THE BRITISH AND THE ITALIAN SOLDIER

The sending of ten British Batteries to Italy had something more than a
military significance. Otherwise the thing was hardly worth doing. It
was evident that here was an international gesture. An effort was being
made to promote a real Anglo-Italian understanding, to substitute for
those misty and unreal personifications--"England" to an Italian,
"Italy" to an Englishman--real personal knowledge and a sense of
individual comradeship in a great cause. Our task, in short, was not
only to fight, but also to fraternise. But would we fraternise
successfully? For it has been said, not without some truth, that
"England is an island and every Englishman is an island," and in the
early days I was doubtful what sort of personal effect we should
produce, and what sort of personal impressions our men would bring away.

When I got back to the Battery from Versa I began to take stock of my
own impressions so far, and to notice, in the letters which I had to
censor, the drift of general opinion. It was surprisingly satisfactory.

"Some of these Italians," writes one gunner, "are the finest fellows you
could wish to meet. Our men get on very well with them." "The Italians,"
writes another, "are very good soldiers and nice chaps. We get on well
together." "The other night," writes a third, "I was out laying
telephone wires in a graveyard. We saw some Italian soldiers carrying a
tombstone for their Lieutenant who had recently been killed. The
Italians look after their graves very well. A Sergeant, who had spent
most of his life in England, asked us in and gave us some coffee and
cognac which was jolly acceptable. He asked if we had any old English
papers, as he was forgetting all his English, as he had been away from