dy of work other than one's own," "understanding of
the other man's job"--for the highest success in any branch of the
Army, these were and are indispensable. Only so can the vast machine
work satisfactorily; only so can the human intelligence embodied in it
come to its own.

To the two subsidiary services most in the public eye--tanks and
aeroplanes--I will return presently. As to the Signal Service, the
"nervous system" of the Army, on which "co-operation and combination"
depend, it has grown, says the Field Marshal, "almost out of
recognition." At the outbreak of war it consisted of 2,400 officers
and men; by the end of the war it had risen to 42,000. Cables,
telegrams, wireless, carrier-pigeons and dog messengers--every kind of
device was used for keeping up the communications, which mean
everything in battle. The signal officer and his men creeping out over
No Man's Land to mend a wire, or lay down a new one, in the very heart
of the fighting, have carried the lives of thousands in their hands,
and have risked their own without a thought. Sir Douglas Haig, from
his Headquarters, spoke not only to every unit in the British Army,
but to the Headquarters of our Allies--to London, Paris, and
Marseilles. An Army Headquarters was prepared to deal with 10,000
telegrams and 5,000 letters in twenty-four hours; and wherever an army
went, its cables and telephones went with it. As many as 6,500 miles
of field cable have been issued in a single week, and the weekly
average over the whole of 1918 was 3,000.

As to the Rearward and Transport Services, seeing that the Army was
really the nation, with the best of British intelligence everywhere at
its command, it is not surprising perhaps that a business people,
under the pressure of a vital struggle, obtained so brilliant a
success. In 1916, I saw something of the great business departments of
the Army--the Army Service, Army Ordnance, and Motor Transport depots
at Havre and Rouen. The sight was to me a bewildering illustration of
what English "muddling" could do when put to the test. On my return to
London, Dr. Page, the late American Ambassador, who during the years
when America was still neutral had managed, notwithstanding, to win
all our hearts, gave me an account of the experience of certain
American officers in the same British bases, and the impression made
on them. "They came here afterwards on their way home," he said--I
well remember his phrase, "with the eyes starti