The British fleet has for three years kept the seas open for the neutral
nations. The English fleet has protected Canada and other parts of the
empire that have no navies of their own. The English must keep an army in
England to protect her own shores. There was danger of invasion--that
danger is past to all seeming, but it would not have passed had not the
English had men on English soil.
"And, you know, we think it dreadful that our boys are being sent over to
France to fight for democracy when England is keeping her men back in
safety in England."
Another story this--another "terminological inexactitude." A fairly clever
one. There is a half truth here. Yes; England has big reserves in England,
and it's well for the world that she has. Well for the neutral world during
these three years that England has her men in England.
The English have good reserves and they are in England. They are there
because England is nearer to the firing line than is the base in France.
They are there because it is easier to transport troops by boat across the
English Channel, which is a matter of twenty-one miles, and another twenty
or thirty miles in a train on the French side, than it is to transport them
in cattle cars over a congested railroad system from a base some twenty-six
hours from the front line.
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