
Never forget that if it had not been for the British Navy the Army could never have got across the Channel safely. Nor could the constant stream of fresh troops and horses and food and shells and cartridges and all the other hundred and one things that an army needs in the field of battle.
Everything possible was done to prevent the enemy from knowing about the force which was being sent against him. The regiments left their depots in ignorance of where they were being sent. Even the drivers of the engines which drew the trains to Southampton were not told their destination beforehand. Most wonderful of all, the captain of each ship bearing a thousand or more soldiers started out from Southampton not knowing whither he was bound till he was ten miles from shore. Then he opened a sealed envelope containing his orders. Of course everyone had a shrewd suspicion, but there was no talking, no gossip.
Equally in the dark were the people of Boulogne, though they must have known great events were astir, for they could not help seeing some of the preparations which had to be made for receiving such an army.
Before he left our shores each soldier received a message from the King and a message from Lord Kitchener. This is the whole of the King’s message:
“You are leaving home to fight for the safety and honour of my Empire. Belgium, which country we are pledged to defend, has been attacked, and France is about to be invaded by the same powerful foe. I have implicit confidence in you, my soldiers. Duty is your watchword and I know your duty will be nobly done. I shall follow your every moment with deepest interest and mark with eager satisfaction your daily progress. Indeed, your welfare will never be absent from my thoughts. I pray God to bless you and guard you and bring you back victorious.
“George R. et I.”
“R. et I.” means “Rex et Imperator,” the Latin for King and Emperor, for the King is also Emperor of India.
The message from Lord Kitchener was a good deal longer, and I will only give you these sentences from what has been well described as the noblest message ever sent to fighting men:
“You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy.