gone through so much together that it
would be an infinite pity if any misunderstanding were suffered to cloud
our friendship for want of a little candour on my part. No _Entente_ can
retain its cordiality without mutual candour; and hitherto the reticence
has been all on our side.

"Not when your splendid courage and your noble sacrifices gave us a theme;
then we were always frankly loud in our admiration; but when we reflected
upon what I may venture to call your faults and failings. Whatever we may
have thought about them during all those terrible years, you will find in
our public statements no note of criticism and not a single word that did
not breathe a true loyalty. You too were generous in your praise of us when
we won battles; and at the end, with your own FOCH for witness, you were
quick to recognise what part we played in those great Autumn days that
brought the crowning victory. But it almost looks as if your memory of our
brotherhood in arms were beginning to fail; as if we, who were then hailed
as your 'glorious Ally,' were about to resume our old name--it has already
been revived in some quarters--of 'Perfide Albion.'

"Oh, I know that the best of France is loyal to us; that her true chivalry
understands. But what of your public that is all ear for the so-called
_Echo de Paris_, with its constant incitement to jealousy and suspicion of
England? What of your second-rate Press and its pin-pricking policy,
connived at, if not actually encouraged, by your Government?

"Of course I recognise that you never really liked the idea of all those
British soldiers making themselves at home in your country, though they did
it as nicely as it could be done, and made hosts of friends in the process.
I can believe that we should not have been too well pleased at having a
like number of French troops established between Dover and London. I don't
say we should have charged you rent for every yard of their trenches or
claimed heavy damages for any injury they might have done to our roads in
the course of defending the Metropolis from our common enemy. But we
certainly should not have been depressed when we found that they needn't
stay any longer. Still I hope we should have registered on the tablets of
our hearts a permanent record indicating that we appreciated their
friendliness in coming to our support.

"But I am told that the secret of the present attitude of our French
critics is that they cannot forgive us for ha