touched him greatly, and
made him feel proud; on the other hand, strikes for higher pay in
munition factories and ship yards angered and disgusted him.

There was no great leadership anywhere, and the Englishman in his
heart of hearts knew it. Lloyd George, whom he acknowledged to be the
only genius in the Government, he either idolized or cursed, according
to whether he approved of his socialistic ideas or not. Englishmen I
talked to, even in France later on, fairly foamed at the mouth when
the little Welshman's name was mentioned, and refused to read the
"Times" which they said was run by "that traitor Northcliffe." It was
all very interesting to us, who hoped against hope that the man who to
our perspective was the one great man of vision would be given the
opportunity to become the man of action.

It was when one reached the heart of things, the War Office, that one
began to realize the undercurrents which were being set up in the
national life as a result of the war. In the court yard of the War
Office, which was carefully guarded by policemen, were large numbers
of women, young and old, waiting for news of son or husband, wounded
or killed. The looks on their faces were sufficient evidence of
tragedies which were increasing from day to day, and which would
eventually waken England. Inside the door was a reception room where
those who had business of any sort showed their credentials, signed
the necessary form, and were sent on to the various departments to
charge of a boy scout. Cots in the corridors, and specially walled-off
offices indicated the expansion going on in the various departments.

The war office authorities were going at the problem in hand in a most
unbusiness like way as far as the enlisting of recruits was concerned
but already had 800,000 men in training in England. Those in training
were not even equipped with rifles and uniforms.

After all the fault-finding in Canada before we left about the
slowness in getting us away it was interesting to learn that our
contingent had probably been more quickly outfitted and prepared for
the field than any other territorial or militia unit in the Empire.

In the course of my stay I dined at many of the famous London
restaurants, but the larger ones were usually empty and depressing.
One had to eat somewhere and one might as well take every possible
opportunity of seeing this phase of life in London in war time. One
night at the "Carlton" there were not