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Sexton Fortura KovacS
Exploring
Macro
Fifth Canadian Edition
Economics
vi Detailed Contents
3.4 Shifts in the Supply Curve 79 Business Connection: Revisiting the Production Possibilities
What Is the Difference between a Change in Supply and a Curve from a Macroeconomic Perspective 140
Change in Quantity Supplied? 79 For Your Review 142
What Are the Determinants of Supply? 79
Business Connection: Using Demand and Supply 82
Debate: Is It Ethical to Grow Corn for Fuel? 83 CHAPTER 6
Can We Review the Distinction between a Change in Supply Measuring Economic Performance 147
and a Change in Quantity Supplied? 84 6.1 National Income Accounting: Measuring Economic
For Your Review 87 Performance 147
Why Do We Measure Our Economy’s Performance? 147
CHAPTER 4 What Is Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? 148
BRINGING SUPPLY AND DEMAND TOGETHER 94 6.2 The Expenditure Approach to Measuring GDP 150
4.1 Market Equilibrium Price and Quantity 94 What Is the Expenditure Approach to Measuring Gdp? 150
What Are the Equilibrium Price and the Equilibrium Quantity? 94 What Is Consumption (C )? 150
What Is a Shortage and What Is a Surplus? 95 What Is Investment (I )? 152
Debate: Where There’s a Market, Should People Be Allowed to What Are Government Purchases (G )? 153
Trade Freely, without State Limitations or Intervention? 96 What Are Net Exports (X M )? 153
Business Connection: Has GDP Run Its Time? 154
4.2 Changes in Equilibrium Price and Quantity 97
What Happens to Equilibrium Price and Equilibrium Quantity 6.3 The Income Approach to Measuring GDP 155
When the Demand Curve Shifts? 97 What Is the Income Approach to Measuring GDP? 155
What Happens to Equilibrium Price and Equilibrium Quantity What Do Personal Income and Disposable Income Measure? 157
When the Supply Curve Shifts? 99 6.4 Issues with Calculating an Accurate GDP 158
What Happens When Both Supply and Demand Shift in the What Are the Problems with Gdp in Measuring Output? 158
Same Time Period? 100 How Is Real Gdp Calculated? 158
Business Connection: Equilibrium Determines Price 101 What Is Real Gdp per Capita? 160
4.3 Price Controls 104 6.5 Problems with GDP as a Measure of Economic
What Are Price Controls? 104 Welfare 162
What Are Price Ceilings? 104 What Are Some of the Deficiencies of GDP as a Measure of
What Are Price Floors? 105 Economic Welfare? 162
For Your Review 108 Debate: Should We Switch to Another Means of Measuring
Macroeconomic Performance That Captures a More
CHAPTER 5 Comprehensive View of Economic Well-Being? 164
For Your Review 165
Introduction to the Macroeconomy 115
Debate: Should There Be a Guaranteed Annual Income Benefit? 193 Business Connection: Corporate Navigation for a Change in
What Is Investment? 194 Long-Term Fiscal Goals 246
What Are Government Purchases? 194 What Are the Major Sources of Government Revenue? 247
What Are Net Exports? 194 Debate: Should Canada Raise Corporate Taxes? 248
8.2 The Investment and Saving Market 195 10.3 The Multiplier Effect 249
What Is the Investment Demand Curve? 196 What Is the Multiplier Effect? 249
What Is the Saving Supply Curve? 198 What Impact Does the Multiplier Effect Have on the
How Is Equilibrium Determined in the Investment and Aggregate Demand Curve? 251
Saving Market? 199 What Impact Does the Multiplier Effect Have on
What Effect Do Budget Surpluses and Budget Deficits Tax Cuts? 251
Have on the Investment and Saving Market? 199 What Factors Can Potentially Reduce the Size of the
8.3 The Aggregate Demand Curve 201
Multiplier? 253
How Is the Quantity of Real GDP Demanded Affected 10.4 Fiscal Policy and the AD/AS Model 253
by the Price Level? 201 How Can Fiscal Policy Alleviate a Recessionary Gap? 253
Why Is the Aggregate Demand Curve Negatively Sloped? 201 How Can Fiscal Policy Alleviate an Inflationary Gap? 255
8.4 Shifts in the Aggregate Demand Curve 203 10.5 Automatic Stabilizers 256
What Variables Cause the Aggregate Demand Curve to Shift? 203 What Are Automatic Stabilizers? 256
Business Connection: Changes in GDP: The Long and the Short How Does the Tax System Stabilize the Economy? 256
of It 204
Can We Review the Determinants That Change Aggregate 10.6 Possible Obstacles to Effective Fiscal Policy 257
Demand? 206 How Does the Crowding-Out Effect Limit the Economic
For Your Review 207 Impact of Expansionary Fiscal Policy? 257
How Do Time Lags in Fiscal Policy Implementation Affect
CHAPTER 9 Policy Effectiveness? 259
Aggregate Supply and Macroeconomic 10.7 The Federal Government Debt 261
Equilibrium 211 How Is the Budget Deficit Financed? 261
9.1 The Aggregate Supply Curve 211 What Has Happened to the Federal Budget Balance? 261
What Is the Aggregate Supply Curve? 211 What Is the Impact of Reducing a Budget Deficit? 262
Why Is the Short-Run Aggregate Supply Curve Positively How Much Is the Burden of Government Debt in Canada? 263
Sloped? 211 or Your Review 266
F
Why Is the Long-Run Aggregate Supply Curve Vertical at the
Natural Rate of Output? 212 CHAPTER 11
9.2 Shifts in the Aggregate Supply Curve 214 Money and the Banking System 271
What Factors of Production Affect the Short-Run and Long- 11.1 What Is Money? 271
Run Aggregate Supply Curves? 214 What Is Money? 271
What Factors Exclusively Shift the Short-Run Aggregate What Are the Four Functions of Money? 271
Supply Curve? 215
Can We Review the Determinants That Change Aggregate 11.2 Measuring Money 273
Supply? 216 What Is Currency? 273
What Are Demand and Savings Deposits? 274
9.3 Macroeconomic Equilibrium 217
What Is Liquidity? 276
How Is Macroeconomic Equilibrium Determined? 217
How Is the Money Supply Measured? 276
What Are Recessionary and Inflationary Gaps? 218
What Backs the Money Supply? 278
How Can the Economy Self-Correct to a Recessionary Gap? 221
How Can the Economy Self-Correct to an Inflationary Gap? 223 11.3 How Banks Create Money 279
Price Level and RGDP Over Time 223 What Types of Financial Institutions Exist in Canada? 279
Business Connection: Facing the Storm Clouds: Low Inflation How Do Banks Create Money? 280
and Deflation 224 What Does a Bank Balance Sheet Look Like? 281
For Your Review 225 What Is a Desired Reserve Ratio? 282
Appendix: The Keynesian Aggregate Expenditure Model 231
Business Connection: Dancing with Debt and the Money
The Simple Keynesian Aggregate Expenditure Model 231 Supply 285
Consumption in the Keynesian Model 233 11.4 The Money Multiplier 286
Equilibrium in the Keynesian Model 235 How Does the Multiple Expansion of the Money Supply
Disequilibrium in the Keynesian Model 235 Process Work? 286
Adding Investment, Government Purchases, and Net Exports 237 What Is the Money Multiplier? 287
For Your Review 241 Why Is It Only “Potential” Money Creation? 288
Debate: Should Canada Become a Cashless Society? 289
CHAPTER 10 For Your Review 290
Fiscal Policy 243
10.1 Fiscal Policy 243 CHAPTER 12
What Is Fiscal Policy? 243 The Bank of Canada 296
How Does Fiscal Policy Affect the Government’s Budget? 244
12.1 The Bank of Canada 296
10.2 Government: Spending and Taxation 245 What Is the Bank of Canada? 296
What Are the Major Categories of Government Spending? 245 What Are the Main Responsibilities of the Bank of Canada? 298
NEL
viii Detailed Contents
Debate: Should Canada, the United States, and Mexico Share a What International Trade Agreements Is Canada
Common Currency? 299 Involved In? 337
Debate: Should Canada Cut Back on Trade with China? 339
12.2 Tools of the Bank of Canada 300
What Are the Tools of the Bank of Canada? 300 14.3 Comparative Advantage and Gains from Trade 340
What Is the Bank of Canada’s Approach to Monetary Policy? 303 Why Do Economies Trade? 340
Business Connection: When the Bank Rate Increases, What Is the Principle of Comparative Advantage? 340
Beware! 303
14.4 Supply and Demand in International Trade 343
12.3 Money and Inflation 304 What Are Consumer Surplus and Producer Surplus? 343
What Is the Equation of Exchange? 305 Who Benefits and Who Loses When a Country Becomes an
What Is the Quantity Theory of Money and Prices? 306 Exporter? 344
For Your Review 308 Who Benefits and Who Loses When a Country Becomes an
Importer? 346
CHAPTER 13 14.5 Tariffs, Import Quotas, and Subsidies 347
Monetary Policy 310 What Is a Tariff? 347
What Is the Impact of Tariffs on the Domestic Economy? 347
13.1 Money, Interest Rates, and Aggregate Demand 310 What Are Some Arguments in Favour of Tariffs? 349
What Determines the Money Market? 310 What Are Import Quotas? 350
How Does the Bank of Canada Affect RGDP in the What Is the Impact of Import Quotas on the Domestic
Short Run? 312 Economy? 351
Does the Bank of Canada Target the Money Supply or the What Is the Economic Impact of Subsidies? 352
Interest Rate? 314 For Your Review 353
Which Interest Rate Does the Bank of Canada Target? 314
Does the Bank of Canada Influence the Real Interest Rate in
the Short Run? 315 CHAPTER 15
13.2 Expansionary and Contractionary Monetary Policy 316 International Finance 358
How Does Expansionary Monetary Policy Work in a 15.1 The Balance of Payments 358
Recessionary Gap? 316 What Is the Balance of Payments? 358
How Does Contractionary Monetary Policy Work in an What Is the Current Account? 358
Inflationary Gap? 318 What Is the Capital Account? 360
How Does Monetary Policy Work in the Open Economy? 319 What Is the Statistical Discrepancy? 361
Debate: Should Bank of Canada Appointments Remain out of
Voters’ Hands? 320 15.2 Exchange Rates 362
What Are Exchange Rates? 362
13.3 Problems in Implementing Monetary and Fiscal Debate: Is a Low Loonie Good for Canada’s Economy? 364
Policy 321 How Are Exchange Rates Determined? 365
What Problems Exist in Implementing Monetary and Business Connection: Managing Transaction Risks 366
Fiscal Policy? 321
15.3 Equilibrium Changes in the Foreign Exchange
13.4 The Phillips Curve 325 Market 367
What Is the Phillips Curve? 326 What Are the Major Determinants in the Foreign Exchange
How Does the Phillips Curve Relate to the Aggregate Supply Market? 367
and Demand Model? 327
Business Connection: Getting a Jump on Inflation in 15.4 Flexible Exchange Rates 371
Modern Times 328 How Are Exchange Rates Determined Today? 371
For Your Review 329 What Are the Advantages of a Flexible Exchange
Rate System? 372
CHAPTER 14 What Are the Disadvantages of a Flexible Exchange
Rate System? 373
International Trade 332
For Your Review 375
14.1 Canada’s Merchandise Trade 332
Who Are Canada’s Trading Partners? 332 Answers to Odd-Numbered Problems 379
What Does Canada Import and Export? 332
Business Connection: What a Difference a Few Years Make in Glossary 393
Business and Politics 334
14.2 International Trade Agreements 336 Index 396
What Has Been the Impact of International Trade
on Canada? 336 Chapters in Review
NEL
About the Authors
Pepperdine University
nals such as the American Economic Review, the Southern Economic Journal, Economics
Letters, the Journal of Urban Economics, and the Journal of Economic Education. Professor
Sexton has also written more than 100 other articles that have appeared in books, maga-
zines, and newspapers.
Professor Sexton received the Pepperdine Professor of the Year Award in 1991, the
Harriet and Charles Luckman Teaching Fellow in 1994, the Tyles Professor of the Year
in 1997, and the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011.
Peter N. Fortura earned his undergraduate degree from Brock University, where he
was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Medal for academic achievement, and his Master
of Arts from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. He has taught
economics at Algonquin College in Ottawa for over 20 years. Prior to that, he was an
economist in the International Department of the Bank of Canada in Ottawa.
Professor Fortura has published articles on Canadian housing prices, Canada’s auto-
motive industry, and Canada’s international competitiveness. As well, he is an author
of the Study Guide to accompany Principles of Macroeconomics by Mankiw, Kneebone,
Peter Fortura
and McKenzie (Nelson Education, 7th edition), and co-author of the statistics textbook
Contemporary Business Statistics with Canadian Applications (Pearson, 3rd edition).
He lives in Ottawa with his wife, Cynthia, and their children, Laura and Nicholas.
Colin C. Kovacs received his Master of Arts degree from Queen’s University after
completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Western Ontario. He has
taught economics, statistics, and finance for nearly 25 years at both the DeVry College
of Technology in Toronto and Algonquin College in Ottawa. His research papers have
included Determinants of Labour Force Participation Among Older Males in Canada and
Minimum Wage—The Past and Future for Ontario.
He lives in Ottawa with his wife, Lindsay, and their children, Rowan, Seth, and
Myles.
Algonquin College
NEL ix
Preface
Chapter Highlights
Chapter 4: Bringing Supply and Demand Together
In this chapter, readers will find an expanded discussion of the existence of price con-
trols in the Canadian economy. An investigation of Canadian dairy production and the
pricing of dairy products in Canada are provided, giving the reader a more in-depth
understanding of this key topic and how it impacts the efficiency of market forces in
Canada.
x NEL
Preface xi
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xii Preface
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Preface xiii
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xiv Preface
INSTRUCTORS
The Nelson Education Teaching Advantage (NETA) program delivers research-based
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to enable the success of Canadian students and educators. Be sure to visit Nelson
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The following instructor’s resources have been created for Exploring Macroeconomics,
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Instructor’s Solutions Manual: Answers to all For Your Review questions in the textbook
are provided in this manual, now separated from the Instructor’s Manual for easier
reference. Students can access only the odd-numbered solutions in the Answer Key at the
back of the book. The solutions were prepared by the text co-author, Colin Kovacs, and
independently checked for accuracy by Racquel Lindsay, University of Toronto.
NETA Test Bank: This resource was prepared by Russell Turner, Fleming College. It
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Preface xv
Aplia 1 MindTap
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xvi Preface
Student Ancillaries
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Acknowledgments
Producing the fifth Canadian edition of Exploring Macroeconomics has truly been a
team effort. We would like to thank the editorial, production, and marketing teams at
Nelson Education for their hard work and effort. First, our appreciation goes to Claudine
O’Donnell, Vice President, Product Solutions, who has provided the vision and leader-
ship for the Canadian editions of the text.
We would like to thank Katherine Baker-Ross, publisher at Nelson, for her con-
tinuing support. Thank you to Katherine Goodes, Content Manager, for her helpful
advice and constant encouragement. Thanks also to Imoinda Romain, Senior Production
Project Manager; June Trusty, Copy Editor; Marcia Siekowski, Marketing Manager; and
all the marketing and sales representatives at Nelson. Special thanks are extended to
Darren Chapman at Fanshawe College for providing the engaging and insightful Business
Connection and Debate features.
We are grateful to our families for their patience and encouragement.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the reviewers of the Canadian editions, past
and present, for their comments and feedback:
Their thoughtful suggestions were very important to us in providing input and useful
examples for the fifth Canadian edition of this book.
P.N.F.
c.c.k.
NEL xvii
chapter
1
The Role and Method
of Economics
section
Economics: A Brief Introduction 1.1
•• What is economics?
•• Why study economics?
•• What distinguishes macroeconomics from microeconomics?
What is Economics?
Some individuals think economics involves the study of the stock market and corpo-
rate finance, and it does—in part. Others think that economics is concerned with the
wise use of money and other matters of personal finance, and it is—in part. Still others
think that economics involves forecasting or predicting what business conditions will
be like in the future, and again, it does—in part.
NEL 1
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may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Nelson Education reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Exploring Macroeconomics
2 Chapter one | The Role and Method of Economics
NEL
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may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Nelson Education reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Exploring Macroeconomics
Economics: A Brief Introduction 3
Section Check
■■ Economics is the study of the allocation of our limited resources to satisfy our
unlimited wants.
■■ Economics is a problem-solving social science that teaches you how to ask
intelligent questions.
■■ Macroeconomics deals with the aggregate, or total, economy, while micro-
economics focuses on smaller units within the economy.
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Exploring Macroeconomics
4 Chapter one | The Role and Method of Economics
section
1.2 Economic Theory
•• What are economic theories?
•• Why do we need to abstract?
•• What is a hypothesis?
•• What is the ceteris paribus assumption?
•• Why are observations and predictions harder in the social sciences?
•• What distinguishes between correlation and causation?
•• What are positive analysis and normative analysis?
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Exploring Macroeconomics
Economic Theory 5
What is a Hypothesis?
The beginning of any theory is a hypothesis, a testable proposition that makes some hypothesis
type of prediction about behaviour in response to certain changes in conditions. In eco- a testable proposition
nomic theory, a hypothesis is a testable prediction about how people will behave or react
to a change in economic circumstances. For example, if the price of iPads increased, we
might hypothesize that fewer iPads would be sold, or if the price of iPads fell, we might
hypothesize that more iPads would be sold. Once a hypothesis is stated, it is tested by
comparing what it predicts will happen to what actually happens.
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Field-Marshal Oyama playing croquet during the Battle of Mukden,
the General in “Ole Luke Oie’s” brilliant sketch who fought and
worsted a trout in a pleasant garden whilst hundreds of men went to
their death—these are but the symbols of a state of mental
detachment which is essential in the modern General called upon to
handle vast masses of troops operating on a gigantic scale. To keep
his mind clear and unembarrassed by a host of details, to retain his
mental freshness against the moment when a supreme decision, or
maybe a series of supreme decisions, has to be taken, the modern
Commander-in-Chief must delegate much more of his powers than
formerly, must relinquish a great measure of his direct personal
influence on his men.
The influence of the great modern General will always be indirect
rather than direct. Comparatively few of the German troops fighting
on the Western front had ever set eyes on Field-Marshal von
Hindenburg, save in pictures, yet, when the rumour ran in the spring
that he was coming to assume the supreme command in Flanders,
the men in the trenches set up notices on the parapets announcing
to the Engländer that Hindenburg was coming, and that the Germans
would be in Calais in a week.
“Daily Mail” phot.
The Chief.
The influence of Sir John French on the British Army in France is
as a strong leaven leavening the whole mass. The conditions of life
of an army in the field, a great host of men working to the same end,
the monotony of existence undisturbed by sex antagonism, united by
the risk of death common to all, make men as sensitive to the
transmission of influences as African tribes are to the transmission of
news. In the field a strong character will make itself felt in a week.
Imperceptibly, the men will begin to lean on qualities of
determination, courage, intuition. All these are attributes of Sir John
French, and they are, I believe, responsible, in quite an astonishing
degree, for the splendid tenacity, the unshakable optimism, of the
British Army in France.
Within his power, Sir John French has always sought to keep in
personal contact with the men in the firing-line. More than once, on
the retreat from Mons, the Commander-in-Chief might have been
seen to leave his car and sit down beside the exhausted troops
resting by the roadside, so tired that they did not care whether the
whole German Army was in the next field. He would remain there on
the dusty grass, and tell the men that it was only so many miles to
the next halt for the night, and spur them on to fresh efforts by his
generous praise of the splendid endurance they had shown up to
then. In a little he would have them on their feet again, foot-sore and
weary as they were, ready to face the world, if needs be, to win a pat
on the shoulder, a word of appreciation, from “Sir John.”
But the British Army in France has grown immeasurably since
those days when four divisions was England’s entire contribution to
the war on land. With the army of Mons, the Commander-in-Chief
might yet hope to be the John French of South Africa, where the
cavalry hailed the trim little man on the white horse as the harbinger
of stern, swift blows against the Boer, as the incorporation of dash,
decision, and resourcefulness. But with the great citizen army of to-
day, in which he counts divisions where before he counted
battalions, the British Generalissimo could not hope to keep in
personal touch in the same degree as was possible with the cavalry
in South Africa or with the little Expeditionary Force of August, 1914.
Nevertheless, Sir John French has never failed in this war to visit
formations that have distinguished themselves, and to express to
them personally his appreciation of their good work. I remember,
after the second battle of Ypres, receiving word that the
Commander-in-Chief would inspect some brigades of cavalry that
had held our line round Ypres on May 13, when the Germans made
their last and most violent attempt to burst through to the sea. It was
a fine, warm morning in June, a regular Aldershot review day,
though, Heaven knows! there was little enough of the red and gold of
Cæsar’s Camp or Laffan’s Plain about the squadrons in their war-
worn khaki drawn up in a square in a meadow by a country road.
The Commander of the Cavalry Corps was there, and the Divisional
General and the Brigadiers, and just in front, beside a fine, broad
Union Jack fluttering from a flagstaff planted on a farm-cart, Sir John
French, exquisitely neat, as usual, in his trim khaki, with four rows of
medal-ribbons, and immaculate brown field-boots, and a cane that
he swung as he talked.
The men stood easy, Lifeguards and Hussars and Dragoons,
dismounted as they had been at Ypres, their eyes on the soldierly
figure before them, their thoughts, I wager, away among the poppies
and the cornflowers of the salient where in their graves dead
comrades smiled in their last sleep at the recollection of the good
fight well fought. The Commander-in-Chief indulged in no rhetorics.
He, like the plain man he is, likes plain speaking. So he stood up
there against the farm-cart, and talked to the men in a clear, soldierly
voice, and as he spoke, lo! it was not the Commander-in-Chief
addressing his troops, but just John French of the 19th talking to his
cavalry, that cavalry he loved and made his life-work. There were no
tears, no elegiacs, but heartening words of praise for good service
stoutly rendered. There was, indeed, such perfect frankness in much
of what the Field-Marshal said that I remember the blue pencil of the
Censor cut furrows in the report of it I sent to my newspaper in
London.
As soon as a new body of troops arrives in France, whether
Territorials or Colonials or New Army, you may be sure that, before
very long, the Rolls Royce, flying the Union Jack from the roof—the
only car that may fly the old flag in France—will appear outside their
billets, and the Commander-in-Chief will descend to see for himself
what the new material is like. One has only to glance at his
despatches to see that he never fails to pay a tribute to good
qualities in new troops out from home. Real soldier that he is, he
always has a keen eye to the general appearance of the men,
knowing that the best soldiers are the men who, even in the rigour of
winter in the trenches, managed to preserve a cleanly appearance,
and who, right up in the firing-line, are as punctilious about saluting
as they would be in barracks at home. The Brigade of Guards, who
always pride themselves upon their personal neatness, set a fine
example to the army in this respect, and earned the approval of
every good soldier.
Sir John French has had many residences since he came to
France in August. Châteaux, farms, colleges, or other public
buildings, and the villas or town-houses of such local notabilities as
the Mayor, the lawyer, or the doctor, have afforded him hospitality
from the battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat down to the
stalemate of the war of positions which brought our General
Headquarters to anchor for a spell. But no matter where the
Commander-in-Chief has lived, though his house were French, its
atmosphere has always been wholly and essentially English. Thus,
at G.H.Q. in the little town of which I wrote in my last chapter, though
the large and stately rooms and rather florid furniture, the pictures
and statuary of the house in which he lives are bourgeois of the
bourgeois, they are powerless to dissipate the pleasant family air of
the place, the atmosphere of an English country seat in the shires.
It is a restful place. Though it shelters the brain of the army, there
is no rush or flurry, even when heavy fighting is toward. Deep
thinking and hard work are going on day and night between the four
walls of this plain, unpretentious house; but, save for the whirr of a
telephone now and then, or the arrival of a Staff car or a cyclist, only
the sentries at the gateway betoken the presence of the
Commander-in-Chief.
You enter from the street under one of those arched entries,
known as a porte cochère, found in all French towns. A small door,
with panels of frosted glass on the left of the entrance, gives access
to the hall, where the first thing to meet the eye is a pyramid of
parcels, gifts from home for the Field-Marshal and his troops, mostly
from unknown admirers. By every post these presents pour in, vivid
testimony of the loving solicitude wherewith the folks at home hang
on the life of the army in the field. Every imaginable kind of gift is
there—Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, blessed medals and
rosaries, charms of all sorts, “woollies” galore, socks and waistcoats
and comforters and mitts.
One day even Russia sent her tribute of admiration in the shape of
a little ikon of the far-famed Madonna of Kazan, before whose
bejewelled image in the Kazan Cathedral at Petrograd thousands of
suppliants kneel daily in silent prayer for the safe return of their loved
ones from the war. Truly there is a great sameness about certain
aspects of the war on both sides. I remember reading an amusing
appeal by Field-Marshal von Hindenburg to the correspondent of the
Neue Freie Presse, my old friend, Dr. Paul Goldmann, begging him
to tell people he did not want any more mitts or remedies against
rheumatism and chilblains.
A small room to the right of the hall is the A.D.C.’s (Aide-de-
Camp’s) room, where one of the four A.D.C.’s to the Commander-in-
Chief is always present. He is known as the A.D.C. on duty. He
remains in this room all day in attendance on the Commander-in-
Chief, receiving and transmitting messages, answering the
telephone on the desk at his elbow, dealing with applications for
interviews with “The Chief,” as he is called by his Staff, and receiving
visitors. A huge map of the whole zone of the British Army in France
hangs on the wall, and portraits of Sir John French and some of his
Generals, cut from French and English illustrated papers, have been
nailed up.
In the corner is a white door marked “private”. When a bell whirrs
the A.D.C. disappears through this door. It leads to the workroom of
the Commander-in-Chief.
A perfectly plain room, spacious and lofty, with large windows,
from its white walls and massive marble mantelpiece and large
mirror obviously the drawing-room of the house in other days, the big
maps hung all round the walls and spread over the very large plain
deal table, lend it an essentially business-like air. On the mantelpiece
a handsome Empire clock and some candelabra are the sole
ornaments in the room.
There is also a little illuminated card, headed “Nelson’s Prayer,”
that finely inspired supplication for victory which they found in the
great Admiral’s cabin on board his famous flagship after he received
his mortal wound. I have placed this beautiful prayer at the head of
this chapter, because its plain, direct appeal, its confidence, and its
dignity seem to me to be characteristic of the man on whom once
again the hopes of the whole British race are fixed. That little English
prayer is the only visible link between Sir John French and home in
his workroom in France.
The Commander-in-Chief spends the greater part of the day in this
room. It is a place of hard work, of deep concentration, of lightning
decisions on which hang the lives of thousands of men. You will find
him there at all hours, dapper, fresh, as young as the youngest of his
Staff, eternally giving the lie to his white hair and moustache. It is in
this room that most of his despatches are written, those models of
precise English that, without rhodomontade, false pathos, or
exaggeration, set forth their plain tale of glory to make the Empire
ring.
Sir John French always writes his own despatches. His warm
words of praise, his frank words of criticism, are absolutely the
expression of his own thoughts. When he has a despatch to write he
will shut himself up in this reposeful room for hours at a time,
neglecting his meals, working far into the night, until the last word is
written and his name affixed:
“Your Lordship’s most obedient servant,
“J. D. P. FRENCH,
“Field Marshal, Commanding-in-Chief,
British Army in the Field.”
In an army of hard workers, in the centre of the hive of industry
that is G.H.Q., no man works harder than “The Chief.” Breakfast at
the Commander-in-Chief’s is from 7.45 to 8.30, but long before that
time Sir John French is at his table studying the reports which have
arrived from the different armies during the night, and are awaiting
his perusal when he comes down in the morning. Half-past eight
finds Sir John at his place at the head of the breakfast-table, with a
cheery greeting for everyone there.
At a fixed hour there takes place the daily conference between the
Commander-in-Chief and the different heads of the services at
G.H.Q. The Generals arrive singly or in pairs from their offices, a
portfolio under their arm—the Adjutant-General, the Quartermaster-
General, the Chief of the General Staff, the Chief of Intelligence. For
an hour or more they are closeted singly or together with “The
Chief.” Operations past or future are discussed, the whole situation
along our front reviewed, guns, men, supplies, the enemy’s situation,
and his probable plans.
The distribution of the rest of the day depends largely on the
situation at the front. Once a movement has started and is
progressing favourably, a Commander-in-Chief’s work is done for the
time. Broadly speaking, it is the Commander-in-Chief who conceives
the strategy of an operation, it is the Chief of the General Staff who
works it out, while its tactical execution lies in the hands of the
General commanding the army to which the operation is confided.
He in turn leaves the carrying out of more detailed operations to the
Corps Commander, who delegates part of the yet more detailed
execution to the Divisional General, and he in his turn relinquishes
the details of the work of the battalions on the ground to the brigade
and battalion commanders.
Visits to the different army commanders in the field, the inspection
of troops who have come out of action, of reinforcements, of new
guns or appliances in the war of the trenches, interviews with visitors
at G.H.Q., French Generals, British liaison officers with the French
Army, or distinguished visitors from England, fill in the remainder of
Sir John French’s day. The arrival in the afternoon of the King’s
Messenger from London with despatches from the War Office and
the morning newspapers absorbs the rest of the time until dinner,
and often makes the Commander-in-Chief late for this meal, which,
by his express orders, is never delayed for him.
Sir John French presides over his small household at G.H.Q. in a
benevolent and paternal manner. All the members of his Personal
Staff are old friends of his, and were with the Field-Marshal in South
Africa. He calls them all by their Christian names, and each vies with
the other in his devoted loyalty to “The Chief.”
The genial, courtly presence of the man pervades his whole
environment. Is the situation ever so desperate, the fighting never so
severe, there is no fuss or flurry at the Commander-in-Chief’s. Even
during the retreat from Mons, when Headquarters was frequently
moved, when for days at a time neither the Commander-in-Chief nor
his Staff got even a few hours of unbroken rest, Sir John diffused
about him the same calm atmosphere. He would not allow the
overwhelming responsibility resting on his shoulders to overcloud the
existence of the others. At meals he was cheery and debonair as
usual, guiding the conversation into pleasant English channels, and
illuminating it with many anecdotes and witty sayings which his great
and retentive memory has stored up from an exceptionally busy life
and wide and varied reading.
More than once he astonished his Staff, at a critical moment, by
announcing that he would go for a walk. Picking up his old riding-
crop, he would stroll forth with one of the A.D.C.’s and walk for an
hour through the country lanes, stopping to admire the view, or to
criticize a horse, or to look at the crops. But on his return he would
go straight to his maps again, and then like a flash he would
announce his decision. “I will do this and that!” And they would
realize that whilst he had strolled and chatted his mind had been
wrestling with the military problem that had obsessed them all.
Dinner is a pleasant meal at the Commander-in-Chief’s. Often
there is a distinguished visitor from London present, a member of the
Cabinet who has come out to get a glimpse for himself of conditions
at the front, a leading scientific authority despatched on some
mission or other, distinguished ecclesiastics like the Bishop of
London or the Archbishop of Westminster. For many months the
Prince of Wales, as A.D.C. to the Commander-in-Chief, dined nightly
at Sir John’s table, a very charming, extremely natural young officer,
who was simply addressed as “Prince,” and who was best pleased
when no notice whatsoever was taken of his exalted rank. There is
never any formality about precedence at the Commander-in-Chief’s,
save that the guest of the evening sits on the right of the Field-
Marshal.