12 AUGUST 1916, Page 2

Thousands of wounded soldiers metat the Albert Hall on the

same day to hold a patriotic demonstration. General Smith-Dorrien told them that Sir William Robertson shared the ordinary civilian's surprise at the way in which our old Army, " with hardly any reserves and with very few guns and ammunition," held the line in Flanders in the first months of the war. All that we have learned of the strength of the German artillery intensifies our admiration of the bravery by which Ypres was held and the German march to the Straits stopped forever. The tide of war had turned, said the General. " But he did not believe the man was born who would say when the war would come to an end, whether it would be this year or next year," or, we may add, the year after. The only thing certain is that the harder we work and the more thoroughly we con- centrate our energies on the winning of the war, the sooner it *ill be over.