The Ypres Times.
143
And what was it for For what were they given these two hundred and fifty
thousand precious lives They were given to save England and the Empire. And they
saved them.
Ten years ago this week, the Germans, gathering all the strength they could, flung
it against our line from the Yser to round Ypres in the attempt to batter their way through
to the coast and the Channel ports. They had no doubt that they would do it. The
Emperor himself came to see his glorious troops, the famous Prussian Guards, break
through. They did not break through neither then nor in all the four years that followed.
Had they done so, had they obtained possession of Calais or Boulogne (and, once our line
broke, nothing would have prevented them), their guns would have swept the Channel.
Our ships could not have shown themselves. We could not have sent our armies to
France. The coast of England itself would have been exposed and at the enemy's mercy.
It was no exaggeration when Sir John French, as he then was, wrote No more than
one thin straggling line of tired-out British troops stood between the Empire and its ruin
as an independent first-class Power." It is true. But for that thin straggling line an
election would be hardly worth holding now. And history will never cease to marvel
at, and be grateful for, what those tired-out British soldiers did in the mud and filth of
Flanders ten years ago to-day.
Ypres was only twenty miles from the coast as the crow flies and as armies march. There
were those who said that it was madness to try and hold back the German strength there,
in that flat land where the solid earth dissolved in mud beneath the rain and shell fire,
and no defensive work was possible. Madness, against an enemy who outnumbered us
by four to one in men, who had all the advantage of position outmamied and outgunned
us, and was our superior in every detail of equipment. But Sir John French, as he then
was, the Earl of Ypres now (and it is a splendid title!), counted the cost, saw what was at
stake, and determined to try to hold on. And by the miracles that come to the aid of
brave men when they do desperate deedssomehow we held.
It is because it was on October the 31st, ten years ago, that the crisis came in
that First Battle of Ypres, that to-morrow is, and will be to all time, known as Ypres
Day. But this evening I am not speaking so much of that wonderful First Battle as I
am of Ypres itself—Wipersas our men knew it through those four years, the noblest
symbol that there is on earth of the dogged courage of British troops.
Ypres was the Salient." A salient, as you know, is anything which projects, sticks
out, from a line or surface. So Ypres stuck out, like bay-windows, into the German
lines. There were other salients along the front in France, but when you spoke of the
Salienteveryone knew that you meant Ypres, and nothing else. And, in a higher and
spiritual sense, Ypres will remain the Salientto all time. When in the mist of ages
all other details of the War have become blurred and the whole Great War has sunk and
is flattened in the memory, Ypres will remain sticking out, as Waterloo sticks outa
Salient to all generations.
Many of those to whom I talk to-night fought at Ypres. For them I have a special
word-a message from Field Marshal the Earl of Ypres himself. Hearing that I was to
speak this evening, he has sent me this message to deliver to you
To all who served in 1914, I send my wannest greetings. The comradeship
created by the Great War is cherished and kept alive by the Ypres League, which
exists for that purpose. The name of Ypres is one of the most powerful symbols
of heroic defence possessed by Great Britain and her Dominions. It must never
be allowed to fade. On the tenth anniversary of the First Battle of Ypres I urge
you to remember the glorious deeds of valour which enabled us to resist the over
whelming numbers engaged in ceaseless attack upon us. It is our most sacred duty
to keep alive in our minds the memory of our fallen comrades and to bring up our
children to honour and renown them.
Ypres, Field Marshal."
