THE BATTLE BOOK OF YPRES.
20
The Ypres Times.
merely as a town in Belgium, and add, as an afterthought, the English fought there during
the Great War. I have had this answer given to me on more than one occasion. Think
of it rather as a holy piece of Englandand the cemeteries are England for all timeset
in a foreign country consecrated by the blood of thousands, each one of whom was, to
someone, the dearest in the world. And make up your minds to assist, in however humble
a way, in keeping their memory green, and in ensuring that their sacrifice be never
forgotten.
Some authoritiespessimists I hope they may prove to bedeclare that we shall
have another war before the boys of the present day are over military age. Remember
Ypres, therefore, and imagine, particularly the girls, how you would feel if the grave of
your brother or your pal were to be forgotten. One thing more may I ask of you all.
Never pass a war memorial without raising your hats. I believe I am correct in saying
that in London everyone does so when passing the Cenotaph. In other townsmy own
for instanceI know for certain that this is an act of respect very seldom seen. I feel
certain that if men noticed that boys always raised their hats, they would, for very shame,
take to doing the same themselves.
S. C. A.—O.
An Appreciation by a YPRES M.O.
The Battle Book of Ypres is by far the most valuable war book for the general reader
that I have come across. To begin with, it is an accurate record. The authoress has
had at command all the official documents, and she has reduced these to a concise but
entirely readable compass. Secondly, the values are correct. We who lived in the front
know very well how extremely limited was our outlook we scarcely heard of things
which took place five miles north or south of us. In this book we have the outlook of a
Corps Commander, one whose daily decisions were dictated by the conditions of the
whole battle front. Finally, we have in the authoress a poet whose insight into the
inner meaning of the conflict as a whole, and of its particular actions, have, from the early
days of the war, been generally acclaimed as representing the national spirit, and the
national view of the case. The book is just what one would expect from such a com
bination of advantages, and one may safely assume that a better book on the war will
never be written. Even the method of presentation seems to me to have a touch of
genius about it. The first third of the book consists of an exceptionally clear historical
record. Such a record can be hard reading unless interspersed with parentheses which
reveal something more than the bare facts. Our authoress, to whom the spirit of the war
is of greater importance than the facts, fills two thirds of her book with such parantheses,
introducing them under a topographical scheme. If your neighbour's son lost his leg at
Friezenberg on such a date, you will, by reference to the index, run a remarkably good
chance of getting a vivid mental picture of what was happening when that casualty
occurred. If that is not the proper function of a descriptive work I do not know what is
It may be that you do not care for the details of your neighbour's losses, but it is certain
that you do care about your own. The minute and final details of your own loss you know
full well, but it is probable that your knowledge of what led up to that catastrophe is
quite hazy, and that you attribute it in a general way to shortage of men or munitions,
or even to a blunder. That is not to do full justice to the man you mourn, nor to
his achievementand, so far as my own reading goes, it is in this book that you will
for the first time get an insight into the reason why your man gave his life, the spirit
