The football which a battalion of the East Surrey Regiment
dribbled into action on July 1st, somewhere near Albert, was formally placed among the regimental treasures at the depot at Kingston on Friday week. It was a little ceremony which every white man in the Empire will understand. Captain Nevill led his men out of the trenches and kicked off. He himself was shot down, but the East Surreys dribbled the ball into the enemy trenches held by the Prussian Guard and scored their goal. They suffered heavy losses ; Private Draper, who was selected to inflate the ball on Friday week, said that of his machine-gun detachment only three reached the German line. But nothing could stop the East Surreys. Colonel Treeby, com- manding the depot, remarked that " if Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, this war was being won by our footballers." It is true that the elements of good sportsmanship which we acquire in youth in the football field count for much both in the rapid evolution of our New Armies and in their wonderful success on the battlefield.
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