Mr. Leslie Here-Belisha, Secretary of State for War, on Wednesday revealed in the House of Commons some interesting details regarding the despatch of the British expeditionary force to France. Without any losses whatsoever, 158,- 000 men were transported across the English Channel and took up positions alongside the French army. This meant a vast piece of organization for transportation, camps and accommodation had to be provided and movements carried out with a certainty and secrecy which would prevent or minimize enemy knowledge of these movements. With the Maginot Line in existence, a safety corridor has been provided which obviated the casualties suffered by the "Old Contemptibles" of 1914, who had to march along exposed roads and cart tracks facing heavy enemy fire on their way to the front. From a British military point of view—and this is of tremendous importance in assessing the morale of an army—there is no officially accepted march tune. During the last war "Tipporary" helped millions of tired feet to tread the weary way to the front and back, and a group of other songs of sanguinary and somewhat forceful language cheered the men on to victory. In this war, alas, German propaganda may have been responsible for scoring one anti-British point since the incident when the German radio station broadcast "Parlez Moi D'Amour" for the benefit of the French troops. While the newly-formed militia in England marched along country roads to the tune of the march from Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,"—"Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, Back to work we go"—when the BEF. reached France they found that the French troops had annexed as a marching song "Boomps-a-Daisy," which privately, without any reference to the Army Council or the Ministry of Information, had been selected by the British troops. Most of the poilus had learned to whistle the tune after it had been played by cafe orchestras for weeks before the war and "Boomps-a-Daisy" is now reported to be well on the way to rivalling "Tipperary." This must be a serious reflection on the British General Staff. All details, even to the extent of sending war correspondents whom Lord Kitchener ju the last war considered unnecessary- pests and threatened with court martial have been made and the landing of the expeditionary forces executed with emciency to the utmost degree, but it looks as if there has been a serious blunder in not providing a most essential detail such as a good marching song. "Tipperary" is said to have been written in a public house for a bet. In addition to swamping the Ministry of Information with 800 officials and forty or fifty journalists who really do the work it might be a good idea to requisition the services of Jack Hylton and his band to do the job. It is details like these, overlooked in the task of creating and moving a large army, which count immeasurably in the end.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.