December <;, 19 14 
LAND AND WATER 
CHRISTMAS CHEER AT THE FRONT 
By ATHOL FORBES 
CHRISTMAS bells this year, 
ashore and afloat, will be 
punctuated by the concus- 
sions of guns, and the " Message 
of Peace " will be heralded with 
the shriek of shrapnel. In ordin- 
ary times men look to Christmas 
as a time of truce — hearts expand 
with kindness, people forget that 
they are enemies. The angels' 
hymn of peace and goodwill still 
echoes through the caverns of our 
being. Christmas comes like a 
bright star on a dark night. The 
spirit of the Child is in our 
midst ; men grasp each other's 
hands in firmer grip. Men on 
the frontiers of empire think of 
liome and the " old people." 
They may be still young, but 
(jld people is a term of endear- 
ment. 
This year our hearts go out 
to our brave lads at the front. 
Germans think almost as much 
of Christmas as we do, and there 
is a movement on foot, so I was 
told when in north-west France a 
a truce for Christmas Day — an 
armistice when men can unbuckle their armour for once — 
but only the most optimistic of people can hope for this. 
This is an age of realism, and sentiment will go to the wall, 
but only for a time. Christmas will bring longings for peace. 
Already our lads at the front are thinking of Christmas. A 
week ago I was with some gunners who were hurrying into 
action, struggling with their heavy guns — 15 pounders —over 
difficult sloppy roads, and the traction engine dragging them 
kept slipping. 
" Have you a match, sir ? " sang out one man. I had. 
lew days ago, to arrange 
and presented the battery with a box. " It's a godsend, 
sir," cried one man. ' We have tobacco and cigarettes, but 
we have not seen a blessed match for days." They are 
scarce in France, I must admit. " Never mind, Christmas 
is coming along," observed a gunner. " I expect the old 
people will remember the matches when they send off the 
Christmas hamper ! " Then they fell to discussing where 
they were likely to be on Christmas Day. I dare not give 
their surmises, for that would mean trouble with the Censor. 
" Where will you be, sir ? " I said I thought I could 
say with a fair amount of certainty that I should be in 
Gorleston Parish Church. " Well, think of us — and a happy 
Christmas to you." I promised I would, wished them a 
happy Christmas, and we parted. One wondered where 
their Christmas would be spent, while the iron-throated 
monsters grinned as if they knew. It seemed strang(> to 
talk of the coming Christmastide in the presence of these 
engines of destruction. As the last gun moved off a soldier 
sang out : " These will distribute our Christmas boxes to 
the Germans," and they went off laughing. 
There are many threads which bind men together in a 
common family even when wrestling for mastery in a surge 
of blood. When the wondrous book of Life and Death opens 
out an unseen page with an orclicstra of guns, all kinds of 
finer qualities spring into being, all kinds of heroisms are the 
order of the day, which call for no other name except Duty. 
Can Christmas be kept under such conditions ? Why, yes, 
for the qualities born under fire are just those fine cementing 
forces which we call " goodwill towards men." The alliance 
of simple men is built upon a rock. They will catch love's 
great whisper from home in many a precious letter and 
hamper, and kind hearts will ever find ways of keeping 
Christmas. 
" I remember tlie last Christmas that I spent fighting. 
It was in the South African War. The chaplain came and 
we had a service. He rigqed up a little altar out of an 
ammunition box, over which he spreatl his white pocket 
handkerchief, and we struck up with ' Christians Awake ! 
Salute the Happy Morn,' and we had to stop in the middle. 
Copyiltkt, SIvrt atid GinntU 
WHERE THE CHRISTMAS DINNER IS PREPARED 
117 
