Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1918 — Britishers in United States Called to Colors [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Britishers in United States Called to Colors

By EARLE HOOKER EATON.

IB F A MAN wants to fight nowadays there is no reason why he should not be* accommodated. The United States is not only a vast recruiting camp for its own armies, but Great Britain is engaged in a i strenuous campaign to get every Britisher and Canadian in the • States to volunteer for service under the British flag. This work is being done pendIng the outcome of international negotiations at Washington which, if consummated, will permit the British and Canadian recruiting mission under the leadership of Brig, Gen.W. A. White, C. M. G., to draft every Britisher and Canadian now residing in the United States, and the United States to draft every one of its citizens who lives in Great Britain or Canada. This is a very important matter, particularly for the Britishers and Canadians, because there are at least 200,000 of them over whom Old Glory waves, and the names and addresses of at least 175,000 of them are known to General White and his staff because they have been taken from the draft records of the United States. Many of these are coming forward every day of their own accord, but the recruiting mission wants every man of them who is physically fit to volunteer for the British or Canadian armies. About 14,000 have already gone into these armies, and in one month recently over half of the recruits secured for the Canadian expeditionary forces came from the United States. When Brigadier General White asks a man to fight he doesn’t ask him to do any more thaw he' has done himself. He is an officer in the regular army of Great Britain, and that he lost no time himself in getting into the fray is shown by the fact that he reached Belgium about August 6, 1914, a few days after the war was declared, and got into action almost Immediately. He had general charge of the rear guard actions from Mons to the Marne, in which a small British army ma-

terially aided the French in holding back the German hordes under General Von Kluck and made possible the great victory at the Marne planned by General Joffre. After fighting in France and Belgium for almost two years, General White was taken severely ill with appendicitis, and after two operations was invalided to America on his present recruiting mission. Anyone who is familiar with the rear-guard actions fought by the British between Mons and the Marne —heart-breaking actions in which the brave men involved, although vastly outnumbered by the army Germany had been getting ready for years, were practically called upon to sacrifice themselves so that Joffre could have time to fully prepare for his wonderful and successful blow against Von Kluck’s flank—knows that every Britisher, from general to private, did the full measure of his duty to his country and to civilization, and that thousands of them paid for that duty with their blood or with their lives. Inspired by such experiences, it is no wonder that General White is. a bit impatient with the Britisher or Canadian who has been under the protection,of the British flag for yea<s, who has enjoyed the liberty and the various advantages claimed by those living or claiming the righty of those living under that flag, and yet who declines to come forward of his own volition and help Great Britain, France and the United States win a war, the object of which is “to make the world safe for democracy.” Several months, no doubt, will pass before the conventions providing reciprocal draft privileges are approved by the United States senate and arrangements are perfected for making the draft effective. The reason the United States senate must first pass on the conventions Is because existing treaties between the United States and Great Britain are to be changed somewhat by them. One odd phase of the situation and one that causes some confusion, is the different age period of the draft in the United States, Great Britain and Canada. . Britishers from eighteen to fortyone may be drafted, Canadians between twenty and thirty-four, and citizens of the" United States between twenty-one and thirty-one. Still another odd phase is the first papers proposition. The United States draft authorities claim every Britisher and Canadian who has taken out first nature alizatlon papers, but these men are all regarded as British subjects by the British government and as such not only at liberty to volunteer but subject to the British and Canadian draft provisions as soon as they become effective in the United States.

The United States and British governments, however, are' working in harmony in this somewhat complicated international matter because, after all, so long as a mhn fights it does not make a great deal of difference whether he goes “over the top” under the British flag or thfe Stars and Stripes. The main proposition is to see that he gets into the firing line in one army or the other Ad does “his bit” against the Prussian military autocracy. It is an army axiom that three men are needed behind the lines to keep one soldier in a front line trench ready to go over the top. Men who fight must be backed by men who work, and experts in all sorts of trades are needed. The British and Canadian recruiting mission, for example. Is now in urgent need of blacksmiths, boat builders, carpenters, caulkers, drillers, frame benders, heavy timbermen, platers, platers’ helpers,- pile drivers, quarrymen, riggers, riveters and their mates, seamen, shipwrights, shipyard machinists and stevedores. The average man of fifty-six thinks that no one wants him for war purposes, but he is mistaken. Let “old Doctqr Osler” take notice that the British government thinks that a man of fifty-six, provided he knows his business, is well worth acquiring for its service in the Royal Imperial Engineers. This corps offers a special opening to men between fifty-one and fifty-six, and to younger men who are highly skilled or medically unfit for general service, but who are fit to carry on their trade occupation. They are being enlisted for the duration of the war, and rank from privates to sergeants, a private receiving 76 cents per day, a lance corporal 84 cents, a second corporal sl, a corporal SI.OB and a sergeant $1.28, separation allowances being paid to dependents. The Canadian partriotlc fund also gives an allowance to dependents who reside in Canada. Forty clerks are at work in the New York offices of the British and Canadian recruiting mission on a card index system covering the names of every Britisher and Canadian of draft age in the United States, and Brigadier General White has already sent a strong letter to 100,000 of them explaining why they should volunteer, asking them to volunteer or tell him their reasons why they do not do so, and ending with the pertinent query: “Will you not do your part, a man’s part, in this great cause?” The most interesting war relic ever seen in America will be used in General White’s great recruiting campaign. This relic is none other than the tank Britannia, which has already been seen in New York and Canada, but is still a decided novelty to people all over the United States. The Britannia is a genuine British tank, and has seen service on the Flanders front. \ When it first appeared upon the streets of New York, it caused a great sensation as it lumbered along Fifth avenue, and later on was the biggest hit at the Hero Land bazaar. An extensive itinerary has been laid out for the tank and its crew of veterans, several of whom bear wounds received in the service* This novel land battleship carries six machine guns, and is an awe-inspiring sight as it moves over rough country and deep ditches with the same ease and speed it shows when it attacks the German trenches on the French front.