which tanks have taken part-at Arras, Messines, and Ypres-officers and men have given frequent examples of high and selfsacrificing courage, as well as strong esprit de corps.

Trench mortars have continued to play an important part in supplementing the work of our artillery in trench warfare, and have also been used most effectively in the preliminary stages of our offensives. The personnel concerned have shown great skill and enterprise in obtaining the best results from the various types of mortars.

Machine-Gun Corps

During the past year the use of the machine gun in offensive warfare has been considerably extended. The machine-gun barrage has taken a definite place with the artillery barrage in covering the advance of our infantry, while the lighter forms of machine guns have proved of great assistance in the capture of hostile strong points. In these directions, as well as in the repulse of hostile counterattacks, great boldness and skill have been shown, and very valuable work has been done by all ranks of the machine-gun corps.

Royal Engineers

The prolonged period of active fighting and the vast amount of work involved by our different offensives have thrown a peculiarly heavy burden on the Royal Engineers, both preparatory to and during operations.

The field, signal, army troops, and tramway companies, together with pioneer and labor battalions, from home and overseas, have played an increasingly important part, not only in the preparation for our offensives, but also during the latter stages of the battles. The courage and enduring selfsacrifice displayed by all ranks, whether in the organization of captured positions or in the maintenance of forward communications under heavy shellfire, are deserving of the highest praise.

The tunneling companies have maintained their superiority over the enemy under ground, and the important tactical success achieved by the Messines mines is a sufficient testimony of their untiring efforts. They have taken a large share in the construction of dugouts and road-making during operations, and have worked with great courage and cheerfulness under conditions of much hardship and danger.

The successful manner in which the difficult problem of water supply during operations was overcome reflects great credit upon the Royal Engineers. My thanks are also due to the War Office staff concerned, and the manufacturers and their employes, for the special efforts made by them to meet the demands of the army in respect of the necessary machinery and plant.

The other engineer units, both in forward areas and on the lines of communication, have discharged their various special duties

The signal service, which at the end of the battle of the Somme had already grown into a great and intricate organization, has had even larger demands made upon it during the past year.

Apart from the perfecting and maintenance of rear communications, special provision has had to be made for carrying our communications forward as our troops have advanced. The measures adopted to this end have been skillfully devised and admirably carried out. In many cases, within a few hours of a successful operation large numbers of buried telephone circuits have been extended into the captured zone under very trying conditions; the provision of communications for artillery forward observation officers, &c., proceeding simultaneously with the organization of the new line. Thanks to the rapidity with which communications in the forward areas have been established, information of hostile concentrations has frequently been transmitted by their means from the front in time to enable the artillery to break up impending counterattacks.

The success which has attended the establishment of these forward communications has been largely due to the untiring energy and devotion to duty of the officers and men of the numerous small signal sections and detachments. On them has devolved, in circumstances of great difficulty and danger, the execution of the complicated schemes of communication necessitated by the present form of warfare.

The carrier pigeon service has also been greatly developed during the present year, and has proved extremely valuable for conveying information from attacking units to the headquarters of their formations.

Gas Services

Reference has been made earlier in this dispatch to the valuable services rendered by the special brigade, both on the defensive fronts and in the battle areas, where large quantities of gas were successfully discharged in preparation for our different offensives. These special troops have taken an active part also in our feint attacks and in the variour measures taken to harass German divisions sent by the enemy to recuperate on the quieter portions of his front. Gas discharges have become matters of almost nightly occurrence, and have been carried out with success on all portions of the front from the

their assistance in our negotiations regarding the acquisition of woods and forest areas.

Army Service Corps

The long period of active fighting, combined with the magnitude of our operations, has once more placed a heavy strain upon the personnel of the Army Service Corps and of the administrative services and departments generally. The difficulties of supply have been increased by the unavoidable congestion of the areas in which operations were taking place, as well as by the inevitable deterioration of roads and by long-distance shelling and bombing by the enemy.

In spite of all difficulties, the Army Service Corps has never failed to meet the needs of our troops in food, ammunition, material, and stores of all kinds. Particularly good work has been done by the motor transport drivers, who have shown the greatest gallantry and devotion to duty in getting forward the requisites of the army under heavy shellfire and during long hours of exposure.

Ordnance Corps

The enegy and zeal of the Ordnance Corps have also been admirable. The intensity of our artillery preparations and bombardments has placed the heaviest demands upon the ordnance workshops in the repair and the overhauling of guns of all calibres. Work has been continued by day and night in order to keep our guns in action, and the unsparing efforts of officers and men have contributed in no small degree to the success of our operations.

Medical Services

The work of the medical service in all its branches has continued to afford me most valuable assistance.

has been the cause of much saving of life and limb among the wounded.

The devotion and gallantry of the Royal Army Medical Corps and of the Medical Corps of the overseas dominions during the recent operations have earned universal admiration and praise. Their work of collecting the wounded from the front has been of an exceptionally arduous nature, owing to the condition of the ground and weather. I regret that so many gallant officers and men have lost their lives in carrying out their duties.

The medical service of the United States of America has shared in the work of the British medical service and has given very valuable help.

I am much indebted to the devotion and work of the consulting surgeons and physicians and to the auxiliary services of the British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

The nursing services, several of whose members have unfortunately lost their lives from hostile air raids, have, as always, devoted themselves with untiring care and zeal to their work of mercy.

The excellent organization and administrative work of the medical services as a whole have given me entire satisfaction.

The work of the Army Veterinary Corps and of the mobile veterinary sections has been ably carried out and has contributed largely to the general efficiency of the army.

The Chaplain's Department

I take this opportunity to express, on behalf of all ranks of the British armies in France, our great appreciation of the devotion and self-sacrifice of the army Chaplains France. of No considerations personal convenience or safety have at any time interfered with their work among the troops, the value of which is incalculable.

My thanks are again due to the army commanders for the complete loyalty and conspicuous ability with which they have carried out my plans during the past year. The task of launching three great offensives on different sectors of the British front, in addition to the almost constant fighting that has taken place in the neighborhood of Lens, has demanded professional knowledge, determination, and soundness of judgment of a very high order on the part of the commanders of the armies concerned. It required, moreover, the most willing and unselfish cooperation between armies, and an absolute subservience of all personal interests to the common good.

In all these respects the different army commanders have most completely fulfilled the high standard of character and ability required of them.

In the heavy and responsible work which they have so admirably performed the army commanders have been most loyally supported and assisted by their staff officers and technical advisers, as well as by the commanders and staffs of the units serving under them.

Staff

My Chief of the General Staff, Lieut. Gen. Sir L. E. Kiggell, K. C. B.; my Adjutant General, Lieut. Gen. Sir G. H. Fowke, K. C. B., and my Quartermaster General, Lieut. Gen. Sir R. C. Maxwell, K. C. B., as well as the other officers of my staff and my technical advisers at General Headquarters and on the lines of communication, have given me the greatest and most valuable assistance. I am glad once more to place on record the debt that I owe to them.

The entire absence of friction or discord which characterized the work of all services and departments during the Somme battle has constituted a most pleasing feature of the operations of the past year. There could be no better evidence of the singleness of purpose and determination of the armies as a whole and no stronger guarantee of victory.

Acknowledgment to the Navy

(64) The debt which the army owes to the navy grows ever greater as the years pass, and is deeply realized by all ranks of the British armies in France. As the result of the unceasing vigilance of the navy, the enemy's hope that his policy of unresticted submarine warfare would hamper our operations in France and Flanders has been most signally disappointed. The immense quantities of ammunition and material required by the army, and the large numbers of men sent to us as drafts, continue to reach us with unfailing regularity.

To Home Authorities

In this connection, I desire once more to record the obligation of the army in the field to the different authorities at home, both civil and military, and to the great mass of men and women in Great Britain and throughout the empire who are working with such loyalty to enable our manifold requirements to be met.

The confidence which is felt throughout the army that the enemy can and will be beaten is founded on the firm conviction that their own efforts in the field will be supported to the limits of their power and rosources by all classes at home.

To Britain's Allies

At the close of another year of fighting in France and Belgium, it is a source of great gratification to me to be able to record that nothing has occurred to mar the happy relations existing between the allied armies, or between our troops and the civil population in France and Belgium.

The feelings of good-will and comradeship which existed between the French and British Armies on the Somme have been continued in Flanders, where the same excellent relations have characterized the combined operations of the Belgian, French, and British troops.

During the present year the Portuguese expeditionary force has taken its place in the line, and for many months has held a sector of the British front. Though they have not been engaged in major offensive operations, yet in a number of raids and minor engagements the officers and men of the Portuguese expeditionary force have shown themselves gallant and efficient soldiers.

During the present year, also, the United States of America has entered the war, and has taken up its part in it with all the well-known energy and ability of that great nation.

Already many thousands of American soldiers are in France. Warm as is the welcome they have received from the French people, nowhere will they find a more genuine or a more friendly greeting than among all ranks of the other great English-speaking armies. I have the honour to be, my Lord, Your Lordship's obedient servant, D. HAIG, Field Marshal, Commanding in Chief, British Armies in France.

Jan. 1, 1918.

On the occasion of the New Year I desire, Mr. President, to express to you my sincerest good wishes for your welfare and for the prosperity and success of the United States of America in the great undertaking to which they have set themselves under your leadership in support of the high principles of liberty and justice.

The powerful exertions which are being made by the great Republic which you represent afford the surest guarantee that

the high aims which we pursue in common will be happily achieved.

GEORGE R. I.

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REPLY At this solemn hour, when the New Year looks upon a world red with the outpoured blood of the regeneration of the eternal rights of the peoples, and forecasts the happy achievement of universal safety and peace in the brotherhood of nations, your message comes to hearten the American people and strengthen their conviction of the righteousness of the great cause to which they have consecrated their lives and their national honor. WOODROW WILSON.