rare qualities. On the face of it the British commander's position
called for very great tact. It was delicate almost to a distressing
degree. Allied commanders have always to struggle with the teasing
element of friction. Sir John French eliminated that at the outset.
Even more difficult was the problem of seniority. General Joffre, who
is French's superior, is his inferior in rank, not being a
Field-Marshal. Here was a situation teeming with difficulties. The
slightest clumsiness on the British Commander's part would have caused
a crisis. There were no crises, because French is a diplomatist as
well as a soldier.

No sooner had the British army fairly landed on French soil than it
was faced with the worst trial of war--a prolonged and perilous
retreat before overwhelming odds. But Sir John French knew all that
was to be known of the scientific retreat. Had he not seen it thirty
years ago on an Egyptian desert, and practised its every form time and
again on the African veldt? In four days the British force covered 60
miles in orderly and aggressive retreat, without once giving way to
confusion or disorder. The men who had been with French in South
Africa, General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien and General Sir Douglas Haig,
had the situation in hand from the first. The retreat was a triumph
for the British army, and particularly for the cavalry which French
had trained. Nor was its route that desired by the German Headquarters
Staff. Through the vigour of his cavalry charges, French was able to
dictate his own line of retreat. He had held his position long enough
to save the French left wing; and he had retreated in order before a
force five times that of his own.

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