and noncombatants; at the unprincipled employment of such trickery in war as the use of asphyxiating gases, or at the insulting and ill-treating of those of their army who have been captured by the Germans.  It is at the English, not at the French or the Belgians, that Germany is striking in this war.  Her whole attitude shows it.  British statesmen knew this from the beginning, but the people were slow to believe it.  But escaped prisoners have told that they were discriminated against.  I have talked with a British officer who made a sensational escape from a German prison camp.  German soldiers have called across to the French trenches that it was the English they were after.

In his official order to his troops to advance, the German Emperor voiced the general sentiment.

“It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies, for the immediate present, upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill and all the valour of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English and walk over General French’s contemptible little army.

“Headquarters,

“Aix-la-Chapelle, August 19th, 1914.”

In the name of the dignity of great nations, compare that order with Lord Kitchener’s instructions to his troops, given at the same time.

“You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy.  You have to perform a task which will need your courage, your energy, your patience.  Remember that the honour of the British Army depends on your individual conduct.  It will be your duty not only to set an example of discipline and perfect steadiness under fire, but also to maintain the most friendly relations with those whom you are helping in this struggle.

“The operations in which you are engaged will, for the most part, take place in a friendly country, and you can do your own country no better service than in showing yourselves in France and Belgium in the true character of a British soldier.

“Be invariably courteous, considerate, and kind.  Never do anything likely to injure or destroy property, and always look upon looting as a disgraceful act.  You are sure to meet with a welcome and to be trusted; your conduct will justify that welcome and that trust.  Your duty cannot be done unless your health is sound.  So keep constantly on your guard against any excesses.  In this new experience you may find temptations both in wine and women.  You must entirely resist both temptations, and, while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy.

    “Do your duty bravely,

    “Fear God,

    “Honour the King.

    “(Signed), KITCHENER, Field Marshal,”

CHAPTER XXVI

A LUNCHEON AT BRITISH HEADQUARTERS