After the declaration of war by Great Britain against Germany on August 4, the first important development in England was the appointment of Earl Kitchener of Khartoum as secretary of state for war. This portfolio had been previously held by the Rt. Hon. H.H. Asquith, premier and first lord of the treasury. Lord Kitchener being the idol of the British army and most highly esteemed by the nation generally for his powers of organization and administration, as well as for his military fame, the appointment increased the confidence of the British people in the Liberal Government and awakened their enthusiasm for war. Parliament unanimously passed a vote of credit for $500,000,000 on August 6.
Lord Kitchener immediately realized the serious nature of the task confronting his country as an ally of France against the military power of Germany. His first step was to increase the regular army. The first call was for 100,000 additional men. This was soon increased to 500,000. Within a month there were 439,000 voluntary enlistments and then a further call was made for 500,000 more, bringing the strength of the British army up to 1,854,000 men, a figure unprecedented for Great Britain.
The war fever grew apace in England. All classes of society furnished their quota to the colors for service in Belgium and France. The period of enlistment was "for the war" and a wave of patriotic fervor swept over the British Isles and over all the colonies of Britain beyond the seas. Political differences were forgotten and the empire presented a united front, as never before. If Germany had counted on internal dissension keeping England out of the fray, the expectation proved unfounded. Englishmen, Irishmen and Scotsmen stood shoulder to shoulder. The Irish Home Rule controversy was dropped by common consent. The men of Ulster and the Irish Nationalists struck hands and agreed to forget their differences in the presence of national danger.
Trade resumed normal conditions and the Bank of England rate, which earlier in the week had mounted to 10 per cent, was reduced on August to 5 per cent.
There were some panicky conditions and a disquieting collapse on the London Stock Exchange during the last days of feverish diplomacy, and it was due to the financial solidity of the British nation, no less than to its level-headedness and the promptness of government measures, that the declaration of war, instead of precipitating worse conditions, cleared the atmosphere.
BRITISH TROOPS LAND IN FRANCE
While the British army was being mobilized, the utmost secrecy was observed regarding all movements of troops. The newspapers refrained from publishing even the little they knew and an expeditionary force, composed of the flower of the British army and numbering approximately 94,000 men of all arms of the service, was assembled, transported across the English Channel and landed at Boulogne and other French ports behind a veil of deepest mystery, so far as the British public and the world at large were concerned.
The old town of Plymouth, on the Channel, was the chief port of embarkation for the troops and the main concentration point in England, but troops embarked also at Dublin, Ireland; Liverpool; Eastbourne; Southampton, and other cities. Not a mention of the midnight sailings of transports carrying troops, horses, automobiles, artillery, hospital and commissary equipment and supplies was allowed to be printed in the newspapers, nor was it known how many troops were being sent across the Channel.
The landing in France was effected between the 10th and the 20th of August without the loss of a single man, and on the 23d, having joined forces with the French army under General Joffre, commander-in-chief, the British found themselves in touch with the German enemy at Mons in Belgium.
FIELD-MARSHAL FRENCH IN COMMAND