A fresh force of 50,000 held in reserve near Paris flew by motors and motor-busses against the right wing of Von Kluck, which the English in retiring had been punishing so heavily.  Von Kluck had been drawn too far into France with no support on his left from the army of the Crown Prince, which the French had held at bay but with a tremendous sacrifice of men.  The German ammunition and supply-trains were broken and the armies of Von Kluck were hurled back from Paris about as rapidly as they had come forward.

Then the Kaiser took a hand and cried, “Now for the English; take the Channel ports; forward against Calais!” and again, as at Liege, the blood of the Germans soaked the soil of Belgium.  The Allies dug themselves into the ground behind the rivers and canals, and drowned the Germans out in front; and when an advance by the seacoast was attempted, the English naval guns spilled havoc into the German battalions.  Four nationalities grappled in a death-struggle, but the wall of the Allies held from Switzerland to the sea.  The Allies worked most harmoniously.  Belgian knowledge of topography proved superior to the German general-staff maps.  The English buttressed the French financially and in transportation and food-supplies.  Indeed, Kitchener at one time fed two French army corps, or 80,000 troops, for eleven days without a hitch.

Although England had not the trained men, she had the fundamental military organization, transportation, food, and finance.

CHAPTER VII

FRENCH FINANCE

Delayed Budgets—­The Caillaux Position—­Outgeneralled in Finance—­Gold Reserves Undiminished—­Allied Finance—­No Financial Legislation—­The National Defense Loans.

The spectacle of England loaning money to rich France—­20,000,000 pounds sterling, or $100,000,000—­was something most surprising.

The French have been considered among the best financiers and economists of Europe.  The whole world has been envious of the saving ability of France, and has invited the overflow of her accumulations into their local enterprises.  For many years France has had the lowest interest rates and a considerable surplus to invest in outside countries.  It is upon France that Russia has mainly relied for funds for her expanding industrial development.  In the Baring crisis she sent her gold to London to fortify the situation, and in the American crisis of 1907 she extended her hand across the sea.  Then she turned about and steadily built up her gold reserve in the Bank of France, from $500,000,000 to above $800,000,000, although her people were not expanding in population, industry, or enterprise.  France had grown so confident that she seemed at one time to have lost her financial cunning.

In Germany in 1913 I was told that German finance had passed through the “fire test,” that two years of building recession and of expanding commerce had placed her on a solid financial base; and it was true.