requested me to visit. I was impressed by the splendid organisation of
the Red Cross even quite close to the firing-line.

Passing through one tent hospital, an Algerian called out to me:

"Ohé, la blonde, viens ici! J'ai quelque chose de beau à te montrer"
("Come here, fair girl, I have something pretty to show you").

He was sitting up in bed, and, as I approached, unbuttoned his
bed-jacket and insisted on my examining the tag of his vest, on which
was written, "Leader, London." The vest had come in a parcel of goods
from the London Committee of the French Red Cross, and I only wished
that the angel of goodness and tenderness who is the Presidente of the
Croix Rouge, Mme. de la Panouse, and that Mr. D.H. Illingworth, Mr.
Philip Wilkins, and all her able lieutenants, could have seen the
pleasure on the face of this swarthy defender of France. In the next bed
was a Senegalais who endeavoured to attract my attention by keeping up a
running compliment to my compatriots, my King, and myself. He must have
chanted fifty times: "Vive les English, Georges, et toi!" He continued
even after I had rewarded him with some cigarettes. The Senegalais and
the Algerians are really great children, especially when they are
wounded. I have seen convalescent Senegalais and Algerians in Paris
spend hours in the Champs Elysées watching the entertainment at the
open-air marionette theatre. The antics of the dolls kept them amused.
They are admitted to the enclosure free, and there is no longer any
room for the children who frequented the show in happier days. These
latter form a disconsolate circle on the outside, whilst the younger
ones, who do not suffer from colour prejudice, scramble on to the knees
of the black soldiers.