American troops began to _rush_ over:--366,000 in round numbers, up to the end of March, and 440,000 more, up to the end of June, 70 per cent, of them carried in British ships; a million by the end of July, nearly a million and a half before the Armistice.

Wonderful story! Nobody, I think, can possibly exaggerate the heartening and cheering effect of it upon the Allies in Europe, especially on France--wounded and devastated France--and on Italy, painfully recovering from Caporetto.

How well I remember the thrill of those days in London, the rumours of the weekly landings of troops--70,000--80,000 men--and the occasional sight of the lithe, straight-limbed, American boys marching through our streets! And yet, curiously enough--what _was_ exaggerated all the time, on both sides of the Atlantic, both here and in America, was the extent of the British set-back hi March and April, and its effect on the general situation.

That is clear, I think, when we look back on our own Press at home, and still more on American utterances, both in the States and in France.

In _August_ of last year Mr.Secretary Baker said: "We are only just beginning"-- and he pointed to the millions of men that America would have in France by 1919.