By Motor To The Firing Line; An Artist's Notes And Sketches With The Armies Of Northern France, June-July, 1915

By Motor To The Firing Line; An Artist's Notes And Sketches With The Armies Of Northern France, June-July, 1915, BY WALTER HALE. FOREWORD BEFORE the reader plunges into the following pages, it is only fair to warn him that the authors first effort as a war-correspondent was an unqualified failure. This was not alone the authors fault, since-though he be ever so ambitious--one cannot succeed ns a war-correspondent unless there be a war to correspond about. The scene of this fruitless endeavor was on the Venezuelan coast at the time when certain of the European nations sent fleets to the Spanish Main in an effort to collect sums of money, long overdue, from the Castro government. Germany, the most aggressive of the Powers involved, had threatened to land marines on Venezuelan soil. The violation of the Monroe Doctrine could lead to only one eventuality. In anticipation of this, correspondents representing the leading journals of the United States and Europe gathered at La Guayra and Caracas, rest- lessly awaiting the commencement of hostilities, like chargers on the eve of battle. But, for a. very good reason-and thats another story-Germany did not land marines on Venezuelan soil. The blockade was lifted and one by one the correspondents drifted back home to en- gage in more peaceful pursuits until the Russo- Japanese War again called them into action. If we who went to the Spanish Main found no war to write about, the correspondents who for some eighteen months have made Paris their head- quarters have been within a few hours journey of the greatest general actions in history with only an occasional limited permit to view their various phases. The old-time freedom of llle war corre- spondent has not only been curbed-it has been taken away from him and checked among the musty archives of the War Office. And with the with- drawal of many of his privileges, he has lost some- thing of his former camaraderie. . The men I knew in Venezuela mere working together in per- fec