The quarterly Journal of the Royal United Service Institution for
August has a very remarkable article entitled " The British Army through German Eyes," in which the writer, Dr. Thomas Smith, the author of The Soul of Germany, gives some striking quotations from contemporary German works on the war. Here is an extract from a book published by an Austrian, Dr. G. Landauer (England, Vienna, 1815) :- " For the last ten days we have been resting to the west of Lille, not far from Armentieres ; an English army is opposed to us. My battery is one of the links in the long chain of growlers which daily pour fire and iron on to the enemy. We have given up counting the days and fights, for every day has its battle. Besides the English, there are Indian troops and a few French batteries in front of us. Every day confirms our experience that we are faced by an enemy with incom- parable powers of resistance and endurance—an enemy who eau hardly be shaken by the sharpest rifle-fire or the most awful rain of shell and shrapnel. We gain ground slowly, exceedingly slowly, and every step of soil has to be paid for dearly. In the trenches taken by storm the English dead lay in rows, just like men who had not winced or yielded before the bayonets of the stormers. From the military point of view it must be admitted that such an enemy deserves the greatest respect. The English have adapted the experiences gained in their colonial wars to European conditions in a particularly clever manner."
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