THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.
THE news that a small Expeditionary Force, amounting to about a division of Regular troops, is to come from the United States as soon as possible to fight in France has been received with unbounded satisfaction in Great Britain. President Wilson, having made up his mind thot war was the only way of salvation for the world, seems to be acting as though he had followed and marked all the lessons whirl' the Allies have learned through very painful experience. It, -is evident that he believes that a method of carrying on war with less than your whole strength is the most unsatisfactory, the most expensive, and the most cruel that can be devised. He wisely means to keep clear of that method. Observers here are impressed by the fact that he isdoing nothing slowly, and nothing by halves. This decision to send an expeditionary Force without delay is probably one of the wisest of his many recent acts of foresight and resolution. The display of the -American flag and the American uniform on the Western front will be a pledge and a stimulus of a moral value out of all proportion- to the number of the troops sent. There are many possible lines of criticism of the President's decision, but we feel that the proof of his personal enthusiasm, of his anxiety to be "in it up to the neck" at the earliest moment, will turn out to be of vast and determining importance. It has been said that the American Regulars are the only men who can adequately train the New Armies of American recruits, and that therefore they ought all to be kept in the United States till the new soldiers have learned enough to be independent. But we suspect that Mr. Wilson has a much more cogent argument than that. He probably considers that nothing but the best training is good enough for the New Armies, and that the best training can be given only by those who have taken part in the unprecedented warfare of the Western front. We are writing quite without evidence on this subject, but we hope that the sending of a division of Regulars to France means that the American military authori- ties recognize that as many of their men as possible must be taught their business in the best of all schools—the school on the spot. It is excellent news that the United States Government will probably send a regiment of Marines with the division of Regulars. Ten thousand engineers are also being recruited to serve in France. Add these to the division of Regulars and the Marines, and the numbers of the E.xpedi- tionary Force will amount to nearly thirty-five thousand men. The prospect of this force arriving within a short time after the declaration of war is a magnificent demonstration of American earnestness. The Germans little knew the kind of people they were taking on when they weighed them in the balance against the desperate hope of a ' '-boat victory. It is hoped, as the Washington correspondent of the Times tells us, that before the autumn the American Regular Army will have risen to two hundred and ninety thousand by voluntary recruiting. The Militia or National Guard will raise its strength this summer to three hundred and thirty thousand, also by voluntary recruiting. Behind these there is the enormous mass of human material, liable to compulsory service, out of which fresh Armies can be formed. If con- scription be applied only to men of twenty-one to thirty (as at present proposed), ten million men will be available. Of these the first half-million are to be called up in the autumn after the voluntary recruiting of the Regulars and the Militia is completed. It will be interesting to see what method is adopted of selecting men for service out of the available ten millions. Perhaps the Government will require each district to furnish its quota, and apply compulsion only to those districts which fail to reach the standard. In this way the voluntary spirit would be preserved within the borders of compulsion, just as Lincoln made volunteering real by his imposition of the Draft.
The appointment of General Pershing to command the American Expeditionary Force has been received with as much pleasure here as in America. He is an experienced and trusted soldier. He was educated at West Point, which provides one of the best military educations in the world, and joined the cavalry in 1886. He took part in the expedition to Cuba in the Spanish-American War in 1898, and in the campaign against the Philippine rebels which followed that war. He very quickly made a great reputation for himself • in the Philippines as a man of patience and judgment in dealing with the natives as well as a hard-hitting soldier. On his return to the United States he enjoyed the high military position he had earned, and he was naturally chosen to command in the recent campaign in Mexico. There, for political reasons, he was never given a free hand, and that he came out of that unhappy country with great credit to him- self, and without having forfeited either the wholesome respect of his enemy or the entire confidence of his Government, was not the least of his achievements.
General Pershing is a fine product of one of the most pro- fessional Armies in the world. This description of the American Regular Army may surprise some of our readers, who perhaps think that as the Americans have never taken military affairs very seriously their Regular Army can hardly be compared favourably with the Armies of more military nations. But the American Regular Army is indeed a remarkable body. Although it has seen little service on a grand scale, it has been in another sense on continual active service. One might compare its activities with those of our Navy. It has per- formed the office of policing the United States against Indian marauders and lawless communities. It goes about its work quietly and competently. It has never been the darling of fashion. Soldier pets in the luxurious life of the great cities have been chosen from among crack regiments of the Militia. The Regulars are too busy, and too often away at their remote posts, to force themselves on public attention. The present writer had the privilege of accompanying a Regular regiment of American- infantry in the war of 1898, and he has never forgotten the impression those cool and skilful Officers and men made upon him. The officers were highly intelligent, and their handiness and resourcefulness—the result of their Indian experiences—made a delightful combination with their excep- tional mental equipment. Ins journey by train through almost the entire length of the United States the men were allowed freely to roam about the railway stations when the train stopped, as it frequently did, yet there was not a single case of drunkenness, though the regiment had just said" Good-bye" to its friends and was under the excitement of the approaching campaign. The train passed through " dry " States and " wet " States, but the wet States were just as dry as the dry so far as that regiment was concerned. The present writer remarked on the exemplary behaviour of the men under se little control—to him an astonishing phenomenon—and one of the officers said to him : "Our Army is only about twenty-five thousand strong, but you must remember that it is chosen from the best. The men are decently paid and well treated, and they are expected to produce references when they offer themselves to show that they are worthy of being in the Army. Why, I expect you would find that you could take any wan out of this regiment and safely make him a cashier in a bank ! " Of course in the Cuban Campaign there was a great deal of muddle ; the commissariat services broke down ; the Army was ill equipped ; the medical service was inadequate ; the artillery was armed with poor guns and old-fashioned black powder, which at once obscured the vision and revealed the position of the batteries with clouds of smoke. But the greater part of the failure was due to enteusting the improvisation of machinery to men with a political "pull." The American Regulars were in themselves splendid types of professional soldiers, keen, modest, and brave. When they come over any one here or in France who expects to sec a kind of Wild West circus will receive the surprise of his life. And surprise will change to gratitude and admiration when the Allies have experienced the genius of the American Regular for good- fellowship and loyalty in the field.
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