Now It Can Be Told
se, called by courtesy a chateau, in the village o
o without being seen by a watchful enemy and blown to bits at a signal to the guns. Then we walked, up sinister roads, or along communication trenches, to the fire-step in the front line, or into places like "Plug Street" wood and Kemmel village, and the ruins of Vermelles, and the lines by Neuve Chapelle-the training-schools of British armies-where always birds of death were on the wing, screaming with high and rising
te visit to G. H. Q., "we will go to Armentieres and see how the 'Kitche
Imperial officer, with obedience to command as a religious instinct; of stainless honor, I think, in small things as well as great, with a deep love of England, and a belief and pride in her Imperial destiny to govern many peoples for their own good, and
ll of human corruption about us, and men crouched in chalky ditches below their bre
ever happen
e red glint of his hat-band-he was on the staff of the 11th Corps-and thought, "a gay bird"! So he fell; and in our mess, wh
ed secret worries. Night after night, in those early weeks of our service, he sat in his little office, talking earnestly with the press officers-our censors. They seemed to be arguing, debating, protesting, about secret influences and hostilities surrounding us and them. I could only guess what it was all about. It all seemed to make no difference to me when I sat down before pieces of blank paper to get down some kind of picture, some kind of impression, of
The censors who lived with us and traveled with us and were our friends, and read what we wrote before the ink was dry, had to examine our screeds with microscopic eyes and with infinite remembrance of the thousand and one rules. Was it safe to mention the weather? Would that give any information to the enemy? Was it
uckers about his eyes, turned to me with a queer laugh, one night in the early days. He wa
, but G. H. Q. will probably find that it conveys accurate information to the enem
ely for some journalistic advantage, or in sheer ignorance as "outsiders," we might hand information to the enemy about important secrets. Belonging to the old caste of army mind, they beli
ght, after a day up the line, where young men were living and dy
eople!"
t pe
H.
chine-guns before their turn came to be killed or crippled. I thought of a dead boy I had seen that day-or yesterday was it?-kneeling on the fire-step of a trench, with his forehea
r time!'... I'll be damned if I consider my work is to waste the time of war correspondents. Don't those good fools see that this is not a professional adv