An Appreciation.
The Ypres Times.
179
H Many of us had known him during the War in South Africa, but it was not until his
visit to us that the mass of the people of Canada had the opportunity of appreciating
his fine qualities and outstanding military efficiency, and his very human understanding
and sympathy endeared him to all.
In February, 1915, when the First Canadian Division arrived in France, it was known
by all ranks that in our Commander-in-Chief we had an old and trusted friend in whom we
had implicit confidence, and we felt that he trusted us.
Who can but think that the esprit of the C.-in-C. filtered through to all ranks and was
a real factor in staving off disaster during the period that we were outnumbered and
pressed hard by the enemy.
At the close of his Canadian inspection in 1910 he wrote I have been thrown so
much with the Canadian Forces in the Field, and I have learned to regard them with such
admiration and esteem, that it has given me the deepest pleasure and satisfaction to
renew my acquaintance with them." These feelings were warmly reciprocated by the
Canadian troops, and were immeasurably increased when under his command during
the Great War.
By SIR PERCIVAL PHILLIPS
(War Correspondent of the "Morning Post" and "Daily Express on the Western Front,
1915—1918.)
Future historians of the Great War will know him best as the F,arl of Ypres, but to
the War Correspondents who served under him on the Western Front he will always
be Sir John French.
They remember him with a peculiar feeling of affection, for at a time when journalists
were regarded by old fashioned generals as little less than pariahs, and rather more
dangerous than the Germans, he was their friend. Sir John fought long and persistently
to break down the hide-bound prejudices of his superiors against permitting the British
public to know anything of their war save what was doled out in fragments from
unsympathetic and for the most part incompetent military sources.
I was one of the five correspondents who first entered that mysterious, unknown
region, called the Western Front, early in May, 1915. We had struggled vainly since
the preceding August to obtain permission to take the field. On one occasion we got
as far as being allowed to buy horseswhich were never usedand to hold interminable
conferences with the representatives of Red Tape in Whitehall which came to nothing.
Months passed. Battles were won and battles lost. The gallant little British army,
fighting with its back to the wall, performed miracles of valour and endurance. No one
wrote of them. Scarcely anyone knew. Generals at home were resolutely intent cn
keeping the Press muzzled. Generals in France were as grimly intent on arresting any
journalist found straying within the zone of operations.
Sir John realised the vital importance of letting the nation know what the troops
were doing. (What he thought in 1915, other generals were shouting in 1917.) He
wanted the war correspondents with him. So did the newspapers. The Chinese wall
of secrecy thus vigorously attacked from two sides at last tottered and a breach was
made in the early spring. Reluctantly, Officialdom gave way. Five men were put
into khaki (the attempt to make them wear golfing caps as well was a dying spasm of
the old Guard) and sent out to France under I/t.-Col. A. G. Stuart, I.A., who for several
years previously had been in charge of Press interests at the War Office.
