_March 24th, 1917._
DEAR MR. ROOSEVELT,--It may be now frankly confessed--(you, some time
ago, gave me leave to publish your original letter, as it might seem
opportune)--that it was you who gave the impulse last year, which led to
the writing of the first series of Letters on "England's Effort" in the
war, which were published in book form in June 1916. Your appeal--that I
should write a general account for America of the part played by England
in the vast struggle--found me in our quiet country house, busy with
quite other work, and at first I thought it impossible that I could
attempt so new a task as you proposed to me. But support and
encouragement came from our own authorities, and like many other
thousands of English women under orders, I could only go and do my best.
I spent some time in the Munition areas, watching the enormous and rapid
development of our war industries and of the astonishing part played in
it by women; I was allowed to visit a portion of the Fleet, and finally,
to spend twelve days in France, ten of them among the great supply bases
and hospital camps, with two days at the British Headquarters, and on
the front, near Poperinghe, and Richebourg St. Vaast.
The result was a short book which has been translated into many foreign
tongues--French, Italian, Dutch, German, Russian, Portuguese, and
Japanese--which has brought me many American letters from many different
States, and has been perhaps most widely read of all among our own
people. For we all read newspapers, and we all forget them! In this vast
and changing struggle, events huddle on each other, so that the new
blurs and wipes out the old. There is always room--is there not?--for
such a personal narrative as may recall to us the main outlines, and the
chief determining factors of a war in which--often--everything seems to
us in flux, and our eyes, amid the tumult of the stream, are apt to lose
sight of the landmarks on its bank, and the signs of the
approaching goal.
And now again--after a year--I have been attempting a similar task, with
renewed and cordial help from our authorities at home and abroad. And I
venture to address these new Letters directly to yourself, as to that
American of all others to whom this second chapter on England's Effort
may look for sympathy. Whither are we tending--your country and mine?
Congress meets on April 1st. Before this Letter reaches you great
decisions will have been taken. I will not attempt to speculate. The
logic of facts will sweep our nations together in some sort of intimate
union--of that I have no doubt.
How much further, then, has Great Britain marched since the Spring of
last year--how much nearer is she to the end? One can but answer such
questions in the most fragmentary and tentative way, relying for the
most part on the opinions and information of those who know, those who
are in the van of action, at home and abroad, but also on one's own
personal impressions of an incomparable scene. And every day, almost, at
this breathless moment, the answer of yesterday may become obsolete.
I left our Headquarters in France, for instance, some days before the
news of the Russian revolution reached London, and while the Somme
retirement was still in its earlier stages. Immediately afterwards the
events of one short week transformed the whole political aspect of
Europe, and may well prove to have changed the face of the war--although
as to that, let there be no dogmatising yet! But before the pace becomes
faster still, and before the unfolding of those great and perhaps final
events we may now dimly foresee, let me try and seize the impressions of
some memorable weeks and bring them to bear--so far as the war is
concerned--on those questions which, in the present state of affairs,
must interest you in America scarcely less than they interest us here.
Where, in fact, do we stand?
Any kind of answer must begin with the Navy. For, in the case of Great
Britain, and indeed scarcely less in the case of the Allies, that is the
foundation of everything. To yourself the facts will all be
familiar--but for the benefit of those innumerable friends of the Allies
in Europe and America whom I would fain reach with the help of your
great name, I will run through a few of the recent--the ground--facts of
the past year, as I myself ran through them a few days ago, before, with
an Admiralty permit, I went down to one of the most interesting naval
bases on our coast and found myself amid a group of men engaged night
and day in grappling with the submarine menace which threatens not only
Great Britain, not only the Allies, but yourselves, and every neutral
nation. It is well to go back to these facts. They are indeed worthy of
this island nation, and her seaborn children.
To begin with, the _personnel_ of the British Navy, which at the
beginning of the war was 140,000, was last year 300,000. This year it is
400,000, or very nearly three times what it was before the war. Then as
to ships,--"If we were strong in capital ships at the beginning of the
war"--said Mr. Balfour, last September, "we are yet stronger
now--absolutely and relatively--and in regard to cruisers and destroyers
there is absolutely no comparison between our strength in 1914 and our
strength now. There is no part of our naval strength in which we have
not got a greater supply, and in some departments an incomparably
greater supply than we had on August 4th, 1914.... The tonnage of the
Navy has increased by well over a million tons since war began."
So Mr. Balfour, six months ago. Five months later, it fell to Sir Edward
Carson to move the naval estimates, under pressure, as we all know, of
the submarine anxiety. He spoke in the frankest and plainest language of
that anxiety, as did the Prime Minister in his now famous speech of
February 22nd, and as did the speakers in the House of Lords, Lord
Lytton, Lord Curzon and Lord Beresford, on the same date. _The attack is
not yet checked. The danger is not over._ Still again--look at some of
the facts! In two years and a quarter of war--
Eight million men moved across the seas--almost without mishap.
Nine million and a half tons of explosives carried to our own armies
and those of our Allies.