A Minstrel In France | Page 9

scoffed,
and said he was talking so to make the recruits for his armies come
faster to the colors. I could see that this war might last for years. And it
was then, back in 1914, in the first winter of the war, that I began to
warn my friends in America that they might well expect the Hun to
drag them into the war before its end. And I made up my mind that I
must beg Americans who would listen to me to prepare.
So, all the way across the continent, I spoke, in every town we visited,
on that subject of preparedness. I had seen Britain, living in just such a
blissful anticipation of eternal peace as America then dreamed of. I had
heard, for years, every attempt that was made to induce Britain to
increase her army met with the one, unvarying reply.
"We have our fleet!" That was the answer that was made. And, be it
remembered, that at sea, Britain was prepared! "We have our fleet. We
need no army. If there is a Continental war, we may not be drawn in at
all. Even if we are, they can't reach us. The fleet is between us and
invasion."
"But," said the advocates of preparedness, "we might have to send an
expeditionary force. If France were attacked, we should have to help
her on land as well as at sea. And we have sent armies to the continent
before."
"Yes," the other would reply. "We have an expeditionary force. We can

send more than a hundred thousand men across the channel at short
notice--the shortest. And we can train more men here, at home, in case
of need. The fleet makes that possible."
Aye, the fleet made that possible. The world may well thank God for
the British fleet. I do not know, and I do not like to think, what might
have come about save for the British fleet. But I do know what came to
that expeditionary force that we sent across the channel quickly, to the
help of our sore stricken ally, France. How many of that old British
army still survive?
They gave themselves utterly. They were the pick and the flower of our
trained manhood. They should have trained the millions who were to
rise at Kitchener's call. But they could not be held back. They are gone.
Others have risen up to take their places--ten for one--a hundred for one!
But had they been ready at the start! The bonnie laddies who would be
living now, instead of lying in an unmarked grave in France or Flanders!
The women whose eyes would never have been reddened by their
weeping as they mourned a son or a brother or a husband!
So I was thinking as I set out to talk to my American friends and beg
them to prepare--prepare! I did not want to see this country share the
experience of Britain. If she needs must be drawn into the war-- and so
I believed, profoundly, from the time when I first learned the true
measure of the Hun--I hoped that she might be ready when she drew
her mighty sword.
They thought I was mad, at first, many of those to whom I talked. They
were so far away from the war. And already the propaganda of the
Germans was at work. Aye, they thought I was raving when I told them
I'd stake my word on it. America would never be able to stay out until
the end. They listened to me. They were willing to do that. But they
listened, doubtingly. I think I convinced few of ought save that I
believed myself what I was saying.
I could tell them, do you ken, that I'd thought, at first, as they did! Why,
over yon, in Australia, when I'd first heard that the Germans were
attacking France, I was sorry, for France is a bonnie land. But the idea

that Britain might go in I, even then, had laughed at. And then Britain
had gone in! My own boy had gone to the war. For all I knew I might
be reading of him, any day, when I read of a charge or a fight over
there in France! Anything was possible--aye, probable!
I have never called myself a prophet. But then, I think, I had something
of a prophet's vision. And all the time I was struggling with my
growing belief that this was to be a long war, and a merciless war. I did
not want to believe some of the things I knew I must believe. But every
day came news that made conviction sink in deeper and yet deeper.
It was not a happy trip, that one across the United States. Our friends