Читать книгу What I Saw in Berlin and Other European Capitals During Wartime онлайн

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Moreover, the enormously wide front of the modern battlefield makes it absolutely impossible for the war correspondent to gain anything like an exact idea of what is going on. His work is essentially a work of analysis, analysis of the section in which he moves, but the synthesis of the whole movement is bound to escape his observation.

But though war is undoubtedly decided on the battlefield, it is no less certainly reflected in the life of the capitals of the belligerent nations. As long as hope, money, food, fresh supplies of men and ammunition are forthcoming, a nation retains a normal appearance; but a reverse on the battlefield is almost immediately transmitted throughout the country. Especially in the large towns, where bad news always manages to come through quickly, one can detect, from a thousand and one signs, to what degree the population has been affected.

We have only to remember how London and Paris looked in September last, and to compare the practically "Business as usual" life of to-day, to appreciate what a sensitive thermometer is the population of a great city.