Out To Win | Page 9

so doggone
hoarse that night that they couldn't so much as whisper."
What impressed the men most of all was the King's friendly greeting of
them at Buckingham Palace. There were few of them who had ever
seen a king before. "Friendly--that's the word! From the King
downwards they were all so friendly. It was more like a family party
than a procession; and on the return journey, when we marched at ease,
old ladies broke up our formations to kiss us. Nice and grandmotherly
of them we thought."
This, as I say, I learnt later in France; at the time I only knew that the
advance-guard of millions was marching. As I watched them my eyes
grew misty. Troops who have already fought no longer stir me; they
have exchanged their dreams of glory for the reality of sacrifice--they
know to what they may look forward. But untried troops have yet to be
disillusioned; dreams of the pomp of war are still in their eyes. They
have not yet owned that they are merely going out to die obscurely.
That day made history. It was then that England first vividly realised
that America was actually standing shoulder to shoulder at her side. In
making history it obliterated almost a century and a half of
misunderstanding. I believe I am correct in saying that the last foreign
troops to march through London were the Hessians, who fought against
America in the Revolution, and that never before had foreign
volunteers marched through England save as conquerors.
On my recovery I was sent home on sick leave and spent a month in
New York. No one who has not been there since America joined the
Allies can at all realise the change that has taken place. It is a change of
soul, which no statistics of armaments can photograph. America has
come into the war not only with her factories, her billions and her
man-power, but with her heart shining in her eyes. All her
spread-eagleism is gone. All her aggressive industrial ruthlessness has
vanished. With these has been lost her youthful contempt for older
civilisations, whom she was apt to regard as decaying because they sent
her emigrants. She has exchanged her prejudices for admiration and her

grievances for kindness. Her "Hats off" attitude to France, England,
Belgium and to every nation that has shed blood for the cause which
now is hers, was a thing which I had scarcely expected; it was amazing.
As an example of how this attitude is being interpreted into action,
school-histories throughout the United States are being re-written, so
that American children of the future may be trained in friendship for
Great Britain, whereas formerly stress was laid on the hostilities of the
eighteenth century which produced the separation. As a further
example, many American boys, who for various reasons were not
accepted by the military authorities in their own country, have gone up
to Canada to join.
One such case is typical. Directly it became evident that America was
going into the war, one boy, with whom I am acquainted, made up his
mind to be prepared to join. He persuaded his father to allow him to go
to a Flying School to train as a pilot. Having obtained his certificate, he
presented himself for enlistment and was turned down on the ground
that he was lacking in a sense of equipoise. Being too young for any
other branch of the service, he persuaded his family to allow him to try
his luck in Canada. Somehow, by hook or by crook, he had to get into
the war. The Royal Flying Corps accepted him with the proviso that he
must take out his British naturalisation papers. This changing of
nationality was a most bitter pill for his family to swallow. The boy had
done his best to be a soldier; he was the eldest son, and there they
would willingly have had the matter rest. Moreover they could compel
the matter to rest there, for, being under age, he could not change his
nationality without his father's consent. It was his last desperate
argument that turned the decision in his favour, "If it's a choice between
my honour and my country, I choose my honour every time." So now
he's a Britisher, learning "spit and polish" and expecting to bring down
a Hun almost any day.
One noticed in almost the smallest details how deeply America had
committed her conscience to her new undertaking. While in England
we grumble about a food-control which is absolutely necessary to our
preservation, America is voluntarily restricting herself not for her own
sake, but for the sake of the Allies. They say that they are being
"Hooverized," thus coining a new word out of Mr. Hoover's name.
Sometimes these