Towards the Goal | Page 3

Prisoners--A Fat Factory--A Use for Everything--G.H.Q.--Intelligence Department--"The Issue of the War"--An Aerodrome--The Task of the Aviators--The Visitors' Chateau.
No. 2
A French School--Our Soldiers and French Children--Nissen Huts--Tanks--A Primeval Plough--A Division on the March--Significant Preparations --Increase of Ammunition--"The Fosses"--A Sacred Spot--Vimy Ridge--The Sound of the Guns--A Talk with a General--Why the Germans Retreat--Growth of the New Armies--Soldiers at School.
No. 3
America Joins the Allies--The British Effort--Creating an Army--_L'Union Sacrée_--Registration--Accommodation--Clothing--Arms and Equipment--A Critical Time--A Long-continued Strain--Training--O.T.C.'S--Boy Officers--The First Three Armies--Our Wonderful Soldiers--An Advanced Stage--The Final Result--Spectacle of the Present--Snipers and Anti-snipers--The Result.
No. 4
Vimy Ridge--The Morale of our Men--Mons. le Maire--Ubiquitous Soldiers--The Somme--German Letters--German Prisoners--Amiens--"Taking Over" a Line--Poilus and Tommies--"Taking Over" Trenches--French Trenches--Unnoticed Changes--Amiens Cathedral--German Prisoners --Confidence.
No. 5
German Fictions--Winter Preparation--Albert--La Boisselle and Ovillers--In the Track of War--Regained Ground--Enemy Preparations--German Dug-outs--"There were no Stragglers" --Contalmaison--Devastation--Retreating Germans--Death, Victory, Work--Work of the R.E.--A Parachute--Approaching Victory.
No. 6
German Retreat--Enemy Losses--Need of Artillery--Awaiting the Issue--Herr Zimmermann--Training--A National Idea--Training--Fighting for Peace--Stubbornness and Discipline--Training of Officers --Responsibility--The British Soldier--Soldiers' Humour--A Boy Hero--"They have done their job"--Casualties--Reconnaissance--Air Fighting--Use of Aeroplanes--Terms of Peace.
No. 7
Among the French--German Barbarities--Beauty of France--French Families--Paris--To Senlis--Senlis--The Curé of Senlis--The German Occupation--August 30th, 1914--Germans in Senlis--German Brutality--A Savage Revenge--A Burning City--Murder of the Mayor--The Curé in the Cathedral--The Abbé's Narrative--False Charges--Wanton Destruction--A Sudden Change--Return of the French--Ermenonville--Scenes of Battle--Vareddes.
No. 8
Battle of the Ourcq--Von Kluck's Mistake--Anniversary of the Battle--Wreckage of War--A Burying Party--A Funeral--A Five Days' Battle--Life-and-Death Fighting--"_Salut au Drapeau_"--Meaux --Vareddes--Murders at Vareddes--Von Kluck's Approach--The Turn of the Tide--The Old Curé--German Brutalities--Torturers --The Curé's Sufferings--"He is a Spy"--A Weary March--Outrages --Victims--Reparation--To Lorraine.
No. 9
épernay-Chalons--Snow--Nancy--The French People--_L'Union Sacrée_--France and England--Nancy--Hill of Léomont--The Grand Couronné--The Lorraine Campaign--Taubes--Vitrimont--Miss Polk--A Restored Church--Society of Friends--Gerbéviller--Soeur Julie--Mortagne--An Inexpiable Crime--Massacre of Gerbéviller--"Les Civils ont tiré"--Soeur Julie--The Germans come--German Wounded--Barbarities in Hospital--Soeur Julie and Germans--The French Return--Germans at Nancy--Nancy saved--A Warm Welcome--Adieu to Lorraine
No. 10
Doctrine of Force--Disciplined Cruelty--German Professors--Professor von Gierke--An Orgy of Crime--Return Home--Russia--The Revolution--Liberty like Young Wine--What will Russia do?--America joins--America and France--The British Advance--British Successes--The Italians--A Soldier's Letter--Aircraft and Guns--The German Effort--April Hopes--Submarines--Tradition of the Sea--Last Threads--The Food Situation--More Arable Land--Village Patriotism--Food Prices--The Labour Outlook--Finance--Messines--The Tragedy of War--A Celtic Legend--Europe and America

TOWARDS THE GOAL
No. 1
_March 24th, 1917._
DEAR MR. ROOSEVELT,--It may be now frankly confessed--(you, some time ago, gave me leave to publish your original letter, as it might seem opportune)--that it was you who gave the impulse last year, which led to the writing of the first series of Letters on "England's Effort" in the war, which were published in book form in June 1916. Your appeal--that I should write a general account for America of the part played by England in the vast struggle--found me in our quiet country house, busy with quite other work, and at first I thought it impossible that I could attempt so new a task as you proposed to me. But support and encouragement came from our own authorities, and like many other thousands of English women under orders, I could only go and do my best. I spent some time in the Munition areas, watching the enormous and rapid development of our war industries and of the astonishing part played in it by women; I was allowed to visit a portion of the Fleet, and finally, to spend twelve days in France, ten of them among the great supply bases and hospital camps, with two days at the British Headquarters, and on the front, near Poperinghe, and Richebourg St. Vaast.
The result was a short book which has been translated into many foreign tongues--French, Italian, Dutch, German, Russian, Portuguese, and Japanese--which has brought me many American letters from many different States, and has been perhaps most widely read of all among our own people. For we all read newspapers, and we all forget them! In this vast and changing struggle, events huddle on each other, so that the new blurs and wipes out the old. There is always room--is there not?--for such a personal narrative as may recall to us the main outlines, and the chief determining factors of a war in which--often--everything seems to us in flux, and our eyes, amid the tumult of the stream, are apt to lose sight of the landmarks on its bank, and the signs of the approaching goal.
And now again--after a year--I have been attempting a similar task, with renewed and cordial help from our authorities at home and abroad. And I venture to address these new Letters directly to yourself, as to that American of all others to whom this second chapter on England's Effort may look for sympathy. Whither are we tending--your country and mine? Congress meets on April 1st. Before this Letter reaches you great decisions will have been taken. I will not attempt to speculate. The logic of facts will sweep our nations together in some sort of intimate union--of that I have no doubt.
How much further, then, has Great Britain