were required for transporting
American troops and supplies for these troops, to France. This
additional curtailment was most felt by families of small income, whose
earners were at the front or away on other government service. Mothers
had great difficulty in getting adequate nourishment for growing
children. But the British people cheerfully submitted to this further
deprivation. Summer is at hand. It is to be hoped that before another
winter sets in, American and British shipping will have sufficiently
increased to remedy the situation.

In regard to what I have said of the British army, I was profoundly
struck, as were other visitors to that front, by the health and
morale of the men, by the marvel of organization accomplished in so
comparatively brief a time. It was one of the many proofs of the extent
to which the British nation had been socialized. When one thought of
that little band of regulars sent to France in 1914, who became immortal
at Mons, who shared the glory of the Marne, and in that first dreadful
winter held back the German hosts from the Channel ports, the presence
on the battle line of millions of disciplined and determined men seemed
astonishing indeed. And this had been accomplished by a nation facing
the gravest crisis in its history, under the necessity of sustaining and
financing many allies and of protecting an Empire. Since my return to
America a serious reverse has occurred.

After the Russian peace, the Germans attempted to overwhelm the British
by hurling against them vastly superior numbers of highly trained men.
It is for the military critic of the future to analyse any tactical
errors that may have been made at the second battle of the Somme.
Apparently there was an absence of preparation, of specific orders from
high sources in the event of having to cede ground. This much can be
said, that the morale of the British Army remains unimpaired; that the
presence of mind and ability of the great majority of the officers
who, flung on their own resources, conducted the retreat, cannot be
questioned; while the accomplishment of General Carey, in stopping the
gap with an improvised force of non-combatants, will go down in history.
In an attempt to bring home to myself, as well as to my readers, a
realization of what American participation in this war means or should
mean.

A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME

CHAPTER I

Toward the end of the summer of 1917 it was very hot in New York, a