The English army was ready to go to war. It was ready to go to war in Belgium. Its officers knew everything there was to be known about Belgium. They knew every square mile of Belgium's terrain. They knew what districts were best suited to strategical purposes. They knew what roads best to use for their artillery, what roads best could stand the heavy guns, what roads best could not. They knew every body of water in Belgium. They knew what water was fit to drink and what was not. They knew the current of every stream and the number of boats on it. They knew the number of houses in every Belgian village and the number of soldiers that could be billeted in those houses. They knew the location of every church steeple in Belgium, and whether or not to recommend it as an observation post. They knew what roads their troops could march on without being seen by the aviators of the enemy--what roads were hidden from the sky by the interlacing branches of the big trees. They even knew the best places for their own aviators to land. Every conceivable thing that a modern army should know about a future battleground the British army knew.... How do I know this? At the battle of Mons in northern France where something happened--the English say it was the French supports; the French blame it on the English--those wonderful soldiers of Great Britain, the professional soldiers, were cut to pieces. The Germans made many prisoners. In the kits of the captured British officers they found some interesting documents. They were books of a size that would fit in a coat pocket. They were about a quarter of an inch to an inch thick. They were printed on white paper and the covers were a light brown. They were finger-marked and muddy. They contained the most amazing collection of military information that any nation ever possessed for its army. Some books were marked _Confidential_; others bore the designation property of His Britannic Majesty's Government; all were prepared by the General Staff, of the English War Office. All the books were dated 1914, brought right up to the minute. At the Great General Staff in Berlin I saw these books. I sat in Major von Herwarth's room one night and copied their contents until I was overwhelmed with their wonderful detail. I had wanted to take the books to my hotel. It was impossible. They were regarded by the Germans as being so valuable that they could not be taken from this officer's room. I induced the Staff to let me make photographs of the books, of their covers, pages and maps. And when I was finished the officer said to me, "We were very glad to get these books. We were very thankful. Because they are so much better than any information that our General Staff had about Belgium. In fact they are so good, these English books, that we at once had whole pages copied for the use of our officers in Belgium."