My Year of the War - Including an Account of Experiences with the Troops in France and - the Record of a Visit to the Grand Fleet Which is Here Given for the - First Time in its Complete Form by Frederick Palmer
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his heart run away with his judgment does his mind an injustice. A
fellow-countryman who was in London and fresh from home in the eighth month of the war, asked me for my views of the relative efficiency of the different armies engaged. "Do you mean that I am to speak without regard to personal sympathies?" I asked. "Certainly," he replied. When he had my opinion he exclaimed: "You have mentioned them all except the Belgian army. I thought it was the best of all." "Is that what they think at home?" I asked. "Yes, of course." "The Atlantic is broad," I suggested. This man of affairs, an exponent of the efficiency of business, was a sentimentalist when it came to war, as Anglo-Saxons usually are. The side which they favour--that is the efficient side. When I ventured to suggest that the Belgian army, in a professional sense, was hardly to be considered as an army, it was clear that he had ceased to associate my experience with any real knowledge. In business he was one who saw his rivals, their abilities, the organization of their concerns, and their resources of competition with |
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