James Green

“ Probably the British press will announce to-morrow, 'All calm on the Western Front'; but we know that every night No Man's Land is the scene of deeds of valour and self-sacrifice, proving that our men have the fighting spirit of their fathers; and that apart from the clash of material forces, in the great battle of spirits which is the ultimate basis upon which a decision in war depends, we need not doubt the 'will to victory' of our men. ”

“ It is all natural and, from the human standpoint, right. We may be sure that the God of Battles knows the worth of all our claims, knows how much of truth is contained in our cause. In His name the conscientious objector declines to fight, and God only knows where conscience ends and cowardice begins. 'The Lord is a Man of War,' and if history shows anything it shows that God does not despise the sword as an instrument whereby men contend for the faith, and even the blood of men is not too precious to spill for the defence of the ideals of freedom and right. ”

“ A beautiful country, 'worth fighting for,' is the verdict of many a stalwart Australian from 'out back,' and from perhaps some little Bush township, with but a church, a blacksmith's shop, and an hotel. Further out, of course, there was a race-course, and divided by miles there were the stations and farms, but it was a land of magnificent distances. Here, however, there is intensive cultivation, and towns close to each other. A pleasant land of beautiful trees and rivers, and grass of greenness new to us. But we are getting closer to the desolation of war, closer to the valley of decision. ”

“ For them all, I wish that they may fight on to the certain and glorious victory, and have the luck to return to Australia, the land of sunshine and opportunity—there to help in building up the Commonwealth in harmony with the principles of freedom for which they are fighting. ”

“ The suitability of the gospel message as a response to man's needs, and the perfection of Christ as man's Comrade and Saviour, never shine forth so fully as in the lurid glare of war's terrible perspective.
It is the business of the soldier's preacher to interpret this. He has abundant mental material to hand, and he works in an atmosphere solemn, insistent, and impressive.
If he turns aside to talk of lesser things, he wastes his time. He must not get between the men and God, or put the Church, or its ordinances, or its rules, so far as they are human, between the men and God. ”

“ All we knew was that we would see an airman flying gamely among the puffballs of the breaking anti-aeroplane shells of the enemy, and sometimes he seemed to get into trouble, and we used to cry out, 'They have got him!' He would fall like a stone, recover, fall again, and then when we looked for the awful end he would skim low over the German trenches plying his machine-gun like one o'clock. ”

“ Zero time is 9 p.m., and exactly on the second hell breaks out. Guns in the rear roar out in fury. Trench mortars close at hand vomit forth their missiles of death, and even machine-guns and rifle batteries help to swell the crescendo of battle. The ranges are well known, and the guns do their work without harming our men, who are now crawling forward. ”

“ But, for all that, these chimney-pots of London are a sad commentary on our human nature. Our architecture and building goes wrong just where it comes into contact with rough nature, with its treacherous tempest and veering winds. ”

“ Now the Church has to work in an altogether different atmosphere. It must not be thought that it is an atmosphere less favourable to religion. The drama of the soul never has so fitting a setting as in the red landscape of war, with its alternations of lively death and deadly life.
The very processes of soul growth and the problems of time and eternity are, so to speak, 'filmed.' A lifetime is compressed into a campaign. ”

“ Our Arab camel convoys, on a new-made road parallel with a strategic railway, traversed by electric locomotives—East and 93West together!--lent an air of romance to this period of service. But it was counterbalanced by a severe reality, for on occasions we marched at 7 a.m. with the thermometer at 100 degrees. And a padre's Sunday, beginning with the first church parade at 5 a.m. and conducting others at various posts among the sand-dunes, was a day which left one more conscious of reality than romance.
An atmosphere of romantic interest hangs about our French campaign. ”

“ When a nation strips for war, however, it needs a religion from which everything which is extraneous and superfluous is eliminated.
When the soldier, living in the world of elemental passions and away from all the Church aids and props, free from the suggestiveness of the church as a sacred place and all the sensuous accessories and aids to worship, asks for religion, he wants it neat. ”

“ Suddenly a bolt from the blue fuses all antagonisms into the mad storm which we call 'War.' A good deal of dross will be burnt up, but the pure gold will remain. Out of the collision of national ideals which are right or wrong, heroism and 102self-sacrifice are born. Out of the commotion of contending ideals, truth, single-eyed, in clear perspective and circular, containing every point of view in its comprehensiveness, will emerge. ”

“ There are often water-holes, even swamps, in No Man's Land, and both sides have a habit of draining trenches into it. Wild flowers and even garden flowers grow in this area, for it contains ruined farm-houses and orchards. Poppies red as blood, lilies white as snow, roses, and blue cornflowers are often seen there waving in the breeze, sometimes swaying before the hail of bullets from machine-guns. ”

“ The vested interest of the Drink Traffic has had to be squeezed into more reasonable proportions, and may have to go altogether to secure victory. Men and women are being mobilized for national service, and agitation for women's suffrage is silenced for the present. In the silence it may be that we shall learn that the claim for suffrage depends not upon being but upon doing. National service is surely a good claim for suffrage. Representation should not merely depend upon taxation, but upon a wider qualification—service for the common good in war and peace. ”

“ Even our ideas of religion are changing. The development of theology is being hastened by the 'big push,' and orthodoxy is being tested in the red crucible of war. There is a lot of confusion, and that all the contending nations claim God is embarrassing to us, but not to God. We may be sure that there is no jostling or confusion in the Eternal mind. The Good Shepherd knows His own and is not deceived by our claims and counter-claims. 'Gott mit uns' is engraved upon the belt of each German soldier, and the Kaiser claims God as the German God. ”

“ The raiders are among the Germans now. They rush from dug-out to dug-out bombing. Meeting Huns, they fight face to face and hand to hand. German fire breaks out on No Man's Land, and occasionally a rifle shot. Then, 'bad luck to us,' the Hun ceases to engage our guns, and he puts his high explosives on, and just over our parapets. And this is the time we must get out for our work, for casualties soon come back; indeed a message has come to say that two are back. One man who has brought a wounded comrade and himself has suffered a fall, injuring the knee. ”

“ Our aid-post is a dug-out covered with steel joists and sand-bags; but it rocks with the swish, swish, swish of the shells flying through the air like hail. Now the Boche begins to reply, and every now and then a 'whiz-bang' bursts on the parapets. We can only hope that no high explosive will happen to break on our dug-out. Now the guns lift, and the raiders get closer up. A frenzy of flares go up, and we are so curious that we sneak out to see across 59No Man's Land. We cannot see a man of our party, and we take that to indicate that the Huns, too, cannot see them yet. ”

“ Our airmen are the pride of the infantry. If you want to be cheered up, all you have to do is to look up, and watch these adventurers of the air. Many a stirring fight have we witnessed in the air over that unowned terrain called No Man's Land. ”

“ After the instructor's talks, the men in turn would hurl bombs from one trench to another, until they were no longer 'bomb-shy.' As a matter of fact, a good bomber is just as good a 'life' in the army as any other expert. Indeed, a man may lose his life through the absence of a bomb or the knowledge of how to use it.
In the words of our instructor, 'The cure for the bombing craze is--"A hair of the dog that bit you."'
The Germans are good bombers, and when, in their counter-attack, they come down a trench throwing bombs, the only way is to bomb them back and out again. ”

“ It is this spirit which possesses the women of France. Yet religion here to-day manifests itself in masculine types, and even the Maid of Orleans is portrayed in the garb of a soldier and with a drawn sword. ”

“ The disease (which shows itself in commercial competition too) broke out in the violent inflammation and irruption of war. War is a delirium, a delusion, and a degeneracy. It is made possible by the brute strength of a soulless people on the one part and the weak unpreparedness of an easy-going, prosperous, and pleasure-loving people on the other part. ”

“ But what rouses the enthusiasm of those stricken people is the 'Marseillaise.' When our band strikes up the martial strains of that most wonderful melody, the old men square their shoulders and the boys march bravely alongside us, and the whole roadside seems to be vibrant with the fighting spirit. ”

“ He moves in an atmosphere of romance mingled with grim reality, and he begins to feel that he is living in heroic days. He sees the world in processprocess of reconstruction, 82and looks on whilst the fabric of man's life and character is taken down and built up again according to a new pattern. ”

“ Political excrescences must be sloughed off. Nations will be born or reborn in a day. So war is working the world-fever out of our blood, cleansing our hearts, and making us seriously face life's issues.
To get to particulars. We hear much about man-power to-day. It is the last word of the strategist, the first thought of the statesman, and the secret of victory. But who bothered about man-power a few years ago?
A Russian peasant in Petrograd, after the Revolution, said to an English press correspondent: 'We shall have fine times in the church now. ”

“ There are hoods, and tin monstrosities that rear their ugliness over palaces, and there are chimneys that have been built up so much higher than the original ending, that in their fresh start to the sky they spoil the sky view as well as the contour of the building. There are beautiful chimneys, which begin well, but have to be assisted to do their work by horrible tin extensions soaring into the air. ”

“ Later, when the right time comes, we shall cross No Man's Land at many places, and it will become France again for ever. Until 51that time comes we cannot do more than present our claim to No Man's Land. We do this frequently and 'in person.' Our patrols and scouts enter it nightly, and it requires courage and craft to do this. Through secret sally-ports, over parapets, and where the line has been damaged by shell-fire, they steal out in the darkness, and the German sentries keep a succession of flares and star-shells going to detect them. ”

“ How few of us live up to our fond parents' hopes and prayers! How many of us end far otherwise than our education, advantages, and associations seemed to promise. We have power of choice, we are not made uniform, and we do wobble a lot when we are turned loose among the currents and storms of life.
We overseas Britons are apt to expect too much of dear old London. ”

“ Occasionally, we march through good French towns, with their fine churches and cathedrals. We hate the pavé. It is hard for marching; but we recognize that it is a great advantage to possess such hard roads to bear the enormous War traffic of great guns and heavy motor-lorries, proceeding constantly to the front. Our band cheers us up. We are proud of 14it. The tunes we like best are, 'Advance, Australia Fair,' 'Australia will be There,' and 'Bonnie Dundee.'
The women and children and a few old men come out to cheer and clap, and, occasionally, we see some woman in black turn aside to weep. ”

“ He comes out of a world of self-seeking, but he gradually discovers that men depend 112on each other. In a word, the shells that fly, knocking the parapets about, and the rough and tumble of campaigning knock a man's creed about fearfully. He has to re-sort his ideas of religion and the Church, and when he puts them together again, he finds that they fit his complex needs better when they are built up the other way. ”

“ There are fine towns and villages containing non-combatants on the other side of No Man's Land. It would be but to mock their hopes to advance unless we could sweep on everywhere. Nor do we wish to conquer in such a way that every village is left in ruins. Here and there at strategic points we may have to do that. It is not so much that we want to break through as that we want the whole line to break. ”

“ No Man's Land, with all its pathos and sorrow, the grave of unknown heroes, the battle-ground on which many a brave exploit is enacted which is unnoticed and 65unrecognized, is still the pledge and prophecy of our final victory. ”

“ France, May 13, 1917.
7 FOREWORD For reasons known to the men of the Australian Imperial Force, I am always interested in meeting others who wear the green badge on their arm. A good soldier is always as proud of the colours he wears on his shoulder as the colours he wears on his breast. He knows that each brigade and battalion possesses a soul of its own, and he is proud to belong to his battalion and to worthily wear its colours. ”

“ Here, in France, our Australian troops have continued to show that magnificent bravery and spirit which has enabled them to undergo cheerfully the severest hardships, and even to enhance their fine reputation as soldiers, which now stands second to none in this huge Army. ”

“ How many cubic feet of air have our men had to breathe in the wretched and monotonous tenements in which they were compelled to live? Houses must be built that way, I am told, because the land is dear. ”

“ At first we are foolish enough to think that this mighty capital of our far-flung Empire should be an epitome of all our British virtues. Coming to the fountainhead, we expect the water to be pure. 128We soon learn that it is not a fountainhead of anything. It is a great bay of human life and action into which a thousand rivers, of different quality and force, empty themselves.
London is a magnified expression of the life of the whole Empire. The currents which we on the frontiers of the Empire set going all come pulsing towards this mighty mother of cities ”

“ Now that we are at war, the Churches are still divided in their witness for righteousness. Even the Church, which, beyond all others, calls itself Catholic, is not catholic in the sense of unity, for it speaks with different voices in Austria, Belgium, Germany, and France. The Church which calls itself Orthodox has failed to give the people a lead in Russia. 119With us the lack of unity in the Christian Church has weakened its testimony in the nation and marred its work in the Army. ”