Towards the Goal | Page 3

CONTENTS
No. 1
England's Effort--Rapid March of Events--The Work of the Navy--A
Naval Base--What the Navy has done--The Jutland Battle--The
Submarine Peril--German Lies--Shipbuilding--Disciplined
Expectancy--Crossing the Channel--The Minister of Munitions--Dr.
Addison--Increase of Munitions--A Gigantic Task--Arrival in
France--German Prisoners--A Fat Factory--A Use for
Everything--G.H.Q.--Intelligence Department--"The Issue of the
War"--An Aerodrome--The Task of the Aviators--The Visitors'
Chateau.
No. 2
A French School--Our Soldiers and French Children--Nissen
Huts--Tanks--A Primeval Plough--A Division on the
March--Significant Preparations --Increase of Ammunition--"The
Fosses"--A Sacred Spot--Vimy Ridge--The Sound of the Guns--A Talk
with a General--Why the Germans Retreat--Growth of the New
Armies--Soldiers at School.
No. 3
America Joins the Allies--The British Effort--Creating an
Army--_L'Union

Sacrée_--Registration--Accommodation--Clothing--Arms and
Equipment--A Critical Time--A Long-continued
Strain--Training--O.T.C.'S--Boy Officers--The First Three
Armies--Our Wonderful Soldiers--An Advanced Stage--The Final
Result--Spectacle of the Present--Snipers and Anti-snipers--The Result.
No. 4
Vimy Ridge--The Morale of our Men--Mons. le Maire--Ubiquitous
Soldiers--The Somme--German Letters--German
Prisoners--Amiens--"Taking Over" a Line--Poilus and
Tommies--"Taking Over" Trenches--French Trenches--Unnoticed
Changes--Amiens Cathedral--German Prisoners --Confidence.
No. 5
German Fictions--Winter Preparation--Albert--La Boisselle and
Ovillers--In the Track of War--Regained Ground--Enemy
Preparations--German Dug-outs--"There were no Stragglers"
--Contalmaison--Devastation--Retreating Germans--Death, Victory,
Work--Work of the R.E.--A Parachute--Approaching Victory.
No. 6
German Retreat--Enemy Losses--Need of Artillery--Awaiting the
Issue--Herr Zimmermann--Training--A National
Idea--Training--Fighting for Peace--Stubbornness and
Discipline--Training of Officers --Responsibility--The British
Soldier--Soldiers' Humour--A Boy Hero--"They have done their
job"--Casualties--Reconnaissance--Air Fighting--Use of
Aeroplanes--Terms of Peace.
No. 7
Among the French--German Barbarities--Beauty of France--French
Families--Paris--To Senlis--Senlis--The Curé of Senlis--The German
Occupation--August 30th, 1914--Germans in Senlis--German
Brutality--A Savage Revenge--A Burning City--Murder of the

Mayor--The Curé in the Cathedral--The Abbé's Narrative--False
Charges--Wanton Destruction--A Sudden Change--Return of the
French--Ermenonville--Scenes of Battle--Vareddes.
No. 8
Battle of the Ourcq--Von Kluck's Mistake--Anniversary of the
Battle--Wreckage of War--A Burying Party--A Funeral--A Five Days'
Battle--Life-and-Death Fighting--"_Salut au Drapeau_"--Meaux
--Vareddes--Murders at Vareddes--Von Kluck's Approach--The Turn
of the Tide--The Old Curé--German Brutalities--Torturers --The Curé's
Sufferings--"He is a Spy"--A Weary March--Outrages
--Victims--Reparation--To Lorraine.
No. 9
Épernay-Châlons--Snow--Nancy--The French People--_L'Union
Sacrée_--France and England--Nancy--Hill of Léomont--The Grand
Couronné--The Lorraine Campaign--Taubes--Vitrimont--Miss Polk--A
Restored Church--Society of Friends--Gerbéviller--Soeur
Julie--Mortagne--An Inexpiable Crime--Massacre of Gerbéviller--"Les
Civils ont tiré"--Soeur Julie--The Germans come--German
Wounded--Barbarities in Hospital--Soeur Julie and Germans--The
French Return--Germans at Nancy--Nancy saved--A Warm
Welcome--Adieu to Lorraine
No. 10
Doctrine of Force--Disciplined Cruelty--German Professors--Professor
von Gierke--An Orgy of Crime--Return Home--Russia--The
Revolution--Liberty like Young Wine--What will Russia do?--America
joins--America and France--The British Advance--British
Successes--The Italians--A Soldier's Letter--Aircraft and Guns--The
German Effort--April Hopes--Submarines--Tradition of the Sea--Last
Threads--The Food Situation--More Arable Land--Village
Patriotism--Food Prices--The Labour
Outlook--Finance--Messines--The Tragedy of War--A Celtic
Legend--Europe and America

TOWARDS THE GOAL
No. 1
_March 24th, 1917._
DEAR MR. ROOSEVELT,--It may be now frankly confessed--(you,
some time ago, gave me leave to publish your original letter, as it might
seem opportune)--that it was you who gave the impulse last year, which
led to the writing of the first series of Letters on "England's Effort" in
the war, which were published in book form in June 1916. Your
appeal--that I should write a general account for America of the part
played by England in the vast struggle--found me in our quiet country
house, busy with quite other work, and at first I thought it impossible
that I could attempt so new a task as you proposed to me. But support
and encouragement came from our own authorities, and like many
other thousands of English women under orders, I could only go and do
my best. I spent some time in the Munition areas, watching the
enormous and rapid development of our war industries and of the
astonishing part played in it by women; I was allowed to visit a portion
of the Fleet, and finally, to spend twelve days in France, ten of them
among the great supply bases and hospital camps, with two days at the
British Headquarters, and on the front, near Poperinghe, and
Richebourg St. Vaast.
The result was a short book which has been translated into many
foreign tongues--French, Italian, Dutch, German, Russian, Portuguese,
and Japanese--which has brought me many American letters from many
different States, and has been perhaps most widely read of all among
our own people. For we all read newspapers, and we all forget them! In
this vast and changing struggle, events huddle on each other, so that the
new blurs and wipes out the old. There is always room--is there
not?--for such a personal narrative as may recall to us the main outlines,
and the chief determining factors of a war in which--often--everything
seems to us in flux, and our eyes, amid the tumult of the stream, are apt
to lose sight of the landmarks on its bank, and the signs of the

approaching goal.
And now again--after a year--I have been attempting a similar task,
with renewed and cordial help from our authorities at home and abroad.
And I venture to address these new Letters directly to yourself, as to
that American of all others to whom this second chapter on England's
Effort may look for