or obvious reasons. Between right and wrong one cannot
be a neutral. In foregoing the diversion of shaking hands and passing
the time of day on the Germanic fronts, I escaped any bargain with
my conscience by accepting the hospitality of those warring for a
cause and in a manner obnoxious to me. I was among friends, living
the life of one army and seeing war in all its aspects from day to day,
instead of having tourist glimpses.

Chapters which deal with the British army in France and with the
British fleet have been submitted to the censor. Though the censor
may delete military secrets, he may not prompt opinions. Whatever
notes of praise and of affection which you may read between the
lines or in them spring from the mind and heart. Undemonstratively,
cheerily as they would go for a walk, with something of old-fashioned
chivalry, the British went to death.

Their national weaknesses and strength, revealed under external
differences by association, are more akin to ours than we shall realize
until we face our own inevitable crisis. Though one's ancestors had
been in America for nearly three centuries, he was continually finding
how much of custom, of law, of habit, and of instinct he had in
common with them; and how Americans who were not of British blood
also shared these as an applied inheritance that has been the most
formative element in the American crucible.

My grateful acknowledgments are due to the American press
associations who considered me worthy to be the accredited
American correspondent at the British front, and to Collier's and
Everybody's; and may an author who has not had the opportunity to
read proofs request the reader's indulgence.

FREDERICK PALMER. British Headquarters, France.

My Year Of The War

I
"Le Brave Belge!"

The rush from Monterey, in Mexico, when a telegram said that
general European war was inevitable; the run and jump on board the
Lusitania at New York the night that war was declared by England
against Germany; the Atlantic passage on the liner of ineffaceable
memory, a suspense broken by fragments of war news by wireless;
the arrival in England before the war was a week old; the journey to
Belgium in the hope of reaching the scene of action!--as I write, all
seem to have the perspective of history, so final are the processes of
war, so swift their execution, and so eager is everyone for each day's
developments. As one grows older the years seem shorte