of the British Armies on the last
stage of the struggle had been to some extent obscured and
misunderstood even amongst ourselves--still more, and very naturally,
amongst our Allies. Not, of course, by any of those in close contact
with the actual march of the war, and its directing forces; but rather
by that floating public opinion, now more intelligent, now more
ignorant, which plays so largely on us all, whether through
conversation or the press.

[1] My thanks are especially due to Lieut.-Colonel Boraston, of the
General Staff, and also to my friend Colonel John Buchan, whose
wonderful knowledge of the war, as shown in his History, has done
so much during the last four years to keep the public at home in
touch with all the forces of the Allies, but especially with the
British Armies and the British Navy, throughout the whole course of
the struggle.

My object, then, was to bring out as clearly as I could the part that
the British Armies in France, including, of course, the great Dominion
contingents, played in the fighting of last year. To do so, it was
necessary also to try and form some opinion as to the respective
shares in the final result of the three great Armies at work in France
in 1918; to put the effort of Great Britain, that is, in its due
relation to the whole concluding act of the war. In making such an
attempt I am very conscious of its audacity; and I need not say that
it would be a cause of sharp regret to me should the estimate here
given--which is, of course, the estimate of an Englishwoman--offend
any French or American friend of mine. The justice and generosity of
the best French opinion on the war has been conspicuously shown on
many recent occasions; while the speech in Paris the other day of the
If Dean of Harvard as to the relative parts in the war--on French
soil--of the Big Three--and the reception given to it by an audience
of American officers have, I venture to think, stirred and deepened
affection for America in the heart of those English persons who read
the report of a remarkable meeting. But there is still much ignorance
both here at home and among our Allies, on both sides of the sea, of
the full part played by the forces of the British Empire in last
year's drama. So it seemed to me, at least, when I was travelling, a
few months ago, over some of the battle-fields of 1918; and I came
home with a full heart, determined to tell the story--the last chapter
in _England