Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1918 — “TOMMY” FINE FIGHTER [ARTICLE]

“TOMMY” FINE FIGHTER

Americans Admire the Spirit of British Army. Entirely New Feeling Growing Up Between Two Kindred Nations in Arma. London. —The military correspondent of the London Times, writing from France, says: “In France we have suddenly discovered America, and America has discovered us. How different we both are from our preconceived notions of each other! We did not know what a highly educated, professional and modest gentleman the American regular officer was, nor did we quite realise what a splendid body of active fighting men he was going to bring over with him. “We are a great deal more enthusiastic about the Americans, and, if I may say so, more proud of them, than we show on the surface. How can we

not regard as men of our own flesh and blood the relays of American soldiers of all grades who come to us, who speak our own language and bear our own names, who understand us in a flash of time, and whose point of view on almost every conceivable subject under heaven is our own? “These sentiments are, I hope, mutual. The Americans did not know what our armies were, nor what they had done or are doing. Many of them know now. They witnesses under fire our grand attacks and our raids. • “They seethe spirit, the discipline and the emulation of our infantry, and they are profoundly impressed by them. I hope that the pride which we feel, without venturing to express it, in the is a little reciprocated by them. I can only say that every American soldier who has told me of his experiences on the British front has spoken with enthusiastic admiration of our men, and that an entirely •new feeling, the consequences of which may be immense, is growing up between the two kindred : natlonsjn •HM." /