The White Road to Verdun | Page 8

at once took up a paper which permitted me to enter the war zone, and endorsed it with the request to General Debeney in Rheims to allow me to penetrate with my companions into the city. He then turned to me again and asked me with a knowing smile if that was all I required--for his headquarters were hardly on the direct road to Rheims! I hesitated to express my real wish, when my good counsellor and friend, with whom I was making the journey, the Commandant Jean de Pulligny, answered for me--"I feel sure it would be a great happiness and honour if you would allow us, General, to go to Verdun." General Pétain appeared slightly surprised, and turning to me, asked, "Do you thoroughly realise the danger? You have crossed the Atlantic and faced submarines, but you will risk more in five minutes in Verdun than in crossing the Atlantic a thousand times." However, seeing that I was really anxious to go, and that it might be of great service to me in my future work to have seen personally the defence of Verdun, he added smilingly: "Well, then, you can go if you wish, at your own risk and peril." He then telephoned to General Nivelle the necessary permission for us to enter Verdun.
I doubt whether General Pétain realises the respect in which he is held in all the civilised countries of the world. Probably he does not yet understand that people would come thousands of miles to have five minutes' audience with him, for he inquired if we were in any hurry to continue our journey, and added with charming simplicity--"Because if not, and you do not mind waiting an hour, I shall be glad if you will lunch with me."
We lunched with General Pétain and his état-major. A charming and most interesting addition to the party was M. Forain, the famous French caricaturist, and now one of the chief instructors of the French Army in the art of _camouflage_--the art of making a thing look like anything in the world except what it is! He has established a series of schools all along the French front where the poilus learn to bedeck their guns and thoroughly disguise them under delicate shades of green and yellow, with odd pink spots in order to relieve the monotony. Certainly the appearance of the guns of the present time would rejoice the heart and soul of the "Futurists." It was most interesting to hear him describe the work in detail and the rapidity with which his pupils learned the new art. For one real battery there are probably three or four false ones, beautiful wooden guns, etc., etc., and he told us of the _poilus'_ new version of the song "Rien n'est plus beau que notre Patrie" ("Nothing is more beautiful than our country "). They now sing "Rien n'est plus faux que notre batterie" ("Nothing is more false than our battery").
It was M. Forain who coined the famous phrase "that there was no fear for the ultimate success of the Allies, if only the civilians held out!"
I was much amused at M. Forain's statement that he had already heard that a company had been formed for erecting, after the war, wooden hotels on the battlefields of France for the accommodation of sightseers. Not only was it certain that these hotels were to be built, but the rooms were already booked in advance.
It was strange to find there, within the sound of the guns--sometimes the glasses on the table danced to the music, although no one took any notice of that--surrounded by men directing the operations of the war and of one of the greatest battles in history, how little war was mentioned. Science, philosophy, and the work of women were discussed.
The men of France are taking deep interest in the splendid manner in which the women of all the different nations are responding to the call to service. I described to General Pétain the work of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. These magnificent hospitals are organised and staffed entirely by women, and started, in the first instance, by the National Union of Women's Suffrage (Scottish Branch). He was deeply interested to learn that what had been before the war a political society, had, with that splendid spirit of patriotism which had from the first day of the war animated every man, woman, and child of Great Britain, drawn upon its funds and founded the hospital units. I explained to him that it was no longer a question of politics, but simply a case of serving humanity and serving it to the best possible advantage. The National Union had realised that this was a time for organised effort on the part of all women for the benefit of the human