By far the best narrative which has yet been sent
by the eyewitness with Sir John French's Headquarters was pub- lished in the papers of Wednesday. It describes the fighting on the Franco-Belgian frontier from October 20th to 25th. But first it gives an extremely interesting and valuable account of the movement by which certain British troops were transferred from their position east of Paris and facing north to a new position facing east in the north-west corner of France. This transfer during a great battle was in itself remarkable. It was like General Oku's move during the battle of 3Iukden, when he withdrew troops from his front and passed them secretly behind his line to his extreme left. The transfer of the British troops right across the French lines of communication was made partly by rail and motor and partly by marching. The men were taken from the trenches, which (like the trenches in the Crimean War before Sebastopol) are in some places not one hundred yards from the enemy, under cover of darkness. The Germans were accustomed to the sounds of men being relieved in the trenches at night, and such care was exercised in the with- drawal that they never guessed that anything unusual was taking place.
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