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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/countygentlemanlOObelluoft 


luary  4,  1917 


Supplement    to    LAND    &    WATER 


IX 


OFFICERS' 
RIDING 
BREECHES. 

The  factors  of  successful 
breeches- making  are  —  fine 
wear-resisting  cloths,  skilful 
cutting,  and  careful,  thorough 
tailor  work— and  all  these  wc 
guarantee. 

Abundant  experience,  too, 
contributes  importantly  in 
giving  utmost  satisfaction,  for 
Grant  and  Cockburn  have 
made  breeches  for  ninety- 
five  years. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs 
of  breeches,  and  are  therefore  often 
ble  to  meet  immediate  requirements, 
or  we  can  cut  and  try  a  pair  on  the 
same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day. 
If  ur^entW  wanted. 


Oar  New  All-Leather  Puttees  never  tear  or  fray  out. 

These  most  comfortable,  good-looking  puttees  are  made  entirely  of 
fine  supple  tan  leather,  and  fasten  simply  with  one  buckle  at  bottom- 
They  are  extremely  durable,  even  if  subjected  to  the  friction  of 
riding,  as  the  edges  never  tear  or  fray  out. 

The  price  per  pair  is  16  6,  post  free  inland,  or  postage  abroad,  1/- 
:xtra,  or  »ent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business  (not  banker's) 
reference  and  home  address. 


GRANT. .o  COCKBURN 


ESTD.  1821 


25,  PICCADILLY,   W. 

Military    and     Civil    Tailors,    Legging    Makers. 


THE  ORILUX." 


'eu;  Extracts  from  Letters  received 

.  FliOM    THE    WATl   FRONTS. 

ANCE  : 

"  There  is  not  a  better  lamp   in  France." 
"  Your  lamp  has  boon  in  use  two  year.s  and  is  still  perfect." 
"  There  is  not  a  lamp  to  touch  yours  for  our  job  here." 
"  I  would  not  be  without  your  lamp  for  anything." 
.  "Your  lamp  is  absolutely  essential  to  me." 
"  Your  lamps  are  considered   IT  out  here." 

.ONIKA  : 

'■  It  is  readily  agreed  out  here  that  there  is  only 
one  lamp — The  Orilu.\." 

YPT: 

"  I   find   the   Orilux   a   wonderful   lamp,   and    far 

ahead  of  all  others." 
"  The  mo.st  useful  article  in  my  kit." 

rHE  ORILUX  LAMP 

.ted  with  .switche.s  for  intermittent  and  for  constant  light.  The 
;  can  be  turned  on  without  opening  the  case,  which  is  fitted  witli 
od  to  throw  the  light  downwards.  The  case  is  provided  with 
^  for  attaching  to  the  belt,  and  provision  is  made  in  it  for 
carrying  a  spare  bulb. 

'Price  £,1 . 1 .  o  r.zrv'%.rA) 

Extra    Battery    in   scaled   tin,  2/.   (Postage  to  the  Froot,   1/.  extra). 

Extra  Bulb,  1/e,  postag!  2d. 
M-VKERS— 

H.  STEWARD  Ltd.,  ""iJr-" 

406    Strand,    457    Strand,    London. 


The  Original  Cording'sj  Estd.  1839 

There  can   be   no  getting  wet  in   an 
"  Equitor,'*  the  really  waterproof  coat 


which,  with  a  snuf;  fleece  woollen 
lining       buttoned       in      becomes 

an  excellent  great- coat  in 
which  to  "travel  light,'' 
heedless    of  cold   or    rain. 

The  "Equitor  "  is  fitted  with  a 
special  riding  apron,  which  abso- 
lutely shuts  out  any  rain,  and  can 
be  fastened  conveniently,  out  of 
sight,  but  the  coat  serves  just  as 
well  for  ordinary  wear  afoot, 
whether  the  apron  be  fastened 
back  or  not. 

An  "  Ecjuitor  "  will  keep  a  man 
bone  dry  through  the  heaviest 
and  moj!t  lasting  <lownpour,  and 
if  fleece-lined  will  also  warmly 
protect  him  in  biting  cold 
weather. 

In  our  light-weight  No.  31  material, 
the  price  of  the  "Etiuitor"  is  92/6; 
of  our  No.  23  cashmere,  a  medium- 
weight  cloth,  115/- ;  without  apron 
(either  cloth),  17/e  less,  with  belt,  e/. 
extra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat  can 
be  had  in  two  qualities— No.  1  (fine 
wool),      e2/6;      No.      2,       M/: 

When  ordering  an  "Equitor"  Coat 
please  state  height  and  chest  measure 
and  send  remittance  (which  will  be 
returned  if  the  coat  is  not  approved), 
or  give  home  address  and  business 
(not  banlter's)  reference. 


Illustrated  LUt  at  request. 


-S:^^- 


WA  TERPROOFEKS 
TD.        TO  H.M,  THE  KING 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  C9i 

Only  Addresses  : 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.,   &  35  st.  jamess  st.,  s.w. 


THE  WAR  MAY  BE  WON  ON 
OUR  CORN  &  POTATO  FIELDS 


GROW  MORE  POTATOES  &  WHEAT. 


Every  vacant  piece  of  land  must  be 
cultivated,  and  crops  fenced  pro- 
perly. The  best  Fence  for  this 
purpose  is  the  "Empire"  Fence,  and 
crops  are  always  safe  where  it  is 
used.  The  heaviest  animal  cannot 
break  through. 


EMPIRE 


HARD 
STEEL 


WOVEN 
WIRE 


FENCE 


HUNDREDS    OF    UNSOLICITED 
TESTIMONIALS. 


R.J.W.,  Montgomery,  writes : 

Decetfiber  gth,  1916, 
"  /  tike  your  '  Empire "  Feiicr 
very  muck,  and  u-as  also  much 
struck  with  the  simplicity  0/  the 
Stretching  Tools  you  lent  lor 
erection,'^ 

WRITE  FOR  ILLUSTRATED 
CATALOOUE    W. 

PARKER.   WINDER^ 
A  CHURCH.    Limited, 

BIRMINGHAM. 


T=  THE "  Submarine  "  wrist  watch 


INTENSE 
LUMINOSITY. 


Some  wrist  watches  are 
dust  proof.  others  are 
damp  proof,  but  the 
"submarine"  is  the  first 
advertised 

Waterproof. 

Silver  case,  black  dial, 
intensely  luminous,  non- 
magnetic, the  really 
ideal  watch  for  navy 
and  army  officers. 


WRITE    FOR    PARTICULARS. 


£4-0-0 


net. 


DDAnV        9        COAI  By  Appointment  to  H.M.  The  King. 

DKUUn.    &    OUIN,    87  George  Street  West,  Edinburgh. 

The  PionccTS   of  Luminous    IVafches, 


Supplement     to    LAND    &     WATER 


January  4,   lyr 


S-- 


p-    "l  )M 


-mMhJ^r^-'Tnp' 


'JZ. 


Waring  &  Gillow's 

WINTER  SALE 


"% 


NOW    PROCEEDING. 
Specimen    Bargains 


Tea  Service. 

A  hc.uitiful  Queen  Aiiiie  Tea 
Sprvue  and  Kettle,  very  best 
Waring  plato,  consisting  of  kettle 
i.n  stand  with  lamp,  tea  pot,  sugar 
hasin  and  cream  jug. 

Usual   price  £11  :0  :0 
Sale  price  £9:15:0 

Vacuum    Sweeper. 

Varinim  Pwccix-r,  with  brush  ind 
regulntor  to  ra:se  or  lower  brush 
acctirding  to  pile  of  carpet,  and 
tiandle  roniplete. 

Usual  price  45/- 
Sale  price  36/- 


Bureau. 

Mahogany  Inlaid  Bureau,  fitted 
with  spacious  pigeon  holes  and 
writing  fall  and  three  large  drawers 
below. 

Usual  price  £5:5:0 
Sale  price  £4  :  12  :  6 

Dinner     Cloth. 

I  only  handsome  Dinner  Table 
Cloth,"  with  handmade  lace  inser- 
tion and  fine  English  embroidery 
and  Venetian  lace.  Size  2i  yards 
by  3  yaixis.  Slightly  soiled. 
Usual  price  ?!6  guineas 
Sale  price  16  gumeai 


Easy    Chairs. 

6  Lounge  Easy  Chairs,  upholstered 
hair  and  covered  in  cretonne. 
Usual  price  £4:4:0 
Sale  price  £3:10:0  each 
1    comfortable    Wing    Easy    Chair, 
with  loose  cu.shion  seat,  covered  in 
moquette  rug. 

Usual  pric-e  £11:0:0 
Sale  price  £8:10:0 

Bath    Sheets. 

Bath     Sheets,    manufactured 
finest  Egyptian  cotton.  54in.  by  78in 
Usual  price  13/9. 
Sale  price  10/9  each 


froni 


iT 


THIS  Sale  affords  an  exceptional 
opportunity  of  obtaining  first  class 
articles  from  practically  every  department 
at  genuine  bargain  prices.  The  specimen 
items  illustrated  above  are  merely 
examples   of   the    value    to    be    obtained. 


MTNGvxj 

GlLLOWl 

Vumisiers&Decoratois       '^^^  U^^ 
to'H.M.tfKf'Knsf  ^^^^m^ 

164-180,   OXFORD    street;  LONDON.   W 
BOLD  STREET,  LIVERPOOL.  " 


DEANSGATE,   MANCHESTER. 


TRENCH    COAT 
with  Seatlesi  Shorts. 

Only     Height    and     Cheil 
Measurement    Required. 


Incomparable 

Officers  on  Active  Service  who  have  had  the  opportunity  of  testing  many  different  makes  of  Water- 
Dfoofs  are  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  the  only  coat  that  has  proved  thoroughly  reliable  is  the 
^  AQUASCUTUM. 

B.E.F.,  October  30,  1916. 
Some  months  ago  I  ordered  one  of  your  Aquascutum  Infantry  waterproof 
coats;  since  then  we  have  had  some  very  wet  weather  and  1  have  had 
ample  opportunities  of  testing  its  quaHties.  I  cannot  speak  too  highly  of  it 
and  am  absolutely  satisfied  that  it  is  the  best  one  can  get.  I  have  tried 
several  other  well-known  makes,  but  none  comes  anywhere  near  the  high 
standard  of  efficiency  and  quality  of  my  Aquascutum  and  have  conse- 
Quently  recommended  it  to  several  of  my  brother  officers. 
^  R.  T.  D. 

B.E.F.,  Oct,  23,  1916. 
I  have  received  your  Trench  Coat  and  am  very  pleased  with  it  as  I  have 
already  three  consecutive  days  running  stayed  out  in  six  solid  hours'  rain 
and  it  has  kept  me  perfectly  dry. 

R.  H.  S, 

The  originals  may  be  seen  by  anyone  interested. 


There    is    only     one 

AQUASCUTUM 

Do    not     ac  c  e  p't 
inferior     imitations. 

Waterproof  Coal  Specialist  for  oocr  50  years 


Ltd. 


'Ijy  Appoirjiment  to  His  Majesty  the  King. 


100,   REGENT    STREET,   LONDON,    W. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII  No.  2852  [v^I^l       THURSDAY,  JANUARY   4.  1917  [^■^^7;A?^i?,f^]  i:'il'i'^1^"^'] ^S^ 


/i.'>    Louis  lifieiuQchers 


Drau-n   e^ciusivaiy  for   "Ldtid    c    'ti  iCtr  ' 


The    Resurrection    of    the    Dead 

The  dead  heroes  of  France  rise  to  protect  her  from  a  treacherous  peace 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  4,  Tqry. 


"THE  HIDDEN  HAND." 

Mechanic :  The  wheels  aren't  running 
parallel,  sir  !  They're  half-an-inch  out 
of  truth. 

Dunlop :  Misalignment,  you  know,  is,  so  to 
speak,  "The  Hidden  Hand."  Nothing 
causes  so  much  mischief  with  tyres, 
and  the  average  motorist  can't  locate 
the  trouble  till  the  mischief's  done. 

Users  of  Dunlop — or  any  other — tyres  can 
have  the  alignment  of  their  wheels  tested 
free  of  charge  at  any  of  the  Company's 
T>epots. 


DUNLOP   RUBBER   CO.,   LTD., 

FOUNDERS    OF    THE    PNEUMATIC    TYRE     INDUSTRY, 
PARA      MILLS,      ASTON      CROSS,      BIRMINGHAM. 

OF     ALL    MOTOR      AGENTS. 


y 


1 


January  4,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY  4,   1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The  Resurrection  of  the  Dead.     By  Louis  Raemaekers     i 

A  War  MancEuvre.     (Leader)  3 

Verdun  and  the  Somme.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 

Sea  War  of  1916.     By  Arthur  Pollen  8 

The  Roumanian  Campaign.     By  Colonel  Feylcr  10 

Coal  and  Iron  Fields'  of  Lorraine.     By  Henry  D. 

Davray                              '  12 

A  Letter  to  an  American  Friend.     By  Londoner  14 
McTavish  on  the  English  Genius.     By  Joseph  Thorp     16 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershavv  17 

The  Golden  Triangle.     By  Maurice  Leblanc  18 

The  Wtet  End  24 

Kit  and  Equipment  xi. 

A    WAR     MANCEUVRE 

GERMANY  to-day  must  be  pondering  the 
words  of  Bildad  the  Shuhite  :  "  The  hypocrite's 
hope  shall  perish."  For  the  reply  of  the  ten 
Allied  Governments,  "  united  for  the  defence  of 
the  freedom  of  the  nations,"  can  leave  no  illusion  that  her 
empty  and  insincere  proposal  Has  failed  in  its  object. 
So  far  from  troubling  public  opinion  and  creating  dis- 
sension, it  has  consolidated  and  hardened  the  sentiment 
of  all  the  nations  that  the  war  must  be  fought  out  until 
the  Allies  are  in  a  position  to  impose  their  will  upon 
the  Central  Ivingdoms.  Before  this  happens,  obviously 
the  Kaiser  will  have  ceased  from  bombast.  In  his  New 
Year  message  to  his  Army  and  Navy  and  indirectlj^  to 
the  German  peoples,  he  boasts  that  his  forces  were  in 
1916  "  victorious  in  all  theatres  of  war  on  land  and  on 
sea,"  and  adds  "  In  the  New  Year  also  victory  will  remain 
with  our  banners."  This  does  not  represent  a  frame  of 
mind  that  has  any  sincere  desire  for  a  discontinuance  of 
hostilities,  except  on  its  own  terms.  Until  events  force 
upon  German  mentality  an  entirely  different  attitude, 
all  talk  of  peace  is  illusory,  and  if  it  emanates  from  the 
enemy,  it  can  only  be  described  as  a  war  manceuvre. 

Field  Marshal  Sir  Douglas  Haig  (who  has  'won  his 
baton  by  splendid  service)  told  us  in  his  soldierly  despatch 
issued  on  Saturday,  that  "  the  enemy's  power  has  not 
yet  been  broken  nor  is  it  yet  possible  to  form  an  estimate 
of  the  time  the  war  may  last  before  the  objects  for  which 
the  Allies  are  fighting  have  been  attained.  Bui  the 
Somme  battle  has  placed  beyond  doubt  the  ability  of  the 
Allies  to  gain  those  objects."  The  latter  words,  here 
italicised,  must  be  steadily  borne  in  mind  in  regarding  all 
peace  proposals.  In  this  same  despatch  the  curtain  was 
lifted  a  little  way,  and  we  were  permitted  to  behold  the 
gigantic  organisation  which  is  nowadays  a  necessary 
prelude  to  a  forward  movement.  The  laying  out  of  a 
great  city  involves  no  more  complicated  works  of  all 
kinds  than  the  preparation  of  a  modern  battle.  These 
preparations  go  forward  steadily,  and  the  Germans  know- 
it.  The  German  General  Staff  must  recognise  plainly 
that  the  defeat  on  the  Somme  is  a  sign  that  their 
mihtary  power  is  broken,  and  that  nothing  can  save  them 
from  { destruction  unless  the  Allies  can  [be  betrayed  into 
weakness  and  led  astray  from  their  fixed  resolution  to 
secure  complete  military  victory.  We  may  look  forward 
during  the  rest  of  the  winter  to  constant  endeavours. 


many  of  them  astute,  cunning  and  covert,  to  move  the 
Allies  from  their  purpose.  The  leopard  does  not  change 
his  spots,  nor  the  Hun  his  methods,  and  we  have  to  be 
on  our  guard  against  all  suggestions  that  favour  an  early 
peace  or  even  a  peace  conference  on  Germany's  terms. 
The  open  letter  which  avc  publish  to-day  addressed  to  an 
American  friend,  explains  lucidly  the  cunning  manner  in 
which  Germany  imposes  the  impressions  she  desires  to 
create  on  neutral  minds.  We  may  be  sure  she  will  not 
be  content  with  breathing  fire  and  slaughter  in  Berlin, 
but  will  contimie  the  campaign  for  peace  on  her  own  terms 
which  she  has  initiated.  No  greater  success  will  met  her 
later  efforts.  The  Allies  are  not  to  be  turned  from  their 
purpose  by  the  secret  machinations  of  the  enemy. 

A  letter  has  recently  appeared  in  a  London  newspaper 
criticising  the  Allies'  reply  and  stating  among  other  things, 
that  "  moderate  men  will  ask  why  it  is  that  we  refuse 
to  discuss  our  aims  ;  whether  the  neutral  world  will  any 
longer  believe  that  we  are  fighting  for  those  defensive 
purposes  which  we  put  forward  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  ;  and  whether  the  assumption  that  we  can  at  some 
|future  time  exact  better  terms  without  disproportionate 
sacrifices  is  justified."  The  suggestions  contained  in 
these  questions  are  wholly  pernicious.  The  fact  is 
entirely  ignored  that  we  are  fighting  for  elementary 
principles  on  which  not  only  the  comity  of  nations  is 
based,  but  the  whole  social  fabric  of  civilised  mankind. 
It  is  not  a  question  of  exacting  better  terms  from  the 
encrrly,  but  compelling  the  Prussian  to  recognise,  in  the 
future,  that  there  is  a  higher  law  than  the  law  of  necessity, 
and  that  a  document  to  which  a  signature  has  been 
appended  has  a  value  and  sanction  entirely  apart  from 
the  paper  on  which  it  is  inscribed.  It  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that  this  point  of  view  involving  the  death  and 
agony  of  millions  of  human  beings,  has  shocked  the  soul 
of  all  sections  of  humanity,  and  if  it  be  allowed  to  pass 
together  with  the  abominations  which  were  its  logical 
result,  without  penalty  or  reparation,  then  the  war  would 
have  been  fought  in  vain  and  every  life  hitherto  sacrificed 
in  it  utterly  thrown  away. 

There  is  a  passage  in  Isaiah,  which  runs  :  "  And  the 
work  of  righteousness  shall  be  peace,  and  the  effect  of 
righteousness  quietness  and  assurance  for  ever."  That  is 
the  righteousness  for  which  the  Allied  nations  have  been 
and  are  fighting,  and  until  it  prevails,  it  is  folly  to 
talk  of  peace,  for  without  the  victory,  there  can  be 
no  quietness  or  assurance  for  eyer.  Again  we  repeat 
that  we  are  resolved  to  destroy,  to  wipe  out  the  corporate 
tradition  and  the  spiritual  organism  which  has  threatened 
us.  We  are  determined  to  put  into  the  hearts  of  those 
who  had  thought  themselves  our  superiors —and  who 
indeed  still  boast  themselves  our  superiors,  face  the 
Kaiser's  New  Year's  message— a  conviction  that  they  are 
our  inferiors.  It  will  take  time  to  accomplish,  but  we 
are  nearer  its  accomplishment  than  seemed  possible  a 
3'ear  ago.  Verdun  and  the  Somme  have  established  the 
inferiority  ^of  the  German  Army,  both  in  offence  and 
defence.  We  are  confidently  assured  that  complete 
military  victory  is  within  our  reach  if  we  persevere. 
And  that  we  shall  persevere,  no  one  doubts. 

The  Allies  desire  to  treat  with  all  respect  the  suscepti- 
bilities of  neutral  nations,  but  they  cannot  allow  them- 
selves to  be  deflected  from  their  purpose  by  sentiment. 
This  stern  quarrel  has  been  fixed  on  them  by  wanton 
aggression';  the  lesser  nations  have  been  s^^oiled  and 
the  life  of  the  greater  nations  has  been  fused  an-d  moulded 
into  the  single  purpose  of  war.  At  this  hour  when  at 
last  they  realise  that  the  past  sacrifices  have  not  been 
in  \ain,  that  The  Day— Their  Day— will  surely  [dawn, 
can  any  reasonable  being  assume  that  the  Allies  -will  lend 
an  ear  to  temporising  measures,  instead  of  pressing  for- 
ward with  renewed  determination  to  the  victory  which 
is  already  in  sight. 


LAND    &    WATER 


Januaiy  4,  1^17 


Verdun   and   the   Somme 


By    Hilaire    Belloc 


THE  publication  of  Sir  Douglas  Haig's  despatch 
Numniarising  the  British  half  of  the  operations 
upon  the  Somme  suggests  a  comparison  between 
those  operations  and  the  corresponding  opera- 
tions upon  the  sector  of  Verdun. 

.  The  parallel  between  the  two  has  occurred  to  everybody, 
but  it  is  the  points  in  which  they  differ  which  afford 
the  main  interest  of  the  war  in  the  West  during  1916. 

The  tirst  essentials  in  military  study  is  detachment. 
The  reason  of  this  is  that  while  war  stirs  emotion  pro- 
foundh-.  judgment  on  it  is  mainly  a  matter  of  calculation. 
We  do  not  need  to  exercise  our  power  of  detachment 
\ny  se\erely  to  form  a  good  judgment  of  a  chess  pro- 
l?lem.  We  have  to  exercise  it  somewhat  more  severely  to 
form  a  good  historical  judgment  upon  a  debated  point, 
especially  if  that  point  introduces  the  emotions  of  patriot- 
ism or  any  other  religious  emotion.  But  in  the  case  of 
contemporary  war  our  temptation  to  bias  and  at  the 
same  time  our  temptation  to  be  unduly  elated  or  unduly 
depressed,  is  far  stronger  than  in  any  other  field  of 
study.  And  at  the  same  time  the  real  matter  for  our 
study  in  this  field  is  figures  :  Figures  of  distance,  of  roads 
and  of  railways  and  their  number,  of  munitionment,  of 
wastage,  of  recruitment,  of  food  supplies,  total  man- 
power and  all  the  rest  of  it.  In  other  words,  the  matter 
of  our  study  is  that  with  which  emotional  judgment  is 
least  concerned,  and  yet  we  have  to  be  more  on  our 
guard  against  emotional  judgment  than  in  any  other 
.kind  of  knowledge. 

The  best  corrective  against  this  danger,  the  best 
aid  to  detachment,  is  to  examine  the  enemy's  case  before 
we  examine  our  own. 

The  Enemy's  Case 

What  the  enemy  can  say,  and  has  said,  about  the 
two  great  operations  is  roughly  thi^  : 

"  We  made  from  the  early  days  of  1916  up  to  the 
middle  of  that  year  a  prolonged  and  intensive  effort 
against  a  particular  sector  of  the  Allied  line  in  the  West. 
Pray  forget  all  the  journalism  and  propaganda  rubbish 
which  we  were  compelled  in  our  political  interests  to 
distribute  upon  the  subject.  We  were  not  really  con- 
.cerned  with  such  nonsense  as  the  '  taking  of  Verdun  '— 
a  phrase  which  never  had  any  military  sense.  Our 
re[:)eatedly  printed  prophecies  that  our  troops  would 
enter  the  town  at  such  and  such  a  date  (in  the  Western 
American  press  we  put  it  at  August  jrd  !  )  was  of  course 
nonsense.  Instructed  men  need  not  waste  a  moment 
upon  such  tricks.  Every  Government  must  lie  and  boast 
in  time  of  war,  and  if  we  do  it  a  little  more  crudely  than 
you,  we  do  it  with  the  same  motives. 

"  Our  offensive  against  the  Verdun  sector  was  intended 
to  break  the  French  front.  There  are  purists  who  object 
to  the  phrase  '  breaking  a  line  '  so  we  will  not  use  the 
phrase.  But  we  did  intend  to  break  the  Allied  front 
in  the  West  to  the  same  extent  at  least  and  in  the  same 
sense  as  we  had  broken  the  Russian  front  at  the  end 
of  April,  1915. 

"  Now  we  admit  that  we  failed.  We  think  we  came 
.  very  near  to  success  during  the  first  four  days,  February 
2i-23th  ;  but  you  held  us,  and  after  the  26th  "of  February 
it  was  clear  that  you  could  compel  us  to  a  prolonged 
struggle.  Nevertheless  our  intensive  action  was  continued, 
and  that  with  the  object  of  wearing  j-ou  down.  What  we 
said  to  ounselves  was  this  : 

"  The  French  are,  of  all  our  opponents  the  most  ex- 
hausted. They  are  not  quite  so  exhausted  as  we  are,  but 
on  the  other  hand  they  are  numerically  far  inferior.  At 
the  same  time  they  have  of  all  our  opponents  the  best 
ecjuipped  and  the  best  trained  army  with  the  longest 
traditions.  If — at  a  great  sacrifice  to  ourselves  we  admit 
— we  can  so  bleed  the  French  army  as  to  prevent  its 
taking  the  offensive  afterwards,  o\ir  continued  effort 
will  not  have  been  in  vain. 


"  Well,  we  went  on  for  five  months,  and  even  at  the 
end  of  those  fi\'e  months  we  were  still  obtaining,  though 
at  rare  intervals,  notable  succes.ses.  We  carried  the  line 
up  to  Thiaumont.  It  was 'quite  on  the  cards  that  wc 
should  carry  it  in  another  month  or  two  up  to  Souville. 
The  French  were  unable  to  establish  a  permanent  line, 
nor  did  our  efforts  relax  in  spite  of  our  great  losses  and 
the  length  of  time  over  which  they  hacl  been  spread. 

"  But  just  then,  after  five  months  of  such  effort,  came 
your  own  counter-offensive  upon  the  Somme.  You  still 
apparently  had  among  the  French  a  sufficient  elasticity 
and  man-power  to  help  in  that  offensive,  and  the  English, 
of  course,  had  greatly  increased  their  numbers  and  their 
power  of  munitionment  during  a  lull  of  nine  months  in 
which  they  had  not  been  hea\ily  engaged. 
■  "  When  you  began  your  Somme  offensive  you  naturally 
drew  off  energy  from  Verdun.  And  you,  the  Allies,  began 
on  the  Somme  exactly  what  we  had  done  at  Verdun. 
Your  real  object  was  to  break  our  front.  You  failed  to  do 
it  as  you  know.  The  southern  half  of  your  thirty  mile 
offensive  went  excellently  for  you  and  dangerously  for 
us,  but  the  northern  half  lost  very  heavily,  was  checked 
in  nearly  a  third  of  its  effort  and  advanced  but  a  short  way 
in  the  rest. 

"  After  that  you  proceeded  exactly  as  we  had  proceeded 
at  Verdun,  you  began  a  mere  wearing  down  of  us  by 
successive  local  advances  at  considerable  intervals.  You 
went  on  (just  as  we  did)  for  five  months.  You  continued 
on  the  Somme  as  we  had'  before  Verdun,  in  much  the 
same  fashion,  and  with  much  the  same  results.  And  all 
your  operjjtion  did  was  to  confirm  what  ours  had  proved  : 
the  immense  strength  of  the  modern  defensive.  Your  opera- 
tion failed  in  the  main  just  as  ours  failed  in  the  main, 
but  with  this  difference  :  That  ours  in  front  of  Verdun 
was  still  \igorous,  when  the  diversion  of  the  Somme  made 
u«  cease  ;  while  3'ours  petered  out  and  came  to  a  standstill 
of  itself. 

"  At  any  rate,  the  general  lesson  is  quite  clear.  The 
strength  of  the  modern  defensive  is  such  that  of  two 
opponents  thoroughly  equipped,  equal  in  moral  and  num- 
erous enough  to  hold  lines  that  cannot  be  turned,  neither 
can  break  the  front  of  the  other." 

Falsity  of  Such  a  Statement 

That,  I  take  it,  is  a  fair  statement  of  the  German 
military  thesis  as  it  has  been  laid  dow  n  for  the  benefit  of 
instructed  and  professional  neutrals,  with  some  hope  that 
it  may  also  affect  a  considerable  body  of  solid  opinion 
even  among  the  belligerents. 

Now  are  we  to  accept  this  statement  as  generally 
sound  ?  Is  it  something  which  could  only  be  criticised 
in  detail  and  by  special  pleading,  or  is  it  a  fundamentally 
false  comparison  of  the  two  great  battles  ? 

It  is  demonstrable  that  this  German  thesis  is  mili- 
tarily false.  It  does  not  describe  the '  military  conti-ast 
between  the  two  great  operations,  and  it  presents  a  view 
of  them  which  is  as  favourable  to  the  enemy  as  it  is  un- 
historioal.  I  mean  by  "  unhistorical  "  that  the  future 
of  the  war  will  certainly  belie  such  a  judgment. 

What,  then,  are  the  falsities  .of  concealment  or  omission 
in  a  statement  apparently  so  simple  and  straightforward 
and  apparently  so  well  in  agreement  with  what  we  have 
read  in  our  newspapers  of  the  two  great  battles  ? 

When  we  have  answered  that  question  we  shall  have  a 
true  picture  of  the'  contrast  between  Verdun  and  the 
Somme,  and  we  shall  find  it  to  be  almost  the  opposite  of 
the  description  we  have  just  read. 

Contrast  in  Phase 

The  first  and  fundamental  point  which  the  German 
thesis  ignores  is  this  :  that  Verdun  and  the  Somme  be- 
long to  two  vcr\'  different  phases  of  develi)])mt'nt  in  the 
campaign. 


January  4,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


Verdun  was  an  offerfsive  undertaken  in  view  of  an 
o])poncnt's  relatively  increasing  strength  and  in  the  hope 
of  forestalling  a  threatening  future.  The  Somme  was  an 
offensive  undertaken  in  view  of  the  opponent's  decreasing 
strength  and  with  a  view  to  initiating  further  and  stronger 
offensive  action  in  promising  future  : 

Wc  must  grasp  that  contrast  before  we  can  understand 
the  rest  at  all.  It  conditions  the  whole  war  of  1916  in 
the  West  and  produces  all  the  other  contrasts  between 
the  two  battles  which  wc  shall  note  later. 

Conditions  of  the  Verdun  Offensive 

Consider  the  state  of  the  war  when  the  Verdun  offensive 
was  begun  and  compare  it  with  the  state  of  the  war  when 
the  Somme  offensive  was  begun. 

The  Verdun  offensive  was  begun  as  soon  as  possible 
after  the  strategic  failure  of  the  Austro-German  advance 
through  Poland. 

Although  that  failure  was  followed  by  the  accession 
of  Bulgaria,  which  ])ermitted  Serbia  to  be  overrun,  and 
which  gave"  through  communication  between  the  .\ustro- 
(ierman  factories  and  the  armies  of  their  Turkish  Ally, 
yet  its  main  note  was  a  check — the  enemy  had  gone  to 
a  great  expense  for  a  certain  object  and  had  failed  to 
obtain  it.  The  five  great  successive  attempts  to  envelop 
a  Russian  army  had  each  ended  in  disappointment. 
The  Austro-German  line  had  been  drawn  eastward  to 
cracking  point.  The  enemy  dared  advance  it  no  further. 
In  the  terse  and  most  accurate  phrase  which  Lord 
Kitchener  used  at  that  moment,  he  had  "  shot  his  bolt." 

What  was  he  to  do  ?  His  advantage  hitherto  had  been 
superiority  in  numbers  everywhere,  and  in  munitionment 
■ — -but  in  the  latter  an  overwhelming  superiority  upon  the 
East.  His  advantage  in  numbers  was  rapidly  dis- 
appearing w  ith  the  growth  of  the  British  army  and  with  his 
own  prodigal  expenditure  of  men  in  the  purs\iit  of  a 
decision  which  always  escaped  him.  He  would  pass  to 
a  v'ery  marked  inferiority  when  the  Russian  reserve  of 
man-power  could  be  equipped,  while  his  superiority  in 
munitionment  was  still  more  threatened  by  the  final 
establishment  of  plant  in  Britain.  The  British  pro- 
duction for  the  munitionment,  both,  of  Britain  and  her 
Allies,  was  already,  early  in  1916 — by  the  summer  it 
would  be  formidable — rising.  The  enemy  had  only  one 
card  to  play,  and  that  was  to  seek  a  decision' in  the  West. 
He  had,  for  that  matter,  proclaimed  it  openly  in  America 
where  he  had  told  his  public  through  Bernhardi  that 
from  "  his  successes  in  the  East,"  he  was  about  to  "  come 
back  westward  and  over-run  F"rance." 

If  we  ehminate  the  very  foolish  rhetoric  of  such  phrases 
they  still  mean  obviously  a  determination  to  break  the 
Western  front,  while  some  superiority  for  such  an  off  en-  / 
sive  still  remained,  and  a  belief  that  it  could  be  done. 

Even  if  we  had  not  the  enemy's  repeated  open  pro- 
nouncements in  the  matter,  what  he  did  is  glaring  proof 
of  what  he  meant  to  do. 

The  divisions  with  which  the  first  blow  was  to  be  de- 
li\ered  were  withdrawn  from  the  line  for  special  training 
the  moment  the  Polish  campaign  was  at  an  end.  His 
new  recruits  of  the  1916  class  were  pushed  through  their 
drills  with  the  greatest,  rapidity.  The  emplacement  of 
the  heavy  guns  began  in  the  West  immediately  after 
the  failure  in  the  East  was  clear  ;  and  despite  the  very 
great  difficvilties  of  beginning  an  action  upon  so  early  a 
date,  the  bombardment  opened  upon  the  sector  of  Verdun 
in  the  third  week  of  February. 

The  whole  thing  speaks,  as  loudly  as  it  can,  of  the 
necessity  of  obtaining  a  decision  before  the  -summer  of 
i()i6.  And  why  ?  Because  if  no  decision  were  obtained 
bv  then  the  increase  in  the  number  of  the  Allies  in  the 
\Vcstern  field  and  the  still  more  rapid  increase  (in  geo- 
metrical progression*)  of  the  Allied  munitionment  in  the 
West  would  render  the  certain  issue  of  the  war  fatal  to  the 
(Central  Powers. 

Contrast  of  the  Somme 

If  such  were-tfic  conditions  under  which  the  Verdun  . 

•  "  Ceomctrical  Progression  "  because  your  plant  once  laid  down — 
suljjcct  to  limitations  in  man-power-  hcl])s  you  to  niaUc  further  plant,  , 
and  the  product  therefore  increases  in  geometrical  progression,  like 
Ihe  breeding  of  stock.  So  would  tlie  enemy's  munitionment  increase 
Imt  lor  his  liigher  limitations  in  certain  necessary  materials  and  in 
man-power  compared  with  the  .\Uies. 


ofl'ensive  was  designed  and  undertaken,  contrast  the 
conditions  under  which  the  Somme  offensive  was  designed 
and  undertaken. 

First  :  Verdun  had  already  eaten  up  upon  that  one 
sector  alone  and  in  five  months  alone,  and  for  the  German 
army  alone,  more  than  Germany  can  replace  by  new 
recruitment  upon  all  her  fronts  during  a  whole  year. 

In  the  second  place,  the  Trentino  offensive  had  failed 
and  had  failed  at  the  cost  of  further  vtry  heavy  Austrian 
losses  upon  the  comparatively  neglected  Isonzo  front. 

In  the  third  place — and  it  was  much  the  most  im- 
portant thing  of  all— Brussiloff  on  the  4th  of  June  had 
broken  the  Austrian  front  in  the  East,  was  sweeping  up 
prisoners  at  such  a  rate  that  in  a  few  weeks  they  reached 
nearly  400,000,  and  was  eliminating  the  equivalent  of  at 
least  forty  Austro-Hungarian  divisions.  Germany  had 
to  fill  the  gap  by  the  sudden  depletion  of  her  reserve  pi 
man-power  ;  the  reshuffling  of  units  to  create  new  and 
smaller  divisions,  and  the  maintenance  of  a  most  ex- 
pensive, slowly  stiffening  retreat. 

It  was  with  the  military  situation  in  such  a  posture  that 
the  bombardment  on  the  Somme  opened  in  the  last  days 
of  June.  It  opened  with  the  British  power  of  munition- 
ment still  rising  very  rapidly  and  destined  to  rise  more 
rapidly  still  ;  and  the  offensive  was  delivered  with  forces 
which  had  behind  them  a  very  great  reserve  of  man-power. 
Even  upon  the  French  side,  "though  the  French  were  the 
more  exhausted  of  the  two  Allies,  Class  1917  had  not 
yet  appeared,  while  upon  the  German  side  the  Somme 
drew  into  its  vortex  jroni  the  very  first  day  the  recruits  of 
this  class;  and  long  before  the  operation  was  overall  the 
available  lads  of  191 7  were  either  upon  the  active  front 
or  in  the  field  depots.  They  had  been  drained  from  the 
main  depots  and  Class  1918  had  taken  their  place  there 

Contrast  in  Rate  of  Loss 

The  second  point  of  contrast  is  conformable  to  this 
first  and  is  what  we  should  have  expected  to  follow  from 
the  first.  It  will  be  found  expressed,  when  the  history 
of  the  war  is  written,  in  the  curves  of  comparative  losses 
which  cannot  be  published  to-day. 

At  Verdun  the  French  defensive  grew  stronger  and 
stronger  as  the  operations  proceeded.  The  comparative 
losses  upon  the  French  side  declined  as  the  operation 
proceeded,  and  this  was  largely  because  the  enemy's 
artillery  was  (1)  more  and  more  embarrassed  in  its 
efficacy  by  the  rising  power  of  the  French  in  the  air  upon 
this  sector  ;  (2)  More  and  more  equally  met  by  the  new 
French  gun  production  and  concentration. 

On  the  Somme  it  was  just  the  other  way.  The  AUied 
artillery,  with  the  co-operation  of  the  Allied  superiority 
in  the  air,  \vas  master  from  the  very  beginning  of  the 
operation.  The  losses  of  the  offensive  grew  on  the 
average  less  and  less  in  proportion  to  results  as  the 
operations  proceeded.  The  losses  of  the  defensive- grew 
greater  and  greater.  The  two  curves  (of  the  German 
loss  and  Allied  loss)  probably  crossed  somewhere  towards 
the  end  of  August.  The  distance  between  them  was 
rapidly  increasing  and  nothing  prevented  its  increase  to 
the  point  of  completely  demoralising  the  cnefny  but  the 
advent  of  winter  and  climatic  conditions  interrupting 
offensive  power.  In  most  of  the  later  operations  the  losses 
of  the  offence,  even  upon  the  line  of  contact,  were  less 
than  those  of  the  defence  ;  while  the  losses  behind  the 
line  through  the  efficacy  of  artillery  was  far  greater 
upon  the  enemy's  side  than  upon  ours. 

One  may  estimate  the  thing,  if  one  will,  by  the  symptom 
— for  it  is"  hardly  a  criterion — of  prisoners. 

Roughly  speaking,  at  Verdun  in  five  months  the  enemy 
was  taking  one  prisoner  from  the  Allies  (including 
colonial  troops)  for  every  ten  casualties  he  received, 
and  as  the  operations  proceeded  the  cost  in  casualties  per 
prisoner  rose. 

Roughly  speaking,  upon  the  Somme.  the  Allies  took 
prisoners  in  a  much  higher  ratio  to  their  casualties,  and 
as  the  operations  proceeded  the  cost  in  casualties  for 
each  prisoner  fell  very  rapidly  indeed. 

One  may  put  the  contrast  between  the  Somme  and 
Verdtm  in  the  form  of  tactical  experience. 
""■'The  German  attack  at  Verdun  began  with  one  tactical 
fticthod,  which  was  pursued  with  slight  modifications  to 
the  end,  and  as  it  proceeded  gradually  lost  in  value. 
The  Allied   offensive     on  the   Somme   perfected  a  new 


8 


LAND    &     WATER 


January  4,  1917 


The  Sea  War  in  1916 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


AT  the  beginning  of  a  new  year  it  may  be  useful 
/\  to  take  stock  of  the  naval  position.  From  the 
/  ^  lirst  clay  of  the  war  we  have  all  taken  it  as 
_Z  A-axiomatic  that  the  superiority  of  the  British 
fleet  would  give  us  command  of  the  sea,  and  that  this 
command  alone  would  assure  to  the  Allies  an  ultimate 
winning  position  over  the  enemy.  Nor  is  it  to  be  doubted 
lor  an  instant  that  botji  expectations  have  been  realized. 
But  still  less  can  it  be  denied  that,  considering  the  prompti- 
tude \sith  which  our  conuuand  asserted  itself  by  the  total 
suspension  of  the  enemy's  trade  and,  not  less  strikingly, 
b\- Great  Britain's  immediate  freedom  to  conduct  military 
f)perations  oversea  against  the  chief  enemy,  there  arc  two 
anomalies  which  seem  to  distinguish  the  present  exercise 
of  sea  power  from  its  exhibition  in  previous  wars.  The 
war  has  reached  its  culminating  point  without  a  single 
decisive  engagement  at  sea — and  after  two  years  of 
almost  absolute  command  of  sea  communications,  we 
have,  during  the  last  five  months,  seen  these  connnunica- 
tions  attacked  with  disconcerting  success.  1  jjropose. 
therefore  to  discuss,  very  cursorily,  why  these  abnor- 
malities exist. 

The  advantages  of  superior  sea  power  in  war  are  familiar 
enough.  They  include  the  protection  of  the  coast,  sea 
supple,  and  colonies  of  the  belligerent  possessing  it,  and 
the  capacity  to  inva'de  the  enemy,  to  crush  his  trade,  and 
.  blockade  his  ports,  and  to  isolate  and,  therefore  ensure 
the  fall  of  his  oversea  possessions.  Coast. protection  and 
the  assurance  of  the  safety  of  our  own  sea  supplies  and 
colonies  are,  so  to  speak,  the  negative  side  of  sea  power, 
though  positive  enough  in  their  results.  To  invade  and 
besiege  may  be  considered  its  direct  military  employment. 
Superiority  at  sea  always  has  and  always  will  be  con- 
ditioned by  the  possession  and  right  employment  of  the 
fleet  of  the  most  powerful  units,  and  it  may  exist  in 
either  of  the  two  states.  It  may  be  quite  absolute. 
This  is  always  the  case  when  the  sea  forces  of  the  enemy 
are  cither  totally  destroyed  in  battle,  or  so  crippled  as  to 
be  powerless.  But  it  takes  two  to  make  a  battle,  and 
sea  war  differs  from  land  war  in  this,  that  one  belligerent, 
if  he  possesses  adequately  protected  harbours,  may 
withdraw  his  forces  from  the  field  of  war  altogether. 
Hence  winning  of  absolute  superiority  by  battle  is  not  to 
be  attained  by  the  will  and  resolution  of  one  side  only. 
Without  battle,  however,  absolute  superiority  is  ^ill 
virtually  obtained  if  the  side  that  is  w  illing  to  fight  can  so 
mask  and  confine  the  enemy's  sea  forces — either  by  irre- 
movable barriers  such  as  mines,  or  by  the  threat  of 
immediate  destruction  by  the  attack  of  greater  numbers 
of  ships  of  greater  force — as  to  keep  them  idle  and 
completely  demobilised.  But  where  the  superior  power 
can  neither  force  the  enemy  to  decisive  battle,  nor  com- 
pletely neutralise  his  fleet,  so  that  it  is  still  open  to  him 
to  face  the  risks  involved  in  seeking  the  battle  he  has 
hitherto  avoided,  then  the  superiority  of  the  seemingly 
stronger  fleet  may  be  called  conditional. 

Qualified  Command  of  the  Sea 

Commonly  speaking,  command  of  the  sea — a  state  of 
things  in  which  the  advantages  set  out  above  accrue  to 
the  lielligerent  possessing  it — follows  from  superiority, 
whether  absolute  or  conditional.  But  that  command  in 
turn  may  be  absolute  or  qualified,  according  to  the  nature 
and  numbers  of  the  lesser  sea  forces  possessed  by  both 
sides,  and  the  relation  which  their  respective  bases  bear 
to  the  main  lines  of  sea  traffic  of  their  opponents.  Thus, 
Trafalgar  established  Britain's  superiority  at  sea  as 
absolute,  and,  once  decisively  won,  carried  with  it  as 
complete  command  as  the  nature  of  sea  force  at  that 
time  permitted.  But  it  was  a  command  that  was  always 
qualified,  because  the  Atlantic  and  Mediterranean  ports 
possessed  by  the  enemy  lay  on  our  chief  trade  routes,  and 
fast  armed  sailing  vessels  could  not  be  prevented  from 
taking  a  heavy  toll  of  our  ships.  In  this,  the  last  ten 
years  of  the  NapoJeonic  war    showed  in  sharp  contrast 


with  the  first  six  months  of  this  war.  From  1806  to 
1815  our  superiority  was  absolute  and  our  command 
qualified,  while,  after  the  first  few  months  of  the  present 
war — when  the  ten  or  dozen  commerce  raiders  had  all 
been  run  down,  destroyed  or  neutralised — our  superiority 
at  sea  was  conditional — because  it  was  still  open  for  the 
German  fleet  to  seek  decisive  action-  while  our  com- 
mand was  absolute,  because  our  transports  and  shipping 
were  safe  from  attack;  invasion  was  impossible,  the 
enemy's  oversea  trade  has  ceased  to  exist,  and  could  not 
be  revived,  all  our  colonies  were  safe,  and  every  German 
colony  threatened  without  hope  of  help  from  another 
country. 

.Since  then  there  has  clearly  been  a  very  great  change. 
The  fleets  have  met,  but  without  establishing  the 
superiority  of  our  battle  fleets  in  an  absolute  and  decisive 
manner.  And  two  and  a  half  years  of  war  have  not 
enabled  us  to  make  it  quite  impossible  to  neutralise  the 
power  and  influence  of  the  enemy's  main  forces.  (In 
this  connection,  however,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
since  the  enemy's  fleet  was  repaired,  it  has,  so  far  as  the 
})ublic  know,  only  ventured  outside  its  harbours  three 
times,  and  on  each  occasion  has  had  one  or  more  vessels 
successfully  attacked  by  British  submarines.  Some 
'progress  at  any  rate,  has  been  made  towards  the  de- 
mobilisation of  the  enemy's  fleet,  though  its  complete 
neutralisation  has  not  been  achieved.)  It  remains  then 
that  our  superiority  is  still  conditional,  as  it  has  been 
from  the  beginning.  And,  meantime,  the  submarine 
attack  on  our  sea  supplies,  as  recently  developed,  has 
qualified  our  sea  conmiand  to  a  very  unexpected  extent. 
Are  these  two  phenomena  dependent  one  on  the 
other  ?  It  is,  I  take  it,  agreed  that  were  the  German 
Fleet  destroyed,  the  problems  involved  in  the  use  of  mines, 
the  close  blockade  of  the  submarine  exits,  etc.,  would  be 
radically  changed  in  our  favour.  .And  if  so,  it  is  essential 
to  ask  :  Is  the  continuance  of  this  position  due  to  the 
strategy  which  we  have  pursued,  or  does  it  arise  simply 
from  the  determination  of  the  enemy  to  avoid  a  decisive 
issue  ? 

The   Rival   Strategics 

It  would  be  natural  to  think  that  the  Battle 
of  Jutland,  in  which  the  whole  German  Fleet  met 
the  whole  of  ours,  and  was  wTthin  fighting  range  of 
for  two  hours,  ought  to  afford  us  complete  data  for 
answering  these  questions.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact 
it  does  not,  for  the  reason  of  the  change  in  the  weather 
conditions  that  took  place.  In  the  first  phase,  W'hen  the 
battle  cruisers  only  were  engaged,  the  seeing  conditions 
were  as  favourable  as  are  likely  to  be  obtained  in  normal 
conditions  in  the  North  Sea.  During  the  second  phase, 
when  the  British  battle  cruisers,  reinforced  by  the  Fifth 
Battle  Squadron  drew  the  united  German  fleet  up  to  Sir 
John  Jellicoe,  and  were  continuously  engaged  with  the  lead- 
ing eight  or  ten  ships,  those  conditions  got  steadily  worse. 
And  they  continued  to  deteriorate  from  a  quarter  past 
six  when  the  Grand  Fleet  deployed  for  action,  until  8.20, 
when  the  last  of  the  enemy  was  seen.  This  change  in  the 
seeing  conditions  robs  Jutland  of  its  value  as  an  index  to 
the  supposed  strategies  for  the  following  reasons.  We 
simply  do  not  know  whether  Admiral  Scheer  knew  that 
the  Grand  Fleet  was  out.  We  therefore  do  not  know 
if  he  sought  action  with  it.  It  was  not  weather  in  which 
Zeppelins  could  scout  effectively  before  mid-day,  and 
after  five  o'clock,  when  the  advance  cruisers  of  the  two 
sides  might  have  got  into  visual  contact  had  the  at- 
mosphere been  clear,  all  long  range  scouting  from  the 
sea  level  had  become  impossible.  To  say  that  Admiral 
Scheer,  while  he  did  not  know  that  the  Grand  Fleet  was 
out,  showed,  by  continuing  to  follow  up  Sir  David  Beatty, 
a  uillingness  to  risk  an  encounter  with  the  Grand  Fleet, 
does  not  answer  the  question,  because  it  only  showed 
that  he  was  willing  to  risk  an  encounter  when  long  range 
gunnery  would  be  ineffective,  and  the  risks  of  close  action 


January  4.  iQi? 


LAND    &    WATER 


seemingly  prohibitive.  In  ottier  words,  all  that  we  can 
deduce  for  a  certainty  from  the  German  sti'atcgy  and 
tactics  on  the  31st  May  is  that  Admiral  Scheer  was./ 
willing  to  risk  meeting  the  Grand  Fleet  because  he  could 
hold  over  it  such  a  threat  of  torpedo  attack  as  would 
make  closing  impossible.  The  German  argument  evidently 
was  that  if  the  weather  conditions  at  five  continued  till 
seven,  a  decisive  result  could  only  be  obtained  if  the 
British  fleet  brought  about  a  short  range  melee— a  thing 
on  which  no  admiral  who  realised  the  enormous  importance 
of  the  Ch-and  Fleet  to  the  Alliance  would  venture,  for  the 
simple  reason  that,  in  a  melee,  the  losses  of  each  side 
would  not  necessarily  be  proportional  to  the  opposed 
numbers,  but  might  be  determined  by  pure  chance. 
If  this  is  all  Jutland  tells  us  about  the  German  con- 
ceptions of  strategy,  it  is  almost  all  it  tells  us  about 
British  policy  also.  For  it  is  clear  from  the  known  cir- 
cumstances and,  indeed,  from  the  quite  frank  state- 
ments in  the  despatch,  that  from  the  lirst  moment  of  con- 
tact between  the  battle  fleets,  effective  long  range 
artillery  duel  was  out  of  the  question  and  that  in  the 
■prevailing  condilions,  the  Commander-in-Chief  could  not 
seek  close  action. 

German  writers  have  made  a  great  deal  of  play  during 
the  last  six  months  with  the  argument  that  their  fleet 
was  built  on  the  "  risk  "  principle.  It  was  a  force,  that 
is  to  say,  which  the  strongest  sea  power  in  the  world 
would  not  dare  to  attack,  not  because  it  could  not  ex- 
pect victory,  but  because  it  could  only  expect  victory 
at  a  price  that  would  bring  it  to  so  low  a  level  as  to  put 
it  at  the  mercv  of  naval  powers  originally  inferior  and 
still  neutral,  the  suggestion,  therefore,  is  that  the  reason 
we  did  not  fight  Jutland  to  a  finish  was  that,  had  we 
done  so  Great  Britain  would  have  been  left  with  a  battle- 
ship force  inferior  to  that,  say,  of  America,  Japan,  France 
or  Italy.  And,  while  these  arguments  have  been  doing 
duty  in  Germany,  the  British  public  has  been  told  that 
the  Grand  Fleet  was  quite  right  not  to  seek  decisive 
action  because  all  the  fruits  of  victory  Ci3uldbe  obtained 
without  it  !  But  surely  both  groups  of  writers  are 
altogether  wrong.  For  the  only  conceivable  explanation 
of  the  German  fleet's  escape  is  that,  in  the  conditions 
that  prevailed,  the  only  tactics  that  would  have  made  a 
decision  possible  would  necessarily  have  been  very  far 
from  making  it  certain. 

Why   Defensive  Theories   Exist 

It  is  then  nothing  but  a  libel  on  the  nerve  and  courage 
of  the  British  Commander-in-Chief  to  suggest,  as  the 
Germans  do,  that  close  action  was  avoided  because  he 
was  afraid  of  paying  the  price  of  victory.  And  it  is 
nothing  but  a  libel  on  his  military  intelligence  to  suggest, 
as  Mr.  Churchill  did,  that  close  action  was  avoided  because 
victory,  whatever  its. costs,  was  both  unnecessary  and  use- 
less. At  the  same  time,  there  is  some  excuse  to  be  made 
for  those  who  maintain  that  the  role  of  the  Grand  fleet 
should  be  purely  defensive,  who  think,  that  is  to  say, 
that  its  first  duty  is  to  keep  intact,  that  it  should  face  no 
risks  from  torpedoes  or  mines  and  should  engage  only 
when  it  can  bring  its  vastly  more  numerous  battery 
to  bear  in  the  most  favourable  artillery  conditions. 
But  the  excuse  does  not  lie  in  any  military  principle, 
nor  in  the  peculiar  nature  of  modern  weapons.  The 
excuse  is  that  the  true  character  and  right  methods  of 
use  of  these  weapons  had  not  been  thoroughly  mastered 
before  war  began.  Take  the  matter  of  torpedo  risk. 
Until  the  battle  of  Jutland  all  our  experience  went  to 
show  that  a  torpedo  hit  was  almost  necessarily  fatal. 
Indeed  only  two  ships,  the  Cicrman  battle  cruiser  Moltke, 
and  the  British  armoured  cruLser  Roxburgh,  were  known 
to  have  been  hit  and  to  have  survived.  But  at  Jutland 
twelve  hits  were  made  and  only  one  ship  sunk,  and  since 
tliat  day  three  battleships  and  three  cruisers  have  been 
torpedoed,  and  only  two  of  the  smallest  cruisers  ha\'e 
been  sunk,  and  they  needed  seven  torpedoes  to  do  the 
business.  The  torpedo  danger,  then,  has  been  ex- 
aggerated ;  but  it  needed  experience"  to  show  that  modern 
construction  had  so  greatly  lessened  the  danger  ;  and  that 
experience  was  not  available  on  the  31st  of  l\Iay.  But 
once  more  it  must  be  remembered  that  at  Jutland  it 
cannot  have  been  primarily  the  risk  of  torpedoes,  but 
the  uncertainty  of  \ictory  in  the  thick  weather,  that 
prevented  closing.     Still,   there  was  reason  for  saying. 


in  May  ii)i6,  that  a  fleet  that  got  within  torpedo  range 
was  risking  the  existence  of  some  or  many  of  its  units. 

The  Failure  of  Naval  Gunnery 

The  second  excuse  for  those  who  argue  for  a  defensive 
role  is  quite  different.  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  really 
astonishing  revelation,  given  by  the  three  chief  actions 
of  the  war,  of  the  inefficiency  of  modern  long  range 
gunnery.  At  the  Falkland  Islands  it  took  sixteen  JZ- 
inch  guns  five  hours  to  sink  two  armoured  cruisers, 
neither  of  which,  it  would  ordinarily  have  been  supposed, 
could  have  survived  more  than  a  single  hitting  salvo  at  the 
mean  range — ele\en  thousand  3'ards — of  that  action. 
Again,  at  the  affair  of  'the  Dogger  Bank,  Lion,  Tiger, 
Princess  Royal,  New  Zealand  and  Indomitable  were  in 
action  for  many  hours  against  three  battle  cruisers  and 
an  armoured  cruiser,  and  for  perhaps  half  the  time  at 
ranges  at  which  good  hitting  is  made  at  battle  practice, 
and  although  two  of  the  enemy  battle  cruisers  were  hit 
and  seen  to  be  in  flames  they  were  able,  after  two  and  a 
half  hours  engagement,  to  continue  their  retreat  at  un- 
diminished speed,  and  only  the  armoured  cruiser,  whose 
resisting  power  to  13.5  projectiles  must  ha\e  been  very 
feeble,  was  sunk. 

The  lesson  of  Jutland  is  still  more  striking,  and  it  is 
possible  to  draw  the  moral  with  a  little  greater  precision 
since  it  has  been  officially  admitted  in  Germany  tha,t 
Ltitzow,  Admiral  von  Hipper's  flagship,  the  most  modern 
of  Germany's  battle  cruisers,  was  destroyed  after  being 
hit  by  only  fifteen  projectiles  from  great  guns.  It  iB  not 
clear  from  the  German  statement  whether  this  means 
fifteen  13.5's  and  omits  to  reckon  12-inch  shells,  or  whether 
there  were  fifteen  hits  in  all,  some  of  the  one  nature  and 
some  of  the  other.  The  latter  is  probably  the  case.  ■  F'or 
we  know  from  Sir  David  Beatty's  and  the  Gernian 
despatches  that  it  was  the  Invincible  s  salvoes  that  finally 
incapacitated  the  ship  and  compelled  von  Hipper  to 
shift  his  flag.  Lutzow  was  always  at  the  head  of  the 
German  fine  and  so  was  exposed  to  the  fire  of  our  battle 
cruisers  for  nearly  three  hours.  If  we  assume  that  she 
was  hit  by  ten  13.5's  and  five  12-inch  ;  if  we  further 
assume  that  the  effect  of  shells  is  proportionate  to  their 
weight;  if  we  take  the  resisting  power  of  British  battle 
cruisers,  German  battle  cruisers  (which  arc  more  heavily 
armed),  and  all  battleships  to  compare  as  the  figures  2,  3 
and  4  respectively  ;  if  we  further  assume  that  the  Fifth 
Battle  Squadron  did  not  come  into  effective  action  till 
the  second  phase  began,  and  went  out  of  action  at  6.30, 
and  that  the  battle  cruisers  were  in  action  for  three  hours 
and  omit  Hood's  squadron  altogether,  we  get  the  following 
results. 

Five  German  battle  cruisers  were  exposed  to  severtty- 
two  hours  of  13.5  gun  fire  and  to  twenty-four  hours  of 
12-inch  gunfire,  and  five  German  battleships  were  ex- 
posed to  forty-eight  15-inch  gun  hours.  Similarly — 
omitting  Queen  Mary,  Indefatigable  and  Invincible, 
seemingly  destroyed  by  chance  shots  and  not  over- 
whelmed by  gunfire — four  British  battle  cruisers  were 
exposed  to  thirty-seven  12-inch  and  sixty  ii-inch  gUn 
hours,  and  the  Fifth  Battle  Squadron  was  exposed'  to 
one  hundred  and  eighty  12-inch  gun  hours.  Had  both 
sides  been  able  to  hit  at  the  rate  of  one  hit  per  hour  per 
gun,  the  Germans,  roughly  speaking,  should  have  sunk 
six  British  battle  cruisers,  and  the  four  ships  of  the  Fifth 
Battle  Squadron  nearly  twice  over  ;  the  Fifth  Battle 
Squadron  should  have  sunk  four  German  battle  ships, 
and  the  British  battle  cruisers  seven  German  battle 
cruisers  !  The  number  of  hits  received  by  the  British 
fleet  has  not  been  published,  but  it  is  probably  safe  to 
say  that  the  Germans  could  not  have  made  a  quarter  of 
this  number  of  hits,  nor  the  British  ships  more  than  a 
third.  It  would  seem,  then,  that  at  most  we  made  one 
hit  per  gun  per  three  hours,  and  the  Germans  one  hit 
per  gun  per  four  hours. 

Battle  Practice  contrasted  with  Battle 

At  no  time,  throughout  such  parts  of  the  action  as  wc 
are  considering,  did  the  range  exceed  14,000  yards,  and 
at  some  periods  it  was  at  12,000  and  at  others  at  8,000. 
In  battle  practice,  not  only  in  the  British  fleet  but  in 
all  fleets,  hits  at  the  rate  of  one  hit  per  gun  per  four 
minutes  at   14,000  yards  liave   constantly  been   made. 


lO 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  4,  1917 


How  then  are  we  to  explain  the  extraordinary  difference 
between  battle  practice  and  battle  results  ?  In  the  former 
certain  difficulties  are  artificially  created,  and  methods  of 
lire  control  are  employed  that  can  overcome  these  dilfi- 
cnltie^  successfully.  But  these  methods  evidently  break 
down  when  it  .comes  to  the  quite  different  difficulties 
that  battle  presents.  So  far  we  are  on  indisputable 
ground.  \\'hcther  tire  control  can  be  so  improved  that 
the  difficulties  of  battle  can  be  overcome,  just  as  the 
difficulties  of  battle  practice  have  been  overcome,  is 
another  matter.  The  difference  between  action  and 
battle  practice  are  broadly  speaking  twofold.  First, 
you  may  have  to  fight  in  atmospheric  conditions  in  which 
you  woiild  not  attempt  battle  practice.  AH  long  range 
gunnery,  whether  at  sea  or  on  land,  def>ends  for  success 
upon  range-finding  and  the  observation  of  fire,  and,  as  at 
sea  the  observations  must  be  made  from  a  point  at  which 
the  gun  is  fired,  the  correction  of  fire  becomes  impossible 
if  bad  fight  or  mist  prevents  the  emploxTnent  of  observing 
glasses  and  range-finders.  In  the  Jutland  despatch 
particular  attention  was  directed  to  the  disadvantges 
we  were  under  in  the  matter  of  range-finding  from  these 
causes.  It  would  appear  then  that  those  who,  for  many 
years,  had  maintained  that  the  standard  ser\'icc  range- 
finder  would  be  useless  in  a  North  Sea  battle,  have  been 
proved  to  be  right. 

The  second  great  difference  lies  in  the  totally  different 
problems  wliich  movement  creates  in  battle.  In  battle 
practice,  the  only  movement  of  the  target  is  that  which 
the  towing  ship  can  give  to  it.  Its  speed  and  manceuvring 
power  are  strictly  limited,  whereas  a  30-knot  battle  cniiser 
can  change  speed  and  direction  at  will.  The  smallest 
change  of  course  must  alter  the  range,  and  the  smallest 
miscalculation  of  speed  or  course  must  make  accurate 
forecast  of  range  impossible.  But  the  movements  of 
the  target  are  only  a  part  of  the  difficulty.  Those  that 
arise  from  the  manoeuvres  of  the  firing  ship  may  be  still 
greater  and  more  confusing.  And  so  obvious  is  this 
that,  in  peace  time,  it  used  to  be  almost  an  a.\iom  that 
to  put  on  helm  during  an  engagement — even  for  the 
sake  of  keeping  station — should  be  regarded  almost  as  a 
crime.  But  the  long  range  torpedo  has  long  since  made 
it  clear  that  a  firing  squadron  may  have  to  put  on  helm. 
It  must  manceuNTre,  that  is  to  say,  in  self-defence — a  thing 
it  woidd  ne\er  have  to  do  in  battle  practice.  And  when 
both  target  ship  and  firing  ship  are  manceuNTring.  it  is 
small  wonder  if  methods  of  fire  control,  designed  pri- 


marily for  steady  courses  by  one  ship  and  low  speed  and 
small  turns  by  'the  other,  break  down  altogether.  But 
these  contingencies  had  also  been  foreseen  arid  means 
developed  for  deaUng  with  them.  It  is  certainly  strange 
in  view  of  what  has  happened  in  the  war.  that  methods 
of  fire  control  including  range-finders  and  sights  and 
instruments  for  observation,  designed  for  dealing  with 
bad  light  in  the  North  Sea,  and  instruments  for  elimina- 
ting the  difticulties  caused  by  manoeuvres,  should  not 
have  been  insisted  on. 

The    Only    Basis   for   the   OflFensive 

It  is  germane  to  our  main  point  to  raise  this  question 
now  because  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  mainspring 
of  all  defensive  naval  ideas  is  doubt  as  to  the  success  of 
offensive  action,  and  as  the  only  offensive  action  that  a 
battleship  can  take  is  by  its  guns,  it  would  seem  as  if 
those  who  disbelieve  in  the  offensive,  have  now  far  too 
much  reason  for  their  scepticism.  We  have  now  got 
a  new  Board  of  .\dmiralty  and  a  new  First  Lord.  We  are 
all  witness  to  the  fact  that  war  is  a  vast  experiment. 
On  sea  and  on  land  almost  every  method  of  using 
weapons  has  been  revolutionised,  and  not  once  but  again 
and  again.  Now,  if  it  is  a.xiomatic  that  sea  command 
depends  upon  absolute  superiority,  and  that  absolute 
superiority  at  sea  is  conditioned  by  battle  fleets,  and 
that  battle  fleets  have  no  weapons  but  the  gun  ;  and  if  there 
is  a  disbelief  in  the  value  of  that  fleet's  offensive  because 
the  proved  performances  of  the  gun  are  so  indifferent — 
does  it  not  seem  elementary  that  a  resolute  effort  should 
,at  once  be  made  to  find  out  if  science  is  equal  to  the  task 
of  reducing  battle  conditions  to  battle-practice  conditions  ? 

It  is  at  any  rate  surely  not  very  sanguine  to  say  that 
science  might  eliminate  25  or  even  50  per  cent,  of  these 
obstacles  to  efficiency.  If  battle  practice  gives  a  rate  of 
hitting  of  one  per  gun  per  four  minutes  and  battle  that 
of  one  per  gun  per  three  hours,  ami  if  only  25  per  cent, 
of  the  errors  could  be  removed,  tljt'  rate  of  hitting  in 
battle  could  be  improved  by  more  than  eleven  hundred 
per  cent.  And  this  is  a  standard  which  would  have  en- 
abled Sir  David  Beatty  and  Rear  Admiral  Evan  Thomas 
to  have  destroyed  half  the  German  fleet  before  6  o'clock. 
The  matter  is  clearly  worth  investigation. 

I  propose  to  complete  the  review  of  the  lessons  of  19 16 
in  our  next  issue. 

Arthur  Pollen 


The  Roumanian  Campaign 


By  Colonel   Feyler 


THE  inter\-ention  of  Roumania  in  the  European 
war  has  not  brought  about  the  beneficial  results 
which  were  hoped  for  from  it.  It  is  a  profitable 
enquiry  to  find  out  why  this  should  have  been  so. 
E.xperience,  in  the  case  of  mihtarj'  men  as.  generally,  of 
all  other  men,  is  the  result  of  their  mistakes  and  their 
enlightenment.  And  this  being  so,  there  are  many 
lessons  to  be  learned  from  the  successive  enterprises  of 
which  the  Balkans  and  Turkey  in  Asia  have  been  the 
venue  in  the  course  of  the  last  "two  years— the  attack  on 
the;  Dardanelles,  the  Mesopotamian  expedition,  the 
landing  at  Salonika  and  the  inter\ention  of  Roumania. 
When  it  becomes  possible  to  study  these  enterprises  in 
the  light  of  official  documents  we  shall  probably  discover 
that  the  mistakes  originated  either  in  plans  which  were 
not  sufficiently  reasoned  out,  or  in  plans  which  were 
felicitous  but  were  carried  out  by  means  that  were  not 
adequate,  either  because  they  were  not  estimated  correctly 
or  because  there  was  some  defect  in  their  combination 
and  co-ordination. 

Take  the  first  of  these  enterprise.^,  i^i  <..\ample,  the 
Dardanelles  expedition.  Here  the  idea  was  certainly  a 
good  and  sound  one.  Capture  of  the  Straits  would  have 
di^iosed  of  the  Turks  and  established  the  shortest 
j)<)ssible  lines  o^  communication  and  the  most  direct 
connection  between  the  ^\■estern  and  the  Eastern  fronts. 
Properly  supported  by  diplomacy  it  pa\ed  the  way  for  a 
convergent  attack  upon  the  Central  Empires.  And, 
further,  it  had  immediate  effect  uuon  German  moral. 


inasmuch  as  it  made  an  end  of  Germany's  hopes  for  the 
future  in  the  direction  of  Bagdad.  Results  so  great 
as  these  were  abundant  justification  for  it. 

Thej'  were  not  obtained,  and  the  project  had  to  be 
abandoned.  After  several  months  of  fruitless  effort  a 
profit  and  loss  account  was  taken,  and  there  was  no 
alternative  but  to  acknowledge  that  although  the  idea 
was  quite  sound,  the  difficulties  attending  its  execution 
had  not  been  properly  appreciated. 

The  offensi\e  against  the  European  commvmications 
of  the  Ottoman  army  having  thus  proved  aborti\e,  two 
frontal  attacks  upon  it  were  made,  one  by  the  Russians 
in  Armenia,  the  other  by  the  British  in  Mesopotamia. 
Were  these  two  attacks  made  in  accordance  with  a  com- 
mon plan  prepared  beforehand,  or  did  each  army  operate 
in  its  own  field  with  only  such  means  as  were  deemed 
necessary  for  its  particular  mission  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  answer  that  question.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Russian  attack,  although  it  had  some  very 
important  restilts,  remained  a  purely  local,  or  regional, 
of>eration,  an  extension  of  the  gains  of  1878  ;  it  was  not 
driven  right  home.  And  although  the  English  operation 
was  not  \\ithout  some  measure  of  success,  it,  too,  failed 
to  achieve  its  purpose.  \\'hy  ?  Apparently  because  of 
inadequate  muster  of  means.  The  enemy  was  siot 
estimated  at  his  real  worth.  A  colonial  expedition  was 
sent  out  against  him,  whereas  what  was  needed  was  an 
operation  in  scale  with  the  great  war. 

The  landing  at  Salonika  proceeded  from  the  same  idea 


January  4,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


as  the  Dardanelles  enterprise,  with  the  ditterencc  that 
in  this  case  it  was  sought  to  break  the  communications 
between  Europe  and  Asia  on  the  Bulgarian  side.  At 
the  outset  it  produced  an  appreciable  advantage,  in  that 
it  more  or  less  neutralised  a  large  number  of  enemy 
troops.  But  its  offensive  import  was  not  made  manifest 
as  anticipated.  Either  because  the  effectives  were  not 
sufficient  or  because  political  considerations  fettered  the 
military  operations,  or  even  perhaps  because  there  was 
no  intention,  in  the  beginning,  of  pushing  right  home, 
the  army  at  Salonika  remained  upon  the  defensive  for  an 
entire  year  and,  voluntarily,  or  involuntarily,  abandoned 
the  advantage  of  a  surprise  attack  upon  an  enemy  who 
as  yet  was  not  properly  entrenched.  [ 

Now  we  come  to  the  Roumanian  campaign,  and  tliis 
is  what  we  find :  An  army  which  docs  not  seem  to  have 
been  of  any  very  serious  offensive ,  importance,  and  in 
which  Russia  was  represented  only  by  two  infantry 
divisions  and  one  cavalry  division,  advanced  ■  in  the 
Dobrudja,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Danube,  opposite 
Bulgaria.  Another  army  which  seems  to  have  been 
much  more  considerable,  invaded  Transylvania  through 
all  its  frontiers,  thus  marching  against  Austria-Hungary. 

This  twofold  operation  would  have  suggested  that  the 
intention  was  to  make  a  simultaneous  attack  upon  two 
enemies,  the  Bulgarians  and  the  Austrians.  But  two 
circumstances  prove  that  this  was  not  thQ  real  intention  : 
One,  that  Roumania  only  declared  war  upon  Austria-Hun- 
gary ;  the  other,  that  after  the  first  encounter  in  the 
Dobrudja  the  Russo-Roumanian  army  was  obliged  to 
give  ground  to  a  great  depth.  We  conclude,  therefore, 
that  Rouinania  regarded  the  Balkan  front  as  merely 
subsidiary,  that  the  mission  of  the  Dobrudja  army  was 
purely  defensive,  which  explains  its  relative  .weakness  in 
effectives,  and  that  the  real  strategic  plan  contemplated 
securing  the  initiative  which  was  to  be  looked  for  on  the 
Austro-Hungarian  enemy  front. 

Here  arises  the  fust  tjuestion  :  Was  this  plan  good  in 
conception  and  did  it  .correspond  with  the  general  situa- 
tion ? 

We  may  be  permitted  to  doubt  it.  What  did  the 
general  situation  prescribe  ?  We  have  always  said  that 
the  Eastern  and  Western  Fronts  were  the  principal  fronts 
in  the  w^ar,  because  it  was  on  them  that  victory  would 
bring  the  greatest  results  to  the  victor  and  on  them  that 
defeat  would  be  most  perceptible  and  disastrous  for  the 
vanquished.  But  operations  are  long-dated  on  these 
two  fronts.  And  therefore  we  acknowledged  that  they 
might  be  advantageously  supported  by  successes  on 
fronts  which  were  not  immediately  decisive,  but  which 
might  be  used  to  relieve  the  others  and  perhaps  permit 
of  a  successful  turning  movement.  The  Balkans  formed 
a  front  of  this  nature,  and  the  landing  at  Salonika  was 
regarded  as  the  primmg  for  a  turning  movement. 

The  enterprise  having  thus  been  embarked  upon,  the 
question  that  next  arose  was  which  enemy  the  plan  of 
campaign  ought  to  regard  as  the  most  immediately 
dangerous  and,  therefore,  the  one  who  must  be  put  out  of 
action  first.  In  Uie  case  of  the  Salocika  army,  to  whom 
the  turning  movement  against  the  Central  Empires  was 
assigned,  there  did  not  appear  to  be  much  doubt  on  the 
point  :  the  principal  enemy  was  Bulgaria,  who  was  placed 
athwart  the  movement.  Consequently  it  seems  that  the 
proper  thing  to  do  was  to  converge  against  the  Bul- 
garians all  available  forces,  and  especially  the  Roumanian 
force  which  could  operate  from  the  north,  and  at  once, 
while  the  Salonika  army  was  operating  from  the  south. 
Meanwhile,  defensive  tactics  could  be  adopted  on  the 
mountainous  Transylvanian  front,  which  lent  itself  to 
fortifications  and  resistance.  As  soon  as  the  Bulgarians 
were  defeated  the  operation  worJd  follow  its  logical 
course  :  the  turning  movement  would  develop  from  the 
south  northwards,  and  the  forces  rendered  available 
by  the  defeat  of  the  Bulgarians  would  permit  of  an  offen- 
sive being  begun  upon  the  Transylvanian  front. 

^Vhy  was  this  plan,  which  seemed  to  conform  to  the 
logic  of  the  general  situation,  rejected  in  favour  of  another 
which  divided  the  forces  and  failed  to  provide  anywhere 
a  strength  and  solidity  adequate  to  the  battle  fronts  ? 
Probably,  as  so  often  happens  where  coalitions  are  con- 
cerned, itliere  was  failure  of  unity  of  control  and  political 
considerations  perverted  the  military  conception,  or 
hampered  its  realization. 

There  may  ha\e  been  exclusively  Roumanian  interests 


NOTICE 


The  tilfb  of  the  aeronautical  paper  to  be 
pubUshed  shortly  by  Land  &  Water  is 

FLYING. 

This  paper  is  in  no  way  connected  with 
a  recent  publication  called  "  Air  "  issued 
by  "The  Aeronautical  Institute  of  Great 
Britain."  The  first  number  of  Flying 
will  be  published  on  Wednesday,  January 
24th,  and  it  will  contain  a  number 
of  articles  of  exceptional  importance. 


which  launched  the  Roumanian  troops  upon  Transylvania, 
while  in  the  general  military  interest  it  would  have  been 
better  to  think  less  about  the  coveted  territory  and  more 
about  the  enemy  whom  it  was  necessary  to  put  out  of 
action  if  definitive  occupation  of  the  territory  was  to  be 
secured.  What  good  could  an  invasion  of  Transylvania 
do  to  the  Roumanians  if,  thanks  to  the  Bulgarians,  the 
Germans  succeeded  in  maintaining  or  re-establisliing 
their  operations  in  the  Balkans  ? 

The  definite  issue  was  that  Bulgaria  maintained  her 
position  and  the  Germans  consolidated  theirs,  while  the 
Roumanians,  faiUng  to  concentrate  against  the  principal 
enemy,  were  driven  out  of  half  of  their  territory. 

No  doubt  other  factors  must  be  taken  into  account  to 
explain  the  Roumanian  reverses.  Their  army  was  fresh, 
it  is  true,  but  on  the  other  hand,  its  commanders  had  not 
the  skilled  craft  which  comes  from  experience  of  war. 
It  is.  probable,  too,  that,  as  other  armies  have  discovered 
by  experience,  its  commissioned  ranks  of  peace  times 
were  not  filled  exclusively  by  men  equally  suitable  for 
war  conditions.  All  the  belligerents  agree  that  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  judge  by  garrison  duty  of  the  value 
of  the  cadres,  which  is  only  discovered  clearly  in  the 
succession  of  duties  of  active  ser\-ice.  Reverses  are 
required  to  prove  their  quality.  Battle  is  the  sole  arbiter 
of  selection. 

Nevertheless,  over  and  above  all  these  defects,  it  is 
likely  that  the  blunder  in  strategy  played  its  part.  It 
diverted  the  Roumanian  intervention  into  an  unfortunate 
direction. 

It  need  not  be  concluded,  however,  that  the  result  of 
the  campaign  has  been  all  loss.  One  beneficial  result 
was  that  it  diverted  Marshal  Falkenhayn's  army  from 
a  more  important  objective.  That  army  was  obliged  to 
devote  itself  to  an  undertaking  which  could  only  result  in' 
a  \'ictory  which  may  be  called  regional,  that  is  to  say 
over  an  enemy  whose  destruction  could  not  have  a  vital 
influence  upon  the  general  result  of  the  war.  The 
Roumanian  army  could  not  be  an  essential  factor  in  the 
resistance  to  the  Germanic  aggression.  Even  if  it  had 
been  hit  harder  than  it  actually  was,  the  disasters  inflicted 
upon  it  could  not  have  entailed  disaster  to  the  great 
armies  of  the  Quadruple  Entente.  And  the  losses  in 
effectives  suffered  by  the  Central  Empires  because  of  it 
are  definite  losses  and  consequently  a  diminution  of 
strength.  That  stands  to  the  credit  side  of  Roumania's 
account  in  the, war.  In  spite  of  the  check  she  is  an 
appreciable  piece  in  the  game. 

A  special  article  upon  the  brutal  treatment  of  Russian 
prisoners  by  the  Germans,  on  ivhich  wc  have  received 
'particular  inforinaiion,  will  appear  next  week. 

Meticulous  attention  to  detail  is  the  keynote  of  Their 
Lives,  by  Violet  Hunt  (Stanley  Paul  and  Co.,  6s.),  the  lives 
being  those  of  the  three  daughters  of  Henry  Radmall,  artist, 
and  of  Victoria  his  wife — who,  by  the  way,  is  the  essence  of 
Victorian  propriety  at  its  coldest.  The  petty  squabbles  of 
these  three  girls,  their  dislikes  and  discords,  are  etched  in 
deeply  and  bitterly,  and  in  tlie  only  approacli  to  real  feeling 
that  any  of  them" display — the  scene  between  Christina  and 
her  sister  on  the  eve  of  Christina's  marriage— the  gift  of 
expression  of  feeling  is  absent  from  both  girls.  Brilliantly 
clever,  this  study  of  unlikeable  people  may  rank  with  the 
temperance  lecturer's  "  horrible  example."  as  a  story  of  how 
not  to  bring  up  children.     - 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


January   4,  1917 


Coal  and  Iron  Fields  of  Lorraine 


By  Henry  D.  Davray 


IV,  up  to  the  present  moment,  Germany  has  been 
able  to  resist  the  AUies'  pressure  ;  if,  after  the 
smashing  blow  she  received  as  early  as  September, 
i()i4,  at  the  gigantic  battle  which  raged  for  a  fort- 
night from  Nancy  to  the  Aisne,  she  has  managed  to  tight 
on  and  compelled  the  Allies  to  such  terrifying  sacrifices, 
it  is  entirely  because  she  could  rely  on  her  inexhaustible 
resources  in  coal  and  iron.  For  the  last  two  years,  with 
the  guns  and  munitions  her  workshops  produce,  and  the 
explosives  she  extracts  from  her  coal,  she  could  make  up  , 
for  the  attrition  and  decrease  of  her  effectives — and  was 
able,  when  the  moral  of  her  population  abated,  to  point 
proudly  to  the  map  of  Europe  and  show  a  fighting  line 
pushed  deep  into  her  neighbours'  land,  a  long  line  that 
sometimes  bends  but  never  breaks,  lip  to  the  present. 

Moreover,  concurrently  with  her  enormous  war  effort, 
her  industrial  power  made  possible  for  her  the  building  of 
merchant  ships  which,  as  soon  as  peace  is  signed,  will 
carry  all  over  the  world  the  stock  of -goods  she  has  been 
accumulating.  She  has  even  been  in  a  position  to  sell 
coal  and  iron  to  her  neutral  neighbours  in  exchange  for 
food.  It  has  been  said  o\-er  and  over  again  that  war  is 
Germany's  national  industry  ;  we  see  now  that  that 
criminal  industry  has  been  built  upon  the  iron  ore  de- 
posits of  Lorraine,  and  that  Lorraine's  coal  and  iron 
mines  have  up  to  the  present  saved  Germany  from  bank- 
ruptcy and  collapse. 

Wealth  of  the  Rhine  Valley 

The  mineral  wealth  of  Germany  is  to  be  found,  for  the 
largest  part,  along  the  I^hine.  Nature  has  ominously 
hidden  at  the  door  of  the  Prussian  Niebelung  a  treasure 
which  is  the  main  spring  of  (lerman  power.  Up  to  1814 
this  treasure  belonged  to  France  ;  but  in  1815  the  treaty 
of  Vienna  permitted  Prussia  to  cross  the  Rhine,  and  she 
seized  the  country  between  the  Rhine  and  Moselle  with 
its  enormous  masses  of  mineral  wealth.  But,  though 
she  then  appropriated  the  considerable  coal  deposits  of 
the  Sarre,  she  was  still  lacking  in  iron  ore.  Those  she  got 
in  1871,  when  she  captured  that  part  of  Lorraine  which 
she  thought  contained  the  whole  of  the  industrial  wealth 
of  these  parts.  The  frontiers  she  clutched  at  since  then 
gave  her  the  means  to  develop  her  industrial  power,  upon 
which  she  built  up  her  political  hegemony. 

The  few  square  miles  extending  over  the  valleys  of 
the  Moselle  and  the  Sarre  which  Prussia  wrung  from 
France  in  1815  and  1871  are  the  foundations  of  the  whole 
industrial  strength  of  modern  Germany,  but  the  most 
important  asset  consists  in  the  huge  iron-ore  deposits 
south-west  of  the  Sarre  valley,  in  Lorraine.  If  she  had 
not  annexed  that  part  of  Lorraine,  Germany  would  not 
have  dared  to  go  to  war  at  all ;  she  would  never  ha\e  been 
able  to  supply  her  munition  factories  with  an  unUmited 
quantity  of  raw  material  ;  she  could  not  ha\e  stood  the 
terrific  strain  of  a  war  like  this. 

Last  year,  a  member  of  the  French  Chamber  of  De- 
puties, M.  Fernand  Engerand,  who  is  also  a  distinguished 
economist,  discovered  in  the  Archives  Nationales  certain 
documents  that  prove  that  the  coalfields  owned  by  the 
Prussian  State,  in  the  Sarre  mining  area,  were  first  worked 
by  French  engineers,  and  that  the  canal  which  is  their 
main  outlet  was  built  with  the  help  of  I'Vench  money. 
It  cannot  thus  be  argued  that  those  who  were  in  pos- 
session of  the  country  did  not  know  the  treasure  it  con- 
cealed. When  the  Prussians  stole  it,  it  was  already  worked 
by  F-rench  enterprise  and  capital.  France  knew  very  well 
the  value  of  the  Lorraine  deposits.  As  far  back  as  1867, 
she  had  begun  to  canalise  the  !\Ioselle  for  the  purpose  of 
developing  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  region.  In  fact, 
she  had  so  much  regard  for  it  that  she  secured  in  the 
Treaty  of  Frankfort  a  clause  by  which  the  Germans 
boimd  themseKes  to  proceed  with  the  canalisation  in  the 
new  German  territories.  But,  although  (iermany  has  for 
the  last  forty  years  displayed  an  obstinate  energy  in 
developing  a  wonderful  system  of  waterways,  she  displayed 
an  unflinching  opposition  to  the  deepening  of  the  Moselle 
and  Sarre  rivers.    She  devoted  enormous  labour  and 


money  to  make  the  Rhine,  up  to  Strasburg,  a  magnificent  ' 
waterway  ;  she  connected  the  Rhine  and  the  Wcser  with 
a  whole  network  of  deep  and  broad  canals,  through 
which  F2mdcn  has  become  the  maritime  outlet  of  West- 
phalia ;  and,  on  the  Rhine,  the  famous  port  of  Ruhrort 
I>rides  itself  on  ha\-ing  a  bigger  tonnage  than  the  port  of 
London 

A  Westphalian   Monopoly 

Why  then  did  Germany  always  refuse  to  improve  the 
carrying  capacity  of  the  Moselle  and  the  Sarre  rivers  ? 
German  estimates  reckoned  the  cost  of  the  deepening  of 
the  rivers  at  40  million  marks  (£2,000,000)  for  the 
Moselle,  and  27  million  marks  (£1,330,000)  for  the  Sarre. 
In  comparison  with  the  cost  of  the  gigantic  works  carried 
out  on  the  Rhine  and  on  the  Westphalian  waterways, 
these  sums  are  trifling  and  they  support  the  view  that  the 
enterprise  could  have  been  carried  out  easily  and  quickly, 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  obdurate  opposition  of  the 
Prussian  Government.  In  i()05,  after  repeated  efforts, 
the  scheme  was  at  last  brought  before  -the  Prussian 
Landtag,  but  it  was  promptly  rejected. 

Then  the  manufacturers  of  Lorraine  and  Alsace,  far 
from  desisting,  subscribed  to  a  common  fund,  and 
succeeded  in  bringing  the  scheme  before  the  Reichstag, 
offering  to  contribute  to  the  canahsation  of  the  Moselle 
nearly  half  the  cost  of  the  enterprise.  They  met  with 
no  better  success. 

This  extraordinary  attitude  seems  to  have  been  dictated 
by  two  very  strong  considerations.  First,  the  Prussians 
feared  lest  a  more  complete  development  of  metallurgy 
in  Lorraine  might  compete  disastrously  with  the  West- 
phalian industry,  which  had  plenty  of  coal  near  at  hand, 
but  only  an  inadequate  supply  of  iron  ore.  The  second 
consideration,  very  likely  the  strongest,  had  a  political 
and  a  military  importance.  Lorraine  was  too. near  the 
French  border  to  become  the  centre  of  the  main  German 
industry,  as  it  might  be  upset,  destroyed  or  captured  at 
the  outbreak  of  a  war.  It  is  easy  to  realize  that  if,  for 
instance,  Krupp's  works  had  been  shifted  from  Essen 
right  to  the  centre  of  the  mining  district  of  Lorraine, 
they  would  have  been  within  daily  reach  of  the  Allied 
airmen,  whose  bombs  would  have  soon  made  havoc  of 
them. 

Just  as  the  giant  Fafnir,  in  Wagner's  poem,  put  his 
gold  in  a  'cavern  and  lay  on  it,  the  Rhinegold  was  thus 
locked  up  in  a  ca\e  where  it  was  accessible  only  to  the 
Westphalian  manufacturers.  The  iron  ore  of  Lorraine 
was  made  entirely  dependent  upon  Westphalian  coal, 
and  so  one  of  the  richest  mineral  districts  of  the  world 
could  only  develop  its  resources  for  the  benefit  of  the 
German  Empire,  for  the  preparation  of  the  future 
Deutschturrt. 

The  importance  of  the  Lorraine  deposits,  and  also  of 
the  coal  question  connected  with  the  ore  problem,  is 
set  out  in  a  secret  petition  sent  on  May  30th,  1913,  to  the 
German  Chancellor  by  the  six  great  industrial  and  agri- 
cultural associations  of  the  Empire  ;  one  could  not  wish 
for  a  more  candid  admission  : 

The  manufacture  of  shells  requires  a  quantity  of  iron  and 
steel  such  as  nobody  would  iiavc  thought  of  before  the  war. 
l''or  the  shells  in  grey  cast-iron  alone,  which  are  being  used 
in  place  of  steel  shells  when  no  superior  quality  is  needed, 
quantities  of  pig  iron  have  been  required  for  the  last 
months  which  reach  at  least  4,000  tons  a  day.  No  precise 
figures  are  available  on  this  point.  But  it  is  already 
certain  that  if  the  output  in  iron  and  steel  had  not  been 
doubled  since  the  month  of  August  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  would  have  become  impossible. 

As  raw  material  for  the  manufacture  of  these  quantities, 
the  minctle  (oolitic  iron-ore)  is  assuming  a  more  and  more 
important  place,  as  only  this  kind  of  iron  ore  can  be  ex- 
tracted in  our  country  in  quickly  increasing  quantities. 
The  production  in  other  areas  is  considerably  reduced, 
and  the  importation  by  sea  even  of  Swedish  iron-ore  has 
become  so  difficult,  that  in  many  regions,  even  outside 
J-uxembuurg  and  Lorraine,  the  minctic  at  the  present 
moment  covers  from  60  to  60  per  cent,  of  the  maimfacture 


January  4,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


of  i)ig-iron  and  steel.  If  the  output  ot  the  minette  were 
to  be^disturbed,  the  war  would  be  as  good  as  lost. 
Tliis  is  the  unveiled  confession  that/without  the  pos- 
session of  Lorraine,  the  German  Empire  would  have  been 
unable  to  stand  tlie  industrial  strain  of  the  war,  since 
Luxembourg  yields  only  a  small  quantity  of  inine/te. 
It  proves  further  that  withotit  Lorraine  the  gigantic 
and  noxious  growth  of  the  metallurgic  power  of  Germany 
would  have  been  impossible  even  in  peace  time.  The 
same  secret  petition  contained  this  other  admission  : 

Already  to-dav,  as  the  prohibition  of  the  exportation  of 
coal  made  by" the  English  on  May  15th  proves  it  again, 
coal  is  one  of  the  most  decisive  means  for  exerting  political 
influence.     The   industrial   neutral   States   are   compelled 
to  submit  to  those  of  the   belligerents  who  can  provide 
their  supply   of   coal.     We   cannot   do  it   sufficiently   at 
present,  and  we  are  compelled  even  to-day  to  resort  to 
the  production  of  Belgian  coal  in  order  not  to  allow  our 
neutral    neighbours    to    fall    completely    under    the    de- 
^  pendency  of  England. 
Are  not  all  these  facts  and  words  sufficient  to  demon- 
strate that  the  possession  of  the  Rhinegold  treasure,  of 
the  iron  ore  deposits  of  Lorraine,  is  vital  for  Germany  ? 
And  do  not  the  following  figures  add  to  them  a  crushhig 
strength?    Out  oi  28,607,000  tons. of  iron  ore  which  Ger- 
many  extracted  from   her   soil  -in   19IJ,   21,135,000   ions 
came  from  Lorraine. 

In  the  same  year,  from  the  same  annexed  part  of  Lor- 
raine, the  coal  mines  yielded  an  output  of  3,200,000  tons. 
The  total  value  of  the  iron  and  coal  output  amounted  to 
£4,000,000.  The  blast  furnaces  produced  3,800,000 
tons  of  pig  iron,  and  the  output  of  steel  reached  2,300,000 
tons.  A  comparison  of  these  iigiires  with  those  published  by 
France  shows  that  the  output  of  pig  iron  in  Lorraine 
equalled  the  total  output  of  the  whole  of  France,  while 
as  to  steel  Lorraine  only  produced  one-third  less  than  all 
the  French  steel  works  together  : 

Output  of  Pig  Iro\  and  Steel. 
Pig  Irox  :     France   in  1911      .  .  . .     4,000,000  tons 

Lorraine  in  1913     . .  . .     3,800,000  tons 

Steel  :  France  in  1911       . .  . .     3,800,000  tons 

Lorraine  in   1913    .  .  . .     2,300,000  tons 

No  wonder  that  the  French  industrial  world  has,  since 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  given  a  great  deal  of  attention 
and  thouglit  to  the  problem  of  coal  and  iron  in  Lorraine. 
The  iron  deposits,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  map 
published  on  this  page,  start  from  Longwy-St.  Martin,  on 
the  border  of  Belgium,  go  broadening  from  west  to 
cast  in  France,  advance  into  Luxembourg  to  Differdange 
and  Redange,  then,  expanding  towards  the  east  in 
annexed  Lorraine,  turn  sharply  from  north  to  south,  and 
follow  down  to  Noveant  on  the  Moselle  river  where  the 
Rupt  de  Mad  runs  into  it.  In  French  Lorraine,  the 
deposits  stretch  southwards  down  to  Mars  la  Tour,  and 
send  three  sharp  points  towards  Ville  en  Montois,  Landres 
and  Conflans. 

In  1870,  together  with  their  German  colleagues,  the 
French  geologists  alleged  that  only  the  cropping  out 
veins  were  workable,  as  at  a  depth  of  several  hundred 
feet  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  iron  ore  quickly 
deteriorated.  It  was  a  mistake,  but  hardly  ever  was 
there  a  more  lucky  mistake. 

On  that  mistake  the  Prussians  assigned  the  limits  of 
their  annexation,  and  the  treaty  of  Frankfort  wrung  from 
France  ig  iron  mines,  16  coal  mines  and  14  other  mineral 
allotments,  together  with  the  most  important  metallurgic 
works  of  the  Moselle  valley  and  the  famous  de  Wendel 
factories  w'hich  produced  not  less  than  a  tenth  part  of 
the  total  French  output. 

But  the  Briey  area  was  left  to  France,  as  Moltke  and 
Bismarck  had  no  idea  of  its  invaluable  wealth.  There 
France  established  and  developed  her  most  iinportant 
metallurgic  works,  ignoring  the  danger  that  threatened 
them  in  case  of  a  war  ;  she  concentrated  on  her  eastern 
and  northern  frontiers  eight-tenths  of  her  metallurgic 
power  ;  whereas  Germany  developed  her  industrial 
strength  far  out  of  reach  of  a  possible  enemy. 

Let  us  repeat  once  more  this  fact  which  we  must  all 

keep  in  mind  for  the  time  when  the  Allies  impose  peace  : 

In   1913,  the  Lorraine  mines  yielded  o%ier  21  million 

ions  of  iron  ore,  out  of  a  total  German  output  of  28 

millions. 

The  annexation  of  this  mineral  wealth  was  the  main 
foundation    of   that    metallurgic   power   which   brought 


about  the  monstrously  unbalanced  increase  of  German 
industry  and  commerce.  Soon  Germany  developed  such 
an  ai)petite  for  iron  that  she  exceeded  quickly  the  enor- 
mous rcser\-es  that  she  became  possessed  of  by  her  robbery 
of  1870-71.  In  1913,  she  bought  abroad  14,019,000  tons 
of  iron  ore,  and  meanwhile  the  bloated  German  Fafmr 
was  looking  with  greedy  covetous  eyes  on  the  French 
mines,  clo5e  at  hand,  which  yielded  a  yearly  output  ot 
nearly  that  amount. 


The  resources  of  the  Lorraine  iron  ore  deposits  are 
estimated  at  3,000  million  tons  for  French  Lorraine,  and  at 
only  2,000  million  tons  for  the  Lorraine  which  we  are  to  call 
German  for  a  very  short  time  more.  The  total  estimates 
for  France  amount  to  7,000  million  tons  without  taking 
into  account  the  deposits  that  may  exist  in  her  colonial 
empire.  The  total  estimates  for  England,  without  her 
Dominions  and  Colonies,  reach  3,000  million  tons  of  iron 
ore  of  the  first  order,  and  o\-er  30,000  million  tons  for  her 
total  ferriferous  resources. 

But  if  we  exclude  Lorraine,  Germany  is  very  poor  in 
iron  ore,  only  710  million  tons  being  supposed  to  exist  in 
her  very  own  territor3^ 

When  Professor  Hermann  Schumacher,  of  Bonn,  and 
with  him  the  six  great  German  industrial  and  agricultural 
associations,  ask  for  "  an  improvement  of  the  Franco- 
German  frontier,"  it  is  easy  to  realise  what  kind  of  im- 
provement they  have  in  mind.  And,  fortunately,  they 
are  very  candid  and  gi\'e  themselves  away  with  an 
incredible  artlessness. 

"  Above  all,"  they  say,  "  we  must  secure  for  ourselves 
all  the  raw  material  needed  for  the  war  industries  and 
deprive  our  enemies  of  them.  Without  the  iron  ore  of 
Lorraine,  we  could  not  .supply  the  output  of  iron  and 
steel  required  for  the  war.  The  treaty  of  Frankfort 
had  given  us  the  whole  of  Lorraine.  A  mistake  was  made 
by  the  geologists  whose  advice  Bismarck  sought.  We 
know  that,  since  1880,  contrary  to  Bismarck's  anticipa- 
tions, the  area  of  Briey,  which  is  an  extension  of  the 
Longwy  area,  has  become  one  of  the  richest  parts  of 
France.  We  can  now  retrieve  that  mistake,  since,  from 
the  outbreak  of  war,  we  have  conquered  and  strongly 
held  the  second  most  important  raw  material  in  the 
industry  of  war  :  coal.  Just  as  we  could  not  prosecute 
the  war  if  we  did  not  possess  the  rich  deposits  of  the 
Lorraine  soil,  so  we  could  not  secure  victory  if  we  had  not 
a  complete  control  of  the  abundant  coalfields  of  Belgium  • 
and  the  North  of  France.  Now  that  we  know  what 
ammunition  means  in  a  war,  we  must  be  convinced  of 
the  fact  that  it  is  indispensable  to  the  life  of  our  people, 
in  peace  times  as  well  as  in  war  times,  to  command  all 
these  resources  of  warlike  and  commercial  forces." 
These  very  unlikely  "  improvements  "  would  bring  the 
German  industrial  power  to  the  level  of  the  United 
States.  But  (Germany  started  on  the  wrong  war  path  ; 
she  invaded  Belgium  and  roused  the  anger  of  the  British  ; 
then  .  .  .  there  was  the  Marne.  Yet,  in  spite  ^of 
hei"  \'ictor}',  France  has  been  deprived  of  90  per  cent, 
of 'her  iron  ore,  68  per  cent,  of  her  coal  ;  66  per  cent,  of 
her  pig  iron  ;  76  per  cent,  of  her  steel ;  and  76  percent,  of 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  4,  19 17 


lier  \vro\ight  iron.  Out  of  127  blast  hirnaccs  workinj,'  in 
I'l^i.  '>5  liave  been  and  still  are  in  the  power  of  the  enemy. 
Herr  Sclirodter,  chairman  of  the  Verein  Deutschcr 
Kisenhilttcnleuk,  could  well  boast  that  "  the  economic 
])ower  of  France  was  seriously  damaged,  and  e\en 
partially  annihilated."  Still,  there  was  some  surprise 
in  store  for  the  o\'erweening  Boche.  As  early  as  .-Xpril 
i()i5,  the  Minister  of  War  could  state  in  Parliament  that 
''  the  French  output  of  munitions  of  every  kind  has  been 
increased  to  600  per  cent,  of  what  was  believed  to  be 
suflicient  at  the  outbreak  of  war,  and  it  will  soon  be  900 
per  cent."  And  now  the  proportion  has  increased  to  an 
enormous  figure.  State-factories  and  private  establish- 
ments have  worked  at  a  tremendous  pace  since  the 
beginning,  and  in  their*  report  for  1915,  the  Council  of 


Directors  of  the  Comity  des  Forges  de  France  write  : — 
The  day  comes  when,  inquiring  how  it  came  about  that 
certain  provinces,  and  these  among  the  richest  and  the 
most  industrially  important,  fell  into  the  hands  ol  the 
enemy,  history  is  able  to  give,  for  the  enliglitennu'ut  of 
our  sons,  an  account  of  everybody's  responsibility,  and  it 
will  say  how  it  then  became'  possible  to  make  up  for  the 
profound  disturbance  of  the  defence  of  the  country  through 
the  plight  of  French  industry.  No  more  conclusive  page 
has  yet  been  written  to  the  credit  of  private  enteqirise. 
Once  more  we  see  not  only  liow  the  l'"rench  nation  always 
upsets  the  doleful  predictions  of  the  pessimists,  but  what 
astonishing  reserves  of  ingenuity,  adaptation  and  industry 
our  race  is  i)ossessed  of  when  iio  impediment  arises,  and 
when  her  resource  and  patriotism  are  called  upon  for 
the  safeguard  of  the  country. 


A   Letter  to   an   American   Friend 


MY  DEAR  FRIEND  :-I  received  a  few  days 
ago  your  letter  telling  me  that  there  was 
some  danger  of  a  false  step  being  taken.  It 
has  just  been  taken.  I  sat  down  to  answer 
you.  I  intended  my  answer  to  be  private.  But  I  am 
not  sure  now  that  I  ought  not  to  print  it  publicly. 

I  think  you  understand  (for  you  know  England  well) 
that  the  effect  of  your  President's  proposed  intervention 
has  affected  people  here  very  differently  according  to 
their  different  degiees  in  the  knowledge  of  foreign  countries, 
and  especially  according  to  their  knowledge  of  the  way  the 
war  has  been  presented  to  neutrals  by  the  (Germans. 
The  greater  part  of  our  people  were  frankly  astounded. 
They  could  not  conceive  what  the  President  meant  by 
intervening  at  all— especially  by  intervening  at  this 
stage  when  the  defeat  of  the  enemy  is  no  longer  in  doubt. 
They  did  not  see  what  purpose  the  Note,served  nor  what 
conceivable  motive  it  could  have  had.  They  knew  that 
the  President  was  not  attached  to  the  enemy's  cause  in 
any  fashion  whatever :  no  more  than  to  our  own  ;  and  yet 
everyone  in  Europe— at  any  rate  everyone  with  access 
to  e\'en  the  most  general  information  upon  the  war— 
could  see  that  such  intervention  at  this  moment  was 
wholly  favourable  to  the  defeated  enemy  and  wholly 
imfa\-ourable  to  the  victorious  Allies.  And  this  for  the 
simple  reason  that  the  Allies  have,  until  quite  lately,  been 
chmbmg  up  the  hill.  They  have  only  quite  recently 
reached  the  simimit,  matched  and  surpassed  the  enormous 
initial  superiority  with  which  their  enemy  began  his 
aggression. 

I  say,  then,  that  the  mass  of  people  were  simplv  and 
frankly  astounded.  The  President's  Note  did  not"  seem 
"  to  make  sense."  It  was  like  a  letter  of  condolence 
received  upon  news  of  a  wedding  or  a  letter  of  congratu- 
lation upon  news  of  a  death.  It  had  no  relation  to  facts. 
Phrases  describing  "  both  parties  "  as  having  the  good  of 
the  smaller  countries  at  heart,  read  to  an  Englishman  exact- 
ly as  though  Napoleon  had  written  to  Pitt  saying  his  chief 
care  was  for  the  continued  wealth  of  the  City  of  London ; 
or  as  though  George  III.  had  written  to  Washington, 
after  the  winter  of  Valley  Forge,  wishing  him  all  success. 

'I  his,  I  say,  is  the  way  the  Note  struck  the  great  mass 
of  our  opinion. 

But  there  is  a  smaller  body  with  special  opportunities 
for  information  which  was  less  astonished.  It  regularly 
reads  the  American  press.  It  was  well  acquainted  with 
the  United  States  in  the  past,  and  in  constant  corres- 
pondence with  friends  in  that  country  during  the  present 
war.  It  could  judge,  therefore,  not  orily  why  the  President 
saw  things  as  he  did,  but  why  so  many  of  yoiir  most  capable 
fellow  citizens  see  the  war  in  a  distorting  mirror.  Men 
of  the  very  best  judgment  can  only  act  upon  the  evidence 
before  them,  and  we  know  (for  I  count  myself  among  that 
number)  the  strange  nature  of  the  evidence  which  has 
alone  been  presented  to  you. 

The  chief  fault,  lies,  of  course,  %vith  the  absence  of  a 
capable  propaganda  in  the  English  tongue.  It  is  a  great 
pity,  but  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for  we  have  done 
nofching  of  the  kind  before.  We  not  only  had  no  ma- 
chinery for  starting  such  a  thing,  but  it  was  also  un- 
congenial to  our  temperament.  It  was  particularly 
congenial  to  the  Prussian  temperament  because  it  was 
something  which  required  little  initia  five,  great  patience, 


and  mechanical  preparation.  At  the  same  time  pro- 
paganda work  of  this  sort  is  the  more  effective  if  it  is 
unscrupulous  and,  like  s^n'ing,  w^orks  best  where  the  agent 
is  devoid  of  generosity  and  honour.  The  result  is  that  your 
people  have  had  a  \'iew  of  the  war,  whifch  is  not  indeed 
'  the  Prussian  view,  but  is  certainly  what  the  Prussian 
authorities  wanted  them  to  have. 

This  idea  which  the  Prussian  authorities  wanted  you 
to  entertain  was  compounded  of  two  falsehoods  :  one  on 
the  moral  nature  of  the  war,  one  on  its  actual  progress. 

On  the  moral  side  you  were  to  receive  the  impression 
that  Germany  was  fighting  for  her  life  against  aggressors. 
On  the  progress  of  the  war  you  were  to  be  told  that  the 
aggressors  had  been  beaten  off  and  that  your  informant 
had  triumphed. 

As  to  the  first  of  tliese  falsehoods,  its  impression,  in  the 
absence  of  contradiction,  was  a  comparatively  easy  task. 
There  has  never  been  a  case  where  an  onlooker  to  a  furious 
struggle  has  not  accepted  the  plea  of  one  party  if  the  other 
was  not  told  him.  Not  one  man  in  ten  thousand  will 
read  the  evidence  contained  in  official' publications. 

Prussia  has  merely  got  to  say  that  the  Russian  Empire 
mobilised  against  the  German  "Empire  and  Austria  in  the 
midst  of  a  profound  peace  and  threatened  them  both 
with  invasion ;  that  France  hesitated  and  then  from 
desire  for  revenge  foolishly  allowed  her  Alliance  with 
Russia  to  bring  her  into  the  conspiracy  ;  that  Great 
Britain  wantonly,  out  of  jealousy  and  fear  for  the 
future,  though  not  formally  allied  to  France  or  Russia, 
came  in.  That  story  uncontrachcted  would  be  accepted 
as   any    uncontradicted    story   is    accepted. 

It  is  a  lie  of  a  perfectly  crude  typa. 

Prussia  had  prepared  for  this  war  during  three  years  ; 
had  raised  a  special  levy  of  money  for  it  ;  had  suddenly 
added  enormously  to  her  own  army  and  that  of  her 
vassals;  had  specially  overhauled  allher  military  machin- 
ery ;  had  made  special  arrangements  with  Austria  ;  had 
drawn  up  a  military  plan  not  against  Russia— (Russia 
was  only  to  be  held  at  first)— but  against  France.  The 
moment  chosen  for  t}ie  war  was  that  after  the  harvest 
had  been  gathered  in  1914,  The  only  thing  the  Prussian 
authorities  can  possibly  say  in  their  own  favour  is 
that  they  felt  themselves  suspected  and  feared  that 
later  they  might  be  attacked,  and  therefore  chose  the 
moment  of  their  greatest  strength  for  aggression.  As  a 
fact  they  did  not  even  say  so  moral  a  thing  as  that  until 
they  saw  that  defeat  was  ine\4table.  In  the  first  day.^ 
of  the  war — as  for  years  before  the  war — tliey  talked 
(juite  simply  and  quite  brutally  of  conquest,  for  they  knew 
themselves  to  be  enormously  superior  in  men  and  material. 
What  they  did  not  know  was  that  they  were  inferior  in 
l)rains. 

However,  we  can  leave  all  that.  In  the  matter^  of 
motives  you  have  heard  only  the  (ierman  story,  or 
you  have  only  heard  the  later  German  story,  and  there 
IS  no  wonder  that  you  believed  it. 

When  I  come  to  the  second  part  of  their  propaganda 
I  feel  a  certain  difficulty,  because  I  am  afrs.id  you  may 
be  annoyed  by  the  truth. 

I  say  that  it  was  important  for  the  effect  the  Germans 
desired  to  be  produced  that  your  people  should  be  kept 
ignorant  of  the  military  situation,  and  I  can  imagine 
your  telling  me  with  soms  indienntion  that  3'ou  are  just 


January  4,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


t5 


as  well  able  to  judge  the  military  situation  as  anybody 
else  ;  that  it  is  evident  from  the  map,  and  so  forth. 

Now  it  is  precisely  here  that  I  desire  to  join  issue  with 
you  if  you  will  bear  with  me. 

The  character  of  the  war  ever  since  the  Battle  of  the 
Yser  has  been  such  that  it  was  increasingly  easy  for  the 
military  situation  to  be  misrepresented  by  the  enemy, 
and  misunderstood  even  by  men  of  first-rate  judgment. 
A  military  situation  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  understand. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  difficult.  That  is  why  a  good 
military  history  is  such  a  very  rare  thing. 

The  reason  this  is  so  is  that  the  mind  naturally  and 
perpetually  compares  the  action  of  armies  against  one 
another  to  the  action  of  individuals  against  one  another, 
and  the  analogy  is  not  only  misleading,  but  actually 
contradictory.  An  individual  does  not  "  retreat."  If 
you  see  him  backing  out  it  means  that  he  is  defca,tcd.  An 
individual  has  no  "  communications."  An  individual  is 
never  compelled  to  "  a  siege  "  ;  an  individual  has  no 
calculable  "  wastage "  or  "  recruitment."  The  false 
analogy  and  the  false  conclusions  drawn  from  it  .apply  to 
all  wars,  but  they  apply  particularly  to  this  war  because 
this  war  is  eminently  one  of  military  calculation.  It  is  a 
siege  war  of  attrition  and  that  upon  the  most  gigantic 
scale  conceivable,  and  therefore  with  all  the  known  ma- 
terial elements  in  the  problem  present  to  the  calculators. 

\Vliat  do  you  think  is  nOiV  the  great  dominating  military 
feature  of  the  whole  thing?  It  is  the  fact  that  ovir 
enemies  control  most  of  the  raw  material  of  this 
continent,  but  tlu'  Allies  the  last  reserves  of  the  men— 
that  is  it  in  a  nutshell.  Add  to  it  that  the  British  Fleet 
permits  supply  to  the  Allies  from  abroad  and  the  whole 
affair  is  before  you. 

Very  well.  These  things  being  so  the  situation  is  surely 
clear  enough.  The  enemy  is  beaten,  and  to  save  himself 
from  all  the  disasters  tiiat  threaten  he  must  ha\e  inter- 
vention. When  we  find  intervention  proposed  we  con- 
clude, from  our  knowledge  of  .the  field,  that  this 
iuterx'cntion  is  in  his  favour.  The  ignorant  conclude 
that  it  is  deliberately  in  his  favour.  The  better  instructed 
conclude  that  it  is  not  consciously  in  favour  of  the  enemy, 
but  are  somewhat  indifferent  to  the  motive  when  they 
consider  how  stupendous  the  result  might  be. 

Our  ancient  civihzation  has  been  challenged.  It 
despises  as  much  as  it  loathes  the  Prussian  bully.  It  was 
not  prepared  or  organised  to, meet  that  bully,  simply 
because  the  rational  and  well-developed  man  treats  arms 
as  only  part  of  life.  But,  once  challenged  by  an  inferior 
and  murderous  thing,  having  had  the  good  fortune  to 
stave  otf  the  first  treacherous  attack,  it  bent  itself  to  the 
novel  task  of  executing  an  international  criminal.  With 
the  most  severe  and  bitter  sacrifice  civihzation  has  estab- 
lished its  supremacy  again.  Surely  you  can  understand 
how  intolerable,  on  the  eve  of  such  events,  is  the  proposal 
to  interfere  with  the  natural  process  of  justice  ! 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  mention  in  connection  with  such 
work  as  this  the  great  story  of  the  Napoleonic  Wars.  It 
is  like  comparing  a  great  and  noble  drama  to  the  trial  of 
a  common  murderer.  But  on  the  strictly  military  plane  a 
parallel  is  possible. 

When  was  Na])oleon  beaten  ?  When  one  \ving  of  his 
enormously  extended  front  stood  close  to  the  frontiers 
of  Portugal  and  the  other  was  in  Moscow  ! 

Every  step  of  his  decline  after  i8o() — and  all  those 
steps  can  be  exactly  noted,  and  are  now  quite  clear  in 
history— was  some  act  of  the  offensive,  and  even  of  the 
triumphant  offensive.  Yet  opinion  then  as  now— I  mean 
general  opinion,  not  his  own,  for  he  saw  what  had  hap- 
pened— could  not  see  the  truth  until  they  saw  a  retro- 
gression upon  the  map.  And  even  then  general  opinion 
was  in  doubt.  Even  after  the  vast  disaster  in  Russia  it 
was  in  doubt.  Even  181.5  did  not  convince  it.  There  are 
perhaps  educated  men  still  going  about  who  do  not  know 
that  the  final  disaster  was  Leipsic.  Even  the  Campaign 
of  France  in  1S14  did  not  prevent  the  enemies  of  Napoleon 
in  the  Hundred  Days  from  thinking  that  all  their  successes 
might  yet  be  reversed':  So  true  is  it  that  men  will  not  be 
at  the  pains  to  dig  to  the  roots  of  things. 

But  if  what  is  required  among  you  before  your  second 
intervention  (which  I  suppose  will  come  hi  due  time)  is  a 
movement  upon  the  map,  you  will  have  that  without 
too  much  delay,  and  I  suppose  that  when  it  comes  we 
may  discuss  the  matter  upon  easier  terms. 

Londoner. 


Imperial  Problems 


REFERENCE  was  made  in  Land  &  Water 
last  week  to  the  increasing  interest  which  the 
problems  of  Empire  are  attracting,  in  view  of  the 
Imperial  Cabinet  which  has  now  been  summoned. 
These  problems,  so  obvious  in  their  outlines,  yet  so  compli- 
cated and  delicate  in  their  details,  demand  close  and 
accurate  study  and  all  literature  that  tends  to  promote  it 
is  heartily  welcome.  Nothing  could  be  more  opportune 
than  the  publication  of  the  addresses  which  were  dehvered 
by  Viscount  Milner,  Earl  Grey,  Lord  Islington,  Sir  Ceorge 
Foster  and  Lord  Sydenham  at  the  Conferences  between 
representatives  of  the  Home  and  Dominion  Parliaments 
held  at  the  House  of  Commons  last  summer.  It  is  not 
expected  nor  indeed  is  it  desired  that  there  shall  be 
complete  agreement  with  the  various  views,  but  they 
do  tf^ow  a  flood  of  new  light  on  the  questions  of  high 
Imperial  importance  with  which  they  deal. 

Lord  Milner  spoke  on  "  The  Constitutional  Position  " 
between  the  British  Isles  and  the  Dominions  ;  he  sketched 
out  a  new  Imperial  Parliament  which  shall  concern  itself 
solely  with  aftairs  aftecting  the  Empire  as  a  whole,  leaving 
local  affairs  to  local  Parliaments.  No  utterance  has  ever 
brought  home  more  forcibly  the  enormous  difficulties 
which  surround  the  creation  of  a  central  Imperial  admini- 
stration, and  only  when  these  difficulties  are  compre- 
liendcd  can  one  look  for  measures  to  overcome  them. 
The  speaker  thus  depicts  the  present  position  : 

If  we  desire,  as  we  all. desire,  that  the  Empin;  shall  endure  . 
as  one  State,  and  shall  constitute,  as  it  alone  can,  the  greal 
biilwark  of  freedom  and  progress  throughout  the  world, 
then  we  must  see  to  it  that  the  Empire  has  at  its  head  an 
authority,  which  can  deal  for  it  with  the  rest  i^f  the  world 
as  the  representative  of  all  its  self-governing  peoples. 
Such  a  government  cannot  grow  of  itself  out  of  the  ground. 
It  can  Dnly  be  the  result  ot  a  great  and  deliberate  effort 
of  constitutional  reconstruction. 

Earl  Grey's  address  dealt  with  "  Emigration  after  the 
War,"  a  question  which  touches  the  homeland  more 
nearly  than  many  realize.  He  urged  closer  co-operation 
between  England  and  the  Dominions  in  the  future  and 
backed  the  suggestion  of  the  Commission  appointed  by 
the  Ontario  Government  that  an  Imperial  Migration 
Board  should  be  organised.  While  we  desire  to  help  the 
Dominions  with  our  surplus  peoples,  we  do  not  want  our 
finest  manhood  drawn  away  beyond  the  seas.  So  this, 
too,  is  a  big  and  difficult  question.  And  so  is  "  Trade 
and  the  Empire  after  the  War  "  on  which  Sir  George 
Foster,  Canadian  Minister  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  spoke 
to  the  point.  Lord  Islington,  Under- Secrctai-y  of  State 
for  India,  furnished  striking  facts  and  figures  illustrating 
the  extraordinary  social  and  economic  development  of 
,  our  great  Eastern  dependency  in  recent  years.  Tha  world 
seems  to  move  so  fast  nowadays  that  even  the  East  has 
to  hustle.  Finally,  the  most  important  subject  of 
"  Naval  and  Military  Defence "  was  very  ably  and 
succinctly  handled  by  Lord  Sydenham.  These  addresses 
are  issued  in  one  \olume  (2s.  6d.)  by  the  Empire  Parlia- 
mentary Association,  64,  Victoria  Street,  Westminster. 

"  Advertising,"   writes  Mr.   Charles   Higham,    in  Scientific 
Distribution  (Nisbet  and  Co.,  12s.  6d.),  "can  so  cheapen  the 
cost  of  production  that  one-time  luxuries  become  everyday 
necessities,  with  the  result  that  a  thousand  refining  influ 'nces 
are  let  loose  upon  society  at  large."     This  is  a  big  statement, 
and  the  truth  oi  it  turns  on  the  author's  idea  of  "  refinmg 
influences."     Champagne   at   luncheon   is   a   luxury,    but    if 
through  advertising  a  coarse-minded  man  were  able  to  drink 
it  most  days  of  the  week,  would  he  bc'rcfined  through  its 
influence  ?     So   long    as    Mr.    Higham    confines    himself    to 
concrete  cases,  liis  book  is  interesting,  but  the  attempt  to 
prove  that  the  advertising  agent  or  expert,  the  term  which 
he  prefers,   is  the  pivot   of   civiHsation  does  not   succeed. 
Advertising  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  repugnant  to  the  British 
temperament ;  we  have  seen  this  over  and  over  again  through- 
out the  war.     The  average  Briton  loathes  "publicity"  ;   he 
has  won  a  good  manv  things  including  freedom  without  its 
help,  and  lie  still  believes  that  a  vital  idea  will  live  without 
being  placarded  on  hoardings  or   boosted    for   a  fee   and  at 
so  much  an  inch  in  newspaper  columns.     In  business  it  is 
possible  to  carry  this  objection  to  foolish  extremes,  and  for 
business  men  of  that  state  of  mind,  this  volume  is  an  excellent 
alterative,   for  it   is  advertising— scientific    advertising    wc 
-presume  wc  ought  to  call  it— from  cover  to  cover.     _ ' 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  4,  1917 


McTavish  on  the  English  Genius 

By  Joseph  Thorp 


MY  friend  McTavish  is  a  lawyer  by  trade  and 
has  the  profoundest  contempt,  if  you  are  to 
judge  by  his  talk,  for  the  negative  and 
strictly  unnecessary  work  which  it  is  his  fate 
to  do — and  do  so  confoundedly  well.  On  the  rare 
occasions  on  which  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  have  business 
dealings  with  him  the  matter  in  hand  is  swiftly  and  com- 
petently handled  and  I  am  thereafter  treated  to  some 
delightfully  unexpected  dissertation  on  any  old  thing 
that  happens  to  be  bubbling  in  McTavish's  brain  at  the 
moment.  For  Mac  is  primarily  a  detached  observer 
of  the  follies  and  fashions  of  mankind  ;  a  ferocious  cynic 
in  speech  and,  of  course,  a  genuinely  kindly  soul  in  fact. 
His  idiom  is  the  idiom  of  the  scholar  abruptly  modified 
by  the  oaths  of  the  ordinary  man  of  action, 'soldier, 
cattleman,  bus  conductor,  and  what  not  ;  his  accent  is 
the  pure  granite  of  his  native  Aberdeen — a  fine  hard  gritty 
affair  which  easily  takes  pride  of  place  in  his  Inn. 

The  other  day  a  propos  nothing  in  particular  McTavish 
delivered  himself  of  the  following  imexpected  opening  : 
"  Since  the  war,  I'd  have  you  know,  I  have  come  to  have 
the  most  profound  admiration  of  the  geographical  Eng- 
lishman." A  profound  admiration  of  the  geographical 
Scotsman  is  much  more  in  Mac's  line,  so  I  put  down  my 
hat  and  prepared  to  hear  the  unexpected  thesis  developed. 

"  I  mean  the  man  of  real  English  stock  " — Mac  is 
great  on  stock — "  none  of  your  half-breeds.  I  suppose 
you  haven't  observed  that  you  English  being  an  en- 
tirely unvocal  people  get  most  of  your  talking  done  for 
you  by  Scots  and  Irishmen.  Your  newspapers  are  almost 
entirely  run  by  them  ;  and  particularly  by  the  half- 
breeds,  a  talkative  and  irresponsible  lot.  After  the 
Jutland  battle  I  happened  to  see  the  women,  Belgravia 
women  and  Pimlico  women,  waiting  outnde  the  Admiralty 
for  news  of  their  men,  solid  and  calm  "  (here  the  cynic  was 
side-tracked  for  the  moment)  "  and  splendid,  the  smart  ones 
particularly  cheering  up  the  others.  All  the  hysteria 
was  supplied  by  the  half-breeds  in  their  papers.  You 
understand  that,  don't  you  ?  .A,nd  it's  typical.  The 
English  aren't  a  bit  like  English  newspapers.  There 
aren't  any  English  newspapers.  No  wonder. the  German 
fellows  had  a  false  estimate  of  English  stav'ing  power. 
Well,  that's  by  the  way." 

I  suppress  here  the  entirely  inadequate  replies  I  made 
to  my  friend.  For  Mac's  authentic  method  is  monologue. 
I  am  a  bit  of  a  monologist  myself,  and  decent  dog  doesn't 
eat  dog.  It  was  Mac's  innings,  and  he  was  in  spate.  So 
1  let  him  have  his  head. 

"  You'll  not  have  noticed  " — 'tis  my  friend's  way 
always  to  assume  you  haven't  noticed — "  that  the  Scots 
genius  is  alUed  to  the  Continental — to  both  the  French 
and  the  German.  Baron  von  Hiigel  confirms  this  in  a 
recent  theological  paper,  but  confirmation  is  not  necessary. 
The  Irish  and  Welsh  are  in  the  same  class.  You  can  call 
it  the  logical  genius.  They  all  have  ideas  and  they'll 
all  logically  foHow  out  these  ideas  whether  they're  right 
ideas  or  wrong  ideas  to  the  bitter  end.  Now 
the  Englishman  doesn't  believe  in  ideas — in  the  abstract. 
There's  nothing  logical  about  him.  He  hasn't  a  logical 
Constitutioft.  He  hasn't  a  logical  code  of  law.  He  has 
the  most  desperately  illogical  church.  No  one  but  an 
Englishman  could,  for  instance,  be  an  Anglican." 

"  But — and  here's  the  point — life's  not  a  logical  matter. 
Or  put  it  another  way,  the  factors  are  so  numerous  and 
elusive,  that  no  one  can  get  a  complete  survey  of  them 
all.  Something  essential  is  sure  to  be  left  out  in  the 
calculation.  That's  why.  the  Englishman  doesn't  cal- 
culate. He  experiments.  And  life  really  is  empirical, 
the  true  method  is  a  method  of  trial  and  error.  That's 
where  the  Englishman  comes  in." 

"  Take  the  British  Empire.  It  simply  came  together 
anyhow.  Nobody  planned  it.  The  English  genius — ■ 
for  though,  as  I've  often  told  you,  it's  we  Scots  do  most  of 
the  work,  I  now  come  to  see  that  the  solid  quiet  Enghsh- 
nian  is  behind  using  us,  manipulating  us — would  .rtever 
face  the  thought  of  a  really  organised  Empire.  It  was 
(|uite content  to  let  all  thedaughter  nations  gooff  and  set 
up  house-keeping  elsewhere  and  disown  their  parentage. 
But  somehow,  having  done  the  worst  possible  thing,  as 


in  the  matter  of  the  tea-chests,  just  at  the  appropriate 
moment  it  docs  something  which  is  essentially  the  best 
thing  to  do  in  the  circumstances.  You  get  Lord  Durham 
and  }'ou  get  the  South  African  Constitution." 

"  Your  German  sees  the  British  Empiie.  He  sees 
that  dull  fellow  the  Englishman  who  doesn't  know  what 
he's  got  or  how  to  use  it  ;  says  to  himself, '  This  is  my  job. 
I  can  make  an  Empire  beside  which  the  British  will  be 
merely  a  joke.'  .A.nd  he  gets  out  some  squared  paper 
and  works  it  all  out  to  four  places  of  decimals.  All 
very  logical  and  clever  but — Empires  aren't  made  that 
way.     As  Napoleon  found." 

"  I  used  to  think  we  should  win  the  war  in  spite  of  our 
muddling.  I  now  think  we  shall  win  it  because  of  muddl- 
ing. It's  the  English  genius  to  muddle.  But  that's 
not  the  Englishman's  loss— it's  his  gain.  Life  is  a  muddle. 
War  is  a  muddle — a  damned  awkward  muddle,  much  loo 
serious  for  logic  to  straighten  out." 

"  Every  other  serious  nation  in  this  war  had  a  plan  of 
campaign.  It  was  to  do  this  and  this  and  all  would  be 
well.  Germany  had  a  time-table,  and  France  pranced  off 
into  Alsace.  The  Englishman  had  no  particular  plan 
and  no  particular  army.  And  he  made  some  fatuous 
and  appalling  mistakes.  And  he  learned  from  his  mis- 
takes— more  than  the  other  fellows.  And  now  our  candid 
friend  Sixt  von  .\rnim  rejoices  the  heart  of  his  exceedingly 
clever  General  Staff  by  telling  them  that  the  thing  for  them 
to  do  is  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  asinine  England  and  try  to  do 
as  well  as  she  is  doing.  Isn't  it  enough  to  make  the  largest 
wooden  image  of  Hindenburg  sweat  out  its  nails  ?  " 

"  You  have  recently  got  rid  of  your  Enghsh  Prime 
Minister.  Well  it  mav  be  a  right  move — that  is,  the 
time  may  now  be  ripe  for  it.  But  he  was  the  man  for 
you  when  the  bad  time  came.  His  brilliant  successor 
has  taken  on  a  task  of  which  the  back  has  been  broken 
by  the  less  showy  man.  History  will  record  that  that 
solid  middle-class"  Yorkshireman,  "English  of  the  English, 
did  more  than  keep  a  Government  together.  He  held  a 
difiicult  country  together,' and  a  Great  Alliance.  I  doubt 
if  the  Celtic  niould  would  have  stood  the  long  strain  of 
this  great  war  with  the  balance  and  imperturbability  of 
that  astute  calm  man. 

"  The  half-breeds  said  :  '  Lo  !  here  is  the  Christ  and 
(the  next  week)  there  !  '  And  he  couldn't  see  it.  You 
couldn't  make  him  mo\e  in  a  hurry.  And  no  doubt  he 
.mo\-ed  (as  is  the  English  nature)  too  slow.  But  that's 
better  than  moving  too  quick  and  moving  wrong  ;  quite 
an  easy  thing  to  do  as  every  nation  involved  in  the  great 
war  has  cause  to  know.  "'  Mistakes,'  of  course.  But 
that's  how  the  game's  played.  Have  our  mistakes  been 
as  great,  as  fundamental  as  Germany's — the  wonderful, 
logical,  organised  Germany  ?     Not  on  your  life  !  " 

"The  war's  dealt  a  sad  "blow  to  logic,  I'm  sore  afraid. 
And  I  hate  to  admit  it.  Look  how  egregiously  wrong  the 
logical  Professors  of  Political  Economy  were  wrong.  And 
the  logical  Internationalists." 

';I  suppose  you  couldn't  have  had  a  more  illogical  way 
of  making  an  army  than  the  way  you  took.  But  it  had 
the  supreme  practical  advantage"  that  it  trained  the  most 
willing  man  first,  and  because  he  was  willing  trained  him 
fastest — and  speed  was  the  determining  factor.  And 
I'd  like  to  see  the  logical  nation  that  could  have  built 
the  present  British  army  out  of  next  to  nothing  in  next 
to  no  time  ?  An  abominably  disorderly  method  and  a 
quite  incomparable  result." 

"  And  now  do  you  understand  why  I  have  such  an 
admiration  for  the  geographical  Englishman  ?  It's  a 
bitter  dav  for  me,  I  can  tell  you.  My  pride's  sorely  hum- 
bled. But  I  am  a  truthful  man— though  a  lawyer— 
and  I  have  to  testify  .  .  .  Good  morning.  If  I 
wasn't  so  dreadfully  busy  I'd  have  a  long  crack  over  this." 

And  that  briefiy  was  why  I  wore  such  a  broad  grin 
on  my  face  when  l"  stepped  into  the  Inn  Gardens,  though 
it  was  a  day  on  which  the  pessimists  were  declaring  that 
Koumania  was  done  in  absolutely. 

For  my  own  heart  told  me  thatMacTavish  was  right. 
Muddle  is  (he'only  wear— which  is  to  say,  if  you  learn  from 
your  mistakes. 

Beside:^,    T   am   a   geographical   Englishman      myself. 


January  4,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


17 


THERE  arc  few  people  in  this  country  who  have 
not  treated  the  great  (ierinan  peace  trick  with 
the  contempt  it  deserves.  A  great  deal  of  the 
derisive  anger  with  which  the  news  of  the  famous 
Note  was  receivecl  was  no  doubt  due  to  an  intuitive 
distrust  of  a  criminal  that  has  been  so  thoroughly 
found  out.  This  is  a  true  feeling  but,  in  such 
matters  as  this  no  man  should  trust  simply  to  feeUng 
where  knowledge  is  a\'ailable.  As  Lord  Cromer  says,  in 
his  introduction  to  an  excellent  English  version  of  iVI. 
Andre  Cheradame's  The  Pan  German  Plot  Unmasked 
(John  Murray,  2s.  6d.  net)  :  "  It  is  essential  that,  before 
the  terms  of  peace  are  discussed,  a  clear  idea  should  be 
formed  of  the  reasons  which  led  the  German  Government 
to  provoke  this  war."  For  this  purpose  Lord  Cromer, 
with  good  reason,  recommends  this  popularly  written 
and  forcible  little  book.  ;\1.  Cheradame  has  proved  a 
true  prophet  in  the  past  and  this  book,  which  was  written 
before  recent  events  in  the  Balkans,  shows  that  he  still 
has  the  power  of  reasoned  foresight.  He  dwells  par- 
ticularly on  German  schemes  in  the  East,  and  one  of  tlie 
best  chapters  is  that  which  is  explained  in  its  somewhat 
cumbrous  title  :  "  Go-man  inancvuvyes  to  play  the  A/lies 
the  trick  oj  the  'Drawn  Game,'  that  is,  to  secure  the 
accomplishment  of  the  '  Hamburg  to  the  Persian  Gulf ' 
scheme  as  the  minimum  result  of  the  war." 

»>:  ^  H^  ^  ^ 

Another  brochure  that  is  remarkably  a  fropos,  par- 
ticularly in  view  of  the  prominence  gi\'en  t,o  the  subject 
in  the  Allies'  reply  to  the  German  peace-note  is  Belgium 
and  the  Great  Powers  (Putnam,  3s.  6d.)  It  is  written  by 
the  late  Emile  Waxweiler,  who  was  Di^-ector  of  the 
Solyay  Institute  of  Sociology  at  Brussels,  and  who  is 
already  known  to  many  English  and  neutral  readers  as 
the  author  of  Belgimn,  Neutral  and  Loyal.  In  his  latest 
book  he  answers,  in  a  way  that  should  convince  the  most 
obstinate  unbeliever,  the  enemy's  attempt  to  prove  that 
Belgium  had  already  violated  her  own  neutraUty.  He 
shows  clearly,  for  example,  that  the  Belgian  conversation 
with  England  in  1913  had  precisely  the  same  object  as 
similar  conversations  with  (Germany  in  iqii — namely,  to 
dispel  her  fears  with  regard  to  current  rumours  as  to 
sending  troops  through  Belgium.  He  also  shows  that  the 
disposition  of  her  troops  in  the  fateful  months  of  1914 
clearly  proves  that  she  was  prepared  to  defend  her 
neutrality  at  every  frontier.  It  is  well  to  keep  alive  by 
such  books  as  this  the  sacra  indignatio  that  all  right- 
minded  people  experienced  when  Germany  violated,  the 
neutrality  of  the  courageous  little  State  she  had  under- 
taken to  protect  in  1839. 

*  *  *  :•:  H! 

When  on  August  4th,  1914,  England  put  an  end  to  the 
fear  that,  according  to  M.  Waxweiler,  some  Belgians  had 
that  she  would  not  completely  fulfil  the  obligations  as  a 
guarantee  of  the  treaty  of  11)14,  lio^^"  rapidly  the  Dominions 
threw  in  their  lot  with  the  Motherland  !  One  aspect  of 
this  is  graphically  described  by  Frederic  C.  Curry  in 
Frorn  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Ys'cr  (Smith,  Elder  and  Co., 
3s.  6d.  net),  in  which  the  author,  late  Captain  in  the 
2nd  Eastern  Ontario  Regiment,  describes  the  adventures 
of  the  first  Canadian  Brigade  from  its  mobilisation  to  the 
end  of  1915.  As  the  narrative  includes  the  Canadian's 
terrible  experiences  at  Ypres,  and  the  subsequent  fighting 
at  h'estubert  and  Givenchy,  it  is  sure  to  appeal  to  a  wide 
circle  of  readers.  What,  however,  interested  me  as  much 
as  anything  else  in  the  book,  being  familiar  with  most  of 
the  incidents  of  the  great  struggle  in  France,  was  the 
early  chapters  which  described  the  organisation  of  the 
Canadian  militia  and  its  sudden  improvisation  into  an 
overseas  force.  The  story  makes  an  interesting  jmrallel 
with  that  of  our  own  militia,  and  it  is,  as  is  indeed  the 
whole  book,  which  is  written  with  in\incible  good  humour, 
most  interesting  reading. 

***** 

Two  French  books  in  translation  are  before  me,  the 
one  a  record  of  actual  experiences,  the  other  a  romance. 
i\I.  Gaston  Riou  had  before  the  war  achieved  a  consider- 


able reputation  as  a  young  writer  who  was  helping  to 
lead  the  reaction  from  the  materialism  of  contemporary 
thought.  In  his  Journal  d'tm  simple  soldat,  guerre- 
captivite  1914-15,  he  tells  the  story  of  his  experiences  in 
the  war  and  as  a  prisoner  in  Germany.  Those  who  have 
not  read  the  original  should  at  least  get  the  translation 
The  Diary  of  a  French  Private  1914-1915  ((ieorge  Allen 
and  Unwin,  Ltd.,  5s.  net),  for  it  is  a  very  moving  and 
enthralling  piece  of  work.  Moreover,  M.  Riou  knew 
(lermany  before  the  war,  and  his  experiences  and  more 
especially  his  interpretation  of  them  have  therefore  especial 
force  and  interest.  The  most  \-i\-id  episode  in  the  book, 
perhaps,  is  that  which  describes  the  coming  of  Russian 
prisoners  to  Fort  Orff  and  their  fraternisation  (to  the 
disgust  of  the  German  authorities)  with  the  original 
French  inhabitants.  My  French  romance  is  Marcel 
Prtnost's  Benoit  Castain  (Macmillan  and  Co.,  2s.  net), 
most  fluently  translated  by  Mr.  A.  C.  Richmond.  It  is 
what  one  would  expect  of  its  author,  a  drama  of  passion 
with  the  war  as  a  background,  an  old  theme  with  a 
new  setting,  an  interesting'  problem  of  ethics  in  war- 
time, but 

*       ■  ;}s  :(:  *  si; 

Among  the  volumes  of  verse  this  week  I  see  William 
H.  Davies's  Collected  Poems  (A.  C.  Fifield,  6s.  net).  In 
this  volume  Mr.  Davies  gives  us,  "  in  response  to  a  fre- 
quently expressed  wish  "from  the  press  and  public,"  what 
he  believes  to  be  his  best  pieces.  The  poetry  of  the 
"  super-tramp  "  has  so  many  genuine  admirers  that  I 
have  taken  the  opportunity  this  \olume  has  given  me 
to  try  to  convert  myself  to  their  way  of  thinking  :  I  have 
not  wholly  succeeded.  Mr.  Davies's  work  has  certainly 
qualities  I  like.  He  has  the  clear  vision  of  a  child  and 
generally  a  complete  lack  of  poetical  self-consciousness. 
One  or  two  of  the  lyrics  are  quite  perfect  expressions  of 
the  little  they  have  to  express  and  there  are  some  vivid 
pictures  painted  in  with  a  sense  of  wonder,  notably  the 
description  of  the  sea-faring  man  which  is  the  last  and 
longest  poem  in  the  book.  But  for  the  most  part  I  must 
confess  that  I  find  I  am  little  interested  in  what  he  has  to 
say  and  find  his  manner  of  saying  a  little  too  stark  for 
me  to  take  pleasure  in. 

***** 

Of  novels  this  week  I  have  two,  both  imported  goods, 
and  the  most  violent  contrasts  to  one  another.  The 
Man  of  Promise,  by  Willard  Huntington  Wright  (John 
Lane,  6s.),  is  a  bo^  of  considerable  power  which  makes 
the  hardened  reviewer  smile  at  its  naive  attempt  to  be 
audacious.  The  idea  that  a  man  is  betraying  his 
better  self  unless  he  is  continually  combating  all  estab- 
lished ideas  is  so  beautifully  young  that  I  have  hopes  of 
Mr.  Wright,  especially  as  many  of  his  characters  live 
in  spite  of  (and  often  quite  out  of  agreement  with)  his 
views  about  them.  My  other  novel,  also  from  America, 
is  chaste  and  simple.  Under  the  Country  Sky,^  by  Grace 
S.  Richmond  (J.  Murray,  5s.  net),  is  a  really  pretty  story 
which  healthily  occupies  the  tired  mind  with  other  thoughts 
than  tho.se  of  the  war,  "  George  "  is  a  cc,mpanionable  girl, 
and  sufficiently  attractive  to  keep  one  from  being  bored 
while  hstening  to  the  tale  of  her  little  woes. 


Union  Jack  Club  Fund 

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Club  Extension  Fund  up  to  the  end  of  1916  : 

£    s.  d. 

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"  Colony  of  Mauritius  "  pp.  Mr.  H.  Henniker 

Heaton,  Acting  Colonial  Secretary           . .  i/OOO    o     0 

Barkly  East  Brancli  of  the  Red  Cross  Guild    . .  50    o    o 

Ernest  Garrett,  Esq.        . .          . .          . .          . .  10     o    o 

G.R.H *       500 

Lt;-Col.  H.  M.  Cliff          500 

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Mrs.  Manlcy  Hopkins      . .          . .          . .          . .  10     o 


rS 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  4,  1917 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

[Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  Mattos) 


Symopsi?  :  Captain  Patrice  Belval,  a  wounded  French 
officer,  prevents  in  a  Paris  street  the  abduction  of  a  nurse 
who  is  known  to  her  patients  as  "  Little  Mother  Coralie." 
Belval  declares  his  love  to  Coralie  only  to  be  told  by  her 
that  she  is  already  married,  and  that  he  must  make  no  further 
effort  to  retain  her  friendship.  That  night,  after  Coralie  has 
left  him,  Belval  has  sent  to  him  anonymously  a  box  con- 
taining a  large  rusty  key,  by  means  of  which  he  gains  access 
to  a  house,  in  which  he  finds  five  men  torturing  another  man, 
Essares,  obviously  with  a  view  to  extracting  injormation 
from  him.  Essares  manages  to  get  hold  of  a  revolver,  with 
which  he  shoots  Colonel  Fakhi,  one  of  the  five  men,  dead. 
He  buys  off  his  other  four  assailants  for  a  million  francs 
apiece,  with  which  they  leave  the  house.  From  an  altercation 
between  Essares  and  Coralie  Belval  learns  that  Essares  is 
Coralie's  husband,  and  that  he  has  betrayed  State  secrets 
to  the  enemies  of  his  country,  and  then  has  attempted  to 
betray  his  associates  in  treachery.  The  next  day  Belval, 
following  Coralie  to  her  house,  finds  that  Essares,  who  had 
contemplated  flight  from  Paris,  has  been  brutally  murdered. 
An  examining  magistrate,  after  interviewing  Coralie,  calls 
Belval  in  and  explains  to  him  that  Essares  ivas  prime 
mover  in  a  plot  for  exporting  gold  from  France.  In  order 
to  recover  some  300  million  francs  which  Essares  had  con- 
cealed, the  authorities  consider  it  necessary  to  hush  up 
the  circumstances  0/  the  financier's  death.  This  the  magis- 
trate proceeds  to  explain  to  Belval,  between  whom  and  Coralie 
some  mysterious  links  had  been  found  at  the  time  of  Essares' 
death. 


I 


CHAPTER  V I ir  .{continued) 

FEEL  certain  that  my  own  onqnirios  will  reveal 
a  series  of  weak  concessions  and  unworthy  bargains 
on  the  part  of  several  more  or  less  important  banks  and 
.credit  houses,  transactions  on  which  I  do  not  wish 
to  insist,  but  which  it  would  be  the  gravest  of  blunders  to 
publish.     TJierefore,  silence."     The   Magistrate   said, 

"  But  is  silence  possible  ?  "     Belval  asked. 

"  \Miy  not  ?  " 

"  Bless  my  soul,  there  are  a  good  few  corpses  to  be  ex- 
plained away  !     Colonel  Fakhi's,  for  instance  ?  " 

"  Suicide." 

"  Mustapha's,  which  you  will  discovigr  or  which  you  have 
already  discovered  in  the  Galliera  garden  ?  " 

"  Found  dead." 

••  Essares  Bey's  ?  " 

"  An  accident." 

"  So  that  all  these  manifestations  of  the  same  power  will 
remain  separated  ?  '.' 

"  There  is  nothing  to  show  the  link  that  connects  them." 

"  Perhaps  the  public  will  think  otherwise." 

"  The  public  will  think  what  we  wish  it  to  think.  This 
is  war-time." 

"  The  press  will  speak." 

"  Tiic  press  will  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  We  have  the 
censorship." 

"  But,  if  some  fact  or,  rather,  a  fresh  crime     .    .     .  ?  " 

"  Why  should  there  be  a  fresh  crime  ?  The  matter  is 
finished,  at  least  on  its  active  and  dramatic  side.  The  chief 
actors  are  dead.  The  curtain  falls  on  the  murder  of  Es.sares 
Bey.  As  for  the  supernumeraries,  Bournef  and  the  others, 
we  shall  have  them  stowed  away  in  an  internment  camp  before 
a  week  is  past.  We  therefore  find  ourselves  in  the  presence 
of  a  certain  number  of  millions,  with  no  owner,  with  no  one 
who  dares  to  claim  them,  on  which  France  is  entitled  to  lay 
hands.  I  shall  devote  my  acti\'ity  to  securing  tint  money 
for  the  Republic." 

Patrice  Belval  shook  his  head  : 

"  Mnie!  Essares  remains,  sir.  We  must  not  forget  her  hus- 
band's threats." 

"  He  is  dead." 

"  No  matter,  the  threats  are  there.  Old  Simeon  tells  you 
so  in  a  striking  fashion." 

"  He's  half  mad." 

"  Exactly,  his  brain  retains  the  impression  of  great  and 
innninent  danger.  No,  the  struggle  is  not  ended.  Perhaps 
indeed  it  is  only  beginning." 


"  Well,  captain,  are  we  not  here  ?  Make  it  your  business 
to  protect  and  defend  Mme.  Essares  by  all  the  means  in  your 
power  and  by  all  those  which  1  jilace  at  your  disposal.  Our 
collaboration  will  be  interrupted,  because  my  task  lies  here 
and  because,  if  the  battle — which  you  expect  and  I  do  not— 
takes  place,  it  will  be  within  the  walls  of  this  house  and 
garden." 

"  What  makes  you  think  that  ?  " 

"  Some  words  which  Mme.  Essares  overheard  last  night. 
The  colonel  repeated  several  times,  '  The  gold  is  here,  Essares.' 
He  added,  '  For  years  past,  your  car  brought  to  this  house 
all  that  there  was  at  your  bank  in  the  Kue  Lafayette.  Simeon, 
you  and  the  chauffeur  used  to  let  the  sacks  down  the  last 
grating  on  the  left.  How  you  used  to  send  it  away  I  do  not 
know.  But  of  what  was  here  on  the  day  when  the  war  broke 
out,  of  the  seventeen  or  eighteen  hundred  bags  which  they 
were  expecting  out  yonder,  none  has  left  your  place.  I  sus- 
pected the  trick  ;  and  we  kept  watch  night  and  day.  TJie 
gold  is  here.'  " 

"  And  have  you  no  clue  ?  " 

"  Not  one.  •  Or  this  at  most ;  but  I  attach  comparatively 
little  value  to  it." 

He  took  a  crumpled  paper  from  his  pocket,  unfolded  it 
and  continued : 

"  Besides  the  pendant,  Essares  Bey  held  in  his  hand  this 
bit  of  blotted  paper,  on  which  you  can  see  a  few  straggling 
hurriedly  written  words.  The  only  ones  that  are  more  or 
less  legible  are  these  :  '  Golden  triangle.'  What  this  golden 
triangle  means,  what  it  has  to  do  with  the  case  in  hand,  I 
can't  for  the  present  tell.  The  most  that  I  am  able  to  pre- 
sume is  that,  like  the  pendant,  the  scrap  of  paper  was  snatched 
by  Essares  Bey  from  the  man  who  died  at  nineteen  minutes 
past  seven  this  morning  and  that,  when  he  himself  was 
killed  at  twenty-three  minutes  past  twelve,  he  was  occupied 
in  examiniYig  it." 

"  And  then  there  is  the  album,"  said  Patrice,  making  his 
last  point.  "  You  see  how  all  the  details  are  linked  together. 
You  may  safely  believe  that  it  is  all  one  case." 

"  Very  well,"  said  M.  Masseron.  "  One  case  in  two  parts. 
You,  captain,  had  better  follow  up  the  second.  I  grant  you 
that  nothing  could  be  stranger  than  this  discovery  of  photo- 
graphs of  Mme.  Essares  and  yourself  in  the  same  album  and 
in  the  same  pendant.  It  sets  a  problem  the  solution  of  which 
will  no  doubt  bring  us  very  near  t^e  truth.  We  shall  meet 
again  soon.  Captain  Belval,  I  hope.  And,  once  more,  make 
use  of  me  and  of  my  inen." 

He  shook  Patrice  by  the  hand.     Patrice  held  him  back. 

"  I  shall  make  use  of  you,  sir,  as  you  suggest.  But  is  this 
not  the  time  to  take  necessary  precautions  ?  " 

"  They  are  taken,  captain.  We  are  in  occupation  of  the 
house." 

"  Yes  ...  yes  ...  I  know ;  but,  all  the  same 
.  .  .  I  have  a  sort  of  presentiment  that  the  day  will  not 
end  without  .  .  .  Remember  old  Simeon^s  strange 
words    .    .     ." 

M.  Masseron  began  to  laugh. 

"Come,  Captain  Belval,  we  mustn't  exaggerate  things.  If 
any  enemies  remain  for  us  to  fight,  they  must  stand  in  great 
need,  for  the  moment,  of  taking  council  with  themselves. 
We'll  talk  about  this  to-morrow,  shall  we,  captain  ?  " 

He  shook  hands  with  Patrice  again,  bowed  to  Mme.  Essares 
and  left  the  room. 

Belval  at  first  made  a  discreet  movement  to  go  out  with 
him.  He  stopped  at  the  door  and  walked  back  again.  Mme. 
Essares  who  seemed  not  to  hear  him,  sat  motionless,  bent  in 
two,  with  her  head  turned  away  from  him. 

"  Cofalie,"  he  said. 

She  did  not  reply  ;  and  he  uttered  her  name  a  second  time, 
hoping  that  again  she  might  not  answer,  for  her  silence  sud- 
denly appeared  to  him  to  be  the  one  thing  in  the  world  for 
him  to  desire.  That  silence  no  longer  impUed  either  constraint 
or  rebellion.  Coralie  accepted  the  fact  that  he  was  there, 
by  her  side,  as  a  helpful  friend.  And  Patrice  no  longer 
thought  of  all  the  problems  that  harassed  him,  nor  of  the 
murders  that  had  mounted  up,  one  after  another,  around  them, 
nor  of  the  dangers  that  might  still  encompass  them. 
He  thought  only  of  Coralie's  yielding  gentleness. 

"  Don't  answer,  Coralie,  don't  say  a  word.     It  is  for  me  to 
speak.     1  must  tell  you  what  you  do  not  know,  the  reasons 
[Continued  on  t^ase  in) 


January  4,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


''  "  Allies " 

AND 

Medical  Watches 

'UNBREAKABLE"  FRONT 

No  more  Watcli   Glasses! 
No  more  Watch  Glass 

I'rotectors  ! 
is  impossilile  to  break 
the  front ! 


Smith's 

Electric 

Reading 

Lamp 


Sterlinj;     Silver 
"SCREW  IN" 

Dust  and  Dam 
Proof   Case. 

sterling    Silver,    Leverl 
Movement,      Luminous^^^  ,;^ ' 

Dial.     Pigskin     Strap, K!^ 2:'^'/'— 

Silver  Buckle.         V^^ais:£ii£_ 
ml  •  y  ■   t>         Size    ol    Lariiji, 


i'x  3i   X    U-    inches.TiniekeeDer 


Sterling    Silver     Screw 

in  Case  Medical  Watch. 

Luminous   figures    and 

hands,    registering    5th 

of  seconds. 

Invaluable  for 

Hospital  Work. 

SMITHS  HiBh  (irade 

Lever  Movement. 
Guaranteed     fl.lC.n 


Price     complete   20/-     ""and  Postage      6d    extra. 
^^^^/  Foreign    1/-  extra. 

Or   inc'Jiding   one   e.xtra    biilli    in    liil,  21/-. 

Extra  batteries        l/il  each.  Kxtra   bulbs     1/-  each. 

Hermetically    sealed    in    Tin    tox.  Further   particulars  on  application. 

S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd.   Estd.  issi 

6  Grand  Hotel  Buildings, Traraipr  square.  W.C.pic^^Smy  w 


By  Appointment  to   H.M 
the  late  King  Edward  VII. 


Watch    and     Chronometer 

Makers  to  the  Admiralty. 

Holders  of  5  Royal  Warrants. 


strated 
aval 


An  Officer  from  the  Front 
Recently  said  to  Burberrys 

"/  came  to  you  at  the  opening  of  the  War 
in  1914,  and  then  thought  you  the  most 
expensive  House  in  the  world.  After  fight- 
ing in  France  and  Gallipoli  since  then,  I 
think  you  the  cheapest  House  in  the  world. 
Your  goods  are  marvellous  in  the  Way  they 
wear  and  what  they  will  do." 

The  simple  explana- 
tion is  QUALITY— 
the  best  in  every 
item. 

In  the  severity  of 
continuous  warfare, 
shillings  saved  on 
clothing  often  mean 
lives  lost.  What 
false  economy ! 

Think  of  standing  in 
icy  water,  with  snow, 
sleet  or  rain,  driven 
by  a  pitiless  wind, 
swirling  in  on  you. 

Hour  after  hour 
spent  thus  \n  the 
trenches,  no  shelter. 
Think  of  the  im- 
portance of  good, re- 
liable, warmth-gene- 
rating clothing  under 
such  conditions. 

Not  the  false  heat  of 
oiled- silk  or  rubbered 
coats,  driving  per- 
nicious air  back  on 
to  the  body,  to' lower 
vitality  and  quickly 
change  to  chill. 

You  need  a  healthful 
warmth,  maintained 
by  clothing  that  con- 
forms to  the  dictates 
of  Nature. 

Clothing  which  per- 
rhits  vitiated  air  to 
pass  away,  to  be  con- 
stantly replaced  by 
fresh  supplies, 
warmed  by  the 
warmer  air  within 
and  the  vital  heat  of 
the  body,  which  is 
itself  kept  warm. 

He  experiences  this 
to  the  full  who  wears 


BURBERRY 


THE    BURFRON 

Has  no  openings  in  front,  S3  that  it  is 
impossible  for  wet,  wind  or  cold  to 
penetrate  to  the  body. 

Especially  designed  front  keeps  water 
clear  of  the  legs  when  walking,  and  of 
legs  and  seat  when  sitting. 

Ideal  forniounted  Officers,  as  it  supplies 
a  perfect  riding  apron,  as  well  as  an 
efficient  weatherproof 

Fastens  with  two  buttons  only — one  at 
the  waist  and  the  other  at  the  collar. 

The  belt  can  be  dispensed  with  if  desired. 
Officers'  Complete  Kits  in  2 
to  4  Days  or  Ready  for  Use. 

Ol  T0D170DVC     Haymarket 
OUKKtiKKlO     LONDON 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS  ;  and  Provincial  Agents 


NAVAL    AND    MILITARY 
WEATHERPROOFS 

During  the  War  BURBERRYS 
CLEAN    AND     RE  -  PROOF 

Officers'  "  Burberrys,*'  Titlockens, 
Burfrons  and  IJurberry  Trench- 
Warms   FREE    OF  CHARGE. 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  4,   1917 


{Conttnutd  from  page  i8) 
that  made  you  wish  to  keep  me  out  ot  this  house  ,   .     .     .     out 
■ii  this  house  and  out  of  your  very  Ufe." 

He  put  his  hand  on  the  back  of  the  chair  in  which  she  was 
sitting  ;    and  his  hand  just  touched  CoralJe's  hair. 

"  CoraUe,  you  imagine  that  it  is  the  shame  of  your  hfe 
here  that  keeps  you  away  from  me.  You  blush  at  having 
been  tiiat  man's  wife  ;  and  this  makes  you  feel  troubled  and 
anxious,  as  though  you  yourself  had  been  guilty.  But  why 
should  you  ?  It  was  not  your  fault.  Surely  you  know  that. 
I  can  guess  the  misery  and  hatred  that  must  have  passed 
between  you  and  him  and  the  constraint  that  was  brought  to 
bear  upon  you,  by  some  machination,  in  order  to  force  j-our 
consent  to  the  marriage  !  No,  CoraUe,  there  is  something 
else  ;  and  I  will  tell  you  what  it  is.  Tiiere  is  something 
else.     ..." 

He  was  bending  over  her  still  more.  He  saw  her  beautiful 
profile  ht  up  by  the  blazing  logs  and,  speaking  with  increasing 
fervour  and  adopting  the  famihar  tii  and  loi  which,  in  his 
s_  eech,  retained  a  note  of  affectionate  respect,  he  cried  : 

"  Am  I  to  speak.  Little  Mother  CoraUe  ?  I  needn't,  need 
1  ?  You  have  understood  ;  and  you  read  yourself  clearly. 
Ah,  I  feel  you  trembling  from  head'  to  foot  !  Yes,  yes,  I  tell 
you,  I  knew  your  secret  from  the  very  first  day.  From  the 
very  first  day  you  loved  your  great  beggar  of  a  wounded  man, 
all  scarred  and  maimeJ  though  he  was.  Hush!  Don't 
deny  it  !  .  .  .  Yes,  I  vmderstand  :  you  are  rather 
sliocked  to  hear  such  words  as  these  spoken  to-day.  I  ought 
perhaps  to  have  waited.  And  yet  why  should  I  ?  I  am  asking 
you  nothing.  I  know  ;  and  that  is  enough  for  me.  I  shan't 
speak  of  it  again  for  a  long  time  to  come,  until  the  inevitab  e 
hour  arrives  when  you  are  forced  to  tell  it  me  yourself.  Till 
tlien  1  shall  keep  silence.  But  our  love  will  always  be  between 
us  ;  and  it  wiU  be  exquisite,  Little  Mother  CoraUe,  it  will  be 
exquisite  for  me  to  know  that  you  love  me.  CoraUe  . 
There,  now  you're  crying !  'And  you  would  still  deny  the 
tinith  ?  Why,  when  you  cry — I  know  you,  little  mother — 
it  means  that  your  dear  heart  is  overflowing  with  tenderness 
and  love !  You  are  crying  ?  Ah,  Little  Mother,  1  never 
thought  you  loved  me  to  that  e.xtent  !  " 

Patrice  also  had  tears  in  his  eyes.  Coralic's  were  coursing 
down  her  pale  cheeks  ;  and  he  would  have  given  much  to 
kiss  that  wet  face.  But  the  least  outward  sign  of  affection 
appeared  to  him  an  offence  at  such  a  moment.  He  was 
content  to  gaze  at  her  passionately. 

And,  as  he  did  so,  he  received  an  impression  that  her 
thoughts  were  becoming  detached  from  his  own,  that  her 
eyes  were  being  attracted  by  an  unexpected  sight  and  that, 
amid  the  great  silence  of  their  love,  she  was  listening  to 
something  that  he  himself  had  not  heard. 

And  suddenly  he  too  heard  that  thing,  though  it  was  almost 
imperceptible.  It  was  not  so  much  a  sound  as  the  sensation 
of  a  presence  mingling  with  the  distant  rumble  of  the  town. 
What  could  be  happening  ? 

The  liglit  had  begun  to  fade,  without  his  noticing  it.  Also 
unperceived  by  Patrice,  Mme.  Essares  had  opened  the  window 
a  little  way,  for  the  boudoir  was  small  and  the  heat  of  the  fire 
was  becoming  oppressive.  Nevertheless,  the  two  casements 
were  almost  touching.  It  was  at  this  that  she  was  staring  ; 
and  it  was  from  there  that  the  danger  threatened. 

Patrice's  first  impulse  was.  to  run  to  the  window,  but  he 
:estrained  himself.  The  danger  was  becoming  defined. 
t)utside,  in  the  twilight,  he  distinguished  through  the  slanting 
panes  a  human  f  )rm.  Next,  he  saw  between  the  two  case- 
ments something  which  gleamed  in  the  light  of  the  fire  and 
which  IcMjked  like  the  barrel  of  a  revolver. 

"  Coralie  is  done  for,"  he  thought,  "  if  I  allow  it  to  be 
suspected  for  an  instant  that  I  am  on  my  guard. 

She  was  in  fact  ojijxjsite  the  window,  with  no  obstacle 
intervening.     He  therefore  said  aloud,  in  a  careless  tone  : 

"  Coralie,  you  must  be  a  little  tired.  We  will  say  good- 
bye." 

.\t  the  same  time,  he  went  round  her  chair  to  protect 
her.   , 

But  he  had  not  the  time  to  complete  his  movement.  She 
also  no  douV.t  had  seen  the  glint  of  the  revolver,  for  she  drew 
back  abruptly,  stammering  : 

"Oh,  Patrice!     .     .     .     Patrice!     .     .     . 
Two  shots  rang  out,  followed  by  a  moan. 
"  You're  wounied  !  "  cried  Patrice,  springing    to  her  side. 
"  No,  no,"  she  said,  "  but  the  fright.     .     .     ." 
'  Oh,  if  he's  touched  you,  the  scoundrel  I  " 
"  No,  he  hasn't." 
"  Are  you  quite  sure  ?  " 

He  lo.st  thirty  or  forty  seconds,  switching  on  the  electrir 
light,  looking  at  Coralie  for  signs  of  a  wound  and  waiting  in 
an  agony  of  suspense  for  her  to  regain  full  conscioiisn.'.ss. 
Only  then  did  he  rush  to  the  window,  opm  it  wide  and  climb 
over  the  balcony.     The  room  was  on  the  tirst  floor.     There  was 


plenty  of  lattice-work  on  the  wall.     But,  because  of  his  leg. 
Patrice  had  some  dilhculiy  in  making  his  way  down. 

Below,  on  the  terrace,  he  caught  his  foot  in  the  rungs  of  an 
overturned  ladder.  Next,  he  knocked  against  some^poUce- 
inen  who  were  coming  from  the  ground-floor.  One  of  thenv 
shouted. 

"  I  saw  the  figure  of  a  man  making  off  that  way." 
"  Which  way  ?  "  asked  Patrice. 

The  man  was  running  in  the  direction  of  the  lane.  Patrice 
followed  him.  But,  at  that  moment,  from  close  beside  the 
little  door,  there  came  shrill  cries  and  the  whimper  of  a 
choking  voice  : 

"  Help !     .     .     .     Help !     . 

When  Patrice  came  up,  tiie  policeman  was  already  flashing 
his  electric  lantern  over  the  ground  ;  and  they  both  saw  a 
human  form  writhing  in  the  shrubberv. 

"  The  door's  open  !  "  shouted  Patrice.  "  The  assassia 
has  escaped.     Go  after  him  !  " 

The  policeman  vanished  down  the  lane  ;  and,  Ya-Bon 
appearing  on  the  scene,  Patrice  gave  him  his  orders  : 

"  Quick  as  you  can,  Ya-Bon  !  ...  If  the  policeman 
IS  going  up  the  lane,  you  go  down.  Run  !  1  '11  look  after 
the  victim." 

AU  this  time,  Patrice  was  stooping  low,  flinging  the  light 
of  the  policeman's  lantern  on  the  man  who  lay  struggUng 
on  the  ground.  He  recognised  old  Simeon,  nearly  strangled, 
with  a  red  silk  cord  round  his  neck. 

"  How  do  you  feel  ?  "  he  asked.  "  Can  you  understand 
what  I'm  saying  ?  " 

He  unfastened  the  cord  and  repeated  his  question.  Sim<5on 
stuttered  out  a  series  of  incoherent  syllables  and  then  suddenly 
began  to  sing  and  laugh,  a  very  low,  jerkv  laugh,  alternating 
with  hiccoughs.     He  had  gone  mad. 

Ulien  M.  Masseron  arrived,  Patrice  told  hiin  what  had 
happened  : 

"  Do  you  really  beUeve  it's  all  over  .'  "  he  asked. 
"  No.     You  were  right  and  I  was  wrong,"  said  M.  Masseron. 
"  We  must  take  every  precaution  to  ensure  Mme.   Essares' 
safety.     The  house  shall  be  guarded  all  night." 

A  few  minutes  later,  the  policeman  and  Ya-Bon  returned, 
after  a  vain  search.  The  key  that  had  served  to  open  the 
door  was  found  in  the  lane.  It  was  exactly  similar  to  the 
one  in  Patrice  Belval's  possession,  equally  old  and  equally 
rusty.  The  would-be  murderer  had  thrown  it  away  in  the 
course  of  his  flight. 

***** 

It  was  seven  o'clock  when  Patrice,  accompanied  by  Ya- 
Bon,  left  the  housd  in  the  Rue  Raynouard  and  turned  towards 
Neuilly.  As  usual,  Patrice  took  Ya-Bon's  arm  and,  leaning 
upon  him  for  support  as  he  walked,  he  said  : 

"  I  can  guess, what  you're  thinking,  Ya-Bon." 

Ya-Bon  grunted. 

"  That's  it,"  said  Captain  Bclval,  in  a  tone  of  approval. 
"  We  are  entirely  in  agreement  all  along  the  line.  What 
strikes  you  first  and  foremost  is  the  utter  incapacity  dis- 
played by  the  police.  A  pack  of  addle-pates,  you  say  ? 
When  you  speak  like  that,  Master  Ya-Bon,  you  are  talking 
impertinent  nonsense,  which,  coming  from  you,  does  not 
astonish  me  and  which  might  easily  make  me  give  you  the 
puni.shment  you  deserve.  -But  we  wiU  overlook  it  this  time. 
Whatever  you  may  say,  the  police  do  what  they  Ccm,  not 
to  mention  that,  in  war-time,  they  have  other  things  to  do 
than  to  occupy  themselves  with  the  mysterious  relations 
"between  Captain  Belval  and  Mme.  Essares.  It  is  I  there- 
fore who  will  have  to  act  ;  and  I  have  hardly  any  one  to 
reckon  on  but  myself.  Well,  I  wonder  if  I  am  a  match  for 
such  adversaries.  To  think  that  here's  one  who  has  the 
cheek  to  come  back  to  the  house  while  it  is  being  watched  bv 
the  poUce,  to  pat  up  a  ladder,  to  listen  no  doubt  to  my  con- 
versation with  M.  Masseron  and  afterwards  to  what  I  said 
to  Little  Mother  Coralie  and,  lastly,  to  send  a  couple  of 
bullets  whizzing  past  our  ears  !  What  do  you  say  ?  Am  I 
the  man  for  the  job  ?  And  could  all  the  French  police., 
overworked  as  they  are,  give  me  the  indisponsabb  as.sistance  .■■ 
No,  the  man  I  need  for  clearing  up  a  thing  like  this  is  ait 
exceptional  sort  of  chap,  one  who  unites  every  quality  ii» 
himself,  in  short  the  typ?  of  man  one  never  sees." 

Patrice  leant  more  heavily  on  his  companion's  arm  : 

"  You  who  know  so  many  good  people,  haven't  j-ou  the 
fellow  I  want  concealed  about  your  person  .'  A  genius  of 
sorts  ?     A  demigod  ?  " 

Ya-Bon  grunted  again,  merrily  this  time,  and  withdrew 
his  arm.  He  always  carried  a  little  electric  lamp.  Switching 
on  the  light,  he  put  the  handle  between  his  teeth.  Then  he- 
took  a  bit  of  chalk  out  of  his  jacket  pocket. 

A  grimy,  weather-beaten  plaster  wall  ran  along  the  street. 
Ya-Bon  took  his  stand  in  front  of  the  wall  and,  turning  the 
light  upon  it,  began  to  write  with  an  unskilful  hand,  as  though 
'.Continued  ott  rage  22. 


January  4;  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


GONG   SOUPS 


95 


arc  "TOP   HOLE. 


A  few  packets  of  Gong  Soups  in  his 
haversack,  and  a  brisk  little  wood  fire  glowing 
in  the  shelter  of  a  farm-house  wall,  mean  much 
to  the  man  who  has  just  returned  from  arduous 
toil  for  his  "rest"  period. 

Water  is  quickly  procured,  the  Gong  Soup 
packet  dissolved,  and  in  fifteen  minutes  or  so 
"the  best  meal  for  a  week"  is  ready. 

The  particular  handiness  of  Gong  Soups, 
together  with  their  variety  and  economy,  render 
them  specially  suitable  for  use  in  the  home 
as  well  as  at  the  Front. 

From  one  of  the  H.A.C. 

"  You  might  send  some  more  Gong  Soups.  They 
are  '  top  hole.'  Everyone  likes  them  out  here,  the 
vegetable  part  is  so  good." 


Twelve  Delicious  Varieties: 

Scotch   Broth  I  Lentil  I    Celery  Cream 

Mock    Turtle      Julienne  Green  Pea 

Pea                     Ox  Tail  Artichoke 

i/     Mulligatawny  |  Thick  Gravy  I    Tomato 

CONG 


Made  by 
0X0  Ltd.,  London,  E.C 


SOUPS 


Li'ok  for  ilie 
FOX-HEAD 
Label 


IMPROVEMENTS 
CONTINUOUS 

on  all  proofing  metLods  hitherto 
;nown  have  resulted  in  a 
crushing  Dexter  victory  over 
ail  weather  foes.  Military 
Dexters  defy  trench  wet,  defend 
body  comfort,  acknow^ledge  no 
rival. 

''As  British  as  tne 
Weather — but   Reliable. 

Supplied   by  Agents   Kyerywhere 

70/-  to  126/- 


WEATHEBPROJFS 

WalUce,  Scoti  &  Co    l.Kl- (wh.fle^alc),  Glasgow. 

•  •  • 

Head    Depot    in     London 
I'OR   MIMIARY   DEXTKRS 


GOOCHS 

BROMPTON  ROAD,S.W 


LTD. 


KR£,m\sA  msSiViffi^'mffi'amf^'ii'mRii'mR^  wwsais' 


i!l»RF>| 


When  you  feel  weary  and  worn 
after  war  work  of  any  kind  take 
a  mustard  bath.  It  brings  back 
the  glow  of  health  and  vigour. 
Try  it — any  bath — any  time — 
any  day — why  not  to-day  ? 


SI 

I  Colmans 
I  MustardBath 


' '  Let  Muster  Mistard 
prepare  your  hath. ' ' 


I 

i 


I 
I 
I 
I 


!.» 


ISA  waissm.fSiimsismKSfs^Kifs^KSSi 


■I  \fifiwaifiAwmsfsmsfim 


COMPACT    LIGHT    TENTS. 

We  specialise  in  supplying  light-weight  tents  for  service  in 

the  field,  as  already  supplied  to  thousands  of  Officers  of  the 

British  Expeditionary  Forces. 

SPECIALLY  LINED  TENTS   FOR  THE  TROPICS. 

Ourselected  Army  Outfit,  Bivouac  Tent,  Ground  Sheet,  Bedding, 

Bucket,   Washbasin    and   Cuisine,  weighs  under   7  lb<.  complete. 

Comfy  Sleeping  Bag  {Reg.  design).  Weight  from  \\  lb.    Prices,  40/  to  72/6 

LIQHTWEIQHT  TEN  t  SUPPLY.CO.,  Dept.  L,  61  High  Holborn,  London 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  4,  1917 


(Continued  from  page  20) 
each  letter  cost  him  a  measureless  effort  and  as  though  the 
sum  total  of  these  letters  were  the  only  one  that  he  had  ever 
succeeded  in  composing  and  remembering.     In  this  way,  he 
wrote  two  wo/ds  which  Patrice  read  out  : 
Arskn'e  Lupin. 

"  Ars:-ne  Lupin,"  said  Patrice,  under  his  breatli.  And, 
L)oking  at  Va-Hon  in  amazement.  "  Are  you  m  your  right 
mind  ?  What  do  you  mean  by  Arsene  Lupin  ?  Are  you 
suggesting  Arsne  Lupin  to  me?" 

Ya-Bon  nodded  his  liead. 

"'  Arsene  Lupin  ?    Do  you  know  him  ?  " 

'■  Yes,"  Ya-Bon  signified. 

Patrice  then  remembered  that  the  Senegalese  used  to 
spend  his  davs  at  the  hospital  getting  his  good-natured  com- 
rades to  read  all  the  adventures  of  Arsene  Lupm  aloud  to 
him  :   and  he  grinned  :  .     .         1 

"  Yes,  you  know  him  as  one  knows  somebody  whose 
history  one  has  read. 

"  No,"  protested  Ya-Bon. 
'  Do  you  know  him  personally  ? 

"  Yes." 

"  Get   out,    vou   sillv    fool !     Arsene    Lupin   is   dead.     He 

threw  himself  into  the:' sea  from  a  rock  ;  (i)  and  you  pretend 

that  you  know  him  ?  " 

"  Yes."      '  ,  •        •        , 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  have  met  liim  since  ne 

<lied?  "■ 

"  Yes.'  .  ,     .     - 

■•  By  Jove  !  And  Master  Ya-Bon's  influence  with  Arsene 
Lupin"  is  enough  to  make  him  come  to  life  again  and  put  him- 
self out  at  a  sign  from  Master  Ya-Bon  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  I  say  !  I  had  a  high  opinion  of  you  as  it  was,  but  now 
there  is  nothing  for  me  but  to  make  you  my  bow.  A  friend 
of  the  late  Arsene  Lupin  !  We're  going  it  !  .  .  ■  And 
how  long  will  it  take  vou  to  place  hi.s  ghost  at  our  disposal  ? 
Six  months  ?  Three  months  ?  One  month  ?   A  fortnight  .'' 

Ye-Bon  made  a  gesture. 

"  About  a  fortnight."  Captain  Belval  translated.  "  N  ery 
weU,  evoke  your  friend's  spirit  ;  I  shall  be  deliglited  to  make 
his  acquaintance.  Only,  upon  my  word,  you  must  have  a 
very  poor  idea  of  me  to  imagine  that  I  need  a  collaborator  ! 
What  next !   Do  you  take  me  for  a  helpless  dunderhead  ? 

CHAPTER   IX 

Patrice  and  Coralie. 

E\'ERYTHIXG  happened  as  M.  Masseron  had  fore- 
told. The  press  did  not  speak.  The  public  did  not 
become  excited.  The  various  deaths  were  casually 
paragraphed.  The  funeral  of  Fssares  Bey,  the 
wealthy  banker,  passed  unnoticed. 

But," on  the  day  foil  )wing  the  funeral,  after  Captian  Belval, 
with  the  support  of  the  police,  had  made  an  application  to 
the  militarv-  authorities,  a  new  order  of  things  was  established 
in  the  house  in  the  Rue  Raynouard.  It  was  recognised  as 
Home  No.  2  attached  to  the  hospital  in  the  Champs-Elysees  ; 
Mine.  Essar^s  was  appointed  matron  ;  and  it  became  the  resi- 
dence of  Captain  Belval  and  his  seven  wounded  men  ex- 
clusively. 

Coralie,  therefore,  was  the  only  woman  remaining.  The 
cook  and  housemaid  were  sent  away.  The  seven  cripples  did 
all  the  work  of  the  house.  One  acted  as  hall-porter,  another 
as  cook,  a  third  as  butler.  Ya-Bon,  promoted  to  parlour- 
maid, made  it  his  business  to  wait  on  Little  Mother  Coralie. 
At  night  he  slei>t  in  the  passage  outside  her  door.  By  day 
lie  mounted  guard  outside  her  window. 

•■  Let  no  one  near  that  door  or  that  window  !  "  Patrice  said 
to  him.  "  Let  no  one  in  !  You'll  catch  it  if  so  much  as  a 
mosquito  succeeds  in  entering  h^r  room." 

Nevertheless,  Patrice  was  not  easy  in  his  mind.  The  enemy 
had  gi\en  him  too  many  proofs  of" reckless  daring  to  let  him 
imagine  that  he  could  take  any  steps  to  ensure  her  perfect 
protection.  Danger  always  creeps  in  where  it  is  least  ex- 
pected ;  and  it  was  all  the  more  difficult  to  ward  off  in  that 
no  one  knew  whence  it  threatened.  Now  that  Essares  Bey 
was  dead,  who  was  continuing  his  work  ?  Who  had  inherited 
the  task  of  revenge  ujion  Coralie  announced  in  his  last  letter  '. 
M.  Masseron  had  at  ouce  begun  his  work  of  investigation, 
out  the  dramatic  side  of  the  case  seemed  to  leave  him  in- 
different. Since  he  had  not  found  the  body  of  the  man 
whose  dying  cries  reached  Patrice  Belval's  ears,  since  he  had 
discovered  no  clue  to  the  mysterious  as-ailant  who  had  fired 
at  Patrice  and  Coralie  later  in  the  day,  since  he  was  not  able 
to  trace  where  the  assailant  had  obtained  his  ladder,  he  dropp;;d 


11  813. 
de  Mittos. 


By  Mauri  c  I-eblanc.     Tian  lated  by   Alexander  Teixcira 


these  questions  and  confined  his  efforts  entirely  to  the  search 
for  the  eighteen  hundred  bags  of  gold.  These  were  all  that 
concerned  him. 

"  We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  are  here,  he 
said,  "  between  tlie  four  sides  of  the  cpiadrilaleral  foimcd  by 
the  garden  and  tlie  house.  Obviously,  a  bag  of  gold  weighmg 
a  hundredweight  docs  not  take  up  as  much  room  by  a  Ion 
way  a-i  a  sackol  coal  of  the  same  wei,'ht.  But.  for  all  that 
eighteen  hundred  bags  represent  a  cubic  content  that  is  not 
easily'  concealed." 

In  two  days,  he  had  assured  himself  that  the  trea-ure  was 
hidden  neither  in  the  house  nor  under  the  house.  On  the 
evenings  when  Essares  Bey's  car  brought  the  gold  out  of  the 
coffers  of  the  Franco-Oriental  Bank  to  the  Kuc;^  Raynouard, 
Essaris,  the  chaufleur  and  the  man  known  as  Gn'goire  used 
to  pass  a  thick  wire  through  the  grating  of  whicli  the  accomp- 
lices spoke.  This  wire  was  found.  .Along  the  wire  ran  hooks, 
which  were  also  found  ;  and  on  these  the  bags,  were  slung 
and  afterwards  stacked  in  a  large  cellar  situated  exactly 
under  tlie  library. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  M.  Masseron  and  his  detectives 
devoted  all  their  ingenuity  and  ;U1  the  painstaking 
patience  of  which  they  were  capable  to  the  task  of 
searching  every  corner  of  this  eel  ar.  Their  efforts  only 
established  beyond  doubt  that  it  contained  no  secret,  save  that 
of  a  staircase  which  ran  down  from  the  library  and  which  was 
closed  at  the  top  by  a  trap-door  concealed  by  the  carpet. 

In  addition  to  the  grating  on  the  Rue  Raynouard.  there  was 
another  which  overlooked  the  garden,  on  the  levol  of  the  first 
terrace.  These  two  ojjonings  were  barricaded  on  the  inside 
by  very  heavy  shutters,  so  that  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  stacl; 
thousands  and  thousands  of  rouleaux  of  gold  in  the  cellai 
before  sending  them  away. 

"  But  how  were  they  sent  away  ?  "  M.  Masseron  won 
dered.  "  That's  the  mystery.  And  why  this  intermediate 
stage  in  the  basement,  in  the  Rue  Raynouard?  Another 
mystery.  And  now  we  have  Fakhi,  Bournef  and  Co.,  declar- 
ing that,  this  time,  it  was  not  sent  away,  that  the  gold  is  here 
and  that  it  can  be  found  for  the  searching.  We  have  searched 
the  house.     There  is  still  the  garden.     Let  us  look  there." 

It  was  a  beautiful  old  garden  and  had  once  formed  part  of 
the  wide-stretching  estate  where  people  were  in  the  habit,  at 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  of  going  to  drink  the 
Pa.ssy  waters.  With  a  two-hundrcd-yard  frontage,  it  ran 
from"  the  Rue  Raynouard  to  the  (juay  of  the  river-side  and 
led,  by  four  successive  terraces,  to  an  expanse  of  lawn  as  old 
as  the  rest  of  the  garden,  fringed  with  thickets  of  evergreens 
and  shaded  by  group.s  of  tall  trees. 

But  the  beauty  of  the  garden  lay  chiefly  in  its  four  terrart-^ 
and  in  the  view  which  they  afforded  of  the  river,  the  low 
ground  on  the  left  ban'c  and  the  distant  hills.  They  were 
united  by  twenty  sets  of  steps  ;  and  twent\-  paths  climbetl 
from  the  one  to  the  other,  paths  cut  between  tlie  buttressing 
walls  and  sometimes  hidden  in  the  floods  of  ivy  that  dashed 
from  top  to  bottom. 

Here  and  there  a  statue  stood  out,  a  broken  column,  or 
the  fragments  of  a  capital.  The  stone  balcony  that  edged 
the  upper  terrace  was  still  adorned  with  all  its  old  terra -cott:'. 
vases.  On  this  terrace  also  were  the  ruins  of  two  little  round 
temples  where,  in  the  old  days,  the  springs  bubbled  to  th'.- 
surface. 

In  front  of  the  library  windows  was  a  circular  basin. 
within  the  centre  the  figure  of  a  child  shooting  a  slender 
thread  of  water  through  the  funnel  of  a  shell.  It  was  thu 
overflow  from  this  basin,  forming  a  little  stream,  that  trickled 
over  the  rocks  against  which  Patrice  had  stumbled  on  the 
first  evening. 

"  Ten  acres  to  explore  before  we've  done,"  said  M.  Mas  eron 
to  himself.    - 

He  employed  upon  this  work,  in  addition  to  Belval's  cripples 
a  dozen  of  tiis  own  detectives.  It  was  not  a  difficult  business 
and  was  bound  to  lead  to  some  definite  result.  As  M.  Masseron 
never  ceased  saying,  eighteen  hundred  bags  cannot  remain 
invisible.  An  excavation  leaves  traces.  You  want  a  hole 
to  go  in  and  come  out  by.  But  neither  the  grass  of  the  lawns 
nor  the  sand  of  the  paths  showed  any  signs  of  earth  recently 
disturbed.  The  ivy  ?  The  buttressing-walls  ?  The  terraces  ? 
Everything  was  inspected,  but  in  vain.  Here  and  there,  in 
cutting  up  the  ground,  old  conduit  pipes  were  found,  running 
towards  the  Seine,  and  remains  of  aque  ucts  that  had  once  ser- 
ved to  carry  off  the  Passy  waters.  But  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  a  cave,  an  underground  chamber,  a  brick  arch  or 
anything  that  looked  like  a  hiding  place. 

Patrice  and  Coralie  watched  the  progress  of  the  search. 
And,  yet,  though  they  fully  realized  its  importance  and  though 
on  the  other  liand,  they  were  still  feeling  the  strain  of  the 
recent  dramatic  hours,  in  reality  they  were  engrossed  only  in 
the  inexplicable  problem  of  their  fate  :  and  their  conversation 
nearly  always  turned  upon  the  mystery  of  the  past. 

(To  be  continviei.) 


January  1 1,  1917 


Supplement     to     LAND     &     WATER 


vu 


OFFICERS' 
RIDING 
BREECHES 

The  factors  of  successful 
breeches -making  are  —  fine 
wear-resisting  cloths,  skiliiil 
cutting,  and  careful,  thorough 
tailor  work— and  all  these  we 
guarantee. 

Abundant  experience,  also, 
contributes  importantly  in 
giving  utmost  satisfaction,  for 
Grant  and  Cockburn  have 
made  breeches  for  ninety- 
five  years. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs 
of  breeches,  and  are  therefore  often 
able  to  meet  immediate  requirements, 
or  we  can  cut  and  try  a  pair  on  the 
same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day, 
if  urjjently  wanted. 


Oar  New  All-Leather  Puttees  never  tear  or  fray  out. 

These  most  comfortable,  good-looking  puttees  are  made  entirely  of 
fine  supple  tan  leather,  and  fasten  simply  with  one  buckle  at  bottom. 
They  are  extremely  durable,  even  if  subjected  to  the  friction  of 
riding,  as  the  edges  never  tear  or  fray  out. 

The  price  per  pair  is  16  6,  post  free  inland,  or  postage  abroad,  1/- 
extra,  or  sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business  (not  banker's) 
reference  and  home  address. 


GRANT. SO  COCKBURN 


ESTD.  1821 


25,  PICCADILLY,    W. 

Military    and    Civil    Tailors,    Legging    Makers. 


A 

LEATHER 

WAISTCOAT 

This  Vest  has  been 
much  appreciated  by 
Officers  at  the  Front 
for  its  warmth,  its 
lightness  and  the 
smartness  of  its 
appearance. 


SHip  Finish,    Rainproof    Twill   Lined  with  so.'test 
Cbaniois  leather,  with  adjustable  Throat  Protector. 


PRICE 


63/- 


Write  for 
OFFICERS     EQUIP.V.ENT    CATALOGUE. 


Dunhills 


2    Conduit    St.    W- 


^:^^=  The  Original  Cording' s,  Estd.  1839  — 

There   can   be   no   setting   wet   in   an 
" Equitor,"  the  really  waterproof  coat 

(REOD.)  ,  ■^^—— 

which,  with  a  snug  fleece  woollen 
lining      buttoned      in      becomes 

an  excellent  greatcoat  in 
which  to  "travel  light," 
heedless   of  cold  or   rain. 

f 

The  "Equitor  "  is  fitted  with  a 
special  riding  apron,  which  abso- 
lutely shuts  out  any  rain,  and  can 
be  fastened  conveniently,  out  of 
sight,  but  the  coat  serves  just  as 
Well  for  ordinary  wear  afoot, 
whether  the  apron  be  fastened 
back  or  not. 

An  "Equitor"  will  keep  a  man 
bone  dry  through  the  heaviest 
and  most  lasting  downpour,  and 
if  fleece-lined  will  also  warmly 
protect  him  in  biting  cold 
weather. 

In  our  light-weight  No.  31  material, 
the  price  of  the  "Equitor"  is  92/6; 
of  our  No.  23  cashmere,  a  medium- 
weight  cloth,  115/-;  without  apron 
(either  cloth),  17/6  less,  with  belt,  E/. 
extra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat  can 
be  had  in  two  qualities— No.  1  (line 
wool),      62/6;      No.      2,       40/-. 

When  ordering  an  "Equitor"  Coat 
please  state  height  and  chest  measure 
and  send  remittance  (which  will  be 
returned  if  the  coat  is  not  approved), 
or  give  home  address  and  business 
(not  banker's)  reference. 


Illuttrated  List  at  riquest. 


J,  C.  CORDING  &  C9> 

Only  Addr^nes  : 


19  PICCADILLY,   W.,  &  35  st.  james's  st.,  s.w 


'  Wincarnis '  is  the  ONE  thing  you  need  when  you  are 

Weak,    Anaemic, 
•Nervy'   < Run-down' 

Don't  let  your  life  be  clouded  by  indifferent  health — don't  suffer 
needlessly — don't  remain  Weak,  Anxmic,  '  Nervy,"  "Run- 
down." Let'  Wincarnis'  (the  wine  of  life)  give  you  veto 
health,  ne-w  strength,  ne-w  blood,  neiu  nerves,  and  new  life. 
'  Wincarnis'  is  a  tonic,  a  restorative,  a  blood-maker,  and  a 
nerve  food — all  combined  in  one  clear,  delicious  beverage.  It 
strengthens  the  weak,  gives  new  rich  blood  to  the  Ansemic. 
new  nerves  to  the  "  Nervy,"  sleep  to  the  sleepless,  new  vitality 
to  tlie  "  Run-down,"  and  n-ew  life  to  the  Ailing.  And  it  does 
not  contain  drugs.     Will  you  try  just  one  bottle? 

Begin  to  get  well  FREE. 

Send  for  a  liberal  free  trial  bottle  of  '  Wincarnis  *— not  a  mere  taste,  but 
enouch  to  do  you  Rood.  Enclose  f-OUR  penny  stamt>»  (to  pay  postage). 
COLBMAN  &  CO.  Ltd.,  W  ly7.  Wincarnis  W>^rks.  Norwich. 


vm 


Supplement    to    LAND    &     WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


T 


J^/^ 


z^yL 


Waring  &  Gillow's 

WINTER  SALE 


NOW    PROCEEDING. 
Further     Specimen     Bargains. 


Lace  Bedspreads. 

A  charming  design  iu  imitation 
filet  lace  Bedspreads.  A  very 
iiigeuious  reproduction.  Special 
price  to  clear. 

For  siugle  beds,    2 1  /-  each. 

For  double  beds,  25/6     „ 

Vei-y  choice  reproduction  of  real 
filet  lace  Bedspread  of  an  exception- 
:illy  attractive  pattern. 

Size  about  76in.  by  lOOin.,  10/9  each. 
96in  by  H21n.,  I4'9      „ 

Coal    Hod. 

I'olished  brass  helmet  Coal  Hod. 
Usual  price  29/6.    Sale  price  25/- 


Madras  Curtains 

8  pairs  coloured  Madras  Curtains, 
fine  Yochara  design  and  colours, 
SOin.  wide  by  3^  yards  long. 

Usual  price  42/6  pair. 

Sale  price  29/6  pair. 

Cretonne. 

170  yards  SOiii.  hand-printed  Cre- 
tonne, large  Queen  Anne  design  nn 
pale  gold  ground. 

Usual  price  5/11  per  yard. 

Sale  price  2/11^  per  yard. 

290   yards    50in.    Cretonne,   rambler 

rose    design     with    white    or   jaspe 

ground.   Usual  price  2/11  per  yard. 

.     Sala  price   1/9^  per  yard. 


Carpets. 


Ardebil  Wilton  Carpets. 


The  name  "  Ardebil  "  represent", 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  carpets  in 
the  world,  and  it  is  for  this  reason 
that  we  call  this  specially  fine  grade 
of  Wilton  Carpet  the  "  .'Vrdebil." 
All  these  carpets  are  faithful  repro 
ductions  of  beautiful  originals. 

Ctual  prire.  Sale  price. 
ft.  in.      ft.  in. 
7    «  by    4    « 
9    0 


10  6 

12  0 

13  6 
15  0 


?'.;t4: 


THIS  Sale  affords  an  exceptional 
opportunity  of  obtaining  first  class 
articles  from  practically  every  department 
at  genuine  bargain  prices.  The  specimen 
items  illustrated  above  are  merely 
e.xamples   of   the    value    to    be    obtained. 


,_,^ 


mRiNGa^, 

GII10W4 


SurnisAersC  lAxxuators 
taTi.M.tkoTOruf 

164-180,   OXFORD    STREET,"  LONDON,   W 


LTD 


BOLD  STREET,   LIVERPOOL. 


DEANSGATE,   MANCHESTER. 


™^  LAND  &  WATER 

WRIST  WATCH 

With  UNBREAKABLE  QLASS. 


The  "LAND  &  WATER"  WRIST  WATCH 
is   a  genuine   damp  and  dust-proof  watch, 

with  special  screw-in  movement,  unbreakable  glass  and 
luminous  face.  The  movement  is  fully  jewelled  and  is 
fitted  with  micrometer  regulator  to  give  fine  adjustment. 
It  is  compensated  for  all  positions  and  temperatures 
specially  balanced  and  built  to  withstand  shock,  it  is  the 
finest  quality  Timekeeper  obtainable  and  has  been  proved 
by  practical  tests  in  the  trenches,  equal  in  accuracy  to  a 
-O-Guinea  Chronometer.  For  Naval  and  Military  men  it  is 
the  Ideal  Watch  and  is  being  worn  by  numerous  officers 
of  both  services.  When  writing  please  state  whether 
black  or  white  dial  is  preferred,  mentioning  reference  200. 
At  llie  side  is  illustrated  the  New  5TLVLL  WRISTLtT  as  highly 
recommended  in  the   editorial   column  of    "  LAND    &    WATE.R." 


STEVEl.  WRISTLET 
sHf-ad)usUhU  -fits  any 
st~.-'  wrist  or  anv  part  of 
arm.  Strone  :ind  dura- 
bt- ,  p^rmtttinR  iraUk  to 
be  turned  ovrr  an  i  tiorn 
/aCf  downwards  thus 
doin^  away  with  dial 
protectors . 

SiUer  Plated.  -  '-!'« 
Bv  post,  -    S£/l> 


£4 


The  ••  Land  &  Water  •'  Wrist  Watch,  with 
nnbreakable    Glass  and    Luminous     Dial 

Obtainable  only  from  — 

Messrs.    BIRCH    &    GAYDON,    Ltd., 

Waich  aad  Technical  Instrument 

Makers        to       the      Admiralty, 

153    FENCHURCH    ST.,   LONDON.    E.G. 

West  End  Branch— \9  PICCADILLY  ARCADE 

date  J.  Barwise). 


The  Best  Boots 

For  Active  Service  are 

Faulkners' 
Norwegian  Boots. 

The     Easiest,     Most 


Model    Waterproof,     Wear- 
^  ^*  *    resisting  Boots  made. 

Stocked  in  all  sizes. 

The  dRAEMAR  WADER 
ATTACHMENTS,  carrying 
Boots  to  thigh,  S.\    1    0  extra. 


No.  1 
Model 
£6  60 


Faulkners'  Leggings 


5SifJi4«» 


.^jJi/rZ'dUf 


Wrtte  for  Booklets  and  instructions  for  Self-Measurement. 


Uilh  tvhich  is  incorporated  the  boot  business  o)  Alan,  Hebert  &  Greenin?.  Ltd- 

51  &  52  South  Molton  St.,  Bond  St.,  London,  W. 

And  26  Trinity  Street,    Cambridge. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII  No.  2853  UTA]       THURSDAY.  JANUARY  11,  1917        [?'^^'^?^^,/^]  ^^i^^^'iH^^]^^ 


By   Louis  Raemaekers 


Drawn  ejccliisivety  for   "Land   <t    Waler" 


Germany  Feeling  the  Pinch 


The  War  God  .    "  In    1914,    William,  you    rejected   every   suggestion    of   peace   and 
insisted  on  the  mailed  fist  ;  now  it  will  not  let   go   its  grip.     Do   you  still  like  it  ? 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


GONG  SOUPS 

For  Soldiers,  Sailors  and  Airmen 

The  men  who  are  envied  in  training 
camps,  on  board  H.M.  Ships  and  on  active 
service  abroad  are  those  who  receive 
parcels  of  good  things  from  home.  Gong 
Soups  are  particularlysuitedto  their  needs. 
They  give  warmth,  sustenance  and  energy 
to  overcome  the  trials  of  winter  in  the 
open.  They  are  easily  prepared,  and  the 
twelve  flavours  afford  a  welcome  change 
ft  om  Service  Rations. 

From  one  of  the  Expeditionary  Force: — 
"I  have  much  pleasure  in  acknowledging  receipt  of  a 
welcome  parcel  of  Gong  Soups.  It  is  indeed  surprising 
the  large  amount  of  nourishment  derived  from  them. 
By  the  addition  of  boiling  water  several  portions  of  the 
most  delicious  and  most  appetising  soup  one  could  ever 
wish  to  taste  can  be  made  from  one  of  the  small  packets. 
At  this  time  of  year,  when  one  is  so  exposed  to  the  bad 
weather,  a  portion  of  these  soups  has  wonderful  sus- 
taining powers  and  one  is  able  to  'carry  on.'  " 

From  the  Father  of  one  of  the  London  Scottish  : — 
"  A  fortnight  ago  I  sent  several  packets  of  your  Gong 
Soups  to  my  son  in  France,  London  Scottish,  and  to-day 
I  heard   from  him.     The  following  extract  from  his 
letter  will  I  think  interest  you: — 

'  Those  Gong  Soup  tablets  you  sent  are  excellent, 
especially  in  this  weather,  and  I  hope  you  will  not  by 
any  mischance  forget  to  put  a  few  of  them  in  each  time.' " 


Twelve  Delicious 
Varieties : 


Scotch  Broth 
Mock  Turtle 
Pea 
Mulligatawny 


Lentil 
Julienne 
Ox  Tail 
Thick  Gravy 


Celery  Cream 
Green  Pea 
Artichoke 
Tomato 


Made  by 
0X0  Ltd.,  London,  E.G. 


SOUPS 


^2!af 


»■■  fl 


Look  for  ikt 
FOX-HEAD 
—  LabH  — 


UNPRECEDENTED 
DEMAND 

has  alone  puilied  up  tLe  Dexter 
Reputation  to  jt«  dominant 
position  at  the  Front.  Ho-w- 
ever  wet  or  muddy  tlie  outside 
of  your  Military  Dexter, 
you  are  dry  and  cosy  witkin. 
"As  British  as  tke 
Weatkcr— but  Reliatle." 
Supplied   by  Agents  Everywhere 

70/-  to  126/- 


WEATHERPRCPFS 

WalUce.  Scott  &  Co.  Ltd.  lwtiol«sal<),  G)>««w. 

•  •  • 

Head    Depot    in     London 
FOR    Mir.ITARY   DEXTERS 

GOOCHS.™ 

BROMPTON  RGAD.S.W, 


\^ 


^ 


mSimas^Ksaimi5i5mKsiSi\ 


IKn^HKnlKnai^HsKn^^Ktnil 


I 


A  Mustard  Bath  may  make  you 
sleep  when  all  else  fails.  The 
potent  oils  of  the  mustard  restore 
and  equalize  the  functions  of  the 
body  and  bring  a  desire  for  healthy 
sleep  at  the  right  time.  Try 
it — to-night. 


Colman's 
MustardBath 


Two  Pretty  Garments  at  Rose-Annette's 


pLOWEREp  Taffeia  Underskirt,  with   corded  hem.  twist  of    picot 

ribbon  tied  into  long  ends  an  •■  Bnithed  with  a  posy  of  satin     A^/ 
rosci.      Hand-made,  to  special  measures     -        -        -        -        .^i/" 

Crepe  de  CHine  Camisole,  with  hemstitching,  lace  and  ribbon.  "I  C  /Q 
Made  by  hand  to  any  measures liJf*J 

A  DAINTY  BOOKLET  of  designs  in  hand-made  lingerie  in  alt  the 
-^^  newest  fabrics  and  a  form  tor  self-measurement  wilf  be  *^ni  nnnn 
request  from 


sent    Qpon 


Rose-Annette,    Canada     House,     Sidcup. 


January  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


3' 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,    W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY  11,   1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Germany  Feeling  the  Pinch.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

Tlie  Right  Policy.     (Leader)                   \       "  3 

Retreat  in   Roumania.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 

Sea  War,  1916.  By  Arthur  Pollen  8 
The  People  and  the  Duties  of  Empire.    By  The  Master 

of  Balliol  10 

Inhuman  Treatment  of  Russian  Prisoners  12 
Le     Soliloque    du     Deporte     (Poem),    by     Emile 

Cammaerts  13 

Germans  in  India.     By  Arthur  Gordon  14 

Germany's  Policy  in  the  Balkans.     By  Frank  Fox  15 

The  New  Raemaekers'  Exhibition  i6 

Books  to  ]^ead.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  17 

The  Golden  Triangle.     By   Maurice   Leblanc  18 

The  West  End  22 

Kit  and  Equipment  25 


THE     RIGHT     POLICY 

ON  the  eve  of  the  issue  of  the  great  Loan  which 
proves  the  resolution  of  the  British  Government 
and  people  to  carry  the  war  to  a  complete 
military  victory,  we  shall  do  well  to  grasp  why 
a  determination  of  this  kind  is  vital  for  the  future 
security  of  Europe. 

The  only  conceivable  policy  for  the  Allies  in  the 
face  of  the  German  anxiety  for  peace  is  to  meet  it  by 
refusing  even  to  discuss  terms,  let  alone  to  propose 
terms,  until  the  enemy  has  suffered  a  complete  military 
defeat.  The  future  is  veiled  from  nxan.  Whether  the 
enemy  will  suffer  a  complete  military  defeat  or  not  we 
therefore  cannot  tell.  All  the  known  elements  in  the 
problem  point  to  his  certainly  suffering  such  a  defeat. 
That  is  all  we  can  say.  But  the  fixed  point  from  which 
reason  can  never  vary  and  from  which  statesmanship 
can  only  look  aside  at  its  peril,  is  the  point  that  anything 
short  of  the  full  military  defeat  of  the  Central  Empires  is 
equivalent  to  their  victory,  and  that  their  victory  is 
equivalent  to  the  -permanent  degradation  of  our  civili- 
.  sation.  But  it  means  here,  in  this  country,  something 
especial,  it  means  the  absolutely  certain  decline  of 
England  and  the  British  name. 

The  reason  that  even  the  mention  of  terms  is  foolish 
resides  simply  in  this  :  That  when  men  are  under  a  very 
great  strain  a  check  of  any  sort,  moral  or  material,  tends 
to  break  them  down.  If,  in  the  last  effort  of  a  race 
when  a  man  can  just  barely  carry  on,  you  divert  his 
attention  even  by  a  second,  you  risk  his  collapse.  If 
you  bring  means  of  rescue  to  a  man  hanging  by  his  hand, 
over  a  height,  the  most  difficult  part  of  your  job  is  getting 
him  to  stand  the  strain  during  the  last  few  moments  during 
which  the  means  of  rescue  are  being  prepared.  The  mere 
presence  of  them  reacts  nervously  against  his  power  to 
endure.  Everyone  knows  this  in  private  cases  where 
individuals  are  concerned.  It  is  none  the  less  true  of 
pubUc  cases  where  nations  are  concerned. 

It  is  true  that  the  strain  is  not  of  this  severity  in  the 
case  of  the  Allies  at  least,  though  it  is  nearly  of  that 
severity  in  the  case  of  the  enemy.  But  it  is  a  strain  and 
necessarily  an  increasing  strain,  and  the  mere  presence 
of  "peace  talk  "  frequently  endangers  men  under  such  a 
strain.  It  is  a  consequence  and  corollary  of  this  obvious 
truth  that  by  refusing  so  much  as  to  discuss  matters  with 


our  opponent  we  put  him  into  a  very  baci  way  indeedj 
He  has  made  his  subjects  suffer  the  sudden  prospect  of 
rela.xation,  and  its  disappointment.  If  we  confirm  that 
disappointment  we  have  given  him  a  mortal  shock. 

Now  for  the  reason  that  terms,  however  satisfactory — 
sliort  of  the  military  defeat  of  the  enemy — have  a 
special  meaning  for  Great  Britain.  Let  us  suppose  the 
impossible  in  terms  so  extreme  that  the  enemy  would 
not  grant  a  tithe  of  them  in  his  present  state.  Let  us 
suppose  his  erection  of  an  independent  Poland,  including 
the  martyred  Prussian  provinces  which  have  suffered 
more  dreadfully  than  all  the  rest  of  that  murdered 
kingdom.  Let  us  suppose  Danzig  PoHsh  and  Posen 
Polish  as  well  as  Galicia,  and  independent.  Let  us 
suppose  Russia  in  possession  of  the  issues  from  the  Black 
Sea :  the  promise  of  a  money  indemnity  to  irestore,  so 
far.  as  they  can  be  restored,  the  abominable  material 
outrages  of  Belgium  and  Northern  France,  and  a  penalty 
paid  for  the  still  more  abominable  moral  outrages 
of  murder,  torture  and  rape.  Let  us  suppose  great  por- 
tions of  shipping  given  up  ;  the  original  frontiers  of 
France  restored  and  even  a  scheme  of  disarmament 
approved. 

What  follows  ?  You  are  still  in  the  face  of  Prussia 
controlling  sufficient  resources  in  materials  and  in 
subjects  to  renew  the  struggle  when  she  wills.  Any 
word  of  hers  that  she  may  give,  any  pledge  un- 
sanctioned by  force,  we  know  to  be  worthless.  Such  a 
statement  seemed  exaggerated  some  years  ago.  It  is  now 
common  knowledge  and  no  one  can  deny  it.  No  promise 
that  the  present  methods  of  promiscuous  murder  at 
Sea  shall  cease  will  be  worth  the  paper  it  is  written 
on  at  the  end  of  ten  years  or  earlier.  No  promise  of 
disarmament  will  be  worth  the.  paper  it  is  written  on 
unless  it  be  the  disarmament  of  a  defeated  foe,  guaranteed 
by  the  presence  over  against  ,it  of  victorious  armies  ready 
at  once  to  inflict  punishment  at  the  first  sign  of  bad  faith. 
That  Prussia,  after  such  a  most  unexpected  experience 
as  she  has  had,  would  or  would  not  engage  in  another 
piece  of  Continental  aggression  may  be  debated  by  those 
who  choose  to  debate  it. 

Supposing  her  to  remain  an  undefeated,  or,  at  any  rate, 
unbroken  organism  as  she  is  to-day,  under  the  dynasty 
that  has  wantonly  forced  this  dreadful  calamity  upon 
Europe,  a  small  part  of  her  energies  and  material  re- 
sources would  be  sufficient  to  render  impossible  the 
traditional  life  of  this  countr}^  the  security  of  its  supplies, 
and  the  communications  of  its  Empii"e.  That  is  the  plain 
truth  and  it  is  a  truth  that  no  one  can  deny.  No  other 
Power  would  act  as  Prussia  has  acted  in  this  matter  of 
sea-murder,  but  she,  if  she  is  not  broken  and  reduced  to 
the  fear  of  a  policeman  outside,  will  certainly  act 
according  to  her  traditions  and  her  vile  nature.  Only 
when  her  military  caste  is  defeated,  her  dynasty  taken 
from  her,  and  her  power  for  evil  subjected  to  immediate 
punishment  the  moment  it  attempts  a  new  develop- 
ment, will  this  country  be  secure.  Anything  short  of 
such  a  suecess  means  for  the  immediate  future  the 
permanent  and  increasing  peril  of  sea  power  and  supply. 

That  is  the  whole  of  the  problem.  It  is  one  of  the 
simplest  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  awful  problems  that 
have  ever  been  presented  to  stat-esmanship,  and  in  its 
simplicity  lies  our  salvation.  All  that  we  know  as 
Europe  begins  to  fail  if  Prussia  is  granted  a  truce.  But 
quite  apart  from  that  general  trutn.  there  is  the  par- 
ticular truth  that  in  this  particular  ca,se  the  survival  of 
Prussia  under  its  military  head,  with  tailitary  resources 
open  to  it,  is  the  certain  doom  of  these  islands,  and  their 
only  prospect  of  security  and  pride  is  121  the  dissolution 
of  such  a  military  power. 

From  those  two  simple  contrasting  issues  there  is  no 
escape.  It  is  life  or  death  for  one  or  t  he  other.  And  it 
is  Prussia  herself  that  has  willed  it  so. 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii ,  1917 


The  Retreat  in  Roumania 


By    Hilaire    Belloc 


I 


F  the  reader  will  look  at  the  accompanying  map  he 

will  see  that  tl^e   Allied    line  now  lies,  not   exactly 

traightencd,  but  still   not   very  irregular,  from  the 

Oituz  Pass    (ttie  issue   from    which  is  still  securely 


/O       30       30       *> 


lield)  to  the  Lower  Sereth.  A  few  da-  ■  ago  it  covered 
Focsani  and  Braila.  To-day  both'Braila  and  Focsani 
are  uncovered.  The  mountains  to  the  north-west 
(summits  of  about  3,000  feet  with  easy  contours),  are 
being  disputed  :  the  enemy  slowly  advances  in  them. 
His  ad\ance  is  least  at  the  Oituz— where  he  is  still 
\irtually  immobilised,  and  grows  broader  and  broader  as 
one  goes  south.  Now  what  does  this  mo\-ement  mean  ? 
What  is  the  conception  upon  which  the  Russian  Higher 
Command  is  operating  in  this  very  gradual  retirement 
with  its  imimportant  loss  in  prisoners,  and  its  hitherto 
insignificant  loss  in  guns  ? 

What  is  the  idea  lying  behind  this  deliberate  fully 
co-ordinated  and  inexpensive  retreat  which  has  proceeded 
without  interruption  or  serious  hitch  since,  after  the 
fall  of  Bucharest,  the  Russians  formed  in  front  of  the 
Roumanian  army  and  took  over  the  opposition  to  the 
invasion   while   that    army   reformed   behind   the   line  ? 

A  theory  \udely  held  is  a  design  to  stand  upon  the 
line  of  the  Sereth  river.  It  is  very  doubtful.  When  we 
are  told  that  the  design  is  to  relieve  and  hold  the  line 
of  the  Pruth,  such  a  statement  does  not  conform  to  the 
mere  geography  of  the  case,  let  aJone  to  the  plan  which 
the  Russian  Command  is  here  ob\iously  pursuing. 

Look  at  the  angle  which  the  existing  line  from  the 
Oituz  to  the  lower  Sereth  makes  with  the  Pruth  Vallej-, 
and  ask  yourself  what  would  happen  if  at  the  present 
moment  a  general  retirement' upon  tlie  Pruth  was  ordered? 
The  line  makes  an  angle  with  the  Pruth  Valley  of  more 
than  45  degrees.  The  troojK  defending  the  CMtuz  Pass 
ire  80  miles  as  the  crow  flies  from  the  T,ower  Pruth  ! 
While  the  left  wing  of  the  long  line  (it  is  in  its  sinuosities 
more  than  100  miles  long)  is  in  the  innnediate  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Lower  Pruth.  To  jn\ot  round  on  the 
left  and  to  swing  back  the  distant  right  over  those  80 
miles,  would  mean  an  operation  of  the  most  difficult 
sort  possible — one  would -almost  have  said  fantastic.  It 
would  mean  a  gamble  ui>on  the  certainty  of  being  able  to 
hold  the  left  immobile  for  at  least  ten  days  and  more 
likely  a  fortnight.  It  would  mean  a  co-ordinated  retirtv 
tnent  more  and  morCTapid  the  further  northward  pne  was 
along  the  line,  without  trans\'erse  railways  by  which  to 
carry  it  out,  and  it  would  mean  very  heavy  losses  even  if 
the  operation  were  ideally  carried  out,  and  a  constant 
peril  of  disruption.  Meanwhile,  all  the  troops  holding  the 
further  passes  to  the  north  of  the  Trotus  Valley  and 
beyond  would  have  to  be  retired  over  even  greater 
distances. 

Again,  the  Pruth  does  not  form  a  continuous  defensive 


li  ne  for  our  Allies,  even  if  it  were  what  it  is  not,  a  com- 
plete obstacle  under  the  conditions  of  modern  war.  For 
the  Russians  hold  the  Bukovina  and  the  Allied  forces 
hold,  the  passes  to  the  south  of  the  Bukovina.  Again, 
the  southern  half  lives  by  the  two  railways  which 
run  down  Moldavia  from  north  to  south.  The  line 
of  the  Pruth  runs  far  east  of  all  these  positions  and  of 
the  railways. 

No  such  operation  is  conceivable.  On  the  contrary, 
the  Russian  plan  is  clearly  of  another  kind,  and  we  appro- 
ciate  it  best  precisely  by  considering  this  recent  retiiWA*;  „ 
over  the  Lower  Sereth. 

It  is  upon  the  extreme  right  of  the  line  in  -.«:7i  of  the 
Oituz  Pass  that  the  line  is  being  keo*  lnunobile  ;  it  is 
upon  the  extreme  left  that  retirenj  .at  is  permitted.  The 
Allied  Higher  Command  in  thi^.  region  has  retired  behind 
the  Sereth  becatise  Braila  was  outflanked  once  Machin, 
on  the  further  side  of  the  Danube  marshes,  was  taken,  and 
the  Dobrudja  evacuated.  To  have  tried  to  halt  between 
Braila  and  tne  Sereth  would  have  been  to  fight  with  a 
difficult  obstacle  behind  one,  and  the  retirement  across 
the  Sereth  means  that  the  Allied  Higher  Command  here 
intends  to  give  the  defensive  line  an  even  sharper  angle 
to  the  Prtith  valley  than  it  held  before. 

For  after  all,  \\hat  is  the  object  with  which-  the  Russo- 
Roumanian  forces  are  here  acting  ?  It  is  to  cause  the 
enemy — since  he  has  here  concentrated  a  maximum 
of  strength  and  can  compel  a  retirement — a  maximum 
of  loss  ;  to  hold  him  to  continued  efforts  which  forbid 
his  releasing  any  men  for  work  elsewhere  ;  to  avoid  the 
en\elopment  of  any  chance  projection  in  the  line,  and  to 
maintain  a  constant  unbroken  front  before  him,  though 
that  front  slowly  falls  back  northward  and  eastward. 

No  one  can  understand  these  Roumanian  operations 
■  who  does  not  keep  in  mind  the  cardinal  fact  that  the 
Central  Empires  and  their  Allies  have  put  into  them  all 
the  men  they  have  available  and  to  spare  at  this  moment  ; 
and  that  they  are  doing  this  with  the  full  knowledge  that 
they  do. not  see  a  sufficient  reserx'c  of  men  to  render  their 
immediate  future  secure.  They  are  doing  it  side  by  side 
with  a  most  violently  emphasised  demand  for  peace. 

A  sound  way  of  regarding  the  whole  affair  is  to  compare 
it  with  what  is  almost  its  exact  parallel,  the  Russian 
retirement  through  Poland  last  year.  The  contrast 
between  the  two  operations  gi\-es  a  sort  of  working  model 
whereby  we  may  compare  the  present  phase  of  the  war  to 
the  phase  of  1915. 

In  1915  the  Austro-C.ermans  operated  with  a  vast 
reserve  behind  them  :  drafts  available  for  the  whole  • 
remaining  time  they  thought  the  campaign  at  all  likely 
to  last.  They  operated  with  divisions  at  full  strength 
and  with  a  mobile  force  which  covered  many  hundreds 
of  miles.  To-day  they  are  operating  with  reduced  di\i- 
sions  upon  a  line  which,  where  it  is  continuous,  is  but  a 
hundred  miles  long,  and  with  forces  about  one-fifth  of 
those  which  advanced  through  Poland. 

In  1915  the  great  retreat  cost  not  far  short  of  two 
million  permanent  and  temporary  losses  to  both  sides, 
and  the  losses  to  the  retreating  Russians  were  enormously 
severe,  because  great  numbers  of  their  wounded  fell  as 
jjrisoners  to  the  invaders,  and  in  so  falling  rapidly 
depleted  the  already  gra\ely  insufffcient  Russian  equip- 
ment. To-day  in  the  same  interval  of  time  the  losses 
on  both  sides  are  somewhat  imder  100,000,  perhaps, 
for  the  invaders  all  told,  somewhat  over  for  the  defensive. 
But  that  includes  the  considerable  enemy  success  north 
of  Bucharest'  before  the  fall  of  that  capital.  The  Allied 
losses  in  all  the  fighting  since  then,  during  which  the 
retirement  has  been  not  only  methodical  but  exceedingly 
slow,  are  insignificant  compared  with  those  of  the  great 
campaign  of  last  year. 

In  1915  three  months  saw  the  Austro-German  offensive 
sweep  over  the  whole  of  Russian  Poland  up  to  and 
including  Warsaw  ;  the  fourth  month  saw  the  occupation 
of  the  whole   of   Poland ;    before   the   fifth   month  was- 


January  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


over  the  Russian  armies,  though  they  had  escaped  envelop- 
ment, had  lost  moie  than  a  million  men,  and  had  evacuated 
territory  100  miles  and  more  in  breadth  by  four  or  five 
hundred  from  north  to.  south.  In  the  loss  of  guns  also — 
though  the  field  artillery  was  very  well  preserved — one 
could  note  the  strength  and  rapidity  of  the  offensive. 
It  was  impossible,  for  instance,  to  sa\e  the  heavy  arma- 
ment of  Novo  (ieorge\icsk  or  of  Kovno. 

A  corresponding  period  in  this  Roumanian  offensi\'e 
has  seen  the  loss  of  very  few  guns  since  the  first  retreat 
and  latterly  of  next  to  none — the  operations  around 
l-'ocsani  account  for  exactly  three  !  The  hea\y  artillery 
has  been  withdrawn  from  permanent  emplacements  with 
success,  and  places  such  as  Braila  containing  the  stores 
of  wheat  which  were  among  the  chief  of  the  enemy's 
objects,  have  been  covered  long  enough  to  permit  an 
almost  leisurely  withdrawal  of  all  their  supplies. 

Take  anv  point  you  will  in  the  contrast  between  the 
two  operations,  and  you  may  read  in  that  point  the 
immense  change  that  has  come  over  the  war  in  the 
interval.  Whether  in  the  number  of  men  the  enemy  has 
available  for  his  operation,  or  in  its  territorial  results,  or 
in  the  losses  inflicted  upon  the  retreat,  or  in  the  number 
of  prisoners,  or  in  the  rate  of  advance,  you  find  the  same 
opposition  between. an  operation  upon  the  largest  scale, 
caiTied  out  with  the  greatest  energy,  and  up  to  the  very 
end — up  to  the  formation  of  the  salient  of  Vilna — per- 
petually within  an  ace  of  success,  and  an  operation  upon 
a  vastly  diminished  scale,  with  energy  depleted,  reserves 
lacking,  captures  insignificant,  a  pace  reduced  to  some- 
thing like  marking  time,  and  no  approach  to  success  as 
yet  in  any  phase. 

In  this  connection  it  is  very  well  worth  remarking 
that  the  Roumanian  offensive  into  which  the  eneifiy  has 
put  all  his  remaining  stock  of  offensive  power  for  the 
moment,  has  never  once  produced  a  dangerous  salient 
in  the  defensive  line.  To  those  who  have  followed 
the  Prussian  method  throughout  the  whole  campaign 
(audit  has  never  changed),  this  is  the  most  significant 
point  of  all.  In  the  great  Polish  operation  of  last  year 
live  capital  salients  were  produced  one  after  the  other 
at  the  enemy's  will  by  the  enemy's  immense  superiority 
in  offensi\e  power.  He  could  produce  them  almost  at 
his  own  time  and  place.  A  month  after  his  first  advance 
began  he  so  pressed  the  Russians  north  and  soutlv  of 
Premyzsl  that  the  neck  of  the  salient  was,  by  the  be- 
ginning of  June,  not  more  than  eleven  miles  across.  In 
other  words,  he  could  mass  men  and  guns  in  superiority 
to  his  opponent  with  such  rapidity  and  in  such  force  upon 
two  separate  points  chosen  at  will  upon  his  lines  as  would 
make  a  bulge  between,  and  though  he  failed  time  after 
time  to  cut  the  neck  of  the  salient  so  produced,  and 
therefore  failed  to  reach  a  decision,'  yet  he  could  count 
right  up  until  the  autumn  upon  the  making  of  these 
salients  against  the  will  of  the  defensive,  and  in  conformity 
with  his  own  will.  And  the  last  which  he  formed,  that 
round  Vilna,  was  the  greatest  and  for  the  Russians  the 
most  perilous  of  all. 

But  throughout  this  Roumanian  retirement,  no  salient 
has  been  formed..  Every  effort  was  made  to  create  one 
round  Bucharest,  but  e^•en  at  the  most  anxious  moment 


the  curve  of  the  defensi\e  line  did  not  project  by  an 
amount  equi\-alent  to  a  third  of  its  I  ength,  and  save  on 
that  occasion  there  has  been  no  appre  ciable  bulge  formed 
anywhere  on  the  retiring  hue.  The  ]3attleof  Bucharest 
was  a  Sadowa  manque. 

Meanwhile  the  enemy's  task  and  object  are  clear  enough. 
He  must  continue  to  attempt  to  tu  rn  one  or  the  other 
wing  of  that  line  which  now  runs  fro  m  in  front  of  Galatz 
to  the  Oituz  Pass.  If  he  could  force  the  Oituz  he  would 
have  a  very  much  more  iminediate  and  decisive  result 
than  he  can  hope  to  get  by  action  'upon  the  other  wing 
near  the  Danube.  He  would  compt^l  a  rapid  and  perhaps 
disastrous  retirement,  a  swinging  ba(.;k  of  the  line  where  it 
has  the  greatest  distance  to  fall  bad :  before  it  can  be  safe 
again,  and  that  through  bad  hill  country  without  roads. 

To  turn  the  line  by  his  right,  the:  Russian. leff  that  is, 
through  the  country  between  the  Fruth  and  ,the  Sereth, 
woulcl  not  prevent  a  retirement  over  country  tliat  is  pro- 
\ided  with  two  parallel  railways  for  a  retirement,  .with 
two  tolerable  roads,  and  one  good  one.  The  only  thing 
that  would  profit  him  in  this  re^^ioTi  would  be  a  really 
decisive  success  breaking  the  Russian  left' here  altogether. 

He  has  not  hitherto  shown  anything  like  a  sufficiency 
in  offensive  force  for  such  a  c'lecision. 

Meanwhile,  the  defensi\e  Ime  behind  that  just  aban- 
doned clearly  follows  the  line  of  the  lower  Sereth  to  the 
Marshes  of  Suraia,  and  thence-  runs  either  along  or  behind 
the  valley  of  the  Putna  till  the  foothills  of  the  Carpathians 
are  reached.  Thence  a  clearly  defined  ridge  (marked 
A.-^A  on  Map  I.)  averaging  two  thou.sand  feet  above  the 
plain,  broken  in  only  two  places  by  narrow  valleys, 
wooded,  carries  one  to  those  positions  just  east  of 
the  Gituz .  Pass  summit,  which  have  hitherto  proved 
impassable  to  the  Austrian  force  under  Arz,  reinforced 
though  it  probably,  has  been  during  the  last  fortnight. 

.  From  such  a  line  a  continued  slow  retirement,  inflicting  . 
a  maximum  of  loss  on  the  assailant  and  occupying  ajil  his 
spare  forces  could  still  proceed,  still  pivoting  on  its  right 
from  the  Oituz  till  well  north  of  Lake  Bratesul.,,,  It 
would  rely  on  the  marshy  Lower  Pruth  for  a  secure,  left 
flank — but  that  would  not  be  holding  the  Pruth  as  a  line. 

There  are  two  policies  now  open  to  the  enemy.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  Russians,  thus  retiring  by  pivoting  on 
their  right  near  the  Oituz,  are  "  forming  a  flank  "  :  their 
line  from  the  mountains  to  the  Sereth  and  Pruth  gets  at 
a  sharper  and  sharper  angle  to  their  main  line  from  the 
north  down  the  Carpathian  ridge.  Such  a  "  square 
end  "  is  risky — for  if  the  enemy  breaks  it  he  turns  all  the 
rest  of  the  line.  The  attempt  to  break  it  directly  is 
ftne  policy  open  to  him  therefore  ;  but  it  is  a  pohcy 
which  he  has  been  trying  for  two  months,  and  in  which' 
he  has  hitherto  failed. 

'There  remains  an  alternative.  He  can  attempt  a 
passage  of  the  Lower  Danube  below  Galatz  and  so  come 
in  behind  the  Russo-Roumanian  flank,  turning  its  right 
at  once  and  ruining  it.  The  thing  is  possible — we  do 
not  know  the  conditions  of  armament,  but  it  is  im- 
probable, because  the  Danube  is  here  a  very  broad  river  in 
its  sea  reaches  and  bearing  seagoing  ships,  and  is  lined 
along  its  southern  bank  by  bad  marshes  of  varying 
width. 


The  Idea  of  Exhaustion 


One  of  the  novel  ideas  which  the  enemy  is  trying  to 
spread  in  connection  with  his  desperate  peace  movement 
is  the  idea  that  the  war  cannot  fail  to  end  as  a  stalemate 
through  mutual  exhaustion. 

The  idea  is  "  novel  "  only  in  the  sense  that  it  has  not 
been  put  forward  yet  even  by  the  stupidest  Pacifist  or 
Alarmist  on  our  side,  during  all  these  two  years  of  war. 
We  have  waited  for  it,  as  we  have  waited  for  all  these 
nonsensical  diversions,  until  the  enemy  made  us  a  present 
of  it.  Until  quite  lately  the  corresponding  formuhe 
was  that  the  war  would  end  in  a  stalemate  through  the 
unpossibility  of  a  modern  offensive  breaking  a  modern 
defensive  ;  and  before  that  we  had  the  only  slightly  less 
ridiculous  theory  of  the  war  map.  Before  that  again  we 
liad  the  "  huge  hidden  reserve  array  of  the  enemy," 
"  the  hidden  two  milUons  all  trained  and  ready,"  which 
was  going  to  give  the  coup  dc  grace,  and  so  forth. 

In  one  way  this  last  diversion  is  consoling,  because  it 
will  not  be  easy  for  the  enemy  to  find  another  one.     He 


has  pretty^  well  exhausted  the  category  of  bogies  with 
which  *o  delude  those  who  do  not  apj:)roach  war  as  a 
study,  but  as  third-rate  and  ephenieral  literature. 

Let  us  examine  this  theory  of  exhaustion. 

The  termination  of  hostihties  through  exhaustion  docs 
hot  mean  that  they  come  to  an  end  "  because  you  cannot 
go  on.''  That  vague  idea,  like  so  many  of  the  erroneous 
and  misleading  phrases  applied  to  war,  is  based  upon  the 
false  analogy  of  individuals.  You  can  put  up  two  men  to 
fight,  both  of  them  keen  on  fighting,  and  you  may  get 
them  after  a  certain  time  into  a  condition  in  which  neither 
cares  tio  go  on  fighting  becau.se  both  are  too  tired. 

There  may  be  something  of  this  sort  on  the  political  side 
of  war,  but  in  strategics  it  does  not  exist.  Strategicaliv, 
»xhaustion  means  "  the  incapacity  to  fulfil  a  gi\-en  task 
through  lack  of  men  or  of  material  or  both."  .Vnd  every- 
thing depends  upon  the  conditioning  word  "  a  given 
task." 

That  is  why  a  well-chosen  retreat   or  a  well-chosen 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  191 7 


shortening  of  a  line  is  often  a  factor  of  victoiv.  and  is 
always  designjed  for  victory.  The  C'arthaginian  effort 
against  Rome  perished  of  exhaustion  .because  the  task  it 
had  assigned  to  itsolf  was  no  less  than  the  occupation  and 
raising  of  Ital}-.  Bat  before  it  began  to  perish  of  ex- 
haustion it  came  within  a  hair's  breadth  of  succeeding. 

Paris  capitulated  m  1S71  through  exhaustion.  The 
wastage  of  her  armed  forces,  material  and  food  was  going 
on  at  a  rate,  and  liad  reachx'd  a  point  which  made  the 
further  support  of  a  population  of  known  and  irreducible 
size  and  the  further  anihtary  defence  of  a  line  necessarily 
extended  to  a  certain  periinker,  impossible. 

Now  what  does  "  exhaustion  "  mean  in  tHe  light  of  this' 
definition  as  applied  to  the  present  stage  of  the  present 
great  ^ries  of  camjiaigns  ?  What  is  the  "  given  task  " 
which  lies  before  eitner  combatant  ? 

The  definition  of  that  task  is  very  sirriple.  On  the  part 
of  the  enemy  it  is  a  ta^  k  of  holding  certain  extended  fronts: 
on  the  part  of  the  .\lUcs  of  provoking  a  rupture  in  those 
fronts.  The  enemy  <:annot  provoke  a  rupture  in  the 
fronts  opposed  to  him-  because  he  is  out-matched  in  the 
West,  and  in  the  East  he  is  working  against  indefinitely 
large  spaces  over  which  indefinite  retreat  can  (normally) 
be  effected.  The  war  is.  -therefore,  and  will  continue  to 
be,  what  it  has  been  for  now  more  than  two  years,  a  siege. 
Let  us  repeat,  then,  the  conditions  of  the  problem. 
The  enemy  must  maintain  his  fron.ts.  that  is  his  task. 
The  AUies  must  provoke  a  rupture  in  those  fronts.  That 
is  their  task.  And  the  word  "  exhaaistion  "  relating  to 
either  side  has  no  meaning  save  with  these  tasks  implies. 
There  is  one  modification  that  will  occur  to  everyone, 
which  is  that  the  enemy  has  a  theoretical  alternative  to 
holding  Iris  existing  fronts,  and  that  alternative  is  a 
retirement  to  shorter  fronts.  But  I  have  not  included 
this  modification  because  the  time  for  it  is  past. 

There  are  a  number  of  converging  ref.sons  against  such 
a  shortening  of  fronts,  which  make  it  improbable  in  the 
extreme  on  certain  sectors,  and  impossible  on  others.  I 
will  lav  these  reasons  before  the  reader  that  he  may  judge, 
(i)  Retirement  does  not  shorten  the  front  in  the  East. 
Given  Roumanian  belligerency  the  enemy  stretched  along 
the  line  of  the  Sereth  and  the  Pruth  and  so  northward  past 
the  Bukovina,  through  Galicia  and  Volhynia,  the  Pripet 
Marshes  and  the  line  of  the  Dvina,  is  on  pretty  well  the 
shortest  front  he  can  hold — and  it  is  a  front  nearly  50 
per  cent,  longer  (by  the  way)  than  it  would  have  been 
had  not  Roumania  come  in. 

On  the  Southern  Balkan  front  retirement  north  of  the 
few  valley  gates  increases  his  liabilities  instead  of  diminish- 
ing them,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  Itahan  front.       * 

(2)  Upon  the  Western  front  he  has  a  choice  of  shorter 
lines  upon  which  he  could  retire,  but  he  would  have  to 
do  so  now  after  the  terrible  punishments  his  forces  have 
received  —the  two  great  battles  of  1916,  Verdun  and  the 
Somme  —with  the  mass  of  his  forces  much  lower  in 
average  now  than  they  were  ever  before,  and  therefore 
less  fitted  for  the  strain  and  complexity  of  a  retirement. 
Such  a  retirement  would  necessarily  involve  enormous 
loss  in  material  and  particularly  in  heavy  artillery  — 
which  is  life  and  death  in  the  present  war. 

Even  were  it  successful  in  the  ordinary  military  sense 
of  that  term  —that  is,  even  did  it  result  in  the  new  and 
shorter  line  being  taken  up  and  held,  the  losses  in  men 
suffered  during  such  an  operation  could  hardly  fail  to 
cancel  the  saving  in  men  effected  by  the  taking  up  of  the 
shorter  line.  Further,  this  operation  would  be  under- 
taken in  the  face  of  an  opponent  now  superior  in  con- 
dition and  arms,  and  possessed  of  far  greater  fresh  reserve 
numerical  power.  It  is  true  that  tliis  Western  sector 
is  the  one  point  on  which  such  an  operation  is  conceivable, 
but  I  think  it  is  admittedly  highly  improbable.  More 
than  that^ne  cannot  say. 

(3)  Any  drastic  retirement  in  the  East  cuts  the  com- 
munications through  Constantinople  with  the  Turkish 
army,  and  therefore  dooms  it.  For  that  army  lives  by 
its  supplies  from  the  Central  Powers. 

(4)  The  fourth  point  is,  under  present  circumstances, 
the  one  of  most  practical  importance.  The  enemy,  even 
if  he  had  immediate  and  obvious  strategical  advantages 
offered  him  by  retirement,  has  every  political  motive  for 
avoiding  it.  .\nd  towards  the  end  of  a  losing  war, 
especially  of  a  losing  war  which  follows  on  previous 
advance,  which  is  being  fought  on  invaded  alien  soil,  and 
which  is   accompanied   by   tactical    successes,    and   the 


occupation  of  fresh  territory,  retirement  is  something 
which  hardly  any  military  command  has  ever  been  per- 
mitted by  its  government  to  effect  —even  when  the  mili- 
tary command  and  the  Government  were  in  the  hands 
of  the  same  man.  Witness  Napoleon.  In  the  particular 
case  of  our  present  enemies  there  are  a  host  of  political 
considerations  all  working  the  safne  way.  They  dare 
not  abandon  Bulgaria  and  Turkey  and  they  cannot  take 
the  Bulgarian  and  Turkish  armies  with  them.  They 
dare  not  give  to  their  domestic  opinion  what  would  look 
like  the  military  j)roof  of  defeat— it  is  the  price  they 
ha\e  to  pay  for  having  so  long  called  out  victory  when 
their  Command  knew  that  it  was  losing  every  day.  They 
have  deliberately  chosen  to  .stretch  their  fronts  and  to 
enjoy  the  \ery  great  political  asset  of  an  untouclied 
home  territory.  They  cannot  reverse  such  a  plan  at  will. 
Their  naval  strategy  compels  them  to  retain  to  the  end  all 
they  can  of  the  coast  of  the  North  Sea.  Their  economic 
basis  demands  the  retention  of  Belgian  machinery  and 
coal  and  of  Lorraine  coal  and  iron. 

Let  us  return,  then,  without  fear  of  modification,  to  the 
fundamental  formula.  It  is  the  enemy's  given  task  at 
least  to  hold  his  existing  fronts.  It  is  the  task  of  the 
Allies  to  provoke  a  rupture  therein.  For  those  who 
object  to  the  too  simple  phrase  "  the  breaking  of  a  line  " 
(and  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  for  their  objection) 
we  will  define  as  the  rupture  of  one  of  their  fronts,  the 
creation  by  the  Allies  of  two  new  fianks,  or,  alternatively, 
local  infiltration  at  several  points,  where  each  success 
would  mean  very  large  captures  in  men  and  materials — 
e\en  though  after  each  such  success  and  for  some  time 
to  come  the  enemy  organisation  should  remain  intact.  • 

Now  if  these  two  tasks  be  what  we  have  defined  them 
to  be,  how  does  the  word  "  exhaustion  "  apply  to  them  ? 

Men  and   Material 

The  point  of  exhaustion  may  be  reached  in  men  or  in 
material,  or  both. 

In  men  the  situation  has  been  exposed  and  analysed 
on  all  sides  by  all  those  competent  to  expose  and  analyse 
it,  until  I  am  sure  the  readers  are  as  weary  of  the  task  as 
the  writers — which  is  saying  a  good  deal ! 

We  all  know  by  this  time  what  the  enemy's  command 
has  known  in  the  most  precise  detail  for  many  months  : 
That,  failing  political  changes  in  the  situation,  the  effec- 
tives required  for  the  holding  of  the  present  fronts  in  men 
are  within  sight  of  exhaustion  upon  the  enemy's  side. 
He  had,  imless  he  could  get  a  Polish  army,  at  the  most, 
at  the  end  of  last  autumn,  20  men  for  drafts  \rith  which 
to  fill  coming  gaps  in  every  65  men  actively  engaged. 
Supposing  Polish  recruitment  (which  has  hitherto  failed)  to 
give  him  its  very  maximum,  he  would  still  have  onty  27  men 
for  drafts.  That  was  the  draft  power  he  had  in  .sight  for  the 
whole  of  the  actions  of  next  spring  and  of  most  of  next 
summer.  It  is  a  proportion  obviously  insufficient,  and 
every  one  of  the  Allied  Powers  has  a  larger  margin. 
France  has  a  somewhat  larger  margin,  England,  Italy 
and  Russia  a  very  much  larger  margin. 

We  may  take  this  limb  of  the  problem  as  constant  and, 
as  we  shall  see  in  a  moment,  it  is  the  determining  point. 

What  of  material  ?  In  material  we  include  finance, 
which  is  only  material  under  another  name  ?  You  may 
borrow  your  material  at  interest,  and  that  is  sound  or 
traditional  finance  to  the  advantage  of  the  owners.  Or 
you  may  take  it  without  promising  to  give  back  the 
equivalent,  let  alone  to  give  back  interest  as  well,  and 
that  is  revolutionary  finance.  But  by  whatever  names 
you  call  it,  if  you  are  determined  to  win,  finance  merely 
means  material. 

Material  for  the  pmposes  of  this  campaign — where 
.  whole  nations  are  mobilist^d,  and  where  inexitably  one 
group  or  the  other  will,  in  the  political  sense,  be  destroyed, 
and  must  therefore  consider  absolutely  all  available 
resources  (.ynce  each  is  fighting  for  its  life)— may  be 
divided  into  subsistence  and  arms.  The  division  is  not  a 
logical  one  and  it  is  rough.  There  is  obvious  overlapping 
and  obvious  broad  debateablc  ground  in  which  much  is  at 
the  same  time  arms  and  subsistence.  But  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  war  in  its  present  i)hase  do  justify 
this  division.  For  the  strain  upon  the  population  as  a 
whole  in  each  belligerent  country — that  is  the  strain  upon 
mere  subsistence — is  coming  to  be  a  more  and  more  pro- 
minent factor  of  \ictory  or  defeat.     In  this  category  of 


Januaiy  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


?f 


material  the  enemy's]  position  as  contrasted  with  the 
AlHes  is  as  follows  : 

(a)  In  the  mere  requisites  for  arms  and  for  the  transport 
of  troops  the  four  main  requisites  are  coal,  steel,  nitrates 
and  some  fuel  for  the  internal  combustion  engine — ^taking 
for  granted,  of  course,  the  skilled  labour  required  for  the 
production  of  the  \'arious  instruments. 

In  the  matter  of  such  skilled  labour,  the  enemy,  when 
he  had  reached  the  present  extension  of  his  hues,  more 
than  a  year  ago,  had  a  very  great  superiority  over  the 
Allies.  But  it  is  a  superiority  which  the  Allies  have 
gradually  caught  up,  for  such  labour  is  created  by  training. 
Further,  the  less  skilled  labour,  which  lies  behind  the 
skilled  labour  and  is  essential  to  it,  is  not  available  in 
superior  quantities  with  the  enemy.  It  is  now  actually 
a  little  inferior  numerically  to  what  the  Allies  can  spare, 
and  is  becoming .  more  and  more  inferior  numerically 
every  day.  It  is,  by  the  way,  worth  remarking  in  passing 
that  the  enemy's  slave  raids  do  not  largely  affect  the 
numerical  factor  of  labour.  They  are  undertaken  as 
pieces  of  bullying  for  what  he  believes  to  be  pohtical 
effect.  A  Belgian  is  as  useful  turning  shell  in  Belgium  as 
he  is  turning  shell  within  the  old  frontiers- of  the  German 
or  Austrian  Powers. 

In  the  plant  for  creating  steel  from  iron,  in  his 
supplies  of  iron  ore  and  in  his,  supplies  of  coal,  the 
enemy  enjoyed  and  will  continue  through  the  war 
to  enjoy  a  very  great  superiority  over  the  Allies  in 
Europe,  and  this  superiority  is  highly  important  because 
the  war  has  shown  that  a  successful  modern  offensive 
demands  the  very  maximum  output  even  of  a  highly 
industrialised  country.  Russia  is  not  really  industrialised. 
Italy  is  only  partially  industrialised.  France  is  only 
partially  industrialised,  and  it  is  precisely  her  industrial 
districts  which  have  suffered  most  from  the  war ;  a  large 
proportion  of  her  resources  in  this  department  lying  in 
territory  actually  occupied  by  the  enemy.  England  is 
very  highly  industrialised,  but  she  cannot  supply  the  full 
requirements  of  the  Allies  in  surplus  of  their  own  pro- 
duction. The  plant  for  converting  iron  into  steel  takes 
a  long  time  to  erect,  and,  regarding  the  'Alhance  as  a 
whole,  is  still  insufficient  for  the  purposes  of  the  war. 
Here,  then,  in  this  most  important  point  the  Alliance  is 
under  a  cle^,r  handicap.  It  must  obtain  much  ore  and 
steel  from  the  world  outside  Europe.  Its  communications 
in  the  conveyance  of  these  are  maritime  and  therefore 
\ulnerable,  as  we  saw  the  week  before  last,  while  the 
corresponding  communications  of  the  enemy  are  short, 
internal,  terrestrial  and  absolutely  secure.  In  this  con- 
nection we  must  note  that  the  Allies  suffer  a  further 
handicap  from  the  strain  upon  tonnage  caused  by  distant 
operations  of  which  the  communications  are  also  maritime 
and  lengthy.  The  obtaining  of  the  surplus  raw  material, 
and  especially  steel,  from  the  world  outside  Europe'  is 
secure,  however,  under  two  conditions  ; 

(i)  That  there  is  no  political  interference  with  its 
purchase. 

(2)  That  the  exchange  against  which  purchase  is  made 
shall  be  available. 

This  exchange  is  of  four  kinds.  First,  we  receive  such 
material,  especially  steel,  against  exports.  The  normal 
process,  of  course,  in  time  of  peace  and  still  working, 
though  working  rather  lamely,  in  time  of  war.  Russia 
Avith  her  enormous  produce  for  export  is  unfortunately 
blockaded.  France  is  exporting  httle,  because  of  the 
dram  upon  her  labour  power  produced  by  the  necessities 
of  war.  England  is  exporting  the  most  of  the  Allies, 
but  far  less,  of  course,  than  in  normal  times.  Export 
alone  will  not  suffice  for  exchange. 

(2)  Material  needed  can  be  obtained  as  against  stock 
owned  in  countries  outside  Europe,  without  export  : 
Say  a  locomotive  to  pay  for  such,  and  such  goods  for  the 
Argentine.  You  can  obtain  them  by  handing  over  to  the 
Argentine  a  locomotive  which  you  once  owned  in  the 
Argentine  itself,  and  it  is  by  this  process  that  the  pawning 
of  Transatlantic  securities" has  been  going  on. 

(3)  You  can  pay  in  gold,  but  it  is  a  Umited  resource, 
because  gold  is  normally  only  the  current  medium  of 
exchange,  or  rather  the 'basis  of  that  current  medium. 
When  a  nation  takes  payment  in  gold  for  goods  beyond  a 
certain  extent,  thte  only  effect  is  to  raise  prices  and  not  to 
make  it  really  richer. 

(4)  (This  is  really  the  crux  of  the  business  at  the 
Di-e^ent  stage).     You  may  go  on  credit.     That  is,  you 


may  say  to  the  foreign  nation  :  "  Send  me  the  goods, 
and  though  I  cannot  send  you  other  goods  in  exchange 
for  them  now,  I  will  bind  myself  to  send  you  them  when 
I  begin  producing  again  after  the  war." 

This  fourth  method  of  obtaining  the  necessary  surplus 
niaterial  is  capable  of  almost  indehnite  expansion,  but 
it  depends  upon  a  psychological  factor  :  To  wit,  whether 
your  customer  believes  that  your  future  after  the  war 
will  stand  the  strain.  This  consideration  plays  no  little 
part  in  the  elaborate  German  propaganda  by  falsehoods 
and  suggestion  ;  much  of  the  object  of  which  is  to  con- 
vince neutrals  that  the  AlUes  cannot  win  and  will  therefore 
come  out  of  the  struggle  hopelessly  maimed,  while  the 
Central  Powers  will  come  out  with  all  their  resources 
intact.  At  the  same  time,  this  consideration  helps  us  to 
understand  the  folly  and  iniquity  of  those  who  for  private 
purposes  have  spread  panic  and  doubt  on  the  Allied 
side.  This  question  of  credit  is  the  great  question  of  the 
immediate  future. 

Subsistence 

If  we  turn  to  subsistence  we  see  the  same  factors  at 
work,  but  in  very  different  proportions.  The  squeeze 
in  tonnage,  which  is  the  effect  of  the  new  submarine, 
coupled  with  the  complete  disregard  on  the  part  of  the 
enemy  of  all  moral  contentions  "in  maritime  war,  and 
enormously  emphasised  by  the  tonnage  required  for  dis^ 
tant  expeditions,  puts  the  Allies  to  grave  inconvebience 
—but  as  yet  to  no  more — and  the  greater  part  of  the 
Alliance  not  even  to  that.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
blockade,  perpetually  increasing  in  strictness,  has  reduced 
the  Central  Empires  in  this  category  to  what  are  cer- 
tainly very  grave  straits  indeed.  It  is  not  a  matt^  oir 
which  exhaustive  statistics  are  procurable.  At  a  piere 
personal  guess,  based  on  what  most  rehabie  witnesses 
have  told  us,  one  would  doubt  whether  this  factor  could 
of  itself  decide  the  war.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  it 
embarrasses,  in  a  fashion  to  which  the  Alhed  Nations 
show  no  parallel,  the  action  of  the  enemy's  command, 
and  that  it  will  embarrass  it  more  and  more  as  the  year 
goes  on. 

***** 

Now  if  we  balance  and  weigh  all  these  various  factors 
in  the  problem  of  exhaustion,  what  we  come  to  is  this  : 

Supposing  the  present  access  to  neutral  markets-  to 
remain  unimpaired,  we  match  the  enemy  in  war  material,' 
though,  unfortunately,  in  an  unequal  manner,  increasingly 
surpassing  him  iii-the  West,  but  not  permanently  re- 
dressing the  balance  in  the  East. 

The  squeeze  for  tonnage  progresses  (even  under  present 
conditions,  with  most  ships  imarmed  and  the  new  sub- 
marine action  not  yet  curbed)  much  less  fast  than  the 
squeeze  for  subsistence  in  the  Central  Empires.  And 
canceUing  out  all  these  factors,  one  against  the  other, 
which  one  can  roughly  do,  at  any  rate  for  several  months 
to  come,  there  remains  the  dominant  constant  difference 
of  effectives.  It  is  the  enemy's  exhaustion  in  men,  com- 
pared with  the  corresponding  condition  of  the  Allies 
which  is,  under  existing  conditions,  the  main  point  of 
difference,  and  it  is  that  which  should  decide  the  war  ; 
and  decide  it  in  a  briefer  period  than  opinion  is  prepared, 
perhaps,  just  now  to  believe. 

I  have  purposely  repeated  nothing  here  concerning 
the  new  tactical  method  in  the  West  lest  it  should  confuse 
the  issue,. but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  the  AlHes  in  the 
West  have  created  a  tactical  method  which  makes  their 
opponent  waste  at  a  greater  rate  than  they  themselves 
waste,  and  that  at  a  time  when  the  remaining  store  of 
men  is  far  more  important  to  him  than  to  them. 

H.  Belloc 


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LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


The  Sea  War,  1916 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


IN  revif  !\ving  the  lessons  of  1916,  we  saw  last  week 
that  th  ie  most  significant  of  these  were  : 
I-'irsH  That  eight  modern  ships,  carn'ing  guns 
capabl  t  of  sinking  any  enemy  with  two,  three,  or  at 
most  four  salvoes —according  as  the  enemy  might  be 
lightly  or  '  heavily  armoured,  and  the  salvoes  were  those 
of  15-inch  ,  13-5  or  12-inch  guns — did  not,  as  a  simple 
matter  of  fact,  succeed  in  sinking  more  than  one  in  the 
course  of  three  hours.  The  reader  does  not  have  to  be 
reminded  that  this  failure  of  modern  gunnery  is  not  at  all 
the  failu  re  of  the  personnel,  but  of  the  system,  the 
unanticij  )ated  difficulties  of  action  having  been  demon- 
strated, in  e\-ery  engagement  of  the  war,  to  be  such  that 
results  c  »btained  in  battle  practice  in  a  few  minuttni,  arc 
not  obt  ained  in  actual  lighting  conditions  in  less  than 
scNcral    hours. 

Secoi  idlv.  That,  as  a  result  of  the  German  fleet  having 
escapee  1  at  Jutland,  while  it  might  be  so  deterred  from 
sortie,  by  the  fear  both  of  submarines  and  fleet  attack, 
if  it  V  entured  once  more  upon  the  North  Sea,  as  to  be 
^■irtua•ily  demobilized  that  nevertheless  that  fleet  could 
not  b    3  said  to  be  ventralised. 

Till  irdly,  That  the  reason  it  was  not  so  neutralised  was 
that  •  hntil  the  German  fleet  was  destroyed,  the  blockade 
of  tl  le  submarine  exits  could  not  be  effected  with  the 
force   s  now  a\ailable  to  us. 

Strategic  Analysis 

r  iome  of  my  readers  have  questioned  the  accuracy  of 

m\   ■  strategic  "analysis  and  my  use   of   terms.     I  stated, 

for  •  instance,  "  It  "takes  two  to  make  a  battle  and  sea 

w:  ir  differs  from  land  war  in  this  that  one  belligerent, 

if      he    possesses    adequately    protected    harbours,  may 

w  K.hdraw  his  forces  from  "the  field  of  war  altogether. 

I  Iftnce  the  winning  of  absolute  superiority  by  battle  is 

'  io  t  to  be  attained  by  the  will  and  resolution  of  one  side 

OB.ly."     And  I  went  on  to  add  that  where  the  superior 

P' jwer  can  "  neither  force  the  enemy  to  decisi\e  battle 

I?  or  completely  neutraUse  his  fleet,"  the  superiority  of  the 

f  .tronger  fleet  must  still  be  termed  conditional.     Is  this 

'  distinction  between  land  and  sea  war  scientific  ?     Is  the 

German  army  on  the  Western  front  neutralised  by  General 

Nivelle  and  Field-Marshal   Haig's  forces  in   any  sense 

different  from  that  in  which  Admiral  Scheer's  conmiand 

is  neutraUsed  by  Sir  Da\id  Beatty's  ? 

I  submit  that  there  are  two  points  of  difference  of  the 
most  \-ital  character.  To  begin  with,  the  Allied  forces  in 
the  West  are  engaged  in  a  constant  and  direct  attack, 
upon  the  armed  forces  opposed  to  them.  From  July 
to  No\-embcr,  combined  forces  of  massed  artillery,  air- 
craft and  infantry  enabled  the  Allies  to  destroy  and 
capture  section  after  section  of  the  enemy's  fortifications, 
and  in  these  operations  to  kill,  wound,  and  capture 
many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  enemy,  thus  bringing 
about  there  that  diminution  of  his  numbers,  and 
demoralisation  of  the  survivors  which,  if  applied  con- 
tinuously, must  result  in  the  complete  overthrow  of  his 
organised  forces.  It  is  this  overthrow  tliat  is  the  con- 
dition of  final  and  absolute  victory.  The  nature  of  the 
organisation  necessary  for  overwhelming  an  en- 
trenched army  makes  it  impossible  to  continue  these 
processes  during  tlie  winter.  But  night  raids  over  the 
trenches,  day  and  night  raids  by  aircraft,  and  the  con- 
tinuous and  systematic  employment  of  long  range, 
heavy  artillery  maintain,  during  the  winter  months, 
a  strain  on  the  enemy.  These  minor,  but  incessarit, 
attacks,  cause  constant  losses  and  serve  not  only  'io 
embarrass  his  efforts  to  im])rove  his  defences  against  the 
ne.xt  period  of  sustained  attack  on  the  grand  scale,  but 
perpetuate  the  demoralisation  and  discoiitagemeiit 
already  effected. 

Now  it  is  obvious  that  no  such  direct  attacli  can  be 
made  on  the  German  fleet  in  harbour  as  was  made,  during 
tlie  battle  of  the  Somme,  on  the  enemy  land  forces. 
Nor  can  the  results  of  an  attack  which  cannot  be  de- 


livered, be  enhanced  and  continued  by  any  naval  equiva- 
lent to  trencli  raids,  nor  the  artillery  bombardment  on 
communication  trenches,  depots  and  \ital  posts  in  his 
rear.  Nor  can  his  fleet  be  subjected  to  the  continuous 
and  galling  espionage  of  aircraft.  Nor  can  that  espionage 
be  varied  by  bombing.  At  the  best  we  can  say  this  : 
If  the  pressure  of  sea  force,  from  which  the  German 
Admiral  would  like  to.  bvit  cannot  relieve,  his  country, 
is  made  intolerable,  the  (ierman  fleet  may  be  goaded 
into  occasional  sorties,  either  in  full  strength  or  by  light 
cruisers  and  destroyers,  in  the  hope  of  inflicting  some 
injury  u])on  their  sea  oppressors  which,  if  it  does  not 
improve  the  internal  situation  materially,  may  restore 
to  some  extent  the  country's  moral.  But,  on  the  broad 
fact  there  surely  can  be  no  dispute.  By  relentlessly 
pushing  the  principles  of  artillery  attack  to  their  furthest 
logical  conclusion,  an  entrenched  army  tO'day  is,  essen- 
tially, no  more  secure  against  a  superior  enemy  than  the 
same  army  would  be  were  it  engaged  in  open  manoeuvre 
fighting.  The  acti\e  engines  of  attack  arc  superior  to 
the  passi\<'  resources  of  defence  in  the  long  run.  What 
is  gained  by  entrenchment  is  not  the  avoidance  of  the 
final  issue,  but  only  its  postponement.  But  sea  power 
has  developed  no  equivalent  to  the  modern  use  of  siege 
artillery  on  land.  \\'hile,  therefore,  it  is  in  one  sense 
perfectly  true  to  say  the  German  fleet  is  neutralised  and 
also  that  the  (ierman  army  is  neutrahsed,  yet  that  there 
is  this  difference  between'the  two:  the  first  force  can, 
if  our  resources  remain  unaltered,  easily  maintain  itself 
intact  until  the  war  is  over,  whereas  it  is  certain  that  the 
war  will  be  ended  by  the  defeat  and  destruction  of  the 
(ierman  army  by  processes  already  pro\ed  to  be  adapted, 
and  equal  to  the  clesired  end. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  sense  in  which  the  balancing 
of  the  two  forces  differs"  according  as  those  forces  are 
military  or  naval.  It  is  broadly  true  to  say  that  from 
the  battle  of  the  Aisne  until  the  beginning  of  the  battle 
of  the  Somme,  the  opposed  armies  in  France  did,  in  fact, 
neutralise  each  other.  'Neu\e  Chapelle,  the  Champagne 
and  Artois  attacks,  and  the  attempt  at  Verdun,  so  far 
from  disturbing  this  theory,  seemingly  only  confirmed  it. 
for  they  apparently  proved  that  every  effort  to  substitute 
the  policy  of  attack  for  the  policy  of  being  content  with 
neutralisation  was  doomed  to  failure.  I  am  aware,  of 
course,  that  this  conclusion  was  fallacious,  and  that  the 
•  doctrine  of  "  stalemate,"  was  a  heresy.  But  the  pause 
that  occurred  while  the  means  of  attack  were  being 
produced  looked  like  an  equilibrium  which  the  ignorant 
assumed  must  be  constant.  And  in  this  sense  the 
present  positions  of  the  fleets  is  comparable  to  the  then 
position  of  the  armies.  It  is  here  that  the  great  dis- 
tinction introduced  by  the  development  of  the  submarine 
comes  in.  While  the  German  army  was  still  demobilised 
from  direct  attack,  on  the  Western  front,  it  was  not 
able,  by  its  mere  existence,  to  make  a  second  form  of 
indirect  attack  upon  the  Allied  forces  possible.  But  the 
military  stalemate  at  sea — brought  about,  of  course,  by 
the  withdrawal  by  the  enemy  of  his  fighting  ships  from 
the  field — ^^leaves  the  enemy  main  fleet  with  one  enor- 
mously important  function  which  it  can  discharge  un- 
disturbed. It  can  and  does  protect  the  submarine 
exits.  It  is,  in  other  words,  the  German  High  Seas 
Meet  that  is  the  real  force  behind  the  submarine  attack 
on  trade,  so  that  the,  steamers  that  have  been  sent  to 
the  bottom  since  the  beginning  of  August  are  just  as 
much  trophies  of  .Adfniral  Scheer  and  'Vice-Admiral  von 
Hipper  as  were  Queen  Mary,  Indefatigable  and  Invin- 
cible.    They  are  all  the  spoils  of  the  Battle  of  Jutland. 

This  is  so  for  very  obvious  reasons.  The  chief  of  them 
is  that  the  close  blockade  of  an  acti\-e  and  well-balanced 
naval  force— that  is' of  the  battle  fleet  equipped  with 
powerful  cruisers,  fast  scouts,  and  destroyers,  and  \yith 
the  approaches  of  its  harbours  protected  by  submarines 
or  blocked  by  its  own  mines — has  become  virtually  ini- 
possible.  Several  elements  have  comliincd  to  bring  this 
result  about,  the  principal  being  the  incrosed  speed  at 


January  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


which  all  kinds  of  craft  can  work,  the  astounding  develop- 
ments of  marine  mining,  and  finally  .the  extraordinary 
advance  made  in  the  use  of  the  torpedo  by  increases  of; 
its  range  and  size — the  size  resulting  in  a  vast  enhance-' 
ment  of  its  destructi\-e  power  when  it  hits — and  finally 
its  use  from  submarines.  But  as  long  range  blockade 
was  found  impossible  in  the  Japanese  war,  when  torpedoes 
were  still  short-ranged  weapons  and  submarines  did  not 
exist,  it  should  be  realized  that  the  difficulties  of  close 
blockade  were  held  to  be  insuperable  even  before  all  these 
modern    de\elopments   of   undcr-water   attack. 

Blockade  of  Naval  Forces 

A  certain  kind  of  comparatively  close  blockade  would  be 
quite  feasible  if  the  force  to  be  shut  in  consisted  of  weak 
<■  units  only.  And  especially  would  thi^  be  the  case  where 
the  enemy's  coast  was  so  formed  as  to  leave  but  \ery 
few  channels  for  exit  and  entry.  The  kind  of  blockade 
to  which  I  allude  is  primarily,  of  course,  a  blockade  by 
mines.  Given  a  country  of  (ireat  Britain's  engineering 
and  explosive-producing  capacity,  there  is  no  theoretical 
reason  why  every  exit  by  which  German  submarines 
could  reach  the  North  Sea  should  not  be  made  absolutely 
impassable  by  mines..  In  the  deeper  channels,  of  course, 
the  mines  would  have  to  be  laid  at  several  depths.  Part 
of  the  barrier  then  would  be  doubled,  part  trebled,  part 
even  quadrupled.  The  barrier  itself  might  have  to  be 
of  great  length.  It  might  invohe  the  employment  of 
£10,000,000  or  £20,000,000  worth  of  mines.  The  point 
is  that  theoretically  such  a  barrier  could  be  made. 

To  be  effective  for  its  purpose  it  would  kave  to  be  laid 
as  near  to  the  German  coast  as  possible.     For  every 
mile  that  you  come  away,  the  longer  the  barrier  would 
be,    and   consequently,    the   greater   the   strain    on    the 
country's  resources  in  supplying  the  material,  and  the 
more   protracted   the   operation   of   establishing   it.     In 
theory  then  the  distance  at  which  it  should  be  laid  should 
be  outside,  but  only  just  outside  the  range  of  the  coast 
defence  guns.     So  ,vast  an  operation  as  the  creation  of  a 
barrier  exceeding  a  hundred  miles  in  length  could  not  be 
carried  out, save  by  the  employment  of  a  very  numerous 
force  of  especial  craft  for  a  "very  considerable  period. 
Such   a    force    could    not    perform    its    functions    under 
attack.     And  the  minefield  once   laid,   it  can,  of  course, 
only  be  a  barrier  so  long  as  it  exists,  and  it  will  exist  only  so 
long  as  it  is  protected.     Now  if  the  enemy's  force  were 
intact,    he   would   naturally   send   out   fighting   ships — 
destroyers,  light  cruisers  and  larger  cruisers — to  attack 
and  drive  off  the  mine-laying  craft  and  the   ships   that 
protected  them.     In  the  last  resort,  if   the    mine-layers 
were   protected   by   vessels   more   powerful  than   these 
cruisers,  he   would   have   to  bring   out   his    battleships 
to  effect  this  purpose.     And  unless  the  mine-layers  were 
in    turn    protected   by   battleships    the    enemy's    battle 
force   would    necessarily   achieve    its   object.     Now   the 
objection  to  the  use  of  our  own  battle  fleet  in  the  support 
of  mine-laying  operations  on  this  scale  is,  that .  it  would 
involve  using  them  in  waters  better  knowTi  to  the  enemy 
than  to  oursehes,  in  which  navigation  would  be  difficult, 
and  the  consequences  of  errors  in  navigation  possibly 
disastrous,  and  where,  abo\-e  everything  else,  the  enemy's 
under- water  craft  could  so  harass  battleships  as  to  make 
their    employment    unthinkably    hazardous,    and    their 
effective  employment  likely  enough  impossible.      If  we 
suppose  the  barrier  laid,  the  same  considerations  hold  good' 
for  its  defence.    There  is  then  no  way  out  of  the  argument 
that,   so   long  as  the   enemy's  battle  fleet  is   intact,  or 
virtually  intAct,  so  long  is  the  most  obviously  effective 
counter-measure  to  his  submarine  activities   made    im- 
possible to  us. 

The  enemy  obtains  then  in  modern  conditions  an  un- 
anticipated benefit  from  his  possession  of  a  fleet  in 
being.  In  the  old  wars  a  battle  fleet,  tied  to  its  harbours 
by  fear  of  action  with  a  superior  enemy,  was,  in  the 
literal  sense  of  the  word  neuimlised.  It  coiild  not  and  did 
not  affect  the  course  of^  the  sea  war.  Trans-ocean 
traftic,  overseas  miUtary  operations,  all  were  carried  on 
exactly  as  if  that  battle  fleet  did  not  exist.  The  inferior 
force  might  all  take  the  quota' of  merchant  prizes  which 
would  fall  to  liis  cruising  craft  and  privateers,  but  these 
owed  nothing  or  almost  nothing,  to  the  protection  which 
the  bii.ttle  fleet  aflforded  them.  Tlieir  operations  were 
prin'ip;illv  m.ul-  possible  by  the  enemy's  possession  of 


so  many  ports  on  the  direct  trade  routes  that  the  closed 
blockade  of  all  of  them  was  impossible.  But  Germany 
■  'has  no  ports  except  on  the  little  piece  of  coast  line  on 
the  {North  Sea  coast  and  those  on  to  the  Baltic.  And 
for  various  reasons  it  is  from  the  North  Sea  ports  that 
all  the  submarines  issue.  The  nature  of  this  class  of  ship 
■ — once  grant  that  it  can  clear  its  own  harbours  and  get  to 
sea — enables  it  to  get  upon  the  trade  routes  with  even 
greater  ease,  and  operate  there  with  even  grc^ater  security 
than  could  French  and  American  vessels  engage  in  the 
guerre  de  course  of  the  last  of  the  great  wars!  An  intact 
battle  fleet  to-day,  is,  therefore,  worth  as  much  to  Ger- 
many as  the  possession  of  the  Atlantic  ports  of  France 
and  Spain.  It  relieves  her  of  one  of  the  maip  handicaps 
of  the  geographical  position. 

It  becomes  an  urgent  matter  therefore  to  enquire 
whether  it  is  possible  at  sea  to  produce  any  such  form 
of  attack  as  will  either  parallel  that  \vhichthe  Allies  have 
made  on  the  Western  Front,  or  alternatively  block  the 
enemy's  battle  fleet  solidly  into  its  inner  harbours,  and 
so  rob  it  of  this  function  of  protecting  the  egress 
of  submarines.  The  thing  boils  itself  down  to  a 
simple  proposition.  Can  sufficient  artillery',  of  sufficient 
range  and  power,  and  suiSreptible  of  suflicieutly  accurate 
aim  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  approaches  to  the 
German  coast,  for  such  a  barrier  to  be  set  up  and  main- 
tained in  being,  that  not  only  no  surface  craft,  but  no 
submarine  can  come  in  or  out  of  the  German  ports? 
Unquestionably  the  gun  power  of  the  Grand  Fleet  is 
amply  sufficient.  Practically  then,  the  question  forms 
itself  in  this  way.  ''  Can  an  existing  fleet  be  made  unsink- 
able,  or  an  unsinkable  fleet  of  the  necessary  gun-power 
be  built  ?  "  There  is  nothing  novel  about  the  problem. 
Cuniberti  and  others  have  often  discussed  the  possibility 
of  a  shell,  mine,  and  torpedo-proof  ship,  and  during  the 
last  fourteen  years  I  can  remember  not  one,  but  fifty  dis- 
cussions bearing  on  this  point  with  men  in  the  service. 
No  doubt  many  of  the  things  we  proposed  in  conversation 
seemed  as  visionarj^  and  fantastic  as  they  could  be,  but 
if  the  problems  involved  were  tackled  seriously,  I  dqubt 
very  muoh  whether  reasonable  men  would  say  that 
success  was  impossible,  or  even  unlikely. 

Monitors 

When,  some  two  j-ears  ago.   Mr.  Churchill  made    Ijis 
famous    speech    about    ''  driving  the  rats  out  of  their 
holes,"  and  rumours  were  rife  that  the  British  Admiralty 
were   building  a  vast    fleet  of    monitors,    I  had  hopes 
that    some  of     the    dreams    of    ten    years    ago    were 
to  come  true.      Some  of  my  readers  have  taken  me  to 
task  for   a   statement,   in  a  recent  article,  in  which   I 
deplored  the  long  inaction  of  the  Admiralty  in  the  matter 
of  replacing  the   merchant   shipping  which  the   British 
Army  and  Navy,  and  not  the  German  Navy,  had  withdrawn 
from  our  trading  fleet,  and  I  contrasted    this  inaction 
with  the  time  and  energy  expended  on  the  production  of 
"  useless  monitors."      But  my  point  was  not  that  all 
monitors  were  useless,   but  that,  in  the  bulk,  the  par- 
ticular monitors  built  were  useless.     The  value,  or  other- 
wise, of  any  particular  craft  depends  upon  its  suitability 
for  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  intended.     If  you  build 
a,  monitor  to  bombard  German  forts  on  shore,  in  which 
guns  of  equal  power  and  range  are  mounted,  you  must 
take  one  of  two  courses,  either  of  which  will  enable  the 
monitor  to  achieve  its  purpose.     If  the  monitor  can  only 
fire  straight  while  stationary,  it  must  be  absolutely  shell- 
proof,  for,  in    a  contest  between  guns  mounted  ashore 
and  afloat,  the  advantages  in  attaining  accuracy  are  so 
o\-erwhelmingly  on  the  side  of  those  used  from  a  stable 
platform,  and  served  by  a  system  of  fire-control  that  can 
use  the  long  base   which  the   coast  affords,  that   they 
must  be  expected  to  make,  at  any   range,   at  least  six 
hits    to   the    sea    guns'    one.      Supposing,   then,    your 
monitor   can  only  shoot   when    stationary,  it   must    be 
designed   to   survive    this    fire    to    be   useful.      If  you 
qannot  make  it  shell  proof,  but  can  equip  it   with   fire 
c(;>ntrol ,  which  enables  it    to    shoot    just    as    accurately 
ijnder  wf^y  as  when  anchored,  then  you  are  obviously  gi\'ing 
to  the  monitor  as  great  an  advantage  over  the   shore 
guns    a<s    in    the  first    case    the   shore   guns    possessed 
o\-er     the     n^onitor.      For    the     only     movement     in- 
troduced   into     the    problem    is    under   the    control    of 
those  at  sea,  and  it    would  be  easy  therefore  to  adopt 


xo 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


such  mo\-ements  as  the  fire  control  party  on  shore  could 
not  anticipate.  The  monitor  could  only  be  hit  by  chance 
shots — but  could  make  its  proper  total  of  hits  on  the 
fort.  But  if  monitors  are  neither  shell-proof  nor  endowed 
with  a  capacity  to  shoot  under  hehii  then,  clearly,  they 
are  useless. 

In  theory  there  seems  no  reason  why  the  monitor 
type  should  not  be  de\'eIoped  along  both  of  these  lines, 
and  a  form  of  ship  produced  which  would  unquestionably 
make  the  barricading  of  the  fleet  exits  effective,  and  hence 
the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  an  anti-submarine 
in  the  bamer  possible.  It  would  involve,  of  course,  a 
temporary  monopoly  of  a  huge  proportion  of  the  \yhole 
of  our  shipbuilding  "capacity.   But  in  this  matter  it  is  as. 


well  to  keep  one  measurement  in  our  minds.  The  Ger- 
mans have  clahncd  that  they  arc  sinking  our  merchant 
tonnage  at  the  rate  of  3,600,000  tons  per  annum.  This 
is  a  gross  exaggeration. 

What  would  be  the  equivalent  in  merchant  tonnage  of 
the  output  required  for  making  an  unsinkablc  fleet — 
making  a  sufiicient  proportion  of  our  present  Jleet  unsink- 
ablc, otherwise  making  the  necessary  material  for  effective 
blockade  ?  And  how  long  would  it^take  to  produce  such  . 
a  fleet  and  other  material  ?  If  it  took  six  months  in 
time  and  the  equivalent  of  a  miUion  tons  in  ship-building 
and  engineering  effort,  it  would  be  a  cheap  price  to  pay 
for  putting  an  end  to  the  submarine  menace  altogether. 

Arthuk  Pollen 


The  People  and  the  Duties  of  Empire 

By  the  Master  of  Bailiol  College 


THE  question  has  often  been  asked,  can  a  demo- 
cracy hold  an  Empire  ?  The  question  put  in  this 
form  suggested  that  the  answer  should  be.  No. 
But  we  are  rapidly  coming  to  see  that  the  truer 
form  in  which  to  put  the  question  would  be— can  an 
Empire  be  built  up  out  of  a  federation  of  kindred  but 
separated  democratic  communities,  or  even  out  of  a 
looser  system  of  alliances  between  such  communities  ? 
In  either  case  the  answer  depends,  in  the  last  resort,  on 
the  degree  of  intelligence  and  the  moral  character  of  the 
mass  of  citizens  in  those  communities.  Federation  is  an 
artificial  and  intricate  machinery  ;  it  requires  much 
"  give  and  take  "  and  much  political  aptitude  in  those 
who  live  under  it.  A  system  of  alliances  is  still  more 
delicate  to  handle.  Mere  good  will  is  not  enough.  If 
the  British  Empire,  which  is  really  a  commonwealth  of 
democratic  states,  is  to  continue  in  either  form,  it  pre- 
supposes that  these  democracies  shall  consist  of  men  who 
are  in  the  main  not  only  honest  and  fair-minded,  but  also 
intelhgent  and  fairly  well  instructed. 

Imperial  and  Anti-Imperial  Sentiment 

Now  we  have  been  learning  many  things  since  July 
1914.  We  have  learnt  that  what  seemed  a  narrow  anti- 
Imperialist  sentiment  in  our  working  classes,  was  partly 
mere  ignorance  and  partly  a  healthy  disgust  at  things 
which  seemed  to  be  associated  with  the  shoddy  Empire 
of  Napoleon  III.,  reactionary  Russia,  mihtarist  Germany, 
and  our  own  Jingoes.  We  have  learnt,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  the  supposed  anti-Imperialist  tendencies  in 
the  Dominions  were  partly  a  dying  tradition  and  partly 
a  healthy  distrust  of  "  Downing  Street."  All  the  while 
on  this  side  of  the  oceans,  as  well  as  on  that  side,  the 
hearts  of  the  people  held  a  deeper  and  truer  Imperial 
sentiment  than  the  ruling  classes  either  di\'ined  or  de- 
served. 

When  politicians  and  economists  were  talking  of  the 
desirability  of  "  cutting  the  painter,"  were  comparing 
colonies  to  "  fruit  which  should  fall  off  when  ripe,"  were 
describing  the  severance  of  the  United  States  from  Eng- 
land in  1786  as  "  the  best  thing  which  ever  happened," 
in  the  teeth  of  these  theories  our  own  people  persisted  in 
feeling  the  colonists  to  be  our  kinsmen,  in  holding  blood 
to  be  thicker  than  water,  and  in  not  resenting  colonial 
tariffs  ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  the  colonials  persisted  in 
speaking  of  going  "  Home,"  in  refusing  to  provide  for 
themselves  as  States  on  the  brink  of  separation,  and  in 
regarding  their  Protection  as  quite  compatible  with  our 
Free  Trade,  and  regarding  their  patriotism  as  a  part  of, 
not  a  substitute  for,  wider  Imperial  patriotism.  The 
instantaneous  and  spontaneous  response  of  the  Colonies 
in  August  1914  was  more  of  a  surprise  to  the  politicians 
and  officials  than  to  the  man  in  the  street. 

But  we  must  not  assume  that  it  was  all  from  love  of  6ur 
beaux  yeux.  "  We  have  not  come  to  light  for  you,"  said 
an  Australian,  "  but  for  what  you  and  we  have  in 
common." 

Nor  must  we  assume  in  dealing  with  our  own  people 
that  they  yet  understand  either  the  wonderful  possi- 
bilities implied  in  a  union  of  Dominions  which  embrace 


one-fourth  of  the  earth's  area  and  one-fourth  of  the 
human  race,  or  the  unprecedented  difficulty  of  building 
this  union  into  a  permanent  structure.  It  is  true  that 
the  mere  presence  of  Canadians  and  Anzacs,  South 
Africans  and  Indians  has  powerfully  appealed  to  their 
imagination.  ,, 

"  If  we  can  only  have  one  lecture,  let  it  be  one  on  the 
Empire  " — this  is  often  said  in  centres  which  even  with 
overtime  and  munition  work  can  supply  eager  audiences. 

Three  years  ago  the  word  Empire  had  but  an  ill  sound 
to  the  ordinary  workman  ;  in  August  1914,  it  suddenly 
acquired  a  new  note,  and  already  his  attitude  to  it  is 
transformed.  Yet  the  whole  meaning  of  it  was  there  all 
the  time,  latent.  The  bond  with  the  Dominions  was 
growing  ever  closer  ;  few  working-class  families  had  not 
a  close  blood  tic  with  them  through  some  near  relative  ; 
few  localities  had  not  had  an  industrial  ctisis  at  some 
time  or  other  relieved  by  an  overflow  to  homes  oversea. 
That  bond  has  suddenly  proved  itself  of  unsuspected 
strength  ;  half  a  million  Canadians,  300,000  Australians 
— who  could  have  imagined  such  figures  three  years  ago  ? 
That  meaning  latent  in  the  term  Empire  is  now  made 
manifest  as  by  a  revelation.  It  is  not  merely  the  splen- 
did physique,  the  splendid  courage  and  initiative  of  the 
men  from  overseas  that  impress  our  people,  but  still  more 
the  deep  feehng  for  Britain  and  British  ideals  that  brings 
these  men  across  the  oceans.  There  are  recent  signs  ,of 
this  feeling  in  the  rejection  by  the  Canadians  of  the  idea 
of  special  Canadian  hospitals  ;  in  New  Zealand's  adop- 
tion of  conscription  ;  in  the  common  Austrahan  remark 
that  Mr.  Hughes  could  have  carried  out  conscription  if 
he  had  not  bothered  about  a  referendum. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  characteristic  spirit 
of  democracy,  at  once  its  inspiration  and  its  besetting 
danger,  is  idealism.  The  classical  example  i§  the  be- 
haviour of  the  Lancashire  cotton  operatives  in  the 
American  Civil  War.  As  soon  as  Lincoln's  proclamation 
made  it  clear  that  the  real  issue  was  slavery,  the  cotton 
operatives  came  out  for  him  with  a  unanimity  and  a 
resoluteness  that  faced  a  cotton  famine  and  prevented 
our  Government  from  going  in  on  the  wrong  side  and  so 
making  the  greatest  blunder  since  George  III.  and  Lord 
North.  In  the  words  of  a  recent  American  writer,  this 
story  of  the  men  who,  while  being  starved  to  death, 
could  not  be  induced  to  desert  the  cause  of  the  slaves 
is  among  the  most  moving  stories  in  history  :  "  These 
humble  creatures  saved  us." 

This  idealism  comes  out  very  markedly  when  an  appeal 
is  being  made  to  a  mass  of  men.  An  appeal  to  their 
material  interests  does  not  carry  you  far,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  their  material  interests  soon  begin  to  diverge 
in  all  manner  of  ways  ;  whereas  the  one  thing  they  have 
in  common  is  their  humaneness  (so  to  speak),  and  the 
expression  of  that  is  the  sense  of  justice  and  fair  play. 
Again  the  masses  are  impatient  of  technical  detail,  of 
legal  obstacles,  and  qii  constitutional  difticulties  ;  they 
take  the  broad  view,  that  is  an  idealist  view.  For- 
tunately in  most  cases  the  broad  ground  is  the  moral 
ground.  Thus  at  the  outbreak  of  this  war,  what  turned 
public  opinion  among  the  masses  was  the  case  of  Bilgium, 
involving  the  faith  of  treaties  and  the  existence  of  small 


January  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


nations ;  it  left  no  other  way  in  honour  tlian  to  stand 
by  her.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  what  is  now 
rapidly  turning  thoughtful  working  men  to  an  en- 
thusiastic but  sane  Imperialism  is  the  imaginative  con- 
ception of  the  British  Empire  as  a  spiritual  unity,  as  a 
step  to  a  league  of  peace  and  the  federation  of  mankind. 

But  idealism  has "  its  dangers  ;  a  tendency  to  take 
dreams  for  realities  and  to  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  mere 
good  intentions.  Working  men  arc  only  too  ready  to 
talk  of  the  equality  of  races,  the  common  interest  of 
industrialism,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  vision  of  a 
world-peace.  This  idealism  requires  to  be  balanced 
and  sobered  by  knowledge  of  the  facts  such  as  the  colour 
problem  in  South  Africa!,  the  demand  for  a  White  Aus- 
tralia, the  racial  and  religious  position  of  the  French 
Canadians,  the  clash  of  interests  between  the  Dominions 
and  the  Mother  Country  in  regard  to  tariffs  and  immigra- 
tion and  labour.  India  by  itself  is  a  terra  incognita  to  the 
ordinary  Briton.  He  approaches  it  with  a  vague  pre- 
sumption in  fa\our  of  Indian  "  self-government,"  and 
it  is  a  revelation  to  him  to  iind  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  "  India,"  but  a  complex  of  races  and  rehgions 
and  stages  of  social  and  intellectual  development. 

Indeed  in  the  past  one  of  the  great  causes  of  colonial 
irritation  against  Home  opinion  was  that  compound  oi 
missionary  zeal  with  insular  ignorance  which  got  a  bad 
name  as  the  Exeter  Hall  spirit.  Another  cause  still  at 
work,  is  the  unconsciously  patronising  air  assumed  to- 
wards "  Colonials  "  ("  I  thought  New  Zealanders  were 
black  ")  a'nd  the  correspondingly  resentful  tone  of  bluff 
on  their  part  ("  vSt.  Paul's  ?  Yes,  but  you  should  see 
the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Wagga  Wagga  ").  On  each 
side  too  there  is  a  certain  parochialism  of  mind  which 
limits  itself  to  the  surface  of  any  current  questions. 
We  did  not  realize  the  Australian  feeling  about  New 
Guinea ;  they  do  not  realize  the  complications  that  en- 
viron Irish  Home  Rule. 

Create   Sound   Opinion 

The  first  thing  then  required  for  the  creation  of  that 
sovmd  public  opinion  on  which  alone  can  a  democratic 
Empire  be  based,  is  knowledge.  The  ordinary  working 
man  is  much  more  instructable  on  the  Imperial  question 
than  he  is  on  Foreign  Policy  where  he  is  hampered  by  the 
old  English  prejudice  that  foreigners  are  incalculable  and 
somewhat  ridiculous  and,  by  the  abysmal  English  ignorance 
of  foreign  geography,  international  relations  and  con- 
tinental history.  But  a  great  voluntary  Commonwealth 
based  on  the  sea  as  the  uniting,  not  now  the  estranging 
element,  is  more  within  the  grasp  of  the  mass  of  men  ; 
it  only  needs  putting  before  them  ;  and  here  a  big  aim 
is  desirable,  for,  given  goodwill  and  a  practical  .start, 
the  genius  of  the  race  will  work  out  the  solution.  But 
in  foreign  questions  good  will  to  have  international- 
peace  is  not  enough  ;  indeed,  by  itself  is  a  danger,  be- 
cause the  good  will  is  not  on  the  other  side  too;  whereas 
in  Imperial  questions  there  is  the  good  will,  or  more,  the 
deep  detennination,  of  the  Colonies  to  hold  on  to  their 
Imperial  citizenship. 

If  the  chief  need  is  more  knowledge,  a  number  of  prac- 
tical steps  may  be  briefly  suggested  : 

Send  out  parties  of  working-class  students  to  the 
Dominions,  and  from  the  Dominions  to  the  Home 
Country,  freely,  regularly,  as  a  recognised  branch 
of  education. 

Stir  up  local  education  authorities  to  this  work  and 
many  other  forms  of  education  in  the  duties  of 
Empire  ;  I  say  duties,  that  they  may  not  dwell  too 
much  on  the  commercial  side  of  such  instruction. 

Establish  a  system  of  exchange  professors  with  the 
Dominions,  and  especially  exchange  the  teachers 
in  working-class  centres  and  tutorial  classes. 

Make  ample  provision  of  books,  books  by  the  thousand, 
cheap,  but  the  best  writers  and  up-to-date  ;  "  Our 
men  pick  up  their  authorities  from  the  second- 
hand bookstall,  and  therefore  think  of  Australia  as 
a  land  of  convicts  and  kangaroos." 

Deal  frankly  and  boldly  with  the  demands  of  India  before 
working-class  audiences. 

Let  Universities  make  the  Empire  a  leading  feature 
in  their  Extension  Lectures  and  Tutorial  Classes; 
it  will  be  popular. 


Let  the  Public  Schools  introduce  courses  on  the  Empire  i 
it  will  be  popular  there  too  ;  one  school  has  already 
led  the  way. 

Let  the  same  be  done  for  the  secondary  and  the  ele- 
mentary schools  by  the  aid  of  maps  and  pictures. 

Have  Colonial  exhibitions  in  the  populous  centres,  and 
expositions  given  on  the  spot. 

Above  all,  enhst  many  voluntary  helpers  in  this  edu- 
cational work,  this  Crusade  of  Empire,  helpers  who 
must  not  be  too  academic,  but  must  be  prepared  to 
learn  as  well  as  to  teach,  to  study  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  people  beforehand. 

This  is  one  of  the  things  which  will  not  wait  even  in 
war.  For  the  Imperial  problem  is  already  upon  us  ; 
the  Imperial  conference  which  we  were  told  could  not 
possibly  be  called  in  war  time,  is  now  to  meet  "  forth- 
with "  ;  the  Imperial  sentiment  is  growing  under  our 
very  eyes,  and  the  need  and  the  opportunity  to  instruct 
and  guide  our  people  in  it  is  urgent  upon  us.  It  is  too 
late  now  for  the  comfortable  old  dpctrine  of  political 
laissez-faire,  that  '' institutions  are  not  made  but  grow  "  ; 
for  some  institutions  have  got  to  be  made,  and  made 
forthwith,  -to  suit  the  new  situation  that  has  arisen, 
and  to  reconcile  the  Dominions'  new  determination  to 
be  consulted  in  future  on  peace  and  war  with  their  old 
determination,  not  the  least  weakened,  to  guard  jealously 
their  local  independence. 

Our  people  are  not  spiritually  dead  as  pessimist  ob- 
servers thought  before  the  war  ;  they  are  only  unawakcned 
as  yet.  But  war  is  a  mighty  awakener  ;  it  is  making 
even  the  ordinary  Englishman  think  and  think  hard,  a 
thing  almost  incredible.  And  there  is  plenty  to  think 
about  :  the  stream  of  emigration  to  the  Dominions  that 
will  set  in,  the  vast  regiment  of  superfluous  women  in 
this  country,  the  claim  of  Indians  to  be  allowed  to  settle 
in  Africa  or  Queensland,  the  possibility  of  countering 
the  alarming  tendency  of  our  home  population  to  become 
stationary,  the  possibility  of  organized  and  co-operati\'e 
use  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  Empire  as  a  whole, 
the  enviable  and  therefore  dangerous  position  we  shall 
occupy  after  this  w,ar  holding  a  large  part  of  the  world 
and  all  tTre  oceans. 

This  is  a  mighty  trust  of  which  we  ha\'e  to  make 
ourselves  worthy,  and  to  help  the  masses  of  our  popula- 
tion to  make  themselves  worthy.  On  the  potentialities 
of  Empire,  on  its  duties,  on  its  dangers  we  have  to 
educate'  the  people,  to  "educate  our  masters." 

Mr.  Hartley  Withers,  Editor  of  "The  Economist" 
will  contribute  an  article  to  the  next  issue  of 
Land  &  Water  on  the  neiv  War  Loan. 


An  opportunity  for  doing  a  good' turn  to  our  gallant  sailors 
has  only  to  be  pointed  out,  for  many  to  be  only  too  glad  to 
avail  themselves  of  it.  Some  little  time  ago  Land  &  Water 
asked  for  pianos  for  certain  Ward-room  Messes.  They  were 
at  once  provided.  On  this  occasion  all  that  is  required  is  a 
gramophone — for  the  Ward-room  Mess  of  H.M.S.  Sable.  It 
will  cheer  many  silent  hours  and  give  infinite  pleasure  to 
men  who  in  this  wintry,  weather  are  keeping  watch  over 
England's  safety.  Anyone  who  is  willing  to  provide  either 
the  instrument  or  the  necessary  money  to  purchase  a  good 
instrument  is  requested  to  communicate  with  the  General 
Manager,  Land  &  Water,  5,  Chancery  Lane.  W,C. 

Professor  Meinegke,  of  Freiberg  University,  the  well-known 
historian,  has  written  for  the  Franljfurler  Zeitnng  an  article 
on  the  war  which  contains  this  remarkable  admission : 
"  Our  first  aim  was  to  overthrow  France  quickly  and  force 
her  to  make  peace.  It  is  probable  that  such  a  peace  would 
have  been  very  favourable  to  France,  for  it  was  to  oiu-  interest 
to  reduce  the  number  of  our  foes.  Had  this  plan  succeeded 
we  could  have  turned  instantly  and  adopted  the  same  tactics 
towards  Russia  with  every  prospect  of  success.  We  could 
then,  in  favourable  conditions,  have  concluded  the  final 
peace  with  England,  whose  forces  would  have  been  left  dis- 
armed on  the  Continent.  As,  however,  we  could  not  hope 
to  overcome  England's  naval  supremacy,  this  peace,  like  the 
first  arranged  with  France,  would  have  had  to  be  in  the  nature 
'of  a  compromise.  This  entire  programme,  brilliantly  as  it 
was  begun,  collapsed  before  the  gates  of  Paris  at  the  Battle  of 
the  Marne,  which  was  by  no  means  a  tactical  victory  but 
Vortainij,  a  gicat  strategic  success  for  the  French.'  No 
German  writer  has  piexioi'sly  made  this  admission. 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


Inhuman  Treatment  of  Russian  Prisoners 


ONE  of  the  things  missing  in  that  unreal  dis- 
cussion about  the  enemy's  cry  for  Peace  is  the 
(■\-idence — which  cannot  yet  be  pubUshcd  in 
any  but  a  most  fragmentary  form — of  the  abomin- 
able cruelties  he  has  practiced  upon  the  helpless  prisoners 
in   his  hands. 

■  We  say  only  fragments  of  it  can  be  published,  though 
the  time' will  come  "when  the  punishment  proper  to  such 
crimes  can  be  inflicted,  for  soon  the  testimony  will  need 
to  be  subjected  to  no  such  discretion  as  is  at  present 
unfortunately  necessary. 

We  know  something  in  this  country  of  what  Prussian 
calculation  can  be  in  such  matters.  We  know  how 
British  prisoners  have  been  treated  when  the  enemy 
believed  his  victory  to  be  secure,  and  we  shall  not  soon 
forget  the  lesson  taiight  us.  It  is  well  that  we  should  also 
know  what  his  actions  have  been  in  the  case  of  our 
Allies;  and  though  very  little  indeed  of  the  whole  terrible 
story  can  be  told,  examples  which  have  been  "specially 
put  before  Land  &  W.'^Tiiu  and  will  be  cited  here,  may 
be  of  service. 

A  Studied  Policy 

When  the  full  story  is  known  tliere  will  be  no  one  left 
so  fatuous  or  so  blinded  as  still  to  talk  of  terms  and 
accommodation  with  the  brutes  guilty  of  these  things. 

Jf  the  special  cases  laid  before  us  much  the  greater 
part  deal  with  one  branch  of  Prussiay  policy,  which  has 
been  consistent  throughout  in  the  case  of  the  Russian 
prisoners.  And  that  has  been  the  attempt  to  compel 
them  to  commit  treason  and  to  act  against  their  own 
country.  Why  the  Russians  should  have  been  singled 
out  for  this  particular  form  of  vileness  we  may  sur- 
mise, but  \vc  need  not  delay  to  describe.  It  is  in  part, 
perhaps,  their  greater  numbers,  in  part  the  fact  that  the 
enemy  seems  to  have  believed  that  no  reprisals  would 
follow.  At  any  rate,  the  evidence  submitted  is  crowded 
with  cases  of  this  kind  :  The  order  to  dig  trenches  under 
lire  and  against  their  own  brethren  in  arms,  ^nd  torture, 
exposure,  starvation  and  death,  as  the  penalty' for  refusal  ; 
the  evidence  from  all  sides,  of  all  kinds,  and  from  all 
nationalities  who  were  witnesses  :  From  Neutrals,  from 
Englishmen  and  from  French  prisoners  and,  what  is  very 
valuable,  from  Russian  prisoners  themselves  who  have 
escaped,  and  whose  story  is  corroborated  by  independent 
witnesses  of  other  nationalities.  Jo  recite  all,  even  oi  these 
selected  indi\idual  cases,  would  be  a  mere  monotonj^  of 
horror  ;  It  is  always  the  same  story,  but  here  are  some 
citations  textualjy  in  the  witness's  words  : 

.\n  Englishman,  an  eye-witness,  says  : 

"  They  refused  to  go  and  dig  trenches.  A  guard  was 
put  round  them  to  starve  them  into  submission.  The 
]'-nglish  tried  to  give  them  food,  but  the  guard  was  too 
Strong  and  they  could  not  manage  it.  At  the  end  of  a 
week  they  again  refused,  and  the  guard  fired  upon  them, 
killing  several  and  wounding  many." 

A  Russian  prisoner  who  has  escaped  gives  this  en- 
dorsed evidence : 

"  They  were  told  that  if  they  persisted  in  refusing  they 
would  be  shot.  The  Commandant  at  the  camp  came  to  theni 
armed  with  a  revolver  and  a  sword  and  along  with  him 
200  soldiers  and  about  15  officers.  The  Commandant 
was  the  first  to  kill  one  of  the  prisoners,  and  then  all 
began  to  use  their  bayonets.  When  it  was  ended  eight 
men  were  found  dead,  and  a  great  number  of  wounded.  " 

There  are — even  in  the  few  cases  .selected  for  the 
purposes  of  this  article — dozens  of  such  examples  ;  and  it  is 
specially  to  be  noted  with  what  lack  of  the  military 
spirit  and  of  chivalry  the  Prussian  Officer  ha;^  delighted 
in  personal  violence  and  murder  in  the  case  of  these 
unfortunate  disarmed  men.  It  is  a  characteristic  of 
the  Prussian  Service  we  know  well  enough  and  of  which 
Belgium  and  Northern  France  are  full,  but  it  is  well  to 
be  reminded  of  it.  As  for  instance  this  piece  til  exidence 
— again  textually  quoted  :  . 

"  The  Cieneral  himself  came  out  and  began  .1  ^^l>^  cch." 
(This  was  in  the  case  of  the  men  being  marched  off  to 
do  work  the  nature  of  which  was  concealed  from  them, 
and    which    ^vas,    therefore,    presumablv    treasonable). 


"  Then  ordered  his  soldiers  to  beat  them  with  the  butts 
of  the  rifle,  and  stood  looking  on.  Suddenly,  as  if  seized 
by  a  lit  of  rage  he  began  to  shout. to  his  men  to  strike 
harder,  to  kill  the  defenceless  men  if  they  could.  Seizing 
a  piece  of  board  himself  he  ga\'e  a  terrible  blow  on  the 
head  to  one  of  tlie  prisoners  and  then  struck  a  second 
man  and  then  a  tliircl.  \\'e  prisoners  had  to  bury  one  of 
the  men  and  to  send  the  others  to  the  hospital.  This 
is  but  one  of  the  occasions,  which  were  very  frequent 
on  which  the  General  in  Command  struck  prisoners 
with  his  own  hands." 

That  is  the  Prussian  service  all  over,  and  its  apologists 
tjiemseh-es  know  w  ell  that  the  terrible  indictment  is  true. 
No  other  service  in  the  world  is  guilty  of  these  things. 

Another  category  of  infamies  is  the  starving  of  men 
to  compel  them  to  work  against  their  own  army,  and 
to  help  in  the  destruction  of  their  own  comrades  : 

"  About  thirty  of  us  were  stripped  and  left  for  two 
days  in  -the  frost  without  food.  Then  they  offered  us 
beer  and  spirits  and  food,  thinking  that  when  we  had 
satisfied  our  hunger  we  would  go  and  work." 

That  is  one  out  of  any  number  of  Russian  testimonies. 

Here  is  an  English  civilian  medical  witness,  speaking 
of  some  himdreds  of  Russians  exchanged  against  German 
prisoners. 

"  They  hardly  had  the  semblance  of  human  beings. 
Anything  more  pathetic  it  is  impossible  to  conceive. 
The}'  came  bent,  dazed  and  limping.  The  less  feeble 
4ielped  the  others  to  walk.  Every  man  was  emaciated 
to  the  last  degree.  Some  had  lost  their  wits  and  memories. 
They  adx'anced  slowly,  \\-eakly  and  with  their  eyes  on 
the  ground,  without  a  smile.  No  voice  was  raised  in 
response  to  the  cheers  with  w'hich  they  were  greeted, 
and  as  the  waiting  people  saw  what  they  were  like,  the 
cheers  died  away  and  the  awful  procession  went  on  in 
silence." 

Remember  that  is  the  sober  testimony  of  a  British, 
subject,  highly  educated  and  trained  in  medical  work, 
and  contrast  what  he  has  to  say  about  the  German 
prisoners  whom  tlie  Russians  had  held  and  who  were  e.\- 
changed  at   the   same  time  : 

"  The  contrast  was  almost  ir^describable.  There  was 
not  one  German  prisoner  who  was  not  in  his  full  uni- 
form, which  had  been  taken  from  him  on  his  arrival 
in  hospital,  and  carefully  kept  and  returned  to  him 
clean  on  his  discharge.  The  lame  were  without  exception 
furnished  with  proper  crutches.  They  were  well  nourished  : 
they  laughed  and  joked  with  us  and  among  themselves." 

The   whole   thing   is   characteristic   of   this   war.     Of 
the  gulf  there  is  between  the  executioners  of  Prussia  and 
.the  State  which  it  is  their  duty  and  also  their  necessity 
to  destroy. 

Here  is  another  Englishman  out  of  many  score  wit- 
nesses : 

"  At  one  of  tlie  factories  "  (that  is,  munition  factories 
where  these  unfortunate  men  are  compelled  to  produce 
that  which  will  kill  their  brothers)  "  a  prisoner  who 
refused  to  work  was  shot  point  blank  through  the  head. 
The  bullet  went  straight  through  his  head  and  came  out  at 
the  back,  killing  tlie  man  on  the  spot." 

Here  is  another  from  a  neutral  witness  : 

"  Russian  non-commissioned  officers  were  told  off  on  to 
a  numition  factory.  On  their  refusal  to  work  against 
their  country,  one  of  them  was  singled  out  and  made  to 
stand  for  seven  hours  every  day  with  the  sun  shining  in 
his  eyes,  and  forbidden  to  move.  At  the  slightest  move- 
ment on  his  part  he  w-as  prodded  with  the  bayonet  and 
beaten." 

Here  is  a  Russian  giving  testimony  : 

"  In  these  munition  works  those  who  objected  to  work 
had  liot  irons  applied  to  their  bodies." 

Here  is  another,  also  Russian,  who  w-as  compelled  to 
work  in  the  lines  : 

"  Twenty  men  refused  to  work.  They  were  made  to 
stand  upright  for  26  hours  and  on  the  second  day  we 
stood  up  with  nothing  on  but  our  shirts  and  no  food 
and  drink.     They  submitted  then." 

This  bestial  practice  of  starving  merf  into  submission 
and  of  humiliating  them  by  nakedness  is  pcculiari\' 
Prussian,     ^'ou    liud   it   occurring  oxer   and   o\('r   as^aiu 


January  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


throughout  the  evidence  submitted  :  Here  is  the  testi- 
mony of  .an  eye- witness -in  the  case  , of  one;  nrjan  out  of 
many  hundreds. 

"  For  the  first  3  J  days  he  was  given  nothing  whatever 
to  eat.  On  the  fourth  day  one  or  two  biscuits.  The 
same  the  day  after  that.  A  German  doctor  came  in  every 
morning  to  see  how  much  he  could  stand,  and  order 
exactly  how  much  food  he  was  to  have,  just  enough  to 
keep  him  alive." 

Here  is  another  . 

"  At  this  camp  they  hang  prisoners  up  by  their  wrists. 
They  become  unconscious  after  two  hours  of  it." 

Here  is  a  third  : 

"  I  have  heard  from  many  prisoners  that  another 
punishment  was  to  scrub  them  with  very  hard  brushes 
and  sand.     They  say  it  was  a  torturo." 

Here  is  a  fourth  : 

"  They  were  beaten  until  they  were  unconscious, 
and  you  heard  their  cries  getting  weaker  and  weaker  until 
they  subsided." 

Here  is  another  English  witness  : 

"  The  Germans  then  starved  them   (certain   Russian . 
prisoners)  for  a  week  to  reduce  them  to  submission  "  (that 
is,  to  dig  trenches  in  aid  of  the  enemy)  "and  forced  them 
to  go.     Four  were  killed  and  twelve    wounded    before 
they  could  be  got  to  go." 

Another  English  witness  : 

"  The  Russians  were  made  to  dig  trenches  just  behind 
the  front.  They  stood  it  for  some  time  and  then  refused, 
and  several  were  killed." 

Another  English  witness  : 

"  Having  refused  to  work  at  trench  digging  they  were 
confined  for  three  days  without  food,  and  when  they 
mutinied  one  .was  killed  and  seventeen  wounded." 

And  here  is  one  last  signed  statement  out  of  so  hiany, 
also  the  statement  of  an  Englishman,  detailed,  and  deal- 
ing with  what  he  saw  with  his  own  eyes  : 

"On  the  Saturday  the  Russians  in  Company  3  were 
paraded  and  were  told  off  for  work,  which  turned  out  to  be 
trench  digging  against  their  own  army.'  They  refused, 
and  said  they  would  do  any  reasonable  work,  but  not  that. 
The  Germans  placed  a  number  of  them  under  close  arrest 
without  food  or  drink.  Next  day  they  were  paraded 
again  a  number  of  times.  They  still  refused  and  were  still 
kept  without  food  and  drink.  On  the  third  day  all  the 
prisoners,  English,  French  and  Russians  together  were 
paraded ;  the  Russians  still  refused,  whereupon  the 
English  and  the  French  were  locked  in.  The  "Russians 
were  then  paraded  again,  and  as  they  came  out  of  their 
barracks  the  Germans  clubbed  them  with  their  rifles, 
knocked  them  down,  stabbed  them  with  their  bayonets, 
shot  them  in  the  arms,  and  to  finish  with  they  loosed 
savage  dogs  to  worry  them.  Then  they  fetched  carts 
and  threw  the  dead  and  \vourided  in  together  and  took 
them  away.  After  this  things  settled  down  again  as 
usual." 

Remember  that  this  is  something  that  an  Englishman 
saw  with  his  own  eyes  and  repeats  without  violence  or 
exaggeration.     If  is  plain  fact. 

Here  is  another  English  witness  with  regard  to  the 
Russians  refusing  to  make  munitions  against  the  Allies  : 

"  On  their  refusing  to  do  so  they  were  made  to  stand 
at  attention  every  day  for  seven  days,  without  food  of 
any  kind."  (That  is  without  food  during  the  whole 
of  the  days  on  which  they  were  subjected  to  this  torture). 
,  "  At  the  expiration  of  seven  days  what  were  left  of  them, 
75  out  of  200,  were  brought  back  to  the  camp  by  a  back 
entrance.  Some  of  them  died  at  once,  and  the  rest  were 
taken  to  the  hospital  where  sixteen  died  that  night.  This 
awful  spectacle  was  witnessed  by  English  and  French 
prisoners." 

Here  is  another  Englishman  speaking  : 

"  On  one  occasion  I  saw  a  Russian  who  refused  to  work 
made  to  stand  at  attention  before  a  sentry  from  about 
7  a.m.  until  6.30  p.m.,  in  bitter  cold  and  snow  with  only 
thin  clothing.     He  collapsed  about  6.30." 

Here  is  another  Englishman  : 

"  I  saw  the  officer  in  charge  step  forward  and  address 
the  Russians.  A  Russian  stepped  forward  and  was 
dragged  by  about  half  dozen  German  soldiers  into  a 
kitchen,  and  another  man  was  then  pulled  out  by  a 
German  officer  who  beat  him  with  the  flat  of  his  sword 
over  the  head  and  shoulders  until  he  fell  down.     The 


Le  Soliloque  du  Deporte 


By  Emii.e  C,-vmm.\erts. 

A  great  number  of  Belgian  deportees  have  been  sent  on 
the  Western  front  and  comfellcd  to  dig  trenches, 

Le  dos  craque,  le  ventre  gemit 

Je  ne  beche  plus     .     .     .     tant  pis  ! 

Je  n'  eleverai  pas  un  rempart  protecteur 

Centre  mes  freres, 

Je  ne  souleverai  pas  le  sol  du  pays 

Contre  ses  liberateurs. 

Je  n'  offenscrai  plus  notre  commune  Mere. 

Je  ne  lutterai  plus  contre  moi-meme, 

^les  mains  ne  trahiront  plus  mon  cceur. 

Je  m'  affranchirai  de  cet  anatheme 

l)e  fange  et  de  sueur  ! 

All  !    tu  cognes,  geolier,  tu  cries  : 

Schwcinhund  !     Vorwaerts  !  ■ — tant    pis  1 

Advienne  que  pourra, 

Je  me  croiserai  les  bras. 

Je  ne  blesserai  plus  ma  Patrie 

Du  tranchant  dc  ma  pelle, 

Je  ne  pcrccrai  plus  son  sein  maternel 

De  la  pointe  de  ma  pioche, 

Et  je  baiserai,  a  la  barbc  des  Bodies, 

Cette  terre  qu'  ils  m'  ont  fait  profaner, 

Et  je  la  prierai,  £t  genoux 

Sous  leurs  coups, 

De  me  pardonner  ma  lachete. 

Des  menaces,  encore  ?     Arrete  !      .    . 

N'  entends-tu  pas  les  obus  chanter  ? 

Une  main  plus  puissante  que  la  tienne  s'  apprete 

A  nous  frapper. 

dare  ft  la  casse  !    C'est  nous  qui  paierons. 

Toi  et^noi,  esclave  et  geolier, 

Unis  enfin  dans  le  memc  danger. 

Mais  ce  tonncrre  de  fer  et  dc  plomb 

Qui  tc  fait  palir 

Exalte  mon  courage, 

Et  j '  appelle  a  grands  cris  1'  oragc 

Qui  finira  mon  martyre. 

Au  diable  le  travail,  jetez  vos  outils  ! 

A  genoux, 

A  genoux,  mes  amis. 

Mains  jointes,  sous  nos  coups  ! 

Trop  long  .  .  .  trop  court  .  .  .  nous  y  voilul 

Les  tortionnaires  sont  au  supplice. 

Vive  la  Belgique  !   Vive  le  Roi  ! 

La  tranchee  est  rouge  du  sang  du  sacrifice  ! 

^'[All  Rights  Reserved.] 


officer  then  stuck  his  sword  into  the  Russian  several  times.'' 

Here  is  another  piece  of  British  evidence  : 

"  A  Russian  officer  attempted  to  escape  from  a  camp. 
As  he  reached  the  barbed  wire  a  sentry  came  up  to  him. 
The  officer  seeing  that  he  was  caught  (it  was  broad  day- 
light) put  up  his  hands.  The  sentry  took  no  notice  of 
this  but  got  his  riffe  ready  to  fire,  and  the  officer  lay 
down  in  the  ditch  that  was  there  and  in  the  water  of  it,  to 
save  himself.  The  sentry  then  placed  the  rifle  within  a 
foot  of  the  officer  a;id  fired,  the  bullet  passing  through  the 
right  arm  and  right  side.  The  sentry  then  reloaded  his 
rifle  and  resumed  his  patrol  as  though  nothing  had  hap- 
pened. A  German  non-commissioned  officer  then  came 
up,  hearing  the  report,  looked  at  the  officer  in  the  ditch, 
marked  him  out  to  the  dogs,  and  made  no  effort  for  his 
removal.  A  French  doctor  who  offered  to,  help  was 
refused.  When  at  last  this  French  doctor's  insistence 
was  rewarded  and  he  was  allowed  to  help,  the  uniortunate 
man  was  beyond  succour.  He  died  at  eight  that  evening. 
The  case  was  reported  to  the  Camp  Commandant  by  the 
Russian  officers.  The  Commandant  inter\-iewcd  the  sentry 
and  complimented  him  upon  shooting  the  officer. 

"This  cold  blooded  murder  occurred  about  two  yards 
to  the  left  of  the  window,  etc." 

It  is  one  of  the  innumerable  stories  of  eye-witnesses — 
and  not  the  most  repulsive.  It  shall  be  our  last  in  this 
brief  glimpse  of  what  the  Allies  arc  comliating  to  destroy. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


Germans  in  India 


By  Arthur   Gordon 


T 


/^|["^HERE  is  hardly  any  portion  of  the  Britisli  Empire 
over  which  the  trail  of  the  Teutonic  serpent  has 
not  passed — to  greater  or  less  extent — with  the 
determined,  but  carefully  concealed  object  of 
strangling  our  commerce  by  keen  trade  competition  ; 
discovering  the  natural  resources  of  the  country  with  a 
view  to  their  future  exploitation  in  German  interests  ;  or  of 
exciting  feelings  of  discontent  and  sedition  against  British 
administration.  India  affords  no  exception  to  this  rule, 
for  a  steady  influx  of  the  German  element  began  shortly 
after  the  war  of  1870,  when  the  German  Empire— as  now 
constituted— was  called  into  existence.  The  representa- 
tives of  the  Fatherland  most  commonly  met  with  in  India 
are  merchants  or  missionaries,  although  a  third  section, 
composed  of  professional  spies,  sent  forth  by  a  splendidly 
organised  Intelligence  Department,  has  for  years  past 
been  deputed  to  carry  out  the  instructions  from  the 
Wilhelmstrassc  and  to  collect  ail  kinds  of  useful  in- 
formation regarding  British  affairs  in  India. 

Missionaries 

Of  the  German  spy  system  in  India  I  shall  remark 
later  on,  beginning  my  notice  of  the  Teuton  in  Hindustan 
by  mention  of  the  German  missionary.  Some  of  these 
evangehsing  agencies — such  as  the  Moravian  Brethren — 
may  fairly  be  pronounced  harmless  and  free  from  the  slight- 
est suspicion  of  intrigue  against  Great  Britain  or  her  Allies. 
Situated  for  the  most  part  in  remote  Hill  States  and  un- 
frequented regions,  amid  a  sparse  population  and  with 
scanty  means  for  communication  with  the  outer  world, 
the  Herrenhutter  missionary  could  do  littleJiarm,  even 
were  he  inclined  to.  Very  different,  however,  is  the  case 
in  Madras,  with  a  large  native  Christian  community,  and 
among  the  jungle  tribes  of  Chota  Nagpur  and  the  Central 
Indian  plateau.  Here  Lutheran  Missions  obtained  a 
strong  footing  and  were  able  to  exert  influence  of  a  danger- 
ous kind  over  their  semi-civilised  Converts. 

Loth  to  give  credit  to  the  reports  which  had  been  re- 
ceived from  planters  and  even  from  British  officials  with 
first-hand  knowledge  of  what  was  going  on  among  the 
Santals,  Oraons,  and  other  aboriginal  races,  the  Govern- 
ment displayed  much  reluctance  at  the  outset  in  issuing 
orders  for  interning  these  missionaries  and  thus  depriving 
the  reverend  gentlemen  of  power  for  mischief.  But  it 
was  ascertained,  from  very  reliable  sources,  that  Native 
Christians  had  been  warned  to  prepare  for  a  change  of 
rulers  and  so  must  cease  to  be  loyal  subjects  of  the  British 
Sirkar  as  they  and  their  fathers  had  always  been. 
Coloured  pictures  of  the  Kaiser  were  placed  in  prominent 
grandeur  on  the  walls  of  schoolrooms  and  other  places 
wiicrc  con\-erts  were  wont  to  assemble,  and  nothing  omitted 
for  disturbing  the  credulous  Indian  mind,  ever  prone  to 
believe  the  most  extraordinary  tales  and  to  act  on  the 
most  unreasonable  impulses.  Several  of  the  German 
missionaries  now  interned  held  orders  in  the  Church 
Militant  together  with  commissions  in  the  German 
Lan:Jwchr  ;  a  dual  rank  the  respective  duties  of  which 
must  have  been  difficult  to  combine  in  practice. 

Coming  to  the  German  in  commerce,  it  is  surprising — 
and  not  a  little  mortifying  to  our  national  pride — to  detect 
the  case  with  which  the  Hun  merchant  had  managed  to 
secure  so  large  a  share  of  Indian  trade  and  was  gradually 
ousting  British  rivals  from  markets  that — ^had  ordinary 
foresight  and  business  intelligence  been  employed— 
should  have  remained  closed  preserves  to  the  manu- 
facturers bf  the  United  Kingdom.  Outside  the  Pre- 
sidency capitals  of  Calcutta,  Madras,  and  Bombay, 
Germans  usually  figure  as  watchmakers,  jewellers  on  a 
small  scale,  or  as  agents  for  an  English  firm  ;  which  they 
leave  as  soon  as  they  have  acquired  enough  grasp  of  the 
business  in  question  to  be  able  to  enter  into  competition 
with  their  late  employers. 

The  manager  of  one  of  the  new  industrial  enterprises 
which  are  now  being  started  in  many  parts  of  India 
(not  before  it  was  time)  is,  strange  to  say,  a  naturalised 
Cierman,  whose  services  have  been  engaged  in  default 
of  finding  a  Briton  capable  of   performing  the  work  re- 


quired— a  statement  one  is  unwilling  to  credit,  preferring 
to  hold  the  opposite  theory  that  there  are  few  men  in 
this  world  whose  place  cannot  be  lilled  by  others.  The 
Punjab  Chamber  of  Commerce  has  set  a  good  example 
by  announcing  its  fixed  resolve  to  have  little  or  nothing  to 
do  with  German  goods  or  German  traders  in  future, 
such  declaration  being  no  idle  expression  of  hysterical 
anger  at  the  conduct  of  these  people,  but  a  fixed  resolve 
to  prevent — as  far  as  lies  in  its  power— any  attempt 
of  Germany  to  recapture  the  Indian  markets.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  glance  at  the  advertisement  columns  of 
newspapers  in  India  show  the  existence  in  the  chief  towns 
of  a  number  of  companies  and  firms  bearing  Teutonic 
names  ;  possibly  deserted  by  the  original  proprietors  for  a 
season,  but  still  carrying  on  business  under  the  old 
familiar  titles. 

The  professional  spy  remains  to  be  described  as  I  have 
known  him  in  India,  some  years  ago  certainly,  but  the  breed 
is  not  apt  to  vary  in  nature  and  methods  of  working. 
One  German  Intelligence  Agent  was  running  a  small 
hotel  in  a  station  just  outside  Calcutta  and  must  have 
been  provided  with  necessary  funds  by  his  employers, 
since  business  done  was  of  a  very  trifling  description — ■ 
men  spending  the  week-end  there  for  the  sake  of  snipe- 
shooting  ;  visitors  to  the  monthly  gymkhanas  (there  was 
a  military  cantonment  that  furnished  most  of  the 
European  population)  and  a  few  Calcutta  merchants  who 
chose  to  live  away  from  their  places  of  business,  running 
in  daily  as  do  men  in  the  city.  Thanks  to  a  smattering 
of  German  which  the  writer  possessed,  he  was  on 
rather  intimate  terms  with  mine  host  who  used  to  relate 
— when  copious  draughts  of  Pilsener  rendered  him  in 
communicative  mood— stories  of  his  adventures  on 
espionage  duty  in  France  before  the  outbreak  of  the  1870 
war.  Disguised  as  a  traveller  of  wines  he  boasted  of 
having  collected  much  valuable  information  and  was 
proud  of  having  been  given  a  task  most  honourable  men 
avoid.  He  further  stated  that  he  was  only  one  of  hun- 
dreds of  Germans  always  spying  out  military  details  in 
friendly  countries. 

This'  hotel-keeper  could  not  have  amassed  in  India 
much,  news  worth  sending  home,  for  his  enquiries  were 
usually  directed  to  the  subject  of  the  native  troops,  con- 
cerning whom  his  usual  sources  of  information — non- 
commissioned officers  belonging  to  the  Battery  or  the 
Infantry  detachment  quartered  in  that  particular 
station— were  unable  to  give  any,  or  correct,  tidings. 
Apart  from  his  sp\ing  profession,  he  was  quite  a  decent 
specimen  of  the  German  Unter-Offizier  of  those  days  : 
he  had  been  a  Quartermaster-Sergeant  in  a  regiment  of 
Saxon  hussars,  so  was  free  from  the  unpleasant  bumptious- 
ness and  inveterate  bragging  associated  with  Prussian 
soldiers  of  all  ranks,  nor— if  one  can  judge  from  his  manner 
of  speaking  about  the  French,  both  mihtary  and  civilians 
— would  he  have  admired,  far  less  committed,  the  acts 
which  have  rendered  the  modern  Hun  a  byword  and  a 
reproach  among  civilised  nations.  He  had  an  honest 
respect  for  the  British  Navy,  but  considered  thC'  British 
Army  too  small  in  numbers  to  be  looked  on  as  a  serious 
factor  where  European  warfare  was  in  question.  Ap- 
parently the  same  error  as  was  manifested  by  the  generals 
and  statesmen  of  the  Kaiser  when  they  resolved  to  dis- 
regard Belgium  neutrality. 

Of  recent  years,  stricter  supervision  has  been  exercised 
by  the  Indian  C.I.D.  over  visitors  from  foreign  parts  to  our 
Eastern  Empire,  and  a  fairly  strict  watch  has  been 
maintained  on  cold  weather  tourists  anxious  to  inspect 
the  defences  of  Ouetta  or  to  collect  materials  ioj  a  book 
on  British  rule  in  India.  Despite  these  precautions,  the 
German  spy  has  managed  to  get  in  touch  with  the  scditionist 
party_feu  in  numbers  certainly,  yet  formidable  on 
account  of  the  immunitv  from  punishment  enjoyed  by  its 
leaders  so  long  as  they' refrain,  from  murdering  officials. 
Securely  concealed  in  the  background,  the  German  agent- 
provocateur  found  little  trouble  in  persuading  the 
credulous  Indian  student,  or  the  more  dangerous 
Maratha  Brahmin  and  his  fellow  conspirator  of  Bengal, 
to  plot  and  plan  for  the  overthrow  of  British  rule. 


January  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


Germany's  Policy  in  the  Balkans 

By  Frank  Fox 


THE  Balkan  Peninsula  is  a  fashionable  cemetery 
for  Empires.  Archaeologists  trace  the  tomb- 
stones of  Powers  which  fought  their  great  fights 
there  in  the  days  before  Homer  :  and  history  tells 
of  Persian,  Macedonian,  Roman  and  Mohammedan 
dreams  of  world  domination  coming  to  a,n  end  on  its 
plains.  Now  it  is  the  turn  of  the  Prussian  Empire. 
\Vhen  the  Central  Powers  advanced  dramatically  from 
Belgrade  to  the  Bosphorus,  British  opinion  in  some  quar- 
ters was  dismayed,  in  almost  all  quarters  depressed. 
French  opinion  (the  clear,  cool  logic  of  which  for  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  has  proved  more  than  all  else  the 
vitality  of  the  French  race)  expressed  itself  in  the  phrase, 
"  The  tortoise  has  put  his  head  out."  It  was  not  very  long 
before  the  British  took  generally  the  same  view.  Our 
logical  perception  had  been  dimmed  at  first  by  sympath\- 
for  the  sufferings  of  the  Serbs,  by  anger  for  treachery  of 
the  Bulgars.  VVhen  we,  too,  saw  clearly,  it  was  plain  that 
the  Prussian  had  exposed  if  not  his  neck  at  any  rate  a 
vital  limb  beyond  his  carapace  and  that  the  ending  of  the 
reptile  was  more  certain,  more  easy. 

The  discussion  of  the  why  and  wherefore  of  the  Prussian 
folly  may  be  recalled.  One  school  of  thought  in  this 
country  argued  that  inescapable  necessity  forced  the 
Kaiser  into  this  adventure.  Certainly  he  had  strong 
urgings  to  do  something  in  the  way  of  a  break-through. 
There  is  nothing  more  dispiriting  than  to  stand  a  siege 
without  sallies.  The  cheaply  purchased  treachery  of 
Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria  promised  on  the  surface  a  sally  at 
little  cost.  To  ovenVhelm  Serbia  whilst  Bulgaria  held 
her  from  behind  ;  to  join  hands  with'Turkey  ;  to  extend 
in  a  month  the  German  line  from  the  centre  of  Europe 
to  the  centre  of  Asia  Minor — that  had  all  the  glitter  of 
a  great  victor3\  But  it  was  not  only  a  great  mistake ;  it 
was  an  irreparable  mistake,  and  a  mistake  which  no  nation 
of  sound  thinkers  could  have  made.  Whatever  there  was 
of  sound  thought  in  Germany  must  have  recognised  that 
thc'decision  of  the  Great  War  was  practically  certain  the 
day  that  England  declared  herself  :  certain  beyond  any 
human  element  of  doubt  when  the  rush  to  Paris  failed  : 
and  that  the  only  sensible  Prussian  policy .  thereafter 
was  to  play  for  as  good  a  peace  as  possible  with  what- 
ever military  policy  (of  vigorous  offensive  in  the  East  or 
the  West)  promised  best  to  weary  the  Allies.  Having 
failed  to  conquer  Europe  it  was  the  wrong  time  to  go 
out  to  conquer  the  world  by  way  of  the  Balkans. 

But,  pace  all  the  talk  of  German  efficiency,  the  Balkan 
adventure  was  a  mistake  natural  to  the  Prussian  mind 
M'hich  in  all  its  "  kolossality  "  (one  must  really  manu- 
facture German  words  for  the  attributes  of  these  strange 
inhuman  Huns)  strongly  suggests  the  Calculating  Boy 
who  could  solve  the  most  abstruse  mathematical  pro- 
blems without  help  of  pen  or  paper  but  was  practically 
an  idiot  in  aU  else.  We  have  made  humiliating  mis- 
takes in  the  war  and  before  the  war.  The  Hun's  mistakes 
^vere  and  continue  to  be  abysmal.  WhereA'er  human  life 
touches  the  spiritual  plane  he  has  failed  completely  to 
understand,  and  regarding  those  relations  of  life  which  are 
governed  by  intellectual  perception  he  has  been  almost 
as  ignorant.  He  gave  defiance  to  the  moral  indignation 
of  the  world  and  at  the  same  time  to  the  logic  of  facts 
most  clearly  in  this  Balkan  adventure. 

As  a  result  the  Hun  in  the  last  stage  of  his  defensive, 
when  his  only  chance  of  mitigating  punishment  was  to 
out-weary  his  ioqa,  finds  himself  committed  to  a  line 
straggling  all  across  Europe.  The  drama  Avorks  to  its 
appointed  end.  On  the  Western  front  and  on  the  Russian 
front  will  be  the  struggle  of  giant  armies  from  out  of 
which  the  Hun  will  totter  to  fall  :  but  strong  human 
interest  will  be  absorbed  in  the  developments  at  the 
Balkan  heel  where  the  picturesquely  varied  forces  of 
civilisation  bite  at  his  tendon  Achilles. 

To  follow  the  drama  Mith  understanding  the  bystander 
needs  to  refresh  his  memory  regarding  Balkan  history 
since  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  and  regarding  Balkan  racial 
types  and  their  origins.  Modern  Balkan  history  began 
with  the  "  iiberation "  of  Bulgaria  by  Russia  and 
Roumania.    Before  that  time,  however,  Greece,  a\  ith  aid 


from  the  outside  chieflj',  and  Serbia,  by  her  own  efforts 
chiefly,  had  won  some  kind  of  independence.  Roumania 
had  never  been  completely  subjugated.  After  the  War 
of  Liberation,  Russia  designed  to  have  Bulgaria  as  the 
greatest  state  of  the  Balkans.  Europe,  at  the  time  sus- 
.  picious  of  Russia,  contrived  otherwise.  Still  the  Treaty 
of  Berlin  whilst  generous  to  Bulgaria  (who  had  done 
little  or  nothing  in  the  War  of  Liberation) ,  was  notably 
imjust  to  Roumania.  The  Treaty  left  Roumania  with  a 
distinct  grievance  against  Russia  ;  Serbia  with  a 
jealousy  and  distrust  of  Bulgaria  ;  Bulgaria  with  an 
unsatisfied  dream  of  greatness  ;  Turkey,  defeated  but 
unrepentant,  hoping  for  a  road  to  revenge  through  the 
mutual  jealousies  of  the  Christian  states,  which  had  been 
liberated  from  her  yoke  ;  Greece  filled  with  a  heady 
ambition  and  dangerously  confident  that  she  could  revive 
her  ancient  glories  with  the  aid  of  other  people's  arms. 
There  were  ghosts  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Greek  Empire/ 
Bulga*  Empire,  Serb  Empire  walking  of  nights,  and  each 
little  scrap  of  a  nation  saw  visions  of  greatness. 

A  Tom  Tiddler's  Ground 

The  Balkan  Peninsula  became  thus  a  Tom  Tiddler's 
Ground  where  anybody  might  pick  up  a  crown  ;  and  you 
might  get  anybody  stabbed  in  tlie  back  for  half-a-crown. 
And  it  was  a  dominating  point  from  which  a  Great  Power 
might  command  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  as  Constantine 
the  Great  had  seen  when  he  built  Constantinople.  Natur- 
ally with  the  Prussian  dream  of  world  domination  came 
an  interest  in  the  Balkans  ;  and  Salonika  was  marked  down 
as  a  future  German  port  of  entry  into  the  Mediterranean. 

The  German  Powers,  happy  in  their  stock  of  poor  and 
prolific  princes,  as  an  incidental  step  captured  all  the 
palaces  of  the  Balkan  States  with  the  exception  of  Serbia 
(and  its  highland  province  of  Montenegro)  and  began  a 
policy  of  diplomatic  intrigue  and  commercial  penetration. 
The  latter  was  very  industrious  but  not  very  successful, 
for  much  the  same  reason  as  that  which  explains  the 
paucity  of  Jews  in  Scotland.  Where  the  Greek  is  trading 
competition  is  difficiilt.  Roughly  to  generalise,  in  their 
dealings  with  the  Balkan  Governments  the  Germans 
found  : 

(i.)  Tire  Serbs  quite  hopeless.  They  were  obstinately 
Slav.  During  the  Turkish  occupation  the"  Serbian  mother 
would  strangle  at  birth  the  child  which  a  Turkish  father 
had  inflicted  upon  her.  That  was  a  sign  of  the  irrecon- 
cilable spirit  of  the  race.  The  Serbs  saw  that  the  path 
of  the  German  to  the  Mediterranean  must  be  by  the 
valley  of  the  Vardar,  and  were  determined  to  hold  the 
path.  The  German  Powers  long  ago  recognised  that 
Serbia  was  to  be  fought,  not  won  over. 

(2.)  Roumania.  The  legitimate  grievances  of  Roumania 
after  the  Berlin  Treaty  were  industriously  exploited  by  Ger- 
many and  for  a  time  Roumania  was  drawn  into  the  orbit 
of  tlic  Central  Powers.  She  was  saved  by  the  fact  that 
within  her  borders  there  had  survived  an  aristocratic 
class  which  inherited  great  intellectual  capacity  and 
a  tradition  of  statesman.ship.  A  small  Power,  Roumania 
had  big  men  who  led  her  on  the  lines  of  a  Florentine 
diplomacy.  Her  leaders  saw  that  the  Prussian  system 
was  fatal  to  the  growth  or  oven  the  existence  of  small 
States  and,  whatever  may  have  been  the  outward  attitude 
of  Roumania,  her  secret  policy  was  of  late  always  anti- 
Prussian. 

(3.)  Bulgaria.  In  Bulgaria  an  industrious  peasant 
population,  partly  Slav  partly  Turkish  by  blood,  tills 
the  soil  and  trades  without  any  very  serious  political 
preoccupation.  Under  Turlcish  rule  the  Bulgars  were  not 
nearly  as  miserable  as  some  people  imagined,  and  Bulgaria 
was  the  most  prosperous  and  not  at  all  the  worst  governed 
of  the  Turkish  provinces-  Since  independence  the  very 
indifference  of  the  Bulgars  to  politics  has  made  them  the 
unhappy  victims  of  their  politicians.  Their  attitude  to 
public  affairs  is  singularly  like  that  of  many  citizens  of 
the  United  States  :  that  "  politics  "  is  a  business  to  be 
left  to  the  politicians.  Bulgaria  has  naturally  had  some 
curious  rascals  among  her  politicians,  and  they  naturally 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


have  been  oasv  prey  for  Gormjin  intriguefs.  A 
clover  man  withii  liirge  bag  of  gold  and  an  .indemnity 
bond  against  the  loss  of  his  Austrian  estates  for  Knig 
Ferdinand  might  easily  have  brought  Bulgaria  mto  the  tield 
on  our  side  in  this  war.  But  of  course  such  thmgs  are 
not  done  in  our  foreign  policy.  Bulgarian  policy  smce 
the  accession  of  King  Fefdinand  has  been  usually  pro- 
(lennan  in  intention  whatever  its  public  declarations. 
The  peo[)le  are  pro-Russian,  pro-British,  pro-French  so  far 
as  they  have  anv  views  on  foreign  policy.  But  the  voice 
of  the"  people  isstrangled  by  Ferdinand  and  his  very 
capable  secret  police. 

(.(.)  (ireece.  The  German  cause  in  Greece  has  been 
handicapped  by  the  trading  genius  of  the  people,  which 
made  difficult  the  German  policy  of  commercial 
penetration ;  and  by  the  dependence  of  Greece  on  sea 
power.  In  view  of  the  complete  identity  of  Greek 
national  interests  with  those  of  the  Allies  the  degree  of 
success  uf  German  diplomacy  at  Athens  ("  Tino  "  is  not 
the  only  pro-German)  has  been  marvellous. 

(5.)  "Turkey.  Since  the  fall  of  Abdul— whose  Glad- 
stoiiian  title  was  modified  by  students  of  Balkan  politics 

into    "Abdul    the   d d   clever  "—Turkey   has   been 

an  easy  prey  to  German  intrigues.  She  could  never  learn  ' 
her  Germany  even  at  the  price  of  bitter  experience. 
The  sacrifice  of  the  Berlin  Treaty,  when  Austria  seized 
for  good  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  and  Bulgaria  repudiated 
Turkish  suzerainty  was  a  purely  German  move.  Prussia 
pretended  to  regret  the  action  of  Austria  and  I  remem- 
ber well  the  declarations  of  a  Prussian  diplomat  (whose 
special  mission  was  to  hoodwink  the  "  society  "  pro- 
Germans  of  Great  Britain)  that  only  the  generous  in- 
stincts of  Prussia,  compelling  her  to  stand  by  a  comrade 
in  a  difliculty,  prevented  the  German  Empire  from  re- 
pudiating the  "  precipitate  and  ill-judged  action  of 
Austria."  But  the  position  was  clear  to  everybody 
except  the  voupg  Turks.  They  have  been  content 
since  to  drift"with  Germany  to  the  present  edge  of  final 
disaster  though  there  was  never  on  the  face  of  it  hope  of  a 
single  advantage  from  the  Prussian  connection. 

That  is  an  attempt  to  summarise  the  position  of  the 
(ierman  Empire  5;/s-a-i7s  the  various  Balkan  States  during 
the  last  two  decades  and  to  make  clearer  the  reasons 
])rompting  the  decisions  which  followed  upon  the  out- 
break of  the  Great  \Va.T.  One  may  conclude  from  various 
facts  that  the  German  Empire  deliberately  chose  a 
Balkan  pretext  as  the  occasion  for  her  attack  on  Europe. 
Agudir  had  taught  that  Italy  was  certainly  not  to  be 
relied  upon  to  join  in  the  attack,  and  that  Austria's 
resolution  was  very  shaky.  I  have  been  told  in  high 
quarters  that   at  the   Agadir   crisis    Austria's    attitude 


was  to  be  one  of, neutrality  in  case  of  war.  The  Great 
\\'ar  had~  therefore  to  be  engineered  in  some  way  so  that 
.Austria  was  first  committed  deeply  and  her  participation 
thus  ensured.  The  war  having  begun,  the  German 
Powers  relied  with  some  confidence  upon  reaping  big 
strategic  advantages  in  the  Balkans.  Turkey  ancl 
Bulgaria  could  be  relied  upon.  Serbia  would  be  crushed 
within  the  first  three  months,  and  Roumania  and  Greece: 
would  then,  either  through  fear  or  favour,  come  in  on  the 
side  of  the  German  Powers. 

But  from  the  first  things  went  wrong.  The  Hun  had 
as  usual  miscalculated  both  the  moral  and  the  intel- 
lectual factors.  He  was  profoundly  certain  that  war  on  a 
Balkan  pretext  must  not  only  bring  Austria  in  but  would 
keep  England  out.  After  the  Balkan  war  we  had  refused 
to  risk  a  general  European  conflict  by  supporting  Serbia 
in  her  riglitful  claim  to  keep  what  she  had  gained  on  the 
Adriatic.  The  attitude  of  Great  Britain  was  supposed 
to  be  that  no  Balkan  question  was  worth  a  soldier's 
life  :  and  ISritisli  stupidity'  was  supposed  to  be  such  that 
we  would  stand  by  and  see  the  fate  of  civiUsation  settled 
under  the  delusion  that  only  .Serbia's  fate  was  at  stake. 
But  Great  Britain  came  in  and  came  in  on  a  direct  issue, 
the  outrage  upon  Belgium,  which  necessarily  put  in  a 
liigli  light  before  all  the'  small  States  of  Europe  the 
attitude  of  Prussia  towards  small  nationalities.  All  who 
could  think  and  were  allowed  to  think  in  the  Balkans 
became.at  once  anti-Prussian. 

Turkey,  of  course,  had,  nationally  speaking,  gone  into  the 
lunatic  asylum  long  before  ;  and  her  interest  in  small  States 
was  in  any  case  a  painful  matter — partly  indigestion, 
partly  unsatisfied  appetite.  But  Roumania's  course  was 
fixed  at  once.  Her  acute  statesmen  saw  that  the  issue 
of  the  war  was  made  certain  by  England's  participation. 
The  question  that  remained  was  how  to  stand  out  as  a 
neutral  until  it  was  reasonably  safe  to  become  a  com- 
batant. That  cjuestion  was  handled  with  masterly 
linesse.  Some  sentimentalists  will  deplore  the  practical 
statesmanship  which  aimed  to  keep  Roumania  out  of  a 
martyr's  crown  and  bring  her  on  the  stage  as  an  avengur 
rather  than  a  A'ictim.  I'icasonable  people  will  applaud 
the  courage  and  skill  with  which  she  jilayed  a  very 
difficult  game  and  will  only  regret  the  blunder  whicji 
brought  the  Hun  to  Bucharest  at  a  time  when  'the 
Roumanians  with  happier  management  might  have 
been  in  Belgrade. 

Now,  despite  the  misfortunes  of  the  moment,  we  can 
reasonably  hope  that  soon  some  Herr  Professor  of  Germany 
will  be  engaged  in  the  sad  task  of  estimating  to  what 
extent  the  ISalkan  adventure  contribuited  to  the  shatter- 
ing of  the  Prussian  dream  of  World  Empire. 


The  New  Raemaekers'  Exhibition 


THIRTEEN  months  ago  Louis  Raemaekers 
galvanized  the  civilized  world  with  his  exhibition 
of  cartoons  portraying  German  infamies  in  Bel- 
gium. It  was  a  great  achievement,  and  the  more 
imtablc  in  that  it  was  accomplished  by  a  Neutral  artist. 
Since  then  Raemaekers  has  never  wavered  in  his\  duty 
as  the  recorder  of  German  abominations,  arid  iij,  his 
second  exhibition  now  open  at  the  Galleries  of  the  Fine 
Arts'  Society,  148,  New  Bond  Street,  he  continues  the 
tale  of  horror  up  to  the  deportations  still  in  progress 
in  Belgium.  It  seems  almost  a  divine  decree  that  this 
record  should  be  depicted  by  tin;  pencil  and  brush  of 
a  man  who  is  not  inspired  by  racial  hatred,  but  is  only 
concerned  with  the  life  and  death  struggle  between 
modern  civilization  and  medi;eval  barbarism. 

This  second  exhibition  in  some  respelrts  excels  the  first. 
'1  he  artist  seems  to  have  gained  in  strength  and  to  have 
aciiuired  greater  confidence  in  his  own  exceptional 
powers.  That  sense  of  haunting  beauty  to  which  w'e  n - 
terred  at  the  time  of  the  first  exhibition  is  even  more 
apparent,  and  again  we  are  struck  by  his  extraordinary 
])ower  of  awakening  the  emotions  and  unveiling  with 
a  few  touches  of  the  pencil  the  innermost  qualities  of 
humanity.  The  prodigality  with  which  the  German 
(ieneral  Staff  sacrifices  its  nien  is  portrayed  for  all  time 
ill  that  famous  cartoon  drawn  at  the  time  of  the  great 
\  erdun  offensive,  when  the  Crown  Prince  says  to  the. 
Kaiser  as  the}'  stand  upon  a  mound  of  German  dead  : 
,"  Father,  we  must  ha\e  a  hii:her  pile  to  see    \'eidun." 


There  are,  certain  figures  which  it  is  obvious  Rae- 
maekers delights  in  drawing,  so  full  are  they  of  natural 
humour.  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria  is  chief  of  these  ;  •  he 
never '  appears  here  without  evoking  contemptuous 
laughter  ;  Bethmann-Hollweg  runs  him  close,  and  then 
there  is  Tino.  There  is  always  a  certain  dignity  about 
the  Kaiser,  but  the  German  Crown  Prince  is  the  miserable 
specimen  of  humanity  he  is  known  to  be  in  real  life.  But 
the  one  figure  which  stands  out  most  prominently  is 
Death.  It  would  be  an  interesting  study  to  ascertain 
tlie  number  of  different  characters  in  which  the  grisly 
skeleton  has  been  drawn  by  Raemaekers.  As  a  Pierrot 
he  dances  in  the  .streets  of' Berlin  in  August  1914,  when 
war  is  declared,  and  in  December  1916,  when  peace  is 
asked  for  and  the  people  stand  in  the  Berlin  streets 
through  a  bitter  winter  night,  Deat4i  alone  is  the  well- 
clad  ])rosperous  citizen. 

But  it  must  not  be  thought  that  this  second' exhibition 
is  devoted  only  to  the  horrors  of  war.  Among  the 
beautiful  cartoons  to  be  seen  here  are  the  original  illus- 
trations which  Raemaekers  drew  for  M.  Itmilc  Cammaerts' 
Natix-ity  Play.  There  is  a  splendid  picture  of  "  l.e  Vieux 
Poilu  "  and  another  "on  an  American  hero  who  gave 
his  life  for  humanity."  A  series  of  cartoons  illustrate 
an  Allegory  of  War  and  Peace,  and  a  cartoon  which  oner 
seen  will  never  be  erased  from  the  mind  is  entitled  "  Tin- 
Impassable  Barrage  "—the  Kaiser  held  back  by  thi 
hosts  of  French  heroes  who  rise  from  their  graves.  Thj^ 
i;.\presses  the  great  truth  which  we  all  feel  to-day. 


January  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


17 


LET  us  wander  for  a  change  in  the  peaceful  heart 
of  England  and  discuss  the  while  some  of  her 
legends  and  traditions.  Nottinghamshire  is 
essentially  a  pleasant  county,  as  old  Fuller  of 
"  The  Worthies,"  was  the  lirst  to  point  out,  and  Mr.  J. 
'^',  Firth  has  written  and  Mr.  Frederick  L.  Griggs  has 
!-austrated  a  pleasant  book  about  the  count}^  of  Robin 
Hood,  the  Byrons  and  the  Dukeries.  Their  Highways 
and  Byways  in  Nottinghamshire  takes  an  honourable  place 
in  Messrs.  Macmillan  and  Co.'s  well-known  "  Highways 
and  Bywaj'^s  "  Series  (6s.  net),  Mr.  Firth  is  the  kind  of 
guide  one  wants  on  such  rambles  as  he  takes  \is.  He 
does  not  stop  to  descant  at  length  on  beauties  we  can  see 
for  ourselves,  but,  from  his  vast  store  of  information,  gives 
us  the  historical  and  biographical  associations  of  each 
place  we  pass.  "  To  my  way  of  thinking,"  he  says  in 
comparing  Sherwood  with  the  New  Forest,  "  a  place 
which  has  little  recorded  history  is  cold,  whatever  its 
charm,  compared  with  those  which  are  indirectly  linked 
to  our  regard  by  a  long  chain  of  human  associations." 
I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  him  but,  all  the  same,  I  think 
Mr.  Griggs'  admirable  architectural  drawings  might 
have  been  supplemented  with  more  pictures,  giving  the 
natural  beauties  of  the  county.  His  one  study  in  Sher- 
wood Forest  is  an  inadequate  performance. 

As  a  chronicler  of  county  history  Mr.  Firth  is  discreet 
and  judicious.  He  takes  perhaps  more  pleasure  in 
dcstroj'ing  .than  in  repeating  legends.  This  is  well 
enough  when  he  is  pointing  out  that  Byron's  orgies  at 
Ncwstead  Abbey  wei^c  probably  not  so  red  as  they  have 
been  painted,  or  ^^•hen  he  is  clispelling  the  myths  that 
long  surrounded  the  name  of  the  fifth  Uuke  of  Portland, 
but  he  need  not,  perhaps,  have  been  so  solemn  and  critical 
over  the  stories  of  Robin  Hood.  He  might  even  have 
been  despoiled  by  this  "  meditcval  Socialist,"  he  is  so 
heavy-handed  on  the  subject.  However,  apart  from  this 
and  a  somewhat  annoying  habit  of  alluding  to  a  story  as 
too  familiar  to  tell,  while  T  in  my  ignorance,  know 
nothing  of  it,  I  have  found  great  interest  and  entertainment 
in  this  learned  guide-book.  The  studies  of  family  history 
are  particularly  good,  and  the  book  is  packed  with  little 
character-sketches,  delightful  in  their  variety  and  liveli- 
ness. One  might  well  do  worse  than  spend  an  hour  or 
two  in  Mr.  Firth's  company,  recalling  cricketing  days  at 
Trent  Bridge,  or  visiting  at  Bunny  the  pugilist  philan- 
thropist Sir  Thomas  Parkyns,  or  discussing  at  Langar, 
where  his  father  was  rector,  the  unfortunate  childhood  of 
Samuel  Butter,  or  making  the  acquaintance  of  the 
"  Duchess  Robin  Hood."  There  is  a  short  itinerary  for 
the  reader,  but  it  might  be  extended  to  ten  times  its 
length  and  the  whole  ground  of  the  book  would  yet 
remain  untraversed. 

My  war-books  this  week  include  two  by  women  on  their 
war-work,  the  one  dealing  with  work  "on  the  Western 
Front,  the  other  with  work  chiefly  on  the  Eastern  Front. 
Miss  Kate  John  Finzi's  Eighteen  Months  in  the  War  Zone 
(Cassell  and  Co.,  6s.  net.),  is  a  record,  in  the  form  of  a 
diary,  of  hospital  and  canteen  work  on  the  Western  Front 
from  October  1914,  to  February  1916.  It  tells,  with 
good  sense,  a  story  that  is  fairly  familiar  now,  and  is 
best  described  in  the  words  of  Major-General  Sir  Alfred 
Turner,  who  writes  an  introduction :  "  Miss  Finzi's 
book  is  quite  unpretentious,  and  is  a  simple  record  of 
facts  which  bring  home  vividly  to  our  minds  the  sickening 
horrors  of  war  and  the  awful  sufferings  that  our  gallant 
defenders  have  had  to  undergo  in  doing  their  duty." 
It  should  also  be  added  that  it  shows  how  those 
sufferings  are  alleviated. 

***** 

In  The  Flaming  Sword\.i  Serbia  and  Elsewhere  (Hodder 
and  Stoughton,  6s.  net),  Mrs.  St.  Clair  Stobart  nas  written 
a  far  more  ambitious  book  than  Miss  Finzi's.  It  is  not 
merely  that  it  deals  with  the  sensational  episodes  of  the 
Serbian  retreat,  in  which  Mrs.  Stobart  played  so  prominent 
a  part,  but  because  it.  is  wriUcn  to  prove  something  or 


rather  to  prove  two  things.  The  one  is  that  the  Woman's 
Movement  is  more  than  ever  needed  in  the  world  for 
"  militarism  is  maleness  run  riot."  The  other  is  that  the 
Serbians  are  a  great  people.  On  both  these  subjects 
Mrs.  Stobart  is  entitled  to  speak  with  authority,  for 
she  and  the  devoted  band  who  have  worked  with  her  have 
shown  what  women  can  do  "  along  the  line  of  life,"  and 
she  has  come  into  contact  with  all  classes  of  the  Serbian 
people.  Her  book  is  naturally  most  interesting,  though 
perhaps  a  little  overcrowded  with  unilluminating  details, 
introduced  apparently  for  the  sake  of  making  the  record 
as  complete  as  possible.  It  is  also  unique,  as  being  the 
work  of  the  lust  woman  in  history  to  take  command  of  a 
field  hospital  in  war-time.  The  most  enthralling  part  of 
the  book  is  Part  III.,  which  is  a  diary  of  the  Serbian 
retreat,  but  I  rather  fancy  that  it  is  not  the  story  it  has 
to  tell,  wonderful  as  this  is,  so  much  as  the  intensity  ol 
its  author's  personality  and  convictions  that  will  attract 
some  readers — perhaps  repel  others. 

•I*  !(•  ?J*  ^  9jfi 

I  have  just  been  reading  to  my  great  profit  a  little 
brochure  by  Mr.  Norman  R.  Byers,  entitled  World 
Commerce  in  its  Relation  to  the  British  Empire  (P.  S. 
King  and  Son.  is.  net).  Mr.  W.  R.  Lawson  in  introducing 
the  work,  is  hardly  guilty  of  hyperbole  when  he  says  : 
"  It  is  a  book  for.  the  man  in  the  street  and  the  man  at 
the  m  ichine,  as  well  as  for  the  man  in  business.  It  is  so 
clear  and  simple  even  when  treating  of  absolute  economic 
subjects  that  it  might  almost  be  recommended  for  use 
in  schools.  The  book  is  written  to  advocate  the  keeping 
of  the  British  Empire  economically  self-contained — ^an 
excellent  theme  in  itself,  but  it  can  be,  and  indeed  often 
has  been  most  ineffectually  treated.  Mr.  Byers'  treatment 
deserves  the  praise  which  Mr.  Lawson  gives  it.  Both  the 
exposition  of  the  resources  of  the  Empire  and  the  handling 
of  such  difficult  subjects  as  the  relation  of  Capital  and 
Labour  and  the  proper  uses  of  the  Surplus  Profit  Tax 
are  admirable,  not  only  in  their  freshness  and  clearness, 
but  also  in  the  spirit  of  sweet  reasonableness  with  which 
they  are  presented.  Mr.  Byers'  appeal  for  the  proper 
attitude  of  disinterested  enquiry  at  the  present  moment 
would  disarm  the  bitterest  economic  controversialist  and 
make  him  reopen  several  closed  doors  in  his  brain. 

3|C  3|C  3|%  ^  ^ 

Fiction  this  week  must  be  represented  by  Mrs.  Hodgson 
Burnett's  pretty  little  Miracle  tale,  The  Little  Hunchback 
Zia  (Heinemann,  is.  net).  This  should  have  been  bought 
at  Christmas,  for  the  story  is  of  the  Holy  Birth.  But  it  is 
equall}^  readable  at  any  other  time,'  and  is  rendered  by 
Mr.  Charles  Robinson's  pictures  an  attractive  gift  book. 


Mr.  Eden  Phillpotts'  story,  The  Girl  and.  the  Faun  has  been 
published  with  coloured  plates  by  Frank  Brangwyn  (Cecil 
Palmer  and  Hayward,  6s.  net),  and  tlie  combination  of  this 
author's  and  artist's  work  makes  one  of  the  best  colour  books 
of  the  season.  The  delicate  fantasy  of  the  story  is  well 
caught  in  Brangwyn's  pictures,  and  both  from  the  literary 
and  artistic  points  of  view,  the  book  is  admirable. 

That  wonderful  reference  book  Who's  Who  (Adam  and 
Charles  Black,  20s.),  is  now  published  for  1917.  It  gets 
bulkier  and  bulkier  as  the  years  go  by  and  tlie  wonder 
is  when  it  will  cease  to  grow.  In  another  fifty  years  it 
promises  to  be  a  library  in  itself.  Accompanying  it  is  the 
Who's  Who  Year  Book,  only  one  shilling,  and  filled  witli 
information  about  people  generally  which  one  finds  nowhere 
else.  Another  of  Messrs.  Black's  publications,  The  Writers' 
and  Artists'  Year  Book  1917  is  also  issued.  This  is  a  directory 
for  the  use  of  writers,  artists  and  photographers. 

The  January  issue  of  the  Asiatic  Review,  which  brings  the 
review  to  its  thirty-first  year  of  publication,  is,  as  usual, 
mainly  devoted  to  Eastern  questions  and  subjects.  In  addi- 
tion to  a  fairly  exhausti\c  study  of  the  present  position  in 
India,  there  are  a  very  interesting  sketch — written  with  first- 
liand  knowledge — of  the  President  of  the  Chinese  Re- 
public, a  stud}'  of  Germany's  methods  of  peaceful  penetration 
as  applied  to  the  Near  East,  and  a  Russian  section  to  which 
the  present  Consul-General  for  Russia  contributes  an  article. 


i8 


LAND    &    WATER 


Ja,nuary  ii,  191 7 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

[Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  MattosI 


SvKOPSIS  :  Caftfain  fatrice  Bchal,  a  wounded  French 
efficcr,  prevents  in  a  Paris  street  the  abduction  of  a  nurse 
'it'ho  is  knoivH  to  her  patients  as  "  Little  Mother  Coralie." 
Beival  declares  his  love  to  Coralie  only  to  be  told  by  her 
that  she  is  already  married,  and  that  he  must  take  no  further 
effort  to  retain  her  friendship.  That  night,  after  Coralie  has 
left  him,  Beival  has  sent  to  him  anonymously  a  box  con- 
taining a  rusty  key,  by  means  of  which  he  gains  access 
to  a  house,  in  uhich  he  finds  five  inen  torturing  another  man, 
Essarcs,  who  turns  out  to  he  Coralie' s  husband,  obviously 
with  a  vieic  to  extracting  information  from  him.  Essarcs 
manages  to  gel  hold  of  a  revolver,  with  which  he  shools 
Colonel  Faklii,  one  of  the  five  men,  dead.  He  buys  off 
his  other  four  assailatUs  for  a  million  francs  apiece,  xvith 
which  they  leave  the  house.  The  next  day  Beival,  follow- 
ing Coralie  to  her  house,  finds  that  Essares,  zcho  had  con- 
templated flight  from  Paris,  has  been  brutally  murdered. 
An  examining,  magistrate,  after  interviewing  Coralie,  calls 
Beival  in  and  explains  to  him  that  Essares  was  prime 
mover  in  a  plot  for  exporting  gold  from  France.  In  order 
to  recover  some  300  million  francs  which  Essares  had  con- 
cealed, the  authorities  consider  it  necessary  to  hush  .  up 
the  circumstances  of  the  financier's  death.-  The  only  possible 
clue  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  gold  is  a  paper  found  in 
Essares  dead  hand, -bearing  the  words,  "  Golden  Triangle." 
Ya-Bon,  Bclval's  Senegalese  servant,  promises  to  call  in 
Arsene  Lupin  to  unravel  the  mystery,  and  Beival,  -with 
seven,  wounded  and  convalescent  soldiers,  takes  up  resid- 
ence in  Essares  house  to  protect  Coralie  from  a  mysterious 
threatened  vengeance  on  her.  The  police  search  unavailingly 
for  the  place  where  the  gold  is  concealed. 

CHAPTER  IX  {continued) 

C0R.\L1E'S  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  French 
consul  at  Salonika,  where  she  married  a  very  rich 
man  of  a  certain  age,  called  Coimt  Odoiavitch,  the 
liead  of  an  ancient  Serbiari  family.  He  died  a  year 
after  Coralie  was  bom.  The  widow  and  child  were  at  that 
time  in  France,  at  this  same  house  in  the  Rue  Raynouard, 
which  Count  Odola\-itch  had  purchased  through  a  young 
Eg^'ptian  called  Essares,  his  secretary  and  factotum. 

Coralie  here  spent  three  j^ears  of  her  childhood.  Then  she 
suddenl\-  lost  her  mother  and  was  left  alone  in  the  world. 
Essares  took  her  to  Salonika,  to  a  surviving  sister  of  her 
grandfather  the  Consul,  a  woman  many  years  younger  than 
her  brother.  This  Tady  took  charge  of  Coralie.  Unfor- 
tunately, she  fell  under  Essares'  influence,  signed  papers  and 
made  her  little  grand-niece  sign  papers,  until  the  child's 
whole  fortune,  administered  by  the  Egyptian,  gradually 
disappeared. 

At  last,  whon  she  was  about  seventeen,  Coralie  became 
the  victim  of  an  adventure  which  left  the  most  hideous 
memory  behinl,  and  which  had  a  fatal  effect  on  her  life. 
She  was  kidnapped  one  morning  by  a  band  of  Turks  on  the 
plains  of  Salonika,  and  spent  a  fortnight  in  the  palace  of  the 
governor  of  the  province,  exposed  t<i  his  desires.  Essares 
released  her.  But  the  release  was  brought  about  in  so 
fantastic  a  fashion  that  Coralie  must  have  often  wondered 
afterwards  whether  the  Turk  and  the  Egyptian  were  not  in 
collusion. 

At  any  rate,  sick  in  body  and  depressed  in  spirits,  fearing 
a  fresh  assault  upon  her  liberty  and  yielding  to  her  aunt's 
wishes,  a  month  later  she  married  this  Essares,  who  had 
already  been  paying  her  his  addresses,  and  who  now  definitely 
assumed  in  her  eyes  the  figure  of  a  deliverer.  It  was  a  hope- 
less union,  the  horror  of  which  tecame  manifest  to  her  on  the 
very  day  on  which  it  was  cemented.  Coralie  was  the  wife 
of  a  man  whom  she  hated  and  whoso  love  only  grew  with  the 
hatred  and  contempt  which  she  showed  for  it. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year,  they  came  and  took  up  their 
residence  at  the  house  in  the  Rue  RajTionard.  Essares, 
who  had  long  ago  establislicd  and  was  at  that  time  managing 
the  Salonika  branch  of  tlie  Franco-Oriental  Bank,  bought  up 
almost  all  the  shares  of  the  liank  itself,  acquired  the  building 
in  the  Rue  Laforette  for  tiic  head  oftice,  became  one  of  tlie 
financial  magnates  of  Paris  and  received  the  title  of  Bey  in 
Egypt. 


This  was  the  storj'  which  Coralie  told  Patrice  one  day  in 
the  beautiful  garden  at  Passy  ;  and,  in  this  unhapp>-  past 
which  they  explored  together  and  compared  with  Patrice 
Belval's  owti,  neither  he  nor  Coralie  was  able  to  discover  a 
single  point  that  was  common  to  both.  The  two  of  them  had 
lived  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  Not  one  name  evoked 
the  same  recollection  in  their  minds.  There  was  not  a  detail 
that  enabled  them  to  understand  why  each  should  possess  a 
piece  of  the  same  amethyst  bead  nor  wiiy  their  joint  images 
should  be  contained  in  the  same  medallion-pendant  ur  stuck 
in  the  pages  of  the  same  album. 

'■  Failing  everything  else,"  said  Patrice,  "  we  can  explain 
that  the  pendant  found  in  the  hand  of  Essarcs  Bey  was 
snatched  by  him  from  the  unknown  friend  who  was  watching 
over  us  and  whom  he  murdered.  But  what  about  the  album 
which  he  wore  in  a  pocket  sewn  inside  h:'j  vest  ?  " 

Neither  attempted  to  answer  the  question.  Then  Patrice 
asked  : 

"  Tell  me  about  Simeon." 

"  Sim^-on  has  always  lived  here." 

"  I'lven  in  your  mother's  time  ?  " 

"  No,  it  was  one  or  two  years  after  my  mother's  death  and 
after  I  went  to  Salonika  that  Essares  put  him  to  look  after 
this  property  and  keep  it  in  good  condition." 

"  Was  he  Essares'  secretary  ?  " 

"  I  never  knew  what  his  exact  functions  were.  But  he  , 
was  not  Essares'  secretary,  nor  his  confidant  either.  They 
never  talked  together  intimately.  He  came  to  see  us  two 
or  three  times  at  Salonika.  I  remember  one  of  his  visits.  I 
was  quite  a  child  and  I  heard  him  speaking  to  Essares  in  a 
\-ery  angry  tone,  apparently  threatening  him." 

'•  With  what  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  I  know  nothing  at  all  about  Simeon.  He 
kept  himself  very  much  to  himself  and  was  nearly  always  in 
the  garden,  smoking  his  pipe,  dreaming,  tending  the  trees 
and  flowers,  sometimes  M'ith  the  assistance  of  two  or  three 
gardeners  whom  lie  would  send  for." 

"  How  did  he  behave  to  you  ?  " 

"  Here  again  I  can't  give  ^ny  definite  impression.  We 
never  talked  ;  and  his  occupations  very  seldom  brought  him 
into  contact  with  me.  Nevertheless  I  sometimes  thought 
that  his  e3'es  used  to  seek  me,  through  their  j'ellow  spectacles, 
with  a  certain  persistency  and  perhaps  even  a  certain  interest. 
Moreover,  lately,  he  likecl  going  with  me  to  the  hospital ;  and 
he  woidd  then,  either  there  or  on  the  way,  show  himself 
more  attentive,  more  eager  to  please  ...  so  much  so 
that  I  have  been  wondering  this  last  day  or  two.     .     .     ." 

She  hesitated  for  a  moment,  undecided  whether  to  speak, 
and  then  continued  : 

"  Yes,  it's  a  very  vague  notion  .  .  .  but,  all  the 
same.  .  .  .  Look  here,  there's  one  thing  I  forgot  to  tell 
you.  Do  you  know  why  I  joined  the  hospital  in  the  Champs- 
Elysees,  the  hospital  where  you  were  lying  wounded  and  ill  ? 
It  was  because  Simt^on  took  me  there.  He  knew  that  I 
wanted  to  become  a  nurse  and  he  suggested  this  hospital.  .  . 
And  then,  if  you  think,  later  on,  the  photograpli  in  the 
pendant,  the  one  sliowing  you  in  uniform  and  me  as  a  nurse, 
can  only  have  been  taken  at  the  hospital.  Well,  of  the  people 
here,  in  this  house,  no  one  except  Simeon  ever  went  there. 
You  will  also  remember  that  he  used  to  come  to  Salonika, 
where  he  saw  me  as  a  child  and  afterwards  as  a  girl,  and  that 
there  also  he  may  have  taken  the  snapshots  in  the  albums. 
So  that,  if  we  allow  that  he  had  some  coirespondent  who  on 
his  side  followed  your  footsteps  in  life,  it  would  not  be  im- 
possible to  believe  that  the  unknown  friend  whom  you  assume 
to  hn,ve  intervened  between  us,  the  one  who  sent  you  the  kej- 
of  the  garden.     ..." 

"  Was  old  Simeon  ?  "  Patrice  interrupted.  "  .The  theory 
won't  hold  water." 

"  Why  not  ?  " 

"  Because  this  friend  is  dead.  The  man  who.  as  you  say, 
sought  to  intervene  between  us,  who  sent  me  the  key  of  the 
garden,  who  called  me  to  the  telepiione  to  tell  me  the  truth, 
that  man  was  murdered.  There  is  not  the  least  doubt  about 
it.  I  heard  the  cries  of  a  man  wlio  was  being  killed,  dying  cries, 
the  cries  which  a  man  utters  at  the  moment  of  death." 
You  can  never  be  sure." 

_"  1  .am,  absolutely.     There  is  no  shadow  of   doubt  in  my 
mind.     The  man  whom  I  call  our  unknown  friend  died  before 
(Continued  on.  page' 10) 


January    i  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


An    everyday  incident 
I  ear  the  fighting  line. 


11 

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Expeditionary  Forces  S 
and    Prisoners    of  War    M 

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warmth  and  comfort. 


1 


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clad  in  the  all-protective  TIELOCKEN  the  intrepid  sailor 
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Proof  without  Heat — Warm  without  Weight — Free  from 
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8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS  ;  and  Provincial  Agents 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


{Continued  from  page  i8) 
tinisliiag  his  work  ;    he  died  miiniered,   whereas  SiincDii  is 
-thve.     Besides,"  continued  Patrice,  "  this  man  had  a  different 
\oice  from  Simeon,  a  voice  which  I  had  never  heard  before  and 
wliicli  I  shall  never  hear  again." 
CorAlic  was  convinced  and  did  not  insist. 
They  were  seated  on  one  of  the  benches  in  the  garden,  en- 
joying the  bright  April  sunshine.     The  buds  of  the  chestnut- 
trees  shone  at  the  tips  of  the  branches.     The  heavy  scent  of 
the  wall-flowers  rose  from  the  borders  ;   and  their  brown  and 
yellow  blossoms,  like  a  cluster  of  bees  and  wasps,   pressed 
dose  together,  swayed  to  the  light  breeze. 

Suddenly  Patrice  felt  a  thrill.  Coralie  had  placed  her  hand 
on  his,  witli  engaging  friendliness  ;  and,  when  he  turned  to 
look  at  her,  he  saw  that  she  was  in  tears. 

"  What's  the  matter,  Little  Mother  Coralie  ?  " 
Coralie's    head   bent    down    and    her    cheek   touched    the 
officer's  shoulder.     He  dared  not  move.     She  was  treating 
him   as   a   protecting  elder   brother  ;    and   he   shrank   from 
showing  any  warmth  of  affection  that  might  annoy  her. 
"  What  is  it,  dear  ?  "  he  repeated.     "  What's  the  matter  ?  " 
"  Oh,  it  is  so  strange  !  "  she  murmured.     "  Look,  Patrice, 
look  at  those  flowers." 

They  were  on  the  third  terrace,  commanding  a  view  of  the 
fourth  ;  and  this,  the  lowest  of  the  terraces,  was  adorned  not 
with  borders  of  wall-flowers  but  with  beds  in  which  were 
mingled  all  manner  of  spring  flowers  ;  tulips,  silvery  alyssums, 
hyacinths,  with  a  great  round  plot  of  pansies  in  the  middle. 
'"  Look  over  there,"  she  said,  pointing  to  this  plot  with  her 
outstretched  arm.     "  Do  you  see  ?     .     .     .     Letters.     . 

Patrice  looked  and  gradually  perceived  that  the  clumps  of 
pansies  were  so  arranged  as  to  form  on  the  ground  some  letters 
that  stood  out  among  the  other  flowers.  It  did  not  appear  at 
the  first  glance,  it  took  a  certain  time  to  see  ;  but,  once  seen, 
the  letters  grouped  themselves  of  their  own  accord,  lorming 
three  words  set  down  in  a  straight  line. 

Patrice   and  Coralie. 
'  Ah,"  he  said,  in  a  low  voice,  "  I  understand  what  you 
mean  !  " 

It  gave  them  a  thrill  of  inexpressible  excitement  to  read 
their  two  names,  which  a  friendly  hand  had,  so  to  speak, 
sown  ;  their  two  names  united  in  pansy-flowers.  It  was 
inexpressibly  exciting  too  that  he  and  she  should  always  find 
ti.emselves  thus  Unke  1  together,  hnked  together  by  events, 
linked  together  by  their  portraits,  hnked  together  by  an  un- 
seen force  of  will,  linked  together  now  by  the  struggling  effort 
of  little  flowers  that  spring  up,  waken  into  life  and  blossom 
in  predetermined  order. 
Coralie,  sitting  up,  said  : 
"  It's  Simeon  who  attends  to  the  garden." 
"  Yes,"  he  said,  wavering  slightly.  "  But  surely  that  does 
not  affect  my  opinion.  Our  unknown  friend  is  dead, 
but  Simeon  may  have  known  him.  Simeon  perhaps  was  acting 
with  him  in  certain  matters  and  must  know  a  good  deal 
Oh,  if  he  could  only  put  us  on  the  riglit  road  '  " 

An  hour  later,  as  the  sun  was  sinking  on  the  horizon,  they 
climbed  the  terraces.  On  reaching  the  top  they  saw  M. 
Masseron  beckoning  to  them. 

I  have  something  very  curious  to  show  you,"  he  said, 
■  something  I  have  found  which  will  interest  you  both, 
madam,  and  you,  captain,  particularly." 

He  led  them  to  the  end  of  the  terrace,  outside  the  occupied 
part  of  the  house  next  to  the  library.  Two  detectives  were 
standing  mattock  in  hand.  In  the  course  of  their  searching, 
M.  Masseron  explained,  they  had  begun  by  removing  the  ivy 
from  the  low  wall  adorned  with  terra-cotta  vases.  There- 
upon M.  Masseron 's  attention  was  attracted  by  the  fact  that 
this  wall  was  covered,  for  a  length  of  some  yards,  hy  a  layer 
of  plaster  which  appeared  to  be  more  recent  in  date  than  the 
stone. 

■'  What  did  it  mean  ?  "  said  M.  Masseron.  "  I  had  to 
presuppose  some  motive.  I  therefore  had  this  layer  of  plaster 
demolished  ;  and  underneath  it  I  found  a  second  layer,  not 
so  thick  as  the  first  and  mingled  with  the  rough  stone.  Come 
closer  ...  or,  rather,  no,  stand  back  a  httle  way  ;  you 
can  see  better  like  that." 

The  second  layer  really  served  only  to  keep  in  place  some 
small  white  pebbles,  which  constituted  a  sort  of  mosaic  set 
in  black  pebliles  and  formed  a  series  of  large,  written  letters, 
sf>elling  three  words,  .^nd  these  three  words  once  apain  were  : 
Patrice  and  Corame. 
'_'  What  do  yon  say  to  that  ?  "  asked  M.  Masseron.  "  Ob- 
serve that  the  inscription  goes  several  years  back,  at  least  ten 
years,  when  we  consider  the  condition  of  the  ivy  clinging  to 
this  part  of  tlie  wall." 

"  At  least  ten  years,"  Patrice -repeated,  when  he  was  once 
more  alone  with  Coralie.     "  Ten  years  ago  was  when  you  were 
not  married,  when  you  were  still  at  Saloni  a  and  when  no 
body  used  to  come  to  this  garden     .     .     .     nobody  except 


Sim<'on  and  such  people  as  he  chose  to  admit.  And  amonp, 
these,"  he  concluded,  "  was  our  unknown  friend  who  is  now 
dead.     And  Simf  on  knows  the  truth.  Coralie." 

They  saw  old  Simt'on,  late  that  afternoon,  as  they  had  seea 
him  constantly  since  the  tragedy,  wandering  in  tia-  i^ini.en  ^r 
along  the  passages  of  the  house,  restless  and  distiaught, 
with  his  comforter  always  wound  around  his  head  and  his 
spectacles  on  his  nose,  stammering  words  which  no  one  could 
understand.  At  night  his  neig1il)our,  one  of  the  maimed 
soldiers,  would  often  hear  him  humming  to  himself. 

Patrice  twice  tried  to  make  him  speak.  He  shook  his  head 
and  did  not  answer,  or  else  laughed  like  an  idiot. 

The  problem  was '  becoming  complicated  ;  and  nothing 
pointed  to  a  possible  solution.  Who  was  it  that,  since  their 
childhood,  had  promised  them  to  each  other  as  a  pair  betrothed 
long  beforehand  by  an  inflexible  ordinance  ?  Who  was  it 
that  arranged  the  pansy-bed  last  autumn,  when  they  did  not 
know  each  other  ?  And  who  was  it  that  had  written  their 
two  names,  ten  years  ago,  in  white  pebbles,  within  the  thick 
ness  of  a  wall  .' 

These  were  haunting  cjuestions  for  two  young  people  in 
whom  love  had  awakened  quite  spontaneously  and  who 
suddenly  saw  stretching  behind  them  a  long  past  common  to 
them  both.  Each  step  that  they  took  in  the  garden  seemed 
to  them  a  pilgrimage  amid  forgotten  memories  ;  and,  at  every 
turn  in  the  path,  they  were  preixired  to  discover  some  new 
proof  of  the  bond  that  linked  them  together  unknown  to 
themselves. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  during  those  few  days  ;  they  saw  their 
initials  interlaced  twice  on  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  once  on  the 
back  of  a  bench.  And  twice  again  their  names  appeared 
inscribed  on  old  walls  and  concealed  behind  a  layer  of  plaster 
overhung  with  ivy.  On  these  two  occasions,  their  names  were 
accompanied  by  two  separate  dates  : 

Patrice  and  Coralie,  190.1 

P.ATRiCE  and  Coralie,  1907. 

"  Eleven  years  ago  and  eight  jears  ago,"  said  the  officer. 
"  And  always  our  two  names  :  Patrice  and  Coralie." 

Their  hands  met  and  clasped  each  other.  The  great  mvsterv 
of  their  past  brought  them  as  closely  together  as  did  the 
great  love  which  filled  them  and  of  which  they  refrained  from 
speaking. 

In  spite  of  themselves,  howe .  er.  they  sought  out  solitude  , 
and  it  was  in  this  way  that,  a  fortnight  after  the  murder  of 
Essares  liey,  as  they  passed  the  little  door  opening  on  the 
lane,  they  decided  to  go  out  by  it  and  to  stroll  down  to  the 
river  bank.  No  one  saw  them,  for  both  the  approach  to  the 
door,  and  the  path  leading  to  it  were  hidden  by  a  screen  of 
tall  bushes  and  M.  Masseron  and  his  men  were  exploring  the 
old  gicenhouses,  which  stood  at  the  other  side  of  the  garden, 
and  the  old  furnace  and  chimney  which  had  been  used  for 
signalling. 

But,  when  he  was  outside,  Patrice  stopped.  Almost  in 
front  of  him,  in  the  opposite  wall,  was  an  exactly  similar 
door.     He   called    Coralie's   attention   to    it,    but    she   said  : 

"  There  is  nothing  astonishing  a"" out  that.  This  wall  is  the 
boundary  of  another  garden  which  at  one  time  belonged  to 
the  one  we  have  just  left." 

"  But  who  lives  there  ?  " 

"  Nobody.  The  little  house  which  overlooks  it  and  which 
comes  before  mine,  in  the  Rue  Kaynouard,  is  always  shut 
up." 

"  Same  door,  same  key,  perhaps,  "  Patrice  murmured,  half 
to  him'^elf. 

He  inserted  in  the  lock  the  rusly  key,  which  liad  reachc  ' 
him  by  messenger.     The  lock  responded. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  the  series  ot  miracles  is  continaii.;^'. 
Will  this  one  be  in  our  favour  ? 

The  vegetation  had  been  allowed  to  run  riot  in  the  narrow 
strip  of  ground  that  faced  them.  However,  in  the  middle 
of  the  exuberant  grass,  a  well-trodden  path,  which  looked  as 
if  it  were  often  used,  started  from  the  door  in  the  wall  and  rose 
obliquely  to  the  single  terrace,  on  which  stood  a  dilapidated 
lodge  with  closed  shutters.  It  was  built  cjn  one  floor,  but 
was  surmounted  by  a  small  lantern-shaped  belvedere.  It 
had  its  own  entrance  in  the  Rue  Raynouard,  from  which  it 
was  separated  by  a  yard  and  a  very  high  wall.  This  entrance 
seemed  to  be  barricaded  with  boards  and  posts  nailed  to- 
gether. 

They  walked  rotmd  the  house  and  were  surprised  by  the 
sight  that  awaited  them  on  the  right-hand  side.  The  foliage 
had  1  een  trained  into  rectangular  cloisters,  carefully  kept, 
with  regular  arcades  cut  in  yew  and  box-hedges.  A  miniature 
garden  was  laid  out  in  this  space,  the  very  home  of  silence  and 
trancjuilitv.  Here  al'=o  were  wallflowers  and  pansies  and 
hyacinths.  .And  four  paths,  coming  from  four  corners  of  the 
.cloisters,   met  round  a  central  space    where  stood  the   live 

[Continued  on  paqe  afe) 


January  ii,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


{Continued  from  page  20) 

columns  of  a  small,  open  temple,  rudely  constructed  of  pebbles 
and  unmortared  building-stonos. 

Un:ler  the  dome  of  this  little  temple  was  a  tombstone  and, 
in  front  of  it,  an  old  wooden  praying-chair,  from  the  bars  of 
which  hung,  on  the  left,  an  ivory  crucifix  and,  on  the  right, 
a  rosary  composed  of  amethyst  beads  in  a  gold  filigree  setting. 
"  Corahe,  Coralie,"  whispered  Patrice,  in  a  voice  trembling 
with  emotion,  "  who  can  be  buried  here  ?  " 

They  went  nearer.  There  were  bead  wreaths  laid  in  rows 
on  the  tombstone.  They  counted  nineteen,  each  bearing  the 
date  of  one  of  the  last  nineteen  years.  Pushing  them  aside, 
they  read  the  following  inscription  in  gilt  letters  worn  and 
soiled  by  the  rain  : 

Here  Lie 

Patrice  and  Coralib 

Both  of  whom  were  Murdered 

ON  the  14TH  OF  April,  1895. 

Vengeance  is  Mine  :  I  Will  Repay. 


CHAPTER    X 

The  Red  Cord 

CORALIE,  feeling  her  legs  give  way  beneath  her,  had 
flung  htrself  on  the  prie-dieu  and  there  knelt  piaying 
(tivently  and  wildly.  She  could  not  tell  on  whcse 
behall,  for  the  repcse  of  what  unknown  sotl  hei  prayers 
were  offered ;  but  her  whole  being  was  afire  with  fever 
and  exaltation  and  the  very  action  of  praying  seemed  able 
to  assuage  her. 

"  What  was  your  mother's  name,  Coralie  ?  "  Patrice  whis- 
pered, 

"  Louise,"  she  replied. 

"  And  my  father's  name  was  Armand.  It  cannot  be  either  of 
them,  therefore;  and  yet     .     .     ." 

Patrice  also  was  displaying  the  greatest  agitation.  Stooping 
down,  he  examined  the  nineteen  wreaths,  renewed  his  inspection 
cf  the  tombstone  and  said  : 

"  All  the  same,  Coralie,  the  coincidence  is  really  too  ex- 
traoidinary.     My  father  died  in  1895." 

"  And  rny  mother  died  in  that  year  too,"  she  said,  "  though 
I  do  not  know  the  exact  date." 

"We  shall  find  out,  Coralie,"  he  declared.  "These  things 
can  all  be  verified.  But  meanwhile  one  truth  becomes  clear. 
The  man  who  used  to  interlace  the  names  of  Patrice  and  Coralie 
was  not  thinking  only  of  us  and  was  not  considering  only  the 
future.  PerhajJS  he  even  thought  more  of  the  past,  of  that 
Coralie  and  Patrice  whom  he  knew  to  have  suffered  a  violent 
death  and  whom  he  had  undertaken  to  avenge.  Come  away, 
Coralie,     No  one  must  susjx^ct  that  we  have  been  here." 

They  went  down  the  path  and  through  the  two  doors  on  the 
lane.  They  were  not  seen  going  in.  Patrice  at  once  bi ought 
Coralie  indoors,  urged  Ya-Bon  and  his  comrades  to  increase  their 
vigilance  and  left  the  house. 

He  came  back  in  the  evening  only  to  go  out  again  early  the 
next  day  ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  day  after,  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  that  he  asked  to  be  shown  up  to  Coralie. 

"  Have  you  found  out  ?  "  she  asked  him  at  once. 

"  I  have  found  out  a  great  many  things  which  do  not  dispel 
the  darkness  of  the  present.  I  am  almost  tempted  to  say  that 
they  increase  it.  They  do,  however,  throw  a  very  vivid  light 
on  the  fiast." 

"  Do  they  explain  what  we  saw  two  days  ago  ?  "  she  asked, 
inxiously. 

"  Listen  to  me,  Coralie." 

^He  sat  down  opposite  her  and  saidn: 

"  I  shall  not  tell  you  all  the  steps  that  I  have  taken.  I  will 
merely  sum  up  the  result  of  those  which  led  to  some  result. 
I  went,  first  of  all,  to  the  Mayor  of  Passy's  office  and  from  there 
to  the  Serbian  Legation." 

"  Then  you  persist  in  assuming  that  it  was  my  mother  ? 

"  Yes.  I  took  a  copy  of  her  death-certificate,  Coralie.  Your 
mother  died  on  the  fourteenth  of  April,  1895." 

"  Oh  ?  "  she  said.     "  That  is  the  date  on  the  tomb  !  " 

"  The  very  date." 

"  But  the  name  ?  Coralie  ?  My  father  used  to  call  her 
Louise." 

"  Your  mother's  name  was  Louise  Coralie  Countess  Odola- 
vitch." 

"  Oh,  my  mother !  "  she  murmured.  "  My  poor  darling 
mother !  Then  it  was  she  who  was  murdered.  It  was  for  her 
that  I  was  praying  over  the  way  ?  " 

"  For  her,  Coralie,  and  for  my  father.  I  discovered  his  full 
name  at  the  mayor's  office  in  the  Rue  Drouot.  My  father  was 
Armand  Patrice  Belval.     He  died  on  April  14th,  189=:." 

Patrice  was  right  in  saying  that  a  singular  light  had  been 
thrown  upon  the  past.  He  had  now  ]iositively  established  that 
the  inscription  on  the  tombstone  related  to  his  father  and 
Coralie 's  mother,  both  cf  whom  were  murdered  on  the  same  day. 


But  by  whom  and  for  what  reason,  in   consequence  of  what 
tragedies?     This  was  what  Coialie  asked  him  to  tell  her. 

"  I  cannot  answei  your -questions  yet,"  he  replied.  "  But 
I  addressed  another  to  myself,  one  more  easily  solved  ;  and  that 
I  did  solve.  This  also  makes  us  certain  of  an  essential  point. 
I  wanted  to  know  to  whom  the  lodge  belonged.  The  outside, 
in  the  Rue  Raynouard,  affords  no  clue.  You  have  seen  the  wall 
and  the  door  of  the  yard  ;  they  show  nothing  in  particular. 
But  the  number  of  the  property  was  sufficient  for  my  j)urpose 
I  went  to  the  local  receiver  and  learnt  that  the  taxes  were  paid 
by  a  notary  in  the  Avenue  de  I'Opera.  1  called  on  this  notary 
who  told  me     ..." 

He  stopjied  for  a  moment  and  then  said  : 
"  The  lodge  was  bought  twenty  one  years  ago  by  my  father. 
Two  years  later,  my  iathei  died  ;  and  the  lodge,  which  of  couise 
formed  part  of  his  estate,  was  put  up  foi  sale  by  the  present 
notary's  predecessor  and  bought  by  one  Simeon  Diodokis.  a 
Greek  subject." 

"  It's  he  1  "  cried  Coralie.  "  Simeon's  name  is  Diodokis." 
"  Well,  Simeon  Diodokis,"  Patrice  continued,  "  was  a  friend 
of  my  father's,  because  my  father  appointed  him  the  sole  ex- 
ecutor of  his  will  and  because  it  was  Simeon  Diodokis  who, 
through  the  notary  in  question  and  a  London  solicitor,  paid  my 
school-fees  and,  when  I  attained  my  majority,  made  over  to 
me  the  sum  of  two  hundred  thousand  francs,  the  balance  of 
my  inheritance." 

They  maintained  a  long  silence.  Many  things  were  becoming 
manifest,  but  indistinctly,  as  yet,  and  shaded,  like  things  seen 
in  the  evening  mist.  And  one  thing  stood  in  sharper  outline 
than  the  rest,  for  Patrice  murmured  : 

"  Your  mother  and  my  father  loved  each  other,  Coralie." 
The  thought  united  them  more  closely  and  affected  them 
profoundly.     Their  love  was  the  counterpart  of  another  love, 
bruised  by  trials,  like  theirs,  but  still  more  tragic  and  ending  in 
bloodshed  and  death. 

"  Your  mother  and  my  father  loved  each  other,"  he  repeated. 
"  I  should  say  they  must  have  belonged  to  that  class  of  rather 
enthusiastic  lovers  whose  passion  indulges  in  charming  little 
childish  ways,  for  they  had  a  trick  of  calling  each  other,  when 
alone,  by  names  which  nobody  else  used  to  them  ;  and  they 
selected  their  second  Christian  names,  which  were  also  yours 
and  mine.  One  day,  your  mother  dropped  her  amethyst  rosary. 
The  largest  of  the  two  beads  broke  in  two  pieces.  My  father  had 
one  of  the  pieces  mounted  as  a  trinket  which  he  hung  on  his 
watch  chain.  Both  weie  widowed.  You  were  two  years  old 
and  I  was  eight.  In  order  to  devote  himsell  altogether  to  the 
woman  he  loved,  my  father  sent  me  to  England  and  bought  the 
lodge  in  which  your  mother,  who  lived  in  the  big  house  next  door, 
used  to  go  and  see  him,  crossing  the  lane  and  using  the  same  key 
for  both  doors.  It  was  no  doubt  in  this  lodge,  or  in  the  garelen 
round  it,  that  they  were  murdered.  We  shall  find  that  out, 
because  there  must  be  visible  proofs  of  the  murder,  proofs  which 
Sime'on  Diodokis  discovered,  since  he  was  not  afraid  to  say 
so  in  the  inscription  on  the  tombstone." 

"  And  who  was  the  murderer  ?  "  Coralie  asked. 
"  You  suspect  it,  Corahe.  as  I  do."' 
"  Essares  !  "  she  cried,  in  anguish. 
"  Most  probably." 
She  hid  her  face  in  her  hands  : 

"  No,  no,  it  is  impossible.  It  is  impossible  that  I  should  have 
been  the  wife  of  the  man  who  killed  my  mother." 

"  You  bore  his  name,  but  you  were  never  his  wife.  You 
told  him  so  the  evening  before  his  death,  in  my  presence. 
Let  us  say  nothing  that  we  are  unable  to  say  positively  :  but 
all  the  same  let  us  remember  that  he  was  your  evil  genius. 
Remember  also  that  Simeon,  my  father's  friend  and  executor, 
the  man  who  bought  the  lovers'  lodge,  the  man  who  swore 
upon  their  tomb  to  avenge  them  :  remember  that  Simeon, 
a  few  months  after  your  mother's  death,  persuaded  Essares 
to  engage  him  as  caretaker  of  the  estate,  became  his  secretary 
and  gradually  made  his  way  into  Essares'  life.  His  only 
object  must  have  be.en  to  carry  out  a  plan  of  revenge." 
"  There  has  been  no  revenge." 

"  What  do  we  know  about  it  ?  Do  we  know  how  Essares 
met  his  death  ?  Certainly  it  was  not  Sime'on  who  killed  him, 
as  Sime'on  was  at  the  hospital.  But  he  may  have  caused 
him  to  be  killed.  Lastly,  Simeon  was  most  likely  obeying 
instructions  that  came  from  my  father.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  he  wanted  first  to  achieve  an  aim  which  my  f.ither  and 
your  mother  had  at  heart  :  the  union  of  our  destinies,  Coralie. 
And  it  was  this  aim  that  ruled  his  life.  It  was  he  evidently 
who  placed  among  the  knick-knacks  which  1  collected  as  a 
child  this  amethyst  of  which  the  other  half  formed  a  bead  in 
your  rosary.  It  was  he  who  collected  our  photographs.  He 
lastly  was  our  unknown  friend  and  protector,  the  one  who 
sent  me  the  key,  accompanied  by  a  letter  which  I  ne\cr 
received,  unfortunately." 

"  Then  Patrice,  you  no  longer  believe  that  he  is  dead,  this 
unknown  friend,  or  that  you  heard  his  dying  cries  ?  " 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  ii,  1917 


THE  WEST  END 

Bij  '^Passe-Partoiit 


The  aim  of  these  notes  is  to  brin«  articles  0/  preseiu-day  use  and   interest  to  the  knowledge  ot  our  readers.     All  articles  described 

have  been  carefully  chosen  for  mention,  and  tn  every  instance  can  be  recommended  from  personal  knowledge.     Names  and  addresses 

»t  shot>s.  where  the  articles  mentioned  can   be  obtained,   will  be   forwarded   on   recetbt  of  a  postcard  addressed   to   Passe-Partout, 

"  Land  &■   Water,"   Old  Serjeant's  Inn,  5  Chancery  Lane.    W.C.     Any   other  information  will  be  given  on  request 


The  pick  of  the 
Sales 


Reductions  are  rife  at  a  certain  shop 
now  the  month  of  January  is  with  us. 
Foremost  amongst  the  sale  bargains  is 
the  glace  silk 
petticoat  pic- 
tured. There 
are  any  amount 
of  petticoats  of 
the  kind  i  n 
white,  black, 
navy  blue,  and 
a  great  number 
of  dark  shot 
silks  in  blues, 
reds  and  greens 
and  other  colour- 
ings unusually 
charming. 

These  petti- 
coats during  the 
season  were 
1 8s.  9d.,and  in 
some  cases  even 
a  guinea.  Now 
they  are  a  1 1 
being  sold  at 
I2S.  gd.,  and  at 
the  price  are 
without  doubt  one  of  the  cheapest  petticoats  ever  offered  at 
sale  or  any  other  time.  Thev  are  doubly  worthy  securing  at 
this  small  sum,  because  the  silk  market  at  the  moment  is  an 
uncertain  factor  and  prices  are  not  only  rising,  but  con- 
tinuing to  rise  without  any  sign  of  abatement. 

Make,  design,  quality,  are  all  good,  while  for  the  benefit  of 
those  preferring  them,  there  are  some  black  or  navy  blue 
satin  petticoats  of  the  same  kind  at  the  same  price.  IDuring 
the  sale  these  underskirts  carnot  be  sent  on  approval,  a 
reservation  which  is  understandable  with  present  conditions. 


Floating 
Flowers 


Great  economy  can  be  wrought  through 
the  buying  of  floating  flowers.  Though 
they  represent  an  initial  outlay,  they  will 
repay  it  over  and  over  again.  For  these  flowers  are  prac- 
tically everlasting.  They  are,  as  may  perhaps  be  guessed, 
artificial,  but  nothing  could  be  more  natural  or  truer  to  life. 
They  will  float  in  the  water  indefinitely  and  being  the  result 
of  a  carefully-tested  process,  the  colours  will  not  run. 

At  Christmas  the  demand  for  them  was  so  immense  that  at 
one  time  every  floating  flower  in  the  place  had  been  sold  and 
many  orders  were  outstanding  for  busy  fingers  to  fulfil.  Just 
a  few  in  a  flat  bowl  make  a  fascinating  table  decoration,  one 
worth    considering    now    cut    flowers    daily    grow    dearer. 

Anemones  cost  from  2S.  6d.,  five  or  six  different  colours  being 
given,  then  there  are  cameUias,  roses,  lotus  and  water  lihes, 
each  and  all  faithful  replicas  of  nature  and  beautiful  in 
consequence. 


English  Violet 
Soap  Leaves 


Such  is  the  delightful  name  of  a  no  less 
delightful  production.  Scented  with  the 
genuine  perfume  of  the  real  English 
violet,  they  are  made  by  two  clever  ladies  who  have  scored  a 
brilliant  success  with  their  violet  nurseries  and  all  manner  of 
original  productions. 

Soap  leaves  are  a  boon  at  all  times  when  soap  is  not  readily 
to  hand.  The  ones  in  question  are  most  cleanisng  and 
efficacious,  and  for  people  obliged  to  do  long  night  journeys 
or  anything  of  the  kind  their  value  cannot  be  told.  In  a 
violet  leather  case  they  cost  2s.  5d.  post  free,  refills  at  any  time 
boinq  available  for  an  extra  elevenpence.  The  little  Looklet 
giving  particulars  of  any  amount  of  unique  preparations  makes 
most  interesting  reading. 

The  ladies  owning  these  violet  nurseries  are  willing  to  take 
students  at  a  reduced  rate  during  the  war,  the  course  not 


dealing  with  violets  alone,  but  with  carnation  growing,  forcing 
of  early  strawberries  and  tomatoes,  as  well  as  any  amount  of 
useful  commercial  knowledge. 


The  Torpedo 
Baii 


Everybody  seeing  it  falls  in  love  with 
the  torpedo  envelope,  the  latest  and 
daintiest  handbag.  There  is  something 
about  its  torpedo  shape  unusually  attractive  and  smart,  right 
for  even  the  most  fastidious  woman.  The  envelope  is  ten 
inches  long,  and  by  no  manner  of  means  is  it  a  bulky  affair, 
though  room  is  found  inside  it  for  purse,  mirror  and  Treasury 
note  case.  These  fitments  are  amongst  its  recommendations, 
every  one  of  them  being  perfect  in  its  way. 

The  small  glass,  Uke  a  miniature  hand-mirror,  is  attached 
to  a  gilt  chain  so  that  there  is  no  likelihood  of  its  falling  out, 
getting  lost  or  breaking.  The  bag  is  delightfully  Uned  inside, 
the  soft  shade  of  the  lining  contrasting  well  with  the  bright 
blackness  of  the  grained  patent  leather  of  the  bag. 

A  novel  swing  handle  at  the  back  gives  it  security  when 
carried,  and  it  as  well  as  a  host  of  other  attractions  will  be 
found  illustrated  in  a  unique  catalogue  well  worth  requesting. 


Sheepswool  Hats 
and  Scarves 


tweed    scarves 

ago    in    these 

reinforced  by 


The     wide     sheepswool 

mentioned     some    time 

columns  have  now  been 
soft  hats  to  match. 
Together  they 
make  a.  most  effec- 
tive alliance.  The 
scarves  stand  by 
themselves  as  the 
cosiest  neck  wraps 
for  wintry  weather 
possible  to  im- 
agine. They  are 
remarkably  wide 
and  long,  and  yet 
most  amazingly 
hght  in  spite  of 
their  generous  pro- 
portions. The 
actual  size  is  two 
and  a  half  yards  by 
three  quarters  of  a 
yard,  and  they 
can  be  wrapped 
round  the  figure  in 
quite  a  number  of 
pretty  and  effec- 
tive ways. 

Scotch  wool 
tweed  scarves  and 
hats  are  a  notion 
worth  investiga- 
ting. Not  only 
do  they  wear  well, 
withstanding  with 
triumph  most  in- 
clement weather, 
but  they  look  well, 
the  hats  being 
bendable  to  any 
attractive  angle, 
and  adaptable  to 
all  faces. 

The  colourings 
in  which  they  are 

kept  are  nothing  short  of  beautiful,  and  the  whole  effect 
is  artistic  in  the  extreme,  much  out  of  the  ordinary,  and  a 
triumph  on  which  the  designer  deserves  congratulation.  The 
trap  into  wliich  many  Englishwomen  fall  is  that  of  dressing  in 
too  hard  a  style.  Both  these  hats  and  scarves  are  the  acme 
of  softness,  herein  lying  much  of  their  charm. 


January  i8,  1917 


Supplement    to    LAND    &    WATER 


IX 


UNLIKE  ORDINARY  PUTTEES,  OUR  NEW 

ALL-LEATHER  PUTTEES 

NEVER  TEAR  OR  FRAY  OUT. 
For  winter  wear  they  are  unmatched. 


These  most  comfortable, 
good-looking  puttees  are 
made  entirely  of  fine  supple 
tan  leather,  and  fasten 
simply  with  one  buckle  at 
bottom.  They  are  ex- 
tremely durable,  even  if 
subjected  to  the  friction  of 
riding,  as  the  edges  never 
tear  or  fray  out. 

The  puttees  are  speedily 
put  on  and  taken  off, 
readily  mould  to  the  shape 
of  the  leg,  are  as  easily 
cleaned  as  a  leather  belt, 
an.l  saddle  soap  soon 
makes  them  practically 
waterproof. 

The  price  per  pair  is  16/6,  post 
free  inland,  or  postage  abroad 
1/-  extra,  or  sent  on  approval 
on  receipt  of  business  (not 
banker's)  reference,  and  home 
address. 


^ 


GRANT. SO  COCKBURN 


ESTD.  1821 


25  PICCADILLY,   W. 

Military    and    Civil    Tailors,    Legging    Makers. 


GoM 

17/10, 


£3/3/. 


LTD. 

'•Actioe  Seroice"  WRISTLET  WATCH 
Fully  Lnmineus  Figgret  &  Handt. 
Warranted  Timekeepers 

..I    Silver    Cases  with    Screw   Bezel 

and  Back.  U.i   Ss    Gold.  £6  IDs. 

.    tti     Hunter    or    Hall-Hunter    cover. 

b.l.cr.  iii>  Ts.  «d.      Gold.  iiT  lOs. 

Others  in   Silver   from    JUXi    J.Os. 

Gold  from  iSo  lOs. 

Military  Badge  Brooches. 

/?/iy  Regimental  ^adge  Perfectly 

Modelled. 

PRICES  ON  APPLICATION 

Sketches  sent  /or  upprovnl. 

£6/10/-    25  OLD  POND  ST.,  W. 

and  62&  64  LUDOATE  HILL,  E.G. 


WEBLEY  &  SCOTT,  Ltd. 

Manufacturers  of  Revolvers,  Automatic 

Pistols,    and    all    kinds    of    High-Class 

Sporting  Guns  and  Rifles. 


CONTRACTORS    TO    HIS    MAJESTY'S    NAVY,    ARMY, 
INDIAN    AND    COLONIAL    FORCES. 


?•  ke  obtained  (rom  all  Qun  Dealers,  and  Wholesale  only  at 

Head  OKife  and  Showrooms  : 

WEAMAN    STREET,    BIRMINGHAM. 

London    Depot : 

78  SHAFTESBURY  AVENUE. 


The  O'imnal  Cording' s,  Estd.   1839 


REALLY  WATERPROOF, 


- 


(( 


Equitor^*  Coat 


On  Active  Service  a  man  mii.st 
above  all  avoid  that  risk/  and 
utterly  wretched  experience — 
getting  wet,  and  it  is  simply 
common-sense  to  urge  that  only 
a  positively  waterproof  coat  will 
ensure  the  essentia]  protection. 

The  "  Equitor  "  is  fitted  with  a 
special  riding  apron,  which  can 
be  fastened  conveniently,  out  of 
sight,  but  the  coat  serves  just  as 
well  for  ordinary  wear  afoot, 
Vifhether  the  apron  be  fastened 
back  or  not. 

An  "  Equitor,"  with  the  addi- 
tion of  a  fleece  woollen  lining 
(detachable),  will  not  only  keep 
a  man  bone  dry  through  the 
heaviest  and  most  lasting  down- 
pour, but  will  also  warmly  pro- 
tect him  in  biting  cold  weather, 
and  may  therefore  be  relied  upon 
to  minimise  the  ill  effects  of 
enforced  exposure  at  night. 

In  our  light-weight  No.  31  material, 
the  price  o1  the  "Equitor"  is  85'.; 
ot  our  No.  23  cashmere,  a  medium- 
weight  cloth,  105/-;  without  apron 
(either  cloth),  15/.  less,  with  belt,  6/- 
extra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat  can 
be  had  in  two  qualities— No.  1  (fine 
wool),      62/6;      No.      2,       40/-. 

When  ordering  an  "Equitor"  Coat  please  state  height  ami  chest  measure 
and  send  remittance  (which  will  be  returned  if  the  coat  is  not  approved), 
or  give  home   address  and  businoss  (tn>t   banker's)   referenc). 

Illustrated  List    at  request.  

•/.  C»  CORDING  &  CJiTD  tohmI'thek^g 

Only  Addresses  : 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.,  &  35  st.  jamess  st..  s.w. 


"THE  ORILUX." 


A  few  Extracts  from  Letters  receioed 

FllOM    THE    WATi   FRONTS. 
FRANCE  : 

"  There  is  not  a  better  lamp  in  France." 

Your  lamp  has  been  in  use  two  years  and  is  still  perfect." 
■    There  is  not  a  lamp  to  touch  yours  for  our  job  here." 
"  I  would  not  be  without  your  lamp  for  anything." 
"Your  lamp  is  absolutely  essential  to  me." 
"  Your  lamps  are  considered  IT  out  here." 

SALONIKA  : 

"  It  is  readily  agreed  out  here  that  there  is  only 
one  lamp — The  Orilux." 

EGYPT : 

"  I   find   the  Orilux   a  wonderful   lamp,   and    tar 

ahead  of  all  others." 
"  The  most  useful  article  in  my  kit." 

THE  ORILUX  LAMP 

is  fitted  with  switches  for  intermittent  and  for  constant  light.  The 
light  can  be  turned  on  without  opening  the  case,  which  is  fitted  with 
a  hood  to  throw  the  light  downwards.  The  case  is  prorided  with 
loops  for  attaching  to  the  belt,  and  provision  is  made  in.  it  for 
carrying  a  spare  bulb. 


Vrl 


ce 


£1  .  1  .  o 


/  Postage    t*    the  \ 
V  Front,    1/.    eitra  ' 


Extra    Battery   in  sealed  tin,  2/.  (Postage  to  the  Front,  1/.  extra). 
Extra  Bulb,  1/6,  poatag:  id. 


SOLE   M.\KERS— 


I 


J.  H.  STEWARD  Ltd.,  """'i.Jr-' 

406    Strand,    457    Slrand,    London. 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  18,  1917 


The  CHAS.   E.  DAWSON 

Spare  time  at  home,   Art  Training 

SCHOLARSHIPS. 

CHAS  E.  DAWSON,  creator  of  the  "Dawson  Girl." 
needs  no  introduction  to  our  readers.  His  art 
appeals  to  people  of  culture  and  retiuemeut.  The 
beauty,  dignity  and  distinction  he  has  given  to  the  aunouuee- 
ments  of  our  greatest  advertisers  have  exercised  a  marked 
intluence  upon  the  artistic  printing  of  the  last  ten  years. 
And  his  success  is  reflected  in  the  work  of  his  students. 

TWELVE  years  ago  he  founded   the  first  and  most  suc- 
eeasful  Correspondence  School  of  Art  in  Europe. 
THEllE'S       nothing       experimental 
about    his    System,    its    supreme 
value  is  proved    by    the    ever-growing 
number    of    his    students     and     their 
piiirttcal  achievements.     Prac- 
tical in  the  way  they  have  been 
trained  to  make  saleable  draw- 
ings— and  sell  them! 

WITH         Mr.  Dawson's 

unique  experience  in 
fostering  and  developing  the 
aims  and  needs  of  the  ambi- 
tious artist,  he  has  helped  more 
men  and  women  to  earn  money 
by  art  work  than  any  other  well- 
known  artist. 

HE     teaches    the    profitabJ- 
branehes  of  Art,  in 
eluding  Designing,  Bool- 
and    M  a  g  a  z  i  n 
Covers,        Adver- 
t  i  s  e  m  e  nbs, 
S    t   e    n- 
cillin  g , 

P  OS 


1  should  never  have  been  able  to  design  for  reproduction 
if  1  had  not  had  your  tuition.  C  You  opened  my  eyes  to  the 
possibilities  of  the  profession,  and  no  matter  how  good  an 
artist  one  may  be  they  couid  not  help  but  be  benehted  by 
your  instruction.  1  have  benefited  most  by  confidence  you 
have  given  me,  and  the  tips  as  regards  the  arrangement 
of  a  design,  and  the  possibilities  and  limitations  of  the 
various  processes. — Birntiiujham. 

Your  ways  and  means  of  doing  certain  designs  have  never 
been  seen  in  any  art  book,  or  taught  in  any 
school.    1  have  the  work  at  my  finpcr 
tips,  and     am   now    starting    to 


ters,  Mnral  and  Fabric  Decora- 
tion, Silhouetting,  Lithography," 
Lettering,  etc. 

SOME    TRIBUTES. 
*'  Dsar  Mr.  Dawson,— I  consider  your 
Art    Course    excellent    in    every  way. 
The  mass  of  Technical  Instruction  it  contains,  and  its 
stimulat  ng  influence  upon  one's  efforts  make  it  indis- 
pensable.    Even   now   I   always  have    it    by    me    for 
reference  and  find  it  an  immense  aid. 

"Yours  very  sincerely, 

Bruce   Bairnsfather. 

"  Somewhere  in  France." 

from  Famous  "  Punch  "  Artist.      {Contributed  to  •'  Graphic," 

"  Illustrated  L;7ulon  News,"  etc. 
Dear  Mr.  Dawson, — I  am  glad  to  add  my  tribute  to  those 
which  I  am  sure  you  must  receive  from  every  student  of 
yours  who  knows   a   good  thing   when   he   sees  it.      1  am 
positive    that    anyone    with    average  intelli- 
gence and  a  little  natural  ability  who  intends 
taking   up   Art  as  a  profession— no    matter 
how  ignorant  he  may  be  at  the  beginning — 
cannot  fail  to  lay  a   sound    foundation    for 
future  success  by    carefully  following    your 
clever,  practical  and  most  interesting  lessons. 
H  this  letter  leads  anyone  who  doiibts  the 
value  of   postal    instniction    to    take    your 
Course,   T  shall  feel  that   T  have   been   the 
means  of  doing  them  a  good  turn.     You  are 
at  I'berty  to  us"  my  name  as  an  endorsement 
of  my  entire  faith  in  your  amazingly  efficient, 
origmal,  and  inspiriting  system. 
Yours  faithfully, 
A.    CHANTRY.  CORBOULD. 


Captain   Bairnsfather, 

One  of    the    many   who 

have    sUidicd    Chas.    E. 

Dfiwsons^     St/Mem    and 

heroine    fnmott^. 


gam  by 
your  course. 
1'  ho  r  n  t  o  n 
Heath. 
I       have       re- 
ceived      £10       for 
three    sketches    and    a 
royalty      of      ^d.     per 
copy    for    the    first    5U0. 
I   am    sincerely   indebted 
to  your  teaching,  for  it  is 
entirely  due  to  you  that  I 
have      secured     publication 
— Ealing. 

I  won  first  prize  (£25)  in 
the     "Studio"      Competi- 
tion for  a  Sardine  poster. 
This   fully   justified 
my     taking     your 
coui-se,    which   has 
been  nnost   useful. 
It  is  very   comjilete, 
and   I   thank   you  for 
the   satisfaction   I    have 
got     from      your     first 
instruction,   and   the  care 
taken    in    jgiving    me   in- 
formation    on     such     a     wide     range    of     subjects. — 
Esbanh,  N.B. 
I  should  like  to  tell  you  how  much  I  admire  your  system. 
Even  to  one  who,  like  myself,  has  tackled  every  branch  of 
art,  it  contains  many  useful  hints.     The  very  language  you 
employ  bucks  me  up.  I  shall  not  fail  to  recommend  it. — Bray. 
Y'our  kindness  and  courtesy  to  the  student  does  not  end 
with  the  payment  of  fees.- — Exmmith. 

My  first  commission  brought  me  three  guineas.  I  have 
since  designed  other  posters  and  now  have  twenty-four  in 
hand,  and  orders  for  music  covers.  I  cannot  express  fully 
how  greatly  I  admire  and  appreciate  your  wonderful  Course. 
It  is  all  most  int.'pnmg.— Sheffield. 

SCHOLARSHIP     COMPETITION 

for  "  Land  &  Water  "  Readers  without  Entrance  Fee. 

THE  practical  Correspondence  College  offers  Mr.  Dawson's 
Course  at  half  fees  (in  small  instalments)  to  the  first 
25  who  pass  a  postal  examination  to  prove  their  aptitude 
Copy  the  Test  Sketch  and  post  it,  and  any 
other  small  specimen  drawing  in  pen,  pencil, 
or  colours  (with  stamps  for  return),  to:^ — 
Chas.  P'.  Dawson,  22  Thanet  House,  Strand, 
W.C.  Competitors  will  receive  from  Mr. 
Dawson  a  letter  of  constructive  criticism 
and  advice  on  how  to  achieve  the  greatest 
possible  success  in  the  shortest  possible 
time. 

Awards  made  in  the  order  in  which  Test 
Sketches    are   received. 

V/  OU  risk  nothing,  and  commit  yotirself  to 
*■  nothing  by  entering  this  competition. 
You  get  a  famous  expert's  opinion  upon 
your  work  GRATIS,  particninrs  of  the  most 
successful  system  of  Art  Training  in  the 
world,  and  the  chance  of  winning  a  Scholar- 
ship. 


for  the  work. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII   No.  2854  [v^I-^J       THURSDAY.  JANUARY   18,  1917         [jJ'iJi^^^I^^]  ^^"^'^^1^^^ 


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By   L^uh  Haemueken 


Drawn  exclusively  for     'Land    i    Wa'tt 


The  Final  Blow  to  Prussian  Militarism 

(Hercules  slaying  the  wild  boar) 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  i8    1917. 


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Spokesman  :  To  you,  Mr.  Dunlop, 
we  tender  our  warmest  thanks. 
On  every  Front  on  which  the 
Allied  Armies  are  fighting 
Dunlop  tyres  are  giving  fine 
service— service  which  is  play- 
ing a  big  part  in  the  success 
of  the  cause  for  which  we  one 
and  all  are  fighting. 

The  war  has  made  for  Dunlop 
tyres  old  friendships  stauncher 
and  new  friendships  have 
sprung  up   on  every  side. 

On  behalf  of  our  men  in  the 
field,  we  thank  you. 


b^     ^^      B^S      WWM^  ^^     ^s^ 

RUBBER  CO.,    LTD., 

Fnadcn  of  tbe  Pneumatic  Trre  InJottrr, 
Ptra  Milli.  Aito«  Crou.  BIRMINGHAM. 

OF     ALL     MOTOR     AGENTS. 


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January  iS,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

01.D     SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY  18.    1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE. 

I 


The  Final  Blow.     By  Louis  Racmaekers 
No  Compromise.     (Leader)  j 

The  Line  of  the  Putna.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 

Sir  John  Jellicoe's  Statement.     By  Arthur  Pollen  9 

Freedom  and  Finance.     By  H  artley  Withers  1 1 
A  Study  of  King  Constantine.     By  Sir  William  M. 

Ramsay  ^3 

Opening  of  1917  Campaign.     By  Colonel  Feyler  14 

Alsace  and  The  Rhine.     By  Henry  D.  Davray  15 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  17 

The  Golden  Triangle.    By  Maurice  Lcblanc  18 

The  West  End  24 

Kit  and  Equipment  xi 


NO     COMPROMISE 

THE  reply  of  the  AUies  to  the  American  Note 
has  produced  precisely  the  effect  which  might 
have  been  anticipated.  Admirable  in  tone,  lucid 
in  expression,  lirm  of  purpose,  merciless  in 
condemnation,  it  has  won  the  complete  approval  of 
the  civilized  world,  and  has  provoked  the  hysterical 
indignation  of  the  German  Press.  In  the  judgment 
of  some  people  it  may  have  been  an  error  to  speak 
of  terms  even  in  the  most  general  form,  and  even  at 
the  request  of  a  great  Neutral  Power.  It  was  the  whole 
object  of  our  enemy  to  elicit  a  statement  of  terms,  and 
any  reply — however  guarded  and  vague, — was  an  entry  into 
discussion  and  a  relaxation  of  energy  at  the  critical 
moment.  But  we  are  not  in  possession  of  all  the  facts 
which  must  inevitably  govern  our  diplomatic  policy, 
and  we  are  quite  satisfied  that  the  decision  arrived  at  by 
our  Foreign  Office,  and  supported  by  our  Allies,  was  a 
wise  decision  under  the  circumstances.  If  it  were  indeed 
necessary  to  send  a  reply,  it  would  be.  admitted  that  the 
document  signed  by  the  Allied  authorities  was  dignified 
and  appropriate.  It  certainly  leaves  the  enemy  in  no 
doubt  as  to  the  intentions  of  the  AUied  Powers,  and  it 
gives  to  these  intentions  so  clear  a  moral  basis  that  no 
counter  to  it  is  possible. 

\Vith  its  general  tenor  everyone  is  now  familiar.  It 
will  be  sufiicient  here  to  comment  on  its  vital  word — 
Reparation.  There  can  be  no  reparation  until  there  is 
admission  of  guilt  ;  and  that  is  the  one  thing  which 
Germany  will  not  acknowledge.  At  first  it  seems 
amazing  that  there  can  be  room  for  doubt  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  Avar.  The  invasion  of  Belgium  was  not  only 
premeditated,  but  actually  defended  in  a  cynical  speech 
of  the  German  Chancellor,  on  the  ground  of  military 
necessity.  That  is  the  secret  of  the  immeasurable  gulf 
which  divides  German  from  ordinary  morality ;  and  for 
that  reason  all  talk  of  peace  before  victory  is  won  is 
vain  and  unprofitable.  Reparation  there  must  be,  and 
will  be,  in  fact :  but  voluntary  reparation  is  impossible 
from  a  nation  whose  leaders  continue  to  repeat  the  pre- 
posterous lie  that  they  took  up  arms  to  defend  their 
freedom. 

Germany's  latest  note  to  the  Neutrals  will  doubtless 
become  the  classic  example  of  national  hypocrisy.  It  is 
merely  farcical  to  read  such  statements  as  "  those  Powers 
have  no  right  to  protest  against  it  (that  is,  the  alleged 
violation  of  international  rights)  who  from  the  beginning 
of  the  war  trampled  upon  right  and  tore  up  the  treaties 


on  which  it  was  based."     This  from  the  spoiler  and  ravager 
of   Belgium  1 

What  is  the  origin  of  Germany's  desire  for  peace,  and 
her  fury  at  its  reception  ?  If  she  can  hold  what  she  has 
gained,  there  is  no  need  for  her  to  consider,  much  less  to 
propose  terms.  But  it  is  the  consciousness  that  she 
cannot  keep  what  she  has  won  which  is  the  dominating 
factor  of  the  situation.  The  stream  of  men  is  running 
dry  :  her  output  of  munitions  is  increasingly  outclassed  by 
the  Alhes  :  her  economic  position  is  undeniably  serious 
if  not  desperate.  Naturally,  she  wants  peace,  and 
would  like  to  negotiate  while  in  possession  of  the  spoils. 
The  death-knell  of  that  hope  is  sounded  in  the  Allies' 
Note  to  America. 

What  are  the  aims  of  the  ^\llies  ?  "  These  will  only 
be  set  forth  in  detail  with  all  the  compensations  and  equitable 
indemnities  for  harm  suffered  at  the  moment  of  negotia- 
tions." Certain  terms  arc  specifically  mentioned — for 
example,  ' '  the  restoration  of  Belgium,  of  Serbia,  and 
Montenegro  with  the  compensations  due  to  them  ;  the 
evacuation  of  the  invaded  territories  in  France,  Russia, 
Roumania  with  just  reparation  ;  the  reorganisation  of 
Europe  on  the  principle  of  free  nationality  ;  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Ottoman  Empire." 

It  is  premature  to  enquire  how  much  of  .the 
above  Germany  would  be  willing  to  concede  in  her 
present  situation,  but  that  she  would  very  gladly  make 
peace  on  the  basis  of  the  status  quo,  if  that  were  all, 
many  critics  agree.  What  her  rulers  cannot  swallow  as 
yet  is  the  ignominy  of  pleading  guilty  before  the  world : 
and  we  can  imagine  that  it  is  difiicult  after  deluding  their 
people  with  stories  of  perpetual  conquest  and  promises 
of  final  victory,  to  turn  round,  and  say,  "We  must  have 
peace  :  we  can  hold  out  no  longer."  No  sane  man  ex- 
pects that  to  be  said  yet :  but  we  believe  the  day  will  come. 
It  is  the  fear  of  that  day  which  haunts  the  Kaiser  and  his 
advisers,  military  and  political  ;  it  is  the  determination 
of  the  Alhes  to  bring  that  day  to  pass. 

No  student  of  character  will  easily  believe  that  Ger- 
many asks  for  peace  because  her  position  is  impregnable, 
in  spite  of  the  disingenuous  statements  of  the  German 
press.  So  long  as  the  demand  for  reparation'  is  met  by  the 
answer.  There  is  nothing  to  repair — in  other  words,  by 
the  blustering  denial  or  justification  of  the  crimes  she  has 
committed  and  is  committing  at  this  moment,  there  can 
be  no  peace  between  Germany  and  civilization. 

There  is  one  practical  way,  however,  by  which  Gemiany 
can  prove  her  sincerity  if  that  virtue  still  exists  in  the 
Fatherland.  She  can  withdraw  iiom  the  territory  she 
has  invaded  :  she  can  guarantee  the  restoration  of  Bel- 
gium ;  she  can  restore  ton  for  ton  of  merchant  and 
neutral  shipping ;  she  can  agree  to  pay  "  equitable 
indemnities  "  for  the  harm  she  has  inflicted.  These  are 
the  necessary  preliminaries  to  peace.  But  in  essentials 
there  can  be  no  compromise.  This  is  a  war  between 
opposite  principles,  and  principles  do  not  admit  of 
compromise.  Some  foolish  idealists  imagine  that  Ger- 
many can  be  converted  to  our  ideas  of  international 
morality ;  but  judging  from  her  record,  no  conversion 
can  be  relied  on  unless  it  be  the  outcome  of  military 
defeat.  Europe  will  require  henceforth  a  more  valid 
guarantee  than  a  German  signature  to  a  treaty  :  she  must 
be  deprived  of  the  means  of  aggression  unless  we  are 
prepared  to  hand  on  the  legacy  of  war  to  our  children, 
and  our  children's  children.  That  is  what  we  mean  by 
"  reparation."  If  Germany  is  prepared  to  accept 
now  the  full  consequences  of  defeat  and  thus  anticipate 
the  end  for  which  we  are  fighting,  and  which  we  mean  to 
attain,  then  there  is  a  basis  for  negotiation.  If,  as  is 
almost  certain,  she  elects  to  fight  on  until  there  is  no 
alternative  but  submission,  it  remains  for  us  to  make 
that  supreme  effort,  which  is  needed  to  destroy  the  evil 
spirit  of  Prussianism,  and  to  restore  the  blessings  of  a 
lasting  peace  to  the  world. 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  i8,  1917 


The   Line  of   the   Putna 


By    Hilaire    Belloc 


THE  enemy's  operations  in  Roumania  ha\e  reached 
a  verj'  interesting  phase.  In  order  to  appreciate 
the  character  of  those  operations  at  the  present 
moment  we  shall  do  well  to  mark  the  rate  of 
enemy  advance  before  discussing  the  principal  feature  of 
the  present  week,  which  is  the  struggle  for  the  line  of 
the  Putna  and  the  railway  behind  it. 

The  enemy  entered  Bucharest  on  the  6th  of  December. 
He  may  be  said  upon  the  date  to  have  accomplished  his 
advance  over  the  Wallachian  plain.  He  had  followed  a 
rapidly  retreating  Roumanian  army  (turned  through  the 
Vulcan  pass)  that  had  not  offered  battle.  Their  losses 
had  not  hitherto  been  serious,  but  the  pursuit  had  been 
rapid  and  it  was  the  design  of  the  enemy  by  con\erging 
a  number  of  separate  columns  upon  Bucharest  to  catch 
the  Roumanian  main  body  in  a  trap.  The  converging 
movement  was  excellently  co-ordinated,  it  was  a  Uttle 
Sadowa,  all  drawn  to  scale,  but  it  failed,  because  in  this 
war^  after  the  first  few  weeks,  Prussia  has  always  been 
too  slow.  The  trap  shut  upon  empty  space,  and  there 
was  no  decision  c\'en  in  the  local  field  and  against  the 
particular  enemy  in  question.  There  was  a  partial 
breakdown  on  the  northern  side  which  cost  the  Rou- 
manians a  considerable  number  of  prisoners  and  a  few 
guns,  but  the  main  army  retired  intact,  and,  what  was 
very  remarkable,  the  heavy  guns  of  the  fortress  of 
Bucharest  and  its  stores  were  saved.  The  Roumanian 
army  fell  back  to  refit  and  reorganise  behind  a  screen  of 
Russian  forces  which  had  come  to  the  rescue,  and  which 
had  already  begun  to  enter  into  play  ^^when  Bucharest 
was  entered. 

The  Russian  forces  thus  newly  arri\ed  made  a  com- 
plete line  between  the  mountains  and  the  Danube  by  the 
I2th  of  December.  That  is  the  date,  Tuesday,  the  I2th 
of  December,  from  which  the  present  operations  date. 
We  can  only  judge  their  character  and  probable  outcome 
by  remembering  that  the  Roumanian  campaign  is  made 
up  of  two  sharply  divided  chapters :  the  first  the 
Roumanian  retreat  through  all  Wallachia,  including  the 
abandonment  of  the  capital.  The  second  the  deliberate 
Russian  defensive  with  its  strict  plan  and  slow  methodical 
retirement,  which  thus  originated  five  weeks  ago,  not 
more  than  a  long  day's  walk  from  the  Putna,  and  is 
btill  in  progress. 

From  that    moment   onwards   everything  has   been  a 


■BUCHAREST 


series  of  rearguard  actions,  without  anything  approaching 
a  dangerous  sahent  or  any  peril  of"  considerable  loss. 
Hardly  any  guns  have  been  taken,  and  the  wounded 
picked  up  upon  each  enemy  advance  have  formed  but 
an  insignificant  fraction  of  the  200,000  to  250,000  men 
engaged.  .All  serious  enemy  criticism  recognises  this 
feature  in  the  Roumanian  campaign  after  the  12th  of 
December,  notably  that  of  Major  Moraht,  whose  M'ork 
continues  to  be  the  least  political,  the  least  rhetorical, 
and  the  best  worth  following  on  the  enemy's  side. 

From  Buciiarest  to  Schumann's  "  Lines  of  the  Sereth," 
of  which  Focsani  is  the  principal  point,  is  a  matter  of 
about  80  miles.  When  the  Russians  seriously  came  into 
play  to  e.xhaust  the  enemy's  advance  more  than  half  that 
distance  had  been  covered  by  the  invader. 

E\^erything  that  has  followed  has  been  an  increasing 
attrition  of  the  offensive  and  an  increasing  friction  and 
consequent  retardation  in  the  movement.  Rimnicu, 
20  miles  from  Focsani,  and  some  60  from  Bucharest, 
along  the  main  road  and  railway  which  unite  those  two 
points,  was  reached  just  over  a  week  after  the  new 
phase  began.  It  was  there  that  the  first  considerable 
rearguard  action  was  fought.  It  did  not  open  until  the 
22nd  December.  The  corps  engaged  on  the  critical 
point,  that  is  astraddle  of  the  high  road,  was  one  of  the 
best  in  the  German  service  :  the  Alpine  corps  which  had 
for  many  months  defended  a  sector  in  the  West  near 
Rheims.  The  action  lasted  five  days,  right  over  Christ- 
mas, and  only  terminated  on  the  27th,  when  the  Russian 
rearguard  fell  back  towards  Focsani  20  miles  away. 
Then  came  a  minor  rearguard  action,  four  miles  outside 
Focsani,  and  on  the  8th  January,  the  Monday,  Focsani, 
was  entered  twelve  days  after  the  action  at  Rimnicu. 
The  Russians  fell  back  Ijchind  the  river  Putna  and  have 
held  its  line  from  that  moment  for  a  full  week,  that  is, 
up  to  last  Monday,  January  15th,  news  of  which  is  the 
last  received  in  London  up  to  the  moment  of  writing. 

Now  let  us  see  what  interest  the  struggle  presents 
at  the  present  moment  in  connection  with  this  Putna- 
Sereth  line. 

First  let  us  recapitulate  the  objects  of  either  party. 

It  is  the  object  of  the  Allies  to  "  hold  "  the  enemy  in 
this  field.  Holding  does  not  mean  keeping  in  one  place, 
it  means  occupying  and  compelling  to  effort.  It  is  the 
,  object  of  the  Allies  to  com])el  Prussia  and  her  dependents 
to  keep  in  this  field  all  the  forces  they  have  adventured 
there,  to  prevent  their  coming  down  south  against 
^lacedonia,  if  possible,  and  above  all  to  exhaust  this 
offensive  before  the  main  Allied  action  elsewhere  begins. 
The  corresponding  task  of  the  enemy  is  not  (strategically) 
to  occupy  towns  and  fields — whatever  political  value 
this  may  have  in  impressing  neutral  and  civilian  opinion 
— his  main  strategical  object  is  to  break  the  Russian 
front  here  and  so  ptit  great  numbers  of  his  enemy  out 
of  action,  or,  alternatively,  to  envelop  if  he  can  the  whole, 
or  at  least  some  large  portion,  of  the  forces  opposed  to 
him  and  so  put  them  out  of  action. 

We  ha\e  seen  in  past  articles  how  he  might  hope  to  do 
this  if  he  could  force  the  Oituz  Pass.  He  would  then 
get  right  round  the  right  of  the  main  Russo- Roumanian 
line  and  compel  it  to  a  very  rapid  and  probably  disastrous 
retreat.  Hitherto  he  has  "failed  to  get  thus  right  round 
tlie  right  by  the  Oituz.  That  pi^•ot  has  been  kept  almost 
immobile  for  a  month  or  more.  At  the  moment  of  writing 
the  enemy  is  still  trying  to  get  round  the  Oituz  by  the 
Parlea  side  valley,  having  failed  to  force  the  main  pass 
directly.  But  he  has  not  yet  had  any  success  even  in 
this  flank  movement. 

The  enemy  might,  as  an  alternative,  get  round  by  his 
right,  the  Russian  left.  If  he  broke  the  Russian  front 
on  the  Lower  Sereth  he  would  be  able  to  envelop  aftcr 
a  fashion,  less  decisive,  but  certainly  productive  of  very 
considerable  losses  :  the  only  third  course  is  to  try  and 
pierce  the  centre  near  Focsani  and  along  the  road  and 
'■aih\ay  which  cross  the   Putna   north  of   Focsani,  and 


January  i8,  191, 


LAND    &    WATER 


run  along  just  under  the  mountains  up  the  Moravian 
plain,  or  near  Fundeni,  or  at  both  points. 

Prussian  strategical  concepts  never  vary.  They 
always  follow  a  book  plan  laicl  down  after  some  success 
in  the  past,  even  if  the  plan  has  already  led  them  to 
disaster ;  and  they  are  doing  here  what  the  successes  of 
more  than  a  generation  ago  led  them  to  do  at  the  Marne  ; 
of  course,  under  conditions  quite  different  from  those  of 
the  Marne.  They  are  acting  upon  a  wing  and  they 
are  trying  to  force  a  point  in  the  centre.  The  wing 
upon  which  they  arc  acting  is  the  Lower  Sereth  and 
tlie  point  of  Galatz.  The  centre  where  not  only  the 
enemy  is  acting  but  where  he  musl  act  is  the  sector  of 
Focsani,  and  meanwhile  he  is  seeing  whether  he  can 
achieve  anything  at  an  intervening  point,  that  of  Fundeni. 

Of  these  three  points  by  far  the  most  important  is  that 

of  Focsani.     The  town  of  Galatz,  on  account  of  its  size 

and    commercial    importance,   has    naturally  attracted 

attention  in  our  press,  but  strategically  it  only  means  the 

left  wing  of  the  Allies.     The  point  of  Fundeni  has  been 

hardly  heard  of,  though,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  moment,  it 

is  very  important.'   The  point   of  Focsani,   that  is,  the 

sector  in  front  of  the  town  of  the  line  of  the  Putna.has 

not  seemed  as  important  to  most  people  as  the  mere 

town  itself  ;   it  is  far  more  important,  for  it  it  is  forced 

the  results  would  be  considerable:. 


Let  us  consider  the  three  efforts  in  the  order  of  their 
importance,  referred  to  the  above  Sketch  IL 

\yhy  must  the  enemy  make  a  special  effort  in  front  of 
Focsani,  where  he  still  keeps  the  remnant  of  his  fine 
Alpine  corps  ?  Because  he  is  there  caught  in  a  sort  of 
buckle,  between  the  bending  course  of  the  Purtna  and  the 
hills  to  the  east,  so  that  he  is  exposed  to  the  chance  of  an 
offensive  against  the  right  flank  of  that  particular  sector. 
That  is  his  negative  reason  for  getting  out  of  a  restricted 
and,  what  would  be  against  an  enemy  equally  armed,  a 
dangerous  piece  of  the  field.  He  must  go  fcrward  or 
backward  here,  and  obviously  it  is  his  opportunity  and 
design  to  go  forward. 

But  there  is  also  a  positi\-e  reason  for  making  Focsani 
lus  principal  effort.  At  a  range  which  at  its  minimum 
is  less  than  8,000  yards  behind  Putna,  runs  the  only 
railway  uniting  the  two  main  lines  of  comniimicatioii,  which 
serve  respectively  the  left  and  the  right  of  the  Russian 
forces.  The  railway  dispositions  of  Moldavia  are  such 
that  one  main  line  running  down  the  valley  of  the  Sereth  (i ) 
and  another  quite  separate  running  down  the  valley'  of 
■she  Barladu,  (2)  are  the  only  means  of  supplying  the  front 
r'.iong  the  Putna  and  the  Sereth  with  shei  I  and  supplies. 
At  the  narrowest  point  between  these  two  railways  there 
run  a  road  and  a  railway.  They  leave  the  first  railway 
at  Mararestii,   cross   the  Sereth   and   its    marshy  valley 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  i8,  1917 


meadows  by  a'good  double  bridge  (the  only  one  for  several 
days'  march)  at  Badtaretul  and  join  the  second  line  at 
Tccuciiil. 

It  is  true  that  the  Russians  and  Roumanians  couki 
design,  in  time  achieve,  and  have  probably  already 
sketched  out,  another  unison  between  the  two  main  rail- 
way lines  liigher  up  the  Scrcth  valley  ;  but  probably  to 
this  moment,  certainly  till  quite  lately,  this  little  local 
U no,  not  more  than  twelve  miles  long,  with  its  bridges 
and  viaducts  and  road  causeways  across  the  Sereth  and 
its  marshes,  was  vital  to  a  holding  of  the  Putna  and 
Sereth  hnes. 

Now  to  seize  that  railway,  to  hold  its  bridges,  and 
without  too  much  delay  to  reach  its  termini  would  be  to 
hamper  the  communications  between  the  Russian  right 
and  the  Russian  left,  and  that  is  why  the  enemy  must 
attack  again,  heavy  as  his  losses  have  already  been  here 
in  front  of  Focsani.  In  the  very  first  days  of  his  efforts 
on  this  sector,  a  week  ago,  he  got  across  the  Putna 
(which  is  not  a  considerable  stream),  and  was  m  striking 
distance  of  this  vital  little  railway  (3,  on  Map  II.).  The 
surprise  was  effected  in  a  fog.  The  Russians  promptly 
threw  him  back  again  and  he  was  or  still  is — last 
Monday  night — on  the  further  bank. 

The  reason  he  is  also  considering  his  chances  of 
crossing  at  the  point  of  Fundeni  is  this.  That  Itirge  loop 
in  the  Lower  Sereth  which  contains  Fundeni  is  the  last 
hard  ground  before  you  come  to  the  extensive  marshes 
which  stretch  all  down  to  the  last  reaches  of  the  river 
to  the  Danube.  The  enemy  feels  that  even  if  he  should  fail 
to  force  the  extreme  right  by  Galatz  (and  he  has  been  so 
long  about  it  that  he  has  already  failed,  for  there  would 
be  ample  time  to  retire  before  Galatz  was  occupied)  he 
might  make  a  stroke  by  Fundeni.  He  has,  as  a  fact, 
pressed  forward  in  a  sort  of  peak  right  up  to  the  southern 
end  of  the  loop.  The  Russians  are  on  his  left  at  Manescii, 
and  on  his  right  Cragenii  (M  and  C  on  the  map),  but  the 
enemy  is  on  the  edge  of  the  southern  bank  of  the  river 
in  between  and  is  trying  to  get  across.  He  is  here 
holding  what  must  be  a  most  expensive  and  unhealthy 
little  «dient  subject  to  cross  fire  at  quite  short  range, 
and  he  must  go  forward  across  the  river  quickly  or  go 
back. 

As  for  the  operations  in  front  of  Galatz,  though  they 
can  no  longer  be  decisive  the  enemy  laboriously  continues 
them  and  their  conditions  are  as  follows  : 

Between  Bi.-aila  and  the  Sereth  there  is  a  large  marsh 
on  the  eastem  side  of  which  is  a  shallow  mere,  sur- 
rounded by  q  uite  impassable  wet  soil  and  the  rest  of  which 
gets  gradually  drier  as  one  gets  further  from  this  mere. 
There  is  ilo  road  across  the  marsh,  though  one  could 


BRAIIA 


easily  be  constructed  over  the  drier  western  part,  but 
there  is  a  railway  embankment  which  makes  a  great 
elbow  corresponding  to  the  limit  between  the  drier  and 
the  wetter  part  of  the  morass.  It  is  along  this  embank- 
ment, aided  probably  by  a  new  road  to  the  west  of  it, 
that  the  enemy  has  painfully  proceeded  during  the  last 
ten  days,  and  is  now  fighting  for  the  hamlet  of  Vodeni, 
which  stands  on  a  sort  of  a  spit  of  dry  land  within  3,009 
yards  of  the  Sereth. 

Beyond  the  Sereth  the  ground  is  hard  and  there  is  a 
good  road  nearly  parallel  to  the  river  and  leading  into 
Galatz.  Meanwhile  the  town  of  Galatz  itself  is  under 
fire  from  the  other  side  of  the  Danube. 

The  operations  of  advancing  upon  and  occupying  the 
town  should  be  a  mere  matter  of  plan  to  the  force  which 
possesses  superior  artillery,  and  threatens  it  from  two 
sides,  but  the  chance  of  doing  this  with  sufficient  rapidity 
to  break  the  Russian  left  flank  and  so  tufn  the  whole 
line  has  gone  long  ago. 


The   Macedonian  Front 


There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  injudicious  writing 
in  our  press  iipon  the  Macedonian  front,  criticism  of  the 
Salonika  operations  as  a  whole,  and  even  the  suggestion 
that  they  do. not  now  fulfil  any  strategical  purpose. 

With  regard  to  such  criticism  and  suggestion  it  is 
sufficient  to  repeat  that  the  conduct  of  this  war  is,  happily, 
not  3'et  fallen  into  the  hands  of  newspapers  or  even 
politicians. 

The  military  reasons  for  and  against  the  presence  of 
such  and  such  a  number  of  men  and  materials  in  Mace- 
donia, and  the  line  they  shall  hold  at  any  moment  are  a 
product  of  very  many  factors,  all  of  which  have  to  be 
allowed  for  and  balanced  one  against  the  other.  So 
many  Bulgarian  and  Turkish  troops  are  held  :  such  is 
the  danger  of  their  reinforcements  within  such  a  mini- 
mum period  of  time  :  such  is  the  cost  per  man  in  tonnage  : 
such  and  such  are  the  most  recently  observed  movements 
of  the  enemy's  troops  in  the  Balkans — and  so  forth. 

No  judgment  worth  a  rap  could  be  formed  by  the 
best  professional  trained  observer  on  the  spot  if  he  had 
not  these  factors  before  him.  Even  with  all  such  factors 
available  no  one  but  men  trained  to  the  higher  command 
can  put  them  together  usefully. 

But  of  their  nature  these  things  must  be  kept  secret. 
The  elements  are  therefore  lacking  for  any  civilian 
opinion — let  alone  newspaper  opinion — upon  the  matter, 
and  the  less  of  it  there  is,  the  better. 

One  thing  is  perfectly  clear  and  it  is  astonishing  that 


even  general  opinion  has  not  seized  it  yet.  No  attack 
can  be  made  upon  the  Macedonian  front  which  shall  pro- 
duce an  effect  of  surprise. 

There  are  two  reasons  for  this.  First,  the  oppor- 
tunities the  enemy  has  for  massing  upon  that  front  are 
very  much  less  than  the  opportunities  of  the  Allies  for 
retirement. 

Secondly,  the  exhaustion  of  the  enemy  is  such  that 
no  offensive  can  be  undertaken  in  Macedonia  before  the 
abandonment  of  the  corresponding  movement  in  Rou- 
mania. 

For  the  massing  against  us  upon  the  Macedonian 
front  (which  means  much  more  the  bringing  up  of  heavy 
guns  and  the  establishment  of  a  head'  of  shell  than  it 
docs  the  movement  of  troops— though  the  latter  would 
have  to  present  a  50  per  cent,  increase  at  least  before  an 
attack  could  be  made)  the  enemy  has  only  one  single 
line  of  railway  and  one  mountain  road  :  The  railway 
down  the  Vardar  valley  and  tlie  road  over  the  Babuna. 
\Ve  remember  what  a  number  of  weeks  were  required 
for  the  concentration  of  the  Trentino,  with  large  depots 
already  established  and  with  an  international  double 
line  of  railway  feeding  the  enemy.  Under  such  con- 
ditions as  those  of  the  Macedonian  mountains  in  winter, 
a  prolonged  effort  of  this  kifid  would  lie  before  the 
Intelligence  of  the  AlHes,  exposed  in  every  detail. 

The  alternative,  a  concentration  upon  the  enemy  left 
against  the  British  troops  in  the  Struma  valley,  which  has 


January  i8,  1917 


LAiND    &    WATER 


better  though  longer  communications,  would  be  equally 
discoverable,  or  perhaps  even  more  easily  discoverable. 
Surprise,  with  any  normal  vigilance  upon  the  Allied  side 
is,  in  the  matter  of  concentration,  virtually  impossible. 

Further,  as  I  have  said  above,  even  the  chance  of  such 
an  operation,  let  alone  its  imminence,  would  be  condi- 
tioned by  the  cessation  of  the  main  effort  in  Roumania. 
So  long  as  that  effort  continues  it  cannot  be  supple- 
mented by  a  large  offensive  in  Macedonia.  The  enemy 
has  neither  the  men  nor  the  material  for  two  such  coin- 
cident operations. 

The  Present  Political  Factor  in  the  War 

The  European  war  has  entered  a  new  phase  since  the 
rejection  of  Germany's  offer  foe  peace.  I  say  "  Germany's 
offer,"  because,  though  the  pressure  came  from  all  the 
Alliance  against  us  indiscriminately,  though  Austria- 
Hungary  is  even  in  a  worse  case  than  the  German  Empire, 
Germany  was  the  spokesman  for  that  mass  of  150  millions 
which  has  been  harnessed  under  Prussia  to  challenge 
Europe  and  civilization. 

The  phase  into  which  it  has  now  entered  is,  on  the 
enemy's  side,  almost  entirely  political. 

The  political  element  as  distinguished  from  the  purely 
strategic — by  which  one  does  not  mean  the  ultimate 
political  aims  of  a  war  which  dominate  all  strategy,  but 
the  immediate  striking  for  political  effect  upon  neutrals 
and  civilians  which  interferes  with  normal  strategy — has 
been  present  ever  since  the  Battle  of  the  Marne.  But  it 
has  been  present  in  \'arying  proportions. 

The  lirst  great  military  action  after  the  Marne,  the 
belated  attempt  to  reach  the  Straits  of  Dover,  had  a  little 
))oHtical  element  in  it.  There  was  the  feeling  that  even  if 
the  Allied  line  were  not  turned  by  the  north,  at  least  a 
coast  position  would  be  taken  which  would  embarrass 
Great  Britain  materially,  but  much  more  affect  opinion  in 
Great  Britain.  This  political  element,  however,  in  the  great 
Battle  of  Ypres,  towards  the  end  of  i()i4,  was  quite  sub- 
sidiary to  the  strategic  element.  The  enemy,  having 
lost  all  his  original  plan  of  campaign  against  the  superior 
strategy  of  his  opponents  upon  the  Marne,  and  having 
taken  such  an  extraordinarily  long  time  to  use  his  great 
superiority  in  numbers  for  action  round  the  left  or  Northern 
Hank,  having  allowed  the  "  Seagate  "  of  the  Western  line 
to  be  closed  against  him  (why  he  allowed  it,  by  what 
error  he  allowed  it,  has  never  been  explained),  had  no 
choice  but  to  try  and  batter  in  that  gate.  There  had 
as  yet  been  no  experience  to  guide  him.  No  one  knew 
how  a  great  offensive  would  fare  against  the  modern 
defensive,  and  though  history  will  ridicule  Prussian 
strategy  for  its  cumbersome  blunder  in  failing  to  turn  the 
open  Allied  flank,  it  will  not  blame  the  Prussian  effort  to 
recover  from  that  blunder  by  the  great  attack  upon  the 
north-eastern  sector  of  Ypres  which  the  French  call  the 
Battle  of  the  Yser  and  the  English  the  Battle  of  Ypres. 
.  The  attack  upon  the  Russians  during  the  winter  was 
again  in  part  political  :  it  was  concerned  with  the  re- 
establishment  of  confidence  in  Germany  by  the  driving 
of  the  Russians  out  of  East  Prussia.  But  \vhen  the  great 
advance  of  1915  was  undertaken  by  the  Austro-Germans, 
once  they  had  broken  the  Galician  lines  and  had  begun 
the  only  true  pursuit  they  have  enjoj^ed  in  this  war  (it 
lasted  thirteen  days),  the  political  element  in  their 
military  plans  was  almost  eliminated. 

From  the  ist  of  May,  1915,  to  the  beginning  of  October, 
that  is  for  live  full  months,  the  enemy's  command,  now 
united,  kept  a  distinctly  military  object  in  view  :  the 
destruction  of  the  Russian  Army.  I  need  not  repeat 
again  the  story  of  the  five  great  salients  and  of  the  failure 
of  each,  the  last  and  greatest  failure,  which  also  came 
nearest  to  success,  being  that  which  takes  its  name  from 
the  town  of  Vilna. 

!  With  the  failure  of  the  Pohsh  campaign,  the  necessity 
for  pohtical  effect  rose  again.  With  the  help  of  Bulgaria 
Serbia  was  overrun.  It  was  an  action  which  could  not 
possibly  lead  to  any  military  decision.  It  did  not  even 
give  a  base  in  the  Mediterrai|ean.  The  Allies,  by  their 
prompt  occupation  of  Salonika,  saw  to  that.  But  it 
was  not  wholly  political  by  any  means.  It  greatly 
reinforced  the  Turkish  powers  of  resistance.  It  increased 
the  enemy  hold  upon  the  Adriatic.  It  prevented 
Bulgaria  from  breaking  away  at  lier  own  moment. 

With  the  opening  of  1916  the  pohtical  element  sank 


again  to  the  advantage  of  the  military  element,  though 
the  enemy's  plans  were  now  entirely  Prussian  in 
origin  and  direction.  The  great  attack  upon  the  sector 
of  Verdun  was,  during  all  its  first  furious  days,  ancl  I 
think  as  late  as  April  gth,  1916  (with  regard  to  which 
date  I  wrote  in  .  these  columns  that  the  Battle  of 
Verdun  was  won)  in  the  main  a  military  conception 
without  political  afterthought.  It  was  hoped  at  first 
to  break  the  French  front  as  the  Russian  front  in 
Galicia  had  been  broken  more  than  nine  months  before. 
Even  when  that  chance  was  lost  it  was  still  hoped 
that  some  locally  crushing  defeat  could  be  inflicted  upon 
the  French,  which  would  exhaust  their  future  powers 
and  which  would  involve  the  destruction  of  a  really  con- 
siderable proportion  of  their  armed  forces  and  material. 
With  the  failure  of  this  effort  the  political  element  entered 
again  and  all  the  later  battles  round  Verdun,  throughout 
April,  May  and  June,  were  more  and  more  designed  to 
affect  the  civilian  mind  at  home  and  abroad. 

We  all  know  how  the  phrases  :  "  The  taking  of  Ver- 
dun," "  The  heart  of  France,"  "  The  gradual  approach 
to  the  citadel,"  and  so  forth,  which  had  no  military 
meaning  whatsoever,  were  made  familiar  to  the  reading 
public  of  botli  hemispheres.  We  all  know  how  in  the 
German  Press  and  in  the  American,  blunt  manly  pro- 
phecies were  issued  sometimes,  giving  the  exact  date  on 
which  Verdun  Mould  be  "  taken."  To  some  extent  this 
political  propaganda  succeeded.  I  myself  met  not  a  few 
Frenchmen  who  talked  of  the  "  resistance  of  the  town  of 
Verdun,"  and  who  asked  whether  "  the  fortress  would 
fall."  What  is  more  significant,  I  met  very  many  men 
abroad  who,  knowing  perfectly  well  that  the  phrasC  was 
meaningless  in  any  military  sense,  yet  believed  that  it 
had  taken  such  liold  ujwn  the  public  imagination  that  if 
German  troops  were  to  enter  the  town  of  Verdun,  no 
matter  how  strong  the  French  lines  behind  the  town 
might  be,  no  matter  at  what  heavy  cost  the  Germans 
should  enter  that  town  or  at  what  slight  expense  the 
French  should  reform  their  line,  the  mere  news  of  such  an 
entry  would  affect  opinion  in  a  perilous  degree.  It  may 
have  been  so.  At  any  rate,  to  a  large  extent  in  thia 
country  and  almost  universally  in  America,  this  purely 
political  point  was  made  the  test. 

A  Political  Blunder 

Oddly  enough,  this  foolery,  which  looked  as  though  it 
could  only  be  to  the  profit  of  the  enemy  if  it  spread, 
turned  against  him.  He  had  told  every  body  that  there 
was  a  "  Fortress  of  Verdun"  for  all  the  world  like  the 
old-fashioned  fortresses  that  were  surrounded,  summoned, 
sapped  up  to  and  made  to"  fall"  with  the  consequent  eli- 
mination of  an  army  therein  contained.  Therefore  getting 
into  the  town  of  Verdun  became  the  test  of  his  own  success 
or  failure.  That  stupid  lie  had  obtained  currency.  There- 
fore, his  failure  to  get  into  the  town  of  Verdun  greatly 
exaggerated  the  public  judgment  of  his  defeat.  So 
much  the  better.  At  any  rate,  he  had  immixed  a  political 
object  with  his  strategy  to  the  increasing  chsadvantage 
of  the  latter,  more  and  more,  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
great  Allied  offensive  upon  the  Somme. 

During  the  progress  of  that  offensive,  that  is,  during 
the  four  open  months  of  1916,  from  the  ist  of  July 
onwards,  the  political  element  in  the  German  plans 
dwindled.  A  man  who  can  barely  parry  violent  blows 
on  his  face  stops  thinking  about  the  figure  he  cuts  before 
the  neutral  public  and  its  chances  of  relieving  him  sooner 
or  later.  He  bends  his  whole  mind  to  defence  ;  and  this  was 
true,  not  only  of  the  defence  on  the  Somme,  but  of  the 
defence  against  the  victorious  Russian  pressure  during  the 
summer  in  Volhynia  and  Galicia.  Until  the  autumn  of  1916 
the  Central  Powers  were  concerned  with  the  enormous 
losses  upon  the  West,  and  the  peril  of  the  two  critical 
railway  junctions,  Baranovitchi  and  Kovel  upon  the 
East.  The  political  element  in  the  enemy's  plans  there- 
fore dwindled. 

But  at  the  close  of  that  fight  there  occurred  something 
exceedingly  significant  of  what  the  future  was  to  be. 
The  enemy  began  privately  to  feel  for  peace. 

We  shall  not  know  perhaps  during  the  lifetime  of 
anyone  who  reads  this — certainly  not  for  many  years — 
exactly  what  happened.  One  man  can  only  tell  one  part  of 
the  story,  one  another.  But  this  much  is  certain :  That 
the  enemy  had  already  shown  by  the  uutumu  of   1916 


8 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  i8,  1917 


an  anxious  desire  to  obtain  a  reprieve.  Polish  recruit- 
ment was  getting  more  and  more  doubtful,  and  short  uf 
Pohsh  recruitment  he  had  for  drafts  to  rehcve  his  forces 
in  action,  right  up  to  the  middle  of  the  next  summer, 
numbers  which  were  not  equivalent  to  one-third  of  those 
forces  in  action. 

These  first  feelers  for  peace  disappointed  him.  He  then 
gambled  upon  the  very  doubtful  experiment  of  anticipating 
reserves  which  might  be  absolutely  necessary  to  his 
existence  but  a  few  months  hence  :  he  created  the  new 
divisions  ;  he  sacriliced  Monastir,  and  he  staked  every- 
thing upon  the  almost  purely  political  experiment  of  the 
Roumanian  campaign.  He  no  longer  had  the  strength 
to  do  the  thing  on  any  considerable  scale.  Of  the  forces  at 
work  not  one  half  were  German  ;  of  the  twelve  moving 
divisions  which  Germany  herself  had  just  managed  to 
j)rovide  (out  of  thirty),  all  were  severely  tried  ;  two  at  least 
to  our  knowledge  had  to  be  withdrawn  for  re-formation. 
One,  the  nth  iiavarian,  was  almost  annihilated.  Still, 
by  this  special  concentration  upon  one  small  sector  of  his 
further  extended  fronts,  the  enemy  achieved  an 
advance  across  the  whole  of  Wallachia.  The  pohtical 
effect  which  he  had  desired  once  more  stood  him  in 
far  better  stead  than  it  should  have  done.  A  nervous- 
ness exactly  suiting  the  enemy's  book  spread  throughout 
public  opinion  as  a  result  of  this  Roumanian  affair.  The 
bpectacle   of   such   nervousness   reacted   upon   neutrals. 

Definite  Peace   Proposals 

Suddenly  on  Dec.  12th,  the  enemy  openly  proposed 
peace.  He  acted  so  clumsily  that  he  missed  fire  even  with 
those  whom  he  had  the  best  chance  of  entrapping,  and  he 
found  himself  about  a  month  later  certainly  condemned 
to  a  continuation  of  the  war.  He  knows  what  result 
that  continuation  will  have.  He  cannot  avoid  it  by 
any  military  action.  He  is  therefore  now  about  to  con- 
centrate upon  action  almost  purely  political. 

What  form  this  will  take  no  one  can  say.  He  may 
solemnly  erect  in  due  form  a  free  Polish  State.  He  may 
gamble  still  further  with  his  dwindling  reserves  and 
undertake  a  spectacular  offensive  even  in  the  West, 
with  the  certainty  of  defeat  if  it  be  continued,  but 
in  the  remaining  hope  that  its  delivery  may  even 
yet  affect  opinion.  He  may  suggest  a  corresponding 
insufficient  stroke  against  the  treasures  of  Italy  : 
an  hypothesis  demanding  long  preparation.  He  may, 
if  he  is  guided  by  counsels  even  more  foolish  than 
those  which  led  him  to  the  blunders  of  last  year, 
waste    himself   upon    a    diversion    in    Macedonia. 

But  whatever  he  does  now  must  necessarily  ha\e 
for  its  object  aja  effect  more  entirely  political  than  any 
movement  he  has  yet  undertaken.  Strategic  considera- 
tions in  the  large  sense  of  that  phrase  form  a  less  pro- 
portion of  his  plan  than  ever. 

If  we  consider  the  enemy's  situation  not  only  from 
that  numerical  standpoint  which  is  at  the  bottom  of 
argument  and  judgment  in  these  matters,  but  also  from 
the  standpoint  of  quality  and  specific  Use,  the  necessity 
he  is  now  under  of  political  effect  will  be  still  more  clear. 
He  cannot  adopt  a  general  defensive. 

Defensive  Strategy 

In  any  case,  a  general  defensive  towards  the  end  of  a 
campaign  is  almost  a  contradiction  in  terms.  The  only 
])oint  of  any  defensive  in  strategy  as  in  tactics  is  to  hang 
out  until  an  offensive  can  be  delivered.  But  supposing 
him  merely  concerned  with  the  prolongation  of  action  in 
time  :  supposing  him  merely  saying  to  himself  :  "If  I 
can  draw  it  gut  even  by  a  month  longer  than  would  seem 
jKJSsible,  something  may  tmn  up  in  my  favour  during  that 
month."  ev'en  then  the  policy  of  a  mere  defensive  is 
forbidden  him. 

It  is  forbidden  him  because  he  has  deliberately  sacrificed 
\vhat  would  have  been  such  an  ultimate  defensive 
strength  to  hazardous  and  inconclusive  offensive  move- 
ments. He  has  reduced  his  defensive  power  to  the  last 
limits  everywhere  and  has  organised  his  surplus  or  margin 
i){  power  to  strike  with,  and  has  used  it  recklessly  in  the 
striking.  Every  such  expenditure  has  been  to  the 
advantage  of  the  Allies.  Every  occupation  of  territory 
which  has  not  shortened  a  line  or  provided  materials  and 
men  in  excess  of  its  cost,  has  advantaged  the  Allies,  and 


none  perhaps  more  than  these  last  actions  in  Roumania, 
following  upon  the  occupation  of  Bucharest.  It  is  no 
Itinger  possible  for  the  enemy  to  change  the  texture  either 
of  his  organisation  or  of  his  idea,  either  of  his  military 
dispositions  or  of  his  mental  balance.  He  is  no  longer 
in  a  position  to  say  "  After  such  and  such  a  date  I  will 
imdertakc  no  new  offensive.  I  will  spin  out  the  defensi\e 
alone."  It  is  too  late  for  him  to  undertake  even  that 
policy  of  despair.  He  is  condemned  to  a  further  offensive 
upon  this  sector  or  that  until  his  line  cracks. 

Intellectually  it  is  our  business  to  welcome  each  such 
renewed  effort.  Morally  it  is  our  business  to  forbid 
sensation  and  above  all  sensational  fear  during  the 
progress  of  such  efforts.  H.  Bhlloc 


The  following  extract  from  the  Frankjiirlcr  Zeilung  gives 
a  good  idea  of  the  military  opinions  still  beirig  promulgated 
in  Germany  :  "  We  do  not  doubt  that  it  will  be  possible  for 
the  Western  Powers  to  begin  a  new  gigantic  battle  in  tlic 
West,  and  we  also  do  not  doubt  that  many  of  our  enemies 
still  belie\e  that  tiiis  is  capable  of  winning  for  the  Entente 
the  victory  and  the  peace  which  it  desires.  But  we  are  filled 
by  the  firm  conviction  that  the  solid  facts  which  the  war  lias 
created  in  our  favour  are  anchored  so  firmly  in  the  bloody 
ground  of  the  battlefields  that  no  army  in  the  world  can  dis- 
lodge them.  What  has  been  achieved  is  enough  for  a  good 
peace,  and  a  peace  acceptable  to  the  enemy  also  ;  if  they 
do  not  want  it,  we  shall  proceed  to  win  for  ourselves  a  still 
better  peace." 

Afr.  George  Big\\ood's  record  Lancashire  Terrilorials  in 
CaUipoli  (Country  Life  Library,  is.  (xL  net),  is  rigiitly  called 
"  an  epic  of  heroism."  for,  though  in  the  eyes  of  most  people 
the  deeds  of  the  Colonials  have  overshadowed  the  work  of  the 
Imperial  units  ser\ing  in  that  campaign,  yet  there  are  stories 
to  tell  of  the  men  of  Blackburn,  Wigan,  J:5urnley,  Manchester, 
and  other  Lancashire  centres  that  the  Colonials  may  equal, 
hut  cannot  excel.  The  author  has  been  careful  to  emphasise 
the  personal  side  of  his  narrative,  by  means  of  extracts  from 
letters  and  individual  accounts  of  the  work  in  Gallipoli,  and 
he  lias  made  a  book  of  wiiich  Lancashire  may  well  be  proud. 

Simf^s,  and  Lyrics  of  Russia,  translated  by  John  Pollen, 
L.I,.D.  (East  and  West,  3s.  bd.  net)  is  representative  of  the 
wcrk  of  leading  Russian  poets,  including  Tolstoi,  Lermonteff, 
and  others  less  well-known  in  this  country,  while  there  arc 
also  included  translations  of  Russian  folk  songs  that  are  so 
old  as  to  have  passed  beyond  individual  authorship.  The 
translation  has  not  only  preserved  the  poetic  feeling  of  the 
originals,  but  has  also  reproduced  and  made  real  the  national 
characteristics  that  such  a  book  should  convey  to  its  readers. 

.\  pamphlet  based  upon  an  experiment  in  village  organisa- 
tion made  by  Mr.  W.  R.  Boeltcr,  entitled  Parish  War  Socielies, 
How  tlicv  are  Formed  and  Conducted  is  now  published  by 
Smallholders  Union,  7,  Queen  Street  Place.  E.C.  The  author 
claims  that  the  parish  Ts  the  right  unit  of  organisation,  and 
he  gives  manv  practical  hints  how  a  sound  organisation  can 
be  created.     It  is  a  useful  little  work  at  this  moment. 

Mr.  Ernest  Bergholt,  the  well-known  authority  on  whist 
and  bridge  has  now  brought  out  (Routledgc  and  Son,  is.  3d.) 
a  small  volume  entitled  Roval  Anciion  Bridge.  It  deals 
with  the  laws  and  principles  of  the  game,  under  the  English 
code  of  1914,  and  is  an  invaluable  handbook. 

The  seventh  exhibition  of  the  Sencfelder  Club  for  the 
advancement  of  artistic  lithograjihy,  of  which  Mr.  Joseph 
I'enncll  is  President,  opens  on  Saturday  at  the  Leicester 
Gallieries,  Leicester  Square.  A  special  feature  will  be  the 
collection  of  lithographs  bv  distinguished  French  artists, 
which  will  be  shown  together  with  those  of  the  best  fiviiig 
ICnglish  exponents.  Daumier,  Gavarni,  Delacroix,  Forain, 
Steinlen,  Corot,  Carriere,  Leperc,  Legros,  Rops,  Fantin- 
Latour,  Puvis  de  Chavanncs.  Renoir,  Toulouse-Lautrec,  and 
Willctte  wiU  all  be  well  rejircsented. 

l-'or  the  benefit  of' girls  and  young  women  with  a  taste  for 
writing  and  a  total  lack  of  knowledge  of  how  to  turn  it  to 
account,  the  Society  of  Women  Journalists  is  arranging  -to 
take  a  few  pupils  in  secretarial  work  and  elementary  journalism. 
The  Society  was  recognised  by  the  Queen  and  Queen  Alex- 
andra as  the  official  channel  through  which  to  reach  women 
writers,  as  both  Royal  ladies  gave  generous  donations  to  the 
War  Emergency  Fimd  started  by  the  Society  in  the  first 
month  of  the  war.^  The  address  of  the  Society  is  lo,  St. 
Bride's  .Avenue,  Fleet  Street,  E.C.  and  enquiries  should  be 
sent  to  the  Hon.  Secretary. 


January  i8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


Sir  John  Jellicoe's   Statement 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


LAST    week  the  First  Sea  Lord  of  the  Admiralty 
was    admitted    to    the    Fishmongers'     Compan\' 
and  nsed  this  occasion  for  making  a  long  and 
exceedingly  important  statement  about  the  naval 
position.     Three  aspects  of  it  occupied  him  principally. 
First,  he  dealt  with  the  extraordinary  contrast  between 
the  conditions  of  war  to-day  and  those  that  prevailed 
when   the    greatest   of    his   predecessors  in  office  com- 
manded at  the  battle  of  St.  Vincent.      These  changes,  he 
pointed  out,  arose  from  the  greater  speed  of  ships,  the 
longer  range  of  guns,    the  menace  of  the  torpedo  when 
used  from  ships,  destroyers  or  submarines,  the  menace 
of    mines,    air    scouting    and    wireless    telegi-aphy.     In 
St.  Vincent's  time  800  yards  was  an  e.xtrcme  range  for 
guns.     To-day  we  open  at  22,000  and  at   18,000  gun- 
fire becomes  "  very  effective."     The  range  of  the  torpedo, 
however,  is  10,006  yards  and  "  this  requires  that  a  ship 
shall  keep  beyond  this  distance  to  fight  her  guns."     But 
in  the  North  Sea  the  conditions  of  light  frequently  make 
fighting  at-this  range  or  beyond  it  exceedingly  difficult — 
a  fact  wliich  explains  why  gun  fire,  which  in  some  con- 
ditions can  be  very   effective  at  18,000  yards,  may  in 
others,  at  half  that  range,  be  altogether  without  result. 
A    Commander-in-Chief   therefore    is    in    action    subject 
to  the  greatest  possible  of  anxieties  because  "  as  soon  as 
destroyers    tumble    upon    a    fleet  within  torpedo  range 
tlie  situation  becomes  critical  for  the  heavy  ships."     For 
"  it  is  the  main   duty  "   of  destroyers  "  to  attack  the 
heavy  ships  of  the  enemy  with  torpedoes."     Further, 
mines  and  submarines  make  all  cruising  by  fleets  very 
anxious  work,  and  in  addition,  these  elements  of  under- 
water attack  make  close  blockade  impossible.     So  that, 
in  spite  of  air  scouting  and  wireless  telegraphy,  we  are 
actually  worse  off,  in  procuring  strategic  information  about 
the   movements   of   the   enemy's   fleet,   than   were    our 
ancestors;     For  they  could  keep  their  ships  so  close  in 
to  the  enemy's  ports,  when  the  weather  permitted,  as 
actually  to  observe  the  movements  of  the  ships  within 
them.     This  should  ha\e  gi\en  the  (ier man  fleet  the  great 
advantage  in  strategic  initiative,  but  they  have  failed  to 
use  it.     Apart  from  three  raids  on  our  sea  coast  towns 
and  Von   Hipper 's  abortive  excursion  into    the    North 
Sea  in  January  1915,  the  German  fleet  has  only  once 
ventured  far  enough   from   its  harbours   to   enable  our 
forces  to  get    contact    with    it.     When    the    last    sortie 
was  made  in   August  last,   though  the   fleet   got  fairly 
near  to  the  British  coast,  it  retreated,  probably  because 
warned  by  its  Zeppelins  that  the  Clrand  Fleet  was  on  its 
way   to   meet   it.     As   to   the   bombarding  raids,   these 
were  probably    undertaken    with  a  view  to    "  enticing 
us  into  the   adoption   of  a  false   strategy  by   breaking 
up  our  forces  to  guard  all  vulnerable  points." 

Sir  John  next  passed  on  to  remind  his  readers  of  the 
Collossal  extension  of  duties  the  war  had  thrown  upon  the 
fleet.  The  mere  number  of  vessels  now  included  in  the 
British  Navy  amounts  to  nearly  4,000.  From  the  Arctic 
to  the  Pacific,  and  from  the  farthest  East  to  the  farthest 
West,  the  navy  has  had  its  share  in  every  campaign  in 
which  we  or  our  Allies  have  been  engaged.  The  super- 
vision of  the  inter-neutral  trade,  and  the  blockade  of  our 
enemy,  call  for  the  visit  and  search  of  a  minimum  of  eighty 
ships  a  week  !  The  administration  of  the  supply  of  this 
'  vast  force  is  beyond  the  conception  of  anyone  not  actually 
familiar  with  it.  But  its  most  important  aspect  is  the 
strain  that  it  imposes  upon  the  sea  service  previously 
devoted  entirely  to  peace  occupations.  "  Without  the 
mercantile  marine,"  said  the  First  Sea  Lord,  "  the  navy 
and  indeed  the  nation  could  not  exist."  It  is  not  merely 
that  the  war  has  absorbed  half  of  our  merchant  tonnage. 
■The  drafts  made  on  the  ci\il  personnel  for  war  are  extra- 
ordinary. Two  thousand  fi\c  hundred  skippers  have  been 
drafted  into  the  R.N.R.  for  patrol  and  mine  sweeping 
purposes  alone.  The  executive  officers  in  more  im- 
portant ships  drawn  from  this  source  have  increased  four- 
fold since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  In  an  eloquent 
passage  the  professional  chief  of  the  Royal  Nav^'  paid  a 


due  and  proper  tribute,  not  only  to  the  efficiency,  but 
to  the  entire  devotion  and  unmatched  herosim  of  the 
merchant  seamen  of  all  ranks.  And  this  is  a  heroism 
not  limited  to  those  whose  ships  now  fly  the  white  ensign, 
it  has  been  exhibited  in  every  form  of  craft  employed 
in  the  normal  processes  of  trade.  The  submarine  attack 
has  made  every  man  at  sea  a  fighting  man  and  most  nobly 
has  each  emerged  from  the  ordeal. 

The  passage  in  Sir  John's  speech  which  has  rightly 
attracted  the  greatest  attention  then  followed.  "  The 
submarine  menace,"  he  said,  "  to  the  merchant  service 
is  far  greater  now  than  at  any  period  of  the  war,  and 
it  required  all  our  energy  to  combat  it."  He  then  added 
words  which,  coming  from  him,  should  be  regarded  as 
exceedingly  significant.  "  It  must  and  will  be  dealt  with, 
of  that  I"  am  confident."  He  then  went  on  to  urge 
everyone  engaged  in  the  ship -building  industry  to  regard 
the  completion  of  merchant  shipping  as  the  first  of  all 
duties  to  the  State,  and  closed  with  a  characteristically 
generous  tribute  to  the  spirit  of  the  officers  and  men 
of  the  fleet  of  which  he  has  so  recently  given  up  command. 
However  much  the  material  of  the  navy  had  changed, 
the  spirit  of  the  personnel  was  as  fine  as  it  had  been  in 
our  most  heroic  days,  while  in  character  and  intelligence 
our  men  and  officers  surpassed  their  ancestors.  No  one 
could  ask  for  a  finer  personnel  than  we  now  have  in  the 
navy.  E\ery  man  was  eager  and  prepared  to  do  his 
duty,  and  a  service  so  nobly  and  purely  pledged  to  this 
great  task  has  a  right  to  ask  the  nation  to  work  with  an 
equally  self-denying  diligence  for  the  provision  of  that 
great  \-ariety  and  enormous  \'olume  of  material  that  is 
required  for  the  fighting  forces.  It  has  the  right,  too,  to 
ask  that  the  as^cetic  self-denial  of  the  men  at  sea  should 
be  copied  by  their  brothers  and  sisters  on  shore,  so  that 
every  possible  financial  aid  shall  be  available  for  victory. 
"  The  nation  can  depend  upon  the  navy  being  ready, 
resourceful  and  reliable." 

It  was  altogether  a  very  striking  address,  and  coming 
from  so  high  an  authority  it  will  bring  before  a  great 
many  of  Sir  John  Jellicoe's  countrymen  a  realization 
of  the  nature  of  the  navy's  work,  far  keener  and  more 
^•ivid  than  they  before  possessed.  It  is  natural  enough 
that  Sir  John  Jellicoe  should  have  confined  himself  to 
generalities.  It  is  not  his  business,  having  stated  the 
clifficulties  and  problems  of  war,  to  publish  how  they 
are  to  be  dealt  with  and  surmounted.  But  it  is  to  be 
noted  that,  in  the  matter  of  the  most  urgent  problem  of 
the  day,  to  wit  the  submarine  menace,  he  stated  speci- 
fically that  it  -would  be  dealt  with,  and  with  regard  to 
all  the  other  problems,  that  we  could  count  on  the  readi- 
ness and  resourcefulness    of  the    na\'y  to  deal  with  them. 

The    Master   Problem   of   Mine  War 

Perhaps  to  readers  of  these  weekly  notes,  the  two  topics 
of  Sir  John  Jellicoe's  speech  which  will  pro\e  most 
stimulating  are  his  reference  to  the  revolution  which  the 
long  range  torpedo  has  effected  in  battle  tactics,  and  his 
definite  promise  that  the  submarine  menace  would  be 
ended.  As  to  the  first  of  these,  nothing  could  be  clearer 
than  the  First  Lord's  statement.  In  favourable  con- 
ditions modern  naval  guns  can  open  fire  mth  the  ex- 
pectation of  hitting  at  eleven  sea  miles,  at  nine  they 
become  xcxy  efficient,  but  at  five  they  may  lose  all  their 
value  should  the  light  be  such  that  the  rangefinders, 
spotting  glasses,  sights  and  telescopes,  now  in  use,  are 
inadequate.  It  is  not  that  the  enemy  cannot  be  seen  wth 
the  naked  eye.  It  is  that  he  cannot  be  seen  by  the 
ranging  eye,  the  aiming  eye,  or  the  fire  control  eye.  A 
century  ago,  a  fleet  anxious  to  bring  about  a  decisive 
issue  and  finding  the  game  of  long  bowls  fruitless,  would 
have  closed  until  the  range  was  so  short  that  missing 
became  impossible.  No  captain  "  can  go  far  wrong 
who  lays  his  ship  alongside  that  of  an  enemy."  But 
this  cannot  be  done  within  torpedo  range,  for  at  io,ooc 
yards   "  the   situation   becomes   critical   for  the   capital 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  iS,  1917 


ihips."  Some  critics  have  found  this  statement  too 
sweeping.  The  experiences  of  1916,  they  remind  us. 
seem  to  show  that  the  lieavy  ships  of  modern  construction 
arc  not  destroyed  by  a  single  torpedo  hit.  Even  quite 
hght  cruisers  n'lay  ha\-c  to  be  struck  three  or  four  times 
before  they  succumb,  and  it  issignificent  that,  of  the  five 
capital  ships  admitted  by  both  sides  to  have  been  sunk  at 
Jutland,  three  were  destroyed  by  chance  hits  from  gims, 
one  was  sliattcred  b\-  "fifteen  hits  of  our  shells, 
and  only  one  seemingly  by  torpedo  attack.  And  it  is 
improbable  that  it  was  a  single  torpedo  that  did  the  trick 
in  her  case.  But  the  speaker  did  not  say  a  single  hit 
could  be  fatal.  Given  torpedoes  used  in  shoals,  ships 
at  short  range  might  be  struck  by  several. 

The  actual  words  used  by  Sir  John  are  not  perhaps 
intended  to  be  taken  quite  literally.  Certainly  not  as 
an  exhaustive  statement  of  the  strategical  and  tactical 
principles.  They  are  a  general  indication  of  the  character 
of  the  problem,  and  of  its  nature  there  can  now  be  no 
doubt.  It  is,  indeed,  as  I  have  suggested  in  our  last  two 
issues,  one  of  the  main  lessons  of  the  past  year.  In 
normal  conditions  in  the  North  Sea,  our  arrangements 
for  using  heavy  guns  in  action  have  proved  to  be  alto- 
gether unsuitable.  That  they  do  not  suffice  to  overcome 
the  difficulties  of  low  visibility  is  now  once  more  officially 
admitted.  But  the  evidence  is  pretty  strong  that  they 
arc  also  unequal  to  the  strain  when  a  manoeuvring  ship 
has  to  engage  a  manoeuvring  target — a  state  of  things 
that  must  be  taken  to  be  just  as  normal,  when  an  artillery 
action  is  complicated  by  the  torpedo's  intervention,  as 
bad  seeing.  There  is  no  doubt,  then,  that  it  is  the 
torpedo  that  by  setting  an  outer  limit  to  the  range,  and 
by  enforcing  conditions — namely  manoeuvres — which 
fire  control  cannot  overcome,  has  revolutionised  the 
employment  of  fleets  for  their  primary  function — to  wit , 
the  destruction  of  the  enemy's  fleet  by  guns.  And  this 
gives  rise  to  a  very  natural  question.  Are  we  to  be  con- 
tent with  this  state  of  things  ?  Are  we  really  to  resign 
ourselves  to  the  Na\-y  being  able  to  do  everything 
— but  fight  ?  Is  is  possible  to  overcome  bad  seeing 
by  better  optical  appliances  ?  Can  the  difficulties 
of  change  of  range  be  eliminated  by  more  scientific 
instrumental  aids  to  fire  control  ?  Clearly,  if  we  cannot 
do  these  things,  there  is  no  third  to  the  following  alter- 
natives. Either  all  naval  actions  are  doomed  to  be 
inconclusive,  or  victory  can  only  be  sought  by  deliber- 
ately jeopardising  every  unit  of  the  fleet — subjecting 
them,  that  is  to  say,  to  a  risk  which  will  leave  the  decision, 
not  with  superior  leadership,  skill,  or  material  power, 
but  solely  with  chance.  How  can  a  fighting  force  possibly 
reconcile  itself  with  such  impotent  conclusions  ? 

The  Need   of  Staff  Methods 

It  cannot  be  in  the  inherent  nature  of  things  that  the 
weapon  that  has  the  longest  reach,  that  can  be  used  with 
the  greatest  rapidity  and,  theoretically,  at  any  rate,  be 
employed  in  almost  all  conditions  with  perfect  accuracy, 
and  so  effect  any  fenemy's  destruction  in  a  few  minutes 
only,  should  become  absolutely  powerless  for  its  only 
purpose.  It  seems  to  me  just  as  contrary  to  right  reason 
to  say  that  a  modern  battle  fleet  cannot  win  by  its 
artillery  in  the  North  Sea,  as  to  say  that  it  is  impossible 
to  overcome  and  abolish  the  menace  of  submarine  attack 
on  our  sea  supplies.  The  mind  revolts  from  the  theory 
that  any  problem  is  insoluble.  But  it  is  equally  con- 
trary to  right  reason  to  suppose  that  we  can  restore  to  the 
gun  its  proper  pre-eminence  in  battle,  or  re-establish, 
for  the  protection  of  our  sea  supplies,  the  ascendancy  of 
surface  craft  over  under-water  craft,  unless  both  problems 
are  engaged  by  the  right  intellectual  instruments, 
working  on  the  right  method.  Unless  the  elements  of 
each  problem  are  disentangled  from  a  thousand  confusing 
circumstances,  so  that  eacli  can  be  stated  with  precision  : 
unless  the  action  each  element  demands  is  ascertained  by 
analysis  and  experiment  :  and.  finally,  unless  a  combined 
operation  is  so  arrived  at  for  dealing  with  the  combined 
difficulties — which  at  present  make  either  our  gunnery 
ineffective  or  leave  our  merchantmen  defenceless — ' 
we  shall  not  reach  the  situation  we  desire — namely,  that 
in  which,  if  we  get  the  chance,  our  fleet  can  win  supremacy, 
in  which  our  sea  communications  shall  be  reasonably 
secure;  Neither  of  these  problems  can  be  met  by  slap- 
dash   remedies.     Both    call    for    concerted    action.     It 


must  be  taken  on  the  widest  basis  of  observed  facts. 
It  must  be  directed  by  drawing  as  widely  as  possible  on 
trained  judgment  and  experience.  If,  in  short,  we  arc 
to  find  a  way  of  obtaining  \ictory  at  sea  or  ensuring 
victory  on  land,  we  must,  rather  late  in  the  day,  it  is 
true,  seek  a  solution  of  the  technical  problems  of  sea 
power  by  staff  methods. 

The  greatest  of  our  naval  weaknesses  in  August,  1914, 
was  that  we  were  suddenly  plunged  into  operations  of 
war — that  had  been  completely  revolutionised,  as  the 
First  Sea  Lord  reminds  us — without  having  exhausted 
the  possibilities  of  the  new  elements  by  experiment, 
without  having  analysed  the  capacities  of  the  new  weapons, 
without  having  studied  how  to  employ  them  in  offence, 
or  to  counter  their  use  when  the  enemy  so  employed  them. 

For  practical  purposes  there  are  three  naval  weapons 
only — the  gun,  torpedo  and  mine.  A  new  use  for  the 
torpedo  was  introduced  by  the  invention  of  the  sub- 
marine, and  a  new  property  had  been  given  to  it — as  also 
to  the  gun — by  the  extension  of  range.  But  neither  in 
August  1 914,  nor  at  any  period  before  that  date,  had  the 
Admiralty  instituted  a  staff  for  elucidating  the  technique 
of  these  three  weapons.  What  has  been  done  since  the 
war  we  have  not  been  told.  But  there  are  abundant 
evidences  that  in  some  departments  at  least,  no  changes 
were  Inade  in  the  right  direction.  Is  it  too  late  to  put 
things  on  a  proper  basis  now  ? 

The   Example   of  the   Armies 

It  is,  at  any  rate,  an  encouraging  precedent  that  the 
Allied  armies  on  the  Western  front  have  found  a  way  out 
of  the  tactical  impasse  that  seemed  to  face  them  a  year  ago, 
by  the  method  which  I  am  now  suggesting  should  be 
applied  to  the  main  naval  problems.  It  is  the  combined 
staff  work  of  the  French  and  British  forces  that  has  dis- 
covered the  formula  of  victory.  It  is  a  formula  that 
takes  into  consideration  a  range  of  facts  and  a  variety  of 
weapons  and  of  devices  so  vast  as  to  constitute  a  problem 
seemingly  infinitely  complicated.  Compared  with  it, 
each  of  the  main  naval  problems  should  surely  appear 
comparatively,  simple.  And  if  these  problems  were 
attacked  as  the  military  problem  has  been,  is  it  not 
possible  that  the  combined  experience,  knowledge, 
judgment  and  inventiveness  of  the  navy  could  reduce 
all  the  elements  to  intelligible  proportions  and  make 
practical  solutions  both  obvious  and  easy  ?  Indeed, 
can  we  not  almost  say  that  the  chief  reason  why  the 
difficulties  and  anxieties  of  naval  command  are  as 
poignant  as  the  First  Sea  Lord  has  so  eloquently  stated 
them  to  be,  is  precisely  because,  in  meeting  them,  the 
Commander-in-Chief  has  not  at  his  disposal  the  picked 
brain  power  of  the  Navy  working  impersonally  and  un- 
ceasingly for  his  benefit  ? 

I  do  not,  of  course,  pretend,  that  however  complete  staff 
work  might  be,  that  modern  sea  war  could  be  altogether 
relieved  of  certain  elements  of  uncertaint}'  from  which 
our  ancestors  were  free.  The  fact  remains  that  there 
is  one  new  clement  in  sea  force  to-day  which  has  always 
seemed  to  me  more^  striking  than  any  of  those  which  Sir 
Johh  enumerated  at  Fishmongers'  Hall.  It  is  the  fact 
that  the  stoutest  ship  in  the  world  could  be  converted 
into  a  useless  hulk,  if  not  destroyed,  by  three  hitting 
salvoes  of  her  own  guns.  This  was  a  thought  that  was 
familiar  to  us  all  before  the  war.  It  was,  indeed,  a 
commonplace  of  naval  discussion  that  fleets  would 
destroy  each  other  with  awe-inspiring  rapidity.  So 
few  hits  have,  in  fact,  been  made  in  the  war,  that  this  has 
ceased  to  be  a  source  of  anxiety.  But  there  is  no  reason 
why  the  rate  of  hitting  necessary  for  such  destruction 
should  not  be  attained,  nor  seemingly  any  means  by 
which  ships  could  be  protected  against  it.  But  though 
— if  it  were  ever  realized — this  would  be  a  new  element 
in  sea  war,  would  it  not  be  all  of  a  piece  with  the  added 
pace  that  is  the  chief  mark  of  all  modern  war  ?  A  century 
ago,  it  took  Europe  twenty-three  years  of  fighting  to 
reach  an  issue  with  Revolutionary  and  Napoleonic  France. 
The  issue  with  Gemiany  should  be  settled  in  less  than 
one-sixth  of  this  time.  The  application  of  science  and 
industry  to  transportation  and  weapons,  by  intensifying 
war,  has  necessarily  abbreviated  it.  It  is  in  many  respects 
the  most  .striking  of  ward's  transformations.  A"d  if  this 
acceleration  were  developed  at  sea  to  the  point  of  deciding 
fleet  actions  bv  gunfire  in  a  few  minutes  only,  it  would 


January  i8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


11 


only  be  an  extreme  exemplification  of  the  general  tendency. 
The  issue  of  Tsushima  was,  after  all,  settled  in  twenty 
minutes. 

But,  manifestly,  no  such  results  could  be  got  at  long 
range  unless  the  art  of  using  weapons  were  pushed  to  a 
point  that  has  not  been  exemplified  in  any  action  of  the 
war  so  far.  I  remember,  in  the  summer  of  1914,  dis- 
cussing with  a  very  shrewd  officer  of  a  neutral  navy,  how 
he  thought  modern  tire  control  would  stand  the  test  of 


action.  He  replied  that,  so  far  as  he  could  judge,  the 
European  navies  \Vould  come  out  of  it  worse  than  the 
-Vmerican  and  Spanish  Navies  did  at  Santiago.  "  You 
will  have  to  light  at  long  range,"  ho  said,  "  and  you  have 
not  the  means  of  doing  it.  In  action,  range  hnding  and 
range  keeping  must  be  either  perfectly  accurate  or  per- 
fectly useless — -and,  certainly,  none  of  your  methods  are 
perfectly  accurate." 

Arthur  Pollen 


Finance  and  Freedom 

By    Hartley  Withers  (Editor  of  'Uhe  Economist} 


IT  has  been  said,  over  and  over  again,  that  demo- 
cracy is  on  its  trial  in  this  war.  It  has  yet  to  be 
proved  that  free  peoples,  lighting  for  freedom, 
justice  and  respect  for  right,  can  organise  themselves 
skilfully  enough  to  master  a  foe  who  is  lighting  for 
tyranny,  with  all  the  advantages,  in  discipline  and 
unity,  that  tyranny  confers  on  its  well-drilled  slaves. 
Is  this  war  going  to  show  us  that  free  States  confer 
blessings  on  their  citizens  at  the  expense  of  their  ability 
to  defend  themselves  as  States?  If  so,  freedom  is 
doomed. 

The  answer  has  yet  to  be  given  to  this  terrible  question, 
and  the  answer  will  seal  the  fate  of  civilization.  In  the 
matter  of  the  supply  of  men  for  the  fighting  line.  Freedom 
broke  all  records  with  a  voluntary  effort  and  then,  when 
that  did  not  suffice,  made  the  great  sacrifice  and  sub- 
mitted to  force  for  freedom's  sake.  Will  the  same  process 
have  to  be  gone  through  in  the  matter  of  the  supply  of 
money  ?  The  next  few  weeks  will  show,  by  the  very 
practical  test  of  the  success  or  failure  of  the  great  War 
Loan  now  offered  to  subscribers. 

From  one  point  of  view,  success  is  certain.  It  will 
show  how  great  is  the  wealth  of  the  country,  and  how 
ready  is  the  patriotism  of  the  great  number  of  its  citizens. 
But  complete  success  can  only  be  shown  if  We  all  do  our 
duty.  The  standard  required  is  so  high  that,  as  in  the 
case  of  recruiting,  a  great  success  may  not  be  great 
enough  to  be  complete.  Happily,  we  know  from  the 
Chancellor's  plain  statement  at  the  Guildhall  on  January 
'  nth  (  of  which  more  anon),  that  if  the  result  of  voluntary 
effort  does  not  come  up  to  the  standard  required,  then 
we  shall  again  be  asked  to  submit  to  force  for  freedom's 
sake.  From  the  cheers,  from  a  rich  capitalist  audience, 
that  greeted  this  plain  threat,  it  is  safe  to  infer  that  if 
the  need  is  clearly  shown,  the  country  will  be  just  as- 
ready  to  accept  financial  compulsion  as,  it  was  to  take  on 
itself  the  yoke  of  conscription,  in  order  to  master  a 
worse  tyranny. 

The  official  estimate  of  the  total  expenditure  of  the 
British  Government  during  the  current  financial  year — 
that  is  the  year  ending  on  March  31st  next— is  1,976 
millions.  When  the  late  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
brought  in  his  Budget  last  April,  the  estimate  then 
put  into  his  mouth  was  1,826  millions,  but  this  sum  has 
since  been  increased  owing  to  the  rising  claims  of  the  cost 
of  ammunition,  and  the  growing  drafts  that  our  Allies 
are  making  upon  us  for  advances.  Before  the  war  the 
annual  Government  expenditure  was  roughly  ig8 
millions,  so  we  see  that  the  cost  of  the  war,  including 
loans  to  Allies,  has  multiplied  our  expenditure  by  almost 
exactly  ten.  When  we  look  at  our  rate  of  spending, 
2,000  millions  a  year  in  round  figures,  it  seems  at  first 
sight'too  stupendous  to  be  possible,  especially  when  we 
remember  that  before  the  war  the  aggregate  income  of 
the  whole  nation  was  estimated,  to  take  the  highest 
figure,  at  about  2,400  millions.  But  two  considerations 
brings  the  war  cost  within  the  bounds  of  possibility. 

In  the  first  place,  we  have  to  allow  for  the  great  rise 
in  the  prices  of  commodities  and  of  labour,  which  while 
increasing  the  cost  of  war,  also  increases  the  aggregate 
national  income  far  above  the  peace  level.  In  the 
second  we  have  to  remember  that  a  large  part  of  the 
2,000  millions  that  are  being  spent  on  the  war,  goes  into 
feeding,  clothing  and  otherwise  providing  for  some  six 
to  eight  millions  of  the  population  who  are  either  serving- 
in  the  Army  or  Navy,  or  working  for  the  Government 


and  receiving  wages  and  salaries  tor  so  doing.  Another 
consideration  which  shows  clearly  enough  that  the 
nation's  financial  task,  if  tackled  in  the  right  spirit 
by  the  nation,  is  not  too  great  for  its  powers,  is  the  huga 
margin  that  is  made  available  by  the  great  extent  of  our 
spending,  in  peace  time,  on  pleasant  amusements  and 
frivolities  that  can  well  be  dropped  in  time  of  war. 
listimates  of  the  expenditure  per  head  of  the  population 
in  Great  Britain  and  in  Germany  before  the  war,  showed 
a  difference  of  over  £19  per  head,  by  which  ours  exceeded 
our  chief  enemy's.  Multiplied  by  the  number  of  our 
population,  this  means  a  difference  of  no  less  than  900 
millions,  so  that  we  are  in  a  position  to  save  this  sum  by 
merely  reducing  our  average  spending  per  head  to  what 
Germany's  was  before  the  war. 

It  is  not  safe  to  press  these  figures  far,  for  thej'  are 
necessarily  based  on  estimates,  and  they  are  complicated 
by  differences  in  the  buying  power  of  money  in  the  two 
countries.  But  at  least  they  serve  to  show  how  far  a 
comparatively  small  effort  in  self-denial  would  carry  us, 
since  before  the  war  the  German  population  did  not 
convey  much  appearance  of  stinting  itself,  and  conse- 
quently how  much  further  we  could  go  if  our  civilian 
l^opulation  really  made  that  revolution  in  its  standard 
of  living  which  is  the  least  sacrifice  that  it  can  make,  in 
view  of  the  far  greater  sacrifices  that  are  being  made  in 
its  defence,  and  in  the  defence  of  our  cause,  by  the  flower 
of  our  manhood  at  the  front. 

The  need  for  this  revolution  has  long  been  preached, 
and  though  many  have  made  a  great  patriotic  effort  in 
saving  to  support  our  soldiers,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
many  deaf  adders  have  stopped  their  ears.  Thought- 
lessness and  ignorance  are  probably  the  cause  of  most  of 
the  extravagance  that  still  preva,ils.  The  economic 
education  of  most  of  the  population  of  these  islands  is 
a  minus  quantity,  consisting  of  the  cherishing  of  a  few 
fallacies,  the  worst  and  commonest  of  which  is  the  beliel 
that  spending  money,  anyhow  and  on  anything  that  we 
may  happen  to  think  we  want,  is  "  good  for  trade." 
With  this  ingrained. conviction,  many  people  can  only  be 
persuaded  with  the  utmost  difficulty  to  see  that  it  is  now 
a  crime  to  spend  money  on  anything  but  health,  efticiency 
and  the  victory  of  the  great  cause  for  which  we  have  the 
honour  to  fight. 

It  ought  to  be  plain  enough  that  at  a  time  when 
the  Government  wants  every  possible  shilling  for  the 
war,  it  is  treason  to  spend  one  on  our  own  amxisement ; 
and  yet  one  still  meets  people  who  argue  that  when  they 
buy  frivolities,  'the  money  is  "still  there" — somebody 
else  has  got  it,  and  it  has  not  run  away.  They  forget 
or  will  not  see,  that  the  somebody  who  has  got  it  gave 
something  in  return  for  it,  goods  or  labour  or  services  ; 
that  we  cannot  spend  money  without  setting  somebody 
to  work  for  us ;  and  that  it  is  wished  to  do  this  now 
only  as  far  as  is  absolutely  necessary,  because  there  are 
not  enough  people  to  do  all  the  work  that  is  wanted  for 
the  army  and  navy,  to  provide  us  with  the  necessaries  of 
life,  and  to  turn  out  goods  for  export,  to  be  sold  abroad 
to  produce  funds  for  the  purchase  of  the  goods,  for  the 
war  and  for  our  sustenance,  that  have  to  be  bought 
from  foreign  countries. 

If  ever  the  terms  of  any  loan  are  going  to  weigh  with 
the  mind  .of  the  thoughtless  spender,  that  time  should 
be  the  present.  The  Government  offers  us  a  5  per  cent, 
loan  at  95,  redeemable  at  par  (that  is  at  /loo  for  each 
£95  that  we  put  in)  in  thirty  years  at  latest,  and  possibly 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


Januarj'-  i8,  1917 


in  twolvc  yoais.  Tlii?  Rives  a  total  yield  of  over  5I  per 
cent.  If  wo  have  our  stock  retjistcred,  inromc-tax  will 
not  bo  deducted  at  the  source  ;  so  that  if  wc  are  not 
liable  to  the  full  rate  of  5s.  in  the  pouted,  we  shall  not 
have  the  trouble  of  recovering  from  the  Inland  Revenue's 
{inp  the  s>nn  by  which  we  have  been  overtaxed.  Or,  if 
we  prefer  it,  we  can  have  a  4  per  cent,  loan  at  par,  on 
wliich  the  income-tax  is  compounded.  This  loan  runs  for 
twenty-five  years  at  most,  or  for  twelve  years  at  least. 
As  the  tax  fs  compounded  at  the  full  rate  of  5s.,  it  is 
onlv  attractive  to  those  who  are  liable  to  the  full  rate, 
and  believe  that  during  the  whole  jx-riod  during  which 
they  will  hold  it,  income-tax  will  average  at  least  5s. 
Then  it  is  arranged  that  the  stock  of  (-ither  of  these  loans 
will  be  taken  at  their  issue  price  in  payment  of  death 
duties  as  long  as  it  has  been  in  our  possession  at  least  six 
months  before  wc  become  liable  to  this  ghoulish  but 
most  equitable  impost.  And  finally,  a  very  ingenious 
arrangement  has  been  devised  for  maintaining  the  market 
price  of  the  stocks,  so  that  we  may  be  able  to  sell  out, 
if  we  are  obliged  to  do  so,  on  advantageous  terms. 

Every  month  one-eighth  per  cent,  of  the  total  amount 
of  the  two  loans  will  be  set  aside  by  the  Treasury  to  be 
used  for  buying'  these  stocks  in  the  market,  if  their 
])rices  should  fall  below  the  issue  price.  This  setting 
aside  process  will  continue  until  ten  milUons  have  been 
accumulated,  and  will  then  cease  until  the  fund  has  again 
to  be  drawn  on  for  the  support  of  the  market.  The  effect 
of  this  measure  is,  that  whenever  the  price  of  our  invest- 
ment falls  to  a  level  that  would  invoke  us  in  loss  if  we 
had  to  sell  it,  there  will  be  a  strong  buyer  in  the  market 
to  help  to  hoist  it  up  again.  Everything  that  ingenuity 
can  devise  has  thus  been  done  to  make  the  loan  attractive. 
The  rate  is  handsome  (too  much  so,  some  people  think)' ; 
taxation  is  made  as  convenient  as  may  be,  and  the  steadi- 
ness of  the  market  in  the  stock  has  been  secured  by  a 
new  and  very  cunning  device. 

Such  an  array  of  attractions  held  out  to  us  to  persuade 


us  to  do  our  plain  duty  of  financing  the  war,  is  a 
damning  mirror  held  up  before  the  patriotism,  in  money 
matters,  of  us  civilians.  It  is  not  comfortable  to 
reflect  that,  when  our  friends  and  brothers  are  light- 
ing for  us  and  getting  nothing  but  a  soldier's  pittance, 
wo  have  to  be  offered  so  much  to  induce  us  to  go 
without  some  of  the  comforts  or  pleasures  of  life,  so  that 
our  champions  may  bo  equipped  to  fight  on  our  behalf. 
The  least  we  can  do  is  to  make  the  heartiest  possible 
answer  to  the  appeal.  Every  one  of  us  who  lias  any 
control  over  money  and  spending  has  to  put  every 
available  pound  into  the  War  Loan,  that  is  every  pound 
that  we  have  now  in  hand  or  are  likely  to  have  in  the 
next  year.  Special  arrangements  have  been  made  with 
the  banks,  for  them  to  make  advances  to  their  customers 
who  want  to  invest  in  the  War  Loan,  and  it  is  our  busi- 
ness to  take  full  advantage  of  these  facilities,  borrowing 
as  much  as  we  can  see  our  way  to  repaying,  handing  it 
over  to  the  Government,  and  then  setting  to  work  to 
save  as  fast  as  we  can  to  pay  our  bankers  off.  It  is  no 
use  to  borrow  and  then  leave  the  loan  to  take  care  of 
itself.  \\'e  have  to  save  and  go  without  things,  so  that 
the  labour  thus  set  free  may  bt;  put  at  the  disposal  of  tlie 
Government.  We  need  not  hope  to  make  more  out  of 
the  nation's  need  by  waiting  for  a  later  loan  at  a  higher 
rate  of  interest. 

Mr.  Bonar  Law  told  his  Guildhall  audience  that  the 
terms  he  is  offering  are  as  high  as  lie  thinks  justifiod. 
and  that  as  long  as  he  is  Chancellor  no  liigher  terms  will  be 
offered  ;  that  if  these  terms  fail,  whicli  they  will  not, 
"  the  resources  of  civilization  are  not  exhausted,"  and 
that  if  other  measures  are  taken  the  rate  alio  wed  will  not 
be  5 1  per  cent.  After  this  plain  hint  of  financial  c^m- 
pulsion,  which  was  cheered  by  the  Guildhall  audience 
till  those  historic  rafters  rang,  we  shall  only  have  our- 
selves to  thank  if  by  neglecting  the  opportunity  now 
given  by  patriotism  and  profit,  we  lay  oqrsclves  open 
to  less  comfortable  treatment. 


IBlhtteiTRU.  ^.'SB. 


g<^^  x^oCl^^SC 


^^-^ 


January  i8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


A   Study   of  King   Constantine 


By  Sir  William  M.  Ramsay 


IN  Turkey  German  diplomacy  has,  so  far,  been  success- 
ful. It  is  there  seen  in  its  best  form— hard, 
cruel,  and  unscrupulous,  but  far-sighted  and  instinct 
with  big  ideas,  \vhic*i  it  is  working  out^  with 
extraordinary  skill  and  energy.  Moreover,  the  Turks, 
even  the  most  corrupt  of  the  officials,  are  with  few 
exceptions,  brave,  and  (ierm&n  methods  had  to  adapt 
themselves  to  this  character.  The  best  way  to  dominate 
the  Turk  was  to  impress  him  with  the  immense  superiority 
of  German  ideas  and  powers  of  organisation  and  manage- 
ment. A  difierent  method  is  needed  ^\■hen  German 
diplomacy  has  to  deal  with  a  man  naturally  timid. 
Here  the  Kaiser's  personal  power  comes  in  most  con- 
spicuously in  a  style  that  is  most  repellent  to  the  \A'estern 
mind.  Undoubtedly  the  best  example  of  the  success 
of  this  side  of  his  diplomacy  is  seen  in  the  case  of  the 
present  King  of  the  Hellenes. 

The  present  writer  has  watched  King  Constantine  for 
a  period  of  thirty-iivc  years,  and  has  seen  him  grow  up 
from  early  childhood  and  develop.  At  the  time  of  the 
first  Greco-Turkish  war,  in  i8c)6,  he  was  a  young  man  of 
little  ability,  inadequate  education,  empty  and  selfish, 
who  had  not  been  brouglit  up  to  recognise  and  to  make 
any  sacrifice  for  the  duties  of  his  position.  His  father 
was  good-natured,  kindly,  easy-going,  but  not  well  suited 
to  impress  great  ideas  on  his  son.  The  war  against . 
Turkey  came  to  test  the  Crown  Prince,  and  he  was 
shown  to  be  not  merely  selfish,  but  cowardly 

I  remember  well  the  explosion  of  indignation  against 
him  personally  which  was  roused  then.  A  chorus, 
indeed,  of  the  champions  of  royalty  protested  that  the 
(ireek  people  was  prejudiced  and  unfair  in  judging  liim, 
because,  as  a  race,  the  ^  Greeks  could  not  forgive  ill- 
success.  The  accounts  of  his  conduct,  however,  as  I 
read  them  and  heard  them,  were  given  not  only  by  im- 
jjassioned  Greeks,  but  by  cool  neutral  observers,  and 
they  were  unanimous.  It  was  a  right  instinct  which 
led  the  Greek  people  to  protest  against  their  destiny 
being  allowed  to  pass  under  the  conti^ol  of  such  an  empty, 
incomjX'tent  and  selfish  individual.  It  was  necessary 
to  send  him  away  for  a  time  into  a  sort  of  genteel  exile  ; 
and  a.  belief  in  the  efiiciency  of  (ierman  education  and 
German  training  determined  that  he  should  go  to  Berlin. 
It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  it  would  have  been  of 
any  advantage  to  send  Constantine  to  be  influenced  by 
the  tone  of  English  education  and  society.  He  was 
already  easy-going,  devoted  to  enjoyment,  unused  to 
work,  and  apt  to  consider  no  requirements  except  his 
own  amusement. 

In  (Germany  the  Kaiser  took  him  and  breathed  a 
spirit  into  him,  but  it  was  a  German  spirit.  It  made  him 
able  to  work,  to  sacrifice  the  present  to  the  future,  to 
form  plans  for  a  distant  time,  to  conceal  his  intentions 
under  a  mask  of  bonhomie,  and  to  aim  steadily  at  auto- 
cracy, as  well  as  to  know  something  about  the  movement 
of  soldiers  in  the  field  and  the  principles  of  modern  war. 
Tliis  training  left  him  as  selfish  as  before.  His  ideas 
were  bigger,  his  outlook  on  the  world  was  immensely 
enlarged  on  the  intellectual  side,  but  on  the  moral  side 
tlieie  was  no  improvement.  He  was  almost  hypnotised 
by  the  German  diplomacy  and  militarism.  Previously 
he  had  shown  extremely  little  power  of  thinking  or 
])ianning,  and  all  that  which  he  now  acquired  was  breathed 
into  him  by  the  German  mind.  And  so  he  has  remained 
— little  more  than  a  clever  automaton,  which  could  be 
guided  and  influenced  at  will  by  the  master  in  Berlin. 

In  a  previous  article  in  L.-vkd  &  W.\TiiK  I  pointed 
out  that  his  one  mihtary  success,  which  evinced  real 
insight,  was  inspired  from  Berlin.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  Balkan  war  the  repeated  Greek  successes  did  not 
imply  any  real  military  skill,  because  the  Turks,  being 
fully  engaged  with  Bulgaria  and  Serbia,  liad  entirely 
abandoned  the  attempt  to  stem  the  Greek  advance ; 
but  when  the  second  Balkan  war  broke  out  and  the  Bul- 
garian army  made  a  sudden  attack  against  their  former 
allies  at  the  weakest  point,  where  the  separate  f^irces 
joined,  they  found  the  Greek  army  fully  prepared  in 
anticipation  of  that  treacherous  assault,  the  truth  beinji 


that,  while  Berlin  and  Vienna  had  arranged  the  whole 
plan  of  the  Bulgarian  campaign,  the  Kaiser  communicated 
e\-erything  to  Constantine,  and  instructed  him  how 
to  counter  the  sudden  attack.  His  success  was  complete. 
He  got  the  whole  credit  for  it  from  his  people  ;  and  his 
former  unpopularity,  which  had  been  diminished  by 
time  and  by  the  earlier  successes  of  the  Balkan  war,  was 
changed  into  thorough  popularity.  He  now  ranked  as 
the  heaven-born  Emperor  who  was  to  lead  the  Greek 
army  into  Constantinople,  and  fulfil  the  prophecy,  which 
had  long  been  believed  by  almost  every  Greek,  that  this 
victorious  army  will  be  led  by  Constantine. 

Venizelos 

Venizelos  was' the  only  statesman  who,  as  a  personality, 
stood  near  Constantine  in  the  estimation  of  the  Greeks  ; 
and  even  he  could  not  for  a  moment  compare  in  popu- 
larity and  influence  with  the  King.  Constantine  had 
been  trained  thoroughly  to  take  advantage  of  this  personal 
influence  over  the  Greek  mind.  The  lesson  which  he 
had  learned  from  the  Kaiser  was  exactly  suited  to  the 
occasion.  Just  as  he  himself  was  a  puppet  directed 
from  Berlin,  so  in-  his  turn  he  became  the  manipulator  of 
the  conduct  of  all  the  worst  elements  among  the  Greek 
people  ;  and  he  has  shown  the  same  cleverness  in  utihsing 
his  opportunities  which  the  Kaiser  has  possessed  all 
along.  His  position  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army 
gave  him  great  jjower.  As  soon  as  the  army  was  mobilised, 
his  orders  became  the  law  of  life  to  all  the  soldiers  ;  and 
when  this  authoritative  position  was  combined  with  the 
popular  favour  which  he  enjoyed  as  the  heaven-sent 
general  and  leader,  the  advantages  of  his  position  were 
exactly  of  the  kind  which  Berlin  had  taught  him  to  use 
successfully  and  cle\'erly.  And  he  has  gradually  brought 
it  about  that  many  of 'the  (ireeks,  and  especially  all  the 
worst  among  the  Greeks,  belie\-e  that  the  patriotic  course 
is  to  resist  demands  imposed  upon  them  by  those  whom 
they  are  taught  to  consider  alien  enemies. 

It  is  morally  and  psychologically  impossible  for  the 
Greek  King  to  act  otherwise.  The  soul  which  was  put 
into  him  was  ti  German  soul.  His  thoughts  and  ideas 
and  aspirations  are  wholly  German.  He  knows  that  it 
is  his  German  training  which  has  made  him  a  man  ;  and 
every  word  that  issues  from  Berlin  is  to  him  sacred  and 
all-powerful,  as  the  full  expression  of  the  highest  truth. 
He  knows  far  better  than  we  do  how  the  Kaiser  has 
succeeded  in  re-making  the  Turkish  people.  He.  knows 
the  fate  of  Serbia,  and  he  is  firmly  convinced  that  Rou- 
mania  will  suffer  equally.  He  believes  that  his  only 
chance  for  salvation  lies  in  declaring  himself  on  the  Ger- 
man side  at  the  suitable  moment.  He  sees  how  Ferdinand 
of  Bulgaria  succeeded  in  maintaining  a  pretended 
neutrality  until  the  proper  time  came  ;  and  he  is  imitating 
Ferdinand  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  Finally,  he  under- 
stands ,  how  he  gained  the  reputation  among  his  own 
people  of  a  great  and  successful  general ;  and  he  trusts  to 
a  "  plan  of  campaign,"  suggested  by  the  Kaiser,  to  carry 
him  safely  through  the  next  war. 

Why  trouble  about  Greece  ?  Why  all  this  talk  about 
Greece  ?  Of  what  value  is  it  ?  To  us  it  possesses  in  itself 
no  value  ;  but  to  Clermany  and  her  Asiatic  plans,  it  is  of 
enormous  importance.  "VVith  Greece  (iermany  would 
command  both  sides  of  the  .Egean  Sea,  and  would  stretch 
far  into  the  Levant,  and  with  those  far-stretched  fingers 
of  the  Morea  touch  the  sea-path  from  Malta  to  Syria  and 
to  Egypt.  It  possesses  a  very  long  coast  line,  which 
is  a  great  want  in  Germany,  e\en  in  the  greater  Germany. 
It  covers  the  Berlin-Bagdad  Railway  on  the  west,  as 
Roumania  with  the  Danube  and  Bulgaria  protects  that 
line  on  the  east.  In  German  hands  Greece  would  im- 
mensely lengthen  that' long  sea-way  which  at  present 
lies  between  Russia  and  the  open  Mediterranean.  Those 
who  ask  about  the  value;  of  Greece  to  Germany  can 
best  answer  their  own  (juestion  by  taking  a  map  and 
indicating  on  it  the  railway  artery  that  gives  vitality 
to  (ierman  Asia,  and  then  noticing  how  Greece 
protects    that    aa'tery. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  i8,  1917 


Opening  of  the  1917  Campaign— I 

By  Colonel   Feyler 


In  this  and  the  succeeding  article  Colonel  Feyler,  the 
distinguished  Swiss  Military  Critic,  makes  a  very  careful 
analysis  of  the  present  military  positions  of  the  Central 
Empires  and  of  the  Allies. 

IF  wc  are  to  form  a  correct  idea  of  the  war  at  the 
beginning  of  1917  we  must  compare  the  present 
witli  the  past  ;  and  even  then  we  shall  not  be  sure 
of  getting  to  the  truth,  for  everyone  claims  his  own 
method  of  comparison.  If  wo  listen  to  the  Germans  and 
to  the  Allies  we  soon  discover  that  they  differ  as  widely 
on  this  point  as  they  do  on  every  other. 

"  The  victory  is  ours,"  the  Germans  say.  "  The  map 
proves  it.  In  August,  1914,  our  army  on  peace  footing 
occupied  our  national  territory  from  the  Oder  on  the 
east  to  the  Rhine  on  the  west.  When  winter  came  our 
army  on  a  war  footing  was  on  the  North  Sea,  on  the 
Somme  and  on  the  Aisne.  Belgium  and  Northern  Franco 
were  in  our  hands,  with  their  rich  industrial  districts  and 
thoir  fertile  country  regions.  On  the  east  we  had  lost 
nothing,  except  Galicia,  and  that  did  not  belong  to  us. 

"  Besides,  we  drove  the  invader  out  from  there.  The 
campaign  of  1915  led  us  from  triumph  to  triumph  east- 
ward as  the  campaign  of  1914  had  done  westward.  In 
the  winter  of  that  year  we  had  not  only  reconquered 
(ialicia,  but  also  were  masters  of  Poland,  Lithuania  and 
Cutuland. 

"  We  dealt  other  great-  blows.  Diverging  from  our 
eastward  course,  we  pushed  down  towards  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  beyond.  Serbia  was  conquered,  Albania 
occupied,  Salonika  endangorod.  Through  our  Ottoman 
.\llies  we  caused  disturbance  in  Egypt,  threatened 
Transcaucasia  and  consolidated  our  hopes  to  the  south  of 
Bagdad.  In  vain  a  new  enemy,  the  Italians  assailed  us  : 
wo  held  them  among  the  Alps  and  on  the  Isonzo. 

"  Here  we  are  at  the  end  of  the  1916  campaign  and 
the  picture  is  modified  only  in  insignificant  details.  We 
have  announced  our  disposal  to  make  peace.  Our 
ad\ersaries  prefer  to  continue  the  war.  And  yet  all  their 
efforts  to  recover  what  we  have  won  are  futile.  The 
extent  of  our  retirements  can  hardly  be  measured  in 
fractions  of  an  inch  upon  the  map,  and  even  then  only 
in  a  few  places.  When  the  Roumanian  army  had  the 
impudence  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  our  enemies,  we 
hurled  it  back  into  its  own  territory  and  recouped  our- 
selves for  our  trouble  with  the  Dobrudja  and  Wallachia. 
We  are  holding  our  fronts  firm  and  unshaken  everywhere. 
And  we  shall  continue  to  do  so  for  another  thirty  years, 
if  our  enemies  choose  to  continue  to  attack  for  so  long." 
What  have  the  Allies  to  say  in  reply  to  this  ? 
"  The  war  surprised  us  when  we  were  not  prepared. 
\\e  had  few  machine  guns  and  less  heavy  artillery  ;  we 
were  short  of  munitions  ;  our  air  service  was  not  so  good 
as  the  enemy's.  England  had  no  arms,  Russia  had  not 
enough  rifies. 

"  Since  then  these  deficiencies  have  been  made  good. 
Arsenals  and  munition  works  are  supplying  us  with  all 
the  material  required  for  our  ever-growing  number  of 
effectives.  The  balance  has  so  far  been  restored  between 
ourselves  and  our  enemies  that  after  having  retired  before 
them  for  two  years,  we  stayed  their  attack  in  the  course; 
of  the  third  and  even  made  counter-attacks.  In  i()i4 
and  1913  the  Central  Powers  held  the  offensive  every- 
where ;  in  1916,  they  were  almost  everywhere  on  the 
defensive.  The  campaign  of  1917  will  finally  upset  the 
balance — in  their  disfavour." 

*        *        *        *        * 

There  arc  the  two  views  and  any  one  considering  tliem 
would  be  inclined  to  say  that  both  were  right,  for  both 
have  appearances  in  their  favour.  It  is  quite  true 
that  the  German  armies  are  on  enemy  territory  and  in 
occupation  of  important  regions  of  them  ;  it  is  equally 
true  that  in  i()i6  the  extent  of  these  regions  was  reduced, 
except,  of  course,  in  Roumania. 

But  in  war  appearances  count  for  very  little  ;  to  judge 
only  by  appearances  would  be  to  run  the  risk  of  making 
grave   miscalculations.     \\\y<x\.  does  matter  is  precisely 


that  which  one  does  not  see,  the  realities  which  each 
belligerent  does  his  best  to  conceal  in  order  to  keep  his 
adversary  in  the  uncertainty  which  is  a  weakness.  Is 
there  not  a  proverb  which  says  that  a  man  forewarned 
is  as  good  as  two  ? 

A  twofold  enquiry  is  desirable  to  get  at  these  realities  : 

(1)  To  compare  the  military  situation  at  the  end  of  1915  with 
that  at  the  end  of  1916  in  the  light  of  the  strategical 
objects  and  the  intentions  of  tlie  belligerents. 

(2)-  To  ascertain  how  far  the  presumable  forces  of  the  two  sides 
will  allow  them  to  rcaUze  their  strategical  objects. 

In  1 914  the  Germans  grasped  the  initiative  given  by 
declaration  of  war  and  seized  the  offensive  in  the  West. 
There  was  no  doubt  whatever  as  to  what  their  intention 
was  then.  They  wanted  to  destroy  the  French  army 
before  Great  Britain  could  bring  sufficient  forces  to  its 
assistance,  and  so  to  put  France  out  of  action  after  the 
occupation  of  Paris.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  was  the 
intention,  not  merely  because  the  documentary  evidence 
proving  it  is  legion,  but  because  it  was  of  the  very  essence 
of  strategy.  The  sole  object  of  strategy,  when  the 
means  at  its  disposal  are  still  intact  as  the  German 
lunpire's  were  in  .\ugust  1914,  is  to  destroy  the  adversary 
in  order  to  compel  his  submission  to  the  terms  of  peace 
desired  to  be  iniposcd  upon  him. 

This  being  granted  to  begin  with,  can  it  be  denied  that 
the  intention  was  not  realized  ?  The  French  army  was 
not  destroyed  ;  •  France  was  not  put  out  of  action  ;  Paiis 
was  not  occupied  ;  Great  Britain  did  have  time  to  form 
a  relieving  army.  The  intention  was  not  realized  despite 
efforts  of  the  very  greatest  intensity.  Three  great 
armies  tried  :  the  first  on  the  Marne,  the  second  in 
Flanders,  the  third  at  Verdun  ;  the  first  retreated  and 
the  other  two  were  shattered  on  the  points  which  they 
attacked. 

In  1915  the  Germans  took  the  initiative  in  a  second 
offensive.  In  accordance  with  the  principles  of  strategy 
this  ought  to  have  destroyed  the  Russian  army.  The 
Germans  assuredly  hoped  to  destroy  it,  and  when  they 
halted  on  the  Dwina,  in  the  Pinsk  marshes  and  on  the 
eastern  frontier  of  Galicia,  they  thought  they  had 
destroyed  it,  if  not  so  completely  as  to  shatter  all  re- 
sistance— since  they  were  brought  to  a  halt — ^at  any 
rate  completely  enough  to  secure  a  long  period  of  un- 
interrupted freedom  of  movement.  And  they  accord- 
ingly suspended  their  second  offensive  in  order  to  under- 
take the  third. 

Yet  on  this  occasion,  too,  their  intention  was  not  realized. 
Events  proved  that.  Riga  was  not  taken  and  the 
Russian  army,  returning  to  the  charge,  recovered  her 
lost  ground  as  far  as  the  approaches  to  Koval  and  Lem- 
berg  and  the  neck  of  the  wooded  Carpathians. 

The  third  offensive  requires  some  distinctions  to  be 
made.  What  was  the  strategical  object  in  the  Balkans 
and  in  Turkey  and  Asia  ?  If  it  were  destructive,  there 
were  three  adversaries  at  whom  it  could  be  directed  : 
the  Serbians,  a  secondary  force  ;  the  Enghsh,  an  essential 
force  ;  and  in  the  Dardanelles  and  afterwards  at  Salonika, 
the  Allies,  an  important  but  not  a  decisive  force.  The 
secondary  force  was  the  only  one  destroyed.  England 
was  left 'unshaken  and  the  Allies  at  Salonika  were  not 
attacked. 

But  it  is  more  likely  that  in  these  regions  the  strategical 
object  was  not  the  destruction  of  essential  military  forces, 
but  merely  the  conquest  of  territory  and  the  gaining  of 
economic  advantages.     That  intention  was  realized. 

To  sum  lip,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  winter  of 
the  war,  the  winter  of  1915-1916,  the  situation  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  strategical  objects  was  as  follows  : 
In  the  West  the  object  was  missed,  since  two-thirds  of 
the  German  army  were  held  up  before  an  enemy  still 
strong  enough  to  compel  the  German  army  itself  to  assume 
the  defensive. 

In  the  East,  the  object  was  supposed  to  have  been 
achieved,  but  in  reality  was  missed,  since  the  enemy  still 
preserved  power  of  resistance  and  had  even  made  a 
successful  counter-offensive  on  the  Sercth  ;   the  German 


January  i8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


army  was  still  compelled  to  exercise  prudence  and  could 
not  lay  aside  its  harness. 

In  the  Balkans  the  object  was  achieved,  but  the 
strategic  results  were  nil  since  no  essential  hostile  force 
had  been  destroyed  or  could  be. 

To  these  three  points  a  fourth  was  added  by  the  Italian 
front  which  had  been  opened  up  in  the  spring.  In  this 
region  the  Central  Empires  had  envisaged  no  enterprise 
destructive  or  bent  on  conquest.  The  intention  was 
purely  defensive,  and  it  was  achieved.  The  adversary 
did  not  achieve  his  object.  Nevertheless,  the  Central 
Empires  suffered  a  relative  loss  of  strength  since  they 
were  obliged  to  oppose  to  a  force  that  was  entirely 
fresh  and  not  the  least  exhausted,  a  portion  of  their 
own  resources,  to  the  prejudice  of  their  destructive  cam- 
paigns on  the  original  and  principal  fronts. 

What  change  clid  the  campaign  of  1916  effect  in  this 
general  situation  ? 

In  the  West,  the  German  army  attempted  to  resume, 
at  Verdun,  the  operations  which  it  had  abandoned  after 
its  defeat  at  the  Marne  and  its  further  defeat  in  Flanders. 
Not  only  did  its  attempt  come  to  nothing,  but  the  Allies 
opened  a  counter-offensive  in  Picardy  and  the  German 
army  was  obliged  to  retire. 

In  the  East,  the  Russians  also  coimtcr-attackcd  and 
there,  too,  in  Volhynia,  Galicia  and  the  Bukovina,  the 
Central  Empires  were  compelled  to  retire. 

On  the  ItaUan  front  the  operations  were  similar  to  those 


on  the  Western  front.  The  Austro-Hungarians  delivered 
an  offensive  in  the  Northern  Trentino,  planned  wth  a 
\iew  to  an  ultimate  decision.  It  was  not  achieved,  and 
the  It'dUans,  momentarily  driven  from  their  positions, 
recovered  the  gi^eater  part  of  them.  At  the  same  time 
they,  too,  attacked  upon  the  Isonzo  where  the  enemy 
M'as  forced  to  retire  towards  Trieste. 

In  Turkey  in  Asia  the  Russians  defeated  the  Turks  at 
Erzcrum  and  got  possession  of  Armenia ;  the  English  drove 
their  assailants  from  the  Suez  Canal ;  the  Arabs  raised 
the  standard  of  revolt  against  Constantinople  and  the 
Ottoman  success  at  Kut-el-Amara  failed  to  give  the 
victor  any  decisive  advantage  over  the  essential 
Allied  forces.  As  a  result  of  all  these  contributory 
facts  the  Central  Empires  forsook  this  theatre  of 
operations.  The  battle  front  was  withdrawn  to  the 
Balkans.  There,  too,  the  Allies  compelled  the  German- 
Bulgarian  forces  to  retire  a  little  in  Serbian  Mace- 
donia. In  Roumania  the  German-Bulgarian  forces 
prevailed. 

To  sum  up,  while  at  the  end  of  1915  the  spectacle 
offered  by  the  movements  of  all  the  armies  was  generally 
speaking,  that  of  an  Allied  defensive  against  a  Germanic 
offensive,  the  spectacle  at  the  end  of  1916,  except  on  the 
Roumanian  front,  is  that  of  a  general  Allied  counter- 
offensive  and  a  Germanic  defensive  with  a  compulsory, 
slow  retirement  in  the  regions  of  gi-eatest  pressure. 
{To  be  coniitmed.) 


Alsace  and  the  Rhine 


By  Henry  D.  Davray 


FROM  the  industrial  point  of  view,  Alsace  is 
by  no  means  of  less  consequence  than  Lorraine, 
and  it  will  be  easily  realized  why  Germany 
is  no  more  wilHng  to  give  it  back  to  France  than 
she  is  ready  to  relinquish  the  iron  mines  of  the  Moselle 
area.  A  short  time  before  the  Franco-Prussian  War  of 
1870,  deposits  of  rock  salt  were  discovered  not  far  from 
Mulhouse,  at  a  little  place  called  Dornach,  but  a  more 
important  discovery  was  made  furtlicr  south,  in  the 
forest  of  Monncbruck,  nearly  at  the  foot  oi  the  now  famous 
Hartmansweilerkopf,  when,  in  1904,  potash  salts  were 
found  in  layers  that  had  a  thickness  of  i6|  feet. 
The  proved  deposits  were  estimated  to  an  amount  of 
over  one  million  cubic  yards,  with  a  value  of 
£2,400,000,000.  With  the  abundant  riches  of  potash 
salt  at  Stassfurt,  near  Magdeburg  in  Saxony,  and  of 
Leopoldshall  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Anhalt,  Germany 
thus  acquired  an  absolute  monopoly  for  the  production 
of  ingi-edients  which  are  the  essential  components 
in  chemicals  and  above  all  in  explosives. 

The  entire  potash  area  covers  an  expanse  of  15  million 
square  yards,  and  it  has  been  estimated,  on  the  basis  of 
the  average  thickness  of  the  layers,  that  the  workable 
deposits  amoimt  to  1,300  million  cubic  yards.  The 
available  reserves  represent  a  total  of  nearly  1,500  million 
tons  containing  300  million  tons  of  pure  potash  of  a 
gross  value  of  £2,400,000,000.  All  these  estimates 
are  only  a  rough  minimum,  as  it  may  be  that  the  deposits 
stretch  out  beyond  the  already  proved  area,  and,  on 
the  basis  of  the  present  world  consumption,  the  ex- 
traction of  the  potash  salts  might  last  for  perhaps  five 
centuries.  These  salts  are  an  essential  component 
part  not  only  of  explosives,  but  of  all  chemicals  required 
for  artificial  fertilisers,  for  the  manufacture  of  soap, 
matches,  mirrors,  potteries,  for  photographv,  printing, 
pharmaceutics,  etc.  They  are  applicable  to  "a  thousand 
uses  in  commerce. 

Lorraine  with  her  coal  and  iron  deposits  and  Alsace 
with  her  potash  salts,  have  been  powerfully  helping 
Germany  to  rise  to  a  leading  position  in  the  iron  and 
chemical  industries  and  to  secure  that  industrial  su- 
periority which  fostered  her  faith  in  her  power  to  attack 
her  neighbours,  to  crush  them  quickly  and  to  annex 
the  new  territories  she  had  been  coveting  for  years. 
In  their  secret  petition  to  the  Chancellor,  on  Mav 
20th,  1915,  the  six  great  industrial  and  agricultural 
associations  of  the  German  Empire  lay  stress  on  this  fact : 
Coal   is   the   most   decisive   means   for  exerting  polit'cal 


influence.    The  industrial  neutral  States  are  compelled 

to  submit  to  those  of  the  belligerents  who  can  provide  . 

their  supply  of  coal. 
Then  after  complaining  that  they  cannot  do  it  suffi- 
ciently at  present,  they  add  that  even  to-day  they  are 
obliged  to  resort  to  the  production  of  Belgian  coal  "  in 
order  not  to  allow  our  neutral  neighbours  to  fall  com- 
pletely under  the  dependency  of  England." 

We  have  thus  the  irrefutable  demonstration  that  the 
industrial,  political  and  military  strength  of  Germany 
is  derived  to  an  enormous  extent  from  the  possession 
of  the  territories  extending  from  the  left  bank  of  tlie 
Rhine  to  the  Belgian  and  French  frontiers.  The 
annexation  of  these  territories  has  been  the  military 
goal  pursued  by  the  enemies  of  France  for  several  cen- 
turies. At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
Richelieu  aimed  at  "  closing  the  kingdom,"  by  giving 
it  its  natural  frontier,  the  Rhine.  He  succeeded  in  getting 
back  Alsace  and  the  Lorraine  bishoprics  :  Metz,  Toul  and 
Verdun,  whose  people  spoke  French  as  they  do  to-day. 

Following  the  same  policy,  Louis  'XIV,  pushed  the 
French  frontier  forwards  to  the  North  and  got  a  large 
part  of  Flanders  and  Hainault.  In  order  to  close  the 
valleys  of  the  Seine,  the  Marne  and  the  Oise,  which  are 
the  natural  routes  along  which  all  invaders  have  come, 
the  famous  engineer  Vauban  built,  from  the  Rhine 
to  the  North  Sea,  a  formidable  belt  of  fortresses  which 
defended  the  valleys  of  the  Moselle,  the  Meuse,  the 
Sambre,  the  Lys  and  the  Scheldt.  Por  a  century,  all 
attempts  to  break  through  this  powerful  rampart  were 
futile. 

When,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  France  had  to 
face  the  coalition  of  her  Eastern  neighbours,  the  Con- 
vention gave  the  Republican  Generals  these  simple 
instructions :  "  Remain  on  the  defensi\-e  wlierevcr 
France  possesses  natural  frontiers  :  take  the  offensive 
wherever  she  has  none."  So  well  were  these  orders 
obeyed  that  in  a  few  weeks  the  armies  of  the  Republic 
had  reached  the  Rhine  all  along  its  course.  The  Prussians, 
checked  at  Valmy,  had  beaten  a  hasty  retreat,  and,  within 
a  fortnight.  General  Custine,  with  13,000  foot,  4,000 
horse  and  40  guns  had  swept  down  the  Rhine  to  Mayence 
bringing  freedom  and  the  rights  of  man  to  the  bewildered 
populations.  Meanwhile  General  Dumouriez  conquered 
Belgium  and  Holland.  The  Swiss  cantons  of  Basle 
and  Porrentruy  claimed  their  reunion  to  France,  who 
had  then,  from  Basle  to  its  mouth,  the  Rhine  as  a  frontier. 
In  1794,  the  King  of  Prussia  signed  a  separate  ])cace 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  i8,  1917 


and  roooqnizcd  tho  left  bank  of  tlio  Rhino  as  thu  new 
J'renrli   fmntier. 

Hut  En^'land  would  not  acquiesce  in  these  arrange- 
ments, as  she  knew  too  well  that  her  real  continental 
frontier  was  the  Rhine  and  that  she  could  not  tolerate 
too  powerful  a  neighbour  across  the  North  Sea.  To 
prevent  the  reunion  of  the  Netherlands  and  I'rance  she 
declared  herself  "  ready  to  sell  her  last  shirt."  And 
she  foufiht  to  the  bitter  end  until  she  had  reached  her 
]>urpose  and  wrecked  tho  mad  ambition  of  Napoleon. 

\\'hen  it  came  to  the  discussion  of  peace  terms,  at  tho 
Congress  of  Vienna,  her  diplomacy  seems  to  have  been 
circumvented  by  Prussia's  plenipotentiaries  who  had  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  that  most  redoubtable  of  sciences 
military  geography.  The  English  agreed  that  the  Rhine 
provinces  should  be  assigned  to  Prussia.  In  thus  giving 
Trance  a  dangerous  neighbour,  England  surmised  that 
she  would  be  released  from  all  anxiety,  since  Trance 
would  have  to  turn  all  her  attention  towards  her 
luistern  frontier.  But  at  the  same  time,  the  keys  of 
the  three  great  valleys  leading  to  Paris  were  handed 
over  to  Prussia.  That  short-sighted  policy  began  the 
ominous  displacement  of  power  which  culminated  in 
the  creation  of  the  (ierman  Empire  and  the  annexation 
of  Alsace-Lorraine  with  their  rich  mineral  deposits. 

There  will  be  no  lasting  peace  in  Europe  imtil  the 
balance  of  power  is  restored  ;  and  there  is  no  other  way  to 
to  do  it  than  to  return  to  the  map  of  Europe  as  some 
far-seeing  English  statesmen  wanted  to  retrace  it  a 
century  ago. 

The  best  minds  of  Switzerland  seem  to  be  quite  aware 
of  this.  They  ask  that  when  Alsace  and  Lorraine  are 
restored  to  France  the  products  cease  to  be  a  ^^'est- 
phalian  monopoly  and  their  mineral  riches  be  opened 
to  the  whole  world.  They  put  forth  that  up  to  now 
Swiss  industry  has  been  entirely  dependent  on  Germany 
for  her  iron  and  coal.  The  only  way  to  put  an  end  to  this 
obligation  is,  they  allege,  to  ensure  free  navigation  on 
the  i'fhine  for  the  boats  of  all  nations.  Swiss  economists 
assert  that  only  the  neutralization  of  the  river  will 
release  their  country  from  (ierman  bondage. 

Before  the  war,  for  her  metallurgic  establishments 
of  Lorraine,  France  bought  as  much  as  seven  miUion 
tons  of  German  coal.  When  the  whole  iron  deposits  of 
Lorraine  are  restored  to  her,  she  will  want  three  times 
as  much.  No  doubt  the  Germans  will  not  lose  sight  of 
so  obvious  a  consequence  and  miss  the  chance  of  exerting 
their  so-called ."  political  influence."  This  scheme  will 
be  thwarted  if  English  coal  is  brought  up  the  Rhine  and  • 
adjoining  rivers  to  compete  with  Westphalian  coal,  and 
if  French  iron  ore  can  easily  be  shipped  to  British  ports 
by  the  same  way- 
One  of  the  main  features  of  British  policy  is  to  secure 
equal  freedom  in  industrial  and  commercial  competition 
with  other  nations,  while  first  Prussia  and  then  Germany 
have  followed  an  exactly  opposite  jiolicy.  England's 
interest  seems  to  be  that  after  the  war  the  mineral  riches, 
of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  shall  be  opened  to  her.  To  prompt 
her  to  act  accordingly  she  has  now  more  knowledge 
and  better  reasons  than  she  had  in  1815,  when  at  the 
Congress  of  Vienna,  on  February  i8th,  the  British  delegate, 
Lord  Clancarty,  svibmitted  to  the  special  committee 
dealing  with  international  rivers,  the  draft  of  an  agree- 
ment which  clearly  expressed  England's  policy  in  that 
problem.     It  is  all  contained  in  this  one  clause  : 

Tjie  Rhine,  from  the  point  where  it  becomes  navigable 
down  to  the  sea  and  vice  versa,  will  be  free  to  the  trade 
and  navigation  of  all  nations,  .so  that  in  all  its  course 
up  or  down,  it  cannot  on  any  account,  be  forbidden 
to  anybody,  in  compliance  with  the  rules  set  down  by 
common  agreement,  which  will  be  alike  for  all  and  tlie 
most  favourable  to  the  trade  of  all  nations. 

England  was  advocating  equal  treatment  for  all 
nations,  and  not  for  those  nations  only  whose  frontier 
came  up  to  the  Rhine,  which  was  Prussia's  secret  aim. 
Nevertheless  another  text  was  accepted  whose  meaning 
was  so  equivocal  that,  as  early  as  i8ig,  Holland  could 
claiTm  that  if  the  navigation  on  the  Rhine  was  free  down 
to  the  sea,  it  did  not  mean  that  the  mouths  of  the  river 
were  open  to  the  navigation  and  commerce  of  all  nations, 
and  in  consequence  she  put  on  the  \\'aal  high  customs 
duties,  some  of  which  were  prohibitive. 

A  diplomatic  controversy  arose,  and  on  behalf  of 
the  British  Go\ernment.  the  Duke  of  Wclhngton  presented 


in  1822  a  mcmorandiuu  on  tho  question,  at  the  Congress 
f)f  Verona.  Of  course,  tho  Briti>h  Government  sub- 
mitted that  the  decisions  arrived  at,  at  Vienna,  es- 
tablished the  free  navigation  of  the  Rhine  for  all  nations. 
The  controversy  went  on  for  years.  Apparently  quarrel- 
ling, Holland  and  Prussia  secretly  chimed  in  and  con- 
curred to  exclude  British  shipping  from  the  Rhine. 
On  .August  20th,  1828,  the  Duke  of  WeUington  WTote  to 
Lord  Aberdeen  : 

I  consider  Bulow  (Baron  von  Bulow,  one  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Prussia)  the  most  unfair  and  dangerous  man 
wc  could  have  to  transact  business  with.    He  lias  pretended 
to  be  very  candid  and  open  about  this   question.     But 
the  notice  given  to  us  that  the  stable  door  is  open  is  always 
after  the  steed  has  been  stolen.  I'll  lay  a  wager  that  the 
whole  question  is  settled. 
The  Iron  Duke  was  not  deceived  by  Prussian  duplicity. 
But  nothing  resulted  except  that  British   vessels   were 
never  allowed  to   turn   to    use    the  .Vienna  provisions 
regarding  free  shipping  on  the  Rhine. 

Bismarck  as   "Moderator" 

It  is  not  likely  that,  in  the  next  negotiations  for  peace, 
British  and  French  diplomats  will  let  themselves  be 
cheated  by  (ierman  hypocrisy.  Yet  a  knowledge  of  past 
history  and  of  the  present  Gorman  claims  will  help  us 
to  escape  possible  snares.  We  shall  have  to  bo  warned 
against  the  insidious  formulas  and  the  disguised  claims 
which  the  (Germans  will  put  forth  :  commercial  freedom, 
equality  of  rights  and  co-operation  between  civilized 
nations.  The  most  harmless  looking  clause  may  conceal 
\evy  dangerous  consequences.  We  must  not  forgot  either 
that  Bismarck  delighted  to  assume  the  part  of  moderator. 
In  1866,  he  was  careful  not  to  dismember  Austria- Hungary 
but  he  cunningly  arranged  for  her  falling  under  Prussian 
influence  amounting  to  a  real  protectorate.  In  187 1 
he  did  not  wring  from  France  as  much  territory  as  his 
friend  Roon,  tho  ^Minister  of  War,  wanted  him  to  extort, 
but  he  secured  the  insertion  in  the  Treaty  of  Frankfort 
of  the  most-favourod-nation  clause  which  worked  prac- 
tically all  in  favour  of  Germany,  and  by  rebound  not  a 
little  against  England.  Gorman  commerce  and  in- 
dustry deri\ed  from  it  incalculable  profits,  while  French 
commercial  and  industrial  enterprise  was  sorely 
hindered. 

The  problem  of  the  Rhine  and  the  mineral  wealth  of 
Alsace-Lorraine  has  been  thoroughly  investigated  by 
German  economists,  as  well  as  by  politicians  and  military 
writers.  The\-  are  prepared  for  any  emergency  and 
they  doubtless  keep  in  store  some  apparently  harmless 
suggestions  and  offers  which  will  require  the  most 
careful  scrutiny  on  the  part   of    the  Allies. 

Herr  Jachk  ^vrote  in  the  Deutsche  Politik,  for  last 
November,  that  "  at  certain  junctures,  less  means  more." 
Behind  the  copious  scribbling  of  these  Herr  Professors, 
it  is  easy  to  guess  the  suppressions  and  reservations,  and 
we  shall  bo  wise  not  to  take  as  mere  bluff  the  speeches 
of  German  industrial  magnates.  Early  last  December, 
three  days  before  Bethmann-Hollweg  let  off  his  peace 
proposals,  Herr  Emil  Rathenau,  Director  of  the  Algcmeine 
Elektricitats  Geselschaft,  said  at  a  shareholders'  meeting: 

The  experiments  we  have  made  of  late,  as  well  as  our 
new  methods  of  work,  will  help  us,  when  peace  is 
restored,  to  bear  the  burden  which  has  been  accumulating 
during  the  war.  Together  with  the  energetic  endeavours 
of  our  people  and  the  resources  of  our  land,  they  will 
make  us  stronger  than  ever. 

"  Stronger  than  ever,"  that  is  their  dream.  The 
question  of  Alsace-Lorraine  and  the  Rhine  is  there  to 
remind  us  that  the  peace  negotiators  wiU  not  only 
have  to  discuss  problems  of  frontiers,  of  restoration  of 
the  small  nations,  sanctions  and  reparations,  of 
guarantees  and  of  a  lasting  peace,  but  also  to  settle  the 
basis  on  which  economic  development  will  unfold  without 
giving  to  one  single  nation,  led  by  a  mischievous  gang, 
the  temptation  to  break  all  pledges  and  treaties,  and  the 
power  to  assail  their  neighbours,  to  devastate  their  coun- 
try, to  enslave  the  inhabitants,  to  bring  desolation,  ruin 
and  shame  to  millions  of  peaceful  citizens. 

Not  only  must  Germany  be  taught  that  it  does  not  pay 
to  make  war,  but  she  must  be  reduced  to  such  circum- 
stance as  will  debar  her  from  preparing  for  it.  This 
is  the  only  means  of  securing  a  lasting  peace. 


January  i8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershavv 


^^ 


NOT  being  a  philosopher,  in  anything  but  the 
purely  etymological  sense  of  the  word — as 
readers  of  this  page  may  before  now  have  dis- 
covered for  themselves — I  do  not  feel  competent 
to  pass  serious  judgment  on  such  an  important  work  as 
The  World  as  I magination  (Macmillan  and  Co.,  15s.  net), 
in  which  Mr.  E.  D.  Fawcett  develops  the  philosophical 
system  which  he  has  adumbrated  from  time  to  time  in 
the  pages  of  Mind,  and,  I  believe,  in  a  previous  volume, 
The  Individual  and  Reality.  I  propose,  therefore,  to 
make  such  few  remarks  as  I  can  here  make  about  the 
book  almost  wholly  on  the  subject  of  its  relation  to  the 
war.  The  author  himself  brings  to  the  first  this  topical 
importance  of  his  work  in  his  brief  preface  :  "  The  crisis 
through  which  Europe  is  passing  is,  above  all,  the  fruit 
of  false  ideas  ;  false  conceptions  of  the  standing  of  the 
individual,  of  the  State,  and  of  the  meaning  of  the  World- 
System  regarded  as  a  whole.  Sooner  or  later  a  recon- 
struction of  philosophical,  religious,  ethical,  etc.,  belief, 
in  the  interests  of  ourselves  and  our  successors,  will  be 
imperative.  The  World  as  Imagination  is  simply  an 
experiment  in  this  direction." 

I  like  to  beh&ve  that  Mr.  Fawcett  has  captured  a  trade 
—that  of  metaphysics — of  which  the  Germans  have 
long  had  in  our  schools  a  virtual  monopoly  (although 
even  before  the  war  we  had  shown  some  signs  of  "  pre- 
paredness "  in  this  direction  and  our  native  philosophers 
had  called  in  as  Allies  a  Bergson  and  a  James).  I  cer- 
tainly see  him  in  this  volume  vigorously  combating  a 
whole  enemy  host,  and  hke  a  skilful  general  making  for 
and  destroying  their  main  armies  of  arguments.  The 
Kantian  Categories  yield  in  a  skirmish  of  outposts. 
Schopenhauer's  Will  falls  to  his  heavy  artillery,  and 
Hegel's  Reason,  harried  throughout  the  book,  is  even- 
tually surrounded  and  overthrown.  In  the  end  the  Idea 
with  which  Mr.  Fawcett  advances  to  the  attack,  the 
Cosmic  Imagination,  somewhat  flippantly  referred  to 
throughout  the  book  as  the  C.I.  (perhaps  owing  to  the 
prevaihng  influence  of  the  W.O.),  emerges  triumphant, 
providing  at  the  least  a  working  hypothesis  in  which 
many  of  the  knotty  points  of  the  philosophers,  such  as 
the  existence  of  evil,  are,  if  not  finally  resolved,  at  least 
suggestively  unravelled.  Here,  as  it  seems  to  me  (knowing 
as  I  premised,  nothing  about  the  subject),  is  Pragmatism 
rightly  used  as  a  method  and  not  as  a  system,  and  here 
is  a  system  or  Ground  or  whatever  it  be  called,  more  com- 
prehensive and  explanatory  than  any  previously  set  forth. 

«!■  ^  ^  S|C  jfi 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  by  the  way,  that,  in  his  brief 
history  of  the  hypothesis  of  the  C.I.,  Mr.  Fawcett  finds 
the  poet  Blake  as  "the  sole  champion  of  imagination  as 
adequate  Ground  of  phenomena  in  general."  Shake- 
speare, "  perhaps  glimpsed  "  the  idea.  It  has  thus  an 
English  ancestry.  I  wish  it  were  expressed  in  the 
English  language.  The  jargon  of  philosophy,  which  we 
seem  to  owe  almost  entirely  to  the  Germans,  has  always 
appeared  to  me  an  affectation,  and,  even  if  we  have,  for 
the  sake  of  historical  continuity  in  the  science  of  meta- 
physics, to  retain  many  of  the  special  terms  that  writers 
have  coined  to  express  themselves  clearly,  we  need  not  let 
the  habit  of  jargon  grow  upon  us.  Is,  for  example,  such 
a  sentence  as  this  really  necessary,  for  the  sake  of 
lucidity  of  expression  ?  "  Thus,  if  I  aware  a  patch  of 
red  against  the  darkness,  there  is  imaginal  supplementa- 
tion of  this,  and  I  am  said  to  perceive  a  fire."  Or  does 
this  definition  of  beauty  gain  anything  by  its  laborious 
attempt  to  be  precise  ?  "  Any  content  or  content- 
complex  is  '  beautiful '  if  I  can  Rest  in  it  with  a  joy 
satisfied  within  the  limits  of  the  complex."  I  ask  these 
questions  in  all  humility,  for  Mr.  Fawcett  is  clearly  a 
master  of  words  and  he  has  a  sense  of  humour.  He  may 
be  able  to  justify  as  a  necessity  what  I  have  a  suspicion 
is  a  pernicious  habit  of  modern  schools.  Anyway, 
he  has  written  this  book  for  the  philosophers,  and  it 
will  be  interesting  to  hear  their  judgment  on  what  seems 
to  be,  in  reviewers'  jargon,  an  epoch-making  work. 


To  get  back  to  a  more  direct  connection  with  the  war  ; 
I  have  found  considerable  value  in  Pros  and  Cons  in 
the  Great  War  (Kegan  Paul,  3s.  6d.  net).  In  this  volume 
^Ir.  Leonard  Magnus  has  compiled  with  considerable 
judgment  and  what  must  have  been  infinite  patience,  a 
most  valuable  work  of  reference  dealing  with  almost  all 
the  controversial  aspects  of  the  war.  (I  say  "  almost 
all  "  advisedly,  for  there  are,  particularly  in  the  religious 
sections,  some  noticeable  omissions).  The  book  is 
dedicated  to  the  enemy  with  the  apposite  quotation 
from  "  Samuel,"  "  Thy  mouth  has  testified  against 
thee,"  and  the  plan  of  the  book  is  to  state  briefly  under 
every  subject  the  enemy  view  and  then  to  summarise 
the  counter-arguments.  It  is  certainly  a  reference  book 
which  at  any  rate  every  modern  publicist  should  have 
for  his  shelves.  In  these  special  appendices  on  "  The 
Balkan  States,"  "  A  Settlement  on  Racial  Lines,"  and 
"  How  Italy  and  Austria  went  to  war,"  Mi".  Magnus 
shows  that  he  can  handle  his  material  in  a  connected 
form  as  well  as  in  the  note-book  form  of  the  body  of  his 
book  and  makes  us  look  forward  to  further  useful  work 
from  so  well-informed  a  writer. 

*  •  *  !)C  if  if 

Another  book  from  which  the  controversialist  can  draw 
on  for  arguments  with  which  to  impress  neutral  opinion 
is  The  Mark  of  the  Beast  (John  Murray,  5s.  net).  Readers 
of  The  Field  know  the  service  which  its  editor  has  done 
for  humanity  in  the  vigour  and  unremitting  presentation 
of  the  moral  case  against  the  enemy,  and  will  be  glad 
to  have  Sir  Theodore  Cook's  articles  in  this  amplified 
and  more  permanent  form.  Recent  events  have  shown 
that  English  people  as  a  whole  are  not  to  be  tempted  by 
the  German  peace-bait,  but  if  you  know  anyone  who 
is  wavering  in  opinion  and  thinking  that  perhaps,  after 
all,  things  have  gone  just  far  enough,  just  send  him  a 
copy  of  The  Mark  of  the  Beast,  and  let  Sir  Theodore's 
righteous  indignation,  based  as  it  is  on  a  sound  standpoint 
of  morality  and  a  knowledge  of  facts,  recall  him  to  the 
state  of  mind  which  will  not  leave  half  undone  a  work 
that  is  necessary,  however  unpleasant  it  may  be. 

if  if  if  if  if      ' 

"  The  Style  is  the  Man  "  can  certainly  be  predicted  of 
Sir  Herbert  Beerbohm  Tree's  art,  both  on  and  off  the 
stage.  In  Nothing  Matters  (Cassell  and  Co.,  6s.),  which 
is  published  on  behalf  of  a  fund  for  actors  disabled  in  the 
war,  Sir  Herbert  collects  together  a  number  of  short 
stories  told  with  those  inimitable  airs  and  graces  which 
distinguished  his  previous  volume  Thoughts  and  After- 
thoughts. The  book  also  contains  a  characteristic  lecture 
by  the  author  on  "  Humour  in  Tragedy,"  which  is  a 
feast  of  good  things  served  up  with  the  sauce  of  wisdom. 
When  Sir  Herbert  finishes  his  stories,  the  fear  strikes  him 
that  some  of  them  may  have  been  told  before.  He  has, 
he  says,  no  means  of  knowing,  for  he  never  reads.  So 
far  as  I  can  see  the  only  person  he  plagiarises  on  at  all 
is  himself,  when  he  repeats  a  situation  in  his  tragic  first 
tale  in  a  remarkable  study  in  the  macabre.  The  Stout 
Gentleman,  a  story  suggested  by  a  famous  picture  by 
Velasquez.  A  most  characteristic  tale  is  that  of  the 
vain  actor  who  m5.de  up  his  mind  to  "  commit  suicide  or 
perish  in  the  attempt."  ^^■hether  Sir  Herbert's  plots 
have  been  used  before  or  no,  the  setting  of  them  is  all  his 
own,  and  that  is  all  that  really  matters — a  mean  you 
will  see  between  the  extremes  of  his  first  tale.  "  Nothing 
matters  !   The  pity  of  it  !   Everything  matters." 


Mr.  Frank  Debenham,  who  died  in  his  eightieth  year  at  the 
Fitzjohn's  Avenue,  Hampstead,  was  the  true  founder  of  the 
present  great  firm  o£  Debenham  and  Frcebody,  though  he 
actually  inherited  the  business  from  his  father.  lie  was  a 
man  of  ideas,  very  progressive  in  all  liis  methods,  and  he 
not  only  occupied  a  leading  ])osition  in  the  drapery  business, 
but  interested  himself  in  local  government  and  for  six  years 
was  an  Alderman  of  West  Marylcbone.  He  also  sat  on  the 
board  of  management  of  the  Middlesex  Hospital.  His  son, 
Mr.  Ernest  Debenham,  who  has  succeeded  liis  father  as  chair- 
man of  the  business,  lias  been  Mayor  of  Marylcbone,  and 
sits  on  the  County  Council  for  East  Marylcbone. 


18 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  iS,  1917 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

[Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  dc  MattosI 


Synopsis;  Captain  Patrice  Bdval,  a  wounded  French 
officer,  prevents  in  a  Paris  street  the  abduction  of  a  nurse 
who  is  known  to  her  patients  as  "  Little  Mother  Coralie." 
Bclval  declares  his  love  to  Coralie  only  to  he  told  by  her 
that  she  is  already  married,  and  that  he  must  make  no  further 
c§ort  to  retain  her  friendship.  Belval  has  sent  to  him  anony- 
mously a  box  containing  a  rusty  key,  by  means  of  which 
he  gains  access  to  a  house,  in  which  he  finds  five  men  torturing 
another  man,  Essares,  who  turns  out  to  be  Coralie' s  husband, 
Essares  shoots  one  man,  Fakhi,  and  buys  off  his  other  four 
assailants  for  a  million  francs  a  piece,  with  zt'hich  they 
leave  the  house.  The  next  day  Belval,  following  Coralie 
to  her  house,  finds  that  Essares,  who  had  contemplated 
flight  from  Paris,  has  been  brutally  murdered.  An 
examining  magistrate  explains  to  Belval  that  Essares 
was  prime  mover  in  a  plot  for  exporting  gold  from  France. 
In  order  to  recover  some  300  million  francs  which  Essares 
had  concealed,  the  authorities  consider  it  necessary 
to  hush  up  the  circumstances  of  Uic  financier's  death. 
The  only  possible  clue  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  gold 
is  a  paper  found  in  Essares  dead  hand,  bearing  the  words, 
"Golden  Triangle."  Ya-Bon,  Belval' s  Senegalese  servant, 
promises  to  call  in  Arsene  Lupin  to  unravel  the  mystery, 
and  Belval,  with  seven  wounded  and  convalescent  soldiers. 
takes  up  residence  in  Essares'  house  to  protect  Coralie  from 
a  mysterious  threatened  vengeance  on  her.  Belval  ascertains 
that  Simeon,  Essares  attendant,  has  mysteriously  befriended 
both  himself  and  Coralie,  and  also  obtains  evidence  that 
twenty  years  before,  Essares  had  been  responsible  for  the 
murder  of  Coralie's  mother  and  his{Belval's)  father  and  that 
an  unknown  friend  had  tried  to  protect  Coralie  and  himself 


T 


CHAPTER  X   {continued) 

iHEN,  Patrice,  Coralie  said,  you  no  longer  believe 
he  is  dead,  this  unknown  friend,  or  that  you  heard 
his  dying  cries  ?  " 

I  cannot  sa\',"  Belval  answered,  "  Simeon  was 
not  necessarily  acting  alone.  He  may  have  had  a  confidant, 
an  assistant  in  the  work  which  he  undertook.  Perhaps 
it  was  this  other  man  who  died  at  nineteen  minutes 
past  seven.  I  cannot  say.  Everything  that  happened 
on  that  ill-fated  morning  remains  involved  in  the  deepest 
mystery.  The  only  conviction  that  we  are  able  to  hold 
is  that  for  twenty  years  Simeon  Diodokis  has  worked 
unobtrusively  and  patiently  on  our  behalf,  doing  his  utmost 
to  defeat  the  murderer,  and  that  Simeon  Diodokis  is  alive. 
Alive,  but  mad  !  "  Patrice  added.  "  So  that  we  can  neither 
thank  him  nor  question  him  about  the  grim  story  which  he 
knows  or  about  the  dangers  that  threaten  you." 
«        *        *        *         * 

Patrice  resolved  once  more  to  make  the  attempt,  though 
he  felt  sure  of  a  fresh  disappointment.  Simeon  had  a  bed- 
room next  to  that  occupied  by  two  of  the  wounded  soldiers 
in  the  wing  which  formerly  contained  the  servants'  quarters. 
Here  Patrice  found  him. 

He  was  sitting  half-asleep  in  a  chair  turned  towards  the 
garden.  His  pipe  was  in  his  mouth  ;  he  had  allowed  it  to 
go  out.  The  room  was  small,  sparsely  furnished,  but  clean 
and  light.  Hidden  from  view,  the  best  part  of  the  old  man's 
life  was  spent  here.  M.  Masseron  had  often  visited  the  room, 
in  Simeon's  absence  ;  and  so  had  Patrice,  each  from  his  own 
point  of  view. 

The  only  discovery  worthy  of  note  consisted  of  a  crude 
diagram  iii  pencil,  on  the  white  wall-paper  behind  a  chest  of 
drawers  :  three  lines  intersecting  to  form  a  large  equilateral 
triangle.  In  the  middle  of  this  geometrical  figure  were  three 
words  clumsily  inscribed  in  adhesive  gold-leaf : 
The  GoldeS  Triangle. 

There  was  nothing  more,  not  another  clue  of  any  kind,  to 
further  M.  Masseron's  search. 

Patrice  walked  straight  up  to  the  old  man  and  tapped  him 
on  the  shoulder : 

"Simeon  !  "  he  said. 

The  other  lifted  his  yellow  spectacles  to  him;  and  Patrice 
felt  a  sudden  wish  to  snatch  away  this  glass  obstacle  which 
concealed  the  old  fellow's  eyes  and  prevented  him  from 


looking  into  his  soul  and  his  distant  memories.     Simeon 
began  to  laugh  foolishly. 

"  So  this,"  thought  Patrice,  "  is  my  friend  and  my  father's 
friend.  He  loved  my  father,  respected  his  wishes,  was  faith- 
ful to  his  memory,  raised  a  tomb  to  him,  prayed  for  him,  and 
swore  to  avenge  him.     And  now  his  mind  has  gone." 

Patrice  felt  that  speech  was  useless.  But,  though  the  sound 
of  his  voice  roused  no  echo  in  that  wandering  brain,  it  was 
possible  that  the  eyes  were  susceptible  to  a  reminder.  He 
wrote  on  a  clean  sheet  of  paper  the  words  that  Simeon  had 
gazed  upon  so  often  : 

P.\TRicE  .\ND  Coralie.     14  April  1895. 
The  old  man   looked,   shook  his  head  and  repeated  his 
melancholy,  foolish  chuckle. 
The  officer  added  a  new  line  : 

Armand  Belv.\l 
The  old   man   displayed   the  same  torpor.     Patrice  con- 
tinued the  test.     He  wrote  down  the  names  of  Essares  Bey 
and  Colonel  Fakhi.     He  drew  a  triangle.     The  old  ma n  failed 
to  understand  and  went  on  chuckling. 

But  suddenly  his  laughter  lost  iomc  of  its  childishness. 
Patrice  had  written  the  name  of  Bournef,  the  accomplice ; 
and  this  time  the  old  secretary  appeared  to  be  stirred  by  a 
recollection.  He  tried  to  get  up,  fell  back  in  his  chair,  then 
rose  to  his  feet  again  and  took  his  hat  from  a  peg  on  the  wall. 

Pie  left  his  room  and,  followed  by  Patrice,  marched  out  of 
the  house  and  turned  to  the  left,  in  the  direction  of  Auteuil. 
He  moved  like  a  man  in  a  trance  who  is  hypnotised  into 
walking  without  knowing  where  he  is  going.  He  led  the  way 
along  the  Rue  de  Bou  ,'ainvilliers,  crossed  the  Seine  and  turned 
down  the  Ouai  de  Crenelle  with  an  unhesitating  step.  Then 
when  he  reached  the  boulevard,  he  stopped,  putting  out  his 
arm,  made  a  sign  to  Patrice  to  do  likewise.  A  kiosk  hid  them 
from  view.  He  put  his  head  round  it.  Patrice  followed  his 
example. 

Opposite,  at  the  corner  of  the  boulevard  and  side-street, 
was  a  cafe,  witii  a  portion  of  the  pavement  in  front  of  it 
marked  out  by  dwarf  shrubs  in  tubs.  Behind  these  tubs 
four  men  sat  drinking.  Three  oi  them  had  their  backs  turned 
to  Patrice.  He  saw  the  only  one  that  faced  him  ;  and  he  at 
once  recognised  Bournef. 

By  this  time  Simeon  was  some  distance  away,  like  a  man 
whose  part  is  played  and  who  leaves  it  to  others  to  complete 
the  work.  Patrice  looked  round,  caught  sight  of  a  post- 
office  and  went  in  briskly.  He  knew  that  M.  Masseron  was 
at  the  Rue  Raynouard.  He  telephoned  and  told  him  where 
Bournef  was.  M.  Masseron  replied  that  he  would  come  at 
once. 

Since  the  murder  of  Essares  Bey,  M.  Masseron's  enquiry 
had  made  no  progress  in  so  far  as  Colonel  Fakhi's  four  accom- 
plices were  concerned.  True,  they  discovered  the  man 
Gregoire's  sanctuary  and  the  bedrooms  with  the  wall-cup- 
boards ;  but  the  whole  place  was  enipty.  The  accomplices 
had  disappeared. 

"  Old  Simeon,"  said  Patrice  to  himself,  "  was  acquainted 
with  their  habits.  •  He  must  have  known  that  they  were 
accustomed  to  meet  at  this  cafe  on  a  certain  day  of  the  week, 
at  a  fixed  hour,  and  he  suddenly  remembered  it  all  at  the  sight 
of  Bournef's  name." 

.\  few  minutes  later,  M.  Masseron  alighted  from  his  car 
with  his  men.  The  business  did  not  take  long.  The  open 
front  of  the  cafe  was  surrounded.  The  accomphces  offered 
no  resistance.  M.  Masseron  sent  three  of  them  under  a  strong 
guard  to  the  Depot  and  hustled  Bournef  into  a  private  room. 

"  Come  along,"  he  said  to  Patrice.  "  We'll  question 
him." 

"  Mmc.  Essares  is  alone  at  the  house,"  Patrice  objected. 
"  Alone  ?     No.     There  arc  all  your  soldier-men." 
"  Yes,  but  I  would  rather  go  back,  if  you  don't  mind. 
It's  the  first  time  that  I  have  left  her  and  I'm  justified  in 
feeling  anxious." 

"  It's  only  a  matter  of  a  few  minutes,"  M.  Masseron  in- 
sisted. "  One  should  always  take  advantage  of  the  fluster 
caused  by  the  arrest." 

Patrice  followed  him,  but  they  soon  saw  that  Bournef  was 
not  one  of  those  men  who  are  easily  put  out.  He  simply 
shrugged  his  shoulders  at  their  threats. 

''  It's  no  use,  sir,"  he    said,  "  to  try  and  frighten  me.     I 
{Continued  on  -bage  20) 


January  i8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


is  gour  pen 

"too  proud 
to  lurite'  ? 


It  yavr  (tn 
'trcprtui  it  wriU"? 


Tbe  Onoto  Pen  is  British. 
"  Neutral  "  pens  may  fail  you 
at  the  critical  moment ;  the 
British-made  Onoto  is  always 
ready  for  action.  It  is  never 
"  too  proud  to  write." 

It's  nib  is  always  wet  with 
fresh  ink.  '  Its  holder  is 
always  dry. 

The  Onoto  Self-filling 
Safety  cannot  leak.'  It  can- 
not "  sweat  "  ink  as  foreign 
pens  often  do.  It  is  the  one 
really  satisfactory  Self-fiUing 
Safety   Pen. 

When  you  are  choosing 
your  pen,  see  what  is  written 
on  the  holder.  Make  sure 
that  you  are  getting  a  British 
Onoto :  not  a  pen  "  Made 
in  "  anywhere  else. 

Onoto  Stlf-ftlling  Safety  Fountain 
Pens  at  all  Stationers,  etc.,  from  ia/6 
upwards.  Also  Onoto-valveless,  for 
those  who  do  not  vant  a  Self-ftliing 
Safety  Ptn,  from  10/6  upwards. 


the  British  Pen 
is  the  Onoto 


THOMAS  DE  LA  RUE   A  CO.,  LTD.,  BUNHILL  ROW,  E.C. 


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AND 

MEDICAL  WATCHES. 

"UNBREAKABLE"  FBONT 

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Protectors  I 
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the  front  I 
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£3  :  3:  O 


Sterling    Silver     Screw 

in  Case  Medical  Watch 

Luminous   figures    and 

hands,    registering   5th 

of  seconds. 

Invaluable  for 

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SMITH'S  High  Grade 

Lever  Movement. 

Guaranteed     Ci.ic, 

Timekeeper     *'•'"•« 

n  1..     «„_,.i.  I.  <>tf^/_     Inland  Postage,    6d.  eitra.        " 
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Or  including  one  extra   bulb   in   lid.  21/-. 

Extra  l>»tteri««        1/6  each.  Extra  bulbs     1/-  each. 

Herroeticallv    sealed    in    Tin    box.  Further   partlcuLirs  on  apijllcation. 

S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd.   esJissi 

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the  late  Rinii  Edward  VII. 


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BURKEIWTS* 
AN  N  UAL  SAUt 

Durlns  Jaaoarr 
many  1914 
Civniaa  T«»- 
caats  and  Suits, 
a*  well  a* 
Ladles'  Caata 
and  Qowna.  ara 
beinc  said  at 
about  HALF 
T  H  B  USUAL 
PRICES!  Pail 
list  ei  barcalaa 
an    appllcatlan. 


Fighting  Bad  Weather 


As  a  means  of  defence  against  this  insidious  neutral,  which 
is  the  cause  of  almost  as  many  casualties  as  the  enemy's  fire, 


stands    an    immeasurable   height  above  every  other  form  of' 

protecticn. 

Let  it  rain,   snow  or  blow,  the  Officer   equipped    with    THE 

BURBERRY  enjoys  the  luxury  of  being  entirely  independent 

,of  weather  and  is  effectually  safeguarded  from   discomfort, 

however  severe  the  conditions. 

Unlike  rubberproofs,  or  weatherproofs  interlined  with  oiled- 
silk,  whilst  supplying  efficient  security  against  wet  or  cold,  it  is 
free  from  the  unhealthy  heat  engendered  by  air-tight  fabrics. 
Another  advantage  of  THE  BURBERRY  is  the  permanence 
of  its  proofing.  Rubber  and  interlined  coats  are  practically 
useless  after  exposure  to  any  extreme  of  cold  or  heat,  but 
THE  BURBERRY,  owing  to  the  protective  agent  being 
ingrained  in  every  thread  of  the  cloth,  so  that  it  actually  be- 
comes part  and  parcel  of  the  material  itself,  withstands  the 
roughest  usage,  in  any  climate,  without  loss  of  its  unrivalled 
weather-resisting  properties. 

Practical  evidence  of  the  remarkable  durability,  both  in  proof- 
ness  and  wear,  of  THE  BURBERRY  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
to-day  many  Officers  are  wearing  coats  that  have  been  in  use 
since  the  betiinning  of  the  war. 

Every  Burberry  garment  is  labelled  "  Burberrys." 

DTTD0170DVC  Haymarket 
DUKot.KKlO    LONDON 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS  ;  and  Provincial  Agents 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  i8,  1917 


(Continued  from  page  i8) 
risk  nothing.  Shot,  do  you  say  ?  Nonsense !  You  don't 
shoot  people  in  France  for  the  least  thing  ;  and  we  are  all  four 
subjects  of  a  neutral  country.  Tried  ?  Sentenced  ?  Iin- 
piisoned'  Never!  You  forget  that  you  have  kept  every- 
thing dark  so  far  ;  and,  when  you  hush-^d  up  the  murder  of 
Mustapha,  of  Fakhi  and  of  Essares,  it  was  not  done  with  the 
object  of  reviving  the  case  for  no  valid  reason.  No,  sir,  I  am 
quite  easy.  The  mternment  camp  is  the  worst  that  can 
await  me." 

"  Then  you  refuse  to  answer  ?  "  said  M.  Masseron. 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it !  I  accept  internment.  But  there  are 
twenty  different  ways  of  treating  a  man  in  these  camps  ; 
and  I  should  like  to  earn  your  favour  and,  in  so  doing,  make 
sure  of  reasonable  comfort  till  the  end  of  the  war.  But 
first  of  all,  what  do  you  know  ?  " 

"  Pretty  well  e\-crything." 

"  That's  a  pity  :  it  "decreases  my  value.  Do  you  know  about 
Essqrcs'  last  night  ?  " 

"  Yes,  with  the  bargain  of  the  four  millions.  What's 
become  of  the  money  ?  ' 

Bournef  made  a  furious  gesture  . 

"  Taken  from  us !     Stolen  !     It  was  a  trap  !  " 

"  Who  took  it  ? '■ 

"  One  Grc'goire." 
■  Who  was  he  ?  " 

"  His  familiar,  as  we  have  since  learnt.  We  discovered 
that  this  Gi^'goire  was  no  other  tlian  a  fellow  who  used  to 
serve  as  his  chauffeur  on  occasion." 

"  And  who  therefore  helped  him  to  convey  the  bags  of 
gold  from  the  bank  to  his  house." 

"  Yes.  And,  we  also  think,  we  know  .  .  .  Look  here, 
you  may  as  well  call  it  a  certainty.  Gr^goire  ...  is  a 
woman." 

"  A  woman  ?  " 

"  F.xactly.  His  mistress.  We  have  several  proofs  of  it, 
But  she's  a  trustworthy,  capable  woman,  strong  as  a  man  and 
afrnid  of  nothing." 

■'  Do  you  know  her  address  ?  " 
•  No." 

"  As  to  the  gold  ;  have  you  no  clue  to  its  whereabouts,  no 
suspicion  ?  " 

"  No.  The  gold  is  in  the  garden  or  in  the  house  in  the 
Rue  Raynouard.  We  saw  it  being  taken  in  every  day  for  a 
week.  It  has  not  been  taken  out  since.  We  kept  watch 
every  night.     The  bags  are  there." 

"  No  clue  either  to  Essares'  murderer  ?   " 

"  No,  none." 

"  Are  you  quite  sure  ?  " 

"  Why  should  I  tell  a  lie  ?  " 

"  Supose  it  was  yourself  or  one  of  your  friends  ?  " 

"  We  thought  that  you  would  suspect  us.  Fortunately, 
we  happen  to  have  an  alibi." 

"  Easy  to  prove  ?  " 

"  Impossible  to  upset." 

"  We'll  look  into  it.     So  you  have  nothing  more  to  reveal  ?  " 

■'  No.  But  I  have  an  idea  ...  or  rather  a  question 
which  you  will  answer  or  not,  as  you  please.  Who  betrayed 
us  ?  Your  reply  may  throw  some  useful  light,  for  one  person 
only  knew  of  our  weekly  meetings  here  from  four  to  five  o'clock, 
one  person  only,  Essares  Bey  ;  and  he  himself  often  came  here 
to  confer  with  us,  Essares  is  dead.     Then  who  gave  us  away.?  " 

"  Old  Simeon," 

Bournef  started  with  astonishment : 

"  What !     Simeon,   Simeon  Diodokis  ?  " 

"  Yes,  Simeon  Diodokis,  Essares  Bey's  secretary." 

"  He?  Oh,  I'll  make  him  pay  for  this,  the  blackguard! 
But  no,  it's  impossible." 

"  What  makes  you  say  that  it's  impossible." 

"  Why,  because     .     .     ." 

He  stopped  and  thought  for  some  time,  no  doubt  to  con- 
vince himself  that  there  was  no  harm  in  speaking.  Then 
he  finished  his  sentence  : 

"  Because  old  Simeon  was  on  our  side." 

■'  What's  that  you  say  ?  "  exclaimed  Patrice,  whose  turn 
It  was  to  be  surprised. 

"  I  say  that  1  swear  that  Simeon  Diodokis  was  on  our  side. 
He  was  our  man.  It  was  he  who  kept  us  informed  of  Essares 
Bey's  shady  tricks  ft  was  ho  who  rang  us  up  at  nine  o'clock 
in  the  evening  to  tell  us  that  lissarcs  had  lit  the  furnace  of  the 
old  hot-house  and  that  the  sicnal  of  the  sparks  was  going  to 
work.  It  was  he  who  opened  the  door  to  us,  pretending  to 
resist,  of  course,  and  allowed  us  to  tie  him  up  in  the  porter's 
lodge.  It  was  he,  lastly,  who  paid  and  dismissed  tha  men- 
servants." 

"  But  why  ?  Why  this  treachery  ?  For  the  sake  of 
money  ?  " 

■'  No.  from  hatred.  He  bore  Essares  Bey  a  hatred  that 
often  gave  us  the  shudders." 

"  WTiat  orompted  it  ?  " 


"  I  don't  know.  Simeon  keeps  his  own  council.  But  it 
dated  a  long  way  back." 

' '  Did  he  know  where  the  gold  was  hidden  ?  "  asked  M. 
Masseron. 

"  No,  And  it  was  not  for  want  of  1  unting  to  find  out ! 
He  never  knew  how  the  bags  got  out  of  the  cellar,  which  was 
only  a  temporary  hiding  place." 

"  And  yet  they  used  to  leave  the  grounds.  If  so,  how  are 
we  to  know  that  the  same  thing  didn't  happen  this  time  ? 

"  This  time  we  were  keeping  watch  the  whole  way  round 
outside,  a  thing  which  Simeon  could  not  do  by  himself." 

Patrice  now  jiut  the  question  : 

"  Can  you  tell  us  nothing  more  about  him  ?  " 

"  No.  I  can't.  Wait,  though  :  there  was  one  rather  curious 
thing.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  great  day,  I  received  a  letter 
in  which  Simr'on  gave  me  certain  particulars.  In  the  same 
envelope  was  another  envelope,  which  had  evidently  got  there 
by  some  incredible  mistake,  for  it  appeared  to  be  highly  im- 
portant." 

"  What  did  it  say  ?  "  asked  Patrice,  anxiously. 

"  It  was  all  about  a  key." 

"  Don't  you  remember  the  details  ?  " 

"  Here  is  the  letter.  I  kept  it  in  order  to  give  it  back  to 
him  and  warn  him  what  he  had  done.  Here,  it's  certainly 
his  writing     .     .     ." 

Patrice  took  the  sheet  of  notepaper  ;  and  the  first  thing  that 
he  saw  was  his  own  name.    The  letter  was  addressed  to  him  : 

"  Patrice," 

"  You  will  this  evening  receive  a  key.  The  door  opens  to 
doors  midway  down  a  lane  leading  to  the  river  :  one,  on  the 
right,  is  that  of  the  garden  of  the  woman  you  love  ;  the  other, 
on  the  left,  that  of  a  garden  where  I  want  you  to  meet  me  at 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  on  the  i4tli  of  April.  She  will 
be  there  also.  You  shall  learn  who  I  am  and  the  object  which 
I  intend  to  attain.  You  shall  both  hear  things  about  the 
past  that  will  bring  you  still  closer  together. 

"  From  now  until  the  14th,  the  struggle  which  begins  to- 
night will  be  a  terrible  one.  If- anything  happens  to  me, 
it  is  certain  that  the  woman  you  love  will  run  the  greatest 
dangers.  Watch  o\er  her,  Patrice  ;  do  not  leave  her  for  an 
instant  unprotected.  But  I  do  not  intend  to  let  any- 
thing liappen  to  me  ;  and  you  shall  both  know  the  happiness 
which  I  have  been  preparing  for  you  so  long. 

"  My  best  love  to  you." 

"  It's  not  signed,"  said  Bournef,  "  but  I  repeat,  it's  in 
Simeon's  handwriting.  As  for  the  lady,  she  is  obviously 
Mme.  Essares." 

"  But  what  danger  can  she  be  running  ?  "  exclaimed  Patrice, 
uneasily.     "  Essares  is  dead,  so  there  is  nothing  to  fear." 

"  I  wouldn't  say  that.     He  would  take  some  killing." 

"  Whom  can  he  have  instructed  to  avenge  him  ?  Who 
would  continue  his  work  ?  " 

"  I  can't  say,  but  I  should  take  no  risks." 

Patrice  waited  to  hear  no  more.  He  thrust  the  letter  into 
M.  Masseron's  hand  and  made  his  escape. 

"  Riie  Raynouard,  fast  as  you  can,"  he  said,  springing  into 
a  taxi. 

He  was  eager  to  reach  his  destination.  The  dangers  of 
which  old  Simeon  spoke  seemed  suddenly  to  hang  over  Coralie's 
head.  Already  the  enemy,  taking  advantage  of  Patrice's 
absence  might  be  attacking  his  beloved.  And  who  could 
defend  her  ? 

"  If  anything  happens  to  me,  Simeon  had  said." 

And  the  suppposition  was  partly  realized,  since  he  had 
^  lost  his  wits. 

"  Come,  come,"  muttered  Patrice,  "  this  is  sheer  idiocy 
.  .  .  .  I  am  fancying  things  .  .  .  There  is  no 
reason     .     .     ." 

But  his  mental  anguish  increased  every  minute.  He 
reminded  himself  that  old  Simeon  was  still  in  full  possession 
of  his  faculties 'at  the  time  when  he  wrote  that  letter  and  gave 
the  advice  which  it  contained.  He  reminded  himself  that 
old  Simeon  had  purposely  informed  him  that  the  key  opened 
the  door  of  Coralie's  garden,  so  that  he,  Patrice,  might  keep 
an  effective  watch  by  coming  to  her  in  case  of  need. 

He  saw  Simeon  some  way  ahead  of  him.  It  was  growing 
late  ;  and  the  old  fellow  was  going  home.  Patrice  passed 
him  just  outside  the  porter's  lodge  and  heard  him  iiumming 
to  himself. 

"  Any  news  ?  "     Patrice  asked  the  soldier  on  duty. 

"  No,  sir." 

"  Where's  Little  Mother  Coralie  ?  " 

"  She  had  a  walk  in  the  garden  and  went  upstairs  half  an 
hour  ago." 

"  Ya-Bon  ?  " 

"  Ya-Bon  went  up  with  Little  Mother  Coralie.  He  should 
be  at  her  door." 

[Continued  on  page  23) 


January  t8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


FORXMASON 


Ski  Boots 

(With  or    without   Straps). 

The  Ski  Boot  Idea  is  the  pro- 
duct of  a  Country  accustomed  to 
cold  and  snow.  The  high  double 
sides  of  this  type  of  boot  permit  of 
an  extra  pair  of  socks  being  worn, 
which  affords  warmth  and 
protection. 


The  "  Five  Guinea "  Ski 
Boot  has  the  patent  Fortmason 
Waterproof  Leather  throughout, 
the  soles  are  extra  strong,  and  the 
whole  boot  is  as  supple  as  a  slipper 
and  lasts  (or  years. 

£.5:5:0 


S  zes   tOJ  upwards, 
10/-  per  pair  extra. 


FORTNUM  &  MASON  S  RUBBER  BOOTS 


RUBBER  CAVALRY  BOOT. 

Bright  black,  6ts  close  to  breeches. 
Per  21/-  Pair. 

RUBBER  HIP  WADERS. 

Heavy   Rubber    Soles— sole    and 

bottom  c(   boot  acid  proof. 

Per  39/6   Pair 


RUBBER  KNEE  BOOT. 

Close,  fctting  leg,  strong  rubber  soles, 

khaki  colour. 

Per  25/-   Pair. 

RUBBER  KNlE  BOOT. 

Wide  lealhf^r  soles,  nai  ed.  Botlom 

01   boot  acid  proof. 

Per  39/6    Pair. 


lUuilrated  Catalogue  sent  on  atiplicatton, 

FORXNUM    6»    MASOI>f. 

182     Piccadilly,     London.    W. 


Ltd.. 


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E 


iKiimKSii-ms!!i;imifiiiWK!iiimi<iiKTmii\iimBSfSi  mt. 


There's  no  luxury  quite  equal  to  a 
Mustard  Balh  after  a  strenuou.s  day's 
work  in  the  munition  lactory! 
Muscles  and  nerves  get  back  their 
tone— the  skin  reacts  to  a  f,lorious 
glow — and  fatif;ue  simply  disappears. 
Just  a  tablespoonfulor  so  of  mustard 
in  the  hot  water.  Any  bath— any  lime 
— any  day — why  not  to-day  ? 


I  Colman's 
f  MustardBath 

la: 


\A'm&^mBSA^^'S^sif>'mKR\fimKfifmtsiimiViSii 


mfik 


22 


LAND    &     WATER 


January  18,  1917 


{Conlinued  from  page  20) 

Patrice  climbed  the  stairs,  feeling  a  good  deal  calmed. 
Rut  when  he  came  to  the  first  floor,  he  was  astonished  to  lind 
that  the  electric  light  was  not  on.  He  turned  on  the  s\\itch. 
Then  he  saw,  at  the  end  of  the  passage,  Ya-Bon  on  iiis  knees 
outside  Coralie's  room,  with  his  head  leaning  against  the 
wall.     The  door  was  open. 

"  W'liat  are  you  doing  there  ?  "  he  shouted,  running  up. 

Ya-Bon  made  no  reply.  Patrice  saw  that  there  was  blood 
on  the  shoulder  of  his  jacket.  At  that  moment  the 
Senegalese  sank  to  the  floor. 

"  Damn  it !     He's   wounded  1     Dead  perhaps  !  " 

He  leapt  over  the  body  and  rushed  into  the  room,  switching 
•n  the  light  at  once. 

Coralie  was  lying  at  full  length  on  a  sofa.  Round  her  neck 
was  the  terrible  little  red-silk  cord.  And  yet  Patrice  did 
mot  experience  that  awful,  numbing  despair  which  we  feel 
in  the  presence  of  irretrievable  misfortune.  It  seemed  to  him 
that  Coralie's  face  had  not  the  pallor  of  death. 

He  found  that  she  was  in  fact  breathing  : 

■'  She's  not  dead.  She's  not  dead,"  said  Patrice  to  himself. 
"  And  she's  not  going  to  die,  I'm  sure  of  it  .  .  .  nor 
Ya-Bon  either     .     .     .     They've  failed  this  time." 

He  loosened  the  cord.  In  a  few  seconds,  Coralie  heaved 
a  deep  breath  and  recovered  consciousness.  A  smile  lit 
up  her  eyes  at  the  sight  of  him.  But,  suddenly  remembering, 
she  threw  her  arms,  still  so  weak,  around  him  : 

"  Oh,  Patrice,"  she  said,  in  a  trembling  voice,  "  I'm 
frightened    .     .     .     frightened  for  you !  " 

"  What  are  you  frightened  of,  Coralie  ?  Who  is  the  scound- 
rel .'  " 

"  I  didn't  see  him  ...  He  put  out  the  light,  caught 
sue  by  the  throat  and  whispered,  '  You  first  .  .  .  To- 
light  it  will  be  your  lover's  turn  1  '  .  .  .  Oh,  Patrice, 
I'm  frightened  for  you  !      ..." 

CHAPTER  XI 

On  the  Brink 

PATRICE  at  once  made  up  his  mind  what  to  do. 
He  hfted  Coralie  to  her  bed  and  asked  her  not  to 
move  or  call  out.  Then  he  made  sure  that  Ya-Bon 
was  not  seriously  wounded.  Lastly,  he  rang  violent- 
ly, sounding  all  the  bells  that  communicated  with  the  posts 
which  he  had  placed  in  different  parts  of  the  house.  \ 

The  men  came  hurrying  up. 

"  You're  a  pack  of  nincompoops,"  he  said.  "  Some  ones 
Ween  here.  Little  Mother  Corahe  and  Ya-Bon  have  had  a 
■arrow  escape  of  being  Idlled." 

They  began  to  protest  loudly. 

"  Silence  !  "  he  commanded.  "  You  deserve  a  good  hiding, 
every  one  of  you.  I'll  forgive  you  on  one  condition,  which 
is  that,  all  this  evening  and  all  to-night,  you  speak  of  Little 
Motlier  Coralie  as  though  she  were  dead." 

"  But  whom  are  we  to  speak  to,  sir  ?  "  one  of  them  objected. 
".There's  nobody  here." 

'  Yes,  there  is,  you  silly  fool,  since  Little  Mother  CoraUe 
and  Ya-Bon  have  been  attacked.  Unless  it  was  yourselves 
who  did  it !  .     .     It  wasn't  ?     Very  well  then     .     .     . 

And  let  me  have  no  more  nonsense.  It's  not  a  question  of 
bstening  to  others,  but  of  talking  among  yourselves  .  .  . 
and  of  thinking,  even,  without  speaking.  There  are  people 
speaking  to  you,  spying  on  you,  people  who  hoar  wh-it  you  say 
and  who  guess  what  you  don't  say." 

"  And  old  Sinv'on,  sir  ?  " 

"  Lock  him  up  in  his  room.  He's  dangerous  because  he's 
mad.  They  may  have  taken  advantage  of  his  madness  to 
make  him  open  the  door  to  them.     Lock  him  up  !  " 

Patrice's  plan  was  a  simple  one.  As  the  enemy,  beheving 
Coralie  to  be  on  the  point  of  death,  had  revealed  to  her  his 
intention,  which  was  to  kill  Patrice  as  well,  it  was  necessary 
that  he  should  think  himself  free  to  act,  with  nobody  to  suspect 
his  schemes  or  to  be  on  his  guard  agaiAst  him.  He  woul  1 
enter  upon  the  struggle  and  then  would  be  caught  in  a  trap. 

Pending  this  struggle,  for  which  he  longed  with  all  his  might, 
Patrice  saw  to  Ya-Bon's  wound,  which  proved  to  be  only 
slight,  and  questioned  him  and  Coralie.  Their  answers 
talHed  at  all  points.  Coralie,  feeling  a  little  tired,  was  lying 
down  reading.  Ya-Bon  remained  in  the  passage,  outside  the 
open  door,  squatting  on  the  floor,  Arab-fashion.  Neither 
of  them  heard  anything  suspicious.  And  suddenly  Ya-Bon 
saw  a  shadow  between  himself  and  the  light  in  the  passage. 
Ya-Bon,  already  half  erect,  felt  a  violent  blow  in  the  back 
of  the  neck  and  lost  consciousness.  CoraUe  tried  to  escape 
by  the  dopr  of  her  boudoir,  but  was  unable  to  open  it.  began 
to  cry  out  and  was  at  once  seized  and  thrown  down.  .Ml 
this  had  happened  within  thr  ?pace  of  a  few  seconds. 

The  only  lunt  that  Pal  ie  succccdid  in  obtaiiin  g  was 
that  the  man  came  not  from  the  staircase  but  from  tlie  ser- 


vants' wing.  This  had  a  smaller  staircase  .of  its  own,  com- 
municating with  the  kitchen  through  a  pantry  'oy  which  the 
tradesmen  entered  from  the  Rue  Raynouard.  The  door 
leading  to  the  street  was  locked.  But  someone  might  easily 
possess  a  key. 

After  dinner,  Patrice  went  in  to  see  Coralie  for  a  moment 
and  then,  at  riine  o'clock,  retired  to  his  bedroom,  which  was 
situated  a  little  lower  down,  on  the  same  side.  It  had  been 
used,  in  Essares  Bey's  lifetime,  as  a  smoking-room.  ' 

As  the  attack  from  which  he  expected  such  good  results 
was  not  likely  to  take  place  before  the  middle  of  the  night 
Patrice  sat  down  at  a  roll-top  desk  standing  against  the  wall 
and  took  out  the  diary  in  which  he  had  begun  his  detailed 
record  of  recent  events.  He  wrote  on  for  half  an  hour  or 
forty  minutes  and  was  about  to  close  the  book  when  he  seemed 
to  here  a  \ague  rustic,  which  he  would  certainly  not  have 
noticed  if  his  nerves  had  not  been  stretched  to  their  utmost 
state  of  tension.  And  he  remembered  the  day  when  he  and 
Coralie  had  once  before  been  shot  at.  This  time,  however, 
the  window  was  not  open  nor  even  ajar. 

He  therefore  went  on  writing  without  turning  bis  head  or 
doing  anything  to  suggest  that  his  attention  had  been  aroused 
and  he  set  down,  almost  unconsciously,  the  actual  phases 
of  his  anxiety  : 

"  He  is  here.  He  is  watching  me.  I  wonder  what  he  means 
to  do.  I  doubt  if  he  will  smash  a  pane  of  glass  and  hre  a 
bullet  at  me.  He  has  tried  that  method  before  and  found 
it  uncertain  and  a  failure.  No,  his  plan  is  thought  out. 
I  expect,  in  a  different  and  more  intelligent  fashion.  He  is 
more  hkely  to  wait  for  me  to  go  to  bed,  when  he  can  watch 
me  sleeping  and  effect  his  entrance  by  some  means  which 
I  can't  guess. 

"  Meanwhlile  it's  extraordinarily  exhilarating  to  kui'w 
that  his  eyes  are  upon  me.  He  hates  me  ;  and  his  hatred  . 
is  coming  nearer  and  nearer  to  mine,  like  one  sword  feeling 
its  way  towards  another  before  clashing.  He  is  watching 
me  as  a  wild  animal,  lurking  in  the  dark,  watches  its  prey 
and  selects  the  spot  on  which  to  fasten  its  fangs.  But  no, 
I  am  certain  that  it's  he  who  is  the  prey,  doomed  before- 
hand to  defeat  and  destruction.  He  is  preparing  his  knife 
or  his  red-silk  cord.  And  it's  these  two  hands  of  mine  that 
will  finish  the  battle.  They  are  strong  and  powerful  and  are 
already  enjoying  their  victory.     They  will  be  victorious." 

Patrice  shut  down  the  desk,  lit  a  cigarette  and  smoked 
it  quietly,  as  his  habit  was  before  going  to  bed.  Then  he 
undressed,  folded  his  clothes  carefully,  wound  up  his  watch, 
got  into  bed   and  switched  off  the  light. 

"  At  last,"  he  said  to  himself,  "  I  shall  know  the  truth. 
I  shall  know  who  this  man  is.  Some  friend  of  Essares', 
continuing  his  work  ?  But  why  this  hatred  of  Ccjralie  ? 
Is  he  in  love  with  her,  as  he  is  trying  to  finish  me  off  too  ? 
I  shall  know     ...     I  shall  soon  know     .     .     ."    . 

An  hour  passed,  however,  and  another  hour,  during  which 
nothing  happened  on  the  side  of  the  window.  .\  single 
creaking  came  from  somewhere  beside  the  desk.  But  this 
no  doubt  was  one  of  those  sounds  of  creaking  tuiiiitiue 
which  we  often  hear  in  the  silence  of  the  night. 

Patrice  began  to  lose  the  buoyant  hope  that  had  sustan.ed 
him  so  far.  He  perceived  that  his  elaborate  sham  regard- 
ing Coralie's  death  was  a  poor  thing  after  all  and  that  a  man 
of  his  enemy's  stamp  might  well  refuse  to  be  taken  in  by  it. 
Feeling  rather  put  out,  he  was  on  the  point  of  going  to  sleep, 
when  he  heard  the  same  creaking  sound  at  the  same  spot. 
The  need  to  do  something  made  him  jump  out  of  bed. 
He  turned  on  the  light.  Everything  seemed  to  be  as  he  !iad 
left  it.     There  was  no  trace  of  a  strange  presence. 

"  Well,"  said  Patrice,  "  one  thing's  certain  :     I'm  no  good. 
The  enemy  must  have  smelt  a  rat  and  guessed  the  trap  1  laid 
for  him.     Let's  go  to  sleep.     There  will  be  nothing  happening 
to-night." 
There  was  in  lact  no  zl  irm. 

Next  morning,  on  examining  the  window,  he  observed  that 
a  stone  ledge  ran  above  the  ground-floor  all  along  the  garden 
front  of  the  house,  wide  enough  for  a  man  to  walk  upon  by 
holding  on  to  the  balconies  and  rain-pipes.  He  inspected 
all  the  rooms  to  which  the  ledge  gave  access.  None  of  them 
was  old  Simeon's  room. 

•   "  He  hasn't  stirred  out,   I  suppose?  "   he  asked  the  two 
soldiers  posted  on  guard. 

"  Don't  think  so,  sir.  In  any  case,  we  haven't  imlocked 
the  door.  " 

Patrice  went  in  and,  paying  no  attention  to  the  old  lollow, 
who  was  still  sucking  at  his  cold  pipe,  he  searchpd  tlieroom' 
having  it  at  the  back  of  his  mind  that  the  enemy  might  take 
refuge  there.  He  found  nobody.  But  what  he  did  dis- 
cover, in  a  press  in  the  wall,  was  a  number  of  things  which  he 
had  not  seen  during  his  investigations  in  M.  Masserons 
company.  These  consisted  of  a  rope  ladder,  a  coil  of 
lead  pipes,  apparently  gas-pipes,  and  a  small  soldering- lamp. 

(To  bt  continued) 


January  25,  1917 


Supplement    to    LAND    &     WATER 


vu 


^illlldlUilllldllllllllilliijilliillljllllllllalllJIIIlllllilllUillillllilllllllllllllllllllllllili 

i  UNLIKE  ORDINARY  PUTTEES,  OUR  NEW 

I  ALL-LEATHER  PUTTEES 

I  NEVER  TEAR  OR  FRAY  OUT. 

i  These    most    comfortable,  ~ 

i  good-looking    puttees    are 

I  made  entirely  of  fin  ^supple 

I  tnn     leather,     and    fasten 

I  simply  with  one  buckle  at 

i  bottom.      They     are     ex- 

i  tremely   durable,    even    if 

i  subjected  to  the  friction  of 

I  riding,  as  the  edges   never 

I  tear  or   fray  out,   and   for 

I  winter  wear  they  are  iin- 

I  matched. 

=  Thi  puttees  are  speedilv  put  on  or 

I  taken    off,  readily  mould    to    the 

s  shape  of    the    leg,    are    as     easily 

I  cleaned    as    a     leather    belt,    and 

I  saddle     soap     soon    mikes     tbem 

R  priotic  illy  water  roof. 

I  Thi  price  per  pair  is    16/6,    post 

I  free    inland,     or     postage    a^iroad 

I  1/-  exlrj,  or  sent  on  approval    on 

I  receipt  of  business  (not  banke    s 

I  reference,  and  home  address. 


OFFICERS'  RIDING  BREECHES  j 

The  fac'ors  of  successful  breeches-makin  i  are — 6ne  wear-resist-  = 

ing  c  oths,  skilful  cutting,  and  careful,  thorough  tailor-w  irk — and  s 

all  ihese  we  giarantee.     Abundant  experience  aUo  con  ri'~utes  '= 

importantly  n  giving  utmost  satisfaction,  for  Grant  &     o  kburn  ^ 

have  made  breec'ies  for  ninety-five  years.      We  keep   on  hand  = 

a  num  er  of  pairs  o'  breeches,  and  are  therefore  olten   able   to  ^ 

meet   immediate   requirements,  or    we  can  cut    and  try  a  pair  = 

on  the  same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day.  if  urgently  wanted"  = 

GRANTsoCOCKBURN.sro ,«.,  I 

LTD  = 

Miiittr"a"d  Cttii'Tiiior,.  25  mICCADIELi,  Vv.  g 


^-iM'.'iniiii'iiniiii'iiiriiii  !iiriiiiiiii!iiiiiiii:'iii'iiii  mi  mi  !iii  wiiiiiiihiijiii  mriiiriiii  mi  iiiniii  iiiiiiiii'iin  nm 


The  Original  Cording's,  Estd.   1839 


There   can   be   no   getting  wet   in   an 
**  Equitor/'  the  really  waterproof  coat 


(HEISD.) 


Daily  we  re<:eive  evidence  from 
those  who  hiive  puid  for  their 
knowledge  in  ino;ie.v  and  serious 
dtsc-omtcrt.  th;it  a  semi-proof 
(weatlierproof)  t-oat  fails  to  Iveep 
ont  the  wet.  that  liie  outer  $hell 
becomes  water-logged,  and  that 
even  if  lined  with  oilskin  or  the 
like  the  damp  still  strikus 
through  the  seams  at  the  luckless 
wearer. 

\ctive  Serviee  entails  many  In- 
evitable hardshps  but  eettine 
wet — a  risky  and  uiturly  wretched 
experience — is  not  one  of  Ihein, 
for  that  trustworthy  waterproof, 
the  "Kquitor,"  «ill  keep  a  nmu 
bone  dry  through  the  lieavieat 
and  most  lasting  downpour,  and 
with  a  snug  fleece  wool. en  lining 
huttoncd  in  wil.  also  warmly  pro- 
tect him  in  biting  cold  uvutiier. 
The  "ISquitor"  is  lilted  with  a 
s|)ecial  riding  apron,  but  the  loat 
kcrves  just  as  well  for  ordinary 
wear  afoot,  whether  tlie  apron  oe 
fastened    back    or  not. 

in  our  lisht  weight  No.  31 
material,  the  price  ol  tho 
"Etiuitor"  is  92/6;  i,t  our  No.  23 
castimere  a  meoium  weight  cloth, 
115/-;  witiiout  apron  (either 
cloth),  17/6  less,  wilh  belt,  S/- 
extra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat 
can  be  had  m  twa  qua.ilies—  No.  1 
(fine  wool),  62/6;  No.  2,  ao;- 
When  ordering  an  "Etiuilor"  Coat 
please  state  height  and  chest 
measure  and  send  remittance 
(which  will  be  returned  if  the 
coat  is  not  approved),  or  give 
home  address  and  business  (not 
banker's)    reference. 


lilastrated  List  at  request. 


»/.     O.     L^\Jl\LJII\(jl      &      O'TO      TOHM.THEKING 


Only  A(f(frftit»s 


19  PICCADIT  LY,    VV.,  &  35  ST.  JAMES'S  ST.,  s.w. 


The    "19th"   Hole 
HARVEFS  SCOTCH  WHISKY. 

Per  54/-    doz.      \  Packages  return,ble.  /     Sample  bottle 

Carnage     paid,      j  Carriage  forward.  \     5/-    post  fiee. 

^JOHN    HARVEY    &     SONS,    Ltd,     BRISTOL, 

Send  for   Price   List  of   High  CIms  Wines  and   SplWts. 


VIU 


Supplement    to      LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 


War-time  Economy 

TO  BUY 

Waterman  s  Ideal 

— the    great    time    saver. 

Tg  THI  SBSVICS  or  THX  RATtOS'S  BDSIVESS 

WATERMAN'S  IDE'AL  has  for  two 
gnerations  bt-en  the  foremost  tool  of 
writinu  eflic  encv  and  dispatch.  In 
the  p  'ckets  and  on  the  desks  of  those 
who  do  things  it  is  an  everpresent 
and  ever-ready  companion  to  progress. 

WATERMAN'S  IDEAL  is  first  and 
last  the  Fountain  Pen  of  Service.  It 
is  the  one  that  has  life-lone  durability 
and  reliabilitv,  the  fountain  pen  that 
has  Ihe  fam  'US  spoon  feed  and  other 
exclusive  features  of  merit.  It  is  the 
pen  which  gives  that  kind  of  SERVICE 
which  has  resulted  in  its  world-wide 
endorsement  and  use. 

Wateraitan's 
FoiiiitSrlPen 

The  Headmaster  of  a  large 
SCHOOL,  who  lost  his  Waterman's 
Ideal,  writes — 

"  /  w^s  *lost'  without  it,  and  at  the  end  of  a 
u/cfk  d  adtd  that  it  was  a  war  time  economy  to 
replace  tt," 


Better  Filing 
Methods  for 
the  New  Year 

If  you  cannot  find  any  re- 
quired letter  or  paper  the 
instant  it  is  required,  why 
not  adopt  a  better  method 
of  filing.'  Prominent  houses 
throughout  the  country 
use  the 

8lol>c^\v^rt)ickc  Vertical  Filing  System. 

Disks,   Chairs,   "Elastic"   Bookcases,   Card   InJex  Cabin' ts. 
Tables,  etc.  Write  tor  Catal'^eiie  no  V.F. 

Packing  Free.     Orders  ol  il  carriagt  Paid  to  any  Goods  Station  in  Iht  British  ItUt. 

The  Slok^^micltc  CasA 

Oljtce  and  Ltbiary  funmheti. 
44  Holborn  Viaduct,  EC:  98  Bi  hopsirate,  E.G.;  82  Vicforia  St.,  S.W 


Tbree  Types:  Regular.  lOi.  6d.  and 
■pwards,  Lever  Pocket  Self-filling 
and  Safety  Types.  158.  and  upwards. 
Special  pens  d-r  pre'ent.'itinn.  Of 
Statiooen  and  Jewellers  everywhere. 


1  Ahralute  saWe^factlon  guaranteed. 
Nirw  exchnnseable  if  not  suitable. 
Call  or  eend  to  "The  Pen  Comer." 
Full  range  of  pens  oa  view  for  in- 
speoUoo    and    trial.        Booklet    Free 

J    from— 


L,  G.  Sloan  Ltd.   ClyslJca Correcr  Kingsway,  London 


War— Worry—  Headache. 

Worrying  about  the  war,  bad  news,  overwork, 
uncertainty  about  the  future — all  tend  to  bring 
on  Headaches.  To  banish  your  Headaches, 
whether  the  cause  be  the  war  or  something  eIs^, 
you  need  a  supply  of 


Zox  is  the  safe  remedy.  Thousands  of  men 
and  women  escape  much  needless  pain  by 
taking  Zox.  Sufferers  say  "it  acts  like  magic." 
1/-  and   2/6  a   box,  of   Chemists,   Stores,  etc. 

F  R  e:  s. 

Send  a  stamped   addressed 
envelope  for  two  Free  Powders. 

ZOX  Co.,  11  Ha'ton  Garden, 
LONDON.   E.G. 


Will  you  give  a  little  to  help  those  who 
gave  so  much  for  you? 

MONEY  IS  URGENTLY  NEEDED  to  acquire 
more  Workshops  and  Machinery  at 

The  Lord  Roberts  Memorial  Workshops 

THE 

NATIONAL   TRIBUTE   TO   LORD    ROBERTS. 

Permanently  disabled  on  Active  Service — Soldiers  and  Sailors 
find  immediate  work  at  our  Workshops.  A  man  starts  at 
£1  per  week  and  earns  standard  rate  of  wages  quickly. 
No  red  tape.  No  delay.  The  National  way  and  the 
only  practical   way    to   find   work   for   our   disabled    men. 

We  find  work  NOW -and  after  the  War 

SEND  A  SUBSCRIPTION  TO-DAY,  PLEASE,  TO— 
Major-Gen.  Ihe  Lord  Cheylesmore,  K.C.V.O. 
122  Brompton  Road,  London,  S.W. 

The  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Help  Society.      Patrons:    H.M.  The  King,  H.M.  The  Queen. 


LAND  &  WATER 

Vol.  LXVllI    No.  2855    vif'!:         THURSD.AY,   JANUARY   25    1917         [a  nkwspapi  r  J   i> ,n  c  f.  .  mo^knc^^ 


L_|2-L>-"-^!  \at  oici.rix^', '  "■■  -  - 


ill  iiitiMMiii  iri 


iT''-"'"'°''1iiiiii'tfii'i" liilliTiilliif  fiiii  Hill  III  mil' 


iiiiiiiiiMitfiiririif r 


Us  /.a/.-iA  Racmnekert 


Drawn  exctunively  for   "  Land  it-    Water  " 


The  Crucifixion  of  Belgium 

We  are  willing  now  to  make  peace  so  that  you  may  enjoy  still  more  the  blessings  of  our  kultur  " 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 


A  MAN  S   COAT 


WAR'S  a  rough  game,  anyhow — a  grim, 
dour  game,  with  the  stark  savagery 
of  the  weather  as  background  to  its 
wild  variety  of  minor  miseries.      No  job  for 
women  or  weaklings — a  Man's  Game. 

And  the  Thresher's  a  Man's  Coat — a  fighting 
man's  fighting  coat.  The  rawest,  bleakest 
job  that  the  General  Staff  could  invent, 
cannot  frighten  the  man  who  tackles  it 
Thresher-clad. 

The  coat  that  will  stand  the  hardest-slogging 
I  rain  as  long  as  it  hkes  to  keep  on  slogging 
and  never  ship  a  drop,  is  a  useful  sort  of 
billet-mate.  No  exaggeration  in  that— no 
\yater  can  pass  the  special  inner  lining 
(inner  because  the  outside  shell  of  khaki 
drill  takes  the  rough  wear  and  tear — and 
takes  it  "  standing  up  ").  And  when  your 
nose  and  ears  are  shouting  to  you  how  blis- 
teringly  cold  it  is,  while  from  neck  to  knees 
you're  enjoying  Henley  weather,  you  think 
very  kindly  of  the  man  who  thought  out 
the  Thresher  and  put  that  snug  innermost 
warmth-lining  there,  making  it  detachable 
moreover,  for  days  and  occasions  when  you 
don't  want  to  carry  winter-weight. 

And  all  the  dear  little  draughts  and  rain- 
trickles  that  used  to  wrigglQ  in  at  neck  and 
wrists  when  your  coat  wasn't  a  Thresher — 
where  are  they  ? 

Ask  the  clever  little  Thresher  comfort- dodges, 
the  neat  little  collar-and-cuff-contrivances 
which  give  the  finishing  touch  to  the 
Thresher's  fighting  qualities. 

W.O.  recommended  the  Thresher  to  O.C's 
first  year  of  the  war.  Over  12,000  officers 
have  taken  the  official  tip — and  been  glad 
of  it  since,  on  many  a  raw,  soaking  day. 


OPINIONS. 

B.B.f. 

After  wearing  one  of  your  Trench  Coats  f«r 
almost  a  year  out  here,  it  was  yesterday 
destroyed  by  a  shell.  Please  send  me  another, 
etc.  .  .  .  This  order  will  conArm  my 
pleasure  with  your  Coat,  etc. 

Capt.,  Oxford  and  Bucks.  Lt.  fnf. 
B.E.F. 
t  might  tell  you  that  no  other  toat  can  take 
the  place  of  your  Trench  Coot  for  comfort  and 
protection.  As  for  'wear,  there  is  nothing  M 
be  said;  after  nine  months  of  daily  use  and 
rough  treatment  my  coat  is  just  as  serviceabtr 
as  when  it  was  new. 

Lieut.-Col.  Commanding,  M.M.G.  Bde. 


TOI^lilKllI^ 

TRENCH  COAT 


■■"^S^kJ^tc^Sr""""'-  £8.8.0  THRESHER  &GLENNY 

"  Military   Tailort  tince  the  Crimean    War, 

As  above.  w..h  detachable     Kamelcott       £6      6      0       152     &     153      Strand,      LONDON,     W.C. 

SCOTTISH    AGENTS  : 
Cavalry  type,  with  knee  flaps  and  saddle  gusset,  15/6  extra  WM.  ANDERSON  &  SON,  14  Gtorgt  St.,  E<li„hnrgl.,  &  106  Hop*  St.,  GUq»w. 


All  tlzei  in  slock-      Send  size  of  chest  and  approximate 
height,  and  to  aoold  any  delay  enclose  cheque  when  ordering. 


By  Appatntm^nf  to 


M.  the  King. 


January  35,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,    W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  JANUARY  25,   1917 

The  Proprietors  of  " Land  &  Water"  beg  to  announce 
that,  owing  to  the  considerable  increase  in  ihe  cost  of 
production,  the  price  of  this  journal  has  been  raised 
to  7d.  This  increase  will  beg'n  with  the  next  issue, 
Thursday,  February  1st,  and  will  be  maintained  for  the 
duration  of  the  War.  Any  readers  who  may  experience 
difficulty  in  obtaining  their  weekly  copy  should 
apply  direct  to  the  Publisher  of  "Land  &  Water," 
5,  Chancery  Lane,  London,  E.G. 


CONTENTS 

-      PAGE 

The  Crucifixion  of  Belgium.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

Peace  after  Victory  (Leader)  3 

Neutral  Opinion.    By  Hilaire  Belloc  .  4 

Mr.  Wilson  and  the  War.     By  Arthur  Pollen  lo 
Opening  of  the  1917  Campaign  :  IL    By  Colonel  Feyler  13 

Rail  Power  versus  Sea  Power.     By  Harold  Cox  15 

A  Birth  of  III  Omen.     By  John  Trevena                '  16 

The  Golden  Triangle,    by  Jlaiiricc  Lcblanc  18 

The  West  End  22 

Kit  and  Equipment  25' 

PEACE     AFTER     VICTORY 

THROUGH  all  the  bloodshed,  fury  and  misery 
of   the  Great  War,    civilization   has   striven   to 
discern  a  dawn  of  imiversal  peace  once  the  fight- 
ing is  at  an  end.     It  has  been  buoyed  in  this  hope 
by  the  knowledge    that    war    is    no    longer    the    pro- 
fession of  a  single   class  and  caste,  but  embraces  whole 
nations,  men  and  women  and  cWldren  ;  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest  all  in  Europe  have  learnt  its  full  meaning 
in  the  last  three  years ;  there  can  be  no  deceiving  free 
peoples  in  the  future  with  big  words  and  fine  phrases 
about  glory  and  honour.     When,  therefore,  the  President 
of  the  United  States    addresses  his  Senate  on  the  theme 
of  universal  peace,  he  is  certain  of  a  respectful  hearing 
throughout  the  bounds  of  civilization  and  of  a  sincere 
endeavour  to  arrive  at  the  exact  meaning  which  his 
words  are  intended  to  convey.     But  the  subject  is  such 
a  large  one  that    misconception  and   misunderstanding 
are  bound  to  ensue.      So  when  we  find  the  person  who 
exercises  the  highest  authority  on  the  American  Con- 
tinent stating  that  "  only  a  tranquil  Europe  can  be  a 
stable  Europe,"  the  question  inevitably  arises  whether 
the  same  principle  does  not  apply  with  equal  force  on  his 
side  of  the  Atlantic  and  that  the  first  step  towards  the 
larger  programme  ought  not  to  be  the  assured  tranquility 
of  Mexico  ? 

President  Wilson  is  an  idealist ;  he  would  use  liis  high 
power  to  obtain  for  posterity  a  happier  and  more  secure 
world  than  has  hitherto  been  possible.  But  he  must  not 
allow  himself  to  be  carried  aloft  by  the  vision  beautiful 
and  to  lose  sight  of  the  common  ground  on  which  his 
feet  stand.  Has  there  ever  been  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race  such  a  thing  as  "  peace  without  victory." 
Whene\-er  hostilities  have  terminated,  one  or  other  side 
has  gained  definite  advantage,  which  it  has  claimed 
rightly  as  "  victory."  Much  the  most  thorougli  example 
of  this  in  our  time  was  the  victory  of  the  Northern  over 
the^  Southern  States  of  America.  'Indeed  no  other 
military  decision  of  modern  times  is  comparable  to  it 
for  finality,  nor  has  any  been  followed  by  such  drastic 


and  political  consequences.  It  was  an  utterly  crushing 
and  complete  defeat,  due  to  the  determination  of  the 
successful  party  to  achieve  an  equally  crushing  and 
complete  victory.  The  defeated  party  was  bereft  of  all 
political  power  whatsoever,  and  of  all  power  of  expres- 
sion. It  was  ruined  economically  for  more  than  a 
generation,  its  territory  was  systematically  garrisoned 
by  the  \ictors,  and  down  to  the  smallest  details  of  its 
local  administration  it  was  entirely  subject  to  them,  and 
entirely  in  their'  hjhids.  For  yeai's  it  lived  only  as  a 
conquered  territory ;  and  all  this  was  because  the  belli-  . 
gerents  in  that  great  struggle  knew  very  well  that  with- 
out victory  there  could  be  no  peace. 

It  was  only  last  week  that  the  Kaiser  in  his  letter 
to  the  King  of  Wurtemberg  appealed  to  the  German 
people  "  to  hold  on  with  blood  and  treasure  until  the 
arrogance  of  our  enemies  is  shattered  by  the  unshakable 
Knll  lo  victory  of  the  Fatherland  and. of  its  Loyal  Allies." 
But  one  answer  is  possible  to  such  a  challenge-rcomplete 
military  defeat.  There  can  be  no  peace  worth  the  paper 
it  is  written  on  until  the  spirit  that  finds  expression  in 
these  menacing  words  is  ovirthrown  and  destroyed.  It 
is  the  spirit  which  began  the  war  and  which  is  responsible 
for  the  needless  death  and  agony  caused  to  the  unarmed 
populations  of  the  regions  occupied  by  the  Gennan  armies. 
There  is  nothing  new  in  its  manifestation,  humanity  has 
suffered  cruelly  under  it  from  the  dawn  of  time,  but  the 
Allies  assert  it  to  be  out  of  consonance  with  civilization 
and  it  must  perish  utterly,  for,  to  quote  Mr.  Wilson's 
own  words,  "  there  can  be  no  stability  where  the  will  is 
in  rebellion,  where  there  is  not  tranquility  of  spirit  and  a 
sense  of  justice,  of  freedom  and  of  right."  The  will  to 
victory  has  been  the  dominating  Prussian  influence  -for 
fifty  years  and  to  it  may  be  directly  traced  all,  or  almost 
all,  the  disturbances  of  European  peace  which  haA'e 
occuiTcd  throughout  that    period. 

The  Allies  arc  at  one  in  their  resolute  determination 
that  peace  can  only  follow  after  victory.  This  aspect 
was  well  defined  in  the  Times  on  Tuesday.  Our  contem- 
porary wrote  :  "  The  AlHes  believe  victory  peace  to  be 
as  essential  as  Mr.  Lincoln  believed  it  to  be  essential  in  the 
Civil  War.  They  believe  it  to  be  essential  for  the  attain- 
ment of  those  very  aims  of  a  moral  and  ideal  kind  whicli 
Mr.  Wilson  regards  as  indispensable  foundations  of  a 
solid  and  abiding  peace  such  as  America  might  help  to 
guarantee.  There  can  be  no  '  drawn  war '  between 
the  spirit  of  Prussian  militarism  and  the  spirit  of  real 
peace  which  the  AlUes,  the  Americans,  and  indeed  all 
neutrals,  desire.  '  Militarism '  cannot  be  exorcised 
except  by  defeat  in  the  field,  and  therefore  the  Allies 
can  hear  of  no  peace  which  is  not  a  victory  peace." 
To  this  end  every  effort  in  the  Allied  countries  is  now 
bent.  Our  enemies  are  fully  awai;e  of  the  fact,  which  is 
one  reason  why  there  have  been  so  many  peace  rumours 
in  the  air  apart  from  Mr.  Wilson's  pronouncements. 

In  this  issue  we  conclude  the  analysis  of  the  coming 
campaign  which  has  been  made  by  Colonel  Feyler,  a  Swiss  / 
military  writer  of  a  European  reputation,  whose  opinions 
are  studied  as  closely  by  military  students  in  Germany 
as  in  England.  The  conclusion  Colonel  Feyler  arrives  at 
is  "  that  the  campaign  of  1917  is  opening  under  auspices 
more  favourable  to  the  champions  of  a  Europe  that  de- 
sires the  development  of  the  democratic  rights  of  nations 
than  to  the  champions  of  a  reactionary  Eiu-ope  that 
claims  to  be  reviving  a  kind  of  Holy  Alliance,  inspired 
by  Jehovah."  So  the  Allies  fight  on  in  good  spirit  and 
in  complete  concord  among  themselves  about  the  end  to  be 
gained.  They  realise  intensely  that  they  are  warring  for 
the  very  principles  and  high  qualities  forwhich  the  great 
American  democracy  has  stood  and  if  when  the  victory 
is  won,  this  democracy,  putting  aside  its  fear  of  entangling 
alliances,  will  join  in  policing  the  international  world, 
its  offer  will  be  cordially  accepted. 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 


The  Present  State   of  Neutral   Opinion 


By    Hilaire    Belloc 


THE  message  delivered  by  tlie  President  of  the 
United  States  this  week  to  the  Senate  of  that 
Power,  renders  it  imperative  for  every  belligerent 
to  consider  the  present  state  of  neutral  opinion. 
Among  the  moral  factors  that  support   or  weaken  an 
anny  at  war,  the  most  important,  after  the  spirit  of  its 
own  people  at  home,  is  this  attitude  of  neutral  opinion 
and  particularly  of  gieat  neutral  powers. 

This  is  particularly  tnie  in  the  case  of  the  present 
great  war  for  two  reasons.  First  because  the  mass 
of  the  white  races  are  involved  in  it,  and  yet  one 
great  section  of  them,- that  of  the  New  World,  stands 
(juite  apart  in  distance  as  in  mind. 

Secondly,  because  the  war  being  one  of  Ufe  and  death 
and  compelling  each  nation  to  use  all  sources  of  supply 
available,  has  made  the  industry  and  material  of  the 
New  World,  the  procuring  of  their  products,  the  con- 
veying of  them  to  Europe,  a  vital  factor  in  the  whole 
affair. 

The  enormous  German  accumulation  of  propellant 
explosive,  for  instance,  and  the  immense  continued  pro- 
duction of  it. in  the  first  months  of  the  war -in  Ger\nany. 
were,  economically,  nothing  more  than  a  transformation  of 
American  cotton. 

That  is  only  one  example,  but  the  whole  war  teems  with 
them.  Indeed  the  main  function  of  the  opposed  naval 
instruments  has  been  so  far,  for  more  than  two  years,  not 
to  tight,  but  to  convey,  and  to  hinder  the  conveyance 
of  material  from  the  New  World  to  either  belligerent. 

Now  when  we  use  the  words  "  neutral  opinion  "  we 
must  distinguish  between  two  moral  factors  in  the  matter 
which,  tliough  closely  interdependent,  are  not  identical. 
There  is  first  the  judgment  passed  by  a  neutral  upon 
the  ethical  nature  of  the  struggle,  and  that,  of  course, 
is  -the  foundation  of  the  whole  thing. 

There   is,  secondly,  the   intellectual   judgment   as   to 
which  of  the  two  parties  is  preponderant  and  likeliest 
to  reach  his  end  in  the  war. 
To  consider  the  first : 

A  very  strong  conviction  that  either  party  to  an  issue 
is  morally  wrong  and  that  his  opponent  is  coiTespond- 
ingly  justified  in  seeking  a  complete  solution,  determines 
the  whole  of  an  external  judgment  upon  the  dispute. 

We  are  apt  to  forget  this  now-a-days  from  the  absence 
of  common  religious  standards  and  from  the  admitted 
prevalence  of  non-moral  commercial  motives,  which  of 
themselves  are,  of  course,  indifferent  to  the  moral  char- 
acter of  parties  to  an  economic  exchange.  But  a  little 
reflection  will  show  us  that  we  should  be  wrong  to  think 
of  the  purely  ethical  judgment  as  having  less  importance 
now  than  it  had  in  the  past.  For  if  we  examine  our  own 
lives  we  shall  find  that  the  real  spring  of  action  lies  in  some 
kind  of  violent  affection  or  indignation,  and  that  the  mo- 
ment this  emotion  arises  all  other  action  is  coloured  and 
determined  by  it,  whether  it  be  present  in  an  intense 
degree  or  no.  It  makes  the  balancing  difference  and 
turns  the  scale  wherever  there  is  doubt.  It  determines, 
to  use  another  and  perhaps  better  metaphor,  the  direction 
of  the  current,  whether  that  current  be  sluggish  or 
swift. 
To  consider  the  second  factor  : 

If  the  opinion  of  a  neutral  closelv,  though  indi- 
rectly, concerned  with  a  great  struggle  inclines  to  the  belief 
in  the  victory  of  the  one  or  the  other  party,  it  also  affects 
all  his  action.  He  may  regret  the  defeat  of  that  one 
with  whom  morally  he  sympathises ;  but  the  more  pro- 
bable he  thinks  that  defeat  the  less  will  his  sympathies 
be  operative,  and  that  for  two  reasons  : 

First,  a  growing  conviction  that  such  sympathy  is 
jjractically  useless  and  is  therefore  an  expense  of  energy 
that  may  be  spared.  Secondly,  because  according  to 
the  result  of  the  war  will  the  future  be  shaped. 

Let  us  suppose  an  individual  neutral  merchant,  for 
instance,  watching  the  struggle  between  France  and 
Germany  in  1870.    Let  us  suppose  his  sympathies  to  bo- 


French  :  his  desire  to  be  that  the  French  should  win 
the  war  and  his  moral  judgment  that  Prussia  was  the 
aggressor  and  lier  methods  treacherous  and  vile.  '  The 
action  of  such  a  man  in  his  practical  affairs  would  have 
been  very  different  in  August  1870  from  what  it  would 
have  been  in  the  December  of  the  same  year.  Upon 
the  first  date  matters  were  not  decided  nor  even  apparently 
approaching  a  decision.  But  already  by  the  middle  of 
September  all  the  French  regular  army  was  out  of  action. 
tMther  contained  in  Metz  or  destroyed  at  Sedan.  By 
November  the  army  in  Metz,  already  long  out  of  action, 
had  ceased  to  exist.  By  December  it  was  clear  that  the 
resistance  of  Paris  was  coming  to  an  end.  Of  the  two 
belligerents  one  was  certainly  coming  out  of  the 
struggle  impoverished,  weakened  in  the  action  of  its 
national  will,  and  perhaps  condemned  to  dechne.  The 
other  was  as  certainly  coming  out  enriched, 
strengthened  in  its  national  will  and  probably  thereby 
destined  to  a  rapid  economic  growth.  The  \actor  would 
almost  certainly  impose  an  economic  treaty  which  would 
give  him  the  advantage.  Our  business  m"an,  concerned 
say,  with  establishing  relations  in  the  steel  industry  and 
knowing  the  value  of  the  Lorraine  beds  of  iron  ore, 
might  still  in  August  have  been  negotiating  for  the 
estabhshment  of  new  plant  in  Eastern  France.  By 
December  he  would  have  preferred  a  German  connection"; 
for  he  would  so  be  more  certain  of  his  future  and  its  ex- 
pansion. He  would  rightly  guess  that  the  enterprise 
upon  the  French  side  of  the  new  frontier  would  be  handi- 
capped, and  on  the  German  side  of  the  new  frontier 
immensely  advantaged. 

It  is  the  judgment  of  a  great  number  of  such  individuals 
which  makes  up  the  judgment  of  the  neutral  nation  com- 
posed of  them,  and  when  that  judgment  is  supported  by 
the  judgment  of  its  Government  as  well,  it  is  conclusive. 

Now  in  the  light  of  these  considerations  let  us  consider 
soberly  the  present  attitude  of  neutrals  and  particularly 
of  the  neutral  most  important  to  us  morally  and  economic- 
ally, the  United  States.  Let  us  consider  that  attitude  in 
its  present  phase  and  ask  ourselves  first  what  validity  it 
has,  morally  and  intellectually,  that  is,  what  reasons  in- 
form it  and  next,  if  we  believe  that  judgment  to  be 
erroneous,  by  what  arguments  we  should  attempt  to 
convert  it. 

It  is  the  foundation  of  any  such  work  (and  that  work 
to  be  of  practical  value  must  consider  the  mentaUty, 
not  of  ourselves  who  are  already  con\inced,  but  of  the 
neutral  only— and  that  with  the  respect  due  to  his 
abilities  and  his  position)— that  in  both  of  the  great 
iactors  of  which  we  have  spoken  the  opinion  of  the 
United  States  has  arrived  as  nearly  as  may  be  at  an 
exact  balance  between  the  two  belligerents  in  this  awful 
debate. 

American  opinion  cannot  be  said — it  cannot  be  said 
at  this  moment,  at  any  rate— to  support  the  ethical 
thesis  of  the  one  side  or  of  the  other.  It  does  not  —at  any 
rate,  at  the  present  moment,  and  as  a  whole— tliink  of 
the  war  as  a  struggle  between  two  parties,  one  of  which 
it  desires  to  win  because  it  believes  its  cause  to  be  just. 
It  regards  it  ethically  as  a  mere  disaster,  terrible  beyond 
precedent,  and  continuing  only  through  the  action  of 
unreason.  We  may  judge  this  attitude  from  any  one 
of  innumerable  indications,  from  the  American  press, 
from  the  most  stable  and  best  relations  obtainable  from 
individuals,  from  private  correspondence,  from  all  the 
evidence  at  our  disposal. 

As  to  the  second  factor,  it  is  remarkable  (I  speak  of 
the  present  moment  alone)  that  we  discover  a  similar 
balance.  There  is  not  only  no  con\iction  in  America 
that  either  party  will  issue  victorious  from  this  mortal 
conflict,  there  is  actually  a  positive  conviction  that 
neither  party  cam  issue  victorious,  but  that  each  will 
face  the  other  at  its  close  unsatisfied  and  as  nearly  as 
possible  equally  matched.  In  other  words  there  is  a 
positive    conviction    of     an     approaching   draw,    and 


January  25,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


5 


something  like  a  certilude  that  the  war  can  end  in  no 

other  fashion.  .  ^    i_  r 

We  mnst  clearly  en\-isage  both  those  points  before  we 
can  proceed  a  step  in  the  work  before  us. 

I  propose  first  to  show  how  each  of  these  judgments 
have -been  arrived  at ;  secondly,  to  show  (directing  my 
arguments  only  to  neutrals)  that  they  are  both  of  them 
erroneous  :  Of  the  two  belligerents  one  has  a  clear  moral 
claim  -of  enormous  importance  to  the  future  of  the  whole 
world,  and  therefore  to  that  of  neutrals. 

The  confusion  or  indifference  now  undoubtedly  existing 
ill  the  mind  of  neutrals,  and  especially  in  the  United 
States  with  regard  to  the  moral  issue  of  the  war,  is  due 
to  three  things :  The  length  of  time  through  which  the 
war  has  dragged  on  ;  the  active  propaganda  of  the  enemy 
contrasting  with  our  \-erv  sluggish  one  ;  and,  lastly,  the 
patent  fact  that  Germany  is  now  fighting  for  her  life. 

Of  these  three  the  first  has  the  most  weight.  Great 
length  of  time  has  alwavs,  of  course,  the  effect  of 
modifying  indignation  ;  so  has  to  some  extent  great 
di'^tances'  in  space  ;  but  in  the  case  of  this  war  with  its 
ra}Mdly  succeeding  and  tremendous  events  even  two  years 
has  had  a  modifving  effect. 

The  surprise  with  which  the  world,  including  the 
neutrals  (and  especiallv  the  United  States)  obser\-ed  the 
llr'^t  crimes  and  atrocities  of  the  enemy  has  long  ceased. 
Things  at  first  thought  impossible  have  now  come 
to  be  taken  for  granted— it  is  the  way  with  all  evil  until 
it  is  punished— the  details  ha\c  become  blurred  and 
overlaid  and  many  of  the  most  salient  points  have 
actually  been  forgotten. 

There  are  two  ways,  however,  in  which  any  neutral 
who  honestly  examines  the  question  can  recover  a  just 
judgment. 

Prussian  Doctrine 

The  lirst  is  the  reading,  if  he  has  leisure,  of  the  typical 
North  German  speaking  and  writing  in  the  period,  before 
the  war.     It  was  one  mass  of  assertion  that  the  old 
international    morality    of   Europe   was  negligible,   and 
a  nation  having  the-power  to  offend  and  even  to  destroy 
should  exercise  that  power  if  the  exercise  led  to  its  own 
aggrandisement.     It  is  no  more  possible  to  question  this 
attitude  of  Prussia     than    it    is    possible    to    question 
the  democratic  theory  of  the  French  Revolution.     When 
the   French   Revolut'ionary   armies   and   later   those   of 
Napoleon  set  out  to  conquer  they  acted  upon  a  political 
theory  which  some  hate,  and  which  others  love,  but  which 
is  at  "any  rate  perfectly  clear.     Everywhere  they  went 
they  destroyed  the  old  institutions  and  as  best  they  could 
the  old  inequality.     They  gloried  in  this  and  regarded 
their  victories  as  not  only  their  own  victories,  but  as  the 
victories  of  the  new  democratic  ideas.     That  the  North 
German   philosophy  was  narrower  than  this  and  more 
muddled  is  no  dim'inishment  of  its  existence.     It  existed 
and  was  proclaimed  openly  to  the  whole  world  over  and 
over  again  in  books  of  history,,  in  lectures,  in  speeches,  in 
books  of  philosophy,  and  it  showed  itself  in  every  form  of 
what  passes  in  North  German}-  for  art. 

Now  either  one  has  a  creed  and  doctrine  of  inter- 
national   morality   (in   which    case    this  North-German 
attitude  was  the  "negation  of  it),  or  one  has  not.     If  one 
has,  one  cannot  possibly  deny  that  this  anarchist  attitude 
on     the   part    of   one  nation   is   not   only  wrong    but 
necessarily  is  warred   down  by  those  whose    liberty  it 
threatens   and   whose   ancient   comity  it   denies.      For 
cither  such  a  claimant  destroys  the  commonwealth  of 
nations  in   which  he   Imds   himself,   by  destroying  its 
public   law:  or  he  is  broken  to  a  respect  for  that  law. 
But  the  second  test  is    more  practical    and    can   be 
applied  by  a  much  larger  number  of  people.     Let  any 
neutral   watching  the   increasing  cruelty  of  this  great 
war  as  it  proceeds,  ask  himself  who  first  introduced  its 
various  steps.     I  can  well  imagine  the  horror  of  a  neutral 
who  reads  from  German  sources  the  terrible  details  of  an 
air  raid  over  a  German  town.     But  who  compelled  the 
Allies  to  such  methods  ?   Who  first  broke  this  elementary 
rule  in  our  European  code  ?   It  was  the  German  :   and  he 
did  it  in  the  very  first  hours  of  the  'war  when  he  believed 
himself  to  be    certain    of    victory.    Within    a    yard 
of  the  Belgian  frontier  he  already  began    massacring 
innocent  men,  women  and  children  in  order  to  create 
terror.     Such  a  thing  was  quite  unknown  in  modern 


Europe  with  all  its  long  and  usually  splendid  military 
record.  There  have  been  massacres  indeed,  the  results 
of  exasperation,  and  especially  strongholds  stormed  have 
suffered  abominable  things  at  the  hands  of  the  soldiery. 
But  no  one  has  defended  these  things.  Still  less  has 
anyone  undertaken  them  in  cold  blood  until  the  modern 
Prussian  deliberately  undertook  them  as  a  policy  and 
openly  defined  them  as  his  own  private  and  succfessful 
receipt  for  victory  and  his  own  way  of  attaining  the 
military  character.  It  is  exactly  the  same  (to  mcntiori 
them  in  their  order)  with  the  deliberate  destruction  of 
\-enerable  and  beautiful  monuments;  with  the  use  of 
burning  oil  against  men's  flesh  ;  with  the  introduction  of 
poisonous  gases  ;  and  with  the  murder  of  non-com- 
batants upon  the  high  seas.  The  matter  is  simply  one 
of  plain  arithmetic  in  dates  and  of  amdenied  because 
undeniable  truth.  Every  step  in  the  public  story  of  the 
degradation  of  war  has  been  deliberately  taken  first 
by  Prussia— down  to  the  poisoning  of  water  supphes. 

"  The  neutral  should  also  note  that  in  at  least  two  very 
important  departments  the  AUies  have  disdained  to 
follow  the  Prussian  model.  They  have  refused  to  enslave 
and  they  have  refused  to  torture  prisoners.  The  Germans 
have  done  both  those  things  openly  and  have  argued  in 
fa\-our  of  both  as  part  of  the  spirit  of  modern  war.  A 
man  has  only  to  refresh  his  memory  upon  these  things 
to  recover  that  indignation  which,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war,  was  uni\-ersal  among  neutrals  and  ought  still 
to  be  uni\-ersal  to-day. 

It  would  be  waste  of  time  to  linger  upon  the  second 
case  :  Contrast  between  the  German  propaganda  in  the 
United  States  and  our  own.  We  had  the  enormous 
advantage  of  a  common  language  and  of  many  common 
institutions.  We  lost  that  advantage  through  the 
inability  of  politicians  to  grasp  things  as  a  whole  and 
through  their  wretched  habit  of  personal  quarrels  and 
personal  ad\ancements.  It  is  too  late  to  recover  the 
lost  ground.  But,  at  any  rate,  every  intelligent  neutral 
can  at  least  ask  himself  the  sources  from  which  his_  in- 
formation proceeds  and  can  guard  himself  against 
swallowing  whole  the  story  of  the  only  party  he  hears. 

The  third  cause  I  have  said  to  be  the  obivous  fact  that 
the  Germanic  Powers,  and  particularly  Prussia,  are  now 
fighting  for  their  lives.  When  a  man  or  a  nation  is  iii 
that  situation  it  is  very  natural,  if  we  do  not  recall  the 
circumstances  of  their  original  crime,  to  desu-e  their 
salvation,  and  to  regard  their  suffering  as  a  tragedy  with 
which  we  ought  to  interfere. 

We  have  examples  of  this  when  a  criminal  is  in  peri] . 
of  his  life  or  liberty.     The  immediate  drama  moves  men 
so  strongly  that  they  often  forget   its  original  cause 
Some  years  ago  a  man  who  murdered  and  mutilated  a 
little  child  under  the  most  shocking  circumstances,  was 
reprieved   on   account    of  a  pubhc  agitation,  supported 
by  an  immense  number  of  signatures  to  a  petition.     Not 
one  of  those  signatories  perhaps  would  have  put  down 
his  name  if,  just  before  doing  so,  the  horrible  crime  had 
been  presented  to  him  pictorially  so  that  it  should  be 
fixed  in  his  imagination.     The  criminal  deserved,  indeed, 
something  far  worse  than  death  ;  but  when  his  crime  was 
half  forgotten  the   horror   of  his   agony   prevailed   and  . 
was  alone  impressive. 

Here  the  remedy  against  misjudgmcnt  is  again  to  go 
back  to  the  original  sources  of  the  affair. 

Civilised  Europe  is  occupied  in  the  execution  of  Prussia. 
You  may  give  the  criminal  abstract  names  such  as 
"  Prussian  "Militarism  "  or  the  "  Frederician  tradition," 
but  it  all  comes  to  the  same  thing.  Civilised  Europe  is 
getting  rid  of  a  criminal  with  whom  it  cannot  live.  It  is 
puerile  to  translate  this  process  into  a  general  process  of 
extermination.  It  is  a  process  of  exterminating  not  a 
people  (there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  distinct  Prussian 
people — not  even  as  a  separate  German  tribe),  but  a 
hitherto  unbroken,  successful  and  abominable  tradition  : 
that  of  the  dynasty  and  army  called  "  Prussian." 

When  the  thugs  were  put  down  in  India,  or  when  the 
Romans  put  down  piracy  in  the  Mediterranean,  the 
thing  was  not  done  by  killing  all  the  pirates.  It  was 
sufticiont  to  break  the  organisation  and  to  make  examples 
of  a  few.  We  shall  break  the  Prussian  organisation,  and 
we  shall  certainly  make  examples,  and  we  shall  do  so 
because  civilised"  Eirrope  cannot  live  with  a  poison  ot 
that  kind  in  its  midst.  If  a  member  of  the  European 
community   will   not   observe   treaties ;     proclaims    hif 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  23.  1917 


right  of  domination  over  other  mcnit>crs  ;  defends  .uul 
practises  actions  abominable  to  the  European  con- 
science, then  Eurojx;  has  no  choice  but  to  elimii^ate  the 
{)oi^on.  The  altcrnati\c  is  its  own  ixrnuinent  degrada- 
tion and  rapid  decline. 

But  neutrals  not  only  tend  just  now  to  forget  the  moral 
issue  or  to  confuse  it.  They  also — and  this  is  perhaps  the 
worst  practical  featiuc  of  the  situation — tend  to  believe 
that  the  victor\-  of  cither  party  is  now  impossible,  and 
that  the  prolongation  of  tlie  war  has  becovne  a  mere  and 
hideous  waste  of  youth  and  huinan  achievement.  The 
causes  of  this  jtidgment  arc  clear  to  everyone,  because, 
not  only  neutrals,  but  the  greater  part  of  people,  even  in 
belligerent  countries — have  tended  in  the  same  direction. 
Indeed,  any  man,  however  thoroughlj'  he  may  have 
studied  the  wars  of  the  }>ast,  has  such  a  tendency  in 
him  the  moment  he  stops  the  intellectual  process  and 
yields  to  an  emotion  or  mood.  It  i?  in  realitj'  exactly 
the  same  emotion  or  mood  which  makes  you  say  dmnng 
*  a  night  of  insomnia  that  "  morning  will  never  come," 
tir  tliat  some  slow  jom-ney  you  are  undertaking  is  "  simply 
endless."  'As  intelligent  statements  they  are  meaningless  ; 
as  expressions  of  an  emotion  they  arc  natural  enough. 

War  has  .ihvays  been  and  must  always  be  decided  by 
the  superior  power  of  endurance,  in  one  form  or  another, 
of  one  party  to  it.  The  only  difference  between  circum- 
stances which  produce  this  despair  of  a  conclusion  and 
circumstances  which  on  the  contrary  produce  exaltation 
and  confidence,  is  a  difference  in  scale.  Ihc  two  lines 
in  the  West,  for  instance,  have  faced  each  other  on  much 
tlie  same  ground  for  now  27  months.  Had  it  been  27 
liours  or  27  days  the  mood  of  which  I  sj>eak  would  not 
have  been  produced.  Twenty-seven  months  produces 
it — and  that  is  aU  one  can  say  upon  the  matter.  If, 
instead  of  yielding  to  an  emotion  you  marshal  the  factors 
of  the  military  situation  and  handle  them  with  the  in- 
tellect, you  not  only  foi^et  this  mood  of  stalemate,  but 
jrou  wonder  perhaps  how  anyone  could  have  fallen  into  it, 

"  Stalemate" 

The  factors  of  the  situation  are  susceptible  01  a 
calculus  ;  that  calculus  has  elements  of  uncertainty  in 
it  and  those  elements  permit  of  judgment  inclining  to 
one  side  or  the  other.  They  do  not  permit  of  such  an 
idea  as  "  stalemate."  Here  I  can  imagine  the  best 
read  and  the  most  intelligent  neutral  observer  saying : 

"  Other  wars  have  ended  in  a  stalemate  ;  for  instance, 
.  the  series  of  wars  between  the  Allies  and  Louis  XIV. 
It  certainly  looked,  two  years  before  the  end,  as  if  Louis 
XIV.  was  going  to  be  decisively  beaten.  But  at  the  end 
of  the  two  years  his  situation  was  sufficiently  recovered 
for  the  result  to  be  called  a  draw.  There  are  many  other 
such  examples  in  history." 

This  is  perfectly  true  ;  and  it  is  similarly  true  that  this 
war  may  perfectly  well  end  in  a  stalemate  if  the  Allies 
are  so  foolish  as  to  allorw  it.  We  all  know  that  if  it  did  it 
would  be  but  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  wars  ;  for 
the  issues  are  far  too  great  to  be  left  thvis  in  suspense  for 
more  than  quite  a  short  time.  We  all  know  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic  ^nd  no  one  better  than  the  Eiiropean 
nations  still  neutra^  that  the  short  intervening  period 
between  the  present  disaster  and  the  next  would  be  one 
even  more  intensely  abnormal,  more  full  of  necessary 
despotism,  regulation  and  preparation  for  struggle  than 
is  the  present  moment.  It  has  been  so  and  must  be  so 
with  every  primal  struggle,  from  the  "  peace  "  after  the 
first  inconclusive  Pimic  war  to  the  lull  after  the  First 
Crusade,  and  the  Peace  of  Amiens.  But  putting  this  on 
one  side  it  still  remains  true  that  the  first  bout  of  even 
so  gi'cat  a  war  as  this  might  end  inconclusively  by  the 
simple  process  of  those  who  have  victory  in  their  grasp 
foregoing  their  opportunity.  Moreover  eveiy  war  which 
lias  ended  in  a  .stalemate  has  ended  so,  because  the 
Party  which  was  gradually  winning  chose  to  stop. 
The  Allies  in  the  case  of  Louis  XIV.  could  certainly 
have  crushed  the  French  Monarchy  if  they  had  gone 
on.  They  did  not  go  on  because  they  thought  the 
results  they  had  obtained  were  commensiuatc  with 
the  efforts  they  liad  made,  and  because  they  did 
lot  think  that  further  expense  wotild  be  commensurate 
vith  further  results.  They  were  not  out  to  destroy 
lie  French  Mon.irchy.  They  were  out  for  certain  definite 
csults,  many  of  them  of  a  small  political  character,  and 


iiii-.^v  ill  iJic  main  tliLj  .-uliuci,!  ,  iiuiabls,  lioUaud. 

But  the  present  war  is  being  fought  about  some- 
thing much  more  intimate  and  fundamental :  nothing  ' 
more  nor  less  than  tlio  ancient  imity  of  Europe.  And  it 
is  not  conceivable  that  the  group  of  belligerents  which  is 
now  at  last  ascendant  will  forego  its  victory  through 
fatigue,  intemal  dissension,  or  misjudgmcnt. 

But  here  we  come  to  the  last  and  most  important  part 
of-  such  a  discussion.  How  do  we  know,  why  can  we 
certainly  say  that  one  party  is  now  clearly  winning, 
that  victory  by  all  the  known  factors  of  the  situation 
lies  with  the  Allies  ?  Because  of  two  things  which 
any  neutral  may  test  for  himself  if  he  will  marshal 
the  facts  and  deal  with  them  intellectually  instead  of 
yielding  to  a  mere  mood. 

The  enemy  had  upon  both  fronts  two  years  ago  a  vei-y 
great  superiority-  in  men  and  a  still  more  striking  super- 
iority in  mnnitionment,  preparation  and  equipment. 
He  failed  to  make  good  while  he  possessed  that  superiority. 
He  has  lost  his  superiority  in  men  ;  and  to-day  the  con- 
trast between  the  reserves  of  man -power  that  can  bo 
established  and  used  within  a  given  time  on  the  two 
sides  is  very  striking,  and  is  very  rapidly  increasing, 
lie  still  has,  and  will  continue  "  to  have,  probably 
throughout  the  campaign,  a  superiority  in  material  upon 
his  Eastern  Front.  He  has  better  observ-ation  there  than 
his  opponent  through  a  larger  air  service  ;  he  has  more 
guns  and  heavier  guns  and  far  more  shell,  and  he  can 
sup])ly  himself  more  regularly,  and  much  more  quickly 
through  the  possession  of  an  at  least  {enfold  railway 
power.  But  on  the  otlicr  hand  there  is  upon  that 
1^-astern  front  a  counterbalancing  facton,  which  is  space. 
He  compelled  a  great  retreat  in  1915.  He  has  compelled 
a  small  one  at  the  end  of  1916.  Both  have  the  same 
end  ;  the  reaching  of  a  limit  beyond  which  he  cannot 
further  strain  himself  and  that  without  any  decision. 

^leanwhile  his  rate  of  wastage  steadily  goes  on  at  more 
than  three  times  but  less  than  four  times  fiis  rate  of  recruit- 
ment. 

Upon  the  West  he  is  outclassed  in  every  single  depart- 
..icnt  of  war.  That  sounds  a  bold  thing  to  say,  but  it 
is  jx-rfectly  true.  His  observation  is  hopelessly  outclassed, 
his  pieces  are  neither  so  ntmnerous  nor  their  delivery  so 
accurate  nor  their  supply  of  shell  so  large  as  those  of  his 
opponents,  and  his  tactical  methods  are  clearly  less 
successful.  He  has  not  3'et  achieved  and  he  certainly 
never  will,  anything  like  the  two  great  conclusive  ex- 
periments of  the  French  in  October  and  December  upon 
the  Verdun  sector.  He  will  not,  on  the  offensive^  in- 
flict losses  more  than  double  those  whicli  he  has  hims^if 
suffered.  On  the  contrary  he  will  suffer  far  greater  losses 
than  he  inflicts.  He  has  not  the  new  French  tactical 
method,  and  from  the  very  nature  of  his  army  with  its 
incapacity  for  initiative  below  the  commissioned  ranks 
and  its  mechanical  distinction  between  these  and  the 
mass  he  is  incapable  of  attaining  it.  He  will  hold  until 
he  retires  or  breaks.  But  that  there  is  a  limit  to  his 
Iiolding  under  existing  conditions  is  as  clear  as  the 
mathematical  truth  that  two  lines  not  parallel  and 
lying  in  the  same  plane  will  cross  each  other.  For  not 
only  is  his  exhaustion  in  men  and  in  material  far  more 
advanced  than  that  of  his  Western  opponents  but  the 
distance  between  the  two  is  increasing  very  rapidly 
indeed. 

I  have  said  "  existing  conditions."  No  one  can  foresee 
the  future  and  we  do  not  know  what  future  factors, 
]X)sitive  or  negative,  will  be  introduced  into  the  problem. 
\\'hat  we  do  know  and  what  we  can  each  of  us  discover 
for  ourselves  by  a  little  examination,  is  that  the  factors 
as  they  now  stand  weigh  more  and  more  heavily  in  favour 
of  our  ci\ilisation  and  against  that  power  which  chal- 
lenged it. 

I  think  it  should  be  added  in  conclusion  that  the  tone 
of  all  men's  minds,  belligerent  as  well  as  neutral,  is 
very  different  before  a  decision  from  what  it  is  after- 
wards. If  history  is  any  guide  the  moment  of  a  tnie 
military  decision  is  revolutionary  in  its  effect  on  the 
mind.  All  the  doubts  and  misjudgments  of  the  present 
phase  will  not  only  disappear  when  our  victory  is  won, 
but  men  will  forget  they  ever  had  them ;  and  it  is  as  well 
that  neutrals  should  hold  themselves  in  readiness  for 
this  revolution  of  the  mind. 

If  one  reads  the  private  correspondence  proceeding 
during  any  lengthy  campaign  of  ^hc  past,  one  is  always 


January  25,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


astonished  at  the  apparent  incapacity  of  contemporaries 
to  judge  the  event.  That  is  because  we  knew  what  the 
end  was  to  be  and  they  did  not.  The  victory  achieved - 
is,  for  us,  a  matter  of  history  ;  for  them  it  was  hidden  in 
a  doubtful  future.  Reading  of  that  soil  is  highly  illumi- 
nating in  the  present  stages  of  the  great  European  war. 
Victory  when  it  comes  does  something  morally  which 
may  be  compared  to  an  explosion  in  the  physical  world. 


Nothing  is  the  same  again  ;  and  whether  it  be  the  petty 
matter  of  desiring  oneself  to  have  judged  rightly  or  the 
larger  matter  of  diplomatic  action,  everyone  to-day  should 
try  (and  no  one  more  than  the  neutrals)  to  stand  in  the 
shoes  of  a  futiu'e — perhaps  not  a  very  distant  future — 
in  which  we  shall  not  be  considerring  terms  or  objects  so 
much  as  the  last  movements  of  completely  successful 
armies. 


The    Fundeni    Bridge-Head 


IT  is  clear  that  the  enemy  is  not  marking  time  in 
Roumania.  He  is  really  held  up  for  the  moment 
by  the  Putna-Sereth  line.  What  makes  this 
clfeai"  is  the  fact  that  he  is  making  such  vigorous 
efforts  to  force  that  line  at  the  point  of  Inmdeni. 

He  may  have  been  compelled  in  the  last  few  weeks  to 
relax  the  \iolence  of  his  efforts  from  a  difiiciilty  in  finding 


\euxuj 


11'    I  'I 

1    3    *    s    t    r   e 


6-Mi/es 


drafts.  His  losses  from  sickness  alone  must  have  been 
\ery  hea\-y  in  such  weather  antl  under  such  a  strain. 
He  may  have  been  compelled  to  relax  some\vhat  on 
account  of  the  calls  made  by  other  sectors  of  the  front,  or 
even  because  some  plan  for  an  otfensi\e  elsewhere  has 
been  laid  down  and  the  preparations  for  it  already  begun, 
But  he  is  not  standing  on  this  his  shortest  Roumanian  line. 
If  he  were  he  would  be  wasting  men,  and  those  his  ^■ery 
best  troops,  at  the  one  point  on  the  Allied  defensive  line 
where  he  has  a  chance  of  success.  The  line  of  tlie  Putna- 
Sereth  is  still,  as  it  has  been  for  now  seventeen  days,  that 
sector  of  the  P2astern  front  upon  which  the  main  interest 
turns,  and  the  point  of  Fundeni  upon  that  line  has  become 
in  the  last  few  days  the  capital  point. 

We  shall  do  well,  therefore,  to  study  in  more  detail 
the  nature  of  the  Putna-Sereth  line  as  a  whole  and  the 
character  of  the  Fundeni  Bridge-head. 

'i"he  Putna  is  a  small  river  issuing  from  the  Carpatluans 
and  falling  into  the  Sereth  after  a  course  which  is,  as  the 
crow  flies  from  source  to  mouth,  about  c,o  miles  long. 
The  upper  portions  of  it,  where  it  is  but  a  torrent  in  the 
steep,-  densely  wooded  mountains,  have  no  defensi\e 
\alue  and  may  be  neglected.  The  present  Russo- 
Roumanian  defensi\e  line  crosses  these  upper  ravmes 
almost  perpendicularly.  The  Putna  continues  to  be  a 
mountain  torrent  of  this  sort  witii  a  wide  gra\clly  l)cd 
and  (at  this  season)  no  more  than  a  trickk'.  of  water  mider 
broken  ice  in  the  midst  of  it,  overlooked  upon  either  side 
of  its  gorge  by  steep  wooded  hills,  inrtil  it  passes  under 
the  last  of  these,  the  summits  of  the  Magm-a 
Obodesti  (nearly  3,000  feet  above  its  bed)  aard  so  comes 
out  through  the  rapidly  falling  foothills  on  to  the  Mol- 
davian plain. 

It  is  from  this  point  that  the  Putna-Sereth  line  proper 
begins,  and  it  may  be  conveniently  divided  into  five 
distinct  sections. 

(i)  There  is  the  section  north  of  Focsani,  say,  from  the 
mountains  to  the  Paripani  ferry.  This  I  have  marked  on 
the  accompanying  Map  I  as  Sector  A.  It  is  this  sector 
which  covers  that  important  side  railway  line  and  road  of 
which  we  spoke  in  these  columns  a  week  ago,  and  which 
imitc  the  two  great  main  railway  lines  of  Moldavia,  being 
thus  vital  (until  thev  are -supplemented  by  new  work  to 
the  north)  for  the"  supply  of  the  Allied  froat.  The 
position  of  this  railway  and  the  way  in  which  the  hrst 
sector  of  the  Putna  line  covers  it  is  apparent  upon  the 
following  Sketch  Map  II.,  which  I  reproduce  from  the 
week  before  last.  I  have  marked  the  two  main  com- 
nuinication  lines  (i)  and  (2)  on  Map  II..  and  the  vital 
coimecting  line  (3). 

This  tirst  "A"  Sector  of  the  Putna  line  is  about 
15  miles  long  if  we  carry  it  right  into  the  beginning  of  the 
mountains,  or  13  miles  if  we  only  count  the  full  plain. 
During  the  whole  of  this  sector  the  Putna  is  quite  a  little 
stream,  often 'not  a  hmidred  feet  across,  but  rendered 
appreciable  as  a  military  obstacle  by  the  marshy  lands 
which  flank  it  upon  either  side.  This  marshy  land  I  have 
indicated  upon  Sketch  Map  I.  It  is,  at  the  very  narrowest 
]jlace,  a  full  500  yards  in  breadth.  Its  average  is  over  a 
thousand  yards,  and  there  are  places  where  it  reaches 
nearly  2,000. 

The  only  permrmnt  works  bridging  this  marshy  belt  are 
the  railway  bridge  and  entrenchnients  and  the  road  bridge 
and  causewav,  which  take  their  names  from  the  little 
A  illage  of  Faurei,  lying  between  them  just  to  the  south 
of  the  Putna.  The  bridges  have,  of  course,  been  de- 
stroyed. But  the  causeways  presumably  remain  more 
(ir  less  intact,  and  it  is  in  the  neighbom-hood  of  the 
Faurei  bridges  that  anv  effort  to  force  this  important 
sector  of  the  Putna  line  "must  be  made,  if  the  effort  be  to 
disengage  the  Austro-Gcrmau  troops  now  cooped  uj)  iu 


8\ 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 


the  loop  of  Focsani  and  to  get  at  the  literal  railway 
(3,  on  Map  II.)  beyond  the  river,  and  so  interrupt  our 
Allies'  communications. 

The  next  sector  of  the  Putna  line,  which  I  have  called 
sector  B  on  Map  I.,  runs  from  the  ferry  at  Paripani  to 
the  \-illage  of  Rastoca,  and  is  in  length  rather  over  seven 
miles.  Its  characteristic  is  an  immense  mass  of  marsh, 
through  which  the  little  stream  of  the  Putna  winds, 
mostly  towards  the  southern  edge.  There  is  only  one 
practicable  way  across  this  mass  of  bad  going,  and  that 
is  along  the  causeway  used  by  the  north-eastern  road 
from  Focsani,  which  crosses  the  Putna  at  the  Zamfirei 
bridge. 

We  have  seen  in  a  former  article  how  the  Austro-German 
forces  cooped  up  in  the  plain  of  Focsani  would  be 
threatened  from  this  formation  of  the  river  by  an  enemy 
possessed  of  superior  artillery,  for  the  river  coming  thus 
suddenly  down  south  makes  a  flank  and  exposes  (in 
theory  at  least)  the  troops  within  the  loop  of  Focsani 
to  fire  from  both  sides,  from  the  north  as  from  the  east. 
But  in  practice,  the  ground  being  wliat  it  is  and  the 
enemy's  remaining  suj^eriority  in  artillery  on  this  front 
what  it  is,  the  shape  of  the  Putna's  course  does  not  really 
imperil  the  Austro-German  troops  in  the  belt  of  Focsani, 
though  it  embarrasses  them  for  movement.  The  marshes 
are  so  very  wide  and  the  lack  of  roads  across  them  so 
conspicuous  that  onl}?  a  considerable  apparatus  of  heavy 
long  range  pieces  would  enable  our  Allies  to  use  their 
adNantage  here.  Conversely,  the  enemy  can  hardly 
cross  here.  He  can  hardly  hope  to  effect  a  forcing  of  the 
defensive  line  across  this  great  belt  of  bad  land. 

When  the  Putna  issues  from  these  marshes  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Rastoca  we  get  a  third  sector,  which 

I  have  marked  on  Sketch  I.  by  the  letter  C.     It  is  some 

II  miles  in  length  or  slightly  less.  The  Putna  here, 
somewhat  swollen  in  size,  but  stiU  quite  a  small  river  of 
not  more  than  200  feet  across  or  so,  runs  between  hard 
banks  and  through  a  cultivated  plain.  But  an  attack 
upon  this  sector  would  not  yield  the  results  that  can  be 
found  elsewhere. 

There  is  a  narrow  peninsula  between  the  Putna  and 
the  Sereth,  and  if  the  Putna  line  here  were  carried  or  even 
threatened,  a  stronger  main  obstacle  upon  which  the 
defensive  could  immediately  fall  back  would  be  the 
Sereth  just  behind.  In  other  words,  a  really  serious 
Austro-German  effort  here  would  compel  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  Putna,  of  course,  but  would  achieve  nothing, 
because  it  would  simply  create  a  new  defensive  line, 
much  stronger,  just  beyond  the  Sereth,  or  rather,  allow 
our  Allies  to  fall  back  to  such  a  line,  which  undoubtedly 
has  been  prepared  and  which  is  identical  in  \alue  to  the 
])resent  line. 

The  remaining  sectors  are  two.  The  shorter  sector  I 
have  marked  D  on  Map  I.,  it  may  be  called  the  Sector  of 
I'undeni.  The  last  sector,  the  beginning  of  which 
is  indicated  by  the  letter  E  (and  which  stretches  right 
down  to  Galatz  where  the  Sereth  falls  into  the  Danube) 
is  a  mass  of  very  broad  and  most  difficult  marshes  which 


are  the  characteristic  of  the  Lower  Sereth  in  its  entirety. 
Right  beyond  the  Sereth- Putna  line  a  crossing  of  the 
Danube  delta  below  Galatz  is  possible — as  has  previciusly 
been  mentioned  in  these  columns,  but  its  results  doubt- 
ful. So  far  as  the  Putna-Sereth  line  is  alone  concerned 
the  only  place  where  the  offensive  tffort  could  be  usefully 
made  would  be  that  upon  which  the  enemy  concen- 
trated a  small  Turkish  force  the  other  day,  to  wit,  the 
extremity  at  Galatz.  If  he  were  to  get  a  footing  on  the 
further  side  of  the  Sereth  at  Galatz  it  would  indeed 
give  him  political  possession  of  the  town  and  a  further 
control  of  the  Danube,  but  it  would  not  effectually  turn 
the  Putna-Sereth  line,  because  of  the  defensive  oppor- 
tunities immediately  behind  Galatz.  Moreover,  the 
enemy  has  hitherto  failed  at  the  Galatz  point  and  there-, 
fore,  both  as  a  consequence  of  this  failure  and  from  the 
nature  of  the  opportunity,  he  is  concentrating  upon  the 
Fundeni  sector,  and  on  the  point  of  Fundcni  itself,  in 
his  effort  to  break  the  Putna-Sereth  line. 

What  are  the  special  advantages  for  him  in  this  point 
of  Fundeni  ? 

We  have  already  shown  in  previous  issues  what  the 
main  advantages  to  him  are.  Fundeni  stands  in  a  loop 
of  the  river  Sereth  upon  which  he  can  bring  a  converging 
fue  if  he  manages  to  occupy  both  sides  of  the  loop,  and 
Fundeni  is  the  last  dry  crossing  place  before  the  huge 
marshes  of  the  Lower  Sereth  begin. 

Let  us  see  what  his  fortunes  have  been  in  this  neigh- 
bourhood bv  examining  the  details  of  the  locality  upon 
Sketch  Map  III. 

The  river  Sereth  in  this  region  is  about  250  yards 
broad  :  that  is  more  than  half  the  breadth  of  the  Thames 
through  London.  It  is  not  fordable,  and  immediately 
below  the  large  village  of  Fundeni  it  begins  to  form  upon 
either  side  of  its  stream  very  wide  marshes  in  which  stand 
stagnant  serpentines,  old  backwaters  which  have  been 
cut  off  by  alluvial  deposits  in  the  past.  In  tliis  marsh 
there  are  strips  of  drier  land,  notably  one  on  the  right 
bank  at  the  point  marked  A  in  Map  III.,  but  though  the 
marshes  are  now  partially  frozen,  they  make,  as  a  whole,  a 
very  difficult  approach  to  the  Sereth  banks. 

Above  Fundeni  the  ground  is  hard  upon  either  bank, 
with  occasional  beaches  of  gravel,  especially  that  marked 
B  just  opposite  the  village. 

To  the  west  of  this  gravel  bank  B  is  the  large  scattered 
village  of  Nanesci,  which  is  somewhat  protected  from 
attack  by  two  narrow  stretches  of  water,  the  remains 
of  an  old  course  of  the  Sereth.  The  houses  of  Nanesci 
stand  separate  from  one  another  in  gardens,  and  ai-e 
connected  by  narrow  rambling  lanes,  the  whole 
agglomeration  being  something  like  a  mile  across. 

The  High  Street  of  Nanesci,  or  main  road,  goes  up 
northward  across  the  Sereth  by  the  bridge  at  C,  which 
has.  of  course,  been  'broken  since  the  Russians  re- 
oossed  it.     Southward  it  makes  for  the  point  of  the  Icop 


January  25,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


in  which  Fundeni  stands,  crossing  the  Rimnik  river  by  a 
bridge  called  the  Mora  bridge.  Thence  one  goes  on  by  a 
very  indifferent  earth  road  to  Garlesci  and  Crangeni. 
The  latter  tiny  hamlet  stands  just  on  the  edge  of  the 
great  marsh ;  Garlesci,  which  is  not  ninch  bigger,  is  a 
little  further  in  on  to  the  dry  land.  When  we  add  the 
fact  that  the  whole  district  is  an  absolutely  fiat  plain 
about  70  feet  above  the  sea  with  no  accidents  except  the 
bluff  banks  of  the  Sereth,  and  also  the  fact  that  thei'e  is 
very  little  wood  or  cover  of  any  kind  in  sight,  and  that 
the  whole  is  to-day  deep  in  snow  but  the  rivers  not 
frozen,  we  have  before  us  the  topographical  elements  of 
the  problem  which  has  been  set  to  the  enemy  in  his 
attempt  to  cross  at  this  point. 

The  enemy  reached  the  Putna-Sereth  line,  and  was 
'  held  up  there,  on  the  Sunday  and  the  Monday,  the  7th 
and  8th  of  January.  His  efforts  to  force  it  have  so  far 
occupied  some  seventeen  days.  It  is  remarkable  that 
he  concentrated  upon  this  vulnerable  point  of  Fundeni 
what  he  regards  as  his  best  troops,  the  Prussian  regiments 
from  the  original  Prussian  districts  of  Brandenburg  and 
of  the  old  Mark.  With  these  forces  and  with  his  pre- 
poAkrance  of  heavy  artillery  he  came  to  a  line  roughly 
indicated  by  the  crosses  upon  Sketch  III. 

He  did  indeed  lose  in  the  midst  of  this  period  for  a 
moment  the  hamlet  of  Garlesci,  but  he  recovered  it 
again  rapidly,  by  the  bringing  up  of  reinforcements,  and 
he  stood  upon  this  line  of  crosses  for  some  days  while 
bringing  up  still  more  troops  and  making  a  heavy  head 
of  shell. 

Meanwhile  the  Russians,  appreciating  the  importance 
of  the  Fundeni  loop,  put  out  two  considerable  rearguards 
or  advanced  posts.  (One  may  look  at  it  either  way.  They 
were  the  rearguards  of  the  retreat,  they  were  the  ad- 
vanced posts  of  the  defence).  The  one  group  was  round 
and  in  Nanesci,  the  other  at  the  hamlet  of  Crangeni. 
The  latter  still  holds  ;  but  the  former  was  forced  back  in 
the  course  of  last  Friday  and  during  Saturday  morning. 
It  lost  so  little  in  men  (and  nothing  in  guns)  that  we 
might  almost  regard  it  as  a  voluntary  retirement  "had 
not  the  Russians  themselves  told  us  they  had  yielded 
ground.  We  may  take  it  that  the  Austro-German  line 
now  stands  north  Of  the  Rimnik  somewhat  after  the  line 
of  large  dots  on  Sketch  Map  III.  ^ 

The  alignment  thus  formed  is  not,  it  will  be  apparent, 
yet  able  to  make  full  use  of  the  loop  of  the  Sereth. 

The  value  of  a  narrow  loop  such  as  this  to  ah  assailant 
trying  to  cross  a  river  obstacle  is,  of  course,  that  such  a 
loop  is  a  salient,  and  that  small  salients  are  very  difficult 
to  liold  against  converging  fire  from  either  side.  But  the 
one  side  of  this  salient  is  in  the  present  case  marshy 
ground  and  further  protected  by  the  Russian  advanced 
posts  at  Crangeni.  The  latter  are  in  danger  of  isolation 
from  their  main  body  and  may  not  be  able  to  hold. 
Should  Crangeni  be  abandoned  everything  really  depends 
upon  the  condition  of  the  marshy  district  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Sereth  below  the  mouth  of  the  Rimnik. 
We  do  not  know  how  far  it  is  frozen  and  practicable  at 
the  present  moment,  nor  what  the  opportunities  are  for 
throwing  a  causeway  across  it  if  it  is  not  practicable. 
If  either  from  the  frost  or  in  any  other  fashion  the  passage 
of  this  marshy  belt  is  practicable  and  the  eastern  half 
of  the  loop  below  the  mouth  of  the,  Rimnik  is  reached, 
it  is  clear  that  the  district  of  Fundeni  within  the  loop 
will  be  lost  and  that  the  Sereth  will  be' crossed.  Where 
a  loop  is  as  narrow  as  that  there  is  no  reason  why  works 
.with  sufficient  time  for  their  preparation,  crossing  the 
neck,  should  not  afford  just  as  good  an  obstacle  as  the 
river  itself.  But  there  again  we  cannot  decide  on  the 
value  of  such  works  until  we  know  the  condition  of  the 
marshes  on  the  north  of  the  Sereth— that  is,  on  the  left 
bank.  For  if  these  be  practicable  at  the  present  moment 
it  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  form  a  defensive  Hne 
behind  Fundeni  which  would  hold. 

We  are,  after  this  examination,  in  a. position  to  under- 
stand why  the  enemj'  has  chosen  Fundeni  for  his  chief 
effort ;  why  he  has  massed  there  his  best  troops,  and 
what  he  hopes  to  gain  from  his  attack  at  this  point.  And 
we  are  also  in  a  position  to  affirm  once  more  that  such 
an  effort,  so  directed  and  using  such  picked  regiments, 
clearly  pro\-es  that  he  is  both  unwilling  and  unable  to 
abandon  his  Roumanian  adventure — late  as  the  season 
is  getting  to  be,  and  necessary  as  it  is  for  him  to  make 


preparations  for  the  offensive  to  vvlilcli  he  is  condemned' 
at  some  other  unknown  sector  of  his  many  fronts. 

THE    THREATENED    OFFENSIVE 

A  good  deal  of  ink  has  been  wasted  in  the  last  few  days 
in  discussing  the  point  mhere  the  enemy  will  make  that 
hew  offensive,  which  is  absolutely  imposed  upon  him 
by  the  straits  in  which  he  finds  himself. 

One  would  have  thought  that  by  this  time  everyone 
knew  that  enemy  concentrations  are  only  discovered  upon 
our  side  by  the  Intelligence  Department  of  the  various 
commands,  and  that  their  first  and  most  elementary  duty 
is  to  conceal  the  knowledge  they  have  acquired.  Is  there 
really  anyone  left  so  simple  as  to  believe  that  the  Germans 
provide  news  agencies  and  neutral  journalists  with  infor- 
mation upon  their  movements,  begging  them  to  pubhsh 
the  same  ?  The  plain  truth  is  that  no  one  except  the  small 
handful  of  professional  soldiers*  whose  t>usiness  it  is  to 
collect  and  collate  all  available  evidence  and  to  keep  it 
secret  has  the  least  idea  of  where  the  last  cnemj''  concen- 
tration may  be  taking  place.  They  may  attempt  an 
offensive  upon  any  part  whatsoever  of  three  thousand 
miles  of  front,  and  when  one  lias  said  that  one  has  said 
all  that  any  mere  student  of  the  campaign  can  possibly 
say  upon  the  situation,  so  far  as  locality  is  concerned. 
^Vhat  we  do  know-  is  that  an  offensive  is  necessary  to 
them,  simply  because  the  energy  accumulating  against 
them  in  the  West  threatens  their  destruction.  They 
tniist,  if  they  possibly  can,  be  the  first  to  attack,  even 
though  they  have  not  the  .weight  sufficient  for  any  liope 
of  decision  left. 

Of  the  numerous  points  upon  which  the  enemy  can 
choose  to  concentrate,  there  is  one  that  particularly 
concerns  opii-.ion  in  this  country  :  it  is  the  coast  of  the 
North  Sea.  For  among  the  many  forms  which  the  last 
effort  of  the  enemy  is  able  to  take,  one  may  be  a  raid 
upon  these  islands. 

What  the  opportunities  are  for  such  a  raid,  even  upon 
a  small  scale,  I  am  quite  incompetent  to  discuss.  It  is  a 
matter  falling  wholly  within  the  province  of  those  who 
have  studied  the  naval  side  of  war,  of  which  I  know 
nothing.  But  that  (if  it  were  thought  feasible)  the 
enemy  would  be  tempted  as  a  military  polic5^  to  some 
such  raid  when  he  has  grown  really  desperate  and  finds 
himself  at  the  end  of  his  tether,  is  a  military  thesis  which 
has  been  several  times  put  forward  in  these  columns. 
The  nearer  an  exhausted  military  machine  gets  to  im- 
pending and  calculable  disaster,  the  more  is  it  not  only 
condemned  to  such  offensives,  but  the  more  it  tends  to 
aim  at  a  political  effect.  And  that  is  right  ;  because 
when  you  know  that  you  cannot  win  on  the  purely 
strategic  side,  you  have  only  the  political  side  on  which 
to  gamble.  Such  an  effort  would,  if  it  failed  to  reach 
these  shores  at  all,  be  no  more  than  one  disaster,  like 
any  other  disaster  which  in  the  actual  number  of  men 
sacrificed,  would  not  be  compai'able  to  the  sacrifice 
already  made  in  Roumania  without  result.  While  if 
it  succeeded  in  landing  and  maintaining  a  force  for  a 
sufficient  time  to  do  some  serious  damage,  the  political 
effect  would  be  altogether  out  of  proportion  to  an\?thing 
else  that  could  be  achieved  by  the  dwindling  resources  at 
the  enemy's  disposal.  H.  Belloc 


Of  all  the  many  good  enterprises  on  behalf  of  our  gallant 
fighting-men  now  before  the  public,  there  is  not  one  which 
appeals  with  more  peculiar  force  than  the  Lord  Roberts 
Memorial  Workshops.  It  is  well  known  that  "  Bobs 
Bahadur  "  from  his  earliest  days  did  everything  in  his  power 
to  improve  the  life  and  surroundings  of  the  private  soldier, 
and  his  method  was  always  to  appeal  to  the  better  self  and 
to  provide  facilities  which  would  enable  a  man  to  cultivate 
and  develop  self-esteem.  This  scheme  is  run  on  the  same 
principle  and  is  therefore  a  most  fitting  memorial  to  the 
great  General.  Money  is  badly  wanted  to  place  on  a  sound 
financial  basis  workshops  where  a  man,  however  grievously 
maimed,  can  yet  with  industry  secure  a  livelihood  which 
with  his  pension  will  place  him  above  all  thought  of  charity. 
The  svstem  is  already  working  well  on  a  small  scale,  but 
requires  to  be  largely  extended.  Lord  Cheylesmore  is  at 
the  liead  of  it,  a  fact  that  in  itself  is  eloquent  testimony  to  its 
practical  wisdom:  contributions  sliould  be  forwarded  to  him  at 
"  The  I,ord  Roberts  Memorial  Worksliops  Ikadquarters, 
122,   Brompton  Road,  S.W  " 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25^1917 


Mr.   Wilson  and   the  War 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


NO  thoughtful  reader  of  the  public  press  can  fail 
to  liave  been  struck  by  two  remarkable  mani- 
festations of  opinion  during  the  last  few  weeks. 
First,  there  has  been  a  steadily  growing  appre- 
ciation of  the  fact  that  the  enemy's  attack  upon  our  seii 
supplies  is  a  factor  of  grave  importance.  From  the 
middle  of  August  until  to-day  the  submarine  campaign 
has  maintained  a  consistency  in  its  success  that  is  entirely 
without  parallel,  and  while  there  liave  no  doubt  been 
occasional  very  obvious  breaches  of  the  undertaking 
given  by  Germany  last  May  to  \\'ashington— and  in 
the  Mediterranean  these  breaches  have  been  almost  the 
rule  since  May  last— yet  on  the  whole  the  German  sub- 
marine policy  has  not  been  conducted  as  it  would  have 
Ix^en  liad  that  undertaking  not  been  given.  Ships  have 
not,  as  a  general  rtile.  been  sunk  on  sight,  and  liners, 
both  neutral  and  belligerent,  have  practicallv  been  spared 
altogether.  It  seems  to  follow  then,  that  even  with  the 
lorces  at  present  available,  the  submarine  campaign 
could  be  made  more  ruthless  than  it  has  been. 

\A'c  are  not  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  every  resolu- 
tion passed  by  public  bodies,  in  response  to  the  Kaiser's 
appeal  to  his  subjects  to  harden  their  resolution  to  win, 
has  included  a  strong  recommendation  that  tlie  sub- 
marine campaign  should  be  pushed  to  the  utmost.  And 
while  these  loud  calls  that  Germany  should  no  longer  be 
hand  tied  in  this  matter,  are  being  sent  up  to  the  higher 
]iowers,  the  AUied  peoples  are  being  informed,  from 
twenty  different  sources  in  Germany,  that  large  as  is 
the  present  number  of  submarines  at  work,  many  more 
are  under  construction.  The  means  and  methods  of 
attack,  then,  may  both  be  greatly  multiplied.  If  these 
boasts  are  true — and  it  is  idle  to  say  that  they  cannot 
be  true — then  the  effort  to  reduce  "us  literally  to  the 
jjosition  of  a  beleagured  citj-  may  be  reinforcecl  in  two 
directions.  It  may  be  enhanced  by  the  adding  of  a  new 
terror  to  the  attack  by  the  total  disregard  of  warning. 
All  ships  hitherto  sunk  with  some  regard  to  saving 
crews,  may  be  sunk  on  sight,  and  liners,  hitherto  generally 
immune,  may  be  included  universally  as  victims.  And 
the  whole  scheme  of  submarine  operations  may  be  ex- 
tended by  the  multiplication  of  submarines. 

These  inferences,  which  seem  natural  and  obvious  from 
known  facts  and  public  statements,  have  gained  in 
cogency  by  the  First  Sea  Lord's  recent  statement  that 
the  submarine  menace  is  of  far  greater  gravity  now  than 
it  has  ever  been  since  the  war  began.  On  the  top  of 
what  the  submarine  may  do,  we  have  also  had  a  sudden 
and  dramatic  re\elation  of  Germany's  capacity  to  get 
raiders  on  to  the  ocean  and  to  revive,  in  the  third  year 
of  the  war,  the  startling  performances  of  the  Karlsruhe 
and  Emdcn.  For  the  second  time,  a  war  ship  disguised 
as  a  neutral  trading  vessel  has  passed  llirough  our  patrol 
on  to  the  high  seas  and,  for  the  first  time,  a  captured 
British  prize  has  been  taken  back,  again  through  our 
patrol,  in  triumph  to  a  Gennan  harbour.  These  things 
added  to  the  sustained,  though  not  increasing,  toll  taken 
by  the  submarines,  have  naturally  added  to  the  appre- 
ciation of  the  fact  that  our  command  of  the  Allied  sea 
communications  is  subjected  to  a  very  clear  qualification. 

Neglect  of  Naval  Counsel 

Next,  side  by  side  with  this  general  awakening  to  a 
most  disagreeable  development,  there  has  been  mani- 
fested a  somewhat  wide  discontent  with  the  spectacle  of 
the  Allied  premiers,  foreign  ministers,  war  ininisters  and 
the  commanders-in-chief  conferring  together  and  con- 
certing national  and  strategic  policies,  without  any 
'Spokesman  or  represent ati^'c  either  of  the  British  or  any 
other  navy  taking  part  in  these  consultations.  S'et  frorn 
ihe  lirst  day  of  the  war  until  now,  no  speaker  or  writer 
rm  the  Allied  side  has  failed  to  include  as  first  and  fore- 
most of  our  assets,  the  sea  predominance  of  Great  Britain. 
That  tliis  country  could  assert,  and  defend,  and  so  in- 
variably exercise  an  almost  absolute  command  of  the 


sea,  has  throughout  .seemed  to  be  the  one  self-evident 
factor  in  the  war.  There  is  not  one  of  the  fighting  Allies 
that  does  not  either  owe  its  national  sustenance,  or  the 
fuel,  or  the  raw  material  from  which  its  munitions  aie 
derived,  to  the  sea  supplies  which  Great  Britain  defends. 
And,  conversely,  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  factors  that 
must  abbreviate  the  enemy's  capacity  to  carry  on  the 
war— namely,  the  exhaustion  of  the  food  supplies  of  tlic 
Central  Powers,  is,  as  obviously,  the  direct  result  of  the 
blockade  eflc<;ti\-ely  commenced  a  little  more  than  a  year 
ago.  How,  then,  while  the  Allies  are  leaning  wholly 
on  sea  power,  and  our  enemies  are  being  chiefly  exhausted 
by  it,,  are  we  to  explain  the  fact  that  when  the  Allied 
statesmen  and  soldiers  confer  together,  they  ignore  naval 
counsel  altogether  ? 

Premises  and  Disillusionment 

The  explanation  seems  unquestionably  to  lie  in  this. 
We  all  used  to  suppose  that  the  great  developments  in 
sea  force  that  dated  from  the  year  1905— when  the  main 
armament  of  the  battleship  was  increased  by  two  and  a 
half,  when  there  began  that  progress  in  the  growth  of 
artillery  which  has  culminated  during  this  war  in  ships 
being  sent  into  action  armed  with  guiis  firing  projectiles 
exceeding  those  of  the  previous  decades  by  three  times 
in  range,  penetration  and  destructive  force  ;  when  the 
turbine  opened  up  the  possibilities  of  a  speed  develop- 
ment that  has  given  us  destroyers,  criiisers  and  battle 
cruisers  that  can  attain  nearly  forty  miles  an  hour ;  when 
torpedoes  so  grew  in  speed  and  endurance  as  to 
outrange  300  per  cent,  the  biggest  guns  of  the  Russians 
and  Japanese ;  when  the  submarine  developed  from 
an  ingenious  weapon  for  harbour  defence,  to  a  vessel  of 
high  sea-keeping  powers,  intensely  formidable  and  effec- 
tive for  almost  every  purpose  of  sea  war,  a  threat  in 
battle,  a  standing  menace  to  all  fleets  at  sea,  and  an 
unprecedented  scourge  to  every  trader  on  the  ocean- 
all  these,  we  thought  seemed  destined  in  1914  to  add 
incalculably  to  the  fighting  powers  of  fleets.  It  seemed 
inevitable  that  when  sea  forces  met,  the  destruction  of 
one  would  be  terribly  swift  and  victory  come  with  awe- 
inspiring  rapidity. 

The  facts  of  this  war  have  disillusioned   us.      Such 
actions   as   there    have    been    were   each    and    all   of 
them  incredibly  prolonged.     The  fight  between  Sydncv 
and  Emdcn,  between  Admiral  Sturdee's  12-inch  gunned 
battle  cruisers  and  von  Spec's  8-inch  gunned  armoured 
cruisers,  the  pursuit  and  destruction  on  the  same  day  of 
Letpzic   and   Nurnh;rg,    unprotected   ships  witli   4-inch 
guns  engaging  faster— and   in   some  cases  armoured- 
ships,   in   all  cases  ships  lising  weapons  the  shells  of 
which  were  incalculably  more  effective,  the  action  of  the 
Dogger  Bank  of  January  1015.  all  of  these  showed  that, 
whatever  the  superiority  in  gun-powTr  might  be,  it  might 
take  anything  from  one  to  five  hours  for  a  ship  to  make 
that  number  of  hits  which  should  be  the  Equivalent  of 
the  two  salvoes  that  can  be   fired   in   a  minute  and  a 
half.     Finally,  at  Jutland,  when,  to  the  other  troubless 
that  imposed  such  unexpected  limits  to  the  employment 
of  sea  force,  there  was  added  the  difficulty  of  bad  seeing, 
an  unprecedented  spectacle  was  witnessed.    The  entire 
naval  forces  of  Germany,  after  being  attacked  and  kept 
m  play,  \rith  perfect  ner\'e  and  masterly  skill,  for  three 
and  a  half  hours,  were  brought  at  six  "o'clock  to  within 
12,000  yards  of  the  British  Battle   Fleet.     They  were 
kept  in  contact  between  twelve  thousand  yards  and  nine 
till  7.30.     The  latter  fleet  was  neariy  twice  as  strong  in 
numbers,  and  as  some  authorities  would  have  it,  four 
times  as  strong  in  gun  power— so  that,  had  it  been  possible 
to  bring  about  an    effective    artiller\'   engagement,  the 
total  destruction  of  the  enemy  slio'ukl  liave  l>cen  effected 
in  five  or  ten  minutes.     Yet  "the  difticulties  of  the  situa- 
tion were  found  to  be  insuperable,  and  the  German  fleet 
escaped,  damaged  indeed  but  integral.     Sir  John  Jellicoe, 
m  his  recent  statement,  as  indeed  in  his  disnatch.  has 


Jannaiy  25,  191) 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


explained  this  escape  with  perfect  candour.  The  long 
range  torpedo  has  defeated  the  long  range  gun,  and,  ni 
poor  light,  decisive  action  can  only  be  sought  at  a  risk 
which  is  prohibitive. , 

Victory,  or  Subordination. 

Now  war  is  primarily  a  matter  of  fighting,  and  enormous 
and  indeed  incalculable  as  arc  the  benefits  we  all  deri^■e 
from  such  use  of  the  sea  as  we  can  enforce,  the  day  it 
was  admitted  that  we  are  not  to  expect  the  navy  to  seek 
or  to  achieve  a  conclusive  military  victory  over  the 
enemy's  sea  forces,  from  that  day,  obviously,  naval 
advice  and  naval  plans  must  fall  into  a  second  place, 
when  operations  of  war  are  considered  in  Council.  The 
sea  war  falls  into  the  same  category,  in  relation  to  the 
main  operations,  as  do  questions  of  transport  and  com- 
missariat. Tire  llect  is  no  longer  a  primary  weapon, 
although  it  discharges  a  vital  role  in  the  protection  and 
the  defence  of  our  primary  sources  of  supply.  And  unless 
it  is  a  primary  weapon,  unless  it  has  a  primary  military 
objective,  we  cannot  expect  those  that  speak  for  it  to 
occupy  that  place  in  the  ^^'ar  Cabinet  which  in  other 
circumstances  would  unquestionably  be  theirs.  Whether 
this  subordination  of  sea  power  is,  in  the  essence  of  things, 
really  inevitable ;  whether  even  now  it  can  be  restored 
to  what,  on  a  priori  reasoning,  most  of  us  would  consider 
its  proper  place,  are  matters  that  can  be  discussed  on  a 
futm-c  occasion.  For  the  moment  we  must,  it  seems  to 
me,  recognise  both  the  fact  and  the  most  obvious  explana- 
tion of  it.  And  having  done  so  pass  on  to  note  certain 
consequences. 

The  facts  of  the  position  are  that  we  are  not  to  expect 
a  naval  victor}?  except  in  conditions  that  must  be  of  the 
enemy's  own  choosing,  and  as  he  is  most  milikely  to 
select  those  favourable  to  our  wishes,  we  must  face  the 
situation  that  sea  war  has  to  be  conducted  withoiit  the 
advantages  that  would  accrue  to  us  from  sea 
victory.  At  the  moment  the  greatest  of  all  the  benefits 
that  the  enemy  reaps  from  his  fleet  being  intact  and 
intangible  is  his  command  of  his  harbour  exits  to  the 
North  Sea  and  to  the  Baltic.  It  is  this  command  that 
enables  him  to  put  his  submarines  and  his  occasional 
raiders  into  the  Atlantic.  .And  if  we  in  turn  are  unable 
to  dispute  the  command  of  these  exits,  the  attack  which 
submarines  and  raiders  make  on  our  sea  communications 
imposes  three  secondary  duties,  one  on  the  navy,  the 
second  upon  such  civil  departments  as  have  the  control 
of  our  ship-building  industry,  the  third  on  the  Govern- 
ment as  a  whole.  It  is  for  the  navy  to  mitigate  as  far  as 
it  can  the  submarine  scourge,  by  direct  attack  upon  the 
boats  themselves,  by  arming  the  merchantmen,  by 
patrolling  trade  routes,  where  such  patrol  is  possible,  by 
controlling  the  movements  of  ships  so  as  to  warn  them 
from  all  areas  proved  to  be  infested.  It  is  the  Admiralty 
alone  that  can  assist  merchantmen  by  equipping  them 
with  the  means'  and  instructing  them  in  the  arts  of  self- 
defence.  And  the  importance  of  self-defence  all  ex- 
perience has  showni  to  be  overwhelming.  There  is  no 
need  for  this  to  be  linrited  to  equipping  ships  with 
gims  and  supplying  them  with  trained  crews — enormous 
as  is  this  task.  Something,  at  any  rate,  can  be  done  in 
developing  means  to  assist  merchantmen  to  evade  sub- 
marine attack,  and  instructing  those  very  resourceful 
persons,  the  sea  captains,  as  to  the  best  methods  of  em- 
plo\ring  them. 

Value  of  Armamsnt 

That  much  has  been  done  in  this  direction  seems 
to  be  borne  out  by  the  not  unsatisfactory  fact 
that,  in  the  last  two  months,  the  ratio  of  British 
ships  to  the  total  number  of  ships  destroyed  by  sub- 
marines and  mines  is  far  lower  than  it  was  in  the  first 
part  of  the  renewed  submarine  campaign.  And  it  is 
not  to  be  doubted  that  the  new  Board  and  the  new 
personnel  in  charge  of  this  important  branch  of  naval 
activity,  are  tackling  these  problems  with  the  utmost 
vigour  and  resource.  Nor  again  does  it  seem  to  me 
doubtful  that,  ul/iniakly,  we  shall  restore  the  ascendancy 
of  the  attack  on  the  submarines  themselves  that  we 
enjoyed  in  the  summer  of  1915  and  in  the  spring  of  last 
year.  Since  August  undoubtedly  this  ascendancy  has 
been  lost.  But  in  theory  it  obviously  can  be  restored 
— intricate  and  formidable  as  the  practicable  obstacles 


to  its  restoration  may  now  appear.  And  pending  its 
restoration,  which  would  can'y  with  it  the  \-irtual  collapse 
of  the  whole  campaign,  we  have  to  rely  on  mitigating  our 
losses  by  bucli  occasional  successes  as  we  can  get  against 
the  submarines  by  replacing  them  by  fresh  ship-building. 
There  are  many  indications  that  every  effort  is  being 
made  to  replace  our  losses  by  new  shipping  as  fast  as 
the  resources  of  our  shipyards  in  material  and  labour 
will  permit.  Finally,  we  must  trust,  above  all,  in 
organised  national  economy  in  the  consumption  of  the 
things  that  the  ships  bring  us.  If  we  are  indeed,  as  the 
rhetoricians  tell  us,  a  beleaguered  city,  there  should  be 
no  delay  in  putting  the  whole  garrison,  but  particularly 
the  useless  mouths  on  half  rations. . 

America's  Notes 

A  year  ago  one  would  ha\'e  said  that  even  if  there 
were  no  other  reason  why  the  present  dimensions  of  the 
submarine  campaign  must  be  unthinkable,  the  opposition 
of  neutral  powers  to  such  a  development  would  in- 
evitably suffice  to  stop  it.  With  the  brave  words  of  the 
Lusiiania  Notes  still  ringing  in  our  cars  it  seemed  utterly , 
unreasonable  to  suppose  that  America  could  tolerate 
any  considerable  prolongation  of  the  interval  before 
that  outrage  y\as  disowned  and  atoned  for,  quite  un- 
thinkable that  fresh  outrages  of  the  same  sort  could 
tamely  be  submitted  to.  And  the  Sussex  Note  of  April 
last  seemed  a  final  confirmation  of  these  opinions.  But 
American  feelings  about  the  war  have  been  in  a  strange 
tangle  in  the  interval.  And  the  last  stage  of  bewilder- 
ment seems  to  have  been  reached  by  Mr.  Wilson's 
idealistic  speech  to  the  Senate  on  Monday  last.  When 
the  December  Note  was  published,  Mr.  Lansing 
hastened  to  explain  that  the  motive  behind  it  was  Mr. 
Wilson's  fear  that  unless  the  war  soon  ceased,  the  United 
States  must  inevitably  be  drawn  into  it.  But  this 
explanation  had  to  be  withdrawn  even  more  hastily 
than  it  was  made.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  in  the  debate 
which  arose  in  the  Senate,  when  Mr.  Wilson,  through 
Senator  Hitchcock,  tried  to  persuade  that  august  body 
to  endorse  his  action,  it  was  precisely  this  fear  that  carried 
the  day  against  this  endorsement  being  given. 

This  fear  and  another  ;  What  would  happen  to  America's 
traditional   aloofness   from   European   entanglements   if 
the  President's  Peace  Note  were  endorsed  by  the  Senate, 
as  it  stood  ?     For  the  Note,  it  will  be  remembered,  not 
only  asked  the  belligerents  to  state  the  terms  on  which 
they  were  willing  to  make  peace,  but  went  on  to  say  that, 
once  peace  was  made,  America  would  be  willing  to  join 
in    seeing    that   it   was   never  broken    again.     Add    to 
this  that  it  was  published  just  when  Germany  was  de- 
manding peace  with  threats,  and  it  was  easy  enough  to 
see  why  the  Senate  refused  that  unqualified  support  that 
the  President  was  most  anxious  to  obtain.     The  chief 
spokesmen  of  the  opposition  were  the  two  Republican 
Senators,  Cabot  Lodge  and  Borah.     The  first  took  his 
stand  on  the  fact  that  the  Gennans  had  interpreted  Dr, 
Wilson's  intervention  to  be  an  action  entirely  favourable 
to  themselves.     "  If  this  is  so,"   said   Senator   Lodge, 
"  however  far  this  may  be  from  the  President's  intention, 
here  is  reason  enough  why  we  should  not    endorse   it." 
ThcWUics  were  fighting  for  the  reign  of  law  and  justice, 
America  must  not  side  with  those  whose  whole  conduct 
is  their  negation.     Senator  Borah  took  a  wider  ground. 
The  President's  Note  held  out  the  prospect  of  America 
being  prepared  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  smallest 
nation  in  Europe,  by  ever}-  influence  and  ever  resource 
at  America's  command.     Was  it  really  meant  that  the 
army  and  navy  of  the  United  States  should  be  at  the 
command  of  any  European  power  for  the  protection  of 
the  smaller  nations  ?    This  was  a  large  enough  order. 
But  clearly  a  still  more  startling  departure  from  American 
tradition  would  easily  be  possible,     ^^'hen  once  all  the 
nations  were  leagued  together  for  peace,  suppose  Argen- 
tina to  quarrel  with  some  European  power  and  then  tc 
refuse  arbitration  ?     Were  tlie  United  States  to  stand 
by,  and  not  only  \\-atch  Europe  make  war  on  Argentina, 
but  join  in  hostilities  against  a  fellow  American  republic 
themselves  ?    It  was  really  this  argument  that  finished 
off  the   Hitchcock  resolution,   so  that   all   the   Senate 
ultimately   committed    itself     to    was    to    support    the 
President  in  requesting  the  warring  nations  to  state  the 
terms  of  peace  which  they  desired.     There  was  thus  no 


J2 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  23,  1917 


endorsement  of  the  President's  action,  no  support  for  the 
wider  implications  of  the  Note,  not  even  an  approval 
l)y  the  Senate  of  the  mere  sending  of  this  request. 

A  carefiil  study  of  the  debate  shows  the  thoughts  that 
■tre  uppermost."  First,  if  the  effort  to  get  peace  did  not 
•^imediately  succeed,  the  danger  of  America  being  forced 
mto  war  was  clearly  greater  at  the  present  stage  than  it 
Mver  had  been.  Senator  Lewis,  amongst  others,  gave 
this  point  great  emphasis.  Though  less  explicitly  stated, 
another  thought  is  throughout  very  clearly  visible. 
However  the  purposes  of  the  League  to  enforce  peace 
are  defined,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  those  purposes,  and  no 
others,  that  the  Allies  are  now  fighting  to  attain.  In 
spite  of  outrageous  injuries,  .\mcrica,  bound  by  tradition 
to  stand  ck%r  of  Eiu-opean  entanglements,  has  refused 
to  join  this  effort.  How  can  she  consistently  bind 
herself  to  indefinite  future  obligations  to  fight,  if  she  is 
so  reluctant  to  fight  now  ?  The  Senate,  in  other  words, 
refused  to  shut  its  eyes  to  the  fact  that  Dr.  Wilson's 
December  Note  offered  to  commit  the  United  States  to 
a  policy  inconsistent  with  their  past  traditions— wildly 
inconsistent  with  their  present  policy.  It  was  for  these 
reasons  that  the  Senate  deliberately  dissociated  itself, 
by  a  vote  of  48  to  17,  from  every  part  of  the  President's 
action  except  the  bare  request  that  both  sides  should 
state  their  terms  of  peace.  And  it  is  significant  that 
:^q  out  of  48  who  constitute  the  majority,  were  Democrats, 
and  that  the  17  who  voted  against  the  resolution,  did 
so  because  they  thought  that  even  this  very  moderate 
support  of  the  President  was  more  than  the  Senate 
ought  to  give.  In  other  words,  the  Assembly  of  America's 
elder  statesmen  went  so  far  as  it  possibly  could  in  re- 
pudiating the  President'<i  action  in  toto 

Resolute  Inaction 

If  we  are  to  understand  his  speech  of  Monday  last, 
we  must  bear  this  fact  in  mind.  It  is  the  President's 
effort  to  defend  andJimit  his  personal  committal  to  the 
ideals  of  the  League  of  Peace.  His  speech  is  not  made 
in  the  hope  that  it  will  give  a  new  direction  to  European 
policy.  It  is  made  in  the  effort  to  discover  a  common 
ground  amongst  the  American  parties  for  an  American 
policy.  It  does  not  follow  on  any  endorsement  by 
congress  of  a  plan  of  action  in  Europe  proposed  by  the 
President.  It  is  the  necessary  result  of  the  repudiation, 
by  an  important  part  of  Congress,  of  action  actually 
taken  by  him.  This  being  the  situation,  let  us  note 
certain  e.Ktremely  significant  statements.  America 
neither  claims,  nor  expects  to  have,  any  hand  whatever 
in  settling  the  peace  terms  of  Europe.  This  is  surely 
fxtremely  significant,  for  it  means  that  except  under 
the  direst  compulsion,  America  will  maintain  her  hardly 
maintained  neutrahty  to- the  end.  Next,  the  President 
lias  laid  down  the  only  kind  of  peace  with  which  any 
American  pledge  to  join  in  the  future  keeping  of  peace 
would  be  compatible.  It  is  a  peace  that  follows  from 
agreement,  and  not  from  victory.  Now,  clearly,  no  man 
of  sense  looking  at  the  conflict  as  it  is  in  Europe  to-day. 
can  conceive  such  a  peace  to  be  possible.  Writing  in  our 
issue  of  December  28th — the  first  that  appeared  after 
the  pubhcation  of  Mr.  Wilson's  December  Note— I 
stated  that  the  "  forces  that  made  this  war  are  not  forces 
with  which  the  world  can  compromise."  It  is  inconceiv- 
able that  the  junta  that  has  Germany  in  the  hollow  of  its 
hand,  can  suddenly  express  contrition  for  its  crimes,  can 
offer  to  repair  the  evil  it  has  done,  or  pledge  itself  never 
to  offend  again. 

It  is  just  because  this  is  inconceivable  that  we 
have  all  long  since  realized  that  the  only  peace  which 
can  be  a  real  peace,  must  follow  on  our  victory.  Note 
also  that  the  ideals  set  out  by  Dr.  Wilson  are  in 
absolute  contradiction  to  the  whole  of  Germany's  policy 
in  declaring  and  carrying  on  the  war. 

The  President  records  that  .he  has  received  an 
explicit  statement  from  the  Allies  of  the  kind  of  peace 
they  want,  and  that  the  Central  Powers  have  declined 
any  similar  candour.  But  he  does  not  say  that  he 
approves  the  Allies^  terms.  He  almost  cries  "  a 
plague  on  both  your  houses."  For  he  rules  out 
victory  as  a  road  to  peace,  yet  he  must  know  that  with- 
out victory  the  Allies  cannot  get  any  tolerable  terms  at 
all,  and  that  victory  was  Germany's  only  object  from  the 
first.    So  far,  then,  from  President  Wilson's  speech  being 


an  equivalent  of  an  American  programme,  it  looks 
rather  as  if  he  were  purposely  la^-ing  down  as  conditions 
precedent  to  any  American  action,  a  set  of  principles 
that  never  coulcl  be  realized.  For,  if  American  co- 
operation in  maintaining  the  law  of  truth  and  justice  in 
the  future  is  dependent  upon  that  law  being  voluntarily 
accepted  by  all  Europe  first,  then  we  may  be  assured 
that  the  risk  of  Washington  being  called  upon  to  commit 
the  American  people  in  this  matter  is  so  slender  as  to  be 
negligible.  In  explaining  his  programme  then,  President 
Wilson  has  explained  it  all  awUy.  This  being  'SO  we 
need  not  alarm  ourselves  over  "  the  freedom  of  the 
seas,"  or  any  other  of  his  phrases. 

I  am  writing  this  without  having  seen  one  single  word 
of  comment  in  any  American  paper.  But  I  venture  to 
prophesy  that  this  speech  will  be  received  as  an  anti- 
climax. So  far  as  American  policy  is  concerned,  things 
stand  therefore  to-day  exactly  as  they  stood  in  May 
last,  with  this  important  difference  :  that  the  belligerents 
have  put  their  cards  upon  the  table.  Germany,  it  is 
true,  has  refused  to  state  her  peace  terms,  but  as  no  part 
of  the  world  has  the  least  doubt  about  her  war  aims, 
this  is  an  immaterial  detail.  If,  then,  Washington  has 
to  face  the  question  once  again  of  taking  any  active  part 
in  the  defence  of  American  interests  before  peace  arrives, 
there  can  be  no  question  as  to  what  objects  she  will 
indirectly  assist  by  so  doing. 

Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  Washington  may 
have  to  choose  in  this  matter  sooner  than  many  people 
think.  The  German  undertaking  of  May  last  contained 
the  proviso  that  circumstances  might  compel  the  German 
Higher  Command  to  withdraw  from  it.  It  is  as  clear  as 
anything  can  be  that  the  time  for  this  denunciation  has 
now  come.  I  have  alluded  above  to  the  pressure  now 
being  brought  to  bear  on  the  Berlin  authorities  by  public 
bodies  throughout  Germany.  This  pressure  will  cer- 
tainly supply  the  excuse  for  a  form  of  action  for  which 
the  desperate  case  of  Germany  is  the  real  cause.  We 
may  see  the  May  Note  denounced  at  any  time  now. 

Arthur  PotLEX 

P.S. — News  of  the  destroyer  action  off  the  Dutch 
Coast  comes  just  as  we  are  going  to  press.  The  enemy 
seems  to  have  been  roughly  treated.  If  he  lost,  as 
some  accounts  say,  seven  boats,  it  is  an  extraordinary 
victory.  It  is  remarkable  that  our  only  loss  was  a 
destroyer  torpedoed.  Is  there  another  case  on  record  ? 
It  is  evident  that  our  forces  were  directed  and  led  with 
great  skill  and  dash. 

A  Fine  Character  Study 

In  Elliott  Limited,  by  D.  S.  Mann  (Sidgwick  and  Jackson. 
6s.),  we  have  a  story  of  an  individual's  progress  and  develop- 
ment, which  whenever  treated  with  distinction  as  in  this 
case,  arrests  attention.  Elliott  started  life  as  tlie  son  of  an 
East  Anglian  farmer  wlio  had  many  good  qualities,  but 
lacKing  business  ability  made  a  failure  of  his  life.  His  son 
began  life  at  fifteen,  driving  the  plough,  milking  cows,  etc., 
and  in  his  spare  time  educating  himself.  From  this  he 
passed  on  to  office  work,  and  got  his  really  first  start  by  a 
little  skilful  embezzlement  which,  wlien  times  improved, 
he  made  good.  He  joined  the  army,  fought  in  South  .^f^ica, 
did  a  period  of  service  in  India,  returned  to  South  Africa, 
and  finally  bought  himself  out.  Then  he  took  to  journaHsm, 
had  more  downs  than  ups,  loved  and  was  loved,  finally  made 
good  and  at  last  married  a  woman  wlio  provided  him  with 
the  material  comforts  of  life,  but  not  with  that  good  com- 
radesliip  which  a  happy  marriage  should  contain.  And  so 
comes  tlic  end — a  bullet  in  the  Great  War, 

The  verj'  title  of  the  book  imphes  that  it  is  the  record  of 
limitations,  and  from  that  point  of  view  must  bo  warmly 
praised.  We  never  lose  our  interest  in  the  chief  figure, 
though  at  times  feel  inclined  to  kick  him  and  tell  him  to 
liustle  up  and  take  a  broader  and  brighter  conception  both 
of  himself  and  of  life  generally.  His  abiding  affection  for 
his  parents,  through  good  and  bad  times,  is  the  brightest 
trait,  and  on  reading  the  epilogue,  we  can  but  hope  that  the 
wife  made  good  the  husband's  fine  self-sacrifice. 

.Mr.  Mann  has  the  gift  of  narrative  ;  he  would  do  well  to 
shake  himself  free  of  the  Wells  manner,  and  mannerisms,  but 
the  book  is  one  very  much  above  the  ordinary  and  its  perusal 
will  well  repay  all  those  who  read  in  order  to  obtain  a  more 
intimate  knowledge  of  human  nature.  It  is  sincere  through- 
out, and  sliould  prove  a  success,  and  be  the  prelude  to  o'her 
\olumcs  in  whicli  luiman  life  and  endeavour  are  dealt  witl 
in  a  discerning  and  sympathetic  mannc;,. 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 

Opening  of  the  1917  Campaign— II 


13 


By  Colonel   Feyler 


Colonel  Feyler,  the  well-known  Swiss  military  writer, 
reviewed  rapidly  last  tvcek  the  ■progress  of  the  War 
until  the  end  of  1916.  In  this  concluding  article  he 
sums   up  the   pros   and   cons   of  the  1917  campaign. 

THE  question  of  the  immediate  future  is  whether 
the  Central  Empires  will  be  in  a  position  to 
resume  their  original  intentions  and  destroy  their 
essential  enemies,  which  would  secure  their  con- 
cjuests  ;  or  whether  on  the  contrary,  the  Allies  will  be 
able  to  push  their  attacks  until  the  Germanic  forces  are 
destroyed,  in  which  case  they  would  dictate  their  terms 
uf  peace  ;  or  lastly,  supposing  the  present  situation  w-ere 
preserved  for  a  long  time,  whether  the  Central  Em- 
pires, who  are  virtually  a  beleaguered  city,  will  be  able 
to  protract  their  resistance  long  enough  to  wrest  from 
the  exhaustion  of  their  opponents  recognition  of  all  or 
part  of  the  territorial  results  which  they  have  achieved. 

The  answer  depends  entirely  upon  the  remaining  re- 
sources employed  by  the  most  skilful  command,  supported 
by  the  most  obstinate  determination  on  the  part  of 
tire  army  and  the  people  to  endure  and  win. 

Enquiry  into  the  matter  of  the  remaining  resources 
shows  that  the  Allies  have  a  larger  margin  than  the 
Central  Empires.  The  Allies  have  all  their  avenues 
open  to  them  the  whole  world  over  ;  each  of  the  great 
Powers  among  them  can  supply  its  own  needs  or  make  them 
good  by  means  of  exchange  with  the  others  ;  and  the 
small  States  among  them  also  provide  an  appreciable  part 
of  what  is  required.  The  Central  Empires  are  reduced 
to  their  own  exclusive  resources,  and  their  two  Balkan 
allies  exact  from  them  more  than  they  contribute.  The 
margin  of  the  Allies  warrants  extensions,  whereas  that 
of  the  Central  Empires  is  impaired  by  reductions. 

Resources  in  Personnel 

This  difference  is  especially  noticeable  in  the  matter 
of  the  constitution  of  the  armies.  Proportionately 
to  populations  and  despite  the  losses  suffered,  the  reserve 
man-power  of  France  is  in  a  position  to  supply  the 
diminishing  line  committed  to  her  with  greater  ease 
than  the  reserve  man-power  of  Germany  can  supply 
the  line  which  she  has  to  hold.  The  Allies  of  France  arc 
reducing  her  task,  while  Germany's  task  is  increased  by 
her  allies. 

At  the  present  time,  without  reckoning  the  colonies, 
any  one  class  of  recruits  of  the  Powers  of  the  Quadruple 
Entente  comprises  twice  the  n-umber  of  men  in  the 
corresponding  class  of  the  Central  Empire  Alliance. 

The  situation  with  regard  to  the  effectives  of  the 
Gei'man  army  is  that  on  December  31st,  the  entire  1917  ■ 
class  was  at  the  front,  either  in  the  firing  line  or  in  the 
depots  of  units  immediately  behind  the  front.  No  men 
of  that  class  remained  in  the  depots  in  the  interior.  In 
order  to  increase  the  number  of  her  soldiers  Germany 
is  obliged  to  resort  to  all  manner  of  expedients,  compell- 
ing the  Poles  to  form  regiments,  deporting  the  Belgians 
so  as  to  release  men  from  the  land  and  the  workshops, 
and  proclaiming  a  levy  en  iriasse  in  order  to  utilise  for 
war  purposes  everything  it  is  humanly  possible  to  utilise. 
Whatever  losses  the  Allies  may  have  endured,  things 
are  not  so  black  with  them,  thanks  always  to  the  more 
advantageous  proportion  of  their  fronts.  Thus  for  one 
German  on  the  German  front,  one  Austro-Hungarian  on 
the  Austrian  front  and  one  Bulgarian  at  the  front  with 
his  army,  the  Allies  will  not  require  more  than  half  a 
F"renchman  on  the  French  front,  two-thirds  of  an  English- 
man on  the  English  front,  and  half  an  Italian  and  a  third 
A  a  Russian  on  the  ItaUan  and  Russian  fronts.  These 
aroportions  are  not  advanced  as  exact  ;  the  remaining 
['ractions  constitute  reserves. 

The  Mass  of  Manoeuvre 

Scrutiny  of  the  army  formations  .shows  that  after  the 
■vastage  of   i(ji4  and   1015   tlv  Cntral    Empires    were 


able  to  form  three  masses  of  nanceuvre  in  1916  and  the 
Allies  iive. 

The  tirst  Austro-German  mass  was  exhausted  before 
Verdun  ;  that  was  demonstrated  by  the  cessation  of  all 
attacks  directly  the  battle  of  the  Somme  began  and  by 
the  necessity  of  remaining  on  the  defensive  during  that 
battle.  The  second  was  exhausted  in  the  Trentino  ;  that 
was  demonstrated  by  the  cessation  of  its  efforts  when  the 
defeats  in  Galicia  and  Volhynia  compelled  the  sus- 
pension of  its  operations.  The  third  is  in  action  in 
Roumania  and  is  in  process  of  natural  diminution  of 
strength. 

Now  this  last  mass  was  composed  for  the  most  part  of 
good  elements,  battahons  of  infantry  and  the  fourth 
regiments  drawn  from  divisions  of  four  regiments  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  The  possibility  of  these  drafts 
is  now  exhausted,  or  almost  exhausted,  unless  they  are 
earned  further  and  taken  from  the  third  regiments  of 
divisions.  But  there  is  a  limit  to  expedients  of  this  kind, 
and  the  limit  is  fixed  by  the  minimum  force  required  for 
the  stabihty  of  a  front  even  purely  defensive.  In  this 
connection  it  must  be  remembered  that  Germany  has  never 
ventured  upon  appreciable  denudation  of  a  front,  even 
in  periods  of  greatest  calm.  In  the  autumn  of  1916, 
when  the  Eastern  fronts,  including  the  Roumanian 
theatre  of  operations,  accounted  for  seventy-nine  German 
divisions,  the  Western  front  absorbed  a  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  although  the  Germans  were  purely  on  the 
defensive. 

Another  thing  which  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  is  the 
losses  caused  by  the  operations  in  these  divisions  from 
w^hich  the  Germans  w'ould  like  to  draw  reserves.  I  may 
refer  on  this  point  to  Mr.  Hilairc  Belloc's  always  clear 
articles.  He  has  elucidated  the  whole  question.  I  will 
only  recall  to  mind  a  few  figures  based  upon  the 
admitted  German  losses  on  the  Somme. 

Before  the  British  front  330  battahons,  engaged  once, 
lost  45  per  cent,  of  their  effectives,  or  148,722  men  ; 
fourteen  divisions,  also  engaged  once,  lost  50  per  cent, 
of  their  effectives  ;  four  divisions,  engaged  twice,  lost 
more  than  60  per  cent,  of  their  initial  effectives.  Before 
the  French  front,  326  battalions  lost  45  per  cent,  of  their 
effectives,  or  139,388  men  ;  ten  divisions,  engaged  once, 
lost  50  per  cent ;  three  divisions,  engaged  twice,  lost  more 
than  60  per  cent.  Some  units  were  almost  annihilated. 
In  three  weeks,  from  August  20th  to  September  7th, 
the  i8th  Division  lost  8,445  men.  In  one  month  from 
September  6th  to  October  9th,  the  nth  Division  lost 
8,498  men.  In  two  engagements  the  26th  regiment  of 
the  7th  Division  lost  almost  the  whole  of  its  effectives, 
2,975  men. 

The  repairmg  of  such  wastage  as  this  is  possible  as 
long  as  the  reserve  of  men  in  the  interior  can  make  tliem 
good.  But  it  is  a  contradiction  to  make  them  good  on 
one  side,  and  on  the  other  to  weaken  units  by  excessive 
drafts  from  regiments  and  battalions  destined  to  con- 
stitute new  masses  of  manoeuvre. 

So,  in  1917  these  formations  will  have  to  be  drawn 
chiefly  from  the  elements  which  may  still  be  available 
in  the  interior,  that  is  to  say  from  those  raised  by  the 
expedients  referred  to  above,  the  Belgian  deportations 
and  so  forth,  elements  whose  quality  will  necessarily 
be  mediocre. 

During  the  year  1916  the  Allies  formed  five  masses  of 
mancjeuvre.  The  first  appeared  upon  the  Somme.  It  effected 
nothing  more  than  a  purely  local  driving  back  of  the 
enemy  front,  and  it  suffered  heavy  losses.  It  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  exhausted,  however,  for  the  English 
extended  their  line  in  order  to  relieve  the  French,  and  in 
spite  of  this  extension  of  their  own  front  maintained 
army  reserves,  while  the  French  were  forming  reserves 
with  the  help  of  their  imits  which  had  been  relieved. 

The  second  mass  was  the  Italian  one  which  continued 
active  after  the  enemy  offensive  had  been  broken  in  tjie 
Trentino.  It  was  indeed  after  that  withdrawal  that 
the  Italians  won  their  most  notable  successes  on  the  Carso. 

The  third  mass  of  shock  was  Brussiloff's  army,  which 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 


was  exhausted  and  now  Idrnis  part  of  the  new  Kouinaman 
front,  to  occupy  wliich  it  had  to  abandon  its  projected 
attack  upon  HaHcz. 

The  fourth  was  the  Roumanian  array,  This  was  ex- 
hausted but  not  linally  destroyed  since  its  cadre  still 
exists.  A  new,  smaliei-  mass  can  be  formed  from  the 
forces  that  still  remain. 

The  liftl).  mass  was  composed  of  the  reconstituted 
Serbian  army.  Its  strength  has  been  diminished  by 
its  last  successes. 

The  campaign  of  1917  will  be  bound  up  with  the 
possibilities  of  forming  new  masses  of  shock.  AU  the 
foregoing  explanation  shows  how  much  greater  this 
possibility  is  for  the  Allies.  With  regard  to  the  Central 
Empires  "it  is  conceivable  that  the  Turks  may  still  be 
able  to  supply  a  few  regiments  withdrawn  from  the 
requirements  of  t!.eir  own  defence.  The  Bulgarians 
and  the  Austriaus  are  no  longer  wholly  suClicient  for 
the  operations  on  their  fronts.  The  Germans  have 
at  their  disposal  some  balance  of  troops  from  Roumania 
who  will  not  be  required  in  the  front  line  in  that  theatre 
of  the  war.     For  the  rest  they  are  reduced  to  expedients. 

The  Alhes  still  have  two  "normal  sources  from  \yhich 
to  draw  their  masses  in  reserve  :  better  proportioned 
distribution  of  their  respective  units  over  their  fronts, 
and  continued  supply  of  recruits  from  the  mother  countries 
and  their  colonies. 

Resources  in  Material  and  Command 

Of  course  the  full  utilisation  of  all  tiicbc  iesuiuiu> 
in  personnel  is  subject  to  the  collocation  of  the  material 
resources  and  to  the  organisation  of  the  High  Command. 

Examination  of  the  material  resources  and  their  dis- 
tribution would  require  knowledge  of  numerous  and 
detailed  statistics  which  at  present  are  known  to  no  one 
outside  the  (Jeneral  Staffs.  What  may  be  asserted, 
however,  is  that  if  the  employment  of  these  resources 
is  as  perfected  in  the  Central  Empires  as  it  is  among 
the  Allies  and  their  distribution  even  easier  there  be- 
cause of  greater  facilities  of  intercommunication,  the 
resources  themselves, are  more  limited. 

With  equal  (jualitics  of  organisation,  the  AlHes  have 
one  superiority  over  their  enemies  ;  they  can  last  longer 
>vhile  yet  consuming  more  freely  at  such  times  as  a  large 
consumption  becomes  necessary.  Their  only  inferiority — 
N^ich  may  be  largely  put  right  by  the  adoption  of  pro- 
per measures — lies  in  their  imperfect  communications 
and  in  the  difficulty  of  haison  between  the  various 
Sectors  of  their  vast  converging  front. 

\^'lth  regard  to  the  quaUties  of  the  command,  all  the 
measures  taken  at  the  end  of  1916  showed  the  intention 
of  the  Alhes  to  guard  against  defects  and  to  improve 
agreement  of  effort.  They  all  tend  to  more  complete 
unity  of  control,  ft  is  very  difficult  to  obtain  absolute 
unity,  desirable  though  that  is  in  military  operations. 
It  is  very  difiicult  to  suppress  entirely  the  self-love  of 
nations  and  certain  individual  interests  which  act  like 
forces  diverting  energy,  but  these  can  be  reduced  to  a 
minimum. 

In  the  case  of  the  Central  Empires  there  is  not  absolute 
unity  of  control.  It  is  true  that  the  (iennan  Head- 
((uarter  Staff  took  the  high  hand  in  undeniable  fashion 
and  assumed  the  conduct  of  the  war.  But  that  was  be- 
cause her  Allies  perceived  it  to  be  a  condition  of  victory 
imposed  by  the  relati\^3  weakness  of  three  out  of  four. 
These  three  bowed  to  the  will  of  the  strongest  believing 
that  such  submission  was  indispensable  to  their  own  success. 
If  circumstances  underwent  a  change  and  their  assurance 
of  victory  were  replaced  by  fear  of  possible  defeat,  their 
idea  woiild  be  not  to  share  any  longer  the  risks  of  the 
strongest  among  them,  which  will  then  become  the 
greatest,  but  to  reduce  their  own  risks  as  much  as  possible. 
That  will  be  the  time  to  watch  the  unity  of  control  of  thc^ 
Central  Empires  at  work,  and  to  see  whether  it  will 
resist  the  forces  of  disruption.  Nothing  succeeds  like 
success,  they  say.  That  is  true,  but  it  is  also  true  that 
nothing  is  so  unsuccessful  as  a  reverse  ! 

The  Moral  >{alancc 

This  piopuMiioii  ii_atlb  Us  naturally  to  the  last  point 
tlial  we  need  contemplate,  the  one  which  more  than 


evci  dominates  all  military  operations :  the  relative 
moral  reserve  of  the  two  opponents.  NN'hich  of  the  two, 
at  the  beginning  of  1917,  seems  to  be  the  possessor  of 
the  last  moral  reserve  ? 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  on  the  day  when  the  sup- 
position, mentioned  above,  is  seen  to  be  an  actual  reality, 
the  blow  would  be  a  heavy  one  to  the  Central  Empires 
whose  peoples  and  whose  armies  would  perceive  that 
cohesion  had  ceased  to  reign  among  those  in  Irigh  places 
because  there  was  no  complete  confidence  in  the  futiue. 

For  confidence  in  a  final  victory  is  the  actual  moral 
foundation  of  the  activity  of  tl\e  belUgerents.  The 
Germans  saj'  :  "  You  will  never  compel  us  to  retire  ; 
you  will  get  tired  of  making  attacks  without  any  hope 
of  success  ;  the  simplest  thing  is  for  you  to  negotiate." 
The  Allies  say  :  "  You  have  begun  to  retire  ;  you  will 
get  tired  of  retreating  without  any  hope  of  victory  ;  the 
simplest  thing  is  for  you  to  evacuate  our  territory  and  to 
acknowledge  that  your  success  is  worth  nothing." 

The  most  obstinate  in  maintaining  one  of  these  opposite 
opinions  will  certainly  be  the  one  who  feels  liimseli 
most  able  to  hold  out  because  of  the  means  at  his  dis- 
posal. If  to  these  is  added  mihtary  successes  his  resolu- 
tion will  be  conlirmed  ;  if  on  the  contrary  he  suffers 
reverses  he  will  get  over  them  or  will  yield  to  their  de- 
pressing influence  according  io  the  degree  in  which  his 
remaining  means  are  affected. 

The  Roumanian  campaign  has  made  this  mental 
condition  evident.  The  Germans  tried  to  use  their  victory 
to  convince  their  adversary  of  his  inferiority.  The  ad- 
versary replied  :  "  What  is  the  good  of  talking  to  me  like 
that  ?  Do  you  really  suggest  that  you  have  beaten 
us  E^nglish,  us  French,  us  Italians,  us  Russians,  because 
you  have  beaten  the  Roumanians  ?  The  real  truth  is 
that  you  are  going  to  have  much  more  trouble  to  beat  us, 
and  we  are  going 'to  have  much  greater  chance  to  beat 
you  because  you  are  weaker  after  this  fight  by  all  tin; 
losses  the  Roumanians  have  cost  you." 

A  Pyrrhic  Victory 

The  moral  effect  is  thus  turned  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  victorious  Germans.  It  always  happens  so  when  an 
attempt  is  made  to  magnify  an  effect  of  this  kind  beyond 
natural  limits,  when  one  wants  it  to  go  beyond  the 
justification  that  it  has  in  actual  fact.  Of  all  the 
victories  won  in  the  course  of  the  war  by  the  Germans 
this  one  over  Roumania  probably  most  deserves  to  be 
styled  a  Pyrrhic  victory. 

Successes  and  reverses  in  the  future  will  have  to  be 
tested  by  the  same  criterion.  This  will  involve  no  change 
in  the  method  followed  heretofore.  •  We  must  judge, 
not  by  the  sum  of  the  gains  realized,  but  by  the  residue  of 
means  available.  Where  there  is  a  difference  from  what 
has  gone  before  is  the  extent  of  the  moral  wear  and  tear 
which  beguiles  the  van-iuishcd  into  exaggerating  the 
effects  of  a  reverse. 

When  we  put  the  case  like  that  one  point  seems  to 
become  quite  clear.  The  moral  wear  and  tear  being 
equal,  the  means  which  yet  are  left  to  the  Allies  enable 
them  to  get  over  the  depression  caused  by  a  reverse  more 
easily  than  the  Central  Empires,  and  idso  to  feel  more 
firmly  consolidated  by  success. 

If  to  these  considerations  we  add  a  few  truths  taught 
by  experience — among  them  this,  that  the  victim  of  an 
injustice  generally  is  stronger  in  his  resolution  than  its 
author  ;  and  this,  that  a  people  whose  land  is  invaded 
fight  with  greater  fury  to  recover  it  than  the  despoilers 
do  to  keep  it ;  and  this  third  truth,  of  historic  import, 
that  of  all  the  animals  with  which  national  heraldry 
loves  to  decorarte  itself,  the  British  hon  has  ever  shown 
itself  the  most  obstinate  in  its  pursuit  ;  and  this  fourth 
truth,  that  Christian  civilization  countenances  the  en- 
couraging sympathy  of  Neutrals  with  outraged  people 
who  are  defending  themselves  rather  than  with  the 
aggressors  who  commit  the  outrages:  if  wc  gather  to- 
gether all  these  moral  factors  and  add  them'to  the  super- 
iority in  means  and  resources  left  to  the  Allies,  we  shall 
vome  to  this  general  conclusion,  that  the  campaign  of 
If)! 7  is  opening  under  auspices  more  favoiirah'e  io  the 
(hantpions  0/  a  Europe  that  desires  the  dn'elopmevt  of 
the  democratic  rights  of  nations  than  to  the  champions  of  a 
reactionary  Europe  thai  claims  to  be  reviving  a  Jdnd  of 
Holy  Alliance,   inspired  bv  Jehovah- 


January  25,  1917  LAND    &    WATER 

Rail  Power   versus  Sea    Power 

By  Harold  Cox 


I'; 


IN  the  issue  for  January  nth  of  Messrs.  Constable's 
well-informed  and  suggestive  magazine  The  Kcxv 
Europe,  there  is  printed  a  map  (by  Messrs.  Con- 
stable's courtesy  it  is  reproduced  here)  which 
perhaps  more  than  any  other  single  document  yet  pub- 
lished brings  into  clear  light  the  final  issue  between 
England  and  Germany 

The  map  defines  the  German  Empire,  with  its  Austrian, 
Balkan  and  Turkish  dependencies,  stretching  right  across 
Asia  Minor  to  Bagdad  and  including  in  its  embrace 
iMesopotamia  and  Si^Tia  and  a  lai-ge  slice  of  Arabia. 
But  that  is  not  all.  It  shows  a  great  black  line 
representing  a  railway  sj^stem  which  only  requires  the 
completion  of  a  few  links  to  bring  Berlin  into  direct 
communication  not  only  with  Bagdad  and  the  Persian 
GvM,  but  wi  h  Damascus,  Jerusalem  and  Port  Said, 
with    IS'ecMna     Mecca   and   the   outposts   of    Aden.     If 


peace  were  concluded,  leavmg  Germany  in  control  of  this 
great  arterial  railway,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
the  British  Empire  would  be  doomed. 

Our  Empire  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  sea  Empire. 
It  had  its  origin  in  the  sea-faring  instincts  of  the  English 
people  and  in  the  resulting  sea  commerce  of  the  British 
Isles.  English  captains  sailed  the  sea  in  search  of 
adventure  or  in  search  of  gain,  and  planted  the  English 
flag  and  the  English  name  on  the  coasts  of  every  continent. 
Erom  these  maritime  beginnings  the  whole  Empire  was 
developed ;  by  maritime  connections  it  is  still  held 
together.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  British  Empire 
the  sea  does  not  separate,  it  unites.  Long  stretches  of 
land — mountain  and  marsh  and  desert — that  can  only 
be  crossed  wath  difficulty  separate  India  from  continental 
Europe  ;  the  open  sea  joins  India  to  England. 

South  Africa  is  an  equally  striking  example  of  the  way 
in  which  the  land  can  separate  and  the  sea  can  unite. 
The  same  consideration  applies  to  all  our  African  pos- 
sessions ;  they  are  all  approached  from  the  sea,  and  at 
present  there  is  no  other  method  of  approach.  In  the 
case  of  Canada  and  Newfoundland,  Australia  and  New 
Zealand,  the  West  Indian  Islands  and  British  Guiana, 
Mauritius  and  Ceylon  and  Hongkong,  no  question  of 
rivalry  between  the  land  and  the  sea  arises  ;  the  sea  is 
the  only  link.  Thus  the  British  Empire  is  essentially 
a  sea  Empire,  and  it  is  because  Englishmen  lip.ve  always 
known  this  in  their  hearts,  even  when  they  had  half 
forgotten  it  in  their  heads,  that  we  have  ever  placed  in 
the  forefront  of  our  poHcy  the  necessity  for  maintaining 
a  supreme  navy. 

We  knew  that  as  long  as  we  commanded  the  sea  our 
island  home  was  secure,  and  that  the  sea  roads  of  our 
Empire  could  be  protected.  And  knowing  this  wc  were 
able  deliberately  to  reject  the  continental  ideal  of  great 
armies  because  we  realized  that  our  command  of  the  sea 
would  give  us  time  to  make  the  necessary  military  pre- 
oarations  if  ever  we  should  be  compelled  to  join  in  a 


great  land  war.  By  this  policy  we  not  only  husbanded 
our  financial  resources,  but  what  is  even  niore  important 
wc  secured  the  acquiescence  of  most  of  our  neighbours 
in  our  sea  dominion.  Had  we  aspired — as  Germany 
aspires— to  rule  on  land  as  well  as  on  sea,  it  is  certain 
that  the  present  European  grouping  of  Powers  could 
never  have  been  called  into  being  to  oppose  Germany  s 
ambitions.  Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  there  would 
instead  have  been  formed  a  league  of  European  nations 
to  destroy  the  British  Empire. 

But  to-day  we  arc  forced  to  take  accomat  of  the  fact 
that  sea  power  is  faced  with  a  dangerous  rival — rail 
power.  This  fact  was  beginning  to  be  visible  long  before 
the  war.  Our  mails  to  India,  to  Australasia,  and  to  the 
Far  East,  have  for  years  been  sent  by  the  rail  route 
from  Calais  to  Brindisi  instead  of  the  sea  route  through 
the  Bay  of  Biscay  and  the  Mediterranean.  There  has 
been  a  gain  of  a  clear  week,  both  outwards  and  home- 
'wards.  If  peace  had  been  continued  it  is  certain  that 
there  would  have  been  further  developments  of  rail 
competition  with  sea  carnage.  Projects  had  long  been 
discussed  for  a  railway  to  India,  cither  through  Russia, 
or  across  Asia  ]\Iinor  and  Persia,  and  as  soon  as  these 
projects  had  been  completed  there  would  have  been  a 
further  development  of  railway  conununication  via 
Burma,  Siam  and  Singapore,  with  a  steamboat  scr\'ice 
to  Port  Darwin  bringing  Sydney  and  Melbourne  within 
three  weeks'  journey  of  London.  But  it  is  the  war 
itself  that  has  conclusively  demonstrated  the  superiority 
of  rail  power  over  sea  power  in  certain  geographical 
conditions. 

We  have  seen  month  by  month  during  the  war  how 
the  Germans,  with  their  well-planned  system  of  railways, 
arc  able  to  move  their  armies  first  to  one  front  and  then 
to  the  other.  Those  armies  with  all  their  equipment 
move  in  perfect  security.  They  need  no  escort,  they 
fear  no  submarines.  The  railway  truck  which  is  to 
carry  the  munitions  can  be  loaded  up  in  the  very  factory 
where  the  munitions  are  made,  and  vnW  run  right 
through  without  further  handling  to  the  front 
where  the  munitions  are  wanted.  In  a  few  days,  with 
a  minimum  of  handling,  guns  and  shells  can  be  sent  from 
Essen  to  Riga  or  from  Essen  to  Roumania  or  to  Con- 
stantinople, to  the  Trentino  or  to  the  Somme.  Mean- 
while, our  own  munitions  have  to  be  placed  on  rail  in 
tlie  factory,  transferred  from  truck  to  ship  at  some  Eng- 
lish port,  thence  to  be  carried  to  a  port  in  France  or 
Egypt,  in  Greece  or  East  Africa  or  the  Persian  Gulf,  as 
the  case  may  be.  There  the  goods  have  to  be  got  on 
shore  by  the  best  methods  locally  available,  with  much 
expenditure  of  time  and  labour,  and  with  ^eat  risk 
of  loss.  These  are  facts  which  form  a  very  serious  offset 
to  the  advantages  which  our  sea  power  gives  lis. 

\Miat  is  the  lesson  of  these  facts  as  applied  to  the  new 
map  of  Europe  and  Asia  planned  hy  Germany  and 
already  partly  made  by  her  ?  Suppose  that  Germany 
retains  her  present  conquests,  she  will  then  have  a  clear 
right  of  way  from  Berlin  through  Mesopotamia  to  Bagdad, 
and  through  S^Tia  to  the  frontiers  of  Eg\'pt  and  to  the 
boimdary  posts  of  our  military  and  naval  station  at 
Aden.  The  rail  power  which  she  now  commands  over 
the  whole  of  Central  Europe  and  the  whole  of  the  Balkans 
will  be  extended  over  Asia  Minor,  Mesopotamia,  Syria 
and  the  coast  of  Arabia.  Is  it  likely  to  end  even  there  ? 
The  advantage  that  the  German  Headquarters  Staff  now 
possesses  in  shifting  troops  from  one  Eiiropcan  front  to 
the  other  will  be  extended  to  Asia  and  to  Africa. 

Take  first  the  case  of  Egypt.  In  actual  mileage 
Cairo  is  considerably  nearer  to  Berlin  by  way  of  Syria 
and  Constantinople  than  it  is  to  London  by  way  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Atlantic.  But  normal  rail  speed 
may  be  set  down  as  double  the  normal  sea  speed. 
Consequent^  if  the  Germano-Turkish  railway  system  is 
extended  to  the  Eg^'ptian  frontier,  German  troops  could 
be  sent  through  for  an  attack  on  Egypt  in  less  than  hal  f 
the  time  that  England  could  send  reinforcements  to  the 
Egyptian  garrison.  Nor  is  that  all.  '  The  German 
troops  travelling  by  rail  through  German  or  Germanised 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 


territory  would  travel  in  fibsolnte  security  ;  our  own 
troop*  crossing  the  open  sea  would  travel  under  the  ever 
imminent  risk  of  submarine  attack.  In  such  conditions 
it  would  be  easy  for  Germany  to  organise  a  coup  de  main 
and  capture  Egvpt.  That  "this  is  not  an  exaggerated 
hypothesis  will  be  realized  bv  those  who  reflect  on  the 
difficulties  which  we  encountered  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
the  war  in  repelling  a  purely  Turkish  attack  on  the  Suez 
Canal,  an  attack  unaided  by  rail  power.  Once  in  pos- 
session of  the  Egyptian  ports  Germany  could  prevent  us 
from  landing  troops,  and  her  control  of  the  Suez  Canal 
would  cut  the  most  important  link  between  the  British 
Isles  and  our  Eastern  and  Australasian  dominions. 

But  having  conquered  Egypt,  why  should  the  Germans 
limit  their  advance  ?  One  of  the  most  striking  of  all  the 
schemes  planned  by  Cecil  Rhodes  was  the  creation  of 
the  Cape  to  Cairo  "railway.  That  line  is  not  yet  com- 
plete ;  but  if  the  Germans  had  securely  established  them- 
selves in  Cairo  there  would  be  little  indeed  to  prevent 
them  from  filling  in  the  missing  links  and  creating  a 
through  route  from  Cairo  to  the  Cape — not  for  purposes 
of  peaceful  commerce,  \^'e  have  seen  how  a  South 
African  force,  with  the  aid  of  British  sea  power,  has 
gradually  cleared  the  Germans  eut  of  nearly  the  whole 
of  East  Africa.  But  the  Germans  in  possession  of  Egypt, 
and  in  the  possession  of  rail  power  untouchable  from  the 
sea,  would  be  able  to  organise  their  revenge  and  to  in\-adc 
South  Africa  with  a  well-equipped  army. 

In  exactly  the  same  way,  when  the  German  railhead 
reaches  Bagdad  the  Pan-Germans  will  certainly  demand 
that  the  railway  shall  be  extended  through  Persia  till 
(iermany  is  able  to  threaten  India  with  a  landward 
attack.  German  agents  have  already  taken  some  steps 
towards  preparing  the  ground  for  this  contingency.  I 
was  myself  startled  four  or  fi\-e  years  ago  at  the  frank 
wa\'  in  which  an  Indian  lawyer  with  revolutionary 
tendencies  spoke  of  the  possibility  of  the  co-operation  of 
Indians  with  Gei-many.  Since  the  war  began  the  Indian 
Government  has  been  engaged  in  running  to  earth  a 
number   of   Indian   conspiracies   largely   financed    with 


German  money.  We  may  regard  the  prospect  of  a 
German  conquest  of  India  as  too  absurd  to  be  worth 
consideration,  but  we  may,  be  sure  that  it  is  not  so  re- 
garded by  the  Pan-Germans  whose  ambitions  are  only 
limited  by  the  confines  of  the  globe. 

Once  established  at  Bagdad,  with  through  rail  com- 
munication except  for  the  narrow  gap  of  the  Bosphorus, 
the  Germans  would  speedily  be  able  to  get  down  to  the 
Perisan  Gulf  and  to  establish  there  a  naval  station  which 
would  greatly  imperil  our  sea  route  to  India  via  the  Cape. 
Our  route  through  the  Suez  Canafwould  already  have  been 
closed,  and  probably  Aden  would  ha\e  been  annexed 
by  Germany.  A  German  conquest  of  India  under  such 
conditions  would  not  be  an  impossibility.  That  con- 
quest completed,  the  Germans  would  extend  their  rail 
power  across  Burma  to  China,  and  there  organise  a  new 
Empire  for  themselves  free  from  any  risk  of  interference 
from  the  sea  power  of  Great  Britain  or  Japan.  ~ 

These  illustrations  are  sufficient  to  show  the  enormous 
possibilities  of  rail  power  controlled  bj?  a  military 
despotism  in  command  of  the  interior  geographical  lines. 
If  Germany  retains  those  interior  lines  the  ultimate 
defeat  of  British  sea  power  by  German  rail  power  is 
inevitable.  The  conclusion  is  clear  that  at  any  cost  we 
must  prevent  the  extension  of  the  German  dominions 
across  the  Bosphorus. 

There  is  no  longer  any  doubt  that  the  original  cause  of 
the  quarrel  which  Austria  picked  with  Serbia  was  the 
determination  of  Germany  to  get  a  right  of  way  to  Con- 
stantinople, with  a  view  to  securing  the  Bcrhii-Bagdad 
route.  To  checkmate  this  design  now  and  in  the  future 
it  is  essential  that  we  should  insist  on  the  liberation  of 
the  southern  Slavs  from  Austrian  rule,  so  that  they 
may  establish  an  independent  Jugo-Slav  kingdom. 
Secondly,  we  must  insist  that  Constantinople  is  transferred 
to  a  Power  which  \\\\\  ha\-e  both  the  will  and  the  strength 
to  oppose  Germany's  Asiatic  ambitions.  We  have  to 
realize  that  the  freedom  of  the  Balkans  from  German 
control  is  as  vital  to  the  security  of  the  British  Empire  as 
the  freedom  of  Belgium  is  to  the  British  Isles. 


A  Birth   of  111   Omen 

By  John  Trevena 


William  II.,   ninth  King  of  Prussia,  third  German 
Emperor,  was  born  in  Berlin  on  January    2ylh,  1859. 

A  MILDER  January  no  one  could  remember. 
Indeed  during  the  entire  winter  of  1858-59  hunt- 
ing went  on  unchecked  by  frost.  The  New 
Year  smiled  upon  a  nation  well-employed  and 
prosperous  in  spite  of  the  late  commercial  crisis.  Our 
parents,  or  may  be,  we  ourselves,  were  being  taken  to  the 
pantomime  of  Robin  Hood  at  Drury  Lane,  or  to  hear 
Mr.  Balfe's  new  opera,  "  Satanella,"  at  Covent  Garden  ; 
when  the  joys  of  the  Christmas  holidays  became  heightened 
by  news  from  Prussia,  "  The  accouchement  of  the  Princess 
Frederick  William  is  daily  expected." 

Some  few  of  us  may  remember  how  our  grandparents 
rejoiced  at  the  assurance  that  English  doctors  and  nurses 
had  set  out  for  Berlin  by  royal  command,  because 
Prussia  was  the  sole  country  of  Europe  regarded  with 
affection  by  London  opinion  ;  and  the  birth  of  a  prince, 
or  princess,  to  Queen  Victoria's  eldest  daughter  must 
assuredly  bring  the  two  peoples  yet  more  closely  to- 
gether. Heaven  send  a  prince,  said  whiskered  merchants 
and  traders,  as  they  jolted  towards  their  counting- 
hoases  upon  the  knife-board,  frowning  beneath  enormous 
beavers  at  the  daily-increasing  crowd  and  pressure 
upon  London  Bridge.  ' '  An  England-loving  Prince  of  peace 
,  .  .  King  of  Prussia  some  day  .  .  .  perhaps  dur- 
ing the  century  ahead  old  England  may  need  an  ally.' ' 

In  those  days  the  towns  of  En^and  were  permeated 
with  German  thought  and  customs  :  volksmurchen  were 
told  by  every  British  fireside  ;  the  music  of  the  father- 
land sounded  from  every  piano  ;  the  popular  Mr.  Dickens 
had  undoubtedly  served  the  public  and  himself  uncom- 
monly well  bjf  preaching  the  German  Christmas ;  a 
favourite  hero  of  romance  was  the  young  Prussian  officer, 
although  a  few  critics  objected  in  a   mild  and  brQtherlv 


fashion  to  the  ever-increasing  supplies  demanded  by  the 
Prince  Regent  of  Prussia,  "for  the  maintenance  of  the 
royal  dignity,  for  augmenting  the  army  forces,  and  for 
the  support"  of  the  navy."  But  even  Sourfacc  drew 
no  serious  comparison  between  these  warlike  prepara- 
tions, and  the  restless  military  despotism  practised 
by  the  Third  Napoleon.  John  Bull  looked  out  upon  the 
Continent,  seeing  little  except  darkness,  with  figures 
masked  and  cloaked  moving  through  it.  robbing  and 
murdering  each  other;  and  he  was  terribly  anxious  to 
disassociate  himself  from  such  brigands.  He  had  long 
searched  for  a  gleam  of  sunlight  from  the  States  of 
Europe  ;  and  it  came  in  the  form  of  an  announcement : 

The  Princess  Frederick  Willi  ant    n'as  safely  delivered 
of  a  Prince  shortly  after  ^  p.m.  on  Thursday  afternoon. 

That  set  the  joy  bells  ringing  !  City  Fathers  in  pomp 
set  forth  to  Buckingham  Palace  to  congratulate  the 
young  grandmother  and  her  Consort.  The  Count 
Bcrnstorff  of  that  day,  Prussian  Minister  to  the  Court 
of  St.  James,  gave  a  grand  dinner  at  which  three  mem- 
bers of  the  British  Royal  Family  were  present,  in  cele- 
bration of  this  happy  event.  By  special  command  of 
Her  Majesty,  the  tenantry  on  the  Highland  estates 
were  summoned  to  an  entertainment  and  ball  at  Balmoral 
Castle.  Great  Britain  and  Prussia  were  united  in  a 
fervent  hope  this  child  might  live  to  reign. 

A  bright-faced  boy,  travelling  as  Baron  Renfrew,  was 
informed  in  Rome— ^where  to  the  indignation  of  Exeter 
Hall  he  visited  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  and  went  through 
St.  Peter's  with  his  hat  off— of  his  nephew's  birth.  This 
young  Baron  had  been  born  during  a  time  of  profound 
peace,  therefore  it  was  not  inappropriate  he  should  be 
known  in  advanced  life  as  a  peacemaking  King.  The 
babe  of  Berlin  opened  his  eyes  upon  the  eve  of  five 
great  struggles:  the  war  between  Franrc  and  Austria, 


January  25,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


17 


the  American  Civil  war,  the  insurrection  of  Poland,  the 
attack  ofJFrance  upon  Mexico,  and  of  the  Central  Empires  « 
upon  Denmark.  He  came  into  a  world  echoing  with  the 
coldly  polite  words  addressed  by  the  Emperor  of  France 
to  the  Austrian  Ambassador  upon  New  Year's  Day  : 
while  wishing  His  Excellency  personally  the  compli- 
ments of  the  season,  he  regretted  Austria  and  France  were 
not  so  friendly  as  formerly. 

Such  words  from  the  leader  of  the  chief  military  power 
in  the  world  set  Courts  trembling.  Louis  Napoleon  had 
but  to  raijje  a  linger  and  beckon  the  King  of  Sardinia 
for  Naples  to  rise  against  the  imscrupulous  Ferdinand, 
Romans  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  Pope,  and  above 
all,  the  Lombardo- Venetians,  hating  the  yoke  of  .\ustria 
with  lierce  Latin  passion,  to  defy  the  occupjing  forces 
of  Germans  and  Hungarians. 

Model  of  a  Submarine  ^ 

The  city  of  Berlin  was  illuminated,  every  house  hang- 
ing out  the  national  flag  in  honour  of  a  new-born  prince. 
Tlie  whole  country  gave  itself  up  to  gas  and  fireworks, 
torchlight  processions,  and  fetes  ;  and  for  the  time  being 
politics  were  abandoned.  No  such  rejoicing  had  ever 
been"  known  before  in  Prussia.  '  It  was  as  if  a  prophet 
had  been  born  into  the  world.  While  students  in  their 
thousands  promenaded  Unter  den  Linden,  bearing  torches 
which,  according  to  an  eye  witness,  "  resembled  the 
reflection  of  a  mighty  conflagration,"  an  American 
arrived  in  London  with  the  model  of  his  invention,  a 
submarine  boat  in  which,  he  claimed,  a  crew  of  twenty 
men  could  remain  under  water  any  length  of  time,  pass 
imder  the  wooden  keels  of  a  hostile  fleets  fix  torpedoes 
to  go  off  by  clockwork,  or  bore  holes,  and  come  away  un- 
seen. They  could  also  make  a  survey  by  showing  above 
the  surface  a  sight-tube  no  more  than  half-an-inch  in 
diameter  ;  they  could  see  their  way  imder  the  water  by 
means  of  lights  placed  behind  glass  bulls' -eyes ;  and  should 
the  vessel  run  into  anything,  it  could  be  extracted  with- 
out injury,  having  on  its  sharply  pointed  bow  an  outer 
case  so  constructed  that,  by  reversing  the  screw,  the 
boat  could  be  backed,  leaving  the  thimble  fastened  in 
the  obstacle. 

While  the  British  Government  followed  the  example 

of  the  French,  in  refusing  to  purchase  so  dangerous  an 

innovation,  Prince  Frederick  William  was  replying  to  the 

congratulations  of  the  Prussian  Upper  House  thus : 

1  thank  you  most  lieartily  for  the  interest  which  you 

take  in  an  event  which  is  so  important  and  so  fortunate 

lor  my  family  and  for  the  country.     If  God  shall  spare 

the  life  of  my  son,  my  great  object  will  be  to  instil  into 

his  mind  those  sentiments  which  attach  me  to  my  country. 

JMay  God  bless  my  efforts  to  make  my  son  worthy  of  the 

affectionate  interest   with  which   he  has  been   greeted. 

Concord  prevailed  between  England  and  all  Germany, 
but  the  rest  of  Europe  smelt  of  gunpowder.  Petty  monarchs 
and  two  great  Emperors  were  running  to  and  fro,  setting 
the  blazing  torch  to  war-beacons.  His  Holiness  required 
the  evacuation  of  the"  papal  states  by  the  armies  of  Francis 
Joseph  and  Louis  Nrpoleon.  At  the  Opera  House  of 
Milan,  when  the-  waiUkj  chorus  from  "  Norma  "  was 
rendered,  the  ItaHan  audience  rose  and  shouted  for  war. 
Immediately  the  Austrian  officers  rose  in  their  turn,  and 
answered,  "  Yes,  gentlemen,  it  is  war."  England,  strongly 
and  sincerely  supported  by  the  Government  of  the  Kaiser, 
pressed  for  a  Congress,  at  which  Austria  no  doubt  would 
resign  her  Italian  provinces  in  exchange  for  an  equivalent, 
such  as  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  the  Sultan  being  sole 
loser  by  tliis  arrangement  ;  and  he  might  regard  him- 
self amply  compensated  by  the  unusual  discovery  of 
a  few  millions  in  his  Treasury.  This  war,  if  inevitable, 
must  be  at  all  events  the  last  to  scar  the  face  of  Europe. 

Such  was  English  opinion  freely  stated,  and  at  a  sitting 
of  the  Pmssian  Chamber  of  Deputies  the  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs  remarked.  "  The  Prussian  Govern- 
ment does  not  for  one  moment  doubt  that  it  will  be 
able,  in  concert  with  England,  to  procure  due  respect 
to  existing  treaties."  The  Chamber  manifested  its 
approval  by  loud  and  'ong  applause.- 

The  storm  grew  nearer.  Francis  Joseph,  lamb  of  Austria, 
sorrowfully  mouthing  such  platitudes  as,  "  War  is  the 
scourge  of  mankind,"  moved  his  troops  towards  Turin, 
hoping  to  crush  Victor  Emmanuel,  wolf  of  Sardinia, 
before  the  despot  of  France  should  cross  Mont  Cenis. 


Count  Cavour  deli\'ered  to  Baron  Kcllersberg  the  defiant 
answer  of  Piedmont  to  this  typically  Austrian  ulti- 
matum, and  his  Excellency  was  immediately  accompanied 
to  the  frontier  by  a  Sardinian  officer.  A  royal  threat  in 
January,  and  Europe  at  war  a  few  weeks  later.  Yet 
people  put  their  confidence  in  princes  !  An  Austrian  army 
marching  upon  the  seat  of  Sardinian  monarchy  ;  French 
forces  disembarking  at  Genoa,  the  transports  floating 
among  roses  and  laurels  ;  a  Russian  corps  threatening 
the  Austrian  frontier,  thus  publishing  to  the  world  the 
existence  of  a  Franco-Russian  understanding,  with'the  guns 
of  the  Crimea  hardly  rusty  ;  Prussia,  "  on  account  of  the 
increasing  uncertainty  in  political  affairs,"  placing  every 
army  corps  she  possessed  upon  a  war-footing,  while  de- 
manding a  credit  for  improving  the  defences  of  the 
Baltic  and  fortifying  her  North  Sea  Coasts.  And  Eng- 
land at  the  civil  war  of  politics,  with  a  General  Election 
dragging  slowly  on.  Yet,  since  completing  her  great 
work  of  securing  the  Dardanelles  to  Turkey,  it  had  been 
the  boast  of  Britain  that  in  future  no  war  would  find  her 
unprepared. 

The   Baptism 

Let  us  turn,  during  an  otherwise  brawling  March, 
to  a  peaceful  and  domestic  scene,  the  baptism  of  an 
illustrious  infant  in  the  Palace  Chapel  of  BerUn.  Not 
one  monarch  graced  the  ceremony,  the  belligerent 
rulers  of  France,  Austria,  and  Sardinia,  receiving  ap- 
parently no  invitation  ;  but  among  the  "  witnesses  absent" 
let  us  notice,  in  the  light  of  events  long  afterwards, 
the  Queen  of  Great  Britain,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the 
Emperor  of  Russia,  and  the  King  of  the  Belgians.  Even 
tlie  royal  mother  did  not  enter  the  chapel,  but  witnessed 
the  reception  of  her  son  into  the  church  from  a  room 
adjoining.  Again  the  streets  were  dressed  with  flags, 
and  at  night  the  entire  city  was  illuminated  for  the  third 
time,  the  town-hall  being  lighted  up  by  more  than 
fifty  thousand  jets  of  gas.  And  the  royal  parents 
addressed  to  the  public  a  grateful  letter  in  these  words  ; 

We  do  not  tliink  we  could  choose  a  better  day  than  that 

of  the  baptism  of  our  child  for  addressing  to  the    whole 

country  our  warmest  thanks  for  the  joy  it  has  displayed. 

May  we,  with  the  help  of  God,  raise  up  our  son   for   the 

honour  and  happiness  of  our  dear  country. 
Journals  recording  these  pious  words  announced  also, 
without  noticing  an  omen,  how  during  a  March  gale  the 
fine  Channel  steamer  Prince  Frederick  William,  after  a 
stormy  passage  from  England,  was  flung  against  Calais 
pier  to  be  tossed  aside,  a  broken  vessel  with  dead  aboard, 
the  sport  of  wind  and  water.  Like  ships,  human  hopes 
may  be  wrecked  and  cast  away. 

We  have  noticed  the  arrival  of  the  ingenious  American 
with  his  model  of  the  first  subrnarine.  Mark  yet  a  further 
coincidence  !  That  Saturday,  when  the  Prussian  grand- 
son of  Queen  Victoria  became  also  her  godson,  one  Captain 
Norton  was, engaged  in  making  experiments  at  Chatham 
with  an  invention  for  destroying  battleships,  to  which 
he  had  given  the  name  of  liquid  fire.  A  shell,  charged 
with  no  more  than  a  teaspoonful  of  his  preparation, 
was  fired  from  a  large  grooved  rifle  at  pieces  of  thick 
planking  which,  a  few  minutes  after  recei\ing  the  charge, 
burst  into  flames.  This  composition  was  perhaps  the  same 
thing  as  Greek  fire,  under  a  new  name,  which  was  to  be 
ignored  for  many  years,  but  not  for  ever. 

The  young  child,  destined  by  hope  and  belief  to  be  a 
bringer  of  peace  and  goodwill  wherever  the  English  and 
German  languages  were  heard  in  the  streets  ;  who  was 
prepared,  not  for  glory,  but,  according  to  the  promise  of 
his  father  when  addressing  the  thousands  congregated 
beneath  the  glare  of  torchlight  along  Unter  den  Linden, 
"  so  that  he  might  be  fit  for  his  future  task,  and  worthy 
of  the  nation's  love  "  ;  this  worshipped  child,  later  to  be 
known  as  William  the  Second,  King  of  Prussia  and  Ger- 
man Emperor,  slept  in  unconsciousness,  hearing  no 
sound  of  conflict  raging  round  his  protected  cradle. 

A  well  loved  child  in  truth  !  And  how  after  many 
years  he  loved  children,  and  how  he  sympathised  with 
fathers,  and  grieved  at  the  suffering  of  mothers  :  are  not 
these  things  written  upon  the  soil  of  Europe  for  men  to 
read,  and  marked  upon  the  ooze  of  the  Atlantic  for 
God  and  his  parents  to  consider  ? 

The    usual  literary   article   "Books   io  Read,"    by  Mr. 
Lncian  Oldersliaw,  has  becu  unavoidably  hddover  this  uech 


I&i 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  35,  1917 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

[Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  Mattosl 


Synopsis;  Captain  Patrice  Belval,  a  wounded  French 
officer,  prevents  in  a  Paris  street  the  abduction  of  a  nurse 
ic'ho  is  hnoTJin  to  her  patients  as  "  Little  Mother  Curalic." 
Belval  declares  his  love  to  Coralie  only  to  be  told  by  her 
that  she  is  already  married,  and  that  fie  must  make  no 
further  effort  to  retain  her  friendship.  Belval  gains  access 
to  a  house,  in  which  he  finds  five  men  torturing  another 
mail,  Essares,  who  turns  out  to  be  Coralie's  husband, 
Essares  shoots  one  man,  Fakhi,  and  buys  off  his  other  four 
assailants  for  a  million  francs  a  piece,  with  which  they 
leave  the  house.  The  next  day  Belval,  following  Coralie 
to  her  house,  finds  that  Essares,  who  had  contemplated 
flight  from  Paris,  has  been  brutally  murdered.  An 
examining  magistrate  explains  to  Belval  that  Essares 
'uus  prime  mover  in  a  plot  for  exporting  gold  from  France. 
In  order  to  recover  some  300  million  francs  which  Essares 
had  concealed,  the  authorities  consider  it  necessary 
to  hush  tip  the  circumstances  of  the  financier's  death. 
The  only  possible  clue  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  gold 
is  a  paper  found  in  Essares  dead  hand,  bearing  the  words, 
"Golden  Triangle."  Ya-Bon,  Belval's  Soiegalese  servant, 
promises  to  call  in  Arsenc  Lupin  to  unravel  the  mystery, 
and  Belval,  with  seven  wounded  and  convalescent  soldiers, 
takes  up  residence  in  Essares'  house  to  protect  Coralie  from 
a  mysterious  threatened  vengeance  on  her.  Belval  ascertains 
that  Simeon,  Essares'  attendant,  has  mysteriously  befriended 
both  himself  and  Coralie,  and  also  obtains  evidence  that 
twenty  years  before,  Essares  had  been  responsible  for  the 
murder  of  Coralie's  mother  and  his{Belval' s)  father  and  that 
an  unknown  friend  had  tried  to  protect  Coralie  and  himself. 
Through  Bournef,  one  of  Essares'  accomplices,  the  authorities 
ascertain  definitely  that  the  gold  is  concealed  either  in 
Essares'  house  or  in  the  grounds.  Belval  saves  Coralie  from 
strangling,  and  sets  a  trap  for  her  would-be  assassin  which 
fails  in  its  object.  Later,  searching  the  Jiouse,  he  finds  a 
rope  ladder  and  some  lead  pipes  and  a  soldering  lamp  in 
Simeon's  room 


T" 

1; 


CHAPTER  XI   (continued) 

IHIS  all  seems  devilish  odd,"  Patrice  said  to  him- 
self. "  How  did  the  things  get  in  there  ?  Did 
Simeon  collect  them  without  any  definite  object, 
mechanically  ?  Or  am  I  to  assume  that  Simeon 
is  merely  an  instrument  of  the  enemy's  ?  He  used  to  know 
the  enemy  before  he  lost  his  reason  ;  and  he  may  be  under  his 
influence  at  present." 

Simi^on  was  sitting  at  the  window,  with  his  back  to  the 
room.  Patrice  went  up  to  him  and  gave  a  start.  In  his 
hands  the  old  man  held  a  funeral-wreath  made  of  black  artd 
wliite  beads.  It  bore  a  date,  "  14th  April,  1915,"  and  made 
the  twentieth,  the  one  which  Simeon  was  preparing  to  lay 
on  the  grave  of  his  dead  friends. 

"  He  will  lay  it  there,"  said  Patrice,  aloud.  "  His  instinct 
as  an  avenging  friend,  which  has  guided  his  steps  through 
life,  continues  in  spite  of  his  insanity.  He  will  lay  it  on  the 
grave.  That's  so,  Simeon,  isn't  it :  you  will  take  it  there 
to-morrow  ?  For  to-morrow  is  the  fourteenth  of  April,  the 
sacred  anniversary     .     . 

He  leant  over  the  incomprehensible  being  who  held  the 
key  to  all  the  plots  and  counterplots,  to  all  the  treachery 
;ind  benevolence  that  constituted  the  inextricable  drama. 
Simeon  thought  that  Patrice  wanted  to  take  the  wreath  from 
liini  and  pressed  it  to  his  chest  with  a  startled  gesture. 

"  Don't  be  afraid,"  said  Patrice.  "  You  can  keep  it.  To- 
morrow, Simeon,  to-morrow,  Coralie  and  I  will  be  faithful  to 
the  appointment  which  you  gave  us.  And  to-morrow  per- 
haps the  memory  of  the  horrible  past  will  unseal  your  brain." 

The  day  seemed  long  to  Patrice,  who  was  eager  for  sonu- 
tliing  that  would  provide  a  glinuner  in  the  surrounding  dark- 
ness. And  now  this  glimmer  seemed  about  to  be  kindled 
by  the  arrival  of  this  twentieth  anniversary  of  the  fourteenth 
of  April. 

At  a  late  hour  in  the  afternoon,  M.  Masseron  called  at  the 
Rue  Raynouard. 

'■  Look  what  I've  just  received,"  he  said  to  Patrice.  "  It's 
rather  curious :  an  anonymous  letter  in  a  disguised  hand. 
Listen  •  V 


'  Sir,  Be  warned.  They're  going  away.  Take  care. 
To-morrow  evening  the  1,800  bags  will  be  on  their  way 
out  of  the  coimtry. — A  Friend  or  Ficvnce.'  " 

"  And  to-morrow  is  the  fourteenth  of  April,"  said  Patrice, 
at  once  connecting  the  two  trains  of  thought  in  his  mind. 

"  Yes.     What  makes  you  say  that  ?  " 

"  Nothing  .  .  .  Something  has  just  occurred  to 
me    ..." 

He  was  nearly  telling  M.  Masseron  all  the  facts  associated 
with  the  fourteenth  of  April  and  all  those  concerning  the 
strange  personality  of  old  Simeon.  If  he  did  not  speak,  it 
was  for  obscure  reasons,  perhaps  because  he  wished  to  work 
out  this  part  of  the  case  alone,  perhaps  also  because  of  a 
sort  of  shyness  which  prevented  liim  from  admitting  M. 
Masseron  into  all  the  secrets  of  the  past.  He  said  nothing 
about  it,  therefore,  and  asked  : 

"  What  do  you  think  of  the  letter  ?  " 

"  Upon  my  word,  I  don't  know  what  to  think.  It  may 
be  a  warning  with  something  to  back  it,  or  it  may  be  a  trick 
to  make  us  adopt  one  course  of  conduct  rather  than  another. 
I'll  talk  about  it  to  Bournef.'' 

"  Nothing  fresh  on  his  side  ?  " 

"No;  and  I  don't  expect  anything  in  particular,  llie 
alibi  which  he  has  submitted  is  genuine.  His  friends  and  he 
arc  so  many  supers.     Their  parts  are  played." 

The  coincidence  of  dates  was  all  that  stuck  in  Patrice's 
mind.  The  two  roads  which  M.  Masseron  and  he  were  follow- 
ing suddenly  met  on  this  day  so  long  since  marked  out  by 
fate.  The  past  and  the  present  were  about  to  unite.  Thi- 
catastrophe  was  at  hiuid.  The  fourteenth  of  April  was  the 
day  on  w'.iicli  the  gold  was  to  disappear  for  good  and  also 
the  day  on  which  an  unknown  voice  had  simmioned  Patrice 
and  CoraUe  to  the  same  tryst  which  his  father  and  her  motlicr 
had  kept  twenty  years  ago. 

.:\iid  the  next  day  was  the  fourteenth  of  April. 

»         *         « 

At  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Patrice  asked  after  old 
Simeon. 

"  Gone  out"  sir.     You  had  countermanded  your  orders." 

Patrice  entered  the  room  and  looked  for  the  wreath.  It 
was  not  there.  Moreover,  the  three  things  in  the  cupboard, 
the  rope-ladder,  the  coil  of  lead  and  the  glazier's  lamp  were 
not  there  either. 

"  Did  Simeon  take  any  tiling  with  liim  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,  a  wreath." 

"  Nothing  else  ?  " 

■'  No,  sir." 

The  window  was  open.  Patrice  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  things  had  gone  by  this  way,  thus  confirming  his 
theory  that  the  old  fellow  was  an  unconscious  confederate. 

Shortly  before  ten  o'clock,  Coralie  joined  him  in  the  garden. 
Patrice  had  told  her  the  latest  events.  She  looked  pale  and 
anxious. 

They  went  round  the  lawns,  and,  without' being  seen, 
reached  the  clumps  of  dwarf  shrubs  which  hid  the  door  on  the 
lane.  Patrice  opened  the  door.  As  he  started  to  open  the 
other,  his  hand  hesitated.  He  felt  sony  that  he  had  not  told 
M.  Masseron  and  that  he  and  Coralie  were  performing  by 
themselves  a  pilgrimage  which  certain  signs  warned  him  to  be 
dangerous.  He  shook  off  the  obsession,  however.  He  had 
two  revolvers  with  him.    Wiat  had  he  to  fear  ? 

"  You're  coming  in,  aren't  you,  Coralie  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  she  said. 

"  I  somehow  thought  you  seemed  undecided,  anxious  .  .  ." 

"  It's  quite  true,"  said  Coralie.  "  I  feel  a  sort  of  nervous- 
ness." 

"  Why  ?    Are  you  afraid  ?  " 

"  No.  Or  rather  yes.  I'm  not  afraid  for  to-day,  but  in 
some  way  for  the  past.  I  think  of  my  poor  mother,  who  went 
through  this  door,  as  I  am  doing,  one  .\pril  morning.  She 
was  perfectly  happy,  she  was  going  to  meet  her  love  .  .  . 
.And  then  I  feel  as  if  I  wanted  to  hold,  her  back  and  cry, 
'  Don't  go  on  .  .  .  Death  is  lying  in  wait  for  you  .  .  . 
Don't  go  on  .  .  .'  And  it's  I  who  hear  those  words  of 
terror,  they  ring  in  my  ears ;  it's  I  who  hear  them  and  J 
dare  not  go  on.     I'm  afraid." 

"  Let's  go  back,  Coralie." 

She  only  took  his  arm  : 

{Continued  on  -bage  20> 


Tuiaary  25,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


Faulkners' 

"  Stitched  Edge  " 
Waterproof 

Newmarkets. 

Absolutely  Waterproof. 

Khaki  Twill  Leg,  Brown   Leather    Feet. 
Edges  cannot  come  unstuck. 

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In  the  Trenches  where  Wet  and  Cold 
Combine  against  Health  and  Comfort 

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Proof  to  rain,  sleet  or  snow — secure  against  winter  winds — luxu- 
riously wanning— free  from  rubber  or  oiled-silk— it  enables  the 
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an  assurance  of  immunity  from  discomfort  or  risk  to  health. 
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Shackleton  and  the  members  of  his  expedition,  as  a  protection 
against  the  intense  cold  and  fierce  gales  of  the  Antarctic  regions. 
The  inside  of  the  luxuriously  soft,  thick  Camel  Fleece — the  most 
sumptuous  material  available  for  generating  snug  warmth  in  the 
bitterest  weather. 

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two  parts  can  be  worn  separately  or  together,  thus  supplying  the 
services  of  three  coats  in  one  garment. 

The  outside  alone,  a  Weatherproof  that  will  keep  out  any  rain 
that  oilskin  will ;  the  Camel  Fleece  lining,  a  smart  British  Warm 
for  fine  but  chilly  days  ;  and  the  two  together  the  staunchest 
defence  possible  against  the  hardships  and  incessant  exposure  that 
trench  warfare  involves. 

Every  Burberry  garment  is  labelled  "  Burberrys  " 

BURBERRYS  {^S'^Jdo'n 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS     and  Provincial  Agenti 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 


(Continued  from  page  t8) 
•'  No,"  she  said,  in  a  firm  voice.       ■  VVeU  walk  on.     I  want 
to  pray.     It  will  do  me  good."  .  .       .  •  v. 

Boldly  she  stepped  along  the  little  slanting  path  which 
her  mother  had  followed  and  climbed  the  slope  amid  the 
tangled  weeds  and  the  straggling  branches.  They  passed 
the  lodge  on  their  left  and  reached  the  leafy  cloisters  where 
each  had  a  parent  lying  buried.  And  at  once,  at  the  first 
glance,  they  saw  that  the  twentieth  wreath  was  there 

•  Simeon  has  come,"  said  Patrice.  "  An  aU-powerful 
nstinct  obliged  him  to  come.     He  must  be  somewhere  near 

While  Coralie  knelt  down  beside  the  tombstone,  he  hunted 
iround  the  cloisters  and  went  as  far  as  the  middle  of  the  garden. 
There  was  nothing  left  but  to  go  to  the  lodge  ;  and  this  was 

•  vidently  a  dread  act  which  they  put  off  performing,  if  not 
!rom  fear,  at  least  from  the  reverent  awe  which  checks  a  man 

•  •n  entering  a  place  of  death  and  crime. 

It  was  Coralie  once  again  who  gave  the  signal  for  action  : 

'  Come,"  she  said.  . 

Patrice  did  not  know  how  they  would  make  their  way 
nto  the  lodge,  for  all  its  doors  and  windows  had  appeared  to 
them  to  be  shut.  But,  as  they  approached,  they  saw  that 
the  back  door  opening  on  the  yard  was  wide  open  ;  and  they  at 
once  thought  that  Simoon  was  waiting  for  them  inside^ 

It  was  exactly  ten  o'clock  when  they  crossed  the  threshold 
of  the  lodge.  A  Httle  hall  led  to  a  kitchen  on  one  side  and 
a  bedroom  on  the  other.  The  principal  room  must  be  that 
opposite.     The  door  stood  ajar. 

^'  That's  where  it  must  have  happened  .  •  •  long 
ago,"   said   Coralie,   in   a   frightened   whisper. 

"  Yes,"  said  Patrice,  "  we  shall  find  Simoon  there.  But, 
if  your  courage  fails  you,  Coralie,  we  had  better  give  it  up. 

An  unquestioning  force  of  will  supported  her.  Nothing 
now  would  have  induced  her  to  stop.     She  walked  on. 

Though  large,  the  room  gave  an  impression  of  cosiness, 
oving  to  the  way  in  which  it  was  furnished.  The  sofas, 
armchairs,  carpet  and  hangings  all  tended  to  add  to  Us  com- 
fort ;  and  its  appearance  might  well  have  remained  un- 
changed since  the  tragic  death  of  the  two  who  used  to  occupy 
it  This  appearance  was  rather  that  of  a  studio,  because  of  a 
skylight  which  filled  the  middle  of  the  high  ceiling,  where  the 
belvedere  was.  The  light  came  from  here.  There  were 
two  other  windows,  but  these  were  hidden  by  curtains. 

"  Simf'on  is  not  here,"  said  Patrice. 

Coralie  did  not  reply.  She  was  examining  the  things 
around  her  with  an  emotion  which  was  reflected  m  every 
feature.  There  were  books,  all  of  them  going  back  to  the 
last  century.  Some  of  them  were  signed  "  Coralie"  in  pencil 
on  their  blue  or  yellow  wrappers.  There  were  pieces  of  un- 
ftnished  needlework,  an  embroidery-frame,  a  piece  of  tapestry 
with  a  needle  hanging  to  it  by  a  thread  of  wool.  And  ^here 
were  also  books  signed  "  Patrice  "  and  a  box  of  cigars  and 
a  blotting-pad  and  an  inkstand  and  penholders.  And  there 
were  two  small  framed  photographs,  those  of  two  children, 
Patrice  and  Coralie.  And  thus  the  life  of  long  ago  went  on, 
not  only  the  life  of  two  lovers  who  loved  each  other  wit'i  a 
violent  and  fleeting  passion,  but  of  two  beings  who  dwell 
together  in  the  calm  assurance  of  a  long  existence  spent  in 

common.  „      ,.       ,  •  . 

"Oh,  my  darling,  darling  mother!  '    Coralie  whispered. 

Her  emotion  increased  with  each  new  memory.  She  leant 
trembling  on  Patrice's  shoulder. 

"  Let's  go,"  he  said. 

'  Yes,  dear,  ys,  we  had  better.     We  will  come  back  again 
.     We    will    come    back    to    them     ...     We    will 
revive  the  life  of  love  that  was  cut  short  by  their  death.     Let 
MS  go  for  to-day  ;  I  have  no  strength  left." 

But  they  had  only  taken  a  few  steps  when  they  stopped 
dismayed. 

Tly*  '^'wr  was  clos*»<l 

rturrr  eves  met,   filled  with  uneasiness. 
■  vYe  didn't  close  it,  did  we?  "     he  asked.  . 
No,"  she  said,  "  we  didn't  close  it." 

i  le  went  to  open  it  and  perceived  that  it  had  neither  handle 

nor  lock.  ,     ,    j  1.     j       j 

It  was  a  single  door  of  massive  wood  that  looked  hard  and 
substantial.     It  might  well  have  been  made  of  one  piece, 
taken  from  the  very  heart  of  an  oak.     There  was  no  paint  or 
varnish  on  it.     Here  and  there  were  scratches,  as  if  some  one 
had  been  rapping  at  it  with  a  tool.     And  then     .     .     .     and 
then,  on  the  right,  were  these  few  words  in  pencil : 
Patrice  and  Coralie,  14TH  April,  1895. 
Gon  Will  Avenge  Us. 
Bel&w  this  was  a  cross  and,  below  the  cross,  another  date, 
but  in  a  different  and  more  recent  handwriting  : 
14TH  April,  1915. 
••  This   is   terrible,   this   is  terrible,"   said   Patrice.     "  To- 
day's date  I     Who  can  have  written  that  ?     It  has  only  just 
been  written.     Oh,  it's  terrible !     .     .     .     Come,  come,  after 


all,  we  can't     ..."  ,     1  *  • 

He  rushed  to  one  of  the  windows,  tore  back  the  curtain 
that  veiled  it  and  pulled  open  the  casement.  A  cry  escaped 
him.  The  window  was  walled  up,  walled  up  with  building- 
stones  that  filled  the  space  between  the  glass  and  the  shutters. 

He  ran  to  the  other  window  and  found  the  same  obstacle. 

There  were  two  doors,  leading  prol)ably  to  the  bedroorn 
on  the  right  and  to  a  room  next  to  the  kitchen  on  the  left. 
He  opened  them  quickly.     Both  doors  were  walled  up. 

He  ran  in  every  direction,  during  the  first  moment  of 
terror,  and  tlien  hurled  liimself  against  the  first  of  the  three 
doors  and  tried  to  break  it  down,  ft  did  not  move.  It  might 
have  been  an  immovable  block. 

Then,  once  again,  they  looked  at  each  other  with  eyes 
of  fear  ;  and  the  same  terrible  thought  came  over  them  both. 
The  thing  that  had  happuned  before  was  being  repeated! 
The  tragedy  was  being  played  a  second  time.  After  the 
mother  and  the  father,  it  was  the  turn  of  the  daughter  and 
the  son.  Like  the  lovers  of  yesteryear,  thoso  of  to-day  were 
prisoners.  The  enemy  held  them  in  his  powerful  grip  , 
and  they  would  doubtless  soon  know  how  their  parents  had 
died  by  seeing  how  thev  themselves  would  die  .  .  •  14th 
April,  "1895     .     .     .     14th  April,  1915     •     •     • 


N! 


CHAPTER  XII 
In  the  Abyss 

'0,  no,  no!"  cried  Patrice.  "I  won't  stand 
this!"  He  flung  himself  against  the  wmdows 
and  doors  took  up  an  iron  dog  from  the  fender 
and  banged  it  against  the  wooden  doors,  and  the 
stone  walls.  Barren  efforts  !  They  were  the  same  which 
his  father  had  made  before  him  ;  and  they  could  only  result 
in  the  same  mockery  of  impotent  scratches  on  the  wood 
and  the  stone.  .       ,, 

"Oh,  Coralie,  Coralie!"  he  cried  in  his  despair.  Its 
I  who  have  brought  you  to  this  !  What  an  ab\ss  I've  dragged 
you  into  !  It  was  madness  to  trv  and  figlit  tins  out  by  my- 
self '  I  ought  to  have  called  in  those  who  understand,  who 
are  accustomed  to  it !  .  .  .  No,  I  was  going  to  be  so 
clever !     .     .     .     Forgive  me,  Coralie." 

She  had  sunk  into  a  chair.  He,  almost  on  his  knees  beside 
her,  threw  his  arms  around  her,  imploring  her  pardon. 

She  smiled,  to  calm  him  : 

"  Come,  dear,"  she  said,  gently,  "  don't  lose  courage. 
Perhaps  we  are  mistaken  .  .  .  After  all,  there's  nothing 
to  show  that  it  is  not  all  an  accident."  • 

"  The  date  !  "  he  said.  "  The  date  of  this  year,  of  this 
day  written  in  another  hand  !  It  was  your  mother  and  my 
father  who  wrote  the  first  ...  but  this  one,  Coralie. 
this  one  proves  premeditation  and  an  implacable  determina- 
tion to  do  away  with  us."  .  . 

She  sbuddered.     Still  she  persisted  in  trying  to  comfort 

Viim   ■ 

"  it  may  be.  But  yet  it  is  not  so  bad  as  all  that.  We  have 
enemies,  but  we  have  friends  also.     They  will  look  for  us. 

"  They  will  look  for  us,  but  how  can  they  ever  find  us 
Coralie  ?  We  took  steps  to  prevent  them  from  guessing 
where  we  were  going  to  ;  and  not  one  of  them  knows  this 
house." 

"  Old  Simeon  does." 

"  Sim'on  came  and  placed  his  wreath,  but  some  one  else 
came  with  him,  some  one  who  rules  him  and  who  has  perhaps 
already  get  rid  of  him.  now  that  Sim-' on  has  played  his  part. 

"  And  what  then,  Patrice  ?  "  ,.       >         j    < 

He  felt  that  she  was  overcome  and  began  to  be  ashamed  ot 
his  own  weakness.  . 

•■  Well  "  he  said,  mastering  himself,  "  we  must  just  wait_ 
After  all  the  attack  may  not  materialise.  The  fact  of 
our  being  locked  in  docs  not  mean  that  we  are  lost  And_ 
even  so,  we  shall  make  a  fight  for  it,  shall  we  not  ?  You  need 
not  think  that  I  am  at  the  end  of  my  strength  or  my  resources. 
Let  us  wait,  Coralie,  and  act." 

The  main  thing  was  to  find  out  whether  there  was  anv 
entrance  to  the  house  which  could  allow  of  an  unforeseen 
attack  After  an  hour's  search,  they  took  up  the  carpet 
and  found  tiles  which  showed  nothing  unusual.  There  was 
certainly  nothing  except  the  door;  and,  as  they  could  not 
prevent  this  from  being  opened,  since  it  opened  outwards, 
they  heap"d  most  of  th'-  furniture  in  front  of  it,  thus  forming 
a  barricade  which  would  protect  them  against  a  surprise 

Then  Patrice  cocked  his  two  revolvers  and  placed  them 
beside   him,    in   full   sight.  _  • ,      ..  . 

"  This  will  make  us  easy  in  our_minds,  he  said.  Am- 
enemy  who  appears  is  a  dead  man."  ■  ,      ,, 

But  the  memory  of  the  pist  bore  down  upon  them  wii  1;  nil 
its  awful  weight.  All  their  words  ami  all  their  actio'T^ 
others  before  them  had  spiken  and  performed,  under  sinnl:ir 
conditions,  with  the  same  thouglits  and  the  s.ime  forebodings. 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 

Patrice's  father  must  have  prepared  his  weapons.  Coralie's 
mother  must  have  folded  her  hands  and  prayed,  fogether 
tTev  had  barricaded  the  door  and  together  sounded  the  walls 
and^aken  up  the  carpet.     What  an  anguish  was  this,  doubled 

"to  dtpd'th^e  ho^roTSte  idea,  they  tunned  the  pages  of 
the  book's    works  of  faction  and  others,  which  the-  P-ent 
had   read.     On  certain  pages,   at  the  ^.f ,  "^  ^,  •'I'^fPSher 
volume,  were  lines  constitutmg  notes  which  Patrice  s  tattler 
and  Coralie's  mother  used  to  write  each  other. 

"  Darling  Patrice, —  ,  ,mc.fprfiav 

"  I  ran  in  this  morning  to  recreate  our  life  of  YfffJ 

and  to  dream  of  our  life  this  afternoon.     As  you  will   arrive 

before  me,  you  will  read  these  lines.     You  will  read  that  I 

love    you     .     .     ." 

And,  in  another  book: 

"  My  Own  Cora'Lie, —  .  ...  ,„ 

"  You  have  this  minute  gone,  I  shall  not  see  you  until  to- 
morrow and  I  do  not   want   to  leave  this  haven  where  our 
love   has   tasted   such   delights   without '  once    more   teUmg . 
you     ..." 

They  looked  through  most  of  the  books  in  this  way,  findmg 
however,  instead  of  the  clues  for  which  they  hoped,  nothing 
but  expressions  of  love  and  affection.  And  they  spent  more 
than  two  hours  waiting  and  dreading  what  might  happen. 

Words  were  powerless  to  comfort  them.  If  the/  were 
not  to  die  of  hunger,  then  the  enemy  must  have  contrived 
another  form  of  torture.  Their  inability  to  do  anythmg  kept 
them  on  the  rack.  Patrice  began  his  investigations  again. 
A  curious  accident  turned  them  in  a  new  direction  On 
opening  one  of  the  books  through  which  they  had  not  yet 
l<k)ked  a  book  published  in  1895,  Patrice  saw  two  pages 
turned  down  together.  He  separated  them  and  read  a 
letter  addressed  to  him  by  his  father : 

"  Patrice,  My  Dear  Son,  .. 

"  If  ever  chance  places  this  note  before  your  eyes,  it  will 
prove  that  I  have  met  with  a  violent  death  which  has  pre- 
vented my  dostroving  it.  In  that  case,  Patrice  look  for 
the  truth  concerning  my  death  on  the  wall  of  the  stud  o 
between  the  two  windows.     I  shaU  perhaps  have  time  to 

write  it  down."  ,    ,   ^-        1  i.i. 

The  two  victims  had  therefore  at  that  time  foreseen  the 
tragic  fate  in  store  for  them  ;  and  Patrice's  father  and  Coralie  s 
mother  knew  the  danger  which  they  ran  m  coming  to  the 
lodge.  It  remained  to  be  seen  whether  Patnce  s  father 
had  been  able  to  carry  out  his  intention. 

Between  the  two  windows,  as  all  around  the  room,  vras  a 
wainscoting  of  varnished  wood,  topped  at  a  height  of  six 
feet  by  a  cornice.  Above  the  cornice  was  the  plain  plastered 
waU.  Patrice  and  Coralie  had  already  observed,  without 
paving  particular  attention  to  it,  that  the  wainscoting  seemed 
to  have  been  renewed  in  this  part,  because  the  varnish  of  the 
boards  did  not  have  the  same  uniform  colour.  Using  one  ot 
the  iron  dogs  as  a  chisel,  Patrice  broke  down  the  cornice 
and  lifted  the  first  board.  It  broke  easily.  Under  this  plank 
on  the  plaster  of  the  wall,  were  hues  of  writing.  ^ 

"  It's  the  same  method,"  he  said,  "  as  that  which  old  bimeon 
has  since  employed.  First  write  on  the  walls,  then  cover  it 
up  with  wood  or  plaster." 

He  broke  off  the  top  of  the  other  boards  and  in  this  way 
brought  several  complete  lines  into  view,  hurried  hues, 
written  in  pencil  and  slightly  worn  by  time.  Patnce 
deciphered  them  with  the  greatest  emotion.  His  father 
had  written  them  at  a  moment  when  death  was  stalking  at 
hand  A  few  hours  later,  he  had  ceased  to  live.  They  were 
the  evidence  of  his  death  agony  and  perhaps  too  an  im- 
precation against  the  enemy  who  was  kiUing  him  and  the 
woman  he  loved. 

Patrice  read,  in  an  undertone  :  ,,       , 

"  I  am  writing  this  in  order  that  the  scoundrels  plot 
may  not  be  achieved  to  the  end  and  in  order  to  ensure  his 
punishment.  Coralie  and  I  are  no  doubt  going  to  pensh 
but  at  least  we  shaU  not  die  without  revealing  the  cause  of 
our  death.  ,^  , 

"  A  few  days  ago.  he  said  to  Coralie.  You  spurn  my  love, 
yo«  load  me  with  your  hatred.  So  be  it.  But  I  shall  kill 
you  both,  your  lover  and  you.  in  such  a  manner  that  I  can 
never  be  accused  of  the  death,  which  wiU  look  Uke  suicide. 
Everything  is  ready.     Beware.  Coralie.' 

"  Everything  was.  in  fact,  ready.  He  did  not  know  me, 
but  he  must  have  known  that  Coralie  used  to  meet  somebody 
here  daily  ;    and  it  was  in   this  lodge  that  he  prepared  our 

tomb. 

"  What  manner  of  death  ours  will  be  we  do  not  know. 
Lack  of  food,  no  doubt.  It  is  four  hours  since  we  were  im- 
prisoned The  door  closed  upon  us.  a  heavy  door  which  he 
must  have  placed  there  last  night.  All  the  other  openings, 
doors  and  windows  alike,  are  stopped  up  with  blocks  of  stone 


January  25,  1917 


laid  and  cemented  since  our  last  meeting.     Escape  is  im 
possible.     What  is  to  become  of  us  ?  " 

The  uncovered  portion  stopped  here.  Patrice  said  : 
"  You  see,  Coralie,  they  went  through  the  same  horrors 
as  ourselves.  They  too  dreaded  starvation.  They  too  passed 
through  long  hours  of  waiting,  when  inaction  is  so  painful  ; 
and  it  was  more  or  less  to  distract  their  thoughts  that  they 
wrote  those  hnes." 

He  went  on,  after  examining  the  spot  :  ,    ^u  ^  *u 

"  They  counted,  most  likely,  on  what  happened,  that  the 
man  who  was  killing  them  would  not  read  this  docuinent. 
Look,  one  long  curtain  was  hung  over  these  two  windows 
and  the  wall  between  them,  one  curtain,  as  is  proved  by  the 
single  rod  covering  the  whole  distance.  After  our  parents 
death,  no  one  thought  of  drawing  it ;  and  the  truth  remained 
concealed  until  the  day  when  Simeon  discovered  it  and,  by 
wav  of  precaution,  hid  it  again  under  a  wooden  panel  and 
hung  up  two  curtains  in  the  place  of  one.  In  this  way,  every- 
thing seemed  normal."  . 
Patrice  set  to  work  again.     A  few  more  lines  made    their 

appearance^ .^^^^  the  only  one  to  suffer,  the  on  y  one  to  die. 
But  the  horror  of  it  al  is  that  1  am  dragging  mv  dear  Corahe 
with  me.  She  fainted  and  is  lying  down  now,  prostrated 
by  the  fears  which  she  tries  so  hard  to  overcome.  My  poor 
darting  I  I  seem  aheady  to  see  the  pallor  of  death  on  her 
sweet  face.     Forgive  me,  dearest,  forgive  me  ! 

Patrice  and  Coralie  exchanged  glances.  Here  were  the 
same  sentiments  which  they  themselves  felt,  the  same  scruples, 
the  same  delicacy,  the  same  effacement  of  self  in  the  presence 
of  the  other's  grief.  '     , 

"  He  loved  your  mother."  Patrice  murmured,  as  I  love 
you  I  also  am  not  afraid  of  death.  I  have  faced  it  too 
often,  with  a  smile  !  l>at  you,  Coralie,  you  for  whose  sake  I 
would  undergo  any  sort  of  torture.     .     .     . ! 

He  began  to  walk  up  and  down,  once  more  yielding  to  his 

^^1  shaU  save  you,  Coralie,  I  swear  it.  And  what  a  delight 
it  will  then  be  to  take  our  revenge !  He  shall  have  the  same 
fate  which  he  was  devising   for  us. 

He  tore  down  more  pieces  of  boarding,  m  the  hope  of  learn- 
ing something  that  might  be  useful  to  him,  since  the  struggle 
was  being  renewed  under  exactly  similar  conditions.  But 
the  sentences  that  followed,  like  those  which  Patrice  had  just 
uttered,  were  oaths  Of  *a«^eance  :  k  -  tK« 

"  Coralie,  he  shaU  be  punished,  if  not  by  us,  then  by  the 
hand  of  God.  No,  his  infernal  scheme  wiM  not  succeed. 
No  it  will  never  be  beUeved  that  we  had  recourse  to  suicide 
to  'relieve  ourselves  of  an  existence  that  was  built  up  of 
happiness  and  joy.  No,  his  crime  will  be  known.  Hour  _by 
hour  I  shall  here  set  down  the  undeniable  proofs.     .     .     . 

"  Words   words  !  "  cried  Patrice,  in  a  tone  of  exasperation. 
"  Words  of  vengeance  and  sorrow,  but  never  a  fact  to  guide     > 
us     Father,  will  you  tell  us  nothing  to  save  your  Cora  le  s 
dauehter  '     If  your  Coralie  succumbed,  let  mine  escape  the 
disaster,  thanks  to  your  aid,  father  !  Help  me!  Counsel  me! 
But  the  father  answered  the  son  with  nothing  but  more 

words  of  chaUenge  and  despair  :  

"  Who  can  rescue  us  ?  We  are  walled  up  m  this  totnb, 
buried  alive  and  condemned  to  torture  without  being  able 
to  defend  ourselves.  My  revolver  hes  ther.',  upon  the  table. 
What  is  the  use  of  it  ?  The  enemy  does  not  attack  us  He  has 
time  on  his  side,  unrelenting  time  which  kills  of  its  own 
strength,  by  the  mere  fact  that  it  is  time.  Who  can  rescue 
us  ?   Who  wiU  save  my  darUng  CoraUe  ?  " 

The  position  was  terrible;  and  they  felt  all  its  tragic 
horror  It  seemed  to  them  as  though  they  were  already  dead 
once  they  were  enduring  the  same  trial  endured  by  others  and 
enduring  it  under  the  same  conditions.  There  was  nothing 
to  enable  them  to  escape  any  of  the  phases  through  which  the 
other  two.  his  father  and  her  mother,  had  passed.  The 
similarity  be  ween  their  own  and  their  pa-ents  fate  was  so 
striking  that  they  seemed  to  be  suffering  two  deaths  ;  and 
.    the  second  agony  was  now  commencing.  ,  ,     -       . 

CoraUe  gave  way  and  began  to  cry.  Moved  by  Tier  tears, 
Patrice  attacked  the  wainscoting  with  new  fury  but  its 
boards,  strengthened  by  cross-laths,  resisted  his  efforts  : 

At  last  he  read :  .  •       ^i.  i. 

"  What  is  happening  ?  We  had  an  impression  that  some- 
one was  walking  outside,  in  the  garden^  Yes.  when  we  put 
our  ears  fo  the  stone  wall  built  in  the  embrasure  of  the  window 
we  thought  we  heard  footsteps.  Is  it  possible  ?  Oh.  if  it 
onlywerll  It  would  mean  the  struggle,  at  last.  Any  hmg 
rather  than  the  maddening  silence  and  endless  uncertainty  ! 

"That's  it'  .     ■     That's  it!     .     .     •     The  sound  is 

becoming  more  distinct.  .  .  -.Itf^  different  sound  like 
that  which  you  make  when  you  dig  the  ground  with  a  pick^ 
axe.  Some  one  is  digging  the  ground,  not  in  front  of  the 
house,  but  on  the  right,  near  the  kitchen.     .     .     • 

{To   be   continued) 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


January  25,  1917 


THEWEST  END 

'Bij  "Tiisse-Partout 


The  aim   o/  these  notes   is  to  ftrinj  articles  of  presenl-aay  use  and   interest  to  the  knowledge  o/  our  readers.     All  articles   aescttbet- 

have  been  care/uUy  chosen  /or  mention,  and  tn  every  tnslanca  can  be  recommended  from  personcU  knowledge.     Names  and  addresses 

of  shops,  where  the  articles  mentioned  can  be  obtained,   wilt  be   lonuarded   on   receipt  of  a  postcard  addressed   to   Passe-Parioot, 

"  Land  &■   Water."  Old  Serjeant's  Inn,  5  Chancery  Lane.    W.C.     Any   other  information  will  be  git;«n  on  request 


Sqoashable, 
Soft  and  Serviceable 


Improved  Hot 
Water  Botlles 


Soft  felt  hats  become  the  majority  of 
Englishwomen,  and  at  the  moment  are 
little  short  of  a  necessity  with  war  work 
the  order  of  the  day.  A 
famous  ladies'  hatter  has  had 
phenomenal  success  with  a 
special  model  which  adds  a 
moderate  price  to  all  its 
other  qualifications. 

It  is  of -exceptionally  good 
quality  felt,  will  stand  prac- 
tically any  weather,  and  can 
be  bent  into  any  shape  b:st 
suiting  its  wearer.  An  oat- 
standing  point  is  the  con- 
venient way  in  which  it  can 
be  rolled  up  for  packing.  It 
can  be  folded  so  tight  that 
it  takes  up  hardly  any  room 
in  a  box  at  all,  yet  on  un- 
packing it  goes  back  to  its 
original  shape  in  the  most 
adapta  le  manner. 

It  is  stocked  in  two  shades 
of  grey,  a  delightfully  be- 
coming shade  of  fawn,  as  y/ell 
as  black,  has  a  ribbon  tie 
and  bow,  and,  costing  but 
8s.  6d.,  is  a  hat  of  remark- 
able value. 


Every  penny  now  spent  is  being  ex- 
pended to  fullest  advantage  by  all  wise 
in  their  generation.  Improvements  in 
even  the  most  ordinary  every  day  articles  are  being  eagerly 
sought,  and  without  doubt  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  why 
the  Improved  Hot  Water  Bottle  has  met  with  its  immense 
success.  It  gives  splendid  service,  outlasting  two  of  the  old 
type,  because  of  the  clever  construction  of  the  neck. 

In  the  usual  kind  of  rubber  bottle  the  metal  socket  is  a 
separate  affair,  fixed  through  tying  and  likely  in  time  to  become 
detached  owing  to  the  water  always  sliding  down  between  the 
crevices.  The  pressure  given  each  time  the  stopper  is  screwed 
tight  is  another  drawback  to  hard  wear.  With  the  new  kind 
the  neck  and  stopper  are  in  one  piece,  the  socket  being  fixed 
in  such  a  way  that  it  cannot  be  separated.  A  bottle  Uke  this 
can  be  filled  far  more  quickly  than  the  old  kind,  there  being 
no  hidden  deposit  of  water  bound  to  be  spilt  once  the  bottle 
is  filled.  For  hospitals  and  private  use  alike  these  hot  water 
bottles  are  nothing  short  of  perfection  and  should  be  used  in 
preference  to  all  other  kinds. 

A  descriptive  leaflet  showing  both  by  illustration  and 
letterpress  the  difterence  between  the  ordinary  hot  water 
bottle  and  this  brilliant  invention  will  be  forwarded  any- 
where on  request. 

.,      ,  .      .     _     ^     Everybody   loves  a  new  tooth  powder, 
"     PoVder  especially  when  it  hapix^ns  precisely  to 

meet  their  own  requirements.  A  famous 
firm  have  just  brought  out  no  fewer  than  six  new  preparations. 
Among:st  them  is  the  Dex  Tooth  Paste,  a  specially  soothing, 
refreshing  preparation  enormously  used  in  both  France  and 
America.  This  is  flavoured  with  peppermint,  but  for  the 
benefit  of  people  dishking  the  odour,  Menthilla  Dental  Cream 
has  been  prepared  with  the  flavour  of  Menthol  instead. 
Another  fragrant  dentifrice  is  perfumed  with  the  finest  eau 
de  Cologne,  and  most  satisfactory  it  is. 

Mothers  of  a  family  knowing  the  difficulty  it  sometimes 
is  to  get  the  small  fry  to  clean  their  teeth  will  be  delighted 
with  Perlysia  Tooth  Paste.  It  is  so  pleasant  that  children 
like  u^^ing  it  and  their  teeth  benefit  in  consequence. 

Frozo  Tooth  Paste  is  an  unsweetened  preparation  and  it, 
hke  all  the  aforementioned  preparations,  costs  a  shilling  a 


tube.  Gly-Tynol  Tooth  Paste  is  of  the  strongly  antiseptic 
type,  including  Wild  Thyme  and  Wintergreen.  This  costs 
loid.  a  tube,  or  a  specimen  case  of  the  whole  six  kinds  will 
be  forwarded  free  for  5s.  6d. 


A    Campaittninf 
Knite 


A  really  reliable  knife  is  a  good  friend 
to  a  man  on  active  service,  and  realising 
this  a  well  known  firm  have  brought 
forward  just  the  thing  needed.  It  is  made  of  nickel  and 
though  strong  and  containing  any  number  of  articles  is  at 
the  same  time  wonderfully  hght.  The  large  blade  when  open 
locks  itself  so  that  it  can  by  no  possibility  shut  down  on  the 
user's  hand. 

There  is  a  big  loop  at  the  top,  so  a  man  can  fix  it  on  to  a 
belt  or  pocket  chain.  Besides  the  big  blade  the  knife  con- 
tains a  smaller  blade,  trace  screws,  a  cartridge  extractor, 
a  corkscrew,  a  screw  driver,  a  hoof  pick  and — most  useful 
of  all — a  tin  opener,  so  that  he  can  take  prompt  advantage  ol 
many  good  things  from  home. 


Two  Sale 
Barfaii.t 


A  small  amount  of  money  goes  a  long 
way  where  the  two  pretty  garments 
pictured  are  concerned.  In  the  first 
place  the  satin 
knickers  are  now 
being  sold  at  the 
astonishingly  small 
sum  of  5s.  I  id.  in- 
stead of  los.  iid., 
the  usual  price. 
These  satin  knickers 
are  worth  buying 
because  amongst 
their  many  virtues 
is  the  sterhng  one 
of  hard  wear.  They 
are  well  made ;  at 
the  side  of  either 
knee  is  a  jaunty 
little  rosette  and 
the  available  colour- 
ings are  pink,  saxe 
or  navy  blue,  purple, 
ivory,  mauve,  black 
and  green. 

Equally 
noteworthy  is 
the    fascinat- 
ing   camisole. 
It  is  maae  of 
crepe    d  e 
Chine  and  is  7s.  iid., 
instead   of  the  cus- 
tomary IIS.  gd.     It 
is   a  dehghtful  little 
garment,      reaching 
the  highest   level   of 
lingerie.     Besides  a 
lace  edged  top,  floral 
ribbon    circlets    aid 
in     the     decoration 
scheme  both  at  the 
back  and  the   front. 
The  waist  is  mounted 
on  elastic   so  the  fit 
of   the   pretty    little 
garment   is  assured, 
and  it  can  be  bought 
in    pink,   white,    or 
blue.    A  special  fea- 
ture are  the  sleeves, 
these  making  it  capital  to  wear  beneath  diaphanous  bloose* 
and  useful  consequently  from  two  points  of  view. 


February  i,  1917 


Supplement    to    LAND    &    WATER 


IX 


I    UNLIKE  ORDINARY  PUTTEES.  OUR  NEW 

ALL-LEATHER  PUTTEES 

NEVER  TEAR  OR  FRAY  OUT.  I 

These  most  comfortable, 
good-looking  puttees  are 
made  entirely  of  fine  supple 
tan  leather,  and  fasten 
simply  with  one  buckle  at 
bottom.  They  are  ex- 
tremely durable,  even  if 
subjected  to  the  friction  of 
riding,  as  the  edges  never 
tear  or  fray  out,  and  for 
winter  wear  they  are  un- 
matched. 

The  puttees  are  speedilvput  on  or 
taken  off,  readily  mould  to  (he 
shape  of  the  leg,  are  Bs  easily 
cleaned  as  a  leather  belt,  and 
saddle  soap  soon  makes  them 
practically  waterproof. 

The  price  per  pair  is  16/6,  post 
free  inland,  or  postaf;e  abroad 
!/•  extra,  or  »ent  on  approval  on 
receipt  »f  business  (not  banker's) 
refertnce,  and  home   address. 


OFFICERS'  RIDING  BREECHES  | 

The  factors  of  successful  breeches-making  are — 6ne  wear-resist- 
ing e'othsi  skil  ul  cutting,  and  careful,  thorough  tailor-work_ — and 
all  these  we  guarantee.  Abundant  experience  aUo  conirihutes 
importantly  n  giving  utmost  satisfaction,  for  Grant  &  LOckburn 
have  made  breeches  for  ninety-five  years.  We  keep  on  hand 
a  numher  of  pairs  of  breeches,  and  are  therefore  otten  able  to 
meet  immediate  reqoirements,  or  we  can  cut  and  try  a  pair 
on  the  same  day.  and  complete  the  next  day.  if  urgently  wanted. 


GRANT.0COCKBURK 


ESTD,  1821     — 


Legg'nv  Makert, 
Milita-y aid  Civil   T&Uor» 


25  PICCADILLY,  W, 


!!lll(n= 


7/ 

••Active  Service"  WRISTLET  WATCH 
fully  Luminous  Figures  &  Hands 
Warranted  Timekeepers 

»■    Silver    Cases  with    Screw    Bezel 

and  Back.  t. .   Ui    Gold,  tT  lOs. 

With     Hunter    or    Hali-Hunter    cover 

Silver,    t,.>  7«.  «id.      Gold,  4;S10s! 

Others  in    Silver    from     Al%i    lUa. 

Gold  (rom  ^(V 

Military  Badge  Brooches. 

^ny  Regimental  Qiadge  Perfectly 

Maaelled. 
PRICES  OM  ATPLICATION 
Sketches  sent  /or  approval. 

£7/10/     25  OLD  BOND  ST,  W. 

and  62&  64  LUDOATE   H!LL.   EX. 


=^  The  Original  Cording's,  Estd.   1839  = 

In  the  wettesty  coldest  weather  a  fleece- 
lined  '^EquitoVy  **  {the  really  waterproof  coat) 
ensures  dry^  warm  comfort. 

An  "liquitor,"  with  snug  fleece 
woollen  Itnin;^  hutLoned  in,  in.ii.ea 
an  exL-encnt  yreat-tcat  in  whk-U 
to  "travel  ln;ut."  aixl  will  not 
only  keep  a  man  bone  lirj 
tiirutigh  tli«  heav.est  and  nio*t 
liistiny  downpour,  but  will  aUo 
warmly  protect  him  in  bitinf 
cold  weatber,  and  may  therefrre 
be  relied  upon  to  minimise  the 
illelfects  of  enfcrct^d  exposure  at 
At^Jit.  Such  a  coat,  as  the  ex- 
perleni.-ed  fauipaiyner  well  know*. 
is  all-itiiportaiit  to  his  health 
and  conifurt. 

The  'Equitor'*  Co«t  ii  guaran- 
teed to  be  positively  and  tlnr- 
ably  impermeable  by  a  firm 
whose  businoh^g  for  nenrly  <ightj 
years  has  been  the  making  of 
waterproofs. 

!ho  "Eiiuitor"  is  Btted  with  a 
apetial  ridiiiR  apron  which  abso- 
lutely shuts  out  any  ruin  and 
can  be  fastened  convenien!!ly,  out 
of  sight,  but  tile  coat  serves  Just 
as  well  for  ordinary  wear  afoot, 
whether  tiie  apron  be  faiten<^d 
back  Of   not. 

In  our  light'Weight  No.  31 
material,  the  price  of  the 
"EquHor"  is  02/6;  of  our  No.  23 
cashmere,  a  medium  weight  ctoth, 
115/- i  vbltlviut  ppron  (either 
cloth),  17/e  Lts,  wi'.h  belt.  &/•  ex^rj 

The  detachable  (leece  inner  coat 
can  be  had  in  two  qualitteft^-  No.  1 

(fine    wool).   62/6;    No.  2,  40/-. 

When  oraertng  an  "Et;ultor"  Coat 
please  state  height  and  chest 
measure  and  send  remittance 
(which  will  be  returned  it  the. coat 
it  not  approved),  or  give  h^me 
address  and  business  (not 
banker's)  reference. 


Illustrated  List  at  request. 


^,       WATERPROOF  ERS 
TD      TO  H.M,  THE  KING 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  C?. 

Only  Addrei-ses  : 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.,  &  35  st.  jamess  st.,  s.w. 


THE  NEW  EUROPE. 

(Pour  la  Victoire  Integrale). 
A  WEEKLY  REVIEW  devoted  to  foreign 
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and  to  emphasize  the  nc  d  of  a  carefully  thought-out 

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OUR  CORN  &  POTATO  FIELDS 


GROW  MURE  POTATOES  &  WHEAT. 


Every  vacant  piece  of  Lind  must  be 
cultivated,  and  crops  ft  need  pro- 
perly. Tlie  best  Fenfe  fur  this 
purpose  is  the  "Empire"  Fence,  and 
croiis  are  always  saffe  where  it  is 
used.  The  hraviest  animal  cannot 
breal<  through.. 


EMPIRE 


HARD 
STEEL 


WOVEN 
Wl  RE 


FENCE 


R.J.W.,  Montgomery,  writes; 
Decern^' r  qh,  1916. 
•*  /  like  your  'Empire'  Fence 
very  much,  and  was  nlso  muc^ 
itr-ck  with  th-  simplicity  of  tk$ 
Stretchini;  Tools  you  lent  for 
ertctitn" 

WRITE  FOR  ILLUSTRATED 
CATALOJLE    W. 


HUNDREDS    OF    UNSOLICITED 

TESTIMONIALS. 


PARKER.   WINDER    & 
A  C  H  U  R  ^  H     Lwnited, 

BIRN  IN  ".HAM. 


iuirl«^mtnt    to    LAND    &     WATtR 


February  i,  1917 


The  Coat  that  beats  the  blizzard 

■pOli  stark,  raw  ferocity  there's  no  wind  on  earth  like  the  wind 
-*-  that  blows  westward  across  the  Flanders  front.  And  lor 
snug  warmth  and  comfort  there's  no  campaigning  coat  like  tho 
"Thresher,"  within  whose  three-line  defence  you  can  laugh  at 
cold   and  wet. 

The  oiitsi<le  shell  of  the  "  Thresher  ''  has  three  parts  to  play.  Its 
hard  surface  withstands  the  rough  and  tumble  of  trench  life,  and 
sheds  mud  almost  like  a  duck's  back  sheds  water,  while  it  is  prac- 
tically waterproof,  so  that  the  special  secon'dary  lining,  which  will 
etop  anything  in  the  form  of  damp,  only  comes  into  play  when  the 
rain  is  going  absolutely  "all  out.''  Innermost,  next  to  your  body, 
is  the  wannthlining  whose  open  texture  holds  a  shield  of  warns 
air — the  way  Nature  keeps  warmth  and  life  in  her  Arctic  au'mals 
— while  permitting  the  body  to  "breathe."  And  every  trick  of 
coiid  and  wet  for  ^I'nning  in  at  neck  and  wrists  is  met  and  matched 
by   the  cunning  Thresher  fastenings. 


"Thr<>.»lier"   Tret>r|i  "iCoat    with    detuchabl ••      _„      „      _ 
Sheep^kiti    Lhiinsr  »o      o      U 

Asabove.w'th  detachable   'KKmelcott "  Linttift     £S     6     O 

Cavalry  type  with  l^nee  flaps  and   sa'^dte  k  ssc*.  15/6  extra. 

All  si:ts    in    stock.      Semi   size   of   chest   and    approximate 

height,  and  to  tf.rml  any  (Ulav  enclose   cheque  vhcn  ordering. 


Send  for  Book  wliich 
proves   in    minutest 

detail  tlie 
"THKKSHERS  " 

supremacy. 


TOI^ 


Scottish  Agents: 
WM.  ANDERSON    &  SON. 
14  George  Street,  iidmburt^h, 
&  106  Hope  Street,  Glasgow. 


Jiv    Appoiutmrnt   fo 
H.M.    the    Kitr^- 


TRENCH  COAT 

THRESHER   &   GLENNY, 

E&t.  1755*     Military  Tailors  since  the  Crimean  War.     Hst.  1755. 

152  &  153  STRAND,  LONDON,  W.C. 


THE- 


"LAND   &   WATER" 

WRIST   WATCH 

With    UNBREAKA  LE    GLASS. 


The  "LAND  &  WATE.R"  WRFST  WATCH 
is   a  genuine   damp  and  dust-proof  watch, 

w  th  special  screw-in  movement,  unbreakable  glass  and 
luminous  (ace  The  movement  Is  fully  jewelled  and  is 
fit  ed  with  micrometer  regulat  r  to  give  line  aiijustment. 
It  is  co'Tipensated  for  all  positions  and  lemperatures, 
specially  balanced  and  built  to  withstand  shock.  It  is  the 
tinc'-t  qua'ity  Timekeeper  obtainabe  and  has  been  proved 
bv  practical  tests  in  the  trenches,  equal  in  accuracy  to  a 
^0-G  line-i  Chronometer.  For  Nava  and  M  litary  men  it  is 
thr>  Meal  Watch  and  is  being  wo'n  by  numerous  officers 
of  Ivith  services  When  writing  plea>>e  stale  whether 
b'ack  or  wh'fe  dal  is  prelerred,  mentioning  relerence  200. 
At  the  sido  is  illuslrat  d  the  New  STtVLL  WRISTLt  T  as  hifhly 
cecommended  in  the  editorial     <->Uimn  ot    "  I  AND    &    SVATlz-R." 


LUMINOUS 
BEDSIDE^  ALARM 


Unaffected 

by 
Vibration 


Illustration 

TuO'thlriis 
Actual  stte 


4  15-. 


One-day,  iVicAi/ Ca.si',  Luminous  .,iu,,.,  .:  uic«  on 

Mahogany  >land        ....        t'h'fCF 

Wilhoui  Alarm,  iilay—£3  \Ss.      Wlthvul  Alarm, it^ay— £4   lOs. 

Without  .Stand  or  Side  Fi.itures,  /or  carrying  m  pocket.     Prices  : — 

Oxydised.  t,i  ISs.    Silver,  £4  lOs.    '9-ct.  Qold,  ill  10s. 


The  •■  '.Hid  &  Water       Wnst  .»alrh,  with 
Itiihre.ikable    Glass  and    Luminous     IJial 


£4 


STEVEL  WRISTLET 

self -ad  WiUihU-— fits  any 
SI!'-  n'ttst  Of  anv  ptr*.  of 
arm.  Stmne  -md  duri- 
bl-,  ptmitlm^  walch  to 
bt  lurnd  QViT  an  worn 
face  do:fiufirds  Ihtis 
dom^  iwa\  with  dtat 
ptot  rtori. 

Silver  Plated.  -  tliS 
By  post.  .    ii/U 


C 


Ohta'nnh'c  only  from — 


e^  .s-s.    BIRCH    &    GAYDON,    Ltd. 

( Wuiih    and   Teihnk-al    Instrument    Makers  to  t4ie   Admiralty). 

153    ^ENCHUKCH    SI     Etl,    LONDON,    EC. 

......  «rwfc-i9  PICCADILLY  ARCADK.  LONDON     (Late   Joltn    narwi=«). 


A  thoroughly  r<liahle  compiss* 
at  ahoiit  half  the  price  usually 
cliaryed       for      oiw      ol       similar 

quality  and  flnisli.  The  coio- 
pas--  u  atxnirate.  fully  Itiminous, 
uith  a  luminous  fiizlit-line  t>:i 
the  uluss.  60  that  it  i^  etjiiallv 
ii-iifiil  for  day  or  niyht  work. 
The  card  steadies  with  iinii?nat 
rapidity,  enuolin-j  observations 
to  t)e  taken  quickly,  and  the 
lull;  of  the  in.^^trurnen^  is  no 
more  than  that  of  a  ttat  dre^-^ 
uutt'h.  It  is  the  In-st  i-ontpa**-* 
olitninahle  for  s«rvk-e  worl  at  m 
rea.^onahlc  price,  and  will  'n!:i' 
all  uses  hut  tho***  tn  \vhii:h  ;• 
pri-^in   sight    is  esfendal. 


The  "LAND  &  WATL.R"  COMPASS 


ia/<; 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII   No.  2856    ,r™:        THURSDAY    FEBRUARY  i.  iqiy         [;;'m^w'^,^^^|:,^,;]   '^^^^^"^J^^i^^li^ 


Bji    Loaii   RaematlctiTf 


ttPWtWMJWWWIM.i  JM  Mt'^mFT^ 


Dratin   sjrclusively  lor  "Land  I;    Wattr' 


The  Road  to  Victory 

'  England  expects  this  day  that  every  man  will  do  his  duty " 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  I,   1917. 


THE  HIDDEN  HAND." 


Mechanic :  The  wheels  aren't  running 
parallel,  sir  I  They're  half-an-inch  out 
of  truth. 

Dunlop :  Misalignment,  you  know,  is,  so  to 
speak,  "The  Hidden  Hand."  Nothing 
causes  so  much  mischief  with  tyres, 
and  the  average  motorist  can't  locate 
the  trouble  till  the  mischief's  done. 

Users  of  T>unlop — or  any  other—tyres  can 
have  the  alignment  of  their  wheels  tested 
free  of  charge  at  any  of  the  Company's 
T>epots. 


DUNLOP      RUBBER       CO.,      LTD., 

FOUNDERS    OF    THE    PNEUMATIC    TYRE     INDUSTRY 
PARA      MILLS,      ASTON      CROSS,      BIRMINGHAM! 
OF      ALL    MOTOR      AGENTS. 


FebiLUiiy  i,  nji; 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,    W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  1.   1917 

CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I 
:> 

4 
7 

10 


The  Road  to  Victory.     By  Louis  Kaeniaekers 

Waiting  for  Plans.     (Leader) 

The  Carpathian  Defence.     By  Hilaire  Belloc 

Creating  a  Panic.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

Value  of  the  Mark.     By  T.  H.  Penson 

Psychology  of  the  Workshop.     By  Arthur  Kitson        12 

E.xpulsion  of  Turkey  from  Europe.     By  Sir  WiUiani 

1^3  msay  14 

Joffre  and  Nivelle.     By  Charles  Dawbarn  15 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  17 

The  Ciolden  Triangle.     Bv  Maurice  Leblanc  18 

riie  West  End  "  24 

Ivit  and  Equipment  xi 


WAITING     FOR     PLANS 

EVERY  household  in  the  realm  must  be  familiar 
by  now  with  the  vital  necessity  of  strict  economy 
ill  food.  It  is  in  a  sense  an  economy  not  difficult 
to  practise,  for  the  British  style  of  living  gener- 
ally has  been  wasteful-  in  the  extreme.  This  has  been 
mainly  due  to  the  ease  with  which  all  kinds  of  food  were 
available  in  the  past,  provided  thoie  was  money.  Now, 
by  a  parado.x,  while  money  is  more  plentiful  than  before 
among  the  working  classes,  food  is  more  difficult  to  obtain. 
A  new  system  of  economy  is  being  widely  practised, 
sometimes  no  doubt  foolishly  through  iguorance,  but  we 
fail  to  perc■ei^■e  what  good  ])urpose  can  be  ser\-ed  by 
I'ri'uuiture  annoimcemcuts  of  "  Rations  AH  Round," 
>uch  as  was  made  at  Leicester  the  other  day.  War  or 
no  war,  selfishness  abounds  ;  among  the  baser  sort  at 
once  a  rush  takes  place  to  lay  in  stocks,  dislocating  local 
markets  and  causing  needless  distress  to  level-headed 
folk  ;  and  doubtless  too  among  firms  there  arc  Josephs 
iu  the  land  who,  by  means  of  those  modern  storehouses 
— cold  storage  sheds — prepare  themselves  for  the  lean 
months.  For  the  lean  months  are  coming  ;  of  that  we 
are  well  assured,  and  how  lean  they  may  prove  to  be 
depends  upon  the  actions  of  to-day. 

When  the  present  Go\'ernment  entered  on  its  labours, 
we   were  told  that  henceforth  tiie  country  would  be  ruled 
\\  ith  a  firm  hand,  and  a  single  voice.     Everyone  rejoiced. 
But  the  firm  hand  has  yet  to  make  itself  felt,  and  many 
conflicting    voices    are    in    the    air.     The     Agricultural 
Department   and    the    Food   Ministry  seem     to   be   at 
cro.ss   purposes.     A   genius  in    the  former  department, 
to  give  a  lead  to  Lord  Devonport,  prepares  a  monograph 
on  sprats  and  how  to  cook  them  and  j)ublishes  it  in  the 
M'ry  week  they  go  out  of  season.     It  may  have  been 
intended  for  a  joke,  but  its  exactly  the  sort  of  jest  that 
shakes  confidence  in  the  very  department  that  at  this ' 
juncture  requires  all  the  public  support  and  sympathy 
which  it  can  enlist.     Has  anything  yet  been  definitely 
arranged  about  the  forthcoming  price  of  farm  produce  ? 
^\■hen  are  farmers  to  be  given  a  fixed  guarantee  over  a 
period  of  years  that  the  price  of  wheat  shall  not  fall  below 
a  certain  minimum  ?     Fanners  are  human  ;    they  have 
their  weaknesses  like  other  llesh,  and  they  cannot  be 
expected  to  provide  the  extra  food  which  is  urgently 
re(juired,  at  their  own  expense.     Agriculture  has  been 
deliberately  neglected    and  bullied  in  the  past,  so  that 
even  now  it  is  difficult  for  the  public  mind  to  grasp  tlu; 
Iruth  Uiiil  it  is  a  skilled  industry,  and  that  the  fanner  and 


the  farm  labourer  who  are  ot  service,  liave  to  keep  in  con- 
stant use  technical  know^ledge,  the  finer  part  of  which 
is  only  acquired  through  experience. 

People  arc  beginning  to  grow  restive  imder  the  ^•a^ying 
!ei)orts   and   rumours   that   are   current.     It   had   been 
thought  that-  authoritative  statements  would  be  issued 
before  this,  telling  in  the  jjlainest  language  what  steps 
are  to  be  taken  to  assure  the  increase  of  produce  of  all 
kinds  which  before  the  summer  is  out  will  be  badly  wanted. 
But  nothing  definite  is  announced.     No  doubt  there  is 
an  immensity  of  detail  to  be  handled,  but  that  does  not 
explain  the  confiict  of  opinions  and  views  between  one 
Department    and    another.     Officials   have    to   bear   in 
mind  that  never  in  the  history  of  the  nation  have  the 
people  broken  so  completely  with  tradition  ;    they  have 
without    murmur,    nay    gladly,     given    up     cherished 
principles  behcving  that  thereby  they  are  doing    their 
best  in  this  great  struggle  for  freedom  and  humanity ; 
wherefore  they  are  not  in  a  mood  to  accept  conventional 
apologies  for  delay  from  Government  servants,  that  is, 
their  own  servants,  and  they  do  expect  that  this  Govern- 
ment on  wfiich  they  have  bestowed  the  most  plenary 
powers  shall  act  with  promptness  and  decision,  and  shall 
at  least  take  the  trouble  to  put  its  plans  and  schemes  into 
lucid  language. 

Mr.  Neville  Chamberlain's  lirst  manifesto  is  a  dejilor- 
able   example   of  bad   draughtsmanship,    giving  rise  to 
needless    iiiisunderstandings,    the    worst    being    due    to 
the  omission  of  all  reference  to  women.     If  the  voluntary 
principle  promises  not  to  ^vork,  the  country  will  accept 
conscription  without  demur,  but  what  is  first  wanted  is 
a  clean  cut  scheme,  showing  exactly  the  amount  of  male 
and  female  labour  required,  and  in  what  lields  of    life. 
At  present,  so  far  as  one  can  discern,  there  is  practically 
no  organisation  in  this  direction.     Men  are  to  be  shovelled 
in  and  shovelled  out  haphazard — just  as  they  may  chance 
to  comi'.     One  cause  of  all  this  confusion  is  no  doubt  duo 
to  the  multiplication  of    sub-departments.     Many    new 
Departnients  have  been  called  into  existence  during  the 
war,   but  the  name  of  the  sub-departments  is  legion. 
Had  it  been  a  little  more  difficult  to  provide  comfortable 
quarters  for  all  these   new  staffs,  we  believe  this  in  itself 
would  have  acted  as  a  salutary  check  in  keeping  down  the 
size  of  establishments,  but  as  private  mansions,  clubs, 
hotels,    blocks   of   offices  can   be   commandeered   by  a 
stroke  of  the  pen,  to  say  nothing  of  buildings  springing 
up  like  mushrooms  over  lawns,  gardens  and  lakes,  the 
inducement  has  been  all  the  other  wa\',  and  tlie  more 
numerically  important  ^  sub-departmental  manager  can 
make  his  section  appear  to  be,  the  better  chance  he  has  of 
comfortable  cjuarters.     It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  to  look  into  this  question  of  housing 
means  that  before  any  more  clubs,  hotels,  etc.,  are  com- 
mandeered, the  Cabinet  will  assure  itself  that  the  build- 
ings already  seized  are  properly  occupied. 

On  Saturday  the  Prime  Minister  is  to  address  his  own 
constituents,  and  much  interest  is  ttiken  in  his  speech. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  he  will  speak  plainly  on  the  food  ques- 
tion and  on  tlie  steps  taken  to  increase  food  production. 
For  many  months  it  was  a  common  saying  that  the 
people  of  this  countr^y  did  not  understand  what  war  really 
means.  They  do  imderstand  it  now,  and  in  every  class 
of  life,  and  are  willing  to  endmie  hardship  provided  they 
realize  it  is  part  of  the  price  of  victory  they  are  called 
upon  to  pav'.  But  the  impression  must  not  be  permitted 
to  grow  that  tlxis  hardship  is  in  the  main  due  Ic 
dilatoriness  or  muddling  on  the  part  of  the  responsible 
members  of  the  Administration.  Time  moves  on  : 
no  well-defined  plan  or  scheme  ensues,  and  men  are  be- 
ginning to  wearj'  of  asking,  "When  is  it  to  appear." 
This  sharp  spell  of  winter  has  given  agriculture  a  little 
leisure,  but  when  it  breaks,  is  I\Ir.  Prothcro  ready  t^  -.ind 
to  the  fields  all  Hands  that  are  wanted  ? 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  i,  1917 


The  Carpathian  Defence 


By   Hiliare   Belloc 


WE  arc -at  this  moment  pa^sing  tlirougli  that 
pause  in  the.  great  war  which  immediately 
precedes  final  action  and  its  most  critical 
phase.  Dm-ing  so  tense  (and  short)  a  silence 
it  is  of  little  profit  to  speculate  upon  the  date  and  manper 
of  its  conclusion.  We  shall  do  better  to  use  the  slight 
leisure  for  an  examination  and  summary  of  the  strategical 
work  accomplished  under  Russian  direction  in  the  East, 
and  in  mastering  the  character— now  that  this  character 
can  be  seen  as  a  whole — of  the  defence  in  Roumania.- 

The  enemy's  Romnanian  advance  has  now"  been 
checked  for  25  days.  It  is  presumed  by  most  observers 
that  it  is  exhausted,  and  that  as  many  as  possible  of  his  ' 
divisions  and  of  his  heavy  batteries  independent  of  these, 
are  in  process  of  withdrawal.  However  that  may  be 
land  it  is  probable)  the  whole  storv  of  the  campaign  is 
dominated  bv  the  so-called  "  Putna-Screth  Line."  which 
is  in  full  the' line  of  the  middle  Carpathians  (or  Vtaiicii  -^ 
hills),  the  Putna  and  the  Sereth.  and  Mhich  rougliUy 
corresponds  to  the  frontiers  of  Moldavia.       •  .'. 

It  is  now  clear  that  this  I'utna-.Sereth  line  marks  one  of 
Die  cliief  episodes  of  this  great  war  and  that  the  history 
of  the  great  war  will  include  among  its  chapters  "  The 
actions  of  the  Putna- Sereth  line."  as  it  will  include  those 
upon  the  Xarew,  upon  the  Bzura,  the  Aisne,  and  the 
other  river  obstacles  where  the  successiA-e  exhaustion 
of  the  enemy  has  been  accomplished.  For  whether 
it  is  the  intention  of  the  Austro-German  command  still 
tjo  atteiiipt  a. forcing  of  the  present  line  and  \\hciher,, 
if  this '  be .  their  intention,  they  should  find  it  possible  / 
or- no.  it. is  , this  oKstacle,  used  as  the  Russians  have 
used  it,  which  stands  out  as  the  principal  military 
episode  in  the  Roumanian  campaign.  The  time  is  grow- 
ing short.  The  Roumanian  adventure  cannot  occupy 
t he  stage  very' mucl^  longer.  In  the  nature  of  things 
the  Roumanian  corner  will  eventually  be  cjuite  pver^ 
shadowed. 

It  is  generally  conjectured,  as  I  have  just  said,  that 
the  enemy  have  already  begun  to  withdraw  certain 
divisions  from  Roumania.  It  may  well  be  so.  He  had 
in  fidl  use  at  one  moment  over  thirty  between  the 
Black  Sea  and  the  Buko\ina.  The  existing  line  would 
not  demand  at  the  most  (if  it  were  held  upon  the  de- 
fensive) more  than  twenty  divisions.  Whether,  how- 
ever, he  has  actually  withdrawn  these  divisions  or -no 
we  cannot  tell  until  they  are  icTentified  in  some  fashion 


or  other  elsewhere,  and  of  this  we  liave,  as  yet.   no   evi- 
dence.    But  he  probably  has  begun  moving  them. 

It  is  advisable;  then,  to  cany  with  us,  in  order  that 
we  may  imderstand  the  future  actions,  not  only  in  this 
field  but  elsewhere,  a  summary  of  the  efforts  which  the 
enemy  has  been  now  making  for  over  a  month  in  some 
places,  ovei"  three  weeks  in  others,  to  restore  a  war  o I 
movement  in  the  Roumanian  held  and  to  see  in  what 
fashion  he  has  becn'exhausted  and  checked  by  our  Allies 
in  this  effort. 

The  reader  is  already  acquainted  with  the  Putna- 
.Sereth  line  through  the  plain  and  the  recent  efforts  to 
force  that  hue.  hrst  before  Focsani,  then  before  (ialatz, 
and  lastly  before  Fundeni.  1  propose  this  week  ti> 
survey,  very » briefly,  the  determining  movements  which 
blocked  him  on  his  left  in  the  Carpathians  and  so  pre- 
vented the  Sereth-Putna  line  from  being  turned. 

The  first  thing  we  have  to  grasp  is  the  sharpness  of 
this  division  in  the  hue  between  its  mountainous 
Carpathian  portion  and  its  sector  through  the  plains. 
,The  line,  through  the  plain  is  faced  by  the  enemy  IXth 
Army,  the  bodies  holding  the  Carpathian  valleys  are 
checking  the  two  mountain  armies  of  Gerok  and  Ruiz. 
Next  Me  must  see  how  the  enemy  disposed  his  forces 
in  the  attempt  to  turn  that  line  where  such  an  out- 
Hanking  would  have  been  ■  decisive,  in  the  Carpathian 
sector,  and  how  he  failed. 

The  Carpatliian  sector  is  discontinuous.  It  does  not 
consist  in  a  long  line' of  trenches  manned  from  one  end 
to  the  other,  nor  even  of  troops  completely  linked  up. 
It  is  concerned  with  the  issues  from  certain  valleys, 
the  mouths  of  which  stand  far  apart  andthe  blocking  of 
which  occupies  somewhat  less  disjointed  groups  of  men  on 
the  Russo-Roumanian  side. 

There  are  three  bodies  here  concerned.  One  on  the 
far  north,  which  need  not  long  detain  us.  The  other 
two  on  the  Oituz  and  the  Susita,  which  were  the  main 
bodies.  Upon  the  extreme  north  next  to  the  Bukovina 
frontier  you  have  a  pass  with  a  good  road  from  liungary 
over  into  Roumania,  but  no  railway  beyond  Piatra. 
The  summit  of  this  pass  is  well  within  Hungarian  terri- 
tory. The  defence  of  it  is  being  maintained  at  this 
moment  close  to  the  frontier.  Compaiatively  small 
forces  are  here  engaged  because  no  great  strategical 
result  could  follow  an  advance  through  this  region.  It 
is  a  fuU'forty  miles  away  from  the  next  moimtain  road. 
There  is  nothing  but  a  mass  of  tangled  wooded  hills  anil 
steep  ravines  between.  The  real  business  begins  with 
that  group  of  Carpathian  "V^alleys.  the  northernmost  of 
which  is  watered  by  the  Trotus  and  the  southernmost  b\' 
the  Casinu.  It  is  here  that  you  find  the  first  serious 
group  of  t"lie  invaders.  I  have  included  it  in  one  bracket  on 
Map  II.,  and  numbered  its  separate  sections  A,  B,  C, 
and  D. 

If  the  reader  will  look  at  Map  H.  he  will  see  that  ail 
these  valleys  converge  at  the  point  of  Onesti  and,  that 
the  arrival  of  an  enemy  force  at  Onesti  would,  as  has  been 
pointed  out  several  times  in  past  articles,  compel  the 
abandonment  of  everything  above  it  in  the  mountains. 
It  would  turn  the  main  Putna-Sereth  line  which  our  Allies 
hold.  It  would  immediately  threaten  one  of  their 
main  avenues  of  supply,  the  Sereth  ^'alley  Railwax', 
and  it  might  even  cut  the  .Mlied  body  in  Central  Roumania 
from  the  main  Russian  forces  to  the  north.  The  attempt 
to  reach  Onesti  has  been  going  on  for  exactly  a  month. 
It  is  under  the  command  of  General  Vt)n  Gerok,  and  is 
dependent  on  the  co-operation  of  four  separate  fragments, 
(•acli  acting  in  its  own  valley ;  A  in  that  of  the  Trotus, 
B  in  tliat  of  the  I'z,  C  in  that  of  the  Oituz  pass,  and  1> 
in  that  of  the  Casinu  torrent.  The  method  is  that 
which  geographical  circumstance  has  imposed.  0\m- 
enemy  column,  supplied  by  the  railway  and  a  tolerablf 
though  not  very  good  road,  had  come  down  the  Trotus 
\alley  to  about  the  point  marked  on  the  sketch  map,    a 


rebniar\-  T,  lOlT' 


Land  &•  water 


1 5k 


month  ago.  A  second  had  come  down  to  the  Uz  valley 
just  up  to  the  frontier  point  also  marked  on  the  map.  A 
third  following  the  road  over  the  Oituz  Pass  had  got 
just  beyond  the  frontier,  and  the  fourth  coming  down 
the  Casinu  was  the  nearest  to  its  object  when  the  check 
was  imposed. 

The  reader  will  perceive  that  this  effort  in  the  middle 
Carpathians  of  the  Oituz  and  Trotus  Passes  is  an  exact 
repetition  of  the  stragtegy  imposed  by  Berlin  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  Roumanian  campaign  :  Once  again 
ronverging  cohmms  have  the  mission  of  enveloping,  if 
they  can,  an  enerr.y  force.  Trusting  to  a  superiority 
in  lire  power  to  com^  el  a  gradual  retirement  upon  each  of 
the  radii  which_ diverge  from  Oncsti,  they  hope  to  reach 
that  point  by  their  right  (that  is  by  column  D),  cut  off 
everything  in  the  valleys  above  and  achieve  a  local 
decision.  The  advantage  of  such  a  plan,  of  course, 
if  it  comes  off,  is  that  you  capture  great  numbers  of 
your  opponent  and  mucli  rtf  his  material.  If  you  arc 
perfdctly  successful  you  may  annihilate  his  whole  army. 
The  disadvantage  is  that  it  requires  the  most  exact 
co-ordination,  and  that  is  \-ery  clifiicult  to  maintain 
in  a  tangled  mountain  country  with  only  two  tolerable 
roads  upon  a  total  front  of  forty  miles.  It  is  a  clock- 
work plan  and  so  far  the  clockwork  has  been  stopped. 

The  nearest  the  enemy  has  hitherto  come  to  success  was 
about  January  loth,  when  the  marching  right  column 
of  Gerok  had  got  down  the  ^asinu  to  well  past  the 
Monastery  which  takes"  its'  nafne  fmm  that  ri\-er  and 


seemed  in  a  fair  way  to  reach  Onesti  before  the  15th. 
But  the  opportunities  for  reinforcing  are  not  bad  on  oiir 
Ally's  side,  a  main  railway  and  a  good  road  lay.  just 
behind  him.  They  reinforced,  and  on  the  next  daj', 
Thursday  the  nth,  not  only  checked  this  advance  of 
(lerok's  4th,  or  right-hand  column  T>,  but  threw  it  back 
for  more  than  a  mile.  The  two  opponents  liave  sinc'e 
lain,  I  think,  opposite  each  other, .  entrenched  upon 
jiositions  which  each  occupied  at  the   end   of   that  day. 

The  next  group  of  the  enemy  in  the  Carpathians  li^s 
,to  the  south  of  this  Onesti  attempt,  is  separate  froni  it 
and  even  divergent.  It  is  concerned  with  the  debouching 
from  the  Upper  Valley  of  the  Susita  and  of  tlie  Pntria 
itself.  Here  the  ground  has  sharpty  separated  the  two 
groups  of  the  enemy.  They  are  not  only  acting  inde- 
pendently, but  ai-tually  face  in  different  directions  and 
each  undertaking  its  individual  task  as  though  it  were.-a 
small  sejiarate  campaign  of  its  own. 

ihe  ri\-ers  that  How  down  into  the  Trotus  Valley 
run,  on  the  whole,  north-cast.  The  Susita,  tbc-Putna 
and  their  tributaries  run  south  or  south-east.  Group 
I.,  therefore  (acting  under  Gerok),  had  for  its  four 
converging  columns  an  average  direction  just  north 
'of  east.  (Jroup  II.  has  for  its  three  columns  an  average 
direction  well  south  of  east.  This  .group  II.  -is -under 
(rcheral  Von  Ruiz.  Its  left  is  in  the  hills  to  the  north  of. 
its:  centre  occupies,  the  narrow  and  diffiicult,  but  dry 
Upper  Susita  Valley.  Its  right  is  stretched  out  in  a 
cordon   somewhere,  south •- of   thc_'Putrja,  "  afi'd'  in   the 


LAND    t'i     WATER 


Frbniarv  i,  1017 


noifiliboiiihoud  ot  (MobosU  links  ui>  in  tourli  witii  tlu 
left  uf  tiic  main  IXtli  (.•ncniv  army  whi'h  occupies  all 
I  lie  ])lain. 

It  is  ckiu-  tluit  tlu-^iuuiJ  ul  (jiiKual  von  Rwiz  mn^t.  m 
tlu'ory,  try  to  pivot  on  its  right  and  march  by  its  left 
just  iis  the  group  of  C.orok  to  thi-  north  must  pivot  on  its 
left  and  march  by  its  right,  for  only  so  could  oven  a  lofal 
d(ci>ion  bo  arri\ed  at.  f.erok's  businc>s,  as  wo  saw, 
was  to  cut  off  as  manv  guns  and  men  as  possible  from  tlu- 
main  bodv  by  reaching  Oncsti.  and  so  to  get  iii  between 
i\vo  main"  fra"ctions  of  our  Allies.  Ruiz's  business  is  to 
.  I  feet  the  same  thing  conversely  and  to  open  the  breach 
upon  his  side  by  pushing  more  and  more  down  towards 
the  south-east.  "  The  \allevs  lend  tliomselves  to  this  and 
ihe  whole  thing  may  be  expressed  in  a  diagram  thus  : 


L 


III 


7)ij>ec&icn.  of 
VaZZeys 


To  break  White's  line  of  forces  at  C,  Black  (in  two  ((roups)  thrusts 

«Jiveri5ently  with  the  riiJht  of  feroup  I  at  A,  pivoting  on  D  and  with  the 

leit  of  group  II  at  B  pivoting  on  E. 

Where  it  is  clearlj'  the  business  of  the  commanders 
A  and  B  to  force  a  breach  at  C  by  pushing  each  at  right 
angles  to  the  other  against  his  opponent's  line  at  this 
jioint.  But  the  theoretical  working  of  such  a  plan, 
although  the  direction  of  the  watercourses  lend  thcm- 
•hos  to  it,  is  marred  by  certain  topographical  accidents 
of  the  regirai. 

liie  first  and  most  important  of  these  accidents  is  the 
ridge  which  runs  from  the  Susita  Valley  to  the  Casinu 
Valley,  which  was  remarked  three  weeks  ago  in  these 
( f)lumns  as  forming  one  of  the  main  standbys  of  the 
line  upon  which  the  Allies  hoped  to  check  the  Austro- 
(ierman  advance,  and  which  I  will  call  from  a  village  on 
its  slopes  the  (rampirle  Kidge.  This  Ridge  is  fairly 
uniform  ;  nearly  2.000  feet  above  the  plain  and  some 
1,500  above  the  water  level  of  the  valleys.  It  has  for 
;ili  this  month  held  up  Ruiz's  left-hand  column.  The 
main  attack  upon  it  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
main  attack  of  Gcrok  to  the  north  upon  January  loth 
and  1  ith.  the  two  movements  being  obviously  con- 
<  orted  in  cormnon.  But  this  attack  of  Ruiz's  upon  the 
lidgc  was  defeated  as  was  his  colleague's  simultaneous 
.ittack  down  the  Cisinu  Valley  on  the  .same  day.  The 
ridge  still  holds  and  so  long  as  it  holds  the  enemy  cannot 
hope  to  turn  his  op])onent  in  this  region. 

Ruiz's  central  column  has  indeed  got  further  down  the 
>usita  Valley  by  nearly  a  day's  march,  while  his  right 
liand  column  (he  is  acting,  I  think,  with  three)  is  now 
stretclicd  out  in  cofdon,  that  is  in  detached  small  bodies 
to  the  point  whcTc  the  Putna  leaves  the  mountains  on  the 
slopes  f)f  the  Odobesti  foothills  ;  it  is  there  that  Ruiz  links 
u|)  with  the  Irft  of  the  main  enemy  IXth  army  in  the  plain. 
It  miust.lx:  oonfc,"ssed  that  Ruiz,  though  he  has  so  far  failed. 


ii.iN  fulfilled  ail  iMUHuiv  iliiiK  nil  i.i-~k.  lie  lias  marched 
with  A  considerable  force  in  the  depth  of  winter  across 
summits  of  from  j.uoii  to  j,5oo  feet  through  denseh- 
wooded  territory  and  badly  ravined  and  cul-uj)  ground, 
and  that  entirely  by  woodland  paths  or  rough  tracks,  which 
he  must  have  had  to  consolidate  as  he  went  along.  On 
liis  left  that  one  of  his  columns  which  is  nearest  any 
iKise  of  regular  supply  is  more  than  twenty  miles  from 
a  good  road.  B\'  this  time,  liovvevcr,  his  right  has  been 
amply  supplied  from  the  main  Focsani  railway  and  its 
Odobesti  branch. 

So  much  for  the  two  groups  that  have  been  acting  in 
the  mountains  and  have  now  been  held  up  during  the 
whole  of  this  month.  They  have  failed  because  their 
main  combined  effort,  deli\-ere(l  as  we  have  seen  on  the 
lotli  and  nth  of  Ihe  month,  was  defeated  by  the  Russians 
and  Roumanians:  That  of  (ierok  in  the  Casinu  Vnlliy 
just  beyond  the  .Monastery  and  that  of  Ruiz  north  of  the 
Susita  Valley  upon  the  Campirle  ridge.  Their  failure 
has  been  effected  by  what  I  have  called  "  The  Carpathian 
Defence,"  and  has  forbidden  the  turning  of  the  Russo- 
Roumanian  line,  and  has  so  decided  its  security. 

The  positions  in  tlie  i)lain  we  have  no  need  to  study  in 
detail  for  we  have  been  dealing  with  them  during  the  last 
two  weeks.  What  wc  have  chiefly  to  note  is  that  the 
mass  of  the  enemy's  forces  have  been  dei)loyed  here  over 
a  space  between  the  Braila  marshes  and  the  Odobesti 
range  (where  Ruiz's  group  ends)  of  rather  more  than  sixty 
miles.  All  that  space  is  under  the  one  command  of  the 
<)th  army.  Its  left  in  the  region  of  iMicsani  is  nnd(>r  tlio 
command  of  Dehnensingen.  Its  right  appears  to  be  of 
mixed  character  and  to  include  two  Turkish  divisions. 
It  has  now  foV  three  weeks  stood  in  front  of  the  obstacle 
])resented  to  it,  and  remains  almost  exactly  where  it 
was  after  the  enemy's  entry  into  Focsani  late  upon 
January  7th  or  early  on  the  8th. 

The  enemy's  efforts  as  a  whole  will  be  the  better  under- 
stood if  wc  note  the  dates  upon  which  he  has  put  forth 
a  special  weight  of  offensive  action,  beginning  with  the 
occupation  of  F^ocsani  and  the  final  establishment  of  the 
lines  upon  which  our  Allies  still  rest. 

It  was,  as  we  have  seen,  upon  January  loth  and  nth 
that  the  main  effort  was  being  made  by  the  \\\o 
mountain  groups  to  turn  that  line  by  their  right.  That 
is,  it  was  upon  those  two  days  that  tfie  enemy's  left  was 
thrown  into  play  with  a  special  \-igour.  The  knowledge 
that  this  had  failed  was  probably  conveyed  to  Mackensen '  s 
licadquarters  in  the  plain  by  the  night  of  Thursday  the 
nth  and,  at  any  rate,  not  later  than  the  morning  of 
I'Viday  the  12th.  There  immediately  follows  upon  the 
13th  and  14th  the  attempt  to  force  the  centre  in  front  of 
Focsani.  That  in  its  turn  fails,  and  you  get  immediately 
afterwards,  obviously  by  an  order  transmitted  almost 
contemporaneously  with  the  knowledge  of  this  failure, 
the  attack  upon  the  extreme  right  in  front  of  Galatz. 
This  group  in  front  of  (ialatz  does  not  form  part  of  the 
IXth  Army  proper,  but  it  is  in  touch  with  and  supported 
by  the  troops  on  the  extreme  right  of  the  IXth  arm\'. 
The  attack  on  (lalatz  was  planned  contemporaneously 
with  the  movement  in  front  of  F'ocsani.  But  the  last 
supreme  effort  which  ended  in  the  Russian  recapture  of 
Vadeni,  came  after  the  failure  in  front  of  Focsani.  Hardly 
had  the  attempt  upon  the  Galatz  end  of  the  line  failed 
in  its  turn  when  the  big  fighting  for  the  Fundeni  lo5)p 
began  which  was  the  subject  of  this  article  last  week 
and  the  week  before.  The  Germans  reached  the  right 
bank  of  the  river  four  days  after  they  had  failed  in  front 
of  Galatz. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this  very  rapid  succession  of 
thrusts,  none  of  which  have  yet  succeeded  ?  It  means 
two  things  quite  clearly.  First,  that  the  enemy  has  not 
in  this  held  a  remaining  mass  of  manceuvre.  There 
arc  those  who  ha\-c  thought  he  was  ti.sing  one  because 
they  noticed  the  chosen  character  of  the  troops  who 
attacked  at  Fundeni  (regiments  for  the  most  part  from 
the  2nd  Army  Corps  Pomeranian),  and  also  because  the 
separation  ofthe  points  of  attack  looked  like  the  use  of 
an  independent  mass  of  manceuvre  alternately  at  one 
point  and  another.  But  when  one  carefully  compares 
the  dates  and  marks  the  distances  one  sees  that  such  a  thing 
is  impossible.  The  troops  that  attacked  in  front  ot 
Focsani  were  those  already  present  upon  that  sector  ; 
the  troops  that  failed  at  Galatz  we  know  were  the  same 
as  had  been  on  the  Danube  under  Korsch   for  weeks. 


February  i,  191 7 


LAiND    &    WATER 


The  only  doubtful  point  is  wliethcr  the  eittiick  on  Fundeni 
was  not  lielped  by  some  reinforcement.  But  even  that 
is  improbable.  The  (ierman  Press,  more  than  a  week 
before  the  attack  on  the  Fundeni  loop,  spoke  of  it  as  the 
A'ulnerable  spot  where  the  greatest  weight  would  be 
concentrated,  and  we  have  little  reason  to  doubt  that  the 
Prussian  troops  towards  the  right  of  the  IXth  amiy  here 
were  occupying  their  original  stations. 

The  next  thing  shown  by  this  series  of  offensives  is 
haste  :  The  determination,  and  j)erhaps  the  necessity, 
to  effect  the  enemy's  object  in  Roumania  and  to  throw  the 
Russians  behind  the  Sercth  before  the  end  of  the  month. 

It  is  possible,  as  1  have  said,  that  the  shortening  of 
the  time  now  available  for  separate  action  in  this  one 
held  has  already  led  to  the  withdrawal  of  certain  units. 
Anyhow,  the  enemy  remains,  at  the  moment  of  writing, 
that  is,  at  the  end  of  the  month,  where  he  found  himself 
in  the  hrst  w(.»ek  of  it.  For  the  actions  of  January 
5th,  6th,  and  7th,  which]  brought  him- to  the  Putna  and 
the  Sereth  lines  were  the  end  of  his  advance  across 
W'allachia,  and  have  so  far  had  no  sequel. 

REGENT  GERMAN   PROPAGANDA 

.Vmid  the  complaints  that  are  levelled  against  the 
defects  of  the  English  propaganda — and  they  are  well 
deserved — ^we  must  not  forget  certain  crudities  in  the 
enemy's  very  laborious  efforts.  1  hu\e  before  me  tliis 
week  (piite  a  number  of  s])ecimens  sent  me  from  the 
I'nited  States,  all  of  them  appearing  within  a  few  days 
I  if  the  time  when  the  mail  left  and  one  or  two  (in  French) 
from  Switzerland  as  well. 

One  of  these  covers  in  large  type  the  wholt'  of  one 
l)age  of  an  important  i)aper  un  the  Pacilic  Slu])e.  It  is, 
iiki-  nearly  all  tlie.se  tilings,  ostensibly  written  Iw  an 
American  for  Americans,  but  it  clearly  proceeds  from 
the  Cierinan  Bureau  in  the  Fast.  This  whole  page  turns 
upon  exactly  the  same  sort  of  perfectly  irresponsible 
])ropliesy  as  were  those  others  which  1  have 
quoted  here  in  the  past.  My  reacers  will  remember 
the  gratuitous  folly  of  the  enemy  in  fixing  an  exact  date 
for  his  entry  into  the  town  of  X'erdun,  which  he  called 
"  the  fall  of  that  fortress."  He  tixed  it  for  August  3rd, 
I'lXb,  and  he  seems  to  be  contident  that  ineptitudes  of 
this  sort  can  be  repeated  indelinitely  without  lo.ss  of 
ci^nhdcnce.  For  he  is  sayiiii^  novj  with  equal  detail  ami 
insistence  that  he  will  be  in  Odessa  bv  next' May. 

Whether  he  will  be  in  Odessa  by  next  May  or  behind 
the  Carpathians  at  that  date,  or  where  he  will  be, 
clearly  no  mortal  can  tell,  "liut  apparently  he  thinks 
that  "this  sort  of  highly  jjarticular  and  really  senseless 
])rophesy  raises  him  in  the  eyes  of  neutrals.  "  To  me,  as 
T  supj)ose  to  most  students  of  the  campaign,  the  thing 
is  bewildering— but  there  it  is.  He  must  have  some 
object,  and  at  any  rate  that  is  the  way  he  is  going  about  it. 
-Anyone  who  has  the  leisure  might  do  worse  than 
niake  a  list  of  these  pronouncements  for  the  advantage  of 
history.  There  was  the  detailed  description,  ai)pearing  over 
the  signature  of  Bernhardt  himself,  of  the  w  ay  in  which  the 
line  in  France  was  ifo  be  broken  and  the  whole  of  France 
over-run  in  the  earl\-  summer  of  i(»i6.  There  was  the 
almost  ecpially  detailed  description  of  the  overrunning 
of  Lombard\-.  There  has  further  ai)peared  in  the  last 
few  weeks  the  simple  statement  that  all  Russian  offen- 
sive power  \vould  be  broken  before  this  summer.  J':\'en 
as  I  write  there  comes  a  telegram  (wliich  I  suppose  is 
a(  curate)  that  the  Prussian  :\Iinister  of  War— who  is  a 
public  personage  and  ought  to  weigh  his  words— has 
told  an  American  interxiewer  that  "  he  is  in  no  anxiety 
abuiit  reserves  of  man-power,  for  the  Central  Powers 
ha\e  ample  to  make  up  any  wastage." 

Although  this  last  statement  is  vaguer  than  the  manv 
hundred  other  pieces  of  nonsense  which  have  appeared 
in  the  last  two  years  with  the  same  object,  it  is,  to  people 
who  care  to  reason,  more  astonishing  than  any. 

.\tter  ail.  you  can  projjhesy,  if  you  like,  about  a 
future;  w  liich  is  still  uncertain,  and  you  mav  hope  that 
by  the  time  your  prophesy  falls  due  and" is  fal.silied, 
people  will  have  forgotten  it.  But  the  rate  of  wastage 
and  the  corresponcHng  reserve  of  man-]iow  er  are  things 
known  not  only  to  every  Government  in  ICurope.  but  to 
thousands  of  men  who  arc  following  thi.s  war,  pro- 
fessioml  soldiers  and  laymen.  The  whole  world  knows 
pei-fectlv  Weil  thai   f]i(>  rate  of  real  wastage  is,  with    all 


the  belligerents,  between  tliree  and  four  (and  nearer 
four  times  than  three  times)  the  rate  of  annual  recruitment. 
There  is  nothing  mysterious  or  secret  about  such  figures. 
They  are  the  commonplaces  of  the  whole  war. 

It  is  equally  conmion  knowledge  that  while  the  rate 
of  wastage  is  mucii  the  same  on  a.U  sides,  the  annual 
power  of  recruitment  among  the  Allies  as  a  whole,  is, 
in  round  figures,  double  that  which  it  is  for  the  Central 
Powers  and  their  dependents.  When  a  man  of  Stein's 
position  allows  a  thing  like  that  to  be  printed  under  his 
authority,  it  is  just  as  absurd  as  though  the  British 
First  Lord  were  to  tell  an  American  interviewer  that  the 
efl'ect  of  the  submarines  upon  tonnage  was  insignificant ; 
or  as  though  the  French  Premier  were  to  say  tliat  the 
French  domestic  ])roduction  of  steel  was  so  large  as 
amply  to  meet  that  of  the  enemy. 

If  I  am  asked  why  the  enemy  does  this  kind  of  thing  I 
confess  I  am  at  a  loss  for  a  reply. 

THE    APPROACHING    OFFENSIVE 

I  have  received  so  many  letters  with  regard  to  the 
speculation  in  which  the  newspapers  are  indulging 
about  the  reopening  of  hostilities  on  a  large  scale  in 
the  West  that  I  can  hardly  neglect  them  ;  at  the  same  time 
I  must  repeat  what  I  said  last  week,  wliich  was  that  no 
one  but  the  few  men  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  the 
war  have  any  evidence  before  them  at  all  upon  this 
matter,  and  it  is  further  their  first  duty  to  conceal  all 
tile  facts  they  ha\'e.  All  newspaper  .speculation  ami 
prophecy,  is  either  a  repetition  of  deliberately  projjagated 
enemy    rumours    or    futile  nonsense. 

What  reserve  t^ie  enemy  has  and  how  gravely  inferior 
that  reserve  is  to  the  Allied  reserxe  in  man-power,  is 
as  I  have  just  said,  common  knowledge. 

The  Polish  recruitment  has  failed.  That  is  now 
quite  ceitain.  If  the  (ierman  Fmjjire  chooses  to  call 
Class  191Q,  it  can,  of  valid  boys  of  that  class,  scrape 
together  perhaps  250,000  or  even  300,000  for  its  depots, 
but  as  a  fact  it  has  not  called  iqiq,  and  even  if  it  j)ro- 
l)oses  to  call  that  class  to-morrow  it  will  jiot  be  able  to  use 
any  of  it  for  at  least  three  or  four  months. 

The  large  lines  of  the  problem,  therefore,  arc  per- 
fectly clear.  If  the  enemy  cannot  achieve  success  by 
sea  whether  negatively  by  gradually  strangling  maritime 
communications  by  submarines,  or  ])ositively  by  winning 
a  great  naval  action,  his  only  other  alternative  is  to 
gamble  on  an  early  offensive  in  the  West.  He  cannot 
possibly  get  a  superiority  of  numbers  there.  He  mu.st  take 
the  odds.  By  taking  the  odds,  of  course,  he  shortens 
the  war  against  himself  badly  if  he  loses.  In  other 
words,  the  enemy  is  bound  to  one  of  two  things,  and 
cpiite  possibly  may  attempt  both  of  these  things  (for 
they  are  compatible  as  simultaneous  actions)  a  stroke 
by  sea  and  a  stroke  in  the  west  by  land. 

I  repeat,  that  the  first,  a  naval  operation,  I  am  in- 
competent to  analyse.  It  is  perfectly  clear  on  the  purely 
militar\'  side  (as  a  correspondent  has  well  said)  that  a 
mere  raid  could  do  nothing  decisive  because  of  the 
necessity  of  providing  considerable  artillery,  and  that 
therefore  the  only  decisive  maritime  work  which  couid 
at  the  last  gasp  pre\ent  the  enemy  going  under  would 
be  a  full  \ictory  over  the  larger  units  of  the  British  lleet, 
and  thereby  a  free  hand  for  real  invasion. 

As  to  the  other  limb  of  the  hypothesis,  the  attack 
on  the  West,  if  he  used  pretty  well  all  he  has  in  the  depots 
and  launched  it  o;i  a  new  offensive,  he  would  still  neces- 
sarily meet  a  numerically  superior  foe.  He  would  fight 
his  last  light  with  very  httle  chance  of  success  and  if  Ik; 
failed  he  would  hasten  the  decision  against  him.  He 
cannot  concentrate  anywhere  in  the  West  without  our 
knowing  it.  He  cannot  concentrate  anywhere  in  forces 
superior  to  the  resisting  j^owcr  he  will  meet. 

'Where  he  will  choose  to  concentrate,  whether  it  be  the 
Allied  game  to  let  him  attack  first  or  no,  (it  is  entirely 
for  the  Allied  command  to  choose,  for  it  has  complete 
initiati\e  in  the  matter) ,  where  will  come  the  Allied  c(junt(  r 
strokes  in  case  he  is  so  allowed  to  break  his  head  first, 
neither  I  nor  any  other  mere  student  in  these  affairs  can 
})ossibly  tell,  and  the  few  who  are  in  a  position  to  guess 
at  the  unknown  part  of  the  probiem  (for  they  know  the 
rest)  have  it  as  their  chief  business  in  life  to  prevent 
other  people  hearing  about  it.  We  shall  know  soon 
enoush,  H.   Belloc 


s 


LAiND    &    WATER 


Februuiy  i,  i<jij 


Creating   a    Panic 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


IX  times  like  these  it  is  extraordinarily  difficult  to 
see  J;hings  in  their  right  proportions,  and  to  main- 
tain any  balanced  and  steady  view  of  the  progress 
of  the  war  as  a  whole.  There  are  two  reasons  why 
tills  is  so.  Few  of  tis  have  the  mental  equipment  that 
gives  a  firm  grasp  of  all  the  principles  involved  ;  no 
one  of  us  has  any  complete  knowledge  (jf  e%en  the  most 
material  facts  of  the  case.  It  must  then  be  almost 
normal  to  oscillate  between  too  great  confidence  and  too 
great  alarm,  according  as  our  hopes  or  our  fears  are  fed 
by  sudden  and  more  or  less  unexpected  information. 
^Vhen  war  began  there  can  have  been  no  country  in 
Europe  so  little  prepared  for  thinking  rightly  about  -war 
as  Great  Britain.  And.  as  there  was  no  country  to  which 
the  war  set  such  complicated  problems,  it  would  not  have 
been  surprising  had  the  last  two  and  a  half  years  pro- 
duced succassi\e  phases  of  popular  opinion  running  from 
extremes  of  confidence  to  extremes  of  panic. 

These  commonplaces  are  excellently  illustrated  for  us 
bv  the  recent  development  of  interest  in  the  submarine 
campaign.  For  the  last  six  months  or  more  the 
authorities  have  forbidden  the  publication  of  exact 
statistics  either  of  the  niunber  or  of  the  tonnage  of  the 
ships  destroved  by  the  enemy's  .submarines.  It  is  not 
surprising,  therefore,  that  the  campaign  that  began  in 
August  grew  to  very  large  proportions  before  we  at  all 
realized  what  was  going  forward.  As  there  was  no  steady 
and  regular  information  gi\en  to  the  public  as  to  what 
was  happening,  as  no  precise  interpretation  of  it  was  per- 
mitted, it  inevitably  happened  that  the  realisation  of  the 
facts  was  partial  and  sporadic,  and  that  there  arose  that 
least  desirable  of  all  public  conditions  during  war,  a 
situation  in  which  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
people  were  obsessed  with  the  notion  that  a  desperate 
public  danger  was  threatening  us  and  were  irritated  and 
alarmed  to  find  that  the  great  majority  of  their  fellow 
countrymen,  if  they  could  be  judged  by  their  actions, 
seemed  i:>  be  quite  unaware  of  an\-  new  development 
having  taken  place-.  There  followed,  then,  what  we 
have  seen  so  often  :  violent  efforts  to  agitate  the  public 
conscience  and  the  pubJic  will  into  appreciating  the  gravity 
of  the  facts  and  the  insisting  on  Govenmient  action  to 
meet  them.  The  submarine  campaign  was  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  factors  that  contributed  to  the  fall  of  Mr. 
Asquith's  cabinet.  .\nd  as  it  has  continued  unchecked 
ever  since,  it  is  possible  that  unless  some  measures  are 
taken  to  inform  and  therefore  steady  public  opinion, 
an  effort  may  be  made  to  stampede  us  into  further  and 
more  \iolent  changes  in  the  machinery  of  government. 
How  is  this  danger  to  be  averted  ? 

As  it  arises  very  largely  from  the  pxiblic  having  been 
kept  too  long  in 'ignorance  of  what  was  happening,  I 
cannot  myself  doubt  that  the  first  step  should  be  to 
remove  once  and  for  all  the  veil  of  mystery  that  shrouds 
the  submarine  campaign.  There  have  been  two  stages 
in  concealing  the  facts  from  us.  When  the  war  began 
the  .\dmiralty  issued  weekly  statements  of  the  numbers 
of  ships  entering  and  leaving  British  ports,  and  the  number 
of  casualties,  and  it  attributed  these  casualties  to  their 
several  causes,  action  bv  enemy  ships,  action  by  enemy 
submarines,  and  loss  by  mines.  When  the  .submarine 
campaign  proper  ojjened  in  February  iqi.T,  this  infor- 
mation was  supplemented  by  ;i  pretty  exact  indication 
(tf  the  point  at  which  each  submarine  attack  had  been 
delivered.  Up  to  July  1915,  then,  our  information  about 
the  giuvi'c  dc  to?f/'SC  was  reasonably  complete.  We  knew 
exactly  u.'liat  ships  were  being  lost,  we  knew  how  they  were 
being  lost,  and  we  knew  whci-c  they  were  being  lost.  The 
first  cut  was  made  in  tht:  last  item.  After  July,  we  were 
no  longer  told  where  ships  were  sunk.  Sometimes  it 
would  be  said  that  the  survivors  had  reached  this  or  that 
port  in  boats,  or  had  been  brought  in  by  some  passing 
ship  that  had  picked  up  the  boats  at  .sea,  and  from  this 
it  was  possible  to  gather  whether  the  sinking  had  taken 
place  in  the  \orth  Sea,  the  Atlantic  or  the  ^lediterranean. 
It  was  still  possible,  then,  to  indicate  the  general  lields  of 
activity,  and  to  note  the  periodic  increases  and  decreases 


in  the  intensity  of  the  campaign  as  they  occurred.  But 
last  June  a  second  cut  was  made.  \\'hile  the  bare  fact 
of  each  loss  as  it  occurred  might,  in  most  cases,  still  be 
recorded,  the  press  was  forbidden  to  tabulate  the  infor- 
mation so  given,  or  to  interpret  events  to  their  rcadei-s, 
.Vnd  it  should  be  added  that  from  the  beginning  of  the 
submarine  campaign.no  information  has  been  given,  of 
liie  success  of  the  counter-campaign,  save  in  about  half  a 
(I'izen  instances. 

Results  of  Secrecy 

li  i.>  not  difticult  tu  see  the  military  and  national  argu- 
ment for  a  certain  reserve  and  a  ccridin  .secrecy  in  these 
matters.  It  would  have  been  obvious  folly  to  have  told 
the  enemy  of  e\cry  submarine  of  his  that  we  have  cap- 
tured or  sunk,  or  believed  we  had  sunk.  It  would  ha\o 
been  still  greater  folly  if  we  had  told  him  where  the  boat 
was  when  we  attacked  it.  Similarly  we  can  see  excellent 
reasons  why,  when  merchant  ships  are  sunk  by  submarines, 
we  should  not  let  the  enemy  know,  immediately,  the 
t^xact  area  in  which  this  success  has  been  won.  Again,  we 
can  fully  appreciate  the  fact  that  as  the  credit  of  all  and 
each  of  the  Allies  is  founded  upon  the  judgment  that 
neutrals  form  as  to  the  ultimate  issue  of  the  war  and,  as 
it  is  upon  merchant  .shipping— and  nothing  else — that 
the  possibility  of  our  victory  rests,  it  is  an  obvious  allied 
interest  to  minimise  news  of  this  character.  All  these 
considerations  are  obvious  enough  and,  if  in  obedience 
to  them  there  Imd  been  a  total  denial  of  some  form  of 
information — as,  for  instance,  as  to  the  number  of  German 
submarines  sunk,  and  a  certain  delay  in  the  publication 
of  other — as,  for  instance,  uhcrc  our  .ships  Avere  sunk — • 
and  a  careful  supervision  of  the  accuracy  of  all  tabulated, 
statistical  or  general  statements  about  the  campaign,  then, 
it  seems  to  me,  there  could  have  been  no  cause  for  com- 
plaint. But  these  are  not  the  things  that  were  done. 
The  Admiralty  quite  rightly  has  stuck  to  its  policy  of 
not  publishing  any  list  of  German  submarines  sunk  and 
captured.  But  tlie  authorities  are,  1  submit,  wrong  in  > 
concealing  for  eighteen  months  tht;  locality  of  each  sink- 
ing, and  have  completeh'  defeated  their  own  ends  in 
stifling  the  publication  of  accurate  statistics.  By  doing 
•  so  they  have  indeed  prevented  any  intelUgent  inter- 
pretation of  the  campaign  to  the  British  public — which 
is  bad  enough.  What  is  worse,  a  fair  field  has  been  left 
for  enemy  fabrication.  It  need  not  be  said  that  this  was 
an  opportunity  that  he  has  not  hesitated  to  use.  He  has 
put  forward  his  own  statistics  of  the  campaign,  and  these 
have  not  only  gone  uncontradicted  and  uncorrected  to 
neutral  countries,  but  have  been  rejieated.  and  actually 
been  exaggerated  in  some  of  the  most  wideh'  read  organs 
of  British  opinion.  Thus  German  exaggeration  got  a 
British  authority  and  so  gained  circulation  in  America 
ev<.Mt  among.st  our  friends,  with  a  maximum  danger  to  otir 
credit  abroad,  and  a  threat  to  stable  judgment  at  home. 

By  a  curious  coincidence  an  extreme  example  of 
this  perversion  has  occurred,  just  when  our  third  War 
I  o  n  is  in  issue — a  time  at  which,  if  ever,  both  the 
importance  of  impressing  the  neutral  world  with  the 
certainty  of  our  ultimate  victory  and  of  strengthening 
further  confidence  at  home  is  at  its  highest.  In  the 
survey  of  the  position,  which  The  Observer  issues  each 
Sunday  to  its  readers,  the  subject  chosen  for  its  last 
number  was  Great  Britain's  fcapacity  to  thwart  and  miti- 
gate the  submarine  campaign.  To  establish  his  case  the 
writer  had  to  explain  how  formidable  was  the  attack  on 
merchant  tonnage. 

"Nothing  '  he  tells  us.  "  but  mischief  was  done, 
in  our  opinion,  when  the  late  (ioverument  stopped  pub- 
lishing the  weekly  returns  of  shipping  losses.  That  resort 
only  helped  to  lull  and  deceive  ourselves,  but  concealed 
no  information  from  the  enemy.  When  the  chiinge  of 
Government  occurred  the  tierman  submarines  were  sinking 
daily  an  average  of  jroin  10,000  to  i.i.000  tona  of  British 
merchant  shipping.  The  destruction  of  neutral  vessels 
•trti>  far  hizhcr,  and  this  last  factor  counts  fully,  of  course. 


February  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


in  the  reduction  of  the  total  carrying  power  available 
for  these  island'^  and  for  all  British" and  Allied  purposes 
in  the  war.  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  amount 
of  daily  ilama^e  has  been  at  all  decreased  during  the 
present  month." 

Never,  it  seems  to  ]ne,  has  the  truth  of  the  first  two 
sentences  in  any  xmragraph,  been  so  amply  and  dedsively 
proved  by  those  which  followed.  We  have  indeed  lost 
sc\erelv  bv  the  refusal  to  publish  exact  and  accurate 
statistics,  if  the  result  is  the  publication  of  statements 
s)uh  as  these.  Obser\e  what  they . arc.  The  average 
daily  loss  of  British  shipping  from  November  till  the 
end  of  January  is  12,000  tons,  while  that  of  neutral 
shipping  is  far  higher.  Neutral  shipping  then  must  have 
been  going  at  the  rate  of,  say.  18.000  tons  a  day  !  Tliis 
gives  a  total  of  30,000  tons  a  day  for  the  last  three  months. 
In  one  quarter  then,  we  must  have  lost  two  and  ihrec 
quarter  million  tons,  and  before  November  the  ist,  next, 
imless  the  enemy's  activities  are  stopped  altogether, 
we  must  look  forward  to  losing  oyer  eight  million 
tons  more.  This  is  really  a  very  alarming  prospect, 
because.  a«.  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  doubtful  if  there  is  as 
much  as  twenty  million  tons  of  British  and  Neutral 
shipping  available  for  ovir  purposes.  By  the  time  a 
third  of  this  has  gone,  the  situation,  both  of  our  Allies 
and  of  ourselves  will  be  desperate.  The  object  of  the 
writer  is  to  urge  the  (iovernment  to  appoint  an  official 
Controller  of  Shipping,  who  shall  see  that  we  not  only 
produce  more  merchant  tonnage  than  we  have  ever  pro- 
duced before — even  in  times  of  peace,  when  the  supply 
of  labour  was  ample  and  of  steel  practically  limitless — but 
to  go  far  beyond  it.  We  are  not  to  be  content  to  produce 
half  a  million  tons  of  shipping  a  quarter  fortliwitli,  but 
are  to  pass  this  as  soon — and  as  greatly — as  possible.  But 
if  we  are  losing  over  a  million  tons  of  British  shipping 
a  quarter,  the  substitution  of  half  a  million  tons  will  not 
meet  the  case.  And  if  we  are  as  dependent — as  we  are 
reminded — on  neutral  shipping  as  on  our  own,  and 
neutrals  are  losing  over  a  million  and  a  lialf  tons  a  quarter, 
it  almost  looks  as  if  it  is  not  worth  while  stniggling  on 
against  fate ! 

l-'ortunately,  however,  our  condition — disagreeable 
enough  in  all  conscience — is  hardly  so  parlous  as  this  writer 
would  have  us  believe.  I  cannot  pretend  to  any  better 
knowledge  of  the  statistics  of  our  shipping  losses  than 
are  available  to  any  other  member  of  the  public  who  has 
taken  the  trouble  to  keep  the  requisite  press  cuttings 
since  the  first  of  August,  and  has  added  to  the  information 
daily  given  by  the  papers,  such  further  details  of  the  ton- 
nage of  the  particular  ships  as  he  can  gather  from  Lloyd's 
List.  These  authorities  arc  of  course  incomplete.  Not 
all  losses  are  printed  daily  ;  and  it  is  not  easy  for  a  layman 
to  identify  each  ship  and  get  its  tonnage  right.  1  cannot, 
therefore,  pretend  that  my  figures  are  correct — but  1 
guarantee  that  they  are  a  great  deal  nearer  correct 
than  those  which  I  have  just  quoted.  Now,  according 
to  the  results  obtained  in  this  perfectly  simple  and 
straightforward  way,  I  find  that  the  .oss  of  British  merchant 
steamer  tonnage  engaged  in  overseas  trade — and  this, 
of  course,  is  the  only  tonnage  that  matters  for  the  pur- 
pose of  the  argvnnent — was  about  4,000  tons  a  day  during 
the  months  of  November  and  December.  So  that  if  the 
losses  for  January  had  remained  aboiit  constant,  o\u'  loss 
would  be  not  1,080,000  tons,  but  360,000  tons. 

Next,  on  the  daily  a\erage  of  the  last  three  months, 
it  would  look  as  if  roughly,  two  neutrals  and  Allied  ships 
were  sunk  to  one  British.  If  the  average  tonnage  of  these 
ships  were  the  same  as  the  average  British  tonnage,  the 
total  loss  of  shipping  would  be  1,080,000  tons  for  the 
three  months,  instead  of  over  three  milHon  and  a  half. 
I  have  not  succeeded  in  working  out  the  exact  tonnage  of 
the  neutral  and  Allied  ships.  But  so  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  go,  it  is  quite  clear  that  they  average  ver\-  * 
much  less  than  do  the  British  ships,  so  tliat  the  estimated 
loss  of  tonnage,  other  than  British,  instead  of  double 
is  probably  little  if  at  all  more  than  three-quarters  of  the 
British  loss — say  3,000  tons  a  day  and  not  the  portentous 
figure  that"jwe  first  supposed.  So  far  as  we  can  get  at 
the  facts,  then,  the  rate  of  loss  of  all  shipping  is  less 
than  three-quarters  of  what,  on  Sunday-  last,  we  were 
told,  was  the  rate  of  loss  for  British  shipping  alone  ! 

Now  I  am  very  far  from  saying  that  this  loss  is  not 
exceedingly  formidable.  I  ani,  on  the  contrary,  weary 
of  reiterating  the  fact  that  it  is  precisely  this  form  01 


loss  and  the  jiossibility  of  its  increase  that  is,  from  the 
point  of  \-ieu-  of  the  Allies,  quite  the  most  serious  question 
qf,  the  day;  but  precisely  because  it  is  the  most  serious 
question,  it  is  of  the  very  first  serious  importance  that  the 
nature  and  scale  of  the  thing  should  be  clearly  and  correctly 
•stated.  ]f  it  is  not  so  stated,  if  the  thing  is  dealt  with 
in  terms  of  gross  exaggeration,  we  shall  not  only  entirely 
misrepresent  oiu-  capacity  to  carry  on  the  wtir  to  Allies 
and  .Neutrals,  but  we  shall  be  in  danger  of  embarking 
on  chanj?es.of  policies  and  persons  because  of  threats  and 
dangers  that  ha\e  mi  existence  except  in  somebody's 
imagination. 

« 

Lord  Fisher 

Curiously  enough,  the  same  writer  who  multiples  the 
merchant  shipping  losses  from  7,000  to  30,000  tons  a  day, 
implies  that  all  these  dangers  might  be  kept  away  if  only 
,we  had  followed  his  advice  nine  months  ago,  and  given 
Lord  Fisher  the  chance  and  the  power  of  thwarting  the 
rise  of  the  enemy's  submarine  campaign  and  replacing 
its  victims,  if  such  replacement  should —in  spite  of  Lord 
Fisher's  efforts— have  become  necessary.  He  quite 
realizes  that  the  enemy's  present  effort  is  a  great  one. 
Indeed,  his  first  campaign  "  totally  suppressed  by  Lord 
Fisher"  was  a  mere  bagatelle  compared, with  it.  The 
implication  seems  to  be  that,  as  we  ha\e  failed  to  employ 
this  distinguished  seaman  to  stop  the  U  boats  from  show- 
ing their  noses  outside  Cuxha\en  and  Zeebriigge,  the 
least  we  can  do  is  to  entrust  him  no\\-  with  the  rebuilding 
of  the  merchant  fleet  M'hich  they  destroy.  If  the  disease 
were  indeed  as  hopeless  as  this  writer  would  have  ris 
believe  ;  if  the  world's  shipping  were .  vanishing  at  a 
rate  that  would  doom  these  islands  to  hopeless  famine  in 
six  months,  then,  honestly,  it  would  not  very  much 
matter  who  was  put  in  charge  of  the  counter-campaign 
or  of  the  shipbuilding  programme.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  situation  is  one  that  can  be  dealt  with  if  right 
methods  are  taken,  then  the  importance  of  adopting  those 
right  methods  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  Let 
us,  on  this  subject,  face  the  issue  perfectly  frankly. 

It  is  quite  untrue  that  Lord  Fisher  "  totally  sup- 
pressed "  the  first  German  submarine  campaign.  The 
first  submarine  campaign  did  not  become  formidable  until 
a  month  after  Lord  Fisher  had  left  office.  It  was  not  sup- 
pressed until  more  than  five  montlis  after  that  much 
discussed  event,  is  it  really  necessary  to  perpetuate  the 
fiction  that  the  destruction  of  the  (iermaif  submarines  in 
July,  August  and  September  iqi5,  was  the  sole  work  of 
Lord  Fisher  who  left  office  in  May  of  that  year  ?  There 
is  really  no  ground  for  supposing  that  tlie  anti-submarine 
campaign  has  lost  anything  of  its  efficiency  by  Lord 
Fisher's  withdrawal.  Next,  it  is  quite  impossible  that  Lord 
Fisher  should  be  made  a  dictator  oi  shipbuilding  without, 
at  the  same  time,  making  him  for  all  practical  purposes. 
Lord  High  Admiral.  Lord  Fisher  is  an  Admiral  of  the 
Fleet,  a  peer  of  the  realm,  and  one  of  the  most 
forceful  and  remarkable  personalities  in  this  kingdom. 
He  is,  in  addition,  consiclerably  over  sevcntj'  years  of 
age.  He  camwt  noiv  be  cast  for  subordinate  parts.  And 
no  one  can  be  cast  for  the  part  of  organising  the  building 
of  transport  and  supply  ships  except  in  strict  sub- 
ordination to  the  requirements  of  the  Navy.  I  think  a 
mistake  was  probably  made,  on  the  formation  of  tlie  new 
Government,  in  not  placing  Sir  Joseph  Maclay  directly 
under  the  Board  of  Admiralty,  instead  of  giving  him  an 
independent  department.  But  if  Lord  Fisher  took  his 
place,  it  is  the  Board  of  Admiralty  that  would  become  the 
subordinate  department.  This  is  obvious.  And  it  is 
still  more  obvious  that  all  the  Navy,  still  on  the 
active  list,  would  view  such  a  subordination  of  the 
constituted  authorities,  both  with  resentment  and  alarm. 
Their  resentment  would  be  due  to  no  personal  dislike  or 
distrust  of  Lord  Fisher,  but  to  the  spectacle  of  having  a 
naval  leadership  forced  \ipon  the  Service  by  public  opinion, 
ignorant  of  naval  sentiment  in  this  matter.  And  they 
would  view  his  appointment  with  alarm,  because 
what  the  Navy  needs  to-day  is  the  closest  possible  co- 
operation of  men  practically  acquainted  with  the  work 
of  the  units-  and  implements  now  employed  in  war,  and 
no  officer,  however  old  or  distinguished,  who  is  imfamiliar 
with  the  practical  requirements  of  the  sitiiation,  can 
possibly  take  sole  cjiarge— without  disaster. 

Arthur  Pollen 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


Fcln-uaiy  i,  iqij 


The  Value  of  the  Mark 


By    T.    H.   Penson 


TTTltRF,  scorns  to  be  a  vcrv  Ronoral  desire  at  the 
l>r.scnl  time  to  ascertain  so  far  as  possible  what 
( ".einiaiiy's  economir  )X)sition  really  is.  E\iden(e 
of  a  kind  there  is  in  abundance,  biit  a  great  deal 
of  it  can  liardh'  be  regarded  as  trustworthy.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  Germanj-  is  verv  badly  in  need  of  many 
fonimodities  either  for  the  feeding  of  her  people  or  for  the 
carrying  on  of  the  war. 

Neutral  tra\-ellers  describe  wliat  they  have  seen 
or  experienced  in  the  way  of  food  restrictions,  and 
letters  taken  from  prisoners"  often  speak  of  great  priva- 
tion at  home.  Frequent  reference,  too,  is  made  iii 
our  dail\-  papers  to  the  efforts  that  arc  being 
made  in  Cermany  to  keep  down  prices  and  to 
secure  a  more  even  distribution  of  food  and  clothing. 
J-Voin  information  of  this  kind  inferences  may  be 
drawn  ])ointing  to  the  fact  that  the  economic  pressure 
exerted  bv  the  Allies  is  achieving  very  definite 
results.  There  is,  however,  one  form  of  evidence 
a^  to  Cermanv's  (Economic  position  which  attracts 
(■omparati\-ely  little  attention,  and  yet  which  is  more 
dclrnite  and  more  suggestive  than  many  of  those 
referred  to  abo\e.  I  refer  to  what  may  for  convenience 
be  described  as  the  value  of  the  mark,  and  it  must  be 
understood  that  the  opinions  here  expressed  arc  those 
of  the  writer  only. 

An   Economic  Gauge 

The  value  of  the  mark,  as  expressed  in  the  currencies 
of  the  various  neutral  countries,  is  an  external  factor  of 
great  importance  in  gauging  (iermany's  internal  con- 
dition. But  the  study  of  the  foreign  exchanges,  as  they 
arc  called,  is  an  extremely  technical  subject,  and  man>- 
will  no  doubt  regard  it  also  as  an  extremely  dull  one. 
It  is  possible,  however,  without  going  too  far  into 
technicalities,  to  extract  a  good  deal  that  is  really  helpful 
in  one's  attempt  to  estimate  how  (jermany  really  stands 
cronomically. 

The  first  fact  that  it  is  necessary  to  emphasise  is  that 
in  neutral  countries  the  mark  is  worth  very  much  less 
than  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  war — very  much 
less  in  fact  than  it  was  six  months  ago.  The  countries 
in  which  this  fact  is  of  the  greatest  importance  are 
those  immediately  bordering  on  Germany  and  the  United 
States  of  America.  The  extent  of  the  depreciation  of 
the  German  currency  in  these  countries  is  seen  at  a 
glance  in  the  following  table  : 

Xonnal  value .  oj      Present  value  of 
Cniinin'-  i'^f>  Marks.  loo  Mar/,'s. 

Sweden..         ..         SK.SS  kr.  56.50  kr. 

Norwa\'  ..         88. 8S  kr.  ()o         kr. 

]X-nniarU  ..         SS.88  kr.  (n        kr. 

Holland  ..         r)<)-^*'>  f-  41-25  fl. 

Switzerland       ..        i-',j.44lr.  85.45  fr. 

U.S. .A.    ..  ..         .2.5-81  dollars  16.81  dollar?. 

This  serves  to  show  that  the  \-aluc  of  German  money  has 
as  a  consequence  of  the  war  fallen  about  ;^y  per  cent, 
in  Sweden  ;  32  per  cent,  in  Norway  ;  32  per  cent,  in 
Denmark;  31  per  cent,  in  Holland;  []^,  per  cent,  in 
Switzerland  ;    30  per  cent,  in  U.S.A. 

With  her  currency  so  depreciated  it  is  evident  that 
(.ermany  is  paying  \cry  dearly  for  what  she  buys  from 
neutral  traders.  For  example,  whereas  in  normal  times 
for  a  Swedish  article  costing  80  kroner  Germany  would 
]>ay  100  marks,  now  she  must  jjay  about  161  marks, 
and  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  prices  of  the  goods 
( lermany  wants  are  in  many  cases  some  two  or  three 
hundred  per  cent.,  or  even  more,  in  excess  of  what  they 
vvere  before  the  war,  it  will  easily  be  understood  how- 
serious  a  drain  on  her  resources  is  caused  by  the  mere 
fact  that  in  foreign  centres  of  trade  the  value  of  the  mark 
has  fallen  to  such  an  extent. 

The  second  fact  worth  noticing  is  that  not  only  does 
this  depreciation  exist,  but  that  it  is  steadily  increasing, 
in  spite  of  the  tremendous  efforts  being  made  by  the 
German  Go\ernment  to  check  the  downward  movement. 
The  fuUowint:  tables  will  illustrate  this  decline,  and  will 


liclp  to  bring  home  the  fact  that  G  ermanv's  financial 
jxisition  is  not  only  bad,  but  is  steadilv  getting  worse. 
J.—  The  regular  and  continuous  decline  in  the  value  of 
the  mark  during  the  ))ast  two  years  is  well  sci  n  in  the 
case  of  the  American  Exchange  : 

January  1915  depreciation  of  Mark  in  .\ew  York       8",o 
April    "      „  „  „  13':,, 

Jxl.v  „  ,.  15".. 

October        .,  „  ,  ,.  ij",. 


J,Tnn;ir\-  i()i() 
-Vpril 

J'll.V 
December    ,, 


20"„ 

24% 


n. — The  steady  decline  during  the  la.st  few  months 
which,  as  illustrating  present  tendencies  is  of  even  greater 
interest,  may  be  conveniently  traced  in  the  exchanges 
as  quoted  in  the  countries  surrounding  Germany.  During 
the  months  of  August,  September  and  October  of  iQib 
there  was  very  little  change  to  be  noted,  but  then  set 
in  a  steady  downward  movement  which  reached  its  lowest 
})oint  in  December  just  before  the  Kaiser  produied  his 
first  "  Peace  Note."  The  possibility  of  an  early  peace 
led  to  a  rather  sharp  rebound,  but  the  effect  soon  passed 
off  and  by  the  middle  of  January  the  value  of  the  mark 
had  fallen  again  almost  to  the  low  level  it  had  reached 
before. 

Value  nf  100  Marks  in  Sici/zer. 

1016.     Sweden.     Xorway.     Denmark.  Holland.  land. 


kr. 

Oct.  25  61.35 

Nov.  I  61 

,,     8  61 

,,   15  60.85 

,.  22  59.50 

..  20  57-75 

Dec.  8  56 

..     9  .54'.')0 


kr.             kr.  fl.  fr. 

62.75  64.20  42.80  91.80 

62.75  64.10  42.42  90.40 

62.75  64  42.32  90.25 

62.50  63.85  41.77  87.60 

61.40  62.50  40.47  85.75 

61  60.20  .40.42  84.  (>o 

58.20  59-50  39-10  80 

57.40  58  39.10  79 


Representing  in  a  little  over  "^ix  weeks  a  fall  per  cent* 
of  about : 

Sweden.    Norwav.  Denmark.  Holland.  Switzerland. 
8  67  6  10 

Without  going  too  deeply  into  the  question,  it  seems 
desirable  to  get  some  idea  of  the  main  reasons  for  the 
depreciation.  Nations,  like  individuals,  have  to  pay 
for  what  they  buy.  They  may  have  to  pay  in  cash, 
or  they  may  be  able  to  postpone  the  date  of  payment  by 
getting  credit,  the  latter  naturallv  depending  on  th(> 
amount  of  confidence  felt  in  the  financial  stability  and 
integrity  of  the  buyer.  The  goods  which  one  nation 
obtains  from  another  are  jiaid  for  in  various  ways,  l-'or 
the  most  part  they  are  jiaid  for  by  other  goods,  but 
j)a3-ment  may  be  made  in  (Jther  ways  also  as,  for  example, 
in  gold  or  in  securities.  This  is  another  way  of  stating 
the  familiar  economic  tag  that  imports  are  paid  for  by 
exports,  taking  "  exports  "  to  include,  of  course,  the 
precious  metals,  securities,  and  the  many  forms  of  sei-vicc 
which  one  country  may  render  to  another,  and  for  which 
a  return  may  be  expected. 

The  foreign  exchanges  -  that  is  the  value  of  a  country's 
currency  expressed  in  tcnns  of  the  currency  of  other 
countries  —afford  a  very  fair  idea  as  to  the  nation's  balance 
sheet.  The  depreciation  in  the  value  of  the  mark  at  the 
present  time  shows  that  the  balance  is  decidedly  against 
Germany.  She  cannot  pay  in  goods  ;  she  is  unwilling 
to  pay  in  gold  ;  she  has  parted  with  most  of  her  foreign 
securities  ;   she  finds  it  difficult  to  get  credit. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  war  it  was  by  no  means  un- 
common to  hear  people  seriously  putting  forward  the 
argument  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  interfere  with  Ger- 
many's imports  ;  that  she  should  be  allowed,  or  even 
encouraged,  to  import  as  much  as  she  would,  hwX  that  the 
exports  wherever  possible  should  be  cut  off.  In  this 
way  it  was  said  she  would  be  obliged  to  pay  in  gold  ;  she 
would  be  drained  of  her  metallic  reserve  ;  she  would 
become  bankrupt,  and  financial  ruin  would  be  the  pre- 
cursor of  her  complete  downfall.  This  rather  illustrates 
the  danger  of  rel\-ing  too  much  on  theory  and  not  paying 


February  t,  tqt/ 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


sufticient  attention  to  practical  considerations.  Fallacious 
as  the  argument  is,  it  contains  a  certain  amount  of  truth. 
<~.ermany  has  herself  realized  the  position  in  which  she 
would  be  placed  if  her  imports  were  entiiely  unrestricted, 
and  she  has  consequently  prohibited  the  importation  of 
various  articles,  mainly  those  that  would  be  classed  as 
"  luxuries."  The  more  the  balance  of  trade  is  against 
her,  the  lower  would  be  the  value  of  the  mark  in  the 
countries  from  which  she  is  obtaining  the  goods,  and  the 
\alue  of  the  mark  is  at  once  the  external  sign  of  an  adverse 
balance  and  of  declining  credit. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  this  connection  some  of  the 
measures  which  she  has  taken  to  try  and  redress  this 
balance  in  her  favour.  Only  in  the  last  few  days  all 
imports  into  ( Germany  of  goods  from  neutral  countries 
have  been  placed  mider  the  control  of  a  special  govern- 
ment department,  and  it  maybe  assumed  that  the  object  of 
this  new  department  is  to  raise  the  value  of  the  mark 
in  the  adjoining  countries.  (Germany  has  besides  tried  to 
reduce  the  cost  to  herself  of  what,  if  her  people  are  to 
live  and  she  is  to  have  the  means  of  carrying  on  the  war, 
she  is  bound  to  import.  With  this  in  view  she  lias  in 
the  various  countries  adjoining  her  establislied  as  buying- 
a,gencies  branches  of  the  Zeutrale  ICinkauf  (iesellschaft 
(more  generally  known  as  the  Z.K.(i.).  Bv  means  nf 
these  agencies  she  is  able  to  restrict  the  conijietition  of 
one  buyer  against  another,  and  by  creating  what  may  b(^ 
<'.alled  a  buyer's  monopoly,  she  is  able  not  onlvto  organise 
the  purchase  of  the  foodstuffs  and  other  desirable  goods 
that  the  market  can  proxide,  but  also  to  depress  the 
prices  of  what  she  buys  and  so  diminish  the  amount  of 
iier  indebtedness. 

Germany  has  also  taken  steps  to  enhance  the  value  of 
the  goods  exported  in  exchange.  Exporters  have  been 
comj)elled  to_  raise  very  considerably  the  prices  of  the 
goods  they  are  offering,  and  they  have  besides  been 
obliged  to  quote  the  prices  of  their  goods  not  in  marks, 
but  in  kroner,  florins  or  francs,  as  the  case  may  be,  thus  ' 
avoiding  the  loss  resulting  from  payment  in  their  own 
depreciated  currency. 

So  far  then  as  the  value  of  the  mark  is  dependent  upon 
the  balance  which  Germany  is  able  to  maintain  between 
the  value  of  \vhat  she  imports  and  the  value  of  what  she 
exports,  it  has  been  shown  that  on  the  debit  side  of  the 
account  must  be  entered  all  that  Germany  can  persuade 
her  neighbours  to  supply  her  with  in  the  way  of  food, 
feeding-stuffs  for  cattle,,  fertilisers  for  her  "soil,  raw 
materials  of  every  kind  for  her  manufactures,  and  articles 
partly  or  completely  finished.  ]Vluch  as  she  would  like 
to  reduce  this  debit  to  the  smallest  possible  dimensions, 
her  needs  are  so  great  and  so  urgent  that  she  is  boimd  to 
strain  every  nerve,  to  exert  various  forms  of  pressure 
on  her  neighbours,  and  to  resort  to  everv  possible 
stratagem  in  order  to  increase  her  imports',  with  the 
result  of  ever  increasing  her  indebtedness  to  the  various 
neutral  States  from  which  she  can  draw  supplies.  The 
only  way  apparently  in  whi(ii  she  can  diminish  the  debit 
side  of  the  account  is  by  rigidly  excluding  all  luxuries 
and  by  reducing  in  every  possible  way  the  cost  of  the 
imported  goods.  That  the  debit  side  of  the  account  is 
not  larger  is  due,  not  to  Germany's  moderation  or  self- 
denial  in  the  matter  of  imports,  'but  to  the  pressure  of 
our  blockade.  .Month  by  month  the  amount  that  Ger- 
many is  able  to  import  diminishes,  diminishing  it  is  true 
at  the  same  time  her  indebtedness,  but  depriving  her  of 
the  supplies  without  which  she  is  sorely  crippled. 

The  Credit  Side 

It  will  thus  be  readily  seen  that  if  Germany  could 
mamtam  licr  exports  to  the  countries  surrounding  her, 
the  adverse  trade  balance  against  her  would  by  degrees 
be  wiped  out  and  the  exchanges  tend  more  and  more  to 
return  to  normal  conditions.  But  such  has  not  proved 
to  be  the  case,  and  the  explanation  will  be  found  in  the 
credit  side  of  the  account  to  which  our  attention  must 
now  be  directed.  On  the  credit  side  must  be  entered  the 
goods  she  exports,  the  securities  she  is  able  to  sell  in 
neutral  countries,  the  gold  she  can  from  time  to  time  part 
with,  and  even  the  jewels  which  the  Gcrm.ui  people  have 
sent  abroad  for  realisation. 

The  ntost  striking  feature  at  the  present  moment  on 
this  credit  side  of  the  account  is  the  reduction  in  the 
amount   or,  r,orman\''<  exports  wliirli   ma\-  be  regarded 


as  one  of  the  main  causes  of  the  continued  depreciation 
of  the  mark,  and  at  the  same  time  as  a  valuable  means 
of  gauging  Germany's  economic  position  as  a  whole.  It 
is  only  natural  that  she  should  try  to  conceal  or  to  explain 
away  as  far  as  possible  this  diminution  of  her  exports. 
She  would  like  it  to  be  supposed  that  it  is  due  entirely 
to  the  stringency  of  the  blockade  wliicll  prevents  her 
supplying  her  usual  markets  overseas.  "  We  cannht 
pay  for  om*  imports  with  our  exports,"  she  would  sa\', 
"  because  the  blockade  has  cut  us  off  from  oiu"  many 
customers  in  Asia  and  America."  But  th(^  blockade  has 
been  effecti\-e  in  this  direction  practically  since  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  so  that  an  explanation  must  be 
found  elsewhere  for  the  falling  off  of  her  exports  in  the 
last  few  montlis.  The  real  cause  is  to  be  found  in  the 
rapid  decay  of  Germany's  productive  capacity. 
The  production  of  goods  for  export  in\ol\es  : 

(a)  An  adequate  supply  of  raw  material,  much  of  wliich 
has  to  be.  imported,  but,  which  owing  to  'the  blockade 
cannot  now  be  imported. 

(b)  Labour  for  the  production  of  sncli  raw  material  as 
riprmany  lierself  can  ])rovifl('. 

(i:)   Lnbour  for  the  extractifiu  of  (1m>  conl  which   ji.is  iu 
the  past  two  years  helped  to  swell  considerably  the  vfihune 
of  hor  exports,  and  wl)ich  besides  is  necessary  for  Iceeping 
Iter  factoricii  and  her  railways  going, 
(d)  l.ahonr  for  the  jiroduction  of  manufactured  articles. 

The  maintenance  of  her  exports,  therefore,  may  bo 
said  to  be  depr'udent  on  two  main  factors — raw  material 
and  labom-.  The  latter  of  these  is  perhaps  the  one  that 
it  is  most  important  to  enlarge  upon  here.  The  man- 
power a\-ailable  for  maintaining  exports  .is  limited  by  two 
main  considerations  : 

(i)  The  total  man-power  existing  in  the  country. 

(2)  The  amount  ol'  man-powor  licing  utilised  for  other 
purposes. 

Roiighly  speaking,  the  ]nan-power  of  Germany  is  being 
utilised  in  four  ways  : 

fa)  In  meeting  the  requirements  of  her  navv  and  in  main- 
taining at  fullest  jiossiblc  strength  lier  arnues  distributed 
on  the  various  fronts,  in  depots,  on  lines  of  communication, 
on  neutral  frontiers. 

(h)  In  su]>plying  the  needs  of  army  and  navy  in'thc  maltcr 
of  munitions,  food,  and  clothing. 

(c)  In  supplj'ing  the  needs  of  the  civil  population. 

(d)  In  the  production  of  goods  for  export. 

It  is  e\ident  then  that  the  labour  power  available  for 
maintaining  the  balance  of  Germany's  foreign  trade  must 
be  regarded  as  a  residue  left  over  when  the  three  first 
needs  have  been  satisfied.  Losses  in  the  field  must  be 
made  good,  and  more  than  made  good  as  new-  campaigns 
have  to  be  undertaken.  The  demand  for  munitions  is 
an  ever-increasing  one.  For  both  of  these  purposes  man- 
power must  be  withdrawn  from  the  only  possible  sources 
-the  men  engaged  in  supplying  the  needs  of  civilians 
and  those  occupied  in  manufacturing  for  customers  in 
the  adjoining  neutral  countries.  That  this  withdrawal 
of  men  is  in  fact  taking  place,  and  that  exports  are  iu 
consequence  falling  off,  can  easily  be  demonstrated. 
By  a  recent  law  all  the  labour  power'  of  the  country,  both 
male  and  female,  was  conscripted.  ^Vomen  ha\c  taken 
the  place  ol  men  in  e\-ery  held  of  labour,  and  e\-en  in  its 
most  arduous  forms.  The  shortage  of  men  has  seriously 
affected  the  coal  supply.  The  amount  available  for 
export  has  been  veiy  much  reduced.  The  coal  from  the 
("rerman  and  Belgian  coalfields  which  was  exported  frc^ely 
at  earlier  stages  of  the  war,  has  now  diminished  in  supply 
and  the  export  cannot  be  maintained.  Railway  transport 
also  is  seriously  hampered  by  lack  of  coal. 

All  this  tends  to  point  to  one  very  definite  conclusion  — 
the  fall  of  the  mark  is  largely  due  to  the  falling  off  of 
Germany's  exports.  This  falling  off  of  exports  is  itself 
a  consequence  of  the  shortage  of  man-power.  Military 
losses  and  requirements  are  telling  on  industrial  capacity, 
and  it  can  only  be  a  question  of  time  before  the  point 
will  be  reached  at  which  industrj'  cannot  be  squeezed 
any  longer,  and  the  armies  will  be  unable  to  maintain 
their  present  strength. 

Thcr(^  is  another  aspect  of  the  case  which  if:  is  important 
not  to  overlook.  The  value  of  an\-thing  is'  very  largely 
affected  by  the  extent  to  which  it  is  in  demand.  As  tlio 
demand  for  anything  increa.ses,  the  value  lend-^  to  rise; 
as  the  demand  fliminishes  the  value  tends  to  fall.     Thi'* 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


l-ebruary  i,  1<)V/ 


I?,  a  mere  crononiic  rommnnplarc,  but  it  lias  a  special 
application  with  regard  to  the  \alHe  of  the  mark.  The 
\villinphr=;scif  people  in  neutral  countries  to  receive  marks 
in  payment  for  tlieir  goods  dejx^nds  very  larj^jely  on  the 
ronlidence  placed  in  the  financial  stability  of  the  country 
in  which  marks  are  current  —namely,  Germany.  The 
low  value  of  »he  mark  is  an  indication  that  there  is  but 
little  demand  for  marks  ;  that  there  is  sjeat  miw  illin.tiness 
to  purchase  (ierman  currency,  and  this  points  ine\itably 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  confidence  of  neutrals  in  Or- 
many's  ability  to  pay  is  dimini-hint;,  that  in  the  eyes  of 
neutrals  her  credit  is  seriously  iin{)aired. 

It  should  be  pointed  out  that  the  problem  has  been 
.'iimplified  by  the  omission  of  all  reference  to  the  effects 
on  the  international  exchanges  of  the  large  German 
issues  of  paper  money,  and  of  the  speculative  buj'ing  <>f 


<.ierman  currency  on  foreign  bourses.  A  study  of  these 
would  lnj'lp  to  explain  thcquotiations  at  any  particular 
time  or  the  fluctuations  during  any  particular  period, 
but  the  omission  does  not  seriously  affect  the  general 
line  of  the  arg\mient  or  the  general  conclusions  arrived  at. 
In  conclusion,  the  \alue  of  the  mark  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  indications  of  (k-rmany's  economic  position.  Its 
contimious  decline  emphasises  her  inability  to  maintain 
her  exports,  her  shortage  of  man-power,  the  dwindling  of 
that  reserve  from  which  alone  the  gaps  in  her  ranks  can 
be  filled.  There  may  be  occasional  small  rises  due  to  some 
exceptional  exertion  on  (jermany's  part,  or  to  tin- 
circulation  of  peace  rumours,  but  the  general  course  is 
steadily  downward,  and  this  downward  movement  may 
be  regarded  as  a  clear  sign  of  the  exhaustion  which  pre- 
cedes collapse. 


Psychology  of  the  Workshop 


By  Arthur  Kitson 


-IT -m"    7-HEX  the  late  Frederick  Taylor  of  Philadelphia 

^  ^L  I    was  deep  in  his  study  of  workshop  efliciency, 

^U^^     he  occasionally  favoured  me  with  the  results 

y  T  of  his  labours.  He  mentioned  the  tons  of 
metal  he  had  uSed  in  ascertaining  the  conditions  mider 
which  the  higliest  speed  efficiency  was  obtainable  with 
\arious  machines,  lathes,  drilling,  slotting  and  screw 
cutting  machines,  etc.  He  worked  out  the  speed 
efficiency  for  every  form  and  \ariety  of  workshop  tool 
and  machine,  including  labour  itself.  From  the  purely 
mechanical  standpoint  Taylor's  work  is  the  last  word  in 
efficiency.  In  one  of  otir  munerous  conversations,  I 
asked  if  he  had  given  any  consideration  to  the 
psychology  of  the  labour  factor.  He  admitted  that  up 
to  that  time — sixteen  years  ago— he  had  not.  ^'  He 
acknowledged  that  great  \ariations  in  the  quality  of 
labour  existed,  but  his  endea\our  was  to  elimingite  as  far 
iis  possible  the  personal  equation. 

Taylor's  work  was  entirely  confined  to  the  material 
side.  Increased  output,  reduced  costs,  greater  profits — 
these  were  the  sole  objective  results  he  aimed  at — and 
attained— to  an  extraordinarily  high  degree.  It  is  a 
curious  commentary  on  the  human  mind  to  witness  how 
often  in  our  pursuit  of  certain  objects  the  means  for 
securing  them  are  regarded  as  the  objects  themselves. 
Workshop  efliciency  should  be  merely  a  means  for  pro- 
viding us  with  those  ntaterial  things  necessary  to  fife, 
its  de\-elopment  and  enjoyment,  with  the  least  expendi- 
ture of  energy.  F>ut  supposing  this  pursuit  ends  in 
debasing  the  human  factors  into  itiere  pieces  of  mechanism  ? 
Supposing  our  mechanical  efficiency  turns  out  to  be  a 
Frankenstein  ?  Supposing  efficiency  ends  in  crushing  the 
\ery  object  for  whose  advantage  it  is  created  ? 

One  of  the  many  salutary  lessons  taught  by  the  war  is 
the  need  for  improving  the  conditions  of  labour.  The 
introduction  of  female  labour  into  thousands  of  work- 
shops, and  the  acquaintance  which  manv  of  our  educated 
classes  ha\-c  made  with  factory  conditions,  have  led  to  a 
demand  for  "  humanising "  labour  conditions.  Pro- 
bably the  most  debasing  feature  of  these  conditions  is  the 
terrible  monotony  of  repetition  work.  A  man  who 
performs  the  same  operation,  the  making  of  the  same 
article  day  after  day  and  week  after  week,  month  after 
month,  becomes  a  mere  automaton.  Xot  only  does  it 
affect  him  during  the  hours  of  labour,  btit  e\entually 
he  becomes  machine-like  in  all  his  movements,  with 
disastrous  results  to  his  mental  and  moral  stamina. 

The  great  labour  problem  is  how  to  make  workshop 
life  attractive,  interesting,  ennobling.  The  solution  of 
this  problem  will  not  only  prove  of  great  moral  and 
physical  benefit,  but  economically  advantageous.  The 
operator  who  is  interested  in  his  work,  will  do  more  and 
b(?tter  work  than  the  one  who  is  "  fed  up  "  with  the 
monotony  of  his  daily  task.  Moral  is  as  important  a 
factor  in  the  -workshop  as  in  the  army.  The  knowledge 
that  their  product  is  to  be  one  of  the  deciding  factors  in 
waning  the  war  has  braced  thottsands  of  machinists  to 
do  their  lc\'el  best,  and  to-day  many, engineering  establish- 


ments are  turning  out  better  and  more  woik  per  man 
than  at  any  period  in  their  history. 

I  am  now  speaking  from  experience.  I  have  several 
men  employed  on  munition  work,  whose  weekly  output 
is  one-third  more  than  the  maximum  quantity  which  the 
makers  of  the  macliines  believed  it  was  possible  to  pro- 
duce !  Employees  who,  prior  to  the  war,  grumbled  when 
requested  to  work  overtime,  now  willingly  put  in  an 
average  of  tweUe  hours  a  day.  And  this  is  not  entirely 
due  to  the  extra  wages  paid  them.  It  is  the  same  spirit  ■ 
that  caused  hundreds  of  thousands  of  all  clas.ses  to  rush 
to  their  nearest  recruiting  station  as  soon  as  war  was 
declared.  Is  it  not  possible  to  cultivate  this  spirit  and 
organise  it  for  the  production  of  the  munitions  of  life — 
when  peace  is  declared  ?  Such  a  result  would  absolutely 
revolutionise   industrial    life. 

One  method  for  rendering  the  operator's  task  less 
monotonous  is  to  explain  fully  to  him  the  functions 
fulfilled  bj-  each  particular  article  he  makes  In  my 
young  days  of  apprenticeship  I  remember  how  dull  and 
stupid  certain  repetition  work  appeared.  To  make  the 
first  few  screws  was  interesting,  but  after  several  days 
the  same  task  became  monotonous.  One  day  my  father 
took  me  to  Strood,  and  we  boarded  the  Great  Eastern 
Steamship— then  the  greatest  and  most  famous  vessel 
.  afloat.  T  was  there  shown  the  purpose  of  the  screws  I 
was  making,  which  were  to  be  used  on  the  \-essel.  From 
that  time  the  work  assumed  a  totally  different  aspect. 
The  thought  that  my  product  was  of  some  impoitance 
in  connection  with  the  greatest  ocean  Leviathan,  dis- 
persed all  feelings  of  monotony,  and  I  felt  myself  of  really 
some  importance  in  the  industrial  world.  During  thirty 
years  of  business  experience  1  have  found  that  this 
practice  of  explaining  the  tise  of  the  articles  the  machinist 
is  engaged  in  making,  greatly  adds  to  his  interest. 

During  a  recent  visit  to  the  Whitehead  Aircraft  works 
at  Richmond,  Surrey,  Mr.  Whitehead  said  that  he 
made  it  a  rule  to  call  his  workpeople  together  two  or 
three  times  a  week  during  working  hours,  and  address 
them  on  the  nature  and  importance  of  their  work. 
When  flying  tests  and  experiments  are  carried  out, 
occasionally  he  in\'ites  the  entire  works  to  visit  them. 
"  By  these  and :  similar  meaiis  the  interest  of  every 
employee  is  maintained  at  the  highest  level,"  he  added. 
"  Every  one  works  with  the  same  diligence  and  zeal  as 
if  the  business  belonged  to  him  or  her." 

The  key  to  success  will  be  found  in  satisfying  the  natural 
longing  and  hope  of  everyone  to  be  of  sonui  recognised 
value  in  the  world.  The  great  incentive  which  causes 
men  joj^fully  to  spend  days  and  nights  in  working  out 
inventions,  in  making  discoveries,  in  writing  books,  is 
not  the  mere  hope  of  pecuniary  gain,  but  the  determination 
to  obtain  recognition  among  their  fellows  as  having  done 
"  their  bit  "  in  life.  Indeed,  the  way  to  lighten  toil  and 
humanise  labour,  conditions  is  to  adopt  such  means  as  will 
engender  the  spirit  of  a  victorious  army,  where  every 
man  shares  the^  glory  of  sucx~ess.  There  is  the  excellent 
story  of  the  organ  blower,  wlio  \\lien  the  organist  was 


Februar>-  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


bowing  profusely  in  ackaowledgmoat  of  the  plaudits  of 
his  audience  after  a  famous  recital,  insisted  on.  sharing 
the  honours  by  standing  beside  the  performer  and 
making  his  bows.  For  had  he  not  also  contributed 
his  share  to  the  performance?  .-  • 

Distinctions  for  Industry 

The  entire  industrial  spirit  would  be  changed  cuu:- 
pletely  if  every  factory  employee  from  the  humblest 
labourer  to  the  manager  was  made  to  feel  that  eacli  is  an 
important  and  necessary  link  in  the  chain  of  produc- 
tion. AccompauN'ing  this  should  be  a  system  of  badging 
for  good  conduct  and  special  achie\cment.  The  Ministry 
of  Munitions  did  a  wise  thing  when  it  adopted  the 
liadge  system.  It  ga\-e  a  tone  and  standing  to  those  so 
badged  "which  has  done  not  a  little  in  stimulating  output. 

Soon  after  the  Ijeginning  of  the  war,  when  my  works 
recei\'ed  its  first  contract  for  mimitions,  nothing  was 
said  at  first  to  the  operators  as  to  their  being  employed 
on  munition  Mork.  -There  Avas  a  tendency  on  the  part  of 
several  to  dawdle.  :As 'soon'  as  "it  was  explained  that 
rapidit\-  of  output  meant  the  saving  of  men's  lives  at  the 
front,  all  signs  of  malingering  disappeared.  There  arc  in- . 
numerable  opportmiities  for  the  display  of  heroism  in  the 
workshop  as  well  as  on  the  field  of  battle.  Could  not  the 
Government  extend  the  distinguished  service  orders  to 
include  every  departm':'nt  of  life,  and  give  munition 
workers  an  equal  chance  with  th?  soldier  for  gaining  the 
equivalent  of  the  V.C.  or  the  D.C.M.  ? 

Another  method  for  alleviating  the  natural  feeling  of 
monotony  is  to  transpose  operators  from  time  to  time 
by  putting  them  on  different  operations.  My  experience 
proves  that  the  mechanic  who  is  generally  skilled — 
that  is,  skilled  in  several  operations — is  usually  better 
in  each  tlian  the  mere  specialist.  Change  of  occupation 
periodically  is  beneficial  to  both  the  employer  and  em- 
ployee. In  large  works  where  gymnasia,  cricket  grounds, 
lawn  tennis  courts  and  e\en  libraries  are  provided,  occa- 
sional breaks  in  the  working  hours  to  enable  employees 
to  enjoy  a  few  minutes'  recreation,  will  be  found  of 
immense  ^■alue. 

riie  excessive  use  of  stimulants,  spirits,  beer  and  tobacco 
amongst  the  working  classes  ma\'  often  be  traced  to  the 
desire  to  get  rid  of  the  monotony  of  existence.  Tem- 
perance advocates,  asa  rule,  fail  to  get  to  the  root  of  the 
evils  of  intemperance^  They  blame  the  peoplt  who 
manufactiue  the  intoxicants  and  sell  tiiem,  as  well  as 
I  the  Government  that  permits  the  traffic.  But  they  do 
not  seem  to  realize  that  the  existence  of  the  evil  arises 
from  the  persistence  of  the  demand,  for  which  some  good 
reason  exists.  To  get  rid  of  drunkenness  we  must  first 
ascertain  its  -cause — by  studying  the  motives  and  con- 
ditions of  tliose  who  insist  upon  getting  drunk.  Whilst 
intemperance  may  be  due  to  mere  habit,  or  hereditary 
desires,  I  believe  a  vast  amount,  especially  among  the 
working  classes,  is  directly  due  to  the  desire  to  escape 
for  a  time  from  the  dreariness  and  the  monotony  of  their 
fives.  And  the  surest  cure  is  to  find  some  healthy  means 
of  making  their  lives  brioht  and  interesting. 

Two  modern  inventions  proxide  a  method  for  assisting 
in  this  task.  The  enormous  success  which  has  attended 
the  cinema  and  the  gramophone  prove  the  public  appre- 
ciation of  the  need  for  these  diversions.  If  the  Ministry 
of  Munitions  could  have  employed  200  or  300  lecturers 
provided  with  films  giving  views  from  the  battle  fields, 
taken  on  all  the  various  fronts,  etc.,  to  visit  the  various 
engineering  works,  and  exhibit  them  ^o  the  munition 
workers— accompanied  by  appropiiate  descriptions  of 
\vhat  our  men  were  doing  and  the  part  played  by  muni- 
tions it  would  have  done  much  to  increase  output.  The 
psychological  effect  of  music  is  known  too  well  to  require 
more  than  a  passing  reference.  Gramophones  in  factories 
might  afford  as  powerful  a  stimulus  to  labour  as  a  military 
brass  band  gives  to  an   aruiy   marching  to  battle. 

The  greatest  factor  iiv maintaining  the  moral  of  factories, 
however,  will  be  found  in  the  personal  relations  existing 
between  the  masters  and  their  men,  between  the  managers 
and  foremen  and  those  under  them.  An  American  friend, 
employing  over  700  people,  requires  but  one  overseer. 
The  relations  of  himself  and  his  manager  to  his  people 
are  of  such  a  nature  that  his  employees  never  require 
watching.     They  are  so  satisfied  with  their  treatment 

hat  their  one  "fear  is  lest  they  should  get  discharged. 


Naturally  there  are  scores  of  people,  like  the  Huns,  who 
are  insensible  to  kind  treatment — to  whoin  a  kick  or  an 
oath  is  more  effective  than  ad\ice.  Such  people  are 
either  half-human  or  seldom  worth  employing  at  any 
price.  J3ut  to  the  average  Briton,  a  kind  word  is  every- 
thing, whilst  an  unjust  act  or  a  harsh  word  stmgs  like  a 
scorpion,  and  seriously  reduces  his  efficiency  as  a  pro- 
ducer. I  ha\e  often  marvelled  at  the  utter  stupidity  of 
many  managers  who  imagine  kindness  or  sympathy 
displayed  to  a  workman  to  be  a  sign  of  weakness,  and 
tends  to  spoil  him.  I  have  known  workmen  rendered 
incapable  of  work  for  several  days  by  some  censure 
given  tliem  in  brutal  terms.  I  have  always  regarded 
such  conduct  as  stupid  as  a  man  ^•enting  his  rage  upon 
a  machine  by  striking  it  with  a  sledge  hammer  !  The 
human  being  is  the  most  delicate,  the  most  scnsitixc 
machine,  and  needs  the  most  intelligent  treatment. 

The  psychology  of  the  factory  is  a  comparatively  new 
study,  but  it  presents  a  most  fruitful  field  for  experiment 
and  investigation.  Remarkable  as  the  results  of  recent 
mechanical  efficiency  methods  ha^■e  proved,  far  greater 
*  econonuc  results  remain  to  be  achieved  in  the  domain  of 
psychology — in  knowing  the  conditions  under  which  the 
human  factor  is  capable  of  the  highest  achie\-ements.  / 
venture  to  say  that  the  highest  degree  of  efficiency  wiU 
be  found  where  labour  conditions  are  the  mcst  healthful, 
and  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  workers  is  the  chief 
consideration.  Some  day  the  world's  statesmen  will 
awaken  to  the  fact  that  any  economic  system  ^vhich 
breeds  poverty  and  misery  among  the  masses  is  neither 
moral  nor  econonuc.  and  that  the  surest  plan  for  making 
a  nation,  rich  and  prosperous,  is  to  ensure  first  the  well- 
being  of  the  working  classes.  The  true  science  of 
economics  must  harmonise  with  the  laws  of  ethics. 


A  Question   of  Status 

THE  war  as  it  develops  has  raised  a  problein 
present  to  the  minds  of  all  those  taking  part  in 
active  service  and  even  of  many  civilians  at 
home  ;  it  is  the  problem  of  recognising  as  act- 
ive the  forces  hitherto  regarded  as  auxiliary.  The  trench 
fighting,  the  extraordinary  growth  of  artillery,  and 
especially  of  heavy  artillery  and  munitions,  the  methods 
and  new  perils  of  liaison  (the  life  of  a  modern  despatch 
rider,  for  instance),  the  ])cril  of  all  the  branches  of  the 
service  whatsoever  within  a  zone  much  wider  than  was 
the  case  before  artillery  had  acquired  its  present  range — • 
all  these  causes  combined  have  changed  the  old  balance 
of  peril,  and  therefore  the  lionour. 

There  is  a  particular  example  of  this  which  is  especially 
striking.  We  refer  to  the  motor  transport  which 
"  feeds  "  the  heavy  guns.  This  transport  was  at  first 
regarded  as  purely  auxiliary.  But  in  practice  it  has 
already  become,  under  the  conditions  of  the  present  war, 
part  and  parcer of  the  active  functions  on  the  front. 
It  runs  all  the  risks  of  the  battery,  but  its  members  do 
not  rank  as  the  gunners  rank,  nor  count  as  the  peril  they 
undergo  and  the  casualties  they  suffer  seem  to  warrant. 
It  is  perfectly  true,  of  course,  that  only  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  the  transport  is  at  any  moment  under  the 
same  conditions  of  service  as  the  batteries  themselves  ; 
though,  for  that  matter,  the  gunners  and  their  jiicces 
are  not  always  in  action  ;  the  test  would  rather  seem  to  be 
whether  under  the  changed  conditions  of  war,  the  motor 
transport,  especially  that  serving  the  Ireavy  artillery, 
should  not  be  regarded  as  part  of  the  armj^ 

It  will  be  remembered  that  long  after  the  introduction 
of  artillery,  most  services  continued  to  regard  the  drivers 
as  something  of  less  dignity  than  those  who  served  the 
guns.  Indeed  for  a  very  long  time  the  drivers  in  most 
services  were  ci\ilians  taken  haphazard,  and  very  often 
the  teams  as  well.  The  full  definition  of  the  driver  as 
forming  a  part  of  the  artillery  army  in  the  normal 
European  organisation  is  as  late  as  the  French  Revolution, 
and  there  are  examples  even  after  that  date  of  confusion 
or  belated  habit  in  the  matter. 

Something  of  the  same  sort  may  be  seen  in  the  case 
of  the  motor  transport  of  munitions  in  this  war,  and  it  is 
at  any  rate  well  worth  considering  whether  the  time  has 
not  come  for  the  recognition  of  this  transport  as  parjL  of 
the   sunners'    army. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


I'Ybruary  i,  1917 


Expulsion    of    Turkey   from    Europe 


By  Sir  William  Ramsay 


IN  regard  to  the  Turkish  people  and  their  fate,  I 
write  as  one  who  has  known  thousands  of  them  in 
the  course  of  the  last  thirty-five  years,  and  is  on 
\cry  friendly  terms  with  many.  1  am  indebted 
\o  I  hem"  for  much  kindness.  I  have  eaten  the  bread  and 
salt  of  very  many  individuals  and  villages;  and  there 
are  few,  if  any,  even  among  the  Turks  themselves,  whose 
face  used  to  be  sq  familiar  or  so  welcome  in  hundreds  of 
liirkish  \illaf;es  as  mine.  1  claim  to  speak  on  behalf  of 
the  people  of  Turkey,  both  when  I  have  denounced  the 
Armenian  massacres,  and  now  when  I  maintain  that 
Turkish  domination  on  the  great  international  waterway 
whicli  is  commanded  by  Constantinople,  is  an  outrage 
that  ought  to  be  ended 

ivN-ery  plan  for  miproving  Turkish  administration  has 
failed  ;  "and  the  conclusion  must  be  drawn.  The  streets 
uf  Stamboul  must  be  swept  clear  of  blood.  The  Young 
'lurks  swept  them  clear  of  filth  and  of  dogs,  but  the 
stain  of  innocent  blood  shed  throughout  the  Empire 
is  deeper  than  ever  at  the  centre  of  government.  No 
true  friend  of  the  Turks  would  keep  them  where  they 
lia\-e  U>  perfurm  a  gra\e  international  duty.  It  is  a 
work  l<n-  which  thev  are  not  suited  :  no  one  that  knows 
and  lo\es  their  good  qualities  from  intimate  knowledge 
can  lie  ignorant  of  the  faults  which  unfit  them  to  rule 
at  Constantinople.  They  cannot  use.  but  only  misuse, 
tlie  resources  of  civiHsation.  Anything  may  happen  m 
'fnrkey  except  what  is  reasonable  and  natural  'and 
possible  ;  and  the  results  are  often  comic,  but  sometimes 
tragic.  Moreover,  the  jxjople  who  suffer  most  from  the 
goxeming  class  have  been  the  Turks  tliemsehes. 
Tins  sounds  a  paradox,  but  it  is  the  plain  truth 

Where  the  Best  Turks  Dwell 

The  best  part  of  the  Turkish  people  and  the  mainstay 
of  the  Turkish  army  has  always  been  the  population  of  the 
Central  Plateau  and  the  mountains  of  Asia  Minor.  They 
rank  in  general  estimation  as  the  truest  Osmanli  and  the 
best  of^the  Turks.  The  C.overnment  of  this  people, 
however,  has  never  lain  in  their  own  hands.  It  is  about 
3,500  years  since  tHe  governing  centre  of  Asia  Minor,  as  a 
wiiole,"  ceased  to  he  within  its  own  bounds  :  the  Seldjuk 
lunpire  of  Kum  or  Konia  was  hardly  an  exception  to  this 
stateuK'nt.  During  all  that  period  the  country  has  been 
under  foreign  domination  ;  and  the  capital  has  sometimes 
been  at  Susa  or  Bagdad,  sometimes  at  Rome  or  Con- 
stantinople. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  Constantinople  almost  as 
if  it  were  part  of  Asia  IMinor,  but  it  is  a  city  of  Europe  ; 
and  the  spirit  of  its  inhfibitants  is  very  different  from 
that  of  the  true  Turks  of  Asia  Minor.  The  high-class 
Turks  of  Constantinople,  who  supply  most  of  the  oificials 
and  exercise  the  power  of  the  Empire,  often  have  great 
difficulty  in  understanding  what  an  Asia  Minor  peasant 
sajs,  as"  their  educated  Turkish  is  so  unlike  the  popular 
language.  1  have  known  an  Englishman  act  as  inter- 
preter between  a  Turkish  Pasha  and  an  Anatolian  peasant. 
In  blood  also  there  is  much  difterence.  The  ruHng  class 
in  Stamboul,  from  the  Sultan  downwards,  spring  from  a 
mixed  race.  ]'"or  many  generations  the  mothers  of  this 
class  ha\e  been  almost  invariably  non-Turkish — Cir- 
cassian or  some  other  alien  race  :  and  all  have  been 
brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  which  is  unlike  that  in 
which  the  true  Turks  live.  Many  years  ago  the  President 
of  Robert  College  in  Constantinople  said  to  me  that  his 
predecessor,  who  spoke  from  a  \'ast  knowledge  of  Turkey, 
had  always  looked  forward  to  the  future  influx  of  Turkish 
Ijoys  into  the  College  as  the  greatest  danger  whi(  h  it 
would  ha\e  to  face,  on  the  ground  that  the  IiirkisJi 
bovs  of  the  class  which  would  hereafter  come  to  the 
College  are  either  accomplished  and  irredeemable  black- 
guards, or  soft,  helpless  molly-coddles,  brought  uji  in 
the  harem  with  loving  and  ignorant  care  by  Turkish 
women,  and  unfit  to  face  the  most  ordinary  difliculties 
of  college  life.  While  the  former  kind  of  boy  was  far 
tlie  more  numerous,  the  latter  often  pro\  e  unfit  to  stand 


the  moral  tests  and  trials  of  life.  Vet  in  the  hands  of  this 
class,  helped  by  Phanariotc  Greeks  or  by  Armenians, 
the  administration  of  tlie  country  used  to  lie. 

Question  of  Education 

Formerly,  these  Turks  were  so  uiieducaied  tliat  writing 
was  a  difiicnlt  art,  \ery  little  practised  by  them.  The 
official  governing  a  Turkish  district  used,  as  a  rule,  to 
keep  a  secretary  (almost  always  Christian),  who  read  to 
him  all  documents  and  .showed  him  where  to  imjjiess  his 
seal.  In  the  earUer  years  of  my  acquaintance  with  the 
country!  was  on  two  occasions  told,  as  quite  an  extra- 
ordinary thing,  that  the  governor  of  a  large  proxince 
was  actually  able  to  read  any  document  ])resented  to  him. 
In  recent  years  writing  has  become  inunensely  more 
familiar  to  the  official  class,  and  they  have  some  smatter- 
ing of  acquaintance  with  books  on  economics,  gained, 
in  most  cases,  not  through  reading  the  books,  but  through 
synopses  and  reports  of  their  contents. 

There  is  so  much  good  in  the  common  peasainrv, 
totally  uneducated  as  they  used  to  be  and  mostly  >till 
are,  that  English  visitors,  who  saw  Turkey  largely  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  tourist  or  the  diplomatist,  were 
always  buoyed  up  with  hope  that  Turkey  could  r<form 
itself  from  inside,  through  its  own  natural  rc-sources, 
with  some  help  from  wi'll-meaning  external  powi-rs.  1 
speak  as  one  who  cherished  such  hopes  to  the  end.  All 
schemes  of  reform,  howe\'er,  ha\e  been  framed  by  alien 
diplonratists  with  little  know;ledge  of  the  people  or  the 
practical  possibilities  of  the  case,  and  sometimes  not 
free  from  the  suspicion  of  dreading  a  reformed  Turki'y. 
J-?iit,  further,  the  reforms  have  been  wrecked  by  the 
liniversal  principle  of  European  diphjinacy — that  the 
existing  government  must  be  supported  at  all  costs. 

There  is  in  Asia  a  natural  self-righting  power,  which 
does  away  with  a  certain  amount  of  the  evil  of  despotism 
by  destroying  every  dynasty  as  soon  as  jt  loses  \'igour  and 
becomes  effete  ;  but  some  disorder  is  inevitable  in  the 
j)rocess.  Wrong  ])roduces  wrong.  'The  supporters  of 
the  dynasty  have  to  be  defeated  or  terrorised.  A  good 
deal  of  fighting  goes  on  ;  the  streets  of  the  metrojwlis 
sometimes  run  with  blood  ;  the  blood  is  of  important 
jjeople,  and  persons  familiar  in  diplomatic  circles  suffer. 
This  sort  of  massacre  is  inconvenient  to  the.  diplomatists  ; 
it  is  ugly  ;  it  takes,  place  at  their  doors.  T'or  a  few 
days  they  are  hardly  able  to  go  out  into  the  streets  with 
safety.  Hence  European  Embassies  have  always  re- 
sisted any  such  exercise  of  the  natural  self-regulating 
strength  of  the  nation.  Moreo\er,  the  example  might 
spread  to  other  lands. 

Whether  it  was  possible  for  Turkey  to  reform  itself 
ill  favourable  circumstances  has  never  been  actually 
tested  ;  and  the  opportunity  so  often  missed  can  nevei 
he  gi\en  again  in  Europe.  The  one  fixed  jmnciple  of  Ok; 
Turkish  administration  was  to  leave  subjects  moderately 
free  to  live  according  to  their  own  principles,  until  there 
arose  any  suspicion  that  they  were  likely  to  jMove 
dangerous  to  the  (io\ernment ;  then  a  massacre,  carried 
to  tlie  extent  wiiich  thi:  (iovernment  thought  useful 
to  discourage  flu;  dreaded  movement,  was  brought  into 
elfect.  'The  "S'omig  Turk>'  jirinciple  is  the  same  ;  but 
they  have  made  it  more  thorough,  learning  in  this  respect 
from  (ierman  teaching.  'The  metiiod  (jf  massacre  is  too 
deeply  ingrained  in  the  'Turkish  official  mind. 

'The  ill-success  of  the  latest  reform  movement  which 
be.gan  in  July  ic)o8  by  overthrowing  the  power  of  the 
Sultan  and  completed  its  Avork  in  April  ii)0()  by  deposing 
lum,  is  a  striking  lesson.  It  is,  of  course,  quite  ])ossible. 
for  those  who  beheved  in  the  "\'oung  'Turks,  ami  hirped 
for  great  things  from  them  (among  whom  I  number 
myself),  to  argue  that  such  difficulties  were  thrown  in 
their  way  by  European  Powers  as  to  destroy  any  chanc(^ 
of  their  success.  Jiuf,  making  every  allowance  for  tin- 
external  troubles  which  iinpedefl  them,  beginning  with 
the  seizing  by  Auslria-in  i<)0<S  of  the  ])rovinces  of  Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina  in  defiance  of  treaty  obligations,   no 


r('bniai\    I,    Jt)!/ 


LAND    &     WATER 


^5 


rational  being  can  maintain,  after  tlie  losson  of  tiicir 
latest  histor\',  that  they  werr  not  infected  with  the  Old 
Turks'  disease. 

But  set  this  case  aside,  lake  the  previous  attempt  at 
reform  which  was  carried  out  by  a  group  during  1875 
and  the  following  years.  That  movement  also  promised 
well.  Tlie  leading  spirit  was  Midhat  Pasha,  and  all  who 
hoped  that  liukey  might  be  able  to  regenerate  itself 
})iaced  great  trust  in  .Midhat  ;  but  I  must  confess  that  a 
few  years  ago  my  views  about  him  recei\'ed  a  serious 
shock  through  what  I  heard  from  one  \\ho  had  known 
him  well.  My  authority  did  not  tell  the  story  either  in 
blame  or  in  praise  ;  he  was  simply  narrating  his  own 
recoliertions,  and  they  carried  conviction. 

.Midhat,  who  was  (ioveriuir  of  the  ]Movincc  of  Bulgaria 
about  1874,  said  in  private  con\'ersation  thai,  if  hv.  were 
free  to  do  as  he  thought  best,  he  would  j>rohibit  all 
teaching  or  writing  or  reading  of  the  l^ulgarian  language, 
which  is  a  Slav  dialect.  His  reason  was  that  a  child 
takes  only  three  years  to  learn  to  read  and  write  Bulgarian, 
but  it  needs  six  years  to  learn  to  read  and  write  Turkish  ; 
it  was  therefore  unsafe  to  give  such  an  ad\'antage  to  the 
Bulgarians.  The  point  of  view  is  so  essentially  'J'urkish, 
and  morally  so  wrong,  as  to  imply  tliat  the  mind  of  the 
speaker,  leading  reformer  as  he  was,  had  been  iadicall\- 
distort(xl  about  the  principles  of  governing.  There  is 
nothing  to  be  hoped  for  except  mere  superficial  impro\e- 
ments  from  such  reform. 

Acting  on  the  same  principle  the  Young  Turk  govern- 
ment in  1000  alienated  the  Albanians  by  compelling  them 
to  adopt  the  Turkish  alphabet  ;  the  official  mind  always 
judges  after  the  same  fashion  in  Turkey,  and  the  reformers 
are  worse  than  the  despots. 

It  is  understood  that  the  Allies  ha\-e  agreed  to  put 


l-iussia  in  authority  at  Stamboul  :  and  the  only  other 
method— namely,  internationalisation,  need  not  be  dis- 
cussed. It  must  be  acknowledged  that  free  use  of  the 
great  waterway  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  develop- 
ment of  Russia ;  and  that  no  other  country,  not  even 
Roumania,  is  so  dependent  on  the  free  navigation  of  the 
l^osphorus  ;  but  l^oumania  has  an  innnense  stake  in  the; 
waterway,  and  many  other  nations  ha\-e  large  interests 
in  it  :  and  it  surely  is  within  the  power  even  of  modern, 
diplomacy  to  conciliate  the  \'arious  claims  under  the 
supreme  authority  of  Russia.  The  prohibition  of  all 
fortilication  along  the  line  of  the  waterway  together  with 
proper  supervision  to  insure  that  this  condition  is  fully 
carried  out,  seems  to  be  necessary  and  al.so  to  be  possible. 
This  supervision  ought  to  be  exercised  by  a  Scientifu" 
("onnnission  to  regulate  and  improve  the  navigation  of 
the  waterway  and  the  use  to  which  it  can  be  put  :  the 
powers  of  the  commission  to  extend  over  the  entire 
channel  from  the  ]^Iack  Sea  to  the  yligean,  and  to  a 
distance  of  about  ten  miles  on  eacli  side.  Tlie  com- 
mission should  not  consist  of  diplomatists  and  lawyers, 
but  of  scientihc  and  practical  men.  , 

Jt  is  time  to  begin  to  put  Turkish  affairs  under  the 
control  of  knowledge  and  skill.  The  Allies  should  learn 
in  this  respect  from  the  (lermans  in  Turkey.  The  fruit- 
k'ssness  of  all  the  many  attempts  to  reform  Turkey,  or  to 
inrhice  the  'furks  to  reform  themselves,  has  been  largely 
due  to  wrong  methods  :  diplomatists  dealt  with  a  gox'ern- 
ment,  and  never  appreciated  that  they  ought  to  be  dealing 
with  a  jx'.ople.  That  government  has  been  the  greatest 
enemy  of  the  Turks  as  a  nation  ;  and  it  is  as  much  in 
the  interests  of  the  Turks  as  of  European  nations,  that 
the  Turkish  administration  should  be  brought  to  an 
end  in  Europe,  and  should  be  radically'  modified  in  Asia. 


Joffre  and  Nivelle 


By  Charles  Dawbarn 


JOFERE  has  Ixen  made  Marshal,  Nivelle,  who 
was  in  London  the  other  day,  commands  the  North 
and  North-Eastern  Fronts  in  France.  Few  English 
readers  probably  appreciated  the  signihcan.ce  of 
the  change.  Joffn^  stands  for  a  special  sort  of  efticicncy, 
Nivelle  for  another.  The  two  men  are  perfect  products 
of  their  own  environments.  None  can  dispute  the  com- 
manding character  of  each,  and  vet  each  commands 
differently. 

Joffre's  amazing  popularity  is  based  on  a  peculiar 
appreciation  of  his  temix-rament.  He  is  the  highest 
expression  of  the  jjcasant  commanding  a  peasant  army. 
For  it  is  not  always  realized  that  the  great  majority  of 
the  tighting  men  of  France  spring  from  the  soil,  and 
therefore  are  its  natural  and  most  tenacious  guardians. 

The  French  light  with  the  indomitable  ^■alour  that  we 
know,  because  they  are  fighting  to  defend  their  homes 
and  their  acre  of  ground.  It  is  the  instinct  of  possession, 
the  fierce  protective  ^ensc  of  the  farmer  and  cultivator, 
who  sees  his  life-work  jeopardised  and  undone,  his  farm 
and  fields  at  the  mercy  of  a  barban^us  foe.  That  is  the 
Joftre  spirit  too.  Joffre  is  representative  of  France 
because  lie  has  sprung  from  a  pure  stock,  which,  for 
generations,  has  tilled  the  ground.  His  mother  was  a 
inodel  housewife,  orderly  and  economical,  and  Joffre 
inherits  her  order  and  her  economy. 

His  forte  is  forethought  !  He  thinks  things  out  steadily, 
along  certain  lines ;  he  is  master  of  his  own  destinj-,  the 
captain  of  his  fate.  He  disdains  flashes  of  inspiration,- 
the  sudden  insight  by  which  some  great  leaders  have 
established  reputations— at  least  according  to'  popular 
biography.  Such  narrowing  of  the  impulse  down'fo  the 
hard  and  fast  rules  of  calculation  and  research  is  par- 
ticularly useful  in  adversity,  for  it  stiffens  the  soul,  makes 
It  face  realitj-,  steels  it  against  the  dreadful  discourage- 
ments of  defeat,  and  engenders  a  spirit  of  calmness  and 
resolution. 

Yes,  the  knock-down  blow  is  terrific  to-dav.  but  will  not 
:hc  striker  be  himself  fatigued  ?  It  is  as  if  one  calculated 
the  stress  and  strain  of  a  bridge,  subjected  to  severe 
pressure.     Will  it  bear  it  ?      Joffre  knew  that  it  would 


bear  it.  That  knowledge  gave  Ihm  confidence  ancT 
strength  in  the  darkest  hour,  when  the  Germans  Were 
hard  upon  the  heels  oi  defeated  France  and  Britain. 
He  ne\er  faltered.  He  went  about  his  work  as  calmly 
as  if  mathematics  could  not  lie,  and  the  exact  sciences 
were  always  exact.  He  had  deeply  considered,  he 
had  slowly  examined  all  the  chances  of  things  turning  out 
differently  from  reasonable  expectation,  and  he  had 
taken  the  risk  inseparable  from  enterprise.  And  he 
triumphed  as  he  knew  he  would.  ^ 

Somehow  he  was  able  to  communicate  this  serene 
confidence  to  his  troops.  Perhaps  it  was  not  very 
difticult,  for  his  peculiar  reputation  with  the  armies  was 
of  a  man  of  groat  wisdom  and  ponderation.  He  was 
CraiK/pci'C  Joffre,  and  the  grandfather  is  always  astonish- 
ingly wise  to  his  grandchildren.  Moreover,  he  was  kind, 
and  at  the  same  time,  just :  great  cpialitics  in  a  leader, 
that  always  inspire  the  affectionate  esteem  of  the  led. 

Joffre,  removed  to  the  more  rarified  atmosphere  of 
technical  a^dviser  to  the  Inner  Cabinet,  has  left  behind 
him  an  enviabk^  record.  "  If  after  the  war,"  wrote  a 
Socialist  and  Professor  in  L'llumanitc,  the  organ  of  the 
late  lamented  Jaures,  "  a  monument  is  erected  to  him,  as 
assuredly  it  will  be,  no  mother  need  turn  away  from  it." 
And  Joffre,  tender-hearted  beneath  the  coat  of  mail 
forged  for  th(^  circumstance  of  this  war,  derived  particular 
pleasure  from  this  panegyric.  He  has  known  how  to 
make  war  humanely,  with  a  jealous  eye  for  the  lives  of 
the  pawns.  "  Too  many  dead,"  he  said,  when  Paris 
asked  whether  it  should  celebrate  the  victorj'  of  the  Marnc. 
And,  again,  "  I  can  break  through,  but  it  will  cost  a 
hundred  thousand.  Do  you  want  that  ?  "  Xotre  Joffre 
is  as  parsimonious  of  his  troops  as  if  each  poilu  were  his 
own  son. 

He  stands  for  the  defensive,  whilst  his  successor  is 
the  advocate  of  the  offensive.  The  two  systems  are  as 
wide  apart  as  that.  Joffre  holds,  "  nibbles,"  wears  down, 
wages  a  "war  of  attrition,"  the  other  hews  his  way  to 
\ictory,  but  wins  scientilically,  by  superior  preparation. 
Nivelle  is  the  sou  and  grandson  of  a  soldier.  He  belongs 
therefore  to  the  haute  hoitrgeoisic.     His  mother  is  English, 


i6 


LAND    ct    WATER 


February  i,  iot? 


«;o  thai  ho  has  hall  Iho  qnahtics  of  our  race.  Joftrc  is 
Calalan  •  that  proiul-and  inrtepcndont  people  inhabitinp; 
lioth  sides  of  the  Pvrcnccs  ;  with  it  goes  a  strain  of 
Picardy— a  great-grandfather,  probably  endowed  with 
cold  northern  shrewdness. 

And  yet,  strange  as  it  mav  appear,  both  are  from  the 
South:"  ]offre  from  the  eastern  edge  of  the  P\Tenees, 
Xivellc  from  the  Correze— not  the  extreme  ^outh, 
but  south  enough  to  make  him  count  with  the  groiip  ot 
Hicessful  generals  who  hail  from  th--  Midi,  such  as 
C.aliic'ni,  Pan,  Castelnau,  Fodi,  Sarrail.  and  Roques. 

A   Daring   Achievement 

The  Marshal,  whose  experience  is  now  at  the  service  of 
the  War  Board,  was,  of  course,  alreadv  in  command  of  the 
army  when  war  broke  out.  Differently  placed,  however, 
wasNi\elle,  who  won  his  promotion  on  the  Hold  of  battle. 
Before  N'erdun  came  to  crown  his  reputation  as  a 
tactician  and  as  a  strategist,  his  finest  feat  proved  his 
daring  and  his  contempt  of  danger  :  the  true  spirit  of  the 
offensi\e.  It  was  on  the  Aisne.  The  Inench  were 
heavily  attacked  at  the  moment  of  crossing  the  river, 
and  were  driven  back  in  some  disorder.  Nuelle,  who 
Avas  at  the  head  of  the  Fifth  I^egiment  of  Artillery,  whicli 
was  operating  with  the  7th  Armv  Corps,  flung  himself 
with  his  guns  in  front  of  the  retreating  infantry  and 
stopped  the  rout. 

His  success  at  Verdun  on  three  different  occasions 
re\-eals  the  same  ardent  temper.  Rumour  says  that  the 
Commander-in-Chief  was  awav  from  duty,  suffering  from 
the  effects  of  a  motor  mishap.  Nivelle,  in  .something 
of  the  Nelson  spirit  when  he  failed  to  read  the  unfavour- 
able signal,  considered  the  moment  good  for  trymg 
something  new.  He  broke  through  the  (lerman  hues 
with  startling  speed.  Mr.  L.  ].  Maxse  in  the  ^c^llonal 
Review  calls  Verdun  "a  portent."  It  is.  Moreover, 
I  am  not  wrong  in  saving  that  General  Xivellc  believes 
he  can  drive  the  Germans  from  France.  Such  con- 
viction is  of  immense  importance,  because  it  is  notorious 
that  many  of  the  old  counsellors  of  Joffre  were  pessi- 
mistic on  this  subject. 

Again,  the  French  arc  an  impressionable  people, 
strung  and  strained  bv  the  terrific  experiences  of,  nearl\ 
thirtv  months  of  war.  just  as  Nivelle  electrified  the 
Sevcntli  Armv  Corps  at  tjie  Aisne  battle  by  his  reckless 
disregard  of  danger  in  using  his  "  seventy-fives  "  as  it 
they  were  "  mitrailleuses,"  so  he  has  electrified  the 
nation  by  the  ease  with  which  he  has  won  back  all  that 
the  Gennans  struggled  so  hard  and  so  ponderously  to 
obtain  during  eight  months.  The  army  has  forgotten 
its  weariness" and  the  deadly  ding-dong  of  the  daily  sacri- 
fice in  this  new  flush  of  victory.  A  whisper,  telling  the 
secret  of  a  new  resolution,  has  circulated  through  France, 
heartening  the  population,  rbcreating  the  blood  and  sinews 
of  tired  men,  sending  a  new  thrill  of  expectancy  into 
hearts  made  sick  with  waiting  or  desolated  with  mourning. 
And  so  the  dawn  of  ior7  is  tinged  with  a  golden  hop(> 
for  our  Allies. 

They  have  taken  the  measure  of  the  Germans  ;  they 
no  longer  fear  them.  "  You  know  you  are  better  than 
the  Germans,"  .said  General  Nivelle  to  his  troops,  after 
one  of  his  successes ;  "  those  who  say  the  contrary  tell 
a  lie."  That  is  so  palpably  true  that  the  whole  countr\- 
^•ibrates  with  it.  ,    ^ 

Thus  Nivelle's  appeal  differs  from  that  of  Joffre  s. 
He  is  the  apostle  of  a  divine  discontent  against  the  slow 
.  snakiness  of  the  war,  a  synthesis  of  energy  ancl  action, 
whilst  Joffre  represents  the  rock-like  personality,  un- 
moved by  storm,  the  man  who,  by  his  calmness  and 
])rescicnce,  sa\-ed  France  from  irretrievable  disaster. 
Both  men  are  the  outcome  of  their  epoch. 

^•erdun  is  more  than  a  militarv  portent ;  it  has  changed 
the  policy  of  France.  Not  unnaturally  Parliament 
reflected  on  the  effects  of  sharp  action  as  against 
corro.sion.  It  saw  how  successful  action  was,  and  how 
inexpensive  when  conducted  by  such  masters  of  scienti- 
fic war  as  Generals  Nivelle  and  Mangin.  And  so  deputies 
were  all  for  the  forward  policy.  And  with  that  quickness 
ot  thought  and  decision  which  is  sometimes  the  seed 
of  violent  mistakes,  but  at  others  the  most  precious 
of  virtues,  public  opinion  insisted  on  a  change  of  methods 
all  round.  The  old  headquarters  at  Chantilly  were 
given  up-   Parliamenf  took  n  riiore  difccf  hand  in  the 


game,  and  to  G'enVral  Nivelle,  young  for  his  sixty  years 
was  given)  tliM  f^porliinity   of   redeeming  his  promise, 
made  in  effect  at  Verdun,  of  liberating  the  soil  from  the 
invader. 

Nivelle's  appeal,  1  liave  said,  is  of  a  different  order 
from  Joffre's  ;  so  is  his  record.  lie  has  all  the  accomplish- 
ments of  his  metier.  A  perfect  horseman,  he  won  prizes 
at  the  Paris  horse  show.  His  love  of  thoroughness  led 
him  to  Saumur,  tlie  cavalry  school,  as  well  as  to  St.  Cyr, 
the  1-Yencli  Sandhurst,  and  the  Pol\-technique  was  his 
.Vhna  Mater,  a>  it  was  Joffre's  and  Petain's  and  CasteJ- 
iiau's. 

Some  day,  there  will  be  written  an  article  to  bring  out 
tlie  \alue  of  education  in  war.  ^^ ar  is  a  great  searcher  of 
the  soul,  a  test  of  personal  aims  and  culture.  It  is 
significant  that  every  leader  who  has  distinguished  him- 
self during  this  incredible  struggle  has  exceptional 
intellectual  "  baggage."  Castelnau  and  Foch  are  par- 
ticularly known  for  their  predominance  in  military  theory, 
and  the  latter  is  a  learned  writer  on  tactics.  The  super- 
iority of  the  French  staff  springs  from  the  same  cause  ; 
intensive  preparation  at  the  receptive  age,  continuous 
and  strenuous  application  to  nullify  the  harmful  effects 
of  routine  and  a  set  system. 

If  Joffre  stands  for  the  friendliness  of  French  disciphne, 
nicely  adjusted  to  the  French  conceptions  of  liberty 
and  equality,  Nivelle  rules  by  virtue  of  his  prestige. 
His  rapid  rise  to  fame  fascinates  his  countrymen  who  have 
never  lost  their  love  of  a  gallant  and, purely  military 
figure.  He  appeals  to  their  romantic  side.  If  they  look 
affectionately  towards  the  paternal  Marshal  who  stootL 
them  in  supreme  stead  at  the  critical  hour,  they 
acknowledge  that  they  arc  "  epnleii."  bv  tlic  new 
Commander-in-Chief. 


T!ie  C<>mmittee  of  the  National  Kgg  Collection  for  the 
Wounded  iia\-c  received  j)crmission  to  hold  a  street  collection 
in  London  on  Wednesday,  14th  instant,  to  assist  the  funds. 
The  support  of  all  classes  is  invited  to  makV-  tlic  day  a  great 
success.  All  who  can  possibly  help  are  earnestly  requested 
to  give  their  services  and  should  immediately  get  in  touch 
with  the  Organiser  at  154,  Meet  Street,  E.C.  " 

The  soldier's  journal,  which  devotes  itself  to  some  par- 
ticular unit  or  maybe  to  a  military  hospital,  has  become  a 
recognised  feature  of  the  war  and  has  re\'caled  an  extra- 
ordinary amount  of  talent,  literary  and  artistic.  No  better 
illustration.of  this  truth  can  be  cited  than  the  Christmas  number 
of  The  Vic's  Patrol,  the  active  service  journal  of  the  Victoria 
Rifles  of  Canada.  The  Trench  edition  would  make  its  readers 
belie^'e  that  war  is  a  blithe  and  gladsome  thing,  were  it 
not  that  on  the  cover  appears  this   verse  of  Kipling:—. 

]   have  written  a  tale  of  our  life 
I'or  a  sheltered  people's  mirtli, 

In  jesting  guise-  but  ye  are  vise 

Anrl  ye  know  what  the  jest  is  worth.  , 

But  the  sheltered  people  also  know  nowadays  and  they 
bow  the  head  in  reverence  to  those  brave  souls  who  can  jest 
so  lightly  and  happily  in  the  face  of  death  and  perils  without 
number.  "'  Thank  Allah  for  a  sense  of  Imniour,"  writes  one 
contributor,  and  we  do  thank  Allah,  for  the  humour  that 
can  produce  a  delightful  journal  of  this  nature  with  such 
subject-matter  to  draw  on,  seeing  that  this  fine  spirit  exalts 
a  man  \ery  near  to  the  everlasting  gates. 


NINETEENTH    CENTURY 

AND    AFTER 

"  l>  it  Peace,  Jehu  "  IKBIU  ARY, 

<1)  No  Peace  without  Victory.    By  Cihrles  E.  MALLEr  (formerly  Financial 

,«;-<Tit,irv  t.,   \\:t   Wiir  Oflisfl). 
(2)  Some    Perils    ot    Peace.    By    Hie    Kight   Itcv.    the    Lor.D    EienDP    OP 
f  »i;ri--i.i:. 
The  Great  Naval  Blockade.  -     By  .Tons  I.ctland. 

Tile  Passing  of  the   Cabinet.    Bv   Sir  Fn  ixeis  PlfiGori  (late  Chief  Jnstice  of 

France  and  the  Rhine   Frontier.  Dj    ,T.   HO'UXD  ROSE,  T.itt.P. 

Oan/ig:  Poland's  Outlet  to  the  Sea.  Ity  I,.   I!.  Namirk. 

"Sons  Camaradee "    in  a   War   Zone   Cantins.  tiv  Sir  l'K\NK  llESSOv. 

Diet  .nnd  Debt.  )!v  the  Kigtlt   Hon.  tlio  'Eai-.I,  of  DrsluVES,  K.P. 

The  Liquor  Traffic  in  War.  Cy  Dr.  ARTHI  R  SlIADWti.r.. 

inilia's  Eltort :  is  .1  sulTioisntly   under>to«d?  '  By  ■^,   VCSI  F  .\i.I. 

Life  affer  Death : 

(t)  Communication  with  th'!  Dead:   a  Reply  to  Sir  Herbert  Stephen.    Hy 

Ml-  (IMVI  K    i.ir!ir,l  ,     1  ,l;.S. 

(2)  Future   Life    and    Lives,     r,v    A.    I'.    Sl.svcTT. 
The  Nr.tional  Gallery  Bill,  and  Sir  Hugh  Lane's  Beauest;    Bv.  D.  3.  MACCoi.r.. 
Towards  Industrial     Efficiency.  Hv   i:.  Sehbohm   ROWNTREE. 

Industrial  Fa'igue.  '  llv  e.   K.    OGBUX. 

The  War  Poetry  of    Women.        75y  LiLIAS    RowLAN'O   BROWN  (Rowland  Grey). 
Migration  and  tile   Dominions:   Suggestions  for  the  Imperial  War  Conference, 

lU     Sir    ClEMFSI    KINLOCir-COOKE.     M.P. 
Compulsory    Service    in   Australia.     I'.y   liic   Uon.   C.   C.   Wade.    ICC.    M.L.A. 

ii>rm<il>   I'riino  Minirter  <:i  Xcw   .S(  utli   W.ilesi. 

T/inilon:  Spottiswcrd'^.  B.ill.intyne  &  Co..  Ltd.,   1,   Xcw-.^trfft  ,°nniire. 


February  i,  19 17 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldersha.w 


17 


BORNEO,  with  its  English  Rajah  and  its  gruesome. 
Head-hunters,  has  long  had  a  romantic  attraction 
for  Englishmen.  Its  romantic  interest  is  ex- 
tended from  the  human  to  the  animal  kingdom 
in  the  late  Robert  W.  C.  Shelford's  fascinating  \olume, 
A  Natumlist  in  Borneo  (T.  Fisher  Umvin,  15s.  net).  This 
volume,  carefully  edited  by  his  sometime  chief.  Professor 
E.  B.  Poulton,  who  has  had  the  assistance  of  a  number 
of  friends  and  fellow- workers  in  the  same  field,  may  be 
regarded  in  one  aspect  as  a  nronument  to  the  pious 
memory  of  the  distinguished  young  scientist  who  wrote 
it  during  his  last  illness  and  had  not  completed  it  at  the 
time  of  his  death  in  January,  1912.  Mr.  Shelford's 
career  as  a  naturalist  began  in  the  East,  hke  the  late 
Professor  Minchin's,  and  in  a  somewhat  similar  manner, 
both  having  turned  their  attention  to  "  bug-hunting," 
owing  to  an  inabihty,  through  illness,  to  join  in  the 
ordinary  outdoor  pursuits  of  boj-hood.  After  graduating 
at  Cambridge,  Shelford  went  to  the  East  again  in  iSq; 
to  become  Curator  of  Rajah  Brooke's  museum  at  Sarawak. 
There  lie  remained  se\en  years,  the  last  seven  years 
of  his  life  being  for  the  most  part  spent  as  Assistant- 
Curator  of  the  Hope  Department  at  Oxford,  with  fruitful 
results  in  an  exhaustive  studv  of  the  cockroach. 


What  wide  knowledge  atid  what  powers  of  observation 
Shelford  brought  to  his  study  of  the  O.xford  collection  of 
cockroaches  are  revealed  in  A  Naturalist  in  Borneo. 
He  does  not  here  conhne  himself  to  the  insect  life  of  the 
island,  there  are  chapters  on  mammals,  birds  and  reptiles, 
and  more  than  that,  there  are  interesting  descriptions  of 
the  country  and  its  inhabitants.  He  is  the  complete 
naturalist  who,  is  explorer  as  well  as  collector  and 
classifier.  "  If  now,"  .  he  says,  after  describing  an 
expedition  to  Penrisen,  "  settled  quietly  at  home,  I 
ever  hear  the  '  East  a-calling,'  it  is  not  the  life  in  the 
towns  that  calls  mc,  not  the  freedom  of  social  inter- 
course, not  the  boundless  hospitality  of  friends  and  neigh- 
bours, nor  the  luxuries  of  a  tropical  home,  but  the  dark, 
mysterious  forest  with  its  teeming  life,  the  nights  dn  the 
river-bank,  with  the  rushing  stream  beside  me,  the 
starry  sky  above,  the  camp-fue  with  the  nati\es  huddled 
round  telling  tales  in  murmuring  tones,  the  shrill  clamour 
of  the  insects  filling  the  whole  air — these  are  the  things 
that  call.  .  .  .  One  was  in  closest  contact  with 
Nature  then — Nature  almost  savagely  triumphant, 
riotously  luxuriant,  and  whosoe\er  has  learnt  to  know 
her  in  this  mood  can  never  altogether  forget  his  lesson." 
We  are  given  an  account  of  a  successful  head-hunting 
expedition,  happily  quickly  punished,  as  late  as  the  year 
1904.  The  strict  and  beneficent  government  of  Rajah 
Brooke  has,  however,  rendered  the  European  traveller 
in  his  State  immune  from  all  human  danger. 

*  *  *  s;:  * 

On  the  side  of  Natural  History,  Shelford's  book  is  so 
rich  in  good  things  that  H  is  difficult  to  select.  I  recom- 
mend his  chapter  on  "'"^Jlimicry"' alike  to  the  general 
reader  apt  to  be  confused  on  this  subject  and  to  tha 
scientist  apt  to  be  confusing.'  For  the  rest  let  me  open 
the  book  at  random.  I  am  sure  to  be  able  to  call  atten- 
tion to  something  interesting.  Here  is  a  li\ely  description 
of  a  ghoulish  little  creature,  the.Borncan  lemur,  which 
has  never  been  seen  in  a  European  menagerie.  Here 
is  material  for  an  article  in  a  popular  science  journal  on 
''  Do  Snakes  Fly  ?  "  Here  is  an  account  of  a  familv  of 
insects  that  not  only  look  like  flowers  themselves,  "but 
whose  eggs  ha\e  the  appearance  of  seeds.'  It  is  from 
a  branch  of  this  same  family,  the  Phasraids^;  that  the 
author  gives  a  remarkable  example  of  parthenogenesis 
in  animal  life.  He  reared  some  successfully  for  eight 
generations  \v-ithout  a  male  ever  putting  in  an  appear- 
ance. Here  is  an  intcreiting  disquisition  on  the  arrow- 
shaped  tongue  of  the  bird  of  prey.  Here  —but .  I  must 
check  my  indination  to  re-read  in  detail  a  book  which 
has  already  gi\en  me  so  much  pleasure.  It  only  reirrains 
to  be  said  that  its  value  is  increased  bv  illustrations. 


What  first  strikes  me  in  reading  Mr.  Warwick  Deeping's 
new  novel,  Martin  Valliant  (Cassell  and  Co.,  6s.),  is  the 
progress  he  has  made  in  the  craft  of  story-telling  since 
those  rather  laborious  early  no\-els  of  his  some  dozen  or 
so  \-oars  ago.  E\en  then  the  roots  of  this  matter  of 
romance  were  in  him  and  produced  sonie  sti-ange  and 
beautiful  flowers,  but  too  often  hidden  in  the  mass  of 
foliage  in  \\hich  the  reader  was  apt  to  lose  his  way  — 
and  his  interest.  In  the  numerous  novels  he  has  written 
since  he  has  learnt  to  lop  and  prune,  to  get  rid  of 
redundancies  of  style  and  matter  that  impedes  action, 
and,  here,  in  Martin  Valliant  is  a  story  of  which  it  can 
truthfully  be  said  that  it  goes  with  a  swing  from  start 
to  finish."  Perhaps  by  the  strict  canons  of  the  historical 
novel  it  goes  too  fast,  for  Jlr.  Deeping  has  gone  to  the 
other  extreme  of  literary  gardening,  and  displays  a 
landscape  that  is  all  flowers  with  no  foliage  by  way  of 
relief.  However,  I  fancy  the  average  reader  will  regard 
this  as  a  venial  fault,  and  will  soon  be  engrossed  in  the 
adventures  of  the  monk  who  was  too  proud  and  too 
spiritual  for  his  grosser  brother  of  the  Abbey  of  Paradise, 
but  who  became  a  man-at-arms  and  a  most  redoubtable 
one  at  the  urgent  call  of  that  most  fascinating  of  heroines. 
Mellis  Dale.  There  is  in  this  book  the  spirit  of  the 
forest  in  which  its  scenes  are  laid.  There  are  dasliing 
feats  of  arms.  There  is  the  Spring  in  it,  and  that  perennial 
spring  offensive.  Love. 

;|:  -i.  if  if  it 

So  much  for  sedati\-es.  The  war  is  with  us  again  in 
Mr.  Harry  E.  Brittain's  To  Verdun  from  the  Somine 
(John  Lane,  2s.  6d.  net),  a  little  collection  of  travel 
sketches  in  the  midst  of  warlike  operations.  The 
travelling  was  apparently'  undertaken  to  enable  Mr. 
James  M.  Beck,  the  eminent  New  York  citizen,  to  visit 
the  chief  places  on  the  \\'estern  Front,  and  Mr.  Beck 
^^Titesa  "Foreword,"  in  which  with  an  e\ident  sincerity 
that  moves  one,  he  pays  a  tribute  to  the  two  Western 
AUies,  and  especially  to  the  disinterestedness  c)!^  Britain's 
effort.  Mr.  Harry  Brittain's  travel  pictures  well  catch 
the  movement  and  the  mood  of  last  summer  on  the 
Western  Front.  He  is  an  astute  observer  and  describes 
what  he  has  seen  with  the  discretion  demanded 
by  the  subject  and  the  Censor,  but  without  the 
dullness  that  often  accompanies  such  discretion.  His 
book  is  eminently  worth  reading,  especially  by  those  who 
can- cross  the  "  i  "  and  dot  the  "  fs."  to  say  nothing  of 
interpreting  the  asterisks. 

*  *        *        *        f 

In  the  Battle  Silenees  (Constable  and  Co.,  is.),  is  a 
little  volume  of  poems  written  at  the  front  by  a  Canadian 
soldier,  Frederick  George  Scott.  They  show,  if  not  any 
marked  originality,  at  any  rate  the  high  courage  and 
undaunted  resolve  that  distinguish  the  work  of  all  the 
soldier-poets.  Its  spirit  may  be  gathered  from  one 
verse  of  A  Grave  in  Flanders  : — 

••  'J1iis  boy  had  visions  while  in  life 
Of  stars  on  distant  skies ; 
So  death  came  in  the  midst  of  strife, 
A  sudden,  glad  surprise." 

*  *         *         *         * 

( iossip  about  the-grcat  Napoleon  always  has  fascination, 
and  many  English  readers  will  therefore  have  a  ready 
welcome  for  Constance  Lady  De  La  Warr's  translation 
of  Emile  St.""  Hilaire's  reminiscences  of  his  friend,  now 
j)ublished  under  the  title  of  Personal  Recollcetions  of  tho 
Empire  (Simpkin,  Marshall,  Hamilton,  Kent  and  Co.,  Os.). 
The  book  is  full  of  interest,  chiefly  of  a  sentimental 
nature  and  concerns  itself  very  largely  with  Napoleon's 
women-folk.  In  it  may  be  learnt  the  simple  story  of 
his  first  love  and  the  more  complex  tale  of  his  affair  in 
Egypt  with  the  wife  of  one  of  his  ofticers.  The  most 
attractive  section  of  the  book  perhaps  is  that  which  deals 
with  the  Emperor's  faithful  barber,  Hebert,  and  there 
are  some  good  tales,  of  a  familiar  kuid,  of  incognito 
wanderings.  A  fitting  epilogue  is  an  interview  with 
Napoleon's  old  mother  in  Rome,  when  ..she  speaks,  of 
her  great  son  simply  as  he  was  to  her  wlicn  a  boy. 


l8 


LAND    &     WATER 


February    i,    1917 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

[Translated  by  Alexander  Tcixeira  de  MattosI 


Synopsis  ;  Captain  Patrice  Belval.  a  iiuounded  French 
officer,  is  in  love  loith  a  nurse  who  is  knovsn  to  her  patients 
as  "Little  Mother  Coralie."  Belval.  following  Coralic 
to  her  house,  finds  that  Essares,  her  husband,  a  leading 
financier,  who  had  contemplated  flight  from  Paris,  has  been 
brutally  murdered.  An  examining  magistrate  explains 
to  Belval  that  Essares  was  prime  mover  in  a  plot  for  ex- 
porting gold  from  France.  In  order  to  recover  some  300 
million  francs  which  Essares  had  concealed,  the  authorities 
consider  it  necessary  to  hush  up  the  circumstances  of  the 
financier's  death.  The  only  possible  clue  to  the  where- 
abouts of  the  gold  is  a  paper  found  in  Essares'  dead  hand, 
bearing  the  words,  ".Golden  Triangle."  Ya-Bon.  Belval' s 
Senegalese  servant,  promises  to  call  in  Arsenc  Lupin  to 
unravel  the  mystery,  which  incliuies  a  mysterious  threatened 
vengeance  on  Coralie.  Belval  ascertains  that  Simeon. 
Essares'  attendant,  has  mysteriously  befriended  both  him- 
self and  Coralie.  and  also  obtains  evidence  thai  twenty 
years  before,  Essares  had  been  responsible  for  the  murder 
of  Coralie' s  mother  aiul  his  (Belval' s)  father  and  that  an 
unknown  friend  -had  tried  to  protect  Coralie  and  himself. 
On  the  T..\ih  of  April  an  anonymous  letter  warns  the  authon- 
tics  that  an  attempt  is  to  be  made  to  gel  the  hidden  gold  out 
of  France,  and  on  the  same  day  Belval  and  Coralie.  fol- 
lowing old  Simeon  lo  the  scene  of  their  parents'  murder. 
a  disused  lodge  in  the  garden  next  to  Essares'  house,  find 
themselves  imprisoned  -without  possibility  of  escape.  Behind 
the  -wainscoting  of  the  lodge  a  pencilled  message  tells  how 
Bclval's  father  and  Coralie  s  mother  hud  been  similarly 
trapped  twenty  years  before,  and  had  heard  sounds  as  of 
digging  outside  the  lodge. 

CHAPTER   XII   [continued) 

PATRICE  ivdoubkd  his  dioits.  Coralk'  cahu;  and 
helix'd  liim.  'Jhis  time  ho  felt  that  a  corner  uf  the 
\eil  was  bt'ing  hfted.  The  writing  went  on. 
"  Another  hour,  with  alternate  spells  of  sound  and 
silence:  the  same  sound  of  digging  and  the  same 
silence  which  suggests  work  that  is  being  continued. 

"  And  then  someone  entered  the  hall,  one  person  :  lie, 
evidently.  We  recognised  his  step  ;  .  .  He  walks  with- 
out attempting  to  deaden  it  .  .  .  Then  he  went  to  the 
kitchen,  where  he  worked  the  same  way  as  before,  with  a 
pick-axe,  but  on  the  stones  this  time.  We  also  hear  the  noise 
of  a  {xine  of  glass  breaking. 

"  And  now  he  has  gone  cmtside  again  and  there  is  a  new 
sort' of  sound,  against  the  house,  a  sound  that  seems  to  travel 
up  the  liousc  as  though  the  wetch  had  to  climb  to  a  height 
in  order  to  carrv  out  liis  plan  .  .  ." 
'  I'atrice  stopjx'd  reading  and  looked  at  Coralie.  Both  of 
them  were  listening. 

"  Hark!  "  he  said,  in  a  low  voice. 

'■  Yes,  yes,"  she  answered,  "  I  hear  .  .  .  Steps  outside 
the  house     ...     in  the  garden    .     .     ." 

They  went  to  one  of  the  windows,  where  they  had  left  the 
casement  open  behind  the  wall  of  building-stones,  and  listened. 
There  was  really  someone  walking  ;  and  the  knowledge  that 
the  enemy  was  approaching  gave  them  the  same  sense  of  relief 
that  their  jiarents  had  e.\perienceil. 

Some  I'lie  walked  thrice  round  the  house.  But  they  did 
not,  like  their  ])arents,  lecognise  the  sound  of  the  lootstei>s. 
They  were  those  of  a  stranger,  or  else  steps  that  had  changed 
their  tread.  Then,  for  a  few  minutes,  they  heard  nothing 
more  And  suddenly  another  sound  arose  ;  and,  though 
in  their  innermost  selves  they  were  expecting  it,  they  were 
nevertheless  stupe  lied  at  hearing  it.  And  Patrice,  in  a  hollow 
\-oice,  la>'ing  stress  \ipon  each  syllable,  uttered  the  sentence 
which  his  lather  had  written  twenty  years  before. 

"  Its  the  sound  which  you  make  when  you  dig  the  ground 
with  a  pick-axe."  .  1 

Yes,  it  must  l^e  that.  Someone  was  digging  the  ground, 
not  in  front  of  the  house,  but  on  the  right,  near  the  kitchen. 

And  so  the  abominable  miracle  of  the  revived  tragedy  was 
continuing.  Here  again  the  former  act  was  repeated,  a 
siftiple  enough  act  in  itself,  but  one  which  became  sinister 
bccauM-  it  was  one  of  those  which  had  already  been  performed 


and  Ijecause  it  was  announcing  and  preparing  the  death  once 
before  announced  and  i)rej)ared. 

An  hour  passed.  The  work  went  on,  paused  and  went  on 
again  It  was  likp  the  sound  of  a  sjxide  at  work  in  a  court- 
yard, when  the  grave-digger  is  in  no  hiurry  and  takes  a  rest 
and  then  resumes  his  work. 

Patrice   and   CoraUe   stood   listening  side   by  side,   their 
eyes  in  each  other's  eyes,  their  hands  in  each  other's  hands. 
"  He's  stopping,"     whispered  Patrice. 
"  Yes,"  said  Coralie,  "  only  I  think.     .     .     " 
"  Yes,  Coralie,  there's  some  one  in  the  hall    .     .     .     Oh, 
we  need  not  trouble  to  listen !     We  have  only  to  remember. 
There.   '  He  goes  to  the  kitchen  and  digs  as  he  did  just  now, 
but  on  the  stones  this  time.'     .     .     .     And  then     .     .     .      oh, 
Coralie,  the  same  sound  of  broken  glass !  " 

It  was  memories  mingling  with  the  gruesome  reality.  The 
])resent  and  the  j^ast  formed  but  one.  They  foresaw  events 
at  the  \ery  instant  when  these  took  place. 

The  enemy  went  outside  again  ;  and,  forthwith  the  snund 
seemed  "  to  travel  up  the  house  as  though  the  wretch  had  to 
cUmb  to  a  height  in  order  to  carry  out  his  plans." 

.\nd  then  .  .  .  and  then  what  would  happen  next  ? 
They  no  longer  thought  of  consulting  the  inscription  on  the 
wall,  or  perhaps  they  did  not  dare.  Their  attention  was 
concentrated  on  the  invisible  and  sometimes  imperceptible 
deeds  that  were  being  acc(jmplislied  against  them  outsidi\ 
an  uninterrupted  stealthy  effort,  a  nivsterious  twenty-year-old 
plan  whereof  each  slightest  detail  was  settled  as  by  clock  work. 

The  enemy  entered  the  house  and  they  heard  a  rustling 
at  the  b(jttom  of  the  door,  a  rustling  of  soft  things  a])parently 
being  heai>ed  or  pushed  against  the  wood.  Next  came  other 
vague  noises  in  the  two  adjoining  rooms,  against  the  walled 
doors,  and  similar  noises  outside,  between  the  stones  of  the 
windows  and  the  open  shutters.  .\nd  then  they  heard  sonv;- 
one  on  the  roof. 

They  raised  their  eyes.  This  time  they  felt  certain  that 
the  last  act  was  at  hand,  or  at  least  one  of  the  scenes  of  the 
last  act.  The  roof  to  them  was  the.  framed  skylight  which 
occupied  the  centre  of  the  ceiling  and  admitted  the  only  day- 
liglit  that  entered  the  room.  And  still  the  same  agonizing 
question  arose  to  their  minds.  What  was  going  to  hapjien  :' 
Would  the  enemy  show  his  face  outside  the  skylight  and  reveal 
himself  at  last  ? 

This  work  on  the  rot)f  contimied  for  a  considerable  time. 
Footsteps  shook  the  zinc  sheets  that  covered  it,  moving 
between  the  right-hand  side  of  the  house  and  the  edge  of  the 
skylight.  .Vnd  suddenly  this  skylight,  or  rather  a  part  of  it. 
a  square  containing  four  ])anes,  was  lifted,  a  very  little  way, 
by  a  liand  wliich  inserted  a  stick  to  keep  it  open. 

And  the  enemy  again  walked  across  the  roof  and  went  down 
the  side  of  the  house. 

Thev  were  almost  disappointed  and  felt  such  a  craving 
to  know  the  truth  that  Patrice  once  more  fell  to  brealdng  the 
boards  of  the  Mainscotiug.  removing  the  last  pieces,  which 
covered  the  end  of  tiie  inscriijtion.  And  what  they  read  made 
them  li\-e  the  last  few  minutes  all  over  again.  The  enemy's 
return,  the.  rustle  against  the  walls  and  the  walled  windows, 
the  noise  on  the  roof,  the  opening  of  the  skylight,  the  method 
of  supporting  it  :  all  this  had  happened  in  the  same  order  and 
so  to  speak,  within  the  same  limit  of  time.  Patrice's  father 
and  Coralie's  mother  had  undergone  the  same  impressions, 
J)estiiiy  seemed  bent  on  following  tlie  suiue  paths  and  making 
the  same  ino\  einents  in  seeking  the  same  object. 

-Vnd  the  writing  went  on  :  , 

■■  lie  is  going  u])  again,  he  is  going  up  again.  .  .  .  There  s 
his  footstep  on  the  roof.     .    .     .      He  is  near-  the  skylight. 

.  .  .  Will  he  look  through  ?  .  ...  Shall  we  see  his 
hated  face  ?     .     .     ." 

"  He  is  going  up  again,  he  is  going  up  again,"  gasped  Coralie, 
nestling  agauist  Patrice. 

The  enemy's  footsteps  were  pounding  over  the  zinc. 

"  Yes,"  said  Patrice,  "  he  is  going  up  as  before,  without 
departing  from  1  he  ))rocediire  followed  by  the  other.  Only  we 
do  not  know  whose  face  will  appear  to  us.  Our  parents  knew 
their  enemy." 

She  shuddered  nt  her  image  of  the  man  who  had  lulled 
her  mother  ;  and  she  asked  : 

"  It  was  he,  was  it  not  ?  " 

"  Yi ■-,  it  was  he.     There  is  his  name,  wriK'H  liv  mv  futlun-." 
{.Continued  on  page  20) 


February   i,  igi7 


LAND    &    WATER 


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"SCREW  IN" 

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ensures  an  abundance  of  healthful  warmth,  cotnioH  and  protection 
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Made  in  material  s6  densely-woven  that  the  keenest  wind  cannot 
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Its  design  ensures  that  every  vulnerable  part  of  the  body  is  doubly 
covered.     From  chin  to  knees  there's  no  chance  for  wet  or  cold 

to  penetrate. 

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February'    i,    1917 


(Continued  from  fiaqe  tfi) 

Patrice    had    almost    entirely    uncovered    the  inscription 
BendiUK  low.  he  pointed  with  his  linger: 

Look.     Read  the  name  •.    Essares.     You  can  see  it  down 
there  :   it  was  one  of  the  last  words  my  tather  wrote. 

^xLe'SJl^rtse  higher,  a  hand  lifted  it  and  we  saw 
.     we  saw.  laughing  as  he  looked  down  on  us-oh 
the    scounarel !— Essar.-s !     .     .     •     Essares  t     .     •     •     And 
hen  he  passed  something  through  the  opening,  something 
that  cami  down,  that  unrolled  itself  m  the  middle  of  the  room. 
over  our  heads  :   a  ladder,  a  rope-ladder.  .     ..     .  „^ 

••  We  did  not  understand.     It  was  swinging  in  front  of  us 
\nd  then,  in  the  end,  1  saw  a  sheet  of  paper  rolled  round  the 
button,  rung  and  pinned  to  it.     On  the  paper,  in  Essares       . 
SiuluMUiig^are  the  words.  '  Send  CoreUie  up  by  herse       He 
Mv  shall  be  saved.     I  give  her  ten  minutes  to  accept.     If 

'"-■  \U  "'said  Patrice,  rising  from  his  stooping  posture,  "  will 
th.s'aiM,  be  repeated  ?  What  about  the  ladder,__the  rope- 
laddfi    «liich  I  found  in  old  Simeon  s  cupboard  .■- 

ulrah-  kept  her  eyes  fi.xed  on  the  skylight,  f^^r  the  footsteps 
weVeinoving  around  it.  Then  they  stopped.  Patrice  and 
^'rLeiiad  not  a  doubt  that  the  moment  '^-l  come  and  t^^ 
they  also  were  about  to  see  their  enemy.  And  Patrice  said 
huskilv    in  a  choking  voice: 

Who  will  it  be  ?  Tliere  are  three  men  who  could  have 
..laved  tins  sinister  part  as  it  was  played  before,  /jo  are 
dead  l-.^sares  and  mv  father.  And  Simeon,  the  third,  is 
mad  K  it  he.  in  his  madness,  who  has  set  the  machine  work- 
ine  a  am  >  But  how  are  we  to  imagine  that  he  could  have 
done  k  with  such  precision  ?  No.  no.  it  is  the  other  one,  the 
one  who  directs  him  and  who  till  now  has  remained  in  tlie 
background." 

He  leli  Coralie's  fingers  clutching  his  arm. 

•■  Hush,    she  said,  "  here  he  is  !  " 

"  No.  no." 

■'  Yes.  I  m  sure  of  it."  .  ,  . 

Her  imagination  had  foretold  what  was  preparing  ,  and  in 
lact.  as  once  before,  the  skylight  was  raised  higher.  A  hand 
Ufted  it.  And  suddenly  they  saw  a  head  slipping  under  the 
open  framework. 

It  was  the  head  of  old  Simoon.  _, 

"  Th«  madman  !  "    Patrice  whispered,  in  dismay.         ine 

°' "  But"perhaps  he  isn't  mad."  she  said.     "  He  cant  be  mad." 
She  could  not  check  the  trembling  that  shook  her. 
The  man  overhead  looked  down  upon  them,  hidden  behind 

his  spectacles,  which  allowed  no  expression  of  satished  hatred 

or  iov  to  show  on  his  impassive  features. 

••  Coralie,  '  said  Patrice,  in  a  low  voice,     do  what  1  say.     . 

^'^He  pushed  her  gently  along,  as  though  he  were  supporting 
her  and  leading  her  to  a  chair.  In  reality  he  had  but  one 
thought,  to  reach  the  table  on  which  he  had  placed  his  re- 
volvers, take  one  of  them  and  fire. 

Simoon  remained  motionless,  Uke  some  evil  genius  come 
to  unloose  the  tempest.  .  .  .  Corahe  could  not  rid 
herself  of  that  glance  which  weighed  upon  her. 

"  No  ■■  she  murmured,  resisting  Patrice,  as  though  she 
(eared  that  his  intention  would  precipitate  the  dreaded 
catastrophe.     "  No.  you  mustn't.       .     .     •"     _ 

But  Patrice,  displaying  greater  determination,  was  near 
his  object.     One  more  eUort  and  his  hand  would  hold  the 

'^Ihc^ quickly  made  up  liis  mind,  took  rapid  aim  and  fir6d  a 

ihot. 

The  head  disappeared  from  sight.  „  .  .      ,    „       :ii 

"  Oh."  said  Coralie,  "  you  were  wrong.  Patnce  !    He  will 

take  his  revenge  on  us.     .     .     ■"  , ,.       ,  .  1 

"  No  perhaps  not."  said  Patrice,  still  holding  his  revolver. 

■I   may   very   well   have   hit   him.     The  bullet   struck   the 

frame  of  the  skylight.     But  it  may  have  glanced  off,  in  which 

*^*They  waited  hand  in  hand,  with  a  gleam  of  hope,  which 
did  not  last  long,  however.  .     ,  ,,  u  f  .„ 

The  noise  on  the  roof  began  again.  And  then,  as  before— 
and  this  they  reallv  had  the  impression  of  not  seeing  for  the 
hrst  time— as  before,  something  passed  through  the  opening, 
something  that  came  down,  that  unrolled  itself  in  the  middle 
of  the  room,  a  ladder,  a  rope-ladder,  the  very  one  which 
Patrice  had  seen  in  old  Siim'on  s  cupboard.  „  ^.    , 

As  before  they  looked  at  it  ;  and  they  knew  so  well  that 
evervthing  was  being  done  over  again,  that  the  facts  were 
inexorably,  pitilessly  Unked  together,  they  were  so  certain 
of  it  that  their  e  es  at  once  sought  the  sheet  of  paper  which 
mn^t  inevitably  be  pinned  to  the  bottom  rung. 

h  was  therJ.  forming  a  little  scroll,  dry  and  discoloured 
, ,  ,d  torn  at  the  edges.  It  was  the  sheet  of  twenty  years  ago, 
written  by  Essares  and  now  serving,  as  before,  to  convey  the 
sime  temptation  and  the  same  threat: 


"  Send   Coralie  up  by  herself.     Her   life  shall   be   saved 
I  give  her  ten  minutes  to  accept.     If  not.     .     .     • 


i; 


CHAPTER  XIII 
The  Nails  in  the  Coffin 

F  not.     ..."  .     „ 

Patrice  repeated  the  words  mechanically,   severak 
times  over,  while  their  formidable  significance  becanu 

j»_  apparent  to  both  him  and  Coralie.  The  words  meant 
that  if  Coralie  did  not  obey  and  did  not  deliver  herself  to  the 
enemy  if  she  did  not  flee  from  prison  to  go  with  the  man  who 
held  tlie  ke\-s  of  the  prison,  the  alternative  was  death. 

At  that  moment,  neitiier  of  them  was  thinking  what  end 
was  in  store  for  them,  nor  even  of  that  death  itself.  They 
thought  only  of  the  command  to  separate  winch  the  enemy 
had  issued  against  them.     One  was  to  go  and  the  other  to  die. 

Corahe  was  promised  her  life  if  she  would  sacnfice  Patnce. 
But  what  was  the  price  of  the  promise  ?  tor  what  would 
be  the  form  of  the  sacrifice  demanded  ?  ,  ■  l 

There  was  a  long  silence,  full  of  uncertainty  and  anguish 
between  the  two  lovers.  They  were  cdming  to  grips  with 
something  ;  and  the  drama  was  no  longer  taking  place  abso- 
lutely outside  them,  without  their  playing  any  other  part 
than  that  of  helpless  victims.  It  was  being  enacted  withm 
themselves  ;  and  they  had  the  power  to  alter  its  ending. 
It  was  a  terrible  problem.  It  had  already  been  set  to  the 
earlier  Coralie  ;  and  she  had  solved  it  as  a  lover  would,  tor 
she  was  dead.     And  now  it  was  being  set  again. 

Patrice  read  the  inscription,  and  the  rapidly  scrawled 
words  became  less  distinct  :  _      ,.  cu 

"  I  have  begged  and  entreated  Corahe.  .  .  .  She 
flung  herself  on  her  knees  before  me.     She  wants  to  die  with 

Patrice  looked  at  Coralie.  He  had  read  the  words  in  a  very 
low  voice  ;  and  she  had  not  heard  them.  Then,  in  a  burst  of 
passion,  he  drew  her  eageriy  to  him  and  exclaimed  : 

"  You  must  go,  Coralie  !  You  can  understand  that  my  not 
saying  so  at  once  was  not  due  to  hesitation.  No,  only  .  . 
I  was  thinking  of  that  man's  offer  .  .  .  and  I  am 
frightened  for  your  sake.  .  .  .  What  he  asks,  Corahe, 
is  terrible.  His  reason  for  promising  to  save  your  hfe  is 
that  he  loves  you.  And  so  you  understand.  .  .  .  But 
still,  Coralie,  you  must  obey  .  .  .  you  must  go  on 
living  Go  !    It  is  no  use  waiting  for  the  ten  minutes 

to  pass  "  He  might  change  his  mind  and  condemn  you  to 
death  as  well.— No,  Corahe,  you  must  go,  you  must  go  at 

once !  "  ,.    ,      •      . 

■'  I  shall  stay,"  she  rephed,  simply. 

He  gave  a  start  :  ,  £      -> 

■'  But  this  is  madness !    Why  make  a  useless  sacnfice 
Are  you  afraid  of  what  might  happen  if  you  obeyed  him  ? 

"  No." 

"  Then  go." 

"  I  shall  stay."  .     ,  ,  . 

"  But  why  ?    Why  this  obstinacy  .-'     It  can  do  no  good. 

Then  why  stay  ?  " 

"  Because  I  love  you,  Patnce.  ,         ^     ,       ,   .  ■ 

He   stood   dumbfounded.     He  knew  that   she  loved   him 
and  he  had  already  told  her  so.     But  that  she  loved  liim  to 
the  extent  of  preferring  to  die  in  his  company    this  was  an 
unexpected,  exquisite  and  at  the  same  timeternble  delight. 
"  And  if  I  ordered  you  to  go,  Corahe  ? 
"  That  is  to  say,"  she  murmured,  "  if  you  ordered  me  to 
go  to  that  man  ?     Is  that  wiiat  you  wish,  Patnce  ?  " 
The  thought  was  too  much  for  him.  . 

Neither  he  nor  she  pictured  the  man  in  the  exact  image 
of  Simoon  To  both  of  them,  notwithstanding  the  hideous 
vision  perceived  above,  the  enemy  retained  a  mysterious 
character  It  was  perhaps  Sim' on.  It  was  perhaps  another 
of  whom  Simron  was  but  the  instrument.  Assuredly  it  was 
the  enemy,  the  evil  genius  crouching  above  their  heads, 
preparin-  their  death-throes  while  he  pursued  Corahe. 
Patrice  asked  one  more  question  : 

"  Did  vou  ever  notice  that  Simeon  sought  your  company  .' 
"  No,  never.     If  anything  he  rather  avoided  me." 
"  Then  it's  because  he's  mad.     ..." 
"  1  don't  think  he  is  mid  :   he  is  revenging  himself. 
"Impossible.     He   was    my   father's   friend.     All    his   lite 
long  he  worked  to  bring  us  together  :    surely  he  would  not 
kill  us  dehberately  ?  "  ,         ,      .     j 

"  I  don't  know.  Patrice.  I  don  t  understand.     .     .     . 

Tiiey  discussed  it  no  further.     It  was  of  no  importance 

whether  their  death  was  caused  by  this  one  or  that  one      it 

was  death  itself  that  they  had  to  fight,  without  troubling 

who  had  set  it  loose. against  them.     And  what  could  they  do 

to  ward  it  olf  ?  ^       ,■  , 

"  You  agree,  do  you  not  ?  "  asked  Coralie,  in  a  low  voice. 

He  made  no  answer. 

{Contintted  on  page  22) 


February  I,   10T7. 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


The 


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more  because  their  smokers 
increase.  Will  you  try  these 
big,   wholesome    cigarettes  ? 


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Place  your  ordci  with  your  1  obaccotiist. 


Manufactured     by    MAJOR     DRAPKIN     &     CO..    LONDON. 
Branch    of    the    Uaited    RiD£dom    Tobacco    Company.    Limited 


ABSOLUTELY 

■WATERPROOF. 


™^''WESTFIELD" 


THREE     \\\    I>LY- 


CRjs^d) 


TRENCH-WARM 


The  ORIGINAL  and  ONLY 
Trench  Coal  definitely  ^uarftitieed 
absolutely  and  permaneatty 
Waterproof. 

CALL    and    SEE    the    Coat    ia 

the  prooeiiS  of  maklnt- 

Proof  of  our  assertion  readily  and 

instantly  apparent. 

As  supplied  to  Officers  of — 

The  Royal  Naval  Air  Service, 
The    Royal    Naval    Division, 
The  Royal  Flying  Corps, 
and     to     practically     every 
Regiment  {Cavalry  and  In- 
fantry) in  the  British  Army. 

Price  ...  £4  14  6 

42  inches  long. 
Price  ...     25    5    O 

48   iuoliea  long. 


Detachable  Fleece  Lining,  CI  11  8 
DetachableSheeptkin.extra  £3  13  8 
Detachable  W»  laby.  extra.  £6  16  8 
Detachable  FurCoUar.extra.t:')  1  O 
AD  (iTes  in  (lock.  Send  Cheat  Meuareawat 
(over  Tunic)  and   approximate    height. 


mZ^EST    &    SONT,    LTD., 

KEOInENTAL    TAILORS   ASD    OUTFITTERS, 

Field  House.  152  New  Bond  Street.  London,  W. 


T'-l'erams:   "W^stcansH.  W^vrfo..  f.nnHnn  " 


Mavfair  ^76  fi  Hn^s], 


THE    "WESTFIELD"   SOFT    SERVICE    CAP 

with  or  without  back  curtain. 

Fitted  with  waterproof  lining  and  greaseproof  sbieldt, 

16/6 

The  accepted  design  for    both    home    and    active    service  wear 
^rips  the  bead  without  pressure,  and  vrill  neither  blow  nor  fall  off. 


E 


WFQX     R?      QOM     MILITARY  TAILORS, 

yy  iLi\j  M.     %9     \D\Jl\    breeches  makers 

152  NEW  BONO  STREET,  LONDON.  W 


ORS.      I 

:ers,  I 


1|\\         The  London 
Glove  Company's 

SALE 

IS    NOW    PROCEEDING 

\A/>ti  +  <a    Tn    Hox/  for  a  SALE   II8T  ot  BaROtlNa— 
»»r  itW      I  U-I^cty   ge-'t  post  fret-  on   application. 

GE.N'UINK    BARGAINS     IN 

Ladies',      Men's      and      Children's 
Gloves,   Hosiery,  Underwear,  &c. 


Letter     Order    Department    and     City     Warehoiiaa: 

45     A     45a.     CHtAPSIDC,      LONCON,      C.C. 

West    End   Establishment:  82    &    83     NEW    BONO    •meFT,  w. 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


February    i,   1917 


{Continued  from  page  22) 

"  I  shall  not  go,"  she  went  on,  "  but  I  want  you  to  be  of 
one  mind  with  me.     Tell  me  that  you  agree." 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  I  agree." 

"  What  is  it,  Patrice  ?    You  seem  distraught  again." 

He  gave  a  hoarse  cry  : 

"  Look !     .     .     .     Look !     .     .     ." 

Tliis  time  he  was  certain  of  what  he  had  seen.  The  ladder 
was  going  up.     The  ten  minutes  were  over. 

He  rushed  forward  and  caught  hold  of  one  of  the  rungs. 
The  ladder  no  longer  moved. 

He  did  not  know  exactly  what  he  intended  to  do.  The 
ladder  afforded  CoraUe's  only  chance  of  safety.  Could  he 
abandon  that  hope  and  resign  himself  to  the  inevitable  ? 

One  or  two  minutes  passed.  The  ladder  must  have  been 
hooked  fast  again,  for  Patrice  felt  a  firm  resistance  up  above. 

Coralie  was  entreating  him  : 

"  Patrice,"  she  asked,  "  Patrice,  what  are  you  hoping  for  ?  " 

He  looked  around  and  above  him,  as  though  seeking  an 
idea,  and  he  seemed  also  to  look  inside  himself,  as  though  he 
were  seeking  that  idea  amid  all  the  memories  which  he  had 
accumulated  at  the  moment  when  his  father  also  held  the 
ladder,  in  a  last  effort  of  will.  And  suddenly,  throwing  up  his 
leg,  he  placed  his  left  foot  on  the  fifth  rung  of  the  ladder  and 
began  to  raise  himself  by  the  uprights. 

It  was  an  absurd  attempt  to  scale  the  ladder,  to  reach  the 
skylight,  to  lay  hold  of  the  enemy  and  thus  save  himself  and 
CoraUe.  If  his  father  had  failed  before  him,  how  could  he 
hofje  to  succeed  ? 

It  was  all  over  in  less  than  three  seconds.  The  ladder  was 
at  once  unfastened  from  the  hook  that  kept  it  hanging  from 
the  skylight  ;  and  Patrice  and  the  ladder  came  to  the  ground 
together.  At  the  same  time,  a  strident  laugh  rang  out  above, 
followed  the  next  moment  by  the  sound  of  the  skylight  closing. 

Patrice  picked  himself  up  in  a  fury,  hurled  insults  at  the 
enemy  and,  as  his  rage  increased,  fired  two  revolver  shots, 
which  broke  two  of  the  panes.  He  next  attacked  the  door 
and  windows,  banging  at  them  with  the  iron  dog  which  he 
had  taken  from  the  fender.  He  hit  the  walls,  he  hit  the  floor, 
he  shook  his  fist  at  the  invisible  enemy  who  was  mocking 
him.  But  suddenly,  after  a  few  blows  struck  at  space,  he 
was  compelled  to  stop.  Something  like  a  tliick  veil  had  glided 
overhead.     They  were  in  the  dark. 

He    understood    what    had   happened.     The   enemy    had 
lowered  a  shutter  upon  the  skylight,  covering  it  entirely, 
y  Patrice  !    Oh,  Patrice  !    Where  are  you  ?  " 

Their  hands  touched,  Coralie's  poor  Uttle  frozen  fingers 
and  Patrice's  hands  that  burned  with  fever,  and  they  pressed 
each  other  and  twined  together  and  clutched  each  other  as 
though  to  assure  themselves  that  they  were  still  living. 

"  Oh,  don't  leave  me,  Patrice  !  "    Coralie  implored. 

"  I  am  here,"  he  replied.  "  Have  no  fear :  they  can't 
separate  us." 

"  You  are  right,"  she  panted,  "  they  can't  separate  us.  , 
We  are  in  our  grave." 

The  word  was  so  terrible  and  Coralie  uttered  it  so  mourn- 
■fully  that  a  reaction  overtook  Patrice. 

"  No  1  What  are  you  talking  about,"  he  exclaimed.  "  We 
must  not  despair.  There  is  hope  of  safety  until  the  last 
moment." 

Releasing  one  of  his  hands,  he  took  aim  with  his  revolver. 
A  few  faint  rays  trickled  through  the  chinks  around  the  sky- 
light. He  fired  three  times.  They  heard  the  crack  of  the 
wood-work  and  the  chuckle  of  the  enemy.  But  the  shutter 
must  have  been  lined  with  metal,  for  no  split  appeared. 

Besides,  the  chinks  were  forthwith  stopped  up ;  and  they 
became  aware  that  the  enemy  was  engaged  in  the  same  work 
that  he  had  performed  around  the  doors  and  windows.  It 
was  obviously  very  thorough  and  took  a  long  time  in  the 
doing.  Next  came  another  work,  completing  the  first.  The 
enemy  was  naihng  the  shutter  to  the  frame  of  the  skyhght. 

It  was  an  awful  sound  !  Swift  and  light  as  were  the  taps 
of  the  hammer,  they  seemed  to  drive  deep  into  the  brain  of 
those  who  heard  them.  It  was  their  coffin  that  was  being 
nailed  down,  their  great  coffin  with  a  lid  hermetically  sealed 
that  now  bore  heavy  upon  them.  Tliere  was  no  hope  l-ft, 
not  a  possible  chance  of  escape.  Each  tap  of  the  hammer 
■strengthened  their  dark  prison,  making  yet  more  impregnable 
the  walls  that  stood  between  them  and  the  outer  world  and 
bade  defiance  to  the  most  resolute  assault  : 

"  Patrice,"  stammered  Coralie,  "  I'm  frightened.  .  .  That 
tapping  hurts  me  so  !  " 

She  sank  back  in  liis  arms.  Patrice  felt  tears  coursing 
down  her  cheeks. 

Meanwhile,  the  work  overhead  was  being  completed. 
They  underwent  the  terrible  experience  which  condemned 
men  must  feel  on  the  morning  of  their  last  day,  when  from 
their  cells  they  hear  the  preparations:  the  engine  that  is 
being  set  up,  or  the  electric  batteries  that  are  being  tested. 


"  Don't  leave  me,"  sobbed  Coralie,  "  don't  leave  me !   .   .   ." 

"  Only  for  a  second  or  two,"  he  said,  "  We  must  be  avenged 
later." 

"  What  is  the  use,  Patrice  ?     What  can  it  matter  to  us  ?  " 

He  had  a  box  containing  a  few  matches.  Lighting  them  one 
after  the  other,  he  led  Coralie  to  the  panel  with  the  in- 
scription. 

"  Wliat  are  you  going  to  do  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  will  not  have  our  death  put  down  to  suicide.  T  want 
to  do  what  our  parents  did  before  us  and  to  prepare  for  the 
future.  Someone  will  read  what  I  am  going  to  write  and  will 
avenge  us." 

He  took  a  pencil  from  his  pocket  and  bent  down.  There 
was  a  free  space,  right  at  the  bottom  of  the  panel.  He  wrote  : 

"  Patrice  Belval  and  Coralie,  his  betrothed,  die  the  same 
death,  murdered  by  Simeon  Diodokis,  14th  April  1915." 

But,  as  he  finished  writing,  he  noticed  a  few  words  of 
the  former  inscription  which  he  had  not  yet  read,  because 
they  were  placed  outside  it,  so  to  speak,  and  did  not  appear 
to  form  part  of  it. 

"  One  more  match,"  he  said.  "  Did  you  see  ?  There 
are  some  words  there,  the  last,  no  doubt,  that  my  father  wrote." 

She  struck  a  match.  By  the  flickering  Ught  they  made 
out  a  certain  number  of  misshapen  letters,  obviously  written 
in  a  hurry  and  forming  two  words :  ' 

"Asphyxiated    .     .     ..Oxide     .     .     ." 

The  match  went  out.  They  rose  in  silence.  Asphyxiated  I 
They  understood.  That  was  how  their  parents  had  perished 
and  how  they  themselves  would  perish.  But  they  did  not 
yet  fuUy  realize  how  the  thing  would  happen.  The  lack 
of  air  would  never  be  great  enough  to  suffocate  them  in 
this  large  room  which  contained  enough  to  last  them  for 
many   days. 

"  Unless,"  muttered  Patrice,  "  imless  the  quaKty  of  the 
air  can  be  impaired  and  therefore    .     .     ." 

He  stopped.  Then  told  Coralie  what  he  sospected,  or 
rather  what  conformed  so  well  with  the  reaUty  as  to  leave  no 
room  for  doubt.  He  had  seen  in  old  Simeon's  cupboard 
not  only  the  rope-ladder  which  the  madman  had  brought 
with  him,  but  also  a  coil  of  lead  pipes.  And  now  Simeon's 
behaviour  from  the  moment  when  they  were  locked  in,  hii 
movements  to  and  fro  around  the  lodge,  the  care  with  which 
he  had  stopped  up  every  crevice,  his  labours  along  the  wall 
and  on  the  roof  all  this  was  explained  in  the  most 
definite   fashion. 

Panic-stricken,  they  began  to  run  aimlessly  about  the  room, 
holding  hands,  while  their  disordered  brains,  bereft  of  thought 
or  will,  seemed  Uke  tiny  things  shaken  by  the  fiercest  gale. 
Coralie  uttered  incoherent  words.  Patrice,  while  imploring 
her  to  keep  calm,  was  himself  carried  away  by  the  storm  and 
powerless  to  resist  the  terrible  agony  of  the  darkness  wherein 
death  lay  waiting. 

They  stopped,  exhausted.  A  low  hiss  was  heard  some- 
where in  the  room,  the  faint  hiss  that  issues  from  a  badly- 
closed  gas-jet.  They  hstened  and  perceived  that  it  came 
from  above.     The  torture  was  beginning. 

"  It  will  last  half  an  hour,  or  an  hoiu"  at  most,"  Patrice 
whispered. 

Coralie  had  recovered  her  self-consciousness : 

"  We  shall  be  brave,"  she  said. 

She  suddenly  appeared  so  placid  that  he  on  his  side  wa» 
filled  with  a  great  peace.  Seated  on  a  sofa,  their  fingers 
still  entwined,  they  silently  steeped  themselves  in  the  mighty 
calm  which  comes  when  we  think  that  events  have  run  theii 
course. 

They  sat  wrapped  in  an  infinite  silence.  They  perceived 
the  first  smell  of    gas  descending  but  they  felt  no  fear. 

"  Everything  will  happen  as  it  did  before,  Coralie,"  whis- 
pered Patrice,  "  down  to  the  very  last  second.  Your  mother 
and  my  father,  who  loved  each  other  as  we  do,  also  died  in 
each  other's  arms,  with  their  lips  joined  together.  They  had 
decided  to  unite  us  and  they  have  united  us." 

Our  grave  will  be  near  theirs,"  she  murmured. 

Little  by  little  their  ideas  became  confused  and  they  began 
to  think  much  as  a  man  sees  through  a  rising  mist.  The 
dread  of  the  coming  annihilation  faded  out  of  their  thoughts. 

Coralie,  the  first  to  be  affected,  began  to  utter  delirious 
words  which  astonished  Patrice  at  first : 

"  Dearest,  there  are  flowers  falling,  roses  all  around  us. 
How  delightful !  " 

Presently  he  himself  grew  conscious  of  the  same  blissful 
exaltation,  expressing  itself  in  tenderness  and  joyful  emotion. 
With  no  sort  of  dismay  he  felt  her  gradually  yielding  in  his 
arms  and  abandoning  herself ;  and  he  had  the  impression  that 
he  was  following  her  down  a  measureless  abyss,  all  bathed 
with  light,  where  they  floated. 

And  suddenly,   worn    out,  his    body  shaking  with  fever, 
he  pitched  forward  into  a  great  black  pit     .     .     . 
('To  be  continued.) 


Fe  bi- 


liary 


1917 


bupplement    to    LAND    &    WATER 


vu 


liiiiii!iiiiiii'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii;iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii;iiiiiiiiiiiiii 


I  OFFICERS' 
I  RIDING 
j         BREECHES 

M  Successful  breeches-making 
M  depends  on  the  following 
g  factors — fin^  wear-tesisting 
M  cloths,  skiUul  cutting,  care- 
s  fal  thorough  tailor-work, 
g  and  adequate  experience. 
J  All  these  w  guarantee,  and 
g  in  particular  the  last,  for 
=  we  have  bean  breeches-makers 
=  since  1821,  ninety-six  years 
m  ago. 

^  We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs 

g  of  breeches,   and  are   therefore    often 

^  able  to  meet  in  mediate  requirements, 

g  or  we  can   cut  and   try  a  pair  on  the 

=  same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day, 

=  if  urgently  wanted. 


The  Original  Cording' s,  Estd.   1839 


the     wettest,     coldest    weather 

a   fleece  •  lined  '*  Equitorll 


GRANT. .0  COCKBURN 


^  Our  New  All-Leather  Puttees  never  tear  or  fray  out. 

^  For  winter  wear  they  are  unmatched. 

^  Thpjip.  fnost    comfcTCahle.   good-looking  puttees  hk  made  entirely  of  fine  supple 

^  tan  leather,   and  fasten  simply  with    one    buckle    at    bottom.      They    are  ei- 

=  tremely  durable,  even    if  subjected  to  the  friction  of  ridinj;.  as  the  edges  never 

^  tear  or   fray   out.    The   puttees  are  s^peorlily  put  on  or  taken  off,  read  ly  mould 

^  to  the  shape  of  the  leg.  are  a'i  easily    cleaned    as    a   leather   belt,    and  saddle 

^  soap  soon  makes  theii^  practically    waterproof.       The   price   per  pair  is    JC  >«. 

=  post  fre*  inland  or  postage  abroad  I/-  extra,  or  sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of 

=  bu«n<9»   (not   banker^)    reference  and  home  address.    Please  sive  size  of  calf. 


ESTD.    1821-      = 


j  25  PICCADILLY,  W.  | 

^        Military  and  Civil  Tailors, .  Legging  Makers.        ^ 


{the  really  waterproof  coat}, 
ensurtiS  d»y,  watm  comfort. 

Daily  we  rewiive  evidt:n<.-e  from 
those  who  have  pah]  lor  their 
kiiowkdije  ill  iiioiity  ana  serious 
diisconilort.  tliat  a  M:ini-proof 
(weatherproof)  coat  faiU  to  tet-p 
out  the  Wtit,  that- the  uUver  bhell 
becomes  watei-i(Jtiiii.a  i.iiii  Uiat 
even  if  lined  wiUi  oii^kiii  or  ihe 
like  tile  damp  stili  strikes 
through  the  s«uiu3  at  the  luckless 
Vt  earer. 

The:  "Equitor"  Coat  is  guaran- 
teed to  be  po.-iitively  and  durably 
imiJermeable  by  a  "Urm  whose 
b-usine^s  for  nearly  eighty  years 
lias  been  the  niaJiing  of  water- 
Vroofs. 

An  "Equitor,"  with  snug  fleece 
»«oQlleti  lining  buttoned  in,  make* 
'  an  excellent  great-*;oaL"in  wliieh  to 
"traver  light,"  and  will  not  only 
keep  a  man  bone  dry  through  the 
heavie.st  and  most  las.ing  down- 
pour, but  wi'.J  also  warmly  pro- 
tect him  in  biting  cold  w  cather, 
and  may  thereiore  l>e«reiled  upon 
■to  minimise  the  ill-L'lt  it^  of  cii- 
Icreed   exposure  at  nij^ht, 

the  "Equitor"    is     fittc<I    with   a 

speciai  riding  apron,  but  the  coat 

'    trves  ju>^t   as    well    for   ordinary 

Wear -afoot,  whether  the  apron  be 

j  fastened  hack  or  not. 

Incur  light.we.ght  No.  31  material, 
'the  price  of  the  "Equitor"  is  92/6; 
of  our  No.  23  cashmere  a  medium- 
weight  cloth,  115/  ;  without  aprcn  (either 
cloth),  17/6  less,  wtfith  bet,  5/-  extra. 
The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat  can  be  had 
in  two  qualities- No.  1  Cfine  wool),  62/6; 
No.    2,    40/-. 

When  ordering  an  "Ecuitor"  Coat  please 
state  height  and  chest  measurt-t'.nd  send  re- 
mittance* (which  will  be  returned  promptly 
if  the  coat  is  not  approved),  or  give  home 
address  and  business  (not  banker's) 
reference. 

Iiiv strafed  List  at  reauest. 


WATERPROOFERS 
TD      TO  HM,  THE  KING 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  C9, 

Only  Addretue*  : 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.,  &  35  st.  jamess  st,  s.w. 


4/6-NOT  5/6 

The   "19th"    Hole 
HARVEY^S  SCOTCH  WHISKY. 


Per  54/-    aoz.      1 
Carriage     paid.      / 


Packages  relurnable. 
Carriage   (orward. 


/     Sample  bottle 
(      5/-    post  tree. 


JOHN    HARVEY    &     SONS,    Ltd.,     BRISTOL. 
Send  for   Price   List  of   High  Cltts  Wines  and  Spirits. 


The    upplv  o  "DH-Ped'avnilable  tn  tlie  pu'ili   's^reatyre- 
stritcd"-pecianj  ofihe  he     ie   weiKhts-theG -vt.  rqm  init 
tlicma  orjjor  io    of  (ur  future  out]  ut-  Wei   v.te  y  ur  Icin  ' 
duig..iic    uiuil  thcliiie  wh  nn  ..ij;aLondit  onscaii  herfs' 


Seine 


POTTED     OPINIONS. 


THE   OPTIMIST. 

Bless  my  heart  and  soul,  why 
invite  my  indulgence?  It's  for 
Tommy,  and  he  deserves  the  very 
hest,  the  very  best.  He'll  march 
better,  feel  better,  win  sooner 
with  "Dri-ped"  to  help.  I  don't 
mind  waiting — not  a  bit  of  it. 
Not  if  I  have  to  tramp  the  snowy 
streets  in  my  tennis  shoes  .   .  . 

THE  STRATEGIST. 

Looks  bad,  this  Government  de- 
mand for  "Dri-ped."  A  straw 
tells  the  way  the  wind  blows. 
Why  are  the  Government  using 
it  ?  Because  it  lasts  long.     Why 


do  they  want  stuff  that  lasts 
long  ?  Because  we're  in  for  a  long 
campaign.  Now  a  cousin  of  mine 
who  has  a  friend  who  knows 
sonjeone  at  the  War  Office,  told 
me  in  confidence  .... 

THE  CYNIC. 

Perhaps  it's  a  good  job  too.  "Dri- 
ped"  IS  deceitful  stuff.  It  wears 
well — I  give  it  its  due — it  wears 
two  or  three  times  as  long  as 
ordinary  leather,  and  keeps  out 
the  wet  ...  It  wears  too  well 
— deludes  you  into  the  belief  that 
it  will  last  for  ever.  And  it  can't 
possibly  last  for  ever  .  .  . 


See  this  Trade  Mark  in  purple 
evety  few  inches  on  each  sole. 
Without  it,  the  leather's  a  sub- 
stitute. 


THE  SUPER- LEATHER  FOR  SOLES 

Write  for  Free  Bunklet  "About  the.  Diamond  Sign  oj  Douhle  II  ear,"  (• 

William   Walker  &  Sons,  Ltd.,  "  DRI-PED"  Adcertising  Dept., 
County  Buildings,  Cannon  St.,  Manchester. 


vm 


Supplement    to       LAND    &     WATER 


February  8,  1917 


Desiij:!!     No,      I.— An     t-xrliisive 

fian)2etl    sluipf     in    the    WeJg- 

wooil    Black    Basalt    Wiin-. 

12    in.    1J'6,    H     in.     16/6, 

\C  in.   iil: 

C»rvei)  RIaikuc'd  l!itan<]  extra 

12/6,        14/6,        16/6. 


DesiKTi       N'o.        ^ — AlubasAer 
aiass,  in  tliroc  <x)loiirs:   Hose, 

pre*n.    and    Miir. 
Diameter    in        1:'        14  ins. 

20/-     7S'-      30/*  eacli. 
(Bl.iekwood   S'.and   extra.) 


11,-,.. 

DiHiiitcr  10  12 
14/6      17/6 

lllark  carved  wcknI 
10/6      1J/6 

TiiH    Sundry 

Articles    .^liowa 

are  extra. 


Soane  &  Smith   Ltd. 

"THE    SPECIALITE    HOUSE    OF    ORIGINALITIES," 

462    Oxford   Street,  London,  W. 

Telcphine:   Pad  ington  2634.  Tilegranu  :   "  Earthenwetdo,    Londoa.'' 

Specialists    in   the   Reproduction   of   China   and   Glass. 


Floating'  Flower    Bowls 

lo  Original  aq-l  Excluaive  Forma, 

FOR  MAKING  ARTISTIC   FLORAL  DECORATIONS 
in   the   following   REPRODUCTIONS. 

C  WEDGWOOD  SOLID  BLACK  BASALT  WARE,  originated  in  the  year 
1776  by  Joslah  Wedgwood.  Its  dullness  throws  forward  the  beauti- 
ful natural  colours  of  the  flowers. 

C  GOLD  PUCE.  COLOUR  GLASS,  after  continuous  experiments,  this 
colour  is  now  absolutely  perfect,  and  pioduces  a  most  beautiful  effect. 

C  ALABASTER  GLASS,  diginated  from  a  stone,  known  as  alabaster. 
By  a  recent  discovery,  it  has  been  made  possible  to  blend  this  semi- 
opaque  alabaster  glass  with  a  vaiiety  of  soft  colours,  producing  a 
most  beautiful  effect,  which  is  not  only  pleasing  to  the  eye,  but 
quite  unique  in  character. 

C.  ARTIFICIAL  FLOATING  WATER  LILIES  in  progress  at  1/3  each. 


Oreea      Orass      Hanging 
Fxogs,  2/-   aacli. 

Gto£s  6wan&, 
2/9  each. 


14   ins. 
22/6  each, 
stand  extra 
14/6 
niac;.    Carved    Wood    Stands. 
«S  7  "J  f }  ill. 

12/6         14/6         16/6         18/6  each. 


Design   No.    «.— English    Plain 

White  Crjrptal  Class. 
Diameter  10        \1       M  ins. 

10/-     14/6      18/6 
Tlus  Is  on  a   levelled  mirror, 
T«hich   reflects   the  flowers 
(«xtra). 


Round    Bevelled  riili.^hLMl   Mirror. 

12  14  iO  IS  In.  3 

7/6         11/6  16/.        21/- each.        1/. 

SrtANF    anH  SMITH     i    ■ 


Flower  Blocks. 

4  41       5    in. 

1/6       2/.      l/-each. 


Dej..^..  .%u.  :;.  iiviirvid  stiape 
In  the  Wediiviood  Black 
Basalt  Ware.  The  hirds  «ro 
white  china,  and  can  lie  flxed 
on  in  any  position  with  plas- 
ticine modelling  cla>. 
Incliidin!;    I'lrd'.  -l"?    In..    21/  ; 


Desicn  \o.  7.  — R^prodnction 
oJ  the  Old  Xcl«on  Goblet,  in 
the  solid  old  puce  colour  ela-tf. 
Effective  for  floral  decoratico^ 
10  in.  hish  17/6,  12  in.  hish  25/- 
CBIack  carved  uood  stand 
extra.)       12/6  and   14/6. 


Design    No.    4.— 1 1  i  olour 

Gla^.«.      Mew    imittv'd    .ni^c. 

in  in.  21/-,  12  in.  25'.,  M  in.  32/6  ea. 

I  Black  carved    vvood    stand    extra.) 

12/6    :  14/6  16/6 


FORXMASON 


Ski  Boots 

(With   or    witboul    Straps). 

The  Ski  Boot  Idea  is  the  pro- 
duct of  a  Country  accustomed  to 
cold  and  snow.  The  high  double 
sides  of  this  type  of  boot  permit  of 
an  extra  pair  of  socks  being  worn, 
which  affords  warmth  and 
protection. 


The  *'  Five  Guinea "  Ski 
Boot  has  the  patent  Fortmason 
Waterproof  Leather  throughout, 
the  soles  are  extra  strong,  and  the 
whole  boot  is  as  supple  as  a  slipper 
and  lasts  lor  years. 

iL5  :  5  :  O 


S  zes  lOi  upuards, 
£3  :  15  :   0  per  pair- 


FORTNUW  &  MASONS  RUBBER  BOOIS 


RUBBER  KNEE  BOOT. 

Close  Elling  leg,  strong  rubber  soles, 

khaki  colour. 

Per  25/-    Pair. 

RUBBER  KNEE  BOOT. 

Wide  leather  soles,  nailed.  Botlom 

ol   boot   acid  proof. 

Per  39/6   Pair. 


RUBB£R  CAVALRY  BOOT. 

Briijht  black,  fits  close  to  breeches. 
Per  21/-   Pair. 

RUBBER  HIP  WADERS. 

Heavy  Rubber    Soles— sole    and 

bottom  of  boot  acid  proof 

Per  39/6  Pair 


lllmtraud  Calalogiu  snt  on  applualion 

FORXIMUM    &»    MASOIV. 

182     Piccadilly,     London,    W. 


Ltd.. 


'  Wincarnis '  is  the  ONE  thing  you  need  when  yon  are 

Weak,    Anaemic, 
*  Nervy '    *  Run-down  • 

Don't  let  your  lile  beclouded  by  indiftereni  health— don't  <!iifFer 
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■•trengthens  the  weak,  gives  new  rich  blood  to  the  Anxmic. 
Hfiir  nerves  to  the  "  Nervy,'  sleep  to  the  sleepless,  nete  vitality 
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Begin  to  get  well  FREE. 

Send  for  :i  liberal  free  tri:»I  botf  te  of  '  Wincai'nis  '—not  a  mere  taste,  but 
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mmm 


'V/VVVV  VTV* 

The  Wine  of  UU* 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII   No.  2857  [vli'^IJ       THURSDAY.  FEBRUARY  8,    1917         [^'^^^i^i^Pif^]  v^cr^^vv^cE 


fy  Louit  Haemaeken 


Drawn  erclusively  /or  "Land  c£   Water' 


The  Insult  to  Humanity 

"  Seems    to    be    neutral  ;    send    him    down  " 

We  reproduce  one  of  the  most  famous  of  Raemiekers'  cartoons,  which  is  specially 
appropriate  to  the  situation  created  by  Gsrmaiiy's  latest  chi'leti^e  to  the  Neutrals.  It 
originally  appeared  in  Land  &  Water,    March  30th,  1916,  after  the  sinking  of  the  "Sussex  " 


LAND    &     WATFR 


February  8,    1917 


The  Best  Boots 


for 


Active  Service 


are 


Faulkners'  Norwegians 

fitted   with 

The  Graemar  Wader 
Attachment 

£110    extra. 
No.  1   Model.      £6    6    0 

Kept  in  stock. 

The 

Smartest    Boots 

for 

Home  Service 

are 

Faulkner's 

Regulation 

Field   Boots, 

No.  20  Model.  £6    6    0 

Absolutely  Waterproof. 

Faulkners' 

"  Stitched  Edge  " 
Waterproof 

N  ew  markets. 

Khaki  Twill  Legs,  Brown  Leather  Feet. 
Fdges  cannot  come  unstuck. 

To  Knee      -    £4  10  0  per  pair. 

To    Thigh      -       £6    6    0    per  pwr. 

Ifrite    for     ILLUSTRATED     BOOKLETS   and    SELF-MEASUREMENT 

APPARATUS. 


<^-v. 


The  success  of  which  is  so  great  that  all  responsibility  as  to  fit  is  accepted. 


SI  &  52  South  Molton  Street, London,  W. 

And  26  Trinity    Street,    Cambridge. 


By  Ap/Kiitlmtnt  lo 


II  M.  Ike  King. 


14,000  British 
Officers 

have  gone  to  battle  "Thresher "-clad— protected,  that  is, 
by  the  most  practical  campaign  coat  that  skilled  experi- 
ence can  devise. 

To  you,  seeking  the  indubitable  best  in  trench  coats,  they 
— as  well  as  the  War  Office*— recommend  a  "Thresher." 

•  To  O.C.'s  Corps  B.E.F.,  Feb.,  1915. 

^T-IHI[^lflHlil^ 

TRENCH  COAT 

•'Thresher"  Trench  Coat S4   .    14   .   6 

Detachable  '*  Kamelcott '*  Lining £1    .    11    .   6 

Detachable  Sheepskin   Lining  £3   .    13  .    • 

Cavalry  type,   with  knee   fla^t  and  sad'le  gusset,    15^6  extra. 

All  sites    in   stock.       Send    size   of   chest   and   approximate  height,  and   te 

avoid  any  delmy  enclose  cheque  uhen  ordertusi. 


THRESHER  &  GLENNY 


Bat. 
1755. 


OrU  nators      of 
the  Trench  Coat 


ScorriSH  Acbnts  : 
WM.  ANDERSON    4  SON. 
14  George  Street,  Edinburgh 
&  to6  Hope  Street,  Glasgow. 


Send  for  Book — 

the  Complete 

GUIDE    TO 

EXPENDITURE. 

on 

KIT    AND 

EQUIPMENT. 


February  8,  191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,.  FEBRUARY  8,   1917 


CONTENTS 

Tlio  Insult  to  Humanity.     By  Louis  Racmackers 
Time  for  I'rudcnce.     (Leader) 

How  the  Enemv  Stands,     Bv  Hilaire  Belloc 

Tlic  War  Loan 

German  t'n'.s«s  ilic  World.  liy  .Arthur  Polle 

The  Soldier  who  Sings.     By  Lewis  K.  Freeman 
Tlje  Lieutenant.     By  Centurion 
Boar  Hunting  in  France.     By  Geoffrey  Ransome 
Young  Anzac  finds  liis  Heritage.     By  A.  E.  Mack 
Books  to  Read.     Bj^  Lucian  Oldershaw 
The  (lolden  Triangle.     By  Maurice  Leblanc 
Kit  and  Equipment 


p.\r,E 
I 

4 
,^ 

1  7 
lo 
II 

14 
i.T 
16 
18 
^5 


A    TIMIt     FOR    PRUDENCE 

THE  sudden  crisis  which  has  arisen  in  the  relations 
between  the  United  States  and  the  belligerent 
powers  has,  from  the  military  point  of  view  one 
supreme  interest.  It  is  that  of  tonnage.  It  is 
clear  that  if  things  should  come  to  open  war  between  the 
United  States  and  the  Central  Powers  two  very  im- 
portant additions  would  be  made  at  once  upon  our 
side  of  the  balance  and  against  that  of  the  enemy.  In 
the  first  place  something  like  half  a  million  tons  of  in- 
terned German  shipping  now  in  North  American  harbours 
would  be  a\-ailable  for  the  supply  of  the  Allies.  In  the 
second  place  the  building  power  of  the  United  States 
(which  is  enormous  and,  for  fast  small  craft,  the  special 
weapons  against  submarines,  almost  unlimited  and 
extremely  rapid)  would  be  immediately  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Alliance. 

If  matters  remain  only  in  the  stage  of  a  diplomatic 
rupture  and  if  the  enemy  forbear  to  precipitate  affairs 
by  causing  loss  of  American  life  or  sinking  (without 
warning  and  search)  American  vessels,  no  direct  and 
innnediate  effect  in  favour  of  the  Alliance  will  follow, 
though  the  moral  effect  has  already  been  \ery  great.  It 
puts  an  end  to  all  talk  of  an  embargo  upon  the  neutral 
export  of  material  and  equally  puts  an  end  to  all  talk  of 
neutral  negotiation.  Whether  the  enenu'  intends  to 
risk  actual  war  and  balance  the  supposed  advantges  of 
sinking  at  sight  against  the  certain  disadvantage  of 
adding  this  great  mass  of  shipping  and  building  power 
to  the  Alliance  against  him,  it  is  'idle  to  discuss.  He 
may  choose  to  draw  in  his  horns  (as  he  has  over  and  over 
again  in  the  past  after  some  exhibition  of  \'iolence)  or  he 
may  have  settled  upon  what  he  now  regards  as  his  iinal 
and  only  pohcy. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  urgently  to  be  advised  that  public 
opinion  in  this  country  should  keep  its  head.  It 
is  forgotten  in  some  quarters  that  the  war  is  not 
merely  nor  mainly  a  race  between  our  b'lockade  and  Ger- 
many's It  is  much  more  a  race  between  the  slow  effect  of 
the  enemy's  submarine  and  the  immoiiately  impending 
effect  of  the  Allied  superiority  by  land  in  the  West.  Long 
before  even  the  most  ruthless  and  succe-ssful  submarine 
action  can  seriously  embarrass  the  Western  Allies  the 
great  shock  in  the  West  will  liave  taken  place,  and  it 
is  upon  the  result  of  this  that  the  chief  issue  of  the  war 


turns.  There  is  some  room  for  warning,  not  only  against 
sensational  writing  in  the  Press,  but  also  against  any 
excess  of  political  oratory  at  this  moment.  A  war 
can  only  be  won,  and  is  best  conducted,  by  soldiers  and 
sailors.  A  certain  amount  of  political  speech-making  is 
necessary,  perhaps,  because  it  is  useful  to  keep  the  public 
in  touch  with  the  campaign,  and  the  public  has  grown  by  a 
sort  of  routine  to  regard  men  in  certain  known  political 
])o.sitions  as  guides  to  opinion.  But  there  is  always  a 
danger  that  an  e.xccss  of  addresses  by  Parliamentarians 
may  produce  a  crop  of  imprudent  remarks,  ■  dangerous 
to  that  complete  homogeneity  of  the  Alliance  and  that 
resolute  attitude  towards  the  foe  which  is  essential  to 
this  nation  in  the  crisis  of  its' fate. 

The  speech  delivered  by  Mr.  Asquith  in  Scotland  was 
a  model  of  what  such  addresses  should  be.  Impersonal, 
clear  and  decisive,  it  contained  not  a  vyord  of  reproach 
against  domestic  rival  or  foreign  ally,  nor  any  attempt, 
improper  upon  the  part  of  a  civilian,  to  estimate  a  military 
situation  save  in  its  broadest  lines.  LInfortunately, 
this  has  not  been  altogether  true  of  other  efforts  on  the 
part  of  the  politicans.  It  is  not  true  to  say,  for  instance, 
that  the  enemy  was  ever  our  superior  in  the  handling 
of  railways.  He  has  been  always  somewhat  our  in- 
ferior in  this  \-ital  matter  in  France  as  in  Italy,  from 
the  battle  of  the  Marne  to  the  Trentino  and  from  the 
Yser  to  the  Somme.  The  battle  of  the  Marne  was  won, 
as  Mr.  Belloc  points  out  in  his  article  of  this  week,  by 
the  swinging  of  a  great  body  of  troops  behind  the  lino 
of  the  armies  parallel  to  it  during  the  actual  progress  of 
the  fighting,  and  the  consequent  springing  of  a  surprise 
upon  the  German  right.  Nothing  of  the  sort  has 
been  effected  by  the  enemy  on  the  rail  from  the  first 
day  of  the  war  till  now.  Our  readers  will  see  in  the 
same  columns  how  superior  was  the  movement  of  the 
troops  which  marked  the  Yser  sector  two  years  ago 
and  how  much  slower  the  German  movement  was.  The 
swinging  of  Italian  troops  from  the  Isonzo  to  the  Asiago 
plateau  last  sunnner  was  a  similarly  perfect  piece  of 
modern  transport  ruining  the  Prussian  plan  imposed 
upon  Austria  in  the  Trentino.  Throughout  the  war  the 
greatest  ability  of  the  Western  Allies,  in  spite  of  their 
disadvantage  of  exterior  lines,  has  been  amply  demon- 
strated in  this  test  matter  of  railways.  It  is  an  error 
of  fact  then  to  exaggerate  the  enemy's  mechanical 
power,  and  surely  no  good  purpose  can  be  served  at  the 
present  moment  by  criticising,  even  \-aguely,  the  Allied 
action  in  the  Balkans. 

The  prime  fact  about  the  Balkans  is  that  the 
all-important  occupation  of  Salonika  took  place  in 
time,  and  with  Salonika  occupied  the  enemy  is  para- 
lysed in  the  East.  The  annoyance  and  difficulty  sur- 
rounding this  capital  piece  of  strategy  are  wholly  sub- 
sidiary to  its  essential  and  successful  purpose  And  is  it 
not  luiwise  to  suggest  that  the  enemy  will  obtain  more 
fa^'ourable  terms  if  he  consents  to  an  early  peace  ;  that 
he  will  be  better  off  by  admitting  defeat  in  1917  than 
by  admitting  it  next  year  ?  Such  a  statement  belies 
the  feeUng  of  -this  country  and  is  iri-itating  to  the 
known  temper  of  our  great  Allies.  The  enemy  will  obtain 
peace  in  spite  of  liimself  when  he  has  been  defeated, 
and  when  he  has  been  defeated  the  peace  he  will  obtain 
will  be  one  imposed  upon  him  by  the  common  progrannne 
and  the  common  determination  of  France,  England, 
Italy  and  Russia. 

He,  at  least,  knows  this,  and  it  is  a  great  pity  that  any 
weakness  in  the  matter  should  be  even  suggested  ;  how- 
ever impossible  it  may  be  in  face  of  the  public  temper 
and  of  the  aimies  for  those  who  counsel  such  weakness  to 
achic'.e  their  ends.  It  is  .as  well  to  speak  quite  clearly 
upon  this  point.  No  yielding  will  be  tolerated  by  the 
peoples  or  by  the  armies,  and  it  is  surely  imprudent 
to  suggest  it. 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  8,  1917 


How  the  Enemy  Stands 


By   Hilairc   Belloc 


AT  our  entry  into  the  last  phase  of    tlie    war,    in 

/%      the  midst  of  the  ominous  hill  and  silence  which 

/  %  precedes  it  upon  both  sides,  let  us  take  stock. 
JL  JL.  The  one  prime  element  in  the  calculation — 
wliich  more  and  more  rapidly  is  deciding;:  all  the  rest — is  the 
respecti\e  weiiL^ht  of  numbers  and  material  hv  land.  It 
is  moditicd,  but  only  modilied,  b3-  the  enemy's  last  efforts 
upon  our  len!,lhly  and  perilous  communications  at  sea. 

AS  to  the  land,  the  general  situation  is  now  famihar.  In 
the  West  the  enemy  is  mastered.  On  the  East  he  has 
a  permanent  and  hea\v  superiority  in  material  countered 
only, by  supply  to  our  Allies  by  o\ersea  routes. 

Ihe  West  is  not  only  superior  but  is  growing  in 
superiority,  ll  has  more  guns,  more  shells,  more  rail- 
ways, more  rolling  stock,  more  men,  more  food. 

'ihough  these  calculable  ad\antages  are  modified 
liy  difficulties  of  conmumication  which  will  be  dealt 
with  in  a  moment,  there  ought  in  fairness  to  be  added 
a  certain  incalculable  element  without  which  judgment 
will  always  be  at  fault.  The  Western  Powers  are 
morally  and  intellectually  superior  to  the  enemy.  They 
ha\e  developed  better  tactical  methods.  They  have 
shown  themselves  to  be  better  strategists.  Tlicy  have 
handled  their  raihvays  better  and  they  have  concealed  their 
moiemenfs  better.  It  is,  after  all,  only  what  one  would 
e.\pect  of  the  heart  of  civilisation  in  action  against 
outer  men  who  have  only  acquired  their  culture  as  the 
pupils  of  the  South  and  West  and  who  have  never  been 
able  to  do  more  than  imitate. 

It  is  \-ery  important  that  we  should  grasp  this  in- 
calculable but  ver\'  real  factor  in  the  Western  situation, 
because  foolish  writing  and  still  more  foolish  speaking 
has  produced  in  this  countr\'  an  impression  the  con- 
trary of  the  truth.  There  has  long  been  a  general  but 
false  impression  here  that  the  enemy,  and  particularly 
the  North  Germans,  had  some  advantage  in  tempera- 
ment over  the  Italians,  the  French  and  the  British  in 
mechanical  affairs.  The  more  ignorant  kind  of  Mriting 
in  the  Press  supported  this  error,  and  of  course  political 
speaking  followed  suit.  Anyone  who  will  take  the  trouble 
to  consult  e\-idence  instead  of  \ielding  to  a  mood  will 
discover  how  false  such  a  conception  is.  The  enemy 
has  ne\er  produced  or  maintained  for  long  a  superiority 
in  the  machinery  of  the  air.  He  has  ne\-er  moved  troops 
by  railwaj-  with  the  same  secrecy  and  the  same  rapidity  as, 
in  critical  moments,  the  Western  Allies  ha\e  proved  them- 
selves capable  of  moving  them. 

The  Battle  of  the  Marnc  was  won  by  the  swinging  of  a 
great  body  of  troops  right  behind  the  line  of  battle  from 
east  to  west  by  train  with  a  rapidity  and  secrecy  of  which 
the  enemy  has  never  been  capable.  This  happened  at 
the  very  beginning  of  the  war  in  early  September  1914. 
The  whole  of  the  British  Expeditionary  Force  was  moved 
with  equal  secrecy  and  rapidity  from  the  Aisne  a  few- 
weeks  later  to  the  sector  of  Ypres.  The  enemy  might, 
if  lie  had  been  able  to  do  it,  have  moved  his  troops  first, 
he  might  have  done  ■Ao  more  quickly,  he  had  far  greater 
numbers  at  his  disposal.  He  had  all  the  rolling  stock  and 
lines  he  wanted.  If  he  had  been  prompt  he  would  have 
turned  our  line.  But  he  is  by  nature  slow  compared 
with  us,  and  this  rapid  handling  of  railways  in  the  early 
])art  of  the  war  closed  the  northern  or  sea  gate  against 
him,  and  completed  the  effect  of  the  Marni;.  We  were 
still  grossly  inferior  to  him  in  numbers,  but  a  better 
handling  of  railways  saved  us. 

The  Italians  moved  an  immense  inass  of  men  from  the 
Isonzo  to  the  \'icenza-Verona  front  ;  they  did  it  deftly, 
nicely,  most  rapidly,  at  a  calculated  moment,  and  ruined 
the  enemy's  Trentino  offensive.  The  thing  was  done 
so  secretly  and  so  quickly,  it  went  so  smoothlj-,  that  it 
may  justly  be  called  the  best  of  all  the  examples  of 
railway  work  in  any  time  or  place  of  the  great  war.  1 
was  mvself  a  witness  of  the  end  of  this  great  operation. 
1  snw  with  my  own  eyes  its  astonishing  success  and  the 
waj-  in  which  those  interior  lines  were  used  almost  with- 


out disturbing  the  normal  civilian  life  and  movement 
upon  the  roads  and  railways.  It  was  an  unforgettable 
experience. 

\\'hat  is  true  of  mechanical  power  in  railway  traction 
and  road  traction  is  true  of  weapons.  The  French  and 
Italian  lield  piece  is  altogether  the  .superior  of  the  enemy's. 
In  the  heavy  pieces  he  had  long  and  enormous  advantage 
in  number  ;  he  has  to-day,  though  in  general  our  inferior 
here,  some  particular  types  which  rival  those  of  the 
Western  AUies.  But  he  has  never  been  superior  in  the 
handling  of  the  heavy  piece  or  in  the  rapidity  of  delivery 
from  it,  after  the  supply  of  shell  was  sufficient. 

The  enemy's  superiority  over  the  Western  Allies  con- 
sisted /irst  in  a  very  much  more  developed  system  of 
j)roduction  (and  far  greater  opportunities  for  further 
production)  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  campaign.  This 
could  only  be  .slowly  caught  up  by  the  transformation  of 
civil  life  among  his  western  opponents.  Secondly,  he 
had,  to  begin  with,  a  great  superiority  in  equipped 
numbers.  Thirdly,  he  was  the  first  in  the  field  and  for 
long  mechanically  superior  to  us  in  the  digging  of  trenches 
and  in  the  use  of  trench  weapons  and  of  the  machine 
gun.  In  this  we  copied  from  him,  and  he  was  our 
superior.  The  same  is  true  of  the  observation  balloon, 
and  of  the  various  forms  of  nocturnal  observation. 
Finally,  he  was,  and  he  will  remain,  our  superior  in  mere 
supply  of  coal  and  metal.  So  that  with  all  our  own 
superiority  in  mechanical  power  and  general  intelligence, 
aptitude  and  rapidity  of  work  (Sheffield  has  a  better 
co-efficient  of  labour  "than  Creusot,  and  Creusot  a  better 
co-efticient  than  Essen),  we  simply  have  not  the  stuff 
sufficient  to  meet  him  unless  we  can  add  to  it  from  over- 
seas. The  area  tiow  under  control  of  the  enemy  produced 
before  the  war  five  tons  of  steel  to  the  Allied  three. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  Western  situation  in  its  general 
lines.  Subject  to  the  enemy's  superiority  in  steel,  which 
niakes  us  partly  dependent  on  neutral  markets,  we 
master  him.  We  master  him  in  men,  in  moral,  in  gun- 
power  and  gun  handling,  in  tactical  method. 

The  Eastern  situation  we  also  know.  There  the  enemy 
enjoys  a  superiority  in  every  department  except  the 
ultimate  supply  of  men.  He  can,  within  a  given  time, 
produce  far  more  equipment  and  therefore  arm,  on  a  given 
sector  (so  long  as  he  has  them)  more  men.  He  has 
a  railway  system  and  an  experience  of  railways  wholly 
superior  to  that  which  faces  him.  He  has  a  much  larger 
body  of  instructed  men  on  whom  to  draw  for  the  wastage 
in  the  commissioned  ranks  ;  lastly,  he  has  a  perfectly 
overwhelming  superiority  in  material.  He  can  make 
aircraft,  guns  and  shells  at  a  rate  compared  with  whicli 
his  opponents  are  simply  out  of  the  field.  Those  oppo- 
nents have,  upon  the  zone  of  the  aimies,  a  better  supply 
of  mere  food— taken  as  a  whole — but  in  other  depart- 
ments of  material  they  are  so  handicapped  as  to  be  in 
another  category  as  it  were,  from  their  enemy.  They 
have  had  one  strategic  factor  Mith  which  to  play  at  will, 
and  that  was  the  factor  of  .space.  Given  a  proper 
handling  of  retreat  and  they  could  "  play  "  the  superior 
strength  of  the  enemy  up  to  the  point  of  exhaustion. 
In  this  proper  handling  of  a  retreat  they  have  in  the 
main  succeeded,  and  neither  in  the  very  great  business  of 
the  Polish  retreat,  when  the  enemy  was  at  the  height  of  his 
power,  nor  in  the  pett}'  business  of  the  Wallachian 
retreat,  were  the  Central  Powers  able  to  envelop^  any- 
where. The  great  enemy  concentration  failed.  The 
armies  retiring  before  them  remained  in  being,  and 
reached,  in  the  first  case,  after  a  great  advance,  in  the 
second  case  after  a  small  one,  the  point  of  exhaustion. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  how  such  a  situation  can  be  sum- 
marised. The  enemy's  fronts  for  some  2,000  miles  are  a 
ring  kept  at  Irigh  tension,  a  ring  which  is  perpetually 
wasting  away.  The  matter  by  which  the  wastage  is 
replaced,  that  is,  the  reserve  of  man-power  within  the 
ring,  grows  only  at  about  a  third  or  a  fourth  of  the  rate 
at   which   the  wastatre  proceeds.     In  the  race  between 


February  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


wastage  and  recruitment,  the  former  proceeding  at  a 
rate  three  and  four  times  the  latter,  the  enemy  have 
reached  a  point  in  which  they  sec  repairs  possible  for  no 
more  than  the  approaching  spring  and  part  of  the 
approaching  summer.  As  against  tliis  their  opponents 
can  keep  the  ring  at  tension  indeiinitely  and  have,  for  a 
similar  rate  of  monthly  wastage,  more  than  double  the 
amount  of  monthly  recruitment,  while  the  Allied  material 
supply  is,  upon  one  section  of  the  ring,  the  ^^"estern, 
increasing  the  tension  more  and  more  with  every  day  of 
production  that  passes.  In  the  nature  of  things,  the 
moment  when  the  ring  can  no  longer  hold  is  approaching. 

But  there  is  to  this  aspect  of  the  matter — a  purely 
Continental  one — one  profound  modification.  Allusion 
to  it  has  latterly  been  l^lade  continually  in  these  columns. 
It  is  the  nature  of  the  Allied  communications.  It  is 
because  the  communications  of  the  Allies  are  maritime 
that  the  enemy  finds  one  chance  left  upon  which  to  gamble. 
JIaritime  communications  are  always  perilous,  always 
cumbersome  and  slo\\',  always  exceedingly  expensive  in 
men  and  material.  To-day  these  drawbacks  are  far 
greater  than  they  were  in  the  past  for  three  reasons  ; 
The  necessity  of  maritime  communication  is  greater  than 
e\er  before  :  their  length  is  greater  than  ever  before  ; 
their  peril  is  greater  than  ever  before. 

Uirst. — Upon  those  maritime,  cominunications  the 
material  superiority  of  the  West  depends,  and  the 
material  existence  of  the  East.  The  balance  of  the 
steel  we  need  must  come  from  oversea,  and  the  supply 
of  material  needed  by  the  Eastern  Allies  must,  for  the 
great  bulk  of  it — not  for  mere  balance — come  from  over 
sea,  and  that  not  only  as  steel  or  other  raw  material, 
bid  in  the  form  of  the  finished  product.  And  not  only 
must  steel  in  our  case,  and  finished  products  in  that  of 
our  Eastern  Allies,  arrive  from  oversea,  but  a  certain 
proportion  of  fuel  also  must  so  arrive.  Fuel,  whether 
supplied  from  Britain  (and  that  is  from  one  point  only 
of  the  Allied  outer  ring)  or  from  neutrals,  must  arrive 
from  oversea.  Even  food  must  in  part — -and  the  case 
of  Britain  largely — come  by  sea.  There  was  never  a 
campaign  in  the  history  of  the  war,,  not  even  when 
maritime  A"enice  and  Carthage  were  fighting  for  their 
historical  position,  when  the  dependeiice  upon  maritime 
communications  was  greater.  As  against  this,  the  Allied 
power  at  sea  does  cut  off  from  the  enemy  a  very  great 
'percentage  of  his  necessary  food,  but  not  enough  to 
reduci:  him  (as  he  himself  once  reduced  his  eneriiy  in  the 
past)  by  starvation.  We  embarrass  him  very  gravely 
indeed,  but  we  do  not,  bv  this  action  alone,  defeat  him. 

Secondly,  these  maritime  communications  are  abnor- 
mally long.  They  cross  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific. 
They  stretch  round  from  Britain  through  the  Straits  of 
(Gibraltar  and  the  whole  length  of  the  Mediterranean. 
They  run  again  from  Britain  and  from  the  Atlantic, 
right  round  through  the  Arctic  Seas  to  the  Northern 
Russian  coast.  Now  great  lengthy  communications  by 
sea  have  this  treble  drawback: 

(a)  The  efficiency  of  your  tonnage  is  in  inverse  pro- 
l)ortion  to  the  length  of  your  communications  :  To  supply 
so  many  tons  of  material  to  a  distance  of  1,000  miles 
ill  a  given  time  requires,  even  in  theory,  only  half  the 
tonnage  necessary  to  supply  the  .same  amount  of  material 
in  the  same  time  to  a  place  2,000  miles  distant  ;  for  the 
supply  has  to  be  continuous. 

(b)  Very  lengthy  maritime  communications  involve 
to-day  the  upkeep  of  coaling  points  and  further  delavs  in 
the  taking  in  of  coal  as  well  as  a  further  waste  of  tonnage 
in  transporting  the  coal. 

(c)  The  longer  the  line  of  maritime  communications  ' 
the  greater  the  peril,  because  every  extra  mile  of  journev  ■ 
is  an  extra  mile  of  danger,  and  also  because  the  broader   i 
the  sea  the  less  opportunity  of  finding  the  enemy— in 
this  case  the  .submarine. 

Moreover,  these  maritime  communications  are  to-day 
especially  subject  to  a  peril  unknown  before  in  the  history  ;, 
of  shipping.  This  peril  is  the  attack  of  the  submarine, 
reverting  to  the  old  barbarous  conception  of  war  and 
sacrificing  civilian  life  indiscriminatelv  with  militarv  life. 
The  new  submarines  have  not  been  f  ontrolled  and  domi- 
nated as  the  first  fiight  were  from  two\-earsto  18  months 
ago.  These  immensely  long  communications,  therefore, 
may  he  compared  to  terrestrial  communications  which 
should  be  c:verywliere  open  upon  their  flanks  to  cneniv 
attack,,  and    no    more    detestable  .  nnlitary     condition 


The  War  Loan 

A  S    the    war    proceeds,    aiJd   ;the    difticulties    and 

/%     hardships  inherent    to    \-1ctory    increase,    the 

/ — %   resolution  of  the  nation  strengthens.     To  render 

scrAuce  to   one's   country   animates    milUons   of 

men  and  women  to-day,  but  against  this  there  too   often 

arises   the    paralysing   doubt  of  what  use  can    a   single 

person  be  in  this  gigantic  struggle.  It  is  of  course  a  foolish 

fear.     Armies  are  composed  of  units  ;  War  'Loans  ^^oji- 

sist  of  single  sovereigns.  "        -*- 

There  is  not  a  living  soul  to-day  too  humble  to  help 
in  the  financing  of  the  war.  The  Great  War  Loan  \vhich 
continues  open  until  to-morrow  week,  is  the  most  splendid 
opportunity  that  has  yet  been  offered  to  the  whole 
nation  to  be  of  help.  It  is  the  duty  of  eveiyone  to 
subscribe  what  they  can,  whether  it  be  a  million  pounds 
or  less  than  a  hundred  shillings.  The  amount  makfis 
no  difference  so  far  as  the  personal  obligation  is  con- 
cerned. There  may  still  be  found  those  who'  do  not 
rightly  understand  the  nature  of  the  transaction,  but 
they  can  find  enlightenment  at  any  Post  Olticc  or  Bank. 

According  to  the  success  of  this  loan  will  the  country's  . 
endurance   V)e   judged   by   our   enemies.      Already   they 
are  comforting  themselves  with  the  false  belief  that   the 
people  are  tiring  of  the  war  and  will  welcome   peace  on 
almost  any  terms.     This  delusion  will  be  shattered,  not 
so  much  by  the  total  amount  of   the    loan  as   by  .the. 
total  number  of  subscribers.     Let  it  be    shown  to  be  a  ,. 
people's  offering  to  Na\-y  and  Army  to  carry  on    until  ■ 
military  victory  is  final  and  complete. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  lending  of  one's  money  to 
the  country  incurs  no  financial  risk  and  brings  in  a 
A-ery  handsome  profit,  especially  for  the  smallest  holders, 
who  have  never  before  been  able  to  obtain  such  a  return 
on  their  money,  as  over  5  per  cent.  One  must  not, 
however,  regard  subscribing  to  this  War  Loan  as  a 
mere  question  of  finance  or  profit,  but  as  a  national  duty 
which  no  man  or  woman  wth  any  abiding  sense  of 
patriotism  can  afford  to  neglect. 

exists.    '  There  is  the  full  position.     The  enemy  is  not,, 
only  beaten  on  the  West,  but  he  is  in  danger  of  a  complcto 
decision  against  himself  upon  the  West  in  a  very  short  1 
time,  because  he  is  out-numbered,  out-gunned  and  aut- 
generalled.     His  permanent  superiority  upon  the  East 
does  not  avail  him  towards  a  decision,  because  the  factor 
of  space  baffles  him.     His  reser\-c  for  preparing  wastage, 
even  if  he  joins  no  new  di\'isions,  is  exhausted  in  the  course 
of  the  coming  summer.     Every  effort  he  makes  to  meet 
his  foes  by  making  new  formations  is  so  much  borroM'ed 
from,  anticipated  ujion,  the  meagre  resources  of  the  imme- 
diate future.     His  one  loo])hole  is  the  weak  character  of 
our  lengthy,  vitally  necessary,  and  e.xceedingly  exposed- 
maritime  communications.     It  is  to  stake  all  on  that  one 
chance  that  he  has  just  .sacrificed  neutrality  to  the  oppor-  . 
tunity  of  attacking  tlio.se  communications.     If  he  fails 
here  he  has  failed  altogether  and  soon. 

There  are  those  who  tell  us  that  he  dt-liberateh'  desired 
to  bring  the  United  States  into  tiie  war  in  order  to  em- 
barrass negotiations  at  the  close  of  it.  It  ■  may  be  so.  ■ 
There  are  those  who  tell  us  that  the  sudden  determination 
to  risk  the  hostility  of  the  Uniteil  States  was  undertaken 
by  the  HohenxoUern  Dynasty  so  that,  in  the  crash  of 
the  newly  made  and  artificial  North  German  natioj^>. 
they  should  seem  to  have  yielded  only  to  an  overwhelming 
combination.  It  may  be  so.  There  are  those  who. tell 
us  that  the  Prussians  will  shrink  froin  the  last  conse- 
quences of  such  a  policy  and  will  suggest  compromises 
with  nations  still  neutral  upon  the  sea.  It  may  be  so. 
But  all  these  affirmations  and  conjectures  relate  to  some- 
thing subsidiary  to  the  main  military  point,  which  is 
this  ;  That  by  land  the  enemy  is  in  inuuediate  and  deadly 
peril.     His  only  issue  is  a  gamble  by  sea. 

It  is  not  my  pro^'incc  to  discuss  wliat  his  chances  upon 
the  sea  may  be.  But  it  is  clear  that,  as  part  of  the 
military  problem,  the  unaided  submarine  weapon  cannot.. 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  8,  1917 


be  decisive.  The  margin  between  luxury  and  necessity 
in  imports,  the  ])o\ver  of  importing  ultimately  by  sub- 
mersibles,  the  time  still  required  to  embarrass  the  supplies 
of  this  country  at  all  seriously  ;  the  incapacity  to  inter- 
fere with  direct  communications  with  France  ;  the 
potential  addition  of  half  a  million  tons  of  shipping  from 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  :  the  progress  of  methods  for 
dealing  with  the  new  submarines— all  these  factors  com- 
bined make  it  certain  that  s<'rious  military  pressure 
upon  land  (the  preparation  of  which  he  may  hope  in 
vain  to  hasten  or  impose)  will  come  long  before  the 
menace  upon  our  maritime  communication  could  be 
really  decisive. 

Now  there  is  with  regard  to  the  innncdiate  and  extreme 
peril  which  the  enemy  runs  upon  the  Western  front,  a 
note  of  warning  to  be  issued.  The  Press  has  done  so 
little  to  make  opinioa  in  this  pountry  seize  the  general 
situation  that  the  \varying  is  necessary. 

There  is  no  reason  why  the  enemy  should  not  form  a 
considerable  striking  force  to  come  into  action  before  the 
end  of  the  winter.  He  can  do  so,  as  I  have  said,  by 
anticipating  his  future  revenue  in  men.  He  had  in  his 
depots  last  December  about  600,000  men.  -He  might 
.■xpect  before  the  middle  or  end  of  next  summer  to  get 
another  400,000  from  the  last  of  class  iqi8  called  up 
and  from  hospital  relenscs.  It  is  clear  that  if  he  chooses 
to  leave  hinrself  ex}i;uisted  of  drafts  before  some  date  in 
August  he  can  empUjy  the  human  material  in  the  imme- 
diate formation  of  3iew  divisions,  even  up  to  so  high  a 
number  as  25  divisions  (possibly)  as  a  maximum.  He 
could  onlv  do  ri(j.  of  course,  at  the  expense  of  certain  ruin 
later  on,  if  his  attack  fails,  an  earlier  ruin  than  he  would 
otherwise  have  haxl  to  face.  But  he  can  do  so  if  he 
desires  some  great  political  effect  early  in  the  year,  or 
thinks  it  will  ha  of  ad\antage  to  liim. 

What  we  have  to  remember  is  that  a  new  force  so 
formed  is  quite  insuihcient  for  its  task.  Twenty-five 
new  divisions  largely  eomi^osed  of  his  very  worst  and  last 
material*  can  never  obtain  a  decision  in  the  West,  and 
when  they  have  been  j)ounded  (or  have  pounded  them- 
selves) to  pieces,  the  counter-attack  of  the  Allies  can 
be  decisive. 

He  knows  all  this  just  as  well  as  we  do.  The  danger 
is  that  opinion  in  this  country  might  be  disturbed  by  the 
appearance  of  such  new  forces  in  the  iield.  It  is  only  a 
political  danger,  but  it  is  one  worth  forestalling. 

'Last   Effort  in  Neutral  Opinion 

My  readers  will  agree  with  me  that  it  is  of  especial 
xalue  at  this  moment  to  study  th(;  plan  upon  which  the 
enemy  was  vv(jrking  in  America  up  to  the  week  before 
the  rupture  which  has  taken  place.  I  think  one  can  show 
that  the  (ierman  agents  set  aside  for  affecting  opinion 
in  the  United  States  had  concentrated  upon  creating  the 
following  opinion  :  J'hat  the  Central  Powers  could 
maintain  a  successful  defensive  for  any  length  of. time  ; 
that  any  military  design  conceix'cd  to  that  effect — 
such  as  the  Roumanian  one — worked  within  set  boundaries 
which  were  easily  reached  and  maintained  :  that  the 
Allied  Governments  had  already  recognised  this  and  were 
beginning  to  Jiegotiate  for  peace  secret!}',  their  sole 
remaining  difficulty  being  that  of  explaining  their  failure 
to  their  own  subjects.  I  have  before  me  as  I  write  two 
examples  of  this  from  whicii  I  can  illustrate  it. 

'J'he  first  concerns  the  Roumanian  campaign,  and  its 
significance  lies  in  its  date. 

I  hose  mIio  may  have  read  my  article  of  last  week  in 
these  colunms  will  remember  that  the  main  effort  io 
force  the  Carpathians — two  actions  undertaken  simul- 
taneously bj'  (ierok  on  thi;  north  and  Ruiz  on  the  south — 
were  delivered  upon  Saturday,  January  loth.  Each 
ended  disastrously  for  the  enemy  in  the  course  of  Sunday 
the  nth.  (jcrok  was  thrown  back  in  the  Casinu  Valley 
and  Ruiz  was  thrown  back  from  the  Canii>irle    Ridge. 

It  must  ha\e  been  cleai"  on  the  spot  after  these  reverses 
that  the  decisive  stroke,  that  of  turning  tiie  whole  Russo- 
Roumanian  line  through  the  mountains,  had  failed  for 
good.  Indeed,  the  certitude  of  this  is  pro\ed  by  the 
fact  that  a  .series  of  costly  frontal  actions  began  innne- 
diatelj'  afterwards — the  very  next  day — against  the  Putna 

"-Sonic  liavc  t.itked  of  liis  callins  out  in  ("lormany  Class  1910.  ;' f. 
Tlio  bovs  who  an;  y-iolhs  of  Ihcni — only  17.  It  would  io  the  pliygiu- 
lc"ii.'iil\;on<litic'iis  nf  the  norili,  Iju  (jiiiu-  lulilc 


and  Serelh  \u\c  acioss  the  plain,  and  were  carried  on 
fruitlessly  to  the  point  of  exhaustion  before  Focsaii  i, 
before  Galatz  and  lastl}-  at  Fundeni. 

The  news  of  the  breakdown  of  the  Carpathian  part  of 
tile  plan— the  attempt  to  turn  the  Russo-Rouiuaniau 
right  by  Cierok  and  Ruiz — must  have  been  known  in 
Berlin  by  the  afternoon,  or  at  the  latest  by  the  evening, 
of  Sunday  the  nth. 

Note  what  followed.  Upon  Monday  the  izih  Berlin 
sent  out  an  exceptionally  long  notice  to  the  American 
Press.  These  long  and  detailed  statements  officially 
cou;itersigned  by  the  enemy's  command  have  been  fre- 
quently published  in  the  United  States  dming  the  course 
of  the  war,  and  I  have  often  thouglit  it  would  be  in- 
structive if  such  elaborate  German  despatches  for  the 
hifluencing  of  neutrals  were  regularly  republish'jd  in  this 
country.  This  particular  effort  was  of  excaptional 
tinphasis  and  importance,  and  went  into  detail  \\\k)i\  the 
Carpathian  campaign.  It  described  (with  perfect  justice) 
the  magnitude  of  the  task  and  the  great  difficulties  which 
(jerok  and  Ruiz  had  to  overcome  in  lighting  their  way 
through  a  hifih  and  difficult  mountain  range  in  the  depth 
of  winter  with  only  one  good  road,  and  dejiL-ndent  in  most 
places  upon  mere  tracks  ;  The  guns  often  ha\ing  to  be 
lowered  into  the  ravines  by  ropes,  and  pulled  up  again 
on  the  far  side  ;  nearly  all  the  supplies  haxing  to  be 
carried  on  men's  backs,  etc.,  etc. 

We,  of  course,  know  (and  rejoice  in  the  fact)  that 
military  efforts  of  that  sort,  if  they  fail  in  their  linal 
purpose,  are  the  worse  for  the  commander  who  accom- 
plishes them  precisely  in  proportion  to  their  difficulty 
and  to  his  tenacity  and  endurance.  They  ai-e  immensely 
costly  in  men.     But  that  is  by  the  way 

The  enemy  very  naturally,  and  I  repeat,  \ery  justly, 
emphasised  the  great  difficulty  of  merely  getting  across 
the  ridge,  let  alone  of  winning  on  the  other  side. 

Now  after  this  legitimate  piece  of  self-praise,  which 
might  influence  neutrals  by  showing  them  of  what  stiitf 
the  enemy's  armies  were  comjxised,  the  note  goes  on  in 
a  totally  different  tone,  and  says  that  these  movements 
have  11010  been,  crowned  with  success  ;  that  the  general 
officers  commanding  them  are  now  uninterruptedly  ■ 
pushing  forward  down  the  Moldavian  Valleys,  are  about 
to  debouch  upon  the  plain  :  in  a  word,  that  the  object 
of  this  perilous  and  difficult  and  very  expensive  march 
has  now  been  attained. 

That  latter  part  of  the  Note — and  the  only  really 
signi..*icant  part  of  it,  and  in  any  military  sense — is  a  flat 
contradiction  of  the  truth,  and  it  was  sent  from  Berlin  to 
America  not  in  the  hope  that  it  might  turn  out  true,  but 
in  the  kno-*vledge  that  it  was  false.  For  it  was  despatched 
a  few  hours  after  the  receipt  of  the  news  that  the  Car- 
pathian effort  had  failed.  The  whole  episode  is  signifi- 
cant, coming  as  it  did  during  the  last  efforts  to  obtain 
American  intervention  and  before  the  sudden  volie- 
facc  and  challenging  of  Mr.  Wilson  that  took  the  form 
of  the  Note  of  January  31st. 

The  second  example  is  taken  Irom  the  principal  one 
of  those  papers  which  have  hitherto  supported  the  German 
cause  in  the  United  States  in  the  West.  It  is  signed  by  a 
neutral  journalist,  but  the  inspiration  is  so  obviously  the 
inspiration  of  the  CJernian  Government  that  we  may  take 
it  as  part  of  the  general  propagancUi  of  about  a  fortnight 
ago.  Though  no  date  of  origin  is  given  upon  the  tele- 
gram, it  clearly  proceeds  from  Europe,  and  i)resiimably 
from  some  neutral  country  whither  the  (ierman 
authorities  could  send  matter  which  they  desired  pub- 
,  lished.  Moreover,  the  writer  speaks  of  his  having 
accompanied  the  German  ariries  in  the  ])ast.  After  a 
long  but  inconclusive  series  of  dark  hints  about  the  weak- 
ness here  or  there  of  the  Alliance,  and  any  amount  of 
assertion  that  he  is  in  toucii  with  the  very  best  authorities 
and  is  speaking  for  them,  the  author  concludes  with 
these  words  : 

"In  my  opinion  though  fighting  may  'continue, 
the  war  is  \irtually  ended  no\\'.  It  is  more  tli.m  likely 
that  the  terms  of  peace  ari'  already  under  discussion. 
What  the  diplomats  are  waiting  for  now  is  the  swing  of 
public  opinion.  All  the  Governments  (my  italics)  have 
fed  up  their  people  by  promises  of  great  victories.  They 
cannot  now  suddenly  announce  that  the  thing  has  failed. 
It  can  be  safely  said  thai  every  ^teat  Government  ui 
Europe  (my  italics)  is  ncjw  anxiously  planning  to  sa\e 
itself  froin  its  own  |h>o]i1c.     .\i>|  h(in»4  ins;ini'  limli   of  llu' 


l''cl)i'iia!\'   S,    Kjij 


LAND    6i     WATER 


Alliances  now  sec  that  a  final  or  real  \ict0r3'  for  citlicr 
sidf  has  become  impossible." 

1  think  my  readers  will  agree  that  such  a  statement 
so  presented  to  readers  in  the  United  States  is  a  document 
of  great  value  to  us.  It  maintains  to  the  end  the  simil 
\vhicli  has  inspired  all  (jcrman  ixjlicy  between  the  end 
of  last  October  and  tlie  now  sudden  mood  of  desperation 
])rovoked  by  the  recent  firmness  of  the  Allies  and  their 
rejection  of  the  enemy's  proposals. 

fhe  Prussian  Government  is  careful  to  tell  America 
that  it  can  no  more  claim  decisi\c  victory  than  we  can. 
It  is  magnanimous.  It  says  :  "  Well,  well,  we  both 
ihought  that  wc  were  going  to  win.  Now  we  hnd  that 
■neither  of  us  can.  We  frankly  admit  that  we  are  afraid 
of  our  own  people  finding  out  how  they  ha\'e  been  deceived 
-  and  so  of  course  are  you  on  your  side.  But  it  is  qtiite 
i  li  ar  that  there  can  be  no  victory  and  only  an  insane 
jiian  would  think  it  possible  after  all  that  has  happened." 

We  know  how  that  suggestion  was  met  by  the  Allies. 
'file  "  sane  man  "  who  was  at  the  same  tiine  instructed 
and  had  some  knowledge  of  what  he  is  talking  about,  had 
seen  things  quite  differently,  so  had  the  Prussian  Higher 
Command.  Mr.  Asquith  in  a  perfectly  plain  and  straight- 
forward speech  in  Scotland  the  other  day  ;  General  Ni\ell(' 
in  an  equally  j^lain  and  straightforward  order  of  the  day  be- 
fore Verdun,  six  weeks  ago  ;  (leneral  Brussiloff  in  yet  an- 
other simple  statement  a  few  weeks  earlier,  had  put  the 
matter  as  it  appears  not  only  to  high  authorities  such  as 
they  are,  but  to  anyone  who  cares  to  read  the  history  of  war 
and  to  ffillow  the  course  of  the  present  great  campaigns.   So 


far  from  \ictor\'  ha\ing  got  less  and  less  possible  and 
being  now  outside  the  field  of  practical  consideration, 
it  is  just  the  otlier  way.  •  The  victory  of  the  one  side 
iind  the  defeat  of  the  other  ha^e  been  a  matter  more  and 
more  susceptible  of  calculation  as  the  war  has  proceeded. 
Ihe  event  is  at  tlie  present  moment  more  certain  than  it 
was,  say,  last  (Jctober  ;  last  October,  it  was  more  certain 
than  it  was,  say,  last  June.  And  this  calculable  victory 
is  a  victory  for  the  .A.niance  and  a  defeat  for  the  Central 
Empires. 

That  is  why  Prussia  is  desperate  and  has  suddenly 
decided  in  her  desperation  to  challenge  the  strongest  of 
the  neutrals  after  keeping  up  to  the  last  moment  a  bluff 
of  stalemate  in  all  her  presentation  of  the  case  to  that 
neutral. 

The  very  best  proof  of  this  on  the  moral  side  (that  is 
apart  from  the  calculations  of  effectives  and  resources) 
that  Prussia  is  defeated  is  the  fact  that  .she  should  have 
thought  it  necessary  during  a  full  three  months  to  abandon 
all  her  traditions  and  to  declare  herself  incapable  of  victory 
in  order  that  the  world  might  be  persuaded  of  our  incapa- 
city as  well.  The  bluff  failed.  Then  and' only  then  she 
suddenly  turned  round  and  went  savage. 

fhe  combination  and  the  succession  of  those  two 
methods,  a  violent  rage  following  upon  a  declaration  of 
stalemate,  the  second  as  sincere  and  futile  as  the  first 
was  calculated  and  false,  are  perfectly  convincing  to  any- 
one who  has  watched  the  workings  of  ill-balanced  but 
cmiying  men  in  the  last  stage  of  a  hopeless  resistance. 

H.   Bei.I-OC 


Germany  versus  The  World 

By  Arthur  Pollen 


SINCE  our  last  issue  there  have  occurred  three 
portentous  events,  all  arising  out  of  the  un- 
anticipated course  of  the  war  at  sea.  On  Friday 
morning  the  world  knew  that  Germany  had 
denounced  the  pledge,  given  to  America  after  the  attack 
on  the  Sussex,  and  would  Jienceforth  hold  herself  free 
to  sink,  at  sight ,  any  sliip,  belligerent  or  neutral,  that  came 
within  a  certain  zone  contiguous  to  these  islands.  On 
friday  night  the  obvious  consequences  followed.  Count 
Bcrnstorff  was  dismissed  and  Mr.  Gerard  was  recalled 
by  President  Wilson.  On  Saturday  morning  Lord 
Devonport  appealed  to  the  nation  to  put  itself  volun- 
ta'-ily  on  rations.  These  things  inaugurate  a  new,  and 
})erhaps  a  final,  development  of  the  war.  But  it  is  pro- 
bably more  correct  to  call  them  epoch  marking,  rather 
than  epoch  making,  events.  The  distinction  is  perhaps 
academic.  But  it  will  add  to  our  understanding  of 
them  to  note  that  each  arises  naturally  from  what 
has  gone  before.  Germany,  seeing  no  other  escape 
from  luilitary  defeat,  has  the  choice  of  subduing  (ireat 
Britain  by  famine  or  herself  surrendering  at  discretion, 
'fhe  United  States,  resolutely  convinced  that  it  is  not 
their  business  to  intervene  in  Europe  for  Europe's  sake, 
arc  faced  b}'  a  threat  which  may  compel  them  to  inter- 
\ene  for  their  own.  The  British  Government,  after  si.x 
months  of  a  submarine  campaign  which  the  Admiralty 
has  been  unable  to  prevent  or  materially  to  mitigate, 
at  last  realises  that,  being  besieged,  wc  must  act  as  all 
garrisons  in  such  uncompromising  conditions  have  to 
do.  And,  doubtless,  we  shall  soon  to  be  told  that  the 
Admiralty  has  taken  on  the  building  of  supply  ships. 

It  is  a  convention  in  the  world  of  journalists  that  the 
most  significant  events  shall  be  reported  as  occasioning 
surprise,  stupefaction,  bewilderment,  etc.— as  if  such 
events  were  always  unexpected.  And,  in  due  course, 
we  liave  been  told  tliat  Washington  and  New  York  were 
"  thunderstruck "  by  Germany's  Note  of  last  week, 
and  Berlin,  in  turn,  "  thunderstruck  "  at  its  reception 
by  President  Wilson  and  Congress.  Even  to  Lord  Devon- 
])ort's  urgent  warning,  there  has  been  attributed  the 
pleasing  merit  of  originality.  It  is  no  doubt  possible 
that  there  were  many  people  in  America  so  ignorant  of 
the  military  and  civil  situation  in  Germany  that  they 
failed  to  see  that,  in  resuming  the  practice  of  indiscrimi- 
nate murder,  the  German  Higher  Command  was  acting, 
not  from  choice,  but  from  compulsion.  And  there  may 
have  been  many  more  in  Berlin  who,  interpreting  Presi- 


dent Wilson's  action  by  a  misreading  of  his  words, 
supposed  that  the  ultimatum  of  April  last  could  be 
treated  as  the  Lusitania  Notes  were  treated,  could  be 
ignored  just  because  the  President's  Christmas  message 
and  Senate  speech  had  gi\'en  passionate  emphasis  to 
America's  love  of  peace  and  longing  for  neutrality. 
They  may  have  failed  to  understand  the  difference  be- 
tween the  personal  protest  of  the  chief  executive  of  the 
American  nation  and  the  national  decision  of  the  nation 
itself.  Like  many  people  here,  they  may  have  failed 
to  see  that  Mr.  Wilson  was  passionate  in  his  appeal  for 
peace  and  neutrality  precisel}-  because  he  knew  that  the 
knell  of  both  had  sounded.  It  could  only  have  been  a 
minority  in  this  country  to  whom  the  only  element  of  sur- 
prise, at  ^our  being  rationed,  \\as  not  wonder  at  its  being 
so  long  delaj^ed. 

Reversal  of  the  Roles 

We  mu.st  not  bemuse  ourselves  by  regarding  these 
things  as  surprising  and  sensational  events.  It  is  in 
no  spirit  of  boasting  that  I  remind  the  reader  that  all 
of  them  have  been  discussed  both  recently  and  far  back 
in  these  columns  as  ine\'itably  resulting  from  things  we 
knew.  They  are  scenes  in  the  strange  transformations 
of  war  that  we  have  seen.  In  August,  1914,  people  asked 
how  Cicrmany's  invincible  land  army  coukl  be  balanced 
by  Great  Britain's  invincible  sea  fleet.  It  is  part  of  the 
topsy-turveydom  in  which  we  live,  that  the  greatest  land 
force  and  the  greatest  sea  force  in  the  world  have  achieved 
everything  expected  of  them — except  victory.  The 
failure  to  achie\x;  victory  has  given  time  to  each  side. 
Time,  in  which  wc  have  been  able  to  produce  a  new  kind 
of  army  that  Germany  will  not  be  able  to  resist,  time  for 
(iermany  to  produce  a  new  kind  of  navy  which  we  do  not 
seem  yet  able  to  fight.  The  truth  of  the  first  of  these 
propositions  seems  to  be  manifest  from  last  year's  ex- 
perience on  the  Western  front.  It  is  the  plain  and  obvious 
message  contained  in  Sir  Douglas  Haig's  dispatch.  That 
Germany  has  staked  everything  on  the  truth  of  the 
second,  is  evidence  that  she  knows  the  first  is  true.  It 
is  the  business  of  the  British  Admiralty  and  the  British 
Government  to  prove  that  Germany's  faith  in  her  under- 
water na\'y  is  misplaced. 

The  situation  demands  an  answer,  if  it  can  be  given, 
to  some  \-ery  grave  questions.  What  exactly  do  we 
know  about  the  capacity  of  the  enemy's  new  navy  to 


8 


LAND    &     WATER 


February  8,  1917 


acliicvo  its  professed  ends?  Wliat  difference  in  its 
capacity  to  achie\e  th^esc  ends  will  be  introduced  by 
the  abrogation  of  those  limitations  of  its  activities 
that  last  wceiv's  Note  defines  ?  To  what  extent,  should 
America  beconi;^  a  belli.£(erent,  will  her  active  adhesion  to 
the  Allies'  side  assist  u>  in  thwarting  the  new  campaign 
or  in  mitigating  its  results  ?  The  difliculty  in  answer- 
ing the  hrst  of  these  two  questions  is  obvious,  for  over 
no  phase  of  the  war  have  both  sides  thrown  a  denser 
\eil  of  mystery.  We  must  limit  oiuselves  therefore 
to  a  bare  re-statcment,of  elements  already  known. 

The  submarine  navy,  of  \\hich  (iennany  now  threatens 
the  relentless  use,  is  that  laid  down  by  Tirpitz  in  tlu; 
beginning  of  iyi5.'  He  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  having 
foreseen,  sa\r  in  December.  1014,  that  Ciermany's 
only  chance  "of  victory  lay  in  undoing  the  blunder  by 
which  (ireat  Britain  had  been  made  a  belligerent.  It 
•was  a  blunder  that  could  only  be  undone  by  bringing 
(ireat  Britain  to  her  knees.  He  therefore  determined 
■to  call  a  new  Sea  Power  into  existence  to  redress  the 
balance  of  the  old— the  Sea  Power  that  made  us  invulner- 
able. The  submarine  campaign  of  February  to  October 
'  1915  was  undertaken  with  a  small  number  oi  boats,  with 
boats  of  inferior  capacity,  with  otticers  and  crews  of  small 
and  restricted  experience.  It  was  an  exi)eriment  only. 
It  was  undertaken  so  as  to  evolve  the  principles  and  learn 
the  elements  of  a  new  warfare.  The  materiel  for  this 
warfare  was  forthwith  put  in  hand.  A  year  would  ha\e 
to  elapse  before  an\-  of  its  rmits  would  become 
a\ailable.  Certain  (pialilics  they  would  ha^■e  to  possess 
had  been  made  manifest  as  much  by  all  previous  guerres 
dc  course  as  by  the  e\cnts  of  the  fust  four  months  of  war. 
The  nearer  the  submarine  could  approximate;  to  the 
cruiser,  the  better  it  could  do  its  work.  It  would  have  to 
keep  the  sea  for  long  j)eriods  ;  it  would  have  to  carry 
long  range  weapons  ;  it  must  be  able  to  overhaul  mei- 
chant  ships  ahd'do  so  rapidly  ;  it  would,  if  possible,  ha\-e 
to  Irght  the  armed  merchantman  at  least  on  equal, 
preferably  on  superior  terms.  Hence  the  boats  laid 
down  in  the  spring  of  lui^  were  designed  for  a  radius 
of  action  of  10,000  or  12,000  miles,  to  carry  guns  el"fecti\e 
at  5,000  or  6,000  yards,  to  have  a  surface  speed  of  twenty- 
one  knots,  and  a  submerged  speed  of  twelve,  to  have 
upper  works  tough  enough  to  stand  a  few  hits  by  three, 
six  or  twelve  pounders,  and  to  be  double  shelled  and  so 
compartmented  as  to  endure  a  hit  or  two  of  even 
greater  nature.  The  contrast  between  the  February- 
October  1915  and  th<»  March-April  1916  cam])aigns  lay 
principally  in  this,  that  the  first  was  carried  on  with  the 
odd  forty  to  sixty  submarines  that  Germany  had  ready 
or  completing  when  the  war  began,  whereas  the  latter 
was  the  work  of  the  new  boats,  specially  designed  and 
built  for  the  trade  war. 

riie  difference  between  the  spring  and  autumn  cam- 
T^aigns  of  1916  is  that,  wlttTeas  the  first,  which  ended  by 
Berlin's  surrender  to  Washington,  was  carried  out  by 
such  new  boats  as  could  be  completed  in  the  year,  the 
August  effort  began  with  tliree  months'  further  supply, 
and  to  these  a  six  months'  further  product  must  now  be 
added.  It  is  with  these  resotirccs,  less  such  boats  as  we 
ha\-e  been  able  to  sink,  that  Gemiany  commences  her 
final  struggle  for  safet}-. 

The    Enemy  s   Hopes 

We  can  safely  assume  that  the  number  of  Cicnnan 
submarines  increases  steadily  month  by  month.  We  also 
know  that  the  destrucli\eness  of  tJie  campaign  in  the 
last  live  months  does  not  show  any  ])rogressi\e  increase. 
It  has  maintained  approximately  the  toll  of  British  and 
neutral  shipping  that  I  indicated  last  week.  In  fact,  the 
tonnage  taken  in  January  is  the  lowest  since  August. 
But  we  may  be  deceiving  ourselves  if  we  extract  consola- 
tion from  this  fact.  For,  we  are  ignorant  of  two  \ital 
matters.  We  do  not  know  what  ta?l  we  are  taking  of  the 
submarines  ;  neither  do  we  know  what  reserve  of  sub- 
marines—hitherto unemploved — Germany  has  now  in 
hand.  The  new  campaign  then  ma;y  have  two  new  ele- 
ments of  danger.  It  may  employ  far  greater  numbers 
as  well  as  employing  all  on  more  ruthlass  principles.  How 
much  docs  the  enemy  stand  to  gain  by  each  of  these  ? 
Past  experiences  and,  to  some  extent,  tVie  nature  of  things, 
seem  to  shov<-  that  the  number  of  successes  will  not  be 


proportioned  to  an  increase  in  the  munbcr  of  submarines. 
It  also  seems  highly  prol)able  that,  for  any  gnven  means 
of  attacking  submarjnes,  the  proportion  of  those  caught 
will  increase  as  the  numbers  grow.  While,  then,  added 
numbers  should  undoubtedly  lead  to  the  sinking  of  more 
merchant  ships,  it  is  to  the  last  degree  improbable  that 
they  will  be  proportional. 

Next,  what  will  the  Germans  gain  by  sinking  at  sight  ? 
With  the  earher  types  of  submarine — which  either  carried 
no  guns  at  all,  or  only  small  guns,  that  had  only  a  low 
surface  speed,  that  were,  in  fact,  submarines  in  the  old 
sense,  and  not  cruisers  in  the  new — freedom  to  attack 
without  warning  meant  a  double  advantage.  The  risk 
of  encoimter  with  a  ship  more  powerful  than  itself  was 
avoided,  and  in  many  cases,  a  victim  was  secured  that 
might  otherwise,  even  if  imarmcd,  escape  altogether. 
If  the  torpedo  was  the  only  weapon,  short  range  and 
an  imsusj)fcting  victim  were  almost  essential  to  success. 
But  a  submarine  tjiat  can  come  to  the  surface  seven  or 
eight  thousand  yards  from  a  liner,  that  can  open  fire  upon 
her  and  summon  her  to  stop  and  surrender,  that  can  over- 
haul her  if  she  refuses,  and  is  all  the  time  safe  from  the 
merchantman's  tire  from  the  smallness  of  the  mark  that 
she  presents,  is  clearly  in  a  different  case  altogether.  If 
the  intended  victim  is  unarmed,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten 
she  gains  nothing  by  sinking  at  sight — except  the 
gratification  of  killing  the  people  on  board.  If  the  ship 
is  armed  and  intends  to  resist,  she  can,  in  any  event, 

,  only  attack  from  imderwater  by  waylaying  her,  and  if  she 
attempts  to  overliaul  and  the  merchant  fif^hts,  no 
new  situation  is  created  by  the  new  role.  In  other 
words,  it  seems  to  mc  that  improvements  of  the  sub- 
marine hav-e  really  done  away  with  four-fifths  of  the 
advantages  Germany's  present  role  would  have  con- 
ferred upon  her  two  years  ago.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  attack  from  underwater  is  limited  to  attack  by 
torpedo — ^by  very  .much  the  shortest  ranged  and  least 
efficient  of  the  weapons  that  the  submarine  carries. 

Only  in  one  respect  does  the  new  role  promise  the  Ger- 
mans a  greater  success  in  the  direction  of  their  necessity. 
This,  be  it  remembered,  being  not  the  destruction  of 
neutral  and  belligerent  life,  but  the  sinking  of  neutral 
and  belligerent  ships.  It  may  lead  to  ships  being 
attacked  further  from  land  than  has  generally  been  the 
case  hitherto.  But  unless  the  submarines  congregate 
where  the  trade  routes  converge— and  that  means  near 
the  land— they  run  the  risk  of  going  day  after  day  with- 
<jut  seeing  any  ships  at  all.  On  the  whole,  then,  the 
indications  are  that  in  giving  up  the  warning  of  ships, 
the  number  of  murders  will  be  more  greatly  increased 
than  the  number  of  sinkings.  But  putting  the  two 
elements    together,    a   certain   gradual,    and   a    possible 

,  sudden,  increase  in  the  number  of  submarines  at  work, 
and  the  renunciation  of  all  warnings,  some  increase  and 
};ossibly  a  considerable  increase  in  the  losses  of  merchant- 
mei^  must  certainly  be  expected. 

But  whatever  the  incr(}ase  it  is  emphatically  not  to 
be  expected  that  it  will  either  become  progressive  or 
even  continue.  It  is  worth  repeating  that  the  theorj*  of 
defeating  the  submarine  is  understood,  but  that  the 
material  necessary  for  putting  the  theoi-y  into  effect 
takes  time.  Yet  much  of  it  is  nearing  completion,  and 
first  a  mitigation,  then  the  defeat  of  this  campaign 
may  be  expected.  There  is  not  the  remotest  prospect 
of  it  achieving  its  purpose,  which  is  to  starve-  us  before 
the  western  war  reaches  its  predestined  end. 

AMERICAN    INTERVENTION 

At  the  time  of  writing  these  lines  America  has  had 
no  formal  proof  of  any  more  ov'crt  act  of  war  against 
her  than  this,  that  having  committed  many  such  acts 
in  the  past,  and  having  promised  for  a  season  to  desist — • 
but  without  any  apology  for  her  j^rcvious  acts,  or  any 
compensation  to  atone  for  their  consequences — Germany 
has  now  categorically  declared  her  intention  to  def\' 
America's  threats  and  to  resume  those  outrages  upon  all 
neutrals  which  for  some  months  she  has  practised — 
though  only  occasionally — upon  the  belligerents,  and 
upon  such  neutrals  as  Norway  and  other  States  who  are 
not  in  a  j:>osition  to  wage  war  against  her.  President 
Wilson,  faithful  to  his  previously  declared  intention,  has 
therefore  limited  his  action  to  dismissing  Cotml  Birnslnrff 


February  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


and  recalling  Mr.  Gerraid.  He  has  lor  that  matter  no 
constitutional  power  to  do  more.  He  cannot  declare 
war,  which  must  be  a  formal  act  of  Congress,  and  he  will 
not  ask  this  of  the  Federal  legislature  until  Germany's 
threats  are  put  into  execution.  (Tcrmany,  too,  has  taken 
no  official  notice  yet  of  the  recall  and  dismissal.  For 
the  moment,  then,  America  is  not  at  War. 

But  it  would  seem  that  the  transition  from  a  diplomatic 
breach  to  belligerency  can  only  be  rapid.  Three  cases 
of  peculiarly  heartless  sinkings  have  already  occurred. 
The  steamships  Euphrates,  Hausatonic,  and  Lars  Kruse, 
all  de\oted,  by  agreement,  to  carrying  the  food  which 
America  sends  for  the  relief  of  the  starving  Belgians, 
have  b'jjn  sunk.  But  the  case  of  the  Eavestunc  appears 
to  be  crucial.  She  was  sunk  without  warning,  and  the 
officers  and  crew  fired  upon  both  while  they  were  taking 
to  the  boats  and  while  in  them.  The  master  and  three 
seamen  lost  their  li\es,  and  one  of  them  was  a  native  of 
]3altimore.  It  is  therefore  possible  that  the  name  of 
Kichard  Wallace  may  go  down  to  history  as  the  \-ictim 
that  brought  his  great  country  into  the  war.  This  being 
so,  it  is  perhaps  not  premature  to  glance  briefly  at  what 
share  his  country  can  take. 

The   U.S.   Navy's   Task 

America  can  do  nothing  to  strengthen  the  armies  of 
tlie  Allies  on  the  Western,  or  on  any  other  front,  for  a 
very  considerable  time.  Even  with  such  excellent 
material  as  would  certainly  volunteer  in  the  United 
States,  it  would  be  idle  to  expect  any  considerable  number 
of  trained  and  equipped  units  to  be  ready  to  fight  in 
Europe  in  less  than  nine  months  or  a  year's  time.  A  few 
divisions  miglit  be  a\-ailable  by  midsunmier,  but  not 
more  than  a  few.  America  possesses  a  well  found  and 
a  well-trained  fleet  of  battleships  ;  but  she  is  entirely 
without  light  fast  cruisers,  and  her  destroyers,  though 
fast,  sea  worthy,  well  armed  and  admirably  led,  com- 
manded and  manned,  are  unfortunately  not  numerous. 
In  \\hat  the  circumstances  of  the  .sea  war  need  most  then, 
tlie  United  States  could  not  help  us  very  greatly— -even  if 
they  were  willing  to  detach  their  flotillas  from  the  main 
fleet, 'and  send  them  to  this  side  to  join  in  the  war  on 
submarines.  I  say  "  even  if  she  were  willing,"  because  ' 
clearly  there  arc  two  objections  to  her  doing  so.  U5J 
lias  shown  the  Americans  that  submarines  can  appear 
without  a  moment's  notice  off  whatever  point  of  the 
Atlantic  coast  they  choose,  and  as  U  boats  of  the  modern 
type  are  armed  witli  guns  whicli,  when  imhanipered, 
can  do  a  formidable  amount  of  damage  to  .seaboard  towns, 
it  is  quite  possible  that  the  demand,  and  forthat  matter 
the  necessity,  for  coast  protection  will  be  so  great,  that 
the^  Navy  department  will  not  find  itself  with  any 
destroyers  to  spare  for  the  European  theatre.  We  may, 
indeed,  take  it  for  granted,  should  war  between  (iermany 
and  the  I'nited  States  result,  that  Germany  would  be  very 
far  from  limiting  her  acts  of  war  to  sinking  cargo  boats 
at  sight  and  in  the  war  zone.  The  Admiralstab  is  at 
least  as  alive  to  our  need  of  destroyers  as  we  are  our- 
selves, and  will  certainly  percei\T  the  importance  of 
terrorising  the  American  coast  towns  into  keeping  all 
American  light  craft  at  home.  I^urther,  it  will  be  as 
necessary  to  guard  the  western  ends  of  the  trade  routes 
from  submarines  as  our  terminals  on  this  side  :  and  we 
must  not  forget  that  neither  of  the  latest  raiders 
are  yet  sunk.  The  Ignited  States  navy,  therefore,  may 
easily  fmd  that  all  the  work  her  armoured  cruisers  and' 
destroyers,  and  indeed  battleships,  can  do,  will  be  found 
for  them  in  American  waters. 

The  heavy  craft,  that  is  the  battleships,  would  no 
doubt  be  made  very  welcome  by  the  Grand  Fleet.  T£ 
tlicre  comes  a  chance  of  another  sea  battle,  and  the 
opportunity  has  to  be  seized  regardless  of  risk — if,  that 
is  to  say,  the  only  chance  of  lighting  comes  when  bad 
light  gives  the  choice  of  fighting  at  close  range  or  not 
at  all,  we  must  face  the  fact  that  the  attacking  fleet  may 
be  subjected  to  very  heavy  loss!  So  heavy  indeed  that 
only  a  very  great  numerical  superiority  would  ensure 
such  an  attack  being  successful,  and  therefore  justified. 
That  our  present  superiority  is  substantial  and  large 
enough  to  justify  attacks  \-ery  much  bolder  than  tho.se 
to  whicii  we  were  necessarily  limited,  when  the  margin 
was  smaller,  is  now,  it  sei-ms,  miiversallv  admitted.     But 


there  is  nothing  lost  by  being  too  strong,  and  the  presence 
of  Admiral  ;\Iayo's  very  formidable  divisions  might  be 
greeted  for  more  than  sentimental  reasons.  But.  for 
many  reasons  I  should  doubt  this  being  offered  or  asked 
for.  It  is  not  a  snnple  thing  to  conduct  naval  manoemres 
with  squadrons  trained  to  separate  systems  of  signalling, 
and  accustomed  each  to  its  own  e^•olutions  only.  Aiid 
their  help  is  not  necessary. 

Real    Value   of  American   Help 

After  all,  the  problem  of  the  day  is  not  to  get  a  fleet  ' 
together  strong  enough  to  be  sure  of  victory  o^■er  the 
Germans,  should  they  again  come  out,  for  such  a  tleet 
we  belie\-e  we  possess  already.  The  problem  is  to  prevent 
the  German  blockade  from  becoming  effective,  first  by 
finding  a  means  of  figliting  the  submarines,  ne.xt,  by 
protecting  supply  shi])s  exposed  to  their  attacks  ;  thirdly, 
by  replacing  the  loss  that  attack  creates.  We  must  note 
first,  then,  that  of  America's  naval  strength,  those  units 
which  would  be  most  useful  for  our  purpose,  namely,  the 
destroyers,  are  the  least  likely  to  be  spared  in  useful 
numbers,  for  the  excellent  reason  that  they  will  be  wanted 
for  the  same  purpose  nearer  home,  and  those  that  can 
most  easil}'  be  spared  are  the  least  suited  to  assisting  our 
immediate  needs.  For  both  attack  and  defence,  therefore 
we  must  rely  upon  ourselves  alone.  But  there  are  two 
other  kinds  of  material  help  in  which  the  United  States 
can  render  services  as  a  belligerent  that  it  was 
impossible  she  could  render  as  a  neutral.  She  can 
first  seize  and  put  upon  the  ocean  some  scores  of 
German  steamers  now  interned  upon  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  coasts  and  in  her  other  possessions. 
Excluding  the  monster  liners,  this  step  would  increase 
the  Allied  tonnage  by  between  three  and  four  hundred 
thousand  tons.  It  would,  in  other  words,  almost 
jnake  good  the  losses  suffered  in  tlie  last  two  months' 
submarine  campaign.  Next  a  great  national  effort  might 
be  made  to  push  on  with  the  construction  of  new  tonnage. 
.\lready  \ery  encouraging  accounts  ha\e  reached  us  of 
the  progress  mad<^  with  the  new  standardised  types, 
and  it  is  said  that  qinte  early  in  the  summer  deliveries 
of  ships  will  begin  which  will  add  a  million  tons  to 
America's  shipping  before  many  months  are  past. 
America  has  the  vards,  the  men,  the  material  and,  above 
e\-erything,  a  genius  for  organising  rapid  production  on  a 
gigantic  scale.  It  is  not  difficult  to  believe  that  when  the 
stimulus  of  war  adds  a  new  energy  to  whatever  forces 
are  driving  now  very  amazing  results  indeed  will  follow. 
These  two  factors,  the  seizure  of  interned  German  ships 
and  the  production  of  new  American  ships,  may  well 
prove  decisi\e,  if  the  U  boat  campaign,  now  that  it  is 
rid  of  humanitarian  scruple,  should  gain  very  greatlj'  in 
intensity  and  success. 

.•\nd,  iinally,  of  course,  America  can  relieve  the  belli- 
gerents of '  a  considerable  embarrassment  in  finance. 
Hitherto  the  negotiations  of  foreign  loans  in  the  ordinary 
course  has  been  E^ltogether  forbidden  in  the  American 
markets,  on  the  ground  that  such  proceedings  are  un- 
neutral. A  ^•ery  limited  amo«nt  of  borrowing  has  been 
pernutted  for  the  sake  of  stcad3ing  the  exchange,  and 
even  this  has  been  seriously  hampered  by  the  limitations 
that  the  Federal  Reser\'e  Board  have  imposed  upon  the 
bankers  and  financial  in.stitutions,  who  were  willing 
enough  to  finance  the  actual  purchases  that  the  .Allies 
are  making  from  .;\merican  farmers  and  manufacturers. 
At  the  present  time,  even  without  the  active  co-operation 
of  the  national  government,  the  witlidrawal  of  all  restric- 
tions would  be  a  material  help.  If  Congress  thought  fit 
to  go  further  and  make  the  national  purse  available  to 
the  Allies,  all  financial  difficulties  of  the  war  would  be 
at  an  end. 

But  it  will  be  noted  that,  in  enumerating  these 
possible  chrect  services  that  America  may  render,  1  ha\e 
not  mentioned  one  that  will  be  of  direct  assistance  to 
us  in  our  main  business,  which  after  all  is  fighting.  And 
for  some  months,  at  any  rate,  the  principal  value  of  the 
breach,  between  Germany  and  the  Great  Neutral  nmst 
be  the  enormous  discouragement  that  it  must  inflict 
upon  the  Germans,  the  enormous  satisfaction  which  the 
other  ci\ilised  people  of  the  world  feel  in  seeing  the 
United  States  at  last  making  common  cause  with  them.   - 

Arthuk  Poli-E^ 


lO 


LAND    &    WATER 


lebiiuuy  y,  1917 


The   Soldier  who  Sings. 


Bv  Lewis  R.  Freeman 


THERE  was  soincthing  just  a  bit  omumur,  111  ihe 
brooding  warmtli  of  tlu-  suit  iiir  that  was 
stirring  at  the  base  of  the  towering  cHffs  of  the 
Marmolada  where  I  took  the  "  telcfcrica."  and 
the  tossing  aigrettes  of  wind-driven  snow  at  Ihe 
lip  of  the  pass  where  the  cable  line  ended  in  the  lee  of  a 
rock  just  under  the  Italian  hrst-linc  trenches  signalled 
the  reasoft  whv.  The  vanguard  of  one  of  those  irres- 
ponsible mavericks  of  mountain  storms  that  so  delight 
to  bustle  about  and  take  advantage  of  the  fine  weather 
to  make  surprise  attacks  on  the  Alpine  sky-line  out- 
posts was  sneaking  o\er  from  the  Austrian  side,  and 
somewhere  up  there  where  the  tenuous  wire  of  the  tele- 
ferica  (as  the  wire  ropeway  is  called),  lined  down  and 
merged  into  the  amorplious  mass  of  the  cliff  behind  my 
little  car  was  going  to  lun  into  it. 

"  A  good  ten  minutes  to  snug-down  in,  anyhow." 
1  said  to  mvself.  and  after  the  fashion  of  the  South  Sea 
skipper  who  shortens  sail  and  battens  down  the  hatches 
with  his  weather  on  the  squall  loaring  down  from 
windward.  I  tucked  in  the  loose  ends  of  the  rugs  about 
my  feet  and  rolled  up  the  high  fur  collar  of  my  Alpini  coat 
and  buttoned  the  tab  across  my  nose. 

But  things  were  developing  faster  tlian  I  liad  cal- 
culated. As  the  little  wire  basket  glided  out  of  the  cut 
in  the  fortv-foot  rift  that  had  encroached  on  its  aerial 
right-of-way  where  the  supporting  cables  cleared  a 
jutting  crag.  I  saw  that  it  was  not  only  an  open-and- 
above  board  frontal  attack  that  I  had  to  reckon  with, 
but  also  a  craftily  planned  tfank  movement  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  "fact  that  the  whole  affair,  lock,  stock, 
and  barrel,  was  a  "  Made  in  Austria  "  product.  Even 
as  I  watched  one  driven  shaft  of  blown  snow  came  into 
position  to  strike,  and  straight  out  over  the  ice-cap 
covering  the  brow  of  a  cliff  shot  a  clean-hncd  wedge 
of  palpable,  solid  whiteness. 

One  instant  my  face  was  laved  in  the  moist,  warm 
air  current  drawing  uj)  from  the  wooded  lower  valley 
\\here  the  warm  lingers  of  the  thaw  were  pressing  close 
on  the  hair- poised  triggers  of  the  ready-cocked  ava- 
lanches ;  the  next  I  was  gasping  in  a  blast  of  Arctic 
frigWity  as  the  points  of  the  blown  ice  needles  tingled 
in  my  "protesting. lungs  with  the  sting  of  hastily  gulped 
champagne.  Through  frost-rimmed  eye-lashes  I  had 
just  time  to  see  a  score  of  similar  shafts  leap  out  and  go 
charging  down  into  the  bottom  of  the  valley  before 
the  main  front  of  the  storm  came  roaring  along  and 
heights  and  hollows  were  masked  with  whishing  veils 
of  translucent  white.  In  the  space  of  a  few  seconds  an 
amphitheatre  of  soaring  mountain  peaks  roofed  with  a 
vault  of  deep  purple  sky  had  resolved  itself  into  a  gusty 
gulf  of   spinning   snow  blasts. 

My  little  wire  basket  swung  giddily  to  one  side  as  the 
first  gust  drove  into  it.  promptly  to  swing  back  again, 
after  the  manner  of  a  pendulum,  when  the  air  buffer  was 
undermined  by  a  counter  gust  and  fell  away  ;  but  the 
deeply  grooved  wheel  was  never  near  to  jumping  off 
the  supporting  cable,  and  the  even  throb  of  the  distant 
engine  coming  down  the  pulling  wire  felt  like  a  kindly 
hand-pat  of  reassurance. 

"  (iood  old  teleferica  !  "  I  said  half  aloud,  raising 
myself  on  one  elbow  and  looking  over  the  side  ;  "  you're 
as  comfy  and  safe  as  a  ])assenger  lift  and  as  thrilling  as  an 
aeroplane.  But  " — as  the  picture  of  a  line  of  ant-like 
figures  I  had  noted  toiling  up  the  snow  slope  a  few 
moments  before  flashed  to  my  mind — "  what  happens  to 
a  man  on  his  feet — a  man  not  being  yanked  along  out 
of  trouble  by  an  engine  on  the  end  of  a  nice  strong  cable — 
\vhen  caught  in  a  maelstrom  like  that  ?  What  must  be 
happening  to  those  poor  Alpinis  ?  Whatever  can  they 
be  doing  ?  " 

And  even  before  the  clinging  insistence  of  the  warm 
breeze  from  the  lower  valley  liad  checked  the  impet- 
uosity of  the  invader,  and"  diverted  him,  a  cringing 
captive,  to  baiting  avalanches  with  what  was  left  of 
his  strength,  I  hacl  my  answer  :  for  it  was  while  the 
ghostly  draperies  of  tlie  snow-charged  wind  gusts  still 
masked  the  icy  slope  below   that,  through  one  of  those 


weird  tricks  ui  ai  ousUcs  .mj  common  among  high  niouutain 
peaks,  the  tlute-like  notes  of  a  man  singing  in  a  clear 
tenor  lioated  up  to  the  ears  I  was  just  unmuffling  : 

Fratelli  d' Italia,  V Italia  s'e  dcsta  ; 

Dcir  clmo  di  Scipio  s'c  cinta  la  testa.* 
It  was  the  Inno  di  Mameh  —  the  song  of  1848, 
the  Marseillaise  of  the  Italians.  I  recognised  it  instantly 
because,  an  hour  previously,  my  hosts  at  luncheon  in  the 
officers'  mess  below  had  been  playing  it  on  the  gramo- 
phone. Clear  and  distinct,  like  freshly  minted  coins  made 
vocal,  the  stirring  words  winged  up  through  the  pulsing 
air  till  the  "  sound  chute  "  by  which  they  had  found  their 
way  was  broken  up  by  the  milling  currents  of  the  dying 
storm.  But  I  knew  that  the  Alpini  were  still  singing— 
that  they  had  been  singing  all  the  time,  indeed— and 
when  the  last  of  the  snow  flurries  was  finally  lapped  up  by 
the  warm  wind,  there  they  were,  just  as  I  expected  to 
find  them,  pressing  onwards  and  upwards  under  thi.'ir 
burdens  of  soup  cans,  wine  bottles,  stove-wood,  blankets, 
munition  and  the  thousand  and  one  other  things  that 
must  pass  up  the  life-hne  to  a  body  of  soldiers  holding 
a  mountain  pass  in  midwinter. 

*  if  *  if 

This  befell,  as  it  chanced,  during  one  of  my  early  days 
on  the  Alpine  Front  and  the  incident— men  singing  in  a 
blizzard  almost  strong  enough  to  sweep  them  from  their 
feet — made  no  small  impression  on  me  at  the  moment, 
because  it  was  my  first  experience  of  the  kind.  A  week 
later  I  would  have  considered  it  just  as  astonishing 
to  have  encountered— under  any  conditions — an  Alpini 
who  was  not  singing  ;  for  to  him — to  all  Itahan  soldiers, 
indeed — song  furnishes  the  principal  channel  of  out- 
ward expression  for  the  spirit — and  what  a  spirit  it  is  !^ 
within  him.  He  sings  as  he  works,  he  sings  as  he  plays, 
he  sings  as  he  fights,  and — many  a  tale  is  told  of  how  this 
or  that  comrade  has  been  seen  to  go  down  with  a  song 
on  his  lips — he  sings  as  he  dies.  He  soothes  himself 
with  song,  he  beguiles  himself  with  song,  he  steadies 
himself  with  song,  he  exalts  himself'  with  song.  It  is 
not  song  as  the  German  knows  it,  not  the  ponderous 
marching  chorus  that  the  Prussian  Guard  thunders  to 
order  in  the  same  way  that  it  thumps  through  its  goose- 
step  ;  but  rather  a  simple  burst  of  song  that  is  as  natural 
and  spontaneous  as  the  soaring  lark's  greeting  to  the, 
rising  sun. 

I  was  witness  of  a  rather  amusing  incident  illustrative 
of  the  difficulty  that  even  the  Alpini  officer  experiences 
in  denying  himself  vocal  expression,  not  only  when  it  is 
strictly  against  regulations,  but  even  on  occasions  when, 
both  by  instinct  and  experience,  he  knows  that  "  break- 
ing into  song  "  is  really  dangerous.  It  had  to  do  with 
passing  a  certain  exposed  point  in  the  Cadore  at  a 
time  when  there  was  every  reason  to  fear  the  incidence 
of  heavy  avalanches.  Your  real  Alpini  has  tremendous 
respect  for  the  snow  slide,  but  no  fear.  He  has — and 
especially  since  the  war — faced  death  in  too  many  really 
disagreeable  forms  to  have  any  dread  of  what  must  seem 
to  him  the  grandest  and  most  inspiring  finish  of  the  lot, 
the  one  end  that  the  most  of  him  could  be  depended  upon 
to  pick  if  ever  the  question  of  alternatives  were  in  the 
balance.  In  the  matter  of  the  avalanche,  as  in  most 
other  things,  he  is  quite  fatahstic.  If  a  certain  yalan^a 
is  meant  for  him,  what  use  trying  to  avoid  it  ?  If  it 
is  not  meant  for  him,  what  "use  taking  precautions. 
All  precautions  will  be  vain  against  yoiiy  avalanche  ;  all 
will  be  superfluous  as  regards  the  ones  nol  for  you. 

It  chances,  however,  that  this  comforting  Oriental 
philosophy  entered  not  into  the  reckoning  of  the  Italian 
General  Staff  when  it  laid  its  plans  for  minimising  un- 
necessary casualties,  and  so,  among  other  precautionary 
admonitions,  the  order  went  out  that  soldiers  passing 
certain  exjioscd  sections  which  should  be  (lesignatcd 
by  boards  bearing  the  warning  "  Pcricoloso  di  Valanga," 
should  not  raise  the  voice  above  a  speaking  lone.  and. 
especially,  that  no  singing  should  be  indulged  in.     This 

*  "  Sons  of  Italy,  Italy  awakes,  and  wearing  the  helmet  ol 
iil)li(ts  her  head." 


February  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


is,  of  course,  no  more  tliaii  sensible,  for  a  shout,  or  a 
high  pitched  note  of  song,  may  set  going  just  the 
vibrations  of  air  needed  to  start  a  movement  on  the 
npper  slopes  of  a  mountain  side  that  will  culminate 
in  launching  a  miUion  tons  of  snow  all  the  way  across 
ihc  lower  valley. 

On  the  occasion  I  have  in  mind  it  was  necessary  for 
us,  in  order  to  reach  a  position  I  especially  desired  to 
visit,  to  climb  diagonally  across  something  hke  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  of  the  swath  of  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  treacherous  slides  on  the  whole  Alpini  Front. 
There  had  been  a  great  avalanche  here  every  year  from 
■•ime  out  of  memory,  usually  preceded  by  a  smaller  one 
early  in  the  winter.  The  preliminary  slide  had  already 
occurred  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  and,  as  the  early  w  inter 
storms  had  been  the  heaviest  in  years,  the  accmiiulated 
snows  made  the  major  avalanche  almost  inevitable  on 
tlie  first  day  of  a  warm  wind.  Such  a  day,  unluckily, 
chanced  to  be  the  only  one  available  for  my  visit  to  the 
position  in  question.  Although  it  was  in  the  first 
\\eck  in  January  the  eaves  of  the  houses  in  the  little 
.Mpine  village  where  the  Colonel  quartered  had  been 
dripping  all  night,  and  even  in  the  early  morning  the 
liard  packed  snow  of  the  trail  was  turning  soft  and 
shishy  when  we  left  our  sledge  on  the  main  road  and 
set  out  on  foot. 

We  passed  two  or  three  sections  marked  off  bj'  the 
"  Pericoloso "  signs  without  taking  any  especial  pre- 
cautions, and  even  when  we  came  to  the  big  slide  the 
young  Major  responsible  for  seeing  the  venture  througlx 
merely  directed  that  we  M'ere  to  proceed  by  twos  (there 
were  four  of  us),  with  a  200  yards  interval  between, 
walking  as  rapidly  as  possible  and  not  doing  any  un- 
necessary talking.  That  was  all.  There  were  no 
"  dramatics  "  about  it  ;  only  the  few  simple  directions 
that  were  calculated  to  minimise  the  chances  of  "  total 
loss  "  in  case  the  slide  did  become  restive.  How  little 
this  young  officer  had  to  learn  about  the  ways' of  aval- 
anches I  did  not  learn  till  that  evening,  when  his  Colonel 
told  me  that  he  had  been  buried,  with  a  company  or  two 
of  his  Alpini,  not  long  previously,  and  only  escaped  the 


fate  of  most  of  the  men  througli  having  been  dug  out  by 
his  dog. 

The  Major,  with  the  Captain  from  tlie  Conunando 
Supremo  wiio  liad  been  taking  me  about  the  front,  went 
on  ahead,  leaving  me  to  follow  after  five  minutes  had 
gone  by  with  a  young  Alpini  Lieutenant,  a  boy  so  full 
of  bubbling  mountain  spirits  that  lie  had  been  dancing 
all  along  the  way  and  warbling  "  Rigoletto  "  to  the  tree; 
tops.  Even  as  we  waited  he  would  burst  into  quick 
snatches  of  song,  each  of  which  was  ended  witii  a  gulp 
as  renewed  recollection  that  the  time  had  come  to 
clamp  on  the  safety-valve  flashed  across  his  mind. 

When  the  time  for  us  to  follow  on  was  up  by  his  wrists 
watch,  the  lad  clapped  his  eagle-feather  hat  firmly  on  his 
head,  set  his  jaw  with  a  sharp  click  of  resolution,  fixed 
his  eyes  grimly  on  the  trail  in  front  of  him,  and  strode 
off  into  the  narrow  passage  that  had  been  cut  through  the 
towering  bulk  of  the  slide.  From  the  do-or-die  expression 
on  his  handsome  young  face  one  might  well  have  imagined 
that  it  was  the  menace  of  that  engulfing  mass  of  poised 
snow  that  was  weighing  him  down,  and  such,  I  am  sure, 
would  have  been  my  own  impression  had  this  been  my 
first  day  among  the  Alpini.  But  by  now  I  liad  seen 
enough  of  Italy's  mountain  soldiers  to  know  that  this 
one  was  as  disdainful  of  the  valanga  as  the  valanga  was  of 
him  ;  and  that  the  crushing  burden  on  his  mind  at  that 
moment  was  only  the  problem  of  how  to  negotiate 
that  distance  of  beautiful  snow-wallpd  trail  without 
telhng  the  world  in  one  glad  burst  of  song  after  another 
how  wonderful  it  was  to  be  alive  and  young,  and  climbing 
up  nearer  at  every  step  to  those  glistening  snow- peaks 
from  whence  his  comrades  had  driven  the  eneiny  head- 
long but  a  few  months  before,  and  from  whence,  per- 
chance, they  would  soon  move  again  to  take  the  next 
valley  and  the  peaks  beyond  it  in  their  turn.  If  he  had 
been  alone,  slide  or  no  slide,  orders  or  no  orders,  he  would 
have  shouted  his  gladness  to  the  high  heavens,  come 
what  might  ;  but  as  it  was,  with  a  more  or  less  helpless 
foreigner  on  his  hands,  and  within  hearing  of  his  superior 
officer,  it  was  quite  another  matter. 
(io  bo  continued) 


The  Lieutenant 


By  Centurion 


ON  the  day  he  was  born  his  father  wrote  two  letters. 
One  was  addressed  to  the  head  of  a  certain  school 
of  ancient  foundation  in  a  southern  county;  the 
other  to  the  Dean  of  a  college  at  Oxford.  For, 
like  some  London  clubs,  they  took  a  good  deal  of  getting 
into  and  his  father,  whose  name  was  on  the  registers 
of  both  of  them,  determined  to  leave  nothing  to  chance. 

The  boy  grew  and  waxed  strong  in  spirit.  He  lay  for 
hours  on  his  back  cooing  to  himself  and  doing  mighty 
Swedish  exercises,  breasting  the  air  like  a  strong  swimmer 
with  his  arms  and  kicking  lustily  with  his  legs.  "  Isn't 
he  sweet  ?  "  said  his  mother  to  the  doctor  for  the 
thousandth   time. 

"  Hum  !  his  patellar  reflexes  seem  all  right,"  said  the 
doctor  who  was  used  to  such  maternal  ecstasies. 

They  called  him  Anthony — Tony  for  short.  He  began 
life  with  a  face  of  extraordinary  solemnity  that  was  almost 
senile,  but  it  grew  younger  as  he  grew  older.  His  eyes, 
which  were  at  first  a  neutral  colour  inclining  to  mouse- 
grey,  gradually  changed  till  the  irises  revealed  the  deep 
brown  tint  of  his  mother's,  so  that  looking  into  them  she 
seemed  to  be  looking  into  a  niirror.  But  his  nondescript 
nose  took  on  the  clear-cut  Grecian  profile  of  his  father. 
You  could  see  just  that  nose,  slightly  defaced  by  time, 
on  the  stone  efligies  of  chain-mail  knights  in  the  village 
church,  where  they  lay  under  the  trefoil  arches  with  their 
feet  crossed  and  their  hands  folded,  resting  from  the  last 
crusade.  The  first  discovery  that  he  made  was  that  his 
toes,  which  seemed  to  remain  with  him,  were  his  own. 
The  next  thing  he  discovered  M-as  that  in  the  immensity 
around  him  some  things  were  near  and  others  distant,  and 
that  sometimes,  as  he  put  out  an  exploring  hand  to  grasp 
her  breast,  his  mother  was  within  reach  and  sometimes 
not— whereby  he  arrived  at  a  distinction  whicli  has 
\exed  the  metaphysicians  for  centuries  ;  the  difference 
between  self  and  not-self.     But  in  Hie  i-.i-^c  nf  lii>~  niotlicr, 


unlike  other  of  the  big  people  who  hovered  round  him 
from  time  to  time,  he  never  succeeded  in  completely 
establishing  this  chstinction,  and  all  through  his  life 
distance  only  brought  her  more  near,  till  one  day — but 
that  comes  later.  \ 

One  night,  when  he  was  about  three  years  old,  he  was 
lying  asleep  in  his  cot  in  the  nursery  when  a  log  fell 
from  the  untended  fire,  and  sending  up  a  spurt  of  llamo 
threw  a  gigantic  shadow  on  the  wall  by  Ins  bed.  He 
woke  with  a  start  and  a  cry,  for  the  sliadow  was  now 
leaping,  now  crouching,  as  though  it  were  going  to  pounce 
upon  him.  And  he  cried  lustily.  The  next  moment  there 
was  a  light  footfall  of  bare  feet,  two  soft  arms  were  clasp- 
ing his  neck,  and  a  showier  of  auburn  hair,  soft  as  silk, 
fell  around  his  face.  "  What  is  the  matter  with  Mummy's 
boy  ?  Is  he  frightened  then  ?  Where's  the  little  man 
who  was  going  to  kill  ApoUyon  ?  What  will  poor  Mummy 
do  when  she  meets  Apollyon  if  her  little  man  is  afraid  ? 
"  I'se  not  afraid,"  he  said  stoutly,  his  lips  qiiivering.  And 
after  that,  although  he  sometimes  knew  fear  he  was  never 
afraid.  For  he  always  remembered  in  the  nick  of  time 
that  some  day  Mummy  would  want  him  to  fight  Apollyon. 
But  he  had  made  a  great  discovery — almost  as  portentous 
as  the  discovery  of  Self  and  Not-self.  He  had  discovered 
that  he  had  two  selves,  the  self  which  said  "  I  am  afraid  " 
and  the  self  which  said  "  Go  to  !  I  am  not  afraid."  And 
from  that  dav  he  learnt  to  despise  the  former  and  respect 
the  latter.  The  first  he  called  "  Mr.  Feeble-Mind," 
and  the  second  "  Mr.  Great-Heart.  "  And  when  hir  was 
sure  he  was  alone  he  often  talked  with  the  former,  hurling 
the  most  derisi\-e  epithets  at  it  and  bidding  it  get  be- 
hind him.  for  it  had  an  alias  which  was  "  Temptation." 

His  early  \\orld  was  bounded  by  a  yew  hedge  which 
marked  the  end  of  the  bowling  green.  The  house, 
which  was  visited  on  one  occasion  by  a  party  of  grave 
L'cntlfmen  in  spectacles — he  learnt  afterwards  that  they 


LAND    &    WATER 


12 

called  thonisolves  the  County  Archf  ological  Socicty-was 
shaped  like  the  letter  •' E  "  and  had  great  {,'f  1^^^  ^  ^h 
niullioned  windows  whose  leaden  casements  glo\xtd  like 
fire  in  the  westering  sun.  The  oak-panel Ini?  ^;•'^-.  Wack 
Mith  age,  and  on  the  plaster  wall  of  one  of  the  bed.ooms 
Moses  and  the  patriarchs  were  frescoed  m  doublet  a^  d 
hose,  and  Pharaoh's  daughter  stooped  ON^r  the  bul- 
rushes in  a  farthingale.  Tony  loved  it  at  fi;^^  ^ec^^e 
it  seemed  specially  designed  to  enable  Inm  to  pla>  hide 
and  seek  in  its  oak  closets,  long  corridors,  and  deep 
alcoves,  and  lie  loved  it  to  the  end  of  his  hfe  because  it  wa. 
his  home.  He>-ond  the  yew  hedge  was  the  V^^^'^'J^^ 
beyond  the  paddock  was  the  park,  and  above  the  to  ^ 
of  the  beeches  Tony  could  see  the  c^ge  of  the  wok, 
which  was  a  chalk  down.  Beyond  that  chak  down 
he  felt  assured,  was  the  Celestial  City,  although  he  had 
heard  grown-ups  cfill  it  "  the  howizon. 

He  passed  from  the  hands  of  a  tutor  to  the  public 
school  for  which  his  father  had  put  his  name  down  on 
the  dav  of  his  birth.     He  began  as  the  lowliest  of  tags 
and  the  first  thing  he  discovered  was  that  for  us  name, 
which  was  illustrious,   was  rudely  substituted  another 
and  a  homelier-"  Freckles."     He  came  back  after  his 
first  half  with  an  immense  stock  of  knowledge,  not  to  be 
found  in  books,  and  a  vocabulary  which  was  unfamiliar 
to  everyone  at  home  except  his  father— a  vocabulary  in 
which '"•  to  thoke  "    is  to  slack   "  to  brock.     '^^  .to  bully, 
in  which  "  I.ongmeads  "  stands  for  a  day  off  and     Moab 
does  duty  for  a  lavatory.     It  is  a  vocabulary  which  once 
learnt  is^iever  forgotten  ;    men  of  his  school  speak  it  m 
the  hill-stations  of  India,  on  the  African  veldt,  in  tlic 
back  flats  of  Australia,  and  wherever  two  or  three  ot  tlicm 
are  gathered  together.     Also  he  exhibited  a  discoloured 
eve      At  all  of  which  his  father  rejoiced,  but  his  mother 
w-as  sorrowful,  feeling  that  he  had  passed  without  the 
cloister  of  her  heart.     But  in  this  she  was  mistaken. 

In  due  time  he  reached  the  dizzv  heights  of  the  Sixth 
and  became  a  prefect  with  the  right  to  turn  his  trousers 
up  and  to  wear  brown  boots,  which  is  only  permitted  to 
the  elect  Also  he  won  his  cap  as  centre  forward  in  the 
School  riftcen.  Small  boys  imitated  lum.  big  boys 
envied  him,  and  he  had  a  retinue  of  clients  like  a  I'Loman 
oatron.  He  put  down  bulking  in  his  house  with  a  strong 
iand— and  other  things.  By  this  time  he  had  learnt 
"^o  turn  out  a  good  hexameter  and  a  neat  iambic  ;  also 
:o  put  Burke  into  a  Latin  prose  that  was  stately  without 
being  pompous.  .  , 

rhencc  he  went  to  Oxford.     His  name  was  alreadv 
on  the  books  of  his  father's  old  college  but,  as  it  turned 
out  he  needed  no  precedence,  for  he  took  a  classical  scholai  - 
ship      There  he  learned  the  same  lesson  that  he  had 
learnt  at  school— namelv,  that  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to 
live  down  an  outside  reputation  :   the  greater  the  reputa- 
tion the  more  modest  it  behoves  you  to  be.     He  found 
that  a  first  vear  man  does  not  call  on  a  second  year  man, 
but  waits  to  be  called  on.     No  !  not  though  llic  one  be  a 
scholar  and  the  other  a  commoner.     Also  that  one  is 
never  elected  into  the  best  clubs  or  college  societies  in 
one's  first  term'.     But  not  being  a  pushful  person  he  liad 
really  no  need  to  learn  these  things,  for  he  knew  them  by 
instinct.     But  men  sought  him  out  and  discovered  his 
worth  so  that  in  his  second  term,  when  he  lavishly  re- 
turned the  hospitalities  of  the  lirst.  the  size  of  his  battels 
drew    a   mild   rebuke    from    the   Uean.       But    be.yond 
occasionally  getting  gated,  he  managed  to  keep  on  good 
terms  with"  the  Dons,  who  can  rarely  resist  the  man  wiio 
is  at  once  an  athlete  and  a  scholar.     After  tubbing  in  the 
Alorrison  fours,  he  rowed  seven  in  the  Torpids,  and  hi^ 
boat  did  a  bump  every  night  near  the  "  gut        t.ieat 
faggots  blazed  in  the  quad  the  last  night,  and  for  (mce  m 
his  life  Tonv  got  rather  drunk  and  was  with  ditficultv 
restrained  from  mounting  the  pyre,  having  to  be  put  to  bed 
by  his  frieud>.  loudlv  protesting  that  he  was  Joan  of  Mc 
He  cot  ploughed  in  Divinity  Mods  for  a  character-sketch 
of  St    Peter    which  the  Examiners  voted  learned  but 
profane  :     vour  Anglican  don  does  not  like  to  hear  the 
disciple  described  as  "  the  enfant  terrible  of  the  Twelve. 
Also  he  entertained  a  Socialist  chimney-sweeper  in.  his 
moms  like  a  man  and  a  brother  and  (what  was  far  worse 
in  the  eyes  of  Anglican  dons),  a  Nonconformist  draper 
with  whom  he  insisted  on  discussing  the  right  of  entry 
in  single-school  areas.     For  it  was  his  fa^hlon  to  try  all 
thinsi-    In  long  walks  over  Shotover   and  Cumnor,   m 
high  talks  at  night  in  the  quad  c*r  in  his  rooms,  he  dis- 


Februafy  b,  1917 


cussed  in  the  manner  of  Plato's  dialectics,  the  Nature  of 
the  State,  the  Responsibilities  of  the  Empire  towards 
Subject-races,  the  Meaning  of  Good,  the  Nature  of  Truth, 
and  the  Ornaments  Rubric.  For  of  such  things  do  men 
talk  at  Oxford,  plumbing  the  depths  of  speculation  in  a 
world  where  specuUition  takes  the  place  of  experience 
and  men  sec  Life,  like  the  dwellers  in  the  cave  of  Plato's 
myth,  by  the  shadows  that  the  outer  world  throws  upon 
its  enchanted  walls. 

His  first  long  vacation  was  less  than  half-way  through 
\vhen  a  cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand  rose  upon  the 
horizon.  It  first  appeared  when  his  father  opened  the 
newspaper  at  breakfast  one  morning  and  read  out  that 
an  Archduke  had  been  assassinated  in  a  tiny  satrapy  of 
the  Austrian  liminre.  "  Another  of  those  Balkan  melo- 
dramas" he  said  lightly  as  he  turned  to  the  stock  markets. 
But  in  a  few  days  the  cloud  grew  bigger.  The  bank-rate 
went  up  like  a  rocket,  dark  hints  of  "  Mobihzation 
appeared,  the  word  ultimatum  was  repeated  in  the  papers, 
one  read  curiously  of  an  encounter  between  patrols 
on  the  Franco-Gei-man  frontier  and  noted  with  con- 
sternation that  a  man  had  been  killed.  And  then  the 
storm  burst.     The  King  called  for  men. 

The  cornfields   were  brilliant   with  scarlet   pimpernel 

and  rest-harrow,  and  the  wheat,  changing  from  sea-green 

to  gold  and  heavy  in  the  ear,  gave  i)romise  of  an  early 

harvest.     But  father  and  son    ceased    to    talk  of  days 

among  the  stubble  ;    the  boy  was  silent,  until  one  day 

he   announced   his   intention  of   "  doing  his  bit."     His 

mother  turned  pale  but  said  nothing.     That  night  she 

entered  his  room,  according  to  her  habit,  to  kiss  him 

good-night.     She  went  down  on  her  knees  beside  him 

and  with  her  arms  round  his  neck  said  "  Don't — you  are 

all  I  have."     He  looked  straight  into  her  face  and  said 

reproachfully,    "  Mummy  !    who    was    it    told    me— do 

vou  remember  ?— never  'to  fear  ApoUyon  ?  "     And  from 

that  moment  she  knew  it  was  useless,  nor  did  she  try 

to  dissOtide  him,  for  she  would  not  have  had  it  otherwise. 

They  remained  in  long   communion  as  he  told  her  all 

the  secrets  of  his  heart,  and  when  she  rose  to  go  her  eyes 

were  dry,  for  in  that  hour  she  knew,  as  she  had  not  known 

since  he  was  a  httle  child,  that  he  and  she  were  one. 

He  joined  the  O.T.C.  He  learnt  section  drill,  platoon 
drill,  company  driirand  many  other  things.  And  then, 
one  day  he  applied  for  a  commission.  He  duly  filled  up 
nil  the  interrot;atorics  on  M.T.  392  and  against  "  uni};  ' 
preferred"  he'wrote  the  name  of  a  well-known  \\  est 
Country  regiment  in  whose  officers'  mess  his  family 
name  was  a  household  word.  And  he  sent  it  to  his  old 
Head  for  the  usual  certificate  of  moral  character.  He- 
blushed  when  it  came  back  and  was  slightly  annoyed, 
for  the  Head,  not  content  with  the  words,  "  I  certify, 
had  added  an  after  thought  :  "  He  is  an  excellent  ivWow  ; 
one   of  the  best." 

At  the  School  of  Instruction  he  learnt  the  art  of  war, 
his  tutor  being  a  Major  invalided  home  from  the  front 
Mho  tauglit  him  all  that  can  be  learnt  by  oral  instruction 
on  rationing,  patrols,  relief  by  sections,  and  the  making 
out  of  work-tables.  And  when  all  home-keeping  folk 
were  in  bed  he  marched  them  out  in  column  of  fours  to 
a  lacerated  field  were  they  practised^'  Night  (3p,"  with 
the  aid  of  a  trip-wire,  a  flare  pistol,  and  implements  of 
husbandry.  The  Major  was  a  wise  man  ;  he  had  drilled 
with  the"  recruits  of  his  own  regiment  on  the  square 
when  he  had  been  first  gazetted  from  Sandhurst,  and  he 
held  that  the  best  training  for  an  officer  is  to  learn  to  do 
what  you  want  done.  Wherefore  he  made  his  cadets 
learn  their  job  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  chg  their  own 
trenches,  and  throw  out  their  own  saps— always  re- 
membering, when  vou  begin  to  dig  a  sap,  to  put  up  a  sand- 
bag on  the  end"  of  a  fork  first,  otherwise  you  may 
never  live  to  finish  it. 

The  palms  of  their  hands  became  as  hard  as  a  cobblers, 
but  it  was  good  schooling;,  for  it  taught  them  the"  most 
\-aluable  of  all  lessons  ;  to  know  w-hen  they  were  giving 
orders  exactly  how  much  thev  were  asking  of  their  men 
to  do.  And" in  dealing  with  men  this  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom.  Also  he  gave  them  two  pieces  of  advice, 
one  of  wliich  was  that  at  Mess  you  are  practically  on 
parade  and  should  behave  accordingly  :  the  other  that 
the  first  duty  of  a  young  officer  is  to  place  the  comfort 
and  well-being  of- his  men  before  his  own.  But  Ix'ing  a 
gentleman  Ton\-  'M  not  need  to  learn  the  one  ;  and 
having  been  head  of  his  house  he  had  alr<'ady  learnt 


February  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


the  other.  So  lliat  wlicn  llio  O.C.  sent  in  ]u>  report  npon 
liini,  on  lii^  ''  pajHi-work."  "  boarin.;::,"  "  pnnetnality  " 
and"  power  o£  handlin.!;' men,"  he  marked  the  hrst  three 
••  good,"  bnt  the  fourth  "  excellent." 

The  Major  must,  I  think,  have  taken  rather  a  fancy  to 
him,  for  one  day  he  asked  him  if  he  knew  anything  about 
revolver-shooting  and,  on  being  answered  in  the  negative, 
he  took  him  privilv  aside  and  taught  him  a  thing 
or  two— hrst.  that  you  mustn't  grip  the  revolver  too 
tight  or  it  will  throw  vour  wrist  off,  second  that  you  really 
hrc  with  the  whole  "hand  rather  tljan  with  the  trigger- 
iinger  and  should  absorb  the  shock  into  your  whole 
frame,  and,  last  and.  greatest  of  these,  that  in  shooting 
a  descending  figure  you  should  incline  the  whole  body 
as  you  lower  the  arm  and  never  make  a  series  of  elbo^\•- 
jerics.  At  the  end  of  it  all  he  plugged  the  target  with  six 
shots  in  an  eight-inch  circle  and  the  Major  gave  him  his 
blessing — and  his  revolver.  He  was  to  owe  his  life  more 
than  once  to  what  the  Major  had  taught  him. 

Then  he  joined  his  battalion  and  was  put  in  command 
of  a  platoon. 

"  It's  verv  like  being  a  prefect  again  with  the  Adjutant 
as  the  'Head,'  "he  wrote  to  his  mother  of  his  first  day's 
duty  as  orderlv  officer,  and  so  it  was.  To  carry  on  as 
orderly  officer" from  re\eille  to  tattoo— and  later— -re- 
quires tact.  Froiii  the  time  when  he  inspected  the  issue 
of  rations  in  the  early  dawn  to  the  hour  when  he  tumgd 
out  the  quarter-guard  just  before  midnight  he  was  res- 
ponsible fur  the  ■■  tone  "  of  that  camp.  He  had  to  .see 
that  evervthing  from  cook-house  to  guard-room  was 
"  clean  and  regular,"  to  examine  the  rations  with  the  eye 
of  an  Inspector  of  Food  and  Drugs  and  to  smell  the 
men's  dinners  with  the  nose  of  a  chef,  to  see  that  the 
utensils  were  unspotted  from  the  world  and  the  ritfes 
of  the  guard,  bfirring  the  safety-catch,  ready  to  go  off 
of  themsehes.  Also  he  had  to  hear  and  adjudicate 
upon  "  complaints "  like  a  cadi  under  a  palm-tree. 
To  do  this  kind  of  thing  properly  you  have  to  be 
vigilant,  without  being  fussy  and  alert  without  being 
re:^tive — otherwise  yoiu-  orderly  sergeant  and  sergeant  of 
the  guard  get  fussy  and  restive  too,  and   that   kind   of 


thinf 


IS  catching  and  bad  for  the  men. 


He  completed 


his  report  to  the  ;\djutant  next  morning  with  the  words, 
"  Nothing  unusual  has  occurred  during  my  tour  of 
duty  with  the  exception  of  that  noted  overleaf."  The 
Adjutant  said  nothing — and  an  .Adjutant's  silence  is 
golden.     It  means  that  you  will  do. 

The  tirst  thing  he  did  was  to  get  to  know  his  men.  He 
taught  them  that  cleanliness  was  next  to  godliness 
and  having  commended  their  souls  to  the  padre  he 
devoted  himself  to  their  bodies.  He  made  them  taUe 
their  caj^is  off  on  parade  to  see  if  their  hair  was  parted 
and  hold  out  their  hands  like  bishops  at  confirmation 
to  see  if  their  finger-nails  were  clean.  Also  he  en- 
couraged them  to  play  "  footer,"  which  keeps  the  pores 
open  and  is  an  infallible  remedy  for  "  grouse  "  disease. 
And  one  night  he  talked  to  them  like  a  man  and  a 
brother  in  one  of  the  hutments  on  the  history  of  th(^ 
regiment.  He  told  them  of  a  certain  glorious  episode 
in  the  defence  of  the  Residency  in  \-irtue  of  which  they 
were  entitled  to  call  themseh-es  "  I^.I."  and  how  th(" 
soup-tureen,  now  safely  banked  with  the  regimental 
mess-plate,  got  the  hole  in  it.  Also  why  they  were  en- 
titled to  wear  a  red  flash  on  their  hats  and  a  half-red 
pugaree  on  their  helmets  in  virtue  of  their  having  shown 
the  red  feather  by  way  of  biting  their  thumbs  at  Mont- 
calm's men  in  Quebec.  And  other  such  things,  till  his 
men  felt — and,  as  things  turned  out  later,  pro\-ed — that 
the  honour  of  the  regiment  was  dearer  to  them  than  their 
lives.  They  began  to  think  better  of  the  geometry  of 
l^ilatoon  drill  after  this,  and  to  see  that  platoon,  advanc- 
ing in  column  of  fours,  form  forward  into  column  of 
sections  when  he  uttered  the  words  "  On  the  left,  form 
sections,"  was  as  good  as  watching  the  rhythmical 
swing  of  a  well-stroked  eight.  And  by  reason  of  all 
this,  the  O.C.  commended  him,  the  captain  of  his  company 
cherished  him,  and  his  platoon-sergeant  delighted  to  do 
his  bidding.  And  when  the  battalion  went  route- 
marching  over  the  downs,  moving  like  a  long  cater- 
pillar as  each  section  of  fours  rose  and  fell  over  the  crest, 
and  he  marched  at  the  head  of  his  platoon,  he  felt  it 
was  good,  very  good,  to  be  alive. 

He  went  out  with  his  battalion  to  the  front.     His. 
letters  home  told  his  mother  that  he  was  having  "  a 


ripping  time."  He  did  not  tell  her  that  he  wrote  them 
in  a  cave  of  clay  with  his  feet  in  water  and  his  head  m  a 
cloud  of  smoke'from  damp  coke  and  damper  wood.  He 
endured  without  grousing  rain  and  cold  and  frost  arid 
mud  and,  w  hat  was  far  harder  to  bear,  a  sad  deficiency  in 
machine  guns  ^\K\  trench-mortars  that  were  made  out  of 
stove-pipes.  He  went  through  the  second  battle  of 
Ypres,  and  when  his  company  officer  and  all  his  fellow^ 
ofiicers  were  knocked  out  he  carried  on  with  a  handful  of 
men  in  a  hole  about  the  size  of  a  dewpond  and  saved  the 
iwsition.  The  next  thing  he  knew  was  that  his  name 
appeared  in  the  Gazd/c  with  the  Military  Cross.  The 
only  comment  he  made  was  that  other  fellows  had  a 
better  claim  to  it— which  was  untrue.  And  when  he 
came  home  on  seven  days'  leave  his  mother  discovered 
that  her  bov  had  become  a  man.  At  tw^enty  he  was  wise 
with  the  wisdom  of  thirtv-five— wiser,  perhaps,  for  he 
had  seen  things  such  as  come  not  once  in  a  generation  to 
the  sons  of  men.  His  leave  coincided  with  one  of  those 
recurrent  interludes  in  which  that  elusive  mirage  "  the 
end  of  the  war  "  appears  before  the  wistful  eyes  of  men, 
and  they  talked  of  his  future  at  Oxford.  But  he  shook 
his  head. 

"  Xo,"  he  said  pensively.  "I  shall  never  go  back, 
Munnny—  I  couldn't.  ]\Iy  year's  scattered  like  the  leaves 
of  the  forest,"  he  went  on  "as,  with  his  back  to  them,  he 
gazed  through  the  window  at  the  dead  leaves  spinning 
under  the  beeches  in  the  park.  "  And  anyhow  I'm 
too  old."  This  at  twenty.  But  they  knew  what  he 
meant  and  talked  of  the  Bar,  a  seat  in  Parliament. 
Ouarter  Sessions.  To  all  of  which  he  returned  no  answer. 
'"  He  went  back.  Thev  saw  him  off  by  the  boat-train 
from  Victoria.  He  held"  his  mother  a  long  tinre  and  kissed 
the  eyes  into  which  his  own  had  first  looked  when  he 
opened  them  in  wonder  upon  the  world.  And  father  and 
mother  went  home  together  to  the  big  country-house 
which  suddenly  seemed  to  have  grown  still  bigger- so 
forlorn  and  empty  did  it  seem. 

One  night  he  had  to  go  out  on  patrol— a  reconnoitring 
patrol,  which  is  always  a  small  affair  and  does  not  com- 
mand the  full  complement  of  a  fighting  patrol.  He  sat 
in  his  dug-out  writing  a  letter  home  on  the  flimsy  of  a 
"Messages  and  Signals"  form.  The  N.C.O.  appeared 
at  the  dug-out  and  raised  the  screen  of  sacking.  Tony 
folded  up  the  letter,  sealed  it,  addressed  it,  and  marked 
the  envelope,  "  To  be  forwarded  only  in  the  event  of  my 
death."  Then  he  examined  the  chambers  of  his  revolver 
and  rose  and  went  out  into  the  night. 

***** 

Far  away  across  a  sodden  land  lit  up  by  the  flashes  of 
guns  like  sheet-lightning,  across  a  waste  of  waters  where 
a  chain  of  destrovers  rose  and  fell  with  the  Channel  swell, 
beyond  the  rolling  downs  of  the  south  country,  a  woman 
in  "a  great  house  a; woke  with  a  cry  out  of  a  troubled  sleep 
and  'put  out  her  hand.  "  Jack,"  she  said,  "  Tony's 
dead." 

Her  husband  woke  w4th  a  start  and  bent  over  her. 

"  Nonsense,  Marv,"  he  said  with  faltering  lips,  "  you've 
been  dreaming."  .  "She  was  sitting  up  in  bed,  a  shower  of 
hair,  still  auburn,  and  still  soft  as  silk,  falling  about  her 
shoulders  as  she  gazed  at  the  window.  She  sank  back 
and  buried  her  head  in  the  pillows. 

"  No  !  "  she  said.     "  I've  seen  him.'' 

Thre(!  days  later  a  boy  came  up  the  drive  with  an 
orange-coloured  envelope  in  his  hand.  The  father  saw 
him  approaching  from  the  dining-room  window,  and 
something  pierced,  him  like  a  two-edged  sword.  He 
learnt— but  that  was  later— that  Tony  had  gone  out  on 
patrol  with  a  corporal  ;  they  had  been  surprised  by  a 
party  of  the  enemy  and  the "^  N.C.O.  had  got  badly  hit. 
He  begged  Tony  to  leave  him.  But  the  boy  took  hha 
up  on  his  young  shoulders  and  made  his  way  back. 
Sometimes  lie  fell,  for  the  man  was  heavy  and  the  ground 
bad,  but  he  laboured  on.  A  star-shell  went  up  behind 
them,  and  the  earth  was  suddenly  stricken  with  a  pallid 
glare  of  light.  Then  a  hail  of  bullets  enveloped  them 
and  the  boy  fell-  this  time  to  rise  no  more.  The  corporal 
said  afterwards— this  to  the  boy's  parents  when  they 
came  to  see  the  corporal  in  hospital— that  the  boy  had 
said  something  at  the  last—"  something  I  couldn't  quite 
understand,  ma'am,  not  being  a  scholar  like  him,  some- 
thing that  sounded  like  '  Apollyon.'  But  I  fancy  his 
mind  was  wandering-like.     And  he  never  said  no  more.'' 


T\ 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  S,  1917 


Boar   Hunting   in   France 


By  GeoftVey  Ransomc 


^Ok  many  \imi>  \>d-i  iiic   wild  Imi.iis,  which  breed 
in  jirofnsioii  in  tlio  forests  in  sonu"  parts  of  iM'ancc, 


F;, 
havo  cuuscd  scrions  damago  to  the  adjoininf,' 
crops  and  f,'ardons.  In  peace  time  the  farmers 
;ind  peasants  manage  to  keep  them  within  reasonable 
bonnds,  but  dnring  two  years  of  war,  \\lH-n  all  the  men 
of  miHtars'  ago  have  cither  been  called  to  the  colours  or 
mobilised  for  munition  work,  the  pigs  have  been  left 
comparati\('l\-  (piiet  and  ha\'e,  therefore,  enormously 
increased  in  ntnnbers.  f'or  this  reason  battues  are 
jK'riodicai!\  arranged  by  the  landed  proprietors  and 
others  with  a  new  to  keeping  them  down. 

While  o\-er  in  falvados  on  munition  business  recently, 
I  had  the  goo(l  forttme  of  participating  in  the  opening 
battue  of  the  season,  while  waiting  for  a  boat  to  take 
me  back  to  iMigland.  My  host,  who  is  a  most  ardent 
sportsman  nnd  an  excellent  shot,  is  the  chief  organiser 
of  the  battues  in  his  district.  He  keeps  for  the  purpose 
a  pack  of  hounds,  some  being  pure-bred  English  fox- 
liounds,  which  "  go  in  "  at  the  boars,  while  the  others 
are  a  cross  with  the  foxhound,  named  batards  Poiicvins 
:ind  Vciidkn.  The  latter  are  bred  more  for  speed  and 
much  nscrnblc  a  foxhotmd,  but  stand  a  few  inches  higher, 
are  less  strongly  built  and  not  quite  so  ]>lucky.  To  the 
kennel  are  also  attached  a  few  hoimds,  chosen  for  nose 
and  intelligence  and  known  as  limicrs  or  detectives  ; 
these  arc  kcjjt  on  leads  and  are  utilised  for  locating  the 
(|uarry.  On  the  day  in  (piestion,  however,  pigs  were  so 
luunerous    that    these   were    hardly   needed. 

It  was  a  frosty  morning  when  we  motored  out  about 
eight  miles  to  a  little  village  not  far  from  Trouvillc, 
where  the  kennels  were  situated,  and  at  which  the  meet 
took  place.  Tiiore  we  found  most  of  the  chasseurs 
already  assembled.  We  picked  up  the  pack,  consisting  of 
seven  foxhounds  and  nine  hi'itards  with  two  limiers. 
These  were  in  the  care  of  the  piqiicurs,  sinew3%  active 
men,  over  military  age,  but  game  for  anything.  Another 
thkee  miles  brought  us  to  the  site  of  operations,  a' forest 
composed  mainly  of  young  oaks,  with  here  and  there  a 
giant,  and  with  a  rather  dense  undergrowth  of  hazel, 
young  beech,  holly  and  bramble,  with  narrow  rides  cut 
at  very  infrequent  intervals.  The  guns,  about  eighteen 
all  told,  were  chiefly  men  of  over  fifty  years  who,  for 
the  most  part,  used  a  12-bore  shot  gun,  with  ball  in  one 
or  both  barrels,  although  some  preferred' to  use  slugs  in 
at  least  one  barrel.  The  shooting  is  almost  invariably 
close,  as  in  thesi'  woods  you  seldom  can  see  to  get  a  shot 
at  anythin.tj  further  than  about  thirty  yards. 

After  a  walk  of  about  half  a  mile  down  a  deer  track, 
I  was  courteously  allotted  what  was  supposed  to  be  one 
f)f  the  best  jiositions,  in  a  clearing  about  30  feet  in  dia- 
meter. Owing,  however,  to  the  fortunes  of  the  chase, 
alas  !  I  never  got  a  shot.  I  asked  the  elderly  sportsman 
who  posted  me — with  .strict  injmictions  to  shoot  nothing 
but  pig  and  foxes — from  which  direction  the  hounds 
would  be  working,  as.  I  had  rather  lost  my  bearings. 
He  waved  his  arms  in  a  comprehensive  gesture  which 
embraced  the  imi\'cr»c,  and  he  was  right  !  He  told  mc 
that  nil  I  had  to  do,  was  to  "  turn  round  towards  the 
direction  in  which  they  arc  giving  tongue."  I  obeyed, 
with  the  result  that  during  the  next  hour  I  fullilled 
the  fimction  of  a  teetotum. 

What  actually  hap]>encd  was  that,  directly  hounds 
were  loosed  they  split  up  into  four  or  five  packs,  each 
following  a  different  pig,  and  shots  were  soon  heard. 
For  the  next  three  hours  I  waited,  while  an  occasional 
deer  or  rabbit  would  come  and  look  at  me  and  vanish 
(juickly  in  the  imdergrowth.  Hounds  could  be  heard  at 
wo»k  all  over  the  wood  and  sometimes  a  shot,  and  from 
time  to  time  a  hound,  off  the  scent,  would  race  past  mc 
or  stop  a  second  for  a  friendly  greeting  :  but  still  no  pig. 
But.  ves  !  at  last  my  chance  has  come  !  There  is  a  faint 
crackling  in  the  undergrowth  and  something  dark  is 
seen  dimly,  moving  in  the  bushes  ;  simultaneously  with 
my  gun  going  up,  however,  the  "  pig  "  coughed  and  spat : 
it  Was  OTvly  the  black  leggings  of  one  of  our  company. 
He  greeted  me  with  a  beaming  smile  and,  when  I  enquired 
why  he  had  left  his  allotted  place,  replied  that  he  was 


'y\r-\.  Jutving  a  look  round.  I  >ul)sequently  •learned  that 
it  was  qiute  usual  for  anyone  who  became  at  all  bored,  to 
leave  his  beat  and  wander  about  on-  his  own  account 
in  the  thick  woodlands— a  rather  risky  proceeding. 

The  Bag 

After  a  time  I  heard  shouts  and  horns  being  blown 
some  waj'  off,  so  wended  my  way  thither.  When  I 
joined  the  master  I  found  that  the  result  so  far  was  three 
pigs,  one  a  very  fine  old  tusker  weighing  295  lbs.,  the 
others  being  somewhat  smaller,  while  a  fourth,  whicli 
had  been  badly  wounded,  was  gathered  in  the  next  day  ; 
not  perhaps  a  large  bag,  but,  considering  the  absence  of 
beaters  and  the  wildness  of  the  hounds,  not  unsatis- 
factory. After  helping  to  drag  one  of  the  slain  to  a  ride 
some  fjoo  yards  off  (no  light  task,  owing  to  the  thick 
bushes)  I  joined  two  others  with  a  limicr  in  tracking  a 
wounded  boar  for  some  time,  when,  as  we  were  about 
three  miles  from  the  car,  and  it  was  rapidly  growing 
dark,  I  left  them.  Ten  minutes  later  several  shots  rang 
out  and  I  heard  subsequently  that  they  had  run  into  a 
batch  of  about  twelve  or  fifteen  three-quarter  grown  pig, 
but  had  missed  every  time  owing  to  the  darkness. 

On  regaining  the  road  I  found  my  friend  the- master 
and  the  piqueurs,  who  had  collected  all  the  hounds 
except  six  ;  later  on  four  more  turned  up  more  or  less 
mauled,  and  next  day  the  remaining  two  were  discovered, 
one  \erv  badly  gashed  in  several  places. 

While  waiting  for  other  members  of  our  party  to  turn 
up,  I  listened  to  some  incidents  of  the  day.  The  juvenile 
chauffeur,  who  had  himself  bagged  a  pig  of  respectable 
size,  recounted  how  he  had  been  bowled  over,  but  not 
hurt,  by  an  old  sow  ;  the  sow,  it  appeared,  was  "  larger 
than  a  donkey  and  roared  even  as  a  bull  of  Basan." 
Tire  chauffeur  also  gave  us  lifelike  imitations  of  the  noises 
made  by  each  member  of  the  sow's  family.  It  was  in 
this  mix  up  that  one  of  the  hounds  received  a  nasty  bite. 
Then  there  were,  of  course,  those  among  the  guns  who 
had  "  mortally  wounded  "  giants  of  the  forest,  which 
could  not  be  found.  "  You  have  only  to  go  into  the 
wood,  when  you  will  assuredly  find  hira  dead,"  and  so 
forth.  Again,  the  hounds  having  brought  to  bay  a 
wounded  boar,  in  a  stream,  one  of  the  piqueurs.  being 
unable  to  shoot  on  account  of  the  hounds,  had  j)luckil\' 
gone  in  and  cut  the  boar's  throat — an  operation  necessi- 
tating no  little  nerve. 

The  boars  in  this  part  of  the  world  run  to  a  big  size  and 
are  said  to  be  as  game,  when  wounded,  as  the  Indian 
boar,  of  which  I  have  had  some  experience.  I  was  told, 
however,  that  serious  accidents  seldom  happen  on  this 
account,  but  what  surprised  me  most  is  that  no  one  ever 
seems  to  get  shot  ! 

After  settling  the  destination  of  the  bag,  we  motored- 
home  in  the  evening,  with  a  large  dead  boar  and  two 
bandaged  hounds  in  the  back  of  the  car.  Altogether  it 
was  a  most  interesting  and  enjoyable  day,  and  was  quite 
a  new  experience  for  me.  I  hope  sincerely  that,  when 
the  war  is  over,  I  shall  have  many  another  such  a  day  in 
the  same  vicinity,  but  trust  to  get  a  shot  at  something 
more  exciting  than  a  Frenchman's  leggings  ! 


Princess  Patricia  of  Connaught  hopes  to  he  jircsont  at  a 
v-aricty  cntertainincnt  arranged  by  Mr.  P>ncst  Thesigcr, 
which  will  take  place  at  the  Kitz  Hotel  to-morrow  afternoon, 
in  aid  of  the  ^^■ar  Hospital  Supply  Workers,  a  branch  of 
Queen  Mary's  Needlework  Guild.  Tickets  can  be  obtained 
from  ^Irs.  Remington  l^obert  and  Miss  Townshend-Wilson, 
4,  Grosvcnor  Square.  A  vety  strong  programme  ha's  been 
drawn  up,  those  who  will  help  include  Fady  '  ''ston,  Mmc. 
Suggia,  Miss  Fay  Compton,  Miss  Sybil  Eatcju,  Miss  Beryl 
Freeman,  Mr.  Bertram  Binyon,  and  Mr.  Owen  Nares. 

Jlr.  Charles  Dixon's  fine  painting  The  Landing  of  the 
I.ancashircs  at  Galipoli  on  April  25th.  1915,  which  attracted 
so  much  attention  when  it  was  exhit»itecl  by  the  Pine  Art 
Society  at  their  New  Bond  Street  galleries,  has  been  now 
splendidly  reproduced  in  colour,  artist  proofs  signed  by  the 
urtist,   £.3  3s.,   prints  a  guinea  each. 


February  8,  19 17 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


Young  Anzac   Finds   his   Heritage 

By  Amy  Eleanor  Mack 


WHEN  young  Anzac  heard  that  his  new  trainmg 
school  would  bq  within  reach  of  Winchester 
he  was  delighted  ;  for  not  even  a  year  amongst 
the  antiquities  of  the  East  had  lessened  his 
interest  in  the  historical  relics  of  the  land  of  his  fore- 
fathers. And  when  an  English  lady,  surprised  at  his 
keen  interest  in  the  medi;eval  buildings,  said  :  "  But  you 
have  seen  much  older  things  in  Egypt  !  "  he  replied 
simply  :  "  Yes  ;  but  somehow  they  are  not  tiie  same.  The 
Pyramids  and  the  Sphinx  belong  to  the  niggers.  These 
belong  to  us." 

Men  in  training  camps  do  not  have  much  time  for 
sight-seeing,  but  all  the-  leisure  that  he  had  was  spent 
by  young  Anzac  in  the  lovely  old  cathedral  city.  Other 
men  hired  bicycles  and  went  out  into  the  coimtry  :  but 
he  preferred  to  go  afoot.  "  You  can't  see  enough  from 
a  bicycle,"  was  his  comment.  So  he  wandered  about  the 
winding  by-ways  of  the  town,  swinging  along  with  that 
easy  Australian  stride,  which  is  now  so  familiar  in  Englisli 
streets.  He  did  not  poke  and  peer,  after  the  manner  of 
the  ordinary  tourist,  but  the  deep-set  grey  eyes,  which 
looked  out  so  steadily  from  beneath  the  shady  hat,  missed 
^  ery  httle  that  was  to  be  seen.  Of  architectiu-e  he  knew 
])ractically  nothing,  and  Perpendicular,  Decorative,  Early 
Enghsh,  Norman,  were  terms  wliich  conveyed  little 
meaning  to  him.  But,  born  and  bred  in  a  land  of 
natural  beauty,  his  innate  sense  of  asthetic  values  lielped 
him  to  understand  the  lo\eliness  of  the  Cathedral's 
exquisite  nave,  and  the  rich  warmtli  of  the  mellow  red 
tiles  and  great  oak  beams  of  the  old  cottages,  ^^'ith  a 
delightful  lack  of  self-consciousness,  he  would  stand  in 
the  Cathedral  Close  gazing  with  deep  admiration  at  the 
beautiful  thirteenth  century  deanery  :  or  wander  in  and 
out  of  the  city's  ancient  gateway,  "  Just  to  liave  another 
look," 

l£very  street  of  the  old  town  was  sacred  ground  to  hinl. 
Product  of  an  educational  system  which  aims  at  fitting 
every  child  to  get  the  best  out  of  life,  he  knew  enough 
history  to  appreciate  the  ancient  capital  of  his  race  ; 
and  as  he  .swung  along  by  the  walls  of  Wolvesly. 
or  lieard  his  own  spurs  clang  on  the  paved  floor  "of  old 
Winchester  Hall,  he  felt  that  he  was  heir  to  the  ages. 
Alfred,  Canute,  Stephen,  Edward,  Henrj',  Richard  of 
the  Lion  Heart— all  the  fighters  who  in  the  brave  days  of 
old  had  clanged  their  way  through  the  historic  city,  seemed 
to  belong  to  him,  this  lad  in  khaki  from  the  far  Antipodes. 

In  the  cathedral  he  stood  bareheaded  before  the  monu- 
ments of  soldiers  of  a  later  day — members  of  the  Hamji- 
shircs  and  the  King's  Royal  Rifles,  whose  deeds  are 
commemorated  in  the  home  town.  In  places  of  honour 
on  the  Cathedral  walls  are  the  names  of  Hampshire 
men  who  fell  at  Waterloo,  in  the  Crimea,  in  India,  on  the 
Nik',  in  South  Africa  ;  and  over  some  of  the  lists  iiang,. 
faded  and  torn,  the  colours  whicli  once  floated  to  the 
breeze  and  led  their  regiments  into  battle. 

Voung  Anzac  paid  a  silent  tribute  to  these  brothers- 
in-arms,  who,  in  the  antiquity  of  the  Cathedral,  seemed 
to  be  Iris  own  contemporaries.  Hut  later  on,  his  thoiights 
lound  expression  :  "  The  wonderful  part  about  England 
is  that  its  history  seems  to  be  going  on  all  the  time.  In 
Ivgypt  it  all  seemed  to  be  past  and  over." 

thus,  in  his  schoolboy  fashion,  he  voiced  that  under- 
lying trutli  which  is  beneatli  all  our  belief  in  a  Hving, 
growing  Empu-e.  And  perhaps  it  was  a.sudden  realiza- 
tion that  he  himself  was  helping  the  history  of  our  race 
"  to  be  going  on  "  that  made  Jiim  straighten  up  and  look 
at  the  great  Cathedral  and  the  peaceful  Close,  with  a  new 
air  of  pride. 

The  old  hospital  of  St.  Cross  M-as  a  jov  and  a  rc\elation 
I0  him.  Brought  up  in  a  land  of  social  experiments,  lie 
had  believed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  awakening 
of  a  social  conscience  was  a  modern  development.  Now 
he  was  confronted  by  a  charity  that  dated  back  to  the. 
time  of  King  Stephen,  and  showed  him  that  even  in  the 
days  of  the  bold,  bad  barons,  there  were  men  who  worked 
and  planned  for  tlie  welfare  of  their  less  fortunate  brethren . 
It  was  a  bright  autumn  day  when  he  walked  across  the 
water-meadows  to  St.  Cross,  and  the  old  grey  buildings 


were  bathed  in  sunshine.  It  flooded  the  green  lawns,  the 
beds  of  brilliant  asters,  and  the  soft  grey  walls  ;  it  shone 
on  the  old  brothers  in  their  gowns  of  black  and  mulberry 
red,  strolling  about  the  square,  and  on  the  young  soldier 
in  the  gateway,  making  a  peaceful  picture  into  wliich  the 
traveller  from  the  new  land  seemed  to  fit  as  naturally  as 
the  old  brothers  themselves.  He  gazed  at  the  scene 
silently,,  as  was  his  way.  Then,  in  his  slow  voice  : 
"I'd  rather  like  to  end  my  days  in  a  place  like  this. 
It's  very  peaceful." 

Poor  lad,  the  battlefields  of  France  hold  no  such  peace- 
ful halting  place  ! 

But  it  was  the  college  that  held  the  greatest  fascination 
for  him.  His  own  schooldays  were  so  short  a  space 
behind  him  that  he  had  not  begun  to  forget  the  feelings 
of  a  schoolboy.  His  own  school  in  Australia  was  counted 
very  old  in  that  land  of  new  things.  It  had  been  built 
nearly  a  century,  and  it  had  its  traditions  ;  and  its  boys 
learned  "  to  play  the  game,"  just  as  their  forefathers 
had  learned  on  the  English  playing  fields.  So  there 
was  a  feeling  of  intimacy  and  fellowship,  mingled  with  the 
reverence  and  interest  with  which  young  Anzac  approached 
the  great  old  college. 

He  lo\-ed  to  stroll  across  College  Mead  and  watch  the 
boys  at  football.  The  clatter  of  his  heavy  boots  on  the 
cobblestones  of  the  courts  was  music  in  his  ears,  for  it 
seemed  like  the  echo  of  boys  who  had  clattered  that  way 
during  the  long  centuries.  It  must  be  confessed  that  he 
took  a  mischievous  pleasure  in  asking  the  boys  cjuestions 
in  order  to  hear  them  speak  ;  for  used  as  he  was  to  the 
deeper,  drawling  tones  of  his  own  countrymen,  the  high- 
pitched  English  voices  amused  him.  They  seemed 
girlish  to  his  unaccustomed  ear.  But  not  for  a  moment 
did  he  make  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  the  men  who 
went  forth  from  that  old  school  were  any  less  manly 
than  the  deeper-voiced  m6n  of  his  own  land.  He  km-w 
too  much  English  history  to  fall  into  that  error,  and, 
.  besides,  he  had  had  personal  experience  of  officers  from 
public  schools.  "  Tommy  officers,"  he  and  his  fellows 
irreverently  call  all  the  British  ofiicers,  but  none  tlu'  less 
do  they  admire  them  for  their  courage,  and  respect  them 
for  their  power  to  command,  and  their  custom  of  gi\"ing 
the  men  a  fair  "  deal." 

No  doubt,  in  its  turn,  his  drawl  amused  the  schoolboys, 
and  perhaps  he  seemed  crude  and  rough  to  them.  But 
crude  as  he  might  be,  and  newly  arrived  from  the  newest 
of  all  lands,  there  was  something  in  him  that  responded 
to  the  call  of  the  old  school,  and  he  felt  strangely  at  home 
within  its  precincts.  Then  one  day  as  he  was  being 
shown  the  famous  "  toys  "  the  reason  came  to  him  in  a 
flash.  Amongst  the  numberless  names  on  the  walls 
his  eye  suddenly  ix'sted  on  a  most  familiar,  name — one 
he  himself  had  signed  a  thousand  times.  It  was  a  name 
glorious  in  history,  and  made  immortal  by  a  man  who 
had  lived  long  before  the  owner  of  the  one  on  the  wall, 
and  it  was  young  Anzac's  own  second  name.  But  so 
little  does  the  a\'orage  Au.stralian  bothcT  about  his 
ancestors  that  the  boy  had  (piite  forgotten  that  his  own 
great-grandfather,  and  /u's  father  and  grandfather  before 
,  him,  had  been  Wykehamists. 

He  did  not  speak  of  it  to  his  guide — that  would  luue 
seemed  too  much' like  "swank"— but  his  interest  in 
and  affection  for  the  college  deepened,  and  the  joy  of 
the  possessor  entered  into  his  soul.  Now,  indeed,  was  he 
linked  with  the  glorious  past  of  the  old  Hampshire   town. 

Later  on,  in  London,  he  summed  it  up.  It  was  the 
last  night  of  his  last  lea\'e.  Next  day  he  wa's  lea\ing  for 
the  front,  and  a  serious  mood  had  fallen  on  him. 

"  I'm  awfully  glad  I  had  those  few  weeks  in  \\  in- 
chestcr,"  he  said.  "  London's  all  right,  but  it's  toe 
cosmopolitan  ;  it  seems  to  belong  to  anyone.  Win- 
chester seems  to  be  us.  I  think  it  is  the  England  we're 
all  fighting  for.  And  when  you  think  of  all  those  old 
Johnnies,  way  back  to  the  Britons,  and  those  otherS: 
too.  in  the  Cathedral  —well,  it  makes  n  chap  feel  proud 
that  he  can  carry  on." 

.-\nd  so  the  ancient  capital  had  forged  one  more  linl 
between  the  old  world  and  the  new. 


It) 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  8,  1917 


"Vir>ft-:-.i:.'iic.^aaa£S'i;4  ^.» 


Books  to  Read 

By    Lucian    Oldershaw 


Al'lRST  novel,  that  sliows  any  ability  at  all,  lias 
a  twofold  interest  for  the  critic.  It  has  the 
intrinsic  interest  of  what  it  achieves,  and  it  has 
.the  extrinsic  interest  of  what  it  promises.  One 
reads  it  with  a  note  of  interros,'ation.  Has  the  author 
shot  his  bolt  ?  Has  he  described  the  one  ad\enturc  of 
which  his  imagination  is  capable  ?  Is  he,  in  short,  a  mere 
recorder  or  a  trufe  creator  ?  For  the  most  part  such 
questions  must  remain  but  imperfectly  answered  till  the 
second  or  even  the  third  no\el,  but  o'ne  is  not  for  that 
reason  debarred  from  taking  an  interest  in  the  new 
personality  and  tiie  new  point  of  view  with  which  a  new 
novelist  piques  his  curiosity.  These  remarks,  of  course, 
are  not  a  propos  dc  bottes.  '  They  are  due  to  my  ha\-ini,' 
just  read  an  e.\tremely  able  and  iinaf,nnativc  first  no^■el  by 
Miss  Clcmence  Dane,  called  Regiment  of  Women  (Heine- 
mann,  5s.  net) — a  most  appropriate  title  scein;,'  that  tlic 
chief  dramatis  pcrsoiuc  are  teachers  at  a  ,i,'irls'  school, 
and  that  it  is  round  the  school  and  its  affairs  that  the 
story  mostly  centres. 

***** 

School-mistresses  and  schoo'-girls  !  They  do  not  sound 
^•ery  promising  material  out  of  whicii  to  build  a  no\eI 
that  makes  us  think  seriously  about  its  author's  future 
and   yet,   in   Clare   Hartill,   the  capable   and  confident 

,  teacher,  Miss  Dane  has  credited  a  character  one  can  only 
compare  toXady  Macbeth.  "  wading  through  blood  and 
murder  "  to  a  head-mistress's  chair.  The  study  is  a 
somewhat  morbid  one,  but  it  is  none  the  less  alive,  and 
the  figures  that  surround  the  central  one. of  Clare  are  as 
full  of  \-igour  and  reality  as  they  are  of  variety  and 
contrast.  Miss  Dane  writes  well  too.  Her  dialogue  is 
easy  and  natural,  and  her  incidents  \ i\id.  Some  ex- 
perience may  ha\c  j)roduced  the  odious  central  figure  of 
this  book,  and  a  white  heat  of  moral  indignation  lia\e 
quickened  the  author's  power  of  vision,  but  this  alone 

'  does  not  seem  likely  to  account  for  a  piece  of  work  that 

is  written  with  such  an  easy  sense  of  mastery.     I  rather 

fancy  that  we  shall  hear  more  of  this  author. 

*         *         *         *         * 

It  is  with  a  somewhat  pleasant  sense  of  relaxation  that 

I  turn  from  Miss  Da;ne's  novel  to  Mr.  William  Le  Oiicux's 

,  T/ic  Breath  of  Snspieto)i  {John  Long,  6s.),  and  Miss  V.  M. 
Mills  Young's  TJic  Bigamist  (John  Lane,  6s.)  For  oiie 
thing  there  is  tlK>  relief  of  passing  from  the  unknown 

.  to  the  known.     With  both  of  these  latter  authors  one 

•  kno\\s  at  least  where  one  is.  Their  goods  are  all  in  the 
shoi>windows  and  the  price  is  clearly  marked.  So  I 
settle  myself  down  to  enjoy  from  Mr.  Le  Oueux's  pen  an 
ingenious  talc  in  whicli  I  hope  to  be  surprised  by  incidents, 
but  never  by  character.  He  docs  not  disappoint  me  in 
The  Breath  of  SKSpieiou.     I  have  read  more  thrilling  tales, 

.  but  there  is  a  good  surprise  in  it  and  all  ends  happily. 
From  Miss  Mills  Young  I  expect  a  thrilling  talc  of  passion 
with  a  background  of  the  \cldt  and  some  demand  on  the 

:  emotions,  but  none  on  the  intellect.  I  get  something  of 
that  in  The  Bigamist,  but  frankly  I  was  rather  bored. 
There  seemed  no  particular  reason  why  the  book  should 
ha\e  been  written,  except  to  attract  an  interest  which 
it  cannot  hold  in  a  particularly  sordid  career  of  crime. 

*  *  *  jK  * 

Malcolm  and  Noel  Ross,  pere  el  ftls.  know  how  to 
"  tell  the  tale."  I  say  this  in  no  disparaging  sense,  for 
Jlr.  Malcolm  Ross  would  not  ha\-e  been  appointed  corre- 
spondent with  the  New  Zealand  forces,  and  Mr.  Noel 
Ross  would  not,  after  being  wounded  \\ith  the  New 
Zealand  forces,  ha\e  joined  the  staff  of  the  Times,  unless 
they  were  competent  journalists.  ]^Iqreover,  they  have 
no  need  to  make  bricks  witliout  straw  ;  there  arc  no  essays 
on  "  broomsticks,"  in  Light  and  Shade  in  War  (Arnold, 
5s.  net.)  Here  arc  things  experimental  and  emotions  felt 
bv  men  who  saw  the  fighting  in  the  Peninsula,  and  its 
wonderful  c\-acuation,  and  were  last  summer  with  the 
armies  on  the  Somme.  Wonderful  as  are  some  of  the 
narrati\c-s  of  facts  (they  include,  for  exampii-,  the  most 
\\\iA  account  that  has  been  written  of  the  landing 
on  Gallipoli),  I  rather  feel  that  the  emotional    studies. 


which  show  more  originality,  arc  the  more  attractive, 
and  among  these  I  place  first  London  Ghosts,  and  that 
charming  Highland  reverie,   The  Home  of  my  Fathers, 

***** 

A  ver}'  interesting  record  of  good  work  well  done  is 
contained  in  Friends  of  France  (Smith,  Elder  and  Co., 
7s.  6d.  niet.).  This  is  an  account  of  the  Field  Service  of 
the  American  Ambulance  written  by  some  of  its  members, 
of  whom  the  best  known,  to  English  readers  is  probably 
Henry  Sydnor  Harrison,  the  author  of  V.V.'s  Eyes 
and  other  novels.  The  book  will  appeal  in  \arious 
degrees ..f 6  three  classes  of  readers.  It  will  api)cal  first 
and  foremost  to  the  members  of  the  x'arious  Corps  of  the 
Ser\ice  Sanitaire  .Americaine  themselves,  for  it  will  form 
for  them  a  permanent  and  valuable  record  of  their  own 
experience.  In  the  second  place  to  their  friends  at  home 
it  should  pro\e,  especially  at  the  present  juncture,  a 
source  of  inspiration  and  encouragement.  Finally,  all 
who  like  to  study  the  war  from  various  angles,  will 
welcome  this  episodic  study  of  the  fighting  in  the  \\'est 
and  especially  the  continual  tributes  contained  in  it  to 
the  unassuming  gallantry  of  the  French  soldier. 

*  *  :;:  'i-  !;! 

A  completely  different  American  point  of  \iew  is  set 
forth  in  \\"\\\  Le\-ington  Comfort's  new  novel,  Red  Fleece 
(Hcinemann,  5s.  net).  Here  we  ha\-e  the  point  of  view 
of  the  pacifist  who  looks  upon  all  war  waged  for  \\'hatever 
reason  its  contrary  to  the  higher  instincts  of  humanity 
which  he  alone  shares  v\ith_a  few  kindred  spirits,  a  demo- 
cTat  with  a  complete  distrust  of  democracy.  I  do  not 
know  whether  ;\lr.  Comfort  has  actually  witnessed  the 
scenes  on  the  Eastern  J-'ront  whicli  he' describes,  but  he 
has  power  and  \ision,  and  his  book  is  a  spirited  per- 
formance on  behalf  of  the,  peculiar  views  which  he 
exidently  holds  with  complete  sincerity.  It  is  jjrobably 
too  late  in  the  day  to  reason  with  him  about  these  \-iews, 
but  1  suggest  for  the  consideration  of  those  who  may  be 
attracted  by  his  persuasive  exposition  of  them  that  there 
are  occasions  in  the  continual  struggle  of  right  against 
wrong  when  the  appeal  must  be  made  not  to  Peace,  but 
to  the  Sword.  Kindness  may  prevent  a  dog  from  going 
mad,  but  when  once  mad  it  cannot  be  cured  by  kindness. 


Now  that  all  eves  are  seaward  this  little  book  of  .Mr. 
lulward  y.ohh'>.' Outposts  of  the  Fleet  (Hcinemann,  is. 
net),  comes  \-ery  apropos.  Mr.  Noble  has  long  been  a 
redoubtable  champion  of  the  yierchant  Service,  and 
these  "  Stories  of  the  Merchant  Service  in  War  and 
Peace,"  ring  with  the  triumph  of  one  whose  cause  has 
been  successful.  The  .despised,  or  perhaps  simply  neg- 
lected, captain  of  the 'trading  vessel  has  now  come  into 
his  own,  with  a  commission  in  the  Na\-al  Reserve  and  a 
good  chance  of  medals  and  rewards,  and  if  he  is  half  as 
good  a  fellow  and  runs  half  as  many  risks  as  Mr.  Noble 
depicts,  full  well  does  he  dcscr\c"his  status  and  his 
opportunities.  Mr.  Noble  tells  his  yarns  with  vigour  and 
spirit,  and  I  recommend  anyone  who  has  to  travel  to 
slip  this  little  book  into  his  pocket  next  time  he  ..sets  forth 
that  liis  way  may  be  beguiled  with  tales  of  the  "  silly 
sailormen  "  on  whom  we  so  greatly  rely  and  whom  we 
wish  so  well. 


FLYING. 

The  success  of  this  new  paper,  pubUshctl 
weekly  at  Id.  by  Land  t^  Water,  has 

been  instantaneous. 
All  reader^;  of  Land  &  Water  should 
ask  their  newsagent  to  send  them  a  copy 
of  FLYISG  ever\-  \\'ednesday  as  there 
is  diflkulty  in  meeting  the  demand  unless 
orders  arc  eivon  beforehand 


February  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


17 


HAVE  YOU  INVESTED 

IN  THE 

WAR  LOAN? 

The  Last  Day  is  Friday  the  1 6th 
and   Germany   is   watching   us. 

If     you     have     not     already     invested     every 
shilling  you   can   scrape   together — do  so  now. 


IF  you  have  £5 
or  any  amount  up 
to  £50  to  lend 
go  to  the  nearest 
Money  Order  Post 
Office  and  they  will 
invest  it  for  you 
in  War  Loan.  You 
will  get  a  receipt  for 
your  money  and  after- 
wards they  will  send 
you  your  stock. 


HAS  IT 

OCCURRED   TO  YOU 

that  you  can  help 

to    end    the    War 

BY 

BORROWING 

FROM 
YOUR 

BANK 

OR 


IF  you  have  £50 
or  over  to  lend  to 
your  country  go  to 
your  Bank  Manager. 
He  will  help  you  to 
increase  your  lending 
power.  The  Bank 
Managers  have  in- 
timated their  desire 
to  do  everything  in 
their  power  to  make 
the  Victory  Loan 
an  overwhelming 
success. 


BY  CONVERTING  YOUR  TREASURY  BILLS 

INTO  WAR  LOAN. 

The  Bank  will  accept  the 
War  Loan  it  buys  for  you  as 
security  for  what  it  lends  to  you. 

ISSUED  BY  ORDER  OF  HIS  MAJESTY'S  TREASURY. 


N 


iS 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  S,  1917 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

ITranslatcd  by  Alexander  Teixeira  dc  MattosI 


Synoi'sis  :  Captain  Palncc  Bclval,  a  'u'ouudai  French 
officer,  is  in  loir  with  a  nurse  itJto  is  known  to  her  patients 
as  "  Little  Mother  Coralie."  Bclval,  following  Coralic 
(0  her  house,  finds  that  Essares.  her  husband,  a  leading 
financier,  ivho  had'  contemplated  flight  jrom  Paris,  has  been 
brutally  murdered.  An  examining  magistrate  explains 
to  Bclval  that  Essares  was  prime  mover  in  a  plot  for  ex- 
porting gold  from  Erancc.  In  order  to  recover  some  300 
■million  francs  'ichich  Essaris  had  concealed,  the  authorities 
consider  it  necessary  to  hush  iip  the  circumstances  of  the 
financier's  death.  The  only  possible  clue  to  the  u^herc- 
abouts  of  the  gold  is  a  paper  found  in  Essares'  dead  hand, 
bearing  the  icords.  "Golden  Triangle."  Ya-Bon.  Bclval's 
Senegalese  ser.'ant,  promises  to  call  in  Arshte  Lupin  to 
unravel  the  mystery,  which  includes  a  nivstcrious  threatened 
vengeance  on  Coralie.  Bclval  ascertains  that  Simeon. 
Essare.s'  attendant,  has  mysteriously  befriended  both  him- 
self and  Coralie,  and  also  obtains  evidence  that  twenty 
years  before,  Essares  had  been  responsible  for  the  murder 
of  Coralie's  mother  and  his  {Bclval's)  father  and  that  an 
iinkno'dnt  friend  had  tried  to  protect  Coralie  and  himself. 
On  the  i^th  of  .April  an  anonymous  letter  -warns  the  authori- 
ties that  an  attempt  is  to  be  made  to  get  the  hidden  gold  out 
of  France,  and  on  the  same  day  Bclval  and  Coralie,  fol- 
lowing old  Simeon  to  the  scene  of  their  parents'  murder, 
a  disused  lodge  in  the  garden  next  to  Essares'  house,  find 
themselves  imprisoned  without  possibility  of  escape.  Behind 
the  -wainscoting  of  the  lodge  a  pencilled  message  tells  how 
Bclval's  father  and  Coralie's  mother  had  been  similarly 
trapped,  and  then  asphyxiated,  twenty  years  before.  Shut 
in  the  lodge,  Patrice  and  Coralie  arc  similarly  subjected — 
apparently  by  Simeon — to  asphyxiation  bv  gas,  until 
Patrice  loses  consciousness. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

A  Strange  Character 

IT  was  not  yet  exactly  death.  In  his  present  condition 
of  agony,  what  lingered  of  Patrice's  consciousness 
mingled,  as  in  a  nightmare,  the  life  which  he  knew 
with  tlie  imaginary  world  in  wjiich  he  now  found  him- 
self, the  world  which  was  that  of  death. 

In  this  world,  Coralie  no  longer  existed ;  and  her  loss  dis- 
tracted him  with  grief.  But  he  seemed  to  hear  and  sec 
somebody  whost>  presence  was  rev(5aled  by  a  shadow  passing 
before  his  closed  eyelids.  This  somebody  he  pictured  to 
himself,  though  without  reason,  under  the  aspect  of  Simton, 
who  came  to  verify  the  death  of  his  victims,  began  by  carry- 
ing Coralie  away,  then  came  back  to  Patrice  and  carried  him 
away  also  and  laid  him  down  somewhere.  And  all  this  was 
.so  well-defined  that  Patrice  wondered  whether  he  had  not 
woke  up. 

Next  hours  ]xissed  ...  or  seconds.  In  the  end, 
Patrice  had  a  feeling  that  he  was  faUing  asleep,  but  as  a 
man  sleeps  in  Hell,  suffering  the  moral  and  physical  tortmes 
of  the  damned.  He  was  back  at  the  bottom  of  the  black 
pit,  which  be  was  making  desperate  efforts  to  leave,  like  a  man 
who  has  fallen  into  the  sea  and  is  trying  to  reach  the  sur- 
face. In  this  way,  with  the  greatest"  difficultv,  he  passed 
through  one  waste  of  water  after  another,  the  weight  of  which 
stilled  him.  He  had  to  scale  them,  gripping  with  his  hands 
and  feel  things  that  slipped,  to  rope-ladders  wliich,  pos- 
sessing no  points  of  support,  gave  way  beneath  him. 

.Meanwhile  the  darkness  became  less  intense.  ^  little 
muilled  daylight  mingled  with  it.  Patrice  felt  less  greatly 
opi^ressed.  He  half-opened  his  eyes,  drew  a  breath  or  two 
and.  looking  round,  beheld  a  sight  that  surprised  him,  the 
enibrasure  of  an  open  door,  near  which  he  was  lying  in  the 
air,  on  a  .sofa.  Reside  him  he  saw  Coralie,  on  another  sofa. 
She  moved  restlessly  and  seemcd-to  be  in  great  discomfort. 

"  She  is  climbing  out  of  the  black  pit,"  he  thought  to  him- 
.■-tlf.     "  Like  me,  she  is  struggling.     .My  poor  Coralie  !  " 

There  was  a  small  table  between  tjiem,  with  two  glasses 
f)f  water  on  it.  Parched  with  thirst,  he  took  one  of  them  in 
his  hand.     But  he  dared  not  drink. 

.\t  that  moment,  someone  came  through  tJie  open  door, 
which  Patrice  percei\  ed  to  be  the  door  of  the  lodge ;  and  he 


obser\-ed  that  it  was  not  old  Simeon,  as  he  liad  thought, 
but  a  stranger  whom  he  had  never  seen  before. 

"  1  am  not  asleep,"  he  said  to  himself.  "  I  am  sure 
that  I  am  not  asleep  and  that  this  stranger  is  a  friend." 

And  he  tried  to  say  it  aloud,  to  make  certainty  doubly 
sure.     But  he  had  not  the  strength. 

The  stranger,  Inwever,  came  up  to  him  and,  in  a  gentle 
voice,  said  : 

"  Don't  tire  yourself,  captain.  You're  all  right  now. 
Allow  me.     Ha\-e  some  water." 

The  stranger  handed  him  one  of  the  two  glasses  ;  and  Patrice 
emptied  it  at  a  draught,  witiiout  any  feeling  of  distnist,  and 
was  glad  to  .see  Coralie  also  drinking. 

"  Yes,  I'm  all  right  now,"  he  sairl.  "  Heavens,  how  good 
it  is  to  be  alive  !     Coralie  is  really  alive,  isn't  she  ?  "■ 

He  did  not  hear  the  answer  and  dropped  into  a  welcome 
sleep. 

When  lie  woke  up,  the  crisis  was  over,  though  he  still  felt 
a  buzzing  in  his  head  and  a  difficulty  in  drawing  a  deep  dreath. 
He  stood  up,  however,  and  realized  that  all  these  sensations 
were  not  fanciful,  that  he  was  really  outside  the  door  of  the 
lodge  and  that  Coralie  had  drunk  the  glass  of  water  and  was 
l)eacefully  sleeping. 

"  How  good  it  is  to  be  alive  !  "  he  repeated. 

He  now  felt  need  for  action,  but  dared  not  go  into  the 
lodge  notwithstanding  the  open  door.  He  moved  away 
from  it,  skirting  the  cloisters  containing  the  graves,  and  then, 
with  no  exact  object,  for  he  did  not  yet  grasp  the  reason  of 
his  own  actions,  did  not  understand  what  had  happened  to 
him  and  was  simply  walking  at  random,  he  came  back  to- 
wards the  lodge,  on  the  other  front,  the  one  overlooking  tiie 
garden. 

Suddenly  he  stopped.  A  few  yards  from  the  house,  at  the 
foot  of  a  tree  standing  beside  the  slanting  path,  a  man  lay 
back  in  a  wicker  long-chair,  with  his  face  in  the  shade  and 
his  legs  in  the  sun.  He  was  sleeping,  with  his  head  fallen 
forward  and  an  open  book  upon  his  knees. 

Then  and  not  till  then  did  Patrice  clearly  understand 
that  he  and  Coralie  had  escaped  being  killed,  that  they  were 
lx)th  really  alive  and  that  they  owed  tlieir  safety  to  this  man 
whose  sleep -suggested  a  state  of  absolute  security  and  satis- 
fled  conscience. ' 

Patrice  studied  the  stranger's  appearance.  He  was  slim 
of  figure,  but  broad-shouldered,  with  a  sallow  complexion,  a 
slight  moustache  on  his  lips  and  hair  beginning  to  turn  grey 
at  the  temples.  His  age  was  probably  fifty  at  most.  The  cut 
of  his  clothes  pointed  to  dandyism.  Patrice  leaned  forward 
and  read  the  title  of  the  book  :  The  Memoirs  of  Benjamin 
Franklin.  He  also  read  the  initials  inside  a  hat  lying  on 
the  grass  :  "  L.  V." 

"  It  was  he  who  saved  me,"  .said  Patrice  to  himself,  "  I 
recognise  him.  He  carried  us  both  out  of  the  studio  and 
looked  after  us.  Rut  how  was  the  miracle  brought  gbout  ? 
Who  sent  him  ?    " 

He  tapped  him  on  the  shoulder.  The  man  was  on  his  feet 
at  once,  his  face  lit  up  with  a  smile  :  . 

"  Pardon  me,  captain,  but  my  life  is  so  much  taken  up  that, 
when  I  have  a  few  minutes  to  myself,  I  use  them  for  sleeping, 
wherever  I  may  be  .  .  .  like  Napoleon,  eh?  Well. 
I  don't  object  to  the  comparison  .  .  .  But  enough  about 
myself.  How  arc  you  feeling  now  ?  And  madame— '  Little 
Mother  Coralic  ' — is  she  better  ?  I  saw  no  use  in  waking  you, 
after  I  had  opened  the  doors  and  taken  you  outside.  I  had 
done  what  was  necessary  and  felt  quite  easy.  You  were  both 
breathing.     So  I  left  the  rest  to  the  good  pure  air." 

He  ])roke  oft  at  the  sight  of  Patrice's  disconcerted  attitude  ; 
and  his  smile  made  way  for  a  merry  laugh  : 

"  Oh,  I  was  forgetting  :  you  don't  know  me !  Of  course, 
it's  true,  the  letter  I  sent  you  was  intercepted.  Let  me  in- 
t  rod  lice  myself :  Don  Luis  Perenna,*  a  member  of  an'  jkl 
Spanish  family,  genuine  patent  of  nobility,  papers  all  in 
order  ,  .  .  Rut  I  can  sec  thit  all  this  tejls  you  nothing," 
he  went  on,  laughing  still  more  gaily.  "  No  doubt  Ya-Bon 
described  me  differently  when  he  wrote  my  name  on  that  street 
wall  one  evening  a  fortnight  ago.  Aha,  you're  beginning  to 
understand!  .  .  .  Yes,  I'm  the  man  you  sent  for  to 
{ConttHued  on  page  20) 

'The  Teeth  0/  the  Tiger.  By  Maurice  Leblanc.  Translated  by  Alex- 
tuider  Teixeira  dc  Mattos.  "  Luis  Perenna,"  is  one  of  several  anagranH 
<il"  '    .\rsenc  Lnmii." 


February  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


'9 


GONG   SOUPS 


ff 


Fighting  Bad  Weather 


The  Tielocken  Coat 


arc   "TOP   HOLE. 


The  twelve  different  varieties  of  Gong  Soups 
afford  a  choice  of  menu  which  men  at  the  Front 
and  in  training  specially  appreciate. 

Not  only  in  France  but  on  the  more  distant 
Fronts,  where  vegetables  are  difficult  to  obtain, 
Gong  Soups  are  specially  acceptable. 

Gong  Soups  are  warming,  sustaining, 
satisfying — as  nice  as  home-made  soups  and 
cost  a  great  deal  less. 

* 

From  Aden : 

"I  enclose  P.O.  to  the  value  of  which  please  send  me  as  many 
Gong  Soups  of  the  diffeient  kinds  as  you  can." 

From  Mesopotamia : 

"  Will  you  please  post  to  Mesopotamia  the  following  packets  of 
Gong  Soups  : — Pea,  Lentil,  Thick  Gravy,  Celery.  Cream,  Green  Pea, 
Artichoke,  Tomato,  two  packets  of  each  kind,  for  which  I  enclose  P.O." 

From  Salonica : 

"  Please  forward  me  eight  r'ozen  assorted  Gong  Soups,  for  which 
find  cheque  enclosed." 


Twelve  Delicious  Varieties: 

Scotch   Broth  I  Lentil  I    Celery  Cream 

Mock    Turtle     Julienne  Green  Pea 

Pea                    Ox  Tail  Artichoke 

Mulligatawny  |  Thick  Gravy  I    Tomato 


CONG 


Burberry  Trench-Warm 


Illustrated 
Nival  or 
Military 
Catalogue* 
Post  Free 


Made  by 
0X0  Ltd.,  London,  EC 


SOUPS 


As  a  means  of  defence  against 
this  insidious  neutral,  which 
is  the  cause  of  almost  as  many 
casualties  as  the  enemy's  fire,  a 

BURBERRY 

WEATHERPROOF 

TOP-COAT 

stands  an  immeasurable 
height  above  every  other 
form   of   protection. 

Let  it  rain,  snow  or  blow, 
the  Officer  equipped  with  a 
BURBERRY  enjoys  the 
luxury  of  being  independent 
of  weather,  and  is  effectually 
safeguarded  from  discomfort 
however  harsh  the  conditions. 

A  BURBERRY,  unlike  coat^ 
loaded  with  oiled-silk,  rubber 
and  the  like  airlight  fabrics, 
whilst  supplying  efficient 
security,  is  lightweight,  self- 
ventilating  and  free  from  ener- 
vating heat. 

Another  advantage  of  a 
BURBERRY  is  the  perma- 
nence of  its  proofing.  Rubber 
and  interlined  coats,  besides 
being  heavy  and  tiring  to 
wear,  are  practically  useless 
after  exposure  to  any  extreme 
of    cold    or    heat. 

Whereas  an  airy  tight  BUR- 
BERRY, owing  to  the  pro- 
tective agent  being  ingrained 
in  every  thread  of  the  cloth, 
so  that  it  actually  becomes 
part  of  the  material  itself, 
withstands  the  roughest  usage 
in  any  climate  without  loss  of 
its  weather- resisting  powers. 

Practical  evidence  of  the 
remarkable  durability  of 
BURBERRY  garments  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  to-dav 
many  Officers  are  weanng 
coats  that  have  been  in  use 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war. 

Officers'  Complete 
Kits  in  2  to  4  Davs 
or      Ready    for    Use 


HALF-PRICE    SALE. 

Daily  until  February  28th,  many  1916 
Civilian  Top-coats  and  Suits,  as  well 
as  Ladies*  Coats  and  Gowns,  are 
being  sold  at  HALF  USUAL  PRICES 
or  thereabouts.     Full  rist  on  request. 


The  Burberry 


%   BURBERRYS 


HAYMARKET      LONDON 
and  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  5,  1917 


{Conttvued  from  pa^e  t8) 
help  you.     Shall  I  mention  the  name,  just  bluntly  ?     Well, 
here  poes.  captain  !     .     .  Arsene  Lupin  at  your  service." 

Patrice  was  stupefied.  He  had  utterly  forgotten  Ya-Bon's 
proposal  and  the  unthinking  permission  which  he  had  given 
him  to  call  in  the  famous  adventurer.  And  here  was  Arsdne 
Lupin  standing  in  front  of  him,  Arsene  Lupin  who,  by  a 
si  ear  effort  of  will  that  resembled  an  incredible  miracle,  had 
dragged  him  and  Coralie  out  of  their  hermetically-sealed 
cofiiii. 

He  held  out  his  Jiand  and  said  : 

"  Thank  you  !  " 

"  Tut !  "  said  Don  Luis,  playfully.  "  No  thanks  !  Just  a 
good  hand-shake,  that's  all.  And  I'm  a  man  you  can  shake 
hands  with,  captain,  believe  me.  I  may  have  a  few  peccadilloes 
0B  my  conscience,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  I  have  committed 
a  certain  number  of  good  actions  which  should  win  me  the 
esteem  of  decent  folk  .  .  .  beginning  with  my  own. 
And  so.     ..." 

He  interrupted  himself  again,  seemed  to  reflect  and.  taking 
Patrice  by  a  button  of  his  jacket,  said  : 

"  Don't  move.     VVe  are  being  watched." 

"  By  whom  ? 

"  Some  one  on  the  quay,  right  at  the  end  of  the  garden. 
The  wall  is  not  high.  There's  a  grating  on  the  top  of  it. 
They're  looking  through  the  bars  and  trying  to  see  us." 

"Ho A  do  ou  kno.v  ?  You  have  your  back  turned  to  the 
quay  ;   and  then  there  are  the  trees." 

"  Listen." 

"  I  don't  hear  anything  out  of  the  way." 

"  Yes,  the  sovmd  of  an  engine  .  .  .  the  engine  of  a 
stopping  car.  Now  what  would  a  car  want  to  stop  here  for, 
oa  the  quay,  opposite  a  wall  with  no  house  near  it  '  " 

"  Then  who  do  you  think  it  is  ?  " 

"  Why,  old  Simeon,  of  course  !  " 

"  Old'  Simeon  !  " 

"  Certainly.  He's  looking  to  see  whether  I've  really 
saved  the  two  of  you." 

"  Then  he's  not  mad  ?  " 

"  Mad  ?   No  more  mad  than  you  or  I  1  " 

"  And  yet.     .     .     ." 

"  What  you  mean  is  that  Simeon  used  to  protect  you  ;  that 
his  object  was  to  bring  you  two  together  ;  that  he  sent  you 
tbe  key  of  the  garden-door  ;  and  so  on  and  so  on." 

"  Do  you  know  all  that  ?  " 

"  Well,  of  course  !    If  not,  how  could  1  have  rescued  you  ?  " 

"  But,"  said  Patrice,  anxiously,  "  suppwse  the  scoundrel 
returns  to  the  attack.  Ought  we  not  to  take  some  pre- 
cautions ?   Let's  go  back  to  the  lodge  :  CoraUe  is  all  alone." 

"  There's  no  danger." 

"  Why  ?  " 

"  Because  I'm  here." 

Patrice  was  more  astounded  than  ever  : 

"  Then  Si  neon  knows  you  ?  "  he  asked.  "  He  knows 
that  you  are  here  ?  " 

"  Yes,  thanks  to  a  letter  which  I  wrote  you  under  cover  to 
Ya-Bon,  and  which  he  intercepted.  I  told  you  that  I  was 
coming  ;  and  he  hurried  to  get  to  work.  Only,  as  my  habit 
is  on  these  occasions,  I  hastened  my  arrival  by  a  few  hours, 
so  that  I  caught  him  in  the  act." 

"  At  that  moment,  you  did  not  know  he  was  the  enemy, 
you  knew  nothing  ? 

"  Nothing  at  all." 

"  Was  it  this  morning  ?  " 

"  No,  this  afternoon,  at  a  quarter  to  two." 

Patrice  took  out  his  v  atch  : 
'  And  it's  now  four.     So  in  two  hours.     .     .     .'• 

"  Not  that.     I've  been  here  an  hour." 

"  Did  you  find  out  from  Ya-Bon  ?  " 

"  Do  j'ou  think  I've  no  better  use  for  my  time  ?  Ya-Bon 
simply  told  me  that  you  were  not  there,  which  was  enough  to 
astonish  me." 

"  After  that  ?  " 

"  I  looked  to  see  where  you  were." 

"  How  ?  " 

"  I  first  searched  your  room  and,  doing  so  in  my  own 
thorough  fashion,  ended  by  discovering  tliat  there  was  a 
erack  at  the  back  of  your  roll-top  desk  and  tliat  this  crack 
faced  a  hole  in  the  wall  of  the  ne.\t  room.  I  was  able  therefore 
to  pull  out  the  book  m  which  you  kept  your  diary  and  acquaint 
myself  with  what  was  going  on.  This,  moreover,  was  how 
Simion  became  aware  of  your  least  intentions.  This  was 
how  he  knew  of  your  plan  to  come  here,  on  a  pilgrimage,  on 
tlie  fourteenth  of  April.  This  was  how,  last  night,  seeing 
you  write,  he  preferred,  before  attacking  you,  to  know  what 
you  were  writing.  Knowing  it  and  learning,  from  your  own 
words,  that  you  were  on  your  guard,  he  refrained.  You  see 
how  simple  it  all  is.  If  M.  Masseron  had  grown  uneasy  at 
your  absence,  he  would  have  been  just  as  successful.  Only 
he  would  have  been  successful  to-morrow." 


"  That  is  to  say,  too  late." 
Yes,  too  late.  This  really  isn't  his  business,  however, 
nor  that  of  the  police.  So  I  would  rather  that  they  didn't 
meddle  with'it.  I  asked  your  wounded  soldiers  to  keep  silent 
about  anything  that  may  strike  them  as  queer.  Therefore, 
if  M.  Masseron  comes  to-day,  he  will  think  that  everything 
is  in  order.  Well,  having  satisfied  my  mind  in  this  respect, 
and  possessing  the  necessary  information  from  your  diary,^ 
I  took  Ya-Bon  with  me  and  walked  across  the  lane  and  into 
the  garden. 

"  Was  the  door  open  ?  " 

"•No,  but  Sim 'on  happened  to  be  coming  out  at  tliat 
moment.  Bad  luck  for  him,  wasn't  it  ?  I  took  advantage  of 
it  boldly.  1  put  my  hand  on  the  latch  and  we  went  in.  with- 
out his  daring  to  protest.     He  certainly  knew  wlio  I  was." 

"  But  you  didn't  know  at  that  time  tliat  he  was  the 
enemy  ?  " 

"  I  didn't  know  ?   And  what  about  your  diary  ?  " 

"  I  had  no  notion.     .     .     ." 

"  But,  captain,  every  p.iga  is  an  indictment  ^  the  man. 
There's  not  an  incident  in  which  he  did  not  take.pait,  not  a 
crime  which  he  did  not  prepare." 

"  In  that  case,  you  should  have  collared  him."  . 

"  And  if  I  had  ?  What  good  would  it  have  done  me  ? 
Should  I  have  compelled  him  to  speak  ?  No,  I  shall  hold 
him  tightest  by  leaving  him  his  liberty.  That  will  give  him 
rope,  you  know.  You  see  already,  he's  prowling  round  the 
house  instead  of  clearing  out.  Besides,  I  had  something 
better  to  do  :  I  had  first  to  rescue  vou  two  ...  if  there 
was  still  time.  Ya-Bon  and  I  therefore  rushed  to  the  ('oor 
of  the  lodge.  It  was  open  ;  but  the  other,  the  door  of  the 
studio,  was  locked  and  bolted.  I  drew  the  bolts  :  and  to 
force  the  lock  was,  for  me,  child's  play.  Then  the  smell  of 
gas  was  enough  to  tell  me  what  had  happened.  Sinvon 
must  have  fitted  an  old  meter  to  some  outside  pipe,  probably 
tJie  one  which  supplied  the  lamps  on  tlie  lane,  and  he  was 
suffocating  you.  All  that  remained  for  us  to  do  was  to  fetch 
the  two  of  you  out  and  give  you  the  usual  treatment  :  rubbing, 
artificial  respiration  and  so  on.     You  were  saved." 

"  I  suppose  he  removed  all  his  murderous  appUances  ?  " 
asked  Patrice. 

"  No,  he  evidently  contemplated  coming  back  and  putting 
everything  to  riglits,  so  that  his  share  in  the  business  could 
not  be  proyed,  so  too  that  [leople  might  believe  in  your 
suicide,  a  mysterious  suicide,  death  without  apparent  cause 
in  short,  the  same  tragedy  that  happened  to  your  father 
and  Little  Mother  Coralie's  mother." 

"Then  you  know?     .     .     ." 

"  Why,  haven't  I  eyes  to  read  with  ?  What  about  the 
inscription  on  the  wall,  your  father's  revelations  ?  I  know 
as  much    as  you   do,   caj/tain  .     and  perhaps  a   bit 

more." 

Don  Luis  hesitated  whether  to  go  on  : 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  it's  better  that  I  shouldn't  speak.      The 
mystery  will  be  dispelled  gradually.     Let  us  wait.     l'<  r  th  • 
moment.     .     .     ." 

He  again  stopped,  this  time  to  hsten  : 

"  There,  he  must  have  seen  you.  And  now  that  he  knows 
what  he  wants  to,  he's  going  away." 

Patrice  grew  excited  : 

"  He's  going  away  !  You  really  ought  to  have  collared  him. 
Shall  we  ever  find  him  again,  the  scoundrel  ?  Shall  we  eyer 
be  able  to  take  our  revenge  ?  " 

Don  Luis  smiled  : 

"  There  you  go,  calling  him  a  scoundrel,  the  man  who 
watched  over  you  for  twenty  years,  who  brought  you  and 
Little  Mother  Coralie  together,  who  was  j'our  benefactor  !  " 

"  Oh,  1  don't  know  !  All  this  is  so  bewildering  !  I  can't 
help  hating  him.  .  .  .  Tlie  idea  of  his  getting  away 
maddens  me.  ...  I  should  hke  to  torture  him  and 
yet.     .     .     ." 

He  yielded  to  a  feeling  of  despair  and  took  his  head  between 
his  two  hands. ,   Don  Luis  comforted  him  : 

"  Have  no  fear,"  he  said.  "  He  was  never  nearer  his 
downfall  than  at  the  present  moment.  I  hold  him  in  my 
hand  as  I  hold  this  leaf !  " 

"  But  how  ?  " 

"  The  man  who's  driving  him  belongs  to  me." 

"  What's  that  ?    What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  I  mean  that  I  put  one  of  my  men  on  tlie  driver's  seat  of  a 
taxi,  witii  instructions  to  hang  about  at  the  bottom  of  the 
lane,  and  that  Sim  .on  did  not  fail  to  take  the  taxi  in  question." 

"  That  is  to  say,  you  suppose  so,"  Patrice  corrected  him, 
feeling  more  and  more  astounded. 

"  I  recognised  the  sound  of  the  engine  at  the  bottom  of  the 
garden,  when  I  told  you." 

"  And  are  you  sure  of  your  man  ?  " 

"  Certain." 

"  What's  the  use  ?      Simeon  can  dri  e  far  out  of  Paris, 

(Continued  on  pa^e  2i, 


February  8,  1917 


LAND    &     WATER 


21 


llllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllll{lllllllll!l!llllllllllllllllllllllllllllliy^^ 

HORLICK  S 
RATION 

OF 

MALTED  MILK 


TABLETS 

For  members   of   the    Expeditionary 
Forces  and   Prisoners  of   War. 

A  round,  air-tight  tin  weighing  7  ozs.  and  containing  80  highly 
Lompressed  tablets  : — this  is  Horlick's  24-Hov.r  Ration.  From  10 
to  20  tablets  dissp' .  ed  in  the  mouth  as  required  supply  the 
nourishment  given  by  an  ordinary  meal,  and  they  quickly  restore 
energy  and  vitality.  The  contents  of  one  tin  are  sufficient  to 
maintain  strength  and  vigour  fm-  24  hours  without  any  other 
fond,  and,  in  addition,  the  tablets  relieve  thirst.  Think  in  how 
many  ways  an  emergency  ration  such  as  this  would  be  useful  to 
every  .soldier  ! 

Sex»dl    on&    io    Y^OUI^    Soldiex*. 

Price  1  6  each,  post  free  to  any  address. 

See    that    our   name    appears    on 
every  container. 

If  your  Chmist  cannot  supply  you,  we 

will    send    the     tin    post    free    to    any 

address   on   receipt  of  1/6      G:ve  FULL 

name    and  address   to  wiiich  you  wish 

the   ration    sent,    also  state   your  own 

name  and  address,  and   write    plainly. 

Be   particular  to  give  reaimental   number, 

rank,      qarne,      scjuadron     or     company, 

battalion,    battery,     regiment    (or   otiier 

unit),  staff   appointment   or  department, 

State    with     wliicli    Expeditioirary     Force 

your  Soldier  is    serving. 

HORLICK'S  MALTED  MILK  Co., 

Slough,  Bucks,  England.  = 

iiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 


SMITHS'    "ALLIES" 

AND 

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Smith's 

Electric 

Reading 

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r  the  Bell. 


Rrcogn  zed  by 

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ISEST    LAMP) 

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Sterling     Silver 
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Dubt  and  Damj 
Proof   Ca.se. 

sterling    Silver,    Lev 
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Silver  Buckle. 

jiH  :  :^  :  It 


Price 


lilxtra  batteries 
Hermetically    sealed 


Sterling    Silver     Screw 

in  C^si  IVIedical  Watch 

Luminous  figures    and 

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SMITHS  HiKh  Qr.ide 

Lever  Movement. 
Ou'iranteed     pj  jr  a 
Timekeeper     H.IDIU 
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inciudinj!    one    extra    hnlh    ;n    Mil,  21/-. 

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in    Tin    lox.  Further   particul.irs  on  apiillcation. 


S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd, 

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Detachable  Fleece  Lining,  £1  11  6 
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™"  LAND  &  WATER 

WRIST  WATCH 


With  UNBREAKABLE  GLASS. 


The  "LAND  &  WATER"  WRIST  WATCH 
is   a  genuine   damp  and  dust-proof  watch, 

with  special  screw-in  movement,  unbreakable  glass  and 
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linest  quality  Timekeeper  obtainab  e  and  has  been  proved 
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!0-Guinea  Chronometer.  For  Naval  and  Military  men  it  is 
the  Ideal  Watch  and  is  being  worn  by  numerous  officers 
of  both  services.  When  writing  please  state  whether 
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recommended  in  tha  editorial   column  of    "  Lj\ND    &   WATLR." 


STEVIil.  WRISTLET 
slf-ud!UiUbU~fits  liny 
s<  v  wrist  or  anv  part  of 
arm.  Strnnz  tml  dnra- 
Oi  ,  p-rtmtttnti  waltk  to 
he  turn-d  ovtr  ftn  worn 
iice  do-i'nwards  Ihut 
Join^  iw.-iy  with  dial 
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Silver  I'Inted,  -  ~'R 
Uv  post.  -     •■i'H 


The  '■  [.and  &  Water  "  Wrist  Watch,  witk 
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153    FENCHURCH   ST.,   LONDON,    B.C. 

West  End  ara«*— 19  PICCADILLY  ARCADB 

l.]t.->  J.  B.,rwi«c). 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  8,  191 7 


{Continued  from  page  20) 
Stab  the  man  in  the  back     .     .     .     and  then  when  shaU  we 

L'et  to  know  ?  "  '      ,  ti    •         1 

"  Do  you  imagine  that  people  can  get  out  oi  Pans  and  go 
nmning  about  the  high-roads  without  a  special  permit  ? 
Ko  if  Simeon  leaves  I'aris,  he  will  have  to  drive  to  some 
railway-station  or  other  and  we  shall  know  of  it  twenty 
minutes  after.     And  then  we'll  be  oil." 

"How?" 

"  By  motor." 

"  Then  you  have  a  pass  ? 

"  Yes.  valid  for  the  whole  of  Fra;ice." 

"  You  don't  mean  it  ?  "  . 

"  I  do  •  and  a  genuine  pass  at  that  !  Made  out  m  the  name 
«f  Don  Luis  Perenna,  signed  by  the  Minister  of  the  Interior 
and  countersigned.     .     .     ." 

"  Bv  whom  ? 

"  By  the  President  of  the  Republic." 

Patrice  felt  his  bewilderment  change  all  at  once  into 
violent  excitement.  Hitherto,  in  the  terrible  adventure  in 
^•hich  he  was  engaged,  he  had  undergone  the  enemy's  im- 
placable will  and  had  known  little  besides  defeat  and  the 
horrors  of  ever-threatening  death.  But  now  a  more  power- 
ful will  suddenly  arose  in  his  favour.  And  everything  was 
abruptly  altered.  Fate  seemed  to  be  changing  its  course, 
like  a  ship  which  an  unexpected  fair  wind  brings  back  into 

harbour.  ,.  ■,  j.,        u^ 

"  Upon  my  word,  captain,"  said  Don  Luis,  I  thought 
you  were  going  to  cry  hke  Little  Mother  Coralie.  Your 
nerves  are  overstrung.  And  I  daresay  you're  hungiy.  We 
must  find  you  something  to  eat.     Come  along." 

He  led  him  slowly  towards  the  lodge  and,  speaking  in  a 
rather  serious  voice :  ,      ,      ,• 

"  I  must  ask  you,"  he  said,  "  to  be  absolutely  discreet  in 
this  whole  matter.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  old  friends 
and  of  Ya-Bon,  whom  I  met  in  Africa,  where- he  saved  my 
life  no  one  in  France  knows  me  by  my  real  name.  I  caU 
myself  Don  Luis  Perenna.  In  Morocco,  where  I  was  soldier- 
ing, I  had  occasion  to  do  a  service  to  the  very  gracious 
sovereign  of  a  neighbouring  neutral  nation,  who,  though 
obliged  to  conceal  his  true  feelings,  is  ardently  on  our  side. 
He  sent  for  me  ;  and,  in  return,  I  asked  him  to  give  me  my 
credentials  and  to  obtain  a  pass  for  me.  Officially,  therefore, 
I  am  on  a  secret  mission,  which  expires  in  two  days. 

They  came  to  the  settee  on  which  Coralie  lay  sleeping. 
Don  Luis  laid  his  hand  on  Patrice's  arm  : 

"  One  word  more,  captain.  I  swore  to  myself  and  I  gave 
my  word  of  honour  to  him  who  trusted  me  that,  while  I 
was  on  this  mission,  my  time  should  be  devoted  exclusively 
to  defending  the  interests  of  my  country  to  the  best  of  my 
power.  I  must  warn  you,  therefore,  that,  notwithstanding 
all  my  symapthy  for  vou,  I  shall  not  be  able  to  prolong  my 
stay  for  a  single  minute  after  I  have  discovered  the  eighteen 
hundred  bags  of  gold.  They  were  the  one  and  only  reason 
why  I  came  in  answer  to  Ya- Bon's  appeal.  When  the  bags  of 
gold  are  in  our  possession,  that  is  to  say,  to-morrow  evening  at 
latest,  I  shall  go  away.  However,  the  two  quests  are  joined. 
The  clearing  up  of  the  one  will  mean  the  end  of  the  other. 
And  now  enough  of  words.  Introduce  me  to  Little  Mother 
Coralie  and  let's  get  to  work  !  Make  no  mystery  with  her, 
he  added,  laughing.  "  Tell  her  my  real  name.  I  have 
nothing  to  fear:  Arsene  Lupin  has  every  woman  on  his  side. 
*         *         *         •         * 

Forty  minutes  later,  Coralie  was  back  in  her  room,  well- 
cared  for  and  well  watched.  Patrice  had  taken  a  substantial 
meal,  while  Don  Luis  walked  up  and  down  the  terrace  smoking 
cigarettes. 

"  Finished,  captain  ?    Then  we'll  make  a  start. 

He  looked  at  his  watch  : 

"  Half-past  five.  We  have  more  than  an  hour  of  daylight 
kft.     That'll  be  enough." 

"  Enough  ?  You  surely  don't  pretend  that  you  will  achieve 
vour  aim  in  an  hour  ?  " 

"  My  definite  aim,  no,  but  the  aim  which  I  am  setting 
mvself  at  the  moment,  yes  .  .  .  and  even  earlier.  An 
hour  ?  What  for  ?  To  do  what  ?  Why,  you'll  be  a  good  deal 
wiser  in  a  few  minutes  !  "  '  ,     ,., 

Don  Luis  asked  to  be  taken  to  the  cellar  under  the  hbrary, 
where  Essares  Bey  used  to  keep  the  bags  of  gold  until  the 
time  had  come  to  send  them  off. 

"  Was  it  through  this  ventilator  that  the  bags  were  let 

d'Avn  ? 
■  Yes." 

"  Is  there  no  other  outlet  ?  " 

"  None  except  the  staircase  leading  to  the  library  and  the 
other  ventilator." 

■'  Op.-'iiing  on  the  terrace  ?  " 
"  Yes." 

"  Tiien  that's  clear.  The  bags  used  to  come  in  by  the  first 
and  go  out  by  the  second." 


Tiicy  returned  to  the  terrace.  Don  Luis  took  up  his 
positKm  nuar  the  ventilator'and  inspected  the  ground  imme- 
diately around.  It  did  not  take  long.  Four  yards  away, 
outside  the  windows  of  the  library,  was  the  basin  with  the 
statue  of  a  child  spouting  a  jet  of  water  through  a  shell. 

Don  Luis  went  up,  examined  the  basin  and,  leaning  for- 
wards, reached  the  httle  statue,  which  he  turned  upon  its 
axis  from  riglit  to  left.  At  the  same  time  the  pedestal 
described  a  quarter  of  a  circle. 

"  That's  it,"  he  said,  drawing  himself  up  again. 

"  What  ?  " 

"  The  basin  will  empty  itself." 

He  was  rig'nt.  Tlu  water  sank  very  quickly  and  the  bottom 
of  the  fountain  appeared. 

Don  Luis  stepped  into  it  and  squatted  on  his  haunches. 
The  inner  wall  was  lined  with  a  marble  mosaic  composing  a 
wide  red-and-white  fretwork  pattern.  In  the  middle  of 
one  of  the  frets  was  a  ring,  which  Don  Luis  lifted  and  pulled. 
All  that  portion  of  the  wall  which  formed  the  pattern  yielded 
to  his  effort  and  carrie  down,  leaving  an  opening  of  about 
twelve  inches  by  ten. 

"  That's  where  the  bags  of  gold  went,"  said  Don  Luis 
"  It  was  the  second  stage.  Tliey  were  dispatched  in  the 
same  manner,  on  a  hook  sliding  along  a  wire.  Look,  here  is 
the  wire,  in  this  groove  at  the  top." 

"  By  Jove  !  "  cried  Captain  Belval.  "  But  you've  un- 
ravelled this  in  a  masterly  fashion  !  What  about  the  wire  ? 
Can't  we  follow  it  ?  " 

"  No,  but  it  will  serve  our  purpose  if  we  know  where  it 
finishes.  I  say,  captain,  go  to  the  end  of  the  garden,  by 
the  wall,  taking  a  line  at  right  angles  to  the  house.  When 
you  get  there,  cut  off  a  branch  of  a  tree,  rather  high  up. 
Oh,  I  was  forgetting  !  I  shall  have  to  go  out  by  the  lane. 
Have  you  the  key  of  the  door  ?     Give  it  me,  pleasje." 

Patrice  handed  him  the  key  and  then  went  down  to  the 
wall  beside  the  quay. 

"  A  little  farther  to  the  right,"  Don  Luis  instructed  hrm. 
"  A  little  more  still.     That's  better.     Now  wait." 

He  left  the  garden  by  the  lane,   reached  the  quay  and 
called  out  from  the  other  side  of  the  wall : 
■    "  Fix  your  branch  so  that  I  can  see  it  from  here.    Capital. 
Patrice  now  joined  Don  Luis,  who  was  crossing  the  road. 

(To  be  continued.) 


Sir  Edward  Holden  who  presided  at  the  annual  general  meeting  of 
the  London  Ci,y  and  Midland  Bank,  Ltd.,  in  the  course  of  his  address, 
said  tliat  as  we  stood  to-day  we  were  in  the  midst  of  great  economic 
phenomena.  Our  country  was  overflowing  with  money  and  credit. 
Large  prolits  were  bdng  made,  due  greatly  to  increised  prices  and 
our  working  classes  were  earning  larger  wages  than  ever  before  ;  some 
were  spending  freely,  others  were  saving.  The  same  conditions  pre- 
vailed in  Germany,  and  reviewing  the  position  one  was  inclinod  to  ask 
how  was  this  credit  created,  and  where  did  the  money  come  from  ? 
He  went  on  to  show  in  detail  how  bankers  were  great  manufacturers  ol 
credit  and  explained  how  nearly  all  the  loan  transactions  of  banks 
created  credit.  There  was  no  disorganisation  of  banks'  reserves  when 
the  C.overnment  borrowed  on  Treasury  Bills,  Exchequer  Bonds  and 
other  short-term  securities,  because  the  amounts  lent  on  them,  although 
withdrawn  from  the  banks,  were  not  of  sufficient  weekly  magtiitude 
to  inconvenience  the  reserves  of  the  banks  before  they  were  again  rt- 
plenished  by  the  return  of  the  withdrawals.  When  bank  depositors 
used  their  derosits  to  subscribe  for  loans,  these  deposits  were  merely 
transferred  to  ihe  overnment,  and.  after  disbursement  by  the  '  overn- 
meat  found  their  way  back  to  the  joint  stock  banks  through  the  accounts 
of  the  overnment  Contractors.  There  was  here  no  creation  of  credit . 
but  merely  a  transfer  from  the  subscriber  to  the  oovernraent,  from  th.- 
Government  to  the  contractors,  from  the  contractors  to  the  banks. 

Mr  Walter  Leaf,  Deputy  Chairman,  who  presided  at  the  annual 
general  meeting  of  the  London  County  and  Westminster  Bank,  said 
tliat  the  state  of  affairs  shown  in  the  report  was  one  of  which  the  bank 
might  be  proud.  So  far  as  the  internal  affairs  of  the  bank  were 
concerned  the  year  1916  had  been  one  of  steady  and  v^ry  profitable 
prosperity.  The  most  striking  change  in  the  course  of  the  2  J  years 
was  the  increase  in  investments  in  >, overnment  Stock,  these  had 
risen  from  about  loj  millions  to  nearly  32*  millions.  This  wa-s  due 
to  the  part  played  by  the  banks  in  subscribing  for  the  4J  per  cent.  War 
Loan  eighteen  months  ago.  Their  gross  profits  for  the  y«ar  we,«  a 
record  Peace -victorious  peace— would  bring  with  it  fresh  problems 
on  every  hand  and  for  losses  and  difficulties  which  might  then  arise  it 
behoved  them  to  make  preparation  beforehand.  The  necessity  of 
making  the  new  Loan  an  entire  success  was  patent  to  everyone. 
There  was  however,  one  serious  obstacle  in  the  way.  That  was  the 
idea  that  seemed  to  have  got  about  that  success  was  already  as.sured 
and  that  the  small  investor,  therefore,  need  not  trouble  himself  about 
what  was  sufficiently  dealt  with  by  the  big  men.  Such  an  idea  was 
completely  baseless.  The  Loan  was  not  already  an  assured  success- 
far  from  it.  It  had  got  to  be  made  so  in  t,,e  next  three  weeks  and  every 
one  in  the  Unite!  Kingdom  had  got  to  put  his  back  into  the  task  or 
there  would  be  no  success  at  all.  It  was  impossible  not  to  feel  some 
^■ense  of  rhame  when  thev  saw  the  way  in  which  the  1  erman  nation  had 
rcsponde.l  to  the  a-p  .als  for  loans  made  to  them.  If  all  their  customer 
arcording  to  their  means.  wo)ild  come  to  them  ready  to  lend  not  only 
their  savings  in  the  past,  but  with  the  bank's  assistance  their  savings 
in  the  future  and  above  all  determined  to  increase  those  future 
savings  to  their  uttermost  power,  then  woull  the  Loan  be  an  assured 
success.     It  all  lav  in  the  hand;  of  the  small  man. 


February   15,  191 7 


Supplement     to       LAND    &    WATER" 


IX 


OFFICERS' 

RIDING 
BREECHES 

Successful  breeches- 
making    depends    on    the 
following    factors  —  fine 
wear  -  resisting        cloths, 
skilful    cutting,     careful 
thorough       tailor  -  work 
and  adequate  experience 
All  these  we   guarantee 
and  in  particular  the  last 
for  we  have  been  breeches 
makers    since     1821 
ninety-six  years  ago. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of 
pairs  of  breeches,  and  are  there- 
fore often  able  to  meet  immediate 
requirements,  or  we  can  cut  and 
try  a  pair  on  the  same  day,  and 
complete  the  next  day,  if  urgently 
wanted. 


GRANT .soCOCKBURNssro  ... 

LTD. 

25  PICCADILLY,  W. 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,.  Legging  Makers. 


ELIZABETH, 


LTD. 


i5,   SOUTH  MOLTON  STREET, 

NEW  BOND  ST.,   W. 


Telephone  : 
3238    MAYFAIR. 


Improved  Elizabeth 
Smock  in  water- 
proof drill     -     -     £1    19     6 

Do.  in  Gamekeeper 

brown  corduory  •     £2    19     6 

In  serge  or  tweed    -     £2  15     6 

Elizabeth     Breeches 
with  apron    (ront 
fastening    at  sides 
i  n        waterproof 
drill   -       -     -     •     SI     5     6 

Do.     In  corduroy   -      £1    11      6 

Do.     In   serge   or 
tweed  -     -     -     -     £1    15     6 


Hats     and    Caps  to 
match     from  - 


12     6 


EVERYTHING      FOR     WOMEN'S 
PRACTICAL     OUTDOOR     WEAR. 

Estimates  and    suggestions    will    be 
sent  to  customers    upon  application. 


—  The  Original  Cording' s,  Estd.  1839 

In  the  wettest,  coldest  weather 

a  fleece-lined  "  EquitorlLn., 

ithe   really   waterproof  coat}, 
ensures  dry,  warm  comfort. 

Daily  we  receive  evidence  from 
tlioM;  who  havu  paid  for  thtiir 
knowletlge  in  money  and  serious 
rti.stomfort,  that  a  semi-proof 
(weatherproof)  coat  fails  to  keep 
out  the  wet,  that  the  outer  shell 
becomes  water-10}^ge<i  ami  that 
even  if  lined  with  oilskin  or  the 
like  tile  damp  stili  strikes 
through  the  t«eams  at  tile  luckless 
wearer. 

An  "Eqiiitor,"  with  snug  fleece 
woollen  lining  buttoned  in,  makes 
an  excellent  great-coat  in  which  to 
"travel  ligiit."  and  will  not  only 
keep  a  man  bone  dry  through  the 
hf-avlest  and  most  lasting  down- 
pour, but  will  also  warmly  pro- 
t*'ct  him  in  biting  cold  weather, 
md  may  therefore  be  relied  upon 
to  minimise  the  ill-effects  of  en- 
torced  exposure  at  night. 
The  "E<|uitor"  is  flttwl  with  a 
spcciaJ  riding  apron,  but  the  coat 
serves  just  a.3  well  for  ordinary 
wear  afoot,  whether  the  apron  be 
fastened  back  or  not. 
In  our  light-weight  No.  31  material, 
the  price  of  the  "Equitor"  is  92/6; 
of  our  No.  23  cashmere  a  medium, 
weight  cloth,  115/-;  without  apron 
(either  clcth),  17/6  less,  with  belt, 
Sf.    .iXfra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat 
can  be  had  in  two  qualities— No.  1 
(line  wool),  62/6;    No.  2,  *)/-. 

When  ordermg  an  "Equitor"  Coat 
please  state  height  and  chest 
measure  and  send  remittance 
(which  will  be  returned  promptly 
if  the  ooat  is  not  approved),  or 
give  home  address  and  business 
(not  banker's)  reference. 


Illustrated  List  at  request. 


WATF.RPROOFF.RS 
LTD      TOH.M.  THE  KING 


J.  C  CORDING  &  C2. 

Only  Addresses  : 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.,  &  35  st.  jamess  st.,  s.w. 


flkj^ 


Ordinary  puttees  do 
not  look  neat,  neither 
will  they  keep  in  posi- 
lion  unless  tigh  ly  put 
on,  and  this  tightness 
is  the  cau5e  of  that 
sense  of  leg-tiredness 
and  foot  -  heaviness 
from  which  so  many 
men  suffer. 

Boyd's  Elastic  Puttees 
entirely  overcome  this 
trouble,  for,  being  elas- 
tic, they  grip  the  leg 
gently  but  firmly, 
always  look  neat,  and 
give  sufficiently  to 
allow  the  normal  action 
of  the  veins  and 
muscles.  They  also  provide  a  comfortable  support  and 
increase  the  marching  power  of  the  wearer. 

BOYD'S     ELASTIC 

PATENT 

PUTTEES. 

Mode  frojn  the  fine-'st  Eijyptian  Cotton   and  best  Para  Rubber. 
They  are  fery  duralile,  tuatrrprooferl,  and  are  both  reversible  and 
interchnntjenble.       Fastened  by  Patent   Honks   top  and  bottom, 
making  them  easy  to  put  on  and  take  off. 

Boyd's     Elastic      Puttees     are    claimed     to     be     a 
preventative  again<t,  and  cure  for,  varicose  veins. 

Infantry   9/-  per  pair.         Cavalry  10/-  per  pair. 

Each   'Pultee  bears  a  metal  tab. 

Of  all  leading  Military  Tailors  and  Outfitters.     If  any  difficulty 

in  procuring  write  to  the  Sole  Makers. 

M.    WRIGHT    &    SONS,    LIMITED, 

Quorn  Mills,  Near  Loughborougb. 


Supplement    to     LAND    &     WATER 


February  15,    191 7 


The  Coat  for  the  Practical  Soldier 

T   ET  the  sleet  slash  its  hardest,  the  wind  shout  its  loudest,  rain  beat  and 
pour,  frost  gnaw  and  mumble,  clammy  Flanders  fog  crawl  and  creep 
—they  won't  find  a  way  through  your  "  Thresher." 

The  inner  warmth-lining  keeps  you  in  the  warm  glow  that  means  not  only 
comhjrt,  but  fighting  efficiency— a  warm  soldier's  a  better  soldier  than  a  cold 
soldier.  But  no  warmth-lining  will  keep  out  cold  if  it  gets  damp— so 
outside  It  IS  the  special  "  Thresher  "  waterproof  lining  which  gives  the 
absolute  uncompromising  "  na-poo  "  to  wet  in  any  form.  Then  to  take 
the  rough  wear  and  tear  of  trench  work  you  have  the  outside  shell  of  hard 
kliaki  dnll— Itself  practically  waterproof  and  with  a  smooth  surface  very 
disappointing  to  mud.  Take  all  that  with  the  freedom  cut  of  the  thin- 
and  the  cleverly  simple  fastenings  at  neck  and  wrists  and  you  have  the 
pnictiral  soldiering  coat  which  the  War  Office  recommends,  which  14,000 
officers  wear  and  which  is  copied  so  copiously  and  so  ineffectively. 


"Thresher"  Trench  Coal  £4.    14.   6 

Detachable  "  Kamelcott "  Lining  ...  £1    .    11    !   6 

Detachable  Slieepskin  Lining       £3  .    13  .    6 

Cavalry  type    wilh  knee   Baps  and  ladille  guticl.    15/6  «tra. 

All  sizts   in  stock.     Send  size  of  ckrst  and  approximate  keight,  and 
to    avoid  any  delay  enclose  cheque  when  ordering. 


Send  for  Book(7)  the  Com- 
plete Guide  to  ExpeniJI- 
ture  on  Kit  and  Lquipment- 


^um 


Scottish  Agents: 
XVM.  ANDERSON    &   SON, 
14  George  Street.  tdiDburgh 
&  106  Hope  Street,  Glasgow. 


Bv  Apf3oititm£}U  to 
H.M.  the  King. 


TRENCH  COAT 

THRESHER   &    GLENNY, 

Est.  l7.S,i      Military  Tailojs  since  the  Crimean  War.     Est.  17SS 

152  &  153  STRAND,  LONDON.  W.C- 


rUnder  Two  Fla^sl 

God  for  the  Empire— the  Empire  for  God 

—  ^^ 

Born  within  the  Empire,  and  now  spread    far    beyond    its    remotest 
outposts,  the    Salvation    Army,  in    its  manifold  activities  for    the 
material,  moral,  and  spiritual  welfare  of  mankind,  is  a  corporate 
'■xample  of  Christian  Patriotism.     Under  God,  it  has  saved  to 
the  Empire  thousands  of  men  and  women  who  otherwise 
would  have  rotted  at  the  Nation's  heart  and  threatened 
its  undoing.     It  exists  for  one  purpose  only — to  do 
good ;  and'  in  its  interpretation  of  that  purpose  it 
treats  man  as  a  spiritual  being.      From  its  low- 
liest soldier  to  its  General  it  toils 

FOR  GOD  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

\^'hen  War  broke  out  it  at  once  proved  itself 

AN  OLD  FRIEND  in  a  NEW  CRISIS 

Its  followers— soldier  and  civilian — sire  servinij  under 
two  flags.  Its  Naval  and  Military  League  which  has 
for  many  years  ministered  to  Service  men  has  now- 
been  enormouslye.xtcndedtomeetthe  greatdemnnds 

made  upon  it  in  connection  with  the  present  War.  and  assistance  is  urgently 

required  to  niainta'n  its  Hostels  for  Soldiers  on  Leave;  its  Huts  at  Work 

IN  the  niFiKKENT  Ca.mps  ;  THE  Amui  LANCE  Work  carried  on  by  its  Fleet 

of  Motor  Cars  on  the  Field  of  Battle  ;  the  Visiting  of  SrcK  and  Wounded 
in  the  Military  Hospitals,  etc.,  etc. 

Cheques  should  be  made  payable  to  GENERAL  BOOTH,  and  sent  to  him 
at  101,  QUEEN  VICTORIA  STREET,  LONDON,  E.C 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII  No.  2858  [y%l\]      THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  15,  19^7        [a  N^Ew^p'^AgE^^]  PRfc"  st 


REGISTERED  AS"!     PUBLISHF.D  WEEKLY 


Bj  Louis  Raemaeken 


Drawn  e^clusinly  lot   "  Land  i    Water  ' 


Will  they  last  long  enough^  Father  ?  " 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  15,   1917. 


AFTER     A    HARD     DAY'S     WORK 


DUNLOP  TYRE   PICK,   3d. 


DUN  LOP    GUTCURE 

CEMENT  AND  SOLUTION 
A  TIN     3/9 


a  carter  stables  his  team  and  proceeds  to 
groom  them  before  bedding  them  down  for 
the  night.  He  pays  particular  attention  to 
his  horses'  feet.  He  knows  that  neglect 
means    sickness,    and    sickness    loss    of    time. 

In  just  the  same  way  it  will  repay  you  to  run 
over  your  tyres  after  a  long  day's  run.  If  there 
are  any  flints  embedded  in  the  tread,  pick  them 
out  with  a  Dunlop  Tyre  Pick  and  fill  up  any 
small     cuts     with    Dunlop    Cutcure    Cement. 


©y  K]L(Q)[p> 

RUBBER  COMPANY,  LTD., 

Founders     of     the     Pneumatic     Tvre     Industry, 
Para     Mills,     Aston     Cross,     BIRMINGHAM. 

OF    ALL     MOTOR     AGENTS. 


February  15.' 19^7 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,    W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  15.   1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


War's  Hour  Glass.     By  Louis  Raemaekcrs  i 

Winning  the  War.     (Leader)  3 

Evacuation  of  Grandcourt.     By  Hilairc  Belloc  4 

Le  Credo  du  Soldat  (Poem)      By  Emile  Cammaerts  6 

German  Failure.     By  Arthur  Pollen  9 

Land  Without  Labour.     By  The  Editor  n 

The  Soldier  Who  Sings.— I L     By  Lewis  R.  Freeman  1.5 

Memories  of  Many  Waterfalls.  ■   By  William  f.  Palmer  15 

Prisoners  of  War  in  Germany.     (Review)  10 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  17 

The  Golden  Triangle.     By  Maurice  Leblanc  i« 

The  West  End  -j 

Kit  and  Equipment          *■  ^^ 


WINNING    THE     WAR 

IF   a   stranger  to  these    islands  had    strayed  into 
the  House  of  Commons  on  Monday  afternoon  when 
the  Chancellor  of  the    Exchequer    spoke    on    the 
Expenditure  and  apphed   for  a  vote  of  550  millions 
sterling,  he  would  have  found  it  difficult  to  understand 
how  it  comes  about  that  Parliament  is  often  regarded  with 
light   esteem  by   the   nation   during  these  later  years. 
Never  has  the  assembly  appeared  to  better  advantage. 
Mr.  Bonar  Law's  speech  was  admirable  in  its  tone  and  in 
its  phrasing  ;  he  spoke  with  a  full  sense  of  the  importance 
of  the  occasion  ;  there  was  no  rhetoric  ;    it  was  the  simple 
but  resolute  utterance    of  a  business  man,  addressed  to 
a    business    audience     which    thoroughly    realised    the 
significance  of  his  figures.     His  statement  was  received 
in  sympathetic  silence  which  was  only  broken    when 
he  referred  with  quiet  confidence  to  the  time  "  after  we 
have  won  the  war."    At  the  end  of  the  current  financial 
year  he  told  the  House  that  ths  gross  National  Debt  will  be 
between    £3,800,000,000  and  £3,900,000,000— figures    so 
stupendous  that  it  is  difficult  for  anyone  to  grasp  their 
exact  meaning,  but  he  also  mentioned  how  when  Water- 
loo was  won  and  the  Napoleonic  menace  finally    at    an 
end,  these  islands— there  was  practically  no  Empire  in 
those  diys  —  found  themselves  saddled  with  a  national 
debt  of  £800,000,000,  which   taking    all  circumstances 
into  consideration  was  a  heavier  burden  than  the  net 
3,000  millions  which  this  generation  has  to  face. 

As  then,  so  now,  the  hberty  and  progress  of  Europe 
were  in  the  balance.     It  was  the  sword  of  Britain  and  her 
gauntlets  of  gold  that  turned  the  scale.     There  was  no 
ialtering   in    those    distant    days   although   the   nation 
was  never  so  united  as  now,  and  for  twenty  years  victory 
remained  doubtful.     The   heavy  burden  was  manfully 
shouldered,  and  looking  backward  after  three  generations, 
we  can  see  that  the  sacrifices  of  our  fathers'  fathers  were 
well  worth  while.     Again  the_  call  has  come  to  Britain  and 
again  she  has  entered  on  a  liercc  struggle  for  freedom  — 
a  struggle  that  has  been  none  of  her  seeking.  Life  and 
wealth  she  willingly  surrenders,  holding  that  the  ideals 
for  which  she  fights  arc  of  infinitely  higher  value  in  the 
upward  advance  of  humanity  than  national  riches    or 
personal  length  of  days.     Not  yet  has  victory  declared 
itself,  bvit  in  the  chill  of  these  raw  winter  days,  we  seem 
almost  to  detect  the  first  cold  flutter  of  the  dawn-wind. 
But  there  arc  dark  and  difficult  hours  ahead  of  each  one 
before  peace  is  really  here  with  us.     "  The  success  of  the 
Wa.rLoan"  said  Mr.  Bonar  Law  on  Monday,   "  depends 


not  only  on  the  amount  ot  money  wlncli  comes  in  but 
on  the  wide-spread  character  of  the  apphcations."  This 
is  the  way  in  which  even  the  humblest  citizen  can  assist. 
Before  the  Loan  closes  to-morrow  evening,  there  should 
not  be  a  household  in  these  islands  which  has  not  sent 
in  its  application  for  a  share  in  it,  howf;ver  small. . 

Turning  to.  the  present  work  for  the  successful  pro- 
secution of  the  war,  Mr.  McKenna's  criticisms  on  the 
duties  of  Controllers  were  very  much  to  the  point.  As 
he  remarked,  when  a  Controller  is  placed  over  a  par- 
ticular business,  you  cannot  cut  off  tliat  business  from 
the  rest  of  the  social  organisation.  The  appointment  of 
such  Ministers  entails  the  necessity  of  even  greater 
co-ordination  than  in  the  past.  This  is  becoming 
recognised,  and  the  final  success  of  these  new  Departments 
must  largely  depend  on  the  steps  which  are  now  being 
taken  to  rectify  the  lack  of  cohesion  on  which  the  former 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  rightly  dwelt.  Between 
the  Board  of  Agriculture  and  the  Food  Ministry  there 
is  evidently  a  want  of  complete  understanding  which  is 
puzzling  to  the  people.  At  the  same  time  one  has  to 
recognise  that  so  complicated  and  obscure  are  the  rami- 
fications of  trade,  more  especially  retail  trade,  that  the 
simplest  order  cannot  be  promulgated  which  does  not  call 
into  existence  unforeseen  conditions,  no  matter  how 
closely  the  subject  has  been  studied. 

It  becomes  more  evident  daily  that  wherever  it  is 
possible  to  rely  on  voluntary  effort,  the  result  is  the 
best.  It  has  been  so  with  the  War  Loan  which  everyone 
believes  will  plainly  estabhsh  in  the  minds  of  neutrals 
and  enemies  Britain's  unflinching  determination  to  carry 
the  war  through  to  an  absolute  military  victory.  And  it 
ought  to  be  the  same  as  regards  all  other  orders  and 
regulations  which  the  Government  considers  neces- 
sary to  issue  for  the  same  object.  Offences  against  the 
present  licensing  laws,  which  are  committed  by  a  \cry 
small  minority,  should  no  longer  be  punishable  with  a 
fine,  but  with  imprisonment  and  hard  labour.  Since  the 
community  at  large  is  willingly  foregoing  personal  libert\-, 
it  is  intolerable  that  a  small  minority  should  be  allowed 
to  defy  necessary  regulations  for  the  sake  of  filthy  lucre, 
and  if  detected  receive  only  the  comparatively  small 
penalty  of  normal  times. 

There  was  one  point  in  Mr  Bonar  Law's  speech  to  which 
we  must  revert  for  a  moment.     He  mentioned  that  the 
increase  of  daily  expenditure  was  due  partly  to  the  in. 
creased  cost  of  food,  and  partly  to  the  greater  output 
of  munitions.     He  said  that  if  he  were  at  liberty  to  give 
the  House  the  figures  showing  the  supply  of  munitions 
at  one  period    and  another,  they  would  be  astonished. 
It  is  an  increase  which  is  going  on  all  the  time  and  is  a^ 
marked  now  as  compared  with  six  months  ago  as  it  was 
at  any  previous  time.     The  nation  has  willingly  organised 
and  disciplined  itself  for  this  purpose  in  a  way  which  was 
deemed  impossible  three  years  ago,  and  it  is  most  satis- 
factory to  know  that  the  result  is  so  excellent.     Germany, 
with  her  forty  years  of  preparation,  thought  it  impcssible 
that  any  nation  could  ever  beat  her  in  the  matter  of  big 
guns   and   plentiful   ammunition,   but   already    on    the 
Somme  she  is  learning  her  mistake.     She  has  still  a  good 
deal  more  to  learn  of  the  character  and  industry  of  the 
British  people  in  the  coming  months.     The  fiercer  her 
submarine  menace,  the  more  resolute  are  wc  to  defeat  it. 
We  know  now  that  this  depends  not  only  on  the  Nav>-. 
but  on  ourselves,  and  are  ready  for  any  self-denial  which 
the   C.overnment   may   declare   to   be   necessary.     The 
example  which   our  splendid  fighting-men  have  given 
during  the  last  terrible  thirty  months  is  not  thrown  away. 
Whether  it  be  in  the  matter  of  lending  money  to  the  State 
or  of  foregoing  excess  and  luxury,  we— the  great  majority 
of  us  that  is— are  only  too  glad  of  the  occasion  for  proving 
our  merit.      The   present    call   to  National  Service  is 
another  welcome  opportunity. 


LAxND    &    WATER 


rebruary  15,  1917 


Evacuation  of  Grandcourt 


By   Hilaire   Belloc 


THE  evacuation  of  Grandcourt  by  the  enemy 
is.  though  it  is  but  a  detail,  a  very  interesting 
piece  of  news.  If  I  were  to  use  the  word 
"  significant  "  that  would  be  pretending  to  under- 
stand its  consequences,  which  I  cannot  e\-en  suggest. 
(Jnly  Professional  soldiers  on  the  spot  can  judge  of  such 
matters,  but  what  1  can  do  is  to  put  before  the  reader,  so 
far  as  the  ofticial  despatches  pennit  it,  the  nature  of  the 
ground  taken,  the  cause  of  the  enemy's  action,  and  the 
consequences,  so  far  as  mere  ground  is  concerned,  of  the 
nio\ement. 

By  the  end  of  November  last  the  British  line  upon 
either  side  of  the  Ancre  ran  more  (^r  less  after  the  hnc  of 
dots  sketched  upon  the  accompanying  map. 

It  ran  across  the  spur  between  Beaumont  Hamel  and 
Beaucourt,  without  reaching  the  height  of  the  hill  B 
(Hill  143),  which  dominates  Beaumont  Hamel.  It  ran 
down  the  spur  at  the  foot  of  which  Beaucourt  lies,  included 
— that  is,  covered — Beaucourt,  seems  to  have  formed  a 
little  salient  up  to  the  square  copse  east  of  that  ^'illage, 
and  so  reached  the  marshy  and  flooded  Ancre \alley.  On 
the  far  side  of  the  valley  it  followed  the  V-shaped  de- 
pression which  here  looks  straight  down  on  the  Ancre 
\alley  from  the  southward.  Thence  it  curled  round  after 
the  shape  shown  on  Map  I.,  to  a  point  in  front  of  Pys 
beyond  which  we  need  not  follow  it  for  the  moment. 

If  the  reader  will  look  closely  at  the  contour  lines  of  the 
accompanying  map  he  will  see  that  there  was  direct 
vision  of  Grandcourt  from  the  west,  that  is,  up  the  flat 
of  the  Ancre  valley.  There  was  also  direct  \ision  of  it 
from  the  angle  which  the  line  made  at  C  in  front  of  the 
captured  Regina  trench,  on  the  left  end  of  that  trench. 
There  was,  I  believe,  not  direct  \ision  from  the  salient 
which  runs  south  of  Grandcourt  at  I),  because  the  spur  of 
land  is  flattish  at  first  and  only  begins  to  fall  noticeably 


as  Grandcourt  is  approached.  Nevertheless,  the  German 
position  in  Grandcourt  was  a  diflicult  one  even  under  the 
conditions  of  the  modern  defensi\e.  It  was  threatened 
by  direct  vision  from  two  sides  (if  I  am  not  mistaken) 
and  the  salient  it  formed  was  fairly  ])ronounced.  The 
capture  of  Beaucourt  on  No\cmber  i  ;th  and  14th had 
made  this  salient  sharp.  The  real  strength  of  the  Ger- 
mans here  lay  in  the  conformation  of  the  ground  south  of 
Grandcourt,  for  this  rounded  spur  covered  the  enemy  in 
the  flat  of  the  valley  below.  To  reduce  the  salient  the 
British  lirst  attacked  east  of  Beaucourt,  that  is,  up  the 
Ancre  valley  and  along  the  heights  which  flank  it  to  the 
north.  Ihey  attacked  on  the  night  of  Saturday,  February 
.jrd.  The  despatch  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  informs 
us  that  on  a  front  of  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  the 
line  was  advanced  eastward  over  a  depth  of  some  500 
yards.  If  the  reader  will  look  at  my  sketch  map  he  will 
see  that  this  would  mean  the  occupation  of  the  square 
copse  at  E  mentioned  abox'e,  and  considerable  progress 
up  the  hill  (Hill  217)  from  the  summit  of  which  at  A  I 
remember  in  the  old  days  of  peace  a  very  extended  \iew 
northward,  and,  what  is  better,  direct  observation  of  all 
the  Upper  Ancre  valley  with  its  enemy  gun  positions. 
This  is  the  hill  between  Miraumont  and  Beaucourt,  the 
importance  of  which  I  suggested  to  my  readers  many  weeks 
ago,  and  with  regard  to  which  I  asked  at  that  time  (in 
the  middle  of  No\ember)  whether  the  British  success  at 
Beaucourt  had  carried  their  line  to  its  summit.  As  we 
now  know,  the  line  was  not  carried  so  far,  and  the  British 
are  not  yet  in  possession  of  this  summit.  But  though 
the  success  of  Saturday  last  did  not  reach  the  summit  it 
carried  the  line  well  on  to  the  slopes  and,  what  is  more 
important  for  the  immediate  object  of  reducing  the 
salient,  it  made  that  salient  far  more  acute.  At  the 
same  time,  it  added  to  the  acutcness  of  the  Serrc  salient. 


Cbnttarsafiomerr-es'^^ 


February  15;  T917 


LAND    &    WATER 


From  the  slope  of  the  spur  whicli  had  just  been  con- 
quered below  summit  A,  the  main  road,  with  tjje  ruined 
farm  of  Baillescourt  to  the  south  of  it,  is  rmder  direct 
observation  and,  on  the  far  side  of  the  little  river,  the 
whole  of  the  ruins  of  Grandcourt. 

(-  It  was  clear,  when  this  situation  had  been  reached,  that 
the  enemy  must  do  one  of  three  things  :  Recover  the  lost 
ground  on  the  rising  fields  above  Beaucourt  ;  failing  this, 
hang  on  to  Grandcourt  until  he  lost  it,  at  a  great  cost  to 
himself,  but  presumably  at  a  heavy  cost  also  to  his 
opponent ;  or,  lastly,  with  the  object  of  economising  his 
men,  abandon  Grandcourt  voluntarily. 

The  enemy  conunand  clearly  decided  for  the  first  ot 
these  courses,  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  recover  the 
ground  lost  to  the  British  east  of  Beaucourt,  which  loss 
had  put  the  position  of  Grandcourt  into  such  peril. 
Therefore,  upon  Sunday  the  4th  and  Monday  the  5th,  no 
less  than  six  counter-attacks  were  delivered,  starting,  it 
may  be  presumed,  from  the  double  trench  which  runs 
down  the  slope  of  the  hill  on  to  the  Ancre.  I  have  no 
authority  for  saying  that  the  attack  was  delivered  from 
this  double  trench  save  the  deduction  from  the  despatch 
which  speaks  of  an  ad\'ance  of  500  yards — a  distance 
which  exactly'  accounted  for  the  pushing  of  the  line  up  to 
this  double  trench  but  not  for  the  capjture  of  it. 

All  these  six  counter-attacks  delivered  on  these  two 
days  failed.  The  British  consolidated  their  new-taken 
positions,  and  even  made  a  certain  number  of  prisoners. 
It"  was  upon  the  Monday  night  between  February 
5th  and  6th  that  the  enemy  came  to  the  decision  to 
abandon  Grandcourt  as  a  result  of  this  failure  ;  and 
before  Tuesday  morning  the  main  enemy  trench  running 
in  a  V-shape  up  and  across  the  Grandcourt  spur  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Ancre  to,  as  it  would  appear,  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  cemetery,  was  volvmtarily  aban- 
doned by  the  enemy.  That  is,  he  gave  up  a  salient 
trench,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  of  about  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  in  length. 

On  Tuesday,  the  British  forces  pushed  forward  and 
occupied  tJiis  abandoned  trench  without  opposition,  or, 
at  any  rate,  with  only  slight  opposition.  The  British 
were  now  right  over  (irandcourt  with  direct  observation 
everywhere,  and  it  was  clear  that  the  place  was  not  in- 
tended to  be  held.  When  night  fell,  that  is,  the  night 
between  Tuesday  and  \\'ednesday,  the  6th  and  7t]i 
of  the  month,  the  German  force  in  the  ruins  of  (Grand- 
court was  witlidrawn  up  the  \allcy  towards  little  Mirau- 
mont,  and  on  the  Wednesday  the  British  entered  the 
place.  Upon  the  same  day,  and  apparently  towards  the 
evening  of  that  day,  or  towards  the  night,  that  is,  in  the 
night  between  the  7th  and  8th,  Wednesday  and  Thurs- 
day, Baillescourt  Farm  was  taken,  and  by  the  end  of  the' 
week  the  whole  of  the  German  salient  here  had  been 
flattened  out. 

The  action  creates  a  new  salient,  less  pronounced,  but 


ob\-ionsly  lending  itselt  to  attack  and  formed  by  the  much 
more  high  and  almost  level  ground  which  lies  cast  of  Pys 
and  hides  the  old  gun  positions  in  the  valley  of  the  Ancre 
below.  .  Further,  it  gives  a  full  view  of  Miraumont  and, 
on  a  narrow  angle,  but  a  useful  one,  a  view  right  up  the 
\alley  of  the  Upper  Ancre  to  a  point  north-west  of  Pys. 

It  is  clear  that  if  further  movement  occurs  in  our 
favour  in  this  region  a  very  great  deal  will  depend 
upon  the  fate  of  that  hjgh  ground  at  A  immediately 
above  Baillescourt  Farm,  which  is  still  in  the  enemy's 
hands.  If  that  height  be  taken,  several  things  follow  as  a 
consequence. 

In  the  iirst  place,  all  the  complex  of  trenches  which 
render  the  Serre  position  so  formidable  will  be  made  a 
sharp  and  diflicult  salient  under  lire  from  three  sides. 

In  the  second  place,  there  will,  as  I  have  already  said, 
be  direct  vision  over  a  very  great  extent  of  country  to  the 
north,  direct  observation  thus  obtained  for  the  first  time 
over  those  gi^eat  spaces  of  roUing  land,  the  heart  of  which 
is  the  junction  of  Achiet  le  Grand,  and  the  main  gun 
positions  in  which  are  probably  hidden  in  the  valley  of 
Puysieux. 

In  the  third  place  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  enemy 
to  establish  concealed  positions  in  the  valley  of  the  Upper 
Ancre  behind  P3's.  From  the  top  of  this  hill  one.  sees 
everything.  Not  that  it  is  higher  than  the  ground  to  the 
north  and  north-west — it  is  not  ;  but  that  it  commands 
all  the  Ancre  valley,  and  is  up  on  the  plateau  to  the  north 
where  are  discovered  open  sweeps  of  rolling  ground. 
■  I  may  be  exaggerating  the  value  of  direct  obser\ation, 
for  I  say  again  that  only  those  upon  the  spot,  and  only 
those  with  recent  experience,  can  give  the  proper  e.xtra 
weight  to  direct  obser\'ation  from  the  ground  as  con- 
trasted with  observation  from  the  air.  But  it  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  the  possession  of  such  a  height  as  that 
across  which  the  so-called  "  Swan  "  Trench  of  the  enemy 
runs,  would  not  change  all  the  conditions  of  this  region. 
It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  if  this  height  were  held  Serre 
would  not  be  in  danger  on  the  one  hand,  and  Miraumont 
within  the  British  grasp  upon  the  other. 

J^ut  all  this  is  merely  a  description  of  one  little  piece 
of  ground  and  of  sundry  movements  upon  it,  which  do 
not  pretend  to  be  decisive  even  in  the  smallest  local  sense 
of  that  word.  The  real  lesson  of  all  such  movements 
is  the  power  of  the  British  in  the  great  concave  formed 
by  the  Somme  offensive  to  act  locally  almost  at  will,  and 
the  information  they  are  gaining  of  the  enemy's  power 
of  resistance  ;  such  action  in  its  turn  being  permitted  by 
the  frost,  which  is  all  in  our  favour. 

This  power  of  action  has  been  further  exemplified  at 
another  point  on  the  further  side  of  the  curve,  15,000 
yards  away,  for  the  height  of  ground  in  front  of  Sailly 
has  also  fallen  to  a  local  advance.  It  has  been  again 
exemplified  in  a  more  recent  success  a.apainst  the  foot  of 
the  hill  of  Serre. 


A  German  Version  of  Warlencourt 


There  has  reached  this  country  through  neutral  sources 
the  (ierman  account  of  the  fight  on  the  Butte  de  Warlen- 
court towards  the  end  of  the  battle  of  the  Somme,  and 
their  description,  of  the  forces ,  which,  held  that  height 
against  the  Australian  attack,  with  the  result. 

When  I  say  "  the  German  account,"  I  do  not  mean,  of 
course,  the  real  view  of  the  (Jerman  Higher  Command, 
but  the  account  they  have  put  forward  for  neutrals. 

The  first  part  of  this  account— as  pro\'ided  for  neutral 
judgment— consists  in  the  statement  that  the  effort  under- 
taken had  for  its  objective  Bapaun;e.  This,  of  course, 
is  perfectly  true  in  the  sense  that  if  an  attack  so  late  in 
the  season  had  attained  unexpected  success,  Bapaume 
would  have  been  reached.  But  it  is  not  put  in  this  way. 
The  account  provided  for  neutrals  makes  of  Bapaume' a 
particular  strategic  point,  the  rcachiftg.o-f  which  would, 
in  some  unexplained  way,  have  had  immediate  and  far- 
reaching  consequences. 

So  put,  of  course,  the  statement  is  nonsense.  The  main 
object  of  all  these  great  actions  is  to.coihp'el  a  general 
retirement  and  failing  this  to  exhaust  the  enemy  in  a 
greater  proportional  degree  than  one  is  exhausted  one- 
self. The  reaching  of  Bapaume  would  not  in  itself  have 
compelled  a  general  retirement  oh' the  "enemy's  line,  but 


it  would  have  been  a  further  extension  of  liis  concave 
front  and  therefore  a  further  strain  upon  him.  When, 
how,  or  by  action  at  what  spot  the  point  of  rupture  may 
be  provoked  can  never  be  stated  beforehand. 

The  enemy  has  always,  however,  tried  to  play  upon 
this  rather  natural  tradition  which  vaguely  associates  the 
name  of  a  place  with  any  strategic  mo^■ement.  In  a  great 
siege  of  this  Isind  any  sector  upon  the  siege  line  is  merely 
a  sector,  whether  it  has  a  ruined  town  behind  it  or  not. 
In  a  war  of  movement  and  with  the  old  •  artillery,  any 
considerable  town  a  little  behind  a  front  was  a  magazine, 
a  fiodal  point  of  communications,  and,  if  it  were  fortified, 
an  opportimity  for  holding  back  a  larger  number  of  your 
opponents  with  a  smaller  nimiber  of  your  own  men. 
Bapaume  no  more  means  this  to-day  than  Verdun  meant 
it.  It  is  simply  the  name  of  some  ruins.  The  ridge 
which  runs  north-westward  from  Bapaimie  has  certainly  a 
tactical  value,  for  it  dominates  the  whole  countrj'. 
Bapaume  itself  is  less  important  than  any  one  of  the 
.  railway  junctions  in  its  neighbourhood. 

There  is,  nevertheless,  a  military  value  in  spreading  a 
false  impression  of-  this  kind,  and  that  military  value 
consists  in  the  compelling  of  one's  enemy  for  political 
reasons    to    act    in    a    fashion  which    purely   military 


LAND    &    WATFR 


Febf 


nary  15,  1917 


considerations  would  not  advif^o.  In  the  case  of  Bapaumc 
the  trick  missed  lire  even  with  neutrals,  and  only  the 
stupider  journalists  among  the  belligerents  made  the 
reaching  or  not  reaching  xjf  Bapaume  the  test  of  the 
Sonune.  The  test  of  the  Somme  was,  of  course,  not  that 
at  all,  but  the  proportional  i-xhaustion  of  the  two  sides 
and  the  consequent  advance  towards  compelling  a  retire- 
ment Or  even  provoking  a  rupture.  But  in  the  case  of 
\'crdun  the  enemy  did  succeed  more  or  less  and,  as  I  have 
had  occasion  to  relate  in  these  cohunns,  I  think  many 
men  of  good  judgment  in, France  believed  it  necessary  to 
tlefend  the  mere  houses  of  Verdun  because  of  the  political 
impression  produced  that  Verdun  was  in  some  way  or 
other  being  defended,  like  an  old-fashioned  walled  town, 
and  that  its  "  fall  "  would  mean  some  vast  unexplained 
strategic  consequence  or  other.  Luckily,  the  sub- 
stitution of  this  legend  for  military  fact  had  no  evil 
effects,  but  it  might  have  had. 

One  of  the  corollaries  of  this  German  political  method 
is  that  the  chances  always  are  in  favour  of  the  enemy 
attacking  where  he  can  produce  another  political  effect  of 
the  same  sort.  I  mean  he  is  (on  the  West)  unlikelj',  other 
things  being  equal,  to  strike  out  where  he  would  get  his 
host  military  effect  unless  he  can  there  talk  of  a  "  fortress  " 
or,  at  any  rate,  of  some  well-known  town  lying  behind  the 
sector  he  strikes  at. 

He  is  therefore  using  a  double-edged  weapon,  for  the 
dcsin?  to  obtain  political  effects  of  this  sort  may  induce 
hjm  to  act  against  the  better  judgment  of  his  military 
mind.  I  am  certain  that  history  will  say  this  of  the 
choice  of  the  sector  of  Verdun. 

Another  interesting  feature  in  the  account  provided 
for  neutrals  of  this  affair  is  the  consistent  use  of  what  I 
may  calbthe  "one-division  legend."  It  is  parallel  to 
many  other  cast-iron  phrases  the  enem}'  authorities  use. 
For  some  reason  or  other,  perhaps  nothing  more  than 
routine,  the  enemy  always  represents  a  single  division  as 
receiving  any  shock,  largt*  or  small.  For  instance,  the 
enormous  French  action  in  Champagne  seventeen  months 
ago,  when  full  contact  was  established  over  not  less  than 
fourteen  miles  of  front,  and  when  huge  masses  of  men  drove 
against  the  central  ten  of  these  fourteen  miles,  was  at  once 
described  in  the  German  communiques  as  "  the  heroic 
stand  made  by  a  sin(.le  division  of  Rhinelanders."  Yet 
the  number  of  unwounded  prisoners  alone  taken  by  the 
F'rench  in  this  action  came  to  something  more  than  twice 
the  infantry  strength  of  one  German  division  at  the  time  ! 

It  is  o-xactly  the  same  with  Warlencourt.  The  account 
from  which  I  am  quoting  (provided  for  the  benefit  of  an 
American  journalist)  tells  us  that  the  shock  of  three  Allies 
di\isions  with  one  division  in  reserve  was  met  (as  usual) 
by  "  a  single  di\ision  of  the  Guard."  The  front  was 
narrow,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  more  than  one  division 
should  have  been'  caught  at  the  very  first  onset  :  but  that 
the  equi\'alent  of  much  more  than  one  division  was  neces- 
sary to  prevent  a  rupture  is  as  obviously  true  as  it  is  true 
that  more  than  a  pound  of  flour  is  necessary  for  making 
J  lbs.  of  bread. 

What  is  curious  and  rather  characteristic  of  these 
]Mopaganda  communications  made  to  neutrals  by  the 
i-ncmy  is  that  one  can  easily  see  by  reading  between  the 
lines  of  the  account  that  the  first  statement  is  false,  and 
the  Bureau  from  which  this  sort  of  thing  is  issued  does 
not  seem  to  take  the  trouble  to  cover  its  tracks.  For 
after  describing  how  the  centre  of  the  Guard  here  em- 
})loyed  broke  upon  the  fourth  attack,  just  after  midnight, 
the  narrator  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  the  hurrying  up  of 
reserves  "  saved  the  situation."  No  such  situation  is 
o\-er  saved  in  any  other  way,  and  these  reserves,  whatever 
their  numbers  may  have  been,  represented  the  e.xtra  force 
—presumably  about  equal  to  that  of  the  offensive — 
which  restored  equilibrium. 

It  is  a  very  simple  and  rather  puerile  way  of  alTecting 
opinion,  but  the  enemy  apparently  believes  that  it  fulfils 
its  object. 

Another  example  of  the  lack  of  co-ordination  in  the 
enemy  propaganda  I  lind  in  this  same  article. 

We  know  now  fairly  accurately  what  the  total  German 
losses  were  in  front  of  Verdun.  At  the  time  the  enemy 
stoutly  denied  our  calculation,  and  represented  his  losses 
as  far  less.  He  was  even  foolish  enough  to  spread  the 
impossible  idea  that  the  French  defensive  in  that  sector 
had  suffered  more  than  the  desi^crately  massed  German 
attacks.     Kow    in    describinij    the    Somme    battle    the 


Le  Credo  du  Soldat 

By  Emile  Cammaekts. 

Je  crois  en  mon  pays, 

Je  crois   en  mon  clocher, 

Je  crois  en  ce  brin  d'  herbe  qui  pousse   sur  mon  abri 

Je  crois  en  la  jeuncsse,  je  crois  en  la  beaute. 

Le  \cnt  qui  passe,  j'  y  crois 
Et  le  nuage  au  ciel 
Et  r  oiseau  dans  les  bois 
Et  la  gloire  eterneUe.  1 
Je  crois  cc  que  je  vois 
Et  que  la  vie  est  belle, 
Je  crois  ce  que  je  sens 
Et  je   mourrai  content. 

Je  crois  cc  que  je  vois, 

Que  mon  chemin  est  droit 

Et.que  ma  cai^se  est  bonne  ct  que  j'ai  pris  la  Croix. 

Je  crois  en  ma  \ie 
Et  je  crois  en  ma  mort 
Et  que,  quand  tout  est  dit, 
Dieu  reste   la   plus   fort. 

Je  crois  ce  que  je  vois 

Et  ce  que  je  ne  vois  pas, 

Je  crois  en  la  vertu  supreme  du  sacrifice, 

Je  crois  en  ce  brin  d'  herbe  qui  pousse  sur  mon  abri, 

Je  crois  en   la  fierte, 

Je  crois   en  la  justice, 

Je  crois  en  mon  clocher, 

Jo  crois  en  mon  pays. 

(All  Rights  Reserved.) 


German  propaganda  bureau,  desiring  to  emphasise  a 
supposed  British  loss  up  to  a  particular  date  (he  greatly 
exaggerates  that  loss)  adds  at  the  end  of  its  statement : 

"  This  almost  rivalled  our  own  toll  of  Verdun. "  Observe 
how  significant  this  is  and  what  a  light  it  throws  on  the 
whole  method  of  enemy  statement  by  which  too  many 
of  our  authorities  in  the  past  have  been  deceived — ■ 
particularly  as  to  losses. 

First  you  have  a  man  telling  you  in  such  detail,  and 
with  such  insistence  that  you  believe  it  to  be  true,  that 
he  has  only  spent  upon  a  particular  enterprise  say 
£300,000.  When  he  is  spinning  you  this  yam  his  object 
is  to  minimise  his  expenditure  in  your  eyes.  For  in- 
stance, he  is  perhaps  trying  to  raise  some  capital  and 
wants  you  to  believe  that  he  could  undertake  a  certain 
piece,  of  work  for  only  £300,000,  and  in  proof  of  this 
reduces  to  that  figure  his  expenses  upon,  say,  the  erection 
of  a  factory  which  you  know  to  have  been  his  work. 
He  wants  for  this  commercial  reason  to  make  you  think 
he  only  spent  £300,000,  though  he  really  spent  half  a 
million. 

Somewhat  later  the  same  man  is  again  desirous  of 
spreading  a  false  impression.  But  circumstances  have 
changed.  He  is  now  talking  of  the  expenditure  of  a  rival. 
He  wants,  let  us  saj-,  to  convince  you  that  this  rival  is 
wasting  his  substance,  and  he  says  (forgetting  what  he 
told  you  some  time  before)  "  He  must  have  spent  at  least 
half  a  million  on  that  job,  nearly  as  much  as  I  spent 
on  putting  up  my  factory." 

We  all  know  how  contradictory  statements  of  this 
sort  are  made  by  people  who  bluff,  and  who  forget  the 
necessity  of  co-ordinating  one's  various  bluffs  if  one 
desires  to  be  believed.  The  little  piece  of  evidence  I 
have  just  quoted  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  way  in 
which  we  test  and  counter-test  German  figures.  Both 
statements  cannot  be  true.  Either  in  trjnng  to  em- 
phasise his  false  and  exaggerated  estimate  of  Allies 
losses  in  the  latter  case  he  has  let  slip  a  truth  with 
rcgaid  to  his  own.  losses  before  Verdun,  in  which  case 
his  original  statement  upon  the  losses  before  Verdun 
was  false  ;  or  he  is,  in  this  latter  statement,  deliberately 
exaggerating  hi&  losses  before  Verdun.    But  the  former 


February  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


hypothesis  is  tenable  and  the  latter  is  nut  tenable.  He 
imght  let  the  truth  slip  out,  but  he  would  not  exaggerate 
liis  (nvn  losses  for  any  eonccivable  motive.  And  that  is 
what  we  mean  when  we  say  that  the  false  statements  of 
the  enemy  can  always  in  the  long  run  be  tested  and 
counter-tested  until  the  truth  is  bolted  out  of  them  :  for 
it  is  impossible  even  for  quick-witted  men  to  co-ordinate 
such  a  mass  of  misrepresentation,  and  the  German  is  not 
quick-witted  ;    he  is  painstaking. 

It  was  in  this  fashion  that  we  caught  him  out  on  the 
inadequacy  of  his  official  casualty  lists.  His  various 
statements,  private  and  public,  did  not  tally.  His 
national  desire  to  impress  his  public  with  the  seriousness 
of  the  task  and  his  national  desire  to  merit  the  glory  of 


heavy  sacrilice,  led  to  a  mass  of  evidence  which  did  not 
tally  with  the  official  lists,  and  that  mass  of  evidence 
counter-tested  by  other  forms  of  intelligence  work,  gave 
us  the  true  ftgiu-cs  of  which  1  think  by  this  time  every- 
one is  convinced. 

It  would  be  imjust  to  quote  the  old  proverb  that 
"  liars  should  have  good  memories,"  because  there  does 
not  attach  to  this  kind  of  deception  the  moral  infamj'  of 
falsehood.  It  is  admitted  that  a  belligerent  has  a  perfect 
right  to  deceive  his  opponent  if  he  can,  particularly  upon 
the  point  of  \yastage  and  recruitment,  but  what  it  does 
show  is  that  the  organisation  of  the  enemy  in  this  respect  is 
as  clumsy  as  it  is  detailed  and  methodical,  for  method  and 
detail  very  often  go  with  clumsiness  and  lack  of  rapidity. 


The  Element  of  Surprise 


It  is  a  commonplace  of  military  study  that  surprise 

is  the  chief  element  in  military  success.     It  has  become 

almost  equally  a  commonplace  during  the  present  war  to 

say  that  under  its  conditions  the  old  factor  of  surprise 

has  been  eliminated. 

This  is  an  error  due  to  a  too  narrow  definition  of  the 
word  "  surprise  "  ;  for  if  we  examine  the  various  bids  for 
immediate  success  which  the  two  groups  have  made  from 
the  beginning  we  shall  find  that  the  element  of  surprise 
Mas  always  present  in  a  greater  or  less  degree. 

The  strangely  silent  weeks  through  which  we  are 
passing  (and  wliich  we  know  to  be  only  the  preparation 
for  tha  tremendous  shock  tliat  is  to  come)  are  a  very 
suitable  moment  in  which  to  examine  this  element  of 
surprise.  It  has  already  been  dealt  with  in  the  same 
connection  by  the  best  of  military  critics  upon  the  Conti- 
nent, Monsieur  Bidou  of  the  Journal  dcs  Debzts,  and  I 
do  but  follow  his  example  in  making  a  similar  analysis 
here. 

W'iien  people  say  that  the  element  of  surprise  has  been 
eliminated  from  modern  war  or,  at  any  rate,  from  this 
great  campaign,  they  mean  that  absolute  tactical  surprise 
in  the  old  sense  has  almost  been  eliminated.  Before  the 
coming-  of  aircraft  one  could  conceal  movement  behind 
any  rise  of  ground  and  movement  at  any  distance  away 
was  absolutely  concealed  whatever  the  nature  of  the 
ground.  Further,  a  main  element  in  local  or  tactical 
surprise  is  rapidity  of  movement,  and  rapidity  of  move- 
ment is  obviously  more  open  to  a  small  body  than  to  a 
large  one.  The  issue  of  Waterloo  was  determined  by 
surprise.  Napoleon  was  unaware  thit  the  bulk  of  the 
Prussian  army  hid  retreated  n'ortluvard.  He  thought  it 
h  vd  retreated  eastward.  Aircraft  would  have  undeceived 
him.  The  master  stroke  at  Blenheim,  though  very  open, 
was  none  the  less  a  piece  of  tactical  surprise,  for  it  was 
th :  bringing  round  of  the  White  Cuirassiers  (if  I  remember 
rightly),  from  the  extreme  right  and  th:  summoning  of 
th;m  by  Marlborough  to  the  centre  that  decided  the 
rupture  of  the  Franco-Bavarian  line. 

Now  local  or  tactical  surprise  of  that  sort,  save  on  quite 
a  tiny  scale,  has  not  been  present  in  this  war  :  First  because 
aircraft  can  discover  movements  even  at  a  distance,  as  a 
rule,  and  can  always  discover  them  behind  any  small 
local  obstacle  :  Secondly,  because  the  very  large  masses 
of  men  employed  take  a  long  time  to  concentrate  and 
concentration  of  such  bodies  cannot  be  long  concealed. 
To  these. two  main  reasons  for  the  elimination  of  older 
forms  of  surprise  may  be  added  a  third  wherever  the 
lines  are  immobile.  Siege  conditions  obviously  eliminate 
the  elements  of  surprise  possible  in  a  war  of  movement. 

Nevertheless,  surprise  in  a  broader  sense  is,  as  I  have 
said,  present  to-day.  And  it  is  the  great  interest  of  the 
yjresent  moment  that  the  enemy  is  bound  in  his  last  struggle 
to  introduce  some  element  of  surprise  or,  at  any  rate,  to 
try  to  introduce  it.  In  proportion  to  his  success  in  this 
respect  will  be  the  severity  of  the  linal  task  before  the 
Allies. 

The  fact  that  surprise  is  ^still  possible  can  be  appre- 
ciated from  examples  :  For  example,  in  the  winter  of 
iqi5  th2  enemy  .desired  to  relieve  East  Prussia  of  its 
Russian  invaders.  The  (iermans,  therefore,  attacked 
\\ith  peculiar  violence  in  front  of  \\'arsaw — deliberately 
sacrificing  great  numbers  of  men— and  withdrew  atten- 
tion from  their  main  objective  to  the  north.  That  ob- 
jective was  the  Niemen  ;  and  it  will  be  remembered  that 


our  Allies  suddenly  found  in  front  of  them  a  very  con- 
siderable concentration  in  East  Prussia,  when  their 
interest  had  been  concentrated  far  to  the  south  in  front 
of  Warsaw.  This  concentration  had  been  effected  far 
behind  the  front,  and  had  the  advantage  of  greater 
rapidity  of  movement  ;  having  much  better  railways 
behind"  it.  But  the  chief  element  in  its  success  was  sur- 
prise. 

Tiie  first  use  of  gas  in  the  spring  of  the  same  ycsx 
in  front  of  the  Ypres  sector  by  the  enemy  was  a  signal 
example  of  surprise,  though  this  was  accompanied  by  a 
bad  blunder ;  for  the  enemy  seems  to  have  treated  this 
first  disadvantage  of  gas  as  an  experiment.  It  was 
apjmrently  more  successful  than  he  had  anticipated  as  he 
had  not  made  the  preparation  for  following  up.  The 
consequence  was  that  though  a  bad  gap  opened  in  the 
line,  and  the  left  flank  of  the  Canadians  was  left  quite 
unsupported,  no  practical  result  was  achieved  by  the 
Germans. 

The  co-ordinated  use  of  aircraft  with  the  new  lieavy 
siege  train  at  Liege,  Namur  and  Antwerp,  was  another 
example  of  surprise  effected  by  a  novelty  of  weapon.  It 
was,  one  may  add  in  passing,  the  one  great  permanent 
success  which  the  enemy  has  had,  and  the  only  one,  from 
first  to  last.  The  Austrian  theory  and  development  of  the 
heavy  siege  train,  and  the  combined  Austrian  and  Ger- 
man appreciation  of  what  aerial  observation  could  do  in 
combination  with  such  a  siege  train,  made  up  a  wholly 
novel  military  lesson  taught  to  Europe  by  the  enemy. 
Here  again  they  were  more  successful  even  than  they  had 
expected  for,  as  Colonel  Feyler  has  well  pointed  out, 
and  as  is  indeed  clear  from  the  map.  the  immediate 
application  of  this  kind  of  threat  to  the  old  fortified  frontier 
between  Verdun  and  Belfort  would  immediately  have 
opened  a  gate  into  France.  As  it  M'as,  the  enemy  pre- 
ferred to  break  treaties,  and  to  invade  through  Belgium 
with  the  result,  rare,  but  not  imknown  in  history,  that 
his  political  crime  proved  his  military  punishment. 

A  recent  example  of  surprise  with  which  we  are  all 
familiar  is  the  use  of  tanks,  and  another  is  the  tactical 
method  which  the  French  have  elaborated.  Here 
was  a  very  extreme  case  of  surprise.  The  French  in 
October  stiuck  suddenly  on  a  few  thousand  yards  of  the 
Verdun  sector,  inflicted  extremely  heavy  losses,  recovered 
a  wide  belt  of  groimd,  did  the  whole  thing  in  between 
two  and  three  hours,  and  in  unwounded  prisoners  alone 
took  about  5,000  men  at  an  expense  in  casualties  of  under 
3,000.  The  enemy  told  us  upon  this  occasion  that  tin; 
element  of  surprise  was  largely  accidental  and  depended 
mainly  upon  a  fog.  But  this  was  false,  for  when  the 
French  tried  the  method  again  a  few  weeks  later  in  per- 
fectly clear  weather,  it  was  even  more  successful.  I  refer 
to  the  action  which  was  ironically  to  commence  at  the 
same  moment  as  the  German  overtures  for  peace  were 
known  in  Paris.  It  will  be  remembered  that  these 
overtures  were  known  in  Paris  at  noon  upon  the  12th  of 
last  December.  The  new  French  intensive b<mibardment 
in  front  of  Verdun  began  at  that  moment ;  after  not  quite 
two  hom\s  of  it  the  French  infantry  was  launched,  took 
a  belt  about  acoupleof  miles  in  width,  picked  up  between 
eleven  and  twelve  thousand  i:irisonors,  and  a  lar,ge  nnmbir 
of  guns  and  did  all  this  with  a  loss  in  casualties  less  than 
a  half,  I  believ<\  and  probably  not  mucli  more  than  a 
third  of  the  number  of  able-bodied  prisoners  alone. 

Both  the  Verdun  and  the  Trentino  offensives  had  an 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  15,.  1917 


clomeat  of  surprise  in  them  in  the  unexpected  weight  ol 
gun  power  developed  by  the  enemy  at  their  openini,'. 
This  was  particularly  true  of  the  opening  of  the  Trentino 
offensive.  It  had  been  impossible  to "  observe  in  the 
mountains  the  full  concentration  of  heavy  artillery  that 
had  been  going  on  for  two  months.  It  was  known  to  be 
in  progress,  but  its  scale  was  not  appreciated  until  the 
intensive  hre  began.  There  was  a  further  clement  of 
surprise  in  the  exceedingly  successful,  smooth  and  rapid 
railway  work  of  the  ItaUan  General  Staff  when  they 
mo\ed  a  large  army,  partly  new,  from  east  to  west  anci 
destroyed  the  .\ustrian  plan  last  June. 

At  the  opening  of  the  Sommc  there  was,  upon  the 
Allied  side,  a  double  element  of  surprise.  First,  the  enemy 
by  his  own  recent  confession,  did  not  appreciate  the 
strength  of  the  French  concentration  to  the  south  of  the 
English,  and  secondly  (also  according  to  his  own  recent 
confession),  he  did  not  appreciate  what  would  be  the 
weight  of  the  English  hre. 

There  was  surprise,  and  successful  surprise  of  a  sort, 
in  the  Franco-Serbian  move  which  disengaged  Monastir. 
The  Allies  had  been  checked  in  the  open  plain  of  the 
Cerna,  and  the  enemy  calculated  that  he  could  have  still 
less  success  to  the  east  in  the  mountains  beyond  the 
river.  The  French  command  worked  upon  the  contrary- 
theory.  They  acted  (after  their  check  in  the  open)  upon 
the  theory  that  the  mountains  to  the  east,  though  they 
would  have  proved  an  obstacle  superior  to  the  trenches 
in  the  plain  in  old  days  would,  und-^r  modern  conditions, 
be  more  vulnerable,  because  it  was  more  dihicult  to  pre- 
pare artificial  cover  in  them  and  also,  perhaps;  because 
the  effect  of  field  artillery  for  that  hard  ground  was 
greater.  .\t  any  rate,  the  mountain  belt  was  cleared  and 
the  Monastir  positions  turned  by  their  left.  They  would 
not  have  been  so  turned  had  not  the  Germans  command- 
ing the  Bulgarians  overestimated  their  power  of  resist- 
ance in  the  hills  9,nd  thus  suffered  the  consequences  of  a 
surprise. 

A  capital  example  of  surprise  due  to  the  first  appear- 
ance of  intensive  artillery  preparation  upon  tlie  new 
scale  was  the  breaking  of  the  Russian  front  in  Galicia 
upon  May  ist,  1915,  the  foundation  of  the  great 
enemy  advance  through  Poland.  Here  the  concen- 
tration of  the  enemj-  was  perfectly  well  known  as  was  his 
point  of  attack.  But  what  was  not  allowed  for  on  the 
Allied  side  was  the  new  weight  of  fire,  which  the  enemy 
was  about  to  de\-elop.  The  highly  successful  stroke  of 
Brussiloff  a  year  later  in  Volhynia  contained  an  element 
of  surprise  of  another  sort.  So  far  as  we  can  judge  the 
surprise  here  consisted  in  the  element  of  time.  The 
enemj-  did  not  appreciate  how  rapidly  the  new  Russian 
armies  had  proceeded  with  their  equipment. 

^\'e  can  see  then  from  these  examples  and  from 
numerous  other  smaller  ones  in  the  course  of  the  cam- 
paign, that  the  element  of  surprise  in  war,  though  it  has 
largely  changed  in  quality,  remains  essentially  present  ; 
and  will  certainly  be  present  on  one  side  or  other  and 
probably  upon  both  in  the  great  shock  upon  the  e\e  of 
which  we  stand.  What  it  will  be  we  cannot  say.  The 
enemy  has  prepared  one  or  two  sorts  of  surprises  (which 
ha^"e  missed  fire)  in  the  shape  of  rumour.  He  ga\e  it  out 
that  he  was  concentrating  for  a  \iolation  oi  Swiss  tcrri- 
torj'  and  later  for  a  \iolation  of  Dutch  territory,  but  no 
competent  person  paid  any  attention  to  these  rumours, 
for  they  were  spread  too  crudelj'.  Surprise  will  be  present 
both  upon  his  side  and  upon  ours,  but  in  what  form  no 
general  observer  can  predict  or  even  conjecture. 

There  is,  however,  one  form  of  surprise  which  we  know 
that  the  enemy  has  it  in  his  jjower  to  usi-,  and  it  is  of 
peculiar  importance  that  we  should  be  on  our  guard  against 
it,  for  its  effect  will  not  be  military — the  soldiers  ha\c 
discounted  it  long  ago — but  may,  if  we  are  foolish,  be 
considerable  with  ci\ilians  and  the  Allied  public  at  large. 
This  form  of  surprise  is  the  production  of  unexpected 
numbers  in  the  field. 

We  know  the  number  of  divisions  which  the  German 
Empire  had  deployed  upon  its  two  fronts  when  the 
fighting  in  Roumania  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the 
Russian  resistance  upon  the  Putna-Sereth  line.  We  also 
know,  to  within  a  small  margin  of  error,  the  number  of 
men  there  were  in  depots  last  November — about  Ooo.ooo. 
We  also  know  the  nmnber  of  men  obtainable  (short  of 
Polish  recruitment)  as  releases  from  hospital  and  by  the 
calling  up  of  the  \ery  youngest  recruits  a\ailablc.     This 


source  would,  before  next  August,  produce  some  400,000 
more,  and  at  a  pinch,  200,000  of  these  might  be  scraped 
together  before  March.  The  losses  during  the  last  month 
have  been  small.  For  a  month  before  that  they  have 
been  far  below  the  normal  with  all  these  di\-i!?ions  save  the 
dozen  or  so  on  the  Roumanian  front. 

On  paper,  therefore,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  the 
enemy  from  producing  25  or  even  by  special  arrange- 
ments, ,;o  new  divisions,  when  he  reappears  for  his  last 
offensive  upon  a  chosen  point.  The  mere  numbers  of 
men  under  training  in  the  depots  three  months  ago  are 
the  equi\alent  of  .;o  full  divisions.  Of  course,  he 
would  not  use  them  all  up.  He  must  leave  a  large  number 
for  drafts.  There  is  also  the  mechanical  difficulty  arising 
from  the  fact  that  he  cannot  make  a  di\-ision  in  this  phase 
of  the  war  out  of  the  worst  material  alone.  He  must  mix 
the  older  and  better  material  with  the  last  dregs  of  re- 
cruitment obtainable.  But  the  point  to  seize  is  that 
the  enemy  may  perfectly  well,  if  he  chooses,  sacrifice  the 
future,  and  to  shorten,  the  war  against  his  own  ultimate 
interests  perhaps,  produce  a  formidable  new  force  in  his 
last  offensive.  He  will  do  either,  because  he  thinks  it 
the  best  chance  out  of  several  desperate  chances,  or 
because  he  thinks  it  will  have  a  certain  required  effect 
upon  his  population  at  liome  ;  or  because  he  wishes  to 
produce  a  corresponding  effect  upon  general  opinion 
among  his  opponents,  or,  for  all  these  reasons  combined. 

I  am  not  saying  that  he  will  produce  this  large  accession 
to  the  number  of  his  divisions.  I  am  only  saying  that  he 
can  do  so  if  he  chooses  to  hypothecate  his  late  summer 
drafts.  Or  (to  use  a  more  accurate  metaphor)  if  he  chooses 
to  anticipate  his  remaining  income.  The  two  things  we 
have  tokeepsteadily  in  mind  should  he  play  this  card  are, 
first,  that  by  no  contrivance  whatsoever  can  be  restore 
numerical  superioritx'  to  his  own  side.  Secondly,  that 
if  we  allow  ourselves  to  be  disturbed  or  even  astonished 
by  so  simple  and  feasible  a  policy  on  his  part,  we  are 
deliberately  weakening  ourselves  in  the  struggle. 

I  do  not  know  what  weight  such  words  as  these 
may  have.  For  what  they  are  worth  and  as  a  plain 
national  duty  at  this  moment  I  would  emphasise  them 
as  strongly  as  possible.  The  malice  of  some,  the 
ignorance  of  very  many  more,  will  play  into  the 
enemy's  hands  if  upon  the  production  of  these  con- 
siderable numbers  in  the  near  future  the  enemy  succeeds 
in  making  civilian  opinion  quarrel  with  exact  military 
calculation.  If  people  go  about  saying  :  "  The  state- 
ment with-  regard  to  the  enemy's  reserves  was 
obviously  under-estimated.  He  has  produced  enormous 
armies  unexpectedly,"  they  will  be  doing  the  very  worst 
thing  possible  for  the  Alliance  and  for  their  country. 
The  enemy  has  nothing  more  than  the  man-power  which 
we  ha\'e  carefully  noted,  with  exact  statistics,  for  now 
eighteen  months,  and  the  resources  of  which  have  been 
proved  to  correspond-  with  those  statistics  again  and 
again.  I  only  wish  I  could  underline  that  truth  daily 
from  the  date  upon  which  these  words  are  written  to  the 
moment  when  the  shock  comes.  -H.  Belloc; 


There  is  no  class  who  has  done  better  work  for  the  country 
during  tlie  war  than  the  "  Specials."  Thcj'  are  for  the  most 
l>art  busy  men  getting  into  years,  who  have  given  up 
leisure  and  sleeping  hours  after  the  day's  work  is  over  in 
order  to  tramp  the  streets  and  country  lanes  in  all  sorts  of 
weather.  They  have  been  held  up  to  ridicule,  chaffed  merci- 
lessly and  honour  has  passed  them  by.  But  slowly  they  are 
coming  into  their  own  for  the  service  which  they  have  silently 
rendered  has  been  invaluable.  .\nd  now  they  are  finding 
their  way  into  print.  Two  Ycarx  with  lite  "  Specials  "  (The 
St.  Catherine] 'rcss.  is.),  is  a  slight  book,  but  it  is  ])acked  full 
of  good  stories.  It  ti-lis  of  the  "  Special's  "  life  in  the  right 
spirit,  simply,  without  brag,  ignoring  the  hardsliips  and  laying 
stress  on  the  humorous.  It  also  contains  excellent  advice 
and  homely  wisdom.  We  have  not  space  for  the 
stories-  -the  book  should  be  read  ;  but  we  may  quote  the 
following  to  give  some  idea  of  the  class  of  men  who  compose 
the  Special  Constabulary,  a  force  which  has  helped  greatly  to 
preserve  peace   and  order  after   dark   for  over  two  years: 

"  The  personnel  of  our  secction  of  the  Force  is  interesting  and  varied, 
and  inchides  stockbrokers,  a  master  carpfnlcr,  civil  engineers,  siir- 
\  cyors,  architects,  merchants,  a  chartered  accountant,  market  gardeners, 
.1  builder,  artist,  barrister,  greengrocer,  solicitor,  butcher,  dentist, 
plumber,  journali.'^t,  city  clerks,  local  .tradesmen,  and  several  who 
would  bo  described  on  the  'Charge  Sheet  '  as  of  'independent  means.' 
,uul  it  speaks  volumes  for  the  spirit  of  the  I'orce  that  tljcsc  men  of 
totally  different  callings  and  social  position  have  worked  harmoniously 
together  for  over  two  years." 


February-  15,  1917 


LAiND    &    WATER 


The  German  Failure 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


"^  "ir  y HEN  those  pages  come  into  the  reader's  hands 
%  ^L  I  the  new  ruthless,  devastating  submarine  cam- 
^^^U  paign — Germany's  determined  and,  by  all 
T  T  accoimts,  her  final  effort  to  defeat  the  most 
formidable  as  well  as  the  most  treacherous  of  her  enemies 
— will  have  been  in  progress  for  exactly  a  fortnight.  At 
the  time  of  writing,  twelve  days  of  this  dreadful  period 
have  passed.  British  ships  from  the  hrst  of  February, 
wherever  found,  have  been  exposed  to  instant  and  secret 
attack.  Until  to-day,  to  neutrals  there  has  been  ex- 
tended— at  any  rate  so  a  German  pronouncement  tells 
us — the  more  merciful  dispenj^ation  of  our  enemy's 
previous  method.  This  same  period  has  seen  the  diplo- 
matic breach  between  Germany  and  America,  the  threat 
of  war  and,  as  the  natural  consequence,  the  not  very 
edifying  picture  of  Berlin  preparing  to  face  a  new  belli- 
gerent. These  preparations,  as  perhaps  might  have  been 
expected,  have  included  the  brigand  manceuvre  of  holding 
captives  to  ransom— with  no  doubt  the  usual  brigand's 
alternative  of  torture -if  the  ransom  is  not  paid.  For  a 
time,  even  the  sacred  person  of  President  Wilson's' 
Ambassador  was  included  amongst  the  hostages.  But 
on  second  thoughts,  the  \\'ar  Lord  has  let  his  unwilling 
guest  depart,  together  with  a  small  number  of  those  who 
wished  to  accompany  him.  One  does  not  know  what  the 
fate  of  those  still  retained  in  the  enemy's  capital  may  be. 
Amongst  those  who  have  got  away  is  the  able  and  level- 
headed correspondent  of  the  American  Associated  Press, 
and,  from  Copenhagen,  he  has  despatched  a  singularly 
interesting  messagc^.to  his  principals.  Its  interest  lies 
in  this.  He  tells  us  precisely  what  the  Germans  expected 
from  their  submarine  campaign  and,  as  we  ha\"e  had 
tweh'e  days'  experience  of  it,  we  can  now  compare  the 
German  hopes  with  Cierman  achievement. 

Threat  and  Achievement 

Let  us  first  see  precisely  what  the  German  achievement 
is.  The  figures  have  been  printed  daily — and  quoted  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  purely  British  loss  is 
slightly  more  than  double  the  Neutral  loss.  If  we 
compare  it  with  the  average  of  the  campaign  during 
the  previous  five  or  six  months,  we  see  that  there 
is  an  increase  of  about  50  per  cent,  in  the  loss  of 
ships  and  between  25  and  30  per  cent,  in  tonnage. 
The  increase  in  the  purely  Britisli  loss  is  higher.  It  is 
roughly  doubled,  and  there  is  a  corresponding  fall  hi  the 
neutral  loss.  The  Germans  deny  that  an}'  neutrals  have 
yet  been  sunk  at  sight,  and  the  submarine  commanders 
may  so  far  have  been  So  instructed.  But  the  evidence 
seems  to  be  conclusive  that  the  statement  is  untrue. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  undoubtedly  true — the  news  from 
New  York,  no  less  than  from  Holland  and  Scandinavian 
countries  is  conclusive  on  this  point — that  many  neutral 
ships  ha\-e  been  kept  in  harbour  either  at  home  or  abroad, 
in  consequence  of  the  German  Note.  If,  then,  neutral 
shipping  resumes  its  normal  activities  and  the  attack  on 
it  is  made  reckless,  an  increase  of  the  sinking  of  non-belli- 
gerent tonnage  may  be  expected.  But  against  British 
shipping  the  Germans  have  now  done  their  worst.  How 
does  this  compare  with  their  expectations  ?  The 
American  correspondent  to  whom  I  have  referred,  writes  : 

In  German  naval  circles  the  belief  is  expressed  that,  if 

the  submarine  campaign  succeeds  in  raising  the  monthly 

total  of  tonnage  sunk  to  one  million,  in  addition  to  the 

•    deterring  effect  on  the  3,000,000  tons  of  neutral  shipping 

-  plying  to  Britisli  ports,  the  campaign  will  force  England 

to   consider   peace   proposals.     This   achievement    would 

have   to  be  effected  by  not  more  than  two-thirds  of  the 

available  submarines,  because  submarines  must  spend  at 

least  one-third  of  their  time  in  port  refitting  or  en  route 

\     to  or  from  their  cruising  grounds. 

It  seems  clear  from  the  foregoing  that  Germany  has 
risked  war  with  all  the  States  of  North  and  South  America 
and,  possibly,  with  Spain,  because  she  thought  that  she 
could  sink  a  million  tons  of  British  shipping  a  month, 


deter  the  neutrals  from  trading  with  our  ports,  and  so 
bring  us  to  that  chastened  frame  of  mind,  so  much  to  be 
desired,  in  which  our  consent  to  a  German  peace  may  be 
won.  And,  no  doubt,  //  a  million  tons  of  shipping  could 
be  destroyed  per  month  ;  //  this  rate  of  destruction  could 
be  kept  up  ;  if  we  failed  in  our  attack  on  submarines  and 
our  capacity  to  protect  our  merchant  ships  from  them 
did  not  improve  ;  ij  neither  we  nor  our  Allies,  actual 
or  prospective,  nor  the  neutrals —supposing,  of  course, 
that  in  a  month's  time  there  are  any  neutrals  left  !  — 
could  build  no  merchant  ships  at  all ;  and  if,  finally, 
it  turned  out  that  there  were  no  stocks  of  food  in  this 
country  worth  speaking  of,  then  no  doubt  the  German 
plot  to  bring  us,  if  not  to  our  knees,  at  least  to  reason 
would  have  this  amount  of  sense  behind  it  that  it  would 
be  possible  to  name  a  date  after  which  our  capacity  to 
feed  the  people  and  carry  on  our  military  operations  over 
sea  would  become  altogether  too  burdensome.  The 
German  plan,  then,  was  a  perfectly  sound  one— if  only  it 
could  be  carried  out.  Fortunately,  wt  at  present  possess 
a  measure  of  Germany's  ability  to  carry  it  out.  The  plan 
was  to  destroy  a  million  tons  a  month' — say,  33,000  tons 
a  day.  The  enemy  is  hardly  carrying  a  quarter  of  his 
programme  into  effect.  It  is  certainly  not  worth  the 
risk  of  war  with  the  United  States.      > 

Now  this  is  interesting  because  there  has  apparentl}' 
been  no  reservation  in  his  instructions  to  the  U-boat 
commanders.  Every  kind  of  ship  has  been  sunk  at  sight 
■ — liners  and  passenger  ships,  no  less  than  colliers  and 
even  trawlers.  That  is  the  first  point.  The  next  is  that 
it  is  highly  improbable  that  Germany  has  kept  a  single 
boat  in  reserve  that  could  be  put  into  the  theatre  of  war. 
\\'hate\'er  else  German  methods  may  lack,  they  never 
lack  in  thoroughness.  When  the  War  Lord  says  he  will 
do  a  thing,  every  atom  of  power  at  his  disposal  is  used 
to  get  the  thing  done.  It  was  so  in  the  first  rush  into 
France,  in  the  great  invasion  of  Russia,  in  the  attacks  on 
Verdun,  the  Trentino  and  Roumania.  It  is  a  method 
that  is  specially  important  where  the  effect  you  are 
driving  at  is  a  purely  moral  effect.  The  object  here  is 
not  literally  the  star\'ing  of  England,  but  such  a  threat 
of  starvation  as  \\  ill  bring  us  to  our  senses.  It  is  a  blow 
aimed  far  more  at  the  man  in  the  street  than  at  the  army 
or  the  navy  or  the  Government.  Its  effect  is  to  be 
measured  entirely  by  the  public  opinion  that  it  creates. 
Allthis(iermany  knows  and  naturally  must  have  planned 
to  make  the  opening  stages  of  the  campaign  as  destructive 
and  therefore  as  terrifying  as  possible.  And  destruction 
at  the  most  of  a  million  tons  a  month  would  have  gone 
a  long  way  towards  getting  the  effect  desired. 

Is  this  the  Worst? 

The  weakness  of  frightfulness  as  a  method  is  that  it  is 
either  completely  eftective  or  much  worse  than  ineffective. 
If  an  enem}-  could  really  threaten  us  with  famine  and  do 
it  by  means  in  themselves  cru^l,  horrifying  and  m.urderous, 
the  result  might  not  only  be  effective,  but  instantaneous 
and  overwhelming.  But  the  practice  of  frightfulness  in 
small  doses  produces  exactly  the  contrary  of  the 
effect  desired.  So  far  from  impairing  national  courage 
or  weakening  popular  resolution,  it  simply  enhances  both. 
To  be  frightful  and  to  fail,  then,  ensures  not  only  the  non- 
achievement  of  the  object  in  view  ;  it  strengthens  the 
thing  you  aim  to  undermine.  This  being  so,  it  is  quite 
important  the  public  should  realise  the  exact  dimensions 
of  the  (ierman  stroke,  treating  it  now  not  as  a  threat  of 
what  may  happen,  but  as  a  thing  that  has  been  tried  to 
the  utmost  for  a  limited  period,  and  as  showing  results 
that  in  all  probability  cannot  be  very  greatly  enhanced. 
And  in  examining  its  value,  at  this  point,  let  us  go  a  step 
further  and  assume  that  we  can  neither  improve  our  attack 
on  submarines,  better  our  means  of  defending  our  ships, 
nor  yet  replace  our  losses.  Taking  everj'thing  at  its  worst, 
how  do  things  stand  ? 

On  the  eve  of  this  campaign  the  Liverpool  Daily  Post 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  15,  1917 


published  a  most  interesting  interview  witli*  Sir  Nornma 
Hill,  perhaps  the  first  authority  in  this  country  on  all 
problems  of  shipping  and  freight.  In  this  Sir  Norman 
])pinted  out  that  up  to  the  end  of  October  the  loss  of 
British  bhipping  month  by  month  had  oscillated  between 
•08  and  -94  per  cent.  The  present  rate  of  loss  is  roughly 
double  that  of  October — let  us  say  3  per  cent.  Let  us 
assume  this  to  continue  for  a  year.  Hmv  shall  v\e  stand  ? 
In  the  same  interview  Sir  Norman  Hill  said  that  wc  had 
last  year  imported  over  40,000,000  tons  of  food,  raw 
material,' and  so  forth.  Our  normal  imports  of  food  in 
peace  time  are  15,000,000  tons  a  year.  If  our  shipping 
fell  away  at  the  rate  of  2  per  cent,  a  month,  and  if  all  other 
conditions  remained  constant  and  the  loss  of  incoming 
freights  were  proportionate  to  the  loss  of  shipping,  our 
imports  up  to  the  lirst  of  I'ebruary,  1917,  would  show  a 
falling  off  of  10  per  cent.  There  is  something  ludicrous 
in  the  contrast  between  this  figure  and  the  German  hopes. 
If  Germany  can  do  no  worse  than  this,  the  danger  is  not 
that  we  shall  take  the  submarine  campaign  too  gloomily, 
but  that  we  shall  be  too  inclined  to  treat  it  as  a  thing  of 
derision. 

It  is,  of  course,  possible  that  I  am  altogether  wrong 
in  thinking  that  the  German  initial  effort  must  be  the 
greatest  effort.  The  thing  may  grow  in  efticiencj'.  There 
may  be  a  further  increase  in  numbers.  New,  and  con- 
ceivably more  deadly  weapons  may  be  brought  into  play- 
But  then,  against  these  possibilities  we  must  remember  — 
so  far  we  have  measured  the  German  effort  without 
reference  to  our  own  counter-efforts.  This  10  per  cent, 
loss  of  imports  will  follow  if  we  can  do  nothing  against 
the  submarines,  if  we  cannot  save  our  ships,  if  we  cannot 
replace  them,  if,  what  is  certainly  not  less  important,  we 
fail  altogether  in  reorganising  the  methods  now  in  use 
for  loading  and  unloading  ships  and  turning  them  round 
more  quickly.  Frankly  it  seems  to  me  against  all  reason 
to  suppose  that  we  are  likely  to  fail  in  all,  or  indeed  in 
any  of  these  respects.  Let  us  take  them  one  by  one. 
There  is  the  attack  on  submarines,  the  defence  of  mer- 
chantmen, the  replacing  of  merchantmen,  improve- 
ments in  the  handling  of  freight.  The  first  two  are  the 
concern  of  the  Admiralty,  the  third  ought  to  be,  the 
fourth  involves  all  those  departments  of  Government 
that  are  fighting  each  other  to  denude  the  labour  market. 

The  "New  Model"  Staff 

The  Admiralty's  two  immediate  functions  have  during 
the  last  two  months  been  made  the  care  of  an  organisation 
^•erJ^  greatly  extended  from  that  formerly  charged  with  it, 
and  the  direct  head  of  this  organisation  is  the  First  Sea 
Lord  himself.  The  two  main  aspects  of  the  submarincj 
campaign  then  are,  and  for  two  months  have  been,  directly 
under  Sir  John  Jellicoe.  He  has,  to  carry  out  the  policy 
resoh'ed  on,  an  organisation  of  Captains  and  Commanders 
directed  by  a  rear-Admiral.  The  organisation  is  in  direct 
and  daily  touch  with  the  twenty  or  more  officers  in  local 
command  of  sections  of  the  coast,  and  through  these 
ofiicers  is  in  immediate  contact  with  all  the  organisa- 
tions afloat  concerned  with  both  attack  and  defence. 
TIk;  organisation  as  a  whole  has  been  considerably  ex- 
tended, as  I  have  said,  from  what  it  was.  But,  and  this 
point  seems  to  me  to  be  vital,  tlie  new  direction  has  not 
stepped  in  with  a  ready-made  new  policy.  It  seems  clear 
that  the  first  step  taken  was  the  right  step.  It  was  to 
collect  and  collate  the  wide  and  extensive  experimental 
knowledge  that  has  been  gained  by  officers  afloat,  in  the 
two  years  of  submarine  war  that  have  elapsed  since  Feb- 
ruary 1915. 

Readers  of  Land  &  W.^tkr  may  remem.ber  that 
during  the  last  18  or  20  months  a  great  variety  of  sug- 
gestions for  attacking  submarines  and  defending  commerce 
have  been  discussed  in  the  daily  press  and  in  these  columns. 
These  have  included  sucli  diverse  things  as  mine  barriers, 
so  spaced  that  neither  on  the  surface  nor  submerged  could  a 
submarine  pass  them  so  long  as  they  were  intact ;  buo^'ed 
nets  which  when  carried  away,  would  show  that  a  submar- 
ine had  passed  ;  the  employment  of  underwater  listening 
devices  to  give  warning  of  the  submarine's  approach 
or  passage;  the  arming  of  merchant  ships  with  guns  ;  the 
cmplo\TTient  by  them  of  smoke  screens  ;  the  provision  of 
patrolled  lanes  for  traffic  to  and  from  the  main  ports  ; 
the  establishmeiU  "f  'Mnvoys,  and  of  four-"  iinny  others. 


Now  the  Admiralty  has  very  wisely  kept  its  own  counsel 
as  to  the  progress  made  with  these  various  suggestions' 
for  meeting  the  underwater  peril.  But  it  is  no  secret 
that  there  is  hardly  one  suggestion  that  has  been  made 
or  seemingly  can  be  made,  that  has  not  been  experimented 
with,  and — what  I  confess  seems  to  me  to  be  the  essence 
of  the  matter — the  present  organisation  is  based  upon  this 
l)rincii)le  ;  all  experiments  and  all  experience  are  now 
to  be  subject  to  impartial  and  impersonal  examination — ■ 
and  upon  the  reports  that  follow  from  these  enquiries, 
all  policy  is  based. 

Thus,  and  tlms  only,  can  the  discovery  of  the  right 
measures  result.  We  are  not  dealing  with  a  new  problem. 
It  is  highly  unlikely  that  the  problem  we  have  t"o  deal 
\\ath  is  to  be  soh'ed  by  entirely  new  methods.  The  main 
point  is  to  turn  proved  methods  to  the  best  practical 
account.  It  is  less  a  problem  of  invention  and  ideas  than 
of  careful  and  indeed  laborious  analysis  and  collation  of 
facts,  and  of  sheer  administrative  skill  and  energy.  Take 
for  instance  one  obvious  and  most  important  department 
of  policy,  the  arming  of  merchant  ships.  It  is  some  months 
since  I  pointed  out  how  great  were  the  difficulties  in 
meeting  this  demand.  How  are  you  going  to  put  four 
guns  apiece  into  4,000  ships  and  supply  each  gun  with 
a  trained  crew  of  six  men  ?  Where  are  you  to  find  over 
90,000  trained  naval  artillerymen  ?  Gunnery  is  not  the 
only  demand  on  new  methods  of  training.  The  making 
and  use  of  smoke  screens,  for  evasive  manoeuvres,  lia\'e 
been  urged  again  and  again  in  these  columns.  From 
the  earliest  days  of  the  submarine  menace  the  importance 
of  keeping  the  .ship  under  alternating  helms  has  been 
recognised.  If  the  most  is  to  be  made  of  the  services  of  the 
patrols,  incoming  ships  must  follow  Admiralty  instructions 
to  the  letter  in  the  navigation  of  thoir  craft.  All  these 
things  involve  the  expansion  of  the  merchant  skippers 
and  the  merchant  seamen  into  being  officers  and  crew  of 
ships  whose  duties  are  indistinguishable  from  those  of 
warships.  The  whole  use  of  armament,  the  entire  em- 
ployment of  defensive  means,  the  art  of  keeping  the 
kind  of  watch  and  look  out  which  is  required — these  are 
things  that  cannot  be  effectively  done  merely  by  pre- 
scribing them  to  the  merchant  service.  The  personnel 
must  h:  trained  to  do  them.  And  the  provision  of  this 
training  is  one,  and  by  no  means  the  least,  of  the  new 
duties  that  the  new  Admiralty  department  has  taken  on. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  go  over  the  whole  ground  or  into 
detail,  but  rt  is  clear  that  two  years  experience  when 
brought  to  the  test  of  expert  examination,  must  afford 
guidance  for  the  modification  of  almost  every  form  of 
material  hitherto  employed.  This  branch  of  the  subject 
alone  then  calls  for  a  double  organisation  of  its  own. 
One  to  elucidate  and  define  what  is  wanted,  the  other  to 
provide  what  the  campaign  has  thus  been  shown  to  need. 
Take  other  sides  of  the  question— at  random  ;  the  selection 
of  routes  ;  the  organisation  of  the  patrols  and  of  the 
drifters  and  trawlers  engaged  in  watching,  the  em- 
ployment of  all  the  mine  layers  and  the  mine  sweepers — ■ 
on  "all  these  things  the  long  experience  of  the  officers 
in  district  after  district  round  the  coast  throws  valuable 
light.  It  is  in  the  teachings  of  this  experience,  in  a  closer 
co-operation,  and  in  a  better  articulated  activity  of  all 
the  forces  available  that  salvation  must  be  sought. 

To  put  th?  thing  shortly,  it  looks  as  if— for  the  first 
time  in  our  history — one  of  the  most  extensive  of  the 
navy's  activities  is  being  organised  on  strictly  staff  lines, 
on  the  principle,  that  is  to  say,  of  making  absolutely 
sure  of  the  grourtd,  by  thorough  expert  enquiry,  before 
executive  decisions  are  taken.  -The  overwhelming  ad- 
vantage of  this  method  is  that  the  officer  finally  re- 
sponsible for  th3  work  of  this  department  is  virtually 
safeguarded  agaist  error.  He  will  not  be  tempted  into 
slap-dash  decisions  when  he  knows  that  he  has  a  body 
of  experts  at  his  hand  trained  to  analyse,  compare  and 
report  on  any  form  of  operation,  the  employment  of  any 
weapon,  the  adoption  of  any  device.  And  it  is  needless 
to  say  that  it  is  only  by  an  organisation  of  this  kind  that  the 
maddening  complications  of  this  problem  can  be  dealt 
with  at  all. 

And,  When  the  scale  of  the  problem  is  understood, 
and  the  nature  of  the  machine  now  called  into 
existence  to  deal  with  it,  there  seems  something 
quite  ludicrous  in  the  recommendation  that  Lord 
Fivh T  <Iiniil(l  t;ik(^  the  thing  over.     A  legend  has  grown 


Februaiy  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


up  that  all  na\'al  cUingors  always  have  vanished  at  his 
magic  touch — including  the  first  submarine  campaign, 
which  continued  until  September  when  Lord  Fisher's 
tenure  of  office  ended  early  in  May.  But  it  should  be 
understood  now  that  we  are  faced,  not  by  a  neW  and  un- 
measured thing,  but  by  a  problem 'complex  enough,  but 
analysed  ;  that  it  is  to  be  met,  not  by  novel  and  un- 
tried means,  but  by  measures  tested  and  proved,  and  that 
to  break  up  this  machine  and  confide  our 'fortunes  to 
any  individual — however  brilliant  and  resourceful — ^who 
was  incapable  of  proceeding  on  the  patient  lines  of  staff 
co-operation,  would  be  to  jeopardize  the  greatest  of 
our  national  assets. 

Mr.    Wilson's  Patience 

Another  week  has  passed,  and  a  good  many  people  are 
surprised  that  America  is  not  yet  at  war.  They  note  that 
the  undertaking,  given  by  Germany  in  May  1916,  has  not 
only  been  denounced  ;  Germany  has  not  been  satisfied 
with  merely  threatening  to  sink  all- ships  at  sight;  she 
has  put  her  threat  into  effect,  and  has  done  it  thoroughly. 
I  stated  last  week  that  we  were  to  expect  a  far  greater 
increase  in  the  nuijiber  of  murders  than  in  the  number 
of  sinkings.  The  last  seven  days'  experience  bear  out  this 
forecast.  The  increased  rate  of  destruction  of  ships 
is,  as  we  have  seen  above,  not  only  immensely  short  of 
Germany's  expectation,  not  only  much  less  than,  I  think, 
every  expert  in  this  country  feared,  but  in  reality  so 
small  as  to  be  almost  negUgible  as  a  war  measure.  But 
in  the  taking  of  human  life,  the  campaign  had  been  a 
splendid  success.  Omitting  the  sinking  of  the  Liisitania, 
(iermany  has  never  had  two  such  productive  weeks 
at  sea.  The  actual  number  of  those  killed  cannot  be  > 
stated  exactly,,  but  it  cert?.inly  exceeds  two  hundred. 
Well  over  half  of  these  are  British  subjects  ;  between 
thirty  and  fortj'  are  Norwegians  ;  sixteen  are  Spaniards  ; 
the  whole  crew  of  the  Lars  Kruse,  except  one,  are  drowned 
and,  so  ^r  as  is  known,  these  were  all  Danes.  Richard 
\Vallacc  of  the  Eavcstonc  remains  so  far  the  only  A,merican 
subject  known  to  have  been  killed — ^unless  there  were 
American  children  in  the  California.  Why  have  these, 
murders  not  been  taken  up  by  President  Wilson  as 
a  casus  belli  ? 

To  begin  with  President  Wilson  has  never  threatened 
Germany  with  war.  What  he  has  said  is  that  he  will 
come  to  Congress  for  authority  to  use  all  the  necessary 
means  for  enforcing  American  rights.  The  employment  of 
these  means  will  no  doubt  involve  war.  But  they  can  be 
put  into  force  without  any  formal  declaration  of  war. 
There  are  many  indications  that  the  President  is  waiting 
to  have  his  hand  forced.  He  has  been  slow  to  act 
adversely  to  Germany  ;  he  has,  in  fact,  allowed  the  threat 
to  sink  American  ships  to  be  to  this  extent  effective. 


that  he  has  kept  most  American  sliips  in  port.     And  he 
has  taken  no  warlike  steps  at  all.     There  was  apparently 
no   authority   behind   the   statement   of   German   ships 
interned  in  American  ports  being  seized  or    of  measures 
taken  to  ])revcnt   their  engines  being  destroyed.     The 
steamship  companies  have  been  most  anxious  to  arm 
their  ships  ;  but  they    cannot  buy  guns  from  the  makers 
and  the  Navy  Department  has  neither  volunteered  to 
lend  them  or  given  any  favourable  response  to  the  re- 
quest  for  them.     For  that  matter,   the     Secretary    of 
the  Navy  has  accidentally  involved  himself,  according  to 
the  Daily  Chronicle's  correspondent,  in  a  way  that  seems 
quite  incompatible  with  any  expectation  that  he  is  soon 
to  appear  in  a  martial  character.  To  put  the  thing  bluntly, 
he  seems  to  have  been  made  the  cats-paw  of  a   Pacifist 
effort  in  which  Mr.  Bryan,  late  Secretary  of  State,  has  been 
co-operating  with  the  correspondent  of  a  German  paper 
acting  under  the  inspiration  of  the  late  German  Embassy. 
It  is  a  situation  altogether  incomprehensible  to  those  who 
are  inclined  to  look  upon  the  Government  at  Washington 
as  something  analagous  to  the  Government  of  a  European 
country.     It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  the  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty  facilitating  an  appeal  to  a  prospective  enemy 
for  peace,   by  suspending  th:;  embargo  on  the  use  of 
Government  wireless  stations,  and  doing  this  in  favour 
of  the  known  agent  of  a  power  with  whom  diplomatic 
relations  have  been  broken  off  by  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment.    1  h  ■  thing,  no  d  jubt,  has  not  the  same  significance 
at  Washington  as  it  would  have  here,  nor  is  it  likely  to  be 
followed  by  the  same  results.     But  it  throws  an  informing 
light  on  ,Mr.  Wilson's  surroundings. 

Meanwliile,  there  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  the 
German  Higher  Command  has  clutched  at  the  straw  thus 
throM-n  to  them.  It  has  angrily  denied  tlie  sending  of 
any  note  of  a  pacificatory  kind  ;  but  it  has  never  stated 
that  any  such  note  had  been  sent.  What  was  stated,  and 
what  seems  certainly  to  be  true,  is  that  an  informal 
proposal  for  a  modus  vivendi  came  to  the  President 
through  the  Swiss  Minister.  The  response  was  exactly 
what  might  have  been  expected.  Berlin  has  been  told 
that  no  proposal  short  of  the  revocation  of  last  week's 
note  can  possibly  be  entertained.  The  situation  there- 
fore remains  as  it  was.  Sooner  or  later  some  American 
ship  will  suffer  the  fate  that  has  befallen  other  neutrals- 
other  Americans  will  share  the  end  of  M'allace,  and  of 
his  two  hundred  predecessors.  Two  ships  indeed,  so 
we  are  told,  have  already  left  America  for  Bordeaux, 
and  have  left  unarmed,  with  the  precise  object  of  challeng- 
ing Germany  to  the  overt  act  for  which  both  countries  are 
waiting.  There  is  nothing  in  any  German  vrtterance, 
journalistic  or  official,  to  lead  one  "to  suppose  that  these 
ships  will  be  spared.  It  is  quite  certain  if  they  are  not, 
that  war  between  Germany  and  the  United  States  must 
become  an  accomplished  fact.  Arthur  Pollen 


Land   Without    Labour 


««    AND 

A 


By  the  Editor 


«  AND  Pharoah  said :  '  Go  therefore  now  and 
work  ;  for  there  shall  no  straw  be  given  you, 
yet  shall  ye  deliver  the  tale  of  bricks.'  "      This 

.incident  related  in  the  Book  of  Exodus    has 

liitherto  been  accepted  as  typical  of  the  most  grievous 
burden  a  taskmaster  can  impose  upon  a  people.  But 
in  the  future  it  may  well  be  that  another  episode  shall 
take  its  place  which  may  be  briefly  described  in  Biblical 
language  thus  :  "  And  in  the  third  year  of  the  Great  War 
the  British  Government  said  unto  the  tillers  of  the 
soil,  '  Go  now  therefore  and  work  and  increase  the  yield 
of  the  fields  a  hundredfold,  ploughing  where  ye  have  not 
ploughed,  reaping  where  ye  have  not  reaped.  The 
labour  that  still  remaineth  to  the  land  shall  be  taken  from 
you,  yet  shall  the  yield  of  the  fields  be  increased  a 
hundredfold.'  " 

This  summarises  fairly  accurately  the  agricultural 
position  at  the  moment.  If  the  War  Office  insists  on 
withdrawing  30,000  skilled  hands  from  those  that  remain 
on  the  land,  it  is  impossible  for  production  to  be 
augmented  next  harvest   even  if  climatic  conditions   are 


most  favourable.   The  position  grows  more  serious  ever}' 
week.     The  sowings   of  winter  wheat  are   much  below 
the   a\-erage,    mainly  on    account    of   the   wet   weather 
last     autumn,    though    lack    of     labour    also    had    its 
influence.     Spring  'wheat   is   in   normal  seasons  a   light 
crop,  liable   to   bUght,   and   though   the  time    is   short 
when  even  this  can  be  put   into  the   ground,   we   ha^■e 
on   one   side  the  \\s.x   Office   demanding  that   the   full 
quota  of  agricultural  labourers  shall  join  the  army,  and 
on  the  other   agricultural  authorities  unanimously   de- 
claring that  already  the  shortage  of  labour  is  so  great 
that  much  arable  land  will  remain  uncropped,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  acres  of  grass  land  which  have  already  been 
ploughed  up.     When  Mr.  Leslie  Scott  stated  in  the  House 
of  Commons  last  week  that  we  ought  to  have  on  the  land 
200,000  additional   efficient  workers  or  their  equivalent 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  it  is  perfectly  well  known 
to   all   interesteci    in    farming    that    he    expressed    an 
opinion  which  is  based  on  the   best   agricultural  infor- 
mation available. 

But  wliere  is  this  ad(lifi(iii:i1  efficient  labour  to  come 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


'February  15,  1917 


from  ?  It  used  to  be  a  common  .e;ibc  that  any  fool 
thought  himself  capable  of  managing  successfully  an  liotol 
or  a  newspaper,  two  very  complicated  businesses  that 
appear  perfectly  simple  on  the  surface.  But  it  is  evident 
that  to  these  enterprises  a  third  nuist  be  added — agri- 
culture. To  any  one  possessing  the  slightest  ac(]uaintance 
with  the  intricacies  of  tillage  and  stock-raising,  the  reams 
of  nonsense  that  ha\e  been  written  on  the  subject  are 
amazing.  The  technical  knowledge  which  a  mod(^rn 
farmer  and  to  a  leaser  but  appreciable  degree  which  a  farm 
l\and  must  possess  in  order  to  get  the  best  and  most  out 
of  the  land,  grows  greater  every  year,  and  before  the  war 
there  was  a  strong  movement  in  action  to  increase  such 
technical  knowledge  by  a  carefully  planned  system  of 
education.  Now  when  crops  become  a  question  of, 
national  importance,  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  any 
man  or  woman  is  capable  of  filling  the  place  of  a  farmer  or 
a  farm  liand.  The  thing  is  preposterous  and  would  be 
laughable  were  the  situation  less  serious. 

It  was  a  Pharoah  which  knew  not  Joseph — Joseph  who 
administered  Egypt  when  there  was  a  famine  in  the  land 
—who  imposed  the  all  but  impossible  task  upon  the 
Israelites,  and  people  are  beginning  to  ask  whether  there 
must  indeed  be  a  serious  shortage  of  food  in  these  islands 
before  an  Administration  arises  to  deal  sensibly  with  agri- 
culture. To  give  a  concrete  instance  :  I71  order  to  en- 
courage the  British  farmer  to  grow  more  wheat  and  to 
insure  him  against  a  possible  loss  which  competition  with 
the  wheat  areas  of  the  whole  world  may  entail,  the 
question  of  Government  guaranteeing  that  the  minimum 
price  of  his  wheat  shall  not  fall  below  40s.  a  quarter  o\er 
a  period  of  ten  years,  lias  been  urged  again  and  again. 
Five  years  ago  Captain  Charles  Bathurst,  Parliamentary 
Secretary  to  the  Ministry  of  Food,  published  his 
pamphlet  "To  Avoid  National  Starvation"  in  which 
this  question  was  discussed  ;  two  years  previously,  Sir 
Herbert  Matthews,  Secretary  of  the  Central  Chamber  of 
Agriculture,  had  written  a  forcible  letter  to  the  Morning 
Post  on  the  very  same  subject.  At  the  beginning  of  tlic 
war  the  policy  was  again  urged  upon  the  Government,  and 
to-day  among  the  many  scientific  agriculturists  whom  the 
Government  has  enlisted  in  its  services  in  one  capacity 
or  another,  there  is  hardly  one  who  does  not  ad\'ocate 
the  same  action.  It  had  been  hoped  that  by  now  Mr. 
Prothero,  who  has  definitely  expressed  an  opinion  in 
favour  of  a  guaranteed  minimum  price,  would  ha\T  been 
able  to  announce  that  a  decision  on  this  vital  point  had 
at  last  been  arrived  at.  It  is  the  keystone  of  the  future 
agricultural  prosperity  of  these  islands,  and  we  are 
learning  to-day — perhaps  the  lesson  may  prove  a  hard 
one  before  it  is  mastered — that  a  country  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  secure  in  which  agriculture  is  not  prosperous. 

On  one  common  aspect  of  this  particular  point  we  may 
touch  lightlj-.  The  fear  finds  frequent  expression  that 
unless  stringent  measures  are  taken,  farmers  will  exploit 
the  necessities  of  the  people  for  their  own  advantage. 
■No  doubt  there  exist  mean-hearted  men  in  farmhouses, 
as  in  other  human  habitations — men  who  would  stoop 
to  such  practices  for  private  profit,  but  in  time  of  war 
adequate  protection  should  not  be  ditficult.  Italy  put 
down  profiteering  in  food  supplies  \\-ith  a  strong  hand  by 
punishing  with  imprisonment  the  leaders  in  the  business. 
They  did  not  prosecute  the  small  but  the  big  men,  and 
there  ought  to  be  no  compunction  in  stamping  out  the  e\il 
here,  if  it  became  necessary,  in  the  same  drastic  manner. 
It  were  foolishness  to  talk  in  this  connection  of  the 
liberty  of  the  subject  during  times  like  these  when  e\'ery 
honest  and  just  man  and  woman  are  willingly  surrendering 
to  the  State  personal  liberty  in  order  that  the  \ictory 
of  freedom  and  humanity  may  be  full  and  complete. 

It  would  be  less  than  justice  to  the  present  Government 
and  to  its  predecessor  if  it  were  not  mentioned  that  the 
political  troubles  and  trials  of  |British  agriculture  have 
their  origin  in  traditional  Parliamentary  apathy  and  not 
in  personal  prejudice  or  partisan  animosity.  Few  people 
outside  the  agricultural  community  probably  realise  that 
it  is  less  than  thirty'  years  since  the  Board  of  Agriculture 
came  into  existence,  and  then  only  after  twenty  years  of 
steady  and  .  unremitting  agitation.  Lord  Salisbury 
created  it  in  1889,  and  Lord  Chaplin,  then  Mr.  Henry 
Chaplin,  was  its  first  President.  The  original  idea  was 
to  create  a  Ministry  of  Agriculture  and  Commerce, 
but  Commerce  was  dropped  at  an  early  stage,  and  at  a 
much  later  stage  Fisheries  were  added.     The  connection 


between. the  harvests  of  the  land  and  of  the -sea  has  always 
been  obscure,  beyond  the  fact  that  both  are  dependent  on 
skilled  labour.  During  the.war  a  new  anomaly  has  arisen  ; 
Mr.  Prothero.  in  his  Agricultural  guise,  has  to  wrestle  with 
the  War  Oflice  for  the  labour  he  needs  for  the  fields,  hut 
the  Fisheries  part  of  him  has  to  treat  with  the  Admiralty, 
for  it  seems  that  iishermen  can  only  be  converted  into 
sailormcn  and  not  into  soldiers.  Less  than  ten  years  ago 
the  Board  of  Agriculture  was  the  only  (iovernment 
Department  .which  had  not  a  second  representative  in 
either  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  even  now  its  oflices  are 
spread  over  Whitehall  in  five  or  six  different  houses. 

This  brief  sketch  of  the  Department  explains  better 
than  volumes  the  neglect  and  unpopularity  of  this  most 
\ital  industry  at  Westminster.  There  is  never  an  agri- 
cultural debate  in  the  House  which  does  not  echo  this 
traditional  listless  spirit,  and  until  it  is  broken  down, 
and  the  people  generally  and  their  Parliamentary  repre- 
senlati\es  in  particular  are  taught  to  xtnderstand  the 
national  significance  of  thriving  agriculture,  in  its  full 
length  and  breadth  and  height  and  depth,  the  country 
must  expect  a  repetition  of  such  errors  and  miscalculations 
as  those  we  deplore  to-day.  Mr.  Prothero  has  not  only 
to  stimulate  production  in  1917  and  in  1918,  but  he  has 
to  bring  home  to  the  public  the  complex  problems  which 
underlie  a  sound  and  healthy  national  agricultural  policy. 
It  is  a  Herculean  task,  but  now,  if  ever,  is  an  opportunity 
for  its  accomplishment. 

It  is  a  question  much  bigger  than  appears  on  the  face 
of  it,  for  history  records  that  no  nation  has  survived  which 
has  not  had  as  its  rock  of  foundation  a  sound  rural 
economy.  It  was  so  in  the  case  of  Ass^'ria,  it  was  the 
same  with  the  Roman  Empire.  On  the  continent  of 
Europe  this  truism  has  been  always  accepted,  and  in  the 
case  of  Germany  Bismarck  deliberately  encouraged  and 
favoured  the  Agrarian  Party  because  he  realised  that 
without  a  generous  agricultural  policy  Germany  might 
find  herself  at  the  mercy  of  the  surrounding  nations. 
It  is  only  a  commonplace  to  say  that  had  agriculture 
been  treated  by  the  Central  Empires  in  the  way  it  has 
been  dealt  with  by  the  successive  Govenuuents  of  this 
country,  the  war  would  have  been  at  an  end  months  ago, 
simply  through  the  enemies'  inability  to  withstand  the 
effects  of  the  blockade.  It  is  due  to  its  scientific  and 
skilfully  planned  system  of  cultivation  of  the  soil  that 
Cicrmany  has  been  enabled  to  carry  on  the  war  to  its 
present  stage. 

The  labour,  question  here  has  been  rendered  the  more 
difficult  by  unnecessary  agitation.  The  young  farmer  who 
remained  on  his  farm  doing  work  which  e\-ery  one  to-day 
realises  is  of  supreme  national  importance,  was  a  few 
months  ago  held  up  to  public  obloquy  as  a  slacker. 
Instances  could  be  gi\'en  where  strong  personal  influence 
had  to  be  brought  to  bear  in  order  to  keep  men  on  their 
farms  which  would  have  gone  to  pieces  had  they  joined 
up.  and  other  cases  could  be  mentioned  where  even  this 
infiuence  has  failed.  Think  also  of  the  enormous  loss  in 
the  aggregate  incurred  by  the  waste  of  time  of  both 
masters  and  men  attending  local  and  county  tribunals  in 
ord?r  to  appeal  and  to  prove  the  necessity  of  labour  on 
the  farms.  E\'en  when  the  appeal  has  been  successful  it 
has  meant  that  one,  two  or  even  three  days  have  been 
thrown  away,  at  a  season  when  every  hour  is  of  vital 
\-aluc  if  the  harvests  are  to  be  increased.  Not  only  are 
the  men  idle  but  teams  of  horses  also.  It  is  useless 
at  this  time  of  day  to  look  for  salvation  to  tractor  ploughs 
on  the  chess-board  enclosures  of  this  over-hedged  land. 

From  the  very  outbreak,  of  the  war  agriculture, 
through  such  representative  bodies  as  the  Farmers'  Club 
and  the  Central  Chamber  of  Agriculture  assumed  a  wide 
and  patriotic  outlook.  On  August  6th,  1914,  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  latter  body  sent  a  letter  to  the  Press  advoca- 
ting the  consumption  of  the  very  bread  we  are  eating 
to-day  "  as  one  means  of  extending  the  bread  supply." 
(iovernmental  ad\ice  was  sought  on  the  best  way  of 
increasing  the  production  of  cereals,  but  farmers  were  told 
curtly  to  carry  on  as  though  circumstances  were  normal. 
These  facts  should  be  borne  in  mind  at  a  moment  when  ill- 
informed  public  opinion  is  inclined  to  turn  round  and 
abuse  the  farmer.  "  He  has  been  so  harassed  from 
pillar  to  post,"  to  quote  Mr.  Prothero's  words,  "that 
he  has  not  known  where  he  was."  But  this  vexatious 
policy  must  cease,  and  at  once,  if  the  nation  is  to  obtain 
from  him  the  full  help  which  it  now  urgi^ntl\-  requires. 


February  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


The   Soldier  who   Sings— II 


By  Lewis  R.  Freeman 


III  the  opening  pari  of  his  article,  published  last  week, 
Mr.  Lcii'is  R.  Treeman  describes  how  the  Italian  soldier 
sings  under  all  circunistances,  except  when  he  is  for- 
bidden in  the  High  Alps  t'oi'  fear  of  starting  avalanches. 
Mr.  Freeman  is  probably  the  only  foreign  correspondent 
aho  has  had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  the  Italian  Army 
working  under  winter  conditions  of  exceptional  severity. 
He  further,  illustrates   the  poiver  of  song. 

A  S  regards  the  spirits  of  an  Alpini.  song  is  a  baro- 

/\     meter  ;  as  regards   his   health,  a  thermometer. 

/  %  An  experienced  Alpini  officer  will  judge  the 
jL  A-mental  or  physical  condition  of  one  of  his 
men  by  noting  the  way  he  is  singing,  or  refrainhig 
from  singing,  just  as  a  man  determines  the  condition 
of  his  dog  by  touching  its  nose  to  see  if  it  is  hot 
or  cold.  I  remember  standing  for  a  half-hour  .  on  the 
wind-swept  summit  of  a  lofty  Trentino  pass  with  a  dis- 
tinguished Major-General,  who  had  taken  me  out  that 
afternoon  in  his  little  mountain-climbing  motor  to  give 
me  an  idea  of  how  the  winter  road  was  kept  clear  in  a 
blizzard.  The  wind  was  driving  through  the  "  notch  " 
of  the  pass  at  fifty  miles  an  hour,  the  air  was  stiff  with 
falling  and  drifting  snow,  and  it  was  througli  the  narrow  ed 
holes  in  our  "  capuchos  "  that  we  watched  a  battalion 
filing  by  on  its  way  from  the  front  line  trenches  to  the 
plains  for  a  spell  of  rest  in  billets.  Packs  and  cloaks 
were  crusted  an  inch  thick  with  frozen  snow,  eye- 
brows were  frosted,  beards  and  moustaches  icicled  ;  but, 
man  after  man  (though  sometimes,  as  a  wind  blast 
swallowed  the  sound,  one  could  only  guess  it  by  the 
rhythmically  moving  hps).  they  marched  singing.  Now 
and  then,  as  the  drifts  permitted,  they  marched  in  lusty 
choruses  of  two  and  threes  :  but  for  most  part  each  man 
was  warbling  on  his  own,  and  many  of  them  probably 
simply  humming  inprovisations,  giving  vocal  expression 
to  their  thoughts.      ^ 

Suddenly  the  General  stepped  forward  and,  tapping 
sharply  with  his  alpenstock  on  the  ice-stiff  skirt  of  one 
of  liis  marchers  brought  him  to  a  halt.  The  frost-rimmed 
haloes  fringing  the  puckered  apertures  in  the  two  hoods 
came  close  together,  and  there  was  a  quick  interchange 
of  question  and  answer  between  wind-mulfted  mouths. 
Then,  with  a  pat  of  admonition,  the  General  shoved 
the  man  back  into  the  passing  line. 

"  That  boy  wasn't  singing,"  he  roared  into  my  car  in 
response  to  my  look  of  interrogation  as  he  stepped  back 
into  the  drift  beside  me.  "  Knew  something  was  wrong 
— so  stopped  him  and  asked  what.  Said  he  got  thirsty — 
ate  raw  snoW' — made  throat  sore.  Told  him  it  served 
him  quite  right — that  an  Arab  from  Tripoli  d  know 
better 'n  to  cat  snow." 

Three  or  four  times  more  in  the  quarter  hour  that 
elapsed  before  the  heightening  storm  drove  us  to  the 
shelter  of  a  rufugio  the  General  stopped  men  whose  face 
or  bearing  implied  that  there  was  no  song  on  their  lips 
or  in  their  hearts,  and  in  each  instance  it  transpired  that 
something  was  wrong.  .  One  man  confessed  to  ha\'ing 
discarded  his  flannel  abdominal  belt  a  couple  of  days 
previously  and  was  developing  a  severe  case  of  dysentery 
as  a  perfectly  natural  consequence  of  the  chill  which 
followed.  Another  had  just  been  kicked  by  a  passing 
mule,  and  a  third  had  received  word  that  mornihg  that 
liis  newly-born  child  was  dead  and  its  mother  dangerously 
ill.  The  two  former  were  shoved  none  too  gently  back  into 
line  \N  ith  what  a])peared  to  be  the  regulation  prescription 
in  such  cases  of  "  Serves  you  right  for  your  carelessness," 
but  I  thought  I  saw  a  note  slipped  into  the  hand  of  the 
latter  as  the  General  pressed  it  in  sympathy,  and  promised 
to  see  that  leave  should  be  arranged  for  at  once. 
*         *         *         i-t         ^ 

But  it  is  not  only  the  buoyant  Al])ini  who  pours  out  his 
soul  in  song.  The  Italian  soldier,  no  matter  fi"om  what 
part  of  the  country  he  comes  or  on  what  sector  of  the 
Front  he  is  .stationed,  can  no  more  work  or  light  without 
singing  than  he  can  without  eating.  Indeed,  a  popular 
song  that  is  heard  ,all  along  the  Front  relates  ho^^•,  for 
some  reason  or  other,  an  order  went  out  to  the  army 


that  there  was  to  be  no  singing  in  the  trenches,  andot 
how  a  soldier,  protesting  to  his  officer,  exclaimed,  "  But, 
my  Captain,  if  I  cannot  sing  I  shall  die  of  sadness  ; 
arid  surely  it  is  better  that  I  should  die  fighting  the 
enemy  than  that  I  should  expire  of  a  broken  heart  !  " 
On  many  a  drizzly  winter  morning,  motoring  past  the 
painted  SiciUan  carts  which  form  so  important  a  feature 
of  the  Italian  transport  on  the  broken  hills  of  the  Isonzo 
Front,  I  noted  with  sheer  astonishment  that  the  drivers 
were  far  and  away  likelier  to  be  singing  than  sweariijg 
at  the  mules.  To  one  who  has  driven  mules,  or  even 
li\cd  in  a  country  where  mules  are  driven,  I  will  not  need 
to  advance  any  further  c^-idcnce  of  the  SiciUan  soldier's 
love  of  song. 

And  on  that  stony  ti-ench-torn  plateau  of  the  Carso, 
where  men  live  in  ca\erns  under  tht;  earth,  and  where  the 
casualties  are  multiplied  two  and  three-fold  by  the  frag- 
ments of  explosive-shattered  rock ;  even  there — on 
this  deadliest  and  most  repulsive  of  all  the  battle-fronts 
of  Armageddon — the  lilting  melodies  of  sunny  southern 
Italy,  punctuated  but  never  for  long  interrupted  by  the 
shriek  and  detonation  of  Austrian  shells,  arc  heard  on 
e\cry  hand. 

There  was  a  trio'  of  blithe  rock-breakers  that  furnished 
me  with  one  of  the  most  grimly  amusing  impressions  of 
my  visit.     It  was  toward  the   end   of   December   and 


Captain 


the  indefatigable  young  officer  who  had 


me  in  charge,  arranged  an  especial  treat  in  the  form  of  a 
visit  to  a  magnificent  observation  on  the  brink  of  a  hill 
which  the  Italians  had  wrested  from  the  Austrians  in  one 
of  their  late  advances.  We  picked  our  way  across  some 
miles  of  this  shell-churncKl  and  still  uncleared  battlefield 
and  munched  our  hmch  of  sandwiches  on  the  parapet  of  a 
trench  from  which  one  could  follow,  but  with  few  breaks, 
the  course  of  the  Austrian  lines  in  the  hills  beyond 
Gorizia  to  where  they  melted  into  the  marshes  fringing 
the  sea. 

"  There's  only  one  objection  to  this  vantagQ/  point," 
remarked  the  Captain,  directing  his  glass  along  nTc  lower 
fringe  of  the  clouds  that  hung  low  on  the  opposite  hills. 
"  Unless  the  weather  is  fairly  thick  one  is  under  the  direct 
observations  of  the  Austrians  over  there  for  close  to  an 
hour,  both  going  and  coming." 

And  at  that  psychological  moment  the  clouds  began  to 
lift,  the  sun  came  out,  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  first 
good  "  gunnery  weather  "  that  had  chanced  in  a  month, 
the  artillery  of  both  sides  opened  up  for  as  lively  a  bit  of 
practice  as  any  really  sober-minded  individual  could 
care  to  be  mixed  up  amongst.  I  have  seen  quieter 
intervals  on  the  Somme,  even  during  a  period  when  the 
attack  was  being  sharply  pushed.  A  hulking  "  "305  " 
which  swooped  down  .and  obliterated  a  spiny  pinnacle  of 
the  ridge  a  few  hundred  .yards  further  along,  also  swept 
much  of  the  zest  out  of  the  sharpening  panorama  and 
signalled  "  Time  to  go  !  "  A  large  calibre  higli-explosive 
shell  is  a  deal  more  fearsome  a  thing  rending  a  crater  in 
the  rock  of  the  Carso  than  tossing  the  soft  mud  of  France. 

\\'ork  was  still  going  on  in  the  half-sheltered  "  sink- 
holes "  that  pock-marked  the  grisly  plateau,  but  on  the 
remains  of  a  cart-road  which  we  followed,  and  wliich 
appeared  to  be  the  special  object  of  the  Austrians' 
diversion,  none  seemed  to  be  in  sight  save  a  few  scattered 
individuals  actively  engaged  in  getting  out  of  sight. 
It  was  an  illuminating  example  of  the  way  most  of  the 
"  natives  "  appeared  to  feel  about  the  situation,  and  \\c 
did  not  saunter  any  the  more  leisurely  for  having  had  the 
benefit  of  it. 

We  stepped  around  the  riven  body  of  a  horse  that 
still  steamed  from  the  dying  warmth  of  the  inert  flesh, 
and,  a  bit  further  on,  there  was  a  red  puddle  in  the  middle 
of  the  road,  a  black  and  lazily  smoking  shell-hole  close 
beside  it,  with  a  crisply  fresh  mound  of  sod  and  rock 
fragments  just  beyond.  A  hammer  and  a  dented  trench 
helmet  indicated  that  the  man  had  been  cracking  up 
stone  for  the  road  when  liis  had  come. 

"  One  would  imagine  that  they  had  enough  broken 

stone  around  here  already,"  observed •,  drily,  glancing 

back  o\cr  his    shoulder    to  -where    a   iresh    covey    of 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


l^cbruary  15,  1917 


bursting  shell  was  niakmjj;  tlic  sky-line,  ol  tlie  stone-wall 
behind  us  luok  like  a  hedge  of  panijms  plumes  in  a  high 
\vind.  "  Hope  the  rest  of  these  poor  fellows  have  taken 
tu  their  holes.  A  little  dose  like  we're  getting  here  is 
only  a  ;  00  1  appetiser  ;  to  stick  it  out  as  a  steady  diet  is 
(juite  another  matter." 

Half  a  minute  later  we  rounded  a  bend  in  the  stone 
\s  all  we  had  been  hugging,  to  come  full  upon  what  I  have 
always  since  thought  of  as  "  The  Anvil  Chorus  "  —three 
men  cracking  rock  to  metal  the  surface  of  a  recently 
liiled  shell-hole  in  the  road  and  singing  a  lusty  song  to 
which  they  kept  time  with  the  rhythmic  strokes  of  their 
liammers.  Dumped  off  in  a  heap  at  one  side  of  the 
road  was  what  may  have  been  the  hastily  "  jettisoned 
cargo  "  of  a  half-dozen  motor  lorries  that  had  pussy- 
footed up  there  under  cover  of  darkness — several  hundred 
trench  bombs  containing  among  them  enough  e.xplosive  to 
have  lifted  the  whole  mountainside  off  into  the  valley, 
had  a  shell  chanced  to  nose-dive  into  their  midst.  Two 
of  these  stubby  little  "  winged  victories,"  a  couple  of  the 
singers  had  appropriated  as  work  stools.  The  third  of 
them  sat  on  the  remains  of  a  "  dud  "  "  "305,"  from  a 
broad  crack  in  which  a  tiny  stream  of  rain-dissoh-ed  high- 
e.\plosi\-e  trickled  out  to  "form  a  gay  saffron  pool  about 
his  feet.  'Ihis  one  was  bareheaded,  his  trench  helmet, 
full  of  nuts  and  dried  figs — evidently  from  a  Christmas 
package  —sitting  on  the  ground  within  reach  of  three. 

The  shaqj  roar  of  the  quickening  Italian  artillery,  the 
deeper  booms  of  the  exploding  Austrian  shells,  and  the 
syrenic  crescendo  of  anivees  and  departs  so  filled  the  air 
that  it  was  not  until  one  was  almost  opposite  the  merry 
trio  that  he  could  catch  the  fascinating  swing  of  the 
iterated  refrain. 

"  A  fine  song  to  dance  to,  that,"  remarked stopping 

and  swinging  liis  shoulders  to  the  time  of  the  air.  "  You 
can  almost  jccl-  the  beat  of  it." 

"It  strikes  me  as  being  still  better  as  a  song  to  march 
to,"  I  rejoined  meaningly,  settling  down  my  helmet  over 
the  back  of  my  neck  and  suiting  action  to  the  word. 
"  It's  imdoubtedly  a  fine  song,  but  it  doesn't  seem  to  me 
(piite  right  to  tempt  a  kind  Providence  by  lingering  near 
this  young  mountain  of  trench  bombs  any  longer  than  is 
strictly  necessary.  If  that  Austrian  battery  '  lifts  ' 
another  notch  something  else  is  going  to  lift  here,  and 
I'd  much  rather  go  do\\Ti  to  the  valley  on  my  feet  than 
riding  on  a  trench  bomb." 

The  roar  of  the  artillery  battle  flared  up  and  died 
dowTi  by  spells,  but  the  steady  throb  of  "  The  Anvil 
Chorus"  followed, us  down  the  wind  for  some  minutes 
after  another  bend  in  the  stone  wall  cut  off  our  view  of 
the  singers.  How  often  have  I  not  wondered  which 
ones  of  that  careless  trio  survived  that  day,  or  the  next, 
or  the  one  after  that  ;  which,  if  any,  of  them  arc  still 
beating  time  on  the  red-brown  rocks  of  the  Carso  to  the 
air  of  that  haunting  refrain. 


T  was  told  that  the  ^v•ounded  are  sometimes  located  on 
the  battlefield  by  their  singing  ;  that  they  not  infre- 
cjuently  sing  while  being  borne  in  on  stretchers  or  trans- 
ported in  ambulances.  I  had  no  chance  to  observe 
l)ersonalIy  instances  of  this  kind,  but  I  did  hear,  time  and 
time  again,  men  singing  in  the  hospitals,  and  they  were 
not  all  convalescents  or  lightly  wounded,  either.  One 
brave  little  fellow  in  that  fine  British  hospital  that  George 
Trevelyan  and  his  co-workers  are  conducting  with  con- 
spicuous success  on  the  Isonzo  I  shall  never  forget. 

An  explosive  bullet  had  carried  all  four  fingers  of  his 
right  hand  away,  leaving  behind  it  an  infection  which 
had  run  into  gaseous  gangrene.-  The  stump  swelled  to 
a  hideous  mass  of  about  the  shape  and  size  of  a  ten- 
])ound  ham,  but  the  doctors  were  fighting  amputation  in 
the  hope.of  saving  the  wrist  and  tlnmib  to  have  something 
to  attach  artificial  members  to.  The  crisis  was  over  at 
the  time  I  visited  the  hospital,  but  the  whole  arm  was 
still  so  inflamed  that  the  plucky  lad  had  to  close  his 
eyes  and  set  his  teeth  to  keep  from  crying  out  with  agony 
as  the  matron  lifted  the  stump  to  show  me  the  "  beautiful 
healthy  red  colour,"  where  healing  had  begun. 

The  matron  had  some  "  splendid  trench  foot  " 
cases  to  show  me  further  along,  and  these,  and  some 
interesting  experiments  in  disinfection  by  irrigation, 
were  engrossing  my  attention  when  a  sort  of  a  crooning 
hum  caused  me  to  turn  a'lid  look  at  the  patient  in  the  bed 


behind  me.  It  was  the  "  gaseous  gangrene  "  boy  again. 
\\'e  had  worked  down  the  next  row  till  we  were  opposite 
him  again,  and  in  the  quarter  hour  that  had  elapsed  his 
nurse  had  set  a  basin  of  disinfectant  on  his  bed  in  which 
to  bathe  his  wound.  Into  this  she  had  lifted  the 
hideously  swollen  stump  and  hurried  on  to  her  next 
patient.  And  there  he  laid,  swaying  the  repulsive  mass 
of  mortified  flesh  that  was  still  a  part  of  him  back  and 
forth  in  the  healing  hquid,  the  while  he  crooned  a  little 
song  to  it  as  a  mother  rocks  her  child  to  sleep  as  she  sings 
a  lullaby. 

"  He  always  does  that,"  said  the  nurse,  stopping  for 
a  moment  with_  her  hands  full  6i  bandages.  "  He  says 
it  helps  him  to'  forget  the  pain.  And  there  are  five  or 
six  others,  the  worse  they  feel  the  more  likely  they  arc  to 
try  to  sing  as  a  sort  of  diversion.  That  big  chap  over 
there  with  the  beard — he's  a  fisherman  from  somewliere 
in  the  South — he  says  that  when  the '  shooting '  pains  begin 
in  his  frozen  feet  he  has  to  sing  to  keep  from  ctirsing." 
*      "  *        *        *         * 

On  one  of  my  last  days  on  the  Italian  Front  I  climbed 
to  a  shell-splintered  peak  of  the  Trentino  under  the 
guidance  of  a  son  of  a  famous  General,  a  Mercury-footed 
flame  of  a  lad  who  was  Aide-de-Camp  to  the  Division 
Commander  of  that  sector.  Mounting  by  an  inter- 
minable teleferica  from  just  above  one  of  the  half-ruined 
towns  left  behind  thent  by  the  retreating  Atistrians  after 
their  drive  of  last  spring,  we  threaded  a  couple  of  miles  of 
steep  zigzagging  trail,  climbed  a  hundred  feet  of  ladder, 
and  about  the  same  distance  of  rocky  toe-holds— the  latter 
by  means  of  a  knotted  rope  and  occasional  friendly  iron 
spikes — finally  to  come  out  on  the  summit  with  nothing 
between  us  and  an  almost  precisely  similar  Austrian 
position  opposite  but  a  half  mile  of  thin  air  and  the 
overturned,  shrapnel-pitted  statue  of  a  saint,  dottbtless 

erected  in  happier  days  by  the  pious  inhabitants  of • 

as  an  emblem  of  peace  and  good  will.  An  Italian  youth, 
who  had  returned  from  New  York  to  fight  for  his  country 
— he  had  charge  of  some  kind  of  mechanical  installation 
in  a  rock  gallery  a  few  hundred  feet  beneath  our  feet — • 
climbed  up  with  us  to  act  as  interpreter. 

Peering  through  the  crook  in  the  lead-sheathed  elbow 
of  the  fallen  statue,  the  roughly  squared  openings  of  the 
rock  galleries  which  sheltered  an  enemy  battery  well 
within  fair  revolver  shot,  and,  indeed,  an  Alpini  sharp- 
shooter had  made  a  careless  Austrian  gunner  pay  the 
inevitable  penalty  of  carelessness  only  an  hour  or  two 
before,  one  could  make  his  voice  carry  across  without 
half  an  effort. 

Just  before  we  started  to  descend  my  young  guide  made 
a  megaphone  of  his  hands,  threw  his  head  back,  his  chest 
out,  and,  directing  his  voice  across  the  seemingly  bottom- 
less gulf  that  separated  us  from  the  enemy,  sang  a  few 
bars  of  what  I  took  to  be  a  stirring  battle  song. 

"  What  is  the  song  the  Captain  sings  ?  "  I  asked  of  the 
New  York  bred  youth,  whose  head  was  just  disappearing 
over  the  edge  of  the  clif?  as  he  began  to  "  hand  "  himself 
down  the  rope.  "  Something  from  '  William  Tell,' 
isn't  it  ?  " 

Young  "  Mulberry  Street  "*  dug  hard  for  a  toe-hold, 
found  it,  slipped  his  right  hand  up  till  it  closed  on  a  com- 
fortable knot  above  his  head,  and  then,  with  left  leg  and 
left  arm  swinging  free  over  a  200-feet  drop  to  the  terrace 
below,  shouted  back  : 

"  Noton  yer  life,  Mista.  Di  Captain  he  not  singa  no 
song.  He  just  tclla  di  Ostrich'un  datta  Italia  she  ready 
fer  him.     Datta  all." 

I  looked  down  to  the  valley  where  line  after  line  of 
trenches  fronted  with  a  furry  brown  fringe  that  I  knew 
to  be  rusting  barbed  wire  stretched  out  of  sight  over  the 
divides  on  either  hand,  and  where,  for  every  grey-black 
geyser  of  smoke  that  marked  the  bursting  of  an  Austrian 
shell  a  half-dozen  vivid  flame  spurts  flashing  out  from 
unguessed  cavenis  on  the  mountain  side,  told  that  tlie 
compliment  was  being  returned  with  heavy  interest. 

Yes,  Italy  is  ready  for  them,  I. thought,  and  whether  she 
lias  to  hold  here  and  there — as  she  may — in  defence,  or 
whether  she  goes  forward  all  along  the  line  in  triimiphant 
offence — whichever  it  is.  the  Italian  soldier  will  go  out 
to  the  battle  with  a  song  on  his  lips,  a  song  that  no  bullet 
which  leaves  the  blood  pulsing  through  his  veins  and 
breath  in  his  lungs  will  have  power  to  stop. 


•   "  MiiUx-rry    Street  ' 
qiiartor  of  New  York. 


is  the  inaiu    iirtcry  of   the    principal  Italian 


February  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


Memories  of   Many  Waterfalls 

By  William  T.  Palmer 


THE  ancient  poets  and  artists  thought  no  hiud- 
scape  complete  without  the  Hash  and  glow  and 
murmur  of  broken  waters,  and  those  skilful  site- 
finders,  the  monks  of  the  middle  ages,  held  true 
principles  in  the  same  direction.  One  fears  that  tlie 
modern  architect  only  values  a  waterfall  because  he 
can  the  more  easily  impound  its  supplies  and  conduct 
them  down  hideous  sloping  pipes  to  the  electric- 
lighting  plant.  Still,  Foyers,  that  great  cascade  by  Loch 
Ness  which  for  generations  was  held  to  be  Scotland's 
pride,  presents  some  of  its  ancient  majesty  and  force 
when  winter  rains  and  thaws  send  a  great  flood  over 
the  dams  of  the  Aluminium  Company.  Once  again  the 
gorge  among  the  pines  echoes  the  riot  of  many  waters, 
and  the  rocks  drive  up  the  old  time  clouds  of  spray. 

It  is  perhaps  daring  much  to  divide  our  British  water- 
falls, so  many  as  one  has  seen,  into  classes.  There  is 
for  instance  a  whole  family  on  the  line  of  the  Cumbrian 
falls  of  Lodore,  though  their  surroundings  vary  con- 
siderably. In  Scotland  in  particular  they  abound. 
In  mild  winter  the  overcharged  torrent  comes  dashing 
down  the  parr  of  the  Leny,  turgid,  foaming,  broken  — 
jvist  one  wild  race  of  waters  from  the  ancient  kirkyard 
of  St.  Bride  down  to  the  fringe  of  Callander.  The  cascade 
of  Leny  is  by  no  means  so  steep  as  Lodore,  nor  does  it 
face  the  open  expanse  of  a  Derwentwater.  Its  voice 
is  powerful,  but  its  throat  is  narrowed  and  twisting, 
and  many  burns  from  the  bens  of  Ledi  and  Vorlich 
rattle  down  to  confuse  the  sound-waves.  The  winter 
rejoicing  of  Lodore  is  heard  far  beyond  Keswick —indeed 
it  murmurs  itself  to  silence  against  the  dank  grassy 
walls  of  great  Skiddaw  beyond  the  vale. 

One  takes  Cumbrian  forces  as  types  because  they  are 
best  known.  The  next  section  must  be  named  after 
Sour  Milk  Gh^'ll— an  open  cascade  which  leaps  and  breaks 
and  dances  down  three  hundred  feet  of  cliff  in  the  dale 
behind  Grasmere.  In  summer  its  volume  is  not  large, 
in  winter  the  huge  jets  of  water  seem  to  fly  from  'upper 
moor  down  to  larch  wood  in  one  mighty  bound.  Of  this 
type  one  would  mention  the  Mad  Torrent,  near  Coruisk 
in  Skye,  where  in  a  gale  the  falling  waters  are  snatched 
to  pieces  and  spun  and  woven  again  into  the  most  dehcate 
of  bridal  veils.  Of  similar  type  too  arc  the  Swallow  falls 
near  Bettws-y-coed  in  North  Wales.  And  there  is  a  fall 
beyond  the  narrows  of  ■  Glen  Nevis  which  leaps  from 
the  snowy  uplands  of  Mamore,  from  the  haunt  of 
ptarmigan,  red  deei:,  and  golden  eagle,  a  thousand  feet 
into  the  glen  beneath.  In  summer  this  is  a  narrow  riband 
of  foam,  just  like  the  force  which  pours  from  Birkcr  moor 
mto  Eskdale.  Cumbria  however  interposes  huge  fans 
of  scree,  and  long  slopes  covered  with  bronze  fern  and 
bracken  between  the  rock-ridge  and  the  dale. 

Ther.e'  are  many  fine  waterfalls  of  the  tvpe  of  Skelwith  ; 
a  stream  breaking  over  a  rampart  of  "hard  stone  and 
gouging  a  pool  wide  and  deep  in  the  softer  strata  be- 
neath. Skelwith  is  a  mere  fifteen  feet  in  sheer  descent. 
The  High  Force  on  the  Tees  in  Durham  is  nearly  four  times 
that  height,  while  the  Linn  of  Dee  in  upper  Aberdeen- 
shire is  mightier  still  in  volume  and  height  and  area  of 
the  pool  beneath.  It  is  a  more  ancient  fall  too,  having 
worn  a  narrow  funnel  instead  of  the  broad  current  of 
the  others.  The  Strid  on  the  Wharfe  seems  to  be  an  un- 
successful attempt  at  a  waterfall  on  similar  lines.  Nature, 
however,  forgot  to  lift  the  planes  of  rock  or  too  early  let  the 
stream  work  its  will  and  carve  a  route  of  its  own  to  the 
lower  pool.  Where  one  expects  a  steep  break  there  is 
a  level  race  of  wild  \\'aters.  There  is  another  water- 
fall, the  Poll  Tarf  in  Glen  Tilt,  of  a  similar  nature,  the 
pool  of  which  is  spanned  by  a  suspension  bridge. 

The  types  of  waterfall  already  mentioned  are  of  the 
lusty  sort,  advertising  themselves  to  both  eye  and  ear. 
Dungeon  Ghyll,  in  Langdale,  is  of  a  different  order,  its 
beauty  lying  much  in  its  retirement  from  the  garish 
light  of  day.  A  mere  tnckle  of  water  comes  down  from 
the  shoulder  of  the  Pikes,  cuts  its  way  deeply  into  a  belt 
of  crushed  rock,  then  drops,  in  a  pillar  of  foam,  a  sheef 
hundred  feet  into  a  tiny  pool.  So  narrow  is  the  gulr 
that  two  boulders  falling  together  have  made  a  bridge,  and 


in  winter  practically  exclude  the  light  of  day.  It  is  at 
such  times  a  freezing  room  :  the  smooth  walls  are  ice- 
polished,  the  spray  has  built  fantastic  castles  on  the 
ledges  and  has  hung  icicles  wherever  they  can  grij). 

The  Falls  of  Cruachan  above  Loch  Awe  are  similarly 
retired,  just  as  dark,  and  being  nearer  the  sea  the  trees 
clinging  to  the  rocks  and  ledges  give  more  play  to  the 
frost-fiend's  fancies  in  the  way  of  spray  buildings  and 
ice  spears.  Hardraw  Force  in  Wensleydale  is  more  open 
to  view  than  these  ;  it  is  a  thin  sheet  of  water  falling  o\er 
a  hard  ledge  and  scooping  out  a  pool  beneath.  Hardraw 
in  the  geological  period  when  its  volume  was  twenty  score 
times  more  powerful  than  to-day,  has  so  undercut  its 
tip  that  even  in  summer  one  may  walk  between  the 
falling  waters  and  the  crumbling  rock-wall.  The  heavier 
stream  of  winter  shoots  out  further, .  and  leaves  tho 
track  behind  clear  almost  of  spraj'. 

Plumes  of  Water 

Midway  between  the  dark,  mysterious  waterfalls  and 
the  bold  torrents,  comes  the  most  glorious  type  of  all, 
the  straight  slim  plume  of  water  dashing  down  between 
mighty  palisades  of  crag.  Dalegarth  Force  in  Eskdale  and 
Scale  Force  near  Crummock  are  perfect  examples.  Aira 
Force  by  UUswater  and  Stook  Ghyll  at  Ambleside  are  less 
perfect,  and  one  inclines  to  put  Cordale  Scar,  in  the 
Pennine,  into  the  same  class,  as  well  as  some  of  the 
forces  about  Ingleton  and  Falling  Foss  in  the  moors 
near  Whitby.  In  winter  these  waterfalls  are  often  quite 
imapproachable.  The  narrow  gorges  are  floored  with 
tossing,  ra\'ing  water,  and  one  clambers  about  the  high 
walls  for  even  a  distant  glimpse  of  the  main  fall  itself. 

One  of  the  maddest  enterprises  in  a  youth  not  famed 
for  caution  was  a  visit  on  a  night  of  hard  winter  to  Scale 
Force.  There  had  been  much  rain,  then  a  few  days  of  calm, 
a  griping  of  frost  and  a  heavy  blanket  of  snow.  Next  came 
a  clear  night,  and  the  starlight  challenged  a  young  man 
out  for  adventure.  The  gully  of  the  waterfall  was  a  line 
of  ink-black  shadow,  which  the  rising  of  the  moon 
accentuated  while  lighting  up  the  broad  expanse  of  snow. 
At  first  progress  was  not  dithcult,  but  when  one  began 
to  step  from  one  snow-domed  boulder  to  the  next  a  fall 
became  more  than  likely.  Still,  on  one  pushed,  passed 
within  the  walls  of  the  gully  and  lost  the  advantage  of 
even  the  witched  light  of  the  moon.  The  last  hundred  yards 
were  groped  up  the  iced  rocks.  One  wished  to  stick 
it  until  there  was  a  view  of  the  falling  stream.  There  it 
was — a  thin,  pale-blue  veil  dropping  into  a  velvet- 
black  gloom,  backed  by  a  piu-ple-blue  sky  through  which 
stars  of  gold  and  silver  were  gleaming,  and  at  one's  feet 
a  cauldron  of  black,  shifting  water. 

The  return  was  even  more  dangerous,  as  the  tendency 
was  to  pitch  forward  from  the  iced  steps  and  boulders. 
One  looked  down  on  the  dark  floor  of  Crummock  \\'ater 
bounded  by  fields  of  glistening  white,  with  a  wall  of 
mountain  seamed  with  shadows  and  touched  with  silver 
beyond,  and  on  either  hand  were  the  sheer,  forbidding 
rock-portals    of   the   gully. 

One  of  the  most  impressive  waterfalls  of  my  acquaint- 
ance stands  outside  this  series.  It  is  the  fifty-feet 
plunge  of  the  subterranean  river  which  passes  through 
Yordas  cave,  in  Wensleydale  of  West  Yorkshire.  The 
surroundings  are  eerie.  Instead  of  icicles  and  fairy 
palaces  there  are  grey  fingers  of  stalactite  and  the  rounded 
bosses  here  and  there  of  stalagmite.  The  hght  of  day 
has  never  ventured  here.  There  has  never  been  the 
song  of  the  dipper,  the  flirt  of  the  wagtail,  the  blue  fire 
of  the  kingfisher.  To  reach  the  place  one  has  to  crawl 
\mder  a  barrier  of  rock,  andci'oss  a  mighty  chamber  where 
the  gloom  of  centuries  seems  to  liang.  The  cavern 
is  filled  with  water-smoke.  A  flash  of  magnesium 
proves  the  great  spout  of  grey  above  our  heads ;  there 
are  many  rainbow  tints  of  curving  waters.  The  same 
flash  shows  where  the  torrent  strikes  the  walls  of  the 
shaft,  and  where  it  disappears  in  mist  and  thunder  and 
darkness.  The  Yordas  waterfall  is  one  of  the  places 
which  is  left  with  reUef ,  yet  it  remains  a  pleasant  memory. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  15,  1917 


bursting  shell  was  making  the  sky-line  of  the  stone-wall 
lu'hind  us  l(X)k  like  a  hedge  of  pampas  plumes  in  a  high 
wind.  "  Hope  the  rest  of  these  poor  fellows  have  taken 
tu  their  holes.  A  little  dose  like  we're  getting  here  is 
only  a  f  00  1  appetiser  ;  to  stick  it  out  as  a  steady  diet  is 
quite  another  matter." 

Half  a  minute  later  we  rounded  a  bend  in  the  stone 
\s  all  we  had  been  hugging,  to  come  full  upon  what  I  have 
always  since  thought  of  as  "  The  Anvil  Chorus  "  —three 
men  cracking  rock  to  metal  the  surface  of  a  recently 
lilled  shell-hole  in  the  road  and  sin.ging  a  lusty  song  to 
which  they  kept  time  \nth  the  rhythmic  strokes  of  their 
hammers.  Dumped  off  in  a  heap  at  one  side  of  the 
road  was  what  may  have  been  the  hastily  "  jettisoned 
cargo  "  of  a  half-dozen  motor  lorries  that  had  pussy- 
footed up  there  under  cover  of  darkness — several  hundred 
trench  bombs  containing  among  them  enough  explosive  to 
have  lifted  the  whole  mountainside  off  into  the  valley, 
had  a  shell  chanced  to  nose-dive  into  their  midst.  Two 
of  these  stubby  little  "  winged  victories,"  a  couple  of  the 
singers  had  appropriated  as  work  stools.  The  third  of 
them  sat  on  the  remains  of  a  "  dud"  "  "305,"  from  a 
broad  crack  in  which  a  tiny  stream  of  rain-dissoh'cd  high- 
e.\plosi\-e  trickled  out  to  form  a  gay  saffron  pool  about 
his  feet.  This  one  was  bareheaded,  his  trencli  helmet, 
full  of  nuts  and  dried  figs — evidently  from  a  Christmas 
package  —sitting  on  the  ground  within  reach  of  three. 

The  sharp  roar  of  the  quickening  Italian  artillery,  the 
deeper  booms  of  the  exploding  Austrian  shells,  and  the 
syrenic  crescendo  of  arrivees  and  departs  so  filled  the  air 
that  it  was  not  until  one  was  almost  opposite  the  merry 
trio  that  he  could  catch  the  fascinating  swing  of  the 
iterated  refrain. 

"  A  fine  song  to  dance  to,  that,"  remarked — - — stopping 
and  swinging  his  shoulders  to  the  time  of  the  air.  "  You 
can  almost  jcd  the  beat  of  it." 

"  It  strikes  me  as  being  still  better  as  a  song  to  march 
to,"  I  rejoined  meaningly,  settling  down  my  helmet  over 
the  back  of  my  neck  and  suiting  action  to  the  word. 
"  It's  undoubtedly  a  fine  song,  but  it  doesn't  seem  to  me 
quite  right  to  tempt  a  kind  Providence  by  lingering  near 
this  young  mountain  of  trench  bombs  any  longer  than  is 
strictly  necessary.  If  that  Austrian  battery  '  lifts  ' 
another  notch  something  else  is  going  to  lift  here,  and 
I'd  much  rather  go  down  to  the  valley  on  my  feet  than 
riding  on  a  trench  bomb." 

The  roar  of  the  artillery  battle  flared  up  and  died 
down  by  spells,  but  the  steady  throb  of  "  The  Anvil 
Chorus"  followed,  us  down  the  wind  for  some  minutes 
after  another  bend  in  the  stone  wall  cut  off  our  view  of 
the  singers.  How  often  have  I  not  wondered  which 
ones  of  that  careless  trio  survived  that  day,  or  the  next, 
or  the  one  after  that ;  which,  if  any,  of  them  are  still 
beating  time  on  the  red-brown  rocks  of  the  Carso  to  the 
air  of  that  haunting  refrain. 


I  was  told  that  the  wounded  are  sometimes  located  on 
(he  battlefield  by  their  singing  ;  that  they  not  infre- 
quently sing  while  being  borne  in  on  stretchers  or  trans- 
])orted  in  ambulances.  '  I  had  no  chance  to  observe 
personally  instances  of  this  kind,  but  I  did  hear,  time  and 
time  again,  men  singing  in  the  hospitals,  and  they  were 
not  all  convalescents  or  lightly  wounded,  either.  One 
brave  little  fellow  in  that  fine  British  hospital  tiiat  George 
Trevelyan  and  his  co-workers  are  conducting  M-ith  con- 
spicuous success  on  the  Isonzo  I  shall  never  forget. 

An  explosive  bullet  had  carried  all  four  fingers  of  his 
right  hand  away,  leaving  behind  it  an  infection  which 
had  run  into  gaseous  gangrene.  The  stump  swelled  to 
a  hideous  mass  of  about  the  shape  and  size  of  a  ten- 
])ound  ham,  but  the  doctors  were  fighting  amputation  in 
the  hope.of  saving  the  wrist  and  thumb  to  have  something 
to  attach  artificial  members  to.  The  crisis  was  over  at 
the  time  I  visited  the  hospital,  but  the  whole  arm  was 
still  so  inflamed  that  the  plucky  lad  had  to  close  his 
eyes  and  set  his  teeth  to  keep  from  crj'ing  out  with  agony 
as  the  matron  lifted  the  stump  to  show  me  the  "  beautiftil 
healthy  red  colour,"  where  healing  had  begun. 

The  matron  had  some  "  splendid  trench  foot " 
cases  to  show  me  further  along,  and  these,  and  some 
interesting  experiments  in  disinfection  by  irrigation, 
wove  engrossing  my  attention  when  a  sort  of  a  crooning 
hum  caused  me  to  turn  a'lid  look  at  the  patient  in  the  bed 


behind  me.  It  was  the  "  gaseous  gangrene  "  boy  again. 
^\'e  had  worked  down  the  next  ro\y  till  we  were  opposite 
him  again,  and  in  the  quarter  hour  that  hadrlapsed  his 
nurse  had  set  a  basin  of  disinfectant  on  his  bed  in  which 
to  bathe  his  wound.  Into  this  she  had  lifted  the 
hideously  swollen  stump  and  hurried  on  to  her  ne.xt 
patient.  And  tlierc  he  laid,  swaying  the  repulsive  mass 
of  mortified  flesh  that  was  still  a  part  of  him  back  and 
forth  in  the  healing  liquid,  the  while  he  crooned  a  little 
song  to  it  as  a  mother  rocks  her  child  to  sleep  as  she  sings 
a  lullaby. 

"  He  always  does  that,"  said  the  nurse,  .stopping  for 
a  moment  with  her  hands  full  df  bandages.  "  He  says 
it  helps  him  to  forget  the  pain.  And  there  are  five  or 
six  others,  the  worse  they  feel  the  more  likely  they  are  to 
try  to  sing  as  a  sort  of  diversion.  That  big  chap  over 
there  with  the  beard — he's  a  fisherman  from  somewhere 
in  the  South — he  says  that  when  the '  shooting  '  pains  begin 
in  his  frozen  feet  he  has  to  sing  to  keep  from  cursing." 
*      ■  *        *        *        * 

On  one  of  my  last  days  on  the  Italian  Front  I  climbed 
to  a  shell-splintered  peak  of  the  Trentino  under  the 
guidance  of  a  son  of  a  famous  General,  a  Mercury-footed 
flame  of  a  lad  who  was  Aide-de-Camp  to  the  Division 
Commander  of  that  sector.  Mounting  by  an  inter- 
minable teJeferica  from  just  above  one  of  the  half- ruined 
towns  left  behind  them  by  the  retreating  Austrians  after 
tlieir  drive  of  last  spring,  we  threaded  a  couple  of  miles  of 
steep  zigzagging  trail,  climbed  a  hundred  feet  of  ladder, 
and  about  the  same  distance  of  rocky  toe-holds — the  latter 
by  means  of  a  knotted  rope  and  occasional  friendly  iron 
spikes — finally  to  come  out  on  the  summit  with  nothing 
betAveen  us  and  an  almost  precisely  similar  Avistrian 
position  opposite  but  a  half  mile  of  thin  air  and  the 
overturned,  shrapnel-pitted  statue  of  a  saint,  doubtless 

erected  in  happier  days  by  the  pious  inhabitants  of ■ 

as  an  emblem  of  peace  and  good  will.  An  Italian  youth, 
who  had  returned  from  New  York  to  fight  for  his  country 
— he  had  charge  of  some  kind  of  mechanical  installation 
in  a  rock  gallery  a  few  hundred  feet  beneath  our  feet — • 
climbed  up  with  us  to  act  as  interpreter. 

Peering  through  the  crook  in  the  lead-sheathed  elbow 
of  the  fallen  statue,  the  roughly  squared  openings  of  the 
rock  galleries  which  sheltered  an  enemy  battery  well 
within  fair  revolver  shot,  and,  indeed,  an  Alpini  sharp- 
shooter had  made  a  careless  Austrian  gunner  pay  the 
inevitable  penalty  of  carelessness  only  an  hour  or  two 
before,  one  could  make  his  voice  carry  across  without 
half  an  effort. 

Just  before  we  started  to  descend  my  young  guide  made 
a  megaphone  of  his  hands,  threw  his  head  back,  his  chest 
out,  and,  directing  his  voice  across  the  seemingly  bottom- 
less gulf  that  separated  us  from  the  enemy,  sang  a  few 
bars  of  what  I  took  to  be  a  stirring  battle  song. 

"  What  is  the  song  the  Captain  sings  ?  "  I  asked  of  the 
New  York  bred  youth,  whose  head  was  just  disappearing 
over  the  edge  of  the  cliff  as  he  began  to  "  hand  "  himself 
down  the  rope.  "  Something  from  '  WiUiam  Tell,' 
isn't  it  ?  " 

Young  "  Mulberry  Street  "*  dug  hard  for  a  toe-hold, 
found  it,  slipped  his  right  hand  up  till  it  closed  on  a  com- 
fortable knot  above  his  head,  and  then,  with  left  leg  and 
left  arm  swinging  free  over  a  200-feet  drop  to  the  terrace 
below,  shouted  back  : 

"  Noton  yer  hie,  Mista.  Di  Captain  he  nut  singa  no 
song.  He  just  tella  di  Ostrich'un  datta  Italia  she  ready 
fer  him.     Datta  all." 

I  looked  down  to  the  valley  where  lipe  after  line  of 
trenches  fronted  with  a  furry  brown  fringe  that  I  knew 
to  be  rusting  barbed  wire  stretched  out  of  sight  over  the 
divides  on  either  hand,  and  where,  for  every  grey-black 
geyser  of  smoke  that  marked  the  bursting  of  an  Austrian 
shell  a  half-dozen  vivid  flame  spurts  flashing  out  from 
unguessed  caverns  on  the  mountain  side,  told  that  the 
compliment  was  being  returned  with  heavy  interest. 

Yes,  Italy  is  ready  for  them,  I  thought,  and  whether  she 
has  to  hold  here  and  there — as  she  may — in  defence,  or 
wliether  she  goes  forward  all  along  the  line  in  triumphant 
offence — whichever  it  is,  the  Italian  soldier  will  go  out 
to  the  battle  with  a  song  on  his  lips,  a  song  that  no  bullet 
which  leaves  the  blood  pulsing  through  his  veins  and 
breath  in  his  lungs  will  have  power  to  stop. 

•  "  Ahilberry  Street  "  is  the  main  iirlci  v  of  the  principal  Italian 
quarter  of  New  York. 


rebruary  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


Memories  of   Many  Waterfalls 

By  William  T.  Palmer 


THE  ancient  poets  and  artists  thought  no  land- 
scape complete  without  the  flash  and  glow  and 
murmur  of  broken  waters,  and  those  skilful  site- 
lindors,  the  monks  of  the  middle  ages,  held  true 
principles  in  the  same  direction.  One  fears  that  the 
modern  architect  only  values  a  waterfall  because  he 
can  the  more  easily  impound  its  supplies  and  conduct 
them  down  hideous  sloping  pipes  to  the  electric- 
lighting  plant.  Still,  Foyers,  that  great  cascade  by  Loch 
Mess  which  for  generations  was  held  to  be  Scotland's 
pride,  presents  some  of  its  ancient  majesty  and  force 
when  winter  rains  and  thaws  send  a  great  flood  over 
the  dams  of  the  Aluminium  Company.  Once  again  the 
gorge  among  the  pines  echoes  the  riot  of  many  waters, 
and  the  rocks  drive  up  the  old  time  clouds  of  spray. 

It  is  perhaps  daring  much  to  divide  our  British  water- 
falls, so  many  as  one  has  seen,  into  classes.  There  is 
for  instance  a  whole  family  on  the  line  of  the  Cumbrian 
falls  of  Lodore,  though  their  surroundings  vary  con- 
siderably. In  Scotland  in  particular  they  abound. 
In  mild  winter  the  overcharged  torrent  comes  dashing 
down  the  parr  of  the  I.cny,  turgid,  foaming,  broken  — 
just  one  wild  race  of  waters  from  the  ancient  kirkyard 
of  St.  Bride  down  to  the  fringe  of  Callander.  The  cascade 
of  Leny  is  by  no  means  so  steep  as  Lodore,  nor  does  it 
face  the  open  expanse  of  a  Uerwentwater.  Its  voice 
is  powerful,  but  its  throat  is  narrowed  and  twisting, 
and  many  burns  from  the  bens  of  Ledi  and  Vorlich 
rattle  dowTi  to  confuse  the  sound-waves.  The  winter 
rejoicing  of  Lodore  is  heard  far  beyond  Keswick —indeed 
it  murmurs  itself  to  silence  against  the  dank  grassy 
walls  of  great  Skiddaw  beyond  the  vale. 

One  takes  Cumbrian  forces  as  types  because  they  are 
best  known.  The  next  section  must  be  named  after 
Sour  Milk  Ghyll — an  open  cascade  which  leaps  and  breaks 
and  dances  down  three  hundred  feet  of  cliff  in  the  dale 
behind  Grasmere.  In  summer  its  volume  is  not  large, 
in  winter  the  huge  jets  of  water  seem  to  fly  from  'upper 
moor  down  to  larch  wood  in  one  mighty  bound.  Of  this 
type  one  would  mention  the  Mad  Torrent,  near  Coruisk 
in  Skye,  where  in  a  gale  the  falling  waters  are  snatched 
to  pieces  and  spun  and  woven  again  into  the  most  delicate 
of  bridal  veils.  Of  similar  type  too  are  the  Swallow  falls 
near  Bettws-y-coed  in  North  Wales.  And  there  is  a  fall 
beyond  the  narrows  of  Glen  Nevis  which  leaps  from 
the  snowy  uplands  of  Mamore,  from  the  haunt  of 
ptarmigan,  red  deer,  and  golden  eagle,  a  thousand  feet 
into  the  glen  beneath.  In  summer  this  is  a  narrow  i-iband 
of  foam,  j  ust  like  the  force  which  pours  from  Birker  moor 
mto  Eskdale.  Cumbria  however  interposes  huge  fans 
of  scree,  and  long  slopes  co\'ered  with  bronze  fern  and 
bracken  between  the  rock-ridge  and  the  dale. 

Ther.e'are  many  fine  waterfalls  of  the  type  of  Skelwith  ; 
a  stream  breaking  over  a  rampart  of  hard  stone  and 
gouging  a  pool  wide  and  deep  in  the  softer  strata  be- 
neath. Skelwith  is  a  mere  fifteen  feet  in  sheer  descent. 
The  High  Force  on  the  Tees  in  Durham  is  nearly  four  times 
that  height,  while  the  Linn  of  Dee  in  upper  Aberdeen- 
shire is  mightier  still  in  volume  and  height  and  area  of 
the  pool  beneath.  It  is  a  more  ancient  fall  too,  having 
worn  a  narrow  funnel  instead  of  the  broad  current  of 
the  others.  The  Strid  on  the  Wharfe  seems  to  be  an  un- 
successful attempt  at  a  waterfall  on  similar  lines.  Nature, 
however,  forgot  to  lift  the  planes  of  rock  or  too  early  let  the 
stream  work  its  will  and  carve  a  route  of  its  own  to  the 
lower  pool.  Where  one  expects  a  steep  break  there  is 
a  level  race  of  wild  waters.  There  is  another  water- 
fall, the  Poll  Tarf  in  Glen  Tilt,  of  a  similar  nature,  the 
pool  of  which  is  spanned  by  a  suspension  bridge. 

The  types  of  waterfall  already  mentioned  are  of  the 
lusty  sort,  advertising  themselves  to  both  eye  and  ear. 
Dungeon  Ghyll,  in  Langdale,  is  of  a  different  order,  its 
beauty  lying  much  in  its  retirement  from  the  garish 
light  of  day.  A  mere  trickle  of  water  comes  down  from 
the  shoulder  of  the  Pikes,  cuts  its  way  deeply  into  a  belt 
of  crushed  rock,  then  drops,  in  a  pillar  of  foam,  a  sheef 
hundred  feet  into  a  tiny  pool.  So  narrow  is  the  gulr 
that  two  boulders  falling  together  have  made  a  bridge,  and 


in  winter  practically  exclude  the  light  of  day.  It  is  at 
such  times  a  freezing  room  :  the  smooth  walls  are  ice- 
polished,  the  spray  has  built  fantastic  castles  on  the 
ledges  and  has  hung  icicles  wherever  they  can  grip. 

The  Falls  of  Cruachan  above  Loch  Awe  are  similarly 
retired,  just  as  dark,  emd  being  nearer  the  sea  the  trees 
clinging  to  the  rocks  and  ledges  give  more  play  to  the 
frost-fiend's  fancies  in  the  way  of  spray  buildings  and 
ice  spears.  Hardraw  Force  in  Wensleydale  is  more  open 
to  view  than  these  :  it  is  a  thin  sheet  of  water  falling  over 
a  hard  ledge  and  scooping  out  a  pool  beneath.  Hardraw 
in  the  geological  period  wlien  its  volume  was  twenty  score 
times  more  powerful  than  to-day,  has  so  undercut  its 
tip  that  even  in  summer  one  may  walk  between  the 
falling  waters  and  the  crumbling  rock-wall.  The  heavier 
stream  of  winter  shoots  out  fiu^ther, .  and  leaves  thf» 
track  behind  clear  almost  of  spray. 

Plumes  of  Water 

Midway  between  the  dark,  mysterious  waterfalls  and 
the  bold  torrents,  comes  the  most  glorious  type  of  all, 
the  straight  slim  plume  of  water  dashing  down  between 
mighty  palisades  of  crag.  Dalegarth  Force  in  Eskdale  and 
Scale  Force  near  Crummock  are  perfect  examples.  Aira 
Force  by  Ullswater  and  Stook  Ghyll  at  Ambleside  are  less 
perfect,  and  one  inclines  to  put  Cordale  Scar,  in  the 
Pennine,  into  the  same  class,  as  well  as  some  of  the 
forces  about  Ingleton  and  Falling  Foss  in  the  moors 
near  \A'hitby.  In  winter  these  waterfalls  are  often  quite 
imapproachable.  The  narrow  gorges  are  floored  with 
tossing,  raving  water,  and  one  clambers  about  the  high 
walls  for  even  a  distant  glimpse  of  the  main  fall  itself. 

One  of  the  maddest  enterprises  in  a  youth  not  famed 
for  caution  was  a  visit  on  a  night  of  hard  winter  to  Scale 
Force.  There  had  been  much  rain,  then  a  few  days  of  calm, 
a  griping  of  frost  and  a  heavy  blanket  of  snow.  Next  came 
a  clear  night,  and  the  starlight  challenged  a  young  man 
out  for  adventure.  The  gully  of  the  waterfall  was  a  line 
of  ink-black  shadow,  which  the  rising  of  the  moon 
accentuated  while  hghting  up  the  broad  expanse  of  snow. 
At  first  progress  was  not  difficult,  but  when  one  began 
to  step  from  one  snow-domed  boulder  to  the  next  a  fall 
became  more  than  likely.  Still,  on  one  pushed,  passed 
within  the  walls  of  the  gully  and  lost  the  advantage  of 
even  the  witched  light  of  the  moon.  The  last  hundred  yards 
were  groped  up  the  iced  rocks.  One  wished  to  stick 
it  until  there  was  a  view  of  the  falling  stream.  There  it 
was — a  thin,  pale-blue  veil  dropping  into  a  velvet- 
black  gloom,  backed  by  a  purple-blue  sky  through  which 
stars  of  gold  and  silver  were  gleaming,  and  at  one's  feet 
a  cauldron  of  black,  shifting  water. 

The  return  was  even  more  dangerous,  as  the  tendency 
was  to  pitch  forward  from  the  iced  steps  and  bouldci-s. 
One  looked  down  on  the  dark  floor  of  Crummock  Water 
bounded  by  fields  of  glistening  white,  with  a  wall  of 
mountain  seamed  with  shadows  and  touched  with  sihcr 
beyond,  and  on  either  hand  were  the  sheer,  forbidding 
rock-portals    of   the    gully. 

One  of  the  most  impressive  waterfalls  of  my  acquaint- 
ance stands  outside  this,  series.  It  is  the  flfty-fcct 
plunge  of  the  subteiranean  river  which  passes  through 
Yorclas  cave,  in  Wensleydale  of  West  Yorkshire.  Tlie 
surroundings  are  eerie.  Instead  of  icicles  and  fairy 
palaces  there  arc  grey  fingers  of  stalactite  and  the  rounded 
bosses  here  and  there  of  stalagmite.  The  light  of  day 
lias  never  ventured  here.  There  has  never  been  the 
song  of  the  dipper,  the  flirt  of  the  wagtail,  the  blue  fire 
of  the  kingfisher.  To  reach  the  place  one  has  to  crawl 
imder  a  barrier  of  rock,  and  cross  a  mighty  chamber  where 
the  gloom  of  centuries  seems  to  hang.  The  cavern 
is  filled  with  water-smoke.  A  flash  of  magnesium 
proves  the  great  spout  of  grey  above  our  heads ;  there 
are  many  rainbow  tints  of  curving  waters.  The  same 
flash  shows  where  the  torrent  strikes  the  walls  of  the 
shaft,  and  where  it  disappears  in  mist  and  thunder  and 
darkness.  The  Yordas  waterfall  is  one  of  the  places 
which  is  left  with  relief,  yet  it  remains  a  pleasant  memory. 


I5 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  15,  1917 


Prisoners  of  War  in  Germany 


IT  was  related  the  other  day  by  a  British  prisoner 
of  war  just  returned  from  Kuhlebcn,  Samuel  Ormc, 
of  Port  Sunlight,  a  ship's  cook,  that  he  was  first 
interned  at  Sennclager,  where  he  had  to  submit 
to  the  indignity  of  being  clean  shaved  on  one  side  only 
of  head  and  face.  The  incident  is  fully  described  in 
Sixteen  Months  in  Four  German  Prisons  (Sampson  Tow 
Marston.  6s.)  Thp  narrator  is  Mr.  Hcnr\-  Mahoncy, 
who  left  this  country  for  Russia  on  Augu>t  ist,  1014, 
was  arrested  on  board  a  train  in  his  endoa\our  to  get 
back  to  the  Dutch  frontier  from  Berlin,  and  narrowly 
escaped  being  shot  as  a  spy  in  that  he  had  a  camera  on 
him.  The  book's  interest  lies  less  in  the  narrator's  own 
experiences  than  in  his  unemotional  description  of  the 
scenes  he  witnessed.  Major  Bach  was  the  brutal  military 
commander  of  the  Sennelager  Prisoners'  Camp  : 

There  was  one  party  of  Britisli  prisoners  whom  Major 
Bach  singled  out  for  spcciallv  liarsh  and  brutal  treatment. 
The  Invincible  High  Seas  I'Icet  u]ion  one  of  its  sporadic 
ventures  into  salt  water  during  the  very  ealiest  days 
of  the  war,  stumbled  across  a  lleet  of  Grimsby  trawlers 
unconcernedly  pursuing  their  usual  peaceful  occupation. 
The  whole  of  the  fishermen  were  made  prisoners  and  were 
despatched,  to  Sennelager.  But  iMajor  Bach  stedfastly 
refused  to  believe  that  they  were  simple  fishermen  pursuing 
their  ordinary-  tasks.  To  his  narrow  and  distorted  mind 
a  man  on  a  trawler  was  only  toiling  in  the  sea  for  one  or 
both  of  two  purposes.  The  one  was  laying  mines  ;  the 
other  was  mine-sweeping  .  .  .  liach  man  was 
submitted  to  the  indignity  of  having  one  half  of  his  head 
shaved  clean,  one  half  of  his  moustache  removed,  or  one 
half  of  his  beard  cut  away.  The  men  branded  in  tliis 
manner  presented  a  strange  spectacle,  and  one  which 
afforded  Major  Bach  endless  amusement. 

One  has  to  read  a  record  such  as  this  book  to  under- 
stand how  thoroughly  brutality  and  bullying  are  in- 
grained in  the  German  nature.  There  are  exceptions, 
but  only  sufficient  to  prove  the  rule.  Dr.  Aschcr,  the 
civilian  doctor  at  Sennelager,  was  one,  and  he  did  his 
best  to  stand  between  the  wretched  prisoners  and  the 
brute  Bach  who  was  in  military  control.  The  gra\'cst 
offence  in  Germany  is  insult  to  the  imiform,  which  practic- 
ally permits  the  latest  joined  recruit  to  take  the  law 
into  his  own  hands  and  to  deal  out  summary  punishment 
with  bayonet  or  butt,  certainly  wherever  a  prisoner  of 
war  is  concerned.  The  one  check  on  the  brutality  of  a 
camp  appears  to  be  a  high  death  roll,  though  that  does 
not  operate  when  there  is  an  epidemic  of  typhus,  as 
Wittenberg  proves ;  and  in  other  camps  it  is  dodged  by 
sending  prisoners  in  extremis  to  civil  hospitals  in  the 
neighbourhood. 

People  who  talk  glibly  of  a  revolution  in  Germany, 
a  rising  of  the  civil  population  against  the  militarists  ; 
can  have  no  idea  of  the  military  terrorism  under  which 
all  classes  dwell.  A  German  who  commits  an  offence 
against  the  uniform  or  against  the  State  will  be  shown 
no  more  mercy  than  a  prisoner  of  war.  Mr.  Mahoney's 
experience  of  the  torture  chambers  of  Wesel  prison  in 
August,  1914,  is  evidence  of  this.  "  The  German 
warders  never  attempt  to  correct  by  words,  the  ritle 
is  a  handj'  weapon.  Consequently  if  you  are  dull  of 
comprehension,  your  body  speedily  assumes  a  zebra 
appearance  with  its  patches  of  black  and  blue."  Even 
in  those  days  the  food  was  abominably  insufficient  in 
quantity  and  vile  in  character.  In  fact  there  is  abound- 
ing evidence  that  the  semi-starvation  of  prisoners  of 
war  has  from  the  outset  been  the  approved  policy  at 
all  prisoners'  camps  in  Germany,  with,  maybe,  one  or  two 
exceptions.  For  Germans  to  declare  it  was  forced  on 
them  by  the  British  blockade  is  a  lie. 

We  hear  so  much  about  the  German  "  will  "  theory — 
the  will  to  live,  the  will  to  power,  the  will  to  victory,  etc., 
that  it  is  as  well  not  to  forget  that  in  the  eyes  of  the  pre- 
sent rulers  of  Germany,  the  worst  crime  imaginable 
is  "  the  will  of  your  own."  It  is  crushed  mercilessly. 
The  assumption  of  individuality  is  laughed  at :  liberty 
consists  in  going  exactly  where  you  are  told  ;  no  man 
calls  his  soul  his  own  because  the  soul  is  not  recognised 
under  the  German  code,  only  the  body  which  is  maltreated 
until  its  owner   becomes   an    unresisting   dumb   animal 


in  the  hands  of  his  persecutor.  A  little  time  ago 
a  play  was  produced  in  London  called  "  .\ugustus.dGes 
his  Bit,"  holding  up  to  ridicule  the  British  military  officer. 
It  was  laughed  at  here,  and  the .  worst  punishment 
its  author  received  was  reproof  for  bad  taste  by  certain 
critics.  But  in  Berlin  had  such  a  play  conceivably  foiind 
its  way  on  the  stage  the  author  and  all  concerned 
would  have  been  seized  and  hustled  into  prison,  like 
cattle.  We  have  to  envisage  this  essential  difference 
in  the  natiue  and  character  of  the  British  and  (ierman 
peoples  if  we  wish  to  arrive  at  a. right  understanding 
of  the  two  nations.  The  deepest  impression  that  this 
recital  of  German  prison  qxperience  leaves  is  how  en- 
tirely the  whole  German  nation  is  beneath  the  heel  of  the 
soldier,  especially  the  Prussian  soldier. 

There  is  a  good  deal  told  about  the  cruel  punish- 
ment of  tying  to  the  post  for  the  most  trifling  offences. 
It  was  a  form  of  horrible  torture,  for  the  prisoner  was  so 
tightly  bound  as  to  stop  circulation  in  hands  and  feet. 
For  three  hours,  eventually  extended  to  eight  hours, 
prisoners  of  war  of  all  nationalities  had  to  undergo  it. 

When  a  prisoner  was  in  the  height  of  his  torment  the 
eminent  Commandant  would  stroll  up,  and  from  a  couple 
of  paces  away  would  stand,  legs  wide  apart  and  hands 
clasped  behind  his  back,  surveying  the  results  of  his 
devilry  with  the  greatest  self-satisfaction.  As  the  prisoner 
groaned  and  moaned  he  would  fling  coarse  joke,  badinage, 
and  gibe  at  the  helpless  wretch,  and  when  the  latter 
struggled  and  writhed  in  order  to  seek  some  relief,  though 
in  vain,  he  would  laugh  uproariously,  urge  the  unhappv 
man  to  kick  more  energetically,  and  then  shriek  with  delight 
as  his  advice  was  apparently  taken  to  heart  only  to 
accentuate  the  torture. 

Sunday  was  the  day  of  days  which  the  tyrant  preferred 
for  meting  oat  this  punishment.  The  governing  reason  for 
the  selection  of  this  day  was  because  it  offered  such  a 
novel  entertainment  for  the  gaping  German  crowds.  The 
public,  as  already  mentioned,  were  invited  to  the  camp 
on  Sunday  mornings  to  sec  the  prisoners.  Young  girls 
.  and  raw  recruits  considered  a  trip  to  Sennelager  on  the 
chance  of  seeing  a  writhing,  tortured  prisoner  as  one  of 
the  delights  of  the  times,  and  a  sight  which  should  not  be 
missed  on  any  account.  They  clustered  on  the  path 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road  facing. the  stake,  laughing 
and  joking  among  themselves.  The  recruits,  who  openls^ 
manifested  their  intense  amusement,  cheered  frantically 
when  the  trussed  wretch  gave  an  abnormally  wild  and 
ear-piercing  shriek  of  pain.  At  his  moans,  groans,  and 
desperate  abortive  attempts  to  release  himself,  the  girls 
would  laugh  as  gaily  as  if  witnessing  the  antics  of  a  clown 
at  a  circus,  and  were  unrestrained  in  their  applause. 

Is  it  conceivable  that  such  a  scene  could  take  place  in 
England  at  this  time  of  day  ?  One  knows  that  there  are 
regions  in  the  East  were  prolonged  torments  are  still 
considered  a  recognised  object  of  mirth,  but  we  had 
thought  A\'estern  Europe  had  done  for  ever  with  this 
barbarism.  One  is  inclined  to  ask  in  dismay  how  is  it 
possible  to  treat  with  a  State  in  the  future,  which  not 
only  officially  sanctions  these  barbarities,  but  actually 
encourages  its  officers  to  plav  the  part  of  showman. 


PHILIP   GIBBS'   NEW    BOOK  : 

THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  SOMME 

By  Philip  Gibbi.  -Author  of  -  The  8011I  of  the  War,"  Cr.  8vo.  6/-  n.t. 
Daily  (.'hioiuele — "  A  book  of  lemarkaV^le  fascination,  every  page  of 
which  one  reads  with  breathless  interest." 


A    New    and    Cheaper    Edition  0/    Philip    Cibbs'    famous    booh, 
•■  THE  SOUL  OF  THE  WAR."  is  now  ready,  price  2/-  net. 
THE  RT.  HON.  WALTER  LONG  says:   "A  book  that  should  be 
in  every  citizen's  hand.    No  man  or  woman  could  read  it  unmoved.  " 

A  New  \'olumo  in  the  Soldiers'  Tales  Series  : 

FORCED   TO   FIGHT"  l^LtVo'Ll 

))y    Eric   Erichsen.  CV.  8vo.  2/6  net. 

Pall  itall  (la/.ettc — "  Will  remain  for  ever  as  pure  gold  ....  Tlirill.-^ 
and  bites  into  the  Soul." 

Have  you   read  "  CASPARD  THE  POILU,"  the  famous  Novel, 
by   Rene  Benjamin  {the  Kipling  of  France)  ?    Cr.  8uo.  Si-  net- 

"Hanks  as  one  of  tlie  few  positive  achievements  in  literature  called  forth 
directly  by  the  War.'"— Times. 


February  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


17 


IT  is  good  to  be  reminded  occasionally  of  the  obvious, 
as  that  the  world  is  small,  or  that  England  is  great, 
especially  if  the  reminder  is  conveyed  in  an  original 
and  unobtrusive  manner.  W'c  arc  sometimes  in 
danger  of  forgetting  the  many  tics  that  bind  England  and 
xVmcrica  together  in  bonds  that  cannot  lightly  be  broken, 
and  such  a  book  as  Mr.  E.  H.  Sothern's  autobiographical 
sketches,  without  once  hinting  at  the  subject,  serves  as  a 
charming  reminder  of  this  really  obvious  fact  in  inter- 
national relationships.  It  would  be  hard  to  say  whether 
the  elder  son  of  "  Dundreary "  Sothern  were  more 
English  or  more  American.  He  is  like  many  other  artists 
and  literary  men  ;  lie  combines  much  that  is  good  of  botli 
countries.  Certainly  I,  as  an  Englishman,  would  like 
to  claim  him  as  a  fellow  countryman.  I  do  not  know  what 
an  American  would  say  about  it. 

*  *  *  H:  ::: 

Apart  altogether  from  its  international  mterest— 
which  is-  quite  accidental — Mr.  Sothern's  book  My 
Remembrances  :  The  Melancholy  Talc  of  "  Me."  (Cassell 
and  Co.,  12s.  net),  is  a  book  of  extraordinary  charm  and 
originality.  It  is  original  in  many  ways.  In  the  first 
place,  although  the  author  reveals  a  good  deal  of  his  own 
personality,  especially  in  his  whimsical  con\ersations  with 
"Me,"  his  childisii  image  of  himself,  it  is  perhaps  the 
most  modest  book  e\x'r  written  by  an  actor.  Again, 
although  it  contains  many  theatrical  anecdotes,  amusing 
and  otherwise,  and  will  indeed  attract  a  large  number  of 
readers  on  this  score  alone,  it  by  no  means  reveals  the 
])oint  of  view  of  the  world  that  is  usually  seen  from  the 
bright  side  of  the  footlights.  In  its  easy  con\ersational 
style,  too,  it  is  as  original  as  in  its  matter.  The  charm, 
too,  is  varied,  but  the  greater  part  of  it  springs  from  the 
])ortraiture  of  a  delightful  family  circle,  the  tender  mother, 
the  gay,  practical-joking  father,  the  debonnair  brother, 
Sam,  and  the  quixotic  uncle,  a  Captain  in  the  English 
Navy,  a  friend  of  (Gordon  and  of  Burton.  Mr.  Sothern's 
wliole  life,  in  which  he  has  had  liard  struggles  for  the  success 
he  has  won,  seems  to  be  irradiated  by  a  happy  influence 
stored  up,  as  it  seems,  from  his  early  years  with  these  four. 
There  is  something  in  the  book,  though  it  has  not  the 
constructi\e  abihty  of  Du  Manner's  work,  of  the  qualities 
that  attracted  one  in  both  Trilby  and  Peter  Ibbetson. 
;\Ien  may  come  to  it  for  gossip  and  lind  gospel,  and  they 
w\\\  not  be  sorry  they  came. 

***** 

Mr.  Stephen  Leacock  has  become  a  habit — a  good 
habit — with  so  many  readers,  that  the  mere  announce- 
ment that  his  new  book.  Further  Foolishness  (John  Lane, 
3s.  6d.  net),  has  been  published  is  all  that  is  needed  to 
secure  its  success.  There  is  some  evidence  in  the  book 
of  the  strain  of  "  keeping  it  up,"  but  the  most  remarkable 
thing  about  it  is  the  way  in  which  it  is  kept  up.  The 
cinema  burlesciue,  Madeline  of  the  Movies,  is  as  sparkling 
a  thing  as  the  author  of  Literary  Lapses  has  ever  done, 
and  Every  Man  and  his  Friends  is  a  happy  idea,  carried 
out  for  the  most  part  w;ith  just  the  lightness  of  touch 
required.  There  is  som6  good  satire  in  some  of  the 
pieces  suggested  by  the  war,  and  "  Humour  as  I  see  it," 
if  it  adds  little  fresh  to  the  voluminous  hterature  on  the 
subject  (to  which,  by  the  way,  Mr.  Sothern  also  has  an 
interesting  contribution),  adds  that  little  freshly.  I 
hope,  however,  Mr.  Leacock  will  never  persuade  himself 
to  take  humour  too  seriously.  It  is  a  mistake,  even  as  a 
war  economy,  to  dine  entirely  off  salt.  Wlien  I  read 
that  "the  world's  humour,  in  its  best  and  greatest 
sense,  is  perhaps  the  highest  product  of  our  civilisation," 
and  that  "  in  its  largest  aspect,  humour  is  blended  with 
pathos  till  the  two  are  one,"  I  have  an  uneasy  feeling  that 
Mr.  Leacock  is  "  cribbing  "  from  an  essay  I  wrote  at 
school  I  forget  how  many  years  ago,  and  I  blush  both  for 
him  and  for  myself. 

***** 

Canada  is  responsible  for  IVIr.  'Stephen  Leacock  and  lias 
some  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  fact,  k  is  also  responsible 
for  Canada  Chaps  (John  Lane,  is.  net),  and  has  every 
reas  on  to  be  proud  of  the  men  and  no-reason  to  be  ashamed 


of  the  book.  J.  G.  Sime  has  not  quite  written  another 
Kitchener  Chaps,  but  her  (?)  sketches  arc  bright  and  illus- 
trate certain  phases  of  Dominion  life  and  thought.  As  a 
mere  man,  I  like  best  of  all  the  story  of  Lieutenant 
JIarjoribanks,  the  daugiiter  of  a  noble  English  family, 
who  had  her  angles  rubbed  off  as  proprietress  of  a  "  room- 
ing-house "  in  Canada  and,  coming  "home"  in  the- 
C.A.M.C,  discovered  that  she  was  really  leaving  home. 
I  like  too  the  story  of  the  Belgian  nun's  experiences 
in  Leicester  Square.  Others  will  like  best  the  stories  of 
the  men  -folk  of  the  Dominion,  told  from  the  point  of 
view  of  a  woman  who  is  justly  proud  of  what  her 
brothers  have  done  in  the  war,  and  also  glad  in  some 
cases  for  what  the  war  has  done  for  some  of  her  brothers. 

S|!  ^  ^  7^  :>fi 

Two  pleasant  books  come  to  me  this  week  from  another 
Overseas  Dominion,  both  being  published  in  London  by  the 
"  British  Australasian."  Not  for  this  reason  only  I  group 
them  together,  but  also  because,  though  one  is  a  story 
and  the  other  a  volume  of  poems,  they  are  similar  in 
tone  and  sentiment.  Frances  Fitzgerald's  Children 
of  Kangaroo  Creeli  (2s.  6d.  net)  is  a  real  book  for  children, 
because  it  is  about  real  children.  Try  it  on  your  children 
and,  if  they  are  not  more  different  from  mine  than  the 
Australian  children  described  therein  are  from  their 
English  cousins,  you  will  lind  that  I  am  right,  and  that 
the  next  generation  will  call  you  blessed.  A.  M.  Bowyer 
Rosman,  in  An  Enchanted  Garden  and  Other  Poems 
(2s.  6d.  net),  is  also  at  her  (?)  best  in  dealing  with 
children.  There  is  pleasant  sentiment,  easy  versifying, 
and  a  pictorial  sense  throughout  the  book,  but  the  best 
of  the  lyrics  in  my  opinion  are  the  lullabies  "  Dustman  " 
and  "  The  Fold  of  Dreams,"  which  come  near  the  end  of 
it.  These  volumes  should  assist  Australia's  growing 
literary  reputation  in  this  country. 

#  ^  ^  ■  i^  # 

So  far  the  New  World  and  some  of  its  bridges  to  the  old. 
We  are  taken  well  over  these  bridges  by  Mr.  Stephen 
Graham  in  his  Russia  ami  the  World  (Cassell  and  Co., 
3s.  6d.  net).  This  is  more  than  a  new  edition  of  an  old 
and  valued  book  ;  it  is  a  revised  and  enlarged  edition. 
It  shows  the  author's  expert  knowledge  and  frank  and 
original  point  of  view  brought  to  bear  on  the  very  latest 
phases  of  the  world-\var.  Mr.  Graham  is  probably  the- 
best  friend  Russia  has  in  this  country,  because  he  inter- 
prets her  for  us  with  the  full  knowledge  that  a  husband 
has  of  a  wife,  not  with  the  sentimental  rapture  of  a 
moment  (though  he  can  show  that  too)  that  a  lo\'er  has 
for  his  mistress.  Mr.  Graham  is  also  a  good  friend  of 
England,  and  we  Englishmen  should  continually  supply 
to  our  country  the  standard  he  sets  up  in  "  We  could 
beat  them  ourselves,"  an  admirable  little  sermon  on  the 
best  kind  of  national  self-reliance.  Few  people  will  agree 
entirely  with  all  that  Mr.  Graham  says  on  the  many 
subjects  of  international  importance  on  which  he  touches 
(he  is  too  fearless  in  his  opinions  and  honest  in  his  ex- 
pression of  them  for  facile  agreement) ,  but  fewer  still  will 
fail  to  be  stimulated  by  his  vigorous  and  informing  book. 
,  ***** 

It  would  seem  to  be  an  unwise  proceeding  for  a  young 
and  inexperienced  girl  to  invest  her  little  all  in  an  orange 
grove  in  Florida,  -without  having  seen  it  and  without 
.an  ounce  of  experience  in  the  matter  of  citron  culture. 
But  the  heroine  of  McAllister's  Grove  (John  Long,  6s.), 
is  exceptionally  lucky.  She  makes  her  grove  pay ; 
she  gains  experience,  and  she  wins  a  charming  husband. 
Whether  Florida  is  always  so  delightful  a  place  as  Miss 
Marion  Hill  makes  out,  and  whether  its  people  are  always 
so  agreeable  and  picturesque,  I  know  not,  but,  at  any 
rate,  the  place  and  the  people  have  provided  her  with 
material  for  a  very  pleasant  novel. 

The  twentieth  edition  of  the  Motor  Manual  (Temple  Press. 
IS.  9d.  net)  includes  a  number  of  revisions  and  additions  that 
vnll  be  appreciated  by  every  practical  motorist,  notably  the 
chapter  on  magneto  ignition  and  the  pages  devoted  to  the 
use  of  economical  and  alternative  fuels.  The  volume  is  one 
that  every  motorist  will  find  useful. 


i8 


LAND    &    WATER 


T'cbruaiy  15,  191 7 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

I  Translated  by  Alexander  Tcixcira  de  Mattosl 


Synopsis  :  Captain  Patrice  Bclval,  a  wounded  French 
officer,  is  in  love  with  a  nurse  u<ho  is  known  to  her  patients 
as  "  Little  Mother  Coralie."  Belval,  following  Cora  lie 
to  her  house,  finds  that  Essares,  her  husband,  a  leading 
financier,  uM  had  contemplated  flight  from  Paris,  has  been 
hnUally  murdered.  An  examining  magistrate  explains 
to  Belval  that  Essares  was  prime  mover  in  a  plot  for  ex- 
porting gold  from  France.  In  order  to  recover  some  300 
miltton  francs  which  Essares  had  concealed,  the  authorities 
consider  it  necessary  to  hush  up  the  circumstances  of 
the  financier's  death.  Ya-Bon,  Belval's  Senegalese 
servant,  promises  to  call  in  Arsene  Lupin  to  unravel 
the  mystery,  which  includes  a  mysterious  threatened 
vengeance  on  Coralie.  Belval  ascertains  that  Simeon, 
Essares  attendant,  has  mysteriously  befriended  both  him- 
self and  Coralie,  and  also  obtains  evidence  that  twenty 
years  before,  Essares  had  been  responsible  for  the  murder 
of  Coralie' s  mother  and  his  (Belval's)  father  and  that  an 
unjcnown  friend  had  tried  to  protect  Coralie  a)ui  himself. 
On  the  14th  of  April  Belval  and  Coralie,  following  old 
Simeon  to  tlic  scene  of  their  parents'  murder,  a  disused 
lodge  in  the  garden  next  to  Essarh'  house,  find  them- 
selves imprisoned  without  possibility  of  escape.  Behind 
the  wainscoting  of  the  lodge  a  pencilled  message  tells  how 
Belval's  father  and  Coralie's  mother  had  been  similarly 
trapped,  and  then  asphyxiated,  twenty  years  before.  Shut 
in  the  lodge,  Patrice  and  Coralie  arc  similarly  subjected — 
apparently  by  Simeon — to  asphyxiation  by  gas,  until 
Patrice  loses  consciousness.  Arsene  Lupin,  posing  as 
Count  Luis  Perenna,  rescues  both  Patrice  and  Coralie  just 
in  time,  and  proceeds  to  explain  to  Patrice  how  Essares 
removed  the  gold  by  a  subterranean  channel  to  barges  on 
the  Seine.  . 

CHAPTER  XIV    {continued) 

j^LL  the  way  down  the   Seine   are  wharves,  built   on 

f^L      the  bank  of  the  river   and   used   lor  loading   and 

Z— J^   unloading  vessels.     Barges  put  in  alongside,  dis- 

1       jL.charge  their  cargoes,  take  in  fresh  ones  and  often 

lie  moored  one  next  to  the  other.     At    the  spot  were  Don 

Luis   and   Patrice   descended   by   a  flight   of    steps    there 

was    a    series    of    yards,    one    of    which,    the  one  which 

they  reached  first,   appeared  to  be  abandoned,   no  doubt 

since  the   war.     It   contained,   amid   a   quantity  of  useless 

materials,  several  heaps  of  bricks  and  building  stones,  a  hut 

with  broken  windows  and  the  lower  part  of  a  steam  crane. 

A  placard  swinging  from  a  post  bore  the  inscription : 

Berthou, 
Wharfinger  and  Builder. 

Don  Luis  walked  along  the  foot  of  the  embankment,  ten 
or  twelve  feet  high,  above  which  the  quay  was  suspended  like 
a  terrace.  Half  of  it  was  occupied  by  a  heap  of  sand  ;  and 
they  saw  in  the  wall  the  bars  of  an  iron  grating,  the  lower 
half  of  which  was  hidden  by  the  sand-heap  shored  up  with 
planks. 

Don  Luis  cleared  the  grating  and  said,  jestingly : 

"  Have  you  noticed  tliat  the  doors  are  never  locked  in  this 
adventure  ?     Let's  hope  that  it's  the  same  with  this  one." 

His  theory  ^vas  confirmed,  somewhat  to  his  own  surprise, 
and  they  entered  one  of  those  recesses  where  workmen  put 
awav  their  tools. 

"So  far,  nothing  out  of  the  common,"  said  Don  Luis, 
switching  on  an  electric  torch.  "  Buckets,  pick-axes,  wheel- 
barrows, a  ladder  .  .  .  Ah !  Ah  !  Just  as  I  expected  : 
rails,  a  complete  set  of  light  rails  !  .  .  .  Lend  me  a  hand, 
captain.     Let's  clear  out  the  back.     Good,  that's  done  it." 

Level  with  the  ground  and  opposite  the  grating  was  a 
rectangular  opening  exactly  similar  to  the  one  in  the  basin 
of  the  fountain  in  the  garden.  The  wire  was  visible  above, 
with  a  number  of  hooks  hanging  from  it. 

"  So  this  is  where  the  bags  arrived,"  Don  Luis  explained. 
"  They  dropped,  so  to  speak,  into  one  of  the  two  little  trollies 
which  you  see  over  there,  in  the  corner.  The  rails  were 
laid  across  the  bank,  of  course  at  night  ;  and  the  trollies 
were  pnslied  to  a  barge  into  wlu'cii  they  tipped  their 
contents." 


"  So  that     .    .     .     ?  " 

"  So  that  the  French  gold  went  this  wav  .  .  .  any- 
where you  like     .     .     .     somewhere  abroad." 

"  And  you  think  that  the  last  eighteen  hundred  bags  have 
also  been  dispatched  ?  "■ 

"  I  fear  so." 

"  Then  we  are  too  late  ?  " 

Don  Luis  reflected  for  a  while  witiiout  answering.  Patrice, 
though  disappointed  by  a  development  which  he  had  not  fore- 
seen, remained  amazed  at  the  extraordinary  skill  with  which 
his  conipanion,  in  so  short  a  time,  had  succeeded  in  un- 
ravelling a  portion  of  the  tangled  skein. 

"  It's  an  absolute  miracle,"  he  said,  at  last.  "  How  on  earth 
did  you  do  it  ?  "  , 

Without  a  word,  Don  Luis  took  from  his  pocket  the  book 
which  Patrice  had  seen  lying  on  his  knees.  The  Memoirs 
of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  motioned  him  to  read  some 
lines  which  he  indicated  with  his  finger.  They  were  written 
towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI.  ana  ran  : 

We  go  daily  to  the  village  of  Passy  adjoining  my  home,  where  you 
take  the  waters  in  a  beautiful  garden.     Streams  and  waterfalls 

Four  down  on  all  sides,  this  way  and  that,  in  artfully  levelled  beds. 
am  known  to  like  skilful  mechanism,  so  I  have  been  shown  the 
ibasin  where  the  waters  of  all  the  rivulets  meet  and  mingle.  There 
stands  a  little  marble  figure  in  the  midst  ;  and  the  weight  of  the 
water  is  strong  enough  to  turn  it  a  quarter  circle  to  the  loft  and 
then  pjur  down  straight  to  the  Seine  by  a  conduit,  which  opens 
in  the  ground  of  the  basin. 

Patrice  closed  the  book  ;  and  Don  Luis  went  on  to  explain  ." 
"  Things  have  changed  since,  no  doubt,  thanlvs  to  the 
energies  of  Essares  Bey.  The  water  escapes  some  other  way 
now  ;  and  the  aqueduct  was  used  to  drain  off  the  gold.  Besides 
the  bed  of  the  river  has  narrowed.  Quays  have  been  built, 
with  a  system  of  canals  underneath  them.  You  see.  Captain, 
all  this  was  easy  enough  to  disco\er,  once  I  had  the  book  to 
tell  me.     Doctus  cum  lihro." 

"  Yes,  but,  even  so,  you  had  to  read  the  book."- 
"  A    pure    accident.     I    unearthed   it    in    Simeon's    room 
and  put  in  in  my  pocket,  because  I  was  curious  to  know  why 
he  was  reading  it. 

"  Why,  that's  just  how  he  must  have  discovered  Essares 
Bey's  secret !  "  cried  Patrice.  "  He  didn't  know  the  secret. 
He  found  the  book  among  his  employer's  papers  and  got  up 
his  facts  that  way.  What  do  you  think  ?  Don't  you  agree  ? 
You  seem  not  to  share  my  opinion.  Have  you  some  other 
view  ? 

Don  Luis  did  not  reply.  He  stood  looking  at  the  river. 
Besides  the  wharves,  at  a  sliglit  distance  from  the  yard,  a 
barge  lay  moored,  with  apparently  no  one  on  her.  But  a 
slender  thread  of  smoke  now  began  to  rise  from  a  pipe  that 
stood  out  above  the  deck. 

"  Let  s  go  and  have  a  look  at  her,"  he  said. 
The  barge  was  lettered  : 

La  Noxchalante  Beaune. 

They  had  to  cross  the  space  between  the  barge  and  the 
wharf  and  to  step  over  a  number  of  ropes  and  empty  barrels 
covering  the  flat  portions  of  the  deck.  A  companion-way 
brought  them  to  a  sort  of  cabin  which  did  duty  as  a  state- 
room and  kitchen  in  one.  Here  they  found  a  powerful- 
looking  man,  with  broad  shoulders,  curly  black  hair  and  a 
clean-shaven  face.  His  only  clothes  were  a  blouse  and  a  pair 
of  dirty  patched  canvas  trousers. 

Don  Luis  offered  him  a  twenty-franc  note.  The  man  took 
it  eagerly. 

"  Just  tell  me  something  mate.  Have  you  seen  a  barge 
lately,  lying  at  Berthou's  Wharf  ?  "  ■ 

"  Ves  a  motor-barge.     She  left  two  days  ago." 

"  What  was  her  name  ?  " 

"  The  Belle  Helenc.  The  people  on  board,  two  men  and 
a  woman,  were  foreigners  talking  I  don't  know  what 
lingo    .     .     .     We  didn't  speak  to  one  another." 

"  But  Berthou's  Wharf  has  stopped  work,  hasn't  it  ?  " 

"  Yes,  the  owner's  joined  the  army  .  .  .  and  the  fore- 
man as  well.  We've  all  got  to,  haven't  we  ?  I'm  expecting 
to  be  called  up  myself  .  .  .  thoug'n  I've  got  a  weak 
heart." 

"  But,  if  the  yard's  stopped  work,  what  was  tlie  boat 
doing  here  ?  " 

"  I  don  t  know.  They  worked  the  whole  of  one  night, 
however.  They  had  laid  rails  along  the  quay.  I  heard  the 
(Continued  from  page  20) 


February   15,   1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


is  gour  pen 

"too  proud 
to  ujrite"? 


t^^ 


Is  rour  pen 
"tot  proud  to  write"? 


Tbe  Onoto  Pen  is  British. 
"  Neutral  "  pens  may  fail  you 
at  the  critical  moment ;  the 
British-made  Onoto  is  always 
ready  for  action.  It  is  never 
"  too  proud  to  write." 

It's  nib  is  always  wet  with 
fresh  ink.  Its  holder  is 
always  dry. 

The  Onoto  Self-fiUing 
Safety  cannot  leak.  It  can- 
not "  sweat  "  ink  as  foreign 
pens  often  do.  It  is  the  one 
really  satisfactory  Self-filling 
Safety   Pen. 

When  you  are  choosing 
your  pen,  see  what  is  written 
on  the  holder.  Make  sure 
that  you  are  getting  a  British 
Onoto :  not  a  pen  "  Made 
in "  anywhere  else. 

Onoto  Self-filling  Safety  Fountain 
Pens  at  all  Stationers,  etc.,  from  12/6 
upwavds.  Also  OnotO'Valveless,  for 
those  who  do  not  want  a  Self-filling 
Safety  Pen,  from  10/6  upwards. 


the  British  Pen 
is  the  Onoto 


THOMAS  DE  LA  RUE   &   CO.,  LTD.,  BUNHILL  ROW,  E.G. 


siiafiiib{ 

OF  BOLD. 
HIGHEST 
PRICES  NOW 
GIVEN  FOR 
OLD  GOLD 

AND 
JEWELLERY 

OF 
ANY  SORT. 


SMITHS'    "ALLIES 

AND 

MEDICAL  WATCHES. 

"UNBREAKABLE"  FRONT 

No  more  Watch   Glasses! 
No  more  Watch  Glass  Protector,  1 
It  IB  imnosisible  to  break  the  fiont 


Smith's 

Electric 

Reading 

Lamp 

or  (he  Belt. 

Recognized  by 

Officers  at  the 

BEST    LAMP.) 

IWrite  for  TESTIMONIALS 

<      ««      Posh-piece. 


SHORTAGE 


OF  GOLD 

HIGHEST 

PRLESNOW 

GIVEN  FOR 

OLD  GOLD 

AND 
JEWELLERY 

OF 
ANY  SORT. 


Sterling     Silver 
"SCREW  IN 

Dust  and  Damp  '^_. 
Proof  Case. 


sterling    Silver,    Lever 

Movement,      LMminous 

Dial.     Pigskin     Strap, 

Silver   Buckle. 

£3  :  3  :  O 


Size  of  Loiii]).  5i  X  ;ii  I  i|  inctu's 


Sterling    Silver     Screw 

in  Case  Medical  Watch 

Luminous   figures    and 

hands,    registering   5th 

of   seconds. 

Invaluable  for 

Hospital  Work. 

SMITH'S  High  Grade 

Lever  Movement. 
Guaranteed     CI. lit. A 
Timekeeper     l*.l*.« 


Price     complete   20/-     '"''"'r^^Zr^i.ttuT''- 

Or   including   one    extra    bulb    :n    lid,     21/-. 

Brtra  batteries        l/«  each.  Extra  bulbs     1/-  each 

Hermetioallv    spaled    in    Tin    box.  Further   itarticulars  on  api>llcation. 

S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd.   Estaissi 

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.ind  68 
Piccadilly    W 


By    Appointment  to   H.M 
the  late  King  Edward  VII. 


Watch    and     Chronometer 

Makers  to  the  Admiralty. 

Holders  of  5  Royal  Warrants. 


The  burberry 


Illustrated 
Naval  or 
Military 
Catalogues 
Post    Free 


Officers' 
Complete 
Kit8  in  2 
to  4  Days 
Ready 
Use. 

Bad  Weather  has  No  Chance  Against 

The  burberry 

Made  in  strong  and  durable  materials,  proofed  bj  exclusive 
processes,  THE  BURBERRY  provides  a  dependable  safeguard 
against  soaking  rain,  storms  of  snow  and  driving  sleet,  so  that  as 
a  safeguard  for  Active  Service  its  value  is  inestimable. 

Owing  to  the  extreme  density  of  Burberrys'  Proof- without-Heat, 
Warm-without-Weight  cloths,  THE  .  BURBERRY  excludes 
wind ,  and  ensures  "comforting  warmth  in  the  bitterest  weather. 

Being  airylight  and  self-ventilating,  THE  BURBERRY  relies 
entirely  upon  weaving  and  proofing  for  its  protective  powerg,  and 
gives  reliable  security  without  the  aid  of  rubber,  oiled-silk  or  any 
other  injurious  air-tight  fabric,  so  that  for  health's,  as  well  as  for 
comfort's  sake,  it  is  unapproachable. 


BURBERRYS' 

ANNUAL  SALE 

During  this 
month  many  1916 
Civilian  T  o  p  - 
coats  and  Suits, 
as  well  as 
Ladies'  Coats 
and  Gowns,  are 
being:  sold  at 
about  HALF 
USUAL  PRICES. 
List  on    request. 


Half  the  Weiffht— Double  the  Warmth 

Burberry  Naval  and  Military  Weatherproof*  are  half 
the  weight  of  thoae  loaded  with  oil  silk,  rubber  and  the 
like  air-t'ght,  circulation-retarding  fabrics,  whilst  the 
warmth  naturally  generated  is  doubled  in  value  a* 
circulation  is  aided. 

An  example  of  the  ill-effects  induced  by  non-ventilating 
agents  is  to  be  found  in  an  angler  wading.  He  in- 
variably suffers  from  cold  feet,  the  result  of  impeded 
circulation  and  the  exclusion  of  fresh  air,  althoufih  his 
footwear  readily    proves  the  presence  of  perspiration. 


Every  Burberry  garment  is  labelled  "  Burberrys." 

RITPRITPDVQ     Haymarket 
DUKon.KKIO    LONDON 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS     and  Provincial  Agents 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  15,  1917 


{Continued  from  fa^s  i8) 

trollies ;  and  they  were  loading  up.  What  with  I  don't 
know.    And  then,   early  ir)  the  morning,   they  unmoored." 

"  Where  did  they  go  ?  " 

"  Down  stream,  Mantes  way." 

■'  Thanks,  mate.     Tiiat's  what  I  wanted  to  know." 

Ten  minutes  later  when  they  reached  the  house  Patrice 
and  Don  Luis  found  the  driver  of  the  cab  which  Simeon 
Diodokis  had  taken  after  meeting  Don  Luis.  As  Don  Luis 
expected,  Simeon  had  told  the  man  to  go  to  a  railway- 
station,  the  Gare  Saint-Lazare,  and  there  bought  his  ticket. 

"  Where  to  ?  " 

"  To  Mantes  !  " 


TI 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  "Belle  Helent" 

^HERE'S  no  mistake  about  it,"  said  Patrice.  "  The 
information  conveyed  to  M.  Masseron  that  the  gold 
had  been  sent  away  ;  the  speed  with  which  the 
work  was  carried  out,  at  night,  mechanically,  by  the 
people  belonging  to  the  boat  ;  their  ahen  nationality  ;  the 
direction  which  they  took  ;  it  all  agrees.  The  probability 
is  that,  between  the  cellar  into  which  the  gold  was  shot  and 
the  place  where  it  finished  its  journey,  there  was  some  spot 
where  it  used  to  remain  concealed  .  .  .  unless  the 
eighteen  hundred  bags  cm  have  awaited  their  despatch,  slung 
one  behind  the  othir,  along  tlie  wire.  But  that  doesn't 
matter  much.  The  great  thing  is  to  know-  that  the  Belle 
Helene,  hiding  somewhere  in  the  outskirts,  laj  waiting  for  the 
favourable  opportunity.  •  In  the  old  days,  Essares  Bey 
by  way  of  precaution,  used  to  send  her  a  signal  with  the  aid 
01  that  shower  of  sparks  which  I  saw.  This, time,  old  Simeon, 
who  is  continuing  Essares'  woik,  no  doubt  on  his  own  account, 
gave  the  crew  notice  ;  -and  the  bags  of  gold  are  on  their  way 
to  Rouen  and  Havre,  where  some  steamer  will  take  them 
over  and  carry  them  .  .  .  eastwards.  After  all,  forty 
or  fifty  tons,  hidden  in  the  hold  under  a  layer  of  coal,  is  nothing. 
What  do  you  say  ?  That's  it,  isn't  it  ?  I  feel  positive  about 
it.  .  .  .  Then  we  have  Mantes,  to  which  he  took  his 
ticket  and  for  which  the  Belle  He'ene  is  bound.  Could 
anything  be  clearer  ?  Mantes,  where  he'll  pick  up  his  cargo 
of  gold  and  go  on  board  in  some  seafaring  disguise,  unknown 
and  unseen.  .  .  ,  Loot  and  looter  disappearing  together. 
It's  as  clear  as  dayhght.     Don't  you  agree  ? 

Once  again  Don  Luis  did  not  answer.  However,  he  must 
have  acquiesced  in  Patrice's  theories,  for,  after  a  minute,  he 
declared  : 

"  Very  weU.  I'll  go  to  Mantes."  And,  turning  to  the 
chauffeur,  "  Hurry  off  to  the  garage,"  he  said,  "  and  come 
back  in  the  si.x^cylinder.  1  want  to  be  at  Mantes  in  less  than 
an  hour.     You,  captain.     .     .     ." 

"  I  shall  come  with  you." 

"  And  who  will  look  after     .     .     .  ?  " 

"  Coralie  ?  She's  in  no  danger  !  Who  can  attack  her  now  ? 
Simeon  has  failed  in  his  attempt  and  is  thinking  only  of  saving 
liis  own  skin     .     .     .     and  his  bags  of  gold." 

"  You  insist,  do  you  ?  " 

"  Absolutely." 

"  I  dort't  know  that  you're  wise.  However,  that's  your 
ail'air.  Let's  go.  By  the  way,  though,  one  precaution." 
He  raised  his  voice.     "  Ya-Bon  !  " 

The  Senegalese  came  hastening  up.  While  Ya-Bon  felt 
for  Patrice  all  the  affection  of  a  faithful  dog,  he  seemed  to  pro- 
fess towards  Don  Luis  sometliing  more  nearly  approaching 
rchgious  devotion.  The  adventurer's  sUghtest  action  roused 
him  to  ecstasy.  He  never  stopped  laughing  in  the  great 
chief's  presence. 

"  Ya-Bon,  are  you  all  right  now  ?  Is  your  wound  healed  ? 
\ovl  don't  feel  tired  ?     Good.     In  that  case,  come  with  me." 

He  led  him  to  the  quay,  a  short  distance  from  Berthou's 
Wharf : 

"  .\t  nine  o'clock  this  evening,"  he  said,  "  you're  to  be  on 
guard  here,  on  this  bench.  Bring  your  food  and  drink  with 
you  ;  and  keep  a  particular  look-out  for  anything  that  happens 
over  there,  down  stream.  Perhaps  nothing  will  happen  at 
all  ;  but  never  mind  :  you're  not  to  move  until  I  come 
back  .  .  .  unless  .  .  .  unless  something  does  happen 
in  which  case  you  will  act  accordingly." 

He  paused  and  then  continued  : 

"  Above  all,  Ya-Bon,  beware  of  Simc'on.     It  was  he  who 
gave  you  that  wound.     If  you  catch  sight  of  him,  leap  at 
his  throat  and  bring  him  here.     But  mind  you  don't  kill  bim  ! 
No  nonsense  now.     I   don't  want  you  to  hand  me  over  a 
corpse,  but  a  Hve  man.     EKj  you  understand,  Ya-Bon  ?  " 

Patrice  began  to  feel  uneasy  : 

"  Do  you  fear  anything  from  that  side  ?  "  he  asked.  "  Look 
iicre,  it's  out  of  the  question,  as  Simeon  has  gone.     .     .     ." 

"  Captain,"  said  Don  Luis,  "  when  a  good  general  goes  in 
pursuit  of  the  enemy,  that  does  not  prevent  him  from  con- 


solidating his  hold  on  the  conquered  ground  and  leavuiL; 
garrisons  in  the  fortresses.  Berthou's  Wharf  is  evident  1\ 
one  of  our  adversary's  rallying  points.  I'm  keepmg  it  undei 
observation." 

Don  Luis  also  took  ^erious  "precautions  with  regard  m 
Coralie.  She  was  very  much  overstrained  and  needed  rest 
and  attention.  They  put  her  into  the  car  and,  after  making 
a  dash  at  full  speed  towards  the  centre  of  Paris,  so  as  to  throw 
any  spies  off  the  scent,  took  her  to  the  home  on  the  Boule- 
vard Maillot^  where  Patrice  handed  her  over  to  the  matron 
and  recommended  her  to  the  doctor's  care.  The  staff  re- 
ceived strict  orders  to  admit  no  strangers  to  see  her.  She 
was  to  answer  no  letter,  unless  the  letter  was  signed,  "  Captain 
Patrice." 

At  nine  o'clock,  the  cat  sped  down  the  Saint-Germain  and 
Mantes  road.  Sitting  inside  with  Don  Luis,  Patrice  felt  all 
the  enthusiasm  of  victory  and  indulged  freely  in  theories-, 
every  one  of  which  possessed  for  him  the  value  of  an  un- 
impeachable certainty.  A  few  doubts  Mngered  in  his  mind, 
however,  points  which  remained  obscure  and  on  which  Ik- 
would  have  been  glad  to  have  Don  Luis'  opiniouj 

"  There  are  two  things,"  he  said,  "  which  I  simply  cannot 
understand.     In  the  first  place,  who  was  the  man  miirdcrcd 
by  Essares,  at  nineteen  minutes  past  seven  in  the  mornin,' 
on  the  fourth  of  April  ?    I  heard  his  dying  cries.     Who  was 
killed  ?    And  what  became  of  the  body  ?  " 

Don  Luis  was  silent  ;   and  Patrice  went  on  : 

"  The  second  point  is  stranger  still.  I  mean  Simeon's 
behaviour.  Here's  a  man  who -devotes  his  whole  hfe  to  a 
single  object,  that  of  revenging  his  friend  Belval's  murder 
and  at  the  same  time  ensuring  my  happiness  and  Coralie 's. 
This  is  his  one  aim  in  life  ;  and  nothing  can  make  him  swerve 
from  his  obsession.  And  then,  on  the  day  when  his  enemy. 
Essares  Bey,  is  put  out  of  the  way,  suddenly  he  turns  round 
completely  and  persecutes  Coralie  and  me,  going  to  the 
length  of  using  against  us  the  horrible  contrivance  which 
Essares  Bey  had  employed  so  successfully  against  our 
parents  !  You  really  must  admit  that  it's  an  amazing  change  ! 
Can  it  be  the  thought  of  the  gold  that  has  hypnotized  him  ? 
Are  his  crimes  to  be  explained  by  the  huge  treasure  placed 
at  his  disposal  on  the  day  when  he  discovered  the  secret  ? 
Has  a  decent  man  transformed  himself  into  a  bandit  to  satisfy 
a  sudden  instinct  ?     What  do  you  think  ? 

Don  Luis  persisted  in  his  silence.  Patrice,  who  expected 
to  see  every  riddle  solved  by  the  famous  adventurer  in  a 
twinkling,  felt  peevish  and  surprised.    H€  made  a  last  attempt  : 

"  And  the  Golden  Triangle  ?    Another  mystery!  For,  after 
all.  there's  not  a  trace  of  a  triangle  in  anything  we've  seen  '. 
Wliere  is  this  Golden  Triangle  ?  Have  you  any  idea  what  it 
jiiems  ?  " 
,      Don  Luis  allowed  a  moment  to  pass  and  then  said  : 

"  Captain,  I  have  the  most  thorough  liking  for  you,  and 
I  take  the  liveliest  interest  in  all  that  concerns  you,  but  1 
confess  that  there  is  one  problem  which  excludes  all  others 
and  one  object  towards  which  all  my  efforts  are  now  directed. 
That  is  the  pursuit  of  the  gold  of  which  we  have  been  robbed  ; 
and  I  don't  want  this  gold  to  escape  us.  I  have  succeeded 
on  your  side,  but  not  yet  on  the  other.  You  are  both  of  you 
safe  and  found,  but  I  haven't  the  eighteen  hundred  bags  ;  and 
I  want  them,  I  wan-  them." 

"  You'll  have  them,  since  we  know  where  they  are."     - 

"1  shall  have  tl  e  n,"  said  Don  Luis,  "when  they  lie 
spread  before  my  eyes.     Until  then,  I  can  tell  you  nothing.' 

At  Mantes  the  enquiries  did  not  take  long.  They  al  nost 
immediately  had  the  satisfaction  of  learning  that  a  traxeller, 
whose  description  corresponded  witli  old  Simeon's  had  gone 
to  the  Hotel  Trois-Empereurs  and  was  now  asleep  in  a  room 
on  the  third  floor. 

Don  Luis  took  a  ground-floor  room,  while  Patrice,  who 
would  have  attracted  the  enemy's  attention  more  easily, 
because  of  his  lame  leg,  went  to  the  Grand  Hotel. 

He  woke  late  the  next  morning.  Don  Luis  rang  him  up 
and  told  him  that  Simeon,  after  caUing  at  the  post-oflice,  had 
gone  down  to  the  river  and  then  to  the  station,  where  he  met 
a  fashionably  dressed  woman,  with  her  face  hidden  by  a  thick 
veil,  and  brought  her  back  to  the  hotel.  The  two  were 
lunching  together  in  the  room  on  the  third  floor. 

At  four  o'clock,  Don  Luis  rang  up  again,  to  ask  Patrice 
to  join  him  at  once  in  a  little  cafe  at  the  end  of  the  town, 
facing  the  Seine.  Here  Patrice  saw  Simeon  on  the  quay- 
He  was  walking  with  his  hands  behind  his  back,  like  a  man 
strolling  without   any  definite  object. 

"  Comforter,  spectacles,  the  same  get-up  as  uuuil," 
said  Patrice.  "  Not  a  thing  about  him  changed.  Watch 
him.  He's  putting  on  an  air  of  indifference,  but  you  can 
bet  that  his  eyes  are  looking  up  stream,  in  the  Erection 
from  which  the  Belle  Helene  is  coming." 

"  Yes,  yes,"  said  Don  Luis.     "  Here's  the  lady." 

"  Oh,  that's  the  one,  is  it  ?  "  said  Patrice.     "  I've  met  hei 
(Continued  on  page  22) 


February   1-5,   1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


How  0X0  is  welcomed  at  the  Front 

and  in  the  Navy. 


0X0  exactly  meets  the  needs  of  our  fight- 
ing forces  in  every  part  of  the  world.  It 
aids  and  increases  nutrition  and  stimulates  and 
builds  up  strength  to  resist  clirnatic  changes  ; 
it  is  invaluable  for  all  who  have  to  undergo 
exertion  either  to  promote  fitness  or  to  re- 
cuperate after  fatigue. 


It  takes  up  little  space,  is  easily  carried, 
and  can  be  converted  quickly  into  a  hot  nourish- 
ing drink,  which,  with  bread  or  biscuits,  will 
sustain  for  hours. 

0X0  is  absolutely  unrivalled  for  use  on 
the  Field,  in  the  Hospital,  in  the  Canteen 
and  in  Training. 


The  following  are  interesting  letters  received  from  the  Front : — 


From    France  : — 

"  You  must,  already  know  how  widely 
0X0  is  iisod  and  how  sincerely  it  is  appre- 
ciated wherever  the  British  Army  is  to  he 
found  fifjlitinv!;  for  the  Empire,  but  I  feel  sure 
it  will  interest  you  to  learn  that  both  during 
the  '  great  push  '  on  the  Somme.  and  now. 
when  we  are  nightly  worrying  the  Hun  with 
raids.  I  make  it  an  invariable  rule  to  make 
an  issue  of  hot  OXO  to  the  men  before  they 
'  pop  the  parapet.'  We  have,  as  you  know, 
to  face  all  weathers  out  here,  and  learn  to 
take  things  as  they  come.  This  is  done  the 
more  easily  becau.se  we  are  never  without 
a  supply  of  your  OXO.  We  find  it  of  the 
greatest  possible  benefit  to  us.  OXO  is  of 
enormous  value  for  home  consumption,  but 
you  may  take  it  from  me  that  its  value  is 
multiplied  many  times  over  out  here  in  the 
trenches,  and  often  times  when  nights  are 
bitterly  cold  and  horribly  long.  I  really  do 
not  know  how  we  should  get  on  without  the 
hot  0X0." 

From   France  :— 

"  I  candidly  admit  that  the  chief  cau.se 
of  my  writing  is  to  ask  you  to  .send  me 
another  box  of  OXO.  By  so  doing  you 
will  be  acting  the  very  good  Samaritan  to — 
and  winning  the  hearty  thanks  of — my  men. 
The  weather  and  all  (he  conditions  here  are 
very  trying,  and  OXO  is  very  comforting  to 
us  after  petting  back  to  out  huts  at  night — 
cold  and  wet.  I  do  not  serve  it  out  whole- 
.sale  but  rather  to  the  delicate  and  sick  ones. 
And  don't  they  appreciate  it  ! 

I  had  a  very  queer  Xmas.  It  was  so 
umisual  and  certainly  not  to  be  preferred 
to  the  old  times.  However  witli  the  aid  of 
little  delicacies — some  of  which  you  wore 
responsible  ftir — 1  managed  to  spend  a 
f  lirly  good  time." 


From    France  :— 

"  I  have  been  a  constant  user  of  OXO 
ever  since  L  came  out  here,  and  I  would  not 
be  without  it. 

It  is  a  pjty  its  value  is  not  even  more 
widely  known,  for  there  is  nothing  better 
for  a  man  who  has  to  face  the  rigours  of 
winter  campaigning." 

From  Fast  Africa:— 

"  When  leaving  England  a  year  ago.  my 
wife  insisted  upon  my  taking  a  good  supply 
of  your  OXO,  and  I  shall  be  ever  grateful 
for  her  forethought.  For  three  months  \\e 
were  on  trek,  through  the  colony  where 
transport  was  impossible  and  everything, 
including  rations  and  anununition,  had  to 
be  carried  on  the  heads  of  porters.  Con- 
sequently we  fared  very  badly  for  food,  our 
staple  diet  being  mealies  and  rice,  and  not  too 
much  of  tliat.  This  is  where  you  come  in, 
as  aft«r  trekking  all  day  we  would  have  to 
erect  our  station  and  work  until  daylight, 
and  about  midnight  I  always  had  a  cup  of 
OXO  which  bucked  me  up  wonderfullj-, 
relieved  any  tired  feeling  and  made  work 
easy.  Any  of  the  .section  feeling  sick  v\X)uld 
be  given  a  cup,  and  I  can  safely  say  it  saved 
many    men    from    going    to    hospital.     As 


a  result  practically  all  of  them  wrote  home 
a.sking  for  supplies  to  be  sent  out,  and  now 
it  is  regularly  used  l.y  all  as  nourishment 
in  lieu  of  the  old  home  supper.  The  value 
of  OXO  diu'ing  a  campaign  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. ' ' 

From  Egypt:— 

"  I  may  say  that  OXO  is  used  extensively 
out  here  with  very  gratifying  resalts." 


Be  sure 
to  send 


From   Salonica : — 

"  A  consignment  of  OXO  arrived  the 
day  after  I  got  here  ;  you  can  have  no  idea 
what  a  godsend  it  will  be  in  this  place  for 
the  next  few  months  ;  it  will  warm  a  large 
number  of  men  on  cold  nights.  When  you 
repeat  the  dose  please  advise  me  so  that 
I  may  make  siu-e  that  it  arrives." 

From  H.M.S.    " " 

"  We  have  found  the  great  value  of  OXO 
up  here  in  the  North  Sea.  It  would  do  you 
good  to  see  the  lads'  faces  when  the  OXO  is 
made  during  the  different  watches  of  the 
night.  I  do  not  think  there  is  anything  to 
beat  a  cup  of  OXO  when  coming  off  duty 
at  midnight  or  four  in  the  morning." 

OXO 


...N,^«M<a£ 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  15,  191 7 


{Continued  from  page  20) 
two  or  three  times  already  in  the  street." 

A  dust  cloak  outlined  her  figure  and  shoulders,  which 
were  wide  and  rather  well-developed.  A  veil  fell  around  tlie 
hrini  of  her  felt  hat.  She  gave  Simeon  a  telegram  to  read. 
Then  they  talked  for  a  moment,  seefned  to  be  taking  their 
bearings,  passed  by  the  cafe  and  stopped  a  little  lower  down. 
Here  Simeon  wrote  a  few  words  on  a  sheet  of  note-paper 
and  jianded  it  to  his  companion.  She  left  him  and  went  back 
into  the  town.     Simeon  resumed  his  walk  by  tlie  riverside. 

"  You  must  not  stay  here,  captain,"  said  Don  Luis. 

"  hut  the  enemy  doesn't  seem  to  be  on  his  guard."  pro- 
tested Patrice.     "  He's  not  turning  round." 

"  Its  better  to  be  prudent,  captain.  What  a  pity  that 
we  can't  have  a  look  at  what  Simeon  wrote  down  !  " 

"  I  might     .     .     ." 

"  Go  after  the  lady  ?  No,  no,  captain.  Without  wishmg 
to  offend  you,  you're  not  quite  cut  out  for  it.  I'm  not  sure 
that  even  I     .     .     ." 

And  he  walked  away. 

Patrice  waited.  A  few  boats  moved  up  or  down  the  river. 
Mechanicallv,  he  glanced  at  their  names.  And  suddenly, 
half  an  hour  after  Don  Luis  had  left  him,  he  heard  the  clearly- 
marked  rhythm,  the  pulsation  of  one  of  those  powerful 
motors  whirh.  for  a  few  years  past,  have  been  fitted  to  certain 
b  irges. 

At  the  bend  of  the  river  a  barge  appeared.  As  she  passed 
in  front  of  him,  he  distinctly  and  with  no  little  excitement 
read  the  name  of  the  BelU  Helene  ! 

She  was  gliding  along  at  a  fair  pace,  to  the  accompaniment 
of  a  regular,  throbbing  beat.  She  was  big  and  broad  in  the 
beam,  heavy  and  pretty  deep  in  the  water,  though  she 
appeared  to  carry  no  cargo.  Patrice  saw  two  watermen  on 
boird,  sitting  and  smoking  carelessly.  A  dinghy  floated 
h-  h  nd  at  the  end  of  a  painter. 

Tie  barge  went  on  and  pissed  out  of  sight  at  the  turn. 
Patrice  waited  another  hour  before  Don  Luis  came  back. 

'■  Well  ?  "  he  asked.     "  Have  you  seen  her  ?  " 

"  Yes,  they  let  go  the  dinghy,  a  mile  and  a  half  from  here, 
and  put  in  for  Simeon." 

"  Then  he's  gone  with  them  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Without  suspecting  anything  ?  " 

"  You're  asking  me  too  much,  captain  !  " 

"  Never  mind  !  We've  won !  We  shall  catch  them  up 
in  the  car,  pass  them  and,  at  Vernon  or  somewhere,  inform 
the  mihtary  and  civil  authorities,  so  that  they  may  proceed 
to  arrest  the  men  and  seize  the  boat." 

"  We  shall  inform  nobody,  captain.     We  shall  proceed  to 
carry  out  these  little  operations  ourselves." 
"  Wliat  dt)  you  mean  ?     Surely     .     .     ." 

The  two  looked  at  each  other.  Patrice  had  been  unable  to 
dis.sernble  the  thought  that  occurred  to  his  mind.  Don  Luis 
showed  no  resentment  : 

"  You're  afraid  that  I  shall  run  away  with  the  three  hiindrea 
■  millions  ?     By  Jingo,  it's  a  largish  parcel  to  hide  in  one's 
jacket-pocket !  " 

"  Still,"  said  Patrice,  "  may  I  ask  what  you  intend  to 
do  ?  " 

"  You  may,  captain,  but  allow  me  to  postpone  my  reply 
until  we've  really  won.  For  the  moment,  we  must  first  find 
the  barge  again." 

They  went  to  the  Hotel  des  Trois-Empereurs  and  drove  off 
in  the  car  towards  Vernon.     This  time  they  were  both  silent. 

TliC  road  joined  the  riser  a  few  miles  lower  down,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  steep  hill  which  begins  at  Rosny.  Just  as 
they  reached  Rosny,  the  Belle  Helene  was  entering  the  long 
loop  which  curves  out  to  La  Roche-Guyon.  turns  back  and 
joins  the  h.gh-road  again  at  Bonnigres.  She  would  need  at 
least  three  hours  to  cover  the  distance,  whereas  the  car, 
climbing  the  hill  and  keeping  straight  aliead,  arrived  at 
Bonni;.;res  in  fifteen  minutes. 

They  drove  th-ough  the  village.  There  was  an  inn  a  little 
way  beyond  it,  on  the  right.  Don  Luis  made  his  chauffeur 
stop  here  : 

■  If  we  are  not  back  by  twelve  to-night,"  he  said,  "  go 
i  nine  to  Paris.     Will  you  come  with  me,  captain  .'  " 

Patrice  followed  him  towards  the  right,  whence  a  small 
load  led  them  to  the  river  bank.  They  followed  this  for  a 
<  juarter  of  an  hour.  At  last  Don  Luis  found  what  he  appeared 
to  be  seeking,  a  boat  fastened  to  a  stake,  not  far  from  a 
villa  with  closed  shutters.     Djn  Luis  unhooked  the  chain. 

It  was  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Night  was 
(.illing  fast,  but  a  brilliant  moonlight  lit  the  landscape. 

■  First  of  all,"  said  Don  Luis,  "  a  word  of  explanation. 
V'  c  re  going  to  wait  for  the  barge.  She'll  come  in  sight  on 
tlie  stroke  of  ten  and  find  us  lying  across  stream.  I  shall 
o.'der  her  to  heave  to  ;  and  there's  no  doubt  that,  when  tliey 
•i-'e  your  uniform  by  the  light  of  the  moon  or  of  my  electnc 
1  mp,  they  will  obey.     Then  we  shall  go  on  board." 


"  Suppose   they  refuse  ?  " 

"  If  they  refuse,  we  shall  board  her  by  force.  They  r.'e 
three  of  them  and  two  of  us.     So 

"  And  then  .'  " 

'*  .'\nd  then  ?  Well,  there's  every  reason  to  believe  that 
the  two  men  forming  the  crew  are  only  extra  hands,  employed 
by  Simeon,  but  ignorant  of  his  actions  and  knowing  nothing 
of  the  nature  of  the  cargo.  Once  we  have  reduced  Sim-  on 
to  helplessness  and  paid  them  handsomely,  they'll  take  the 
barge  wherever  I  tell  them.  But,  mind  you  -and  this  is 
what  I  was  coming  to  — I  mean  to  do  with  the  barge  exactly 
as  I  please.  I  shall  hand  over  the  cargo  as  and  when  I  think 
fit.  It's  my  booty,  my  prize.  No  one  is  entitled  to  it  but 
myself" 

The  officer  drew  himself  up  : 

"  Oh,  I  can't  agree  to  that,  you  know !  " 

"  Very  well,  then  give  me  your  word  of  honour  that) yoi  will 
keep  a  secret  which  doesn't  belong  to  you.  After  which, 
we'll  say  good-night  and  go  our  own  ways.  I'll  do  the  board 
ing  alone  and  you  can  go  back  to  your  own  business.  Ob- 
serve, however,  that  I  am  not  insisting  on  an  immediate  reply. 
You  have  plenty  of  time  to  reflect  and  to  take  the  decision 
which  your  interest,  honour  and  conscience  may  dictate  to 
you.  For  my  part,  excuse  me,  but  you  know  my  weakness  : 
when  circumstances  give  me  a  little  spare  time,  I  take  ad- 
vantage of  it  to  go  to  sleep.  Carpe  somnum,  as  the  poet  says. 
GooJ-night,  captain." 

And,  without  another  word,  Don  Luis  wrapped  himself  in 
his  great-coat  sprang  into  the  boat  and  lay  down. 

Patrice  had  had  to  make  a  violent  effort  to  restrain  his 
an;er.  Don  Luis'  calm,  ironic  tone  and  well-bred,  bantering 
voice  got  on  his  nerves  all  the  more  because  he  felt  the  in- 
fluence of  that  strange  man  and  fully  recognised  that  he  was 
incapable  of  acting  without  his  assistance.  Besides,  he  could 
not  forget  that  Don  Luis  had  saved  his  life  and  Corahe's. 

The  hours  slipped  by.  The  adventurer  slumbered  peace- 
fully in  the  cool  night  air.  Patrice  hesitated  what  to  do, 
seel^ing  for  some  plan  of  conduct  which  would  enable  him 
to  get  at  Simeon  and  rid  himself  of  that  implacable  adversary 
and  at  the  same  time  to  prevent  Don  Luis  from  laying  hands 
on  t"  e  eno  mous  treasure.  He  was  dismayed  at  the  thought 
'of  beuig  his  accomplice.  And  yet,  when  the  first  throbs 
of  the  motor  were  heard  in  the  distance  and  when  Don  Luis 
awoke,  Patrice  was  by  his  side,  ready  for  action. 

They  did  not  exchange  a  word.  A  village-clock  struck  ten. 
The  Belle  Helene  was  coming  towards  them. 

Patrice  felt  his  excitement  increase.  The  Belle  Helene 
meant  Simeon's  capture,  the  recovery  of  |;he  millions,  Coralie 
out  of  danger,  the  end  of  that  most  hideous  nightmare  and 
the    total    extinction    of    Essares'    handiwork.     The    engine 


was    throbbing    nearer    and    nearer. 


Its 


loud    and    regular 


beat  sounded  wide  over  the  motionless  Seine.  Don  Luis  had 
taken  the  sculls  and  was  pulling  hard  for  the  middle  of  the 
river.  And  suddenly  they  saw  in  the  distance  a  black  mass 
looming  up  in  the  white  moonlight.  Twelve  or  fifteen  more 
minutes  passed  and  the  Belle  Helene  was  before  them, 

"  ShaU  I  lend  you  a  hand  ?"  whispered  Patrice.  "It 
looks  as  if  you  had  the  current  Against  you  and  as  if  you  had 
a  difficulty  in  getting  along." 

"  Not  the  lea5t  difficulty,"  said  Don  Luis  ;  and  he  began  to 
hum  a  tune. 

"  But.     .     .     ." 

Patrice  was  stupefied.  The  boat  had  turned  in  its  own 
length  and  was.  making  for  the  bank. 

"  But  I  say,  I  say,"  he  said,  "  what's  this  ?  Are  you  going 
back  ?  Are  you  giving  up  ?  .  .  .  I  don't  under- 
stand. .  .  .  You're  surely  not  afraid  because  they're 
three  to  our  two  ?  " 

Don  Luis  leapt  on  shore  at  a  bound  and  stretched  out  his 
hand  to  him.     Patrice  pushed  it  aside,  growling  : 

"  Will  you  explain  what  it  all  means  ?  " 

"  Take  too  long,"  replied  Don  Luis.  "  Just  one  question, 
though.  You  know  that  book  I  foun  1  in  old  Simeon's  room. 
The  Memoirs  of  Benjamin  Franklin  :  did  you  see  it  when  you 
were  making  your  search  ?  " 

"  Look  here,  it  seems  to  me  we  have  other  things  to  .     .     . 

"  It's  an  urgent  question,  captain." 

"  Well,  no,  it  wasn't  there." 

"  Then  that's  it,"  said  Don  Luis.  "  We've  been-  done 
brown,  or  rather,  to  be  accurate,  I  have.  Let's  be  off. 
captain,  as  fast  as  we  can." 

Patrice  was  still  in  the  boat.  He  pushed  off  abruptly  and 
caught  up  the  scull,  muttering  : 

"  As  I  live,  I  beUeve  the  beggar's  getting  at  me  !  " 

He  was  ten  yards  from  shore  when  he  cried  : 

"  If  you're  afraid,  I'll  go  alone.     Don't  want  any  help." 

"Right  you  are,  captain!"  replied  Don  Luis.  "I'll 
expect  you  presently  at  the  i.in." 

{To  be  continued.) 


February  22,   1917 


Supplement    to    LAND    &    WATER 


vu 


mM 


TEjii 


Peace  days — the  days  of  victory  and  ail  that  victory  means  to 
us — are  coming  nearer. 
Then  we  shall  resume  the  manufacture  of  those  B.S.  A.  TARGET 
AND  SPORTING  RIFLES  whichloryears  prior  to  the  war  stood 
(Ul  alone  as  the  acme  of  design,  workmanship  and  accuracy. 
Then  you  will  call  on  us  to  supply  your  wants  in  this   direciion      To 
make  things  easier,  WE  ASK  YOU  TO  SEND  US  YOUR  NAIVIE 
NOW,  so  THAT  WE  MAY  KEEP  YOU  WELL  ADVISED 
OF  OUR  POSITION,  AND   ALSO   OF  THE   NEW   AND 
POI^ULAR  MODELS  AND   ACCESSORIES  WHICH  WE 
MAY  INTRODUCE.  /j^-j^ 

Will  you  do  so  ? — and,  in  writing,  ask  for  copy  of 
"  Rifle  Si'.hts  and  their  Adjustment." 

THE  BIRMINGHAM  SMALL  ARMS 
CO.,  LTO.,  BIRMINGHAM,  ENG. 

Makers  of    Rifles  and  Lewis   Machine 

Guns   tcr  the    British    Colonial    and 

Foreign  Governments  and    of    the 

famous     B.S.A.      Cycles      and 

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MILT TARV  COMPASSKS 

Treated  with  Radium  Compound.     Always  Luminous  at  nigrht  without 
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THE 

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recle  ning.  You  just  coat  the  bore  w'tK 
It — 'hal't  a'l. 

Retails  at — 

ONE  SHILLING  A  TUBE. 

Ask  for  other  details. 


lilUlilllIlillUilllllllitllllllllliBniillillBlilE 


WEBLEY  &  SCOTT,  Ltd. 

i^anufacturers  of  Revolvers,  Automatic 
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CONTRACTORS    TO    HIS    MAJESTY'S    NAVY,    ARMY, 
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Dial  Floating  in  Liquid 
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belt,  and   provision  is   made   in  it  for  carrying  a  spare  bulb. 


"Price 


^  ■t  -t  £\       I  Postage    to    the  N 

3Crf  1.     •      J.     •     \J        \ Front,    1/.    extra/ 


Extra    Battery   In  sealed  tin,  2/.  (Postage  to  the  Front,  1/.  extra). 
SOi.B    MAKERS—  Extra   Bulb,  1/6,  postaga  2cl. 

J.  H.  STEWARD,  Ltd.,    "•"■'^^"iA.lERj.''""^''^ 

406    Strand,    457    Strand,    London. 


(Patent 

No. 
12699— 
1909.) 


n 


LUPTONS 

SPIRAL   PUTTEES 

FASTEDGE 

Worn  exlemively  by  Officers  of  His 
Majesty's    and    the    Allied    Forces. 

SPECIAL  LIGHT  WEIGHTS  FOR 
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Being  Positively  Non-frayable 
LUPTO  N  'S  ^'"'^y^  '°°'^  ^^^^  and  Smnrt.  They  are  most 
PITTTCCC  '"°'''"'^*'''  '"  price,  and  may  be  obtained  from 
1    U    1    A  I!jI1iiJ    all   High-elas!!   Military  Tailors  and    Hosiers. 

^ ASK    FOR    LUPTON'S    PUTTEES. 

STy     ASTRACHANS    Ltd.,  Albert  Mill  Allan  St.,  BRADFORD. 
L-^ndon  Agent !  A.  STRICKLAND.  38  Bow  Lane,  E.C. 


MILITARY 
MACKINTOSH 

Made  of  the  finest  double 
texture  Paramatta  with 
deep  overlap,  belt  and 
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Price,     £3    10    0 

Detachable  Camel  Fleece 
Lining,    three-quarter    length, 

Extra,     £17    6 


Dunhills,Ltd., 

2  Conduit  Street,  London,  W. 

Manchester  :  90-92  Cross  St.     Glasgow :  72  St.  Vincent  St. 


Vlll 


Supplement    to    LAND    &     WATER 


i'ebruary  22,    1917 


mmymmw 


46    PICCADILLY.     LONDON.    W. 

PHONE      REGENT      189. 

U  .Market   Strei-t,  4:;,    Cornliill,  45,  Gordon  Street. 

.MANLMIiSTEIt.  LONIXJX,  E.C.  liL.\SUOW. 

s  Casile  Street,  S   Ucjieiial   I'lace,  40.  Wtslinoreland  St. 

LlVi:i!l>OOL  I!i;i,K.\ST.  UUBI.IN. 

MILITARY  AND  SPORTING  HAT  SPECIALISTS. 


>.,/f»jS* 


-^^ 


H;^T  /  ..X  '"^    BY    APPOINTMENT 

MANUFACTURERS      (T     .     '  J       j  ;      '  Vj        T°     ^HE      KING 


The 
THE  SKEWES. 

.ui-tain.  Vtiihb 
curtain,  16/-. 
with  curtain 
supplied  from 


Cap  for  Hield  and  Active  Service. 

,— Soft  and  Flexible  Field  Service  Cap  witli 
in    weizlit    ami    coinfortiUjle.    17/6;    witliout 

Tliis  sliaiKs,  guaranteed  ruljlier  waten>roof 
19/- i    witlioit    curtiin,  16/6.      All      Badyes 

3/6. 


Woodrow's  own  malte  Fur  Felt  Service  Cap,  tlie  lightest  made, 

has  t:if    appearance   of  the      llesulatiun   stiff   cap,     wiMi     the 

comfort    of   the    softest.    Quite  waterproof.    Pric«   21/-, 

Celluloid  or  Oilsilk   Greaseproof  Shield,  1/6, 

Woodrow's  Special  Head  Fitting  for  the  British  Shrapnel 
Helmet :  well  ventilated  anil  a>  lonifni table  as  a  I'olo  Helmet, 
easilv   llxtU  with  one  rivet.    Price,  14/6,  po->tHce,  1/-. 


\- 


The  Bleriot  Leather  Helmet  lor  Flv;n)i,  line'i 
Chamois  leather  umi  .Nutria  Fur.  ensures 
warmth  and  comfort,  and  greatly  used  b.v  both 
branches  ot  the  Air  Services.  Black  or  Tan 
I>e.iiher.  Price  45/-.  Triplex  Gostles  from  16/6 
to  37/6. 


*  Trustworthy  Always' 

NATURAL  WOOL 
UNDERWEAR 


These  garments  can  be  abso- 
lutely relied  upon  for  comfort 
protection  and  service.  Made 
of  pure  natural  wool,  heavy 
in  weight  and  unshrinkable. 
Vests,  short  or  long  sleeves  ; 
Trousers,  to  arukle. 
per  garment,  special    Q  /  |  1 

price *^    *  * 

Extra    large   size,     9/6    per 
garment. 


Harrods' 


Pure   natural    Wool 
wear,  medium  weight 
for  any  season. 
Vests,  half  sleeves    . 
Trousers  or  Shorts   . 


Under- 
.  Useful 

7/11 
8/6 


Orders  by  post  receive-  special  care. 
Carriage  paid  in  United  Kingdom. 


HARRODS  UdCJ:'.:i„Xecf:)  LONDON  SW 


KfJfJILtXV. 


•r-j.f     Jji    lil    J.I     l.l     l.l     1.^    l.t  l.l    Mmmf*'^'*^ 


KLIS 


FOOLPROOF 
PUTTEES 


Klis  Puttees   expand  like  elastic,  and  it  is  impos.xible  to 

put  them  on  wrongly. 

They  wind  from  kneo  down,  or  ankle  up.     There  is  no  right 

or  left,  and  no  twists  to  make. 

They  fit  perfectly,  and,  whether  wet  or  dry.  never   restrict 

either   muscles  or  blood-vessels. 

Perfect  fitting  with  perfect  comfort.     Every  soldier  should 

wear  Klis    Puttees  to   realise   vhat    free    leg-gear    means 

in   the  trenches  or    for  heavy  marching. 

Wool  only.   Price  8/6  per  pair 
Tartan  Khaki,   Navy   Blue  or  French  Grey. 

BURBERRYS     Haymarket    LONDON 
also   8  &  10  Boul.    Malesherbes    PARIS 


lu^^ 


Jal^^iJm 


"Actioe  Scroice"  WRISTLET  WATCH 
Fully  Luminous  Figures  &  Handt 
Warranted  Timekeepers 

In    Silver    Cases  with    Screw    lUze' 

and  Bacii.  .i::J   iJs.   Gold,i;T   lOs. 

With     Hunter    or    Halt-Hunter    cover. 

Silver,  «:*  Ts.  tid.      Gold,  JUS  lOs. 

Others  in   Silver   from     ii:^    lOs. 

Gold  from  4S<>. 

Military  Badge  Brooches.    ' 

J}ny  Regimental  Qiadge  Perfectly 

Modelled. 

FKICES  ON  APPLICATION 

Sketches  scni   lor  appro%;al. 

25  OLD  BOND  ST.,  W 


Gold, 

£7/10/ 


and  62&64  LUDCjATE   HILL,   E,C, 


THE  NEW  EUROPE. 

(Pour  la  Victoire  Integrale). 
A  WEEKLY  REVIEW  devoted  to  foreign 
politics    and   to   problems    of   the    War. 

ITS    AIMS    ARE 

TO    FOCUS    PUBLIC    OPINION 

upon  all  subjects  affecting  the 

FUTURE    OF    EUROPE. 

To  nninask  the  |(reat  designs  of 

GERMAN     WAR    POLICY 

and  to  emphasize  the  ne  d  of  a  carefully  thought-out 

COUNTER    PLAN. 

The  colaborators  of  THE   NEW  EUROPE   are  drawn  from  the   leading 
political  writers  among:  the  Allied  nations, 

TERMS,— 6  months,  15/-  ;     One  year,  30/-  post  free. 

Send  for  a  SPECIMEN  COPY  (gratlt: 


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THRMS     OF     SUBSCRIPTION     TO 

"LAND     &     WATER" 

(established     1862.) 

AT    HOME— Twelve    Months  £r  15    o 

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The    ahove  rates    inclwle    alt    St>ec:al  Numbers    ant    po^tis-. 

LAND  &  WATLR,01d  Serjeants'  Inn  Chancery  lane,  London,  W.C. 


February  22,  1917 


Supplement    to     LAND    &     WATER 


IX 


UNLIKE  ORDINARY  PUTTEES,  OUR  NEW 

ALL  -  LEA  THER     PUTTEES 

NEVER   TEAR 

OR  FRAY  OUT. 

These  most  comfortable,  good- 
looking  puttees  are  made  tn- 
tirely  of  fine  supple  tan  leather, 

and    fasten    simply    with    one 

buckle    at    bottom.       They   are 

extremely  durable,  even  if  sub- 
jected to  the  friction  of  riding, 

as  the  edges  never  tear  or  fray 

out,   and  for  winter  wear  they 

are  unmatched. 

The  puttees  are  speedily  put  on  or  taken 
off,  readily  mould  to  the  shape  of  the 
leg,  are  as  easily  cleaned  as  a  leather 
belt,  and  saddle  soap  soon  makes  (hem 
practically  waterproof. 

The  price  per  pair  is  16/6,  post  free 
inland,  or  postage  abroad  1/-  extra,  or 
sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business 
(not  banker's)  reference,  and  home 
address. 


The  Original  Cording' s,  Estd.   1839 


IN 


_   A  FLEECE-LINED  "  EQUITOR" 

{the  really  waterproof  coat),  iiieod.) 

OUT  OF   THE   WET  AND  COLD. 


GRANT  ..o  COCKBURN  ssro  ,s., 

LTD. 

25  PICCADILLY,  W. 

Military    and  Civil   Tailors,   Legging  Makers. 


I>u,v  by  day  tli«  eviiU'iice  grows 
wliioli  proves  the  disservice  "out 
tliere"  of  thti  femd-prool  (woather- 
procff)  coat. 

Perraeabl*  from  tlie  first,  after 
som«  exposure  the  fabric  quickly 
bei-omes  water-logged,  and  even  if 
lined  witb  oilskin  or  tlie  like  the 
damp  still  strikes  through  the 
seams  at  the  luckless  wearer 
An  •■liijuitor,  '  with  snug  fleece 
woollen  lining  buttoned  in,  makes 
an  exwllent  great-i't>at  in  which  to 
"travel  light."  and  will  not  only 
keep  a  man  lionc  dry  through  the 
heaviest  and  most  lasting  down- 
pour, but  will  also  wariniy  protect 
him  in  biting  cold  weather,  and 
may  therefore  be  relied  upon  to 
minimise  the  ill-etfects  of  enforced 
exposure  at  night. 
The  "Equiitor"  is  ntted  with 
a  special  riding  apron  (unless 
ordefetl  witJliout)  which  can  be 
fastened  conveniently,  out  of  sight, 
hut  the  coiit  serves  ju-st  as  well 
for  ordinary  wear  afoot,  whether 
the  apron  be  fastened  back  or  not. 
In  our  light-weight  No.  31  material 
the  price  ot  the  "Equitor"  is  02/6; 
of  our  No.  23  cashmere,  a  medium- 
weight  cloth,  115/-;  without  apron 
(either  cloth),  17/6  less,  with  belt, 
5/-  extra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat 
can  be  had  in  two  qualities- 
No.  1  (fine  wool),  62/6;  No.  2,  40/-. 
When  ordering  an  "Equitor"  Coat  please 
slate  height  and  chest  measure  and  send 
remittance  (which  will  be  returned 
promptly  if  the  coat  is  not  approved), 
or  give  home  address  and  business  (not 
banKer's)  reference. 


Illustrated  List  at  request. 


J»     C.     CORDING    &     C^D     TO  H.M.  THE  KING 

Only  Addresses  : 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.,  &  35  st.  jamess  st.,  s.w. 


Specified  by  Qooernmenl  for  AEROPLANES 

Petrol -Resisting 
Oil-Resisting  .  . 
Acid-Resisting  . 


RUB -METAL 


Invaluable  for  Chemical  Work 


^  RUB-fi^ETAL     has      been      success        RUB  -  METAL       is       superior      to  == 

=  fully  tested  in  boiling  Petrol.                 rubber,    because    it    will    resist  =; 

1  RUB -METAL       ha.s       unsurpassed              !:reator    extremes    of    heat    and  g 

=  resisting     powers     against     the             tola.  ^ 

=  ■         deleterious     action     of     Petrol.       RUB-METAL    is' non-adhesive.  = 

=  Oils     or  Acids.  ^ 

=  RUB-METAL  is  an  exceptionally  good  non-conductor  of  electricity  = 

^  WTien  ordering  Aeroplane  Taking  please  specify  = 

g  No.     S      Rub  -  Metal,        Aeroplane       Quality.  ^ 

=  We  manufacture   Valves,   Washers.  Sheet  Riihl)«r,  Roller  Cover-  g 

§  ings.    and   every   description    of  Hose   in   RUB-METAL    of    anv  ^ 

g  flexibility   required.            RUB-METAL  SOLID  BAND  TYRES".  = 


I  ALMAGAM    RETREADS. 

J  #7"     We   guarantee    3,000    miles   for  the   new 

g  ^^  Grooved  Treads  we  fit  to  your  old  covers. 

I  Send   all  Tyres    for  Retreading  to 

1  ALMAGAM    MILLS,     HARPENDEN,     HERTS. 


Proprietors:       Associated       Rubber 
Manufacturers     Ltd., 

DEPOTS: 
LONDON. 
172   GT.   rORTLAXl)    STIIEE'I ,    W., 
and  92    BOLSOVKlt  .STIiEET,   W. 


THOMAS    WARWICK 
Managing    Director. 

NEWCASTLE. 

43    BLACKETT    STREF.T 


MANCHESTER. 

24«   DEANSGATE. 


BRISTOL. 

ALMAGAM  HOUSE.    VICTORIA 
STREET. 


1 


Sunbeam  Supremacy 
on  every  hand 

.•supreme   on    land— supreme    in  the    air— 

Siiiil>eam  productions  are  nobly  upholding 

the    repu'tation    of     BritUh    engineering 

skill,    as    is     represented    in    the 

SUNBEAM 

cars  and  ambulances  as  well  as 
SUNBEAM -COATALEN 
AIRCRAFT    ENGINES 

The  fjiot  that  tlio  entire  output  of 
the  Sunbeam  works  is  j^tJll  l>eing  retained 
for  Military  and  Naval  purpo-^e.^,  sipnifiea 
blic   soun<ines.s  oi    Sunbeam    produetions. 


THE    SUNBEAM     MOTOR     CAR     COMPANY 

Head  Office  and  Works  -    Wolverhampton 
Manchester  Showronms  -    112    Deanagate 

London   and   District  At'tMit  for   Cars— 
J.  Keele.   Ltc..    72  New  Bond  St..    \V. 


LTD 


i'r4. 


i.-t-iw^ 


i    L       H  ^^-^ 


,1 


3U^^ 


Supplement    to      LAND    &    WATER 


February    22,  1917 


THE   Pen   for    Soldier   or 
Sailor — the  SAFETY   type 


^j^  Wat  ermansldeafc 


Why  Waterman^s  Ideal  ? 

Because  Waterman's  Ideal  is  the  acknowledged  best  Fountain  Pen.  Its 
merits   are   shown  by   the   sales — the   largest  in   the   World. 

Why  the  Safety  Type  ? 

Because  this  Type  can  be  carried  upside  down,  or  in  any  position,  and  no  matter  how 
carried  it  cannot  leak.  It  stands  Active  Service  conditions  better  than  any  other  pen,  and  is 
essentially  the  pen  for  Sailor,  Soldier,  Chaplain,  Doctor,  or  Red  Cross  Nurse. 

Waterman's  Ideal  is  the  pen  they  want  at  the  Front.  A  British  Officer  writes  : — 

"  I've    tried    them   all,    and   I'm    Solid  for   a    Waterman's   Ideal." 

So    now   }ou   KNOW  which  pen  to  send.     Onl)'  the  best  is  good  enough  for  our  fighting  mei\ 


Three  types-— SAFETY  Type,  15-  and  upwards;  Lever 
Pocket  Selt-Filling  Type,  15/-  and  upwards  ;  Regular,  1 0/6 
and    upwards.      Special    Pens    for    presentation.     Ol  Stationers  and 


Jewellers  everywhere.  Absolute  satisfaction  guaranteed.  Nibs  ex- 
changeable if  not  suitable.  Call  or  send  to  '*  The  Pen  Corner."  Full 
range  of  pens  on  view  for  inspection  and  trial.      Booklet  tree  from  : — 


L.  G.  Sloan,  Ltd.,    Chc^CR  Writer,  Kingsway,  London. 

Use   Waterman's  Ideal   Ink,  9d,  per  bottle.     Travellers  "Fillers,   1/6. 


Get  the  genuine  thing, 
now  that  it's  absolutely 
British — 

Let    real    Sanatogen 
invigorate  your  nerves 


Ladv  Henry  Somerset. 

the  dUtincuithed    Social  B 
Refonner.  writea  :—       = 

"  Sanatogen  im<loul)tetI-  M 
l.v    restores     sleei).    in-  ^ 
vijj;orates     tbe     nenes,  ^ 
and  braces  Uie  patient 
to      health.       I      Imve 
watchej   its    effect    on 
[jeople    who.se    nervous 
systems  have  been  en- 
tirely undermined,  and  g 
I  have  proved  Sanatogen  | 
to  be  most  valuable."        I 


Mr  Marshau.  Halu 

MP, 

the  emiikcnt  Kint'a 

CouiucI,  elc^  writM ; - 

"I  tliiiik  it  only  ri((bt  i 
lo  s.iy  tjiat  1  liavo  tried 
SauaUi/en,   and   find   it 
to  fie  a  most  excellent  j 
t.mic-friod." 


IN     taking    genuine 
Sanatogen   yea    h.tve 
the  absolute  assurance 
that    it    will   undoubtedly 
fulfil   the   claims   that   arc 
made  for  it. 

Read  these  typical  letters, 
written  before  the  War. 
The  writershave  allowcdus 
to  re-publish  them  because 
they  know  that  we  alone 
have  the  genuine  original 
Sanatftgen. 

You  should  know  this  too. 
You  should  satisfy  yourself 
by  a  personal  test  that  you 
can  at  last  get  the  true  tonic- 
food  whose  health-giving, 
nerve-strengthening  proper- 
ties have  made  it  famous 
throughout  the  world. 


When  you  have  done  so  you 
will  realise  why  doctors  and 
patients  alike  have  always 
been  so  enthusiastic  for 
Sanatogen. 

Even  the  first  few  doses  will 
convince  you  that  here  is  a 
preparation  which  you  can  al- 
ways rely  on  to  soothe  and 
energise  your  tired  nerves, 
imi>rove  the  condition  of  your 
blood,  restore  your  digestive 
powers,  build  up  your  bodily 
eel's,  and  give  tone  and  vigour 
to  your  whole  system. 
Buy  a  tin  from  your  chemist 
to-day — prices  from  1/9  to  9/6. 
But  be  sure  it  is  labelled 
"  Made  in  Penzance,"  other- 
wise it  will-be  an  inferior  sub- 
stitute. I^ter  on  we  shall 
re-name  it  "  Genatosan,  " — 
genuine  Sanatogen^to  distin- 
guish it  from  the  multitude  of 
imitations, 

(Our  London  address  is  12, 
Chenies  Street,  W.C.) 


Prc/essor  Coujwatek.  m  d.  L 

writM!—  I 

••  In  SaiAlogfn  we  «nJ  offered  j 
an  ideal  comljination  to  com-  j 
bat  the  wasting  elteet  of  ll  -  i 
ness:  in  fact,  a   better  ceU  | 
ro<;onstitaent  can  hordlj  bo  j 
iioarined.     I  was  dctemiined  | 
to  ijive  it  a  thorough   trial, 
and  wa«  pleased  to  find  that 
it  tumiled  every  rei|u,renieiit 
for  perfect  nutrilioD-either  m 
health  or  disease." 


FORMAMINT 

The  famous  "germ-killing 
throat  tablet"  isalso  British 
now.  Cures  sore  throat  and 
prevents  Infectious  Diseases 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII  No.  2859  [ylll]      THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  22.  1917        [^'i 


registered  as"!    published  weekly 
newspaperJ    price    sevenpence 


By   Louix  Haemaekert 


Drawn   £j-cluiHii.ly  Jor   '■  tund  i"    Water' 


Shelling  the  Life  Boats 
The  latest  demonstration  of  Kultur 


LAND    &    WAThR 


February  22.  1917 


c/71  TqmKUlCMUU 

^^^\/nU>  Series ojf^:SNMd Century Lnnr^^vlnas  cLeAi/red  C4y  Afuw 
-^-Jm.  OrraiaJ.'rlefKoi ^ Irisli lineR M'sinit'^^iifre .AiiSww 


GUIDING 


All  woven  fabrics  shrink  ;  but  Linen,  from  its  nature,  least  of  all.  For  instance.  Cotton  Fibre  is  hollow 
and  flai  with  a  tendency  to  curl.  But  Linen  Fibre  is  solid,  round,  and  smooth;  and  this  solidity  is  the 
reason,  in  addition  to  its  great  strength,  why  Linen  is  used  for  aeroplanes.  It  is  unfortunately  the  custom 
in  finishing  many  fabrics  to  stretch  them  out  to  their  extreme  width  ;  with  "  Old  Bleach  "  Linens,  however, 
this  practice  was  discontinued  many  years  ago,  and  instead  they  are  woven  wider  than  is  customary  (even 
to  as  much  as  5  ins.  in  the  broader  varieties)  to  allow  for  shrinkage.  This  is  a  point  to  be  remembered, 
for  in  the  case  of  costly  table  damasks  in  particular,  it  eliminates  the  necessity  for  pulling  the  cloths 
to  the  recognised  width  at  the  laundry  at  each  time  of  washing,  and  saves  much  wear  and  strain.  "  Old 
Bleach"  Linens  can  be  obtained  at  all  the  best  shops;  but  on  receipt  of  a  postcard  we  will  gladly  send 
the  address  of  the  nearest  reiailer  who  can  show  you  "  Old  Bleach  "  Table  Dama'-ks,  Towels,  Embroidery 
Linen,  Bed  Linen,  etc.,  in  variety,  together  with  the  "OLD  BLEACH  BOOK  "  which  besides  containing 
many  beautiful  designs  of  damasks,  gives  complete  information  on  the  care  and  preservation  of  Linen, 
and  is  a  useful  guide  to  rurchasinp.  Look  for  the  trade  mark  "Old  Bleach"  stamped  on  every  article 
except  table  damasks;   they  have  ®  woven  in  the  four  corners. 

THE  PICTURE  REPRODUCED  ABOVE  IS  ONE  OF  THE  CLASSIC  PRINTS  of  the  IRISH  LINEN  TRADE. 


''.r;!ii!iiMiiJrii!ish;iiiniiiiiiiiiiii'miimii!iiiiiii,\iiiiiiii;m;ii!ii!iiiiinii!i!iiiiiiiiid:;!!i!!ii:i;iiiiiiiiiiiiii!iii^ 


3 
IP 


Sim 


■n — n — D — n — n — cr 


"D       D" 


TT 


"D — □ — n — Q- 


TJ 


February  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  22,   1917 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Shelling  the  Life  Boats.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

Economy   and   Organisation.     (Leader)  3 
Political  Position  of  the  Combatants.     By   Hilairc 

Belloc  4 

Operations  on  the  Ancre.     By  Edmund  Dane  8 

Submarines  and  National  Temper.     By  Arthur  Pollen  ii 

Will  Switzerland  be  Invaded  ?     By  Colonel  Feyler  13 

Herr  Leutnant.     By  Centurion  15 

Members  of  the  ]\Iinistry  17 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  18 

Union  Jack  Club.     By  the  Editor  19 

The  Golden  Triangle.     By  Maurice  Leblanc  22 

Kit  and  Equipment  xi 


ECONOMY    AND     ORGANISATION 

THE  speech  which  the  Prime  Minister  is  expected 
to  deliver  in  the  House  of  Commons  this  afternoon 
is  being  awaited  in  the  country  with  considerable 
interest,  for  it  is  imderstood  that  it  will  deal 
mainly  with  further  economies  which  private  citizens 
will  be  called  upon  to  make  for  the  sake  of  the  country — 
economies  which  in  most  instances  can  only  be  effected  . 
by  a  yet  better  organisation  of  private  habits  and  con- 
ventions. It  is  remarkable  how  thoroughly  domestic 
organisation  has  been  reformed  in  all  walks  of  life  since 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  it  is  the  more  remarkable 
when  it  is  remembered  that  we  are  only  a  half-educated 
people.  That  dangerous  thing,  "a  little  learning," 
has  done  less  harm  than  might  have  been  expected, 
partly  no  doubt  because  it  has  been  counteracted  in  those 
spheres  where  its  worse  effects  were  anticipated  by  aq 
indirect  arid  kindly  system  of '  education.  What  is 
commonly  called  Welfare  Work  has  done  much  to  intro- 
duce into  the  homes  of  the  working-classes  a  sounder 
practice  of  domestic  economy  than  had  been  previously 
realised.  In  more  highly-placed  homes  there  is  a  human 
type  which  nothing  can  touch — for  the  most  part  middle- 
aged  persons,  whose  brain,  never  very  alert  or  perceptive, 
has  become  so  indurated  through  selfishness  that  so 
long  as  there  is  bread  at  the  baker's,  meat  at  the  butcher's, 
and  money  in  the  purse,  they  think  they  have  every 
right  to  the  fullest  indulgence — both  they  and  their 
pug-dogs  and  their  over-staffed  households.  This  type 
is  not  very  common  and  in  these  days  of  self-sacrifice 
it  is  largely  segregated  ;  it  will  die  out  by  degrees. 
Meanwhile  we  can  only  regard  it  as  one  of  the 
cankers  of  a  long  peace. 

Now  that  the  nation  has  learnt  by  private  experience 
how  closely  wise  economy  and  good  organisation  are 
correlated,  they  naturally  expect  that  the  same  conduct 
which  they  have  adopted  in  the  home  shall  be  carried 
into  practice  in  all  Government  offices.  The  rumours 
of  want  of  co-ordination  between  various  depart- 
ments, which  are  current  to-day  wherever  officials  con- 
gregate, have  created  an  impression  that  watertight  com- 
partments, invaluable  in  submarines,  are  fatal  to 
good  government.  It  is  said  that  of  the  34  Ministers  of  the 
Crown,  some  do  not  even  know  other  colleagues  by  sight, 
and  that  the  majority,  closely  interrelated  though  their 
offices  arc,  arc  yet  miable  to  get  the  simplest  detail  settled 


by  another  Department  in  a  shorter  period  than  two 
weeks.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  is  to  be  heartily  commendcci 
for  his  courage  in  introducing  business  men  into  the 
Administration,  but  he  appears  to  have  stopped  short 
too  soon,  by  failing  to  introduce  under  trained  advice 
those  business  principles  which  enable  the  heads  of  various 
departments  in  a  single  big  concern  to  work  together 
easily,  rapidly  and  without  friction.  No  organisation 
can  be  pronounced  good'  until  all  parts  run  together  as 
smoothly  as  the  machinery  of  a  great  engine.  The 
present  Government,  as>  a  matter  df  fact,  is  the  greatest 
engine  of  war  the  wit  of  man  has  erver  put  together,  and 
for  its  effective  and  economical  working  "  interdepen- 
dence absolute,  foreseen,  ordained,  decreed  " — to  quote 
M'Andrew's  Hymn— is  primarily  essential. 

In  making  these  criticisms,  we  are  well  aware  of  the 
difficulties  which  have  to  be  overcome.  It  is  not  possible 
to  change  human  nature  by  the  wave  of  a  wand  not 
even  in  war  time,  and  it  is  current  knowledge  that  the 
tradition  of  every  Government  Department  is  to  play 
for  its  own  hand.  The  fault  is  too  often  laid  entirely  at 
the  door  of  the  Permanent  Official,  but  the  average 
politician,  exalted  to  administrative  rank,  is  just  as  often 
equally  to  blame.  Neither  care  to  take  risks  ;  each 
works  for  personal  safety,  and  no  measure,  however 
simple,  is  advocated  without  a  loophole  being  left 
through  which  a  dignified  escape  may  be  made  if  events 
do  not  turn  out  as  well  as  expected.  The  result  is  that 
an  ambiguity  pervades  all  orders,  which  inevitably 
creates  the  impression  that  there  exists  a  lack  of  sincerity 
even  about  those  orders  which  are  carried  into  effect. 
Aforetimes,  this  was  imperceptible,  in  that  Government 
orders  scarcely  ever  directly  touched  the  daily  round 
of  the  citizen  ;  they  reached  him  only  through  obscure 
channels,  but  now  when  personal  liberty  has  been  laid 
a  willing  offering  at  the  war  shrine,  it  is  different ; 
and  the  general  public  is  displaying  a  new  and  very  active 
interest  in  the  methods  and  manners  of  governing. 
They  look  for  a  high  standard,  and  are  restive  when  they 
suspect  demands  are  made  upon  them  unnecessarily 
through  the  ignorance  or  muddling  of  officials. 

The  present  Administration  is  a  vast  experiment ; 
if  it  succeeds  it  will  revolutionise  our  system  of  governance; 
if  it  fails  the  last  state  will  be  worse  than  the  first.  One 
cannot  help  feeling  that  the  experiment  is  not  rendered 
any  simpler  by  the  constant  increase  of  personnel. 
Hardly  a  day  has  passed  for  weeks  without  an  announce- 
ment in  the  daily  papers  of  new  appointments  to  the 
Government  until  the  belief  grows  that  if  this  practice 
is  not  checked,  there  will  not  remain  a  single  member 
of  either  House,  beyond  the  Front  Opposition  Benches, 
who  does  not  occupy  a  departmental  position  of  one 
kind  or  another.  Since  Sir  Alfred  Mond's  Committee 
was  appointed,  there  has  been  a  salutary  cessation 
in  the  commandeering  of  private  buildings  ;  and  without 
the  help  of  a  Committee,  the  Prime  Minister  should  be 
able  to  put  down  his  foot  firmly  and  declare  that  not 
another  man  shall  be  added  to  the  administration.  E\'en 
as  things  are,  it  looks  as  if  after  the  war  the  demobilisation 
of  the  army  will  be  child's  play  compared  with  the  de- 
mobihsation  of  the  bureaucracy,  for  in  the  political  v/orld 
vested  interests  have  a  habit  of  vigorous  growth  which 
can  only  be  compared  with  Jack's  beanstalk.  Never  has 
the  First  Minister  of  the  Crown  been  given  a  freer  hand, 
never  has  he  received  the  more  whole-hearted  support 
of  his  country.  There  is  no  demaud  he  can  make  which 
will  not  be  acceded.  Patriotism  is  at  the  flood  ;  it  has 
poured  into  the  coffers  of  the  State  wealth  that  was 
imdrcamed  of  three  years  ago.  But  for  all  this,  the 
people  retain  the  \ise  of  their  critical  faculties,  and 
they  expect  to  find  in  Government  Departments  the  same 
economy  and  organisation  which  the  Government  expects 
tlicm  to  practise  in  their  homes.. 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  22,  1917 


Political  Position  of  the  Combatants 


By    Hilaire   Belloc 


I. AM  notable  this  week,  through  absence  abroad, 
to  describe  any  movement  upon  (he  various  fronts, 
,1  propose  therefore  to  consider  those  general  points 
which  have  much  more  bearing  on  civilian  opitiion 
than  on  the  military  side  of  the  campaign  :  I  mean  the 
foUtkal  (or  moral)  advantages  and  disadvantages  which 
the  present  situation  produces  for  either  combatant.  These 
points  it  is  especially  suitable  to  consider  in  the  short  and 
tense  period  of  waiting  through  which  all  the  combatants 
are  passing  and  which  will  be  resolved  soon  enough  into 
what  may  be  the  final  clash  of  the  opposing  forces. 
These  three  points  are  :  ist,  the  enemy  occupation  of 
allied  soil  ;  2nd,  the  political  constitution  of  the  two 
parties  ;  3rd,  a  very  different  thing,  the  determination 
to  achieve  desired  victory. 

I. — The  Occupation  of  Allied  Soil 

The  least  important  strategically,  the  most  important 
politically,  of  all  the  features  the  campaign  now  wears 
m  this  the  approach  to  its  last  phase,  is  the  occupation 
by  the  enemy  of  Allied  soil.  We  should  begin  any 
examination  of  his  political  advantages  and  disadvantages 
by  weighing  this  fact  and  its  effects. 

When  we  say  that  it  is  strategically  of  least  conse- 
quence, we  mean  that  the  student  of  strategics  treats 
the  surface  of  this  globe  like  a  chessboard,  considers 
obstacles,  artificial  and  natural,  distances,  calculations 
fa{' material  resources  and  so  forth,  and  eliminates  frontiers 
because  frontiers  are  not  obstacles  or  communications 
or-anything  else  that  concerns  his  study. 

..But  to  consider  war  merely  as  strategics  is  pedantic  and 
false.  The  great  masters  of  war  have  never  so  treated  it. 
War  is  a  struggle  between  human  beings,  and  the  action 
of  human  beings  depends  upon  the  mind  ;  the  affection 
of  the  mind  by  invasion,  let  us  say,  or  any  other  political 
side  to  war  is  an  affection  of  the  whole  fighting  body. 
It  was  a  great  soldier  who  determined  that  Carthage 
might  win  in  Italy  through  the  political  effect  of  invasion  ; 
it  was  another  great  soldier  who  invented  the  phrase  of 
"carrying  the  war  into  Africa."  To  the  student  a 
retreat  or  an  advance  is  no  more  than  a  military  move- 
ment, but  the  greater  the  captain  the  better  he  knows 
that  it  is  of  high  consideration  to  the  conduct  and  to 
the  result  of  war,  not  only  over  what  natural  features, 
but  through  what  a  population  you  advance  or  retire. 

The  enemy  happens  at  the  present  moment  to  hold  in 
Europe  territory  which  before  th.e  war  was  everywhere, 
save  in  a  portion  of  Galicia  and  the  Bukovina,  on  the 
Isonzo,  and  in  a  few  Alpine  valleys  (and  a  few  square 
miles  of  Alsace),  the  territory  of  those  who  are  now  his 
opponents.  His  line  includes  nearly  all  Belgium,  a 
portion  of  North-Eastcrn  France,  not  large  in  area,  but 
very  valuable  in  material,  and  conspicuous  for  great 
monuments  of  the  past.  He  holds  the  whole  of  Serbia 
and  Montenegro  ;  the  Wallachian  provinces  of  modern 
Roumania,  and  the  Lithuanian  and  Polish  provinces  of 
the. Russian  Empire. 

,. .  There  is  no  need  to  emphasise  the  effect  this  occupation 
has  had  upon  opinion,  especially  upon  civilian  opinion, 
and  more  especially  upon  civilian  opinion  in  this  country. 
Politicians  and  others  who  are  indifferent  to  the  study 
oi  war,  .talk  indeed  in  no  other  terms,  except  the  terms 
of.  this  occupation.  Such  an  attitude  is,  of  course,  hot 
only  exaggerated,'  but  absurd.  It  is  putting  the  un- 
important thing  before  the  important,  or  rather  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  important.  For  the  important  thing  is 
obviously  the  militarj'  posture  of  the  enemy  and  not  the 
particular  measure  of  the  ground  on  which  he  stands 
for  the  moment.  But,  I  repeat,  this  occupation,  like  all 
other  major  political  considerations,  must  be  weighed. 

How  did  it  come  about  and  what  is  its  full  effect  ? 
The  first  thing  for  us  to  grasp  is  that  it  came  about  very 
differently  in  the  East  from  what  it  did  in  the  West. 
It  is  true  of  nearly  everything  in  this  war  that  the  Western 


and  the  Eastern  aspect  are  in  sharp  contrast.  Tiie 
enemy  line  in  the  West,  that  is  against  the  British, 
I'-rench  and  Ita^lians,  is  nowhere  a  result  of  plan.  The 
ItaHans  never  said  to  themselves :  "  We  propose  to 
hold  Cortina,  the  lower  triangle  of  the  Trentino,  and  what 
used  to  be  politically  Austria  up  to  the  Isonzo,  and  there 
we  shall  stand."  The  Germans  never  said  to  them- 
selves :  "  W'e  propose  a  line  running  south  from  Nieuport 
to  near  Compiegne  thence  eastward  round  Verdun, 
thence  southward  again  to  the  Ballon  d'Alsace."  In 
both  cases,  in  every  ease  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  North 
Sea  the  line  "  crystallized  "  or  "  froze  "  after  a  period  of 
movement,  advance  or  retirement,  chiring  which  period 
the  movement  depended  entirely  upon  the  local  strength 
of  the  two  combatants.  Germany  struck  at  her  own 
hour  when  she  was  prepared  and  in  great  superiority. 
Therefore,  she  cpuld  invade.  Her  invasion  was  broken 
and  she  was  pinned  to  a  certain  line.  This  line  happened 
to  include  a  portion  of  French  territory?  and  nearly  all 
Belgium.  Had  it,  on  the  contrary,  run  through  German 
territory,  the  result  in  mere  strategics  would  have  been 
the  same  with  this  difference  :  That  it  would  have  given 
the  enemy  on  the  whole  a  shorter  and  easier  line  to  defend. 
The  same  is  true  on  a  much  smaller  scale  of  what 
happened  on  the  Italian  Alpine  frontier.  An  initial 
superiority  permitted  initial  advance  which  crystallised 
very  soon  in  the  present  line  and  upon  that  line  the  long 
siege  wqrk  began. 

In  the  East  it  is  otherwise.  The  territory  occupied 
upon  the  East  by  the  enemy  at  the  present  moment  is 
territory  over  which  he  has  advanced  of  set  will  long 
after  the  campaign  was  in  full  swing.  The  hmits  to 
which  he  has  advanced  do  not  represent  a  limit  with 
which  he  is  satisfied  or  a  line  upon  which  he  had  pre- 
viously determined  to  stand.  But  they  do  represent  the 
results  of  a  successful  war  of  movement.  And  it  is  to 
be  noted  on  the  whole  Eastern  front  .from  the  Ailgean 
to  tlie  Baltic  and  from  the  Persian  (iulf  to  the  Caucasus 
that  movement  has  been  continual.  This  is  because  the 
effectives  for  the  stabilisation  of  so  very  large  a  front 
cannot  be  present  and  because  the  mass  of  good  com- 
munications and  material  which  permit  of  stabilisation 
cannot  be  present  cither.  For  a  long  time  an  apparently 
stable  front  gave  the  Russians  nearly  all  Galicia  and 
was  established  upon  the  Carpathians.  It  then  crossed 
Russian  Poland  on  a  line  that  was  maintained  for  many 
months  immovable.  It  permitted  the  observation 
and  harrying  of  Eastern  Prussia  by  our  Ally.  The 
conditions  were  reversed  when  the  enemy  advanced  in 
the  summer  of  '13  up  to  the  line  Czernowitz — Riga, 
and  from  the  Danube  in  the  autumn  to  the  gates  of 
Salonika — which  door  to  the  /Egean  was  luckily  locked 
in  his  face  just  in  time. 

This  last  summer  there  was  movement  again,  the 
Russians  getting  back  on  the  southern  portion  of  their 
line  to  the  Carpathians  and  past  Lutsk,  and  later  the 
.•\llies  re-taking  Monastir. 

In  Armenia  and  Caucasia  you  have  first  movement 
into  Russian  territory  ;  then  after  some  months  of 
stabilisation  a  counter-move  which  took  Erzerum  and 
Trebizond  and  is  then  for  months  stabilised. 

Even  in  Mesopotamia  you  have  the  same  phenomenon. 
A  British  advance  ;  its  retirement  (involving  the  loss  of 
the  Kut  garrison)  ;  a  re-advance,  which  is  still  in  pro- 
gress. 

To  sum  up  :  Upon  the  West  the  enemy  accidentally 
occupies  Allied  territory  and  fights  upon  it,  but  fights 
w-here  he  has  been  pinned  to  and  not  where  he  chooses, 
although  it  is  upon  alien  soil.  The  line  is  almost  im- 
movable for  more  than  two  years. 

Upon  the  East  there  are  successive  advances  and 
retirements.  .The  line  is  far  from  immovable,  but  at 
the  present  moment  it  divides  territory  very  unequally, 
leaving  b\'  far  the  greater  part  of  vshat  was  formerly 
Allied    territory   in   enemy   occupation,    and   much    less- 


February  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


of  what  was  formerly  enemy  territory  in  Allied  occupa- 
tion. 

So  much  for  the  map.  Now  let  us  consider  the  nature 
of  the  populations  affected. 

The  core  of  the  war  morally  is  the  national  feeling  of 
the  great  belligerents.  Germany  suffers  politically  wlien 
a  true  part  of  German  soil  is  held  by  Russians.  I-iussia, 
when  any  part  of  Russia  proper  is  so  held,  and  France, 
when  any  part  of  France  is  so  held,  as  would  Britain,  if 
any  part  of  Britain  were  so  held.  As  a  political  pheno- 
menon, therefore,  very  great  weight  indeed  attaches  to 
the  occupation  of  even  so  small  a  belt  of  French  territory 
as  that  now  held  by  the  enemy.  Such  weight  attached 
to  the  comparatively  narrow  belt  of  East  Prussia,  which 
the  Russians  were  able  to  hold,  that  the  German  autho- 
rities modified  all  their  plans  in  order  to  release  this  little 
corner  and  drive  the  invader  out.  You  would  have  had 
exactly  the  same  phenomenon  in  Italy  had  the  enemy 
by  accident,  or  as  the  result  of  a  later  successful  advance, 
occupied  such  a  town  as  Vicenza  or  Verona,  or  any 
portion  of  the  Venetian  Plain.  But  it  is  not  of  such 
moment  to  the  war  that  what  may  be  called  the 
"  marshes  "  of  Poland  have  been  the  scene  of  successive 
advances  and  retirements.  It  is  of  immense  moment 
to  the  Pohsh  people,  of  course,  and  it  will  ultimately 
have  a  great  effect  upon  the  settlement  that  the  Polish 
people  have  experienced  the  abominations  of  Prussian 
rule  extended  from  the  long  martyred  Prussian  pro- 
vinces over  those  of  Warsaw  and  the  rest.  But  it  does 
not  immediately  affect  the  nerve,  so  to  speak,  of  any  of  the 
principal  belligerents.  What  is  occupied,  is  what  has 
long  been  disputed  territory.  In  France  it  is  otherwise. 
The  German  occupation  of  Lille  and  Valenciennes  and 
Rcthel  and  Mezieres  is  the  touching  of  a  nerve.  It  is  of 
prodigious  effect  politically  upon  the  war,  and  of  what 
eftect  we  wilt  consider  in  a  moment. 

The  chief  advantage  to  the  enemy  of  the  situation  is 
that  no  part  of  his  territory  proper  is  administered  by  an 
opponent  or  suffers  from  an  opponent's  exactions.  Even 
Hungary,  the  most  menaced  of  the  group  against  us,  is 
free  from  actual  invasion,  while  the  strips  of  Austrian 
territory  in  Italian  hands  are,  even  including  Gorizia, 
Italian  in  character.  Most  important  of  all,  the  German 
Empire,  which  is  the  life  of  the  great  conglomeratioii  we 
are  lighting  (though  representing  only  half  its  man-power) 
is  fighting  everywhere  upon  alien  soil.  The  German 
citizen  is  able  to  regard  the  position'  as  one  of  "  con- 
quest," although  the  term  properly  applies  only  to  a 
settlement,  the  result  of  war,  and  not  to  an  occupation. 
His  newspapers  are  full  of  details  which  emphasise  this 
state  of  affairs  ;  his  pride  is  nourished  by  anecdotes  of 
brutahty  or  patronage  exercised  over  those  whom  he 
has  been  taught  to  regard  as  his  inferiors.  This  is  all 
very  evident  and  a  very  great  pohtical  asset,  especially 
in  such  a  country  as  the  modern  German  Empire,  where 
opinion  is  entirely  directed  by  suggestion  and  by  official 
suggestion  at  that,  and  where  the  sense  of  reality, 
especially  in  international  affairs,  is  lacking. 

It  is  a  due  appreciation  of  this  political  factor  which 
has  made  everyone  of  good  judgment  incline  to  the  belief 
that  the  enemy  would  not  dare  shorten  his  line  in  the 
West,  however  much  he  may  have  desired  to  do  so 
for  military  reasons.  He  cannot  politically  afford  to  do 
so,  and  he  has  hung  on  until  it  is  too  late. 

The  same,  in  a  different  fashion,  is  true  in  the  East. 
A  retirement  of  any  kind  would  have  such  disastrous 
consequences  upon  German  opinion  at  home  that  he  is 
bound  to  hold  his  fronts.  That  is  the  military  reaction, 
to  his  disadvantage,  of  the  political  advantage  just 
mentioned.  Is  there  any  political  disadvantage  attach- 
ing to  such  a  state  of  affairs  ? 

It  may  sound  a  little  paradoxical  to  say  so,  but  I 
believe  it  to  be  true  that  some  disadvantage  attaches  to 
the  occupation  of  enemy  soil  in  the  last  stages  of  a  war, 
especially  if  that  occupation  is  subject  to  blunders  and 
meets  with  a  very  strong  opposition.  It  is  true  to  say 
that  Carthage  was  weaker  for  her  Italian  position  before 
the  Metaurus,  and  it  is  true  to  say  that  Napoleon  was 
weaker  for  his  Spanish  position. 

What  the  feeling  among  the  Allies  would  be,  and 
particularly  among  the  French,  after  2|  years  of  terribly 
expensive  war  if  the  siege  had  been  conducted  upon 
German  soil,   it  is  impossible  to  say,   though  all    my 


personal  judgment  would  inclfiie  to  the  tenacity  of  the 
Allies  even  in  that  case.     But  what  it  is  with  one  whole 
Department    occupied   and   portions   of   several    others 
occupied,  with  slave  raids  and  executions  and  robberies 
and  worse  going  on  upon  French  soil,  we  all  know.     It 
makes   any   thought   of   compromise   impossible.     Such 
a  situation  might  not  be  to  the  disadvantage  of  a  military 
power  the  relative  strength  of  which  was  increasing  with 
time  and  which  was  on  the  road  to  victory,  but  Germany 
is  in  the  exactly  opposite  position.     She  has  admitted  wh|it 
is  after  all  obvious  enough,  that  victory  has  failed  h#. 
And  under  these  circumstances  to  be  under  the  necessiw, 
as  it  were,  to  exasperate  your  opponent,  is  not  an  advan- 
tage, it  is  a  disadvantage.     Napoleon,   trying  to  hold 
the  Pyrenees  in  1812,  would  have  been  in  a  very  different 
position  in  1813.     Trying  to  hold  Spain  or  portions  of 
Spain  weighed  in  the  balance  against  his  military  position 
as  a  whole.     One  of  the  subsidiary  points  which  the 
enemy  is  always  making  is  that  the   zone   of   destruction 
being  entirely  upon  alien  soil,  is  entirely  to  his  advantag'e. 
He  is  perpetually  hammering  in  this  point,  especially 
with  regard  to  the  French  front,  and  repeating  it  over  and 
over  again  in  his  domestic  press  and  that  of  neutrals. 
Rheims  is  half  destroyed.  Arras  has  gone,  the  beauty  of 
Soissons  is  wasted  ;    innumerable  villages  from  the  Yscr 
to  the  Jura  mountains  are  nothing  now  but  ruins,  and 
none  of  those  villages  are  German,  but  nearly  all  are 
French.     There  is  no  doubt  that  the  German  authorities 
regard   this   as   a   point   entirely   in   their   favour.     St, 
Vaast,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  things  in  Europe,  has 
disappeared  ;   the  glass  of  Rheims  has  gone,  and  its  roof 
and  even  the  fabric  is  in  peril.     On  the  other  hand,  the 
stained  glass  of  the  new  German  railway  station  in  Metz 
is  still  there  in  all  its  beauty,  and  so  is  that  of  the  new 
German  railway  station  at  Aix.     The  new  west  front,  of 
Metz  Cathedral,  which  it  would  be  a  charity  to  destroy, 
and  which  contains  a  startlingly  life-like  statue  of  ihe 
German  Emperor,  is  intact.     So  is  the  big  new  Beer  Hall 
near    the  "Cathedral    at    Strassburg. 

Whether  this  is  a  political  asset  or  no  only  the  future 
can  determine.  It  is  obvious  that  if  the  war  were  to  end 
in  a  peace  which  still  left  Germany  unoccupied  and 
Prussia  in  the  saddle,  it  would  be  a  very  great  political 
asset.  Future  generations  would  see  clearly  that  Prussia 
had  been  able  to  inflict  a  terrible  wound  upon  the 
physical  nature  of  an  opponent,  and  had  suffered  no 
retribution. 

There  is  something  of  the  same  sort  on  the  Italian 
front.  It  is  conceivable  that  by  bombardment  from  the 
air  or  from  the  sea  the  Austrians  could  destroy  things 
of  immeasurable  value  to  mankind  and  glorious  to  Italy. 
There  is  nothing  of  the  sort  on  the  other  side  within 
reach  of  the  Italians  upon  their  present  line. 

But  it  is  with  this  as  with  the  question  of  invasion 
just  discussed ;  the  effect  of  such  things  upon '  your 
opponent  is  that  of  a  spur.  He  may  not  win,  but  his 
determination  to  win  is  vastly  increased,  and  if  you  are 
upon  the  whole  on  the  losing  side  it  is  a  disadvantage 
for  you  to  have  applied  that  spur,  for  it  will  make  hira 
the  more  ruthless  when  he  can  act  in  his  turn. 

II. — Political  Constitution  of  the   Two  Parties 

The  second  political  consideration  is  the  nature  of  the 
populations  at  war. 

'The  popular  phrases  used  up  and  down  Europe  are  very 
misleading  here,  although  they  come  from  the  recognition 
of  what  is  perfectly  true — the  preponderance  of  the 
German  Empire  in  the  Alliance  against  us.  The  F'rench, 
the  British  and  the  Russian  publicist  always  speak 
of  defeating  "  Germany,"  and  even  the  Itahans,  though 
the  troops  opposed  to  them  are  entirely  Austro-Hungarian, 
fill  a  great  part  of  their  descriptions  with  the  "  (jerman  " 
menace.  This  is  because,  but  for  North  German}',  or  to  be 
acfurate,  but  for  Prussia,  which  is  the  master  of  North  Ger- 
many, neither  would  the  war  have  broken  out  nor  would  it 
have  taken  the  character  it  has.  The  conception  of  a 
sudden  spring  .upon  Europe  was  Prussian.  The  dis- 
regard of  treaties  was  Prussian.  The  puerile  confusion  o) 
brutality  with  strength  is  uniquely  Prussian.  The 
very  blunders  have  hgen  Prussian.  The  three  deci- 
sive blunders  of  the  Marne,  Verdun  and  the  Trentino;  in 
particular    the   latter,    which,    though   carried   out    by 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  22,  1917 


Austrian  troops  was  Prussian  in  organisation  and  plan. 
At  the  same  time  the  strenj^th  of  the  huge  alliance  against 
us  is  Prussian.  It  is  the  Prussian  discipline  and  the 
Prussian  conception  of  war  which  has  permitted  the 
resistance  to  be  so  prolonged.  The  propaganda  abroad 
has  been  Prus^ian  and  the  word  of  command,  the 
organisation  of  units,  the  homogencitj'  of  the  whole 
of  the  enemy's  action,  is  a  Prussian  homogeneity,  (ier- 
man  troops  "stopped  the  rot  when  Austria  broke  on  the 
Eastern  Front.  C.erman  troops  have  been  employed  on 
the  decisive  Western  front  from  the  beginning.  But 
when  we  look  at  the  campaign  from  the  point  of  \ie\v 
of  human  material,  this  rough  generalisation  of  Prussia 
or  Prussianised  North  Germany  at  grips  with  Europe  is 
wrong.  It  makes  us  quite  misunderstand  the  power  of 
Prussia  herself  and  it  makes  us  exaggerate  it  ;  as  it  also 
makes  us  exaggerate  the  power  of  the  so-called  German 
Ivmpire  which  she  dominates.  Without  her  subjects  or 
Allies  Prussia  would  be  unable  to  continue  the  war  for 
a  week.  It  is  her  grip  upon  the  Turkish  Committee 
which  closes  the  Dardanelles  and  blockades  Russia. 
It  is  her  ability  to  summon  all  the  Austro- Hungarian 
recruitment  and  use  it  at  will  which  has  hitherto  kept 
the  front  unbroken,  and  when  we  look  into  the  com- 
position of  the  forces  opposed  to  us,  their  moral  com- 
position, v.-e  appreciate  what  is  too  often  forgotten  : 
That  the  Entente  Powers  though  far  more  divided  in 
structure,  geographically  separated,  and  only  able  to 
co-operate  by  agreemem"  n  ■norally  more  homogeneous 
than  the  enemy. 

It  is  a  very  iniportant  p<inu,  and  it  is  a  point  upon  which 
the  eneniv  himself  has  gone  hopelessly  wrong. 

Take  the  case  of  the  British,  forces.  There  was  here 
an  Empire  of  the  most  complex  sort,  the  links  between 
which  were  in  many  cases  as  loose  as  they  could  be.  In 
the  case  of  one  very  essential  department,  the  Irish  at 
home  and  abroad,  there  was  notorious  disaffection.  But 
there  has  been  no  compulsion,  no  enlistment  of  unwilling 
nationalities,  no  dragging  of  a  train  of  political  ynits 
each  with  some  separate  cause  to  serve.  All  the  forces 
brought  into  the  field  by  the  British  Crown  in  the 
tuuazingly  great  and  spontaneous  effort  of  the  last  two 
and  a-liaif  vears  ha^o  one  purpose.  No  historian  of  the 
f\iturc  will  be  able  to  distinguish  between  the  determina- 
tion of  the  Irish  regiments,  of  the  Colonial  contingents, 
of  the  British  voluntary  recruitment,  and  of  the  drafts 
raised  by  conscription."  To  take  a  complete  test  :  No 
desertion  can  be  conceived  as  proceeding  from  disaffection 
to  the  British  Crown  in  these  forces. 

In  the  case  of  France  and  of  Italy,  which  are  homoge- 
neous, the  thing  goes  without  saying.  In  the  services  of 
both  these  Pc'.nxts  the  enemy  is  opposed  by  all  as  by 
one  man..  The  East  of  Europe  cannot  show  the  same 
complete  unity.  The  Balkans  are  mixed.  The  Marches 
of  Russia  are  "mixed.  Pole  was  compelled  to  fight  against 
Pole.  Clerman  speaking  men  from  Courland  and  from 
the  Kingdom  of  Poland  also  fought  German  speaking 
men  vinder  the  Crowns  of  the  HohenzoUerns  and  the 
Hapsburgs.  But  even  here  the  mass  of  the  political 
action  was  imited. 

Now  it  is  a  difiiculty  of  the  enemy's  which  will  not  be 
recognised  j)ublicly  jserhaps  until  the  last  stages  of  his 
defeat,  that  he  is  In' no  such  case.  The  enemy  Alliance, 
though  it  enjoys  a  single  chrection  and,  being  besieged 
and  standing  interior  to  the  Entente  Powers  is  the  more 
thrust  together  mechanically  and  made  one,  continues  to 
consist  in  four  quite  distinct  and  national  groups,  one 
of  which  is  not  fully  homogeneous,  and  these  four  groups 
carry  with  them  alien,  indifferent  or  hostile  populations. 

You  have  the  Germans  who  are  distinctly  divided  into 
Northern  and  Southern  (including  the  (ierman-speaking 
subjects  of  the  Hapsburgs)  ;  you  have  the  Magyars  ; 
jou  have  the  Bulgarians  and  you  have  the  Turks. 

It  is  true  that  of  these  four  groups  the  Germans  are 
much  the  strongest  not  only  in  organisation  but  in  num- 
bers. But  the  remaining"  three  are  essential  to  the 
combination  and  are  »'ach  working  for  quite  separate 
ends.  The  Magyar  quarrel  is  with  Russia  and  with 
Russia  alone.  To  be  safe  from  Russian  pressure  and  as  a 
svmbol  of  this  to  preser\e  an  immoral  mastery  over 
smaller  Sla\-  grotips  is  the  reason  that  the  >Iagyars  arc 
in  this  war.  They  were  not  ordered  into  it.  They  could 
not  be  ordered  into  it.  So  far  as  political  oijinion 
counts  in  war  that  opinion  waxes  and  wanes    with   the 


innnediate  danger  to  Hungary  proper.  The  Bulgarians 
are  necessary  as  the  hnk  with  Turkey.  But  the  Bul- 
garjians  will  fight  for  nothing  except  their  local  am- 
bitions in  the  Balkans.  The  Turks  are  necessary  in  order 
to  blockade  Russia  upon  the  Dardanelles,  but  the  Turks, 
even  under  the  tryanny  of  the  Committee,  can  only 
be  sparingly  used  outside  their  limited  European  bound- 
aries, and  in  the  West  not  at  all.  Of  the  total  Turkish 
force  raised  about  one-sixteenth  ha\  e  been  obtained  with 
difficulty  to  apjiear  upon  the  Danube  or  the  Struma. 
The  Turkish  Power,  even  the  degraded  and  cosmopolitan 
Committee,  is  lighting  to  maintain  a  remnant  of  its  old 
position  in  Europe,  not  to  save  the  Alliance  against  us. 
In  a  word,  there  is  a  far  greater  unity  of  mechanical 
apparatus  upon  the  enemy's  side,  but  far  legs  spiritual 
unity  than  upon  ours.  Had  Prussia  been  other  than 
Prussia  this  would  not  have  been  the  case.  The  moral 
unity  and  therefore  the  moral  strength  of  the  Entente 
Powers  springs  from  the  sheer  impossibility  of  tolerating 
Prussia  in  Europe.  Each  of  them,  for  all  his  difference  in 
religion  or  race  or  national  tradition,  feels  that  he  must 
live  by  Europe,  and  Prussia  is  radically  anti-European. 
If  Prussia  remain  strong,  what  we  have  known  as  Europe 
will  go  to  pieces. 

The  subject  and  disaffected  recniitment  in  the  enemy's 
ranks  must  not  be  exaggerated  as  to  number.  Those,  for 
instance,  in  the  German  Emjiirc  who,  though  compelled 
to  fight  for  it  are  permanently  its  enemies,  do  not  number 
altogether  as  much  as  7  per  cent,  of  its  forces.  Those  in 
a  sii^iilar  situation  under  the.  Hapsburg  Crown  hardly 
number  20  per  cent. 

A  much  larger  projjortion,  of  course,  are  neither  German, 
speaking  nor  Magyar,  but  it  is  to  be  doubted  whether 
even  as  much  as  one-eighth  are  actively  opposed  to  the 
Government  of  the  Dual  Monarchy.  Bulgarian  recruit- 
ment comprises  a  few  districts  which  are  disaffected. 
They  count  little  in  the  whole.  The  hotch-potch  of 
Turkish  recruitment  is  composed,  to  at  least  50  per  cent., 
of  men  quite  indifferent  to  the  present  quarrel  or  actively 
opposed  to  Turkish  rule,  but  that  recruitment  is  but  a 
small  factor  in  the  whole  enemy  mass  against  us. 

The  real  weight  of  this  point  is  not  the  size  of  the 
enemy's  disaffected  recruiting  fields.  It  is  rather  the 
fact  that  they  exist  at  all.  In  the  Western  armies  the 
problem  does  not  exist.  You  have  not  got  to  ask  whether 
5,  7,  12  or  20  per  cent,  of  the  French,  Italian  or  British 
armies  desire  the  victory  of  the  enemy,  for  there  is  not  a 
man  among  them  all  who  desires  it."  The  number  who 
desire  our  victory,  though  enrolled  I'pon  our  opponents 
side,  is  small,  but  it  exists,  and  that  is  a  profound  differ- 
ence between  us.  If  we  were  asked  to  estimate  the  mili- 
tary value  of  such  disaffection,  the  honest  answer  would 
be  that  during  the  progress  of  a  campaign  up  to  its  last 
phase  its  military  value  is  almost  negligible.  So  long  as 
you  have  the  cadres  and  the  educated  class  to  act  as 
oflicers  any  con.script  of  the  European  races  affords  good 
material.  But  in  the  last  stages  of  a  losing  war , this  lack 
of  complete  moral  unity  always  has  its  effect.  Witness  the 
campaign  of  Napoleon  in  1813,  and  the  hesitation  of  the 
Allies  to  use  the  Belgian  contingents  in  1815.  It  must 
not  be  exaggerated.  Even  so  late  as  the  present  moment 
it  is  almost  negligible.  But  the  moment  a  very  heavy 
strain  comes  this  factor  begijis  to  tell.  In  the  same  way 
of  the  two  men  running  a  race,  the  one  with  some  old 
trouble  and  negligible  under  ordinary  exercise,  can  afford 
to  forget  it  during  all  the  first  part  of  the  struggle.  To- 
wards the  end  it  tij)s  the  balance  against  him. 

III. — The  Mood  of  the  Belligerents 

The  third  political  clement  in  the  present  situation  of 
expectancy  before  the  frnaj  shock  is  the  element  of 
Propaganda.  In  another  asjwct-it  is  the  element  of 
Mood.  We  have  to  contrast  the  mental  atmosphero 
mainly  produced  by  Propaganda,  but  also  produced  by 
national  temperament  and  by  the  way  in  which  the 
\arious  governments  have  affected  their  own  people, 
by  the  restriction  or  the  communication  of  new^; ;  and 
wc  must  consider  in  that  field  the  neutrals  al.so. 

In  this  field  there  are  two  great  outstanding  facts 
\\liich  we  must  recognise  at  once  and  always  keep  in 
mind  if  wc  are  to  judge  affairs  rightly. 

The  first  fact  is  that  the  enemy  Pmvrrs.  and  in  par- 


FebiTiary  22,  191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


ticnlar  tlie  authorities  of  the  German  Empire,  have  kept 
the  mentaUty  of  those  they  govern  in  a  state  of  security, 
while  the  AUied  Powers  upon  the  whole  informing  their 
people  better  (though  less  copiously)  and  depending 
much  less  ui)()n  artilicial  means,  have  given  the  popula- 
tions which  they  govern  a  better  and  therefore  a  more 
severe  view  of  the  great  struggle. 

The  second  fact  in  this  creation  of  a  "  mood  "  is  that 
the  determination  to  complete  victory  is  strong  on  the 
Allied  side  in  peoples  and  governments  alike,  and  has 
long  disappeared  upon  the  enemy's  side. 

Let  us  weigh  these  two  determining  things. 

As  to  the  tirst  point  : 

The  power  of  the  enemy  to  effect  the  policy  just  men- 
tioned is  connected,  of  course,  with  other  matters  dealt 
with  above.  The  North  German  would  be  quite  in- 
capable of  tenacity  in  the  face  of  domestic  peril.  He  is 
enthusiastic,  sentimental,  and  his  strongest  qualities  are 
the  very  opposite  of  stoical.  Of  all  the  Allied  Powers 
against  him  the  I'-rench  have  the  longest  habit  of  silence 
and  of  tenacity.  But  the  German  authorities  have  had 
the  great  advantage,  as  we  have  seen,  of  keeping  the 
war  upon  alien  soil.  Witli  this  as  a  foimdation  they 
have  made  the  mood  of  the  mass  upon  which  they  repose 
a  mood  not  only  confident  of  success,  but  a  mood  of 
progression  and  existent  success.  Roughly  speaking, 
by  the  upper  ranks  of  the  bourgeoisie  in  Germany  (and 
including,  of  course,  the  mass  of  squires  who  arc  less 
educated  and  less  intellectually  valuable  thaii  the  higher 
bourgeoisie)  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  the  Central 
Powers  have  already  won  and  go  on  winning  ;  that 
the  "  resistance  "  of  Britain,  F'rance,  Italy  and  Russia 
is  a  sort  of  hopeless  thing  :  that  the  foolish  opponent 
lias  been  offered  terms  which  he  has,  with  characteristic 
further  foolishness,  rejected,  and  that  it  will  only  be  the 
worse  for  him. 

We  must  remember  that  the  German  authorities  have 
behind  them  in  this  successful  policy  of  theirs  the  memory 
of  former  victories  upon  which  they  can  play. 

The  German  under  Prussian  guidance  feels  with 
regard  to  his  power  by  land  very  much  what  the  Victorian 
Englishman  felt  with  regard  to  his  power  by  sea.  It  is  a 
certain  inheritance,  a  sort  of  right  ;  it  is  in  the  nature  of 
things,  it  is  indispensable. 

The  value  of  such  a  mood  in  war  is  obvious.  It  has 
all  the  value  of  rigidity  in  physical  affairs.  Its  draw- 
back is  equally  obvious.  Though  rigid  it  is  brittle  or, 
to  use  another  metaphor,  once  the  spell  is  broken,  the 
whole  scheme  on  which  it  dependecl  gives  way.  That 
is  one  of  the  reasons  which  make  a  true  military  victory 
essential  in  the  present  war.  Lacking  that  Prussia  and 
the  Germany  wM.l>  Prussia  has  organised  will  remain  in 
this  mood. 

The  advantages  01  the  Allied  nations,  especiallf^  in  the 
West,  proceeding  from  their  very  different  mood,  are 
less  obvious.  The  French  arni}^  and  people  ever  since 
1870  have  lived  in  an  attitude  of  suspense  and  deter- 
mination, not  in  an  attitude  of  certain  victory.  The 
'British,  and  the  Italians  until  this  great  campaign  had, 
for  totally  different  reasons  (the  one  being  a  naval 
Power,  the  other  a  new  Power)  no  recent  experience  of 
either  military  mood  upon  the  Continent.  Among  the 
Allies  the  conception  of  a  conquering  march  to  be  under- 
taken at  a  chosen  moment  had  never  arisen.  The  very 
fact  that  the  Allies  were  independent  and  acted  in- 
dividually forbade  the  growth  of  such  a  conception  even 
after  war  had  been  forced  upon  them  by  the  Central 
Powers.  The  \^  est  was  in\'aded  at  the  beginning  of  the 
campaign.  The  Russians  were  pu.shed  back  in  i<)r5. 
The  Italians  did  little  more  than  secure  their  frontiers. 
The  British  developed  with  astonishing  rapidity  a  great 
army  and  maintained  their  hold  of  the  sea.  But  no  one 
of  the  fovu-  had  so  much  as  a  toucli  of  that  military 
ambition  which  grows  from  recent  military  success  of  a 
decisive  kind.  The  Press,  the  people  and  even  the 
authorities  of  the  various  Alhes  have  always  stood  in  a 
state  of  expectancy  and  one  may  almost  say  of  defence. 

So  far  then,  as  this  first  category  is  concerned,  the 
political  advantage  is  with  the  enemy.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  that,  no  matter  how  produced^^  the  certain  expecta- 
tion of  easy  victory  and  much  more  the  feeling  of  a  cer- 
tain destiny  and  certitude  in  arms  is  a  political  asset  to 
the  party  enjoying  it. 

But  note  the  contrast  when  we  come  to  the  second 


fact  :    The  fixed  resolve,  to  be  the  victor. 

In  this,  which  is  no  less  a  moral  fact  than  groiuid  or 
climate  is  a  physical  fact,  the  Allies  have  had  for  many 
months  jjast  and  fully  maintain  to-day,  and  will  main- 
tain to  the  end,  a  superiority  no  less  striking  than  that 
which  the  enemy  has  over  him  in  his  original  confidence, 
nourished  as  it  is  by  the  perpetuation  of  the  war  outside 
his  own  boundaries.  The  enemy  has  frankly  confessed 
his  inabihty  to  achieve  definite  victory.  He  has  been 
compelled  to  that  attitude  for  the  first  time  in  Prussian 
history.  He  has  asked  for  what  is,  if  one  looks  at  history, 
largely  an  armistice  or  truce. 

It  is  the  Allies  who  have  refused. 

In  the  political  field  as  a  whole  there  is  no  more 
significant  feature  than  this  :  The  great  mass  of  the 
Allied  populations  would  be  unable  to  tell  you  why  they 
refused.  Very  many  of  them  have  for  long  looked  upon 
the  war  as  an  even  more  difficult  "task  for  them  than  it  is. 
But  there  is  no  doxibt  whatsoever  of  their  reply  to  the 
advances  of  the  enemy.  They  are  determined  upon  a 
decisive  success.  The  enemy  has  openly  abandoned  his 
hope  of  the  same.  He  believes  indeed  that  the  pro- 
longation of  the  war  will  only  make  things  worse  for  vis, 
but  only  because  both  we  and  he  will  continue  to  suffer. 
He  believes  indeed  that  he  is  invincible — but  only  in  the 
sense  that  he  believes  his  defensive  to  be  invincible.  Of 
\ictor\',  in  his  original  sense,  he  has  long  despaired,  and 
he  has  confessed  his  despair. 

Such  are  the  three  great  political  or  moral  considera- 
tions as  I  see  them  during  this  period  of  preparation 
before  the  last  great  shock,  and  I  confess  that  of  thera 
all  the  most  important  seems  to  me  the  last. 

We  have  going  about  as  current  speech  the  barbaric 
l)hrase  "  a  will  to  victory."  It  is  not  even  English.'  I  do 
not  know  of  what  German  phrase  it  may  be  a  translation. 
But  the  idea  expressed  in  decent  English  we  all  know. 
It  is  the  determination  to  win.  Not  to  hold  out,  but  to 
win,  to  have  the  better  of  the  opponent  and  to  impose 
our  good  will  against  his  evil  one.  That  fundamental 
spiritual  factor  is  present  with  us.     It  is  absent  in  him. 

H.    Belloc 

A  Good  Book  on  Agriculture 

MR.  PROTHERO,  Minister  for  Agricultiuc,  con- 
firmed this  week  one  siuaU  point  which  was  raised 
liere  last  week — namelj',  the  amount  of  nonsense 
which  has  been  written  recently  on  agricultural 
questions.  But  there  are  many  in  this  country  who  liave 
now  awakened  to  the  vital  importance  of  agriculture  as  the 
basis  of  national  industry,  and  yet  who  are  confessedly  totally 
ignorant  of  the  subject.  To  such  we  would  commend  Ths 
Land  and  the  Empire,  just  published  by  Mr.  John  Murray 
(3s.  Cd.  nett).  The  volume  consists  of  three  lectures  delivereil 
by  Mr.  Christopher  Turnor,  as  part  of  the  Imperial  Studies 
Series  inaugurated  by  Lord  Milner.  Mr.  Turnor,  with  whose 
writings  readers  of  L.and  &  Water  are  familiar,  nientions  in 
the  opening  of  the  first  chapter  :  "  Some  ten  years  ago  I 
succeeded  to  estates  which  were  in  a  very  bad  financial  con- 
tlition.  Whether  I  wished  it  or  not,  I  was  forced  to  pay  nnich 
attention  to  economy."  It  is  this  personal  experience  which 
compelled  a  close  and  practical  study  of  the  most  scientific 
agriculture  of  the  day,  both  here  and  abroad,  that  gives 
high  value  to  this  book  and  makes  it  one  to  be  read  by  all  who 
lionestly  desire  to  arrive  at  a  riglit  imderstanding  of  tJie 
problems  underlying  the  subject.  There  is  hardly  a  big 
question  affecting  farming  which  is  not  lucidly  tliough 
briefly  explained  in  these  136  pages. 

Speaking  of  the  neglect  of  agricultiuc  in  the  past,  Mr.  Turnot 
writes  :  "  There  was  no  helj)  forthcoming  from  the  nation, 
because  the  nation  did  not  reahse  then  as  it  is  learning  to 
realise  now  that  the  land,  as  the  floor-space  on  which  we 
raise  food  for  the  people  and  strong  bone  and  muscle  for 
the  country  and  the  empire,  is  our  greatest  asset."  War  has 
been  necessary  to  teach  us  this  everlasting  truth,  and  even 
now  it  is  held  perhaps  only  half-heartedly  in  some  quarters. 
But  we  hear  tliat  the  Prime  Minister  this  v<Ty  day  will  unfold 
a  policy  which  is  to  raise  British  agriculture  to  the  position  it 
should  always  have  occujiied.  Botter  education  all  round  is 
one  of  the  most  urgent  needs  and  that  apjVlies  to  all  classes, 
both  those  directly  interested  in  it,  and  tlsc  people  generally. 


a 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  22,  1917 


Operations   on   the   Ancre 


By  Edmund  Dane 


TO  gain  an  unobscurcd  view  of  the  operations 
on  the  Ancre  it  is  advisable  to  clear  away  two 
misconceptions.     Both    probably    still    have    a 
certain  currency. 
The  first  is  that  the  battle  of  the  Ancre  is  distinct 
from  the  battle  of  the  Somme  ;.  the  second  that   ihe 
battle  of  the  Somme  was  only  a  qualified  victory  so  far 
a!S  the  British  forces  were  concerned. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  battle  of  the  Somme  ended 
in  October,  and  there  was  a  pause  of  several  weeks 
before,  in  the  middle  of  November,  the'attack  was  launched 
which  resulted  in  the  capture  of  Bcaucourt  and  of 
Beaumont  Hamel.  This  pause  seems  to  have  given  rise 
to  the  belief  that  we  had  started  afresh  on  a  new  enter- 
prise. 

The  concurrent  notion  that  the  battle  of  the  Somme 
was  in  some  sense  a  disappointment — and  it  is  a  notion 
which  seems  to  have  received  countenance  in  quarters 
where  a  sounder  opinion  might  have  been  expected  to 
prevail— doubtless^  originated   in   the   assumption   that 


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the,  object  was  a  "  break  through."     But  tlie  objective 
qf  the  battle  of  the  Somme,  speaking  in    the    strictly 

,  military  sense,  was  to  carry  our*  line  forward  so  that  it 
would  open  up  a  flank  attack  on  the  enemy's  fortified  front 
and  at  the  same  time  leave  us  in  a  situation  of  security' 

■,  against  any  outflanking  counter-attack. 

Now  that  military  aim  was  more  important  than  any 
"  break  through."  For  if  the  aim  could  be  attained 
it  would  give  iis  a  tactical  advantage  so  marked  that  the 
enemy's  jortificd  front  north  of  the  Somme  could  hi  crushed 
in  detail  to  ivhatever  extent  might  be  judged  necessary  and 
that,  too,  in  spite  of  any  effort  of  defence  the  enemy 
might  put  forward. 

In  this  great  operation,  and  it  has  been,  looking  at  it 
from  the  soldier's  standpoint,  one  of  the  greatest  in  the 
war,  it  was  the  first  steps  that  were  of  necessity  the  most 

».GQStly.  The  attack,  save  to  the  south  of  the  Somme, 
was  no  surprise.  ,The  enemy  was  f,ully  prepared  for  it 


and  met  it  witli  his  most  powerful  opposition.  In  spite 
of  that  the  military  aim  was  completely  carried  out.  To- 
day, north  of  the  Somme,  -the  old  eneniy  front  is  out- 
flanked or  "  turned,"  and  our  own  new  and  outflanking 
line,  resting  on  the  Somme,  is  secure  against  any  save  a 
frontal  attack  for  the  reason  that  the  French  advance 
south  of  the  river  was  carried  as  far  forward  as  the 
advance  to  the  north.  The  aim  of  that  advance  south 
of  the  river  was  thus  to  co\-er  the  flank  of  the  northern 
line.  The  "  gain  of  territory,"  the  popular  and  news- 
paper presentment  of  the  thing,  was  merely  incidental. 
It  must  be  evident  to  anybody  who  troubles  to  reflect 
that  carrying  the  French  line  forward  a  few  miles  to 
the  south  of  the  Somme  does  not  affect  the  issue  of  the 
war  even  appreciably.  That,  nevertheless,  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  most  striking  part  of  the  success,  and  it  was 
a  success  in  the  true  sense,  inasmuch  as  it  covered  the 
flank  of  the  line  north  of  the  river. 

When  an  operation  is  so  carried  out  that  the  aim 
in  view  is  completely  realised,  and  when,  as  a  result, 
a  tactical  ?.dvantage  of  the  first  moment  accrues,  it  seems 
strange  that  anyone  should  for  a  moment  hesitate  to 
think  of  the  operation  as  successful. 

The  operations  on  the  Ancre  are  not  only  the  sequel 
of  those  on  the  Somme,  but  an  integral  part  of  the  same 
movement. 

The  effect  will  be  the  more  readily  appreciated  by 
looking  at  the  sketch  which  accpmpanies  these  notes. 

The  old  enemy  line  ran  from  just  outside  the  Faubourg 
St.  Saveur  at  Arras  to  the  fcast  of  Albert  as  shown.  The 
present  enemy  line  runs  from  Arras  through  the  points 
marked  .A  B  and  C,  to  near  Peronne.  From  A  through  B 
to  C  this  line  forms  a  salient,  25  kilometres  across  the  base 
from  A  to  C,  15  kilometres  in  depth  from  A  to  I).  The 
distance  from  A  to  B  is  18  kilometres  :  from  B  to  C, 
following  sinuosities,  20  kilometres.  The  effect  of  this 
salient,  that  is  its  depth  in  relation  to  its  base,  will  be 
best  grasped  by  looking  at  it  from  within,  say,  from 
the  point  D.  It  will  then  be  seen  how  serious  is  the 
problem  presented  by  its  defence. 

Now,  what  is  the  tactical  advantage  that  accrues  to 
the  attack  upon  it  ?  Ihe  advantage  primarily  is  that  of 
bringing  to  biar  an  overwhelming  iveight  of  gunfire.  In 
the  sketch  possible  gun  positions,  of  course  purely 
hypothetical  and  for  the  purpost  of  illustrating  the 
point,  are  indicated  by  the  dotted  line  XX.  A  position 
like  Serre,  for  example,  is  exposed  to  a  concentration  of 
gunfire  ranging  through  a  full  half  circle ;  positions 
like  Gommecourt,  Miraumont  and  Pusieux  to  a  con- 
centration of  gunfire  ranging  through  five-si.xths  of  a 
half  circle,  or  150  degrees  of  arc.  Such  concentrations 
are  crushing. 

The  attack  can  select  any  one  of  these  points  for  the 
purpose  of  smashing  it  at  will.  And  it  will  bi  cbserved, 
looking  at  the  salient  from  within,  that  no  correspondingly 
effective  artillery  reply  is  possible. 

The  overwhelming  play  thus  afforded  to  the  attacking 
guns  means  a  number  of  things.  It  means  (a)  destruction 
f)f  defences  [b)  serious  casualties  [c)  guns  of  the  defence 
put  out  of  action  ((/)  communications  barred  or  broken 
up.  It  also  means  that  the  attack  under  the  cover 
of  such  concentrations  can  launch  assaults  with 
relatively  slight  loss,  and  with  the  assurance  of  success, 
and  that  successful  counter-attack  is  out  of  the  question 
because  the  drtillery  concentration  must  inevitably  crush  it. 

These  are  the  broad  features  of  the  situation  dis- 
entangled from  details  of  local  topography.  The  battle 
of  the  Somme  was  fought  to  gain  this  vast  advantage. 
Who  in  the  face  of  it  will  say  that  the  battle  of  the  Somme 
was  not  wArth  while  ? 

For  it  should  be  noted  that  the  tactical  advantage  is 
neither  accidental  nor  transient.  Though  we  have  the 
enemy  on  the  hip  he  cannot  help  himself.  Now  that 
liis  front  has  been  opened  the  concentration  is  fastened 
upon  him  for  as  long  as  he  clings  to  that  front. 

Consider  •  how   recent   events   have   borne   out   these 


February  22,  19 17 


LAND    &    WATER 


deductions.  Three  activities  during  the  past  week  may 
be  referred  to.  The  iirst  was  the  attack  in  which  the 
British  seized  a  length  of  enemy's  defences  just  to  the 
south  of  the  Serre.  Serre  is  at  the  Western  end  of  a 
small  plateau,  which  extends  eastward  until  it  dips 
down  into  the  valley  of  the  Ancre.  At  the  bottomof  this 
dip  lies  Miraumont.  The  distance  between  Miraumont «. 
and  Serre  is  4  kilometres.  South  of  the  plateau  there  is 
a  west  and  east  depression. 

To  cross  this  depression  and  seize  enemy  defences 
on  the  farther  side  would,  not  very  long  ago,  have  ap- 
peared next  to  impossible.  But  the  attack  south  of  Serre 
was  carried  out  with  comparatively  slight  'loss.  The 
guns,  focussed  on  the  defence,  overpowered  it. 

The  assault  opened  the  way  for  that  on  the  ppsitions 
covering  Miraumont.  The  main  point  here  was  Hill 
127  north  of  Baillescourt  farm.  Hill  127  is  a  sort  of 
hump  on  the  plateau  just  before  it  begins  to  dip  towards  . 
the  Ancre  \-alley.  At  the  same  time  an  assault  was 
launched  on  the  positions  covering  Petit  Miraumont 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Ancre.  That  hainlet  lies 
in  a  bay  of  the  hills,  sho\\n  last  week  in  Mr.  Belloc's 
sketch  of  the  terrain.  The  Grandcourt  salient,  which 
before  it  was  flattened  out  was  two  kilometres  long  on 
its  western,  face,  served  among  other  purposes  to  stiffen 
the  defcnc^  of  Serre  and  Miraumont  by  covering  the 
ieprcssion  with  a  cross-fire.  That  advantage  snatched 
from  the  enemy\  the  positions  dominating  Miraumont 
ind  Petit  Miraumont  could  be  and  were  seized.      ' 

Cost  and  Results 

Miraumont  is  the  meeting  place  of  six  secondary  roads 
which  to  the  enemy  must  have  been  of  considerable 
value.  It  is  far  from  surprising  therefore  that  he  this 
time  attempted  a  counter-attack,  and  with  a  strong 
force.  But  now  happened  what  apparently  was  one  of 
the  most  unlooked-for  incidents  of  the  war.  The  counter- 
attack was  crushed  ivithotd  the  British  suffering  ■  any 
casualties  :  the  enemy  loss  must  have  been  heavy,  other- 
wise the  attac'k  ^vould  assuredly  have  been  'pushed  home. 
The   assaulting   colimms,  however,  were  swept   away. 

Of  course,  it  is  not  the  destruction  of  the  enemy 
defences  which  signifies,  but  the  destruction  of  the  enemy 
forces  and  the  cripphng  of  the  enemy  equipment.  The 
seizure  of  positions  is  the  means  to  those  ends. 

Events  prove  that  the  losses  both  of  men  and  of  material 
inflicted  on  the    defence    in   these    operations    continues 
to  be  out  of  comparison  heavier  than  those  incurred  _ 
by  the  attack. 

This  is  due  to  the  ability  to  give  the  guns  full  play, 
but  it  is  not  due  to  that  alone.  It  is  also  due  in  part  to 
an  infantry  whose  ascendancy  is  unquestionable.  A 
bombardment,  whatever  its  weight,  and  however 
marked  its  skill,  would  not  shift  the  enemy  from  his 
positions.  Such  blows  have  to  be  followed  up  and 
finished  off,  and  it  is  the  power  to  follow  them  up 
■M\(\  finish  them  off  which  enables  the  guns  to  go  forward 
taking  target  after  target.  The  guns  support  and  cover 
the  infantry  and  pave  the  way  ;  the  infantry  open  new 
doors  for  the  guns.  Each  arm  plays  into  the  hands  of 
the  other.  As  regards  skilful  co-operation  the  present 
British  Army  has  learnt  much. 

It  may  be  asked  how  long  this  sort  of  thing  is  to  go  on, 
and  what  is  tojbe  the  effect  of  it  ? 

The  effect,  or  rather  the  effects,  are  two,  and  in  this 
connection  it  is  sufficient  to  speak  in  the  present  tense  , 
and  leave   future   events   to  take   care   of  themselves. 
The  first  effect  is  the  actual  reduction  of  the  enemy's  1 
strength  ;  the  second  the  obligation  imposed  upon  him  j 
of  cmj)loying  larger  numbers  of  men  to  hold  his  front. 

It  is  a  ruinous  thing  to  fight  a  prolonged    offensive 
battle  and  at  the  same  time  to  incur  markedly    heavier  ^, 
losses  in  men  and  in  material ;  and  it  is  a  ruinous  thing  .,, 
at  any  time  to  fight  at  a  notable  military  disadvantage.        ^, 

What  may  be  called  the  wounded  part  of  the  enemy 
line,  let  the  labour  bestowed  upon  fresh  defences  be 
what  it  may,  cannot  be  so  hard  a  crust  as  that  which 
has  been  and  is  being  broken  through.  That  wounded 
part  is  extending.  How  is  it  to  liold  should  there  be 
thrown  upon  it  an  assault  like  that  which  has  sufficed  to 
break  the  harder  crust  ?  Evidently  only  by  adding  to  the 
weight  of  the  defending  forces. 

Now  if  there  is  one  thing  reasonably  probable  in  the 


war  it  is  that  the  enemy  will  go  to  any  lengths  rather 
than  see  his  front  pierced  by  the  British.  In  my  opinion 
—  I  may  of  course  be  wrong,  though  I  think  I  have  in 
this  matter  something  like  the  correct  measure  of 
German  psychology — the  enemy  to  pre\'ent  that  will 
take  elsewhere  very  extreme  risks.  But  if  he  should  do 
that  it  will  (i)  inflame  his  casualties  on  the  British 
front,  and  (2)  handicap  him  elsewhere  to  a  corresponding 
extent.  It  may  \'ery  well  handicap  him  elsewhere  to  an 
extent  that  will  be  fatal.  ''     »;> 

There  is  a  danger  here  of  another  misconception 
and  it  is  as  well  perhaps  to  meet  it  by  anticipation.     %_ 

Suppose  by  taking  such  risks,  and  at  an  inflamed  cost 
in  men  and  in  materials,  the  enemy  should  prevent  the 
British  from  "  breaking  through  "  in  the  popular  sense 
of  the  phrase.  Would  it  be  said  that  the  British  arniy 
had  incurred  defeat  }  It  might  be,  and  yet  nothing  would 
be  more  palpably  and  even  preposterously  untrue. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  clarify  the  point  is  to  fall 
back  upon  an  analogy.  Not  one  Englishman  in  ten 
living  at  the  time  of  Welhngton's  operations  in  the 
Peninsula  saw  the  purpose  or  utility  of^  them.  Yet 
what  was  the  outcome  ?  They  compelled  Napoleon 
to  employ  in  the  Peninsula  troops  which  but  for  these 
operations  he  would  have  employed  in  other  parts  of 
Europe,  and  they  engulfed  half-a-mi!lion  of  his  best 
men.  That  is  to  say  they  had  precisely  the  effects  that 
the  present  British  operations  in  France  are  having— r- 
they  reduced  his  strength  and  they  imposed  extra  and 
heavy  obligations.  And  what  was  the  consequence? 
They  made  his  Moscow  disaster  irreparable. 

It  is  precisely  the  British  operations  in  France  which 
have  made  the  enemy's  indecisive,  we  may  say  for  all 
military  purposes  sterile,  offensives  in  Russia,  at  Verdun 
and  in  Koumania,  disasters  which  he  cannot  repair ; 
and  have  hung  the  consequences  round  his  neck  like 
so  many  millstones. 

The  function  of  the  British  army  in  France  is  duaj. 
It  is  to  wear  the  enemy  down  and  to  pin  down  an 
increasing  total  of  his  forces.  It  is  not  primarily  to  break 
through  his  front.  It  is  to  bring  him  to  military  ruin  and 
hasten  his  economic  and  political  collapse.  That  dual 
function  the  British  army  has  been  and'  is  discharging 
with  unexampled  efiiciency,  and  it  is  not  in  the  least 
doubtful  that  the  function  will  be  discharged  with 
higher  efficiency  yet.  This  may  very  justly  be  considered 
the  crux  of  the  war. 

German  Attack  in  Champagne 

This  event  does  not  call  for  any  very  extended  comment. 
It  was  a  surprise  attack.  In  that  connection  it  resembled 
various  enemy  offensives,  similarly  local  and  similarly 
brief,  which  have  been  taking  place  lately  at  various 
points  on  the  East  front.  Perhaps  the  most  important  of 
these  surprise  attacks  within  the  last  week  or  two,  was 
the  attempt  against  Gorizia.  The  motive  appears  on 
the  whole  to  be  political  rather  than  military.  One 
military  purpose,  howe^'er,  can  without  much  difficulty 
be  assigned  —that  of  keeping  up  the  moral  of  the  enemy 
troops  by  activity.  The  effect  of  the  Ancre  operations 
on  the  moral  of  thp  German  forces  in  France  may  very 
easily  be  exaggerated,  but  not  even  the  most  cautious 
judgment  can  exclude  the  serious  impression  that  the 
continued  and  rising  British  ascendancy  is  bound  to 
produce,  and  none  but  unreasonable  pessimism  would 
dehy  it.  The  very  brevity  of  the  Champagne  affair  lends 
itself  to  this  suggestion  as  to  moral.  A  German  victory  of 
some  sort  was  desirable,  and  to  make  sure  that  the  attack 
would  not  lead  to  a  repulse  great  care  appears  to  have 
been  taken  that  it  should  be  wholly  unexpected.  That 
opinion  is  decidedly  strengthened  again  by  the  contrast 
between  the  passing  character  of  this  surprise  and  the 
sustained  character  of  our  own  operations.  The  contrast 
can  hardly  have  failed  to  strike  any  close  observer.  In 
Germany  the  West  front  has  notoriously  earned  an  evil 
name,  and  in  view  of  what  appear  to  be  the  sinister 
rumours  which  have  lately  sprung  up,  it  may  very  well 
have  been  considered  imperative  to  "  bill  "  a  success. 
The  inevitable  suggestion  that  the  attack  was  the  be- 
ginning of  the  great  German  offensive  on  the  West, 
duly  put  in  an  appearance,  and  perished  of — shall  we 
say  ?— prematurity  ?  The  loss  of  first  line  positions 
between  the  Butte  de  Mesnil  and  Maisojis  de  Champagne 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  22,  1917 


is  not,  for  the  present,  very  material,  and  the 
attack  is  quite  unUkcly  to  have  liad  any  effect  on  the 
disposition  of  thu  French  forces. 

Operations  at    Kut 

Tllerc  is  a  biisinessHke  air  about  Gcrncal  Claude's 
investment  of  Kut  which  augurs  well.  As  no  operations 
can  be  brilliant  that  are  not  sound,  so  very  often  those 
which  may  seem  to  the  ordinary  public  prosaic  are  those 
which  receive  and  most  deserve  professional  admiration. 
Tlie  Tigris  campaign  has  been  considered  until  lately 
unfortunate.  It  is  not  certain,  however,  that  later  and 
more  detached  judgment  will  altogether  accept  that  ver- 
dict. General  Townshend  was  seemingly  sent  up  to 
occupy  Bagdad  with  one  division.  Even  if  he  had 
reached  Bagdad  with  such  a  force  he  could  never  have 
got  away  from  it.  (ieneral  Townshend's  obvious  course 
was  to  fall  back  on  Kut  and  hold  the  place  as  he  did.  In 
short  he  did  the  right  thing  all  the  way  through.  The 
mistake  lay  in  not  being  prepared  from  the  outset  to 
support  him  there.  Time  and  questions  of  shipping 
perhaps  entered  into  the  matter.  The  really  imhappy 
feature  of  the  business  was  the  despatch  of  a  force 
inadequate  to  effect  his  relief.  It  was  worse  than  sending 
no  force  at  all.  Evidently  that  proceeding  was  the  result 
of  hurry. 

Whoever  was  responsible  for  the  Turkish  defences  of 
Kut  after  its  captun;  had  a  good  eye  for  essentials. 
Standing  as  the  town  does  on  a  sharp  bend  of  the  river, 
it  is  little  better  than  a  tra]>  unless  the  road  to  Bagdad 
be  kept  open.  Conunand  of  the  Dahra  bend  is  command 
in  effect  of  the  road  to  Bagdad,  which  runs  roughly 
parallel  to  the  north-eastern  reach  of  the  bend,  and  is 
near  enough  to  the  ri\er  to  come  within  the  range  of- 
artillery,.  This  was  the  vital  spot,  and  it  had  been 
covered  by  well-prepared  defences.  Feinting  merely 
against  the  enemy  works  on  the  left  or  north  bank, 
General  JIaude  threw  the  mass  of  his  force  in  the  first 
instance  upon  the  defences  between  the  Es  Sinn  position 
and  the  Shatt-el-Hai.  It  was  a  good  mo\e,  just  because 
tlie  enemy  could  not  leave  the  Dahra  bend  denuded,  and 
ne.xt,  because  the  main  attack  east  of  the  Shatt-cl-Hai 
was  supported  by  an  attack  to  the  west  of  it.  In  a  word 
the  British  commander  skilfully  dispersed  the  enemy 
strength  while  he  concentrated  his  own.  Having  broken 
through  east  of  the  Shatt-el-Hai  he  was  able  to  cross  it 
and  take  the  Dahra  bend  defences  in  flank.  The  seizure 
of  the  liquorice  factory,  an  indispensable  point  d'appui, 
to  all  intents  decided  "matters,  for  that  loss  cut  off  the 
Turkish  troops  in  the  bend  from  their  easiest  and  most 
direct  access  to  Kut.  Most  of  the  survivors  seem  to 
ha\e  been  taken  prisoners. 

On  Tuesday  the  news  wvas  published  that  the  British 
had  made  an  assault  on  the  Sanna-i-Yat  position  on  the 
north  bank,  and  had  been  repulsed  by  a  Turkish  counter- 
attack. It  was  apparent,  however,  from  the  enemy 
communique  that  the  British  attacking  force  was  only 
one  brigade.  There  is  another  part  of  the  story  yet  to 
be  told. 

German  Preparations  for  1917 

Germany  is  now  and  has  been  since  October  last*,  in 
view  of  the  campaign  of  iqxj;  engaged  on  a  gi-eat  effort 
to  increase  her  forces  in  the  field.  The  increase  aimed 
at— whether  or  not  it  will  be  fuUv  realised  is  another 
matter — is  believed  to  be  .^15  divisions,  on  the  new 
footing  675,000  men.  An  opinion  with  a  claim  to  respect, 
supports  if  not  the  probability,  at  any  rate,  the  possibility 
of  the  effort  on  the  grounds  (i)  of  the  Universal  Levy  for 
War  Service  ;  (2)  of  the  labour  recruited  from  Belgian 
drives  ;  and  (3)  of  the  effects  of  the  recruiting  in  Poland. 
The  last-named  clement  is  not  likely  to  account  for  much. , 
If  such  an  additional  force  is  raised  it  will,  we  may  infer, 
consist  of  first  the  iQiq  class  of  recruits  ;  secondly,  of 
physically  fit  men  between  forty-five  and  fifty  ;  and 
tliirdly,  of  a  final  "  comb  out  "  of  men  of  military  ag(' 
hitherto  kept  back  on  work  classed  as  indispensable. 
Having  regard  to  the  severity  of  preceding  combings 
this  element  also  is  not  likely  to  be  considerable.  The 
very  young  recruits  and  the  elderly  men  will,  there  is 
little  doubt,  form  the  bulk  of  the  embodiment. 


We  must  not,  however,  e.xpect  the  additional  divisions  to 
be  formed  wholly  or  mainly  of  these  indifferent  materials. 
On  the  contrary  there  will  be,  and  there  is  doubtless  now 
going  on,  a  great  deal  of  mi.xing  up,  a  dilution  of  the 
forces  on  a  large  scale,  so  that  the  new  and  old  divisions 
may  as  far  as  possible  resemble  one  another.  The  active 
troop  movements  reported  from  Germany  may  be  put 
down  in  great  jjart  to  this  process. 

It  has  been  assumed  that  this  embodiment  will  prolong 
the  war,  and  it  has  also  been  assumed  that  it  portends  a 
general  enemy  offensive— "  a  great  final  effort  for 
victory."     , 

There  are,  however,  some  reasons  for  not  accepting 
either  of  these  assumptions,  at  all  events  too  readily. 

To  conclude  thar  the  length  of  the  war  depends  simply 
upon  the  enemy  numbers  in  the  field  is  to  detach  this 
factor  of  numbers  from  the  political  and  economic  back- 
ground, and  the  question  of  staying  power,  which  amount 
m  effect  to  the  power  of  keeping  the  forces  in  the  field 
afoot.  The  factor  of  numbers  cannot  be  put  into  a 
watertight  compartment  in  that  way.  If  increase  of 
numbers  in  the  field  trenches  upon  the  ability  to  keep 
those  forces  going,  it  is  evident  that  a  measure  which 
might  tend  to  prolong  the  war  in  one  direction  may 
tend  to  shorten  it  in  another.  The  support  of  an 
additional  675,000  men  is  a  heavy  extra  strain,  even  if 
substitutes  have  been  found  for  the  labour  of  all  of  them. 
And  the  labour  of  Germany,  weighted  besides  by  the 
conditions  of  the  blockade,  has  been  drained  more 
severely  than  that  of  any  of  the  .\llied  countries.  Whether 
or  not  this  embodiment  will  prolong  the  war,  ought 
therefore  for  the  present  to  be  ti'eated  as  an  open  question. 

The  assumption  beforehand  of  an  enemy  offensive 
on  a  scale  beyond  anything  yet  known,  rests  on  grounds 
extremely  slender.  We  may  presume  quite  safely  that 
whenever  the  enemy  thinks  it  to  his  advantage  to  attack, 
he  will  do  it  as  he  has  always  done.  But  to  suppose 
that  he  will  attack  whether  it  be  to  "his  advantage  or 
disadvantage,  is  a  phantasy. 

To  this  assumption,  further,  two  rather  serious  dis- 
counts have  to  be  applied.  The  first  is  that  the  burden 
of  the  war  now  borne  by  Germany  is  much  larger  than 
that  cast  upon  any  one  of  the  countries  of  the  Entente. 
Financially,  Germany  has,  on  her  side,  to  meet  the  whole 
cost.  She  has  to  find  also  and  to  support  four-fifths  at 
least  of  the  total  enemy  troops,  and  therefore  to  bear 
and  to  make  up  four-fifths  of  the  wastage.  More  than 
that,  and  this  is  a  point  of  capital  importance,  the  obliga- 
tions of  a  defensive  war  have  bzen  proved  by  the  operations 
on  the  Somme  and  by  those  in  Volhynia  to  bs  immensely 
more  onerous  than  had  been  imagined  before  the  theory 
of  impregnate  fronts  broke  down.  It  has  been  proved 
that  no  front  is  impregnable  unless  there  is  a  mass  of  first 
class  infantry  at  the  back  of  it.  The  enemy  weakness 
as  compared  with  the  Allies  is  in  infantry.  The  need 
then  for  additional  numbers  on  the  part  of  Germany  is 
an  urgent  need.  It  is  so  urgent  indeed  that  we  may  well 
believe  that  staying  power  has  had  to  be  dealt  with  as 
wholly  secondary. 

These  considerations  of  the  great  proportionate  weight 
of  the  war  which  Germany  has  to  carry,  audits  unantici- 
pated obligations,  hardly  point  to  any  squandering 
"  general  offensive."  The  offensive  operations  undertaken 
will  most  likely  be  inspired  to  no  small  extent  by  the 
motive  of  keeping  the  Germanic  confederacy  together. 


,  Owing  to  the  accommodation  of  tlie  Royal  Flying  Corps 
Hospital  for  sick  and  wounded  pilots  and  observers,  at  37, 
Bryanston  Square,  which  lias  been  wholly  maintained  by 
private  contributions,  being  no  longer  adequate  on  account  of 
the  growth  of  the  Corps,  the  development  of  aerial  fighting, 
and  the  physical  effects  of  constant  tlyiiig  at  great  altitude, 
it  has  become  necessary  to  extend  tlie  existing  accommoda- 
tion by  acquiring  additional  premises,  involving  expenditure 
which  it  would  not  be  possible  to  meet  by  further  demands 
upon  private  generosity.  It  has  been  decided  to  make  a 
public  appeal  for  funds  to  carry  on  tlie  work  of  the  hospital, 
for  it  is  felt,  and  we  belit'vc  rigiitly  fflt,  tiiat  tlie  public  have 
nnly  to  be  made  aware  of  tlie  liecd  for  the  response  to  be 
unhesitating  and  immediate.  The  nation  owes  no  deeper 
gratitude  to  any  body  of  men  than  to  the  Royal  Flying  Corps, 
who,  from  the  very  beginning,  have  accepted  every  danger 
gladly  and  have  done  so  much  and  at  no  light  cost  "to  estab- 
lish British  predominance  over  the  Hun. 


February  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


Submarines,  A  Test  of  National  Temper 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


jk  T  the  time  of  writing  the  progress  sf  the  sub- 
/%  marine  campaign  has  been  maintained  at  the 
/  %  same  level  as,  but  no  higher  than  that  at  which 
^  jL.it  began.  It  therefore  confirms  the  forecast 
made  in  these  columns.  Neither  the  number  of  ships  nor 
the  tonnage  destroyed  shows  any  signs  of  reaching 
the  point  which  would  be  dangerous  either  to  us  or  to 
our  Allies.  It  is  a  campaign  then  in  which  the  enemy 
has  so  far  shown  no  capacity  to  attain  the  military 
object  he  professed  to  have  in  view.  At  the  present 
rate,  he  will  never  com^  within  measurable  distance 
of  starving  these  islands,  of  inflicting  any  crippling  loss 
upon  our  Allies,  of  compelling  us  either  to  restrict  the 
theatres  of  our  military  operations,  or  to  diminish  the 
intensity  of  our  effort  in  any  one  theatre.  But  to  say  that 
we  need  have  no  ultimate  anxiety  is  not  the  same  thing 
as  saying  that  we  are  relieved  from  making  every  effort 
to  thwart  the  enemy's  plans  and  to  reduce  the  consequence 
of  such  success  as  he  attains.  Far  from  this  being 
so,  it  is  only  if  we  push  self  denial  and  economy  to  the 
utmost,  only  if  we  double  our  attack  and  quadruple 
our  shipbuilding  efforts,  that  the  enemy's  attack  will  be 
defeated  with  the  desired  completeness.  We  must  not, 
while  recognising  that  the  enemy's  campaign  is  far  less 
effective  than  he  hoped  it  would  be,  shut  our  eyes  to 
the  fact  that  its  complete  inefficacy  depends  largely 
upon  national  self  discipline. 

I  dealt  last  week  with  the  machinery  that  the  Ad- 
miralty has  called  into  existence  for  dealing  directly 
with  the  submarines.  I  propose  this  ^week  to  deal 
with  the  nation's  share  in  this  grim  and  unpleasant 
business.  To  make  the  character  and  importance  of 
the  citizen's  task  intelligible  we  nuist  keep  steadily 
in  mind  precisely  what  the  German  objects  are. 
There  is  first  the  "  professed  "  object  to  starve  us  into 
surrender  and  to  cripple  our  Allies'  capacity  to  produce 
munitions  and  so  forth.  But  for  many  reasons  one  cannot 
help  thinking  that  this  is  a  professed  object  only.  There 
has  always  been  a  marked  contrast  between  the  tone  of 
the  makers  of  German  pubhc  opinion  and  of  the  re- 
presentatives of  the  German  seamen.  This  contrast 
was  very  marked  after  Jutland.  The  Emperor,  the 
poUticians  and  the  leader-writers  talked  flamboyantly 
of  the  trident  being  snatched  from  Britain's  paralysed 
liand.  but  Admiral  Scheer  did  not  talk  like  this,  nor  did 
the  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty,  nor  did  any  of  the  re- 
presentative naval  writers.  When  allowances  are  made 
for  patriotic  and  professional  bias,  it  is  still  difficult 
to  say  that  the  claims  set  out  by  the  German  seamen 
and  their  spokesmen  were  altogether  unreasonable. 
In  this  case,  too,  there  are  many  evidences  that  the 
Germannavy  is  embarrassed  by  the  promises  of  the  German 
politicians.  It  is  significant  that  Captain  Persius  keeps 
insisting  on  the  very  formidable  character  of  the  U  boats' 
task.  It  is  particularly  significant  that  those  with 
the  least  claim  to  naval  knowledge  have  been  the 
loudest  in  their  propliecies.  We  shall  probably  not  be 
far  wrong  then,  if  we  suppose,  while  the  Higher  Command 
may  have  hoped  for  the  best,  they  have  never  had  any 
real  expectation  of  winning  the  war  by  the  submarine 
campaign,  and  simply  because  their  experts  could  never 
have  given  any  such  expectation. 

Why,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  have  they  incurred  the 
risk  of  American  enmity  and  all  the  other  disadvantages 
attaching  to  open  war  with  neutrals— for  this  is  what 
~  it  has  come  to— if  there  were  no  sober  expectation  that 
these  very  grave  disadvantages  would  be  counterbalanced 
by  victory !  The  answer  is  simple.-  The  German 
Higher  Command  was  faced  by  the  far  greater  dis- 
advantage of  utter  hopelessness  and  despair  in  the  (ierman 
people.  There  has  never  been  any  danger  of  a  German 
revolution.  The  people  a\\i  far  too  servile  in  disposition, 
far  too  well  disciplined,  far  too  effectively  controlled 
for  overt  revolution  to  be  possible.  But  despair,  public, 
"niversal  and  admitted,  is  practically  as  great  a  danger 


and,  at  this  stage  o^  the  war,  _it  has  become  the  first  of 
Germany's  objects  not  only  to  restore  the  confidence  of 
their  own  people  but  to  weaken,  if  they  possibly  can,  the 
courage  and  resolution  of  their  opponents.  It  seems 
obvious  truth,  and  one  the  importance  of  which  cannot 
be  insisted  on  too  greatly,  that  Germany's  main  purpose 
in  the  submarine'  campaign  is  to  inspire  fresh  confidence 
in  her  own  people,  to  depress  and  frighten  civilian  opinion 
amongst  the  Allies,  and  so  create  amongst  neutrals 
the  feeling  that  Germany  and  not  her  enemies  is  the 
winning  side.  , 

If  this  anaylsis  of  the  position  and  of  Germany's  object 
is  correct,  it  at  once  becomes  our  most  important  object 
to  defeat  it.  This,  no  doubt,  can  best  be  done  by  bringing 
the  submarine  menace  to  nothing  by  naval  means.  A 
good  many  cheering  things  on  this  subject  were  said 
last  week  in  the  House  of  Lords,  although  it  is  not  easy 
to  agree  with  all  of  them.  But  it  is  now  common  pro- 
perty that  the  menace  is  in  the  hands  of  able,  competent, 
impartial,  independent  men,  that  the  measures  we  are 
taking  are  based  upon  a  patient,  laborious,  exact 
analysis  of  experience,  and  that  every  measure  which 
ingenuity  or  knowledge  can  propose  is  either  being 
adopted  or  being  tried  with  a  view  to  adoption  at 
the  first  opportunity.  This  part  then  of  the  subject 
we  can  leave  to  those  who  alone  are  competent  to  deal 
with  it.  And  we  can  leave  it  with  confidence  assured 
that  those  who  have  it  in  hand  are  proceeding  on  lines 
which,  in  every  other  department  of  human  activity, 
have  hitherto  given  the  best  results — lines  of  stali  study 
and  staff  organisation. 

Germany's  Real  Objects 

vVhat  we  have  to  ask  ourselves  is  this.  Witli  whom  does 
the  defeat  ofGermany's  real  objects  rest  ?  These  objects 
are,  as  we  have  seen,  to  create  panic  amongst  ourselves, 
to  put  that  panic  and  the  story  of  our  losses  to  profit, 
in  enheartening  the  people  of  Germany,  and  so  to  instil 
in  neutrals  the  belief  that  Germany  not  only  cannot  be 
defeated,  but  must  certainly  ultimately  win  ?  It  cannot 
be  too  clearly  reahsed'that  the  creation  and  prevention 
of  panic  are  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  press  of  this' 
country.  Public  uneasiness,  nervousness,  alarm,  can 
only  be  created  by  announcing  our  losses  as  terrible 
and  sensational  things,  and  by  setting  them  out  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  disguise  their  real  importance  by  concealing 
the  relation  of  each  loss  to  the  total  force  from  which  it 
is  to  be  deducted.  It  is  deplorable  that  any  newspaper 
should  convert  the  day's  loss  of  tonnage  into  a  mere 
excuse  for  sensational  posters;  as  was  done  a  fortnight  ago. 
It  seems  utterly  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  those  who 
are  working  under  Sir  John  Jellicoe  at  Whitehall,  or  the 
officers  in  control  of  the  different  coast  stations  or  the 
flotillas,  could  be  inspired  to  greater  or  more  successfxil 
efforts  in  sinking  submarines  or  defending  the  ships,  by 
attempts  to  play  on  a  nerve  in  the  body  politic  that  is 
already  acutely  sensitive.  It  is  difficult  to  filnd  any 
explanation,  except^  the  desire  to  create  and  profit  by 
sensationalism  for  its  own  sake.  And  it  is  still  more 
difficult  to  distinguish  the  attainment  of  this  object,  if 
it  is  attained,  from  the  attainment  of  the  object  which  the 
Germans  have  in  view,  viz.,  the  creation  of  panic  and 
unrest  in  the  public  mind  of  the  Allies. 

Unfortunately,  the  effort  to  create  panic  has  not  been 
limited  to  newspaper  exploitations  of  this  sort.  The 
effort,  begun  a  month  ago,  to  force  Lord  Fisher  back  to 
the'conduct  of  our  naval  affairs,  has  been  redoubled  during 
the  last  ten  days.  We  are  told  that  just  as  Lord 
F'isher  was  able  to  suppress  the  first  submarine  campaign, 
so  he  and  no  other  could  suppress  this.  The  time  has 
really  come  for  those  who  use  such  language  as  this  to  be 
brought  to  book.  Either  Lord  Fisher  has  a  plan  for 
suppressing  the  submarine  campaign  or  he  has  not.  He 
has,  for  eighteen  oionths  or  so,  been  the  Chief  of  the  Board 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  22,  1917 


of  Inventions  and  Research,  and  doubtless  many  plans 
have  been  submitted  to  him.  Has  he  compacted  from 
these  suggestions  an  articulated  scheme,  which  he 
beUeves  to  be  elTective  ?  Has  he  submitted  this  scheme 
to  the  authorities  ?  Have  the  authorities  examined 
and  tested  it  in  the  light  of  experience  ?  The  public  is 
entitled  to  answers.  It  is  intolerable  that  a  vague  theory 
should  be  current  that  there  is  one  man  who  could  save 
the  country,  whom  the  government  will  not  employ. 
If  it  is  bluff,  the  bluff  should  be  called.  If  there 
is  anvthing  in  it,  let  the  country  know  and  let  Lord 
Fishe'r  be  gi\en  a  chance  to  pro\e  it.  When  Lord 
Cochrane  claimed  to  be  able  to  take  the  fortress  of  Kron- 
stadt.  a  Koval  Commission,  sworn  to  secrecy,  was  con- 
stituted to  hear  and  consider  his  plan.  It  is  really  in  the 
interests  of  a  steady  public  judgment  that  this  Insher 
question  should  be  "treated  in  the  same  way  now.  A 
competent  commission  could  hear  what  Lord  Fisher  has 
to  say,  be  told  the  Admiralty  answer,  and  report  m 
ten  days.  It  is  much  better  that  this  should  be  done  than 
that  this  wearisome  propaganda  should  be  kept  up. 

The  length  to  which  it  can  go  may  be  judged  by  the 
leading  article  in  Monday's  Daily  Mail.  This  pajier  has 
taken  up  an  amazing  position.  It  seems  to  admit  that 
the  whole  Fisher  talk  may  be  a  bluff,  but  it  has.  it  says, 
got  hold  of  the  jx-oplc  aiid  unless  the  price  of  food  goes 
down  or  the  submarine  campaign  is  stopped,  the  demand 
lor  putting  Fisher  into  authority  will  be  irresistible.  Now, 
it  is  c^^rtain  that  the  price  of  food  will  go  up  ;  it  is  equally 
certain  that  for  two  or  three  months  the  submarine 
campaign  \\-ill  not  be  suppressed.  Are  we  conseciucntly 
to  regard  the  return  of  Lord  Fisher  as  a  certainty? 
Sir  Hcdworth  :\leux  was  not  exaggerating  when  he  told 
his  constituents  that  "  it  would  be  an  absolute  disaster 
to  the  navy  if  Lord  Fisher  w^ere  brought  back."  He 
did  not  say  that  the  na\-y  would  not  stand  it,  because  the 
navy  will,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  stand  anything  ; 
But  it  will  be  mortified,  and  deplorably  discouraged  if 
Lord  Fisher  is  restored  to  power. 

The  "Fisher  System" 

But  the  Navy's  objection  to  Lord  Fisher's  return  to 
Whitehall  is  not  merely  that  he  has  been  famed  for  the 
creation  of  discord.  The  chief  vice  of  the  Fisher  system 
was  this.  The  First  Sea  Lord  was  to  be  an  autocrat. 
He  was  surrounded  by  advisers.  Controller,  Director  of 
Naval  Ordnance,  etc.  ;  each  of  whom  was  an  autocrat 
too,  so  long,  of  course,  as  he  did  not  interfere  with 
the  major  autocracy  of  his  chief.  The  effect  of 
this  was  to  create  a  special  caste  quite  distinct  and, 
with  one  or  two  notable  exceptions,  quite  foreign 
to  the  naval  service.  It  could  only  continue  by  the 
suppression  of  all  independent  thinking  in  the  navy. 
■  The  Fisher  system  was  then  the  flat  negation  of  the  staff 
system.  There  was  a  moment  in  the  hrst  few  weeks  of 
I(ji2,  when  it  locked  as  if  Mr.  Churchill  intended  to  replace 
the  old  irrational  autocratic  regime  by  a  staff  regime,  but 
if  he  ever  had  any  such  intention,  he  was  soon  deflected 
from  it,  so  that  the  old  system  survi\cd.  At  the  outbreak 
of  war,  the  na\'y  found  "itself  without  any  staff  organisa- 
tion for  the  study  of  the  use  of  weapons,  either  for  the 
discovery  of  the  best  methcd  of  employing  them  ourselves, 
or  of  counteracting  their  use  in  the  enemy's  hands.  How 
appalling  were  the  risks  we  ran  through  there  being  no 
harbour  protected  agains  German  submarines  has  been 
amply  explained  to  us  by  Mr.  Balfour. 

If  "^  there  had  been  any  pretence  of  a  real  War 
Staff  at  Whitehall,  wc  should  not  have  had  to  learn. the 
art  of  tackling  the  submarine  attack  on  trade  only  after 
that  attack  had  begun.  We  should  have  concentrated 
our  attention,  not  on  building  submarines  that  would 
never  ha\e  a  target  to  shoot  at,  but  on  developing  m^jans 
of  counteracting  the  enemy's  submarines  who  would 
have  our  fleet  and  merchantmen  as  their  daily  prey. 

It  win  take  a  very  long  time  indeed  for  the  Navy  to 
reco\-er  from  the  system  of  absolutism  and  opposition 
to  staff  organisation  which  Lord  Fisher  instituted. 
Now  war  has,  against  everybody's  will,  made  sensible 
inroads  into  this  system.  As  we  saw  last  week,  the 
submarine  war  has  at  last  been  definitely  put  upon  a 
staff  basis.  Wc  may,  I  think,  safely  assume  that  every- 
thing to  do  with  the  command  of  the  Fleet  is  on  a  similar 
basis.    Perhaps    some   day   gunnery   methods,    raining 


methods,  torpedo  methods,  even  naval  tactics  and  naval 
strategy  may  be  made  the  subjects  of  staff  study  !  There 
is  no  road  to  infallibility.  But  staff  methods,  at  any 
rate,  promise  immunity  from  the  grossest  form  of  error. 
The  fact  that  the  number  of  submarines  at  work  is 
now  multiplied,  not  by  two  but  by  three,  and  that  the 
whole  campaign  is  far  more  highly  organised  and  elabo- 
rated than  it  was,  has  forced  two  new  considerations 
upon  our  notice.  An  entirely  new  value  now  attaches 
to  any  information  of  whatever  sort  that  we  give  the 
enemy.  Whereas  in  former  times  \he  publication  of  the 
sinking  of  any  particular  ship  might  mean  \'ery  little, 
in  present  conditions  such  publication  may  mean  a  great 
deal.  Next,  apart  altogether  from  what  one  may  call 
the  direct  military  \alue  of  information,  if  we  set  out  the 
success  of  the  (lerman  submarines  in  their  completeness, 
the  Germans  will  quote  tliese  ligures,  not  as  representing 
the  maximum  of  their  effort,  but  as  the  minimum  that 
we  grudgingly  admit,  just  as  they  quoted  unauthorised 
exaggerations  as  authoritati\e before. 

Results  of  PubHcity 

If  we  can  get  rid  of  the  Fisher  agitation  once  and  for  all 
we  shall  ha\e  removed  one  of  the  things  that  has  been 
used  to  unsettle  the  pubHc  mind.  The  next  measure 
that  should  be  adopted,  is  one  which  can  only  be  ado])ted 
with  safety  if  the  public  mind  is  steady.  It  is  the  entire 
suppression  of  all  news  of  the  sinking  of  ships  in  this 
country  for  the  next  month  or  six  weeks,  ■  publication 
after  that  to  relate  only  to  events  at  least  a  month  old. 
On  the  face  of  it  this  is  very  inconsistent  with  what  I 
have  previously  urged  in  these  pages.  But  my  case  has 
hitherto  been  publicity  in  the  interests  of  educating  and 
steadying  British  public  opinion,  and  of  preventing  the 
enormous  harm  done  by  the  ignorant  exaggerations  of 
our  losses  that  Were  possible,  so  long  as  those  losses  were 
not  authoritatively  announced,  totalled  and  tabufcted. 
My  chief  reason,  therefore,  for  proposing  this  delay  now 
in  publication  of  lists  of  ships  sunk  is  as  follows  : 

It  has  often  been  pointed  out  that,  when  the  number 
of  submarines  engaged  is  suddenly  very  greatly  increased, 
it  is  improbable  that  there  will  be  a  proportionate  increase 
in  the  number  of  ships  sunk,  but  exceedingly  probable 
that  there  will  be  mucli  more  than  a  proportionate  increase 
in  the  number  of  submarines  sunk. 

It  is  quite  possible,  for  instance,  that  between  Sep- 
tember and  February  ist  there  were  seldom,  if  ever, 
more  ♦than  forty  submarines  at  work  in  the  main  theatres. 
It  is  also  possible  that  these  have  been  increased,  say, 
to  120  now.  If  we  suppose  that  the  forty  got  on  an 
average  three  ships  a  day,  it  would  be  extremely  unlikely 
that  the  120  would  get  nine  ships.  We  should  expect  them 
to  get  five  or  six  only.  But  if,  with  forty  boats  at  work  an 
average  of  one  submarine  was  destroyed  every  fortnight, 
with  120  submarines  at  work,  we  should  expect  two  or 
even  more  to  be  destroyed  every  week.  It  is  this  increase 
in  the  number  of  U  boats  destroyed  that  gives  a  new 
significance  to  the  announcements  of  ships  sunk,  and  for 
this  reason.  It  is  credibly  supposed  that  each  (ierman 
U  boat  or  pair  of  U  boats  has  a  certain  area  of  the  sea 
allotted  to  it  on  each  cruise.  The  utmost  efforts  are 
made  to  get  information  from  every  part  of  the  world  of 
the  dates  on  which  ships  leave,  of  their  destination,  and 
of  their  probable  course.  We  are  to  imagine,  therefore, 
the  staff  in  Berlin  passing  models  of  all  the  ships  known 
to  be  at  sea  from  area  to  area,  according  to  the  dates  of 
their  sailing,  their  speed  and  whatever  other  information 
is  available.  Now  let  us  assume  that  f/50  and  (751 
have  been  sent  to  square  177,  and  that  ships  A,  B,  C, 
D,  E,  F,  iG,  etc.,  are  believed  to  be  severally  due  in  this 
area,  in  the  course  of  any  given  week  ;  A  on  Monday .^ 
B  and  C  on  Tuesday,  D  on  Wednesday,  E,  F  and  G  on 
Thursday,  and  so  forth.  Now  on  Tuesday  evening  it  i^ 
announced  in  the  London  papers  that  A.  has  been  sunk 
and  the  crew  rescued  and  brought  into  a  certain  port. 
On  Wednesday  there  is  no  news  of  B  and  C,  on  Thursday 
none  of  I),  on  Friday  none  of  E,  F  and  G.  It  is  an  obvious 
inference  that  something  has  happened  to  ('50  and  P51. 
Let  us  further  suppose  that  I'^o  and  f/51  have,  in  fact, 
been  sunk  on  Monday  evening.  What  is  the  probable 
course  for  the  Berlin  staff  to  take  ?  Obviously  to  order 
L'70  and  Uyi  to  go  to  ^'50  and  f'^i's  cruising  ground. 
Observe  then  that  the  publication  of  the  loss  of  A,  and 


February  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


the  fact  that  pubUcation  of  every  other  ship  lost  is  to  be 
expected,  has  given  our  enemy  exactly  the  information 
wanted  for  making  good  a  broken  Hnk  in  his  chain.  Take 
the  case  a  little  further.  Supposing  U^o  and  L'51  have 
been  sunk  in  the  North  Sea  before  they  have  got  100 
miles  from  the  German  coast.  The  Germans  Would 
never  find  this  out  unless  the  pubHcation  of  British 
casualties  here  gradually  convinced  them  that  there 
was  nothing  doing  in  the  area  to  which  these  two  boats 
had  been  despatched.  And  in  the  absence,  of  information 
they  would  have  to  wait  for  the  normal  date  of  these 
boats'  return  before  makihg  good  the  loss.  Now  if  we 
postpone  the  publication  of  all  casualties,  either  for  a 
month,  or  if.  it  is  thought  safer,  for  six  weeks  or  two 
months,  then  the  whole  German  system  of  keeping  the 
blockade  eiticient  by  supplying  substitutes  for  each  boat 
likely  to  be  destroyed  must  necessarily  fall  to  the  ground. 
The  importance  of  this  to  us  is  enormous  at  a  time  when 
our  prospects  of  destroying  large  numbers  of  these  boats 
are  at  their  highest.  The  question  is,  would  the  public 
stand  this  suppression  of  news  ?  No  doubt  some 
journahsts  would  be  robbed  of  part  of  their  occupation. 
The  compiler  of  these  columns  would  incidentally  be 
deprived  of  almost  the  only  n,ews  on  which  he  has  to 
comment  from  week  to  week.  But  awful  (!)  as  these 
sacrifices  are,   it  does  really  seem  as  if,  even  were  only 


one    ship  saved  by   this  measure,  it   would    be    worth 
adopting. 

I  pointed  out  last  week  that  the  ruthless  submarine 
campaign  had  verified  the  forecasts  of  those  who  had 
made  the  close  study  of  it,  not  only  in  its  failure  to  get 
a  very  remarkable  number  of  ships,  but  by  its  success 
in  taking  a  very  remarkable  number  of  lives.  It  is  a 
gruesome  but  tragic  truth,  which  ought  to  dispose  the- 
civilian  element  to  be]  ungrudging  when  it  is  invited  to 
give  up  things  to  which  it  is  attached.  If  we  have  to 
accustom  ourselves  to  shorter  rations  of  food  and  drink 
and  luxuries  of  which  we  are  fond,  if  we  have  to  contain 
our  souls  in  ignorant  patience  while  news  is  kept  from 
us,  should  we  not  be  braced  to  this  self-denial  by  the 
knowledge  that  nearly  all  the  food  and  many  of  the 
luxuries  that  we  enjoy  a.re  purchased  for  us  now,  not  by 
money  and  by  labour,  but  with  the  blood  and  lives  of 
the  most  gallant  of  our  fellow  subjects  ?  I  cannot  beheve 
that  there  would  be  any  serious  popular  objection  to  the 
suppression  of  news,  if  it  were  known  that  by  such  sup- 
pression some  of  our  ships  and  some  of  our  sailors  could 
be  saved.  Arthur  Pollen 

Mr.  Pollen  has  bsen  invited  to  lecture  to  the  troops 
in  France,  and  it  may  not  b:  possible  for  him  to  deal 
ivith  current   naval    events    in    the    next  two   issues 


Will   Switzerland  be   Invaded  ? 


By  Colonel   Feyler 


THE  offensive  of  the  Central  Empires  in  Roumania 
has  been  suspended,  and  if  it  were  to  be  re- 
sumed it  could  not  result  in  a  definite  decision. 
The  Imperial  (iovernment  is  so  well  aware  of  that 
fact  that  it  did  not  even  wait  to  drive  it  further  home 
before  trying  the  maneeuvre  of  peace  negotiations. 
Now  that'these  ha\-e  proved  abortive  the  question  has  been 
raised  in  a  good  many  mihtary  circles — at  any  rate  in 
France  and  Italy,  audit  has  been  echoed  in  the  British 
press— whether  the  Imperial  Headquarter  Staff  was  not 
about  to  return  to  the  Western  Front  and  whether, 
since  the  battle  of  Verdun  has  demonstrated  the  im- 
possibility of  a  frontal  attack,  it  might  not  try  an  en- 
circling movement  by  passing  through  Swiss  territory. 
For  several  weeks  such  an  operation  has  been  regarded 
as  certain  by  a  very  large  number  of  the  public,  and  even 
now,  when  (iermany  is  concentrating  her  energy  on  the 
submarine  campaign,  a  land  enterprise  directed  "towards 
an  attacft  on  Belfort  from  the  south  with  t"he  object  of 
destroying  the  eastern  fortified  rampart  of  France,  is 
considered  to  be  by  no  means  ruled  out  of  the  possibilities. 
The  question  is  an  interesting  one  to  study,  and  a 
number  of  military  writers  have  been  discussing  it 
lately.  The  territory  of  Switzerland  has  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  strategy  from  the  very  beginning  of 
hostilities  by  protecting  with  its  neutrality  the  flank  of 
the  opposed  armies.  In  the  German  offensive  of  1914, 
It  served  as  a  pi\otal  support  for  the  great  movement  of 
the  armies  which  were  to  envelop  France  through  Belgium; 
A  few  weejvs  later  it  covered  the  counter-offensive  of  the 
Allies  on  the  Marne,  compelling  the  Germans  to  make  a 
frontal  attack  before  the  Grand  Couronne  of  Nancy. 
Since  then  it  has  been  an  equal  protection  against  flank 
attacks  to  the  operations  of  both  the  belligerents.  It  is 
worth  while  to  ask  whether  the  Germans  would  gain  any 
advantage  by  modifying  the  present  situation  and  in 
eluding  the  territory  of  the  Swiss  Confederation  as  a  new 
square  in  the  chess-board  of  the  war. 

A  Point  of  Difference 

Before  approaching  this  subject  I  would  interpolate  a 
parentliesis.  The  German  press,  defending  the  Imperial 
Government  against  the  allegation  of  entertaining  evil 
designs  upon  Switzerland,  has  felt  it  incumbent  to  put 
Switzerland  on  her  guard  against  an  offen.ive  contem- 
plated by  the  Allies  themselves  to  turn  the  Alsatian  front 
and  the  Black  Forest  and  invade  Germany  through  the 
Upper  Rhine.  ^  "" 


The  Swiss  merely  shrugged  their  shoulders.  In  con- 
sidering any  strategical  operation  over  Swiss  territory 
the  Allies  and  the  Central  Empires  cannot  be  regarded 
as  being  on  the  same  footing.  It  would  be  ^against  all 
logic  because  in  its  successive  stages  a  war  is  always  more 
or  less  linked  up  with  its  beginnings,  by  which  I  mean  the 
primary  intentions  and  the  ultimate  objects  of  those  who 
are  waging  it.  Now  in  this  respect  there  is  a  great  differ- 
ence between  the  Germanic  States  and  those  of  the 
Quadruple  Entente. 

The  Central  Empires  began  the  war  with  the  object  of 
establishing  a  powerful  organisation  of  German  dominance 
in  Europe,  and  they  have  used  all  the  means  which  they 
thought  would  accomplish  this :  occupation  of  the 
coasts  opposite  the  co-existing'  naval  power  of  Eng- 
land ;  capture  of  strong  fortress  positions  to  serve  both 
for  defence  and  offence  on  the  front  of  the  Slav  peoples  ; 
opening  up  roads  to  the  Mediterranean  and  to  the 
Eastern  Seas.  Having  done  that  much  they  explained 
to  their  adversaries,  rather  ingenuously  perhaps,  that 
they  had  achieved  their  object  and  therefore  they  offered 
peace. 

Now  that  their  adversaries  have  refused  peace  and 
the  war  is  still  going  on,  it  would  not  be  surprising  if  the 
Central  Empires  were  to  continue  to  use  the  methods  which 
they  think  have  contributed  to  their  military  purpose, 
methods  unrestrained  by  any  scruples  whatever.  Ger- 
man warfare  never  handicaps  itself  by  anything  which 
might  entail  difficulty  in  the  employment  of  military  forces. 
Consequently,  if  German  Generals  thought  that  Switzer- 
land did  present  such  a  difficulty  they  would  not  treat 
her  with  any  more  consideration  than  Luxemburg  and 
Belgium.  Their  ultimate  object  is  the  only  thing  they 
consider,  and  the  methods  to  attain  it.  The  ultimate 
object  of  military  domination  over  peoples  freely  makes 
use  of  those  methods  available  by  force. 

The  warfare  of  the  Allies  proclaims  an  intention 
diametrically  opposed  to  that  of  the  Central  Empires. 
Its  object  is  the  equality  of  nations,  based  upon  their 
right  to  control  their  own  destiny.  In  Mr.  Wilson's 
w6rds,  it  may  be  said  that  its  purpose  is  to  create  a 
Europe  which  recognises  and  accepts  the  principle  that 
Governments  derive  their  power  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed,  and  where  the  peoples  cannot  be  handed  over 
from  potentate  to  potentate  as  if  they  were  mere 
chattels. 

Opposite  objects  involve  opposite  methods.  It  is 
natural  that  a  German  war  made  to  violate  the  rights  of 
nations  .should  not  hesitate  to  employ  methods  which 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


Fclirnary  22,  1917 


\ioIatc  all  rig;lits,  but  it  would  be  a  contradiction  that  an 
Allied  war  wluch  professed  to  defend  the  rights  should 
stoop  to  methods  which  violate  them.  Consequently 
ck)niination  by  force,  an  issence  of  war,  can  only  be 
directed  by  the  latter  upon  tlie  enemy  and  nut  u))(in 
peoples  wiio  ri'spcct  their  international  obligations  ami 
who  keep  within  the  limits  of  their  own  legitimate  and 
prescriptive  sovereign  rights. 

Even  if  we  were  U)  admit  that  certain  contingencies 
imperati\  ely  required  a  belligerent  who  desired  to  respect 
the  rights  of  others  to  violate  neutral  territory  in  order 
to  achieve  his  purpose  and  destroy  his  enemy— which 
was  the  attitude  (iermany  professed  to  have  adopted 
in  the  case  of  Belgium  at  the  beginning  of  the  war- 
there  would  still  be  a  difference  between  him  and  the 
belUgerent  whose  purpose  was  domination.  While  the 
latter- would  be  under  no  necessity  to  throw  any  scruples 
overboard  the  former  would  ha\'e  to  satisfy  himself  of 
the  existence  of  the  imperative  riecessity.'  Violation  of 
the  rights  of  others  when  deemed  necessary,  is  part  of 
the  normal  conduct  of  the  belligerent  whose  object  is 
domination  ;  he  will  resort  to  it  readily  because  it  is  to 
his  advantage.  It  is  against  the  normal  action  of  the 
belligerent  who  wishes  to  resjiect  right  ;  he  will  only  resort 
to  it  at  the  last  ])ossible  moment,  and  only,  so  to  speak, 
in  self-defence. 

The  present  war  furnishes  \'ery  precise  examples  of 
these  opposite  \iews.  The  Central  Empires  have  ne\'er 
hesitated  for  a  moment  to  invoke  their  superior  might 
without  the  least  regard  to  the  limits  of  their  right. 
Serbia  only  had  to  make  one  timid  reservation  in  her 
submission  to  the  demands  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
ultimatum  and  ihe  guns  opened  fire  upon  Belgrade.  In 
twelve  hours  Belgimn  served  as  a  demonstration  of  the 
(ierman  theory  that  alleged  necessity  makes  law.  As 
for  Luxemburg,  she  was  simply  treated  as  non-existent. 
Recalling  all  these  things  one  realises  the  insuperable 
rock  of  distrust  against  \vhich  the  present  anxious  \en- 
tures  of  the  Central  Empires  are  breaking. 

With  regard  to  t*ae  Allies,  the  Goeben  and  Breslau 
incidents  and  the  events  in  Greece  testify  to  their 
imwillingness  to  let  might  have  precedence  of  right. 
Matters  are  dealt  with  politically  which  it  would  be  ten 
times  more  profitable  to  deal  with  militarily.  This 
solicitude  has  been  carried  to  the  point  of  contradicting 
the  very  principles  of  war  and  of  compromising  the 
needs  of  the  Allies.  These  comparisons  show  more 
clearly  than  an\i;lung  else  could  do  how  greatly  the 
objects  of  a  war  influence  the  methods  emploj'cd,  and 
nothing  could  better  explain  why  when  the  German 
press  warned  the  Swiss  of  a  possible  violation  of  their 
territory  by  the  Allien  they  merely  shrugged  their 
shoulders. 

A  German  Invasion 

The  idea  that,  on  the  other  hand,  a  German  army 
might  be  capable  of  marching  through  Switzerland  has 
not  met  everywhere  with  such  complete  scepticism. 
Belief  in  it  is  based  upon  the  \'ery  good  argument  of  the 
invasion  of  Luxemburg  and  Belgium  in  i()i4,  and  also 
on  the  entire  lack  of  scruple  shown  by  Cierman  Imperalism 
when  deeming  itself  the  strongest.  It  only  entertains 
scruples  and  is  solicitous  of  the  rights  <;f  nations  when 
it  is  doubtful  about  their  state  of  preparedness.  Its 
"  notes"  of  the  last  few  weeks  are  eloquent  demonstrations 
of  this  truth. 

To  these  two  arguments  which  are  made  valid  b\- 
facts  that  ha\c  happened  some  excitable  jwrsons  add 
others  which  appear  less  convincing.  The  German 
armies,  they  say,  are  held  up  everywhere  at  the  present 
time  and  utterly  imable  to  press  their  ad\'ersaries  back 
at  any  point,  to  any  appreciable  extent.  The  German 
fronts  rest  upon  the  North  Sea  and  on  Switzerland  on 
one  side  and  from  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea  on  another  ; 
the  same  is  true  of  the  Allied  fronts.  Swiss  territory 
offers  the  sole  solution  of  the  problem  of  extension.  Now 
the  Germans  havp  always  aimed  at  extending  their  line 
of  battle  in  the  direction  of  empty  spaces,  with  the  main 
object  of  encircling  the  enemy  fronts.  They  will,  there- 
fore, pass  through  Switzerland,  a  more  or  less  unoccupied 
space,  whence  it  is  still  possible  to  encircle  the  Western 
front. 

Other  people  propound  tFie  other  theory  of  "  desperate 


measures."  An  offensive  through  Switzerland,  they 
])rotest,  would  be  fraught  with  risks  for  the  Germans ; 
but  when  one  has  no  choice  of  means  left  one  uses  any 
there  are.  All  other  methods  having  failed,  the  tiermans 
will  maki:  use  of  any  fonc  they  have  not  tried.  Does 
not  the  sliijjwrecked  sailor  clutch  at  any  plank  to  sa\c 
hims<'lf  from  drowning  ? 

We  will  leave  comparisons  alone ;  they  are  always 
dangerous.  We  will  merely  point  out  that  the  ship- 
wrecked German  must  ha\'e  lost  his  head  more  completely 
than  there  are  grounds  to  suppose  if  he  would  adopt 
a  strategy  which  failed  to  take  elementary  situations 
into  account,  and  failed  to  see  behind  the  trenches  dug 
by  the  Swiss  soldiers  along  their  frontier,  all  the  trenches 
dug  by  the  French  in  their  territory  along  the  Jura  and 
by  the  Italians  in  theirs  along  the  Alps. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  arguments  suggested  above 
entirely  overlook  the  essential  character  of  trench  war- 
fare, wliicii  assumes  the  assembling  of  formidable  material 
to  push  back  or  to  penetrate  a  fortified  front.  The 
main  difficulty  confronting  the  belligerents  is  in  providing 
their  armies  with  a  sufficiency  of  gims  and  munitions  in 
the  sectors  where  they  are  attempting  an  offensive..  In 
passing  through  Switzerland  (iermany  would  have  to 
solve  the  ])roblcm  twice.  She  would  have  to  succeed 
twice — on  the  Rhine  and  behind  the  Jura — in  doing  what 
she  failed  to  do  on  the  Yser,  before  Ypres,  at  Soissons, 
Verdun  and  Nancy,  and  succeed,  moreover,  in  the  more 
difficult  conditions  of  the  much  more  broken  terraiii  of 
Switzerland  with  the  Swiss  army  added  as  reinforcements 
to  the  AlHes. 

(To  be  continued). 


I^abrador  is  Dr.  Wilfred  Grenfell's  own  country ;  it  is  he 
who  has  discovered  it  for  the  majority  of  Britons,  and  in  this 
new  collection  of  stories  (Tales  of  ihe  Labrador.  Nisbet 
4s.  6d.  net)  he  again  brings  home  to  us  the  extraordinary 
fortitude  of  white  men  amid  these  inhospitable  wintry  wastes. 
"  We  err  rather  on  the  side  of  being  too  well  satisfied  with 
what  we  have  than  on  that  of  being  over  anxious  about 
to-morrow."-  Through  all  these  tales,  whether  .tliey  tell 
of  fishermen,  traders  or  Eskimo,  tliere  runs  a  curious  strain 
of  reckless  improvidence,  backed  by  resolute  courage,  which 
is  no  doubt  the  result  of  the  tremendous  risks  which  have  to 
be  taken  in  order  to  earn  a  livelihood  on  sea  and  ice  and 
amid  the  blizzard-smitten  wastes  and  snow-laden  forests.  The 
last  story  in  the  book  is  perhaps  the  most  vivid.  It  relates 
the  exodus  of  an  Eskimo  settlement  across  the  ice  in  search 
of  a  Promised  I-and.  The  land  was  found,  and  for  years 
plenty  abounded ;  then  came  dearth,  and  it  were  vital  either 
to  go  backward  or  to  push  on.  I^ut  for  Kommak,  the  Moses 
of  the  exodus,  all  must  have  perished.  Why  they  did  not 
must  be  left  to  the  reader.  "  Uncle  Eige's  Story,"  telling  how 
Mamie  Sparks  came  home  to  Peace  Haven  for  her  burial  is 
as  fine  a  sea  story  as  has  been  indited.  But  the  book 
is  one  to  be  read  from  cover  to  cover ;  it  takes  the  reader 
to  new  scenes,  and  teaches  him  yet  again  the  old  old 
lesson  that  given  faith  man  is  unconquerable. 

A  well-deser^•ed  tribute  to  the  work  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  is 
paid  in  One  Young  Man,  (Hodder  and  Stoughton.  is.  net), 
which  is  the  story  of  a  clerk  who  cnUsted  in  1914  and  fought 
through  to  the  battle  of  the  Somme,  where  he  was  so  severely 
wounded  as  to  be  incapacitated  for  further  service.  Mr.  J. 
E.  Hodder  Williams,  who  has  edited  the  work,  has  confined  it 
mainly  to  the  letters  of  the  clerk  concerned,  in  which  is  con- 
tained an  excellent  description  of  the  actual  work  at  the  front 
together  with  glimpses  of  the  very  efficient  way  in  which  the 
Y.M.C.A.  makes  comfort  for  the  men  both  in  training  stations 
at  home,  and  out  in  the  fighting  areas.  Records  of  war  ex- 
periences are  plentiful  enough,  but  the  work  of  the  Y.M.C.A. 
deserves  all  the  recognition  that  can  be  accorded  it,  and  for  that 
reason  alone  this  little  work  is  heartily  welcome. 

A  Liltle  World  Apart,  by  George  Stevenson  (John  Lane. 
6s.)  is  a  novel  that  chronicles  no  sensational  happenings, 
yet  to  withdraw  the  reader's  mind  from  present-day  con- 
fusion to  a  quiet  scene  in  the  early  seventies  and  there  compel 
attention  to  its  actors  is  an  achievement  for  which  one  may 
well  be  grateful  to  the  author.  Applethwaite,  the  name  of 
the  country  village  in  which  the  story  is  set,  suggests  a  place 
kept  quietly  alive  with  gossip,  kindly  or  otherwise,  but  even 
Applethwaite  has  its  own  story,  which  is  that  of  the  vicar 
and  his  daughters,  their  friends,  and  the  fascinating  and 
mysterious  lady  who  comes  to  live  among  tliem.  With  its 
flavour  of  lavender  and  old  lace,  it  is  an  excellent  book  for 
a  fireside  evening. 


February  22,  njiy 


LAND    &    WATER 

Herr  Leutnant 

By  Centurion 


15 


Centurion  gave  a  pen  portrait  of  a  British  Lieutenant 
in  Land  &  Water  two  weeks  ago.  This  is,  so  to  speak, 
a  companion  sketch.     Both  have  been  drawn  from  life. 

THIS  story  is  prehistoric.  That  is  to  say  it 
belongs  to  a  time  before  tlie  fateful  fourth  of 
August,  1 91 4.  To  be  precise,  I  think  it  was  in 
the  year  1906.  I  had  gone  to  Wiesbaden  for  a 
cure  for  gastric  trouble  in  a  "  Klinik  "  run  by  a  doctor, 
one  Herr  Gothein,  who  boasted  a  European  reputation 
for  the  treatment  of  such  maladies.  He  was  a  Jew,  short 
dark,  stout,  with  enormous  hands  which  when  they 
massaged  you  kneaded  you  like  dough.  His  head 
was  shaped  like  a  note  of  interrogation — a  head  of 
the  type  that  is  to  be  seen  by  the  thousand  in  the 
ghettoes  of  Whitechapel  and  among  the  eschatological 
remains  in   the   tombs  of  Memphis. 

The  house  was  pleasantly  situated  on  a  slope  leading 
up  to  the  Taunus  woods.  It  was  of  the  usual  type  of  the 
more  pretentious  German  houses — staring  white  stucco 
ornamented  with  plaster  Cupids  with  fat  buttocks  whose 
sensual  figures  adhered  like  parasites  to  the  walls  and 
balconies.  It  seemed  to  ha\c  been  designed  by  an 
erotic  pastrycook  rather  than  by  an  architect.  A  verandah 
ran  along  the  front  of  it. 

The  "  klinik  " — which  in  England  would  be  called  a 
private  nursing  home  attached  to  a  .specialist's  practice- 
contained  about  forty  patients,  or  guests  as  they  pre- 
ferred to  be  called.  It  was  fitted  up  with  electric 
batteries,  electric  baths,  pine  baths,  and  the  usual  furni- 
ture of  a  nursing  home,  including  an  enormous  number 
of  wicker  easy-chairs  which  lay  in  wait  everywhere  for 
the  nialadc  iviaginairc.  a  profitable  type  of  patient  which 
Herr  Doktor  Gothein  did  not  altogether  discourage  pro- 
vided tliey  paid  a  fat  deposit.  I  studied  the  guests  at 
dinner  on  the  night  of  my  arrival  after  I  had  studied  the 
menu,  which  contained  the  usual  "  Suppe  "  and 
"  Kalbsflcisch"  together  with  a  number  of  dishes  which 
seemed  designed,  as  perhaps  they  were,  to  accentuate 
gastric  trouble  rather  than  to  alleviate  it.  They  were 
grossly  sweet  and  every  dish  was  served  in  a  little  bog  of 
thick  gravy  or  thicker  syrup.  Upon  these  dishes  the 
guests  fell  voraciously,  lapping  up  their  contents  with 
loud  gurgles,  chuckles,  and  sounds  suggestive  of  the 
emptying  of  a  bath  when  the  waste'-plug  has  been 
released.  Occasionally  they  found  time  to  grunt 
"  Ausgezeichnet." 

The  women  did  not  attract  me— except  one.  They 
had  the  usual  florid  complexions,  hips  that  might  have 
sat  to  Rubens  for  some  of  his  grosser  figures,  hair  of  a 
bleached  yellow,  large  hands  and  larger  feet.  But  there 
was  one  who  was  both  young  and  pretty.  She  sat  next 
a  big  ungainly  man  with  hands  like  porterhouse  steaks, 
whom  I  judged,  by  the  indifference  with  which  he  treated 
her,  to  be  her  husband.  On  the  other  side  of  her  was  an 
empty  chair  from  which  she  glanced  to  the  door  at 
intervals.  At  such  moments  her  husband  in  turn  glanced 
at  her.  But  most  of  his  time  he  gave  to  his  food.  Having 
finished  his  soup  he  lubbed  his  hands  complacently  as 
though  he  were  washing  them  with  invisible  soap,  and 
seemed  well  pleased  with  himself. 

Suddenly  the  door  opened  and  a  chorus  of  voices 
shouted  beatilically :  "  Ah-h  Herr  Leutnant!"  A 
youngish  man  of  about  thirty,  in  mufti,  entered,  and 
clicking  his  heels  together  .bowed  from  the  hips  ex- 
aggeratedly. He  had  a  small,  rather  conical  head 
broader  at  the  base  of  the  skull  than  at  the  top,  as  though 
Nature  had  put  \\\f,  head  on  upside  down,  high  cheek- 
bones, a  sensual  mouth  under  a  moustache  like  chopped 
straw,  horse-hke  teeth  which  he  displayed  in  a  grin  that 
was  meant  to  be  a  smile,  and  rather  prominent  ears.  It 
is  a  type  you  may  see  by  the  thousand  in  the  Friedrich- 
strasse  m  Berlin.  He  sat  down  in  the  emptv  chair  to 
the  left  of  the  lady,  and  laid  his  liand  on  his  heart  and 
bowed  hke  a  dancing-master.  Th,.  lady  blushed,  th(> 
husband  scowled,  the  guests  tittered  and  exchanged 
satirical  glances.  The  lieutenant,  having  devoured 
his  soup  and  wiped  his  moustache  with  his  serviette, 
put  his  elbows  on  the;  table  and  proceeded  to  talk  .to 


Madam,  who  lowered  her  eyes  under  a  gaze  that  made 
no  pretence  of  not  being  ardent.  The  husband  scowled 
the  more,  but  a  timely  word  thrown  at  him  by  the  lieu- 
tenant, like  a  bone  to  a  dog,  almost  restored  his  good 
humour,  and  when  the  lieutenant  reached  behind  the 
lady's  chair  and  slapped  him  on  the  back  at  some 
pleasantry,  his  good  humour  seemed  convalescent  and 
his  gratification  was  obvious.  After  all,  it  is  not  every 
day  that  the  commercial  class,  the  Kaufleute,  are  slapped 
on  the  back  by  a  lieutenant  in  the  Kaiser's  Own  Regiment 
of  Pomeranian  Hussars.  By  the  end  of  dinner  they 
were  apparently  boon  companions,  and  frequently 
exchanged  disparaging  remarks  about  women  in  general, 
dismissing  the  whole  sex  with  "  Ach  !  nur  die  Damen  1  " 
The  lieutenant  seemed  to  have  forgotten  the  lady,  who 
sat  marooned  between  them,  but  I  noticed  that  she  and 
the  lieutenant  exchanged  furtive  glances  at  times. 

The  meal  concluded,  Herr  Doktor  Gothein  rose,  and 
with  him  the  rest  rose  also,  their  faces  shining  with  the 
oily  dishes  they  had  consumed.  Everyone  bowed  to  his 
neighbour  and  said  "  Mahlzeit  !  "  which  is  a  kind  of  social  • 
grace  offered  up  to  the  god  of  the  belly  and  is  not  un- 
charitably translated  "  A  Good  Feed  to  you  !  " 

We  adjourned  to  the  terrace.  It  was  a  hot  summer 
evening  and  the  verandah  was  dimly  lighted  with  Chinese 
lanterns.  The  husband  sat  on  the  right  hand  side  of  the 
lady,  the  Lieutenant  on  the  left  ;  the  rest  of  us  were 
grouped  round  about.  I  began  talking  with  Herr  Doktor 
about  Goethe  ;  he  called  for  a  volume  of  the  Gedichte 
and  said  in  German,  "  I  will  read  some  to  you."  The 
lady  said,  "Ach!  reizcnd !  Lcscn  Sic  cin  Licbeslied, 
Herr  Doktor,  Bitte !  "  {"  How  charming  !  Read  us  one 
of  the  love-songs,  doctor,  do  please  !"  ) 

And  the  doctor,  who  like  most  Jews '  had  a  strong 
histrionic  strain  in  him,  was  nothing  loth,  and  with 
simian  movements  of  his  prognathous  jaw,  his  eyebrows, 
and  his  disengaged  left  hand  read  in  a  sentimental  voice 
the  poem  Ndhe  des  Gelieblen  ("Near  the  Beloved.")  ; 
*  Ich  bin  bet  dir ;  du  seiot  auch  noch  so  feme, 
Du  bist  mir  nah  ! 

The  lady  lay  back  in  her  easy-chair  luxuriously,  with  her 
eyes  on  the  roof  of  the  verandah.  The  Lieutenant  took 
his  cigar  out  of  his  mouth,  and,  talking  across  her  with 
ostentatious  indifference,  he  remarked  to  the  husband 
that  love  was  a  thing  he  had  no  use  for,  a  sentiment  with 
which  the  latter  entirely  identified  himself.  At  times 
the  husband  went  one  better  in  the  expression  of  these 
exalted  sentiments,  as  though  to  show  that  he  too  moved 
in  the  best  circles.  But  I  noticed  that  as  the  doctor 
continued  to  read  aloud,  a  rapt  expression  stole  over 
the  lady's  face.  Her  left  hand  was  hangihg  limply  over 
the  side  of  the  chair  and  in  the  obscurity  I,  who  sat 
behind,  suddenly  saw  another  hand,  large  and  muscular, 
stroking  it  stealthily.     It  was   the  Lieutenant's. 

Meanwhile,  Herr  Doktor  continued  to  read  melli- 
fiuously  until,  growing  more  and  more  sentimental,  his 
voice  grew  husky  and  tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks. 
He  was  now  reading  Trost  im  Thrdnen."  ("Trust  in 
the  midst  of  Tears.")  He  had  just  reached  the  lines— 
]Vnd  liab'ich  einsani  audi  gcwcint 
So  isi's  mein  cigner  Schmerz. 
when  something  brushed  against  his  feet  and  he  stopped. 
It  was  his  dog,  which  had  hitherto  been  lying  by  the 
side  of  the  lady's  chair,  but  had  by  this  time  apparently 
found  the  explorations  of  the  Lieutenant's  hand  in  his 
neighbourhood  getting  tirdsome.  The  guests  began  to 
talk  loudly  and  the  doctor,  finding  his  mastery  of  his 
audience  gone,  kicked  the  dog  heavily  and  in  a  voice  still 
broken  by  histrionic  emotion,  called  him  a  "  verdammcrt 
hund."     The  dog  limped  away  howling.  1 

The  spell,  such  as  it  was,  was  brokcrt.     I  went  to  bed. 

The  next  day  the  Lieutenant  accosted  me. 

"  Ein  Englander,  Ja  ?  "  he  said, 

"  Yes,"  I  said. 

"  Ah  !   Your  King  Edward  is  honorary  colonel  of  our 

•  ."  I  am  with  thee.     Be  thou  ever  so  far,  thou  art  near  me." 

♦  '■  And  if  I  have  also  wept  alone,  tlien  ia  my  sorrow  my  own." 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  22,  1917 


regiment.     But  he  has  never  given  us  any  plate  for  the 
mess." 

He  proceeded  to  inform  me  that  his  was  an  East 
Prussian  family,  and  that  from  father  to  son  it  had 
furnished  an  officer  to  the  same  regiment  since  the  Thirty 
Years  War.  Also  that  his  grandfather  had  been  at 
Waterloo  with  Bliicher.     Then  we  went  for  a  walk. 

"  Do  you  drink  ?  "  he  said.     He  had  noticed  that  I 
had  been  abstemious  at  dinner  overnight.     And,  when  I 
come  to  think  of  it,  he  seemed  to  notice  everything. 
"  Not  much,"  I  said. 

"  Ah  !  "  he  rephed,  "  then  you  are  not  an  officer  ?  " 
This  puzzled  me.     "  No,  not  yet,  but  why  ?  " 
"  No  man   can  make  a  good  officer,  unless  he  gets 
drunk  sometimes,"     he   affirmed. 

I  ventured  to  dispute  this.  "  An  officer  who  gets  dnmk 
on  active  service  in  the  British  army  is  cashiered,"  I 
explained. 

"  Donnerwetter  !  That's  why  you  have  such  a  bad 
army,"  he  retorted.  "  One  must  get  drunk  or  one  gets 
soft.     And  eat  !     Look  how  I  oat !  " 

I  had  looked.  He  worried  a  bone  like  a  hon  at  the 
Zoo. 

Perhaps  he  divined  my  train  of  thought.  "  We 
Germans-^we  do  not  believe  in  carrving  table-manners 
too  far.  We  believe  in  hardening  (ab-hdrden)  ourselves. 
We  are  not  hke  the  French — Bah  !  " 

He  hked  this  word  Ab-hardcn  "  and  used  it  often. 
"  There's  my  boy  for  instance."  This  was  the  first  and 
only  hint  I  ever  had  that  he  was  married  ;  he  never  so 
much  as  mentioned  his  wife — "  I  have  to  beat  him 
— regularly,  once  a  month.  Just  a  touch  of  the  belt 
you  know." 
V"  But  is  he  very  troublesome  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Troublesome  !  "  he  said,  in  astonishment.     "  Trouble- 
some !     Ach  !  nein,  if  he  troubled  me,  I'd  trouble  him." 
"  Why  thrash  him  then  ?  "  I  asked. 
He  seemed  astonished  at  my  stupidity.     "  To  harden 
him,  of  course,"  he  said.     "  Himmel !  what  for  else  ?  " 

He  digressed  to  the  subject  of  women.  Every 
man,  he  informed  me,  should  make  a  conquest — he 
was  not  delicate  about  disguising  what  he  meant — 
of  as  many  women  as  possible.  It  "  hardened  "  him. 
Every  woman,  he  opined,  could  be  subjugated  sooner 
ov  later.  There  was  the  pretty  merchant's  wife,  he  said, 
dreamily,  a  nice  little  piece  of  goods,  "  Ja?  " 

But  at  this  I  turned  the  conversation  and  we  ended  on 
a  somewhat  heated  dispute  as  to  whether  Wellington  or 
Blucher  won  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 

In  the  afternoon,  when  the  guests  were  taking  coffee 
and  Schlagsahne  on  the  verandah,  the  two  children  of 
Herr  Doktor  invited  me  to  play  with  them.  One  of 
them  proposed  a  jumping  bout.  At  the  long  iump 
I  did  not  do  so  badly— the  guests  applauded  languidly. 
At  this  the  Lieutenant  left  his  place  by  the  side  of  the 
merchant's  wife  and  offered  to  jump  against  me.  He 
was  very  heavily  built  and  at  the  first  go  off  I  beat  him 
by  about  eighteen  inches.  At  this  he  threw  off  his 
coat  and  jumped  again ,\this  time  reducing  my  advantage 
to  about  a  foot.  I  took  a  long  run  and  tucking  my  feet 
under  mp  as  I  sprang  I  beat  his  new  mark  by  eighteen 
inches.  Each  jump  was  marked  by  a  bit  of  paper 
stuck  in  the  grass  with  a  stick.  My  attention  was 
momentarily  distracted  by  one  of  the  children,  and  as  I 
turned  round  again  I  saw  Herr  Leutnant  surreptitiously 
moving  my  own  record  back  with  his  hand. 

At  that  I  put  on  my  coat  and  refused  to  jump  any 
more.  The  Lieutenant  noisily  proclaimed  that  I  had 
retired  to  avoid  defeat,  and  the  whole  verandah,  who 
had  been  following  everything  with  eager  attention, 
applauded  his  victory. 

Perhaps  he  was  not  altogether  satisfied,  for  that  night 
at  dinner  he  threw  out  a  conversational  challenge  which 
was  obviously  meant  for  me,  as  I  was  the  only  English- 
man present.  The  Enghsh  Army,  he  declared,  had  never 
won  a  battle.  Oh,  yes  !  they  had  mown  down  Matabele 
and  Dervishes  with  Ma.vim  guns,  but  on  the  Continent- 
No  !  Blenheim  and  Ramillies  came  into  rny  mind  and 
I  uttered  them.  He  dismissed  them  with  a  wave  of 
his  soup-spoon — they  were  won  by  Allies  ("  Verbundeten"). 
To  Talavera,  Badajos,  Ciudad  Rodrigo  the  Lieutenant's 
answer  was  the  same,  "  Die  Verbundeten."  Whenever 
he  repeated  these  words  the  whole  table  clapped  their 
hands,  nodded  at  each  other  like  clock-work  dolls,  and 


shouted  "/«.' /rt  /  Die.  Verbundeten."  They  continued 
to  shout  these  words  at  intervals  as  though  they  were 
"  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians." 

.'Vfter  the  tumult  had  subsided  1  said  quietly,  "  And 
I  suppose,  Herr  Leutnant,  you  will  also  say  that  wo 
have  never  won  a  battle  at  sea.    No  ?  " 

The  Lieutenant  parried  :  "  You  have  never  beaten  the 
German  Navy,"  lie  said  pugnaciously.  And  the  Babel 
broke  out  afresh.  Heated  with  wine  and  food  the  guests 
brandished  their  knives  and  forks  like  knuckle-dusters. 
But  Herr  Dokter  Gothein,  who  had  taken  no  part  in 
the  conversation,  and  was  watching  me  the  whole  time 
with  his  shrewd  Jewish  eyes  from  under  their  half-moon 
lids,  here  intervened.  He  had  English  people  among 
his  clientele  from  time  to  time  and  perhaps  he  thought 
things  were  going  too  far.  So  he  rose  hastily  and  said, 
"  Mahlzeit."  Then  they  all  rose  also  and  with  a  chorus 
of  "  Mahlzeit !  "  "  Mahlzeit,"  they  tricked  out  into  the 
verandah. 

The  next  day  the  lady's  husband,  who  had  business  in 
Munich  which  would  keep  him  away  for  several  days,  de- 
parted for  the  station.  The  Lieutenant  offered  to  see 
him  off,  at  which  he  was  greatly  pleased,  and  together  they 
strolled  down  the  hill  to  the  station. 

"  Ach  !  now  we  shall  see  some  f un  "  said  the  guests 
to  one  another  as  they  watched  the  retreating  figures. 

My  Badmann  as  he  prepared  my  pine  bath  that 
morning  and  laid  out  the  towels,  speculated  freely  on 
the  Lieutenant's  siege  of  the  lady  as  to  the  issue  of 
which  he  had  no  doubt.  But  finding  me  in  no  mood 
for  such  pleasantries,  he  began  talking  Virgil.  He 
knew  the  larger  part  of  the  sixth  book  of  the  .Eneid  by 
heart.  An  odd  man,  that  Badmann  !  You  would 
hardly  expect  an  English  bath  attendant  to  recite 
Virgihan  hexameters.  He  knew  England  well,  too — some 
parts  of  it,  Sheerness,  Portsmouth,  Devonport,  better 
than  I  knew  them  myself. 

That  night  the  Lieutenant  resumed  his  siege  of  the 
lady — this  time  without  any  armistice.  But  she  seemed 
to  hesitate  and  I  observed  some  coolness  between  them. 
Thereupon  the  Lieutenant  devoted  himself  to  a  fat 
Hausjrau  on  the  other  side  of  his  chair,  and  left  the 
merchant's  wife  severely  alone.  Her  solitude  became  so 
marked  as  to  be  distressing.  The  men  were  afraid  to 
speak  to  her  for  fear  of  the  Lieutenant.  The  womeri, 
who  had  hitherto  fawned  on  her,  now  showed  her  their 
cold  displeasure,  feeling,  doubtless,  that  she  was  dethroned 
and  giving  vent  to  the  fehne  jealousy  that  ravaged 
them.     She  retired  early  in  a  state  of  obvious  distress. 

The  next  day  there  was  still  a. coolness.  The  Lieutenant 
despatched  a  telegram. 

Two  days  later  a  large  parcel  arrived  after  dinner 
for  the  Lieutenant  and  was  taken  up  to  his  room.  In  the 
morning  we  were  all  sitting  at  our  informal  breakfast 
in  the  dining-room  when  the  door'  opened  and  the 
Lieutenant  appeared,  gorgeous  in  a  Hussar  uniform  of 
sky-blue  with  white  facings  and  Hessian  boots.  A  long 
intonation  of  "  Ah-h-h  "  went  round  the  room  as  he 
sat  down  and  called  imperiously  for  his  "  Brodchen  " 
and  coffee.  All  eyes  were  fixed  on  the  merchant's 
wife.  She  raised  her  eyes  to  the  Lieutenant,  lowered 
them,  and  blushed  deeply. 

.That  night  the  lady  retired  early.  So  did  the  Lieutenant. 
Whereat  the   guests   sniggered  "  among  themselves  and 

seemed  to  be  mightily  amused. 

*  Ik  «         *         * 

You  may  not  like  this  story.  Neither  do  I,  and  I  like 
it  the  less  because  it  happens  to  be  true. 


"  Seven  Day's  Leave,"  which  has  just  been  produced  at 
the  I.-yceum  Theatre,  is  generally  regarded  as  the  finest 
melodrama- which  has  been  staged  in  London  in  recent  years. 
There  is  a  note  in  the  writing  of  it  which  attains  at  times  true 
eloquence,  and  the  incidents,  whicii  are  many  and  exciting, 
carry  conviction.  The  great  scene  is  the  sinking  of  a  U  boat, 
which  arouses  immense  enthusiasm.  It  is  a  melodrama, 
which  even  those  superior  persons  who  affect  to  despise  this 
form  of  stagecraft  would  find  pleasure  in,  for  the  acting 
throughout  is  first-rate.  Miss  .^nnie  Saker,  the  heroine,  Mr. 
Alfred  Paumier,  the  British  officer  on  leave,  and  Mr.  Leslie 
Carter  being  especially  admirable.  But  the  whole  company 
is  greatly  above  the  average ;  they  work  so  well  together. 
It  is  good  to  hear  the  applause  at  the  end  of  the  acts,  so 
wholehearted  and  enthusiastic  is  it. 


February  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


17 


Members    of   the    Ministry 

SINCE  Mr.  Lloyd  George  became  Prime  Minister,  the  Cabinet  has  been  greatly  reduced  and  Ministers  largely 
increased.  At  the  moment  Ministers  of  State  number  34  ;  Under-Secretaries,  Parliamentary  Secretaries  and  others 
holding  positions  in  the  Administration,  though  not  all  paid,  51,  or  in  all  85.  This  is  greatlj'  in  excess  of  the 
normal,  and  as  every  day  new  appointments  are  made,  the  figures  must  not  be  accepted  as  final.  Th^  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  has  stated  in  the  House  that  the  salaries  paid  to  the  34  Ministers  amount  to  ;^I33,500.  Of  course, 
these  figures  do  not  include  Private  Secretaries  who  more  than  double  the  number  and  are  persons  of  importance. 
Then,  of  course,  there  are  Committees,  some  appointed  to  assist  and  advise  particular  Departments  ;  others  to 
investigate  or  enquire  into  particular  policies,  acts  or  questions.  Neyer  in  the  history  of  the  country  has 
the    personnel    of   the     Government    reached    this   strength,  if    numbers    indeed    be    strength,    not    weakness; 

The  Cabinet  (5) 


Prime  Minis.tcr 

Lord  President  of  the  Council  and  Leader  of  the  House  of  L^ords 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons 
Minister  without  Portfolio 


Mr.  D.wid  Lloyd  George,  M.P. 

E.^RL   ClTRZON. 

Mr.  a.  Bo.v.ar  Law,  M.P. 

Viscount  Milner. 

Mr,  Arthur  Henderson,  M.P. 


Othei   Ministers  ot  the.  Grown  (29) 


Lord  Lieutenant  of  Lreland 
The  Lord  Chancellor 
Lord  Privy  Seal 
Secretary  for  the  Home  De- 
partment 
Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs 
Secretary  for  the  Colonies     . . 
Secretary  for  War 

Secretary  for  India    . . 

First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty   . . 

Alinisler  of  Blockade,  Under- 
Secretarv  for  Foreign  Affairs 

President  of  the  Board  of  Trade 

President  of  the  Local  Govern- 
^  ment  Board 

President  of  the  Board  of  Agri- 
culture 

President  of  the  Board  ot  Edu- 
cation 

Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lan- 
caster 

Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland     . . 

Secretary  for  Scotland 

First  Commissioner  of  Works 

Attorney  General 

Solicitor  General 

Minister  of  Munitions 

Posl-M aster  General  . . 

RLinister  of  Food  Control     . . 
Shipping  Controller   . . 
Minister  of  Labour    .  . 
President  of  the  Air  Ministry 
Pensions  Minister     . . 
Director-General  of  National 

Service 
Lord  Advocate 


Lord  Wim borne. 

Lord  Finl.a.v  of  Nairn. 

Earl  of  Crawford, 

I  Sir  George  C.we,  M.P. 

Mr.  Arthur  Balfour,  M.P. 

Mr.  Walter  Long,  M.P. 

Earl  of  Derby. 
1  Mr.    Austen   Chamberlain, 
J     M.P 

Sir  Edward  Carson,  M.P. 

JLORD  Robert  Cecil,  M.P. 

Sir  Albert  Stanley,  M.P. 
) Lord    Rhondda    of    Llan 
(     wern. 

I  Mr  R.  E.  ProtherO, 


M.P. 
Mr.  H.  a.  L.  Fisher,  M.P. 


(Sir  Frederick C.awley,  M.P. 

Mr.  H.  E.  Duke,  M.P. ' 

Mr.    R.    Munro,    M.P. 

Sir  Alfred  Mond,  M.P. 

Sir,  Frederick  Smith,  M.P. 

Sir  Gordon  'Hewart,  M.P. 

Dr.  C.  Addlson,  M.P. 
"I  Mr.    Albert    Illingworth, 
/     M.P. 

Lord  Devonport. 

Sir  Joseph  Maclay. 

Mr.  John  Hodge,  M.P. 

Lord  Cowdray. 

Mr.  G.  N.  Barnes,  M.P. 

JMr.  Neville  Chamberlain. 
Mr.  J.  A.  Clyde,  M.P. 


Subordinate  Ministers  (51) 


Solicitor-Ceneral  for  Scotland 
Attorney-General  for  Ireland 
Solicitor-GeKeral  for  Ireland  . 
Paymaster-General  •    . . 
Financial  Secretary  to  the 

Treasury 
Joint  Parliamentary  Secretaries 

to  the  Board  of  Agriculture 
Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the 

Board  of  Trade 

Parliamentary  Secretaries  to 
the  Ministry  of  Munitions 

Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the 

Board  of  Education 
Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the 

Local  Government  Board 


Mr.  T.  B.  Morison,  M.P. 
Mr.  James  O'Connor. 

^'^ACANT. 

Sir  J.  CoMPTON  Rickptt,  M.P. 

I  Sir  S.  H.  Lever.  , 

\  Duke  of  Marlborough. 
jSiR  R.  Winfrey,  M.P. 

Imr.  G.  H.  Roberts,  M.P. 

•jMr.  F.  Kellaway,  M.P. 
fSiR    Worthington    Evans, 
>     Bt.,  M.P. 

I  Mr.  J.  Herbert  Lewis,  M.P. 
(Mr.  W.  Hayes  Fisher,  M.P. 


Under-Secretary  to  the  Home 
Office 

Under-Secretary  to  the  Colonial 
Office 

lender-Secretary  to  the  India 
Office 

Under-Secretary  to   the    War 
Office 

Financial  Secretary  to  the  War 
Office 

Financial  Secretary  to  the 
A  dniirally 

Civil  Lord  of  the  Admiralty    . . 

Controller  of-  Coal  Mines 

Director-General  of  Food  Pro- 
duction      y 

Lord  Chancellor  of  Ireland     . . 

Vice-President  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  (Ireland) 

Joint-Parliamentary  Secre- 
taries to  the  Treasury 

Assistant  Post-Master  General 

Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the 

,      Air  Ministry  ^ 

Parliamentary  Secretaries  to 
the  Ministry  of  Food  Control 

Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the 
Ministry  of  Pensions 

Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the 
Ministry  of  Shipping  Con- 
trol 

Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the 
Ministry  of  Blockade 

Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the 
Ministry  of  Labour 

Lords  Commissioners  of  the 
Treasurer 

Junior  Lords  to  the  Treasury 

Lord  Steward  of  the  Household 

Treasurer  of  the  Household    . . 

Comptroller  of  the  Hous/hold 

Lord  Chamberlain  of  the 
Household. 

Vice-Chamberlain  of  the  House- 
hold 

Captain  of  the  Gentlemen  al 
Ayms 

Captain  of  the  Yeomen  of  the 
Guard 

Master  of  the  Horse 


]  Mr.  W.  Brace,  M.P. 

I  Mr.  a.  D   Steel  Maitland, 
i     M.P. 

I  Lord  Islington. 

JMr.  J.  L  Macpherson,  M.P. 

}Mr.  H.  W.  Forster,  M.P. 

[Mr.  T.  J.  Macnamara,  M.P. 
E.  J.   Pretyman,   M.P. 


Mr. 

Mr.  Guy  Calthorp 

I  Sir  Arthur  Lee,  M.P. 

Mr.    Ignatius   T."  O'Brien. 

|.Mr.  T.  W.  Russell,  M.P. 

\  Lord  Ed.mund  Talbot,  M.P, 
./Hon.  Neil  Primrose,  M.P. 
I  Mr.  Herbert  Pike  Pease, 
/     M.P. 

JMAjdR  J.  L.  Baird,  M.P. 

.  Capt.  Charles  Bathurst, 
I     M.P. 

Mr.  Stephen  Walsh,  M.P. 
-'      [not  yet  officially  'announced). 
^SiR  Arthur    Griffith   BoS; 
(     cawen,  M.P. 

1SiR  L.  G.  Chiozza-Money, 
}     M.P. 

I  Mr.  F.  Leverton  Harris, 
/     M.P. 

')Mr.  W.  C.  Bridgman,  M.P. 

I  Mr.  James  F.  Hope,  M.P. 
J  Mr.  J.  W.  Pratt,  M.P. 
1  Mr.  Stanley  Baldwin,  M.P, 

Mr.  James  Parker,  M.P. 
J  Mr.  Towyn  Jones,  M.P. 

Lord  Farquhar. 

Col.  J.  Craig,  M.P. 

Sir  Edwin  Cornwall,  M.P. 

Viscount  S.\ndhur.st. 

I  Mr.  Cecil  Beck,  M.P.- 

J 

\lord  Colebrooke. 


Lord  Suffield. 


Lords  in  Wailing 


Earl  of  Chesterfield. 
.Lord  Herschell.^ 

Lord  Kenyon. 
(Lord  Stanmore. 
I  Lord  Ranksborough. 
I  Viscount  V'alentia,  M.P. 

Lord  Hylton. 


i8 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


February  22 ,  1917 


ONE  of  the  most  illuminating  critical  remaiks 
ever  made  on  the  work  of  Mr.  H.  Ci.  Wells  is 
that  he  is  a  writer  who  conducts  his  own  educa- 
tion in  pubHc.  There  is  no  need  at  this  time  of 
day  to  dwell  oil  the  imagination,  the  logical  acumen  and 
tlie  grip  on  the  sensational  realities  of  an}'  of  his  subjects 
of  study  which  Mr.  Wells  brings  to  his  task.  The 
'  interesting  thing  is  what  he  happens  to  be  studying  at 
the  moment  and  what  progress  he  has  made  in  the 
subject.  Just  now  he  is,  of  course,  studying  the  war, 
and  the  contents  of  some  of  his  note-books  are  to  hand  in 
War  and  the  Fiiiurc  (Cassell  and  Co.,  6s.  net).  Most, 
if  not  all,  of  the  essays  herein  collected,  which  include 
impressions  of  visits  to  the  French  and  the  Italian  fronts, 
have  appeared  before  in  various  periodicals,  but  it  is 
interesting  to  have  them  all  together  and  to  note  the  sum 
total  of  the  impressions  produced  on  such  a  very  im- 
j)ressionable  mind — the  mind,  too,  of  a  Pacifist  who  has 
decided  to  see  the  war  througli.  His  work,  as  some 
critics  are  fond  of  asserting,  may  be  superficial,  but  it 
presents  a  brilliant  superficies,  like  that  of  pohshed  steel, 
that  reflects  a  great  deal. 

***** 

The  chief  impression  I  get  from  War  and  the  Future 
about  Mr.  Wells's  present  attitude  of  mind  is  that  he  has 
passed,  like  Mr.  Bottomley,  from  a  species  of  agnosticism 
to  a  species  of  Judaism,  but  that  while  Mr.  Bottomley 
has  stopped  short  at  the  Psalms,  Mr.  Wells  has  got  as 
far  as  Hosea.  However,  we  are  promised  a  further  book 
from  Mr.  Wells  on  his  discovery  that  the  Kingdom  of 
(iod  is  "  the  only  possible  ruling  idea  for  the  greatest, 
as  for  the  most  intimate  of  human  affairs,"  and  it  will 
perhaps  be  well  to  wait  for  that  before  examining  his 
way  out  of  "  this  muddy,  bloody,  wasteful  mess  of  a 
world  war."  Otherwise  I  find  in  the  book  a  varied, 
pro\-ocative  and  always  interesting  series  of  impressions 
and  opinions,  of  which  the  most  valuable  to  English 
readers  at  the  present  moment  are  those  which  present 
sympathetically  the  efforts  of  our  French  and  Italian 
Allies.  Quite  the  most  attractive-  pages  in  the  book 
contain  descriptions  of  visits  to  Joffre  and  the  King  of 
Italy,  men  whom  Mr.  Wells  contrasts  with  the  "  effigies  " 
which  he  hopes  the  war  will  cause  to  pass  away.  Mr. 
Wells  gives  as  an  example  of  the  effigy  "  an  imported 
Colonial  statesman,  who  was  being  advertised  like  a 
soap  as  the  coming  saviour  of  England  "  ;  and  appears 
to  mean  the  word  to  include  both  idols  and  symbols. 
It  is  a  characteristic  touch. 


Mr.  Wells  deals  with  many  things,  from  spurs,  wmch 
he  regards  as  symbols  of  our  miUtary  inefficiency,  to 
Tanks,  the  sj'mbols  of  our  efficiency,  from  the  National 
Mission,  which  is  "  touting  for  pew-rents  "  to  the  end 
of  the  war  about  wliich  he  re\ises  his  jirexious  prophecies. 
It  is  impossible  here  to  deal  witli  them  all,  but  I  still 
feel  that  something  is  wanting  to  complete  my  sug- 
gestions as  to  the  tone  of  the  book.  I  think  I  can  find  it 
in  a  sentence.  "  The  impression  I  ha\'e  of  the  present 
mental  process  in  the  European  communities  is  that 
while  the  official  class  and  ti)e  rentier  class  is  thinking  very 
poorly  and  inadequately  and  with  a  merely  obstructive 
disposition ;  while  the  churches  are  merely  wasting 
their  energies  in  futile  self-advertisement  ;  while  the 
labour  mass  is  suspicious  and  disposed  to  make  terms  for 
itself  rather  than  come  into  any  large  schemes  of  recon- 
struction that  will  abolish  profit  as  a  primary  aim  in 
economic  life,  there  is  still  a  very  considerable  movement 
towards  such  a  reconstruction."  In  fact,  as  Walt 
Whitman  says,  "  under  the  measureless  grossness  and 
the  slag,  nestles  the  seed,  perfection,"  but  Mr.  Wells, 
who  seems  to  have  so  mighty  poor  an  opinion  of  so  many 
people,  forbears  to  tells  us  in  so  many  words  who  knows 
where  or  how  it  is  to  be  found. 


Tlie  daj's  are  gone,   for  ever  let  us  hope,  when  the 
Briton's  interest  in   politics  stops  short    at  the    seas 


which  surround  these  islands.  \\'e  must  all  in  future 
be  good  Europeans  as  well  as  good  Englishmen  or  Scots- 
men or  Irishmen.  Consequently  we  must  welcome  all 
opportunities  of  studying  foreign  politics.  A  weekly 
opportunity  of  an  exceptionally  valuable  kind  is  providecl 
in  that  ably  conducted  magazine  The  New  Europe,  the 
first  completed  volume  of  which  is  now  before  me  (Con- 
stable and  Co.,  7s.  6d.  net).  Here  will  be  found  a  frank 
and  full  statement  of  the  \-arious  problems  of  foreign 
politics  raised  by  the  war  and  well-reasoned  attempts 
to  meet  them  by  constructive  criticism.  The  contributors 
number  many  of  the  best  known  historians  and  jurists  oi 
our  own  and  our  AUies'  countries.  Moreover,  The  New 
Europe,  by  its  reviews  of  foreign  books,  and  its  extracts 
from  foreign  pampers,  both  very  judiciousl}'  done,  gives  its 
readers  a  very  clear  idea  of  the  essential  things  that  are 
taking  place  in  Europe  to-day.  For  example,  I  do  not 
remember  to  have  seen  anywhere  else  so  full  an  accoimt 
of  the  speech  of  Professor  Miljuko\%  the  Cadet  leader  in 
the  Duma,  that  almost  directly  brought  about  the  fall 
of  Stiirmer.  I  strongly  recommend  this  \olume  to 
any  one  who  wants  to  be  well-informed  and  well-directed 
in  tlii^  cri^i^;  in  international  affairs. 

***** 

Two  valuable  articles  by  "  Rubicon "  in  The  Ne-x 
Europe,  deal  with  the  case  of  Poland,  admittedly  one  0I 
the  hard  cases  in  foreign  politics.  It  is  a  case  that  will 
never  be  solved  without  considering  the  past  as  well  as 
the  present.  Mr.  J.  H.  Harley  helps  us  here  with  liis 
Poland  Past  and  Present  (Allen  and  Unwin,  4s.  6d.  net). 
This  book  is  introduced  by  an  appeal,  that  will  not  fall 
vainly  on  English  ears,  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Ladislas 
Micciewikz,  the  son  of  the  great  Polish  poet.  It  is  an 
appeal  for  Poland  a  nation  ;  an  appeal  for  the  redress 
of  the  great  culminating  crime  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 
Mr.  Harley's  lucid  and  learned  summary  of  the  history 
and  present  condition  of  Poland  gives  weight  to  this 
appeal.  Mr.  Harley  attempts  to  show  how  Poland, 
once  in  the  vanguard  of  European  civilization,  has  kept 
her  national  ideals  after  more  than  a  century  ofj  ex- 
tinction as  a  pohtical  entity.  He  pleads  well  the  ca'^e  of 
a  bra\e  and  suffering  country  which  is  now  permitting 
herself  to  hope  for  better  things,  with  the  underlying  fear 
that  she  may  once  again,  as  in  1814,  be  but  the  material 
for  the  bargaining  of  diplomatists.  Meanwhile,  the 
complications  of  the  problem  should  not  be  neglected, 
and  Mr.  Harley's  book  maj'  be  well  supplemented  by  the 
■  articles  in  The  New  Europe  and  by  one  or  two  chapters  1 
in  Mr.  StepUen  Graham's  recent  book  on  Russia. 
***** 

In  The  True  Cause  of  the  Commercial  Difficulties  oj 
Great  Britain  (Allen  and  Unwin,  2s.  6d.  net),  Mr.  Mark 
Major  and  Mr.  Edward  Edsall  ask  I'ree  'I'rader  and 
Protectionist  to  agree  that  all  their  problems  were  solved 
by /the  contentions  of  the  late  Cecil  Balfour  Phipson. 
This  contention  is  that  gold  should  be  demonetized  and 
Treasury  notes  issued  as  sole  legal  tender.  Thus  we 
should  get  true  Free  Trade,  because  goods  only  would  be 
exchanged  for  goods  and  adequate  Protection  because 
other  countries  would  only  import  into  ours  goods  that 
could  be  paid  for  b}'  our  own  surplus  products — for  our 
money  would  be  no  use  to  them.  An  ingenious  and  well- 
supported  theory,  which  h&s  at  least  a  modicum  of  truth 
in  it,  but  which,  I  fancy,  has  tempted  countries  before 
now  into  financial  morasses. 

*         *         «  *         «. 

After  so  long  a  concentration  on  the  haute  politique 
and  finance,  one  may  be  permitted  the  relaxation  of  a 
little  light  literature.  What  about  this  book  with  gay, 
decorative  pictures  and  an  intriguing  title  :  IJtinam  : 
A  Glimmering:,  of  Goddesses  (John  Eane,  5s.)  ?  The 
pictures  by  Mr.  (ilyn  Philpot  are  well  enough,  but  I 
find  the  satirical  sketch  that  accompanies  them  common- 
place to  the  verge  of  \ulgarity,  though  here  and  there 
there  isa  jjicturc  in  words  that  remains  in  the  mind  with  a 
certain   haunting  jirettiness. 


February  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


iq 


The   Union  Jack  Club 

Suggestion  for  the  Creation  of  a  Permanent  Literary  Fund 

By  the  Editor 


Hall  of  the  Union  Jack  Club 


ENTER  the  swing  doors  of  the  Union  Jack  CUib 
in  Waterloo  Road,  and  the  civilian  passes  into 
the  atmosphere  of  war's  activity.  It  may 
perhaps  be  the  time  of  day  when  members, 
whose  leave  is  over,  are  getting  ready  to  return  to  France, 
or,  a  happier  occasion,  when  a  trainload  of  those  whose 
leave  is  just  beginning  have  arrived,  or  possibly  when 
these  two  tides  meet.  There  is  a  scene  of  bustle  in  the  hall ; 
here  kits  are  being  adjusted  or  discarded  ;  the  Comptroller 
of  the  Club  welcomes  the  coming,  speeds  the  parting 
member.  Evidences  of  good  comradeship  abound, 
and  whether  it  be  on  arrival  from  or  return  to  the  firing 
line,  everything  is  accepted  with  imperturbable  good 
humour.  If  j^ou  strive  to  disentangle  individual  remarks 
from  the  general  clamour  of  conversation  inevitable 
to  such  a  busy  scene,  you  become  conscious  that  on  your 
ears  fall  more  dialects  and  brogues  of  the  British  language 
than  have  probably  e\er  before  been  heard  under  a 
single  roof. 

It  is  one  of  the  strong  points  of  this  Club  of  fi\e  million 
members  that  the  King's  uniform,  whether  in  navy  blue 
or  khaki,  is  the  sole  qualification.  No  men  have  received 
a  kinder  welcome  or  found  the  Club  of  greater  service 
than  soldiers  from  Overseas  Dominions.  They  appreciate 
the  solid  comforts  which  they  find  there  amid  surroimdings 
of  perfect  individual  freedom.  There  are  no  irritating 
restrictions,  everything  is  done  to  make  members  feel 
thoroughly  at  home  no  matter  to  what  station  of  life  they 
may  have  belonged  before  they  answered  the  call  to  arms. 
The  Club  is  their  Club  ;  its  reputation  and  well-being  are 
in  their  hands  ;  they  alone  have  the  power  of  exalting 
or  degrading  it.  And  exalted  it  has  been,  until  to-day 
membership  of  the  U. J.C,  is  a  fact  all  are  proud  of.  When 
the  Duke  of  Connaught  visited  it  the  other  day,  he  was 


delighted  with  the  spirit  of  independence  and  honest 
pride  that  prevailed.  Presently  the  Club  House  will  be 
extended,  and  though  it  is  possible  that  before  that  work  is 
completed  peace  may  be  restored,  yet  the  increased  accom- 
modation will  be  none  too  large  for  the  housing  of  all  its 
members.  To-day,  of  course,  the  Club  is  terribly 
cramped  for  room  ;  in  the  day-time  every  available  corner 
is  occupied.  But  after  the  war,  the  Club,  with  its  new 
buildings  finished,  should  be  able  to  house  comfortably, 
though  without  any  excess  of  room,  those  of  its  members 
who  may  happen  to  be  in  London  at  any  one  time. 

Readers  of  Land  &  Water  have  displayed  such  lively 
and  practical  interest  in  this  splendid  institution  that  it  has 
seemed  well  we  should  place  before  them  a  further 
opportunity  of  rendering  permanent  assistance  to  this 
London  home  of  our  gallant  sailors  and  soldiers.  There 
is  a  weakness  in  the  internal  organisation  which  it  is  not 
possible  to  rectify  at  the  present  time  when  the  demand 
on  the  Club's  funds  are  exceptionally  heavy  for  more 
urgent  needs.  The  supply  of  newspapers,  magazines 
and  current  literature  generally  is  smaller  than  it  should  be, 
and  the  suggestion  has  been  put  forward  that  a  permanent 
fund  of  £5,000  should  be  created.  It  is  an  excellent 
suggestion.  This  sum  of  money  would  be  invested  and 
the  interest  on  it  devoted  annually  to  this  one  purpose. 
The  annual  income  would  enable  the  Club  to  keep  itself 
supplied  with  the  best  current  literature  and  the  reading 
room  of  the  Union  Jack  Club  would  become  a  very 
valuable  source  of  information  for  sailors  and  soldiers,  for 
they  would  find  there  magazines  and  periodicals  which 
would  not  otherwise  be  available  to  them.  At  a  time 
like  the  present  when  better  education  is  being  so  much 
advocated  a  proposal  of  this  nature  is  bound  to  find 
fa^'our.J     At  the  same  time  it  should  be  mentioned  that 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


February  22,  1917 


many  of  those  who  will  benefit  by  it  are  extremely  well 
educated,    and    will    eagerly   avail    themselves    of     this 
opportunity    to    keep    themselves    abreast   of    the    best 
"  opinion  and  knowledge  of  the  day. 

Of  course  there  is  another  point  of  view,  one  that  will 
especially  appeal  to  the  ordinary  man  and  woman  who 
are  in  the  habit  of  making  almost  daily  use  of  their  Clubs. 
When  they  go  there  after  a  busy  day,  they  want  to  be 
mentally  refreshed  and  amused,  and  there  is  no  more 
favourite  way  of  doing  this  than  browsing,  so  to  speak, 
on  current  literature.  They  pick  up  lirsl  this  paper  then 
thvit,  until  they  find  something  that  makes  a  special 
aj  peal  to  them,  either  because  it  treats  of  a  favourite 
hc'bbv  or  amusement,  or  deals  with  some  subject  of  which 
they  have  made  a  special  study.  And  it  is  just  the  same 
with  the  members  of  the  U.J.C. 

Experience  has  pro\'ed  that  everything  which  has 
been  done  at  this  Club  to  improve  and  brighten  the  life 
of  sailors  and  soldiers  has  not  only  met  with  a  ready 
response,  but  has  exercised  an  admirable  influence.  It 
is  a  grievous  mistake  to  imagine,  as  was  so  often  the  case 
before  the  war,  that  the  average  man  on  leave  from  our 
naval  or  military  forces,  came  to  London  simply  to  run  wild 
for  a  bit.  Too  often  he  was  compelled  to  run  wild  because 
there  was  no  place  for  him  to  go  to,  where  he  could  find 
the  pleasant  environment  which  he  preferred,  had  he  onlv 
a  home  of  his  own 
in  town.  To  give 
an  instance  ;  noth- 
ing is  more  appre- 
ciated  at  the 
Union  Jack  Club 
than  the  meals. 
The  food  is  excel- 
lent, great  care  is 
exercised  that  all 
provisions  shall  be 
of  the  best  quahty. 
But  what  really 
pleases  the  most, 
is  the  manner  in 
which  the  meals 
are  served — clean 
tablecloths,  good 
service,  flowers  on 
the .  tables.  These 
are  the  delicate 
simplicities  which 
give  refinement  to 
the  simplest 
meal,  and  by  none 
are  they  better 
a]ipreciated  than 
by  those  -  men 
whose  first  •  prin- 
ciples of  daily  hfe 
include  smartness 

and  cleanliness.  "  Cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness,"  is  an 
old  saying,  but  if  we  take  the  two  words  in  their  broadest 
meaning  we  shall  find  that  cleanliness  often  precedes 
godliness,  the  higher  quahty  emerging  from  the  lower.  > 

Ever  since  the  Union  Jack  Club  was  started,  the  idea 
has  been  that  in  order  to  make  it  a  success  men  must  be 
treated  as  men,  strong  men,  not  as  babes  or  weaklings. 
And  the  result  has  justified  the  means.  It  is  good  to 
mix  with  the  members  and  find  how  thoroughly  satisfied 
they  are  with  their  Club  house  ;  of  course,  they  would 
juefer  it  to  be  larger,  but  that  is  now  only  a  matter  of 
time.  There  are  many  comforts  and  conveniences.  The 
library  (a  photograph  of  which  appears  on  this  page) 
contains  two  thousand  standard  works,  but  as  we  have 
said  the  supplv  of  current  literature  is  not  nearly  as  good 
as  it  should  be  for  a  large  Club  of  this  character.  It  means 
that  many  members  at  certain  hours  of  the  dav  find 
time  heavy  on  their  hands,  and  those  who  imder  different 
circumstances  would  be  perfectly  content  to  while  away 
the  hours  in  the  reading  room,  wander  into  the  streets 
in  a  state  of  boredom  and  welcome  almost  any  ^"m- 
panionship that  amuses  them  for  the  moment.  Anything 
that  can  be  done  to  make  the  Union  Jack  Club  more 
complete  in  every  way  is  heartily  welcomed  in  the  ser- 
vices ;  both  Admiral  Jellicoe  and  Field-Marshal  Haii; 
have  testified  to  the  inestimable  benefits  which  it  has 
conferred  on  many  thousand  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  in 
all  ranks  its  advantages  are  recognised 


The  Library 


^^'ithin  the  Club  there  is  a  barber's  shop  wlxrc  are 
sold  tobacco,  matches,  cleaning  materials,  shirts,  socks^ 
caps,  etc.,  picture  postcards.  Baths  hot  and  cold  cost 
2d.,  including  attendance,  towels  and  soap  ;  shower-baths 
are  free.  Members  are  given  blacking,  etc.,  to  clean  their 
own  boots  or  they  can  give  the  Club  boot-black  a  penny 
to  do  it  for  them.  There  is  a  large  and  comfortable 
smoking-room,  but  no  standing  bar ;  members  order 
what  they  want  and  are  attended  by  waitresses.  All 
kinds  of  drinks  are  served.  A  member  can  have  his 
glass  of  beer  or  brandy  and  soda  if  he  prefers.  In  the 
billiard-room  are  six  full-sized  tables.  Writing  materials 
are  free.  The  dining-room  is  open  from  7  a.m.  to  10.45 
p.m.,  where  prices  are  most  reasonable.  The  sight  in 
the  corridors  which  have  to  do  service  as  cloak  rooms 
now  that  the  Club  is  so  busy,  is  an  extraordinary  one. 
Here  kitbags  are  left,  also  rifles  and  "  souvenirs  "  of 
the  most  mixjcl  description.  At  this  time  of  year  one 
often  comes  across  a  woolly  trench-coat,  and  it  does 
not  need  much  imagination  to  recall  the  perilous  ex- 
periences through  which  the  owners  of  all  this  strahge 
paraphernalia  have  passed.  The  rest  and  repose  of  the 
Club  to  these  war-worn  heroes  is  most  grateful,  whether 
they  are  from  Picardy  or  from  patrolling  the  North  Sea. 

Mention  was  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  article  of 
the  number  of  dialects  one  hears  spoken  at  the  Union 

J  ac  k  Club.  It 
would' well  repay 
a  philologist  to 
make  a  study  of 
the  subject.  A 
most  interesting 
paper  might  be 
prejxired  upon  the 
c  li  a  n  g  e  s  and 
fluctuations  of  the 
British  tongue  as 
heard  at  the  Club. 
But  speech  is  only 
the  vehicle  of 
thought,  and  the 
varied  idioms  of 
thought  and  the 
dixerse  views  of 
hfe,  the  outcome 
of  personal  ex- 
perience which 
characterise  the 
members  of  the 
U.J.C.  must  be 
even  more  remark- 
able. It  is  as  though 
the  curse  of  Babel 
had  been  removed 
from  one  large  sec- 
tion of  the  human 
race,  for  men  born 
under  almost  every  latitude  foregather  here,  and  new 
friendships  are  being  formed  over  its  tables  which  must 
exercise  a  powerful  influence  in  the  future. 


XDinion  Jach  Club 

All  Contnhutions    to   the  Union  Jack  Club 
Literary  Fund  should  be  jorwarded  to  : 

The  Editor, 

"LAND  &  WATER." 

Old  Serjeant's  Inn, 

5,  Chancery  Lane, 

London,  W.C. 

Envelopes  should  be  marked  "  U.J.C. 
Fiiftd."  Cheques  should  be  drawn  in  favour 
of  The  Comptrcdler,  IJnion  Jack  Clvh,and 
crossed  "  Coiifts    Bank  " 


February  22,   1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


iillllllllillllillllllllllllillillllillilllllillllillllllllllillllllli^ 


yiX»0f 


Feel  good  in  the  morning — 
fresh  and  bright  and  happy? 
No?  Get  the  Kruschen 
habit,  quick,  man!  Half-a- 
teaspoonful — in  hot  water 
— before   breakfast — every 

•  •  INDISPENSABLE  FOR 

morning  !       uric   acid    complaints- 

Of  all  Chemists  1/6  per 
bottle.      All    British. 


lliiiiilllliiilillliiiilllllilllllllllllllllliliiiiiillillllliiiiiilllllllliilillliiiliiiiii^^ 


SMITHS'    "ALLIES" 

AND 

MEDICAL  WATCHES. 

"UNBREAKABLE"  FRONT 

No  more  Watcb   Glasses  I 
No  more  Watch  Glass  Protectors 
It  is  iin;>os8ible  to  break  the  Iront  t 


Smith;s 

Electric 

Reading 

Lamp 

lor  the  Belt. 


f^«co8D)zedby 

Officers  as  the 

BEST    I^AIVIP.) 

Write  for  TESTIMONIALS 

^      PlKh-piece. 


SHORTAGE 
OF^i>0. 
HIGHEST 
PRIbESNOW 
GIVEN  FOR 
OLD  GOLD 

AND 
JEWtLLERlf 

OF 
ANY  SORT. 


Sterling     Silver 
"SCHJEW  IN" 

Dust  and  Damp 
Proof  Case. 

sterling    Silver,    Lever 

Movement,      Luminous 

Dial.     Pigskin     Strap, 

Silver   Buckle. 

*3  :  a  :  O         Size  of  Lajiip.  .,;  \  .;, 

Price      Complete   2^)/ 
Or   including   one   extra 

Extra  batteries        1/6  each. 

Hermetically    sealed    In    Tin    box. 

S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd.    Estd 

6 Grand  Hotel BuiidingsTrflfaigflr Square, W.C 

By  Appointment  to  H.M. 
the  late  King  Edward  VII. 


Sterling    Silver    Screw 

in  Case  Medical  Watch 

Luminous  figures    and 

hands,    registering   5th 

of  seconds. 

Invaluable  for 

Hospital  Work. 

SMITH'S  Higrh  Grade 
Lever  iWovement. 

_^ Guaranteed      ri.fC  n 

\\i  Indies.   Timekeeper     M.l9;0 
Inland  Postage,     6d.  extra. 
Foreign    1/-  extra. 
bulb   in    lid.     21/-. 

Extra  bulbs     ]/-  eacii. 

Further   particulars  on  application. 


1851 


And  68 
Piccadilly    a 


Watch    and     Chronometer 

Makers  to  the  Admiralty. 

Holders  of  5  Royal  Warrants. 


Sir  Ernest  Shackleton 

writes  :—"  I  attribute  the  saving  oj  one  man's 
lije,  who  was  lost  Jor  two  days,  during  which 
time  he  was  lying  out  in  the  open  with  a  tem- 
perature oj  5  degrees  below  zero  prevailing 
at  the  time,  to  the  jact  that  he  was  entirely 
covered  up  by  Burberry." 


Illuitrated 
Naval  or 
Military 
Catalogues 
Post    Free 


Officers'  Complete    Kit«  in  2 
to    4    Days  or  Ready  for  Use 


is  made  in  the  Bur- 
berry material  re- 
ferred to  by  Sir 
Ernest,  and  it  is  ob- 
vious that  a  cloth 
that  can  withstand 
the  intense  cold  and 
gales  of  the  Polar 
regions,  can  be  relied 
upon  for  protection 
and  comfort  under 
the  scarcely  less  in- 
tolerable conditions 
of  trench-warfare. 

Whilst  the  outside 
of  THE  BUR- 
BERRY TRENCH- 
WARM  is  made  in 
this  wind-,  rain-  and 
snow-proof  material, 
the  inside  is  of  luxu- 
riously soft,  thick  and 
warm  Camel  Fleece. 

The  coat  is  designed 
so  that  these  two 
parts  can  be  worn 
separately  or  to- 
gether, thus  supply- 
ing three  coats  in  the 
one  garment. 

The  outside  alone,  a 
Weatherjxoof  that 
will  turn  any  rain 
that  an  oilskin  will ; 
the  Fleece  lining,  a 
smart  British  Warm; 
and  the  two  together, 
the  staunchest  de- 
fence possible 
against  the  hard- 
ships and  exposure  of 
winter  campaigning. 


LAST    DAYS     OF 

HAIF-PRICE  SALE 

Daily  until  Febru- 
ary 2S.  many  1916 
Civilian  Top- 
Coats  and  Suits 
as  well  as 
Ladles'  Coats 
and  Gowns,  are 
being:  sold  at 
HALF  USUAL 
PRICES  or  there- 
abouts. Full  list 
of  bargains  on 
request. 


HALF  WEIGHT— DOUBLE  WARMTH 

Burberry  Naval  and  Military  Weatherproofs  are  half 
the  weight  qf  those  loaded  with  oiled-silk,  rubber 
and  the  like  airtight,  circulation-retarding  fabrics, 
whilst  the  warmth  naturally  generated  is  doubled 
in  value  as  circulation  is  aided. 

A  practical  example  of  the  ill-effects  induced  by 
non-ventilating  agents  is  to  be  found  in  an  Angler 
wading.  He  invariably  suffers  from  cold  feet, 
the  result  of  impeded  circulation  and  the  exclusion 
of  fresh  air,  although  his  footwear  readily  proves  the 
presence  of  perspiration. 


Eoery  Burberry  garment  is  labelled  *' Burberrys." 

DTTDI^UDDV'Q     Haymarket 
ESUKDI1.KKIO     LONDON 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS    and    Provincial  Agents. 


33 


LAND    &    WATER 


Febiuary  22,  1917 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblnnc 

(Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  Mattosl        1 


Synopsis  :  Captain  Patrice  Belval,  a  wounded  French 
officer,  is  in  love  with  a  nurse  ivho  is  hwun  to  her  patients 
as  "  Little  Mother  Coralie."  Belval,  following  Coralie 
to  her  house,  finds  that  )issares,  her  husband,  a  leading 
financier,  who  had  contemplated  flight  from  Paris,  has  been 
brutally  murdered.  An  examining  magistrate  explains 
to  Belval  that  Essarcs  was  prime  mover  in  a  plot  for  ex- 
porting gold  from  France.  In  order  to  recover  some  300 
million  francs  which  Essarcs  had  concealed,  the  authorities 
consider  it  necessary  to  hush  up  the  circumstances  of 
the  fin.mcier's  death.  Ya-Bon,  Belval's  Senegalese 
servant,  promises  to  call  in  Arsene  Lupin  to  unravel 
the  mystery,  which  includes  a  mysterious  threatened 
vengeance  on  Coralie.  Belval  ascertains  that  Simeon, 
Essares'  attendant,  has  mysteriously  befriended  bothjiim- 
self  and  Coralie,  and  also  obtains  evidence  that  twenty 
years  before,  Essares  had  becfi  responsible  for  the  murder 
of  Coralie's  mother  and  his  (Belval's)  father  and  that  an 
unknoii'H  friend  had  tried  to  protect  Coralie  and  himself. 
On  the  14th  of  April  Belval  and  Coralie,  following  old 
Simeon  to  the  scene  of  their  parents'  murder,  a  disused 
lodge  in  the  garden  next  to  Essares'  house,  find  them- 
selves imprisoned  without  possibility  of  escape.  Behind 
the  wainscoting  of  the  lodge  a  pencilled  message  tells  how 
Belval's  father  and  Coralie's  mother  had  been  similarly 
trapped,  and  then  asphyxiated,  twenty  years  before.  Shut 
in  the  lodge,  Patrice  and  Coralie  are  similarlv  subjected — ■ 
apparently  by  Simeon — to  asphyxiation  bv  gas,  until 
Patrice  loses  consciousness.  Arsene  Lupin,  posing  as 
Count  Luis  Perenna,  rescues  both  Patrice  and  Coralie  just 
in  time,  and  proceeds  to  explain  to  Patrice  how  Essares 
removed  gold  by  a  stib.erranean  channel  to  bxrges  on  the 
Seine.  He  traces  Simeon,  in  charge  of  the  last  consign- 
ment of  300  million  francs,  as  far  down  the  Seine  as 
Mantis  and  Bonnigres,,  and  then  finds  that  Simeon  has 
deceived  him  by  transhipping  ihe  gold  en  rcule.  In 
Company  with.  Belval,  Arsene  sets  out  for  Paris  again. 

CHAPTER   XV  {conlinucd) 

PATRICE  encountered  no  difficulties  in  his  under- 
taking, At  the  first  order,  which  he  shouted  in  a 
tone  of  command,  the  Belle  Helene  stopped;  and 
he  was  able  to  board  her  peaceful!}'.  Tiie  two 
bargees  were  men  of  a  certain  age,  natives  of  the  Basque 
coast.  He  introduced  himself  as  a  representative  of  the 
military  authorities  ;  and  they  showed  him  over  their  craft. 
He  found  neither  old  Simi'on  nor  the  very  smallest  bag  of 
j^old.     TiiC  hold  was  almost  empty. 

Tjie  questions  and  answers  did  not  take  long  : 


"  Wh 


r  ? 


ere  are  you  gonig 
"  To  Rouen.     We've  been  requisitioned  by  the  governmr^nt 
(or  transport  of  supplies." 

"  But  you  picked  up  somebody  on  the  way." 
"  Yes,    at   Mantes." 
"  His  name,  please  ?  " 
"  Simeon  Diodokis." 
"  Where's  he  got  to  ? 

"  He  made  us  put  him  down  a  little  after,  to  tui.v  h.l- 
train." 

And  what's  become  of  the  load  ? 

We  transhi])ped  it   last   night  to  a  small  steamer  that 

<  :up.e  alongside  of  us  below  Passy." 

'  What's  the  steamer's  name  ?  " 
'  The  Chamois.     Crew  of  six." 

■  \Vhere  is  she  now  ?  " 

Ahead  of  us.  She  was  going  fast.  She  must  be  at 
Rouen  by  this  time.  Simeon  Diodokis  is  on  his  way  to  join 
her.' 

"  How  long  have  you  known  Sim  on  Diodokis  ? 
'  It's  the  first  time  we  saw  liim      Hut  we  knew  that  he  was 
in  M.  Essares'  service.." 

'  Oh.  so  you've  worked  for  M.  Kssares  •" 

■  Yes,  often.     .  Same  job  and  same  trip. 

I'atrice  asked  no  more  questions.  He  hurriedly  got  into 
I  i^i  boat,  pulled  back  to  shore  and  tound  Don  Luis  seated 
\Mt)i  a  comfortable  supper  in  front  of  him. 

'  pu:ck  '  "  lie  said.     "  The  cargo  is  on  board  a  steamer,  the 

<  hamm^      We  can  catch  her  up  between  Rouen  and   Havre." 


Don  Luis  rose  and  handed  the  officer  a  white-paper  packet  : 

"  Here's  a  few  sandwiches  for  you,  captain,"  he  said. 
"  We've  an  arduous  night  before  us.  I'm  very  sorry  that 
you  didn't  get  a  sleep,  as  I  did.  Let's  be  off ;  and  this  tim: 
I  shall  drive.  We'll  knock  some  pace  out  of  her  !  Come  and 
sit  beside  me,  captain." 

They  both  stepj)ed  into  the  car  ;  the  chauffeur  took  his 
seat  behind  them.  But  they  had  hardly  started  when  Patrice 
exclaimed  : 

"  Hi !  What  are  you  up  to  ?  Not  this  way  !  We're  going 
back  to  Mantes  or  Paris  !  ' 

"  That's  what  I  mean  to  do,"  said  Luis,  with  a  chuckle. 

•;  Eh,  what  ?    Paris  ?  " 

"  Well,  of  course  !  " 

"  Oh,  look  here,  this  is  a  bit  too  thick !  Didn't  I  tell  you 
that   the   two   bargees.     .     .     .  ?  " 

"  Those  bargees  of  yours  are  humbugs." 

"  They  declared  that  the  cargo.     .     .     ." 

"  Cargo  ?    No  go  !  " 

"  But  the  Cluimois.     .     .     ." 

"  Chamois  ?  Sham  what !  I  tell  you  once  more,  we're  done, 
captain,  done  brown  !  Old  Simeon  is  a  wonderful  old  hand  I 
He's  a  match  worth  meeting.  He  gives  you  a  run  for  your 
money.  He  laid  a  trap  in  which  I've  been  fairly  caught. 
It's  a  magnificent  joke,  but  there's  moderation  in  all  things. 
We've  been  fooled  enough  to  last  us  the  rest  of  our  Uvof. 
Let's  be  serious  now." 

"  But     ..." 

"  Aren't  you  satisfied  yet,  captain  ?  After  the  Belle 
Helene  do  you  want  to  attack  the  Chamois  ?  As  you  please. 
You  can  get  out  at  Mantes  :  Only  I  warn  j'ou,  Simeon  is  in 
Paris,  with  three  or  four  hours'  start  of  us." 

Patrice  gave  a  shudder.  Simeon  in  Paris !  In  Paris, 
where  Coralie  w£is  alone  and  unprotected !  He  made  no 
further  protest  ;  and  Don  Luis  ran  on  : 

"  Oh,  the  rascal !  How  well  he  played  his  hand  !  Th  • 
Mem  irs  of  Benjamin  Franklin  were  a  master  stroke.  Knowin 
of  my  arrival,  he  said  to  himself,  'Arsene  Lupin  is  a  dangerou-. 
fellow,  capable  of  disentangling  the  affair  and  putting  botii 
me  and  the  bags  of  gold  in  his  pocket.  To  get  rid  of  him 
there's  only  one  thing  to  be  done  ;  I  must  act  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  him  rush  along  the  real  track  at  so  fast  a  rate 
of  speed  that  he  does  not  perceive  the  moment  when  the  real 
track  becomes  a  false  track.'  That  was  clever  of  him,  wasn't 
it  ?  And  so  we  have  the  Franklin  book,  held  out  as  a  bait  ; 
the  page  opening  of  itself,  at  the  right  place  ;  my  inevitable 
easy  discovery  of  the  conduit  system  ;  the  clue  of  Ariadne 
most  obligingly  offered.  I  followed  up  the  clue  like  a  trust. ng 
child,  led  by  Simeon's  own  hand,  from  the  cellar  down  to 
Berthou's  Wharf.  So  far,  all's  well.  But,  from  that  moment, 
take  care  !  There's  nobody  at  Berthou's  Wharf.  On  the 
other  hand,  there's  a  barge  alongside,  which  means  a  chance 
of  making  enquiries,  which  meaiij  tiie  certainty  that  I  shiili 
make  enquiries.  And  I  make  enquiries.  And,  having  made 
enquiries,  I  am  done  for.  " 

"  But  then  that  man     .     .     .     ?  " 

"  Yes,  yes,  yes,  an  accomplice  of  Sim'on's,  whom  Sim'o:' 
knowing  that  he  would  be  followed  to  the  Gare  Saint- Lazir  , 
instructs  in  this  way  to  direct  me  to  Mantes  for  the  secon  . 
time.  At  Mantes,  the  comedy  continues.  The  Belle  Heene 
passes,  with  her  double  freigiit,  Sim'on  and  the  bags  of  gold. 
We  go  running  after  the  Belle  He  e  e.  Of  course,  on  the 
Belle  helene  there's  nothing:  no  Simeon,  no  bags  of  gold. 
'  Run  after  the  Chamois.  We've  transhipped  it  all  on  the 
Chamois.'  We  run  after  the  Chamois,  to  Kouen,  to  Havu, 
to  the  end  of  the  world  ;  and  of  course  our  pursuit  is  fruitless, 
for  the  Chamois  does  not  exist.  But  we  are  convinced  that 
she  does  exist  and  that  she  has  escaped  our  search.  And  by 
this  time  the  trick  is  ])layed.  The  millions  are  gone.  Simc'oa 
•  has  disappeared  and  there  is  only  one  thing  left  for  us  to  do 
which  is  to  resign  ourselves  and  abandon  our  quest.  You 
understand,  we're  to  abandon  our  cpiest :  that's  the  fellow's 
object.     And  he  would  have  succeeded  if 

The  car  was  tra\elling  at  full  speed.     From  time  to  time, 
Don    Luis  would   stop   her  dead,   with   extraordinary   skill 
Post  of  territorials.     Pass  to  be  produced.    Then  a  leap  onward 
and  once  more  the  breakneck  pace. 

"  If  what  .''  "  asked  Patrice,  half-convinced.  "  Which  was 
the  clue  that  put  vou  on  the  track  ?  " 

"  The  presence  ol  that  w<iinan  at  Mantes.  It  was  a  vague 
clue  at  hist.     But  suddenly  1  leinembered  that,  in  the  first 


February  22,  19 17 


LAiND    &,     WATER 


barge,  the  Nonchal.inic,  the  person  who  gave  us  information — 
do  you  recollect  ? — well,  that  this  person  somehow  gave  me 
the  cjueer  impression,  I  can't  tell  you  why,  that  I  might  be 
talking  to  a  woman  in  disguise.  The  impression  occurred 
to  me  once  more.  I  mjde  a  mental  comparison  with  the 
woman  at  Mantes  .  .  .  And  then  .  .  .  and  then  it 
was  like  a  flash  of  hght     .     .     ." 

Don  Luis  paused  to  think  and,  in  a  lower  voice,  continued  : 
•"  but  who  the  devil  can  the  woman  be  ?  " 

'rhere  was  a  brief  silence,  after  which  Patrice  said,  from 
instinct  rather  than  reason  : 

'■  Grc'goire,  1  suppose." 

'■  Eh  ?     What's  that  ?     Gregoire  ?  " 

■  Yes.     Gn'goire  is  a  woman." 

'■  What  are  you  talking  about  ?  " 

"Weil,  obviously.  Don't  you  remember?  The  accom- 
plice told  me  so,  on  the  day  when  I  had  them  arrested  out- 
side the  cat'." 

"  V\  hy,  your  diary  doesn't  say  a  word  about  it  !" 

"  Oh,"  that's  true  !  .  .  .  I  forgot  to  put  down  that 
detail.  ' 

"  A  detail !  He  calls  it  a  detail !  Why,  it's  of  the  great- 
est importance,  captain  !  If  I  had  known,  I  should  have 
guessed  that  that  Largee  was  no  other  than  Gregoire  and  we 
should  not  have  wasted  a  whole  night.  Hang  it  all,  captain, 
you  really  are  the  limit  !  " 

But  all  this  was  unable  to  affect  his  good-humour.  While 
Tatnce,  overcome  with  presentiments,  grew  gloomier  and 
rloomier,  Don  Luis  began  to  sing  victory  in  his  turn  : 

"  Thank  goodness !  The  battle  is  becoming  serious ! 
Really,  it  was  too  easy  before  ;  and  that  was  why  I  was  sulking, 
1,  Lupin  !  Do  \  ou  imagine  things  go  like  that  in  real  life  ?  Does 
everything  fit  in  so  accurately  ?  Benjamin  Franklin,  the 
uninterrupted  conduit  for  gold,  the  series  of  clues  that  reveal 
themselves  of  their  own  accord,  the  man  and  the  bags 
meeting  at  Mantes,  the  Belle  Helene  :  no,  it  all  worried  me. 
The  cat  was  being  choked  with  cream  !  And  then  the  gold 
escaping  in  a  barge  !  All  very  well  in  times  of  peace,  but  not 
in  war-time,  in  the  face  of  the  regulations  :  passes,  patrol- 
boats,  inpsections  and  - 1  don't  know  what  .  .  .  How 
could  a  fellow  like  Simeon  risk  a  trip  of  that  kind  ?  No,  I 
had  my  suspicions  ;  and  that  was  why,  captain,  I  made  Ya-Bon 
mount  guard,  on  the  offchance,  outside  Berthou's  Wharf. 
It  was  just  an  idea  that  occurred  to  me.  The  whole  of  this  ad- 
venture seemed  to  centre  round  the  wharf.  Well,  was  I  right 
or  not  ?  Is  M.  Lupin  no  longer  able  to  follow  a  scent  ? 
Captain,  I  repeat,  I  shall  go  back  to-morrow  evening.  Besides, 
as  I  told  you,  I've  got  to.  Whether  I  win  or  lose,  I'm  going, 
ijut  we  shall  win.     Everything  will  be  cleared  up. 

They  reached  the  gates  of  Paris.  Patrice  was  becoming 
more  and  more  anxious  : 

"  Tuen  you  think  the  danger's  over  ? 

"Oh,  I  don't  say  that!  The  play  isn't  finished.  After 
\Le  great  scene  of  the  third  act,  which  we  will  call  the  scene 
of  tiie  oxide  of  carbon,  there  will  certainly  be  a  fourth  act 
and  perhaps  a  fifth.  The  enemy  has  not  laid  down  his  arms, 
by  any  means." 

They  were  skirting  the  quays. 

"  Let's  get  down,"  suid  Don  Luis." 

He  gave  a  faint  whistle  and  repeated  it  three  times. 

"  No  answer,"-  he  aid.  "  Ya-Bon's  not  there.  The  battle 
has  begun." 

"  But  Coralie.     .     .     ." 

"  Wiiat  are  you  afraid  of  for  her  ?  Simeon  doesn't  know 
her  address." 

There  was  nobody  on  Berthou's  Wharf  and  nobody  on  the 
quay  below.  But  by  the  light  of  the  moon  they  saw  the 
otiicr  barge,  the  Nonchalanie. 

'  Let's  go  on  board,"  said  Don  Luis.  "  I  wonder  if  the 
lady  known  as  Gregoire  makes  a  practice  of  living  here  ? 
Has  she  come  back,  believing  us  on  our  way  to  Havre  ? 
I  hope  so.  In  any  case,  Y'a-Bon  must  have  been  there  and 
no  doubt  left  something  behind  to  act  as  a  signal.  Will  you 
come,  captain  ? 

"  Right  you  are.  It's  a  queer  thing,  though :  I  feel 
frigliti  lied  ! 

"  What  of  ?  "  asked  Don  Luis,  who  was  plucky  enough 
himselt  to  understand  this  presentiment. 

"  Oi  what  we  shall  see." 

"  My  dear  sir,  there  may  be  nothing  there  !  "  < 

Eac.i  of  them  switched  on  his  pocket-lamp  and  felt  the 
handle  of  his  revolver.  They  crossed  the  plank  between  tiie 
s  lore  and  the  boat.  A  few  steps  downwards  brought  them 
10  the  cabin.     The  door  was  locked. 

"Hi,  mate  !    Open  this,  will  you  ?  " 

Taere  was  no  reply.  Tney  now  set  about  tweaking  it 
down,  which  was  no  easy  matter,  for  it  was  massive  and  quite 
unlike  an  ordinary  cabin-door. 

V  last  it  gave  way. 

"  By  Jingo  !  '.'  said  Don  Luis,  who  was  the  first  to  go  in. 
'  I  didn't  expect  this  !  " 


"  What  ?  " 

"  Look.  The  woman  whom  they  called  Gregoire;  she 
seems  to  be  dead." 

She  was  lying  back  on  a  little  iron  bedstead,  with  her 
man's  blouse  open  at  the  top  and  her  chest  uncovered.  Her 
face  still  bore  an  expression  of  extreme  terror.  The  dis- 
ordered appearance  of  the  cabin  suggested  that  a  furious 
struggle  had  taken  place. 

"  I  was  riglit.  Here,  by  her  side,  are  the  clothes  she  wore 
at  Mantes.     But  what's  the  matter,  captain  ?  " 

Patrice  had  stifled  a  cry  : 

"There     .     .     .     o]5posite     .     .     .     under   the    window." 

It  was  a  little  windo.v  overlooking  the  river.  The  pane- 
were  broken. 

"  Well  ?  "  asked  Don  Luis,  "  What  ?  Yes,  I  believe  sonv 
one's  been  thrown  out  that  way." 

"  The  veil     .     .     .     that   blue   veil,"   stammered   Patrice. 
"  is.  her  nurse's  veil.     .     .     Coralie's.     .     .     ." 
■    Don  Luis  grew  vexed  : 

"  Nonsense  !    Impossible  I   Nobody  knew  her  address." 

"  Still.     .     .     ." 

"  Still  what  ?  You  haven't  written  to  her  ?  You  haven't 
telegraphed  to  her  ?  " 

"  Y'es.  ....  I  telegraphed  to  her  .  .  .  from 
Mantes." 

"  You  telegraphed  from  the  post-office  at  Mantes  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  And  was  there  any  one  in  the  post-offise  ?  " 
Yes,  a  woman." 

"  What  woman  ?    The  one  who  lies  here,  murdered  ? 

"  Yes." 

"  But  she  didn't  read  what  you  wrote  ?  " 

"  No,  but  I  wrote  the  telegram  over  twice." 

"  And  you  threw  the  first  draft  anywhere,  on  the  floor, 
so  that  any  one  who  came  along.  .  .  .  Oh,  really,  cap- 
tain, you  must  confess.     .     .     .  !  " 

But  Patrice  was  running  towards  the  car  and  was  already 
out  of  ear-shot. 

Half  an  hour  after,  he  returned  with  two  telegrams  wliicli 
he  had  found  on  Coralie's  table.  The  first,  the  one  which  he 
had  sent,  said  : 

"  All  well.     Be  easy  and  stay  indoors.     Fondest   love. 

"Captain  Patrice.' 

The  second,  which  had  evidently  been  dispatched  by  Sim  on, 
ran  as  follows  : 

"  Events  taking  serious  turn.  Plans  changed.  Coming 
back.  Expect  you  nine  o'clock  this  evening  at  the  small 
door  of  your  garden.  "  Captain  P.'MRIce." 

This  second  telegram  was  delivered  to  Corahe  at  eiglit 
o'clock  ;  and  she  had  left  the  home  immediately  afterwards. 


'G 


CHAPTER  XVI 

The  Fourth  Act 

|.'\PTAIN,"said  Don  Luis,  "you've  scored  two  fine 
blunders.  The  first  was  vour  not  telling  me  that 
J  Gregoire  was  a  woman.  -The  second.  .  .  ." 
But  Don  Luis  saw  that  the  officer  was  too  much 
dejected  for  him  to  care  about  com})leting  his  charge.  He 
put  his  hand  on  Patrice  Belval's  shoulder  : 

"  Come,"  he  said,  "  don't  upset  yourself.  Tlie  position's 
not  as  bad  as  you  think." 

'  "  Corahe  jumped  out  of  the  window  to  escape  that  man." 
Patrice  muttered. 

"  Your  Corahe  is  aUve,"  said  Don  Luis,  shrugging  his 
shoulders.     "  In  Simeon's  hands,  but  alive." 

"  Why,  what  do  3'ou  know  about  it  ?  Anyway,  if  she's  in 
that  monster's  hands,  might  she  not  as  weU  be  dead  ? 
Doesn't  it  mean  all  the  horrors  of  death  ?  Where's  the 
difference  ? 

"  It  means  a  danger  of  death,  but  it  means  life  if  we  >  ^  nxa 
in  time  ;   and  we  shall." 

"  Have  you  a  clue  ? 

"  Do  you  imagine  that  I  have  sat  twiddling  m\'  tluinbs 
and  that  an  old  hand  like  myself  hasn't  had  time  "in  halt  an 
hour  to  unravel  the  mysteries  which  this  cabin  presents  ?  " 

"  Then  let's  go,"  cried  Patrice,  already  eager  for  the  fray 
"  Let's  have  at  the  enemy." 

"  Not  yet,"  said  Don  Luis,  who  was  still  hunting  arouu ! 
him.  "  Listen  to  me.  I'll  tell  you  what  I  know,  captain, 
and  I  11  tell  it  you  straight  out,  without  trying  to  da/./Je  you 
by  a  parade  of  reasoning  and  without  even  telling  you  of  the 
tiny  trifles  that  serve  me  as  proofs.  The  bare  facts,  thit'-^ 
all.'    Well,  then.     ..." 

"  Yes  ?  " 

"Little  Mother  Coralie  kept  the  appointment  «t  nine 
o'clock.  Simeon  was  there  with  his  female  accomplice. 
Between  them,  they  bound  and  gagged  her  and  brought  her  ^ 


24 


LAND    &     WATER 


February  22,   191 7 


here.  Observe  that,  in  their  eyes,  it  was  a  safe  spot  for  the 
job,  because  they  knew  for  ceratin  tfiat  yovi  and  I  had  not  dis- 
covered the  trap.  Nevertheless,  we  may  assume  that  it  was  a 
provisional  base  of  ojjerations.  adopted  for  part  of  the  night 
tnly.  and  tliat  Simeon  reckoned  on  leaving  Little  Mother 
Coralie  in  the  hands  of  his  accomplice  and  setting  out  in  search 
of  a  definite  place  of  confinement,  a  permanent  prison.  But 
luckily — and  I'm  rather  proud  of  this— Ya- Hon  was  on  the 
sfKit.  Ya-Bon  was  watching  on  his  bench,  in  the  dark.  He 
must  have  seen  them  cross  the  embankment  and  no  doubt 
recognised  Simeon's  walk  in  the  distance.  We'll  take  it  that 
he  gave  chase  at  once,  jumped  on  to  the  deck  of  the  barge  and 
aiTived  here  at  the  same  time  as  the  enemy,  before  they  had 
time  to  lock  themselves  in.  Four  jjcople  in  this  narrow  space, 
in  pitch  darkness,  must  have  meant  a  frightful  uplieaval. 
I  know  my  Ya-Bon.  He's  terrible  at  such  times.  I'nfor- 
tunately,  it  was  not  Sim(fon  whom  he  caught  by  tlie  neck  with 
that  merciless  hand  of  his,  but  .  .  .  the  woman.  Simeon 
took  advantage  of  this.  He  had  not  let  go  of  Little  Mother 
Coralie.  He  picked  her  up  in  his  arms,  went  up  the  com- 
panion way,  flung  htr  on  the  deck  and  then  came  back  to 
lock  the  door  on  the  two  as  they  struggled." 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  Do  you  think  it  was  Ya-Bbn  and  not 
Simfen  who  killed  the  woman  ? 

"  I'm  sure  of  it.  If  there  were  no  other  proof,  there  is  this 
particular  fracture  of  the  wind-pipe,  which  is  Ya-Bon's 
special  mark.  What  I  do  not  under-^tand  is  why,  when  he 
had  settled  his  adversary,  Ya-Hon  didn't  break  down  the 
door  with  a  push  of  his  shoulder  and  go  after  Simeon.  I 
presume  that  he  was  wounded,  and  that  he  liad  not  the 
strength  to  make  the  necessary  effort.  I  presume  also  that 
the  woman  did  not  die  at  once  and  that  she  sjx)ke,  saying 
things  against  Simeon,  who  had  abandoned  her  instead  of 
defending  her.  This  much  is  certain,  that  Ya-Bon  broke  the 
window-panes. 

"  To  jump  into  the  Seine,  wounded  as  he  was,  with  his 
one  arm  ?  "  said  Patrice. 

"  Not  at  all.     There's  a  ledge  running  along  the  window. 
He  could  set  his  feet  on  it  and  get  off  that  way." 

"  Very  well.  But  he  was  quite  ten  or  twenty  minutes 
'  <'hind  Simeon  ? 

'  Tiiat  didn't  matter,  if  the  woman  had  time,  before  dying, 
i>.  tell  him  where  Simeon  was  taking  refuge." 
'  How  can  we  get  to  know  ? 

"  I've  been  trying  to  find  out  all  the  time  that  we've  been 
chatting     .     .     .     and  I've  just  discovered  the  way." 
■•  Here  ?  " 

"  This  minute  ;  and  I  expected  no  less  from  Ya-Bon. 
The  woman  told  him  of  a  place  in  the  cabin- — look,  that  open 
drawer,  probably — in  which  there  was  a  visiting-card  with 
an  address  on  it.  Ya-Bon  took  it  and,  in  order  to  let  me 
know,  pinned  the  card  to  the  curtain  over  there.  I  had  seen 
it  already  ;  but  it  was  only  this  moment  that  I  noticed  the 
pin  that  fi.xed  it,  a  gold  pin  with  which  I  myself  fastened  the 
Morocco  Cross  to  Ya-Bon's  breast." 
"  Wliat  is  the  address  ?  " 

"  Amcdc'e  Vacherot,  18,  Rue  Guimard.  The  Rue  Guimard 
1^  close  to  this,  which  makes  me  quite  sure  of  the  road  they 
took." 

The  two  men  at  once  went  away,  leaving  the  woman's 
dead  body  behind.  As  Don  Luis  said,  the  police  must  make 
what  they  could  of  it. 

As  they  crossed  Berthou's  Wharf,  they  glanced  at  the  recess 
and  Don  Luis  ri  marked  : 

"  There's  a  ladder  missing.  We  must  remember  that  detail. 
Simeon  has  been  in  there.  He's  beginning  to  make  blunders 
too." 

The  car  took  them  to  the  Rue  Guimard,  a  small  street  in 
Passy.  No.  18  was  a  large  house  let  out  in  flats,  of  fairly 
ancient  construction.  It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning 
when  they  rang. 

A  long  time  elajjsed  before  the  door  opened  ;  and,  as  they 
passed  througli  he  carriage-entrance,  the  porter  put  his  head 
out  of  his  lodge  : 

"  Who's  there  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  We  want  to  see  M.  Amtdte  Vacherot  on  lu'gent  business." 
"  That's  myself." 
"  You  ?  "  ' 

"  Yes,  I,  the  porter.     But  by  what  right.     .     .     .  ?  " 
"  Orders  of  the  Prefect  of  Police,"  said  Don  Luis,  displaying 
a  badge. 

They  entered  the  lodge.  AmMee  Vacherot  was  a  little, 
resjx'ctable-looking  old  man,  with  white  whiskers.  He 
might  have  been  a  beadle. 

"  Answer  my  questions  plainly,"  Don  Luis  ordered,  in  a 
rough  voice,  "  and  don't  try  to  prevaricate.     We  are  looking 
for  a  man  called  Simeon  Diodokis." 
The  porter  took  fright  at  once  : 
"  To  do  him  harm  ?  "  he  exclaimed.     "  If  it's  to  do  him 


harm,  it's  no  use  asking  me  any  questions.     I  would  rather 
die  by  slow  torture  than  injure  that  kind  M.  Simeon." 
Don  Luis  assumed  a  gentler  ton(>  :  ». 

"  Do  him  harm  ?     On  the  contrary,  we  are  looking  for  him 
to  do  him  a  service,  to  save  him  from  a  great  danger. " 

"  A  great  danger  ?  "  cried  M.  Vacherot.     "  Oh,  I'm  not  at 
all  surprised  !    I  never  saw  him  in  such  a  state  of  excitement." 
"  Then  he's  been  here  ?  " 
"  Yes,  since  midnight." 
"  Is  he  here  now  ?  " 
"  No,  he  went  away  again." 
Patrice  made  a  despairing  gesture  and  asked  : 
"  Perhaps  he  left  some  one  behind  ?  " 
"  No,  but  he  intended  to  bring  someone." 
"  A  lady  ?  " 
M.  Vacherot  hesitated. 

"  We  know,"  Don  Luis  resumed,  "  that  Simeon  Diodokis 
was  trying  to  find  a  place  of  safety  in  which  to  shelter  a  lady 
for  whom  he  entertained  the  deepest  respect." 

"  Can  you  tell  me  the  lady's  name  ?  "  asked  the  porter,  still 
on  his  guard. 

"  Certainly,  Mme  Essares,  the  widow  of  the  banker  In 
whom  Simeon  used  to  act  as  secretary.  Mme.  Essares  is  a 
victim  of  persecution  ;  he  is  defending  her  against  her  enemies  . 
and,  as  we  ourselves  want  to  help  the  two  of  them  and  to  take 
this  criminal  business  in  hand,  we  must  insist  that 
you     .     .     ." 

"  Oh,  well !"  said  M.  Vacherot,  now  fully  reassured.  "  1 
have  known  Simeon  Diodokis  for  ever  so  many  years.  He  was 
very  good  to  me  at  the  time  when  I  was  working  for  an  under- 
taker ;  he  lent  me  money  ;  he  got  me  my  present  job  ;  and  he 
used  often  to  come  and  sit  in  mv  lodge  and  talk  about  heaps 
of  things     ..." 

"  Such  as  his  relations  with  Essares  Bey  ?  "  asked  Don  Luis, 
carelessly.     "  Or  his  plans  concerning  Patrice  Belval  ?  " 

"  Heaps  of  things,"  said  the  porter,  after  a  further  hesita- 
tion. "  He  is  one  of  the  best  of  men,  does  a  lot  of  good  and 
used  to  employ  me  in  distributing  his  local  charity.  And 
just  now  again  he  was  risking  fiis  life  for  Mme.  Essares." 

"  One  more  word.  Had  you  seen  him  since  Essares  Bey's 
death  ?  " 

"  No,  it  was  the  first  time.  He  arrived  a  little  before 
one  o'clock.  He  was  out  of  breath  and  spoke  in  a  low  voice, 
listening  to  the  sounds  of  the  street  outside  :  '  I've  been 
followed,'  said  he,  '  I've  been  foOowed.  I  could  swear  it.' 
'  By  whom  ?  '  said  I.  '  You  don't  know  him,'  said  he.  '  He 
has  only  one  hand,  but  he  wrings  your  neck  for  you.'  And 
then  he  stopped.  And  then  he  began  again,  ill  a  whisper,  so 
that  I  could  hardly  hear  :  '  Listen  to  me,  you're  coming 
vnth  me.  We're  going  to  fetch  a  lady,  Mme.  Essares.  They 
want  to  kill  her.  I've  hidden  her  all  right,  but  she's  fainted  : 
we  shall  have  to  carry  her  .  .  .  Or  no,  I'll  go  alone. 
I'll  manage.  But  I  want  to  know,  is  my  room  still  free  ?  '  I 
must  tell  you,  he  has  a  little  lodging  here,  since  the  day  when 
he  too  had  to  hide  himself.  He  used  to  come  to  it  some- 
times and  he  kept  it  on  in  case  he  might  want  it,  for  it's  a 
detached  Ibdging,  away  from  the  other  tenants." 

"  Wliat  did  he  do  after  that  ?  "  asked  Patrice,    anxiously. 
"  After  that,  he  went  away." 
"  But  why  isn't  he  back  yet  ?  " 

"  I  admit  that  it's  alarming.  Perhaps  the  man  who  was 
following  him  has  attacked  him.  Or  perhaps  something  has 
happened  to  the  lady." 

"  What  do  you  mean,  something  happened  to  the  lady  ?  " 
"  I'm  afraid  something  may  have.  When  he  first  showed 
me  the  way  we  should  have  to  go  to  fetch  her,  he  said,  '  Quick, 
we  must  hurry.  To  save  her  life,  I  had  to  put  her  in  a  hole. ' 
That's  all  very  well  for  two  or  three  hours.  But,  if  she's 
left  longer,  she  will  suffocate.     The  want  of  air     .     .     ." 

Patrice  had  leapt  upon  the  old  man.  He  was  beside  him- 
self, maddened  at  the  thought  that  Coralie,  ill  and  worn-out 
as  she  was,  might  be  at  the  point  of  death  in  some  unknown 
place,  a  prey  to  terror  and  suffering. 

"  You  shall  speak,"  he  cried,  "  and  this  very  minute  !  You 
shall  take  us  where  she  is  !     Oh,  don't  imagine  that  you  can 
fool  us  any  longer  !  Where  is  she  ?  You  know  !  He  told  you  !  " 
He  was  shaking  M.  Vacherot  by  the  shoulders  and  hurling 
his  rage  into  the  old  man's  face  with  unspeakable  violence. 
Don  Luis,  on  the  other  hand,  stood  chuckling  : 
"Splendid,  captain,"  he  said,  "splendid!     My  best  com- 
pliments !     You're  making  real  progress  since  I  joined  forces 
with  you.     M.  Vacherot  will  go  through  fire  and  water  for 
us  now." 

"  Well,  you  see  if  I  don't  make  the  fellow  speak,"  shouted 
Patrice. 
"  You  refuse  to  speak,  do  you  ?     You  refuse  to    speak  ?  " 
In  his  exasperation,  Patrice  drew  his  revolver  and  aim'ed 
it  at  the  man. 

{To  be  continued.) 


March  i,  igi7 


Supplement  to  LAND    &    WATER 


vn 


m 


TT^ACTICAL 

KNITTED 
COATS 


Suitable  both  for  indoor 
and  outdoor  wear,  in 
bright  artificial  fs i  1  k. 
Full,  ample  hape,  suit- 
able for  all  figures.  In 
light  and  dark  shades, 
also  in  many  good  mix- 
tures. Specially  suitable 
for  wearing  with  tweeds. 


Price 


63/. 


Debenham 
frFpeebody 

wigmope  Street. 
(Cavgndish  Square)  London.W. 

hiimous  fop  over  a  Century 
forTastcfbr  Quality, for  Vulue. 


i 

INEXPENSIVE 

SQUARE     NECK 

BLOUSE 

ADAPTED  from  an  ex- 
clusive Paris  model 
*■  by  our  own  workers 
to  meet  the  present  demand 
for  dainty,  refined  and  quite 
inexpensive  blouses.  This 
blouse  is  made  in  good 
quality  silk  georgette,  flatly 
pleated,  with  square  sailor 
collar  and  large  loose  front, 
to  be  worn  outside  coat. 
In  a  lovely  range  of  new 
colours. 

Special  Price 

2519 

Also  in  rich  crepe  de  chine  at  the  siinie 
price. 


MARSHALL! 
SNELGROVE 

VERE-8TREET  ANDOXVOBD-STKEET 

: LONDON  W  ^^= 

ALSOAT-l.EEO.SSCAKBOROUOlI 
^=    IIAKROGATEAND-YOKK     === 


\Studington 

Duplex  Front 

Jgrencher 

Absolutely  Untearable. 


COMPRISES  three  Coats  in 
one— viz.,  a  Waterproof, 
Great  Coat  and  British 
Warm.  It  is  positively  wind 
and  weatherproof,  the  outer 
shell  being  triple-proofed,  the 
extra  inner  lining  is  of  the  finest 
quality,  and  the  check  wool 
lining  has  also  been  rendered 
impervious  to  wet. 

The  detachable  fleece  under- 
coat provides  the  maximum 
of  warmth  without  weight  and 
can  he  worn  without  the  shell 
as  a  British-Warm  or  Sleeping 
Jacket. 

PRICE— 

Without  fleece  from 

£4  :  X4  :  6 

With  fleece  from 

£6 : 6  :  O 


CIVIL    AND 


MILITARY    TAILORS 


5I.CONDUIT  STREET.  BOND  STREET  W_ 

"■    67-69.  CHANCERY  LAME.  LONDON.  WCr 


Private  Sale   of  High-class   Modern 
and  Antique 

FURNITURE  AND  EFFECTS 

to  the  extent  of  over  £70,000 

THE  FURNITURE  and  FINE  ART  DEPOSITORIES,  LTD.,  have  been  favoured  with  instructions 
from  the  vHrious  trustees  and  owners  who  have  been  called  to  serve  with  His  Majesty's  Forces,  to 
SELL  PRIVATELY,  in  many  cases  enlirely  without  reserve  and  reyardless  of  original  cost,  the  entire 
contents  ol  several  town  and  country  mansions,  being:  one  of  the  greatest  collections  ever  olTered  to  tlift 
public  of  genuine  second-hand  ancf  antique  En^li^h,  French,  ann  Italian  furniture,  Enjjlish  and  Oriental 
carpets,  pictures  by  modern  and  old  masters,  china  an<l  k'^^s,  pianofortes,  silver  and  plate,  linen  and 
various  objects  of  art,  including  styles  of  liUzabethan,  Jacobian,  (Jueen  Anne,  Early  Georgian 
Chippendale,  Ilepplewhite,  Adams.  Sheraton,  besides  a  iiiiignificent  collection  of  black  and  gold  and 
coloured  lacquer  furniture  of  Oriental  taste. 

Complete  illustrated  catalogues  are  now  ready,  and  will  be  sent  free  on  application. 

The  FOLLOWING  FEW  ITEMS  will  sumce  to  give  an  idea  of  the  exceptionally  low  or  war>Ctme 
prices  at  which  these  s-oods  are  bei'  g  olfered :  — 

THE  LOUNGE.  DINING  ROOM,  and  LIBRARY  FURNITURE  include  several  fine  lounge  easy 
chairs,  with  loose  down  cushion  seats.  47b.  6d.  each;  Chesterfield  settees,  with  .idjustable  ends, 
£'i  7s,  6d.  each  ;  large  lounge  easy  chairs,  covered  with  real  leather,  unsoiled,  £,i.  J7s.  6d,  e^ich  :  Queen 
Anne  design  sideboard,  5  ft.  wide,  with  round  mirror  in  back. ^7  l5i. :  Queen  Anne  design  mantle  mirror, 
£2  7i.  6d. :  oval  extending  mahogany  dining  table,  with  yueen  Anne  shaped  legs,  £A  ICb.  ;  set  of  eiglit 
(jueen  Anne  design  chairs,  including  2  arm  or  carving  chairs,  with  upholstered  seats,  jf  8  16l. ;  bookcase, 
with  writing  bureau  attached  and  diawet^  under,  ^6  Ifls. ;  large  real  Turkey  carpet,  in  excellent 
condition,  6 gl.  ;  fine  old  striking  grandfather  clock,  £,^  15s.  ;  bracket  clock ,  35l. ;  choice  pair  of  large 
French  bronzes.  45i. ;  old  blue  Dt'lf  pattern  dinner  servit^e  of  octagonal  shape,  70  pieces,  complete, 
^3  17b  6d.,  with  tea  service  to  match,  includin^^  tea  pot  and  sugar  pot,  27s.  6d.  :  complete  set  of  crystal 
table  glass.  £fi  178.  6d.  :  polished  oak  canteens  of  cutlery  and  plate  by  Mappin  &  Webb.  £^  178  6d  ; 
quantity  of  plate  by  Elkinglon  and  other  well-known  makers;  rare  specimens  of  Jacobean  dressers, 
refectory  tables  and  chairs  in  jamcsiaiid  Charles  II,  styles,  all  in  good  conaition, 

THE  DRAWING-ROOM  FURNITURE  in  styles  of  Chippendale.  Hepplewhite,  Louis  XIV..  and 
Louis  Seize,  carved  and  gilt,  dlso  some  exijuisitely  painted  and  decorated  satinwood  cabinets,  screens, 
settees,  chairs,  tables  etc.,  and  a  quantity  of  Venetian  mirrors,  and  inlaid  ivory,  boule  and  Dutch 
marquetry  furniture,  in  addition  to  over  150  Chesterfield  settees  and  lounge  easy  chairs,  all  being  olfered  at 
less  than  one  third  origitiat  cost. 

THE  BEDROOM  APPOINTMENTS  in  mudern  and  antique  styles,  including  complete  solid  oak 
suites  from  Sgs. ,  ranging  up  to  magnificent  decorated  (atinwood  and  French  lacquered  and  inlaid 
suites,  complete  with  bedsteads,  up  to  400gs.:  .several  old  bow-front  and  other  chests,  from  358. ;  gent's 
wardrobes  and  tall-boy  chests,  from  £Z  15». ;  old  Jacobean  and  Chippendale  design  four-post  bedsteads, 
etc.     Full  particulars  will  be  found  in  catalogue. 

THE  BILLIARD-ROOMS,  LIBRARIES,  and  HALL  APPOINTMENTS  include  several  Persian, 
Turkey,  and  Oriental  carpets  and  rugs,  a  full-size  billiard  tables,  also  a  smaller  patent  turn-over 
billiard  dining  table,  16  gs..  with  all  accessories  ;  a  fine  old  Welsh  dresser,  in  original  condition,  about  ?  ft, 
wide.  9g8. ;  unique  design  oak  tfotfer,  £%  158.  ;  oak  se^it  table,  with  rug  box,  £%  ISs.  ;  carved  oak 
panelled  h^ll  cupboard.  £\  17b,  6d,  ;  and  several  old  carved  oak  chairs. 

SEVF-RAL  PIANOFORTES  by  eminent  makers,  including  a  serviceable  piano  suitable  for  practice, 
^5  15s.  :  a  capital  instrument  in  walnut  case.  12g8.  ;  piano  by  Agate  &  Pritchard.  15gs.  :  piano  as 
new,  by  William  Blackwood  &  Co..  22g8, :  piano  in  rosewood  case,  by  Hopkinson.  25g8  :  magnificent 
upright  grand  tiiano  by  John  Brinsmead  &  Co..  29gs. ;  choice  upright  piano,  iron  frame,  by  liroadwood, 
White  &  Co..  30 gs. ;  small  horizontal  grand  by  John  Broadwood,  12  gs. ;  and  a  ditto  by  same  maker.  27  gB.  : 
combined  player-piano  by  Stanley  Brinsniead,  with  several  rolls  of  music,  66  gs. ;  and  a  Steck  player-piano, 
as  new,  85  gB  :  and  several  others. 

THE   GARAGF;  includes  a   13-iih  p.  Unic  tnuring  car.   quite  as  new.  complete,   /^250:    also  a  Kemo 
touring  car,  condition  as  new,  /.150 ;  also  v.-.rious  accessories. 

In  addition  to  the  few  items  enumerated   iibnve.   there   is  a  large  quantity  of  servants' grained  and 
enamelled  furniture,  including  large  linen  cupboards,  chests,  tables,  and  wood-seat  chairs,  which  will  be 
found  useful  in  furnishing  huts  and  cottages,  lot  which  exceptionally  low  prices  will  be  quoted  to  clear. 
AnyarHcte.  mav   be  had  seflaralf/y.  and,   if  dfSf'fd.    can  remain   stored,  and  payment  ma'ie  it'lttn 
delivery  required  .or  loilt  be  f-acked free  and  delix'ertd  or  sktpfed  to  any  fart  oj  the  wor/d. 

COMPLETE     CATALOGUE,      ILLUSTRATED     BY     PHOTOGRAPHS,      NOW 
READY,    SENT    POST   FREE. 

THE  FURNITURE  &  FINE  ART  DEPOSITORIES.  Ltd. 

(by  Royal  Appointment). 

48-50  PARK  STREET,  UPPER  STREET,  I8LIN6T0N,  LONDON,  N. 

The  following  nuiitber  Motor  Buses  pass  Park  Strtet.  Islington:  Nos.  4,  19,  43,  45A, 
and  30.  Cab  fares  retunded  to  all  purchasers.  'Phone:  3472  North.  Business  Hours: 
Open  every  day  nine  till  eight.      Established  over  half  a  centurv. 

L.   LKVVIS.   Manager. 


VllI 


Supplement    to      LAND    &    WATER 


March  i,  1917 


(i 


<♦ 


^e  fkmous 

7>loscow 

>-     TRENCH 
COAT 


This  Coat  has  every  latest  device 
making  for  Comfort  and  durabiUtv 
— Storm-proof    and    Wind-proof. 

With  Detachable  Camel  Fleece  ^C  C  C\ 
Lining  (interlined  with  Rubber)    ^  O  •  O  .  U 

Cavalry  Pattern  £5.12.6 

READY  FOR  IMMEDIATE  DELIVERY 

Carriage  paid  on  receipt  of  cheque.     Only  measure- 
menls    required — Chest    over    jacket,    and    height. 


Illustrated  Price  List  Pott  Free. 


MOSS  BROS 

^AVAL   AND  MILITARY   OUTl'ITTERS. 

JZ    20  &  21  KING  ST.,)COVENT 

fr^r      25.  31.  32  BEDFORD  STREET.  (GARDEN    "  '  ^• 


TO 


JeUtrams. 
"PARSEE 

KA  \D, 
LOSUOS 


Men's  Wear. 


Gentlemen  know  ihai  ihe  Harrods  Quality  is  a  ways  arpcndable  and 
trustworthy.  They  know  that  (or  style  and  linish.  lit  and  comfortable 
ease    plus   quality,    there    is  nothing    belter    than     Harrods  Men's    Wear. 

Khaki  Shirts. 

Harrods  Service  Shirts 
are  made  on  the  pre- 
mises honi  abioiuiely 
rehablr  materia  s  select- 
ed (or  their  toughness 
and  durability. 
In    Heavy  Winter 

Flannel  12/6  &  16/6 
Tadela-  -  -  .  12/6 
Viyella     -    10/6&  II'- 


Rich  Twill   Silk    Pyjamas 

Eltectively  trimmed  with  cords  and 
bullons.  and  made  in  a    variety    o( 

s  ripes  and  plain  colours. 
Remarkable  Value  21  -,  i  (or  60/-. 
Six  sizes  to  select  irom,  thus  ensur- 
ing correct  length  of  legs  and  sleeves. 

Campaign  Sleeping  Suits. 

Extra  warm    Sleeping   Suits    made 

from  Camel  colour  Fleece. 
Combinaiion  l!  piece  Suit)      42  -, 
Coat  and  Trousers  (2  piece 

Suit) 45.- 

HARRODS  Ld  ("'SilUIf^^DTr^'tr)  LONDON  SW 


THE 


LAND  &  WATER 

WRIST  WATCH 

With  UNBREAKABLE  QLASS. 

The  "LAND  &  WATLR"  WR15T  WATCH 
is   a  genuine   damp  and  dust-proof  watch, 

with  special  screw-in  movement,  unbreakable  glass  and 
luminous  face.  The  movement  is  fully  jewelled  end  is 
fitted  with  micrometer  regulator  lo  give  tine  adjustment. 
It  is  compensated  for  all  i>ositions  and  temperatures 
-specially  balanced  and  built  lo  withstand  shock.  It  is  the 
finest  quality  Timekeeper  obtainabe  and  has  been  proved 
l)V  practical  tests  in  the  trenches,  equal  in  accuracy  lo  a 
40-Guinea  Chronometer.  I  or  Naval  and  Military  men  it  is 
the  Ideal  Walch  and  is  being  worn  by  numerous  officers 
of  both  services.  When  writing  please  state  whethei 
black  or  white  dial  is  preferred,  mentioning  reference  200. 
At  Itie  side  is  illustrated  the  New  STE.VLL  WRISTLtT  as  highly 
recommended  in  the  editorial   cdlumn  of    "  LAND    &    WATLR." 


STEVEL  WRISTLET 
sttt-adiustabU—fils  any 
siz-'  wrist  or  any  par*,  of 
arm.  Strong  and  diira- 
t)i.,  pfTmiUinfi  waUh  to 
be  lurnfd  over  an  ■  u-om 
tuce  do'fnwards  thai 
itotuif  iway  wUh  dtat 
protectors . 

Silver  Plated.  -  -'<» 
Bv  post.         -    a/s) 


The  •■  Land  &  Water  "  Wrist  Watch,  with 
tJubreakable    Glass  and    Luminous    Dial 

Obtainable  onlv  from  — 

Messrs.    BIRCH    &    GAYDON,    Ltd. 

Wa'ch  and  Tecba'cat  Instrumeat 

Makers        to       the      Admlrmlty. 

1S3    FENCHURCH    ST..   LONDON,    E.G. 

West  EnU  Branch— 19  PICCADILLY  ARCADE 
date  J.  Barwlse). 


^larch   1,  1917 

Officers' 
Riding 

Breeches, 

Successful  breeches- 
making  depends  on  the 
following  factors  —  fine 
wear  -  resisting  cloths, 
skilful  cutting,  careful, 
thorough  tailor  -  work, 
and  adequate  experience. 
All  these  we  guarantee, 
and  in  particular  the  last, 
for  we  have  been  breeches- 
makers  since  1821, 
ninety-six  years  ago. 


We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of 
pairs  of  breeches,  and  are  there- 
fore often  able  to  meet  immediate 
requirements,  or  we  can  cut  and 
try  a  pair  on  the  same  day,  and 
complete  the  next  day,  if  urgently 
wanted. 


Supplement    to     LAND    &     WATER 


OUR  NEW  ALL-LEATHER  PUTTEES  NEVER  TEAR  or  FRAY  OUT 

These    most    comfortable,    ||ood-IookinjS    puttees     are    made     entirely    of 

fine   supple  tan  leather,    and  fasten  simply  with  one    buckle    at   bottom. 

The    price  per  pair  fa  16'6,   post  free  inland,  or  postage  abroad    1/-    extra. 


ESTD.    18  21- 


GRANT  .so  COCKBURN 

LTD. 

25  PICCADILLY,  W. 

Military    and  Civil   Tailors,   Legging  Makers. 


The  Original  Cording's,  Estd.  1839  ==^= 

THE  ''  EQUITOR"  COAT 

iRKnu.) 

IS  REALLY  WATERPROOF, 

a  sufficient  statement  when 
upheld  by  a  reputation  for 
waterproof  -  making  which 
goes  back  nearly  80  years. 

An  "Ef|uitor.''  with  snug  fleere 
woollen  lining  Ijuttoned  in,  maiie^ 
an  excellent  great-eoat  in  wliicli  t<, 
"travel  ligiit."  and  will  not  oiily 
keep  a  man  Imne  dry  throu;;h  the 
heavieiit  And  most'  las^ng  down- 
pour, but  will  al-so  warmly  protect 
him  in  hilinK  <.'o;d  weather,  and 
may  tiierofore  he  relied  upon  to 
nniiimi.^e  the  ill-effects  of  enforced 
exposure  at  night. 

The  "Eqnjtor"  iis  fitted  with 
a  s-pecial  riding  apron  (unlesis 
ordered  wit/liout)  which  can  he 
fastened  conveniently,  out  of  sight, 
but  the  cciat  serves  just  as  well 
for  ordinary  we^ir  afoot,  whether 
the  apron  be  fastened  btict;  or  not 

In  our  light-weight  No.  31  material 
the  price  of  the  "Equitor"  Is  92/6; 
of  our  No.  23  cashmere,  a  medium- 
weight  cloth,  115/-;  without,  apron 
(either  cloth),  17/6  less,  with  belt, 
5/-  extra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coa 
can  be  had  in  two  qualities 
No.  1  (line  wool),  62/6;  No.  2,  40/-. 

When  ordering  an  "Equitor"  Coat 
please  state  height  and  chest 
measure  and  send  remittance 
(which  will  be  returned  promptly 
if  the  coat  is  not  approved),  or 
give  home  address  and  business 
(not  banker's)  reference. 


IlluMtrated  Litt  at  request. 


J»   C    L^ORIDINkj   &   KjLt'd   to hm.  the  king 

Only  Addreises  : 

19  PICCADILLY,  W.,  &  35  st.  jamess  st,  s.w. 


^11, 


Peace  days — the  days  of  victory  and  all  ihat  victory  means  to 
us — are  coming  nearer. 
Then  we  shall  resume  the  manufacture  of  those  B.S.A.  TARGET 
AND  SPORTING  RIFLES  which  lor  years  prior  to  the  war  stood 
ut  alone  as  the  acme  of  design,  workmanship  and  accuracy. 
Then  you  will  cail  on  us  lo  supply  your  wants  in  this  direciion.     To 
make  things  easier,  WE  ASK  YOU  TO  SEND  US  YOUR  NAME 
NOW,  SO  THAT  WE  MAY  KEEP  YOU  WELL  ADVISED 
OF  OUR  POSITION,  AND   ALSO   OF  THE   NEW   AND 
POPULAR  MODELS  AND   ACCESSORIES  WHICH  WE 
MAY  INTRODUCE. 
Will  you  do  50  ? — and,  in  wriiing,  ask  for  copy  of 
"  Rifle  Siihls  and  their  Adjustment.' 

THE  BIRMINGHAM  SMALL  ARMS 
CO.,  LTD.,  BIRMINGHAM,  ENG. 

Maktrs  cf   Rifles  and  Lewis   Machine 

Guns   fcr  the    British    Colonial    snd 

Foreign  Governments  and    of    the 

famous     B.S.A.      Cycles      and 

.     .      Moors     .     . 


B.S.A.  SAFETIPASTE 
will  ke«p  your  gun  or  nfle  clean  with 
a  mrnimum  of  trouble.  It  overcomes 
all  harmful  (oulini;  and  obviates  en- 
tire'y  arducus  scrubbing  jtnd  periodical 
recleTnins.  You  jusl  coat  the  bore  v>ftth 
it— that%  a'l. 

Retails  at — 

ONE  SHILLING  A  TUBE. 
Ask  for  other  detaili. 


I    No  matter  how  beauti- 
:    f  ul  your  home  may  be 

I  its   daintinci-s  .and  grace  can   be    enhanced   by   the  use  of 

I  RON  UK.      I-'urniture  that   has  a  tendency  to  get  dull  and 

;  lose  its  lustre  can   have  its  brightness  and  polish  Restored 

j  by   Honuk.      Konuk  does  not  smear — a   Roniiked   surface 

I  never    looks  greasy    and    does    not    fingermark.      Poli^hed- 

1  wood     floors,     linoleum,      wainscoting,      doors,      skirtings, 

■  etc.,    can    be    kept    in    ideal    condition    at    a     minimum 

I  of    cost    and    labour    by    the    occasional    application    of 

I  RONUK — especially  if  you    possess   the   new   light-weight 

I  KONUK  HOME  POLISHER,  which  .saves  going  down  on 

;  hands  and  knees  and  reduces  housework  to  a  minimum. 

ROfWK 

THE    SANITARY    POLISH 

Dust  lies  lightly  'on  a  Ronuked  surface.  Just  a  brush  up 
and  a  light  rub  occasionally  will  keep 
a  Konuked  surface  in  good  condition 
for  weeks.  Ronuk  is  GliRM-PROOl", 
DIRT-PROOF,  and  .A.NTISEPTIC, 
and  has  a  pleasant,  refreshing  odour. 


Of  stores.  Grocers, 
Ironmongers,  and  Oil- 
men, in  TINS  onlv. 
3rf.,6d.,and  1/-.  Also 
LIQUID  RONUK  in 
upright  tins,  i  pint 
1/6.  I  quart  2/6, 
i  gallon  4/6.  Inter- 
est'ng  booklet, 
"THERE'S  THE 
RUB,"  gratis  and  post 
free  from  RONUK, 
Ltd.  (Dept.  No.  35), 
Portslade,  Brighton. 


.nillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliy 


Supplement    to    LAND    &     WATER 


March  i,  1917 


The    Big    CIGARETTE    with    the    choice    Flavour 
SILK    CUT    VIRGINIA 

'  GREYS  '  have  a  characteristic 
smooth  flavour  that  must  be 
just  right  for  the  manly 
palate  —  or  'GREYS'  would  not 
be  the  smoke  amongst  Service 
men,  as  they  are.  Big,  whole- 
some cigarettes  in  a  plain  box. 


20.„rl- 

50  for  2/6 

100  for  4/9 

or     all     HiehCUss 

Tobacconists       and 
blores. 


FOR  SENDING  TO  THE  FRONT. 

Post  and  Duty  Kiee,  and 
Packed  in  Airtignt  Tins  of  50. 
200ior6/-  500forl4-  IOOOfor27/- 
Place  your  order  with   your  Tobacconist. 


Maniifaclured    by    MAJOR    DRAPKIN    AND    CO.,    LONDON. 
Branch    of    the    United     Kingdom    Tobacco    Company,     Limited. 


^IMII^lilHIii^ 

TRENCH     COAT 


"Vl/'HEN  you  f,'i\e  serious  thought — as  you 
should— to  the  choice  of  your  cam- 
paign coat,  remember  that  nearly  15,000 
British  Officers  have  been  the  envy  of  their 
fellows  because  they  wore  a  "  Thresher." 

There  was  a  reason  why  the  War  Office  recom- 
mended the  "  Thresher  "  to  Officers  Command- 
ing Corps  in  the  B.E.F.  the  first  winter  of  the 
war.  It  was  the  best  coat  then,  and  it  has 
only  been  beaten  since  by  the  improved 
"  Thresher  "  otto-day. 

The  "  Thresher "  is  the  trench  coat  for  all 
seasons  and  conditions,  according  to  tl.e 
detachable  linings  used.  It  is  the  coat  that 
tloes  keep  you  warm,  and  does  keep  you  dry. 

"Thresher"  Trench  Coat,  uiilined    -     £4  14  6 

Detachable  "Kamelcott"  lining   -     -     £1    11   6 

Detachable  Sheepskin  lining     -     -     -     £3   13  6 

tavalrytype,  with  knee  flaps  and  saddle  gusset,  lS/6cxtra 

All  sizes  in  slock      Send  size  0/  chest  and  approximale  height, 
and  to  avoid  an-/  delay  enclose  cheque  when  ordering. 


THRESHER  &  6LENNY 


Est. 

1755. 


Military  Tailo'M  Mince 
ttle    Crimean    War. 


Est. 

1755. 


152  &  153  STRAND,  LONDON 


WM, 


Scottish  Agents  : 

ANDERSON 


&     SON, 


tjy  Appu'ulmftit  to 
H.M.  the  King. 


14    Geurlttf    Street.   Edinburgh, 
106    Hope     Street,     Glasgow, 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII  No.  2860  [v^I^RJ 


THURSDAY.  MARCH  i.  1917 


r  registered  as"!    i'ublishf.d  wkeki.y 
'anewspapkrI    prick    STEVENPENCE 


liy  Louii  Raemachen 


^        ■'     I    .t,Li«i.  I  N-cifn^ruf  j<c  '  ,.    .._ 


Jiawu  txct'^iii:efy  for  "  Lnnd  X*   Water  ' 


Truth,    Made    in    Germany 

Not  one  of  our  U  Boats  is  missing 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  i,  1917 


^ 


d. 


\  lii 


^ifc 


7.-' 


^< 


^ 


'V 


«..••"••' 


,.«-" 


„..«"' 


^^-- 


1^/ 


'    \   \ 


BARNACLES. 

Barnacles  play  havoc  with  the  bottoms 
of  ships,  and  that  is  why  every  vessel 
is  periodically  dry-docked. 

Rust  on  wheel  rims  plays  havoc  with 
Dunlop  tyres,  and  it  will  pay  every  owner 
of  a  car  to  dry-dock  it  occasionally,  taking 
the  rust  off  the  inside  of  the  rim  with  a 
piece  of  emery  paper,  and  thereafter 
paint  the  rim  with  a  coat  of  Dunlop  Rim 
Paint.  The  paint  will  be  found  to  dry 
quickly,  and  its  presence  results  in  the 
absence  of  rust. 


Help  your  Dunlop  tyres  to  help 
mileage. 


DUNLOP 

RUBBER  CO,  Ltd., 

Founders  of  the  Pneu- 
matic Tyre  Industry, 
Para  Mills,  Aston  Cross, 
BIRMINGHAM. 
OF  ALL  MOTOR  AGENTS. 


■cif]:i^i 


your 


'C 


k 


"i^'IU 


,>. 


March  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON.    W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  MARCH  I,    1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


rriitli,  Made  in  Germany.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  •  i 

A  GocxI  Beginning.     (Leader)  3 

The   Ancre    Retirement.     By   Hilairc   Belloc  4 

Fighting  and  Voting.     By  L.  P.  Jacks  n 

Agriculture  and  Parliament.     By  The  Editor  13 

Industry  and  Education.     An  Literview  by  J.  Thorp  14 

The  Value  of  Kut.     By  Sir  Thomas  Holdich  16 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian^  Oldershaw  17 

The  U.J.C.  Literary  Fund.     By  a  Correspondent  18 

The  Golden  Triangle.     By  Mamicc  Leblanc  20 

The  West  End  25 
Kit   and  Equipment 


.\i 


Tl 


A     GOOD     BEGINNING 

HE  great  lesson  that  this  war  has  taught  every 
one  in  this  country  holding  any  position  of 
authority  is  that  the  basis  of  national  defence 
is  an  assured  food  supply."  So  Sir  Herbert 
Matthews,  Secretary  of  the  Central  Chamber  of  Agri- 
culture wrote  in  Land  &  Water  over  four  months  ago, 
and  events  in  the  intervening  period  have  driven  home 
this  truth  in  the  most  convincing  manner.  Last  Friday 
the  Prime  Minister,  in  his  speech  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
gave  what  might  almost  be  called  a  new  charter  to  British 
agriculture ;  he  li.xed  a  minimum  wage  for  farm  labour, 
and  for  farmers  a  guaranteed  minimum  price  fqr  wheat 
and  oats  over  a  period  of  si.x  years.  At  the  end  of  four 
years  this  price  will  come  up  'for  review,  but  by  that 
time  it  may  be  reasonably  anticipated  agriculture  will 
have  made  such  strides  forward  in  these  i.slands  and  will 
have  so  thoroughly  justified  the  policy  now  inaugurated, 
that  measures  which  at  the  moment  appear  to  some  to 
be  experimental  will  then  be  accepted  as  essential  to 
the  general  well-being  of  the  nation. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  is  to  get  as  much  land  as 
possible  under  cultivation  with  such  labour  as  is  left 
at  the  disposal  of  the  farmers.  They  start  with  a  clean 
slate  ; "  they  can  forget  the  disastrous  experiences  of 
1880  and  i8()0  to  which  Mr.  Lloyd  George  alluded  ;  they 
can  work  with  a  certainty  of  reasonable  profit,  for  the 
inequitable  risks  which  landowner  and  tenant  were 
called  on  to  face  in  the  past,  no  longer  exist.  This 
is  a  good  beginning,  and  the  minimum  wage  gives 
them  assurance  that  on  demobihsation  men  will  retiirn 
to  the  land.  By  degrees  it  is  hoped  ownership  will 
increase.  There  is  no  occasion  for  dispossession  ;  every 
year  in  the  natural  course  of  events,  a  comparatively 
large  acreage  finds  its  way  into  the  open  market,  and 
with  fixity  of  minimum  prices  and  an  assurance  of 
labour,  there  will  be  strong  encouragement  for  tenant- 
farmers  to  become  their  own  landlords.  As  was  pointed 
out  in  these  columns  on  a  previous  occasion,  "  OM-ncr- 
ship  settles  all  diificulties  of  land  tenure,  rernoves  all 
sense  of  insecurity,  gives  absolute  freedom  of  cropping 
and  destroys  all  friction  due  to  alleged  damage  by 
game.".  It  also  imparts  new  life  and  vigour  to  the  old 
yeoman  ^.tock  which  has  been  in  serious  danger-of  dying 
out  during  the  last  generation. 

When  the  Prime  Minister,  rising  from  his  seat  at  West- 
minster, publicly  confesses  that  the  State  has  .  shown  a 
lamentable  indifference  to  the  importance  of  the  agri- 


cultural industry  and  to  the  very  life  of  the  nation,  and 
that  it  is  a  mistake  which  must  never  be  repeated,  he 
jjlaces  outside  the  bounds  of  discussion  the  political 
errors  of  the  past.  Agriculturists  are  now  concerned 
with  building  up  a  new  industry  based  on  scientific 
knowledge  and  sound  economic  principles.  At  the 
outset,  as  we  have  said,  the  abnormal  conditions  conse- 
c[uent  on  the  war  will  render  things  difficult,  but  this  is 
temporary.  They  have  to  reahse  that  in  many  respects 
they  themselves  have  been  to  blame  ;  the  fault  has  by 
no  means  been  all  on  the  side  of  Government.  As  we 
point  out  on  another  page,  even  in  the  political  arena 
they  have  displayed  a  curious  apathy  towards  their  own 
interests.  There  have  been  difficulties  in  the  way,  but 
these  difficulties  can  be  overcome.  They  must  realise 
that  all  interested  in  agricultnare — landlord,  farmer, 
labolirer — form  one  class  ;  their  interests  are  identical, 
not  antagonistic.  They  have  to  regard  their  problems 
with  a  broader  mind,  and  they  ha\'e  tx>  bring  to  their 
work  a  higher  standard  of  education  than  has  been  the 
rule  in  the  past.  "  There  is  no  other  industry  than 
agriculture "  wrote  Mr.  Christopher  Turnor  in  these 
columns  last  autumn,  "  which  can  go  on  for  ever  pro- 
ducing values  out  of  nothing — to  be  correct,  create 
wealth  with  raw  material  of  which  90  per  cent,  is  obtained 
from  the  atmosphere ;  and  one  cannot  but  admire 
(iermany's  wide  outlook  and  wisdom  displayed  in  con- 
ceiving the  vast  possibilities  of  an  agriculture  industrialised 
on  a  scientific  basis."  By  our  great  stores  of  munitions 
of  war  we  are  beating  the  Germans  on  the  fields  of  France, 
and  by  equal  great  stores  of  munitions^  of  peace,  pro- 
duced from  the  fields  of  England,  we  can  secure  ourselves 
against:  i  aggression  for  all  time. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  education  is  as  essential  as 
capital  if  this  country  is  to  hold  its  own.  "  ,The  owner 
of  land,  when  letting  a  farm,  ought  to  be  as  careful  to 
ascertain  the  prospective  tenant's  technical  capabilities 
as  he  is  to  determine  his  ability  to  pay  the  rent.  In  fact, 
a  diploma  from  an  agricultural  school  or  college  should  be 
more  carefully  scrutinised  than  a  bank-reference."  But 
education  has  not  been  the  farmer's  strong  point  hitherto  ; 
he  is  apt  to  regard  it  with  suspicion  and  to  blind 
himself  to  its  achievements  in  other  countries. 
And  a  better  system  -  of  elementary  education  is 
needed  for  the  agricultural  population;  they  must  be 
taught  to  discover  a  happier  outlook  in  rural  life.  The 
moment  is  propitious.  There  was  a  Saturday  at  Bedford, 
not  four  years  ago,  when  men  would  as  soon  have  thought 
of  beholding  an  Archangel  in  Whitehall  as  of  seeing  Mr. 
Prothero  at  the  Board  of  Agriculture  on  the  appointment 
of  Mr.  Lloyd  George.  But  this  has  come  to  pass,  and 
it  is  striking  testimony  to  the  bold  way  iii  which  we  are 
knocking  off  old  fetters  and  seeking  new  freedom  of 
thought  and  ideas.  And  with  Mr.  Fisher  at  the  Board 
of  Education,  there  is  good  reason  for  the  hope  that  our 
schools  in  the  future  will  approach  the  basic  industry 
with  a  deeper  understanding  of  its  true  significance. 
A  wiser  system  of  elementary  education  will  elevate  the 
agricultural  labourer,  who  has  had  small  mercies  to  be 
thankful  for  in  the  past.  His  condition  has  been  inferior 
to  practically  every  other  class  of  manual  worker,  and  it 
is  not  perhaps  altogether  surprising  that  so  many  people, 
who  are  ignor.ant  of  agricultural  ^conditions,  should 
regard  him  as  unskilled.  The  sooner  it  is  possible  for 
him  to  draw  his  25s.  in  cash  each  week,  the  better  it  will 
be.  He  wiJl  then  have  to  pay  an  economic  rent  for  his 
cottage  and  possibly  to  forego  certain  perquisites  which 
he  has  come  to  look  on  almost  as  a  right.  He  may  not 
like  it  at  first,  but  his  character  will  gain  in  strength 
when  these  last  relics  of  serfdom  are  abolished.  British 
agriculture  is  at  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  ;  whether 
it*is  entering  on  a  golden  age  will  depend  on  itself.  A 
good  beginning  has  been  made,  but  the  future  is  mainly 
in  its  own  hands. 


LAiND    &    WATER 


Marc  h  i,  1917 


The  Ancre  Retirement 


By   Hilaire   Belloc 


IF  the  reader  has  by  liim  the  issue  of  this  journal 
whidi  appeared  ui)on  Thursday,  February  13th 
(No.  2,858),  he  will  lind  upon  page  4  a  map,  which 
1  here  reproduce,  and  which  emphasizes  the 
importance  of  a  certain  view-point  marked  on  that 
map  with  a  large  A.  This  view-point  is  known  on  the 
J^rench  Ordnance  Map  as  "  Hill  127,"  and  I  had  already 
pointed  out  as  late  as  last  November  that  the  possession 


Cantoa/x  at  fOifetreS 


of  its  summit  would  necessarily  endanger  the  whole 
German  sklient  in  this  neighbourhood,  because  from  this 
spur,  and  particularly  from  the  point  where  a  ruined 
mill  stands  on  the  cart  road  following  the  ridge  of  it, 
there  is  direct  observation  throughout  7/8ths  of  a  circle 
over  all  the  country  round.  It  directly  commands 
Miraumont  and  the  slight  valley  leading  down  to  Mir- 
aumont  from  the  west.  It  gives  a  complete  view  of  the 
ravine  behind  Pys  which  was  for  long  crowded  with  Ger- 
man guns,  and  it  looks  right  up  the  main  ravine  of  the 
Ancre  and  the  railway  line  towards  the  Junction  of 
Achiet  le  Grand.  You  do  not  get  from  it  a  complete 
view  into  the  valley  of  Puisieu.x  (or  Bucquois)  that  iri, 
the  valley  of  the  Brook  of  Miraumont  which  lies- 
immediately  before  the  main  watershed  generally  called 
"  The  Bapaume  Ridge,"  which  also  concealed  a  number 
of  the  enemy's  heavy  guns,  but  you  comnand  a  wide 


view  over  the  slopes  leading  down  to  that  valley  ;  and, 
in  general,  it  has  been  frequently  premised  in  these 
pages  that  the  possession  of  this  height  would  render 
all  the  German  positions  immediately  to  ihi  east  and 
north-east  untenable.  Meanwhile  that  possession  would 
also  increase  "the  sharpness  and  therefore  the  peril  of  the 
salient  of  Serre.  The  words  used  in  this  connection  upon 
page  5  of  our  issue  of  February  15th,  were  as  follows  : 

"  A  very  great  deal  will  depend  upon  the  fate  of  that 
high  ground  at  A  immediately  above  Baillescourt  Farm, 
which  is  still  in  the  enemy's  hands.  -If  that  height  be 
taken  several  things  follow  as  a  consequence. 
•'  In  tlic  first  place  all  the  complex  of  trenches  which  render 
the  Serre  position  so  formidable  will  be  made  a  sharp 
and  difiicult  salient  under  fire  from  three  sides. 
"  In  the  second  place  there  will,  as  I  have  already  said, 
be  direct  vision  over  a  very  great  extent  of  country  to  the 
north,  direct  observation  thus  obtained  for  the  first  time 
over  those  great  spaces  of  rolling  land,  the  heart  of  which 
is  the  junction  of  Achiet  le  Grand,  and  the  main  gun 
positions  >vhich  are  probably  hidden  in  the  valley  of 
Puisieux. 

"  In  the  third  place  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  enemy  to 
establish  concealed  positions  in  the  valley  of  the  Upper 
Ancre  behind  Pys.  From  the  top  of  this  hill  one  sees 
everything.  Not  that  it  is  higher  than  the  ground  to  the 
north  and  the  north-west — it  is  not  ;  but  that  it  com- 
mands all  the  Ancre  valley  and  is  up  on  the  Plateau  to 
the  north  where  are  discovered  open  sweeps  of  rolling 
ground. 

"I  may  be  exaggerating  the  value  of  direct  ob.servation , 
for  I  say  again  that  only  tho.se  on  the  spot  and  only  those 
with  recent  experience,  can  give  the  prop^T  extra  weight 
to  direct  observation  from  the  ground  as  contrasted 
with  observation  from  the  air.  But  is  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  the  possession  of  such  a  height  as  that  across  which 
the  so-called  "  Swan  "  trench  of  the  enemy  runs,  would  not 
change  all  the  conditions  of  this  region.  It  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  if  this  height  were  held  Serre  would  not  be 
in  danger  on  the  one  hand,  and  Miraumont  within  the 
British  grasp  upon  the  other." 

Since  those  lines  were  written  the  summit  of  Hill  127 
was  taken,  just  at  the  end  of  the  frost :  that  is,  just 
before  the  ground  became  impossible  with  mud  and 
just  before  the  long  succession  of  misty  weather, 
which  has  half  paralysed  the  British  local  olfen.sives 
in  all  this  region.  The  thaw  with  its  terrible  mud 
and    continuous     mist    has    permitted    the     enemy     to 


March  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


Tresetttexttzzfof 

S"  loTfdtLes 


retire  unmolested  ;  Sut  he  has  been  compelled  to 
that  retirement  all  the  same,  and  what  compelled  him 
to  it  was,  above  all,  the  occupation  of  this  Hill  127, 
which  dominates  all  the  region. 

If  the  reader  will  glance  at  the  accompanying  Map  II. 
upon  which  little  is  shown  beyond  the  contours  of  the 
region  and  the  two  fronts  as  they  stood  just  after  the 
occupation  of  Hill  127  (that  is  ten  days  ago),  he  will  see 
why  the  occupation  of  this  spur  made  the  retirement 
of  the  enemy  inevitable.  From  the  point  A,  where  the 
old  ruined  mill  used  to  stand  on  the  summit  of  the  spur, 
one  overlooks  immediately  everything  to  the  north 
and  west,  with  the  exception  of  the  height  just  in  front 
of  Serre  (Hill  141)  which  is  marked  with  shading,  and 
with  the  exception  of  the  slightly  higher  country  also 
marked  with  shading  immediately  to  the  east  of  it  and 
directly  to  the  north  of  A.  One  overlooks  Miraumont 
and  the  valleys  leading  down  to  it  and  one  looks — 
if  I  remember  rightly — over  the  lower  spur  of  Beauregard 
farm  to  the  distant  depression  which  holds  the  brook 
of  Miraumont,  that  is  the  brook  running  from  near 
Puisieux  down  to  Miraumont,  which  is  one  of  the  sources 
of  the  Ancre ;  one  can  see  (unless  I  am  mistaken  in  my 
recollection)  the  trees  of  little  Achiet  on  their  height  in 
clear  weather,  over  5,000  yards  away,  and  I  believe, 
though  I  am  not  certain,  that  one  can  directly  watch  the 
effect  of  the  guns  upon  the  railway  junction,  just  south  of 
Achiet  le  Grand,  at  a  range  of  8,000  yards.  The  nearest 
emplacements  for  any  artillery  fairly  close  to  the  present 
lines  and  directed  against  this  junction  lie  due  south  of 
it  and  at  not  more  than  6,000  yards,  but  the  gun 
positions  do  not  give  direct  observation,  for  the  high 
ground  upon  which  Loupart  Wood  stands  lies  in 
between.  Again,  from  this  point  A,  this  isolated  spur, 
one  looks,  as  I  have  frequently  pointed  out,  right 
down  in  reverse  upon  the  steep  bank  above  Little 
Miraumont  and  on  to  the  Below  trench,  which  runs 
up  the  hill  behind  Pys.  All  that  bank  behind  Pys 
concealed  a  rnass  of  German  guns  a  few  weeks  ago.  It 
was  the  best  place  of  cover  for  them.  But  once  Hill 
127  was  occupied  it  could  all  be  seen.  In  a  word  the 
occupation  of  this  spur  compelled  a  retirement  back 
towards  the  Bapaume  Ridge. 

At  the  moment  of  writing  we  do  not  know  how  far  the 
retirement  has  gone,  but  common  sense  points  to  its 
becoming  ultimately  such  a  general  falling  back  upon 
the  long  and  fairly  even  ridge  which  runs  north-west- 
ward from  Bapaume— the  ridge  beyond  the  valle\- 
of    the  Miraumont    Brook.      This  rido'e  may  not  form 


the  first  line  of  the  new  defence,  but  it  will  form 
the  core.  We  know,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  enemy 
had  for  long  been  completing  a  new  trench  upon 
that  height  ;  that  the  wiring  of  it  was  completed 
and  that  he  was  ready  some  days  ago  to  fall  back 
upon  it  if  necessary.  The  new  defensive  positions  go 
much  further  northward,  but  there  is  for  the  moment  no 
necessity  of  falling  back  to  the  northern  portion  of  it. 
If  the  enemy  falls  back  on  to  this  "  Baoaume  Ridge  " 
he  has  evacuated  the  dangerous  Serre  salient  and 
straightened  his  line.  The  retirement  has  been  well 
conducted  and  is  successful.  The  enemy  has  lost 
no  material  to  speak  of,  and  only  a  handful  of  men,  but 
the  significance  of  it  lies  in  his  deliberate  refusal  to  defend 
the  threatened  positions.  He  has  deliijerately  chosen 
to  economise.  His  last  counter-attack  of  any  strength 
was  that  undertaken  three  weeks  ago  and  more,  to  recover 
the  ground  lost  near  Baillescourt— in  other  words,  to 
save  that  very  hill,  127,  upon  which  so  much  depended. 
This  counter-attack  was  broken  with  considerable  losses 
to  himself,  and  apparently  it  was  from  that  moment 
that  he  decided  upon  the  ultimate  necessity  of  evacuating 
the  Serre  salient.  It  is  worth  noting  that  he  has  given 
up  a  good  deal  of  careful  work  without  fighting  ; 
there  must  hax'c  been  in  the  interval  some  question 
of  whether  he  would  make  his  retirement  com- 
plete at  one  step,  or  fight  it  bit  by  bit.  The  w-eather 
permitted  him  to  make  it  in  one  step,  but  had  it  been  clear 
and  fine  he  might  have  been  compelled  to  fight  it  trench 
by  trench.  He  was,  unfortunately,  spared  this  necessity. 
The  whole  of  the  Below  Trench,  for  instance,  covering 
Irles  and  stretching  down  to  Pys,  which  he  had  con- 
structed behind  his  front  lines,  appears  to  have  been 
abandoned  without  a  blow.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
Hindenburg  Trench  in  the  slight  \alley  running  west 
from  Miraumont.  He  appears  also  to  have  abandoned  a 
complex  strong  system  which  he  had  thoroughly  com-^ 
pleted  in  the  brick  fields  north  of  Miraumont.  But' 
though  he  has  had  to  throw  away  all  this  labour,  he  has 
been  able  to  do  it  without  loss  because  the  weather  was 
in  his  favour.  It  is,  in  a  sense,  an  advantage  to  him  to" 
have  been  able  to  sacrifice  so  much,  for  he  has  shortened 
his  hne  at  hardly  any  expense. 

The  retirement  is  of  this  further  significance,  that  it 
challenges  the  possession  of  the  last  dominating  heights 
which,  if  they  be  finally  lost,  give  observation  northward 
and  eastward  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 

The  so-called  "  Bapaume  Ridge,"  which  at  the  present 
moment  formsi  as  I  have  said,  the  core  of  the  defence. 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  i,  1917 


AcraS 


\^Cambral 


"Dent 'so  far.     ^     " 
prociitcecC6y:i/ie 
Somxne  ojfensive 


x: 


Bapauu2£ 


Germcui  Ita&s  ojctoss 
C/iaazp<yne 


IV 


ipAE-B 


s  the  watershed  between  thi;("liannel  and  the  North  Sea, 
md  on  the  far  side  of  it  the  ground  falls  uninterruptedly 
uway  on  to  the  plains  of  Flanders. 

In  these  plains,  just  ten  miles  from  Bapaiimc  itself, 


stiuids  the  ,i;rcat  nodal  i)oint  of  Cambrai,  \-ital  to  the 
enemy's  niain  communications.  Why  Cambrai  should 
thus  Ix:  vital  will  be  apparent  from  a  glance  attheaccom- 
I'anyinf";  ma]i. 

It  is  the  ••  Knot,"  the  junclion  ul  all  llie  railways  and 
roads  which  feed  and  support  the  great  main  communi- 
cation from  Westphalia  and  the  German  factories 
through  Belgium  to  the  big  salient  of  Noyon  which  is  the 
chief  feature  of  the  (urman  position  in  Northern  I'rance. 

It  is  the  junction,  not  only  of  the  railways  (and  one 
i>f  the  j>rincipal  de))ots  for  railway  material  as  well  upon 
this  main  line),  but  also  the  junction  of  at  least  eight 
great  main  roads,  which,  in  these  days  of  light  tramways 
and  of  petrol  traffic,  are  essential. 

The  whole  of  the  activity  on  the  Somme  is  essentially 
a  threat  aimed  at  Cambrai,  and  it  may  be  said  with  justice 
that  the  Bapaume  ridge  is  the  last  main  position  which 
the  enemy  will  hold  covering  Cambrai.  Any  further 
considerable  modification  here  puts  Cambrai  in  peril. 
Nor  can  the  enemy  permit  such  modification  without 
risk  of  a  general  retirement.  Before  he  risks  that  he 
must  attack. 

The  scheme  of  the  thing  is  simple :  the  great  sahent 
of  Noyon  depends  upon  a  central  main  line  of  com- 
munication with  its  branch  roads.  The  kernel  of  the 
whole  system  is  Cambrai.  The  last  high  ground  above 
the  plain  of  Cambrai  is  the  Bapaume  Ridge. 


Capture    of    Kut 


The  reoccupation  of  Kut-el-Amara  on  the  Tigris  by 
the  British  Mesopotximian  forces  has  had,  of  course,  a 
striking  moral  effect  which  it  amply  deserv^es,  and  which 
is  of  great  value  to  our  cause.  But  it  has  also  a  military 
meaning,  the  study  of  which  is  more  proper  to  thesf 
notes.  For  Kut-el-Amara  forms  the  best  defensive 
])osition  upon  the  Tigris  between  the  Persian  Gulf  and 
Bagdad. 

the  reason  of  this  is  that  the  transport  of  a  large  force 
is  here  tied  to  the  river  when  there  is  no  railway  to  aid 
it,  and  even  with  the  aid  of  the  railway  an  army  operating 
in  the  Tigris  Valley  cannot  act  permanently  at  any  great 
distance  from  the  stream.  Granted  this  main  topo- 
graphical condition  of  any  fighting  in  the  region,  Kut 
forms  a  defile,  that  is,  a  narrow  passage  which  can  be 
held  by  a  defending  force.  To  the  right  and  to  the  left 
of  it,  nojlh wards  and  eastwards,  southwards  and  west- 
wards, there  are  obstacles,  that  upon  the  former  being 
the  Marsh  of  Suweike,  formed  by  the  melting  of  the 
snows  in  the  Persian  mountains,  the  latter,  less  formidable, 
being  the  bed  of  the  Shatt-al-Hai. 

The  Turks,  reaching  Kut  behind  General  Townshend 
in  his  retreat  fourteen  months  ago  between  December 
3rd  and  5th,  1915,  had  the  effect  of  shutting  the  door 


behind  the  retiring  force,  and  all  the  efforts  to  relieve  Kut 
which  filled  the  end  of  January,  I^ebruary,  March  and 
the  greater  part  of  April  1916,  were  attempts  to  reopen 
that  door. 

Those  attempts,  as  we  know,  failed,  for  upon  April 
29th  last  General  Townshend,  at  the  end  of  his  provisions, 
was  compelled  to  surrender  a  force  of  just  under  3,000 
British  and  just  over  6,000  Indian  troops. 

In  the  story  of  the  new  operations,  which  have  just 
successfully  completed  their  first  chapter  by  the 
forcing  of  the  door  and  the  reopening  of  the  war  of 
movement  towards  Bagdad,  we  are  handicapped,  of 
course,  by  the  inadvisabihty  upon  a  few  points,  and  the 
inability  upon  all  others,  to  discuss  numbers  and  material. 
Everything  has  depended  here,  as  in  every  other  Opera- 
tion of  the  vvar,  upon  effectives  and  thd^  equipment, 
fo  be  able  to  bring  a  larger  number  of  men  together,  to 
feed  them,  to  munition  them,  to  provide  them  with 
superior  firing  power,  is  the  whole  problem.  The  opera- 
tions of  1915  failed  through  the  superiority  of  the  enemy 
in  n\unbers  and  in  communication  behind  those  numbers. 
So  have  the  tables  now  been  turned  upon  him  with  the 
operations  of  late  if)i6  and  early  iqij,  because  the  British 
are  now  provided  with  suthciency  of  men  and  material 


f»iaicli  I,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


and  with  tliat  communication  M'hich  alone  permits  ol 
such  a  concent lation  of  both. 

The  final  operation  which  decided  the  event  filled 
I'hursday,  Friday  and  Saturday  last,  by  the  close  of 
which  latter  day,  Saturday  the  24th,  the  whole  enemy 
position  was  turned,  and  the  whole  enemy  force  in  full 
retreat. 

Before  turning  to  the  details  of  this  victory,  let  us 
brietiy  recapitulate  the  stages  of  the  British  advance. 

It  was  upon  December  13th  that  Sir  Stanley  Maude 
delivered  the  first  of  what  was  to  be  a  continuous  series 
of  operations  against  what  I  have  called,  with  perhaps 
some  exaggeration  in  language,  the  defile  of  Kut,  a  defile 
being  a  passage  created  by  obstacles  upon  either  side, 
and  forming,  as  I  have  said,  a  "  door."  This  first  blow 
was  struck  upon  the  obstacle  to  the  left  of  the  British 
front,  that  is  upon  the  right  bank  of  the  Tigris,  with  an 
offensive  against  the  watercourse  called  theShatt-al-Hai. 
In  somewhat  more  than  a  month  the  \\hole  of  the  right 
bank  of  the  Tigris  from  this  obstacle  downwards  had 
been  cleared  of  the  enemy,  and  by  February  loth  a 
strong  point  formed  by  the  old  liquorice  factory,  which 
stands  in  the  angle  between  the  Shatt-al-Hai  and  the 
Tigris,  opposite  Kut,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  attacking 
force.  As  will  be  seen  from  the  accompanying  map 
the  river  above  Kut  makes  t«.'o  great  bends,  the  first 
running  northwards  known  as  the  Dahra  bend,  the  next 
running  southward  known  as  the  Shumran.  Immediately 
following  upon  the  capture  of  the  liquorice  factoiy  the 
Turkish  forces  in  the  Dahra  bend  were  pressed  back 
against  the  ri\er.  They  formed  the  left  of  the  enemy's 
body  and  were  cut  off  from  the  main  body,  of  course,  by  the 
Tigris  itself.  This  stream  they  had  bridged  with  pontoons 
or  boats  and  proposed  to  cross  under  the  pressure  of  the 
]:}ritish  advance.  They  were  unable  to  complete  this 
movement  in  security,  being  kept  constantly  xmder  tlieir 
opponents'  fire,  and  a  great  number,  as  will  be  rcmem- 
bcredjfrom  the  desj)atch  of  three  weeks  ago, were  captured 
in  the  bend,  and  the  whole  of  this  bank  of  the  Tigris  was 
cleared  up  to  the  point  of  the  Shunuan  salient  bend  beyond. 

It  was  upon  February  15th  that  that  operation  was 
completed.  Some  2,000  prisoners  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Sir  Stanley  Maude's  command,  including,  if  I  remember 
right,  part  of  a  divisional  staff.  What  followed  was  a 
very  interesting  piece  of  tactical  work,  which  we  shall 
do  well  to  examine  in  detail. 

Of  two  obstacles  which  formed  the  walls,  as  it  were, 
upon  either  side  of  the  door  of  Kut,  the  one,  the.  southern 
obstacle  upon  the  British  left — Shatt-al-Hai — had  been 
forced,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  fir.st  part  of  February, 
and  the  enemy  driven  beyond  the  river  Tigris.  But  the 
river  Tigris  itself  formed  a  subsidiary  obstacle.  The 
crossing  of  the  Shatt-al-Hai  only  half  opened  the  door. 
The  main  Turkish  forces  still  lay  protected  from  the 
British  upon  one  flank  by  the  works  which  defend  the 
passage  between  the  marsh  and  the  river  below  Kut, 
and  the  other  by  the  river  itself  above  Kut.  The  defile 
would  not  be  completely  forced,  the  door  would  not  be 
completely  opened,  until  the  force  had  been  compelled 
to  retire  into  the  open  country  beyond,  that  is  to  abandon 
the  peninsula  of  Kut. 

In  order  to  observe  in  detail  what  followed,  I  must 
ask  my  readers  to  look'  at  Sketch  VI.  appended  below. 


1MB    i    i^ 


6''^fiZes     JO 


mrveateti^  lure 


With  the  object  ol  compellmg  tins  retirement  Sir 
Stanley  Maude  first  attacked  the  strong  lines  w  hich  run 
from  the  Suwaika  March  to  the  river,  which  have  been 
organised  for  more  than  a  year  and  which  arc  kpown  as 
the  Sanna-i-Yat  position.  The  attack  was  prolonged 
and  to  a  superficial  observer  might  have  seemed  doubtful. 
It  was  first  delivered  in  force  upon  February  17th, 
that  is  last  Saturday  week,  without  apparent  success, 
and  though  by  the  following  Thursday,  the  22nd,  the 
first  and  the  second  lines  had  been  occupied,  it  still 
afforded  a  very  heavy  task.  In  the  absence  of  a  direct 
statement  we  may  surmise  that  the  enemy  was  deceived 
into  believing  that  the  main  effort,  or  at  any-  rate  the 
decisive  one,  would  be  made  here,  and  that  he  con- 
centrated special  strength  for  the  defence  of  the 
Sanna-i-Yatt  entrenchments.  But  it  is  sufficiently  clear 
to  anyone  examining  Sketch  VI.  that  the  Sanna-i-Yat  en- 
trenchments were  not  the  sole  keys  to  the  position.  The 
whole  of  the  Turkish  force  lay  upon  a  right  angle  menaced 
upon  two  flanks,  and  while  the  direct  fire  upon  the  Sanna- 
i-Yat  entrenchments  was  of  the  nature  of  a  frontal 
effort  against  the  left  flank,  the  right  flank  was  only  safe 
so  long  as  the  Tigris  obstacle  was  intact.  The  con- 
centration of  British  over  against  the  Sanna-i-Yat  positions 
was  in  reality  subsidiary  to  the  plan  which  had  been 
formed  to  turn  the  right  flank  of  the  enemy  by  crossing 
the  Tigris  at  the  Shumran  bend.  Under  a  superiority  of 
fire  the  point  of  the  Shumran  bend  was  bridged  some- 
where (apparently  near  its  uttermost  point,  which  would, 
of  course,  be  subject  to  a  converging  lire  from  three  sides 
(jf  the  British  guns  to  cover  the  operation).  This  was 
completed  upon  the  Friday,  the  2.5rd.  The  neck  of 
the  Shimiran  bend  is  covered  by  a  sandy  ridge  stretching 
from  one  side  of  the  river  to  the  other.  The  enemy, 
abandoning  the  interior  of  the  Shunuan  bend  when  the 
bridge  had  been  thrown  across  on  the  Friday  and  when 
the  British  forces  had  begun  to  pass  over  to  the  other 
side,  was  thrown  oft'  that  defensive  position  of  the  ridge 
in  the  early  morning  of  Saturday,  the  24th,  and  obviously 
from  that  moment  onwards  the  whole  of  the  Turkish 
position  was  turned  by  the  right.  The  continued  defence 
of  the  Sanna-i-Yat  entrenchment,  against  which  the 
enemy  had  been  lured  to  concentrate  an  excessive 
strength,  was  no  longer  of  any  service  to  him,  and  ho 
was  already  in  full  retreat.  By  8  o'clock  a.m.  the 
same  day  the  cavalry  had  passed  the  river  and  were 
the  first  to  strike  upon  the  flank  of  the  retreating  force. 
And  throughout  the  whole  of  that  Saturday  the  pursuit 
and  harassing  of  the  Turkish  retreat  continued — with 
what  loss  to  the  enemy  we  are  not  at  the  present  moment 
of  writing  (Tuesday  afternoon)  informed. 
.  The  General-in-Command,  however,  tells  us  that  the 
harassing  took  the  form,  among  other  attacks,  of  machine 
gun  fire  from  aircraft  flying  low  and  bombs  from  the 
same,  and  in  general  the  retirement  was  pressed  very 
strongly.  The  enemy  left  a  rearguard  on  the  far  bank 
of  the  Tigris  below  Kut,  which  on  the  same  day  abandoned 
the  last  trenches  of  the  Sanna-i-Yat  position  ana  re- 
tired, first  to  opposite  Magasis,  which  the  British  reached 
by  Saturday  evening,  and  then  back  at  full  speed  along 
their  direct  line  of  retreat.  Part  of  the  retiring  force 
was  caught  in  the  peninsula  of  Kut  and  left  in  the  hands 
of  the  victorious  force  1,730  prisoners,  counted  up  to 
Saturday  evening,  including  five  regimental  commanders, 
of  whom  four  were  German,  four  field  guns,  ten  machine 
guns  and  a  considerable  amoimt  of  rifles  and  material. 

The  immediate  eft'ect  of  this  victory  is,  as  we  ha\e 
said,  to  force  the  Kut  defile  and  to  restore  the  operations 
in  this  neighbourhood  to  a  war  of  movement.  There  is 
no  similar  opportunity  for  defence  up  river  equal  to  the 
opportunities  given  by  Kut  and  the  enemy  can  only  rely 
for  further  resistance  on  rapid  reinforcement  in  numbers. 

While  attention  will  naturally  be  directed  chiefly 
tt)wards  this  advance  towards  Bagdad  with  the  very  con- 
siderable political  consequences  involved  in  our  success 
in  this  region  should  it  be  obtained,  we  must  not  forget 
that  quite  apart  from  the  main  objective  at  Bagdad, 
a  strong  advance  up  the  Tigris  produces  as  a  necessary 
conse(]uence  tlie  relief  of  ])ressure  towards  Persia.  It  is  a 
point  whicji  need  not  be  laboured  and  which  it  might 
be  imprudent  to  develop  too  far.  But  everybody  is 
acquainted  with  the  importance  of  preventing  the  enemy 
forces  from  excrci.sing  political  pressure  upon  any  portion 
of  Persian  territory,  and  an  advance  up  the  Mesopotamian 


8 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  i,  1917 


valley  would  automatically  compel  the  rctuemont  west- 
ward of  such  Turkish  forces  as  have  passed  up  eastward 
into  tlic  Persian  mountains. 

Where  the  enemy  will  stand  up  river  remains  to  be 
seen,  but  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  just  before  Baghala 
is  reached  a  defensive  position  exists  which  is  tenable 
if  a  certain  marsh  be  at  this  season  of  the  year  impassable. 
Whether  it  be  so  or  not  I  know  nothing,  but  such  a 
(litticult  district  does  stand  (difficult  at  least  in  the  spring, 


and  possibly  in  winter  too)  just  north  of  the  big  bend 
below  Baghala,  and. opposite  the  little  post  called  Sheik 
Jaad.  about  15  to  17  miles  away  on  the  line  of  retreat 
(see  Map  Y.)  Here  there  is  a  defile  between  the  marsh 
and  the  left  bank  of  the  Tigris.  On  the  right  bank 
there  is  territory  subject  to  inundation  at  certain  seasons 
but  now  dry.  The  line  of  the  river  itself  here  runs  in  a 
bend  far  south,  and  if  the  enemy  had  sufficient  troops  he 
might  extend  entrenchments  for  some  distance  beyond. 


Numbers  of  the  Last  Enemy  Effort 


1 1  is  a  curious  thing  that  in  the  one  study  which,  after 
the  mathematical  sciences,  most  demands  precision— 
ihat  is,  the  study  of  war — there  should  still  be,  after 
2 '  years  of  e.\perience,  a  positive  appetite  for  the  opposite 
>.)£  "precision.  I  cannot  believe  that  this  appetite  is  in 
the  public,  but  it  is  certainly  fiercely  present  in  many  of 
those  who  feed  the  public  with  its  printed  matter.  And 
the  results  on  opinion  are  chaotic.  Nothing  is  more 
opposed  to  the  spirit  of  precision,  for  instance,  than  the 
spirit  of  sensation.  The  man  who  prophesies  without 
telling  you  why  and  who  always  prophesies  something 
sensational  ,  one  way  or  the  other  is  the  .  enemy 
Df  all  calculation.  >Jothing  is  more  against  the  spirit 
of  precision  than  tlu'  use  of  vague  but  vivid  quantitative 
adjectives — "  vast,"     "  enormous,"     etc. 

Even  now,  after  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  of  exact 
information,  one  suffers  from  a  whole  atmosphere  of  this 
sort  of  thing.  The  "  new  German  armies  "  are  "  on  a 
portentous  scale,"  the  enemy  is  "  stronger  than  ever  he 
was  before  " — and  so  forth — and  meanwhile  the  known 
facts  are  there  for  anyone  who  can  read  and  figure  to 
follow  and  to  base  his  judgment  upon. 

Let  me  repeat  those  main  facts  for  perhaps  the  tenth- 
time  since  the  beginning  of  last  autumn. 

In  round  figures,  the  enemy  as  a  whole  has  6|  millions 
deployed.  In  round  figures,  the  German  Empire  furnishes 
one-half  of  that  number.  In  round  figures,  the  enemy  had 
"  in  siglit  "  between  the  beginning  of  last  autumn  and  the 
late  middle  of  next  summer — say,  August — about  two 
milhon  men,  over  and  above  those  deployed  in  the 
fighting  area. 

In  round  figures,  one-half  of  those  two  million  men 
represent  the  German  recruitment. 

Of  this  German  million  "  in  sight  "  in  round  figures, 
one-half  were  in  depots,  trained  or  training  this  winter,  and 
the  other  half  would  come  in  from  the  remainder  of  the 
younger  classes  hitherto  postponed  and  from  the  con- 
valescents during  the  winter,  spring  and  early  summer. 

These  figures  were  not  the  result  of  guess  work,  still 
less  of  any  desire  to  provide  violent  emotion  with  its 
speculative  element,  financial  and  otlier.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  make,  like  all  figures,  pretty  dull  reading. 
But  you  can  no  more  judge  of  the  present  shuation  with- 
out knowing  those  figures — without  having  them  by 
heart  and  at  your  fingers'  ends — than  you  can  judge  of  a 
financial  operation  without  some  knowledge  of  the 
capital  behind  it,  and  of  the  rate  of  expenditure  and  of 
revenue  upon  which  it  proceeds. 

There  are,  indeed,  two  sources  from  which  this  known 
condition  of  the  German  recruitment  might  be  increased. 
One  is  the  Polish  recruitment,  including  Lithuania  and 
Courland  ;  the  other  is  the  last  sweepings  of  valid  m(n 
squeezed  out  of  what  has  hitherto  been  thought  indis- 
pensable employment  behind  the  armies. 

We  have  not,  upon  either  of  these,  the  same  sort  of 
precision  that  we  have  with  regard  to  the  German  regular 
numbers  estimated  by  classes,  but  we  do  know  how 
small  a  proportion  they  bear  to  the  whole.  Whether 
the  invaded  provinces  on  the  east  can  provide  100,000 
valid  men  or  200,000,  or  even  250,000,  makes  a  very 
great  difference  to  the  total  of  PoJish  recruitment.  The 
smallest  figure  would  be  a  comparative  failure,  the  larger 
one  an  unexpected  success.  But  it  makes  a  small 
difference  to  the  total  of  the  German  armed  forces.  Even 
if  a  quarter  of  a  million  men  could  be  raised,  with  their 
cadres  and  properly  organised,  from  occupied  ]M()\inces 
in  the  East,  they  would  add  less  than  one-thirteenth  tu 
the  total  German  armies  in  the  field. 

The  general  judgment  based,  it  is  true,  upon  nothing 
more  than  statements  of  eye-witnesses,  without  docu- 


ments (I  bclie\e)   at  their  back  ])uts  tlie  total  of  this 
recruitment  to  date  at  much  less  than  200,000. 

What  of  the  combing  out  of  the  indispensables  ? 

Upon  no  part  of  the  field  of  calculation  has  .tlicre 
been  wider  misjudgment  than  upon  this.  People  have 
talked  as  though  the  (ierman  authorities,  at  the  last 
moment,  and  by  a  sort  of  after-thought,  suddenly  deter- 
mined (after  i'  muddling  through  ")  to  organise  on 
November  13th  last,  transformed  a  society  hitherto 
haphazard  into  one  of  mechanical  perfection  and  pro- 
duced thereby  200,000  or  so  of  valid  men  who  had  hitherto 
been  wasted  on  auxiliary  service  thereby.  It  is  the 
most  pitiable  nonsense. 

Not  only  the  German  Empire,  but  every  fully  con- 
scripted country,  and  none  more  than  the  l-'rench,  has 
envisaged,  tabulated  for,  calculated,  the  last  unit  of 
ax'ailabie  manhood  long  before  the  outbreak  of  war. 
The  reason  that  the  number  of  men  you  have  to  leave 
behind  as  indispensables  gets  smaller  and  smaller  as  a 
campaign  proceeds  in  a  conscript  country,  is  most 
emphatically  not  that  you  think  more  clearly  as  the  war 
-presses  you  more  severely,  or  that  you  wake  up  tardily  to 
the  necessity  of  saving  your  life.  It  is  simply  that  it  does 
not  pay  to  interfere  with  the  general  national  life  more 
than  in  a  certain  degree  and  at  a  certain  rate.  You 
keep  a  reserve  of  human  material,  which  you  will  need 
later  to  feed  your  armies.  You  keep  it  on  the  land  and 
you  keep  it  in  all  forms  of  active  work  other  than  directly 
military,  and  you  gradually  pass  it  on  into  the  military 
machine  until  you  have  at  last  only  got  left  your  bare 
minimum  of  indispensables — national  indispensables, 
necessary  for  national  work  below  which  you  cannot 
possibly  go,  and  which  no  use  of  foreign  prisoners  can 
make  up. 

Anyone  using  his  common  sense  and  looking  round 
about  him  in  England  ought  to  be  able  to  see  that.  We 
could  use  German  prisoners  in  loading  and  unloading 
trucks,  in  screening  coal,  etc.,  but  does  anyone  out  of  an 
asylum  belie\'e  that  we  could  run  the  London  and  North 
Western  Railway  with  (ierman  prisoners  alone,  or  the 
South  Wales  Coal  Mines  ? 

In  the  calculations  of  German  indispensables  which 
the  opponents  of  Germany  have  niade  the  numbers 
allowed  for  ha\'e  been  the  very  minimum.  Far  less 
than  the  calculators  would  thetnsclvcs  have  allowed  for  in 
their  own  country. 

The  truth  is  that  the  so-called  civilian  mobilisation  of 
last  autumn  was  mainly  directed  against  strikes  that 
were  becoming  both  numerous  and  formidable,  and  by 
no  conceivable  process  could  it  add  any  considerable 
numbers  to  the  (jerman  effectives. 

These,  I  repeat,  depended  for  their  recruitment  upon 
about  one  million  "  in  sight  "  spread  over  a  ]X'riod  of 
eight  or  nine  months.  Of  that  million  about  half  a 
million  already  in  uniform,  and  of  that  half-million 
already  in  uniform,  some  unknown  proportion — perhaps 
half  again  or  a  little  more^readj'  for  use  by  the  end  of 
January.  Perhaps  two-thirds  ready  for  immediate  use 
by  tlie  end  of  February  and  so  forth. 

The  remainder  would  be  available  at  a  fairly  regular 
rate  as  convalescents  came  in,  and  as  young  men  were 
trained  through  March,  April,  May,  June  and  July. 

Add  to  this  the  not  precisely  knowTi  numbers  of  the 
Eastern  alien  recruitment,  and  you  have  all  the  available 
resources  of  that  half  of  the  enemy  governed  directly 
by  the  German  autliorities. 

Now  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  with  any  particular 
nvmibcr  of  men  "  in  siglit  "  for  a  ccrtani  number  of  months 
to  come,  and  with  a  certain  proportion  of  these  actually 
jn  hand,  <mc  can  add  to  one's  existing  numbers  in  the 


March  i,  19 17 


LAND    &    WATER 


field.  One  can  put  in  if  one  likes  all  the  men  whom 
one  has  actually  in  liand,  trusting  (for  drafts  to  replace 
wastage)  to  the  categories  that  will  forae  in  month  by 
month  from  newly-trained  men  and  from  convalescents. 
It  is  equally  clear  that,  according  to  the  size  of  one's 
original  addition  to  one's  existing  forces,  will  be  one's 
power  of  eking  out  the  drafts  remaining. 

There  are  two  extreme  policies. 

The  first  is  to  put  every  man  one  has  under  one's  com- 
mand who  is  already  sufficiently  trained  in  the  depots, 
into  the  new  units,  and  to  risk  the  very  early  depletion 
of  that  reserve  from  which  wastage  is  later  made 
good.  The  other  is  to  increase  one's  existing  army 
hardly  at  all  and  to  keep  all,  or  nearly  all  one's  men  for 
drafts  to  repair  wastage. 

Two  Extremes  of  Policy 

It  is  self-evident  that  the  first  extreme  poUcy  is  a  policy 
which  gambles  upon  the  chance  of  an  early  decision.  A 
Ciovernment  or  soldier  pursuing  it,  says  to  himself : 
"  I  will  make  the  largest  possible  striking  force  now,  be- 
cause, though  my  chance  of  winning  here  may  be  slight, 
yet  mv  chance  of  winning  if  I  delay  will  be  sUghter  still. 
r  know  that  it  condemns  me  to  an  earlier  exhaustion, 
but   I  will  risk  that." 

In  the  second  case,  the  Government  or  soldier  con- 
cerned says  to  himself  :  "  I  will  husband  my  men  to  the 
utmost.  I  beUeve  the  war  is  of  a  sort  which  by  lingering 
on  will  with  every  passing  month  bring  me  a  better 
chance  at  the  end.  I  will  therefore  keep  back  all  the 
men  I  have  in  hand  and  all  that  come  in  month  by  month 
in  the  future  for  drafts  to  repair  wastage,  and  I  will 
keep  down  that  wastage  as  low  as  possible." 

Somewhere  between  these*  two  extremes,  and  usually 
well  towards  one  or  the  other,  the  policy  of  a  nation 
at  war  will  be  discovered  at  any  moment.  No  one 
doubts,  upon  the  evidence  available,  that  the  German 
Empire  last  autumn  plumped  for  the  former  of  these 
two  policies.  There  has  been  a  considerable  addition 
to  the  numerical  strength  of  the  army  deploN'ed  by 
Germany  for  the  purpose  of  the  fighting  to  be  renewed 
shortly  with  increased  strength.  .That  army  is  to  be  used 
very  actively  and  therefore  wastefuUy.  The  drafts  kept 
back  for  repairing  this  wastage  will  therefore  be  in- 
sufficient to  repair  it  throughout  the  year,  but  the  risk 
involved  by  this  insufficiency  is  thought  worth  while, 
because  the  state  of*  the  enemy  cannot  be  worse  and 
may  be  l?etter  after  the  running  of  such  risk.  In  other 
words,  the  German  authorities  believe  that  with  luck  they 
may  do  something  striking.  They  do  not  believe  that 
merely  trying  to  hold  out  another  few  months,  subject 
to  increasing  pressure  and  perpetual  local  retirements, 
with  ample  drafts  to  replace  wastage  would  pay  them  in 
the  long  run.     And  no  one  can  say  that  they  are  wrong. 

Present  Strength 

Naturally,  this  policy  means  that  "  the  (lerman  armies 
are  stronger  than  ever  they  were."  If  we  use  the  word 
"stronger"  to  mean  numerically  larger  for  the  moment 
within  the  fighting  zone.  Naturally,  also  it  means  that 
the  provision  of  artillery  is  superior  to  what  it  Jias  been 
— that  is  true  of  both  groups  of  belligerents.  And 
though  one  must  not  discuss  figures  here  either  of 
weapons  or  munitions,  the  Allies  have  a  clear  superiority 
in  both  these,  taken  as  a  whole,  and  a  very  great 
superiority  upon  the  West. 

Let  it  further  be  repeated,  for  it  .seems  to  be  necessary, 
and  repeated  also  for  at  least  the  tenth  time,  that  simple 
statements  of  this  sort  are  no  suggestion  of  victory  or 
defeat.  They  are  the  basis  of  human  calculation,  apart 
from  which  the  study  of  war  has  no  meaning,  and  in  the 
absence  of  which  the  excitement  of  war  tends  to  the 
wildest  alternate  exaltation  and  panic. 

It  is  worth  remarking  that  in  the  very  few  cases  writers 
have  deigned  to  descend  to  actual  figures,  the  numbers 
they  estimate  are  just  what  one  would  expect  from  what 
we  know  of  the  German  numbers  "  in  sight." 

Thus  the  most  w'idely  read  of  these-  writprs,  and  the 
only  one  who  recently  has  gi\-en  figures  at  all,  talks  of 
some  200,000  extra  infantry  with  300,000  already  present 
behind   as    drafts.     Add   the    proportionate    amount    of 


new  gunners  iox  the  new  guns,  which  new  divisions  employ, 
and  you  ha\e  a  figuit'  quite  compatible  with  what  we 
kurtw  of  the  numbers  in  the  German. depots  towards  the 
end  of  last  year. 

The  Formation   of  New  Units 

It  is  important  to  understand  not  only  what  is  meant 
by  the  present  numerical  position  of  the  enemy,  that  is 
his  power  to  increase  his  numerical  strength  as  a  whole, 
but  also  a  very  different  cross  category  of  increase,  the 
formation  of  new  units.  If  we  dp  not  appreciate  what 
this  term  means,  if  we  believe  that  the  formation  of  new 
units  is  equivalent  to  the  addition  of  as  many  new  men  as 
these  units  are  composed  of,  we  fall  into  what  is  at  once 
the  simplest,  the  commonest,  and  the  most  absurd  of 
errors  in  calculating  an  enemy's  strength. 

The  German  Empire  in  the  course  of  the  last  few 
months,  has  not  only  largel}'  added  (as  we  have  seen) 
to  the  actual  mmibers  in  the  field,  but  has  also  created  a 
large  number  of  new  units. 

A  unit  means  an3d;hing  which  may  be  described  as  a 
cell  of  the  military  organism — a  battery  of  guns  is  a 
unit,  so  is  a  battalion  of  infantry,  so  is  a  squadron  of 
cavalry,  so  is  a  brigade  of  infantry,  so  are  several 
battalions  of  infantry  collected  in  a  regiment,  so  are  two 
regiments  or  more  collected  in  a  brigade,  so  is  the  col- 
lection of  infantry,  cavalry,  artillery,  engineers,  medical 
service,  staffs  and  all  the  rest  of  it  which  makes  up  that 
little  model  of  an  army,  a  division.  Now  the  formation 
of  a  new  unit  may  niean  one  of  two  extremes  or  anything 
between  those  two  extremes. 

It  may  be  the  putting  together  of  wholly  new  men 
with  their  newly-trained  officers,  new  guns  and  newly- 
trained  gunners,  new  and  wholly  inexperienced  staff,  etc. 
giving  them  a  new  number  and  sending  them  forward 
as  a  new  unit,  or  it  may  mean  the  taking  of  men  already 
to  be  found  in  old  units,  old  battalions,  old  regiments, 
old  batteries,  etc.,  and  grouping  them  together  m  a 
separate  place  and  giving  them  a  new  number  and  calling^ 
them  a  new  unit.  Or  it  may  mean  anything  between 
these  two  extremes. 

Therefore,  if  for  any  reason  you  wish  merely  to 
multiply  the  number  of  your  units  (and  what  such  reasons 
may  be  I  will  come  to  in  a  moment)  you  can  do  so  w'ithout 
having  any  new  material  available.  In  other  words, 
you  can  increase  the  number  of  your  units  without 
increasing  in  any  fashion  your  total  fighting  force. 
For  instance,  if  you  have  four  battalions  each  a  thousand 
men  strong  and  each  consisting  of  four  companies  of  250 
men,  you  may  reduce  those  companies  to  a  strength  of 
200  each,  thus  withdrawing  200  men  from  each  battalion. 
•Then  you  can  give  a  new  company  name  to  each  of  these 
groups  of  200  and  put  the  four  new  companies  so  formed 
into  one  new  battalion  unit,  to  which  you  also  give  a  new 
number  or  name.  And  at  the  end  of  the  process  you 
will  have  five  battalions  instead  of  four,  although  the  num- 
ber of  men  you  have  to  work  with  will  be  exactly  the  same 
as  it  was  before.  The  only  apparent  difference  in  strength 
even,  will  be  in  the  body  of  officers,  for  you  will  have  to 
appoint  four  new  company  commanders  and  a  new 
battalion  commander,  but  you  can  effect  this  also,  if 
you  like,  by  lessening  the  proportion  of  officers  present 
in  each  battalion. 

Somewhere  between  these  two  extremes  a  military 
authority  effects  its  creation  of  new  units  and  particularly 
its  formation  of  new  divisions.  A  German  division  at  full 
strength  might  be  counted,  at  the  outset  of  the  war,  in 
round  numbers;  a  trifle  over  20,000  men  all  told.  It  was, 
as  everybody  knows  by  this  time,  a  little  army  in  itself. 
That  is  the"  whole  meaning  of  a  division,  that  it  con- 
tains under  ^ne  command  all  arms  and  auxiharies 
necessary  to  action,  not  only  infantry  but  also  cavalry, 
engineers,  gunners,  and  the  rest  of  it. 

When  a  military  authority  is  about  to  create  new 
formations  then,  it  will  in  part  create  these  new  for- 
mations by  weakening  the  old  ones,  so  as  to  have  a 
leavening  "of  the  old  service  in  the  new  units  and  it 
will  in  part  depend  upon  wholly  new  human  and  other 
material.  It  is  of  the  first  importance  for  an  opponent 
to  discover,  if  he  can,  to  which  extreme  the  military 
authority  which  is  forming  these  new  divisions  may 
be  leaning,  for  only  thus  can  we  discover  how  far  the 


ro 


LAND    &    WATER 


Maixh  I,  1917 


enemy  is  increasing  his  real  numerical  strength  in  the 
field.  Apart  from  direct  means  of  information,  such 
as  the  capture  of  d(xaments  or  the  interrogation  of 
j)risoners  or  .information  provided  by  spies,  common  sense 
and  ])ast  exjjerience  afl'ord  a  f:;uide. 

It  is  t>b\  ions,  for  instance,  that  the  enemy  will  be  able 
to  provide  new  Runs  more  easily  than  he  will  be  able  to 
])rovide  new  men,  the  rate  at  which  he  can  produce 
new  guns  is  very  much  faster  than  the  rate  at  which  his 
annual  group  of  men  grows.  It  is  to  be  presumed, 
therefore,  that  the  new  divisions  will  have  almost  entirely 
new  artillery.  But  though  not  all  the  men  serving  the 
guns  or  driving  them  will  be  new,  that  is,  taken  directly 
from  the  depots,  yet  much  the  greater  part  of  them  will 
be  so.  When  he  is  forming  a  new-  division  he  takes 
experienced  gunners  from  existing  divisions  to  leaven 
liis  new  batteries  and  fills  their  places  in  the  old 
divisions  with  raw  material,  carefully  nii.xcd  in  small 
doses.  Cavalry  for  the  moment  we  may  neglect.  The 
Staffs  he  forms  necessarily  of  experienced  of^ticers,  whom 
he  gradually  withdraws  from  older  divisions,  supplying 
fheir  places  by  newly  promoted  subordinates  in  those 
older  divisions  and  by  others  newly  commissioned.  It 
is  in  the  matter  of  the  infantry— which  form  sixty  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  body — that  his  policy  will  be  most 
clearly  apparent. 

If  it  is  his  object  to  increase  his  field  army  as  much 
as  possible  he  will  cut  down  the  number  of  older  troops 
necessary  to  leaven  the  new  divisions  to  a  minimum, 
and  we  know  in  i)oint  of  fact  that  when  the  enemy 
lias  strained  himself  to  increase  his  field  army  he  has  some- 
times cut  down  this  leavening  to  no  more  than  a  quarter 
of  the  whole.  It  would  be  much  more  nonnal  to  allow 
one-third,  especially  as  among  the  men  in  the  depots  he  has 
not  a  few  men  discharged  from  hospital  and  already 
possessed  of  mihtary  experience.  In  other  words,  his 
so-called  "  new  men  "  are  not  all  of  them  entirely  new, 
though  they  come  straight  from  the  depots.  For  in- 
stance, some  of  the  new  divisions  which  appeared 
upon  the  Somme  were  created  entirely  or  almost  entirely 
out  of  0I4  material.  But  when  he  is  making  an  effort  to 
increase  his  total  striking  force  for  any  reason  he  must 
put  a  great  deal  of  new  material  into  the  ne\y  formation 
lor  his  new  units. 

Early  Decision 

\^'o  know,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  for  the"  purposes 
of  the  coming  shock  the  enemy  has  drawn  very  largely 
indeed  upon  such  new  material,  and  we  know  that  he  has 
correspondingly  mortgaged  any  future  revenue  in  men. 
If  you  have  so  many  men  available  to  repair  w^astage 
within  a  given  time,  and  you  take  out  of  them  such  and 
such  a  proportion  to  help  form  new  units,  you  cut  down 
in  tliat  proportion  the  time  during  which  you  will  be  able 
to  rejiair  wastage.  It  is  clear  and  a  matter  now  of 
common  knowledge  throughout  Europe  that  the  enemy 
lias  decided  upon  this  policy.  He  proposes  to  appear  in 
the  immediate  future  with  considerably  increased  forces 
on  tli'p  chance  of  doing  something  decisive  with  that 
increased  mass,  but  at  the  risk  of  an  earlier  and  more 
certain  defeat  if  he  fails. 

The  reason  for  forming  new  units  is  not  always  the  mere 
desire  to  increase  numerical  strength  ;  one  may  desire, 
lor  instance,  to  deceive  one's  opponent  as  to  one's  real 
strength,  or  to  impress  neutrals.  To  increase  greatly  the 
number  of  one's  battalions  or  the  number  of  one's 
divisions,  even  though  it  be  entirely  at  the  expense  of 
other  existing  battalions  and  divisions,  may  have  a 
certain  effect  of  this  kind,  at  any  rate  for  a  short  time. 
It  may  deceive  an  opponent  or  impress  an  ignorant 
third  party.  Indeed,  1  have  my.self  often  heard,  during 
the  latter  stages  of  this  war,  men  arguing  that  the  enemy 
wa$  doing  something,  miraculous  in  the  mere  increase  of 
divisions.  They  were  evidently  impressed  by  it.  But 
tliis  is  the  weakest  of  the  causes  which  lead  a  military 
authority  to  increase  the  number  of  his  units  ;  a  much 
stronger  and  more  valid  reason  is  that  mentioned  above, 
the  rapid  ])roduction  of  artillery.  A  larger  number  of 
divisions  can  use  a  larger  number  of  guns  ;  it  is  a  more 
handy  way  of  exploiting  your  increase  of  guns  than  Hie 
mere  piling  up  of  pieces  under  the  command  of  the  old 
existing  divisions.  Again,  as  the  division  is  the  highest 
unit  of  the  organism   -we  call  an  army,  to  increase  the 


number  of  divisions  (within  reason)  is  to  increase  the 
elasticity  of  an  amiy  and  its  handiness.  And  this  is 
probably  one  of  the  chief  causes  which  have  led  the 
("lernian  command  in  the  last  few  months  to  increase  the 
number  of  their  divisions  at  the  expense  of  lowering  the 
strength  of  each.  The  full  (ierman  division  counted 
twelve  battalions.  Very  many  of  these  new  ones  count 
only  nine,  nor  are  these  battalions  commonly  at  full 
strength.  . 

Therefore,  the  German  policy  of  making  new  divisions 
has  had  in  view,  not  only  the  actual  increase  of  the  normal 
strength  of  the  army,  "but  at  least  as  much  or  perhaps 
more  the  obtaining  of  greater  elasticity  in  use. 

Reinforcement  of  Allies 

The  Tiermans  have  been  lighting  on  two  fronts  for  the 
better  part  of  three  years.  In  the  latter  half  of  this 
period  they  have  been  suddenly  called  upon  to  reinforce 
their  Ally,  Austria,  often  at  unexpected  places,  as  when 
they  had  to  pour  down  more  than  half  a  million  men  to 
stop  the  gap  created  by  Brussiloff's  offensive  last  summer 
in  Volhynia.  They  have  even  had  to  lend,  it  is  said,  a  few 
units  against  the  Italian  front,  and  they  have  certainly 
had  to  lend  several  against  the  Salonika  front. 

In  such  circumstances,  a  multiplicity  of  smaller  units 
is  more  serviceable  than  fewer  larger  units.  It  is  much 
easier  to  move  a  complete  division  from  one  place  to 
another  than  to  move  portions  of  divisions.  A  division 
moving  as  a  whole  guarantees  the  translation  of  all  arms 
and  of  a  complete  organism.  If  you  try  to  move  by 
patch-work  you  have,  over  and  above  the  calculation 
necessaiy  to  the  mere  movement,  a  further  set  of  calcu- 
lations and  arrangements  necessary  to  the  fitting  in  of 
the  odd  details.  But  it  is  clear  that  if  you  are  dealing 
with  small  organisms,  you  have  a  greater  choice,  both  in 
the  places  from  which  you  shall  withdraw  men  and  in 
the  time  in  which  you  shall  withdraw  them,  than  if  you 
are  dealing  with  the  larger  organisms.  And  most  of  this 
work  of  moving  new  divisions  hitherto  on  the  enemy's 
side  has  been  undertaken  with  the  object  of  conferring 
elasticity  upon  an  army  which  has  to  fight  upon  so  many 
and  such  distant  sectors,  and  which  is  sometimes  unex- 
pectedly called  upon  to  appear  in  regions  which  it  had 
hitherto  been  able  to  leave  to  its  Allies. 

This  last  effort,  however,  of  the  Germans,  mainly 
undertaken  during  the  lull  of  the  past  month,  and  certainly 
in  progress  before  that,  has  been  directed  mor^ than  were 
the  earlier  re-shufflings  to  an  actual  increase  of  the 
numerical  strength  of  the  army.  It  does  not  seem  that 
the  new  divisions  are  any  smaller  than  the  restricted 
units  which  preceded  them,  while  their  number  has  in- 
creased by  something  like  30 — say,  round  about  27. 
The  meaning  of  this  is  that  Germany  intends  to  strike 
somewhere  with  a  considerable  force  of  new  infantn,',  and 
with  a  much  greater  proportionate  force  of  new  artillery, 
and  that  sfie  has  produced  tliis  hammer  head  or  bolt  at 
the  expense  of  her  future  resources  in  men.  It  does  not 
mean,  as  has  been  repeatedly  pointed  out  in  these  columns, 
that  the  total  number  of  men  she  has  "  in  sight  "  between 
this  and  the  late  summer  is  larger  than  was  calculated 
by  her  opponents.  All  it  means  is  that  she  is  gambling 
upon  the  possible  success  of  an  early  blow,  believing  that 
a  mere  holding  out  by  relying  on  drafts  to  a  later  date 
would  not  serve  her  purpose.  H.   Bellog 

The  latest  volume  in  Messrs.  T.  Fisher  Unwin's  South 
American  series,  Paraguay  (los.  6d.  net)  has  been  compiled  by 
VV.  H.  Koebel,  an  authority  on  Argentina  and  matters  South 
American.  The  compiler's  task  has  been  one  of  compression, 
from  which  all  the  volumes  of  this  scries  suffer  ;  a  wealth  of 
narrative  has  been  omitted  in  the  accounts  of  the  original 
settlement  of  the  country,  though  the  doings  of  Irala  and  of 
Anvar  Nunez  are  concisely  related.  But  Hernandez's  dra- 
matic account  of  Nunez  and  his  fortunes  and  misfortunes 
was  well  worth  reproduction  at  greater  length,  just  as  the 
suicidal  struggle  in  which  the  younger  Lopez  involved  the 
country  was  worthy  of  more  attention.  The  author,  how- 
ever, has  made  good  use  of  his  space,  and  has  summarised 
the  history,  the  natural  features,  and  the  commercial  re- 
sources of  the  inland  rebublic  ably  and  concisely — it  is  not 
his  fault  that  tiie  history  of  J^araguay  deserves  a  volume  to 
itself,  and  this  book  has  the  merit  of  being  tlioronghly  in- 
teresting from  first  page  to  last,  as  well  as  being  of  consider- 
able value  as  a  work  of  reference. 


March  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


Fighting  and  Voting 

By  Principal  L.  P.  Jacks 


THE  war  has  already  taught  vis  that  we  are  able 
to  live  wihout  many  things  we  once  thought 
indispensable.  For  example,  I  know  of  a  large 
family  whose  merribers  had  been  accustomed  aU 
their  Hves  to  be  waited  on,  hand  and  foot,  by  servants. 
Now,  at  the  call  of  economy,  they  have  got  rid  of  their 
servants  and  are  astonished  to  find  how  well  they  can  get 
on.  Had  the  suggestion  been  made  three  years  ago  to 
this  family,  that  they  should  live  without  servants,  they 
would  have  treated  it  not  only  as  rank  nonsense  but  as 
sa\'ouring  of  blasphemy. 

Since  military  Government  became  necessary  for  the 
pin-pose  of  the  war,  our  votes  have  been  virtually  put  out 
of  commission.  We  retain  them,  but  we  cannot  use 
them  and  have  to  content  ourselves  with  doing  what  we 
are  told  to  do — by  the  War  Office,  by  the  Censorship,  by 
f.ord  Devonport,  by  Mr.  Neville  Chamberlain,  by  Mr. 
Prothero  and  many  others.  A  good  many  of  the  excellent 
arrangements  these  authorities  are  making  will  probably 
remain  in  force  after  the  war,  and  so  be  added  to  the  vast 
number  of  permanent  institutions,  like  the  National 
Debt,  or  even  the  British  Empire  itself,  which  were  never 
\oted  into  existence  by  the  people,  but  have  to  be 
accepted  (and  paid  for)  whether  we  like  them  or  not. 

This  temporary  suspension  of  our  voting  proclivities, 
necessary  though  it  be,  is  not  altogether  pleasant  to  any 
of  us,  especially  to  those — and  they  are  a  vast  multitude — 
who  attach  enormous  importance  to  the  Vote  and  regard 
it  as  the  heaven-appointed  instrument  of  progress  and 
the  Open  Sesame  to  Utopia.  Had  these  persons  been  told 
a  few  years  ago  that  a  time, was  coming  when  their  votes 
would  be  useless,  either  for  imposing  their  own  will  on 
other  people  or  for  preventing  other  people  imposing 
their  wills  upon  themselves,  they  would  have  felt  that 
the  skies  were  about  to  fall.  The  proposition  would  have 
seemed  monstrous,  incredible,  blasphemous — like  telling 
a  well-to-do  family  that  they  would  have  to  live  without 
servants.  Yet  the  first  thing  is  no  more  impossible  than 
the  second.     It  has  actually  come-  to  pass. 

I  say,  this  state  of  things  is  not  altogether  pleasant, 

but  it  has  some  advantages,  the  chief  of  which  is  that 

now,  while  the  voting  cult,  or  the  voting  epidemic,  or 

the  voting  mania  (I  care  not  which  term  is  used)  is  in 

temporary  abeyance,  we  have  leisure  to  take  a  detached 

view  of  the  nature  of  the  Vote  and  to  ask  ourselves 

frankly  whether  we  are  not  in  the  habit  of  exaggerating 

its  importance.     It  is  not  a  question  of  whether  or  no  we 

are  to  believe  in  the  Vote.     That  we  shall  continue  to  do 

under  any  circumstances.     The  question  is  whether  we 

have  not  believed  in  it  too  much,  believed  in  it  fanatically 

and  blindly,  so  that  our  belief  in  it  has  led  us  to  expect 

from  it  blessings  which  it  can  never  yield  and  destroyed 

our  belief  in  things  which  are  more  important  to  progress. 

There   is   an   opportunity  just   now  for   correcting   our 

sense  of  proportion  in  regard  to  this  thing,  which    has 

been  greatly  over-emphasised,  and  at  the  same  time  of 

renewing    our    acquaintance    with    other    forces    which 

exclusive  devotion  to  this  one  had  caused  us  to  neglect 

and  to  under -estimate.     For  example,  it  will  be  readily 

■granted  that  human  life  has  more  to  gain  from  common 

sense,  kind  feeling  and  good  manners,  than  it  has  from 

voting  for  any  one  of  the  political  parties  now  existing  or 

likely  to  exist.     Well,  then,  might  we  not  usefully  employ 

the  present  interlude  in  setting  our  imaginations  to  work 

along  those  lines — in  devising  some  form  of  human  society 

in  which,  so  to   speak,  the  present  proportions  between 

voting  on  the  one  hand,  and  common  sense,  kind  feehng 

and  good  manners  on  the  other  shall  be  reversed  ?    Of 

course,  this  may  be  impossible  ;    but  is  it  not  worth  trying, 

especially  when  we  remember  that  it  has  never  been  tried 

so  far  ?    Just  as  the  family  I  have  mentioned  had  always 

believed  that  servants  were  the  basis  of  their  happiness 

and  have  now  found  out  that  this  was  a  mistake,  so 

pcrhapf^  we  have  all  been  making  a  mistake  in  thinking 

that  "  politics  "   are  the  supremely  important   thing — - 

the  thing  without  which  we  can't  get  on. 

Just  now  we  ha\-e  no  politics,  or  at  all  events  far  less 


than  formerly,  and  military  considerations  apart,  who 
can  doubt  that  we  are  the  better  for  it  ?  Is  it  not  an 
immense  relief  to  have  done  for  a  time  with  so  many  of 
our  quarrels  ?  Are  we  not  glad  to  be  spared  the  attentions 
of  those  doubtful  looking  individuals  who  came  round 
soliciting  our  votes  ?  Is  it  not  a  good  thing  to  be  wwre- 
presented  for  a  time,   especially  by  those  individuals  ? 

A  Blessed  Truth 

Are  we  not  becoming  dimly  aware  of  this  blessed  truth — 
that  each  one  of  us  has  legs  of  his  own  to  stand  upon  and 
that,  though  there  are  many  things  one  man  can  do  for 
another,  there  is  one  thing  which  no  man  can  ever  do  for 
another — namely,  to  re/'/'^cw/.  him.  Do  we  not  feel  that 
a  great  deal  of  pettiness  and  humbug  has  disappeared  ? 
Are  we  not  on  better  terms  with  one  another  and 
readier  to  unite  about  things  that  really  matter — such 
as  education  ?  Are  we  not  thinking  more  than  in  the 
days  before  the  war,  when  we  were  all  trjdng  to  A'ote 
each  other  down  ;  and  are  not  some  of  the  questions 
we  are  thinking  about  much  bigger  than  any  on  which 
we  were  ever  invited,  or  ever  can  be  invited,  to 
give  our  votes  ?  And  do  we  not  now  see  that  the 
cause  which  was  preventing  us  from  thinking  about 
the  big  things  was  precisely  our  concentration  on  the 
little  things — in  other  words  the  botheration  about  our 
votes  ?  How  pitiful  it  now  seems,  for  instance,  that  at  a 
time  when  ihe  Empire  was  in  deadly  peril — -nay,  when 
the  very  basis  of  civilization  was  crumbling  under  our 
feet,  we  should  have  spent  all  our  intelligence  and  energy 
in  voting  ourselves  into  that  miserable  deadlock  about 
Home  Rule  !  What  an  amount  of  intellect  and  will, 
so  sorely  needed  for  greater  things,  was  spent  over  that 
controversy,  and  with  no  fruits  to  show  but  bad  temper 
and  a  hopeless  tangle  of  cross  purposes  !  Had  the  nation 
possessed  common  sense — to  say  nothing  of  kind  feeling 
and  good  manners — we  should  have  acted  differently. 
Even  now  perhaps  it  is  not  too  late  to  learn  that  the 
Cult  of  the  Vote  may  be  a  very  dangerous  obsession. 
The  fate  of  the  nation  which  becomes  its  victim  is  neither 
Peace  nor  Progress,  but  muddle,  and  the  deadlock  of 
mutual  oppositions.  For  a  vote  is  a  public  licence  to 
tamper  with  the  individuality  of  our  neighbours,  and 
this  tampering  our  neighbours  to  the  end  of  time  will 
resent  and  resist,  even  as  we  resist  them  when  they  use 
their  licence  upon  ourselves.  Hence  the  muddle  !  Hence 
the  deadlock ! 

The  discovery  that  voting  is  a  better  method  of  settling 
disputes  than  fighting  is  considered  the  peculiar  glory 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Unfortunately  it  has  led  to  the. 
notion  that  the  settlement  of  disputes  is  the  essential 
business  of  human  life,  until  in  course  of  time  disputing 
itself  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  most  sacred  occupation 
of  man  and  the  source  of  everything  that  is  good.  But 
the  best  things  of  life  are  not  attained  by  disputes  nor 
by  settling  them.  They  are  attained  in  amicable  fellow- 
ship, by  the  exercise  of  common  sense,  kind  feeling  and 
good  manners — to  which  perhaps  may  be  added  the 
thing  called  "  genius  " — though  this  is  only  a  rare  form 
of  common  sense..  They  are  such  things  as  art,  beauty, 
joy,  friendship,  self-respect,  family  affection  and  the  love 
of  man  and  woman — matters  in  which  voting  is  entirely 
out  of  the  question. 

Even  as  a  mode  of  settling  disputes  the  Vote  docs  not 
possess  one  tithe  of  the  virtues  commonly  ascribed  to  it. 
For  each  dispute  which  it  enables  us  to  settle  it  causes  at 
least  ten  more.  Nine-tenths  of  -the  quarrels  which  absorb 
our  intelligence  in  normal  times,  or  drain  it  away 
from  far  more  important  matters,  turn  precisely  on  the 
ciucstion  of  what  we  are  to  do  with  our  votes.  True,  we 
are  enabled  by  the  vote  to  carry  on  these  quarrels  without 
the  shedding  of  blood,  except  for  a  little  now  and 
tlien.  But  the  absence  of  blood  from  our  quarrels 
does  not  pro\'e  that  the  quarrels  are  good  for  us, 
nor  that  we  are  well  advised  in  spending  on  them 
the  energies  that  are  needed  for  greater  things.     Of  this 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  i,  1917 


exaggeration,  which  concentrates  on  -  they  disputes  the 
Vote alla\s  and  overlooks  those  it  causes,  a  good  example 
is  afforded  by  the  controversy  about  Women's  I'ranchiso. 
It  is  commonly  assumed  that  the  women  will  act  as 
a  like-minded  linit,  and  we  hear  much  of  the  disputes  that 
will  be  immediately  settled  when  the  women  throw  their 
united  vote  into  one  scale  of  the  balance.  We  hear  little 
of  the  new  disputes  that  will  arise  among  themselves. 
I  heard  it  said  the  other  day  that  as  soon  as  the  women 
are  enfranchised  they  will  iiirmediately  tackle  "  the  evils 
of  the  home."  It  would  be  truer  to  say  that  they  will 
immediately  discover  their  disagreements  as  to  what 
the  evils  of  the  home  reaUy  are.  What  some  women  Con- 
sider the  greater  evils,  others  will  consider  the  lesser 
evils;  while  a  third  party  will  maintain  they  are  not 
evils  at  all,  but,  on  the  contrary,  goods.  In  short  the 
women  instead  of  voting  together  as  a  like-minded  unit 
will  vote  against  one  another  as  a  many-minded  nniltitude, 
just  as  the  men  have  been  doing  for  generations.  They 
will  cancel  one  another's  votes.  Just  so  with  the  Irish 
Parliament,  if  ever  it  comes.  Does  anybody  suppose 
that  an  Irish  Parliament  would  be  unanimous  about 
anything,  or  that  there  would  be  no  Opposition,  or  that 
the  party  in  power,  whatever  their  policy  might  be, 
would  ha\e  an  easy  time  of  it  ?  There  would  be  much 
more  in  an  Irish  Parliament  than  the  "  settlement  "  of 
disputes.     There  would  be  a  new  crop  of  them. 

The  Two  Cults 

The  fighting  cult,  which  has  its  headquarters  in  Germany 
and  the  voting  cult,  which  has  its  headquarters  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  countries,  have  therefore  this  in  common,  that 
they  both  attach  exaggerated  importance  to  the  settle- 
ment of  disputes  and  by  dwelling  upon  this  continually 
come  at  length  to  regard  it  as  the  primary  business  of 
human  life,  the  Sword  or  the  Vote  being  the  rival  in- 
struments, and  the  chief  instruments,  of  progress.  The' 
cults  further  resemble  one  another  in  producing,  by  over 
emphasis  on  their  respective  rites,  a  gross  and  palpable 
neglect  of  common  sense,  kind  feeling  and  good  manners. 
That  this  is  so,  few  persons  would  deny  in  regard  to  the 
fighting  cult ;  that  the  voting  cult  works  in  a  similar 
manner  we  may  presently  come  to  see.  Whichever 
method  we  adopt' we  multiply  quarrels  and  maintain  them 
at  their  maximum  intensity,  with  bloodshed  or  without — 
which  latter  is  generally  but  not  always  the  lesser  of 
two  evils.  When  this  "has  been  widely  recognized  we 
shall  perhaps  turn  our  attention  to  devising  some  form 
of  the  common  life  in  which  disputes  are  less  Hkely  to 
occur  in  the  first  instance — a  proposal  pointing  to  a 
regime  of  common  sense,  kind  feeling  and  good  manners, 
combined  with  a  minimum  of  voting. 

There  was  a  time  when  everyone  who  fancied  himself 
a  man  carried  a  sword  or  a  cudgel.  Nowadays  every- 
body who  fancies  himself  a  man  (or  a  woman)  claims  to 
carry  a  vote.  The  swords  and  the  cudgels  have  been  given 
up.     \N'ill  the  votes  follow  suit  ? 

For  the  present  there  seems  no  prospect  of  this.  Tlie 
tendency  of  our  time  is  not  to  take  votes  from  those 
who  have  them  but  to  give  them  to  those  who  have  them 
not.  There  are  many  indeed  who  resist  further  extensions 
of  the  franchise,  but  I  have  never  yet  heard  of  any- 
body who  would  voluntarily  relinquish  his  own.  On 
the  whole,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  the  extension  of  the  fran- 
chise is  bound  to  go  on  for  some  time  to  come.  And  this 
is  a  thing  to  be  desired,  especially  by  those  who,  like  the 
present  writer,  are  heretics  in  respect  of  the  Voting  Cult. 
The  insignificance  —  the  comparative  insignificance  — 
of  the  vote  as  an  instrument  of  human  progress  will 
never  be  fully  realized  imtil  everybody  who  wants  it  gets 
it.  Thus,  for  my  part,  I  would  welcome  the  accession  of 
women  to  the  electorate,  though  in  giving  them  the  vote 
I  should  feel  disposed  to  assure  them  tliat  they  are 
worthy  of  something  better,  and  to  apologise  for  the 
meanness  of  the  gift.  Nothing  has  tended  more  to  main- 
tain the  inflated  reputation  of  the  vote  than  the  refusal 
of  it  to  women.  It  seems  probable  that  women  on  being 
enfranchised  would  discover  how  inflated  a  reputation  it 
is.  They  would  not  only  realize  the  insignificance  of 
enfranchisement  for  themselves,  but  would  help  the  men 
to  realize  it  as  well.  They  have  always  been  our  superiors 
in  those  three  (jualities  which  I  have  named  as  the 
main  sources  of  human  progress,  and  on    disco\ering, 


as  they  would  discover, .the;dc;adly  blight  which  "  politics" 
ciist  on  these  things  th'ey  mightraise  an  outcry  that  would 
bring  us  all  to  our  senses. 

1  am  told  that  in  .N't-w  Zealand,  where  women  are 
eufranclnsed,  tiiey  are  liable  to  a  fine  for  not  exercising 
their  \otes.  Apparentlv  many  of  them  are  unwilling  to 
use  their  pri\ilege  and  must  be  lashed  to  the  poll  in 
consequence.  What,  I  wonder,  is  the  cause  ot  their 
indifference  ?  Can  it  be  that  these  women  of  New  Zea- 
land have  been  studying  Plato  ?  For  it  was  Plato  who 
declared  that  only  those  who  are  imwilling  to  exercise 
political  power  are  fit  to  be  entrusted  with  it— as  fine 
a  piece  of  political  wisdom  as  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of 
man,  but  fatal  to  the  voting  cul,t. 

At  all  events  while  our  votes  are  temporarily  out  ot 
commission  it  is  instructive  to  take  a  more  detached  view 
of  their  value  and  ask  ourselves  whether  they  are  really 
worth  the  fuss  we  make  about  them.  We  might  reflect 
for  example  on  all  the  great  achievements  of  mankind 
which  have  not  been  accomplished  by  means  of  the  Vote — 
for  example,  the  Bible,  the  Parthenon,  the  Greek  Drama, 
Roman  Law,  the  Catholic  Church,  the  Divine  Comedy, 
the  Discovery  of  America,  Shakespeare's  Sonnets,  the 
Invention  of  the  Steam-engine,  the  French  Revolution, 
and  the  Population  of  the  Globe  ;  and  then  side  by  side 
with  these  we  might  make  out  a  list  of  the  mighty  works 
of  the  Vote;  finally  asking  ourselves  quite  candidly 
which  of  the  two  sets  of  achievement  is  better  worth 
the  trouble  bestowed  upon  it — which  in  short  is  the 
more  important  contribution  to  progress.  Or,  framing 
the  question  rather  differently,  we  might  ask  how  much 
of  what  makes  hfe  worth  living  is  due  to  voting  on  the 
one  hand,  and  how  much  to  common  sense,  kind  feeling 
and  good  manners  on  the  other  ;  and  again,  how  much  that 
has  the  contrary  effect  of  making  hfe  a  burden  has  been 
voted  into  existence  by  people  who  were  politically 
enfranchised  but  deficient  in  these  diviner  qualities. 
F'rom  this  it  would  be  a  short  step  to  the  conclusion — 
which  I  think  would  be  entirely  sound — that  the  over- 
emphasis we  have  placed  on  this  thing  is  responsible  in  no 
'small  measure  for  the  present  deplorable  decadence  of 
all  the  arts  and  for  the  singular  dearth  of  great  men  in  the 
modern  world. 

The  arts  wither  because  the  life,  the  energy,  the  faith 
they  require  are  all  drained  off  into  politics,  debating 
societies  and  legislation.  Yet  politics  and  legislation, 
even  at  their  best,  will  never  confer  upon  mankind  one 
tithe  of  the  happiness  that  comes  from  the  creation  of 
beauty.  This  is  one  of  the  most  certain  of  truths.  But 
the  Voting  Cult  renders  men  incapable  of  believing  it, 
forbids  them  to  befieve  it,  and  if  they  do  believe  it  treats 
them  as  faddists  or  lunatics.  What  chance  have  the 
arts  in  such  an  atmosphere?  Asxto  the  great  men, 
how  can  they  survive  when  everv  little  man  holds  a  public 
licence  to  put  them  down  ?  What  spectacle  more  tragic 
than  that  of  a  man  with  a  great  soul  being  voted  upon  by 
a  crowd  of  men  with  little  souls  ?  It  is  at  such  moments 
that  we  hesitate  in  deciding  whether  Fighting  or  Voting 
has  done  more  harm  to  mankind.  The  fighters  can  kill 
the  body  ;  but  the  \  oters  can  kill  the  soul. 

To  the  multitude  whd  have  read  Sir  Oliver  Lodge's  Ray- 
mond, or  Life  and  Death,  ^w^  commend  a  perusal  of  Raymond. 
A  Rewinder,  by  Paul  Hookham  (B.  H.  Blackwell,  Oxford,  is.) 
In  this  pamphlet  Mr.  Hookham  questions  the  validity  of 
certain  evidence  and  of  Sir  Oliver  Lodge's  conclusions  regarding 
it.  The  criticism  is  couched  in  the  gentlest  language  ;  there 
is  nothing  to  offend  even  those  who  hold  most  closely  to  these 
conclusions,  but  it  does  throw  a  new  light  on  the  evidence 
which  induces  the  author  of  Raymond  to  accept  the  survival  of 
personality  as  an  established  fact.  As  regards  the  series  of 
sittings  with  a  medium,  etc.,  etc.,  Mr.  Hookham  writes  : 
"  Taken  altogether,  they  fonn  a  complete  and  invariable 
proof  of  the  ime.xplored,  unknown,  and  limitless  faculties 
of  the  human  mind.  It  is  shown  again  and  again  that  mind 
communicates  certainly  with  mind  and  possibly  with  matter 
in  a  way  which  is  incomprehensible  to  our  normal  senses  and 
capacity  of  reasoning."  In  another  place  he  adds  :  "  We 
are,  when  sitting  at  one  of  these  medium-conducted  functions, 
in  the  presence  of  an  abnormal  person.  .  .  .  May  we  not 
unconsciously  help  to  give  form  to  the  image  of  our  desires 
and  clothe  tliem  with  the  characteristics  which  we  ourselves 
have  initiated."  This  is  the  perplexing  doubt  which  gives 
pause  to  many,  who  will  not  dispute  this  other  saying  of  our 
pani[)hletcer  :  "  If  it  is  lesitimate  to  take  luiman  survival  for 
gnintcd,  one  scarcely  sees  tlKMii'cessity  fordcmon''.tration." 


March  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


•13 


Agriculture  and  Parliament 


By  the  Editor 


IN  a  recent  article,  "  Land  Without  Labour ," 
we  wrote  "  People  are  beginning  to  ask  whether 
there  must  indeed  be  a  serious  shortage  of  food 
in  these  islands  before  an  administration  arises 
to  deal  serviibly  with  agriculture."  And  further  on, 
"  it  would  be  less  than  justice  to  the  present  Govern- 
ment and  to  its  predecessor  if  it  were  not  mentioned 
that  the  political  troubles  and  trials  of  British  agriculture 
]ia\e  their  origin  in  traditional  Parliamentary  apathy 
and  not  in  personal  prejudice  or  partisan  animosity.  " 
I'^rom  certain  comments  that  ha\'e  reached  us  it  appears 
that  these  necessarily  condensed  sentences  may  have  gi\'en 
rise  to  somewhat  erroneous  impressions. 

It  was  not  intended  to  lay  blame  upon  any  particular 
;-.dministration,  or  even  on  a  series  of  administrations, 
for  the  neglect  of  Britain's  fundamental  industry,  for 
if  blame  attaches  to  anyone  it  lies  on  the  shoulders  of 
the  present  and  last  generation  of  agriculturists  them- 
selves. The  saying  that  "  a  country  gets  the  sort  of 
Government  it  deserves  "  is  broadly  true,  and  it  is  no 
less  true  that  an  industry  so  widespread,  so  politically 
powerful,  and  having  so  much  influence  over  other 
interests  as  agriculture  has,  will  also  get  as  much  or 
as  little  intelligent  Parliamentary  attention  as  it 
deserves.  If  it  is  too  inert  or  too  dull  to  use  its  latent 
power,  ofher  and  smaller  factions  will  impose  their  will 
and  their  legislative  experiments  upon  it.  If  it  does 
realise  its  strength  no  Government  could  withstand  any 
reasonable  demands  it  may  put  forward. 

If  the  foregoing  assertion  be  true  it  may  well  be 
asked  how  it  is  that  this  power  has  been  so  inert  ?  To 
answer  this  cjuestion  fully  means  delving  deeply  into  the 
past,  and  we  can  only  touch  upon  it  lightly  here.  If 
we  retrace  history  far  enough  it  will  be  found  that  Parlia- 
ment was  composed  entirely  of  agriculturists,  with  perhaps 
a  small  number  of  lawyers.  There  was  no  such  clash  of 
intei^ests  between  town  and  country  as  we  have  seen 
during  the  last  century,  nor  was  there  the  same  clear  ■ 
dividing  line  between  political  parties  as  existed  just 
before  the  outbreak  of  war.  The  rank  and  file  of 
Members  of  Parliament  followed  individuals  as  leaders, 
rather  than  allied  themselves  to  policies  or  interests.-  The 
entry  of  industrial  elements  into  Parliament  was  so  gradual 
that  any  conflict  of  interest  was  not  realised  for  a  long 
time  ;  not  indeed  until  a  series  of  Reform  Acts  had  so 
extended  the  franchise  that  the  composition  of  ,  the 
legislature  had  been  entirely  altered,  the  proportions  of 
population  between  urban  and  rural  areas  been  com- 
pletely reversed,  and  the  landed  interest,  as  a  separate 
entity,  become  lost  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

This  long  immunity  of  the  land  from  attack  not  only 
resulted  in  apathy  among  those  landowners  who  still 
held  seats  in  Parliament,  but  also  practically  atrophied 
their  individual  knowledge  of  the  industry,  while  those 
among  them  who  did  realise  the  danger  of  this 
Parliamentary  neglect  yet  held  the  view  that  they  could 
not  press  the  claims  of  agriculture,  lest  they  might  be 
accused  of  attempting  to  further  their  own  private 
interests.  The  sneer  of  the  Socialists — that  the  agri- 
cultural party  has  always  been  over  represented — is 
without  foundation,  for,  though  it  is  true  that  Parliament 
has  always  had  among  its  members  a  fair  number  of 
men  who  owned  land,  yet  these  have  for  several  decades, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  held  their  seats  as  representatives 
of  every  industry  save  agriculture,  with  the  consequence 
that  they  have  too  much  ignored,  not  only  the  welfare 
of  their  own  landed  property,  but  also  the  interests  of 
those  among  their  constituents  who  were  owners  or 
occupiers  of  agricultural  land.  This  nice  delicacy  of 
feeling  has  never  swayed  urban  representatives,  and 
their  clamour  has  occupied  the  whole  attention  of 
Parliament  for  more  than  half  a  century. 

The  truth  of  this  charge  of  neglect  on  the  part  of 
land-owning  Members  of  Parliament  is  proved  by  the 
tentative  way  in  which  agricultural  organisation  iirst 
developed.  The  earliest  form  of  association  was  a  mere 
gathering  of  farmers  or  owners  for  discussion  upon 
practical  ciuestions  of  culti\  ation.  It  was  taken  for  granted 


that,  with  "  the  Squire  "  in  Parliament,  their  political 
interests  were  safeguarded,  and  that  all  they  had  to  do 
was  to  improve  their  methods  of  production.  The 
idea  that  some  machinery  was  required  to  spur  their 
Member  into  doing  his  duty  by  them  never  entered  the 
heads  of  these  worthy  farmers  ;  such  a  suggestion  would 
have  been  looked  upon  as  little  less  than  profane. 

For  many  years  the  more  intelligent  have  been 
endeavoui-ing  to  organise  landowners  and  farmers 
into  combinations,  with  a  view  to  spurring  Parliament 
into  a  proper  recognition  of  the  importance  of  their  in- 
dustry, but  although  their  efforts  have  met  with  some 
measure  of  success  they  have  always  found  that  the  real 
apathy  lay — not  in  Parliament,  nor  among  the  politicians, 
but  in  the  agriculturists  themselves.  Any  political 
party  is  always  ready— only  too  eager  in  fact — to 
fraternise  with  a  combination  that  is  really  homogeneous, 
and  that  is  able  either  to  bring  the  jmrty  to  heel,  or  to 
pro\-e  a  reliable  ally.  No  party  is  prepared  to  anovc  a 
finger  for  a  cause  or  an  industry,  however  \ital  to  the  nation 
it  may  be,  unless  there  is  e\idence  that  it  will  be  a  source 
of  profit  to  the  party. 

An  Agricultural  Party 

The  real  solution  is  for  agriculture  to  have  its  own 
party,  and  the  industry  is  large  enough,  and  potentially 
strong  enough,  to  control  the  largest  party  in  the  State. 
If  the  present  distribution  of  seats  be  analysed,  and  leav- 
ing Ireland  out  of  the  question,  it  will  be  found  that 
some  sixty  divisions  are  entirely  agricultural.  Another 
sixty  or  seventy  are  predominantly  agricultural,  and  a 
further  hundred  or  so  contain  a  sufficient  agricultural 
vote  to  hold  the  balance  of  power.  This  calculation  of 
course  includes  in  the  term  "  agricultural  "  all  classes — 
landowners,  labourers,  and  farmers — which  is  the  only 
sound  basis  to  work  upon. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  why  no  real  combination 
has  hitherto  been  possible  has  been  inherent  in  the  in- 
dustry itself.  Its  units  are  so  scattered:  The  members  of 
most  trades  or  industries  are  collected  together  in  towns, 
and  it  is  easy  for  tfiem  to  meet  as  frequently  as  may  be 
necessary,  and  at  short  notice.  A  meeting  of  farmers, 
on  the  other  hand,  means  a  considerable  sacrifice  of  time, 
and  some  expense  for  each  individual  ;  while  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  get  emergency  meetings  together.  More- 
over there  are  so  many  totally  different  kinds  of  farming, 
that  comparatively  few  questions  are  of  sufficient  general 
importance  to  arouse  interest  in  all  the  farmers  even  in 
one  district.  Still  less  seldom  are  all  farmers  concerned 
in  the  same  matter  at  the  same  time. 

The  other,  and  perhaps  the  main  cause,  is  that  the 
industry  is  split  up  mto  three  sections,  and  the  belief 
is  common  that  there  is  no  identity  of  interest  among 
any  of  the  three.  This  is  a  very  superficial  view,  but 
neither  farmers  nor  labourers  are  specially  gifted  with  a 
wide  horizon.  Therefore,  because  an  owner  wants  as 
much  rent  as  he  can  get  and  a  tenant  wants  to  pay 
as  little  as  he  must  :  or  because  an  employer  does  not 
want  to  pay  higher  wages  than  necessary,  while  the 
employee  wants  all  he  can  get,  the  majority  jump  to  the 
conclusion  that  their  interests  must  be  antagonistic. 
The  real  fact  that  t-lrere  can  be  no  rent  or  wages  and  no 
profit  for  the  farmer  unless  the  business  of  farming  be 
profitable,  is  often  forgotten. 

This  contorted  \'iew  has  been  sedulously  preached  by 
politicians  for  party  purposes.  It  was  given  a  tremendous 
impetus  by  the  action  taken  by  farmers  in  opposition 
to  Joseph  Arch's  Labourers'  Union  in  the  early  'seventies, 
and  no  serious  effort  has  been  made  to  counteract  it 
except  the  noble  attempt  by  the  late  Lord  Winchilsea, 
in  i8q  ;,  to  create  a  National  Agricultural  Union  composed 
of  all  the  three  classes.  In  spite  of  his  early  death,  and 
the  scanty  financial  support  accorded  him,  this  mo\ement 
met  with  enough  success  to  prove  the  possibility  of  bringing 
all  into  line,  and  of  welding  them  into  a  great  political 
force  ;  but  an  enormous  amount  of  educational  work  is 
required   to    bring   about   final   success,   and    carefully 


14 


LAiND    &    WATER 


March  i,  1917 


dioscfi  s^•Inpalhctic  speakers  are  wanted  to  cany  con- 
\iction  tu  rural  aiidifnces. 

It  may  be  a  surprise  to  our  readers  to  hear  that  the 
farmers  were  the  least  amenable  class,  and  that  in  most 
districts  landowners  and  labourers  were  much  readier 
togivc  their  support  to  the  N.A.U.,  as  it  was  called.  If 
the  majority  of  tenants  became  owners  of  their  holdings 
one  stumbling-block  would  be  removed,  and  an  increase 
in  small  holdings,  or  better  still  in  small  ownerships, 
would  still  further  facilitate  the  movement  towards 
cohesion.  A  system  of  co-partnership  between  eni- 
l)lovers  and  employed  would  effectually  kill  the  theory 
of  antagonistic  interests,  but  no  real  advance  can  be  made 
until  the  great  majority  take  a  more  intelligent  interest 
themselves  in  the  political  and  economic  questions  which 
affect  them. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  make  the  a\crage  farmer 
believe  that  he  may  be  more,  profitably  employed  in 
studving  political  tendencies,  or  a  Parliamentary  Bill, 
than  walking  over  his  farm  ;  yet  when  some  legislative 
action  affects  his  pocket  he  strongly  protests  that  someone 
else  ought  to  have  prevented  it.  They  will  not  see  the 
futility  of  blaming  Members  individually,  or  Parliament 
collecti\-ely,  for  acts  of  commission  or  omission,  when  they 
have  failed  to  impress  their  views  upon  their  representa- 
tives through  their  own  organisations. 

it  seems  equally  impossible  to  make  them  realise 
the  uselessness  of  returning  a  candidate  to  Parliament 
as  a  unit  of  either  of  the  existing  parties.  There  arc  a 
number  of  men  in  the  present  House  of  Conmions,  by  no 
means  confined  to'one  party,  who  are  thoroughly  \ersecl 
in  tile  practical,  economic  and  political  sides  of  agriculture, 
but  with  the  exception  of  two  (one  on  either  side  of  the 


House)  tiiey  all  forget  that  knowledge  at  the  crack  of  the 
parly  whip,  and  allow  themseh cs  to  be  dri\en  like  sheep 
into  the  lobbies  to  vote  in  direct  opposition  to  their 
constituents'  interests 

Vested  interests  are  very  strong  too.  There  are  a 
thousand  methods  in  which  difficulties  may  be  thrown 
in  the  way  of  organising  an  agricultural  group.  Such 
a  party  will  ha\e  no  "  honours  "  for  sale,  no  safe  seats 
to  give  to  the  gilded  supporter,  no  parliamentary  prefer- 
ment for  probably  many  years.  It  means  dogged,  hard  work 
and  by  men  of  business  experience  who  can  yet  find  time  to 
devote  to  parliamentary  duties.  It  needs  strong  financial 
support,  for  there  are  very  few  men  of  the  right  type  who 
can  afford  to  neglect  their  own  businesses,  pay  the  expenses 
of  parliamentary  contests,  and  devote  themselves  to 
the  public  interests. 

Party  politics  arc  now  in  the  melting  pot,  and  what 
may  emerge  from  the  crucible  within  the  next  year  or 
two  cannot  be  foretold  ;  but  unless  a  real  N.\tion.\l 
Party  arises,  wljiich  will  deal  with  all  questions  on  their 
merits,  the  need  of  a  strong  agricultural  gi-oup  will  be 
more  pronounced  in  the  future  than  in  the  past.  SonK 
of  the  proposals  made  by  the  Speaker's  Committee  for 
electoral  reform  may  simplify  its  creation,  but  until 
their  final  form  is  known  they  only  add  to  the  difficulties 
of  prophesying. 

One  thing  is  certain  :  no  sound  policy  can  be  evolved 
which  is  not  based  upon  sound  agricultural  economy. 
It  is  essential  therefore  that  this  vital  industry  should 
have  a  direct  share  in  the  government.  We  do  not 
advocate  an  "  agricultural  party  "  because  we  wish  to  sec 
the  group  system  developed,  but  if  the  group  system 
has  to    stay  such  a  party  is  absolutely  necessary. 


Industry  and  Education 

An   Interview   by   Joseph    Thorp. 


rHIi  ifrilcr  has  for  many  monllis  been  caiwassing 
the  u/)intons  of  wcll-infornwd  persons  on  the  aftcr- 
u>ar  problems  of  production  and  industrial  peace. 
There  can  be  nothing  more  important  for  those  ivho 
are  not  actually  and  practically  engaged  in  ■winning  the 
war  (other  than  lending  as  much  money,  doing  as  much 
honest  work  and  eating  as  little  food  as  they  can),  than  that 
they  should  bend  every  effort  to  the  analysis  of  all  available 
information  and  considered  opinion  from  which  a  sound 
judgment  may  be  formed.  The  main  present-day  trouble 
is  that  the  men  who  know  are  most  often  too  busy  to  write 
or  talk,  save  under  compulsion  of  a  persistent  person  who 
may  contrive  to  goad  them  to  effective  expression  of  valuable 
opinions.  The  writer  therefore  got  into  touch  with  Mr. 
Richard  McLaren  of  the  well-known  engineering  firm 
of  Babcock  and  Wilcox.  Ln  his  conversations  with  him 
more  ground  was  covered  than  could  he  mapped  out  in  a 
single  interview,  but  the  following  selection  from  the 
interviaver's  notes  b^ar  upon  a  fundamental  factor  of 
the  problem  and  show  a  breadth  of  view  much  less  restricted 
than  is  usual  by  professional  prepossession. 


*  . 


"  Well,  no  wise  man  lias  a  panacea  ;  but  1  have  turned 
this  business  over  and  over,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
most  important  thing — and  I  am  speaking  from  the  direct 
point  of  view  of  efficient  production — is  not,  as  is  so  often 
supposed,  the  improvement  and  extension  of  technical 
education,  but  a  radical  improvement  and  definite  ex- 
tension of  general  education  for  the  worker." 

"  You  would  extend  the  school  age  ?  " 

"  Most  certainly  I  would  do  that.  As  it  is,  the  Ix-st 
boys,  the  boys  who  would  most  benefit  by  an  extended 
education,  often  leave  school  the  earliest.  No  doubt  it 
is  an  urgent  economic  motive  that  forces  their  ))arents 
to  take  them  away,  but  that  doesn't  make  it  the  less 
mischievous,  and  it's  simply  got  to  be  prevented.  The 
bright  boy  can  leave  s(  IkkjI  an<l  become  a  wage-earner 
as  early  as  thirteen,  on  condition  that  he  attends  even- 
ing classes. "  This  of  course  is  perfectly  monstrous.  I 
think  we  have  frankly  got  to  face  in  the  national 
interests  the  extension  of  the  school  age  of  full-time  edu- 
cation to  at  least  fifteen  for  a  start- — we  can    take    it 


And  this  for  general  education,  not 

To  a  layman 


farther  later  on. 
technical." 

"  Wliy  do  you  lay  emphasis  on  that  ? 
listening  to  an  engineer  it  seems  odd." 

"  Well,  I  have  had  some  experience  to  go  by.  Great 
numbers  of  boys,  relatively  small  but  absolutely  con- 
siderable, attend  technical  classes.  I  don't  think  T  am 
exaggerating  when  I  say  that  less  than  three  per  cent, 
are  in  a  condition  to  be  anything  but  muddled  and  dis- 
couraged by  them.  They  "have  not  anything  like  the 
general  equipment  necessary  to  follow  the  classes  with 
profit.     It  is  a  sheer  waste  of  money  and  time. " 

"  But  you  don't  mean  that  you  want  to  save  money 
on   education  ?  " 

"  On  the  contrary,  we  must  obviously  face  an  increase 
of  expenditure  on  it  that  would  have  staggered  us  before 
the  war.  But  what  I  am  focussing  on  here  particularly 
is  that  we  are  not  spending  money  in  the  right  direction"; 
we  are  spending  too  much  on  people  who  are  unfit  to 
benefit,  and  we  are  spending  nothing  hke  enough  on  the 
few  who  could  benefit  greatly  if  they  were  given  more 
time  and  better  chances — grants,  scholarships  and  the 
like.  And  then,  of  course,  the  improvement  of  general 
education  and  the  reclaiming  of  those  best  boys  that  now 
leave  so  early  would  add  appreciably  to  the  area  of  choice. 
You  take  my  point  about  the  technical  schools  ?  Tin- 
boys  attending  these  technical  classes  which  invlve 
a  fairly  high  standard  of  intelligence  and  in  particular 
some  knowledge  of  mathematics  are  very  often  unable  to 
read  with  anything  like  ease,  to  write  or  to  spell  decently, 
and  have  nothing  but  the  crudest  notions  of  elementary 
arithmetic.  Of  course  I  think  the  serious  financial 
situation  after  the  war  will  necessitate  enquiry  into  all 
this  waste." 

"  Do  you  share  the  view  of  all,  I  think  I  may  .say,  o[ 
those  educational  reformers  that  I  have  talked  "with 
who  absolutely  condemn  night  classes  ?  " 

"  Certainly,  though  I  know  there  are  many  who  think 
that  abundant  chances  are  given  to  the  workers  which  are 
only  not  taken  advantage  of  because  of  laziness.  I  don't 
deny  that  there  are  exceptional  natures  that  can  put  in 
somestiif  mental  work  after  a  hard  day's  manual  work. 
But  they  are  extraordinarily  few,  and  I  suspect— indeed 


March  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


I  have  evidence — that  many  of  those  who  have  used 
this  night  class  system  with  seeming  ad\antage  have 
suffered  permanently  in  health." 

"  I  have  evidence  tot).  One  ol  my  best  friends  is  one 
who  has  worked  his  way  up  from  the  bottom  to  a  pretty 
good  high  rung  and  has  paid  for  it  ever  since.  He  con- 
demns the  system  root  and  branch  as  useless  to  most, 
as  discouraging  to  all,  and  as  knocking  out  the  best." 

"  I  think  broadly  I  would  accept  that." 

"Equal  Opportunity" 

"  You  are  not  one  of  those  who  plume  themselves  on 
the  fact  that  there  is  what  •  is  known  as  '  equal  oppor- 
tunity '  for  everyone  to  rise  in  Great  Britain  ?  " 

"  I  am  not.  I  suppose  there  will  never  be  such  a  thing 
as  equality  of  opportunity.  But  I  am  sure  we  can  go  a 
good  deal  farther  towards  making  it    a  possibility." 

"  You  don't  think  that  what  we  call  down  South  the 
Scottish  system  of  education  gives  a  better   chance  ?  " 

"  But  there  is  not  now  any  distinct  Scottish  system 
of  education,  except  perhaps  some  sort  of  sur\'ival  owing 
to  exceptional  conditions  in  the  Highlands.  The  old 
Scottish  system  under  which  each  parish  was  required  to 
provide  its  own  schoolmaster  gave  much  better 
results  in  my  opinion  than  the  present  system  of 
School  Boards  acting  under  a  central  authority.  The 
old  schoolmasters  were  generally  of  a  high  type,  who  had 
gi-aduated  at  the  Scottish  Universities  and  who  had  a 
love  of  teaching.  They  were  free  from  the  interference  of 
a  central  authority  with  its  cast  iron  code  and  they  took  a 
close  jJersonal  interest  in  the  "  lad  o'  pairts  "  so  that  he 
received  a  really  good  education  and  was  encouraged  to 
proceed  to  the  University.  In  my  opinion  the  remedy  for 
the  present  state  of  things  is  to  give  the  schoolmasters 
more  freedom  of  action  and  certainly  to  encourage  a 
better  class  of  teacher  by  paying  more,  ^^'hat  I  ad\-ocate 
is  a  better  general  education  for  all,  including  training  in 
the  duties  of  citizenship,  and  a  technical  training  for 
those  who  have  the  natural  capacity  to  profit  by  it. 

"  And  I  want  to  make  it  clear  that  1  am  not  merely 
talking  about  the  democratic  justice  of  an  improved 
system — you  know  my  general  sympathies.  I'm  keeping 
strictly  to  the  business  point.  I  mean  that  there  are  not 
enough  directive  or  inventive  brains  to  manage  the  in- 
dustry of  this  country,  and  what  there  are  are  taken  from 
much  too  small  a  class  of  men.  We  cannot  afford  to  miss 
a  single  man  of  initiative  and  intelligence  among  the 
children  of  the  poorer  classes  ;  and  our  system  seems 
designed  to  miss  as  many  as  possible.  Directive  talent 
and  initiative  are  not  common  in  any  class.  But  it  is 
not  a  class  thing  at  all.  The  type  emerges  in  any  en- 
vironment you  like  to  take  :  school,  sport,  war,  trade, 
manufacturing.  We  have  got  to  have  a  system  which 
enables  a  good  man  to  get  right  through  with  the  best 
that  is  in  him  without  putting  every  possible  obstacle 
in  his  way.  No  doubt  as  I  have  said,  an  occasional 
man  does  slip  through  and  may  be  the  better  for  the 
struggle.  But  that  obviously  cannot  be  a  right  system 
or  we  should  all  put  our  sons  into  the  worst  possible 
schools  and  take  them  away  at  the  earliest  possible  age, 
so  as  to  stimulate  them  by  making  everything  as  difficult 
as  possible  !  The  business  of  national  education  seems 
about  the  most  wasteful  that  caii  be  devised  ;  and  if  our 
engineering  shops  were  run  on  the  same  plan  we  should 
soon  be  in  bankruptcy." 

"  What  do  you  make  of  the  claim  that  is  voicing  itself 
now  among  thoughtful  and  perhaps  extremist  working 
men  and  their  'intellectual'-  allies  for  'workshop 
control '  ?" 

"  Well,  if  j-ou  put  it  without  qualification  like  that, 
I  should  say  that  workshop  control  by  the  workers 
IS  simply  a  contradication  in  terms.  There  cannot  be 
two  controls 'of  the  same  operation,  and  engineering  at 
any  rate  is  a  job  in  which  the  difference  between  success 
and  failure,  that  is  between  efficient  production  and  waste- 
ful production,  is  so  slight  that  any  uncertaintv  of  method 
or  direction  means  disaster.  Claims  to  the  direction  of 
industry  can  only  be  justified  by  results.  There  is  not 
the  slightest  doubt  in  mv  mind" that  there  aie  men  now 
working  at  the  lathes  or  in  the  official  ranks  of  labour 
who  with  better  chances  would  have  been  and  should  have 
been  directors  of  industry.  I  am  for  anything  which  will 
make  them  so ;  but  to  "tell  me  that  a  committee  of  my 


men  could  run  the  shop  as  well  as  I  can  docs  not  just 
seem  to  me  to  be  the  truth.  But  don't  misunderstand 
me.  I  think  there  is  a  great  deal  more  that  could  be  done, 
;uul  done  at  once,  by  way  of  (le\eloping  opportunity 
and  by  way  of  harmonising  the  relations  of  enqjloyees  and 
management.  There  is  also  a  good  deal  done  in  many 
firms  with  a  greater  or  less  measure  of  success  even  now. 
The  extension  of  representativ-e  shop  committees  in 
regular  conference  with  the  management  is  a  most  hope- 
ful experiment  .  .  .  Our  friends  must  not  be  in  too 
much  of  a  hurry.  It  is  not  just  stodginess  or  reaction 
that  makes  us  not  welcome  these  schemes  of  joint  con- 
trol. We  suffer  a  good  deal  from  people  who  write  and 
talk  about  production  from  the  outside." 

"  People  like  me,  in  fact  !  " 

"  Well,  yes,  perhaps  ;  but  the  method  of  asking  questions 
is  not  open  to  so  much  objection.  The  employer  or 
manager  can  only  see  this  thing  as  a  practical  question. 
How  can  so  much  pig  iron  be  turned  into  so  many  cranes 
or  boilers  in  sucli  a  way  as  to  provide  a  li\ing  for  the 
workers,  a  reward  for  the  responsibilities  of  manage- 
ment and  a  sufficient  return  to  capital  to  preserve  that 
capital  and  attract  other  capital  to  the  industry." 

"  You  don't  think,  then,  that  the  big  job  will  ever  be 
its  own  sufficient  reward  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  am  not  going  to  prophesy  ;  but  taking  things 
as  they  are,  I  am  not  ashamed  to  say  that  I  should  not 
have  worked  so  hard,  should  not  have  taken  upon  myself 
such  responsibilities,  if  I  had  not  been  well  paid  for  it. 
I  am  afraid  it  seems  very  gross,  but  I  think  there  is  that 
fundamental  self-regardingness  in  men  as  they  are, 
and  we  ha\e  got  to  clcal  with  men  as  they  are." 

"Sympathy" 

"  But  that  is  not  to  say  that  you  are  not  in  sympathy 
\vith  labour  aspirations  ?  You  have  betrayed  sympathy 
often  enough  in  our  conversation." 

"  I  don't  want  to  talk  about  sympathy  ;  sympathy 
is  cheap  enough.  I  want  labour  "to  get  all  that  it  is 
possible  to  get  out  of  an  improved  state  of  things. 
I  am  only  facing  the  fact  that  the  improvement  is  a 
slow  affair.  I  am  by  no  means  satisfied  that  we  are  doing 
the  best  for  them,  or  they  for  themselves.  And  e\-en  from 
the  point  of  view  of  policy,  the  friction  and  the  bitterness 
are  the  worst  things  we  have  to  face  in  the  near  future  ; 
and  it. will  be  worth  a  great  deal  in  hard  cash  to  every- 
body to  do  away  with  them.  Unquestionably  a  great 
deal  of  the  bitterness  has  been  caused  by  that  funda- 
mental mistake  of  the  employers  in  cutting  down  piece 
rates  whenever  labour  seemed  to  begetting  too  much  out 
of  them.  W'e  are  learning  sense  now,  but  the  employers 
who  were  responsible  for  that  bad  business  seemed  to  have 
the  idea  that  a  workman  ought  not  to  earn  more  than  a 
certain  exceedingly  modest  sum  of  money  ;  whereas  the 
truth  was  that  with  a  fair  piece  rate  to" start  with,  the 
more  a  man  can  earn,  the  cheaper  the  cost  of  production 
to  the  employer.  If  the  worker  thinks  that  the  price 
per  piece  will  be  reduced  should  he  increase  his  output, 
naturally  he  will  limit  that  output  to  just  such  a  quantity 
as  will  avoid  the  reduction,  and  the  employer  has,  in 
order  to  get  the  output  he  wants,  to  provide  more  ma- 
chines, more  buildings  to  house  them,  more  power  to 
drive  them,  more  artiiicial  light,  more  foremen  and  clerks, 
and  more  of  all  the  large  number  of  items  of  expense 
which  go  to  make  up  what  are  known  as  '  establishment 
charges.'  It  is  much  cheaper  to  encourage  the  worker 
to  turn  out  all  he  can,  no  matter  what  wages  he  earns 
in  doing  so.  This  of  course  involves  more  care  in  fi.xing 
piece  rates  which  shall  be  fair  to  both  employer  and 
employed,  but  that  can  be  done." 

"  I  suppose  it  is  a  deUcate  question  to  ask  about  your 
own  relations  with  Trade  Unions  ?  " 

"  Well,  no.  You  are  aslving  a  convinced  Trade  Unionist. 
I  have  never  been  able  to  understand  how  any  workman 
is  short-sighted  enough  to  stay  out  of  his  Trade  Union, 
and  I  realise  the  excuses  of  those  unionists  who  wish 
even  to  force  men  into  the  Union.  A  better  organised 
Trade  Union  means  smoother  relations  between  capital 
and  labour  ;  that  certainly  might  go  down  as  a  general 
truth.  As  to  the  Union  leaders,  of  course  they  differ  ; 
but  on  the  whole  I  have  nothing  to  complain  about.  It 
is  misunderstanding,  not  malice  that's  at  the  back  of  most 
cpiarrels.  ' 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  i,  1917 


The  Value  of  Kut 

By  Sir  Thomas  Holdich 


VERY  little  had  been  heard  of  military  operations 
in  Mesopotamia  until  lately,  but"  the  latest 
news  is  \ery  satisfactory.  There  has  been 
some  apparent  confusion  in  the  published 
accounts  due  to  the  mistaken  ai)plieation  of  the  terms 
"  right  "  bank  and  "  left  "  bank  of  the  Tigris,  and  their 
situation  in  relation  to  the  cardinal  points  of  the  com- 
pass. Recent  operations  of  the  'British  force  carried 
out  on  the  right  bank,  ha\'e  been"  sometimes  east  and 
.sometimes  west  of  the  village  of  Kut.  The  extraordinary 
loop  made  by  the  course  of  the  river  at  this  point 
(extraordinary,  that  is,  with  reference  to  any  other 
river  than  the  Tigris)  lends  itself  to  such  confusion,  but 
the  position  is  now  sufhciently  clear. 

On  the  1 2th  the  Turks  were  driven  into  their  last  line 
of  trenches  in  the  Dahra  bend  of  the  river  to  the  west  of 
Kut,  and  ringed  in  against  the  river  by  the  British  line 
extending  in  a  cur\e  of  over  three  miles  in  length  from 
bank  to  bank  below  the  bridge  of  boats  at  the  apex 
of  the  Shumran  bend.  Since  then  they  have  been 
cleared  out  of  all  positions  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Tigris 
with  the  loss  of  some  2,000  prisoners  ;  but  they  still 
(February  24th)  retain  their  hold  on  that  part  of  the 
defences  at  Sanna-i-Yat  which  extends  northward  from 
the  left  bank  about  15  miles  below  Kut ;  and  here  they 
successfully  resisted  our  first  attempts  to  carry  this  posi- 
tion by  direct  attack.  With  the  right  (or  \yestern)  bank  of 
the  ri\'er  entirely  in  our  hands  for  seven  miles  abo\e  Kut , 
it  seems  impossible  that  they  can  retain  their  line  of 
communication  with  Bagdad  intact  or  that  a  general 
retirement  northwards  can  be  long  delayed.* 

Kut  village  is  unimportant.  A  few  straggling  streets 
wdth  a  scattered  assemblage  of  Arab  huts  constitute  all 
that  can  be  seen  of  a  considerable  grain  depot  and  a 
useful  centre  for  its  distribution  southwards  ;  but  its 
importance  strategically  can  be  fairly  well  estimated 
from  the  determined  efforts  of  the  Turks  to  retain  it. 
There  has  been  a  tendency  lately  to  represent  the  Pan- 
(lerman  scheme  (of  which  the  basis  is  the  through  route 
from  Berlin  to  Basra)  as  a  fait  accompli,  since  the  con- 
quest of  Serbia.  So  long  as  we  hold  southern  Mesopotamia 
and  threaten  Bagdad,  it  is  by  no  means  accomplished, 
and  our  occupation  of  Ivut  stands  for  its  defeat.  It  was, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  more  nearly  accomplished  before  the 
war,  when  an  agreement  was  ratified  in  1913  for  the 
continuation  of  the  German  line  to  Basra  from  Bagdad, 
than  it  is  at  present,  even  with  the  200  miles  of  Serbian 
railway  in  German  hands. 

Meaning  of  the  Name 

Kut  (pronounced  Koot  by  the  Arabs  of  Mesopotamia  ; 
"  Kwat,"  "Kwatta" — hence  Ouetta — on  the  borders  of 
Baluchistan  ;  and  "  Kote"  onlhe  Indian  frontier)  means 
a  "  fort  "  or  a  strong  position,  and  the  name  is  justified 
by  its  command  of  the  two  great  waterways  southward, 
the.  Shaft  al  Hai  and  the  Tigris.  The  former  enabled 
the  Turks  to  concentrate  their  forces  on  the  Euphrates 
at  Nasrie  or  Nasariya  to  the  west  of  Basra  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  campaign,  and  the  latter  is  the  recognised 
highway  between  Bagdad  and  the  Persian  Gulf.  So 
long  as  the  Shaft  al  Hai  remains  navigable  (and  there 
is  never  any  certainty  about  navigable  channels  in  Meso- 
potamia) Kut  remains  as  the  most  important  strategic 
point  between  Bagdad  and  Basra,  and  it  was  imperative 
for  the  safeguarding  of  our  interests  in  the  south  that 
Kut  should  be  occupied,  independently  of  any  ulterior 
scheme  for  the  occupation  of  Bagdad. 

It  has  now  become  imperative  that  we  should  retain 
Kut  for  other  reasons.  We  may  rest  comfortably  assmed 
that  Basra  and  the  Persian  oilfields  are  now  safe  from 
Turkish  aggression,  but  it  is  essential  to  our  damaged 
prestige  that  we  should  reoccupy  Kut  and  make  it  abso- 
lutely clear  to  the  Arab  hordes  of  IMesopotamia,  if  not 
to  the  Turks  themselves,  that  our  arms  are  again  in  the 
ascendant  and  that  they  will  consult  their  own  interests 
best  by  acquiescence  in  the  new  order  of  Mesopotamian 

*  N.B, — ^This  retirement  has  now  (Februar>'  28th)  taken  place. 


control.  Outward  and  visible  e\idencc  that  we  are  pro- 
gressing towards  final  ^■ictory  will  do  more  to  tran- 
quilise  these  \measy  people  than  any  amoimt  of  propa- 
ganda amongst  them.  We  may  take  it  for  granted  that 
Kut  ,  will  be  retained — but  what  then  ?  Surely  we 
should  insist  that  eventually  our  armies  should  enter 
Bagdad.  That  would  set  the  final  seal  to  our  triumph 
in  I\Ie.sopotamia  and  be  a  final  blow^  to  Turkish  prestige. 

All  would  be  forgotten  were  it  once  known  through  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  Mohammedan  world  that  we,  and 
not  the  Germans,  had  occupied  that  centre  of  the  Moslem 
faith.  The  effect  of  it  would  last  for  generations  to  come. 
There  is  yet  another  consideration  which  must  be  allowed 
due  weight  when  the  Fates  permit  us  to  decide  on  the 
future  of  Mesopotamia.  We  cannot  ignore  the  prospects 
of  future  wealth  and  agricultural  prosperity  opened  up 
by  the  development  of  irrigation  and  drainage  schemes 
due  to  the  initiation  of  Sir  W.  Willcocks,  backed  by 
German  capital  and  Turkish  engineering  skill.  These 
great  works  have  already  been  successfully  begun,  and 
it  would  be  a  profound  mistake  to  abandon  them. 

With  the  line  to  Bagdad  completed  the  agricultural 
output  of  the  southern  plains  would  surely  find  its  way 
northwards  rather  than  to  Basra,  unless  the  temporary 
military  lines  following  the  valle>^  of  the  Euphrates  and 
the  Tigris,  which  we  have  constructed,  were  rendered 
permanent.  In  that  case  we  should  still  retain  commercial 
control  of  what  promises  to  be  one  of  the  richest  grain  areas 
in  the  world.  With  the  Turkish  Go\ernment  ousted  from 
Constantinople  and  established  further  south  (for  it  can 
never  be  totally  destroyed),  where  it  can  no  longer 
wreak  periodic  martyrdom  on  Christian  populations, 
opportunity  may  be  offered  for  territorial  compromise 
which  would  enable  us  to  retain  at  least  some  of  the 
commercial  advantages  which  should  accrue  from  a 
peaceful  occupation  of  ;Mesopotamia  whether  under 
Turkish  rule  or  our  own. 


There  is  only  one  more  London  Ballad  Concert  at  the  Royal 
Albert  Hall— on  Saturdav,  March  loth.  These  concerts  liaVe 
been  an  unquaUfied  success,  and  the  Hall  was  crow'ded  last 
Saturday  afternoon  when  a  splendid  programme  was  gi\'en. 
During  the  second  part  encores  were  permitted,  but  they  had 
to  be  kept  to  one,  otherwise  the  concert  would  never  have 
ended.  Miss  Astra  Desmond  and  Miss  Flora  Woodman 
divided  popular  favouritism,  though  as  a  matter  of  fact,  every 
item  was  well  received.  Messrs.  Boosey  and  Co.  arc  to  be 
congratulated  on  the  outstanding  merit  of  their  concerts. 

Those  in  search  of  the  bizarre  will  do  well  to  drop  in  at  the 
quaint  little  theatre  in  Chelsea,  where  the  Margaret  Morris 
dancers  disport  themselves.  As  a  piece  de  resistance  of  a 
varied  programme,  the  production  of  Angkorr,  a  weird 
ballet,  may  be  seen  under  ideal  conditions,  which  enable  it 
'  to  live  up  to  its  sub-title  as  "  a  harmony  of  music,  movement 
and  colour."  Whether  this  essentially  new  departure  from 
the  orthodox  will  ever  capture  the  multitude  is  greatly  open  . 
to  question,  but  there  is  evidently  a  large  public  which  is 
prepared  to  applaud  and  support  the  enterprise  of  Miss 
Margaret  Morris,  who  proves  herself  to  be  an  adept  in  all  the 
arts  appertaining  to  the  theatre. 

To-day,,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Aeronautical  Society  ot 
Great  Britain,  there  will  be  inaugurated,  for  the  first  time 
in  this  country,  a  series  of  aeronautical  lectures  for  the  benefit 
of  workers  iii  aircraft  industry.  These  lectures  have  been 
organised  to  further  the  scherne  now  being  urged  forward 
by  the  Government  for  the  purpose  of  linking  up  science  with 
industry.  The  Aeronautical  Society  has  started  an  active 
educational  movement  for  the  benefit  of  those  engaged  -in 
the  aircraft  indiistrv,  so  that  the  scientific  knowledge  of  those 
engaged  may  keep  "pace  with  the  rapidly  expanding  require- 
ments of  the  trade. 

How  to  drive  a  Motorcar  (Temple  Press,  is.  6d.  net)  is  a 
hand-book  written  by  the  staff  of  The  Motor,  dealing  with  all 
road  problems  that  arise  in  connection  with  .motor-driving, 
from  starting  the  engine  to  avoiding  accidents  by  appreciation 
of  the  right  thing  to  do  at  the  right  moment,  and  including 
all  phases  of  handling  a  car.  With  such  a  handbook,  the 
novice  may  become  an  expert  in  a  minimum  of  time. 


March  i,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


17 


THE  long,  useful  and  varied  career  of  Sir  Evelyn 
Wood  has  not  been  altogether  barren  of  Hterary 
record  and  achievement,  but  the  veteran  Fielcl- 
]\larshal  shows  in  his  Winnourd  Memories 
(Cassell  and  Co.,  i6s.  net),  that  he  still  has,  in  his  eightieth 
year,  sufficient  material  left  to  draw  on  for  an  agreeable 
and  iiiteresting  volume.  The  book,  as  its  title  suggests, 
is  a  collection  of  stories  and  random  reminiscences, 
sometimes  grouped  loosely  under  a  fairly  comprehensive 
heading,  like  "  Memorials  and  Obituaries."  It  is  there- 
fore a  Vather  difficult  book  to  deal  with  as  a  whole.  It 
contains  several  good  stories.  It  is  full  of  army  gossip 
of  a  kind  that  is  really  informing  as  to  men  and  matters. 
Sir  Evcljm  is  one  of  a  group  of  Generals  to  whom  are 
due  some  of  the  greatest  of  modern  improvements  in  the 
military  machine.  This  is  not  the  place,  even  were  the 
writer  properly  equipj)cd  for  the  task,  to  write  an  appre- 
ciation of  their  labours.  The  spirit  in  which  they  were 
done  is  best  illustrated  by  Sir  Evelyn  himself  in  the 
following  sentence  from  a  recruiting  speech  he  n^ade  in 
October,  1014  :  "  Your  squadron  and  company  com- 
manders may  say  to  you,  '  Come  on,'  but  you  will  ne\er 
hear  '  Go  on.'  " 

:!:  :it  5i:  i^  5i! 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  for  the 
general  reader  in  Win7iowcd  Memories  is  that  in  which 
the  author  "  accepts  the  challenge  of  those  who  decry 
fox-hunting  by  showing  what  hunting  men  did  in  the 
Retreat  from  Mens."  The  horse,  pace  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells, 
plays  a  great  part  in  the  successful  general's  scheme  of 
life.  He  does  not  always,  however,  bring  to  his  subject 
the  same  absorbed  interest  and  specialised  knowledge 
that  Roger  Pocock,  old  ranch  horseman  and  founder  of 
the  Legion  of  Frontiersmen,  shows  in  Horses  (John 
Murray,  5s.  net.)  Professor  J.  Cossar  Ewart,  in  a  short 
preface,  pays  tribute  to  the  remarkable  character  of  this 
book,  and  indeed,  it  deserves  his  tribute,  for  ahke  on 
the  sides  of  history,  theory  and  practice  it  shows  know- 
ledge illuminated  by  imagination.  It  is  packed  full  of 
horse-lore  and  what  can,  with  unusual  propriety,  be 
termed  horse-sense,  and,  though  at  times  the  style  is 
rather  rough  and  abrupt,  it  does  not  seem  imsuitable 
to  its  subject  and  never  obscures  the  writer's  meaning. 
Here  you  will  hear  the  other  side  of  the  question 
about  fox-hunting  and  the  British  Army.  It  is  worth 
hearing — as  arc  the  rest  of  Mr.  Pocock's  contentions. 
***** 

As  Sir  Evelyn  Wood's  new  book"  of  reminiscences  will 
interest  readers  who  have  no  direct  connection  with  the 
Army,  so  Memories  of  Eton  Sixty  Years  Ago  (John 
Murray,  9s.  net),  will  interest  others  than  the  Etonians 
to  whom  it  chiefly  appeals.  The  book  is  by  A.  C. 
Ainger,  and  it  contains  contributions  from  N.  G. 
Lyttleton  and  John  Murray,  describing  the  old  school 
from  the  oppidan  point  of  view,  Mr.  Aingei*having  been 
himself  a  colleger.  Most  of  the  changes  to  which  Mr. 
Ainger  and  his  collaborators  call  attention  in  this  interest- 
ing compilation  are,  mutatis  mutandis,  common  to  most 
of  the  Public  Schools.  It  is  this  opportunity  of  studying 
the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  such  schools  during 
the  last  sixty  years  that  will  chiefly  interest  the  general 
reader  ;  while  the  mutanda,  the  matters  of  peculiarly 
Etonian  significance,  will  especially  interest  the  Etonian. 
I  fancy  that  the  verdict  given  by  either  class  of  readers 
will  be  what  Mr.  Ainger  expects  it  to  be  :  "  Eton  has 
changed  greatly  and  in  many  ways  since  the  fifties — 
Etonians  x-ery  little,  or  not  at  all."  It  should  be  added 
that  Mr.  Ainger  is  neither  wholly  for  the  past,  nor  wholly 
for  the  present.  He  is  in  the  first  place  a  .recorder,  and 
an  urbane  entertaining  recorder,  of  fact.  He  is  also  a 
judicious  critic  whose  book  can  be  used  with  profit  by 
the  modern  educationalist. 

***** 

Education  under  difficulties  that  probably  make  it  as 
real  and  effective  as  any  education  in  the  vvorld  is  de- 
scribed in  In  Ruhleben  (Hurst  and  Blackett,  6s.  net). 
Here  in  truth  is  a  University  that  will  rest  for  all  time  as 
a  triumph  of  mind  over  matter.     The  book  consists  of 


letters  from  an  interned  Oxford  Undergraduate  to  his 
mother.  These  letters  are  particularly  noteworthy  for 
their  repose  and  restraint.  We  feel  instinctively  that  a 
noble  mother  must  have  reared  so  fine  a  son,  and  as 
Englishmen  we  share  her  pride  in  him  :  "  Conununal 
fellowship,"  he  writes,  "lies  at  the  root  of  all  deeply 
significant  experience,  and  it  is  in  unity  we  must  W'ork." 
It  is  this  communal  spirit  which  charms  us  in  these 
letters  and  makes  us  pass  over  the  occasional  didacticism 
of  youth  with  an  understanding  smile.  The  value  and 
interest  of  the  book  is  increased  by  a  series  of  im- 
pressionist sketches  of  the  camp  by  Stanley  Grimm. 
***** 

I  must  say  that  I  expected  from  the  foreword  to  Sydney 
A.  Mosclev's  With  Kitchener  in  Cairo  (Cassell  and  Co., 
5s.),  something  very  much  more  sensational  than  I  found. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  foreword,  which  describes  how  an 
Egyptian  Minister  was  induced  to  withdraw  his  preface 
from  the  work  after  getting  Lord  Kitchener's  permission 
to  write  it,  is  the  most  sensational  thing  about  it.  For 
the  rest  it  is  an  interesting  and  illuminating  description 
of  Egypt  during  the  administration  of  Kitchener,  whose 
championship  of  the  cause  of  the  fellahin  gained  him 
in  some  quarters  the  title  of  "  The  Lloyd  George  of 
Egypt."  It  explains  clearly  what  was  done  during  the 
period  for  the  Egyptian  peasant  proprietor,  and  it  goes 
very  fully  into  the  vexed  question  of  the  raising  of  the 
Assouan  Dam.  It  also  shows,  and  here  perhaps  it  was 
that  Egyptian  officialdom  found  it  difficult  to  approve 
the  book — that  the  British  occupation  was  unable  to 
give  full  effect  to  British  ideas  of  law, -order  and  liberty, 
chiefly  owing  to  the  existence  of  the  Capitulations.  In 
short  the  book  is  an  interesting  chapter  by  an  observant 
journalist  in  the  history  of  a  country,  perhaps  destined 
once  more  to  take  a  great  place  in  the  world. 


War  and  the  Future 


H.  G.  Wells. 


I 


*'  lias  tlie  faculty  cf  communicating  liis  giowing  curiosity  about  life  to 
liis  readers." — Tlic    Times. 

"  Of  entrancing  interest,  marlieci  by  all  Jlr.  Wells'  incisive  style  and 
freshness  of  outlook."— f^ai/i/   Graphic.      6.    net. 

Winnowed  Memories 

Field-Marshal  Sir  Evklyn  Wood.  v,c, 

"  A  Jolly  bum:h  of  ineiuories ;  a  vivacious  chronicle  of  things  eeen  and 
Iie:irfl  durinj;  a  long  and  adventurous  career;  oor.cainis  a  great  number  of 
thobe  agreeable  aiieodotes  whicli  have  a  dramatic  value  because  they 
.siiow   us  charaot<?r  Jn   a<;tion."     \Vith  S  Photogravures,    10s.  net. 

My  Remembrances 

The     Melancholy    Tale    of    "  Ma." 

Edward    H,   Sothern. 

"An  important  adiUtion  to  tiro  literature  of  tire  stage  ,  .  .  contains 
nuiiiy  riM'eretices  to  Sir  Henry  Irving,  David  lielasco.  Chariot  Frohrnan, 
and'  otlier  diistinguished  tlgu.re'S  of   American   tlieatpical   history." 

i2e.    net.  —Dailu  Graphic. 

The     House    Of    Cassell.    Ludgate    Hill,    E.C. 


THE 

NINETEENTH     CENTURY 

AND    AFTER 

.,.       ^       .  '  MMiCn. 

The   Empire : 

(1)  The   Organisation    of   the    Empire;    a  Suggestion.    By    the  Right  Hon. 

llKIDiKliT     SvMl  H..    M.I'. 

(J)  An    Imperial  Trade  Policy. 

(3)  The  Empire  and  the  New  Protection 
The    Pooole   i.rMi^    th3  Party  Machina. 
America  and  "  Do  ut  Des." 
On  the   Manufacturing  ot  Grievances. 
Austria's  Doom. 
I'he   Future  of    Bohemia; 

(1)  The    Liberation  of    the   Czecho-Slovaks. 

(2)  Czech  Claims  and  Magyar  Intrigues. 
The  Political  Situation  in  Russia. 
"  If  a  Man  die,  shall  he  live  again?"  (cortludedV 
A  Plan  proposed  to  the  Bishops. 
The  Future  of  the  Bar. 
Women  at  ham^i  and  beyond  th'.  seas:  an  Anomaly.  Ity  \i,i,li.HKKTii  IloniNS. 
Our  Nu.'Sing  Service  in  France.  Iiv  CMptain  Harold  lioii.TOS,  C.V.O. 
Th3  Position  of  Shakespeare  in  England.  Ity  f)sr.*R  Bi'.owsisr.. 
Our  New  French  Paintings.  By  Sir  Fbkuerick  Wkbmore. 
The  Tyranny  of  Fashion  in  War  Time.  By  Jliss  M.  H.  M.\sos. 
The  Debt  to  the  Disabled.  By  E.  M.  EoiiSTAM. 
Leagues  *o  enforce  Peace ; 

(1)  The   Failure   of    the  Holy   Alliance.        By   Malor  Sir   .Iohn  THi.i..  Bart. 

(2)  An  Illusion  of  To-riay.  Hy   llriaailior-ileneral  F.  G.   .''tom:,  OI.G. 

Tvoudnn :    Spi.ttisufMidc,    B,Tliant\ne    &,    Co.,    T.t^l..   1,  New    Street    Square. 


n.\'  w.  B.\sir,  woRSpoi.n. 

BV  Ut\RV  Wll.SON   I'ox,  M.P. 

Hy    J.  O.  P.    Bl.AND. 

By    MORKTON   Frewbn. 

By  Unrrii  Sellers. 

By  L.iDV  P.»«ET. 

By    .TOSEP    FORMAN. 

By  Fra.scis  Gribble. 
By    Hubert  M.\ciiray. 
By  H  \ROLD  F.  Wtatt. 
By  tlie  Rev,  HiBERT  Handley. 
By  .\RTHLm  \.  Bahmann. 


IS 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  i,  1917 


The  U.J.G.  Literary  Fund 


By  a  Correspondent 


'HERE  arc  men  ever  to  be  happy,  if  not  in 
lingland  ?  Are  we  not  of  a  race  lirst  among 
the  strong  ones  of  the  earth  ;  the  blood  in 
ns  incapable  of  weariness,  unconquerable  by 
gfief  ?  "  These  words  of  Kuskin  nmst  be  constantly 
in  tlie  mind  of  all  who  are  familiar  with  them  during  these 
critical  times.  They  occur  in  a  lecture  delivered  at  the 
K.  A.  Institution,  Woolwich,  in  1869— that  is,  nearly 
fifty  years  ago,  on  "  The  Future  of  England."  The 
writer  was  induced  to  read  it  once  again  by  the  suggestion 
that  appeared  in  last  week's  L.\nd.&  \^'.\TKK  for  creating 
a  permanent  literary  fund  for  the  I'nion  Jack  Club.  For 
this  club  has  always  seemed  to  him  to  be  a  big  stride 
forward  in  the  increase  of  a  right  happiness  in  England. 
It  embodies  a  correct  perception  of  the  true  character  of 
our  lighting  men.  No  need  is  there  to  labour  the  argu- 
ment at  tliis  hour.  "  Soldiers  have  given  their  lives  for 
false  fame  and  for  cruel  power.  The  day  is  now  when 
they  must  give  their  lives  for  true  fame  and  for  beneticent 
power."  And  not  soldiers  only,  but  sailors  also.  Is  it 
not  then  the  duty  of  all  those  of  us  who  derive  safety 
from  tliis  untiring  protection  and  live  sheltered  lives 
behind  tiie  living  shield  of  these  courageous  men,  to  take 
care  that  when  on  occasions  brief  furlough  is  granted  and 
they  enjoy  for  a  few  days  a  surcease  of  hourly  peril, 
c\erj'thing  that  can  be  done  shall  be  done  for  their  com- 
fort ,  happiness  and  well-being  ? 

A  permanent  Literary  I'und  obviously  would  be  a 
very  great  benefit  to  the  Union  Jack  Club,  seeing  that 
it  wouUl  place  at  the  disposal  of  tlie  Committee  an  annual 
sum  which  would  enable  it  to  obtain  all  the  best  current 
literature  throughout  the  Empire.  There  is  one  small 
point  in  this  connection  on  which  the  writer  would  like 
to  lay  emphasis  ;  it  arises  out  of  the  many  lands  from 
which  members  come  to  the  Club  nowadays,  and  to 
which  reference  was  made  in  yow  article  of  last  week. 
Tiiose  who  spend  their  lives  more  or  less  in  one  country 
ne\er  jjcrhaps  reahse  how  much  their  customary  m^ws- 
pai)ersgrowto  be  a  part  of  themselves — as  it  were,  friends 
and  companions  whose  arrival  they  anticipate  and 
desire.  Tiierc  comes  a  break  ;  they  themselves  travel 
to  other  regions  and  perhaps  for  a  little  while  a  few  of  the 
old  friendly  journals  follow  them.  They  cease  and  the 
rupture  is  complete.  Then  comes  a  day  when  chance 
leads  them  to  a  reading-room  where  is  found  an  old 
familiar  journal.  No  human  being  was  ever  more 
welcome.  It  is  seized  on  and  read  from  cover  to  cover. 
What  memories  it  aw-akens  ;  what  home  vistas  it  un- 
folds ?  Tliis  may  sound  an  exaggeration  to  those  who 
have  never  had  the  experience,  but  otiicrs  who  have 
well  know  that  one  might  write  rhapsodies  and  yet  fall 
short  of  the  peculiar  joyous  thrill  which  is  inspired  by  the 
unexpected  discovery  of  a  newspaper  associated  with 
one's  distant  home. 

Tlie  Union  Jack  Club  should  have  on  its  tables  the 
leading  journals,  daily  and  weekly,  of  the  British  Empire. 
They  would  be  there  not  only  for  the  delight  of  those 
member??  who  had  read  their  pages  from  boyhood,  but 
also  for  the  pleasure  of  all  members.  This  paradox 
has  come  abont,  that  the  British  Empire,  never  so  great 
as  at  this  hour,  has  yet  never  been  smaller.  It  has  in  a 
sense  almost  shrunk  to  the  compass  of  the  England  of 
Elizabeth.  Its  boimdaries  have  come  closer  together, 
its  little  known  regions  are  almost  household  words  ; 
men  have  trooped  in  from  its  most  remote  marches,  and 
they  talk  of  them  as  though  they  were  in  a  neighbouring 
shire.  Almost  might  it  be  said,  that  tlie  British  Empire 
to-day  is  one  big  parish,  with  battlefields  as  the  village 
green,  so  intimately  connected  are  all  its  peoples. 

This  has  brought  about  a  new  and  lively  interest  in 
the  Empire.  It  was  already  in  existence  before  the  war 
on  account  of  the  great  emigrations  during  this  century. 
Even  three  years  ago  there  was  hardly  a  home  which 
had  not  a  son  or  some  other  near  relation  settled  in  one 
or  other  of  the  Dominions,  and  in  consetpienc.e  a  new  and 
personal  interest  had  been  engendered  in  countries 
that  w'cre  formerly  mere  names.  With  the  war  many 
of  the  men  came  home,  but  in  the  ranks  of  the  Dominions' 


armies,  their  comrades  the  children  of  their  land  of 
adoption.  The  intimacy  spread  ;  Canadian,  Aiistrahau, 
New  Zcalander,  Africander  made  friends  among  the 
peoples  of  these  little  islands.  Much  has  been  asked  and 
answered  of  each  other's  lives  and  careers  ;  it  .has  been 
and  is  an  education  in  itself,  and  one  which  in  future  years 
will  bear  good  fruit. 

The  Union  Jack  Club,  whose  very  name  denotes  the 
best  known  symbol  of  Empire,  and  of  that  heritage  of 
freedom  common  to  all  parts  of  it,  should  be  a  centre  of 
this  sentiment  ;  it  is  partly  so,  inasmuch  as  from  all 
parts  men  foregather  there,  but  it  could  do  much  more 
if  only  it  contained  an  Imperial  reading  room  where 
every  leading  newspaper  of  the  Empire's  chief  cities 
found  a  place.  To  create  an  institution  of  this  character 
will  need  organisation,  but  the  Glub  Committee  and 
Comptroller  have  proved  themselves  again  and  again 
splendid  organisers.  The  first  duty  rests  with  the  public, 
to  pro\ide  the  means.  £5,000  sounds  a  small  sum  for 
such  a  purpose,  seeing  that  the  money  is  to  be  funded 
and  only  the  income  expended.  The  result  will  bt; 
^  magnificent,  judged  from  a  national  standpoint,  for  it 
will  continue  and  maintain  through  future  years  that 
better  knowledge  and  understanding  of  all  parts  of  the 
Empire  which  has  been  brought  about  by  the  war. 

Much  is  written  and  rightly  written  nowadays  against 
waste,  but  the  most  terrible  form  of  waste  that  is  possibl".: 
to  conceive  is  that  the  kindlier  feeUng  between  the  peoples 
of  all  the  Britains,  which  is  the  harvest  of  death  and 
agony  on  many  hard  fought  battlefields,  should  be  allowed 
to  fade  aw^ay  and  be  forgotten  simply  because  this  genera- 
tion had  not  the  strength  or  wisdom  to  treasure  it. 

Such  a  scheme  as  Land  &  Water  has  put  forward 
for  the  U.  J.C.  seems  to  the  writer  to  be  admirably  adapted 
to  \ceep  alive  this  splendid  feeling  both  in  the  Navy  and 
Army.  These  two  fighting  scr\ices  will  always  contain 
the  inajority  of  the  enterprising  youth  of  the  country. 
It  was  so  before  the  present  struggle  for  liberty  ;  it  will 
be  even  more  so  when  the  victory  is  won.  For  no  more 
honourable  career  will  then  exist  than  in  rendering  ]x;r- 
sonal  service  to  the  country  by  the  sons  of  those  who  to-day 
bear  the  brunt  of  the  fight.  And  they,  when  they  come 
to  London,  will  naturally  go  to  this  great  Service  Club 
which  will  then  be  a  memorial  of  the  noble  self-sacrifice 
of  their  fathers.  We  need  to  look  ahead  and  to  allow 
the  imagination  free  play  to  realize  what  the  Union  Jack 
Club  is  to  be  for  future  generations. 

So  let  this  Literary  Fund  be  created  as  a  special  memorial 
to  the  men  who  of  their  own  accord  have  given  themselves 
to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  humanity — men  from 
Canada,  Australia,  South  Africa,  New  "Zealand  and 
Newfoundland,  and  also  those  others  who  have  spent  no 
small  portion  of  their  lives  in  the  China  stations  or  in 
Malaysia,  ii»  Borneo,  Ceylon  or  East  Africa  or  on  the 
West"  Coast  of  Africa,  in  the  West  Indies,  or  Labrador. 
All  of  them  want  to  read  the  news  of  the  homes  they 
have  come  from;  more  than  this,  they  want  their  British 
friends  to  understand  the  ad\'antages  of  life  in  those 
dominions  and  colonies  beyond  the  seas.  As  one  who 
has  spent  many  years  in  the  outer  wards  of  the  Empire, 
the  writer  appeals  to  the  readers  of  Land  &;  Water  to 
make  this  Literary  Fund  a  real  success. 


irinion  Jach  Club 

jiU  Cont'/ibidions   to   the  Union  Jack  Club 
LilcnirS  l'ii>id  should  he  Joncanhd  to  :     • 

The  Editor, 

"LAND  &  WATER," 

5,  Chancery  Lane, 

London,  W.C 

Cheques  should  he  drawn  in  favour  oj  Union 
Jack  Club ,  and  crossed  "  Coutts   Bank" 


March  i,  1917 


LAND 


WATER 


Every 
Burberry 
Garment 
li  (nheUed 
liurberrys.' 


Illuitrated 
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The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

(Translated  by  Alexander  Tcixcira  dc  MattosI 


I 


CHAPTER    XVI  {continued) 

■'M  going  to  count  three,"  said  Patrice,  pointin'^  his 
revol.erat  the  head  of  Vachorot,  the  porter  of  the 
fiats   where   Simeon  dwelt;    •■  If.  by  that  time,    you 

.don't  make  up  your  mind  to  speak,  you  shall  see  the 

Mjrt  uf  man  tiiat  Captain  Belval  is !  " 
The  porter  gave  a  start  : 

"  Captain  Belval,  did  you  say  ?     Arc  you  Captain  Belval  ?  " 
"  At  your  service  ;  and,  if  in  two  seconds  from  this  you 
haven't  told  me     .     .     ." 

"  Patrice  Belval !  And  you  are  M.  Simeon's  enemy  -■ 
And  you  want  to     .     .     .     ?  " 

"  I  want  to  do  him  in  like  the  cur  that  he  is,  your  black- 
i;iiard  of  a  Simeon  .  .  .  and  you,  his  accomphcc,  v.ith 
him.  A  nice  pair  of  rascals !  .  .  .  Well,  have  you  made 
up  your  mind  .'  " 

"  Unhappy  man  !  '•  gasped  the  porter.  "  Unhappy  man  ! 
You  don't  know  what  you're  doing.  Kill  M.  Simeon  !  You  ? 
You  ?  ^^'hy,  you're  the  last  man  who  could  commit  a  crime 
like    that!  "    ' 

"  What  about  it  ?     Speak,  will  vou,  you  old  numskull !   " 
"  You,   kill   M.   Simeon  ?     You,"  Patrice  ?     Y'ou,   Captain 
Belval  ?     You  ?  " 

"  And.  why  not  ?     Speak,  damn  it !     Why  not  ?  " 
"  Y'ou  are  his  son." 

All  Patrice's  fury,  all  his  anguish  at  the  thought  that 
Coralie  was  in  Simeon's  power  or  else  lying  in  some  pit, 
all  his  agonized  grief,  all  his  alarm  :  all  this  gave  way,  for  a 
moment,  in  a  terrible  fit  of  merriment,  which  revealed  itself 
in  a  long  burst  of  laughter. 

"  Simeon's  son  !  What  the  devil  are  you  talking  about  ? 
Oh,  this  beats  everything  '.  Upon  my  word  you're  full  of 
ideas,  when  you're  trying  to  save  him  !  You  old  ruffian  ! 
Of  -course,  it's  most  convenient  :  -don't  kill  that  man,  he's 
\our  father.  He  my  father,  that  putrid  Simeon  !  Simoon 
biodokis,  Patrice  Belval's  father !  Oh,  it's  enough  to  make 
a  chap  spUt  his  sides !  " 

Don  Luis  had  listened  in  silence.  He  made  a  sign  to 
Patrice : 

"  Will  you  allow  me  to  clear  up  this  business,  captain  ? 
It  won't  take  me  more  than  a  few  minutes  ;  and  that  cer- 
tainly won't  delay  us."  And,  without  waiting  for  the  officer's 
reply,  he  turned  to  the  old  man  and  said  slowly,  "  Let's  have 
llus  out,  M.  Vacherot.  It's  of  the  highest  importance.  The 
great  thing  is  to  speak  plainly  and  not  to  lose  yourself  in 
superfluous  words.  Besides,  you  have  said  too  much  not  to 
finish  your  revelation.  Simeon  Diodokis  is  not  your  bene- 
lactor's  real  name,  is  it  ?  " 
■  No,  that's  so." 

"  He  is  Armand  Belval ;  and  the  woman  who  loved  him  used 
lo  call  him  Patrice  ?  " 
"  Yes,  his  son's  name." 

"  Nevertheless,  this  Armand  Belval  was  a  victim  of  the 
same  murderous  attempt  as  the  woman  he  loved,  who  was 
Coralie  Essares'  mother  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  Coralie  Essares'  mother  died  ;  and  he  did  not." 
"  That  was  on  the  14th  of  April,  1895." 
"  The  fourteenth  of  April,  1895." 
Patrice  caught  hold  of  Don  Luis'  arm  : 
"  Come,"  he  spluttered,  "  Coralie's  at  death's  door.     The 
monster  has  buried  her.     That's  the  only  thing  that  matters." 
"  Then  you  don't  belie\e  th;U  monster  to  be  your  father  ?  " 
asked  Don  Luis. 
"  You're  mad  !  " 

For  all  that,  captain,  you're  trembling !     .     .     ." 
"  I  dare  say,  I  dare  say,  but  it's  because  of  Coralie.     .     .     . 
I  can't  even  hear  what  the  man's  saying  !     .     .     .     Oh,  it's  a 
nightmare,  every  word  of  it !   Make  him  stop  !  Make  him  shut 
up  !   Why  didn't  I  wring  his  neck  .-'  " 

He  sank  into  a  chair,  with  his  elbows  on  tlie  table  and  his 

liead  in  his  hands.     It  was  really  a  horriblf  moment  ;    and 

no  catastrophe  would  have  overwhelmed  a  man  more  utterly. 

Don  Luis  looked  at  him  with  feeling  and  then  turned  to 

ihe  porter  : 

"  Explain  yourself,  M.  Vacherot,"  he  said.  "  As  briefly 
as  possible,  won't  you  ?  No  details.  We  can  go  into  them 
later.  We  were  saying,  on  the  fourteenth  of  April  1895.  ." 
"  On  the  fourteenth  of  April  1895,  a  solicitor's  clerk, 
accompanied  by  the  commissary  of  police,  came  to  my 
governor's,  close  by  here,  and  ordered  two  coffins  for  immediate 


delivery.  The  whole  shop  got  to  work.  At  ten  o'clock  -n 
the  evening,  the  governor,  one  of  my  mates  and  I  went  to  the 
Rue  Kaynouard,  to  a  sort  of  pavilion  or  lodge,  standing  in  a 
garden." 

"  I  know.     Go  on." 

"  There  were  two  bodies.  We  wrapped  them  in  winding- 
sheets  and  put  tiiem  into  the  coffins.  At  eleven  o'clock  my 
governor  and  my  fellow-workmen  went  away  and  left  me 
alone  with  a  sister  of  mercy.  There  was  nothing  more  to  df> 
except  to  nail  the  coffins  "down.  Well,  just  then,  the  nun, 
who  had  been  watching  and  praying,  fell  asleep  and  something 
happened  .  .  .  oh,  an  awful  tiling!  It  made  my  hair 
stand  on  end,  sir.  I  shall  never  forget  it  as  long  as  I  live. 
My  knees  gave  way  beneath  me,  I  shook  with  fright.  .  .  . 
Sir.  the  man's  body  had  moved.     The  man  was- alive!  " 

"  Then  you  didn't  know  of  the  murder  at  that  time  ?  '* 
asked  Don  Luis.     "  You  hadn't  heard  of  the  attempt  ?  " 

"  No,  we  were  told  that  they  had  both  suff  xated  them- 
selves with  gas.  .  .  .  It  was  many  hours  before  the  man 
recovered  consciousness  entirely.  He  was  in  some  way 
poisoned." 

"  But  \vh\'  didn't  you  inform  the  nun  ?  " 

■'  I  couldn't  say.  I  was  simply  stunned.  I  looked  at  the 
man  as  he  slowly  came  back  to  life  and  ended  by  ojiening 
his  eyes.  His  first  words  were,  '  She's  dead,  I  suppose  ?  ' 
And  then  at  once  he  said,  '  Not  a  word  about  all  this.  Let 
them  think  me  dead  :  that  will  be  better.'  .\nd  I  can't 
tell  you  why,  but  I  consented.  The  miracle  had  deprived 
me  of  all  power  of  will.  I  obeyed  like  a  child.  ...  Ho 
ended  by  getting  up.  He  leant  Over  the  other  coffin,  drew 
-  aside  the  sheet  and  kissed  the  dead  woman's  face  over  and 
over  again,  whispering,  '  1  will  a\'enge  you.  .All  my  life 
shall  be  de\'oted  to  avenging  you  afid  also,  as  you  wished, 
to  uniting  our  children.  If  I  don't  kill  myself,  it  will  be  for 
Patrice  and  Coralie's  sake.  Ciood-bye.'  Then  he  told  mi 
to  help  him.  Between  us,  we  lifted  the  woman  out  of  the 
coffin  and  carried  it  into  the  little  bedroom  next  door.  Then 
we  went  into  the  garden,  took  some  big  stones  and  put  them 
into  the  coffins  where  the  two  bodies  had  been.  When  this 
was  done,  I  nailed  the  coffins  down,  woke  the  good  sister 
and  went  away.  The  man  had  locked  himself  into  the  b--d- 
room  with  the  dead  woman.  Next  morning,  the  undertaker's 
men  came  and  fetched  away  the  two  coffins." 

Patrice  had  unclapsed  his  liands  and  thrust  his  distorted 
features  between.  Don  Luis  and  the  porter.  Fixing  his 
haggard  eyes  upon  the  latter,  he  asked,  struggling  witli  his 
words  : 

"  But  the  graves  ?  The  inscription  saying  that  the  remains 
of  both  lie  there,  near  the  lodge  where  the  murder  was  com- 
mitted ?     The  cemetery  ?  " 

"  Armand  Belval  wished  it  so.  At  that  time,  I  was  living 
in  a  garret  in  this  house.  I  took  a  lodging  for  him  where  he 
came  and  lived  by  stealth,  under  the  name  of  Simt'on  Diodokis. 
since  Armand  Belval  was  dead,  and  where  he  stayed  for 
several  months  without  going  out.  Then,  in  his  new  name 
and  tiirough  me,  he  bought  his  lodge.  And,  bit  by  bit,  we 
dug  the  graves.  Coralie's  and  his.  His  because.  I  repeat, 
he  wished  it  so.  Patrice  and  Coralie  were  both  dead.  It 
seemed  to  him,  in  his  way,  that  he  was  not  leaving  her. 
Perhaps  also,  I  confess,  despair  had  upset  his  balance  a  little, 
just  a  very  little,  only  in  what  concerned  his  memory 
of  the  Woman  who  died  on  the  fourteenth  of  April  1895  and 
his  devotion  for  her.  He  wrote  her  n;mie  and  his  own  every- 
where :  on  the  grave  and  also  on  the  walls,  on  the  trees  and 
in  the  veiy  borders  of  the  flower-beds.  They  were  Coralie 
Essares'  name  and  yours.  .  .  .  And  for  this,  for  all  that 
had  to  do  with  his  revenge  upon  the  murderer  and  v.'ith  h.s 
son  and  with  the  dead  woman's  daughter,  oh,  for  th  ^.  ■ 
matters  he  had  all  his  wits  about  him,  believe  me,  sir  !  " 

Patrice  stretched  his  clutching  hands  and  his  distraugh; 
face  towards  the  ])orter  : 

"  Proofs.,  ptoofs,  proofs!"  he  insisted,  in  a.  stifled  voice. 
"  Give  me  proofs  at  once  !  There's  some  one  dying  at  this 
moment  by  that  scoundrel's  criminal  intentions,  there's 
a  woman  at  the  point  of  death.     Give  me  proofs  !  " 

"  You    need    have    no    fear,"    said    M.    'Vacherot.     "  My 
,  friend  has  only  one  thought,  that  of  saving  the  wf^man,   not 
killing  her.     ..." 

"  He  lured  her  and  me  into  the  lodge  to  kill  us,  as  our 
parents  were  killed  before  us." 

[Continued  on  pa^e  22] 


March  i,  191 7 


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{Continued  front  page  20) 

He  is  trying  only  to  unite  you." 
Yes,  in  death." 

"  No,  in  life.  You  are  his  dearly-loved  son.  He  always 
•<poke  of  you  with  pride." 

"  He  is  a  niifian,  a  monster  !  "  shouted  the  officer. 

"  He  is  the  very  best  man  living,  sir,  and  he  is  your  father." 

Patrice  started,  stung  by  the  insult  : 

"  Proofs,"  he  roared,  "  proofs  !  I  forbid  you  to  speak  another 
word  until  you  iiave  proved  the  tnith  in  a  manner  admitting 
of  no  doubt." 

Without  mo\-ing  from  his  scat,  the  old  man  put  out  his 
arm  towards  an  old  mahogany  escritoire,  lowered  the  lid  and, 
pressing  a  spring,  pulled  out  one  of  the  drawers.     Then  he 
•  held  out  a  bundle  of  papers  : 

"  Y'ou  know  your  father's  handwriting,  don't  you,  cap- 
tain ?  "  he  said.  "  You  must  have  kept  letters  from  him, 
since  the  time  when  you  were  at  school  in  England.  Well, 
read  the  letters  which  he  wrote  to  me.  You  will  sec  your 
name  repeated  a  hundred  times,  the  name  of  his  son  ;  and 
you  will  see, the  name  of  the  Coralie  whom  he  meant  you  to 
marry.  Your  whole  life-  your  studies,  your  journeys,  your 
work  is  described  in  these  letters.  And  you  will  also  find 
your  photographs,  which  he  had  taken  by  various  corre- 
spondents, and  photographs  of  Coralie,  whom  he  had  visited 
at  Salonica.  And  you  will  see  above  all  his  hatred  for 
Essarcs  Bey,  whose  secretary  he  had  become,  and  his  plans 
«f  revenge,  his  patience,  his  tenacity.  And  you  will  also  see 
his  despair  when  he  heard  of  the  marriage  between  Essares 
•and  Coralie  and,  immediately  afterwards,  his  joy  at  the 
thought  that  his  revenge  would  be  more  cruel  when  he  suc- 
ceeded in  uniting  his  son  Patrice  with  Essares'  wife." 

As  the  old  fellow  spoke,  he  placed  the  letters  one  by  one 
under  the  eyes  of  Patrice,  who  had  at  once  recognised  his 
lather's  hand  and  sat  greedily  devouring  sentences  in  which  ]\\> 
\)wn  name  was  constantly  rejx;ated.   M.  \'acherot  watched  him. 

"  Have  you  any  more  doubts,  captain  ?  "  he  asked,  at  last. 

The  officer  again  pressed  his  clenched  fists  to  his  temples  ; 

"  I  saw  his  face."  he  said,  "  above  the  skylight,  in  the  lodt^'e 
uito  which  he  had  locked  us.  .  .  .  It  was  gloating  over 
our  death,  it  was  a  face  mad  with  hatred.  ...  He  hated 
us  even  more  than  Essares  did.     .     .     ." 

"  A  mistake  !    Pure  imagination  !  "  the  old  man  protested. 

"  Or  madness,"  muttered  Patrice. 

Then  he  struck  the  table  violently,  in  a  fit  of  revulsion  : 

"  It's  not  true,  it's  not  true  !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  That  man 
is  not  my  father.     What,  a  scoundrel  like  that !      .     .     " 

He  took  a  few  steps  round  the  httle  room  and,  stopping  in 
front  of  Don  Luis,  jerked  out : 

Let's  go.  Else  I  shall  go  mad  too.  It's  a  nightmare,  there's 
no  other  word  for  it,  a  nightmare  in  which  things  turn  upside 
down  until  the  brain  itself  capsizes.  Let's  go.  Corahe  is  in 
danger.     That's  the  only  thing  that  matters." 

The  old  man  shook  his  head  : 

■'I'm  very  much  afraid.     ..." 

"  What  are  you  afraid  of  ?  "  bellowed  the  officer. 

"  I'm  afraid  that  my  poor  friend  has  been  caught  up  by 
the  person  who  was  following  him  .  .  .  and  then  how 
can  he  have  saved  Mme.  Essares  ?  The  poor  thing  was  hardly 
able  to  breathe,  he  told  me." 

Hanging  on  to  Don  Luis'  arm,  Patrice  staggered  out  of  the 
])ortcr's  lodge  like  a  drunken  man  : 

,"  She's  done  for,  she  must  be  !  "  he  cried. 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  Don  Luis.  "  Simeon-  is  as  feverishly 
active  as  yourself.  He  is  nearing  the  catastrophe.  He  is 
ciuaking  with  fear  and  not  in  a  condition  to  weigh  his  words. 
Believe  me,  your  Coralie  is  in  no  immediate  danger.  We  have 
some  hours  before  us." 

"  But  Ya-Bon  ?  Suppose  Ya-Bon  has  laid  hands  upon 
him  ?  " 

"  I  gave  Ya-Bon  orders  not  to  kill  him.  Therefore,  what- 
ever happens,  Simeon  is  alive.  That's  the  great  thing.  So 
long  as  Simeon  is  alive,  there  is  nothing  to  fear.  He  won't 
h^i  your  Corahe  die." 

"  Why  not,  seeing  that  he  hates  her  ?  Why  not  ?  What 
is  there  in  that  man's  heart  ?  He  devotes  all  his  'xistence  to  a 
work  of  lovo  on  our  behalf ;  and,  from  one  minute  to  the 
next,  that  love  turns  to  execration." 

He  pressed  Don  Luis'  arm  and,  in  a  hollow  voice,  asked  : 

"  Do  you  believe  .that  he  is  my  father  ?  " 

"  Simeon  Diodokis  is  your  father,  captain,"  replied  Don 
Luis. 

"  Ah,  don't,  don't !  It's  too  horrible !  God,  but  we  are  in 
•ilic  valley  of. the  shadow!  " 

"  On  the  contrary,"  said  Don  Luis,  "  the  shadow  is  liftin,':^ 
slightly  ;  and  I  confess  that  our  talk  with  M.  Vacherot  lias 
given  me  a  little  light." 

"  Do  you  mean  it  ?  " 

Gut,  in  Patrice  Belval's  fevered  brain,  one  idea  jostled 
;... other.     He  suddenly  stopped  : 


"  Simf^on  may  have  gone  back  to  the  porter's  lodge !  .  . 
And  we  shan't  be  there !  .  .  .  Perhaps  he  will  bring 
Coralig  back  !  " 

"  No,"  Don  Luis  declared,  "  he  would  have  done  that 
before  now,  if  it  could  be  done.     No,  it's  for  us  to  go  to  him.  " 

"  But  where  ?  " 

"  Well,  of  course,  where  all  the  fighting  has  been 
where  the  gold  lies.     All  the  enemy's  operations  are  centred 
in  that  gold  ;   and  you  may  be  sure  that,  even  in  retreat,  he 
can't  get  away  from  it.     Besides,  we  know  that  he  is  not  far 
from  Berthou's  Wharf." 

Patrice  allowed  himself  to  be  led  along  without  a  word.  But 
suddenly  Don  Luis  cried  : 

"  Did  you  hear  ?  " 

"  Yes,  a  shot." 
'  At  that  moment  they  were  on  the  point  of  turning  into  the 
Rue  Raynouard.  The  height  of  the  houses  prevented  them 
from  perceiving  the  exact  spot  from  which  the  shot  had  been 
fired,  but  it  came  approximately  from  the  Essares'  house  or 
the  immediate  precincts.     Patrice  was  filled  with  alarm  : 

"  Can  it  be  Ya-Bon  ?  " 

"  I'm  afraid  so,"  said  Don  Luis,  "  and,  as  Ya-Bon  wouldn  t 
fire,  some  one  must  have  fired  a  shot  at  him.  .  .  .  Oh,  by 
Jove,  if  my  poor  Y'a-Bon  were  to  be  killed.     .     .     .  !  " 

"  And  suppose  it  was  at  her,  at  Coralie  ?  "  whispered 
Patrice. 

Don  Luis  began  to  laugh  ; 

"  Oh,  my  dear  captain,  I'm  almost  sorry  that  I  ever  mixed 
myself  up  in  this  business !  You  were  much  cleverer  before 
I  came  and  a  good  deal  clearer-sighted.  Why  the,  devil 
should  Simeon  attack  your  Coralie,  considering  that  she's 
already  in  his  pwwer  ?  " 

They  hurried  their  steps.  As  they  pa.ssed  the  Essares' 
house,  they  saw  that  everything  was  quiet  and  they  went  on 
until  they  came  to  the  lane,  down  which  they  turned. 

Patrice  had  the  key,  but  the  httle  door  which  opened  on  to 
the  garden  of  the  lodge  was  bolted  inside. 

"  Aha !  "  said  Don  Luis.  "  That  shows  that  we're  warm. 
Meet  me  on  the  quay  captain.  I  shall  run  down  to  Berthou's 
Wharf  to  have  a  look  round." 

During  the  past  few  minutes,  a  pale  dawn  had  begun  to 
mingle  with  the  shapes  of  night.  The  embankment  was 
still  deserted,  however. 

Don  Luis  observed  nothing  in  particular  at  Bertl.ou's 
Wharf;  but,  when  he  returned  to  the  quay  above,  Patri{e 
showed  him  a  ladder  lying  right  at  the  end  of  the  pavement 
which  skirted  the  garden  of  the  lodge  ;  and  Don  Luis  recog- 
nised the  ladder  as  one  whose  absence  he  had  noticevl 
from  the  recess  in  the  yard.  With  that  quick  vision  which 
was  one  of  his  greatest  assets,  he  at  once  furnished  the  ex- 
planation : 

"  As  Simeon  had  the  key  of  the  garden,  it  was  obviously 
Ya-Bon  who  used  the  ladder  to  make  his  way  in.  Therefore 
he  saw  Simeon  take  refuge  there  on  returning  from  his  visit 
to  old  Vacherot  and  after  coming  to  fetch  little  Mother 
Coralie.  Now  the  question  is,  did  Simton  succeed  in  fetching 
Coralie,  or  did  he  run  away  before  fetching  her  ?  That  1 
can't  say.     But,  in  any  case.     .     .     ." 

Bending  low  down,  he  examined  the  pavement  and  con- 
tinued : 

"  In  any  case,  what  is  certain  is  that  Ya-Bon  knows  the 
hiding-place  where  the  bags  of  gold  are  stacked,  and  that  it 
is  there  most  Ukely  that  your  Coralie  was  and  perhaps  still 
is,  worse  luck,  if  the  enemy,  giving  his  first  thought  to  his 
personal  safety,  has  not  had  time  to  remove  her." 

"  Are  you  sure  ?  " 

"  Look  here,  captain,  Ya-Bon  always  carries  a  piece  of 
chalk  in  his  pocket.  As  he  doesn't  "know  how  to  write, 
except  just  the  letters  forming  my  name,  he  has  drawn  these 
two  straight  lines  which,  with  the  fine  of  the  wall,  makes  a 
triangle.  '  .     .     .     the  golden  triangle." 

Don  Luis  drew  himself  up  : 

"  The  clue  is  rather  meagre.  But  Ya-Bon  looks  upon  me 
as  a  wizard.  He  never  doubted  that  I  sliould  manage  to  find 
this  spot  and  that  those  three  lines  would  be  enough  for  me. 
Poor'  Ya-Bon !  " 

"  But,"  objected  Patrice,  "  all  this,  according  to  you,  took 
place  before  our  return  to  Paris,  between  twelve  and  one 
o'clock,   therefore."' 

"  Yes." 

"  Then  what  about  the  shot  which  we  have  just  heard,  four 
or  five  hours  later  "  ? 

"  As  to  that,  I'm  not  so  positive.  We  may  assume  that 
Sim(?on  squatted  somewhere  in  the  dark.  Possibly  at  the 
first  break  of  day,  feeling  ea.sier  and  hearing  nothing  of  Ya- 
Bon,  he  risked  taking  a  step  or  two.  Then  Ya-Bon,  keeping 
watch  in  silence,  would  have  leaped  upon  him." 

"  So  you  think.     ..." 

(  Continued  on  page  24) 


March  i,  1917 


LAINU    &     WATER 


THE    SECRET    OF    A 
GOOD    COMPLEXION. 


By    MME.    ST.    CLAIRE. 


i\NV  woman  nowadays  may  quickly  rejuvenate  her  com- 
plexion at  home  by  a  safe  and  painless  process  of  gentle 
absorption.  The  days  of  expensive  and  dangerous 
"  operations  "  are  past,  and  each  woman  can  be  her  own 
beauty  doctor.  It  has  been  discovered  that  ordinary 
mercolised  wax,  applied  like  cold  cream,  at  night,  will  cause 
the  thin  veil  of  lifeless,  sallow  or  blotchy  cuticle  to  gradually 
and  gently  flake  off  in  invisible,  flour-like  particles,  re- 
vealing the  fresh,  vigorous  and  beautiful  young  skin  under- 
neath. Mercolised  wax  absorbs,  only  the  unhealthy  and 
unsightly  outer  fiim,  and  does  not  affect  the  healthy  tissue 
at  all. 

The  process  defies  detection,  and  un\-eils  a  lasting  and 
beautiful  complexion,  which  is,  of  course,  a  perfectly  natural 
one.  For  this  purpose  thousands  of  women  are  now  using 
mercolised  wax,  which  may  be  obtained  at  any  chemist's. 
Naturally,  the  process  also  removes  all  such  surface  blemishes 
as  freckles,  blotches,  pimples,  tan,  liver  spots,  etc.  It  makes 
the  face  look  years  younger  and  prettier,  and  renders  the  use 
of  face  creams  unnecessary. 

*         *         * 

.Another  valuable  piece  of  information,  which  many 
women  will  appreciate,  concerns  the  success  of  the  new 
Ireatment  for  superfluous  hair.  A  remedy  for  permanently 
eradicating  this  ugly  form  of  facial  disligurement  now 
seems  to  have  been  found.  It  is  simplicity  itself.  About 
one  ounce  of  ordinary  pure  powdered  pheminol,  which  can 
be  obtained  at  any  chemist's,  is  all  that  is  needed  to  put  one 
in  the  way  of  completely  ridding  oneself  of  superfluous  hair. 
\Vlien  applied  to  the  obnoxious  growth  this  causes  it  to 
immediately  disappear,  and  the  continuance  of  the  recom- 
mended treatment  is  said  to  finally  destroy  the  hair  roots, 
so  that  there  will  be  no  renewal  of  the  growth. 


ViSt- 


INFANTRY  ^  n  /_ 


»-^^  Boyd's  Elasiic  Puttees  are  neat 
Jm^iC^"  appearance,  and  being  elastic 
they  gently  grip  the  leg  and  per- 
mit the  normal  action  of  the  veins 
and  muscles.  The  leg-tiredness  and 
foot-heaviness  from  which  so  many 
men  sulfer  is  caused  by  wearing 
ordinary  Puttees  which  must  be 
tightly  wound  to  keep  in  position. 

BOYD'S  ELASTIC 

Pflttriit 

PUTTEES. 

Made  from  the  finest  Egyptian  Cotton  and 
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and  take  off. 
Boyd't  Elastic  Puttee*  are  claimed   to 
be  a  preventative  acainat,    and  cure 
fnr,  varicose  veira. 
Each    Puttee   hears    a   metal  ta' . 
•  0/  all  leading  Military  Tailors  and  Out- 
fitters.     If   any   difficulty   in     procuring 
urite  to  the  Sole  Makers. 


M 


CAVALRY    ■«/ 

WRIGHT  &  SONS,  LTD ,  Quorn  Mills,  near  Loughborough 


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Detachable  Wallaby,  extra,  £6  16  6 

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Ift^EST     &     SON^,     LTD., 

REOmENTAL    TAILORS  AND    OUTFITTERS, 

Field  House,  152  New  Bond  Street.  London,  W. 


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j  "Active  Service"  WRISTLET  WATCH 
J  f'ully   Luminous     Figures  &    Hands 

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In    Silver    Cases  witti     .^-'cre^    Bezel 

•  nd  Back,  iiii   Sis.  Gold.  tT  10». 

With     Hunter    or    Hall-Hunter    cover 

Silver.  ;t;il  Ts.  Ud.       Gold,  XH  tOs! 

Others  in    Silver   from      C^    lUs. 

Gold  from    liO. 

Military  Badge  Brooches. 

yliiy  Regimental  !BaJge  Perfectly 
Modelled. 
fBICES  ON  APPLICATIOH 

Sketches  sent  for  approval, 

10/     25  OLD  BOND  ST.,  W. 

and  62&64  LUDQATE   HILL,   E.C. 


24 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  i,  191 7 


{Continued  from  f^a^e  2 :) 

"  I  think  that  there  was  a  struggle,  lliiit  'ia-HMn  \\.i> 
wounded  and  that  Simeon.     .     .     ." 

"  That  Simeon  escajx-d  ? 

'  Or  else  was  killed.  However,  we  shall  know  ail-about  it 
in  a  few  minutes." 

He  set  the  ladder  against  the  railing  at  the  top  of  the 
wall.  Patrice  climbed  o\rr  with  Don  Luis'  assistance.  Then, 
stepping  over  the  railing  in  his  turn,  Don  Luis  drew  up  the 
ladder,  threw  it  into  the  garden,  and  made  a  careful  e.vamina- 
tion.  Finally,  they  turned  their  stejis,  through  the  tall 
grasses  and  bushy  shrubs,  towards  the  lodge. 

The  davlight  was  increasing  rapidly  and  the  outlines  of 
e\ervthing   were   becoming   clearer,     the   two   men   walked 
nnmd  the  lodge,  Don  Luis  leading  the  way.     When  he  came 
in  sight  of  the  yard,  on  the  street  side,  he  turned  and  said  : 
I  was  right." 

And  he  ran  forward. 

Outside  the  hall-door  lay  the  bodies  of  the  two  adversaries, 
clutching  each  other  in  a  confused  heai).  Ya-Bon  had  a 
horrible  wound  in  the  head,  from  which  blood  was  flowing. 
With  his  right  hand  he  held  Simeon  by  the  throat. 

Don  Luis  at  once  perceived  that  Ya-Bon  was  dead  and 
Sim-Jon  Diodokis  alive. 

CHAPTER    XVII 

Simeon  Gives  Battle 

IT  took  them  some  time  to  loosen  Ya-Bon's  grip.  Even 
in  death,  the  Senegalese  did  not  let  go  his  prey  :  and 
his  fingers,  hard  as  iron  and  armed  with  nails  piercing 
a  a  tiger's  claws,  dug  into  the  neck  of  the  enemy,  who 
lav  gurgling,  deprived  of  consciousness  and  strength. 

Don  Luis  caught  sight  of  Simeon's  revolver  on  the  cobbles 
of  the  yard  : 

"  It  was  lucky  for  you,  you  old  ruffian,"  he  said,  in  a  low 
voice.  "  that  Ya-Bon  did  not  have  time,to  squeeze  the  breath 
out  of  you  before  you  tired  that  shot.  But  I  wouldn't  chortle 
overmuch,  if  I  were  you.  He  might  perhaps  have  spared 
you.  whereas,  now  that  Ya-Bon's  dead,  you  can  write  to 
vour  family  and  book  your  seat  below.  De  profundi^. 
r,iodokis  !  "  And,  giving  way  to  his  grief,  he  added,  "  Poor 
V"a-Bon!  He  saved  me  from  a  honible  death  one  day  in 
.\frica     ...     and   to-day   he   dies   by   my   orders,   so   to 


speak.     iMy  poor  Ya-Bon  \  ' 

"  We'll  inform  the  police  this  evening,  captain,  when  the 
drama  is  finished.  For  the  moment,  it's  amatter  of  avenging 
him  and  the  others." 

He  thereupon  applied  himself  to  making  a  minute  inspection 
of  the  scene  of  the  struggle,  after  which  he  went  back  to  Ya- 
Bon  and  then  to  Simeon,  whose  clothes  he  examined  closely. 

Patrice  was  face  to  face  with  his  terrible  enemy,  whom  he 
had  propped  against  the  wall  of  the  lodge  and  was  con- 
templating in  silence,  with  a  fixed  stare  of  hatred.  Simeon  1 
Simeon  I.)iodokis,  the  execrable  demon  who,  two  days  before, 
had  hatched  the  terrible  plot  and,  l:)ending  over  the  skylight 
had  laughed  as  he  watciied  their  awful  agony  !  SiiiKon 
Diodokis,  who,  like  a  wild  beast,  had  hidden  Coralie  in  some 
hole,  so  that  he  might  go  back  and  torture  her  at  his  ease  I 

He  seeme  J  to  be  in  pain  and  to  breathe  with  great  difficulty. 
His  wind-pipe  had  no  doubt  been  injured  by  Ya-Bon's  clutch. 
His  yellow  spectacles  had  fallen  off  during  the  fight.  A  pair 
of  thick,  grizzled  eyebrows  lowered  about  his  heavy  hds. 

"  Search  him,  captain,"  said  Don  Luis. 

But,  as  Patrice  seemed  to  shrink  from  the  task,  he  himself 
felt  in  Simeon's  jacket  and  produced  a  pocket-book,  which 
he  handed  to  the  officer. 

It  contained  first  of  all  a  registration  card,  in  the  name  of 
Simeon  Diodokis,  (ireek  subject,  with  iiis  photograph  gummed 
to  it.  The  photograph  was  a  recent  one,  taken  with  the 
spectacles,  the  comforter  and  the  long  hair,  and  bore  a  police 
stamp  dated  December  1014.  There  was  a  collection  of 
business  documents,  invoices  and  rriemoranda,  addressed  to 
Simeon  as  Essares  Bey's  secretary,  and,  among  these  papers, 
a  letter  from  Amcdce  \"acherot,  running  as  follows  : 
"  De.\r  M.  Simeon, 

''  I  have  succeeded.  A  young  friend  of  mine  has  taken  a 
snapshot  of  Mme.  Essares  and  Patrice  at  the  hospital,  at  a 
moment  when  they  were  talking  together.  I  am  so  glad  to 
be  able  to  gratify  you.  But  when  will  you  tell  your  dear  son 
the  truth  ?   .  How  delighted  he  will  be  when  he  hears  it '.  " 

At  the  foot  of  the  letter  were  a  few  won'  ■  in  Simeon's 
hand,  a  sort  of  personal  note  ; 

"  Once  more,  I  solemnly  pledge  myself  not  to  reveal  any- 
thing to  my  dearly-beloved  son  until  Corahe,  my  bride,  is 
avenged  and  until  Patrice  and  Coralie  Essares  are  free  to 
love  each  other  and  to  marry." 

[To  be  continued.) 


March  8,  1917 


Supplement    to     LAND    &     WATER 


Vll 


liiilliiilililiii^^ 
I     UNLIKE  ORDINARY  PUTTEES,  OUR  NEW    | 

ALL-LEATHER  PUTTEES 

NEVER  TEAR  OR  FRAY  OUT. 

These  most  comfortable  good- 
looking  puttees  are  made 
entirely  of  fine  supple  tan 
leather,  and  fasten  simply 
with  one  buckle  at  bottom. 
They  are  extremely  durable, 
even  if  subjected  to  the  fric- 
tion of  riding,  as  the  edges 
never  tear  or  fray  out. 

The  puttees  are  speedily  put 
on  or  taken  off,  readily  mould 
to  the  shape  of  the  leg,  are  as 
easily  cleaned  as  a  leather 
belt,  and  saddle  soap  soon 
makes  them  practically  water- 
proof. 

Th^  price  per  pair  is  16/6  post  free  inland,  or  postage  abroad 
1/-  extra,  or  sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business  (not 
banker's)  reference  and  home  address. 


'OFFICERS'    RIDING    BREECHES. 

Succesiful  breeches-making  we  guarantee,  but  then — we  have 
oeen  making  breeches  since  1821 .  ninety-six  years  ago. 
We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs  of  breeches,  and  are  therefore 
ofte  1  able  to  meet  immediate  requirements,  or  we  can  cut  and  try 
a  pair  on  the  same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day,  if  urgently 
wanted. 


GRANTsoCOCKBLRNt 


ESTD,  1821 


Military  and  Civil  Tailors, 
Legg  ntt   Makers, 


25  PICCADILLY,  W.   I 

'iiiii.iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiwiiii^^ 


Peace  days — ihe  days  of  victory  and  all  that  victory  means  to 
us — are  coming  nearer. 
Then  we  shall  resume  the  manufacture  of  those  B.S.A.  TARGET 
AND  SPORTING  RlFLESwhichforyears  prior  to  the  war  stood 
out  alone  as  the  acme  of  design,  workmanship  and  accuracy. 
Then  you  will  call  on  us.to  supply  your  wants  in  this  direc'ion       To 
make  things  easier,  WE  ASK  YOU  TO  SEND  US  YOUR  NAIVIE 
NOW,  SO  THAT  WE  MAY  KEEP  YOU  WFLL  ADVISED 
OF  OUR  POSITION.  AND   ALSO   OF  THE    NEW   AND 
POPULAR  MODELS  AND   ACCESSORIES  WHICH  WE 
MAY  INTRODUCE 

Will  you  do  so  ? — and,   in   writing,  ask  for  copy  of 
"  Rifle  Sights  and  their  Adjustment." 

THE  BIRMINGHAM  SMALL  ARMS 
CO.,  LTD.,  BIRMINGHAM,  ENG. 

Makers  o(   Rides  and  Lewis   Machine 

Guns   (or  the    British    Colonial    and 

Foreign  Governmenls  and    of    the 

famous     B.S.A.      Cycles      and 

.     .      Motors     .     .      .     . 


R.S.A.  SAFETIPASTE 
Will  keep  \our  gun  or  rifle  clean  with 
a  mtnimum  of  trouble.  It  overcomes 
all  harm'ul  foulincr  and  obviates  en- 
(ire'y  arduous  scrubbing  and  periodical 
recleanine.  You  just  coat  the  bore  wit't 
it — that'it  all.  " 

Retails  at — 

ONE  SHILLING  A  TUBE. 

Ask  for  othnr  rtelaili. 


isaii! iiiiiilllllliiiiiiiilllfliiiiiBiillilllillliiliJIIJilfiilillilSliCIB^ 


The  Original  Cording' s,  Estd.  1839  "== 

THE  "  EQUITOR*'  COAT 

IS  REALLY  WATERPROOF, 

a  sufficient  statement  when 
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goes  back  nearly   80  years. 

An  "Equit^,"  with  snug  fleece 
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heaviest  and  most  lasting  down- 
pour, but  will  also  warmly  protect 
him  in  biting  cold  weather,  and 
may  therefore  be  relied  upon  to 
minimise  fclie  ill-elFects  oJ  enforced 
exposure  at  night. 

The  "Equjtor"  is  fitted  with 
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In  our  light-weight  No.  31  material 
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V^ol.  LXVIII  No.  2861  [^^11,]  THURSDAY.  MARCH  8,  1917 


rREGISTERED  AST     PUBLISH KD  WEEKLY 
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By  Louit  Raemaekeri 


Holland's  Position 

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Boot  has  the  patent  Fortmason 
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iL6  :  6  :  O 


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kit  to  a  firm  long--famed  for  quality, 
for  consistent  excellence  in  wear- 
worth  and  workmanship. 

In  business,  long  before  the  days  of 
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contracts  because  they  value  the  oppor- 
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March  8,  1917 


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LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  MARCH  8,   1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I 

3 

4 

8 

10 
12 

13 

15 

17 
i8 

20 
24 


Holland's  Position.     By  Louis  Kaemaekers 

America's  Hour.     (Leader) 

The  Bapaume  Ridge.     By  Hilaire  Belloc 

The  Submarine  \\'ar.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

On  thie  Tigris.     By  J.  A.  Higgs-Walker 

Will  Switzerland  be  Invaded.     By  Colonel  Feyler 

Italy's  Industrial  Effort.     By  Lewis  R.  Freeman 

The  Batman.     By  Onturion 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw 

The  British  Empire  and  U.  J.C.  Club 

The  Golden  Triangle.     By  Maurice  Leblanc 

The  West'  End 

Kit  and  Equipment 

AMERICA'S     HOUR 

THE  inaugural  address  which  Mr.  Woodrow  Wilson 
delivered  on  assuming  office  for  a  second  term 
will  rank  in  history  among  the  greatest  utter- 
ances whicli  have  been  spoken  by  a  President 
of  the  United  States.  And  the  reason  can  best  be  stated 
in  the  speaker's  owff  words  :  "  We  are  provincials  no 
longer.  The  tragical  events  of  thirty  months  of  vital 
turmoil  through  which  we  have  just  passed  have  made 
us  citizens  of  the  world.  There  can  be  no  turning 
back.  .  .  .  We  are  being  forced  into  a  new  unity 
amidst  fires  that  now  blaze  through  the  world.  In  their 
ardent  heat  we  shall,  in  God's  providence,  let  us  hope, 
be  purged  of  faction  and  di\'ision,  purified  of  errant 
humours  of  party  and  private  interest,  and  stand  forth 
in  the  days  to  come  with  new  dignity  of  national  pride 
and  spirit," 

These  solemn  words  point  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the 
President's  personal  conviction  that  America  "  is  being 
drawn  irresistibly  into  the  cuiTent  and  influence "  of 
the  great  war.  Mr.  Wilson's  attitude  recalls  that  famous 
story  of  the  whirlpool  told  by  his  imaginative  fellow- 
countryman,  Edgar  Allan  Poe.  No  human  being  could 
have  fought  harder  or  more  sincerely  to  withstand  the 
compelling  force  of  the  troubled  waters,  but  a  stronger 
power  has  been  in  conflict  with  him.  He  has  not  fore- 
gone his  principles.  We  who  live  so  much  nearer  the 
centre  of  the  turmoil,  and  who  have  been  compelled  to 
realize  that  the  sacrifice  of  so  much  in  life  w'e  \'alue  most 
higlily,  has  been  essential  that  the  noblest  ideals  of  human 
conduct  shall  prevail,  may  have  considered  that  at 
times  Mr.  Wilson's  advice  savoured  of  pusillanimity,  yet 
•to-day  we  realize  that  when  the  decision  has  been  fairly 
and  squarely  placed  before  him,  he  has  not  shirked  the 
issue.  "  We  shall  walk  with  light  all  about  us"  were 
the  concluding  words  of  the  address,  "  if  we  be  but  true 
to  ourselves — to  ourselves  as  we  have  wished  to  be  known 
in  the  counsels  of  the  world,  in  the  thought  of  all  those 
who  love  libert}',  justice,  and  right  exalted." 

Here  speaks  the  tongue  that  Shakespeare  spake  ;  these 
are  the  faith  and  morals  which  Milton  held.  Armed 
neutrality  may  endure  for  a  season,  but  unless  the  enemy 
be  false  to  himself,  and  suddenly  alters  not  only  his 
methods,  but  his  whole  mode  and  manner  of  thought 
and  action,  it  can  only  be  a  little  time  before  th6  United 
States  are  officially  joined  to  the  Allies,  and  the  Gov^ern- 
ment  of  that  great  country  follows  in  the  path  which 
has  alread}'  been  trodden  courageously  by  so  many  of 
its  private  citizens,  and  takes  a  x^art  in  upholding  "  fair 


deahng,  justice  and  freedom  to  live  and  be  at  ease  against 
organised  wrong." 

"  We  are  a  composite  and  cosmopolitan  people  ;  wc 
are  of  the  hrood  of  all  the  nations  that  are  at  war  ;  the 
currents  of  oiu-  thoughts  as  well  as  the  currents  of  our 
trade  run  quick  at  all  seasons  back  and  forth  between  us 
and  them."  In  reviewing  the  past  it  is  only  reasonable 
we  should  hold  in  mind  this  aspect  of  the  President's 
difiiculties.  It  is  very  hard  for  the  people  of  the  United 
Kingdom  to  comprehend  the  sentiments  of  peoples  from 
whom  unanimity  of  opinion  on  the  larger  national  issues 
is  absent.  This  weakness  of  imagination,  for  such  it  is, 
is  at  the  root  of  the  Irish  trouble,  and  when  an  attempt 
is  made  to  weigh  in  the  scales  of  righteousness  the  con- 
duct of  other  peoples,  we  are  apt  to  err  greatly.  This 
is  not  the,  time  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  nations.  We 
cannot  expect  every  neutral  to  be  stirred  with  that  splendid 
indignation  against  cruelty,  injustice  and  oppression 
which  have  made  the  cartoons  of  Louis  Raemaekers 
world  famous,  and  have  caused  them  to  be  an  important 
factor  in  reveahng  the  true  character  and  aims  of  the 
enemy  against  whom  civilization  is  in  arms.  These  truths 
had  by  some  to  be  learnt  slowly ;  in  previous  wars  they 
liave  at  times  only  been  mastered  after  years  of  a  false 
peace,  and  then  too  late.  On  this  occasion  the  chief  protag- 
onists see  clearly  what  they  are  fighting  for.  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells 
puts  this  point  well  in  War  and  the  Future  :  "I  perceive 
that  on  our  side  and  in  its  broad  outlines,  this  war  is 
nothing  more  than  a  gigantic  and  heroic  effort  in  sanitary 
engineering ;  an  effort  to  remove  German  militarism 
from  the  life  and  regions  it  has  invaded  and  to  bank  it  in 
and  discredit  and  enfeeble  it  so  that  never  more  will  it 
repeat  its  present  preposterous  and  horrible  efforts." 

America's  hour  has  struck  ;  the  moment  to  decide 
has  come  ;  her  destiny  declares  itself.  "  The  thing  I 
shall  count  \ipon  and  the  thing  without  which  neither 
counsel  nor  action  avail,"  said  Mr.  Wilson,  in  the  first 
hour  of  his  new  Presidency,  "  is  the  vmity  of  America — 
an  America  united  in  feeling,  in  purpose,  in  its  vision  of 
duty  and  its  opportunity  of  service."-  On  the  very 
threshold  of  his  great  purpose  he  has  been  temporarily 
thwarted  by  a  handful  of  intriguers,  but  the  very 
smallness  of  their  numbers  is  eloquent  of  the  mass  of 
public  opinion  that  lies  behind  him.  If  the  United 
States  is  forced  to  take  up  arms,  not  to  protect  her 
neutrality  but  to  defend  the  rights  of  humanity — action 
which  we  regard  as  inevitable — she  will  present  a  united 
front  which  will  again  give  the  lie  to  the  blundering 
predictions  of  Germany,  the  outcome  of  that  amazing 
ignorance  of  human  nature,  which  make  sone  seriously 
question  whether  the  Teuton'  is  not  several  generations 
nearer  the  parent  ape  than  the  rest  of  mankind.  He 
seems  never  to  be  able  to  escape  from  the  obsession  of  the 
brute-beast  that  man  is  entirely  controlled  by  his  ele- 
mental needs  and  passions.  He  has  certainly  been  the 
means — the  horrible  means — of  proving  again  to  the 
world  that  the  higher  attributes  of  man  are  the  uncon- 
querable and  eternal  things  of  life.  And  it  seemed  un- 
thinkable to  marty  that  when  these  things  were  in  jeo- 
pardy America  was  not  arrayed  in  their  defence.  "  My 
country  is  the  world;  my  countrj'men  are  mankind," 
is  once  again  the  watchword  of  America.  Her  Presi- 
dent has  shown  himself  strong  when  adhering  to  opinions 
which  did  not  commend  themselves  to  many  of  those  of 
his  fellow-countrymen  with  whom  his  mind  was  otherwise 
most  in  harmony,  and  now  that  he  has  moved  forward 
to  a  more  popular  position,  we  may  take  it  that  his 
strength  wnll  be  equal  under  future  anxieties  and  per- 
plexities. "We  realize,"  he  said,  "  that  the  greatest 
things  that  remain  to  be  done  must  be  done  with  the 
whole  world  for  a  stage  and  in  co-operation  with  the  wide 
imiversal  forces  of  mankinds,  and  we  are  making  our 
spirits  ready  for  these  things." 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  1917 


The    Bapaume    Ridge 


By   Hilaire   Belloc 


IT  is  certain  that  the  enemy  having  been  com- 
pelled to  evacuate  the  salient  of  Serre  has  determined 
to  fall  back  upon  what  is  called,  not  very  accurately, 
"  the  Bapaume  Ridge."  It  is  not  equally  certain 
thai  he  can  maintain  himself  upon  that  ridge.  And  if 
lie  cannot,  there  may  jxjssibly  be  restored  upon  this 
sector  what  is,  however  slow  its  successive  steps,  a  war 
of  movement,  with  all  the  very  grave  consequences  such 
a  change  involves. 

We  shall  not  understand  the  situation  until  we  have 
examined  in  detail  this  succession  of  somewhat  confused 
heights  to  which  the  English  have  given  the  name  of 
"  the  Bapaume  Ridge." 

■  The  watershed  between  the  North  Sea  and  the 
Channel,  which  here  separates  the  basin  of  the  Scheldt 
from  the  basin  of  the  Somme,  runs  south-east  to 
north-west  and  passes  through  the  town  of  Bapaume. 
This  town  is  the  meeting  place  of  a  number  of 
ancient  and  modem  roads,  precisely  because  it  lies  upon 
the  watershed.  The  old  Roman  road  from  the  south  to 
Arras  followed,  more  or  less,  the  high  dry  ground  above 
the  two  river  basins,  and  Bapaume  came  into- existence 
because  it  was  the  cross  roads  where  this  main  road  from 
south  to  north  along  the  watershed  was  traversed  by  the 
east  and  west  road  from  Amiens  to  Cambrai ;  that  is, 
the  main  avenue  of  travel  from  the  Channel  and  the 
Somme  harbours  into  the  Belgic  Plains  of  the  Artois. 


The  ridge,  if  it  may  so  be  called  (for  it  is  very  broken) 
lowers  gradually  from  north-west  to  south-east  and  is 
marked  by  the  following  succession  of  contours  so  far 
as  they  he  within  the  present  German  lines : 

You  have  first  on  the  extreme  north-west  or  German 
riglit  of  the  line,  the  village  of  Moncln-au-Bois.  This 
village  is  built  upon  a  slope  running  up  to  a  small  plateau, 
about  a  mile  long  by  a  quarter  of  a  mile  broad,  which 
plateau  is  just  above  the  160  metre  level.  This  is  the 
highest  point  of  the  system.  It  should  be  pointed 
out  of  course,  that  these  heights  do  not  connote 
hills  visible  to  the  eye  upon  the  scale  of  their  measure- 
ment above  the  sea.  The  contour  160  metres  is,  in 
English  measin-ement,  a  contour  of  525  feet  above  sea 
level.  That  would  be  a  very  considerable  hill  if  one  saw 
the  whole  of  its  height  at  once.  But  the  observer  in 
the  neighbourhood  is  already  high  up.  The  whole 
coimtry  side  is  a  series  of  rolling  open  fields,  the  water 
courses  in  the  ravines  of  which  are  themselves  more  than 
300  feet  above  the  sea,  apd  these  bottoms  are  dis  inct 
from  the  slowly  rising  heights.  There  is,  for  instance, 
nothing  within  2  or  3  miles  of  Monchy  which  is  as  much 
as  200  feet  below  the  gradual  elevation  upon  which  it 
stands.  And  no  impression  of  true  hill  country  is 
conveyed  to  the  eye  which  looks  eastward  towards  the 
so-called  Bapaume  Ridge.  All  you  can  say  is  that  it 
makes  an  horizon  for  you  beyond  which  you  cannot  see. 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


5 


.     ,  Monchu 

f60  Metres       '  ^ 


H5odc^  Afjejxt 


Achut 

Junction  lotfpartWjod. 


II 


Rifiaiuiiei 


:60  Metres  above. 
Sea.  LesvL 


V/SOifetn-' 


L-—fOO  Metres 


'V:itleu    Floor  of  Ac  Ancrc 


SeiX.  Level   _ 
o  / 


Sea.  Level    { 


It  /t  J9  /*  IS  lA 


f*         a        2a 


JCc  l.ome.tre.s 
Htttibts   cx-atjaera^Ad.  S.O  tzincs. 


As  you  proceed  south-east  from  the  little  plateau  of 
Monchy  you  go  at  first  down  a  short  steep  bank  of  50 
feet  or  so  to  a  saddle,  the  lowest  point  of  which  is  just 
less  than  140  metres  above  the  sea,  and  from  this  you 
rise  again  gradually  to  a  much  smaller  or  very  flattened 
plateau  of  tlfe  same  height  as  M'onchy,  that  is,  i6o  metres, 
and  about  a  mile  and  a  half  away  from  Monchy.  This 
flatfish  lump  stands  immediately  above  the  farm  and 
hamlet  of  Essarts.  .  Standing  upon  the  height  of 
Gommecourt,  now  in  British  hands,  you  look  across  a 
shallow  depression  towards  this  lump  that  stands  up 
against  the  sky,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  away  to  the 
north-east.  The  line  then  continues  after  another 
shallow  depression  of  little  more  than  30  feet  to  a  similar 
rather  broader  plateau  overlooking  Bucquoi,  a  village 
lying  in  a  slight  depression  or  saddle  about  140  metres 
above  the  sea.  Bucquoi  is  overlooked  from  the  back 
by  slightly  higher  land  again  about  i6o  metres  high. 
But  a  defensive  line  would  naturally  be  carried  in  front 
of  or  covering  Bucquoi  because  the  ground  southward 
in  front  of  Buciquoi  looking  towards  the  English  falls 
fairly  steeply  and  gives  a  good  defensive  position., 
Puisieux,  now  in  British  hands,  which  lies  over  against! 
Bucquoi,  is  lower  than  Bucquoi,  and  between  the  two 
there  is  the  valley  through  which  runs  that  brook  often 
described  in  these  pages  and  forming  one  of  the  sources  of 
the  Ancre.  It  is  called  indifferently  in  the  neighbourhood 
the  brook  of  Puisieux  or  the  brook  of  Mirauraont. 
The  line  of  the  Bapaume  Ridge  (that  is,  of  the  watershed 
and  of  the  highest  points)  recedes  here  towards  the  north, 
falling  gradually  as  it  does  so  ;  passes  through  the  wood 
of  Logeast  and  sinks  into  the  very  considerable  de- 
pression which  is  marked  by  the  village  of  Bihucourt, 
standing,  little  more  than  120  metres  above  the  sea,  or 
fully  120  feet  below  the  original  starting  point  at  Monchy. 
This  depression  also  contains  what  was  for  so  long  the 
important  railway  junction  of  Achiet-le-Grand.  I  say 
"  what  was  "  because  with  the  abandonment  of  the  Serre 
salient  and  the  enemy's  being  compelled  to  fall  back  on 
to  the  Bapaume  Ridge  this  junction  can  certainly  no  longer 
be  used,  the  single  railway  line  beyond  it  to  Bapaume 
being  under  quite  close  range  fire.  From  this  point  of 
Bihucourt  the  ground,  very  confused  and  tumbled,  but 
with  quite  inconsiderable  "differences  of  elevation,  rises 
and  falls  as  the  line  proceeds  through  Grevillers  to  the 
flat  fields  immediately  in  front  of  Bapaume.  Thence 
it  bends  somewhat  more  southward,  covering  Le  Transloy 
at  much  the  same  height  and  so  on  to  the  far  side  of  Sailly 
and  Saillisel. 

Though  the  line  of  the  greatest  "height  and  the 
division  of  the  waters  passes  thus  behind  Bucquoi, 
through  the  wood  of  Logeast  and  the  village  of 
Bihucourt,  yet  the  defensive  line  -  can  and  dbes 
he  in  front  of  this.  It  can  cover.  .  Achiet-le-Petit, 
just  as  it  can  cover  Bucquoi  because,  as  at  Bucquoi, 
the  ground  running  down  from  Achiet-lc-P;etit  towards 
the  brook  of  Miraumont  and  the  English  front  is  fairly 
steep.  The  village  of  Achiet-le-Petit  itself  is  100  feet 
above  the  brook,  though  only  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
away,  and  the  bank  rises  more  than  60  feet  in  the  first 
quarter  of  a  mile  of  this. 

The  Bapaume  Ridge,  is,  therefore,  geographicallv, 
the  line  Bapaume— Bihucourt— Logeast  Wood— and  so 
behind  Bucquoi  to  Monchy.  But  a  sufiident  and  good 
defensive  hue  can  leave  this  somewhat'to  the  north  and 
cover  Bucquoi,  Achiet-lc-Petit  and  Grevillers.  It  could 
also  hold  Loupart  ^Vood  in  front  of  Grevillers  and  thei^cc 
bend  slightly  northward  to  cover  Bapaume. 


Such  are  the  elements  of  the  Bapaume  Ridge  position. 
Its  length  as  the  crow  flies  from  Monchy  to  Bapaume  is 
16,000  yards  or  somewhat  over  nine  miles.  Its  length  in 
its  various  sinuosities  will,  if  it  is  finally  established,  be 
more  like  eleven  counting  from  a  little  beyond  Monchy  to 
the  further  side  of  Bapaume,  and  its  section  (with  heights 
greatly  exaggerated)  may  be  grasped  from  the  accompany- 
ing Sketch  II. 

Now  what  are  the  opportunities  of  the  enemy  for 
holding  this  line  and  why  do  we  say  that  if  it  is  not  held 
a  war  of  movement  may  be  restored  upon  this  sector, 
at  least  until  a  line  far  behind  has  been  reached  ?: 

The  difficulty  the  enemy  has  of  holding  this  line  resides 
principally  in  the  sharpness  of  the  salient  formed  'at 
Monchy-au-Bois.  It  is  not  indeed  so  sharp  a  salient  as  that 
which  was  formed  at  Serre  after  the  capture  of  Hill  127 
more  than  a  fortnight  ago,  which  capture  compelled  his 
retirement.  The  shape  of  the  two  salients  may  be  con- 
trasted in  the  annexed  sketch  in  which  it  will  be  seen 


that  the  Monchy  salient  as  now  formed  by  the  enemy's 
present  dispositions,  is  a  little  less  pronounced  than  the 
old  salient  of  Serre.  It  is  nohe  the  less  a"  very  awkward 
gjjrner  upon  which  highly  converging  fire  can  be  directed, 
and  we  .must  remark,  which  is  important,  that  there  is 
dirett  observation  from  the  British  lines  down  either 
de^essi^n  upon  -  either  side  of  Monchy.  The  British 
gljs§«eete  near  Berles  can  see  directly  most  of  the  shcU- 
^wrsts  m  the  depression  which  flanks  Monchy  to  the 
ftorth,  and  the  observers  now  possessed  of  the  ground 
north  of  Gommecourt  can  easily  see  directly  most  of 
the  shell-bursts  in  the  saddle  south  of  Monchy.  The 
importance  of  this  direct  observation  at  short  range  is 
very  great.  It  makes  the  fire  of  heavy  pieces  indefinitely 
more  effecti\e  than  it  can  be  wHen  itis  directed  only  by 
the  map,  and  greater  e\en  than  when  it  is  directed  by 
fairly  full  observation  from  the  air.  It  is  true  that  it  is 
only  of  \'alue  at  comparatively  small  ranges,  and  even  at 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  1917 


these  it  is  only  xaluable  731  proportion  to  the  extent  to 
which  the  observation  post  dominates  the  object  of 
attack.  But  in  this  case  intensive  fire  upon  the  trenches 
north  and  south  of  Monchy  can  now  be  under  direct 
observation  at  less  than  2, ,000  yards,  and  Monchy  itself 
hes  in  an  angle  upon  whii'Ji  heavily  converging  fire  can 
be  directed.  If  Monchy  were  no  more  than  a  name  or  a 
geographical  expression  this,  while  meaning  that  the 
enemy  might  have  to  evac:uatc  the  ruined  \illage,  would 
mean  no  more.  But  MorLchy  is  much  more  than  this. 
It  is  the  key  to  the  ridg?.  It  is  the  high  extreme  point 
of  the  ridge,  and  if  the  enemy  is  compelled  to  evacuate 
it,  the  ridge  as  a  defensive  system  is  in  jeopardy. 
Beyond  Monchy  the  land  falls  away  northward  and  east- 
ward continually,  and  every  successive  retirement  is 
overlooked  by  the  advancin.-c;  pursuit. 

We  must  not  forget  in  this  connection  that  though  the 
enemy  has  had  time  to  construct  strong  defensive  lines 
behind  his  original  position,  he  has  not  anything  like 
the  strength  which  the  lal)>Tinth  of  trenches  two  years 
in  construction  gave  him  upon  his  old  front,  and  at  the 
same  time  he  has  in  front  of  him  an  increasing  weight  of 
fire.  Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  the  chances  are  in 
favour  of  his  not  being  able  to  hold  continually  this 
capital  point,  and  consequently  again,  his  permanent 
mastery  of  the  Bapaume  Ridge.  More  than  that  one 
cannot  say. 

There  has  been  some  misunderstanding  in  the  best 
recent  WTiting  upon  this  portion  of  the  line  with  regard 
to  the  importance  of  Gommecourt,  and  some  students 
of  the  war  have  spoken  as  though  the  enemy  retirement 
from  Gommecourt  of  itself  put  the  key  of  the  Bapaume 
ridge  into  British  hands.  This  is  not  the  case.  Gomme- 
court and  the  spur  running  south  from  it  towards  Nightin- 
gale Wood  is  high  ground,  but  it  does  not  overlook 
Monchy.  It  is  lower  than  Monchy.  Monchy  is  the  true 
key  to  the  Bapaume  Ridge  so  far  as  elevation  is  concerned, 
and  though  elevation  in  this  siege  war  means  very  little 
more  than  power  of  direct  observation  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood,  that  is  of  capital  importance  when  one 
has  a  superiority  of  lire. 

Should  the  enemy  be  compelled  to  abandon  the 
Bapaume  Ridge  (that  he  intends  to  do  so  at  the  present 
moment  may  be  confidently  denied ;  that  he  may  be 
compelled  to  do  so  is  another  matter),  he  immediately 
descends  to  ground  which  is  increasingly  unfavourable, 
and  the  reason  of  this  is  obvious  from  the  nature  of  all 
this  countryside. 

When  you  pass  over  the  watershed  di^^ding  two'  river 
systems,  you  naturally  descend  from  higher  to  lower 
ground,  but  it  by  no  means  follows  universalh*  that 
a  watershed  is  the  best  defensix'e  position,  in  this 
district.  If  beyond  the  watershed  upon  the  further 
side  you  have  a  number  of  exceptions  to  the 
general  contours  and  a  number  of  heights  rising 
individually  from  the  spurs,  though  as  a  whole 
the  level  is  falling  to  the  plain  upon  the  further 
side,  a  defensive  position  taken  up  upon  a  chain  of  these 
subsidiary  heights  may  be  better  than  that  upon  the 
watershed  itself.  Indeed,  there  are  very  many  cases  in 
military  geography  of  a  watershed  which  is  considerably 
lower  than  these  secondary  heights  beyond  it.  The 
summits  of  nearly  all  our  chalk  ranges  in  England,  for 
instance,  are  higher  than  the  watersheds  of  the  rivers  in 
their  districts.  But  in  the  case  of  the  Bapaume  Ridge 
the  enemy  would  find  no  such  advantage  as  he  fell 
back  northward  and  eastward.  No  matter  where  we 
suppose  his  line  to  be  drawn  it  will  be  continuously 
overlooked,  and  he  will  hardly  have  a  single  observation 
post  from  which  to  counteract  this  domination  of  his  line. 

Let  us  take  two  such  hypothetical  lines  of  retirement 
and  see  how  they  work  out,  referring  the  shading  to  the 
contours  on  Map  I. 

Supposing  he  finds  the  salient  of  Monchy  untenable 
and  flattens  out  that  salient  to  the  line  Ficheux-Ayette 
and  so  joins  up  with  the  original  ridge  at  the  Wood  of 
Logeast,  abandoning  Blau-exdlle,  Ronsart,  Monchy, 
Bucquoi  and  Achiet.  He  has  a  trace  here  which  is 
perfectly  tenable  as  a  mere  trace,  the  salient  being  gradual 
and  not  exposed  to  any  exceptional  convergence  of  fire. 
But  he  has  lost  his  olaservation.  He  is  directly  over- 
looked in  front  of  Fichcux  from  Blaire\-ille  Wood  ;  he 
has  only  one  small  isolated  height  (A)  south  of  Ficheux, 
and  half-way  bet\veen  that  village  and  Boiry,  to  depend 


on  ;  a  height  directly  seen  by  a  similar  height  only  a 
thousand  yards  away  (which  would  be  in  his  opponent's 
hands)  at  Hendcncourt.  If,  to  avoid  this  nuisance  he 
were  to  cover  Hendencourt,  he  would  have  rising  ground 
in  front  of  him  right  up  to  Adinfer.  If  he  tries  to  hold  on 
to  Adinfer  and  the  Wood  of  Monchy  he  has  not  reduced 
his  salient  by  anything  worth  while.  It  is  the  same  a 
httle  lower  down  at  Ayette.  He  has  an  observation 
point  on  Hill  122  (B)  where  the  windmill  stands  (or  stood). 
But  it  is  countered  by  a  still  higher  point  less  than  a  mile 
away  across  the  \alky,  and  there  is  a  continual  succession 
of  rising  ground  beyond  which  dominates  him  until  you 
get  to  Monchy  itself.  There  is  in  this  sector  no  line  behind 
the  present  lintr  which  does  not  sacrifice  his  power  of 
observation  to  the  British. 

Take  a  second  hypothesis  which  has  been  put  forward 
by  very  competent  students  of  this  sector,  and  imagine 
him  failing  back  to  what  is  roughly  the  line  of  the  Arras- 
Bapaume  Road.  Here  again,  if  we  neglect  contours, 
the  retirement  will  establish  an  excellent  line  ;  indeed 
the  best  hne  of  all.  The  enemy  dug  in  from  his  present 
trenches  in  the  suburb  of  St.  Saviour  just  outside  Arras 
straight  on  to  Bapaume  and  so  on  to  Peronne,  would  have 
thoroughly  straightened  his  line ;  as  is  apparent  in 
Sketch  IV. 


Srra*    •./ 

w. 

/       '^'- 

^-^.. 

(      ■   *" 

^^^^ 

la'Mbnchii          \'^ 

Cambrai..:^ 

^1  '^^^^>v* 

8  I                 ^'-.^S 

Bapaxtmc 

It 

■^^W 

^%. 

^ 

^\ 

1 

va.V 

V 

-"<rN. 

j 

\ 

1 

1 

1 

m 

/•Thxmnc 

m 

' 

He  would  be  suffering  from  no  dangerous  saUent  any- 
where even  of  the  slightest  or  flattest  sort.  But  he  would 
have  sacrificed  every  single  point  of  good  observation 
on  the  whole  13  miles.  He  would  be  overlooked  every- 
where. It  is  true  that  the  country  here  is  much  flatter 
than  it  is  a  little  more  to  the  west ;  posts  do  not  dominate 
him  as  thoroughly  as  they  do  further  to  the  west.  But 
the  trenches  lie  immediately  opposite  each  other  in  a 
modern  siege  system,  and  though  the  domination  Mould 
be  slight  it  would  be  sufficient  to  put  him  everywhere  in 
peril  from  an  enemy  possessing  our  present  superiority 
of  fire. 

It  is  for  these  reasons  that  one  may  conclude  (within 
the  Hmits  of  uncertainty  attaching  to  all  war),  that  the 
Bapaume  Ridge  is  of  serious  and  even  vital  importance 
to  the  enemy  as  he  is  now  .situated,  and  that  if  he  is 
compelled  to  abandon  it,  it  will  be  the  signal  for  an  attack 
by  him  elsewhere. 

For  this  sector — upon  which,  without  'the  least  doubt, 
he  is  suffering  the  initiative  of  his  opponent  and  is  being 
compelled  against  his  will  to  a  rather  perilous  retirement 
--though  it  is  the  sector  covering  his  main  communica- 
tions and  therefore  one  of  high  importance  to  him,  is, 
after  all,  only  one  fragment  of  the  long  line  between  sea 
and  the  mountains  which  he  has  to  defend,  and  upon 
any  point  of  which  he  can  concentrate  for  his  last  offen- 
sive. 

We  know  that  such  an  offensive  is  contemplated,  for  the 
whole  purport  of  every  measure  he  has  undertaken 
during  the  last  two  months  must  be  its  delivery — his 
refusal  to  come  south  in  the  Balkans,  so  far  ;  the  halt — 
imposed    upon   him.    indeed,    but   accepted— upon   the 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


shortest  line  between  the  Bukovina  and  the  Danube  ; 
the  analogy  of  all  his  past  action — would  convince  us ; 
apart  from  ample  other  evidence  which  cannot,  of  its 
nature,  be  discussed.  The  Prussian  never  invents; 
he  first  copies  others  and  then  himself ;  and  this  attach- 
ment to  routine  has  not  served  him  so  badly  in  the 
last  two  hundred  years  that  we  can  afford  to  ridicule 
it.  It  has  very  grave  disadvantages,  but  it  goes  with 
the  mass  of  highly  detailed  but  slow  preparation  which 
is  in  his  case  synonymous  with  organisation.  The  enemy 
has  certainly  concentrated  for  a  last  offensive,  but  where 
it  may  be  delivered,  even  a  conjecture  as  to  its  theatre, 
is  obviously  no  matter  of  discussion. 

The  point  for  us  to  notice  in  connection  with  this  pro- 
blem of  the  Bapaume  Ridge  is  that  if  upon  that  very 
important  sector- he  finds  himself  embarrassed  he  will 
trust  to  the  effect  of  his  offensive  elsewhere  to  deliver 
him.  He  has  held  these  lines  in  the  Artois  strongly 
since  the  weather  stopped  the  main  battle,  but  not  more 
strongly  than  was  needed  for  mere  defence,  and  if  he  has 
pared  down  his  strength  here  to  the  limit  of  safety  and 
has  been  compelled  to  successive  losses  of  ground  up  to 
what  is  now  obviously  a  danger  point,  he  is  the  more 
obviously  determining  a  chief  blow  elsewhere.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  his  power  to  deliver  such  a  blow  and 
to  continue  it  is  not  untrammelled.  He  has  a  superior 
enemy  before  him  who  can  forestall  such  a  blow  if  he 
chooses,  or  allow  it  to  be  delivered  first  if  he  chooses,  and 
the  superiority  of  that  initiative  upon  the  part  of  the 
Alhes  will  be  clear  enough  in  due  time.  Only  panic- 
mongers  here  and  politicians  at  Berlin  can  make  some- 
thing out  of  nothing  :  the  end  of  his  reserves  is  in  sight 
this  j^ear  and  the  effort  on  which  he  is  now  about  to 
stake  the  same  is  a  final  one.  But  the  point  I  am 
insisting  upon  is  that  the  Bapaume  Ridge,-  the  chief 
object  of  our  present  study,  is  not  an  isolated  object  ; 
and  that  upon  the  outbreak  di  great  activity  elsewhere 
it  will  no  longer  be  our  main  consideration. 

Meanwhile,  the  talk  about  the  enemy's  retirement 
here  involving  us  in  some  insuperable  difficulties  of 
advance  with  impossibility  of  transport,  is  exaggerated. 
The  ground  is  drying  rapidly  and  the  operations  are 
already  reaching  the  limit  of  the  zone  most  intensively 
shelled  during  the  past  few  months. 

ON    THE    OT^ER    FRONTS 

The  rest  of  the  news  from  the  various  fronts  is  still, 
at  the  moment  of  writing,  exceedingly  meagre.  We 
know  that  the  British  front  has  been  extended  as  far  as 
the  neighbourhood  of  Roye ;  the  successful  trench 
raids  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Arras  have  been 
continued ;  a  violent  local  German  attack  on  a  two- 
mile  front  on  the  north-eastern  angle  of  the  Verdim 
salient,  delivered  with  perhaps  four  divisions,  was 
broken  with  very  heavy  loss  upon  the  two  wings, 
but  in  the  centre  occupied  the  advanced  French  trenches 
last  Sunday ;  the  greater  part  of  these  front  trenches 
were  recovered  on  the  Monday  morning  ;  some  pieces 
and  rather  more  than  500  prisoners  remained  in  the 
enemy's  hands.  The  cost  of  the  operation  was  out  of  all 
proportion  to  its  results  ;  and  like  the  precisely  similar 
effort  two  months  ago,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  object  the 
enemy  had  in  view.  The  best  conjecture  to  make  is 
that  he  was  exercising  an  imitation  of  the  new  French 
tactics  in  this  region  and  that  he  has  not  succeeded  in 
copying  the  model. 

From  Mesopotamia  there  has  been,  at  the  moment  of 
writing,  no  news  for  several  days.  The  last  despatch 
earned  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy  to  a  point  rather  more 
than  half  way  between  Kut  and  Bagdad.  There  was 
e\ddently  a  rally,  and  an  attempted  defence  of  the  position 
at  Sheik  Jaad,  15  to  17  miles  above  Kut,  on  the  second 
day  of  the  pursuit,  in  the  defile  between  the  marsh  and 
the  river,  which  was  described  here  last  week  as  the  only 


Nixibin 


V 


Mosul 


'T/Tcttj 


7)efersLve 
j>osi£'tcaz  op 
'^SheiJi.Saad. 


T.f^ 


3rd^  cuitvuieg 
week  a^ 


2Cirsft 


J&i*4L-AjT)ara 


possible  defensive  position  for  a  long  way  up  the  stream. 
This  defence  broke  down  so  rapidly  as  hardly  to  check 
the  pursuit.  It  is  clear  from  the  pace  at  which  the  pursuit 
has  proceeded  that  it  has  been  largely  the  work  of  cavalry. 
What  motor  transport  may  have  been  able  to  do  in  the 
neighbourhood  we  cannot  tell  until  we  receive  a  more 
detailed  account  of  the  local  conditioitis.  But  a  move- 
ment so  rapid  must  already  have  got  far  ahead  of  the 
opportunities  for  full  supply  ;  and  presumably  the  next 
phase  of  these  operations  will  be  the  advancing  of  the 
means  of  communication  as  quickly  as  possible  further 
up  the  valley. 

We  have  not  information  upon  the  strength  with 
which  the  enemy  is  able  to  receive  us  between  the  last 
points  reached  by  the  advance  and  Bagdad.  It  is  there- 
fore useless  to  speculate  upon  his  powef  to  defend  the 
town.  The  last  really  good  defensive  pc>sition  in  front 
of  Bagdad  is  at  Dalia,  where  a  ivatercourse  comes  in  from 
the  east  and  joins  the  Tigris.  It  is  pertiaps  12  miles 
from  the  last  houses  of  the  city,  and  gives  not  very 
much  room  for  a  successful  retirement  in  casv'^  it  has  to  be 
rapidly  abandoned :  for  a  large  town  is  a  ba»l  obstacle. 

Meanwhile,  the  pressure  ( exercised  by  the  British 
advance  in  this  neighbourhood  has  already  .reUeved  the 
corresponding  pressure  against  the  Russians  in  the  Median 
mountains  to  the  east  and  Hamadan  has  been  reoccupied 
by  our  Allies. 

A  capital  point  in  the  Turkish  power  of  defence,  but 
unfortunately  a  point  upon  which  public  iniormation  is 
also  lacking,   is  the  present    extension   of   the   ra  ilway 
which  suppHes  the  Turkish  front  in  Mesopotamia.     .Some 
months  ago  the  main  railway  from  the  west,  by  w\^ich 
all  supply  must  reach  the  en^my,  extended  no  further 
than    Nisibin ;    supply    from     that     point    across    tl*e 
plain  to  Mosul  upon  the  Tigris   (near   the   site   of  thtf 
ancient  Nineveh)  was  carried  l»y  motor  traffic  and  on  the 
backs  of  animals  for  a  distance  of  about  130  rniles.     It 
then  proceeded  partly  by  way  of  the  river  and  partly  by 
land  for  another  abo'ut  equal  distance  to  Tekrit.     At  this 
point  it  foimd  the  railhead  of  the  railway  which  was  being 
built   up   the   Tigris   north vra.rd   from   Bagdad.     There 
was  thus  a  breach  of  about  2  5o  miles  in  the  railway  com- 
munication a  little  more  th.xn  a  year  ago  and  also  the 
necessity  for  two  transhipm(  ;nts  of   material.     It   would 
be  of  importance  to  our  jud  gment  if  we  had  information 
upon  the  extent  to  which  this  gap  had  been  bridged  in 
the  interval,  but  such  information  is  lacldng. 


A  Simple  Military  Problem 


There  never  was  a  moment  in  the  war  when  it  was 
more  necessary  for  us  to  grasp  the  essentials  of  what  is 
after  all  a  very  simple  military  problem.  The  difficulty 
of  grasping  it  resides  in  nothing  more  than  the  interf  ereftce 


of  emotion  with  reason.  It  may  be  that  there  are  people 
who  cannot  follow  quite  rample  propositions — bvit  I  doubt 
it.  I  think  nearly  everybody  can  follow  them,  and  that 
the  only  reason  they  are.  forgotten  or  misapprehended  is 


t 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  1917 


that  people  allow  a  mood  to  interfere  with  the  Teasonins 
faculty,  and  perhaps  it  is  no  wonder,  seein,!,'  that  war 
produces  the  most  violent  moods  of  ail. 

The  nrnjor  truth  underlying  all  others  about  the  present 
situation  of  the  war  is  that  the  enemy's  front  is  ex- 
tended at  a  high  tension.  He  is  holding,  first  and  last 
{excluding  Asia) ,  not  far  short  of  2,000  miles  of  front. 
and  in  spite  of  the  advantages  given  him  by  marshes  in  one 
place,  forests  in  another,  mountains  in  a  third,  he  has  not 
the  men  to  hold  those  fronts  during  the  current  year, 
supposing  him  to  be  subjected  to  anything  like  what  has 
hitherto  been  the  normal  wastage  of  the  summer  lighting. 
'I'he  Alliance  against  him  has  the  men  not  only  to  hold 
him  upon  those  fronts  but  to  supply  wastage. 

That,  I  repeat,  is  the  fundamental  fact  upon  which  the 
whole  position  reposes.  If  anyone  reads  into  that  fact 
the  certitude  of  victory  it  is  not  my  fault  nor  the  fault 
of  anyone  who  has  the  function  of  stating  military  pro- 
bilems  in  militar\'  terms.  The  senseless  prophesy  of  cer- 
tain victory  which  has  gone  on  on  both  sides  in  this 
campaign  is  the  most  immilitary  thing  conceivable. 
It  is  about  as  valuable  to  a  judgment  of  war  as  shouting 
through  a  megaphone  would  be  to  a  judgment  of  chess. 
The  enemy  knows  that  this  truth  with  regard  to  num- 
bers is  the  cardinal  truth  dominating  a.U  others.  He 
knows  it  just  as  well  as  we  do,  and  he  is  making  his 
plans  accordingly. 

'  I  said  last  week,  as  I  had  said  many  times  before,  that 
there  was  an  imknown  quantity  or  margin  in  the  shape 
of  the  unknown  Polish  recruitment  ;  since  I  wrote  those 
words  I  have  had  excellent  evidence  that  Polish 
recruitment  has  liitherto  wholly  failed.  The  enemy  has 
here  fallen  between  two  stools  or  rather  has  been  the 
victim  of  his  own  lack  of  judgment.  He  believed  ,he 
would  get  a  separate  peace  with  Russia.  On  that 
hypothesis  he  plumped  for  creating  a  mutilated  but  auto- 
nomous Poland,  which,  still  within  the  orbit  of  the  Cen- 
tral Empires,  wouj.d  enjoy  its  own  laws,  money,  language, 
religion  and  all  the  rest  of  it  and  be  free  to  adopt  any 
military  policy  it  chose.  If,  after  months  of  this  attitude 
which  has  coloured  the  whole  of  his  actions  in  Poland, 
lie  suddenly  turns  round  and  subjects  the  Polish  people  to 
the  most  brutal  of  all  tyrannies,  alien  conscription,  he 
undoes  all  his  past  work.    And  what  is  more  he    does 


it  too  late  to  be  of  any  real  use  to  him  and  lie  runs  a  risk 
of  wasting  a  considerable  measure  of  strength  in  the 
enforcement  of  such  a  new  policy.  He  hoped,  apparentlv, 
for  a  considerable  measure  of  voluntar\'  recruitment, 
I  have  had  good  evidence  that  voluntary  recruitment  in 
Poland  has  failed. 

The  Central  Empires  and  their  Allies,  then,  are  thrown 
back  upon  their  own  resources,  and  we  know  that  those  re- 
sources are  insufficient  to  retain  their  strength  through 
this  year. 

The  next  essential  truth  which  must  be  read  in  connec- 
tion with  this  is  that  the  enemy  has  plumped  for  hazard- 
ing a  considerable  force  at  the  laeginning  of  the  fighting 
season.  We  know  that  he  has  concentrated  it  and 
we  know  that  he  is  about  to  launch  it.  Conscious  of  his 
insutticiency  of  men  compared  with  his  opponents  he 
had  either  to  eke  out  to  the  latest  possible  date  such 
drafts  as  he  had  in  sight,  or  to  adopt  the  opposite  policy 
of  using  at  once  all  that  he  could  spare  to  get  together. 
We  know  that  he  has  chosen  the  latter  policy. 

The  third  thing  we  have  to  remember,  which  it  will 
be  politically  essential  for  us  to  remember  when  the  final 
struggle  begins,  is  that  the  Western  Allies  have  it  amply 
in  their  power  to  force  one  or  more  offensive  movements 
where  and  when  they  choose.  If  the  enemy  launches  his 
offensive  first  it  will  be  because  he  has  been  allowed  to 
do  so.  Not  because  he  has  taken  his  opponents  by  sur- 
prise. If  that  offensive  continues  for  some  little  time 
without  a  counter-stroke  being  launched,  it  will  not  be 
because  the  counter-stroke  cannot  be  launched.  It  will 
be  because  the  delay  is  deliberately  permitted  by  the 
Higher  Command  upon  our  side.  This  also  is,  or  should  be, 
self-evident.  But  witli  such  amazing  comments  upon 
war  as  those  which  the  public  has  had  to  read  for  a  long 
time  past,  and  with  such  a  flood  of  writing  which  does 
not  even  pretend  to  ba  based  upon  military  study,  there 
is  a  real  danger  that  the  'mere  launching  of  an  enemy 
offensive  will  be  enough  to  produce  a  bad  political  effect 
upon  opinion.  That  effect  must  be  resisted  by  each  of  us 
with  his  whole  power.  There  is  no  political  instrument 
in  this  country  for  strengthening  opinion  or  restricting 
the  weakening  or  corruption  of  it  by  ignorant  writers. 
•  The  remedy  can  only  be  found  in  each  man's  own  self- 
respect  and  intelligence.  H.  Beli.oc 


The  Submarine  War 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


FOR  the  first  time  since  I  became    the    Naval 
Correspondent  of  Land  &  Water  I  have  been 
absent  from  England  for  more  than  four  days. 
It  so  happens  tliiit  the  period  has  been  crow  ded 
to  a  degree  qiute  unprecedented,  with  incidents,  decisions 
of  poKcy,  and  public  discrissionsi  arising  out  of  the  naval 
war.       Never   indeed   ha't'e   the   crude   realities   of   the 
operations  of  sea  force  been  so  vividly  or  so  extensively 
advertised.     This  advertisiement  has  not  arisen  primarily 
Out  of  any  unexpected  01:   sensational   incidents  at  sea. 
It  has  again  been  shown  to  be  quite  possible  for  a  single 
fast  craft  to  run  the  gaunl'.let  in  the  narrow  seas  and  fire 
a   few   shells   at  an   undefended   watering   place.      The 
.  darkness  that  was  needed  to  make  the  expedition  possible 
prevented  the  bombardment  doing  any  military  damage 
whatever,  though  once  more  the  death  of  a  civilian — and 
that  a  woman — affixes  the  mark  of  Cain  to   the   sort   of 
above   sea    war  to  which   Germany  is  confined.     There 
has  been  nothing  abnormal  in  the  development  of  the 
submarine  campaign,  thouf^h,  oddly  enough,  the  Dutch 
seem  to  have  been  as  surjjrised  as  they  were  shocked 
by  an  attack  on  seven  of  ti^eir  liners  and  cargo- vessels, 
to  which  a  safe  conduct  had  been  given  by  the  German 
Embassy  at  the  Hague.     .A.11 .  of  these  have  been  wrecked 
or  sunk  ;  but  the  folly  of  the  Dutch  in  confiding  in  the 
good  faith  of  Germany  made    the  task  surprisingly  easy. 
Outside  of  this  the  only  inci  dent  of  note  has  been  the 
sinking  of  the  Laconia,  which  led  to  an  American  woman 
and  her  child  dying — tortureii  beyond  bearing  by  ex- 
posure in  an  open  boat.     But  t  hen  this  kind  of  thing  was 
to  be  expected  also.     The  intcirest  of  the    period   then 
does  not  lie  in  the  events,  but  in  the  explanations  of 


and  deductions  from  them,  and  in  the  political  decisions 
which  have  ensued  or  must  inevitably  ensue. 

The  British  Government  has  issued  a  new  Order  in 
Council  which  should  add  something  to  the  tightening  of 
our  strangle-hold  on  all  sea  sources  of  German  supply, 
though  even  now  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  penalties 
that  can  be  enforced  on  ships  that  attempt  to  break 
blockade,  are  not  made  of  universal  application.  What 
is  of  more  moment  to  the  people  of  these  islands  is  the 
very  ffank  account  which  Sir  Edward  Carson  gave  of  the 
dimensions  and  course  of  the  submarine  campaign  as 
it  affects  this  country,  and  the  ominous  programme  of 
lessened  imports  that  the  Premier  announced  to  Parlia- 
ment as  having  been  made  necessary  by  the  severe  and 
constant  toll  that  our  merchant  tonnage  sustains.  And, 
jyst  as  the  tardy  recognition  of  the  German  attack  upon 
our  trade  has; now  put  our  Government  on  its  guard, 
so  too  in  Germany  this  success,  though  much  less  than 
was  proclaimed  as  certain,  has  given  ground  to  the  very 
highest  hopes,  indeed  there  are  indications  that  it 
may  lead  to  an  entire  change  of  German  strategy. 

Of  equal  ultimate  importance,  though  of  less  pressing 
interest,  is  the  repercussion  of  the  sea  war  on  the  mind 
and  government  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  Those  who  have  followed  the  discussion  in 
these  columns  of  the  successive  phases  of  President 
Wilson's  attitude  during  the  last  six  months,  will  see 
first  in  the  breach  of  diplomatic  relations,  next  in  his 
request  to  Congress  for  authority  to  maintain  an  armed 
neutrality  and,  lastly,  in  his  inaugural  address  delivered 
at  the  opening  of  his  second  term,  the  final — but  inevitable 
— stages  in  America's  progress  from  isolation  to  a  frank 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER. 


.9 


acceptance  of  responsibility,  jointly  with  other  civihzed 
nations,  for  the  preservation  of  the  reign  of  humanity  and 
justice  on  this  planet.  And  it  is  a  picturesque  addition 
to  the  attitude  America  now  takes,  that  China,  so  remote 
from  us  in  geographical  position,. in  social  organisation 
and  in  ethical  and  philosophical  thought,  should  be  the  only 
country  to  respond  to  Dr.  Wilson's  invitation  that  in  this 
matter  all  neutrals  should  make  common  cause. 

The  American  Situation 

There  is  not  space  at  my  disposal  to-day  to  deal  with 
all  of  these  developments,  nor  indeed  fully  with  any  one 
of  them.  At  the  moment  of  writing,  if  one  can  judge  by 
the  headUnes  of  the  daily  papers,  the  matter  of  the 
greatest  immediate  interest  is  how  the  situation  in 
America  will  develop.  At  the  end  of  last  week  it  seemed 
an  absolute  certainty  that,  before  Congress  dissolved  by 
completing  its  legal  term  of  existence,  it  would,  with 
practical  unanimity,  confer  upon  President  Wilson 
authority  to  arm  the  merchant  vessels  of  the  United 
States  and  to  take  any  further  steps  that  might  be  neces- 
sary for  the  preservation  of  the  national  interests — and 
woiald  supply  the  funds  required.  But  when  it  came  to 
the  point  of  making  the  actual  decision,  though  the  House 
of  Representatives  carried  the  necessary  resolution  by 
a  majority  of  twenty  to  one,  in  the  Senate  it  was  made 
impossible  to  put  the  resolution  to  the  House  at  all. 
This  august  assembly  has  long  prided  itself  on  a  com- 
bination of  public  spirit  and  urbanity  that  makes  rules 
of  debate  altogether  superfluous.^  The  events  of  last  week 
have  shown  a  stra.nge  peril  to  exist  in  this  complacency. 
A  baker's  dozen  of  pro-German  recalcitrants,  unmoved 
by  the  virtual  unanimity  of  the  nation,  actually  "  talked 
out  "  a  resolution  which  the  President  of  the  United  States 
had  asked  for  as  essential  to  the  national  dignity  and 
safety.  The  thing  is  without  precedent  in  the  history 
of  representative  assemblies — and  no  doubt  its  repetition 
will  be  made  impossible  in  the  American  Senate.  Mean- 
while a  situation  as  humiliating  as  it  is  dangerous,  has 
been  created.  It  cannot  perhaps  be  better  qualified  than 
in  President  Wilson's  own  words  : 

"  A  httle  group  of  wilful  men.  representing  no  opinion 
but  their  own,  have  rendered  the  great  Government  of 
the  United  States  helpless  and  contemptible.", 

Perhaps  events  may  show  that  had  President  Wilson 
said  "  have  done  their  worst  to  make  it  helpless  and 
contemptible  "  he  might  have  been  nearer  the  mark. 
When  the  American  constitution  wasdrawn  up  nothing 
was  further  from  the  minds  of  the  sturdy  men  that  framed 
it,  than  that  the  thirteen  colonics,  now  an  autonomous 
nation,  could  ever  be  called  upon  to  act  in  a  world  crisis 
at  all.  or  in  any  crisis  except  after  the  leisurely  preliminaries 
that,  in  those  days  always  preceded  war.  The  power 
to  declare  war,  therefore,  was  left  with  Congress,  and 
it  was  only  after  such  a  declaration  that  the  executive 
— and  absolutely  dictatorial — powers  of  the  nation  at  war 
were  vested  in  the  President.  No  provision  was  made 
to  provide  the  President  with  powers  necessary  for 
organising  the  immediate  defence  of  national  interests, 
were  they  to  be  assailed  suddenly  and  Avdthout  warning. 
These  powers  are  undoubtedly  inherent  in  the  oflice 
and  it  was  on  a  legal  principle — sains  populi  stimma 
lex — that  the  greatest  of  Dr.  Wilson's  predecessors  acted 
when  the  Southern  States  sec(«led.  His  action,  as 
Lord  Bryce  points  out,  made  it  necessary  for  Congress 
to  indemnify  Abraham  Lincoln.  President  Wilson's 
position  is,  however,  different.  For  there  is  a  statute 
still  unrepealed  providing  for  the  arming  of  merchant 
vessels  against  pirates,  but  specifically  excluding  this 
measure  against  the  armed  forces  of  a  frvindli  nation.  Still 
there  would  seem  to  be  several  ways  out  of  the  difficulty. 
Lawyers  are  familiar  with  the  doctrine  that  a  state  of 
war  can  exist  without  war  being  declared.  It  is  difficult 
to  suppose  that  the  supreme  Court  would,  after  the  events 
•  of  the  last  fortnight  and  the  revelations  of  Zimmermann's 
and  Bernstorff's  efforts  to  draw  Mexico  and  Japan  into  a 
hostile  alliance  against  their  country,  hold  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Kaiser  to  be  in  "  friendly  "  relations  with  the 
United  States.  Indeed,  the  action  of  the  thirteen 
Senators  may  prove  to  be  a  blessing  in  disguise.  It  may 
not  be  long  before  it  is  realized  that  they  have  failed 
in  making  the  "  great  Government  of  the  United  States 
helpless  "  and  have  only  succeeded  in  making  themselves 
"  contemptible." 


Sir  Edward  Carson's  Analysis   of  .the 
Submarine  Campaign 


6 


Of  the  speech  of  tlie  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  the 
most  important  part  was,  naturally  enough,  the  infor- 
mation he  gave  on  the  two  most  \ital  aspects  of  the 
submarine  campaign — namely,  exact  details  as .  to  the' 
number  of  ships  attacked  and  sunk,  the  ratio  these  bear, 
to  the  total  number  entering  and  leaving  our  ports,  tW 
ratios  of  armed  and  unarmed  ships  that  escaped  sub- 
marines when  they  were  encountered,  and  the  rate  at 
which  the  navy  and  the  armed  merchantmen  are  bringing 
the  submarines  to  action.  His  speech  dealt  with  the 
period  February  i — i8th,  and  since  then  ooe  weekly  state- 
ment, giving  arrivals,  sailings,  losses  of  ships  over  and 
under  1,600  tons  and  of  fishing  vessels,  and  the  numbers 
of  ships  unsuccessfully  attacked  by  submarines,  has 
been  published.  This  return,  so  far  as  it  states  Ipsses, 
mentions  British  ships  only,  that  is  to  say  Allied  and 
neutral  vessels  are  not  included.  According  to  this 
return  the  rate  of  loss  to  February  25th  was  about  the 
same  as  during  the  first  18  days  of  the  month.  The 
deductions  drawn  from  the  e\'ents  of  the  period'  that  the 
First  Lord  analysed  in  full  remain,  therefore,  in  all 
probabihty  true  of  the  succeeding  week. 

From  the  statement  itself  we  learn  that  out  of  12,000 
ships  entering  or  leaving  the  war  zone  in  18  days,  134 
or  I.I  per  cent,  were  last.  The  proportion  purely 
British  losses  bore  to  the  total  entrances  and  clearances 
was  .42  per  cent.  The  net  British  loss  in  this  period 
was  47  steamers  of  over  1,000  tons  displacement,  and 
they  aggregated  just  under  170,000  tons  in  all.  Lord 
Curzon  has  recently  told  us  that  43  per  cent,  of  the 
merchant  tonnage  available  for  trade  before  the  war,  is 
still  available  for  the  general  needs  of  the  civil  population 
of  these  islands.  Mr.  Hammond,  in  his  recent  address 
to  the  Liverpool  and  District  Bankers  Institute,  put  the 
pre-war  total  at  29,000,000.  The  present  tonnage  for 
civilian  supply  is  therefore  roughly  12,500,000.  The 
present  rate  of  destruction  is  at  the  rate  of  250,000  per 
month,  or  3,000,000  tons  per  annum.  If  then  we  are 
neither  (i)  able  to  replace  our  losses  nor  yet  (2)  to  improve 
our  means  of  defending  ships,  nor,  what  is  far  more 
important  still,  (3)  add  to  and  improve  our  methods  of 
attacking  submarines,  we  shall,  by  March  ist,  iq'iS, 
have  to  rely  upon  9,500,000  tons  of  shipping  instead  of 
upon  our  present  quantity.  The  loss,  that  is  to  sa}',  is 
at  the  rate  of  25  per  cent,  per  annum.  But  this  is  a 
statement  which  must  be  qualified  in  several  directions. 
In  the  first  place,  if  we  are  unable  to  replace  our  losses, 
then  there  must  be  a  steady  diminution  in  the  number 
of  targets,  so  that  a  loss  of  2  per  cent,  per  month  instead 
.  of  aggregating  3,000,000  tons,  would  come  out  at  approxi- 
mately half  a  uiillion  less.  But  I  see  little  consolation 
in  this  figure,  for  it  is  sincerely  to  be  hoped  that,  instead 
of  allowing  the  number  of  targets  to  diminish,  our  ship- 
building efforts  will  add  to  it  materially.  If  then  our 
losses  are  to  be  mitigated,  we  must  look  to  the  other  two 
measures,  the  defence  of  ships  and  the  attack  on  the 
pirates. 

Of  the  self-defence  of  ships  Sir  Edward  Carson  gave 
an  illuminative  piece  of  information.     74  or  75  per  cent, 
of   armed   merchantmen   beat   off   or   survived   attack, 
compared  with  only  25  per' cent,  of  the  unarmed.     Now 
the  disproportion  used  to  be  much  greater.     It  seems 
'unquestionable  then  that  the  transition  from  the  policy 
'of  warning  ships  before  sinking  them,  to  that  of  sinking 
•at  sight,  has  made  a  very  material  difference,  not  indeed 
to  the  value  of  arming  ships,  but  to  its  relative  vaiwe. 
'For  observe,  if  25  per  cent,   of  unarmed  ships  escape 
'submarine  attack,  25  percent,  of  the  armed  ships  tiiat 
J  escape  will  probably  not  owe  their  escape  to  their  arma- 
-'ment.   1  Out    of   every   hundred    armed    ships   that    get 
laway  theh,  little  more  than  half  can  owe  it  to  their 
'guns.     The  First  Lord  did  not  say  whether  these  pro- 
portions were,  taken  over  the  whole  period  of  submarine 
war,  or  only  over  the  period  with  which  he  was  dealing. 
If  over  the  whole  period,  we  must  expect  the  ratio  of 
successful  e\-asion,  in  the  two  classes  of  ships,  to  apprpxi- 
mate  still  more  closely.     In  other  words,  the  arming  of 
merchantmen,  though  still  multiplying  the  ship's  chances 
of  safety  very  considerably,  will  not  multiply  thein   by 
six  or  se\cn  as  wasi  at  one  time  the  case,. nor  by  three  as 
would  appear  from; the  First  Lord's  figures,  nor ^  yet 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  1917 


even  by  the  little  over  two,  as  seems  actually  to  be  the 
case  to-day.  I  have  often  considered  whether,  according 
to  what  seemed  to  be  the  principles  of  na\'al  science,  it 
was  sound  policy  to  put  guns  into  merchant  ships,  if 
by  doing  so  we  in  any  way  Umited  our  capacity  for 
organised  and  systematic  attack  on  the  forces  that  were 
hunting  them.  "Speaking  broadly,  to  take  guns  out  of  a 
warsliip  and  put  them  into  several  merchant  ships  would 
look  like  the  heresy  of  dispersal.  True  dogma  would 
seem  to  lie  in  a  concentration  of  force.  But  this  is  not 
the  kind  of  question  in  which  theory  is  altogether  a 
safe  guide.  [For  if  by  "  concentrating  force  "  you  under- 
stand the  putting  of  many  guns  into  one  ship,  then, 
against  submarines,  little  would  seem  to  be  gained  by  so 
doing,  because,  if  skilfully  handled,  one  gun  tnighi  be  as 
effective  as  many,  and,  given  adequate  crews  and  train- 
ing, the  arming  of  merchantmen,  so  long  as  they  are  in 
the  danger  zone,  is  equivalent  to  the  multiplication  of 
your  anti-submarine  forces— for  the  hunting  of  sub- 
marines, like  most  other  forms  of  fishing,  depends  for 
its  success  largely  upon  the  employment  of  the  right 
bait.  A  merchantman  capable  of  destroying  a  sub- 
marine acts  both  as  lure  and  as  destroyer.  Still  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  shifting  over  of  these  proportions 
throws  new  light  upon  the  problem 

The  Gounter-Attack 

But  by  far  the  most  interesting  Ught  on  the  whole 
campaign  was  the  figures  Sir  Edward  Carson  gave 
of  the  progress  of  our  attack  on  the  submarines.  In  the 
first  18  days  of  February  there  were  more  than  two 
encounters  a  day  between  armed  merchantmen,  trans- 
ports, destroyers,  patrols,  aircraft— and  the  "  hidden  " 
enemy.  The  First  Lord  was  gi\'ing  his  reason  for  pub- 
hshing  no, estimate  of  the  number  of  submarines  de- 
stroyed and,  to  show  the  difficulty  of  making  an  estimate, 
he  picked  out  from  these  40  encounters  nine  repre- 
sentative of  the  different  stages  of  probability  that 
attached  to  each  report.  Of  these  nine,  the  first  was  an 
absolute  certainty,  the  second  a  virtual  certainty,  and 
the  probability  that  two  submarines  were  sunk  in  the 
third  seemed  very  highly  probable  indeed.  Of  the 
fourth,  fifth,  sixth  and  seventh  there  were  possibilities, 
and  perhaps  high  possibilities,  but  no  evidence  of  cer- 
tainty. The  eighth  and  ninth  were  cases  in  which  an 
airship  and  an  aeroplane  had  dropped  bombs  on  the 
spot  where  the  submarine  had  been  seen.  It  seems 
almost  unreasonable  to  suppose  that,  out  of  these  nine 
cases  referring  to  ten  boats,  less  than  four  were  certainties. 
And  if  the  cases  were  representative  that  would  give  16 
for  the  first  18  days  of  February.  It  is  liighly  improbable 
that  Germany  can  be  building  submarines  at  a  greater 
rate  than  eight  or  nine  in  this  period,  so  that  if  only  half 
of  the  "  highly  probables  "  are  certainties,  submarines 
are  being  destroyed  at  least  as  fast  as  they  can  be  built. 
Now  this  is  extremely  cheering,  and  for  two  reasons. 


The  40  encoimters  of  whicli  we  were  told,  did  not  include 
a  single  case  of  submarines  either  running  upon  mines 
or  being  Avrecked  by  the  ordinary  hazard  of  the  sea. 
And  it  is  quite  imp6ssible  to  suppose  that  our  mining 
activities  have  not  yet  reached  the  stage  when,  at  least 
sometimes,  an  underwater  boat  is  not  caught  by  our 
fields.  And  if  that  stage  has  not  been  reached  it  certainly 
soon  must  be.  So  that  in  the  mine  we  have  a  means  of 
keeping  our  waters  freer  of  the  pirates,  not  alluded  to 
in  the  First  Lord's  statement,  still  no  doubt  largely 
undeveloped,  but  obviously  capable  of  an  indefinite 
increase  both  of  extension  and  of  efficiency.  But  the 
extension  of  our  means  of  attack  is  not  hmited  to  in- 
creasing our  mine  fields.  Patrol  boats,  faster  and  more 
seaworthy  than  submarines,  armed  with  sufficient  force 
to  sink  almost  at  sight,  and  far  better  equipped  with  the 
means  of  detecting  the  submarine's  presence,  and  of 
communicating  with  consorts  for  combined  operations, 
can  clearly  be  built  much  moi-e  cheaply  and  far  more 
quickly  than  can  submarines.  It  is  not  then  to  the 
mine  only  that  we  have  to  look  for  redoubling  the  perils 
of  the  sea  to  this  redoubtable  enemy.  It  seems  to  stand 
to  reason  that  our  force  along  both  lines  must  grow,  and 
if  at  a  minimum  to-day  we  can  counteract  the  enemy's 
efforts  to  add  to  his  submarine  strength,  we  must  soon, 
and  increasingly  in  the  future,  bring  about  a  marked 
reduction  of  his  force.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  point  out 
that  from  such  a  reduction  a  diminution  of  our  losses 
niust  ensue. 

Two  final  points  of  great  interest  are  these.  If  wc 
include  sailing  vessels,  trawlers  and  the  small  fry  of  the 
sea  there  are  134  vessels  of  all  kinds  sunk  in  the  period 
reviewed  by  the  First  Lord.  Of  the  small  craft  only  ci 
very  small  proportion  would  escape,  so  that  perhaps  wc 
shall  not  be  far  wrong  in  supposing  that  certainly  not 
more  than  160  attempts  were  made,  and  of  these  a  high 
proportion  must  have  been  attacks  from  below  the  surface 
and  without  warning.  If  these  numbered  40,  or  a 
quarter  of  the  total,  it  would  mean  that  there  were  120 
surface  attacks  made  by  submarines  and  40  surface 
attacks  made  on  submarines.  It  is  surely  very  significant 
that,  on  one  in  four  of  the  occasions  when  the  submarine 
comes  to  the  surface  to  do  its  work,  it  is  exposed  to  the 
risk  of  gunfire,  of  the  ram,  or  of  the  bomb.  It  certainly 
gives  one  a  vivid  idea  of  the  ubiquity  and  the  vigilance  of 
our  offensive,  and  we  are  to  remember  that  it  is  a  growing 
offensive,  growing  in  numbers  and  in  efficiency.  How 
long  will  the  moral  of  the  U  boat  crews  and  of  the  cap- 
tains keep  at  the  necessary  level  for  effect  under  this 
strain  ? 

Lastly,  these  statistics  of  attack  should  give  pause  to 
those  who  maintain  that  the  submarine  is  destined  to 
drive  the  surface  ship  off .  the  sda  on  account  of  its 
invisibUity.  They  are  a  final  proof  that,  to  be  efficient 
the  submarine  must  do  the  bulk  of  its  w'ork  as  a  surface 
ship.  Its  invisibility  then  is  an  advantage  that  'has 
clear  limits.  Arthur  Pollen 


On  the  Tigris 

By  J.  A.  Higgs- Walker 


This  vivid  sketch  of  life  on  the  Tigris  refers  to  events 
which  happened  in  Mesopotamia  about  twelve  mo7tths  ago. 

ALONG  day — a  day  of  interminable,  relentless 
heat,  of  choking  dust,  of  seemingly  endless  toil ; 
in  retrospect,  a  memory  of  parched  mouth, 
.empty  water-bottle,  chattering,  stupid  native 
drivers,  frightened  excited  mules.  The  long  march 
from  "  the  camp  of  the  Liquorice  Factory  "  in  the  early 
morning,  the  dusty,  congested  road — a  road  hastily 
constriicted  some  weeks  pre\aously,  its  surface  already 
ground  into  a  grey-white  powder,  lying  some  inches  deep. 
The  weary  waiting  on  the  bund.  The  endless  chain  of 
cooUe  stevedores,  piling  higher  and  higher  boxes  of 
ammunition,  bales  and  bags  of  fodder,  cases  of  rations. 
And  all  this  under  an  utterly  inexorable  sun — at  present 
only  the  sun  of  the  early  Mesopotamian  spring,  yet 
exhausting  enough  in  its  intensity  ;  but  merely  a  fore- 
taste of  the  fevered  days  when  men  would  rise  up  wearily 
after  suffocating  nights  and  curse  the  first  rays  of  dawn. 


To  those  who  have  spent  all  their  days  in  England,  the  , 
words  "  sun "  and  "  heat,"  can  have  only  a  verbal 
significance ;  they  are  figures  of  speech,  and  nothing 
more ;  occasional  slight  discomfort  to  the  city  dweller, 
a  much  prayed-for  blessing  to  the  farmer,  an  exceptional 
asset  at  a  garden-party  or  fete.  But  the  summer  sun 
of  Mesopotamia  is  a  deadly,  implacable  enemy,  destroying 
by  its  force,  maddening  in  its  monotony.  A  man  may 
achieve  perfect  recovery  from  fever ;  but  when  the  sun 
strikes,  his  stroke  is  swift  and  sure,  from  which  there 
is  no  escape.  Such  is  the  summer.  And  Evirope  knows 
no  so-called  "  heat  wave,"  to  equal  the  heat  of  the 
Mesopotamian  spring. 

Under  the  sun  the  bund  is  busy  right  up  to  the  very 
moment  of  the  river-transport's  arrival — by  which  time 
the  stores  are  piled  in  enormous  dumps.  There  are 
three  companies  of  British  infantry  lying  exhausted 
and  dusty  in  the  inadequate  shade  of  a  few  palm-trees, 
and  a  few  dozen  mules  and  horses  are  standing  about 
(stoically  in  the  case  of  the  one,  irritably  in  the  case  of 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


I 


the  other)  trying  to  whisk  away  the  tormenting  flies. 
The  arrival  of  the  river  transport  Bint-el- Allah,  squat, 
low  in  the  water,  flat-bottomed,  blunt-bowed,  broad  in 
the  beam,  with  her  grotesquely  long  funnel,  and  her  big 
stern  wheel,  is  the  signal  for  increased  activity  on  the 
bimd,  a  dust-raising  bustle,  a  seemingly  indescribable 
chaos  of  hurrying  men  and  animals.  But  the  confusion 
is  more  apparent  than  real.  It  is  the  embarkation  of 
the  last  echelon  required  to  complete  the  force  which 
is  striving  to  effect  the  rehef  of  starving  Kut. 

In  the  Garden  of  Eden 

The  military  landing  officers  know  their  work.  Their 
experience  has  been  gained  hastily  in  this  improvised 
dock-yard  ;  but  experience  in  the  garden  of  Eden  is 
(as  Adam  learnt)  gained  in  the  sweat  of  the  face.  It  cannot 
be  easily  forgotten  or  ignored.  And  some  of  the  men 
responsible  for  landing  and  for  loading  these  hastily 
gathered  units,  were  themselves  with  Townshend  on  that 
achievement  of  giants,  the  retreat  from  Ctesiphon  to 
Kut,  and  they  know  (as  few  others  can  know)  that  the 
toils  of  the  day  in  Basra  are  as  nothing  compared  to  the 
sufferings  of  the  sick  and  famished  legion  in  Kut.  ■  They 
realize  the  need  for  speed— the  highest  possible  speed 
and  efliciency  in  spite  of  sun,  thirst,  dust,  and  above  all, 
of  the  currents  and  vagaries  of  a  mighty  river  in  flood. 

Once  the  gangs  and  working  parties  of  men,  and  the 
relays  of  animals  are  organised,  the  business  in  hand  is 
not  too  compHcated.  It  is  not  difficult  to  allot  places 
for  men  and  stores,  and  officers.  On  a  seven  days' 
journey  up  the  Tigris,  there  is  little  to  choose  between 
the  confined  space  allowed  to  each  man  or  ofticer,  either 
on  the  deck  of  the  boat,  or  on  the  top  of  a  pile  of  stores 
on  one  of  the  barges.  You  are  in  any  case,  at  this  time 
of  the  year,  bound  to  be  much  too  cold  by  night  and 
much  too  hot  by  day.  On  a  second  barge,  the  only 
thing  to  be  considered,  is  to  squeeze  each  riiule  or  horse 
intoUie  smallest  possible  space.  Head  to  head  they  are  tied 
to  a  rope  running  from  stem  to  stern  ;  and  those  which  show 
•any  sign  of  objecting  to  these  conditions,  or  of  trying  to 
cheat  their  neighbours  of  a  little  room,  soon  find  themselves 
securely  heel-rooped  to  stanchions  on  the  gunwale  of  the 
barge.  Ihe  pack-saddles  are  piled  high  in  the  bows. 
The  native  drivers  are  packed  like  sardines  in  the  stern  : 
doubtless  it  is  their  fate  ;  they  squat  there  resignedly 
enough,  and  soon  the  smell  of  their  cooking  is"  borne 
upwards  to  meet,  as  it  has  done  day  after  day  since  the 
beginning  of  things,  the  rapidly  descending,  evanescent 
twilight  of  the  East. 

The  weary  Tommies  stretch  themselves  out  (those 
who  have  room  to  do  so),  exhausted,  caked  with  mingled 
dust  and  sweat,  far  too  tired  and  worn  out  (save  for  one 
or  two  supermen  among  them),  to  sit  up  and  wrestle 
with  the  eternal  bully  beef  or  the  impregnable  biscuit. 

Suddenly  those  who  are  dropping  off  to  sleep,  not 
caring  when  the  boat  is  going  or  whither  it  is  carrying 
them,  are  rudely  awakened  by  a  heavy  shower  of  boiling 
water  from  the  siren  which  is  beginning  a  querulous, 
convulsive  hooting.  The  Bint-el-Allah  drifts  slowly 
away  from  the  bund  and  works  herself  into  position  to 
receive  the  two  barges,  which  are  finally  made  fast  to 
port  and  starboard  of  her.  Shouts  of  "  Good  Luck  !  " 
from  the  few  British  on  shore  ;  a  yell  from  one  of  the  men 
on  board  to  an  Arab  woman  on  the  bank  to  the  effect 
that  he  will  "  send  'er  a  pictm-e  postcard  when  he  gets 
there,"  and  the  huge  stern  wheel  begins  to  thresh  cum- 
brously  against  the  heavy  stream.  Not  one  of  the 
animals  in  all  probabiUty  will  ever  see  Basra  again.  The 
tired  and  suffering  eyes  of  sick  and  wounded  men  will 
look  longingly  for  the  first  glimpses  of  its  palm  trees 
and  mud  houses,  when  the  time  comes  for  the  hospital 
boats  to  float  down  with  the  current,  carrjdng  their 
cargo  of  pain. 

The  river  boat  churns  and  throbs  perseveringly  up  the 
river  for  some  miles.  The  Shatt-el-Arab,  "  the  river 
of  the  Arabs,"  the  offspring  of  the  united  Tigris  and 
Euphrates,  flows  in  this  part  of  Lower  Mesopotamia 
in  a  powerful,  steady  stream,  so  strong  that  it  reduces  the 
progress  of  the  up-stream  boat  to  a  matter  of  a  very  few 
knots  per  hour  ;  but  at  the  same  time  free  from,  the  mill- 
race  currents,  the  nanrow  bends,  and  the  tortuous  shifting 
channels    of  its  parent  rivers  in  their  upper  reaches. 


Nevertheless,  complete  darkness  comes  so  rapidly  and 
so  soon  that  even  the  Arab  pilot  finds  navigation  during 
the  night  an  impossibiUty,  and  the  Bint-el-Allah  is  there- 
fore moored  securely  beneath  the  giant  palm-trees 
\\'luch  hedge  in  either  bank.  Sentries  are  posted  on  the 
outside  barge  and  on  shore  among  the  palms.  For  the 
Arabs  of  town  and  village  alike  are  possessed  of  a  spirit 
of  what  may  best  be  described  as"  malicious neutrahty." 
They  loved  not  in  his  day  the  Turkish  pasha  ;  but  they 
do  not  welcome  in  any  spirit  of  faithful,  openhearted 
loyalty,  the  Enghsh  who  have  come  to  dehver  theni  from 
his  yoke.  The  lean  brown  villagers  are  all  smiles  as 
they  troop  down  in  the  daytime  to  sell  eggs  and  cliitpkens 
to  the  passing  boat.  But  at  night  they  arc  apt  to  fire 
upon  it,  shooting  mischievously  and  at  a  venture  ;  or 
to  swim  noiselessly  up  and  come  aboard,  knives  between 
their  teeth,  robbery  (if  necessary,  with  murder),  in  their 
hearts.  And  who,  though,  knowing  these  things  and 
guarding  against  them  shall  utterly  execrate  the  Arab  ? 
After  all,  he  is  the  son  of  Ishmael,  and  centuries  of 
Ottoman  rule  have  not  predisposed  him  to  any  over- 
restraining  respect  for  order,  law  or  life, 

Cold  Dawn 

It  is  approaching  dawn  on  the  fourth  day.  The  weary 
sentry  yawns — his  face  drawn  and  grey  in  the  pallid 
half-Ught.  He  shivers.  It  is  very  cold  ;  the  first  break 
of  dawn  is  chill  and  bitter  :  he  is  soaked  through  and 
through  ;  a  night  of  thunder  and  torrential  icy  rain 
succeeded  to  the  sultry  heat  of  yesterday.  His 
comrades  lie  all  around  him,  sleeping  on  their  soaked 
blankets,  in  their  drenched  clothes.  He  wonders  why 
this  has  been  called  "  the  hottest  spot  on  earth,"  not 
realising  that  if  he  lives  he  will  know,  to  his  sorrow, 
nights  that  are  hotter  than  the  day;  He  reflects  gloomily 
that  the  firewood  piled  in  the  bows  will  probably  be  too 
damp  to  provide  him  with  hot  tea.  But  then,  what  is  the 
good  of  worrying  or  thinking  about  that  ?  What,  in 
fact,  is  the  good  of  thinking  at  all  ?  He  won't  be  relieved 
till  six  o'clock,  and  it  is  not  yet  five.  So  he  resigns  him- 
self to  watching  apathetically  for  another  hour  the 
featureless  landscape  of  the  opposite  bank,  and  the 
brown  water  swirling  past  just  below  him. 

On  the  land,  he  sees  nothing  but  a  narrow  strip  of 
pasture  ;  ground  fertilised  as  far  as  the  river  water  has 
managed  to  percolate  through  and  no  farther.  Beyond 
it,  he  knows,  were  the  light  not  so  dim,  he  would  see 
nothing  but  bare  sandy  earth  and  stones,  and  the  eternal 
camel-scrub.  And  beyond  that,  more  sandy  earth,  and 
more  camel-scrub,  and  so  on  for  hundreds  of  miles,  with 
a  monotony  the  thought  of  which  appals  the  mind. 
And  a  man  looking  at  the  river  would  naturally  say  : 
"  This  river  starts  hundreds  of  miles  away  up  there, 
beyond  Kut,  Ctesiphon  and  Bagdad.  All  the  way  it 
flows  through  just  such  country  as  this  ;  and  it  goes  on 
past  me  for  three  hundred  miles  to  the  sea."  To  the 
ordinary  human  being,  with  the  human  being's  finite 
longings  and  despairs,  such  immensity  of  distance  is 
horrible  rather  than  grand — for  England  is  six  thousand 
miles  away. 

With  the  approach  of  sunrise,  the  colours  of  the  dawn 
change  from  silver  to  gold,  and  from  gold  to  faded  rose. 
Away  round  the  bend  ofHhe  river  can  now  be  seen  the 
mud-tower  of  a  fortified  village,  fit  symbol  of  the  per- 
pel/ual  internecine  strife  which  is  the  heritage  of  Ishmael ; 
beyond  it,  the  great  white  sail  of  a  mahala  (one  of  those 
Norse-like  merchantmen  of  the  Mahomedan  world) 
bearing  swiftly  down  the  stream. 

On  the  steamboat  and  the  barge,  the  whinnying, 
braj^ng,  and  stamping  of  hungry  animals  ;  the  hoot  of 
the  siren,  as  the  Arab  pilot  steers  for  mid-stream.  In  the 
stern  of  one  barge  the  shivering  native  drivers  squatting 
enveloped  in  blankets,  with  scarce  anything  showing 
save  hands  and  eyes,  busy  themselves  with  the  pre- 
paration of  that  staple  article  of  Indian  diet,  the  pancake- 
like chapatti.  Elsewhere,  a  general  awakening — some 
cursing,  others  inordinately  cheerful ;  but  all  welcoming 
the  early  rays  of  the  sun,  yet  all  knowing  full  well  that 
a  few  hours  later  they  will  be  longing  fervently  for  shade. 

"  For  thei'e  is  no  remembrance  of  former  things ; 
neither  shall  there  be  any  remembrance  of  things  that 
are  to  come  with  those  that  shall  come  aftcr=" 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  1917 


Will   Switzerland  be   Invaded  ?— II 

By  Colonel   Feyler 


Two  weeks  ago  Colonel  Feyler,  the  eminent  Swiss 
military  writer,  began  the  consideration  of  the  possibility 
of  Germany  trying  to  strike  France  and  Italy  through 
Switzerland.  The  point  he  made  was  that  Germany  , 
to  succeed  would  have  to  solve  the  problem  of  success 
twice  over — on  the  Rhine  and  behind  the  Jura. 

IT  is  interesting  to  examine  this  point  more  narrowly. 
People  who  believe  in  a  German  offensive  in 
Switzerland  like  to  suppose  that  it  would  be  con- 
fined to  the  region  bounding  Belfort  on  the  south. 
It  would  be  a  question  of  turning  Belfort  and  so  the 
fortified  rampart  of  Eastern  France. 

In  order  to  confine  the  operations  within  those  limits, 
the  Swiss  Army  must  be  eliminated,  and  I  think  I  know 
what  I  am  saying  when  I  declare  that  it  is  a  complete 
delusion  that  this  can  be  done. 

I  shall  refrain  from  all  patriotic  futilities,  and  shall 
deal  with  the  Swiss  army  like  any  other.  I  shall 
therefore  estimate  the  Swiss  army  as  I  should  estimate 
any  other,  but  I  admit  that  it  is  diflicult  to  judge  from 
times  of  peace  what  an  army  is  capable  of  doing  in  war. 
In  the  lowest  possible  terms  of  appreciation,  if  it  is  simply 
a  question  of  asking  the  Swiss  army  to  see  it  through, 
it  w-ould  do  so  thoroughly.  I  do  not  mean  that  the 
Swiss  are  more  patriotic  orheroic  than  any  other  nation  ; 
it  is  always  absurd  to  pretend  to  have  a  monopoly  of  the 
greatest  patriotism,  and  one  cannot  see  who  could  surpass 
the  present  European  belligerents  in  that  respect.  So 
I  will  say  no  more  than  that  the  Swiss  soldiers  would  have 
the  desire  and  I  believe  the  wUl  to  do  equally  well. 

So  it  cannot  be  merely  a  question  for  the  Germans  of 
turning  Belfort  from  the  south.  The  army  .detached  for 
the  purpose  of  that  operation  would  have  the  Swiss  army 
on  its  left  flank  and  in  its  rear  ;  and  although  that  army 
might  not  be  a  very  powerful  one,  a  quarter  of  a  million 
men  in  the  first  line  none  the  less  represent  a  factor 
which  a  general  cannot  disregard.  Thus  an  invasion 
would  be  necessary  embracing  the  entire  front  of  the 
Swiss  Rhine,  that  is  to  say  the  area  from  Lake  Constance 
to  Basle,  and  the  occupation  of  the  Swiss  plateau  between 
the  Rhine  and  the  Alps  in  order  to  seize  the  passes  of 
the  southern  Jura  in  case  of  a  march  on  France,  or  the 
passes  of  the  Alps,  in  case  of  a  march  against  Italy. 

Let  us  suppose  that  this  operation  were  successful  at 
the  outset,  and  that  before  a  massed  attack  like  that  of 
which  Belgium  was  the  victim,  the  Swiss  army,  left  at 
first  to  its  own  resources,  were  obliged  to  execute  a  fighting 
retreat,  what  would  happen  then  ?  Switzerland  becom- 
ing a  theatre  of  war,  her  territory  would  inevitably  enter 
into  the  combinations  of  strategy.  A  German  army 
aiming  at  the  Jura  passes-  would  not  only  have  to  fight 
upon  dix  extremely  inconvenient  terrain,  defended'  by 
troops  who  know  every  inch  of  it  thoroughly,  but  it 
would  have  Italy  upon  its  left  flank  ;  or  if  it  preferred 
to  aim  at  the  passes  of  the  Alps  and  the  south,  it  would 
have  the  French  and  British  on  its  right  flank.  In  both 
alternatives  the  communications  between  the  Italians 
and  the  Franco-British  forces  would  be  easily  maintained 
through  the  Rhone  valley  and  the  Simplon. 

One  sees  how  the  operation  would  gradually  inci'ease 
in  magnitude.  It  would  no  longer  be  merely  a  question 
of  crumpling  up  the  army  of  a  secondary  Power  in  a  few 
days,  but  bringing  an  immense  strategical  enterprise 
to  a  successful  conclusion,  with  the  conflit't  extended 
along  a  new  front  of  some  150  miles,  following  the  T  square 
ridge  of  the  Jura  and  of  the  Alps  from  Basle  to  Tyrol, 
and  with  a  reinforcement  from  the  Allies  of  an  army  of 
250,000  men  with  reserves  behind  it.  The  Germans 
would  require  to  have  an  offenive  army  on  one  branch  of 
the  ridge  and  a  detachment  of  an  army  of  defence  on  the 
other  :   altogether  a  respectable  number  of  divisions. 

To  conclude,  from  a  military'  point  of  \iew  the  opera- 
tion would  mean  for  the  Germans  an  extremely  problem- 
atical advantage  purchased  by  absolutely  certain  risks. 

The  exclusively  military  point  of  \iew  is  not  the  only 
one  from  which  it  is  well  to  estimate  the  probability  of 


this   plan.     It   can  be  maintained  that   politically  and 
morally  it  would  be  still  more  disastrous  to  Germany. 

People  cite  the  case  of  the  invasion  of  Belgium  'to 
justify  their  expectation  of  an  invasion  of  Switzerland. 
It  seems  to  me  that  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  main- 
tain the  contrary  theory.  It  is  easy  to  gather  from 
the  German  notes  and  from  the  speeches  of  von  Beth- 
mann-HoUweg,  that  the  \'iolation  of  Belgium  is  felt  to-day 
to  be  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  Germany.  The  enormity  of 
the  offence  is  clearly  recognised.  That  is  proved  by 
the  infinite  pains  taken  by  the  Imperial.  Government  to 
excuse  it  by  insisting  in  the  face  of  everything  tjiiit 
Belgium  began  the  quarrel,  and  that  the  lamb  wanted 
to  dev'our  the  wolf. 

Last  year  L.\nd  &  Watek  published  my  articles  on 
"  The  German  Blunder."  The  conclusion  I  arrived  at 
was  that  the  invasion  of  Belgium  was  probably  a  strategic 
blunder  and  certainly  a  political  one,  and  that  the 
seriousness  of  the  moral  blunder  would  be  declared  on 
the  day  when  the  guns  became  powerless  to  conceal  it 
by  success.  It  looks  very  much  as  if  that  day  had 
arrived,  and  it  has  no  glory  about  it.  The  last  German 
Notes  admit  as  much.  After  three  years  of  all  manner  of 
tergiversation  folldwing  the  fluctuating  chances  of  war, 
the  Imperial  Government  reverts  to  its  vague  promise 
to  evacuate  Belgium  subject  to  precautions  for  her  own 
safeguarding  against  her. 

But  her  obstinacy  in  accusing  Belgium  of  being  the 
cause  of  her  own  misfortunes  is  also  an  undeniable  proof 
of  her  uneasy  conscience.  And  it  is  a  highly  instructive 
psychological  fact  to  find  so  many  people  in  Ciermany 
to-day  who  believe  absolutely  firmly — because  their 
government  has  dex'oted  so  much  attention  to  the 
interesting  legend — that  it  was  the  Belgian  army  that 
attacked.  To  such  a  pass  can  men  of  brains  come  who, 
intelligent  enough  in  other  respects,  feel  the  reprobation 
of  honest  men  lie  heavy  on  their  nation. 

A  blunder  such  as  this  a  powerful  and  ambitious  Empire 
that  scorns  justice  only  commits  when  it  believ'cs  itself 
sure  of  victory.  History  has  no  lack  of  instances  of 
shameful  things  ratified  by  the  event  and  by  the  kind 
oblivion  of  Time.  But  the  Empire  whose  only  guide  is 
self-interest  thinks  twice  before  repeating  the  blunder 
when  there  is  a  chance  of  its  being  brought  to 
account  for  it.  The  German  Notes .  to-day  proclaim 
the  theory  of  the  rights  of  nations  !  German  soldiers 
protest  their  desire  to  protect  them  !  Apparently  the 
Imperial  Government  think  this  new  attitude  is  good 
for  its  own  interests.  Is  it  likely  to  contradict  it  by 
repeating  in  Switzerland  the  mistake  committed  in 
Belgium,  with  greater  risk  and  less  profit  ? 

And  why  should  it  ?  Have  the  Central  Empires 
any  need  to  add  Switzerland  to  the  number  of  their 
enemies  and  by  military  occupation  gain  hegemony 
over  her  when  their  victory  over  the  AlHes  would  give 
them  that  without  further  fighting  ?  To  take  possession 
of  Belgium— yes ;  because  she  possesses  a  sea-coast 
which  it  is  desirable  to  wrest  from  her  in  anticipation  of 
the  war  of  to-morrow,  which  would  be  the  war  for  the 
crushing  of  Gi-eat  Britain  as  the  war  of  to-day  was  to 
have  been  for  the  crushing  of  France.  But  in  the  case 
of  Switzerland,  military  occupation  could  only  result 
in  losses,  wheteas  Germany  has  everything  to  gain  by 
making  no  addition  to  the  losses  in  store  for  her  after 
the  war,  to  which  she  has  moreo\'er  added  by  her  maladroit 
provocation  of  the  United  States. 

A  German  offensi\c  through  Switzerland,  imdertaken 
deliberately,  is  unlikely ;  it  could  only  be  brought  about 
by  accident.  In  this  respect  there  has  been  no  essential 
change  since  August,  1914.  The  neutrality  of  the  Swiss 
territory  will  continue  to  cover  the  eastern  flank  of  the 
battle  in  the  West,  and  the  Allies,  who  are  winning  the 
supremacy  there,  will  have  nothing  to  lose  thereby. 
Indeed,  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  indifference  to  them 
not  to  have  to  di\ert  to  a  new  front  any  of  the  ^ 
resources  which  they  arc  preparing  with  a  view  to  iheir  j 
efforts  in  1917.  .•...' 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


Italy's   Industrial   Effort 


By   Lewis  R.    Freeman 


A  NYONE   who   has  seen    much    of  the  activities 

/%      of  the   ItaHan    in    the    countries — notably    the 

/  %    United  States  and  Argentina — to  which  he  has 

/       m  pmipratpfT  in  thp  greatest  numbers,  will  not  need 

to  be  told  of  his  aptitude  for  and  his  skill  in  industrial 

labour  ;  but  one  who  has  not  visited  Northern  Italy  in 

the  last  five  years — and  especially  since  the  outbreak 

oi  the  war — will  have  little  conception    of  the  extent 

to  which  these  innate  but  largely  latent  faculties  have 

been  developing  into  an  asset  of  great  present  value  and 

incalculable  future   promise. 

Great  as  have  been  the  things — both  moral  and 
material — that  the  war  has  accomplished  for  France, 
England,  and  most  of  the  other  belligerents,  it  is 
doubtful  if  any  one  of  these  nations  owes,  and  will 
continue  to  owe,  more  to  the  galvanic  quickening 
of  Armageddon  than  Italy.  Engrossed  with  the  war 
itself,.'  few  even  among  the  Italians  themselves  are 
yet  more  than  dimly  conscious  of  the  signiiicance 
of  what  has  already  come  to  pass  within  the  borders  of 
their  covmtry,  just  as  somein  England  have  hardly  begun 
more  than  to  sense  the  fact  that  the  war  has  made  of  that 
of  Britain  an  Empire  in  fact  where  it  was  only  one  in 
name  before.  I  leave  for  those  who  have  given  the 
political  and  socia.1  phases  more  study  than  1  have  to 
write  of  the  way  in  -which  the  war — by  bringing  together 
lier  sons  of  the  Southern  and  Central  and  Northern 
provinces  to  fight  for  a  common  cause  in  such  mraibers 
as  Italians  have  never  fought  before — is  completing  the 
unification  begun  a  half  century  ago,  and  confine  my- 
self to  tracing  briefiy  the  way  in  which  the  war  and 
the  war's  demands  are  awakening  Italy  to  a  dawning 
realisation  of  her  hitherto  unguessed  industrial  poten- 
tialities and  laying  the  foundation  of  a  development  that 
,  bids  fair  to  place  her  in  the  front  rank  of  the  manufac- 
turing nations  of  the  world. 

A  Strong  Man  Just  Beginning 

Italy  to-day  is  like  a  strong  man  just  beginning  to 
become  conscious  of  his  strength.  She  finds  herself 
performing  with  ease  tasks  which  she  has  never,  even  in 
her  wildest  dreams,  pictured  herself  as  capable  of  per- 
forming, and  her  gratification  at  these  achievements  is 
irradiated  by  a  dawning  consciousness  of  the  power 
to  do  still  greater  things  in  the  future.  The  war  has 
revealed  to  Italy  her  unsuspected  reserves  of  power ; 
shown  her  how  these  may  be  utilised  to  staunch  the 
flow  of  emigration  that  has  been  sapping  her  energies 
so  steadily  for  years  ;  shown  her,  in  short,  how,  from 
being  one  of  the  poorest  countries  of  Europe  (with  a 
population  about  equal  to  that  of  France,  Italy's  national 
wealth  is  estimated  at  only  one-fifth  of  France),  she  may 
go  from  strength  to  strength  until,  on  a  per  capita  basis 
at  least,  she  may  rank  amongst  the  richest. 

The  rapid  increase  in  wealtlr  of  France,  Great  Britain, 
Germany,  and  the  United  States  have  been  very  largely 
due  to  modern  industrial  development,  jand  Italy's 
failure  to  keep  pace  with  them  is  due  to  two  very  diverse 
causes — the  lack  of  iron  and  coal,  on  the  one  hand,  and, 
on  the  other,  the  fact  that  her  artisan  and  labouring 
classes,  though  m  many  respects  the  quickest-minded 
and  quickest-handed  workers  in  the  world,  have  been  so 
influenced  by  the  love  of  the  beautiful  inherited  from 
their  Roman  and  Florentine-  and  Venetian  progenitors 
that  they  have  been  reluctant  to  engage  in  the  fab- 
rication of  things  in  which  beauty  was  subordinated  to 
usefulness. 

.  As  a  consequence  Italy;  while  England,  France  and 
Germany  were  amassing  wealth  through  their  industrial 
activities,  had  continued  to  devote  the  best  of  her  energies 
to  art  and  agriculture,  and  because  only  a  limited  num- 
ber of  her  rapidly  increasing  population  could  be  sup- 
ported in  this  way,  an  ever  mounting  number  of  the 
surplus  was  forced  to  cross  the  seas  every  year  to  find 
in  North  or  South  America  the  livelihood  that  the  con- 
ditions in  their  own  country  made  so  difficxilt  for  them. 
The  few  million  lira  that  these  emigrants  sent  back  to  their 


native  land  annually  was  but  an  inconsiderable  fraction 
of  the  direct  loss  occasioned  by  the  fact  that  their  energies  , 
were  being  expended  abroad.  There  were  more  ItaUans 
in  New  York  than  in  Rome  ;  almost  as  many  in  Buenos 
Aires  as  in  Turin  ;  and  it  was  the  United  States  and  Argen- 
tina that  were  benefiting  by  their  effort,  not  tlieir  native 
Italy.  That  country  was  like  a  sound,  healthy  man, 
with  vigorous  heart-action,  who  is  prevented  from  coming 
cO  his  full  strength  through  allowing  his  best  blood  to  be 
transfused  to  quicken  the  life  in  the  bodies  of  others. 

Yet  all  the  wliile  Italy  had  the  remedy  for  her  troubles 
in  her  own  hands,  only  needing  the  initiative  to  apply  it. 
Iron,  indeed,  she  lacked — probably  will  always  be  more 
or  less  short  of — but  the  Alps  and  .the  Appenines  hold 
inexhaustible  supplies  of  "  white  coal " — available 
through  hydro-electric  development — that  could  be  util- 
ised both  more  efficiently  and  more  cheaply  than  the  black 
coal  that  she  ha  d  been  importing  at  such  increased  ex- 
pense and  difiiculty  from  abroad  ;  while  the  centuries  of 
specialised  hand  and  brain-training  behind  her  artisans  and 
artists  gave  her  a  class  with  a  physical  and  mental  equip- 
ment for  modern  indjistrial  achievement  scarcely  equalled 
by  that  of  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  The  fact  that 
in  the  northern  provinces,  where  the  foundations  of  a  great 
industrial  development  were  being  laid  in  the  decade 
j^revious  to  the  war,  emigration  had  already  been  con- 
siderably reduced  as  a  consequence  of  the  remunerative 
employment  provided  at  home  for  the  men  who  must 
otherwise  have  crossed  the  seas  to  find  it,  was  earnest  of 
what  that  same  development  extended  to  other  parts  of  the 
country  might  accompHsh.  The  lesson  was  there  for 
those  to  read  wh6  could,  but  it  needed  the  blaze  of 
Armageddon  to  reveal  it  to  the  eyes  of  even  the  Italians 
themselves.  ' 

Italy  has  done  many  creditable  and  a  number  of  re- 
markable things  in  mobilising  her  resources  in  men  and 
material  for  war,  but  her  one  most  notable  achievement — ■ 
when  the  difficulties  to  be  contended  with  are  considered — 
is  the  response  of  her  industries  to  the  needs  of  what 
has  really  been  a  series  of  more  or  less  unexpected 
emergencies.  Almost  no  one  in  France  or  England 
has  any  conception  of  what  Italy  has  done  in  this  respect ; 
which  is  hardly  surprising  when  one  finds  that  even 
Italian  manufacturers  themselves-^all  of  whom  have  their 
hands  and  minds  full  devising  new  means  of  meeting  new 
demands — hardly  appear  to  understand  how  remarkable 
is  the  work  they  have  done  and  are  continuing  to  do 
with  such  conspicuous  success.  Indeed,  it  was  an  officer 
attached  to  one  of  the  Alhed  military  missions  who  first 
cahed  my  attention  to  the  fine  way  in  which  Italian 
industry  has  risen  to  a  great  occasion.     - 

An  Interview 

"  It  is  quite  absurd,"  he  said,  "  to  speak  of  Italy's 
having  had  the  advantage  of  nearly  a  year's  preparation 
before  she  entered  the  war.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  things 
were  in  such  a  chaos  pohtically  during  all  of  the  nine 
months  in  which  the  Government  was  trying  to  shake 
itself  sufficiently  clear  of  the  shackles  of  German  in- 
trigue to  make  the  plunge,  that  almost  nothing  was  done 
in,  the  way  of  military  preparation.  So  far  as  land  fighting 
was  concerned,  Italy  entered  the  war  less  prepared  than 
was  France,  almost  as  unprepared  as  was  England. 
She  had  the  guns  and  munitions  to  see  her  through  the 
first  sharp  opening  actions,  which  were  carried  out  so 
brilliantly  ;  after  that  she  was  just  about  where  France 
and  England  were  at  the  end  of  September,  1914. 

"  From  the  middle  of  1915,  Italy  has  had  either  to 
manufacture  or  import  practically  everything  with  wliich 
she  had  waged  the  struggle,  and  the  way  in  which  her 
talent  for  organisation,  invention  and  improvisation 
have  enabled  her  to  produce  so  much  and  bring  so  -little 
from  abroad  must  rank  as  one  of  the  finest  achievements 
of  the  war.  France  and  England  came  gallantly  to  her 
aid  during  the  remainder  of  1915  with  such  guns  and 
munitions  as  they  could  spare  and  .transport,  but  long 
before  that  year  had  come  to  an  end  the  Italians  had 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  191 7 


taken  stock  r,i  their  dilViculties  and  were  preparing  to 
meet  them.  Tlie  secjuel  has  been  that,  if  a  balance  were 
to  be  struck  in  May.  1017,  Italy  '^M  have  been  found 
to  have  fought  two  years  of  the  war  with  less  importations 
of  foreign  products,  both  raw  and  manufactured,  than  has 
anv  one  of  the  four  principal  Powers  of  the  Entente.  This 
does  not  mean  that  Italy's  industrial  effort  bulks  any- 
where nearly  so  big  as  that  of  England  or  even  of  France, 
nor  yet  that  her  per  capita  production  of  arms,  munitions 
and  other  war  supplies  is  up  to  that  of  cither  of  her 
great  Allies  ;  btit  it  docs  mean  that  Italy  has  found  the 
material  for  waging  an  increasingly  vigorous  war  on  500 
miles  of  front  without  importing  so  large  a  percentage  of 
her  total  supplies  from  abroad  as  have  France  and  Eng- 
land. The  fact  that  this  was  more  or  less  fortuitous  on 
Italy's  part— that  she  had  to  make  the  bulk  of  her  arms 
and  munitions  or  do  without — does  not  make  the  achieve- 
ment any  the  less  creditable. 

"  France  and  England  had  the  money  to  buy  supplies  in 
America,  as  well  as  the  ships  to  transport  them  in  ;  Italy 
w:is  short. of  b(ith  ships  and  money  from  the  first,  and, 
moreover,  the  sea  route  from  America  to  her  ports  was 
b<-)th  longer  and  more  exposed  to  submarine  attack  than 
those  to  French  and  Enghsh  ports.  In  the  matter  of 
what  was,  for  a  while,  Italy'smost  vital  need— munition- 
making  machinery— she  imported  from  America  the 
merest  fractions  of  that  %sluch  went  to  France  and 
England  simply  because  the  two  latter  countries,  with 
Russia,  had  ncft  only  bought  up  all  in  the  market,  but  had 
also  contracted  for  the  output  two  or  three  years  ahead. 
Very  little  of  this  American  macliinery  has  ever  found  its 
way  into  Italy,  the  engineers  of  which  country  have  had 
either  to  adapt  old  machines  or  make  new  ones. 

"  The  magnitude  of  Italy's  industrial  achievement 
may  best  be  judged  after  first  considering  the  fact  that 
she  started  with'  almost  negligible  munition-making 
facilities,  and  then  noting  the  extent  to  which,  in  the 
face  of  a  consumption  that  is  doubling  and  trebling 
every  few  months,  she  has  not  only  become  independent 
of  import  but  has  even  been  turning  out  in  certain  lines 
a  surplus  to  send  abroad  to  various  of  her  Allies.  In  the 
early  months  of  the  war  France  and  England  had  to  come 
to  Italy's  aid  with  heavy  artillery,  (though  it  was  little 
enough  that  could  be  spared),  with  machine  guns,  and 
with  munitions  of  practically  every  class.  Munition 
macliinery  was,  of  course,  badly  needed,  but  neither  of 
her  nearest  Allies  was  able  to  spare  much  in  this  line 
for  Italy.  For  some  time  now  this  country  has  been 
tm-ningout  all  the  light  artillery  and  machine  guns  she 
has  needed,  and  if  there  has  been  a  comparative  shortage 
of  heavy  guns,  that  is  only  a  difficulty  that  is  shared  by 
every  other  one  of  the  belligerents  on  both  sides.  In  the 
smaller  calibre  of  shells  she  is  also  independent  of  import, 
and  recently,  indeed,  she  has  begun  to  put  a  surplus  at  the 
disposal  of  her  AUies. 

'  •  The  small  arm  problem  Italy  has  had  fairly  well  in 
hand  from  the  first,  and  she  has  been  exporting  these  in 
increasing  quantities  for  some  time.  So,  also,  with 
motor  vehicles  of  all  descriptions.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  Italian  army  is  more  dependent  upon  motor 
transport  than  that  of  any  other  belligerent,  the  country's 
output  of  lorries  lias  not  only  kept  pace  with  the  home 
demand,  but  is  now  so  far  ahead  of  it  that  a  substantial 
stream  of  export  is  being  steadily  maintained.  All  of 
this,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  has  been  accompUshed 
in  the  face  of  the  handicap  imposed  by  the  fact  that  Italy, 
unlike  France  and  England,  has  been  able  to  import  but 
little,  and  has  therefore  had  to  make  practically  all,  of  the 
special  machinery  used  in  munition  manufacture.  What 
Italy  has  done  in  this  connection  must  rank  as  one  of  the 
greatest,  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  surprising,  achie\'cments 
of  the  war." 

In  the  Workshops 

This  brief  but  lucid  and  comprehensive  suimnary  of 
Italy's  industrial  accomphshment  prepared  me  for  the 
sight  of  a  good  many  remarkable  things  in  the  month  I 
divided  between  theFront  and  the  workshops  ;  and  yet 
the  visual  evidence  of  so  much  tangible  achievement  in 
the  face  of  almost  prohibitive  difficulties  was  a  good  deal 
more  impressive-  than  the  oral  summary.  The  "  self- 
sufficiency  "  of  the  Italian  munition  works  has  been  a 
source    of    never-ending    wonder.     In    the     new     shell 


factories  of  France  and  Great  Britain,  I  had  walked  for 
miles  up  and  down  passages  lined  on  both  sides  with 
machinery — drills,  lathes,  hydrauhc  presses — made  in 
the  United  States.  As  an  American,  I  made  especial  note 
of  this  fact.  Again,  behind  the  Western  front,  the 
.American  motor  truck  was  almost  as  coriimon  in  the 
French  transport  trains  as  was  the  American  "  cater- 
])illar  "  tractor  in  the  British.  It  was  only  natural, 
therefore,  that  in  Italy,  which  was  only  in  the  infancy  of 
its  industrial  development,  one  should  look  for  an  even 
more  overwhelming  predominance  of  imported  machinery 
than  in  France  and  England. 

But  I  found  things  just  as  they  had  been  described 
to  inc.  Here  and  there  in  a  shop  I  found  two  or  three 
machines — occasionally  little  blocks  of  them — with  plates 
indicating  that  they  were  made  in  Pittsburg  or  Chicago, 
Leeds  or  Manchester,  Paris  or  Lyons,  and  now  and  then 
there  was  a  work-worn  model  displaving  the  marks  of 
Essen  or  Vienna,  importations  of  ante-bellum  days. 
But  certainly  ninety-five  out  of  every  hundred  machines 
— probably  even  a  higher  percentage — bore  the  marks  of 
some  North  Italian  city,  usually  of  Milan  or  Turin. 
In  many  instances  the  foreign  machines  had  been  used 
as  models,  but  where  this  was  the  case  the  new  one  rarely 
failed  to  show  one  or  more  distinct  improvements.  In 
this  connection  I  remember  especially  a  big  Krupp-made 
machine  for  sawing  steel,  which  stood  at  the  head  of  a 
line  of  similar  ItaUan-made  machines  in  a  factory  I  visited 
in  Milan. 

"  The  first  model  we  made,"  the  manager  told  me, 
"  was  an  exact  replica  of  the  Kiupp,  perfomiing,  of 
course,  the  identical  work.  As  you  go  down  the  line 
you  will  notice  a  progressive  change,  the  machines  getting 
lighter  and  simpler.  Those  we  are  turning  out  to-day 
weigh  about  a  half  the  original,  cost  a  third,  can  be 
operated  by  one  man  where  the  other  needed  two,  and 
perform  nearly  twice  the  w^ork  in  a  given  time.  Decreased 
weight  and  cost,  and  increased  speed  and  simplicity  of 
operation — these  are  the  things  we  constantly  strive  for." 

Repair  Depots 

The  Italian  repair  depots  proved  a  source  of  never- 
ending  interest  and  wonder  to  me,  less  on  account  of  the 
volume  of  work  performed — considerable  as  this  is,  it  is 
hardly  on  the  same  scale  as  in  the  great  base  depots  in 
France — as  for  the  astonishing  mechanical  resource  and 
versatiUty  displayed.  All  the  work  in  these  depots — 
except  where  women  are  employed — is  done  by  soldiers, 
many  of  whom  have  been  wouncled  or  otherwise  rendered 
unfit  for  active  service.  By  no  means  all  of  them — 
probably,  indeed,  a  decided  minority — were  trained 
machinists  when  they  entered  these  shops  ;  and  yet,  so 
quick  is  the  Italian  hand  and  brain  for  this  land  of  work, 
the  results  are  eminently  satisfactory. 

In  one  of  these  depots  which  I  visited,  an  extensive 
series  of  shops  was  entirely  devoted  to  the  repairing,  or, 
as  was  not  infrequently  the  case,  the  rebuilding  of  bicycles 
and  motor-cycles.  As  interpreter  there  was  put  at  my 
disposal,  an  Italian  youth  who  had  spent  but  a  year  or 
two  in  America  when  he  was  recalled  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  to  fight  for  his  country.  Three  expressions, 
many  times  reiterated,  constituted  the  sum  of  his  descrip- 
tion," but,  with  what  I  was  able  to -see  for  myself,  they 
came  pretty  near  to  telling  the  whole  story.  Ihey  were  : 
"  Mada  righta  here  !  "  "  Justa  gooda  new  !  "  and  (de- 
livered as  a  proud  interrogation  after  we  had  finished 
with  a  department)  "  Some  shop,  hu  ?  "• 

When  I  saw  the  swiftness  witli  which  the  rusting  mud- 
caked  loads  of  wTeckage  from  the  Front  were  sorted  over 
and  repaired  or  rebuilt  until  they  were  literally  "  just 
as  good  as  new,"  1  was  indeed  ready  to  agree  with  my 
guide  that  it  was  "  sOme  shop  !  "  Ihesc  comparatively 
hurriedly  trained  men — many  of  whom  had  been  farmers 
or  ordinary  labourers  before  the  war — Were  making  new- 
parts  and' fitting  them  to  a  motley  collection  of  motor 
cycle  remains  wliich  bore  marks  of  the  makers  of  every 
manufacturing  country  in  the  world.  They  were  even 
undertaking  such  complicated  accessories  as  speed- 
indicators  and  magnetos.  I  recall  especially  a  Gemian 
"  Bosch  "  magneto,  which  was  being  rewound  and  rebuilt 
after  having  been  punctured  by  a  shrapnel  bullet.  Besides 
the  wiring,  something  over  ha'lf  of  the  delicate  parts  were 
destroyea,   and,   because  renewals   from   the   "  home " 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


factory  were  obviously  out  of  the  question,  these 
intricate  pieces  were  being  turned  and  liled  and  lifted 
"  righta  here."  Before  I  left  the  depot  I  returned  to 
the  shop  to  see  this  rejuvenated  "  Bosch  "  connected  up 
with  a  testing  machine  and  throwing  out  just  as  even  a 
"  star  "  of  sparks  as  it  ever  did  in  the  days  when  it  wore 
its  now  discarded  "  Ua.de  in  Germany  "  casing. 

' '  The  remarkable  aptitude  the  average  Itahan  is 
displaying  for  mechanical  work,"  said  the  distinguished 
General  under  whose  direction  these  repair  depots  aru 
being  carried  on,  "  is  no  less  gratifying  as  an  aid  to  winning 
the  war  than  it  is  reassuring  of  the  extent  to  which  Italy 
may  achieve  industrial  independence  after  the  war.  It 
has  been  nothing  less  than  a  national  tragedy  that  men 
capable  of  performing  skilled  work  \\ith  so  little  training 
as  these  should  be  forced  to  go  abroad  to  earn  a  living  ; 
but  I  have  every  hope  that  our  war  work  will  have  shown 
us  the  way — through  the  development  of  our  industries — 
to  offer  them  sufficiently  remunerative  employment  to 
keep  them  at  home.  If  it  does,  that  will  not  be  the  least 
of  our  fruits  of  victory." 

It  would  hardly  be  proper  at  this  time  to  go  into  details 
as  to  what  Italy  has  done  for  herself  on  the  score  of  arms. 
I  may  be  permitted  to  say,  liowever,  that,  from  being 
heavily  dependent  upon  her  AlUes  for  machine  guns  early 
in  the  war,  she  is  now  turning  out  in  ample  quantities  an 
arm  of  her  own  which,  for  her  own  special  requirements, 
has  distinct  points  of  superiority  over  any  gun  of  this 
character  in  use  in  Europe  to-day.  In  light  artillery 
she  has  a  gun  that  rivals  the  famous  French  "  75  "^ — 
after  which  it  is  patterned — in  the  speed  with  which  it 
will  eat  up  shells.  Moreover,  she  is  able  to  turn  out  these 
shells  sufficiently  beyond  her  own  requirements  as  to  be 
able  to  export  liberally  to  at  least  one  of  her  Allies.  She 
is  also  able  to  export  rifles.  In  trench-mortars,  in  experi- 
menting with  which  as  an  adjunct  to  infantry  attack 
Italy  was  the  real  pioneer,  she  is  still  looking  ahead,  her 


latest  weapons  of  this  class  coming  pretty  near  to  ranging 
as  a  veritable  "  arm  of  precision."  Of  big  guns,  though 
her  output  has  been  greatly  increased,  Italy  makes  no 
pretension  to  having  enough.  Neither  does  any  other 
of  the  warring  nations  for  that  matter. 

Italy's  motor-car  industry  was  thoroughly  started 
long  before  the  war,  and  she  had  her  problems  of  motor 
transport — more  important  to  her  than  to  any  other 
belligerent — well  in  hand  from  the  outset.  The  roads 
which  form  her  main  communications  are  distinctly 
better  maintained  than  those  behind  either  the  French 
or  British  fronts,  and  I  have  recently  talked  with  a  visit- 
ing French  officer'  who  said  that,  owing  largely  to  the 
fact  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  Italian 
lorries  are  of  the  same  type,  the  motor  transport  of  the 
latter  undoubtedly  worked  more  smoothly  than  even 
that  of  his  own  army.  Italy's  principal  motor  works  are 
also  the  largest  in  Europe,  and  their  capacity  to  turn  out 
heavy  lorries  must  be  very  nearly  equal  to  that  of  all  but 
one  or  two  of  the  great  American  factories.  The  surplus 
of  cars  for  export  is  being  increased  every  montli. 

Italy's  remarkable  record  in  war  industry,  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind,  has  been  made  under  the  hanclicap  imposed 
by  her  non-production  of  either  coal  or  iron,  the  importa- 
tion of  which  has  been  the  principal  factor  in  turning  the 
exchange  so  heavily  against  her.  Fortunately,  all  her 
great  northern  manufacturing  centres  are  largely  served 
with  electrical  power  generated  upon  Alpine  streams,  and 
it  is  on  the  fact,  that  every  important  city  of  the  ItaUan 
peninsula  is  within  economic  transmittingdistance  of  one 
or  more  points  where  hydro-electric  development  can  be 
made  to  furnish  power  far  in  excess  of  any  demands 
probable  for  many  years  to  come,  that  she  bases  her 
hopes  of  an  industrial  future  independent  of  the  im- 
portation of  coal  from  abroad.  Wliat  Italy  has  done 
imder  this  handicap  augurs  auspiciously  of  what  she  may 
do  once  it  is  thrown  off. 


The  Batman 


By  Centurion 


A  S  we  turned   into   the  road   to  Cosham,  our  car 

/%     met  a  "  W.D."  wagon,  and  the  driver  of  the 

/  %  wagon  dropped  his  right  hand  smartly. 
^  -^-  "  When  I  first  put  this  uniform  on,"  said  the 
subaltern  with  a  faint  reminiscence  of  Gilbert  and 
Sullivan,  "  I  was  saluted  in  succession  by  a  policeman, 
a  comrhissionaire,  a  boy-scout,  and  a  member  of  the 
Women's  Emergency  Corps.  I  felt  very  embarrassed. 
What  ought  I  to  have  done  ?  " 

"  The  first  two  had  probably  been  soldiers,  the  third 
hoped  to  be  one,"  said  the  Major.  "  You  should  have 
saluted  all  three." 

"  But  what  about  the  girl  ?  " 

"  Kiss  her,  of  course,"  said  the  Major,  gravely.  "  A 
kiss  is  a  salute.  There's  scriptural  authority  for  it." 

"  I  never  thought  of  that,"  said  the  subaltern  wistfully. 

".What  a  target  !  "  exclaimed  the  Major  as  a  platoon 
in  open  formation  appeared  on  the  sky-line.  "  Tangent- 
sight  at  eight  hundred — I  thinh." 

"  But  supposing  she  boxed  my  ears  f  "  persisted  the 
subaltern. 

"  That's  all  right ;  the  penalty  for  striking  an  officer 
on  active  service  is  DEATH,"  replied  the  Major.  "  You 
could  explain  that  to  her.  She  can't  have  it  both 
ways." 

"  By  jove  !  that's  true,"  said  the  subaltern.  He  began 
to  look  thoughtful. 

"  That  reminds  me  "  .  .  .  said  the  Major,  medita- 
tively. "  Eyes  RIGHT,"  he  said  suddenly  as  he  caught 
sight  of  the  subaltern  exchanging  glanceswith  a  buxom 
wench  on  the  left  of  our  car  as  we  shot  past. 

"  It  reminds  you,"  I  prompted. 

"  Of  a  batman— a  fellow  I  had  in  the  South  African 
War.  •  Such  a  batman  !  As  a  rule,  if  a  batman's  honest 
he's  not  intelligent,  and  if  he's  intelligent  he's  iiot  honest. 
This  fellow  was  both.  He  made  my  buttons  shine  like 
stars,  he  polished  my  boots  tilll  could  see  my  face  in 
them,  and  he  never  once  forgot  to  call  me  in  the  morning. 


When  I  was  sick  he  nursed  me  like  a    .    .    .    like 
a    .     .     ." 

"  Like  a  woman !  "  said  the  subaltern  enthusias- 
tically. 

"  Well,  yes,  like  i  woman.  He  made  tea  that  was  neither 
black  as  ink  nor  sweet  as  syrup.  He  did  not  smoke, 
neither  did  he  drink.  He  took  as  much  care  of  my  liorse 
as  he  did  of  me.  He  never  told  a  lie — except  once. 
And  he  never  whistled." 

"  His  name,  please  !  "  I  said,  taking  out  my  pocket- 
book.  I  have  had  two  batmen — one  honest,  the  other 
intelligent.     I  am  looking  for  a  third. 

"  That  I  can't  tell  you.  No,  I  don't  mean  I  won't, 
I  mean  I  can't.  I  don't  know  it^I  never  did.  I  can 
give  you  his  address,  though,  if  that's  any  good.  'Gal- 
veston, Texas,' — at  least  that's  the  post  mark.  D'you 
think  if  I  knew  his  name  I'd—.  But  I'm  putting  the 
cart  before  the  horse.  Well,  I'll  tell  you  the  story.  I  had 
a  commission  in  Trclawney's  Horse— they  gave  me  a  com- 
mission in  the  regulars  afterwards — which  you  may 
remember  was  a  well  known  unit  of  irregulars.  And  a  very 
hefty  lot  they  were.'  Avery  scratch  lot,  too — colonials, 
mining  engineers,  remittance  men,  soldiers  of  fortune  and 
so  on.  South  Africa  was  swarming  with  levies  of  that 
kind,  each  one  differing  from  the  other  in  arms,  kit,  for- 
mation, and  all  the  rest  of  it.  They  were  enough  to  make 
a  R.T.O.'s  hair  stand  on  end.  But,  as  I  say,  a  hefty  body 
of  men  and  not  one  of  'em  but  knew  how  to  sit  a  horse 
as  soon  as  look  at  it.  Well,  one  day  a  likely-looking 
youth  with  an  American  accent  you  could  cut  with  a  knife 
came  into  camp  and  said  he  guessed  he'd  join  us.  There 
wasn't  much  attestation  red-tape  about  Trelawney's 
Horse  ;  if  it  comes  to  that  I  daresay  half  of  'cm  could 
have  been  court-martialled  for  fraudulent  enUstmcnt. 
All  a  recruit  was  asked  was  '  Can  you  ride  ?  Can  you  . 
shoot  ?  '  and  if  the  troop-sergeant  was  satisfied  no  one 
asked  any  more  questions.  In  fact  it  was  about  as  tactful 
to  ask  a  man  in  Trelawney's  Horse  about  his  past  as  it 


i6 


XAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  i^fj 


would  be  to  ask  an  officer  under  arrest  about  his  future. 
It  was  a  case  of  Omne  ignotum  fro  niagnifico  which,  you. 
may  remember,  in  the  revised  version  means,  '  If  a 
man's  conduct  sheet  is  lost,  his  character  is  exemplary.' 
'"Can  you  ride?'  said  the  sergeant.  'I  can  that,' 
said  the  Yank.  '  Oh  you  can,  can  you  ?  '  said  the 
sergeant.  '  Very  well,  let's  see  you  put  that  mare  through 
her  paces.' 

"  The  mare  was  a  stiff  proposition,  too  stiff  for  most 
of  us,  and  Trelawney's  Horse  gathered  round  expecting 
to  see  some  fun.  So  did  the  marc,  I  fancy,  for  the  moment 
the  Yank  got  on  her  back  she  started  bucking  for  all 
she  was  worth.  She  reared. and  plunged,  and,  lindmg 
that  no  use,  tried  to  bolt.  She  had  a  mouth  of  iron.  Well, 
to  cut  a  long  story  short,  in  half  an  hour  that  mare  was 
like  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter.  She  was  all  of  a  lather 
and  butter  wouldn't  melt  in  her  mouth.  After  that 
Trelawney's,  who  knew  a  good  horseman  when  they  saw 
one,  all  crowded  round  the  Yank  and  offered  him  smokes 
and  drinks. 

"  '  I  don't  smoke  and  I  don't  drink,'  he  said.  '  Well, 
what  the  hell  do  you  do  ?  '  said  one  of  'em.  '  I  ride,'  he 
said  quietly  and  walked  away. 

"  I  liked  that  chap,  and  when  I  heard  that  he  knelt 
down  and  said  his  prayers  c\Try  night  in  the  tent — and 
there  were  six  men  to  every  tent — I  liked  him  all  the 
more.  I  wanted  a  batman  and  one  day  I  offered  '  Hop  ' 
—his  name  was  Silas  P.  Hopkins,  but  we  called  him 
'  Hop  '  for  short— the  job.  He  hesitated  at  first,  which 
rather  nettled  me,  the  more  so  as  it  meant  he'd  draw 
five  bob  a  week  extra  pay. 

"  '  Well  if  you  don't  hke  being  in  my  service    .     .     .' 
I  began.     '  It  isn't   that,  sir,'  he  said— he  always  said 
'  Sir, '  and  generally  saluted,  which  was  more  than  most 
of  'em  did— 'Well,  I'll  take  it  on.' 
"And  he  did. 

"  I  soon  found  I'd  done  a  good  stroke  of  business.    Never 
man  batted  like  that  batman.     For  one  thing  he  used  to 
think,  which,  you  may  have  noticed,  no  batman  ever  does 
as  a  rule.     I  never  found  a  hole  in  my  socks,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  Hop  always  discovered  it  before  I  could  darn 
it.     I  never  lost  a  shirt  button,  because  as  soon  as  it  got 
loose  Hop  sewed  it  on  tight  again.    And  you  must  remem- 
ber that  the  Boer  war  wasn't  like  this  war,  when  if  you're 
'  deficient    in  articles  '  you  can  send  a  chit  to    your 
hosiers  or  your  tailors  in  the  West  End  and  get  your 
order  executed  and  the  goods  delivered  in  France  inside 
of  a  week.     No  !  we  were  up  country,  far  from  railhead, 
with  our  lines  of  communication  constantly  being  cut, 
and  oiu:  supply  columns  looted  by  brother  Boer,  some  of 
whose  commandoes  hadn't  one  whole  pair  of  trousers 
between   them.     So  they  always  raided  our  columns,  if 
they  could,  vv-henever  they  wanted  a  change  of  under- 
clothing, and  we  often  went  short.     I  remember  a  picnic 
outside  Pretoria— but  I'll  tell  you  that    another   time. 
Well  the  result  was  that  Trelawney's  Horse  were  eventually 
rigged   out   like   a   fancy-dress  ball,  and  were  decollete 
enough  to  satisfy  the  producer  of  a  theatrical  rcvuc.  But 
I  myself  never  wanted  for   anything — shirts,  socks,  and 
so  on — Hop  saw  to  all  that.     I  never  asked  any  questions 
— as  I  half  suspected  he  pinched  'em,  and  I  didn't  want 
to  be  c.-m.'d  as  a  receiver  of  stolen  goods,  '  knowing  them 
to  have  been  stolen,'   as  the  charge  sheet  puts  it.     All  I 
knew  was  that  my  kit  was  like  the  widow's  cruse  of  oil — 
there  was  always  petrol  in  the  tank. 

"  Then  he  was  as  punctual  as  zero.  He  always  called 
me  to  the  second,  and  while  I  was  spongeing  myself  down 
in  my  collapsible  tub  he'd  be  busy  about  the  tent  laying 
out  my  shaving  kit,  and  shaking  the  sand  ^nd  locusts 
out  of  my  things,  until  he'd  say  '  Anything  else,  sir.?,'  . 

"  But  there  was  never  anything  else — he'd  always  seen 
to  that.  As  you  may  imagine,  the  fame  of  my  batman 
got  noised  abroad  for,  like  the  virtuous  woman,  liis  price 
was  far  above  rubies.  Every  brother  officer  wanted  .him, 
and  some  of  'em  tried  to  bribe  him  into  their  service 
until,  getting  wind  of  their  fraternal  designs,  I  told  him 
I  proposed  to  double  the  five  bob.  He  wouldn't  take  it. 
'  I'm  quite  satisfied,  sir,'  he  said. 

"  Naturally,  we  got  rather  friendly,  and  I  got  to  treat 
him  more  and  more  as  a  warrant  otiicui"  than  an  ordinary 
trooper,  and  sometimes  I  tried  to  get  him  to  talk  about 
himself.  But  he  always  headed  me  off.  All  I  could  learn 
was  that  his  father  was  a  big  mule  contracior  in  Texas, 
and  that  he'd  been  sent  over  from    New  Orleans  with  a 


cargo  of  mules  ta  Durban  and,  after  unloading,  had 
thought  he'd  lik«  ta  go  up-country.  He  always  rather 
kept  himself  to  himself. 

"  He  was  certainly  a  wonderful  chap  with  horses.  You 
know  what  delicate  beasts  Argentines  are  ;  well,  he 
cured  mine  of  a  bad  attack  of  sand  colic  and  he  was  as 
particular  about  preparing  my  horse's  bran-mash  as  he 
was  about  my  breakfast— which  is  saying  a  good  deal. 
And  no  coolie  or  black-boy  or  up-country  Jew  storekeeper 
could  ever  take  a  rise  out  of  him — he  used  to  do  all  my 
shoj^ping.  Well,  one  day  we  were  in  for  a  great  Boer 
drive  near  Hartebeestefontein,  the  whole  squadron 
being  strung  out  like  a  paper-chase.  We'd  crossed  a 
drift  and  had  come  out  on  some  flat  country  all  pimpled 
with  ant-hills,  when  we  sighted  a  Boer  farm  and  the 
usual  kraals  in  the  middle  of  some  blue  gum  trees.  The 
next  moment  I  heard  the  '  plip-plop  '  of  a  Mauser,  and 
my  batman,  who  was  next  me,  suddenly  gave  a  kind  of 
shriek  and  I  saw  him  fall  o\er  his  horse's  neck  like  a  sack. 
We  soon  rushed  the  farm  and  cleared  it  out,  and  I  then 
turned  my  attention  to  my  batman.  Fortunately,  the 
horse  hadn't  bolted  and  let  me  come  up  to  him.  I 
caught  hold  of  his  rider  in  my  arms  and  laid  him  on  the 
ground.  He  was  a  very  light  weight  and  rather  slender. 
By  that  time  he  had  fainted.  There  was  a  dark  stain  on 
his  tunic,  the  colour  of  port-wine  ;  he'd  been  hit  in  the 
chest.  I  unbuttoned  his  shirt,  and  as  I  did  so  I  noticed 
two  little  bright  rods  of  steel  stuck  through  it.  I  wondered 
what  the  devil  they  were  for.  Then  I  cut  away  his  singlet 
— and — you  could  have  knocked  me  over  with  a  feather. 
My  batman  was  a  woman  ! 

"  So  that's  how  I  was  kept  in  new  socks  !  "  was  the 
first  thing  I  said  to  myself  as  I  looked  at  the  knitting- 
needles.  And  I  kept  on  saying  '  Plain  and  purl  !  Purl 
and  plain  !  '  As  you  know  one  generally  does  say  some- 
thing idiotically  trivial  like  that  when  one  gets  a  big  shock. 
I  suppose  it's  nature's  way  of  keeping  one  going  until 
one's  mind  recovers  its  balance.  Perhaps  you'll  think 
I  ought  not  to  have  been  so  surprised,  and  you  may  think 
me  an  ass.  But  telling  a  story's  one  thing,  living  it  is 
quite  another,  and  the  story  I'm  telling  you  was  spread 
over  many  months,  in  the  course  of  which  I  had  many  other 
things  than  Hop  to  think  about. 

"  Well,  my  first  thought  was  how  to  get  him — I  mean 
her — away,  and  my  second  how  to  keep  her  secret,  for 
my  sake  as  well  as  hers.  I  should  never  haVc 
heard  the  end  of  it  in  the  regiment  if  it  had  got  about. 
Of  course  I  couldn't  leave  my  troop,  but  after  much  trouble 
I  got  hold  of  a  Cape  cart  and  got  Hop  fixed  \\\>  in  it  and 
sent  back  one  of  my  men  whom  I  could  trust  as  escort, 
giving  him  a  confidential  chit  to  the  M.O.  in  which  I 
explained  matters  and  asked  him  to  do  all  he  could  for 
the  poor  girl. 

"  By  the  time  that  I  had  completed  these  arrange- 
ments she  had  recovered  consciousness  and  told  me  some- 
thing of  her  story.  It  seems  she  had  been  brought  up  on 
her  father's  ranch,  and  when  her  brother  fell  sick  and  ^ 
couldn't  take  charge  of  the  consignment  of  mules  she  \ 
offered  to  go  in  his  place  disguised  as  a  teamster — and 
went.  We  hadn't  much  time  for  a  pow-wow,  and  when 
she'd  finished  telling  her  story  it  was  time  for  me  to  get 
a  move  on.  -"Good-bye,  Hop  .  .  .  and  Cod  bless 
you,'  I  said.  '  My  name's  Lucy,'  she  said  witii  a  look 
i  've  never  forgotten.  I  sometimes  think — but  no  matter. 
And  it  was  only  when  that  cart  had  disappeared  over 
the  veldt  like  a  ship  at  sea  that  I  suddenly  remembered 
I'd  forgotten  to  ask  her  her  surname — and  her  home 
address.  And  I  never  got  to  know  it.  By  the  time  we 
■got  back  from  our  drive  of  the  Boers  and  I  was  able  I 
to  communicate  with  the  Base,  I  found  she'd  been 
evacuated  and  sent  back  to  the  States.  I  tried  hard  to 
trace  her  but  it  was  a  wash-out.  But  once  a  year,  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  day  she  entered  my  service,  I  got  a 
card  without  any  addressand  only  two  words  on  it '  From 
Lucy.'  That  happened  every  year  until  two  years  ago— - 
I  have  heard  nothing  since.  I  sometimes  think  .  .  ." 
The  Major  stopped  abruptly  and  gazed  straight  in 
front  of  him  at  the  wind-screen.  There  was  something 
almost  wistful  in  his  look. 

I'he  subaltern  broke,  the  silence.  "  Women  are 
topping,"  hs  said. 

Neither  the  Major  nor  I  made  any  reply.  The  subaltern 
is  very  young,  and,  as  is  the  way  of  yputli,  he  sometimes 
thinks  his  discoveries  are  new. 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


17 


ONE  of  the  three  ionncf ,  no\'els  by  Stephen 
McKenna  did  not  come  my  way,  so  that  I  am 
speaking  without  a  book  when  I  say  that  in 
Sot2ia  :  Between  two  Worlds  (Methuen,  6s.  net), 
Mr.  McKenna  has  fovmd  himself  after  two  interesting 
experiments  in  writing^  fiction.  In  his  former  works 
T  thought  him  gay,  witty  and  sympathetic,  but  a  Uttle 
imcertain  as  to  what  he  wanted  to  say  or  how  to  say  it. 
In  Sonia  his  style  has  become  mature.  His  wit  has 
developed  into  something  very  like  wisdom.  Always 
clever  at  sketching  a  portrait  of  an  individual  in  a 
characteristic  pose,  he  is  here  prodigal  in  type  and  super- 
type,  and  has  one  or  two  effective  studies  in  the  dynamics 
of  character.  The  novel,  too,  is  well  contructed,  ,with 
clean-cut  worksmanship  from  beginning  to  end.  It 
should  establish  an  already  growing  reputation. 
*         *         *         *         * 

I  have  laid  stress  in  the  first  instance  on  the  art  of  Mr. 
McKenna's  new  novel,  because  its  matter  is  likely  to 
attract  attention  on  its  own  account.  Its  "  two  worlds  " 
are  the  England  before  the  war,  and  the  England  of  the 
future.  It  is  written  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  member 
of  "  the  governing  class,"  and  contains  very  vivid  pictures 
of  public-school,  imiversity  and  London  life  which  are 
made  the  more  real  as  a  background  to  the  exotic  figure 
of  the  hero,  David  O'Rane.  It  is  the  creation  of  this 
amazing  adventurer  which  gives  Sonia  a  distinction  as  a 
novel  far  greater  than  any  photographic  description  of 
personages  and  events  during  the  past  dozen  years  or  so 
based  on  its  author's  presumed  knowledge  of  the  politics 
of  that  period.  It  brings  .  into  its  proper  prominence 
something  that  Mr.  Wells,  with  all  his  insight,  left  out  of 
Mr.  Britling  Sees  it  Through,  the  romantic  hopes  raised 
by  the  war,  even  in  those  who  hate  it.  It  enables  Mr. 
McKenna  to  end  with  perfect  artistic  propriety  on  a 
high  note  of  optimism  as  to  the  purged  and  cleansed 
England  of  the  future.  It  would  be  easy  to  write  on  the 
book  solely  from  the  point  of  view  of  political  gossip,  but 
Mr.  McKenna  has  raised  it  above  this  plane.  He  appears 
as  a  lively  and  well-informed  ally  of  the  angels. 

5j!  *  :i!  *  * 

If  wc  are  ever  to  achieve  that  elimination  of  suffering 
from  our  social  fabric  dreamt  of  by  Mr.  McKenna's 
hero,  we  must  try  to  understand  the  causes  and  consider 
the  proposed  remedies  for  such  suffering.  I  do  not  know 
any  book  that  puts  the  case  for  the  workmen,  their 
women  and  children,  more  clearly  and  forcibly  than 
George  Lansbury's  Your  Part  in  Poverty  (Allen  and 
Unwin,  is.  net).  The  Bishop  of  Winchester,  who  writes 
a  Preface  for  the  book,  does  not  go  the  whole  way  with 
the  author,  but  he  demands  "  not  only  a  fair,  but  a  ready, 
openhearted  and  brotherly  hearings"  for  "  a  man  with 
the  integrity  and  enthusiasm  of  George  Lansbury."  I 
think  there  are  more  people  now  than  before  the  war 
who  will  be  ready  to  grant  that  hearing.  I  imagine,  too, 
that  granted  the  frame  of  mind  that  desires  a  change  in 
our  social  conditions  and  a  proper  knowledge  of  what 
those  conditions  are,  it  will  be  possible  to  arrive  at 
some  solution  of  the  difficulties,  whether  it  be  Mr. 
Lansbury's  or  another.  Mr.  Lansbury's  picture  of  the 
rich  woman  giving  joy  rides  to  soldiers  with  his  pertinent 
question  :  "  Are  the  favours  poured  out  on  the  soldier 
or  the  man?  "  and  his  suggestion  that  these  soldiers  have 
mothers  and  wives  who  6nly  occasionallyrget  the  delight 
of  a  trip  in  a  crowded  tram-car  with  children,  should 
fix  in  homely  fashion  one  obvious  moral  on  our  half- 
awakened  sympathies.  It  is  only  extending  that  idea 
from  the  particular  to  the  general  to  consider  whether 
when  so  great  resources  can  be  concentrated  for  purposes 
of  destruction,  something  more  than  previously  cannot 
be  found  after  the  war  for  a  policy  of  social  reconstruction. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  the  business  in  hand  that  chiefly 
occupies  our  attention  and  absorbs  our  sympathies.  We 
do  think  chiefly  of  the  soldier  as  a  soldier,  because  it  is 
in  that  capacity  that  he  jeopardises  the  most  valued  of 
all  human  possessions.     To  risk  one's  life  is  the  only  true 


touchstone  of  courage.  Our  sympathies  go  out  to  all 
our  fighting  soldiers,  birt  our  imaginations  •  are  naturally 
most  of  all  stirred  by  the  flying  men.  They  seem  to  us 
the  great  adventurers  of  the  present  war,  and  we  eagerly 
gather  what  knowledge  we  can  of  them.  Such  a  book 
therefore,  as  War  Flying  (John  Murray,  is.  net),  in 
which  a  pilot  describes  in  letters  home  his  experiences  in 
training  and  in  fighting  is  sure  of  an  eager  welcome. 
It  is  pleasant  reading,  the  record  of  a  young  man  with  his 
heart  and  brains  in  his  work.  Much  might  be  written 
from  the  text  of  this  little  book  about  the  psychology  of 
the  .  flying-man,  about  methods  of  training,  about 
"  stunts,"  and  about  various  technical  aspects  of  the 
subject.  It  is  all  extremely  interesting.  But  the  thing 
that  strikes  the  imagination  of  one  who  has  never  risen 
from  the  ground  in  a  heavier-than-air  machine  as  most 
clearly  reveahng  the  conquest  of  the  air,  is  that  one,  if 
not  more  of  the  letters,  was  actually  .written  while 
"  Theta  "  was  in  flight.  Certainly  the  human  race  has 
grown  its  wings. 

***** 

I  am  reminded  immediately  what  a  foolish  thing  it  is 
to  try  and  weigh  and  measure  ''heroism  by  reading 
With  a  Reservist  in  France,  by  F.  A.  Bolwell  (Routledge 
and  Sons,  2s.  6d.  net).  Surely  if  ever  men  as  a  group 
earned  the  title  of  heroes,  it  was  our  "Old  Contemptibles." 
Here  is  the  modest  story  of  a  man  of  the  Loyal  North 
Lanes,  who  went  over  with  the  First  Division  on  August 
nth,  and  did  one  year  and  246  days  of  active  service 
before  being  invalided  out  of  the' army.  The  jam  in 
which  this  reservist  slept  in  a  boat  going  over  clothed 
him  when  it  dried  in  the  sun  in  the  armour  of  a  veritable 
knight.  I  hke  to  read  at  first  hand  of  the  doings  of 
these  men.  They  do  not  see  much,  but  there  was  more 
to  see  at  Mons  and  the  Marne,  and  the  author  is  an  intelli- 
gent observer — even  if  he  has  not  the  "  literary  touch." 
*****  , 

■WTiat  romance  lurks  in  the  story  of  the  seed  carried  by 
an  ocean  current  from  one  continent  to  another  to  repro- 
duce its  kind  amid  new  surroundings  and  to  baffle  the 
botanist  and  the  geologist  in  search  of  simple  theories  of 
evolution  !  What  humour,  too,  in  the  idea  of  an  orchid 
seed  tossed  up  nine  miles  in  the  air  to  make  an  aerial 
voyage  similar  to  that  which  a  mushroom  spore  can  make 
from  the  altitude  of  a  few  hundred  feet  !  Yet  romance 
and  humour  will  not  be  the  first  qualities  which  strike 
the  reader  of  Plants,  Seeds,  and'  Currents  in  the  West 
Indies  and  Azores  CWilHams  and  Norgate,  25s.  net),  in 
which  Mr.  H.  B.  Guppy  has  compiled  a  painstaking 
record  of  patient  investigation  and  such  as,  we  imagine, 
no  one  interested  in  the  problem  of  plant  distribution 
can  ignore.  For  the  reader  who  is  not  first  and  foremost 
a  botanist  we  recommend  the  fascinating  chapter  on 
"  Bottle-Drift;,"  in  which  the  author  proves  how  much 
quicker  the  currents  carry  articles  from  East  to  West 
than  from  West  to  East,  and  the  chapters  in  wliich  he 
leaves  for  a  while  his  bewildering  mass  of  details  to  deal 
with  the  general  problems  of  Differentiation  and  Distri- 
bution. Otherwise  anything  that  lightens  the  ponderous 
learning  of  the  book  will  be  of  the  reader's  own  bringing 
to  a  fascinating  subj,ect. 


A    SUGGESTION 
OFFERED     BY    AN    AMERICAN. 


VIA    PAGIS 

HOW  TERMS  OF  PEACE  CAN    BE  AUTOMATICALLY 

PREPARED    WHILE    THE    WAR   IS  STILL  GOING  ON, 

By     HAROLD     F.     McCORMICK, 

Crown     8-vo.,     1/-     net. 

LONDON:      GEORGE    ALLEN    &   UNWIN,    LTD.,    40,  MUSEUM  STREET,    W.C 


i8 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  1917 


British  Empire  and  the  U.J.G 

By  the  Editor 


IN  his  latest  work  War  and  the  Future,  AJr.  H.  G. 
Wells  writes :  "  The  '  Empire'  idea  has  been 
cadgiriic;  about  the  British  Empire,  trying  to  collect 
enthusiasm  and  devotion  since  the  days  of  Disraeli. 
It  is,  I  submit,  too  big  for  the  mean-spirited,  and  too 
tawdry  and  limited  for  the  fine  and  generous.  ...  It 
has  no  compelling  force  in  it.  We  British  are  not 
naturallj'  Imperialist ;  we  are  something  greater — or 
something  less."  Mr.  Wells  has  an  absorbent  intellect ; 
he  does  not  speak  for  himself  alone  ;  his  opinions  are  in 
the  air — in  other  men's  minds  ;  his  brain  is  like  a  wireless 
installation ;  it  catches  up  waves  of  thought  and  the 
operator  in  charge  reduces  them  to  writing.  What 
he  says  here  about  Empire,  other  thoughtful  persons 
are  saying  ;  and  if  we  are  not  careful,  with  our  curious 
habit  of  self-depreciation  we  shall  end  in  agreeing 
imanimously  that  we  are  something  less — considerably 
less — than  imperialist. 

But  the  writer  maintains  Empire  and  British-empire 
are  not  synonymous  terms ;  they  do  not  stand  for  the 
same  idea.  Earth  hunger,  lust  for  power,  desire  of 
dominance  have  not  created  the  British  empire.  We 
have  had  ambitious  leaders  whose  actions  at  times  have 
belied  this  saying.  But  were  it  the  truth  that  we 
had  added  province  to  pro\dnce,  territory  to  territory, 
continent  to  continent  for  tempdral  and  material  profit, 
the  British  empire  would  have  crumbled  to  pieces  in 
these  latter  j'cars.  Had  there  not  been  a  woman  on  the 
throne  of  Britain  in  Disraeli's  daj',  there  would  never 
have  been  a  British  Kaiser-i-Hind. 

One  must  take  an  active  part  in  Britisn  cmpire-build- 
mg — have  the  traditions  of  in  it  one's  blood — to  under- 
stand what  a  commonplace  business  it  is  for  the  average 
Briton,  with  an  innate  sense  of  justice,  an  almost  rabid 
love  of  freedom  and  withal  a  genius  for  discipline.  Quite 
the  most  undisciplined  part  of  the  Empire  in  the  years 
before  the  war  where  the  British  Isles.  Responsilsility 
towards  one's  fellow-creatures  had  slackened  ;  each  one 
thought  he  had  a  right  to  live  as  he  liked,  act  as  he  pleased, 
pro\-ided  the  police-court  and  the  bankruptcy-court 
were  avoided,  and  there  were  no  open  scandals.  It  was 
not  so  under  the  Union  Jack  beyond  the  seas.  The 
Dominions,  where  they  were  not  engaged  in  fighting  the 
forces  of  Nature  and  winning  to  the  service  of  man  wild 
and  untamed  lands,  were  teaching  that  responsibility 
was  the  first  duty  of  the  citizen.  In  India  and  other 
dependencies  the  work  forward  was  of  the  same  nature, 
even  as  it  had  been  for  several  generations. 

Are  not  these  things  written  in  the  journals  of  those 
distant  countries  ?  The  pity  is  that  they  are  read  at 
home  so  seldom,  and  are  indeed  so  inaccessible  that  even 
those  who  would  peruse  them,  have  few  opportunities. 
The  suggestion  that  the  Union  Jack  Club  should  have 
files  of  all  the  journals  of  the  Empire  contains  the  germ 
of  a  great  idea.  It  would  be  the  finest  form  of  Imperial 
education ;  but  there  would  be  nothing  Imperialist 
in  the  teaching.  All  that  would  be  learnt  would  be  how 
new  industries  are  being  built  up,  new  acreages  sown  and 
planted,  new  railways  constructed,  new  irrigation  works 
made.  Public  agitations  in  those  lands,  it  would  be 
discovered,  were  not  principally  concerned  with  whether 
this  or  that  class  had  the  franchise,  but  whether 
this  or  that  public  work  had  precedence.  Such  journals 
in  dealing  with  local  affairs  have  so  strong  a  pride 
that  it  sometimes  outstrips  truth  where  local  rivals  are 
concerned,  but  this  exuberance  of  statement  is  only 
symbolic  of  the  human  vigour  and  energy  in  seeking 
new  outlets  it  reflects. 

To-day  men  stop  at  the  Union  Jack  Club  who  have  not 
only  been  drawn  from  all  parts  of  the  Empire  but  from  all 
sections  of  its  work  and  life  ;  they  would  study  these 
newspapers  with  understanding  and  use  them  to  ex- 
plain to  their  comrades  of  the  homeland  how  things  move 
overseas.  It  is  these  small  links  that  bind  the  British 
empire  together ;  the  wider  spread  the  knowledge,  the 
more  durable  the  cohesion.  \\'cre  the  (io\crnmcnt  to 
allocate  the  necessary  sum  to  this  Club,  money  would  never 
have  been  better  spent  on  a  wiser  scheme  of  education. 


As  the  Master  of  Balliol  pointed  out  in  these  columns 
a  little  time  ago  :  "  The  first  thing  required  for  the 
creation  of  that  sound  public  opinion  on  which  alone 
can  a  democratic  Empire  be  based  is  knowledge."  *In' 
these  newspaper  files  there  would  be  at  first  hand  know- 
ledge and  information  available  for  the  best  type  of 
young  manhood — the  men  of  our  navy  and  the  army. 
And  as  new  ties  with 'the  outer  parts  of  the  Empire  were 
formed  in  the  course  of  time  a  desire  for  more  accurate 
and  precise  information  would  increase.  We  are  at 
the  beginning  of  things,  but  if  the  i^ritish  empire  idea 
grows  as  we  believe  it  will  and  the  British  empire  becomes 
the  concrete  entity  which  it  promises  to  be,  a  great  stride 
will  have  been  taken  towards  the  larger  Imperialism 
which  Mr.  Wells  has  in  mind. 

But  this  idea  has  first  to  be  grasped,  not  only  by  the 
few  who  have  had  to  contend  daily  for  many  years  of 
their  life  with  these  problems,  or  by  the  still  fewer  who. 
though  not  brought  into  personal  contact  with  Imperial 
questions,  have  worked  them  out  for  themselves,  but 
by  the  nation  as  a  whole,  and  it  is  on  its  behalf  that  this 
appeal  for  a  Literary  Fund  for  the  Union  Jack  Club  is 
made  in  these  columns,  believing  as  we  firmly  do,  to 
quote  the  Master  of  Balliol 's  words  again,  that  "  the 
Imperial  sentiment  is  growing  imder  our  very  eyes  and 
the  need  and  the  opportunity  to  instruct  and  guide 
our  people  in  it  is  urgent."  With  •  the  spread  of 
education  there  is  no  better  mode  of  teaching  than  b\' 
the  printed  word,  the  published  photograpli.  Instruction 
is  acquired  in  this  manner  almost  instinctively.  Let 
any  busy  man  pause  for  a  minute  and  consider  how 
much  of  his  own  general  knowledge  of  the  Emipire  has 
been  gained  in  this  wa\'.  The  mistake  we  have  made 
in  the  past  of  considering  Imperial  questions  as  only  of 
concern  to  a  comparatively  few  must  not  be  persevered  in. 
It  were  foolishness,  for  public  curiosity  in  the  Overseas 
Dominions  has  been  increasing  rapidly  for  the  last  ten 
to  fifteen  years.  It  is  to  the  advantage  of  the  Empire 
as  a  whole  that  all  parts  of  it  shall  be  brought  nearer 
together.  It  will  then  be  seen  how  little  there  is 
that  is  either  tawdry  or  mean-spirited  in  the  work, 
how  much  that  constitutes  asplencHd  illustration  of  those 
finer  qualities  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  character  with  which 
the  war  is  famiHarising  us. 

£5,000  is  a  comparatively  small  sum  for  such  an  impor- 
tant object.  As  a  correspondent  pointed  out  last  week, 
this  fund  should  be  created  as  a  special  and  permanent 
memorial  to  the  men  from  all  parts  of  the  British  Empire 
who  of  their  own  accord  have  given  themselves  to 
the  cause  of  freedom  and  humanity.  It  will  be  an 
Imperial  memorial  of  peculiar  strength  for  it  will  make 
a  perpetual  appeal  to  brain  and  intellect.  It  will  direct 
rivers  and  streams  of  thought  and  facts  from  all  parts 
of  the  British  Empire  to  the  nvnds  of  the  British  nax'v 
and  army  and  it  will  continue  for  all  time.  The 
proposal  has  already  received  pecuniary  support ; 
among    the  subscriptions  received   are   the   following ; 

R.  W.  Hunt,  Esq £25     0    o 

W.  C.  Teacher,  Esq..       ..         ..  20    o     0 

Miss  Houldsworth  . .  . .  i     i     0 

Miss  Florence  Houldsworth       . .  110 

Gerard  Bromley,  Esq.     . .  . .  100 


IHnion  3ach  Club 

All  Contributions   to   tfie  Union  Jack  Club 
Literary  Fund  should  be  Jorwarded  to  : 

The  Editor, 

"LAND  &  WATER," 

5,  Chancery  Lane, 

London,  W.C. 

Cheques  should  be  drawn  in  favour  of  Union 
Jack  Club,  and  crossed  j^"  Coutts   Bank" 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


THE 


LAND  &  WATER 

WRIST  WATCH 

mth  UNBREAKABLE  QLASS. 

The  "LAND  &  WATLR"  WRIST  WATCH 
is   a  genuine   damp  and  dust-proof  watch, 

with  special  screw-in  movement,  unbreakable  glass  and 
luminous  face.  The  movement  is  fully  jewelled  and  is 
fitted  with  micrometer  regulator  to  giVe  fine  adjustment. 
It  is  compensated  for  all  positions  and  temperatures 
specially  balanced  and  built  to  withstand  shock.  It  is  the 
finest  quality  Timekeeper  obtainable  and  has  been  proved 
by  practical  tests  in  the  trenches,  equal  in  accuracy  to  a 
lO-Guinea  Chronometer.  For  Naval  and  Military  men  it  is 
the  Ideal  Watch  artd  is  being  worn  by  numerous  officers 
of  both  services.  When  writing  please  state  whether 
black  or  white  dial  is  preferred,  mentioning  reference  200. 
At  the  side  is  illustrated  the  New  5TLVE.L  WRISTLtT  as  highly 
recommended   in  the   editorial    column  of    "  LAND    &    WATLR." 


STEVKL  WRISTLET 
sclt-adrusUblc'-Hs  any 
SIS'*  wrist  or  any  part,  of 
arm.  Strong  and  dura- 
bit  ^  permitting  watch  to 
be  turned  ovfr  an  worn 
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Silver  Plated,  -  '-i'd 
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The  "  Land  &  Water  "  Wnst  Watch,  with 
Unbreakable    Glass   and    Luminous     Dial 

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Messrs.    BIRCH   &    GAYDON, .  lid 

Watcb  and  Technical  lastrument 
Makers        to       the      Admiralty, 

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(late  J.  Barwise). 


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The  Finest  Safeguard 
The  War  Has  Produced 


MONGST  the 
egi  n  of  in 
ventioiis  for  pro- 
tecting health 
against  batd  weather 
on  Active  Service, 
none  has  won 
such  universal  ap- 
j)robation,  as  THE 
TIELOCKEN  — 
the  Weatherproof 
i:)ermanently  identi- 
fied with"England's 
greatest  soldier." 

Combined     with      its 
smart, workmanlike  de- 
sign is  protection  of  the 
dreadnought"  order. 

"his  quality  is  em- 
bodied in  every  thread 
of  the  coat.  Put  there 
by  an  exclusive  Bur- 
'  erry  process,  that 
needs  no  rubber  or 
oiled-silk  to  make  it 
effective. 

Apart  from  proof ness, 
the  material  is  so 
densely  wo\  en  that  the 
1  eenest  wind  cannot 
find  entrance.  This,  in 
conjunction  with  hn- 
ingsofWool  or  Camel 
Fleece,  makes  THE 
TIELOCKEN  the 
ideal  safeguard  for 
wintry  weather. 

Its  design  ensures  that 
every  \  ulnerable  part 
of  the  body  is  doublv 
protected.  Another 
ad  antage  of  THE 
TIELOCi-EN  is  its 
quick  ad  ustment.  A 
strap  and-br.ckle  holds 
it  securely — ^no  buttons 
to  fasten. 


Every 
liurherry 
Garment 
i.«  Inbrllfd 
'  BuTf)erri/x.' 


HALF    WEIGHT— DOUBLE    WARMTH 

Burberry  Naval  and  Military  Weatherproofs  are  half 
the  weight  of  those  loaded  with  oiled-silk,  rubber  and 
the  like  air-tight,'  circulation-retarding  fabrics,  whilst  the 
warmth  naturally  generated  is  doubled  in  value  as 
circulation  is  aided. 

A  practical  example  of  the  ill-effects  induced  by  non- 
ventilating  agents  is  to  be  found  in  an  angler  wading.  He 
invariably  suffers  from  cold  feet,  the  result  of  impeded 
circulation  and  the  exclusion  of  fresh  air,  although  his 
footwear  readily  proves  the  presence  of  perspiration. 


NAVAL  &  MILITARY  WEATHERPROOFS 

During  theWar  BURi^ERRYS  CLEAN  AND 
RE-PROOF  Officers'  "Burbeirys,"  Tielockens, 
Burfrons    and    Burbrrry  Tienfih-Warm.s 
FREE  OF  CHARGE. 


Officers*  Complete 
Kits  in  2  to  4  Days 
or    Ready   for    U'e. 

BURBERRYS  {^S'S'don 

8&  10  Boul.   Malesherbes  PARIS;  and  Provincial  Agents 


30 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  8,  1917 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

[Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  Mattos) 


T; 


CHAPTER  XVII    (continued) 

(HAT'S  your  father's  writing,  is  it  not  ?"  asked 
Don  Luis. 

Yes,"  said  Patrice,  in  bewilderment.  "  And 
it  is  also  the  writing  of  the  letters  which  he 
.iddressed  to  his  friend  \'acherot.  Oh,  it's  too  hideous  to  be 
true  ?     What  a  man  !  What  a  scoundrel !  " 

Simeon  mi)\'ed.     His  eyes  opened  and  closed  repeatedly. 
Then  coming  to  himself  entirely,  he  looked  at  Patrice,  who 
at  once,  in  a  stifled  voice,  asked  : 
"  Where's  Coralie  ?  " 

And.  as  Sinn' on,  still  dazed,  seemed  not  to  understand  and 
sat  gazing  at  him  stupidly,  he  repeated,  in  a  harsher  tone  : 

"  Where's  Coralie  ?  What  have  you  done  with  her  ? 
Where'  have  you  put  her  ?     She  must  be  dying  !  " 

Simeon  was  gradually  recovering  hfe  and  consciousness. 
He  mumbled : 
"  Patrice.     .     .     .     Patrice.     .     .     ." 
He  looked  around  him,  saw  Don  Luis,  no  doubt  remembered 
his  fight  to  the  death  with  Ya-Bon  and  closed  his  eyes  again. 
But  Patrice's  rage  increased  : 

"  Will  you  attend  ?  "  he  shouted.  "  I  won't  wait  any 
linger  !    It'll  cost  you  your  life  if  you  don't  answer  !  " 

The  man's  eyes  opened  again,  red-rimmed,  bloodshot  eyes. 
He  pointed  to  his  throat  to  indicate  his  difficulty  in  speak- 
ing.    At  last,  with  a  ',  isible  effort,  he  repeated  : 

"  Patrice  !  Is  it  you  ?  .  .  .  I  have  been  waiting  for 
this  mon  ent  so  long  !  .  .  .  And  now  we  are  meeting  as 
enemies !     ..." 

"  As  mortal  enemies,"  said  Patrice,  with  emphasis. 
"  Death  stands  between  us  :  Ya-Bon's  death,  Coralie's  per- 
haps. .  .  .  Where  is  she  •?  You  must  speak,  or.  .  .  ." 
"  Patrice,  is  it  really  you  ?  "  the  man  repeated,  in  a  whisper. 
The  familiarity  exasperated  the  officer.  He  caught  his 
adversary  by  the -lapel  of  his  jacket  and  shook  him.  But 
Simi'on  had  seen  the  pocket-book  which  he  held  in  his  other 
hand  and,  without  resisting  Patrice's  roughness,  whined  : 

"  You  wouldn't  hurt  me,  Patrice.  You  must  have  found 
•^ome  letters  ;  and  you  now  know  the  link  that  binds  us 
together.     Oh,  how  happy  I  should  have  been.     .     .     .  !  " 

Patrice  had  released  his  hold  and  stood  staring  at  him  in 
horror.     Sinking  his  voice  in  his  turn,  he  said : 

"  Don't  dare  to  speak  of  that :  I  won't,  I  won't  beheve  it !  " 
"  It's  the  truth,  Patrice." 

"  You  lie  !  You  lie  !  "  cried  the  officer,  unable  to  restrain 
himself  any  longer,  while  his  grief  distorted  his  face  out  of 
all  recognition. 

"  Ah,  I  see  you  have  guessed  it !  Then  I  need  not  ex- 
plain.    .     .     ." 

"  You  lie  !  You're  just  a  common  scoundrel  1  ...  If 
what  you  say  is  true,  why  did  you  plot  against  Coralie  and 
me  ?    Why  did  you  try  to  murder  the  two  of  us  ?  " 

V"  I  was  mad,  Patrice.  Yes,  I  go  mad  at  times.  All  these 
tragedies  have  turned  my  head.  My  own  Coralie's  death  .  . 
and  then  my  life  in  Essares'  shadow  .  .  .  and  then  .  . 
and  then,  above  all,  the  gold  !  .  .  ,  Did  I  really  try  to 
kill  you  both  ?  I  no  longer  remember.  Or  at  least  I  remem- 
ber a  dream  I  had  :  it  happened  in  the  lodge,  didn't  it,  as 
before  .''  Uh,  madness!  What  a  torture  1  I'm  like  a  man  in 
the  galleys,  I  have  to  do  things  against  my  will !  .  .  .  Then 
it  was  in  the  lodge,  was  it,  as  before.'  And  in  the  same 
manner  ?  With  the  same  implements  .'  .  .  .  Yes,  in  my 
dream,  I  went  through  all  my  agony  over  again  .  .  .  and 
that  of  my  darling.  .  .  .  But,  instead  of  being  tortured, 
1  was  the  torturer.  .  .  .  What  a  torment  1  " 
">Hc  spoke  low,  inside  himself,  with  hesitations  and  inter- 
vals and  an  unspeakable  air  of  suffering.  Don  Luis  kept 
his  eyes  fixed  on  him,  as  though  trying  to  discover  what  he 
was  aiming  at.     And  Simeon  continued  : 

"  My  poor  Patrice  !     .     .     .     I  was  so  fond  of  you  !     .     . 
And  now  you  are  my  worst  enemy !     .     .     .     How  indeed 
could   it    be   otherwise  ?     .     ...     How  could   you   forget  ? 
.     .     .     Oh,  why  didn't  they  lock  me  up  after  Essares'  death  ? 
It  was  then  that  I  felt  my  brain  going     .     .     ." 
"  So  it  was  3'ou  who  killed  him  ?  "  asked  Patrice. 
"  No.  no,  that's  just  it  :  somebody  else  robbed  me  of  my 
revenge." 
"  Who  ?  " 
"  I  don't  know     .     .     .      The  whole  business  is     incom- 


.     Don't  speak  of  it     .     .     .     It 
have   suffered  so  since  Coralie's 


.     As  for  little  Coralie, 
.     ,     .     She  ought  not  to 

in  agony. 


prehensible  to  me  .  . 
all  pains  me  ...  1 
death  !  " 

"  Coralie  !  ^'  exclaimed  Patrice. 
"  Yes,  the  woman  I  loved     . 
I've  suffered  also  on  her  account 
have  married  Essarte." 

Where  is  she  ?  "  asked  Patrice 
"  I  can't  tell  you." 
"  You  mean  she's  dead,"  cried  Patrice. 
Simi'on  stopped  and  gave  a  glance  at  Don  Luis  : 
"  Tell  him  to  go  away,"  he  said. 
Don  Luis  lauglied. 

"  Of  course  !  Lit  le  Mother  CoraHe  is  hidden  in  the  same 
place  as  the  bags  of  gold.  To  save  her  means  surrendering 
the  bags  of  gold." 

"  Well  ?  "  said  Patrice,  in  an  almost  aggressive  tone. 
"  Well,  captain,"  replied  Don  Luis,  not  without  a  certain- 
touch  of  banter  in  his  voice,  "if  this  honourable  gentleman 
suggested  that  you  should  release  him  on  parole  so  that  he 
might  go  and  fetch  your  Coralie,  I  don't  supp  se  you'd 
accept  ?  ' 
"  No." 

"  You  haven't  the  least  confidence  in  him,  have  you  ? 
And  you're  right.  The  honourable  gentleman,  mad  though 
he  may  be,  gave  such  proofs  of  mental  superiority  and  balance, 
when  he  sent  us  trundling  down  the  road  to  Mantes,  that  it 
would  be  dangerous  to  attach  the  least  credit  to  his  promises. 
The  consequence  is  .  .  ." 
;;  WeU  ?  " 

"  This,  captain,  that  the  honourable  gentleman  means  to 
propose  a  bargain  to  you,  which  may  be  couched  thus : 
'  You  can  have  Coralie,  but  I'll  keep  the  gold.'  " 

"  I  presume  that  you  won't  raise  any  opposition.  It's  a 
matter  of  a  woman's  Hfe." 

"  No   doubt.     But,   on  the  other  hand,   it's  a  matter  of 
three  hundred  million  francs." 
"  Then  you  refuse  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Don  Luis,  preserving  his  coolness.  "  Yes, 
Captain  Belval,  I  refuse  this  bargain,  which  I  consider  absurd. 
Wh}^  it's  the  confidence  trick  !  By  Jingo  !  Three  hundred 
millions  !  Give  up  a  windfall  Hkc  that  ?  Never  !  But  I 
haven't  the  least  objection  to  leaving  you  alone  with  the  hon- 
ourable gentleman.  That's  what  he  wants,  isn't  it  ?  " 
"  Yes." 

"  Well,  talk  it  over  between  yourselves.  Sign  the  compact. 
The  honourable  gentleman,  who,  for  his  part,  has  every 
confidence  in  his  son,  will  tell  you  the  whereabouts  of  the 
hiding-place  ;  and  you  shall  release  your  Coralie." 

"  And  you  ?     What  about  you  ?  "  snarled  Patrice,  angrily. 

"  I  ?     I'm  going  to  complete  my  little  enquiry  into  the 

present  and  the  past  by  revisiting  the  room  where  you  nearly 

met   your  death.     See   you  later,   captain.     And,   whatever 

you  do,  insist  on  guarantees." 

Switching  on  his  pocket  lamp,  Don  Luis  entered  the  lodge 
and  walked  straight  to  the  studio.     Patrice  saw  the  electric 
rays  playing  on  the  panels  between  the  walled-up  windows. 
He  went  back  to  where  Simeon  sat  : 

"  Don't  waste  time,"  said  Patrice,  impatiently.     "  Get  to 
CoraUe." 
"  I've  told  you,  Coralie  was  alive."  ' 

"  She  was  alive  when  you  left  her  ;  but  since  then     .     .     .'* 
"  Yes,  since  then     .     .     ." 

"  Since  then,  what  ?     You  seem  to  have  your  doubts."  ' 
"  It  was  last  night,   five  or  six  hours    ago,    and    I    am 
afraid     .     .     ." 

Patrice  felt  a  cold  shudder  run  down  his  back.  He  would 
have  given  anything  for  a  decisive  word  ;  and  at  the  same  time 
he  was  almost  strangling  the  old  man  to  punish  liim.  He 
mastered  himself,  however  : 


"  Don't  let's  waste  time,"  he  repeated. 
to  go." 

"  No,  we'll  go  together." 


Tell  me  where 


"  You  haven't  the  strength. 


it's  not  far.       Only, 


"  Yes,  yes,  I  can  manage 
only,  Usten  to  me     .     .     ." 

The  old  man  seemed  utterly  exhausted.     From  time  to  time 
his   breathing   was   interrupted,    as   though    Ya-Bon's   hand 
(  Continued  on  page  2  2j 


March  8,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


MII.I  I  ARV  COMPASSKS 

Treated  with  Radium  Compound.     Always  Luminous  at  night  without 
exposure  to  suniisnt. 


CAVALRY   SCHOOL 
COMPASS. 


Dial  Floating  in  Liquid 
Quick  letting. 


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£3.15.0 

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EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS  FROM  THE 

FRONT  :- 
"  The  most  useful  iirticle  id  my  kit." 
"  I  hear  nothing  but   praise  of  your  iamip 
on  tl;i.ti  side." 

"  You     have     made    your     name     famous 
aniou^st  officers." 

THE  ORILUX  LAMP  is  fitted  with  switches 
for  intermittent  and   for  constant  light. 
Th«  light  can  be  turned  on  without  opening 
the    case,    which    is    fitted    witli    a   liood    to 
tliruw    llic    Lglit    donuwards.     Tlie  case  is  provided  witli  loops  for  attaching  to  thu 
belt,  and   proTi&ion  is   made   in  it  for  carrying  a  spare  bulb. 


Tr 


ice 


4:1 .  1  .  o 


/  Postage    to    the  \ 
^  Front,    1/-    extra  ' 


Extra    Battery    in   sealed  tin,  2/.  (Postage  to  the  Front,  1/.  extra). 
80i.E    MAKEIiS—  Extra  Bulb,  1/6,  postage  2d. 

J.  H.  S  TEWARD,  Ltd.,    •-"■'^^"iA.JSSr"**"" 

406    Strand,    457    Strand,    London. 


AN    EXCELLENT 

OFFICERS' 
MACINTOSH 


Made  of  the  finest  double 
texture  Paramatta,  with  deep 
overlay,  belt  and  shoulder 
straps,  the  style  of  this  coat 
is  exactly  what  is  required 
by  officers  at  the  present 
time.  The  greatest  care  is 
taken  in  every  detail  of 
its  manufacture  to  ensure  the 
coat  hanging  comfortably  on 
the  wearer  and  keeping  him 
dry  under  the  worst  possible 
weather  conditions-  Every 
coat  is  tested  and  guaran- 
teed   absolutely    waterproof. 

Price     -     £3.10.0 

Detachable  camel  fleece  lin- 
ing,    three  -  quarter     length. 

Extra     -      £1.7.6 


Dunhills 

LTD., 

2  Conduit  Street,  London,  W. 

MANCHESTER :  GLASGOW 

90-92  Croa  Street.  72  St.  Vincent  Street. 


ABSOLUTELY 

WATERPROOF.. 


WESTFIELD" 


THREE     III     Pl-y 


(Rjs^d) 


TRENGH-WARM 


The  ORIGINAL  and  ONLY 
Trench  Coal definitelyguaranteed 
absolutely  and  permanently 
Waterproof. 

CALL  and  SEE  the  Goat  in 
the  process  of  making. 

Proof  of  our  assertion  readily  and 
instantly  apparent. 

As  supplied  lo  Officers  of — 

The  Royal  Naval  Air  Service. 
The    Royal    Naval    Division. 
The  Royal  Flying  Corps, 
and     to     practically     every 
Regiment  {Cavalry  and  In- 
lantry)  in  the  British  Army. 

Price   ...  £4-  14   6 

42  inches  long. 
Price  ...  .*55    5    O 

48  in(;hes  long. 


Detachable  Fleece  Lining,  fil  11  6 
DetachableSheepsl<in,extra.£3  136 
Detachable  Wallaby,  extra,  £6166 
Detachable  FurCollar,extra,€1    1    O 

All  jizes  in   stock.      Send    CliesI    Measurement 
(over  Tunic)  and  approximate    height. 


IWEST    &    SON,    LTD., 

KEOI MENTAL    TAILORS  AND    OUTFITTERS. 

Field  House,  152  New  Bond  Street.  London,  W. 


Tflej^rams:   " WnstcanatI,  We-^do.,  London," 


Tiieptione:   Mayfair  876  fa  lincsl. 


.THOUGH  Drtbional  necessity  still  demands  the 
'?ntire  output  of  our  *orks,  yet  we  look  with 
kf'tMi  anticipation  ,for  tins  day  when  the  Britifih 
Motoring  l*ubUc  '  shall  benefit  by  the  unique 
iiiiinufacturing  experience  which  we  have  gained 
in  the  produetion  of 


SUNBEAM 

CARS    AND    AMBULANCES,    AS     WELL    AS 

SUNBEAM- CO ATALEN 

AIRCRAFT    ENGINES 

The  postwar  Sunlxjam  car  will  he  a  more  wonilorCul 
production  than  ever ;  we  fthall  have  won  a  r'lace  seeond  lo 
none  upon  the  tablet  of  British  car  inanufactiirers.  ami  it 
will  then  be  our  aim  to  "consolidate  the  grounj  won," 
Ity  givinii  our  enthusiastic   attention   to  civil  requireiients. 


THE    SUNBEAM    MOTOR    CAR    CO.,   LTD. 


22 


LAND     &    WATER 


March  8,  1917 


{ConliHued  from  pa^e  20) 
were  still  clutching  him  by  the  throat,  and  he  sank  into  a 
heap,  moaning. 
Patrice  stooped  over  him  : 

"  I'm  listening,"  he  said.     "  But  for  God's  sake,  hurry  !  " 
"  All  right,"  said  Simeon.     "  All  right.     She'll  be  free  in  a 
fow  minutes.     But  on  one  condition,  just  one     .     .     .  Patrice 
you  must  swear  to  me  on  Coralie's  head  that  you  will  not  touch 
ilie  gold  and  that    no  one  shall  know     .     .     ." 
"  I  swear  it  on  her  head." 

Patrice  had  taken  the  two  arms  of  this  man  who  was  his 
father  and  whom  he  had  never  detested  with  greater 
vehemence.  He  was  imploring  him  with  all  the  strength  of 
liis  being.  He  would  have  shed  tears,  had  he  thought  that 
the  old  man  would  allow  himself  to  be  moved  by  tears. 
"  What  is  it  .'  " 

"  I'll  tell  you.     Listen.     He's  there,  isn't  he  ?  " 
'  Yes." 

"  In  the  studio  ?  " 
•  Yes." 

'  In  that  case     .     .     .     ne  mustn't  come  out.     .     .     ." 
'  How  do  you  mean  .'  "  , 

Xo,  he  must  stay  there  until  we've  done  " 
■  But.     .     .     ." 

"  It's  quite  easy.     Listen  carefully.     You've  only  to  make 
a  movement  to  shut  the  door  on  him.     The  lock  has    been 
forced,  but  there  are  the  two  bolts  ;   and  those  will  do.     Do 
you  consent  ?  " 
Patrice  rebelled  : 

"But  you're  mad.  /  consent,  I?  .  .  .  Why,  the 
man  saved  my  life  !     .     .     .     He  saved  Coralie !  " 

"  But  he's  doing  for  her  now.     Think  a  moment  :    if  he 
were  not  there,  if  he  were  not  interfering,  Coralie  would  be 
free.     Do  vou  accept  ?  " 
"  No." 

"  Why  not  ?    Do  you  know  what  that  man  is  ?    A  highway 
robber     ...     a   wretch   who   has   only   one   thought,    to 
get  hold  of  the  millions.     And  you  have  scruples !     Come, 
it's  absurd,  isn't  it  ?     ...     Do  you  accept  '  " 
"  No  and  again  no  !  " 

"  Then  so  much  the  worse  for  Coralie.     .     .     .     Oh,  yes, 
I  see  you  don't  realise  the  position  exactly !    It's  time  you 
did  Patrice.     Perhaps  it's  even  too  late." 
"  Oh,  don't  say  that  !  " 

"  Yes,  yes,  you  must  learn  the  facts  and  take  your  share  of 
the  responsibility.  When  that  damned  negro  was  chasing 
me,  I  got  rid  of  Coralie  as  best  I  could,  intending  to  release 
her  in  an  hour  or  two.  And  then  .  .  .  and  then  you 
know  what  happened.  ...  It  was  eleven  o'clock  at 
night  .  .  .  nearly  eight  hours  ago.  ...  So  work 
it  out  for  yourself.     .     .     ." 

Patrice  wrung  his  hands.  Never  had  he  imagined  that  a 
man  could  be  tortured  to  such  a  degree.  And  Simeon  con- 
tinued, unrelentingly  : 

"  She  can't  breathe,  on  my  soul  she  can't !  .  .  .  Per- 
haps just  a  very  little  air  reaches  her,  but  that  is  all.  .  .  . 
Then  again  I  can't  tell  that  all  that  covers  and  protects  her 
hasn't  given  way.  If  it  has,  she's  suffocating  .  .  .  while 
you  stand  here  arguing.  .  .  .  Look  here,  can  it  matter 
to  you  to  lock  up  that  man  for  ten  minutes  ?  .  .  .  Only 
ten  minutes,  you  know.  And  you  still  hesitate  !  Then  it's 
you  who  are  kilhng  her,  Patrice.  Think  .  .  .  buried 
alive  !  " 

Patrice  drew  himself  up.  His  resolve  was  taken.  At 
that  moment,  he  would  have  shrunk  from  no  act,  however 
painful.     And  what  Simeon  asked  was  so  little  1 

"  What  do  you  want  me  to  do  ?  "  he  asked.  "  Give  your 
orders." 

"  You  know  what  I  want,"  said  the  other.  "  It's  quite 
simple.     Go  to  the  door,  bolt  it  and  come  back  again." 

The  officer  entered  the  lodge  with  a  firm  step  and  walked 
through  the  hall.  The  light  was  dancing  up  and  down  at  the 
far  end  of  the  studio. 

Without    a    word,    without    a   moment's    hesitation,    he 
suimmed  the  door,  shot  both  the  bolts  and  hastened  back. 
He  felt  relieved.     The  action  was  a  base  one,  but  he  never 
doubted  that  he  had  fulfilled  an  imperative  duty. 
That  s  it,"  he  said.     "  Let's  hurry." 
"  Help  me  up,"  said  the  old  man.     "  I  can't  manage  by 
myself." 

Patrice  took  him  under  the  armpits  and  lifted  him  to  his 
Uet.  But  he  had  to  support  him,  for  the  old  man's  legs  were 
swaying  beneath  him. 

■  Oh,  curse  it  !  "  blurted  Simeon.  "  That  blasted  nigger 
has  done  for  me.     I'm  suffocating  too,  I  can't  walk." 

Patrice  almost  carried  him,  while  Simeon,  in  the  last  stage 
of  weakness,  stammered  : 

"  This  way.     .     .     .     Now  straight  ahead.     ..." 
'Hiey  passed  the  corner  of  the  lodge  and  turned  their  steps 
■  u  .  c  ds  the  graves. 


"  You're  quite  sure  you  fastened  the  door  ?  "  the  old  man 
continued.  "  Yes,  I  heard  it  slam.  Oh,  he's  a  terrible 
fellow,  that !  You  have  to  be  on  3'our  guard  with  him  !  But 
you  swore  not  to  say  anything,  didn't  you  ?  Swear  it  again, 
by  your  mother's  memory.  .  .  no,  better,  swear  it  by 
Coralie.  .  .  .  May  she  die  on  the  spot  if  you  betray  your 
oath  !  " 

'  He  stopped.  A  spasm  prevented  his  going  any-  further 
until  he  had  drawm  a  little  air  into  his  lungs.  Nevertheless 
he  went  on  talking  : 

"  I  needn't  worry,  need  I  ?  Besides,  you  don't  care  abou? 
gold.  That  being  so,  "why  should  you  speak  ?  Never  mind, 
swear  that  you  will  be  silent.  Or,  look  here,  give  me  yoiu" 
word  of  honour.     That's  best.     Your  word,  eh  ?  " 

Patrice  was  still  holding  him  round  the  waist.  It  was 
a  terrible,  long  agony  for  the  officer,  this  slow  crawl  and  this 
sort  of  embrace  which  he  was  compelled  to  adopt  in  order 
to  effect  Coralie's  release.  As  he  felt  the  contact  of  the 
detested  man's  body,  he  was  more  inclined  to  squeeze  the 
life  out  of  it.  And  yet  a  vile  phrase  kept  recurring  deep 
down  within  him  : 

"  I  am  his  son,  I  am  his  son.     .     .     ." 
"  It's  here,"  said  the  old  man. 
"  Here  ?    But  these  are  the  graves." 

"  Coralie's  grave  and  mine.  It's  what  we  were  making 
for." 

"  I  say,  the  footprints  !  You'll  get  rid  of  them  on  the  way 
back,  won't  you  ?  For  he  would  find  om-  tracks  otherwise 
and  he  would  know  that  this  is  the  place.     .     .     ." 

"  Let's  hurry.  ...  So  Coralie  is  here  ?  Down  there  ? 
Buried  ?    Oh,  how  horrible  1  " 

It  seemed  to  Patrice  as  if  each  minute  that  passed  meant 
more  than  an  hour's  delay,  and  as  if  Coralie's  safety  might  be 
jeopardised  by  a  moment's  hesitation  of  a  single  false  step. 
He  turned  round  in  alarm  : 

He  took  every  oath  that  was  demanded  of  him.  He  swore 
upon  Coralie's  head.  He  pledged  his  word  of  honour.  At 
that  moment,  there  was  not  an  action  which  he  would  not 
have  been  ready  to  perform. 

Simeon  knelt  down  on  the  grass,  under  the  little  temple, 
pointing  with  his  finger  ! 

"  It's  there,"  he  repeated.     "  Underneath  that." 
"  Under  the  tombstone  ?  " 
"  Yes." 

"  Then  the  stone  hfts  ?  "  asked  Patrice,  anxiously.  "  I 
can't  lift  it  by  myself.  It  can't  be  done.  It  would  take  three 
men  to  lift  that." 

"  No,"  said  the  old  man,  "  the  stone  swings  on  a  pivot. 
You'll  manage  quite  easily.  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  pull  at 
one  end     .     .     .     this  one,  on  the  right." 

Patrice  came  and  caught  hold  of  the  great  stone  slab  with 
its  inscription,  "  Here  lie  Pa'rice  and  Coralie,"  and  pulled. 

The  stone  rose  at  the  first  endeavour,  as  if  a  counterweight 
had  forced  the  other  end  down. 

"  Wait,"  said  the  old  man.  "  We  must  hold  it  in  position, 
or  It  will  fall  down  again.  You'll  find  an  iron  bar  at  the 
bottom  of  the  second  step." 

There  were  three  steps  running  into  a  small  cavity,  barely 
large  enough  to  contain  a  man  .stooping.  Patrice  saw  the 
iron  bar  and,  propping  up  the  stone  with  his  shoulder,  took 
the  bar  and  set  it  up. 

"  Good,"  said  Simeon.  "  That  will  keep  it  steady.  What 
you  must  now  do  is  to  lie  down  in  the  hollow.  This  was  where 
my  coffin  was  to  have  been  and  where  I  often  used  to  come 
and  lie  beside  my  dear  Coralie.  I  would  remain  for  hours, 
flat  on  the  ground,  speaking  to  her.  .  .  .  We  both 
talked.  .  .  .  Yes,  I  assure  you,  we  used  to. talk.  .  .  . 
Oh,   Patrice !     .     .     ." 

Patrice  had  bent  his  tall  figure  in  the  narrow  space  where 
he  was  hardly  able  to  move. 

"  What  am  I  to  do  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Don't  you  hear  your  Corahe  ?  There's  only  a  partition- 
wall  between  you  :  a  fevv  bricks  hidden  under  a  thin  layer 
of  earth.  And  a  door.  The  other  vault,  Corahe's,  is  beliind 
it.     And  behind  that  there's  a  third,  with  the  bags  of  gold." 

The  old  man  was  bending  over  and  directing  the  search  as 
he  knelt  on  the  grass  : 

"  The  door's  on  the  left.     Furtner  than  that.     Can't  yox. 
find  it  ?    That's  odd.     You  mustn't  be  too  slow  about  it, 
though.     Ah,  have  you  got  it  now  ?     No  ?    Oh,  if  I  could 
only  go  down  too  !   But  there's  not  room  for  more  than  one.'» 
There  was  a  brief  silence.     Then  he  began  again  : 
"  Stretch  a  bit  further.     Good.     Can  you  move  ?  " 
"  Yes,"  said  Patrice. 

"  Then  go  on  moving,  my  lad !  "  cried  the  old  man,  with  a 
yell  of  laughter. 

And,  stepping  back  briskly,  he  snatched  away  the  iron  bar. 
The  enormous  block  of  stone  came  down  heavily,  slowly, 
because  of  the  counterweight,  but  with  irresistible  force. 
(To  be  continued). 


March  15,  igiy 


Supplement    to    LAND    &     WATER 


IX 


Officers  Riding  Breeches. 


Successful  breeches-making 
depends  on  the  following 
factors — fine  wear-resisting 
cloths,  skilful  cutting,  care- 
ful, thorough  tailor  -  work, 
and  adequate  experience. 
All  these  we  guarantee  and 
in  particular  the  last,  for  we 
have  been  breeches-makers 
since  1821,  ninety-six  years 
ago. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs 
of  breeches,  and  are  therefore  often 
able  to  meet  !nitned!ate  requirements, 
or  we  can  cut  and  try  a  pair  on  the 
same  day,  and  complete  then  ext  day, 
if  urgently  wanted. 


OUR  NEW  ALL- LEATHER  PUTTEES 

never  tear  or  fray  oat  at  the  edges  like  ordinary  puttees.  They 
are  made  entirely  of  fine  supple  tan  leather,  and  fatten 
simply  with  one  buckle  at  bottom  These  most  comfortable  good- 
looking  puttees  are  speedily  put  on  or  taken  off,  readily  mould  to  the 
shape  of  the  leg,  are  as  easily  cleaned  as  a  leather  belt,  and 
saddle  soap   soon  makes  them  practically  waterproof. 

The  price  per  pair  is  16'6_post  free  inland,  or  postage  abroad  1/  extra,  or  sent  on 
aoproval  on  receipt  of  business  (not  banker's)  reference  and  home  address.  Please  give 
size  of  calf  


GRANT  ASD  COCKBURN 


ESTD.    1821- 


Legging   Maker*, 
Military  and  Civil  Tuilort, 


25   PICCADILLY,    W. 


'O^^ 


\^^- 


Premier 

Delicacy  of  flavour  and  bouquet 
mark  the  super-quality  of  "Premier." 
An  inspired  blend  of  finest  Scotch 
Whiskies,  of  full  strength,  yet  beauti- 
fully light  and  smooth-  the  very 
finest  that  can  be  produced. 


Wright  &  Greif,  Ltd, 


-       Di-tltoraf       „ 

RODERICK  DHU 


-Ilia  i'i|i"^i..ii'i'  n 

PREMIER 


..yeRY  FINES' 


THE    ORIGINAL    CORDING'S    ESTD.     1839. 


The  ''Equitor''  Coat 

is  really  waterproof 


An  "  Equilor,''  with  snug 
fleece  woollen  lining  buttoned 
in,  makes  an  excellent  great- 
coat in  which  to  "travel  hghl,'' 
and  will  not  only  keep  a  man 
bone  dry  through  the  heaviest 
and  most  lasting  downpour, 
but  will  also  warmly  protect 
him  in  biting  cold  weather, 
and  may  therefore  be  relied 
upon  to  minimise  the  ill- 
effects  of  enforced  exposure 
at  night. 

Tlic  "K<|iutor"  is  flttert  with 
a  special  riding  apron  (unless 
ordered  without)  which  can  be 
fastened  conveniently,  out  of  sight, 
but  tile  coat  serves  just  as  well 
for  ordinary  wear  aioot.  whether 
the  apron  lie  fastened  bacli  or  not. 
In  our  light-weight  No.  31  material 
the  price  of  the  "Equitor"  is  92/6; 
of  our  No.  23  cashmere,  a  medium- 
weight  cloth,  115/-;  with  belt,  5/- 
extra ;  without  apron  (either 
cloth),  17/6  less. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat 
can  be  had  in  two  qualities- 
No.  1  (fine  wool),  62/6;  No.  2,  40/-. 

When  ordering  an  "Equitor"  Coat 
please  state  height  and  chest 
measure  and  send  remittance 
(which  will  be  returned  promptly 
if  the  coat  is  not  approved),  or 
give  home  address  and  business 
(not  banker's)  reference. 


Illustrated  List  at  request. 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  Ca  Z%Tt.7, 


King. 
Only  Addresses  : 

19 PICCADILLY,  W.,   &  35  st.  jamess  st.,  s.w. 


afk^^Pf^ 


nOYD'S  Elastic  Puttees 
••-'  are  neat  in  appear- 
ance, ancJ,  being  elastic, 
they  gently  grip  the  leg 
and  permit  the  normal 
action  of  the  veins  and 
muscles.  The  leg-tired- 
ness and  foot-heaviness 
from  which  so  many  men 
suffer  is  caused  by  wearing 
ordinary  puttees,  which 
must  be  tightly  wound  to 
keep  in  position. 


BOYDS  ELASTIC 

PUTTEES 

.yiir/e   from    the  'finest  Egyptian  Cotton  ami  be^t  Para  Rubber. 

Thr.y  are  very  durable,  waterproofed,  and  are  both   reversible 

and    interihangeable.      Fastened    by    Patent    Hooks    lop    and 

bottom,  /lUiking  them  eaay  to  put  on  and  take  off. 

BOYD'S  ELASTIC  PUTTEES  are  claimed  to  be  a  preventative  asainat,  and 
cure  for   varicose    veina. 
INFANTRY        irv/-     Per  Pair. 
CAVALRY  1  'J/  ~     Each  Pultee  bear,  a  meUl  l.b. 

Oj  all  lending  Military  Tailors    and    Outfitters.        If    any 
difficulty    m     procuring    write      to      the      Sole      Miiker.< — 
M.  WRIGHT  &  SONS.   LIMITED.  Quorn  Mills,  ne.r  Loughborough. 


X 


Supplement  to    LAND    &    WATER 


March  15,  1917 


WOOIMND  HATS 


for  Spring 


THE  Woolland 
Millinery 
Salons  express  ihe 
iatest  dictates  af 
Fashion  in  models 
oj  surpassing 
charm. 


Write    for 

Illustrated 

Catalogue 

of 

Spring 

Fashions 

post  free 

on  request. 


WOOLLAND  BROTHERS,  L.i  Knightsbridge,  LONDON,  S.W. 


Harvey  Nichols 

Knightsbridge    and     Sloane    Street,    LONDON. 


High-class  Hosiery- 

Our    Stocking    Department. 


in 


FINL  CASHMtRE.  HOSE 
in  all  colours.        Per  pair 

FINE.  WOOL 
SPORTING 
HOSE .  in  vari- 
ous designs 
and  colours,  to 
wear  with 
tweeds,  etc. 

Per  pair 

RIBBLD  SCOTCH 
WOOL  SPORT- 
ING HOSE.,  in 
plain  colours  and 
heather  mixtures 
Per  pair 

BLACK  SILK 
HOSE,  with 
lisle  feet  and 
tops,  made 
with  a  special 
garter  hem  to 
avoid  tears  by 
suspenders.  >1  / 1  1 
Per  pair  */  *  * 

RIBBED    LISLE 

HOSE,     in 

black    and  all 

new  shades. 

Per  pair 

FINE  PLAIN  LISLE  HOSE 
with  silk  embroidered 
clox  bbck  and  a  large 
selection  of  colours. 

Per  pair 


Footwear- 

for  the  Spring- 


39 


A   few  Examples. 


39 


PLJVIN     BLACK   CASH- 
MERE with  extra  wide 
tops,  medium  weight.     O  /|  | 
Per  pair  itj  il 

BLACK  RIBBED 
CASHMERE 
HOSE.  q/o 

Per  pair    0/0 

BLACK  HEAVY 
SILK  HOSE 
with  lisle  feel, 
with  coloured 
silk  border  tops, 
in  shades  of 
yellow,  purple 
and  royal,  to 
unable  same  to 
to  bo  kept  in 
pairs. 

Per  pair 

FRENCH  SILK 
HOSE,  with 
embroidered 
clox  in  all  the 
new  colours. 
Per  pair 

SPUN      SILK 

HOSE,        in 

>     black    and    all 

«-(»Iours,       with 

silk  clox. 

Per  pair 

COLOURED  ARTIFICIAL 
SILK  ■  HOSE,  also     in 
black.  Per  pair 


B.S.  30.    High-grade  croco- 
dile      lace      WALKING 
SHOE,      in      black     and    „_  ,^ 
brown,   Smart    but    com-    x7/K 
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Also    stocked    in    LANGTRY 
design  35/9. 


8/6 


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Toes,  Cuban  self  covered  heels  in 

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PATENT  LEATHER  28  6 
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NAVY  Do.  37/6 


4/6 
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B.S.  31.  Our  well-known  "CAR  IS- 
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GLACE  KID  LEATHERS  32/9 
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NIGGER        Do. 
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Season's  Catalogue  post  jree  on  request. 


3S/9 
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lindosed  cheque.  .  .  The 
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1  think  you  have  received  a 
good  many  orders  from  this 
force  from  Officers  who  have 
asked  my  ofjinion  on  it. 

Capt.  , 

H.Q.,  Sth  Bde.. 
Mesop.  E.F. 


KIT 


TSNT  it  .sheer  common  sense  to  get 
-■-your  Kit  where  you  know  it  will  be 
right  in  detail,  quality  and  cut? 

.\nd  does  it  not  stand  to  reason  that 
a  firm  which  has  provided  Kit  for 
Officers  in  every  War  since,  and  in- 
cluding the  Crimean,  must  be  able  to 
place  at  your  service  knowledge  and 
experience  that  mean  real  and  sub- 
stantial economies  for  30U  in  your 
Kit  buying  ? 

I  lere  originated  the  officially  recom- 
mended "  Thresher  "  Trench  Coat, 
worn  by  nearly  15,000  British.Officers. 

Thresher  &  Glenny  accept  contracts  for  a  lirnitcd 
number  of  Cadets  in  as  many  training  centres  as 
possible.  Invariably  the  opportunity  thus  afforded 
of  demonstrating  to  the  prospective  Officer  the 
value  and  style  of  "  Thresher  "  Kit  results  in  their 
receiving  the  completed  outfits  from  the  remain- 
ing Cadets  when  gazetted. 


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from  70/- 

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from  37/6 


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from  15/6 

,,    84/- 

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ISy  Ap^oiiitvu  nt  to 


H.M.  Ikt  Kin?. 


Feb.  gth,  1917. 
Please  find  enclosed  cheque  .  . 
.  .  in  settlement  of  my  account. 
1  have  much  pleasure  in  again 
stating  that  all  the  uniform  has 
given  complete  satisfaction.  I 
shall  have  no  hesitation  m 
recommending  you  to  any 
Cadets  gazetted  from  this 
Battalion. 

2nd  Lieut. , 

M.C.C.,  Ptrlright. 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

: 1 , 

THURSDAY,  MARCH   15.    1917 


IMPORTANT  NOTICE. 

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PAGE 

I 

o 

4 

II 

14 


CONTENTS 

Situation  in  America.     By  Louis  Raemaekers 

The  Dardanelles  Report  (Leader) 

Bagdad.     By  Hilaire  Bclloc 

The  Dardanelles  Report.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

Her  House  in  Order.     By  Mary  MacLeod  Moore 

Povert}/,  Prosperity  and  Prices.     By  Harold  Cox  13 

A  Perfect  Day.     By  an  O.T.C.  Recruit  17 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  18 

The  Golden  Triangle.     By  Maurice  Leblanc  20 

The  West  End  24 

Kit  and  Equipment.  xi. 


THE     DARDANELLES     REPORT 

tT  has  perhaps  been  necessary  for  that  portion  of  the 
press  which  is  professedly  political  to  deal  in  detail 
with  the  Commissioners'  report  upon  the  Dardanelles 
expedition.  We  publish  on  another  page  Mr. 
Pollen's  able  criticism  of  the  tactical  method  employed 
and  the  reasons  which  from  the  beginning  foredoomed 
the  enterprise  to  failure.  Beyond  that  we  do  not  pro- 
iwsc  to  examine  the  various  charges  made  in  the  report, 
for  no  political  attitude  to  what  is  essentially  a  poUtical 
document  can  either  advance  our  knowledge  of  the 
war  or  the  fortunes  of  this  campaign. 

What  has  indeed  been  stated  in  many  quarters,  but 
not  perhaps  sufficiently  reasoned  in  its  direct  military 
connection  with  the  enormous  struggle,  is  the  imprudence 
of  such  a  publication  at  this  moment.  It  is  utterly 
besides  the  mark  to  bandy  arguments  upon  the  respon- 
sibility for  this  publication.  One  man  will  point  out 
that  the  Commission  was  ordered  and  that  therefore 
the  publication  of  this  document  implicitly  ordered  also 
by  the  late  Government  ;  another  will  insist  upon  the 
responsibihty  of  the  present  Government  for  the  pub- 
lication ;  a  third  will  concern  hirnself  with  the  personnel 
of  the  Commission  and  will  lay  stress  according  to  his 
fancy  upon  this  individual  or  that.  All  such  discussions 
at  this  moment  are  vain  and  show  an  inability  to  grasp 
the  scale  of  the  war.  Everyone  should  realize  how 
vitally  necessary  domestic  peace  is  in  such  a  crisis,  and 
how  equally  necessary  the  concealment  from  the  enemy 
of  any  domestic  controversy  whatsoever. 

War  is  always  a  matter  in  which  victory  is  decided 
by  concentration  of  energy.  Upon  the  degree,  the 
tenacity,  the  continuance  of  that  concentration,  victory 
depends  ;  and  victory  in  the  tremendous  issue  of  this 
abnormal  campaign,  is,  without  rhetoric  and  without 
exaggeration,  life  or  death  for  this  country.  Any 
excitement  or  emotion  not  directed  towards 
military  efficiency  in  action,  in  organisation,  or  even 
in  opinion,  is  a  waste — and  not-  an  ounce  of  waste  can 
be  afforded  when  such  waste  affects  the  energy,  not  only 
of  the  governed  (which  it  must  in  some  degree)  but 
especially   of   the   Governors   themselves.     Everyone   is 


fully  aware  by  this  time  that  controversy  of  an  acute 
kind  has  arisen.  It  was  inevitable.  That  controversy 
has  affected,  not  only  the  governed,  but  the  Governors. 
It  docs  dissipate  energy,  for  the  moment  at  least,  to  a 
most  deplorable  degree.  Our  whole  duty  is  surely  to 
check  anything  of  the  kind  at  the  outset. 

The  enemy  has  suffered  from  the  most  appalling 
blunders  due  to  personal  vanity  in  his  leaders,  stupidity, 
sloth,  and  individual  irritability.  But  he  has  never 
allowed  these  things  to  be  made  public.  We  discover 
them  only  in  their  consequences.  We  are  not  able  to 
examine  them  in  detail  in  his  own  publications,  to  draw 
our  conclusions  and  to  form  our  plans  accordingly.  Ho 
can  do  so  jfrom  our  publications.  That  is  the  supreme 
military  error  of  the  whole  affair,  and  in  time  of  war — ■ 
especially  in  such  a  war  as  this — it  is  military  error  which 
is  the  gravest  and  perhaps  the  only  one  that  counts. 

It  cannot  be  agreed  that  the  publication  was  of  value 
as  a  deterrent.  It  has  come  too  late  by  far  in  the  campaign 
for  that  ;  nor  will  its  lessons  appreciably  affect  the  con- 
ditions which  still  remain  essentially  political  and  civilian. 
If  anyone  desires  an  object-lesson  on  the  matter,  let  him 
detach  himself  from  the  private  interest  of  political  life 
in  this  country  and  consider  the  parallel  of  a  fully  pub- 
lished report  in  Germany  upon  the  Marne.  The  Dar- 
danelles was  a  failure  in  a  secondary  theatre  of  war^ 
where  success  might  indeed  have  discovered  a  primary 
theatre,  but  where  defeat  did  not  and  could  not  produce 
disastrous  consequences.  The  Marne  was  a  defeat 
which  changed  the  whole  course  of  the  war  and  of  human 
history  for  countless  generations  to  come.  All  the 
energy,  the  preparations,  the  very  soul  of  modern  Germany 
were  lost  at  the  Marne.  Modern  Germany  will  never 
be  itself  again.  Before  the  Marne,  say  on  September  7th, 
it  was  rapidly  conquering  and  apparently  invincible. 
After  the  Marne,  say  on  September  14th,  it  was  a  power 
defending  itself  as  best  it  could  from  encirclement, 
and  ever  since  it  has  been  a  power  lighting  only  to  survive. 
This  enormous  catastrophe  befell  our  enemy  in  the  very 
first  days  of  the  campaign  when  there  was  still  time  for 
a  public  criticism  to  have  corrective  effect,  and  still 
time  for  Berlin  to  profit  from  the  lesson.  Yet  conceive 
what  a  report  upon  the  Marne  would  have  meant  to 
us  !  We  should  have  known  which  of  the  German  Com- 
manders suffered  from  what  failings  of  temper  or  incon- 
sequences ;  what  part  the  ill-restrained  vanify  of  the 
Emperor  had  had  in  the  misdirection  of  affairs  ;  what 
counteracted  and  nulhfied'the  genius  of  what  generals  ; 
what  was  weak  in  the  Government  machine,  what  strong. 
We  should  have  had  laid  bare  to  us,  as  it  were,  the 
enemy's  mind  in  an  unexampled  fashion,  as  an  aeroplane 
reveals  the  physical  movement  of  troops  which  has 
hitherto  been  hidden.  Such  a  document  would  have 
been  the  key  to  half  of  those  problems  which  still  demand 
our  research  and  our  patience. 

Now  it  would  be  an  exaggeration,  of  course,  to  pretend 
that  the  error  of  publishing  the  Dardanelles  report, 
and  even  the  Government's  tolerance  of  the  venomous 
comment  to  which  it  has  given  rise,  is  comparable  in 
scale  to  what  a  report  on  the  Marne  would  have  been  ; 
.  but  it  is  parallel  in  character. 

It  is  not  during  the  course  of  war,  it  is  not  in  the  very 
crisis  of  the  struggle,  that  we  can  afford  to  do  these  things. 
Very  much  will  have  to  be  sifted  when  the  time  for 
sifting  comes,  to  be  fully  debated,  to  be  presented  to 
public  opinion,  and  possibly  to  be  judged  (with  certain 
unpleasant  consequences)  by  the  nation  as  a  whole.  The 
time  for  all  that  is  after  the  war,  and  most  assuredly  the 
worst  things  that  must  be  most  severely  condemned  and, 
if  public  life  is  to  remain  whole,  most  severely  punished, 
will  not  be  the  initial  errors  made  in  good  faith  and  due 
to  the  prodigious  novelty  of  such  an  event,  but  other 
deliberate  actions  with  baser  motives  behind  them. 


LAND    iS:    WATER 


March  15,  lyj-/ 


Battle   of  the   Diala  and  Bagdad 


By   Hilairc   Belloc 


BAGDAD  has  a  political  iiiipoiiuniv  wliirh  ivciy- 
bddy  recognises,  and  which  WDuld  make  the 
permanent  occnpation  of  it  thronj^'iiont  the 
remainder  of  the  war  the  most  important  of  all 
secondary  operations. 

It  would  not,  of  course,  be  in  any  way  decisive.  The 
Turkish  armies  might  abandon  the  whole  of  Asia  west 
of  the  jqlh  degree  of  longitude,  that  is,  all  Armenia  and 
all  Persia  and  Mesopotamia,  and  be  only  slrci/cgically 
the  stronger  for  such  a  withdrawal,  liut  that  with- 
drawal will  not  take  place  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  menace 
to  the  extreme  east  of  the  Turkish  Empire  will  continue 
to  draw  troops  there,  because  we  are  not,  in  the  case  of 
that  Empire,  lighting  a  homogeneous  nation,  nor  even  a 
centralised  polity.  The  political  factor — the  belief  that 
the  existing  government  can  "  make  good  " — counts 
very  heavily  indeed  in  the  general  strength  of  this  one 
among  the  several  Allies  opposed  to  us,  and  if  the 
Young  Turkish  oligarchy  at  Constantinople  cannot  hold 
Mesopotamia  and  loses  all  hope  of  influencing  Persia 
during  the  rest  of  the  war,  it  will  be  grievously  sliaken. 


Apart  ironi  this  powerful  political  i  imsideration,  or  at 
least  only  indirectly  connected  with  it,  the  advance  up  the 
Mesopotamian  I^lain  ujion  Bagdad  had  a  strong 
strategical  reason  to  warrant  it. 

The  Turkish  Empire  had  last  autunm  fifty  divisions 
organised  and  in  the  lield. 

They  were  certainly  not  at  full  strength  and  some  of 
them  had  been  so  depleted  (so  far  as  our  information 
goes),  that  a  reorganisation  was  neccssajy  somewhere 
about  November  last.  After  this  reorganisation  the 
number  of  divisions  in  active  use  was  reduced  to  47. 

We  may  then,  I  think,  fairly  safely  say  that  this 
member  of  the  Alliance  against  us  is  still  working  with 
about  47  divisions,  very  few  of  which  are  up  to  full 
strength. 

But  it  so  happens  that  in  this  war  tliese  forces  ha\e 
to  be  dispersed  in  the  most  awkward  fashion,  and  some 
of  them  at  the  end  of  exceedingly  long  and  diflicult 
communications. 

There  are  two  divisions  in  Galicia  (the  XVth  Corps)  ; 
perhaps  three  upon  either  side  of  the  Danube  ;    at  least 


jif  lao       !oo      3CO        *c-7      ^Bo      eca        7aa       Ax?       soo       taoo 


^ilos 


Sketch  showing  wcde 
dLSpersCati  oftrlier 
Seven  Turkish  Tronts 


hamoaan. 


\ 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &■■  WATER 


one  upon  the  Macedonian  front,  and  an  unknown  number 
kept  between  that  front  and  the  capital  in  Europe.  In 
Asia  there  are  no  less  than  four  fronts,  including,  as  to 
two  of  them,  a  very  large  number  of  separate  posts. 
Ther^  is  the  Armenian  front ;  the  Syrian  front ;  the 
Persian  front,  and  the  Mesopotamian,  or  the  Irak  front, 
as  the  enemy  calls  it. 

I. — The  Armenian  front  faced  by  considerable  Russian 
forces,  and  having  suffered  the  loss  of  Trebizond,  its 
main  port,  and  Erzerum,  its  original  main  depot  and 
l)ase  of  action,  extends  for  some  300  miles  in  a  chain 
across  very  difficult  moimtainous  country  from  the 
Black  Sea  to  the  south  of  Lake  Van.  It  is  now  based 
upon  Sfvas,  200  miles  west  of  Erzerum,  and  occupies  two 
whole  armies,  the  2nd  and  the  3rd  Turkish.  This  new 
base  has  been,  according  to  Russian  accounts,  recently 
fortified  very  heavily.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the 
railhead  which  a  year  ago  was  at  Angora  (yet  another 
200  miles  behind  Sivas)  has  now  come  nearer  to  the  latter 
town,  but  there  can,  as  yet,  be  no  complete  railway 
communication. 

II. — The  front  in  Persia,  though  occupying  com- 
paratively small  separate  bodies,  necessitates  the  use  of 
a  number  of  those  bodies.  There  was  until  lately  a 
Turkish  body  at  Sihna,  I  believe,  and  smaller  ones 
further  north.  Tlie  main  body  was  pushed  forward  as 
far  as  Hamadan  on  the  only  road  which  exists  in  all  this 
region,  which  road  I  propose  to  describe  in  detail.  In 
the  mountain  regions  to  the  south  of  this  road  there  were 
other  small  bodies  watching.  All  this  Persian  front  was 
based  upon  Bagdad  for  reasons  which  will  appear  when 
we  discuss  this  road. 

There  remains  the  Mesopotamian  and  the  Syrian 
fronts^  which  alone,  are  restricttJd  and  possess  each  of 
them  a  tolerable  line  of  supply  supporting  a  concealed 
force.  The  Mesopotamian  front  stood  three  weeks  ago 
defending  Kut.  The  Syrian  front  stood  upon  the 
frontiers  of  Egypt  between  the  Dead  Sea  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean. 

in. — Furnishing  the  Syrian  front  was  the  railway 
wliich  has  been  carried  on  to  Beersheba,  the  present 
railhead,  and  surveyed  and  the  track  prepared  (but  the 
rails,  I  believe,  not  laid)  for  another  fifty  miles  further. 
This  front  it  has  been  necessary  for  the  enemy  to  hold  in 
some  strength,  both  because  it  is  severely  threatened 
by  the  British  advance  from  Egypt,  and  because  there 
lies  behind  it  the  most  valuable  of  the  distant  territories' 
of  the  Turkish  Empire,  the  whole  of  the  Levantine  coast. 
The  communications  of  this  front  suffer  from  the  necessity 
of  transhipment  at  a  break  of  gauge  in  the  railway,  but  are 
sufficient  to  maintain  a  large  body  of  troops,  having  upon 
them  considerable  food-producing  districts. 

IV.  The  Mesopotamian  front  was  supported  by  com- 
munications often  described  in  these  columns  :  First  a 
railway  with  through  communication  from  the  Bosphorus, 
going  at  least  as  far  as  Nisibin,  interrupted  in  the  Taurus 
mountains  (though  the  interruption  is  supplied  by  an 
excellent  motor  road)  continued  beyond  Nisibin  to  the 
Tigris  at  Mosul  by  motor  traffic,  and  from  Mosul  down 
to  Tekrit  (it  is  believed)  by  land  water  transport  down 
the  Tigris.  At  Tekrit  or  possibly  higher  up  tlae  stream 
at  the  present  moment,  comes  the  railhead  from  Bagdad 
itself ;  while  from  Bagdad  to  Kut  the  enemy  was  again 
dependent  upon  water  traffic  and  travel  along  the  track 
over  land  alongside  the  river. 

Over  and  above  these  widely  separated  fronts  with 
their  insufficient  communications  there  was  the 
necessity  of  using  troops  against  the  Arabs  in  revolt 
at  Mecca.  It  is  believed  that  the  number  of  the  troops 
detached  in  this  quarter  is  at  the  least  the  equivalent  of^ 
one  division,  if  not  more. 

The  breaking  of  the  Mesopotamian  front  at  Kut 
resulting,  last  Sunday,  in  the  occupation  of  Bagdad, 
is  the  leading  operation  against  the  Turks  of  this  season 
and  has  already  begun  to  affect  immediately  another 
front,  the  Persian,  which  is  of  necessity,  as  we  have  said, 
based  upon  Bagdad.  This  success  must  further  re- 
act in  the  near  future  upon  the  Syrian  front  and  even 
upon  the  Armenian.  For  the  Mesopotamian  front  has 
been  so  thoroughly  broken  that  a  war  of  movement 
has  been  restored  ;  a  war  of  movement  which  has  been 
most  vigorously  prosecuted  for  more  chan  a  fortnight . 
and  bids  fair  to  continue. 

It  was  upon    the  24th  of  February  that  the  British 


took  possession  of  Kut.  The  Turkish  forces  retreated 
before  them  with  the  utmost  rapidity,  by  forced  marches 
of  nearly  20  miles  a  day,  and  left  masses  of  material, 
something  like  40  guns,  and  thousands  of  prisoners 
behind  in  its  breakdown.  By  the  7th  of  March,  that  is, 
last  \\'ednesday,  the  British  cavalry  following  up  the 
Turkish  retirement  had  reached  the  last  obstacle  in  front 
of  Bagdad,  at  a  distance  of  100  miles  from  Kut.  This 
last  obstacle  is  the  river  Diala,  a  stream  perhaps  a  hundred 
yards  broad  at  this  season,  which,  at  its  nearest  point 
is  not  more  than  eight  hiiles  from  Bagdad,  and,  at  the 
point  where  it  falls  into  the  Tigris,  only  quite  a  short  day's 
march  from  the  city. 

On  the  evening  of  last  Wednesday,  March,  7th,  the 
British  cavalry,  pressing  on  in  front  of  the  army  and 
closely  following  the  precipitate  Turkish  retirement, 
were  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  Diala. 

On  the  morning  of  Thursday,  March  8th,  in  very  bad 
weather  with  high  gales  and  dust  storms  these  mounted 
forces  reconnoitred  the  obstacle  and  discovered  that  the 
further  bank  was  held  in  considerable  force  by  the 
enemy. 

The  situation  at  that  moment  will  be  best  understood 
by  referring  to  Map  II.  on  the  next  page,  which  shows 
upon  a  large  scale  the  nature  of  the  battlefield. 

T^he  battlefield  upon  which  the  fate  of  Bagdad  turned 
is  made  up  of  the  following  main  features  : 

There  is,  first  of  all,  the  town  itself,  which,  for  the 
tactical  consideration  of  such  a  matter  must  be  regarded 
principally  as  an  obstacle  upon  the  line  of  retreat  should 
the  enemy  be  forced  from  the  defensive  position  he  had 
taken  up. 

Bagdad  is  built  upon  both  sides  of  the  Tigris,  which  is 
here  about  300  yards  broad — that  is,  more  than  half  but 
not  three-quarters  of  the  breadth  of  the  Thames  at 
Westminster  bridge.  The  streets  on  both  sides  of  the  river 
are  a  maze  of  very  narrow  ways  through  which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  withdraw  any  considerable  force  in  rapid 
retirement.  Such  a  retirement,  therefore,  were  it  pressed, 
would  liave  to  fall  back  upon  either  side  of  the  city  or 
stand  prepared  to  lose  great  numbers  in  the  crush 
caused  bj'  the  obstacle  through  which  a  retirement  was 
conducted.  Further,  there  was  not  an  indefinite  choice 
of  ways  by  which  to  retire.  The  enemy  could  only  fall 
back  on  one  of  two  lines  :  either  up  the  Tigris  along  his 
main  line  of  communication  or  eastward  to  the  Euphrates. 
If  he  falls  up  the  Tigris  he  would  be  hampered  if  he  elected 
to  follow  the  left  or  eastern  bank,  for  he  would  be  delayed 
sooner  or  later  by  the  necessity  of  crossing,  the  railway 
running  almost  entirely  upon  the  other  side.  But  it  was 
precisely  upon  this  left  bank,  where  the  Diala  affords  an 
obstacle,  that  he  was  preparing  to  offer  the  chief  resist- 
ance. If  he  retired,  in  case  of  defeat,  by  the  right  bank, 
he  had  a  passage  two  miles  wide  between  the  river  and  the 
sheet  of  water  called  Lake  Akkar,  which  lies  to  the 
west  of  the  city.  Further,  this  last  possible  obstacle,  the 
Diala  was  too  close  to  the  town  to  give  much  elbow  room 
in  case  of  things  going  against  the  defence.  To  that 
obstacle  I  alluded  in  my  article  last  week  when  I  said 
that  the  last  line  of  defence  in  front  of  Bagdad  was  the 
Diala  River,  which  falls  into  the  Tigris  at  the  village 
of  Diala,  and  described  its  disadvantages,  the  necessity 
of  artificial  works  on  the  further  bank,  etc. 

In  peace  the  track  from  Kut  crossed  it,  just  above 
the  mouth,  by  a  bridge  of  boats  about  100  yards  long.  ■ 
This  bridge  had,  of  course,  been  cut  by  the  defence 
organised  upon  the  further  bank  of  the  stream.  Half 
way  between  Diala  and  Bagdad  at  Garada  a  bridgejof  boats 
spans  the  Tigds  leading  to  the  western  or  right  bank, 
and  providing,  therefore,  one  avenue  of  retreat  other 
than  the  difficult  one  through  the  city.  But  we  may 
suppose  the  enemy  to  have  had  plenty  of  opportunity  for 
throwing  more  bridges  of  this  kind  across.  Meanwhile, 
the  two  unknown  factors  in  the  whole  position  were 
first  the  strength  in  which  the  enemy  could  meet  the 
British  advance,  and  secondly,  the  power  that  advance 
might  have  to  command  the  river  and  to  act  (as  they 
did  below  at  Kut)  iipon  both  sides -of  it  indifferently. 

As  to  the  first  of  these  points,  it  was  clear  from  the 
nature  of  the  very  rapid  Turkish  retreat  after  the  loss  of 
Kut  and  from  the  first  stand  at  Sheik- Jsiad,  and  from  the 
elaborate  (but  later  abandoned)  works  at  Ctesiphon,  that 
the  enemy's  original  plan  was  to  hold  soirie  defensive 
position  in  front  of  Bagdad  while  awaiting — we  know 


LAND    &     WATER 


March  15,  1017 


r 


Mzin  "Brittsli  TostMon 


Zak&  ^kka.i 


f^  Turkish  IhsitLon 
T^  Turkish  TosiUmiy 


ta 


-\ 


'MlLtLS. 


not  in  what  strength — reinforcement  from  the  north. 

As  to  the  second,  the  British  command  of  the  river  on 
which  we  were  necessarily  kept  in  ignorance,  it  was 
bound  to  determine  the  whole  character  of  the  attack. 

The  Diala  is  an  obstacle  upon  the  east  of  the  Tigris 
only.  The  defensi\-e  line  is  not  prolonged  by  any  natural 
feature  upon  the  western  bank ;  therefore,  with  a 
superiority  of  force  and  witli  armed  boats  skilfully 
navigating  the  stream,  the  defensive  position  of  the 
Diala  reproduces  the  defensive  position  of  the  Sun-i-Yat 
positions  below  Kut,  when  the  natural  obstade  on  the 
fiirther  bank,  the  Shatt-el-Hai,  had  been  forced  and  the 
British  were  able  to  operate  in  flank  from  the  western 
bank  above  Kut — a  manoeuvre  which  decided  that  battle 
a  fortnight  before  the  battle  of  the  Diala.  There  is  no 
natural  obstacle  opposite  Diala  which  needs  forcing,  and 
the  obvious  tactic,  if  there  were  a  sufficient  superiority  of 
strength-  in  the  attack  and  a  command  of  the  river,  was 
to  turn  the  Diala  obstacle  by  an  attack  from  the  further 
side  of  the  stream  above,  that  obstacle.  • 

The  tactics  pursued  were  a  repetition  of  those  at  Kut — 
that  is,  a  double  attack  on  either  side  of  the  Tigris  made 
possible  by  the  British  command  of  that  river  ;  but  with 
this  difference  in  the  nature  of  the  operation,  that  at 
Kut  the  enemy  still  hoped  to  hold,  \\hile  in  front  of  Bagdad 
the  attack  vvas  clearly  dealing  with  a  rearguard  only,  the 
mass  of  the  eaiemy's  forces  having  already  been  with- 
drawn. Had  this  not  been  the  case  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  the  enemy,  seeing  the  rapidity  of  the  whole 
affair,  to  have  got  any  great  body  away  without  disaster. 
The  enemy  upon  the  further  bank  of  the  Diala,  and  in 
prepared  art'cficial  works  continuing  this  line  upon  the 
further  side  orf  the  stream,  was  fighting  an  action  to  delay 
pursuit  while  his  main  forces  continued  to  retire  beyond 
Bagdad.  In  other  words,  the  enemy  had  decided  that 
he  was  not  in  strength  for  a  main  action  and  could  not 
hope  to  engage  it  so  close  to  the  city. 

We  must  conclude  that  his  plan  was  changed  between 
the  beginning  af  the  retreat  from  Kut  and  the  Battle  of 
Diala.  T^e  reason  of  this  change  was  simply  the  e.xtra- 
ordinary  precisii  )n  and  celerity  of  the  British  pursuit,  to 
which  I  shall  n^tum  in  a  moment,  and  which  was  the 
raastor-chaxactej  •  deciding  the  whole  series  of  operations 


during  the  last  fortnight,  which  operations  have  yielded 
as  their  fruit,  Bagdad. 

As  in  front  of  Kut  the  first  demonstration  was  made 
upon  the  left  or  eastern  bank  against  the  Diala  River, 
which  was  the  main  obstacle  here  just  as  the  Sun-i-Yat 
works  were  the  main  obstacle  in  the  former  case.  But 
the  obstacle  was  only  felt,  not  forced.  The  first  demon- 
stration was  apparently  sufficient  to  compel  a  certain 
concentration  of  the  enemy  on  this  eastern  side  of  the 
Tigris  and  to  reduce  him  correspondingly  on  the  western 
side.  During  the  course  of  this  Thursday"  (the  8th),  the 
infantry  and  guns  were  being  brought  up  to  the  Diala. 

During  the  same  day,  Thursday,  the  8th,  the  complete 
fashion  in  which  the  British  gunboats  commanded  the 
Tigris  was  proved  by  the  throwing  of  a  bridge  across  it 
some  way  below  the  mouth  of  the  Diala.  By  this  bridge 
a  strong  detachment  was  thrown  on  to  the  right  or 
western  bank  and  came  into  contact  with  a  line  of  pre- 
pared artificial  works  stretching  out  from  this  bank 
westward  and  continuing  the  defensive  line  of  the  Diala 
on  the  other  side.  The  enemy  had  prepared  yet  another 
line  3,000  yards  behind  nearer  the  city.  By  evening 
or  night  of  this  Thursday,  the  8th  (the  two  official  accounts 
of  hours  are  here  somewhat  contradictory),  the  British  de- 
detachment  upon  the  western  side  of  the  stream  had  thi'own 
the  enemy  back  on  to  his  second  line.  It  was  a  particularly 
fine  piece  of  work,  because  as  will  be  seen  on  Sketch 
Map  II.,  the  long  bend  of  the  river  westward  below 
Bagdad  compelled  this  detachment  to  a  long  march 
between  its  starting  point  on  the  eastern  side  and  its 
contact  with  the  enemy  on  the  western-  bank.  This 
magnificent  march  was  accomplished  in  a  blinding 
storm  of  dust  and  under  very  trying  heat,  and  not  till 
it  was  over — after  perhaps  si.\  hours  of  continuous 
marching,  was  the  detachrnent  able  to  engage  an  un- 
wearied enemy  and  yet  to  beat  him.  Meanwliile,  a 
crossing  of  the  Diala  was  being  prepared  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Tigris.  Presumably  at  some  distance  above 
the  point  where  the  track  and  the  former  bridge  of  boats 
runs,  the  guns  opened  against  the  northern  bank  to 
secure  a  passage.  There  was  no  natural  advantage. 
The  night  was  the  worst  one  of  the  whole  of  the 
oixTations  for  a  surprise,  as  the   full   moon   rose   before 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


it  was  fully  dark,  the  wind  had  died  down  at  sunset, 
and  the  sky  was  clear.  None  the  less,  the  British 
established  a  bridge-head  upon  the  further  side  of  the 
stream  during  the  eourse  of  this  night  between  Thursday 
and  Friday  last.  A  party  managed  to  cross  the  water  and 
secure  it.  ' 

Upon  Friday  the  gth,  the  bridge-head  occupied  on  the 
preceding  night  by  the  British  forces  on  the  further  or 
northern  bank  of  the  Diala,  was  utilised  to  cover  the 
passage  of  a  British  column  across  that  stream,  and  by 
the  morning  of  Saturday  the  loth  the  whole  line  of  the 
Diala  having  thus  been  turned,  the  bulk  of  the  army  went 
over  and  the  advanced  posts  of  the  main  British  and 
Indian  forces  bivouacked  near  Gadara,  about  four  miles 
outside  the  city  of  Bagdad,  prepared  to  enter  upon  the 
morrow. 

Meanwhile  the  second  line  of  works  upon  the  further 
bank  of  the  Tigris  had  been  carried  during  the  Friday 
by  the  same  detachment  which  had  made  so  fine  a  rharch 
the  day  before  and  carried  the  first  position  at  evening, 
Saturday,  the  loth.  While  the  main  British  and  Indian 
force  was  crossing  the  Diala  to  Gadara  and  its  neigh- 
bourhood, the  Turks  upon  the  western  side  were  con- 
tinuing their  rearguard  action  back  to  within  three 
miles  of  t>i.e  south-western  houses  of  the  city. 

It  was  the  last  effort  of  the  retreat.  Early  in  the 
morning  of  Sunday,  the  nth,  this  rearguard  on  the  west 
sick' had  disappeared,  while  on  the  eastern  side  Sir  Stanley 
Maude's  main  army  marched  into  the  capital  of  Mesopo- 
tamia and  occupied  it.  ^ 

Remarkable  Celerity  and  Precision 

I  have  said  that  the  chief  character  of  all  these  opera- 
tions has  been  the  extraordinary  rapidity  and  precision 
rtith  which  they  have  been  conducted. 

It  was  generally  known  that  excellent  communications 
had  been  prepared  up  to  the  advanced  defensive  position 
A  Kut  ;  and  with  these  behind  the  army  the  victory 
which  enabled  Kut  to  be  occupied  by  the  Britisli 
upon  February  24th  was  made  possible. 

What  remained  doubtful  was  the  power  of  pursuing  the 
enemy  retirement  unth  rapidity  and  success  when  the  head 
of  the  main  communications  had  been  left  behind  at  Kut. 
The  enemy  obviously  counted  on  the  difficulty  of  pursuit 
ance  the  head  of  the  main  communications  was  left 
behind. 

It  is  precisely  this  task  which  the  British  command 
iias  triumphantly  fulfilled,  and  fulfilled  beybnd  any 
expectation  of  the  most  competent  observers  at  home 
or  abroad. 

The  distance  to  be  traversed  was  one  hundred  and 
thirteen  miles.  There  was  no  proper  road  and,  of  courS«, 
no  rail  accommodation.  The  river,  now  high,  and  there- 
fore with  a  very  rapid  current  against  the  boats,  was 
also  notoriously  difficult  of  navigation  ;  and  while  it  was 
obvious  that  the  Turkish  retirement  would  be  watched 
by  cavahy  it  was  hardly  thought  possible  that  the  moans 


for  an  attack  at  the  end  of  so  considerable  a  distance  over 
such  poor  communications,  could  be  accomplished  within 
a  month.  It  was,  as  a  fact,  fully  accomplished  within  a 
fortnight.  It  is  clear  that  the  guns,  considerable  bodies 
of  infantry  and,  what  was  most  difiicult  of  all;  a  sufficient 
supply  of  food,  forage,  and  ammunition  for  the  artillery, 
was  close  within  reach  of  the  cavalry  advance  when  that 
advance  reached  the  banks  of  the  Diala  late  upon  the 
Wednesday  the  7th.  One  may  say,  roughly  .speaking, 
that  the  concentration  of  horse,  foot  and  artillery  at  the 
decisive  point  outside  the  great  town,  had  been  effected 
in  such  a  country  and  in  the  face  of  such  difficulties  at 
the  rate  of  11^  miles  a  day.  Better  work  than  that  has 
not  been  done  by  any  belligerent  in  the  whole  course  of 
the  present  great  war. 

Three  mopc  days  sufliced  to  reap  the  full  fruit  of  such 
excellent  staff  and  engineeeing  work,  and  Bagdad  was 
entered  exactly  a  fortnight  after  the  breaking  of  the 
main  enemy  front  at  Kut.        , 

No  one  in  Europe  observing  these  operations,  and 
following  them  with  any  competent  reading  of  the  climate, 
conditions  and  scale  governing  them,  hoped  or  dreaded — 
according  to  his  sympathies — so  astonishingly  rapid 
an  issue.  The  more  men  knew  of  the  ground  the  less 
were  they  ready  to  believe  that  the  thing  could  be  done. 
It  is  perhaps  characteristic  of  the  strange  moods  into 
which  war  casts  the  fluctuations  of  home  opinion  that  the 
magnitude  of  this  military  effort  and  the  supreme  skill 
of  which  it  is  the  witness  is  even  now  but  gradually 
appearing  in  the  public  mind.  The  work  has  been  perfect 
in  every  respect. 

There  is  one  point  on  which  at  the  moment  of  writing 
no  information  has  reached  London,  and  that  is  the 
route  of  the  Turkish  retreat. 

There  are  two  courses  of  retreat  open  :  the  most 
precarious  is  by  the  east  and  the  Euphrates.  The 
most  probable  up  the  Tigris.  There  a  railway  is  estab- 
lished for  the  first  100  miles  or  so,  and  a  chain  of  supply 
posts  runs  all  the  way  to  the  main  bases  in  Europe, 
])ast  Mosul  and  Nisibin  and  Aleppo.  This  line  of  retreat 
has  the  further  advantage  that  it  can — though  with 
difiicult y — be  joined  by  the  Turkish  armies  now  rapidly 
falling  back,  from  the  Persian  plateau  on  the  east  (a 
point  to  be  observed  later),  and  further  that  it  permits 
of  rallying  up  the  reinforcements  on  their  way  to  the 
Mesopotamian  front  from  the  west. 


We  shall  the  better  understand  what  the  permanent 
occupation  of  Bagdad  may  mean  strategically  and 
politically  for  the  Alliance,  and  against  the  enemy,  if  we 
recall  the  geographical  and  therefore  the  military  causes 
which  have  fixed  here  the  modern  capital  of  Mesopotamia, 
and  why  this  city  is  the  sole  and  necessary  base  of  all 
operations  in  that  region,  so  that  its  fall  will  automatically 
paraylse  all  further  Turkish  effort  upon  the  Persian 
front  and  heavily  handicap  any  further  such  effort  in 
Mesopotamia  itself. 


Geographical    Basis    of    Bagdad 


Tile  Mesopotamian  Plain— using  that  term  for  the 
district  between  the  northern  part  of  the  Arabian  desert 
and  the  very  high  mountains  of  Media,  which  stand  like  a 
wall  upon  the  cast,  buttressing. the  Persian  plateau— is 
a  vast,  arid  stretch  of  land  through  which,  when  it  is  left 
to  its  natural  state,  no  natural  opportunities  for  perma- 
nent human  habitation  on  a  large  scale  exist,  save 
along  tile  two  great  rivers  which  come  down  from  the 
north  into  tlie  Persian  (hilf,  and  join  before  they  reach 
Uiat  Gulf,  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates.  The  district 
is  not  rainless  ;  but  these  streams  are  the  only'  great 
|)crmanent  sources  of  water  supply,  until  one  comes  upon 
the  numerous  torrents  which  fall  from  the  Median 
mountains  westward  into  Mesopotamia.  Of  these  some 
few  have  the  strength  to  reacii  the  'i'igris  in  all  seasons 
notably  the  Greater  and  Lesser  Zab,  the  Adhiani,  and 
this  smaller  .stream,  the  Diala,  with  which  we  are  more 
immediately  concerned.  The  others  lose  themselves 
in  the  parched  soil  or  form  marshes  into  which  they  are 
absorbed  before  they  reach  the  Tigris. 


In  some  remote  antiquity,  the  origins  of  which  are 
unknown  to  us,  man  rendered  the  Mesopotomian  Plain 
immensely  prolific  by  a  system  of  irrigation  ;  canals  which 
led  the  waters  of  the  Tigris  ahd  of  the  Euphrates  in  a  net- 
work over  the  soil  and  rendered  it  fertile.  It  supported 
millions  of  hunmn  beings  and  created  vast  capitals,  from 
Nineveh  high  up  upon  the  Tigris  opposite  the  present 
site  of  Mosul  (a  town  which  seems  to  have  been  almost 
upon  the  modern  scale  of  our  great  towns)  to  the  famous 
site  of  Babylon.  The  district  was  not  only  a  very  populous 
and  wealthy  region  in  itself  and  of  its  own  power  of  pro- 
duction, but  acquired  and  maintained  through  thousands 
of  years  a  special  character  as  the  centre  of  exchange 
between  the  further  East— especially  India — and  the 
Mediterranean.  The  commerce  of  the  Indies  came  over- 
land across  the  Persian  Plateau,  up  the  rivers  from  the 
Persian  gulf,  to  Mesopotamia ;  the  commerce  of  the 
Mediterranean  peoples  of  the  Levant,  of  Egypt,  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  further  west  came  eastward  with  more 
dilficulty  to  Mesopotamia  by  the  Euphrato  Valley  and 


8 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  15,  1017 


from  the  Black  Sea  cnunlrus  l)\-  Uu-  liK'i*  valley  to 
meet  there  the  stream  of  exchange  tlowing  westward 
from  Asia. . 

The  points  of  junction,  therefore,  which  were  the  knots 
or  "  nodal  points  "  of  the  system— the  points  where  the 
great  trade  routes,  crossed  the  twin  river  system- 
were  bound  to  play  a  very  great  part  politically,  and 
strategically  as  well.  Babylon  upon  the  Euphrates  in 
classical  times  ;  Bagdad  upon  the  Tigris  in  the  dark  and 
early  Middle  Ages  were  centres  of  this  kind.  Those  who 
possessed  these  centres  were  the  natural  lords  of  an 
influence  which  extended  far  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
Mesopotamia  itself.  '  They  cither  attracted  into  their 
orbit,  or  directly  ruled,  the" Median  Hills  and  the  Persian 
Plateau  beyond.  Their  influence  at  times  extended 
westward  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  e\-cn  into  Egypt. 
The  origins  of  consecutive  Grecian  history  are  principally 
concerned  with  the  struggle  between  our  race  upon  the 
iEgean  and  the  Asiatic  Monarchy  which  had  reached  that 
sea,  although  its  centre  was  upon  the  distant  Euphrates. 
Upon  such  a  situation,  after  it  had  lasted  for  no  one 
knows  how  many  thousands  of  years,  there  came  an  his- 
torical accident  "which,  by  a  sort  of  paradox,  enhanced 
the  political  and  strategical  value  of  Bagdad  in  particular 
while  diminishing  or  obhterating  the  value  of  nearly  all 
the  rest  of  the  district. 

This  historical  accident  was  twofold.  It  consisted 
in  the  divergence  of  the  eastern  trade  route  from  the  land 
to  the  sea,  and  from  a  long  march  across  Western  Asia 
to  the  .ocean  voyage  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  It  is 
partly  as  a  consequence  of  this  material  cause,  but  more 
through  the  second  cause,  the  moral  cause,  a  change  in  the 
political  method  and  temper  of  government  following  upon 
great  and  destructive  wars  in  which  the  irrigation  system 
of  Mesopotomia  fell  into  ruins,  that  the  whole  vast  district 
fell  out  of  human  use  and  reverted  to  the  aspect  — though 
not  the  sterility — of  a  desert.  The  destruction  of  the 
last  relics  in  this  system  of  irrigation  was  comparatively 
modern,  and  the  traveller  notes  to  this  day  innumerable 
evidences  of  that  system  no  longer  used,  but  still  mani- 
festing its  former  extent.  The  greater  canals  can  still 
be  traced  for  days  of  marching  through  the  deserted  land, 
still  contain  isolated  patches  of  water  in  places,  and  are 
still  marked,  as  are  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  by  mounds 
covering  the  ruins  of  what  were  once  great  towns.  The 
building  material  of  the  district  (which  was  brick) 
hastened  the  material  decay  of  the  abandoned  cities. 
These  have  left  above  ground,  and  in  evidence,  far  less 
for  the  modern  traveller  to  note  than  he  can  still  sec  of 
much  smaller  western  places  equally  abandoned  but  origin- 
ally built  of  stone.  Municipal  hfe  and  civilisation  in 
general  have  disappeared.  But  surviving  as  the  one 
considerable  exception  in  the  whole  ruin  is  the  city  of 
Bagdad,  and  Bagdad  has  so  survived  because  it  is  the 
last  remaining  nodal  point  in  all  these  hundreds  of  miles. 
The  one  way  left  and  the  only  way  by  which 
wheeled  traffic  can  climb  on  to  the  Persian  Plateau,  and 
the  chief  way  which  even  boasts  of  burden  must  follow 
in  this  eastern  traffic,  comes  from  the  west  to  the  Tigris 
at  Bagdad  and  from  Bagdad  proceeds  eastward  through 
the  only  easy  gate  which  the  Median  mountains  afford 
up  on]to  the  highland  of  Persia  and  so  to  the  further  East. 
Bagdad  is  the  cross  roads  where  the  river  traffic  running 
north  and  south  is  crossed  by  the  trade  traffic  running 
east  and  west. 

The  reason  that  Bagdad  stands  where  it  does  is  that  it 
is  at  once  the  most  convenient  point  of  transhipment 
between  the  Upper  and  Lower  Tigris,  and  the  point  where 
the  "Tigris  approaches  nearest  to  the  Euphrates  in  their 
middle  course. 

Of  these  twin  facts  the  point  of  transhipment  is  the 
chief.  Upon  every  great  river  you  will  find  a  town  of 
this  sort,  nearly  at  the  point  of  junction  between  two 
different  kinds  of  water-borne  traffic  ;  and  its  station  is 
decided  by  the  nature  of  the  vessels  employed  in  the 
civilisation  which  gave  it  birth.  There  is  always  some 
reach  where  the  larger  type  of  vessel  communicating  with 
the  sea  or  with  a  port  at  the  mouth  of  a  river  (if  the  river 
is  navigable  at  all)  finds  that  it  has  fairly  reached  t he- 
limit  of  its  usefulness  and  leaves  the  water  conununica- 
tion  further  up-stream  to  a  smaller  type  of  vessel.  In  our 
Northern  seas  this  point  of  transhipment  is  often  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  limit  of  the  tides.  Upon  water  courses 
which  are  very  rapid,  or  shallow,  it  will  be  nearer  the  sea : 


uponmorenavigable,rivir>  il  will  in-  lurilui  ialaud.  JluL 
you  always  find  it.  It  is  the  mart  created  by  the  necessity 
or  habit  of  transhipment.  Such  is  London  upon  the 
Thames,  Rouen  upon  the  Seine,  Nantes  upon  the  Loue. 
such  originally  was  ,Rome  upon  the  Tiber,  and  such  is 
Bagdad  upon  the  Tigris.  To  this  day  the  main  traffic 
upon  the  Tigris  above  Bagdad  comes  down  to  the  city 
in  the  light  skin  rafts  and  boats  characteristic  of  the 
river.  Below  Bagdad,  in  spite  of  the  difficulty  of 
navigation  and  the  rapidly  varying  height  of  the  stream, 
modern  steamers  and  large  sail-rigged  vessels,  of 
immemorial  date,  can  ply. 

Now  Bagdad    thus  established  at  a   nodal  point  and 
combining  the  use  of  the  Tigris  witli  the  use  of    the 
main  caravan  road  perpendicular  to  that  stream,  happens, 
as  we  have  said,  to  be  also  the  only  considerable  sur- 
vival of  all  that  vast  and  once  densely  populated  country. 
Hence    the   paradox    defined   above   that    Bagdad   ha 
acquired  a  political  and  a  strategic  importance  all  thf 
greater  through  the  ruin  of  Mesopotamia.     The  possessioi 
of  this  one  great  city   is  a  necessity  to  the  control  of  the 
Persian  frontiers  and  to  any  full  communication  with  tlu 
Persian   Plateau   beyond.     And  to  this  one  great   city 
there  is  to-day  no  alternative.     It  is  a  necessity    to    the 
control  of  the  Tigris  ;  it  commands  the  control  of  the 
Euphrates  which  passes  at  its  nearest  pomt  at  only  one  long 
cavalry  day  from  the  city.     That  is  why  Bagdad  was  the 
appointed  terminus  of  the  j*reat  Near  Eastern  railway 
which  was  the  chief  design  of  the  German  Imperialists ;  that 
is  why  in  a  country  half  barbarous  you  will  find  no  less  than 
six  telegraph  and  telephone  lines  converging  upon  it  as  a 
centre,  six  of  the  main  great  tracks  or  roads  ;  that  is  why 
there  is  here  established  the  only  seat  of  Government 
worthy  of  such  a  name  for  many  hundreds  of  miles.     It  is 
the  half-way  house  upon  the  only  direct  route  from  the 
west  over-land  to  the  Persian  cities  and  thence  to  India  ; 
it  is  the  necessary  economic  base  of  any  great  scheme  for 
the    resurrection    of    Mesopotamia     such     as     various 
European  Powers  (of  late  years  in  particular  the  (jer- 
mans)  in  turn  have  dreamed.     And  all  this  is  the  reason 
that  Bagdad  has  been,  ever  since  the  first  months  of  the 
war,  one  of  the  main  objectives  of  the  Entente  as  a  whole 
and  of  Great  Britain  in  particular  ;  because  Great  Britain 
is,  of  all  the  Powers  of  the  Entente,  that  one  most  directly 
concerned  with  the  East  of  which  Bagdad  is  already  in 
part  (and  must  be  still  more  in  future)  the  main  entry. 

The  Great  Persian  Road 


I  have  said  that  the  Persian-Turkish  front  in  particular 
was  dependent  upon  Bagdad,  and  that  the  victory  of  Sir 
Stanley  Maude  at  Kut,  with  the  very  rapid  operations 
succeeding  it,  would  necessarily  re-act  at  once  upon 
the  enemy's  forces  operating  above  the  Persian  Plateau. 

The  political  importance,  both  to  the  Russians  and 
to  the  English,  of  this  plateau  are  obvious  and  need  not 
be  discussed.  Its  strategical  aspect,  and  the  movements 
over  it  consequent  upon  the  operations  of  the  last  year 
and  a  half,  more  directly  concern  us.  They  will  be 
appreciated  if  we  study  in  some  detail  the  great  road 
which  leads  up  from  Bagdad  on  to  this  Persian  plateau, 
and  which  we  have  seen  to  be  the  only  feasible  avenue  of 
communication  upon  which  the  Tuikish  armies  operating 
there  could  depend.  The  road  of  all  tht  armies,  of 
Darius — whose  sculptures  ornament  the  rock  abo\^e 
Bisitun — of  Alexander,  of  Harun-al-Raschid. 

The  Persian  highlands  come  to  a  sort  of  western  edge 
beyond  which  the  ground  falls  very  rapidly  and  steeply 
down  on  to  the  Mesopotamian  plain.  And  this  edge  is 
known  in  history  as  the  Median  mountain  district. 

The  formation  would  be  a  simple  one,  and  easily 
grasped,  did  the  watershed  correspond  to  the  great 
frontier  range.  But  it  does  not  so  correspond.  The  long 
process  of  the  Median  mountains  running  from  north  to 
south  (and  reaching  heights  of  12,000  feet)  is  not  a 
boundary  between  two  water  systems.  On  the  contrary, 
innmnerable  streams  which  ultimately  reach  the  Mesopo- 
tamian plain  and  the  Tigris  rise  far  to  the  east  of  the 
frontier  ridge  or  escarpment  of  the  Persian  plateau  ; 
and  this  escarpment  is  cut  in  a  hundred  places  by  the 
torrents  descending  upon  the  plain,  which  have  their 
sources  from  a  hundred  to  130  miles  beyond  upon  the 
ulateau  itself.    The  Median  mountains  themselves  are  not 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &     WATER 


III 


•  5ihTia 

Pass  of  Sax4i,  AtKtd. 

Ksng3Lwar 

^        ,    J       Sussiakadpaace  aeuf 
^£re  CXI  "M^A  8^ 


1     ^  '" 


'^/. 


'''//> 


Ibuxtk- 
Thrkish. 


0  yi7 


/to 


'Ruiru  of 
3atijLan 


Second. 
Turkish 
1)efenswe 
T'ositixm. 


OrifftnaL 
\^cun  JurkjJh  Front 

'Bivkai  Feb23-Z4 


'MvCks 


J 


one  main  ridge,  but  a  very  numerous  succession  of 
parallel  ridges  like  a  hugely  magnified  Jura — supposing 
that  the  Jura  supported  a  Swiss  plateau  behind  it.  The 
rivers,  or  rather  torrents,  wind  tortuously  in  and  out, 
through  deep  cuts  in  these  parallel  walls. 

The  consequence  of  this  formation  is  that  you  cannot 
have  a  road  rising  rapidly  from  the  Mesopotamian  Plain 
on  to  the  plateau  and  then  remaining  fairly  level  through- 
out its  crossing  of  Persia.  Any  direct  attack  of  this 
sort  upon  the  Median  mountains  .would  only  lead  you 
over  fold  upon  fold  of  parallel  ridges  perpetually  descend- 
ing thousands  of  precipitous  feet  into  the  gorges  of  torrents 
and  rising  as  steeply  again.  The  only  course  practical 
to  traffic  is  to  find  a  gap  in  the  foremost  road  with 
a  fairly  easy  valley  behind  it  and  to  follow  up  the  waters 
in  a  devious  line  and  so  gradually  reach  the  height  of  the 
]:)tateau  behind  the  last  of  the  "parallel  ridges.  This  is 
what  the  great  Persian  caravan  road  to  India,  based 
upon  Bagdad,  does.  It  seeks  out  the  only  gap  of  any 
breadth  in  the  Median  range— a  valley  standing  imme- 
diately  behind  the  town  of  Khanikin— behind  that  gap 
it  finds  a  fairly  easily  graded  valley,  and  by  this  valley 
it  climbs  up  slowly  on  to  the  plateau  beyond. 

'ihe  details  of  the  road  are  as  follows  :  It  runs  from 
Bagdad  a  little  cast  of  north  across  the  plain,  and  nearly 
jiarallel  to  the  Diala  river  until,  at  the  end  of  the  first 
(very  long)  day,  it  reaches  the  Diala  itself  at  Bakuhci — 
reckoned  some  eleven  or  twelve  hours  march,  and  perhaps 
30  odd  miles  from  Bagdad. 

Having  thus  crossed  the  Diala  it  keeps  on  the  eastern 
side  of  that  stream,  at  a  little  distance  from  it,  for  another 
day's  march,  and  reaches  the  foothills  near  the  mud  huts 
of  Mansurie,  called  "  Mansurie  of  the  Hills." 

On  the  third  day's  march,  while  still  in  the  foothills,  it 
reaches  the  town  of  Khanikin,  which  is  the  last  con- 
siderable place  directly  ruled  by  the  Turkish  authorities. 
Here  the  high  Median  range  rises  before  one  above  the 
foothills,  but  admits  a  broad  gap  through  which  pour 
the  waters  of  a  torrent  affluent  to  the  Diala  and  imme- 
diately in  the  mouth  of  which  stands,  at  the  end  of  the 
fourth  day's  march  (a  short  one)  the  first  place  nominally 
under  Persian  rule,  Kasrishirin. 


The  road  has  already  risen  by  this  time  more  than 
1,500  feet  above  the  level  of  Bagdad.  It  has  so  far, 
tliroughout  the  four  days'  march,  pursued  a  north- 
easterly course.  It  turns  here  to  follow  in  a  south- 
easterly direction  the  upper  valley  of  the  Hulvan 
Torrent,  ajid  just  after  the  hamlet  of  Seri-Pul  it  crosses 
a  subsidiary  pass,  over  one  of  the  ridges,  follows  the  head 
waters  of  the  Karind  torrent,  and  comes  to  the  town 
which  takes  its  name  from  that  stream. 

Karind  is  usually  the  fifth  (civihan)  stage*  after  Bagdad, 
and  was  in  antiquity  the  first  town  claiming  Median 
freedom  from  Babylonian  rule.  It  was  a  sort  of  capital 
or  chief  market  of  these  mountaineers. 

The  sixth  day  leads  one  to  Haroutiabad,  nowno  more  than 
a  village,  but  recalling  in  its  name  that  of  its  founder, 
Haroun^el-Raschid,  the  great  Caliph  of  Bagdad,  who 
here  more  than  established  a  city,  which  has  since 
decayed. 

A  very  long  day  (with  no  convenient  stopping  place,  I 
believe,  in  the  interval)  brings  one  on  the  7th  evening  to 
the  considerable  town  of  Kermanshah  ;  a  market  for 
cattle,  horses  and  stuffs— particularly  for  carpets.  It 
is  at  the  junction  of  a  road  running  northward-  to  Sihna 
and  the  telegraph  and  telephone  line  which  follows  our 
main  road  all  the  way,  throws  out  a  branch  here  also  to 
Sihna. 

The  next  stage,  skirting  round  the  high  rock-peak 
of  Parau,  rising'isolated  above  the  high  plateau  on  which 
one  is  travelling,  reaches  the  fe\v_  huts  of  Bisitun  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountain.  It  is  here,' on  the  precipitous  face 
of  tlie  mountain,  that  the  reliefs  of  Darius  are  carved. 

At  the  end  of  the  next  day,  the  ninth,  the  stage  is 
Kangaivar.  Owq  is  here  very  near  the  watershed  and  has 
l^efore  one  the  abrupt  wall  of  the  long  Alwan  mountain. 
It  rises  enormously  in  the  midst  of  the  plateau  to  a  height 
of  over  12,000  feet  above  the  sea  and  more  than  8,000 


•The  civilian  stagtsdw  a  caravan  road  are,  of  course,  mucli 
larger  tlian  the  davs'  -parches  of  armies.  An  army,  an  organised 
body  of  tliousands  with  transport  and  supplies,  a  necessity  to  it,  is 
heavily  hindered  and  tied  to  its  slowest  units,  has  normally  halt  the 
mobility,  at  most,  ol  a  small  independeat  civiliau  group. 


10 


LA^U    ik    WATER 


IManli   15,   i()ij 


above  Kangawar — which  stands  at  the  foot  of  it  a  day's 
march  away. 

The  remaining  stages  to  Hamadan  are  usually  taken  in 
two  days,  thongh  that  is  rapid  tra\olling,  because  they 
inckide'the  only  really  diHicult  pass  upon  the  road,  the 
jiass  over  the  wall  of  Ahvan  jnst  mentioned,  'fhis  i>ass, 
lying  nearer  Hamadan  tlian  Kangawar,  takes  its  name 
from  the  hamlet  of  Said  Abad,  and  after  it  is  passed  there 
is  a  rapid  fall  of  .some  2^)  miles  on  to  Hamadan,  which 
lies  at  the  east  foot  of  the  mountain,  that  is,  upon  the 
further  side  from  Kangawar. 

Hamadan  is  a  town  rivalling  in  size  Kermanshah,  and 
is  the  principal  political  centre  between  the  Persian 
Teheran  and  the  Mesopotamian  Bagdad.  It  was  the 
great  Ecbatana  of  antiquity,  and  the  ridge  of  Alwan 
above  it  was  the  classical  Mount  Orontes. 

Such  are  the  details  of  the  only  way  to  the  East  from 
central  Mesopotamia  :  the  road  which  has  from  the 
beginning  of  history,,  and  before,  alone  linked  the 
Assyrian  plain  with  Persia  and  India  and   the   Far  East. 

The  Russians,  at  the  forwardest  moment  of  their 
advance  (when  all  that  the  Turks  had  then  to  spare  was 
hard  pressed  by  the  first  advance  of  the  British  16  months 
ago)  had  pushed  their  cavah-y  down  this  gieat  road  to 
Khanikin,    within   three   cavalry   days   of   Bagdad. 

The  fall  of  Kut,  however,  changed  the  whole  face  of 
this  Persian  front.  Considerable  Turkish  forces  (two 
divisions  ?)  were  free  to  be  diverted  up  the  Persian  road, 
and  the  comparatively  small  but  mobile  Russian  force 
here  employed  retired  rapidly  up  through  the  hills, 
abandoning  successively  all  the  points  just  mentioned 
(including  Hamadan).  At  the  same  time,  smaller 
Turkish  bodies  took  up  positions  further  north  beyond 
the  frontier  hills,  between  the  main  road  and  Lake 
Urmi.  They  put  a  garrison  at  Sihnd^^nA  for  a  time,  I 
behevp,  but  am  not  certain,  at  Bijar.  They  were  at  any 
rate  within  four  ca^•alry  days  of  the  main  road  by  which 
the  small  Russian  forces  disposable  here  communicate 
with  Teheran  and  control  Northern   Persia. 

The  re-advance  of  the  British  force,  and  especially 
Sir  Stanley  Maude's  victory  at  Kut  a  week  before  the 
end  of  February,  reversed  all  the  situation  once  more. 

The  Turks  abandoned  Hamadan  immediately  the 
news  of  the  reverse  at  Kut  reached  them.  They  did  not 
even  try  to  hold  the  difficult  pass  of  Said  Abad,  but  fell 
back  very  rapidly  behind  a  rearguard  towards  Kerman- 
shah. At  the  same  time,  they  abandoned  Sihna  and 
fell  back  from  that  place  also  upon  Kermanshah.  Their 
retreat  was  necessarily  extremely  rapid.  Three  days 
before  Sir  Stanley  Maude  entered  Bagdad  they  were 
already — the  rearguard — at  Bisitun,  abandoning  a  depot 
of  munitions  undestroyed,  eight  or  ten  miles  to  the  east. 
Since  that  day  (Thursday  of  last  week),  we  have  no  news 
of  them  in  London  at  the  time  of  writing  (Tuesday  after- 
noon), but  it  is  certain  that  they  are  retiring  with  the 
utmost  speed  possible  to  them  and  clear  that  news  of 
the  very  great  peril  in  which  they  stand  of  being  cut  off 
reached  them  tardily,  or  found  them  at  first  imprepared 
for  movement.  If  the  Russians  could  reach  Kermanshah 
within  three  days  of  the  Turkish  evacuation  of  Sihna, 
which  is  doubtful,  the  enemy  detachment  which  held 
that  point  will  be  cut  off  from  the  main  road  and  lost. 
It  is  equally  clear  that  the  fate  of  the  main  Turkish 
force  in  this  region,  which  is  retreating  down  the  great 
road,  now  largely  depends,  upon  the  power  such  an 
army  has  to  cut  across  the  foothills — and  perhaps 
even  the  main  ranges,  northward  and  eastward  of 
the  Upper  Tigris  after  abandoning  the  road.  The 
civilian  traveller  may  reach  Khanikin  from  Kermans- 
hah in  four  days,  but  an  army  cannot  hope  to  cover  the 
distance  in  orderly  retirement  much  under  ten  days. 

Now  with  the  British  and  Indian  army  at  Bagdad,  a 
detachment  from  it  might  conceivably  reach  Khanikin — 
the  gate  of  the  mountains — before  the  vanguard  of  the 
retreating  Persian  army  of  the  Turks  arrives  there. 
The  consequences  would  be  obvious.  This  Turkish  force 
if  it  is  really  large,  would  be  in  some  peril.  Nevertheless, 
we  cannot  estimate  the  degree  of  the  peril  without 
knowing  (what  we  do  not)  exactly  where  the  7nain 
Turkish  retreating  body  was  when  its  rear-guard  left 
Bisitun  on  the  8th. 

W'hat  the  size  of  this  retiring  force  may  be  we  are  not 
told.  I  have  seen  it  estimated  in  the  Continental  Press 
at  two  divisions.     If  it  is  of  this  size,  then,  should  it  fail 


to  reach  the  foothills  and  the  Mesopotamian  Plain  before 
its  retreat  is  cut  off,  it  will  be  destroyed.  It  may  be  able 
to  reach  the  plains  in  time  by  extricating  itself  over  the 
hill  country  towards  the  north-west,  even  thougli  the 
British  and  Indians  be  barring  the  road  at  Khanikin. 
Its  power  of  so  escaping'over  the  mountains  would  dejjend 
rtot  so  nuich  upon  the  means  of  travel  (it  would  necessarily 
ha\'e  to  destroy  a  considerable  mass  of  its  material)  but 
upon  the  supply  it  has  with  it.  To  answer  such  questions 
or  even  to  suggest  the  probable  answer,  would  need  a 
knowledge  of  these  high  mountains  at  this  time  of  year 
which  I  certainly  do  not  possess,  and  on  which  I  can 
obtain  no  sufficiently  detailed  information. 

IRLES    AND    THE    WESTERN   FRONT 

On  the  Western  front  the  chief  event  of  the  week  up 
to  the  moment  of  writing  has  been  the  occupation  of 
fries,  with  the  capture  of  nearly  300  prisoners  of  the 
Prussian  (iuard,  who  were  covering  the  German  re- 
tirement  from  that  sahent,   and   fifteen  machine  guns. 

The  operation  was  conducted,  as  the  accounts  of  eye- 
witnesses tell  us,  with  extreme  precision  and,  as  the 
despatches  tell  us,  with  very  low  casualties.  It  has 
straightened  out  the  last  anomaly  in  the  new  Cicrman 
defensive  line,  which  now  runs  directly  upon  the  heights 
above  us,  covering^with  only  a  shallow  pro}cction — the 
high  Loupart  Wood,  crossing  (above  Irles)  Hill  129  (as 
it  is  called  upon  the  civilian  map — it  is  Hill  125  upon 
the  French  Staff  map)  and  thence  running  regularly 
along  the  steep  slope  of  the  ravine,  which  covers  Achiet, 
Bucquoi,  Les  Essarts  and  so  to  Monchy. 

It  is  not  quite  clear  from  the  accounts  received  whether 
the  summit  of  Hill  129,  which  dominates  Irles,  has  been 
reached  or  no,  but  the  shoulder  of  the  hill  is  certainly  in 
British  hands  and,  of  course,  the  ruins  of  the  village  as 
well.  The  enemy  was  forced  out  of  this  salient  by  a 
sharp,  very  intense,  and  accurate  concentration  of  fire, 
the  bombardment  being  delivered  at  the  end  of  the  night 
between  Saturday  and  Sunday  and  the  mfantry  advanc- 
ing from  the  two  sides  of  the  right  angle  along  the 
salient.  Coming  forward  in  the  new  dispositions  as 
day  broke  upon  the  Sunday  morning,  they  carried  the 
whole  village,  at  least  to  the  cemetery  :  the  accounts  so 
far  given  do  not  tell  us  how  much  further  up  the  hill  the 
assault  was  pushed. 

It  is  particularly  gratifying  to  note  that  the  operation 
forestalled  the  enemy's  own  plan  for  retirement  from  this 
small  salient.  Everything  was  discovered  by  the  victors 
ready  for  such  a  retirement.  The  British  attack  de- 
livered on  Sunday  morning  anticipated  the  (ierman  plan 
by  perhaps  a  dozen  hours,  with  the  consequent  com- 
paratively large  capture  of  prisoners  and  machine  guns. 

If  the  summit  of  Hill  129  be  in  the  hands  of  the  advance 
a  complete  view  is  now  obtained  right  down  that  ravine 
between  Bucquoi  and  Puisieux  which  separates  the  main 
German  position  on  the  Bapaume  ridge  from  the  present 
British  front.  Meanwhile,  the  main  strength  of  all  this 
region  resides  in  the  Loupart  Wood.  This  wood  crowns 
the  highest  hill  from  which  one  overlooks,  though  at  but 
a  slight  elevation,  all  the  surrounding  country.  It  is  not 
30  feet  higher  than  the  hill  above  Irles,  nor  20  feet  higher 
than  Achiet,  but  it  looks  well  down  upon  Bapaume  and 
the  lower  country  immediately  to  the  east.  It  still 
forms  something  of  a  slight  projection  in  the  enemy's 
line,  and  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  his  decision  whether 
to  maintain  it  or  abandon  it  will  form  the  main  interest 
of  the  near  future  in  this  sector.  Loupart  M'ood  is  one, 
and  the  central  one,  of  the  three  shghtly  dominating 
lumps  (over  130  metres),  which  are  the  summits  of 
the  (ierman  defensive  position.  From  the  north-western 
and  northern  edge  of  Loupart  Wood — or  not  far 
beyond — you  look  down  over  the  Bapaume  ridge  on  to 
the  plains  beyond.  If  the  enemy  gives  up  the  command- 
ing summits  here  and  still  falls  back  eastward,  abandon- 
ing Bapaume,  it  suggests — one  can  say  no  more  than  that 
—a  larger  retirement.  For  the  salient  to  the  north 
would  certainly  not  be  held  under  such  conditions. 

Meanwhile,  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  work  before 
Bouchavesnes.  If  that  ridge  is  carried  a  direct  view  is 
obtained  on  to  the  depressions  behind  the  Mont  St. 
Ouehtin.  The  enemy  batteries  there  established  will  not 
he  maintained  and  Peronne  will  be  no  longer  tenable. 

H.   Bbi.i.oc. 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


The  Dardanelles  Report 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


THE  publication  of  the  first  report  of  the  Darda- 
nelles Commission  dealing  "exclusively  with  the 
origin  and  inception  of  the  attack  on  the  Darda- 
nelles," raises  two  obvious  questions.  A  comment 
in  the  Temps  suggests  them  both.  The  French  observer 
defends  publicity  for,  he  §ays  : 

"  There  is  no  better  school  for  the  peoples  than  the 
truth,  and  it  is  never  too  late  to  give  it  to  them.  Even 
allowing  for  contingencies  and  the  desire  the  new  Govern- 
ment may  have  to  emphasise  the  faults  of  its  predecessors, 
it  is  well  and  salutary  to  speak  of  things  as  they  are  and 
not  to  make  fools  of  public  opinion,  for  this  is'  the  reservoir 
of  national  resistance." 

The  argument  for  pubhcity  is  that  truth  is  the  best 
educator.  The  argument  against  it  is  that  the  publication 
may  appear— however  unjustly — to  be  inspired  by 
political  animosities.  That  this  is  a  grave  objection  can 
hardly  be  disputed,  and  its  ill  effects  in  stirring  up  bitter 
and  rancorous  attacks,  both  on  Mr.  Asquith  and  Lord 
Kitchener;  are  already  lamentably  apparent.  It  is  not 
as  if  those  responsible  for  the  inception  of  this  enterprise 
were  still  in  power  and  capable  of  repeating  their  mistakes. 
Of  the  War  Council  of  January,  1915,  Mr.  Balfour  and 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  alone  remain  in  office.  Lord  Kitchener 
who.  after  the  transformation  of  the  enterprise  from  a 
purely  naval  into  a  purelj'  military  undertaking,  was,  of 
all,  the  most  deeply  involved  in  responsibility,  was  killed 
nine  months  ago  in  the  service  of  his  country.  The 
system  of  Higher  Command  under  which  the  enterprise 
originated,  vanished  long  before  the  end  of  1915.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  an  impartial  observer  like  the  writer 
in  the  Temps  should  see  a  political  motive  in  the  pub- 
lication. Whether  he  is  right  or  wrong,  the  political 
consequences,  both  in  this  country  and  abroad,  must 
certainly  be  unfortunate. 

But  I  agree  with  the  French  writer  that  truth  is  the  best 
educator  and,  had  it  been  possible  to  publish  this — the 
whole  of  it  and  nothing  but  it — the  political  disadvan- 
tages might  have  been  counterbalanced.  The  objections 
to  publishing  the  whole  truth  are  insuperable — diplomatic, 
military  ancl  naval  reasons  all  forbid.  We  are  driven  then 
to  ask  :  does  the  publication  of  part  of  the  truth  balance 
the  loss  of  prestige  which  this  detailed  statement  of 
failure  must  inflict  ?  It  seems  doubtful ;  but  still  more 
doubtful  when  we  pass  to  the  third  point  and  ask  if  the 
report  contains  nothing  but  the  truth  ?  Are  the  con- 
clusions, that  is  to  say  which  the  Commissioners  set  out, 
those  which  should  derive  inevitably  from  such  facts  as 
the}'  give  us  in  the  forty  pages  of  introductory  matter  ? 

A  Dubious  Verdict 

Like  everyone  else,  I  suppose,  I  read  the  conclusions 
first  and  the  introduction  afterwards.  They  seem  to  me 
to  stand  in  amazing  contrast.  What,  in  a  paragraph  is 
the  subject  matter,  as  set  out  by  the  Commissioners, 
of  their  enquiry  ?  A  naval  operation,  as  novel  in  char- 
acter as  it  was  stupendous  in  difficulty  and  risk,  was 
resolved  upon  in  January,  1915,  was  begun  on  February 
19th,  and  was  acknowledgecl  on  March  26th  by  every- 
one— except  Mr.  Churchill — to  have  been  a  complete 
failure.  If  we  take  this  simple  fact  by  itself,  it  is  obvious 
that  there  can  be  two  possible  explanations.  Eithc^ 
it  was  undertaken  by  naval  men  who  cHd  not  anticipate 
its  difficulties,  or  it  was  undertaken  by  politicians  in 
ignorance  or  in  defiance  of  expert  judgment.  There  could 
be  no  third  explanation  at  all.  In  either  case,  the  enquiry 
should  have  been  directed  first  into  the  character  of  the 
operation,  next  into  the  means  employed,  and  thus  the 
failure  would  have  been  made  intelligible.  It  was  a  vast 
experiment  in  war^ — a  thing  in  which  everything  turns 
upon  the  kind  of  force  employed,  the  kind  of  force  it  had 
to  overcome,  the  method  by  which  the  opposition  was  to 
ho  beaten  down,  the  defensive  that  was  to  protect  the 
force  employed  while  its  offensive  was  being  made  effective. 
Broadly  speaking,     tlie  report  is  absolutely  silent  upon 


this — the  only  thing  that  matters.  It  tells  us  something  of 
the  force  employed — but  nothing  of  the  means  proposed 
for  using  it.  The  merits,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  proposal 
to  force  the  Dardanelles  by  ships,  are  simply  not  disctissed. 
The  subject  matter  is  a  military  undertaking  ;  the  report 
is  almost  silent  on  its  military  character.  The  first 
explanation  of  failure  is  then  not  examined. 

Instead,  the  Commissioners  seem  to  have  taken  the 
alternative  explanation  for  granted.  And  it  is  this  that 
in  my  opinion,  robs  the  publication  of  the  report  of  the 
excuses  the  Temps  puts  forward.  The  gravamen  of  the 
report  is  contained  in  paragraphs  (e),  (f)  and  (g)  of  the 
Commissioners'  conclusions.  They  imply  that  the  naval 
experts  held  such  views  on  the  impracticability  of  the 
project  of  .forcing  the  Dardanelles  by  ships  alone  that, 
had  they  been  expressed,  a  disastrous  blunder  would  have 
been  averted.  That  it  was  committed  arose  solely 
from  the  fact  that  Mr.  Churchill  advocated  the'  attack 
by  ships  alone  "on  a  certain  amount  of  hesitating 
and  half-hearted  expert  opinion."  And  this,  the 
Commissioners  continue,  is  a  thing  that  Mr.  Asquith 
and  his  colleagues  of  the  War  Council  should  have  sus- 
pected. They  were,  therefore,  under  an  obligation  to 
compel  Lord  Fisher  and  Sir  Arthur  Wilson  to  express  their 
opinions  frankly.  And  these  officers  in  turn  should  have 
pronounced  the  opii^ion  that  woiild  automatically  have 
stopped  the  whole  undertaking.  The  Commissioners, 
that  is  to  say,  not  having  examined  into  the  military  merits 
of  the  undertaking,  assume  it  as  obvious  that  the  failure 
could  only  have  arisen  from  neglect  of  right  adminis- 
trative principle,  the  right  principle,  of  course,  being 
that  no  great  operation  of  this  sort  should  be  under- 
taken except  on  a  complete  statement  by  experts  that  it 
is  feasible.  But  is  it  not  obvious  that  the  whole  of  this 
criticism  falls  if  the  project  was,  in  point  of  fact,  endorsed- 
by  Mr.  Churchill's  responsible  advisers  ?  If  it  was  so 
supported,  Mr.  Churchill  could  not  have  deceived  the 
Council  by  advocating  a  jilan  which,  had  the  experts 
been  vocal,  the  Council  must  have  rejected.  Nor  could 
Lord  Kitchener,  Mr.  Asquith  and  the  other  members  of 
the  Council  be  blamed  for  not  suspecting  that  the  support 
was  non-existent,  if  in  fact  it  did  exist.  Nor  could  the 
experts  be  blamed  for  not  expressing  adverse  views,  if 
their  actual  views  were  as  favourable  and  as  sanguine  as 
•Mr.  Churchill's.  The  real  question  then  is  :  who  was 
responsible  for  advising  Mr.  Churchill  and  what  was  the 
advice  that  was  given  to  him  ? 

Strategy  and  Technique 

Here  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  different 
kinds  of  advice:  Of  alternative  warlike  plans,  all  equally 
feasible,  one  may  be  preferred  to  another  on  general 
groimds  of  strategy.  For  instance,  had  it  been  possible 
in  January,  1915,  to  despatch  150,000  men  with  their 
proper  equipment  and  supplies,  it  was  arguable  how  such  a 
force  could  be  employed  in  the  Eastern  theatre  of  war. 
Five  corps  thrown  into  Serbia  might  have  compelled  the 
Central  Powers  to  fight  on  the  new  front,  have  brought 
Greece,  Roumania  arnd  Bulgaria  into  an  alliance  with  us, 
might,  at  the  worst,  have  secured  Bulgarian  neutrality 
only.  If  directed  against  Alexandretta,  .  the  Turkish 
army,  prepared  for  the  invasion  of  Egypt,  might  have  been 
cut  off  and  destroy-ed  ;  and  the  whole  of  Mesopotamia 
brought  iYistantly  under  Allied  domination.  Used  for  an 
attack  on  the  GallipoK  Peninsula,  Turkey  might  have  been 
struck  to  the  heart  and  communications  opened  with 
Russia.  If  all  were  equally  feasible,  the  choice  could  have 
been  made  on  that  combination  of  military  and  political 
considerations  summed  up  in  the  word  "  strategy."  But 
supposing  the  force  had  been  strong  enough  .say,  to  seize 
Alexandretta  and  operate  in  Syria,  but  not  strong  enough 
to  take  Gallipoli  and  open  a  way  for  the  Fleet  to  the  Sea 
of  Marmora,  then  the  objection  to  the  latter  coursri  would 
have  been  tactical  and  not  strate,gical.  The  two  thint's 
naturally  merge  at  times.     Evcrvbodv  m.-iy  be  agreed 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  15,  191; 


as  to  the  strategical  value  of  a  certain  operation  and  differ 
as  to  the  practical  method  of  iindertakint,'  it.  It  is  for 
experts  to  say  what  is  practical  and  what  is  not  ;  their 
judgment  on  "the  tactical  employnit-nt  of  force  is  final. 
And  no  statesman  in  his  senses"  could  possibly  sanction 
any  military  undertaking  if  his  expert  advisers  were 
unanimous  in  telling  him  that  t)ie  only  tactical  method 
that  could  be  employed  was  doomed  to  failure.  But  if 
strictly  military  arguments  are  equal,  it  is  for  statesmen 
to  decidi.'  on  the  strategical  objection. 

The  application  of  these  principles  to  the  situation  in 
January,  iqi.5.  is  very  obvious.  Jiveryont^  on  the  war 
(ouncii  was  a;r-ed  as  to  the  importance  of  striking  at 
Turkey.  They  were  equally  imanimous  that  an 
amphibious  operation  against  the  defences  of  Constan- 
tinople, supposing  an  adequate  force  was  available,  ought 
to  succeed  and  change  the  whole  coiuse  of  the  war. 
But  just  as  they  were  unanimous  on  the.se  two  jioints  so 
did  thev  accept  without  (piestion  a  third— namely, 
that  for  "some  months  after  the  ist  January,  no  adequate 
military  force  would  be  available.  Next,  Lord  Fisher, 
in  January,  1915,  was  considering  a  plan  for  emplojnng  our 
large  margin  of  prc-Drcadnought  ships,  the  nature  of 
which  is  not  disclosed  in  the  report.  We  cannot,  there- 
fore, judge  whether  his  objective  should  have  been  pre- 
ferred. Mr.  Churchill  and  Mr.  Asquith  may  have  been 
wrong  in  thinking  that  the  appearance  of  the  fleet  off 
Constantinople  was  of  more  value  than  the  stroke  Lord 
Fisher  had  in  view.  And  it  is  immaterial  to  the  point  we 
are  dealing  with  whether  it  was  so  or  not,  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  not  the  strategy  involved  in  the  Dardanelles 
adventure  that  is  in  issue.  The  point  is  ;  what  authority 
had  Mr.  Churchill  and  the  War  Council  for  the  tactical 
soundness  of  the  plan  adopted  ? 

Plain    Facts 

On  this  the  report  is,  I  submit,  absolutely  clear  and 
completely  convincing  : 

(i)  On  receipt  of  the  Russian  telegram  of  January 
2nd,  Lord  Kitchener  stated  delinitely  that  he  had  not, 
and  for  some  time  would  not  have,  any  troops  available 
for  an  attack  on  Turkey.  To  force  the  Dardanelles  he 
estimated  130,000  men  with  the  requisite  arms  and  stores 
would  be  needed  and  these,  the  necessities  of  the 
French  front  being  what  they  were,  simply  did  not  exist. 
He  could  only  suggest  that  a  naval  demonstration  should 
be  made,  though  doivbtful  as  to  any  precise  advantage 
accruing  from  it  to  our  Allies.  The  thing  that  has  to  be 
explained  is,  how  so  modest  a  proposal  grew  into  some- 
thing so  entirely  different. 

(2)  The  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  events  of  the 
next  fortnight.  Within  24  hours  of  the  receipt  of 
Kitchener's  suggestion,  Mr.  ChuVchill  and  Lord  Fisher 
were  in  communication  with  the  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Mediterranean,  and  asking  his  opinion,  not  on  a 
demonstration,  but  on  the  practicability  of  forcing  the 
Dardanelles,  entering  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  defeating  the 
Turkish  fleet  and  bombarding  Constantinople  with  naval 
force  aloqe.  By  January  nth  Vice-.\dmiral  Carden 
had  drafted  a  scheme  and  specified  the  forces  required 
for  its  execution.  Lord  Kitchener  shared  the  general 
military  opinion  that  a  contest  between  forts  and  ships 
did  not  promise  well  for  the  ships.  It  was  Lord  Fisher 
who  dispelled  this  prejudice.  He  offered  to  add  the 
Queen  Elizabeth  to  the  expedition,  and  the  magic  of  her 
15-inch  guns  dissipated  every  doubt.  She  was  therefore 
included  in  the  list  of  ships  which  the  First  Lord  and 
I-'irst  Sea  Lord  and  Chief  of  the  Staff  agreed,  on  January 
1 2th,  were  necessary  for  carrying  out  the  plan  of  forcing 
the  Dardanelles.  Next  day  this  plan  was  laid  before 
the  Council,  and  on  the  strength  of  the  promises  of  what 
the  Queen  Elizabeth  could  do,  was  adopted.  On  the 
I4tli  Lord  h'isher  agreed  in  a  memorandum  recording 
the  fact  that  the  exjx'dition  would  absorb  the  whole  of 
the  available  naval  reserves.  The  plan  then  originated 
with  Mr.  Churchill  and  his  only  responsible  naval  adviser, 
and  was  carried  at  the  War  Council  by  arguments  which 
Lord  Fisher's  personal  contribution  to  the  scheme  made 
possible.  '' 

(3)  The  next  twelve  days  were  spent  at  the  .Admiralty 
in  preparing  plans  of  operations  and  drafting  orders  for 
the  forces  to  be  employed  in  its  execution.  The  plans 
and  the  methods  for  "executing  them  must  have  been 


known  to  the  First  Sea  Lord,  who  expressed  no  dis- 
approval. The  thing  went  on  to  the  next  meeting  o: 
Janiiary  28th  without  a  single  suggestion  from  hin 
that  the  plan  was  impracticable.  On  January  28th  tlu 
tuial  decision  was  reached,  and  on  February  lytli  the 
attack  began. 

(4)  Mr.  Churchill  told  us  in  November  it)i5,  that  the 
success  of  the  fleet  against  the  outer  forts  took  e\-eryonc 
at  home  by  surprise.  But  by  the  second  week  in  Marcl' 
the.  thing  was  seen  to  han.g  lire,  and  the  .Admiral  in 
conuuand  was  urged  to  more  strenuous  efforts.  On 
March  the  i8th  the  great  attack  on  the  Narrows,  so  long 
pre])ared.  so  urgently  insisted  on  from  home,  was  made 
;uk1  failed.  Three  out  of  16  ships  were  simk,  four  more 
had  to  be  beached  or  docked.  Two  more  had  big  gnus 
dismounted  (jr  out  of  action.  43  per  cent,  of  the  force 
had  gone.     Only  seven  ships  out  of  16  were  unhurt. 

(5)  I  he  vital  thing  to  bear  in  mind  is  that,  even  now, 
naval  opinion  was  unanimous  in  thinking  that  the  purely 
naval  effort-  should  continue  and  would  succeed.  Only 
on  March  26th  when  the  Commander-in-Chief's  detailed 
reasons  were  given  for  waiting  till  military  help  was. 
available,  was  naval  failure  acknowledged. 

Responsible  Adviser 

From  January  3rd,  then,  till  March  26th,  Lord  Fisher 
knew  that  no  action  for  forcing  the  Dardanelles  could  or 
would  be  taken  other  than  purely  naval  action.  It  was 
his  suggestion,  that  the  Queen  Elizabeth  should  join  the 
bombarding  fleet,  that  overcame  the  military  prejudice 
against  trusting  to  naval  action  alone.  He  had  gone  into 
the  thing  from  the  first  on  the  basis  that  it  was  not  a 
demonstration  but  a  considered  and  practicable  plan  oi 
putting  Constantinople  at  the  mercy  of  the  fleet.  He 
was  cognisant  of  every  step  proposed  for  attaining  this 
result,  and  at  no  stage,  until  nearly  half  the  force  was  out 
of  action  and  the  Admiral  on  the  spot  advised  delay 
until  the  soldiers  were  ready,  did  he  throw  any  doubt  on 
the  adequacy  of 'the  tactical  methods  to  be  employed. 

Lord  iMshcr's  friends  in  the  press  make  much  of  the 
fact  that  he  preferred  an  amphibious  to  a  naval  effort  and, 
on  January  25th,  j^ressed  his  preference  for  an  alternati\-e 
undertaking  to  the  point  of  a  direct  appeal  to  the  Prime 
Minister.  What  they  fail  to  see  is  that  this  action  throws 
his  responsibility  for  endorsing  the  tactical  soundness  of 
the  proposal  adopted  into  far  higher  relief.  For  what  was 
the  position  ? 

First,  the  Board  of  Admiralty  had  ceased  to  exist. 
Lord  Fisher  was  not  the  First  Lord's  chief,  he  was  his 
only  responsible  na\'al  adviser.  On  no  entirely  technical 
question  .could  he  have  been  over-ruled.  He  had  an 
alternati\-e  plan.  He  thought  so  highly  of  it  that  he 
wished  to  dissociate  himself  from  any  further  respon- 
sibility for  the  attack  on  the  Dardanelles.  He  had  then 
every  motive  for  using  his  indisputable  authority  for 
stopping  the  Constantinople  adventure — if  only  he  could 
produce  an  excuse  for  using  that  authority.  He  did 
produce  an  argument.  It  was  an  alternative  strategy' — 
one  which  the  Prime  Minister  could  rightly  over-rule. 
But  had  his  objection  been  tactical,  had  he  been  able  to 
say,  "  This' thing  must  stop  because  it  cannot  succeed," 
the  thing  must  have  stopped,  and  instantly.  There 
was  no  possible  alternati\-e.  Can  people  really  fail  to  see 
that  the  Insher  Memorandum  of  January  25th  and  the 
incidents  of  the  two  Councils  of  January  28th,  are  final 
and  conclusive  proof  that  the  only  naval  expert  respon- 
sible to  Mr.  Churchill,  the  Prime  Minister,  and  the  War 
Council,  for  expert  technical  advice  on  a  na\al  operation 
of  tiie  first  magnitude,  never  suspected  that  the  plan 
he  had  originated  was  wholly  impracticable  from  beginning 
to  end  ? 

Form  and   Substance 

Once  it  is  to  be  admitted  that  naval  expert  advicfc 
hostile  to  the  plan  for  forcing  the  Dardanelles,  was  not 
forthcoming  or  'sup])ressed,  because  there  was  no  advice 
that  was,  in  fact,  hostile,  all  the  Commissioners'  con- 
clusions I  have  quoted  necessarily  fall  to  the  ground. 
But  |there  is  another  of  their  censures  which,  on  the  fact? 
set  out  above,'  falls  also.  Lord  Kitchener  is  blamed 
because,  on  February  20th,  he  countermanded  the  des- 
patch of  the  Twenty-ninth  Division,  ordered  by  the  War 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


i 


Council  on  February  i6th.  This  led  to  a  delay  of  three 
weeks  in  the  arrival  of  troops  on  the  spot,  and,  as  tilings 
ultimately  turned  out,  with  very  unhappy  results  to  the 
adventure,  when  it  ceased  to  be  a  naval,  and  became  a 
military  undertaking.  The  censure  of  Tord  Kitchener 
is  twofold.  He  is  blamed  for  the  decision  on  its  merits 
and  he  is  blamed  for  the  irregularity  of  the  action.  He 
acted  without  informing  the  First  Lord  or  the  Council. 
But  on  the  merits  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
desirability  of  having  troops  to  assist  was  mentioned 
for  the  first  time  on  February  ytli.  When  preparation 
was  made  for  their  employment  on  the  i6tli,  it  was  only 
for  minor  operations — clearing  the  mobile  guns  and  the 
destruction  of  forts  already  silenced  by  the  fleet.  At  the 
most,  it  seemed  to  be  thought  that  this  assistance  might 
be  necessary  to  expedite  the  naval  victory  and  to 
secure  the  safe  return  of  the  fleet  after  victory  was 
assured.  Even  on  March  13th,  Sir  Ian  Hamilton's  instruc- 
tions forbade  his  occupation  of  any  part  of  the  (iallipoli 
Peninsula,  and  limited  him  to  operations  on  the  scale 
mentioned.  His  orders,  indeed,  began  with  the  formula 
of  the  day.  "  The  Fleet  have  undertaken  to  force  the 
passage  of  the  Dardanelles."  Military  force  then,  was 
only  to  be  available  if  it  w^as  found  necessary  for  assisting) 
the  Navy  to  success. 

Indeed,  there  is  one  possible  explanation  of  Lord 
Kitchener's  action  on  the  20th,  which  has  been  overlooked. 
The  report  is  silent  as  to  the  extreme  surprise  of  every- 
one concerned  at  the  completeness  of  the  Fleet's  success 
on  February  iqth.  Can  it  be  doubted  that  it  was  this 
success,  coupled  with  his  knowledge  of , the  needs  of  the 
arrny  in  France,  that  naturally  led  Lird  Kitchener  to 
suppose  that  it  was  as  safe  from  the  Dardanelles  point  of 
view,  as  it  was  prudent  from  the  French  point  of  view,  to 
hold  these  troops  in  reserve  ?  To  criticise  this  action 
as  "  vacillating  and  dilatory  "  in  the  hght  of  subsecjuent 
events,  seems  to  present  it  in  a  light  altogether  false. 
The  real  need  for  troops  at  the  Dardanelles  was  in  cir- 
cumstances that  would  arise  if  the  navy  succeeded.  The 
delay  in  sending  them  is  judged  from  the  result  when  the 
navy  had  failed.  It  is  not  to  the  point  to  say  that  Lord 
Kitchener's  proceeding  was  irregular.  All  the  proceed- 
ings were  irregular  in  form.  The  real  point  is  different. 
Were  the  proceedings  as  a  whole  taken  in  defiance  of 
principles  held  by  the  professional  advisers  ?  There  is 
no  evidence  to  suggest  that  if  all  the  forms  of  sound 
administration  had  been  observed,  without  any  more 
competent  technical  guidance,  that  any  sounder  policy 
would  have  ensued. 

The  Commissioners'  main  criticisms  seem,  therefore, 
against  the  weight  of  evidence.  Remembering  that  the 
operation  examined  was  purely  naval,  it  is  the  lirst  error 
of  the  Commissioners  that  is  the  more  important.  How  is 
it  that  they  failed  to  put  their  hands  on  the  real  weakness 
of  the  situation,  and  have  instead  explained  this  huge 
blunder  by  the  hackneyed  theory  that  all  naval  and 
military'  disasters  arise  from  political  interference  with 
professional  advisers  ?  Is  it  that  the  Commissioners 
found  the  alternative  explanation,  that  the  naval  advice 
was  altogether  incompetent,  too  staggering  and  unbe- 
lievable a  fact  to  put  forward  ?  Yet  it  obviously  was  the 
fact,  and  if  the  only  excuse  for  publishing  the  report 
is  that  the  people  are  to  be  told  the  truth,  then  it  is 
this  truth,  and  no  other,  that  is  the  lesson  the  facts  of  the 
case  convey. 

The  Fundamental  Error 

It  does  not  in  the  least  relieve  Mr.  Asquith  or  Mr. 
Churchill.  They  were,  after  all,  responsible  not  only  for 
bringing  Lord  Fisher  back  in  1914,  but  for  continuing  the 
Fisher  system  after  the  Beresford  Committee  in  igog  had 
pricked  the  bubble  of  the  materialists'  naval  policy. 
We  then  had  had  five  years  of  undiluted  Fislierism. 
Even  in  peace  it  had  become  painfully  clear  that  it  was  a 
systen^  based  on  doctrines  essentially  unwarlikc,  and  was 
producing  results  manifestly  chaotic.  But  the  exposure 
in  iqoQ  did  not,  unhappily,  end  it.  After  Lord  Fisher 
was  gone,  the  Fisher  methods  continued.  No  one  of  the 
vital  matters,  on  which  success  in  war  depends,  was 
brought  under  supervision  of  a  staff  selected  and 
charged  with  serious  preparation  for  war.  At  the  opening 
of  1912,  immediately  after  Mr.  Churchill  had  taken  the 


Admiralty  over  from  Mr.  McKenna,  there  seemed — but 
for  a  very  brief  period  only — a  chance  that  the  lesson  of 
t'he  encjuiry  had  been  learned.  It  was  almost  Mr. 
Churchill's  first  action  to  announce  the  constitution  of  a 
War  Staff,  in  a  document  which  set  out,  in  brilliant  and 
unanswerable  reasoning,  the  fundamental  truth  of  all 
preparation  for  naval  war.  Though  the  Staff  he  pro- 
posed to  create  was  to  be  concerned  only  with  the  study 
and  preparation  of  plans  of  a  strategical  kind,  he  re- 
minded us  that  unless  strategy  and  tactics  had  the  unit 
efficiency  of  ships  behind  them,  they  were,  however 
skilful,  but  the  preliminaries  of  defeat.  Obviously, 
then,  the  War  Staff  announced  on  New  Year's  Day  1912, 
must  itself  only  be  the  preliminary  of  the  far  more  im- 
portant War  Staff  that  would  fathom  the  art  of 
using  naval  weapons  in  offence  and  foiling  their  use  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

Fisherism 

It  had  been  the  whole  complaint  against  Fisherism 
that  it  was  mad  about  material  and  blind  to  the  methods 
by  which  it  should  be  used.  Now,  at  last,  we  were 
surely  to  have  an  organisation  that  would  put  things 
right.  At  last  brains  would  rule.  But  Mr.  Churchill 
soon  forgot — if  he  had  ever  understood — the  meaning 
of  his  words.  So  far  from  committees  being  created  to 
study  torpedoes,  or  submarines,  or  mines,  or  gunnery, 
the  only  staff  that  did  exist  for  the  study  of  the  latter 
was  abolished.  And  we  drifted  into  war  vvitljout  any 
organisation  for  studying  the  matters  that  He  at  the 
root  of  it.  Mr.  Churchill  has  paid  a  high  price  for  his 
failure  to  protect  Admiralty  policy  by  expert  knowledge. 
The  price  the  countrj^and  its  Allies  have  paid,  is  paying,, 
and  must  still  pay,  is  incalculable. 

"  War,"  said  an  American  General,  "  is  fighting,  and 
fighting  i.s  killing."  It  is  a  matter  of  weapons.  The 
starting  point  is  the  combat.  You  must  kill  your  enemy, 
or  at  sea  sink  or  destroy  his  ship,  or,  as  in  this  case,  pound 
up  and  silence  his  forts,  before  he  can  sink  you.  Combat 
involves  then  offensive  and  defensive  activities.  The 
Fisher  system  left  all  of  these  for  discovery  when  war 
came.  The  thing  that  stands  out  in  the  transactions 
described  in  this  report  is,  that  from  beginning  to  end, 
the  operations  were  recognised  to  be  experimental. 
Between  January  2nd  and  February  igtli  it  would  have 
been  very  easy  to  have  made  a  dummy  fort  and  tested 
ships'  guns  against  it.  It  would  have  been  easy  to  have 
discovered  what  might  be  expected  when  aircraft  were 
employed  to  observe.  But  it  never  occurred  to  anyone 
to  do  either.  The  Queen  Elizabeth,  whose  armament 
turned  the  scale  of  military  objection,  was  actually,  in 
attacking  the  Callipoli  forts,  trying  her  guns  for  the 
first  time  !  It  was  known  that  ships  would  have  to  stand 
still  to  fire  and  would  be  exposed  to  the  guns  of  the 
forts,  to  anchored.and  drifting  mines,  and,  if  they  ever  got 
to  the  Narrows,  to  torpedoes  fired  at  a  range  of  half  a 
mile.  No  provision  was  made  for  protecting  a  single  one 
of  them  against  the  enemy's  offensive.  It  was  taken  for 
granted,  as  in  the  jmntomime  rehearsal,  that  "  every- 
thing would  be  alright  on  the  night."  It  was  Fisherism 
in  excelsis,  and  it  brought  its  inevitable  Nemesis. 

In  naval  warfare  the  units  of  force  are  few  but  of 
enormous  power,  of  enormous  reach,  of  astounding  speed 
and  unparalleled  mobility.  LIsed  with  effect,  no  hostile 
ship  and  no  hostile  fort  could  survive  the  fire  of  a  single 
■  modern  battleship  for  five  minutes.  But  unless  the 
weapons  can  be  used  with  effect,  the  force  is  only 
nominal.  It  is  a  bluff.  It  is  not  a  reality.  And 
weapons  cannot  be  used  with  effect  unless  the  difficulties 
in  the  way  are  discovered,  and  analysed,  and  overcome 
by  the  methods  which  skilled  impartial  judgment  shows 
to  be  required.  The  problems  which  modern  weapons 
present  never  were  inquired  into,  because  the  Admiralty 
was  run  on  the  lines  Lord  Fisher  had  laid  down.  It 
is  this  issue  that  the  Commissioners  have  not  detected. 
It  is  the  only  lesson  of  the  Dardanelles  adventure 
that   is  worth  learning. 

Arthur  Pollen 

The  article -by  "An  Officer ,"_  entitled,  "A  Village  of 
Northern  France,"  has  been  unavoidably  held  over  this  week 
owing  to  extra  pressure  on  our  space  at  the  last  moment, 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


I\Iarch  15,  1917 


Her  House  in  Order 

By  Mary  MacLeod  Moore 


UNHERALDED,  slowly,  without  the  conscious 
will  of  the  people  Britain  is  putting  her  house 
in  order.  It  is  a  new  Britain  one  only  sees  by 
pausing  in  this  grim  concentration  upon  the 
work  uf  the  war,  to  look  back  to  the  old  days  before 
August  1914.  Few  have  realized  the  transformation, 
nor  seen  the  forest  for  the  trees. 

Re-formed,  re-born,  "wonderfully  organised,  mar- 
\ellously  disciplined,  the  new  Britain  is  set  upon  the 
foundations  of  the  old,  which,  said  our  enemies,  was 
decadent,  spoiled  by  prosperity,  and  on  the  down-grade  ; 
over  which  our  own  friends  and  those  of  our  household 
mourned  as  for  a  glory  that  had  almost  passed.  It  has 
been  slowly  coming  to  the  fullness  of  life  ever  since  some- 
thing woke  in  men  and  women  when  the  call  to  arms 
rang  around  the  Empire.  Now  it  grows  greater  and 
better  than  the  optimists  thought  possible.  The  men 
who  ha\e  died  died  for  more  than  they  dreamed  of.  The 
men  who  return  will  see  to  it  that  the  nation  is  not 
allowed  to  relapse  into  pre-war  apathy. 

Only  through  war  and  the  demands  of  war  could  the 
things  come  to  pass  that  have  come  to  jDass.  DiscipHne 
had  fallen  into  disrepute  before  the  war.  Now  the  nation, 
without  feeling  the  yoke  heavy,  has  submitted  cheerfully 
to  the  authorities,  and  is  helping  to  make  Great  Britain 
well-ordered,  healthy  and  efficient.  Two  and  a  half 
years  ha\e  brought  about  rcfot-ms  and  made  ad\ances 
which  one  hundred  years  of  peace  could  hardly  have 
accomplished. 

Mention  of  a  few  of  them  shows  how  far  we  have 
travelled — State  control  of.  railways,  with  consequent 
stricter  rules  and  a  limiting  of  travel,  many  restrictions 
enforced  by  the  Liquor  Traffic  Central  Control  Board  ; 
compulsory  registration  of  the  men  and  women  of  the 
nation  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  .sixty-five  ;  the 
calling  up  for  the  army  of  all  eligible  men  other  than 
those  considerad  indispensable  in  various  callings  neces- 
sary for  the  well-being  and  safety  of  the  nation,  and  a 
gradual  wxx-ding  out  of  these  indispensables  ;  the  military 
training  of  boys  over  eighteen  ;  the  taking  over  by  the 
Government  of  all  the  coal  mines  ;  the  establishment 
of  a  Labour  Ministry  to  be  a  permanent  institution  ; 
the  appointment  of  a  Food  Controller  to  check  waste 
and  to  regulate  food  supplies  ;  the  appointment  of  a 
Director  of  National  Service,  with  women  assistants  ; 
the  increased  taxes,  including  taxes  on  amusements,  etc. 

A  great  step  was  taken  in  mobilising  our  industrial 
resources  ;  the  taking  over  of  a  vast  number  of  factories 
by  the  Government  for  the  production  of  munitions  of 
war,  and  the  changing  of  the  type  of  factory  already 
existing  and  adapting  it  to  new  requirements ;  the 
building  of  new  factories  all  over  these  islands,  fully 
equipped  with  the  best  and  most  modern  plant,  which 
will  be  of  imrpense  value  in  days  to  come  ;  new  laws 
for  motor  vehicles,  and  the  Government  restrictions  on 
the  use  of  petrol  ;  lighting  regulations,  Dayhght  .Saving, 
and  many  minor  regulations  which  iiave  passed  witli 
little  comment  and  practically  no  opposition. 

A  striking  result  of  the  war  is  the  way  in  which  women 
and  gu-ls  are  taking  the  places  of  men  in  munition 
factories,  in  other  factories,  on  the  land,  on  the  railways, 
as  clerks  of  all  kinds,  as  motor  dri\'ers,  as  camp  cooks,  as 
well  as  in  other  branches  of  labour.  They  have,  in  the 
language  of  the  United  States,  "  made  good,"  even  at 
imaccustomed  work.  Many  were  already,  employed  in 
some  form  (^f  industry,  but  besides  those  whose  metier 
it  was  to  enter  the  working  world  there  are  thousands  of 
women  and  girls  of  the  well-to-do  classes  who  have  turned 
out  to  help  in  national  work,  both  paid  and  unpaid,  and 
have  thus  revolutionised  their  method  of  living,  and 
have  thrown  to  the  winds  the  traditions  in  which  they 
were  brought  up.  Nmnbers  have  learned  for  the  first 
time  what  it  means  to  be  under  the  control  of  others,  and 
they  have  acquired  priceless  habits  of  reliability  and  a 
sense  of  duty  to  one's  neighbour. 

As  a  result  of  the  war  more  attention  is  being  paid 
to  the  health  of  the  wr^man  worker,  with  regard  to 
her  future  value  to  the  State  as  widl  as  to. -the  present 


comfort  of  the  individual,  and  in  the  interests  of  the 
employer  as  well  as  of  the  worker.  Increased  anxiety 
is  shown  by  all  thoughtful  persons  for  the  safety  and 
health  of  the  precious  State  asset — the  Baby.  As  yet 
the  public  conscience  is  not  fully  aroused  to  the  question 
of  infantile  mortality,  else  we  should  not  lose  thousands 
of  babies  annually,  chiefly  from  preventable  causes. 

The  foregoing  are  only  a  few  of  the  developments 
that  occur  to  anyone  weighing,  on  the  credit  side,  what 
war  has  done  for  the  British  people,  instead  of  dwelhng 
always  on  the  obvious  point —the  terrific  destruction  iuid 
weakening  of  valuable  male  life,  the  consequent  suffer- 
ing involved,  and  the  loss  to  the  nation,  from  \arious 
points  of  view.  The  stern  discipline  of  these  days,  and  of 
those  swiftly  coming,  when  he  or  she  is  a  traitor  who 
neglects  to  do  what  makes  for  the  good  of  the  State,  must 
result  in  a  united  nation  of  efficient  as  well  as  patriotic 
men  and  women,  forming  a  solid  national  anny  behind 
the  armies  in  thg  field  and  the  navy  ceaselessly  pro- 
tecting us. 

Machinery  has  been  scrapped  ruthlessly.  Buildings 
ha\'e  been  torn  down  to  make  way  f(n"  those  that  ire 
U!»eful  and  modern.  And  traditions  and  ideas  have  been 
torn  up  by  the  roots,  while  those  who  treasured  them 
for  a  lifetime .  have  hardly  felt  the  Avrench.  Men  who 
sneered  at  the  aristocracy  and  the  "  idle  rich,"  with  the 
cheap  Socialist  speaker  as  authority  for  their  gibes, 
have  fought  and  died  with  those  whom  they  formerly 
disliked  and  ha\'e  learned  to  under.stand  them. 

Writers  and  politicians  have  frankly  and  freely  jjro- 
claimed  a  change  of  views,  and  many  have  discarded 
those  they  cherished  fiercely  before  the  clash  of  nations. 
T+iere  are  still  some,  unhajipily,  who  are  politicians  and 
pacifists  before  they  are  patriots,  but  their  following  is 
small.  Women  who  have  moved  all  their  sheltered 
lives  within  the  limits  of  their  own  class  have  come  in 
contact  with  others  and  have  recognised  likenesses  more 
than  differences. 

Not  the  least  useful  for  the  future  good  understanding 
has  been  the  friendly  personal  intercourse  between  the 
wounded  soldiers  and  their  hosts  and  hostesses.  From 
one  end  of  the  Country  to  the  other  great  houses  have 
been  turned  into  hospitals  and  convalescent  homes,  and 
in  addition  wounded  men  from  all  ranks,  of  hfe  and 
from  every  branch  of  industry  —some  e\'en  who  had 
never  spoken  to  a  gentlewoman  before  —have  been 
entertained  by,  and  have  been  able  to  realize  the  kindness 
and  simplicity  of  those  who,  for  want  of  a  better  term, 
are  called  "  the  upper  classes." 

Ludicrous  is  the  memory  that  a  few  years  ago  there 
was  talk  of  a  sex-war.  Men  and  women  were  pitted 
against  each  other  as  natural  enemies.  Grave  persons 
wrote  articles  to  prove  that  women  were  mentally  and 
physically  unfit  to  mark  a  ballot  paper,  and  well-brought 
up  women  horrified  the  peaceful  by  their  \'igorous 
})rotests.  The  British  nation  can'  never  again  know 
quite  the  same  jealousies  between  class  and  class. 

As  one  result  of  the  war  the  new  Britain  will 
be  a  far  better-informed  land.  Not  only  as  to  the 
customs  and  characters  of  Allies  and  enemies  alike, 
but  as  to  the  outer  Empire  which  to  many  people  was 
a  vague  vast  waste.  In  future  tliere  will  be  fewer 
irritating  misunderstandings  due  to.jivant  of  information 
lather  than  to  want  of'  sympathy.  Men  who  have 
fought  together  and  have  exchanged  news  and  views 
concerning  AustraUa,  Canada,  New  Zealand,  South 
Africa  and  tlu;  "  Islands  of  the  Seas,"  with  those  from 
the  British  Islands,  will  understand  men  and  con- 
ditions better.  The  Overseas  man  who  had  learned  of 
England  from  traditions  and  out-of-date  remini- 
scences,  has  changed  completely  his  ideas  of  the  « 
Old  Cotmtry.  Thi-  Englishman  is  surprised  to  have  ^ 
discovered  the  Colonial,  and  is  learning  to  .say  "  We," 
in.stead  of  "  You," 

Like  a  mighty  rushing  wind  the  war  has  swept  through 
the  Empire,  not  only  bringing  with  it  anguish  and  woe, 
but  driving  out  worn  out  theories,  ancient  prejudices, 
sloth.  laxness  and  apathy. 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATFR 


15 


Poverty,  Prosperity  and  Prices 


By  Harold  Cox 


THE  habit  of  all  human  beings  is  to  prefer  short 
views  to  long  ones — they  are  more  quickly 
seen.  Often  this  habit  does-  but  little  harni, 
for  the  people  who  indulge  in  it  are  at  no  dis- 
advantage as  compared  with  the  majority  of  their  neigh- 
bours and  competitors,  who  are  equally  the  slaves  of  the 
same  habit.  Indeed,  in  one  sphere  of  human  hfe.  the 
realm  of  politics,  the  short  view  is  the  more  profitable. 
The  politician  is  always  sure  to  win  applause  by  advoca- 
ting the  short  view,  because  it  is  the  view  that  the 
majority  appreciate.  By  the  time  it  has  been  proved 
to  be  wrong  he  will  be  advocating  something  else,  and 
they  will  have  forgotten  his — and  their — previous  follies. 
Where  the  habit  becomes  disastrous  is  where  it  brings 
the  human  being  into  sharp  conflict  with  the  hard  facts 
of  the  material  world.  This  is  exactly  what  has  hap- 
pened in  nearly  all  the  belligerent  countries,  but  especially 
in  our  own  and  in  Germany,  through  the  adoption  of 
short  views  in  dealing  with  the  food  problem.  The  short 
view  is  that  food  prices  must  be  kept  low  for  the  benefit 
of  the  masses.  Any  one  engaged  in  the  business  of  food 
supply  who  acts  on  a  contrary  principle,  is  denounced 
as  a  grasping  profiteer,  and  is  threatened  with  the  best 
substitute  for  lynch  law  that  can  be  found  in-  the  Orders 
in  Council.  If  a  mere  writer,  whose  personal  interests 
are,  like  those  of  all  consumers,  on  the  side  of  cheapness, 
ventures  to  suggest  that  an  artificial  limitation  of  prices 
by  Government  authority  will  defeat  its  own  object,  he 
will  probably  be  told  that  he  is  a  theoretician  preaching 
a  cold-blooded  philosophy.  Humorously  enough,  the- 
very  newspapers  that  indulge  in  this  kind  of  comment 
and  scream  themselves  hoarse  about  the  scandal  of  high 
prices,  are  the  same  which  a  few  years  ago  were  engaged 
daily  denoimcing  the  "demon  of  cheapness."  •  Inciden- 
tally, these  newspapers  have  raised  their  own  prices  for 
the  declared  purpose  of  checking  demand. 

So  far  as  this  country  is  concerned,  the  primary  cause 
of  high  prices  is  not  the  activity  of  German  submarines, 
-4ior  the  shortage  of  shipping,  nor  the  failure  of  harvests, 
but  the  unexampled  prosperity  of  the  masses  of  .our 
population.  This  increased  prosperity  means  an  in- 
creased purchasing  power  and  the  exercise  of  that  power 
by  the  mass  of  the  people  drives  prices  upwards.  It  is 
not  only  food  that  is  affected.  Drapers,  milliners, 
jewellers,  and  all  caterers  for  the  comforts  or  the 
luxuries  of  the  mass  of  the  community,  have  with  rare 
exceptions  been  doing  better  business  at  higher  prices 
than  before  the  war. 

On  the  top  of  this  increased  demand  has  come  a  shortage 
of  supply.  In  the  case  of  imported  articles,  that  shortage 
is  partly  due  to  German  submarines,  but  even  more  to 
the  absorption  of  an  enormous  proportion  of  our  mer- 
cantile marine  for  the  needs  of  the  Admiralty  and  the 
War  Office.  That  a  good  deal  of  the  shipping  so  absorbed 
is  being  wastefully  employed  every  private  shipowner 
knows.  Large  ships  have  been  employed  to  carry  horses 
backwards  and  forwards  across  the  Mediterranean  from 
Alexandria  to  Marseilles,  because  the  military  authorities 
could  not  make  up  their  minds  whether  they  wanted  the 
horses  in  France  or  in  Egypt  ;  ships  have  been  kept 
waiting  in  distant  harbours  for  twice  or  three  times  the 
number  of  days  necessary  for  unloading  and  reloading, 
because  Admiralty,  officials  do  not  understand  how  to 
handle  mercantile  shipping.  If  these  administrative 
defects  could  be  cured,  a  considerable  fraction  of  the 
shipping  shortage  would  be  made  good.  But  we  should 
still  be  short  of  shipping,  and  still  be  faced  \\ith  the 
possibility  of  a  further  development  of  submarine 
activity.  Thus  some  reduction  in  imported  foodstuffs 
is  unavoidable,  though  hitherto  the  actual  reduction 
has  been  much  less  than  is  generally  believed. 

Simultaneously,  there  has  been  a  reduction  in  the 
supply  of  home-grown  food,  largely  due  to  labour  diffi- 
culties. The  farmer's  best  men  have  enlisted,  and  their 
places  cannot  be  filled  either  by  women,  or  by  the  type 
of  that  professional  man  whom  Mr.  Neville  Chamberlain 
fancifully  depicts  swinging  a  hammer  in  place  of  a  gol£ 


club.  When  an  increased  demand  is  accompanied  by  a 
diminished  supply,  no  power  on  earth  or  in  heaven  can 
prevent  a  rise  of  price.  But  Ministers  of  State  in  all 
countries  imagine  that  their  powers  are  superior  both 
to  natural  and  to  super-natural  forces.  They  think  that 
they  litave  merely  to  order,  and  that  what  they  command 
will  be  done.  Consequently  we  find  both  in  Germany 
and  in  this  country  a  persistent  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
Government  to  limit  prices  in  the  professed  interest  of 
the  masses. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  deal  with  the  case  of  Germany 
first,  for  Germany  led  the  way  in  this  policy,  and  it  is 
only  after  a  couple  of  years  of  relative  sanity  that  our 
(iovernmcnt  is  now  beginning  to  imitate  one  by  one  all 
the  blunders  that  Germany  has  been  making  since  the 
war  began.  Happily  for  us,  the  Germans  are  more 
thorough  m  their  follies  than  we  are.  That  is  why  we 
are  winning  the  war. 

The  extreme  thoroughness  of  the  German  organisation 
is  admirably  illustrated  in  tlieir  food  ticket  system. 
For  example,  \in  Hamburg  there  was  recentl}'  announced 
a  general  issue  of  new  cards  :  namely  "  bread  cards, 
infants'  flour  cards,  supplementary  bread  cards,  potato 
cards,  additional  potato  (^ards,  whole  milk  cards,  skim 
milk  cards,  and  supplementary  sugar  cards  for  children." 
Every  person  must  fetch  his  card  or  cards  from 
the  school  in  his  own  district,  and  upon  the  day 
fixed  for  his  own  street  or  part  of  a  street.  The 
statements  made  by  applicants  fpr  tickets  will  be  tested 
by  "  information  cards  "  prepared  by  the  Food  Office. 
In  order  to  prevent  delays,  applicants  are  "  urgently 
recommended  "  to  bring  with  them  birth  certificates  for 
all  the  persons  on  whose  behalf  they  are  applying.  Take 
again  the  following  extracts  from  the  order  issued  by  the 
Berlin  Police  authorities  early  in  February  : 

In  Charlottenburg  from  February  12th  to  iStli,  no  potatoes 
may  be  supplied  on  the  four  coupons  42  a  and  e,  and  not 
more  than  I  lb.  on  each  of  the  six  hatched  coupons  42 


Union  Jack  Club 

THE  King  and  Queen  paid  a  visit  to  the  Union 
Jack  Club  last  Thursday  afternoon  ;  it  was  a 
surprise  visit  as  their  Majesties  wished  to  see 
the  Club  in  its  normal  state.  As  they  went 
through  the  rooms,  both  the  King  and  Queen  entered 
freely  into  conversation  with  the  members  present,  who 
included  representatives  from  the  Overseas  Armies  and 
from  the  Australian  Navy  as  well  as  men  from  the  British 
Navy  and  Army.  Every  part  of  the  Club  was  visited, 
and  like  everyone  else  who  goes  there  for  the  first  time, 
their  Majesties  were  delighted  with  its  general  plan  and 
arrangements  and  the  way  it  is  run  on  business  lines 
entirely  for  the  advantage  of  its  members. 

Royalty  from  the  first  has  taken  an  active  interest 
in  this  splendid  institution,  and  everything  that  is  done 
to  render  it  of  greater  benefit  to  its  members  has  their 
cordial  approval.  The  proposal  to  create  a  permanent 
Literary  Fund,  which  has  been  advocated  in  these 
columns,  is  a  case  in  point.  The  present  comparative 
lack  of  newspapers  and  periodicals  is  a  considerable 
drawback  to  the  Club  from  the  members'  point  of  view, 
and  leaves  many  an  idle  hour  on  their  hands.  This 
effort  to  strengthen  the  Union  Jack  Club  in  this  direction 
receives  support,  and  the  knowledge  that  the  King  and 
Queen  are  personally  interested  in  the  Club,  as  testified 
by  their  visit  last  week,  will  further  help  it. 

All  contributions  to  the  U.J.C.  Litei-ary  Fund  should 
be  forwarded  to  the  Editor,  L.and  &  W.\ter,  5,  Chancery 
Lane.  W.C.,  3, 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  15,  1917 


b,  c  and  d  of  the  new  green  potato  cards.  On  each  of.  the 
4  coupons  16  of  the  supplementary  potato  card  100  grm. 
of  baker's  goods  will  be  served. 

***** 
The  commune  of  Treptov  will  distribute  in  the  week 
b -ginning  February  12th  barley,  coflee  on  coupon  T  ; 
jam.  syrup  and  arlilicial  hont'y  on  No.  3  ;  macaroni  ana 
Haked  oats  on  N<j.  4  ;  als.i  mackerel,  pickled  liaddock, 
and  3  lbs.  of  potatoes  or  ()oo  grm.  of  flour  ;  200  grm.  of 
flour  on  No.  5  of  the  provision-card,  and  4  lbs.  of  kohlrabi 
on  No.  6. 

Tne  mere  Enj^lish  brain  reels  before  such  complexity 
as  this,  but  e\-ervwhere  there  appears  to  be  similar 
elaboration,  and  everywhere  these  elaborate  regulations 
are  constantl\-  being  amended  by  the  issue  of  fresh  regula- 
tions. As  a  Socialist  paper,  Die  Neue  Zeit,  writes  in 
January  last  :  "  One  would  have  fuel  for  a  whole  winter 
if  one  had  merely  all  the  paper  wasted  on  rules  and 
regulations." 

Yet  these  elaborate  and  constantly  revised  regulations 
have  utterly  failed  to  secure  the  objects  aimed  at.  On 
February  loth  the  Leipzigcr  Volkszcitung  writes  bitterly 
of  the  position  of  the  poor  as  compared  with  -the  rich  : 

Anyone  can  have  so-called  foreign  butter  by  paying  8  to 
12  marks  per  lb.  Not  a  few  families  have  a  superabund- 
ance of  milk,  butter  and  cheese,  while  the  children  of  the 
poor  go  hungry,  and  even  the  hospitals  are  short.  Those 
who  have  money  and  space  at  their  disposal  keep  their 
own  cow,  and  its  milk  makes  up  for  the  want  of  other 
fats  .  .  .  .Unless  the  system  of  distribution  is  im- 
proved, the  power  to  "  carry  on  "  and  the  feeding  of  the 
nation  after  the  war  will  be  endangered. 

In  Wiirtemberg  the  Minister  of  the  Iriterior  is  planning 
an  extensive  new  organisation  "  to  inspire  the  agri- 
cultural population  with  greater  willingness  to  deliver 
their  stock  of  foodstuffs."  In  Berlin  bitter  complaints 
have  been  made  by  the  press  and  by  the  milk  retailers 
ot  the  insufficient  supply  and  the  bad  quality  of  the  milk 
sent  in  from  the  country.  In  February  negotiations 
took  place  between  the  "  Greater  Berlin  Fat  Office  and 
the  State  Fat  Ofiice  on  the  milk  regulations  for  Berlin 
and  its  suburbs."  As  a  result  the  price  offered  to  the 
producer  was  raised. 

Sugar  is  a  special  subject  of  anxiety  in  Germany.  In 
our  own  country  we  are  told  that  any  incon\'eniences  we 
suffer  in  the  supply  of  sugar  are  due  to  our  failure  to 
stimulate  the  cultivation  of  sugar  beet.  Germany  before 
the  war  was  a  gigantic  producer  of  sugar.  Her  production 
was  probably  at  least  twice  her  consumption.  Yet 
to-day  there  is  a  serious  shortage.  The  sugar  growers 
allege  that  this  is  due  to  Government  action  in  limiting  the 
price  of  sugar  to  a  non-profitable  figure.  To  try  to  deal 
with  the  situation  a  new  Government  office  was  created 
in  Prussia  as  recently  as  February  15th.  It  is  called  the 
State  Sugar  Bureau,  and  its  business  is  to  act  as  inter- 
mediary between  the  Imperial  Sugar  Office  and  the 
Prussian  Communal  Unions. 

The  tale  might  be  extended  indefinitely.  Already  the 
English  public  has  learned  chat  a  fierce  quarrel  has 
blazed  out  between  the  Prussian  Government  and  the 
Imperial  German  Government  with  regard  to  the  regula- 
tion of  food  supplies.  A  Prussian  State  Commissary 
was  appointed  in  February  to  co-operate  with  the 
-Imperial  Food  Dictator,  HeTr  Batocki.  Within  less  than 
three  weeks  the}-,  were  openly  at  war  with  one  another. 
Perhaps  like  Mr.  Prothero  and  Lord  Devonport,  they 
could  not  agree  on  the  meaning  of  the  words  maximum 
and  minimum. 

Sugar 

The  evidence  is  overwhelming  that  the  German 
attempt  to  meet  the  shortage  of  food  by  limiting  prices 
in  the  professed  interest  of  the  masses  has  completely 
failed.  Happily  our  own  position  is  much  better  thaii 
that  of  Germany,  largely  b.^causc  we  are  not  dependent 
on  home-grown  supplies.  In  spite  ol  German  submarines 
we  still  draw  nearly  half  our  foodstuffs  from  over  the 
seas,  and  up  to  the  present  our  Government  has  not 
committed  the  supreme  folly  of  discouraging  the  over- 
sea producer  by  limiting  the  price  at  which  his  produce 
can  be  sold  here.  On  the  contrary,  so  far  as  meat,  wheat 
and  sugar  are  concerned  the  Government,  since  the  early 


days  of:  the  w-ar,?has  itself  taken  an  active,  and  on  the 
whole  well-planned  part,  in  securing  supplies  and  securing 
their  conveyance  to  this  country. 

The  nniddle  that  has  arisen  in  this  countr\'  in  the  case 
of  sugar  is  entirely  due  to  the  mistaken  methods  em- 
ployed by  the  Government  in  the  distribution  of  the 
sugar  after  they  had  bought  it  abroad  and  landed  it 
here.  Instead  of  putting  up  the  price  of  the  sugar  so  as 
to  restrict  demand,  the  (iovernment  decided  to  assign 
to  every  distributfTr  a  proportion  of  the  supply  he  had 
required  in  the  last  peace  year.  The  inevitable  result 
has  been  that  shopkeepers  have  taken  measures  of  their 
own  for  restricting  demand.  If  a  grocer  has  only  100  lb. 
of  sugar  and  150  customers  each  wanting  i  lb.,  "he  must 
in  some  way  or  anothe^  choke  off  the  extra  50.  The 
obvious  and  the  fairest  way  is  to  put  up  the  price.  That 
would  induce  some  people  to  be  content  with  half  a 
pound,  others  w  ith  a  quarter  ;  and  the  sugar  would  go 
round.  But  this  being  forbidden,  the  grocer  has  pro- 
tected himself  by  refusing  to  sell  sugar  except  to  cus- 
tomers who  buy  other  goods.  As  a  necessary  conse- 
quence many  poor  people  have  been  deprived  of  the 
chance  of  getting  any  sugar  at  all.  Yet  the  poorest 
person  would  sooner  pay  even  sixpence  for  a  quaj-ter  of 
a  pound  of  sugar  than  be  turned  away  empty,  while 
richer  people  were  carrying  off  two'  pounds  for  a  shilling. 
Incidentally,  a  raising  of  the  price,  while  bringing  justice 
to  the  poor,  would  have  brought  revenue  to  the  State, 
for  the  Government  owns  all  the  sugar  imported. 

Potatoes 

In  the  case  of  potatoes,  the  blunder  is  more  compli- 
cated, and  the  regulations  issued  by  the  various  depart- 
ments concerned  vary  so  rapidly  that  it  is  impossible  to 
keep  count  of  them.  It  can,  however,  be  said  with 
confidence  that  the  (iovernment  has  made  almost  every 
conceivable  blunder.  It  has  made  frantic  appeals  to 
the  public  to  plant  more  potatoes,  with  the  result  that  a 
lot  of  seed  potatoes  will  be  planted  by  incompetent 
amateurs  in  unsuitable  ground,  and  will  be  wasted ;  it 
frightened  farmers  by  first  fixing  a  maximum  price  for 
future  crops  too  low  for  profit,  and  then  issuing  hopelessly 
absiu'd  regulations  about  the  price  of  seed  potatoes  ; 
fuially,  although  a  grave  shortage  is  in  sight,  it  has 
encouraged  the  public  to  consume  more  by  forcing  re- 
tailers to  sell  at  low  prices.  As  always,  it  is  the  poor 
who  suffer.  Ministers  who  do  not,  have  to  fetch  the 
materials  for  their  daily  meals  do  not  realize  what  it 
means  to  the  poor  to  stand  for  hours  in  a  long  queue 
waiting  for  the  chance  of  being  able  to  buy  a  pound  of 
potatoes  at  the  Government  price.  Apart  from  the 
hardship  to  the  individual,  the  economic  loss  to  the 
nation  of  this  queue  system  is  a  very  serious  factor  when 
all  our  strength  is  needed  to  win  the  war.  On  the  one 
liand  the  Director  of  National  Service  clamoitrs  for 
every. man  and  woman  to  do  useful  work  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Food  Controller  compels  large  numbers  of 
people  to  waste  half  days  or  whole  days  waiting,  perhaps 
in  vain,  for  a  pound  of  potatoes. 

The  whole  trouble  arises  from  a  refusal  to  use  the 
instrument  of  price  as  a  means  of  harmonising  demand 
with  supply.  It  is  the  best  instrument  that  the  wit  of 
man  has  ever  been  able  to  devise  ;  it  works  auto- 
matically and,  on  the  whole,  it  works  more  fairly  for  the 
■poor  than  any  other  instrument.  Undoubtedly  the 
poor  suffer  more  than  the  rich  by  rising  prices.  But  the 
people  who  lay  stress  on  that  obvious  fact  forget  that  if 
prices  are  not  allowed  to  rise  some  other  device  must 
be  employed  to  cut  down  demand,  and  in  practice  all 
these  other  devices  are  even  more  hurtful  to  the  poor 
than  a  rise  of  price. 

The  problem  of  poverty  must  be  dealt  with  as  a  thing 
apart.  What  the  poor  "want  is  more  money,  not  the 
chance  of  buying  potatoes  or  sugar  at  a  low  price  after 
wasting  half  a  day's  earnings.  Happily,  at  the  present 
time,  the  poor  are  relatively  few,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to 
devise  means  for  relieving  the  wants  of  those  who  would 
be  reduced  to  real  distress  by  rising  prices.  For  the 
rest  of  the  community  a  rise  of  price  is  the  best  thing 
that  can  happen  in  our  present  economic  situation.  It 
will  on  the  one  hand  check  consumption,  on  the  other 
hand  encourage  production.  By  this  double  influence 
it  safeguards  the  food  of  the  nation. 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

A  Perfect  Day 

By  an  O.T.C.  Recruit 


17 


THE  most  popular  tune  in  the  canteen  or  in  the 
Y.M.C.A.  or  the  billet,  or  wherever  there  is  a 
piano,  is  "  At  the  End  of  a  Perfect  Day,"  and 
men  sing  it  as  though  they  really  felt  it — at  the 
end  of  the  kind  of  day  that  in  civil  life  would  have  been 
thought  "  the  devil's  own  "  perfection. 

It  won't  be  imtil  about- the  third  day  after  your  enlist- 
ment that  the  day  becomes  "  perfect,"  for  the  hrst  day 
is  amphibian — between  the  ci\-il  and  the  military — and 
the  second  transitory. 

In  the  O.T.C.  one  is  a  Tommy  in  all  outward  appear- 
ance, until  such  time  as  it  pleases  the  gods  to  call  one  to 
the  cadet  school — a  matter  of  two  to  three  months — or 
at  nights,  when  one  is  permitted  to  slip  into  a  Burberry. 
As  to  the  Cadet — he  ot  the  white  hat-band — he  is  quite 
the  proudest  thing  in  the  King's  uniform.  His  pride  as 
he  passes  by  on  the  other  side  that  he  is  not  as  that  publi- 
can the  recruit,  excecdeth  that  of  a  thousand  Levites. 

The  second  day,  as  I  said,  is  bewildering.  One  is  not 
yet  the  complete  recruit,  because  wearing  only  the  belt, 
without  its  attendant  shoulder-straps  and  bayonet.  But 
the  third  day,  the  day  which  is  called  perfect,  all  must 
be  well    and   complefe,    or   trouble   will   befall. 

It  is  opened  by  a  great  offensive  on  the  part  of  the  five 
and  sixpenny  alarum — an  emergence  from  bed,  a  cold 
water  shave,  a  blasphemous  interlude  with  puttees, 
mitigated  by  one  consolation  only — in  the  army  you 
don't  wear  collars. 

Then,  in  the  dark,  you  descend  the  staircase,  crash  the 
muzzle  of  your  rifle  against  the  hall  gas-bracket,  and 
tramp  out  into  the  street.  Does  it  rain  or  snow,'  sleet  or 
hail  ?  For  yourself  n'importe !  Your  overcoat  is  ade- 
quate and  your  cap  don't  matter.  But  for  your  rifle, 
it  is  perdition  !  Rust,  that's  what  it  means,  "just  rust, 
and  mere  confounded  cleaning  after  breakfast. 
.  Breakfast  parade,  precluded  by  a  standabout  and  a 
smoke  and  a  chat  with  anybody,  and  off  we  march  "  at 
ease  "  to  our  mess  sheds.  As  we  enter,  the  cheerful  sight 
of  our  very  own  camp  bookstall  with  the  ])lacards  and  all 
the  leading  papers,  whcrefrom  we  know  the  news  of  the 
day  at  least  an  hour  before  you  lazy  "  too-late  "  Lon- 
doners have  got  out  of  bed. 

Breakfast.  Problem  :  Who's  Mess  Orderly  ?  Is  he  at 
your  end  of  the  section,  or  at  the  other  end  ?  If  the 
former,  you  will  have  an  early  whack  "at  the  rations,  if 
the  latter,  a  late  wash-out.  Is  it  Smifhers,  who  has  (he 
instinct  of  a  waiter  or  Blithers  who  has  those  of  a  food  hog ; 
one  who  serves  others  or  himself  alone  ?  Who  fills  your 
coffee  or  tea  cup  and  helps  you  to  butter,  or  lets  you  shift 
for  yourself  ? 

Half  an  ho.ur  to  look  at  the  paper,  wherefore  the  paper 
we  look  at  is  that  which  gives  us  the  quickest  knowledge 
and  the .  easiest-digested  opinions.  Then  first  morning 
parade.  It  begins  after  "  fall  in  "  by  "  Inspection," 
which  means  that  your  Instructor  passes  down  the  squad 
with  a  critical  eye  that  tells  him  all  about  you  in  sur- 
prisingly short  time,  whether  you  have  shaved,  and  if  so 
how,  ditto  cleaned  your  buttons,  belt,  bayonet  and 
boots  :  whether  "  harness  "  is  clean  and  properly  strapped, 
and  whether  your  hair  is  due  for  another  crop.  Lastly, 
"  For  Inspection,  Port  Arms  "—a  proceeding  that  carries 
with  it  the  possibilities  of  a  visit  to  Cie  orderly  room. 

Squad  Drill  !  Off  you  march.  Is  it  misty  ?  Good  ! 
That  lowers  the  visibility  of  the  Sergeant  Major  and  the 
Subalterns,  though  not  necessarily  (if  he's  about)  that 
of  the  Commanding  Officer,  the  eyes  of  whom  seem  all- 
seeing.  Is  it  cold  ?  That  means  plenty  of  "  doubling  " 
—the  very  devil,  if  the  Sergeant  Major  decides  to  conduct 
it  in  person,  but  less  "  manual"— (that  is,  rifle  drill), 
which  is  good.  For  "manual"  isn't  enjoyable.  They 
expect  you  to  treat  your  rifle  with  a  familiarity  that  the 
rifle  resents,  and  shows  it  by  causing  the  backsight  to  tear 
the  skin  of  your  hands  as  you  "slope"  or  "  trail  "  from 
the  "  order." 

Much  squad  drill,  and  nianual  and  bayonet-fixing  Jnd 
piling  of  arms  and  the  whistle  goes.  ''  Break  off  and 
parade  for  musketry  at  ten  o'clock." 

Musketry!     You    stand   round    your    instructor    and 


"  stand  load  "  and  "  take  aim  "  and  are  judged  according 
to  your  choice  of  positions.  If  you  can  shoot,  you  can 
shoot ;  if  you  can't,  you  can't.  Everybody  knows  that, 
and  in  ci\il  life,  you  decline  the  invitation  and  play  golf. 
But  in  the  Army  they  don't  allow  you  the  alternative. 
No  matter  what  your  Army  objective,  be  it  machine 
guns  or  artillery,  or  tanks,  or  A.S.C.,  or  red-tabs  in  White- 
hall, you  must  know  musketry,  even  though  you  never 
have  to  kill,  or  even  to  set  eyes  on  an  individual. 

Eleven  fifteen — Break  off  and  parade  again  at  a  cjuarter 
to  twelve.  A  joyous  cup  of  coffee,  or  tea  or  Oxo,  or 
Malted  Milk,  with  buns,  and  a  cigarette,  in  the  Y.M.C.A. 
hut,  and  the  back  of  the  morning  is  broken.  An  hour 
more  of  squad  drill,  then  lunch. 

Lun^h  isn't  a  "  parade."  It's  an  informal  business. 
Is  there  soup  ?  Perhaps.  Cold  meat  ?  Maybe  !  Cheese  ? 
Who  knows  ?  A  studied  air  of  insouciance  prevails  at  the 
serving  counter.  But  if  you  really  want  lunch,  you  can 
always  go  and  get  a  plate  or  plates  of  the  most  desirable  of 
eatables  from  the  canteen  at  a  price  that  is  "  jest 
rideeclous." 

Two  o'clock.  "  PhysiceJ  Jerks."  You  pass  from  the 
Drill  Sergeant  to  the  "  Gym."  instructor,  altogether  a, 
different  genus.  He  is  lithe  of  limb  and  his  object  is  to 
impart  litheness  to  yours.  He  is  a  pleasanter  fellow  than 
his  drill  brother,  has  a  way  with'  him  and  a  pretty  wit. 

Bayonet  practice  !  A  little  frightfulness  must  be  got 
into  our  systems,  as  we  "  on  guard  "  "  in  "  and  "  out  " 
with  orders  to  glare  and  grind  our  teeth  and  grunt  in 
imaginary  hatred  of  the  mild-looking  solicitor  or  civil 
servant  who  happens  to  be  our  vis-a-vis. 

Four  o'clock.  Tea  and  Freedom — unless  there's  night 
operations,  a  lecture,  or  a  boxing  tournament.  The 
lecture  may  be  on  something  dry,  such  as  Squad  Drill  or 
Musketry,  something  instructive  such  as  "  Night  Ops," 
or  it  may  be  something  quite  thrilling  such  as  the  Regi- 
mental Sergeant  Major  on  Discipline  as  he  understands 
it,  after  having  been  twenty  years  in  the  Scots  Guards, 
and  don't  you  forget  it  ! 

Then  Mess  and — the  end  of  the  Perfect  Day  !  (save  for 
the  cleaning  and  manual  reading — and  letter  writing  that 
is  to  be  done  in  the  billet.)  All  I  can  say  is  that  I  have 
spent  in  my  previous  "  leisured  "  life-time  thousands  of 
days,  infinitely  further  from  perfection.  At  the  end  of  a 
day  in  the  O.T.C.  (provided  you  have  been  reasonably 
lucky),  you  experience  the  joys  of  rest  as  never  in  civil 
life.     There's  been  so  much  more  to  rest  after. 


THE  WESTERN   ARMIES 

Number  of  "  Land  &  Water  " 

On  Thursday,  zqth  inst.,  a  special  illustrated 
number  of  Land  &  Water  will  be  published  en- 
titled "  The  Western  Armies,"  in  order  to  signalise 
the  close  union  now  existing  between  France  and 
Great  Britain  on  the  Western  front.  Among  the 
famous  French  ivriters  'who  will  contribute  to  it  are 
M.  Maurice  Barres,  Professor  Henri  Bidoux, 
M.  Rene  Puaux  ■  {on  the  staff  of  General  Foch) 
and  M.  Henri  Davray.  It  will  contain  remark- 
able sketches  that  have  appeared  in  Paris  journals 
by  Forain  and  "  Sem,"  as  ivell  as  original  photo- 
graphs taken  on  the  French  Front. 

Tn  addition  to  the  usual  features  o/Land  &  Water 
there  ivill  be  a  special  article  by  Hilaire  Belloc, 
dealing  ivith  the  basis  of  the  Alliance,  an  article 
on  the  rise  of  the  Entente  Cordiale  by  Dr.  Holland 
Rose,  a  complete  story  by  Joseph  Conrad,  and 
another  story  by  "Centurion"  entitled  "The  Attack." 

The  price  of  the  special  number  will  be  1  s.  In 
order  to  secure  a  copy  an  order  should  be  placed  at 
once  with  a  newsagent. 


i8 


LAND    &    WATER 


^lauli  i^,  njiy 


Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


IT  is  good  to  read  Stephen  Graham's  books  about 
Russia.  They  make  one  feel  at  liomc  in  that 
strange  land.  Such  books  as  Russia  in  1916 
(Cas.sell  and  Co.,  2s.  6d.  net),  are  tnily  hke  "  letters 
between  friends  both  engaged  in  the  .same  vital  task. 
He  pictures  vividly  what  he  sees— township  and 
village-Ufe  as  affected  bv  the  war,  the  vulgarity  of 
Kislovodsk,  the  pleasure  resort  of  the  newly  rich,  the 
effect  of  the  prohibition  of  alcoholic  drink,  the  kind  of 
books  read  in  war-time  and  similar  things.  Perhaps 
his  vision  is  sometimes  limited  by  prejudice.  Thus  he 
sees  no  good  in  politicians,  and  probably  does  not  allow 
sufficiently  for  the  scr%ice  of  the  Progressive  parties  in 
the  Duma  in  procuring  the  downfall  of  Stiimier.  He . 
perhaps  undcr-estimatcs  also  the  fear  felt  by  a  strong 
section  of  Russian  pubHc  men  of  commercial  exploitation 
after  the  war  and  really  does  nothing— or  less  than 
.  nothing— toallay  this  fear," by  telling  the  Russians  that  they 
should  remain  dreamers  and  not  attempt  to  be  modern. 
But  if  Mr.  Graham  sees  some  things  out  of  true  proportion 
it  is  because  he  sees  them  closely.  He  is  a  partisan  in 
the  internal  affairs  of  Russia  from  knowledge  and  not 
from  ignorance,  and  therefore  from  studying  his  work, 
knowing  the  predilections  that  can  be  discounted,  we 
can  learn  mucli  about  our  great  Ally. 

*        «        *        *        * 

There  is  another  Russia  that  is  not  accounted  foj-  by 
INIr.  Stephen  Graham— the  Russia  revealed  by  her  own 
novelists,  who  always  seem  to  endeavour  to  interpret  their 
country  and  themselves  in  terms  of  whatever  happens  to 
be  thclatest  development  of  their  art  at  the  time  they  are 
writing.  Think  of  the  Russian  novelists  with  whom  we  are 
most  famihar  in  this  country,  of  Turgenev,  Uostoevsky, 
Gof^ol,  Tolstoi,  Gorky,  do  they  not  all  represent  the  dernier 
cri  m  the  fiction  of  their  respective  periods  ?    I  have  just 

'  been  reading  three  tales  of  Dostoevsky's  in  Mr.  Garnett's 
excellent   series   of   translations — The    Eternal   Husband 

■  and  Other  Stories  (Heinemann,  4s.  6d.  net)— and  I  was 
struck  anew  by  this  particular  characteristic  of  Russian 
hction.  I  rather  suspect  that  the  intellectuel  in  Russia 
represents  his  own  country  very  slightly.  But  there 
must  be  something  of  Russia  in  the  works  of  a  writer 
who  is  so  individual  in  his  genius  as  Dostoevsky.  These 
three  grim  stories  suggest  to  me  a  chamber  of  horrors 
displayed  by  an  animated  and  voluble  cicerone,  who 
can  make  his  subject  fascinating,  and  w^ho-has  not  a 
suspicion  that  what  he  finds  so  amusing  can  depress  his 
audience.  It  Vnay  be  that  on  his  own  count r\Tncn 
Dostoevsky  has  a  different  effect,  but  it  may  also  be  that 
the  Russian  novelists,  having  looked  away  from  their 
own  country  for  intellectual  inspiration,  have  brought  a 
distorted  vision  to  bear  on  their  own  people.  In  spite 
of  the  names,  which  are  a  stumbling  block  to  the  English 
reader,  they  seem  the  most  cosmopolitan  of  novelists. 
***** 
The  enthusiast  and  the  expert  both  show  themselves 
in  Capt.  Hugh  B.  C.  Pollard's  The  Book  of  the  Pistol 
(McBridge,  Nast  and  Co.,  los.  6d.)  There  is  in  the  book 
much  of  the  boy's  joy  in  tirearmsy  for  their  own  sake, 
and  there  is  also  much  useful  and  up-to-date  advice 
in  the  choice  and  use  of  the  weapon  described.  Captain 
Pollard  traces  the  evolution  of  the  pistol  from  its  most 
rudimentary  beginnings  to  the  elaborate  automatics 
of  the  present  day.  In  this  respect— and  in  his  useful 
appendix  of  proof-marks,  etc.,  his  book  should  be  of 
value  to  collectors.  His  practical  chapters  should 
remove^an  impression  that  some  people  have  that  any 
one  revolver  is  as  good  as  any  other,  and  that  an  auto- 
matic is  so-called  because  it  fires  itself.     The  book  is 

Napoleon  and  the  Last  Great  War. 

NOW    READY — A  Catalogue  of  Books.  Enpiravin^s  and  Autographs 

relating  to — 

Napoleon  I.  and  the  Wars  in  which  he  was  engag:ed,  1793-1815. 

Haly,      Egypt,      'Peninsula,      Tiuasia,      Waterloo,     St.   Helena. 
FRANCIS  EDWARDS,  Bookseller,  83  High  Street,  Marylebone,  Wt. 


well  illustrated  with  interesting  pictures  of  old  and  new 
lirearms,  and  some  valuable  diagrams  showing  the 
mechanism  of  various  models.  -      -     -- 


Guns  of  a  heavier  calibre  form  the  subject  matter  of 
Jeffery  E.  Jeffery's  Servants  of  the  Guns  (Smith,  Elder  and 
Co.,  5s.  net).  The  author  of  this  pleasant  work  was 
apparently  a  gunner  before  the  war,  when  also  one  or 
two  of  the  tales,  of  a  Kiplingescpie  character,  were  pub- 
lished. The  reader  may  rely  then  that  he  is  dealing 
with  no  amateur,  either  in  powder  or  in  ink.  Certainly 
these  tales  and  sketches  of  soldiers — for,  true  to  his 
title,  Mr.'  Jeffery  tell  us  more  about  his  men  than  about 
his  guns — grip  us  and  thrill  us  as  do  all  real  stories  of  our 
fighting  men.  Gunners,  like  their  guns,  are  naturally 
shy  of  revealing  themselves. 

***** 

A  direct  and  simple  theme,  worked  out  with  vivacity 
and  soine  knowledge  of  the  world,  makes  a  good  founda- 
tion for  a  successful  novel.  The  latest  American  im- 
jjortation  The  Invisible  Balance  Sheet,  by  Katrina  Trask 
(John  Lane,  6s.),  is  based  on  the  simple  idea  of  a  man 
being  tempted  by  a  large  legacy  to  accept  as  a  con- 
dition of  the  inheritance  that  he  shall  not  marry.  I 
am  not  quite  satisfied  that  the  author  successfully  evades 
the  legal  point  of  this  condition  being  contrary  to  good 
juorals,  but  she  has  succeeded  in  making  it  a  Iwely  and 
dramatic  study  in  a  simple  problem  of  ethics. 

The  Grasp  of  the  Sultan  (Cassell  and  Co.,  6s.),  is  a  really 
good  story  in  its  way.  Dmetra  Vaka,  its  author,  makes 
out  of  what  is  clearly  some  real  knowledge  of  Byzantine 
life,  an  exciting  yarn,  sufficiently  unlike  those  one  usually 
associates  with  stories  of  the  harem.  The  young  Enghsh 
tutor  and  the  Greek  Sultana  wxtc  exceptionally  fortunate 
in  their  remarkable  friends,  the  English  Admiral  in  the 
Turkish  ?N^avy,  the  Chief  Eunuch,  and  the  Greek  Diplo- 
matist Cook.  The  reader  is  fortunate,  too,  for  they  are 
lively  companions  who  never  allow  the  mind  to  wander 
to  dull  probabilities.  Moreover  poetic  justice  is  satisfied 
and  all  is  for  the  best. 


Boyd   Cable's   New    War   Book 

Grapes  of   Wrath 

By  the  Author  of  "  Between  the  Lines."  Ss.  net. 

"With  tlif  sure  hand  of  an  mtist.  Sir.  Cable  never  allows  his 
narrative  to  Hag  lor  an  instant.  We  are  earricd  off  our  feet  by  tho. 
dizzy  whirl  of  the  thing."— BVKNIN(i  STANDARD. 

SERVANTS  OF  THE  GUNS 

Ss.  net.     By    JEFFERY     E.    JEFFERY.    Sb.  net. 

"The  ])iUiiesl:  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  fjjicturcsquc 
account  of  the  work  of  tho  guns  and  their  servitors  we  have  seen  .... 
full  of  actuality  and  insight.  This  is  really  a  priceless  book,  and  wo 
wish  it  the  popularity  it  cfescrves."— MORNING   POST.    Q 


In    the    Fire  of  the   Furnace 

By  MARCEL  BERGER,  a  Sergeant  in  the  French  Army. 
Translated  by   Mr*.  CECIL  CURTIS.     6s.  net. 
"No   more   graphic   and   convincing   picture  of   the  feelings  and 
behaviour  of  the  men  under  fire  can  ever  have  been  given  than  in  these 
pages,  each  one  of  which  bears  the  marfc-of  personal  experience." — 

SPHKRE. 


Mrs. 


6*.  net. 


HUMPHRY   WARD'S   NEW    NOVEL 

LADY    CONNIE 


6*.  net. 


"As  fre.ih  and  brilliant  as  a  sympathetic  an<V  knowledgable  pen 
and  an  engaging  story  can  make  it.  '  Tho  tale  is  certainly  the  best  that 
Mrs.  Ward  has  vet  given  us  in  whart,  wo  might  call  her  new  popular 
manner."— PUNCH. 


Londo 


SMITH,  ELDER  &  CO.,  15  Waterloo  Place,  S.W. 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


i) 


is  gour  pen 

"too  proud 
to  ujrite  ? 


r^ 


ft 


/5    'OKr    /«« 
^io^prov.d  to  rvnte"? 


Tbe  Onoto  Pen  is  British. 
"  Neutral  "  pens  may  fail  you 
at  the  critical  moment;  the 
liritish-madeOnoto  is  always 
ready  for  action.  It  is  neyer 
"  too  proud  to  write." 

It's  nib  is  always  wet  with 
fresh  ink.  Its  holder  is 
always  dry. 

The  Onoto  Self-filling 
Safety  cannot  leak.  It  can- 
not "sweat"  ink  as  foreign 
pens  often  do.  It  is  the  one 
really  satisfactory  Self-filling 
Safety   Pen. 

When  you  are  choosing 
your  pen,  see  what  is  written 
on  '  the  hblder.  Make  sure 
that  you  are  getting  a  British 
Onoto :  not  a  pen  "  Made 
in "  anywhere  else. 

Onoto  Self-JiUing  Safety  Fountain 
Fens  at  all  Stationers,  etc.,  from  j2/6 
ufiwards.  Also  Onoto-valveless,  for 
those  who  do  not  want  a  Self-filling 
Safety  Pen,  from  10/6  upwards. 


the  British  Pen 
is  the  Onoto 


THO..IAS  DE  r.A  RUE  S:  CO.,  T.Tn  .  prvmir,  row,  fc 


FOR  GOD,  KING  &  GOUNTRY. 

The  Church  Army 

has  several  hundred  RECREATION  HUTS, 
TENTS  AND  CLUBS  F(3R  GIVING  REST  and 
COMFORT  to  the  BRAVE  MEN  of  BOTH 
SERVICES  in  the  Home  Camps  and  in  Flanders, 
France,  Malta,  Egypt,  Salonica,  Mesopotamia,  East 
Africa  and  India.  More  than  ONE  HUNDRED  on 
the  West  Front  are  actually  UNDER  THE 
ENEMY'S    SHELL -FIRE.         Sixty     in    Egypt. 

MORE  ARE  URGENTLY  REQUIRED. 

Huts  cost  £409;     Tents  £150  ;     Equioment  £100  ;    Week's  Working, 
£5  Abroad  ;    £2  at  Home. 

Cheque.s  crossed  "  Barclay's,  a/c  Church   Army,"  payable  to  Prebendary  Carlije, 
D.D..  Hon.  Chief  Secretary,  Bryanston  Street,  Marble  Arch,  London,  W.  1 . 


With 

Hunter 

Coverf 

£3  15 


Gold, 

£8  10 


Qjj^ 


LTD 

"Active  Service"  WRISTLET  WATCH 
Fully  Luminous  Figures  &  Hands 
Warranted  Timekeepers 

n    Silver    Cases  with     Screw    Bezel 
and  Back,  ^.-i   ii%.   Gold  ,£8. 
th     Hunter    or    Hall-Hunter    cover. 
Silver,   C;{    l.~s.      Gold,  its  lOs. 
Others  in   Silver   from     .4iX£    XOs. 
Gold  from  ,£0. 

Military  Badge  Brooches 

J^i^y  Regimental  ^adge  Perfectly 
Modelled. 
PUICES  ON  APPLICATION 

Sketches  sent  tor  approval, 

25  OLD  BOND  ST.,  W. 

and  62&64  LUDOATE  HILL,   E,C. 


A  New  Weatherproof 

That  Has   No  Openings   in   Front 

THE  BURFRON 


TiREGlSTEKED',: 


Illustrated 
Naval  or 
Military 
Catalogues 
Post    Free 


IN  the  past,  no 
matter  how  water- 
tight the  material 
of  a  weatherproof  was, 
the  openings  hetweeii 
the  button-holes  and 
the  loose  flaps  below 
the  bottom  button 
were  always  the  weak 
points.  On  the  other 
land,  the  back  being 
the  least  exposed  was 
quite  sectire. 

y^l    The     rnison    d'etre   of 
THE     BURFRON     is 


to    obviate 
advantages, 
i^  1 1  s  u  r  e 
powers    of 


these    dis- 

and      to 

increased 

protection 


Every 
Burberry 
(rorrnent 
la  liihelled 
Burberrys. 


THE    BURFRON 

'  Every  Officer  should  see  it  before  making  new 
provision  against  wet.  A  smart  lop-coal  which 
defies  the  weather  in  its  wildest  moods-" 

—Land  &  Water. 

Officers'  Complete  Kits  in  2 
to  4  Days  or  Ready  for  Use. 


by  means  of  new 
methods  f)f  design  and 
fastening. 

T4K     BURFRON    ' 

literally  an  aU-roiiiid 
weatherproof,  built 
on  such  entirely  new 
principles  that  from 
chin  to  knees  it  has 
no  openings  'througli 
which  wet  oT  wind 
can   penetrate. 

In  addition,  the  front 
is  constructed  to  form 
a  conduit  over  which, 
ill  heavy  ■  rain,  the 
water  riijis  away  clear 
of  the  legs,  and  of  the 
legs  and  seat  when 
sitting   down. 

On  horseback  this 
special  front  acts  as  a 
splendid  riding-aoron 
that  needs  no  adjust- 
ment, yet  is  always 
in  position  to  prevent 
wet  reaching  the 
knees,  thighs  and 
saddle. 

The  fastening  of  THE 
BURFRON  is  sim- 
plicity itself;  only 
two  buttons  are  re- 
quired —  one  at  the 
collar  and  the  other  at 
the  waist.  The  belt 
can  be  dispensed  with 
if  desired. 


i_ 


NAVAL  & 
MILl  FARY 
WEATHER. 
•PROOFS. 

During  the  War 
BURBERRYS 
CLEAN  AND 
RE  -  PROOF 

oncers*  •*  Bur- 
berrys," Tielock. 
ens,  Burfrons, 
and  Burberry 
Trench-Warras 
FREE  OF 
CHARGE. 


Half  Weight— Double  Warmth. 

Burberry  Naval  and  Military  Weatherprcofs  are  half  the 
weight  of  those  loaded  with  oiled-silk,  rubber,  and  (he 
like  air-tight,  circulation-retarding  fabrics,  whilst  the 
warmth  naturally  generated  is  doubled  in  value  as 
circulation  is  aided. 

A  practical  example  of  the  ill-effects  induced  by  non- 
ventilating  agents  is  to  be  found  in  an  angler  wad  np. 
He  invariably  suffers  from  cold  feet,  the  result  of  impeded 
circulation  and  the  exclusion  of  fresh  air,  although  his 
footwear  readily  proves  the  pre  ence  of  perspiration. 


BURBERRYS  &on 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS;  and  Provincial  Agents. 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  15,  1917 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

(Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  Mattos] 


CHAPTER  XVII    (continued) 

THOUGH  floundering  in  the  newly-tumcd  earth, 
Patrice  tried  to  rise,  at  the  sight  of  his  danger. 
Simeon  had  taken  up  'the  iron  bar  and  now  had 
struck  him  a  blow  on  the  head  with  it.  Patrice 
gave  a  cry  and  moved  no  more.  The  stone  covered  him 
up.     Tiie  whole  incident  had  lasted  but  a  few  seconds. 

Simeon  did  not  lose  an  instant.  He  knew  that  Patrice, 
wounded  as  he  was  bound  to  be  and  weakened  by  the  position 
to  which  he  was  condemned,  was  incapable  of  making  the 
necessary  effort  to  lift  the  lid  of  his  tomb.  On  that  side, 
therefore,  there  was  no  danger. 

He  went  back  to  the  lodge  and,  though  he  walked  with 
some  diffifulty,  he  had  no  doubt  exaggerated  his  injuries, 
for  he  did  not  stop  until  he  reached  the  door.  He  even 
scorned  to  obliterate  his  footprints  and  went  straight  ahead. 
On  entering  the  hall,  he  hstcncd.  Don  Luis  was  tapping 
against  the  walls  and  partition  inside  of  the  studio  and  the 
bedroom. 

"  Capital !  "  said  Simeon,  with  a  grin.     "  His  turn  now." 

It  did  not  take  long.     He  walked  to  the  kitchen  on  the 

right,  opened  the  door  of  the  meter  and,  turning  the  key, 

released  the  gas,  thus  bc;,inning  again  with  Don  Luis  what  he 

had  failed  to  achieve  with  Patrice  and  Coralie. 

Not  till  then  did  he  yield  to  the  immense  weariness  with 
which  he  was  overcome  and  allow  himself  to  lie  back  in  a  chair 
for  two  or  three  minutes. 

His  most  terrible  enemy  was  now  also  out  of  the  way. 
But  it  was  still  necessary  for  him  to  act  and  ensure  his  per- 
gonal safety.  He  walked  round  the  lodge,  looked  for  his 
vellow  spectacles  and  put  them  on,  went  through  the  garden, 
opened  the  door  and  closed  it  behind  him.  Then  he  turned 
down  the  lane  to  the  quay. 

Once  more  stopping  in  front  of  the  parapet  above  Berthou's 
Wharf,  he  seemed  to  1  esitate  what  to  do.  But  the  sight  of 
people  passing,  carmen,  market-gardeners  and  others,  put  an 
end  to  his  indecision.  He  hailed  a  cab  and  drove  to  the  Rue 
Gu'mird. 

His  friend  Vacherot  was  standing  at  the  door  of  his  lodge. 

"  Oh,  is  that  you,  M.  Simeon  ?  "  cried  the  porter.  But  what 
a  state  you're  in  !  " 

"  Hush,  no  names  !  "  he  whispered,  entering  the  loc'jge. 
"  Has  anyone  seen  me  ? 

"No.  It's  only  half-past  seven  and  the  house  is  hardly  awake. 
But,  Lord  forgive  us,  what  have  the  scoundrels  done  to  you  ? 

"  Has  Patrice  been  here  ?  "  asked  Simeon,  still  spe'aking 
in  a  whisper. 

"  Yes,  last  night,  after  you  left." 

"  And  you  told  him  ?  " 

"  That  he  was  your  son." 

"  Then  that,"  mumbled  the  old  man,  "  is  why  he  did  not 
seem  surprised  at  what  I  said." 

"  Where  are  they  now  ? 

"  With  Coralie.  I  was  able  to  save  her.  I've  handed  her 
over  to  them.  But  it's  not  a  question  of  her.  Quick,  1  must 
see  a  doctor,  there's  no  time  to  lose." 

"  Turn  up  Dr.  Geradcc." 

'  What  ?     You  can't  mean  that  ?  " 

"  Why  not  ?  He  has  a  private  liospital  quite  close,  on  the 
Boulevard  de  Montmorency,  with  no  other  house  near  it." 

"  That's  so,  but  haven't  you  heard  ?  There  are  all  sorts 
of  rumours  about  him  afloat  :  something  to  do  with  passports 
and  forged  certificates." 

"  Never  mind  that." 

M.  Vacherot  hunted  out  the  number  in  the  telephone 
directory  and  rang  it  up.  TheUnewas  engaged  ;  and  he  wrote 
down  the  number  on  the  margin  of  a  newspaper.  Then  he 
telephoned  again.  The  answer  was  that  the  doctor  had  gone 
out  and  would  be  back  at  ten. 

"  It's  just  as  well,"  said  Simeon.  "  I'm  not  feeUng  strong 
enough  yet.     Say  that  I'll  call  at  ten  o'clock." 

"  Shall  I  give  your  name  as  Simeon  ? 

"  No,  my  real  name,  Armand  Belval.  Say  it's  urgent,  say 
it's  a  surgical  case." 

The  porter  did  so  and  hung  up  the  instrument,  with  a  moan: 

",0h,  my  poor  M.  Sim-'on  !  A  man  like  you,  so  good  and 
kind  to  evervbody  !     Tell  me  what  happened  ?  " 

"  Don't  worry  about  tliat.     Is  my  place  ready  ?  " 

"  To  be  sure  it  is." 

"  Take  me  there  without  anyone  seeing  us." 


In  the  usual  way." 

"  Be  quick.  Put  your  revolver  in  your  pocket.  What 
about  your  lodge  ?     Can  you  leave  it  ? 

"  Five  minutes  won't  hurt." 

The  lodge  opened  at  the  back  on  a  small  courtyard,  which 
communicated  with  a  long  corridor.  At  the  end  of  this  pas- 
sage was  another  yard,  in  which  stood  a  little  house  consisting 
of  a  ground-floor  and  an  attic. 

They  went  in.  There  was  an  entrance  hall  followed  by 
three  rooms  leading  one  into  the  other.  Only  the  second  room 
was  furnished.  The  third  had  a  door  opening  straight  on  a 
street  that  ran  parallel  with  the  Rue  Guimard. 

They  stopped  in  the  second  room. 

"  Did  you  shut  the  hall-door  after  you  ? 

"  Yes,  M.  Simeon." 

"  No  one  saw  us  come  in,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  Not  a  soul." 

"  No  one  suspects  that  you're  here  ?  " 

"  No." 

"  Give  me  your  revolver." 

"  Here  it  is." 

"  Do  you  think,  if  I  fired  it  off,  any  one  would  hear  :•  " 

"  No,  certainly  not.     Who  is  there  to  hear  ?     But     .     .     ." 

"  But  what  ?  " 

"  You're  surely  not  going  to  fire  ? 

"  Yes,  I  am." 

"  At  yourself,  M.  Sim  'on,  at  yourself  ?  Are  you  going  to 
kill  yourself  ? 

"  Don't  be  an  ass." 
"Well,  who  then  ? 

"  You,  of  course,"  chuckled  Simeon. 

Pressing  the  trigger,  he  blew  out  the  luckless  man's  brains. 
His  victim  fell  in  a  heap,  stone  dead.  Simeon  flung  aside  the 
revolver  and  remained  impassive,  a  httle  undecided  as  to 
his  next  step.  He  opened  out  his  fingers,  one  by  one,  up  to 
six,  apparently  counting  the  six  persons  of  whom  he  had 
got  rid  in  a  few  hours  :  Gregoire,  Coralie,  Ya-Bon,  Patrice, 
Don   Luis,   old  Vacherot  ! 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
Simeon's  Last  Victim 

Dr.  Gdradec's  hospital  had  several  annexes,  each  of  which 
served  a  specific  purpose,  grouped  around  it  in  a  fine  garden. 
The  villa  itself  was  used  for  the  big  operations.  The  doctor 
had  his  consulting-room  here  also  ;  and  it  was  to  this  room 
that  Simeon  Diodokis  was  first  shown.  But,  after  answering 
a  few  questions  put  to  him  by  a  male  nurse,  Simeon  was 
taken  to  another  room  in  a  separate  wing. 

Here  he  was  received  by  the  doctor,  a  man  of  about  sixty, 
still  young  in  his  movements,  clean-shaven  and  wearing  a 
glass  screwed  into  his  right  eye,  which  contracted  his  features 
into  a  constant  grimace.  He  was  wrapped  from  the  shoulders 
to  the  feet  in  a  large  white  operating-apron. 

Simeon  explained  his  case  with  great  difficulty,  for  he 
could  hardly  speak.  A  footpad  had  attacked  him  the  night 
before,  taken  him  by  the  throat  and  robbed  him,  leaving 
him  half-dead  in  the  road. 

"  It's  nothing  much,  said  the  do:tor.  The  fact  that  you 
are  alive  shows  that  there's  no  fracture.  It  reduces  itself  there- 
fore to  a  contraction  of  the  larynx,  which  we  shall  easily  get 
rid  of  bv  tubing." 

"  That's  over,"  said  Dr.  Geradec,  "  and  much  quicker  than 
I  expected.  Go  home  now  ;  and,  when  you've  had  a  rest, 
you'll  forget  all  about  it." 

Simeon  asked  what  the  fee  was  and  paid  it.  But,  as  the 
doctor  was  seeing  him  to  the  door,  he  stopped  and,  without 
further  preface,  said  : 

"  I  am  a  friend  of  Mme.  Atbonin's." 

The  doctor  did  not  seem  to  understand  what  he  meant. 

"  Perhaps  you  don't  recognise  the  name,"  Simeon  insisted. 
"  When  I  tell  you,  however,  that  it  conceals  the  identity  of 
Mme.  Mosgranem,  I  have  no  doubt  that  we  shall  be  able  to 
arrange  something." 

"  What  about  ?  "  asked  the  doctor,  while  his  face  displayed 
still  greater  astonishment. 

"  Come,  doctor,  there's  no  need  to  be  on  your  guard.  We 
are  alone.  You  have  sound-proof  double  doors.  Sit  dowi> 
and  let's  talk.      " 

He  took  a  chair.  The  doctor  sat  down  opposite  him, 
(  Continued  on  pa^e  22 


March  15,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


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22 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  15,  191 7 


{Continued  from  page  20) 
looking  more  and  more  surprised.     And  Simeon  proceeded 
with  his  statement  :  .  jit 

"  1  am  a  Greek  subject.  Greece  is  a  neutral,  mdeed,  1 
may  say,  a  friendly  country  ;  and  I  can  easily  obtam  a 
passport  and  leave  France.  But,  for  personal  reasons,  1  \vant 
the  passport  made  oat  not  in  my  o^^^^  name  but  in  some  other, 
which  you  and  I  will  decide  upon  together. 

The  doctor  rose  to  his  feet  indignantly. 

Simoon  persisted  : 

"  Oh,  please  don't  be  theatrical !  It's  a  question  of  price, 
is  it  not  ?   My  mind  is  made  up.     How  much  do  you  want  ? 

The  doctor  pointed  to  the  door. 

Simeon  raised  no  protest.  He  put  on  his  hat.  But,  on 
reaching  the  door,  he  said  :  ^^ 

"  Twenty  thousand  francs  ?    Is  that  enough  ?  '     _ 

"  Do  you  want  me  to  ring  ?  "  asked  the  doctor,  '  and  have 
vou  turned  out  ?  "  r  u 

Simeon   laughed   and   quietly,    with   a   pause   after   each 

"  Thirty  thousand  ?  "  he  asked.     "  Forty  ?     .     .      Fifty  ? 

.  .  .  Oh,  I  see,  we're  playing  a  great  game,  we  want  a 
round  sum.  ...  All  right.  Only,  you  know,  everything 
luust  be  included  in  the  price  we  settle.  Youmust  not  only 
lix  me  up  a  passport  so  genuine  that  it  can't  be  disputed, 
but  you  must  guarantee  me  the  means  of  leaving  France,  as 
\ou  did  for  Mme.  Mosgranem,  on  terms  not  half  so  handsome, 
by  Jove  !  However,  I'm  not  haggling.  I  need  your  assistance. 
Is  it  a  bargain  ?     A  hundred  thousand  francs  ?  " 

Dr.  Geradec  bolted  the  door,  came  back,  sat  down  at  his 
desk,  and  said,  simply  : 

"  We'll  talk  about  it." 

"  I  repeat  the  question,"  said  Simeon,  coming  closer. 
"  Are  we  agreed  at  a  hundred  thousand  ?  " 

"  We  are  agreed,"  said  the  doctor,  "  unless  any  comphca- 
tions  appear  later." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  I  mean  that  the  figure  of  a  hundred  thousand  francs 
forms  a  suitable  basis  for  discussion,  that's  all." 

Simeon  hesitated  a  second.  The  man  struck  him  as  rather 
greedy.  However,  he  sat  down  once  more  ;  and  the  doctor 
at  once  resumed  the  conversation  : 

"  Your  real  name,  please." 

"  You  mustn't  ask  me  that.  I  tell  you,  there  are 
reasons.     ..." 

"  Then  it  will  be  two  hundred  thousand  francs. 

"  Eh  ?  "  said  Simeon,  with  a  start.__  "  I  say,  that's  a  bit 
steep !    1  never  heard  of  such  a  price." 

"  You're  not  obliged  to  accept,"  repUed  Geradec  calmly. 
■  We  are  discussing  a  bargain.  You  are  free  to  do  as  you 
please." 

"  But,  look  here,  once  you  agree  to  fi.x  me  up  a  false  pass- 
port, what  can  it  matter  to  you  whether  you  know  my  name 
or  not  ?  " 

"  It  matters  a  great  deal.  I  run  an  infinitely  greater  nsk 
in  assisting  the  escape— for  that's  the  only  word— of  a  spy 
than  1  do  in  assisting  the  escape  of  a  respectable  man." 

"  I'm  not  a  spy." 

"  How  do  I  know  ?  Look  here,  you  come  to  me  to  propose 
a  shady  transaction.  You  conceal  your  name  and  your 
identity  ;  and  you're  in  such  a  hurry  to  disappear  from  sight 
that  you're  prepared  to  pay  me  a  hundred  thousand  francs 
to  help  you.  And,  in  the  face  of  that,  you  lay  claim  to  being 
a  respectable  man  !  Come,  come  1  It's  absurd  !  A^respectable 
man  does  not  behave  like  a  burglar  or  a  murderer." 

Old  Simeon  did  not  wince.  He  slowly  wiped  his  forehead 
with  his  handkerchief.  He  was  evidently  thinking  that 
Geradec  was  a  hardy  antagonist,  and  that  he  would  perhaps 
have  done  better  not  to  go  to  him.  But,  after  all,  the  con- 
tract was  a  conditional  one.  There  would  always  be  time 
enough  to  break  it  off. 

"  I  say,  I  say  1  "  he  said,  with  an  attempt  at  a  laugh. 
"  You're  using  big  words  !  " 

"  They're  only  words,"  said  the  doctor.  "  I  am  stating 
no  hypothesis.  I'm  content  to  sum  up  the  position  and 
justify  my  demands." 

"  You're  quite  right." 

"  Then  we're  agreed  ?  " 

"  Yes.  Perhaps,  however — and  this  is  the  last  observation 
I  propose  to  make— you  might  let  me  off  more  cheaply  con- 
sidering that  I'm  a  friend  of  Mme.  Mosgranem's." 

"  Wliat  do  you  suggest  by  that  ?  "  asked  the  doctor. 

"  Mme.  Mosgranem  herself  told  me  that  you  charged  her 

nothing."  „        ,.    ,  „      j     , 

"  That's  true,  I  charged  her  nothmg,     rephed  the  doctor, 

with  a  fatuous  smile,    "  but  perhaps  she  presented  me  with 

a  ■^ood  deal.     Mme.  Mosgranem  was  one  of  those  attractive 

wuinen  whose  favours  command  their  own  price." 

There  was  a  silence.     Old  Simeon  seemed  to  feel  more  and 


more  uncomfortable  in  his  interlocutor's  presence.     At    last 
the  doctor  sighed  : 

"  Poor  Mme.  Mosgranem  !  " 

"  What  makes  you  speak  Uke  that  ?  "  asked  Simeon. 

"  What  1    Haven't  you  heard  ?  " 

"  I  have  had  no  letters  from  her  since  she  left." 

"  I  see.  I  had  one  last  night  ;  and  I  was  greatly  surprised 
to  learn  that  she  was  back  in  France." 

"  In  France  !     Mme.  Mosgranem  !  "  • 

"  Yes.  And  sh^  even  gave  me  an  appointment  for  this 
morning,  a  very  strange  appointment." 

"  Where  ?  "  asked  Simeon,  with  visible  concern. 

"  You'll  never  guess.  On  a  barge,  yes,  called  the 
Nonchalante,  moored  at  the  Quai  de  Passy.  alongside  Berthou's 
wharf." 

"  Is  it  possible  ?  "  said  Simeon. 

"  It's  as  I  tell  you.  And  do  you  know  how  the  letter  was 
signed  ?     It  was  signed  Gregoire. 

"  Gregoire  ?  A  man's  name  ?  "  muttered  the  old  man. 
almost  with  a  groan. 

"  Yes,  a  man's  name.  Look,  I  have  the  letter  on  me.  She 
tells  me  that  she  is  leading  a  very  dangerous  life,  that  she 
distrusts  the  man  with  whom  her  fortunes  are  bound  up  and 
that  she  would  like  to  ask  my  advice." 

"  Then     .     .     .     then  you  wenl;  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  was  there,  this  morning,  while  you  were  ringing 
up  here.     Unfortunately     .     .     ." 

"  Well  ?  " 

"  I  arrived  too  late.  Gregoire,  or  rather  Mme.  Mosgranem, 
was  dead.     She  had  been  strangled." 

"  So  you  know  nothing  more  than  that  ?  "  asked  Simeon, 
who  seemed  unable  to  get  his  words  out. 

"  Nothing  more  about  what  ?  " 

"  About  the  man  whom  she  mentioned." 

"  Yes,  I  do,  for  she  told  me  his  name  in  the  letter.  He's 
a  Greek,  who  calls  himself  Simeon  Diodokis.  She  even  gave 
me  a  description  of  him.     I  haven't  read  it  very  carefully." 

He  unfolded  the  letter  and  ran  his  eyes  down  the  second 
page,  mumbling  : 

"  A  broken-down  old  man  .  .  .  Passes  himself  off 
as  mad  .  .  .  Always  goes  about  in  a  comforter  and  a  pair 
of  large  yellow  spectacles     .     .     ." 

Dr.  Geradec  ceased  reading  and  looked  at  Simeon  with  an 
air  of  amazement.  Both  of  them  sat  for  a  moment  without 
speaking.     Then  the  doctor  said  : 

"  You  are  Simeon  Diodokis." 

The  other  did  not  protest.  All  these  incidents  were  so 
strangely  and,  at  the  same  time,  so  naturally  interlinked  as  to 
persuade  him  that  lying  was  useless. 

"  This  alters  the  situation,"  declared  the  doctor.  "  The 
time  for  trifling  is  past.  It's  a  most  serious  and  terribly 
dangerous  matter  for  me.  I  can  tell  you  !  You'll  have  to 
make  it  a  million." 

"  Oh,  no  1  "  cried  Simeon,  excitedly.  "  Certainly  not  ! 
Besides,  I  never  touched  Mme.  Mosgranem.  I  was  myself 
attacked  by  the  man  who  strangled  her,  the  same  man— a 
negro  called  Ya-Bon— who  caught  me  up  and  took  me  by  the 
throat." 

"  Ya-Bon  ?     Did  you  say  Ya-Bon  ?  " 

"Yes,  a  one-armed  Senegalese." 

The  doctor  shrugged  his  shoulders  with  a  smile  : 

"  Listen  sir,  to  a  curious  coincidence.  When  I  left  the 
barge,  I  met  half-a-dozen  wounded  soldiers.  They  spoke  to 
me  and  said  they  were  looking  for  a  comrade,  this  very 
Ya-Bon,  and  also  for  their  Captain,  Captain  Belval,  and  a 
friend  of  this  officer's  and  a  lady,  the  lady  they  were  staying 
with.  All  these  people  had  disappeared  ;  and  they  accused 
a  certain  person  .  .  .  Wait,  they  told  me  his  nam^ 
....  Oh,  but  this  is  more  and  more  curious  !  The 
man's  name  was  Simeon  Diodokis.  It  was  you  they  accused  ! 
Isn't  it  odd  ?  But,  on  the  other  hand,  you  must 
confess  that  all  this  constitutes  fresh  facts  and  therefore  .  .  ." 

There  was  a  pause.  Then  the  doctor  formulated  his  demand 
in  plain  tones  : 

"  I  shall  want  two  millions." 

This  time  Simeon  remained  impassive.  He  felt  that  he 
was  in  the  man's  clutches,  Uke  a  mouse  clawed  by  a  cat. 

"  This  is  blackmail,"  he  said  quietly. 

The  doctor  nodded  : 

"  Suppose  I  refuse  to  submit  ?  " 

"  Then  I  shall  telephone  to  the  headquarters  of  the  pohce, 
with  whom  I  stand  in  great  favour  at  present,  as  I  am  able 
to  do  them  a  good  turn  now  and  again." 

Simeon  glanced  at  the  window  and  at  the  door.  Tlie 
doctor  had  his  hand  on  the  receiver  of  the  telephone.  There 
was  no  way  out  of  it. 

"  Very    well,"    he    declared.     "  After    all,    it  s    better  _so. 
You  know  me  ;  and  I  know  you.     We  can  come  to  terms." 
(To  be  continued). 


March  22,  1917 


Supplement    to    LAND    &    WATER 


Pontin^s 


o/'Kensin^ton 

^-^  The  House  for  Value. 


W 


KNITTING  WOOLS  AT 
IHE  LOWEST  PRICES. 

HAVING  INVESTED  IN 
LARGE  STOCKS,  WE  ARE 
ABLE  TO  SUPPLY  ANY 
QUANTITY    OR     MAKE. 


We  quote  a  few  of  the  values  offered. 

5-PLY  KHAKI,  The  beit  wool 
for  CARDIGANS  and  MUFF- 
LERS at  the  low  price. 


rib.  5/2 


Pe 


Our  noted  OIL  FINISH,  in  natural 

undyed  shaded,  highly  recommended 

for  soldiers' socks.    Per  lb.   >i  /-t  /\ 

6  11,.  spindle,  28/6  4/  1  U 

Our  SPECIAL  KHAKI,  4-pIy,  for 

Helmets,  Caps,  Mittens,  and  Muff- 
lers.       Special  price  per  lb. 
6  lb.  spindle.  26/6 

A  special  line  of  WHITE  WOOL 

for  our   Wounded,   for  Bed  Socks, 

and  Operation  Socks.  A  I  ^  i\ 

Price  per  lb.  4/  1 U 


4/6 


CATALOGUE    RESTRICTIONS. 

Customers    requiring    our    Cata- 
logue to  be  forwarded res'larly 
should    send    up    th«    necessary 
written    app  ication. 


SILK  &  DRESS  FABRICS 


4/11 


CREPE  DE  CHINE.  All  silt, 
heavy  weight.  Made  of  the  finest 
Italian  silk,  in  all  soft  shades,  for 
day  or  evening  wear. 

Per  yd. 

39  inches  wide. 

SILK  POPLIN.  Handsome 
corded  material,  made  of  the  finest 
Italian  silk  and  wool.  Shades  : 
Champagne,  vieux  rose,  saxe, 
prunella,  brown,  peacock,  navy, 
grey,  and  nigger.  C/l  1 

Per  yd.  »>/ 1  1 

40  inches  wide. 

ALL-WOOL  TRICORD.  This 
season's  new  fabric.  All  shades  of 
putty,  fawn,  jaxe,  new  blue,  bottle 
nigger,  navy,  and  black. 

Per  yd. 
52  inches  wide. 

GABARDINES,  made  from  the 
finest  wool,  and  dyed  in  the  newest 
colours.     Stocked   in   all    qualiiies. 

4/1  1.0  9/11    per  yd. 

NAVY  SERGES.  We  are  noted 
for  good  wearirg  qualities  of  our 
Navy   and    Black   Serges,    from 

3/11    to   10/6  per  yd 
Patterns  »n  application. 


6/11 


PONTINGS,  KENSINGTON  HIGH  ST.,  W.  s 


PRACTICAL 
KNITTED 
COATS 

SPECIALLY  designed 
to  meet  the  present 
demand  for  practical, 
useful,  and  becoming  gar- 
ments at  a  really  moderate 
price.  All  our  knitted 
coats  are  made  by  the  best- 
known  manufacturers  from 
dependable  yarns,  and  are 
recommended  to  stand  more 
than  ordinary  wear. 


Knitted  Juniper,  as 
sketch.  A  new  model 
now  in  grent  demand. 
Made  from  extra  bright 
and  soft  mercerised 
cotton  ^arn,  in  a 
wide  range  of  useful 
and  some  very  dainty 
shades. 


Price    29/6 


MARSHALL! 
SNELGROVE 

VERESTKEKT  AND-OXKOBD-STKKKT 


LONDON-W 


An 

Artist  of  Life 

finds  that  self-expression 
which  is  of  the  essence  of 
all  art,  in  the  gradual  selec- 
tion, by  methods  of  trial 
and  error,  of  the  intimate 
environment  of  his  house. 

It  is  an  engrossing  because 
a  never  -  ending  quest. 
Real's  might  perhaps  fairly 
claim  to  present  a  wealth 
of  carefully  chosen  material 
from  which  such  discreet 
and  individual  selection 
may  be  made. 

Heal  &  Son  D^ 

o4mbrvse  Heal,  Managmg  TDircct&r 

TOTTENHAM  COURT  BDAD  W 


T%ACTICAL 

KNITTED 
COATS 


Suitable  for  indoor  or  out- 
door wear.  A  full-fitting, 
practical  style.  Made  in 
black,  white,  and  a  well- 
chosen  range  of  pretty  shades. 
These  coats  are  made  from  a 
superior  quality  of  mercer- 
ised cotton,  and  have  a  very 
bright  finish. 


Price 


29/6 


FRENCH   CORSETS 

We  have  now  in  stock  a 
wonderful  assortment  of 
Corsets,  Bust  Bodices, 
and  Tricot  Corsets,  of 
the  best  French  manu- 
facture, which  we  are 
still  selling  at  practically 
the  old  prices. 

CA TALOGUB 
POST    FREE, 


DebenKam 
frFpeebo^ 


igmopeijti'eet. 
(Cavendish  Square)  Lon  Jon.'W.  i 

Famous  for  over  a  Centur-y 
forTaste.for  Quality,  fop  Value; 


VI 


Supplement  to  LAND  &  WATER 


March  22,  1917 


Private   Sale   of  High-class   Modern 
and   Antique 

FURNITURE  AND  EFFECTS 

to  the   extent  of  over  £70,000 

THE  HUKNlTURhat.d  MNI£  ART  DHPOSITORIUS.  l.TU.  have  Iwtii  favoured  with  instmcttons 
from  ihc  v-triuus  ttustees  and  uwnef:!^  who  have  been  c^llej  to  serve  with  )l<s  Maie^ty's  l-orce».  to 
SfcH.  PRIVA  TRLY.  Inma-.y  cases  entirely  wi:hout  reserve  and  icgitrdless  of  oriniiidl  coht,  the  entire 
coiuems  oi  several  town  and  cuunUy  tnaiisii^ns.  beinj;  uiie  of  the  g reatesl  eoileclioiis  ever  oirered  to  the 
public  of  genuine  second-hand  «T>d  antique  HnitlUh,  French,  and  ttulian  furuilurc,  English  and  Oriental 
carpets,  pictures  by  modern  and  old  iimslers.  china  and  gU^s,  uianofortes,  silver  and  plate,  linen  iiiid 
vanous  object*  01  art,  includini;  -.tyles  of  HUzabethan,  Jacob.an.  Oueen  Aniie.  tarty  Georgian, 
Chipi>eudal6,  Hepplewhite,  Adams.  Sheraton,  beiitdes  a  magniticent  collection  of  bUck  and  gold  and 
coloured  Lacquer  lumiture  of  Uncntal  ta^tr. 

Complete  illustrated  ca(Alok;ur>>  ire  now  ready,  and  will  be  sent  free  on  application. 
The  FO    LoWlNci  hl,\\'   ITEMS  will  sutftce  lo  give  an  idea  of  the  exceptionally  low  or  war-time 
prices  at  which  these  'ivxis  aie  bcm^  offered  :  — 

T-HK  LOUNfiE.  DINING  ROoSl,  and  LIBRARY  FURNITL'RF  include  several  fine  lounge  easy 
*  cb;tirs,  with  loo^e  down  cushion  se-iU,  «7i.  fid.  each;  Chesterfield  settees,  with  adjustable  ends, 
jC3  7i.  6d.  eACh;  lartce  lounge  easy  ch.iirs,  covered  with  real  leather,  unsoiled,  £i  l7a.  fid.  e»ch  ;  Queen 
Anne  design  sidebo'ird,  5  fi,  wide,  with  round  mirror  in  hack,  ^7  iSa. ;  Queen  Anne  dest^.ii  ma,iile  imrror. 
/"2  7l  fid  ;  oval  extending  mahogany  dining  t  ible,  with  Queen  Anne  shaped  legs,  £.i  lOt  ;  set  of  eight 
Q.ieeii  Anne  design  chairs, 'tiCludmg  3  arm  or  carsing  chairs,  with  upholstered  seats.  ;C'8  l&t. ;  bookca>e, 
with  writing  buiciu  attached  and  drawers  under,  £B  15». ;  large  real  Turkey  carutt,  in  excellent 
Condition,  figi.  ;  fine  old  striking  gr^iiidfaiher  clock,  £t  15i.  ;  bracket  clock,  36i. :  choice  pair  ot  large 
French  bronzoi,  45s. ;  old  blue  Delf  pat'ern  dir.ner  service  of  octagr^nal  shape.  70  pieces,  complete. 
j*;S  17l  fid  ,  with  te.t  service  to  match,  includine  tea  pot  and  sugar  pot.  27i.  fid.  :  complete  set  of  crystal 
table  glass.  ;i,5  17».  fid  :  polished  oak  canteens  of  cutlery  and  plate  by  M.ippin  &  Webb.  £i  17a  6d  : 
quantity  of  plate  by  Hlkmgton  and  other  well-known  makers;  rare  siwciuieus  of  Jacobean  dressers. 
tefe<  tory  tables  and  chairs  in  James  and  Charles  II.  styles,  alt  In  good  conaition. 

THE  ORAWI.NG  ROOM  FURNITURE  in  styles  of  Chippendale.  Heuplewhite.  Louis  XIV..  and 
Louis  Seize,  carved  and  gilt,  also  some  eiquisitely  painted  and  dccnnued  satinwood  cabinets,  screens, 
setttw-s.  chairs,  cables,  etc.,  and  a  quantity  of  Venetian  mirrors,  and  inlaid  ivory,  boule  and  Dutch 
mAr^juetry  furniture,  in  addition  to  over  rso  Cnestertield  settees  and  lounge  ea.sy  chairs,  all  being  offered  at 
less  thin  one  third  original  cost. 

THE  BEDROOM  APPOINTMENTS  in  modem  and  antique  styles.  Including  complete  solid  oak 
suites  from  5 pa  ,  ranging  up  to  m  tgnificcnt  decorated  satinwood  and  French  lacquered  and  inlaid 
suites,  complet*  with  bedsteads.  upto400gi.;  several  old  bow-front  and  other  chests,  trom  S9a.  ;  gent's 
wardrobes  and  tallboy  chests,  from  £3  159  ;  old  Jacobean  and  Chippendale  design  four-post  bedsteads, 
etc.     Full  particulars  will  Ite  found  in  catalogue. 

THE  BILLIAKDROOMS.  LIBRARIES,  and  HAT.L  APPOINTMENTS  include  several  Persian, 
Turkey,  and  Oriental  carpets  and  rugs.  3  full-size  billiard  tables,  also  a  smaller  patent  turn-over 
billiard  dining  table.  16  gl--  "''''>  *"  accessories  :  a  fine  old  Welsh  dresser,  in  original  condition,  about  7  tt. 
wide.  9m.;  unique  dcsurn  o.ik  coffer.  £2  15«  ;  oak  se*t  table,  with  rug  box,  £2  ISi. :  carved  oak 
panelicifliilt  ciiplo^rd    ^,4  17a,  fid  ;  and  several  old  carved  01k  chairs. 

SEVERAL  PIANOFORTES  by  eminent  makers,  including  a  serviceable  piano  suitable  for  practice. 
£5  ISa.  :  a  capital  instrument  in  walnut  case.  12gB  :  piano  by  Agate  A  Prilchard.  18ga.  ;  piano  as 
new.  by  William  Blackwood  Se  Co.  22gB.:  piano  in  rosewood  case,  by  Hopki'son,  2Sga.  :  magnificent 
upright  grand  uiaiio  by  John  Brinsmead  3i  Co..  29gi. ;  choice  upright  piano,  iron  (ram. .  by  Bro.idwoQd, 
White  &  C'),.  SOffS. ;  small  horirontal  grand  by  John  Broad  wood,  12  gl.  ;  and  a  ditto  by  same  maker,  27  gi. ; 
combined  i>layci-piano  by  Stanley  Brinsmead.  with  severiil  rolls  of  music,  fiS  gi. ;  and  a  Sleek  player-piano, 
as  new.  8Sgi  :  and  several  others. 

THE    OARAGE  includes  a  i3-t4b  p.  Unic  touring  car.  quite  as  new,  complete,  /^tfO;   also  a  Reino 
tourini;  car.  condition  as  new,  ,£,150 ;  also  various  accessories. 
In  additi-'n  'o  the  few  items  enumerated   above,   there   is  a  large  quantity  of  servants' prained  and 
enamelled  furniture,  including  large  linen  cupboards,  chests,  tables,  and  wood-seat  chairs,  which  will  be 
found  useful  in  furnishing  huts  and  cottages,  tor  which  exceptionally  low  prices  will  be  quoted  to  clear, 
jinyarlicif  may   tt  had  \ff>a*attiy.  and,  if  dtshrd.    cmm  rttnain    Uortd,  and  paymtnt  made  when 
dtlrvery  rt^uirtd^tr  tviU  ht  packed  ft  t€  »nd  dtlivtred  or  shipped  (a  any  part  0/  tht -world. 

COMPLETE     CATALOGUE.      ILLUSTRATED      BY     PHOTOGRAPHS,     NOW 
READY.    SENT    POST   FREE. 

THE  FURNITURE  &  FINE  ART  DEPOSITORIES.  Ltd. 

(by  Royal  Appointment). 

48-50  PARK  STREET,  UPPER  STREET.  ISLIN6T0N.  LONDON,  N. 

The  following  number  Motor  Buses  pass  Park  Street.  Islington;  Nos.  4,  iq,  43,  43A, 
and  30,  Cab  and  railway  fares  refundeti  to  all  purchasers.  'Phone:  3472  North. 
Business  Hours:    Open  every  day  nine  till  eight,      Eslablish«d  over  half  a  century. 

L.   LEWIS,   Manager. 


'player!^' 


Tobacco  %  Cigarettes 

For  distribution  to  wounded  British  Soldiers  £)  Sailors  in  Military  Hospitals 
at  Home  B  for  the  Front  at  Dui_y  Free  Prices       Terma  on  application  lo  ^ 

JOHN    PLAYER  ©  SONS.    NOTTINGHAM 

f*^A  aaANCN   ••   THI    lMn.aiAL    TOBACCO     C«  (or   ORtAT   SKiTMR    k   IkKbAND)  t.*# 


A  couple  of  interesting 
pictures  from  the  Front 


/c^i^^^^f^ 


<'    i»^ 


WRIGHT'S 

Coal  Tar  Soap 


i'.i   .V      i  ^'     . 


^^' 


The  SOLDIERS'  SOAP 

Include  a  supply  in  the  next 
parcel  to  your  Soldier  Friend 

42*^*     per  Tablet 
Box  of  3  Tablets     1/1 J 


March  22,  1917 


Supplement  to    LAND    &    WATER 


vu 


SERVICE  OUTFITS  and  RE-FITS, 

To  the  requirements  of  the  officer  on  leave,  with  much 
to  do  in  little  time,  we  give  the  utmost  consideration. 
Tunics,  breeches,  slacks,  we  make  speed,  ly  yet 
thoroughly,  and  at  hand  we  have  leggings,  puttees, 
gloves,  shirts,  ties,  &c.,  so  that  wants  of  this  kind 
may  all  be  satisfied  in   one  visit- 


OFFICERS' 

RIDING 
BREECHES. 

Successful  breeches-making 
depends  on  the  following 
factors — fine  wear-resisting 
cloths,  skilful  cutting,  care- 
ful, honest  tailor  -  work, 
and  adequate  experience. 
All  thae  we  guarantee  and 
in  particular  the  last,  for  we 
have  been  breeches-makers 
since  1821,  ninety-six  years 
ago. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs 
of  breeches,  and  are  therefore  often 
able  to  meet  immediate  requirements, 
or  we  can  cut  and  try  a  pair  on  the 
same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day, 
if  urgently  wanted. 


GRANT. .0  COCKBURNesto  .«.; 
23  PICCADILLY,  W. 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


Dainty  Georgette 
Square      Neck, 

BLOUSE 


Designed  by  our  own  artist, 
and    made     in     contrasting 
shades  of  rich  silk  georgette, 
recommended   to   wear    and 
wash  thoroughly  well.     In  a 
beautiful   range   of   vivid    as 
well    as    sombre    colourings. 
The  front  and  bick  are  com- 
posed   of  lighter    shades, 
and  the  sleeves  and  sides 
"t    the   darker  colour- 
mg.     This  blouse  is 
most    effective    in 
\       white   and  black, 
f.-iwn  ar.d  navy, 
stone  and  nig- 
ger,     cham- 
pagne     and 
violet,     flesh 
and   jade, 
etc.,  etc. 

Special  Price 


29/6 


CATALOCVE  POST  FREE. 

ebenhaiti 
frFreebodiv 

wigmope  Street.  ' 

(Cavendish  Square)  London.W.  1 

Famous  fop  over  a  Century 
forTasle.for  Quality,  for  Valued 


1HE    ORIGIN  A  L    CORDING  S,    ESTD.    1839. 


Campaigning 

Waterproofs 


Guaranteed  by  our  reputation  as 
waterprooFers  for  nearly  80  years 


The  "Service'  Coat 

is  really  waterproof 

and  with  a  snug  fleece  woollen  lining 
button-ed  in  bocomes  an  exceKent  preat- 
coat  in  which  to  "travel  light,"  heedless 
of  cold  or  wet.  Mopunted  or  afoot,  the 
"Service"  Coat  ensures  complete  protec- 
tion through  any  rain.  It  is  a  slip-on 
vhich  gives  to  trvery  movornent  and  h.us 
well-con  trired  f«!lne«s  to  make  any 
"stufflncss"    inrpossible. 

The  slight  surface  moisttrre  adde  no 
weight  to  the  coat  and  soon  dries  off  the 
mrtterial  when  the  rain  has  ceased. 
whereas  a  semi-proofed  coat  gets  water- 
logged after  some  exprsurc,  and  even 
thongfi  lined  with  oil^ktn  the  damip  still 
fttrikcB  through   erery  seam. 

And    to    repeat,   the     "Service"  Coat  is 

waterproof,  positively.  The  cxperenced 
campaigner  knows  that  saich  a  coat  «ill 
fully  safeguard  Ma  health  and  prevent 
discomfort. 

In   our  light-weight   No.   31  ma'erlal.   tho 

price    of   the  "Service**   Is  75/  ;    of   cur 

No.  23  cashmere,  a  metfium  weight  cloth, 
95/-;  with  belt  Sh  extra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat  can  be 
had  in  two  qualities—No.  1  (fine  wool), 
62/6;    No.    2,  40/.. 

When  ortfering  a  *'  Service  "  Coat  please 
state  height  and  chest  measure  and  send 
remittance  (which  will  be  returned  it  thi 
coat  Is  not  approved),  or  give  horns 
address  and  business  (not  banker's) 
reference. 


Illustrated  List  at  request. 


•    \^.     K^\Ji\Uliy\J    &    \JLTD    to  H,M,  the  King, 

Only  Addresses  : 

19 PICCADILLY,  W.,    &  35  st.  jamess  st.,  s.w. 


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TEA  FROCKS 

OUR    stock    contains 
an  infinite  variety  of 
these      dainty     and 
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vm 


Supplement    to    LAND     &     WATER 


March  22,  1917 


"I've  taken  up  the  Sword  but 
I  haven't   forsaken   the    PEN" 


"  You  see  it's  a  Waterman's  Ideal  Fountain 
Pen.  1  used  a  Waterman's  Ideal  before 
the  War  and  I  find  it  just  as  useful  now. 
It's  so  handy  everywhere — in  the  Orderly 
Room,  for  Correspondence,  for  my  Cheque 
Book,  and  a  hundred-and-one  odd  things. 

I  wouldn't  be  without  it  for  anything-— 
it's  the  very  thing  to  give  a  fellow  in  the 
Army." 

N.B— This  announcement  was  designed 
and  written  by  an  Officer  returned 
from  the  Front  wounded-  He 
desired  to  express  his  personal 
appreciation  of  Waterman's  Ideal 
Fountain  pen  in  this  manner. 


Wateman's 


FountainPen 


THREE  TYPES  :     Safely  and  the  New  Lever  Pocket  Self  Filling  Types,  15/-  and  upwards.     Regular  Type,  10/6  and  upwards. 


ofs..iion.,..i.di.weiur.E,«ywher..    I     Q    Sloaii,  Ltd.,    CHclJcii  (Torticr,  Kingsway,   London. 

Bootl- 1  (roe  on  »pplicalion  to  :  '^'  '  7  '  T  


iPORXMASON 


MARCHING 


This  Marching  Boot  is  as  soft 
as  a  slipper,  very  strong,  and 
I  lb.  to  1  lb.  lighter  than  any 
similar  boot.  Special  wear- 
re.-isting  soles.  Worn  by 
thousands  of  Officers  at  the 
Front.  Sizes  lOJ  upwards 
5/-  per  pair  extra. 


per  pair. 


The      FORTNUM "    French 
Field    Service    Boot. 

An  improvement  on  the  old  Field  Boot.       The 
soles  are  F.  &  M's  famous  v«ear-resisting  leather.    4^,5  1 6 1  0 
The  leg  part  is  of  best  supple  curried  hide  and  *    . 

of  great  strength.      Sizes  lOi  upwards  7/6  per      Pe"^  P^'"'- 
pair  extra. 

A  wide  range  of  Slippers  ;  also  Boots  and 
Shoes  lo  wear  With  Slacks  are  kept  in  slock. 

FORTNUM  &  MASON, 

182     Piccadilly,     London,     W.  1. 


SMITHS'    "ALLIES" 

AND 

MEDICAL  WATCHES. 

"UNBREAKABLE"  FHOIST 

No  more  Watch   Glasses  I 
No  more  \Vat«h  Glass  Protectors ! 
It  is  imposisihle  to  break  the  front 


Smith's 

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Recognized  by 

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IKST    LAMI» 

T'le  for  TESTIMONIALS.) 

■^      Piish-picre. 


SHORTAGE 
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AND 
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OF 
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Sterling     Silver 
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sterling    Silver,    Lever 

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in  Case  Medical  Watch 

Luminous   fisures    and 

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Lever  Movement. 
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complete    iaiJ»,  -  Foreign    1/- extra. 

Or   including   one  extra    bulb    :n   lid,  21/-. 

...     1/6  each.  KJtra  bulbs  1/-  each, 

ealed    In    Tin    box.  Further   particulars  on  application. 


20,  - 


S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd.   Estd.i85i 

6  Grand  Hotel  Buildings, iralalgor  square,  W.Cp/oadifiy  ^. 


By  Appointment  to  H.M. 
the  late  King  Edward  VII. 


Watch    and     Chronometer  u 

Makers  to  the  Admiralty.  •' 

Holders  of  5  Royal  Warrants. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII  No.  2863  [y«™  J  THURSDAY.  MARCH  22,  1917 


f-reglstered  ast    published  weekly 
LanewspaperJ    price    sevexpence 


mm^irvmmim9ii>mmmtm9^^-Mi.riM»  u  ■  ■  lu. 


I 


iov\'^r\i^pr»oe'  ^rs. 


By  Louis  Raemaeken 


Drawn  exclusively  for  "  Land  dfc   Water  ' 


The  Convicts'  Stripes 

America  and  China  :  "  You  order  us  to  paint  convicts'  stripes  on  our  ships.  We  will  not.  Wear  them  yourselves  ! ' 


L//^!"^  J-' 


TT  I^X.  X  l^M.^ 


^y-/ 


One  Hundred  Shilling*. 


One  Hundred  Shillings. 


FROM    THE 


SOMME  to  the  RHINE 


IN    OUR 


SUPER 


Norwegidn   P.illern 

FIELD   SERVICE   TRENCH    BOOTS 


THEY    SPEAK 
FOR  THEMSELVES 


Abo  made  with  ctde 
straps.  Both  styles 
modelled  to  allow 
room  lor  an  eztra 
pair  ol  siockinss 


One  Hundred  Shillings 
Extra  Super    -    £5.5.0 

W.  ABBOTT  &  SONS,  Ltd.,  LONDON  &   PARIS 

MIUTARY  ISOOTMAKEKS 

54.  Re«ent  Street  434.  Strand  121.  High  Holbotn 

NEW    MILITARY    CATALOGUE    FREE    ON    REQUEST 


13 
? 


One  Hundred  Shillings. 


One  Hundred  Shillings. 


MILITARV  COMFA«Si:S 

Treated  with  Radium  Compound-     Always  Luminous  at  night  without 
exposure  to  sunlight. 


THE 


CAVALRY  SCHOOL 
COMPASS. 


Dial  Floating  in  Liquid 
Quick  Setting. 


lo.O 

The  ORILUX" 

THE    ONLY    ELECTRIC    LAMP 

WHICH       HAS       STOOD       THE 

TEST     OF      ACTIVE     SERVICE 

FOR    YEARS. 

K.XTKAGTS  FROM  l.KTTERS  FROM  THE 

FRONT  :- 
"  The  most  useful  article  in  my  kit." 
"  I  hear  nothing  but   praise  o(  jour  lamp 
on  this  side." 

"  You     have     made     your     nam©     famous 
intoiiust  ofBcers." 

THE  ORILUX  LAMP  is  fitted  with  switches 
for  Intcrmitlotit  and  for  cor'jftant  licht. 
Tlic  litiht  ran  In-  turned  on  withoit  openinj; 
the  oa'c.  wliit-li  is  htted  witli  a  hood  to 
throw  the  li|;ht  downwards.  The  case  i«  pfovlded  with  loops  for  attaching  to  tho 
belt,  and   provision  is   made  in  it  for  carrying  a  spare  hulb. 


Tri 


ice 


4il  .  1  .  O 


/ Postage    to    the  \ 
\  Front.    1/.    Bxtra  ' 


Extra    Battery   In   sealed  tin,  if  3  (Postage  to  the  Front,  1/.  extra). 
SO-LE    MAKEliS—  Extra  Bulb,   i/6.  postag)  5d. 

J.  H.  STEWARD,  Ltd.,    "«"-'^*'';iAJS2r"~'^'*^ 

406    Strand,    457    Strand,    London. 


Vali 


ise 

Dispenses  with  Wolseley  and 
Blankets. 

Waterproof  Bed  and  Valise 
in    one. 

Vermin  Proof.    Weight  about  1 0  lbs. 

Constructed  to  hold  all  Kit,  and  to 

stand  hard   wear  for  an  indefinite 

period. 

Complete  with    Straps,    ^awe    and 
Ticgiment  painted  on,  5  Guineas. 

Extract  from  Officer's  letter, 

3)E.F. 

"  I  am  convinced  no  sane  man  seeing 
your  Valise  and  another  make  side  by 
side  would  fail  to  take  the  former. 
We've  been  moving  about  a  consider- 
able amount  during  the  past  few 
months,  packing  up  at  a  moment's 
notice  and  pushing  off  and  having  to 
'travel  light.'  I've  seen  what  a 
business  other  men's  batmen  have 
packing  stuff  into  Valises  other  than 
Aquascutums,  and  how  when  it's 
needed  for  use  everything  has  to  be 
tipped  out  and  a  bed  made,  whereas 
I  simply  say  to  my  man  *  roll  up '  and 
the  whole  business  is  finished  in  a 
few  minutes,  and  at  the  other  end  of 
the  journey  it's  simply  a  matter  of 
unrolling  *  et  voila ' ! " 

77ie  original  of  above  may    be   seen    by   anyone 
inter  esle4. 


LTD.. 


BY  APPOINTMENT  TO  HIS  MAJESTY  THE  KI\G. 
Waterproof  Coat  Specialists  for  over  50  years. 

lOO  Regent  St.,  LonJon,  W. 


March  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 


OLD 


SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON.    W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  MARCH  1%,   1917 


CONTENTS 

The  Convicts'  Stripes.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

Russia's  Revolution.     (Leader)  ^ 
The  Enemy  Retirement.     By  Hi  aire  Be  loc           .        4 

Freedom  and  the  Seas.     By  Arthur  Pollen  « 

Germans  in  Turkey.     By  Sir  Wilham  Ramsay  Jo 

Value  of  the  Mark  1                    ^   tt    r.  it 

War-Time  Expenditure.     By  T.  H.  Penson  n 

Ru  sia  in  Revolution.     By  C  Hagberg  Wright  3 

\  Village  of  Northern  France.     By  An  Othcer  14 
La  Prisfde  Bagdad.     (Poem).     By  Emile  Cammaerts  i. 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  OldershaW  i" 

Andersonsville.     By  Elsie  Fogerty  ^ 

The  Golden  Triangle.     By  Maurice  Leblanc  -» 
Kit  and  Equipment                           . 


RUSSIA'S     REVOLUTION 

THE  revolution  in  Russia  has  a  direct  connection 
with  the  war  which  we  in  the  West  have  heard 
reiJeated  a  thousand  times  during  the  last  few 
days,  birt  which  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  grasp. 
Very  often  this  connection  is  put  in  a  false  form  which 
distorts  its  real  meaning.  We  are  told  that  the  forces 
called  "Liberal"  Were  opposed  to  German  influence, 
whereas  the  forces  called  "  cons^ervative,  '  "clerical 
or  "  atitocratic  "  were  in  sympathy  with  German  in- 
llucnce.  Such  a  division  is  fantastic.  There  is,  to  begin ' 
with  no  clean  division  of  this  kind,  nor  anything  ap- 
proaching it  in  the  Russian  State.  The  cleavage  is  not 
between  methods  highly  centralised  and  .uncontrolled 
bv  a  pariiamejit  on  the  one  hand  and  pariiamentary 
oligarchy  upon  th.-  other.     It  is  much  deeper  and  much 

more  real.  •     •      .     + 

The  Russian  State  is  one  more  primitive  in  its  texture, 
that  is,  less  compUcated,  than  any  other  western  or  central 
European    State.     It    is   agricultural.     It   is    extremely 
homogeneous  in  its  habits  as  in  its  landscape.     It  has 
in  the  main  one  reUgion,  which  enters  into  the  daily  life 
of  the  whole  people  in  a  degree  which  we  of  the  West 
fail  altogether  to  grasp.     Within  the   memory   of   man 
this  vast  similar  community  was  not  industrialised    at 
all     Within  the  last  few  years  some  few  portions  of  it 
have  been   partially   industrialised,   but    only  partially. 
This  vast   body    controlled   subsidiary  and  even  ahen 
races    religions,   groups,   upon  its  borders.     Tl\e   Jews, 
wholly  within  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  formed  a  large 
community,  for  the  most  part  German-speaking.     The 
greater. part   of  the   Poles,   again,   were   after  the  last 
partition  placed  under  the  rule  of  the  Russian  reigning 
house.     The  same  monarch  exercised  authority  over  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Finland,  to  which  might  be  added  the 
Ruthenian  fringe  and  the  Lithuanian  belt. 

Now  this  great  homogeneous  mass  was  permeated 
In-  a  comparatively  modern  system  of  government, 
bureaucratic  and  absolute  in  the  extreme;  and  the 
directing  spirit  of  all  that  method  was  German.  It 
was  a  method  which  had  always  been  alien  to  the  pro- 
found historical  traditions  of  the  Russian  people,  which 
had  be<Mi  of  late  years  peculiariy  exasperating  and  out  of 
tune  with  the  development  n[  the  national  life.  Rut  in  a 
country  of  such  a  character  it  was  supreme,  and,  as  it 
seemed,  invincible.  The  German  spirit  and  traditions 
of  this  b(idy  (which  of.course  was  not  German  in  personnel, 
though  there  was  an  element  of  German  personnel  in  it) 


were  not  connected  with  any  conscious  German  effort. 
They  were  in  the  -nature  of  things. 

Medieval  Russia  had  been  almost  entirely  unorganised. 
The  Middle  Ages  in  Russia  lasted  very  long— they  lasted 
till  well  into  the  17th  Century.  When  organisation  came  , 
it  had  to  come  after  the  fashion  of  and  as  it  were  dependent  ■ 
upon  the  more  highly  developed  European  civilisation 
immediately  to  the  West.  That  civilisation  was  German. 
The  contrast  and  the  friction  between  this  newly 
organised  framework  imposed  upon  the  Russian  people 
and  the  national  traditions,  conscience  and  character  of 
the  same  people,  have  been  ultimately  the  cause  of  all 
the  threats  within  the  State  throughout  the  last  two 
centuries  and  more.  . 

The    present    revolution    is    essentially    the     violent 
shaking  oft— let  us  hope  permanently— of  this  unnational 
and  mechanical  tradition.     Its  immediate  occasion  was 
undoubtedly  the  pretty  well  unanimous  feeling  of  the 
army  that   the   governmental   machine   was   playing  it 
false.     But  its  profound  roots  lay  where  we  have  described 
them  to  lie.     Apart  from  this,  which  is  the  true    and 
fundamental  meaning  of  the  whole  affair,  there  was  a 
distinct  and  conscious  German  policy  which  had,  ever 
since    Frederick    the    Great,    become     specifically     the 
Prussian  policy  with  regard  to  Russia.     This  pohcy  sup- 
ported absolurism,  for  two  very  different  reasons.     First 
because  it  was  believed  that  such  a  system  kept  Russia 
undeveloped   and   therefore  less   formidable..   Secondly, 
because  of  the  %'arious  possibilities  in  Russia  absolutism 
was   much   the   nearest   and   most   sympathetic  to  the 
Prussian    military    system.     Prussia    felt     instinctively 
that  the  alternative  to  absolutisin  in  Russia  might  well 
be  extreme  experimentalism  in  democracy.     A  democracy 
has  always  been  a  fatal  neighbour  to  Prussia. 

Lastly,  during  the  present  war  and  for  some  little  time 
before  it— say  from  about  1908,  and  with  especial 
intensity  since  the  Prussian  Government  in  the  summer 
of  iqii  determined  on  war— there  was  the  concrete 
detailed  and  thought  out  plan  of  permeating  Russia  with 
spies  and  hidden  influences  in  a  degree  which  wc  in  the 
West,  familiar  as  we  are  with  this  peculiar  modern  method 
of  Prussia,  have  no  idea  of.  German  was  already  the 
commercial  language.  German  methods  and  German 
ideas  were  already  in  possession  of  the  economic  industrial 
life  (especially  in  the  west)  and  of  the  university  methods. 
A  great  body  of  the  bureaucracy,  specially  "in  its  higher 
branches,  was  in  active  sympathy  with  German  ideals 
and  German  culture.  It  hardly  knew  anything  else, 
and  of  the  public  men  who  could  be  called  to  power  a 
portion  were  German  in  spirit. 

This  recent  detailed  and  carefully  planned  pro-German 
influence  upon  our  Ally's  territory  the  revolution  has  of 
course  overset.  It  is  much  the  more  striking  feature 
of  the  revolution  in  our  eyes,  and  the  one  most  immediate 
practical  interest  in  th(>  great  struggle  of  life  and  death 
in  Avhich  we  are  engaged,  but  it  must  not  lead  us  to  for- 
get the  larger  interests  involved  and  the  longer  traditions 
which  are  at  issue,  nor  make  us  toa  confident  that  the 
hitherto  extremely  easy  and  rapid  success  of  the  revolu- 
tion necessarily  guarantees  all  the  future  of  the  war. 

What  wc  have  to  watch  and  pray  against  is  that 
counter-action  which  upon  whatever  scale  is  almost 
always  present  after  great  moments  of  this  kind,  like  the 
returning  tidal  wave  upon  a  tropical  shore  after  an 
earthquake.  Unfortunately,  with  the  first  appearance 
of  faction  it  is  morally  certain  that  faction  will  appeal 
to  the  enemy.  It  is  upon  this  chance  Germany  counts 
to-day.  The  strong  feature  on  the  other  side  is  what  we 
have  called  the  unanimity  of  the  army.  Ultimately  the 
army  in  any  State  is  the  sanction  of  all  authority  and  of  all 
policy,  and  once  the  army,  especially  upon  a  war  footing 
and  after  months  of  war  experience,  determines  upoij  a 
course  of  action,  nothing  can  withstand  it. 


D/VND    &    WATER 


March  22,  kjij 


The  Enemy  Retirement 

By   Hilaire   Belloc 


THKICE  lhiii;,'S  arc  cloar  in  cuiinectiuii  witli  the 
fiK-iiiy  retircnienl,  although  it  is  still  in  prugifss 
and  its  limits  still  unct^tain.  First,  it  is  a  re- 
tirement with  the  object  primarily  of -straighten- 
ing and  not  of  shortening  a  line  :  that  is,  it  is  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  battle  of  the  Somme.  the  evaluation 
of  a  salient  which  had  been  rendered  dangerous  by  the 
Allied  success  on  the  Sommc,  and  which  would  become 
impossible  when  or  if  the  attack  was  renewed. 

Secondly  it  is  a  retirement  in  which  there  was  certainly 
an  intention  of  holding  for  a  greater  or  lesser  period 
J5apaunie  l-Jidge,  and  only  after  some  defence  of  that 
jjusition  falling  back  further. 

Thirdly,  the  retirement  has  been  hitherto  thoroughly 
successful,  although  it  has  not  procectled  according  to 
the  plan  originally  established,  but  has  been  compelled 
to  a  modification  of  that  plan.  * 

(i)  As  to  the  first  point,  the  enemy  was  concernold  not  so 
much  with  shortening  as  with  straightening  hisHine  : 

To  straighten  a  line  which  has  hitherto  included  a 
salient,  to  flatten  out  the  salient  is,  of  course,  and 
necessarily,  to  shorten  the  line  somewhat,  but  the  question 
of  motive  is  easily  decided  by  the  proportionate  ad- 
vantage gained.  If  the  advantage  is  all  in  favourof  the 
abandonment  of  the  salient  and  the  ad\antage  gained  by 
the  shortening  of  the  line  slight,  then  the  motive  is  clearly 
the  straightening  of  the  line  and  not  the  shortening  of  it. 

Now  it  is  a  point  which  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
fully  appreciated  that  the  eilemy  retiring  (as  he  is  belie\'ed 
to  be  retiring)  to  a  prepared  Une  which  runs  fairly  straight 
fom  near  Arras  past  Cambrai  and  St.  Ouentin  and 
Laon  to  Khcims,  does  not  save  in  actual  length  of  line 
nnich  more  than  twentj'  miles.  He  does  not  sa^•e  any- 
thing like  live  per  cent,  of  the  front  that  he  lias  to  hold  in 
IVance,  and  it  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  an  operation 
which,  however  successful  it  may  prove,  W'as  necessarily 
IK-rilousand  in  many  ways  costly — (that  is,  in  destruction 
of  material,  let  alone  the  political  effect  at  home — and 
iil>on  the  army,  for  that  matter)  would  have  been  under- 
taken with  the  mere  object  of  saving  such  an  insignificant 
proportion  of  the  front.  ,  --''      . 

But  if  wc  look  at  tlie  salient  which  the  enemy  occupied 
over  the  north  of  France,  generally  called  the  N'oyon 
salient,  observe  how  it  had  already  been  threatened 
by  the  Allied  success  upon  the  Somme,  and  how  \ery  much 
more  it  was  threatened  by  the  pursuit  of  that  success  the 
moment  weather  permitted,  we  shall  see  that  the  abandon- 
ment of  this  salient  was  of  a  very  clear  and  great  advantage 
to  the  enemy  :  it  had  even  become  a  necessity. 

So  long  as  the  salient  existed  serious  dislocation  of  the 
line  upon  either  of  its  two  containing  sides  ("  successful 
action  upon  a  transversal  "  as  the  French  call  it)  would 
.  ha\'e  involved  a  complete  breakdown  of  the  whole  defensive 
organisation.  The  whole  German  front  between  Peronne 
and  Berry-au-Bac  would  have  been  ruined  if  an  Allied 
olfensi\'c  working  behind  it,  already  deeply  bitten  in 
last  summer,  had  succeeded  in  advancing  even  by  a 
few  miles  this  spring.-  It  would  ha\e  been  impossible 
to  have  retired  in  order  from  the  Noyon  saUent.  There- 
lore,  the  whole  line  would  have  broken. 

That  is  why  the  retirement  was  planned  before  the 
main  shock  of  this  season  should  develop. 

(2)  But  though  the  enemy  had  certainly  determined 
upon  such  a  retirement  wc  can  infer  with  a  fair  degree 
of  certitude  that  he  intended  in  his  original  plan  first  to 
hold  the  Bapamnc  Ridge,  then,  behind  that  as  a  sort  of 
flank  guard,  later  to  withdraw  from  the  point  of  the 
Noyon  salient.  And  our  reasons  for  making  tliis  in- 
ference are  sufticient  to  warrant  it. 

In  the  first  place,  the  retirement  was  not  deliberately 
begun  upon  that  sector,  nor  was  it  begun  voluntarily 
and  at  a  chosen  moment.  In  other  words,  the  enemy 
was  compelled  to  fall  back  somewhat  earlier  than  he 
lud  intended  upon  the  best  defensi\e  position  he  could 


get  in  front  ol  the  Biitish  tro()|)s,  and  that  best  dcfcnsi\'C 
j)usition  was  the  Bapauhie  Ridge. 

How  do  wc  know  this  ? 

W'e  know  it  from  two  conxxTging  pieces  of  evidence. 

The  first  is  that  the  British  attacks  upon  the  Anac 
proceeded  from  a  British  initiative,  Vere  met  for  a  full 
six  xi'ceks  with  all  available  powers  of  resistance  by  tlie 
enemy,  and  were  followed  by  very  violent  and  extensive 
counter-attacks  0^1  his  part  which  failed.  There  was 
no  sort  of  retirement  in  progress  during  all  January  or 
even  the  first  fortnight  of  I'^ebiiiary  when  the  British 
troops  were  hammering  up  the  .\ncre  valley  upon  cither 
side  of  the  stream.  .\nd  yet  this  season,  the  lirst  si.\ 
weeks  of  the  year  ;  when  the  ground  was  most  diflicult 
to  the  advance,  w^ere  the  best  moments  for  secretly  with- 
drawing the  mass  of  the  enemy  forces. 

Until  the  middle  of  the  month  (the  14th  or  15th  of 
February)  when  Hill  127  was  captured  abo\c  Bailies- 
court,  there  was  not  the  shadow  or  the  indication  of  a 
retirement.  The  value  of  this  point  will  escape  no  one, 
and  it  has,  I  think,  been  generally  appreciated. 

But  the  second  point  is  less  m'cH  known,  and  is,  I  thinl', 
of  equal  importance.  Combined  with  the  first  it  is 
decisive. 

The  German  Government  issues  to  its  Press  instruc- 
tions designed  to  prepare  public  opinion  for  coming 
events.  The  importance  of  preparing  German  public 
opinion  in  particular  for  a  retirc#t'nt  of  any  sort  is, 
especially  at  this  moment,  very  gn-at  indeed.  It  is  an 
absolute  necessity,  and  the  political  business  has  to  be 
co-ordinated  as  carefully  as  the  military  movements  arc 
co-ordinated  by  a  staff.  We  have  a  fl(jod  of  light  thrown 
upon  this  matter  when  we  note  the  date  on  which  the 
Prussian  (iovernment  unexpectedly  issued  an  order  to 
its  press  which  fell  as  a  conijjlctc  siu-prise  and  changeil 
the  tone  of  all--the  newspai)ers.  'Ihid  order  ivas  •^iveii 
■oiler  the  eafturc  oj  Hill  izj — five  days  after — it  was  i;ivcii 
upon  February  20th. 

I  am  not  saying  that  an  ultimate  retirement  from  the 
Noyon  salient  was  not  contemplated.  1  think  it  was. 
It  is  clear  at  any  rate  that  it  was  an  alternative  ])lau 
which  had  been  thoroughly  studied  or  it  could  not  have 
been  carried  out  as  completely  as  it  has  been  or  as  dexter- 
ously. 

But  the  operating  of  the  trigger  and  the  starting  of  I  he 
machine,  the  act  and  the  initiative  of  the  act  wliicli 
produced  the  retreat,  was  British.  It  was  the  work 
upon  the  Ancrc  that  did  it,  as  the  comparison  of  dates 
shows. 

So  true  is  this  that  the  order  unex])ectedly,  and  some- 
what hurriedly,  issued  upon  Fi'bruary  20th,  to  the 
Germain  Press,  was  not  even  then  an  order  for  imme- 
diately publishing  the  intention  to  retire.  It  was  only 
an  order  secretly  jireparing  the  Press  for  w!iat  w:i.s  to 
come,  and  bidding  them  gradually  to  tune  public  opinion 
to  the  necQssities  of  the  situation.  By  one  of  those 
accidents,  which  is  inevitable  when  you  organise  too 
much  and  in  too  great  detail,  we  have  had  from  the 
German  Press  itself  evidence  of  this  order,  of  its  datr 
and  of  its  character. 

The  moment  the  British  forces  were  on  the  top  of 
Hill  127,  the  gun-positions  behind  Py^  'ind  north  of 
Miraumont  were  impossible,  and  an  enemy  retirement 
was  necessary.  We  all  know  how  the  fog  whicli  came 
inuncdiately  afterwards  and  successive  days  of  dense 
mist  enabled  that  first  local  movement  to  be  accom- 
plished without  serious  loss.  But  we  have  not  only 
evidence  of  the  initiative  thus  having  lain  with  the 
attack,  but  also  of  the  fact  that  Bai)aunie  Ridge  was 
th'J  defensive  position  the  .enemy  intended  tu  take 
up.  Here  again  points  of  x'arying  value,  but  converging, 
warrant  the  inference.  In  the  first  place,  the  retirement 
was  e\erywhere  towards  the  ridge  and  without  any 
abandonment  of  the  iroints  which  could  jeopardise  it. 


March  22,  1917 


LAN©    &    WATER 


rnientien£s 


2^  7^Ues~'3d 


Approxanat^  Lunitaf 
Allied Ozualry  posts 
on  IrfdndaArev&nmg 


"T^CILTI  I  I   I  ♦  I II 

Conimitrucatcons 


RHHM5 


Itwas  ;i  retirement,  parallel  with  the  ridge  and  on  to  the 
ridj^e  e\erywhere.  In  the  second  place,  it  offered  in- 
creasing resistance  as  it  j^roceeded.  The  ridge  was  nsed 
regularly  as  a  screen  for  whatever  was  going  on  behind  it, 
hilt  from  Monchy  righl  away  to  the  heights  in  front  of 
Bapaume  itself,  the  Une  was  maintained  intact  until  far 
into  this  i,nonth.  We  know  that  there  was  a  strong 
defensive  line  prepared  covering  the  whole  of  the  heights. 

In  the  third  place,  and  this  is  the  most  important  point 
I  think,  we  have  again  the  testimony  of  the  (ierman 
Press  and  of  the  orders  it  liad  received.  This  testimony 
is  subject  to  a  certain  suspicion  as  I  shall  point  out  in  a 
moment,  and  I  must  leave  it  to  my  readers  to  decide 
whether  that  suspicion  is  justified  or  no. 

'J'he  fierman  Press  recei\ed  orders,  once  the  retirement 
had  begun,  io  describe  it  as  a  proceedinf^  which  u'ould 
covef  soiiic/hiiiii  like  ten  days,  and  one  that  would  hi  tcr- 
vdnatcd  tihout  the  first  of  March.  That  date  pretty 
nearly  corresponds  to  the  moment  when  the  British, 
following  up  the  German  retirement,  found  themselves 
everywhere  against  the  main  defensive  positions  ot  the 
ridgi'.  That  is,  the  line  in  front  of  Money,  Les  Essarts, 
B\icquoy,  Achiet  and  Bapaume  itself. 

The  terms  used  in  the  (ierman  Press  were  not  am- 
biguous. They  were  designed  to  drive  into  the  mind  of 
the  (ierman  public  at  home  the  fact  that  a  local  retire- 
ment had  been  conducted  with  skill,  had  been  successful, 


and  was  now  for  the  moment  at  least  at  an  end.  'Jlie 
Cologuc  Gazette,  for  instance,  said  in  so  many  words, 
that  the  great  and  unexampled  feat  had  been  successfully 
accomplished  by  March  1st.  and  simiUr  expressions  are 
to  be  found  up  ;\nd  down  the  principal  (ierman    pa]>cr3. 

Now  I  have  said  that  this  piece  of  cvic'ence  was  subject 
to  a  certain  suspicion.  Everyone  has  noticed  that  the 
Germans  a  little  later  began  giving  way  on  their  left 
towards  Bapaume.  When  they  were  driven  out  of  Irles 
they  were  compelled  to  retreat  prematurely  and  suffer 
a  loss  of  prisoners  and  machine  guns,  but  the  advancing 
troops  found  everything  prepared  for  a  retirement ;  and 
it  has  been  argvied  that  this  retirement  on  the  left, 
leaving  Monchy  untouched,  was  undertaken  in  order 
to  deceive, the  British  command,  because  if  the  retire- 
ment had  been  by  the  right  it  wbukl  have  been  clear  that 
the  whole  salient  between  Bapaume  and  Arras  was 
going  to  be  exacuated.  Reasoning  from  this  some 
observers  have  concludi'd  that  there  was  no  real  intention 
of  holding  the  Bapaume  Ridge  at  all.  - 

I  am  still  inclined  to  believe  that  there  was  such  an 
intention,  and  that  it  was  only  given  up  by  a  modifica- 
tion of  plan  forced  upon  the  enemy,  and  my  reasons  for 
thinking  so  are  as  follows  : 

Eirst,  though  it  is  true  that  Irles  was  about  to  be 
evacuated,  it  is  not  equally  certain  that  the  height 
ahove  Irles,   Hill  I2q,.  was  not  to  be  held.     Still  less  that 


LAND    &     WATER 


March  22,  1917 


Grcvilleri?,  just  behind  it,  was  not  muiulid  to  be  held. 
Irles,  tlio  \iUage,  formed  a  small  salient  of  tiio  general 
German  line  in  front  of  the  ridge.  It  lay  upon  the  slopes 
of  a  ravine  and  the  tnie  defensive  ywsition  was  abo\  e 
il.  Bnt  when  Hill  I-'m,  above  Irles,  was  in  Hritisii  haiuis 
(it  will  be  remembered  that  the  importance  of  the  point 
was  emphasised  in  these  colnnins  at  the  time),  a  ver\- 
serious  threat  had  at  onre  appeared  against  the  whole 
(ierman  defensive  position  hen-.  Mill  ik)  above  Irles, 
half  a  mile  above  the  cemetery  of  that  village,  is  not  quite 
as  high  as  the  Loupart  \\ood,  which  is  the  true  key  of  all 
that  end  of  the  ridge,  but  it  turns  the  Loupart  Wood  and 
threatens  it  front  one  side.  ,  Therefore,  when'  it  had 
fallen  into  British  hands  Loupart  Wood,  in  spite  of  its 
elaborate  organisation  and  extremely  important  position, 
was  evacuated.  And  from  this  circumstance  alone  I 
should  argue  that  the  e\acuation  was  premature  and 
imposed  upon  the  enemy.  But  this  conclusion  seems  to 
be  confirmed  very  strongly  by  the  press  notices  of  which 
I  have  spoken.  If  we  do  not  admit  it,  we  have  to  decide 
that  these  press  notices  were  put  in  as  a  blind,  and  that 
the  enemy  really  intending  to  give  up  the  Bapaume  Ridge 
without  further  ctfort  and  not  yielding  to  the  Allied 
pressure,  spread  falsehoods  through  his  newspapers  in 
order  to  deceive  us  upon  the  point.  AgaJnst  -mli  a 
contention  there  are  two  valid  arguments. 

The  first  is  that  the  deceit  which  was  to  ha\e  been 
imposed  upon  us  could  not  have  had  its  effect  in  time, 
for  before  the  German  papers  in  which  these  things  were 
being  printed  reached  us,  the  event  had  come  about. 

The  second- is,  that  it  would  be  playing  an  extretnely 
dangerous  game  to  tell  the  German  public  at  this  time 
of  day  and  in  the  midst  of  so  delicate  and  humiliating 
an  operation  as  a  general  retirement,  that  a  term  had 
been  fixed  for  that  retirement,  that  it  was  only  a  local 
movement  to  the  Bapaume  Ridge — for  the  moment  at 
least — and  that  that  ridge  would  be  held  after  a  move- 
7Tient  of  retreat  which  the  German  public  were  asked  to 
admire  for  its  complete  success — and  then  to  disappoint 
...that  public  and  admit  a  general  retreat.  It  would  be 
as  though  the .  French  authorities  had  told  the  pubUc 
of  their  intention  to  fall  back  on  to  the  Chauny  Ridge 
in  front  of  Verdun  a  year  ago  and  ihen'  had  proceeded  to 
evacuate  Verdun  itself  and  all  the  Verdun  salient.  I 
cannot  believe  that  the  German  newspapers  would  have 
been  instructed  to,  encourage  their  readers  to  believe 
that  a  halt  was  to  be  made  upon  the  Bapaume  Ridge 
unless  that  halt  has  really  been  intended.  Especially 
as  the  sheets  in  which  the  information  was  to  appear 
could  not  reach  us  in  time  to  mislead  us. 

Everj^hing  then  would  seem  to  point  to  an  original 
determination  of  holding  the  Bapaume  Ridge,  and  of  not 
abandoning  it  without  the  undertaking  of  an  offensive 
mo\-ement  elsewhere,  which  should  check  further  retire- 
ment for  some  appreciable  time.  I  take  it  that  this  plan 
was  modified  against  the  enemy's  will  by  the  uninter- 
mittent  pressure  of  the  British  artillery. 

Only  those  on  the  spot  can  judge  what  that  pressure 
must  have  been.  The  moment  the  movement  of  retire- 
ment was  apparent  the  main  points  upon  which  the 
holding  of  the  ridge  would  depend  were  subjected  to 
intense,  and,  in  many  places,  .converging  fire.  The 
retirement  was  not  so  great  as  to  take  these  points  out 
of  the  range  of  the  heavy  gun  emplacements  already 
existing,  and  we  know  that  the  rate  at  which  the  guns 
were  moved  up  when  the  emplacements  had  to  be  changed 
was  unexpectedly  rapid,  considering  the  abominable 
nature  of  the  ground.  We  kno\y  also  that  the  key  points, 
notably  Hill  i2()  above  Irles,  were  subjected  to  an  in- 
tolerable bombardment,  just  at  the  moment  when  the 
movement  of  German  troops  upon  it  rendered  such  an 
ordeal  most  severe.  The  matter  is  not  certain,  it  is 
debateable.  It  is  only  a  suggestion  that  has  been  put 
forwaixl  here  ;  but  the  suggestion  is  that  the  epemy 
intended  to  hold  the  Bapaume  Ridge,  and  to  deliver  a 
local  offensive  elsewhere  to  relieve  the  pressure  upon  it, 
that  he  intended  a  general  retirement  only  later,  and 
after  some  delay  \\\xm  that  defensive  position,  and  that 
his  plan  was  distorted  or  modified  by  the  loss  of  the 
heights  he  had  originally  jjlanncd  to  hold. 

(3)  Being  thus  compelled,  however,  to  act  prematurely 
he  has  acted  with  what  has  hitherto  been  complete 
success  in  his  general  retirement,  and  it  is  as  foolish  to 
deny  this  as  it  is  to  exaggerate  the  meaning  or  the  value 


of  that  retirement. 

He  has  so  far  lost  hardly  any  material,  save  what  he 
has  himself  deliberately  destroyed,  and  only  an  insigni- 
licanl  nimiber  of  prisoners  from  his  rear  guards.  And 
we  may  be  certain  that  the  mass  of  his  forces  arc  now 
already  established  in  the  position  which  \ve  .  know 
him  to  have  prepared  in  the  rear  of  his  original  lines. 
'The  reports  up  to  the  moment  of  writing  account  for  only 
a  few  hundrtxl  jirisoners  at  the  most,  three  batteries  of 
guns  in  Noyon  and  one  convoy  intercepted  by  the  French 
apparently  upon  the  liigh  road  leading  out  of  Xoyon 
north-eastward. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  the  enemy  is  retiring,  or 
either  that  his  main  force  have  already  retired  to  the 
lines  which  he  had  long  ago  prepared  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Armentieres,  right  down  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Rheims.  covering  Cambrai,  St.  Ouentin,  La 
Fere  and  Laon.  We  know  at  any  rate  that  a  line  exists, 
and  presume  it  does  not  exist  without  its  purpose,  nor 
is  any  reason  apparent  for  abandoning  that  purpose  at 
this  moment  :  its  purpose  to  afford  a  shorter  line, 
abandoning  the  perilous  salient  of  Noypn  which  has 
been  held  by  the  enemy  at  such  an  enormous  expense 
in  men  for  a  year  and  a  half. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  this  line,  docs  not 
save  anj'  appreciable  mmiber  of  men  to  the  enemy,  nor 
correspondingly  increase  in  any  appreciable  amount 
the  preponderance  to  the  Allies.  What  it  does  do  is  to 
get  the  enemy  lines  into  such  a  straight  shape  that  no 
"  transversal  "  attack,  no  cutting  of  the  neck  of  tlio 
salient  can  throw  it  into  disorder.  It  is  a  line  which 
can  only  be  broken  by  a  direct  attack  at  some  point. 

Speculation  as  to  the  enemy's  strength  when  he  reaches 
that  line,  as  to  his  further  intentions  or  those  of  our  own 
coiumand,  even  speculations  as  to  his  ability  to  occupy 
this  line  (if  it  be  that  upon  which  he  is  determined  to 
stand)  securely,  are  idle  ;  except,  perhaps,  for  the  note 
that  he  has  had  ample  time  to  estabhsh  himself  in  reason- 
able security.  The  retirement  is  but  a  short  one.  One 
long  day's  march  or  two  short  marches  at  its  widest 
part  between  Roye  and  St.  Qucntin,  22  miles  only, 
one  day's  march  behind  the  Bapauipe  Ridge,  and  only 
a  few  diminishing  miles  at  either  end  of  the  big  thin 
crescent.  The  exact  shape  of  that  crescent,  always 
supj)Qsing  the  enemy  to  stand  upon  the  Cambrai  St. 
Quentin-La  Fere  line,  is  apparent  upon  the  sketch  given 
above.  It  is  sufficiently  clear  from  this  that  the 
modification,  though  exceedingly  important  to  the  enemy 
as  securing  him  from  disaster  in  case  the  old  salient  had 
broken,  is  not  one  upon  so  large  a  scale  as  to  threaten 
him  with  disruption  during  his  retreat. 

There  are  not  a  few  puzzling  points  remaining  with 
regard  to  the  line  upon  which  the  enemy  is  believed  to 
be  retiring.  For  instance,  the  main  railway  junction 
at  Terguier  has  already  been  abandoned,  and  though 
there  is  a  light  railway  joining  St.  Quentin  and  Laon 
(by  way  of  La  Ferte,  marked  (i)  (i)  on  Sketch  I.),  and 
though  this  light  railway  has  probably  been  enlarged 
to  normal  gauge,  it  is  perilously  near  the  Allied  advance. 

The  whole  position,  though  of  the  greatest  possible 
interest,  is  still  in  flux,  and  until  it  is  decided,  does  not 
permit  of  exact  analysis,  but  before  leaving  it  it  may 
be  well  to  point  out  that  it  is  of  its  nature  only  a  pre- 
liminary to  the  great  shock  that  is  coining.  The  enemy 
has  not  drafted  into  his  field  force  so  very  large  or  abnor- 
mal a  proportion  of  his  remaining  reserve  power  without 
the  intention  of  striking  and,  let  us  repeat  for  the 
twentieth  time,  that  ivhere  he  intends  to  strike  we  do  not 
know,  and  that  any  one  who  know  must  have  it  for  their 
principal  public  duty  to  keep  it  secret.  Neither  does  he 
know  where  the  .\llies  intend  to  strike.  All  the 
public  knows,  or  ought  to  know,  is  that  the  present 
mox'ements  are  no  more  than  a  manoeuvring  for 
position  before  the  main  efforts  which  will  distinguish 
and  are  intended  to  decide  the  war  in  the  season  which 
is  just  opening. 

One  ai  the  most  interesting  general  theories  put  for- 
ward in  the  British  Press  at  this  moment  has  appeared 
from  the  military  correspondent  of  the  Morning  Post. 
It  is  to  the  effect  that  the  German  retirement  upon  the 
West  is  not  only  undertaken  for  the  abandonment  of  a 
salient  rendered  dangerous  from  the  increasing  power 
of  the  Allies,  but  is  also  and  especially  designed  with  the 
object  of  obtaining  freedom  for  manoeuvre.     The  theory 


.March 


1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


is  that  a  weir  ot  iuo\liuciiI  i^  It)  be  iLsturcd  011  the 
initiative  of  tlic  enemy,  and  that  he  is  giving  liimself 
elbow  room.  Whether  that  tlieory  is  sound  or  not  only 
events  ean  show.  The  argument  in  its  favour  is  that  the 
retiring  force  has  all  its  dispositions  ready,  while  the 
advancing  force  pursuing  it  is  necessarily  tentative  in 
its  action,  and  delayed  by  the  bringing  up  of  its  men  or 


its  material.  The  argument  against  it  is  that  anything 
like  a  war  of  movement  would  liave  to  be  undertaken  in 
spite  of  recent  accessions  to  the  German  force  in  the 
tield  by  inferior  forces  against  superior,  and  against  an 
unbroken  line  which  offers  no  opportunities  of  manceiivre, 
but  only  of  hammering  with  the  same  siege  tactics  as 
those  which  were  necessary  at  Verdun  and  on  the  Somme. 


The  Mesopotamian  Front 


On  tlie  Mesopotamian  front  the  last  news  at  the  moment 
of  writing  shows  us  the  British  patrols  following  by 
the  main  road  and  railway  north  of  Bagdad,  up  the  Tigris 
\alley  and  reaching,  by  last  Svmday,  some  point  near 
Sumaiakcheh.  We  are  also  given  in  this  despatch  a  very 
interesting  hint  as  to  the  strength  with  which  the  enemy 
is  fighting  these  rearguard  actions.  We  are  told  that  he  is 
acting  with  "  the  remnants  of  three  divisions." 

There  is  another  very  notable  point,  though  it  is  only 
a  detail  in  connection  with  the  general  operations.  It 
concerns  the  movement  of  the  Turkish  troops,  estimated, 
I  believe,  at  about  t^o  divisions,  which  had  hitherto 
been  operating  beyond  the  Persian  frontier  and  which  have 
now,  for  something  hke  a  month,  been  retiring  rapidly 
westward  followed  by  a  comparativelj'  small  Russian 
force,  which  is  also  operating  in  these  regions. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  main  Turkisli  body 
w  as  falling  back  along  the  great  caravan  road  througli 
fvermanshah  towards  Khanikin.  The  Russian  forces 
in  pursuit  had  at  a  moment  not  dated  in  the  despatch, 
but  i^resumably  Friday  or  vSaturday  last,  reached  Haruna- 
bad.  The  British'  were  in  occupation  of  Bakuba,  the 
first  long  day's  stage  north  out  of  Bagdad. 

It  will  be  clear  from  the  accompanying  map  that  the 
main  Turkish  force,  bound  to  this  road  avenue,  having 
lost  its  base  at  Bagdad  would  be  in  peril  unless  it  coukl 
escape  to  the  plain  of  the  Upper  Tigris. 

At  what  point  would  such  an  attempt  leave  the  main 
caravan  road,  and  what  chance  would  it  have  of  effecting 
an  orderly  retreat  without  loss  ? 

The  mass  of  the  Turkish  forces  has  almost  certainly 
been  able  to  reach  Kasr-i-shirin,  some  days  ago.  Were 
it  to  retire  further  down  towards  Khanikin  and  the  Bagdad 
road  it  would  be  in  a  hopeless  trap,  for  the  British  are 


holding  that  road.  At  least  as  high  up  as  Bakuba,'  and 
probably  by  this  time  beyond.  But  from  Kasr-i-shirin 
there  is  a  track  leading  north-west  by  which  an  army 
could  at  any  point  attempt  to  escape.  There  would  be 
no  point  in  lea\'ing  the  road  before  Kasr-i-shirin,  as  one  is 
still  in  the  mountains  and  there  is  no  avenue  of  issue  from 
Kasr-i-shirin.  Some  sort  of  way  passes  from  Merkez  over 
an  interxening  low  range  of  foothills,  crosses  the  Diala 
at  Kalashirwan,  and,  at  Kifri,  strikes  the  telegraph  and 
road  which  leads  up  under  the  mountains  parallel  to 
the  Tigris,  making  for  Karkuk  and  the  north. 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  Kifri  itself  will  be 
occupied  by  a  British  detachment  in  time  to -cut  this  avenue 
of  retirement.  Kifri  is  a  good  60  or  70  niilf;s  from  Bakuba 
by  road  and  100  from  Bagdad,  where  the  track  from 
Kasr-i-shirin  to  Kifri  is  sufficiently  good  to  permit  of  an 
orderly  retirement. 

Meanw'hile  there  Ixas  happened  to  the  force  at  Sihna 
what  was  suggested  in  these  columns  <is  probable.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  w'c  pointed  out  how  the  Turkish 
detachment,  which  had  been  garrisoned  at  Sdhna  could  only, 
fall  back  upon  Kcrmanshah,  to  which  the  road  and 
telega^aph  lead,  that  if  the  Russians  were  in  Kermanshah 
before  the  retirement  was  fully  effected  this  force  would 
be  cut  off. 

We  now  have  the  mention  in  the  last  Russian  despatch 
of  the  fact  that  the  Russians  have  got  to  Kermanshah 
before  this  Turkish  retirement  was  .fully  effected,  and  the 
Turkish  detachment  formerly  garrisoned  at  Senna  has 
consequently  been  thrown  off  the  road  westward  into  the 
mountains ;  whether  it  will  be  entirely  lost,  or  whether 
any  remnants  will  be  able  to  get  down  into  the  plain  we 
shall  know  in  the  next  month.  But  the  chances  are  that 
it  is  for  military  purposes  destroyed.  H.  Bhlloc 


11 

thrux 


fyrmer^at  Schna.   » 

^  ,-- ^S^^^    tiiehUIsdy         .    j^ 

■^Jf     ^  ■^:/^  ^    'Sussuia.ac&acux  ¥^  "SussuxK 

f^      ^^'"S-  '  "  1^  axvaZty- 


Iters£'ive 
days  c^o 


'^■^:fm 


^       ■     1  ..       .  1 

J          fO 

zo 

30 

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tao 


~UiUs. 


8 


1.AND    6c    WATER 


March  22,  1917 


Freedom   and   the  Seas 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


IX  the  furtnight  tliat  lias  passed  since  the  course  of 
tlic  naval  side  of  the  war  was  dealt  with  in  these 
culuinns,  some  very  extraordinary  developments 
have  become  manifest  throughout  the  world — 
all  of  them  arising  directly  out  of  the  war  and  most  of 
them  out  of  the  war  at  sea.  The  outstanding  sensation 
is,  of  course,  the  revolution  in  Russia — with  its  corollary, 
the  German  Emperor's  promise,  through  his  Chancellor, 
that  when  the  war  is  over  the  people  of  Germany  too  shall 
enjoy  something  that  more  resembles  political  liberty 
than  the  constitution  under  which  they  have  lived  so 
long — the  polity,  that  is,  that  has  made  this  war  possible, 
ft  is  to  the  last  degree  improbable  that  Russia  can.'^at  a 
single  stroke,  attain  endming  liberal  institutions.  Unless 
the  teaching  of  history  goes  for  nothing,  there  must  be 
many  stages  between'  the  recent  cou/^  d'etat  and  a  con- 
stitution in  which  all  Russian  parties  can  loyally  and 
checrfullj'  co-operate — a  constitution,  that  is  to  say.  to 
\\hich  everyone  in  Russia  will,  as  of  course,  pay  liabitual 
and  willing  obedience,  because  in  it  he  feels  the  respon- 
.sibility  of  his  own  participation.  But  it  is  still  more 
imi)robable  that  the  autocratic  and  entirely  military 
Government  of  German}'  will  honestly  surrender  that 
country's  political  destinies  to  the  control  of  the  Socialist 
representatives  of  the  working  classes.  No  doubt  in 
both  countries  the  struggle  for  a  final  form  of  govern- 
ment will  be  postponed  till  the  war  is  over.  And  the 
difference  between  the  two  cases  is  just  this — that  I^ussia 
starts  with  the  autocracy  already  at  an  end.  and  (iermany 
has  to  await  the  issue  of  the  war  before  knowing  the 
degree  of  the  autocracy's  voluntary  self-effacement. 

The    Free   Nations 

1  (l(j  not  think  it  is  a  far  fetched  idea  to  see  in  these 
astonishing  developments  less  of  the  results  of  land  war 
than  of  sea  war,  and  if  we  look  beyond  Russia  and  (ier- 
man\',  we  shall  perhaps  find  reasons  for  this  belief.  For 
it  is  the  sea  war  that  is  slowly  but  inevitably  uniting  the 
two  lar,gest  and,  perhaps  because  the  largest,  the  two 
mo.st  pacific  countries  in  the  world  against  the  militarism 
that  is  the  common  enemy  of  civili.sation.  The  United 
States,  it  is  true,  arc  not  yet  formallj'  at  war,  iior  indeed 
is  China.  But  the  decision  of  the  latter  is  taken,  and 
it  is  clear,  as  far  as  Washington  is  concerned,  that 
America's  neutrality  continues  in  name  only.  The 
sinkings  of  the  Algonquin  and  other  ships,  with  an 
absence  of  warning  and  the  resulting  minders  of  American 
citiy.ens,  add  to  the  acts  which,  under  President  Wilson's 
definition,  must  be  considered  overt  operations  of  war. 
No  matter  how  frequent  or  definite  such  acts  may  be. 
President  Wilson  cannot  go  through  the  form  of  himself 
declaring  war  till  Congress  meets  in  April.  And  when 
Congress  does  change  the  legal  aspect  of  the  situation, 
America  will  not  be  able  immediate!}'  to  take  any  more 
direct  war  action  than  she  is  taking  already.  For 
not  only  are  all  merchant  ships  now  to  be  armed,  but  all 
are  receiving  instructions  to  sink  submarines  on  sight. 
What  other  military  measures  'can  President  Wilson 
take  off  hand  ? 

The  inevitable,  then,  has  already  happened.  As  we 
liave  often  seen  in  these  columns,  the  submarine  cam- 
paign, as  threatened  by  Germany  in  December  1914, 
and  put  into  effect  in  the  following  February,  was  an 
open  declaration  of  war  against  all  the  sea-faring  nations. 
For  two  years  thc.^c  submitted  to  a  succession  of  outrages 
that  no  sane  observer  could  liave  presumed  to  have  been 
tolerable.  But  one  by  one  their  patience  has  been 
exhausted  and,  as  the  indices  that  Germany's  strength 
is  decaying  multiply,  so  is  it  certain  that  first  one  and 
then  anotiier  nmitral  will  join,  not  in  protest  but  in  open 
action,  to  defend  its  maritime  interest  against  the 
German  attack.  Thus,  the  frightfulncss  which  militarism 
lias  transferred  from  land  to  sea,  will  carry  its  own 
punishment  with  it. 

And  that  the  signs  of  increasing  German  weakness 


arc  nuiltiplying  is  uiKpier^tioncd.  The  German  armies 
in  I'" ranee  may  have  impro\ed  their  tactical  condition 
by  the  recent  great  retreat,  but  this  is  not  to  say  that 
Ciermany  is  strong  in  the  West  where  she  was  weak, 
but  that  being  everywhere  dangerously  weak,  she  may 
for  a  brief  period  have  averted  the  immediate  ruin  ivhich 
that  weakness  threatened.  Nor  is  it  to  be  doubted 
that  it  is  not  a  purelj'  military  weakness — insufiicient 
men  and  insufiicient  material  for  war — that  oppresses 
om-  chief  enemy.  A  still  greater  and  more  serious 
weakness  threatens  him  at  home.  .And  this,  it  need 
hardly  be  added,  is  the  direct  result  of  our  belated  and 
still  none  too  strict  blockade.  It  is,  of  course,  this 
]>arti(ular  evidence  of  ebbing  strength  that  has  driven 
the  rulers  of  Germany  to  seek  a  final  conclusion  with 
this  country  by  the  starvation  blockade  now  being 
attempted.  There  is  no  other  lioj)e  of  enheartt-ning  their 
subjects  for  longer  endurance.  No  other  method  of 
shakiaig.  the  confidence  and  resources  of  their  chief 
opponents.  And  as  it  is  the  same  blockade  that  has 
driven  America  and  China  into  war,  so  must!  Germany's 
desperation  under  the  advance  of  justice  bring  other  - 
vindicators  of  the  right  into  the  field. 

Militarism   at   Sea 

For  it  is  sea  )>ower  that  has  thwarted  the  mili- 
tarism of  Germany.  It  is  sea  j)o\\er  that  has  made 
it  imi)ossible  for  her  inhabitants  to  maintain  the 
country's  strength  and  su})plics  for  a  long  war  ;  it  is 
sea  power,  therefore,  that  stands  out  te-day  as  the  chief 
obstacle  to  the  success  of  the  conspiracy  of  the  ("entral 
Powers  of  1<)I4.  The  effective  element  in  that  wicked 
pact.  Me.  in  tJiis  country,  dubbed  "  milita.rism."  meaning 
thereby  the  doctrine  that  the  creation  and  the  employ- 
ment of  armies  was  an  end  in  itself  :  bec-;iuse  once 
organised,  everything  that  these  armies  coiUd  seize  and 
hold  by  force  was  k-gitimately  the  property  of  the  States 
that  raised  them.  Power,  armed  for  robbery  and  oppres- 
sion, is  the  essential  and  central  fact  of  militarism.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  when  tliis  hideous  veligicm  was  scotch'^d 
its  confessors  denounced  the  "  navalism  "  that  threatened 
it  with  defeat.  It  was  a  meaningless  retort.  For  there 
is  this  great  difference  between  sea  power  and  land 
power.  If  a  country  is  to  maintain  the  strongest  possible 
army  the  whole  nation  must  be  made  part  of  a  fighting 
niaciiine,  must  be  brought  under  strict  and  ruthless 
discipline,  "must  cultivate  the  habit  and  practice  of  un- 
critical obedience,  must  look  on  its  army  chiefs  almost 
as  God-given  rulers  who.se  authority  it  is  treason  to  the 
State  to  weaken,  whose  wisdom  therefore  it  is  criminal  to 
doubt.  Under  the  threat  of  a  nei.ghbour's  armies,  a  free 
country  such  as  I-'rance  may  contrive  such  military  ]ire- 
parations  without  sacrifice  of  demoratic  principle.  But  not 
without  grave  risk  to  its  political  institutions. 

But  if  a  naiion  converts  itself  into  one  vast  army,  not  for 
self-defence,  but  unscrupulous  conquest,  the  case  is  worse, 
for  all  must  join  in  the  shameless  faith  that  inspires  tlie 
leaders.  And -a  large  part  of  national  life  in  peace  time 
must  consist  of  drill  and  training  and  military  exercises, 
manceuvres,  and  parades,  all  for  no  object  except  to 
have  the  perfectly  organised  machine  when  the  hour  of 
conquest  strikes,  and  meantime  to  accustom  the  mind 
of  the  nation  to  the  dazzling  spectacle  of  force  intended 
to  be  irresistible  when  the  moment  of  action  comes. 
For  military  power,  if  it  suffices  in  force  and  speed, 
strikes  at  the  heart  and  wins  at  a  blow.  How  diff(>rent 
is  the  case  of  sea  power  !  First  sea  power  can  seldom, 
if  ever,  win  a  war  by  a  single  stroke.  Next  Xhv.  greatest 
of  na\ies  subtracts  but  a  tiny  ])ercentagc  of  the  nation 
to  maintain  itself  at  the  highest  ]5oint  of  strength.  Its 
drill  and  discipline  and  training  arc  all.  no  doubt,  as 
strenuous  and  exacting  as  any  army's  can  be,  but  they 
•  are  dignified  by  the  variety  of  skill  and  accomphshment 
at  which  they  aim,  and  are  magnified  by  the  association 
with  the  mighty  and  exquisite  engines  of  war  that  sea 


March  T22,  1917 


jl^A^U    &:  WATER 


'  force  employs.  But  more  than  all,  sea  force,  just  because 
it  is  sea  force,  exists  and  has  its  being  on  an  element  that 
i>  outside  the  nation.  The  vast  universe  of  the  ocean  is 
a  neutral  world,  where  all  nations  meet  and  consort  in 
((|uality  and  i)eace,  where  the  tradition  of  mutual  help 
in  the  ex])osure  to  connnon  danger  has  bred  a  certain 
chi\alry  unknown   and  strange  to  land  warfare. 

It  is  curious  that  na\ies,  whose  power  of  secret  move- 
ment had  made  them  so  often  capable  of  effecting  the 
strategic  surprise  denied  to  armies,  must  nevertheless 
do  their  work  in  peace  and  war  under  a  surveillance  so 
public  as  to  keep  them  constantly  at  the  bar  of  the 
])ublic  opinion  of  the  world.  It  is  this  that  explains 
how  it  is  that  sea  war,  from  the  earliest  times,  has  been 
strictly  subject  to  law.  Long  befpre  any  usages  were 
agreccl  upon  by~  civilised  nations  for  the  conduct  of 
armies  in  the  field,  anyone  injured  by  an  armed  ship,  in 
]ieace  or  war,  had,  by  the  common  consent  of  all  nations 
a  remedy  in  the  courts  of  the  nation  responsible  for 
that  ship's  action.  Thus  was  formed  the  traditional 
association  of  the  two  ideas,  sea-power  and  justice. 
Now  justice  is  the  first  step  towards,  and  is  insepar- 
able from,^  personal  and  political  freedom.  And  this 
is  why  it  seems  not  far  fetched  to  connect  a  revolt 
from  an  autocracy  maintained  by  military  power 
alone,  with  the  association  of  Russia  with  such  a  covmtry 
as  (ireat  Britain,  whose  world  i)osition  was  derived  from 
her  sea  power,  which  stands  primarily  for  freedom, 
becau.se  r>f  its  long  identity  with,  and  long  control  by. 
the  ])rinciples  of  justice  as  enforced  by  law. 

In  the  light  of  these  obvious  ])rinciples  it  is  all  the 
more  difficult  to  understand  the  effort  which  is  being 
ma(U'  in  certain  quarters  in  America  to  advocate  the 
(icrman  theory  of  the  "  Freedom  of  the  Seas." 

'fhis  cry,  in  the  mouths  of  (iermans,  is  but  the  whine 
of  the  trapped  crimina.1.  To  the  American,  it  is  part 
of  the  tradition  of  that  country's  aloofness  from  the 
tilings  that  concern  the  rest  of  tlie  world.  It  is  intelligible 
ciioiigh  tluit  America  should  have  had  no  interest  in 
Ivuropean  (piarrels  where  they  seemed  merely  scltish  or 
dynastic  and,  to  protest  against  war  taking  any,  toll  of 
her  harmless  comniercc  in  such  a  ca.sc,  was  an  obviows 
thing  to  do.  But  now  that  America  is  forced  into  war 
tlirougli  the  a:buse  of  sea  power,  by  a  nation  that  pre- 
tending the  freedom  of  the  sea  is  its  object,  is  in  reality 
at  war  against  all  freedom.  I  venture  to  think  that  the 
unreality  of  this  shibboleth  will  become  evident,  and 
without  arguinent.  For  the  true  freedom  of  tlie  seas 
depends  upon  the  reign  of  justice,  and  the  last  three 
.years  have  shown,  that  but  for  sea  power,  justice  must 
lui\'e  perished  off  the  earth. 

Bagdad    and    the    Submarines 

If  we  turn  from  these  general  considerations  to  the 
course  of  the  war  at  sea,  or  as  directly  affected  by  sea 
force,  w:e  have  to  note  first  liow  happy  and  effective 
lias  been  the  co-operation  on  the  Tigris  of  the  transport 
under  naval  control  with  the  amazingly  efticient  army 
led  by  General  Sir  Starjley  Maude.  It' is  a  subject  on 
which  wi?  lack  detailed  information,  but  the  results 
are  eloquent.  The  First  Lord  warned  us  in  his  Aldwych 
sjK'Ccli  of  the  far-flung  activities  of  German  minelayers. 
l->iit  how  limited,  not  only  tiiis  form  of  attack,  but  all 
submarine  a.ttack  on  military  communications  must 
be,  is  clear  enough  from  the  fact  that  in  no  theatre  of 
war  is  there  the  slightest  evidence  of  any  straitening 
of  our  military  means  through  loss  of  transports  or  of 
military  supplies. 

This,'  of  course,  is  not  to  say  that  the' loss  of  shipping 
may  not,  indirectly  be  a  cause  of  lessening  militarv 
capacity  overseas  and,  unfortunately,  there  is  little  in 
such  news  as  we  have  of  the  progress  of  the  submarine 
campaign  to  lead  us  to  suppose  that  we  are  approaching 
the  extinction  of  the  menace.  Not  that  the  submarine 
news  is  bad  ;  it  is,  on  the  contrary,  and  as  far  as  it  goes, 
not  unsatisfactory.  The  facts  of  the  submarine  cam- 
paign since  the  ist  February,  as  officially  communicated 
to  us  are  as  follows.  In  the  first  18  days,  56  British 
ships  of  all  sizes  were  sunk,  which  gives  "an  average  of 
21.7  per  week.  In  this  period  we  do  not  know  how  many 
were  attacked  and  therefore  how  many  escaped.  In  the 
succeeding  three  weeks.  36,  30  and  "25  were  attacked 
and  20,  25  and  15  were  sunk,     'j'he  weekly  average  of 


ships  sunk  then  was  20,  compared  with  21.7  of  the  first 
period.  The  reduction,  it  will  be  observed,  is  apparently 
insignificant,  about  8  per  cent.  only.  If  we  look  at  the  last 
three  wterikV  returns  only,  there  is  an  increase  of  the 
second  week  over  the  lirst  and  a  great  decrease  in  the 
;third  week.  But  it  would  be  deceiving  ourselves  (o 
lay  too  much  emphasis  on  this  reduction,  for  the  third 
week  was  marked  by  rough  and  stormy  weather  which 
adds  materially  to  the  difficulties  of  the  submarine's 
task.  On  the  other  hand,  we  must  remember  that  tl^ere 
is  now  nearly  30  pqr  cent,  more  daylight  than  at  the 
beginning  of  last  month,  so  that  in  this  very  important 
respect  conditions  are  steadily  improving  for  the  sub- 
marine. Had  the  efficiency  of  the  lirst  three  weeks  of 
February  been  maintained  the  weekly  loss  of  the  next 
period,  instead  of  averaging  20  ships,  should  have  run 
to  23  or  24.  But  here  again  we  must  guard  ourselves 
against  premature  conclusions.  There  are,  after  all,  a 
very  large  number  of  factors  at  work  of  which  but  little 
can  possibly  be  known.  Obviously  when  submarines 
hunt  merchantmen  and  warcraft  hunt  submarines,  there 
is  a  grim  sport  going  forward  in  which,  luck  must  enter 
enormously  into  the  game.  It  might  turn  either  way 
from  week  to  week.'  Our  losses  might  double  without 
there  being  any  increase  in  the  submarines  or  any 
diminution  in  the  craft  attacking  them.  Conversely  the 
luck  niight  go  our  way  and  many  more  submarines 
succumb  to  our  attack  and  many  more  merchant  ships 
drive  off  attack  than,  on  strict  average,  we  should  have 
any  right  to  expect.  For  the  moment  it  seems  im- 
possible to  say  more  than  this  that'  when  allowance  is 
2nade  for  increasing  daylight,  there  seems  to  be  a  clear, 
though  not  perhaps  a  very  large  falling  off  in  the  effi- 
ciency Qf  the  German  campaign.  It  will,  of  course, 
have  to  be  something  far  more  marked  before  the 
position  can  be  considered  at  all  satisfactory.  And  so 
long  as  present  conditions  continue,  it  is  impossible  to 
over-nite  the  importance  of  every  form  of  effort  to 
counteract  the  los.ses  which  the  .campaign  intlicls. 

Food   and   the    Blockade 

So  .  far    as    Government    pronouncements    go,  ■  these 
efforts  seem  to  be  taking  principally  three  forms.     The 
Shi])ping  Controller  is  making  every  effort  to  increase 
the  available  tonnage.     The  Food .  Controller  is  urging 
.economy    in    consiunption.       The    Prime    Minister  "and 
his    colleagues  who  look  after  agriculture  and  national 
service,  are   insisting    on    the    need    of    increasing    the 
home   supply    of   food.     But    we   hear    nothing    of    im- 
proved   methods     of     clearing    docks    and   wharves    so 
as  to  quicken  the  process  of  tufning  ships  round.     This 
does  not  mean  that  no  efforts  have  been  made,  nor  is 
ther<^  any  reason  to  suppose  that  they  have  not  been 
maclc.     But  many  are  asking  if  in  the  transference  of 
available  labour  from  unnecessary    trades  or  mere  iin- 
einployment,  to  gardening  and  agriculture,  the  best  is 
being  made  of  the  human  power  available  ?     The  labour 
in  question  is,  of  course,  unskilled.  Has  the  question  been 
faced  of  putting  this  to  its  most  economical  use  ?    One 
hears  of  cases   that   raise  doubts.      A   piano-tuner,   for 
instance,   is  sent  to  a  farm  from  wlrich  the  only  agri- 
culturist has  been  taken  for  military  duties.    It   sounds 
a  hopeless  kind  of  substitution.     A  man  like  this,  even 
if  he  had  the  physique,  would  take  years  to  master  the 
manifold  duties  of  a  farmer's  single-handed  help.     Yet 
he  could  learn  to  work  an  automatic  machine  in  a  week. 
And  it  is  of  the  essence  of  the  matter  that  these  un- 
trained volunteers  should  be  put  to  the  best  use.     How 
would   the   product   of   their  labour   produce  the  most 
food  ?     They  have  not  the  strength  to  cultivate  very 
much  land,  and  their  work,  already  limited,  must  still 
further  suffer  from  their  ignorance. 

The   Sixth    Raid 

Of  the  latest  night  raid  on  the  Thames  and  approaches, 
the  sixth  since  the  end  of  October,  and  the  foiuth  since 
the  new  Government  took  over,  it  will  be  time  to  speak 
when  we  are  told  more  of  the  system  of  command  in  the 
area  in  which  it  has  occurred.  The  loss  of  destroyers  is 
serious;  the  impunity  of  the  raiders  still  more  so. 

Arthur  Pollen. 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


iuan  11 


J.jl/ 


Germans  in  Turkey 


By  Sir  William  Ramsay 


THE  newspapers  in  general  Iiave  rightly  insisted 
on  the  immense  importance  of  the  capture  of 
Bagdad  in  its  effect  upon  the  Arab  population. 
Tln'  Arah-speaking  races  form  distinctly  the 
larger  half  of  the  population  of  the  Knipire.  They  have 
all  been  always  at  heart  strongly  opposed  to  the  Turks, 
and  the  racial  and  intellectual  antagonism  has  been 
extremely  strong.  It  w.is  only  by  force  that  the  Arab 
races  of  Syria  and  Arabia  were  kept  in  the  Turkish 
Empire,  itgypt  has  long  been  practically  independent. 
Syria  and  Egypt  were  not  conquered  by  the  Turks  till 
the  sixteenth  century  imder  Selim  II.  Arabia  has  always 
been  in  a  state  of  war  with  Turkey,  and  the  Yemen 
has  long  been  the  grave  of  the  Turkish  soldiery.  Since 
the  ^'oung  Turks  came  into  power,  rumours  were  fre-  • 
quently  circulated  in  Constantint)ple  about  the  inmiinent 
danger  of  an  .\rab  revolt  in  Syria.  Now,  after  the 
raptme  of  Hagdad,  long  the  capital  of  the  Arab-speaking 
world,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  Turks  can  succeed 
in  holding  the  .\rab  races  in  allegiance. 

'Ihere  is,  however,  another  aspect  of  tliis  most  brilliant 
success.  The  course  of  the  operations  suggests  tiiat  tlu' 
(ierman  officers  have  been  withdrawn  from  the  Mesopo- 
tamian  army.  A  Swedish  newspaper  mentions  that  some 
of  the  ("icrman  papers  have  been  laying  emphasis  recently 
t)n  the  i)art  which  (iermauy  was  taking  in  the  Mesopo- 
tamian  operations,  but  there  is  a  great  deal  of  difference 
between  officially  authorised  statements  in  (ierman 
newspapers  and  real  facts.  The  Turkish  army  officered 
by  Turks  is  able  to  conduct  only  one  kind  of  opcraticm 
well,  which  is  to  stand  a  siege  or  .hold  a  fortified  line. 
The  siege  of  Plevna  is  a  proof  both  of  what  the  Turks 
with  very  few  European,  officers  can  do,  and  of  what 
they  cannot  do.  There  ought  never  to  have  been  a  siege 
of  Plevna,  as  the  Turkish  army  ought  to  have  retired  at 
the  proper  moment. 

Now  compare  the  progress  of  the  operations  on  the 
Tigris.  The  Turks  were  able  to  put  up  a  \ery  strong 
resistance  at  the  lines  which  had  been  prepared,  but 
they  did  not  -know  when  to  retire  and  how  to  retire. 
1  hey  held  on  until  it  was  too  late,  and  there  was  aft 
alternative  presented  to  them  of  a  hurried  retirement  or 
enduring  a  siege. ,  It  seems  quite  evident  that  the 
retirement  was  so  conducted  as  to  degenerate  into 
night,  during  which  all  order  was  lost  and  the  army  be- 
came a  Heeing  mob.  This  is  exactly  what  tak';s  ])lace 
when  the  officers  are  unfit  to  control  and  lead  their 
men.  A  Turkish  army  officered  by  Europeans  may  be 
made  into  one  of  the  best,  but  a  Turkish  army  officered 
by  Turks  can  never  become  a  trustworthy  force. 

In  the  Crimean  war  the  Turks  were  a  laughing-stock, 
excej>t  at  Kars,  where  the  personality  of  General  W'riliams. 
almost  unaided,  enabled  a  small  gairison  to  hold  out 
a^ain.st  strong  Russian  forces  in  a  way  that  remains 
memorable  in  history.  In  the  last  Russian  war,  the 
siege  of  Plevna,  while  memorable  for  its  obstinate 
resistance,  only  proves  how  ignorant  and  incapable 
the  supreme  command  was.  Osman,  in  spite  of  his 
proud  title,  (ihazi  (the  ("oncjueror),  was  a  typical  and 
stupid  Turk,  singularly  corrupt  in  respect  of  bribes, 
but  able  to  sit  still  and  maintain  resistance  to  the  last  ; 
and  thus  he  deliVered  o\'er  the  one  great  arniy  which 
the  Turks  still  possessed  into  the  hands  of  the  Russians. 
But  it  is  not  merely  generals  that  the  Turks  want.  What 
they  need  even  more  is  officers  of  every  rank.  They 
cannot  supply  men  who  have  at  once  education  and  the 
will  to  work  hard  :  they  cannot  learn  the  art  of  modern 
war,  and  they  therefore  are  unable  as  officers  to  direct 
and  use  their  men,  while  they  rarely  possess  the  moral 
jiower  to  control   them. 

.S)  far  as  can  be  judged  from  the  little  that  is  published, 
the  operations  seem  to  pro\e  that  the  (ierman  officers 
had  been  in  very  large  degree  withdrawn.  For  this  two 
reasons  may  suggest  themselves.  Either  the  need  in 
(iermany  was  too  great  and  too  pressing  to  allow  them 
to  maintain  a  sufficient  number  of  officers  with  the  Turk- 
ish army,  or  they  believed  and  hoped  that  the  Turks  had 
been  trained  suthciently  to  be  fit  to  keep  up  the  defence. 


It  is  quite  possible  that  both  reasons  co-operated  in  pro- 
ducing the  result  :  the  Germans  needed  all  their  officers, 
and  they  were  too  ready  to  believe  that  the  Turkish 
army  could  maintain  its  discipline  and  manage  itself 
without  European  officers.  I  have  known  more  than 
one  case  before  the  war  in  which  the  Germans  seemed  to 
believe  more  than  was  safe  in  Turkish  capacity  and 
intellectual  power  and  in  which  they  had  an  unpleasant 
awakening.  In  th6se  older  cases  "they  were  able  to 
change  their  principles  of  action  ;  but  in  war  changes 
are  apt  to  come  too  late.  The  (iermans  seem  to  have 
staked  too  much  on  the  capacity  of  the  Turks,  and  they 
have  lost.  With  this  loss  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  scheme 
of  a  great  Turco-(ierman  army  has  been  wrcciced, 
because  for  such  an  army  European  officers  are  essential. 
The  (iermans  have  tried  the  experiment,  and  the  result 
has  been  ruin.  This  seems  to  me  almost  a  greater 
cause  of  satisfaction  than  any  other  aspect  of  Sir  Stanley 
Maude's  splendid  victory. 

If  the  whole  Arab-speaking  population  sliould  now 
be  disjoined  from  Turkey  by  revolt  against  a  domina- 
tion which  has  been  disliked  for  three  centuries,  the 
racially  Turkish  part  of  the  population  of  the  Empire 
is  too  small  to  furnish  an  army.  Moreover,  it  is  among 
the  Arab-speaking  population  that  there  has  always  been 
superior  intellectual  power,  and  those  who  were  'Turks 
by  race  are  seldom  tit  to  rise  above  the  ranks  of  the  lower 
order  of  non-commissioned  officers,  and  not  often  fit 
even  for  that  humble  rank.  Circassians  have  the  brains 
but  rarely  possess  the  education  that  is  needed  to  make 
officers ;  nor  have  they  ever  been,  as-  a  bodv,  con- 
spicuous for  loyalty  to  the  Turkish  Sultans. 

The  holding  of  Bagdad  not  merely  destroys  the  scheme 
of  a  Bagdad  railway-,  but  also  ruins  for  the  moment,  if 
not  for  ever,  the  army  which  was  to  control  the  country 
and  to  be  a  menace  to  other  nations.  Can  Germany 
send  back  to  Turkey  the  Turkish  forces,  with  their 
German  officers,  who  have  strengthened  their  army  on 
the  Russian  frontier,  and  enabled  her  to  conquer  and 
hold  most  of  Roumania  ?  Or  can  she  supply  officers 
enough  at  this  stage  to  give  cohesion  and  vitaf  power  to 
the  Turkish  army  ?  It  is  difficult  to  think  that  either 
course  is  jwssible  without    bringing  collapse  \cry  near. 

Value  of  the   Mark 

In  L.\Ni)  &  Water  for  February  ist  an  article 
on  the  "  Value  of  the  .Mark"  appeared,  in  which 
attention  was  drawn  to  the  importance  of  exchange 
quotations'  as  indications  of  Germany's,  .increasing 
economic  exhaustion.  It  was  pointed  out  that  the 
lovyest  point  was  reached  about  December  qth,  after 
which,  as  a  result  of  the  Kai!<er's  peace  overtures,  a 
sharp  rise  took  place.  'The  subsequent  'course  of  the 
exchanges  is  indicated  in  the  following  table  : 

Rates  are  for        Denmark  Sweden  Norway  Holland  Switz'ld 

loo  Marks.  Kroner  Kroner  Kroner  riorins  Francs 

Par  of  E.xchange  iSK-8.S  88-88  88-88  59- 26  123-44 

Lowest    point    in)  „ 

December,  1910  (  ^^  54 --25  57-40 

Limit  of  recovery  61-50  57-05         61 

Kates  on  Feb.  i  61 -.40  57- 05  bo- .\o  41  37  84-50 

,.     Mar.  I  58-80  55-15  58-80  40-45  82-15 

..     Mar.  8  55-60          54  54  75  40  02  Si 

,.       ,.    -Mar.  15  56-50  .53-50  55-75  39-20  80 

I'resent  extent  of\  ,0/         -o"'       -^8"/         -^so'        ^6«'^ 
depreciation  about;  -'7,o        40, 0       30  .0        35, o        i»  ,a 

A  careful  study  of  these  figures  leads  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  depreciation  in  the  value  of  the  mark  still  con- 
tinues. The  recovery  in  December  last,  due  to  prospects  of 
an  early  peace,  lasted  to  about  the.  beginning  of  February. 
Since  then  there  has  been  a  steady  decline  which  the 
confidence  of  some  neutrals  in  the  German  submarine 
blockade  has  not,  apparently,  been  able  to  counteract. 
The  first  half  of  March  has  seen  a  still  more  rapid  fall, 
with  the  result  that  in  the  three  Scandinavian  countries 
the  current  value  of  the  mark  is  even  lu'low  the  lowest 
]X)int  formerly  reached. 


A 


38 -8^        79 
42-45      84-65 


xM. 


I  H- 1 L 


tM.y 


LAINU    &     WATER 


ir 


War-Time  Expenditure 


By   T.    H.  Pensoii 


EVERYONE  is  by  now  fully  awake  to  the  fact 
that  under  present  circumstances  it  is  a  duty 
to  curtail  expenditure  in  various  specified  direc- 
tions, and  that  in  the  near  future  it  may  be 
necessary  to  do  without  some  things  altogether.  The 
reasons  for  such  self-denial  are  evident.  We  are  largely 
dependent  on  external  supplies,  and  these  are  at  the 
present  time  very  much  restricted.  In  the  ordinary 
way  our  expenditure  is  limited  onlj'  by  our  income  ; 
now  other  conditions  prevail,  and  it  may  not  be  unpro- 
fitable to  look  into  the  question  of  wartime  expenditure 
and  to  see  how  the  way  in  which  we  dispose  of  our  income 
is  affected  by  the  mere  fact  that  the  nation  is  at  war. 

The  Economic  Position 

Of  the  many  changes  in  the  national  life  brought  about 
ny  the  outbreak  of  war,  none  perhaps  are  so  generallj- 
felt,  and  yet  so  vaguely  understood,  as  those  which 
affect' the  economic  well-being  of  the  community.  In 
this  country  the  economic  changes  of  the  last  2|  years 
have  taken  place  slowly  and  without  violent  upheaval  of 
any  kind.  This  may  be  assigned  to  two  main  causes  : 
(i)  The  tvay  our  armies  were  recruited  ;  (2)  the  work  of 
the  na\'y  in  keeping  open  the  seas. 

The  continuance  for  a  long  time  of  the  voluntary  system 
meant  that  the  withdrawal  of  labour  from  our  industries 
was  very  gradual,  and  when  compulsory  service  was  at , 
length  introduced,  it  was  httlcmore  than  an  acceleration 
of  a  movement  that  had  been  going  on  for  some  consider- 
able time.  The  navy  on  the  other  hand  enabled  us  to 
maintain  our  overseas  trade  and  to  secure  from  abroad 
our  regular  supplies  of  raw  material  and  food. 

The-  present"  state  of  things,  however,  is  very  different- 
from  that  which  prevailed  prior  to  the  events  of  August 
1914.  The  cumulative  result  of  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  since  then  may  be  briefly  summarised  thus  : 

Large  numbers  of  men  have  been  withdrawn  for  military 
service  from  our  industries,  trades  and  professions. 
Large  numbers  of  men  and  women  are  in  Government 
service,  or  at  any  rate  employed  on  what  is    generally 
known  as  "  war  work." 

Women  are  in  many  -cases  engaged  in  work,  both  in- 
tellectual and  j>liysical,  formerly  done  by  men. 
The  National  Debt  has  increased  enormously  and 
accumulated  wealth  has  been  greatly  diminished. 
Business  incomes  and  salaries  have  not  for  the  inost 
]3art  suffered,  bui  the  Stale  has  to  a  faf  greater  extent  than 
before  become  the  general  paymaster — the  source  0/  income 
"  earned."  as  wcjl  as  "unearned." 

The  withdrawal  of  ships  for  war  purposes  and  maritime 
losses  due  to  submarine  attacks  have  diminished  the 
amount  of  transport  available,  so  thait  many  commodities 
are  relatively  scarce  and  dear. 

All  this  points  to  the  fact  that  we  are  living  under 
entirely  new  conditions,  and  the  question  is,  are  we  as  a 
nation  and  as  individuals  adapting  ourselves  to  them, 
and  cutting  our  coats  according  to  our  cloth  ?  It  is 
hardly  possible  to  realize  the  inner  meaning  of  the  changes 
that  have  taken  place,  or  to  understand  why  and  how 
these  changes  should  affect  the  question  of  domestic 
expenditure,  without  some  clear  imderstanding  of  the 
economic  organisation  of  society  as  a  whole.  I'he  subject 
is  of  practical  importance  to  every  member  of  the  com- 
munity who  is  striving  to  co-operate  intelligently  with  • 
the  (lovernment  in  its  great  work  of  directing  all  the 
national  resources  towards  the  one  goal — the  bringing  of 
the  war  to  a  speedy  and  victorious 'conclusion. 

Economic  Life  in  General 

Under  modern  conditions  the  satisfaction  of  human 
needs  is  a  very  complicated  process.  It  may  be  said  to 
consist  of  two  parts  : 

(i)  The  spending  of  one's  income  in  order  to  olitain  that 
which  is  desired,  wliicli  from  the  consumer's  ]'>oint  of  view, 
seems  to  depend  only  on  wliether  he  can  afford  to  buy 
Vvhat  is  offered  for  sale. 


(2)  The   various  stages   of   production   necessary   before 
■  the  goods  get  into  the  hands  of  the  retail  trader. 

It  is  with  the  former  part  only  that,  as  consumers,  we 
come  into  immediate  contact.  We  take  the  latter  for 
granted.  Its  operations  are  to  a  certain  extent  hidden 
from  us  and  therefore  not  altogether  realized,  but  it  is 
important  not  jto  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  though 
unseen  and  possibly  imheeded  it  is  really  controlling  and 
regulating  that  part  of  the  process  which  lies  more  upon 
the  surface.  A  concrete  example  will  serve  to  illustrate 
the  point  :  "  A  "  is  in  need  of  a  new  overcoat  which  he 
feels  he  can  well  afford.  He  goes  to- the  tailor's  and  buys 
one  ready  made.  The  satisfaction  of  his  want  appears  to 
depend  on  a  suitable  garment  being  in  stock.  The  coat 
is  there  and  he  buys  it,  but  behind  this  very  simple 
transaction  there  is  quite  a  long  history  of  forethought 
and  effort  on  the  part  of  sheep  farmers,  shipping  com- 
panies, merchants,  spinners,  weavers  and  dyers,  all  of 
whom  had  a  share  in  producing  the  necessary  cloth. 
Skilled  workmen,  too,  are  needed  for  the  actual  making 
of  the  garment,  and  this  in\-olves  years  of  training  and 
experience. 

The  illustration  is  a  very  simple  and  a  very  homely 
one,  but  it  serves  to  bring  out  the  di.f.tinction  referred 
to.  .  On  the  one  hand,  there  is  the  individual  concerned 
with  getting  his  wants  supplied,  and  in  making  his  income 
go  as  far  as  it  will.  His  purchases  are,  to  a  large  extent 
regulated  by  his  standard  of  living.  Certain  things  have 
through  habit  come  to  form  part  of  what  he  considers 
necessary  or  normal  expenditure, 'and  so  long  as  his  income 
is  adequate  and  the  various  objects  of  desire  are  still 
being  offered  for  sale,  it  dods  not  occur  to  him  to  live 
differently  from  what'he  has  been  accustomed  to. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  the  numberless  persons 
whose  unconscious  co-operation  has  resulted  in  the  shops 
being  supplied  with  goods  to  suit  the  different  classes  of 
buyers.  There  is  the  foresight,  the  enterprise,  the 
prudence  which  made  such,  supplies  possible.  The  goods 
arc  offered  for  sale,  but  what  was  their  past  history  ? 
Were  they  produced  at  home  or  were  they  imported  ?  If 
they  were  imported,  what  was  given  in  exchange  for  them  '! 
Was  their  production  an  advantage  or  disadvantage  to 
the  community  as  a  whole  ?  Did  their  transport  require 
shipping  and  labour  that  could  better  have  been  devoted 
to  other  purposes  ?  These  are  questions  which  in  wartime 
assume  a  .special  importance,  and  the  answers  to  them 
throw  a  good  deal  of  light  on  what  may  be  called  the 
ethics  of  wartime  expe'nditure. 

On  the  outbreak  of  war  everyone  was  told  that  "  busi- 
ness as  usual  "  was  the  only  motto  for  patriotic  people. 
Later  on  various  forms  of  expenditure  were  publicly 
denounced,  and  it  was  everywhere  proclaimed,  to  give  a 
single  instance,  that  to  dress  extravagantly  was  un- 
])atriotic.  The  platform,  the  stage,  and  the  press  were 
all  used  to  advocate  economy  and  retrenchment  ;  and 
quite  recently  it  has  been  made  a  point  of  honour  not 
to  consiime  more  than  a  regulated  quantity  of  certain 
articles  of  food.  It  is  evident  that  there  has  been  a 
considerable  change  in  the  attitude  of  the  Government 
towards  this  question  of  expenditure. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  an  abrupt  change  of  one's 
manner  of  living  was  likelj'  to  cause  more  harm  to 
the  industrial  and  trading  community  than  woidd  be 
compensated  for  by  the  saving  effected,  but  with  the 
progress  of  time,  trade  and  industry  have  adapted  them- 
selves to  war  conditions,  and  at  the  present  time  the 
imperative  duty  is  to  moderate  one's  desires,  to  eschew 
luxuries,  to  cut  down  superfluous  expenditure.  This  is 
jjortly  accounted  for  by  the  Government's  need  of  money 
and  a  consequent  necessity  to  save  and  lend,  and  also  by 
•the  difiiculty  of  getting  from  abroad  our  usual  supplies 
of  food  and  other  articles.  These,  however,  are  special 
reasons  for  economy  under  the  present  peculiar  circum- 
stances, and  not  the  general  economic  cause  for  the 
phenomenon  that  in  time  of  te>ar  expenditure  must  be 
controlled  by  other  forces  than  those  u'hich  operate  in 
time  of  peace.     In  order  to  see  this  quite  clearly  it  is 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


March 


1917 


well  to  keep  in  (he  mind'?;  eyo  tlTo  bare  outline  of  the 
economic  strncliire. 

As  economic  society  is  at  ])resent  conslilMtcd  no 
individual  is  in  a  jxisition  to  supi)ly  all  his  iiwa  wants 
(.lirectly.  Everyfin*-  rtnideis  some  service  for  which  others 
arc  wiilinf;  to  pav,  and  thus  obtains  an  income  by  means 
of  which  indirectly  the  daily  wants  are  satisfied  ;  but 
these  things  which  satisfy  the  daily  wants  are  themselves 
the  embodiment  of  the  services  of  others.  Hence 
economic  life  is  ;i  constant  exchanf<e  and  interchange  of 
services,  and  the  various  members  of  society  may  be 
regarded  as  contribiitinii  their  services  to  a  great  fund. 


PEACE 


Aatotini' avcula3ie  /or' 

prtwifs  consumpfton^ 


<^^ Amoimf' pnxkiced -^- 


WATL 


B 


fbrprivatB  can — 
SumpfiorL 


> Amatuit'-  -  ■^  -produced — *■ 

0  a  e 


IjccBSSiye: 

pin-aCe^ 
lexpeaditiice 


AmoufttaKulaile 
£brprTvaf^e  Cisvz— 
sumptton. 


K- Aaiount'-    --r-produced- 


eacli  contriluition  luuing  a  \-alue  assigned  to  it  and 
each  contributor  iH'ing  entitled  to  draw  from  that  fund 
scr\iccs    of   etpial  '  value    contributed    by    others. 

Generally  s\)eaking,  the  income  of  an  indixndual  is 
equivalent  in  terms  of  money  to  his  contribulion  to  this 
fund  of  services  :  his  exiiendftiue  is  the  total  amoimt  he 
withdraws  from  it.  I'nder  normal  conditions  it  is 
c\idt*nt  that  more  cannot  be  taken  out  than  is  put  in,  in 
other  words  that  expenditure  cannot  exceed  income. 
The  exact  form  of  service  that  each  demands  depends  on 
individual  titstcs  and  habits.  Some  i)eople  spend  all 
their  income  on  food,  clothing,  shelter,  education  or  enjoy- 
ment ;  others  spend  f)nly  a  portion  of  their  income  in 
this  way,  obtaining  with  the  remainder  such  things  as  ^ 
machines  or  raw  materials  which  in  course  of  time  will 
lead  to  an  increase  in  the  amount  of  service  rendered 
and  a  conse{|uent  increase  of  income  or  claim  to  future 
withdrawal  from  the  fund.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
indixidual  cannot  withdraw  from  the  fund  more  than 
he  puts  into  it.  It  is  hardly  nqcessary  to  say  that  the 
total  amount  withdrawn  by  the  whole  community  cannot 
exceed  the  total  amount  put  into  it,  or  in  other  words 
that  what  the  community  consumes  cannot  exceed  what 
the  conunuuitv  i)roduces  imless,  of  com-se,  the  nation, 
as  it  has^^to  du  in  time  of  war,  spends  more  than  its  income, 
a  state  "of  things  which  involves  the  consumption  or 
using  up  of  its  accumulated  wealth. 

Ihis  is  a  very  brief  and  very  imperfect  sketch  of  the 
economic  structure  of  any  commimity,  whether  in  a  state 
of  peace,  fir  in  a  state  of  war.  It  now  becomes  necessary 
to  point  out  the  special  features  which  in  wartime*  force 
themselves  upon  our  attention.  No  mention  has  yet 
been  made  of  tkc  fact  that  the  State  lays  cl^xim  to  some 
part  of  the  great  fund  of  service  referred  to  abo\e.  In 
time  of  peace  this  forms,  especially  in  recent  times,  a 
somewhat  considerable  deduction  from  the  amount 
available  for  the  general  expenditure  of  jJie  community, 
but  in  time  of  war  this  is  enormously  increased.  Instead 
rif  helping  to  make  the  various  commodities  needed  for 
general  consumi)tion,  many  millions  are  serving  in  the 
army  or  navy  ;  many  millions  more,  both  of  mon  and 
women,  are  engaged  in  supplying  the  needs  of  those  so 
serving.    The  ser\ice  of  all  these  taken  together  may  be 


described  as'  National  defence. 

The  three  diagrams  whi<li  are  published  on  this 
page  will  show  X\\\>  difference  more  dearly.  Diagram 
"  A  "  repri'sents  the  amount  axailablc  for  consump- 
tion in  time  of  peace ;  diagrams  "  B "  and  "  C  " 
in  time  of  war.  It  is  assumed  that  the  total  amotint 
])roducctl  a,  b,  c,  d,  is  the  same  in  both  cases,  but  in 
peace  the  amount  withdrawn  for  piuposes  of  the  Slate, 
e,  b,  c,  f.  is  much  sinallcr  than  it  is  in  war,  and  conse- 
fjuently  the  amount  axailable  for  satisfj'ing  the  needs  of 
the  community,  a,  e,  f,  d,  is  much  greater  in  the  former 
case  than  in  the  latter.  It  thus  becomes  evident  that 
whereas  there  is  the  same  number  of  jjeople  to  be  fed, 
clothed,  housed,  etc.,  and  (if  incomes  are  on  an  average 
tmdiminished)  the  same  cap.'tciiy  of  buying,  the  amount 
that  is  available  fur  consumption  is  enormously  reduced. 
If,  then,  people  maintain  their  former  rate  of  expenditure 
what  they  buy  must  be  coming  from  outside  the  country 
for  which  no  equivalent  can  be  given  in  exchange.  This 
excessi\e  import,  therefore,  must  be  paid  for  out  of 
accunnilatcd  wealth,  and  the  country,  in  addition  to  bciiij^ 
impoverished  kv  the  enormous  icar  expenditure  necessitated, 
is  also  being  impoverished  by  the  personal  expenditure  of 
those  members  of  the  community  n'ho  have  failed  to  grasp 
the  realities  of  the  economic  situation. 

In  diagram  C  the  part  g,  a,  d,  h,  represents  this  excess 
of  consumjition  o\er  production.  ; 

Need  for  Greater  Kconomy 

To  these  general  considerations  which  must  always 
affect  expenditure  in  time  of  war  must  now  be  added 
those  more  special  considerations  already  referred  to 
which  affect  our  OAvn  country  at  this  jiarticular  time. 
We  are  dependent  to  a  very  large  extent  on  our  Dominions 
and  on  foreign  countries  for  supplies  of  fo(jd  and  raw 
material  for  both  civil  and  military  purposes.  The 
regular  supply  of  these  depends  on  shipi)ing,  and  the 
amount  of  shipping  a\ailablc  has  been  \ery  nuich  ri'duced 
.  by  military  and  naval  requirements  and  by  submarine 
perils.  Besides  this,  the  fmancial  position  of  the  country, 
both  now  and  after  the  war,  is  a  very  serious  concern  to 
every  member  of  the  community.  \Ve  have  a  war 
exjx'nditure  of  about  six  millions  a  day,  and'  this  is 
being  largely  met,  not  out  of  income,  but  out  of  ca])ital. 
It  is  the  duty  of  everyone  to  try  and  replace  tl.e  capital 
which  is  being  consumed,  which  can  only  be  done  by 
the  strictest  personal  economy.  Our  industrial  position 
afterthe  war  depends  very  largely  on  the  capital  available 
to  support  industrial  and  commercial  enterprises.  Capital 
can  only  be  increased  by  sa\ing,  anil  saving  imi>lies  a 
conscious  refraining  from  imnecessavy  ex^xnditure. 
The  situation  then  is  briefly  this  : 

(i)  Govcrni-nont  purposes  absorb  so  much  of  tlio  labour 
]X)wer  and  of  the  production  of  (he  country,  that  a  corres- 
jionding  reduction  in  tlie  amount  (inlinarily  Consiuned 
jjccomes  imperative. 

(2)  That  the  diminisliod  amount  whicli  is  available  for 
consumptioii  has  to  serve  two  .jjurposcs  : 

(a)  —it  must  supply  home  needs. 

(1>) — It  must  pay  for  our  imports. 
If  we  do  not  cut  down  luxuries  we  cannot  pay  for  imported 
necessaries. 

(j)  Any  future  war  loan  that  ntay  lie  needed  and  capital 
for  future  enterprises  de|XMid  on  i)resent  saving. 
(4)  Shortage' of  food  is  general  and  the  amount  available 
for  consumption  in  this  country  is  restricted  by  shipping 
and  other  difticulties. 

Surely  no  further  arginnent  is  needed  to  show  that 
jxitriotism,  duty  and  self-interest  alike  demand  a  most 
careful  consideration  of  this  problem. 

Self-restraint  and  self-denial  are  the  necessary  con- 
ditions of  wartime  expenditure.  When  so  much  less 
-labour  is  available  for  civilian  needs,  it  is  evident  that 
it  must  be  devoted  to  producing  t'ither  the  things  which 
are  most  urgently  needed,  or  things  which  can  b;  exported 
to.  pay  for  the  imports  we  cannot  do  without.  It  is 
necessary,  therefore,  not  only  to  spend  less,  btit  to  spend 
wisely,  and  to  take  into  consideration  the  essential  fact 
that  the  spending  ponder  of  the  individual  is  in  very  many 
cases  greater  than  the  productive  capacity  of  the  community 
to  supply  his  leants,  and  that  it  is  only  by  cutting  down 
and  regulating  expenditure  thai  the  difficulties  of  the  situa- 
tion can  l)e  overcome. 


Maicli 


191:7 


Russia  in  Revolution 

By   C.    Hagberg   Wright 


U 


AT  last!  Russia  is  in  revomhon,  and  the  Colossus 
/\  of  thc^  Russian  State  has  fallen  !  One  wants  to 
/  \  shout  Vive  la  Nalion !  -Most  of  us  Englishmen 
-  _/  A_werc  surprised,  ^\'e  knew  that  all  was  not 
peaceful  in  Russia.  We  knew  that  new  forees  were  at 
work  there,  that  the  J^ussian  people  had  outgrown  the 
structme  of  their  State.  Ever  since  the  Japanese  war, 
\\e  hatl  heard  that  Russia  was  reorganising  herself.  W'c 
looked,  however,  for  gradual  development.  We  hoped 
against  hope  that  the  established  order  would  adapt 
itself  to  the  new  vital  facts,  would  be  slowly  plastic  to 
Russia's  awakened  soul.  Events  have  contradicted 
our  thoughts.  Russia  is  indeed  changing,  but  change 
has  taken  the  sho.rt  and  rugged  road  of  Revolution. 
Russia  is  alive,  but  the' old  order  is  dead— at  least,  it  is  in 
ruins. 

\\  Jiat  brought  about  the  Revolution  ?  Was  '  it  a 
deliberately  calculated  affair,  or  an  accident  ?  Frankly, 
we  have  hot  .  the  means  6f  saying.  We  may,  how- 
ever, say  with  some  certainty  that  it  was  not  an  acci- 
dental result  of  food-riots  in  Petrograd.  At  the  most, 
these  were  the  occasion,  not  the  cause.  The  suspension 
of  tlie  Duma  was  a  cardinal  fact,  and  the  Duma's  decision 
to  continue  in  session  was  the  turning-point  ;  but  the 
Duma  did  not  make  the  revohition— it  did  not  play  the 
part  which  the  English  Parliament  played  in  the  reign 
"    of  Charles  I. 

In  Russia  itself,  the  Revohition,  although  it  caHie 
unexpectedly,  had  been  foreseen.  Crown  and  nation 
had  drifted  apart.  In  the  nation,  a  new  intelligence 
was  vigilant  and  critical,  new  energies  were  seeking  nev\- 
opportunities,  new .  thoughts  were  defming  new  hopes 
and  reaching  out  towards  new  policies.  The  C)ld  Order, 
so  far  from  adapting  itself  to  this  ne\v  life,  hardened 
itself  and  impenitentlj?  preferred  the  old  ways.  Looking 
ahead,  men  foresaw  rupture,  but  they  knew  not  when  or 
how  it  would  happen.  The  "  days  of  March  "  in  Petro- 
grad were  the  focus  of  apeoplc's  di"Scontent.  ^\'ere  they 
an  accidental  '  focus  ?  Probably — the  enigmatic  figure 
of  JI.  Protopopoff  makes  one  hesitate  to  say  more. 

German   Influence 

Against  what  was  the  Revolution  directed  ?  Accounts 
in  the  English  papers  suggest  that  it  was  largely  anti- 
German — a  rising  of  the  Russian  people  against  alien 
forces  which,  in  a  himdred  subterranean  ways,  perverted,' 
obstructed,  hindered  its  victorious  self-assertion  in  the 
war.  On  the  other  hand.'it  has  been  said  by  credible 
f  men  that  there  is  no  German  Party  in  Russia,  but  a  very 
strong  "  every-man-for-himsclf "  Party.  A  political 
system  which  is  no  longer,  living,  which  no  longer  has  a 
moral  purpose,  and  no  longer  consciously  expresses  a 
))rinciple.  is  a  shelter  for  many  adventurers  and  finds  its 
most  apt  instruments  in  men  who — to  use  the  seventeenth 
century  term — are  entirely  "  self-ended."  It  is  not 
inconceivable  that  the  plainly  apparent  bias  towards 
Germany  was  brought  about,  not  of  sympathy',  but  by 
private  interests  which  were  not  over-scrupulous. 

Whatever  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  bias,  it  was 
there,  and  it  undoubtedly  obstructed  the  war.  Moreover 
the  existence  of  this  spirit  immediately  affected  the  minds 
of  leaders  as  well  as  soldiers  in  the  Russian  Army.  For 
some"  time^past  the  spokesmen  of  Russia's  new  life  have 
felt  themselves  beset  by  adverse  agencies  which  they 
could  neither  discern  nor  name. 

Has  the  Revolution  succeeded  ?  Up  to  the  present, 
•  yes — remarkably.  But  will  the  success  be  permanent  ? 
For  the  moment,  Germanism  is  overthrown  and  Russia 
is  in  the  saddle.  But  are  the  forces  which  made  the 
Revolution  really  at  one  with  each  other  ?  Is  Pro- 
gn^ssive  Russia  united  ?  That  is  the  critical  question, 
and  Tinfortunately,  tliere  is  room  for  doubt.    . 

The  nt'w  Russian  Government  is  a  Liberal  Govern- 
ment. Now,  in  Russia,  Liberalism  is  a  faithdf  educated 
men,  but  it  has  not  yet  .striick  its  roots  into  tlie  great 
mass  of  the  Russian  people.  Popular  Progressive  forces 
in  Russia  have  been  shaped  by  thoughts  and  are  im- 


passioned by  aspirations  which  are  well-nigh  as  hostile  to 
Liberalism  as  to  Autocracy. 

Social    Democracy 

Social  Democracy  has  a  strong  liold  upon  urban  workmg- 
men — especially  u]X)n  those  of  Petrograd.  Its  Utopia  has 
become  their  Fatherland  and  has  drawn  •  out  towards 
itself  that  emotional  idealism  which  is  a ,  destructive 
note  of  the  Russian  character.  The  Social  Democrats 
are,  if  not  the  weak  spot,  the  doubtful  spot  in  the 
Revolution.  In  the  first  place,  their  thoughts  are  centred, 
not  on  a  political  revolution,  but  on  a  social  revolution. 
They  hold  their  sectarian  faith  with  native  enthusiasm. 
Impelled  by  both,  they  may  \\ish  to  do  too  much,  and 
their  haste  may  bring  about  discord  and  lead  to  dis- 
ruption. A  split  in  the  Progressive  forces  would  be  a 
grave  embarrassment  for  the  new  Government,  would 
distract  it  from  the  war.  and  might  easily  become  fatal. 
In  the  second  place,  tlu'ir  creed  engenders  dreams- 
dreams  of  a  pacific  international  Solidarity  of  the  pro- 
letariat— and  these  dreams  are  inconsistent  witli  strong 
national  self-assertion  in  war.  Alread\^  the  Russian 
Social  Democrats  in  London  are  separating  themselves 
from  their  fellow-countrymen  here,  and  are  preparing  to 
cry  aloud  for  the  social  revolution  and  immediate  peace. 

One  does  not  suppose  that  the  Social  Democrats  will 
become  masters  of  the  revolution,  or  that  they  will  be 
able  to  overthrow  it  by  another  revolution,  but  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  they  may  give  much  trouble  to  a  Govern- 
ment which  already  finds  its  position  less  secure. 

The  real  danger  is  this  :  reactionary  forces  may 
secretly  join  hands  with  socialist  enthusiasm.  Reaction 
will  not  take  the  field  openly  against  the  revolution,  but 
it'  is  quite  equal  to  using  the  social  democrats  as  tools. 
It  has  had  much  experience  in  such  matters,  and  no 
scruple  would  withhold  it  froni  j:)laying  the  part  of  agcnt- 
provocateur.  1  It  would  be  quite  willing  to  bring  about 
another  smash  by  means  of  its  bitterest  enemies.  The 
Social  Democrats  would  not  knowingly  lend  themselves 
to  an}'  such  plan,  but  they  would  not  be  able  to  recognise 
-the  hands  that  used  them  or  to  discern  the  policy  ^hich 
moved  those  hands.  I  do  not  say  that  this  will  happen, 
but  almost  anything  is  possible  in  Russia,  and  placards 
on  tl^;  walls  of  Petrograd  show  that  reaction  is  already  ' 
at  work.  It  cannot  hope  to  accomplish  anything  by 
itself :  therefore  it  must  be  trying  to  make  others  its 
tools.  It  dare  not  strike  openly  :  therefore  it  must  be 
working  subterraneously. 

Two  facts,  widely  different  from  each  other,  should 
be  borne  in  mind  :  (i)  The  relaxation  of  military  discipline 
by  the  Revolution  will  make  it  comparatively  easy  for 
emissaries  of  reaction  or  Social  Democracy  to  disturb 
the  minds  of  the  soldiers  ;  (2)  Russians  are  essentially 
an  impulsive  people.  They  fly  from  one  extreme  to 
another  and  cannot  endure  the  middle  way.  Some- 
times this  national  characteristic  moves  men  to  splendid 
acts  of  self-sacrifice,  but  it  can  also  induce  a  quick  re- 
pentance. At  the  present  moment  this  instability  of 
temperament  is  a  danger. 

I  am  not  predicting  trouble  or  failure  ;  I  am  merely 
giving  warning.  Noble  words,  written  months  ago  by 
Russia's  new  Prime  Minister  come  back  to  me  : 

"  The  morning   is   breaking  ;     sunlight   gleams   on   the 

bayonets  of  my  gallant  warriors  ;    the  sun  looks  in  at 

the  window  of  their  homes." 

Let  us  hope  that  those  words  are  true  to-day.  Happily, 

in  the  writer  of  those  words — Prince  Lvov — new  Russia 

has  a  man  who  is  not  unequal  to  great  things.     His 

patriotism  cannot  be  doubted,   and  his  administrative 

ability   has   been  abundantly   shown   in   many   ^vays — 

recently  and  notably  in   the  magnificent  work  for  the 

Russian  armies  whicli  the  Union  of  Zemstvos  organisi^d 

and  carried  out  under  his  guidance.     All  men  trust  hhii 

and,  if  any  man  in  Russia  may  be  called  "  the  Man  of 

the  Moment  "-^Hie  man  for  the  ihoment — he  is  the  man. 

His  position  at  the  head  of  the  Government  is  the  stroneest 


If 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  2i,  1917 


.'>surancc  that  could' be  given  of  thf  thorouglUy  national 
imrjwsc  beliind  the  revolution,  and  the  sanity  of  the 
counsels  that  direct  it. 

It  nuist  not  be  forgotten  that  no  power  but  that  of  a 
forcibly  dogmatic  creed  could  have  held  so  vast  an 
l-nipire  in  the  bonds  either  of  spiritual  or  of  national 
unity.  From  the  earliest  times  the  Greek  Church  in 
Russia  has  united  with  the  State^  in  the  task  of  govern- 
ment, and  has  supported  autocracy  while  engaged  in 
maintaining  its  own  influence.  It  is  also  worthy  of 
noting  that  when  the  State  grew  alarmed  by  the  power 
and  riches  of  the  Church  and  sought  to  humiliate  and 
< xH'rce  the  Patriarch,  the  loyalty  of  the  people  to  their 
spiritual  rulers  remained  unshaken.  The  Church  in 
Russia  has  to  be  reckoned  with.  In  spite  of  modern 
scepticisms  and  the  growth  of  many  sects,  the  Orthodox 
faith  not  only  still  rules  and  colours  the  ceremonials  of 
Russian  public  life,  but  it  enters  into  every  detail  of  his 
home  and  the  daily  life  of  the  individual.  How  far  the 
church  is  prepared  to  throw  in  its  lot  on  the  side  of  reform 


and  progress  is  a  question  of  considerable  moment,  and 
one  on  which  we  have  little  information,  and  to  which 
we  have  paid  little  heed.  The  Liberals  cannot  and  no 
doubt  will  not  ignore  it  ;  but  wisdom  arid  tact  are  im- 
pcrati\'e.  With  the  Church  on  their  side,  the  victory 
would  indeed  be  won. 

The  Russian  people  is  with  us  heart  and  soul.  At  the 
moment  when  they  are  bravely  uplifting  themselves  to 
large  possibilities  for  the  sake  of  Russia's  cause  and  ours, 
should  not  some  strong  words  of  confidence  and  liope  be 
sent  to  them  from  us — the  jx-ople  of  Great  Britain. 


.\'(U/  week  u>e  shall  publish  a  further  arliclc  'on  the 
Russian  situation  bv  Mr.  I.  ShkLovsky,  London  corre- 
spondent of  the  well-known  Moscoiv  Liberal  journal 
"  Russkiya  Vedomosti."  Mr.  Shklovsky  is  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  leaders  of  the  new  movement  and  has 
exceptional  knuwlediie  of  its  causes  and  characteristics. 

He  is  also  the  author  of  sarral  Iwoks  on  England  pub 
lished  in  Russian,  and  also  a  recent  work  on  Siberia. 


A   Village   in   Northern   France 

By   An   Officer 


A  BROKEN  road  by  which  men  and  guns  and 
transport  journey  to  the  trenches  ;  li  broken 
\  illage  where  houses  arc  in  ruins  or  half 
ruined,  where  the  rats  run  and  the  birds. 
Hit  at  ease,  where  the  inhabitants  lurk  hke  dogs 
amid  ruins  or  underneath  them  ;  a  great  broken 
church,  a  shell,  a  pitiful  husk  whose  tower,  landmark 
for  miles  around,  is  only  spared  because  the  (jcrman 
gunners  find  it  useful  as  a  range-Hnder.  And  a  raihyay 
station,  decayed,  grass-grown,  decorated  with  melanclioly 
advertisements  and  a  melancholy  name-board  still 
beckoning  to  the  traxcller  who  never  comes.  The  re^ils 
are  rusted,  the  sleepers  mildewed. 

Take  a  walk  through  this  half-ruined  \illagc 
which  is  barely  a  mile  from  the  firing  line.  The 
first  impression  is  of  a  newly-built  place — say,  a 
\illage  in  our  Black  Country — consisting  of  a  good  deal 
of  red-brick  and  white  plaster  that  has  been  ravished  by 
(ire.  Unlike  some  ruins,  there  is  nothing  beautiful  about 
this  one.  It  is  degraded  and  degrading  like  the  mud 
of  the  road  or.  the  waste  tract  around  it,  or  even  the 
landscape  itself,  flat,  featureless,  uninspiring.  Even  the 
church  is  of  a  piece  with  this  mediocrity,  modern,  red- 
brick, gaunt  and  ugly.  Beauty  does  not  flourish  in  these 
parts  of  I'rance. 

Opposite  the  railway  station  there  is  a  dilapidated 
csiaminet.  Enter  it  and  you  will  find  two  ground-floor 
rooms  opening  one  into  the  other,  with  compartment-like 
walls  from  which  the  greenish  paint  and  plaster  are 
rajndly  i)eeling.  In  one  room  the  floor  is  of  brick  tiles — 
it  has  e\idently  been  the  cafe,  for  there  is  also  a  kind  of 
bar  counter  ;  most  of  the  panes  are  missing  from  the 
window — as  indeed  from  all  the  windows  of  the  house — 
and  one  or  two  are  stopped  up  with  brown  paper ._  The 
adjoining  room  has  been  a  kind  of  parlour,  a  faded 
lithograph  or  two  hangs  on  the  w  all  ;  on  the  wooden  floor 
there  is  no  carpet  but  a  table  and  one  or  two  dilapidated 
chairs.  A  stove  is  also  there.  Botii  rooms  are  lilthy, 
thick  with  dirt  and  unbrushed  ;  they  stink  of  drv  mt 
or  wet  rot,  hard  to  say  which. 

In  one  of  these  two  rooms  you  will  infallibly  iiarL 
certain  strange  beings — a  stout,  frowsy,  elderly  woman, 
pale  of  complexion  and  dark  as  to  hair,  waddling 
about  in  heelless  slippers,  looking  for  all  the  world 
like  a  Bloomsbury  Square  lodging-house  keejJer  ; 
else  a  man,  long,  lean,  dirty,  middle-aged,  and  furtiM', 
sitting  vacantly  at  the  table  or  occupying  himself  with 
some  ill-delined  menial  occupation.  Always  these  two 
arc  lurking  there.  And  sometimes — about  the  middle  of 
the  morning — or  in  the  e\(ning — you  will  tind  a  grou]> 
in  this  room  that  must  lia\e  been  a  cafe ;  a  few  friends  have 
come  in,  slatternly-looking  girls  ami  dwarfed  misshapen 
youths  f)r  haggard  woe-struck  middle-aged  iicople- 
iiot  less  dirty,  frowsy,  wretched-looking  than  the  original 
couple  themselves. 
■Going  upstairij  by  a  dark  narrow  httlc  ^  box  "  stair- 


case you  find  a  kind  of  corridor  from  which  on  either  side 
two  rooms  upon.  It  is  rather  like  a  school  dormitory, 
only  what  dilapidation,  what  s(iualor !  (Balzac  would 
.  have  described  it  well).  In  three  of  the  rooms  are  beds 
— ^.repulsi\c  looking  wooden  beds  with  old  discoloured 
mattress-cases  that  once  were  blue-and-w hite  striped. 
^\'ho  would  dare  lie  there — But  in  France  one  gets  used  to 
^uch  places.  The  window  is  stopped  up  with  pieces  of  tin 
and  paper.  'Jhere  is  one  brqjcen  chair.  On  the  floor 
old  tins  and  boxes  and  pieces  of  newspaper  lie  about 
as  they  must  ha\e  lain  these  many  months,  for  the  room 
is  indescribably  dirty.  The  bedrooms  look  out  upon  the 
muddy  roads  and  away  across  the  muddy  country  into 
nothingness. 

Such  are  regarded  as  good  ofTicers'  billets.  Many 
scores  of  officers  must  have  stayed  there  a  night  or  two 
at  a  time  when  in  Brigade  reserve  and  blessed  their  luck, 
for  at  least  the  place  is  watertight.  You  may  lie  almost 
snugly  in  those  eerie  rooms  at  night,  listening  to  the 
scuffling  of  the  rats  overhead,  hearing  the  clack-clack- 
clack  of  the  Lewis  guns  and  the  vagrant  rifle-shots  a 
mile  away  in  the  trenches  and  thanking  God  you  are  not 
down  there.  From  the  broken  windows  you  may  watch 
the  rise  and  fall  of  the  star-lights  which  form  a  mysterious 
semicircle    against  the  dark  liastern  sky. 

This  is  the  safer  end  of  the  village.  The  Germans  do  not 
often  shell  the  railway  statioii.  The  road — I  have  called 
it  a  broken  road  because  that  is  its  appearance  in  pers- 
pective— leads  on,  muddy  and  greasy,  straight  through 
the  N'illage.  It  is  broad  and  planted  on  either  side  with 
plane-trees.  (What  village  street  in  Northern  F'rance  is 
not  ?)  There  is  a  footpath  between  the  I'oadway  and,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  village,  a  row  of  residential  houses. 
Most  of  these  are  still  occupied  by  their  owners  as  well  as 
by  the  troops  ;  some  of  thein  are  quite  good  houses  and 
comi)aratively  comfortable,  luich  has  a  cellar  which, 
being  the  only  sahation  in  case  of  shelling,  is  sandbagged 
up  outside"  to  prevent  splinters  from  entering.  Behind 
the  houses  are  ^■egetable  gardens  tilled  as  of  yore  by  the 
courageous  souls  who  ha\e  remained.  And  why  do 
they  remain,  these  miscrables  ?  Love  of  home  or  merely 
lack  of  imagination  and  enterprise  ?  It  is  one  of  the  most 
astounding  phenomena  of  the  war,  this  desperate  clinging 
to  their  homes  on-  the  part  of  the  French  peasantry. 
ICven  with  ideas  of  gain,  billeting  money,  sale  of  coffee, 
cigarettes,  chocolate  and  other  small  luxuries  and 
necessities  at  exorbitant  ])rices,  one  would  not  think  a 
life  amid  ruins  \\\i\\  the  li\elv  prospect  of  its  early  forfeit 
would  be  thought  worth  while.  And  many  dwellers  in 
the  village  ha\e  paid  that  forfeit  since  the  w'ar  came. 

Take  a  peep   into  one  of  these  better   houses  after 
dark     ...     An   unlit   hall   leads   to   a  square   room 
lighted  by  candles  and  two  oil  lamps.     A  big  French 
■stove  where  the  liearth  should  be,   a  thick  stuffy  at- 
mosphere reeking  with  tobacco-smoke  and  the  smell    of 
food.     It   is  the  othcers'   mess-room.     There  is  a    fair 


March  22,  IQIJ 


LAND    &     WATER 


i'S 


sized  table  in  the  middle  round  which  four  of  them  are 
seated  at  tlieir  rubber  of  bridge.  Two  ha\-e  whiskej^- 
and-sodas.  Five  young  oih<:ers  are  packed  in  a  neat 
semicircle  round  the  stove,  their  feet  pressed  against 
tlie  grating  ;  all  are  smoking,  some  reading  hooks  t)r 
newspapers,  some- writing  letters  with  a  pad  balanced 
on  the  knee.  EveryANhere  is  a  great  litter  of  things, 
(aps,  gloves,  walking-sticks,  and  eoats  arc  strewn  about, 
so  arc  newspapers,  paper-covered  books,  and  di\ers  other 
articles.  On  a  side-table  in  a  corner  stand  bottles  of 
wliiskey  and  port,  a  pat  of  butter  on  a  saucer,  several 
pots  of  jam,  niarmaiade,  and  the  like.  Now  and  then 
-  an  orderly  or  a  non-commissioned  officer  tramps  in, 
salutes,  delivers  his  missive,  or  has  a  word  with  one 
of  the  ofiticers,  salutes  again,  and  disappears.  There  is 
an  unceasing  buzz  of  conversation  interspersed  with 
peals  'of  laughter.  Everybody  looks  very  contented, 
and  those  at  home' would  be  surprised  could  they  witness 
this  scene  so  far  within  the  shell  area. 

Of    a    morning,    as.  you     stroll     along     the     street, 
plenty  of  life  is  to  be  seen.     There  are  troops  everywhere, 
walking  about  in  groups  and  parties,  parading  outside 
their  billets,  marching  in  column  of  route  ;    staff  motor- 
cars and   ambulances  rattle    past,   for    Brigade    Head- 
(juarters  are  about  the  centre  of  the  village,  and  the  llr.st 
lield  dressing- station  is  at  the  end  of  it  ;    horse  transport 
and  motor-lorries  in  plenty  and  many  riders  on  horstv 
back    and    bicycles.     Occasionally    a     dejected-looking 
civilian   shuffles   along.     Most   of  the   houses   are    only 
slightly  damaged.     Here,  for  instance,  is  a  little  iron- 
monger's shop,    kept  by  a  humble  worried-looking    old 
lady.     You   may   buy  a   few   pots   and   saucepans,   tin 
plates  and  the  like,  also  refills  for  your  electric  lamp. 
Turther  on  there  is  another  shop  of  the  same  kind — 
why  is  it  that  in  these  half-exterminated  places  the  iron- 
mongers seem  to  remain  when  all  others  have  gone  under  ? 
But    this    second    shop    is    dim    and    tragic.     One    of 
the  shutters  is  taken  down  to  show  that  it  is  indeed  a 
shop  ;  the  others  are  up  and  you  creep  in  through  a  sand- 
bagged, partly  boarded  door-way.     The  room,  a  big  ohe, 
is  nearly  dark.     Only  the  strange,  almost  ghostly  shapes 
of  the  brooms  and  brushes,  the  pots  and  pans  hanging  up, 
indicate  the  nature  of  the  place.     Out  of  the  shadows 
steal  two  cowed  pale-faced  children  dressed  completely 
in  black,  and  it  is  these  small  pathetic  figures  holding  one 
another's  hands  for  moral  support  who  try  to  sell  you  what 
you  want.     Upon  their  faces  are  writ  the  marks  of  a  great 
fear  which  will  probably  never  fade.     And  indeed  in 
the  faces  and  demeanour  of  all  these  wretched  villagers 
are  to  be  seen  the  marks -of  the  terror  and  suffering  which 
through  two-and-a-half  weary  years  thfey  ha\e   under- 
gone. 

Before  coming  to  tlie  cross-roads,  amid  all  the  desola- 
tion and  sadness  of  the  ruined  cottages,  there  is  to  be  foimd 
one  Httle  patch  of  beauty  like  an  oasis  in  a  desert  land. 
It  is  the  largest  house  in" the  place— undoubtedly  that  of 
the  iiiairc— and  it  has  a  grass  lawn,  a  small  wasted  garden 
with  moss-grown  leaf-strewn  path,  and  beyond  these 
a  shrubbery  and  ornamental  lak«.  The  house 
itself  is  hideous,  but  entering  by  the  garden  gate  one 
linds  for  a  brief  space  the  peace  which  clings  to  gardens, 
even  those  run  riot.  Leaves,  nK)ist  and  crumbly,  have 
lain  there  since  the  previous  autumn  ;  the  house  itself  is 
dark  and  empty  save  when  the  winter  sunshine  stealing  in, 
searches  out  the  dust  and  cobwebs  and  makes  gay  patterns 
upon  the  floor.  On  the  ornamental  lake  an  abandoned 
boat  rocks  woefully,  and  here  in  a  previous  summer- 
time when  offtcers  were  billeted  in  the  place,  many  of  the 
young  subalterns  would  go  and  bathe,  row  races  with 
improvised  craft,  and  thoroughly  enjoy  themselves. 
I'hen,  amid  its  melancholy  surroundings,  the  garden  would 
ring  with  shouts  of  laughter.  But  in  winter  all  is  still, 
is  silent  save  for  the  chirruping  sparrows  and  the 
never-ceasing  soimd  of  wheels  and  tramping  feet  from 
the  world  without. 

/And  a  little  further  on  you  come  to  the  church,  that 
utter  chaos  of  tumbled  bricks  and  masonry.  The  walls 
stand  out  stark  and  naked,  yet  upon  them  still  are  shreds 
of  bizarre  modern  frescoes,  while  strange  sacred  things 
lie  all-round  half  buried.  The  campanile  stands  out  too, 
but  all  else  is  utterly  razed  as  are  most  ol  the  houses 
which  once  formed  the  village  square.  Of  many,  the  roof 
has  fallen  in  ;  of  others,  the  walls  are  pock-marked  by 
slir:i™-i,-l,  for  \h\'^  ^p,it,  whorr  f iinr  rrnss-roads meet ,  -   •'•"- 


La  Prise  de  Bagdad 

"  By  the  waters  of  Babylon     ..." 

Bv  Emile  Cammakkts. 

A  MIS,  asseyons-nous  sur  les  bords   de    I'Euphrate 
/^L     l-t  decrochons    nos    harpcs    des    \'ie.u\    sanies 
/     ^       hiblif]ues, 

I^urs  cordcs  impatientes  rcpetent  dans  la  brise 
L'echo    triomphatcur    des     stances    prophetiques : 
"  Bagdad  est  prise     .     ,     .     Bagdad  est  prise "     .     .    « 

Eile  est  tombee  la  Babylone  allemande. 

La  succursale  doree  des  Kaiser  de  Berlin, 

La  croi.x  de  nos  drapeaux  se  deploie  dans  la  brise, 

Nos  glaives  ont  ecorne  le  dur  croissant  payen  : 

"  Bagdad  est  prise  !     Bagdad  est  prise  !  " 

O  vous  qui  languissez  i\  mille  lieucs  d'ici, 

Prisonniers,  deportes  des  gcoles  allemandes, 

Devincz-vous  nos  coeurs,  entendez-vous  nos  cris 

Portes  sur  I'aile  victorieuse  de  la  brise 

Jus(iu'aux  derniers  villages  de  vos  plaines  flamandes  ? 

"  Bagdad  est  prise     .     .     .     Bagdad  est  prise.     .     .     ."> 

Nous  chantons  aujourd'hui  oii  Israel  pleura, 
Nous  chanterons  demain  oii  vous  vous  desolez, 
Sila  lune  a  deux  dents  pour  dechirer  sa  proie 
La  croix  a  deux  bras  pom-  f rapper  vos  geoHers 
Sur  la  Spree,  sur  I'Euphrate  souffle  la  meme  brise  ; 
Ecoutez  done  :  "  Bagdad  est  prise  !     .     ,      " 

(All  Rights  Reserved.) 


most  dangerous  of  any  in  thevillage.  Indeed,  few  after- 
noons go  by  but  a  dozen  or  so  "  whizz-bangs  "  or  5.9's 
are  hurled  into  the  place,  and  even  nowadays  there  is  a 
fairly  regular  return  of  casualties  among  the  troops 
billeted,  and  the  civilians. 

Right  in  the  midst  of  the  square,  in  cellars  beneath 
his  ruined  house,  the  wine-merchant  lives.  It  is  a  bare, 
damp  place,  a  mere  den,  containing  the  necessaries  of  life, 
but  temerity  receives  its  due  reward,  for  the  good  man 
does  a  roaring  trade  in  wine.  He  is  a  typical  bourgeois 
Frenchman,  agreeable  and  intelligent  above  the  average, 
and  has  an  air  of  prosperity  which  belies  his  surround- 
ings    .     .     .    >How  long  will  he  be  permitted  to  live  ? 

As  you  walk  down  the  street  on  a  sunny  morning,  you 
have  that  alert,  indehnable,  dubious  feeling  of  waiting 
for  the  sound  of  a  shell.  For  you-  can  never  be  sure  when 
they  will  come — and  they  come  quickly.  Beyond  the 
village  several  English  batteries  are  firing,  but  this  is  only 
part  of  the  normal  daily  "  strafe."  As  a  rule  the  Bosches 
do  not  reply.  Overhead  a  number  of  British  aeroplanes 
are  circling  with  an  incessant  [buzz  and  whir-r.  Once 
beyond  the  cross-roads,  the  houses  show  less  'signs  of 
damage  and  many  of  them  are  practically  intact  and 
inhabited.  YetJ  there  are  fewer  people  about,  for  here 
ordinary  traffic  and  large  bodies  of  men  are  forbidden.  The 
configuration  of  the  land  alters  slightlj'.  Near  the  end  of 
the  village  is  situated  the  hospice  and  school,  the  only 
picturesque  building  in  the  place.  Forming  three  sides 
of  a  square  round  a  courtyard,  it  is  of  white  stucco  or 
plaster  with  green  Venetian  shutters  which  give  an  agree- 
able, almost  Itahan  aspect  to  the  place.  In  the  middle  of  the 
Courtyard  are  green  shrubs  and  little  bushes,  with  plane 
trees  planted  round  the  outside  like  sentinels. 

Beside  the  road  stand  two  or  three  farms  of  the  usual 
type,  and  then  you  come  to  a  side-road  leading  to  the 
trenches,  at  the  corner  of  which  is  posted  a  notice  in- 
dicating ,  that  traffic  must  go  no  further  in  daylight. 
A  few  dirty  children  are  playing  round  the  sign-post,  for 
a  large  family  dwells  in  the  farnihouse  near  by.  And  be- 
yond are  the  flat  fields,  willow-lined,  intersected  with  many 
ditches.  Skeletons  of  farms  and  cottages  may  occasion- 
ally be  seen.     Human  signs  are  few. 

Tt  i-c  the  end  of  the  \illage. 


i6 


-LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By    Lucian   Oldershaw 


March  ;2  2,  1917 


NO  gi'catcr  compliment  was evrr  paid  the  English 
lanjtruage  than  when  tlic  Polisli  sailor,  Joseph 
Conrad,  chost-  it  as  the  medium  whereby  to 
ixpress  his  creative  genius.  He  has  done  more 
than  make  the  language  his  own.  He  has  mastered  it 
in  a  way  in  which  few  luiglishmen  master  it  themselves. 
He  reveals  its  wealth  and  its  resources.  He  c\en  adds 
to  its  treasures.  His  use  of  words  alone  always  makes 
anything  he  writes  worth  while.  \'ou  do  not  need  to 
go  further  than  the  first  paragraph  of' his  new  book,  for 
e.xample,  to  fall  a  victim  to  the  seduction  of  his  style. 
"  It  is  the  privilege  of  early  youth  to  live  in  advance  of 
its  daj's  in  all  the  beautiful  continuity  of  hope  which 
knows  no  pauses  and  no  introspection."  How  perfectly 
phrased  that  is,  and  how  true  !  It  is  perhaps  the  under- 
lying \eracity  of  all  he  writes — for  Mr.  Conrad  puts  out 
nothing  that  has  not  passed  the  mint  of  his  rich  ex- 
perience and  intellectual  con\iction — that  makes  the 
strength  and  beauty  of  his  stvle.  The  style  is  certainly 
the  man  in  his  case. 

*         *         *         «         * 

■  This  new  book  of  Mr.  Conrad's,  The  Shailoa-  Line 
(J.  M.  Dent  and  Son,  5s.  net),  will  rejoice  the  hearts  of 
his  admirers.  It  is  a  story  of  the  sea,  theadvMitures  of  a 
young  skipper  in  his  first  command,  a  sailing  vessel,  in 
the  (iulf  of  Siam,  and  it  is  written  in  the  white  heat  of 
inspiration  that  characterised  Lord  Jim.  The  psychological 
exjK'rience  that  Mr.  Conrad  objectifies  in  'J'/ie  Shadoic 
Line  is  the  passage  from  impulsive  youth  to  steadied 
manhood.  It  is  a  wonderful  little  story,  ^is  intense  as 
Lord  Jim.  as  eerie  as  Falk,  and  as  full  of  life-like  studies 
of  men  who  sail  the  seas  as — any  (.A  its  author's  books. 
!  Mr.  Burns',  the  sick  mate,  Ransome,  the  steward,  with 
a  weak  heart  but  high  courage.  Captain  (iiles,  the  wise 
old  skipper  of. the  dulf,  and,  not  least,  the  wicked  old 
man  whose  death  at  sea  gaxe  oiu"  young  man  his  un- 
expected chance  of  a  ship  and  a  heritage  of  troubles,  are 
the  most  prominent  in  the  little" group  of  ^xrsonalities 
vividly  seen  in  the  bright,  light  of  a  burning  experience. 
They  will  remain  long  in  the  reader's  memory.  The 
Shadow  Line  is,  in  short,  a  literary  portent — a  nerfect 
example  of  "a  master-novelist's  art. 

*  *         *       •  * 

One  of  tJie  most  jMofound  and  original  Ihinkii-  .muiug 
our  younger  men  of  science  was  lost  to  the  world  when 
A.  1).  Darbyshire,  then  a  private  in  the  Argyll  and 
.Sutherland  Highlanders,  fell  a  victim  to  cerebral  menin- 
gitis. Sa  much  is  clear  from  reading  his  unhappily 
incomplete  book.  An  Introduction  to  a  Biology  (Cassell 
and  Co.,  7s.  6d.  net)!  .This  book,  edited  with  pio\is 
1  horoughness  by  the  author's  sister,  who  has  collected 
letters,  notes  for  lectures,  and  the  like  to  help  the  reader 
to  com])letc  for  himself  her  brother's  incompleted  essay, 
has  as  its  mulerlying  idea  the  freeing  of  the  study  of 
biology  from  the  narrow  and  ever-narrowing  limits 
into  which  it  has  been  confined.  Darbyshire ""s  advice 
to  the  biologist  may  be  summed  up  in  the  much  misused 
tag,  "  Know  thyself."  He  suggests,  man  has  forgotten 
himself,  the  student,  and  his  fragment  breaks  off  abruptly 
on  till'  following  pertinent  cpiestions  :  "  Is  the  soul  a  mere 
aggregate  symptom  of  a  mechanism — the  body  ?  Or 
is  the  body  not  rather  the  instrument  of  the  soul  ? 
»        *         *        *   •     * 

There  are  many  peojile  \\  ho  sec  clearly  the  broad  issues 
of  the  war,  West  and  Mast,  but  who  gi\e  uj)  as  a  hojxUi^s 
tangle  the  problems  of  the  Balkans.  Vet  it  is  probably 
in  this  corner  of  Europe  that  the  most  crucial  points  will 
come  up  for  consideration  when  a  final  settlement  is 
made,  and  it  is  urgeiU  that  there  should  be  a  well- 
instructed  public  opinion  focussed  upon  it.  J'he  liecon^ 
strnclion  of  South- liastern  Europe,  by  Vladislav  K. 
Sa\ic  (Chapman  and  Hall,  7s.  6d.  net),  puts  the  case  for 
a  greater  Serbia  forcibly  and  sympathetically.  The 
writer  is  a  well-known  journalist.'who  has  acted  for  maiiy 
vears  as  the  rorrespondent  of  the  Daily  Telegraph  and 
the    Russkoe    Slo\'0.      He  ciivct-^  the  whole    ground  of 


,  his  subject,  historical,  ethnographical  and  political,  and 
his  book  cannot  be  neglcctetl  by  anyone  who  wishes  to 
arrive  at  a  full  understanding  of  the  Balkan  question;. 
All  intelligent  jiersons.  moreover,  should  have  this  wish. 

♦         «         *         *■        ♦ 

Mr.  Harold  Harvey,  who  was  getting  known  as  a 
painter  when  war  broke  out,  joined  the  Royal  l-'usiliers 
in  August  1914,  and,  after  being  wounded  and  gassed 
at  Ypres,  was  invalided  out  of  the  service.  He  now 
gives  us,  in  A  Soldier's  Sketches  under  Fire  (Sampson 
Low,  Marston  and  Co.,  js.  6d.  net),  his  impressions  of  a 
period  of  training  in  Malta  and  of  some  time  spent  in  the 
trenches,  cliiefly  in  the  .\rmentieres  section.  The 
pictures  are  accompanied  by  a  modest  modicum  of  letter- 
press. All  attempts  at  self-expression  from  men  in  the 
lighting  line  are  of  interest.  What  Mr.  Harvey  does  with 
his  pencil,  Ronald  (iurner  attempts  in  the  more  familiar 
medium  of  verse.  War's  Echo  (Fisher  Unwin,  is.  net) 
is  a  little  collection  of  poems  written  at  the  Front,  of 
modest  pretension  and  achievement.  Its  spirit  is  of  the 
right  kind,  and  it  awakens  and  will  awaken  memories. 

"  Why,   yes,    'twas  so   indeed  : 
To  east  of  Ypres  that  summer. 

By  Arras  in  the  snow, 
Thinking  the  while  of  Vertiun 

And  fighting — it  was  so." 

A  new  and  revised  .edition  of  Dr.  (1.  L.  Johnson's 
Photoi^raphy  in  Colours  (Routledge  and  Sons,  4s.  6d. 
net)  will  be  welcomed  by  amateur  photographers  who 
have  experimented  in  this  fascinating  branch  of  their 
hobby.  There  is  no  need  to  chvell  on  the  book  as  a  whole, 
since  it  is  well  known  to  those  interested  in  the  matter, 
but  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  taking  up  colour 
photography  for  the  lu'st  time  it  may  be  pointed  out  that 
Dr.  Johnson  introduces  his  subject  with  a  sufficiency 
of  theoretical  optics  to  put  them  on  the  right  lines 
for  experimental  work  of  their  ^own  or,  at  any  rate, 
for  getting  a  scientific  interest  in  the  undertaking.  The 
additions  include  a  section  on  the  increasingly  popular 
Raydex  process  of  colour  ])rinting,  and  a  chapter  on  .'\rt 
in  Colour  Photography,  which  is  more  practical  than  even 
such  disquisitions  usually  are.  Photography  in  Colours 
is  now  a  thoroughly  up-to-date  text-book. 


It  was  Mr.  Philip  Gibbs  who  converted  drub  Street  into 
the  Street  of  Adventure,  and  if  report  speaks  true  the  proto- 
types who  gave  life  to  the  work  were  not  invariably  please<l. 
S'ow  comes  Mr.  H.  Simonis  with  \i\acious  and  kindly  pen 
who  gives  to  the  Street  of  Adventure  true  reality,  and  in 
'J'lic  Street  of  htk  publislied  to-day  by  Messrs.  Cassell  (7s.  (kJ. 
net)  draws  tlinnibnail  sketches  of  tHe  actual  men  who  wi^ld 
the  enormous  power  bestowed  by  the  reading  public  of  this 
country  on  its  Press.  Nor  can  any  man  take  exception  to 
this  pleasant  portraiture.  .■  The  pui^lication  of  the  volume  is 
timely,  since  the  part  of  the  British  Press  is  playing  in  the 
Great  War  is  a  matter  of  history..  Wherefore  tlu'  volume 
possesses  historical  value.  There  is  no  section  of  the  British 
Press  to  which  Mr.  Simonis  does' not  make  reference,  so  his 
work,  as  he  confesses  in  the  Introduction,  naturally  has  the 
defects  of  its  qualities.  The  story  of  the  most  famous  ])ublica- 
tions  has  to  be  strongly  compressed,,  and  the  writer,  obviously 
often  against  his  will,  has  to'  refrain  from  anecdotes,;  yet 
he  is  never  dull  and  throws  a  flood  of  light  On  many  of  the 
developments  of  the  wondcrf\il  newspaper  industry  in  whiih 
tlie  complete  success  of  any  venture  isdependent  on  a  unique 
collection  of  talents  ^literary,  commercial,  scientific,  linuncial. 
etc.  "  It  is  a  good  thing,"  writes  .Mr.  Simonis,  "  that 
journalists  should  Iw  able  to  stand  aside  from  the  details  of 
their  work  and  view  from  a  d<>tache(\  plane  the  romance  of 
their  profession."  It  is  also  a  good  thing  that  the  individual 
journalist,  no  matter  who  he  may  be,  should  not  take  hiinseU 
too  seriously.  And  in  butli  directions  -Mr.  Simonis  renders 
good  service  to  his  colleagues.  He  has  attempted  the  biggest 
;task  that  has, yet  been  undertaken, in  order  to  put  on  record 
a,  concise  encyclopa-dic  history  of  the  Hritish  I'resS  ;  and  is 
to  be  congratulated  On  his  success;  v\-hich  was  onW  possible 
for  ;i  man  of  e\n'j)tion;il  (mkii'w  kiiowledt'i'  and  ahilitv. 


Mttrcli  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


17 


THE 

WESTERN  ARMIES 

THE  most  critical  moment  in  the  history  of  the  British  Empire 
and  of  her  Ally  France,  is  now  to  hand  and  we  shall  be  witnesses  of 
a  struggle  such  as  the  world  has  never  seen.  In  order  to  bring  clearly 
before  the  public  the  reasons  and  causes  of  the  Alliance  between  this 
country  and  France  a  special  number  of  Lmid  &  Water  entitled 
The  Western  Armies  Number  will  be  published  on  March  29th, 
price  one  shilling.  This  will  be,  as  the  fallowing  particulars  show, 
one  of  the-  most  interesting  that  Land  &  Water  has  ever  published. 

Mr.  Hilaire  Belloc,  in  addition  to  his  weekly  military  article,  contributes 
a  special  article  dealing  with  the  growth  of  the  alliance  of  France  and  Britain 
in  the  field.  There  is  no  English  writer  in  the  first  rank  who  understands  the 
two  Nations  more  thoroughly  than  Mr.  Belloc. 

Dr.  J.  Holland  Rose,  Reader  in  Modern  History,  Cambridge,  writes  on  the 
birth  and  development  of  the  Entente  Cordiale. 

"  Centurion,"  that  distinguished  writer  of  short  stories,  contributes  one 
describing  modern  fighting  in  Picardy,  many  of  the  incidents  being  from  per- 
sonal experience. 

A  special  feature  of  this  number  will  be  .a  long  original  story 
by  Mr.  Joseph  Conrad,  of  the  time  of  the  Napoleonic  Wars,  illus- 
trated by  Mr.  Dudley  Hardy. 

The  more  specially  French  aspect  will  be  ably  dealt  with  by  M.  Henri 
Davray,  an  eminent  French  publicist.  His  contribution  will  tell  of  the  welding 
together  of  the  two  great  democracies,  French  and  British. 

Colonel  Feyler,  the  famous  Swiss  military  critic,  and  Professor  Bidou,  of 
t\\G  Journal  des  Debats,  the  military  critic  who  enjoys  to-day  the  highest  reputation 
in  France,  discuss  the  strategy  of  the  Allies. 

The  work  of  the  Flying  Corps  of  both  armies  in  France  forms  the  subject 

of  another  highly  important  article  ;  and 
special  interest  attaches  to  the  appearance 
for  the  first  time  among  tHe  contributors 
to  Land  &  Water  of  the  eminent  French 
writer,  Maurice  Barres. 

This  number  is  plentifully  illustrated 
with  private  photographs  of  the  war  in 
France  which  have,  appeared  in  no  other 
journal. 

I      mi       'fiffi^^^H^HHL^  There  are,  of  course,  in  addition  all 

(ll      QS^t^Pf^^L  ^^^    usual    features    of    Land   &  Water, 

liU  MKKS^Mam^f^  including  a  special  cartoon  of  Raemaekers. 


LAND  &  WATER 


\cL    l.XMIl.     Nu. -t;o3.  MAKLH  J'.tli,   I7IA 


I'lici;  One  bhiiiidi,: 


THE  WESTERN  ARMIES 
NUMBER  1/. 


To    be'    Published 
on  MARCH  29th 

Price  ONE   SHILLING  net 

GIVE  AN  ORDER  TO  YOUR 
NEWSAGENT    TO-DAY 


PUBLISHING    OFFICES:    5    CHANCERY    LANE,     LONDON,    E.G. 


i8 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  22,  1917 


Andersonsville 


By  Elsie  Fogerty 


What  so  much  is  heard  about  the  brutality  of  Germans 
towards  prisoners  of  ituir.  it  is  well  to  remember  it  is  no 
ncic  thing  with  Teuton  authority.  America  understands 
this  better  than  most,  as  this  historical  reminiscence 
0/  the  American  Civil  War  explains. 

A  iMUNCi  tlu-  objects  which  the  AlUts  liavc  placed 
/%  in  the  front  rank  of  their  demands,  is  due  re- 
Z-Jm  tribution  for  thoTic  acts  of  inhumanity  on  the 
-ZT^  A-part  of  the  enemy  which  are  foreign  to  the  spirit 
and  convention  of  mihtary  law.  It  is  questionable 
whether  any  one  act  has  produced  so  overwhelming  an 
impression  on  civilized  opinion  as  the  treatment  which 
has  been  accorded  to  Germany  to  prisoners  of  war ; 
especially  is  this  the  case  in  America. 

Fifty-two  years  ago  one  name  had  the  power  above  all 
others  to  send  a  thrill  of  horror  through  the  United 
States,  the  name  of  Ander.sonsville.  the  infamous  prison 
compound  where  the  Confederates  herded  their  Union 
prisoners.  Among  the  minor  causes  of  irritation  with 
England  at  that  time  was  the  action  of  the  Times  which, 
as  the  New  York  Tribune  put  it.  refused.  "  with  char- 
acteristic meanness  "  to  publish  in  an  adequate  manner 
details  of  the  infamies  perpetrated  in  this  inferno  ; 
horrors  which  culminated  in  the  trial  and  execution  of 
\\'irz,  their  principal  perjietrator. 

W'irz  was  a  German  Swiss  born  in  Zurich.  He  emi- 
grated to  America  in  184c).  being  at  that  time  unable  to 
speak  luiglish.  He  married  a  Kentucky  woman  and 
worked  on  a  plantation  in  I^ouisiana.  At  the  outbreak 
of  war  he  joined  the  Confederate  For(*es,  obtaining  his 
Captaincy  and  ser\'ing  as  Adjutant  to  Brigadier  General 
Widne^r,  another  German  American,  w-ho  was  sub- 
sequently responsible  for  the  creation  of  the  prison  camp. 
Wirz  was  wounded  at  Fair  Oaks  ;  his  constitution,  already, 
imdermined  by  dissipation  and  disease,  broke  down, 
and  he  travelled  to  Europe  in  1863  in  search  of  a  cure  for 
his  wound.  This  he  did  not  accomplish,  but  he  was  a 
man  of  exceptional  physical  strength  and  coarse  vigour. 
Six  feet  in  height,  and  on  the  evidence  of  many  witnesses, 
capable  of  violent  action,  even  when  suffering  from  a 
disabled  arm. 

A  Prison  Camp 

On  his  return  Uy  .America  the  Prison  Camp  of  Ander- 
sonsville was  placed  in  his  charge.  It  consisted  of  fifty 
acres  of  country  almost  devoid  of  verdure  except  rank 
weeds,  but  surrounded  bv  woods  whence  timber  could 
easily  have  been  obtained.  A  small  stream  ran  through 
the  camp  and  many  wells  were  afterwards  made  there 
by  the  prisoners  themselves.  The  drinking  water  was 
supplied  from  this  stream,  and,  its  condition  of  terrible 
pollution  became  responsible  fo--  many  deaths.  The 
climate  was  atrocious  ;  unbearable  heat  during  the  day 
and  night  dews  which  penetrated  all  covering. 

The  prison  area  was  enclosed  by  a  stockade,  and 
within  it  W'irz  was  responsible  for  the  formation  of  a 
"  Dead  Line."  Guns  were  trained  upon  this,  and  any 
prisoner  touching  it  was  shot  without  warning  ;  in- 
cidentally part  of  the  water  supply,  and  that  ,the  health- 
iest, crossed  this  "  Dead  Eine  "  and  many  prisoners  were 
shot  in  their  attempt  to  secure  purer  water. 

Generally  the  stockade  was  well  designed  to  carry  out 
the  intention  expressed  by  its  Confederate  builder.  Captain 
\V.  S.  Widner.  "  I'm  going  to  build  a  pen  here  that  will 
kill  mi>re  danuied  "Yankees  than  can  be  destroyed  in  the 
front.  "  Wirz  introduced  himself  to  his  charges  by 
stopping  the  food  ration  for  any  small  failure  of  discipline 
or  for  the  escape  of  a  prisoner,  and  by  the  institution 
of  most  cruel  punishments,  such  as  the  chain  gang, 
and  the  "  buck  and  gag.  "  Escaping  prisoners  were 
hunted  and  torn  by  savage  dogs,  several  (i.aths  ,wcre 
directly  due  to  this  cause,  others  to  the  festering  and. 
gangrened  wounds  which  resulted  from  their  bites. 
Wirz  boasted  he  was  doing  more,  for  the  Confederate 
Cause  than  any  General  in  the  Front.  "  This  is  the  way 
I  give  the  Yankees  the  land  they  come  to  fight  for," 


was  his  grim  jest  at  a  biuial  party.  On  one  occasion  a 
weak  man  asked  Wirz  to  let  him  go  out  of  the  stockade 
to  get  a  little  air.  Wirz  furiously  inquired  of  him  in 
(ierman  what  he  meant,  and  then"  drew  a,  re\olver  and 
shot  him  dead.  He  would  parade  the  chain  gang  for  the 
amusement  of  his  wife  and  daughters. 

In  his  ofticial  reports  of  the  condition  of  the  prison, 
lie  wro^te.  "  it  is  better  to  leave  them  (the  prisoners) 
in  their  present  jxisition  until  their  numbers  have  been 
reduced  sufficiently  by  death  to  make  the  arrangements 
sufficient  for  their  accommodation.". 

Horrible  Filtb 

Arrangements  were  certainly  a  euphuism.  The  prison 
was  in  a  horrible  state  of  filth!  7h«=  swamp  on  each  side 
was  so  offensive  and  the.  stench  so  great,  one  witness 
reports,  that  it  is  to  be  wondered- every  man  there  did 
not  die.  Food  was  insufficient,  men  died  of  actual 
starvation,  and  a  system  of  petty  peculation  and  trad- 
ing in  rations  was  encouraged  by  Wirz  and  one  of  his 
clerks,  a  German  from  Frankfort-on-the-Main.  The 
clothing' of  the  dead  was  almost  the  only  source  for  the 
clothing  of  the  living  ;  there  were  no  shelters..  A  few 
wooden  uprights  covered  with  canvas  roofs  and  a  few 
sheds ;  the  stronger  ])risoners  dug  shelters  for  them- 
selves in  the  soil.  The  hospital  was  witiiout  .stores 
or  medicine  except  such  as  could  be  made  from  local 
roots  and  herbs.  Prisoners  suffering  from  dyscMitery 
w^ere  advised  to  eat  blackberries,  but  .when  supplies  of 
the  fruit  were'  sent  in  they  were  made  into  pies  for  the 
orderlies. 

One  witness  for  the  defence  nai\ely  observed  that  he 
had  seen  men  cut  their  own  throats  and  die  but  he 
did  not  know  the  reason  for  their  doing  so,  except  tliat 
they  were  skin  and  bone  and  in  a  destitute  condition. 
Dr.  John  Bates,  one  of  the  medical  witnesses,  gave  a 
terrible  and  almost  unquotable  report,  and  confirmed 
the  facts  in  his  sworn  evidence  at  Wirz's  trial.  "  For 
the  treatment  of  wounds,  he  writes,  we  ha\e  literally 
nothing    but    water.     ..." 

Another  witness  writes  :  "  Gangrene  sores  were  without 
bandages  :  the  sores  were  filled  with  lice  and  flies  ;  one 
■  man,  I  am  assured,  died  of  lice,  which  whereas  thick  afe  the 
man's  garments."  Seventy-five  per  cent,  of  those  who 
died  might  have  been  sa\ed  had  the  patients  been  pro- 
perly cared  for. 

■       *         *        *        *        * 

After  the  war  a  Commission  \isited  the  camp  and 
ordered,  and  as  far  as  possible  made  decent,  the  graves 
of  these  martyrs.  The  buildings  which  had  been  used 
were  ordered  to  stand  till  they  fell  to  pieces  as  evidence 
of  the  horrors  they  had  witnessed.  One  wonders  do  they 
stand  there  still  !  But  Wirz  wa$  arrested  and  brought 
to  civil  trial.  Hundreds  of  witnesses  were  subpeened  in 
his  defencje,  every  facility  was  gi\'ert  him,  but  he  could  only 
l)lead  in  effect  that  he  was  a  subordinate  obeying  orders 
and  had  shown  no  personal  inhumanity. 

The  latter  contention  was  disproved  again  and  again 
by  eye  witnesses,  the  formc«r  was  unhesitatingly  brushed 
aside.  "  A  superior  officer  "  it  was  held  "•  cannot  order 
a  subordinate  to  do  an  illegal  act,  and  if  the  subordinate 
obeys  such  an  order  and  disastrous  consequences  result 
both  subordinate  and  sui)erior  must  answer  for  it." 

After  a  trial  lasting  from  .\ugust  till  November,  Wirz 
was  found  guilty.  One  of  "the  most  revoltiuf;  features 
of  his  case  is  foimd  in  the  letters  of  fulsome  piety  and 
religious  exaltation,  which  he  constantly  wrote  durmg 
his  captivity.  He  was  lianged  on  Friday,  November 
loth,  1865,  before  a  large  number  of  persons. 

It  is  not  a  little  curious  to  notice  the  number  of  per- 
.sons  of  German  name  and  (ierman  nationality  who  were 
associated  with  the  horrors  of  Andersonsville.  For  these 
.  horrors  one  at  least  of  the  ])erpetrators  paid  the  full 
legal  penalty.  America  we  are  sure  will  not  forget 
the  fact,  and  her  own  judgment  in  the  matter,  when  a 
day  of  reckoning  conies  between  the  Allies  and  thij 
Centr'al  Powers. 


March  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


=f( 


™=  LAND  &  WATER 

WRIST  WATCH 


IVith  UNBREAKABLE  QLASS. 


The  "LAND  &  WATER"  WRIST  WATCH 
is   a  genuine   damp  and  dust-proof   watch, 

wilh  special  screw-in  movement,  unbreakable  $lass  and 
luminous  face.  1  he  movement  is  fully  jewelled  and  is 
fitted  with  micrometer  regulat<  r  to  give  tine  aojustment, 
It  is  compensated  for  all  positions  and  temperatLires 
specially  balanced  and  built  to  withstand  shoclc.  It  is  the 
finest  quality  Timekeeper  obtainab  e  and  has  been  proved 
by  practical  tests  in  the  trenches,  equal  in  accuracy  to  a 
-O-Guinea  Chronometer.  For  Naval  and  Military  men  it  is 
the  Ideal  Watch  and  is  being  worn  by  numerous  officers 
of  both  services.  When  writing  please  state  whether 
black  or  white  dial  is  preferred,  mentioning  reference  200. 
Al  Ihe  side  is  illuslraletl  the  New  STLVE-LWRISTLtT  as  highly 
rocommended  in  the   editorial  column  of    "  1_AND    &   WATtR." 


STEVEL  WRISTLET 
sclt  -adiuiUiblc  -  tifs  any 
siz'  wrtst  or  any  p<%r*.  of 
arm.  Strons  'ind  dtir'j- 
oi-,  ptrmtUtn^  waUh  to 
be  turnfd  ovtt  <in  •  wont 
f2Ce  downwards  thus 
doin^  away  with  dial 
protectors. 
Silver  Fluted,  -    2/R 

By  post.      -  a/t> 


The  "  l.and  &  Water  "  Wrist  Watch,  with 
Unbreak;ible    Glass   and    Luminous     Dial 

Obtainab'e  only  from — 

Messrs.    BIRCH    &    GAYDON,    Ltd 

Wa'ch  and  Technical  Instrument 
Makers        to       the      Admiralty, 

153    FENGHURCH    ST.,   LONDON,    E.G. 

West  End  litatKh— 19  PICCADILLY  ARCADE 
Uuta  J.  B.irwi=e). 


CHEMICO 

BODY      SHIKI^D 

is  undoubtedly  the  greatest  and  best  life-snvingand 
casualty  minimizing   iriVention   of   the  War  Era. 
Rfgn  THIS. 

Copy    oi   Tetter  from    Sh«e    and    Kennedy.   Ltd., 

:s,  ;.!antiie»ter  (toad,  Burnley.       February    17th.     1917. 

S  r.^— Some  time  ago  one  of  your  body  sliiclde  was  sent  out 
to  me  in  France,  and  np  to  that  time  I  had  iH-en  a  firm  believer 
th.Tt  body  shiekl.s  were  a  snnree  of  greater  danger  owing  to  the 
certainly  that  a  stra'sht  hit  would  certainly  )>enetrate  and  the. 
bulkt  would  l)c  a  had  shape,  making  a  nineh  greater  wound— the 
.steel  shields  were  then  running  in  my  mind.  When  I  got  this  shield 
I  was  very  pleased  to  wear  it  on  account  of  its  warmth  and 
eomfort,  but  it  proved  to  be  of  even  greater  use.  I  was  hit  l.y 
bullets  flred  from  a  Mm:hinc  Gun.  and  happened  to  he  wearing  it 
at  the  time— one  bullet  hit  the  shield,  going  nearly  through,  then 
turned  in  its  course  and  cnme  out.  It  is  unite  e'ertuin  that  the 
shield  has  thus  saved  me  from  an  abdominaf  wound  and  probalily 
at    the    same    time  saved    my    life.— Yours    truly,    2nd    Lieut. 

PS.— Viiu    may    publish    this    letter,    but    for    obvious    reasons    do 
not    mention    my    name. 


If  you  have  a  soldier  nt  the  Front  equip  him  with 
one  of  these  .Shields,  proof  against  flying  shr;).pnol 
at  a  vclceity  of  r."iO  fe.?t  per  sec.,  vide  report  of 
Munit'ons  Inventions  Uept..  revolver  fire,  spent, 
rifle   bullets,  sword,  bayonet,  or   lance  thru.st. 

In  liny  case,  .serd  fnr  descriptive  literature  Iwfore 
coming    to    a  decision. 


The  COUNTY  CHEMICAL  Co.  Ltd., 

Chemico    Works,     BIRMINGHAM. 


Offi 


cers 


Complete 

Ki 

s    in    2 

to 

4  Days 

or 

Ready 

for 

Use. 

Illustrated 
Naval  or 
Military 
Catalogue. 
Post  Free. 


Ideal  Health-Protection 

Considerations  of  health  and  comfott  make  it  essential 
that  a  Top-coat  for  Active  Service  shall  give  efficient 
protection  under  all  conditions,  but  it  must  be  hygienic 
security  or  the  cure  is  more  dangerous  than  the  ill. 

The  burberry 

— supplies  a  healthful  and  de- 
pendable defence  against  rain, 
sleet  and  all  damp. 

— ensures  protection  without 
the  aid  of  rubber,  oiled-silk  or 
other  air-tight  fabric. 

— excludes  piercing  winds,  and 
is  luxuriously  warming  on  thi 
bitterest  day. 

— light  and  self-ventilating,  is 
as  comfortable  to  wear  in  mild 
weather  as  it  is  in  bad. 


Remarkable  Testimony 
from  the  Trenches. 

"  /  was  moved  into  the  trenches, 
and  all  I  had  was  one  of  your  rain- 
coats. This  stood  three  days'  rain, 
and  although  the  men's  coats  were 
soaked,  nothing  got  through  my 
Burberry."  — E.  Munro. 

"  Cold  snow,  rain  and  mud  were 
incessant.  I  was  able  to  resist  the 
had  weather,  brave  the  cold,  sleep 
on  the  ground,  remain  ihe 
whole  night  under  rain,  without 
getting  wet,  thanks  to  your  proofed 
overcoat."     — Major  (Dr.)  Gaston. 

"  A  Burberry  was  my  best  friend 
for  months  in  front  of  'Yprcs. 
Not  only  did  it  stand  the  rain  and 
wind  perfectly,  but  seemed  quite 
impervious  to  the  filthy  mud  of  the 
trenches."  — /.  K.'Dunlop. 


NAVAL  & 
MILITARY 
WEATHER. 
PROOFS. 

During  the  V\'ar 
BUR8ERRYS 
CLE*N  ANI 
RE  -  PROOF 

Ofhcers'  "  Bnr. 
berrys.**  Tielork. 
ens,  Burfrons, 
and  Burberry 
Irench-VV'arm- 
FREE  OF 
^H'^R^.■^ 


'      Half  Weight— Double  Warmth. 

Burberry  Naval  and  Military  Weatherproof*  are  half  the 
weight  of  those  loaded  with  oiled-silk,  rubber,  and  the 
like  air-tight,  circulation-retarding  fnbiics,  whi.st  the 
warmth  naturally  generated  is  doubled  in  value  as 
circulation  is  aided. 

A  practical  example  of  the  ill-effects  induced  by  non- 
veitilating  agents  is  to  be  found  in  an  angler  wading. 
He  invariably  suffers  from  cold  feet,  the  result  of  impeded 
circulation  an^  the  exclusion  of  fresh  air,  although  his 
fnotwear  readily  proves  the  pre  ence  of  per-piration. 


Every  Burberry  (jarment  is  labelled.  "  Burbern/s  " 

BURBERRYS  [^STdon 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS;  and  Provincial  Agents. 


20 


LAND    &     WATER 


marcn  zz,   lyxy 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

[Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  Mattos 


Yi 


CHAPTER   XVIII  (conHnucd) 

"OU  will  pay  me  half  the  two  million  now  and 
the  other  half  when  the  business  is  done,"  said 
Dr.    Geradcc  to  Simeon  after  the   bargain   had 

been  completed.     "  There  remains  the  matter  of 

the  passport,  a  secondary  matter  for  me.  Still,  we  shall  have 
to  make  one  out.     In  what  name  is  it  to  be  ?  " 

"  Anv  name  you  hke." 

The  doctor  took  a  sheet  of  paper  and  wrote  down  the 
description,  looking  at  Simeon  between  the  plirases  and 
muttering : 

"  Grey  hair  .  .  .  Clean  shaven  .  .  .  Yellow 
spectacles     ..." 

Then  he  stopped  and  asked  : 

"  But  how  do  I  know  that  I  shall  be  paid  the  money  ? 
That's  essential,  you  know.     I  want  bank-notes,  real  ones." 

"  You  shall  have  them." 

"  Where  are  they  ?  "  " 

"  Grtgoire  had  the  money  in  his  keeping,  four  million 
francs.  It's  on  board  the  barge.  We'll  go  there  together 
and  I'll  count  you  out  the  first  million." 

"  I  won't  accept  any  of  them  in  payment."    .r  ' 

"  Why  not  ?    You  must  be  mad  !  " 

"  Why  not  ?  Because  you  can't  pay  a  man  with  what 
already  belongs  to  him." 

Simeon  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  You're  talking  nonsense.  For  the  money  to  belong  to 
you,  it  must  first  be  in  your  possession." 

••  It  is." 

"  E.xplain  yourself,  explain  yourself  at  once  !  "  snarled 
Simeon,  beside  himself  with  anger  and  alarm. 

"  I  will  explain  myself.  The  hiding-place  that  couldn't 
be  got  at  consisted  of  four  old  books,  back  numbers  of 
Bottin's  directory  for  Paris  and  the  provinces,  each  in  two 
volumes.  The  four  volumes  were  hollow  inside,  as  though 
they  had  been  scooped  out ;  and  there  was  a  million  francs 
in  each  of  them." 

"  You  he  !   You  lie  !  " 

"  They  are  on  a  shelf,  in  a  little  lumber-room  next  the 
cabin." 

"  WeU,  what  then  ?  " 

"  What  then  ?   They're  here." 

"  Here  ?  " 

'■  Yes,  here,  on  that  bookshelf,  in  front  of  your  nose.  So, 
m  the  circumstances,  you  see,  as  I  am  already  the  lawful 
owner,  I  can't  accept.     .     .     ." 

"  You  thief !  You  thief !  "  shouted  Simeon,  shaking  with 
rage  and  clenching  his  list.  "  You're  nothing  but  a  thief ; 
and  I'll  make  you  disgorge.     Oh,  you  dirty  thief !  " 

Dr.  Geradec  smiled  very  calmly  and  raised  his  hand  in 
protest  : 

■'  This  is  strong  language  and  quite  unjustified  !  Quite 
unjustified !  Let  me  remind  you  that  Mme.  Mosgranem 
honoured  me  with  her  affection.  One  day,  or  rather  one 
morning,  after  a  moment  of  expansiveness,  '  My  dear  friend,' 
she  said — she  used  to  call  me  her  dear  friend — '  my  dear 
friend,  when  I  die ' — she  was  given  to  those  gloomy  fore- 
bodings— '  when  I  die,  I  bequeath  to  you  the  contents  of 
my  home  !  '  Her  home,  at  that  moment,  was  the  barge.  Do 
you  suggest  that  I  should  insult  her  memory  by  refusing  to 
ubey  so  sacred  a  wish  ? 

Old  Smieon  was  not  listening.  An  infernal  thought  was 
awakening  in  him  ;  and  he  turned  to  the  doctor  with  a  move- 
ment of  affrighted  attention. 

"  We  are  wasting  precious  time,  my  dear  sir,"  said  the 
doctor.     "  What  have  you  decided  to  do  ?  " 

He  was  playing  with  the  sheet  of  paper  on  which  he  had 
written  the  particulars  required  for  the  passport.  S.iiuon 
came  up  to  him  without  a  word.  At  last,  the  old  man 
whispered  '• 

"  Give  me  that  sheet  of  paper.     ...     I  want  to  see.     ." 

He  took  the  paper  out  of  the  doctor's  hand,  ran  his  eyes 
down  it  and  suddenly  leapt  backwards  ! 

"  What  name  have  you  put  ?  Wliat  name  have  you  put  ? 
What  right  have  you  to  give  me  that  name  ?  Why  did  you 
do  it  ?  " 

■■  You  told  me  to  put  any  name  I  pleased,  you  know." 

■■  But  why  this  one  ?    Wiiy  this  one  ?  '' 

"  Can  it  be  your  own  ? 


The  old  man  started  with  terror  and,  bending  lower  and 
lower  over  the  doctor,  said,  in  a  trembhng  voice  : 

■'  One  man  alone,  one  man  alone  was  capable  of  guess- 
ing-    .     .     •"  .      J  » 

In  a  sort  of  terror-stricken  tone,  Simeon  hissed  out  : 

"  Arsenc    Lupin  !     .     .     .     Arsene    Lupin !     .     .     ." 

"  You've  hit  it  in  one,"  exclaimed  the  doctor,  rising. 

Ho  dropped  his  eyeglass,  took  from  his  pocket  a  httle  pot 
of  grease,  smeared  his  face  with  it,  washed  it  off  in  a  basin 
in  a  recess  and  reappeared  with  a  clear  skin,  a  smiling,  banter- 
ing face  and  an  easy  carriage. 

"  Arsene  Lupin  !."  repeated  Simeon,  petrified.  "  Ars6ne 
Lupin  !    I'm  in  for  it  !  " 

"  Up  to  the  neck,  you  old  fool !  And  what  a  silly  fool 
you  must  be  I  Why,  you  know  me  by  reputation,  you  feel 
for  me  the  intense  and  wholesome  awe  with  which  a  decent 
man  of  my  stamp  is  bound  to  inspire  an  old  rascal  hke  you.  . 
and  you  go  and  imagine  that  I  should  be  ass  enough  to  let 
myself  be  bottled  up  in  that  lethal  chamber  of  yours  !  Mind 
you,  at  that  very  moment  I  could  have  taken  you  by  the  hair 
of  the  head  and  gone  straight  on  to  the  great  scene  in  the  fifth 
act  which  we  are  now  playing.  Only  my  fifth  act  would  have 
been  a  bit  short,  you  see  ;  and  I'm  a  born  actor-manager. 
As  it  is,  observe  how  well  the  interest  is  sustained  !  And 
what  fun  it  was  seeing  the  thought  of  it  take  birth  in  your  old 
Turkish  noddle  !  And  what  a  lark  to  go  into  the  studio, 
fasten  my  electric  lamp  to  a  bit  of  string,  make  poor,  dear 
Patrice  believe  that  I  was  there  and  go  out  and  hear  Patrice 
denying  me  three  times  and  carefully  bolting  the  door  on  . 
what  ?  My  electric  lamp  !  That  was  all  first-class  work,  don  t 
you  think  ?  What  do  you  say  to  it  ?  I  can  feel  you're  that 
speecliless  with  admiration  .  .  .  And,  ten  minutes  after, 
when  you  came  back,  the  same  scene  in  the  wings  and  with 
the  same  success.  Of  course,  you  old  Simeon,  I  was  banging 
at  the  walled-up  door,  between  the  studio  and  the  bedroom 
on  the  left.  Only  I  wasn't  in  the  studio  :  I  was  in  the  bed- 
room ;  and  you  went  away  quietly,  like  a  good  kind  landlord. 
As  for  me,  1  had  no  need  to  hurry.  I  was  ascertain  as  that 
twice  two  is  four  that  you  would  go  to  your  friend  M.  Amedce 
Vacherot,  the  porter.  And  here,  1  may  say,  old  Simeon,  you 
■  committed  a  nice  piece  of  imprudence,  which  got  me  out  of 
my  difficulty.  No  one  in  the  porter's  lodge  ;  that  could'nt 
be  helped  ;  but  what  I  did  find  was  a  telephone-number  on  a 
scrap  of  newspaper.  I  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment.  I  rang 
up  the  numb.:ri  coolly  :  '  Monsieur,  it  was  I  who  telephoned 
10  you  just  now.  Only  I've  got  your  number,  but  not  yoor 
address.'  Back  came  the  answer  :  '  Dr.  Geradec,  Boulevard 
de  Montmorency.'  Then  I  understood.  Dr.  Geradec  ?  You 
would  want  your  throat  tubed  for  a  bit,  then  the  all-essential 
passport  ;  and  I  came  off  here,  without  troubling  about  your 
poor  friend  M.  Vacherot,  whom  you  murdered  in  some  corner 
or  other  to  escape  a  possible  give-away  on  his  side.  And  I 
saw  Dr.  Geradec,  a  charming  man,  whose  worries  have  made 
him  very  wise  and  submissive  and  who  .  .  .  lent  me  his 
place  for  the  morning.  I  had  still  two  hours  before  me.  1 
went  to  the  barge,  took  the  miUions,  cleared  up  a  few  odds  and 
ends  and  here  1  am  !  " 

He  came  and  stood  in  front  of  the  old  man  : 

"  Well,  are  you  ready  ?  "  he  asked. 

Simeon,  who  seemed  absorbed  in  thought,  gave  a  start. 

"  Ready  for  what  ?  "  said  Don  Luis,  replying  to  his  un- 
spoken question.  "  Why,  for  the  great  journey,  of  course  ! 
\  our  passport  is  in  order.  Your  ticket's  taken  :  Paris  to 
Hell,    single.     Non-stop    hearse.     Sleeping-coffin.     Step    in. 


sir 


I  " 


The  old  man,  tottering  on  his  legs,  made  an  effort  and 
stammered  ; 

"  And  Patrice  ? 

"  What  about  him  ?  " 

"  I  offer  you  his  life  in  exchange  for  my  own." 

Don  Luis  folded  his  arms  across  his  chest : 

"  Well,  of  all  the  cheek  !  Patrice  is  a  friend  ;  and  you 
think  me  capable  of  abandoning  him  like  that  ?  Do  you  see 
me.  Lupin,  making  more  or  less  witty  jokes  upon  your 
imminent  death  w.ile  my  friend  Patrice  is  i.i  danger.  Ol  i 
Simeon,  you're  getting  played  out.  It's  time  you  went  and 
rested  in  a  better  world." 

He  liiteJ  a  hanging,  opened  a  door  and  called  out  ; 

{(^uHtiniteU  on  paije  Zi 


March  22,  191 7 


LAiMJ     <x     WAlliK 


Write   for  New 
Illustrated 
'Types  of  Service  Boots' 
Booklet. 
Just  issued. 

Also 

(1)  Norwegian  Boot  Booklet 

(2)  Legging  Booklet 

(3)  Warerproof  Newmarket 
Booklet 

4)  Graemar  Wader  Attach- 
(      ment  Booklet 
(5)  Self-measurement 
Apparatus. 


&Son 


»■^■■]J.^m^■■ii■^l.■■-^jtViH^^i'^^-f^M't^1l;[4ji 

51    &  52  South  Molton  Street,    London,  W. 

And  26  Trinity  Street.  Garobriilge. 


ABSOLUTELY 

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11 


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TRENCH-WARM 


tVith  H  o.er  or 
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Cover. 

£3/15 


pi||      "AciiM  Sewice"  WRISTLET  WATCH 
Fully   Luminous     Figures  &    Hands 
Warranted  Timekeepers 

In    Silver    Cases  with    Screw   Bezel 

and  Back.  US   lis.   Gold,   *;8. 

With     Hunter    or    Halt-Hunter    cover. 

Silver,  AliJ    los.      Gold.  iLSlOs. 

Others  in   Silver  from    J^H   lUa. 

Gold  from  £6. 

Military  Badge  Brooches. 

j^ny  Regimental  Sadge  Perfectly 
Modelled. 
FEICEE  ON  AFPLICATIOH 

Sketches  sent  for  approval, 

25  OLD  BOND  ST.,  W.L 

and  62&64  LUDQATE  HILL.   E.C.4. 


The    ORIGINAL    ard    ONLY 

Trench  Goat  de6nitely  guaranieid 

absolutely       and       permanently 

Waterproof. 

GALL    and    SEE    the    Coat    in 

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'I'he  Royal  Naval  Air  Service. 
The    Royal    Naual    Division. 
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and     to     practically     every 
Regiment  (Cavalry  and  In- 
lantry)  in  the  British  Army. 

Price  ...  £4  14.  6 
42  inches  long. 
Price  ...  *5    5    O 
48   iuclies   long. 


Detachable  Fleece  Lining,  £1  116 
DetachabieSheepskin,extra,d531  3  6 
Detachable  Wallaby,  extra,  £6  16  6 
Detachable  FurCollar,  extra, £1  1  O 
All  sizes  in  slock.  Send  Chest  Measure  n.en' 
(over  Tunic)  and  approximate    height. 


IWEST    Sc    SON,    LTD., 

RBOmENTAL    TAILORS  AND    OUTFITTERS 

Field  House,  152  New  Bond  Street,  London, 


"Westcanad.  Wesdo..  I,ondon." 


W. 

Telephone:  May  fair  876  fa  linesl. 


KLIS 


FOOLPROOF 
PUTTEES 


Klis   Puttees   expand  like  elastic,  and   it  is  impossible  to 

put  them  on  wrongly. 

They  '.rind  i'rom  knee  down,  or  ankle  up.     There  is  no  right 

or  left,  and  no  twists  to  make. 

They  tit  perfectly,  and,  whether  wet  or  dry,  never  restrict 

either   muscles  or  blood-vessels. 

Perfect  fitting  with  perfect  comfort.     Every  soldier  should 

wear  Klis    Puttees  to  realise  what    free    leg-gear    means 

in  the  trenches  or  for  heavy  marching. 

Wool  only.   Price  8/6  per  pair 
Tartan  Khaki,  Navy  Blue  or  French  Grey. 

BURBERRYS     Haymarket    LONDON 
also  8  &  10  BouL   Malesherbes    PARIS 


No  matter  how  beauti- 
ful your  home  may  be    ; 

its  daintiness  and  grace  can  be   enhanced  by  the  uss  of  ] 

RONUK.     Furniture  that  has  a  tendency  to  get  dull  and  = 

lose  its  lustre  can  have  its  brightness  and  polish  restored  = 

by  Ronuk.  Ronuk  does  not  smear — a  Ronuked  surface 
never   looks  greasy   and    does    not    fingermark.      Polished-  i 

wood  floors,  linoleum,  wainscoting,  doors,  skirtings, 
etc.,  can  be  kept  in  ideal  condition  at  a  minimum 
of  cost  and  labour  by  the  occasional  application  of 
'RONUK — especially  if  you  possess  the  new  light-weight 
iiONUK  HOME  POLISHER,  which  saves  going  down  on 
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ROfltJK 

I     THE    SANITARY    POLISH 

Dust  lies  lightly  on  a.  Ronuked  surface.  Just  a  brush  up 
and  a  light  rub  occasionally  will  keep 
a  Ronuked  surface  in  good  condition 
for  weeks.  Ronuk  is  GERM-PROOF, 
DIRT-PROOF,  and  ANTISEPTIC, 
and  has  a  pleasant,  refreshing  odour, 


Of  Stores,  Grocers, 
Ironmongers,  and  Oil- 
men, in  TINS  only, 
3d.,6d.,  and  I/-.  Also 
LIQUID  RONUK  in 
upright  tins,  z  pint 
1/6,  I  quart  2/6. 
J  gallon  4/6.  Inter 
esting  booklet. 
"THERE'S  THI. 
RUB,"  gratis  and  pobl 
free  from  RONUK, 
Ltd.  (Dept.  No.  35), 
Portslade,  BRIGHTO.N. 


iilil , 


\m 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  22,  1917 


C3 

II 


"  A  chat  of  fine  Linen  is  a 
lasting  pleasure  " 


CD 


II 

II 

II 

II 
II 

II 


"OLD    BLEACH" 

LINENS 


"V/TAPLE  e?  CO  are  now  exhibiting 
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famous  Linens,  including  Sheets,  Table 
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PILLOW    CASES     to     match 

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II 
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In 
six 

the  sterling  value  of  the  Sherries  shipped 
to  Bristol  by  John  Harvey  &  Sons  and 
their   forbears    has    been    acknowledged. 

HAHVEY'S 

'Bristol  Milk" 

Price  SO/,  per  dozen.     Simple  h«lf  bottle  3/6  post  free. 

JOHN  HARVEY  &  SONS,  Ltd..  BRISTOL.       (Founded  1796  ) 


WEBLEY  &  SCOTT,  Ltd. 

Manufacturers  oj  Revolvers,  Automatic 

Pistols,    and    all    kinds    of   High-Class 

Sporting  Guns  and  Rifles. 


CONTRACTORS    TO    HIS    MAJESTY'S    NAVY.    ARMY, 
INDIAN    AND    COLONIAL    FORCES. 


To  be  obtained  from  all  Qun  Dealers,  and  Wholesale  only  at 
Head  OKice  and  Showrooms  : 

WEAMAN    STREET,    BIRMINGHAM. 

London   Depot : 

78  SHAFTESBURY  AVENUE. 


{Continued  from  page  2o) 
"  Well,  captain,  how  are  you  getting  on  ?   Ah,  I  see  you've 
recovered  consciousness  !  Are  you  surprised  to  see  me  ?  No,  no 
thanks,  hut  please. come  in  here.     Our  old  Simeon's  asking 
for  you.  ' 
Then,  turning  to  the  old  man,  he  said  : 
"  Here's  your  son,  you  unnatural  father  !  " 
Patrice  entered  the  room  with  his  head  bandaged,  for  the 
blow  which  Simeon  had  struck  liim  and  the  weight  of  the 
tombstone  had  opened  his  old  wounds.     He  was  very  pale 
and  seemed  to  be  in  great  pain. 

At  the  sight  of  Simeon  Diodokis  he  gave  signs  of  terrible 
anger.  He  controlled  himself,  however.  The  two  men  stood 
facing  each  other,  without  stirring,  and  Don  Luis,  rubbing 
his  hands,  said,  in  an  undertone  : 

"  What  a  scene  !  What  a  splendid  scene  ?  Isn't  it  well- 
arranged  .'  The  father  and  the  son  !  The  murderer  and  his 
victim  !  Listen  to  the  orchestra  !  .  .  .  A  slight  tremolo. 
.  .  .  What  are  they  going  to  do  ?  Will  the  son  kill 
his  father  or  the  father  kill  his  son  ?  A  thrilling  moment.  .  .  . 
And  the  mighty  silence  !  You  hear  nothing  but  the  call  of  the 
blood  .  .  .  And  in  what  terms  !  Now  we're  off!  The  call 
of  the  blood  has  sounded  ;  and  they  are  going  to  throw 
themselves  into  each  other's  arms,  the  better  to  strangle  the 
hfe  out  of  each  other  !  " 

Patrice  had  taken  two  steps  forward ;  and  the  movement 
suggested  by  Don  Luis  was  about  to  be  performed.  Already 
the  officer's  arms  were  flung  wide  for  the  tight.  But  suddenly 
Simeon,  weakened  by  pam  and  dominated  by  a  stronger 
will  than  his  own,  let  himself  go  and  implored  his  adversary  : 
"Patrice!"  he  entreated.  "Patrice!  What  are  you 
thinking  of  doing  ?  " 

Stretching  out  his  hands,  he  threw  himself  upon  the  other's 
pity  ;  and  Patrice,  arrested  in  his  onrush,  stood  perplexed, 
staring  at  the  man  to  whom  he  was  bound  by  so  mysterious 
and  strange  a  tie  : 

"  Coralie."  he  said,  without  lowering  his  hands,  "  Coralie 

.     .     .     tell  me  where  she  is  and  I'll  spare  your  hfe." 

The  old  man  started.     His  evil  nature  was  stimulated 

by  the  remembrance  of  Coralie  ;   and  ihe  recovered  a  part  of 

his   energy  at  the  possibility  of  wrong-doing.     He  gave  a 

cruel  laugh : 

"  No,  no,"  he  answered.  "  Corahe  in  one  scale  and  I  in 
the  other  ?  I'd  rather  die.  Besides,  Coralies  hiding-place  is 
where  the  gold  is.     No,  never  !   I  may  just  as  well  die." 

"  Kill   him  then,   captain,"   said  Don  Luis,   intervening. 
"  Kill  him,  since  he  prefers  it." 
"  Yes    .     .     .     But  this  man.     .     .     ." 
"  Is  it  your  hands  that  refuse  ?   The  idea  of  taking  hold  ol 
the  flesh  and  squeezing  ?     .     .     .     Here,  captain,  take  my 
revolver  and  blow  out  his  brains." 

Patrice  accepted  the  weapon  eagerly  and  aimed  it  at  old 
Simeon.  The  silence  was  appalling.  Old  Simeon's  eyes  had 
closed  and  drops  of  sweat  were  streaming  down  his  hvid 
cheeks. 

At  last  the  officer  lowered  his  arm  : 
"  I  can't  do  it,"  he  said. 

"  You  can't  ?  ShaU  I  tell  you  the  reason  ?  You  are 
thinking  of  that  man  as  if  he  were  your  father." 

"  Perhaps  it's  that,"  said  the  officer,  speaking  very  low. 
"  There's  a  chance  of  it,  you  know." 

"  What  does  it  matter,  if  he's  a  beast  and  a  blackguard  ?  " 
"  No,  no,  I  haven't  the  right.     Let  him  die  by  all  means, 
but  not  by  my  hand.     I  haven't  the  right." 
'■  You  have  the  right." 

"  No,  it  would  be  abominable  !   It  would  be  monstrous  !  " 
Don  Luis  went  up  to  him  and,  tapping  him  on  the  shoulder, 
said,  gravely : 

"  You  surely  don't  believe  that  I  should  stand  here,  urging 
you  to  kill  that  man,  if  he  were  your  father  ?  " 
Patrice  looked  at  him  wildly  : 

"  Oh  !  "  exclaimed  Patrice.  "  Do  you  mean  that  he's  not 
my  father?   " 

"  Of  course  he's  not  !  "  cried  Don  Luis,  with  irresistible 
conviction  and  increasing  eagerness.  "  Your  father  indeed  I 
Why,  look  at  him  !  Look  at  that  scoundrelly  head.  Every 
sort  of  vice  and  violence  is  written  on  the  brute's  face. 
Throughout  this  adventure,  from  the  first  day  to  the  last, 
there  was  not  a  crime  committed  but  was  his  handiv\  ork : 
not  one,  do  you  follow  me  ?  There  were  not  two  criminals, 
as  we  thought,  not  Essares,  to  begin  the  hellish  business,  and 
old  Simeon,  to  finish  it.  There  was  only  one  criminal,  one, 
do  you  understand,  Patrice  ?  Before  killing  Corahe  and  Ya- 
Bon  and  Vacherot  the  porter  and  the  woman,  who  was  his 
own  accomphce,  he  killed  others  !  He  killed  one  other  in 
particular,  one  whose  flesh  and  blood  you  are,  the  man  whose 
dying  cries  you  heard  over  the  telephone,  the  man  who  called 
you  Patrice  and  who  only  lived  for  you  I  He  killed  that  man  | 
{  Continued  on  page  24) 


March  22,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


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The  Absorbency  of  Good  Linen. 

^TT  Wax  and  fats  are  scientifically  known  as 
\J\  repellents  of  water.  Linen  fibre  contains 
47%  less  of  these  than  does  raw  cotton  ;  and 
though  the  bleaching  process  extracts  a  certain 
amount,  here  again  the  proportion  moves  in  favour 
of  linm,  since  cotton,  being  initially  the  whiter, 
bleaches  too  quickly  to  allow  of  the  removal  of  any 
appreciable  quantity.  The  "  Old  Bleach  "  method 
of  prolonged  bleaching  on  the  grass  is  peculiarly 
suited  to  Towels,  for  ic  removes  almost  all  ihe  wax 
and  fats,  leaving  them  exceptionally  absorb.int, 
white,  and  pleasing  in  appearance. 


How  '  OLD  BLEACH*  may  be  bought. 

^TT  "  Old  Bleach  "  Linens  can  be  obtained  at  all 
\j\  the  best  shops;  but  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
we  will  gladly  send  the  address  of  the  nearest 
retailer  who  can  show  you  "Old  Bleach"  Table 
Damasks,  Towels,  Embroidery  Linen,  Bed  Liren, 
etc., in  variety,  together  with  the  "  OLD  BLEACH 
BOOK,"  which  besides  containing  many  beautiful 
designs  of  damasks,  gives  complete  information  on 
the  care  and  preservation  of  Linen,  and  is  a  useful 
guide  to  purchasing.  Look  for  the  trade  mark  "  Old 
Bleach  "  stamped  on  every  article  except  table 
damasks  ;  they  have  ®  woven  in  the  four  corners. 


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24 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  22,  1917 


(Continued  from  page  22) 
and  that  man  was  your  father,  Patrice  ;    he  was  Armand 
Belval !    Now  do  you  understand  ?  " 

Patrice  did  not  understand.  Don  Luis'  words  fell  uncom- 
prehended  ;  not  one  of  them  ht  up  the  darkness  of  Patrice's 
brain.  However,  one  thought  msistently  possessed  him  ; 
and  he  stammered  : 

"  J  hat  was  my  fatlier  ?   I  heard  his  voice,  you  say  ?   Then 
it  was  he  who  called  to  me  ?  " 
"  Yes,  Patrice,  your  father." 
"  And  the  man  who  killed  him     .     .     .  ?  " 
"  Was  this  one,"  said  Don  Luis,  pointing  to  Simron. 
The  old  man  remained  motionless,  wild-eyed,  like  a  felon 
awaiting  sentence  of  death.     Patrice,  quivering  with    rage, 
stared  at  h.m  fixedly  : 

"  Who  you  are  ?  W'ho  are  you  ?  "  he  asked.  And,  turning 
to  Don  Luis,  "  Tell  me  his  name,  I  beseech  you.  I  want  to 
know  his  name,  before  I  destroy  him." 

"  His  name  .'  Haven't  you  guessed  it  yet  ?  Why,  from 
the  very  first  day,  I  took  it  for  granted  !  After  all,  it  was 
the  only  possible  theory." 

There  was  a  long  silence  between  the  two  men,  as    they 
stood  close  together,  looking  into  each    other's    eyes.     Then 
Lupin  let  fall  these  four  syllables  : 
■  Essares  Bey." 

Patrice  felt  a  shock  that  ran  through  him  from  head  to  foot. 
Not  for  a  second  did  he  try  to  understand  by  what  prodigy 
(his  revelation  came  to  be  merely  an  expression  of  the  truth. 
He  instantly  accepted  this  truth,  as  though  it  were  undeniable 
and  proved  by  the  most  evident  facts.  The  man  was  Essares 
Bey  and  had  killed  his  father.  He  had  killed  him,  so  to  speak, 
twice  over  ;  first  j'ears  ago,  in  the  lodge  in  the  garden,  taking 
from  him  all  the  light  of  fife  and  any  reason  for  living  ;  and 
again  the  other  day,  in  the  library,  when  Armand  Belval  had 
telephoned  to  his  son. 

Tliis  time  Patrice  was  determined  to  do  the  deed-.  His  eyes 
e.xpressed  an  indomitable  resolution.  His  father's  murderer. 
Corahes  murderer,  must  die  then  and  there.  His  duty  was 
clear  and  precise.  The  terrible  Essares  was  doomed  to  die 
by  the  hand  of  the  son  and  the  bridegroom. 

"  Say  your  prayers,"  said  Patrice,  coldly.  "  In  ten  seconds 
t'ou  will  be  a  dead  man." 

He  counted  out  the  seconds  and,  at  the  tenth,  was  about  to 
fire,  when  his  enemy,  in  an  access  of  mad  energy  proving  that 
under  the  outward  appearance  of  old  Simeon,  there  was  hidden 
a  man  still  yoiing  and  vigorous,  shouted  with  a  violence 
extraordinary  that  it  made  Patrice  hesitate  : 

"  Very  well,  kill  me  !  .  .  .  Yes,  let  it  be  finished ! 
.  .  .  .  I  am  beaten  :  I  accept  defeat.  But  it  is  a  victory 
all  the  same,  because  Coralie  is  dead  and  my  gold  is  saved  ! 
.  .  .  .  I  shall  die,  but  nobody  shall  have  either  one 
•or  the  other,  the  woman  whom  I  love  or  the  gold  that 
was  my  hfe.  Ah,  Patrice,  Patrice,  the  woman  whom  we 
both  loved  to  distraction  is  no  longer  alive  ...  or  else 
she  is  dying  without  a  possibility  of  saving  her  now.  If  I 
cannot  have  her,  you  shall  not  have  her  either,  Patrice.  My 
revenge  has  done  its  work.     Coralie  is  lost !  "  . 

He  had  recovered  a  fierce  energy  and  was  shouting  and 
stammering  at  the  same  time.  Patrice  stood  opposite  him, 
holding  him  covered  with  the  revolver,  ready  to  act,  but  still 
waiting  to  hear  the  terrible  words  that  tortured  him. 

"  She  is  lost,  Patrice  !  "  Simeon  continued,  raising  Ids 
voice  still  louder.  "  Lost  1  There's  nothing  to  be  done ! 
And  you  will  not  find  even  her  body,  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth 
where  I  buried  her  with  the  bags  of  gold.  Under  the  tomb- 
stone ?  No,  not  such  a  fool !  No,  Patrice,  you  will  never 
find  her.  The  gold  is  stifling  her.  She's  dead !  CoraUe  is 
dead  !  Oh,  the  dehght  of  throwing  that  in  your  face  !  " 
"  Don't  shout  so,  you'll  wake  her,"  said  Don  Luis,  calmly. 
The  brief  sentence  was  followed  by  a  sort  of  stupor  which 
paralysed  the  two  adversaries.  Patrice's  arms  dropped  to  his 
sides.  Simeon  turned  giddy  and  sank  into  a  chair.  Both  of 
them,  knowing  the  things  of  which  Don  Luis  was  capable, 
knew  what  he  meant. 

But  Patrice  wanted  something  more  than  a  vague  sentence 
that  might  just  as  easily  be  taken  as  a  jest.  He  wanted 
•certainty. 

"  Wake  her  ?  "  he  asked,  in  a  broken  voice. 
"  Well,  of  course  !  "  said  Don  Luis.     "  When  you  shout  too 
loud,  you  wake  people  up." 
"  Then  she's  ahve  ?  " 

"  You  can't  wake  the  dead,  whatever  people  may  say. 
You  can  only  wake  the  living." 

■  Coralie  is  alive  !  Corahe  is  aUve  !  "  Patrice  repeated, 
in  a  sovt  of  rapture  that  transfigured  his  features.  "Can  it 
be  possible  ?  But  then  she  must  be  here  !  Oh,  I  beg  of  you, 
say  you're  in  earnest,  give  me  your  word     .     .     ." 

"  Let  me  answer  you,  captain,  as  I  answered  that  wretch 
just  now.  You  are  admitting  that  it  is  possible  for  me  to 
abandon  my  work  before  completing  it.     How  httle  you  know 


me  !  What  I  undertake  to  do  I  do.  It's  one  of  my  habits 
and  a  good  one  at  that.  That's  why  1  cUng  to  it.  Now 
watch  me." 

He  turned  to  one  side  of  the  room.  Opposite  xhe  hanging 
that  covered  the  door  by  which  Patrice  had  entered  was  a 
second  curtain,  conceahng  another  door.  He  Ufted  the 
curtain. 

"  No,  no,  she's  not  there,"  said  Patrice,  in  an  almost 
inaudible  voice.  "  I  dare  not  believe  it.  The  disappointment 
would  be  too  great.     Swear  to  me     .     .     .'' 

"  I  swear  nothing,  captain.  Y'ou  have  only  to  open  your 
eyes.  By  Jove,  for  a  French  officer,  you're  cutting  a  pretty 
figure!  Why,  you're  as  white  as  a  sheet!  Of  course  it's 
she  !  It's  Little  Mother  Coralie  !  Look,  she's  in  bed  asleep, 
vrith  two  nurses  to  watch  her.  But  there's  no  danger  ;  she  s 
not  wo.  ndeJ.  A  1  it  of  temperature,  that's  all,  am  extren  e 
weakness.  Poor  Little  Mother  Coralie  !  I  never  could  have 
imagined  her  in  such  a  state  of  exhaustion  and  coma." 

Patrice  had  stepped  forward,  brimming  over  with  joy. 
Don  Luis  stopped  him  : 

"  That  will  do,  captain.  Don't  go  any  nearer.  I  brought 
her  here,  instead  of  taking  her  home,  because  I  thought  a 
change  of  scene  and  atmosphere  essential.  But  she  must  have 
no  excitement.  She's  had  her  share  of  that  ;  and  you  might 
spoil  everything  by  showing  yourself." 

"  You're  right,"  said  Patrice.  "  But  are  you  sure  .  ,  .  ?  " 
"  That  she's  ahve  ?  "  asked  Don  Luis,  laughing.  "  She's 
as  much  ahve  as  you  or  I  and  quite  ready  to  give  you  the 
happiness  you  deserve  and  to  change  her  name  to  Mme. 
Patrice  Belval.  You  must  have  just  a  httle  patience,  that's 
all.  And  there  is  yet  one  obstacle  to  overcome,  captain, 
for  remember  she's  a  married  woman  !  " 

He  closed  the  door  and  led  Patrice  back  to  Essar&s  Bey  : 

"  There's  the  obstacle,   captain.     Is  your  mind  made  uj) 

now  ?     This  wretch  still  stands  between  you  and  your  Coralie." 

Essares  had  not  even  glanced  into  the  next  room,  as  thougli 

he  knew  that  there  could  be  no  doubt  about  Don  Luis'  word. 

He  sat  shivering  in  his  chair,  cowering,  weak  and  helpless. 

"  You  don't  seem  comfortable,"  said  Don  Luis.  "  What's 
worrying  you  ?  You're  frightened,  perhaps  ?  What  for  ? 
I  promise  you  that  we  will  no  nothing  except  by  mutual  con- 
sent and  until  we  are  all  of  the  same  opinion.  That  ought 
to  cheer  you  up.  We'll  be  your  judges,  the  three  of  us,  here 
and  now.  Captain  Patrice  Belval,  Arsene  Lupin  and  old 
Simeon  will  form  the  court.  Let  the  trial  begin.  Does  any- 
one wish  to  speak  in  defence  of  the  prisoner  at  the  bar. 
Essares  Bay  ?  No  one.  The  prisoner  at  the  bar  is  sentenced 
to  death.  Extenuating  circumstances  ?  No  notice  of  appeal  ? 
No.  Commutation  of  sentence  ?  No.  Reprieve  ?  No. 
Immediate  execution  ?  Yes.  You  see,  there's  no  delay. 
What  about  the  means  of  death  ?  A  revolver  shot  ?  That 
will  do.  It's  clean,  quick  work.  Captain  Belval,  your  bird. 
The  gun's  loaded.     Here  you  are." 

Patrice  did  not  move.     He  stood  gazing  at  the  foul  brute 
who   had   done    him   so   many   injuries.     His   whole     being 
seethed  with  hatred.     Nevertheless  he  rephed  : 
"  I  will  not  kill  that  man!  " 

"  I  agree,  captain.      Your   scruples  do  you  honour.     Y'ou 

have  not  the  right  to  kill  a  man  whom  you  know  to  be  the 

husband  of  the  woman  you  love.     It  is  not  for  you  to  remove 

the  obstacle.     Besides,  you  hate  taking  hfe.     So  do  I.     This 

animal  is  too  filthy  for  words.     And  so,  my  good  man,  there's 

no  one  left  but  yourself  to  help  us  out  of  this  dehcate  position." 

Don  Luis  ceased  speaking  for  a  moment  and  leant  over 

Essares.     Had  the  wretched  man  heard  ?     Was  he  even  ahve  ? 

He  looked  as  if  he  were  in  a  faint,  deprived  of  consciousness. 

Don  Luis  shook  him  by  the  shoulder. 

"  The  gold,"  moaned  Essares,  "  the  bags  of  gold     .     .     ." 

"  Oh,  you're  thinking  of  that,  you  old  scoundrel,  are  you  ? 

You're  still  interested  ?     The  bags  of  gold  are  in  my  pocket 

.     .     .     .     if  a  pocket  can  contain  eighteen  hundred  bars 

of  gold." 

"  The  hiding  place  ?  " 

"Your  hiding  place?  It  doesn't  exist,  so  far  as  I'm 
concerned.  I  needn't  prove  it  to  you,  need  I,  since  Corahe  s 
here  ?  As  Coralie  was  buried  amongst  the  bags  of  gold, 
you  can  draw  your  ovm  conclusion.  So  you're  nicely  done. 
The  woman  you  wanted  is  free  and,  what  is  worse  still,  free 
by  the  side  of  the  man  whom  she  adores  and  whom  she  will 
never  leave.  And  on  the  other  hand  your  treas  ire  is 
discovered.  So  it's  all  finished,  eh  ?  We  are  agreed  ? 
Come,  here's  the  toy  that  will  release  you.  One  httle  effort, 
one  little  movement  .  .  ." 
He  handed  him  the  revolver. 

That  httle  movement  the  miscreant  made.  Hardly  know- 
ing what  he  did,  he  pulled  the  trigger.  The  shot  rang  through 
the  room  ;  and  Essares  fell  forward,  with  his  knees  on  the 
floor.  Don  Luis  had  to  spring  to  one  side  to  escape  the 
blood  that  trickled  from  the  man's  shattered  head. 
{To  be  continued). 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII  No.  2864  [,«I-J  THURSDAY.  MARCH  29    1917  [rN^E'^^P^^^n'^l]  ^pSS^^I^^ ^SS\ 


r\  CKi- -T"  u  <=  Jjf  r< 


Brothers  -  in  -Arms 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


SOMETHING 
NEW 

THE  most  workmanlike  wet-weather 
grarment  that  summer  fighting  has 
produced    is   without    a   doubt    the 
"Thresher"  Field  Jerkin. 

Things  are  going-  to  move  with  a  jerk 
pretty  soon,  and  the  veterans  are  looking 
to  their  kit  in  readiness.  Light  in 
weight,  for  hard  work  in  warm  wet 
weather,  giving  room  in  the  cut  where 
room  is  wanted,  stout  enough  to  stand 
the  roughest  wear  you  can  put  upon  it, 
and  proof  against  the  wildest  combina- 
tions of  wind  and  wet  that  you  can  ever 
be  asked  to  face,  it  owes  its  practical 
fighting  value  to  the  men  who  have  seen 
two  war  summers  through.  The  sugges- 
tions and  hints  of  these  practical  soldiers 
(ofttimes  feelingly  expressed  —  and  no 
wonder)  decided  the  weight,  the  length, 
the  freedom  and  the  weatherproofness  of 
the  "  Thresher"  Field  Jerkin,  and  one  of 
the  oldest  firms  of  military  outfitters  in 
Britain,  chose  the  materials,  designed  the 
fastenings  and  cut  the  coat  accordingly. 

The  "  Thresher"  Field  Jerkin  is  intended 
for  wear  with  short  trunk  overalls. 

The  "Thresher"  Field  Jerkin, 
lined  check  cashmere, 

84/- 

Waterproof  Trunk   Overalls    17/6  a   pair 


THE  THRESHER 
FIELD   JERKIN 

A  new  Campaign  Coat  by  the  makers  of  the  far-famed  "  Thresher  " 
Trench  Coat  —  worn  by  15,000  British  Officers  —  the  original 
trench  coat  and  still  the  best. 


By  Appointment 


To  H  M    Ike  King 


Send  for  Book  (3>— "The  Complete  Guide 
to  Expenditure  on  Kit  and  Equipment." 

THRESHER  &  GLENNY 

(5s/.  1755         Military  Tailors  since  the  Crimean  War        6sl-  1755 

152  &  153  STRAND,  LONDON,  W.C. 


i*^' 


J 


March   29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON.     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  MARCH  29.   1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Brothers  in  Arms.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

The  Western  Armies.     (Leader)  3 

A  French  Heavy  Piece.     (Special   Photograph)  4 

The  Western  AlUance.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  5 

Cartoon  from  Le  Figaro.     By  Forain  8 

Tommy  and  Jacques.     By  Rene  Puaux  9 
Rise  of  the  Anglo-French  Entente.     By  J.  Holland 

Rose  lo 
Devastation  of  War.  (Special  Photographs)  n 
Welding  Two  Democracies.  By  Henry  D.  Davray  13 
La  Part  de  I'Angleterre.  Cartoon  by  Sem  14 
The  Attack.  By  Centurion  15 
With  the  French  Army.  (Special  Photographs)  16 
New  German  Line.  By  Hilaire  Belloc  19 
Liaison  of  the  Seas.  By  Arthur  Pollen  22 
The  Russian  Situation.  By  L  Shklovsky  24 
The  Warrior's  Soul,  by  Joseph  Conrad.  (Illus- 
trated by  Dudley  Hardy)  29 
Domestic  Economy  A} 
Motor  Enterprise.  By  H.  Massac  Buist  xi- 
Kit  and  Equipment                                                          xiii. 

THE  WESTERN  ARMIES 

ONE  hundred  years  ago  who  in  this  country  could 
have  visualised  the  gigantic  war  now  being 
waged  on  the  Western  Front.  But  at  that 
period  still  more  impossible  would  it  have  ap- 
peared for  France  and  Britain  to  be  fighting  shoulder  to 
shoulder  in  perfect  comradeship.  Dr.  Holland  Rose 
does  well  to  remind  us  to-day  of  the  famous  rebuke  of 
Pitt  the  younger  that,  "  to  suppose  any  nation  can  be 
unalterably  the  enemy  of  another  is  weak  and  foolish." 
The  French  and  the  British  were  clean  fighters,  and  a 
strong  sense  of  respect  and  a  common  love  of  freedom 
imderlay  national  animosity.  One  may  recall  the  almost 
prophetic  incident  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  his  old 
enemy  in  Spain,  Marshal  Soult,  driving  together  through 
the  streets  of  London  at  the  Coronation  of  Queen  Victoria, 
three  and  twenty  years  after  Waterloo.  The  good 
understanding  that  had  come  into  being  between  those 
two  world-famous  military  commanders,  who  had  faced 
each  other  in  many  a  hard-fought  fight,  has  now 
spread  to  t,he  two  nations,  and  the  enemy  has  found  it 
impossible  to  rupture  or  weaken  the  confidence  and  good- 
will with  which  the  neighbours  are  carrying  on  the  war 
until  it  shall  end  in  complete  military  victory. 

That  these  two  countries  were  intended  by  Nature 
to  live  on  good  terms  with  each  other  seems  to  this 
generation  fairly  obvious.  They  are  in  so  many  respects 
complementary  one  of  the  other.  Since  the  old  dynastic 
quarrels  ended  close  on  four  hundred  years  ago,  there 
has  been  no  coveting  of  each  other's  territory,  and  it  is 
unthinkable  that  either  could  have  practised  on  the 
other  the  "  peaceful  penetration  "  methods  of  Germany. 
We  have  had  our  quarrels  ;  we  have  used  hard  words 
about  each  other,  but  we  have  never  sneaked  into  the 
other's  house,  and  under  the  guise  of  friendship  played 
the  part  of  burglar  and  assassin.  That  has  been  left 
to  the  Teuton,  whose  civilisation  is  neither  Latin  nor 
Anglo-Saxon,  but  rather  simian.  It  is  on  the  plane  of 
ideas  that  France  and  England  have  reacted  most 
closely  on  each  other.  As  M.  Davray,  the  distinguished 
French  litterateur,  points  out  on  another  page,  we  in  the 
Great  Rebellion  sowed  the  seeds  of  the  French  Revolu- 


tion, and  together  we  are  reaping  the  harvest  of  these 
two  great  seed-times  of  liberty.  We  fight  to-day  for  the 
freedom  of  Europe  and  of  humanity.  There  is  not  a  man 
in  the  ranks  of  either  of  the  Western  Armies  who  has  any 
illusion  on  this  point. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  has  existed  an 
excellent  understanding  between  the  commanders  in  the 
fijld,  and  what  in  a  sense  is  even  more  agreeable  to  con- 
template, between  the  armed  men  of  Britain  and  the 
civilian  peoples  of  France  among  whom  they  have  been 
quartered.  It  has  been  said  that  the  most  successful 
ambassador  this  country  has  ever  sent  to  France  is 
Thomas  Atkins,  and  there  is  truth  in  the  sajdng.  If 
he  has  behaved  himself  well,  he  has  been  treated  kindly, 
and  there  has  grown  out  of  this  happy  intercourse  new 
national  knowledge  and  esteem.  Never  will  it  be  said 
again,  while  the  present  generation  lives,  EngUsh  folk  do 
not  understand  the  French,  for  there  will  not  be  a  ioym, 
village  or  hamlet  in  these  islands  which  will  not  hold  at 
least  one  man  who  will  consider  himself  competent  out 
of  his  own  experience  in  the  Great  War,  to  explain  to  his 
fellows  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  French  people. 
This  widening  of  horizons  is  the  finest  form  of  education, 
it  does  more  to  make  for  peace  and  goodwill  upon  earth 
than  pious  sermons  or  eloquent  orations. 

As  the  influ.x  of  German  barbarism  is  slowly  turned 
backward  through  the  invaded  districts  it  leaves  behind 
it  so  foul  a  scum,  that  one  wonders  whether  the  stench 
will  ever  be  removed  from  human  nostrils.  There  is  no 
species  of  bestial  mischief  to  which  "  Kultur  "  vnll  not 
humble  itself.  Now  behold  an  extraordinary  paradox, 
which  has  been  pointed  out  more  than  once :  while  a 
German  never  wearies  of  boasting  his  superiority  over 
other  nations  there  is  no  graver  form  of  personal 
insult  than  to  tell  him  he  looks  like  a  German.  There 
seems  almost  divine  irony  in  this  circumstance,  as  though 
1:  were  Heaven's  decree  that  for  all  his  loud  talk  and 
blatant  swagger,  the  Teuton  may  never  in  his  heart 
deceive  even  himself  that  he  is  in  comparison  with  fellow 
peoples  other  than  contemptible.  An  Englishman 
rises  an  inch  in  his  boots  if  a  foreigner  tells  him  :  "  I 
could  see  at  a  glance  you  were  English,"  and  a  French- 
man is  as  quick  to  seize  the  compliment.  But  to  tell  a 
German  he  looks  like  a  German  was  regarded  by  him 
as  a  sneer  before  the  war.  In  the  future  it  shall  be  as 
the  mark  upon  Cain. 

We  do  not  overlook  the  splendid  work  which  the 
other  Allies  are  doing  in  the  cause  of  freedom.  Russia 
has  found  time,  though  perhaps  it  were  more  accurate 
to  say  the  occasion  has  been  thrust  upon  her,  to  conduct 
an  internal  revolution  for  civil  liberty,  but  that  task 
accomplished,  she  promises  to  conduct  the  war  with 
greater  vigour  than  before.  United  Italy  continues  to 
press  closely  on  the  Austrians,  and  the  Germanic  Empires 
can  look  for  no  relief  of  pressure  in  that  direction.  Bel- 
gium still  holds  the  field  with  her  brave  army,  whose 
gallantry  in  staying  the  German  onslaught  in  the  first 
days  of  the  war  and  winning  precious  hours  by  its  daunt- 
less bravery,  will  never  be  forgotten.  Serbia  and  Rou- 
mania,  despite,  their  terrible  experiences,  still  fight  ener- 
getically ;  for  theenvelopment  which  the  Germanic  leaders 
have  persistently  attempted  and  persistently  failed  in, 
failed  with  them.  The  war  proceeds  actively  on  all  the 
Fronts,  but  in  this  issue  of  Land  &  Water  we  have 
concerned  ourselves  almost  entirely  with  the  active 
alliance  of  France  and  Britain,  who  in  the  past  centuries 
have  fought  against  each  other  on  sea  and  land,  and  in 
well-nigh  every  latitude,  yet  to-day,  animated  by  the 
same  spirit  and  inspired  by  identical  ideals,  are  making 
equal  sacrifices  in  order  that  the  spiritual  heritage  they 
have  received  from  their  fathers  shall  not  be  filched 
from  them  by  brutal  Might,  or  the  altars  of  hberty  over- 
thrown and  trampled  under  the  foul  feet  of  barbarians. 


LAND    &    WATER 


March 


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March  29,  1917 


LAND    &     WATER 


The    Western    Alliance 


By   Hilaire   Belloc 


THIRTY-TWO  months  age  the  Prussian  Govern- 
ment, after  a  secret  preparation  of  three  years, 
suddenly  forced  war  upon  France  and  Russia. 
It  was  forced  at  that  moment  just  after  the  har- 
vest of  1914,  simply  because  the  date  was  that  upon 
which  Prussia  had  determined  as  far  back  as  191 1. 
It  was  the  date  corresponding  to  the  close  of  her 
special  intensive  preparation  for  the  struggle,  when 
the  supplies  of  food  had  been  gathered  for  a  short  cam- 
paign (as  it  Wcis  planned  to  be)  ;  when  the  new  dispositions 
for  the  increase  of  the  armji-  had  borne  their  fruit  and 
trained  the  new  men  thoroughly  ;  when  the  enlargement 
of  th«  Kiel  Canal,  and  the  strategic  railways  of  Rhenish 
Prussia  were  completed,  and  when  the  special  war  levy 
upon  German  capital  had  been  gathered  and  laid  out 
for  the  purpose  assigned  to  it. 

Monstrous  as  the  act  was  there  is  nothing  surprising 
in  it  to  anyone  who  has  even  an  elementary  acquaintance 
with  the  general  history  of  Europe.  Prussia  has  always 
maintained  quite  openly  a  certain  policy,  and  the  onlj- 
debate  among  her  enemies,  rivals,  and  even  friends  a. 
any  particular  moment  of  crisis  between  the  accession 
of  Frederick  the  Great  and  the  present  day,  has  been 
whether  or  no  that  policy  threatened  or  served  their  in- 
terests, and  whether  or  no  it  was  likely  to  be  put  into 
execution  at  the  moment,  and  especially,  till  this  last 
decision,  whether  it  were  yet  strong  enough  to  do  all  it 
threatened.  The  Prussian  Government,  the  educational 
system,  especially  in  its  higher  branches  which  that 
Government  has  fostered,  the  whole  philosophy  of 
the  Prussian  State  and  an  uninterrupted  mass  of  literary 
declaration  proceeding  throughout  all  these  years, 
has  made  no  secret  of  the  matter.  It  was  never  even 
questioned — until  the  Marne. 

This  Prussian  policy  may  easily  be  defined,  for  it  is 
a  European  phenomenon  as  clearly  admitted,  and  even 
boasted  of,  by  its  authors,  as  it  is  recognised  by  its  critics 
or  opponents.     It  is  as  follows  : 

To  advantage  the  Prussian  State  at  the  expense  of  any 
other  State  in  the  European  policy  without  regard  to  any 
European  tradition  of  the  international  relations,  to 
the  old  moral  sanctions  of  what  used  to  be  called 
Christendom,  or  even  to  the  longer  and  saner  views  of 
historical  development  which  might  have  warned  any 
power  against  so  singular  an  attitude. 

Thus  the  breach  of  a  Treaty,  new  or  old,  was  always 
admitted  in  this  policy  from  its  inception.  The  only 
calculation  admitted  was  one  of  probable  consequence. 
It  was  clear  that  a  power  with  a  reputation  for  always 
breaking  treaties  immediately  would  not  be  able  to  make 
them  at  all ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  the  conflicting  in- 
terests of  other  powers  would  sometimes  tempt  some 
powerful  group  of  them  to  condone  such  action  or  to 
remain  indifferent  to  it  ;  the  lapse  of  time,  again,  would 
confuse  the  issue  and  moderate  indignation. 

There  is  case  after  case  of  this  throughout  Prussian 
history  and  the  uniformity  of  the  series  is  special  to 
Prussian  history  alone.  The  first  capital  example  was 
when  Frederick  the  Great  invaded  Silesia  after  taking  a 
special  engagement  to  defend  its  rightful  owners.  The 
next  was  the  partition  of  Poland.  Then  followed  the 
abandonment  of  Pitt  through  fear  of  Napoleon  ;  the  sub- 
sequent abandonment  of  Napoleon  after  1812  ;  the  forgery 
of  the  Ems  despatch  by  Bismarck.  And  this  is  only  a 
list  of  the  enormous,  the  very  salient  examples  among 
scores.  No  other  European  State  has  puf  forward  the 
theory  or  produced  its  consequent  records. 

The  two  instruments  upon  which  the  Prussian  policy 
has  turned  have  been,  first  the  maintenance  of  the 
HohenzoUern  dynasty  as  symbol  and  agent  of  an  autoc- 
racy necessary  to  rapid  military  action,  secondly,  the 
natural  though  vague  appetite  of  the  various  German 
tribes  for  some  outward  form  of  unity — an  appetite  the 
satisfying  of  which  they  have  never    been  competent  to 


achieve,  because  they  have  not  the  capacity  to  form  a 
State. 

In  the  first  of  these  points  the  Prussian  policy  has  been 
sincere,  because  an  unbroken  traditional  and  autocratic 
military  dynasty  was  an  organic  necessity  to  the  whole 
scheme.  In  the  second  point  it  has  been  hypocritical. 
The  unity  of  the  German  tribes  was  neither  achieved 
nor  intended  to  be  achieved  by  Prussia.  To  leave  out 
those  Germans  who  might  have  weighed  against  the 
Prussian  hegemony,  to  weaken  others  who  should  be 
subjected  to  it,  to  include  non-German  elements 
dangerous  to  German  culture  but  of  economic  or  recruiting 
value  to  the  Prussian  State,  has  always  been  part  of 
the  true  Prussian  poHcy,  and  the  ideal  of  German  unity 
was  merely  an  opportunity  used  and  played  upon  by  this 
particular  power,  the  racial  origin  of  which  was  only 
partly  German,  and  the  manifestations  of  which  were  not 
spiritually  German  at  all,  but  something  uniquely  evil 
in  the  congeries  of  European  States. 

A    Consistent   Policy 

When  Prussia,  then,  suddenly  declared  war  upon 
France  and  Russia,  she  did  so  in  full  agreement  with  what 
she  had  always  done  for  the  better  part  of  two  hundred 
years.  She  boasted  of  the  action  ;  she  thought  it  normal, 
as  indeed  it  was  normal  to  her  perverted  morals.  Above 
all,  she  thought  the  consequences  of  that  action  would 
be  to  her  great  advantage  and  would  be  immediate  and 
certain.  So  far  as  calculation  went,  she  could  not  fail  to 
achieve  a  complete  victory  within  a  very  few  weeks  of  her 
mobilisation. 

She  had  the  following  advantages  :  She  commanded 
through  the  alliances  she  had  formed  the  services  of  121 
millions  of  population,  all  organised  for  war  on  a  strictly 
conscript  basis.  They  included  her  own  subjects  (for 
military  purposes  the  term  "  subject  "  is  accurately  used 
of  German  nationals  imder  the  Hohenzollem  Crown — 
they  are  militarily  no  more  than  the  subjects  of  Prussia)  ; 
about  another  25  per  cent,  of  German-speaking  Austrians  ; 
all  the  Magyars ;  some  millions  of  Roumanians  and 
many  more  millions  of  Slavs — the  group  which  we  call 
"  the  Central  Empires."  She  had  immense  and  highly- 
developed  industrial  resources  for  a  war,  the  foundation 
of  which  was  essentially  industrial.  Of  her  two  opponents 
the  numerically  important  one  to  the  East,  the  Russian 
Empire,  was  hardly  industrialised  at  all  as  yet,  and 
would  necessarily  mobilise  very  slowly ;  it  was  further 
largely  under  German  influence  through  its  unpopular 
bureaucracy  and  through  the  existing  conditions  of  its 
nascent  manufactures^  Upon  the  west  that  opponent 
which  had,  like  Prussia  and  her  Allies,  a  strong  military 
tradition  and  a  fully  conscript  service,  France,  counted 
not  a  third  in  numbers  of  the  total  weight  which  Prussia 
commanded.  It  had  nothing  like  the  industrial  develop- 
ment of  modern  Germany ;  it  had  not  an  equivalent 
fleet ;  it  suffered  under  the  memory  of  a  complete 
defeat  at  Prussian  hands ;  its  form  of  government  was 
ill  suited  to  war  ;  -it  was,  or  seemed  to  be,  fundamentally 
divided  by  bitter  political  quarrels ;  most  important  of 
all,  it  had,  in  its  system  of  fortification  and  preparation 
for  war,  taken  for  granted  the  inviolability  of  the  re- 
maining traditions  of  European  honour,  and  therefore  of 
the  security  of  its  frontiers  against  the  small,  peaceful, 
neutral  and  guaranteed  nation  of  Belgium — which  lay 
between  France  and  German  territory  upon  the  north. 

Under  such  circumstances,  the  plan  of  Prussia — granted 
the  Prussian  morals  and  the  Prussian  tradition — was  as 
simple  as  it  was  apparently  invincible.  The  unexpected 
aggressor  had  only  to  violate  the  territory  of  Belgiiun, 
to  bring  westward  his  overwhelming  superiority  in 
number  and  material,  to  destroy  the  French  armies  at 
once — and  to  then  meet  at  his  leisure  what  were  certain 
to  be  the  tardy  and  insufficient  efforts  of  Russia,  when 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


this  western  work  had  been  rapidly  and  thoroughly 
accomplistied. 

The  Prussian  Government  had  been  warned  by  a 
responsible  English  statesman  visiting  its  Court  a  few 
years  before,  that  any  plan  of  this  sort,  if  it  were  carried 
into  action,  would  necessarily  involve  hostilities  with 
Great  Britain,  it  did  not  believe,  however,  that  Great 
Britain,  when  the  test  came,  would  enter  the  war. 

The  grounds  of  tliis  misjudgment  vs'ere  manifold.  It 
took  seriously  the  mere  conventional  play  of  English 
parliamentary  parties.  It  grossly  exaggerated  the  real 
divisions  of  English  pohtical  opinion  ;  it  quite  under- 
estimated the  homogeneity  of  British  national  senti- 
ment ;  it  somewhat  overestimated  the  considerable 
forces,  economic  and  pohtical,  which  would  refuse  any 
foreign  adventure. 

But  above  all,  it  relied  upon  a  certain  factor  in  the 
business  which  was  really  present  and  which  might  indeed 
have  affected  the  issue  disastrously  for  this  country, 
and  advantageously  for  her  enemies.  This  factor  was 
the  remoteness  of  the  whole  British  tradition,  experience, 
intention  and  outlook  from  the  vast  business  of  a  modern 
Continental  war. 

British  Military  Organisation 

Prussia  certainly  counted  opon  the  shock  of  so  enor- 
mous a  demand,  so  utterly  novel  and  so  perilous,  more 
than  she  did  upon  any  other  element  in  the  affair.  The 
British  army  was  upon  a  wholly  different  scale  and 
enjoyed  a  wholly  difterent  tradition  and  organisation 
from  those  of  the  Continental  conscript  Powers.  It  had 
only  recently  been  provided  with  any  machinery  for  an 
Expeditionary  Force,  and  even  that  upon  a  scale 
of  no  more  than  six  divisions.  Six  divisions  is  not 
one-fortieth  of  what  the  German  Empire  alone  has  now 
in  the  field.  There  could,  apparently,  be  no  question  of 
serious  miUtary  interference  by  such  a  Power. 

Prussia  not  only  appreciated,  these  truths  in  the  summer 
of  1914,  she  had  digested  them  so  thoroughly  that  she 
continued  to  think  in  such  terms  long  after  those  truths 
had  ceased  to  be  true  at  all.  To  this  day  her  attitude; 
towards  British  mihtary  power  is  something  Uke  that  of  a 
man  who,  firmly  convinced  there  are  no  such  things  as 
ghosts,  has  the  misfortime  to  be  haunted. 

To  return  to  1914.  While  Prussia  was  thus  calculating 
upon  the  inertia  which  always  trammels  a  man  or  a 
nation  in  the  face  of  some  stupendous  and  quite  novel 
peril,  she  fully  appreciated  what  the  entry  of  the  British 
Fleet  would  mean,  and  to  this  must  be  ascribed  the 
violent  revulsion  of  feeUng  which  her  statesmen  suffered 
when  they  discovered  that  the  violation  of  Belgium — 
to  put  it  upon  the  most  material  grounds,  the  threat  it 
involved  to  the  coast  of  the  Low  Countries — would  bring 
Great  Britain  into  the  lists  against  them. 

Nevertheless,  even  under  such  an  ultimate  menace 
Prussia  could  calculate  upon  victory.  The  immediate 
effect  of  Great  Britain's  entry,  the  vmexpected  formation 
of  the  ^yESTERN  Alliance,  would  seem  to  be  no  more 
than  this :  It  would  restrict  Germany  and  Austria's 
power  of  import,  but  the  accumulation  of  material  was 
ample  for  the  expected  duration  of  the  war  ;  internal 
resources  were  greater  than  those  of  any  other  national 
group,  and  there  was  a  formidable  combination  of  neutral 
interests  which  would  forbid  any  immediately  strict 
blockade.  It  would  be  impossible  for  Germany  to 
cut  the  communication  between  France  and  her  Colonies 
but  the  recruiting  field  France  enjoyed  there  would  take 
some  time  to  come  into  play,  and  would  be  of  very  httle 
service  if  any  in  the  critical  first  weeks  in  which  the  war 
would  certainly  be  won.  The  modern  use  of  mines  would 
render  the  actual  coast  of  Germany  secure,  and  the  ship- 
ping, military  and  civil,  within  German  ports.  In  a 
word,  the  immediate  effects  of  this  unexpected  menace 
would  not  materially  influence  (it  was  imagined)  a  short, 
decisive  campaign,  such  as  that  which  had  been  planned 
and  confidently  discounted. 

But  every  military  command,  even  the  most  arrogant, 
has  always  m  its  mind  alternative  plans.  Had  it  not 
it  would  not  merit  the  title  of  military  command  at  all. 
And  It  was  apparent  to  the  enemy  that  the  entry  of  the 
British  fleet  into  the  game  would,  if  anything  in  the 
apparently  certain  calculation  went  wrong,  and  if  the 
war  should  prove  not  short  but  protracted,  involve  very 
serious  consequences.        France  would  thus  acquire  for 


her  support  coal,  steel,  uninterrupted  import  by  sea 
from  neutral  markets  and  such  economic  advantage  as  a 
restricted  but  continuous  commerce  could  supply.  In 
what  degree  time  might  produce  a  stricter  blockade 
no  one  could  say ;  it  was  perhaps  a  vague  menace,  but 
it  was  a  menace  all  the  same.  Finally,  though  it  was  not 
beheved  that  Great  Britain  would  be  capable  of  jpro- 
ducing  any  very  great  expansion  of  her  existing  land 
force,  yet  some  expansion  there  certainly  would  be, 
and  it  would  be  securely  guaranteed  in  its  supply  and  all 
communications  by  the  power  of  the  British  Fleet. 

In  the  event  the  uneasiness  which  such  vague  fore- 
bodings excited,  and  the  acute  irritation  to  which  they 
gave  rise,  have  proved  very  much  better  justified  than 
the  enemy  dreamed.  The  war  has  not  only  been  "  pro- 
tracted "  beyond  the  hmits  of  a  few  weeks  originally 
intended  and  provided  for ;  it  has  endured  beyond  all 
conception  of  Prussia  or  her  foes.  The  blockade  has  not 
only  become  somewhat  stricter  ;  it  has  had  time  to  grow 
(under  the  skilful  handling  of  the  best  because  the 
most  traditional  of  our  Public  departments)  almost 
perfect.  The  powerful  neutral  interests  which  ham- 
pered its  inception  were  weakened  first  by  the  entry  of 
Italy,  then,  much  later,  by  the  grotesque  German  mis- 
handling of  the  American  temper.  Lastly,  and  far  more 
important  than  anything  else,  the  British  service  by  land 
was  multiplied  at  a  pace  and  with  a  success  utterly  beyond 
anything  that  the  enemy  or,  for  that  matter,  neutral  and 
even  Allied  opinion  had  thought  possible. 

This  thing  is  still  so  novel  that  it  has  not  been  ap- 
preciated at  all.  It  is  known  as  a  mathematical  truth 
is  known,  but  it  has  not  yet  entered  into  the  imagination, 
memory  and  sense  of  the  British  themselves.  To  take 
one  amazing  instance — the  growth  of  heavy  artillery. 
It  will  always  be  my  favourite  instance  because  I  have 
heard  that  arm  more  discussed  than  any  other. 

The  heavy  gun  is,  of  all  instruments  of  war,  that  the 
handling  of  which,  the  knowledge,  construction  and 
"  instinct  "  of  which  would  seem  least  easily  acquired. 
The  professional  body  of  officers  in  this  arin  prided 
themselves,  and  rightly,  in  every  European  service,  upon 
a  peculiar  position  which  none  could  rival,  acquired  by  a 
high  and  mtense  course  of  study,  a  long  professional 
tradition,  and  a  mass  of  personal  experience.  It  seemed 
impossible  that  such  an  arm  could  be  mtilitplied,  not  by 
two  or  three,  but  by  fifty  or  a  hundred.  (Such  multiples, 
if  we  reckon  in  terms  of  weight,  are  not  exaggerated). 
It  seemed  still  more  impossible  that  even  if  it  could  be  so 
expanded  in  the  short  space  of  two  years,  it  should  stiU 
retain  any  semblance  of  efficiency. 

Yet  we  all  know  what  has  been  done .  This  arm  has  been 
expanded  not  only  on  the  numerical  scale  required,  but 
the  exact  accuracy  in  use  without  which  (in  the  past  trench 
warfare  especially)  it  would  have  been  thrown  away,  has 
thoroughly  made  good  this  summer. 

There  is  the  marvel  examined  in  the  hght  of  one  detail. 
Considered  in  general  it  is  no  less  amazing.  The  six 
divisions  have  grown  to  what  we  know  to-day ;  the  few 
thousand  yards  of  front  to  something  close  upon  a  hundred 
miles  ;  the  service  as  a  whole,  from  the  small  professional 
army  of  those  short  months  ago  to  the  vast  instrument 
which  now  is  at  workin  Northern  France,  in  Egypt,  in  Mace- 
donia, in  Mesopotamia,  and  here  in  England.  And  every  co- 
ordinated detail  of  that  enormous  organism  has  grown 
to  scale  in  curves  of  rapidity  which  are  parallel  for  every 
part  of  it  and  have  never,  through  the  unequal  growth 
of  any  one  out  of  fifty  vital  organs,  betrayed  any  really 
dangerous  weakness. 

It  is  perhaps  not  wonderful  that  the  enemy  for  all  his 
necessity  of  seeing  things  as  they  are — for  upon  his 
ability  to  do  so  depends  his  very  life — should  have  mis- 
judged an  effort  so  utterly  unprecedented.  The  best 
military  historian  of  modern  Germany,  and  with  him 
the  best  and  sanest  of  the  cmrent  students  of  the  cam- 
paign, thouf^  they  could  not  deny  the  numerical 
character  of  this  increase,  were  convinced  of  its  qualitatiye 
inferiority  up  to  the  moment  when  reality  struck  them  in 
the  face  upon  the  Somme.  I  remember  (I  think  tex- 
tually).  one  most  illuminating  phrase,  typical  of  a 
hundred  that  were  written  and  believed  by  the  enemy 
in  this  connection.  It  appeared  from  the  pen  of  the  most 
weighty  of  his  critics  just  before  the  attack  was  launched 
last  July,  and  when  the  fact  that  it  was  about  to  .be 
deUvered  was  common  knowledge.  "  One  thing  is 
certain,"  he  wrote,  "  if  the  British  are  morally  capable 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


of  a  prolonged  offensive  it  will  be  the  end  of  the  British 
Army."     In  that  phrase  you  have  summed  up  the  whole 
.  of  the  enemy's  attitude  towards  the  change. 

There  have  been  many  elements  of  surprise,  as  I  was 
writing  here  a  few  weeks  ago,  in  this  war  from  which 
strategical  surprise  is  said  to  have  disappeared.  No 
element  of  surprise  has  surpassed  in  value  or  effect  the 
surprise  the  enemy  has  suffered  in  respect  of  what  new 
thing  in  the  way  of  arms  this  country  could  effect. 

Elements    of  Surprise 

There  remained,  and  still  remains,  in  connection  with 
the  Alliance  between  the  two  ancient  nations  of  the  West, 
one  avenue  of  hope  for  the  enemy  which  had  calculated 
upon  the  destruction  of  the  one  and  the  fear  and 
neutrality  of  the  other.  It  is  the  expectation,  or  the 
trust,  that  the  difficulties  inherent  in  an  alliance  would 
certainly  appear  and  increase,  at  any  rate  under  the 
strain  of  a  protracted  war. 

The  matter  has  been  so  overlain  with  the  international 
conventions  necessary  to  the  pubHc  conduct  of  such  a 
campaign ;  it  has  so  much  suffered,  therefore,  from 
unreality  (and  the  consequent  reaction  of  honest  minds 
against  unreality)  that  we  are  more  than  justified,  at  this 
stage,  in  soberly  counting  what  the  elements  of  danger 
were.  The  list  is  formidable,  especially  for  so  grievous 
a  trial  and  one  so  prolonged.  It  is  little  wonder  that 
the  enemy  over-valued  that  list ;  or  rather  it  is  of  little 
wonder,  until  one  has  considered  certain  simpler  but  far 
greater  considerations  upon  the  other  side. 

The  two  nations  thus  conjoined  had  been  for  centuries 
in  an  almost  constant  antagonism.  Their  very  rare 
alliances  had  been  ephemeral  and  designed  for  no  more 
than  small,  particular  purposes,  soon  accomplished. 
The  contrast  in  their  temperaments  was  so  sharp  that 
the  Germans  themselves  had  given  to  it  a  grotesque 
historical  explanation,  and  in  their  pedantic  explanation 
of  the  ill-ease  which  French  energy  caused  them  inter- 
preted the  English  as  brethren  of  their  own.  Our  own 
Universities  supported  with  their  weight  this  curious 
illusion. 

There  had  arisen  a  break  in  religion  which  in  the  past 
had  led  to  violent  animosities  and  which  had  produced, 
with  other  causes,  the  profound  modern  divergence 
between  the  two  peoples. 

There  had  also  arisen  a  complete  separation  in  language, 
growing  the  more  acut?  as  the  last  four  hundired  years 
proceeded. 

The  effect  of  each  upon  the  world  had  usually  been  in 
rivalry  to  the  other,  and  that  with  methods  that  had  so 
little  in  common  as  to  arrive  at  the  wholly  different 
results  we  see  before  us  to-day  in  Colonial  experiment 
and  domestic  organisation. 

All  this  opposition  had  entered  into  the  popular  tradi- 
tions of  each  and  had  in  the  past  become  a  sort  of  common- 
place taken  for  granted  upon  either  side  ;  while  the  last 
hundred  years  or  more  (the  period  since  the  Revolution 
— the  memory  of  which  is  so  vivid  in  either  people  and 
yet  interpreted  so  differently  by  each)  seemed  only  to 
have  accentuated  the  direct  negation  which  the  political 
experience  and  judgment  of  the  one  gave  to  those  of  the 
other. 

When  we  consider  that  any  alliance  between  sovereign 
nations  alwaj^  contains  of  itself  serious  elements  of 
friction  and  therefore  of  danger  ;  when  we  add  to  this 
the  truths  that  such  perils  are  peculiarly  present  when 
you  are  dealing  with  equals,  that  they  are  accentuated 
in  proportion  to  the  national  pride  and  sensibility  of  such 
equals,  that  they  are  present  almost  in  proportion  to  the 
power  which  each  member  of  the  alliance  can  wield,  and 
that,  above  all,  time  and  strain  are  the  two  master 
solvents  of  alliances  throughout  history — when  all  this 
is  put  together  and  appreciated,  we  can  judge  upon 
what  the  enemy  founded  his  hopes  in  the  poUtical  sphere. 

His  own  vast  system  of  Allies  and  dependents  was 
secure  because  Prussia  alone  among  them  had  military 
competence  and  because  a  geographical  unity  bound  them 
together.  But  here  in  the  West  his  two  formidable 
executioners  suffered  from  all  the  differences  of  which  I 
speak,  and  to  crown  them  was  the  geographical  dis- 
parity between  the  continent  and  an  island. 

The  confidence  the  enemy  had  placed  in  this  one 
avenue  of  escape  from  his  fate,  if  it  had  something  reason- 
able about  it  had  also  in  its  exaggerations  and  insistence 


something  pathetic  and  almost  comic. 

I  have  in  my  possession,  for  instance,  a  document, 
which  was  scattered  by  German  aviators  over  French 
territory  as  late  as  last  Jtme,  assuring  the  French  that  the 
abominable  crime  of  bombarding  civiUans  from  the  sky 
(which  no  decent  nation  would  be  guilty  of)  had  only 
sullied  the  reputation  of  their  aviators  through  the 
wicked  suggestion  of  the  English.  The  French  were 
told  that  the  war  was  essentially  an  English  war.  It 
was  a  folly  repeated  with  the  special  object  of  offending 
French  while  tinghng  British  pride,  and  the  curiously 
puerile  side  of  the  German  character  has  appeared  in  the 
brilliant  suggestion  that  the  English  army  had  only 
landed  in  France  with  the  object  of  annexing  Boulogne. 

If  we  ask  ourselves  why  this  German  confidence  in  an 
ultimate  mistrust  between  the  Western  Allies  seems  to 
us  thus  grotesque  and  suffers  from  such  astonishing 
misjudgments,  we  shall  find  the  answer  in  considering, 
by  way  of  conclusion,  the  profound  forces  which  are 
acting  for  union  much  more  strongly  than  any  of  those 
more  obvious  but  more  superficial  elements  of  difference 
which  we  have  just  considered. 

Moral  Anarchy 

To  begin  with  the  basest,  the  most  material,  and 
therefore  the  most  generally  admitted,  there  is  between 
England  and  France  to-day  a  community  of  interests 
such  as  that  which  binds  any  two  sane  men  against  a 
third  who  has  run  mad.  Two  men,  though  they  had 
only  met  by  chance,  though  they  had  nothing  whatever 
in  common  save  sanity,  though  they  differed,  and  even 
knew  they  had  differed,  in  every  vital  matter  which 
separates  souls,  would  at  once  combine  to  restrain  in  a 
third  that  moral  anarchy  which  in  private  relations  we 
caU  madness.  It  is  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  do  so. 
He  who  proclaims  his  indifference  to  the  right  of  others, 
even  to  the  right  to  live,  if  his  nature  provokes  and 
maintains  an  indissoluble  combination  against  himself, 
he  is  caught  and  bound  ;  and  if  there  is  any  possibility 
of  his  breaking  his  bonds  he  is  put  to  death.  It  must 
be  so,  for  if  it  were  not  so  his  life  would  involve  the  death 
of  the  rest. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  ordinary  political  considerations 
of  separate  national  interest  continue  alone  to  bind  the 
Western  Allies,  whatever  may  have  been  true  in  the 
period  before  the  war.  It  is  no  longer  true,  and  has  not 
been  true  since  the  first  atrocities  in  Belgium,  that  the 
supreme  interest  of  Great  Britain  in  maintaining  herself 
against  a  Power  that  menaced  her  vital  necessity  of  the 
sea,  and  the  supreme  interest  of  France  in  preserving  her 
soil  from  invasion,  form  together  the  main  link.  What 
forms  the  main  Unk  to-day  is  the  certitude,  proved  and 
insisted  upon  by  Prussia,  that  if  power  is  left  to  her  she 
will — in  her  time  and  at  her  time — respect  the  life  of 
neither  France  nor  Britain.  That  she  will  use  all  means 
to  destroy  the  corporate  life  of  the  one  as  of  the  other. 
But  more  fundamental  by  far  than  this  external 
necessity  is  something  inner  and  spiritual  of  which  it  is 
no  more  than  the  expression.  There  is  in  common  to  all 
our  Western  civihsation  a  way  of  regarding  both  peace 
and  war  from  which  has  sprung  a  civil  and  a  military 
tradition,  with  which  the  existence  of  the  Prussian 
doctrine  is  incompatible.  War  must  be,  for  the  West, 
accompanied  at  its  worst  by  something  (in  memory  at 
least)  of  glory,  and  by  much  in  its  actual  practice  of 
chivalry  and  of  honour.  If  it  takes  on  the  form  of 
national  murder  it  is  spiritually  intolerable  ;  and  the 
soul  which  suffers  from  an  appetite  for  such  murder 
must  be  wholly  converted  or  it  must  be  destroyed. 

If  we  go  deeper  still  I  think  we  shall  discover  that  this 
spiritual  community  which  arms  the  older  civilisations 
against  Prussia  is  rooted  in  what  is  the  chief  mark  of  a 
mature  culture,  I  mean,  intelligence.  The  spiritual 
perversion  which  the  older  civilisations  cannot  tolerate 
save  at  the  expense  of  their  own  death  essentially  con- 
notes an  inability  to  reason.  It  sees  the  first  step  ; 
it  cannot  see  the  second  or  the  third.  It  sees  that 
terror  destroys  opposition  for  the  moment.  It  does  not 
see  that  terror  makes  the  justice  which  shall  deal  with 
it  implacable.  It  sees  that  mere  theft  enriches  ;  it  does 
not  see  that  the  whole  process  of  production  is  at  war 
against  theft.  It  sees  that  a  dead  man  can  no  longer 
use  an  arm.  It  does  not  see  what  his  death  may  lend 
to  the  arms  of  the  living.  H.   Belloc 


LAND    &     WAT^R 


MiilCil    29,    I9I7 


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March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


Tommy  and  Jacques 


By  Rene  Puaux 


M.  Rene  Puaux,  the  writer  of  this  admirable  story  of 
the  relationship  between  the  French  and  British  soldier 
in  France,  was  before  the  war  a  journalist  on  the  staff 
of  "  Le  Temps,"  and  at  one  time  its  London  editor. 
During  the  war  he  has  been  on  the  staff  of  General 
Foch,  and  has  served  as  an  officer  "  de  liaison  "  bdween 
that  General's  Headquarters  and  the  British  G.H.Q. 

TO  say  that  Tommy  Atkins  and  Jacques  Bon- 
homme  have  become  friends — "  old  pals  " — 
is  a  truth  so  incontrovertible  that  only  the  in- 
credible stupidity  of  the  spectacled  professors 
beyond  the  Rhine  could  still  cling  to  the  belief  that  their 
propagandist  brochures  are  eflicacious.  These  brochures 
declare  with  the  utmost  solemnity  that  England  will  never 
relinquish  Calais,  and  that  the  French  people  would  do 
well  to  mistrust  their  dangerous  Ally  from  the  further 
side  of  the  Channel. 

The  relations  between  French  and  English  soldiers, 
like  those  between  the  general  population  of  France  and 
the  British  Expeditionary  Force,  were,  even  in  August 
1 914,  most  cordial.  And  ever  since  then  that  cordiality 
lias  been  steadily  increasing  to  a  degree  that  deserves  to  be 
recorded. 

When  the  first  contingent  under  Field  Marshal  French 
landed  in  France  they  were  greeted  with  polite  curiosity 
rather  than  with  enthusiasm.  In  seaport  and  inland 
village  alike  the  Englishman  possessed  that  reputation 
for  luxurious  habits  which  tourists  have  always  done  so 
much  to  foster.  And  the  actual  wealth  of  these  soldiers, 
their  high  rate  of  pay,  and  the  solid  golden  sovereigns 
they  flung  down  upon  the  counters  of  the  shops,  aroused 
the  amazement  and  avarice  of  the  trades-people.  The 
English  army  was  thoroughly  exploited,  and  submitted 
tc  the  treatment  with  the  disdainful  indifference  of 
gentlemen  of  quality.  Lord  Kitchener's  injunctions — 
his  appeals  to  that  dignity  which  the  son  of  Great  Britain 
is  never  allowed  to  forget — were  almost  superfluous.  The 
men  of  the  British  Expeditionary  Force,  led  as  they  were 
by  officers  of  the  regular  army,  gentlemen  of  breeding 
whose  manners  had  been  still  further  polished  in  other 
colonial  campaigns,  were  all  proud,  in  this  strange  but 
friendly  land,  to  do  honour  to  their  own  country.  The 
humblest  private  soldier  assumed  the  airs  of  a  grand 
seigneur,  threw  down  his  money  without  counting  it, 
never  ventured  to  refuse  a  "  souvenir,"  whatever  the 
loss  to  his  equipment,  and  behaved  in  his  billet  with  the 
courtesy  of  a  marquis  of  the  old  regime.  During  this 
first  period  the  Expeditionary  Force  was  rather  lost  amid 
the  immense  emotions  of  the  French  nation,  and  held  itself 
aloft  with  a  certain  shyness  and  modesty.  Those  who 
received  encouragement  were  gracious  and  ready  enough 
with  a  shake  of  the  hand,  but  they  were  not  yet  com- 
pletely carried  away  by  the  common  task  of  presenting 
an  invincible  front. 

The  battles  of  Flanders  during  October  and  November, 
1914,  once  for  all  revealed  the  men  of  the  two  armies  to 
one  another.  The  French  saw  that  these  Tommies 
whom  they  chaffed — not  without  envy — on  account  of 
their  solid  and  nutritious  provisions  and  their  taste  for 
comfort  and  hydrothe:  apeutics,  were  capital  soldiers, 
as  eager  as  the  chasseurs  d  pied  or  the  Zouaves,  and  had 
given  proof  of  stoical  courage  in  the  most  dramatic  cir- 
cumstances. The  English,  on  the  other  hand,  revised 
their  original  unfavourable  view  of  the  French  soldier 
as  a  man  ill-shaved  and  ill-groomed,  dressed  carelessly, 
in  a  coat  either  too  long  or  too  short,  and  entirely  lacking 
in  the  distinguished  and  correct  appearance  and  manner 
that  appeal  to  the  British  temperament. 

"^Community  of  effort  and  of  suffering  forged  the  first 
link.  A  point  of  contact  was  now  established.  Relations 
were  none  the  less  difficult,  for  the  gift  of  tongues  was 
rare.  There  was  need  for  much  goodwill,  which  is  one 
of  the  most  beneficial  fairies  that  inhabit  our  sorrowful 
world.  1  have  been  present  at  many  a  conversation 
between  a  poilu  and  a  Tommy,  and  they  were  nearly  all 
alike.  The  Englishman  said  hardly  anything,  but  smiled  ; 
,.while  the  Frenchman  on  the  contrary  talked  with  great 


vivacity,  repeating  his  words  more  and  more  loudly  as 
though  in  the  hope  of  making  them  more  intelligible, 
and  producing  all  the  synonyms  at  his  disposal,  (j  The 
Englishman  continued  to  smile,  as  though  in  gratitude 
for  the  prodigious  efforts  of  his  interlocutor,  the  good 
intentions  of  which  he  recognised  while  failing  to  under- 
stand their  precise  meaning.  The  attitude  of  the  French- 
man was  not  unlike  that  of  an  old  man  with  a  youth  ; 
somewhat  protective  and  paternal.  He  would  pat  the 
Englishman's  shoulder  affectionately.  Often  at  the  end 
of  these  strange  colloquies,  the  Englishman  would  pull 
out  his  pocket  book  and  exhibit  the  photograph  of  his 
sweetheart,  or  of  a  baby  and  a  young  wife.  The  secrets 
of  the  heart  are  the  same  in  all  languages.  Is  it  not  here, 
indeed,  that  we  find  the  supreme  motive  of  the  courage  and 
self-sacrifice   of   all  :    the   defence   of     their  hearths  ? 

Paternal   Superiority 

If  it  was  some  considerable  time  before  the  French 
soldier,  in  his  relations  with  the  British,  dropped  this 
attitude  of  paternal  superiority,  I  think  the  chief  reason 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  French  mobilisation  included 
territorials,  reservists,  and  young  men,  thereby  giving 
our  army  an  appearance  of  age,  to  which  Lord  Kitchener's 
volunteers,  all  of  whom  were  young,  yielded  a  certain 
amount  of  respect.  Moreover  since  the  two  armies  were 
not  mingled  the  British  soldiers  came  chiefly  in  contact 
with  the  grey-bearded  reservists  of  the  territorial  army 
who  were  employed  at  the  rear,  or  in  the  defence  of  the 
second  line.  By  a  fairly  artless  mental  process  they 
concluded  that  these  veterans  had  grown  grey  in  the  field 
of  battle,  and  that  a  certain  degree  of  deference  was  due 
to  them. 

The  Expeditionary  Force  and  the  first  contingents 
of  volunteers  were  gradually  reinforced  by  fresh  recruits 
with  less  exalted  ideas  and  more  rudimentary  education  : 
determined,  tough,  brave-hearted  fellows  who  no  longer 
regarded  the  land  of  France  as  a  foreign  country  whither 
they  had  come  to  help  a  friend  attacked  by  a  brigand, 
but  as  a  country,  which,  since  English  blood  had  already 
flowed  in  it,  had  turned  into  an  addition  to  their  own 
national  soil.  For  the  future  "  Plug  Street  "  (Plogsteert) 
Wood,  Neuve  Chapelle,  and  St.  Omer  would  form  a  part 
of  English  geography.  Tommy  took  off  the  gloves  of  a 
well-bred  tourist  and  set  himself  to  the  task  in  hand  with 
all  the  bitter  energy  of  the  suburban  or  artisan  poilu. 

A  common  task,  common  sufferings,  and  above  all — 
after  a  time — common  successes  combined  to  efface  any 
differences  there  might  be  between  the  two  armies.  At 
the  beginning  Great  Britain,  in  this  great  international 
match,  had  but  three  men  engaged  for  every  fifteen 
Frenchmen  ;  now  she  could  form  a  complete  team  of  her 
own.  The  Frenchman  is  a  sportsman  :  he  can  applaud 
the  successes  of  others.  At  first  he  did  not  altogether 
appreciate  the  efforts  of  Britain,  because  he  knew  nothing 
of  the  difficulties.  In  his  eyes  the  British  soldier  was  an 
amateur  who  ate  a  great  deal  of  jam  and  was  frequently 
relieved,  a  piece  of  good  fortune  that  the  French  soldier 
does  not  so  often  enjoy.  The  affair  at  Loos  in  September, 
1915,  aroused  the  admiration  of  the  neighbouring  French 
troops.  On  the  balance  sheet  of  the  concerted  operations 
that  took  the  French  to  the  ridges  of  Givenchy  and  La 
Folic  and  the  British  to  the  artisan  quarters  of  Lens, 
the  sum  of  their  successes  could  be  justly  shared.  This 
resulted  in  a  final  appraisement  of  the  British  army  : 
it  was  capable  of  great  things. 

The  offensive  of  the  Somme  in  July,  1916,  put  the  crowii- 
ing  touch  upon  this  high  estimate.  The  protective  attitude 
hitherto  assumed  by  the  French  soldier  gave  place  to  a 
feeling  of  equality,  and  even  of  grateful  affection.  To 
Jac  jues  Bonhomme,  in  the  weariness  of  his  prolonged 
efforts  and  the  gloom  of  frequent  mourning,  Tommy 
Atkins  with  his  smile  and  his  high  spirits  became  very 
comforting.  And  in  the  eye  of  the  British  soldier  there 
was  a  light  that  seemed  to  say  :  "  Yes,  old  chap,  I  know  1 
You've  been  through  Charleroi,  the  Marne,  the  Oise,  the 
Somme,    the    Yser,    Artois,    Alsace,    Champagne,    and 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


Verdun,  and  you're  about  fed  up.  Don't  worry — we 
are  licTc,  and  we're  going  to  give  it  them  hot  !  " 
,;By  one  of  those  revulsions  in  public  opinion  that  are 
very  instructise  the  actions  and  exploits  of  the  British 
army,  once  regarded  as  events  of  almost  negligible  im- 
portance, now  arouse  the  most  prodigious  interest  in  the 
French  trenches  :  "  Just  wait  till  the  English  get  at  them  ! 
— The  English  won't  let  them  go  in  a  hurry  ! — The  English 
are  a  sheer  wonder  !  "  Stories  of  the  feats  of  the  English 
arouse  passionate  enthusiasm  :  they  carry  with  them  the 


conviction    that   victory  is  certain  and  close   at   hand. 

Tommy  has  not  failed  to  respond  to  this  appreciation  oi 
his  valour  and  importance.  He  has  lost  his  original 
shyness,  but  he  knows  perfectly  well  that  his  French 
comrade  has  been  through  greater  hardships  even  than 
himself,  and  that  after  all  it  is  the  defenders  of  Verdun 
who  head  the  list  of  heroes. 

Therefore,  though  the  grounds  of  their  opinions  may 
be  different,  the  two  armies  respect  each  other,  admire 
each  other,  and  love  each  other  with  the  same  affection. 


Rise   of   the   Anglo-French   Entente 


By  J.  Holland  Rose,  Litt.D. 

(Author  of  The  Dtoelopmtnt  of  tht  European  ?^alhna  (1870-1914);   The  Life  of  Pitt ;  The  Life  of  V^aptUon  I,  etc.) 


Ti 


^O  suppose  that  any  nation  can  be  unalterably 
the  enemy  of  another  is  weak  and  childish. 
It  has  its  foundation  neither  in  the  experience 
of  nations  nor  in  the  history  of  man."  Those 
memorable  words  of  Pitt  the  Younger,  uttered  in  the 
debate  of  February  i2th,  1787,  reduced  to  silence  the 
carping  critics  (including  Burke  and  Fox)  who  censured 
his  recent  enlightened  Treaty  of  Commerce  with  France. 
(Friendly  commercial  dealings  with  our  "  natural  enemy  !  " 
Was  anj'thing  so  monstrous  ? )  During  five  years  that  first 
Enienle  CordiaU  benefited  both  nations.  Then  came 
war  and  the  cynics  jeered.  During  more  than  a 
century  (except  for  a  brief  space  after  18 15  and 
the  Anglo-French  Treaty  of  Commerce  of  i860)  the 
horizon  remained  overcast  ;  and  not  until  1904  were  the 
hopes  of  Pitt  fully  realized.  A  student  of  Adam  Smith, 
he  saw  that  commerce  ought  to  unite  rather  than  sever 
the  two  great  nations  of  the  West  ;  and  ultimately,  as  we 
shall  see,  it  has  become  a  binding  force.  So  soon  as  each 
people  understood  that  the  prosperity  of  its  neighbour 
was  a  benefit,  not  a  curse,  hoary  hatreds  were  doomed. 
That  understanding  dawned  slowly,  especially  in  France, 
where  the  Republics  founded  in  1792,  1848  and  1870, 
have  been  commercially  more  exclusive  than  the  pre- 
ceding monarchies.  But,  finally,  the  French  have 
learnt  the  lesson,  without  which  the  Entente  would  be 
an  empty  exchange  of  pretty  phrases. 

Not  only  faulty  economics  but  grasping  political  pro- 
grammes kept  the  two  peoples  apart  during  ages. 
Omitting  temporary  and  personal  provocations  (such  as 
clashing  dynastic  claims)  we  may  ascribe  Anglo-French 
conflicts  mainly  to  three  causes  (I)  Disputes  concerning 
supremacy  in  the  Netherlands  (II)  Questions  of  maritime 
ascendancy  (III)  Colonial  rivalries.  It  is  impossible  here 
to  do  more  than  glance  at  these  topics. 

(1)  From  the  daysof  William  III,  to  those  of  George  III, 
Franco- British  wars  arose  mainly  from  the  resolves  of 
Louis  XIV,  and  Louis  XV,  to  dominate  the  Nether- 
lands. Waterloo  was  not  the  last  word  on  that  question  ; 
for,  during  the  Belgian  Revolution  of  1830-1,  French  troops 
marched  in  to  help  expel  the  Dutch  ;  and  French  interests 
for  a  time  promised  to  be  paramount.  However,  the 
final  Act  of  1839  constituted  Belgium  an  independent 
State  under  the  guarantee  of  all  the  Great  Powers  ;  and 
that  Act  was  hailed  as  ending  the  most  permanent  cause 
of  Anglo-French  disputes.  (5ur  apprehensions,  however, 
revived  in  and  after  1866,  when  Napoleon  III,  was 
revoking  schemes  for  the  partition  of  Belgium  ;  and 
the  lack  of  sympathy  with  France  during  the  early  part 
of  the  Franco-German  war  arose  from  the  same  dominant 
feeling.  Even  after  the  second  Empire  vanished  amidst  the 
smoke  of  Sedan,  the  British  Government  would  do  almost 
nothing  for  the  young  Republic.  In  vain  did  M.  Thiers 
proceed  to  London,  in  the  month  of  September,  1870, 
during  that  pathetic  tour  of  appeal  to  the  neutrals  to 
intervene  on  behalf  of  France.  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Lord 
Granv  ille  had  promised  Parliament  before  the  recess  that 
the  United  Kingdom  would  preserve  strict  neutrality. 
In  December  an  equally  pressing  appeal  by  M.  Frederic 
Reitr.n'j;er,  the  pri\'ate  secretary  of  Jules  Favre,  met 
with  no  better  response,  though  he  pointed  out  with 
equal  wisdom  and  eloquence  that  British  intervention 
(possiMy  supported  by  that  of  Austria)  would  lead  to  a 
durable  peace  ;  while  persistence  in  an  insular  policy 


would  leave  England  friendless  at  the  next  outbreak  of 
trouble  in  the  Near  East.  Lord  Granville  remained 
inflexible  ;  and  France  long  resented  the  impassiveness 
with  which  the  British  Government,  if  not  the  British 
people,  looked  on  at  her  spoliation  and  the  immense 
aggrandisement  of  German  power.  Even  the  friendly 
remonstrances  of  the  Disraeli  Cabinet  in  the  spring  of 
1875,  during  the  bellicose  threats  of  the  German  war- 
party  against  France,  did  not  efface  the  bitter  memories  of 
England's  "  desertion  "  of  her  former  Ally.  Our  conduct 
sprang  largely  from  suspicion  as  to  French  pohcj' 
respecting  Belgium. 

(II)  That  the  British  and  French  were  age-long  rivals 
at  sea  is  a  truism.  From  the  days  of  Torrington  and 
Russell  to  those  of  St.  Vincent  and  Nelson  the  "  natural 
enemy  "  was  France.  Why,  then,  have  those  maritime 
enmities  ceased  ?  Partly  because  the  two  nations,  after 
Waterloo,  tacitly  agreed  to  expand  in  different  directions; 
and  colonial  strifes  (the  chief  feeder  of  naval  wars)  figured 
less  prominently  than  in  the  i8th  Century.  But  there  is 
another  equally  important  cause.  The  progress  of 
mechanical  inventions  during  the  age  of  steam  has  con- 
ferred immense  advantages  on  the  country  which  possesses 
large  stores  of  coal  and  iron  near  the  sea.  In  the  British 
Isles  are  to  be  found  all  those  advantages  for  marine  con- 
struction in  a  unique  degree.  In  France  they  are  signally 
wanting.  She  therefore  cannot  hope  to  vie  with  us  as 
she  did  in  the  days  of  wood  and  sails.  She  has  recognised 
the  fact,  and  she  perceives  that  friendship  is  far  more 
sensible  than  an  exhausting  and  futile  rivalry.  Further, 
Kaiser  William's  first  Navy  Acts,  those  of  1898  and  1900, 
supplied  added  reason  for  an  Anglo-French  rapprochement. 
His  declarations  to  his  people — "  The  trident  must  pass 
into  our  hands  " — and — "  Our  future  lies  on  the  water  " 
— were  no  empty  boasts.  In  respect  to  coal  supply  Ger- 
many surpasses  the  United  Kingdom  and  far  surpasses 
France ;  while  in  Lothringen  (German  Lorraine)  she 
acquired  rich  deposits  of  iron.  Accordingly,  she  soon 
outstripped  France  in  naval  construction  ;  and  the  im- 
mense development  both  of  her  Imperial  and  her  mer- 
cantile marine  impelled  her  to  seek  tor  better  maritime 
outlet  in  Belgium. 

(III)  As  we  have  seen,  colonial  struggles  lessened  after 
Waterloo.  That  battle  sounded  the  death-knell  to  the 
hopes  of  Napoleon  I,  and  his  people  to  acquire  Egypt, 
India  and  parts  of  Australia.  Napoleon  III,  turned  the 
thoughts  of  France  towards  Syria  and  Egypt ;  but  the 
Third  Republic  preferred  to  exploit  West  Africa,  Tunis, 
Madagascar  and  Tonquin.  In  1895-8  the  longing  for 
Upper  Egypt  and  the  Soudan  prompted  the  expedition 
of  Colonel  Marchand  from  West  Africa  to  Fashoda  on 
the  upper  Nile  ;  but  it  arrived  too  late  and  in  inadequate 
force.  Lord  Kitchener's  momentous  victory  at  Omdurman, 
on  September  2nd,  1898,  enabled  him  to  establish  a 
British-Egyptian  condominium  over  the  whole  of  the 
Soudan  ;  and  in  an  interview  with  M.  Marchand  at 
Fashoda,  the  two  officers  very  sensibly  agreed  to  refer  the 
question  of  ownership  to  their  respective  Governments. 
Successive  Cabinets  at  Paris  had  of  late  indulged  in  a 
policy  of  pin-pricks,  especially  at  British  control  of  Egypt  ; 
but,  after  the  mighty  blow  at  Omdurman,  France  decided, 
in  the  spring  of  1899,  to  recognise  the  inevitable  and  with- 
draw from  the  Upper  Nile.  Whether  that  decision  was 
not  helped  on  by  the  recent  threatening  naval  measures 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


The  Devastation  of  War 


Rheims  Cathedral,  from  the  North-East 


Fort  Douaumont  after  the  German  Bombardment 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


of  Germany  and  the  pro-Moslem  vaunt  of  her  Kaiser  at 
Damascus,  future  historians  will  reveal.  For  the  present 
we  may  plausibly  conjecture  that  at  this  point  as  at  so 
many  others,  the  blustering  policy  of  William  averted 
all  chance  of  an  Anglo-French  conllict.  Thus,  the  triumph 
of  Lord  Kitchener,  and  his  tactful  restraint  in  the  hour 
of  triumph,  ended  the  long  struggle  for  supremacy  in 
Egypt  which  the  great  Corsican  had  inaugurated. 

After   1899 

After  the  year  1899,  all  important  considerations  of 
policy  pointed  to  friendship  between  the  two  democratic 
nations  of  the  west.  The  Parisian  Press  might  greet 
with  frenzied  joy  the  news  of  Boer  victories  ;  the  London 
Press  might  retaliate  with  acidulous  comments  on  the 
Dreyfus  case.  These  episodes  were  like  a  surface  tumble 
of  wind  against  tide  ;  a  resistless  undertow  made  for  union. 
British  statesmen  had  at  last  come  to  see  the  hollowness 
of  the  talk  about  "  splendid  isolation."  In  1901-2 
Germany  repelled  their  offers  of  friendship.  Japan  accepted 
them.  But  England  needed  a  friend  in  Europe.  France, 
too,  now  that  Russia  was  plunging  ever  deeper  into  her 
perilous  enterprises  in  the  Far  East,  required  more 
support  against  the  rapidly  increasing  German  Navy. 
Further,  in  1903  the  German-Turkish  scheme  of  the 
Bagdad  railway,  with  its  subsequent  branch  southward 
into  Syria  and  the  Hedjaz,  threatened  the  Levantine 
interests  of  both  the  Western  Powers.  French  ascendancy 
in  Syria,  and  British  ascendancy  in  Egypt,  were  alike 
menaced  by  this  eastern  thrust  of  the  two  Central 
Emrii^es  Only  by  common  action  could  the  overland 
menace  be  adequately  met. 

French  charm  and  British  good-humour  soon  clinched 
the  union  which  the  dictates  of  sound  policy  so  clearly 
indicated.  Commerce  and  Internationalism  had  already 
prepared  the  way.  The  International  Exhibition  held  at 
Bordeaux  in  1895  furnished  the  occasion  for  a  visit  of  the 
Lord  Mayor  of  London,  which  aroused  very  cordial 
feelings  and  thus  realized  the  hopes  of  that  ardent  friend 
of  France,  the  Prince  of  Wales.  M.  Leon  Say,  for  France, 
Sir  Roper  Parkington  for  Great  Britain,  contributed  to 
the  success  of  that  visit.  The  Count  de  Chaudordy  and 
MM.  Trarieux  and  Lanessan  thereupon  advocated  a 
good  understanding,  which  the  Times  and  the  Standard 
warmly  approved.  President  Felix  Faure,  Sir  Edward 
Monson  (British  Ambassador  at  Paris),  and  Sir  Thomas 
Barclay  (President  of  the  British  Chamber  of  Commerce 
at  Paris)  contributed  in  various  ways  to  the  formation 
of  associations  for  I'Entente  Cordiale  on  both  sides  of 
the  Channel.  For  details  I  must  refer  my  readers  to 
Sir  Thomas  Barclay's  Anglo-French  Reminiscences  (1876- 
1906,  Constable  and  Co.).  Sir  Thomas  worked  hard, 
both  for  the  Entente  and  for  the  great  principle  of  arbitra- 
tion ;  and  his  Memoirs  bear  witness  to  the  beneficent 
influence  exerted  by  his  late  Majesty,  Edward  VII. 
Thwarted  for  a  time  by  that  bitter  interlude,  the  period 
of  the  Boer  War,  His  Majesty  resumed  his  efforts  at  its 
close,  and  on  May-day  1903,  realized  that  long-deferred 
hope,  a  visit  to  President  Loubet  at  Paris.  It  is  an 
open  secret  that  the  authorities  and  the  friends  of  the 
Entente  were  apprehensive  as  to  the  reception  likely  to  be 
accorded  by  the  Parisians.  But  the  King's  bonhomie 
appealed  to  the  crowds,  which  greeted  him  cordially — 
"  without  exaggerated  warmth,  without  any  cries  which 
could  provoke  a  counter-demonstration."  Later  on. 
Lord  Lansdowne  wrote  to  Sir  Edward  Monson,  "  The 
King's  visit  gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  (Entente)  move- 
ment." Undoubtedly  it  also  helped  the  conclusion  of 
the  Anglo-French  Arbitration  Treaty  of  October  14th, 
1903,  which  gave  effect  to  the  promises  of  the  two  Powers 
(and  practically  all  others,  except  Germany)  at  the  First 
Hague  Conference  (1899),  to  submit  their  disputes  to 
arbitration.  The  treaty  is  simple  and  tentative  in 
scop<.  and  character.  It  pledged  Great  Britain  and 
France  to  refer  to  the  Permanent  Court  of  Arbitration, 
then  established  at  the  Hague,  all  questions  which  they 
could  not  settle  by  diplomacy,  provided  that  these  con- 
cerned neither  the  vital  interests,  "  nor  the  independence 
or  honour,  of  the  two  contracting  parties,"  or  the  interest 
of  third  parties.     It  held  good  only  for  five  years. 

The  treaty  was  the  expression  of  a  pious  wish  for 
peace  ;  but  in  practical  politics  it  amounted  to  very  little. 
For  what  important  question  would  not  concern  either 


the  interests  or  independence  or  honour  of  either  France 
or  the  United  Kingdom,  or  of  some  third  party  ?  Ob- 
viously, this  compact  needed  supplementing  by  some 
more  business-hke  arrangement  which  would  remove 
certain  dangerous  questions  from  that  very  ample  list 
of  excluded  topics.  This  was  the  task  to  which  the 
friends  of  the  Entente  now  directed  their  efforts.  Details 
of  the  negotiations  are,  of  course,  unknown.  But  it  is 
known  that  Lord  Lansdowne  and  M.  DclcasseM,(eff ac- 
tively aided  by  Sir  Edward  Monson  and  M.  Paul  Cambon) 
were  chiefly  instrumental  in  overcoming  the  many  diffi- 
culties arising  out  of  the  Egyptian  and  Moroccan  ques- 
tions, and  other  topics  such  as  the  "  French  Shore  "  in 
Newfoundland,  the  control  or  ownership  of  the  New 
Hebrides,  and  certain  French  claims  on  Siam  and  the 
British  West  African  possessions.  These  complex  discus- 
sions occupied'some  six  months  after  the  signature  of  the 
Arbitration  Treaty ;  and  only  those  who  were  well 
versed  in  the  history  of  each  dispute  could  possibly 
have  come  to  a  practical  solution.  Therefore,  the  credit 
of  that  satisfactory  liquidation,  called  the  Anglo-French 
Entente,  was  due  primarily  to  the  two  Foreign  Offices, 
to  the  Ambassadors  and  expert  advisers. 

King  Edward's  Part 

King  Edward,  President  Loubet  and  M.  Cleraenceau, 
doubtless  helped  by  maintaining  the  goodwill  without 
which  the  skill  of  experts  is  exerted  in  vain.  But  to 
hail  King  Edward  as  chief  author  of  the  Entente  is 
unjust  to  Lord  Lansdowne  and  M.  Delcasse,  on  whom, 
ultimately,  lay  the  burden  of  responsibility.  Lord  Esher, 
in  his  work  The  Influence  of  King  Edward  and  other 
Essays  (John  Murray,  1915,  p.  58),  states  emphatically 
that  the  King  always  observed  the  limitations  of  a  con- 
stitutional sovereign,  and,  while  strongly  approving  and 
encouraging  the  Francophile  tendencies,  both  of  Sir 
Edward  Grey  and  Lord  Lansdowne,  cannot  be  considered 
the  initiator  or  contriver  of  the  Entente.  That  his 
tact  and  graciousness  helped  to  smooth  away  the 
asperities  of  the  years  1898-1902  was  in  itself  a  great 
achievement,  essential  to  the  success  of  the  final  com- 
pact. The  treaty  of  April  8th,  1904,  which  formed  the 
quintessence  of  the  Entente,  was  a  series  of  friendly  bar- 
gains between  the  two  States,  far  too  complex  to  be 
outlined  here.  We  gave  way  re  Morocco ;  France 
gave  way  re  Egypt ;  and  so  on.  As  always  happens  in 
such  cases  there  were  loud  complaints  that  we  had 
bargained  away  essentials  for  non-essentials.  Sir  Charles 
Dilke  and  Lord  Rosebery  voiced  those  criticisms,  though 
approving  the  end  of  the  long  tension  with  France. 

Strange  to  say,  the  German  press,  on  the  whole,  wel- 
comed that  happy  ending  to  Anglo-French  disputes. 
The  semi-official  Norddeutsche  Allgemiene  Zeitung  ex- 
pressed satisfaction  at  the  new  arrangements  respecting 
Egypt  and  Morocco.  The  Liberal  Frankfurter  Zeitung 
was  even  more  friendly  ;  and  the  German  Chancellor, 
Prince  von  Biilow,  uttered  these  words  in  the  Reichstag 
on  April  12th  :  "  We  have  no  cause  to  apprehend  that 
this  Agreement  was  levelled  against  any  individual 
Power.  It  seems  to  be  an  attempt  to  eliminate  the  points 
of  difference  between  France  and  Great  Britain  by  means 
of  an  amicable  understanding."  Soon,  however,'-'"- the 
note  of  suspicion  was  heard  in  the  German  press.  Certain 
organs  started  the  theory  that  England  (King  Edward  in 
particular)  was  seeking  to  "  encircle "  Germany  and 
her  Allies  ;  and  obsession  by  this  theory  soon  became  a 
mania.  With  later  events  we  are  not  here  concerned. 
But  it  is  clear  that  the  Entente  with  France  and  that  with 
Russia  in  1907,  were  peaceful  arrangements  aiming  at 
the  solution  of  longstanding  disputes,  and  in  no  way 
directed  against  Germany.  The  overweening  pride  of 
that  nation,  however,  took  offence ;  and  on  several 
occasions  Kaiser  William  manifested  his  annoyance  so 
openly  as  to  endow  the  Entente  with  increasing  vitality. 
He,  the  Boreas  of  the  political  domain,  compelled  the 
Entente  Powers  to  cling  more  closely  together.  Finally, 
his  Levantine  policy  (supplemented  by  the  invasion  of 
Belgium  in  August,  1914).  revived  the  aims  of  Napoleon 
the  Great,  with  the  result  that,  in  the  very  lands  that 
long  bred  discord  between  Great  Britain  and  France, 
there  were  found  bonds  of  common  interest  and 
sympathy  which  braced  up  the  once  loose  Ententes  into 
the  closest  union  recorded  in  history. 


March  29.  1917  LAND    &    WATER 

Welding  Two   Democracies 

By  Henry  D.  Davray 


13 


IF  wc  consider  the  nations  that  are  in  conflict  to-day, 
it  will  be  at  once  apparent  that  there  is  a  striking 
difference  between  them.  From  the  very  first, 
even  before  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities,  it  was 
plain  that  on  the  one  side  there  was  a  firm  determination 
to  maintain  peace  by  every  means  and  every  sacrifice 
consistent  with  honour  ;  while  on  the  other  was  a  highly- 
organised  and  overwhelmingly  conceited  nation,  per- 
petually boasting  of  its  strength,  proclaiming  its  obvious 
need  of  ejfpansion,  and  asserting  its  right — based  on  its 
might— to  take  from  its  neighbours  everything  it 
deemed  indispensable  to  its  development  and  prosperity. 
Here  we  have  two  moral  conceptions  that  are  totally 
opposed  to  one  another.  On  the  one  side  we  see  the 
admission  that  there  is  a  place  in  the  sun  for  everyone  ; 
on  the  other,  a  self-styled  race  bragging  of  its  superiority 
on  all  occasions  and  to  all  comers,  and  declaring,  with  the 
vulgarity  common  to  all  parvenus,  that  the  time  has 
come  for  it  to  conquer  and  take  possession  of  the  whole 
earth.  An  entire  nation  nourishes  this  mystical  mad- 
ness by  solemnly  repeating  :  "  Deutschland  iiber  Alles." 
^  After  two-and-a-half  years  of  war,  there  has  been 
talk  of  peace,  and  the  President  of  the  United  States  has 
asked  the  two  groups  of  nations  at  war  to  state  their 
desires.  For  reasons  which  it  is  not  for  us  to  discuss 
he  said  in  one  of  his  Notes  that  the  belligerents  were 
pursuing,  on  both  sides  equally,  the  same  ends  ;  namely, 
respect  for  justice,  the  defence  of  the  right,  and  the 
liberty  of  nations.  Now,  he  knows  on  which  side  these 
claims  are  sincere. 

The   Central   Empires 

The  Central  Empires,  which  must  undoubtedly  be 
held  directly  responsible  for  the  cataclysm  that  is  turning 
Europe  into  a  desolate  and  ruined  shambles,  are,  from 
the  nature  of  their  political  constitutions,  anachronistic 
remnants  of  the  feudal  system  and  of  ,  monarchy  by 
divine  right.  In  these  Empires  there  are  representati\  e 
assemblies,  elected  by  certain  classes  of  society,  but 
these  deliberative,  and  indeed  legislative,  assemblies 
exercise  only  an  apparent  control  over  the  Government 
of  the  country.  The  Ministers  are  officials  chosen  by  the 
monarch,  and  are  responsible  to  him  alone.  The  most 
serious  decisions,  which  may  lead  to  events  of  the  utmost 
danger,  are  entirely  dependent  on  the  will  of  the  sovereign. 
^Confronting  these  Empires,  whose  peoples  have  no 
power  over  their  own  fate,  we  see  the  nations  of  Western 
Europe,  which  for  several  centuries  past  have  under- 
stood the  danger  of  leaving  absolute  power  in  the  hands 
of  a  single  individual.  It  is  in  the  history  of  England 
that  we  find  the  first  example  of  a  people  struggling 
against  the  abuses  of  feudal  and  royal  power.  With 
a  determination  that  nothing  could  overcome,  the  Com- 
mons maintained  their  right  of  controlling  the  decisions 
of  the  Government,  and,  a  hundred  and  forty  years 
before  the  French,  the  English  beheaded  a  King  who 
supported  his  own  privileges  by  means  inimical  to  the 
independence  of  the  nation.  The  example  set  by  Eng- 
land had  a  profound  influence  upon  France,  and  all 
through  the  eighteenth  century,  under  the  disastrous 
reign  of  Louis  XV.,  English  ideas  ripened  and  were 
spread  abroad  by  Montesquieu,  Voltaire,  and  the 
Encyclopaedists.  At  last  came  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution,  which  put  an  end  to  those  royal  privileges 
still  retained  by  the  Hohenzollerns  and  the  Habsburgs, 
and  to  all  those  privileges  of  the  nobles  and  clergy  that 
are  used  by  petty  Prussian  squires  and  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries  for  the  maintenance  of  dynastic  authority. 

The  British  are  proud  of  saying  they  are  a  free  people 
in  a  free  country,  and  there  is  nothing  they  hold  so  dear 
as  this  liberty.  The  French  are  no  less  attached  to  the 
republican  institutions  they  have  freely  won  for  them- 
selves, "^nd,  whether  the  nation  be  represented  by  a 
President  of  the  Republic  or  by  a  constitutional  King, 
it  is  certain  that  France  and  England  are  the  two  great 
organised  European  democracies. 

How   was   it   brought   about,    then,   that   these   two 


democracies  embarked  upon  so  terrible  an  adventure  as 
the  present  war  ?  Their  governments  had  no  prevision 
of  war.  Their  ideals  were  pacific.  They  had  no  am- 
bitions for  conquest.  Indeed,  they  were  so  entirely 
absorbed  by  questions  of  internal  prosperity  and  social 
welfare  that  they  were  blind  to  the  danger  that  threatened 
them,  or  at  least  they  had  too  high  a  regard  for  the  rights 
of  others  to  believe  in  the  ainbitions  that  their  turbulent 
neighbour  designed  to  fulfil  by  a  crime  against  civilisa- 
tion and  humanity. 

France  and   England 

The  French  Democracy  had  no  choice  :  it  was  suddenly 
attacked.  The  soil  of  France  was  invaded,  and  in  a 
moment  the  entire  nation,  without  distinction  of  party, 
creed,  or  social  position,  rose  to  defend  its  independence. 
But  England  was  not  invaded.  No  open  attack  was 
made  upon  her.  Far  from  it  ;  the  aggressors  counted  on 
her  neutrality.  They  made  sure  that,  should  things  go 
wrong.  Great  Britain  would  be  paralysed  by  the  diffi- 
culties that  their  own  intrigues  had  fomented  in  various 
parts  of  her  Empire,  in  scattered  and  remote  regions. 
But  at  the  first  growl  from  the  British  Lion  all  the  young 
lion-cubs  came  hurrying  to  the  rescue.  Armies  of  volun- 
teers were  enrolled  in  Canada  and  Australia,  in  South 
Africa  and  New  Zealand  :  India  furnished  troops,  some 
of  whom  have  lately  done  glorious  work  in  helping  to 
capture  Bagdad,  while  the  native  chiefs  gave  generously 
of   their   treasure. 

Herein  lies  the  whole  difference  :  the  Central  Empires 
engaged  in  a  war  of  conquest  and  rapine  in  order  to 
realize  an  insensate  dream  of  supremacy,  to  subdue  their 
neighbours  and  seize  their  colonial  possessions :  the 
Western  Democracies  are  fighting  to  resist  these 
ambitions.  They  are  fighting  to  preserve  their 
independence  and  to  keep  their  possessions.  French  and 
English  aUke  have  proved  that  Uberty  is  dearer  to  them 
than  life. 

Britain — to  her  undying  honour — stood  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  France  when  Germany  trampled  treaties 
under  foot,  turned  her  back  upon  justice,  and  attacked 
the  liberty  of  the  heroic  Belgian  nation.  If  the  Dominions 
were  willing  to  take  part  in  this  struggle  it  was  because 
they  understood,  much  earlier  even  than  the  mother- 
country,  that  the  German  dream  of  conquest  was  a  direct 
attack  on  the  ancient  liberty  of  Britain,  and  indeed  on 
the  very  existence  of  the  Empire.  It  was  because  every- 
where, in  Canada  as  in  the  Commonwealth,  in  South 
Africa  and  in  New  Zealand,  England  had  applied  those 
principles  of  Uberty  that  are  the  very  foundation  of  her 
constitution.  She  had  granted  autonomy  to  these 
immense  countries,  and  allowed  them  to  direct  as  they 
chose  their  own  political  and  economic  development. 

The  present  war,  then,  presents  the  spectacle  of  a 
gigantic  struggle  between  nations  who  have  won  their 
liberty  and  are  resolved  to  keep  it  against  all-comers 
and  nations  who  have  been  either  unable  or  unwilliiig 
to  win  their  liberty,  and  submit  in  a  sort  of  mystic  mania 
to  the  conduct  of  dynasties  and  military  castes,  while 
these,  the  better  to  impose  and  strengthen  their  authority, 
feed  the  people  on  dreams  of  impossible  conquests,  and 
dangle  before  their  eyes  the  hope  of  despoiling  their 
neighbours.  The  struggle  that  we  are  watching  to-day 
is,  in  short,  the  struggle  of  responsible  and  free  demo- 
cracy against  conquering  tyranny,  and  upon  the  issue 
of  that  struggle  depends  the  fate  of  civilisation  and  of 
human  freedom. 

The  authorities  in  Germany  are  ready  enough  to 
proclaim  that  they,  too,  are  fighting  in  the  defence  of 
liberty  ;  but  we  know  what  that  means  !  When  they 
demand,  for  instance,  the  freedom  of  the  sea,  it  is  simply 
that  they  may  profit  by  it  themselves  to  the  exclusion  of 
other  nations,  for  Britain's  naval  predominance,  against 
which  they  protest  so  ferociously,  can  do  them  no  harm 
except  in  case  of  war.  The  British  and  French  nations 
are  quite  clear  in  their  minds  on  this  subject.  Thev 
know  now  why  they  are  fighting.     It  is  on  their  chivalrous 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


"  La  Part  de  I'Angleterre  " 

A  celebrated  cartoon  by  "Sem"  published  in  La  Baionnelle,  in  1915 


traditions  that  both  British  and  French  sailors  base  their 
horror  of  the  methods  of  naval  warfare  originated  by  the 
German  navy,  which  has  no  glorious  past,  and  sees  no 
difference  between  a  fair  fight  and  a  massacre.  In  the 
trenches  on  the  Western  Front,  as  in  every  other  part  of 
Europe,  and  the  East,  where  the  Allies  are  fighting,  the 
British  and  French  soldiers  know  that  the  reason  for 
their  fighting  is  not  that  they  may  rob  other  nations  of 
the  independence  they  so  lately  possessed,  but  that  they 
may  restore  that  independence,  and,  if  possible,  destroy 
the  menace  of  Prussian  militarism  for  ever.  All  classes 
of  society  are  mingled  in  the  trenches,  There  are  more 
peasants  than  bourgeois,  more  artisans  than  aristocrats ; 
and  all  of  them,  British  and  French  alike,  hold  the  same 
opinion  with  regard  to  the  war  that  they  held  at  the 
beginning.  It  may  easily  be  imagined  what  they  think 
of  these  d\Tiasties  and  mihtary  castes  ;  and  if,  at  the 
end  of  hostilities,  all  the  combatants  of  the  victorious 
Franco-British  army  should  be  asked  to  express  their 
most  earnest  prayer  for  the  future,  they  would  answer 
with  one  voice  :  "  That  there  shall  be  no  more  war  !  " 
This  was  the  prayer  of  all  who  have  already  fallen,  and 
is  the  prayer  of  those  who  must  yet  fall—  alas  ! — before 
Germany  awakens  from  her  criminal  madness. 

If  from  these  general  considerations  we  return  to  the 
consequences  of  the  Franco- British  fraternity  of  arms, 
we  may  hope  that  for  the  future  there  will  be  an  indis- 
sohible  bond  between  the  British  democracy  and  the 
French  democracy.  Both  of  them  have  learnt  to  see 
that  no  democratic  nation  would  allow  itself  to  be 
hallucinated  by  demented  authorities,  as  has  been  the 
case  with  the  German  nation.  No  democratic  nation, 
responsible  for  itself,  its  prosperity,  and  its  fate,  would 
ever  have  consented  to  provoke  the  present  disastrous 
state  of  things.  A  philosopher  might  find  here  a  subject 
for  bitter  and  ironical  meditation.  This  struggle  between 
the*'  past  and  the  future,  between  free  nations  and 
monarchical  institutions  that  are  threatened  on  all 
sides  and  bid  fair  to  be  submerged  beneath  the  irre- 
sistible tide  of  democracy— this  struggle  was  brought 
about  by  privileged  castes  who  hold  their  prerogative 
from  the  throne.  It  all  hung  upon  a  yes  or  a  no  from  the 
lips  of  a  man,  whom  medical  science  would  term  a  de- 
generate, but  whom  the  chances  of  birth  made  into  n.n 
absolute   monarch.     The  supreme   War  Lord,   with   iiis 


atrophied  arm,  would  not  have  been  passed  for  military 
service,  but  he  is  a  lifting  symbol  for  all  that  he  repre- 
sents, and  it  is  possible  that  the  horrors  of  this  conflict 
have  been  permitted  by  a  ruthless  fate  in  order  that  the 
nations  may  see  at  last  that  the  time  has  come  for  them 
to  grow  to  maturity,  and  to  abstain  from  placing  their 
destiny  in  the  hands  of  irresponsible  individuals. 

The  two  great  western  democracies  have  proved  to 
the  Germans  that  nations  may  be  free,  and  desirous  of 
peace,  and  yet  be  not  degenerate  nor  cowardly.  France, 
without  a  moment's  hesitation,  blocked  the  path  of  the 
invader  with  all  her  able-bodied  manhood.  From  that 
day  to  this  she  has  held  him  in  check,  with  the  help- the 
constantly  increasing  help— of  the  British,  who  in  creating 
the  formidable  army  of  to-day,  have  made  the  most 
prodigious  effort  of  this  kind  recorded  in  history. 

In  the  northern  provinces  of  France,  from  the  Channel 
to  the  lines  that  the  enemy  still  holds,  millions  of  young 
Britons  are  in  close  contact  with  a  country  of  which  they 
have  hitherto  known  nothing.  In  every  town,  large  or 
small,  in  every  village,  they  mingle  with  the  Hfe  of  the 
French  population.  In  their  billets  they  become  one  of 
the  family,  they  come  in  contact  with  habits  and  customs 
differing  from  their  own,  and  they  certainly  lose  the 
failing  that  used  to  be  called  "  insularity." 

British  soldiers  who  have  been  through  this  campaign 
in  France  will  be,  one  cannot  doubt,  much  less  exclusive 
than  before.  All  those  prejudices  and  misconceptions 
with  regard  to  "  foreigners,"  which  are  so  hard  to  uproot, 
will  have  disappeared,  especially  thcsi  which  concern 
the  French.  On  the  other  hand,  the  French,  who  have 
housed  him,  will  never  forget  "  the  good-natured 
Tommy."  The  French  soldiers  who  have  been  brought 
into  contact  with  their  English  comrades  will  carry 
away  to  their  distant  homes  beside  the  Atlantic  or  the 
Mediterranean,  in  the  Pyrenees  or  the  Alps,  pleasant 
memories  of  their  fraternity  of  arms. 

After  having  fought  for  the  same  cause,  a  distinierested 
cause,  the  cause  of  the  whole  human  r.xe,  these  two  great 
democratic  nations  of  the  west,  the  French  and  British, 
will  remain  bound  together  loyally  in  a  lasting  alliance. 
And  thus,  with  the  help  of  the  great  democratic  nations 
of  the  other  continents,  they  will  be  able  to  maintain 
that  state  of  fruitful  peace  for  whose  sake  so  much  ])lood 
will  surely  not  have  been  shed  m  \'ain 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

The  Attack 

By  Centurion 


15 


HE  belonged  to  the  bombing  party  of  No.  i 
Platoon,  Company  A,  of  "the  Springers."  You 
will  not  find  them  under  that  name  in  the  Army 
List,  but  in  the  Sergeants'  Mess,  where  oral 
tradition  dies  hard,  the  long-service  N.C.O.'s  never  caU 
the  regiment  anything  else — and  thereby  keep  ahve  the 
memory  of  a  great  day  in  the  Peninsula  when  the  regi- 
ment cleared  a  six-foot  wall  in  a  bayonet  charge.  No 
one  ever  "  writes  up  "  the  Springers,  for  they  do  not  wear 
kilts  and  are  not  as  the  "  tin-belhes  "  who  sit  mounted 
at  street-comers,  spreading  broad  their  pipe-clayed 
phylacteries.  They  are  merely  one  of  those  unobtrusive 
Una  regiments  who  go  on  from  generation  to  generation 
a.dding  fresh  laurels  to  their  colours  and  saying  very 
httle  about  it,  for  they  are  men  of  few  words  and  they 
speak  a  dialect  which  is  uninteUigible  to  anyone  except 
a  West -countryman.  They  have  "  Peninsula,"  "  Feroze- 
shah,"  "  Sobraon,"  on  their  colours,  and  they  can  now 
add  the  most  coveted  name  in  mihtary  annals,  for  they 
were  at  Mons.  They  have  their  own  libretto  for  the 
bugle-calls ;  and  when  they  talk  of  Defaulters'  Roll 
Call  they  speak  of  "  Angels'  Whisper."  Also  they  have  a 
feud  with  a  certain  Irish  regiment  dating  from  the  day 
when  they  arrived  in  DubUn  and  lowered  its  colours  at 
■'  footer."  Their  homespim  speech  is  pure  Anglo-Saxon, 
the  same  speech  as  their  fathers  spake  when  they  broke 
the  Danes  at  Ethandune.  It  is  a  soft  speech,  like  honey 
in  the  mouth  ;  those  who  speak  it  are  slow  to  anger  and 
of  great  kindness.  But  they  are  very  unpleasant  when 
they  are  roused,  and  though  they  can  give  quarter  they 
never  take  it. 

John  Knighton  had  kept  sheep  on  a  hillside,  one  of 
those  bold  escarpments  of  the  North  Downs  where  the 
chalk  breaks  into  greensand,  falhng  away  into  the  great 
dairy-farming  plains  of  coral  rag.  When  the  war  came 
Uke  a  thief  in  the  night  his  mental  horizon  was  as  bounded 
as  his  physical  environment ;  he  knew  a  great  deal 
about  sheep-dip  and  could  tell  you  all  about  the  healing 
virtues  of  the  rest-harrow,  but  France  was  for  him  merely 
a  geographical  expression,  recalhng  painful  hours  over 
a  primer  in  the  village  school.  But  he  knew  many 
things  that  a  town-bred  teacher  did  not  know ;  he 
could  tell  the  seasons  and  the  time  of  night  by  the  stars, 
and  when  he  looked  at  Orion  he  needed  not  the  Pole  Star 
to  tell  him  where  the  true  North  was.  He  knew  where — 
and  in  what  season — to  look  for  the  bat's- wings  of  Cassio- 
peia and  the  great  square  of  Pegasus.  But  he  would  have 
been  incredulous  if  you  had  told  him  that  the  same  stars 
looked  down  upon  the  fields  of  France. 

One  day  in  May  1915,  when  the  lambing  season  was 
over,  John  Knighton  walked  into  the  nearest  recniiting 
office  with  a  few  chattels  tied  up  in  a  red  handkerchief 
with  large  white  spots  and  announced  his  wish  to  enlist.  If 
you  had  asked  him  his  reason  for  this  momentous  decision 
he  would  have  given  you  every  reason  but  the  true  one, 

which  was  that  Major  S ,  late  of  the  Springers,  now 

on  half-pay,  but  still  a  foster-father  to  the  regiment,  had 
come  to  John  Knighton's  village  one  day,  and  at  a 
recruiting-meeting  in  the  village  school-room,  with  the 
squire  in  the  chair,  had  told  them  things  which  set 
John  Knighton's  teeth  on  edge. 

In  his  lonely  night-watches  on  the  downs  he  had 
pondered  deeply  on  these  things,  and  though  he  could 
not  have  told  you  where  Belgium  was  upon  the  map,  he 
knew  that  there  or  thereabouts  evil  stalked  upon  the 
earth.  And  thinking  upon  these  things  it  seemed  to 
him  that  he,  John  Knighton,  must  go  forth  to  combat 
it.  He  was  a  hkely-looking  man,  tall  and  deep-chested, 
with  the  terra-cotta  skin  of  perfect  health,  and  the 
M.O.,  as  he  watched  him  jump  the  form,  and  hop  round 
che  room  on  his  left  foot,  and  then  on  his  right,  felt  that 
he  could  dispense  with  the  usual  tattoo  upon  his  chest- 
bones.  The  mazes  of  platoon-drill  troubled  him  at 
first,  but  at  observation  he  had  nothing  to  learn,  and  on 
the  range,  he  soon  turned  out  a  first-class  shot.  He  was 
even  as  giod  with  the  bayonet— pitching  hay  is  quite 
a  good  apprenticeship— and  there  were  few  who  could 
show  better  form  on  the  assault-course.     Thus  it  was. 


that  after  a  few  lessons  in  bombing,  he  found  himself 
No.  I  bayonet-man  in  the  bombing-party  of  his  platoon. 
And  one  day  the  company  orderly  sergeant  read  out  his 
name  from  the  nominal  roU  and  he  found  himself 
warned  for  an  overseas  draft. 

II. 

"  It  hain't  comin'  off,  I  do  think,"  said  John  Knighton, 
as  he  "  stood  to  "  one  rosy  morning  in  Jime  in  a  chalk 
trench  upon  the  Somme.  He  had  come  there  after 
months  of  duty  in  the  trenches  in  Flanders,  followed  by  a 
stimulating  interlude  in  carrjdng  "  spit-locked  "  trenches 
at  a  kind  of  dress-rehearsal  of  an  attack  behind  G.H.Q. 
fie  liked  the  rolling  hills  of  the  Somme,  for  they  reminded 
him  of  his  native  downs.  But  he  chafed  at  a  delay  the 
reasons  for  which  were  wholly  obscure  to  him,  and 
although  every  time  they  were  reheved  he  saw  behind 
the  lines  an  increasing  accumulation  of  "  dumps  "  and 
timber  and  hobbled  horses  and  a  mighty  concentration 
of  guns  and  Umbers,  his  incredulity  grew  upon  him. 

"  Thic  year,  next  year,  zumtime,  never,"  said  his 
comrade  Jacob  Winterboume,  as  he  blew  upon  imaginary 
oetals.  "  It'll  be  about  hay-making  time  zoon,  in 
Broad  Hint  on,  John.  Wonder  whether  any  on  us  'ull 
ever  see  the  wold  place  again  ?  "  He  wiped  his  mouth 
with  the  back  of  his  hand  as  he  finished  his  rum  ration. 

But  at  that  John  Knighton  said  nothing. 

The  colonel  of  "  the  Springers  "  had  his  own  opinion 
as  to  the  date  of  the  opening  performance  for  which 
there  had  been  so  many  rehearsals,  but  he  kept  his  own 
counsel.  He  had  attended  a  seven  days'  course  of 
lectures  at  the  Army  School  about  a  week  earUer, 
hearing  many  things  which  he  already  knew  and  a  few 
which  he  did  not.  And  four  days  later  he  had  attended 
a  Divisional  Conference  of  Battahon  O.C.'s  and 
Brigadiers,  while  a  major-general  from  "  Operations  " 
at  G.H.Q.  had  talked  intimately  with  a  pointer  in  his 
hand  before  an  enormous  map.  The  "  I."  summaries 
had  also  been  more  than  usually  explicit  of  late  as  to 
the  strength  and  location  of  the  German  units  opposite 
the  line,  their  enquiries  being  assisted  by  a  large  collection! 
of  shoulder-straps,  a  mild  inquisition  of  the  "  third 
degree,"  and  a  collection  of  belles-lettres,  the  trophies  oi 
some  carefully-organised  raids.  The  A.D.M.S.  had  also 
been  mobilising  his  field  ambulances,  and  an  order  had 
gone  down  to  the  Base  to  evacuate  and  prepare  many  thou-J 
sands  of  beds.  Also  the  Directorates  of  Supplies,  and 
Transport,  and  Water,  and  Railways,  had  been  doing  heavy 
night  shifts,  and  their  caravans  covered  the  face  of  theearth. 
And  the  Divisional  P.M.  had  doubled  his  examining-posts 
and  worked  out  a  scheme  of  positions  for  "  battle  police.'' 

These  things  were  talked  over  in  whispers  by  staff-j 
officers  with  blue,  and  red,  and  parti-coloured  brassards 
at  Brigade  and  Divisional  and  Corps  Headquarters,  untij 
one  night  at  the  end  of  June  the  A.A.G.  at  the  Corp^ 
H.Q.,  after  looking  behind  him  to  see  that  the  messf 
sergeant  had  closed  the  door,  turned  to  the  Camp  Comf- 
mandant  and  whispered  something  in  his  ear.  i 

"  Damn  it  !  "  said  the  Camp  Commandant,  "  and  to 
think  we're  here  right  at  the  back  of  the  dress-circle. 
I  wish  I'd  been  able  to  pull  the  leg  of  my  last  Board!. 
But  they  wouldn't  pass  me  for  anything  but  light  duty. 
And  to  thiixk  my  old  regiment's  up  there.  Well,  here'te 
luck  !  "  ; 

III.  I 

It  was  ten  o'clock.  The  men  had  been  numbered  off 
from  the  left  and  one  in  three  posted  for  look-out  duty. 
The  night  was  calm,  but  the  air  drowsy  as  though  thunder 
were  brooding  over  the  earth ,  and  the  illusion  was  height- 
ened by  sheets  of  flame  which  flickered  incessantly  in  the 
sky.  A  battalion  runner  arrived  from  Brigade  Head- 
quarters with  a  message  for  the  Colonel  in  his  dug-out. 
He  opened  the  sheaf  of  papers  and  saw  the  words  "  Opera- 
tion Orders."  He  took  one  glance  at  them  and  then 
sent  an  orderly  to  summon  the  major  and  the  company 
commanders.      Meanwhile  he  took  out  a  map  and  spread  it 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  it,!/ 


With   the   French   Army 


In    Barbed   Wired    Trenches 


Troops  resting  in  the  Somme  Valley 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


17 


upon  the  table.  His  adjutant  took  four  tallow  candles 
stuck  in  bottles,  lit  them,  and  placed  a  bottle  on  each 
of  the  four  corners  of  the  map.  The  map  was  covered 
with  irregular  lines  which  in  places  tied  themselves  up 
into  knots  like  congested  veins  and  double  lines  of  red 
crosses  marched  with  them.  Here  and  there  were 
clusters  of  red  stars  and  occasionally  a  blue  blot.  The 
stars  were  craters  ;  the  blue  blots  were  unexploded 
mines.  He  was  still  poring  over  this  chart  when  the 
company  conmianders  arrived. 

"  We  attack  to-morrow,"  he  said  quietly,  as  they 
saluted. 

"  At  what  hour,  sir  ?  "  asked  one  of  them  with  studied 
nonchalance. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  the  colonel,  "  soon  after  dawn 
I  expect.  I  have  not  had  '  zero  '  yet.  Now,  gentlemen, 
this  is  the  Divisional  objective — 20  x  A  83  to  20  x  D  72." 
And  he  mo\ed  his  pencil  across  the  rectangle.  "  The 
compass  bearing  on  which  the  battalion  will  march  will 
be  73  magnetic.  The  first  and  second  waves  will  take 
the  German  first-line  trench  ;  the  third  and  fourth  waves 
will  take  the  second-line  trench.  The  bombing  parties 
nmst  bomb  their  way  up  the  communication  trenches 
East  of  Nose  Switch  and  A  company  must  occupy  the 
trench  behind  them." 

The  colon,el  and  the  adjutant,  together  with  the  major 
and  the  four  company  commanders,  peered  at  the  map, 
their  heads,  which  were  close  together,  throwing  great 
shadows  on  the  walls  of  the  dug-out  as  the  colonel  ex- 
j)lained  in  detail  the  nature  of  their  respective  tasks. 
I'"inally  the  adjutant  wrote  them  down  in  duplicate  on  a 
"  Message  and  Signals "  form,  and  gave  each  officer 
his  copy.  Then  they  went  their  appointed  ways  to 
confer  with  their  platoon  commanders.  There  were 
many  things  to  do,  but  every  one  of  them  found  time 
to  do  another  that  was  not  in  his  Operation  Orders — they 
each  wrote  a  letter  home. 

The  colonel  sent  for  a  R.F.A.  subaltern  com- 
manding the  Stokes  guns.  "  Your  barrage  will  commence 
at  minus  eight  minutes  and  cease  at  zero,"  he  read  out, 
explaining  circumstantially  that  they  must  establish 
the  said  barrage  from  the  right  of  trench  A  7/1  to  the  • 
left  of  trench  A  7/2  with  a  view  to  covering  the  enemy's 
machine-guns.  And  he  handed  him  orders  which 
told  him  how  many  rounds  his  sub-sections  were  to  fire 
in  the  first  minute,  how  many  in  the  last,  and  how  many 
in  the  six  minutes  intervening. 

Two  hours  after  midnight  the  runners  arrived  with 
another  message.  It  was  as  brief  as  it  was  fateful.  It 
told  the  colonel  that  "  zero  "  had  been  fi.xed  for  6.30  a.m. 

The  men  were  called  in  at  4.30  a.m.  for  "  Stand  to," 
and  paraded  in  sections  by  the  corporals.  The  rum 
ration  was  served  out  and  every  man  was  given  100 
e.xtra  rounds  of  ammunition  by  the  company  sergeant- 
major.  They  moved  off  by  platoons  up  the  com- 
munication trench  to  the  assembly  trenches  which 
extended  in  straight  lines,  without  traverses,  behind  the 
fue-trenches,  each  trench  about  eighty  yards  apart. 
Every  infantryman  carried  two  empty  s^and-bags  stuck 
in  his  belt  like  a  pair  of  gloves,  a  bomb  in  either  pocket, 
a  pick  or  a  spade  upon  his  back,  a  gas-mask,  and  he 
held  his  rifle  at  "  the  carry."  At  the  head  of  each 
platoon  marched  the  bombing  parties  carrying  their 
little  oyster-like  bombs  in  a  nose-bag  attached  to  their 
belts.  Every  man-  wore  a  vivid  patch  of  coloured  cloth 
upon  his  shoulder,  and  on  the  back  of  his  tunic  was  a 
small  piece  of  burnished  tin  which  gleamed  in  the 
flaslies  that  ever  and  anon  lit  up  tjie  sky.  For  the  most 
part  they  marched  in  silence  up  the  long  ravine,  but 
occasionally  they  chaffed  one  another  ;  some  of  them 
smoked  cigarettes  with  great  rapiditv,  throwing  them 
away  before  they  were  half-consumed! 

As  they  lined  up  in  the  assemblv-trenches  John 
Knighton,  who  was  on  the  extreme  left,  pulled  a  large 
tin  watch  out  of  his  pocket  and  shaking  it  solemnly 
peered  at  it  in  the  pale  light  of  dawn.  The  watch,  which 
he  had  bought  for  five  shillings  one  market-day  at 
Marlborough,  was  a  subject  of  manv  jiieasantries  in  his 
platoon,  for  it  never  kept  time.  Hut  Jolm  Knighton 
treasured  it  above  rubies  and  was  accustomed  to  check 
Its  idiosyncrasies  by  the  stars  and  the  position  of  the 
sun  in  the  heavens.  The  hour  and  minute  hands  were 
at  six  o'clock. 

"  Bist  gwine  to  have  ver  old  ticker  synchronized  by  the 


signalling-officer,  John  ?  "  said  his  neighbour,  nervously 
fingering  the  safety-catch  of  his  rifle. 

"  Did  ye  leave  yer  hairloom  to  ycr  best  girl  in  yer 
pay-book,"  asked  another.  "Lawk  a  massey,  look  "at 
that  girt  'uii  !  ' 

There  was  a  gurgling  sound  in  the  air  overhead  and  a 
9.2  shell  burst  on  a  "  strong  point  "  in  the  German  lines, 
sending  up  a  geyser  of  black  smoke  which,  as  it  drifted 
away,  slowly  formed  the  pattern  of  a  gigantic  weeping- 
willow  upon  the  sky.  All  through  the  night  a  sound  as 
of  someone  knocking  at  a  door  had  been  coming  from 
behind  the  lines,  and  the  air  overhead  was  never  still. 
"  Fix  bayonets,"  said  the  platoon  commander  suddenly, 
as  he  looked  at  his  watch,  and  with  a  clink  fixed  his  own 
in  the  socket. 

The  hands  of  the  platoon  commander's  watch  were 
at  nineteen  minutes  past  six.  The  bombardment  died 
away.     There  was  a  lull, 

IV. 

At  that  moment  the  subaltern  in  charge  of  the  fire- 
control  of  a  battery  of  field-guns  some  three  thousand 
five  hundred  yards  back,  was  waiting  \viU\  a  stop-watch 
in  one  hand  and  a  megaphone  in  the  other  at  the  elbow 
of  the  telephone  orderly  just  beside  the  battery.  The 
Operation  orders  had  been  given  out  the  night  before  ; 
the  fuses  had  been  set  with  the  fuse-key,  and  the  corrector 
put  at  148.  A  pile  of  shells  lay  banked  like  drain-pipes 
under  a  tarpaulin  painted  in  a  mottled  pattern  of  greens 
and  browns.     Each  gun-layer  sat   beside  his 


jun,  and 
the  other  men  of  the  gun  detachment  knelt  behind, 
stripped  to  their  waists,  their  shirt-slee\-es  rolled  up 
exposing  their  sinewy  arms.  At  the  other  end  of  that 
telephone-wire,  some  three  thousand  yards  in  front  of 
the  battery,  were  the  battery  major" and  the  F.O.O., 
established  in  a  low-turfed  emplacement  like  a  grouse- 
butt.  The  telephone  orderly  siuldenly  answered  the 
battery-major  through  the  telephone  :  "  Yes,  sir," 
and  as  he  did  so  turned  his  eyes  towards  the  subaltern. 
Then  he  began  repeating  each  monosyllable  of  the  O.C.'s 
message  one  by  one  as  they  came  through.  "  Ten, 
nine,  eight,  seven,  six  " — the  subaltern  was  strangely 
conscious,  as  he  listened,  with  his  eyes  on  his  stop-watch, 
of  a  scene  on  the  tow-path  at  Oxford  two  years  ago  as  he 
had  sat  leaning  over  an  oar  with  his  feet  planted  firmly 
against  the  stretcher  and  his  heart  thumping  a  response  to 
the  coach's  measured  tones—"  five,  four,  three,  two,  one. 
Fire  !  " 

"  Fire  !  "  shouted  the  subaltern  through  his  megaphone 
to  the  subalterns  in  charge  of  the  guns. 


The  storm  burst.  Forward  in  the  assembly-trenches 
it  buffetted  the  ears  of  the  men— a  mighty  knocking 
upon  great  doors,  but  this  time  it  was  as  if  blows 
were  being  rained  upon  all  the  doors  of  all  the  houses 
e\'er  built  with  hands.  A  thousand  field-guns  were 
firing  sixteen  to  twenty  rounds  a  minute,  as  fast  as 
the  sweating  gunners  could  open  and  close  the  breech. 
The  sound  grew  more  and  more  insistent,  and  each 
man  in  the  assembly-trenches  looked  at  his  neighbour 
with  a  wild  surmise,  shouting  to  make  the  other  hear. 
The  shells  went  spinning  overhead  with  a  long  metallic 
scream.  They  were  H.E.  shells  with  "  delay  "  fuses, 
and,  as  they  burrowed  into  the  German  fire-trench,  they 
threw  up  spouts  of  black  earth  like  waves  upon  a  pro- 
montory, and  black  smoke  rose  at  even  intervals  above 
its  parapet  and  drifted  along  horizontally  as  though  it 
screened  a  line  of  locomotives  travelling  up  a  cutting. 
At  the  same  moment  the  trench-mortars  in  our  evacuated 
front-line  began  to  give  forth  their  dull  thudding  note, 
increasing  in  frequency  as  the  first  minute  passed.  In 
the  sap  in  front  of  it,  two  machine-guns,  traversing  the 
German  front  line  with  a  "  two-inch  tap,"  added  their 
rapid  knuckle-rapping  to  the  brazen  fury  of  the  storm. 

"  The  orchestra's  tuning  up,  mates,"  shouted  one  man 
with  a  nervous  laugh,  "  I'rogrammes  sixpence  each." 
But  no  one  heard  him.  All  eyes  were  fixed  on  the 
platoon  commander,  who  was  looking  at  his  wrist-watch. 
Each  man  put  his  left  foot  in  a  foot-hole  cut  in  the  wall 
of  the  trench  and,  reaching  up,  firmly  gripped  a  stake  in 
the    parapet    above    him.     They    leaned    forward    with 


i8 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


their   chests   agamst   the    earthen   wall    straining   like 
hounds  at  the. leash. 

"Now  men,"  he  said  quietly,  "remember  we're  the 
Springers,  don't  lose  youi:  heads,  and — "  a  whistle 
sounded—"  over  you  go."  They  hauled  themseh-cs  up, 
and  with  a  spring  were  over  the  top.  John  Knighton, 
looking  back  over  his  shoulder,  saw  three  other  waves 
behind  him  rising  up  out  of  the  earth.  He  advanced 
at  a  pace  that  was  neither  a  walk  nor  a  run,  but  some- 
tiiing  between  the  two,  and  made  for  one  of  the  planks 
thrdvvn  at  intervals  across  the  tire-trench.  As  he  crossed 
it  he  saw  the  Stokes  gunners  in  their  emplacements  in 
the  trench  beneath  him  rapidly  taking  their  gun  to 
jiieces  to  join  up  with  the  fourth  line  ;  one  man  already 
had  the  bomb  and  its  "  tail  "  over  his  shoulder  as  though 
about  to  perform  a  "  turn  "  with  a  gigantic  dumb-bell. 
Slipping  through  one  of  the  gaps  cut  o\ernight  in  the 
intricacies  of  the  "  double-apron  "  wire,  he  heard  above 
him  the  thin  whine  of  shrapnel,  and  tongues  of  tlaine 
ai)peared  in  the  air  overhead,  followed  by  scrolls  of  white 
smoke.  There  was  a  soft  patter  as  the  dispersing  bullets 
struck  the  earth,  and  he  saw  men  to  the  right  and  left 
of  him  suddenly  fall  out  of  the  line  as  though  they  had 
forgotten  something  and  falling  lie  very  still.     "  It  do 

seem  "   said  his  neighbour  Jacob  Winterbourne  ; 

the  sentence  was  never  finished.  John  passed  on.  His 
throat  was  dry  as  a  furnace,  his  nostrils  were  filled  with 
the  reek  of  burnt  powder,  his  eyes  dazed  with  dust,  and 
the  sweat  ran  down  his  face.  Only  a  moment  before  the 
gun-layers  back  at  the  batteries,  working  to  time,  had 
turned  the  sight-elevating  gear  of  their  guns  until  the 
range-drum  recorded  another  hundred  yards.  ^  The 
German  front-line  trench  was  dearly  visible  ;  the  "  tail  " 
of  the  creeping  barrage  had  lifted.  Behind  that  trench 
smoke-shells,  each  exploding  as  it  fell  in  graceful  stems  of 
smoke  embroidered  with  thousands  of  tiny  sparks  of  burn- 
ing phosphorus,  expanded  into  ostrich  feathers  of  white 
vapour,  which  merged  into  a  screen  of  mist.  The  next 
moment,  he  had  leapt  into  the  (ierman  trench. 

The  trench  was  pounded  into  the  semblance  of  a  dried 
water-course,  and  here  and  there  lay  the  bloody  debris 
of  what  had  once  been  men.  He  heard  groans  and 
cries  and  savage  baths  to  the  right  of  him,  as  turning  to 
the  left  he  advanced  at  the  head  of  his  little  bombing 
party.  They  bombed  their  way  round  a  traverse 
as  the  second  wave  with  the  Lewis  gunners  on  its 
left  leapt  into  the  trench.  Pallid  men  in  dirty  grey 
uniforms  crept  out  of  holes  in  the  earth,  held  up  their 
liands,  and  gibbered  for  quarter ;  they  were  bundled 
o\er  the  parapet  and  ran  ridiculously,  with  arms  above 
their  heads,  through  the  oncoming  waves  of  the  third 
and  fourth  line.  In  a  few  minutes  the  trench  was  won 
and  the  signallers  were  talking  confidentially  to  the  aero- 
planes whose  droning  hum  came  nearer  and  nearer  as  they 
circled  overhead.  Filling  their  empty  sandbags  in  a 
fury  of  haste  the  men  turned  to  "  consolidate  "  the 
parados  while  the  Lewis  gunners  emptied  their  trays  of 
cartridges  over  the  top  at  the  German  second-line  trench. 
John  Knighton,  turning  up  a  communication-trench, 
heard  a  loud  uproarious  cheer  as  the  third  wave,  carry- 
ing their  rifles  at  the  short  trail,  leapt  across  the  trench, 
some  ahead,  some  behind,  hke  men  in  a  hurdle  race. 
He  noticed  a  /nachine-gunner  carrying  the  tripod 
fantastically  over  his  shoulders,  as  a  shepherd  carries 
a  lamb,  with  two  legs  in  front.  Behind  the  fourth  line 
the  carrying  party,  consisting  of  D  Company  with  spare 
bombs  and  coils  of  wire  slung  on  poles  were  coming  up. 
Far  as  the  eye  could  see,  the  whole  countryside  was  alive 
with  men  advancing  like  beaters  in  a  heath  fire. 

The  bombing-party  advanced  stealthily  up  the  com- 
munication trench,  John  Knighton,  as  bayonet-man, 
leading  the  way  with  the  safety-catch  of  his  riilc  forward. 
Behind  him  was  No.  2,  with  his  safety-catch  back,  and 
then  came  bomb-thrower  No.  i,  witli  a  bomb-carrier 
in  turn  behind  him.  The  trench  suddenly  widened. 
"  Island  Tra\-erse  !  "  shouted  John  Knighton,  and  stood 
still  with  his  rifie  "  on  guard."  Bomber  No.  i  took  a  little 
barrel-shaped  object  out  of  his  bag.  slipped  a  rinj;  on  to  a 
hook  of  his  belt,  and  with  the  palm  of  his  hand  lirmly 
claspintj  the  lever  against  the  bomb,  he  ])ulled  out  the 
pin.  He  held  the  bomb  against  l\is  hip,  and  then  with 
a  mighty  ovi'rhand  throw  he  launclu-d  it  over  the 
"  island  "  of  >and-bags.  There  was  a  loud  n'i)ort,  and  a 
doud  of  woolly  white  smuke  rose  behind  the  traverse. 


"  Fifteen  yards,  five  yards  left,"  shouted  the  N.C.O.,  and 
-the  bomber  threw  again.  Then  John  Knighton  rushed 
round  the  traverse  with  the  rest  of  the  bombing  party 
on  his  heels.  The  Germans  were  bolting  like  rabbits 
with  a  ferret  behind  them. 

They  were  getting  on.  Half  an  hour  later  the  major 
was  telephoning  remarks  to  the  colonel,  punctuated  by 
frequent  references  to  a  lady  named  Emma  : 

"  Bombing  attack  is  going  very  well  ACC  EMM.A  Tlic 
artillery  fire  and  M.  G.  and  L.  G.  from  my  post  at  tlic 
Mound  are  very  effective,  enemy  keep  b<jlting  from 
trcncii  across  the  open  ACC  EMMA  1  require  more 
S.A.A.  for  men  and  L.  G.'s  ACC  EMMA  The  latter 
have  expended  approximately  ten  magazines  and  have 
done  p;ood  work  ACC  EMM.\  .\t  least  lifty  of  the  enemy 
liave  been  forced  out  of  tlie  switcii  trench  and  for  200 

yards  East  of  the  Nose  ACC  liMM.'V   Lieutenant  A 

lias  orders  to  occupy  the  German  trench  immediately 
behind  tlie  bombing  i)arty  .\CC  IC.MMA  Will  you  arrange 
for  artillery  to  lift  olt  the  Nose  ?  "       ^        .      " 

But  there  came  a  lull  ;  .something  had  held  iqi  our 
left  flank.  Our  left  was  "  in  the  air,"  and  John  Knighton 
and  his  bombing-party  found  their  way  blocked  by 
enemy  bombers  rusliing  u])  a  lateral  trench  at  its  junction 
with  the  communication-trench  along  which  they  were 
forcing  their  way.  He  saw  a  man  in  front  of  him  raise 
his  hand  from  his  thigh  and  swing  his  arm  over  his 
shoulder  ;  there  was  a  loud  report,  a  sheet  of  violet 
flame,  and  he  knew  no  more. 

VI. 

He  lay  where  he  fell  while  the  tjattle  surged  over  and 
beyond  him.  Many  hours  later  some  stretcher-bearers 
picked  him  up  and  carried  him  back  to  the  regimental 
aid-post.  He  was  given  a  hasty  injection  of  500  units 
of  anti-tetanic  serum,  and  then  passed  on  in  a  hand-cart 
to  the  advanced  dressing-station  of  the  field  ambulance 
where  surgeons  toiled  all  night  in  their  overalls  under  the 
pallid  gla,re  of  an  acetylene  lamp.  His  wounds  were 
dressed,  a  waterproof  envelope  was  tied  to  his  button- 
hole, and  he  was  put  on  one  side  for  despatch  to  the 
Casualty  Clearing  Station.  The  envelope  contained  a 
Field  Medical  Card  and  its  red-coloured  border  told  its 
own  tale  to  the  orderlies  who  passed  him  on.  But  of 
what  was  written  on  that  card  he  knew  nothing.  He  was 
unconscious. 

He  awoke  in  hospital  at  the  Base.  As  he  oi)ened 
his  eyes  he  felt  a  slight  j)ressure  on  his  wrist  and  he  saw 
the  R.A.M.C.  captain,  whose  hand  was  upon  his  jnilse, 
incline  his  head.  At  that  a  nurse  softly  opened  a  screen 
at  the  foot  of  his  bed  and  shut  out  hi  4  view  of  the  ward. 
His  nostrils  were  filled  with  the  penetrating  smell  of 
methylated  spirit  and  iodoform,  and  in  his  ears  was  a 
rhythm  of  crashing  waters  followed  always  by  the 
multitudinous  scramble  of  pebbles  on  the  beach.  It  was 
the  beat  of  three  succeeding  waves  upon  the  shore-  that 
last  pulsation  of  a  rising  tide — as,  under  a  full  moon  flood- 
ing the  room  with  her  cold  silver  light,  the  great  waters 
heaved  and  the  cables  of  the  lightship  out  at  sea  grew 
taut.  There  was  a  sudden  lull  :  the  tide  was  on  the 
turn.  He  gazed  at  the  screen  and  pictures  passed  across 
it  as  though  his  brain  were  full  of  lantern  shdes.  He  saw 
a  thatched  cottage  dressed  with  flints  and  a  red  brick 
wall  covered  with  ivy-leaved  toad-flax  ;  he  heard  the 
tinkle  of  sheep-bells  upon  a  green  down  and  in  his  nostrils 
was  the  scent  of  wild  thyme.  Then  the  picture  faded 
away  before  the  pattern  of  a  gigantic  weeping-willow, 
outlined  in  black  cra.yon  upon  the  moonlit  screen,  and 
his  face  grew  troubled.  The  eyes  in  the  motionless  head 
followed  the  movements  of  the  nurse  by  his  bed  and 
she  saw  a  question  in  them. 

"  What  is  it,  sonny  ?  "  she  said  as  she  stooped  over 
him,  smoothing  his  j)illo\v  and  looking  down  at  the 
leaden  f,'laze  upon  his  face.  His  thumb  and  forefinger 
were  plucking  softly  at  the  coverlet. 

She  seemed  very  far  away.  "  Cassn't  thee  tell  I, 
ladv,  whether  we've  a  took  thuck  trench?  " 

She  did  not  know.  Btit  she  knew  that  John  Kni;,'hton, 
who  had  kept  the  faith  that  was  in  him,  had  huished  his 
course.     His  race  was  run. 

"  Yes,"  she  said. 

The  troubled  look  died  (.iit  of  his  eyes.  He  sighed 
with  dee])  content.  ;ind  sighing  fell  itsleep,  and  sleeping 
went  out  with  the  tide. 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


The   Battle  of  St.   Quentin 

By    Ililaire    Relloc 


'E  shall  not  understand  the  nature  and  mean- 


ing of   the  German   retreat,  and   its   present 


\/\/  central  feature,  the  Battle  for  St.  Quentin, 
T    T      imless  we  grasp  the  map  in  its  largest  features. 

Whvn  we  have  so  grasped  it  we  shall  not  be  able  to 
say  where  that  retreat  will  end  (or  rather  halt)  ;  still 
less  what  its  fortunes  will  be,  or  the  consequence  of  its 
obvious  perils  to  the  enemy.  But  we  shall  be  able 
to  understand  the  material  with  which  we  are  dealing, 
and  until  we  understand  the  main  points  of  that  it  is 
impossible  to  study  the  subject  at  all. 

Nature  of  the  Original  Line 

The  line  across  the  west  to  which  the  Germans  were 
pinned  after  their  defeats  on  the  Marnc  and  the  first 
battle  of  Ypres,  may  be  called  The  Ori^uial  Line.  I 
have  indicated  it  upon  Map  I  with  a  succession  of  letters 
0-0-0. 

It  was  not  a  line  chosen  by  the  enemy.  It  was  a  line 
to  which  he  was  constrained.  He  dug  himself  in  as  he 
could  and  where  he  could,  often  taking  advantage  of 
crests  to  give  him  observation,  but  in  some  sectors  suffer- 
ing from  a  very  unfavourable  situation.  As  he  was  in 
immensely  superior  strength  for  a  long  time  after  being 
]:>inned  to  this  line  and  had  a  still  greater  superiority  in 
luunitionment  than  he  had  even  in  men,  he  was  able, 
upon  the  wiiole,  to  force  himsdf  upon  local  positions 


which  thus  gave  him  an  advantage  in  superiority,  though 
not  everywhere. 

This  line  he  felt  at  once  to  be  what  it  was,  a  siege  line, 
and  he  tried  liard  to  break  out.  He  tried  lirst  towards 
the  north  and  later  at  Verdun,  and  in  both  attempts  he 
failed. 

Nevertheless  this  line  gave  him  certaui  very  great 
advantages,  which  were  the  more  apparent  as  his  tenure 
of  it  continued,  and  the  two  unexpected  factors  of  sujiply 
and  submarine  warfare  developed.  These  advantages 
may  be  sunmiarised  as  follows  : 

(i)  It  put  under  his  power  and  occupation  the  chief 
manufacturing  districts  of  the  North  of  France  and 
Belgium,  and  particularly  the  great  coalfield  which  is 
marked  upon  Map  1  by  stipling  at  X  ;  the  great  manu- 
facturing region  of  Lille  and  all  the  manufacturing  plant 
of  Belgium. 

(2)  It  put  into  his  occupation  and  power  the  iron- 
bearing  region  at  Y,  part  of  which  he  had  annexed  after 
the  war  of  1870-71,  but  part  of  which  had  remained  after 
that  war  in  French  territory. 

(3)  It  kept  all  the  destruction  of  war  far  from  his  own 
soil  and  on  the  soil  of  his  enemies,  thereby  exasperating 
and  wearing  down  those  enemies  and,  what  is  more 
important,  preserving  his  civil  population  from  the  strain 
of  invasion.  When  one's  army  is  fighting  upon  the 
enemy's  soil,  one  can  always  make  one's  civil  population 
believe  that   one   is   winning.      Napoleon,   in   the  very 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  ici7 


crash  of  defeat  at  Lcipsic  in  181.).  and  with  disaster 
clearly  in  front  of  him,  maintained  that  state  of 
mind  among  the  French  quite  easily  so  long  as  he 
was  lighting  in  the  enemy's  country,  and  the  sense  of 
defeat  only  caine  to  the  i'Yench  when  l-rance  itself  was 
invaded  in  iiSi4.  \\hat  this  factor  in  the  situation 
means  anyone  witii  a  little  wisdom  and  detachment 
can  apjireciate  b\-  contrasting  the  feeling  towards  the 
war  in  this  country,  which  is  not  invaded,  and  the  feeling 
towards  it  in  France,  which  is. 

(4)  The  point  at  which  the  line  had  crystallised  upon 
the  North  Sea  Coast,  though  it  had  lost  him  the  supreme 
advantage  of  commanding  the  Straits  of  Dover,  still  gave 
him  command  of  the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt,  of  the  neigh- 
bouring Dutch  Coast,  and  gave  him  an  all-important 
base  for  operations  in  the  North  Sea  at  Zecbrugge. 

These  ad\antages  were  so  great  that  they  very  much 
more  tiian  comj>ensated  him  for  a  certain  grave  dis- 
advantage ajiparent  in  the  shape  of  the  line. 

'ihis  gTa\e  disadvantage  consisted  in  the  fact  that 
the  line  as  a  whole  suffered  from  a  great  awkward  salient 
generally  called  the  Salient  of  Noyon  from  the  town 
which  lay  nearest  to  its  apex.  He  fully  appreciated 
the  ultimate  weakness  which  he  would  suffer  on  accoimt 
of  this  accident.  But  he  also  appreciated  the  truth 
that  his  advantages  \ery  greatly  outweighed  that  dis- 
advantage 

The  Noyon  Salient 

Now  what  was  the  specific  disadvantage  of  this  Noyon 
sahent,  the  r»)ex  of  which  I  have  indicated  oh  Map  1 
by  the  large  letter  S  ? 

It  is  curious  that  the  novel  features  of  trench  warfare, 
which  are  nothing  more  than  the  old  siege  probfems  on  a 
larger  scale,  should  have  confused  people  in  this  matter 
and  should  have  made  them  think  that  a  salient  was  no 
longer  dangerous  because  the  war  upon  it  was  not  a.  war 
of  movement.  A  salient  always  possesses  and  always 
will  possess  certain  disadvantages,  because  those  dis- 
advantages are  in  the  nature  of  things.  They  vary  in 
detail,  of  course,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  fighting 
and  the  size  of  the  salient,  but,  fundamentally,..they  are 
the.  same.  The  disadvantage  of  holding  a  sahent  (the 
men  who  have  been  round  Ypres  for  more  than  two 
years  could  tell  you  something  about  it)  is  essentially 
that  a  salient  compels  you  to  fight  facing  two  ways  at 
once. 

This  inevitable  weakness  of  a  salient  shows  itself  in 
all  sorts  of  different  ways.  On  a  small  tactical 
scale  there  is  the  danger  of  getting  a  body  of  troops  cut 
oft"  or  crushed.  On  a  tactical  scale  again,  even  in  a  war  of 
positions,  there  is  the  danger  of  having  a  small  salient  over- 
whelmed by  converging  fire.  Neither  of  these  dangers  were 
present  of  course  in  the  case  of  a  large  strategical  salient 
like  that  of  Noyon,  especially  when  it  vV-as  held  under 
siege  conditions,  that  is,  by  fortified  lines  with  an  ample 
sufficiency  of  men  and  guns  to  maintain  them,  l^ever- 
theless.  the  great  strategical  salient  of  Noyon  aftorded 
its  own  peculiar  peril,  to  understand  which  a  simple 
diagram  will  suffice. 

If  I  am  holding   a   straight  line  hke  the  line  M-N  in 

diagram  II  then,  supposing  it  cannot  be  turned  at  either 

-of  its  flanks  M  or  N  (supposing,  for  instance,  these  flanks 

repose  upon  neutral  territory  or  the  sea)   I  am  safe  so 


T\ 

\ 

X 

'Tvf 

11 

^ 

^^  V      V 

1 

|0 

yV 

^^^^^ 

\   \ 

T 

long  as  the  line  is  not  positively  shattered.  If  a  violent 
offensive  makes  a  dent  in  my  line,  as  at  O  in  diagram  II, 
I  can  slightly  modify  the  whole  (or  even  leave  the  dent 
standing  if  it  is  not  too  deep)  and  yet  feel  secure,  or  I  can 
retire  by  quite  a  short  distance  along  the  whole  stretch, 
as  to  the  dotted  line  behind  M-N,  and  be  in  the  same 
security  as  I  was  before.  Nothing  will  be  disastrous  save 
a  complete  and  sudden  rupture  at  the  point  of  attack. 

But  supposing  that  instead  of  holding  a  straight  line 
like  M-N,  I  am  holding  a  salient  of  the  shape  X  V  Z  with 
its  apc.\  at  Y,  the  position  is  wholly  changed.  Let  an 
(qually  \iolcnt  oft'ensive  be  directed  along  a  "transversal  " 
as  along  the  line  T-T.  whether  from  both  sides  (which 
is  the  best  plan  if  one  has  the  men)  or  even  from  one  side 
only,  and  observe  what  happens.  If  the  oft'ensive  makes 
a  very  considerable  dent  (as  for  instance  the  shaded 
})ortion  at  V)  the  position  of  your  bulging  line  below  the 
dent  is  increasingly  imperiiled.  To  reduce  the  peril 
of  being  in  a  salient  at  all  you  have  to  straighten  your 
line  towards  the  chord  of  the  arc,  that  is  from  the  curve 
X  Y  Z  to  the  dotted  line  X-Z  behind  it,  and  that  means  the 
bringing  back  of  a.  great  number  of  men  and  guns  and 
material  by  converging  roads  so  that  they  get  more 
and  more  crowdoi  together,  and  to  do  all  this  imder 
the  jMc-ssure  of  an  enemy  who  is  not  only  pursuing  but 
is  ])resent  upon  both  sides  of  the  movement.  To  eft'ect 
this  from  a  salient,  that  is,  to  evacuate  a  salient,  is 
obviously  therefore,  more  and  more  difficult  in  proportion 
as  your  salient  is  sharper,  and  in  proportion  to  the  dis- 
tance through  which  you  have  to  bring  your  men  back  ; 
for  with  every  extra  march  you  have  a  greater  chance  of 
confusion  and  delaj-. 

As  the  eftect  of  the  offensive  along  the  transversal 
increases  you  are  more  and  more  constrained  to  evacuate 
the  salient  under  peril  of  a  particular  form  of  disaster, 
which  form  is  this  : 

That  if  your  retirement  in  the  narrowing  salient  gets 
crowded  and  falls  into  disarray,  your  whole  line  is  destroyed 
as  a  military  deience  over  the  whole  stretch  of  the  salient, 
for  a  body  of  men  in  confusion  is  no  defence  at  all.  It 
is  worse  than  if  they  were  not  there. 

Successful  pressure,  therefore,  upon  a  transversal 
compels  the  force  holding  the  salient  to  retire,  or  rather 
to  attempt  retirement.  But  the  object  of  the  pressure 
is  not  to  cause  retirement  but  to  produce  such  a  state 
of  aft'airs  during  that  retirement  that  the  salient  shall 
fall  into  confusion  and  that  the  proper  taking  up  of 
a  new  fortified  straighter  line  behind  it  shall  fail. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  Germans  and  Austrians  when  they 
planned  the  destruction  of  the  Russian  armies  in  1915, 
struck  with  all  their  might  upon  the  transversal  of  a 
salient,  to  wit  the  salient  formed  by  the  lines  across 
Galicia,  and  the  lines  along  the  Carpathians,  with  their 
apex  at  the  upper  waters  of  the  Dunajetz  River.  As  we 
all  remember  they  very  nearly  succeeded  through  an 
immense  superiority  in  munitionment. 

They  did  not  eft'ect  a  complete  rupture  in  the  Russian 
lines  as  they  had  hoped,  but  they  threw  the  salient  into 
complete  disarray,  captured  great  numbers  of  prisoners, 
and  compelled  an  immediate. retirement  over  a  great  dis- 
tance with  very  heavy  losses. 

Now  if  we  turn  again  to  Map  I  we  shall  see  that  the 
chord  of  the  arc,  the  base  line  a  retirement  to  which  would 
eliminate  the  Noyon  salient  for  the  enemy,  runs  along  the 
trajectory  marked  2-2-2  just  covering  Lille,  Valenciennes, 
Maubeuge,  Mezieres,  and  so  to  Verdun.  Nothing  short 
of  this  would  eliminate  the  peril  formed  by  the  salient. 
A  shorter  retirement  would  simply  shift  the  apex  of  the 
salient  to  another  place,  but  leave  it,  if  anything, 
sharper  than  before. 

But  a  great  retirement  of  this  kind  to  what  has  generally 
been  called  (from  the  river  obstacle  upon  its  left  half) 
"  the  line  of  the  Meuse,"  would  be  an  operation  in- 
evitably costing  very  heavy  sacrifice  in  men  and  material. 
The  maximum  wddth  of  "the  retirement  would  be  nearly 
100  miles,  and  the  body  of  troops  to  be  moved,  seemg 
how  the  Germans  were  concentrating  upon  various  parts 
of  their  line,  would  be  more  than  half  the  whole  of  the 
German  army  in  the  West. 

The  Allies  attacked  on  the  Somme  along  the  trans- 
versal going  south-east  from  Albert.  They  had  already 
attempted  a  year  before  a  double  attack  along  a 
transversal  further  back  ;  the  English  at  Loos,  south 
of  Lille,  the  French  in  the  Champagne  east  of  Rheims, 


Marcn  29,  191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


^^''Silf'^^'&'S.  aa  ^.^  ao 
a „ <:^.»a„..  £j^ ^  "TlLhedTcUTols  on  "WeUnesdcx 


vVC n  Q  a 

Q  „  ,?,,     German  Une  sa-oiiffly  aUfindeii  afier 


and  TTttirsdcu/  ULstu/eek.  •••♦«««♦«•««« 

Lure  (f  '''Atytidxxiy 

nt^/it  Warc/i  r6'^  «-  ^mm  >«.  .. 


and  they  had  failed  because  their  munitionnient 
had  not  yet  reached  the  superiority  required.  The 
attack  along  the  transversal  of  the  Somme  was 
more  successful.  It  produced  a  dent  which  kept  on 
increasing  and  made  the  remainder  of  the  salient  more 
and  more  perilous  vmtil,  at  last,  the  enemy  had  to 
make  his  plans  for  evacuating  the  salient  as  best  he  could 
before  the  weather  should  j)crmit  a  renewal  of  the 
pressure. 

He  had  intended  to  retire  under  the  protection  of  a 
strong  Hank  position  along  the  Bapaume  Ridge  and  the 
heights  continuing  it  beyond  Peronnc  at  R-R-R.  He 
had  prepared  a  sort  of  intermediate  line  involving  but  a 
short  retirement  and  no  appreciable  shortening  of  his 
defences  or  saving  in  men,  which  line  covered  Cambrai. 
St.  Quentin  and  La  Fere,  and  came  down  to  the  original 
Une  near  Soissons  (i-i-i  upon  Map  I.)  But  he  failed 
to  hold  the  Bapaume  Hidge  :is  long  ;is  he  intended  :  a  fact 
of  which  we  have  addiiional  proof  afforded  every  day  by 
the  descriptions  coming  in  of  the  immense  preparations  he 
had  made  to  hold  this  Bapaume  Kidge  :  works  which  the 
British  hold.  He  therefore  had  to  retire  under  con- 
ditions different  from  .and  somewhat  less  advantageous 


than  those  of  his  original  plan,  and  on  that  account  there 
has  been  produced  the  very  interesting  situation  which 
we  are  now  watching — the  struggle  round  St.  Quentin. 

Struggle  for  St.    Quentin 

St.  Quentin,  as  will  be  seen  by  looking  at  i\Iap  I,  is 
the  very  centre  of  this  new  intermediate  line,  which 
does  not  solve  the  problem  of  the  salient  at  all  (for  it 
runs  from  Arras  at  A  only  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Soi.ssons  at  B,  leaving  B  still  the  head  of  a  sharp  salient 
subject  to  great  peril,  if  or  when  an  offensive  shall  develop 
to  the  north  or  to  the  east  of  it),  and  if  St.  Quentin  is 
lost  the  power  of  continuing  a  manoeuvre  of  movement  re- 
mains with  the  Allies.  Moreover,  the  peril  to  St.  Quentin 
is  emphasised  by  a  feature  whicli  was  intended  in  the 
original  scheme  to  give  strength  to  the  new  line  :  the 
little  bastion  or  jutting  out  projection  at  (i.  This  little 
bastion  is  a  high  group  of  hills  covered  by  the  dense 
forests  of  St.  (iobain  and  Coney.  The  ]X)sition  is  im- 
])rcgnab]e  to  direct  assault  with  e<pial  forces,  and  was 
certainlv  intended  by  the  enemy  to  flank  and  protect 
the  centre  in  front  of  SI.  Quentin,  supposing  that  centre 


22 


LAND    &     WATER 


March  29,  1917 


to  stand  firm.  If  St.  Quentin  falls  the  projection  upon 
Ihc  lKif<l\ts  of  St.  (iobain  will  be  no  longer  a  strength' to 
the  ojiemy  but  a  weakness. 

To  understand  the  whole  of  this  very  interesting 
position,  let  us  look  at  the  Battle  of  St.  Quentin,  which 
IS  now  joined,  in  some,  detail. 

The  battlefield  may  be  regarded  as  stretching  from  a 
little  south  of  toucy,  with  its  magnificent  ruined  castle 
on  the  edge  of  the  great  Hill  Forest,  Xo  the  railway 
junction  of  Koiscl  upon  the  north,  its  total  front  as  the 
crow  Hies  being  from  south-east  to  north-west  about 
thirty  miles.  But  its  critical  sector  between  the  Somme 
and  the  Oise  is  not  more  than  half  that  distance.  The 
district  is  di\ided  into  two  very  different  aspects  by 
the  marshy  valley  of  the  Oise  river.  To  thq  north  of 
this  \allev,  after  one  has  climbed  the  steep  bank,  which 
e\ery where  runs  along  the  Oise  to  the  height  of  about 
150  feet,  is  a  mass  of  almost  entirely  bare  rolling  up- 
lands. From  any  one  of  its  flat-rounded  summits  one 
has  a  view  for  miles  and  miles  over  a  sort  of  tumbled 
sea  of  plough  lands.  The  sources  and  upper  waters  of 
the  httle  Somme  make  only  a  slight  depression  therein  ; 
the  general  character  of  the  whole  country  side  is  uniform, 
very  well  suited  for  manoeu\Te,  and  giving  excellent 
obserxation  everywhere. 

To  the  south  of  the  Oise,  on  the  other  hand,  and 
lietween  that  marshy  flooded  river  (with  its  numerous 
channels)  and  its  tributary  the  Ailctte  stands  the  bold 
highland  of  the  great  forest,  which  is  called  in  its  northern 
part  after  tlie  little  woodland  town  of  St.  Gobain  in  its 
midst,  and  in  its  southern  part  after  the  village  and 
castle  of  Gjucy.  Its  highest  point  reaches  quite  350  feet 
above  the  river  valley.  We  must  add  to  these  general 
elements  other  obstacles  and  communications.  The 
main  railway,  which  is  the  vital  communication  of  the 
enemy,  runs  from  St.  Quentin  to  Cambrai,  and  so  to 
Belgium  and  the  great  German  works  in  Westphalia  ; 
while  St.  Quentin  is,  at  the  same  time,  the  meeting  place 
of  five  great  main  roads  and  at  least  twenty  smaller  ones. 
Apart  from  this  main  railway  to  Cambrai  there  is  a  single 
line  railway  going  to  Cambrai  by  way  of  Roisel  from 
St.  Quentin  ;  *another  single  line  railway  leading  to  the 
Champagne  districts  through  Laon  (where  it  joins  the 
main  line),  and  several  light  railways  which  the  enemy 
h.is,  of  course,  largely  added  to  during  his  occupation. 
The  main  obstacle  in  front  of  St.  Quentin  is  the 
Crozat  Canal,  which  unites  the  Somme  Canal  and  the 
Oise  Canal,  the  latter  following  the  marshy  main  valley 
of  the  river  from  which  it  takes  its  name.  The  front 
of  the  battle  has  been  as  follows  in  the  last  few  days  : 

In  the  middle  of  last  week,  Wednesday  and  Thursday, 
the  furthest  British  patrols  and  detachments  of  cavalry 
were  feeling  their  way  towards  Roisel  and  Vermand. 
They  linked  up  with  the  French  somewhere  south  of 
Vermand,  while  the  French  had  got  their  foremost  caval- 
ry and  advance  detachments  near  Roupy  about  three 
miles  from  St.  Quentin,  near  St.  Simon,  further  south, 
and  were  approaching  the  Crozat  Canal — they  had  even 
crossed  it  in  places.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  English 
advance  was  in  line  with  the  French,  but  the  whole  line 
lay  south-east  and  north-west. 

So  much  for  the  positions  north  of  the  Oise.  South 
of  the  Oise  the  French  were  back  behind  the  fine  of  the 
Ailette  river,  and  the  reason  of  this  formation  was  that 
the  high  forest  land  in  front  of  them  formed  an  im- 
possible obstacle. 

Observe  the  value  of  this  high  forest  land  to  the  enemy. 
As  the  Allies  advanced  upon  the  centre  of  their  new 
hne  (of  which  St.  Quentin  was  the  vital  point),  this 
high  forest  bastion  stood  more  and  more  upon  their 
flank.  It  could  conceal  any  number  of  troops,  and  if 
the  I'rench  had  crossed  the  Oise  and  attempted  to  hold 
the  further  bank,  the  attempt  might  have  been  dis- 
astrous. 

Therefore,  the  main  French  advance  was  kejit  to  the 
north  of  that  broad,  marshy  and  very  efiicicnt  obstacle 
which  the  Oise  valley  forms,  and  the  main  crfort  was 
directed  upon  the  sector  which   I   have  marked   upon 

*  Tlic  i-iitting  of  this  railway  by  the  liritish  ojcupiitiun  of  Kojsfl 
la^t  week  did  not,  as  was  sometimes  ciiotidiiis.y  premisi'il,  ml  Um 
main  comnnmitation  between  Si.  nuoiitin  .uvl  famljra.  that  is 
lound  in  thu  doublu  Uac  running  luilUer  tifjl  and  atill  <iuitc  out  of 
biuin'a  way. 


Map  III,  with  a  bracket  running  from  the  Somme  to  the 
Oise.  a  distance  of  about  ten  to  eleven  m  les.  The 
first  considerable  German  effort  to  check  the  Allied 
advance  was  delivered  upon  Wednesday  last.  Upon 
the  Tuesday  the  French  had  reached  and  were  attemjHing  1 
to  cross  the  Crozat  Canal,  which  the  enemy  was  defending 
in  force,  and  upon  Wednesday  and  Thursday,  the  21st 
and  22nd  of  March,  he  counter-attacked.  This  counter- 
attack was  very  violent  ;  it  was  indeed  violent  in  pro- 
portion to  the  peril  to  St.  Quentin,  which  the  forcing  of 
this  last  obstacle  would  develop,  and  the  enemy's 
despatch  emphasised  the  importance  of  the  action  by 
telling  us  that  this  counter-attack  had  succeeded  and 
had  thrown  the  French  back  behind  the  canal  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Jussy,  with  a  loss  of  over  two  hundred 
pris9ners  and  several  machine  guns. 

But  the  counter-attack  in  point  of  fact  failed.  The 
French  carried  the  Canal  ;  upon  Friday  they  got  the 
enemy  back  as  far  as  Seraucourt,  and  by  Saturday  they 
occupied  the  whole  line  of  the  canal,  and  were  on  the 
heights  behind  it  and  overlooked  La  Fere. 

On  Sunday  the  consequences  of  this  success  were 
apparent.  The  French  during  the  Saturday  and  Sunday 
pushed  right  on  until  their  advanced  right  wing  between 
the  Somme  and  the  Oise  had  actually  reached  the  Oise 
above  La  Fere,  and  their  most  extreme  patrols  had 
occupied  Vendeuil.  It  is  clear  that  if  that  advantage 
could  be  maintained  the  road  communication  between 
St.  Quentin  and  the  south  was  cut  :  and  the  Germans 
in  the  course  of  that  Sunday  retired  to  their  main  en- 
trenched position  marked  by  a  line  of  crosses  upon  Map  III, 
where  they  had  prepared  strong  defences  and  were  holding 
the  crest  which  runs  from  Castres  upon  the  Somme  through 
Essigny  upon  its  high  bare  flat  plateau,  to  the  slightly 
higher  point  called  Hill  121  (it  is  imperceptible  as  a 
summit,  but  it  forms  an  horizon  hiding  St.  Quentin). 
The  French  despatch  sent  late  on  Sunday  night  informs 
us  that  at  some  late  hour  upon  the  Sunday  the  enemy 
was  thrown  out  of  this  prepared  position,  presumably 
on  to  a  second  line  just  behind  it.  Meanwhile, 
the  English  had  pressed  forward  and  occupied  the  rail- 
way junction  of  Roisel  and  were  apparently  upon  the 
outskirts  of  Vermand,  a  great  Roman-road  jimction  which, 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  gave  its  name  to  the  whole  district. 
The  line  ran,  therefore,  on  the  Stmday  night  somewhat 
as  is  shown  by  the  line  of  clashes  on  Map  111  ;  ha\ing 
advanced  to  this  in  the  course  of  the  week-end  from  the 
line  of  dots,  which  it  had  occupied  three  days  before. 

By  this  time  the  German  position  in  the  great  wooded 
hills  to  the  south,  originally  intended  for  a  flanking 
bastion  protecting  St.  Quentin  in  continuation  of  the 
obstacle  of  the  Crozat  Canal,  had  become  untenable, 
and  his  troops  were  withdrawn  from  the  extreme  horn 
of  the  woods,  so  that  the  line  on  the  Sunday  night  appears 
to  have  run  south  of  the  Oise  somewhat  as  the  line  of 
dashes  shows  it  upon  Map  III.  On  Monday  nothing 
more  was  done.  The,  French  consolidated  the  crest 
Castres— Essigny — HiU  121,  which  they  had  carried, 
and  were  bringing  up  material.  On  their  left  they  had 
pushed  up  as  far  as  the  outskirts  of  Savy,  and  there 
found  the  Germans  entrenched  on  what  was  certainly 
their  principal  line.  Beyond  Monday  night  the  des- 
patches received  at  the  moment  of  writing  do  not  carry 
us.  The  immediate  future  will  show  whether  the  enemy 
can  hold  this  centre  of  his  new  line  which  covers  St. 
Quentin  or  no.  If  he  cannot  the  whole  of  that  new 
intermediate  line  upon  which  he  has  retired  by  so  short 
and  insufficient  a  movement,  is  in  peril.  The  battle 
is  (for  once)  a  battle  for  a  definite  place  with  a  well- 
known  name — for  a  town.  It  is  a  battle  for  St.  Quentin, 
and  on  the  retention  or  loss  of  St.  Quentin  by  the 
Ciermans  it  must  be  judged. 

Meanwhile — since  so  very,  small  a  retirement  does 
nothing  to  sohe  the  problem  of  the  general  salient,  there 
is  another  critical  point  at  B  in  Map  I.,  where  the  new 
apex  lies,  and  there  a  fierce  str\iggle  is  in  progress,  the 
successful  issue  of  which  would  be  advantageous  to  the 
Allies  as  the  fall  of  St.  Quentin  itself. 

The  coimtry  is  difiicult  :  ravined  and  wooded  ;  and 
the  task  of  the  attack  very  heavy.  So  far  the  l-it  ik  ii 
have  fori  ed  their  way  u\>  on  to  the  plateau  abo\e  the 
Aisne,  but  we  do  not  know  whetlier  they  lut\e  yet  reached 
the  main  German  line  there  or  no.  H-  Bi:lloc 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


23 


The   Liaison  of  the  Seas 

By  Arthur  Pollen 


Fleets  in  Being,  1914 

FOR  two  years  and  a  half  the  panorama  exhibited 
by  tlie  world's  life  has  been  a  kaleidoscope  of 
unanticipated  marvels.  To-day  we  can  neither 
see  tliese  things  singly  nor  together.  Should  the 
discreet  historian,  when  the  right  time  comes,  set  out 
these  new  wonders  of  the  world  in  some  just  order 
of  proportion,  he  will  place,  one  cannot  help  supposing, 
(ireat  Britain's  achievement  in  keeping  the  liaison 
with  her  land  forces  over  seas  very  high  in  the  list 
indeed.  When  Sir  Edward  Carson,  about  a  month 
ago,  introduced  the  Naval  Estimates,  he  gave  some 
facts  by  which  to  measure  these  performances.  Up 
to  October  joth  last  we  had  moved  across  the  seas 
eight  million  fighting  men,  and  one  million  sick  and 
wounded  ;  nine  and  a  half  million  tons  of  supplies  and 
munitions,,  a  million  horses  and  mules,  and  forly-seven 
million  gallons  of  petrol-fuel  for  the  vehicles  that  modern 
invention  has  substituted  for  horses.  I  find  it  quite 
impossible  to  appreciate  the  significance  of  figures  like 
tlu'se.  They  leave  the  impression  of  an  unrealizable 
prodigy — as  when  you  are  told  about  the  speed  of  light 
or  of  the  temperature  of  the  earth's  centre.  And,  strangest 
of  all,  the  thing  has  been  done  virtually  without  loss. 

When  the  first  expeditionary  army  left  these  shores, 
before  anything  was  known  of  what  the  German  sub- 
marines could  do,  before  conclusions  had  been  tried  with 
the  main  squadrons  of  the  Germany  Navy,  there  was 
nmch  shaking  of  heads.  Never  had  the  doctrine  of  the 
"  fleet  in  being  "  been  flouted  with  such  wild  temerity. 
The  (Jcrman  Navy  was  second  only  to  the  British  in  the 
power  and  number  of  its  chief  fighting  units — and  the 
disproportion  in  August  1914  was  not  such  as  to  lead 
one  to  suppose  that  it  was  a  force  that  could  be  brushed 
aside  as  negligible.  What  if  strong  German  squadrons — 
fast  cruisers,  destroyers,  the  older  battleships  say — had 
raided  the  Channel  and  disputed  the  entrance  of  the  main 
French  ports,  sinking  our  transports  and  creating  delay  in 
the  junction  between  the  British  forces  under  French  and 
the  I'Yench  forces  under  Joffre,  while  the  main  fleets  were 
occupied  far  away  in  the  northern  mists  ?  Would  the  story 
of  the  great  retreat  of  August  and  the  decisive  counter- 
stroke  of  September  have  been  the  same,  had  not  the  British 
troops  been  at  Mons  to  break  the  brunt  of  the  whole 
German  right  on  that  fateful  Sunday  afternoon  ?  If 
the  saving  of  the  German  Fleet  was  purchased  by  the 
failure  of  the  German  army,  the  cost  was  high  indeed. 
If  this  was  an  error  of  omission,  no  effort  has  been  made 
to  repair  it.  But  then  it  was  an  opportunity  that  could 
not  recur.  Never,  at  any  rate  since  then,  has  German 
sea  power  on  the  surface  struck  a  blow  of  the  least 
obvious  military  value  to  its  side.  It  has  never,  I  mean, 
checked  any  direct  military  action  of  ours  by  sinking  a 
transport,  by  capturing  a"  supply  ship,  by  threatening 
our  sea  communications  by  any  overt  blow. 

But  the  novelty  in  sea  war  to  day  lies  in  its  being  a 
double  war.  There  is  a  fleet  of  surface  ships  and  a 
fleet  of  under-water  ships  and,  to  some  extent,  each  fleet 
carries  on  its  operations  independently  of  help  from  the 
pther.  The  under-water  fleets  do  not  fight  each  other, 
and  in  pre-war  days  there  were  many— and  those  of 
high  authority— who  even  thought  that  while  the  sub- 
marine could  fight  the  surface  ship,  the  surface  ship  could 
not  fight  the  submarine.  So  that  it  seemed  a  very  marvel 
of  boldness  that  vast  overseas  military  operations — 
that  could  not  continue  if  the  sea  communications 
were  successfully  attacked— should  be  undertaken  before 
the  enemy's  surface  fleet  could  be  destroyed,  or  the 
efficiency  of  his  under-water  fleet  be  measured.  Indeed,  it 
seemed  incredible  that  those  communications  could  be 
maintained  in  face  of  the  submarine  threat.  These 
prophets  of  evil  have  proved  false  prophets.  We  have 
maintained  forces  overseas,  not  in  one  theatre,  but  in  at 


least  six.  And  if  the  tonnage  of  transports  and  supply 
ships  that  have  been  lost  is  compared  with  the  bewildering 
figures  I  have  quoted  from  the  First  Lord,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  toll  taken  has  been  so  tiny  as  to  be  trivial. 
Yet  the  toll  taken  of  the  merchant  shipping  is  an3/thing 
but  trivial.  So  great  is  it  that  Ciermany  has  a  real  hope 
of  starving  us,  if  not  into  surrender,  at  least  into  com- 
promise. It  is  two  years  and  four  months  since  von 
Tirpitz  gave  us  his  perfectly  frank  warning  that  the 
w  lole  resources  of  Germany  would  be  devoted  to  an 
under-water  blockade  of  these  islands.  .  He  would  call 
a  new  sea  world  into  existence  to  redress  the  balance 
of  the  old.  We  should  not  have  needed  this  threat  to 
realize  that  the  thing  was  inevitable.  It  is  six  and  forty 
years  since  Admiral  Aube,  reasoning  from  the  naval 
caution  of  Germany,  in  the  war  of  1870,  made  the  start- 
ling statement  that  the  war  of  fleets  was  a  thing  of  the 
past,  and  that  any  Power  making  war  upon  England 
would,  in  future,  rely  upon  the  guerre  dc  course  alone. 
Fourteen  years  later,  the  evolution  of  the  fast  torpedo 
boat  suggested  to  him  that  now  the  means  had  appeared 
that  would  leave  us  defenceless.  His  famous  pamphlet 
of  1885  "  A  Seaman's  View  of  Sea  War  "  and  its  successor 
in  1886  "  Sea  Power  and  Colonies,"  were  curiously 
prophetic.  First,  he  reiterated  his  theory  that  the 
capital  ship  had  had  its  day.  The  future  of  sea  war 
lay  in  the  attack  on  trade.  Its  instruments  would  be 
innumerable  torpedo  boats  for  attack,  gunboats  for 
defence  and,  working  with  them,  cruisers  to  combine 
the  highest  speed  with  the  smallest  size  compatible  with 
efficiency:  "  The  factors  that  constitute  the  superiority 
of  these  instruments  of  war,"  he  said,  "  are  number, 
speed  and  invisibility. ' '  Then  in  the  succeeding  pamphlet 
he  showed  this  strange  prevision  : 

This  war  of  the  future,  this  guerre  de  course,  a  war  at 
once  offensive  and  defensive,  will  be  possible  on  two 
conditions  only.  The  first  is  one  purely  monil — it  will 
have  to  be  a  war  sans  merci — ruthlessncss,  when  all  is 
said,  is  a  necessary  condition  of  such  war.  Just  as  a 
lion  is  what  he  is  precisely  so  that  he  can  surprise  tiie 
prey  he  tears  to  pieces,  so  the  torpedo  boat  is  a  torpedo 
boat  precisely  so  that  he  can  sink  the  enemy's  vessels  on 
sight — torpedo  them  that  is,  by  catching  them  defence- 
less and  by  surprise.  It  is  the  only  reason  of  their  being. 
Let  us  make  no  mistake  about  it.  This  ruthless,  atrocious 
form  of  war  is  inevitable.  And  in  it  we  shall  see  the 
sanction  of  the  supreme  law  of  progress,  for  of  this  the 
last  word  is  the  abolition  of  all  war.  So  that  the  cruelty 
of  the  attack  on  trade  will  be  justified  by  its  success. 
The  second  condition  tliat  will  make  this  war  possible 
is  that  the  necessary  torpedo  boats  and  cruisers  can 
now  maintain  themselves  upon  the  trade  routes  (because 
of  their  speed,  their  numbers  and  their  invisibihty)  and 
so  will  close  them  absolutely  to  all  enemy  vessels. 

Arming  the  Enemy 

It  is  tempting  to  analyse  this  remarkable  saying.  But 
let  us  for  the  moment  content  ourselves  with  noting  it 
as  an  example  'of  the  strange  foresight  that  in  so  many 
fields  has  anticipated  the  character  of  future  events, 
without  realizing  that  the  instruments  necessary  to  them 
have  to  be  quite  different  from  those  the  prophet  pro- 
posed. When  the  subma;rine  was  developed  to  the 
point  of  being  able  to  do  all  that  Admiral  Aube  thought 
torpedo  boats  and  light  cruisers  could  do,  everything 
seemed  to  be  ready  for  the  literal  fulfilment  of  his 
prophecy.  It  is  not  necessary  to  remind  the  reader 
that  it  was  the  British  Admiralty  that  between  1904  and 
1 910,  by  developing  the  submarine  to  the  dimensions  of 
a  submersible  cruiser,  gave  it  the  function  of  ocean 
piracy  that  converted  it  almost  from  a  toy  into  a  terror. 
The  A  class  laid  down  in  the  first  of  these  years  had  a 
displacement  of  little  more'  than  half  that  of  the 
contemporary  destroyers,  and  about  equal   to  that   of 


24 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29.  1017 


contcmporarv  torpedo  boats.  But  by  ifjio  the  displace- 
ment had  risen  to  600  tons  and  the  horse-power  to  nearly 
2,000.  So  that  to  a  fleet  of  submarines  already  more  than 
60  btronf^,  we  were  adding  vessels  of  large  radius  and  of  good 
sea  keeping  qualities,  craft  that,  in  so  greatly  sur]>»s.-ing 
their  prototypes  in  si/.e  and  speed,  opened  up  new  lirlds 
of  action  still  more  astonishing.  (Jennany,  that  had  but 
seven  submarines  at  this  time,  and  not  one  of  them 
jnore  than  lialf  the  displacement  of  those  that  we  pro- 
])osed  to  build,  promptly  availed  herself  of  the  lessons 
of  our  example.  We  had  forged  a  new  weapon  and 
placed  it  ready  made,  so  to  speak,  in  our  enemy's  hands. 
Wc  had  done  this  forgetting  that,  if  our  other  fleet — the 
surface  battleships,  cruisers  and  destroyers — were 
sufficient  for  their  purpose,  we  could  in  war  have  few  if 
any  targets  for  our  submarines  to  attack,  forgetting  that, 
in  changing  the  submarine  from  a  harboin-  to  an  ocean 
craft,  we  were  making  it  possible  for  the  threatened 
fiuerrc  dc  course  to  become  a  jiractical  reality  : 
forgetting,  in  sliort,  that  the  new  craft  was  priceless  to 
the  weak  and  almost  useless  to  the  strong,  precisely 
because  it  is  only  to  the  strong  at  sea  that  it  is  a  threat, 
r'or  submersion  would  give  to  the  submarine  the  true 
invisibility  of  wliich  surprise  in  attack  and  evasion  in 
defencearethe  tactical  fruits,  instead  of  that  temporary 
and  relative  invisibility  for  which  Anbv'f,  tnrpilleurs  \\nu\d 
have  liad  to  rely  upon  their  speed  alone.  Submarines,  of 
the  new  tvpe  then,  in  sufficient  numbers,  would  fulfil 
his  prophecy  to  the  letter.  Thus  the  policy  that  von 
Tirpitz  propounded  in  December  i<)i4  was  borrowed  from 
the  ideas  of  the  French  writer,  and  was  made  practicable 
by  the  thoughtless  pioneer  work  of  the  British  Admiralty. 

Submarines  and  Coast  Defence 

It  must  be  supposed  that  the  nature  and  scale  of  the 
threat  was  then,  at  least,  understood.  If  it  was,  the 
safety  of  the  transports  serving  our  six  theatres  of  war  on 
land  is  the  greater  wonder.  For  with  the  incomparable 
resources  of  the  British  ship  yards  at  our  disposal,  two 
years  and  eight  months  preparation  have  not  sufficed  to 
bring  the  attack  on  our  trade  to,  I  will  not  say  negligible, 
but.  even  to  reasonably  safe  proportions.  The  jieril  of 
the  trade  and  the  safety  of  the  transports  afford,  indeed, 
an  extraordinary  contrast.  And  all  the  more  extra- 
ordinary if  we  look  at  the  thing  from  another  point  of 
view.  Whatever  else  the  submarine  could  or  could 
not  do,  there  seemed  no  doubt  that  adequate  num- 
bers would  make  the  arrival  of  transports  off  an 
enemy's  coasts  or  harbours  virtually  impossible.  They 
seemed,  it  was  agreed,  to  offer  just  that  added  element 
to  naval  power  that  would  make  invasion,  not  the  first, 
but  the  last  operation  that  any  fleet  could  attempt. 
So  effectixe  indeed,  did  it  seem  to  be  that  countries 
which  had  no  other  form  of  naval  force  at  all,  were  urged, 
even  in  the  early  months  of  1914,  to  supply  themselves 
with  submarines,  when  their  harbours  would  be  safe 
and  their  coasts  intact. 

Now,  rightly  looked  at,  the  despatch  of  an  English 
army  in  August  1914,  though  immediately  a  measure  for 
defending  France,  was,  in  essence,  the  first  step  towards 
the  invasion  of  (iermany.  The  German  IHeet,  then, 
from  the  first  had  exactly  the  same  motive  for  preventing 
our  landing  at  Calais,  Boulogne,  or  Havre,  as  it  would 
have  had  for  preventing  it  at  any  German  harbour.  To 
close  the  French  ports  was  simply  an  urgent  problem  in 
German  coast  defence.  It  should  have  been  a  task  for 
which  the  submarines  alone  should  have  sufficed.  Hence, 
when  we  see  our  sea  communications,  not  attacked 
then,  and  still  intact,  and  intact  because  they  are 
proof  against  attack,  there  are  two  questions  that 
arise.  First,  how  was  it  that  the  pre-war  reasoning 
on  this  subject  was  so  wildly  wrong  ?  Next,  how  is  it 
that  the  submarine  attack,  so  deadly  on  our  trade,  is  so 
powerless  where  the  enemy  most  want  to  make  it  effec- 
tive—where,  too,  he  has  the  greatest  number  of  targets 
concentrated  into  the  smallest  space  ?  The  answer  to 
the  second  question  affords  an  answer  to  the  first. 

The  idea  that  the  power  of  tiie  submarine  was  magical, 
mvsterious,  inmieasurable,  arose  from  its  eerie  gift  of 
invisibility,  i^ut  it  is  not,  in  any  .strict  sense  of  the  word, 
an  invisible  engine  of  war  at  all.  Just  as  the  invisibility 
of  .\ube's  toqx>do  boats  and  fa.st  cruisers  was  only 
relative,  so  the  absolute  in\  isibilitj-  of  the  submarine 


is  only  limited.  This  indeed  we  saw  from  the  fact  that, 
in  the  first  eighteen  days  of  February,  there  were  forty 
combats  on  the  surface  between  (ierman  submarines 
and  British  transports,  armed  merchantmen,  patrols 
and  aircraft.  Practically  all  thv  dt/ackinti  work  the  sub- 
marine has  to  do,  must  be  done  either  as  a  surface  ship, 
or  at  least  with  the  periscope  showing,  so  that  the  de- 
tection of  its  presence  is,  almost  always,  a  matter  of 
light,  \igilance  and  luck.  Its  periods  of  true  ih\isib'i- 
bihty,  then,  give  it  but  one  function  that  is  new  to 
naval  war.  It  is  the  capacity  to  pass  through  waters 
superficially  commanded  by  tlie  enemy.  Just  as  British 
submarines  penetrated  the  Sea  of  Marmora  and  the 
Baltic,  so  German  submarines  can  get  from  their  harbours 
to  the  open  sea.  Invisibility  confers,  then,  the  power  of  a 
surprise  presence  of  an  enemy  shii^  in  waters  that  no  enemy 
surface  ship  can  reach.  What  we  have  to  deal  with  is 
the  military  \alue  of  this  surprise  presence. 

Submarine  Limitations 

It  is  just  here  that  we  are  brought  up  short  by  the 
submarine  in  action  being  for  the  most  a  surface  ship 
itself.  As  a  gun-carrying  craft  it  must,  of  course,  always 
be  a  surface  ship.  As  a  submerged  torpedo-using  ship, 
it  carries  but  a  short  ranged  and  most  uncertain  weapon. 
But  as  a  surface  craft  it  is  the  weakest  of  all  such  craft. 
N'o  other  war  vessel  stands  in  such  awful  peril  of  the 
single  hit.  When,  therefore,  by  its  invisibility  it  finds 
itself  in  the  area  the  true  fighting  ship  cannot  reach, 
it  is  itself  powerless  to  fight,  and  can  only  get  armed 
victims  by  stealth  and  largely  by  luck,  becau.se  it  can 
normally  only  attack,  itself  unseen.  For  if  the  intended 
victims  are  armed,  or  attended  or  escorted  by  armed 
craft,  the  submarine  must  submerge  altogether  to  seek 
safety  or,  if  it  is  to  attack,  show  no  more  than  the  object 
glass  of  its  periscope.  In  this  rondition  its  speed  is 
less  than  half  that  of  the  slowest  warship.  And  its 
weapon,  when  submerged,  being  only  a  torpedo,  short 
ranged  because  its  aim  in  these  conditions  is 
so  uncertain,  it  cannot  manoeu\re  to  a  favourable  posi- 
tion, and  can  attain  success  by  chance  only.  Hence 
high  speed  and  a  high  standard  of  vigilance  in  ships  that 
are  armed  makes  them  altogether  immune  from  sub- 
marines, save  in  the  rare  instances  when  their  course 
takes  them  within  their  striking  radius.  It  was  thus, 
it  is  supposed,  that  Formidable  was  destroyed  on  New 
Year's  Day,  1915  ;  thus  too,  no  doubt,  that  the  Danton 
was  sunk  last  week.  It  is  these  limitations  of  the  sub- 
marine's power  when  invisible,  and  the  ext'reme  peril  of 
its  case  when  it  comes  to  the  surface,  that  forbids  the 
submarine  to  show  itself  at  all  in  closely  patrolled  waters. 
It  is,  indeed,  the  sole  value  of  its  invisibility  that  it  can 
avoid  them.  Thus,  after  a  very  short  exi)erience,  the 
submarine  attack  on  the  armed  fleet  largely  ceased, 
and  all  short  routes  that  could  be  adequately  patrolled 
became  virtually  safe  from  their  attentions. 

Should  it  ha\'c  needed  the  experience  of  war  to  show 
that  the  patrol  could  be  made  effective  and,  with  Aubc's 
warnings  on  record,  that  the  necessities  of  trade  defence 
made  it  obligatory  to  provide  material  for  such  a  patrol 
on  a  scale  adequate  at  least  to  protect  the  nation's 
supplies  from  peril  ?  We  asked  just  now  why  the  pre-war 
view  of  the  efficiency  of  the  submarine  in  preventing 
invasion,  was  so  wildly  wrong  ?  The  answer  is  that  the 
limitation  of  its  capacity  in  waters  superficially  controlled 
was  not  understood.  But,  unfortunately,  if  these 
limitations  were  overlooked,  so  too,  and  much  more 
unfortunately,  was  its  new  capacity  for  predatory 
warfare.  Had  they  not  been,  we  should  never  have 
shown  the  way  in  building  such  submarines.  Neither 
was  understood  because  it  was  not  the  fashion  to  thinTc 
out  how  new  instruments  of  war  could  be  used.  It 
seemed  to  suffice  that  they  were  new,  and  that  something 
startling  must  follow  from  their  use.  And,  because  it 
was  startling,  whatever  happened,  it  must  be  advan- 
tageous to  those  who  produced  the  new  devices  and  had 
them  in  the  largest  size,  in  the  highest  speed  and  in  the 
greatest  number !  The  school  that  dominated  naval 
thought  for  so  many  years  was  dubbed  "  Materialist," 
because  its  mental  processes  stopped  when  it  had  ap})re- 
ciated  what  the  new  instruments  of  war  were.  It  had  no 
curiosity  to  find  out  just  wliat  could  be  done  with 
'them.  ARTiifR  Poi.i,en 


^lavcli  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


25 


Causes    of  the  Russian  Revolution 


By   I.    Shklovsky-Dioneo 


MANY  years  ago  when  I  was  travelling  in  far 
north-east  Siberia  I  arrived  at  the  Chooktchan 
Camp  at  the  time  when  the  Erema,  or  chief 
had  just  died  of  a  loathsome  disease  from  which 
ne  had  been  ])ractically  rotting  alive  for  a  long  time. 
The  Shaman,  according  to  custom,  had  to  discover  the 
cause  of  the  sudden  "  journey  to  the  mountains,"  and 
he  decided  that  it  was  the  Erema's  favourite  dog 
"  Botchikhar  "  who,  the  previous  day,  had  gnawed  the 
leather  strap  of  the  sacred  drum. 

When  a  regime,  long  in  a  state  of  decay,  falls  at  last, 
everybody,  like  the  Shaman,  tries  to  find  "  Botchikhar," 
and  "speculation  is  now  rife  as  to  the  cause  of  the  fall  of 
the  monarchy  in  Russia.  Was  it  Rasputin  ?  Protopopofi  ? 
Pitirim  ?  Sturmer  ?  or  the  hysterical  Tsaritza  ?  Which 
of  them  "  gnawed  the  strap  of  the  sacred  ch-um  ?  " 
Of  what  is  this  revolution  the  outcome  ? 

Conventional  Buttresses 

Russia  has  long  outgrown  her  Government  system 
which  even  in  past  centuries  had  not  been  a  success. 
The  admirers  of  the  rule  now  overthrown  by  the 
Revolution  assert  that  the  essential  features  of  the  Russian 
national  type  are  Orthodoxy,  Autocracy  and  Nationality  ; 
this  triad,  they  say,  constitutes  the  buttresses  of  the 
Russian  Empire.  Now,  let  us  see  whether  this  is  so. 
It  is  said  that  the  Russian  people  have  grown  in  organic 
union  with  the  Orthodox  Church,  that  the  national  char- 
acter has  been  formed  by  the  Church,  that  Russian 
orthodoxy  is  one  of  the  most  distinctive  features  of  the 
Russian  national  type.  But  an  acquiantance  with 
historical  facts  will  show  that  Russian  orthodoxy  was 
rather  a  product  than  a  factor  of  the  national  life. 
Orthodoxy  is  no  longer  a  characteristic  of  popular  faith. 
The  pale  of  the  Established  Church  ha:s  been  forsaken 
by  all  who  desired  some  kind  of  living  religion.  "  If 
everything  remained  unchanged  within  the  'true  fold,' 
it  was  because  there  was  no  life  "  says  Professor 
Miliyoukov,  now  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  in  his  book 
Russia  and  Her  Crisis.  In  no  country,  not  even  in 
America,  do  we  see  so  many  religious  sects  as  in  Russia. 
This  proves  that  the  ossified  Orthodox  Church  does  not 
and  cannot  contain  within  its  pale  the  living  faith  of 
the  Russian  people. 

Twelve  years  ago  freedom  of  conscience  ..nj  given, 
but  this  freedom  was  at  once  limited  by  Ministerial  in- 
terpretation, or  "  explanation  "  as  it  is  termed.  At  first 
the  law  of  freedom  of  conscience  "  did  not  extend  to  the 
so-called  dangerous  sects,"  by  which  name  was  under- 
stood the  extreme  fanatical  sects  which  were  the  outcome 
of  ignorance  and  persecution,  such  as  the  skoplsi  (eunuchs) 
gloukhaija  iiijctovshina  (death  worshippers)  but  soon  to 
the  number  of  dangerous,  that  is  to  say,  persecuted  sects 
were  added  tlie  Stundists  or  Baptists  who  have  mmierous 
followers  in  South  Russia.  The  religious  life  of  the 
(Orthodox  Church  lias  become  paralysed,  without  a  spark 
of  life  in  its  head  or  any  of  its  members.  The  Church 
has  become  secularized  and  transformed  into  a  State 
institution.  During  the  last  ten  years  the  Government 
by  its  acts  has  utterly  destroyed  the  prestige  of  the  Chunii 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Russian  people.  The  clergy  became 
the  agents  of  the  "  Black  Hundred  "  and  other  Govern- 
ment Societies.  'Ihe  sincere  and  devout  clergy  who 
refused  to  join  these  societies  were  unfrocked,  while 
priests  known  to  be  guilty  of  abominable  and  shameful 
crimes  were  rapidly  advanced,  regardless  of  the  scandal 
to  the  faithful,  so  long  as  the  promoted  priests  became 
good  fighters  in  the  ranks  of  the  Black  Hundred.  Ill- 
educated  and  ignorant  men  were  made  Bishops,  while  good 
and  worthy  bishops  were  sent  to  monasteries.  Thus  one 
of  the  thrive  buttresses  falls  into  dust. 

Now  let  us  examine  the  second  buttress— Autocracy. 
Russian  ofticial  historians  endeavour  to  show  that 
autocracy  is  essentially  a  ])roduct  of  the  Russian  people 
ever  since  the  eleventh  century.  But  what  is  the  reality  ? 
Autocracy  came  into  being  and  power  at  the  end  of  the  15th 


century.  It  was  an  entirely  new  idea  and  had  no  precedent. 
The  eminent  Russian  historian  Kostomaroff  pro\ed  long 
ago  that  autocracy  was  born,  not  in  Russia,  but  in  Zolotain 
Orda  (Golden  Orda.i  The  Russian  Autocrat  assumed 
the  power  of  the  Tartar  Rhan,  and  the  new  title  Tsar 
is  not  a  Russian  word,  but  a  word  of  Asiatic  origin. 

The  development  of  the  Russian  people  was,  for 
different  reasons,  very  slow,  ne\'ertheless  in  the  beginning 
of  the  19th  century  they  had  outgrown  the  autocracy 
renewed  by  Peter  the  Great.  Even  the  Tsars  realized 
that  its  day  was  over,  and  that  the  people  had  aright  to  bo 
heard.  ()vera  hundred  years  ago  Alexander  I.  mounted 
the  throne  with  an  ardent  desire  to  proclaim  the  rights  of 
man  to  give  Russia  a  constitution,  and  he  tiuice  failed 
in  his  endeavours,  in  1801,  i8o()  and  iHiq.  Alexander 
drafted  a  constitution,  but  at  the  last  moment  withheld 
his  consent.  He  had  just  then  come  under  the  influence 
of  Metternich,  who  is  known  to  have  been  anything  but 
favourable  to  free  institutions.  Let  me  cpiote  some 
lines  from  the  introduction  of  the  draft  of  the  Constitution 
made  in  iSoq  by  order  of  Alexander  I.  by  the  celebrated 
statesman  Speransky 

"  In  every  epoch  the  form  of  government  must  corres- 
1  pond  to  the  degree  of  civil  enliglitenment  to  which  the 
State  has  attained.  Whenever  the  form  of  government 
is  too  slow  to  keep  pace  with  the  degree  of  enlightenment 
it  is  overthrown  with  more  or  less  disturbance.  No 
Government  which  does  not  harmonise  with  the  spirit 
of  the  times  can  ever  stand  against  its  powerful  action." 

These  words  are  the  key  to  recent  events.  Not- 
withstanding that  in  the  beginning  of  the  19th  century 
the  monarch  realized  that  the  time  of  autocracy  was  past 
— that  autocracy  was  strengthened  by  the  terrible 
reaction  of  Nicholas  I.  The  Crimean  War  showed  to  all 
Russia  the  complete  bankruptcy  of  the  old  regime. 
Immediately  after  the  Crimean  War  many  reforms  were 
inaugurated  but  autocracy  remained  as  before.  It  con- 
tinued to  be  supported  by  the  efforts  of  the  police  system, 
but  while  the  autocracy  was  decaying,  the  Russian 
people  were  developing.  Industrial  life  was  growing — ■ 
a  middle  class  appeared,  and  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  that  class  was  fettered  by  the  old  regime.  As 
Russian  life  and  literature  developed,  more  and  more 
distinctly  covild  it  be  seen  that  not  one  Russia  existed, 
but  two — the  Russia  of  the  people  and  official  Russia. 
The  one  spells  liberty,  the  other  despotism.  It  was 
impossible  to  reconcile  the  two  Russias  l-e:ause 
the  "  anachronism  "  wanted  all  the  power. 

It  must  be  said  tliat  in  the  ranks  of  the  bureaucracy 
there  were  shrewd  men  who  saw  danger,  but  autocracy 
did  not  want  to  listen  to  them,  ^^'hen  in  December 
1904 — at  Tzarskoe  Selo — projects  of  reform  were  dis- 
cussed, in  the  hope  of  stemming  the  oncoming  tide  of  the 
first  revolution,  Pobiedonostzev  told  the  Tsar  "  that  Russia 
would  fall  into  sin  and  return  to  a  state  of  barbarism  if  the 
Tsar  were  to  renounce  his  power.  Religion  and  morality 
would  suh'er,  and  the  law  of  God  would  be  violated." 
It  was  such  arguments  as  these  which  for  a  time  decided 
the  fate  of  Russia.  Witte  then  grimly  replied  :  "  If 
it  should  become  known  that  the  Emperor  is  forbidden 
by  law  and  religion  to  introduce,  of  his  own  will, 
fundamental  refojms,  well  then,  a  part  of  the  population 
will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  these  reforms  must  be 
accomplished  by  violent  means.  It  would  be  equivalent 
to  an  actual  appeal  to  revolution." 

It  'it'as  an  appeal.  On  October  17th,  1905,  the  Russian 
people  received,  apparently,  all  that  they  had  struggled 
for,  but  the  promises  of  the  Emperor  were  only  on  paper. 
Even  next  day  jxigroms  began  all  over  Russia,  the 
massacre  not  only  of  Jews,  but  of  Christian  "  Intellec- 
tuals." For  instance,  in  Tomsk,  where  Jews  do  not 
live,  the  Black  Hundred,  under  the  leadership  of  the 
police,  burned  a  wooden  theatre  with  800  men  who  had 
assembled  there  to  celelirate  and  rejoice  over  the  Tsar's 

(hi-liis;  III  piessin-e  on  our  spaee,  the  inslahnenl  aj  '•  1  he 
Golden  Triau<ilc"  has   had  to  be  held  over  this  week. 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  igiyt. 


Rift  of  freedom.  More  than  15,000  men,  women  and 
children  were  killed  throii.ulumt  Russia  in  the  days  of 
the  (3ctober  pogroms,  and  jjroperty  to  the  value  of  about 
100  million  roubles  was  stoirn  or  destroyed.  With 
such  trumps  the  autocrary  tried  to  re.tjain  the  lost 
Rauie.  Then  bef<an  the  terrible  punitive  expeditions 
a^'ainst  tin-  n  volutionaries,  led  by  (leneral  Rcnnen- 
kam])f.  now  in  prison  cliarj^ed  with  treason.  Scores  of 
absolutely  innoctut  nun  were  shot  and  hanged  and 
nniltitudes  e.xikd  to    Siberia. 

In  11^)5  the  Duma  was  given,  but  when  it  assembled 
in  April  lyoO,  and  endeavoured  to  express  the  urgent 
needs  oi  the  people,  it  was  dispersed.  A  General 
lilection  was  ordered  and  the  second  Duma  was  formed 
—  (the  Duma  of  narodnago  gnieva.  the  people's  wrath, 
as  it  was  called).  After  two  months  the  second  Duma 
was  also  dissolved.  Then  the  Government  illegally 
changed  the  electoral  law,  and  the  franchise  was  limited. 
The  tliird  Duma  assembled.  Four  years  after,  at  the 
General  Election  for  the  fourth  Duma,  the  admini- 
stration were  experienced  in  the  management  of  elections, 
and  quite  illegally  interfi'red  with  the  process  of  election, 
falsifying  the  lists  of  voters,  disqualifying  Liberals,  and 
interpolating  names  of  members  ot  Black  Hundred 
and  similar  "  patriotic  "  societies.  In  five  years  time, 
this  purified  fourth  Duma  was  at  the  head  of  the  revolu- 
tionary party. 

How  did  thpt  happen  ?  The  old  regime,  after  1905,  did 
everything  to  undermine  the  prestige,  not  only  of  the 
monarchy,  but  of  tlie  principles  of  State.-  We  have 
seen  how  it  undermined  the  Orthodox  Church,  and  now 
the  same  thing  happened  both  with  the  Law  Courts, 
with  the  Administrative  machine,  and  with  the  whole 
system  of  education.  Absolutism  tried  to  find  in  these 
institutions  docile  agents,  and  as  a  result  the  jjrcstige 
of  the  Law  Courts  which  stood  so  high  in  the  time  of 
Alexander  IL,  fell,  during  the  last  ten  years  to  as  low 
a  level  as  in  the  time  of  Nicholas  I.  The  Minister  of 
Justice  instructed  the  judges  to  condemn,  on  slight  and>,' 
ridiculous  pretexts,  very  often  professors,  leaders  of 
the  Zemstvos,  literary  men  and  others  whose  opinions 
were  displeasing  to  the  Government.  On  the  other  _ 
hand,  the  Emperor  and  the  Minister  of  Justice  pro-  ~ 
tected  from  the  law  highly  placed  embezzlers  of  public 
revenues,  murdt'rers  and  traitors,  if  they  belonged  to 
the  "  Black  Hundred."  Autocracy  in  its  blindness, 
cnicltyand  gross  stupidity  had  dug  its  own  grave. 

The  manner  in  which  the  late  regime  conducted  the 
war  convinced  even  the  honest  and  loyal  supporters  of 
the  monarchy  not  only  that  autocracy  was  a  dead  thing, 
but  that  the  corpse  was  decaying  and  infecting  every- 
thing with  its  virus.  The  leaders  of  the  army,  nobility, 
the  State  Council,  and  the  Duma,  realized  that  Russia 
would  perish  if  tlie  corpse  were  not  removed,  and  on 
March  i6th,  it  was  thrown  into  its  grave  and  buried. 

In  Flaubert's  novel  Saldmbo,  there  is  a  description  of 
the  crucifixion  of  the  Carthaginian  leader.  His  body 
\\as  so  rotten  with  disease  that  it  was  impossible  to 
nail  him  to  the  cross.  This  is  a  symbol  of  the  old  regime 
before  it  was  flung  into  the  grave.  The  second  buttress 
had  fallen  to  dust. 

The  third  buttress  of  the  old  regime  was  Narodnost — 
Nationality.  Autocracy's  idea  of  nationality  was  a 
nationality  of  oppressors — a  nationality  prepared  to 
sing  at  a  moment's  notice,  "  God  save  the  Tsar,"  to 
:  march  in,  procession  wearing  the  portrait  of  the  ruler, 
and  to  organise  pogroms  against  all  who  demanded 
reforms.  The  leader  of  the  Black  Hundreds,  Dr 
Doobrovin  (now  in  the  Fortress)  systematically  invited 
the  people,  through  the  medium  of  his  State-supported 
newspaper,  to  destroy  the  Duma  and  to  massacre  the 
"  Intellectuals."  Shortly  before  the  present  revolution 
it  was  discovered  that  Dr.  Doobrovin  paid  a  sum  of 
300  roubles  to  one  Podoroshni,  an  instalment  of  the  price 
he  was  to  receive  for  the  murder  of  Professor  Miliyoukov. 
The  old  regime  wanted  a  nationality  that  would  be  ready 
to  kill  at  command  the  enemies  of  autocracy,  a  nationality 
content  with  subsidies,  and  thinking  not  at  all  of  political 
rights.  Such  an  idea  of  nationality  can  be  conceived 
only  in  the  delirium  of  a  senile  organism. 

Dr.  Doobrovin  continually  asserted  that  the  Black 
Hundreds  organisation  comprised  many  millions  of 
"  true  Russians  "  prepared  at  any  moment  to  annihilate 
the    enemies   oJ   autocracy.      For   the    maintenance    of 


these  "millions"  Ire  received  Government- grants,  but 
when  the  Revolution  began,  the  "millions  "  dwindled, 
to  a  handful  of  hoolifjans,  some  of  whom  hid  themselves, 
others  broke  into  the  slio])s  and  made  disturbances  at 
night  and  were  arrested  by  the  soldiers.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise.  The  Russian  nation  is  the  aggregation  of 
many  races,  living  on  the  Great  Plain,  willing  to  work  out 
together  their  civilisation  fraternally  ,  and  peacefulh'. 
The  Russian  nation  has  given  many  jiroofs  of  wiiat  liifjh 
culture  values  she  can  create.  Wherever  animosity 
between  the  races-  is  not  purposely  ,  instigated  ■.  and 
abetted,  the  Russian  people  show-the  greatest  toleration 
in  the  world.  In  my  youth  I •  was  deeply  touched  at 
seeing  how  the  Siberian  peasants  lived  on  friendly  and 
neighbourly  terms  with  Poles,  Jews,  Chinamen  and 
Yakouts,  sliowing  equal  resjiect  to  the  eight  pointed 
cross  of  the  "  ()ld  Believers,"  to  the  crescent  of  ,the 
Mahomedan,  to  the  sacred  Rolls  of  the  Jews,  a.n<^ 
even  to  the  idols  of  the  heathen.  And  why  not  ? 
They  are  all  dift'erent  forms  of  the  search  for  Truth  and 
(iod.  .^nd  of  such  great  ideas  the  Russian  peopk'  will 
not  speak  lightly. 

I  have  tried  to  show  liere  how  not  only  has  the  old 
regime  fallen  down,  but  that  even  the  three  buttresses 
which  supported  it  have  cnnnbled -into  dust.  We  in 
Russia  now,  are  like  the  jxjpulation  of  Messina  on  the 
day  following  the  great  earthquake..  We  have  moimds 
of  fallen  building  material  from  which  to  create  a  new 
town  on. a  new  plan.  We  have,  in  Russia  talented 
architects.  The  provisional  (jovernmcnt  includes 
the  flower  of  Russian  "  intejli^'entsia."  Prince  Lvoff, 
Miliyoukov,  Manouilov,  Singariefi  are  great  statesmen  ; 
moreover,  all  the  members  of  the  })rovisional  go\-ernnunt 
are  noble-minded,  great-hearted  men  of  flawless  sincerity 
and  •  honesty.  We  have  not  only  talented  architects, 
but  also  willing  and  truly  patriotic  workmen.  It  may 
be  that  the  creation  of  a  hew  "Messina"  from  the 
mounds  of  old  material,  will  not  be  without  difficulties. 
hut  une  nalion  en  revoliiiion  est  comme  V  airain  qiti  bout 
et  se  regenere  dans  le  crcuset. 


MR.  HEINEMANN'S  LIST. 


AN     IMPORTANT    NEW    BOOK 

THE    HOUSE    OF    LYME, 

By  THE  LADY  NEWTON 

With  many  illuslralions  in  Photograv.re  and  KaK-lonr.     Royal  8vo,  21/-  n«t 


NEW     FICTION. 


AND 

SOME 

WOMEN. 


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REGIMENT  of  WOMEN 

CLEMENCE     DANE  (2nd  Imp).      5 /■  net. 

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ZELLA  SEES  HERSELF 

E.  M.  DELAFIELD.  6/-  net. 

Mr.   PUNCH    says:  "Almost    uncannily    penetrating     .      .      •     •      1    am 

mistaken  if  jou  will  not  find  it  one  ot  the  most  absorbing  <tories   written 

within   recent  experience.  ' 

THE  ETERNAL  HUSBAND, 

K.  DOSTOEVSKY.  Translated  by  C  GARNETT.  4  6  net- 

NEW    WAR     BOOKS. 

NURSING  ADVENTURES, 

By  a  member  of  the  First  Aid   Nursing  Yeomanry.  3  6  net 

ON    TWO    FRONTS, 

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By  MAJOR  H.  M.  ALEXANDER,  D-SO 

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WM.  HEINEMANN,  BEDFOBD  ST.,  W.C.2 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


27 


BURBERRY 

SERVICE   KIT 

An  invaluable  aid  to  the  preservation  of  health 
on  Active  Service,  and  unrivalled  as  a  safe- 
guard against  the  discomforts  of  prolonged 
exposure  to  bad  weather. 

Thoroughly  practical  in  design,  and  made  in 
materials  woven  and  proofed  by  special  pro- 
cesses, there  is  nothing  available  that  affords, 
in  hygienic  form,  such  effective  protection 
against  rain,  sleet  and  mist — such  luxurious 
warmth  on  bleak,  windy  days— or  such  satisfy- 
ing comfort  under  all  conditions  as  Burberry  Kit. 


Illustrated    Military 
Catalogue  Post  Free 


THE     TIELOCKEN 

Its  design  ensures  that,  from  chin  to 
knees,  every  vulnerable  part  of  the 
body  is  doubly  protected.  Another 
valuable  advantage  is  its  quick  ad- 
justment. A  strap-and-buckle  holds 
it  securely — no  buttons  to  fasten. 


THE    BURBERRY 

Unlike  coats  relying  on  rubber, 
oiled-silk,  and  similar  injurious, 
^  heat- condensing  fabrics.  The  Bur- 
berry, whilst  efficiently  jMOtectivc, 
being  airylight,  and  faultlessly  self- 
ventilating,  fully  satisfies  every 
hygienic  principle. 


Every 
Burbtrry 
Garment 
is  labelled 
Durbcrryi.' 


cers 


Complete 
Kits    in    2 


THE    BURFRON 

Winds  round  the  ligure  witiiout 
openings  anywhere  to  admit  rain  or 
wind,  and  is  held  together  securely 
by  one  button  at  the  neck.  A  belt 
is  not  necessaiy,  but  it  snugs  down 
the  coat  in  cold  weather,  and  gives 
it  a  smart  Service  appearance. 


BURBERRY    TRENCH-WARM 

The  outer  part  is  made  in  the  Burberry  material  worn 
bv  Sir  Ernest  Shackleton's  Expedition  as  a  protec- 
tion against  the  atrocious  weather  of  the  Antarctic 
regions,  and  the  inside  in  soft,  thick  Camel  Fleece.  ' 

These  two  parts  can  be  worn  separately  or  together, 
thus  supplying  the  services  of  three  coats  in  one 
garment.  The  outside  alone,  a  Weatherproof  that 
will  turn  any  rain  tliat  an  oilskin  will ;  the  Fleece 
lining,  a  smart  British-Warm  ;  and  the  two  together, 
the  staunchest  defence  possible  against  the  hard- 
ships of  treneh-tighting. 


NAVAL  &  MILITARY  WEATHERPROOFS 
Umiiik'  tlicWai  BURBERRYS  CLEAN  AND 

RE-PROOF  Ortkcis'  '•Huibenys,'  Ticlockuus, 
Uurfroiis   and    BiiiIm'H  y  Trench-Warms 
FREE  OF  CHARGE. 


SERVICE  UNIFORM 

Designed  by  Burberrys  \mder  in- 
structions from  the  War  Office. 
Burberry  cloths  have  stood  the  test 
of  many  years'  usage  and  thcii 
wearing  qualities  h-ave  l)een  \  indi. 
I  ated  by  distinguished  Officers 
\\'hosc  names  are  liouschokl  words. 


RITRRFPPVQ      HAYMARKET    S.W.    LONDON 

U  \J  IVD  I^  I\I\    I     %D         Bd.  Malesherbes  PARIS;  also  Provincial  Aeents 


28 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


^NA\iiii[:^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiii@iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii(!^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^>iiiiii 
The  Care  of  the  Sick. 

ILLNESS  demands  much  care  in  the  feeding  of  the  patient.  Again 
in  Convtiucencc,  or  when  the  Digestion  becomes  impaired 
through  Worry.  Overstrain,  or  as  tiio  result  of  any  ollirr  cause, 
the  question  of  suital>le  food  n  i>t  tlie  utmost  importance,  if  health  i» 
to  be  regained.  Aged  persons  also  need  to  pay  special  attention  to 
their  dietary,  particularly  to  the  last  meal  at  night:  this  should  ho 
such  as  to  ensure  quiet  and  refreshing  sleep  and  digestive  rest.  The 
food  selected  for  use  in  all  these  cases  must  be  palatable,  easy  of 
discstiuii,  whollv  nourishing   and  speedily  restorative. 

For  Invalids,   Dyspeptics  and  the  Aged. 


■•"    Madt  Immtdittltiv  bu  adding  boiling  uialtr  cnh     '"•• 
Quite    Distinct    from  the   'Allenburys'    Foods   for   Infants. 

The  'Allenburys'  Did  embodies  .ill  the  e««enlul  rei)uiremcnls  of  ,i  romplele 
nourishment  in  th*  hithe-'t  decree.  It  supersedes  row's  nulk  and  tlie  usuul 
invalid's  foods  and  enjoy;.  Ibo  lerommpndution  of  the  mcJital  profestioi. 
because  It  possesses  the  fallowing  advantages.— 

1.  riie  'Allenburys'  Plet  presents  the  vital 
Clements  of  a  complete  food,  viz  :  -pure,  rich, 
rull-creum  milk  and  whole  wheal  In  a  palatable 

lorm 

:.  The  'Allenburys'  Olel  is  digested  with 
ease,  being  manufaeiured  with  scrupulous  care 
by  a  special  process.  durioR  which  the  ingre- 
dients are  partially  predlRested.  Thus  the 
DIET  can  be  readily  aHsimtlated  by  the  most 
delicate,  and  when  talcen  last  thlnx  at  night  it 
IS  surprisingly  helpful  In  promoting  restful 
siceu 

3.  The  'Allenburys*  Olel  Is  exceptionally 
nutritious.  Under  its  use,  weight  and  strength 
Increase  and  complete  nutrition  is  secured. 

4.  The 'Allenburys'  Wet  entails  no  elabor- 
ate process  in  its  preparation:  this  has  all  been 
provided  tor  and  only  botllna  wafer  need  be 
added  to  render  It  Instantly  ready  lor  use. 


Send     a    tin    to    your 
soldier  friend. 

Don't  ifirget  to  ukIhiIc  a  tin  in 
the  next  parcel  you  #.enil  to 
your  soldier  Iiirl.  Hawley's  I.K, 
is  just  a  line.  bro«n  powder-- 
no  meii  at  all.  Docs  not  cause 
an  unpleasant  Ptnell ;  easy  to 
use.  and  put  up  in  One 
fprinkler  tin«. 
from  CliL-mii*^,  etc.,  evnyvhrre. 


Fawley's 


I.K. 


Manuractured  hv 

FAV  N  I.ISONS.  I.ESCHRR  A  WEBB. 

London  A  Li\crr«)o'- 


i 


A  Large  Sample  sent         = 
Free  on  Request.  g 

Allen  (i  Hanburys  Ltd.  = 

37.  Lombard  St..  London 
Eiliblished  171S. 


In  tins  at  S 

II9&36  i 

eocA  0/  all  = 

Chemists.  m 


Cep^righl.  x£ 

1>66  ^ 


Luncheon    Blouse. 

\'4oo.      Blouse    made  in    fine   net  trimmed   /^  ^  / /" 
tucks,  and  \'alencicnnes  lace,  corsage  of  lace    "^  '^  /  r\ 
finished  ribbon  lined  through  net.    InpaleeCru,   J^'^J 


f 


Write  for  our  New  Spring   Catalogue 
sent     post     free      upon      application. 


ROBINSON  &  CLEAVER, 


THE      LINEN     HALL. 
REGENT    STREET,    W.  1. 


Ltd. 


Sudden    Death 
in  a  handy  tin 

Hawley's  I.K.  is  a  new  discoverv 
anil  ilifl'erent.  It  doesn't 
merely  .stu|iefy  tlie  beasts  • 
doesn't  .'•eiid  tlieiii  to  .sleep  for 
u    few     lioiirs  — •  but     absolutely 

"  wipes  out "  all  insect  pests  that  cause  "  Tommy  "  a"  mucii 

trouble  as  the  "  Boche  "  him.self  dees. 


Insect 
Killer 


The    Wonderful     New 
Time  and  Labour  Saver 

Equally  effective  for  dry-scrubbing 
dusting,  cleaning  and  polishing. 
The  "Big hand" responds  instantly 
to  your  will,  moving  quickly  and 
easily  in  any  direction  at  any 
angle — reaching  into  remote 
corners,  underneath  tables  and 
chairs,  up  to  tops  of  doors  and 
panellings  —  anywhere  —  every- 
where. C"ioes  so  easily  and  is  so 
light,  a  child  can  use  it. 


HOME 
POLISHER 


For  ate  with  RONUK 
SANITARY  POLISH 
A  Ronuhed  Home  it 
a  Beautiful  Home. 
There's  nothing  like 
Ronuk  for  polishing 
Floors—  it  keeps  your 
Linoleum  bright — 
makes  Furniture  look 
just    like     new. 

MOST    ECONOMICAL.     A    LITTLE 
GOES    SUCH  A    LONG    WAY. 

Inlerfstive  BnnU-'  •■JHJ-IiES  THL  HUB"  sevt  ?»•«/»>  and  posC 
free.  ROW K  LTD..  Deft.  33,  I'orhlade,  BliWHTON.  Of  afl 
Stores.  Grocers.  Irovtitoncers  ttnd  Uilmcn.  m  Tins  only,  3d  ,  dd.  and 
IS.  Also  LIQUID  HON  UK  in  tiprielU  tins,  i  pint  1/6,  i  quart  2J6, 
i-gailon,  4/6. 


HI: 


March  29,  1917^ 


LAND    &    WATER 


29 


The  Warrior's  Soul 


By  Joseph    Conrad 


THE  old  oflTiccr  with  the  long  white  moustaches  gave 
rein  to  his  indignation. 
"  Is  it  possible  that  you  youngsters  have  no  more 
sense  than  that  ?  '  Some  of  you  had  better  wipe  the 
milk  off  yom-  upper  lip  before  you  pass  judgirient  on  the  few 
poor  stragglers  of  a  generatioh  which  has  done  and  suffered 
not  a  little  in  its  time." 

His  hearers  having  expressed  much  compunction  the 
ancient  warrior  became  appeased,  but  he  was  not  silenced. 

"  1  am  one  of  them — the  survivors  I  mean,"  he  began 
jiatiently.  "  And  what  did  we  do  ?  What  have  we  achieved  ? 
JJc — the  great  Napoleon— started  xipon  us  to  emulate  the 
Macedonian  Alexander,  with  a  ruck  of  nations  behind  him. 
We  opposed  empty  spaces  to  French  impetuosity,  then  we 
offered  them  an  interrhinable  battle  so  that  their  army 
went  at  last  to  sleep  in  its  positions  Iving  down  on  the  heaps 
of  its  dead.  Then  came  the  wall  of  fire  in  Moscow.  It 
toppled  down  on  them. 

"  Then  began  the  long  rout  of  the  Grand  Army.  I  have, 
seen  it  go  on,  like  the  doomed  flight  of  haggard,  spectral 
sinners  across  the  innermost  frozen  circle  of  Dante's  Inferno 
ever  widening  before  their  despairing  eyes. 

"  The  lot'  that  escaped  must  have  had  their  souls  doubly 
riveted  inside  their  bodies,  to  carry  them  out  of  Russia 
through  that  frost  fit  to  spHt  rocks.  But  to  say  that  it  was 
our  fault  that  a  single  one  of  them  got  away  is  mere  ignorance. 
Why  !  Our  own  men  suffered  nearly  to  the  limit  of  their 
strength.     Their  Russian  strength. 

"  Of  course  our  spirit  was  not  broken,  and  then  our  cause 
was  good — it  was  Holy.  But  that  did  not  temper  the  wind 
much  to  men  and  horses. 

"  The  flesh  is  weak.  Good  or  evil  purpose,  humanity 
has  to  pay  the  price.  Why,  in  that  very  fight  for  that  httle 
village  of  which  I  have  been  telling  you,  we  were  fighting  for 
the  shelter  of  these  old  houses  as  much  as  for  victory.  And 
with  the  French  it  was  the  same. 

"  It  wasn't  for  the  sake  of  glory  or  for  the  sake  of  strategy. 
The  French  knew  that  they  would  have  to  retreat  before 
morning  and  we  knew  perfectly  well  that  they  would  go. 
As  far  as  the  war  was  concerned  there  was  nothing  to  fight 
about.  Yet  our  infantry  and  theirs  fought  like  wild  cats, 
or  like  heroes  if  you  like  that  better,  amongst  the  houses — 
hot  work  enough — while  the  supports  out  in  the  open -stood 
freezing  in  a  tempestuous  north  wind  which  drove  the  snow 
on  earth  and  the  great  masses  of  clouds  in  the  sky  at  a  terrific 
pace.  The  very  air  was  inexpressibly  sombre  by  contrast 
with  the  white  earth.  I've  never  seen  God's  creation  look 
more  sinister  than  on  that  day. 

"  We,  the  cavalry  (were  only  a  handful)  had  not  much 
to  do  except  turn  our  backs  to  the  wind  and  receive  some 
stray  French  round  shot.  This  I  may  tell  you  was  the  last 
of  the  French  guns,  and  it  was  the  last  time  they  had  their 
artillery  in  position.  These  guns  never  went  away  from  there 
cither.  We  found  them  abandoned  next  morning.  But  that 
afternoon  they  were  keeping  up  a  truly  infernal  fire  on  our 
attacking  columns  ;  the  furious  wind  carried  away  the  smoke 
and  even  the  noise,  but  we  could  see  the  c6nstant  flicker  of 
darting  fire  along  the  French  front.  Then  a  driving  flurry 
of  snow  would  hide  everything  except  the  dark  red  flashes  in 
the  white  swirl. 

"  At  intervals  when  the  air  cleared,  we  could  see  away 
across-  the  plain  to  our  ,  right,  a- sombre  column  moving 
endlessly  ;  the  column  of  the  great  rout  creeping,  on  all  the 
time,  while  the  fight  on  our  left  went  on  with  a  great  din  and 
fury.  The  cruel  whirlwinds  of  snow  swept  over  that  broken 
mob  time  after  time.  And  then  the  wind  fell  as  suddenlj' 
as  it  had  risen  in  the  morning. 

"  Presently  we  got  orders  to  charge  the  retreating  column  ; 
I  don't  know  why,  unless  to  prevent  us  from*  getting  frozen 
in  our  saddles,  by  giving  us  Something  to  do.  The  order  was 
welcome  enough.  So  we  changed  front  slightly  to  the  right 
andgot  in  motion  at  a  walk  to  take  that  dark  line  in  the  dis- 
tance in  flank.  It  might  have  been  half-past  two  in  the 
afternoon  then. 

"  You  must  know  that  in  all  this  campaign,  my  regiment 
had  not  been  on  the  main  Hue  of  Napoleon's  advance.  All 
these  months  the  army  we  belonged  to  had  been  wrestling 
with  Oudinot  in  the  north.  We  had  come  only  lately, 
driving  him  before  us  down  to  the  Bcresina. 

"  It  was  on  this  occasion  then  that  I  and  my  comrades 
came  for  the  first  time  near  to  Napoleon's  Grand  Armj'.     It 


was  an  amazing  and  terrible  sight.  I  had  heard  of  it  from 
others.  I  had  seen  the  stragglers  from  it,  some  small  bands 
of  marauders,  parties  of  prisoners  in  the  distance.  But  this 
was  the  very  column  itself !  A  mere  starving,  half-demented 
mob.  It  issued  from  the  forest  two  miles  away  and  its  head 
was  lost  in  the  murk  of  the  fields.  We  rode  into  it  at  a  trot, 
which  was  the  most  we  could  get  out  of  our  horses,  and  we 
stuck  in  that  human  mass  as  if  in  a  bog.  There  was  no 
resistance.  I  heard  only  a  few  shots,  half  a  dozen  perhaps. 
Their  very  senses  seemed  frozen  within  them.  I  had  time  to 
have  a  good  look  while  riding  at  the  head  of  my  squadron. 
Well,  I  assure  you,  there  were  men  walking  on  the  outer  edges 
so  lost  to  everythmg  but  their  own  misery  that  they  ne\'er 
looked  our  way.     Soldiers  ! 

"  My  horse  pushed  over  one  of  them  with  his  chest.  He 
had  a  dragoon's  blue  cloak  all  torn  and  scorched  and  he 
didn't  even  put  his  hand  to  snatch  at  my  bridle  to  save  him- 
self. Perhaps  his  hands  had  been  frostbitten.  He  just  went 
down.  Our  troopers  were  pointing  and  slashing  ;  well,  and 
of  course,  I  myself  .  .  .  What  will  you  have !  An 
enemy  is  an  enemy.  Yet  a  sort  of  awe  crept  into  my  heart. 
There  was  no  noise — only  a  low  deep  murmur  dwelt  over  them 
interspersed  with  louder  cries  and  groans,  while  that  mob 
kept  on  pushing  and  surging  past  us  as  if  sightless  and  without 
feeling.  A  smell  of  scorched  rags  hung  in  the  cold  air.  My 
horse  staggered  in  the  eddies  of  swaying  men.  But  it  was 
like  cutting  down  galvanised  corpses  that  did  not  care.  In- 
vaders !     Yes.     God  was  already  dealing  with  them. 

"  I  touched  my  horse  with  the  spurs  to  get  clear.  There 
was  a  sudden  rush  and  an  angry  growl,  when  our  second 
squadron  got  into  them  on  our  right.  My  horse  plunged 
and  snorted  and  somebody  got  hold  of  my  leg.  As  I  had 
no  mind  to  get  pulled  out  of  the  saddle  I  gave  a  back-handed 
slash  without  looking.  I  heard  a  cry  and  my  leg  was  let 
go  suddenly. 

"  Just  then  I  caught  sight  of  the  subaltern  of  my  troop, 
at  some  little  distance  from  me.  His  name  was  Tomassov. 
That  multitude  of  resurrected  bodies  with  glassy  eyes  was 
seething  round  his  horse  blindly,  with  stifled  growls  and,  crazy 
curses.  I  saw  him  sitting  erect  in  his  saddle,  not  looking  down 
at  them,  and  sheathing  liis  sword  deliberately. 

"  This  Tomassov,  well,  he  had  a  beard.  Of  course  we 
all  had  beards  then.  Circumstances,  lack  of  leisure,  want  of 
razors  too.  No,  seriously,  We  were  a  wild-looking  lot  in 
those  unforgotten  days  which  so  many,  so  very  many  of  us  did 
not  survive.  You  know  our  losses  were  awful  too.  Yes,  we 
looked  wild.     Des  Rtissef  sauvages — what  ? 

"  So  he  had  a  beard— this  Tomassov  I  mean ;  but  he 
did  not  look  sauvage.  He  was  the  youngest  of  us  all.  And 
that  meant  real  youth.  At  a  distance  he  passed  muster 
fairly  well,  what  with  the  grime  and  the  general  stamp  of  that 
campaign.  But  directly  you  were  near  enough  to  have  a 
good  look  into  his  eyes,  that  was  where  his  lack  of  age  showed, 
though  he  was  not  a  boy. . 

"  Those  same  eyes  were  blue,  something  like  the  blue 
of  our  autumn  skies,  dreamy  and  gay  too — credulous  eyes. 
A  top-knot  of  fair  hair  decorated  his  brow  like  a  diadem,  in 
what  you  may  call  normal  times. 

"  You  may  think  I  am  talking  of  him  as  though  he  were 
the  hero  of  a  novel.  Why,  that's  nothing  to  what  the  ad- 
jutant of  the  regiment  discovered  about  him.  He  discovered 
that  he  had  a  "lover's  lips  "■ — whatever  that  may  be.  If  the 
adjutant  meant  a  nice  mouth,  why  it  was  nice  enough. 
But  I  think  it  was  meant  for  a  sneer.  That  adjutant  of  ours 
was  not  a  very  delicate  fellow.  '  Look  at  those  lover's 
lips,'  he  would  remark  in  a  loudish  undertone,  wlule  Tomassov 
w  as  talking. 

"  Tomassov  didn't  quite  like  those  murmurs.  But  to  a 
certain  extent  he  had  laid  himself  open  to  banter  by  the 
lasting  character  of  his  impressions. 

"  They  were  connected  with  the  passion  of  love  and, 
perhaps,  not  so  very  unique  as  he  seemed  to  think  them. 
What  made  us,  his  comrades,  tolerant  of  his  allusions  to  them, 
was  the  fact  that  they  were  connected  with  France,  with 
Paris. 

"  You  can't  conceive  now  how  much  prestige  there  was  in 
these  names,  for  the  whole  world.  It  was  the  centre  of  wonder 
for  all  human  beings  gifted  with  reason  and  imagination. 
There  we  were,  thb  majority  of  us  young  and  well  connected, 
but  not  long  out  of  our  hereditary  nests  in  the  provinces, 
simple  ser\ants  of  Gc»d  ;  rustics,  if  1  may  say  so.     So  we  were 


30 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


only  too  rrady  to  listen  to  the  tale  of  travels  from  our  comrade 
Toniassov.  He  had  hern  attarlipH  to  our  military  irtissioh  in* 
I'aris  the  year  before  the  war.  High  imjtecti(ms  no  doubt— 
or  inavbo  sheer  luck. 

■  I  dunl  think  he  couUl  have  l)oen  a  very  useful  member 
of  the  mission.  It  could  not  have  l)oen  expected  froni  iiis 
youth  and  ciini])lete  inexperience.  Apparently  all  his  time 
in  Paris  was  his  own.  The  use  he  made  of  it  was  to  fall  in 
love,  to  remain  in  that  state,  to  cultivate  it,  to  exist  only  for 
it,  in  a  manner  of  speakint;. 

"  Thus  it  w.is  something  more  than  a  mere  memory  that  he 
had  lirought  with  him  fiom  France.  Memory 'is  a  fugitive 
thiuK.  It  can  be  falsified.  It  can  be  effaced.  It  can  Ix-  even 
doubted.  Why!  I  myself  come  to  doubt  sometimes  that  I. 
too.  have  been  in  Paris  in  my  turn.  And  the  very  long  road 
there  with  battles  for  its  stages  would  appear  still  more 
incred.ble  if  it  were  n(jt  for  a  certain  musket  ball  which  I  have 
been  carrving  about  mv  jx-rson  ever  since  a  little  cavalry 
affair  which  happened  in  Silesia,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
l.eipsic  campaign. 

■■  Passages  of  love,  however,  are  more  impressive  perhaps 
than  passages  of  danger.  You  don't  go  affronting  love  in 
troops  as  it  were.  Tlicy  are  more  unique,  more  jx'rsonal 
and  more  intimate.  And  of  course  with  Tomassov  all  that  was 
\ery  fresh  yet.  He  had  not  been  home  from  France  four  months 
when  the  war  began. 

•  His  heart,  his  mind  were  full  of  that  experience.  He 
was  a  little  awed  by  it.  And  he  was  simple  enough  to  let  it 
ajipear  in  his  speeches.  He  considered  himself  a  sort  of 
]irivileged  person,  not  because  she  had  looked  at  him  with 
favour,  btit  simpiv  because^  how  shall  1  say  it— he  had  had 
the  wonderful  illumination  of  that  worship  as  if  it  were  heaven 
itst>lf  which  had  done  this  for  him. 

"  Oh  yes !  He  was  very  simple.  A  nice  youngster,  yet 
no  fool ;  and  with  that  utterly  inexperienced,  unsuspicious 
and  even  unthinking.  You  find  one  like  that  here  and  there 
—in  the  provinces.  He  had  a  lot  of  poetry  in  him  too.  It 
could  be  onlv  natural,  something  quite  his  own,  not  acquired. 
1  suppfisc  Father  Adam  had  some  poetry  in  him  too  of  that 
natural  sort.  For  the  rest  un  Kusse  sauvage  as  the  French 
sometimes  call  us,  but  not  of  that  kind  which,  they  maintain, 
cats  tallow  candles  for  a  delicacy. 

"  As  to  the  woman,  the  l-'renchwoman.  well,  though  I 
also  have  been  in  Paris  with  a  hundred  thousand  other 
Russians,  I  have  never  seen  her.  Very  Hkely  she  was  not 
in  Paris  then.  And  in  any  case  hers  were  not  the  doors 
that  would  flv  open  before  simple  fellows  of  my  sort,  you 
understand.  '  C.ilded  saloons  were  never  in  my  way.  1  could 
not  tell  you  how  she  looked,  even  from  description,  which  is 
strange  considering  that  I  was,  if  I  may  say  so,  Tomassov's 
confidant. 

"  He  very  soon  got  shy  of  talking  before  the  others'.  I 
suppose  camp-fire  comments  jarred  his  finer  feelings.  But 
1  was  left  to  him  and  truly  I  had  to  submit.  You  can't  very 
well  expect  a  fellow  in  that  state  toTiold  his  tongue  altogether  ; 
and  I-  I  suppose,  you'll  find  it  difficult  to  believe— 1  am  m 
reality  a  rather  silent  sort  of  person. 

"  Very  Hkely  my  silences  appeared  to  him  sympathetic. 
Goodness  only  knows.  All  the  month  of  September  our  regi- 
ment quartered  in  villages  had  an  easy  time.  It  was  then 
that  I  heard  most  of  that— you  can't  call  it  a  story.  The  story 
1  have  in  my  mind  is  not  in  that.  Outpourings,  let  us  call 
them.  ,    , 

"  I  would  sit,  quite  content  to  hold  my  peace,  a  whole 
horn-  perhaps,  vviiile  Tomassov  talked  with  exaltation.  And 
when  he  was  done  I  would  still  hold  my  peace.  And  there 
would  Ix;  produced  a  solemn  effect  of  silence  which,  I 
imagine,  pleased  Tomassov  in  a  way. 

"She  was  of  course  not  a  woman  in  her  first  youth.  A 
widow  maybe.  At  anv  rate  I  have  never  heard  Tomassov 
mention  a  husband.  "She  had  a  salon.  Something  very 
distinguished.  A  social  centre  in  wliich  that  admirable  lady 
(piecned  it  with  great  splendour. 

"  Somehow,  1  fancy  her  coi^rt  was  composed  mostly  of 
men.  But  Tomassov,  I  must  say,  kept  such  details  out  of 
his  discourses  wonderfully  well.  Upon  my  word,  I  don't 
know  whether  her  haic  was  dark  or  fair,  her  eyes  brown,  black 
or  blue,  what  was  her  stature,  her  features  or  her  complexion. 
His  love  soared  above  mere  physical  impressions.  He 
never  described  her  to  me  in  set  terms. 

"  Hut  he  was  ready  to  swear  that  in  her  presence  every- 
body's thoughts  and  feelings  were  bound  to  circle  round  her. 
She  was  that  sort  of  woman.  Conversations  on  all  sorts  of 
subjects  went  on  in  her  salon.  Most  wonderful  conversations, 
but  through  them  all  there  flowed  like  an  unheard,  mysterious, 
strain  of  music  the  assertion,  the  power,  the  tyranny  of  sheer 
beautv.  So,  apparently,  she  was  beautiful.  It  detaciied  all 
these  talking  people  from  their  life-interests,  and  even  ■  from 
their- vanities.  She  was  a. secret  delight  and  a  secret  torment 
'  iivcu  the  old  men  when  they  looked  at  her  seemed  to  broo. 


as  if  struck  by  the  thought  that  their  lives  had  been  wasted. 
She  was" the  very  joy  anVl'shuVlder, of  felicity  and  she  brought 
only  "sadness  and  torment  to  the.kgarts  of  men. 

"  In  short,  she  niust  have  been  an  extraordinary  woman 
or  else  Tomassov  was  an  extraordinary  young  fellow  to  feel 
in  lli.it  way  and  talk  likt?  this  about  her.  I  told  you  the 
fellow  had  some  |x>etry  in  him.  And  observe  that  all  this 
sounded  true  enough.  It  would  be  just  about  the  eli'ect  a 
woman  very  much  out  of  the  common  would  produce,  you 
know.  Poets  do  get  close  to  the  truth,  somehow ;  there's 
no   denying    that. 

"  There's  no  poetry  in  my  composition,  I  know ;  but  I 
have  my  share  of  common  shrewdness,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  lady  was  kind  to  the  youngster,  once  he  did  find  his 
way  inside  her  salon.  His  getting  in  is  the  real  marvel  for 
me.  However  he  did  get  in,  the  innocent,  and  he  found  him- 
self in  distinguished  company  there,  amongst  men  of  consider- 
able jjosition.  And  you  know  what  that  means  :  thick  waists, 
bald  heads,  teeth  that  are  not — as  some  poet  puts  it.  Imagine 
amongst  them  a  nice  boy  fresh  and  simple  like  an  apple  just 
off  the  tree.  A  modest,  good-looking,  impressionable,  adoring 
yoimg  barbarian.  My  word  !  What  a  change  !  What  a  relief 
for  jaded  feelings.  And  with  that  a  dose  of  poetry  in  his 
nature  too,  which  saves  even  a  simpleton  from  being  a  fool. 

"  He  became  an  artlessly,  unconditionally  devoted  slave. 
He  was  rewarded  by  being  smiled  on  kindly,  and  in  time 
admitted  to  the  intimacy  of  the  house.  It  may  be  that  the 
unsophisticated  barbarian  amused  the  exquisite  lady.  Perhaps 
— since  he  didn't  feed  on  tallow  candles— he  satisfied  some 
need  oi  tenderness  in  the  woman  ?  You  know  there  are  many 
kinds  of  tenderness  highly  civilized  women  are  capable  of. 
Women  with  heads  and  imaginations.  I  mean,  and  no  tem- 
perament to  speak  of;  you  understand.  But  v/ho's  going  Ui 
fathom  their  needs  or  their  fancies.  Most  of  the  time  they 
themselves  don't  know  much  about  their  innermost  moods 
and  blunder  out  of  one  into  another,  sometimes  with  cata- 
strophic results.  And  then  wlio's  more  surprised  than  they  ? 
However  Tomassov's  case  was  in  its  nature  quite  idyllic. 
The  fashionable  world  was  amused.  It  made  for  him  a  kind 
of  social  success.  But  he  didn't  care.  There  was  one  divinity 
and  there  was  the  shrine  where  .he  was  permitted  to  go  in  and 
out  without  regard  for  official  reception-hours. 

"  He  took  advantage  of  that  privilege  freely.  Well, 
he  had  no  official  duties  you  know.  The  military  mission  was 
supposed  to  be  more  complimentary  than  anything  else — the 
head  of  it  being  a  personal  friend  of  our  Emperor  .\lexander, 
and  he,  too,  was  laying  himself  out  for  successes  in  fashionable 
life  exclusively — as  it  seemed.     As  it  seemed. 

"  One  afternoon  Tomassov  called  on  the  mistress  of  his 
thoughts  rather  earlier  than  usual.  She  was  not  alone. 
There  was  a  man  with  her,  not  one  of  the  thick- waisted,  bald- 
headed  personages  but  a  somebody  all  the  same,  a  man  of 
over  thirty,  a  French  oflicer  who  to  some  extent  was  also  a 
privileged  intimate.  Tomassov  was  not  jealous  of  him.  Such 
a  sentiment  would  have  appeared  presumptuous  to  the  simple 
fellow. 

"  On  the  contrary — ^lie  admired  the  officer.  You  have 
no  idea  of  the  French  military  man's  prestige  in  those  days, 
even  with  us  Russian  soldiers  who  had  managed  to  face  them 
perhaps  better  than  the  rest.  Victory  had  marked  them  on 
the  forehead — it  seemed  for  ever. ;.,  They  would  have  been  more 
than  human  if  they  had  not  been  conscious  of  it,  but  they 
were  good  comrades,  and  had  a  sort  of  brotherly  feeling  for  all 
who  bore  arms,  even  if  it  was  against  them. 

"  And  this  was  quite  a  superior  example,  an  officer  on 
the  Major-General's  staff  and  a  man  of  the  best  society  besides. 
He  was  powerfully  built  and  thorouglily  masculine  though  he 
was  as  carefully  groomed  as  a  woman.  He  had  the  courteous 
self-possession  of  a  man  of  the  \yorld.  His  forehead,  white 
as  alabaster,  contrasted  impressively  with  the  healthy  colour 
of  his  face.  j 

"  I  don't  know  whether  he  wp5  jealous  of  Tomassov.  but 
I  suspect  that  he  may  have  been  a  little  annoyed  at  him  as  at  a 
sort  of  walking  absurdity  of  the  sentimental  order.  But  those 
men  of  the  world  are  impenetrable  ;  and  outwardly  he  con- 
descended to  recognise  Tomassov's  existence  even  more 
distinctly  thail  was  strictly  necessary.  Once  or  twice  he 
offered  him  some  useful- worldly  advice  with  perfect  tnct 
andmeasurc.  Tomassov.  became  completely  confjuered  by 
that 'kindness  piercing  through  tlic  cold- polish  of  the  best 
societjj.       .  ..    .    .       i    •,   ;•  .       ' 

"Tomassov,  introduced  into  the  .petit  salon,  found  these 
two-  exquisite  peo])le  sitting'  together,  and  became  aware 
that  he  had  interrupted  some  special  conversation.  They 
looked  at  him  strangely  he  thought  ;  but  he  was  not  made  to 
feebthat  he  had  intruded.  After  a  time  the  lady  said  to  the 
(jfTicer — his  name  was  de  Castel ;  '  I  wish  you  would  take  the 
trouble  to- ascertain  the  exact  truth  as  to  that  rumour.' 

"  .'  It's'rathcr  more  than,  a  rumour  '  remarked  the  officer. 
tC6ntinu('H''b'n^Tatic  32.) 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


31 


mklkmk^mm^m^^mm^&m^^^^^^m^^ 


^m 


53 


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i 


p 


The  NATIONAL  TRIBUTE 
TO  LORD  ROBERTS. 

ARE   rOcT  HELPING 
OUR  SOLDIERS  AND  SAILORS 

PERMANENTLY  DISABLED  ON  ACTIVE  SERVICE 
TO  FIND  EMPLOYMENT  AT  A  LIVING  WAGE  AT 

THE  LORD  ROBERTS  MEMORIAL  WORKSHOPS  ? 

\  TO  red  tape,  no  delay.  The  man  starts  at£  1  per  week  and  keeps 
^  ^  every  penny  of  his  pension.  Every  penny  that  you  give  goes 
to  sv/ell  the  capital  sum  that  can  make  these  Workshops  self- 
supporting  by  providing  them  with  the  plant  and  premises,  as 
necessary  in  this  case  as  they  are  to  any  ordinary  manufacturing 
concern.  What  you  give  does  not  merely  alleviate  a  passing  phase  of 
distress  ;  /V  /le/ps  to  make  safe  and  happy  the  future  of  our  disabled 
men  now  and  after  the  war.  It  is  the  National  way  and  the 
only  practical  way  by  which  these  men  can  earn  a  living  wage. 

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(CoiUinutd  /ruin  piKjc  30 
But  he  gut  up  submissively  and  went  out.     She  turned  to 
Tomassov  and  said  '  Vou  must  stay.' 

"  This    express    command    made    him    suiiremely    happy, 
tliought  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  had  had  no  idea  of  going. 

"  She  regarded  him  with  her  still  kindly  glances,  which 
made  something  grow  and  expand  within  his  chest.  It  was  a 
delicious  feeling,  even  if  it  did  cut  one's  breath  short  now 
and  then,  lilcstaticallv  he  drank  in  the  sound  of  her  tranquil 
seductive  talk  full  of  innocent  gaiety  and  spiritual  cpnetude. 
His  passion  api)eared  to  him  to  Hame  up  and  envelop  her  m 
blue  fiery  tongues,  from  head  to  foot  and  over  her  head, 
while  her  soul  reposed  in  the  centre  like  a  big  white  rose  .  .  . 
"  H'm.  Good  this.  He  told  me  many  other  things 
like  that,  but  this  is  the  one  I  remember.  As  to  himself  he 
remembered  e\ervthing  because  these  were  his  last  memories 
of  that  woiniin.  He  was  seeing  her  for  the  last  time,  though 
he  did  not  know  it  then. 

'•  Mr.  de  Castcl  returned,  breaking  into  that  atmosphere 
of  sortilege.  Tomassov  had  been  drinking  in  even  to 
complete  unconsciousness  of  the  external  world.  Even  at 
that  j)ainful  moment  Tomassov  could  not  help  being  struck 
'  by  the  distinction  of  his  movements,  the  ease  of  his  manner, 
his  superiority  to  himself.  And  he  suffered  from  it.  It 
occured  to  him  that  these  brilliant  beings  were  made  for 
each  other. 

"  De  Castel  sat  down  by  the  side  of  the  lady  and  said 
to  her  :  '  There's  not  the  slightest  doubt  of  it,'  and  they  both 
turned  their  eves  to  Tomassov.  Roused  thoroughly  from 
his  enchantment  he  began  to  wonder  ;  and  a  feeling  of  shyness 
came  over  him.  He  sat  smiling  faintly  at  them— ^thc  very 
picture  of  attractive  innocence. 

"  The  lady,  without  taking  her  eyes  off  his  blushing  face, 
said  with  a  gravity  quite  unusual  to  her. 

"  ■  1  should  like  to  know  that  your  generosity  is  perfect- 
without  a  flaw.  Love  at  its  highest  should  be  the  cult  of 
jKTfection.'  .... 

"  Tomassov  opened  his  eyes  wide  with  admiration  at  tins 
as  though  her  lips  had  been  dropping  real  pearls.  The  senti- 
ment, however,  was  not  uttered  for  the  primitive  Russian 
youtl'i  but  for  the  exquisitely  superior  man  of  the  world,  de 
Castel. 

"  Tomassov  could  not  see  the  effect  it  produced  because 
the  Frenchman  lowered  his  head  and  sat  there  contemplating 
his  exquisitely  polished  boots.  The  woman  suggested  in  a 
sympathetic  tone  : 

"  '  You  have  scruples  ?  ' 

"  The  Frenchman  without  looking  up  murmured  :  It 
could  be  turned  into  a  nice  point  of  honour.' 

■'  She  said  vivaciously :  '  That's  surely  artificial.  I 
am  all  for  natural  feelings.  I  believe  in  nothing  else.  But 
j)erhaps  vour  conscience     .     .     .' 

"  He  "interupted  her.  '  Not  at  all.  My  conscience  is 
not  childish.  The  fate  of  these  people  is  of  no  military  im- 
portance to  us.  What  can  it  matter  ?  The  fortune  of 
France  is  invincible.  If  I  didn't  believe  I  wouldn't  care  to 
Uve.' 

"  '  Well  then  .  .  .'  she  uttered  meaningly,  and  rose 
from  her  couch.  The  French  officer  stood  up  too.  Tomassov 
hastened  to  follow  their  example.  He  suffered  from  a  dis- 
concerting state  of  mental  darkness.  While  he  was  raising 
her  white  hand  to  his  lips  he  heard  the  French  officer  say  with 
a  strange  intonation  : 

"  ■  If  he  has  the  soul  of  a  warrior  '  (at  that  time,  you 
know,  people  reallv  talked  in  that  way)  '  if  he  has  the  soul  of 
a  warrior  he  ought' to  fall  at  your  feet  in  gratitude.' 

"  Tomassov  felt  himself  plunged  into  even  denser  darkness 
than  before.  He  followed  the  French  officer  out  of  the  room 
and  out  of  the  house.  For  he  imagined  that  this  was  expected 
of  him. 

"  It  was  getting  dusk,  the  weather  was  very  bad  and 
the  street  quite  deserted.  The  Frenchman  lingered  in  it 
strangely.  And  Tomassov  lingered  too,  without  impatience. 
He  was  "never  in  a  hurry  to  get  away  from  the  house  in  which 
she  lived.  And  besides  something  wonderful  had  happened 
to  him.  The  hand  he  had  reverently  raised  by  the  tips  of  its 
fingers  had  been  pressed  strongly  to  his  lips.  He  had  received 
a  secret  favour.  He  was  almost  frightened.  The  world  had 
reeled.     It  had  hardly  steadied  itself  yet. 

"  The  lingering  Frenchman  stopped  short  at  the  corner. 
"  '  I  don't  care  much  to  be  seen  with  you  in  the  Ughted 
thoroughfares.  Monsieur  Tomassov,'  he  said  in  an  unusual 
grim  tone. 

"  ■  W'hy  ?  '  asked  the  young  man  too  startled  to  bo  offended. 
"'From  prudence,' "answered  the  other  curtly.  'So 
we'll  have  to  part  here  ;  but  before  we  jjart  1  'II  disclose  to 
you  something  of  which  you  will  see  at  once  the  importance.' 
"  This,  please  note,  was  an  evening  in  late  March  of  the 
vear  1812.  For  a  long  time  already  there  had  been  talk  of 
growing  coolness  between  Russia  and  France.     The  word  war 


was  being  whis()ered  in  drawing-rooms  louder  and  louder 
and  at  last  was  heard  in  official  circles.  Thereupon  the 
Parisian  police  disco\ered  tiiat  our  military  envoy  had  corrupt- 
ed some  clerks  at  the  Ministry  of  War  and  had  obtained  from 
them  some  very  important  confidential  documents.  The 
wretched  men  (there  were  two  of  them)  had  confessed  their 
crime  and  were  to  be  shot  that  night.  To-morrow  all  the 
town  would  be  talking  of  the  affair.  But  the  worst  was  that 
the  Fmperor  Napoleon  was  furiously  angry  at  the  discoverv, 
and  had  made  up  his  mind  to  have  the  Russian  envoy  arrested, 
"  Such  was  this  de  Castel's  disclosure  ;  and  though  he 
had  spoken  in  low  tones  Tomassov  remained  for  a  moment 
stunned  as  by  a  great  crash. 

Arrested  '  he  murmured  dazedly. 
"  '  Yes.     And  kept  as  a  State  prisoner— with  everybody 
belonging  to  him     .     .     .' 

"  The  FYench  officer  seized  Tomassov 's  arm  above  the 
elbow  and  pressed  it  with  force. 

.And  kept  '  he  repeated  into  Tomissov's  very  ear,  and 
then  letting  him  go,  stepped  back  a  space  and  remained  silent. 
And  it's  you  !  You  !  who  are  telling  me  this  .  .  .' 
cried  Tomassov.  His  gratitude  was  inexpressible  though  hardly 
greater  than  his  admiration  for  the  generosity  of  his  future 
foe.  Could  a  brother  have  done  for  him  more  ?  He  sought  the 
hand  of  the  French  officer,  but  the  latter  remained  wrapped 
up  closely  in  his  cloak.  Po.ssibly  in  the  dark  he  had  not  noticed 
the  attempt.  He  moved  back  a  bit  and  in  his  self-possessed 
voice  of  a  man  of  the  world,  as  though  he  were  speaking  across 
a  card-table  or  st)mething  of  the  sort,  he  called  Tomassov's 
attention  to  the  fact  that  if  lie  meant  to  nuke  use  of  the  warn- 
ing the"  moments  were  precious. 

They  are  '  agreed  tiie  awed  Tomassov.  '  Good  bye, 
then.  I  have  no  words  of  thanks  adequate  to  your  generosity  ; 
but  if  ever  I  have  an  opportunity,  I  swear  it  .  .  .  You 
may  command  my  lijc      .     .     .' 

"  But  the  Frenchman  had  retreated,  had  already  vanished 
in  the  dark  lonely  street.  Tomassov  was  alone.  .\nd  then 
he  didn't  waste  any  of  the  precious  minutes  of  that  night. 

"  See  how  people's  idle  talk  and  mere  gossii)  pass  into 
history.  In  all  the  memoirs  of  the  time,  if  you  read  them,  you 
will  find  it  stated  that  our  envoy  was  warned  by  some  highly- 
])laced  woman  who  was  in  love  with  him.  Of  course  it's 
known  that  he  had  successes  with  women,  and  in  the  highest 
spheres  too.  Yet  the  person  who  warned  him  \\'as  no  other 
but  our  simple  Tomassov — an  altogether  different  sort  of 
lover  from  himself 

"  This  is  then  the  secret  of  our  Emperor's  representative's 
escape  from  arrest.  He  and  all  his  official  household  got 
out  of  F'rance  all  right — as  history  records. 

"  And  amongst  that  household  there  was  our  Tomassov  of 
course.  He  had,  in  the  words  of  the  French  officer,  the  soul 
of  a  warrior.  And  what  more  desolate  prospect  to  a  man  with 
such  a  soul  than  to  be  imprisoned  on  the  eve  of  a  war  ;  to  be 
cut  off  from  his  country  in  danger,  from  his  mihtary  family, 
from  his  duty,  from  honour,  and— well — from  glory  too. 

"  Tomassov  used  to  shudder  at  the  mere  thought  of  the 
moral  torture  he  had  escaped  ;  and  he  nursed  in  his  heart  an 
admiring  gratitude  for  the  two  people  who  had  saved  him  from 
that  cruel  ordeal.  They  were  wonderful.  For  him  love  and 
friendship  were  but  two  aspects  of  the  cult  of  perfection. 
He  had  found  these  fine  examples  of  it  and  he  vowed  them 
indeed  a  sort  of  cult.  It  affected  his  attitude  towards 
Frenchmen  in  general,  great  patriot  as  he  was.  He  was  indig- 
nant at  the  invasion  of  his  country,  but  this  indignation  had  n(j 
j)ersonal  animosity  in  it.  His  was  altogether  a  fine  nature. 
He  grieved  at  the  appalling  amount  of  human  suffering  he 
saw  around  him.  Yes,  he  was  compassionate  to  all  forms 
of  suffering  in  a  manly  way. 

"  Less  fine  natures  than  his  own  did  not  understand 
this  very  well.  In  the  regiment  they  had  nicknanud  him  the 
Humane  Tomassox'. 

"  He  didn't  take  offence  at  it.  There's  nothing  incompatible 
between  humanity  and  a  warrior's  soul.  People  without 
compassion  are  the  civilians.  Government  officials  and  such 
like.  As  to  the  ferocious  talk  one  hears  from  a  lot  of  people 
in  war  time — well,  the  tongue  is  an  unruly  member  at 
best,  and  when  there's  some  excitement  going  on  there's  no 
curbing  its  furious  activity. 

"  So  I  had  not  been  \'ery  surprised  to  see  our  Tomassov 
sheathe  his  sword  before  the  end  of  the  charge.  As  we  rode 
away  from  there  he  was  very  silent.  He  was  not  talkative 
as  a  rule,  but  it  was  evident  that  this  close  view  of  the  Grand 
Army  had  affected  him  deeply,  like  some  sight  not  of  this 
earth.  You  know  I  had  always  been  a  pretty  tougli  individual 
well  even  I  .  .  .  .'\iul  there  was  that  fellow  with 
a  lot  of  poetry  in  his  nature  !  You  may  imagine  what  he 
made  of  it,  to"  himself.  We  rode  side  by  side  in  silence.  I 
was  simply  beyond  words. 

"  We  established  our  bi\'ouac  along  the  edge  of  the  wood 
iConlinucd  vii  po'jc  36.) 


March  2q,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


33 


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LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


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Jewellery 


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tine  quality  Diamonds  £17  10  0 


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Badge  Brooch,  with  fine 
quality  Diamonds  set  in 
Palladium,  Silver  Star, 
Gold  ;:nd  Enamel. 

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ity Diamonds  and 
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'S'^. 


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T' 


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lill    Dudley   UatC-j 


Drawn    xoiuaiveiy  ju:  "Luna  is   WaUt' 


"  You  may  command  my  life  "        {See  Page    2) 


36 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


{Conlinurrf  from   pagt  32.) 

SO  as  to  get  some  shelter  for  our  horses.  However,  the 
boisterous  north  wind  had  dropped  as  quickly  as  it  had 
sprung  up.  and  the  great  winter  stillness  lay  on  the  land 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  sea.  One  could  almost  feel  its 
cold  lifeless  immensity  reaching  up  to  the  stars. 

"  Our  men  had  lighted  several  fires  for  their  officers  and 
had  cleared  the  snow  around  them.  There  were  logs  of 
wood  for  seats.  It  was  a  very  tolerable  bivouac  upon  the 
whole,  even  without  the  exultation  of  victory.  That  we  were 
to  feel  later,  but  at  present  we  felt  it  but  a  stern  and  arduous 
task. 

"  There  were  three  of  us  round  my  fire.  The  third  one 
was  the  adjutant.  He  was  perhaps  a  well-meaning  chap 
but  not  so  nice  as  he  might  have  been  had  he  been  less  rough 
in  manner  and  less  crude  in  his  perceptions.  He  would  reason 
about  people's  conduct  as  though  a  man  were  as  simple  a 
figure,  as,  say,  two  sticks  laid  across  each  other  ;  whereas 
a  man's  much  more  hke  the  sea,  whose  movements  are  too 
complicated  to  explain  and  whose  depths  may  bring  up  God 
only  knows  what  at  any  time. 

We  talked  a  httle  about  that  charge.  Not  much.  That 
sort  of  thing  does  not  lend  itself  to  conversation.  Tomassov 
muttered  a  few  words  about  '  a  mere  butchery.'  I  had 
nothing  to  say.  As  you  know  I  had  very  soon  let  my  sword 
hang  idle  at  my  wrist.  That  helpless  crowd  had  not  even 
tried  to  defend  itself.  Just  a  few  shots.  We  had  two  men 
wounded.  Two !  And  we  had  charged  the  main  column 
of  Napoleon's  Grand  Army  ! 

"  Tomassov  muttered  wearily :  '  What  was  the  good  of 
it  ?  '  I  did  not  wish  to  argue  so  I  only  just  mumbled  : 
'  Ah  !  well  '  but  the  adjutant  struck  in  unpleasantly. 

"  •  Why  !  It  warmed  the  men  a  bit.  That's  something. 
It  has  made  me  warm.  A  good  enough  reason.  But  our 
Tomassov  is  so  humane  !  And  besides  he  has  been  in  love 
with  a  Frenchwoman  and  thick  as  thieves  with  a  lot  of  French- 
men, so  he's  sorry  for  them.  Never  mind,  my  boy,  we  are  on 
the  Paris  road  now,  and  you  shall  soon  see  her.' 

"  We  let  that  pass  for  one  of  his  foolish  speeches.  None 
of  us  but  believed  that  getting  to  Paris  would  be  a  matter  of 
years — of  years.  And  lo !  Less  than  eighteen  months 
afterwards  I  was  rooked  of  a  lot  of  money  in  a  gambling  hell 
in  the  Palais  Royal. 

"  Truth,  being  often  the  most  senseless  thing  in  the  world, 
is  sometimes  revealed  to  fools.  I  don't  think  that  adjutant 
of  ours  believed  in  his  own  words.  He  wanted  just  to  tease 
Tomassov  from  habit.  Purely  from  habit.  We  of  course 
said  nothing,  and  so  he  took  his  head  in  his  hands  and  fell 
into  a  doze  as  he  sat  on  a  log  on  the  other  side  of  the  fire. 

"  Our  cavalry  was  on  the  extreme  right  wing  of  the  army, 
and  I  must  confess  that  we  guarded  it  very  badly.  We  had 
lost  all  sense  of  insecurity  by  this  time.  But  still  we  did 
keep  up  a  pretence  of  doing  it,  in  a  way.  Presently  a  trooper 
rode  u  >  leading  a  horse  and  Tomassov  mounted  stiffly  and 
went  oif  on  a  round  of  the  outposts.  Of  the  perfectly  useless 
outposts. 

"  The  night  was  still.  The  bivouac  was  still,  except 
for  the  crackUng  of  the  fires.  The  raging  wind  had  lifted 
above  the  earth  and  not  the  faintest  breath  of  it  could  be 
heard.  Only  the  full  moon  swam  out  with  a  rush  into  the 
sky  and  suddenly  hung  high  and  motionless  overhead.  I 
remember  raising  my  hairy  face  to  it  for  a  moment.  Then  I 
verily  believe,  I  dozed  off  too,  bent  double  on  my  log  with  my 
head  towards  the  fierce  ablaze. 

"  It  could  not  have  been  for  long ;  you  know  what  an 
impermanent  thing  such  slumber  is.  One  moment  you  drop 
into  an  abyss  and  the  next  you  are  back  again  in  the  world 
out  of  an  oblivion  that  you  would  think  too  deep  for  any  noise 
but  the  trumpet  of  the  Last  Judgment.  And  then  off  you  go 
again.  Your  very  soul  seems  to  drop  out  of  you  into  a  bottom- 
less black  pit.  "Then  up  once  more  into  a  startled,  slippery 
consciousness.  A  mere  plaything  of  cruel  sleep,  one  is  then. 
Tormented  both  ways. 

"  However,  when  my  orderly  apf>eared  before  me  with  some 
porridge  repeating  '  Won't  your  Honour  be  pleased  to 
eat  .  .  Won't  your  Honour  be  pleased  to  eat,'  I 
managed  to  keep  my  hold  of  it  .  .  .  I  mean  that 
sUppery  consciousness.  He  was  holding  out  to  me  a  sooty 
pot  containing  some  grain  boiled  in  water  with  a  pinch  of 
salt.     A  woo  .ed  spoon  was  stuck  in  it. 

"  At  that  time  these  were  the  only  rations  we  were  getting 
regularly.  Mere  chicken  food,  confound  it.  But  the  Russian 
soldier  is  wonderful.  Well,  my  fellow  waited  till  I  had 
feasted  and  then  went  away  carrying  off  the  empty  pot. 

"  I  was  no  longer  sleepy.  Indeed  I  had  becoms  specially 
awake  with  a  full  mental  consciousness  of  existence  extending 
beyond  my  immediate  surroundings.  Those  are  but  ex- 
ceptional moments  with  mankind,  I  am  glad  to  say. 

"  Casting  my  eye  round  I  liad  the  sense  of  the  earth  in 
all  its  enormous  expanse  lapped  in  snow  with  notliin;j;sliowini< 


on  it  but  the  forest  of  pines  in  their  straight  stalk-like  trunks 
with  their  funereal  verdure  ;  and  in  this  aspect  of  general 
mourning  I  seemed  to  hear  the  sighs  of  mankind  falling  to  die 
in  the  midst  of  a  nature  without  life. 

•"  They  were  Frenchmen.  We  didn't  hate  them  ;  they  did 
not  hate  us.  We  had  existed  far  apart — and  sudtl.nly  the\ 
had  come  rolling  in  with  arms  in  their  hands,  without  fear  of 
God,  carrying  with  them  other  nations,  and  all  to  pL'dsh  to- 
gether in  a  long,  long,  trail  of  frozen  corpses.  I  had  a 
sort  of  vision  of  that  trail.  A  pathetic  multitude  of  small 
dark  mounds  stretching  away  under  the  moonlight  in  a  clear, 
still  and  pitiless  atmosphere — a  sort  of  horrible  peace. 

"  But  what  other  peace  could  there  be  for  them  ?  What 
else  did  they  deserve  ?  I  don't  know  by  what  connection  of 
emotions  there  came  into  my  head  the  thought  that  the  earth 
was  a  pagan  planet  and  not  a  fit  abode  for  Christian  virtues. 

"  You  may  be  surprised  that  I  should  remember  all  this 
so  well.  What  is  a  passing  emotion  or  a  half-formed  thought 
to  last  in  the  memory  for  so  many  years  of  a  man's  chang  ng 
inconsequential  life  ?  But  what  fixed  the  emotions  of  that 
evening  in  my  recollection  so  that  the  slightest  shadows 
remain  indelible,  is  an  event  of  strange  finality,  an  event  not 
hkely  to  be  forgotten  in  a  life-time  as  you  shall  see. 

"  I  don't  suppose  I  had  been  entertaining  those  thoughts 
more  than  five  minutes  when  something  induced  me  to  look 
over  my  shoulder.  I  don't  suppose  it  was  a  noise  ;  the  snow 
deadened  all  the  sounds.  Something  it  must  have  been, 
some  sort  of  signal  reaching  my  consciousness.  Anyway  I 
turned  my  head,  and  there  was  the  event  approacliing  me. 
Not  that  I  knew  it  or  had  the  slightest  premonition.  What 
I  saw  in  the  histance  were  two  figures  approaching  in  the 
moonlight.  One  of  them  was  our  Tomassov.  A  dark  mass 
behind  him  moved  across  my  sight ;  the  horses  which  his 
orderly  was  leading  away. 

"  Of  course  I  had  recognised  Tomassov  instantly.  A  very 
familiar  appearance  in  long  boots,  tall  and  ending  in  a  pointed 
hood.  But  by  his  side  advanced  another  figure.  And  it 
was  amazing !  I  mistrusted  my  eyes  at  first.  It  had  a 
shining  crested  helmet  on  its  head  and  was  muffled  up  in  a 
white  cloak.  The  cloak  was  not  as  white  as  snow.  Nothing 
in  the  world  is.  It  was  wliite  more  like  mist.  And  the  whole 
aspect  was  ghostly  and  martial  to  an  extraordinary  degree. 
It  was  as  if  Tomassov  had  captured  the  god  of  war  himself. 
I  perceived  at  once  that  he  was  holding  this  resplendent 
vision  by  the  arm.     Then  I  saw  that  he  was  holding  it  up. 

"  While  I  stared  and  stared,  they  crept  on — for  indeed ' 
they  were  creeping — and  at  last  they  crept  into  the  light  of 
our  bivouac  fire  and  passed  beyond  the  log  I  was  sitting  on. 
The  blaze  played  on  the  helmet.  It  was  extremely  battered 
and  the  face  under  it  was  wrapped  in  bits  of  mangy  fir. 
No  god  of  war  this,  but  a  Frenchman.  The  great  white 
cuirassier's  clo  k  was  scorched,  burnt  full  of  holes.  The  man's 
feet  were  wrapped  up  in  old  sheepskins,  over  rags  or  remnants 
of  boots.  They  were  monstrous  and  he  tottered  on  them, 
sustained  by  Tomassov  who  most  carefully  lowered  him  on  to 
the  log  on  which  I  sat. 

"  My  amazement  knew  no  bounds. 

You  have  brought  in  a  prisoner,'  I  said  to  Tomassov, 
as  if  I  could  not  believe  my  eyes. 

"  You  must  understand  that  unless  they  surrendered  in 
bodies  we  made  no  prisoners.  But  what  was  the  good.  Our 
Cossacks  either  killed  the  stragglers  or  else  let  them  alone, 
just  as  it  happened.  And  it  came  really  to  the  same  thing 
in  the  end. 

"  Tomassov  turned  to  me  with  a  very  troubled  look. 

"  '  He  sprang  up  from  the  ground  somewhere,  as  I  was 
leaving  the  outpost.  I  believe  he  was  making  for  it,  but  he 
walked  blindly  into  my  horse.  He  got  hold  of  my  leg  and  of 
course  none  of  our  chaps  dared  touch  him  then.' 

"  '  He  had  a  narrow  escape,'  I  said. 

"'He  didn't  appreciate  it,'  returned  Tomassov,  looking, 
even  more  troubled  than  before.  '  He  came  along  holding  on 
to  my  leg.  That's  what  made  me  so  late.  He  told  me  he  is 
a  staff  officer.  And  then  talking  in  a  voice  such,  I  suppose,  as 
the  damned  alone  use,  a  croaking  of  rage  and  pain,  he  said  he 
had  a  favour  to  beg  of  me.  A  supreme  favour.  '  Do  you 
understand  me,'  he  says  in  a  sort  of  fiendish  whisper. 

"  '  Of  course  I  told  him  I  did.  I  said  :  '  Oui !  Je  vous 
comprend<;.' 

Then,'  says  he — '  do  it.  Now  1  At  once — at  once— 
in  the  pity  of  your  heart.' 

"  Tomassov  ceased  and  stared  queerly  at  me  above  the 
head  of  the  prisoner. 

"  I  said,  '  What  did  he  mean  ?  ' 

That's  what  I  asked  him,'  answered  Tomassov  in  a 
dazed  tone.  '  He  wanted  me  to  do  him  the  favour  to  blow 
his  brains  out.  As  a  fellow  soldier  he  said.  As  a  man  of 
feeling — as — as — a  humane  man.' 

"  Between  us  two  tlic  prisoner  sat  like  an  awful   black 

(Continued  on  parjt  38.) 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


37 


EXPLAINING 

Feminine  ^ Charm' 

By    MILLICENT    BROWN 
Illus: rated    by    PENRHYN    STANLAWS. 


I  NOTICED  a  curious  thing  recently  in  a  railway  train.  A 
nicely-dressed  woman  entered,  and  took  a  seat  beside  me. 
1  saw  that  everyone  was  looking  at  her — staring,  in  fact. 
But  not  offensively,  you  understand.  I  caught  myself 
doing  the  same  thing.  It  was  impossible  to  help  it.  Certainly 
it  was  not  her  beauty  of  feature  that  held  the  eyes  of  all,  nor 
was  it  her  costume.  But  there  was  something  about  her  face 
and  expression — I  risked  it,  and  spoke.  "  Would  you  mind 
telling  me,"  I  said,  "  how  you  keep  your  complexion  so 
dazzlingly  pure  ?  You  won't  think  me  impertinent,  but  you 
seem  to  be  over  thirty,  aren't  you  ?     And  yet  you  haven't  a 


^'s&Mm 


Stam  no'A 


line  in  your  face,  and  your  checks  are  quite  peach-like.  Do 
tell  me  how  you  do  it."  She  laughed,  quite  good-naturedly. 
"  Oh,  that's  very  easy,"  she  said  ;  "  I  remove  my  skin."  "  You 
what  '.  "  I  exclaimed,  horrified.  Again  she  laughed,  and 
repUed,  "  Sounds  shocking,  doesn't  it  ?  But  I  will  explain. 
Instead  of  using  face  creams,  I  use  only  pure  mercolized  wax, 
procurable  at  any  chemist's.  The  wax  has  a  gentle  absorbent 
action  which  takes  up  and  removes  the  soiled  and  weather- 
beaten  outer  film-skin,  without  pain,  irritation,  or  discomfort, 
thus  revealing  the  completion  fresh  and  clear  tmderneath. 
Every  woman  has  a  beautiful  complexion  underneath,  you 
know.  Then,  to  keep  my  face  firm  and  free  from  wrinkles,  I 
merely  indulge  in  a  sparkling  face  bath  two  or  three  times  a 
week,  which  I  prepare  by  dissolving  a  little  stymol  (obtained 
at  the  chemist's)  in  a  bowl  of  warm  water.  This  also  keeps 
away  t^ose  unpleasant  little  blackheads,  and  prevents  '  shine.'  " 


War-time    Economies  !  ! 

PERRY'S  New  BU-k  Si  k  tie  Maid's  Afternoon  APRONS  al  4/11  each; 
ditto.  Spotted  Mutli  >  at  5/11  e  ch.  CAPS  to  match.  1/-  each  —  are  not  only  neat 
andsmirt  but  Itie  GRtiATEST  SAVING.  Our  well  cut  OVERALLS  are 
the  greatest  boon  in  these  times — being  practically  dresses — made  in  Biark,  Tabac 
Brown,  Blue,  and  in  Stripes  ;  stock  size,  price  13/6  ;  large  sizes,  3/-  extra. 

Note   this   Address  : 
ARTHUR    FERRY,   12  Argyl     Place,  Regent  St.,  W.  1. 


ABSOLUTELY 

WATERPROOF.— 

WESTFIELD 


1) 


THREE     in    PLy 

(Rje^d) 


TRENCH-WARM 


The  ORIGINAL  and  ONLY 
Trench  Goat  definitely  guaranteed 
absolutely  and  permanently 
Waterproof. 

GALL  and  SEE  the  Coat  in 
the  process  of  making. 

Proof  of  our  assertion  readily  and 
instantly  apparent. 

As  supplied  to  Officers  of — ' 

The  Royal  Naval  Air  Service, 
The    Royal    Naval    Division, 
The  Royal  Flying  Corps, 
and     io     practically     every 
Regiment  (Cavalry  and  In- 
tantry)  in  the  British  Army. 

Price  ...   £4  14  6 

42  inche--  long. 
Price  ...  *5    5    O 
48   iii'.-lies   long. 


Detachable  Fleece  Lining,  dEI  I''  6 
OelachableSheepskin,extra  £31  3  6 
Detachable  Wallaby,  extia,  £6  16  6 
Detachable  FurCollar,extra,£1   1    O 

All   sizes  in   stock.     Send    Chest    Measurement 
(over  Tunic)  and   approximate    height. 


REQIMENTAL    TAILORS  AND   OUIFIITERS. 

Field  House,  152  New  Bond  Street.  London,  W. 


Telegrams:   "Westcanaii,  W<*«;iio..  T^onHrtn." 


TrVptimicr   May^'air  S76  [2  lii 


THE    "WESTFIELD"    SOFT    SERVICE    CAP 

with  or  without  back  curtain. 
Fitted  with  waterproof  lining  and  greaseproof  shields, 

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grips  the  head  without  pressure,  and  will  neither  blow  nor  fall  off. 


[w 


WEST  &  SON 


MILITARY  TAILORS. 
BREECHES  MAKERS, 


152  NEW  BOND  STREET,  LONDON,  W 


ORS,      I 

:ers.  I 


Please  mentioD  **  Land  tnd  Water.' 


Tel.  :  Gerrard  8307. 


(Patent 

No. 
12699— 
1909.) 


ii 


LUPTONS 

SPIRAL   PUTTEES 

FASTEDGE 

Worn  extensively  by  Officers  of  His 
Majest  /s    and    the     Allied    Forces. 

SPECIAL  LIGHT  WEIGHTS  FOR 
TROPICAL  CLIMATES. 

B  ing  Positively  Non^frny-ble 
LUPTO  iN  'S  ^^'^^^^  ^°°^  '^^^^  ^"d  Smart.  They  are  most 
DIITTC'CC  "^°^^^^^'^  '"  price,  and  may  be  obtained  from 
1    U    I     I    EjCjiJ    all   High-class   Military  Tailors   and    Hosiers. 

ASK     FOR     LUPTON'-i     PU l  TEES 


t^u'ed'by     ASTRACHANS    Ltd.,  Albert  Mm   A  Ian  it..  BR 

(1 L-'n^on  Agent  :   A.    STRICKLAND.   18   Bow    Lanr.   E. 


BRADFORD. 

c. 


38 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


B)i    Uudtei  Harin  Drown  exctusicelu  lor 

"One  warrior's  soul  paying  its  debt  a  hundredfold  to   another  warrior's  soul 


Land  i-    Water 
» 


{Continued  from  page  36.) 
mummy  as  to  the  face,  a  martial  scarecrow,  a  grotesque  horror 
of  rags  and  dirt  with  awful  living  eyes,  full  of  vitality,  full 
of  unquenchable  fire  in  a  body  of  horrible  affliction,  a  skeleton 
at  the  feast  of  glory.  And  suddenly  those  shinmg,  inextinguish- 
able eyes  of  his  became  fixed  upon  Tomissov.  He  poor 
fellow,  fascinated,  returned  that  ghastly  stare  of  a  suffering 
soul  in  that  mere  husk  of  a  man.  The  prisoner  croaked  at 
him  in  French. 
y  '  1  recognise  you  now.  You  are  her  Russian  youngster. 
You  were  very  grateful.  I  call  on  you  to  pay  the  debt.  Pay 
it,  I  say,  with  one  liberating  shot.  You  promised.  You  are  a 
man  of  honour.  I  have  not  even  a  broken  sabre.  All  my 
being  recoils  from  my  own  degradation.     You  know  me.' 

"  Tomassov  said  nothing. 

"  '  Haven't  you  got  the  soul  of  a  warrior,'  the  Frenchman 
asked  in  an  angry  whisper  but  with  something  of  a  mocking 
intention  in  it. 

"  '  I  don't  know,'  said  poor  Tomassov. 

"  What  a  look  of  contempt  that  tragic  scarecrow  gave  him 
o  U  of  his  unquenchable  eyes  !  It  was  awful  to  discover 
so  much  vigour  \  et  in  that  body  that  seemed  to  hve  only  by 
the  force  of  infuriated  and  impotent  despair.  Suddenly  he 
gave  a  gasp  and  fell  forward  writhing  in  the  agony  of  cramp 
in  his  overtaxed  limbs  ;  a  not  unusual  effect  of  the  heat  of  a 
camp  fire.  It  looked  Uke  the  app  c  ition  of  a  horrible  torture. 
But  the  Frenchman  fought  against  the  pain  at  first.  He  only 
moaned  low  while  we  bent  over  him  so  as  to  prevent  him 
rollmg  into  the  fire,  and  muttered  feverishly  at  intervals  : 

'  Ttiez  moi,  Inez  moi '  .  .  .  Then  vanquished  by  the 
pain  he  screamed  aloud  time  after  time,  each  cry  bursting 
out  through  his  compressed  lips. 

"  The  adjutant  woke  up  on  the  other  side  of  the  fire  and 
started  swearing  awfully  at  the  '  beastly  row  '  that  Frenchman 
was  making. 

"'What's  this?  More  of  your  infernal  humanity, 
Tomassov  ?  he  yelled  at  us.  '  Why  don't  you  have  him  thrown 
out  on  the  snow,  to  the  devil  out  of  this  beyond  earshot. 

"  As  we  paid  not  the  slightest  attention  to  his  angry  shouts 
he  got  up,  cursing  shockingly,  and  went  from  us  to  another 
fire.  Presently  the  Frenchman  became  easier.  We  propped 
liim  up  against  the  log  and  sat  silent  on  each  side  of  him  till 


the  cavalry  trumpets  started  their  calls  at  the  first  break  of 
day.  The  big  flame  kept  up  all  through  the  night  paled  on  t h  c 
'livid  light  of  the  snows,  while  the  frozen  air  all  round  rang  with 
the  brazen  notes  of  the  trumpets.  The  Frenchman's  eyes, 
fixed  in  a  glassy  stare  that  for  a  moment  made  us  hope  that 
he  had  died  quietly  sitting  there  between  us  two,  stirred 
slowly  to  the  right  and  left,  looking  at  eac'.i  of  our  faces  in  turn. 
We  exchanged  glances  of  dismay.  Then  his  vcice,  unex- 
pected in  its  renewed  strength  and  ghastly  self-possessicn. 
made  us  shudder  inwardly. 

"  '  Bonjour,  Messieurs.' 

"  His  head  drooped  on  his  chest.  Tomassov  addressed 
me  in  Russian. 

"  '  It  is  he,  the  man  himself '  .  .  .  I  nodded  and 
Tomassov  went  on  in  a  tone  of  an  uish  !  '  Yes  he  !  Brilliant, 
accomplished,  envied  by  men,  loved  by  that  woman — this 
horror — this  miserable  thing  that  cannot  die.  Look  at  his 
eyes.     It's  terrible.' 

"  I  did  not  look.  But  I  understood  what  Tomassov  meant. 
We  could  do  nothing  for  him.  The  desolation  of  this  avenging 
winter  of  fate  held  both  the  fugitives  and  the  pursuers  in  its 
iron  grip.  Compassion  was  but  a  vain  word  before  that 
unrelenting  destiny.  I  tried  to  say  something  about  the 
convoy  of  prisoners  being  no  doubt  collected  in  the  village — 
but  I  faltered  at  the  mute  glance  Tomassov  gave  me.  We 
knew  what  these  convoys  were  like  ;  appalUng  companies  of 
hopeless  wretches  driven  on  by  the  butts  of  Cossacks'  lances, 
back  through  the  frozen  inferno  but  with  their  fac2s  away 
from  their  home. 

"  Our  two  squadrons  had  been  formed  along  the  edge  of 
the  wood.  The  desolate  minutes  were  pas.sing.  The  French- 
man suddenly  struggled  to  his  feet.  We  helped  him  almost 
without  knowing  what  we  were  doing. 

Come,'  he  said  in  measured  tones.  '  This  is  the 
moment.'  He  paused  for  a  whole  minute,  then  with  the  same 
distinctness  went  on.  '  On  my  word  of  honour  all  faith  is 
dead  in  me.' 

"  His  voice  lost  suddenly  its  self-possession,  and  after 
waiting  a  little  he  added  in  a  murmiu: — '  and  even  my  courage. 
Yes.     Upon  my  honour  !  ' 

"  Another  long  pause  ensued.     With  an  effort  he  whispered 
(Concluded  on  tin  opposite  patje). 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


39 


Ami 


Then 


hoarsely,  '  Isn't  this  enough  to  move  a  heart  of  stone  ? 
to  go  on  my  knees  to  you  ' 

"  Again  a  deep  silence  fell  upon  the  three  of  us. 
the  French  officer  uttered  his  last  word  of  anger. 

"  '  Milksop  !  ' 

"  Tomassov  didn't  budge  a  feature.  I  made  up  my  mind 
to  go  and  fetch  a  couple  of  our  troopers  to  lead  that  miserable 
Frenchman  away  to  the  village.  There  was  nothing  else  for 
it.  I  had  not  made  ten  paces  towards  the  group  of  horses 
and  orderlies  in  front  of  our  squadron  when  .  .  .  But 
you  have  guessed  it.  Of  course.  And  so  did  I.  For  I  give 
you  my  word  that  the  report  of  Tomassov's  pistol  was  the 
mo-it  insignificant  thing  imaginable.  The  snow  certainly 
eems  to  absorb  sounds.  It  was  a  mere  feeble  pop.  Of  the 
rderlies  holding  our  horses  I  don't  think  one  turned  his 
head. 

"Yes.  He  had  done  it.  Destiny  had  led  that  Frenchman 
to  the  only  man  who  could  understand  him  perfectly.  But 
it  was  poor  Tomassov's  lot  to  be  the  predestined  victim. 
You  know  what  the  world's  justice  is  and  mankind's  judgment. 
It  fell  heavily  on  him,  with  a  sort  of  inverted  hypocrisy. 
Why  that  brute  of  an  adjutant  himself  was  the  first  to  set 
going  horrified  allusions  to  the  shooting  of  a  prisoner  in  cold 
blood  !  Tomassov  was  not  dismissed  from  the  service  of 
course.  But  after  the  siege  of  Dantzic  he  asked  for  permission 
to  resign  from  the  army,  and  went  away  to  bury  himself  in 
the  deptlis  of  his  province  where  a  vague  story  of  some  dark 
deed  clung  to  him  for  years. 

"  Yes.  He  had  done  it.  And  what  was  it  ?  One  warrior  s 
soul  paying  its  debt  a  hundredfold  to  another  warrior's 
soul  by  releasing  it  from  a  fate  worse  than  death — the  loss 
of  all  faith  and  courage.  You  may  look  on  it  in  that  way.' 
I  don't  know.  And  perhaps  poor  Tomassov  did  not  know 
himself.  But  I  was  the  first  to  approach  that  appalUng  dark 
group  of  two  :  the  Frenchman  extended  rigidly  on  his  back, 
Tomassov  down  on  one  knee  rather  nearer  to  the  feet  than  to 
the  Frenchman's  head.  He  had  taken  his  cap  off  and  his  hair 
shone  hke  gold  through  the  light  snow  that  had  begun  to  fall. 
He  was  stooping  over  the  dead  in  a  tenderly  protecting 
attitude  ;  and  his  young,  ingenuous  face  with, lowered  eyelids 
expressed  no  grief,  no  sternness,  no  pity  ;  but  was  set  in  the 
repose  of  a  profound,  as  if  endless  and  endlessly  silent 
meditation.  Joseph  Conrad 


PLEAS'. 
WRITE  FOR 
ILLUS- 
TRATED 
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SPECIAL 
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rn 

THE  FRONT. 


SMITHS'    "ALLIES" 

AND 

MEDICAL  WATCHES. 

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No  more  Watch   Glasses! 
No  more  Watch  Glass  Protectors  1 
It  is  Impossihle  to  break  the  front  I 


Smith's 

Electric 

Reading 

Lamp 

or  the  Belt. 


RecogDircdby 

Officers  at  the 

HEST    LAMP 

ril.-  fol  TESTIMONIALS.) 

-^ — ^      Piish-piece. 


SHORIAGE 


OF  GOID. 
MBHEST 
PRICES  NOW 
GIVEN  FOR 
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AND 
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OF 
ANY  SORT. 


Sterling     Silver 
"SCREW  IN" 

Dust  and  Damp 
Proof  Case. 


sterling    Silver,    Lever 

Movement,      Luminous 

Dial.     Pigsl<in     Strap, 

Silver   Buckle. 

«a  :  U  :  c> 


PLEASE 
WRITE  FOR 
ILLUS- 
TRATED 
BOOKLET  OF 

SPECIAL 
REQUISITES 

FOR 
THE  FRONT. 


Sterling    Silver     Screw 

in  Case  Medical  Watch 

Luminous   figures    and 

liands,    registering    5th 

of   seconds. 

Invaluable  for 

Hospital  Work. 

SMITHS  HiBh  Qrad 
Lever  Movement, 
fluaranteed       Cl.lR 


Extra  batteries 


Size  of  LatnT)    5J  x  if  \  IJ  inches.  Timekeeper 
Prlc.     complete   20/ -     '•''""r^X^y.T.trT'- 

Or   inciuding    one   extra    bulb    in   lid.    21/-. 


1/6  each. 


Extra  bulbs 


Hermetically    sealed    in    Tin    box. 


1/-  eacti. 


Further   particulars  on   apiillcatlon. 


S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd.   Es,d.i85i 

6  Grand  Hotel  Bulidings.Traral(|arSqaore,W.C.p,o'cadmy » 


By  Appointment  to  H.M. 
the  late  King  Edward  VII. 


Watch    and     Chronometer 

Makers  to  the  Admiralty. 

Holders  of  5  Royal  Warrar.ts. 


Photo 


Swaine 


A  Gallant  Soldier's 
Testimony 

LIEUT.-GEN.  SIR  FRANCIS  LLOYD, 

General  Officer  Commanding  tfie  London  District,  recently  said : 

"  My  experience  of  the   Salvation  Army  is  this,  that  whenever 
I  want  anything,  if  I  ask  them  to  do  it,  it  is  done ! 

"  And  the  Salvation  Army  have  been  among  the  pioneers  of  good  in 
London.  There  is  a  Home  in  Lambeth  which  was  started  in  the  very  early  days  to  help  the  Soldiers — 
a  Home  unostentatious,  but  which  has  been  wholly  for  good. 

"  There  is  another  Home  close  to  Liverpool  Street,  whither 
men  are  often  sent  to  sleep,  and  which  is  as  good  (I  have  often 
been  there  very  late  at  night)  as  any  place  of  the  sort  in  London. 
This  is  a  great  work,  for  the  men  coming  from  the  Front  are  prone 
to  fall  into  dangers  and  difficulties  ;  therefore,  it  is  our  bounden  duty 
to  make  things  as  safe  and  as  certain  for  them  as  we  possibly  can. 

"  I  say  advisedly  that  I  know  of  no  organisation  in  the  whole 
world  that  has  been  more  unselfish  than  the  Salvation  Army." 

AT  THE  REQUEST  of  the  iilllLITARY  AUTHORITIES 

the  Salvation  Army  has  already  opened  a  large  number  of  Hostels  in  London  and 
the  Provinces  for  Service  Men  home  on  leave,  but  the  maintenance  of  these  and  its 
other  war  operations,  such  as  Ambulance  work  on  the  fields  of  battle,  the  visiting  of 
sick  and  wounded  in  the  Military  Hospitals,  its  Huts  at  work  in  the  different  camps 
(of  which  we  have  over  100  in  this  country),  etc.,  is  a  great  financial  strain. 

Cheques  should  be  made  payable  to  GENERAL  BOOTH,  crossed  "  Bank  of  Eniiland 
Law  Courts  Branch,  War  Fund  a/c."  and  sent  to  him  at  QUEEN  VICTORIA  STREtsT 

LONDON.  E.C.  4. 


40 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29.  1917 


By  Appt.  to 
H.M.  The  Queen. 


DERRY^ 
&TOMS 

KENSINGTON  LON DONW 


By  Appt.  to 

T.M.  Km>r  A- (^e«n 

ol  Spain. 


Sports   Coats    & 
Blouse  Jumpers 


Obtainable  in  special 

section       in       Qrand 

Dome       Circle       on 

Qround  Floor 


^T  This  department 
*  offcFB  a  very  wide 
•election  of  Ladies' 
Knitted  Sports  Coats  and 
Blouse  Jumpert.  The 
smart  coat  illustrated  is  in 
aitificial  silk,  and  is  made 
in  black,  navy,  sky,  old 
rose,  bottle,  champagne, 
laxe,  and  amethyst. 


T 
1 
T 


Prici 


T 
T 

r 
1 

1 

1 
1 

V 

1 

1 

h 


THE    "DERRY" 
SPORTS    COAT. 


59/6 


FURNISH   ON  DERRY   &  TOMS'  A 

DEFERRED    PAYMENT    SYSTEM 


Reversible  Sports  Coat. 


Thi»  Smart  nd 
Useful  Coat  IS 
made  in  good 
quality  Crepe- 
de-Chine,  and 
the  special 
feature  is  thc-t 
it  is  made  in 
two  shades  and 
is  reversible ;  it 
can  be  obtained 
in  any  shades 
required  at  the 
moderate  price 


141  Bromoton  Rd.  S.W..  8  124  Shaftesbury  Avenue.  W. 


ShooMs 

SPRING    HATS 


REFINED    SIMPLE    STYLES    AT 
MODERATE    PRICES 

We  Illustrate  a  becoming  Sailor  Hat  in  Jap  Straw.  The 
underbrim  lined  silk  to  match,  the  crown  is  trimmed  with  a 
swathing  of  striped  saiin  in  colours  to  blend,  finished 
with  buttons  at  side.      In  a  good  range  of  colours 

Tottenham  Court   Road,   London,   W. 


15/9 


Gomnges 


Smart  and  Usejul 

BLOUSES. 


No    K    COD.     Inexpensive  and    Dainty 

Blouse  Coat  iii  oval  ground  pat 
terned  t-cru  ret;  the  collar  also 
Nlet-ve  nnd  Imsque  triimmng  i«  in 
fine  plain  not  to  tone,  and  orna- 
nientt'd  «t  nt'ck  arifl  waist  witli 
touches  of  hUu;k  and  gold  linorl 
throui,'hout    net. 

Pri<;e 


23/9 


Illustrated  Booklet   of 
[Qlouses  poit  free. 


Xii.  K  C-'(i.  Exceedingly  Smart  and 
useful  Jumper  Blouse,  in  -•triiH.'d 
tussore,  tilt'  collar  forniinH  square 
at  hack,  is  ornamentr.-d  with  hnnd 
.stiU-h ;  the  front  is  also  inlt-t  with 
sani«  stitch,  belt  at  waiat  fitsten- 
ing  with  steel  dog  iliiis.  e«7//C 
Price    «5//0 


FREDERICK  GORRINGE,  LTD ,  BUCKINGHAM  PALACE  RD.   S.W.  1. 


March   29,   lyi; 


LAND    &    WATER 


41 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


Y~^ACH  day  that  passes  makes  ii  clearer  that  the 
i~^  extremes  of  fashion  or  of  lavish  expenditure  are  a 
thing  of  the  past,  and  the  shops,  recognising  this 
are  changing  accordingly.  People,  indeed,  must  still 
buy,  but  the  nature  of  that  buying  is  altered.  Clothes,  to 
have  chance  of  success  must  be  practical,  useful,  and  above 
ail  quid,  any  glaring  outbreak  of  colour  or  style  being 
thought  in  the  worst  taste  by  those  whose  opinion  is  worth 
studying.  The  same  to  some  extent  applies  to  almost 
0pery thing  we  buy — it  must  serve  some  useful  purpose, 
otherwise  there  is  no  justification  for  its  existence.  Things 
teeing  towards  economy  are  greatly  needed  and  eagerly 
welcomed,  and  news  relating  to  them  is  always  worth  hearing, 
labour-saving  articles  are  another  case  in  point  and  warrant 
fullest  publicity.  They  mean  much  to  the  well-being 
of  a  household  and  in  the  future  may  mean  even  more  if 
the  compulsory  reduction  of  household  stuffs — often  in- 
dicated—  becomes  an  accomplished  fact.  To  all  these  ends 
these  articles  will  be  subordinate.  Their  aim  is  to  point 
the  wise  path  in  expenditure,  never  to  encourage  extravagance, 
thriftlessness  or  waste,  and  in  short,  to  act  as  a  guide  to 
all  serious  students  of  domestic  economy. 

One  of  the  best-known  West-End  boot- 
makers has  hit  on  a  new  and  brilliant 
idea.  Realising  that  never  have 
peojde  wanted  more  specialised  booting,  and  that  never  have 
prioes  soared  so  high,  he  is  selling  his  beautifully-made  foot- 
wear at  generously  reduced  prices  for  cash.     People  availing 


themselves  of  this  system  can  save  a  considerable  sum  on 
each  pair  of  boots  or  shoes  they  buy  and  thus  effect  a  very 
definite  economy.  At  the  same  time,  those  preferring  credit 
can  have  it  at  proportionately  increased  prices. 

To  develop  this  scheme,  new  extension  premises  have  just 
been  opened.  They  are  up  to  date  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word  as  soldiers,  women  war  workers,  and  many  others  are 
fast  discovering,  and  they  have  no  fewer  than  four  private 
fitting  rooms.  Service  boots,  embodying  many  new  and 
valuable  ideas,  are  a  feature,  so  are  all  kinds  of  workmanlike 
boots  for  women.  '  Some  boots  for  the  hind  are  well  worth 
inspecting.  They  have  waterproof  canvas  tops,  are  the 
perfection  of  lightness  and  comfort,  and  a  boon  to  women 
engjged  in  agriculture,  gardening  or  kindred  employment. 
Another  cajiital  notion  is  practical  brown  country  boots  and 
shoes  with  really  low  sensible  heels. 

Apart  from  the  strictly  utilitarian  side,  boots  for  Hghter 
wear  appeal,  some  lovely  boots  entirely  of  doeskin  and  light 
and  cool  for  the  spring  amongst  there.  Special  offers  are 
also  an  attraction,  since  through  their  means  great  bargains 
can  be  secured.  A  delightful  pair  of  antelope  and  patent 
leather  walking  shoes  were  being  sold  here  the  other  day  at 
an  astoundingly  low  price,  and  have  since  been  succeeded 
by  other  chances  equally  as  covetabk. 


Money  Well 
Saved 


Some  Wonderful 
Dresses 


Some  washing  crape  dresses  eit  very 
special  prices  are  delightfully  of>por- 
tune.  They  cost  the  bagatelle  sum  of 
35s.  each,  a  price  which  would  not  be  possible  were  it  not  for 
certain  circumstances.     During  the  winter  the  firm  kept  on 


WOOIMND  HATS 

for  town  and  country  wear 


42 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


Wl^ej 


TEA    FROCKS. 

Suitable  for  home  dinner  wear,  with 
with  the  appearance  of  a  dress  but 
the  comfort  of  a  wrapper. 


SPECIAL     NOTICE. 

To  obviate  waste  of  paper,  we 
•h\ll  only  issue  a  limited  num- 
ber of  "Spring,"  "Summer," 
and  "  July  Sale  '  Catalogues, 
also  Departmental  Booklets, 
These  c^n  only  be  s«>nt  in  ri»- 
sponse  tj  direct  applications. 
Ad^Iv    *o-dav. 


TEA  FROCK 

''as  sketch,"  of  rich  Silk  Cascade, 
sleeves  and  frill  at  neck  of  crepe 
chiffon,  finished  ribbon  velvet  and 
French  bouquet,  waist  on  elastic.  In 
lilac,  cherry,  purple,  vieux  rose, 
nattier,  ivory  or  black.  Made  in 
our  own   workrooms. 

Price     €9/6 

To  special  measurements  10/S  extra. 


Post  Orders  receive  prompt  and  carefid  attention. 


DlCKlNS&JONESLtd.,!LSJ'i: 


To  His  Majesty 
the  King. 


Her  Majesty 
the  Queen, 


Her  Majesty  Queen  Alexandra  and  the  Courts  of  Europe 


CLEVER    TAILORING 

Swears  ieV^lb 

These  illustrations  represent  the  newest  form  of  Skirts,  and  are 
made  from  fine  materials  of  various  weavirgs  and  shades. 

So  exquisitely  are  these 

Skirts    balanced     that 

they  will  (it  most  ladies 

without      the 

slightest 

adjustment. 

The  price  of 
each    skirt    is 

59/6 

And    other  Styles 
from   39/6 


Nomber  ONE 


S^CA^s^f/ei/s 


REGENT      SXREEX,      W 


a  great  number  of  skilled  employc^es  instead  of  dismissing 
them.  The  work  found  for  them  to  do  was  tlie  making  of 
these  attractive  frocks,  and  the  amazingly  cheap  price  an 
incidental  result.  The  crape  itself  is  a  fascinating  fabric 
which  washes  hke  a  rag,  and  has  a  good  substance.  Eight 
different  colourings  are  a\-ailable,  blues,  sand  colour,  tan,  pink, 
lilac  and  sea-green  amongst   them. 

The  frocks  are  made  in  a  number  of  different  ways. 
Amongst  them  is  a  charming  blue  frock  with  V-shaped  neck 
bordered  with  a  narrow  hem  of  exquisitely  coloured  Tyrian 
silk.  The  same  silk  appears  again  at  the  wrist  and  the  skirt 
is  becomingly  full.  Another  frock  has  the  new  square  neck 
and  a  row  of  pretty  buttons  either  side  of  the  front.  These 
frocks  are  amongst  the  golden  opportunities  which,  though 
rare,  fortunately  do  occur  from  time  to  time.  Whenever 
they  do  happen,  they  are  worth  seizing  with  alacrity. 

A  special  booklet  illustrating  them,  and  one  or  two  com- 
panions, besides  giving  patterns  of  the  crape,  has  been  issued 
and  will  be  sent  at  once  if  asked  for.  Few  booklets  are  better 
worth  study  at  the  moment  than  this  welcome  little  brochure. 


Maize 

Flakes 


Cheap  nutritious  foods  are  the  concern 
of  all  and  sundry,  and  maize  flakes 
satisfy  on  both  these  scores.  Here  one 
gets  the  nourishment  of  the  grain  in  a  particularly  healthy 
form,  and  in  consequence  housewives  of  all  kinds  ami  con- 
ditions are  hailing  it  with  delight. 

Maize  flaked  in  this  way  is  very  easily  cooked  and  not  the 
least  trouble  to  prepare.  Made  with  milk  and  sweetening 
of  sugar  it  makes  into  capital  porridge,  as  good  to  eat  as  it  is 
good  to  see,  the  maize  colour  being  both  attractive  and 
appetising.  Maize  flake  blancmange  is  another  idea  worth 
advocating,  while  a  maize  flake  pudding  is  a  welcome  change 
from  the  ordinary  type  of  milk  pudding.  A  clever  cook, 
however,  would  doubtless  have  many  other  suggestions  as  to 
the  different  ways  in  which  it  could  be  utilised.  Already  it 
has  been  mooted  as  a  substitute  for  maccaroni  in  maccaroni 
cheese,  and  is  worth  attention  on  that  score. 

It  only  costs  4d.  a  lb.,  and  reductions  being  made  for 
quantities,  works  out  as  one  of  the  most  economical  food 
propositions  made  for  many  a  long  day. 


Dried  Fruit 
Salad 


Now  that  oranges  and  apples  are  fast 
approaching  unheard-of  prices  and  their 
supply  is  even  threatened,  dried  fruit 
salad  has  come  into  its  own.  This  can  be  found  at  its  very 
best  in  a  well-known  shop,  the  grocery  buyer  there  having 
long  ago  seen  its  possibilities.  Into  this  mixture  all  kinds  of 
good  dried  fruits  go,  the  effect  of  the  varied  colours  being  a 
very  pretty  one.  Prunes,  apricots,  peaches,  pears  and  apple- 
rings  are  included,  the  whole  combination  needing  but  a 
preliminary  soaking  to  transform  it  into  workable  material. 

This  dried  fruit  salad  is  very  cheap,  a  shilhng  a  lb.  being 
all  that  is  asked.  It  will  be  found  that  dried  fruit  after  being 
soaked  swells  considerably,  so  that  even  a  small  quantity 
goes  a  long  way.  Twenty-eight  pound  boxes  cost  26s.  6d., 
and  here  is  a  chance  for  the  economical  house-keepsr. 

At  the  same  time,  she  should  enquire  about  some  Japan 
rice  at  fourpence  a  lb.  The  head  of  the  department  strongly 
urges  that  people  should  value  rice  more  than  they  do.  Now, 
he  says,  it  is  the  cheapest  article  of  food  going,  and  can  use- 
fully be  made  a  quite  important  part  of  a  meal,  acting  as  a 
vegetable  or  otherwise. 


Hats  for  Hard 
Work 


Oilsilk  hats,  much  on  the  same  principle 
as  a  fisherman's  sou'wester,  but  not  so 
extreme  in  shape,  are  just  the  kind  of 
things  for  which  scores  of  women  are  looking.  Their  good 
qualities  are  legion.  For  one  thing,  they  are  exceedingly 
cheap,  being  only  6s.  iid.  in  price,  for  another  they  are  quite 
impervious  to  rain,  keeping  the  head  of  their  wearer  wonder- 
fuliy  dry  without  any  guardian  umbrella. 

Then  they  are  very  phable,  the  soft  stitched  brim  can  be 
bent  up  and  down  this  way  or  that,  in  any  fashion  best 
suiting  the  face  beneath.  Another  feature  is  their  lightness, 
and  yet  another  the  fact  that  they  can  be  folded  in  the 
tightest  roll,  stuffed  into  a  pocket  or  into  the  smallest  comer 
of  a  box  without  ill  effects. 

For  gardening  in  bad  weather  or  arry  other  out-door  work 
they  are  unsurpassed.  The  available  colourings  are  navy 
blue,  dark  green,  purple,  and  dark  brown,  and  adso  black. 


Gardening 

Skirts 


Most  women  with  a  garden  to  call  their 
own  are  spending  a  considerable  amount 
of  time  in  it.  Not  only  is  vegetable 
raising  an  imperative  necessity,  but  men  gardeners  are 
practically  not  available,  so  that  labour  is  a  difficulty. 

To  work  advantageously  in  a  garden,  a  woman  must  wear 
comfortable  hard-wearing  clothes.  Some  capital  tweed 
skirts  are  now  being  sold  very  cheaply  on  purpose  for  garden- 


March.  29,  IQ17 


LAND    &     WATER 


43 


ing.  They  are  cut  with  a  good  fulness  of  material,  the  seams 
being  taped  inside  to  give  them  greater  stability.  The  skirt 
is  gathered  at  the  waist  beneath  a  buttoned  belt  of  the  same 
material,  so  that  the  line  given  here  is  a  very  neat  one. 

An  outside  pocket  allows  ample  room  for  a  pair  of  scissors, 
tying-up  bass  or  anything  of  that  sort,  and  the  skirt  itself 
can  be  recommended  from  every  point  of  view.  It  can  be 
liad  in  black  or  blue  cheviots,  as  well  as  in  a  variety  ef  all- 
wool  tweeds,  and  is  kept  in  all  sizes. 

An  excellent  agricultural  outfit  is  com- 
prised in  four  parts — namely,  jacket, 
skirt,  blouse  and  breeches.  The  skirt 
is  short,  full  and  workmanhke,  and  the  coat  of  Norfolk 
persuasion,  while  the  blouse  and  breeches  are  just  precisely 
what  is  wanted. 

The  outfit  is  made  in  unproofed  earth-coloured  material 
for  26s.  6d.  complete,  and  the  whole  can  be  had  .n  a  weather- 
proofed  quality  for  six  sliillings  more.  Passe-Partout. 

Names  and  addresses  of  shops  where  the  articles  mentioned 
can   be   obtained   will   be  sent   0:1  receipt  of  a   postcard. 


\   Fotir-piece 
Outfit 


Paquin  of  Dover  Street  are  opening  a  children's  depart- 
ment, run  upon  the  same  hnes  as  their  successful  one  in 
Paris.  It  was  indeed  the  success  of  the  latter  that  en- 
couraged them  to  do  the  same  thing  over  here.  They  are 
showing  clothes  for  little  girls  of  six  and  upwards  that  are 
just  as  perfect  as  such  things  can  be.  Another  feature 
worth  noting  is  the  attractive  coats  and  skirts  for  older  girls. 
It  is  often  very  difficult  to  get  just  the  right  suit  for  a  girl  of 
sixteen  or  so.  '  Paquin,  with  their  usual  intelligence,  solve  the 
problem  effectually  and  cleverly.  Amongst  their  prettiest 
models  is  a  coat  and  skirt  of  beige  tricotin  with  tunic  skirt,  and 
coat  revers  and  collar  of  black  taffetas.  Another  delightful 
little  frock  for  an  even  more  youthful  wearer  is  of  rose- pink 
linen  with  linen  straps  across  the  rather  severe  bodice.  Accom- 
panying this  is  a  charming  little  jockey  cap,  also  of  Unen,  very 
original  and  artistic.  In  spite  of  the  great  increase  in  the  cost 
of  materials  of  all  kinds,  Paquin  have  not  raised  their  prices. 


'Post  Free  on   T^equest. 


Type       ,i(..      ,.,.        .,1       iiic      !i:'jvt. 
ohanmiii^   MdfU'Ii  of  the  Season.      In 
Black      uith      Wlirite    Spoto,    ili-ochu 
Contil.     .Sizp,-  19  to  30  ins.         O  1  / 
Also  miK-  an  J   White.  ^S  I/- 


Swan^E^aTi 


Advance  Spring  "HOW  TO  DRESS 

with  good  taste  and  economy." 


THE  LISA  DING 
.,        WEST-END 
Lv?  DRAPERS, 


REGEN;    STREET  and  PICCADILLY,   LQNDOM    W.I. 


KiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiituuiiiMminiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" 


r'" 


-^i 


THE 


Is  an  absolute 
necessity 

where  floors  are  to  be  kept 
as  bright  and  clean  as  usual 
djii  with  less  labour. 

Does  all  that  is  claimed  for 
it. or  money  returned. 

These  are  the  days  when  work  .should 
be  done  in  the  easiest  possible 
manner  with  efficiency.  Therefore, 
use  an  O-Cedar  Polish  Mop. 

Prices— 4  2,  5/2,   and  6  3. 

The    more   it   is   iised    the   r  ieher   and 
harder    the    polish    becomes. 

FREE   TRIAL    /or  one  week.      De- 
posit the  price  with  your  dealers,  anil 
if   not  satisfied    your    money 
will  be  returned.  ^   \ 


Obta'nable    of   all    Stores, 
Ironmongers,  elc. 


',4- 


THE     NEW      TRIANGULAR 

0€fe:M>p 

WITH    ADJUSTABLE   HANDY- HANDLE-H INGE 


111  «  •III9I«TI  lit  •  I  •  I  I  III  I  IIITt  •  I  I  I  I!!  « 


C^clai'  Cbiit'Strap 


and  Throat  Lotion  permanertiv    restore  Drooping  Muscles, 

thus  removing  all  traces  oi  Fatigue  and  D  Tression  fr»m 
the  face. 

This  is  made  possible  by  the  introduction  of  Mrs.  Hemming's 
"  Cyclax^"  Tnroat  Lotion  and  Chin-Strap,  which,  used 
together,  stimulate  and  brace  up  the  subcutaneous  tissues  and 
muscles,  tliui  rapidly  reducing  the  double  chin  and  restoring 
firmness  to  loose  and  sagging  skin  and  muscles.  "  Cyclax  " 
Chin-Strap,  6/6,  "  Cyclax  "  Throat  Lotion,  4/-,  7/6. 

Every  wom»n  should  wear  a  "  Cyclax "  Chin-Strap,  to 
prevent  sa    gi  <g  of  the  tissues. 

■■  Cyclax  "  S  -in  Food,  4/-,  restores  sagging  muscles,  removes 
wrinkles,  and  renders  the  skin  beautifully  trarsparent  and 
of  a  most  delicate  whiteness.  Used  by  the  World's  Most 
Hjautiful  Women. 

Send  for    Mrs.    Hemmtng's    valuable   Brochure,    tnlilled 
The  Cultivation  and  Freservotion   c/  Natural  Beauty," 
sent  gratis. 
Telephones:    "Cycl.lx"  Gerranl   46s'.l  :      l  r.  ntijiiril    S.iliTi^.  r,en-.ir(i    0094. 


The  "CYCLAX"    Salons-^    ' 
:  58,  South  Molton  Street,  London  Wi 


44  LAND    &     WATER  March  29.  1917 


An/oju^  leMvi^  ^  cUl  (TUA  <()aAnncU> 


// 


fimtcu  o>   J.  li    Hammond  tt  Co.,  L.MtTicD.  3:s-36,   Heet  Uue.  London,  E.U 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


XI 


Motor     Enterprise 

By  H.  Massac    Buist 

MOTORS,  which  are  playing  an  increasingly 
important  part  in  this  war,  were  made  practicable 
mainly  through  French  enterprise.  Owing  to 
adverse  legislation,  and  so  forth,  the  start  of  the 
industry  in  this  country  was  about  a  decade  behind  that  of 
France.'  It  follows  that  we  have  always  both  admired  and 
allowed  frankly  that  we  owe  much  in  connection  with  motor 
development  to  our  briUiant  Ally.  A  fact  of  which  we  can 
well  be  proud  is  that,  in  turn,  during  this  war  we  have  fur- 
nished occasion  for  helping  her  in  more  than  one  application 
and  development  of  the  motor.  Though,  obviously,  one  is 
unable  to  go  into  details,  one  has  merely  to  mention  the  word 
"  tank  "  to  illustrate  this  point. 

As  regards  the  evolution  of  the  light,  portable,  Uquid  fuel, 
internal  combustion  engine  as  a  result  of  this  war,  perhaps 
most  work  has  been  done  in  connection  w'th  its  application 
to  aircraft.  Under  this  head  Franco-British  enterprise  on 
the  mutual  exchange  principle  has  been  invaluable.  Co- 
operation is  next  of  kin  to  self  help.  At  the  outbreak  of 
war,  under  licence,  we  were  making  in  this  country  aircraft 
engines  of  French  design..  No  secret  is  made  of  the  fact  that, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  French  helping  us  then  we  should 
have  been  lost  in  the  aerial  sense  owing  to  the  policy  of  the 
British  Government  in  having  systematically  discouraged 
native  enterprise  in  this  direction,  in  consequence  of  which 
we  were  wholly  unprepared  when  the  great  call  came. 

To-day,  however,  British  motor  enterprise  may  be  de 
scribed  as  supplementing  the  French  variety  to  the  gain  of 
the  Allies.  We  are  doing  an  increasing  amount  of  original 
work.  In  connection  vnth  aircraft  engine  design,  for  example, 
we  are  following  neither  the  French  nor  the  German  systems  ; 
but  are  instead  exploiting  the  matter  in  distinctly  individual 
ways,  primarily  to  suit  our  peculiar  needs.  In  some  direc- 
tions we  have  been  able  enormously  to  surpass  anything  the 
French  have  been  able  to  accomplish.  The  situation  to-day 
is  that  we  possess  some  practical  propositions  in  connection 
with  motors  the  very  existence  of  which  the  French  experts 
never  beUeved  to  be  possible,  far  less  the  practicabiUty 
of  them.  Discovering  them,  France  will  make  early  use  of 
them  where  she  has  urgent  need.  Thus  in  connection  with 
the  motor  industry  an  entente  is  being  sealed  between  the 
two  countries.  Of  course,  on  this  side  there  has  not  been  a 
moment's  failure  to  place  the  highest  value  on  French  motor 
enterprise  from  the  very  inception  of  the  movement.  But 
the  pioneer  country  had  to  realize  that  we  have  passed  the 
'prentice  stage. 

Lessons   from    France 

In  regard  to  the  future,  undoubtedly  we  have  much  to 
learn  from  our  Ally.  In  spite  of  the  enemy  having  wrested 
the  very  vitals  of  her  industry  from  her,  and  of  the  amazing 
extent  to  which  she  has  produced  the  munitions  of  war  in 
face  of  every  handicap,  nevertheless  the  French  motor  manu- 
facturers have  each  ready  and  tested  at  least  one  and,  in  some 
cases,  several  post  war  type  venicles  of  all  classes,  each 
embodying  developments  in  its  kind.  The  French  policy  is 
not  merely  one  of  taking  time  by  the  forelock  ;  it,  besides, 
includes  the  testing  of  new  schemes  under  conditions  to  which 
they  are  never  submitted  by  the  British  designer. 

I  doubt  if,  after  the  war,  our  motor  industry  will  be  what 
I  would  call  as  ignorantly  administered  as  in  the  past. 
Our  brilliant,  practical  and  original  automobile  engineers, 
equipped  with  theoretical  training  such  as  the  French  system 
produces  in  large  numbers,  can  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of 
one  hand.  In  the  past  we  rather  overlooked  the  fact  that  the 
character  and  possibilities  of  the  product  are  for  ever  deter- 
mined and  hmited  by  the  idea  and  knowledge  that  preceded 
pen  and  ink  effort  in  the  drawing  office,  which  effort  is  merely 
the  outcome  of  some  man's,  or  combination  of  men's,  mental 
equipment.  There  is  something  so  solid  about  the  outward 
appearance  and  passage  of  a  motor  car  that  one  is  apt  to 
forget  that  it  is  the  mere  realisation  of  a  fellow  creature's 
dream,  and  to  undervalue  the  dreamer  in  consequence.  This 
war  of  science,  however,  is  causing  those  responsible  for 
motor  enterprise  to  realize  the  importance  of  deahng  with  the 
future  production  of  motors  and  motor  vehicles. 

The  British  motor  industry  has  been  gaining  more  ex- 
perience than  the  American  one  in  this  direction,  because  it 
has  been  called  on  to  standardise  engines  o"  much  higher  out- 
put. For  example,  the  reproduction  of  French  designs  which 
calls  not  merely  for  workm.mship  of  the  highest  character — 
<jf  which  our  best  firms  have  always  been  capable,  though 
those  of  the  secondary  sort  which  has  had  to  be  put  to  the 
task  have  needed  instruction  in  first-class  manufacturing — 
it  also  means  largely  remodelling  shop  methods. 


A   British    Battery 

for  Efficiency   &  Reliability 


BATTERIES  figure  on  the 
World's  finest  cars,  and  like 
our  batteries  at  the  front  are 
PERFECT  IN  EVERY  DETAIL. 


Do  you  require  a  new  British 
accumulator  for  your  American 
car  ?  Then  go  to  the  man  who 
first  made  an  accumulator  in 
this  country  that  would  really 
stand  the  racket  of  the  early 
motors  — C.     A.      VANDERVELL. 

The  best  is  not  too    good  for  you. 
Then    why    not    have     the    best? 

^^■i^  ACTON  .  I^ONDON  .W. 


ADJUSTABLE  REST-CHAIRS 


m  "THE     BURLINGTON"     (PateQted). 

^  Simply  press  a  button  and    the    back    declines,    or    automat!. 

=  cally  r'ses,  to  any  position  desired  by    the    occupant.     Release 

g  the  button  and  the  back  is  locked. 

g  The    arms    open    outwards,    affording    easy    access    and    exit. 

=  The   Leg  Rest   is  i  djustable  to   various  inclinations,   and  can  be 

=  usedi  as  a  footstool.     When  not  in  use  it  slides  under  the  seat. 

g  The  Reading  Desk   and  Side  Tray  are  adjustable  and  remov- 

=  able.     The  only  chair  combining   these    convenimce^,    or    that 

=  is  so  easily  adjuste'.     The    Upholstery    is    exceptionally    deep, 

=  with  spring  elastic  edges. 

g  Would     not     one    of  the«e    chairs   add   considerably   to   the 

=  enjoyment    of  your   relaxation  and    rest? 

I  CATALOGUE  C  6  OF  ADJUSTABLE  CHAIRS,  FREE.   ^ 

I  171  NEW  BOND  STBEET,  LONDON,  W. 


iiiiiiiiiiii 


XII 


LAND    «!ii:     WATER 


March  29,  1917 


Your    Steel   Helmet 

can  be  worn  with  Comfort 

and  it  will  seem  only  half  the  weight 
by   using   the  new  **L.  B."   adapter 

lining    ( Registered). 


Many  testimonials    of  the  comfort  and 

efficiency     of    this     lining    have     been 

received  from  Officers  at  the  Front. 


The   Lining   that  has   been   proved  effi'-jent    by   the   test 
of    continuous    use   at    the    Front. 

Anyone  can  fit  it  in 
his  own  helmet. 

No  fastening  required. 

Distributes  weight. 

Provides   ventilation. 


Resilient 

RUBBER 

TUBE  PIECES 


g..p 


tKe 


Hrlmct  Idbsoftn 

ijwing  a  trUntj 
«ho«k  absorbing 


Cormeatcd 
CO«K 

irivint,' 

ventilation 


PRICE   14/ NET. 


M 


inimises  concussion. 


Packing  in  wood  box  and  postage 
to  the  Front,  2/-. 


Supplied   in  all  sizes 
to  fit  all  heads. 

Ladies  desiring  to 
send  one  of  these 
linings  to  a  relative  or 
friend  at  the  Front 
should  send  us  if 
possible  a  top  hat, 
boivler,  or  straw 
bo\ter  of  his  from 
which  to  take  the 
exact  shape  and 
dimensions  of  his 
head,  otherwise  state 
ord.nary  hat  size. 


FOR  THE  GREAT  ADVANCE 

The    Artillery    Map    Reading    Protractor. 

To  Rapidly 

read  (I)  Line  of  Fiie 
(2)  Switch  Angles  or 
plot.  Map  Register 
of  a  New  Zone. 

Price 

For     1/20.000    Scale, 
15/6. 

For    1/10.000    Scale, 
20-. 

Large  size  for   Heavy 
Battprips,   30/-. 


Cieagh- 

Osborne 
Compasses. 
Prismatic,  J^5 
Wrist    pattern, 

Lists  on  appli- 
cation. 


HENRY  HUGHES  &  SON,  l^td. 


mttZ.  59  Fenchurch  Street.  London.  ;,^„„,  lo.  <« 


Te'e»r»mt 


n 


Write  tor- 


Lincoln    Bennett   &    Co.,    Ltd., 

40    Piccadilly,    London,    W., 

And     78     LOMBARD     STREET,    E.C., 
For     Descriptive     Pamphlet. 


I|||lllllllllllllllllllll!lllllllll:llllllllllll!l!lllll!llllllllillllllilllllli;illlllllllllllll!lii^^^ 

W  Capl.   M— .  B,E,F.,  Franc-,  writes  :— 

=  "Your  Sole*  Are  abiolutelir  O.K. ' 

=  Sir  H.  H.    A.  HOARC,  B*rt.  wriiM  :— 

=  "They   are   in  every  way  thoroughly  »aiiif»ctory." 

I  Phillips'    *  Military' 

I         SOLES   AND    HEELS 

^  A  Thin    rubber  plates,  with    raised    studs,   to  be 

~  attached  on  top  of  ordiniry  soles  and  heels,  giving 

~  complete  protection  (rom  wear.  The  rubber  used  is 

^  lix  timet  more  durable  than  leather. 

S  fl  They  impart  smoathnesi  to  the  tread,  give  grip, 

=      "^  aid    prevent    slipping.     Feet    kept   dry  in  wet 

=  wea  her. 

m  FROM  ALL  BOOTMAKERS. 

=  STOUT    Active  Service'    -         •     4/9  per  iM. 

=  LIG^T  (Town  We.r.  Golf,  rtc.l     3'9       „ 

=  L^DlE-t  (Gsneritl  Wear)  ■  ■      3/0       „ 

=  With  .i  -ht  rxtri  chariT^  'or  fixing. 

=  ff  anvdifficuUv  tnohOttnmi  send  pfncilted  outline  of  »U  and 

^  heel,  a-ilh  PO  tot  Sample  Srt,  to  the  mailers,   .'ieni  Port  Ffte 

m  PHILL  PS'    PATENTS,    Ltd,   (Dept.    F.3 
g  142-6  Old  Street.  LONDON.  E.C. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir,iii:i 


The 

QuUnN   Active  Service  Coat 

(No.   1   PATTERN.) 

With      EXTENSION     FLAP    t*     protect    (he     KNEES. 

.    -^  pnO.M  the    actual  ex- 

^  peneiice  ot  many 
of  our  customers,  it  is 
most  essential  that  in 
a  coat  iiitemlcd  lor  use 
in  the  Tremhes  the 
skirts  should  be  short, 
so  as  to  avoid  trailing 
ill  the  niiid  and  becom- 
II1J5  saturated. 
The  '•  Q  lorii  "  Coat 
overcomes  this  failing, 
and  at  the  same  time 
affords  adequate  pro- 
tection for  the  knees. 
The  '"  Quorn  "  Coat  is 
absolutely  waterproof 
and  light  in  weight 
w'iilst  the  detachable 
fleece  lining  can  be 
used  separ<itely  as  a 
dressinpj  gown  or  soft 
warm  covering  at  niffht 
When  not  in  use  the 
extension  knee  flaps 
button  up  to  the  in- 
si  le  of  the  skirt. 
PRICE     £4    7    6 

O',  'iUe     with 

jjel.eh'ble         £S    12  6 
tleece  limng. 

Onlv  m -asur^mrnt.  required  lo 
en«urQ  p^rt^ct  (it:  -Cheil. 
length  ol  s'e  v  ('ora  centre  of 
bjct  to  IcnB  h  deiiicd.  and 
hciah'. 
Speci»llsta  !•% 
CAVll-RV  &  I'FAN'RY 
WNDT"  PUTT«E«  & 
8T3CKINT       PUTTEES, 

The  Pnstnl  Authorities  will   nut  in.wre  nr    register  rarceU 
for  the  Front   but  Me.-tsrs.  Ttirnbull  *•  Asser  nhtain  a  receipt 
from   the   Post   Office  for  all  Parcels  despatched. 
Write  for    our   Illustrated    Booklet  "For  Active   Service." 

ASSE^R. 

LONDON.  S.W. 


TURNBULL   and 

71-72   JERMYN  STREET.  (sfiTe? 

Telegranu  :  "  P^ddywhick,  London, 


from  \ 
.St-  lames'  St.  ' 

Telephone:  4628  Geirard 


March  29,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


xiu 


Kit  and  Equipment 

We  shall  be  pleased  to  supply  information  to  our  readers 
as  to  where  any  of  the  articles  mentioned  are  obtainable,  and, 
we  invite  correspondence  from  officers  on  active  service  who 
care  to  call  our  attention  to  any  points  which  would  be  advan- 
tageous in  the  matter  of  comjorts  or  equipment,   etc. 

Letters  ol  enquiry  with  reference  to  this  subject  should  be 
addressed  to  KIT  AND  EQUIPMENT.  "  Land  &  Water," 
Old  Serjeant's  Inn,  5,  Chancery  Lane,  London.   W.C. 

A   Two-purpose  Water-bottle 

In  the  normal  way  one  fills  a  water-bottle  with  something 
or  other,  and  is  perforce  content  so  long  as  a  drink  remains, 
but  there  are  occasions  when  one  would  be  glad  to  put  the 
water-bottle  on  a  fire  and  warm  up  the  contents.  In  the 
ordinary  pattern  this  is  an  impossibihty,  owing  both  to  the 
way  in  which  the  cover  is  sewn  on  the  bottle  and  also  to  the 
construction  of  the  bottle  itself,  which  would  leak  if  subjected 
many  tim:s  to  heat  in  this  way.  But  there  is  a  water-bottle 
of  which  the  felt  cover  is  made  in  the  form  of  a  small  haver- 
sack, with  a  hole  in  its  flap  for  the  neck  of  the  bottle  to  come 
through— this  cover  is  made  of  felt  and  fits  the  bottle  just 
exactly  as  does  the  ordinary  sewn-on  cover.  The  bottle  itself 
is  of  electro-plated  copper,  and  one  may  take  it  out  of  its  jacket 
asd  put  it  on  a  fire  to  warm  the  contents— or,  alternatively,  to 
clean  the  bottle  itself  by  boiling  water  in  it.  After  such  use  as 
this,  one  just  slips  the  bottle  back  into  its  cover,  and  buttons 
the  flap  over,  and  there  is  the  bottle  as  clean  for  carrying 
as  one  could  wish,  without  any  trouble.  It  is  made  in  the  Indian 
cavalry  pattern,  holding  over  a  quart,  and  is  a  thoroughly 
serviceable  waterbottle  either  for  use  as  described  or  for 
normal  purposes. 

A   New  Camp  Bed 

When  one  has  grown  tired  of  the  concertina  form  of  camp 
bed  that  gives  one  httle  comfort  and  goes  rickety  on  the 
slightest  or  no  provocation,  one  may  turn  to  a  new  form  of 
camp  bed  which,  designed  on  absolutely  novel  lines,  offers 
both  comfort  and  portabihty.  When  packed  for  travelling 
this  bed  makes  a  roll  of  three  feet  in  length  and  six  inches  in 
diameter,  this  including  the  bed  and  its  framework,  while  the 
total  weight  is  twenty  pounds — and,  in  reckoning  this  weight, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  no  mattress  is  necessary  with 
this  form  of  camp  bed.  The  framework  is  like  the  letter  U 
with  its  arms  pulled  apart — that  is  as  nearly  as  one  can  des- 
cribe it  without  illustration,  and  is  made  of  tubular  steel — 
there  is  no  wood  throughout  the  whole  affair,  so  that  warping 
and  cracking  are  out  of  the  question.  In  this  frame  a  hammock 
is  slung,  and  the  outfit  is  capable  of  supporting  a  weight  of 
350  pounds  in  pefect  safety.  The  hammock  is  not  merely 
comfortable,  but  luxurious,  compared  vidth  the  ordinary  camp 
bed  and  cork  or  other  mattress,  and  one  great  advantage 
of  this  form  of  camp  bed  is  that  it  may  be  placed  in  mud 
or  water,  and  still  the  hammock  is  raised  such  a  height  above 
the  ground  that  the  occupant  of  the  bed  remains  perfectly 
dry  and  comfortable.  The  tubular  frame  is  simphcity  itself, 
and  a  minute  is  enough  for  erection  of  the  whole  thing,  which 
is  a  novelty  well  worth  consideration  by  those  who  have  to 
invest  in  a  camp  outfit.  The  hammock  is  over  seven  feet 
in  length  and  22  inches  wide  when  erected,  so  that  there 
is  plenty  of  room  in  it  even  for  a  guardsman.  For  fitting  up 
temjwrary  accommodation  for  a  number  of  men  in  a  hurry, 
a  supply  of  these  hammocks  would  be  invaluable. 

A  Mirror 

In  size  it  is  about  five  inches  by  three — it  will  go  comfort- 
ably into  one's  tunic  pocket ;  its  weight  is  negligible.  It  lias 
on  the  one  side  an  enlarging  glass,  which  is  very  handy  for 
shaving  and  toilet  purposes,  and  on  the  other  side  a  reducing 
glass  which  permits  of  an  excellent  perspective  view  if  the 
glass  is  used  as  a  periscope,  and  is  also  useful  for  toilet  pur- 
poses other  than  shaving.  There  is  a  little  hinged  cUp  attached 
to  one  side  of  the  glass  by  means  of  which  it  can  either  be 
fixed  on  a  bayonet  point  or  end  of  a  rifle  for  use  as  a  periscope, 
and  also  can  be  fixed  up  in  any  position  for  ordinary  uses. 
One  may  object,  that  since  there  are  other  forms  of  periscope, 
this  mirror  need  not  be  used  for  such  a  purpose,  but  at  the 
same  time  it  is  very  handy  to  have  in  one's  pocket  a  mirror 
which  will  serve  this  purpose  in  an  emergency.  The  whole 
{Continued  on   page  xv.) 

(jRIP :  You  are  safe — by  day  or  night — if  the  back  wheels  of  your 
car  are  fitted  with  BELDAM  V.  Steel  Studded  Tyres  which  give  a 
full  grip  on  every  l<ind  of  road.  When  starting  and  stopping  there  is 
no  spinning,  no  skidding,  no  waste  of  petrol,  power,  or  tyre.  Write 
for  prices.  THE  BELDAM  TYRE  CO.,  LTD.,  Brentford,  Middle- 
sex.— (Advt.) 


HAZ 


IM  C  H 


Scientific 

Rain 
Repeller 

Tr-iple 
Proof 

and 
Triple 
Fabric 


Infantry 
S4.-I5-O 

Cavalry 

S  5-5-0 

Fleece 
Lining 

Sl-15-0 


Kit  Oaf^Iq^ue 
on  applicdtton 


Complete  Service  Outfitters 


4PRrNCES  STREET 
HANOVER  SQ  LONDON  w 


PRAOXIOAL.    KIT 


HAVERSACKSi  extra  lajrge  and  strong,  made  from  aa  officer's 

de.sign                    ..          ..                                 ..         ..          ..  126 

Do.                  do.                   do.                   wi'ih  leather  base  18/6 

Detachable  Slings           2  6 

WATER  BOTTLES*  Nickel  silver  plated  inside,  non-corrosive, 

screw  top,  rounded  front  flat  back,  covered  khaki  cloth  i } pints  23  /6 

Do.                     with  leather  cradle  carrier             . .          . .  26  6 

Do.                     Regulation  pattern,  concaved,  2  J  pints  . .  30/- 


No     1A 


Ko.    lA Lo«/1ed    stick.    »iuilel)oiie  centre,    plafted   all    over    kaugaixu    hide,  £  ».  d. 

wrist  stiap,    length  30   in<;h€3  or  36  liiclwa     2  la    I 

.No.    IB      I'liic       v'hai'M rare.    coveietJ    nil    over    pigskin,    i.!itlui(i    wrHi 

•trap,  length  3(!  Inches     2X1 

No.   IB.— D'.tto.    sicei  ceuLie,  covered  all  over  pigskin,  sliding  wrist  strap...  1    (    ( 

No.    IC— unto,    sliort    length,    lor    ruling           lid 

Postage  to  BE.F.  1 1-  extra.      Send  for  NEW  fllustrateJ  List  of  War  Equipment- 

SWAINE     <S     ADENEY, 

By  appointment  to  H.M,  The  Kinp, 

185     PICCADILLY,     LONDON.    W. 


LAND    &    WATER 


March  29,  1917 


Tin:  OBf^IRVKI? 


I 


<IK     AF 


,..,i  ,...vr  - 
ir«l    riiltiltv 

•Mill  »f  d,tr< 

•U  l»  iu  . 
i  •  Srta%  ()• 


FRANCES,  GREAT 
EFFORT.^ 

INTRRVIKW    UlTll 
M.   THOMAS. 

TRIBl  TK  TO  MR.  M.OYI) 
<:kor(;k. 

(By    Edward    Marshall.) 

-  'h  M  TItOfnu.  wptnl^f.w  vfcrf  -4  h'raii'*. 
itf  iDBMr  ff  KiitniU.i;*,  'HH  •-(  It)*  l'ii"*<t  in*.i 
r^  >I]  tin  «mIiL 

"Nothinff,"  hr  Mid,  "couM  h«  non  in 
fitilii^  to  Ih*  Knnch  DrpArtmrM  of  Muni 
lioM  and  iti  M'.r^rtrT  tlwn  tho  faillilul,  mrmI 
Mt.  and  d#\Mcd  w  cptratliT  rineh  hat  b<»i- 

.ril'f   X'.'f   I'lj'-rb  tliiwl>cil  cf  Ihit   wooderf- 

:.,.i.,    !J    ■    !    '  •■   ■!(«.       K.tf   t«.'   V«M    tli«r«    ' 

UcMfalt  ilfwp  p;:rt><a4l  'r.-DiUhip  h^tween  ih' 

'*  1  OMtn-'t  Uw  cmr^llfal'*  aiplVM  snr  mam 
J*  pnvi]c(«  in  t>Br)i4ti  lt.i  ihir  .  Jr|-'Ttu^.ty  ot 
*orkinf  with  Wr,  I4'-\*1  ';*<i;'  In  lii«  ""r 
«vH>.  K8  l»»*t  l»«f.  ■•■'•tinfc  tJiitlU-r  a«  tm^ 

I    vw  J   l';;i. .  1  ^'.j.'     i'ni'f  1m»  /-yint  her  tl.** 

iitK  .  r- ii.vi'U-itc  ilurmic  tU^i  wiiitt*  »nd  tu-tivi 

M-  Th  'iiiiu  h*£V:i*<l  to  mf.  •wl  *♦  *■«'''  *" 
C*lh*r   I'l   *    »V1(    «t  the    ©twl    "^   Ui*    mom 

Ihrle  \m   j^oinU-d  not  •  crol*tqu«  but   plrA*il>K 

liill«  p'ltocliui;.  »i^\  ]->'  iMw  fw(<iia  iiM  IJuv'l 

vTlu*    Kirdi    ai^    kneM    a    aJi^ll,      i'l»t    ukIi 
1  nnit*    •■   tlwM  iDMjr    tH<  /dutid   on   mdiil«U 
i«\vr}'  aeri  of'  houe  lu  rrauc«  ii  a  »(r<i!" 
*«<-hUi>c«  of  tlv>  «*«   (r.M:«t]iHMa  Irtwwn 
%*•!  tiattiDa. 


The  "Observer/'  March  4th,  1917. 


F-  C  6,  Cobp  3ua$ 

(Sir  !•-.  CARRUTHERS  GOULD). 

A   Significant  Tribute 


FROM  OUR  ALLY  TO 


ii 


THE  MAN. 


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LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXVIII  No.  2865  [yeIrJ 


THURSDAY,  APRIL  5,  1917 


rRECiSTKRED  AS")     rUnUSIlKD  WEEKLJ 
La  NEWSPAPERj     PRICE    SEVKNPENCE 


r 


By   Louis  HaemaekeTs 


Drawn  excl-isively  lor  "Land  &  Tl'alcr  ' 


The  Dungeon  of  Despotism 

Germany  :  "Even  Russia  has  broken  her  chains,  and  I  alone  am  left  " 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  5.  1917 


THE 

WEATHERCRAFT 

OF    WAR 

HUSTLING  the  Hun  "  is  a  strenuous  sort 
of  pastime.    Played  in  summer,  in   tor- 
rents of  rain,  it  gives  a  man  a  free  choice 
of  two  evils.     It  puts  him  between  the  devil  of 
the  fuggy  old  full   length  waterproof  and  the 
deep  sea  of  sodden  clothing. 

Just  here  is  where  the  Thresher  Field  Jerkin 
comes  in  —  unmistakably  the  garment  for 
strenuous  work  in  warm  wet  weather. 

Look  at  the  smart  workmanlike  cut  of  the 
thing,  the  loose  freedom  of  the  shoulders,  the 
spring  of  the  skirt  for  shooting  the  rain  away 
from  the  legs.  What  chance  has  rain  or  wind 
of  getting  in  at  neck,  front  or  wrists  ?  As  for 
their  getting  through  the  material,  it's  enough 
to  say  that  the  Thresher  Field  Jerkin  is  as 
wind-and-wet- proof  as  the  Thresher  Trench 
Coat — and  fifteen  thousand  officer-wearers  have 
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You  couldn't  get  wet  in  a  Thresher  Field  Jerkin — not  if  the  bottom  fell  out 
altogether  from  old  Jupiter  Pluvius'  watering-pot.  You  can  work  in  it  all 
day  like  a  Trojan  (you'll  probably  have  to  I)  without  even  noticing  its  weight, 
and  the  rougher  the  demands  you  make  upon  the  hard-wearing  properties  of 
its  outer  shell  of  hard  khaki  drill,  the  better  you'll  be  pleased  with  your  bargain. 

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trunk  overalls. 

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Send  for  Book  (3)— "The  Complete  Guide 
to  Expenditure  on  Kit  and  Equipment." 

THRESHER  &  GLENNY 

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152  &  153  STRAND,  LONDON,  W.C. 


By  Appointment 
To  H.M  the  Ktng. 


April  5,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON.     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  APRIL  5,    1917 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 
The  Dungeon  of  Despotism.  By  Louis  Kaemaekers  i 
Our  New  AUj^  (Leader)  3 
Present  Policy  of  the  War.  By  Hilaire  Belioc  4 
The  Great  Excommunication.  By  Arthur  Pollen  10 
First  Condition  of  Lasting  Peace.  By  L.  P.  Jacks  li 
Russia's  Revolutions.  By  M.  A.  Czaplicka  13 
A  Democratic  Autocrat.  By  Our  Special  Corre- 
spondent at  Washington  '  15 
Books  to  Read.  By  Lucian  Oldershaw  17 
The  Golden  Triangle.  By  Maurice  Leblanc  18 
Union  Jack  Club  22 
Domestic  Economy  24 
Kit  and  Equipment  25 


OUR     NEW    ALLY 

^HE  present  German  warfare  against  conimerce 
is  warfare  against  mankind.  It  is  a  war 
against  all  nations."  vSo  spoke  the  President 
of  the  United  States  in  his  memorable  speech 
to  Congress  asking  that  body  to  declare  that  their 
country  is  in  a  state  of  war  with  Germany.  The  more 
closely  one  considers  the  speech,  the  more  clearly  It  is  seen 
to  represent  in  concrete  form  the  aims  of  the  Allies  in 
their  present  struggle  against  the  arch-enemy  of  civilisa- 
tion. America  enters  the  fight,  to  use  again  ihej  Presi- 
d^nt's  words,  with  no  selfish  ends  to  serve,  desijing  no 
conquest  and  no  dominion,  seeking  no  indemnities  for 
itself,  and  no  material  compensation  for  sacrinces  it 
will  freely  make.  "  We  are  but  one  of  the  champions 
of  the  rights  of  mankind,  and  shall  be  satisfied  when 
those  rights  are  as  secure  as  fact  and  the  freedom  of 
nations  can  make  them." 

Again  and  again  Jias  it  been  iterated,  not  in  this 
journal  alone,  but  in  all  the  responsible  organs  of  public 
opinion,  both  in  this  country  and  in  France  and  Italy, 
that  this  is  a  war  of  humanity  against  the  enemies  of 
humanity,  against  those  who  would  reduce  man  to  a 
state  of  servitude  for  the  material  benefits  of  a  small 
clique  or  section  of  mankind.  The  great  transatlantic 
democracy  is  urged  by  its  Chief  Executive  "  to  exert  all 
its  powers  and  to  employ  all  its  resources  to  bring  the 
Government  of  the  (ierman  Empire  to  terms  and  end  the 
war."  The  first  condition  of  those  terms,  and  the 
reason  for  it,  is  set  forth  in  plain  language  by  Dr. 
Jacks  on  another  page.  And  the  reasc^  why  the  civilisa- 
tions of  the  world  must  secure  complete  victory  is  ex- 
plained by  Mr.  Belioc  in  his  contribution  on  "  The  Present 
PoHcy  of  the  War."  In  fairness  to  these  two  writers 
it  is  only  right  to  say  that  their  articles  were  actually  in 
t}  pe  before  Mr.  Wilson's  speech  was  delivered,  otherwise 
it  might  appear  as  though  they  were  directly  inspired  by 
that  utterance. 

It  was  seen  from  the  first  that  wiLli  the  fall  of  autocracy 
in  Russia,  the  war  entered  on  a  new  phase.  We  who 
had  talked  of  fighting  for  liberty  and  humanity  were 
proved  to  be  true  to  our  words.  The  support  which 
Great  Britain  gave  to  the  Provisional  Government  at 
Petrograd  was  realized  to  be  sincere.  Only  last  week 
Land  &  Water  celebrated,  as  it  were,  the  close  alliance 
at  the  two  great  democracies  of  the  Old  World — Britain 
and  France — in  a  special  number,  and  now  the  great 
democracy  of  the  New  World  is  joined  with  them,  and 
promises  to  render  the  fullest   assistance  in  its  power. 


But  it  has  been  well  said  that  henceforth  there  is  out 
one  world,  neither  new  nor  old,  pledged  to  identical 
standards  of  honour,  freedom  and  right.  These  are  days 
of  splendour.  Mankind  at  the  long  last  is  coming  into  the 
full  enjoyment  of  liberty.  In  tlusc  islands  the  thought 
goes  back  to  Runnymede,  to  the  struggles  of  Wycliife, 
to  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  to  the  sailing  of  the  Mayflowct 
and  to  the  Great  Rebellion.  The  Anglo-Saxon  has 
not  been  sparing  of  his  own  [blood  when  liberty  has  been 
the  issue,  though  never  has  it  been  poured  forth  more 
generously  than  in  the  present  war.  But  not  a  drop  of  it 
shall  be  wasted.     To  quote  Mr,  Wilson  : 

Self-governed  nations   do   not  fill  their  neighbour  States 
with  spies  or  set  in  course  au  intrigue  to   bring  some 
critical  posture  of  aliairs  which  would  give  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  strike  and  make  a  conquest.     ...     A  stead- 
fast concert  for  peace  can  never  be  maintained  except  by 
tlie   partnership  of   democratic  nations.      No  autocratic 
Government  could  be  trusted  to  keep  faith  within  it  or 
observe  its  covenants.     .     .     Only  free  peoples  can  hold 
their  purpose  and  their  honour  steady  to  the  common 
end  and  prefer  the  interests  of  mankind  to  any   narrow 
interest  of  their  own. 
This  is  what  we  are  lighting  to  attain,  and  what    we 
shall     attain,     and     all    the    more    quickly    now    that 
America  has  joined  the  Great  Alliance. 

The  entry  of  the  United  States  into  the  war  is  to  be 
no  mere  matter  of  form.  From  the  very  outset  it  intends 
to  throw  the  full  weight  of  its  imjnense  resources  into 
the  balance.  The  Pre.sident  speaks  with  explicitness  on 
this  point.  It  has  been  feared-  in  some  quarters  here 
that  this  entry  might  cripple,  at  any  rate  temporaril}-, 
the  supply  of  munitions  from  across  the  Atlantic.  But 
Mr.  Wilson  states  plainly  that  it  will  be  the  very  practical 
duty  of  his  Government  "  to  supply  the  nations  already 
at  war  with  Germany  with  materials  which  they  can 
obtain  only  from  us  or  by  our  assistance.  "  At  the 
present  moment  what  the  AlUes  need  most  is  tonnage. 
It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  the  Admiralty  has  not  seen 
fit  to  keep  the  public  more  accurafely  informed  regarding 
the  actual  shortage  of  tonnage  which  has  been  cause'd 
by  the  submarine  campaign,  having  regard  to  the 
demands  of  the  War  Office  for  transport.  The  figures 
which  are  issued  weekly  arc  misleading,  giving  a  false 
sense  of  security  which  might  be  rudely  shaken  if 
the  full  facts  were  ever  disclosed.  In  this  direction 
the  l.^nited  States,  both  directly  by  lending  merchant 
ships  and  indirectly  by  convoying  them  with  destroyers, 
can  render  very  valuable  service  to  the  Allies. 

\\"e  need  not  lay  stress  on  the  financial  assistance 
which  the  new  Ally  can  give,  and  is  wilhng  to  give,  but 
we  \\ould  point  out  how  inmiensely  this  will  strengthen 
the  position  of  the  Moderates  in  Russia.  So  long  as  the 
Provisional  Government  is  able  to  maintain  a  stable 
government  at  Petrograd  and  to '  prosecute  a  vigorous 
war,  they  may  rely  on  the  active  support  of  the  American 
democracy.  The  direct  result  will  quite  possibly  be  the 
declaration  of  a  Russian  Republic  at  no  distant  date. 
The  American  Navy  is  to  be  fully  equipped,  more  especially 
with  a  view  to  the  destruction  of  German'  submarines. 
Though  it  will  take  time  to  train  the  U.S.A.  Army  into 
an  effective  fighting  force,  Germany  will  reaUze  that  all 
hope  of  equalling  the  man-power  of  her  enemies  is  at 
an  end.  Her  last  chance  of  a  favoin'able  decision  on  land 
must  be  put  to  the  test  this  summer.  Her  Cieneral  Staff 
have  been  long  aware  that  in  any  case  this  must  lie  so, 
but  with  America's  entrance  into  the  arena,  they  cannot 
continue  to  delude  the  German  people  that  it  is  only  a 
question  of  time  before  they  bleed  France  to  death  Or 
starve  England  into  submission.  Mr.  Wilson  has  made 
it  quite  clear  that  the  fight  is  against  German  autocracy  ; 
sooner  or  later  this  circumstance  is  certain  to  exert  a 
powerful  influence  on  the  future  of  the  Germanic  peoples. 
But  victory  must  come  first. 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  5,  1917 


Present  Policy  of  the  War 


B,y"Hilaire   BellOG 


THM  destruction  of  evervthin;,'  that  could  be  des- 
troyed over  the  ver\  '  /one  of  the  rpccnt 
enemy  retirement.  .  '  w'th  the  recent 
dehberate  and  admitted  snikin^,'  of  a  Iiospital 
ship  sufifjest  a  j)olitical  point  which  iias  not,  1  think, 
l>een  thoroughly  dealt  with  in  our  Press.  It  has  not  been 
thoroughly  dealt  witli  even  in  that  of  the  Continent, 
where  there  is,  unhappily,  a  much  greater  acquaintjince 
with  military  damage  m  "the  past. 

The  point  is  this  :  The  prolongation  of  the  war,  has 
imreased  the  necessity  of  an  absolate  victory. 

Ihis  prolongation  of  the  war  tends  to  decrease  the  horror 
of,  and  llurefore  the  reaction  against,  barbarism. 

it  familiarises  the  mind  (by  jlnillusion)  with  the  idea  of 
an  insohible  problem.  1  \\»mv.  met  plenty  of  men  who 
thought  the  trenches  in  front  of  Noyon,  having  been 
Idled  with  opposing  forces  for  two  and  a  half  years^  would 
be  so  filled  in  the  end. 

It  gives  time  for  old  bad  habits  in  government  and 
social  organisation,  which  had  hwwed  to  the  blast  in  1914 
and  Kii.s,  to  raise  their  heads  again. 

It  adds  strength  tp  reiterated  assertions  of  those 
gernrano-phils  who  foster  even  among  us  a  mood  of 
"  stalemate,"  and  of  "  terms."'  It  e.vhausts  materially 
and  morall\-. 

It  does  all  these  things.  But — far  more  Important — it 
increases  the  desire  of  the  enemy  to  destroy  a  civilisation 
which  he  cannot  attain,  and  increases  his  practice  in  the 
means  of  destruction.  Therefore  i\  compels  that  civilisation 
with  every  increasing  month  to  determine  more  and 
more  upon  the  absolute  cliniinat^n  of  such  a  menace. 

Those  who  said  in  i()i4  that  "ftie  war  was  a  matter  of 
life  and  death  w-ere  accused  by  many  of  rhetorical 
exaggeration.  To-day,  and  for  this  country  especially, 
under  the  menace  by  sea.  the  fonnula  is  patently  true. 

The  enemy  has,  during  the  progress  of  the '  war, 
gradually  proceeded  step  by  st«|>  to  break,  one  after  the 
•other,  a  series  of  conventions  explicit  and  implicit, 
which  had  hitherto  limited  the  action  of  the  belligerents 
by  sea  and  by  land.  He  has  )ioi  reached  the  Hmit  of  this 
])rocess.  Either  these  novel  outrages  (or  at  any  rate 
some  of  them)  will  be  allowed  to  form  precedents  or  thej? 
will  not.  Whether  they  will  form  precedents  or  no 
depends,  not  upon  written  conventions  or  the  verbal 
promises  from  governments,  but  upon  a  state  of  mind  in 
liurope.  That  state  of  mind  will  be  chiefly  produced  by 
the  character  and  completeness  of  the  \ictory — w-hich  in 
its  turn  will  very  largely  depend  upon  domestic  oj)inion 
within  the  entente  countries  during  these  few  last  months 
which  are  at  hand. 

That  is  the  capital  truth  which  we  must  bear  in  mind, 
especially  here  at  home.  1 

Let  us  examine  these  various  propositions  singly'. 

First :  The  enemy  has — under  the  direction  of  Pntssia 
— broken  what  were  before  1914  very  sacred  implied 
or  expressed  conventions  of  European  civilised  war. 

It  is  sometimes  suggested  that  these  conventions  as 
they  existed  up  to  the  summer  of  IQ14,  universally 
respected  by  Europeans,  were  blind  mechanical  products 
of  armed  conHict. 

The  reason  you  did  not  do  such  and  such  things,  though 
they  might  be  of  immediate  military  advantage  to  you, 
was  that  in  the  long  ruti  they  produced  an  ultimate 
military  disadvantage — for  example,  you  did  not  bombard 
open  towns,  even  though  they  were  road  centres,  because 
a  mutual  policy  of  destroying  them  would  put  you 
nltimately  in  danger  of  receiving  more  damage  of  the 
same  kind  in  the  long  run  than  the  immediate  military 
advantage  was  worth. 

This  theory,  stated  as  a  uni\crsal  truth,  is  cjuite  erro- 
neous. A  great  many  things  which  would  distin<tly  be  to 
the  ultimate  military  advantage  of  a  belligerent  were  not 
done  by  Europeans  in  recent  war  because  it  wa^  felt  that 
the  doing  of  them  lowered  the  whole  standard  of  ci\ilisa- 
tion  or,  to  put  it  more  tnithfuUj-,  because  they  were 
repugnant  to  the  European  conscience. 

For  instance,  it  is  common  sense  that  the  poisoning 


of  water  supplies  behind  a  retirement  would  gravely 
weaken  the  military  ])ower  of  the  ijursuit  if  the  retire- 
ment was  absolute,  and  no  recovery  of  the  territory 
adanduned  was  contemplated.  Nc\-ettheless,  men  of 
European  civilisation  did  not  poisoif '  water  supplies, 
primarily  because  such  an  action  was  thotight  unchivalrous 
and  therefore  unmilitary,  but  also  perhaps  because  this 
sentiment  was  connected  with  a  subconscious  feeling  that ' 
making  war  horrible  beyond  a  certain  point  would  weaken 
the  whole  texture  of  our  c  ivilisation. 

Or  again,  it  is  obx-iously  of  immediate  military  ad- 
vantage to  \ioIate  neutral  territory  when  strategic 
superiority  is  gained  thereby.  Neve'riheless,  neutral 
territory  was  never  violated,  and  so  profound  was  the 
feeling,  upon  this  subject  that  Najmleon's  single  action 
of  the  .5<^rt,  the  sending  of  troops  into  neutral  territory 
to  arrest  the  Duke  of  Enghien,  struck  the  Europe  of  thait 
time  with  greater  moral  horror  than  anjiihing  else 
the  revolutionary  wars  had  produced. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  at  the  outset^of  this  enquiry — 
never  to  be  lost  sight  of  as  it  proceeds — that  if  one  loses 
a  point  in  the  chivalry  of  war,  the  old  limits  are  never 
^to  be  recovered.  No  mutual  mechanical  pressure  or  a 
mere  balance  of  military  advantage  restores  it.  These 
hmits  must  therefore  be  protected  by  a  maintenance  of 
themoral  standard  :  That  is.  by  a  state  of  mind.  We 
cannot  trust  their  maintenance  to  the  mere  necessary 
give  and  take  of  the  belligerent  forces. 

I'xirther,  the  successive  violation  of  the.se  conventions 
has  been  directly  due  to  the  will  and  action  of  Prussia. 
It  h  Prussia  alone  among  European  States  which  has, 
for  a  Ipng  time  past,  affirmed,  and  wWch  first  began  to 
put  into  practice,  the  doctrine  that  the  rftilitary  advantage 
of  a  ©articular  State  permitted  the  violation  of  European 
standards,  and  it  is  in  proportion  as  Pifussia  has  become 
more  and  more  completely  the  master  of  the  great  enemy 
combination  against  us  these  violations  have  increased 
in  number  and  kind. 

Second  .  The  advance  in  outrage  lender  the  direction 
of  Prussia  has  been  made  step  by  st^  and  is  still  con- 
tinuing. 

In  former  wars  Prussia  had  already  violated  two  main 
conventions  which  other  European  States  continued  to 
respect  : 

(i)  She  had,  ever  since  Frederick  the  dreat,  taken 
the  military  advantage  of  initiating  military  action 
without  declaration  of  wai^. 

(2)  She  had  seized  involuntary  hostages :  that  is, 
non-belligerents,  not  responsible  for  military  action, 
but  in  some  way  prominent  or  respected  in  the  locahties 
affected.  She  had  held  them  as  hostages  against  any 
thing  done  in  their  neighbourhood  which  might  disturb 
her  military  plans.  She  had  put  to  death  during  her 
last  war  of  1870-71  hostages  of  this  kind  in  order  to  strike 
terror  and  to  prevent  interference  with  her  communica- 
tions, etc. 

Both  these  acts  she  proceeded  to  repeat  as  a  matter 
of  course  in  the  origins  of  the  present  campaign  :  for 
Europe  had  very  foolishly  allowed  her  to  establish  the 
precedent.  But  she  gradually  added,  point  by  point 
during  the  campaign,  ijuite  new  breaches  of  convention. 
They  may  be  thus  summarised  in  their  order  : 

(a)  She  violated  neutral  territory,  at  first  admitting 
it  was  a  novel  breach  of  law. 

(b)  She  next  organised  considerable  massacres  of 
civilians  in  order  to  terrorise  the  civil  population  ;  and 
she  accompanied  these  massacres  by  the  destruction  of 
civilian  property. 

(c)  She  dropped  explosives  upon  the  civilian  population 
of  oj)en  towns,  also  in  order  to  obtain  the  militarj^  advan- 
tage of  throwing  confusion  into  civilian  affairs. 

All  these  first  three  things  she  did  quite  at  the  opening 
of  the  war  and  did  them  for  the  first  time  in  modern 
European  warfare.  She  did  them  long  before  any  similar 
actions  had  been  forced  upon  her  opponents  by  her 
example. 

(d)  She  next  proceeded,  about  six  months  later,  to 


April  5,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


sink  enemy  non-belligerent  ships  of  merchandise  without 
safeguarding  the  lives  of  their  non-belligerent  crews. 

It  is  to  be  carefully  noted  that  there  was  a  progression 
even  in  this.  She  began  by  taking  trouble  in  most  cases 
to  avoid  the  murder  of  these  crews.  She  went  on  to  take 
less  and  less  trouble  and  at  last,  save  in  very.ipvicases, 
she  took  no  trouble  at  all. 

(e)  She  next  began  to  use  weapons  hitherto  regarded 
with  abhorrence  and  set  aside  in  modern  warfare,  notably 
poisonous  gases  and  burning  oil.  This  particular  novelty 
has  given  rise,  to  a  great  deal  of  controversy,  because  a 
whole  school  has  maintained  that  the  use  of  such  novel 
weapons  was  merely  part  of  the  general  development  of 
war  and  that  there  was  nothing  worse  in  poisonous 
gases,  say,  than  in  the  gases  of  an  explosive.  But 
this  contention,  though  it  has  appeared  even  among  her 
opponents  (let  alone  among  neutrals),  will  not  bear 
examination.  The  possibility  of  using  poisonous  gases 
was  quite  open  to, modern  science  long  before  this  war. 
Their  use  was  not  due  to  the  discovery  of  a  new  weapon. 
It  was  merely  the  application  of  one  hitherto  refused  as 
degrading  war.  So  abhorrent  was  this  practice  to  the 
civilised  mind,  that  there  was  a  long  hesitation  and 
debate  among  her  opponents  whether  reprisals  in  kind 
should  be  used  or  no. 

(f)  She  next  proceeded  to  destroy  the  passenger 
ships  of  belligerents.  The  link  between  this  and  her 
lirst  breach  of  conventions  at  sea  was  the  fact  that  these 
jjassenger  ships  were  also  carriers  of  merchandise  to  her 
enemy.  But  the  distinctive  mark  of  this  last  step  was 
that  she  now  began  to  murder  belligerents  and  neutrals 
indiscriminateljr^      and 

belligerents  and  neu- 
trals in  no  waj;^  con- 
cerned with  the  carriage 
of  the  merchandise  in 
question.  The  sinking 
of  the  Lusitania  was  the 
lirst  of  these  (outrages, 
and  came  after  the  use 
of  gas,  and  long  after 
the  first  arbitrary 
sinking  of  enemy  mer- 
chandise. 

(g)  The  next  step  was 
the  beginning  of.  out- 
rages against  prisoners 
of  war.  This  was  the 
lirst  of  the  Prussian 
actions  not  directly  • 
connected  with  military 
advantage.  It  was  due, 

as  many  more  came  to  be,  with  the  progress  of  this  spirit 
of  mere  hostile  sentiment,  and  it  was  undertaken  under 
the  fixed  conviction  that  the  opponents  of  Prussia  would 
never  hold  a  number  of  prisoners  comparable  to  the  num- 
ber of  prisoners  which  Prussia  held.  She  was  wrong  in 
this  calculation,  as  she  has  been  in  every  calculation 
she  has  made.  She  was  particularly  wrong  in  her  calcula- 
tion that  the  British  would  never  hold  a  number  of 
(ierman  prisoners  greater  than  the  British  prisoners  held 
in  Germany.  But  the  reason  she  singled  out  British 
prisoners  was  undoubtedly  her  calculation  that  she  would 
always  have  a  superiority  here. 

(h)  Next  came  the  compulsion  of  prisoners  of  war  to 
work    for    their    captors    in    military    services    directed 
against  their  own  countries.     This  was  a  clear  miUtary ' 
advantage  and  again  quite  new  in  the  story  of  European 
warfare. 

(i)  The  nexft  step  was  the  theft,  6 v  military  order 
and  as  an  action  of  government,  of  private  property,  this 
must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  loot,  the  action  of 
individuals,  which  has  occurred  in  all  wars  in  various 
degrees.  1  am  referring  only  to  the  set  and  admitted 
policy  of  taking  the  private  propertv'of  non-belligerents 
and  transferring  it  to  the  permaneiit  control  and  pos- 
session of  the  occupying  Power,  without  immediate 
military  necessity  of  any  kind.  The  ultimate  military 
advantage  was,  of  course,  the  economic  strengthening 
of  the  state  at  war.  It  is-again  to  be  carefully  noted 
that  this  novel  policy  in  its  turn  was  progressive.  It 
began  only  in  the  shape  of  fines,  which  by  their  magni- 
Itiflo  wore  nnt  true  levies  for  the  maintenance  of  the 


Owing  to  tne  existing  scarcity  of  paper 
"  Land  &  Water  "  will  be  obtainable  only 
to  order  after  the  end  of  this  month.  We 
particularly  i]lequest  all  our  readers  who 
have  not  already  done  so  to  place  an  ordeV 
for  regular  delivery  with  their  newsagents. 
We  invite  their  attention  to  the  Order  Form 
which   appears  on   page    17  of  this  issue. 


army,  but  confiscatory.  It  gradually  proceeded  to 
what  we  have  seen  in  the  last  three  weeks,  the  syste- 
matic rifling  of  all  banks  and  of  all  portable  property 
dnfing  a  retirement,   without  receipt. 

(j)  The  next  step  was  the  compulsion  of  non-belligerent 
populations  to  servile  labour  for  the  advantage  of  the 
enemy's  military  and  economic  power. 

(k)  The  next  step  w-as  the  destruction  of  all  shipping, 
neutral  or  belligerent,'  without  warning,  wherever  such 
shipping  might  be  conveying  goods  or  even  medical 
aid  to  or  from  belliii^rcnts. 

(1)  The  last  step  h^s  been  taker)  during  the  recent 
retirement  in  Picardj'  and  consists  in  the  complete 
destruction  of  all  the  countryside  over  which  a  permanent 
retirement  js  taking  place,  including  the  poisoning  of 
water  supplies,  the  killing  of  fruit  trees,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  every  sort  of  building.  Most  of  this  action  has  a 
direct  military  advantage.  It  prevents  the  pursuing 
troops  from  getting  billets.  It  hampers  them  in  their 
supplies,  and  it  maV  be  thought  to  give  them  pause 
before  they  compel  the  evacuation  of  another  strip  of 
occupied  territory.  It  is  at  the  same  time  a  perfectly 
novel  breach  of  the  customs  hitherto  maintained  in 
European  warfare.  The  argument  that  territories  have 
been  wasted  before  now  in  modern  European  war  does 
not  apply  because  there  is  here  a  vast  difference  in  degree 
and  a  complete  difference  in  intention,  which  makes 
the  thing  wholly  noVel. 

Third. — This  successive  breaking  down  of  military 
conventions  is  still  in  progress.  It  has  not  reached  its 
limit  and  may  continue  indefinitely.     At  the  beginning 

of  the  present  sub- 
marine campaign  not 
a  few  of  our  news- 
papers thought  the 
enemy  had  already 
reached  the  limits  of 
all  possible  action ; 
while  the  error  already 
alluded  to,  that  military 
convention  was,  as  it 
were,  automatic  and 
imposed  itself,  played 
a  further  part  in  this 
misjudgment.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  things 
can  go  much  further. 
We  may  have  the 
poisoning  of  water  sup- 
plies at  home  by  agents 
within  the  bellligerent 
countries,  the  spreading 
of  diseases  among  animals  and  men  by  other  methods,  - 
private  assassination,  the  massacre  of  prisoners,  etc.,  etc. 
This  third  consideration  is  not  the  most  important, 
but  it  is  of  value  because  it  will  increase  our  determination 
to  meet  the  danger  in  the  only  way  it  can  be  met.  And 
that  leads  me  to  the  fourth  point  : 

Fourth. — The  only  agent  for  recovering  civilised 
practice  is  a  complete  victory.  We  must  include  in  this 
the  policy  formed  by  opinion  towards  the  war  as  a  whole 
during  its  last  stages. 

It  ought  to  be  perfectly  clear  that  so  long  as  nations 
are  independent  and  sovereign  nothing  can  possibly 
check  the  violation  of  international  convention  during 
war  save  universal  opinion.  For  there  is  no  instrument 
to  correct  or  impede  such  violation  while  war  is  in  pro- 
gress. Wars  can  only  take  place  because  nations  are 
independent.  All  schemes  to  render  war  impossible 
between  nations,  or  to  create  a  physical  force  which  would 
compel  the  observance  of  international  conventions,  are 
equivalent  to  the  merging  of  national  independence  in  a 
general  federation  or  imposed  Empire  ;  that  is,  to  the 
creation  of  a  new  great  State  in  which  what  were  formerlv 
independent  nations  cease  to  be  such,  and  become  mere 
provinces  subject  to  one  central  Executive.  Such  an 
arrangement,  whether  the  result  of  voluntary  federation 
or  of  conquest,  has  the  advantaf,'e  of  making  war  between 
i,ts,  various  parts  impossible,  and  therefore  discussion 
upon  its  power  to  mitigate  the  horrors  of  war  is  beside 
the  mark.^  It  has  the  disadvantage  of  destroying  full 
national  sovereignty.  If  the  arrangement  is  not  strong 
enough,  it  it   has   not   an    Executive   Power   sufficient 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  5,  1917 


to  compel  obsen-ance,  it  does  not  exist.  As  between 
independent  nations  the  only  safeguard  against  abnormal 
and  unnatural  outrage  in  war  is  common  opinion. 

Now  tlie  conclusion  imposed  by  this  analysis  is  that 
opinion  must  be  directed  to  coil^plete  victory  against 
Prussia  and  to  the  rendering  impotent  of  the  power  which 
ints  in  this  fashion. 

Every  attitude  towards  this  war  which  continues  to 
regard  it  as  what  past  wars  have  been — normal  struggles 
between  States  which  will,  after  the  struggle,  resume 
normal  relations— is  built  upon  a  false  foundation.  It  is 
built  upon  the  false  foundation  we  find  in  a  hundred 
other  lesser  ca.ses.  the  illusion  that  past  conditions  have 
survived  some  tremendous  cataclysm.  We  can  only 
prevent  the  degradation  of  war  as  at  present  accom- 
plished b\-  Prussia  from  becoming  jiennanent,  by  destroy- 
ing the  centre  which  boasts  its  power  and  desire  to  con- 
tinue and  increase  these  novelties,  and  which  is  in  actual 
process  of  continuing  and  expanding  them. 

The  longer  the  war  lasts  the  clearer  this  truth  becomes. 
Those  who  sa\'  the  thing  cannot  be  done  arc  welcome  to 
their  opinion.  But  they  must  at  the  same  time  accept 
the  logical  consequence  of  that  opinion.  These  logical 
consequences  are  the  establishment  in  Europe  of  fully 
belligerent  conditions  as  a  permanency  ;  the  inability  of 
Europe  to  re-establish  peace  as  the  normal  and  war  as 


the  abnormal  state.  For  this  country  in  particular 
such  a  conclusion — the  making  of  a  peace  upon  terms 
with  the  defeated  Power,  a  peace  which  leaves  it  in 
bc-ing  as  an  independent  State— would  mean  the  end  of 
its  ]}eculiar  position  and  power,  if  in  particular  the 
breakdown  of  all  conventions  in  maritime  warfare  be 
admitted  and  the  conhscation  of  private  property  as 
well  ;  if  the  precedent  is  allowed  to  stand,  then"  the 
foundation  of  this  country  and  Empire,  which  is  mer- 
cantile and  maritime,  is  withdrawn.  Not  only  the 
present  enemy,  but  any  potential  enemy  in  the  future 
has,  upon  these  precedents,  the  power  to  strike  mortal 
blows  against  a  highly  populated  industrial  island 
State,  controlling  distant  dependencies  and  allied  with 
distant  dominions.  It  cafi  act  against  such  a  State 
in  a  fashion  quite  separate  from  the  corresponding  power 
which  can  be  exercised  against  a  Continental  State. 

Theri>  is  no  escaping  this  conclusion  any  more  than 
there  is  escape  from  a  mathematical  proof.  The  Issue 
is  quite  clear.  The  business  must  be  carried  to  its  very 
end  with  the  full  consciousness  of  that  end  and  the' 
determination  to  reach  it,  or,  in  the  alternative,  all  the 
way  in  w>hich  we  have  lived,  all  that  by  which  we  have 
lived,  and  in  particular  the  sheltered  conditions  which 
permit  certain  academic  eccentricities  Hke  "  pacifism  " 
to  flourish,  will  be  gone  for  good  and  all. 


The  Battle  for  St.  Quentin 


BEFORE  the  enemy  was  compelled  to  his  recent 
retii-ement,  the  line  which  he  held  through 
France  formed  a  gigantic  salient  the  character, 
the  peril,  and  conse^iuence  of  which  have  been 
familiar  to  us  for  more  than  two  years.  It  was  a  line 
which  went  from  north  to  south,  from  the  North  Sea  to 
the  Noyon  curve  (Roye-Lassigny-Soissons),  and  then 
went  from  east  to  w^est  throtigh  the  Argonne  to  the 
jNIeuse  near  \'erdun. 

Until  his  opponents  had  grown  to  his  own  stature  in 
number  and  munitionment,  such  a  trace  gave  the  enemy 
the  advantages  we  recapitulated  Bkst  week  :  It  meant  the 
occupation  of  enemy  soil  ;  the  use  of  a  great  industrial 
area,  and  the  shutting  oft'  from  the  French  of  most  of  their 
coal  and  nearlv  all  theii-  iron.  Hut  from  the  moment  his 
opponents  had  grown  to  his  own  stature  in  men  and  fire 
power,  the  trace  began  to  invo.he  a  great  strategic  peril, 
because  if  a  breach  is  effected  on  either  side  of  a  salient— 
.especially  at  some  way  from  its  apex — the  whole  salient 
goes,  and  there  is  an  immense  rupture  produced  in  the 
lines,  which  spells  disaster. 

As  the  Allies  not  only  reached  but  passed  the  enemy's 
capacity  in  men  and  fire  power  upon  the  west,  this  peril 
increased.  The  Battle  of  the  Somme  rendered  it  acute  : 
the  continuation  of  that  great  action  by  perpetual  local 
pressure  during  the  winter  rendered  it.  at  last,  menacing 
in  the  highest  degree  ;  and  after  the  occupation  of  Hill 
127  above  Miraumont,  the  danger  was  so  overwhelming 


LiUe 


1 


vrras 


*  ♦  1  ^        Maiibfcu^T. 


^\       5t  Qii£ntui 


Mezier£5 


Verdun 


that  a  retirement  was  imposed  as  a  necessity  upon  the 
Germans. 

Repeating  here  in  Sketch  I.  the  elements  of  this  trace 
with  which  we  are  ;),ll  so  familiar,  we  see  at  once  that  the 
only  thorough  solution  of  the  incre£isin^  difliculty  in 
which  the  enemy  found  himself  was  a  reiirement  to  the 
base  of  the  great  salient,  that  is,  to  a  line  covering 
Lille  and  Maubeugc,  striking  the  Meuse  near  Mezieres, 
and  so  up  that  river  to  Verdun. 

But  a  vast  retirement  of  this  sort  under  the  pressure  of 
a  superior  and  active  enemy  would  inevitably  mean 
tremendous  losses  in  men  and  material  knd  might  well 
mean  final  disaster  into  the  bargain  ;  for  after  such  losses 
it  might  well  prove  impossible  to  take  up  the  new  line 
securely. 

The  Qnemy  was  therefore  compelled,  against  his  will, 
to  a  doubtful  and  unsatisfactor\^  compromise.  He  pro- 
posed to  himself  the  reduction  "of  the  verj'  point  of  the 
salient  only  ;  a  local  straightening  of  his  line,  which 
would  still  leave  the  salient  as  a  whole  in  being,  though 
with  a  new  apex,  no  longer  rounded  and  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Noyon  at  A,  but  much  sharper  and  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Laon  at  B.  Meanwhile  the  difliculty  the 
British  would  have  in  bringing  up  guns  and  supplies  over 
the  ruined  belt  of  the  Somme  battlefield  and  the  difficulty 
the  French  also  would  have  in  advancing  over  a  narrow- 
district  about  one  day's  march  in  breadth  in  which  he  pro- 
posed to  destroy  utterly  every  kind  of  water  supply, 
shelter,  etc.,  would,  he  thought,  give  him  time  to  con- 
solidate himself  upon  the  new  line  and  hold  it  strongly 
imtil  he  could  begin  some  principal  attack  elsewhere  and 
so  divert  the  energies  of  his  foes. 

Such  was  the  plan.  To  strike  a  fairly  straight  line 
from  Arras,  largely  covering  Cambrai,  just  covering  St. 
Quentin,  its  vital  central  point  (using  the  hill  forest  of 
St.  .Gobain  as  a  sort  of  bastion,  further  to  help  the  re- 
tention of  St.  Quentin),  and  striking  the  old  line  above 
the  Aisne  east  of  Soissons  and  south  of  Laon. 

The  formation  of  this  new  line  involved  the  abandoning 
of  a  narrow  crescent  of  country  less  than  thirty  miles  at 
its  broadest,  tapering  to  nothing  at  either  end  and 
averaging  some  six  or  seven.  He  would  pivot,  as  he 
formed  it,  round  the  district  about  ten  miles  in  front  of 
the  town  of  Laon,  and  he  clearly  proposed  to  hold  it 
strongly  and  for  a  considerable  time  while  he  prepared 
an  offensive  elsewhere..  But  his  power  to  hold  it  depended 
on  the  check  he  had  imposed  upon  the  pursuit,  and  on 
his  having  time  to  strengthen  it  so  thoroughly  that  by  "the 
time  the  Allied  shock  against  it  should  be  felt,  it  should 
hold  at  its  two  vital  points  :  St.  Quentin  and  the  pivot. 
St.  Quentin  in  the  centre  and  the  pivot  on  the  south. 

This  power  to  hold  this  new  line  for.  at  an}'  rate,  a 
time  long  enough  to  permit  of  a  reconstruction  of  his 


April  5,  1917 


LAINU    it     WATER 


plans  and  of  preparing  an  offensive  elsewhere  is  the 
criterion  of  his  success  or  failure,  and  that  power  would 
be  tested  by  his  power  to  hold  the  centre  at  St.  Quentiu, 
and  his  power  to  keep  intact  the  pivot  near  Laon.  He 
gambled  upon  both  these  points  holding.  The  whole 
interest  of  the  present  moment  lies  in  the  effoirt  which 
the  Allies  are  making  to  render  his  centre  untenable  and 
to  shave  his  pivot. 

St.  Quentin,  though  no  more  than  a  geographical 
area,  gives  a  convenient  name  whereby  to  test  this  part  of 
the  scheme.  For  if  he  loses  St.  Quentin  he  loses  the  line. 
It  is  equally  true  that,  even  if  lie  retain  St.  Quentin,  he 
must  keep  the  pivot  intact  or  lose  the  whole. 

The  battle  for-  St.  Quentin,  therefore,  is,  almost  for  the 
first  time  in  the  whole  course  of  this  war,  a  battle  in  which 
a  well-known  town  has  a  true  strategic  meaning,  quite 
apart  from  any  political  importance  it  may  possess,  and 
we  can  judge  success  or  failure  by  the  retention  or  the 
loss  of  a  place  which  is  not  fortified,  which  means  nothing 
of  what  towns 'used  to  mean  in  the  old  wars,  but  which 
from  its  situation  in  his  line  is  vital  and  determinant. 

We  are  therefore  justitied  in  analysing  carefully  his 
present  powers  of  holding  that  place.  When  wc 
have  analysed  this  "  the  Battle  for  vSt.  Quentin,"  we  can 
turn  to  the  other  side  of  the  problem  wnich  can  be  fi.xed 
by  no  dehnite  place  name  (it  can  hardly  be  called  the 
Battle  for  Laon)  and  which  is  essentially  a  struggle  for 
the  pivot  or  hinge  upon  which  the  line  of  which  St. 
0,uentin  is  the  centre  depends . 

St.  Quentin  hes  in  a  sort  of  shallow  cup  north-west  of 
the  little  stream  which  is  still  called  the  Somme,  and 
which  is  one  of  the  head  waters  of  that  river,  about  hve 
miles  below  its  source.  It  is  a  large  manufacturing 
town  and  of  special  strategical  importance  fronj  the  fact 
that  it  is  the  meeting  place  of  seven  great  main  roads 
and  a  great  number  of  small  ones.  It  is  at  the  same  time 
the  junction  which  several  railways  (light  railways  and 
single  lines)  make  with  the  gTeat  international  trunk  line 
between  Paris  and  Berlin..  Its  lower  part,  near  the 
stream,  the  canal,  and  the  railway  station,  stands  about 
150  feet  above  the  sea,  and  that  level  is  our  datum  or 
base  line  for  the  contours  we  are  about  to  descmbe. 

From  the  western  side  (which,  is  that  from  which  the 
AlUes  are  approaching  St.  Quentin)  two  separate  groups 
of  heights,  separated  bj'  the  little  marshy  streams  of 
the  Upper  Somme,  and  the  canal  following  them,  com- 


matid  the  town.  The  first,  upon  the  north  and  west  of 
the  Somme.  may  be  called  the  Heights  of  Holnon  (though 
they  do  not  locally  bear  that  name),  because  Hohion  13 
the  principal  group  of  houses-  distinguishing  them. 
Tfiey  might  also  be  called  the  heights  of  Savy,  did  not 
the  village  of  Savy  itself  lie  in  somewhat  of  a  hollow. 

If  we  shade  upon  Map  11.  everything  below  the  loo 
metre  contour,  that  is,  everything  less  than  about  15c 
feet  abo\e  the  bed  of  the.  Somme  and  the  lower  portions 
of  St.  Quentin  town,  we  have  a  very  fair  idea  of  tht 
shape  ot  this  northern  or  Ivestern  plateau  dominating 
St.  Quentin.  '    . 

On  the  other  side  of  the  stream  the  contours  are  a 
little  more  complicated.  We  can  understand  them  by 
dividing  them  into  three  groups.  If  we  here  pursue  the 
same  method  of  shading  everything  below  the  100  metrxi 
contour,  that  is,  everything  less  than  150  feet  above  the 
stream,  we  shall  get  three  more  or  less  well-defined  flat 
banks  or  wide  ridges  which  distinguish  all  that  country 
side  and  which  have  been  studied  in  detail  by  recent 
military  historians,  because  they  were  the  battlefield 
of  tlie  struggle  between  Faidherbe  and  the  Prussians  in 
January  187 1-.  • 

The  first  of  these,  immediately  covering  the  town,  may 
be  called  the  Ridge  Mesnil-Cjauchy.  I  have  marked  it 
with  a  dotted  line  and  the  numbers  i — i  on  Sketch  II. 
It  has  a  double  crest  at  the  two  points  marked  with  a 
cross  upon  that  line,  from  each  of  which  one  sees  the 
whole  of  St.  Quentin  laid  out  before  one  like  a  map. 
These  crests  in  the  slightly  undulating  plateau  ai^e  about 
215  feet  above  the  Somme. 

The  next  crest  (which  I  have  marked  2 — 2  upon  Sketch 
II.)  may  be  called  the  Crest  of  Urvillers.  Its  highest 
point,  at  Urvillers  itself»-.is  as  high  as  the  twin  summits 
of  the  first  crest.  ,♦<-.*-  r 

Lastly,  there  is  the  third  ridge  which  is  generally 
called  the  Ridge  of  Essigny  (which  I  have  niarked  on 
the  Sketch  map  by  the  numbers  3 — .5).  It  has  also  on 
its  very  flat  bare  surface  a  summit  marked  by  a  cross, 
the  same  height  as  the  others,  that  is  some  215  feet  above 
the  water  level. 

With  so  much  grasped  we  can  proceed  to  study  tlie 
advance  which  has  been  made  upon  the  town. 

The  British  north  of  the  Somme  had  fought  their  way 
by  Sunday  last  to  a  line  marked  upon  Map  2  by  the 
first  series  of  black  dots.     They  had  taken  Vermand. 


/  t»  Bthecaurt 


p^  .0^ 


J^^^ 


2' 


3         4 


8 


LAND    &'    WATER 


Aplil  5,  1917 


They  had  come  up  to  the  edge  of  the  high  and  large  Wood 
of  Holnoii.  They  had  carried  the  ruuis  of  Saw  village 
in  its  hollow  ;  and  immediately  to  the  south  of  this  they 
joined  on  with  the  French,  fh^,  advance  of  the  British 
ifp  to  this  first  line  of  dots  which  marks  their  positions 
of  Sunday  last  had  been  remarkably  rapid-  At  first  the 
British  advance  was'  necessarily  behind  the  French, 
because  its  first  steps  had  tn.  be  taken  over  the  com- 
pletely ruined  battleheld  of  th*  Somnie.  All  roads  had 
to  be  re-made,  lines  to  be  laid  and  a»»  indescribable  outpilt 
of  energy  was  required  fo  niakc  movement  beyond  that 
wilderness  of  mud  and  craters 'possible  at  all.  But  the 
moment  communication  was  established  the  rate  of 
progress,  especially  at  this  end  of  the  British  line,  was 
unexpectedly  accelerated.  The  French,  for  instance. 
had  been  in  Roupy  many  days  before  the  British  had 
reached  Vermand.  But  the  Briti«li.  once  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Vermand.  mastered  the  district  to  the 
south  of  that  little  town  very  qijjckly  and,  as  wejiave 
seen,  on  Sunday  came  up  tt*  the  edges  of  the  \\'ood  of 
Holnon  and  occupied  Savy.  1, 

Meanwhile,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Somme,  the  French 
had,  about  a  wqek  before,  come  up  as  far  as  the  German 
positions  upon  Ridge  3,  the  Ridge  of  Essigny.  They  had 
first  reconnoitred,  then  atti^cked.  the  German  prepared 
line  here,  which  ran  from  Castres  in  the  valley  and  up 
through  Essigny.  They  then  >^ttacked  this  line'  and 
established  themselves  upon  the  crest,  the  Germans 
retiring  to  a  second  prepared  line  aldng  Ridge  2  running 
through  l'r\-illers.  . ' 

When,  therefore,  the  despatciies  which  reached  London 
upon  Sunday  night  were  received,  tiiey  described  the 
combined  positions  of  the  Allies  upon  that  Sunday  to  be 
somewhat  as  follows  :  -i 

ITie  British  in  front  of  Vermand  just  skirting,  the 
Wood  of  Hulnon.  occupying  Savy,  and  there  making 
their  junction  with  the  French  who  were  close  to  Dalon. 
The  French  from  this  point  .4jf  junction  carrying  on 
thi'ough  Castres  (which  they  occupied  just  in  front, of 
the  hamlet  of  Giffecourt) ,  largely  co\ering  Essigny  and 
Crest  3,  and  having  in  front  of  them  on  Crest  2,  strong 
German  lines. 

With  the  Monday  the  British  made  a  further  and  very 
notable  advance  which  may  prove  decisive  in  the  fate  of 
St.  Ouentin.  Seizing  Bihuoourt  and  Villechelles,  they 
began  outflanking  the  great  Wood  of  Holnon  on  its  height, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  day  that  wood  fell  into  their 
hands.  By  the  evening  the  Germans  had  evacuated  the 
whole  of  the  wood  and  had  even  fallen  back  behind 
Holnon  and  Selency.  The  British  line  had  therefore 
occupied  a  belt  in  that  one  day  which,  in  its  widest  point, 
was  fully  three  miles  across.  They  had  reached  the 
edge  of  the  plateau  and  St.  Quentin  was  before  them  in 
its  hollow.  From  the  ruins  of  Francilly,  which  they 
also  occupied,  the  heart  of  the  town  was  only  three  miles 
away  and  its  outskirts  only  two  miles  away.  Where  the 
southern  end  of  this  British  line  stood  on  Monday  evening 
the  despatches  sent  on  Monday  night  did  not  inform  us. 
Nor  is  it  of  any  very  great  importance.  For  the  menace 
to  St.  Quentin  which  the  British  are  now  delivering  is 
defined  by  this  considerable  advance  upon  the  north- 
west of  which  Selency  is  the  foremost  point.  Meanwhile 
the  French  still  stand  in  front  of  the  prepared  positions 
of  Ridge  2,  between  the  Soranie  and  the  Oise,  holding 
the  enemy  here  while  the  British  are  steadily  turning 
him  by  his  right,  and  the  next  French  action  mvist  be 
agains"t  the  Urvilliers  ridge. 

^  riiat  is  the  stage  which  the  Battle  of  St.  Quentin  has 
reached  at  the  moment  of  )Writing,  which  moment  'is  a 
little  handicapped  by  the  way  in  which  the  iightiiig  is 
falling  in  the  week  ;  for  by  the  time  the^e  lines  are  before 
the  public  the  struggle  will  quite  probably  liave  reached 
its  decisive  stage. 

The  Fight  for  the  Pivot 

Meanwhile,  from  25  to  27  miles  awa>-  to  the  soutlj  of 
St.  Quentin,  another  critical  struggle  is  in  progress  which 
is  the  French  attack  upon  the  pivot  of  the  new  and  ^ery 
precarious  line  the  Gernfans  hope  to  hold  ;  the  positions 
all  round  and  ui  front  uf  Laoii. 

When  the  Germans  planned  out  this  pis  allcr  of  a  new 
intermediate  hne,  they  reHed  for  the  strength  of  its 
1  pivot  "  upon  tfcc  topographical  character  of  the  district 


all  roimd  Laon  to  the  soath  and  west  of  that  town.  Ihis 
ground  is  a  mass  of  wooded  hijls  w  hich  he  in  two  great 
main  groups  divided  by  a  continuous  depression,  the 
valley  of  Anizy,  through  the  western  part  of  which  runs 
the  c>nd  of  the  railway  hom  Soissons  to  Laon,  while  its 
lower  W^f'rh  part  is  occupied  by  the  litffc  river  Aillette. 

North  of  this  depression  you  get,  in  three  great  lumps, 
the  high  isolated  liill  on  which  Laon  itself  stands,  the 
steep  island  of  hill  which  is  the  group  of.l^ontbaviu.  and 
the  verv  much  larger  and  more  densely' wooded  hills  of 
Coucy  slild'St.  (lobain.  This  last  is  an'  v^stacle  not  only 
from  the  steep  nature  of  its  sides,  but  froip  the  extension 
of  its  woods  which  spread  out  far  to  the  west  and  north 
of  the  hills  and  also  coyer  nearly  the  whole' of  them. 

The  ground  south  of  the  depression  forms  a  limestone 
plateau  with  very  steep  sides  nosing  from  the  River  Aisne  ; 
that  plateau  is  one  with  which  we  are  all  familiar,  because 
it  was  the  ridge  upon  which  the  (lermans  dug  themselves 
in  after  their  defeat  at  the  Marne. 

The  French  had  already  pushed  their  uidvance  through 
the  lower  part  of  the  Coucy  woods  and  across  the  extreme 
■  westcrd^^ge  of  the  Coucy  hills  a  week  ago.  Their  posts 
ran  through  Servais  and  Parisis— a  very  beautiful  little 
village  ia  the  old  time  of  peace,  lying  in  a  sort  of  clearing, 
in  the  midst  of  high  and  majestic  woods  which  clothe 
what  were  here  called  "  The  Seven  Combesi."  The  French 
advanctrincluded  just  to  the  south  of  this  the  spur  upon 
which  the  ruins  of  the  great  castle  of  Coucy  stood,  and 
further  on,  in  front  of  Soissons,  it  had  cUmbed  up  to  the 
edge  of  the  limestone  plateau  just  mentioned. 

The  task  of  the  French  here  was  to  master  the  water- 
shed and  highest  level  of  this  limestone  plateau,  pushing 
up  the  very  steep  ravines  which  bite  into  it  northward 
from  the  Banks  of  the  Aisne.  They  had,  last  week  almost 
reached  in  this  way  the  crest  of  this  liftiestone  plateau. 
On  Sunday  last  they  made  a  bound  forward  over  the 
crest  and  on  to  the  edge  of  the  further  side,  driving  the 
Germans  out  of  Vauxaillon  and  thus  for  the  first  time 
overlooking  the  valley  of  Anizy — the  compression  which 
cuts  through  the  heart  of  this  "  pivot  *'";  country  for  the 
possesaiqn  of  which  th  e  struggle  is  proceeding. 


'MiUs. 


LAON 


5assaNS 


Here  again,  as  in  the  case  of  the  fight,  for  St.  Ouentin, 
the  despatches  stop  just  in  the  middle  of  the  debate  and 
the  position  is  still  uncertain,  though,  as  in  the  case,  of 
St.  Quentin.  it  may  be  much  more  decided  by  the  time 
this  article  is  iu  print. 

If  one  *may  venture  a  suggestion,  it  hardly  seems 
possible  that  the  decision  should  arrive  at  the  point  whert 
the  "  pivot  "  is  menaced,  that  is,  at  the  Laon  end.  The 
menace  is  there  so  glaring  and  obvious  that  the  enemv 
could  not  commit  the  fault  of  neglecting  it.     Nor  is   it 


April  5,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


•'9 


at  all  impossible  for  him  to  "refuse" — that  is  with- 
draw— the  end  of  his  line  by  Laon  and  still  .to  maintain 
himself.  He  would  lose  the  advantage  of  the  high  and 
badly  eut  up  and  wooded  ground  upon  whieh  he  had 
been  depending,  but  he  would  still  maintain  hisj;  hinge 
unbroken — though  he  would  have  withdrawji  .'Jt  for 
safety!  He  would  at  the  same  time  lessen  the  sHajpness 
of  his  angle  when  his  new  line  meets  his  old  one. 

But  in  the  matter  of  St.  Ouentin  it  is  otherwise.  You 
must  there  h()Id  the  town  if  you  can  or  lose  the  whole 
hne.  It  is  no  good  merely  retiring,  for  if  you  do'lhe  whole 
line  is  bent.  Of,  course,  he  has  ample  local  reserves.  If 
he  thinks  his  hew  line  so  vital  to  all  the  rest  of  the  war 
that  the  possession  of  it  is  worth  great  losses  in  men,  he 
can  counter-attack  there,  and  save  that  line  for  a  short 
time.  But  he  is  handicapped  by  two  things  :  first,  by 
the  now  patent  fact  that  he  miscalculated  the  rate  of  the 
pursuit  and  secondly,  by  the  fact  that  he  can  never  have 
intended  the  St.  Quentin  line  to  be  permanent.  That 
is,  he  had  no  intention  of  holding  it  until  he  might  (as 
he  hoped)  call  a  "  draw  "  at  the  end  of  the  war. 

The  St.  Quentin  line  may  be  compared  on  a  much 
larger  scale  to  what  the  Bapaume  Ridge  was  a  month  ago. 
He  did  not  then  think  it  worth  while  to  lose  a  gfeat' num- 
ber  of    men   in    a   last    desperate   effort    to   hold    the 


Bapaume   Ridge,  though   he  certainly  intended  (as  his 
quite  recent   works   proved   when   the    Allies     reached 
them   and    could    examine     them    in    detail)  to    hold 
that  ridge  for   some   considerable    time    while    he    was 
retiring  behind  it.     He  was  shot  oft"  it  in  spite  of  himself. 
He  vras  therefore  compelled  to  his  first  retirement  imd«i- 
.conditions  more  pressed  than  he  desired.     Now   if    Ive 
loses  St.  Ouentin,  and  with  it  the  whole  of  the  St.  Quentin 
line,  he  will  only  be  rejiieating  this  piece  of    misfortune 
\ipon    a    larger   scale.      Hfe*    will   be    losing — with    very 
great  consequences  iff-'-the  necessity  of  a   further  much 
larger  retirement — a  line- which  he   intended    to    hold 
for  some  considerable  time.      It    is   for   him   to  judge 
whether  he  will,  in  this  his  last  year  of  full  activity,  use 
the  men  necessary  to  save  that  line.     It  is  a  dileuuna, 
for  he  does  not  know  into  what  expenditure  he  may  not 
be  drawn,  and  he  knows  that  everything   lost  here  is  lost 
for  good — for  his  loss'ei  of  this  year,  1917,  can  never  be 
macle  up.     If  he  has  prepared  a  great  offensive  elsewhere 
in   the   immediate   future,  he   will   perhaps,    very   un- 
willingly, sacrifice  his  St.  Ouentin  line  tor  fear  of  losing 
more  in  trying  to  hold  it.     If  he  plumps  for  holding  it 
the  Allies  will  make  him  pay  a  very  heavy  price,  the 
extent   of  which   he  cannot   now  calculate.     In   either 
case  he  is   suft'ering    the  initiative    of    his   opponents. 


The  Operation  before  Gaza 


The  operation  before  Gaza  has  got  a  good  deal  con- 
fused in  the  public  mind  through  the  three  versions 
re'cei\-ed  and  on  account  of  the  extreme  bre\'ity  of  the 
despatches.  With  the  exception  of  the  all-important 
element  of  numbers,  however,  it  would  seem  not  difficult 
to  appreciate  the  main  lines  of  what  happened.  ' ' 

From  Cairo  fn  Egypt  up  into  Syria  the  main  road  of 
tra\el  goes,  and  has  always  gone,  along  the  sea  coast,  past 
Kl  Arish  through  Rata  and  so  up  to  the  considerable  body 
of  water— just  now  in  full  depth— which  runs  down  from 
the  Southern  hills  of  Palestine  through  the  \-allev  of 
Beersheba  to  the  Mediterranean  sea,  which  it  enters  near 
a  small  elevation  called  "The  Calf's  Hill."  Thisiody  of 
water  is  known  as  the  "River  of  Gaza"  or  '|  Wady 
(iuzzeh,"from  the  town  of  Gaza  just  to  the  north  of  it, 
about  five  or  six  miles  away.  And  Gaza,  which!  is  the 
.  first  spot  of  real  green  in  the  edge  pi  the  desert,  standing 
on  and  around  a  hill  about  100  feet  high  and  once  probably 
a  port,  but  now  three  miles  from  the  sea,4s  and  has  always 
been  the  (iate  of  Syria. 

It  is  the  meeting  place  and  market  of  the  desert  on  the 
one  hand  and  fertile  Syria  upon  the  other.  The  threat 
to  and  attack  against  the  Turkish  power  in  Syria,  the 
advance  against  the  Turkish  forces  there  (which  is  the 
action  continually  complementary  to  the  twin  action  far  to 
the  East  up  the  Tigris  valley)  caii  only  be  conducted  from 
the  Egyptian  base  by  the  use  of  aii  advancing  railway 
to  supply  the  British  force,  the  railhead  was  already 
nearing  this  first  great  obstacle  on  the  road,  the  river  of 
(laza,  when  Sir  Charles  J)obell  determined  to  seize  that 
obstacle  in  order  to  cover  the  advance  of  the  railway. 

On  the  morning,  of  Mondav  last,..  March  26th,  the 
operation  of  seizing  the  ri\er  niouth  and  the  place  where 


'Mediterranean 
Sea 


■JifiUS 


Ml. 


;hcha- 

'^Oir-es-5eba) 

/  JLajii  BecLtL 


the  main  road  crosses  it,  was  determined  upon.  But  a 
dense  fog  coming  up  frorti  the  sea  prevented  active 
operations.  When  these  became  possible  in  the  late 
alternoon  of  that  Monday  (when  the  fog  lifted)  it  was 
found  that  the  river  was  not  held  ;  but  tliat  the  Turkish 
forces  imder  a  German  Commander  by  the  name  of  Kress 
stood  between  it  and  the  tov('n  of  Gaza.  These  forces  were 
at  once  engaged,  though  under  great  difficulties,  because 
the  only  water  supply  available  at  the  moment  was 
what  each  man  could  carr^r^with  him.  The  enemy  would 
appear  to  have  retired  towards  Gaza  before  the  Britisii 
attack  and  it  was  probably  the  division  forming  his 
rearguard  which  was  destroyed  :  for  losses  amounting  to 
8,000  are  the  equivalent  of  destruction  to  a  division 
which  was  presumably  far  from  full  strength  and  which  also 
lost  its  whole  staff  and  commanding  General  Officer. 
The  iinpossibility  of  further  advance,  which  coiisisted  in 
the  lateness  of  the  hour  and  in  the  difficulty  of  water 
supply,  forbade  an  attack  upon  Gaza  itself.  The  ad\anced 
bodies  of  the  British  dug  themselves  m  south  of  the  town. 

On  the  morning  of  the  next  day,  Tuesday,  the  27th,  the 
Turks  violently  attacked  these  trenches  and  were  every- 
where repelled  with  heavy  losses.  But  on  the  morrow, 
Wednesday  the  28th,  the  infantry  of  the  advanced  British 
force ',was  withdrawn  to  the  northern  bank  of  the  river, 
of  \vhich  it  remained  in  possession.  Probably  they  were 
so  withdrawn  for  the  sake  of  water.  The  cavalry  remained 
in  touch  with  the  Turkish  troops  just  in  front  of  Gaza 
and  the  Turks  showed  no  disposition  to  attack  again. 

The  total  British  loss  in  killed  was  400.  The  total  num- 
ber of  prisoners  taken  was  950,  including  the  Divisional 
General  and  his  whole  staff,  as  well  as  certain  pieces 
including  two  Austrian  howitzers.  Small  bodies  amounting 
in  dlf  to  something  less  than  200  men  have  been  returned 
as  missing,  and  the  General  in  Command  presumes  in  this 
last  dispatch  that  these  were  probably  detached  portions 
which  fought  their  way  in  to  Gaza  itself  and  were  cut  off. 

Meanwhile  the  interest  of  the  operation  lies  in  the  fact 
that  it  shows  us  how  far  the  railway  for  operations 
against  Syracuse  has  ad\'anced  and  at  the  same  time 
what  a  threat  is  now  directed  against  the  railway  to 
Beersheba  from  the  North. 

Beersheba  was  the  enemy's  railhead  and  principal  base 
for  his  attacks  on  the  Suez  Canal.  It  is  certain  from 
the  present  position  of  the  British  forces  on  the  Syrian 
front  that  this  railhead  will  have  to  be  abandoned. 

In  order  to  avoid  the  rough  moorland  foothills  of  the 
great  limestone  plateau  which  forms  the  Holy  Land,  and 
overlook  the  Philistine  Plain  on  which  Gaza  stands  (this 
mobrland  of  foothills  is  what  has  been  known  as  the 
"  Shephalah  ")  the  railway  has  had  to  make  a  great  elbow 
westward  and  is  thus  within  easy  striking  distance 
of  the  British  force  in  its  present  position,  for  there  can 
be  no  continuously  held  entrenched' position  to  cover  it. 

H.    Belloc. 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


A  piil  5,  1917 


The  Great  Excommunication 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


WHEN  Martin  Luther  uttcicd  tlial  >trango 
l)arado.\,  "  Pecca  Fortitcr,"  he  could  hardly 
lia\  f  supposed  that  he  was  eununciatiiiK  the 
war  policy  of  the  future  Gcrjnan  Empire. 
But  certainly  the. words  fit  that  policy  with  jirophetic 
precision,  and  in  recent  events  we  see  the  presage  of  the 
wages  monstrous  sins  must  earn.  The  entrance  of 
America  into  the  war  has  been  so  long  foretold  and  so 
dearlv  foreseen  that  now  that  the  thing  is  done,  there 
i^  no  room  left  for  the  emotions  which  the  unexpected 
excites.  Yet  of  all  the  portents  of  the  last  two  and  a 
half  years,  it  is  doubtful  if  there  is  one  more  utterly  and 
entirely  strange.  That  the  Russian  giant  should  shake 
himself  free  of  the  fetters  of  autocrrcy  was  a  thing  to 
bo  expected,  for  no  one  had  ever  doubted  that  he  would 
be  free  as  soon  as  he  could.  But  there  never  was  a  jingo 
sf>  wild  as  to  suppose  that  any  American,  even  the  most 
bellicose,  could  ever  wish  to  take  a  share  in  a  European 
war.  It  was  a  tiling  that  had  to  be  forced  upon  the  most 
pacific  of  democracies  :  and  it  could  only  be  so  forced 
by  the  most  criminal,  because  the  most  militarist 
of  autocrats.  And  it  was  forced  on  them,  not  by  the 
necessities  of  self-defence,  not  by  the  manifestation  of 
any  such  enormous  power,  or  threat  <rf  power,  as  would 
jeopardise  America's  future  freedom  in  the  world,  but 
solely  by  the  autocrat's  forceful  sins,  his  murders  by  land 
and  sea,  his  rapes,  his  arsons,  his  robberies,  his  enslave- 
ments. 

And  so  America's  entry  into  the  war  means  much  more 
than  the  addition  of  so  much  sea  power,  so  much  financial 
power,  and  ultimately  so  much  man-power  adhering  to 
the  Allies'  ciiuse.  It  was  after  all  always  open  to 
America  to  warn  her  citizens  'to  keep  off  the  sea.  It 
would  have  been  an  abrogation  of  their  liberty  and,  to 
liave  saved  her  ships  by  a  similar  caution,  would  have 
meant  a  loss  of  trade  and  jirofit.  But  h?.d  the  great 
Republic  been  guided  b}^  considerations  of  finance  alone, 
had  the  sen.se  oi  honour  really  been  dead,  had  the  pro- 
fessed devotion  to  humanity's  cause  been  an  hypocrisy 
and  a  blind,  Ainerica  could  have  kept,  not  only  entirely 
out  of  the  war,  but  clear  of  any  possibility  of  being 
directly  challenged  to  the  war.  In  coming  in,  then, 
America  enters  as  a  volunteer,  and  America  is  a  country 
in  which  there  are  some  millions  of  citizens  of  German 
birth  and  many  more  millions  of  recent  German  descent. 
Perhaps  the  most  significant  of  all  the  strange  conditions 
of  the  world  is,  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  these 
(iermans  take  their  stand  with  C.ongrcss  and  the  Presi- 
dent, and  come  before  the  world  to  denounce  and  condemn 
those  who  have  brought  such  infamy  upon  their  mother 
coiuitry.  It  is  this  home-thrust  more  than  anything 
else  which  will  humiliate  the  German  people.  For 
liere  is  the  first  German  community  condemning  German 
conduct.  Nor  is  it  nothing  that  within  a  month  the 
military  autocracy  of  Russia — whose  threat  to  the 
German  Empire  was  the  sole  excuse  of  the  violation  of 
Belgium — has  ceased  to  be  militaristic  and  autocratic, 
and  has  been  succeeded  by  a  people's  government  which, 
because  free,  is  bent  on  peace,  and  because  it  loves  peace, 
recognises  that  peace  cnn  only  reign  when  justice  is 
vindicated.  The  revolution  lias  thus  made  Russia  the 
greatest  democracy  in  the  world,  and  the  re-dedication 
of  this  democracy  to  the  war,  followed  by  the  dedication 
of  America,  confirms  the  resolutions  of  the  democracies 
of  Western  Europe — I-"rance,  Italy  and  Britain — and 
gives  a  new  meaning  to  the  "  Vox  Populi,  Vox  Dei  "  of 
St.  Augustine  ;  the  common  conscience  of  the  world  has 
become  articulate.  Germany  is  confronted  with  the  fact 
that  those  who  speak  for  heaven  and  posterity  hold 
her  accursed.  The  final  step  has  been  taken  in  the 
greftt  excommunication. 

Value  of  Encouragement 

The  moral  value  of  America's  action  is  thus  enormous. 
Perhaps  the  resolution  of  France,  Great  Britain,  Russia 
and  Italy  needed  no  reinforcement — but  the  strain  -of 
remaining  resolute  is  already  terrible  to  some  of  the 


Allies,  and  is  growing  increasingly  .-im.v  for  uU,  The 
people  of  France  have  made  cruel  sacrifices  in  blood  and 
treasure.  They  see  their  country  barbarously  polluted 
by  murderers  :  their  countrywomen  carried  off  captives 
to  shameless  masters.  They  see  food  ^^etting  scarcer. 
There  is  perhaps  no  danger  of  the  people  of  these  islands 
being  starved  into  surrender.  But  it  is  not  impossible 
that  they  should  be  starved.  We  have  frjinkly  to  recog- 
nise that  the  enemy's  submarine  successes,  though 
smaller  than  he  expected,  are  still  greater  than  we  feared. 
Shall  we,  as  a  nation,  be  proof  against  the  want  our 
forebears  suhered  without  complaint  a  century  ago  ? 
The  jieople  of  Great  Britain  have  many  fine  things  to 
their  credit.  In  the  navy  and  the  army  they  have  pro- 
duced two  fighting  machines  of  incomparable  skill  aiid 
of  heroic  valour.  They  liave  borne  tlie  surprises,  tlic 
disappointments,  the  inevitable  humiliations  that  war 
.must  bring  upon  an  unprepared  nation,  with  singular 
calmness  and  reserve.  But  they  have  not  yet  been 
called  upon  to  face  hunger  and  privation  nor  the  mam- 
straits  of  the  besieged.  If  these  are  to^ome  upon  us  a 
new  test  of  national  discipline  and  fortitude  will  be 
imposed — and  then  we  shall  need  every  spiritual  and 
moral  help  that  we  cafi  find.  To  us  too,  then,  the  entry 
of  America  may  yet  prove  a  priceless  boon. 

This  intervention  is  priceless  because  it  makes  the 
ultimate  complete  defeat  of  all  that  the  German  Govern- 
ment stands  -  for  doubly  assured  — if  only  the  Allied 
peoples  in  Europe  can  endure  the  strain  of  continued 
war.  Mr.  Wilson  has  banished  the  fear  that  Anu;rica's 
attitude  will  be  purely  defensive;  her  belligerency  is 
no  mare  technical  recognition  of  an  existing  state 
of  things,  which  w-ill  continue  after/  the  transition 
as  it  exists  already.  Many  of  us  have  been  surprised, 
and  surprised  to  the  point  of  reproach,  at  the 
Cireat  RepubHc"s  long  indecision.  jkVe  have  been 
tempted  to  echo  the  loud  expressions  of  anger  and 
contempt,  which  the  President's  seemingly  inveterati 
habit  of  writing  notes  excited  amongst  the  more  generous- 
minded  of  his  countrymen.  We  have  been  slow  to 
perceive,  because  we  have  recoiled  from  recognising,  the 
enormous  difficulties  that  lay  in  the  path  of  the  man 
who  could  not  lead  America  into  war  until  he  had 
virtually  united  it  for  war.  What  we  must  realize 
now  is,  that  all  the  things  that  made  for  patience  and 
delay  are  the  very  things  that  should  now  make  for 
perseverance  and  decision.  With  war  declared,  the 
President  need  no  longer  wait  on  Congress.  They  who 
will  the  end,  will  the  means.  And  the  Germans  will 
find  to  their  pained  surprise  that,  if  it  has  been  difficult 
to  make  America  begin  to  fight  ;  it  will  be  flatly  impossible 
to  make  her  stop,  until  the  war  is  won  and  a  victory  is 
achieved  that  is  to  America's, taste. 

Military  Power  of  America 

What  precise  form  can  the  military  aid  of  America 
assume  ?  When  war  is  declared,  the  armed  forces  of  the 
I^epublic  are  at  the  unfettered  disposall  of  the  President. 
It  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  the  American  constitution 
that  the  Chief  Magistrate,  who  has  extraordinarily  little 
power  in  times  of  peace,  becomes  a  military  dictator  in 
time  of  war.  What  forces  has  he  at  his  disposal  ?  The 
regular  army  of  America  bears  perhaps  the  same  relation 
to  the  regular  army  of  Great  Britain  as  it  stood  in  August 
iqi4,  as  that  army  bore  to  the  mobilisable  forces  of  the 
(ierman  Empire.  For  its  numbers  it  is  most  excellently 
trained,  etjuippcd  and  commanded.  Unfortunately,  its 
numbers  arc  insignificant.  But  behind  it  there  are 
National  Guards  and  veterans  of  the  Spanish  War,  and 
some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  volunteers  who  have  had 
some  experience  of  camp  life  and  some  initiation  into 
militarj'  training.  Above  all,  there  is  a  vast  population 
of  well  educated,  ((uick  witted,  high-spirited,  athletic 
manhood,  exactly  similar  in  origin  and  surroundings  to 
that  who  have  given  us  the  incomparable  forces  of  Canada 
and  Australia.  It  is  material  out  of  which  soldiers  of 
the  ver\-  highest  merit  can  be  manufactured  and  in  an 


April 


1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


xr 


extraordinarily  short  period.  Those  who  imagine  that 
no  American  expeditionary  force  can  take  its  place  in 
the  European  field  of  war  in  less  than  twelve  months  are, 
I  believe,  profoundly  mistaken.  1  set  n  thing  improbable 
in  supposing  that  not  one  but  sever.  1  army  corps  may 
be  landed  in  France  before  the  autumn  is  over. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  there  is  obviously  no 
;idequatc  military  force  immediately,  available.  How 
do  things  stand  with  the  American  Fleet  ?  The  American 
Navy,  in  commission,  could  add  two  squadrons  of  eight 
capital' ships  each  to  the  Grand  Fleet,  with  twenty 
modern  destroj'ers  in  attendance  on  each.  There  are 
roughly  as  many  old  destroyers  in  reserve  and  a  fleet  of 
battlesliips  of  older  type,  unsurpassed  for  individual 
strength  and  gunfire.'  If  we  assume  that  the  deficiencies 
of  the  personnel — in  numbers — have  been  made  up,  a 
sea  force  is  thus  available  for  battle  purposes  such  as 
would  inake  any  German  hopes  of  breaking  out  into  the 
North  Sea  simply  hopeless.  Will  this  force  be  so  used  ? 
Or  will  the  destroyers  be  detached  from  the  battle  fleet, 
the  battle  fleet  put  into  reserve,  and  the  Americkn  Navy 
reorganised  with  extemporised  craft,  so  that  the  Republic's 
action  at  sea  shall  be  limited  to  combating  the  sub- 
marine ?  This  is  a  nice  point  of  policy,  and,  America 
once  pledged  to  war,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  AlHes 
will  be  consulted  before  a  decision  is  come  to.  It  is 
tempting  to  assume  that  the  American  Battle  Fleet  is 
not  needed  in  our  waters.  The  necessity  of  protecting 
merchantmen  seems,  at  first  sight,  to  be  Very  much  the 
more  obvious  task.  Rut  it  will  be  rash  to  prejudge  the 
decision.  If,  as  seems  certain,  the  German  position  is 
hopeless  on  land,  if  the  spirit  of  the  people  and  of  the 
army  is  getting  feebler,  if  the  ruling  caste  are  already 
conscious  that  the  armed  nation,  long  since  thwarted  of 
conquest,  can  now  no  longer  successfully  defend  itself, 
it  is,  of  course,  possible  that  every  remaining  eleiru'nt  of 
strength  may  be  devoted  to  a  last  desperate  throw.  A 
blow  may  be  attempted  that  is,  which,  if  successful,  would 
end  the  war  in  Germany's  favour.  Tiiere  is  only  one 
such  blow  cfinceivable.  It  would  be  an  attack  upon 
these  islands  by  all  arms.  Who  could  say  what  th^  fate 
would  be  of  an  expedition  in  which  every  Germari  sub- 
marine, every  German  warship,  every  German  a^ship 
and  aeroplane,  and  every  German  merchantman,  carry- 
ing every  available  German  soldier,  took  part?  A 
week  or  two  ago,  we  were  somewhat  startled  to  findjthat 
])reparations  seemed  to  have  been  made  for  meetmg  a 
laid  of  small  dimensions.  It  would  have  to  be  something 
far  more-  ambitious  that  would  be  worth  attempting 
and,  iniiriitcsimal  as  its  prospects  of  success  may  seem, 
it  is  to  be  remembered  that  where  people  are  desperate 
there  may  be  no  limit  to  the  hazards  they  will  face. 

Certainly  if  such  an  attack  Were  attempted,  it  would 
manifestly  be  the  duty  of  the  Grand  Fleet  to  prove  itself 
the  "sure  shield"  of  these  islands,  and  it  is  probable 
that  it  could  only  take  its  share  in  their  defence  at  a  risk 
from  mines  and  other  forms  of  under-water  attack,  com- 
pared with  which  the  destroyer  menace  at  Jutland  was 
negligible.  Would  it  mtan  little  to  us  in  such  circum- 
stances to  know  that,  if  a  dozen  of  our  greatest  ships 
were  lost,  there  were  a  dozen  American  ships  of  equal 
fighting  strength  available  to  take  their  place  ?  Pressing, 
then,  as  is  the  need  of  defence  against  submarines,  it  is 
conceivable  that  there  may  be  other  needs  more  pressing 
still,  and  that  the  American  Fleet  might  have  a  great  and 
decisive  role  in  helping  the  Allies  in  the  North  Sea. 

The  Chief  Command 

The  very  uncertainty  as  to  which  is  the  best  use 
to  which  America's  only  complete  military  force  can  be 
put,  emphasises  what  is,  after  all,  the  main  question  in 
considering  the  value  of  any  military  force.  Just  as  it 
is  a  profound  mistake  to  estimate  the  worth  of  America's 
intervention  solely  by  her  possible  direct  military  ser- 
vices, so  is  it  a  profound  mistake  to  estimate  the  value 
of  the  American  navy  solely  by  enumerating  the  ships 
and  the  details  of  their  armaments,  armour  and  speed. 
The  vahie  of  the  American  fleet  will  depend  entirelv 
upon  the  quality  of  mind  and  resolution  with  which 
It  IS  commanded  and  directed.  Of  the  efficiency  of 
each  ship  we  need  hardly  be  in  doubt.  But .  as  we  know  to 
our  cost,  officers  and  crews  mav  be  of  the  highest  merit 
and  of  the  greatest  courage  and  gallantrv  and  ^■et  be  cruellv 


mishandiea  auu  misused  by  the  Higher  Command. 
In  nothing  do  the  new  navies  of  to-day  dift'er  from  the 
old  more  than  this  ;  that  the  change  in  malerid  has  made 
a  new  technique  of  naval  fighting  necessary,  and  so  made  a 
new  element  in  its  supreme  direction  necessary  that 
was  not  necessary  before.  For  this  new  technique  is 
the  possession  of  the  young  and  not  of  the  old,  and 
central'  naval  administration  is  generally  in  the  hands 
of  the  older  men.  They  nejid  therefore  an  organisation 
at  the  head  to  check  tlieir  decisions.  Our  own  naval 
misfortunes  derive  solely  from  the  fact  that  the  know- 
ledge of  how  naval  weapons  should  be  used — possessed 
amply  by  the  service — -was  not  shared  by  the  Chief  Com- 
mand at  Whitehall. 

The  American  Naval  Department  was  until  recently 
organised  on  the  ba,sis  of  the  Secretary  solely  being 
responsible  for  everything.  The  work  of  preparing  and 
administering  to  the  fleet  was  divided  amongst  eight 
bureaus,  each  under  a  separate  chief,  each  working  with 
out  reference  to  the  rest,  each  responsible  for  its  own 
work  to  the  Secretary.  Last  year,  this  system  was 
modified  by  a  special  extension  of  the  powers  of  the  chief 
of  the  Secretary's  naval  advisers.  But  the  changes  made, 
though  significant,  were  not  drastic,  and  it  still  remains 
true  that  the  ultimate  control  of  this  great  military 
weapon  is  in  the  hands  of  one  member  of  the  President's 
Cabinet,  who,  in  turn,  i?  responsible  to  the  President 
only.  There  is  thus  in  the  Chief  Naval  Conunand  no 
presumption  of  any  necessary  deference  to  professional 
opinion,  such  as  in  theory  there  is  here.  We  know,  of 
course,  that  in  fact  the  responsibility  of  the  Board  of 
Admiralty  did  not  exist  in  the  crucial  first  year  of  this 
war.  But  in  theory  it  did.  And  the  point"  is  that  the 
Arnerican  Navy  Department  is  free  even  of  the  theory. 

In  the  \\'ar  of  Independence,  as  Captain  Mahan  points 
out,  the  accidental  appointment  of  an  ex-naval  officer 
to  assist  the  Secretary  did  ensure  naval  policy  being  in 
consonance  with  the  expert  naval  opinion.  The  accident 
was  a  fortunate  one,  and  the  thing  was  possible  only  be- 
cause Mr.  Fox  was.  a  man  of  rare  genius  and  because 
naval  materiel  had  made  no  such  advance,  since  his  train- 
ing ceased,  as  made  him  unfamiliar  with  the  employment 
of  the  weapons  of  the  day.  No  such  fortuitous  help  is  to 
be  expected  now,  and  everything,  therefore,  will  depend 
upon  how  professional  and  lay  talent  are  combined  at  the 
present  junctuije. 

The  interesting  suggestion  has  been  made  that  the 
President  should  appoint  a  national  cabinet  with  Senator 
Root  as  Secretary  of  State,  General  Leonard  Wood  as 
Secretary  of  War,  and  Admiral  Bradley  Fiske  as  Secretarv; 
for  the  Navy.     Admiral  Fiske's  qualifications  for  the  post 
are  acknowledged   and  undeniable.     He  is   one   of   the 
rare  exceptions  to  the  rule  that  modern  technique  is  the 
property  of  the   young  only      But    the    difficulties,  of 
putting  him  into  Mr.  Daniels's  position  are  hardly  less 
obvious.     He  was  at  one  time  Mr.  Daniels's  chief  naval 
adviser,  and  they  parted  with  grave  differences  of  opinion 
as  to  naval  policy.     Mr.  Daniels  too,  who  is  a  man  of  very 
great    ability,   of     singular    personal     charm,    and     of 
lofty    principle,    has   provoked    more   personal    attacks 
from  political    opponents   than    any  other    member  of 
Mr.  Wilson's    Government.      And    Mr.    Wilson    is    not 
the  kind   of  man   to  present  his  antagonists   with  the 
kind  of  victory  that  would  be  implied  by  the   Secretary's 
supersession.     Still,  .something  will  certainly  have  to  be 
done  and  it  is  possible  that  a  solution  may  be    found 
in  some  further  extension  of  the  powers  of  the  Secretary's 
aides  for  operations,  and  so  the  reform  be  achieved  liot 
by  a  change  of  persons  but  by  a  change  of  system. 

Arthur  Pollen. 


We  regret  to  announce  the  death  of  Mr.  John  Robertson, 
one  of  the  greatest  gunmakers  of  his  generation.  A  quarter 
of  a  century  ago  he  acquired  the  well-known  firm  of  Boss 
and  Co.,  and  gave  to  their  sporting  guns  and  rifles  an  out- 
standing reputation.  For  Mr.  Robertson  was  not  only  a 
thoroughly  practical  workman,  but  blest  with  originality 
and  initiative,  and  was  constantly  experimenting  in  order  to 
produce  the  very  best  weapon  possible.  During  the  last 
two  and  half  years  he  has  utihsed  his  exceptional  experience 
in  the  construction  of  military  arms.  The  late  Mr.  Kohertson 
was  in  his  se\-enty-eighrh  year.  He  has  left  behind  him 
son*  interested  in  the  firm  of  Ross  and  Co.,  and  the  reputation 
which  their  father  built  up  is  safe  in  their  hands. 


12 


/LAND    &    WATER 


April   5,  1917 


First  Condition  of  a  Lasting  Peace 


By  Principal  L.  P.  Jacks 


IT  will  bo  reinfmborofl  tliat  thf  ricrmaii  liinpcroi. 
when  abcnU  to  hmncli  his  proposals  for  peace  last 
PecoinhxT,  wrote  to  the  Chancellor  that  the  time 
had  eomo  for  the  performance  of  "  a  moral  deed.  " 
1  am  hot  an  admirer  of  William  II.,  but  it  seems  to  me 
only  fair  to  him  to  sav  that  his  use  of  this  phrasi'  is 
remarkable.  It  shows  tha^'he  had  grasped  an  imjiortant 
principle.  And,  so  far  as  1  know,  he  was  the  hrst  anions 
the  statesmen  of  Europe  to  give  it  clear  and  concise 
expression.  The  principle  is  that  great  events  are 
brought  to  their  issues  not  by  wortls  but  by  acts.  "  In 
the  beginning  was  the  deed  "—and  there  is  another 
deed  at  the  end.  So  far  he  was  right.  But  he  was  wrong, 
as  people  who  grasp  a  principle— the  pacifists  for  example 
— so  often  are,  in  the  application.  He  was  wrong  in  sup- 
posing that  he  himself  was  the  pfrson  by  whom  '■'  the  moral 
deed  "  nujst  be  jM:>rformed.  He  was  wrong  also  in  his 
choice  of  the  time,  which  is  a  serious  error  when  the 
application  of  a  right  principle  is  in  question.  The 
time  for  the  performance  of  the  moral  deed  had  not 
arrived  when  he  wTote  the  letter  to  his  (  hancellor.  It 
will  not  come  till  the  Germans  are  defeated. 

Ever  since  the  war  broke  out  a  multitude  of  persons 
has  been  in  evidence — and  the  multitude  is  increasing 
—who  appear  to  think  that  the  issue  of  the  war  can  be 
determined  by  discussions,  by  deliberations,  by  round 
la,ble  conferences  and  by  programmes  of  one  kind  or 
another.  Some  of  these  persons  are  pacifists  and  some 
are  n6t.  The  pacifists  would  end  the  war  by  discussion 
right  away.  The  non'-parffists  would  win  the.  war  in 
the  first  instance  and  then  trust  to  a  general  discussion 
for  the  settlement  of  the  next  step.  So  far  as  the  ne.xt 
step  is  concerned  pacifists  and  non-pacifists  seem  to  be 
agreed  that  talk  will  do  the  business. 

Now  the  "  ne.xt  step  "  is  'the  crux  of  the  whole  pro- 
blem, for  it  involves  the  question  of  what  we  are  going 
to  do  with  our  victory  when  we  have  gained  it,  in  other 
w-ords,  what  are  our  aims  in  the  war.  President  Wilson 
saw  this  when,  he  used  the  phrase  "  peace  without 
victory."  Whatever  else  President  Wilson  may  have 
meant  by  those  words,  they  show  clearly  enough  that 
lie  was  thinking  about  the  "  next  step  "  to  victory,  and 
was  greatly  perplexed.  Perhaps  he  thought  that  unless 
we  see  the  next  step  more  clearly  than  we  now  see  it, 
the  victory  itself  might  never  be  won.  If  so  he  was 
probably  right.  At  all  events,  there  is  not  a  doubt  that  if 
anv  one  in  authority  could  now  define  for  us  in  half  a  dozen 
words  what  the  "  next  step  "  is  to  be,  he  would  greatly 
help  us  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  So  far  the  only 
person  who  has  done  this  with  sufficient  brevity  is  the- 
Kaiser.  He  has  done  it  in  three  words — "  a  moral 
deed."  In  those  words  the  Kaiser  has  indicated  better 
than  anybody  else  how  the  "  next  step  "  must  begm. 
It  must  begin,  not  in  a  programme  for  the  reconstruction 
of  luuope.  not  in  a  general  discussion  of  national  or 
international  rights,  but,  quite  simply,  in  a  moral  deed. 

It  is  true  that  Mr.  Asquith  and  others  after  him  have 
also  defined  our  aims  in  the  war  by  three  words — 
"  reparation,  restitution  and  guarantees."  But  these 
words  foreshadow  discussion  rather  than  action,  dis- 
cussion of  the  /onn  which  reparation,  restitution  and 
guarantees  are  to  take,  which  is  precisely  what  must 
be  determined  before  the  next  step  becomes  clear.  They 
lack  the  terseness  and  the  insight,  of  the  Kaiser's  ex- 
pression. They  indicate  the  characteristic  faith  of  the 
don — whether  of  the  university  or  the  parliamentary 
;  species — that  talk  will  do  the  business,  that  argument 
will  settle  the  dispute. 

I  admit  that  ( \en  the  Kaiser's  phrase  leaves  us  asking 
what  the  fori)t  of  the  "  moral  dee«l  "  is  to  be.  But  I  sub- 
mit that  if  we  take  the  Kaiser's  words,  instead  of  Mr. 
Asquith's,  and  remember  all  along  that  it  was  the  Kaiser 
who  uttered  them,  the  natiu-e  of  the  next  step  becomes 
increasingly  clear.  It  consists  in  a  simple  act  of  justice 
-  visited  on  a  small  group  of  men,  of  whom  the  Kaiser 
liimself  is  the  chief  representative — a  class  which  is  to- 
day, as  it  has  been  all  through  the  ages,  the  chief  enemy 
of  tiie  human  race.  What  form  precisely  such  an  act  of 
justice  should   tak-e    how  it  should  express  itself,   has 


l)etn  /J^>wn  in  the  clearest  manner  by  the  Russian 
Ke'volution,  which  had  not  taken  place  when  Mr.  Asquith 
made  his  speech,  nor  when  the  Allies,  then  uicluding 
among  them  the  most  desjjotic  tyranny,  of  Europe,  put 
forward  the  statement  of  their  airns^  j  As  1  have  else- 
where ^itrit  ten,  the  "  moral  deed  "  wijl  i,n[orm  the  dt«^p>ots, 
these  j>ests  of  mankind,  by  means"  which  admit  of  no 
misuadprstandiug,  that  they  and  theii  Jikes  will  no  longer 
be  tolerated  on  this  planet.  They  w;ll  be  called  to 
account  for  their  errors,  solemnly  judged  and  ellectually 
'disposed  of  by  the  human  race.  The  Kussian  revolution 
has  already  shown  us  the  way,  nay  actually  opened  the 
way,  to  this  moral  deed,  thereby  bringing  the  war  nearer 
to  its  issue  than  if  a  notable  victory  ha.u  been  won  in  the 
field  by  the  AlHed  arms. 

Such, is  the  moral  deed  which  the  case  requires.  Such 
is  t|}c  "  next  step."  Such  is  the  true  substitute  for 
Pre^iiipnt  Wilson's  ideal,  vow  definitely  abandoned, 
of  jjeace  without  victorj'. 

No  More  Despots 

I  fcelieve  that  we  should  be  well  advised  if  for  the  time 
being  we  were  to  dismiss  from  our  minds  all  other  notions 
of  the  "  next  step,"  all  plans  for  a  reconstituted  Europe, 
all  programmes  of  territorial  readjustment,  all  schemes 
or  leagues  for  enforcing  peace,  all  discussions  of  reparation, 
restitution  and  guarantees,  and  concentrate  upon  this 
as  ihe,,  one  essential  preliminary  to  everything  else. 
So  long  as  a  single  despot  remains, ^s«jated  on  his  throne 
there  will  be  no  peace  for  Europe,  no  security  for  any 
nation,  big  or  little,  no  effectual  reparation,  restitution 
or  guarantee, , no  matter  what  treaties  may  exist,  no 
matter  what  means  may  be  set  on  foot  to  enforce  them. 
Of  what  avail  are  pledges  and  sotPfm  obhgations  so 
long  as  their  keeping  is  left,  or  partly  left,  in  the  hands 
of  nj«n  whose  nature  it  is  to  break  airpromises,''to  violate 
all  obhgations  the  moment  it  suits  their  purpose  to  do  so  ? 
Faithlessness,  treachery,  moral  obliquity,  is  the  very 
stuff  of  which  tyrants  are  made.  Not  by  the  corruption 
of  their  own  nature  but  by  the  malign  influence  of  the 
position  in  which  they  are  "placed,  thev  are  transformed 
into  monsters,  into  fools,  whose  stupidity,  were  it  not  so 
dangerous,  would  be  the  laughing  stock  of  the  world, 
into  beings  who  lack  every  characteristic  which  isessehtial 
to  just  or  reasonable  dealings  among  men.  They  are  im- 
possible people,  impossible  when  they  are  acting  alone, 
imix)ssible  when  they  are  acting  in  concert  with  others. 
It  has  always  been  so  :  it  is  so  now  more  clearly  than  ever. 
The  position  of  a  Ca?sar,  a  Tsar  or  a  Kaiser,  whether  his 
name  be  Caligula,  Nicolas,  or  XA'illiam,  is  a  position  which 
no  human  being  is  fitted  to  occupy,  and  the  certain 
penalty  for  placing  him  there,  or  iceeping  him  there, 
is  madness,  horror  and  crime.  So  long  as  one  of  them 
is  left  to  befool  his  people,  to  betray  them,  and  lead 
them,  infected  with  liis  own  madness,  into  criminal 
enterprise,  there  is  no  conceivable  Charter  of  Europe 
which  would  be  worth  tlie  paper  on  which  it  is  written. 
That  an  international  police  would  keep  these  malefac- 
tors in  order  is  assuredly  the  most  fatuous  of  suppositions. 
They  themselves  would  be  among  the  chief  members  of  1 
the  police  !  And  unless  their  previous  record  belies  them 
they  would  not  be  long  in  getting  it  completely  under 
their  control. 

The  main  task  awaiting  civiHzation  at  the  present 
moment  is  to  show  that  it  possesses  the  power  of  vin- 
dicating the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  That 
wrong  has  been  done  on  a  scale  imexampled  in  history 
and  unimaginable  until  the  present  war  revealed  the 
depths  of  iniquity  into  which  despotism  is  capable  of 
falling,  is  beyond  question.  To  speak  of  these  crimes 
as  due  to  the  working  of  "  ideas  "  or  "  tendencies " 
or  other  such  philosophical  abstractions,  is  to  overlook 
the  fundamental  moral  fact.  They  are  the  work,  of 
despotic, dynasties  rnJ  of  their  criminal  entourage.. as 
all  the  lesser  examples  of  similar  crime  have  ever  been 
since  the  world  began.  And  the  real  work  of  the  war, 
as  I  conceive  it,  is  to  bring  this  load  of  guilt  back  to  the 
doors    from  which  it  first  issued  and  to  call  the  inmates 


April  5..1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


of  the  house  tu  their  linkl>'account.  Short  of,  this  the 
proof  will  not  bo  given  that  civilization  possesses-  the 
power  to  vindicate  the  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong.  It  is  commonly  assumed  that  the  victory  of  the 
Allies  will  itself  be  such  a  vindication.  ■  It  will  not.  The 
vindication  lies  in  the  "ne.xtstep."  Unless  that' step  be 
taken  Europe  will  begin  its  new  career  with  ;>n  un- 
ptmished  crime  as  its  starting  point,  and  with  the  criminals 
seated  on  throned; ''^  Which  is  as  much  as  to  say  that 
the  new  career  will  bii  no  different  from  the  old/ 

There  is  muchyVague  talk  about  "  the  punishrrtent  of 
(icrmany."  Whatthe  ])hrase  means  exactly  I  do  not 
know,  and  I  leave  the  explanation  to  those  who  make  use 
of  it.  Let  it  mean  what  it  will,  it  does  not  indicate  the 
point  of  incidence  to  which  the  chief  punishment  needs 
to  be  directed. '  Moreovel",  if  it  means  that  the 
reconstruction  of  Europe-  is  to  begin  with  one  half 
of  its  population  angry  and  brokenhearted  by  defeat 
—I  can  only  s'ay  that  I  wish  the  reconstructors 
success,  but  I  do  not  expect  they  will  have  any.  As 
to  the  people  of  Germany,  they  have  been  punished, 
they  are,  being  punished  now,  and  come  what  may, 
for  ages  to  come  they  will  have  their  work  in  I'iibbing 
out  the  stain  on  their  scutcheon,  and  that  will  be  a  con- 
tinuous punishment.  As  felons  of  the  land  and  as  felons 
of  the  sea  they  have  made  for  themselves  a  name  in 
the  memory  of  man,  and  for  many  a  long  year  their  black 
ships  will  carry  that  name  into  every  port  and  harbour 
of  the  globe  and  receive  such  welcome  as  crime  deserves. 
W'e  can  well  afford  to  leave  their  punishment  to  the  gods, 
who  will  see  to  it  beyond  a  doubt. 

We  are  fighting  again  a  battle  which  has  been  fought 
a  hundred  times  before,  but  never  with  full  success, 
by  the  forces  of  freedom.  Only  we  are  fighting  it-  ©n  an 
immensely  greater  scale,  which  covers  the  whole  of  Europe 
— Germany  included.     It  is  now  as  it  was  in  the  French 


Revolution.  Ihe  iJeoj)le  are  out  against  tiiv  despots 
and  when  the  last  daspot  goes  the  end  ^^ill  be  won,  and 
all  the  peoples,  friends  and  foes,  freed  from  the  curse 
which  has  blighted  Europe  for  ages,  will  look  in  one 
another's  faces  without  hatred  and  for  the  first  time  in 
history  will  begin  amicably  to  discuss  their  common  affairs. 
Europe  at  the  Revolution  was  full  of  despots,  not  more 
noxious  but  far  more  mnnerous  than  those  now  remaining, 
and  the  task  of  the  heruic  French  was  too  great  to  i& 
accomplished  at  a  stroke* ...^ The  desjxits  held  on  ;  the 
New  Europe  passed  into  their  hands  ;  they  mocked  the 
nations  with  their  contemptiblu  Holy  Allianc<;  and  con- 
tinued to  play  their  old  game.  Now  only  two  arc  rcr 
maining— only  two  that  count — and  their  doom  is  fast 
approaching. 

This  is  the  "  moral  deed  "  on  which  tlie  energies  of 
the  free  nations — America  being  one  of  them — should 
be  focussed  in  a  single-minded  unity,  all  else  being 
left  in  abeyance  for  the  time  being,  with  the  certainty 
that  this  done  the  rest  will  begin  to  arrange  itself,  that 
this  undone  nothing  can  be  arranged  to  prosper.  It  is 
the  "  next  step."  A  simple  act  of  justice  the  record  of 
which,  set  up  at  the  great  turning  of  the  ways,  will  stand 
to  all  ages  as  a  monument  of  the  power  of  free  nations 
to  vindicate  the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong. 

We  are  in  danger  of  going  ahead  too  fast,  of  attempting 
too  much  all  at  once.  TJiis  criticism  may  fairly  be 
brought  against  the  Allies'  statement  of  their  aims  in  the 
war.  The  objects  stated  are  all  admirable,  but  broadly 
speaking  thay  are  all  unattainable  until  what  the 
"  Vorwaerts "  rightly  call  the  "last  barrier  against 
reaction,"  the  Hoheuiiollern  Despotism,  has  been  re- 
moved. About  this  nothing  was  clearly  said  in  the 
Allies'  statement.  Yet  it  .remains  the  one  condition 
without  which  the  rest  could  ayt  be'  attained,  or  only 
attained  with  the  certainty  of  provoking  future  wars. 


Russia's  Revolutions  of  1905  and  1917 

By  M.  A.  Czaplicka 


The  w nicy  of  this  article  is .  a-  Polish  lady,  famous 
lor  her  travels  ipf  Siberia.  She  is  author  of  ivorfk  on 
anthropology  and  a  book  "  My  Year  in  Siberia" 

TO  most  people  in  Great  Britain  it  ,  is  alnibst 
a  profanation  to  link  present  events  in  l^ussia 
with  thosv  of  1905.  From  a  superficial  point 
of  view,  there  would  seem  little  ground  for  com- 
parison between  the  revolutionary  movement  of  1905, 
in  which  the  figures  of  the  heroes  were  overshadowed  by 
those  of  the  agents  provocateurs  of  the  type  of  the  well- 
known  Azeff  and  Father  Gapon,  and  that  of  the  present 
day,  so  heartily  welcomed  in  all  Allied  and  neutral 
countries.  And  here  it  must  be  said  that  only  nations 
so  devoted  to  the  cause  of  freedom  as  Great  Britain  and 
France,  could  rejoice  so  sincerely  at  the  recent  news 
from  Russia,  even  while  realising  that  such  great  and 
fundamental  changes  at  this  juncture  might  have  an 
eii'ect  at  least  temporarily  unfavourable  to  military 
operations.  In  fact  this  is  the  greatest  protest  Great 
Britain  has  made  since  the  outbreak  of  war  against  the 
German  interpretation  of  the  "  nation  of  shopkeepers" 
to  Eastern  Europe. 

The  fact  that  Russia  was  not  quite  ready  at  the  time 
of  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution  of  twelve  years  ago, 
was  known  to  pi;ople  abroad,  and  made  them  distrustful 
of  its  success  ;  it  was  known  also  to  the  Russian  people 
themselves,  and  for  that  reason  many  leaders  joined 
only  half-heartedly  in  the  movement.  In  the  more 
educated  political  circles  it  was  indeed  recognised  that 
the  numerous  sacrifices  of  that  time  had  as  their  only 
object  the  manifestation  of  the  people's  discontent  at 
the  existing  state  of  affairs,  without  much  hope  of  a 
permanent  overthrow  of  the  old  regune.  It  was  in  a 
sense  an  attempt  to  pave  the  way  for  greater  success  in 
the  future,  and  indeed  the  establishment  of  the  Duma, 
howevev  imperfect  its  organisation,  has  trained  th*;  class 
of  intelligentsia  in  Parliamentary  ways  of  thinking. 
and  has  awakened  among  •  the  parties  of  w  orkmen  and 
labourers  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  affairs  of  the 


country.  This  is  the  chief  link  between  these  two 
important  inik«cones  in  the  constitutional  history  of 
Russia. 

A  short  review  of  points  of  similarity  and  diversity 
between  them  might  Jielp  us  to  realize  in  what  respects 
the  present  revolutionaries  have  learned  a  lesson,  and  in 
what  respects  they  have  not  yet  learned  enough. 

In  both  cases  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution  was  aided 
by  war — the  unpopular  Japanese  war  and  the  popular 
German  war — for  the  corruption  and  indifierence  of  the 
bureaucratic  administration  showed  up  more  clearly 
under  the  strain  of  war.  But  while  in  1905  people  took 
advantage  of  the  situation  to  demand  internal  changes 
and  an  immediate  peace  with  the  enemy,  in  the  present 
war  they  endured  for  a  long  time  the  ill-will  of  the 
Government  in  6rder  not  to  divert  energy  from  the  main 
confiict.     But  finally  patience  could  endure  no  longer. 

It  may  be  true  that  in  some  of  the  more  educated 
circles  the  incentive  to  action  was  the  rumour  of  a 
separate  peace,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  bulk  of 
the  revolutionaries  were  aroused  by  the  dchberate 
action  of  the  Minister  for  the  Interior  in  his  arrangements 
for  the  distribution  of  food  in  the  provinces,  which 
amounted  to  an  organised  system  of  starvation.  Yet 
however  immersed  in  their  home  'troubles,  the  revolu- 
tionaries have  proved  that  the  last  twelve  years  have  been 
an  advance  in  edu.cation  towards  statesmanship.  'Jhis 
is  shown  in  the  resolve  of  the  vast  majority, to  continue 
fighting,  since  they  understand  that  for  Russia  more 
than  any  other  Allied  nation,  it  would  be  dangerous  to 
give  up  just  now,  and  that  the  alliance  with  France  and 
Britain  is  now  not  limited  to  military  operations  on 
land  and  sea,  but  joins  the  three  nations  in  a  common 
striving  for  the  triumph  of  democracy. 

In  both  cases  two  main  currents  of  thought  way  bf"- 
observed,  One  is  represented  by  the  intellectualists. 
who  are  the  direct  descendants  of  the  Decabrists,  and 
whose  ideas  have  evolved  within  the  limits  of  Russia, 
the  other  by  the  parties  of  more  or  less  socialistic 
tendency,  who  have  until  now  fed  on  the  pro};rammeb  of 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  5,  1917 


the  democrats  ot  Western  Europe.  Both  these  groups 
have  become  much  more  numerous  within  the  last 
twelve  years,  and  their  intiuence  has  spread  until  it  now 
readies  practically  all  scciiojs  of  the  people,  with  the 
exception  ot  the  members  ot  the  old  bureaucracy.  It  is 
too  much  to  say  that  this  intiuence  amounts  to  turning 
into  revolutionaries  the  178  millicni  o(  the  population 
oi  the  Kusbian  Empire,  but  it  has  permeated  the  country 
to  auch  an  extent  mat  the  bulk  ot  the  people  are  ready  to 
follow  the  new  regime,  wlule  in  i(j05  tiiey  were  more 
inclined  to  be  passive  under  a  rccogmsed  wrong. 

The  Socialist  Group 

It  is  natural  that  the  second  group,  with  its  Socialistic 
tendencies,  should  lur  the  last  iwelve  years  have  grown 
much  more  rapidly  than  that  of  the  vntelligcntsia,  since 
it  lias  a  more  direct  appeal  to  the  peasant  and  soldier 
of  iUl  parts  of  Russia,  whether  more  or  less  Slavonic  in 
ethnic  composition.  The  grouji  of  intelligentsia,  connected 
as  it  is  more  or  less  directly  with  ideas  of  reforms  on 
national  or  Slavophil  grounus,  makes  its  inlluencc  felt 
chieliy  among  the  comparatively  small  educated  classes. 
To  the  intelligentsia  is  due  the  credit  of  having  influenced 
even  the  Comt  circles,  so  that  the  present  revolution 
has  had  three  centres — in  the  Court,  among  the  intelli- 
•^cntsia  and  among  "  the  people  "—each  in  its  turn  giving 
place  to  its  more  powerlul  successor.  Even  the  revolu- 
tionary -Grand  Dukes  have  had  to  \>o\v  before  the  com- 
mands of  the  l-'rovisionai  Government,  while  the  Pro- 
visional Government  itself  has  to  follow  the  programme 
set  before  it  by  "  the  people,"  represented  within  it 
chiefly  by  Mil.  Kerer,sky  and  Chcidze.  In  both  cases 
they  have  chosen  the  quietest  methods — thus  bringing  about 
rather  a  rapid  evolution,  than  a  revolution  as  it  is  under- 
stood in  countries  of  more  Latin  temperament. 

Since  in  1905  the  Secret  Pohce  and  the  regular  army, 
trained  in  a  Prussian  school,,  made  a  strong  stand  against 
the  revolutionaries,  tliere  was  more  bloodshed  and 
cruelty  on  both  sides  than  we  hear  of  to-day.  It  must, 
however,  be  remembered  that  those  who  have  seen  the 
year  1905  in  various  parts  of  the  Russian  Empire,  all 
agree  tnat  the  barbarism  showTi  bj'  the  German  Barons, 
supported  by  the  Cossack  regiments,  to  the  Lettish 
y  population  of  the  Baltic  Provinces,  had  no  parallel  in 
otiier  parts  of  the  Empire.  Judging  from  this  it  might 
well  be  fexpected  that  if  the  Prussian  supporters  of 
Tsardom  had  their  way  now,  they  would  stop  at  nothing 
in  their  eliorts  to  crush  the  revolution.  - 

In  bjth  cases  ideals  have  taken  precedence  of  economic 
considerations.  It  might  be  said  that  this  is  true  of  any 
revolution,  but  account  must  be  taken  of  intensity.  In 
no  other  revolution  of  recent  years  do  we  find  ideals  put 
before  material  comfort  to  a  greater  extent  than  is  being 
done  by  the  Russian  revolutionaries  to-day.  This  fact 
is  of  enormous  importance  for  the  morale  of  all  the  Allied 
nations,  because  it  vindicates  the  dhly  nation  which 
might  have  been  said  to  fall  below  the  standard  set  up 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Quite  unintentionally,  the 
Russian  revolutionaries  remind  the  world  what  we  are 
fighting  for,  and  the  effect  of  this  reminder  cannot  fail 
to  be  felt  for  good  in  both  European  and  Asiatic  countries, 
since  Russia  is  a  combination  of  both. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  changes  of  the  last  twelve 
years  took  place  in  the  attitude  of  the  revolutionaries  towards 
the  relations  with  Finland  and  Poland. 

However  detested  was  the  old  regime  it  was  occasionally 
successful,  and  it  took  care  that  the  bulk  of  the  Russian 
population  should  know  ;as  little  about  Finland  and 
Poland  as  was  known  to  the  bulk  of  the  British  public. 
Thus  the  ])opular  knowledge  has  been  spread  through 
histories  written  by  .special  order  of  the  old  Ministry  of 
Education,  such  as  the  well-known  Ilovaisky's  history 
(the  books  of  Professor  Kareiev  and  Sir  Paul  Vinogradoh' 
were  forbidden  for  school  use),  misrepresenting  the  facts 
according  to  the  Government's  political  aims.  During 
the  last  twelve  years  the  progressive  Russian  found  the- 
means  of  learning  more  about  these  two  countries. 
No  school  or  agitator  could  have  opened  the  eyes  of 
Russian  soldiers  to  the  Polish  problem  better  than  the 
Russian  retieat  and  the  devastation  of  Poland. 

The  Provisional  Government  of  191 7  has  started 
immediate  action  to  relieve  the  political  situation  in- 


Finland.  Let  us  hope  they  will  not  imitate  the  old 
government  in  recognising  their  debts  to  Poland  merely 
by  beautiful  manifestos. 

There  are  two  cliief  problems  arising  out  of  the  present 
situation  which  are  not  clearly  understood  by  foreigners 
who  speak  on  Russia,  and  of  which  even  many  Russians 
— in  1917  as  in  1905— fail  to  appreciate  the  significance. 

The  first  and  greatest  mistake  is  to  declare  that  Russia 
is  what  Europe  was,  and  hence  to  assume  that  we  shall 
liiid  in  Russia  a  repetition  of  the  same  evolutionary  stages 
thrtnigh  which  the  countries  ot  Western  Eurojx;  passed 
before  they  readied  their  present  position.  The  lact  is 
that  Russia  is  behind  Western  Europe,  and  behind  even 
Asia,  if  we  consider  japan,  in  culture  and  poUtical 
organisation,  it  does  not  mean  that  she  can  develop  only 
along  the  lines  laid  down  by  them.  She  must  find  her 
own  way  of  dealing  with  this  most  ditticult  situation,  of 
belonging  as  much  to  Asia  as  to  Europe.  The  present 
grandeur  of  Russia  begins  historically  with  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Duchy  of  Moscow,  a  Finno- Slavonic  con- 
glomeration. Since  then  many  jnorc  elements  have 
been  absorbed  into  it  from  the  iiast  than  from  the  West. 
The  settlement  of  the  problems  of  nationalit\'  upon  the 
model  of  a  federation  of  nations  within  the  Russian 
Empire  is  as  unsatisfactory  as  some  of  the  foreign 
doctrines  imported  into  Russian  Europe.  Except  for 
the  two  w-estern  countries,  Poland  and  Finland,  which 
are  only  politically  connected  with  Russia,  but  otherwise 
fonii  separate  units,  all  the  races  within  the  Russian 
Empire  have  at  present  strong  cultural  aflinities  with  the 
Russians,  or  strictly  speaking,  with  the  Great  Russians, 
and  they  are  striving  more  for  personal  and  communal 
freedom  and  betterment  of  social  conditions'  than  for 
national  independence. 

Deeply    Rooted   Traditions 

It  has  been  said  that  only  autocracy  kept  together  this 
mixture  of  races,  and  it  is  true  that  Russia's  autocratic 
traditions  are  deeply  rooted— derived  as  they  were  from 
Byzantium  and  Tartary.  and  strent!;thened  by  a  frame- 
work of  Prussian  organisation.  ,  But.Von  tlie'  other  hand, 
it  may  be  argued  th;it  Russia  has  more  chances  of  demo- 
crj.tic  government  than  many  other  Empires  of  Europe 
and  Asia,  since  this  very  mixture  of  races  tends  to  mini- 
mise class  distinctions  and  to  accentuate  democratic 
tendencies.  This  will  be  evident  If  we  think  of  Russia  in 
terms  of  millions  instead  of  in  thousands,  as  has  hitherto 
been  the  habit  of  travellers. 

The  other  misundcrstuHding  is .  in  connection  with 
the  religion  of  the  Russian  people.  Manj'  writers,  by 
placing  Orthodoxy  alongside  of  Autocracy,  lead  people 
to  understand  Orthodoxy  as  embodied  in  the  enforced 
State  religion  with  the  autocratic  monarch  at  its  head, 
and  the  undeducated  clergy  and  half- heathen  monks 
working  hand  in  hand  with  corrupt  police  and  gendar- 
merie to  keep  the  people  ignorant  and  poor.  For  this, 
however,  we  cannot  blame  the  dogma  of  the  Orthodox 
Church,  any  more  than'  we  can  blame  the  dogma  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  for  the  corruption  rife  in  the 
timies  of  the  Borgias.  Once  the  Orthodox  Church  has 
ceased  to  be  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  autocracy, 
and  uses  as  its  administrators  a  moral  and  educated 
clergy,  it  will  be  a  form  of  religion  which  has  a  sounder 
theological  and  moral  basis  than  many  of  the  modern 
sects  of  Russia.  But  this,  alas,  neither  intelligentsia  1 
nor  "  people"  remember  when  they  condemn  the  Orthodox  ■  ■ 
Church  in  its  ))resent  condition. 

One  fundamental  fart  must  be  remembered.  It  is 
with  Christianity  that  the  nations  of  Eastern  Europe 
entered  into  the  heritage  of  European  culture  ■.  thus  for 
the  Western  Slavs  (Poles,  Czechb)  acceptance  of  Roman 
Catholicism  meant  the  acceptance  of  Latin  culture, 
scrips,  political  organisation  and  general  outlook  ;  just 
as  the  Eastern  Slavs  by  being  baptized  into  the  Eastern 
Church,  received  at  the  same  time  the  Graeco-Byzantine 
type  of  culture.  In  the  same  way  Finland  is  Protestant 
not  only  in  religion,  but  in  the  whole  of  its  cultural  hfe. 
It  would  be  a  greater  advantage  to  Russia  if  the  rclormers 
would  exploit  this  historical  factor  in  their  reorganisation 
of  the  country,  instead  of  neglecting  a  most  deeply- 
rooted  trait  of  the  bulk  of  the  population  of  Russia — 
the  necessity  for  giving  expression  to  religious  emotion. 


April  5,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

A   Democratic  Autocrat 

By  Our  Special  Correspondent 


-13 


This  lucid  explanation  of  the  position  which  President 
Wilson  occupies  to-day  in  the  Unite  I  States  is  from  the 
pen  of  an  English  writer,  noit/  resident  in  Washington. 
The  article  was  of  course  ivritten  nearly  a  month  ago 

PRESIDENT  WILSON  has  recently  loomed  larger 
and  larger  before  the  world.  He  is  no  longer 
the  neutral  head  of  a  distant  country.  Of  his 
own  volition  he  has  tried  to  force  upon  the 
belligerents  his  views  about  peace.  Before  this  can 
appear  in  print  he  may,  by  the  ineptitude  of  Prussian 
savagery,  have  been  forced  against  his  will  into  the  war. 

An  American  President  is  by  the  nature  of  his  office 
a  ]>uissant  person.  He  is  stronger  during  his  term  at  the 
White  House  than  any  Old  \\'orld  autocrat.  He  can 
snap  his  fingers  at  Parliamentary  majorities.  His  Cabinet 
holds  office  independently  of  Congress.  Only  when  it 
comes  to  the  ratilication  of  a  treaty  can  the  Senate  inter- 
fere with  his  executive  work.  Technically  it  also  dccla.res 
for  peace  and  war  ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  a  President 
can  by  his  diplomacy  either  avoid  war  or  bring  things 
to  a  pass  where  the  Senate  must  follow.  It  was  Lincoln 
anfl  not  a  timid  Congress  who  in  1861  took  up  the  gage 
Hung  down  by  the  Confederacy.  In  the  President's 
hands  and  in  his  alone  rests  the  decision  to-day.  More 
than  that.  If  the  break  with  Germany  goes  to  its  logical 
conclusion  it  will  be  for  Mr.  W  ilson  to  decide  on  w  hat 
scale  the  war  shall  be. 

President  Wilson  has  to-day  a  greater  authority  Ahan 
perhaps  any  of  his  predecessors.  One  had  good  proof 
of  that  when  Coimt  von  Bernstorft  was  handed  his  pass- 
ports. It  was  not  what  the  country  wanted,  what  Congress 
thought,  what  the  .\dmiralty  or  the  War  Office  were  pre- 
paring to  do  that  the  newspapers  canvassed  and  pro- 
claimed in  their  blackest  print.  Only  the  President 
counted.  "  The  President  is  calm  and  collected  "  ;  "  The 
countrj'  waits  on  the  President  "  ;  "Mr  Wilson  has  been 
to  the  Naxy  Department  "  ;  "  President  Wilson  summpns 
War  Department's  head";  "Mr.  Wilson  plays  golfi"  ; 
"  Mr.  Wilson  goes  to  chui!j:h  "  ;— so  ran  the  headlines 
wliich,  sprawling  across  the  first  page  of  the  paper, ;do 
service  in  America  for  the  British  poster. 

The  President  is  indeed  among  the  most  extraordinary 
figures  in  transatlantic  history.  Cold  and  fastidious 
in  manner  and  character,  intimate  only  with  a  few  people 
like  his  famous  emissary  and  adviser  Colonel  House 
and  his  personal  physician  Dr.  Cary  Grayson,  intolerant 
of  advice  from  outsiders  however  well  informed,  a  bad 
"  mixer,"  as  Americans  say,  a  stilted,  uncomfortable 
conversationalist  save  in  his  own  circle,  intellectually 
one  of  the  most  arrogant  of  men  and  hence  a  bad  judge 
of  individuals,  guilty  at  times  of  impulsive  action  which, 
even  his  friends  admit,  smacks  of  bad  taste,  he  has  never- 
theless gained  the  confidence  of  the  masses  and  the  respect, 
or  rather  fear,  of  the  politicans  to  a  remarkable  extent. 
Congress  may  be  restless  under  his  dragooning,  some 
day  it  may  perhaps  revolt.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the 
Senate  may,  if  the  scheme  is  not  temporarily  obliterated 
by  war,  refuse  to  bless  his  Peace  League  idea  with  the 
impetus  of  its  approval ;  but  for  all  that,  when  it  comes 
to  the  sketching  of  broad  policies  it  may  be  taken  for 
granted  that  he  has  or  will  win  the  fundamental  sympathy 
of  his  countrymen.  There  is  no  one  whose  criticism  he 
need  answer  in  public  debate  ;  no  one  whom  he  of  necessity 
consults  before  formulating  a  policy. 

It  is  important  that  your  readers  should  understand 
that.  They  have  heard  Mr.  Wilson  consistently  abused 
by  representatives  of  stalwart  American  opinion  and  bv 
his  Republican  enemies.  "  The  curse  of  Meroz,"  pro- 
claims Mr.  Roosevelt,  rest^s  upon  the  Wliite  House, 
for  it,  too,  has  not  "  dared  to  stand  on  the  side  of  the 
Lord  against  the  wrong-doing  of  the  mighty."  We  may 
justly  be  grateful  to  our  robust  friends,  but  we  should  not 
l)e  deceived  by  them.  They  represent  much.  Mr. 
Wilson  will  havo  to  depend  upon  them  if  it  is  necessary 
to  prepare  for  real  war. 

Mr.  Wilson's  autocracv  is  not  tyrannical  in  the 
classical  sense.  It  is  essentially  a  product  of  the  New 
World.     It  is,  if  the  paradox  may  be  allowed,  a  democra- 


.system  of  government  which  gives  great  latitude  to  its 
head.  It  is  still  more  the  product  of  a  democratic  political 
philosophy.  For  all  his  aloofness,  Mr.  Wilson  has  an 
almost  uncanny  power  of  appraising  the  popular  mind. 
Mr  Roosevelt  moulded  and  used  public  opinion  while 
in  the  White  House  with  consummate  skill.  But 
his  methods  were  very  human  and  very  understandable. 
He  dominated  by  industr}',  by  the,indefatigable  pursuit  of 
knowledge,,  by  ceaseless  advertisement  of  himself  and 
his  opinions,  and  by  the  appeal  of  the  most  compelling 
of  characters.  Mr.-  Wilson  dominates  by  instinct.  He  is 
strong  partly  because  he  is  unbendingly  sure  of  himself, 
but  still  more  because  he  correctly  appraises  the  public 
mind,  because  he  is  in  personal  sympathj'  with  its  fears, 
prejudices,  and  ideals.  He  has  also  in  his  quietly 
spectacular  way  known  how  to  appeal  to  its  imagination. 

"The  Professor  in   Politics" 

The  present  Democratic  Government  was,  it  will  be 
remembered,  thrown  into  power  in  1912  by  a  wave  of 
liberal  and  radical  reaction  against  the  hidebound  con- 
servatism of  the  old  RepubHcan  party.  The  people 
were  in  a  mood  to  applaud  any  broom  that  would  sweep 
clean.  They  were  sick  of  the  administrative  methods 
of  the  Republican  gang  and  above  all  of  a  Congress  of 
plutocratic  tendencies.  Mr.  Wilson  saw  his  chance. 
Directly  he  entered  office  he  scandalised  the  political 
world  by  reading  his  messages  in  person  to  Congress  in- 
stead of  sending  them  to  the  Capitol  by  a  clerk.  He 
followed  this  up  by  constituting  himself  the  Parliamentary 
leader  of  his  party.  Applause  greeted  what  in  any  other 
President  would  have  been  fearfully  dubbed  an  imperial 
extension  of  executive  power,  a  dislocation  of  the  cher- 
ished checks  and  balances  of  the  Constitution.  "  The 
Professor  in  Politics  "  was  succeeding. 

By  August,  1914,  a  (then  unsuspectedly)  complete 
contact  had  been  established  between  the  White  House 
and'the  majority  of  the  electorate.  The  President  had 
reduced  to  its  logical  conclusion  the  modern  liberal  tenet 
that  Governments  should  follow  the  popular  will  and 
should  reserve  leadership  for  their  party  organisation. 
Through  him  the  Liberalism  of  the  country  dominated 
the  Government.  His  shortcomings,  whether  praise- 
worthy or  the  reverse,  were  forgotten  in  pleasure  at  a 
leader  who  titillated  the  imagination  by  his,  in  domestic 
affairs,  successful  idealism.  His  diplomacy  when  the  war 
started  was  equally  in  accord  with  the  popular  as  opposed 
to  the  sophisticated  view.  Trained  by  their  fathers  in 
the  creed  that  tradition  and  expediency  alike  bade  the 
United  States  remain  uncomfortably  aloof  from  European 
affairs,  they  looked  upon  the  contest  just  as  the  average 
Liberal  voter  at  home  looked  upon  the  Balkan  war. 
It  w'as  a  tragic  and  regrettable  incident,  Prussian 
savagery  w'as  abominable  and  should  be  stigmatised  as 
such  :  but  it  could  not  after  all  concern  intimately  the 
Republics  of  the  New  World  if  Europe  was  imlucky 
enough  to  be  plunged  into  chaos  by  the  muddling  of 
effete  monarchies  and  selfish  autocracies.  To  this  view 
the  President  subscribed  officially.  Hence  his  Pro- 
clamation in  August.-  1914,  counselling  neutrality  in 
thought  as  well  as  practice. 

Again  in  the  Lusitania,  Arabic  and  other  submarine 
contro\^ersics  with  Germany,  Mr.  Wilson  represented 
the  United  States  better  than  those  controversial  patriots 
who  proclaimed  that  such  crimes  and  insults  should  be 
punished  by  arms.  Possibly  after  the  Lusitania  his 
■personal  passion  for  peace  was  for  a  moment  the 
dominating  factor.  Under  the  shock  of  the  news  public 
opinion  seemed  to  \'ibrate  between  peace  and  war  until 
he  by  his  "  too  proud  to  fight  "  speech  came  out  for 
peace  ;  but  apart  from  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his 
submarine  diplomacy  was  what  the  United  States 
public  wanted. 

It  wasthe*same  regarding  the  peace  talk  of  the  winter. 
Mr.  Wilson  was  abused  as  a  megalomaniac  w^ho  thought 
that  he  had  only  to  speak  to  become  mediator  ;  he  was 
accused   of  being  under  the  Prussian   thumb  ;   he  was 


,i 1      -u.. 


„i„1 ..J 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


April   5,  1917 


national  mitlook  upon  tlic  war.  He  fli.d  not  libel  the 
national  outlook.  He  spoke  once  more  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  tlie  real  Americanism.  He  was  influenced 
by  two  things,  the  knowledge  that  his  people  desired 
peace  for  humanitarian  and  also  material  reasons  and 
txvause  they  feared  rouiplications  it  the  war  rontintied. 
Doubtless,  too,  he  had  passionate  visions  of  a  "  war- 
less  "  world  with  himself  as  its  godfather.  He  would  have 
been  neither  htiman  nor  an  intellectual  l.iberal  had  it 
been  otherwise.  Also  as  A  quasi-pacifist  he  probably 
belie\ed  the  warring  people  "^ere  more  ready  for  peace 
than  their  Cfovernments  allfivved  it  to  appear  and  that  his 
pamphleteering  might  encourage  them  to  make  them- 
selves felt.  But  he  is  not  pro-German  if  he  happens 
in  that  respect  -to  have  interpreted  current  Teutonic 
yearnings  better  than  the  determination  of  the  Allied 
peoples.  His  address  to  the  Senate  can  be  regarded 
as  the  most  unneutral  document  that  he  has  produced. 
He  enunciated  principles  which  our  rulers  could  accept 
logically  but  the  acceptance  of  which  by  the  rulers  of 
Germany  would  mean  confession  of  defeat.  "  Peace  with- 
out victory  "  simply  meant' that  he  was  urging  the  Allies 
not  to  use  their  victory  ruthlessly.  •  Most  of  the  rest  of 
his  speech  was  devoted  to  showing  Germany  that  he  was 
out  of  svmpatln-  with  her  ]>racticed  policies.  But.  it 
may  be  "objected,  his  reference  to  freedom  of  the  seas 
was  Teutonic  doctrine.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  it  can 
be  so  interpreted  when  read  in  juxtaposition  with  the 
enunciation   of   the  Peace  League  scheme. 

The   Peace   League 

So  far  as  the  United  States  is  concerned  it  is  rnore 
than  doubtful  whether,,  for  years  at  any  rate,  this  or 
any  other  Government  will  be  able  to  make  effective 
American  participation  in  a  Peace  League.  Century  old 
.traditions  about  the  avoidance  of  entangling  alliances 
with  Europe  and  about  the  glorious  isolation  of  the 
hemisphere  do  not  fall  ,o,ve!awght  even  before  the  reper- 
cussion of  such  a  conflict  as  the  present.  Already  the 
Senate  and  a  large  section  of  public  opinion  is  in  anns 
against  the  idea.  But  that  makes  the  President's  peace 
.dream  none  the  less  signili'cant.  It  was  a  bold  and 
imaginative  eftort  to  crvstalUze  constructively  what  Mr. 
Wilson  belie\ed  to  be  the  feeling  of  the  country,  that 
war  is  the  abomination  of  desolation,  a  thing  to  be  shuniied 
at  all  costs.  Having  carefully  followed  public  opinion 
'  in  his  actual  war  diplomacy  he  took  the  liberty  when 
dealing  with  schemes  for  the  future  to  go  a  little  ahead  of  it. 
He  believed  that  he  could  educate  it. 

The  rupture  with  Germany  and  its  aftermath  of 
anxious  and  apparently  purposeless  waiting  must  be 
judged  in  the  same  way.  The  President  dismissed 
Count  von  Bemstorff  because  he  had  no  choice  after  the 
Sussex  note.  He  was  ubiquitously  applauded  for  his 
'decision.  Nobodv  liked  the  possibilty  of  getting  on 
..the  other  cheek  "a  blow  like  that  projected  by  the 
Prussian  proclamation  of  January  31st.  Then  came  a  long 
and  inexplicable  delay.  The  California  was  sunk  and 
nothing  happened  :  the  Turino  was  sunk  and  nothing 
liappened  :  the  American  Ambassador  in.  Berlin  was 
insulted  and  nothing  happened.  American  vessels  were 
hold  in  port  in  deference  to  the  Prussian  blockade.  It 
was  semi-oflicially  stated  that  if  the  war  came  it  would 
only  be  a  state  "of  war,  a  kind  of  "denatured"  war, 
a  war  of  limited  liability  in  which  the  I'nited  States 
would  merely  take  steps  to  protect  her  violated  interests. 
Such  a  war"  may  still  come.  If  it  comes  and  still  more 
if  it  is  avoided,  it  will  be  alike  because  the  President  is  still 
true  to  his  Liberal  conception  of  Government.  He  knows 
that  the  people  do  not  yet  want  to  fight.  He  knows 
that  they  are  suffering  under  an  incubus  of  provincial 
obscurantism  and  individualistic  materialism.  He  knows 
that  the  West  is  still  not  vitally  interested  in  the  war  ; 
that  Prussian  aspirations  seem  unreal  to  those  whose 
horizon  is  always  the  prairies  and  the  mountains  and  never 
the  seas,  and  that  in  places  where  Ulysses  might  have 
planted  his  oar  the  idea  of  bloodshed  on  behalf  of  those 
who  have  been  foolish  enough  to  go  down  to  dangerous 
waters,  probably  in  the  "  floating  palaces "  of  alien 
steamship  lines,  ">;eems  strangely  impossible.  He  knows 
in  fact  that  the  voices  of  those  who  clamour  for  war  and 
bora+e  his  b.g.gard  tendencies  represent  the  American 
democracy  no"  more  than  Lord  Roberts  and  his  group 


represented  ours  four  years  ago.  If  your  readers  want 
(  old  facts  instead  of  generalizations,  let  them  ponder  the 
election  returns  of  last  November.  They  will  find  that 
President  Wilson  was  carried  back  into  power,  by  a  small 
margin,  it  is  true,  but  against  an  undivided  ojjposition 
nopmaliy  vastly  stronger  than  his  party  by  the  appeal 
of  the  cries  "  Hi^  kTpt  us  out  of  the  war  "and  "  Peace  and 
]irosperity  with  Wilson,  war  and  misery  with  Hughes." 

An  unedifying  state  of  affairs  perhaps.  But  can  we  quar- 
rel with  it  ?  What  would  have  happen^  in  August,  1914. 
hadXiermany  had  the  sense  to  leaVe*>'BeIgium  inviolate, 
had  our  co-operation  with  France  and  Russia  been  pos- 
tulated by  nothing  more  solid  than  a  \-aguely  apprehended 
expediency  and  by  equally  vague  references  to  the  need 
of  seBving  humanity,  'ihe  President's  leadership  might 
have  been  at  fault.  A  Roosevelt  with  his  Sense  of  large 
issues,  his  cospomolitanism,  and  liis .compelling  character 
might  have  been  the  betlicr  man  for  the  crisis.  That  is 
a  question  which  political  psychologists  may  be  allowed 
to  wrangle  over.  The  immediate  pwint  is  that  the 
President  has  not,  according  to  his  lights,  done  so  badly 
as  his  critics  on  both  sides  of  the  waiter  think.  He  has 
represented  consistently  the  opinion  of  his  country. 
He  has  led  it  in  the  right  direction,  albeit  slowly.  Take 
his  Peace  League  address  to  the  Senate  with  its  realiza- 
tion of  tjic  world  responsibilities  of  the  United  States, 
of  her  direct  interest  in  the  issues  if  not  so  much  in  the 
issues  of  the  war,  and  compare  it  with  the  above- 
mentioned  proclamation  of  August,  1914. 

Mtich  of  course  remains  to  be  done.  Unless  Prussian 
pirates  again  apply  the  goad  of  sheer  and  spectacular 
savagery  and  stir  public  opinion,  it  is  quite  possible 
that  whether  peace  is  preserved  or  a  "  state  of  war  " 
declared,  people  at  home  will  be  disappointed  by  the  upshot 
of  the  crisis.  If  so.  they  should  not  blame  the  President. 
Tlic  fault  lies  rather  with  the  geograj^hical  position  of  the 
United  States  and  with  the  traditions  of  aloofness  that  it 
has  engendered,  and  with  the  accident  that  Liberalism 
is  in  the  ascendancy  here,  the.sante  kind  of  Liberahsm 
that  took  us,  after  some  days  of  shameful  hesitation, 
unjM-epared  into  the  war.  "  If  the  Allies  go  down." 
Ml",  Wilson  is  reported  to  have  said<#t  the  beginning  of 
the  conflict  "  it  will  be  all  over  with  the  ideals  that  have 
made  my  career  worth  while."  The  remark  may  be 
apocryphal ;  but  there  can  be  little  dpubt  that  it  repre- 
sents the  view  that  has  steadily  underlain  his  official 
neutrality.  It  is  a  view  that  will  probably  get  freer  play 
in  the  future,  always  with  the  limitations  imposed  by  the 
fact  that  as  a  Mid- Victorian  Liberal  of  Wordsworthiau 
tendencies,  Mr.  Wilson  feels  bound  to  represent  in  his 
policies  and  not  outstrip  in  actualities  the .  will  of  a 
country  which  the  echoes  of  the  war  are  only  just  causing 
to  turn  on  its  transatlantic  couch.  The  President,  there 
is  reason  to  believe,  realizes  very  clearly  what  is  at  stake 
in  Europe  for  the  world  and  for  the  United  States,  but 
he  realizes  also  that,  autocrat -as  he  is,  his  power  is  based 
on  his  ability  not  to  lead  but  to  interpret  and  shepherd 
into  something  useful  the  conflicting  ideals  and  traditions 
of  a  people  still  largely  \Vorld  ignorant. 


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AMERICA'S   SELF  REVELATION 
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By  Edmond  Holmes 

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By   Mrs.  J.   N.  Ouddington 
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April  5,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


17 


THE  new!  fur. relaxation  in  these  strenuous  times 
is  shown  by  the  growing  demand  at  the  Utwaries 
for  fiction  of  all  kiixls.  Very  few  men  and  w  omen 
to-day  hi^vc  the  time  for  serious  reading, 
and  fewer  still' .liayt;;  the  ineUnation  to  read  anything 
Mhich  does  not  take  their  minds  off  the  tasks  ai>d  anxieties 
of  the  war.  Lutf,jjs  sample  some  of  tlie  lighta-  fare 
that  the  new  publishing  season  is   providing. 

;|c  _       *  *  *  * 

There  is  much  enthusiasm,  esjiccially  amongst  women, 
for  the  works  of  Mr..  E.  Temple  Thurston.  He  can  talk 
intimately  with  them  about  things  which  even  the  most 
ardent  Suffragist '  among  us  (and  I  suppose  since  Mr. 
Asquith's  speech  wciare  all,  except  me,  ardent  Suffragists), 
would  sluink  from  discussing  in  their  presence.  And 
the  men  who  would  like  to  be  doing  the  same  if  they 
dared  also  enjoy  his  books.  1  admit  I  do,  and  1  iiavc 
enjoyed  few  as  much  as  his  latest,  Enchantment  (TvFi^her 
Unwin,  6s.).  In  this  debonair  romance,  in  which  an 
Irish  gentleman,  too  much  addicted  to  drink,  makes  a 
bargain  with  his  God  which  leads  his  youngest  and  most 
spirited  daughter  to  the  gates  of  a  Convent,  Mr.  Temple 
ThiHston  h^s  put  forth  all  his  powers  (and  they  are  con- 
siderable) of  glamour,  humour  and  sentiment.  The 
Irishman  and  his  stout  serving  women,  to  say  nothing  of 
Father  Casey  and  the  old  wine-merchant  with  a  guilty 
secret,  are  enough  in  themselves  to  give  to  Enchantment 
the  same  popularity  that  was  awarded  to  The  City  -of 
Beautiful  Nunsense.  ..'.    . 

•sr"  J.     *  *  *  * 

Mrs.  Perrin'sldtnirable  novels  of  Anglo-Indian  life 
appeal  to  a  different  class '  of  reader  to  that  affected 
b}' .  Mr.  Temple  Thurston's  more  flamboyant  work. 
Her  latest  book  Sepaiatioti  (Cassell  and  Co.,  6s.),  is  a 
good  example  of  her  restrained  and  effective  workman- 
ship and  of  her  power  of  presenting  a  life-like  pictiire  of 
certain  social  conditions.  Take,  for  example,  her  pipture 
of  the  household  of  the  unfortunate  Guy  Basiiett'.s 
mother-in-law  in  Kensington,  'and  her  picture  ofi  the 
'  half-caste'^  estate  in  India,  and  note  how  vivid  ana  how 
distinct  each  picture  is  and  how  well  her  spirit  of  cbmedy 
]:)lays  on  the  salient  features  of  each.  The  theme  of  the 
book,  the  difficulties  of  a  husband  whose  work  takes 
him  to  India  whither  his  wife  refuses  to  go  after  one 
experiment,  has  possibilities  which  Mrs.  Perrin  makes 
good  use  of.  The  book,  holds  one's  interest  as  soon 
as  the  persons  of  the  tale  liave  been  properly  introduced. 

Sfl  •!£  *  'P  'P 

So  much  for  novelists  known  to    the    public.     Here 
are  two  writers  of  first  novels  who  remind  me  of  what  I 


had  to  say  the  other  day,  apropos  of  Miss  Clemcnce 
Dane's  remarkable  Rc^iinent  vj  Women.  Zella  Sees 
Herself,  by  E.  M.  Delafield  (Heinemann,  6s.  net),  is 
certainly  another  of  those  fifst  novels  that  sets  the 
reader  w  ondering  whether  a  new  star  of  the  first  magni- 
tude has  arisen  in  the  fimianieijt  of  literature.  It  is  a 
striking  study  of  a  young  gi?!,. whose  desire  to  shine  in 
whatever  surroundings  stie  finds  herself  leads  to  an 
almost  complete  atrophy  of  her  own  real  persopajity. 
Some  of  the  satire  of  the  book  is  admirable,  and  in  the 
egregious  parson,  Gifesley,  in  Red  Pottage,  I  have  come 
across  no  character  study  of  its  kind  so  well  sustained 
and  so  truly  comic  in  couception  as  this  new  author's 
;Mrs.  Lloyd  Evans.  She  iij  the  quintessence  of  all  that 
is  banal  in  an  aunt;  and  I  salute  the  writer  who  has 
seen  her  so  clearly  and  has. probably  suffered  in  silent 
agony  under  the  relentless  drip  of  her  conversation.  I 
hasten  to  add  that  1  have  no  aunt  at  all  like  Mrs.  Lloyd 
Evans  !  The  study  of  life  in  a  Convent  school,  where 
Zella  is  converted,  or  rather  converts  herself,  to  the  faith 
of  her  companions  ;  is  another  interesting  and  effective 
piece  of  work.  In  shorty  Zella  Sees  Herself  is  one  of  the 
first  novels  one  reads  and,  iL there  is  time,  reads  again. 

The  Stars  in  their  Courses,  b,y  Hilda  M.  Sharp  (Fisher 
Unwin,  6s.) ,  seems  at  first  sight  to  be  an  exception  to  the 
rule  that  first  novels  interest  as  much  by  what  they 
promise  as  by  what  they  achieve.  It  is  really  the  famous 
exception  that  proves  the  rule.  There  is  a  kind  of 
achievement  that  promises  little.  Here  is  a  novel  on 
conventional  lines,  written  with  the  ease  and  confidence 
that  usually  mark  experience  rather  than  experiment. 
There  is  no  erratic  brilliance  from  which  much  may  be 
hoped  for.  It  is  just  a  good  I'cadable  novel  wliich  miglit 
as  well  be  the  author's  fifth  as  her  first. 
*         *        *        *        * 

A  true  love  of  natm-e  and^some  power  of  observation 
are  to  be  found  in  J.  C.  Lynn's  Birds  in  a  Wood  (Duck- 
worth, 5s.  net),  the  book  being  named  after  whatsis 
certainly  the  best  of  a  collectipn  of  little  essays  on  out- 
of-door  life.  Mr.  Lynn  sees  with  a  poet's  eye,  as  when 
he  thus  describes  a  troop  of  gold-crests  flitting  through 
a  wood  :  "  They  are  like  dead  leaves  blown  off  by  a 
gust  of  wind,  sported  with  by  the  elements."  Some- 
times his  effects  are  blurred  by  too  much  detail, 
sometimes  by  careless  writing.  Perhaps  it  may  be  the 
fault  of  the  editor  who  has  prepared  his  soldier-brother's 
book  for  the  press  and  who  is  so  diffident  about  it  that  I 
hesitate  to  find  fault — especially  as  I  have  enjoyed  a 
book  that  smacks  so  sweetly  of  the  English  country  side. 


N.B. — See  pa^e  5. 


.NEWSAGENTS. 


1917 


or  "Che  "Proprietors  of  LAND  &  WATER, 

5,  Chancery  Lane,  London,  W.C  2. 

T^lease   deliver  "  Lar^d  &  Water  "   weekly  ^ritil  further  notice  to  the  following 

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i8 


LAiND    &    WATER 


A  pril  5,  iyi7 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

[Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  MattosI 


K.H AFTER    A'/v 

ON  the  evening  of  the  day  of  Essares  suicide  Patrice 
was  pacing  the  Ouai  dcPassy.  It  was  nearly  six 
o'clock.  From  time  to  time,  a  tram-car  passed,  or 
some  motor-lorry.  There  were  very  few  jx^ople 
about  on  foot.  I'atrice  had  the  pavement  almost  to  himself. 
He  had  not  seen  Don  Luis  Perenna  since  that  morning, 
had  merely  received  a  line  in  which  Don  Luis  asked  him  to 
have  Ya-i3on's  body  moved  into  the  Essares'  house  and 
afterwards  to  meet  him  on  the  quay  above  Berthou's  WTiarf. 
The  time  appointed  for  the  meeting  was  near  at  hand  and 
Patrice  was  looking  forward  to  this  interview  in  which  the  truth 
would  be  revealed  to  him  at  last.  He  partly  guessed  the 
truth,  but  no  little  darkness  and  any  number  of  unsolved 
problems  remained.  The  tragedy  was  played  out.  The 
curtain  had  fallen  on  the  villain's  death.  AH  was  well, 
there  was  nothing  more  to  fear,  no  more  pitfalls  in  store  for 
them.  The  formidable  enemy  was  laid  low.  But  Patrice's 
anxiety  was  intense  as  he  waited  for  the  moment  when  light 
would  be  cast  freely  and  fully  upon  the  tragedy. 

"  A  few  words,"  he  said  to  himself,  "  a  few  words  from 
that  incredible  person  known  as  Arscne  Lupin,  will  clear  up 
the  mystery.  It  will  not  take  him  long.  He  will  bu  gone  in 
an  hour.  Will  he  take  the  secret  of  the  gold  with  him,  I 
wonder  ?  Will  he  solve  the  secret  of  the  Golden  Triangle  for 
me  ?  And  how  will  he  keep  the  gold  for  himself  ?  How  will 
he  take  it  away  ?  " 

A  motor-car  arrived  from  the  direction  of  the  Trocadero. 
It  slowed  down  and  stopped  beside  the  pavement.  It  must 
be  Don  Luis,  thought  Patrice.  But,  to  his  great  surprise, 
he  recognised  M.  JIassefon,  who  opened  the  door  and  came 
towards  him  with  outstretched  hand  : 

"Well,  captain,  how  are  you?  I'm  punctual  for  the 
appointment,  am  I  not  ?  But,  I  say,  have  you  been  wounded 
in  the  head  again  ?  " 

"Yes,  an  accident  of  no  importance."  replied  Patrice. 
'"'  But  what  appointment  are  you  speaking  of  ?  " 

"  Why,  the  one  you  gave  me  of  course  !  " 

"  I  gave  you  no  appointment." 

"  Oh,  I  say  !  "  said  M.  Masseron.  "  What  does  this  mean  ? 
Why,  here's  the  note  they  brought  me  at  the  police-office  : 
'  Captain  Belval's  compliments  to  M.  Masseron.  The  problem 
of  the  Golden  Triangle  is  solved.  The  eighteen  hundred  bags 
are  at  his  disposal.  Will  he  please  come  to  the  Ouai  de 
Passy,  at  six  o'clock,  with  full  powers  from  the  Government 
to  accept  the  conditions  of  delivery.  It  would  be  well  if  he 
brought  with  him  twenty  powerful  detectives,  of  whom  half 
should  be  posted  a  hundred  yards  on  one  side  of  the  Essares' 
projjertv  and  the  other  half  on  the  other.'  There  you  are. 
Is  it  clear  ?  " 

'  Perfectly  clear,"  said  Patrice,  "  but  I  never  sent  you  thdt 
note." 

'  Who  sent  it  then  ?  " 

"  An  extraordinary  man  who  deciphered  all  those  problems 
like  so  many  children's  riddles  and  who  certainly  will  be  here 
himself  to  bring  us  the  solution." 

"  What's  his  name  ?  " 

"  I  shan't  say." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know  about  that !  Secrets  arc  hard  to  keep 
in  war  time." 

'  Very  easy,  on  the  contrary,  sir,"  said  a  voice  behind  M. 
Masseron.     "  All  you  need  do  is  to  make  up  your  mind  to  it." 

M.  Masseron  and  Patrice  turned  round  and  saw  a  gentleman 
dressed  in  a  long  black  overcoat,  cut  hke  a  frock  coat,  and  a 
tall  collar  which  gave  him  a  look  of  an  English  clergyman. 

"  This  is  the  friend  I  was  speaking  of,"  said  Patrice, 
though  he  had  some  difficulty  in  recognizing  Don  Luis.  "  He 
twice  saved  niy  life  and  also  that  of  the  lady  whom  I  am 
going  to  marry.     I  will  answer  for  him  in  e\ery  respect." 

M.  Masseron  bowed  :  and  Don  Luis  at  once  began,  speaking 
with  a  slight  accent : 

"  Sir,  your  time  is  valuable  and  so  is  mine,  for  I  am  leaving 
Paris  to-night  and  France  to-morrow.  My  explanation 
therefore  will  be  brief.  .1  will  pass  over  the  drama  itself, 
of  which  you  have  followed  the  main  vicissitudes  so  far.  It 
came  to  an  end  this  morning.  Captain  Belval  will  tell  you 
all  about  it.  I  will  merely  add  that  our  poor  Ya-Bon  is  dead 
and  that  you  will  find  three  other  bodies  ;  that  of  Gregoiri'. 
whose  real  name  was  Mme.  Mosgranem,  in  the  barge  over 
tliere  :  that  of  Vacherot.  a  hall-porter,  in  some  corner  of  a 


block  of  flats  at  iS,  Rue  Guimart  ;  and  lastly  the  body  of 
Simeon  Diodokis,  in  Dr.  Gerddec's  ])rivate  hospital  on  the 
Boulevard  de  ^Montmorency." 

"  Old  Simeon  ?  "  asked  M.  Masseron  in  great  surprise. 
"  Old  Simeon  has  kijled  himself.  Captain  Belval  will  give 
you  every  possible  information  about  the  ]x-rson  and  his 
real  identity  ;  and  I  think  vou  will  agree  with  me  that  this 
business  will  have  to  be  hushed  up.  But.  as  I  said,  we  will 
pass  over  all  this.  There  remains  the  question  of  the  gold, 
which,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  interests  vou  more  than  anything 
else.  ^  Have  you  brought  your  men  .'  " 

'  Yes,  I  have.  But  why  ?  The  hiding-place,  even  after 
you  have  told  me  where  it  is,  will  be  what  it  was  before,  un- 
discovered by  those  who  do  not  know  it." 

"  Certainly ;  but,  as  the  number  of  those  who  do  know  it 
increases,  the  secret  may  slip  out.  In  any  case  that  is 
one  of  my  two  conditions." 

^1  As  you  see,  it  is  accepted.     \Vliat  is  the  other  ?  " 
"  A  more  serious  condition,  sir,  so  serious  indeed  that, 
whatever  powers  may  have  been  conferred  upon  you,  I  doubt 
whether  they  will  be  sufficient." 
"  Let  me  hear  ;  then  we  shall  see." 
"  Very  well." 

And  Don  Luis,  speaking  in  a  phlegmatic  tone,  as  though 
he  Nvere  telling  the  most  unimportant  story,  calmly  set  forth 
his'  increchble  projXK^al : 

"Two  months  ago.  sir,  thanks  to  my  connection  with  the 
Near  East  and  to  my  influence  in  certain  Ottoman  circles. 
I  persuaded  the  clique  which  rules  Turkey  to-day  to  accept 
the  idea  of  a  separate  peace.  It  was  simply  a  question  of  a 
few  hundred  millions  for  distribution.  I  had  the  offer  trans- 
mitted to  the  Allies,  who  rejected  it,  certainly  not  for  financial 
•  reasons,  but  for  reasons  of  policy,  which  "it  is  not  for  me 
to  judge.  But  I  am  not  content  to  suffer  this  httle  dip- 
lomatic check.  I  failed  in  my  first  negotiation  ;  I  do  not 
mean  to  fail  in  the  second.  That  is  why  I  am  taking  my 
precautions." 

He  paused  and  then  resumed,  while  liis  voice  took  on  a 
rather  more  serious  tone  : 

"  At  this  moment,  in  April  1915,  as  you  are  well  aware, 
conferences  are  in  progress  between  the  Allies  and  the  last 
of  the  great  European  powers  that  has  remained  neutral. 
These  conferences  are  going  to  succeed  ;  and  they  will  succeed 
Ijecause  the  future  of  that  power  demands  it  and  because  the 
whole  nation  is  uplifted  with  enthusiasm.  Among  the  questions 
raised  is  one  which  forms  the  object  of  a  certain  divergency 
of  opinion,  I  mean  the  question  of  money.  Tliis  foreign 
|X)wer  is  asking  us  for  a  loan  of  three  hundred  million  francs 
in  gold,  while  making  it  quite  clear  that  a  refiisal  on  our  part 
would  in  no  way  affect  a  decision  which  is  already  irre\ocably 
taken.  Well,  I  have  three  hundred  millions  in  gold  ;  I  ha\e 
them  at  my  disposal ;  and  1  desire  to  place  them  at  the  dis- 
posal of  our  Allies.  This  is  my  second  and,  in  reality,  my  only 
condition." 
M'.  Masseron  seemed  utterly  taken  aback  ; 
"  But,  my  dear  sir,"  he  said,  "  these  are  matters  quite 
outside  our  province  ;  they  must  be  examined  and  decided 
by  others,  not  by  us." 

"  Everyone  has  the  right  to  dispose  of  his  money  as  he 
pleases." 
M.  Masseron  made  a  gesture  of  distress. 
A  hand  was  laid  on  his  arm  by  some  one  who  had  come  up 
a  moment  before  and  who  had  listened  to  Don  Luis'  little 
speech.     Its  owner  had  alighted  from  a  car  which  was  waiting 
some   way   of ;     and,    to   Patrice's   great   astonishment,    his^ 
presence  had  aroused  no  opposition  on  the  part  of  either  M. 
Masseron  or  Don  Luis  Perenna.     He  was  a  man  well-advanced 
in  years,  with  a  powerful,  lined  face; 

"  My  dear  Masseron,"  he  said,  "  it  seems  to  me  that  you 
are  not  looking  at  the  question  from  the  right  point   of  view." 
"  That's  what  I  think,   monsieur  le  president,"  said  Don 
Luis. 
"  Ah,  do  you  know  me,  sir  ?  " 

"  M.  Valenglay,  I  believe  ?  I  had  the  honour  of  calling 
on  you  some  years  ago,  sir,  when  you  were  president  of  the 
council." 

"  Yes,  I  thought  I  remembered  .  .  .  though  I  can  t 
say  exactly.     .     .     ." 

"  Hease  don't  tax  your  memory,  sir.    The  past  does  not 
(  Continued  on  *rtP«  20) 


April 


1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


The  Worst  Enemy 

The  soldier  has  to  face  is  not  the  Boche,  but  Weather — the  insidious 
foe  that  is  ever  on  the  alert  to  deal  a  deadly  blow.  Though  its 
methods  of  attack  are  many,  THE  BURBERRY  TRENCH-WARM 
is  more  than  a  match  for  them  all. 

It  is  designed  in  two  parts,  each  of  which  can  be  worn  separately 
or  together,  according  to  the  needs  of  the  moment,  and  thus  supplies 
the  services  of  three  overcoats  in  the  one  garment. 

The  outside  is  made  in  such  durable,  weatherproof  material — the 
same  as  worn  by  Sir  Ernest  Shackleton's  Expedition  as  a  pro- 
tection against  the  intense  cold  and  gales  of  the  Antarctic  regions — 
that  it  successfully  keeps  out  any  wet  that  falls,  or  wind  that  blows 

Unlike  coats  loaded  with  oiled-silk,  rubber  and  like  air-tight  fabrics, 
which  produce  excessive  heat  on  the  slightest  exertion,  it  is  perfectly 
self-ventilating,  and  as  comfortable  to  wear  on  mild  days,  as  in 
drenching  weather. 

The  inside  is  of  luxuriously  soft,  thick  Camel  Fleete.  Worn  alone, 
this  detachable  lining  forms  a  capital  British  Warm — snug  and 
warming  on  cold  days,  yet  extremely  hght. 

Together,  these  two  garments  make  the  finest  campaigning  coat 
obtainable.  A  safeguard  that  says  "  No  "  to  wintry  blizzards, 
torrents  of  rain  or  storms  of  snow,  as  readily  as  it  does  to  a  light 
April  shower. 

Apart  from  weather-resistance.  THE  BURBERRY  TRENCH- 
WARM  is  workmanlike  in  every  detail.  Smart  and  soldierly  in 
appearance,  and  stout  enough  to  withstand  the  roughest  wear  right 
to  the  end  of  the  campaign,  whether  it  lasts  three  years  or . 


FORXMASON 


MAROHING 


This  Marching  Boot  is  as  soft 
as  a  slipper,  very  strong,  and 
I  lb.  to  I  lb.  lighter  than  any 
similar  boot.  Special  wear- 
resisting  soles.  Worn  by 
thousands  of  Officers  at  the 
Front.  Sizes  lOi  upwards 
5/-  per  pair  extra. 


per  pur. 


The      FORTNUM  "    French 
Field    Service    Boot. 

An  improvement  on  the  old  Field  Boot.       The 

soles  are  F.  &  M's  famous  wear-resisting  leather.   ^  f)  *  fi  *  0 

The  leg  part  is  c.f  best  supple  curried  hide  and  *    .  * 


of  great  strength, 
pair  extra. 


Sizes  \0k  upwards  7/6  per    •  Per  pair. 


A  wide  range  of  Slippers  ;  also  Boots  and 
Shoes  to  wear  with  Stacks  are  k^pl  in  stock. 


FORTNUM  &  MASON, 

l.TD,« 

182     Piccadilly,     London,     W.  1. 


Illuitrated 
Naval  or 
Military 
Catalogues 
Post  Free 


cers 


Com  pi  etc 

Kits   in   2 

to  4  Days 

Ready 

Use. 


SERVICE 
WEATHER- 
PROOFS. 

During  the  War 
BUR8ERRYS 
CLE*N  AND 
RE  -  PROOF 

0!hcers'  "  Bur. 
berrys,"  Tielock. 
ens,  Bucfrons, 
and  Barberry 
Treocb-Warms 

FREE  OF 

CHARf.e 


h'cerj/  Burierrv  Garment 
is    lal)elled  "Butberrys." 


RITPRITDDVQ     Haymarket 
DUKt5ll.KKlO     LONDON 

8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS;  and  Provincial  Agents 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  5,   1917 


{Continued  from  page  18) 
concern  us.     What  matters  is  that  you  should  be  of  my 
opinion." 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  am  of  your  opinion.  But  I  consider 
that  this  makes  no  difference.  And  that  is  what  I  was  tclhng 
you,  my  dear  Masseron.  It's  not  a  question  of  knowmg 
whether  you  ought  to  discuss  this  gentleman's  conditions. 
It's  a  question  of  accepting  them  or  refusing  them  witliout 
discussion.  There's  no  bargain  to  be  driven  in  the  circum- 
stances. A  bargain  presupposes  that  each  party  has  some- 
thing to  offer.  Now  we  have  no  offer  to  make,  whereas  this 
gentleman  comes  with  his  offer  in  his  hand  and  says,  '  Would 
you  like  three  hundred  million  francs  in  gold  ?  In  that  case 
you  must  do  so-and-so  with  it.  If  that  doesn't  suit  you, 
good-evening.'     That's  tlie  position,  isn't  it,  Masseron  ?  " 

"  Yes,  monsieur  le  president." 

"  Well,  can  you  dispense  with  our  friend  here  ?  Can  you 
without  his  assistance,  find  the  place  where  the  gold  is  hidden. 
Observe  that  he  makes  things  very  easy  for  you,  by  bringing 
you  to  the  place  and  almost  pointing  out  the  exact  spot  to 
you.  Is  th^t  enough  ?  Have  you  any  hope  of  discovering 
the  secret  which  you  have  been  seeking  for  weeks  and 
months  ?  " 

M.  Masseron  was  very  frank  in  his  reply  : 

"  No,  monsieur  le  president,"  he  said,  plainly  and  without 
hesitation. 

It  was  a  solemn  moment.  The  four  men  were  standing 
close  together,  like  acquaintances  who  have  met  in  the  course 
of  a  walk  and  who  stop  for  a  minute  to  exchange  their  news. 
Valenglay,  leaning  with  one  arm  on  the  parapet  overlooking 
the  lower  quay,  had  his  face  turned  to  the  river  and  kept 
raising  and  lowering  his  cane  above  a  sand-heap.  Patrice 
and  M.  Masseron  stood  silent,  with  faces  a  Uttle  set. 

Don  Luis  gave  a  laugh  : 

"  Don't  be  too  sure,  monsieur  le  president,"  he  said,  "  that 
1  shall  make  the  gold  rise  from  the  ground  with  a  magic 
wand  or  show  you  a  cave  in  which  the  bags  lie  stacked.  I 
always  thought  those  words,  'The  Golden  Triangle, '  misleading, 
because  they  suggest  something  mysterious  and  fabulous. 
Now,  according  to  me  it  was  simply  a  question  of  the  space 
containing  the  gold,  which  space  would  have  the  shape  of  a 
triangle.  The  Golden  Triangle,  that 's  it :  bags  of  gold  arranged 
in  a  triangle,  a  triangular  site.  The  reahty  is  much  simpler, 
therefore  ;    and  you  will  perhaps  be  disappointed." 

"  I  shan't  be,"  said  Valenglay,  "  if  you  put  me  with  my  face 
towards  the  eighteen  hundred  bags  of  gold." 

"  You're  that  now,  sir  !  " 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Exactly  what  I  say.  Short  of  touching  the  bags  of  gold, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  be  nearer  to  them  than  you  are." 

For  all  his  self-control,  Valenglay  could  not  conceal  his 
surprise  : 

"  You  are  not  suggesting,  I  suppose,  that  I  am  walking  on 
gold  and  that  we  have  only  to  lift  up  the  flags  of  the  pave- 
ment or  to  break  down  this  parapet  ?  " 

"  That  would  be  removing  obstacles,  sir,  whereas  there  is  no 
obstacle  between  you  and  what  you  are  seeking." 

"  No  obstacle  1  " 

"  None,  monsieur  le  president,  for  you  have  only  to  make 
the  least  little  movement  in  order  to  touch  the  bags." 

"  The  least  little  movement  1  "  said  Valenglay,  mechanically 
repeating  Don  Luis'  words. 

"  I  call  a  little  movement  what  one  can  make  without  an 
effort,  almost  without  stirring,  such  as  dipping  one's  stick 
into  a  sheet  of  water,  for  instance,  or.     .     .     ." 

"  Or  what  ?  "  ' 

"  Well,  or  a  heap  of  sand." 

Valenglay  remained  silent  and  impassive,  with  at  most  a 
alight  shiver  passing  across  his  shoulders.  He  did  not  make 
the  suggested  movement.  He  had  no  need  to  make  it.  He 
understood. 

The  others  also  did  not  speak  a  word,  struck  dumb  by  the 
simpUcity  of  the  amazing  truth  which  had  suddenly  flashed 
upon  them  like  hghtning.  And,  amid  this  silence,  unbroken 
by  protest  or  sign  of  incredulity,  Don  Luis  went  on  quietly 
talking : 

"  If  you  had  the  least  doubt,  monsieur  le  president — and  I 
see  that  you  have  not — you  would  dig  your  cane,  no  great 
distance,  twenty  inches  at  most,  and  you  would  then 
encounter  a  resistance  which  would  compel  you  to  stop. 
That  is  the  bags  of  gold.  There  ought  to  be  eighteen  hun- 
dred of  them  ;  and,  as  you  see,  they  do  not  make  an  enormous 
heap.  A  kilogram  of  minted  gold  represents  three  thousand 
one  hundred  francs.  Therefore,  according  to  my  calculation, 
a  bag  containing  approximately  fifty  kilograms,  or  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-five  tliousand  francs  done  up  in  rouleaux  of  a 
thousand  francs,  is  not  a  very  large  bag.  Piled  one  against 
the  other  and  one  on  top  of  the  other,  the  bags  represent  a 
bulk  of  about  fifteen  cubic  yards,  no  more.  If  you  shape  the 
mtss  roughly  like  a  triangular  pyramid  you  will  have  a  base 


each  of  whose  sides  would  be  three  yards  long  at  most,  and 
three  yards  and  a  half  allowing  for  the  space  lost  between 
the  rouleaux  of  coins.  The  height  will  be  that  of  the  wall 
nearly.  Cover  the  whole  with  a  layer  of  sand  and  you  have 
the  heap  which  lies  before  your  eyes     .     .     ." 

Don  Luis  paused  once  more  before  continuing : 

"  And  which  has  been  there  for  months,  monsieur  le 
pri^sident,  safe  from  discovery  not  only  by  those  who  were 
looking  for  it,  but  also  by  accident  on  the  part  of  a  casual 
passer-by.  Just  think,  a  heap  o-  sand  !  Who  would  dieam 
of  digging  a  hole  in  it  to  see  what  is  going  on  in^^ide  ?  The 
dogs  sniff  at  it,  the  children  play  beside  it  and  make  mud- 
pies,  an  occasional  tramp  lies  down  against  it  and  takes  a 
snooze.  The  rain  softens  it,  the  sun  hardens  it,  the  snow 
whitens  it  all  over  ;  but  all  this  happens  on  the  surface,  in 
the  part  that  shows.  Inside  reigns  impenetrable  mystery, 
darkness  unexplored.  There  is  not  a  hiding  place  in  the 
world  to  equal  the  inside  of  a  sand  heap  exposed  to  view 
in  a  public  place.  The  man  who  thought  of  using  it  to  hide 
three  hundred  millions  of  gold,  monsieur  le  president,  knew 
what  he  was  about." 

The  late  prime  minister  had  listened  to  Don  Luis'  ex- 
planation without  interrupting  him.  When  Don  Luis  had 
finished,  Valenglay  nodded  his  head  once  or  twice  and  said  : 

"  He  did  indeed.  But  there  is  one  man  who  is  cleverer 
still." 

"  I  don't  beheve  it." 

"  Yes,  there's  the  man  who  guessed  that  the  heap  of  sand 
concealed  the  three  hundred  million  francs.  That  man  is 
master,  before  whom  we  must  all  bow." 

Flattered  by  the  compliment,  Don  Luis  raised  his  hat. 
Valenglay  gave  him  his  hand  : 

"  I  can  think  of  no  reward  worthy  of  the  service  which 
you  liave  done  this  country." 

"  I  ask  for  no  reward,"  said  Don  Luis. 

"  I  daresay  sir,  but  I  should  wish  you  at  least  to  be  thanked 
by  voices  that  carry  more  weight  than  mine." 

"  Is  it  really  necessary,  monsieur  le  president  ?  " 

"  1  consider  it  essential.  May  I  also  confess  that  I  am 
curious  to  learn  how  you  discovered  the  secret  ?  I  should 
be  glad,  therefore,  if  you  would  call  at  my  department  in 
an  hour's  time." 

"  I   am  sorry,  but  I  shall  be    gone    in  fifteen  minutes." 

"  No,  no,  you  can't  go  hke  this,"    said  Valenglay. 

After  a  very  civil  bow,  M.  Valenglay  walked  away  to  his 
car,  twirling  his  stick  and  escorted  by  M.  Masseron. 

"  Well,  on  my  soul !  chuckled  Don  Luis.  "  There's  a 
character  for  you !  In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  he  accepts 
three  hundred  millions  in  gold,  and  orders  the  arrest  of 
Arsene  Lupin  !  " 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  cried  Patrice,  startled  out  of  his 
life.     "  Your  arrest  ?  " 

"  Well,  he  orders  me  to  appear  before  him,  to  produce 
my  papers  and  the  devil  knows  what." 

'"  But  that's  monstrous  !  " 

"  It's  the  law  of  the  land,  my  dear  captain.  We  mi«t 
bow  to  it." 

"  But     .     .     ." 

"  Captain,  believe  me  when  I  say  that  a  few  Uttle  worrifc, 
of  this  sort  deprive  me  of  none  of  the  whole-hearted  satis- 
faction which  I  feel  at  rendering  this  great  service  to  ray 
country.  I  wanted,  during  the  war,  to  do  something  for 
France  and  to  make  most  of  the  time  which  I  was  able  to 
devote  to  her  during  my  stay.  I've  done  it.  And  then  I 
have  another  reward  :  the  four  milhons.  For  I  think  highly 
enough  of  your  Coralie  to  believe  her  incapable  of  wisliing 
to  touch  this  money     ...     which  is  really  her  property." 

"  I'll  go  bail  for  her  over  that." 

"  Thank  you."  And  you  may  be  sure  that  the  gift  will 
be  well  employed.  So  everything  is  settled.  I  have  still 
a  few  minutes  to  give  you.  Let  us  turn  them  to  good 
account.  M.  Masseron  is  collecting  his  men  by  now.  To 
simplify  their  task  and  avoid  scandal,  we'll  go  down  to  the 
lower  quay,  by  the  sand-heap.  It'll  be  easier  for  him  to 
collar  me  there." 

"  I  accept  your  few  minutes,"  said  Patrice,  as  they  went 
down  the  steps.   "  But  first  of  all  I  want  to  apologise     .     .     ." 

"  For  what  ?  For  behaving  a  httle  treacherously  and 
locking  me  into  the  studio  of  the  lodge  ?  You  couldn  t  help 
yourself  ;  you  were  trying  to  assist  your  Coralie.  For  think- 
ing me  capable  of  keeping  the  treasure  on  the  day  when 
I  discovered  it  ?  You  couldn't  help  that  either  :  how  could 
you  imagine  that  Arsfene  Lupin  would  despise  three  hundred 
million  francs  ?  "  ^ 

"  Very  well,  no  apologies,"  said  Patrice,  laughing.  '  But 
all  my  thanks."  „       .' 

■'  For  what  ?  For  saving  your  life  and  saving  CoraJie's  ? 
Don't  thank  me.     It's  a  hobby  of  mine,  saving  people." 

[To  be  concluded). 


April  12,  1917 


Supplement  to    LAND    &     WATER 


IX 


OFFICERS* 

RIDING 
BREECHES, 

Successful  breeches-making 
depends  on  the  following 
factors— fine  wear-resisting 
cloths,  skilful  cutting,  care- 
ful, thorough  tailor -work, 
and  adequate  experience. 
All  these  we  guarantee  and 
in  particular  the  last,  for  we 
have  been  breeches-makers 
since  1821,  ninety-six  years 
ago. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs 
of  breeches,  and  are  therefore  often 
able  to  meet  immediate  requirements, 
or  we  can  cut  and  try  a  pair  on  the 
same  day,  and  complete  the  next  day, 
if  urgently  wanted. 


OUR   NEW  ALL- LEATHER    PUTTEES 

NEVER  TEAR  OR  FRA  Y  OUT  LIKE  ORDINARY  PUTTEES 

They  are  made  entirely  of  fine  supple  tan  leather,  and  fasten  simply 
with  one  buckle  at  bottom.  These  most  coratortable  good-looking 
puttees  are  speedily  put  on  or  taken  off,  readily  mould  to  ihe  shape 
of  the  leg,  are  as  easi(y  cleaned  as  a  leather  belt,  and  saddle  soap 
soon  makes  them  practically  waterproof. 

The  price  per  pair  is  16/6_po9t  free  inland,  or  ppstaffe  abroad  lA  extra,  or  sent  on 
approval  on  receipt  of  business  (not  banker's'  reference  and  home  address.  Please 
five  size  of  calf. 


GRANT. .0  COCKBURN 


ESTD.  1821. 


25  PICCADILLY,  W.l 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


T£ 


0 


I 


Wrist  Watch 


With  vnbreakaHe glass  Aluminous  dij! 


PtiCIALLY  built  to  stand  I 
*^     shocks   and    jars   aiiociatcd  with 
Itench  and  avialioti  woik,    the  new  *'  Lj 
and  Water  "  is  bv  far  the  best  wrist  wai 
„i;  who  require    a    reliable   timekeeper.     The   move- 
ment IS  screwed  into  the   specially-built   silver  case 
thus  rendering   the  watch    lar  more  duil-and- damp- 
proof  than   any   other  pattern.      Fitted  w;th  micro- 
meter regulator  for  fine  adiustment  and  compensated  fot 
all  positions  and  temperatures.  Evety  watch  guaranteed. 

With  black  or  white  disd  luminous  hands  and  figures  anr 
.nbreakable  glass     -  -  -  Post     Free   £4 

.r  wiih  btevel  Wfisdet     -  -  Extra,    2«.  6d. 

1—44  STEVEL  WRISTLET  (as  illu8trated)-8e!f 
aojusiable  -  fits  any  size  wrist  or  any  part  of  arm 
Strong  and  durable.  Permits  watch  to  be  turned  over 
and  wuin  lace  downwaids.  thus  doing  away  with  dial 
protectors.  3».   6d.  Post  Free  2s,  9d 


The  '* Appointment    Keeper"   Watch 

With  unbreakable  glass  and  luminous  dial 

U/l  I  H  tKis  watch  one  need  never  depend  upi 
"'  memory  for  punctuality  in  keepmg  appoint- 
raents.  Simply  set  the  watch  to  remind  you,  and  at 
th»  appointed  lime  a  soft,  mellow,  yet  insistent,  re- 
peater-hke  sound  will  compel  your  attention  A. 
perfect  watch  in  every  way  At  night  time  the  back 
of  the  case  opens  so  that  watch  maybe  stood  at  bed 
tide  ready  to  awaken  you  in  the  morning. 

Silver-      -    £5     O     0. 

Oxidized,    £4     4     0. 
Post  Free. 

BIRCH  &GAYDON,  Ltd., 

ir.tich  and  Tteknicat  fniitrum^iif    Mnkri-^ 
to  the  Admiralty, 

153     Fenchurch     Street, 
London,     E1.Cm   3. 

West-end   Branch  — 

\^     Piccadilly     Arcade,    S.W-   I. 

( Late    John    Barwise)' 


«H^n,iflBbHtf>ift.jMi^..^MulRM»f<BMSk.JMk.^M^'^<^^.^BM. 


THE    ORir.lNAL    CORDINCS,    ESTD.     1839. 


A  new  and  trustworthy 

Military   Oilskin    Coat 


We  have  succeeded  in  producing 
a  thoroughly  satisfactory  oilskin 
coat  for  military  (or  civilian) 
wear,  a  shapely  coat  that  will 
stand  the  rough  and  tumble  of 
Active  Service  and  throw  off  any 
lain  which  comes  aloiiy. 

The  inaterial,  in  colour  a  good-loolt- 
iii«  dark  khaki,  goes  through  a 
special  "curing"  process  which  makes 
it  non-adliesivc  ajid  very  supple. 

The  coat  is  cut  with  neat  tan  cloth 
collar,  full  skirt,  leg-loops  and  fan- 
piece  within  deep  button-to-  slit  at 
hack  for  riding,  and  has  a  hroad  fly- 
front,  throuch  which  no  rain,  howver 
violent,  can  arive.  Adjustabie  inner 
tuffs  likewise  prevent  any  water 
entering  the  sleeves. 

Between  the  lining  of  porous  oilskin 
and  the  outer  material  the  air  freely 
circulates,  «o  that  there  is  always 
abundant  ventilation.  The. coat  is 
not  bulky,  an<l  weighs  less  than  41b«. 

For  the  quite  excellent  materiaj  and 
make,  and  in  view  of  pi-esent-day 
dJfBoult.ies  of  production,  iine  well- 
featured  coat  is  obtainable  dertainly 
at  a  very  moderate  outlay. 

Price  47/6. 

Postage  abroad  1/-  extra. 

When  ordering  please  state  height 
and  chest  measure,  and  send  remit- 
tance (which  will  be  returned 
promptly  if  the  coat  is  not  approved), 
or  give  home  address  and  business 
(not  banker's)  reference 


.it  request,  ILLUSTRATED  LIST  of 
Waterproof  Coats,  Boots,  Haversacks 
Portable     Baths,     Basins,  i    A  ir      Beds'. 


WATERPROOFERS 
TD    to  H.M.  the  King. 


J.  C.  CORDING  &  C9. 

Only  Addresses  : 

19 PICCADILLY,  W.l,  &35ST.jamessst.,s.w.i 


THE 


CHEMICO 


IS  unco  tbtedly  the  greatest  an<]  best  life-saving  and 
casualty   minimizing   invention    of   the  War  Era. 
REAP  THIS. 

Copy   of   letter  frotn    Sliee    and    Kennedy,   Ltd , 

18,  Manchester  Road.  Burnley.       Febniary    17th      1917 
.Sir-s,— Some    time    ago    one    of    your    body   shields    was    sent    out 
to  me  in  Fnance,  and   up    to   that  thne  1   had    been    a  Arm    he  ;ever 
that   body   shields    were  a   source   of    greater    danger   owin"    to    the 


c<»rtainty  that  a  straight  hit  would  certainly  penetrate  "ami  tin 
bullet  would  be  a  bad  shape,  making  a  much  grcat-er  wouml  -  the 
.•jti-el  shields  were  then  running  in  my  mind.  When  I  got  this  shlei.i 
I    was    very    pleased    to    wear    it    on     account    of    its    warmth    and 


comfort,  but  tt  proved  to  be  of  even  greater  use.  I  was  hit  hv 
bullets  flrexi  from  a  Machine  Gun,  and  happened  to  be  wearing  ii 
at  the  time— one  bullet  hit  the  shield,  going  nearlv  through  then 
turntKl  in  its  course  and  came  out.  It  is  quite  certain  that  the 
shield    has   thus  saved    me    from    an   abdominal    wound   and   probahlv 

at  the    same   time  saved    my  life.— Yours    truly, •  «nd    Lieut 

P..S,— You    may    publish   this    letter,    but    for    obvious    reasons    do 
not    mention    my    name. 

If  you  have  a  *mdier  at  the  Front  equip  him  »ith 
one  of  these  Shields,  proof  against  flying  shrapnel 
at  a  velocity  of  750  feet  per  sec.,  vide  report  of 
Munitions  Inventions  Dept.,  revolver  fire,  spent 
rifle  bullets,  .sword,  bayonet,  or  lance  thnist. 

In  any  case,  send  for  descriptive  literature  Iwfore 
coming    to    a  decision. 


The  COUNTY  CHEMICAL  Co.  Ltd., 

Chemico    Works,    BIRMINGHAM. 


X 


Supplement    to    LAND    &     WATER 


April  12,  1 917 


EVERYTHING     for 
the     CHILDREN. 


U/K  specialise  in   Clothing  for  Children 

of  all  ages,  from    the    wee   folk    in 

the   Nursery  10  Young   Cirls    at    school. 


F.J.  120.  Cirl'i  Dainty  Frock,  ol  ••hile 
g'ound  cotl  in  voitet  with  colored  IQ/Q 
collar  and  pipingi.    Size  30  int.  -  -  1*';  v 

to  38  in. 


23  9 


iHuat'-ated  f-Mmhio'*  Catalogues  and 
D  partmentat Bo-hletB.  pott  free  on 
request.  Aptly  T'fday, 

Pott    Order  B     receive    prompt     and 
careful  attention. 


F.J.  125.  Smart  Walkias  Coat  for  arU,  of 
fawn  covert)  serr>i.fii  jng,  with  bell  aad  outside 
pockets,  S;zes  27  to  42  mi.  . .  31/  ■*  to  4-2, - 
Same  coat  of  M.hitcbIankttclotb  37/6  to  5  ^6 
Hat  in  va-i'ius  colors 17/ o 


DICKINS&  JONES  Ltd.,  Hr 


St., 
on.  W.l 


GEORGETTE 

JUMTER 
'BLOUSE 
C  0   ^  T 


A  partictilarly  attractive 
garment,  in  two  con- 
trasting shades  of  rich, 
heavy  georgette,  in  very 
beautiful  colourings,  the 
fronts  of  the  lighter 
shade  with  rows  of  silk 
stitching  of  the  darker. 
New  square  neck,  fasten- 
ing on  the  shoulder  witli 
small  buttons. 

Price  69/6 

CATALOGVE  POST  FREE. 


Debenham 
frFpeebodv 

wigmonc  Street. 


(Cavendish  Square)  London.W    1 


Famous  for  over  a  Century 
forTaste.fop  Qualityfor  Vulut- 


1  0,000 

yards    of    our    famous 

I  Irish  dress  linen 

in    colours    and    white 

36      46      50       inches, 
i/ii    2/-   2,11    per  yd. 

Paiterns  sent  post  free  upon 
application. 


HAND    EMBROIDERED 

IRISH    BLOUSE. 

-Vo.  506.     Irish  Hand  Embroidered  Blouse  in  White  VoilL-    1/1,]    1 
uid  Lawn.     O.ir  own  make.     Sizes  13   to  15.      Price I  D/  I    I 

It    is    permissible     to    write    for    our    New    Spring 
Catalogueof  Blouses,  Coslum.s.  etc  ,  free  on  request 

ROBINSON  &  CLEAVER, 

THE      LINEN     HALL,  ''"' 

REGENT    STREET,    W.  1. 


ItoOMCHQIS 

OF      K.N  IGHT  SBFi_I  PCTe 

A   PERFECT   WASHING   GLOVE 


I 


■"^x 


3.      Sac  Mocha,  in  white  on!)-. 

Price  7/6 

.•\lso  with  two  buttons,  piqut 
sewn,  6/6,  and  three  buttons, 
5/6.  Extra  fine  leathers  round 
scam.  These  Gloves  are  made 
from  the  choicest  leathers  and 
are  thoroughly  reliable.' 


2b.     Mocha  Glove. 

Price  7/6 

Also  with  elastic  wrists. 
Soft  pliable  leathers  and 
very  durable. 

Illustrated    catalogue    sent 
post  free  on  request. 


3b.     French  Suede. 
Price  3/11 

In    black,  white,  and  all 
usual  colours. 


HARVEY  NICHOLS  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  Knightsbridge.  S.W.I 


April  12,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


By  L»uiii  Raemaekert 


JJiHX\s'f^i'prrtttpU^$  y ~ 


Drawn  excl'isively  for  "  Land  <t   Water  ' 


Germany — "We  have  turned  the  richest  lands  of  France  into  a  gigantic  region  of  Death  " 
Christ — "Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  to  one  of  the  least  of  these  ye  did  it  to  me  " 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  12,  1917 


THE 


NEW  COAT 


IT  has  cost  many  a  good  soldier  dear  to 
learn  that  the  difference  between  day 
and   night  temperatures  in  summer   is 
very  often  greater  than  in  winter. 

It's  the  soldiering  knowledge  added  to  the 
tailoring  knowledge  in  the  "Thresher" 
Field  Jerkin  that  gives  it  such  remarkable 
interest.  A  soldier's  waterproof  must  be 
absolutely  waterproof — no  half  measures. 
'Ihe  Field  Jerkin  is  as  waterproof  as  the 
famous  Thresher  Trench  C(;at  which  15,000 
Officers  wear. 

Length  just  right,  weight  practically  un- 
noticeable;  when  your  strenuous  day  comes 
along  you'll  carry  your  part  through,  fresh 
and  comfortable,  thanks  to  its  roomy  cut 
and  perfect  ventilation.  And — a  point  that 
always  will  count,  peace  or  war,  in  the 
world's  smartest  Army — the  Field  Jerkin 
looks  a  soldier's  coat,  every  inch  of  it. 

The  "Thresher"  Field  Jerkin  is  intended 
for  wear  with  short  trunk  overalls. 

THE     "THRESHER"    FIELD    JERKIN, 

lined   check  cashmere, 

84/- 

All  sizes  in  slock.    Send  size  of  chest  and  approximate  htn^ht, 
and  to  avoid  afiy  delay  enclose  cheque  when  ordering. 

Short  Trunk  Overalls,  17/6  a  pair. 


THE  THRESHER 
FIELD  JERKIN 

A  new  Campaign  Goat  by  the  makers  of  the  far-famed 
"Thresher"  Trench  Coat— worn  by  over  15,000  British 
Officers— the    original    trench    coat    and    still    the    best. 

Send  for  Book  (3)—'*  The  Complete; Guide  to  Expenditure  on  Kit  and  Equipment." 

THRESHER  &  GLENNY 

^sl.  1 755         Military  Tailors  since  the  Crimean  War        iSst-  1 755 

152  &  153  STRAND,  LONDON,  W.C. 


By  Appointment 


To  H.M  the  King. 


April  12,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON.     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  APRIL  12.    1917 


CONTENTS 

Devastation  by  the  Huns.     By  Louis  Raemakers 

Campaign  of  1917.      (Leader) 

Battle  of  Arras.     By  Hilaire  Belloc 

The  American  Navy.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

In  the  Spring  of  iqi;.     Bv  H.  Bidou 

]\Iiliukoff.     By  E.  S.  Luboff 

Britain's  ]\Ierchant  Service.     By  An  Engineer. 

The  Filibasters.     By  Our  Special  Correspondent 

In  a  Munition  Factory.     By  Phyllis  Bottome 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw 

The  Golden  Triahg'le.-    By  Maurice  Leblanc 

Domestic  Economy 

Kit  and  Equipment 


PAGE 

I 

3 

4 

8 

10 

II 

13 

14 

16 

17 
18 

24 
xi. 


CAMPAIGN  OF  1917 

EASTER  is  accepted  tacitly  as  the  great  division 
in  the  British  year.  We  have  come  to  regard  it 
as  the  boundary  line  between  the  weariness 
and  torpor  of  winter  and  the  radiance  and 
activity  of  spring  and  summer.  Although  on  Tuesday 
morning  the  landscape  was  shrouded  in  snow,  reminding 
us  of  an  old-fashioned  Christmas  Day  rather  than  of 
earth's  resurrection,  yet  when  we  turned  to  our  morning 
papers  and  read  of  the  big  battle  in  France  on  a  British 
front  of  fifty  miles,  we  felt  that  the  war  was  entering  on 
new  activity,  and  that  the  caihpaign  of  1917  had  begun 
in  earnest.  And  it  is  a  campaign  in  which  practically 
all  the  peoples  of  the  world  are  taking  part.  ,  Never  has 
there-  been  such  a  gathering  of  the  nations  ;  it  needs  no 
stretch  of  the  imagination  to  apply  to  it  the  words  of 
the  Apocalypse  "the  battle  of  that  great  day  of  God 
Almighty,"  To  borrow  phrases  from  President  Wilson, 
"  the  champions  of  the  rights  of  mankind,"  are  arrayed 
against  a  "  Government  which  has  thrown  aside  all 
considerations  of  humanity  and  right  and  is  running 
amok."  For  this  reason  the  present  war  has  taken  on  a 
different  guise  from  all  others  that  have  preceded  it. 
No  longer  is  it  possible  for  any  champion  of  liberty  to 
stand  aside. 

Now  that  America  has  joined  the  Allies,  the  general 
position  improves.  For  many  months  past  our  Naval 
writer,  Mr.  Arthur  Pollen,  has  shown  that  the  very  logic 
of  events  would  compel  the  United  States  sooner  or 
later  to  array  herself  on  the  side  of  freedom  and  right. 
There  have  been  occasions  when  this  seemed  an  im- 
possible eventuality,  but  in  the  face  of  adverse  arguments ' 
Mr.  Pollen  adhered  steadily  to  his  opinion  which  time 
has  fully  justified.  The  first  act  of  America  is  to  free 
herself  from  the  spies  which  President  \\'ilson  denounced 
in  his  famous  speech,  and  to  get  quit  of  the  enemy  within 
the  gate.  "There  is  reason  to  believe  that  Mr.  Wilson 
did  not  exaggerate  when  he  stated  that  most  of  the 
German-Americans  are-"  as  true  and  loyal  Americans  as 
if  they  had  never  known  any  other  fealty  or  allegiance," 
but  no  unnecessary  risks  are  to  be  taken,  and  already  a 
number  of  wireless  installations  have  been  removed  from 
private  German  residences.  The  first  material  help 
the  United  States  will  be  able  to  render  to  the  European 
Entente  will  be  pecuniary  ;  Jier  finances  are  being  care- 
fully overhauled,  and  almost  any  day  now  we  may  hear 
that  a  magnificent  loan  at  a  low  rate  of  interest  has  been 
offered  to  the  friendly  fighting  nations.  The  wealth 
of  America  is  stupendous;  in  normal  times  the  mind  could 


hardly  grasp  i^s  potentiahties.  The  question  of  navy 
and  army  is  a  more  complicated  one,  for  America  is 
even  less  prepared  for  a  great  war  than  was  Britain  in 
1914.  But  as  quickly  as  events  will  allow,  she  will 
enter  the  battle  arena,  and  being  able  to  benefit  by 
the  experiences  of  this  country,  and  having  at  her  back 
gigantic  resources,  she  may  achieve  great  things  in  a 
shorter  time  than  at  the  moment  seems  possible. 

To  whatever  quarter  we  turn,  the  prospect  this  Easter 
is  infinitely  brighter  than  a  year  ago.  At  home  we  are 
educated  up  to  war,  and  willing  to  do  whatever  may 
be  demanded  of  us  to  secure  victory.  It  is  to-day  the 
fixed  aim  and  object  of  all  classes,  and  if  we  except  a 
diminuti\e  minority  of  feeble  folk,  none  flinch  from  the 
truth  that  the  way  must  still  be  hard  before  full  and 
complete  victory  is  attained.  The  revolution  in  Russia 
has  had  an  extraordinary  stimulating  effect,  in  that  it  has 
shown  what  an  immense  work  an  Allied  nation  can  success- 
fully undertake  in  the  cause  of  liberty  during  the  progress 
of  the  war.  That  this  revolution  should  have  been 
marred  by  no  excesses,  that  it  should  have  been  carried 
through  in  a  temperate  and  restrained  spirit  has  deeply 
impressed  the  British  nation.  To  understand  the  high 
courage  that  has  been  displayed  by  the'  leaders  of  the 
Moderate  Party,  read  the  indictment  of  the  tfaitor 
Sturmer,  spoken  in  the  Duma  by  M.  Miliukoff,  now 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  a  translation  of  which  we  are 
enabled  to  publish  to-day  on  another  page.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  stirring  speeches  that  have  ever  been  delivered 
in  a  modern  Parliament,  and  that  it  should  have  been 
uttered  in  Petrograd,  while  the  Tsar  still  ruled,  shows  the 
strong  forces  that  were  at  work  to  cfiect  the  revolution. 
The  continuous  bad  weather  delays  military  opera- 
tions :    meanwhile,  reorganisation  proceeds. 

This  extraordinarily  long  winter  is  to  put  the  vitality 
of  Europe  to  the  most  severe  test,  for  the  weather  we 
have  been  experiencing  in  England  is  common  to  the 
Continent.  There  has  probably  never  been  a  more 
backward  season  in'  the  memory  of  man,  and  certainly 
there  has  never  been  a  year  when  a  forward  season  has 
be^n  more  sincerely  prayed  for.  The  distress  in  the 
Central  Empires  is  acute,  and  it  is  doubtful  to  v,  hat 
extent  they  will  be  'able  id  avoid  actual  starvation  before 
the  new  crops  come  in.  But  we  have  also  to  bear  in 
mind  that  the  sternest  economy  in  certain  staples  of 
food  is  also  necessary  with  us,  if  this  country  is  to  escape 
the  distress  that  now  harasses  the  enemy  populations. 
Germany  gloats  over  the  prospect  of  famine  which  she 
imagines  her  submarines  will  cause  on  these  shores. 
There  is  a  touch  of  comicality  in  her  openly-expressed 
joy,  seeing  that  so  long  as  the  British  blockade  was 
causing  anxiety  only  to  her,  it  was  denounced  as  inhuman 
and  barbaric,  but  now  that  she  believes  her  U  boats  can 
by  the  ruthless  destruction  of  all  shipping,  inflict  an  even 
worse  fate  on  the  British  Islands,  she  glories  in  the 
warfare  and  regards  it  as  a  new  triumph  of  Kultur. 
But  if  rigid  economy  is  practised  in  wheat  and  meat — 
especially  in  wheat,  wheaten  flour,  wheaten  bread,  etc. — 
there  is  no  cause  for  uneasiness.  This  economy  is  not 
the  duty  of  our  neighboin%  but  the  duty  of  ourselves. 
It  is  an  economy  that  must  begin  at  home,  and  the 
people  may  be  reminded  that  never  has  there  been  a  long 
fight  for  liberty  without  this  necessity  being  imposed  on 
those  engaged  in  it.  To  speak  bluntly,  the  population 
in  this  country  has  so  far  escaped  very  lightly  from  the 
penalties  of  war.  In  many  respects  they  have  displayed 
courage  and  resolution  ;  now  they  must  show  common 
sense  and  good  management,  and  during  the  next  three 
months  every  housewife  in  this  land  must  regard  herself 
as  on  active  service,  and  mobilised  to  bring  the  evil  devices 
of  Germany  to  naught.  If  the  food  campaign  be  con- 
ducted in  this  spirit,  there  is  nothing  to  fear,  and  that 
it  will  be  so  conducted  is  in  our  opinion  an  assured  fact 


LAND    &     WATER 


April 


UJ17 


The    Battle    of  Arras 


By   Hilaire   Belloc 


THE  launching  of  the  fust  great  Allied  offensive 
of  this  year  has  fallen  at  such  a  time  in  the  week 
that  it  is  unfortunately  impossible  to  deal  with 
at  all  thorouglily  in  the  presenOmunbcr  of  Land 
cS:  WaiI'K.  The  advance  following  the  preliminary 
bombardment  took  place  just  at  davvji  of  Monday  last, 
and  the  operations  of  this  tirst  day  alone,  the  Monday, 
are  known  in  London  at  the  moment  of  writing.  They 
arc  covered  by  two  despatches  received  from  Sir  Douglas 
Haig,  the  one  sent  just  before  mid-day  of  the  Monday, 
the  other  on  Monday  evenuig,  and  any  analysis  of  the 
position  will  be  impossible  until  it  has  further  developed. 
What  we  can  do,  after  very  briefly  describing  the  general 
situation  (with  which  I  think  most  opinion  in  this  country 
is  already  fairly  familiar) ,  is  to  analyse  in  some  detail  the 
position  known  as  the  Vimy  Ridge",  the  capture  of  which 
on  Monday  was  by  far  the  main  feature  of  the  operation, 
and  upon  "the  retention  of  and  progress  from  which  every- 
thing \\'ill  depend. 

The  general  position  which  makes  an  offensive  in  this 
particular  region  of  such  higli,  strategic  \alue,  is  that 
which  we  have  been  following  uninterruptedly  for  nearly 
two  months  since  the  (Germans  were  first  shaken  back 
towards  the  Bapaume  Kidge.  A  straightening  of  their 
line,  which  eliminated  the  Noyon  sahent,  took  them  back 
to  positions  running  more  or  less  directly  from  the  eastern 
suburbs  of  Arras  to  the  Aisne  above  Soissons. 


Wotth 
Sccv 


AppmximaiEpostiux: 
ofGenmmceiire. 
Before  offenstve 
Aped  9^ 


^  These  two  points,  the  region  of  Laon  and  the  old  trenches 
still  maintained  in  front  of  Arras  were  the  two  points  of 
junction  between  the  new  line  and  the  old.  These 
points  of  junction  were  the  two  links  upon  wliicli  the 
whole  of  what  may  be  called  from  its  central  i)oint  the 
St.  Quentin  line,  depended.  The  advance  of  the  Allies 
over  the  destroyed  belt  of  the  German  retirement  pro\cd 
more  rapid  than  the  enemy  had  alIo^ved  for.  The  French 
pushed  forward  to  the  Oise  above  La  Fere  and  came 
within  Fange  of  St.  Quentin  in  (piite  the  first  few  days. 
The   British,   who   were   hampered   by   the   impossible 


ground  of  the  Somme  battle,  came  into  line  later,  but 
brought  up  their  heavy  pieces  and  the  munitionment 
for  them  at  an  astonishingly  rapid  rate,  considering  the 
circumstances.  This  rapidity  of  ad\ance  prevented  the 
enemy's  line  from  settling.  It  kept  it,  as  the  term  goes, 
"  lluid."  Every  day  the  enem\'  lost  some  new  set  of 
his  advance  positions  and  the  Allied  progress,  though 
slow,  was  uninterrupted. 

The  consequence  of  this  was  that  the  (iermans  were 
compelled  to  concentrate  local  reserves  upon  special 
points  of  the  line  which  they  saw  to  be  of  capital  im- 
})ortance,  to  make  counter-attacks  at  some  e.vpense,  and, 
in  general,  to  draw  down  uj)on  this  new  line  more  men 
and  guns  than  the  original  calculation  Iiad  allowed  for. 

This  was  particularly  true  of  the  region  of  St.  Quentin, 
and  as  the  battle  for  that  exceedingly  important  nodal 
point  developed  it  is  clear  that  the  enemy  was  compelled 
to  send  to  it  a  greater  and  a  greater  number  of  men. 
There  came  a  moment  at  which  the  effect  of  this  "  blister  " 
gave  an  opportunity  for  action  elsewhere,  and  at  that 
moment  the  strong  offensive  action  in  front  of  Arras  was 
launihed.  In  other  words,  a  blow  was  struck  at  the 
northern  junction-link  of  the  new  line. 

The  thing,  of  course,  had  been  of  long  preparation  ; 
it  had  not  escaped  the  enemy's  knowledge,  and  the  in- 
tensive bombardment  of  Saturday  and  Sunday  last, 
which  was  only  the  culminating  point  of  the  artillery 
preparation,  was  a  direct  announcement  of  what  was 
coming.  But  in  all  this  trench  warfare  the  apparent 
absence  of  an  element  of  surprise  is  counterbalanced,  as 
we  have  often  had  occasion  to  show  in  these  columns,  by 
the  power  to  exert  superior  pressure.  The  enemy  knew 
perfectly  well,  of  course,  that  the  threat  to  the  St.  Quentin 
lines  was  not  the  only  menace  under  which  he  lived,  and 
that  his  concentration  to  save  them  would  necessarily 
expose  him  to  attack  elsewhere.  But  he  had  no  choice 
in  the  matter.  He  could  not  afford  to  lose  his  centre  of 
St.  Quentin.  He  must  concentrate  there  and  run  the 
risk  of  his  links  standing  the  strain  elsewhere.  The 
whole  interest  of  the  present  movement  is  the  experience 
whether  the  northern  link  at  present  attacked  will  hold 
or  no.  And  the  answer  to  that  question  turns,  for  reasons 
that  will  be  apparent  in  a  moment,  very  largely  upon 
the  retention  of,  and  progress  from,  the  Vimy  Ridge. 

The  Vimy  Ridge 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  the  'Vimy 
Ridge  has  been  properly  regarded  by  the  enemy  through- 
out all  these  two  and  a  half  years  as  one  of  the  capital 
points  upon  his  whole  western  line.  This  position  has 
been  at  once  the  main  objective  of  three  great  Allied 
movements  made  with  the  object  of  seizing  it,  and  the 
main  test  in  the  enemy's  mind  of  his  power  to  hold.  He 
has  attached  to  it  a  x-aXwt  and  measured  that  value  in  an 
expense  of  men  not  paralleled  upon  any  other  point 
between  the  North  Sea  and  the  Alps. 

The  first  great  effort  made  by  the  French  to  shake  off 
the  German  hold  upon  this  height  was  made  almost 
exactly  two  years  ago  in  the  late  winter  and  spring  of 
1915.  It  gave  the  Allies  the  height  called  after  the 
Chapel  of  N.  D.  de  Lorette,  which  is  slightly  higher 
than  the  'Vimy  Ridge,  and  stands  Jto  the  west  of  it, 
and  it  gave  them  certain  very  strong  positions  in  the 
dejjrcssion  between  the  two  hills.  But  it  failed  to  carry 
the  Vimy  Ridge  itself.  The  French  attack  was  held  up 
in  the  depression  after  carrying  a  portion  of  the  very 
strongly  defended  area  called  the  Labyrinth.  It  did 
not   ]>rogress  on  to  the  opposing   slope. 

We  may  here  pause  to  remark  that  the  cause  of  the 
check  was  tiiat  imi\ersal  one  with  which  all  of  us  are  now 
familiar,  the  disproportion  between  the  mechanical 
advantages  of  the  enemy  and  of  the  Allies  throughout  the 
earlier  part  of  the  war.  The  older  civilisation  of  the 
West  had  not  yet  de\cloped  its  enormous  resources 
as  it  has  now  developed  them.     Its  number  of  pieces,  its 


April  12,  lOi^ 


LAND    &    WATER 


accumulation  of  munitionment  for  them,  their  cahbre — 
indeed,  all  the  mechanical  side  of  war  still  found  them  at 
a  disadvantage  compared  with  the  encmj',  although  they 
liad  succeeded  i)y  the  victory  of  the  Marne  in  pinning 
liim  to  earth. 

The  second  great  attack  upon  this  vital  point  was  that 
of  the  autumn  of  i()i5,  coincident  with  the  great  English 
effort  at  Loos  and  the  French  attack  in  Champagne. 
This  effort  reached  the  summit  of  the  Vimy  Ridge  at 
rcrtain  points,  but  failed  to  obtain  any  complete  grasp 
of  the  whole  positions,  and  even  such  success  as  it  did 
attain  was  followed  by  the  most  furious  efforts  of  the 
enemy  to  recover  the  whole  of  the  advantage  which  he 
had  partially  lost.  He  did  not  succeed  in  that  complete 
recovery.  The  end  of  his  counter-efforts  still  found  the 
Vimy  Ridge  just  bitten  into  by  the  French  lines,  and 
there  were  observation  points,  if  I  am  not  mistaken, 
from  which  the  French  observers  could  just  see  eastward 
over  the  hill  as  long  as  their  occupation  of  these 
trenches  continued. 

After  this  portion  of  the  line  had  been  taken  over  by 
the  British  the  enemy,  rather  more  than  eleven  months 
ago,  launched  a  very  violent  effort  for  the  recovery  of  the 
whole  ridge  and  succeeded.  He  has  been  in  possession 
of  it  ever  since  the  end  of  May  1916. 

All  this  is  past  history  and  no  more  than  a  preparation 
for  the  great  struggle  w'hich  we  are  now  witnessing,  but 
it  serves  to  emphasise  the  very  high  value  which  both 
sides  have  set  to  so  very  critical  a  piece  of  ground. 

Iri  order  to  understand  what  value  the  position  has, 
we  must  next  proceed  to  describe  it  in  some  detail,  with  a 
particular  note  of  its  contours  and  soil. 

The  Vimy  Ridge  is  the  last  promontory  and  cape  of 
those  chalk  hills  which  stretch  down  southward  from  the 
Channel  right  to  this  point.  The  rise  to  it  from  the 
west  and  the  south  is  gradual ;  it  is  also  bare,  so  that 
there  is  an  excellent  field  of  fire  against  an  advancing 
enemy.  The  fall  from  it  to  the  north  and  to  the  cast 
is  very  rapid  and  this  gives  it  a  peculiar  value  in  obser- 
vation. From  the  gap  where  the  little  Carency  brook 
and,  as  it  is  later  called,  the  Souchez  river,  flows  through 
between  the  height  of  Notre  Dame  de  Lorette  and  the 
northern  edge  of  the  Vimy  Ridge  down  to  its  southern 
point  above  Bailleul  (not  the  Bailleul  familiar  to  British 
soldiers  further  north,  but  another  village  bearing  that 
common  name),  the  escarpment  runs  for  five  English 
miles  like  a  wall,  and  overlooks  by  a  little  more  than 
200  feet  the  great  dull  plain,  or  rather  basin,  of  Lens, 
which  is  a  mass  of  coal  pits  and  industrialism  such  as  we 
know  in  Southern  Lancashire. 

This  Vimy  Ridge  is  not,  of  course,  absolutely  even. 
It  has  two  prolonged  summits  ;  the  first,  on  the  north 
is  called  after  the  farm  of  La  Folic  ;  it  is  highest  at  its 
extreme  northern  end,  where  point  145  was  held  by  the 
Germans  last  Monday  long  after  the  rest  of  the  ridge 
had  fallen  ;  the  second  summit  is  called  after  the  tele- 
graph, that  is  the  old  semaphore  post  upon  it.  The 
two  between  them  take  up  something  like  half  the  length 
of  the  ridge.  Between  them  runs  the  great  Roman 
road  which  shoots  out  northward  from  Arras  to  Belgium  ; 
going  over  a  very  slight  saddle  upon  the  ridge,  while  the 
village  of  Vimy,  from  which  the  whole  formation  takes 
its  name,  lies  on  the  plain  below.  Upon  the  escarpment 
or  slope  leading  down  to  the  plain  there  is  a  certain 
amount  of  wood,  by  this  time  very  heavily  knocked 
about,  and  not  interfering  at  all  with  the  view.  The 
possession  of  the  Vimy  Ridge,  therefore,  gives  complete 
observation  ovei"  the  whole  basin  of  Lens,  northwards 
and  eastwards.  Southwards  and  eastwards  it  gives  com- 
plete observation  over  the  plain  of  the  Scarpe  river,  and 
in  clear  weather  one  can  even  see,  almost  due  eastward 
from  Telegraph  Hill,  the  lump  of  houses  which  is  Douai. 

Now  the  value  of  the  Vimy  Ridge  in  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  Western,  war  may  be  summed  up  in  three 
statements  :  It  is  of  chalk  (and  the  last  bit  of  chalk  for 
a  long  way).  It  is  exceedingly  valuable  for  observation 
(and  the  last  piece  of  abrupt  high  ground  of  the  sort  for 
several  days'  march),  and  it  is  the  one  piece  of  strong 
ground  defending  the  northern  -pivot  or  jtmction-link  of 
the  new  line  ivhich  the  Germans  are  attempting  to  hold. 

All  the  strategical  value  of  the  Vimv  Ridge  lies  in 
those  three  points — but  they  are  considerable. 

The  fact  that  the  wall  of  hills  4s  of  chalk  means  that 
it   is  dry,   very   easily  worked  for  profound   defensive 


formations,  with  very  warm,  well-drained  dug-outs,  etc.; 
and  drained  at  once  everywhere  by  nature.  The  only 
drawback  of  field  works  upon  this  sort  of  formation  is 
the  conspicuous  way  in  which  the  trenches  stand  out  in 
white  against  the  general  soil.  But  that  has  long  ceased 
to  be  of  the  importance  it  was  before  photography  from 
the  air  was  originated  by  the  Allies. 

But  this  is  the  least  of  the  three  points ;  of  much 
more  importance  was  observation.  The  value  of  direct 
observation  in  this  war  has  been  perpetually  insisted 
on  and  is  now  of  common  knowledge.  Such  ob- 
servation at  close  quarters  is  immensely  aided  by  the 
possession  of  ground  higher  than  that  which  one's  enemy 
occupies.  For  distant  observation  the  various  forms 
of  flying  machines  and  stationary  gas  balloons  are 
more  relied  upon,  and  observation,  of  course,  is  the 
determinant  of  eft'ective  artillery  work,  especially  with 
the  heavy  pieces  at  long  range.  Biit  an  abrupt  wall  of 
considerable  height  gives  observation  of  a  general  value 
far  exceeding  the  direct  value  of  immediate  observation 
upon  positions  close  at  hand.  You  watch  from  it  in 
security  all  movements  by  day  over  the  plain  at  your  feet. 
You  see  the  movements  of  trains  and  even  of  columns. 
You  have  an  asset  of  a  dift'erent  kind  from  that  which 
is  given  even  from  aeroplane  photographs. 

But  the  last  point  is  by  far  the  most  important  of  all. 
The  Vimy  Ridge,  if  it  be  retained,  and  used  as  a-  line  from 
which  further  extension  can  be  made,  is  vital  to  the 
Northern  junction-link  upon  the  holding  of  which  the 
whole  security  of  the  Arras-St.  Quentin-Laon  line 
depends.  '  , 

If  that  link  can  be  broken  or  shaken  the  whole  of  the 
line  which  we  call  to-day  the  St.  Ouentin  line,  goes,  and 
that  is  the  real'meaning  of  the  attack.  Subsidiarily,  the 
attack  as  it  progresses  creates  a  very  dangerous  salient  for 
the  enemy  all  round  Lens,  and  Lens  is  the  centre  of  a  vast 
coalpit  which  it  is  of  real  economic  value  for  the  enemy 
to  maintain.  Again,  progress  here  ultimately  threafens 
Lille  behind  Lens  and  the  political  and  economic  ad- 
vantage of  holding  Lille  is  obvious.  But  the  chief  value 
of  the  .\rras  region  as  a  point  of  attack  is  this  junction 
which  the  new  (ierman  line  here  makes  with  the  old. 

So  long  as  the  enemy  held  Vimy  Ridge  progress  to  the 
south  of  it  along  the  great  roads  from  Arras  to  Cambrai 
and  Douai  was  impossible.  But  progress  along  those 
roads  (as  at  A  in  Map  1),  ii  it  could  be  achieved  would 
do  two  things.  It ,  would  ultimately  bring  the  great 
trunk  railway  line,  St.  Ouentin,  Cambrai,  Douai,  Lille, 
under  fire,  and  it  would  immediately  create    a    sharp 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  12,  T017 


flank  on  the  line  south  of  Arras  and  compel  its  abandon- 
ment. Since  surli  progress  could  not  be  achieved  with 
the  strong  point  of  Viniy  Kidge  in  enemy  hands,  that 
l)iece  of,  ground  was  tlie  liinge  upon  wliich  all  effort  in 
front  of  Arras  nuist  turn. 

The  point,  then,  is  in  every  sense  critical,  and  a  success- 
ful attack  upon  it  would  be  locally  decisive.  It  would 
compel  -a  general  retreat.  The  enemy  has  a  prepared 
line  some  way  back  covering  Douai  and  Lille  itself.  But 
thatJine  is  not  one  to  which  he  can  retire  in  security  under 
a  vigorous  pressure.  He  will  do  everything  he  can  to 
maintain  himself  where  he  is,  and  if  he  loses  the  Vimy 
j)ositions  and  a  further  belt  of  a  few  miles  behind,  he  must 
go  back  altogether. 

Finally,  let  us  remember  that  success  or  failure  is 
much  less  to  be  judged  by  contours  and  ground  than  by 
material  and  moral.     It  is  a  siege  war.     It  dejX'uds  upon 


destroying  and  advancing  over  works  which,  though  called 
field  works,  are  miich  stronger  under  modern  conditions 
than  the  old  permanent  works  of  the  past.  (Jur  power  so 
to  destroy  them  and  to  advance  over  them  depends  en- 
tirely upon  those  two  factors  :  the  moral  value  of  the 
infantry  as  compared  with  the  enemy's,  and  the  mechanical 
superiority  given  by  the  now  prodigio\is  output  of  muni- 
tionment  and  pieces  and  indeed  of  ever\r  form  of  material. 
For  two  years — up  to  the  Somme  offensive— we  lacked  the 
required  superiority  in  material,  though  the  moral 
superiority  was  assured.  That  material  superiority  has 
increased  very  largely  since  the  Somme  ofiensive  began 
nine  months  ago,  and  the  Alliance  is  trusting  in  this  for 
other  ofiensive  work  which  we  arc  imdertaking  upon  the 
West,  and  upon  the  fact  that  it  has  now  reached  and 
passed  what  was  for  long  the  only  asset  of  the  en'emy 
against  it,  liis  superior  production  of  machines. 


The    Turkish    Retreat 


The  escape  of  the  two  Turkish  divisions  which  had  been 
sent  up  into  Persia  from  the  base  of  Hagdad  after  the 
capture  of  Kut  last  yea.v  is  now  certain,  \\ith  the  ex- 
ception of  a  fraction  who  were  away  in' the  north  at 
Sihna  and  were  driven  by  the  Russians  back  into  the 
hills  with  the  almost  certain  loss  of  what  guns  they  may 
liave  had,  this  force  has  escaped,  and  the  better  part  of 
tlie  two  divisions  are  now  upon  their  way  to  safety.  The 
whole  mass  of  them  must  be  by  this  time  at  Kirkuk  or 
(•\en  beyond.  The  nature  of  this  escape  and  the  con- 
dition which  made  it  possible  we  are  now  able  to  describe 
in  some  detail  according  to  the  accounts  which  ha\  e 
reached  us  from  this  front  during  the  past  week. 

The  enemy's  successful  operations  took  place  during 
the  last  week  of  March.  The  Russian  force,  of  which  we 
do  not  know  the  precise  composition,  but  which  we  know 
to  ha\-e  been  a  weak  one  and  mainly  composed  of  cavalry, 
had  followed  up  the  Turkish  retirement  as  far  as  Karind 
and  had  occupied  that  town  though  the  enemy  had  partly 
destroyed  it  in  his  retirement.  Meanwhile  they  had  in 
front  of  them  the  Pass  which  separates  the  basin  of  the 
Diala  and  that  of  the  Karun.  The  torrent  which  falls 
through  the  \allev  of  Karind  and  bears  the  same  name 
as  that  town  is  an  uHimate  tributary  of  the  great  Karun 
river  which  does  not  reach  the  Mesopotamian  \alley 
until  a  point  close  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  The  Alvvand 
Torrent,which  is  a  tributary  of  the  Diala,  rises  immediately 
on  the  other  side  of  the  "divide,  and  the  pass  or  saddle 
between  the  t*-o  sources' is  known  as  the  Piatak  Pass 
from  the  name  of  the  village  which  lies  at  its  foot  on 
the  northern  side.    This  Pass  is  not  very  steep  or  rugged. 


'\mosul 


aAGHD.^o: 


o  it     at     V 


»>  Wiitf 


nor  very  high  compared  with  the  ground  immediately 
below  it  upon  either  side,  but  it  is  well  suited  for  defence, 
especially  against  a  comparatively  small  force,  because 
it  cannot  be  turned  save  by  a  ^'ery  wide  sweep  round 
through  difficult  mountains.  Upon  either  side  of  it 
and  towering  above  it  rise  the  parallel  ridges  of  the  ' 
Karind  range  to  the  north  and^  the  Kulhinua  to  the 
south,  the  first  nearly  1,300  feet,  the  second  nearlv 
3,000  feet  above  the  saddle.  The  Turks,  therefore,  left 
a  strong  rearguard  upon  the  Piatak  and  behind  that 
screen  retired  the  mass  of  their  forces  down  the  Alvvand 
valley  through  Kasrishirin  to  Khanikin. 

Meanwhile,  the  force  which  General  Maude  had  detached 
from  his  main  body  at  Bagdad  and  pushed  up  the  Persian 
road,  was  held  up  two  days'  march  south  of  Khanikin 
by  another  Turkish  flank  guard  which  jxirformed  against 
.the  British  for  the  general  retirement  of  the  Turkish 
army  the  same  function  as  the  rearguard  at  Piatak  was 
performing  against  the  Russians.  It  acted  as  a  screen 
behind  w^hich  the  main  operation  of  the  enemy  could  be 
conducted  in  security. 

The  condition  which  enabled  the  Turks  to  establish 
this  screen  in  the  shape  of  a  flank  guard  agamst  the 
British  was  the  ridge  known  as  the  Hamrin  Hills.  - 

This  ridge  runs  perpendicular  to  the  Diala,  which  cuts 
through  it  by  a  rather  narrow  gate  at  Mansurie,  two 
full  days'  march  north  of  Bakuba.  This  ridge  was  held  in 
force  by  the  Turks  upon  either  side  of  the  Diala  and 
could  not  be  captured  by  a  detachment  of  the  strength 
which  General  Maude  had  sent  into  this  region.  The 
Turks  seem,  according  to  the  accounts  received,  to  be 
particularly  well  provided  with  artillery  upon  these  hills 
which  rise  abruptly  from  the  plain,  especiall}-  upon  the 
eastern  side  of  the  river.  They  are  even  reported  to 
have  held  the  position  with  something  like  a  third  of 
their  total  forces. 

While  these  two  screens,  the  rearguard  at  Piatak  and  the 
flank  guard  on  the  Hamrin  Hills  were  thus  shielding 
the  main  operation  of  the  enemv,  that  operation  pro- 
ceeded apparently  in  good  order  and,  unfortimately  for 
us,  with  complete  success.  A  pontoon  bridge  was  tlirown 
across  the  Diala  where  the  Alwand  torrent  joins  it 
about  10  miles  above  Kizil-Robat.  By  this  bridge  the 
guns  and  wagons  crossed  while  the  infantry  w-ere  ferried 
across  separately  in  boats.  The  Diala  is  here  quite  a 
formidable  obstacle,  deep,  swift,  and  xmfordable,  but 
there  was  no  one  to  put  that  obstacle  to  its  value  beOausc 
the  Hamrin  Hills  prevented  any  approach  to  it. 

When  the  mass  of  Turkish  'forces  had  thus  got  across 
the  river  they  found  themselves  upon  a  circular  enclosed 
plain  about  ten  miles  wide,  along  the  further  side  of 
which  ran  the  main  road  and  telegraph  line  through 
Kifri  to  Kirkuk  (see  Map  III.),  a  very  considerable  town 
well  out  of  reach  of  the  British  operations  and  now 
probably  the  base  from  which  any  further  concentration 
of  the  enemy  against  the  British  advance  from  Bagdad 
will  take  place.  It  was  presumably  when  the  mass  of 
the  Turkish  force  had  reached  this  high  road  near  Karatepe 
that  the  screens  began  falhng  back.  The  Piatak  Pass 
was  abandoned  and  the  Turkish  rearguard  there  made 
a  very  rapid  retreat  down  the  main  road  and  across 
the  river  in  oerhaos  thrpo  forced  marches,  while  the  men 


April   12,   1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


and  guns  that  had  been  holding  the  Jebel  Hamrin  had 

much  less  distance  to  go.     Some  of  them  were  actually 

on  the  high  road  within  sight  of  Karatepe,  and  those  on 

the  further  side  of  the  Diala  in  front  of  Kazil-Robat 

could  cross  the  river  in  the  first  day's  march  of  their 

retreat    and    reach    Karatepe    upon    the    second.     The 

Turkish  screen  or  flankguard  established  in   the    Hamrin 

Hills  retired  in  the  night  of  March  30th-3ist.     When  the 

British  detachment  which  had  been  held  in  front  of  the 

Hamrin    Hills   was   free  to  go   forward   towards   Kisie- 

Kobat  and  the  Russians  on  their  side  free  to  come  down 

south  to  the  same  town  over  the  Piatak  Pass,  the  whole 

body  of  the  enemy  had  got  clean  away,  and  when  the 


junction  between  the  two  Allied  forces  was  effected  it 
was  only  to  discover  that  the  Persian  Army  o  f  the  Turks 
had  completely  escaped. 

This  conclusion,  though  regrettable,  is  now  seen  to  be 
inevitable,  possessing  as  we  do  further  knowledge  upon  the 
strength  of  the  Allied  forces  available  in  this  district. 
It  was  not  possible  with  the  number  of  men  that  could  be 
spared  away  from  the  main  Bagdad  army  to  force 
the  Hamrin  positions,  nor  could  the  weak  Russian  force 
hope  to  caiTy  the  Piatak  against  the  strong  rearguard 
the  Turks  had  left  there.  The  enemy's  operation  was 
clearly  conducted  according  to  his  own  plan  and  carried 
out  in  detail  as  he  had  expected.  H.  Belloc 


f 


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1917 


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LAISU    &    WATER 


April  12,  1917 


The  American  Navy 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


THE  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives 
liave  \oted  and,  in  spite  of  a  sineere  effort  of 
lifty  well  meaning,  but  mistaken  souls  in  the 
House,  America  is  committed  to  make  war  side 
by  side  with  the  Allies  in  luiropc,  and  to  employ  the 
whole  of  the  forces  she  can  raise,  all  her  linancial  j;ower, 
and  all  her  industrial  strength  to  bring  the  war  to  the 
speediest  possible  termination.  Her  object,  hkc  ours, 
is  the  defeat,  the  utter  and  complete  defeat,  of  the 
military  power  of  Prussia. 

Apart  from  the  continuance  of  submarine  successes — 
and  there  is  no  denying  their  gravity — the  news  from 
e\ery  quai"ter  confirms  the  view  that  (iermany's  strength 
no  longer  suffices  for  a  successful  defensive.  Against  a 
single  success  on  the  Russian  front  must  be  set  the  failure 
of  the  vast  rearguard  in  the  West.  The  attack  on 
Easter  Monday  has  got  home  on  the  old  lines  north  of 
Arras,  and  at  Zeebrugge  we  have  even  brought  off  a 
welcome,  if  modest,  naval  coup.  But  the  great  Re- 
public's intervention  gives  new  life  to  the  finances  of 
the  Alliance  just  when  it  is  wanted,  if  only  because  it 
relieves  the  belligerents  of  their  worst  fears  with  regard 
to  the  future.  It  holds  out  the  promise  of  an  indefinitely 
large  military  reinforcement  should  the  war  go  into  the 
foiu-th  winter.  It  brings  immediately  into  the  field  a 
very  notable  addition,  not  only  to  the  actual  sea  forces 
of  the  Allies,  but  to  our  joint  power  of  controUing  the 
use  of  the  sea  to  our  enemy's  detriment.  I  propose 
to-day  to  examine  the  actual  ships  and  craft  at  America's 
disf  o;al  ;  and,  on  a  future  occasion,  the  more  obvious 
uses  to  which  they  can  be  put. 

In  Peace  Time 

As  organised  for  peace,  the  ships  of  the  American 
Navy  arc  placed  in  four  groups.  There  are  first  those 
in  full  commission  ;  next,  those  in  commission  in  reserve  ; 
thirdly,  those  commissioned  in  ordinary;  and  fourth, 
those  out  of  commission  altogether.  The  first  and 
second  categories  correspond  with  our  peace-time  orga- 
nisation of  ships  in  full  commission  and  those  with 
nucleus  crews.  Fully  commissioned  ships  constitute 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  *fleets,  the  cruiser,  destroyer 
and  submarine  squadrons  and  flotillas,  and  the  cruisers, 
gunboats  and  so  forth,  commissioned  for  independent 
duties.  Amongst  them  are  to  be  found  fourteen  battle- 
ships, of  which  thirteen  are  what  is  called  the  Dread- 
nought type  ;  and  thirteen  cruisers,  classified  as  armoured, 
second  class  and  third  class.  Of  destroyers  and  sub- 
marines there  are  thirty-eight  each,  and  the  balance  is 
made  up  of  monitors,  four  ;  transports,  three  ;  converted 
yachts,  five  ;  torpedo  tenders  five,  with  seven  or  eight 
training  and  depot  ships,  eighteen  gunboats,  twenty 
colliers  and  oil  tankers.  All  these  ships  are  either  at 
sea  or  immediately  ready  for  sea,  and  the  main  strength 
of  them  constitutes  the  Atlantic  Fleet,  based  in  the 
summer  time  on  Newport ,  and  in  the  winter  and  spring  in 
more  southern  waters. 

All  the  Dreadnoughts  are  to  be  found  in  the  Atlantic 
fleet;  they  include  the  Pennsylvania  and  the  Arizona, 
the  most  powerfully  armed  and  the  best  pro- 
tected vessels  in  the  world.  American  capital  ships 
have  for  some  years  been  built  in  pairs.  The  first  pair, 
South  Carolina  and  Michigan,  carried  four  double  12-inch 
gun  turrets  on  the  centre  line,  and  thus  had  the  same 
broadside  power  as  our  first  Dreadnoughts,  though 
carrying  one  turret  less.  In  the  Delaware  and  North 
Dakota  a.nd  the  Utah  and  Florida  five  centre  line  turrets 
succeeded— these  ships  thus  having  a  broadside  of  ten 
12-inch  guns.  Then  followed  the  .l^/.'«;;s«s  and  the  li'yo- 
ming  with  si.x  turrets  replacing  Ave,  giving  a  broadside  of 
tXvelve  12-inch  gun  lire,  only  surpassed  by  the  ex-Brazilian 
Agincourt,  now  in  the  liritish  Fleet.  In  1912  the  12-inch 
gun  was  given  up  for  the  14-inch,  and  the  New  York 
and  Texas  were  designed  to  carry  five  turrets,  each  with 
two  guns  of  tliis  calibre.  Two  years  later  the  Oklahonui 
and   Nevada   succeeded    with    four    turrets    instead   of 


ii\e,  but  two  of  these  carried  three  guns  each,  so  that  the 
broadside  remained  the  same.  Finally,  the  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Arizona,  the  last  ships  to  be  finished,  have 
also  four  turrets  only,  but  each  is  a  three-gun  turret,  so 
that  the  broadside  is  twelve  instead  of  ten.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  fourteen  American  Dreadnoughts — 
thirteen  of  which  are  actually  in  commission  to-day — 
are  in  every  respect  the  equals"  and,  in  some,  the  superior 
of  any  ships  of  contemporary  design. 

America's  Building  Programme 

Apart  from  lessons  learned  actually  in  war,  tlie  naval 
constructors  of  America  have  for  many  years  been 
the  equals  of  their  fellows  in  Europe.  And  they  have 
liad  building  problems  to  meet  which  ha\e  not  bothered 
luiropcan  navies.  What  particularly  differentiates  the 
American  building  programme  from  the  European  is 
the  specially  oceanic  character  of  the  rtvjuirements. 
The  United  States  Fleet  was  not  built  primarily,  as  were 
for  example  the  German  and  British  fleets,  for  work  in 
the  North  Sea  and  Mediterranean.  Their  cruising 
grounds  are  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific.  Then  there  has 
been  a  certain  vagueness  as  to  the  quarter  from  which 
hostilities  might  be  expected.  And  the  possibility  of 
having  to  strike  at  a  very  distant  foe  has  made  it  necessary 
for  ships  to  be  built  to  carry  reserves  of  fuel,  unthought 
of  in  European  navies.  It  is  in  these  two  facts  that 
there  is  to  be  found,  at  any  rate  to  a  great  extent,  the 
far  higher  individual  cost  of  American  ships.  The  third 
contributory  element  to  this  is  the  conviction,  deeply 
rooted  in  American  naval  opinion,  that  no  ship  can  be 
too  heavily  armoured.  The  American  Battle  Fleet, 
as  it  stands  then,  is  cpiite  exceptionally  powerful.  Sixty- 
four  14-inch  and  eighty  12-inch  guns,  all  axailable  on 
the  broadside,  make  a  very  formidable  combination. 
The  14-inch  gun  fires,  it  is  true,  a  projectile  that  is  no 
heavier  than  the  later  British  13-5  ;  but  it  is  believed 
that  the  American  ordnance  authorities  have  been 
singular  in  producing  a  weapon  of  this  calibre  that  employs 
so  high  a  muzzle  velocity  as  2,700  feet  per  second.  The 
accuracy  of  these  guns  at  extreme  range  is  said  to  be 
extraordinary,  and  has  only  been  equalled  or  surpassed 
by  the  British  15-inch  guns,  the  shells  of  which,  of  course, 
weigh  almost  forty  per  cent.  more. 

According  to  pre-war  standards  American  giuinery 
was  exceptionally  good,  both  in  gunlaying  and  in  the 
long  range  exercises  ;  the  performances  of  the  best  ships 
being  quite  equal  to  the  known  records  of  European 
navies.  But  war,  as  we  have  so  often  seen,  has  played 
havoc  with  the  anticipations  of  long-range  firing  on 
this  side  ;  and  how  far  the  American  Navy  has  learned 
from  the  British  and  German  failure  in  iirc  control  is 
unknown  to  nic.  It  is,  however,  significant  that  in  the 
four  ships  laid  down  last  year,  Maryland,  West  Virginian, 
Colorado  and  Washington,  the  sixteen-inch  gun  has  been 
adopted  with  a  special  view  to  surpassing  the  ranging 
capacities  of  the  largest  guns  afloat  in  other  navies. 
It  must  be  assumed,  therefore,  that  the  attention  of  the 
Navy  Department  has  been  directed  to  the  importance 
of  using  these  new  monster  weapons  with  effect. 

Undoubtedly  the  weakness  of  the  American  Navy 
in  commission  is  its  poverty  in  cruisers.  In  these  it. is  as 
far  behind  the  peace  standard  of  the  British  Navy  as 
that  standard  was  itself  behind 'the  requirements  of 
war.  It  is  curious  that  the  country  that  produced  Mahan 
and  the  country  from  whose  experiences  Mahan  derived 
his  doctrines,  ^^^ouid  both  have  been  so  blind  to  the 
plainest  of  all  the  lessons  of  history.  In  the  Revolutionary 
and  Napoleonic  wars  we  began  with  seven  cruisers  to 
each  two  ships  of  the  line.  By  the  year  of  Trafalgar 
they  were  five  to  one.  h'our  years  later  they  were  seven 
to  one.  Take  the  ships  built  and  building,  we  began  war 
in  1914  with  a  bare  ratio  of  four  cruisers  to  each  capital 
ship.  But  of  these  four,  one  and  a  half  were  slow  and, 
for  many  cruising  purposes,  useless.  Of  cruisers  a  knot 
or  two  faster  than  battleships,  we  had  one  to  one,  and 


April  12,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


about  the  same  proportion  in  cruisers  from  three  to  five 
knots  faster.  But  of  the  cruisers  really  useful  for  ifeet 
purposes,  that  is,  vessels  fifty  per  cent,  faster  than  battle- 
ships, we  had  but  one  cruiser  to  two  battleships.'  This 
deficiency  we,  of  course,  to  some  extent,  made  up  with 
destroyers.  A£;ain,  coiuiting  in  the  oldest  of  those  built, 
we  had  in  1014  seven  destroyers  for  every  capital  ship. 
Putting  then  all  light  craft  together  we  nught  say  that 
for  e\'ery  two  battleships  we  had  three  slow  cruisers,  two 
a  trifle  faster  than  the  battleships,  two  twenty-five  per 
cent,  faster,  one  fifty  per  cent,  faster,  and  fourteen 
destroyers.  Half  of  these  would  be  twenty-seven  knots 
or  less,  but  others  would  run  from  thirty  to  thirty-five. 

If  we  take  the  completed  American  I'leet  as  it  stands 
to-day,  to  the  fourteen  first-class  battleships  there  are 
only  twenty-eight  cruisers  of  all  classes,  and  only  three 
of  these  have  ever  had  a  speed  of  twenty-five  knots,  and 
they  are  oldish  ships  now,  and  ten  of  them  belong  to 
that  quite  useless  breed,  the  armoured-cruiser  class. 
Of  destroyers  there  are  thirty-eight  in  the  commissioned 
fleet,  eleven  with  nucleus  crews  ;  twenty  in  the  second 
reserve,  and  one  out  of  commission,  making  seventy  in 
all.  Thus,  while  we  had  four  cruisers  and  seven 
destroyers  to  every  battleship,  the  Americans  have  two 
cruisers  and  five  destroyers.  What  would  have 
been  the  value  of  t.ie  thirty-eight  coast  and  fleet  sub- 
marines, could  that  be  represented  to-day  by  fast  light 
cruisers  or  by  ocean-going  anti-submarine  patrols  ? 
The  great  programme  of  1916  was  intended  to  include 
four  scout  cruisers  of  very  high  speed  indeed.  In  these 
were  particularly  emphasised  the  ocean-going  and  fuel 
endurance  qualities  exacted  by  American  conditions. 
To  be  equal  to  high  seas  work  and  to  run  the  required 
distances  at  the  necessary  speed,  these  were  to  have  been 
of  a  displacement  necessitating  an  outlay  of  over 
£1,000,000  apiece.  Compare  this  ^yith  the  £250,000 
to  £300,000  spent  by  this  country  and  Germany  on  the 
typical  fast  cruisers  needed  for  North  Sea  work.  It 
is  not  extraordinary  that  this  type  has  proved  so  exacting 
to  the  firms  asked  to  tender  for  it,  that  so  far,  not  a  single 
acceptable  tender  has  been  made  for  one  of  them.  It 
remains  then  that  the  strength  of  the  American  Navy 
lies  in  its  capital  ships  and  its  weakness  in  its  want  of 
fast  light  craft  of  all  descriptions. 

Not  in  full  commission  there  are  the  ten  pre-Dread- 
nought  battleships,  vessels  individually  more  powerful 
than  any  European  pre-Dreadnoughts,  excepting  possibly 
the  Kin^  Edward  class,  seven  armoured  and  ten  other 
cruisers,  eleven  destroyers,  and  a  few  various.  In  the 
second  reserve  are  one  cruiser,  the  twenty  destroyers 
already  mentioned,  and  a  dozen  torpedo  boats.  There 
are  finally  a  few  battleships,  cruisers,  torpedo  boats, 
gunboats,  converted  yachts,  etc.,  not  commissioned  at 
all  and  probably  quite  useless  for  fighting  purposes  ;  but 
for  many  of  them  no  doubt  patrol  service  or  other  work 
of  the  kind  can  be  found. 

Personnel 

Next  to  the  poverty  in  light  craft,  the  greatest  weak- 
ness of  the  American  Navy  is  lack  of  numbers  in  per- 
sonnel. Mr.  Daniels  has  stated  that  to  put  every 
usefulship  which  the  United  States  possesses  into  full 
commission,  the  Department  would  need  nearly  one 
thousand  more  officers,  over  nine  thousand  more  regular 
seamen  and  other  ratings,  and  over  twenty-three  thou- 
sand reserves,  after  drawing  upon  nine  thousand  militia 
and  such  fleet  reserves  as  exist.  This  is  a  shortage 
which  obviously  must  increase  with  every  ship  com- 
missioned to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  war.  In  other 
words,  America's  entry  into  the  war  will  bring  about 
another  drain  on  the  trained  officers  and  trained  men  of 
the  merchant  marine.  But  it  is  not  these  alone  who 
will  be  drawn  in.  One  of  the  fortunate  results  of 
America's  colossal  advance  in  wealth  in  the  last  two  de- 
cades has  been  the  possibility  this  wealth  has  given  to  its 
very  sporting-minded  people  to  indulge'  in  the  sport  of 
yachting.  We  all  know  how  the  yachtsmen  in  these 
islands  have  applied  for  commissions  both  in  the  Naval 
Volunteer  Reserve  and  in  the  Royal  Naval  Reserve. 
And  to  some  is  known  the  amazingly  excellent  work 
that  these  self-trained  seamen  have  done.  It  would  be 
surprising  if  the  yachtsmen  of  America,  being  very  much 
more  numerous,  do  not  volunteer  in  vorv  much  larger 


numbers  and  thus  supply  an  immediate  reinforcement 
to  the  depleted  ranks  of  navy  trained  officers.  Then 
there  is  also  a  very  large  coastal  trade,  whose  personnel 
can,  without  serieus  national  loss,  be  diverted  to  war 
purposes.  Above  all,  we  must  reiriember  that  there  is  no 
naticm  which  contains  so  large  a  number  of  young  and 
middle-aged  men  accustomed  from  almost  earliest 
manhood  to  try  first  one  calling  and  then  another,  so 
that  the  reserve  of  men  with  a  great  versatility  of  accom- 
plishments, and  thus  easily  trained  to"  new  duties,  is 
greater  there  than  in  any  other  community. 

The  Greatest  Asset 

If  these  are  the  American  Navy's  worst  shortcomings, 
its  greatest  asset  is  untjuestionably  the  high  spirit  and 
the  equally  high  professional  attainments  of  its  officers 
and  trained  men.  In  no  navy  are  the  three  elements, 
practice,  scientific  theory  and  naval  doctrine  more 
sedulously  cultivated.  And  it  is  distinctly  fortunate 
that  the  command  of  the  Atlantic  Fleet  should  now  be 
in  the  hands  of  so  good  a  type  of  officer  as  Admiral 
Mayo.  Admiral  Mayo  was  born  in  December  1836,  and, 
according  to  our  standards  we  are  inclined  to  think  an 
admiral  in  his  sixty-second  year  rather  old  for  his  job. 
Our  own  Commander-in-Chief  is,  if  I  mistake  not,  about 
twenty  years  younger.  And  in  this  matter  Admiral 
Mayo  is  in  every  respect  an  exceptional  man.  He  has 
the  eye,  the  carriage,  the  mind,  and  the  manner  of  one 
a  little  more  than  half  his  age.  It  is  not  that  he  lacks  the 
knowledge  and  -authority  which  only  long  experience 
can  give.  It  is  more  that  these  are  employed  with  a 
swift  decision  and  command — and  these  do  not  always 
survive  length  of  years.  The  American  Navy  is  not 
likely  to  forget  that  in  1914,  when  the  Mexicans  offered 
an  affront  to  "  Old  Glory,"  the  present  Commander- 
in-Chief — then  a  rear-admiral  and  third  in  rank  in  the 
Atlantic  Fleet — delivered  an  instant  ultimatum  and, 
when  his  conditions  were  not  fulfilled,  proceeded  to 
execute  his  threat — the  first  without  asking  for  authority 
from  Washington,  and  the  second  without  waiting  for 
its  confirmation.  All  this  was  in  the  palmy  days  when 
Mr.  Bryan  was  Secretary  of  State,  fortunately  before  a 
large  section  of  the  American  public  had  got  so  accus- 
tomed to  their  fellow  aliens  being  murdered  as  to  be 
incapable  of  any  generous  pride  in  national  dignity. 
Admiral  Mayo  had  hardly  acted  before  immediate 
pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Navy  Department 
to  punish  him  for  his  unhesitating  initiative  by  removal 
from  the  command.  But  the  opinion  of  the  Naval 
Service,  backed  by  the  pubhc,  was  too  strong  for  those 
timorous  pacifists  and  the  Admiral  was  left  where  he 
was.  He  has  duly  passed  from  third  to  second  and 
now  to  the  chief  command. 

In  his  younger  days  the  Admiral  was  a  noted  navigator 
— in  a  sense  the  only  specialised  branch  in  the  American 
Navy.  He  saw,  I  believe,  no  fighting  in  the  Spanish 
War,  being  then  in  command  of  a  gunboat — the  Ben- 
nington,  a  vessel  of  about  1,700  tons,  on  the  Pacific  coast ; 
so  that  it  is  to  be  assumed  that  he.  never  came  under 
Admiral  Dewey's  command,  nor  was  engaged  in  any  of 
the  primary  operations  in  the  actual  field  of  war.  He  first 
Hew  his  pennant  in  the  Albany — this  also  on  the  West 
coast — and  it  is  not  without  interest  that  it  was  while  he 
was  her  captain  this  vessel  carried  off  the  gunnery  trophy 
of  that  section  of  the  fleet.  In  the  armoured  cruiser 
'  California  he  is  reputed  to  have  had  the  happiest, 
because  the  smartest  ship,  in  the  American  Service. 
His  secret,  it  is  ^.aid,  lay  in  working  both  his  officers  and 
his  men  to  the  very  limit  of  their  capacity  and  delighting 
them  by  their  discovery  that  it  was  so  far  greater  than 
they  supposed.  It  is  a  thing  that  can  only  be  done  by 
those  who  are  born  organisers,  who  know  exactly  what 
should  be  done  and  how  it  should  he  done,  so  that  while 
the  effort  is  continuous  and  unrelenting  no  effort  is 
wasted.  It  was  one  of  his  officers  who  said  that  if  he 
was  an  exacting  captain,  in  nothing  was  he  more  exacting 
than  in  his  example.  Born  governors  and  leaders  of 
men  like  this  are  rare.  But  amongst  them  it  is  not  un- 
usual to  find  that  an  insistence  upon  the  most  precise 
discipline,  and  the  most  meticulous  obedience  go  hand 
in  hand  with  an  extraordinary  personal  kindness  and 
affability.  Admiral  Mayo  is  said  to  be  the  most  accessible 
man  in  his  fleet,  if  anything,  more  at  home  in  the  com- 


TO 


LAND    &     WATKR 


April  12,  1917 


pany  ot  the  young  than  of  the  old.  full  of  good  stories, 
\ery  ready  with  sympatliy  and  witli  a  weakness  for 
j'igarettes.  His  connnands  alloat  haw  bet'u  \ariod  1)\' 
two  short  spells  of  shori-  duty  in  the  Naval  ^'ard  at 
Mare  Island,  and  one  short  course  at  the  War  College, 
Newport.  But  his  relations  [with  that  centre  of  iia\al 
tliought   has  not  been  limited  to  this. 

The  American  War  J  department  have  wisely  placed  the 
War  College  at  the  headquarters  of  the  sea-going  fleet, 
and  between  both  the  authorities  and  the  students  of 
the  College  and  the  officers  of  the  l-'leet  afloat,  the  inter- 
change of  ideas  has  been  as  constant  as  it  must  prove 
to  Ik!  fruitful.  Particularly  has  this  been  the  case  with 
the  flag  officers  of  the  l^leet  and  the  chiefs  of  the  College. 
The  Commander-in-Chief,  therefore,  enters  on  the  most 
momentous  command  any  American  sea  officer  has 
held  since  the  days  of  Farragut,  in  thorough  touch  with 
the  outcome  of  the  best  organised  centre  of  naval  studies 
in  the  world.  It  is  no  small  thing  for  a  man  to  know  the 
best  thought  of  his  time.  Perhaps  it  is  only  in  a  country 
like  America  where  junior  officers  can  express  themselves 


with  the  completest  freedom  and  independence,  not  only 
without  fear  of  offence,  but  with  the  certainty  that  all 
sincere  c(jiitributions  to  clear  thinking  will  l)e  welcomed 
and  examined,  that  this  advantage  can  exist.  But  that 
it  is  an  advantage  can  hardly  be  disputed.  And  this 
too.  must  be  remembered.  The  American  Commander- 
in-Chief  is  not  merely  the  recipient  or  partaker  in  the 
advanced  thought  of  a  centre  specially  devoted  to  think- 
ing and  to  study.  The  conjunction  at  Newport  of  the 
hTeet  Headquarters  and  the  Naval  College  makes  the 
officers  of  his  own  Fleet  perhaps  the  principal  contri- 
butories  to  the  deposit  of  thought  to  which  I  allude. 
It  means,  then,  that  there  is  a  Commander-in-Chief  with 
a  following  to  a  large  extent  inspired  and  informed  by  a 
common  doctrine  of  war — a  state  of  affairs  we  have  never 
attempted  to  bring  about  in  this  countiy  in  peace — 
though  do\ibtless  we  are  liaving  it  forced  upon  us  in 
war.  .\nd  this  being  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  American 
Fleet,  it  will  be  surprising  if  its  cmplovment  is  not  marked 
both  by  originality  and  effect. 

Arthur  Pollen 


In   the    Spring    of    1917 


By  H.  Bidou 


Professor  Bidou  is  the  dislinguished  French  mililary 
critic,  who  cotttribuies  regularly  to  tlje  "  Journal  dcs 
Debuts."  This  article  was  written  for  the  Western 
Armies  special  number  of  "  Land  and  Water,"  but 
was  unfortunately  delayed  in  the  post. 

THERE  is  a  popular  saying  in  France  that  "  one 
can't  see  the  wood  because  of  the  trees."  In 
the  same  way  ojie  cannot  see  the  general  progress 
of  the  war  becatise  of  the  daily  fighting.  Yet  in 
the  conflict  of  nations  in  arms  it  is  only  the  general 
progress  that  matters.  The  old  terms,  victory  and 
tlefeat,  have  lost  their  meaning  ;  the  war  is  a  total  sum 
of  advantages  and  reverses  which  ultimately  will  place 
one  of  the  antagonists  in  a  position  of  inferiority. 

The  general  march  of  events  is  matter  of  common 
knowledge.  There  are  only  two  means  by  which  the 
jnass  of  the  Central  Powers,  beset  on  all  sides,  can  emerge 
\ictorionsly  from  the  war  :  the  first  is  by  dissolving  by 
political  measures  the.  coalition  which  has  been  formed 
all  round  it  ;  the  second  is  by  defeating  its  enemies 
separately,  one  after  the  other,  in  successive  theatres 
of  the  war.  It  is  also  possible  to  contemplate  the  con- 
tingency of  its  displaying  such  obstinate  resistance, 
and  exercising  that  resistance  so  economically,  that  the 
whole  world  would  be  worn  out  by  it  and  grow  tired  of 
attacking  it  ;  in  that  case,  the  war  would  come  to  an  end 
with  a  period  of  decreasing  military  activity,  marked  by 
battles  occurring  at  ever  longer  interx'als  and  of  ever 
less  and  less  importance. 

Almost  all  the  great  wars  of  the  old  style  came  to  an 
end  like  this.  The  wars  of  the  Spanish  and  the  Austrian 
Succession,  the  Seven  Years'  War  and  many  others 
dragged  on  and  on  and  their  last  years  were  marked 
by  no  decisive  operations.  In  this  case,  the  conqueror 
loses  much  of  the  benefit  of  his  \ictory.  A  strikmg 
instance  of  this  is  furnished  by  the  War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession,  in  which  Louis  XIV.  was  much  less  decidedly' 
beaten  in  1713  than  he  had  been  in  1706,  although  in  the 
meantime  there  had  been  almost  no  engagements  of  the 
first  rank.  In  the  present  instance,  and  from  the  military 
])oint  of  view  exclusively,  it  would  be  much  to  Germany's 
interest  to  end  the  war  by  creeping  jiaralysis  of  this  kind. 
There  remain  the  two  other  means  ;  the  first — namely, 
the  dissolution  of  the  hostile  coalition  by  political  devices, 
does  not  enter  into  the  military  domain,  and  we  need  not 
discuss  it  here.  The  other — namely,  defeat  of  each 
adversary  separately  and  successively,  has  been  the 
great    means    adopted    by    (lermany. 

The  initial  plan  was  to  crush  l-Vance  before  Russia 
or  Iingland  could  take  the  field  in  their  full  strength. 
This  plan  was  checked  first  at  the  Marne  in  Septemfjer, 
1914,  and  finally  sj^)oiled  before  Ypres,  on  November 
12th.  (iermany  then  tried  a  second  plan,  the  precise 
opposite  of  the  first  one — namely,  to  crush  Russia,  while 
remaining   on   the   defensive   in   the   West.     This   plan. 


which  opened  with  the  battle  of  Gorlicz  on  April  30th, 
1915,  gave  no  decisive  result ;  the  Russians,  however, 
were  thrown  back  to  the  Riga-Czerno\  itz  line.  Germany 
then  reverted  to  her  first  plan,  of  crushing  France.  But 
now  time  was  pressing  ;  for  on  the  one  hand,  the  British 
armies  were  increasing  to  a  formidable  extent,  and,  on 
the  other,  the  resources  of  the  Central  Powers  were 
becoming  exhausted.  She  had  quadrupled  the  number 
of  divisions  with  which  she  began,  but  there  was  need 
for  her  now  to  make  haste.  Hence  the  Battle  of  Verdun. 
The  resistance  of  the  French  at  Verdun  spoiled  the 
third  German  plan.  On  July  12th,  General  Nivelle 
officially  declared  that  the  attempt  had  cost  the  enemy 
500,000  men ;  and  in  addition,  it  had  failed  to 
jjrevent  what  Germany  feared  above  all  :  the  combined 
offensive  of  the  Allies. 

Throughout,  the  Allies  had  tried  to  co-ordinate  their 
efforts.  In  the  beginning  of  the  war  Russia,  with  the 
object  of  relieving  France,  threw  Samsonoff's  and 
Rennenkampf's  armies  against  East  Prussia.  In  Maj', 
1915,  when  Russia  was  hard  pressed  in  her  turn,  France 
and  England  launched  the  battle  of  Artois,  on  the  9th. 
On  the  23rd,  Italy  entered  the  lists,  immediately  drawing 
upon  her  front  200  Austrian  battalions  instead  of  the 
45  that  were  there  before.  The  Russian  campaign  in 
Armenia,  at  the  beginning  of  1916,  had  helped  to  paralyse 
the  menace  against  England  in  the  East.  At  the  time 
of  the  Battle  of  Verdun,  Russia  again  took  the  offensive, 
in  March,  in  the  region  of  Lake  Narotch.  But  all  these 
were  but  first  attempts  at  co-ordination.  The  combined 
offensive  of  the  summer  of  1916  was  to  have  a  very  much 
larger  scope.  But  it  is  easy  to  see  that  that  again  was 
very  far  from  perfect.  The  entry  into  the  field  of  the 
^•arious  Allied  armies  was  echeloned  over  three  months  : 
obviously  an  excessive  time. 

Nevertheless,  towards  the  middle  of  August,  1916,  the 
situation  of  the  Central  Empires  was  extremely  critical. 
Austria-Hungary  had  not  a  single  other  fresh  division 
to  bring  into  the  line,  and  in  order  to  defend  the  Zlota 
Lipa  it  was  necessary  to  bring  the  15th  Turkish  Corps 
to  Galicia.  On  the  Somme  front  the  German  divisions 
were  wasting  rapidly.  Of  a  total  number  of  128  divisions 
engaged  on  the  Western  Front  it  was  necessary  to  place 
113  between  Gommecourt  and  Chaulnes.  But  it  was 
too  late.  One  by  one  the  Allied  offensives  came  to  an 
end  by  exhaustion  ;  the  Russian  offensive  terminated 
at  the  end  of  August  ;  the  Somme  offensive  in  the  middle 
of  September  ;  the  Roumanian  offensive  was  crushed 
and  Bukarest  was  taken  on  December  6th. 

The  summer  campaign  of  1916  may  therefore  be 
regarded  as  the  still  uncompleted  trial  of  a  manoeuvre 
which,  very  far  from  perfect  as  it  was,  placed  the  Central 
Powers  in  the  most  cruel  difficulties.  The  1917  cam- 
paign must  be  a  manoeuvre  of  a  similar  nature,  but  ordered 
with  a  precision  which  will  double  its  force  and  with 
nuich   more    formidable    means.     The   increase   of  the 


April  12,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


number  of  batteries  in  particular  permits  ot  an  extension 
of  the  front  of  attack,  which  is  a  capital  fact. 

What,  then,  will  the  Ciermans  do  to  meet  it  ?  To 
begin  with,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  proportion 
as  their  resources  diminish  their  task  increases.  Thus, 
in  the  early  part  of  1916,  they  only  had  50  divisions  upon 
the  Eastern  front  ;  they  have  74  there  now.  The  number 
of  divisions  upon  the  Western  front  has  increased 
equally.  To  satisfy  this  ever-growing  demand  they 
naturally  have  had  to  create  new  units.  But  this  power 
of  creation  obviously  is  reaching  a  limit  ;  it  is  true  that  the 
new  divisions  are  frequently  merely  old  divisions  broken 
mp  into  two.  Last  winter  there  were  still  40  divisions 
of  four  regiments,  with  which,  by  deducting  the  fourth 
regiments,  13  new  divisions  could  be  produced.  But  this 
resource,  too,  must  be  exhausted  bv  this  time,  or  very 
nearly  exhausted. 

Thus  the  problems  of  the  war  are  becoming  ever  more 
complicated  for  the  enemy.  In  the  summer  of  1916  he 
acknowledged,  he  proclaimed,  the  material  superiority 
of  his  adversaries  ;  and  in  order  to  revive  the  moral  of  his 
country  he  declared  that  it  is  spirit  which  wins  battles. 
Throughout  the  winter  an  ingenious  press  campaign 
spread  the  will  to  conquer  throughout  Germany.  And 
quite  recently,  the  newspapers,  exalting  the  genius  of 
Hindenburg,  ha\e  announced  to  (iermany  that  we  arc 
going  to  see  one   of  his  special  feats. 

It  is  obvious  that  he  is  preparing  an  offensive.  But 
never  was  battle  so  announced  before.  One  would 
think  that  the  jmblic  were  being  told  to  watch  carefully 
in  order  to  see  how  the  trick  was  to  be  done.  Up  to  the 
present  we  have  only  seen  a  preparatory  phase.  Hinden- 
burg avoided  battle  between  Arras  and  Laon  and  has 
withdrawn  his  army  to  the  rear  to  a  depth  which  at 
some  points  exceeds  two  days'  march.  The  first  local 
retreat  on  the  Ancre  took  place  between  February  24th 
and  28th,  and  the  entire  press  cried  out  "  Wasn't  that 
cleverly  done  !  The  «;nemy  never  saw  it  !  "  Then  there 
was  a  halt  for  teii  days  followed  from  March  loth 
to  the  14th,  by  a  second  retreat  from  Mouchy  aux 
Bois  to  Bapaume,  which  does  not  seem  to  have  been  en- 
tirely voluntary.  Germany  seemed  to  be  uneasy. 
Then,  in  the  very  middle  of  this  retreat,  on  March  13th, 
the  high  priest  and  prophet  of  Cierman  criticism,  Major 
Moraht,  explained  the  move.  "  Hindenbvu'g  is  retiring," 
he  said  ;  "  it  is  the  beginning  of  his  attack.  He  is  adopting 
defensive  tactics  in  order  to  proceed  to  offensive  strategy." 

And  there  we  are.  On  March  17th,  a  third  phase  of 
retreat  began,  most  methodically  conducted  in  echelons 
falhng  back  one  upon  another  but  not  telling  us  very 


nuich  about  tlie  general  mtentions  of  the  German  High 
Command.  All  we  do  know  is  that  these  retreats  in 
jireparation  for  an  offensive  are  a  fa\-ourite  operation  of 
Hindenburg's. 

Will  a  manceuvre  of  this  nature  be  the  resumption, 
in  a  new  form,  of  the  war  of  movement  which  for  two 
and  a  half  years  has  been  suspended  on  the  Western 
Front  ?  There  can  be  no  question  that  the  Germans 
are  making  ready  for  that.  They  are  training  their  troops 
for  it  ill  the  rear,  in  exercises  where  trench  work  plays 
quite  a  subsidiary  part.  And  lastly,  a  most  character- 
istic point,  they  have  greatly  developed  their  medium 
artillery,  which  is  at  once  powerful  and  mobile,  at  the 
expense  of  their  artillery  of  position.  Besides,  it  is 
possible  that  force  of  circumstances  is  reviving  the  war 
of  riiovement.  When  one  has  s^en  on  the  Somme  battle- 
field the  appalling  pulverisation  of  the  (German  positions 
by  the  British  artillery,  when  one  has  seen  the  site  of 
(iuillemont  just  recognisable  by  the  tint  of  brick  that 
stains  red  the  upturned  soil,  one  is  sceptical  about  the 
solidity  of  even  the  best  prepared  positions.  Troops 
in  the  shelters  have  no  time  to  come  out  to  meet  the 
impetuous  assault  and  allow  themselves  to  be  taken  in 
whole  units.  The  men  have  therefore  been  withdrawn 
from  the  shelters  and  dug-outs  as  the  guns  have  been 
withdrawn  from  the  fortresses. 

Such  appear  to  be  the  principles  of  the  battle  which 
is  now  preparing.  On  the  side  of  the  Allies  simultaneous 
concentric  action  with  exceedingly  powerful  means. 
On  the  side  of  the  (iermans,  refusal  of  battle,  by  yielding 
ground  before  the  jioints  where  they  deem  the  offensive 
to  have  been  prepared  :  with  as  a  result,  a  gain  of  several 
weeks  on  this  retreating  front,  if  the  Alhes  desire  to  make 
a  new  attack  there  ;  otherwise  a  neutralisation  of  this 
front,  equivalent  to  a  shortening  of  the  lines.  Next 
neutralisation  of  the  Roumanian  front,  when  the  rivers 
are  swollen  by  the  thaw — equivalent  to  another  shortening 
of  the  lines  ;  and  after  that  the  possibility  of  an  offensive 
with  the  masses  of  manceuvre  which  the  creation  of  the 
divisions  of  series  230  has  enabled  to  accumulate,  and 
which  will  be  attended  by  an  extremely  powerful  artillery. 

Since  this  artillery  will  not  reach  its  perfection  until 
the  month  of  June,  when  Germany  will  have  ten  times 
as  many  heavy  batteies  as  she  had  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war,  our  enemy  now  has  as  much  interest  in  post- 
poning the  battle  as  in  IQ16  she  had  to  precipitate  it. 
That,  to-day,  is  the  capital  point.  Once  more,  by  these 
means,  will  Germany  attempt  to  escape  from  the  trap 
in  which  she  is  shut.  Will  she  succeed  ?  ^^'ill  she  e\cn 
ha\'e  time  to  put  forth  the  attempt  ? 


Miliukoff :    Russia's  Great   Reformer 

By  Edouard  S.    LubofF  (Russian  and  Foreign  Editor  of  the   Financier) 


THE  appointment  of  Professor  Paul  Miliukoff 
as  Foreign  Minister  of  the  new  Government  in 
Russia,  will  have  far-reaching  effects  of  great 
importance  for  the  civilised  world.  It  can  be 
said  with  every  hope  that  his  appointment  may  mean 
the  beginning  of  a  new  and  glorious  page  in  Russia's 
history.  He  has  a  remarkable  grasp  of  the  problems 
underlying  the  evolution  of  modern  social  movements. 
His  best  writings  in  the  Russian  Press  are  on  Foreign 
Affairs.  He  is  a  big,  broad-minded  man  of  true  human 
sympathy.  And  his  whole  life  has  been  devoted  to  the 
dream  of  freeing  the  Russian  people  by  establishing  con- 
stitutional freedom  of  government. 

"  Miliukoff  has  had  just  one  purpose  in  view,  and 
that  is  to  replace  autocratic  government  with  liberal 
government.  It  now  looks  as  if  his  dream  is  coming 
true,"  says  Dr.  Samuel  Dutton,  a  member  of  the  Inter- 
national Commission  to  investigate  the  Balkan  Wars, 
who  served  with  M.  Miliukoff.  "  For  days  and  nights 
and  weeks,  while  serving  together  on  the  Balkan  Com- 
mission, we  talked  of  Russia— at  least  he  talked,  and  I 
listened,  now  and  then  putting  in  a  question.  I  found 
him  a  man.  of  commanding  intellect,  the  editor  of  one 
of  the  leading  newspapers  in  Petrograd,  a  specialist  in 
three  or  more  fields  of  knowledge  including  history, 
geography,  ethnology,  and  soundly  versed  in  inter- 
national law.  He  had  watched  the  progress  of  nations, 
;ind  «a\v  domocrary  was  winning  its  way  tliroughout  the 


world.     He  was  intensely  in  earnest  in  his  dream  to  see 
Russia  a  free  nation." 

To  attempt  to  describe  the  personality  of  Paul  Miliukoff 
would  be  too  difficult  a  task  for  the  present  writer.  No 
penned  eulogy  could  adequately  portray  that  great 
statesman ;  a  truer  revelation  of  his  personality  is 
found  in  his  own  speeches,  even  though  these  necessarily 
lose  much  of  their  beauty  and  power  in  translation.  M. 
Miliukoff's  ideas  and  ideals  regarding  the  inner  politics 
of  Russia  are  crystallised  above,  and  it  will  suffice  to 
add  that  as  a  publicist  before  1905  and  in  his  combined 
role  of  publicist  and  politician  onward,  he  was  always 
on  the  side  of  progress,  yet  unlike  others  of  his  present 
colleagues,  progress  without  revolution.  Joining  the 
constitutional  democratic  party  commonly  known  as 
"  Cadets,"  he  has  always  displayed  a  fine  power  of 
reasoning.  Of  special  interest  to  English  readers  is  no 
doubt  his  career  since  the  declaration  of  war — since 
the  moment  when  British  democracy  joined  Russia  in 
the  struggle  for  right  and  freedom. 

The  joy  of  the  people  in  Russia  when  the  news  was 
made  known  has  repeatedly  been  described,  in  the  British 
Press,  but  M.  Miliukoff's  short  sentence  on  that  occasion 
has  not  as  yet  seen  light  in  Britain  ;  it  was  "  Russia 
has  been  forf^iven  her  past."  In  tliis  short,  yet  so 
significant  phrase  Russia's  great  reformer  has  crystallised 
the  feeling  of  the  masses.  It  was  a  confession  and  absolu- 
tion   in    one.      Hope    of   better    days,    of    progress,    of 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  12,  1917 


enormous  possioiiitles  underlies  this  t6rse  sentence.  To 
believe,  to  hope,  liowcvcr,  is  insufficient  in  Russia  unless, 
the  behever  can  speak  of  his  beliefs,  his  hojx-s  and 
aspirations.  To  progress  in  Russia  one  must  not  stop 
at  silent  ideals — they  nnist  be  borne  on  wings  of  speech 
to  the  uttermost  corner  of  the  vast  coimtry.  M. 
Miliukoff  the  idealist  had  a  two-edged  sword  at  his 
command. 

His  pen  convoys  all  that  he  feels— all  his  reasoning. 
All  the  power  of  "the  personality  behind  it  is  revealed  to 
the  reader,  and  in  Russia  one  almost  imagines  that 
powerful  voice  is  speaking  loudly  and  clearly  whilst 
the  eye  runs  over  the  words  and  phrases.  Writing  to 
an  American  paper  on  March  6th,  replying  to  Mr.  Wilson's 
note  to  the  .Allies,  M.  Milyukoll  said  : 

We  heartily  endorse  President  Wilson's  pacifist  schemes 
for  the  world's  future  organisation.  But  the  only  way 
is  a  decisive  victory,  as  peace  without  victory  will  en- 
courage (icrmanv's  strivings  for  the  world's  supreniacy, 
and  will  enable  her  to  prepare  militarily  the  territories  of 
her  present  Allies  for  new  aggression  thus  inflicting  upon 
humanity  a  further  chaos  of  armaments.  Nobody 
wishes  to  crush  Germany.  Nor  do  we  wish  to  interfere 
with  German  commerce,  except  certain  aggressive  tend- 
encies aiming  at  monopolising  the  world's  production  or 
industry.  We  think  that  our  soldiers  who  fight  and  die 
in  the  "trenches  strive  for  the  promotion  of  sound  prin- 
ciples of  international  law,  based  on  the  goodwill  of 
nations,  against  its  numberless  violations  by  arrogant 
worshippers  of  mere  force.  We  know  that  a  growing 
majority  of  Americans  is  sympathetic  with  the  cause  of 
the  Allies,  and  we  followed  with  keen  admiration  the 
heartfelt  appeals  for  your  active  participation  to  stop 
the  slaughter  by  a  speedy  decisive  victory.  We  did  not 
make  propaganda  in  your  country,  and  are  proud  in 
thinking  that  whatever  success  the  cause  of  the  Allies 
has  gained  has  been  due  to  intrinsic  value.  Von  Beth- 
mann-HoUweg's  charge  that  you  defend  international 
law  one-sidedlv  against  Germany  is  equal  to  an  avowal  tha 
there  is  no  law  on  their  side.  "^ Under  such  conditions  we 
confidently  and  warmly  greet  your  coming  decision  to 
espouse  the  common  cause  of  humanity  and  thus  to  enforce 
peace  not  only  after  the  war,  but  during  the  war,  by  adding 
your  fresh  eft'ort  to  the  immense  sacrilkes  borne  liy  the 
Allied  nations. 

In  speaking,  whether  inside  or  outside  the  Duma, 
Miliukoff  does  not  deliver  mere  speeches  ;  so  powerful 
are  his  orations  that,  notwitlistanding  the  reactionary 
forces  against  him,  he  has  been  victorious  on  many 
occasions.  His  eloquence  since  the  outbreak  of  war 
has  thrilled  the  Duma  times  without  number.  Never 
was  he  more  successful  than  on  the  memorable  November 
day  when  he  denounced  the  pro-German  Premier  Sturmer. 
It  is  a  classical  oration  and  may  be  given  in  full.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  it  was  spoken  in  the  Duma 
in  the  presence  of  Sturmer  and  his  Party : 

"  Gentlemen, — We  have  all  heard  of  Funeral  Orations, 
but  have  you  noticed  that,  whatever-  their  aim, 
these  orations  always  leave  the  dead  dead  ?  What 
would  you  think,  I  wonder,  of  a  man  who  sought,  in  • 
such  an  oration,  to  bring  about  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead  ?  Mad  ?  I  agree,  yet  there  are  times  when 
such  an  attempt  is  permissible.  Gentlemen,  I  stand 
on  this  tribune  with  that  mad  desire  upon  me.  Like 
a  fire  this  desire  has  burnt  into  my  soul.  I  want  to 
deliver  an  oration  which  will  resurrect  the  dead, 
because  the  mighty  Russian  Empire  cannot  afford  to 
leave  dead  its  most  precious  possession.  The  dead, 
over  which  I,  together  with  most  of  the  Russian 
people,  weep  tears  of  blood,  must  be  dead  no 
longer.  You  and  I  must  use  all  our  powers,  magic, 
witchcraft,  what  you  will,  but  the  dead  must  be 
made  to  live.  This  highest  heritage  of  a  nation,  its 
honour,  must  not  be  buried.  Honour  is  dead  in 
Russia  and  before  the  whole  world  becomes  aware  of 
our  dead,  w^e  must  i>ring  it  to  life  again. 
"  Do  you  not  know  that  unless  you  act  now,  unless 
you  use  your  utmost  efforts,  the  name  of  Russia  will 
stink  in  the  nostrils  of  humanity  ?  Even  the  most 
savage  tribe  in  the  world  will  turn  away  on  the 
•  approach  of  a  Russian,  because  Russia  is  about  to 
■  betray  the  trust  of  her  Allies.  They  are  Allies  of 
whoin  she  should  be  prond — Allies  to  whom  she  ought  to 
listen  with  respect  and  obedience.     They  arc  among  the 


oldest  civilisations,  the  oldest  democracies  in  the  world, 
and  they  are  to  lae  betrayed !      Judas  the  traitor  is 
among  \is  !     Judas  has  closed  his  bargain  !    I  under- 
stand your  turmoil  ;    1  read  the  terror  in  your  eyes. 
Even  the  President's  hand  is  quaking !     He  rings  his 
bell    nervously ;    but    mark,    even   the   bell    revolts ; 
instead   of  its  shrill  sound,  yOu  hear  a  muffled  funeral 
note.     No,   it   shall   not    silence   me ;     its    sound    re- 
echoes in  my  soul  and  urges  me  to  further  effoit.     I 
have  here,  gentlemen,  the  e\idence  of  Judas.  E\idence 
in  cold  hgures — the  number,  of  shekels,  the  pieces  of 
silver  for  betrayal.     A  new  sound  cgmes  out  of  the 
bell  —the  jingle  of  silver,  the  bloqd  money  !    Why  are 
we    silent ;     yes,    silence,    our    silence    is     golden    to 
Sturmer  and  his  colleagues.     But  for  us,  for  genera- 
tions to  come,   that   silence  is  a  crime  ;     a    terrible, 
bloody  crime.    All  we  shall  have,  to  leave  our  descend- 
ants, when  honour  is  buried,  is  disgrace,  a  stain  that  no 
time  will  efface.     Wake  up,  you  sons  of  Russia,  y'pu 
who  stand   for   the   Russian  people,    and   avert    this 
greatest    of  all  catastrophes.      Rise   up,  dead  honour, 
arise  from  your  coftin  and  let  us  see  thee  live.     Come, 
face   thy  murderer   in    his   high   place.     Accuse   him 
before  this  assembly,  let  thy  voice  thunder.     Yes  I  am 
aflame ;  but  I  am  cold  compared  with  the  crime  with 
which   I   charge   Sturmer.     I   stand   on   this   tribune 
only  because  you  are  honest  and  true  men,  and  you 
wili  not  tolerate  these  things  when  once  you  know 
them.     You  will  bring  honour  to  life  again,. and  bring 
gratitude  instead  of  contempt  into  the  hearts  of  our 
children. 

"  Rachel,  we  are  told,  is  crying  for  her  children,  but 
if  you  open  your  ears  you  will  hear  a  heart-breaking 
sob,  a  sob  which  will  till  you  with  horror.  Do  you 
know  who  it  is  that  is  crying  ?  Russia,  the  gallant, 
the  brave,  the  Mother  of  us  all,  good  and  bad,  is 
crying.  Her  heart  is  breaking.  Are  we  to  help  her, 
we  her  sons  ? 

"  Your  answer  cheers  me.  This  is  the  miracle  for 
which  I  have  been  working.  The  dead  has  come 
to  life  again.  Your  shouts  of  encouragement  are  its 
first  signs  of  life.  With  honour  alive  in  our  midst 
once  more  we  can  speak  calmly.  Analyse  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Sturmer  ministry  since  its  beginning. 
What  were  all  its  measures  adopted  for  ?  What 
were  they  meant  to  produce  ?  The  dissatisfaction 
of  the  masses.  What  docs  such  dissatisfaction  pro- 
duce ?  Revolution,  bloody  revolution. 
"Berlin  does  not  pay  money  for  nothing.  Sturmer 
had  to  earn  it,  and  he  did.  He  pa^ved  the  way  for 
revolution  as  the  means  to  a  separate  Peace.  Must 
not  the  great  Russian  people  be  told  of  this  ?  Is  it 
not  better  to  remove  the  cause  of  their  suffering  ? 
Gentlemen,  this  traitor,  this  German,  must  go.  .  No 
matter  what  excuse  be  made  forTiim,  for  the  sake  of 
our  honour,  and  the  trust  of  our  Allies,  Sturmer 
must  go.     .     .     ." 

From  a  political  point  of  view,  .almost  as  strong 
was  the  speec^i  made  by  M.  Miliukoff  in  the  Duma 
on  the  eve  of  the  Revolution.  But  there  is  hardly  one 
speech  delivered  by  him  throughout  his  career  for  which 
equal  importance  could  not  be  claimed.  It  was  thegeneral 
conviction  when  the  Revolution  began  that  it  had  been 
provoked  by  the  Government,  working  through  the 
medium  of  the  police,  and  that  the  Government  had 
decided  upon  this  daring  expedient  as  the  means  of  com- 
pleting its  previous  ehorts  to  tie  up  the  industrial  activity 
of  the  country  and  bring  the  war  operations  to  a  com- 
plete standstill.  But  the  force  which  was  set  in  motion 
and  which  first  appeared  easy  to' control,  drawing  to  it 
all  the  discordant  elements  of  the  country  which  were 
awaiting  an  opijortunity  to  revolt,  soon  became  so  tre- 
mendous that  it  was  impossible  to  hold  it. 

And  behind  this  force,  one  ihay  almost  say  the  leading 
spirit  of  this 'fbrce,  was  the  great  mind  of  Miliukoff,  the 
idealist  and  dreamer  of  Constitutional  rights  and  free- 
dom. When  in  the  calm  years  after  the  war  the  his- 
torian, and  following  him,  the  romancist  apply  their 
genius  and  talents  to  a  description  of  Russia  during  the 
great  war  of  Liberation  against  e:iternal  and  internal 
foes,  I  do  not  doubt  that  in  every  case  the  personality 
of  Miliukoff  will  appear  in  the  commanding  position  it 
merits  as  Russia's  great  Orator  and  Reformer. 


April  12,  1917 


LAND    &  •  WATER 


13 


Britain's  Merchant  Service 


This  very  remarkable  letter  from  an  engineer  on  hoard  one  of  H.M's  Transports  has  been 
addressed  to  Lani>  &  Water.  While  expressing  regret  to  the  uriter  of  it  for  our  unintentional 
misrepresentation  of  the  Mercantile  Marine,  a  service  towards  which  the  British  nation  for  all 
its  "real  ignorance  entertains  sincere  pride  and  gratitude,  we  are  glad  that  this  error  shotild 
have   occurred    in   that   it    has  elicited    this  forcible  exposition    of   the    true    state   of  affain. 


"The  despised,  or  perhaps  simply  neglected  captain 
of  the  trading  vessel  has  now  come  into  his  own, 
with  a  commission  in  the  Naval  Reserve  and  a 
good  chance  of  medals  and  rewards.     .     .     ." 

Land  &  Wathk,  Feb.  8tli,  "  Books  to  Read.' 

I  WANT  to  know  why  it  is  that  igaorant  and  incom- 
petent writers  arc  invariably  told  olf  to  deal  with 
the  Merchant  Service  ?  I  want  to  know  why  a 
journal  like  Land  &  Water  permits  a  statement 
like  the  one  which  I  have  quoted  above  to  pass  at  a 
time  when  anyone  with  any  common  knowledge  of  the 
sea  ought  to  know  it  is  not  true  ? 

You  see  my  point  ?  We  who  go  to  sea  in  cargo-ships 
are  not  complaining  because  no  notice  is  taken  of  us. 
Praise  we  do  get  that  is  sometimes  embarrassing.  Did 
not  Mr.  Garvin  only  a  month  or  so  ago,  call  us  all 
"  glorious  shell-backs,"  and  give  us  (metaphorically)  a 
thundering  clap  on  the  back  ?  The  complaint  we  have 
to  make  is  the  blank  ignorance  of  people  in  power  and 
influence,  of  our  way  of  life.  It  is  almost  incredible, 
when  you  come  to  think  of  it,  the  ignorance  of  the  average 
educated  Briton  concerning  the  service  without  which 
he  could  not  live  for  a  week.  And  the  war,  which  has 
made  the  man  in  the  street  familiar  with  redoubts  and 
echelons  and  platoons  and  low  visibility  and  H.E.  shells 
and  all  the  other  rumble-bumble  of  the  daily  and  weekly 
war  articles,  has  left  him  in  his  original  virgin  innocence 
concerning  the  merchantman  and  the  men  who  liv(>  on  her. 

An  Inarticulate  Service 

There  seems  some  sort  of  curse  on  us — we  cannot  get 
to  be  articulate  ourselves,  and  we  cannot  get  anyone 
ashore  to  keep  his  knowledge  of  the  sea  fresh  and  vivid 
when  he  leaves  us  for  some  higher  post.  Somehow, 
when  the  Garvins  of  the  world  interview  us,  they  .don't 
get  the  heart  of  the  matter.  Journalists  are  very  like 
women  in  sea-matters.  I  remember  when  I  told  some 
ladies  I  had  been  promoted  second  engineer,  years  ago, 
one  said,  "  Really  !  on  a  lin-ah  ?  "  And  another  said, 
"  When  will  you  be  captain  ?  "  I  have  had  sillier 
questions  than  that  put  me  by  journalists.  It  is  no  u.se 
expecting  the  Navy  to  do  anything,  for  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  the  Navy  knows  no  more  about  us  than  you 
do.  They  come  crashing  alongside  of  us  in  their  twin- 
screw  launches  (crew  of  a  dozen)  and  wonder  why  we 
haven't  a  couple  of  quartermasters  to  receive  them  at 
the  gangway.  They  give  us  any  amount  of  rigid  dis- 
ciplinary rules  to  carry  out,  and  they  stop  us  going  ashore 
just  as  often  as  they  can  ;  but  as  far  as  any  compre- 
hension of  our  peculiar  position  and  problems  goes,  we 
seek  it  not  in  the  Navy.  Ask  not  who  was  the  N.T.O. 
who  sent  aboard  of  a  laid-up  transport  for  three  engineers, 
a  refrigerator  and  two  "  mechanics."  Goodness  only 
knows  what  it  was  he  wanted.  Ask  not  the  name  of 
the  N.T.O.  who  told  a  transport  skipper  to  slip  his 
anchors,  when  he'was  just  going  to  sea.  Seek  no  more 
details  of  the  gazetted  R.N.R.  Lieut,  who  asked  a 
"  refrigerator  "  if  he  had  "  just  taken  it  up  for  the  war." 
Fancy  going  to  sea  "  just  for  the  war  !  " 

The  plain  matter  of  fact  is  the  public  cannot  afford  to 
bother  about  matters  in  which  the  public  are  not  inter- 
ested. Any  old  statement  will  do.  Your  book  re- 
viewer has  absolutely  no  ground  for  stating  what  he 
does  in  the  above  paragraph.  I  have  been  two  years 
here  now,  and  neither  my  skipper  nor  any  other  trans- 
port skipper  we  have  come  in  touch  with  has  the  com- 
mission in  the  R.N-R-  I  can  tell  you  this,  that  in  the 
ships  of  this  company  (which  I  only  refrain  from  naming 
because  of  the  Censor),  which  were  taken  over  for 
au.xiliary  cruisers,  the  sub-lieutenant  engineers  have 
temporary  commissions  R.N.R.,  and  the  pay  is  so 
MTetchcd  the  company  have  to  add  to  it  to  bring  it  up 


to  the  ordinary  junior  engineer's  pay  in  a  tramp. 

What's  the  use  of  influential  journals  talking  about  the 
"  merchant  captain  coming  into  his  own,"  when  a  few 
temporary  commissions  are  contemptuously  ilung  to 
him  with  paj'  that  compares  unfavourably  with  that  of 
cooks  and  donkcymen  ?  What's  the  use  of  expecting 
the  public  to  esteem  the  services  of  the  ordinary  seafaring 
officer  if  the  Navy  regard  him  merely  as  a  hand,  a  sort 
of  extra  gang  of  stewards  to  keep  the  bluejackets  fed 
and  provisioned  ?  A  relative  of  mine  is  Exan'^iation 
Officer  hi  a  certain  port.  He  is  R.N.R.  Lieut.  He  told 
me  that  the  Navy  thought  more  of  him  than  they  did 
of  the  biggest  transport  captain  entering  the  port.  And 
the  largest  ships  afloat  were  coming  into  that  port. 
Being  a  merchant  service  officer  in  peace-time,  he  knows 
the  injustice  of  that  prejudice,  although  he  profits  by 
it  now. 

"Glorious  Shell-Backs" 

I  am  sure  I  don't  know  whether  I  am  doing,  any  good 
by  writing  this  to  you.  but  what  makes  my  heart  ache 
when  I  read  articles  about  the  merchant  service  is  the 
lack  of  understanding  of  those  who  go  to  sea.  .  Take 
Mr.  Garvin's  fine  phrase,  "  glorious  shell-backs."  Well, 
the  "  shell-backs  "  on  this  ship  include  a  man  who  went 
to  a  public  school  and  King's  College,  London  (the 
Skipper)  ;  another,  who  went  to  a  famous  grammar 
school  and  is  a  clever  engineer  (the  chief)  ;  a  member 
of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers  ;  and  a 
graduate  of  the  Scottish  University.  I  met  a  novelist 
on  a  transport  in  Salonika.  Manj' "  shell-backs  "  have 
extra  certificates  which  take  some  getting  ;  and  for  all 
the  good  those  extra  tickets  are  they  might  as  well  have 
used  the  time  and  the  money  and  the'  brains  keeping 
chickens. 

Some  may  say  "  Why  doesn't  the  Government  take 
over  the  whole  Merchant  Service  ?  "  Easy  to  say,  but 
impossible  in  practice.  The  Merchant  Service  is  civilian 
in  essence  (and  sliould  be  so) ,  and  the  only  way  to  recog- 
nise the  services  of  the  men  in  merchant  ships  is  by  a 
system  of  bounties.  And  again,  consider  the  injustice 
of  transferring '  a  ship  from  civilian  articles  to  R.N.R. 
and  giving  the  officers  rank  according.  Take  my  ship 
as  an  example.  I  was  put  there  (in  a  home  port)  and 
told  the  ship  was  going  to  France,  a  short  trip.  I  had 
joined  the  company  in  a  junior  capacity,  although  a 
senior  by  experience,  because  it  is  usual  to  start  low> 
no  matter  who  you  are,  and  I  had  been  in  the  U.S.A. 
under  that  flag.  Well,  the  ship  has  been  away  going 
on  two  years  now,  and  I'm  still  a  junior.  And  if  the 
ship  were  taken  over  and  .1  were  given  the  commission 
of  my  rank,  I  would  be  a  sub-lieut.  for  ever,  although 
I  was  chief  of  a  6,000-ton  ship  six  years  ago.  You  seq  ? 
This  is  one  of  the  problems  of  the  Merchant  Service. 

I  make  no  complaint  on  my  own  part  ;  but  I ,  am 
only  one  of  scores  of  senior  men  who  are  holding  down 
junior  jobs  becauso  they  cannot  get  home  to  secure 
promotion.  Not  long  ago  we  had  a  third  mate  at  ^10 
a  month  with  twenty  years'  sea  experience.  (He  joined 
as  I  did,  after  the  war  began,  having  been  years  out  in 
the  East.)  Well,  we  come,  to  the  Mediterranean  and. 
we  run  against  boys  of  twenty  and  twenty-one,  with 
not  even  steam  tickets,  who  have  never  seen  a  sailing 
ship,  third  mates  at  £16  a  month,  third  mates  of  Western 
Ocean  flyers  !  And  if  the  Admiralty  took  us  all  over, 
those  boys  would  be  confirmed  lieutenants  R.N.R.  and 
start  square  M'ith  mcn|  who  were  handling  ships  before 
they  wert;  born.  . 

Take  another  case.  A  young  man,  who  had  just 
finished  his  time  in  the  Midlands,  was  fourth  engineer 
of  a  ship  Mhich  was  torpedoed  on  his  first  trip.  He  was 
saved,  and  went  to  sea  again  as  soon  as  there  was  another 
billet.     He  came  here.    Having  no  experience  of    sea 


H 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  12,  191 7 


hie  and  (coming  trom  the  Midlunds)  nobody  at  homo 
who  could  rig  him  put  proper,  he  came  to  iiea  without 
a  proper  kit.  Any^vay,  it  didn't  matter — we  were  only 
going  across  the  Channel  !  We  came  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  after  five  months  or  so,  our  young  fifth  got 
-ick  and  was  sent  to  hospital,  where  they  dug  out  his 
ippendix  and  sent  him  out  again  to  be  "  invalided 
home."  Here  the  authorities  stepped  in,  and  behig 
only  an  engineer  in  the  merchant  service,  he,  a  solicitor's 
son,  was  put  in  the  steerage.  He  had  no  money,  no 
clothes,  and  by  God,  if  it  hadn't  been  for  the  good  hearts 
of  the  engineers  of  that  hospital  ship,  he'd  have  arrived 
in  the  country  he  had  been  serving  naked  and  without 
the  few  shillings  to  pay  his  rail-fare,  home.  He  had 
"  come  into  his  own  "  sure  enough.  He  was  "  invalided 
homo  " 

Official  Recognition 

Sir  Edward  Carson  "  foreshadowed  recognition  of  the 
services  of  Merchant  Seamen."  Well,  how  would  it  do 
to  put  that  young  engineering  student  on  the  same  level 
as  the  parson  and  medical  students  who  are  "  doing  their 
bit  ?  "  How  would  it  do  to  put  a  man  like  me,  thirty-hve 
years  old,  member  of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  ist  class  B.  of  Trade  Certificate  and  ist  class 
U.S.A.  License,  with  practical  experience  of  all  classes 
of  ships'  machinery  from  tramps  to  mail  boats,  on  about 
the  level  of  the  ordained  minister  and  the  M.D.  ?  How 
would  it  do  to  put  my  uncle,  who  has  just  completed 
over  thirty  years  in  command  in  one  of  the  oldest  liners 
running  to  the  East,  and  who  was  ready  to  retire  when 
war  broke  out,  but  who  carried  on— how  would  it  do 
to  give  the  authorities  a  hint  to  treat  him  more  like  an 
experienced  officer  and  less  like  a  "  shell-back  "  or  a 
low  character  !  These  are  only  given  as  samples  of  Mr. 
Garvin's  "  shell-back."  I  offer  these  suggestions  to 
Sir  Edward  Carson  as  a  basis. 

Another  point  of  piercing  interest  to  "  shell-backs  " 
like  myself  and  m\'  esteemed  commander  and  chief 
engineer,  is  the  astounding  figure  we  always  cut  in 
hction,  with  the  sole  exception,  perhaps,  of  Joseph 
Conrad's  line  tales.  Consider  liow  we  stand !  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  we  stand  nowhere  save  in  the  •'Comic 
Cuts"  characters  of  Jacob's  and  Kipling's  stories  and  in 
the  melodramatic  tales  of  the  cheaper  magazines.  The 
only  skipper  the  magazine  story  writers  have  any  use 
for  is  the  man  who  lost  his  ticket  years  ago  and  now 
conuTiands  a  tramp  owned  by  German  Jews  ! 

But  the  point  1  am  burning  to  dri\c  home  can  be 


best  illustrated  from  the  L.\nl)  cS:  Wati-r  from  which 
I  have  alrcadv  (pioted.  I  hnd  two  short  stories  therein, 
one  about  a  "  Yotmg  Anzac  "  at  Winchester,  and  one 
about  a  lieutenant  wlio  was  a  real  line  chap.  Now  both 
these  stories,  though  I  dislike  their  tone  myself,  are 
admirable  for  one  verv  sufficient  reason  :  They  simply 
sweat  knowledge  and  love  of  their  subjects.  There 
isn't  the  least  doubt,  for  instance,  that  "  Centurion  " 
knows  and  idealises  the  young  English  officer.  There 
is  no  doubt  "  Bartim;EUS "  knows  and  admires  the 
saintly  naval  oflii  .r-  nf  his  stories.  There  is  no  doubt 
about  it  at  all. 

But  mark  the  change  <i^  >uuii  .i>  the  scene  changes  to 
the  Merchant  Service !  Recall  any  stories  you  may 
ha\e  read  about  cargo  ships  and  mail  boats.  To  judge 
by  the  fiction  which  apiiart'ntly  n^eets  the  requirements 
of  the  British  and  American  publics,  the  Merchant 
Service  is  officered  and  engineered  by  a  lot  of  foul- 
mouthed  lunatics— chief  engineers,  invariably  Scotch, 
who  rush  round  witli  a  spanner  smashing  firemen's  heads, 
skippers  shooting  u])  the  bridge,  mates  in  the  toils  of 
adventuresses.     .     .     . 

And  yet  the  deck  or  engineer  officer  has  to  go  through 
his  probation,  his  fiery  ordeals,  just  the  same  as  the 
public  school  man  !  try  and  conceive  the  long  weary 
fight  from  the  day  a  lad  goes  into  the  work  to  the  day 
he  takes  charge  for  the  first  time.  "  Centurion  "  talks 
of  "  handling  men,"  by  men  he  means  British  Tommies. 
What  sort  of  figure  would  his  officer  cut  if  he  had  to 
handle  a  cosmopohtan  crowd  of  firemen,  coal  ]>assers 
and  greasers  in  the  tropics  and  no  military  discipline 
to  fall  back  on.  What  would  he  do  with  a  crowd  of 
lorty  yelling  Chinks  surging  up  the  tunnel  to  beat  up  a 
poor  silly  junior  engintier  who,  in  a  moment  of  exaspera- 
tion, had  punched'one  of  them  ?  What  would  he  do 
with  a  lot  of  Japanese  firemen,  knowing  not  a  word  of 
English,  who  raced  away  up  out  of  the  stokehold  at 
the  nioment  of  collision  and  left  him  with  a  whirling 
telegrajjJi  and  no  steam  ?  How  would  he  run  his  watch 
and  keep  full  speed  if  his  lot  included  two  Jajw  who 
wertj  too  small  to  open  the  wing-lire  doors,  an  Arab  from 
Perim  who  ate  hashish,  and  an  Armenian  and  a  West 
Indian  negro  who  were  always  trying  to  knife  each  other 
over  a  Greek  woman  ?  Handling  men  !  I  tell  you,  sir, 
the  British  officer  has  a  gaudy  time  of  it  compared  with 
us  in  the  Merchant  Service  this  day  !  To  have  a  w-hite 
crowd  once  more  ;  a  crowd  who  could  all  speak  English 
and  do  as  they  were  told  !  It  would  be  like  changing 
from'  lion-taming  to  kicking  the  cat  ! 

And  we  have  ten  thousand  ships  at  sea  ! 


The  American  Filibusters 

By  Our  Special. Correspondent 


"  .4  liltle  group  of  wilful  men  representing  no  opinion 
hill  their  own  have  rendered  the  great  Government  of  the 
I'nitcd  Stales  helpless  and  eontcmptible."  So  wrote 
President  Wilson  of  the  dozen  Senators  who  during  the 
last  hours  of  the  life  of  Congress  prevented,  on  March 
4th,  a  vole  .upon  the  bill  supporting  his  project  for  the 
"  armed  neutrality "  of  the  United  States.  Certain 
members  nf  this  group  again  opposed  the  President  in 
the  Senate,  when  the  question  of  Declaration  of  War 
was  under  discussion.  This  article,  written  in 
Washington  after  the  first  incident,  describes  the 
personality  of  these  "  wilful  men." 

SENATORS  I.A  FOLLETTE  AND  :5lU-\E 
both  come  from  the  Middle  West  ;  and  the 
Middle  West  has  been  more  indilt'erent  than  any 
other  j>art  of  the  country  towards  the  war.  Mr. 
La  Follette  sitting  for  Wisconsin,  Mr.  Stone  sitting  for 
Missouri,  alike  represent  constituencies  where  the  Teutonic 
element  is  strong.  Mr.  La  Follette — because  to  him 
politics  is  a  means  for  the  production  of  a  domestic 
I'topia  :  Mr.  Stone — .because  to  him  politics  is  a 
profession  and  a  means  to  ho  end  save  place  and  in- 
fluence— are  both  quite  careless  of  foreign  affairs.  And 
the  secret  of  the  indifference  of  the  Middle  West  is  pros- 
erous   and    individualistic    isolation   plus    the    influence 


of  its  huge  Teutonic  communities. 

Mr.  Stone  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque  if  least  edifying 
characters  in  the  Senate.  Tall,  his  spare  figure  clad  in 
the  traditional  rusty  frock-coat  (jf  the  American  politician, 
his  lean,  foxy  features  surmounted  with  the  pohtician'> 
black  sombrero,  he  belongs  to  a  past  age,  the  age  of 
sonorously  flatulent  oratory,  or  bar-room  and  hotel 
lobby  good-fellowship,  and  of  pohtical  intrigues  con- 
cocted in  hired  bedrooms  reeking  with  tobacco  smoke 
and  foul  with  tobacco  juice.  One  can  sec;  him  in  such 
a  milieu  entertaining  the  walking  delegates  of  the 
Prussian  propaganda,  entertaining  them  not  as  Germans 
but  as  constituents  or  the  friends  of  constituents.  For, 
it  would  be  to  attribute  too  much  to  Senator  Stone's 
mentality  to  write  him  down  as  intellectually  ])ro-German. 
Chairman  of  the  F'oreign  Relations  Conunittce  of  the 
Senate  by  virtue  of  seniority  of  service,  his  CQUception 
of  foreign  policy  is  of  the  old-fashioned  F"ourth  of  July 
oration  type,  of  the  "  America-can-lick-creation-only- 
luckily-shc-only-wants-to-bc-let-alone  "     type.  Pro- 

German  hC'  is  in  the  very  practical  sense  of  not  wanting 
to  wound  till!  feelings  of  constituents,  in  the  sense  of 
being  a  peace-at-almost-any-price  man.  Pro-German 
he  has  shown  himself  in  the  sense  of  mouthing  out  vagiit; 
and  vainglorious  resentment  against  the  high-handed- 
ness of  the  British  licet  and  of  utterly  failing  to  grasi) 


April  12,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


the  deeper  signilkancc  of  the  conflict.  J<'or  tlic  purpose 
of  classification  he  may,  in  fact,  be  set  down  as  one  of 
the  Kaiser's  assistants  in  American  politics  ;  but  he  is 
also  an  effective  caricature  of  that  great  mass  of  indifferent 
opinion  traditionally  suspicious  of  British  maritime 
methods,  traditionally  prone  to  regard  Europe  as  the 
prey  of  monarchs  and  other  picturesque  anachronisms 
with  which  the  United  States  has  luckily  nothing  to  do, 
and  utterly  indifferent  to  what  may  happen  to  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  on  the  high  seas  so  long  as  its  trade 
goes  forward. 

It  is  more  doubtful  whether  Senator  I.a  Follettc  can 
be  classed  as  pro-German.  He  resembles  his  colleague 
in  nothing  save  narrowness  of  vision.  He  is  a  RepubHcan 
and  a  Radical ;  Mr.  Stone  is  a  Democrat  and  would  be 
even  a  Conservative  if  he  could  think  things  out.  Pre- 
sumably of  French  descent,  Mr.  La  Follette  has  only 
the  defects  of  the  Gallic  virtues.  He  is  volatile,  .fickle, 
and  sensational.  He  is  small,  pugnacious  in  appearance, 
and  wears  a  pompadour  of  hair  which  makes  him  look 
like  an  angry  bird.  In  politics  he  is  a  product  of  a 
peculiar  brand  of  radicahsm  called  the  "  Wisconsin 
idea,"  for  which  the  highly  intelligent  Faculty  of  the 
University  of  Wisconsin  was  primarily  responsible  and 
which,  despite  a  taint  of  empiricism,  has  had  a  very  real 
and  useful  influence  on  American  political  thought. 
But  he  soon  cut  loose  from  his  better  educated  tutors 
just  as,  before  espousing  radicalism,  he  cut  loose  from 
his  conservative  Republican  sponsors.  It  was  before 
the  Presidential  election  of  i()i2  that  he  definitely  ran 
amok,  partly  owing  to  disappointment  that  the  Pro- 
gressive Republicans  should  have  chosen  Mr.  Roosevelt 
instead  of  him  as  their  leader.  Since  then  he  has  flirted 
with  the  Democratic  party,  and  though  still  commanding 
great  popular  support  in  his  State,  is  without  national 
influence.  ,  His  explanations  of  his  vote  was  that  he 
feared  that  any  further  steps  against  Germany  would 
lead  to  war.  As  a  representative  of  the  pacific  West 
he  was  afraid  of  putting  too  much  power  into  the  Presi- 
dent's hands.  He  is  also  just  the  sort  of  man  who  may 
have  been  fooled  by  the  Prussian  complaints  that  Ger- 
many is  a  misunderstood  and  regenerated  nation,  and 
that  the  English  are  just  as  overbearing  as  the  Junkers. 
For  he  is  of  the  type  of  Western  Radical  to  whom  dress 
clothes  and  walking-sticks  are  the  badge  of  an  obscene 
conservatism  with  which  the  true  American  can  have 
nothing  to  do.  He  once,  in  a  speech,  described  his 
country  as  the  "  United  States  and  New  England." 
New  England  being  presumably  socially  too  much  like 
monarchical  old  England  to  form  an  integral  part  of  the 
commonwealth. 

Scandinavian  Pacifism 

But  Senator  La  Follettc  is  a  complex  creature. 
Senator  Norris,  Senator  Gronna,  and  Senator  Cummins, 
other  Middle  Western  companions  in  his  disgrace,  are 
better  types  of  the  spirit  of  that  part  of  the  country. 
Senator  Gronna  represents  Scandinavian  pacifism,  the 
])roduct  of  the  careless  prosperity  of  congenial  agri- 
culturists buried  deep  in  the  centre  of  a  continent. 
.Senators  Norris  and  Cummins  are  Anglo-Saxon  Radicals. 
Their  "  opposite  number  "  in  the  Democratic  party  is 
Mr.  Bryan  rather  than  Mr.  Stone.  Like  the  "  Great 
Commoner,"  they  are  intensely  provincial.  They  be- 
lieve that  if  the  United  States  can  get  really  representa- 
tive Government  she  can  afford  to  let  the  rest  of  the 
universe  "go  hang."  They  were  lc:der;  in  the  pro- 
gressive revolt  in  the  Republican  pa  ty  which  a  few- 
years  ago  overthrew  its  plutocratic  management  in  the 
interests  of  the  "  plain  people,  '  deposed  old  Speaker 
Cannon  from  his  "  Tsardom  "  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, made  miserable  President  Taft's  life  in  the 
White  House,  and  eventually  by  splitting  the  Republican 
Party  between  him  and  Mr.  R"oose\-elt  gave  the  country 
an  opportunity  of  benefiting  from  Mr.  Wilson's  reforms 
instead  of  from  theirs.  They  are,  in  fact,  close  equiva- 
lents of  the  British  ante-bellum  Radical.  War  to  them 
is  not  only  intolerable  in  principle,  but  is  condemned 
because  even  preparation  for  it  deflects  nioney  and 
energy  from  the  social  and  political  betterment  of  the 
nation.  If  war  should  come,  they  are  prone  to  proclaim, 
the  resourcefulness  of  the  American  will  be  equal  to  it. 
According  to  Mr.  Bryan,  Mr.  Henry  Ford  is  not  only  a 


great  pacifist,  because  lie  promotes  peace  pilgrimages  ; 
he  is  also  a  great  patriot  because  he  manufactures  a 
motor  which  all  farmers  can  buy,  and  in  which  they  can 
flock  in  their  millions  to  pitchfork  the  invader  into  the 
sea.  Good  roads  for  the  prompt  collection  of  his  agri- 
cultural cohorts  at  the  threatened  point  are,  Mr.  Bryan 
lias  stated,  the  true  preparation  for  national  defence, 
and  not  armies  and  navies. 

A  Roll  of  Dishonour 

.  Three  more  examples  from  the  Senatorial  roll  of 
dishonour  about  complete  a  rough  cross  section  of  those 
layers  of  opinion  which  apart  from  the  regular  German 
propaganda  are  usually  labelled  as  pacifist  or  pro- 
German.  Two  of  those  examples  are  easily  disposed  of. 
If  Senator  Stone  represents  deliberately  selfish  paro- 
chialism, and  Senator  La  Follette  the  parochialism  of 
narrow  ideals.  Senator  Vardaman,  of  Mississippi,  and 
Senator  Works  of  Cahfornia,  represent  the  parochialism 
of  sheer  stupidity.  Both  have  been  repudiated  by  their 
more  intelligent  constituents.  Neither  has  had  nor 
can  have  any  influence  in  national  affairs,  but  both 
represent  quite  an  element  in  the  population.  Senator 
Works  is  a  faddist  of  the  type  that  is  always  on  the 
wrong  side  and  knows  nothing  about  anything.  He  is, 
among  other  things,  a'Christian  scientist,  and  may  think 
that  the  methods  of  Mrs.  Eddy  should  be  applied  to  the 
regeneration  of  the  Prussian  barbarians.  Senator 
Vardaman  represents  the  Democratic  "  backwoodsmen  " 
of  the  South.  His  appearance  matches  the  uncouth 
conservatism  of  his  ideas.  Portly  and  clean-shaven, 
he  wears  his  hair  long  to  the  base  of  his  neck  and  trimmed 
like  that  of  a  choir  boy. in  a  mediaeval  picture.  He 
sports  a  black  frock  coat  in  winter  and  a  white  coat  of 
nearly  as  dignified  a  cut  in  summer.  His  sombrero 
is  black  in  winter  and  white  or  grey  in  summer.  His 
overcoat  is  a  flowing  mantle  of  the  Byronian  type.  In 
politics  he  is  of  the  class  that  believes  that  "  niggers  " 
ought  not  to  vote,  that  protectionists  are  thieves,  and 
that  all  will  be  well  with  the  world  if  cotton  fetches  a 
good  price  and  his  friends  and  relations  get  a  good  share 
of  the  party  spoils.  Hence  he  is  not  excited  about 
Prussian  atrocities  on  .the  high  seas  and  will  not  be 
imless  cotton  exports  are  pinched  by  a  diminishing 
tonnage.  It  was  to  influence  such  as  him  as  well  as  the 
grain  growers  of  the  ^^'est  that  the  President  allowed 
American  shipping  to  be  tied  up  by  the  German  blockade. 
The  object-lesson  failed,  because  the  number  of  American 
ships  flying  across  the  Atlantic  is  so  small. 

Senator  O'Gorman  is  a  very  different  politician. 
Instead  of  being  too  provincially  American,  he  is  too 
foreign.  Senator  (since  March  4th  luckily  ex-Senator) 
from  New  York,  he  is  one  of  those  Irish-Americans  who 
persist  in  viewing  the  world  through  Fenian  spectacles. 
His  course  in  the  Senate  was  always  anti-British  rather 
than  pro-American.  Though  sitting  on  the  Democratic 
side,  he  opposed  Mr.  Wilson's  successful  and  altogether 
admirable  effort  to  undo  the  damage  that  Mr.  Taft  and 
the  Republican  had  done  to  the  reputation  of  the  United 
States  by  legislating  a^-ay  the  obligations  of  the  Hay- 
Pauncefote  treaty  and  discriminating  in  favour  of 
American  shipping  in  the  Panama  Canal.  During  the 
war  his  prejudice  made  him  a  useful  Senatorial  assistant 
to  the  German  propaganda.  He  represents,  in  fact, 
that  mass  of  Irish-American  opinion  which,  especially 
since  the  Dublin  revolt,  has  been  and  will  be,  till  the 
Home  Rule  difficulty  is  settled,  one  of  the  gravest 
impediments  in  the  way  of  a  satisfactory  Anglo-American 
relationship. 

But  enough  has  perhaps  been  said  to  justify  the  asser- 
tion upon  which  this  article  is  based.  O'Gorman,  Stone, 
La  Follette,  Vardaman,  and  the  rest  of  the  twelve, 
negligible  as  their  influence  may  be  individually,  un- 
doubtedly represent  an  incongruous,  conflicting  but 
nevertheless  converging  set  of  factors  which  it  would 
be  foolish  to  ignore.  They  represent  forces  of  tradition 
and  complexities  of  race  and  prejudice,  of  interests  and 
aspirations  Mhich,  had  it  not  been  for  the  gratuitously 
brutal  law-breaking  of  Berlin,  would  undoubtedly  have 
stultified  the  influence  of  Anglo-Saxon  and  sophisticated 
America,  the  America  represented  by  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
Mr.  Root,  and  less  emphatically  by  Mr.  Wilson,  and 
have  kept  the  United  States  neutral  until  the  end. 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  12,  1917 


In  a  Munition  Factory 


By  Phyllis  Bottome 


IT  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  the  times  that  though  the 
business  of  war  is  to  destroy,  the  makers  of  destruc- 
tion appear  to  be  the  most  humane  and  well-cared 
for  specimens  of  humanity.  No  one  who  h;is 
\'isited  a  new  munition  factory  can  fail  to  be  struck  by 
the  enormous  improvement  in  the  status  of  the  worker, 
?ind  the  corresponding  improvement  in  the  quantity  and 
quality  of  the  work. 

The  new  machinerv  with  its  incalculable  results,  its 
automatic  economies  and  its  bafHing  ingenuity  of  design, 
is  by  far  the  lesser  miracle.  Men  have  always  sought 
out  many  inventions  ;  it  has  only  belatedly  occurred  to 
them  that  the  human  element  needed  for  the  e.xecution 
of  their  plans  is  more  capable  of  de\'elopment  than  any 
machine.  It  has  been  left  to  war  to  produce  employers 
whose  care  for  their  workpeople  has  tapped  vmknown 
and  imdreamed  of  human  resources. 

In  the  munition  factor\'  which  the  present  writer  was 
permitted  to  \  isit,  the  human  element  was  seen  at  its  best. 
There  are  several  thousand  girls  and  men  employed  in  the 
production  of  shell  fuzes.  The  work  hours  are  necessarily 
long.  On  three  days  a  week  the  girls  work  from  8  a.m. 
to  9  p.m.,  on  two  days  from  8  a.m.  to  7  p.m.,  and 
Saturdays  from  8  a.m.  till  12.45  p.m.,  and  yet  in  spite  of 
these  hours  the  women  not  only  looked  well,  but  they  had 
an  air  of  alertness  and  liveliness  which  comes  from  a 
reserve  of  strength  and  is  the  exact  opposite  of  fatigue 
and  lowered  vitality.  They  looked  keen.  Some  of  the 
reasons  for  their  well-being  were  ob\ious,  tlie  big  shops 
were  well  lighted  and  ventilated.  The  girls  were  sensibly 
dressed  and  around  the  actual  buildings  was  space  and 
air.  Two  large  mess  rooms  ha\-e  been  added  to  the  works 
for  the  use  of  the  women,  and  they  are  supplied  with 
lunch  (milk  and  biscuits)  and  tea,  free. 

No  Haphazard  Methods 

These  little  breaks  and  light  refreshments  mean  that 
the  women's  powers  are  not  allowed  to  flag,  the  edge  is 
taken  off  their  fatigue  and  their  spirits  and  bodies  kept 
on  a  higher  level  of  efficiency.  Hot  dinners  consisting  of 
meat,  two  vegetables  and  bread  can  be  bought  for  4|d. 
and  pudding  for  id.  or  2d.  The  health  of  the  women 
workers  in  this  factory  has  not  been  left  to  chance  or 
arrived  at  by  haphazard  methods. 

The  wife  of  the  works  manager  and  nine  female  super- 
visors under  her  direction  devote  their  whole  time  and 
energy  to  what  is  known  as  the  "  Welfare  Department." 
The  workers  consist  of  two  trained  nurses,  a  matron,  an 
assistant  matron,  a  night  matron,  a  visitor  of  sick  and 
absent  girls,  a  hostel  supervisor,  mess  room  manager, 
and  an  assistant  mess  room  manager  for  night  work. 
These  women  do  their  work  as  far  as  possible  not  on  the 
girls,  as  if  they  were  lumps  of  material  to  be  welded  into 
shape  by  a  superior  hand,  but  wilh  them,  as  if  they  were 
friendly  fellow  workers  of  experience,  on  whose  counsel 
and  kindly  offices  the  girls  can  naturally  rely. 

The  welfare  department  combines  with  its  other 
activities  the  function  of  an  employment  bureau  ;  this 
work  is  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  manager's 
wife.  All  applications  for  labour  are  addressed  to  this 
department,  reports  are  made  at  the  end  of  two  and  four 
weeks  on  all  new  girls,  and  all  official  releases  (required 
when  a  girl  leaves)  are  signed  by  the  woman  in  charge 
of  the  employment  office.  In  this  way  the  welfare  de- 
partment is  brought  into  direct  touch  with  all  girls 
throughout  their  "  works "  life,  from  the  very  start 
up  to  the  time  that  they  leave.  In  addition,  when  a  new 
girl  is  engaged,  she  has  an  interview  with  the  matron, 
.vho  takes  down  particulars  as  to  her  health,  home 
.-ircumstances,  etc.,  on  an  index  card,  with  as  much 
display  of  friendliness  and  as  little  display  of  index 
card  as  possible. 

The  welfare  department  has  made  a  special  study  of 
dealing  with  complaints.  Many  of  the  girls  employed 
are  neither  accustomed  to  regular  work  nor  to  the 
business  of  receiving  and  looking  after  their  wages.  A 
system  has  be^n  started  by  which  any  girl  wishing  to  make 
a  complaint  or  who  does  not  undrr^tand  any  of  the 


business  regulations,  can  obtain  a  form  from,  her  fore- 
woman, and  put  it  in  a  complaint  box,  whence  it  will  be 
immediately  taken  and  the  point  in  question  be*  ex- 
plained to  iier,  or  otherwise  dealt  with. 

In  the  centre  of  these  works  is  a  small  garden,  with 
shaded  seats  surrounding  a  founta:in.  Whenever  it  is 
hue  girls  can  use  the  breaks  of  twenty  minutes  for  lunch 
and  tea  to  be  out  in  the  fresh  air,  without  fatigue  and  with 
something  that  resembles  nature  and  beauty  to  take 
the  place  of  the  monotony  of  their  machines.  Standing 
close  to  the  garden  is  a  small  and  charming  little  house 
looking  like  a  Swiss  chalet.  This  is  the  Emergency 
Hospital.  It  has  five  beds  and  a  surgery.  Any  girl  who 
feels  ill  is  given  a  hospital  pass  by  her  forewoman,  which 
she  takes  across  to  the  hospital,  and  after  receiving 
treatment  is  either  sent  home  or  allowed  to  lie  down  and 
rest  till  she  is  fit  to  return  to  work.  No  casual  or  inter- 
mittent sVstem  regulates  the  care  of  sick  girls.  The  fore- 
woman of  each  department  has  special  "  sick  forms  " 
on  which  she  writes  the  names  of  any  girls  absent  from 
ill-health,  with  particulars  of  the  work  upon  which  she  is 
engaged.  Fi\-e  of  the  welfare  workers  hold  a  committee 
on  these  reports  twice  a  week.  A  woman  visitor  \'isits 
the  girls  and  submits  her  opinion  of  the  cases  to  the 
committee. 

Sometimes  a  fortnight  at  the  sea  is  settled  upon  and 
entirely  re-starts  and  invigorates  a  delicate  or  anamic 
girl.  Often  special  nourishment  is  indicated  and  given 
at  the  firm's  expense.  If  the  work  is  considered 
too  hard  for  the  girl  the  question  is  discussed  with 
her  and  something  more  suitable  discovered.  Very 
often  advice  and  common  sense  are  substituted  for  the 
more  usual  course  of  medicine  and  a  break-down. 

The  difficulties  of  housing  and  the  usual  social  problems 
are  of  course  enormous,  and  made  more  difficult  by  the 
sudden  growth  of  the  small  munition  towns.  They 
are  met  by  this  firm  with  various  expedients.  The 
manager's  wife  and  some  of  her  fellow-workers  visit 
the  lodgings  in  the  neighbourhood  and  keep  a  list  of  all 
those  thatvare  suitable  for  the  girls.  They  also  run  an 
excellent  small  hostel.  No  visitor  visits  the  lodgings 
of  any  girl  who  dislikes  it  ;  so  far  only  4  out  of  400  have 
preferred  to  be  left  out  of  the  scheme. 

The  hostel,  run  by  a  young  and  enthusiastic  super- 
visor, accommodates  fifty  girls  at  the  rate  of  los.  and  lis. 
a  week  a  head  for  board  and  lodging.  Rules  are  as  few 
and  as  simple  as  possible.  There  is  a  comfortable  sitting- 
room  with  books  and  papers  and  a  piano,  and  a  dining 
room  with  that  last  touch  of  fashionable  privacy-— 
separate  tables.  Drilling  and  ambulance  classes  are 
held  once  a  week  for  girl  guides,  and  in  the  summer 
there  is  a  swimming  club. 

The  firm  takes  a  great  interest  in  a  girl's  club  in  the 
town,  where  dancing,  drilling,  singing  and  games  take  place 
every  evening,  and  there  is  a  weekly  entertainment  to 
which  the  members  may  each  bring  a  friend  of  either 
sex.  Indirectly,  and  perhaps  the  more  successfully,  little 
touches  of  refinement  and  civilising  grace  are  introduced 
and  meet  with  the  swiftest  of.  responses.  In  the  big 
mess  room  of  the  works,  table  cloths  are  used,  plants 
are  on  the  table,  and  china  has  been  provided.  The 
girls  do  much  to  look  after  the  appearance  of  the  rooms 
themselves.  A  captain' has  been  appointed  •  by  their 
suggestion,  at  each  table,  and  assists  the  one  lady  supcr- 
\isor  present  in  keeping  order. 

These  women  are  not  working  for  revenge ;  they  are 
beating  the  Germans,  not  because  they  hate  the  Germans 
but  in  order  to  support  their  own  men  in  the  trenches. 
If  you  multiply  this  factory  by  several  thousands,  if  you 
think  of  the  spirit  in  them,  of  the  length  of  hours  never 
grudged,  of  youth  strained  and  never  regretting  the 
strain,  of  skill,  strength  and  endurance  flung  fearlessly 
into  a  new  and  exhausting  form  of  labour,  and  when  you 
remember  the  satisfaction  on  the  faces  you  have  watched, 
bending  intently  over  their  machines,  you  will  feel  very 
sure  that  their  work  will  succeed.  They  will  beat  the 
Germans  and  afterwards  perhaps  they  will  understand, 
that  what  they  made  with  their  hands  to  destroy  human 
beings,  has  sa\-ed  humanitv. 


April  12,  1 91 7 


LAND    &  ,.  WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw 


17 


THE  livrc  fl' occasion  ha.s  naturally  been  very 
prominent  during  the  stupendous  happenings 
of  the  past  three  years,  but  surely,  no  books 
have  appeared  more  promptly  to  the  instant 
than  Rnssian  Court  Memoirs  I<)i4-i6  (Herbert  Jenkins, 
lis.  6d.  net),  published  in  the  week  of  the  Revolution, 
and  Fresidciit  Wilson,  His  Problems  and  Policy,  by  H. 
Wilson  Harris  (Headley  Bros.,  5s.  net),  just  published. 
The  former  book  is  particularly  interesting  in  the  light 
of  what  has  happened  since  it  was  written.  Its  anony- 
mous Russian  author,  who  is  full  of  information,  as  to 
the  personalities  of  the  ancicn  regime  of  his  country,  is  a 
Monarchist  who,  while  he  <  clearly  foreshadows  and,  to 
an  extent  that  is  surprising  under  the  conditions  imder 
which  he  was  writing,  gives  good  ground  for  the  coming 
catastrophe,  seems  to  hope  that  the  Court  will  be  able  to 
purge  itself.  For  the  rest,  there  arc  the  usual  "  revela- 
tions "  and  spicy  gossip  that  one  expects  from  a  lackey 
in  a  disorganised  household,  who  pities  "  poor  master," 
but  "  does  not  hold  with  his  goings  on."  , 

^  ^  ^  SfC  T)! 

Mr.  Wilson  Harris's  book  on  President  Wilson  is  a,n 
interesting  and  digniiied  piece  of  work.  It  gi\es  a  full- 
length  portrait  of  its  subject  and  will  enable  people  in 
this  country  to  correct  the  natural  tendency  to  regard 
Woodrow  Wilson  simply  from  the  point  of  view  of  their 
own  great  preoccupation.  There  has  been  a  leaven  of 
righteousness — the  disgruntled  party  boss  would  say  of 
self-righteousness — at  work  in  the  political  life  of  the  United 
States  during  the  last  two  decades  and  Wilson,  first 
Professor  then  President  of  a  great  American  University, 
author  of  one  of  the  best  text-books  of  pohtical  science 
and  of  several  important  books  on  the  history  and  con- 
stitution of  his  own  country,  Democrat  and  Radical, 
has  been,  pace  Mr.  Roosevelt,  the  most  successful 
protagonist  of  the  new  mox'ement.  We  should  all  do 
well  to  learn  more  than  we  think  wc  know  of  the  great 
country  which,  after  long  weigliing  the  cost  and  ex- 
hausting all  honourable  means  of  arbitrament,  has 
decided  that  the  ideals  which  it  has  so  clearly  defined 
are  in  a  jeopardy  that  can  only  be  met  in  arms.  And 
one  of  the  best  ways  to  attain  knowledge  of  America  is  to 
study  the  character  and  aims  of  her  first  citizen; 
*****  f 

Another  book  that  comes  at  an  opportune  moment  is 
N.  Le\i's  Jan  Smuts  (Longmans,  Green  and  Co.,  7s.  6d. 
net.).  Here  is  another  portrait  of  a  man  among  men,  a 
portrait  not  carried  out  in  bold  outline,  like  that  of 
Woodrow  Wilson  at  which  we  ha\'e  just  been  looking, 
but  rather,  as  indeed  befits  the  subject,  an  elaborate 
painting  of  the  Dutch  school,  intimate  and  detailed. 
Mr.  Levi  perhaps  [dwells  too  much  on  details,  as  when  he 
summarises  at  considerable  length  the  contents  of  his 
hero's  library,  but  there  does  emerge  from  the  mass  of 
particular  points  a  clear  and  consistent  image  of  a  man, 
a  man  who  would  seem  to  his  detractors  even  more 
essentially  of  the  student  type  than  President  Wilson, 
but  who  disproves  once  again  the  popular  fallacy  (which 
ignores  the  cases  of  Ctcsar  and  Napoleon),  that  the  man 
of  books  and  ideas  cannot  be  a  man  of  action.  It  is  not 
the  time  to  appraise  fully  the  work  of  our  distinguished 
South  African  visitor,  but  no  one  can  read  this  study 
without  realising  his  all-round  ability  or  without  wonder- 
ing what  part  his  country  would  have  played  in  the 
present  crisis  had  it  not  been  for  the  dogged  character, 
the  unswerving  loyalty  to  his  own  people  as  well  as  to 
the  Empire,  and  the  high,  consistent  and  unshakcable 
ideals  of  Jan  Smuts. 

***** 

There  are  few,  if  any,  of  our  yaunger  novelists  who 
have  a  keener  sense  of  •  intellectual  values  or  a  greater 
power  of  presenting  the  fine  shades  of  a  social  relationship 
than  Mr.  J.  D.  Beresford.  His  novels  are  extraordinarily 
stimulating  to  the  mind,  but  emotionally  they  leave  one 
cold,  or  with  an  imagined  or  false  sensation  of  warmth 
such  as  doctors  say  is  produced  by  drinking  whisky. 
All  these  characteristics,  good  and  bad  (if  they  should  be 
so  labelled),  arc  to  be  found  in  his  new  no\<A  Ilousc- 


Maies  (Casscll  and  Co.,  6s.)  I  read  the  early  stages 
of  the  autobiography  of  this  young  architect  with  interest, 
recognising,  as  one  always  does  in  a  true  presentment  of 
3'outh,  traits  and  sensations  which  I  had  thought  quite 
peculiar  to  myself.  I  read  the  later  section  describing 
the  varied  inmates  of  the  ciueer  iiouse  in  Bloonisbury,  of 
which  the  police  rightly  had  their  suspicions,  with  an 
admiration  of  Mr.  Beresford's  powers  of  characterisation 
that  was  little  short  of  enthusiasm,  and  I  got  so  interested 
in  his  hero's  "  inculjation  "  that  I  looked  forward  to  a 
happy  ending  for  his  promising  little  love  affair,  with  an 
anxiety  that  was  almost  personal.  Then  the  war  came, 
and  though  my  friend  went  oh  to  fight  and  came  back 
wounded,  he  did  it  all  with  such  an  insufferable  air  of 
superiority  and  aloofness  that  somehow  even  retros- 
pectively I  lost    interest    in  him. 

***** 

I  must  confess  to  approaching  Miss  Elinor  Mordaunt's 
new  book,  Before  Midnight  (Cassell  and  Co.,  6s.),  with 
some  prejudice.  I  had  disliked  what  I  had  previously 
read  of  the  author's,  and  had  formed  a  conception  of 
her  as  one  for  whom  the  ugly  things  of  life  loomed  so 
large  that  she  could  not  view  them  in  proper  proportion. 
I  mention  this  prejudice  that  readers  may,  an  they  will, 
discount  in  virtue  of  it  my  opinion  of  her  present  volume. 
This  consists  of  a  series  of  what  may  be  called  psychological 
ghost  stories,  powerful,  arresting,  well  told  and  for  the 
most  part  extremely  hoiTible,  especially  the  Zolaesque 
tale  of  lust  and  witchcraft  called  The  Countryside.  I 
see  that  the  publishers  say  that  "  each  story  has  a  dis- 
tinctive asmospherc  of  its  own."  In  a  sense  that  is 
true.     There  are  varying  shades  of  murkiness. 

•l*  f  "I*  T*  -fS 

There  is  true  melody  to  be  found  in  The  Lamp  of 
Poor  Souls  and  Other  Poems,  by  Marjorie  L.  C.  Pickthall 
(John  Lane,  5s.  net).  The  poems  express,  with  dis- 
tinction, the  half-tones  of  twilight,  early  morning  and 
tender  pity,  and  can  best  be  illustrated  by  a  stanza  of 
the  exquisite  little  ode  that  begins,  "  O,  keep  the  world 
forever  at  the  dawn." 

Keep  all  things  hushed,  so  hushed  we  seem  to  hear' 

The  sounds  of  low-swung  clouds  that  sweep  the  trees ; 

Let  now  no  harsher  music  reach  the  ear. 

No  earthlier  sounds   than   these, 

When  whispering  shadows  move  within  the  grass, 

.And   airy   tremors   pass 

Through  all  the  world  with  life  awakening  thrilled. 

And   so    forever   stilled. 

Too  sweet  in  promise  e'er  to  be    fulfilled. 

*  *  *  *  ;<; 

Here  is  a  poignant  tale  of  the  wai".  Forced  to  Fight,  by 
Erich  Erichsen  (Heinemann,  2s.  6d.  net),  tells  the  story 
of  a  "  Silent  Dane  "  living  in  those  provinces  of  Denmark 
occupied  by  the  Germans  and  reminds  us  of  a  grievance 
sometimes  forgotten  among  the  many  that  are  cherished 
against  the  criminal  of  Europe.  The  story  is  written  in 
a  minor  key,  a  pathetic  book,  hauntingly  plaintive. 
Let  us  see  if  we  can  forget  the  wail  of  war  in  the  excite- 
ment of  a  brisk  detective  story.  Readers  of  such  tales 
know  that  they  can  count  on  a  book  by  Arnold  Fredericks 
for  movement  and  ingenious  complication.  These  we 
certainly  get  in  The  Blue  Lights  (Simpkin,  Marshall, 
Hamilton,  Kent,  6s<),  in  which  we  meet  once  more  the 
American  detective,  Duvall,  and  Ins  your^  bride,  who 
bustle  about  with  an  animation  that  reminds  us  just 
a  little  too  much  of  figures  in  a  cinema. 
***** 

The  War  is  ^\■ith  us  once  more  in  The  Tale  of  a  Tank 
and  other  Yarns,  by  Harold  Ashton  (Sampson  Low, 
Marston  and  Co.,  3s.  6d.  net),  but  it  does  not  accompany 
us  much  beyond  the  title  of  the  first  story,  which  is  a 
rollicking  bit  of  farce  quite  in  the  spirit  of  the  ('ockney 
Tommy.  There  is  also  a  lively  account  of  a  visit  to  the 
Fleet.  For  the  i-est  the  book  contains  some  amusing, 
but  sometimes  rather  long-winded,  sketches  of  the 
humours  of  village  life,  some  studies  of  types  of  character 
and  other  miscellanies  from  a  clever  journalist's  scrap- 
book — an  entertaining  \olumc  for  odd  momcutsi.. 


IS 


LAND    &     WATER 


April  12,  i(ji7 


The  Golden  Triangle 

By  Maurice  Leblanc 

(Translated  by  Alexander  Teixeira  de  Mattos) 


CHAPTER  XIX  {Concluded) 

PATRICE  took  Don  Luis'  hand  and  pressed  it  firmly. 
Then,  in  a  chaffing  tone  which  hid  his  emotion,  he 
said  : 
"  Then  I  won't  tliank  you.  I  won't  tell  j-oii  that 
you  rid  me  of  a  hideous  nightmare  by  letting  me  know  that  I 
was  not  that  monster's  son  and  by  unveiling  his  real  identity. 
1  will  not  tell  you  either  that  1  am  a  happ\'  man  now  that  life 
is  opening  radiantly  before  me.  witli  Coralie  free  to  love  me. 
No,  we  won't  talk  of  it.  But  shall  1  confess  to  you  that 
my  happiness  is  still  a  little — what  shall  1  say  ? — a  little 
dim,  a  little  timid  ?  I  no  longer  feel  any  doubt  ;  but  in 
spite  of  all,  I  don't  quite  understand  the  truth,  and,  until 
I  do  understand  it,  the  truth  will  cause  me  some  anxiety.  So 
tell  me  .  .  .  explain  to  me  ...  I  want  to 
know    .     .     ." 

"  .\nd  yet  the  truth  is  so  obvious  !  "  cried  Don  Luis.  "  The 
most  coniplex  truths  are  alwav-s  so  simple  '.  Look  here,  don't 
you  understand  anything  .'  Just  think  of  the  way  in  which 
tlie  problem  is  set.  For  sixteen  or  eighteen  years,  Simeon 
Diodokis  behaves  like  a  perfect  friend,  devoted  to  tlie  pitcli 
of  self  denial,  in  short,  like  a  father.  He  has  not  a  thought, 
outside  that  of  liis  re\enge,  but  to  secure  your  happiness 
and  Coralie's.  He  wants  to  bring  you  together.  He  collects 
your  photographs.  He  follows  the  whole  course  of  your  life. 
He  almost  gets  into  touch  with  you.  He  sends  you  the  key  of 
the  giu-den  and  prepares  a  meeting.  Then,  suddenly,  a 
complete  change  takes  place.  He  becomes  your  inveterate 
enemy  and  thinks  of  nothing  but  kilUng  the  pair  of  you. 
What  is  there  that  separates  those  two  states  of  mind  ?  One 
fact,  that's  all,  or  rather  one  date,  the  night  of  the  third 
of  .\pril  and  the  tragedy  that  takes  place  that  night  and  the 
following  day  at  Essares'  house.  L'ntil  that  date,  you  were 
Simeon  Diodokis'  son.  After  that  date,  you  were  Simeon 
Diodokis"  greatest  enemy.  Does  that  suggest  nothing  to  you  ? 
It's  really  curious.  An  for  me,  all  my  discoveries  are  due 
to  tliis  general  view  of  the  case  which  I  took  from  the  be- 
ginning." 

Patrice  shook  his  head  Avithout  replying.  He  did  not 
understand.  The  riddle  retained  a  part  of  its  unfathomable 
secret. 

"  Sit  down  there,"  said  Don  Luis,  "  on  our  famous  sand- 
heap,  and  listen  to  me.     It  won't  take  me  ten  minutes." 

They  were  on  Berthou's  Wharf.  The  light  was  beginning 
to  wane  and  the  outlines  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river  were 
becoming  indistinct.  The  barge  rocked  lazily  at  the  edge 
of  the  quay. 

Don  Luis  expressed  himself  in  the  following  terms : 

"  On  the  evening  when,  from  the  inner  gallery  of  the 
library,  you  witnessed  the  tragedy  at  Essares  house,  you  saw 
before  your  eyes  two  men  bound  by  their  accomplices : 
Essares  Bey  and  Simeon  Diodokis.  They  are  both  dead.  One 
of  them  was  your  father.  Let  us  first  speak  of  the  other. 
Essares  Bey's  position  was  a  critical  one  that  evening.  After 
draining  your  gold  currency  on  behalf  of  an  eastern  power, 
he  was  trying  to  filch  the  remainder  of  the  millions  of  francs 
collected.  The  Belle  Helene,  summoned  by  the  rain  of  sparks, 
was  lying  moored  alongside  Berthou's  Wharf.  The  gold  was 
to  besliifted  at  night  from  the  .sand-heap  to  the  motor-barge. 
All  was  going  well,  when  the  accomplices,  warned  by  Simeon, 
broke  in.  Thereupon  we  have  the  blackmailing  scene. 
Colonel  l-akhi's  death  and  so  on,  with  Essares  learning  at  one 
and  the  same  time  that  his  accomplices  knew  of  liis  schemes 
and  his  plan  to  pilfer  the  gold  and  also  that  Colonel  Fakhi 
had  informed  the  police  about  him.  He  was  cornered.  What 
could  he  do  ?  Run  away  ?  But,  in  war-time,  running  away 
is  almost  impossible.  Besides,  nmning  away  meant  giving  up 
the  gold  and  likewise  giving  up  Coralie,  which  would  never 
have  done.  So  there  was  only  one  thing,  to  disappear  from 
sight.  To  disappear  from  sight  and  yet  to  remain  there, 
on  the  battlefield,  near  the  gold  and  near  Coralie.  Night 
came  :  and  he  employed  it  in  carrying  out  his  plan.  So  much 
for  Essares.     We  now  come  to  Simeon  Diodokis." 

Don  Luis  stopped  to  take  breath.  Patrice  had  been 
listening  eagerly,  as  though  each  word  had  brought  its  share 
of  liglit  into  the  oj)pressive  darkness. 

"  The  man  who  was  known  as  old  Simeon,"  continued  Don 
Luis,  '■  that  is  to  say  your  father,  Armand  Belval,  a  former 
victim,  together  witji  Coralie's  mother,  of  Essares  Bey,  had 
also  reached  a  turning  point  of  his  career.     He  was  nearly 


achieving  his  object.  He  had  betrayed  and  delivered  his 
enemy,  Essarfes.  into  the  hands  of  Colonel  Fakhi  and  the 
accomplices.  He  had  succeeded  in  bringing  you  and  Coralie 
together.  He  had  sent  you  the  key  of  the  lodge.  He  was 
justified  in  hoping  that,  in  a  few  days  more,  everything 
would  end  according  to  his  wishes.  But,  next  morning,  on 
waking,  certain  indications  unknown  to  me  revealed  to  liim 
a  threatening  danger  ;  and  he  no  doubt  foresaw  the  plan  which 
Essares  was  engaged  in  elaborating.  .'Vnd  he  too  put  himself 
the  same  question  ;  what  was  he  to  do  ?  What  was  there  for 
him  to  do  ?  He  must  warn  you,  Warn  you  without  delay,  tele- 
phone to  you  at  once.  For  time  was  pressing,  the  danger  was 
becoming  definite.  Essares  was  watching  and  hunting  down 
the  man  whom  he  had  chosen  as  his  victim  for  the  second  time. 
You  can  picture  Simeon  possibly  feeling  himself  pursued  and 
locking  himself  into  the  library.  You  can  picture  him  wonder- 
ing whether  he  would  ever  be  able  to  telej^hone  to  you  and 
whether  you  would  be  there.  He  asks  for  you.  He  calls  out 
to  vou.  Essares  hammers  away  at  the  door.  And  your 
father,  gasping  for  breatli,  shouts  '  Is  that  you,  Patrice  ? 
Have  you  the  key?  .  .  .  And  the  letter?  .... 
No  ?  .  .  .  But  this  is  terrible  !  Then  you  don't  know  ' 
.  .  .  .  And  tlien  a  hoarse  cry,  whicli  you  hear  at  your 
end  of  the  wire,  and  incoherent  noises,  the  sound  of  an 
altercation.  .\nd  then  the  lips  gluing  themselves  to  the 
instrument  and  stammering  words  at  random  :  '  Patrice,  the 
amethyst  pendant  .  .  .  Patrice,  I  should  so  much  have 
liked  .  .  .  Patrice,  Coralie ! '  Then  a  loud  scream 
.  .  .  cries  that  grow  weaker  and  weaker  .  .  . 
silence,  and  that  is  all.  Your  father  is  dead,  murdered.  This 
time,  Eissares  Bey,  who  had  failed  before,  in  the  lodge,  took 
his  revenge  on  his  old  rival." 

"  Oh,  my  unhappy  father!  "  murmured  Patrice,  in  great 
distress. 

"  Yes,  it  was  he.  That  was  at  nineteen  minutes  past 
seven  in  the  morning,  as  you  noted.  A  few  minutes  later, 
eager  to  know  and  to  understand,  you  yourself  rang  up  ;  and  it 
was  Essares  who  replied,  with  yoiu:  father's  dead  body  at  his 
feet." 

"  Oh,  the  scoundrel !  So  that  this  body,  which  we  did  not 
find  and  were  not  able  to  find     .     .     ." 

"  \\'as  simply  made  up  by  Essarfes,  made  up,  disfigured, 
transformed  into  his  own  likeness.  That,  captain,  is  how — 
and  the  whole  mvstery  lies  in  this— Simeon  Diodokis  dead, 
became  Essares  Bey,  "while  Essares  Bey,  transformed  into 
Simeon  Diodokis,  played  the  part  of  Simeon  Diodokis." 

"  Yes,"  said  Patrice,  "  I  see,  I  understand." 

"  As  to  the  relations  existing  between  the  two  men," 
continued  Don  Luis,  "  I  am  not  certain.  Essares  may  or  may 
not  have  known  before  that  old  Simeon  was  none  other  than 
his  former  rival,  the  lover  of  Coralie's  mother,  the  man, 
in  short  who  had  escaped  death.  He  may  or  may  not  have 
known  that  Simeon  was  your  father.  These  arc  points  which 
will  never  be  decided  and  which,  moreover,  do  not  matter. 
What  I  do  take  for  granted  is  that  this  new  murder  was  not 
improvised  on  the  spot.  I  firmly  believe  that  lissares, 
having  noticed  certain  similarities  in  height  and  figure,  had 
made  every  preparation  to  take  Simeon's  place  if  circum- 
stances obliged  him  to  disappear.  And  it  was  easily  done.  ^ 
Simeon  Diodokis  wore  a  wig  and  no  beard.  Essares,  on  the 
contrary,  was  bald-headed  and  had  a  beard.  He  shaved 
himself,  smashed  Simeon's  face  against  the  grate,  mingled 
the  hairs  of  his  own  beard  with  the  bleeding  mass,  dressed 
the  body  in  his  clothes,  took  his  victim's  clothes  for  himself, 
put  on  the  wig,  the  spectacles  and  the  comforter.  The  trans- 
formation was  complete." 

Patrice  thought  for  a  moment.  Then  he  raised  an  ob- 
jection : 

"  Yes,  that's  what  happened  at  nineteen  minutes  past 
seven.  But  sometliing  else  happened  at  twenty-three  minutes 
paat  twelve." 

"  No,  nothing  at  all," 

"But  that  clock,  which  stopped  at  twenty-three  minutes 
p  ist  twelve  ?  " 

"  I  tell  you,  nothing  happened  at  all.  Only,  he  had  to 
put  jieople"  off  the  scent.  He  had  above  all  "to  avoid  the 
inevitable  accusation  that  would  have  been  l)rought  against 
the  new  Simeon. 

"  Wli?.t  accusation  ?  " 

"  What  accusation  ?     Why,   that    he   had   killed   Essare^ 
(Continued  on  jxige  W.) 


April  12,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


is  gour  pen 

"too  proud 
to  uurite  ? 


./D 


Is  your  pen 
"tooprouti  to  write"? 


Tbe  Onoto  Pen  is  British. 
"  Neutral  "  pens  may  fail  you 
at  the  critical  moment  ;  the 
British-made  Onoto  is  always 
ready  for  action.  It  is  never 
"  too  proud  to  write." 

It's  nib  is  always  wet  with 
fresh  ink.  Its  holder  is 
always  dry. 

The  Onoto  Self-filling 
Safety  cannot  leak.  It  can- 
not "  sweat  "  ink  as  foreign 
pens  often  do.  It  is  the  one 
really  satisfactory  Self-filling 
Safety   Pen. 

When  you  are  choosing 
your  pen,  see  what  is  written 
on  the  holder.  Make  sure 
that  you  are  getting  a  British 
Onoto :  not  a  pen  "  Made 
in "  anywhere  else. 

01:0(0  Self-filling  Safety  Fountai'i 
Pens  at  all  Stationers,  etc.,  from  12/6 
upwatds.  Also  Oiioto-valveless,  far 
those  who  do  not  want  a  Self-filltng 
Safety  Pen,  from  10/6  upwards. 


the  British  Pen 
is  the  Onoto 


THOMAS  DE  LA    RUE    &    CO.,  LTD..   BUNllII.L  ROW.  EC. 


MAKERS 

OF 

THE 


SUPER 


FIELD 

SERVICE 

BOOT 


NUT  BROWN  SHADE 


The  combined  laced  Legging 
Field  Service  Boot. 

They  set  perfectly  on  foot 
and  round  leg,  and  their 
utility  and  smartness  are  at 
once  demonstrated. 

Cut  from  the  finest  Willow 
Calf.  Will  take  a  brilliant 
polish,  or  can  be  left  dull. 

All  officers  we  have  fitted 
with  them  are  loud  in  their 
praise. 


WriU  for  OUT  Seta 
Military    Brochure. 


6   :  6   :  O 


W.  ABBOTT  &  SONS,  Ltd.,  London  and  Paris;  54  Regent  Slreei,  W.; 
434  Strand   W.  ;   121    High  Holhorn.    W.C.  ;  and  Branches. 


The  Finest  Safeguard 
the  War  has  Produced 

Amongst  the  legion  of  inventions  for 
protecting  health  against  bad  weather 
on  Active  Service,  none  has  achieved 
such  success,  or  won  such  universal 
approbation  as  THE  TIELOGKEN— 
the  weatherproof  permanently  identified 
with  England's   "greatest  soldier."       The 

TIELOCKEN 


ensures  that  every  vul- 
nerable part  of  the  body 
is  doubly  covered.  From 
chin  to  knees,  there  is  no 
possible  chance  for  wet  or 
cold  to  penetrate. 

Made  in  the  Burberry- 
woven  and  proofed  cloth 
worn  by  Sir  Ernest 
Shackleton's  Expedition, 
as  a  protection  against  the 
intense  cold  and  gales  of 
the  Antarctic  regions, 

It  affords  efficient  security, 
yet  is  healthfully  self-ven- 
tilating— keeps  out  rain, 
sleet,  snow  or  wind,  yet  is 
entirely  free  from  rubber 
oiled-silk  or  similar  air- 
tight, heat  -  condensing 
fabrics  —  is  lightweight, 
and  yet  maintains  snug 
warmth  on  bitter  days. 

Another  advantage  is  its 
quick  adjustment.  A 
single  strap  -  and  -  buckle 
holds  it  securely — no  but- 
tons to  fasten  or  lose. 
The  simplest  and -smartest 
fastening  possible  for  a 
Service  overcoat. 

Officers'  Complete 
Kits  in  2  to  4  Davs 
or  Ready  to   Use. 


Hvery 
Burberry 
Garment 
w  labelled 
'  Burbtrryi.' 


SERVICE    WEATHERPROOFS 

During    the    War    BURBERRYS 
CLEAN    AND    RE-PROOF 

Officers'    •  Burberrys,'     Tielockens, 

Burfrons  &  Burberry  Trench-Warms 

FREE    OF   CHARGE. 


Sir  Ernest  Shackleton 
on  the  subject  of  Burberry 

writes  :  "I  attribute  the  saving  of  arte 
man's  life,  who  was  lost  for  two  days, 
during  which  time  he  was  lying  out  in 
the  open  with  a  temperature  of  five 
degrees  below  zero  prevailing  at  thi: 
time,  to  the  fact  that  he  was  entirety 
covered  up  by  Burberry." 

Illustrated  Military  Catalogue 
and  Patterns  Free  on  Request 


BURBERRYS 

HAYMARKET  LONDON 

BD.  MALESHKRBES  PARIS;  AND  AGENTS 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  12,   I(;I7 


{Continued  from  page  18.) 
Bey,  of  course  !  A  dead  body  is  discovered  in  the  morniiv^. 
Who  has  committed  the  murder  ?  Suipicioii  would  at  once 
have  fallen  on  Simeon.  ■  He  would  have  been  questioned  and 
arrested.  And  Essares  would  have  been  found  und^r 
Sim'on's  mask.  No,  he  needed  liberty  and  facilities  to  move 
about  as  he  pleased.  To  achieve  this,  h.^  kep.  tiri'  maJr 
concealed  all  the  morning  and  arranged  so  tliat  n )  oiie  set 
foot  in  the  library.  He  went  three  times  and  knocked  at  his 
wife's  dooT,  so  that  she  sliould  say  that  Essares  Bey  was 
still  ahve  during  the  morning.  Then,  when  she  went  out, 
lie  raised  his  voice  and  ordered  Simeon,  in  oilier  words  him- 
self, to  see  her  to  the  hospital  in  the  Champs-Elysi'es.  And 
iw  this  way  Mme.  Essares  thought  that  she  was  leaving  her 
husband  behind  her  alive  and  that  she  was  escorted  by  old 
Sim.'on,  whereas  actually  she  was  leaving  old  Simt'on's 
corpse  in  an  empty  part  of  the  house  and  was  escorted  by  her 
husband.  Tiien  what  happened  .'  What  the  rascal  had 
planned.  At  one  o'clock,  the  police,  acting  on  the  informa- 
tion laid  by  Colonel  Fakhi.  arrived  and  found  themselves  in 
I  lie  presence  of  a  corpse.  Whose  corpse  ?  There  was  not  a 
-'ladow  of  hesitation  on  that  point.  The  maids  recognised 
1  lieir  master  ;  and,  when  Mme.  Essares  returned,  it  was  her 
liusband  whom  she  saw  lying  in  front  of  the  fireplace  at 
which  he  had  been  tortured  the  night  before.  Old  Sim'on, 
that  is  to  say,  Essares  himself,  helped  to  establish  the  identifi- 
cation. You  yourself  were  taken  in.  The  trick  was  played." 
"  Yes,"  ssid  Patrice,  nodding  his  head,  "  that  is  how 
things  must  have  gone.     They  all  fit  in." 

"  The  trick  was  played,"  Don  Luis  repeated,  "  and  nobody 
could  mp/ce  out  how  it  was  done.  Was  there  not  this  furtlicr 
proof,  the  letter  written  in  Essares'  own  hand  and  found 
on  his  illesk  ?  The  letter  was  dated  at  twelve  o'clock  on  the 
fourth  of  April,  addressed  to  his  wife,  and  told  her  tiiat  he 
was  goin\;  away.  Better  still,  the  trick  was  so  successfully 
playe.'l  tint  the  very  clues  which  ought  to  have  revealed  the 
truth  mervly  conceak-d  it.  For  instance,  your  father  used 
to  carry  a  tiny  album  of  photographs  in  a  pocket  stitched 
mside  his  undervest.  Essares  did  not  notice  it  and  did  not 
remove  the  vest  from  the  body.  Well,  when  they  found 
the  album,  they  at  once  accepted  that  most  unlikely 
h\p.)thesis  :  Essares  Bey  carrying  on  his  person  an  album 
I'liled  with  photographs  of  his  wife  and  Captain  Belval. 
Ill  the  same  way,  when  they  found  in  the  dead's  man  hand  an 
amethyst  pendant  containing  your  two  latest,  photographs 
and  when  they  also  found  a  crumpled  paper  with  something 
on  it  about  ^ the  Golden  Triangle,  they  at  once  admitted  that 
Essares  Bey  had  stolen  the  pendant  and  the  document  and 
w.is  holding  them  in  his  hand  when  he  died  !  So  absolutely 
"crtain  were  they  all  that  it  was  Essares  Bey  who  had  been 
murdered,  that  his  dead  body  lay  before  their  eyes  and  that 
they  must  not  trouble  about  the  question  any  longer.  And 
m  this  way  the  new  Simeon  was  master  of  the  situation. 
Essares  Bey  is  dead  :    Long  live  Simeon  !  " 

Don  Luis  indulged  in  a  hearty  laugh.  The  adventure 
struck  him  as  really  amusing. 

"  Then  and  there,"  he  went  on,  "  Essares,  behind  his 
impenetrable  mask,  set  to  work.  That  very  day,  he  listened 
to  your  conversation  with  Coralie  and,  overcome  with  fury 
at  seeing  you  bend  over  her,  fired  a  shot  from  his  revolver. 
i?ut,  when  this  new  attempt  failed,  he  ran  away  and  played 
.1  I  elaborately  comedy  near  the  little  door  in  the  garden,  crying 
.1  order,  tossing  the  key  over  the  wall  to  lay  a  false  scent  and 
i  UUng  to  the  ground  half  dead,  as  tliough  he  had  been 
strangled  by  the  eneiny  who  was  sup  >  ised  to  have  fired  the 
shot.  The  comedy  ended  with  a  skilful  assumption  of  mad- 
ness." 

"  But  what  was  the  object  of  this  madness  ?  " 
"  What  was  the  object  ?  Why,  to  nSake  people  leave  him 
alone  and  keep  them  from  questioning  him  or  suspecting 
)i,:n.  Once  he  was  looked  upon  as  mad,  he  could  remain 
silent  and  unobserved.  Otherwise,  Mme.  Essares  would 
li  ive  recognised  his  voice  at  the  first  words  he  spoki;,  however 
>  leverly  he  might  have  altered  his  tone.  From  this  time 
onward,  he  is  mad.  He  is  an  irresponsible  being.  He  goes 
about  as  he  pleases.  He  is  a  madman  I  And  his  madness 
is  so  thoroughly  admitted  that  he  leads  you,  so  to  speak, 
by  tlie  hand  to  his  former  accomplices  and  causes  you  to 
have  them  arrested,  without  asking  yourself  for  an  instant 
if  this  madman  is  not  acting  with  the  clearest  possible  sense 
of  his  own  interest.  He's  a  madman,  a  poor,  harmless 
:nadman,  one  of  those  unfortunates  with  whom  nobody 
dreams  of  interfering.  Henceforth,  he  has  only  his  last  two 
.adversaries  to  fight  :  Coralie  and  you.  And  this  is  an  ea.sy 
matter  for  him.  I  presume  that  he  got  hold  of  a  diary  kept 
by  your  father.  At  any  rate,  he  knows  every  day  of  the 
one  which  you  keep.  From  this  he  learns  the  whole  story, 
of  the  graves  ;  and  he  knows  that,  on  the  fourteenth  of 
April,  Coralie  and  jou  are  both  going  on  a  pilgrimage  to  those 
graves.     B<.*sides,  he  plans  to  make  you  go  there,   for  his 


plot  is  laid.  He  prepares  against  the  son  and  the  daughter, 
against  the  Patrice  and  Coralie  of  to-day.  the  attempt  which 
he  once  prepared  against  the  father  and  the  mother.  I  iie 
attempt  succeeeds  at  the  start.  It  would  have  succeeded  to 
the  end,  but  for  an  idea  that  occurred  to  our  poor  Ya-Bon, 
thanks  to  which  a  new  adversary,  in  the  person  of  myself, 
entered  the  lists.  .  .  .  But  I  need  hardly  go  on.  You 
know  the  rest  as  well  as  I  do  ;  and,  like  myself,  you  can 
judge  in  all  his  glory  t;he  inhuman  villain  who,  in  the  space 
of  those  twenty-four  hours,  allowed  his  accomplice  Gregoire 
to  be  strangled,  buried  your  Coralie  under  the  sand-heap, 
killed  Ya-Bon,  locked  me  in  the  lodge,  or  thought  he  did, 
buried  you  alive  in  the  grave  dug  by  your  father  and  made 
away  with  Vacherot,  the  porter.  .\nd,  now.  Captain  Belval, 
do  you  think  that  I  ought  to  have  prevented  him  from  com- 
mitting suicide,  this  pn-tty  gentlt-miii  who,  in  the  last  resort, 
was  trying  to  pass  himself  off  as  your  father  ? 

"  You  were  right,"  said  Patrice.  "  You  have  been  tight 
all  through,  from  start  to  finish.  1  see  it  all  now,  as  a  \vluii<; 
and  in  every  detail.  Only  one  point  remains:  thecioldeu 
Triangle.  How  did  you  find  out  the  truth  '  What  was  it  that 
brought  you  to  this  sand-heap  and  enabled  you  to  save 
Corjflie  from  the  most  awful  do.ith  ?  " 

"  Oh,  that  part  was  even  simpler,"  replied  Don  l.ii^. 
"  and  the  light  came  almost  without  my  knowing  it  :  1  U 
teU  you  in  a  few  words.  But  let  us  move  away  first.  .M. 
Masseron  and  his  men  are  beconv.ng  a  little  troublesome." 

The  detectives  were  distributed  at  the  two  entrances  to 
Berthou's  Wharf.  M.  Masseron  was  giving  them  his  in- 
structions. He  was  obviously  speaking  to  the;n  of  Don 
Luis  and  preparing  to  accost  him. 

"  Let's  get  on  the  barge,"  said  Don  Luis.  "  I'vi'  lelt  bnuie 
important  pipers  there." 

Patrice  followed  him.  Opposite  the  cabin  containing 
Grcgoire's  body  was  another  cabin,  reached  by  the.  same 
comp.inion-way.     It  was  furnished  with  a  table  and  a  chair. 

"  Here,  caplain,"  said  Don  Luis,  taking  a  letter  from  the 
drawer  of  the  table  and  settling  it,  "  is  a  letter  which  I  will 
ask  you  to  .  .  .  but  don't  let  us  waste  words.  I  shall 
hardly  have  time  to  satisfy  your  curiosity.  Our  friends 
are  coming  nearer.  Well,  we  were  saying,  the  Gold'-n 
Triangle.     ..." 

He  hst'^u -J  to  what, was  happening  outside  with  an  atten- 
tion whose  real  meaning  Patrice  was  soon  to  understand. 
.\nd.  continuing  to  give  ear,  he  resumed  ; 

"  The  Golden  Triangle  ?  There  are  problems  wliich  we 
solve  more  or  less  by  accident,  without  trying.  We  are 
guided  to  a  right  solution  by  external  events,  among  which 
we  choose  unconsciously,  feeling  our  way  in  the  dark,  ex- 
amining this  one,  thrusting  aside  that  one  and  suddenly  be- 
holding the  object  aimed  at  .  .  .  Well,  that  morning, ' 
after  taking  you  to  the  tombs  and  burying  you  under  the  stone, 
Essares  Bey  came  back  to  me.  Believing  me  to  be  locked 
into  the  studio,  he  had  the  pretty  thought  to  turn  on  the  gas 
meter  and  then  went  off  to  the  quay  above  Berthou's  Wharf. 
Here  he  hestitated  :  and  his  hesitation  provided  mo  with  a 
precious  clue.  He  was  certainly  then  thinking  of  releasing 
Coralie.  People  passed  and  he  went  away.  Knowing  where 
he  was  going,  I  returned  to  your  assistance,  told  your  friends 
at  Essares'  house  and  asked  them  to  look  after  you.  Then 
I  came  back  here.  Indeed,  the  whole  course  of  events 
obhged  me  to  come  back.  It  was  unhkely  that  the  bags  of 
gold  were  inside  the  conduit  ;  and.  as  the  Belle  Helene  had 
not  taken  them  off,  they  must  be  beyond  the  garden,  outside 
the  conduit  and  therefore  somewhere  near  here.  I  ex- 
plored the  barge  we  are  now  on,  not  so  much  with  the  object 
of  looking  for  the  ba?s  as  with  the  hope  of  finding  some  un- 
expected piece  of  information  and  also,  I  confess,  the  four 
millions  in  Gregoire's  possession.  Will,  when  I  started  cx- 
])loring  a  place  where  I  fail  to  find  what  I  want,  I  always 
remember  that  capital  story  of  Edgar  Allen  Poe's,  The 
Purloined  Letter.  Do  yf)u  rec<jllect  'i  The  stolen  diplomatic 
document  which  was  known  to  be  hidden  in  a  certain  room. 
The  pohce  investigate  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  room 
and  take  up  all  the  boards  of  the  floor,  without  results.  But 
Dupin  arrives  and  almost  immediately  goes,  to  a  card-rack 
dangling  from  a  httle  brass  knob  on  the  wall  and  containing 
a  solitary  soiled  and  crumpled  letter.  This  is  the  document 
of  which  he  was  in  search.  \Vell,  I  instinctively  adopted  the 
same  jirocess.  I  looked  where  no  one  would  (tnam  of  look- 
ing, 'in  places  which  do  not  constitute  a  hiding-place  because 
it  would  really  be  too  easy  to  discover.  This  gave  me  the 
idea  of  turning  the  pages  of  four  old  directories  standing  in  a 
row  on  that  shelf.  The  four  milhons  were  there.  And  I 
knew  all  that  I  wanted  to  know." 

"  About  what  ?  " 

"  About  Essares'  temperament,  his  habits,  the  extent  of 
his  attainments,  his  notion  of  a  good  hiding  place.  We  had 
plunged  on  the  expectation  of  a  meeting  with  dithculties  ; 

{('unlinued  on  page  22.) 


April  12,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


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LAND    ik    WATER 


April  12,  191; 


IContinued  from  pagt  20.) 
we  ought  to  have  looked  at  the  outside,  to  have  looked  at 
the  surface  of  things.  1  was  assisted  by  two  further  clues. 
I  liad  noticed  that  the  uprights  of  the  ladder  which  Ya-Bon 
iiiUst  have  taken  from  here  had  a  few  grains  of  sand  on  them, 
l.astly,  I  remember  that  Ya-Bon  had  drawn  a  triangle  on 
the  pavement  with  a  piece  of  chalk  and  that  tliis  triangle 
liad  only  two  sides,  the  third  side  being  formed  by  the  foot 
of  the  wall.  Why  this  detail  ?  Why  not  a  third  line  in 
chalk  ?  ...  To  make  a  long  story  short.  I  Ut  a  cigarette, 
sat  down  upstairs,  on  the  deck  of  the  barge,  and,  looking 
round  me,  said  to  myself,  '  Lupin  my  son,  five  minutes  and 
no  more.'  When  1  say,  '  Lupin  my  son,'  I  simply  can't 
resist  myself.  By  the  time  I  had  smoked  a  quarter  of  the 
cigarette,  I  was  there." 
"  You  had  found  out  ?  " 

'  I  had  found  out.  I  can't  say  which  of  the  factors  at 
my  disposal  kindled  the  spark.  No  doubt  it  was  all  of  them 
together.  It's  a  rather  compUcated  psychological  operation, 
you  know,  like  a  chemical  experiment.  The  correct  idea 
is  formed  suddenly  by  mysterious  reactions  and  combinations 
among  the  elements  in  which  it  existed  in  a  potential  stage. 
And  then  I  was  carrying  within  myself  an  intuitive  principle, 
a  very  special  incentive  which  obliged  me,  which  inevitably 
compelled  me  to  discover  the  hiding  place  :  Little  Mother 
Cor? He  was  there!  I  knew  for  certain  that  failure  on  my 
part,  prolonged  weakness  or  hesitation  would  mean  her 
destruction.  There  was  a  woman  there,  within  a  radius  of 
a  dozen  yards  or  so.  I  had  to  find  out  and  I  found  out.  The 
spark  was  kindled.  The  elements  combined.  And  I  made 
straight  for  the  sand  heap,  I  at  once  saw  the  marks  of 
footsteps  and,  almost  at  the  top,  the  signs  of  a  slight  stamping. 
1  started  digging.  You  can  imagine  my  excitement  when 
I  first  touched  one  of  the  bags.  But  I  had  no  time  for 
excitement.  I  shifted  a  few  bags.  Coralie  was  there, 
unconscious,  hardly  protected  from  the  sand  which  was  slowly 
stifling  her,  trickling  tlirough,  stopping  up  her  eyes,  suffocating 
her.  I  needn't  tell  you  more,  need  I  ?  The  wharf  was 
deserted,  as  usual.  I  got  her  out.  I  hailed  a  taxi.  I  first 
took  her  home.  Then  I  turned  my  attention  to  Essarfes, 
to  Vacherot  the  porter ;  and,  when  I  had  discovered  my 
enemy's  plans,  I  went  and  made  my  arrangements  with  Dr. 
Geradec.  Lastly,  I  had  you  moved  to  the  private  hospital 
OR  the  Boulevard  de  Montmorency  and  gave  orders  for  Coralie 
to  be  taken  there  too.  And  there  you  are,  captain !  All 
done  in  three  hours.  When  the  doctor's  car  ■  brought  me 
back  to  the  hospital,  Essarfe  arrived  at  the  same  time,  to 
have  his  injuries  seen  to,     I  had  him  safe." 

Don  Luis  ceased  speaking.  There  were  no  words  necessary 
between  the  two  men.  One  had  done  the  other  the  greatest 
-ervices  which  a  man  has  it  in  his  p)ower  to  render ;  and 
the  other  knew  that  these  were  services  for  which  no  thanks 
are  adequate.  And  he  also  knew  that  he  would  never  have 
an  opportunity  to  prove  his  gratitude.  Don  Luis  was  in  a 
manner  above  those  proofs,  owng  to  the  mere  fact  that  they 
were  impossible.  There  was  no  service  to  be  rendered  to  a 
man  like  him  disposing  of  his  resources  and  performing 
miracles  with  the  same  ease  which  we  perform  the  trivial 
actions  of  everyday  life. 

Patrice  once  again  pressed  his  hand  warmly,  and  without  a 
word.  Don  Luis  accepted  the  homage  of  this  silent  emotion 
and  said  : 

"  If  ever  people  talk  of  Arsdne  Lupin  before  you,  captain, 
^ay  a  good  word  for  him,   won't  you  ?     He  deserves  it." 
And,  he  added  with  a  laugh,  "  It's  funny,  but,  as  I  get  on  in 
Hfe,  I  find  myself   caring  about   my  reputation.    The  devil 
was  old,  the  devil  a  monk  would  be  !  " 
He  pricked  up  his  ears  and,  after  a  moment,  said  . 
"  Captain,  it  is  time  for  us  to  part.     Present  my  respects 
to  Little  Mother  Coralie.     I  shall  not  have  known  her,  so  to 
speak,  and  she  will  not  know  me.     It  is  better    so.     Good- 
bye, captain." 
"  Then  we  are  taking  leave  of  each  other  ?  " 
'  Yes,  I  hear  M.  Masseron.     Go  to  him,  will  you,  and  have 
the  kindness  to  bring  him  here  ?  " 

Patrice  hesitated.     Why  was  Don  Luis  sending  him  to  meet 
M.  Masseron  ?     Was  it  so  that  he;  Patrice,  might  intervene 
in  his  favour  ?  " 
The  idea  appealed  to  him  ;  and  he  ran  up  the  companion-way. 
Then  a  thing  happened  which  Patrice  was  destined  never 
to  understand,  something  very  quick  and  inexplicable.     It 
was  as  though  a  long  and  gloomy  adventure  were  to  finish 
-uddenly  with  melodramatic  imexpectedness. 
Patrice  met  M.  Masseron  on  the  deck  of  the  barge. 
"  Is  your  friend  here  ?  "  asked  the  magistrate. 
■'  Yes.     But  one  word  first  :    you  don't  mean   to     ...  i 
•'  Have  no  fear.     We  shall  do  him  no  harm,  on  the  contrary." 
The   answer   was  so  definite   that   the   officer  could   find 
nothing  more  to  say.     M.  Masseron  went  aown  first,  with 
Patrice  following  him. 


"  Hullo !  "  said  Patrice.     "  I  left  the  cabin  door  open  1    " 

He  pushed  the  door.  It  opened.  But  Don  Luis  was  no 
longer  in  the  cabin. 

Immediate  inquiries  showed  that  no  one  had  seen  him 
go,  neither  the  men  remaining  on  the  wharf  nor  those  who 
had  already  crossed  the  gangway. 

"  When  you  have  time  to  examine  this  barge  thoroughly,  " 
said  Patrice,  "I've  no  doubt  you  wU  find  it  pretty  nicely  faked." 

"  So  your  friend  has  probably  escaped  through  some  trap- 
door and  swum  away  ?  "  asked  M.  Masseron,  who  seemed 
greatly  annoyed." 

"  I  expect  so,"  said  Patrice,  laughing.  "  Unless  he's  gone 
off  on  a  submarine  !  " 

"  A  submarine  in  the  Seine  ?  " 

"  Why  not  ?  I  don't  delieve  that  there's  any  limit  to  mv 
friend's  resourcefulness  and  determination." 

But  what  completely  dumbfounded  M.  Masseron  was  the 
discovery,  on  the  table,  of  a  letter  directed  to  himself,  the 
letter  which  Don  Luis  had  placed  there  at  the  beginning  of 
his  interview  with  Patrice. 

"  Then  he  knew  that  I  should  come  here  ?  He  toresa  \v, 
even  before  we  met,  that  I  should  ask  him  to  fulfil  certain 
formalities  ?  " 

The  letter  ran  as  follows  : 

"  Sir, — Forgive  my  departure  and  believe  that  I,  on  niy 
side,  quite  understand  the  reason  that  brings  you  Ivri-. 
My  position  is  not  in  fact  regular ;  and  you  are  entitled  to 
ask  me  for  an  explanation.  I  w.U  give  you  that 
explanation  some  day  or  other.  You  wiU  then  see  that, 
if  i  serve  France  in  a  manner  of  my  own,  that  manivr 
is  not  a  bad  one  and  that  my  country  will  owe  me  some 
gratitude  for  the  immense  services,  if  I  may  venture  to  use  the 
word,  which  I  have  done  her  during  this  war.  On  the  day 
of  our  interview,  I  should  hke  you  to  thank  me,  sir.  You 
will  then — for  I  know  your  secret  ambition — be  Prefect  of 
Police.  Perhaps  I  shall  even  be  able  personally  to  forward 
a  nomination  which  I  consider  weU-deserved.  I  will  exert 
myself  in  that  direction  without  delay. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  etc." 

M.  Masseron  remained  silent  for  a  time. 

"  A  strange  character  !  "  he  said,  at  last.  "  Had  he  been 
willing,  we  should  have  given  him  great  things  to  do.  That 
was  what  I  was  instructed  to  tell  him." 

. "  You  may  be  sure  sir,"  said  Patrice,  "  that  the  things 
which  he  is  actually  doing  are  greater  still."  And  he  added, 
"  A  strange  character,  as  you  say.  And  stranger  still,  more 
powerful  and  more  extraordinary  thaji  you  can  imagine.  If 
each  of  the  allied  nations  had  had  three  or  four  men  of  his 
stamp  at  its  disposal,  the  war  would  have  been  over  in  six 
months." 

"  I  quite  agree,"  said  M.  Masseron.  "  Only  those  mm 
are  usually  solitary,  intractable  people,  who  act  solely  upon 
their  own  judgment  and  refuse  to  accept  any  authority. 
I'll  tell  you  what :  they're  something  like  that  famous 
adventurer  who,  a  few  years  ago,  compelled  the  Kaiser  to 
visit  him  in  prisoa  and  obtain  his  release  .  .  .  and  after- 
wards, owing  to  a  disappointment  in  love,  threw  himself  into 
the  sea  from  the  chffs  at  Capri." 

"  Who  was    that  ?  " 

"  Oh,  you  know  the  fellow's  name  as  well  as  I  do  1  .  .  . 
Lupin,  that's  it  :     Arsene  Lupin." 

The  "End. 


There  is  no  more  useful  book  of  reference  published 
annually  than  Mr.  E.  C.  Austen- Leigh's  Clubs.  (Spottis- 
woode,  Bjdlantyne  and  Co.,  New  Street  Square.  5s.)  It  con- 
tains in  small  compass  a  list  of  over  4,000  clubs,  with  the 
names  of  secretaries,  numbers  of  members,  terms  of  sub- 
scriptions and  entrance  fees,  etc.  These  multitudinous  clubs 
are  frequented  by  the  British  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and 
not  only  in  the  Empire,  and  in  addition  there  are  particulars 
of  1,500  Golf  Clubs.  No  volume  that  is  published  gives  at  a 
glance  a  more  wonderful  illustration  of  what  a  world-occupying 
race  the  British  are  and  how  they  cling  to  their  habits. 

Sir  Arthur  Pearson,  assisted  by  an  influential  committee, 
is  organising  a  gigantic  bazaar  at  the  Royal  Albert  Hall 
during  the  second  week  in  May.  The  contents  of  the  stalls 
will,  it  is  announced,  be  provided  largely  by  the  great  London 
mercantile  houses.  The  object  of  this  bazaar  is  to  help  to  place 
the  Blinded  Soldiers'  After-care  Fund  upon  a  permanently 
satisfactory  footing.  The  purpose  at  St.  Dunstan's  is  to  teach 
men  to  be  independent  of  the  terrible  loss  of  sight,  but  the 
teaching  over,  the  men  have  to  settle  in  life,  and  an  orga- 
nisation is  necessary  for  their  future  well-being,  for  {pecuniary 
assistance  is  often  needed,  especially  at  the  outset.  Sir  Arthur 
suggests  that  the  week  of  the  bazaar  shall  be  made  a  special 
occasion  for  a  great  national  offering  to  the  blinded  soldiers 
who  have  given  their  sight  to  keep  the  world  free. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXIX  No.  2867  [/^I-kJ  THURSDAY.  APRIL  19,  1917  [rN^E'^¥p'^A'FE"l]  ISfcTlf^EVpl^^I 


By  Lowk  R€«nute\eri 


__I >£>t)i(  r\o 


Pfv^npl-e' 


s. 


Drawn  ezehitively  t»T  "  Land  A   Watn  ' 


Proud  to  Fight 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  19,  1917 


X^N 


A  WORKING 
WAR  COAT 


WAR  is  work.  Just  hard, 
dog-ged  slogging-  at  this  job 
or  that,  with  a  romantic  background 
of  bang  and  rattle,  flash  and  flame, 
dang-er — and  a  few  grim  possibili- 
ties. But  work  is  the  essential 
feature — and  the  essential  feature 
of  the  Field 'Jerkin  is  that  it  is 
built  for  work.  The  roomy  coat 
gives  freedom  ;  ventilation  is  com- 
pletely provided  for  ;  and  weather- 
protection  is  Thresher-thorough. 
Any  officer-wearer  of  a  Thresher 
Trench  Coat  will  tell  you  what 
that  means  far  more  convincingly 
. — and  more  picturesquely — than 
we  can.  Practical  soldiering  experi- 
ence settled  the  length  of  it,  and  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  military 
tailoring  experience  gave  it  that 
unmistakable  soldier-cut. 

The  "Thresher"  Field  Jerkin  is 
intended  forswear  with  short  trunk 
overalls. 

THE    "THRESHER"   FIELD    JERKIN, 
lined  check  cashmere, 


84/- 


All   sizes    in  stock.    Send  size  of  chest  and  approximate 
height,  and  to  avoid  any  delay  enclose  cheque  when  ordering. 

Waterproof  Trunk  Overalls,  17/6  a  pair. 


THE  THRESHES 
FIELD  JERKIN 

A  new  Campaign  Coat  by  the  makers  of  the  far-famed  "Thresher" 
Trench  Coat — worn  by  over  15,000  British  Oflicers — the  original 
trench  coat  and  still  the  best. 


Send   for   Book  (3)— "The  Complete  Guide 
to    Expenditure  on    Kit  and    Equipment." 


Hy  Appotiittncnt 
to  H.M.  Ikf  King 


THRESHER  &  GLENNY 

^■ysl.  1 755       Military  Tailors  since  the  Crimean  War       tSsI-  1755 

152  &  153  STRAND,  LONDON,  W.C. 


April  ig,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD      SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  APRIL  19,    1917 


CONTENTS 


Proud  to  Fight.     By  Louis  Raemaekers 

Mr.  Wilson's  Appeal  (Leader) 

The  Two  Offensives.     By  Hilaire  Belloc 

Trust  the  American  People,     By  Arthur  Pollen 

Preparation  and  the  French  Command.     By  Charles 

Dawbarn 
In  the  Salient.     By  An  Officer 
Life  and  Letters.     By  J.  C.  Squire 
Poets  and  the  War.     By  E.  B.  Osborne 
Domestic  Economy 
Kit  and  Equipment 


PAGE 

I 

3 

4 

II, 

12 

14 
15 
i6 

20 
23 


MR.     WILSON'S     APPEAL 

W.\R  is  no  more  the  sport  of  kings,  it  has  become 
the  private  business  of  the  people.     And  by  the 
irony  of  life  it   is  the   kings   themselves,   the 
autocrats,  who  have  brought  about  the  change. 
They  have  contemned  human  nature,  and  human  nature,  de- 
spised and  afflicted,  reasserts  itself  gloriously,  as  it   ever  has 
done.   The  Kaiser  regards  the  women  of  his  dominions  merely 
as  the  potential  mothers  of  soldiers,  and  the  men  as  cannon- 
fodder  in  life  and  nitro-glycerine  in  death.    The  manner  of  the 
disposal  of  the  bodies  of  German  soldiers  who  have  given  their 
lives  for  their  Kaiser,  would  be  too  horrible  to  contemplate 
were  it  not  a  perfectly  natural  corollary  of  ' '  fright  fulness. ' '    It 
is  well  to  keep  clearly    in  view  that  to  the  German  mind  there 
is  nothing  outrageous  in  the  degradation  and  defilement  of 
the  human  body.  One  hundred  and  forty  years  ago,  the  greatest 
Enghshman  of  his  generation,  Chatham,  referred  in  the  House 
of  Lords  to  the  pitiful  little  German  princes  who  sell  and  send 
their  subjects  to  the  shamblfes.     He  was  denouncing  the 
methods  of  warfare   employed  against   our  then  American 
colonists,  and  attributed  them  to  German  soldiery.    "  Your 
own  army  is  infected  witli  the  contagion  of  theSe  iUiberal 
allies.     The  spirit  of  plunder  and  rapine  is  gone  forth  among 
them."     Little  does  the  character  of  a  nation  alter  as  long 
as  it  preserves  its  traditions,  and   no  traditions  have  been 
more   sedulously    fostered  than  those  of  Prussia  under  the 
Hohenzollerns  ;  moreover  they  have  been  extended  to  Ger- 
many which  is  now  altogether  Prussian  in  thought  and  senti- 
ment.   But  it  is  good  to  hear  the  words  of  Chatham,  spoken 
in  the  Palace   of   Westminster    in    1777,  echoed   from   the 
White  House  of  Washington  in  1917. 

For  the  appeal  which  President  Wilson  has  made  to  his 
fellow-countrymen  is  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  the  Great 
Commoner,  who  held  it  to  be  the  first  duty  of  every  citizen 
to  light  for  liberty  when  liberty  is  in  danger,  holding  that  he 
who  voluntarily  allows  himself  to  be  made  a  slave  becomes  a 
fit  instrument  to  make  slaves  of  others.  We  in  this  country 
have  realized  slowly  that  this  war  is  in  truth  the  private  busi- 
ness of  each  one  of  us,  we  each  and  all  have  to  contribute  a 
personal  quota  if  we  would  fulfil  our  duty  to  our  fellow- 
men.  Though  this  truth  has  been  stated  in  many  ways, 
never  has  the  work  which  this  war  for  liberty  and  right  lias 
niposed  upon  a  nation  been  more  comprehensively  yet 
iccinctly  defined  than  in  Mr.  Wilson's  pronouncement : 

We  must  supply  aljunclant  food  not  only  for  ourselves  and 
our  Allies  and  our  seamen,  but  also  lor  a  large  part  of  the 
nations  with  whom  we  have  now  made  common  cause  in 
whose  support  and  by  whose  sides  we  shall  be  fighting. 
We  must  supply  ships  by  hundreds  out  of  our  shipyards  to 
carry  to  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  submarines  or  no  submarines, 
what  will  every  day  be  needed  there,  and  .abundant  materials 
out  of  our  fields,  mines,  and  factories  with  which  not  only  to 
c  othc  and  equip  our  own  forces  on  land  and  sea,  but  also  to 
clothe  and  support  our  people  for  whom  the  gallant  fellows 
under  arms  can  no  longer  work,  to  help  clothe  and  equip  the 
armies  with  which  we  are  co-operating  in  Europe,  and  to 
keep  the  looms  and  manufactories  there  in  raw  material  : 
coal  to  keep  the  fires  going  in  ships  at  sea  and  the  furnaces  in 


hundreds  of  factories  across  the  sea  ;    steel  out  of  which  to 
make  arms  and  ammunition   both  here  and  there,  rails  for 
worn-out  railways  at  the  back  of  the  fighting  fronts,  loco- 
motives and  rolling  stock  to  take  the  place  of  those  even/ 
I  lay  going  to  pit'ces,  iniiles  ;i,iid  horses  and  cattle  for  militarj 
service,  everything   with  which  the  jjeople  of  Kiigland,  France 
Italy,  and  Russia  have  usually  supplieil  themselves  but  canno' 
afford  the  men,  materials,  or  machinery  to  make. 

In  this  passage  we  behold  clearly  what  a  vast  and  all-con 
suming  enterj^rise  modern  war  is.  There  is  no  departmen 
of  human  efficiency  on  which  it  docs  not  make  enormous  de 
raands.  We  have  often  heard  surprise  expressed  at  its  world 
wide  nature.  The  sound  of  its  guns  has  gone  forth  into  al 
lands,  and  every  sea  has  been  furrowed  by  its  battleships 
But  more  amazing  still  is  that  no  sphere  of  liuman  knovYledge 
and  science  has  escaped  the  influence  of  the  commerce  ol 
destruction.  Discoveries,  malevolent  and  beneficent,  have 
been  directly  due  to  it,  and  years  must  elapse  before  man  can 
fairiy  strike  the  balance  between  the  good  and  evil  of  the 
Great  War. 

Meantime  we  can  take  Mr.  Wilson's  words  to  heart.  "  The 
supreme  test  of  the  nation  has  come  and  we  must  all  speak, 
act  and  serve  together."  Are  we  in  this  country  doing  so  to 
the  best  of  our  ability  .'  Exceptions  there  wiU  and  must  be, 
but  we  do  believe  that  the  spirit  of  service  burns  with  a  brighter 
flame  in  England  than  ever  it  has  done  in  the  past.  By 
God's  grace  it  may  be  a  candle  that  shall  never  be  put  out. 
And  endeavour  is  strengthened  and  heartened  by  learning 
that  the  ideals  for  which  we  strive  arc  not  the  sole  property 
of  ourselves  nationally  or  individually.  Now  at  least  we  know 
that  Anglo-Saxon  civilisation  with  whatever  defects  and 
weaknesses  it  possesses,  has  never  lost  grip  of  that  nobility 
of  purpose  which  has  fired  the  master  minds  of  our  race  in 
the  past  and  which  animates  at  the  present  its  leaders,  sep- 
arated though  they  are  by  the  seas  and  dwelling  under 
different  forms  of  government.  "When  to-morrow  "  Old 
Glory  " — as  the  Americans  proudly  and  fondly  call  their 
national  flag — floats  from  every  flag-staff  in  these  islands, 
it  will  be  saluted  by  the  British  people  with  gladness  and 
pride,  for  they  will  recognise  it  as  the  symbol  of  the  great 
democracy  which  henceforth  marches  shoulder  to  shoulder  with 
the  older  nations  of  Europe  in  the  fierce  battle  for  the  rights  of 
mankind  and  the  future  security  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Wilson  would  lift  war  above  every  taint  of  squalor, 
he  would  not  have  the  glory  which  heroism  and  self-sacrifice 
cast  over  its  carnage  and  horror  dimmed  by  one  civil  mean- 
ness :    "  There  is  not  a  single  selfish  settlement  so  iar  as  I 
can  see,"  he  states,  "  in  the  cause  we  are  fighting  for."    And 
he  exhorts  his  countrymen  to  devote  themselves  to  service 
without  regard  to  profit  or  material  advantage  and  with  an 
energy  and  intelligence  that  rise  to  the  level  of  the  enterprise 
itself.     Noble   words   like   these  are  the  seed    the  sower  in 
the  parable  went  forth  to  sow.     Not  everywhere  will  they  fall 
on  good  ground,  but  in  the  end  they  shall  bring  forth  fruit 
an    hundredfold.      They  will   be  an   inspiration  to  many 
generous  hearts  throughout  the  world.     No  small  part  of 
the  high  value  which  this  deliverance  of  Mr.  Wilson  possesses 
is  due  to  the  extremely  practical  nature  of  his  advice.     He 
defines    the  duty  of  every  section  and  well  nigh  every  in- 
dividual of  the  democracy.     He  preaches  a  gospel  of  industry 
and  economy,   and  raises  the   lowliest   tasks   into   shining 
virtues.     War  in  his  eyes  still  keeps  its   pomp   and    glory, 
but  these  qualities  are  no  longer  to  be  expressed  in  trappings 
and  banners,   but  in  better  disciphne  and  livelier  activity, 
mental  and  physical,  of  the  whole  body  politic.     For  war 
is  the  private  b'usiness  of  the  people  ;   not  one    may  neglect 
it  without  detriment  to  the  cause ;    victory  is  the  fruit  of 
undivided  energy  and  most  honest  toil,  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  God  and  man.     And  this  consecration,  as  is  fit,  will 
take  place  to-morrow  in  the  cathedral-church  of  the  mother 
oily   of   the   mother  country.     No    jealousy   to-day   ripples 
the  waters  that  flow  between  the  two  nations  that  once  were 
one.     We  do  not,  we  never  shall,  see  eye  to  eye  where  the 
lesser  and  transient  things  of  life  are  concerned,  but  whenever 
the  eternal  principles  of  freedom  and  right  are  in  peril,  we 
are  well  assured  nothing  henceforth  will  keep  us  apart,  and  ' 
in  St.   Paul's  Cathedral  to-morrow  in  the  presence  of  our 
King  and  the  representative  of  the  President,  a  Divine  blessing 
will  be  asked  upon  this  new  alliance  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  raca^ 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  19,  1917 


The  Two  Offensives 

By   Hilaire  Belloc 


By  our  Retreat  we  have  prevented  the  Spring 
offensive  of  the  Allies :  German  pronouncement  to 
Neutrals  on  the  retirement  of  St-  Quentin. 

WHEN  Land  &  Water  went  to  press  last  week, 
the  news  which  had  reached  England  of  the  first 
great  Allied  offensive  in  France  covered  only  the 
ver\'  beginning  of  that  action  and  even  left  its 
principal  result  undetermined.  It  was  therefore  impossible 
as  we  said  at  the  time,  to  do  more  than  observe  a  very  brief 
stretch  of  the  struggle,  or  to  do  more  than  conjecture  its 
results.  We  were  not  even  yet  certain  that  a  counter-attack 
would  not  be  successful  against  that  all-important  position  of 
\'imy  Ridge,  the  loss  ot  which  the  enemy  had  hitherto  never 
jiermitted  to  be  permanent. 

This  week  we  have  the  fullest  accounts  of  the  action 
before  us,  and  it  is  possible  to  sur\'ey  it  in  detail  and  as 
a  whole. 

By  a  similar  coincidence  the  second  great  blow  of  the 
Allies,  long  prepared  and  calculated  to  co-ordinate  at  the 
chosen  moment  with  the  first,  was  initiated  exactly  a  week 
later.  Only  the  first  news,  therefore,  of  this,  the  French 
operation,  has  come  in  at  the  moment  of  writing,  and  no 
full  analysis  or  description  of  it  is  possible,  but  only  a  brief 
summary  at  the  close. 

iMt  us  begin  by  seizing  the  most  salient  character  in  such 
operations  as  these.  That  character  is  the  necessity  for, 
■prolonged  concentration.  Though  the  principle  is  the  same, 
the  mass  of  metal,  stores  and  men  to  be  concentrated  is 
many  thousand  times  as  great  as  it  was  in  the  old  war  of 
positions,  and  (in  spite  of  modern  invention)  the  time  required 
for  its  accumulation  is  also  much  greater,  and  is  measured 
in  weeks  instead  of  days. 

Elements  of  Doubt 

It  is  impossible  to  prevent  an  enemy  from  knowing  that 
such  a  concentration  is  taking  place,  because  eve'n  a  very 
partial  obser\'ation  from  the  air  betrays  it,  let  alone  informa- 
tion from  spies  and  prisoners.  Nevertheless,  there  are  three 
elements  of  uncertainty  and  therefore  of  possible  surprise 
always  present  for  the  confusion  of  the  enemy,  and  to  these 
is  added  upon  the  present  Western  front,  a  fourth. 

The  three  permanent  elements  of  doubt  in  the  enemy's 
mind  are  (i)  as  to  the  full  degree  of  the  concentration  ;  (2) 
as  to  the  e.xact  date  when  it  will  be  used  ;  and  (3)  as  to  the 
efficacy  with  which  it  will  be  used  ;  and  in  proportion  to  his 
miscalculation  in  these  three  matt6rs,  or  to  his  opponents' 
efticiency  in  surprising  him  upon  thein,  will  be  the  severity 
of  the  blow  he  receives.  ,;, . 

To  these  elements  of  surprises  which  will  always  be  present 
even  under  modern  conditions,  we  add,  under  the  present 
conditions  of  the  Western  front,  a  fourth  which  is  of  the 
greatest  moment  to  the  issue  of  the  war.  The  enemy  is  not 
presented  with  a  single  concentration  but  with  several.  He 
knows  nothing  of  the  order  in  which  each  will  come  into^^ 
play.  ^^^' 

This  last  point  is  of  very  great  importance  to  the    undfer^/ 
standing  of  the  campaign  during  its  present  phase.      7>v- 

When  the  enemy  launched  his  great  attack  upon  ■^^«rdu.. 
in  February  1915,  the  point  of  his  concentration  was  f^eri|C.f^' 
fectly  well-known,  and  so  were  a  great  many  of  his  ■^r'"—   '■'• 
preparations,  such  as  the  special  training  of  the  corps 
had  been  chosen  for  the  attack.     There  was  an  effeineni  «  1 
surprise  which  was  the  degree  of  fire  power  which  be  li'nl 
prepared,  and  in  this  he  succeeded  in  deceiving  the  defence. 

But  the  enemy  did  not  propose  the  method  of  sevpiii 
concentrations.     There   were   students,  of   the   war   i 
country  who  expected  and  even  confidently  prophi 
second  offensive  after  that  against  Verdun  haci  been  launched..  ^ 
The  Tinii's  even  went  so  far  as  to  give  us  the  place  where  V 
this  would  occur  and  mentioned  the  Champagne  just  west  of 
Argonne.     It  did  more.     It  told  us  wheii  a  piece  of  fighting 
did  occur  upon  no  great  scale  in  that  region  that  this  second 
great  offensive  had  begun.     But  these  conjectures  were  quite 
erroneous.     The  enemy  had  determined  to  stake  all  upon 
the  one  effort  of  V'erdun.     His  great  success  upon  the  Eastern 
front  of  ten  months  before  had  convinced  him  that  this  was 
the  right   method.     He  Irad-  there,  in  Gahcia,   concentrated 
upon  a  comparatively  small  front  and  had  broken  the  line 


opposed  to  him  in  a  single  blow.     He  believed  he  could  do 
the  same  in  the  West. 

To-day  conditions  are  veiy  different.  The  Grand  AUiance 
has  surpassed  him  in  munitionment  and  in  man-power  upon 
the  West,  and  he  stands  under  the  threat  of  divt'rse  olfensives, 
each  of  which  he  must  watch  and  no  one  of  which  he  can 
place  in  its  proper  order. 

The  result  is  that  he  must  hesitate  before  deciding  to 
counter-concentrate  against  any  particular  one,  and  that 
hesitation  is  necessarily  maintained  until  the  first  of  the 
shocks  is  delivered.  When  that  happens  he  is  compelled 
to  meet  it  and  can,  of  course,  meet  it  by  rapidly  massing 
against  it.  But  he  remains  in  doubt  about  the  point  where 
the  next  necessity  for  massing  shall  come  and  about  his 
power  of  meeting  it  in  his  turn.  In  other  words,  superiority 
in  numbers  and  in  rnunitionment,  and  above  all  in  heavy 
guns,  has,  as  is  natural,  put  the  initiative  into  the  hands  of 
the  AUiance.  It  is  true  that  the  enemy  has  accumulated 
a  large  strategic  reserve ;  it  is  true,  as  we  shall  show  at  the 
close  of  this,  that  he  desires  to  use  this  reserve  later  in  the 
restoration  of  a  war  of  movement.  But  it  is  not  true  that  he 
can  now  choose  the  hour  and  the  conditions  of  using  it. 

The  consequence  of  this  possession  of  the  initiative  by  the 
.\llies  is  that  each  blow,  when  it  is  struck,  achieves  its  imme- 
diate purpose  ;  puts  out  of  action  a  large  proportion  of  his 
men,  compels  him  to  a  hurried  concentration  upon  the  point 
chosen,  deprives  him  for  good  and  all  of  a  large  proportion 
of  his  material  and  further,  as  we  shall  see,  increases  the 
growing  instability  of  his  defence.  The  stronger  he  shows 
'himself  against  one  sector  of  the  alhed  pressure,  the  weaker 
he  is,  on  that  very  account,  upon  another,  and  an  apparent 
check  to  the  sti'onger  side  in  one  paft  of  these  great  new 
battles  of  mass  -is  actually  the  cause  of  success  in  another 
sector.  An  offensive  such  as  that  begun  by  the  British 
upon  Easter  Sunday  to  the  north  of  his  new  line,  breaks 
.up  yet  another-  section  of  his  old  permanent  line,  adds 
by  so  many  miles  to  his  new  unstable  and  fluid  line 
and  begins  to  restore,  but  not  in  his  sense,  movement 
upon  the  Western  .  front.  It  is  followed,  just  when  he 
is  most  embarrassed,  by  the  second  blow,  the  French  attack 
on  the  south  and  an  extension  of  the  whole  defensive  task 
set  him  to  something  like  125  miles.  And  he  is  not  secure 
against  a  third. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  nature  of  the  task  which  lay  before 
the  British  army  just  before  tiie  first  great  attack  was 
delivered,  and  follo.w  in  detail  the  success  of  that  attack. 

The  German -retirement .  from  the  great  salient  of  Noyon 
has  been  towards  a  line  already  prepared,  which  ran  from 
near  Arras  upon  the  north  to  the  ,\isne  abo\-e  Soissons  upon 
the  south.  It  eliniinated  the  dangerous  salient  of  Noyon 
which  had  beto^e  1  art  cularly  perilous  under  the  pressure 


a  ISC  91 V 


•h  shuwtn^  tht  Entnujs  Onffinat  Line 
•a  IV E-rratwe.  du  n/UinuU  jf-'ooatputL        '^. 
renitvru,  JTtc  exUnt  of  tile  Fint'Orrmoji- 
,  R^aranent  |3  cb^  i^rurr  of' the  dtfuiie  blauf 
■  which  Lf  lunii  tvuiff  Jeh^mU  N^rth  ^J 
Soutii  of'  tilt  New  SaU^at. 


'^-■-.-v^. 


T^tU,' 


"^.xv. 


April  19,  1917 


LAND    dc    WATER 


of  the  Somme  offensive.     On  Map  I.  the  original  salient  is 
marked  with  a  dotted  line:-  ...._,        .     — 

If  time  had  been  given  to  the  enemy  to  consolidate  this 
line  thoroughly,  it  would  have  saved  him  some  not  very  great 
numbers  of  men  and  would  still  have  left  a  bad  saKcnt  marlced , 
by  thetownof  Laon.  But  it  would  have  made  a  fairly  straight 
line  up  northwards  and  would  have  afforded  him  the  leisure 
to  prepare  a  counter-stroke. 

There  is  no  doubt  at  all  tliat  he  inteiKled.  sucli.  a  counter- 
stroke,  for  the  whole  German  Press  was  bidden  to  expect  it, 
and  to  describe  the  retirement  as  the  restoration  of  "  elbow 
room  "  for  the  cnemv's  freedom  of  movement. 

The  Allies  followed  this  retirement,  however,  more  rapidly 
than  the  enemv's  command  had  allowed  for.  the  new  line 
was  immediately  engaged  in  its  central  part  in  front  of  St, 
Ouentin  and  was  verv  soon  harassed  tiie  whole  way  up,  from 
Arras  right  down  to  "the  Aisne,  a  distance  of  75  miles,  and 
what  is  more,  it  was  being  shouldered  back  piecemeal  over 
the  whole  of  this  great  distance.  If  ever  the  famous ' '  Hinden- 
bur"  Line  "  (which  the  German  Press  was  bidden  to  exalt 
and^  present  to  its  public  as  the  mainstay  of  the  German 


defence),  existed  at  all,  it  existed  on  that  trace  from  Arras 
past  St.  pucntin  to  near  Laon,  and  .all  German  opinion,  as 
well  as  most  opinion  in  the  Allied  countries,  was  prc^Hired  for 
a  gradual  stiffening  of  the  resistance  as  its  main  positions 
vv6re  approached.  "     '     .' 

Meanwliile,  the  old  very  strong  defence  still  stood  every; 
where  north  of  that  village  near  Arras,  viiich  is  call«d 
Blangy,  and  lies  just  east  of  the  town. 

A  great  concentration  of  material  had  been  made  for  the 
attack  opposite  this  permanent  nortliern  Arras  pivot  oMhe 
so-called  Hindenburg  Hne,  and  upon  Easter  Saturday  the 
main  bombardment  of  that  pivot,  which  we  will  call  the  pivo^ 
of  Arra,s,  began.  '      :  ' 

Observe  the  condition  of  a  successful  advance  upon  this 
sector.  Its  strong  point,  the  backbone  of  its .  resistance, 
was  the  ridge  of  chalk,  rising  gradually  from  the  Arras  side, 
faUing  steeply  upon  the  Lens  side,  called  tlio  Vimy  Ridge. 
This  position  had  rightly  been  treated  as  vital  by  the  enemy 
over  the  whole  of  the  "last  two  years.  He  spent  first  and 
last  something  like  100,000  men  in  saving  it  from  Allied 
occupation.     It  was  vital  because  the  possession  of  it  >vould 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  19,  1917 


give  his  opponents  observation  <jvcr  the  whole  vast  plain 
to  the  East,  because  it  was  exceedingly  well  suited  for  de- 
fence, being  of  dry  chalk  and  affording  a  splendid  field 
of  fire  over  its  long  glacis  westward,  and  because,  so  long  as 
it  was  held,  it  wis  impossible  for  the  Allies  to  do  anything 
immediately  to  the  south. 

Now  what  lay  immediately  to-the  south  of  Vimy  Kidge  ? 
If  the  reader  will  glance  at  Map  II,  he  will  see  that  a  depression, 
which  is  the  valley  of  the  Scarpe,  runs  to  the  south  of  Vimy 
Kidge  and  between  it  and  a  spur  of  heights  which  run  right 
out  east  beyond,  and  may  be  called  the  Heights  of  Monchy. 
This  valley  of  the  Scaipe  holds  the  main  railway  and  tiie main 
road,  which  supply,  all  that  part  of  the  enemy  front 
from  the  point  of  IJouai.  J'hroiigh  Douai  passes  the  main 
German  line  of  communication,  the  railway  and  the  roads  which 
go  up  northward  to  Lille  and  Belgium.  A  (mal  occupation 
of  Douai  by  the  Allies  threatens  all  the  north.  Even  an 
approach  to  it  creates  an  impossible  salient  round  Lens, 
which  is  the  centre  of  the  French  coal  district,  compels  the 
evacuation  of  that  salient,  but  having  done  so  creates  a  new 
salient  round  La  Bassee. 

A  successful  advance  then,  along  the  Scarpe  line,  would 
shake  the  whole  German  plan  of  defence  here,  and  that  ad- 
vance was  blocked  by  the  German  possession  of  the  \'uny 
Kidge,  because  the  British  army  could  do  nothing  along  the 
Scarpe  so  long  as  the  \'imy  Kidge  held. 

But  there  was  more  than  this.  An  advance  along  the 
Scarpe  would  not  only  have  all  these  effects  northward,  it 
would  also  have  a  corresponding  effect  southward.  The  so- 
called  "  Hindenburg  Line  "  ran,  as  we  now  know,  from  the 
suburb  of  St.  Saviour  over  the  hill  of  Tilloy,  w  hich  was  one  of  its 


main  joints,  through  Heninel,  East  of  Croisilles,  west  of 
Bullecourt  and  then  in  front  of  Qu^ant  to  near  Boursies, 
and  so  southwards. 

An  advance  along  the  Scarpe  and  its  neighbourhood  would 
turn  this  line,  that  is,  get  behind  it.  The  enemy  in  view  of 
such  a  jjossibility,  had  long  prepared  a  switch  hne,  leaving 
the  Ilinbenburg  line  in  front  of  Ou^ant  and  going  pretty 
well  north  to  Drocourt.  Of  this  switch  hne,  which  presum- 
ably is  continued  on  behind  Lens  and  joins  the  old  line  some- 
where between  that  and  La  Bass(5e,  the  Air  Service  had  given 
ample  information.  Wliat  its  strength  will  be  under  the  con- 
ditions of  pressure  to  whicli  it  will  be  subjected,  the  immediate 
future  will  show  us.  But  of  one  thing  we  can  be  sure.  It  is  an 
expedient,  it  is  not  a  permanent  support.  The  enemy 
fallen  back  upon  it  must  abandon  Lens  and  all  its  coalfield, 
must  put  the  junction  of  his  communications  at  Douai  under 
distant  fire,  must  submit  to  a  formidable  salient  again 
created  to  the  north  round  La  Basstc,  and  in  general  can  only 
be  halting  in  the  process  of  a  longer  retreat.  In  other  words, 
the  turning  of  the  so-called  Hindenburg  line  by  a  pronounced 
advance  on  both  sides  of  the  Scarpe  (itself  dependent  upon  the 
successful  attack  of  Vimy  Ridge)  would  shake  the  whole 
sjSitem  of  defence  which  the  enemy  had  planned  before  making 
his  first  retirement.  The  line  was  already  fluid  upon  a  trace 
of  75  miles  or  more  up  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Arras  ;  a 
successful  blow  delivered  upon  the  axis  of  the  Scarpe  would 
extend  its  fluidity  at  least  as  far  north  as  the  neighbourhood 
of  Loos,  another  15  miles. 

VlTien  we  have  thus  gras|«d  what  the  tasK  was  set  to  the 
first  offensive  we  can  proceed  to  follow  the  details  of  its 
success. 


Details  of  the  British  Actions 


I 


By  the  end  of  Holy  Week  all  orders  had  been  received 
for  a  general  attack  to  be  made  by  the  British  forces  upon 
Easter  Monday,  and  the  points  indicated  stretched  from  the 
north  of  Vimy  Ridge  to  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  St. 
Quentin.  The  total  front  of  the  battle  thus  planned  ran,  as 
the  crow  flies,  for  a  distance  of  nearly  eighty  kilometres,  or  50 
miles.  Its  many  convolutions  gave  a  real  total  of  over  60 
without  counting  the  continuation  of  the  line  by  the  French, 
whose  action  though  subsidiary  was  constant  throughout 
the  struggle  and  extended  for  another  forty  miles  southwards. 

These  figures  alone  show  the  tremendous  change  which  lias 
come  over  the  fire  power  of  the  Western  Allies,  an<l  particularly 
the  British,  since  the  first  offensive  of  1915,  with  their  few 
thousand  3'ards  of  front,  and  even  since  the  Sommc  of  last 
year,  with  its  ma.vimum  of  tliirty  miles. 

This  immense  battle  line  had  for  its  critical  point  the 
Northern  pivot,  the  Vimy  Ridge,  for  its  most  critical  area  of 
extension  the  V' alley  of  the  Scarpe,  but  for  very  vigorous  action 
also  a  whole  chain  of  points  right  down  to  the  rounded  flats 
which  overlook  St.  Quentin,  within  rifle  range  of  that  town. 

The  preliminary  bombardment,  much  tlie  most  intense 
Loncentration  of  which  was  against  the  Vimy  Ridge,  continued 
all  Sunday,  and  all  the  night  between  Sunday  and  Monday. 

With  the  first  breaking  of  a  rainy  dawn  upon  Easter  Monday 
at  hiJf  past  five  (real  time),  the  bombardment  of  the  Ridge 
which  had  grown  in  intensity  with  every  passing  hour  was 
lifted  and  the  infantry  were  launched. 

The  Canadians  went  forward  for  the  attack  upon  Vimy 
Kidge,  English  and  Scottish  troops  operated  further  south 
in  the  valley  of  the  Scarf)c,  south  of  these  from  near  Oueant 
♦.o  Havrincourt  the  Australians  and  troops  (the  particulars  of 
which  are  not  mentioned)  continuing  the  pressure  all  the  way 
down  to  St.  Quentin. 

Monday,  April  9th 

In  tlio  first  advance  .what  may  be  called  the  Glacis  of 
the  \'imy  Ridge  was  occupied,  and  to  the  south  of  it  those 
suburbs  of  Arras,  Laurent  and  Blangy  which  lie  upon  either 
side  of  the  Scarpe  and  were  here  the  strongholds  of  the  German 
line.  The  very  strongly  fortified  triangle  of  railway  em- 
bankments formed  by  this  junction  of  rails  immediately  to 
the  east,  w^as  engaged  before  half  i)ast  eight  in  the  morning 
and  still  further  to  the  south  pressure  was  being  exercised 
upon  Neuvillc-vitasse  and  all  along  the  line  to  the  Bapaume- 
Cambrai  road.  On  this  road  the  attack  was  pressing  into 
Boursies  and  Hermies,  getting  into  the  outskirts  of  the  great 
Havrincourt  Wood  ;  approaching  the  ruins  of  Pontru  and  Le 
Verguier. 

During  the  morning's  work  the  rain  was  replaced  by  thick 
5«:urries  of  snow  in  a  very  bitter  wind,  which  luckily  blew  from 
the  west,  that  is,  in  the  same  direction  as  the  advance. 
These  scurries  of  snow,  which  continued  all  afternoon,  acted 
occasionallv  as  cover  for  either  parti',  but  are  described  as. 


being  upon  the  whole  more  favourable  to  the  attack  than  to 
the  defence. 

By  the  mid-day  of  Monday  pouits  upon  the  very  summit 
of  Vimy  Ridge  had  been  reached.  By  half  past  three  the  whole 
of  the  Ridge  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Canadians  and  a  barrage 
fire  everywhere  marked  its  summit,  save  in  one  point  where 
resistance  continued. 

This  point  must  be  specially  noticed.  It  is  the  highest 
upon  the  flatfish  top  of  the  Northern  part  of  the  Ridge,  and 
is  marked  upon  the  French  Ordnance  Map  as  Hill  145.  It 
formed  during  the  whole  of  that  afternoon  and  evening  a  little 
stubborn  projection  from  the  conquered  line  and  forbade  the 
complete  occupation  of  the  heights.  At  the  other  extremity 
of  the  Vimy  Ridge  the  ruins  of  Thelns  had  been  held  in  some 
strengtli  and  had  somewhat  delayed  the  advance  on  to  the 
southern  summit  where  stood  the  old  Semaphore  Pole.  But 
Thelus  was  passed  in  the  course  of  the  day,  and  by  the  evening 
of  the  Monday  all  the  Ridge,  with  the  exception  of  point  145 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  Canadians. 

Meanwhile,  south  of  the  ridge  the  advance  along  the 
Scarpe  Valley  had  been  particularly  successful.  I'-euchy, 
nearly  3,000  yards,  behind  Blangy,  had  been  reached  and 
carried  ;  the  railway  triangle  wliich  stands  half-way  between 
it  and  Blangy  having  been  forced,  largely  with  the  help  of 
tanks,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  noon.  Upon  tlie  Bapaume- 
Cambrai  road  far  to  the  south,  Boursies  and  Hermies  had 
been  taken,  and  further  south  still  the  villages  of  Pontru  and 
Le  Verguier,  which  had  been  approached  in  the  morning, 
were  carried. in  the  afternoon.  A  feature  of  this  first  very 
successful  day  was  the  excellent  work  done  by  the  Air  Ser\'ice 
in  spite  of  the  storm,  and  the  consequent  "repeated  success 
of  the  artillery  in  catching  enemy  reinforcements  that  were 
being  hurried  across  the  plain  to  the  aid  of  the  crumbling 
line.  Very  large  ntimbers  of  jirisoners  had  been  taken  during 
the  day  and  a  considerable,  but  as  yet  imknown  number  of 
guns.  A  count  made  in  the  afternoon  of  the  .Alonday  gave 
already  6,000  prisoners,  specially  large  bodies  having  been 
captured  upon  the  Vimy  heights  wjiere  tunnels  running  under 
the  ridge  through  the  chalk  had  become  traps  for  considerable 
groups  of  the  enemy. 

All  that  night,  the  night  between  Monday  and  Tuesdav, 
the  struggle  for  the  redoubt  on  Hill  145  continued.  As  indeed 
the  struggle  continued  with  greater  or  less  intensity  all  along 
the  line. 

Tuesday,  April   10th 

The  morning  of  Tuesday,  April  loth,  broke  under  the 
same  conditions  of  atrocious  weather,  and  the  snow  fell 
tiint  day  even  more  tliirkly  tiiau  the  day  before.  But  by 
that  morning  the  Redoubt  on  Hill  145  and  been  reduced,  and 
in  the  course  of  the  forenoon  the  Canadians  poured  downi  the 
splintered  woods  upon  the  eastern  slope  of  the  hills. 

Further  south,  upon  the  Scarpe,   the  same  morning  was 


y\pril  19,  T917 


LAND    &    WATER 


marked  by  another  bound  forward  which  gave  tlie  British 
occupation  of  Fampoux,  and  this  action,  upon,  which  not 
sufficient  stress  has  been  ilaid,  had  a  very  great  tactical  im- 
portance. We  liavc  already  seen  that  at  once  the  test  and 
the  core  of  the  action  was  the  Valk>y  of  the  Scarpe,  and  this 
occupation  of  I'ampoux  down  that  valley  in  the  course  of 
the  second  day,  Tuesday,  was  the  proof  of  how  far  things 
had  gone.  It  would  never  ha\'e  been  possible,  save  for  the 
holding  of  the  Vimy  Kidge,  but  the  Vimy  Ridge  once  held, 
the  valley  below  was  oix?n,  and  Fami)oux  dug  a  great  dent, 
more  than  5,000  yards  deep,  into  the  whole  German  line.  It 
flanked  the  height  of  Monchv  ;  it  passed  the  axis  of  the  Vimy 
Ridge  itself  and  began  that  bad  threat  to  the  Ilindenburg 
Line  on  the  south,  into  the  Lens  salient  vn  the  north,  which 
we  have  since  seen  develop  so  rapidly.  Underneath  the 
Vimy  Ridge  Farbus  was  taken  before  nightfall,  and  the 
line  at  dark  of  that  Tuesday,  April  loth,  ran  from  just  outside 
Givenchy  and  Little  Vimy,  round  Farbus  and  its  wood  (but 
missing  the  station,  I  think),  missing  Bailleul,  and  then 
taking  a  sweep  out  round  Fampoux  coming  up  the  Monchy 
heights  but  missing  that  village,  then  sweeping  round  far 
westward  to  St.  Martin  on  the  River  Cojeul,  where  the  old 
Hindenburg  Line  was  reached. 

It  will  be  seen  that  by  this  Tuesday  evening,  what  may  be 
called  the  Fampoux  advance  along  the  Scarpe,  had  provided  the 
test  and  measure  of  success.  The  Hindenburg  Une  was  now 
defmitely  turned  and  the  creation  of  two  dangerous  salients 
north  and  south  was  effected,  with  consequences  that  would 
be  immediately  apparent  in  the  next  few  days.  There 
remained,  however,  threatening  the  point  of  this  Fampoux 
advance  from  the  south,  and  still  solidly  in  the  enemy's 
hands,  the  small  town  and  hill  of  Monchy,  and  until  that  was 
carried  the  Scarpe  advance  could  not  be  called  secure.  The 
men  who  had  gone  through  the  terrible  trial  of  the  first  two 
days  here  lay  out  in  the  snow  over  the  Tuesday  night  prepared 
for  the  attack  upon  Monchy  on  the  morrow.  They  had 
already  felt  the  outskirts  of  that  position  and  had  found  it 
very  heavily'  guarded  indeed. 

Before  night  a  general  count  was  made  of  the  prisoners 
now  in  British  hands  and  of  captured  guns.  The  former  were 
11,000  in  number,  including  235  officers;  the  latter  were 
already  over  100.  But  it  was  certain  that  there  were  many 
more  guns  to  come  in  because  reports  were  continually  being 
received  of  half  buried  pieces  having  been  come  across  and 
even  of  pieces  in  good  condition  being  on  their  way  back  to 
the  British  lines. 

Wednesday,  April,  11th 

Wednesday,  April  nth,  was  marked  by  the  carrying  01 
Monchy,  which  may  properly  be  regarded  as  the  climax  of 
the  action,  after  which  it  remained  to  reap  the  fruits  of  the 
victory. 


Episode  of   Monchy 


A  good  test  of  the  truth  that  the  whole  operation  was  one 
of  surprise  and  its  result,  even  in  its  lirst  development,  the 
(hsclocation  of  tJie  enemy's  plans,  is  this  ])articular  episode 
.  of  Monchy.  It  was  believed  by  the  enemy  that  Monchy 
could  be  held  and  with  it  the  threat  to  the  Scarpe  Valley 
held  up.  The  loss  of  Monchy  was  destructive  to  the  enemy's 
retention  of  his  fortified  system  for  a  long  way  to  the  south. 
Monchy  in  German  hands  would  prevent  the  British  holding 
the  jiosition  of  Fampoux,  advanced  along  the  Scarpe,  and 
would  largely  neutralise  the  advantage  of  having  taken  the 
Vimy  Ridge.  Further,  Monchy,  wlien  lost,  gave  observation 
over  everything  that  is  vital  in  the  approaches  to  Douai. 

In  order  to  understand  this  let  the  reader  look  at  the 
accompanying  sketch. 

On  this  sketch  the  water  levels  of  the  Scarpe  and  the  Sensee 
with  its  tributary  the  Cojeul  River,  are  indicated.  These 
streams  have  a  very  slight  fall.  Their  general  level  may  be 
taken  as  approximately  the  same  in  all  the  district  covered 
by  the  map,  and  they  form  the  base  line  from  which  heights 
can  be  counted.  If  we  draw  a  contour  line  showng  about 
100  English  feet  above  the  lowest  water  levels  of  this  plain, 
and  marking  the  spurs  thrown  out  from  the  watershed  on  to 
this  plain,  those  contours  will  come  much  as  the  lines  marked 
100  come  on  the  map.  If  we  sliade  heights  from  about  60 
or  70  feet  higlier,  we  get  the  shaded  portions  shown  on  the 
map.  It  will  be  seen  that  tlie  spur  on  which  Monchy  stands 
is  thrust  out  higher  than  the  rest,  right  into  the  plain,  giving 
observation  to  the  north  by  two  and  four  miles  away  over  the 
railway  and  the  road  which  permit  supply  from  Douai 
and  an  uninterrupted  view  all  over  the  plain  as  from  a  sort  of 
watch-tower  :  the  expanse  being  diversified,  but  not  hidden 
in  any  way  by  the  accident  of  the  small  hill  of  Bellone,  a 
little  lump  distinguishable  on  a  clear  day  to  the  right  of  the 
very  distant  irregularity  which  is  Douai,  ten  miles  off. 

But  Monchy  has  not  only  this  advantage  of  being  tlius 
thrust  out  towards  the  plain.  It  is  also  higher  than  anything 
anywhere  in  its  neighbourhood.  It  overlooks  the  ground 
from  which  the  British  were  advancing  as  well  as  the  ground 
eastward,  and  it  blocks  in  flank  the  Scarpe  Valley  to  the 
north.  For  the  summit  of  its  knoll  is  nearly  240  feet 
above  the  lowest  water  levels  of  the  plain,  and  a  good  60  feet 
above  the  approaches  from  the  west.  The  little  town  lies 
covering  the  summit  and  sloping  down  south-eastward  from 
it.  The  Chateau  and  its  park  are  built  on  the  steep  north- 
eastern slope  from  the  summit.  It  is  further  evident  fhat  if 
Monchy  could  be  taken  by  the  British  and  securely  held  by 
them  everything  in  its  neighbourhood  would  go.  There 
would  be  created  a  sharp  flank  running  past  Wancourt  and 
Heninel,  and  the  salient  to  the  south  of  it  could  not  be 
maintained. 

The  action  had  been  in  full  progress  for  two   days,    all 


Til' 


^LUU      ^ne/ntjs  III 


Iku7htsabo\^80nwGre3 
Hetgh& above joomefivs 


8 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  19,  1917 


Monday  and  all  the  Tuesday.  The  German  battalion  holding 
Monchy  had  the  fullest  information  of  that  action's  progress. 
Thev  knew  by  Tuesday  night  that  \'imy  Ridge  from  seven 
to  eight  miles  north  of  them  had  been  lost  for  36  hours. 
They  none  the  less  believed  that  Monchy  could  be  held  and 
were  most  undoubtedly  i)Oth  instructed  to  hold  it  and  told 
by  their  Higher  Command  that  the  advance  would  fail  to 
take  it. 

The  Command  of  this  battalion  made  their  plans,  as  we 
know  from  witnesses,  to  take  up  the  defence  if  an  attack  should 
come  upon  the  Wednesday  morning.  The  attack  came  and  was 
successful  before  they  were  prepared  for  it,  and  Monchy  was 
lost  under  sucli  conditions  that  a  mass  of  material  was  left 
l)ehind  ;^hat  many  of  the  telephone  wires  were  found  uncut  ; 
tiiat  the  personal  effects  of  the  officers  were  sacrificed,  and 
that  cavalry  were  able  to  take  a  great  part  in  the  work.  The 
whole  episode,  I  say,  is  typical.  Monchy,  when  it  was  about 
live  miles  behind  "the  lines  in  the  old  days,  was  the  head- 
quarters of  a  division  ;  as  the  battle  front  approached  it, 
it  still  remained  the  garrison,  first  of  a  regiment,  and  then  of 
a  battalion  ;  but  in  its  last  phase  it  was  intended  to  hold 
and  failed  to  hold.  Had  it  held  it  would  have  checked  that 
breach  in  the  original  line — I  mean  that  turning  of  the 
positions  to  the  south— which  in  point  of  fact  took  place, 
l-'or  when  Monchy  fell  the  sharp  salient  of  which  I  have  spoken 
was  created  and  next  day  there  went,  as  a  consequence, 
Wancourt  and  Heninel  and  ground  up  to  the  tower  of 
Wancourt  on  the  heights  beyond. 

From  Wednesday  onwards  the  British  in  possession  of 
Monchy  Hill  saw  allthe  plain  spread  out  before  them  between 
the  flurries  of  snow.  When  the  weather  changed  at  the  end  of 
the  week  they  must,|I  think,  have  had  their  lirst  distant  sight 
of  Douai. 

The  loss  of  Monchy  was  so  very  serious  to  the  enemy  that  it 
provoked  them  to  their  first  serious  reaction,  and  a  consider- 
able concentration  was  effected  by  them  partly  under  the  cover 
(such  as  it  as)  of' the  Wood  of  Sart  in  the  plain  below  the 
town,  partly  in  the  plain  between  the  Chateau  and  the 
Scarpe  river.  This  double  concentration  was  badly  mauled  by 
the  British  artillery  while  it  was  taking  place.  It  was  none  the 
less  continued,  and  from  both  jilaccs  there  was  launched  a 
severe  converging  attack  for  the  recapture  of  Monchy,  which 
was  heavily  pressed  but  happily  broke  down  altogether  with 
the  loss  of  some  4,000  men.  On  the  same  day,  however, 
a  contemporary  German  counter-attack  to  save  the  junction  of 
their  switch  line  in  front  of  Oueant  unfortunately  succeeded. 
It  would  seem  to  have  been  delivered  against  an  Australian 
contingent,  which  was  pressing  forward  to  Bullecourt,  and  to 
have  owed  its  success  largely  to  a  sudden  snow  storm  in  which 
the  British  forces  lost  some  hundreds  of  prisoners  and  not  a 
lew  machine  guns. 

All  that  day,   Wednesday,  the  snow  and  gale  had  still 

continued  with  even  greater  intensity  than  before,  and  it  is 

remarkable   that  the  British    Air   Service   continued   to   fly 

•in  such  weather  while,  as  the  official  despatch  informs, us, 

the  enemy's  machines  were  almost  entirely  absent. 

Thursday,  April  12th 

On  the  next  day,  Thursday  the  12th,  the  effect  of  the 
Scarpe  advance  began  to  be  felt  both  to  the  north  and  to  the 
south.  On  the  north  the  two  woods  oh  either  "side  of  the - 
Souchez  River  were  carried,  clearing  the  northern  end  of  the 
Vimy  Ridge  from  all  further  danger.  The  enemy  had  counter- 
attacked \ery  heavily  during  all  this  period  since  the  \'imy 
'  Ridge  had  been  carried, '  and  had  especially  concentra/ted 
against  the  northern  spur  by  Givenchy.  He  was  now 
ihcapable  of  continuing  these  attacks  up  the  slope,  andi  he 
abandoned  them.  The  threat  .to  the  Lens  salient  was  thiere- 
fore  developing,  while  to  the  south,  with  the  aid  of  a  nwn- 
ber  of  tanks  the  enemy  was  driven  from  Wancourt  and  Heninel 
and  the  Hindenburg  line  was  lost  as  far  as  the  neighbourhood 
of  Bullecourt.  It  would  perhaps  have  been  lost  right  down 
to  the  pfnnt  where  the  new  switch  line  leaves  it  at  Queant  but 
for  the  clieck  received  during  the  previous  operatioti/ at 
Bullecourt  itself.  i/> 

'  The  next  day,  IViday,  saw  the  beginning  of  the  breakdown 
(if  the  (KTiiian  -alient  north  of  the  Scarpe.  .      1      '    -d; 


Friday,  April  13th 


!r// 

.rit 


On  that  Friday,  the  fifth  day  of  the  operations,  the  effect  of 
the  capture  of  the  woods  on  either  side  of  the  Souc:he7,  Brook 
was  at  once  felt  and  the  whole  line  advanced  somewhat  from 
neac  Loos  to  this  pojnt.  One  of  these  woods,  that  ort'the  south 
which  is  the  Wood  of  Givenchy,  climbs  right  up  the  northern 
i)ur  of  the  Vimy  Ridge,  more  than  200  feet  above  the 
Souchez  River.  The  other,  called  from  its  shape  the 
"Axe  Wood,'  is  lower  but  well  overlooks  th€!  plaitr  and 
from   both    there    is  complete  observation  of    Liicvin,  the 


eastern  suburb  of  I^ns.  and  a  great  mining  centre.  The 
possession^of  these  woods  further  turned  the  group  of  ruins 
called  Angrt-s  into  a  very  small,  sharp,  and  awkward  salient, 
which  the  (ifrmanshad to  leave  and  did  leave  on  the  Friday. 
On  the  same  day  the  ruins  of  all  the  villages  under  the  Vimy 
Ridge  were  occupied,  (iivenchy,  Viiny,  the  little  hamlet  of 
Willerval,  and  all  the  ruins  of  iiailleuL  To  tlu;  south  of  the 
ScarjHi  the  capture  of  \\'ancourt  tlie  day  before  was  confirmed 
and  completed  by  an  advance  on  to  the  heights  beyond  the 
Cojeul  River  as  far  as  the  crest  marked  by  Mancourt  Tower, 
from  which  point  one  looks  right  down  the  valley  of  the  Sens6e 
as  far  as  the  weather  will  let  one. 

By  the  evening  of  IViday  the  total  of  the  captures  that 
could  be  enumerated  exactly  already  came  to  more  than  13,000 
men,  includii\^  285  officers,  iO()  guns,  of  which  no  less  than 
eight  were  the'large  eight  inch  howitzers,  and  the  surprisingly 
large  number  of  twenty-eight  5c/s,  which  may  be  (regarded  as 
the  enemy's  standby  in  the  more  mobile  and  smaller  heavy 
artillery.  It  has  the  reputation  of  being  his  most  accurate  1 
and  most  useful  piece.  Of  field  guns  and  howitzers  130  have 
been  captured.  What  number  of  heavy  pieces  and  field  pieces 
may  up  to  that  date  have  been  destroyed  under  the  bom- 
bardment we  cannot  accurately  tell.  But  in  this  category'  the 
machine  guns  are  the  least  easy  to  count.  250  had  certainly 
already  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  British.  But  a  very  much 
larger  number  must  be  lying  buried  and  blown  to  pieces  over 
so  wide  an  area  of  operations. 

Saturday,  April  14th 

On  last  Saturday  the  enemy  Ix-gan  rapidly  falling  out  of 
the  Lens  salient.  He  had  to  give  up  Lievin,  the  mining 
suburb  of  St.  Peter  was  also  evacuated,  and  our  foremost 
troops  in  this  region  were  within  distant  rifle  shot  of  the  out- 
skirts of  the  big  coal  city.  Meanwhile,  for  the  first  time 
during  these  operations,  special  weight  was  given  to  the 
district  round  St.  Quentin.  Gricourt  was  carried  ;  Fayet 
having  been  carrierl  the  niglrt  before  ;  the  resistance  here 
was  determined,  the  enemy  losing  very  many  counted  dead 
and  400  prisoners. 

All  along  the  line  by  that  week-end  the  advance  was 
registered.  Gouzeaucourt  village  and  wood  had  been  taken 
24  hours  before  as  well  as  all.Bailleul,  \'imy  and  its  station, 
Givenchy  and  /Vngres,  as  we  have  seen,  and  the  heights,  most 
important  to  this  part  of  the  line,  of  the  Ascenscion  Farm 
south  of  Havrincourt  Wood.  The  advance  patrols  had 
reached  from  two  to  three  miles  east  of  the  V'imy  liidge, 
while  to  the  north,  under  pouring  rain,  the  troops  already  in 
occupation  of  the  St.  Pierre  suburb  pushed  on  and  came 
into  touch  with  the  outskirts  of  Lens  itself.  And  our  ob- 
servers could  witness  the  hurried  efforts  the  enemy  was  mak- 
ing to  evacuate  his  material  and  men  from  the  town. 

On  the  Sunday  the  (iermans  had  at  last  been  able  to  effect 
a  really  serious  concentration  with  the  object  of  a  counter- 
attack which  might,  had  it  gone  through  according  to  their  plan , 
have  partially  restored  the  situation,  .\lthough  the  details 
of  that  great  action  are  lacking  we  are  already  able  to  see  that 
it  was  of  capital  importance  and  formed  the  conclusion 
as  it  were,  of  the  whole  operation.  The  Germans  mustered 
a  force  equivalent  to  the  infantry  of  four  divisions  and  thre%v 
it  along  the  Cambrai-Bapaume  road  from'  just  south  of 
Queant  near  -T,agnicourt  to  a  point  nearly  10,000  yards 
south  of  Hermies.  It  was  a  very  formidable  effort,  made, 
presumably,  with  something  like  40,000  to  50,000  bayonets 
and  corresponding  artillery  power  behind  them.  The  British 
force  here  opposed  to  the  Germans  would  seem  to  ha\'e  been 
principally  composed  of  the  .\ustralian  contingent. 

For  what  reasons  was  this  point  chosen  ? 

Because  it  was  central,  and  because,  Monchy  being  lost,  it  was 
hopeless  to  try  and  save  the  northern  positions  and  in  par- 
ticular the  neighbourhood  of  Lens  into  which  at  that  verv 
moment  the  British  were  lighting  their  way  22  miles  off  to 
the  north.  It  is  possible  that,  as  in  the  case  of  the  attack  ol 
April  1915  near  Ypres,  the  enemy  was  not  uninfluenced  by 
the  knowledge  that  he  had  against  him  Colonial  troops,  for 
there  is  nothing  which  the  German  Higher  Command  Jias 
taken  longer  to  learn  than  the  value  of  the  new  armies,  and  it 
remains  apparently  still  rooted  in  the  conception  that  the 
■  creation  out  of  nothing,  as  it  were,  of  a  great  military  force, 
would  prove  beyond  the  task  of  the  British  Fmpire. 

He  may  have  had  other  reasons  for  choosing  this  point 
which  we  do  nOt  know,  but,  at  any  rate,  he  attacked  here  in 
very  great  force  and  with  what  he  believed  to  be  the  best 
troops  at  his  command.  I'or  here,  again,  we  have  the  singulat 
fact  that  the  German  Higher  Command  is  still  attached  to 
the  tradition  of  the  Guards,  although  that  famous  corps  has 
had  more  bad  luck,  or  bad  management,  to  its  credit  tlian 
any  two  other  equivalent  bodies  of  the  crtemy's  forces  put 
together.  It  is  still  treated  as  a  sort  of  talisman.  It  was  in 
particular    responsible    for,   the    disaster  of   the   Marne  in 


April  19,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


front  of  Foch.  It  had  already  been  knocked  to  pieces  some 
days  before  the'Marae  at  Guise.  A  portion  of  it  made  the 
only  considerable  German  error  in  the  midst  of  the  Austrian 
front.-  It  suffered  the  principal  reverse  of  the  great  advance 
on  July  14th  on  the  Somme.  It  was  here  agam  to  fulfil 
its  reputation  for  misfortune. 

The  first  overwhelming  tide  of  the  attack  succeeded.  A 
few  hundred  Australians  were  taken  prisoners  and  the  extreme 
German  right  appears  to  have  reached  the  little  height  on 
which  the  mill  of  Lagnicourt  stands  to  the  north-west  of  those 
ruins.  But  this  first  and  very  partial  attack  had  taken  place 
before  dawn,  and  it  was  just  as  day  broke,  about  half-past 
five,  that  it  seems  to  have  reached  its  maximum  cx])ansion. 

As  has  so  often  been  the  case  with  tlie  (n-rman  army  in 
the  West  during  the  whole  of  this  great  war,  there  seems  to 
have  been  an  inability  to  "  carry  on."  Wiiether  because  the 
infantry  has  been  tied  to  its  guns  over  much  or  because  the 
type  of  German  discipline  adversely  atiects  the  initiative  of 
regimental  command  and  especially' of  the  individual  man — 
whatever  was  the  reason — the  su(;ccssful  and  very  large  Ger- 
man force  permitted  the  Australians  to  rally.  At  half-past 
seven  the  counter-attack  by  the  British  was  delivered,  and 
it  had  the  most  amazing  "^result.  '  Not  bnly  did  the  very 
eonsiderable  ( lerman  bodv  break  before  it'  but  what  is  really 
remarkable  it  completely  lost  direction.  Instead  of  fighting 
its  way  back  to  its  own  gaps  in  the  wire,  a  great  part  of  it 
blundered  against  its  own '  entanglements,  and  was  there 
caught  and  shot  to  pieces.  1,500  dead  were  found  upon 
the  reoccupied  ground  alone.  300  prisoners  were  taken. 
What  mass  of  dead  and  wounded  should  be  estimated  over 
ai«d  above  the  corpses  counted  within  sight  of  the  British 
we  cannot  tell,  but  we  can  confidently  say  that  in  such 
open  fighting  and  under  such  punishment  not  much  less  than 
a  fourth  of  those  who  had  made  the  attempt  were  out  of 
action  bfefore  this  battle,  which  marked  last  Sunday,  was 
concluded. 

The  action  was  of  especial  value  as  affording  a  test  in 
detail  and  upon  a  considerable  scale  of  the  German  theory 
that  conditions  of  movement  and  of  fairly  open  warfare  would 
be  to  their  advantage,  especially  against  tlie  new  British 
armies.  The  verdict  here  has  definitely  gone  against  them 
and  the  lesson  will  not  be.  lost. 

So  ended  what  must  be  called,  take  it  all  in  all,  the 
greatest  operation  in  the  military  history  of  England. 
It  had  filled  a  week.  It  had  covered  a  front  of  a  whole 
county.  It  had  been  fought  under  the  most  desperate 
<?)nditions-  of  weather  and  of  fatigue,  and  it  had  proved  com- 
pletely successful. 

The    General    Result 

Now  what  is  the  general  result,  what  is  the  military  effect 
of  a  great  blow  like  this  ?  The  enemy  is  told  tiiat  its 
object  was  to  "  break  through  "  and  that,  as  a  fact,  it 
did  not  break  through. 

The  statement  is  quite  false.  The  time-table  of  an'  offen- 
sive of  this  sort,  the  arrangement  of  the  preliminary  bom- 
bardment, tlie  steps  taken  for  advancing  munitionment  and 
guns  (the  reallv  heavy  task)  after  success,  sliould  success  be 
achic\ed,  in  no  way   presuppose   the  immediate  rupture  of 


the  whole  enemy  line.  It  might  conceivably  take  place 
through  some  bit  of  exceptional  bad  management  on  the  part^ 
of  the  enemy,  or  through  sudden  demoralisation  on  a  large 
scale,  but  the  experience  of  many  months  had  taught  all 
the  highly  industrialised  nations,  that  is,  all  central,  southern 
and  western  Europe^  and  in  particular,  industrialised  Britain, 
which  is  now  beginning  to  play  so  great  a  part  in  the  field, 
that  a  sudden  rupture  of  the  enemy  line  is  not  the  object  to 
be  looked  for,  and  that  any  great  expense  of  men  and  material 
in  the  sole  object  of  attaining  it,  will  be  largely  wasted.  The 
business  of  the  Western  Allies  to-day  is  to  use  their  superiority 
in  numbers,  character,  munitionment.  and  tactical  skill,  so 
as  to  render  a  larger  and  larger  sector  of  the  Western  line 
fluid,  to  keep  a  cl6se  pressure  upon  that  extending  space  of 
doubtful  defensive,  so  as  to  prevent  the  enemy's  getting 
"  elbow  room  "  ;  to  make  the  enemy  perpetually  lose  more 
men  and  material  under  the  effort  than  the  attack  loses, 
and  above  all  to  make  him  lose  far  more  in  proportion  to  his 
remaining  resources  :  To  increase  the  harrying  effect  not 
only  by  the  regular  extension  of  the  fluid  line,  but  by  the 
increasing  uncertainty  as  to  which  of  many  points  he  is  n'^xt 
prepared  to  hold,  to  throw  him  into  a  regular  succession  of 
dilemmas  between  the  respective  advantage  of  holding  this 
and  yielding  that  (for  example,  to-day  Douai  and 
I.ens ;  yesterday  St.  Ouentin  and  the  old  positions  round 
Arras  ;  to-morrow  the  trunk  line  through  Cambrai,  or  the 
exceedingly  valuable  political  point  of  Lille)  ;  and  in  general 
by  perpetually  imposing  one's  initiative  to  increase  what  is 
rapidly  becoming  an  intolerable  strain. 

Can  the  enemy  counteract  such  a  state  of  affairs  ?  Of 
course,  he  can — for  a  time.  He  has  not  created  his  strategic 
reserve  for  nothing.  He  is  not  deliberately  anticipating  his 
future  income  in  men  as  a  mere  spendthrift  would  ;  he  has 
in  hand,  incorporated  in  the  depots  and  near  the  field,  a 
large  remaining  body  of  spare  force. 

But  this  ceaseless,  successful,  and  I  had  almost  said, 
triumphant  pressure  upon  the  decisive  Western  front  ddes 
not  leave  him  the  free  use  of  that  force.  He  must  draw  upon 
it  to  save  what  he  can  of  the  Western  front,  and  by  so  much 
be  the  weaker  for  an  offensive  elsewhere.  The  greater  tlie 
pressure  the  less  lie  is  able  to  be  certain  of  what  he  can  spare 
elsewhere.  Suppose  he  is  so  pressed  that  he  determines  at 
last  not  to  attack  anywhere  else,  but  to  use  against  this  same 
Western  front  all  the  income  he  had  anticipated,  he  will 
not  even  so  completely  restore  the  balance,  and  meanwhile  he 
leaves  himself  in  jeopardy  upon  the  other  front. 

We  know — it  is  now  common  knowledge— and  the 
evidence  of  it  has  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Allies  for 
months,  that  he  is  working  to  restore  somewhere  a  war  of 
movement.  He  is  in  particular  concentrating  his  very 
■  last  reserve  of  labour  upon  the  material  for  more  mobile  and 
less  heavy  pieces.  Nor  indeed  can  his  large  anticipation  of 
income   in   men  have    itself-  any  other  object. 

But  this  sort  of  action  upon  the  Western  front  is  not  de- 
signed to  give  him  the  conditions  he  desires.  There  is  no 
cliance  of  a  mobile  war  at  present  (in  his  sense)  anywhere 
between  Rheims  and  La  Bassee  ;  and  the  more  we  shake  back 
his  line  and  follow  it  up,  the  smaller  becomes  the  area  upon 
which  any  even  successful  rapid  retirement  could  restore  to 
him  that  "  elbow  room  "  which  he  requires. 


The    French    Offensive 


On  last  Monday.  April  ibth,  the  Ifritish  forces  were  mainly 
occupied  in  consuhdating  what  they  had  gained,  save  to  the 
north  where  they  were  still  feehng  the  continuous  pressure 
being  exercised  round  Lens.  A  general  account  gave  the 
total  of  over  14,000  prisoners  and  not  far  short  of  200  guns. 

But  the  conclusion  of  the  first  great  blow  which  the 
British  had  undertaken  was  but  the  signal  for  the  delivery 
of  the  second  offensive,  the  task  of  the  French. 

This  offensive  took  place  along  the  whole  valley  at  the 
Aisne  from  just  below  Missy,  which  is  the  very  point  of  the 
sharp  salient  the  new  line  makes  with  the  old,  to  the  imme- 
diate neighbourhood  of  the  town  of  Kheims.  It  is  a  front, 
as  the  crow  flies,  of  abvut  25  miles. 

This  article  has  to  be  prepared  for  press  upon  the  Tuesday, 
and  has  therefore  no  material  before  it,  unfortunately, 
beyond  the  first  despatcli  received  in  the  morning  of  that  day 
from  the  French  Higher  Command.  But  that  despatch  is 
sufficient  for  us  to  give  the  main  lines  of  what  took  place. 

Tiie  F'rench  offensive  is  designed  to  shake  the  southern 
pivot  of  the  sp-called  Ilindenbuig  line,  precisely  as  the  British 
effort  of  the  past  week  had  so  thoroughly  broken  the  northern 
pivot  of  the  same.  It  was  an  attack  round  the  corner  of  the 
salient  directed  forward  against  and  towards  the  region  of 
Laon,  by  the  name  of  which  town  tlie  southern  pivot  may 
be  conveniently  remembered,  as  the  northcrn'is  remembered 
by  the  name  of  the  town  of  Arras.  ' 


Tlie  region  may  be  sharply  divided  geograpliically    into 

rtwo   sections.     There   is   first   the   rather   abrupt    limestone 

•  plateau,  very  difficult  country,  considerably  wooded,    which 

''■rises  sharply  up  from  the  northern  bank  of  the  Aisne  river 

•(and    terminates    on    the    bold    promontory     of     Craonne. 

'This  is  the  western  half.     The  eastern  half  is  all    in    the 

i'perfectly  bare  open  undulating  plain  of  the  Champagne,  from 

*-ievrerv  part  of  which  one  sees  the  distant  mass  of  the  Riieims 

i^'Cathedi^l,  the  central  landmark  of  the  whole  region. 

'I /."frhe  point  marking  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  western 

•  asfection    is    Berry-au-Bac — that    is.    Berry    of    the    ferry — 

if  which    is     a    place    where   the    great    Roman    road    from 

Rlieims  to   Laon  crosses   the  Aisne.     East  of  this  point  the 

! -tiiie  .of  the  opponents  is  roughly  marked  by  the  canal    from 

the  Aisne  to  the  Marne,  which  connects  the  town  of    Rheims 

with  the  Aisne  and  has  upon  it  upon  either  side      points 

the  names  of  which  are  famous  in  the  fighting  of  the  last  two 

years — Sapigneul,  Loivre  and  in  particular  the  hill  and  fort  of 

Brimont,  which  has  been  the  platform  for  the  bombardment 

:  of  Rheims, and  its  cathedral  ever  since  1914. 

It  is  ^lear  that  the  best  opportunities  for  an  advance  were 
to.be, found  here,  in  the  open  country,  and  we  are  not  surprised 
to;  se?  indicated  in  the  Frencji  communique  a  more  consider- 
able belt  of  forward  movement  here  than  further  to  the  west. 
Exactly  how  far  the  operations  of  the  Monday  carried  the 
■   FrenC:h  line  the  despatch  is  too  laconic  to  inform  us.^We 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  ig,  1917 


^^(^^m^       /"     i**^'  -^^■"" 


«...  I 


r 


^^^LAOK 


^%v\# 


IV 


"*'% 


'  m 


i."%. 


^50ISS0NS,     ,,„  =      ,...„„ 


'/y  ., 


f     7     s     y     to   ''JftLcs 


know  that  it  came  to  a  point  south  of  but  not  as  far  as 
Juvincourt,  that  it  flowed  beyond  Loivre  to  a  yioint  clearly 
outflanking  the  bill  of  Brimont,  which  is  now  imperilled,  and 
that  the  first  German  line  from  Missy  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Graonne  was  carried,  while  further  east  the  second 
line  was  reached  and  carried  as  well.  We  also  know  that 
10,000  prisoners,  or  so,  were  taken  in  this  first  operation  and 
some  (so  far  xmcounted)  number  of  guns  and  of  material. 
More  than  that  we  are  not  told. 

The  preliminary  bombardment  had  lasted  for  the  whole 
week  and  was  particularly  intense  on  Sunday  and  tlie  night 
between  Sunday  and  Monday  morning.  We  further  know 
from  the  prisoners  taken  that  20  divisions  were  opposed 
first  and  last  to  the  l<"renc]i  upon  this  front.  What  we 
do  not  know  is  whether  the  exceedingly  important 
promontory  plateau  of  Craonne  itself  is  now  fully  in  French 
hands.  If  this  be  held  the  value  of  the  position  can  hardly 
be  exaggerated.  Craonne  is  the  best  obser\'ation  place  for 
10  miles  around  and  commands  all  the  plain  up  northwards 
towards  Lens,  just  as  the  \'imy  Kidge,  ten  days  march  away, 
commands  all  the  plain  of  Lens  and  Douai. 

It  is  unfortunately  necessary  to  wait  till  next  week  before 
we  can  give  any  full  summary  of  this  second  chapter  of  the 
combined  AlUed  offensive. 

Some  Misconceptions 

Let  me  conclude  by  remarks  rather  political  in  tone  but 
useful,  I  think,  at  this  juncture.  Nearly  all  of  our  miscon- 
ceptions upon  the  war  in  this  country  arose  in  the  earlier 
part  of  it  from  a  false  conception  of  the  task.  Nearly  all 
the  errors  of  general  opinion  to-day  arise  from  the  reaction 
against  that  false  conception.  It  is  as  foolish  to  take  the 
enemy's  deliberately  calculated  ])ropaganda  for  the  whole 
truth  as  it  would  be  for  hh  civilian  opinion— (to  suppose  an 
impossibility)  or  for  a  neutral  observer  to  take  the  Allied 
propaganda  for  the  whole  truth. 

The  enemy,  for  instance,  is  good  enough  to  tell  us  that 
he  had  prepared  a  certain  very  strong  "  Hindenburg  Line." 
He  scattered  the  term  broadcast  in  his  Press,  and  mucli  of  our 
Press  repeated  it  as  though  it  were  something  sacred.  Where 
is  that  line  ?  If  it  ever  existed  at  all  it  raai  from  Arras  to  St. 
Quentin.     It  is  breached  to-llay. 

The  enemy  further  told  himself  at  the  top  of  his  voice  (and 
all  the  world)  that  his  retirement  last  month  to  St.  Quentin 
was  undertaken  in  order  to  restore  a  war  of  movement.  We 
may  take  that  to  be  true,  for  it  would  have  been  foolish  tn 
have  misled  his  own  opinion  on  so  important  a  matter.  Bui 
so  far  from  the  plan  maturing  he  was  followed  up  at  top  s,]X'cd 
— far  more  quickly  than  he  conceived  possible.  He  has  been 
hustled  without  intermission  for  a  month,  back  and  back  along 
the  whole  of  his  new  attempt  at  a  defensive  line,  and    has 


T^HEFMS^ 


had  the  northern  end  of  it  just  broken  right  in,  so  that  he 
does  not  yet  know  Where  to  restore  it. 

The  enemy  tells  us  that  he  has  by  industrial  conscription 
and  the  enslaving  of  occupied  territory,  released  resources 
which  will  ultimately  amount  to  a  million  for  the  German 
Empire  alone  before  the  end  of  August.  We  knew  that  five 
months  ago,  and  it  was  printed  in  these  columns  five  months 
ago,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  the  Western  Alliance  has 
increased  those  resources  in  men  and  is  producing  material 
also  far  more  rapidly  than  he  is. 

The  enemy  told  us,  his  public,  and  all  neutrals,  in  repeated 
articles,  ofhcial  pronouncements  and  notices  that  his  retire 
ment  from  Noyon  had  destroyed  all  hopes  of  the  Allied 
offensive. 

We  can  judge  the  value  of  such   pronouncements.     I   have 
put  one  of  them  at  the  head  of  this  article  as  a  salutary  text 
for  the  wretched  political  intriguers  who  have  lived  for  months  ■ 
on  sensation  and  panic. 

The  whole  thing  judged  soberly  is  the  constant,  the  gradual 
and  the  increasing  pressure  of  a  superior  against  an  inferior. 
The  only  two  elements  of  doubt  arc  the  one  political,  that  is, 
the  civilian  power  to  stand  the  strain,  the  other,  what  is  al- 
ways an  element  of  doubt  in  any  increasing  strain,  to  wit,  the 
rate  of  acceleration.  I  say  all  this  of  course  only  of  the  military 
])osition,  which,  on  its  largest  lines  is  certainly  what  I  have 
described  ;  the  essential  naval  factor,  of  which  I  know  nothing, 
I  leave  to  others.  H.    Belloc 


Mrs.  Allen  Marker  has  a  genius  for  depicting  characters  out  of 
the  ordinary  and  making  her  readers  fall  in  love  with  them.  In 
her  latest  novel  ]an  and  Her  Job  (John  Murray,  5s.  net),  this 
gift  has  never  been  displayed  to  more  advantage".  The  story 
centres  on  two  delightful  babes,  Tony  and  Fay,  precocious  after 
the  manner  of  Anglo-Indian  infants.  They  will  rejoice  the 
majority  of  the  author'.s  admirers,  but  a  few  will  find  even  greater 
j)leasure  in  Jan  herself  and  in  Meg.  If  one  fancies  a  coiisinship 
with  Mr.  Wycherly  and  Miss  E.sperance  may  be  discerned,  it  is 
all  to  the  credit  of  the  new-comers.  One  is  inclined  to  think 
that  not  sufficient  appreciation  is  given  to  Mrs.  Allen  Harker's 
backgrounds.  These  are  etched  in  with  so  sure  a  touch  and  so 
.skilfully  that  if  the  truth  were  known  they  would  probably  be 
found  to  create  no  small  part  of  the  peculiar  charm  of  her  work. 
This  fact  was  brought  liome  to  the  reviewer  by  her  descrijition 
of  Bombay.  It  only  occupies  a  very  small  space  ;  the  details 
given  arc  few  and  simple,  but  so  vivid  arid  true  to  life  is  the 
writing  that  though  it  were  twenty  years  since  the  reviewer  saw 
that  no  mean  city,  it  revi\'ed  the  memory  with  such  force  that 
the  night  following  the  Orient  filled  his  dreams.  This,  we  hold 
is  a  rare  power  of  artistry  which  few  writers  possess.  The 
garden  at  Wren's  End  is  an  equallv  convincing  picture. 


The    Lost  Platoon. 

A  short  story  by  Centurion,  dealing  with  the  original 
British  E.xpeditionary  Force,  and  bearing  the  above 
title  will  be  printed   in  next  week's  "Land  ik  Water." 


April  19,  1917 


LAND    &    WATEP 


II 


iTrust  the  American   People 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


T! 


(HE  road  to  victory,"  "  the  guaranioe  of  victoiy, 
the  absolute  assurance  of  victory  is  to  be  found  in 
one  word,  '  ships,'  and  in  a  second  word  '  ships,' 

and  in  a  third  word  '  ships.'  "     So,  with  the  words 

of  the  Premier,  in  the  closing  stages  of  ttiewar  we  come-back 
to  the  doctrine  that  seemed  so  luminously  clear  to  some  at  the 
beginning.  Victory  will  be  a  matter  of  sea  power.  That  it 
would  be  sea  power  expressed  in  terms  of  sea  supplies  has  been 
equally  obvious  since  the  spring  of  last  year,  when  the  new 
German  submarines  were  due  for  completion  and  a  new  and 
more  extensive  attack  on  commerce  was  threatened.  This 
truth  has  constantly  befen'  kept  before  the  readers  of  Land 
&  VV-ViEK,  and  now  it  seems  to  be  recognised  by  all  and  has 
been  at  last  expressed  by  the  Prime  Minister  in  words  that 
can  liardly  be  improved. 

Mr.  Lloyd  George  is  \  right '  in  putting  the  projiosed 
American  contribution  of  thrce-tliousand-ton  merchant  ships 
first  amongst  the  services  our  new  Allies  can  render  us. 
But  President  Wilson  and  Mr.  Daniels  have  lost  no  time  in 
trying  to  find  out  what  otlier  form  of  help  will  be  most  wel- 
come. The  most  distinguished  naval  officer  of  his  generation, 
Rear  Adnural  Sims — holding  his  rank  in  virtue  of  selection 
by  the  Board  appointed  under  last  year's  Act  for  picking  out 
officers  from  the  captains'  list  for  special  promotion,  and 
President  also  of  the  Naval  War  College  at  Newport — was 
present  at  the  Pilgrims'  dinner  on  Thursday  evening  last, 
and  heard  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  words.  He  must  have  been 
despatched,  of  course,  before  the  American  declaration  of  war, 
but  in  full  expectation  that  there  would  be  such  a  declaration. 
Nothing  could  be  more  eloquent  of  the  desire  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  Washington,  not  only  to  help,  but  that  help  should 
take  the  most  useful  form. 

American  Unanimity 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  overture  will  be  received  in  the 
spirit  in  which  it  has  been  made.  This  may  imply  something 
in  the  reception  that  is  not  immediately  obvious.  In  dealing 
with  the  American  Government  as  an  Ally  in  war  we  must  not 
fall  into  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  we  can  carry  on  in  the 
European  fashion.  The  patience  of  a  good  many  of  us  has 
been  sorely  tried  by  America's  long  forbearance  with  our  com- 
mon enemy.  As  at  last  we  all  realise,  tliis  forbearance  was 
inevitable,  because  war  between  America  and  Germany  was 
impossible  until  the  people  of  America  were  practically  un- 
animous for  war.  Her  last  vote  of  Congress,  that  on  the 
^;i,40o,ooo,ooo  loan,  shows  that  the  people  are  unanimous. 
What  we  have  to  realise  now  is  that  it  is  the  American  people 
that  still,  in  great  measure,  must  govern  American  conduct  in 
the  war.  Our  Ally  is,  then,  more  the  nation  than  the  Govern- 
ment. And  if  we  arc  to  get  the  most  out  of  the  American 
help  we  must  make  confidants  of  the  American  people.  This 
will  involve  revising  some  of  our  rules  of  secrecy.  The  re- 
vision may  result  in  a  good  deal  of  useful  information  going  to 
the  enemy,  but  ultimately  that  information  going  to  our  new 
friend  will  be  much  more  useful  to  us.  In  short  we  must  tell 
tlie  American  people  not  what  it  may  be  the  most  diplomatic 
thing  to  say  that  we  want,  but  quite  frankly  what  we  really 
do  want.  Now  frankness  in  this  matter  is  not  going  to  be 
easy.  It  is  obvious  enough  that  we  need  American-built 
cargo  ships.  And  it  is  big  news  and  welcome  news  that  pre- 
parations are  in  hand  for  laying  dowTi  and  completing  a  vast 
number  of  three-thousand-tonners.  But  there  arc  many 
things  that  we  need  besides  merchant  ships.  We  need  par- 
ticularly to  protect  our  existing  merchant  tonnage  and  the 
tonnage  we  can  build  ourselves.  We  need  anti-submarine 
craft  in  very  great  quantities— every  destroyer  we  can  get— 
and  if  we  cannot  get  destroyers,  then  trawlers  or  their  equiva- 
lent. To  meet  the  ship  and  engine  building  these  represent, 
an  elfort  on  a  colossal  scale  is  called  for. 

America  is  out  to  make  sacrifices.  But  even  America 
cannot  do  everything  simultaneously.  The  need  of  the 
moment  is  to  begin  and  to  concentrate  on  the  most  necessary 
thing  first.  Now  what  is  the  most  necessary  thing  ?  On 
what  issue  does  victory  depend  ?  Tlie  Prime  Minister  lias 
supplied  tlie  answer.  The  supplv  of  new  ships  :  the  protection 
of  the  old.  Now  it  seeirts  to  me  "that  if  we  really  want  to  get 
that  supreme  effort  on  America's  part  whicli'is  necessary 
for  the  achievement  of  these  two  ends,  we  must  make  it  pei- 
fectlv  clear  to  all  concerned  why  they  are  of  supreme  import- 


ance. We  have,  in  other  words,  to  admit  that  without 
American  help  our  sea  supplies  are  iii  such  danger  as  to  jeoi)ar- 
dise  the  whole  campaign.  It  is  of  course  an  admission  that 
our  shipbuilding  resources,  for  nearly  three  years  mono- 
polised by  the  Admiralty,  have  not  been  put  to  the  best  use. 
It  is  an  admission  that  the  German  warning  of  December, 
1914.  was  not  taken  seriously.  It  is  an  admiss-on  that  White- 
hall did  not  learn  the  lessons  of  the  U  boat  campaign  of  Febru- 
ary to  September,  1915,  in  home  waters,  nor  of  the  autumn 
campaign  in  the  Mediterranean,  nor  of  the  preliminary 
campaign  of  1916— that  was  checked  not  by  our  counter- 
measures  but  by  the  American  ultimatum.  Now  it  is  not  par- 
ticularly pleasant  for  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  to  say 
that  the  chiefs  of  the  greatest  navy  in  the  world  have  simply 
failed  in  so  crucial  yet  elementary  a  duty  as  jirotecting  the 
sea-borne  commerce  of  a  sea-girt  people.  Mr.  Lloyd  George, 
one  supposes,  will  not  allow  departmental  sensitiveness  to 
block  the  way.  On  Thursday  he  was  frank  enough  in  saying 
we  had  gone  from  blunder  to  blunder  and  in  expressing  a  hope 
that  our  new  Allies  would  profit  by  our  unhappy  experience. 
But  in  this  matter  it  would  be  well  to  be  a  little  more  specific. 
We  do  not  only  want  our  new  Ally  to  profit  by  such  of  our  blun- 
ders as  he,  in  his  good  nature  may  detect.  We  want  our- 
selves to  profit  by  the  course  our  new  Ally  is  led  to  by  their 
contemplation. 

The  Admiralty 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Premier  is  aware  that  there  is 
the  less  reason  for  hesitation  in  admitting  the  Admiralty's 
failure,  because  it  has  for  some  months  been  extremely  patent 
to  all  thinking  people  in  this  country.  Since  the  change  of 
personnel  at  Whitehall  in  December  last,  writers  in  the 
press  have  quite  properly  abstained  from  criticism  in  this 
matter.  The  simplest  dictates  of  loyalty  prescribed  that 
the  new  men  should  be  given  a  free  hand,  and  be  left  un- 
hampered. But  it  should  be  said  at  once  that  the  silence 
of  the  critics  is  not  to  be  explained  by  any  confident  belief 
that  things  were  bound  to  go  right.  Let  us  briefly  suna  up 
the  circumstances  that  led  to  the  change  and  thoSe  which 
now  exist. 

The  collapse  of  the  naval  effort  at  the  Dardanelles  put 
an  end  to  the  Churchill-Fisher  regime — a  system  of  admini- 
stration which  may  be  said  to  have  combined  the  maximum 
of  civUian  interference  with  the  minimum  of  expert  naval 
co-operation.  The  vices  of  the  previous  ten  years  brought 
their  logical  and  inevitable  nemesis.  The  Balfour- Jackson 
regime  succeeded,  and  lasted  for  nineteen  months.  Civilian 
interference  with  naval  plans  disappeared,  but  with  it  both 
the  stimulus  and  direction  came  from  a  fiovernment  with  a 
strategy  of  its  own.  The  supreme  naval  command  fell  out 
of  contact  with  the  supreme  military  command,  and  there 
followed  an  interval  unkindly  dubbed  "  the  period  of  the 
neutrality  of  the  navy."  It  was' a  state  of  affairs  that  had 
only  one  merit.  The  Commanders-in-Chief  at  sea  were 
left  to  themselves,  the  naval  men  at  Whitehall  could  do  as 
they  liked.  Its  faults  were,  first,  that  the  naval  men  were 
left  too  much  to  themselve.s — so  that  the  whole  naval  force 
was  to  a  great  extent  out  of  touch  with  the  burning  require- 
ments of  the  war,  and  next,  that  each  department  worked 
in  an  isolation  of  its  own,  so  that  in  the  absence  of  a  staff 
system,  the  individual  directors  can-icd  on  unillumined  by 
the  experience  that  the  Service  was  gaining. 

The  misfortune  'is  that  a  change  of  ])ersons  was  made 
without  a  change  of  system.  We  substituted  Sir  Edward 
Carson  for  Mr.  Balfour,  and  Sir  John  Jellicoe  for  Sir  Henry 
Jackson,  but  we  are  no  nearer  running  the  navy  on  scientific 
lines.  The  function  of  the  Admiralty  is  to  j)roduce  and 
command  a  purely  military  force,  the  fleet.  The  production 
and  administration  of  this  force  constitute, '  no  doubt,  a 
colossal  task,  but  nine-tenths  of  it  is  purely  civilian  in  its 
charactci.  It  could  be  done  just  as  well — -and  probably 
better — ^l>y  men  trained  in  industry  and  business  as  by  men 
trained  on  the  cpiarter  deck,  so  long,  of  course,  as  everything 
was  regulated  hy  the  military  character  of  the  instrument 
to  be  produced  and  maintained.  This  side  of  the  Admiralty's 
work  then,  though  enormous,  calls  for  no  talent  or  genius 
which  a  community  like  ourselves  has  ever  lacked.  The 
viilUary  use  of  the  completed  force  is,  however,  quite  a 
different  matter,  and  calls  for  one  of  two  things.    There 


/I2 


LAND'   &    WATER 


April  19,  1917 


must  either  be  an  indixidual  of  such  genius  as  to  make  no 
errors,  or  there  must  be  a  Board  or  a  Staff  so  closely  in  touch 
with  the  best  instructed  naval  thought,  as,  at  any  rate,  to 
rertect  the  soundest  judgment  that  is  obtainable. 

I  believe  the  real  reason  why  the  Admiralty  has  broken 
down  in  this  war  is,  first,  that  we  liavc  jumbled  all  the 
functions,  civilian  and  militaiy,  together,  and  shoVed  them 
on  to  a  single  Board  and,  next,  that  we  have  taken  no  steps 
to  ensure  that  a  single  ni;'niber  of  the  Board  shall  be  guided 
by  the  impersonal  and  concerted  opinion  of  the  naval  service. 
It  is  less,  therefore,  the  inadequacy  of  the  men  than  the 
impossibility  of  their  task  that  has  brought  failure  upon  us. 
We  have  changed  the  pjrsonnel  of  the  Admiralty  more  than 
once,  we  have  not  yet  touched  the  system.  In  the  result  wc 
may  have  a  continuation  of  failure  and  the  demand  may 
aris'j  for  further  changes  of  personnel  on  the  part  of  the  public, 
because  the  public  duL's  not  realise  that  Ixid  methods  and 
wrong  organisiition  have  brought  failure  on  men  who  never 
bad  a  chance  of  success.  Arthur  Pollen. 

]l'c  append  some  qnulalions  from  Ihc  articles  contributed, 
by  Mr.  I'ollcn  to  L.\xi)  &  W.\ti;k  throughout  the  past  year, 
which  indiealf  titat  he  foresaw  accurately  the  danger  of 
rcnexvcd  submarine  activity,  and  urged  upon  the  authorities 
the  overwhelming  importance  of  acceJerating  the  construction 
of  merchant  shipping. 

On  February  24th,  lyiO,  Mr.  Pollen  wrote  : 

"  Is  the  new  GeiTnan  submarine  campaign  inevitable  ? 
It  seefningly  is.  The  first  campaign  has  failed  to  lift  the 
blockade-  its  professed  object.  Our  losses  in  merchant 
shipping  have  been  heavy.  Between  500  and  600  out  of 
8, 000  in  nineteen  months  of  war.  But  our  shortage  of  ton- 
nage to-day  does  not  arise  primarily  from  the  toll  which  the 
enemy  has  taken.  The  requirements  of  the  fleet,  the 
still  greater  requirements  of  our  military  expeditions 
over  sea,  Iravc  taxed  the  merchant  navy  four  or  five  times 
more  greatly   than   the  enemy. 

On  ^farch  c>th,  iQif'  : 

"  When  every  European  nation  is  mobilising  at  the  present 
time  ten  per  cent,  of  its  population  to  fight,  and  bringing 
all  these  into  the  field  within  two  years  instead  of  within 
twenty,  the  intensity  with  whicli  economic  forces  affect  the 
situation  must  grow  with  a  corrcsjionding  cojicentration. 
The  Germans,  therefore,  are  gauging  the  situation  quite 
rorrectlv  in  supposing  that  if  they  can  cut  off  the  overseas 
supplies  of  France,  England  and  Russia  they  will  be  doing 


more  towards  determining  the  war  in  their  favour  than 
by  any  success  that  the  most  sanguine  Him  can  think 
possible  on  land.  The  destruction  of  ships,  if  carried 
far  enough,  nmst  be  vital,  because  it  is  on  ships  that  this 
war  is  primarily  based.  Notwithstanding  the  comparative 
failure  of  the  lirst  submarine  campaign,  and  even  if  its 
sequel  is  no  more  successful,  the  event  may  still  prove  that 
the  supreme  direction  has  been  gravely  at  fault  in  ignoring 
the  danger  from  this  quarter.  There  has  been  a  neglect 
to  continue  the  construction  of  merchant  shipping,  which  in 
icar  is  a  -Atal  national  necessity.  Secondly  there  has  been 
no  adequate  effort  to  see  that  such  shipping,  as  is  available 
is  employed  solely  for  those  supplies  that  are  necessary 
for  the  sustenance  of  the  people  and  llie  successful  carrying 
on  of  the  war."   , 

On  April  27tli,  1916  : 

•  If  Germany  refuses  to  yield  to  America,  the  first  result 
must  be  that  the  attack  on  liners  will  become  as  ruthless 
as  has  been  tin-  attack  on  freighters.  This  no  doubt  is  a 
situation  which  the  Admiralty  has  anticipated,  aiid  it  is 
difiRcult  to  suppo.se  that  there  Is  any  form  of  defensive 
that  is  not  being  pushed  to  develoi)ment  at  the  maxinunn 
pressure.  But  other  departments  of  Governhient  must 
realise  that  this  new  situation,  if  it  should  arise,  will  re- 
quire special  measures.  The  building  of  new  merchant 
shipping  must  be  made  to  rank  as  equal  rn  national  im- 
portance -with  the  making  of  munitions  or  the  supply  of  the 
Royal  Navy" 

And  on  May  4th  : 

"  Nor  would  it  be  more  than  a  passing  embarrassment,  if 
it  were  not  for  a  change  in  naval  conditions,  that  few,  if 
any,  realised  before  the  war  broke  out.  In  previous  wars 
the  protection  of  commerce  imposed  extraordmary  burdens 
upon  the  fighting  navy.  To-day  it  is  the  fighting  navy 
that  has  imposed  extraordinary  burdens  upon  commerce. 
It  is  the  British  merchant  fleet  that  has  been  comix-lled 
to  find  transports  for  our  armies,  and  an  almost  endless 
tale  of  supply  ships,  both  for  the  navy  itself  and  for  the 
maintenance  of  its  forces  employed  in  so  many  places 
o\crscas.  Compared  with  the  tonnage  that  naval  and 
military  requirements  have  withdrawn  from  civil  uses, 
fhe  tonnage  lost  by  enemy  action  is  almost  trivial,  and  it  is 
this  fact  which  lends  point  to  what  I  urged  last  week— 
namely,  that,  the  building  vf  merchant  ships  must  be  put  on 
the  same  basis  as  naval  shipbuilding  vr  the  making  of 
munitions." 


Preparation  and  the  French  Command 


By  Charles  Dawbarn 


PREPARATION  is  not  only  the  soul  of  war,  it  is  its 
secret  of  success.  To  it  is  clue  the  pre-eminence  of  the 
French  staff  as  also  the  recent  achievements  of  the 
I'Vench  army.  It  is  the  keynote  to  the  careers  of 
leading  French  Officers.  With  scarcely  any  exception,  the 
men  who  are  at  the  top  to-day,  have  carefully  and  deliberately 
trained  themselves  for  their  posts.  The  opportunity  only  was 
lacking  to  display  their,  qualities.  General  Nivelle,  the 
present  Commander-in-Chief,  has  prepared  more  assiduously 
perhap.-i  than  any  of  his  contemporaries.  As  his  biographers 
have  told  us,  he  was  a  Lieutennnt-Colonel  at  the  outbreak  of 
war,  hving  in  the  penumbra  of  his  daily  service.  'If,  some 
expected  him  to  emerge  from  routine  and  do  brilliant  things 
they  were  the  exception — discerning  Chiefs  who  had  detected 
the  latent  genius  in  the  man.  Pctain,  his  superior  y&stprday 
and  his  subordinate  to-day,  enjoyed  on  the  other  hand, 
great  prestige  in  military  circles.  His  lectures  in  tJie;  War 
Schools    wei"(;    renowned. 

Both  Nivelle  and  Petain  are  examples  of  the  intellectual 
training  which  goes  to  the  formation  of  the  army  (Mite.  •  Both 
owe  to  the  Pijlyteclmique,  that  famous  school,  their  training 
in  mathematics  whereby  they  have  won  distinctiod  in  the 
intricate  arts  of  war.  There  is  a  common  saying  in'lTance 
"  No  fool  like  a  Poiytcchnician."  It  represents  the  oj^inion 
of  the  man-in-thc-cafe,  that  theory  has  run  mad  and  rtjduced 
the  students  to  impractical  dreamers.  The  school  seeras  in- 
deed cither  to  turn  out  men  of  prodigious  capacity  and  clever- 
ness or  inventors  on  pajK-r  who  construct  aeroplanes  whicii 
will  not  fly  and  submaiines  which  will  not  plunge. 

Joffrc  and  his  princijwl  coadjutors  arc  Polytcchniciiaris  ; 
indeed  from  this  ceiitre  have  come  the  best  otticers.  The 
training  they  receive  fits  them  for  any  scientific  career. 
Usually  they  enter  the  Army  or  become  civil  engineers  according 
to  their  grade  on  leaving  school.  Some  who  disdain  science 
aud  think  tiiat  an  officer  is  formed  on  the  battlefield  quote 


Najx)lcon  in  support  of  empirical  methods.  Many  of  the 
great  Corsican's  generals  rose  from  the  ranks,  it  is  true  ;  but 
he  took  them  where  he  could  find  them,  and  it  was  natural 
tiiat  in  those  strenuous  times  they  should  be  revealed  by  the 
lurid  glare  and  smoke  of  battle  rather  than  by  the  pale  gleams 
of  the  student's  lamp.  None  the  less,  he  realized  the  im- 
portance of  intellectual  training  for  the  officer,  and  said  that 
the  best  leaders  came  from  tlie  schools. 

Part  of  the  -new  Commander-in-Chief's  capacity  is  derived 
from  his  command  of  all  arms.  He  is  by  training  and  vo- 
cation an  artilleryman,  but  he  knows  how  to  handle  cavalry 
and  has  learned  the  business'of  infantry  as  well.  His  all-round 
competence  is  a  great  help  to  him,  but  he  is  primarily  the 
gunner.  That  fact,  more  than  any  other,  has  contributed 
to  his  advancement,  unequalled  for  rapidity  since  the  days 
of  the  Convention.  The  splendid  victories  of  Verdun  were 
due  to  his  mastery  of  the  guns.  The  daily  chronicles  have 
already  told  us  of  his  famous  charge  with  artillery  at  the  battle 
of  the  Ourcq.  Since  then,  he  has  proved  that  if  the  infantry 
still  remains,  as  Napoleon  said,  "  the  queen  of  battles," 
the  guns,  are  the  dominating  factor. 

Verdun  proved  particularly  the  success  of  a  new  system 
whereby  the  infantry  advances  under  the  canopy  of  screaming 
shells  until  it  falls  unexpectedly  ujion  the  Germans.  The 
adjustment  is  so  j^erfect  that  the  infantry  masses  move  pro- 
gressively from  the  first  to  the  second  and  third  trenches 
always  under  the  protection  of  the  barrage  fire,  which  lift? 
at  cajch  stage  io  tlie  tremendous  journey.  The  new  Chief  of 
the  FVcnch  armies  believes  in  the  efficiency  of  gun-fire  to 
such  an  extent  that  he  is  sure  not  only  of  effecting  a  breach 
ill  the  opposing  wall,  but  of  positively  throwing  it  down  in  its 
length  and  breadth  and  then  passing  over  it  his  triumphant 
infantry.     Such  certainty  is  the  substance  of  mathematics. 

Mathematics  lay  at  tlie  base  of  Joffrc's  calculations  at  the 
Marne  and  later  enabled  him  to   hold  the   enemy  until  the 


April  19,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


i^ 


time  wa^;  ripe  to  exchange  the  nibbUnR  process  for  one  of 
tooth  and  nail.  A  perfect  liaison  between  Kun«,  and  in- 
fantry is  the  condition  precedent   to  a   faithful  offensive. 

Go-operation  of  Guns  and  Infantry. 

Preparation  is  revealed  in  a  dozen  different  directions. 
To  these  indispensable  preliminaries  must  be  placed  years  of 
study  devoted  by  each  predestined  leader  of  French  arms. 
Joffre's  relief  expedition  to  the  once  mysterious  and  always 
thrilling  Timbuctoo  need  not  be  retold.  It  furnished  early 
proof  of  his  courage,  order  and  method  and  organi.smg  ability. 
The  Marshal  also  served  in  Indo-China  and  in  Mada- 
gascar where  he  was  under  (lallieni,  one  of  the  masters  of 
French  Colonial  science,  and  himself  a  standing  example  of 
long  and  patient  preparation. 

The  former  War  Minister  was  the  most  brilliant  of  French 
pioneers  and  his  colonial  experience  outstands  in  range  and 
variety  that  of  any  other  commander.  In  Central  Africa, 
in  Tonking.  in  Madagascar,  jvhere  he  was  (Governor-General, 
he  displayed  a  fine  temper  of  mind,  an  enlightened  system 
as  well  as  firmness  and  decision.  He  built  up  a  big  Colonial 
Empire,  fighting  one  day  that  he  might  on  the  morrow  construct 
roads  and  bridges,  markets,  schools  and  technical  institutes. 

General  Lyautey  is  proud  to  call  himself  a  pupil  of  Gallieni. 
He  has  been  as  active  and  as  successful  in  Morocco  as 
Gallieni  in  Madagascar.  He  has  gone  a  similar  way  to  work; 
first  breaking  his  adversaries  with  the  sword,  then  attaching 
them  to  him  with  the  silken  cords  of  civilisation.  The  ad- 
vantage of  his  rule  was  so  apparent  ;  order  and  profit  and 
pacification  arose  so  visibly  from  his  dispositions,  that  none 
could  gainsay  them,[least  of  all  the  one-time  turbulent  chieis, 
and  presently  they  "became  his  most  devoted  adminislres. 

Lyautey  has  been  as  successful  in  administration  as  in 
military  operations.  So  well  is  the  French  rule  established 
in  Morocco  that  insurrection  has  practically  ceased  to  exist 
and,  saving  quite  local  affairs,  the  country  has  been  tranquil 
since  the  war  broke  out,  though  German  intrigue  raised  its 
head,  and  the  Governor-General  was  solemnly  advised  to 
withdraw  his  forces  from  the  interior  and  estabhsh  himself 
in  a  coast  town,  thus  abandoning  the  work  to  which  he  has 
given  some  of  the  best  years  of  his  fife  and  the  mature  result 
of  his  experience  and  natural  tact.  So  far  from  following  this 
covmsel,  Lyautey  raised  a  larger  contingent  than  was  offici- 
ally considered  possible,  and  sent  it  to  France,  whilst  the 
colony  was  garrisoned  with  Territorials  and  black  troops. 

General  Gouraud  is  a  man  of  much  the  same  temperament, 
if  wanting,  perhaps,  the  high  culture  of  Gallieni  and  Lyautey, 
who  arc  especially  intellectual  soldiers.  Galheni  believed  in 
going  direct  to  his  authorities,  were  they  Enghsh,  German  or 
Italian,  and  he  was  equally  at  home  in  all  -three  languages. 
General  Lyautey  is  poet  as  well  as  philosopher,  and  many 
a  charming  verse  he  has  turned  in  his  tent  under  starry  skies. 
Gouraud's  extraordinary  prestige  comes  from  Jiis  lion-like 
bravery  and  indifference  to  danger.  He  captured  Samory 
twenty  years  ago.  The  notorious  African  chieftain  stood 
at  bay  in  a  primaeval  forest,  whither  he  had  been  hunted  by 
converging  columns,  and  Gouraud,  a  young  captain  then, 
brought  him  to  his  knees.  In  1912.  he  drove. the  rebels  from 
Fez  with  a  brilliantly  led  column.  Crossing  to  France  in 
the  great  war,  as  soon  as  the  Moorish  insurgents  had  been  dealt 
with,  he  won,  by  force  of  arms,  the  proud  soubriquet  of  "  The 
Lion  of  the  Argonne."  At  the  head  of  the  French  army  in 
Gallipoli  he  lost  his  arm,  the  result  of  an  explosion  from  a 
Turkish  shell  whilst  watching  the  transfer  of  wounded  soldiers 
to  a  hospital  ship.  His  knowledge  and  science  of  fighting 
come  from  contact  with  the  natives.  It  is  against  dusky 
warriors  that  he  has  learned  that  dash  in  the  offensive  that 
is  so  typically  French  and  has  gained  for  him  a  reputation  for 
impulsive  bravery. 

Mangin  is  another  who  breathes  the  very  spirit  of  traditional 
France.  His  name  is  for  ever  associated  with  the  battles 
of  October  24t!i  and  December  15th  fought  before  Verdun. 
"  No  one  can  any  longer  doubt  that  it  is  possible  to  conquer 
the  enemy  who  is  superior  in  numbers  and  disposes  of  for- 
midable artillery,  by  means  of  careful  preparation,  good 
artillery,  a  sxiitable  disposition  of  the  ground  .  •  .  ." 
This  is  one  of  the  characteristic  phrases  of  a  striking  Order 
of  the  Day  which  the  victorious  general  addressed  to  tiis  troops. 
It  shows  his  own  appreciation  of  preparation,  the  word  in 
this  sense,  of  course,  having  a  definite  military  meaning. 
He  incarnates,  just  as  Nivelle  does,  the  spirit  of  the  Danton 
cry  :  "  De  I'atidacc,  encore  de  I'audace,  toujniirs  de  I'audace." 
It  is  said  that  he  was  convinced  that  he  could  have  broken 
through  much  earlier  in  the  year,  if  he  had  been  allowed 
a  free  hand.  -To-day  he  has  "  made  good."  Like  so  many 
others,  he  is  a  colonial  fighter  and  learned  practirally  warfare 
in  the  wilds  of  Africa.  To  him  is  largely  due  the  employment 
of  the  Senegalese  and  other  kindred  races  in  the  present 
war,  and  he  wrote  and  preadied  in  popular  and  technical 


magazines,  years  before  the  present  crisis,  that  France  had 
an  inexhaustible  reservoir  of  men  in  her  tropical  African 
<  possessions,  lender  his  auspices  the  first  contingent  of  black 
troops  appeared  at  the  annual  review  at  Longchamps  and 
exf)erts  were  impressed  with  their  soldier-like  qualities. 

With  the  generosity  that  belongs  to  him,  Ni\'elle,  pre- 
sented Mangin,  recently,  to  President  Poincare  in  these 
words  :  "  This,  M.  le  President,  is  the  General  who  has  won 
eleven  victories  in  a  fortnight." 

One  need  hardly  say  tliat  General  Marchand,  who  has 
been  brilliantly  successful  on  the  Western  front,  owes  his 
practice  and  experience  to  colonial  warfare.  He  is  a  splendid 
type  of  a  soldier  pioneer,  and  his  name  is  for  ever  associated 
with  the  little  expedition  to  Fashoda,  a  name  that  lias  been 
now  converted  into  Kodok,-  in  satisfaction  of  the  liappy 
change  in  international  feeling.  The  colonial  fighter  was 
amusingly  portrayed  as  a  dare-devil,  rash  and  utterly  un- 
scientific. That  was  an  opinion  formed  of  him  by  a  former 
generation  mindful  of  the  old  dashing  tactics  which  led  to  the 
conquest  of  Algeria.  But  the  colonial  fighter,  none  the  less, 
is  the  germ-plasm  of  the  present  Army  Chief,  who  organises 
and  carries  to  success  that  brilliant  sort  of  offensive  which  is 
peculiarly  adapted  to  the  French  temperament. 

Method  in  Attack 

There  is,  of  course,  a  great  difference  between  the  im- 
pulsive kind  of  courage  and  that  reasoned  audacity  which  is 
the  child  of  confidence  in  calculation.  An  Eastern  story  tells 
of  two  travellers  who  went  out  to  seek  Fortune.  They  des- 
cried the  capricious  goddess  on  the  other  side  of  the  swamp, 
amidst  pleasant  fiekls  and  fores.t  glades.  The  thoughtless 
of  the  two  plunged  in  to  take  the  shortest  course.  Speedily  he 
liecame  engulfed,  and  was  lost  for  ever.  The  remaining 
traveller  threw  branches  upon  the  treacherous  bog  and,  passing 
over  rapidly,  seized  the  goddess  before  she  could  disappear. 
This  illustrates  the  difference  between  the  prudent  courage 
of  a  Nivelle  and  the  ill-considered  actions  of  a  swashbuckler. 
In  one  case  a  man  looks  for  a  miracle  to  save  him  ;  in  the  other, 
he  depends  upon  his  own  bold  yet  prudent  preparation.  "  There 
is  safety  in  valour,"  said  Emerson  ;  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
school  of  the  present  Commander-in-Chief. 

To  know  how  to  attack  demands  the  highest  skill  and 
that  mathematical  equipment  with  which  the  best  officers 
in  France  are  liberally  endowed.  In  nearly  every  case  the 
men  who  have  emerged  from  war  unscathed  and  glorified  by 
the  fire,  are  men  of  great  intellectual  calibre.'  Foch,  who  so 
long  neighboured  us  in  the  north,  and  de  Castlenau,  Joffre's 
Chief  of  Staff,  who  accompanied  Lord  Milner  to  Russia,  are 
good  examples  of  the  intellectual  soldier.  Foch  has  written 
a  remarkable  treatise  on  tactics,  and  de  Castlenau  by  1  is 
large  experience  of  arms  and  diplomacy,  has  had  just  the 
training  for  a  wide  comprehension  of  European  problems, 
such  as  this  war  has  raised.  And  he  himself  is  a  Polytech- 
nician,  as  are  several  of  his  sons  serving  France  at  home 
and  abroad.  Maunoury,  who  won  so  brilliantly  on  the 
Ourcq,  with  the  improvised  army  of  Paris,  in  which,  -by 
the  way,  Nivelle  commanded  a  regiment  of  artillery  when 
he  advanced  the  guns  in  front  of  the  infantry,  took  a  great 
part  in  the  controversies  on  artillery  after  1870,  when  Fraripe 
began  to  set  her  house  in  order. 

Even  when  her  soldiers  gain  experience  abroad,  they  keep 
in  touch  with  the  mother  country  by  constantly  attending 
grand  manoeuveres.  In  this  way  they  are  made  aware  of 
the  latest  developments  in  military  science.  War  has  now 
become  so  complicated  that  those  who  excel  in  it  must  have 
the  widest  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  expert  education. 
Howds'  a  man  to  read  intelligently  the  maps  unless  he  knows 
that'Dn  a  certain  occasion,  in  similar  circumstances.  Napoleon, 
or  one  of  the  great  commanders  of  the  past,  extricated  himself 
from!  a 'formidable  pass  and  snatched  a  startling  victory  ? 
The  pait  is  always  offering  solutions  to  the  present. 


Science  and  the  Nalion  (Cambridge  University  Press,  5s.),  i' 
onp  qi  the  most  fascinating  books  the  war  has  called  forth.  1* 
is  a  (fpl|e,ction  of  essays  by  distinguished  Cambridge  graduate^ 
revealing  the  help  which  Science  lias  been  able  to  render  the 
nation  since  August  1914  in  the  fields  of  chemistr}-,  physical 
research,'  metallurgy,  botany,  agriculture,  forestry,  medicine, 
disea^yj  etc.  'Moreover,  tliese  essays  define  the  vast  tracts  of 
nescience  on  the  margin  of  which  science  stands  to-day.  Whether 
it  bethe  marriage  of  wheats,  or  the  functions,  of  microbes  or  of 
human  glands,  there  is  an  infinite  amount  of  work  remaining 
to  he  done  in  order  that  the  people  of  the  earth  may  enjoy  to  a 
far  higher  degree  than  heretofore  tliat  lilierty  for  which  the 
democracies  are  waging  a  self-sacrificing  war.  This  light-blue 
volume  contains  more  romances  than  a  dozen  works  of  current 
fiction.  It  is  extraordinary  how  simply  and  straightforwardly 
a  Modem  Professor  is  able  to  put  forth  his  exceptional  know- 
ledge. The  majority  of  the  essays  are  as  a  matter  of  fact  quite 
Uehtreading,  for  air  their  great  scholarship. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 

In  the  Salient 

By  An  Officer 


April  19,      391; 


THROUGH  a  dreamy,  hot  Sunday  afternoon  in  sum- 
mer, officers  and  men  laZed  among  the  leafy  sur- 
roundings of  a  chateau  about  a  couple  of  miles  behind 
the  front  Hnc.  Some  slept,  some  bathed  in  the 
artificial  lake  ;  and  some  read  Ixioks  or  wrote  letters,  half 
lying,  half-sitting  in  the  shade  of  the  trees.  It  was  a  modern 
chateau  sucli  as  the  bourgeois  love,  tiirreted.  jerry-built, 
and  doll's-housc-likc,  but  luxurious  withal  in  its  greenery 
ahd  silence. 

Sa\'e  for  the  constant  buzzing  of  aeroplanes  overhead, 
few  soimds  were  borne  on  the  light  westerly  breeze  which  blew 
towards  the  trenches.  But  all  afternoon  reports  kept  coming 
in  from  the  front  line  ;  the  trenches  were  being  pounded  to  no- 
lliing.  nobody  finite  krnnv  what  to  expect.  Last  night  there 
had  been  a  raid  and  now  the  Bosches  were  retaliating.  To- 
night there  was  to  be  a  relief.  None  looked  forward  to  it,  and 
the  ceaseless  "  roo-coo-roo-coo-coo  "  of  woodpigeons  in  their 
leafy  fastnesses  made  one  long  for  the  infinite  peace  of  an 
English  summer. 

Then  evening  came,  aiid  an  hour  beforq  dusk  the  men 
paraded  for  the  trenches  in  the  grass-grown  farmyard.  By 
small  parties,  a  platoon  at  a  time,  they  marched  away,  some  to 
follow  cross  country  tracks  towards  the  canal,  others  going  by 
the  direct  road.  It  was  a  calm  and  lovely  aftermath,  the  sun 
setting  in  a  golden  haze,  blue  mists  creeping  up  all  around  ; 
the  heat  of  the  day  was  succeeded  by  a  delightful  freshness. 
Nevertheless  clouds  of  dust  rose  from  the  road  for,  as  dusk 
fell,  the  great  evening  tide  of  traffic  set  towards  the  trenches. 
Ration  parties,  reheving  parties,  fatigue  parties  allmo\'ingin 
file  ;  motor-lorries,  ambulances,  motor-cyclists,  officers  on 
horseback,  orderlies  on  bicycles,  quarter-masters  and  quarter- 
master-sergeants driving  mess-carts — all  these  formed  part 
of  a  steady  stream  that  flowed  through  the  first  battered 
village.  At  the  cross-roads  .  the  main  stream  ceased,  the 
reliefs  turned  to  the  left  heading  straight  for  the  Canal  bank, 
and  once  more  you  could  hear  the  pit-a-patter,  pit-a-patter  of 
trench  boots.  "  Queer  Chinese  figures  the  men  looked  in  their 
round  "  tin  hats  "  heavy-laden  with  kit  as  they  were,  the 
rifle  slung  on  the  shoulder. 

The  Hour  of  Relief 

Now  the  nervous  work  began,  for  often  at  this,  the  hour 
of  the  relief,  the  road  would  be  sprayed  with  shrapnel. 
Everybody  much  preferred  to  travel  by  the  grass  tracks  had 
there  been  room  for  all.  However,  the  twilight  is  still  and 
breathless,  not  a  sound  but  the  distant  rattle  of  traffic  and 
the  pit-a-patter  of  the  men's  feet  on  the  road.  An  occasional 
star-light  rising  and  falling  in  the  direction  of  the  trenches, 
a  low  rumble  far  to  the  southward,  and  a  passing  flicker  on 
the  horizon  which  might  be  the  reflection  of  German  guns 
firing  beyond  the  ridge  or  merely  the  playing  of  summer' 
lightning,  are  almost  the  only  signs  of  war.  Presently,  you 
pass  the  stark  shell  of  a  ruined  hoase,  guardian  of  a  rusty 
railway-line,  overgrown  with  vegetation,  and  then  come  to 
tlie  engineer's  dump  where  all  traffic  ceases.  A  congestion 
of  troojjs  in  single  file  is  waiting  to  cross  the  bridges.  One 
seems  to  hesitate  liere  on  the  threshold  of  Fate. 

A  Bosche  machine-gun  is  train(*d  on  the  wooden  bridge  which 
30  or  40  yards  ahead  spans  the  Canal.  It  may  sweep  round  at 
any  moment,  but  so  accustomed  are  the  men  to  travelling  this 
way  that  they  do  not  increase  their  pace  by  a  hair's  breadth. 
Kather  are  they  inclined  to  pause  in  wonderment  at  that  most 
weird  and  wonderful  of  pictures  :  the  Canal  by  night. 

Does  it  remind  you  most  of  a  quiet  backwater  in  Venice 
or  of  a  scene  from  the  Earl's  court  Exhibition,  or  of  the 
imagined  Styx  where  Charon  ever  ferries  people  from  shore 
to  shore ;  this  old  waterway  with  its  countless  httle  lights 
blinking  against  high  mysterious  banks  and  its  sullen 
stagnant  lapping  water  which  reflects  the  lights,  the  stars, 
ancT  sailing  above,  the  cold  moon.  It  looks  seductive,  exotic, 
}X)pulous,  compared  to  the  bleak,  perilous  world  outside. 
The  high  banks  are  honej'-combed  with  dug-outs.  All 
around  is ,  the  busy  human  hum,  shuffling,  scuffling, 
mysterious. 

The  Canal  is  the  clear-cut  border-line  between  humanity 
and  the  shadowy  nether-world  of  Ypres.  Now  the  clack- 
clack-clack  of  the  machine-guns  is  heard,  a  stray  bullet  or 
two  whistles  high  over  the  road,  and  the  star-lights  seem 
much  closer.  An  occasional  rifle  shot  punctures  intervening 
silences.  It  is  night,  and  with  night  in  the  Salient  there 
comes  a  sense  of  loneliness  and  neighbouring  death. 

All  scenes  close  behind  the  trenches  are  much  the  same, 
and  this  one  is  as  others — void,  barren,  desolate.  It  is  possible 
to  travel  all  the  way  to  the  front  hne  by    communication- 


trench,  but  per\'ersely  the  men  prefer  to  walk  as  far  as  they 
are  allowed  to  along  the  road.  Well,  the  road  is  quicker  even 
if  a  stray  bullet  or  two  docs  come  that  way.  But  beyond 
trench-headquarters,  a  jumbled  collection  of  more  or  less 
spacious  dug-outs,  it  would  be  sheer  madness  to  walk  on  the 
top  of  the  ground.  Machine-guns  are  constantly  playing  across 
it,  and  at  times  the  bullets  flip  through  tlve  air  hkea  flight  of 
birds.  A  number  of  troops  are  congregated  here,  but  as  long 
as  they  keep  down  they  are  fairly  safe.  Here,  too,  is  the  field 
dressing  station,  and  a  row  of  canvas-shrouded-  figures 
lying  on  stretchers  and  looking  exactly  like  mummies,  be- 
speaks the  daily  harvest  of  tlie  trenches.  They  are  waiting 
to  be  taken  down  to  the  Canal  bank — and  then  carried  away 
to  the  ce'meterics. 

Awful  Work 

It  is  awful  work  pushing  and  shoving  along  the  communica- 
tion trench  towards  the  front  line,  since  with  full  bulk  of 
equipment  there  is  barely  room  for  two  to  pass  at  a  time. 
Hence  long  halts  when  everybody  shouts,  "  Make  way ! 
Make  way  !  "  The  men  coming  down  from  tlie  trenches  look 
jaded  and  worn-out.  They  have  had  a  nerve-racking  day 
and  night,  heavy    shelling    and   many   casualties.      "  It  is 

bloody  Hell  up  there,"  they  mutter  ; ""  the trenches 

are  blown  to  bits."  So  they  ai-e,  and  far  more  than  the 
greatest  pessimist  amongst  us  di-eamed. 

The  first  sign  of  it  is  when  one  comes  to  an  immense  hole 
right  on  the  line  of  the  communication  trench  itself,  utterly 
blotting  it  out.  Tliis  hole  would  easily  contain  the  founda- 
tions of  a  fair-sized  cottage,  and  one  has  to  work  round  and 
beyond  it  to  discover  where  the  trench  begins  again.  Some- 
body grunts  "  Minnie-wafer "  and  somebody  else  says, 
"  No,  it's  a  big  trench-mortar."  Then  one  remembers  that 
this  sector  has  a  sir4i>ter  reputation  for  the  most  terrible 
engines  of  war ;  not  ithe  trench-mortar,  which  is  to  be  expected, 
but  the  minenwerfer,  that  super-mortar  which  is  one  of  the 
most  frightful  weapons  the  fiendish  ingenuitv  of  man  has 
produced. 

Beyond  the  crater  there  is  a  chain  of  brand  new  5'9  holes, 
and  beyond  these  two  more  craters,  one  running  into  the 
other,  after  which  the  trench  is  virtually  at  an  end.  Here  and 
there  you  may  come  upon  a  short  length  of  sandbag  breast- 
work still  standing  and  a  machine-gun  post  remains  practically 
intact.  A  shining  moon  reveals  the  ghostly  naked  walls  of 
certain  farm  buildings  which  in  days  gone  by  clustered 
round  a  courtyard,  and  these  now  are  theonly  key"  to  distance 
and  direction..  Constantly,  too,  you  meet  stray  parties  of  men 
just  relieved  stumbhng  thankfully  to  the  rear.  By  mistake 
as  it  were,  you  find  yourself  in  a  short  remaining  section  of 
front  line  trench.  The  rest — parapets,  parados,  dug-outs, 
sand-bags,  communication-trenches — are  utterly  wiped  out. 
One  shell-hole  succeeds  another,  clustering  round  some 
enormous  crater  in  monotonous  confusion  ;  and  were  it  not 
for  the  moonlight  kindling  the  pools  of  w-ater  at  the  bottom, 
falls  and  involuntary  wettings  would  be  frequent. 

The  sentries  and  Lewis  guns  are  at  last  rcheved.  There 
is  no  time  to  lose.  Parties  are  immediately  told  off  to  go 
back  for  the  rations  and  if  possible  to  gain  flank  communi- 
cation. The  rest  of  the  men  sink  dow-n  in  one  of  the  saps 
utterly  wearied  by '  their  long  walk.  Everybody  dreads 
stumbling  by  mistake  into  the  German  "lines  m  the 
mysterious  half-light.  Fortunately  all  so  far  is  quiet,  but 
something  sombre  and  foreboding  seems  to  haunt  the 
imusual  stillness.  An  old  soldier  remarks  half -humorously, 
"  The  night  is  yet  young,  boys  !  " 


The  battles  now  being  waged  by  the  British  Armies  in  France 
will  give  new  zest  to  the  reading  of  Mr.  Bovd  Cable's  newest 
work  Grapes  of  Wrath  (Smith  Elder,  5s.  net)'  The  title  is,  of 
course,  taken  from  the  famous  American  Battle  Hymn  bv  Julia 
Ward  Howe.  The  scheme  of  the  book  is — to  use  the  author's 
own  words — to  disclose  "  what  a  Big  Push  is  like  from  the  point 
of  view  of  an  ordinary  average  infantry  private,  of  showing  how 
much  he  sees  and  knows  and  suffers  in  a  great  battle,  of  giving 
a  ghmpse  of  the  spirit  that  animates  the  New  Armies."  Mr. 
Boyd  Cable  has  succeeded  wonderfully.  The  impression  left  on 
the  lay  reader  is  the  eternity  of  endurance  that  a  day  of  battle 
w  ith  its  varying  fortunes  means  for  most  of  the  men  who  take 
part  in  it.  It  is  a  book  for  all  to  read  who  would  realize  what 
our  fighting  men  are  going  through  at  the  present  time.  And 
it  gains  a  curious  distinction  at  the  moment  in  that  one  of  the 
four  protagonists  whom  the  author  has  chosen  happens  to  be  an 
American.  If  it  be  true  that  Mr.  Boyd  Cable  once  gav&  oflfence 
by  a  sketch  of  an  American  in  the  trenches,  he  more  than  makes 
good  in  this  volume  by  his  fine  portraiture  of  Kentuek — a  most 
mteresting  study  of  a  modem  knight  errant 


April  IQ,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


i5 


Life  and   Letters 


By  J.    C.    Squire 


MR.  EDMUND  GOSSE'S  Life  of  Algernon  Charles 
Swinburne  (MacmiUan,  los.  6d.  net),  is  a  good 
book.  You  can  read  it  at  a  sitting  and  begin  it 
again  at  once ;  the  narrative  flows  with  un- 
broken ease,  and  whenever  a  story  is  told  or  a  scene 
painted  it  is  done  with  the  grace  and  the  engaging  Puckish 
gravity  that  are  present  in  all  Mr.  Gosse's  studies  of  his 
contenifwraries.  At  the  same  time,  however  enjoyable  a 
book,  it  is  not  a  perfect  Life.  In  the  first  place,  it  is 
not  quite  satisfactorily  proportioned.  The  wh(jle  of  the 
last  thirty  years  of  Swinburne's  life  is  crowded  into  one 
chapter :  Mr.  Gosse  seems  to  imply  that  when  Swin- 
burne went  to  live  at  Putney  with  Watts-Dunton,  he 
entered  into  a  middle  state  of  being  between  hfe  and 
death.  But  though  he  may  have  "  eaten  like  a  caterpillar 
and  slept  like  a  dormouse,"  he  did  not  lose  interest  in  life  at 
Putney,  and  the  work  he  did  there  was  far  more  important 
than  Mr.  Gosse  suggests.  And,  secondly,  the  book  suffers 
because  it  continually  gives  the  impression  that  Mr.  Gosse 
is  holding  himself  in  ;  that,  in  fact,  he  frequently  thinks  of  a 
vivid  or  amusing  thing  and  then  stops  short  with  the  thought 
"  Oh,  that  wojuld  not  l)c  dignified,"  or  "Oh,  that  would  scarcely 

be  fair  to  Algernon." 

***** 

One  can  quite  understand  that  Mr.  Gosse  was  anxious  that 
his  errors  in  portraiture  should  be  on  the  right  side.  He 
was  writing  an  "  official  "  life  of  an  eminent  friend  ;  and  he 
naturally  felt  both  a  certain  loyalty  towards  that  friend  and 
a  desire  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  lampooning  him.  But 
he  has  gone  too 'far  in  his  anxiety  to  be  correct.  Nobody  wants 
to  be  told  how  often  the  young  Swinburne  got  drunk,  and 
how  many  glasses  (one  was  probably  almost  enough)  it  took 
to  make  him  drunk  :  but  since  Mr.  Gosse  says  he  was  near 
death  when  Watts-Dunton  ]X)unced  on  him,  like  the  roc  on 
Sinbad,  and  carried  him  off  to  Putney,  he  need  not  have 
taken  such  pains  to  avoid  saying  why  the  poet's  condition 
was  so  deplorable.  You  feel  frequently  that  Mr.  Gosse  has 
written  down  a  story  and  then  cut  off  the  tail  of  it  in  a  sudden 
apprehension  of  being  called  unkind  or  irreverent.  He  says, 
f<jr  example,  that  throughout  the  long  twilight  at  Putney 
Swinburne  always  took  a  morning  walk.  But  he  really  need  not 
have  studiously  omitted — what  everybody  well  knew — 
that  the  objective  of  the  excursion  was  a  public-house,  and 
he  might  even  have  confirmed  or  contradicted  the  common 
rumour  that  Watts-Dunton  doled  out  to  ,his  ward,  each 
morning,  an  exact  twopence  for  his  half-pint.  Take  again, 
Mr.  Gosse's  treatment  of  the  row  with  the  Spectator  in  1862. 
All  Mr.  Gosse  says  about  that  is  that  "  a  burlesque  review 
of  an  imaginary  volume  of  French  poetry  was  refused,  as 
indeed  was  inevitable."  But  this  episode  was  one  of  the  most 
comic  and  characteristic  in  Swinburne's  early  career,  and 
should  certainly  have  been  told  in  full.  The  story,  as 
ordinarily  related,  is  that  having  secured  the  confidence  of 
the  sage  and  sober  R.  H.  Hutton  by  his  learned  reviews  of 
French  poets,  Swinburne  invented  a  pair  of  them— called, 
say,  Dubois  and  Dupont.  He  then  composed  a  number  of 
abominable  extracts  from  their  non-existent  works  and 
wr(jte  two  long  reviews  around  these  extracts,  deploring 
with  the  utmost  fervour  the  lamentable  way  in  which  modern 
French  artists  were  misusing  their  talents.  One  of  the 
reviews  got  into  type  ;  and  then  Hutton,  who  was  not  a  fool, 
smelt  a  rat.  And  another  passage  about  which  wc  might 
well  have  had  more  is  the  celebrated  exchange  of  compliments 
with  Furnivall  in  1880,  when  a  controversy  which  had  began 
with  a  difference  of  opiniim  over  the  date  and  authorship  of 
Henry y II I.  ended  in  about  of  mud-slinging,  never  excelled 
in  the  history  of  Enghsh  letters.  Furnivall  chastely 
informed  Swinburne  that  his  ear  was  a  "  poetaster's, 
hairy,  thick  and  dull  "  and  (as  Mr.  Gosse  puts  it),  "  took  to 
parodymg  Swinburne's  name  with  dismal  vulgarity,  as 
'  Pigsbrook,'  "  ;  whilst  Swinburne,  who  regarded  the  New 
Shakespeare  Society,  as  "a  blackguard's  gang  of  block- 
heads," composed  elaborately  infuriating  letters  which  he 
felt  sure  would  make  "  Dunce  Furnivall  dance  till  the  sweat 
pours  down  his  cheeks."  They  did.  But  Mr.  Gosse  does 
not  give  enough  specimens.  "You  feel  that  he  is  uneasv 
about  it.  And  a  biographer  ought  not  to  be.  For  when  the 
thing  IS  all  over  and  done  w-'th,  it  is  the  biographer's  business 
to  tell  us  the  whole  truth  about  it  :  assuming  that  "  it  "  is 
at  all  amusing  or  illuminating.  One  may  regret  that  .yvin- 
burne  did  not  kec])  himself  under  coiitr  A':   one  may  be  sorry 


that  a  scholar  so  erudite  as  Furnivall  should  have  possessed, 
and  drawn  upon,  such  resources  of  foul  and  abusive  language. 
Public  personages  should  always  (as  we  all  know)  behave 
in  the  most  gentlemanly,  civil  and  reasonable  way  ;  and  if 
one  had  been  Professor  Dowden  or  Mr.  Gosse,  one  would 
have  joined  the  rest  in  trying  to  dam  the  flowing  tide  of 
Billingsgate.  But  since  Swinburne  did  let  himself  go  in 
this  pakuolithic  way,  we  might  as  well  be  given  some  ex- 
tracts from  his  letters.  As  I  write  I  receive  Mr.  Dobell's  latest 
catalogue  of  second-hand  books  and  notice  a  copy  of  Churton 
Collins 's  Jonathan  Swift.     The  bookseller's  note  is  : 

With  four    lines  of  notes  in  the  handwriting  of  A.  C.  Swin- 
burne.   These  notes are^very  uncompHmentary.      "Monstrous 
lie,"  ■'  Unspeakable  Churton  Collins  !  "  etc. 
Mr.   Gosse  gives  enough    specimens    to    render    impossible 
the  charge  of  neglecting  this  aspect  of  his  subject's  character  : 
but  not  enough  to  exhibit  it  in  its  full  luxuriance. 

For  Swinburne  from  a  biographer's  point  of  view,  was  some- 
thing more  than  a  distinguished  man  with  a  career,  whose 
"life  "  can  merely  record  his  friendships,  his  movements, 
and  his  works.  He  was  a  "  character  " :  the  oddest  man  who 
has  written  great  English  verse  :  an  extraordinary  being  : 
a  creature  at  once  noble,  pathetic  and  grotesquely  funny, 
who  would  have  given  intense  pleasure  to  a  connoisseur  hke 
his  own  idol  Charles  Lamb.  Mr.  Gosse  knows  this.  He  has 
the  profoundcst  affection  for  him  and  admiration  for  his 
powers ;  yet  he  is  never  able  to  describe  his  appearance  or 
gestures  without  making  him  seem  ridiculous,  like  some 
character  Dickens  forgot  to  create.  The  enormous  "  pear- 
shaped  "  head,  the  tousled  red  hair ;  the  little  body,  the 
sloping  shoulders,  fluttering  hands,  tiny  feet ;  the  ecstatic 
voice  in  which  he  would  recite  endless  verses  to  exhausted 
listeners,  and  which  rose  to  a  scream  when  he  was  excited  ; 
whatever  the  occasion  Mr.  GosSe's  descriptions  can  never 
escape  the  appearance  of  caricature,  though  no  caricature  is 
there.  One  of  the  quaintest  glimpses  we  get  is  supplied  by  Lord 
Haldane  (not,  one  imagines,  a  man  who  has  established  fre- 
quent contact  with  the  Muse)  who 

tells  me  tliat  he  happened  to  go  into  a  London  restaurant 
one  day  in  1877.  When  he  had  given  his  order  for  luncheon, 
the  waiter  leaned  do\vn  and  wJiispered,  "  Do  you  see  that 
gentleman,  Sir  ?  "  Haldane  then  perceived  a  little  gentleman 
sitting  bolt  upright  at  a  table  by  himself,  with  nothmg 
before  him  but  a  heaped-up  dish  of  asparagus  and  a  Ixiwi  of 
melted  butter.  His  head,  with  a  great  sliock  of  red  hair 
round  it,  was  bent  a  little  on  one  side,  and  his  eyes  were 
raised  in  a  sort  of  unconscious  rapture,  while  he  held  the 
asparagus,  stick  by  stick,  above  his  face,  and  dropped  it 
clown  as  far  as  it  would  go.  "  That's  the  poet  Swinburne, 
Sir!  "  the  waiter  said,  "and  he  comes  here  on  purpose  to 
enjoy  the  asparagus." 

It    has    been    given    to    few  men,  perhaps,  to  "manipulate  ■ 
asparagus  with  entire  aplomb ;    but  we  feel  at  once  that 
Swinburne  was  something  out  of  the  ordinary. 

One  feels,  as  I  say,  that  Mr.  Gosse's  portrait  of  the  outer 
man,  the  astonishing  tropical  bird  (as  he  calls  him)  of  the 
early  days  and  the  eccentric  recluse  of  Putney  suffers  through 
the  biographer'.s  discretion  :  the  inner  man  wc  hardly  get  at 
all,  in  the  almost  complete  absence  of  intimate  conversations 
and  letters.  To  some  extent  Mrs.  Disnej'  Leith's  recent 
volume  The  Boyhood  of  Algernon  Charles  Swinburne  (Chatto 
and  Wuidus,  5s.  net),  is  useful  as  a  supplement  to  the  Life. 
It  contains  a  large  number  of  letters  from  the  poet  to  his 
relatives.  These  are  not  like  the  letters  he  wrote  to  his 
friends ;  they  are  geptle,  tender  and  domesticated,  full  of 
reverence  for  the  good  and  pretty  stories  about  childreil. 
The  most  striking  thing  about  them  is  their  [constant  revela- 
tion of  Swinburne's  dependence  on  other  people.  Long  before 
he  used  Watts-Dunton  as  a  physical  ]irop  he  had  habituated 
himself  to  spiritual  props.  The  man  who  knelt  before 
Landor,  who  kissed  Mazzini's  hand,  and  who  cried  with 
gratitude  when  Hugo  did  him  a  little  favour,  was  a  man  who 
could  not  exist  without  some  stronger  personality  to  lean 
upon.  He  had  to  worship,  to  pour  himself  out.  It  is  a 
proof  of  his  essential  healthiness  of  instinct  that  [almost  all 
his  heroes  were  men  of  undoubted  moral  grandeur.  Watts- 
Dunton  was  not  that.  But  close  contiguity  witli  him  made 
Swinburne  almost  his  slav(^  intellectually.  His  letters  are 
full  of  "Watts  and  I  think,"  "  I  think,  and  so  does  Walter," 
and  so  on.  It  is  a  strange  fate  for  an  enfant  terrible.  He 
had  no  God  and  was  forced  to  find  human  substitutes. 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  19,  1917 


The  Fighting  Poets 

By  E.  B.  psborn 


IT  IS  easv  to  distin^iiish  between  the  war  poetry  of  civil- 
ians and"  tluit  which  has  been  written  by  seamen,  soldiers 
Mil  flying  men  who  are  servinj;,  or  have  served,  in  tlic 
present  w;ir.  The  former  is  for  tiie  most  part  ephemeral 
sliiti  ;  Willi  the  excei>tion  of  Mr.  Laurence  Binyon's  fine 
ode  Jo  !/ic  I- Illicit,  whicli  is  not  marred  by  its  maker's  rather 
tliiii  \-irtuositv,  and  lialf  a  dozen  pieces  as  simple  and  sincere, 
■all  of  it  is  likely  to  be  cast  into  the  waste-paper  basket  of 
oblivion.  It  is  iuUof  mud.  blood,  kliaki  and  Germans— fom' 
t!iiiii,'s  which  tiie  fighting  poet  most  sedulously  avoids.  It 
is  curious  liow  seldom  he  mentions  or. even  remembers  his 
giizard-liearted  enemies.  In  the  course  of  making  an  an- 
thology to  illustrate  the  various  spirit  of  British  warfare  and 
to  give  impressions  tliereof  from  witliin,  I  ha\e  read  nearly 
two  thousand  of  his  pieces  -one  in  three  of  them  as  yet  un- 
priutetl-and  oiily  six  of  them  arc  addressed  to  the  Germans 
or  to  Germanj-,  Of  tljose  six  not  one  is  abusive  or  argumen- 
tative ;  tliey  are  all'Cmttcn  in  sorrow  rather  than  in  anger  ; 
and  the  most  deeply-jiendered  is  a  sonnet  by  the  late  Captain 
Cliarles  fl.  Sbriey,  which  thus  expounds  the  causa  caiisans  of 
Armageddon  : 

Vou  only  saw  your  future  largely  planned, 
And  we,  the  tapering  paths  of  our  own  mind, 
And  in  each  other's  deare.st  ways  we  stand, 
And  hiss  and  hate.     And  the  blind  light  the  blind. 

No  civilian  poet,  not  being  a  professed  Pacifist,  could  have 
written  tliesc  lines,  which  any  German  rnight  take  as  an 
aholagia  pro  ritiis  siiis.  The  explanation  is  not  far  to  seek. 
'  No  ci\'ilised  soldier  hates  liis  enemy,  howsoever  hateful, 
when  he  has  wreaked  his  anger  on  him  ;  and  the  last  thing 
an  Englishman  would  tliink  of  doing,  when  he  returns  to 
l>illots,  is  to  write  in  tlie  style  of  Lissauer's  Hymn  of  Hate. 
^  So  that  the  stuff  out  of  which  he^^eaves  his  poem  is  not  passion, 
but  pas«»ion  in  retrospect-rwhich,  as  every  critic  laiows,  is 
the  onlv  durable  stuff.  Corollary:  no  non-combatant  will 
■nvike  great  poems  of  tliis  soul- torturing  struggle  until  "  the 
■Red  War  isa  dim,  red  rose  in  Time,"  and  his  perplexed  mood 
has  passed  away  with  all  its  ineffectual  rage  and  anguish. 

Another  characteristic,  of  the  work  of  the  soldier  poets 
is  the  absence- of  the  patriotic,  note,  the  scarlet  clang  of  the 
Kiplingcsquo  trumpet.  The  word  "patriot  "does  not  occur 
oiice  in  all  the  two  thousand  pieces  I  have  read.  But  why  ? 
Because  the  soltUer's  love  of  his  land,  for  which  he  willingly 
sacrifices  all  that  he  has  been,  all  that  he  might  be.  is  some- 
thing inexpressive,  never  to  be  directly  intended,  much  less 
anatomised  in  terms  of  'ics  and  'isms.  Even  so  married 
lovers,  in  the  first  abounding  joy  of  possession,  never  discuss 
the  nature  of  loVe,  but  talk  only  of  trifling  matters  which  are 
yet  symbols  of  their  al-onc-ment.  The  soldier  instinctively 
feels  that,  as  soon  as  ever  loye  of  one's  country  and  all  that 
inhabits  .there  is  thought  of  as  "  patriotism,"  the  best  of 
its  spiritual  fragrance  is  beginning  to  be  lost.  It  is 
th(;n  as  a  flower  entered  in  a  botanist's  museum;  a 
quality,  once  mysterious  and  wonderful  and-  inexplicable 
which  must  now  be  explained  ;  a  thing  to  be  dried,  dissected, 
lectured  upon,  argued  ajpouc.  And  in  the  end  this  mere  philo- 
sophic "ism  is  apt  tojbecomc  nothing  better  than  a  form  of 
politics;  a- trick  of  logomachy  which  the  partisan  may  seize 
for  his  own  wearing  and  refuse  to  all  his  opponents.  Hence 
the  oft-quoted  saying;  of  Dr.  Johnson,  which  has  been  so 
frequently,  and  ^o  foolishly,  used  as  an  argument  ip  favour 
of  the  cosmopolite's  contention  that  man  is  but  parcelled  out 
in  men  by  a  sense  of  nationality. 

Wisely  and  warily,  then,  the  fighting  poets  nevfeb  put  to 
their  lips  the  brazen  trumpet  of  self-conscious  patriotism. 
Their  love  of  country  is  expressed  in  a  various  symbolism — in 
longing,  lingering  glances  at  the  life  that  has  been  theirs' 
beyond  waves  of  the  tears  of  eternity  ranged  agafn^'them. 
Kujxirt  Brooke's  wonderful  sonnet  which  begins :     .Mm  > 

If  I  should  die,  think  only  this  of  me 
That  tlierc'.s  some  corner  of  a  foreign  field 
That  is  for  evLT^  England.      -  '      .   , 

is  a  subtle  and' tender  form  of  this  beautiful  svntbolism. 
Lieutenaut  Geoffrey  Howard's  England,  though  n^' nearly 
so  well  known,  is  as  fine  in  a  more  direct  way.  In  tlie  octave 
of  his  sonnet  he  speaks  magnificently  of  the  'f;u  niniL'  might 
of  the  land  adored  :  .       ' 

Her  seed  is  sown  al>>ut  the  world.     The  seas 

For  Her  have  path'd  their  waters.     She  is  known 

In  swamps  that  steam  about  the  burning  zone,- 

And  dreaded  in  the  last  while  lands  that  ireez^.       ,^,^ 

to  contrast  it  tenderly  in  the  sestcttc  with  the  littleness  of 


rn^ 


And  she.  is  very  small  ana  very  green 
•  And  full  of  little  lanes  all  dense  with  flowra 
That  wipd  ulofig  and  lose  themselves  bcfwccn 
Mossed  farms,  and  parks  and  fields  of  quiet  sheep, 
And  in  the  hamlets  wliere  the  stalwarts  sleep. 
Low  bells  chime  out  from  old  ehu-liiddcn  towers. 

It  is  not  the  best  jirosody— but  it  is  such  great  poetry  as  to 
teach  as  Marvel!  taught  us,  that  there  is  a  time  to  use  the  file 
and  a  time  to  use  it  not.  Another  poem,  altogether  worthy  of 
comparison  with  these  two  sonnets,  is  that  in  which  Lieutenant 
Robert  Nichols  sees,  on  going  to  the  war,  only  the  aspect  of 
famiUar  fields,  hears  only  the  familiar  sounds  of  the  evening 
— and  knows  at  last  that  a  price  must  be  paid  in  service, 
blissful,  sacrificial,  keen,  for  all  the  remembered  loveliness 
now  so  far  away  : 

I  see  the  thrown 
Twilight  of  the  huge,  empty  down 
Soon  blotted  put !    For  now  a  lane 
Glitters  with  warmth  of  May-lime  rain. 
And  on  a  shooting  briar  I  see 
A  yellow  bird  who  sings  to  me. 
O  yellow. hammer,  once  I  heard 
Thv  yaffle  when  no  other  bird 
C^oiild  to  my  stink  heart  comfort  bring. 
But  now  I  would  not  have  thee  sing. 
So  sharjj  thy  note  is  with  the  pain 

Of  England  I  may  not  sec  again  ! 

Yet  sing  thy  song  ;    thus  answereth 

Deep  in  me  a  voice  that  saith  ; 

'J'/ie  gorse  upon  the  Iwilit  down. 

The  English  loam  so  sunset  brown. 

The  bowed  pines  and  the  sheep  belts  damoftr. 

The  wet,  lit  lane  and  the  yellow  hammer^ 

The  orchard  and  the  chaffinch  song. 

Only  to  the  ^brcne  belong 

And  he  shall  lose  their  joy  Jo/  aye 

If  their  price  he  cannot  pay. 

When  this  poet'.6-book  is  presently  published.,.4ic  %vill,  I  feel 
sure,  be  welcomed  as  among  the  greatest  of  living  poets. 
Through  him.  and  through  the  two  Grcnfells,  the  late  Lieu- 
tenant William  Noel  Hodgson,  and  others  is  fulfilled  the 
saying  of  Captain  Robert  Graves  in  A  Renascence  :— 

On  Achi  Baba's  rock  their  bones 

Whiten  aud  on  Elanders'  plain. 
But  of 'their  travailings  and  groans, 
Poetry 'is  lx)rn  again. 
At  any  rate,  .the  war  has  killed  the  fame  and  name  of  the 
"  half  men  with   their  dirty  songs  and  dreary  "   of  whom 
Rupert   Brooke  speaks  in  yet   another  noble  war  sonnet. 
But   to   give   one   more   example   of   the   love   of   country 
set  forth  in  thenearest  symbol,  we  find  a  seaman — Lieutenant 
Noel    H.    M.    torbet,    R.N.,   remembering   most    vividly  in 
the  waters  of  the  North  Sea  under  the  pallid  Northern  Lights 
the  quiet  loveliness  of  his  secret  England  : 

And  once  again  in  that  fair  dream  I  sec  the  sibilant,  swift 

stream — 
Now  gloomy-green  and  now  agleam — that  flows  by  Furnace 

Mill, 
And  hear  the  plover's  plaintive  cry  above  the  common  at 

Holtye, 
When  realy  glows  the  dusky  sky  and  all  the  woods  are  still. 

There  is  but  little  sea-verse  for  the  anthologist  to  gather ; 
perhaps  because  sea-time  in  war-time  gives  too  scant  leisure  for 
verse-making.  The  best  of  the  few  I  have  found  are  either 
tradition  or  ritual,  as  in  Commander  W.  M.  James's  Song  of 
the  While  Ensign  : 

Tens  of  thousands  pay  homage  as  they  raise  me  with  loving 

hands 
And  free  my  soul  in  the  morning  to  the  drums  of  a  hundred 

bands ; 
And  thousands  again  salute  me  as  the  sun  sinks  down  in 

the  West, 
For  My  Lords  liave  ordained  that  the  sun  and  I  go  down 
together  to  rest.  ■ 

And,  in  passing,  be  it  said  that  what  M.  Edmond  Rostand 
•  once  called  "the  blue  laurel  of  the  air,"  has  not  yet  been 
I  firmly  grasped  by  any  other  hand.  Lieutenant  Gordon  Alchin, 
I  R.F.C.,  has  taken  his  wings  as  a  poet  of  the  air,  but  as  yet  it  is 
'  a  gunner— Captain  Gilbert  l'"rankau — who  has  written  the 
best  ballad  of  war  flying.  Eyes  in  tiie  Air  is  a  brilliant  picture 
of  aeroplanes  at  the  work  of  registering  : 

Flicked  but  unsnared  we  hover, 
1   Edged   planes   agaiTist   the   sun  : 
Eyes  in  the  air  above  liis  lair. 
The  hawks  that  guide  the  gun  ". 

But  no  poet  has  vet  sung  of  the  "  stately 'planes  "  released 
from  their  daily  servitude  to  the  howitzers  whose  shells  they 
sec  passing  under  at  tiic  liighest  point  of  a  swift  parabola — it 


'\nril 


\pril  19,  iqi7 


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THEY    ARE     BELGIUM'S 

HOPE    FOR    THE    FUTURE. 

A  strong  Belgian  Committee,  "LA  SANTE  DE  L'EMFANCE 
BELGE,"   at  THE   HAGUE,  receives  from  Belgium 

STARVED,     CONSUMPTIVE, 

RICKETY,    BROKEN 

CHILDREN 

GiTes  them  several  weeks'  Intensive  Feeding,  Houses  -henn,  and  Clothes 
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jnore). 

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BAD  WEATHER 

— the  greatest  danger  that  menaces 
the    Soldier     on    Active    Service. 

In  sla.shins'  torrents  of  rain,  drivincf  sleet,  storms 
of  snow,  saturating'  mist  or  picrcincr  winds,  the 
soldier  equipped  with  THE  J3 URB ERR V  carries 
on  with  the  comforting-  assurance  that,  however 
grim  the  conditions,  his  weatherproof  will  see  him 
through. 


Its  airylight,  densely- 
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same  cloth  as  chosen 
by  Sir  Ernest  Shackle- 
ton  for  all  his  Ant- 
arctic Expeditions — 
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available. 

To  make  security 
doubly  sure,  it  is  lined 
with  proofed  wool — 
detachable  Camel 
Fleece,  if  preferred — 
which,  in  addition  to 
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tive powers,  ensures 
snug  warmth  when 
the  temperature  is 
low,  or  wind  cold. 


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THE  BURBERRY, 
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weiither  -  resistance, 
is  wonderfully  light 
and  hygienically  self- 
ventilating. 

Unlike  coats  loaded 
with  oiled-silk,  rubber 
and  similar  airtight 
fabrics,  which  afford 
temporary  security  —- 
exposure  to  any  ex- 
treme of  cold  or  heat 
renders  them  practi- 
cally useless — by  sacri- 
ficing the  ventilation 
essential  to  health 
it  is  as  comfort- 
able td  Vear  in  mild 
weather  ^as  it  is  on  a 
drenchingwinter'sday. 


SERVICE    WEATHERPROOFS 

nuring  the  War  BURBERRYS  CLEAN 
AND  RE-PROOF  DftL.Ts-  "  Hurberrys," 
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'«    latielled  "Diirlierrj/s," 

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ED.  MALESHERBES  PARIS;  AND  AGENTS 


i8 


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April  iq,  1917 


is  a  rare  sight,  say  the  flying  men.  And  it  has  been  left  so  fdr 
to  ii  civilian  versifier  to  explain  how  and  why,  by  trans- 
ferring the  naval  tradition  of  always  seizing  the  weather 
gauge  to  an  element  even  more  treacherous  than  the  sea,  we 
have  gauied  the  command  of  the  air : 

Then  did  the  British  airman's  sea-born  skill 
Teach  wood  and  metal  to  foresee  his  will  ; 
In"  every  cog  and  joint  his  spirit  stirred  ; 
The  Thing  possessed  was  man  as  well  as  bird. 

A  falcon  among  timorous  fowl  he  flies 

.And  Ix'ars  Britannia's  battle  to  the  skies. 

In  vain  the  Hun  seeks  covert  in  a  cloud  ; 

'i'he  marching  snow-wTeath  is  his  shaken  shroud. 

It  was  "  Theta,"  an  R.F.C.  pilot,  who  felt  he  would  hke  to 
get  out  and  make  snowballs  when  flying  above  the  dazzling 
white  upper  surface  of  a  great  cumulus  cloud.  The  time  is 
not  yet  come  to  make  ballads  of  great  air  actions  or  of  the 
relentless  pursuit  of  broken  armies  by  low-flying  aeroplanes 
with    their    stuttering    machine-guns. 

So  many  sided  are  these  lighting  poets  that  this  dissertation 
is  always  side-slipping  into  minor  issues.  There  aYc  both  nearer 
and  further  symbols  of  their  vast  love  of  England.  In  the 
absent  womenfolk  they  see  incarnations  of  the  one  and  only 
land's  infinite  graciou.^ness — this  is  an  ever-reciuring  motive  of 
the  more  personal  jwems.  Very  touching  are  the  songs 
they  send  to  England  personified  in  motherhood ;  it  is 
clear  that  the  fighting  Englishman  now — it  was  not  always 
so — loves  his  mother  as  passionately  as  the  fighting  Frenchman. 
ICxamples  are  the  rule.  .  Captain  Colwyn  I'hillipps'  dedi- 
cation of  ail  his  ix)ems  to 

You,  my  loved  one  and  no  other, 
You,  my  only  lovely  mother. 
You,  the  pilot  of  my  soul. 

and  a  curious  poem  in  which  Captain  H.  S.  Graham  devotes 
all  the  joyous  toil  of  a  sapper's  busy  day  as  a  birthdaj'  gift : 

It  w;is  good  to  drill  the  men  on  mother's  birthday. 
All  the  company  in  column  on  the  field  ; 
It  was  good  to  sec  their  arms  were  clean  and  steady. 
And  1*0  see  them  marching  firmly  as  they  wheeled. 

The  Alma  Mater  of  school  or  college  is  celebrated  duly,  with 
reverential  regard,  in  a  number  of  fine  pieces.  So  are  the 
more  humane  games,  which  are  so  inextricably  wrought  into  the 
life  of  such  places.  But  there  is  a  new,  and  strangely 
beautiful  emotion  added  to  all  this  old  symbolical  living 
and  loving — the  passionate  love  of  the  regimental  officer 
for  his  men  which  moves  Lieutenant  Robert  Nichols  to 
exclaim : 

Was  there  love  once  ?     I  have  forgotten  her. 
Was  there  grief  once  ?     Grief  still  is  mine. 
Other  loves  I  have  ;   men  rough  but  men  who  stir 
More  joy,  more  grief,  than  love  of  thee  and  thine. 

Faces  cheerful,  full  of  whimsical  mirtli 
Lined  by  the  wind,  burned  by  the  sun, 
Bodies  enraptured   by  the  abounding  turf. 
As  whose  children  brothers  we  are  and  one. 

Or  causes  Lieutenant  E.  A.  Mackintosh,  M.C.,  to  say,  in 
verses  addressed  to  fathers  of  the  fallen  : 

You  were  only  their  fathers, 
1  was  their  officer. 

Of  poems  before  action  there  is  a  great  number,  and  the 
finest  of  all  is  Julian  Grenfell's  Inlo  Battle  which  every  boy 
should  have  by  heart.  "  His  lii>5  must  have  been  touched  " 
said  Mr.  Kipling  when  he  read  this  wonderful  vindication 
of  struggle  as  the  driving  force  of  all  true  living  and  a  return  to 
natural  truth.  It  reveals  that  cameraden'c  (known  to  all 
sportsman  of  the  "  Julianesque  "  type)  which  transcends 
humanity  and  embraces  all  living  creatures  : 

The  wpodland  trees  that  stand  together. 
They  stand  to  him  each  one  a  friend  ; 

They  gently  sjjeak  in  the  winfly  weather  ; 
They  guide  to  valley  and  ridge's  end. 

The  kestrel  hovering  by  day, 

And  the  little  owls  that  call  by  night. 

Bid  him  be  swift  and  keen  as  they. 
As  keen  of  ear,  as  swift  of  sight. 

The  blackbird  sings  to  him,  "  Brother,  brother. 

If  this  be  the  last  song  you  sliall  sing. 
Sing  well,  for  you  may  not  sing  another  ; 
Brother,  sing." 
tt  was  the  last  but  not  the  first  song  sung  in  the  grand  style 
by  this  own  brother  of  Sidney.     Had  he  lived,  Julian  Grenfell 
would  have  been  one  of  the  hieraichy  of  great  luiglish  poets. 
The  Hills,  a  memory  of  his  Indian  travels,  is  as  fine  in  its  way 
as  hilo  Battle 

The  mountains  stand  and  laugh  at  Time  ; 

They  pillar  up  the  earth. 
They  watcli  the  ages  pass,  they  bring 

Hew  centuries   to   birth. 


They  feel  the  daybreak  shiver. 
They  see  Time  passing  ever, 
-Vs  ilows  the  Jumna  river. 
As  breaks  the  white  .sea-surf. 

And  his  brother  Lieutenant  "  Billy  "  Grenfell,  whose  loss 
we  deplore,  was  a  poet  in  becoming.  His  hnes  To  John 
(John  Manners),  are  the  best  of  the  In  Memoriam  \erse  ot 
which  there  is  abundance  by  the  fighting  poets  : 

O  heart-and-soul  and  careless  played 

Our  little  band  of  brothers, 
And  never  recked  the  time  would  come 

To  change  our  games  for  others. 
It's  joy  fur  tho.se  who  played  with  you    • 

To  picture  now,  what  grace 
Was  in  your  mind  and  .'ingle  hear*- 

And  in  your  radiant  face. 
Your  light-foot  .strength  by  flood  and  field 

For  I^ngland  keener  glowed  ; 
To  whatsoc\er  things  are  fair 

We  know  through  you,  the  road  ; 
Nor  is  our  grief  the  less  thereby  ; 

O  swift  and  strong  and  dear,  good  bye. 

The  one  jwem  before  action  which  can  be  coniparcd  with 
Julian  Grenfell's  is  that  of  Lieutenant  William  Noel  Hodgson, 
AI.C,  which  has  the  power  and  \'i\id  exactness  of  a  Latin 
collect.     It  ends : 

I,  that  on  my  familiar  hill 
,  Saw   with  unajmprchending  eyes 

A  hundred  of  thy  sun.seti  spill 

Their  fiery  and  sanguine  sacrifice, 
Kre  the  sun  swing    his  noonday  sword 

Must  say  good-bye  to  all  of  this  ' — ■ 
By  all  delights  that  I  shall  mis? 

Help  me  to  die,  O  Lord. 

The  many  battle  pictiu-es  are,  unfortunately,  all  too  long 
/or  the  quotation  which  is — if  it  be  not  tearing  a  single  petal 
from  a  rose — the  sincerest  form  of  criticism.  A  strangely 
fascinating  group  among  the  many  remaining  is  that  of  the 
poems  which  wonder  at  the  ghostly  company.  Lieutenant  E. 
A.  Mackintosli,  watching  the  departure  of  the  4th  Camerons 
sees  that  they  have  spectral  comrades  : 

And  there  in  front  of  the  men  were  marching 

M'ith  feet  that  make  np  mark. 
The  grey  old  ghosts  of  the  ancient  fighter 

Come  back  again  from  the  dark  ; 
And  in  front  of  them  all  MacCrinnnon  piping 

A  weary  tune  and  sore, 
"  On  the  gathering  day,  for  ever  and  ever,    . 

MacCrinimon  comes  no  more." 

(Compare  with  this  Homecoming  by  Sergeant  Josej))!  Lee 
the  poet  of  the  Black  Watch) : 

When  this  blast  is  overblown 
And  the  beacon  fires  shall  burn, 

And   in   the   street 

Is  the   sound   of  feet — 
They  also  shall  return. 

When  the  bells  shall  rock  and  ring 
When  the  flags  shall  flutter  free 
And  the  choirs  shall  sing 
"  God  .save  our    King  " — 
They  shall  be  there  to  see. 

Lastly  there  are  the  poems,  few  but  precious,  which  carry 
and  keep  the  vision  of  a  newer  and  dearer  and  better  England 
rebuilt  by  the  sword. 

The  bright  spirituality  of  British  warfare  is  revealed  in  this 
new  volume  of  English  poetry.  Out  of  it  quivers  skyward 
a  white  flame  of  victorious  confidence — men  who  are  thus 
inspired,  who  are  so  far  above  rancour  and  repining  could 
never  be  beaten  by  the  singers  of  a    Hymn  of  Hate. 


JOHN  BUCHAN'S 

The  BATTLE  OF  THE  SOMME 

(NeUon'f  History  of  the  War.  Vol.   16) 

DESCRIBES  THE  SUPERB  ACHIEVEMENT 
OF  OUR  ARMIES  IN  SHATTERING  THE 

GERMAN  WESTERN  LINE. 
Just  Ready.  Cloth.         Price  1/3  net. 


April  rg,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


SHORTSGE 


SMITHS'    "ALLIES" 

AND 

MEDICAL  WATCHES. 

"UNBREAKABLE"  FRONT 

No  more  Watch   Glasses  I 
No  more  Watch  Glass  Protectors  I 
It  is  in>pos.sibIe  to  break  the  front 


PLEASE 

Kf 

^         1 

WRITE  FOR 

immi     I 

ILLUS- 

JV=——   ^rt- 

■ 

TRATED 

"'   . 

n 

BOOKLET  OF 

t 

11 

SPECIAL 

11 

REQUISITES 

,/           11 

THE  FRONT. 

^ 

' 

Smith's 

Electric 

Reading 

Lamp 

•  orlheBelt, 

Recognized  by 

Officeia  ta  ibe 

JEST    LA.M1- 

Write  for  TEST[MONIAI..S.( 

Pilgh-piece. 


Sterliria      Silver 
"SCREW  IN" 

Dust  and  Damp 
Proof     Case. 


sterling    Silver,    Lewet 
Movement,      Luminous^ 
Dial.     Pigskin     Strap, ?^ 
Sllvpr  Buckle. 


PLEASE 
WRITE  FOR 
ILLUS- 
TRATED 
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THE  FRONT 


Sterling    Silver     Screv* 

in  Case  Meaical  Watch. 

Luminous    fi.?ures    and 

hands,    registering   5th 

of   seconds. 

Invaluable  tor 

Hospital  Work. 

SMITH'S  Higrh  Grac'e 
Lever  Movement. 
a^W?-^        Ouaranteed     fi.iE.A 
Ji;.-!  ■:{■(>         Size  of  Lamp.  6'  x  SJ  x  U  )r.bes     Timekeeper    I1.W.V 

Price      complete  20/-     '"'nr,eUrv.e'.ta"*"- 

Or   inciudinfi   one   extra    l)iilb    in    lid,    'Jl/-. 

Extra  batteries        1/6  each  Extra  bulbs     1/-  each. 

Hermetic  illy    sealed    in    Tin    los  Further   particulars  on  apiillcatlon. 


Finff  S  ppKire  and 

Diamord  RinSi 

£4  158. 


A  fine  Assorttaeat  of  RIJ\GS  and 
JEWELLERY.     Always        Stock, 


Wedding  Rings  a   Speciality. 


Fin«    Doubl"    Cluster 

Diamond  F^irg, 

£10  10s, 


Fine   Diamond  Broocli,  £6  158    Od 


S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd.    Estdissi 


6  Grand  Hotel  Buildings, TroraiQor  squore,  w.c 


By   Appointment   to   K.M. 
the  late  King  Edward  VII, 


And  68 
•  Plooadllly,  W, 

Watch    and     Chronoijieter 

Makers  to  the  Admiralty. 

Holders  of  5  Royal  Warrants. 


Elvery's  Waterproofs   are    world-renowned 
and  have  stood  the  test  of  years. 

FEATHERWEIGHT 
SILK  WATERPROOFS 

The  coat  illustrutod  is  cut  with  an  exceptionally 
deep  armhole  in  order  that  it  may  l>e  worn  easily 
and  comfortably  over  otlier  coats ;  the  upper  part 
Is  lined  with  .silk,  and  the  modri>sl>]y  full  ?kirt  Is  o( 
roveralt  length,  while  the  collar  ard  cuffs  are  made 
to  fasten  closely  to  th*  neck  and  wri-ts.  Another 
;>ensible  point  is  that  the  coat  fastens  right  down 
to  the  base.  It  is  made  !n  eipht  shades;  two  nice 
greys,  a  smart  fawn,  navy  blue,  green,  purple, 
mole,  and  black,  and  It  is  mo.<;t  moderately  priced 
at  5Ss.  ftd.,  for  it  is  of  superior  quality  and  finish 
tlirouphout.  Though  so  liuht,  the  silk  is  absolutely 
uiiterproof,  and  the  rout  is  stocked  in  all  sizes  to 
lit  every  flgure,  it  beinjt;  only  necessary  to  send  the 
L-hest  measurement  in  order  to  be  correctly  fitted. 
Another  model  is  also  produced  at  the  very  mode- 
rate price  of  47s.  An  envelope-shaped  case  to 
match  for  carrying  tlte  coat  may  be  ihad  3;<;  extra. 

.V.B. — Those  speciflJ  prices  can  only  obtain  wliM'-t 
our  present   stock  lasts. 


Price 
Elvery's      Special  Pocket 

Waterproof  (li^htwrei^  lit) 
Absolutely        stormproo*'. 

An  Ideal   Waternrnof  for  War  Workers, 


29/6 


Waternroot  Specialists 
Est.  tSb. 


SM     waiernrooi    apeviaiini 
■  Est.   ISii. 


Ccats  sent  oa  approval. 

31  Conduit  St.,  LONDON.  W.I. 

(One.   doo.r    from    New    Bond    Street.) 
And  at  Elephant  House,  Dublin,  and  Cork. 


"C" 


The    PROVED 

Lubricant   for 

FUEL  SUBSTITUTES 

—Vide  Press. 


C.C.  WAKEFIELD  g  Co.,  wakefield  house. 

Pioprietor:  Sir  Charles  Wakefield,  Bart.  Cheap,side,  London,   E.C- 


TRIPLEX  Safety  GLASS 


GOGGLES,      WINOSCRKCNS,      AMD      WINDOW*. 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  19,  1917 


o 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


Names  and  addresses  of  shops,  where  the  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  will  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
addressed  to  Passe-Partout,  Land  &  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  IV.C  2.     Any  other  information  will  be  given  on  request. 


A  Sub^timte 
for  Sugar 


It  would  be  farcical  to  pretend  that  sub- 
stitutes can  ever  come  up  to  the  genuine 
article  itself,  nevertheless  there  are 
moments  when  we  are  profoundly  grateful  for  them.  Sugar- 
lene,  a  pure  substitute  for  sugar,  is  a  case  in  point.  It  is 
si.xteen  times  as  sweet  as  sugar,  therefore  one  ounce  of  sugar- 
lene  is  equivalent  to  about  a  pound  of  that  article.  A  salt- 
spoonful  sweetens  a  cup  of  tea,  a  teaspoonful  is  often  sufficient 
sweetening  in  cooking,  so  that  a  httle  sugarlcne  goes  a  very 
long  way. 

It  is  being  sold  by  a  firm  who  have  long  established  a 
reputation  lor  the  reliable  quahty  of  the  goods  they  sell. 
Foilowmg  this  up  they  did  not  start  to  push  sugarlene  until 
they  were  absolutely  satisfied  as  to  its  reliability.  They, 
themselves,  personally  tested  it,  and  the  result  is  all  in  sugar- 
lene s  favour,  proving  it  to  be  both  pure  and  wholesome. 

With  sugarlene  m  the  house  it  does  not  matter  how  low  the 
sugar  supplies  run.  Here  at  hand  is  the  sweetening  for  tea, 
cotfee,  cocoa,  puddings  and  cakes,  and  that  at  a  very  low 
cost.  Sugarlene  is  put  up  in  packages  costing  from  one 
sliilling  upwards.  Those  wanting  just  to  give  it  a  preliminary 
trial,  iiowever,  need  exjjend  no  more  than  threepence  on  a 
trial  packet.  If  they  will  forward  this  together  with  an  extra 
penny  for  postage  a  sample  will  be  despatched  promptly. 


English  Made 
Siockings 


Some  mercerised  lisle  thread  stocking-^ 
are  worth  buying  at  their  present  price 
for  more  than  one  reason.  In  the  first 
place  they  were  bought  over  eiglit  months  ago  by  the  firm 
now  selling  them  at  a  time  before  their  cost  had  sharply 
started  tor  soar.  At  this  particular  shop  therefore  they  are 
being  sold  at  practically  their  old  prices,  a  point  worth  noting 
in  these  expensive  days. 

Tliese  stockings  are  specially  good  value.  Their  mercerised 
finish  gives  them  a  very  silky  look,  and  they  wear  quite  un- 
usually well.  It  is  good  to  know  that  after  washing  they  never 
lose  their  lustre.  Nomatterhowoften  the  stockings  may  visit 
the  washtub  this  is  kept  in  a  quite  remaikable  way.  Then, 
as  the  title  of  this  note  indicates,  the  stockings  are  a  British 
manufacture,  so  that  home  industries  gain  a  fillip. 

They  are  kept  in  black,  white  and  in  colourings  to  match 
all  kinds  of  shoes,  and  very  lovely  some  of  them  Eire.  All 
the  new  covert  colours  are  represented,  then  there  are  some 
fascinating  gun  metal  tones  as  well  as  navy  blue,  dark  green, 
tete  de  negre,  and  more  than  one  shade  of  tan.  With 
beautifully  embroidered  clocks  these  stockings  in  all  sizes 
cost  2s.  9^d.  Without  clocks  their  pri;e  is  is.  ir^d.  outsizes 
costing  an  additional  fourpcnce.  The  maker's  name  is 
printed  on  every  pair. 


Comfort  for 
Children 


The  growing  girl  is  not  a  particularly 
easy  person  to  clothe  as  those  responsible 
usually  find.  Clever  garments  for  her, 
however,  can  be  discovered  in  plenty  at  the  department 
dedicated  to  her  service  in  a  famous  shop,  and  as  a  result 
a  visit    here   is  mingling   of  profit   and  pleasure. 

SUp>-on  jumjsers  are  garments  in  which  most  little  girls  will 
revel.  Thougii  some  of  the  models  fasten  down  the  front 
many  of  them  pull  on  over  the  head,  fastening  simply  then  by 
means  of  a  tie  round  the  waist,  and  thus  the  very  easiest  thing 
to  put  on.  Without  doubt  these  jumpers  are  much  neater 
than  a  great  many  blouses  and  quite  twice  as  comfortable  for 
an  active  child.  Amongst  the  many  summer-time  models  is 
one  of  white  voile  with  crushed  cherry  borders  of  lawn. 
Smocked  jumpers  are  also  delightful.  One  example  is  smocked 
on  the  shoulders  and  at  the  wrists,  while  at  either  side  the 
•  allness  is  gathered  into  pretty  folds  by  the  same  means. 

Little  girls'  overalls  can  also  be  found  here  to  perfection. 
0;ie  capital  example  is  made  just  like  a  coat,  buttoning  down 


the  front  with  a  row  of  buttons  so  that  a  child  can  easily  get 
into  it  without  any  outside  help.  It  has  two  big  pockets, 
is  belted  round  the  waist,  and  is  kept  in  butcher  blue,  brown 
or  natural  colour.  Such  an  overall  as  this  is  invaluable  for  a 
child  when  gardening,  painting,  playing  or  doing  any  other  of 
the  myriad  things  by  which  children  pass  away  their  days. 


Rustless 
Knives 


Knives,  which  never  rust  or  stain  and 

need  no  cleaning  on  a  knife  board  or  in 

a  knife  machine  seem  almost  too  good 

-'to  be  true.     Happily  for  us,  however,  they  are  an  accomplished 

fact,    and — as   the   immense    business    being   done   in   them 

proves-  -a  very  welcome  one. 

At  a  flash  it  can  be  seen  what  an  immense  amount  of 
labour  they  save.  Servants  appreciate  them  immensely 
lor  knife  cleaning  is  then  the  simplest  »affair  in  the  world, 
taking  only  the  briefest  space  in  seconds.  If  they  are  just 
dipped  in  hot  water  and  then  dried  with  a  cloth  they  are 
instantaneously  clean,  no  matter  what  acids  may  have  been 
used  on  the  knife.  There  is  no  tiresome  paraphernalia  of 
knife  board  and  knife  powder.  In  the  ordinary  way  vinegar, 
pickles  and  other  things  of  that  kind  spell  mst,  and  that  very 
speedily.     Now  they  need  mean  nothing  of  the  kind. 

These  stainless  jcnives  are  available  in  several  different 
shapes,  tables  knives  costing  14s.  the  half-dozen,  and  desert 
knives  12s.  the  half-dozen.  A  sample  table  or  dessert  knife 
will  also  be  sent  post  free  on  request,  the  first  costing  2s.  4d. 
and  the  latter  2S. 


The  One-ring 
Cooker 


Everybody  possessing  the  ordinary  type 
of  gas  stove  knows  that  economy  with  it 
is  apt  to  be  a  will-o'-the-wisp.  For  one 
thing  the  average  cocik  generally  has  an  immense  amount 
of  different  burners  going  at  the  same  time,  neither  to  be 
stnctiy  just  is  this  always  her  fault.  The  heat  is  not  scienti- 
fically distributed,  a  guod  many  things  cooking  at  the  same 
time  mean  a  good  miuy  burners,  and  in  due  course  a  dis- 
concertingly heavy  gas  bill. 

The  clever  inventor  of  the  "  One  Ring  "  Cooker  claims  that 
it  saves  75  per  cent,  and  he  is  probably  not  far  wide  of  the 
mark.  This  invention  is  a  revolution  in  cooking  by  gas  and 
also  cooking  by  oil — for  oil  can  be  used  instead  of  gas  if  this 
is  preferred.  A  full  course  dinner  can  easily  \)Q  cooked  on 
this  cooker,  all  the  necessary  heat  being  given  by  a  single 
gas  ring.  Tliis  heats  the  hot  plate  and  both  are  movable, 
so  that  the  heat  is  readily  distributed. 

Besides  a  portable  oven,  the  cooker  allows  ample  ro<jm  lor 
two  pots  to  be  kept  at  cooldng  heat,  and  when  the  oven  is  not 
in  use  the  room  for  pots,  kettles,  etc.,  is  doubled. 

FuUy  illustrated  particulars  will  be  sent  anywhere  on  re- 
quest, and  most  interesting  reading  they  make  to  the 
economically  minded.  These  One  Ring  Cookers  can  be  fixed 
practically  anywhere.  For  summer  cooking  when  kitchen 
fires  should  be  let  out  wherever  possible,  they  are  undoubtedly 
the  last  word  in  convenience,  and  what  is  more  they  help 
everybody  in  the  national  duty  of  coal-saving. 

For  garden,  dairy  or  any  outdoor  work 
Showerproof  some   showerproof  smocks  are  just   the 

"""^  *  very  thing.     They  are  made  of  "  Ariel  " 

fabric,  and  very  delightful  it  is.  Not  only  is  it  mercerised 
and  so  very  soft  and  silky  looking,  but  it  is  showerproof  as 
well.  In  our  most  uncertain  climate  this  last  characteristic 
is  no  small  thing.  Also  in  its  favour  is  the  great  ease  with 
which  the  smock  can  be  washed,  a  strong  appeal  to  the  dainty 
woman. 

Quite  apart  from  its  evident  practicabihty  it  is  a  pretty 
garment  into  the  bargain.  It  is  belted  round  the  waist, 
lias  two  large  pockets,  rather  a  long,  narrow  pointed  collar, 
and  dainty  groups  of  smocking  either  side  of  the  front. 

The  colours  to  be  had  include  vieux  rose,  saxe,  champagne, 
dark  brown,  dark  blue,  grey  and  mauve,  and  the  price  is 
25s.  gd.  in  any  of  these  or  in  white  or  black. 

Passe  Partout 


LAND  &  WATER 


P-       ^oL  LXIX  No.  2868  [A""]  THURSDAY.   APRIL  26,  1917 


TREGISTERED  AST     PUBLISHED  WEEKLY 
LA  NEWSPAPERJ     PRICE    SEVENPENCE 


-^^Ut^r\ciG-tAn»  Idi 


^r& 


By  Louis  liuemaef:tti 


Drawn  excVisively  for  *' Land  J;    Water'* 


Canada  on  Vimy  Ridge 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  26,  1917 


Practical  Farm  Suits. 


L.  16.     The    "Aihford."      New    .lyU 

Corduroy  Farm  Suit  with  hat  to  match. 

in  brown  or  mote. 

Coat.  Breeches,  Hat. 


18/9 


9/11         3/11 


SPECIAL   NOTICE. 

TO  OBVIATE  WASTE  OF 
PAPER  we  shall  only  issue  a  limited 
namber  of  "  Spring,  "  "  Summer" 
and  "July"  Sale  Catalogues,  alsc 
Departmental  Booklets.  These  can 
be  sent  in  response  to  direct  applica- 
tions.  Appiv   to-day. 


Po*t     Order*    receive    prompt    and 
careful    attention. 


DICKINS  &  JONES  Ltd.,  te:.v^Y. 


New     Notions 
in     Lingerie. 


It  IS  permissible 
for  you  to  write 
for  our  New  Sprinfi 
Catalogue.  Sent  post 
free      upon      request. 


No.  21.  Petticoat  in  Cambric  | 
trimmed  three  flounces  of  fine 
muslin  embroidery,  with  em- 
broidery ribbon  beadin){  and 
ribbon  to  finish  top  flounce. 
Pries  22/6  each. 


No.  1.  Nightdress  in  Crepe  de 
Chine,  Kimono  shape,  trimmed 
Valenciennes  lace  edging, 
smocked  in  front  to  give  fullness. 
Colours,  Fink  and  White. 
Price  29  6  each. 


^"■^----.^^^Ac  Linen  Hall. — -—• — 

Regent  Street.  London. W. 


CLEARLY 
AT  NIGHT 


No.   J  1123.— 

GENTS  STERLING 

SILVER   IMi-'ROVED 

HALF-HUNTER 

WRIST  WATCH. 

'npoiighly    fitrovif^,     for    Arbive 
I  vice,  etc.      Luminoue   Hands 
Figures.     '   Quite    R^iabl* 
TlnwkceT>er. 

nnlT   £4    15a, 


FOR 

ACTIVE 
SERVICE. 

N.     ;;   UKI.  i 

Vickery's  Very  Latest  Silver  Screw  Damp-proof  Case  Watch,  j 

»iUi   Silver    ExfuaiHling   Bracelet,    flnt  quality    levir    movement,    abso-  • 

lutely   reliable,  £4   lOs.  : 

Dit^o    with    Leather   Strap.    <n«tea<l   of    Silver £3  17i.  6d.  ': 


ONE  OF  VICKERY'S 
FAMOUS 

WRIST  WATCHES 

'iind  lor  Catalogue,  Post  Frte. 


Best. 


'■■•VlEKti*^ 

VICKERY'S    FAMOUS    '•  BLACK  WATCH." 


Dustproof.  Luminous, 
Perfect  Time  Keeper. 


Unbreakable  Glass. 
Black  or  White  Dial. 


Sterling  Silver,  S8s.  6d,  Siiperior  Qualit.v  and  Finish.  72s.  6d. 

Similar    Watch,  Black  Dial   ami    Ordii^yy   Gla»?. 
>ilver        ...  EZlZs.  6d    CM        £6  18s.  6d, 


No.  i  111:1. 

A    SPLENDID    RECORDING    SILVER 
CHRONOGRAPH  WRIST  WATCH. 

CAN    BE  SEEN   CLF.ARLY   IN   THE   DARK. 
Vickery's  Strontf  Minute  Recording  Chronoiiraph. 

LuininoiLs    Hands    iind     Hs'irei!.    quite    reliable. 
£7     18s.     6d. 


16ct.    Gold    and     ICnamel    U..\.M.C.    Badge 
Brooeli.  £2  2s.  I)itto,sct  Diamonds,  £4  lOs. 

BADGF.   BROOCHLS  or  PLNDANTS 
of  ail  JU'i;;iments  from  2  Guineas  to  £20. 

WATCH    8  COMPASS  COMMNED. 

Luminous    Wrist     Watch    and     Cornpass 

Combined. 
.Splendid   idea  for   Active  Senrlce.  Stronc 
and    reliable,  and    the   Compass  ■forms   k 

prote<:tini(  eovtr  to  Watcii. 

Pi(iskin    and  N'ickel  Mounts,   only  £2  5s. 

Pil!«kin  nii<l  Sterlinu  Sliver  Mounts, 

£2     15s. 


THE 
LATEST. 


No.  I  Ills 


Ajnil  20,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON.     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828.  


THURSDAY,  APRIL  26.   1917 


CONTENTS 


Canada  on  Vimy  Ridgo.     By  Louis  Raemackers 

Compulsory  Rations  (Leader) 

The  French  Offensive.     By  Hilairc  Belloc 

The  Admiralty.     By  Flag  Officer 

Italv  and  the  Allies.     By  Lewis  R.  Freeman 

Tlie  Lost  Platoon.'    By  Centurion 

Britain's  Biggest  Parish.     By  Francis  Stopford 

Life  and  Letters.     By  J.  C.  Squire 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw 

Domestic  Economy 

Kit  and  F^cjuipment 


PAGE. 

I 
3 
4 
7 
9 
II 

14 
lO 
i8 

20 


COMPULSORY     RATIONS? 

THE   constant   stream   of   edicts   which   issue   from 
the  Food  Controller's  Department  inevitably. suggest 
that  the  time  has  now  come  when  the  Government 
would  act  wisely  in  taking  the  public  more  into  their 
conhdence  on  the  actual  food  supplies  of  the  country  than  they 
have      done   hitherto.     Several   months   have   passed   since 
Mr.  Prothero, 'President  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  and  there- 
fore in  a  position   peculiarly  well  situated  to  behold  the  true 
state  of  affairs,  informed  an  autUence  that  "the  whole  country 
ought  to  realise  that  we  aic  a  beleaguered  city."     Since  those 
•■  words  were  spoken  nothing  has  occurred  to  impro\e  matters 
but   nuich  that   obviously  might   accentuate   the   state   of 
l)eleaguermcnt.     Indeed  those  who  have   followed  carefully 
the  progress  of  the  submarine  menace   and  of  tlic    present 
backward    state    of    agriculture    brought    about    mainly   by 
tlie    extraordinary    prolongation   of   winter,    are   coming   to 
the  conclusion  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  it  will  be  to 
llie  interest  of  the  nation  to  declare  compulsory  rations  for  the 
whole  population.     We  are  fully  aware  that  rationing  has  not 
been  a  success  in  Germany,  but   as  the  British  people  have 
proved  in  munitionment,  Great  Britain,  where  organisation 
is  concerned,  is  far  ahead  of  the  enemy,  and  if  the  Govern- 
:  unt  were  persuaded  that  rations  in  certain  dietary  staples 
were  advisable,  we  are  certain  it  would  be  possible  to  elaborate 
a  scheme  that  would  work  smoothly  and  effectively. 

The  point  which  we  have  to  keep  closely  in  view  is  that 

at  the  present  time  Hindenburg     and  the  (ierman  General 

Staff    arc    not    lighting   in    the   West"  primarily    to    hack   a 

way  through  either  to  Paris  or  Calais,  but  to  so  prolong  the 

war  on  foreign  territory  that  liritain  will  be  starved  into  an 

appeal  for  peace  before  Germany  is   invaded.     To  put  it 

crudely,  from  the  German  point  of  view  the  British  stomach 

is  the  decisive  point.     We  are  strongly  of  the  opinion  that 

hunger  would  be  endured  for  the  sake  of  victory  as  serenely 

as  death  and  wounds,  but  there  is  no  point  in  going  out  of 

our  way  to  allow  matters  under  any  conceivable  circumstances 

to  reach  such  a  ))ass,  when  there  is  ample  time  to  make  adequate 

arrangements  which  even  if  the  very  worst  came  to  the  worst 

would  obviate   possibility    of    Imnger,    let  alone    star\'ation, 

before  the  liarvc'st  is  gathered  in.     And  we  maintain  thafthis 

is  the  right  view  to  take.     It  is  perfectly  clear  from  the  weekly 

figures  of  tlie  Admiralty  that  little  progress  is  being  made  in 

the    suppression    of     German      submarines.       Mr.     Walter 

Rimciman  in  the  House  pf  Commons  on  Tuesday  night,  spoke 

entirely  to  the  jwint  on  this  vital  question.     He  said  : 

From  the  weekly  returns  of  sailinf»s  and  lo.sses  published  by 
the  Adniiriilty  "the  country  could  not  reaUse  the  serious 
damage  that  was  being  done  to  our  shipping.  When  people 
read  that  there  were  2,500  arrivals  of  ships  and  2,500  sailings 
and  tli.it  16  or  iS  ships  were  .sunk,  they  .siiid  the  losses  were 
uol  very  liirj^e.  K  more  fallruioiis  system  of  (alciilatiiig  llio 
lusses  <'()iild  ntit  he  eonceivi'd.  It  was  absurd  to  iinasinc 
tliat  the  Ceinians  di<l  not  know.  Tlioy  ririiihited  hy'wirelpss 
llie  number  of  tons  lost,  and,  tliough'it  was  overestimated, 
if  was  not  much  overestimated.  It  would  be  far  better  to 
tell  the  whole  truth  as  to  the  amount  of  tonnage  destroyed. 
The   .\<hnir;iltv  h\  with'ioMIn"   thi-   Infr.rmation,  is  liable   to 


impart  a  sense  of  false  security  to  the  ijcoples  of  these 
islands.  It  is  open  to  argument  whether  this  may  not  jirovc  to 
be  a  greater  evil  than  any  intelligence  which  vthis  fact  would 
convey  to  the  enemy.  The  British  temperament  is  not  inclined 
to  panic,  but  if  it  were  suddenly  announced  that  the  submarine 
campaign  had  reached  a  pitch  when  the  mercantile  marine 
communications  of  these  islands  were  more  or  less  in  suspense,, 
the  imjnession  it  would  create  might  lead  to  grave  trouble. 
So  far  we  have  kept  a  level  head,  but  at  the  same  tune  it 
must  not  be  overlooked  that  hitherto  the  strain  of  war,  apart 
from  that  incidental  to  the  finest  manhood  of  the  counti-y 
being  constantly  in  the  fighting  line,  has  hardly  been  felt  on 
this  side  of  the  Channel. 

It  does  not  matter  with  what  section  of  the  public  >'ou 
come  into  contact  nowadays,  you  quickly  realise  considerable 
irritatiori  exists  over  the  constant  fiddling  and  fuddhng  oi 
the  Fooci  Department  with  restaurants  and  tea  shops.  These 
are  almost  entirely  a  feature  of  London  life  and  quite  a 
modern  feature  ;  they  affect  a  very  small  part  of  even  London's 
])opulation,  and  it  is  felt  that  the  undue  prominence  that  has 
been  given  to  them  arises  from  a  desire  to  play  to  the  f?allery. 
The  vague  utterances  of  the  heads  of  this  Department  are 
another  cause  of  irritation.  , 

The  supply  of  all  cereals  siiould  be  controlled  by  Govern- 
ment at  their  source,  not  merely  of  wheat  alone,  but  of  those 
substitutes  for     wheat  which  it  is  desired  should  be  more 
wide]\-  utilised,  and  it  should  be  made  one  of  the  first  duties 
of  the  Food  Department  to  arrange  for  these  substitutes  to  be    ^ 
brought  within  the  reach  of  every  home.     The  Controller 
exists  to  devise  the  machinery  by  which  this  distribution  can 
be  effected  ;   the  work  no  doubt  is  difficult,  but  it  is  not  im- 
possible.    It  is  a  question  of  organisation,  and  organising 
is  supposed  to  be  the  s])ecially  strong  feature  of  the  Depart- 
ment.    Unless  this  result  is  achieved  quickly  we  may  un- 
wittingly  through   heedless   extravagance      be   precipitated 
into  the  very  panic  we  wish  to  avoid.     Secondly,  the  sale  of 
all  luxuries  in  the  way  of  food,  in  so  far  as  they  imply  the  waste 
of  wheaten  flour,  sugar  and  otlier  staple  articles  of  which  we 
are  short  and  on  which  the  health  of  the  population  depends, 
should  be  absolutely  prohibited.     Thirdly,  the  cargo  space 
on  all  vessels  under  Government  control,  which  practically 
means  nine-tenths  of  the  shipping  of  the  world,  should  be 
used  only  for  the  imports  of  necessities    until  the   harvest. 
The  Prime  Minister  has  already  announced  certain  restric- 
tions, but  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  these  restrictions  should 
be  even  more  drastic  i 

This  is  the  most  critical  stage  of  the  war.     We  have  success- 
fully overcome  earlier  crises  that  threatened  disaster    in   the 
field,  and  now,  humanly  speaking,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive 
in  the  light  of  past  events  how  Germany  can  avoid  thorough 
defeat  from  the  Allied  armies.     We  need  hardly  add  that 
without  this  defeat  the  future  peace  and  security  of  the  world 
can  never  be  assured.     Germany  relies  to-day  on  one  loophole 
of  escape— the  starvation  of  the   British  islands.-    The  old 
gag— ownc  ignolum  pro  magnifico — is  as  true  in  war  as  in 
peace  ;  but    rather  it  is.  less  the   unknown  than  the  half- 
known  on  which  great  liopes  are  based.     Were  the  Govern- 
ment, through  the  mouth  of  the  Prime  Minister,  to  inform 
the  nation  in  the  most  definite  terms  what  is  the  absolute 
worst  that  might  confront  it,  should  the  submarine  destruction 
continue    at  its   present    rate  or    even  increase,    tliough  it 
might  possibly  hearten  Germany  temporarily  (it  is  doubtful  if 
it  could  do  more  in  this  way  than  the  lies  now  in  circulation  hi 
that  country),  it  would  certainly  inspire  the  British  people 
with  new  ardour  and  with  a  ready  desire  to  do  everything 
within  their  power  to  promote  the  efficiency  of  whatever  . 
machinery  of  distribution  it  were  necessary  to  install.     Putting 
individuals  on  their  honour  is  foolishness ;    personal  selfish- 
ness is  not  the  reason,  but  lack  of  imagination,  which  we  know 
to  be  a  weak  trait  in  tlie  national  character.     Persons  able 
to  visualise  food  economy  in  so  far  as  it  affects  themselves, 
carried   it  into  practice  months  ago ;    others  are  incapable 
of  roiDjirelunding  how  the  trival  reduction  of  their  own  meals 
can  affect  national  supplies.     And  so  far  as  food-hoarding  is 
concerned,  if    tiiere   be    any    guilty    of    this    offence,    either 
firms  or  private  jjcrsons,  through   greed  of  palate  or  purse, 
let  us  be  done    with    threatening   and   let   action    be    taken 
•,it  once  and  atrainst  the  most  prominent  offenders. 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  26,  1917 


The  German  Strategic  Reserve 


By   Hilaire  Belloc 


THE  one  great  interest  ot  the  moment  upon  the 
\\  cstern  field  of  war  is,  unfortunately  for  the  purposes 
of  description,  tlie  least  picturesijuc  point  of  all : 
It  is  not  the  question  of  advance,  nor  even  of  the 
hammering  and  consequent  disintegration  of  the  enemy's 
lint— it  is  lite  degree  in  which  the  renewed  Allied  offensive 
i'-i  dragging  into  the  Western  whirlpool  tiki  last  German  strategic 

reserve.  ,  •    ,       x, 

We  all  know  the  situation.  Austria  was  so  hit  by  the 
surrenders  in  mass  last  June  and  July  tjjat  she  remained  from 
that  moment  onwards  unable  to  d9,  more  than  just  hold  her 
own.  She  was  not  able  to  do  that  thoroughly  upon  the  East, 
nor  upon  the  Itahan  front  entirely.  l'"or  ujwn  the  East  she 
had  to  Summon  a  great  number  of  German  divisions  and  even 
to  ask  for  the  aid  of  two  Turkish  divisions  as  well.  Both  the 
Turkish  and  the  German  divisions  Jmve  had  to  remain  helping 
her,  for  Austria  has  not  been  able  to,Jind  the  resources  for 
reheving  them. 

At  the  same  time,  the  Bulgarian  army  is  completely  occu- 
))ied  by  the  intervention  of  Roumania  and  by  the  forces  based 
upon  "Salonika.  The  Turkish  resources  have  also  proved 
unequal  to  the  pressure  that  pould  Ije  brought  against  them, 
J  nd  cannot  lend  another  man  from  Asia  to  Europe. 

Therefore,  in  a  degree  not  hitherto  reached,  the  burden  of 
the  war  upon  the  enemy's  side  falls  upon  the  German  Empire 
alone.  The  German  Empire  represents  in  man-power  almost 
exactly  half  the  great  combination  which  has  been  formed 
as  vassal  to  Prussia  for  the  attack  upon  European  civilisation. 
But  the  militarv  work  now  lieing  done  by  the  German  Empire 
in  these  latter  stages  of  the  Great  War,  which  mark  the  failure 
of  Prussia,  is  more  like  three-quarters  of  the  whole,  not 
f.xactly  in  man-power  but  in  weight  and  effect. 

The  chief  mark  of  this  last  German  effort  is  the  creation 
(by  a  deliberate  jjolicy  of  anticipation  and  risking  the  future) 
of  a  strategic  reserve  ;  and  the  value  of  this  strategic  reserve 
was  its  capacity  of  offecting  a  surprise.  It  could  be  thrown 
when  it  was  needed  (so  the  the.^is  rit^i)  hero  or  there  at  the 
"Will  of  the  German  Command,  that  is,  of  I.eudendorff. 

In  other  words,  the  German  Higher  Command  decided 
last  December  that  the  summer  vi  1917  was  their  last  chance 
of  getting  a  draw,  and  therefore  borrowed  future  man  -power 
to  risk  everything  upon  the  present. 

They  built  up  a  large  number  of  spare  divisions  and  in- 
tended (while  refusing  action  as  long  as  possible,  and  conse- 
tjuently  avoiding  loss)  to  have  those  spare  divisions  in  hand 
for  one  last  effort  launched  at  a  time  and  place  of  their  own 
choosing.  ^ 

Now  it  is  perhaps  the  most  elemi'ntary  point  in  all  military 
history  that  the  chit-f  condition  of  victory  is  the  freedom 
to  decide  the  form  of  an  action,  and  the  chief  condition  of 
defeat  the  compulsion  to  accept  the  form  imposed  by  your 
opponent.  .ly    i,r 

It  would  not  be  true  to  say  that  no  great  action  in  the 
past  has  failed  to  give  success  to  the  party  which  decided  its 
lorm,  but  of  the  various  conditions  of  victory  this  power  of 
initiative  *is  the  chief.  

The  whole  point,  therefore,  o"f  'anticipating  income,  as  it 
were,  and  creating  this  strategic  reserve  in  Germany,  was  the 
ability  to  use  it  not  where  the  German  Conmiand  should  be 
compelled  to  use  it  by  the  Allies,  but  wiierc  they  themselves 
chose  to  throw  it,  to  the  surprise  and  discomhture  of  the  Allies. 

It  was  clear  that  if  a  very  expensive  and  continued  (iffensive 
could  be  opened  early  in  the  West,  by  the  Allies,  this  German 
strategic  reserv'o  would  at  once  be  in  part  rc(4iiired  to  meet 
the  strain.  In  other  words,  its  value  as  a  force  to  restore  the 
initiative  to  (iermany  and  to  be  flung  in  at  will  where  and 
when  Germany  might  choose,  would  be  diminished  ;  and 
diminished  in  a  degree  proportionate  to  that  in  which  the 
Allied  ofl'ensive  should  suck  it  into  the  Western  whirlpool. 

We  know,  for  instance,  what  Germany  had  to  do  in  the 
case  of  the  Somme.  She  had  to  throw  in,  first  aiid-last,  the 
equivalent  of  well  over  100  of  her  new  reduced  divisions, 
counting  in  infantry  9,000  bayonets  at  full  establishment. 
Anything  upon  that  scale  begun  early  in  191 7  and  coi  tiiuously 
pressed  would  utterly,  prevent  the  German  strategic  reserve 
irom  being  used  ;elst|wherc  at  all.    ' 

Heijce  aroscvthe  decision  to  retire  upon  a  new  line.  When 
that  decision  was  taken  we  do  wot  know.  What  we  do  now 
knotL  by  inference  from  all  the  surrounding  circumstances 
is  tiiat  Leudendorlf  had  planned  a  retirement  before  that 
pait  of  the  :\llied  front  on  which  he  conceived  the  chief  pre- 


parations lor  a  renewed  offensive  to  lie  :  1  le  further  calculated 
that  such  a  retirement  would  jx^stixme  the  Allied  power  of 
developing  a  new  offensixe  U>r  about  two  months  (such  was 
the  interval  communicated  to  the  (krman  papers),  and  ba.sed 
this  calculation  partly  upon  the  known  or  snipposed  rate  of 
reconstruction  with  the  means  available  to  the  Allies,  and 
pa'l'v  upon  a  novel  act  of  v.'ar.  This  novel' act  of  war  con- 
sist!.^  in  the  complete  destruction  of  the  whole  countryside 
over  whiBh  the  retreat  was  to  take  place. 

It  will  be  useful  here  to  add  to  the  quotation  I  put  at  the 
head  of  my  article  last  week,  in  order  to  show  what  the  view 
of  the  retirement  was  in  Germany,  and  to  -give  e.xamples  of 
what  the  (ierman  Higher  Ci)mmaiid  e.xjx-ctea  to  be  the  result 
of  the  retreat  on  the  St.  Ouentin  line. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  text  I  put  at  the  head  of 
last  week's  article  was  the  general  statement  sent  round  to 
neutral  journalists  and  propagated  by  wireless  towards  the 
end' of  March,  that  the  German  retirement  was  a  master 
stroke  ■which  had  succeeded  in  destroying  the  Allies'  plan 
for  a  spring  offensive. 

This  statement  could  not  have  been  made  at  random.  It 
may  have  had  a  political  domestic  object  in  the  main,  but 
even  so  it  would  not  have  been  made  if  the  tiennan  com- 
mander could  have  foreseen  what  was  coming.  In  other 
words,  he  has  seriously  suffered  the  effect  of  a  surprise. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  these  pronouncements  which  I 
am  about  to  quote  (and  which  I  owe  to  the  research  of 
Monsieur  Jean  Herbette,  the  best  informed  of  the  l-'rench 
Publicists  upon  Foreign  Affairs,  whose  collection  has  been 
put  befoFe.  me  by  a  correspondent)  all  belong  to  the  latter 
part  of  the  month  of  March  and  the  latest  of  them  to  the  \-ery 
end  of  tjiat  month.  Let  the  reader  further  remember  that 
the  tremendous  blow  struck  by  Sir  Douglas  Haig  was  launched 
in  the  night  before  Easter  Sunday  at  the.jijid  of  what  had 
already  been  a  considerable  bombardment,  and  that  the 
infantry  attack  which  began  this  new  great  battle  began  just 
at  dawn  of  Easter  Monday,  April  9th  :  in  ^^her  words,  there 
is  an  interval  of  less  than  three  wteks  between  the  earliest 
of  these  inspired  Press  Comments  and  the  beginning  of  the 
new  offensive. 

We  have,  then,  in  the  collection  before  me,  the  principal 
newspaper  of  Baden  instructing  its  critic  to  speak  thus  of 
the  retirement : 

"  All  the  projects  of  our  enemy  arc  now  in  disarray  and 
the  initiative  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  German 
Generals." 

The  "  North  German  Gazette  "  expands  this  statcmriit  ;it 
about  the  same  time  into  the  form  : 

"  The  ]-'nglish  and  l-'roncli  liad  ordered  a  vast  accumuUilioii 
of  material  for  a  war  of  positions.  They  liad  prepared  colossal 
masses  of  artillery  and  niunitionment.  In  a  word,  they  had 
takeii  all  their  dispositions  to  crush  the  ,11,'ierman  front  line 
under  an  avalanche  of  iron,  and  to  begin  the  second  battle 
like  that  of  the  Somme.  Tliis  plan  has  bieen  brought  to 
nought  by  our  Higher  Command." 

The  "  Vossische  Zeitung"  on  the  19th  of  March,  insists 
further :  "^ 

"  Hindenburg  has  often  already  ordered  retreats  that  were 
no  mote'  than  the  prelude  to  new  operations.  By  the 
nianoLuvTc  actually  before  us  he  has  acquired  the  .strategic 
initiative  on  the  Western  front.  We  know  by  experience 
that  gnce  he  has  given  himself  elbow  room  for  free  niovcinent 
he.  knoAvs  how  to  gel  a  glorious  result  fronV^uch  freedom." 

The  V  Lokal  Anzeiger."  which  is  ijuitc  openly  official,  dots 
the  i's  and  crosses  the  t's  : 

"  The  one  jxjinton  whicli  no  further  doubt  is  ))ossible  )s  that 
the  fundamental  idea  of  Hindenburg,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Kussiau  campaign,  is  an  offensive." 

The  organ  of  the  Westphalian  Khineland,  which  I  am  told 
has  a  special  military  connection,  is  a  little  vaguer,  but  it 
tells  us  at  the  same  time  : 

"  We  learn  that  our  troops  have  abandoned  their  old  positions, 
and  we  are  in  no  error  in  supposing  that  this  marks  the  begin- 
ning ol  the  great  decisive  battle." 

While  the  cosmopolitan  financiers'  paper,  the  "Cologne 
(.Jdzette  "  tells  its  readers  as  late  as  the  i8th  of  March,  that  : 

"  In  a  few  weekv.  the  cours^e  oi  operations  will  make  the  reason 
of  the  retirenieut  clearly  understood." 

It  is  clear  from  all  these  pronouncements  communicated 
to  the  German  Press  and  put  forward  in  various  forms  in  its 


April  26,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


organs,  that  the  retirement  upon  the  St.  Ouentin  line  was 
expected  thoroiighly "  by  the  (lerman  commanders  to 
pc^stppne  the  Allied  offensive  for  many  weeks  and  to  restore 
t"  themselves  a  full  initiative  of  attacking  where  and  when 
tliey  might  •choose.  The  retreat  could  not,  in  the  con-' 
caption  of  the  (ierman  Higher  Command,  be  followed  with 
sufiicient  rapiditVito  restore  the  power  of  offensive  action  to  the 
French  and  British,  and  it  was  to  be  used  for  the  purpose 
of  recovering  initiative  for  the  enemy  and  the  inception  of  a 
war  of  movement  in  which  the  form  of  battle  should  be 
decided  by  themselves. 

But  these  phra.ses  written  by  men,  who  had  not  openly 
acknowledged  authority,  might  always  be  disavowed  by  the 
enemy's  command,  and  it  might  be  argued  by  those  who  do  not 
know  how  the  German  Press  is  worked  in  such  matters,  that 
the  error  was  no  more  than  the  error  of  journalists  un- 
acquainted with  military  problems. 

Unfortunately  for  this  view,  something  or  other  made  the 
Chancellor  himself  insist  upon  the  pronouncement  as  official, 
and  give  it  to  the  world  within  ten  days  of  \'imy.  It  was 
actually  as  late  as  the  29th  of  March  that  Bethman-Hollweg 
told  the  world  that  : 

"On  the  Western  front  the  operation  of  retirement  continues 
according  to  plan  and  is  giving  a  lilierty  ol  action  vvliicli  in- 
creases .with  every  day  that  passes." 

A  list  of  this,  sort  is  exceedingly  important  and  it  might 
be  indefinitely  extended,  I  believe,  by  a  further  seardli  through 
the  German  I'rcss  at  the  time.  It  enables, us  to  judge  the 
extent  and  nature  of  the  superiority  which  the  French  and 
Jjritish  Higher  Command  have  established  ;  for  the  great 
test  of  superiority  is  the  power  to  impose  will. 

With  so  much  quoted  from  the  German  Press  by  way  of 
digression  to  illustrate  my  point,  I  will  return  to  the  main 
argument. 

We  have  .seen  what  the  plan  of  the  German  retirement 
was.     That  plan  went  wrong  in  s^everal  important  particulars. 

In  the  first  place  tlie  retirement  had  to  begin  earlier  than 
was  intended  and  not  quite  in  the  form  that  was  intended. 
There  is  the  clearest  possible  evidence  to  show  that  it  was 
intended  to  pivot  ujpon  the  Bapaume  Ridge.  The  Bapaiime 
Ridge  was  lost  simply  because  the  enemy  was  shot  off  it. 
Such  wholly  new  works  as  were  constructed  for  its  defence 
and  yet  abandoned  would  never  have  been  constructed  upon 
any  other  theor\'.  Further,  the  enemy  had  no  time  to  destroy 
the  most  important  of  all  the  areas  subjected  to  his  original 
plan — the  area  iH  and  around  Noyon.  It  was  the  most  im- 
portant because  it  was  the  threshold  of  the  French  pursuit  and 
a  check  here  would  have  prevented  that  pursuit  from 
achieving  the  rapidity  it  did. 

The  riext  point  in  which  the  plan  went  wrong  was  a  mis- 
calculation, closely  connected  with  this  interference  with  the 
enemy's  time-table,  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the  pursuit 
would  bo  taken  up,  an  error  whicli  was  also  supported  by  a 
miscalculation  of  the  rate  at  which  reconstruction  of  roads 
and  bridges  would  be  possible. 

Lastly,  the  plan  was  marred  by  an  error  as  to  the  rate 
at  which,  and  perhaps  as  to  the  exact  places  in  which,  the  new 
concentration  of  men  and  material  would  be  made  for  the 
renewed  attack.  Instead  of  a  respite  of  two  months  there 
was  no  real  respite  at  all,  but  contmuous  fairly  hard  fighting 
and  only  an  interval  of  three  weeks  between  the  main  retire- 
ment and  the  first  great  bombardment  of  the  renewed 
offensive. 


To  what  this  last  error  was  due  it  is  difficult  to  guess.  One 
can  hardly  be'lieve  that -the-,  enemy  was.  ignorant  of  such 
great  concentrations  us  were  necessary  to  the.task  undertaken, 
but  perhaps  one  mav  suggest  an  under-valuation  of  the  Allies' 
enormous  and  increasing  resources  in  nnmiti<mment.  Von 
can  find  out  from  the  air  that  a  concentration  is  taking  place. 
You  cannot  find  out  within  any  degree  of  accuracy  its  mag- 
nitude. At  any  rate,  the  great  offensive  began  after  a  fashion 
that  clearly  showed  therGerman  forces  to  be  taken. at.a  dis- 
advantage by  it.  The  counter-concentration  to  meet  it  did 
not  develop  upon  the  north  until  it  was  too  late  and,  as  we 
know,  the  strongest  ■  and  pivot  position  of  the  northern  .end 
of  the  new  line  was  lost  by  the  Germans  to  the  British  in  the 
course  of  Easter  week,  from  the  9th  to  the  14th  of  this 
month. 

Against  the  second  blow,  which  was  to  come  on  the  other 
limb  of  the  great  salient  along  the  front  of  the  Aisne  and  in 
Champagne,  the  enemy  had  prepared  a  very  considerable 
concentration,  and  was  able  to  put  up  a  proportionately 
strong  resistance.  Nevertheless,  he  lost  entirely  one  of  his 
key  positions  (as  will  be  described  in  a  moment),  and  partially 
lost  the  second,  suffered  less  in  guns  by  far  than,  he  had 
suffered  in  the  north,  but  more  in  prisoners,  and  altogether 
by  the  time  the  second  blow  was  completed  he  had  lost  in 
valid  prisoners  alone,  infantry  to  the  equivalent  of  nearly 
four  divisions  and  guns  numbering  perhaps  an  eighth  of  his 
total  original  equipment  upon  these  sectors.  Before  the  third 
week  of  April  ivas  over  the  enemy  had  already  clearly  begun 
to  draw  upon  his  strategic  reserve,  and  that  we  have  compelled 
him  so  to  do  at  such  a  date  is  the  capital  point  of  all. 

Now  it  must  honestly  be  confessed,  dull  and  disappointing 
as  the  confession  is,  that  the  answer  to  the  main  question, 
the  degree  which  this  process  has  already  reached,  cannot 
yet  be  given.  If  it  could,  the  process  of  ascertaining  it 
and  the  proof  of  the  numbers  suggested  would  certainly 
form  the  thesis  of  my  whole  article  this  week,  for  it  is  a  point 
of  capital  importance.  But  though  no  doubt  there  is  con- 
siderable evidence  already  accumulated  by  the  Higher 
Command  of  the  Allies,  the  moment  has  not  yet  come  to  make 
it  public,  and  therefore  we  are  left  unable  to  give  the  reply 
which  the  main  question  demands.  What  has  been  made 
public,  liowever,  is  sufficient  to  show  something  of  the  suction 
that  is  taking  place.  For  we  can  tabulate  a  certain  number 
(of  necessity  much  le^  than  the  total)  of  new  divisional 
movements,  that  is,  of  divisions  appearing  in  the  line  which 
have  hitherto  been  absent,  and  though  we  cannot  postulate 
as  yet  that  any  one  t>f  these  is  specifically  a  portion  of  the 
strategic  reserve  that  has  been  formed,  we  can  be  certain 
that  some  considerable  portion  of  the  newly-arrived  forces 
must  have  come  within  the  framework  of  this  new  reserve. 

Two  divisions  counter-attacked  at  Monchy  on  the  third 
.day  of  the  renewed  offensive ;  four  divisions  in  the  main 
effort  against  the  Australians  and  the  centre  between  Lagni- 
court  and  the  great  Havrincourt  Wood  ;  ten  da\s  later,  that 
is,  in  the  fighting  of  last  Monday,  at  least  three  new  divisions 
had  appeared  upon  one  point  alone— the  Valley  of  the  Scarpe. 
Upon  the  French  front  19  original  divisions  took  the  shock 
of  the  second  week  ;  two  fresh  divisions  counter-attacked  on 
the  third  day  of  the  French  battle  in  the  plain  just  below 
Craonne  ;  a  force  of  unspecified  strength  but  of  at  least  one 
division  counter-attacked  on  the  same  day  twenty  miles  or 
more  to  the  east  beyond  Rheims.  On  the  fourth  day  of  the 
French  battle  there  had  already  been  identified  no  less  than  12 
new  German  di\-isions  arriving  to  support  the  imperilled  line  ; 


LAND    &     WATER 


April,  2(),  TOT7 


in  other  word?;,  sucked  into  the  whirlpool  ot  the  new  lighting:. 
On  the  fifth  day  of  th<r  battle,  the  I'riday,  towards  evening, 
wliiit  must  lia\e  been  further  new  lorii-s,  a^^ain  not  specilied 
111  aniount  but  described  in  curiously  euiphatif  lun{,'uaj;e  by 
liiu  I'li'ueh  word  iHcniua  in  the  ii)unmuii<iuOs,  tried  to  recover 
what  we  shall  see  in  ;i  inonient  to  be  the  critical  point  ol 
Hnrtebise.  .And  a  few  davs  before  there  had  lieen,  more 
than  a  day's  march  away  in  Champaxne,  three  violent  counter- 
attacks that  must  have  meant  at  least  two  divisions  in  action. 

We  have  here,  therefore,  merely  by  tabulating  what  liave 
been  mentioned  in  despatches  (certainly  less  than  the  total), 
the  appearance  already  of  twenty  odd  divisions  against  the 
Western  offensive  of  1917  over  and  above  those  first  deputed 
to  meet  the  shock,  and  those  twenty  odd  divisions  can  be  but 
a  portion  of  the  total  moved  up  under  necessity  into  an  action, 
the  form  of  which  is  decided  by  the  Allied  Command  and  not 
by  the  German.  It  is  a  mere  guess  or  suggestion,  but  it  is 
]>erhaps  not  an  exaggerated  one  if  we  say  that  some  ten 
divisions  of  the  strategic  reserve  have  actually  appeared 
against  the  new  menace. 

We  can  put,  not  accurately,  but  in  round  numbers,  what 
this  strategic  reserve  is,  or  rather,  what  it  was  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  (between  which  date  and]  the  British 
offensive  of  the  ()th,  the  (iermans  suflered  no  very  heavy 
losses).  In  round  numlx'rs  the  (lerman  lunpire  had  in  sight 
up  to  the  end  of  this  summer,  over  and  above  the  formations 
existing  last  December,  a  million  men.  Again,  in  round 
niunbers.  alx)Ut  half  that  figure  represented  men  a\ailable  as 
soon  as  they  could  l)e  trained  ;  the  other  half  human  material 
that  would  dribble  in  from  hospitals,  from  hitherto  exempted 
men,  etc.,  during  the  months  from  January  to  August  in- 


clusive. Of  that  space  oT  lime  more  than  three  months  have 
already  elapsed.  We  may,  therefore,  take  it  that  the  strategic 
reserve,  inclusive  of  drafts  ready  in  the  depots  to  fill  the  gajis 
caused  in  il  lluough  action,  is  equisalent  to  well  over  t)oo,ooo 
men. 

If  we  suppose  the  men  actually  incorporated  to  be  about 
half  the  material  available,  and  the  rest  to  be  lying  behind 
filling  gaps,  we  may  suggest  something  over  twenty  -at  the 
most,  say,  twenty-five— of  the  new  small  German  "divisional 
formations  to  have  been  held  in  hand  by  the  enemy  before  the 
■  great  offensive  began.  It  may  be  an  exaggeration  to  suggest 
that  as  many  as  ten  have  already  been  sucked  into  the 
Western  battle.  I  repeat,  it  is  only  a  suggestion  or  guess  : 
but  1  think  it  probable  that  when  we  know  the  facts  it  will 
be  found  a  tolerably  accurate  guess.  At  any  rate,  the  future 
will  decide  it  for  us,  because  we  shall  see  by  the  masses  of 
troops  the  German  Empire  may  use  elsewhere  whether  or 
not  the  unexpected  strength  and  earliness  of  the  AUicd 
offensive  has  seriously  depleted  this  strategic  reserve. 

As  this  article  was  completed  the  first  news  came  in  of  a 
renewed  blow— the  third— delivered,  or  rather  begun,  by  the 
Hritish  on  a  chosen  sector  of  16,000  yards  before  Arras  and 
along  the  critical  Scarpe  line.  Though  no  details  upon 
which  to  base  a  descriptirm  are  available  at  the  moment  f)f 
writing,  it  is  clear  that  the  enemy  has  been  compelled  to 
bring  up  in  the  last  ten  days  a  great  mass  of  reserve  force  : 
and  herein  again  will  lie  the  true  interest  of  the  actions  that 
will  be  in  progress  when  these  lines  are  before  the  reader  : 
Not  the  advance  of  .so  many  yards  in  such  and  such  points 
nor  (of  itself)  the  tale  of  prisoners,  but  the  extent  to  wliicli 
zee  have  eompelled  the  enemy  to  throiv  in  and  lose  his  reserve. 


The    French    Battle 


Tliough  the  main  point  of  interest  is  thus  the  way  the 
Allies  are  compelling  the  Germans  to  use  up  their  reserve, 
and  though  this  would  remain  the  chief  interest  even  if  not 
a  yard  of  advance  were  effected  anywhere  by  the  Allies  in  the 
West,  yet  my  readers  will  naturally  exiK?ct  this  week  a  summary 
at  least  of  the  movement  undertaken  in  the  second  blow,  the 
French  action  undertaken  on  Monday  the  i6th,  and  covering 
as  did  the  British  action,  five  days. 

In  order  to  understand  what  took  place  upon  the  French 
front,  we  must  conceive  of  three  great  groups  of  positions 
strfct^ed  out  upon  a  landscape  30  miles  in  extent. 

C  :,unting  from  west  to  east  the  first  group,  which  I  will 
call  tlie  Craonne  Ridge,  is  a  peculiarly  shaped  very  strong 
limestone  plateau,  the  backbone  of  the  German  resistance 
against  the  English  in  the  summer  of  1914.  This  ridge  ends 
in  a  very  sharp  promontory  falling  steejily  upon  the  plain 
of  Champagne.  Those  who  are  acquainted  with  Black  Down' 
on  the  borders  of  Sussex  and  Hampshire,  will  have  a  fair  idea 
of  that  promontory  which  liears  upon  its  height  the  little 
town  of  Craonne.  Then  comes  a  stretch  of  rolling  open 
Chamjiagne  country  until  you  reach  the  neighbourhood  of 
Rheims,  about  12  miles  away,  and  a  couple  of  isolated  heights, 
the  one  north-west,  the  other  cast  of  Rheims  form  the  second 
or  central  group.  These  two  heights,  separated  one  from  the 
other  by  a  distance  of  about  seven  miles  are,  the  westernmost 
the  hill  of  Briinont,  the  easternmost  the  larger  more  complex 
group  of  Nogent. 

Lastly,  seven  or  eight  miles  again  to  the  east  of  Nogent, 
you  have  a  whole  group  of  heights  which  form  the  third 
bastion  in  this  long  curtain  of  positions  :  The  very  sparsely 
inhabited  wooded  hills  which  are  generally  called  the  group  of 
Moronvillers  from  the  little  village  in  their  further  northern 
slope. 

The  French  attack  neglected  the  central  positions  and 
struck  against  the  westernmost  and  easternmost,  that  is 
against  the  Craonne  Ringe  and  the  Moronvillers  Hill  group. 
It  seized  the  greater  part  of  both  these  positions  and  the 
l'"rench  army  now  lies  in  possession  of  such  portions  of  them 
IS  commantl  the  rest. 

"Break  Up"'  v.   "Break  Through" 

Before  we  look  at  the  action  in  detail  let  us  clearly  under- 
stand what  the  French  as  well  as  the  English  are  after.  They 
arc  not  after  a  break-through,  though  that  may  happen 
sooner  or  later.  They  are  alter  a  break-up.  Their  business 
IS  to  put  the  (German  line  tlirougii  so  severe  a  trial  that  it 
sliall  first  of  all  call  up  like  a  blister  the  mass  of  the  German 
reserve  (as  we  have  seen)  and  finally  continue  to  pound  it 
until  it  loses  integration. 

Catch  words  are  liorrible  things  and  have  become  more 
horrible  since  they  became  the  necessity  ui  bad  journalism 
and  worse  politics.  But  if  e\cr  tliere  was  an  occasion  when 
it  was  le^'itimate  to  use  them  iuv  the  puipose  uf  rubbing  in  an 


important  pubHc  lesson,  it  is  in  connection  with  this  German 
talk  of  "  breaking  through." 

If  evcrj'one  watching  this  gigantic  battle  of  the  West 
would  bear  in  mind  the  phrase  "'  not  breaking  through  but 
breaking  up  "  and  never  lose  grip  of  it,  ^he  whole  of  public 
opinion  would  be  informed.  It  would  cease  to  consider 
mere  advance  over  ground,  it  would  cease  to  exaggerate  special 
tactical  points ;  it  would  put  in  its  right  proportions  and 
character  the  enormous  new  task,  and  let  us  hope  conclusive 
task,  which  our  ancient  civilisation  opened  with  the  guns  of 
Sir  Douglas  Haig  on  Easter  Sunday. 

To  go  back  to  first  principles  :  The  object  of  An  army  in 
the  field  is  to  put  out  of  action  the  army  opposed  to  it. 

An  army  is  put  out  of  action  by  the  loss  of  its  fighting  power 
in  such  a  degree  (compared  with  the  corresponding  lo?s  of  its 
opponent)  that  it  can  no  longer  maintain  the  struggle  as  one 
organism  against  another. 
^  This  loss  of  fighting  power  is  effected  in  one  of  two  ways : 
Numerical  loss,  and  loss  of  organisation.  Soinetimes  one 
factor  predominates,  sometimes  the  other.  Both  are  present 
in  any  defeat.  At  Sedan,  for  instance,  and  at  the  capitula- 
tion of  Metz  the  loss  was  almost  entirely  numerical ;  the  only 
two  existing  regular  armies  of  the  French  were  cut  off  from 
supply,  compelled  to  surrender,  and  all  their  inen  and 
all  their  guns  ceased  in  a  military  sense  to  exist.  At  Waterloo 
the  loss  was  mainly  loss  of  oi'ganisation,  that  is,  the  mere 
numbers  of  killed  and  wounded  would  not  have  decided  the 
matter.  What  decided  it  was  the  breaking  up  of  the  armv 
from  an  organisation  to  a  mass  of  dust  by  the  blows  inflicted 
upon  it. 

In  a  war  of  positions,  each  party  facing  the  other  on  a  Une 
which  cannot  be  turned  and  each  insufficient  numbers  to  hold 
such  a  line,'  two  main  types  of  decision  are  possible  :  The 
first  type  is  the  breaking  of  the  line  over  a  sufficiently  wide 
gate  to  allow  the  victorious  side  a  passage  right  through. 

The  second  process  consists  in  disintegrating  the  line 
by  pressure  over  a  very  great  part  of  its  length  exercised  by 
superior  against  inferior  power  until  the  line  gives  way  in 
one  or  several  places.  Detailed  local  \-ictories  immediately 
follow.  The  whole  defeated  force  rajiidly  gets  inferior  in 
numbers  and  organisation  and,  though  stillcapable  of  falliflg 
back  is    less  and  less  able  to  stand  the  blows  dcUvered. 

The  French,  therefore,  had  for  their  object  to  make  the 
German  line  suffer  as  much  as  possible,  and  this  was  done 
by  pushing  at  specially  selected  points  forward  after  hammering 
the  trench  system  to.  bits  with  the  superiority  of  gun  power, 
and  between  these  selected  points  causing  pockets  or  small 
local  saUents  to  bulge  out  from  which  the  enemy  either  failed 
to  retire — and  therefore  suffered  a  heax-^,'  loss  in  prisoners 
and  guns— or  retired  with  \-cry  great  loss"  though  not  leaving 
prisoners  Miind.  Further  it"  was  their  business  to  get  hold 
of  the  observation  points  which  had  been  of  such  value  to  the 
enemy  in  establishing  his  innnensely  strong  positions;  and  to 
seize  the  higher  ground,   his  counter-attacks  up  hill  against 


April  2(^,  iqiy 


LAND    &    WATER 


which  would  continue  the  process  of  loss  and.  consequent 
ultimate  disintegration. 

If  the  reader  will  look  at  Map  I  aiid  compare  the  two 
lines,  tiiat  from  which  the  French  started  on  the  morning  of 
Monday  the  i()th,  and  that  on  which  they  were  estabhshed 
by  the  evening  of  Thursday  the  lotii,  they  will  appreciate 
what  has  taken  place.  The  mere  advance  on  the  map  is 
insignilicant  in  both  senses  of  that  word,  but  it  includes  every- 
where upon  the  left  and  the  right  where  the  two  efforts  were 
made,  the  tremendous  system  of  field  fortifications  which  the 
Germans  had  elaborated  in  more  than  2I  years  of  work,  and  it 
has  seized  heights  wliich  were  the  object  of  the  effort.  1 

To  begin  with  the  limestone  ridge  of  Craonne  (marked 
1.  upon  the  map)  :  The  line  has  not  advanced  to  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  whole  ridge,  but  what  it  has  done  is  to  get  across 
the  saddle  of  the  ridge  at  two  points,  one  in  front  of  Courtecon 
(at  C),  the  other  at  the  farm  of  Hurtebise  (at  B),  and  in 
both  these  places  the  backbone  of  the  ridge  is  severed. 

Wliat  is  the  effect  of  this  ?  In  the  first  place,  the  hammer- 
ing of  the  advance  has  accounted  for  many  thousands  of 
prisoners  and  scores  of  guns.  The  guns,  for-  instance,  on  the 
spur  or  promontory  at  A  which  held  Fort  Conde,  were 
abandoned.  All  the  troops  holding  the  wood  at  Ville-aux-bois 
were  captured  and  so  on  all  along  this  section  of  the  front. 
But  even  more  important  than  the  losses  in  prisoners  was 
the  necessity  of  counter-attacking  on  a  large  scale  to  which 
the  enemy  was  condemned.  The  value  of  strong  works  is 
that  they  economise  men.  When  you  lose  your  main  system 
and  are  thrown  back  on  shallow  hastily  prepared  trenches 
behind,  you  must,  if  you  are  to  hold  at  all,  bring  up  many 
more  men  and  suffer  nmch  higher  losses,  yon  luive  to  counti-r- 
attack  heavily  (at  a  corresjjonding  expense)  while  consolidat- 
ing your  new  line.  If  the  enemy  was  to  hold  at  all  on  the 
new  and  improvised  positions  to  which  he  was  thrust  back 
now  that  he  had  lost  his  original  strong  lines,  he  must  cover 
those  positions  precisely  as  in  the  EngUsh  case  to  the  north, 
by  violently  re-acting  at  critical  places.  These  critical 
)jiaces  were  the  saddles  of  the  ridge  which  the  French  had 
seized  and  the  open  ground  below  Craonne  and  in  front  of 
juvincourt,  where  the  French  progress  had  been  exceptionally 
rapid.  Counter-attacks  of  the  very  strongest  sort  were 
delivered  on  the  fourth  and  fifth  da\'S  of  the  action  against 
all  these  jroints,  and  everywhere  caused  very  heavy  losses 
indeed  to  the  fresh  divisions  brought  up.  The  worst  loss  was 
in  front  of  Hurtebise  Farm  at  B,  where  the  Germans  came 
up  the  slopes  from  the  valley  of  the  Ailette  River  and  were 
caught  under  the  French  fire  from  tlie  height  above.  But 
losses  only  slightly  less  grave  were  also  incurred  in  front  of 


Courtecon  at  C,  the  other  point  on  which  the  French  hold 
the  "ridge  and  the  slopes  beyond.  The  counter-attack  iu 
front  of  Juvincourt  was  equally-  broken.  The  upshot  oi 
the  matter  is  that  no  matter  how  nmch  of  their  reserve  the 
Gennans  draw  upon  with  the  object  of  preventing  the  line 
going  further  back  in  this  sector,  they  cannot  escaj^e  corres- 
pondingly heavy  losses  from  the  continued  bombardment 
and  the  necessity  which  still  exists  of  counter-attack  while 
they  are  consolidating  each  new  hnc.  ' 

The  central  sector  of  heights,  Brimont  Hill  and  Nogcnt 
Hill  (the  full  name  of  the  village  is  Nogent  L'Abesse),  the 
F'rench  left  alone.  The  Russian  brigade  which  took  Courcy 
on  the  canal  to  Rheims,  did  not  press  the  attack  on  Brimont, 
while  Nogent  was  not  touched  at  all.  What  was  done  was  to 
make  the  advance  east  and  west  of  the  Central  Group  so  that 

.  this  Central  Group  became  a  new  salient  subject  to  con- 
verging fire,  and  with  this  object  the  second  part  of  the 
action,  that  upon  the  right  or  east  (upon  the  hill  group 
marked  3  in  Map  I.)  took  place.  The  consequences  of  the 
latter  were  numerically  less  than  the  consequences  of  the 
attack  upon  the  long  Craonne  ridge.  It  yielded  less  prisoners 
and  less  guns.     The  inevitable  counter-attack  was  on  a  less 

'  developed  scale  and  therefore  less  costly.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  gave  an  observation  post  of  the  utmost  value  into 
the  hands  of  the  F-rench.  From  the. summit  of  the  Moron- 
villers  H  ill  group  one  looks  for  miles  and  miles  right  over  the 
Champagne  district.  The  system  has  been  compared  by 
many  travellers  to  an  island  standing  out  of  the  sea.  The 
bare  rolling  fields  of  Champagne  with  their  poor  chalky  soil 
and  rather  stuntwl  ))arallel  plantations  of  pines  are  here 
diversified,  not  only  by  the  bold  outline  of  tiie  hills  but  Ijy 
their  wooded  slopes.  The  whole  hill  group  has  not  been 
seized  in  this  case  any  more  than  in  the  case  of  the  Craonne 
Ridge,  b;iit  the  summits  have  been  seized  and  from  them 
one  looks  right  tlown  on  all  the  countryside  and  has  good 
obsei-vation  of,  though  not  domination  over,  the  hill  of 
Nogent  with  its  batteries  directed  against  Rheims. 

The  figures  of  the  blow  as  a  whole  are  familiar  to  newspaper 
readers  in  this  country  :  19,000  j^risoners  and  something 
oyer  one  hundred  guns  fell  into  I'lench  hands  during  the 
five  days'  fighting.  But  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  much 
more  important  tlian  the  advance,  or  even  than  the  loss  in 
prisoners  and  guns,-  was  the  compulsion  imposed  upon  the 
enemy  here  as  in  the  case  of.  the  British  offensive  to  bring  up 
hurriedly  from  their  strategic  reserve  in  the  middle  of  April 
troops  which  they  had  hoped  to  keep  intact  until,  at  any 
rate,  the  end  of  May  sUid  perhaps  until  the  beginning  of 
June  '  II.  Bellog 


The  Admiralty 


The  following  letter  on  the  modern  constitution  oj  the 
Admiralty  from  an  eminent  Flag  Officer  has  been  addressed 
to  the  Editor  of  L.'Wd  iv  Water.  The  subject  is  of  exceptional 
importance  at  the  moment,  and  the  criticism  is  moderate  in 
lone  and  constructive  in  character  ;  it  gives  support  to  the 
principal  contentions  of  our  Naval  ivriter,  who  will  reply  to 
il  next  week.     We  hold  over  Mr.  Pollen's  article  to-day. 

SIR, — In  conunon,  I  am  sure,  with  all  your  readers,  I 
have  been  following  Mr.  Pollen's  articles  with  the 
greatest  possible  interest.  Your  correspondent  is 
almost  the  only  exponent  in  the  press  of  what  most  of 
us  consider  enlightened  naval  views.  During  the  last  six 
months,  especially,  we  have  been  hoping  against  hope  that 
the  doctrines  which  he  has  been  setting  out  with  such  assured 
authority  might  soon  be  reflected  in  the  policy  of  the,  Govern- 
ment. In  this  we  have  been  disappointed.  There  has  been 
no  change  in  the  system  at  Whitehall.  We  have  reached  a 
crisis  in  the  war  when,  unless  there  is  a  radical  improvement 
in  our  naval  policy,  the  whole  issue  of  the  campaign 
mat"  be  jeopardised.  Yet  our  naval  power  is  so  great 
that  if  only  it  could  be  put  to  the  best  use,  there  is  no  reason 
wiiy  it  should  not  obtain  an  ultimate  and  even  a  speedy 
\  ictory.  But  our  naval  power  cannot  l^e  jnit  to  the  best  use 
unless  naval  administration  is  reorganised  upon  right  ])rin- 
>  iples.  •  It  is  only  in  his  last  article  that  Mr.  Pollen  has  hit 
upon  the  rc'dX  causa  causans  of  our  misfortunes.  I  allude  to 
llie  confusion  of  functions  in  the  Board  of  Admiralty — a 
1  onfusion  so  great  as  to  make  it  utterly  inoperative  as  a  Board 
at  all.  I  shall  achieve  my  object  if  I  can  make  it  clear  how 
it  is  that  if  a  single  body  of  men  are  set  to  control  both  military 
policy  and  the  semi-civil  function  of  the  supply,  serious  errors 
are  bound  to  follow. 

What  these  errors  have  been  in  the  past  has  been  ver\- 
clearly  set  out  in  your  columns  in  articles  between  Scptembei- 
■I  last  year  and  February  of  this.  They  may  be  summarised 
.1-.  follows : 


(i)  Our  Admiralty  was  dominated  for  the  ten  years  before 
1 914  by  what  is  called  the  "  Materialist  "  school  of  thought, 
and  it  seems  to  have  drifted  into  war  in  a  belief  set  out  bv 
Mr.  Churchill  in  the  following  terms  :  "  Without  a  battle." 
he  said,  "  we  had  all  that  the  most  victorious  of  battles  could 
give  us."  He  explained  the  statement  later  to  mo;an  that  it 
was  impossible  for  a  battle  fleet  to  close  an  enemy  battle  fleet 
if  the  latter  were  defended  by  torpedoes,  because  to  do  so 
would  expo,se  the  unprotected  bottt)ms  of  our  ships  to  under- 
water attack.  It  was  news  to  most  otficers  in  the  Navy  that 
the  Fleet  need  not  fight,  and  that  such  risks  should  not  be 
faced  if  the  chance  of  fighting  ofi'ered.  On  many  occasions 
during  the  war  some  of  our  admirals  and  captains  have  faced 
these  risks  without  fear,  and  without  disaster.  But  it  seems 
to  be  plain  now  that  the  Admiralty  did  hold  this  doctrine. 
It  is  significant,  at  least,  that  the  only  two  flag  officers  in 
command  in  action,  who  were  members  of  Mr.  Churchill's 
Board,  acted  on  it.  When  Sir  David  Beatty  ceased  to  be  able 
to  direct  the  operations  at  the  Dogger  Bank,  through  an 
injury  to  the  iiagshi)),  his  successor  in  command,  according 
to  the  Admiralty  statement  made  at  the  time,  withdrew  from 
the  ])ursuit  because  of  the  ])rescnce  of  submarines.  At  ithc 
IJattle  of  Jutland,  when  bad  light  made  long  range  gunnery  im- 
])ossible,  the  British  Mei-t,  tliough  for  more  than  two  hours 
within  12,000  yards  of  an  enemy  not  faster  than  itself,  and 
l)eing  approximately  twice  as  numerous  in  capital  ships  and 
far  more  powerfully  gunned,  was  not  brought  into  decisive 
gunnery  range  on  account  of  the  threat  held  over  it  by  the 
(ierman  defensive  torpedo  tactics.  (See  Admiral  Jellicoe's 
speech  at  the  Fishmongers'  Hall.)  On  these  .two  enormously 
important  occasions,  therefore,  the  doctrine  of  taking  no 
risks  prevented  a  decisive  issue  from  being  sought.  It  can 
hardly  be  doubted  that  the  reluctance  to  take  risks  arose 
primarily  from  the  belief  that  victory  w;is  umiecessarv. 

(2)  As  the  torpedo  forbade  close  action,  the  only  cJiance  of 
victory  lay  in  lon^  range  gunnery.  But  this  theorv  was  not 
supported  by  the  de\eloi)ment  of  a  system  of  fire  control  tliat 


8 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  26,  1917 


would  make  naval  guns  effective  at  such  ranges.  The  long 
delays  in  getting  hits  in  action  have' been  "the  subject  of 
constant  comment. 

(3)  In  the  days  when  the  British  Navy  understood  the 
vital  importance  of  offence,  it  always  strove  to  compel  the 
enemy  to  fight  by  imposing  siege  and  blockade  upon  liim  witli 
the  most  relentless  stringency.  If  in  August  191 4  our  Ad- 
miralty believed  victory  to  be  unnecessary,  it  would  naturally 
have  no  anxiety  to  comjjel  the  Gcrmams  to  seek  battle.  Does 
this  explain  why  it  was  quite  unprepared  with  any  blockade 
policy  ?  It  was  not  until  the  enemy  threatened  to  blockade 
these  islands  tliat  any  counter-measures  were  taken. 

(4)  Was  it  because  we  were  convinced  that  the  mere  pos- 
session of  the  largest  fleet  of  the  largest  ships  must  suffice 
for  our  ])urpc>se  in  war,  regardless  whether  they  could,  or 
should,  tight,  that  \vc  made  no  real  provision  for  the  other 
forms  of  naval  war — such  as  mines-nthat  modern  invention 
had  brought  into  being  ? 

(5)  .Similarly,  we  seem  to  have  supjiosed  that  no  German 
submarines  could  dream  of  attacking  <mt  main  fleets  at  their 
bases,  for  not  a  single  one  of  these,  as  Mr.  Balfour  explained, 
was  effectively  closed  against  undeir-water  assault. 

(6)  And,  just  as  we  took  no  steps  to  begin  the  war  with  an 
effective  stopping  of  the  enemy's  sea  supplies,  so,  thougli 
repeatedly  warned,  we  were  not  adequately  prepared — to 
defend   our   own   sea   supplies   against    U   boat  attacks.' 

(7)  I'rom  file  beginning  of  hostilities  the  Admiralty  has 
almost  monopolised  the  shipbuilding  facihties  of  the  couutrv. 
But  for  the  first  year  or  more  these  were  employed  without 
relerencc  to  war  experience  or  to  the  study  of  how  weapons 
could  be  used.  Accordingly,  we  built  a  variety  of  monitors 
and  super-battle  cruisers  of  very  doubtful  value  in  offence 
or  in  defence,  and  it  looks  as  if  our  shipbuilding  resources 
devoted  to  them  might  have  been  better  employed  in  other 
directions. 

(8)  Finally,  we  made  an  insi^fflcient  effort  to  replace  the 
merchant  shipping  we  were  unable  to  ])rotect. 

This  is  the  indictment  your  correspondent  has  brought 
against  the  military  direction  of  the  Navy.  Parliament 
and  the  public  have  failed  to  apiueciate  its  gravity  because, 
in  spite  of  this  array  of  blunders,  your  correspondent's  en- 
thusiasm for,  and  belief  in,  the  Navj'  is  so  great  and  so 
infectious  that  he  seems  to  pcrsuad(,s,  Jiis  readers  that,  in  spite 
of  all  these  things,  our  seamen  /^c  .unconquerable.  He  has 
not  written  to  create  public  distrust  or  imeasiness,  but  to 
try  and  persuade  Whitehall  intp  yiser  and  sounder  courses. 
But  here  he  has  failed,  and  li'is.viailure  may  partly  be 
explained  by  his  inability  to  use- his  strongest  argument. 

It  is  simply  this.  'Wnir  readers  know  Mr.  Pollen  only  as  a 
lucid  and  brilliant  writer  on  naval  theory.  Seamen  know 
him  as  a  creative  and  original  thinker  on  naval  war,  whose 
Work,  had  it  been  judged  by  military  principle  alone,  should 
have  been  of  very  great  value  to  u^  during  this  war. 

Seventeen  years  ago,  when  few  naval  officers  dreamed  of 
iiaval  guns  being  used  at  greater  ranges  than  a  mile  or  two, 
Mr.  Pollen,  struck  by  the  contrast  between  the  performances 
of  the  naval  guns  in  the  South  African  war  and  the  practice 
with  them  on  board  ship,  began.  a,^eries  of  investigations  into 
the  subject  of  hre  control  whicli  has  revolutionised  the  art 
of  naval  fighting  the  world  over,  and  should  ha  /e  revolutionised 
it  altogether  in  our  favour.  From  the  first  he  f(Mesaw  that 
the  development  of  long  rangeiiirQ  was  inev'itable,  and  that 
unless  means  could  be  devised  for  overcoming  the  two  master 
problems  which  great  distance  must  create,  tlie  naval  engage- 
ments of  the  future  would  be^jjfplonged,  inconclusive  and 
futile.  These  two  problems  (L^Nj?,  &  \\  .\ ter,  January  4th 
and  nth)  arc  first,  the  difficulty  of  providing  means  of  instru- 
mental vision,  that  would  be  effective  in  the  bad  and  shifting 
visibility  to  be  expected  in  northern  latitudes,  and  ne.xt,  that 
of  keeping  the  range  accurately  while  opposing  ships  arc 
manoeuvring,  either  voluntarily  or  under  the  compulsion  of 
torpedo  attack. 

What  he  has  not  chosen  -to  tell  your  readers  is  that 
when,  after  devoting  twelve  years  to  the  study  of  these 
])roblems,  he  found  what  many  exjx'rts  believed  to  be  not 
only  the  best,  but  the  only  possible  solution  of  both,  the  British 
Admiralty  refused  even  to  try  the  perfected  system  when 
produced. 

This  was  the  more  unfortunate  because  from  1906  to  1910  or 
1911,  Mr.  Pollen,  though  outside  the  Navy,  had,  by  his  mastery 
of  this  subject,  forced  himself  into  the  position  of  chief  of  the 
only  constructive  staff  the  Britiali  Navy  possessed  for  the  study 
and  evolution  of  fire  control.  It  is  no  disparagement  of  his 
originality  to  say  that,  without  these  si.x-  j'ears'  co-operation 
w  itli  the  best  brains  in  the  Navy,  without  the  experiments  at  sea 
carried  out  in  naval  ships  and  under  the  directii>n  and  with  the 
litip  of  many  of  the  most  brilliant  of  our  captains  and  gunnery 
ofticers.without  the  very  large  grants  made  by  the.\dniiralty  and 
the  huge  expense — far  exceeding  the  cost  of  the  instruments— 
incurred  in  devoting  battleships  and  first  class  cruisers  to  these 


experiments,  the  production  of  the  Pollen  fire  control  system 
would  have  been    impossible. 

Now,  whj'  was  tins  system,  produced  in  these  circumstances, 
and  endorsed  by  such  authority,  left  untried  both  before  and 
during  the  war  ? 

The  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  circumstances  to  which 
Mr.  Pollen  drew  attention  in  his  article  of  last  week.  Whitehall 
has  never Jeamt  to  distinguish  between  the  mihtary  aspect  of 
its  functions  and  their  civil  aspect.  Before  the  war  every- 
thing to  do  with  naval  armament  as  well  as  everything  to  do 
with  naval  gunnery  was  under  a  single  official,  the  Director 
of  Naval  Ordnance.  During  the  most  critical  j)eriod  of  the 
development  of  our  fleet  from  1907  to  1912,  neither  of  the 
officers  who  held  this  post  were  acknowledged  exj)erts 
in  fire  control.  Not  being  specialists,  they  naturally 
leaned  towards  any  advice  that  would  save  ^hem  asking  for 
money,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  economy,  not  only  refused  any 
indeix'iijieiit  enquiry  into  the  theory  of  the  Pollen  system, 
but  even  forbade  a  demonstration  of  what  it  could  do  when, 
in  spite  of  official  discouragement,  it  was  pt^^fected.  Such  a 
policy  sounds  inexplicable,  but  it  is  a  ])crfoctly  natural  result 
of  handing  over  to  the  same  man  responsibility  for  the  military 
objective,  namely  a  system  of  gunnery  best  suited  to  action, 
and  the  civil  objective,  the  supply  of  the  largest  amount  of 
\varhke  material  at  the  lowest  cost.  Had  the  military 
requirements  of  gunnery  been  considered  (juite  independently 
of  financial  questions,  this  decision  would  never  ha\e  been 
made. 

It  refiiains  to  point  the  moral  of  this  experience.  If  we 
wish  our  sea  forces  put  to  their  proper  use,  it  is  an  indispens- 
able first  step  to  arrange  that  the  chief  command  shall  be 
organised  on  scientific  principles.  This  is  impossible  without 
recognising  two  axioms.  First,  we  must  distinguish  ab- 
solutely between  the  authority  responsible  for  the  military 
handling  of  the  Navy,  and  the  authority  responsible  for  its 
material  supply.  Unless  this  is  done  it  is  hopeless  to  think 
that  the  fighting  instinct  of  the  Navy  can  be  given  its  full 
expression  or  scope.  Next,  in  arranging  for  its  military 
direction,  we  must  recognise  w  hat  the  \visd(3m  of  our  ancestors 
discovered,  to  wit,  that  the  employment  of -sea  force  is  sur- 
rounded by  so  many  and  such  subtle  problems  that  the  supreme 
control  cannot  be  entrusted  to  a  single  individual,  but  must 
be  carried  on  by  a  board,  the  chief  i>rofcssional  member  of 
which,  though  the  chief,  is  t)nly  primus  inhr\f»ares. 

The  apphcation  of  these  principles  to  i)resent  circumstances 
would  necessitate  the  partition  of  the  work  of  the  Admiralty 
l>etwcen  two  bodies — one  a  Board  of  Admilatty,  the  other  a 
Board  T)f- Supply.  -       '■       -  ! 

The  Board  of  Admiralty  should  consist,  ds  formerly,  of  the 
four  Sea  Lords  and  of  its  civilian  members  with  the  Sea 
Lords  working  daily,  almost  constantly,  together  as  a  military 
committee.  The  First  Sea  Lord  should  be  charged  speciaUy 
with  the  chief  duties  of  conunand  ;  the  Second  with  the  protec- 
tion of  trade  ;  the  Third  with  the  distribution  of  the  fleet  and 
blocktule  ;  the  Fourth  with  ensuring  that  all  the  weapons 
of  the  fleet  arc  employed  according  to. the  best  methods. 
This  would  entail  a  War  Staff  to  assist  the  First  Sea  Lord  ;  an 
anti-submarine  organisation  to  assist  the  Second  ;  a  portion  of 
the  present  war  staff  to  assist  the  Third  ;  new  staffs  for  fire 
control  and  gunnery,  mines,  torpedoes  and  aircraft  to  assist 
the  Fourth. 

ThC'Roard  of  Supplies  would  exist  to.seejto  the  provision 
of  the  material  which  the  policy  of  the  Board  of  AdnuraUy 
made  necessary.  The  building,  equipment  and  repairing  of 
warships,  the  special  functions  of  the  present  Third  Sea  Lord, 
would  go  to  one  member  ;  the  supply  of  gunsrand  ammunition, 
part  of  the  province  of  the  iJresent  Director  of  Naval  Ordnance, 
to  another  ;  the  provision  of  stores,  coal,  etc.,  now  under  the 
FourthiSea  Lord  to  the  third  ;  the  supply  of  aircraft,  now  under 
a  new^Fifth  Sea  Lord,  to  another  ;  torpedoes  and  mines  to  the 
fifth,  and  the  building  of  merchant  ships  to  the  sixth.  This 
Supply  6oard  should  also  control  all  tiuestions  of  personnel, 
other  than  promotions  and  commands.       /'»■  ■ 

You  would  then  have  the  whole  province  of  mihtary*  con- 
trol entirely  divorced  from  all  extianeous  considerations. 
It  would  be  especially  the  business  of  the  First  "Sea  Lord 
and  his  Staff  to  keep' in  touch  with  the  commands  at  sea, 
and  to  advise  the  First  Lord,  and  the  Board  as  a  whole,  in  the 
choice  of  those. to  be  put  into  sea  commands.  But  the  essence 
of  the  matter  would  be  that  the  F'our  Sea  Lords  and  the  Board 
should  confer  daily  and  several  limes  daily,  so  that  the  executive 
action  that  they  took  should  reflect  not  only  on  the  wisdom 
but  i)articularly  the  exjjerience  of  the  Navy  as  a  whole.  Only 
so  is  there  the  remotest  chance-,  of  o»ir  naval  policy  reflecting 
our  enormous  naval  knowledge,  exiJerience,  and  in  particular, 
the  Navy's  high  lighting  spirit ;  only  so  can  our  naval  forc,e-i 
be  ijut  to  their  best  use — and  this  should  be  of  course  decisiM; 
-^only  so  can  naval  counsel  become  of  equal  authority  with 
military  counsel  in  determining  a  joint  strategy  of  the  war.. 

I'tAG  OlU'ICER, 


April  26,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Italy  and  Her  Allies 

By  Lewis  R.  Freeman 


9 


Mr.  iMi'ix  Fyeman  fs  an  American,  and  this  article  was 
wriitcn  by  him  before  America  had  joined  the  Allies, 
and  also  be/ore  the  Ra'olution  had  taken  place  in  Russia. 

SOME  months  ago,  very  shortly  after  my  arrival  in 
Italy,  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet  one  clay  a 
distinguished  Allied  diplomat— a  man  whose  know- 
ledge of  things  Italian  is  as  profound  as  his  sympathy 
for  the  people  is  warm— who  chanced  to  have  read  two 
previous  articles  I  had  written  in  an  endeavour  to  give  some 
idea  of  the  state  of  popular  (rather  than  ofhcial)  opinion  in 
France  and  England  regarding  their  Allies  in  the  -v^ir. 

■'  You  will  find  your  task  a  good  deal  more  diffictilt  here 
than  in  France  or  England,"  he  said  ;  "  yet  there  are  fairly 
well-developed  veins  of  sentiment,  and  you  can  uncover 
them  if  you  pcri;if>t  long  enough.  Unless  you  persist,  how- 
ever  unless  you  make  something  more  than  a  mere  traveller's 

canvass  of  the  situation — any  impressions  you  may  set  down 
are  sure  to  be  misleading,  and  may  even  be  positively  mis- 
cliievous.     Let  me  give  you  an  example  of  what  I  mean. 

"If  you  were  to  ask  a  dozen  Englishmen— in  Rome,  Naples 
or  Florence,  but  especially  in  the  former — how  the  British 
stood  in  tiie  estimation  of' the  Italians,  I  have  no  tloubt  that 
most  of  them  would  shake  their  heads  and  say  anything 
from  'Not  verv  well'  to  'Jolly  bad.'  This  feeling  is 
the  very  natural  consequence  of  the  very  limited  contact 
the  most  of  these  people  have  with  the  real  Italians— the 
Italians  especially  who  count  in  the  war— and  the  traveller 
or  writer  who  bases  his  conclusi6ns  on  what  these  '  patchily  ' 
(if  I  mav  uSe  that  term)  informed  individuals  tell  him  is 
more  than  likelv  to  carry  away  and  disseminate  very  dis- 
torted and  (as  Ihave  said")  even"  mischievous  impressions. 

Opinion  that  Counts 

"  Now  I  happen  to  know  that  the  feeling  of  tlic  Italians 
who  count — tlie  Italians  who  brought  their  country  into  the 
war,  and  who  irtay  be  depended  upon  to  keep  it  there  until 
the  cause  for  which  we  all  are  fighting  is  finally  victorious — : 
far  from  being  suspicious  and  jealous  of,  or  unfriendly  to, 
the  peoples  of  the  countries  to  whom  their  own  is  allied, 
regard  us  with  a  frank,  if  not  always  uncritical,  confidence 
that  has  carried  them  safely  through  the  web  of  intrigue  that 
has  enveloped  them  from  the  first.  But  unless  you  are 
willing  to  ])ush  j-ouf  enquiries  persistently  and  patiently 
enough  to  reach  these  real  Italians — and  they  are  not  the 
ones  whom  the  casual  visitor  to  this  country  meets  most 
frequently — you  will  be  doing  the  Allies  an  injustice,  a  dis- 
tinct disservice,  if  you  write  anything  based  on  what  you 
have  gathered  from  the  ones  who  do  not  count." 

"  And  who  are  these  Italians  who  count  ?  "  I  asked.' 
"  You  will  find  them  in  all  parties  and  in  all  classes  of 
society,"  was  the  reply  ;  "  but  the  great  majority  of  them 
are  what  I  might  call  the  '  middle-class  intellectuals.'  These 
would  roughly  correspond  to  what  you  in  America  call  the 
'  Progressives,'  using  the  term  as  descriptive  of  a  class  rather 
than  of  a  party.  They  are  hardly  the  class  that  would  be 
referred  to  in  England  or  America  as  the  '  back-bone,'  and 
yet  the  corresponding  ''back-bone  '  class  in  Italy  has  been 
greatly  stift'ened  by  the  '  middle-class  intellectuals.'  These 
latter  include  the  most  progres?ive  business,  professional  and 
military  men,  with  a  leaven  of  writers  and  students.  Those 
still  in  civil  lif.i  you  would  not  be  likely  to  see  nioch  of  save 
in  the  course  of  a  long  stay  in  Italy  ;  but  at  the 'Front — 
both  as  officers  and  in  the  ranks — you  will  find  them  in  great 
numbers.  Ih esc  are  in  touch  with  the  right  sentiment  in 
all  parts  of  Italy,  and  after  you  have  talked  with  a  few  of 
them  you  will  lie  able  to  assess  at  its. proper  value  the  croaking 
behind  the  lines.  You  then  need  not  hesitate  longer  in 
setting  down  your  impressions  of  where  Italy  stands  in  the 
war,  and  what  the  Italians  think  of  the  people  of  their  Allies. 
]^ut  again,  I  beg  of  you,  don't  .stop  until  you  have  penetrated 
the  '  crust  of  tlie  croakers,'  for  it  is  that  wliich  you  will  first 
encounter.  It  is  what  lies  under  that  crust  that  will  decide 
the  day  for  Italy." 

The  conversations,  statements  and  ob.servations  which 
follow  are  the  gist  of  a  four  months'  stay  in  Italy,  which  is 
just  drawing  to  a  close  as  the  spring  campaign  opens,  and 
that  country  girds  itself  anew  for  fighting,  at  the  side  of 
her  Alhes,  the  decisive  stage  of  the  war.  If  they- fail  to 
convey  the  impression  that  her  effort  will  be  worthy  Of  those 
Allies — that  all  of  Italy  "which  counts  is  committed  and 
steeled  to  a  war  to  a  victorious  finish  the  fault  will  be 
mine  for  not  setting  them  down  properlv,  for  in  mv  own 


mind  there  is  no  doubt  on  lliat  Acore. 

It  was  an  American  friend  of  long  residence  in  Rome-— 
I  liad  complained  to  him  of  the  "  rumours  "  and  pessimistic 
atmosphere  that  prcvatir  in  certain  circles  of  the  capital  into 
which  the  foreign  visitor  occasionally  finds  himself  drawn 
— who  endeavoured  to  make  plain  to  me  the  attitude  of  the 
Italian  commonly  spoken  of  as  "anti-war"  or  "  pro- 
Germari." 

The  Pro-German  Party 

"  The  Teiescofil  '^that  is,  pro-Germans),"  he  said, 
"  usually  owes  his  sympathy  for  the  enemy  (though  instances 
of-  those  who  really  go  that  far  are  rare),  or  his  opposition 
to  the  war,  to  the  fact  that  he  has,  or  had,  either  financial, 
commercial  or  marital  bonds  uniting  him  to  Austria  or  Ger- 
many. In  endeavouring  to  vindicate  his  attitude,  however, 
he  always  takes  higher  ground.  '  Prussia,'  he  will  tell  you, 
'  fighting  against  Austria  as  an  Ally  of  Italy  in  1866,  won 
back  for  the  latter  the  province  of  Venezia  in  a  war  in  which 
that  country — on  the  streiigth  of  her  by  no  means  brilliant 
military  and  naval  shoWfng— could  never  have  done  so  alone, 
even  if  defeat  had  been  avoided.  '  He  will  also  tell  you 
France  was  the  traditional  enemy  of  Italy  in  the  past,  and 
that  England — unless  broken  in  the  present  war—will  be- 
come Italy's  enemy  of  the  future.  Moreover,  he  will  point 
out  that  Italy  was"  bound  by  a  solemn  treaty  of  alhance  to 
Austria  and  Germany,  and  that,  even  if  she  could  not  see 
her  way  to  fight  with  the  Central  Powers,  she  should  at  lea^ 
have  refrained  from  fighting  against  them.  Finally,  he  will 
tell  you  that  Germany's  miirtary  might — ranged  with  that  of 
Austria — can  crush  Italy  at  will,  and  that  this  is  just  what 
will  happen  in  the  spring — provided,  of  course,  that  the  latter 
country  does  not  see  the  error  of  her  ways  and  conclude  a 
separate  peace  before  it  is  too  late. 

"It  is  the  Tedescofit — muttering  for  the  most  part  in  his 
beard  or  dropping  dark  hints  in  salons  or  caf^s — who  1*5 
responsible  for  the  ihghts  of  foolish  rumours  whicli  wing 
their  way  in  certain  Italian  'circles  in  which  talk  takes  the 
place  of  action  to  perplex  the  visitor  to  whose  ears  they 
chance  to  come.  If  his  spirit  was  not  as  weak  as  his  tongue 
is  strong — if  he  were  not  as  cowardly  as  he  is  voluble — the 
Tedescofil  might  be  a  real  menace.  As  it  is,  his  vapourings 
only  create  mischief  when  they  are  taken  seriously  by  visitors 
who  have  no  chance  to  judge  them  for  what  they  arc  worth, 
and  who  may  pass  them  on  to  the  world  as  characteristic 
of  Itahan  sentiment." 

Of  all  the  four  principal  Allies,  France  is  probably  the  only 
one  that  has  been  fuUy  trusted  by  the  others  from  the  first, 
the  only  one  that  has  always  enjoyed  a  full  measure  of  con- 
fidencefrom  the  peoples  of  the  nations  who  fought  with  her. 
There  have  been  times  when  doubt  and  jealousy  of  Great 
Britain,  Russia  and  Italy  w«re  rife  among  the  peoples  of  each 
of  these  respective  country's  AUies,  but  never  a  moment, 
even  when  the  ardent  German  propagandist  considered  it 
worth  his  while  to  endeavour  to  sow  the  seeds  of  distrust,  a» 
regards  France.  That  England  and  Russia  should  have 
given  France  their  confidence  from  the  outset  is  not  remark- 
able, but  how  many  grievances— ^real  and  fancied— Italy, 
when  her*  turn  came  to  €nter  the  war,  had  to  forget  before 
doing  likewise  I  did  not-  reaUze  until  an  .extremely  keen 
Italian  journalist,  with  whom  I  spent  several  days  at  the 
Front,  passed  the  last  century  of  the  relations  between  these 
two  countries  in  hasty  but  illuminative  review  one  evening. 

"  It  is  indeed  a  fact,"  he  said,  "  that  in  the  minds  of  the 
average  Italian  France  had,  for  a  good  many  decades,  ranked 
as  second  only  to  Austria  among  this  country's  enemies. 
Not  that  there  was  ever  anything  approaching — as  regards 
France — the  practically  universal  execration  felt  for  Austria  ; 
but  rather  that  we  had  come  to  harbour  many  grudges,  to 
feel  that  France  had  been  just  about  everything  betwixt 
and  between  a  good  enemy  and  a  bad  friend  to  us.  Somehow 
our  people  were  more  inclined  to  recall  the  art  treasures 
Napoleon  had  earned  away  than  the  great  laws  he  liad  left 
behind  him.  It  was  against  French  troops  that  Garibaldi 
made  his  brave  but  futile  defence  of  the  Roman  Republic, 
and  it  was  French  troops  that  kept  the  Popes  in  Rome  and 
postponed  the  unification  of  Italy  until  France  had  been 
beaten  by  Prussia  in  1870.  Again,  our  people — and  especially 
those  of  Piedmont — felt  that  Napoleon  III.  drove  a  hard 
bargain  in  claiming  both  Savoy  and  Nice  in  1859  after  he 
had  abandoned  us  in  our  attempt  to  redeem  Lombardyand 
Venezia,  when  only  the  former  had  fallen  to  our  Allied 
armies.  France's  seizjire  of  Tunis  was  another  hard  blow. 
We  felt— and  still  feel — we  should  have  had  Tunis  (whose 


lO 


LAND    &    WATHR 


April  26,  191 7 


iiuropcan  population  was  overw  liclmiiiRly  Italian)  and  it 
was  just  tills  trouble  wJiirh  clrow  Ilaly  into  Ihc  arms  of 
Austria  and  (Jermaiiv  in  tin-  Triplf  AUiancc-^in  1S81. 
J--\en  as  latf  as  101^,  wlifU  we  w(  re  compelled  to  sei:^e  I-rencli 
sti;aniers  canving  war  supi>lies  to  the  Turks  (with  whom 
we  were  then'  at  war  in  Triix>li)  we  were  at  cross-purposes 
with  Trance. 

"  Then  came  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war.  On  the 
one  side  of  us  was  France,  with  whoili  our  relations  had  been 
iiore  or  less  strained  during  the  greater  part  of  the  preceding 
century  :  on  the  other  side  Austria,  with  whom  we  had  been 
closely  allied  for  over  three  decades.  .\nd  yet  what  hap- 
jH-ned  ?  So  sure  was  Italy's  instinct  asto  what  the  two  oppos- 
nig  groups— represented'  by  these  two  nations— stood  for, 
so  entirely  were  we  in  accord  wth  the  ideals  of  the  one. 
and  so  complete  was  our  abhorrence  of  all  that  the  other 
was  fighting  to  attain,  that  there  was  never  for  an  instant 
a  chance  that  we  would  take  advantage  of  France's  diffi- 
culties to  even  up  our  accounts  of  the  past  (however  niuph 
we  may  have  felt  that  the  balance  had  inclined  against  us), 
never  a  chance  that  we  would  elect  to  fight  the  battles  of 
Austria  and  Germany.  Our  participation  on  the  side  of  the 
Entente  then  became  only  a  matter  of  time,  and  from  the 
moment  we  came  in,  it  has' been  the  single-minded  devotedness 
of  I'Vance  that  we  have  set  ourselves  as  an  ideal  to  strive 
ourselves  to  attain.  The  best  commentary  on  the  complete- 
ness of  our  trust  in  F'rance  and  the  French  is  the  fact  that 
the  Tedescofd  propagandists  (who  have,  perhaps,  been  busier 
in  Italv  than  in  any  otiier  one  of  the  Allied  countries),  have 
never  decmerl  it  worth  the  effort  to  endeavour  to  poison  the 
Italian  mind  against  the  one  of  our  Allies  which  is  the  nearest 
to  us  both  racially  and  geographically." 

"  Incomprehensible  John  Bull  ' 

The  feelings  of  the  Italians  towards  the  English  are  less 
clearly  defined  than  their  feelings  towards  the  French,  and 
the  question  is  a  good  deal  more  ramified  and  complicated. 
It  is  a  truism  that  the  peoples  of  two  nations  understand  each 
nther  in  direct  ratio  to  the  extent  to  which  they  meet  and 
iiingle.  The  same  causes  which  operated  to  make  the  French 
Mow  to  appreciate  the  effort  of  the  F^nglish — and  even,  at 
first,  to  doubt  the  sincerity  of  their  island  Ally— have  also 
operated  in  Italy  ;  and  because  the  latter  was  farther  away 
from  Italy  than  from  France— and  because  the  English  were 
not  actually  shedding  their  blood  upon  the  soil  of  the  one  a. 
they  were  upon  that  of  the  other— the  Italians  have,  not 
imnaturally,  been  slower  even  tlian  the  French  to  fathom 
the  ways  of  the  "  incomprehensible  John  Bull." 

It  is  against  England,  too,  that  the  principal  force  of  German 
propaganda  has  been  directed  in  all  of  the  Allied  countries. 
And  it  also  chances  (just  why  it  is  hard  to  say)  that  the  most 
subtle  form  of  intrigue— that  of  starting  from  countless 
recondite  sources  various  and  sundry  rumours  and  hints  and 
suggestions  of  dark  import — has  been  tlie  very  one  which 
the  normally  unsubtle  Teuton  should  have  conducted  with 
the  greatest  linesse.  Even  to-day  the  few  apparently  inconse- 
quential words  dropjjed  by  an  innocent-looking  Swiss  pedlar 
will  set  the  peasants  of  a  F'rench  village  debating  among 
themselves  as  to  whether,  after  all,  England  is  not  getting 
rich  while  France  is  bleeding  white,  if  the  war  is  really  wortli 
while,  and  if  the  best  way  would  not  be  to  make  peace  with 
the  (iermans  who— as  someone  has  said — ^might  even  give 
back  Alsace-Lorraine  to  "  set  right  the  whole  terrible  mis- 
take." 

It  was  largely  sedulous  sowings  of  this  character  which 
made  the  French  so  slovv  to  awaken  to  a  full  understanding  of 
(he  relentless  purpose  behind  England's  deliberate  prepara- 
tion, and  when  it  is  understood  that  the  combating  of  this 
insidious  "  propaganda  of  suggestion  "  is  one  of  tlie  most 
troublesome  problems  confronting  France  even  at  this  hour, 
it  may  also  be  appreciated  how  pernicious  the  same  sort  of 
thing  has  been  in  Italy.  When  coal  began  to  get  scarce 
and  expensive,  the  word  was  winged  round  that  it  was  because 
"  perfidious  Albion  "  was  "  profiteering  "  on  a  ])roduct  in 
which  it  had  the  ])rartical  monopoly.  And  when  the  balance 
of  trade  against  Italy  began  to  force  up  the  English  exchange 
it  was — as  it  is  still — suggested  that  the  greedy  ICnglish 
were  taking  advantage  of  a  poorer  Ally's  need  to  stock  their 
already  plethoric  treasure .  \'aults. 

Witii  coal— when  it  can  be  obtained  at  all  for  domestic 
purposes— selling  for  more  than  wheat  and  potatoes  had  cost 
m  peace  time,  and  with  the  English  exchange  over  forty 
])er  cent,  above  the  normal,  it  is  by  no  means  surprising  that 
this  ptrsistently  pushed  propaganda  has  had  some  efifect  in 
those  parts  of  Italy  in  which  the  principles  underlying 
international  finance  and  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  are 
not  included  in  the  common  school  curriculum.  Indeed, 
it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  cumulative  effect  of  the  high 
price  of  coal,  the  rise  in  the  exchange  and  German  propaganda 


has  not  been  greater  than  it  really  is.  The  philosopliical 
manner  in  which  thi-  bulk  of  the  Italian  poi)ulation  has 
accepted  and  made  the  best  of  a  trying  situation  sptakf 
volumes  for  its  coimnon  sense  and  spundness  of  instinct. 

Aniong  the  progrfssi\e  Italians— the  class  whicJi  had  been 
described  to  ine  as  the  "  one  that  coinits  in  llic  war  "I 
founil  a  surprisingly  sympathetic  understanduig  of  England's 
problems  as  regards  Italy,  and  a  keen  appreciation  of  the 
difficulties  involved  in  their  solution.  A  prominent  manu- 
facturer of  Genoa  with  whom  I  talked  recently  summed  up 
the  situation  very  succinctly. 

"  England,"  he  said,  "  was  the  traditional  friend  of  Italv 
—the  only  one  my  country  has  ever  had— and  botli  our 
pohtical  and  commercial  relations  with  her  have  been  marked 
by  an  unbroken  record  of  square  deahng  and  the  goodwill 
incidental  to  square  dealing.  As  a  consetiuence,  confidence 
in  England  is  so  deeply  planted  in  the  general  run  of  the 
Italian  people  that  it  is"  able  now  to  put  up  with  a  situation 
it  does  not  entirely  understand.  We  business  men — yi\w 
have  dealt  with  England  more  than  ever  since  the  wax— do 
understand  ;  so  do  our  Government,  our  army  and  the  most 
of  our  educated  classes.  The  rest— save  for  certain  volubK' 
but  almost  negligible  disaffected  elements— will,  because 
confidence  in  Ivngland  was  a  legacy  from  their  fathers  and 
grandfathers,  put  U5)  with  more  than  they  are  likely  to  bc' 
called  upon  to  put  up  with  without  that  confidence  locing 
seriously  shaken." 

Just  as  the  inauguration  of  the  Somme  offensive  marked 
the  beginning  of  an  era  of  deeper  appreciation  of  England 
in  IVancx.  so  has  the  inauguration  of  the  ruthless  submarine 
war  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  understanding  of  England 
in  Italy.  Lloyd  George's  speech  on  the  restriction  of  imjiorls 
brought  home  to  Italy  the  depths  of  sacrifice  which  l':nglan<l 
was  prepared  to  make  to  win  the  war. 

■'  What  England  was  ready  to  give  up  to  keep  on  fighting 
—and  to  make  it  possible  for  her  Allies  to  keep  on  fighting—  " 
an  Italian  official  of  not  especially  progressive  tendencies 
said  to  me  a  few  days  ago,  "  made  us  understand  for  the  first 
time  the  comparative  pettjness  of  our  worries  over  coal  and 
the  exchange.  That  was  the  reason  you  have  heard  so  little 
protest  over  our  losses  which  must  certainlv  follow  the  cutting 
off  of  several  hitherto  profitable  lines  of  export  to  the  British 
Isles.  The  greatness  of  England's  spirit — as  it  is  now  being 
revealed— has  furnished  a  timely  lesson  for  the  Italian  people 
to  take  to  heart,  and  it  is  deeply  gratifying  that  we  reallv 
seem  to  be  doing  it." 

It  would  not  do,  in  writing  of  Anglo-Italian  relations,  to 
overlook  the  fine  impression  that  has  been  made  upon  botli 
civil  and  military  Italy  by  the  work  of  the  British  Red  Cross 
Mission  at  the  Front,  and  its  various  auxiliary  services  carried 
on  by  British  workers  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  This 
mission,  working  under  the  direction  of  Lieut. -Col:  I^Jrd 
Monson.  operates  three  ambulance  and  two  X-Rav  Unit-^. 
as  well  as  a  British-staffed  hospital  of  110  beds.  The 
ambulance  units  have  carried  the  sick  and  wounded  of  ten 
different  Army  Corps,  and  the  splendid  work  of  the  drivers  has 
won  them  a  place  in  the  affection  of  the  ItaHan  soldier  com- 
parable to  that  held  by  the  men  of  the  American  ambulanc<> 
in  the  heart  of  the  French  poilu.  Much  kindlv  feeling  has 
also  been  awakened  among  Italians  generally  by  the  work  of 
the  500  or  more  British  ladies  who  have  devoted  their  tii'ne 
to  the  making  of  comforts  for  the  hospitals,  running  posln-^ 
di  rcstoro  or  refreshment  rooms  for  wounded  soldiers  at  the 
railway  stations,  and  much  other  ])ractical  effort. 

It  is  not  easy  to  gather  much  that  is  definite  regarding  the 
popular  feehng  in  Italy  towards  Russia.  There  is  little  love 
in  the  country  for  the"  Slav  on  general  principles,  and  there 
was  even  a  certain  degree  of  anxiety  in  the  decade  previous 
to  the  war  as  to  whether  or  not  Russia's  Pan-Slavic  am- 
bitions might  prove  a  menace  to  Italian  interests  in  the 
Balkans.  A  certain  degree  of  anxiety  still  exists  on  thi- 
score,  although  it  is  hoped  that  Russia  "will  be  willing  to  ha\-e 
Serbia  compensated  out  of  Bulgaria  rather  than  from  terri- 
tory on  the  Adriatic. 

Among  Italian  Liberals,  too,  Russia,  as  the  most  autocratir 
of  the  great  nations,  has  never  been  popular,  and  it  seems  to 
me  that  there  is  hardly  the  willingness  in  Italy  as  in  France 
and  England  to  accept  the  reforms  instituted  by  the  Tsar 
since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  at  their  face  value. 

There  is  no  suggestion  of  anything  approaching  an  anti- 
Russian  feeling  in  Italy,  and  one  even  licars  many  expressions 
of  admiration  of  and  confidence  in  the  great  northern  ally. 
It  is  rather  that,  the  liberal-minded  Italian  has  not  been 
sufficiently  stirred  by  either  Russia's  triumphs  or  disasters 
to  take  her  "  on  trust"  to  tlie  degree  the  average  Frenchman 
and  Briton  has.  None  will  be  happier  than  he  to  see  Russia 
do  all  that  she  has  promised,  but  he  is  not  going  to  give  her 
his  full  confidence  imtil — as  an  Italian  writer  expressed  it  to 
me — "  we  have  evidence  that  the  heart  of  the  Great  WTiite 
Bear  is  the  same  colour  as  his  fur." 


April  2O,  J  91 7 


LAND    &     WATER 

The  Lost  Platoon 

By  Gentiirion 


II 


IT  was  a  warm  August  niglit,  but  tliere  was  a  fire  in  the 
guard-room.  It's  a  way  we  have.  The  hands  of  the 
clock  pointed  to  twenty-five  minutes  to  ten.  Six 
men  in  kliaki  uniform  lay  on  as  many  beds,  most  of 
them  on  their  backs  with  their  hands  clasped  under  their 
iieads,  and  gazing  contemplatively  at  the  white-washed  walls. 
The  corporal  of  the  guard  was  sitting  up  reading  an  eve- 
ning paper  by  the  light  of  his  own  tallow  "dip,"  stuck  in  an 
empty  bottle;  from  which  depended  a  stalactite  of  grease, 
lie  read  most  of  the  time  in  silence,  but  occasionally  he 
whispered  a  long  word,  dwelling  on  eadi  syllable  as  though 
to  give  it  due  weight,  and  glancing  inquisitively  at  the  ser- 
geant. The  sergeant  was  sitting  stolidly  at  a  deal  tabic 
making  entries  in  a  buff  document.  He  tickled  the  bottom 
of  the  ink-bottle  with  his  pen  as  though  seeking  inspiration 
tlicrein.  Then  he  inclined  his  liead  to  one  side,  protruded 
liis  tongue  athletically,  squared  his  elbows  and  proceeded  to 
write. 

'■  U-1-t-i-m-a-t-um !      I    sav,      sargent,    what     is    a    hul- 
-    timatum"?  "     "  Wait  till    I've    finished   this  blooming  guard 
report,"  said  the  sergeant,   adding  to  liimself   "  Defaulters 
-   one." 

There  was  silence  for  a  time,  broken  only  Iw  the  scratching 
of  the  sergeant's  pen,  and  the  purring  of  the  kettle  on  the 
range. 

'-  Bank-rate — ten  per  cent,"  read  the  corporal  confusedly. 
"  What  the  'ell  does  that  mean  ?  What  did  you  say  a  hul- 
timatum  was,    sargent  ?  " 

".I  didn't  say  it  was  anything,"  retorted  the  sergeant, 
cautiously.  "  Here,  lemme  see  the  paper."  He  stuched  it 
for  a  moment.  "  It  means  "  he  said  resolutely,  "  get  out  or 
get  under."  "  Well,  why  can't  they  say  so  ?  "  said  the  cor- 
poral grievously.  "  I  passed  the  "fifth  standard,  but  these 
jaw- breaking  words  give  me  the  hump." 

He  glanced  at  the  sergeant,  and  seeing  he  was  resting  from 
his  literary  labours  he  felt  encouraged  to  proceed.  ,"  When 
the  orderly  officer  came  round  to-day  he  sez  to  Private 
Whipple  what  was  on  sentry,  he  sez,  '  Give  up  your  orders  ?  ' 
and  Private  Whipple  repeats  his  orders  like  as  if  he  was  saying 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  when  'ed  got  to  '  No  men-dicants  or 
persons  s-soliciting  ahms  to  be  'llowed  within  the  barrack- 
I  gate'  the  orderly  officer  sez,  he  sez,  sudden-like,  '  What's 
f  s-soliciting:  ahms  mean  ?  '  and  Private  Whipple  sez  '  Trying 
to  pinch  nfles,  sir,'  and  the  orderly  officer  smiles  sarkastic- 
like  and  told  me  to  see  as  Private  Whipple  understood  his 
orders.     What  dn  soliciting  ahms  mean,  sargent  ?  " 

"  If.  you  giA'cs  a  copper  to  a  bloke  in  the  street  .  .  .  ' 
explained  the  sergeant. 

"  Not  me,'-  said  the  corporal  apprehensively.  "  I  ain't 
such  a  mug.  One  and  eightpence  a  day  is  all  I  gets,  and 
there  ain't  much  change  out  of  that." 

"  If  you  gives  a  copper  to  a  bloke  in  the  street,"  persisted 
the  sergeant,  "  and  he  asks  you  for  it,  he's  soliciting  alms  oft 
you." 

The  corporal  gazed  at  the  .sergeant  witli  respectful  ad- 
miration.    "  You  must  'a  studied  hard  iij  your  time,  sergeant." 

"  A  tidy  bit,"  said  the. sergeant  loftily.  "  That's  the  way 
to  get  on,  young  feller." 

"  '  It  is — is — exjjected — that  the  German  Ambassador 
will  be  'anded  his  passports,'  "  read  out  the  corporal  slowly 
"  Now  what  might  that  mean,  sergeant  ?  " 

"  It  means,"  said  the  sergeant,  as  he  blotted  the  guard 
report,  "  as  he'll  go  on  furlough.  An(}  maybe  he'll  get  his 
'  ticket.'  " 

"  D'you  think  as  there'll  be  war,  sargent  ?  " 

"  Guard,  turn  out  !  "  It  was  the  voice  of  the  sentry  out- 
side. The  si.v  men  sprang  from  their  beds,  stretched  their 
arms,  pulled  their  tunics  straight,  and  made  for  the  rifle 
rack.  Kach  man  took  down  a  rifle  with  bayonet  fixed, 
:ind  filed  out  of  the  guard-room.  The  sergeant  took  dowai  a 
ufie  without  a  bayonet,  and  fiillowed  them.  As  he  reached 
iho  doorway  he  shouted  "  Sound  ten  o'clock."  The  Guard 
Ull  in.  On  the  tenth  Stroke  of  the  gong  the  notes  of  the 
'  Last  Post  "  rang  out  over  the  barrack  square. 

A  well-built  man  with  the  Royal  Arms  on  his  sleeve  walked' 
up- smartly.  It  was  the  regimental  sergeant-major.  He  had 
a  well-arched  chest,  the  clean  sloping  shoulders  of  an  athlete  ; 
liis  deltoid  muscles  rippled  tlirough  his  tunic,  and  he  moved 
on  his  feet  witli  a  (]uiclv  resilient  tread.  In  every  movement 
there  was  a  suggestion  of  suppressed  power;  he.  was  like  a 
roiled  steel  spring.  As  he  siw  the  company  orderly  sergeant 
lie  shouted  "  Stalf  Parade  !     'Shun  I" 

"  A  Company  !  "  called  the  sergeant-major. 

"  Present,  sir." 


"  B  Company  !  " 

"  Four  absent,  sir." 

And  he  rang  the  changes  on  the  companies,  the  band,  tlie 
drums,  the  signallers,  till  he  reached  "  canteen." 

"  Closed  and  correct,  sir." 

Which  being  done,  the  sergeant-major  turned  to  the  orderly 
officer.  The  latter  stood  by  him  in  mess  kit,  with  sword  and 
cap,  the  light  of  the  lamp  over  the  guard  room  door  gleaming 
on  his  glazed  shirt-front. 

"Staff  parade  present,  sir,"  said  the  sergeant-major  with 
a  salute. 

"Staff  parade!  Dismiss!"  said  the  orderly  officer,  and 
he  turned  away. 

At  that  moment  an  officer  in  mess  kit,  but  without  a  cap, 
walked  into  the  fight.  If  was  the  adjutant.  He  carried  a 
telegram  in  his  hand,  and  his  face  was  grave. 

"Addison!  Sergeant-major"!  Officer  and  sergeant- 
major  turned  and  saluted. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Addison. 

"  Look  at  that,  my  son,"  said  the  adjutant,  and  he  handed 
him  the  telegram.  It  contained  a  single  word. 
^_  Addison  gave  a  low  whistle.  "  So  it's  come  at  last  ?  " 
"  Yes,"  said  the  adjutant  slowly,  "  it's  come  at  last.  The 
regiment's  got  to  mobilise.  This  means  war."  He  turned 
to  the  warijant-officer.  "  Sergeant-major,  have  the  officer's 
call  sounded.  And  the  orderly-sergeants'  call.  And  I  want 
a  cycle  Orderly  to  go  down  to  the  Colonel,  quick  !  " 

"  Yes,  sir,  1  suppose  the  reservists  '11  be  coming  in  in  a 
couple  of  days  ? 

"  Yes !  "  The  adjutant  was  thinking  rapidly.  "  The 
colours  must  go  to  the  depot.  The  regimental  messplate 
will  be  taken  to  the  bank — but  the  mess-president  will  see 
to  that ;  the  plate  of  the  sergeants'  mess  had  better  go  with 
it.  Sergeant-major  !  Have  the  gymnasium  and  the  Church 
open  to  put  the  kits  in.  Get  the  church  orderly  warned  at 
once.  See  that  the  officers'  call  and  orderly-sergeants' 
are  sounded." 

The  sergeant-major  saluted  and  disappeared. 

The  notes  of  the  two  calls  floated  over  the  barrack  square. 

"  The  ord-'ly  sergeants  are  want-ed  n6w — ord-'ly  sergeants 
to  run !  "  hummed  the  orderly  officer  mechanically.  He  was 
trying  to  think. 

"  Well,  Addison,"  said  the  adjutant  reflectively.  Neither 
spoke  for  a  moment.  Each  man  was  thinking  of  a  woman 
and  wondering  how  she  would  take  it. 

'  \yell,"  said  the  subaltern,  "no  shooting  this  autumn." 

"No!  nor  cubbing  either.  I'm  going  to  sell  my 
hunters  for  what  they'll  fetch." 

"  I  wouldn't  do  that.  This  show  will  be  over  by 
Christma.s." 

"  Will  it  my  boy  '^  I  wonder  !  If  I  know  anything  of  the 
gentle  Geiman  /i/s  lamp  is  trimmed.  Tisn't  sense  to  think 
lie's  asking  for  a  licking.     Oh  no  !  " 

"  Well,  the  regiment  couldn't  be  in  better  form.  The 
men  arc  topping.  Don't  tell  me  the  Germans  could  beat  our 
men  at  the  butts.  Why  !  the  returns  for  recruits'  firing  Part 
III  were  up  to  ninety  point  three  last  week.  I'd  put  my  last 
sliirt  on  'em." 

'  I  know.  I  know.  But  what  kind  of  '  predicted  area  ' 
arc  we  going  to  bump  into  otit  there  ?  Mind  you,  Addison, 
I'm  not  grousing.  Our  Ann'y's  not  large,  but  by  (iod  it's 
good.  And  soldiering 's  a  very  different  thing  from  what  it 
was.  We've  sweated  the  last  ounce  out  of  ourselves  over 
training.  These  staff-rides !— why,  I  know  every  bit  of 
cover  round  here  from  a  dandehon  to  a  copse.  We've  mugged 
u]5  strategy  and  tactics  as  if  we'd  been  back  at  an  Army 
crammer's.  And  the  men  I  Topping,  I  agree.  Their  con- 
duct-sheets show  tl)at.  As  for  the  sergeant-major  he's 
never  once  let  me  down  all  the  time  I've  been  adjutant." 

'■  Yes,     He's  a  jolly  good  sort.      He's  taught   me  a  Jot. 
■  D'you  remember  the  fight  he  put  up  when  he  was  runner 
up   for   the   Army   championship.     My !     That   left   of  his 
was     .     ,     ." 

"  Orderly  sergeants  all  present  sir."  The  sergeant  major 
had  returned.    . 

"Thank  you,  sergeant-major.  Right  !  I  say,  sergeant- 
major." 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  You  know  wijaL  we  le  in  for  ?  " 

"  Y-yes,  sir.     Germans,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"  I.s — is  the  battalion  all  right,  d'you  think  ?  " 
Yes,  sir,  I  think  they're  all  right.     Thanks  to  yon,  sir." 

"  Well  j'ou've  had  ;i  hand  in  it,  sergeant-major.  I  sup- 
pose   we've    all   done    our     best.     All     ritrht,     good-night. 


LAND    &    WATER 


Apiil  26,  iqij' 


Sere; ,    Wait     a  minute,  tlinugli.    There'll  Ix?  tiie  men's 

p;iylxioks  to  be  issued.  Tlio  quartermaster-sergeant  will 
see  to  that  of  course.  •  There's  a  fonu  tor  making  a  will  on 
active  service  on  the  last  page.  Kut  the  company  ((mmianders 
will  explain  all  that  to  the  men.  Ves,  good-night,  sergeant- 
major." 

"A  good  chap  that.  Addison!"  said  the  adjutant  as 
they  movetl  towards  the  orHer)^-^  room.  "  A  very  good 
chap !  "     • 

»        •        »        • 

They  disembarked  at  Boulogne  ami  wiiliin  a  few  days 
found  themselves  at  Mons.  There  on  that  fatefiU  Sunday  they 
held  tjie  salient  of  the  canal  against  o\-er\vhelming  odds  and, 
holding  it,  decided  the  fate  of  the  world,  i^nt  i>f  what  mighty 
issues  hung  upon  their  resolution  most  of  them  knesv  little 
and  boasted  not  at  all.  and  those  who  survived  will  to  this  day 
tell  you  nothing  except  that  it  was  very  "  warm."  They  were 
badiy  cut  up  ;  Addison  disappeared,  and  when  the  roll  was 
called  at  the  end  of  the  first  day  of  the  retreat  not  a  man  of 
his  platoon  was  there  to  answer  it.  Months  afterwards  the 
adjutant  (by  tliis  time  a  C'ohynel)  picked  up  their  trail  by  a 
painful  induction  from  the  lists  ttf'  prisoners  died  of  wounds," 
which  filtered  through  from  time  to  time,  and  adding  them 
up  he  could  account  for  twenty  men.  It  struck  him  as  some- 
thing curious  that  nearly  half  a  platoon  should  die  of 
wounds  at  such  long  intervhls  after  thfir  capture— but  he, 
left  it  at  that.  Of  .\ddison  and' iiis  fate  he  could  discover 
nothing  at  all.  And  then  one  day,  some  twenty-one  months 
after  the  event,  he  learnt  that  the  regimental  sergeant-major 
had  Ix-en  rep,ajriated  as  a  disabled  ])risoner  f)f  war.  He  took 
a<lvantage  of  a  low  days'  Iea\-e  to  get  in  touch  witH  "Records," 
and  at  last  he  found  hims<^lf  on  a  hot  scent.  It  ended  at  a 
big  stone  buildin;,'  on  a  loTieTv  down  in  ,t  southern  county. 

II. 

The  Medical  Superintendent  glanced  at  the  card.  "  Show 
him  in,"  he  said. 

An  officer  entered.  It  was  the  colonel.  He  took  in  the 
room  at  a  glance-  he  noted  a  row  of  books  with  the  names 
of  Huglilings,  Jackson.  bVrrier  and  Clouston  on  their  backs 
and  he  saw  on  the  table  the  corrected  profif-sheets  of  a  type- 
script with  the  superscription, '*^'The  Localization  of  Cerebral 
Disease."  Then  Ik"  glanciM  aigain  at  the  medical  super- 
intendent and  suddenly  encountered  a  pair  of  eyes  which 
seemed  to  be  looking  right  through  him.  It  was  not  the 
colour  of  the  irises,  that  arreste<l<him  but  their  visual  inten- 
sity— they  seemed  to  see  tilings  invisible  to  the  ordinary  eye 
of  sense.  You  will  often  see  that  look  in  the  eyes  of  an 
alienist.  It  is  a  lonely  look,  ihe  next  moment  the  doctor's 
eyes  had  changed  their  expression.  They  were  masked  by 
a  homely  look  of  bland  and  sociable  enquiry,  and  this  so 
suddenly  that  the  colonel  wondered  whether  he  had  been 
dreaming. 

'.'  I  have  come  to  enquire  after  a  man  of  my  regiment,  a 
sergeant-major,  George  Smith.  Wounded  and  captured  at 
Mons,  1  believe.  I  heard  he'd  lately  been  repatriated  from 
Germany.  Records  inform  mo  that  he  was  sent  to  D.  Block 
at  Netley  and  then  here.  I  should  like  to  have  a  talk  with 
him,  please.  " 

"  I  see."  said  the  Medical  Superintendent,  pensively. 
"  I  see.     Won't  yon  sit  down  ?  "     He  seemed  to  hesitate. 

"(Perhaps  it's  not  your  regular  visiting  daj',"  said  the  colonel. 
"  I'm  sorry,  but  I'm  on  short  leave." 

"  No,"  said  the  Medical  iikiperintendent.  "  No,  it's  not 
that.  But  he  wouldn't  know.ywi — and  perhaps  you  wouldn't 
know  him." 

The  Colonel  smiled  incredulously.  "  Not  know  me  !  I  was 
adjutant  to  the  battalion  and  he  was  regimental  sergeant- 
major.  Surely  liis  case  is  not  so  bad  as  that  ?  Look  at 
these  cases  of  shell  shock.  There's  nothing  you  doctors  cannot 
do  in  the  healing  line.     Wiry  !     I  knew  a  man     .     .     ." 

"  You  do  us  too  nmch  honour,"  said  the  doctor,  deprecat- 
ingly.  "  Shell  shock  is  jiriniarily  a  physical  shock.  The 
disorders  it  produces  are  functional,  not  organic-  tmless  of 
course  there's  a  predisposition  to  insanity.  A  brain  lesion's 
another  matter  you  know.  I've  given  much  thought  to  his 
case — much  thought."  He  looked  out  at  the  garden,  brilliant 
with  the  early  flowers  of  spring,  and  gaudy  with  the  mere- 
tricious hues  c)f  Dutch  tulips.  "  Those  daffodils  reminded  me 
of  it  just  now.  I'lver  heard  of  chromesthesia  ?  No  ?  Ah 
well,  I  won't  weary  you  \<H{h  psychiatry.  It's  not  a  thing  to 
take  up  as  a  hobby.     Let  us  look  up  the  case." 

He  crossed  the  room  and  taking  down  a  large  leather- 
bound  folio  turned  the  leaves  rapidly.  .\t  the  head  of 
each  |>age  were  the  words  "  Medical  History  Sheet  !"  fol- 
towed'by  a  man's  name  and  a  number  of  entries  in  chronological 
order.     In  the  middle  of  each  page  was  pasted  a  photograph. 

"Smith — ."Mf red,  .'Arthur,  Charles,"  muttered  the  doctor, 
•'  George  1     Yes,  here  it  is.     Sent  here  from  Netley.     •  Dis- 


charged from  the  army  under  392  (XVI)  of  King's  Regulations. 
Permanently  unfit.  Delusional  insanity.'  They  sent  us  if 
copy  of  his  military  history  sheet.  Long-service  and  Goo^ 
Conduct  Medal,  I  see.  Yes,  yes,  cpiite  so.  A  dean  livinf, 
man,  1  should  say.  No  traces  of  syphilitic  trouble.  His 
juipils  respond  to  light.  His  weight's  improved,  1  see.  He 
was  ten  stone  when  he  came  hvw  and  aii.Tmic.  Starvation, 
of  course.  He's  up  to  thirteen  now  -he'll'  recover  his  norm.d 
weight  in  time.'  Tliat's  his  photograph. '-"-We  alwavs  photo- 
graph them  on  admission." 

The  Colonel  looked  at  the  photograph.  He  looked  at  it 
for  a  long  time  in  silence. 

"  Well,"  said  the  Doctor.  "  Do  you  still  wish  to  see  him  ? 
Ycry  well,"  and  he  pressed  an  electric  button. 

"  Bring  Nii.  1101  here,"  he  said  to  the  attendant.  "I 
suppose  he's  dressed.     If  not,  tell  them  to  dress  him." 

The  Colonel  was  looking  at  the  view  commanded  by  the 
doctoi*s  window — a  training  camp  under  canvas,  and,  behind 
the  bell-tents,  mile  U])on  mile  of  rippling  down  crowned  with 
spinneys  of  beech.  The  long  shadows  thrown  upon  their 
green  slopes  bv  the  fleecv  clouds  travHljng  across  the  sky 
chased  cme  another  till  it  seemed  as  if  tlie'  downs  themselves 
were  in  ecstatic  motion.  And  he  felt  it  was  rather 
good  to  be  alive. 

"  I  think  I  know  what  the  Psalmist  meant  wiien  he  said 
'  the  mountains  skip  like  rams,'  "  he  mused.  "  He  must  have 
been  thinking  of  the  southdown  country  on  a  sunny  d^iy 
in  —^_ — ." 

The  Colonel  turned  at  the  sound  of  shuffling  feet.  lie 
saw  at'the  door  a  patient  in  loose  grey  clothes.  He  stared  a 
long  time.  What  it  was  that  he  saw  I  have  never  have  been 
(luite  able  to  understand,  for  when  he  told  me  the  story  weeks 
afterwards  he  could  remember  nothing  clearly  about  the 
man's  appearance  except  that  the  hands  moved  continually 
and  fumbled  with  the  clothes. 

The  colonel  advanced  a  step  to  speak.  As  he  did  so,  the 
patient  recoiled  and  rai.sed  his  arm  in  front  of  his  face  as 
though  to  ward  off  a  blow. 

"  Well,  sergeant-major,"  said  the  colonel  tentatively 
"  You  remember  me  ?  Come,  come."  He  felt  as  if  he  were 
coaxing  a  cliild.     "  You  remember  your  old  adjutant." 

At  t\ie  sound  of  his  voice  George  Smith  drew  his  heels  to- 
gether and  salut(Hl  vaguely.  He  tunied  his  head  in  the 
direction  of  the  voice  and  listened  intently.  He  seemed 
to   be   trying   to   locate   the    colonel's '  voice. 

"Is  he  blind  ?  " 

"  Not  exactly.  There's  no  sensoryblindness.  He  sees 
you  ^ut  doesn't  recognise  you,  and  y<Sur  uniform  conveys 
nothing  to  him.  It's  what  we  alienists  call  psychic  blindness. 
D'you  follow  me  ?  " 

"  Not  quite.  If  he  doesn't  know  my  face  how  does  he  come 
to  recognise  my  voice  ?  " 

Y  The  visual  memory's  gone,  but  the  auditory  memor\', 
though  impaired,  remains.  How  ?  Well,  I  suspect  some 
lesion  to  the  nerve  tracts  c'onnecting  the  optic  centres  witli 
the  centres  for  other  ideas.  To  be  plain  with  you  I  think 
he's  had  a  blow  on  the  head — he  may  have  been  treated 
to  the  butt-end  of  a  rifle  from  one  of  his  guards.  It's  a  way 
they  have,  you  know.  The  sound  of  your  voice — I  mean, 
the  crude  acoustic  effect — has  awakened  something,  of  course, 
revived  some  auditory  impression  stored  up  in  the  cells  of 
the  brain.  Yes,  yes.  His  brain  is  like  a  dark  room  in  which 
his  mind  is  trying  to  develop  a  negative.  The  negative  is  the 
image  conveyed  by  the  sound  of  your  voice.  But  who  can  see 
into  a  man's  brain  ?  I've  been  trying  to  do  it  all  my  life. 
.Ml  I  know  is  that  the  mental  photograph  that's  being  developed 
at  this  moment  in  George  Smith's  bilrin  will  probably  be 
hopelessly  blurred." 

■  l^you  remember  the  Delhi  manoeuvres,  sergeant-major  ?  " 
sitd  the  colonel  suddenly  as  he  leaned  forward  on  his  chair. 
"  When  we  were  up  at  Paniput  ?  No  !  he  doesn't — |X)or 
chap  !  Remember  when  the  huts  at  Blackdown  caught  fire 
and  the  tug-of-war  teams  put  the  rojie  f-onnd  the  huts  on  each 
side  of  the  mess  and  pulled  them  down  and  saved  the  mess 
phtc  ?  Surely  you  remember  that?  It  was  yoiu"  notion 
that.     And  how  we  got  the  mess-sergeant  to  call  you  in  after 

dinner  that  night  and  all  drank  your  health  ?- No  !     D'you 

remember  Mons  ?     The  slag-heaps  !     No  !  " 

The  colonel  reflected  for  a  moment.  Then  he  drew  hi-- 
whistle  and  sounded  it,  watching  the  man's  face.  The 
patient's  lips  moved.  He  trembled  violently.  Then  he  began 
to  speak. 

"  HoUl  your  fire  !  Wait  till  I  give  Hiie  word.  Three  hun- 
dred !  Steady  !  Let  them  come  on.  At  the  enemv  in  front 
—-five  rounds— rapid— FIRE  1  Oh!  Very  good.'  Christ! 
the  place's  alive  with'em.  Where's  our  flank  ?  They're  on 
our  right  now— they're  enfilading  us.  Where  are  our  sup- 
ports ?  Nevermind!  Give 'em  hell,  boys.  Where's  Mr. 
Addison  ?     Sir  ?  " 

The  Colonel   leaned   forward  eagerly   and   was  about  to 


April  26,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


a 
we 


speak.  The  doctor  held  up  his  hand.  '  Don't,  interrupt 
liim,"  he  whispered,  "  it  won't  help  matters." 

"  Where  are  our  supports  ?  Where's  the  runner  ?  No ! 
No  1  mustn't  retire.  Where's  Mr.  Addison  ?  How  many  t 
About  thirty  ?  Thirty  did  you  say  ?  Out  of  fifty-five  !  See 
that  chimney-stack  !  Three  hundred  !  Yes,  three  hundred. 
Recruit  are  you  my  lad  ?  Only  just  off  the  square.  Never 
mind!  Remember  old  six  o'clock.  Get  tip  of  foresight  mto 
line  with  the  shoulder  of  the  U  of  the  backsight  and  aim  at 
bottom  of  the  stack!  That's  it.  I  don't  know.  Well! 
We've  got  our  iron  rations.  After  that  it'll  be  a  case 
of  '  March  Past.'  How  many  of  us  did  you  say  ?  About 
twentv-one!  Twenty-one  out  of  fifty-five.  They've  out- 
flanked us!  It's  a  wash-out.  We've  no  ammunition  left. 
Me've  tlie  wounded  to  think  of.  But  I_  never  thought  it  'ud 
conic  to  this.  Where's  Mr.  Addison  ?  " 

"  Fiftv-five  !  "  said  the  colonel  quietly  to  himself.  "  Yes, 
it  would  be  about  fifty-five  :  We  were  up  to  full  strength." 
The  voice  had  stopped.  The  colonel,  glancing  at  the  doctor, 
saw  that  his  eyes  were  narrowly  watching  the  sergeant- 
major.  The  sergeant-major  was  gazing  fixedly  at  the 
desk  in  front  of  Jiim  behind  which  the  doctor  sat. 
The  doctor  leaned  forward  and  very  quietly,  very  unobtrusively 
placed  his  hand  over  something  lying  on  the  front  of  the, 
desk,  grasped  it,  closed  it  with  a  click,  and  put  it  in  his  pocket. 
It  was  a  penknife.     ,, 

The  stealthy  look  died  out  of  the  sergeant-major's  eyes  and 
the  ne.xt  moment  he  had  resumed  his  monologue. 

"  Don't  club  him  like  that !  He's  hit  in  the  leg  ;•  Tie 
can't.  He  can't,  I  tell  you.  Christ !  Call  yourself 
soldier.  Where's  your  officer  ?  '  Prisoners !  '  I  know 
are.  But  we're  men  same  as  you.  How  would  you  like  .  .  . 
Oh  Christ !  leave  me,  alone.  You  dog,  leave  me  alone  .  .  . 
I  can't  carry  it  any  more,  you've  broke  my  arm.  It's  your 
pack.!^No!  I  ain't  got  anything  to  give  you,  my  lad. 
They've  been  through  my  pockets  too.  Rations !  They've 
taken  mine  too.  No !  I  ain't  had  anything  for  forty-eight 
hours.  How  docs  it  go  '  Come  to  the  cook-house  door, 
boys,  come  to  the  cook-house  door.'  " 

"It's  the  men's  way  of  putting  the  cook-house,  call," 
whispered  the  colonel  to  the  doctor. 

"  No !  it's  mouldy.  How  many  ?  Fifteen  did  y<jiu,y^ay 
out  of  fifty-five.  Yes  !  They've  clubbed  five  of  us  becaiisc 
they  couldn't  keepup.  A  horse  tent.  Yes,  they've  bedded 
us  down  with  straw'.  Look  at  the  straw — it's  moving. 
It's  alive.  Christ!  Don't  they 'itch?  Something  cruel. 
They  say  it's  good  enoygli  for  English  swine.  How  many  did 
you  say?  Fourteen  I  Fourteen  out  of  fifty-five!  ,Yes  he 
died  of  hungei.jjoor  ciiap.     How's  it  go?     'Come  to  the 

cook .'     No!     1    can't    remember    any    more.      There 

ain't  any  cook-house  jiero,  my  lad.  No  !  don't  give  in.  Spat 
in  your  face,  did  they  ?  Tell  'em  to  go  to  hell !  Your'  shirt 
itches,  do  it  ?  Tlirow  it  dway  then.  Took  yer  kit  away, 
did  they  ?  Christ !  ain't  we  deficient  in  articles.  The 
O.C'U  take  an  inventory  when  we  get  home  same  as.  he 
did  with  deserters  and'll  order  us  to  be  put  under  stoppages 
to  make  good.     The  adjutant  won't  like  it     .     .     ."   , 

The  colonel  was  gripping  the  arms  of  his  chair.  He 
muttered  something  under  his  breath.  The  doctor  toyed 
with  a  pen,  his  eyes  fi.\ed  on  the  patient.  The  latter  now 
clenched  his  lists  convulsively.  Tlie  attendants  moved  a 
pace  closer.  ,.  .,  ,    .,, ' 

"  No  towel!  Use  your  shirt  my  lad,  musn't  be  dirty  on 
parade.    Soup  like  sewage,  ain't  it !    '  Strai-harackc\'    ^"•— ^'• 


it  mean  ?     Means 


What's 
in  clink  '  my  lad.  Yes  !  fifty  pfcfinings 
a  day  fpr  fatigues.  y\in't.this  baulk  of  timber  heavy.  Offer- 
ing you  bread,  are  tlwy  ?  No  !  Don't  take  any  notice  ;  they'll 
only  snatch  it  away  again  to  get  a  rise  out  of  you.  Blast 
them,  they  ain't  human.  Tighten  yer  belt,  instead,  ij^lad. 
How  does  it  go  ?  '  Come  to  the  — '  No  !  j  can't 
remember  it :  I'm  that  hungry.  How  many  did  you 
say  ?  Eight.  Eigljt  out  of  fifty-five.  It's  the  typhus 
done  it.  Where's  the  platoon  ?  Not  even  a  section ! 
Never  say  die,  boys.  .  .  .  How  many  did  you  say  ? 
Three  of  us  poor  sinners  left.  One  on  us  left — not  enough 
to  mount  guard  now.  .  .  They're  going  to  tic  liim  up 
to  the  post,  he  was  a  sergeant-major,  he  was. 

"  Tie  him  up  to  the  post !  Yes  !  All  night,  and  it's  snow- 
ing. Jesus !  The  wind's  something  cruel.  What  for  ? 
For  giving  back  answers  !  Why  did  they  ciUl  liim  an  '  Eng- 
lish swine  '  then  !  Yes  !  a  double  knot.  Round  the  ankles, 
then  round  the  knees,  then  round  the  shoulders,  then  round 
the.  wrists,  then  a  slip-knot  round  the  tree.  It'll  be  about 
tattoo  at  home  now,  it  will.  Tell  'em  to  go  to  hell.  .  .  . 
tell  'em.     .     .     ." 

"What  about  Addison  ?  Ask  him  about  Addison,"  the 
Colonel  entreated.     But  the  doctor  shook  his  head, 

The  sentences  grew  more  and  more  confused..  He  uttered 
substantives  without  verbs  and  verbs  without  substantivses. 
He  faltered,  stammered^— and  stopped.      The  brain  had  run 


down  like  a  clock. 

"  Like  spirit-rapping — oh  !  most  damnably,"  was  how 
the  colonel  put  it  afterwards.  "  And  not  a  trace  of  feeling, 
no  !  Not  a  flicker  on  the  poor  devil's  face.  And  there 
were  we  talking  over  him  as  though  he  were  a  dog  or  a  horse 
— like  two  '  vets.'  And  those  attendants  standing  beside 
him  like  two  damned  deaf-mutes.  As  for  him,  you'd  have 
sworn  he  was  talking  about  semieone  else.  A  brain  without  a 
mind,  you  know.  Ever  noticed  how  the  tajje  clicks  out  the 
E.xchange  telegrams  and  then  gives  you  '  the  right  hon. 
gentleman  said  x  x  x  x  x  ? '  All  noughts  and  crosses,  you 
know.     It  was  just  like  that." 

The  colonel  put  this  to  the  Meehcal  Superintendent  at  thc^ 
time.  He  urged  liim  to  help  him  find  a  cue — to  play  the 
l)rompter  to  tliat  darkened  brain. 

The  doctor  shook  his  head.  "  We  alienists  are  still  groping 
in  the  dark  "  he  protested.  With  his  eyes  still  on  the  vacant 
face  of  the  sergeant-major.  "  We  can  observe  much  ;  we 
can  experiment  but  little — or  not  at  all.  '  Fear  not  them 
which  kill  the  body  ' — you  Jinow  the  rest.  I  cannot  cure  the 
soul.  I  have  been  asked  that  q_uestion  before — oh  !  too  often. 
Canst  thou  not  minister  to  a  mind  diseased 
pluck  from  the  memory  a  rooted  so^ro\^?  ? 
"  Would  that  I  could !  You  know  at  times  he  thinks  he  has 
committed  an  unforgivable  sin  and  that  he's  condemned  to 
stand  for  ever  on  his  toes  tied  tp  a  post  iiV  tlie  snow.  What 
did  you  say?  Oh,  yos !  An  auditory  impression,  if 
sufticiently  resonant,  will  sometimes  stimulate  the  other 
senses.  A  good  deal's  been  done  that  way  in  cases  of 
liypnotism — take  a  tuning-fork,  for  example  ;  if  sounded 
close  to  the  ear,  it  will  sometimes  increase  the  acuteness 
(jf  vision.  One  can  even  conceive  of  its  rendering  first-aid 
to  a  defective  mtfnory.  But  .these  are  mere  conjuring  tricks. 
What's  that  ?  "       , 

Tlirough  the  open  window  there  floated  upon  the  air  a 
single  silvery  note.  It  was  followed  by  another,  tentative 
and  tremulous,  and  then  a  series  of  volatile  trills  and 
flourishes.  In  the  larch-tree  outside  a  thrush,  piping  its 
morning  call,  stopped  iiKjuisitively.  The  listlessness  died 
out  of  the  sergeant-major's  face  ;  he  listened,  his  head  on 
one  side,  with  the  ])ainful  effort  at  location  of  a  new-born 
child.  LTpon  the  green  hillsitle,  half-a-mile  away,  a  happy 
bugler  was  practising  liis  calls.  He  broke  into  the  "  pick- 
me-up,  ijick-mc-u])"  quavers  of  the  sergeants'  mess-call, 
changed  suddenly  into  tlie  "  Drummer's  knock,"  blew  a 
few  bars  of  the  "  Last  Post.'' .and  then  sounded  a  plaintive 
sequence  of  three  notes  which. came  and  went  as  in  a  fugue. 
The  sergeant-major  started  to  his  feet,  put  his  hands  to  his 
temples,  stared  at  the  Colonel's  uniform,  and,  suddenly 
coming  to  attention,  saluted. 

"  The  orderly  sergeants'  call,  sir  !  " 

The  colonel  watched  him  breathlessly,  waiting  for  a  resur- 
rection that  never  came. 

"  We've  got  to  mobilise — to  mobilise — to  mobilise.  Send 
the  colours  to  the  depot.  Open  the  church  for  the  men's 
kits,  orderly.  flic  reservists  will  be  here  to-morrow. 
Quick  !  "     And  he  made  for  the  door. 

Strong  arms  clasped  him  in  a  grip  of  iron.  He  struggled 
in  the  embrace  of  the  attendants. 

"  Let  mc  go  !  Let  me  go  !  "  he  shouted.  "  I'm  the 
sergeant-major !  Where's  the  adjutant.  Damn  you !  Let 
me  go !  " 


*  » 


"  No,"  said  the  colonel  to  me  afterwards.  "  I'd  had 
enough.  The  last  I  saw,  orTsrther  heard,  of  him  as  I  left 
that  horrible  place  was  his  Toic*' from  down  a  long  corridor 
as  they  led  him  away.  There  is  a  peculiar  timbre  about  the 
voices  of  the  insane — you  may  have  noticed  it  ?  .  .  .  When 
I  think  of  the  old  regiment — tlie  old  regiment  marching  up 
from  rail-head,  the  advan'ced-guard  like  a  spear-point,  the 
connecting  files,  the  column  of  fours,  and  the  Sergeant-Major 
up  in  front  with  the  CO.  and  me;  all  the  men  with  marigolds 
in  their  caps  and  singing,  singing,  "  Tipperary  "  in  the 
heat  and  dust— and  'then  <te^.f  .  .  .  What  ?' Addison' 
No  !    I  never  heard." 


St.  Andrew's  Home  for  Working  Boys,  Westminster,  which 
lias  just  completed  fifty  years  of  useful  work  among  the  working 
boys  of  London,  is  badly  in  want  of  funds.  Speaking  of  this 
Home  just  before  thc^  war,  the  Bisliop  of  London  said  he  had 
known  it  for  twenty-five  years  aiid-Jincw  of  no  other  institution 
of  the  same  size  whicli  had  done  better  work.  To-day,  when 
War  Orphans  have  to  be  provided  for,  the  need  of  such  in- 
slitutions  is  self-evident.  '  The  Homo  has  lost  lately  a  con- 
siderable revenue  by  the  death  of  subscribers  ami  it  is  essential 
that  new  subscribers  should  take  their  place  if  the  work  is  to  be 
carried  on.  It  is  work  that  is  national  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word,  and  the  institution  is  conducted  on  sound  business  prin- 
ciples. Subscriptions  and  donations  should  be  sent  to  the 
Hon.  Treasurer,  20,  Great  Peter  Street.  Westminster. 


u 


LAND    ik    WATER 


April  2b,  191 7 


Britain's  Biggest  Parish 


By  Francis  Stopford 


S< )  inudi  is  spoken  and  written  in  the  grand  stvlc  of  tiie 
British  Knijiire  in  these  days  that  one  would  like  for 
once  to  depict  it  in  a  lowlier  and  a  personal  aspect- 
as  the  parish  of  certain  famihes  scattered  throughout 
the  British  Isles.  It  is  an  honest  point  of  view,  and  possibly 
one  may  discern  in  it  one  of  the  secrets  of  Britain's  undoubted 
colonising  success.  Any  superior  l)eing  will  asse\eratc  wt; 
are  nationally  insular,"  individually  parochial,  and  that 
wherever  we  go  we  take  with  us  "is  our  high  altar  the  parish 
pump,  that  democratic  provider  of  fluid  refreshment,  deemed 
non-mto.\icating,  for  until  recently  diphtheria  and  typhoid 
germs  were  not  regarded  as  toxins  but  as  acts  of  God,  a  point 
on  which  we  are  still  rather  hazy. 

There  lies  before  me  a  family  tree.     Let  the  family  be  called 
Alexander;    it  is  not  t!i  t   name,  but  it  lias  a.  good 

sound,   and  connotes  w.  lyring.     Also   I    understand 

Alexander  is  Sandy  writ  large,  and  this  family  m  its  origin 
was  Scottish,  for  the  founder,  so  far  as  the  pri?sent  article  is 
concerned,  was  a  doctor,  who  practised  medicine  at  Banff 
during  the  middle  years  M  the  eighteenth  centurv.  The 
wander-virus  declares  itself  in- .^Jc  next  generation, "for  the 
Banff  doctor  lived  to  sec  his  eldest  son  a  famous  London 
physician  and  a  mcmbir  of  the  Royal  Society ;  to  mourn 
the  death  of  his  sixth  son.  an  ofiiccy  in  the  Royal  Xavy,  who 
went  down  with  Kempenfeld  in  the,  Rayal  (ieor'^c,  "and  to 
hear  of  the  wedding  of  his  youngest  and  tenth  child  in  Bengal, 
a  union  from  which  sj)rang  ten  children,  po  not  let  the  idea 
arise  that  this  kind  of  family  tree  is  peculiar  to  Scotland  ; 
it  has  certainly  flourished  there  exceedingly  ;  but  there  is 
not  an  linglish  county  which  does  not  contain  several  of 
the  species,  and  Ireland  abounds  in  glorious  specimens. 
A  distinctive  characteristic  of  these  family  trees  is  their 
l)rolificness.  Some  offshoots  of  course  never  marrv,  but 
granting  wedlock,  in  the  case  of  the  Alexanders,  fro"m  the 
niiddle  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  the  later  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  seven  was  a  small  family,  "ten  was  the 
more  usual  number,  and  one  splendid  patriarch  begot  eighteen 
sons  and  daughtei:s  and  lived  to  welcome  into  the  world  two 
score  and  ten  grandchildren. 

From  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  onwards  India 
naturally  attracted  man\-  of  this  wander-stricken  elan,  but 
they  never  became  an  Anglo-Indian  house  like  the  Plowdens, 
Trevors,  Beadons  and  Rivett-Camacs,  to  (juote  Ki]jling's 
classical  instances.  India,  for  the  Alexanders,  was  ime 
street  in  their  parish  which  was  the  British  Kmpire.  We 
iind  brothers  born  on  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas  taking 
to  themselves  wives  in  early  manhood,  one  in  Winnipeg,  the 
other  in  Brisbane.  Had  the  call  of  the  East  been  in  the 
blood,  one  or  other  would  have  sought  "  The  Tomb  of  his 
Ancestors,"  in  the  Chinn  manner  as  Krjjling  describes  it. 
Nevertheless,  let  me  write  down  in  his  own  words  as  neai"  as 
may  be  how  an  Alexander  described  his  experience  of  India 
some  twenty  years  ago  : 

"  Modern  Indian  histor\'  is  for  me  largely  a  family  affair. 
I  stand  in  Delhi  ;  out  of  that  gate  my  mother's  brother  and 
his  wife  escape  as  the  mutineers  stream  in  on  that  day  of 
May- ;  she,  poor  woman,  never  recovers  from  the  hardships 
of  the  flight.  Through  the  breach  in  the  Kashmir  Gate  my 
father's  brother  is  among  the  first  to  enter  with  his  regiment 
of  Light  Infantry.  I  attciad  a  funeral  of  a  Mutiny  veteran 
at  Lahore  :  waiting  for  th*liKirse,  I  wander  ;in  the  cemetery, 
and  stumbling  over  the  graves  of  two  small  children  am 
introduced,  through  the  headstones,  to  two  first  cousins,  who, 
had  they  li\'ed,  would  have  been  about  my  age.  Driving 
in  Amritsar  I  pass  down  the  street  called  after  an  \nicle.  At 
an  afternoon  party  of  a  Deccan  nobleman  in  Hyderabad 
to  iny  suq)rise  another  uncle  glares  down  on  me  as  I  drink 
my  coffet!,  from  an  atrocious  canvas.  Business  takes  me  to 
an  out-of-the-way  station  in  the  South  Indian  hills,  a  hundred 
miles  from  the  nearest  railway  station  with  unly  half-a-dozen 
Hurf)iJean  residents,  and  in  the  cemetery  I  run  across  my 
.mother's  uncle,  who  took  his  rest  fifty  years  before  I  came. 
livery  Indian  cathedral  and  scores  of  Indian  churches  contain 
the  record  of  baptisms,  weddings  and  burials  of  my  people. 
Yet  the  Alexanders  are  not  an  Anglo-Indian  family  ;  there 
must  be  scores  with  a  clbser  and  morie  intimate  connection. 
Think  what  it  would  mean  were  we  Lawrences,  Battyes  or 
Lushingtons.  You  may  call  this  sentiment  parochial.  It  is. 
And  if  you  can  estimate  its  force,  you  may  be  able  to  gauge 
the  heat  of  our  wrath  when  some  act  of  injnstire  is  done  to 
India  for  political  considerations  at  home.  It's  no  use 
talking  economics  or  jiolitics  to  us — parochial  us.  justice 
and  straight  dealing  have  become  a  sort  of  moral  village 
green  for  families  such  as  mine,  and  the  least  encroadmient 
ou  it  is  resented  bitterlv  and  hotly." 


To  comprehend  British  rule  in  India  the  family  or  jjarocliial 
side  of  the  business  cannot  be  ignored.  It  has  no  doubt 
its  defects,  but  its  strength  and  its  influence  for  good  arc 
undoubted,  and  it  has  made  for  a  closer  and  better  racial 
understanding.  But  we  must  now  leave  India  and  pause 
for  a  moment  at  Mauritius,  where  several  Alexanders  culti- 
vate sugar.  The  pioneers  of  sugar  cultivation  in  Natal 
include  an  Alexander,  and  the  family  figures  big  in  the 
development  and. administration  of  that  colcmy.  Australia 
is,  so  to  speak,  next  door  to  Natal,  and  Jn  the  middle  of  last 
century  many  wander  to  the  Antipodes  ;  New  South  W;Ues, 
^'ictoria,  Queensland  and  the  north  and  south  islands  of 
New  Zealand  provide  work  for  their  hands.  Others  bom  in 
Kngland  strike  westward  and  make  themselves  homes  iji 
Canada,  some  this  side  of  the  Rockies,,  cHhers  beyond.  The 
British  Kmpire  has  been  none  too  big  for  this  family,  and 
to-day  it  holds  not  a  province  where  you  may  not  find  an 
Alexander,  living  or  dead.  At  Sea',  shroud  an  Alexander  in 
sail-cloth  and  tie  a  round  sliot  to  his  heels  and  the  odds  are 
he  will  jostle  a  cousin  before  he  sinks  to  sleep. 

.As  for  this  family,  so  of  scores  of  others  in  these  islands. 
The  British  Empire  is  their  only  tnie*parish.  They  have 
iK'aten  its  bounds  and  are  familiar  with  its  bridle-paths  arid 
bye-lanes.  In  the  old  days,  when  communications  were 
clilhcult,  letters  were  of  greater  rarity  and  so  more  prized ; 
they  passed  from  household  to  household,  and  the  children 
1)efore  they  reached  even  their  teens,  had  lost  all  sense  of  the 
bigness  of  the  world.  Canada,  South  Africa,  India,  Aus- 
tralia and  New  Zealand  seemed  to  them  hardly  more  distant 
than  Counties  at  the  other  end  of  lingland  ;  they  ceVtainly 
knew  more  about  them,  for  the  latter  were  merely  geographical 
expressions,  while  the  former  were  the  homes  of  men  and 
women  who  periodically  appeared  above  the  horizon  and 
tipped  them  with  sih'er  or  gold  before  they  disappeared  to  the 
place  whence  they  came.  Though  they  were  not  conscious  of 
it,  the  centrifugal  force  of  1%  families  was  in  operation. 
We  cannot  estimate  the  loss  to  the  Empu'e  since  the  popvila- 
tion  of  the  nursery  has  been  governed  by  the  laws  of  Provi- 
dence, but  this  we  do  know,  that  were  these  laws  in  force 
in  the  eighteenth  and>  nineteenth  centuries,  the  British 
Empire  would  not  be  what  it  is.  This  family  tree  bears 
powerful  evidence  to  this  fact.  It  is  the  elder  sons  who 
settle  at  home,  tin:  younger  ones  who  wander.  Big  families 
in  professional  homes  usually  s])ell  poverty,  or  at  least  strait- 
ness  of  means,  either  of  which  is  a  builder  of  character,  and 
also— a  factor  not  to  be  overlooked — in  big  families  the  spipt 
of  adventure  and  the  sense  of  self-reliance  are  fostered  from 
infancy.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  it  was  a  thirst  for  gold 
that  took  these  men  abroad;  they  certainly  went  to  seek 
their  fortune,  but  fortune  with  them  did  not  imi)ly  solely 
riches.  They  have  family  traditions  to  live  up  to  ;  those 
who  gain  wealth  are  few.  But  their  special  glory  is  that 
the  men  and  women  of  their  blood,  from  generation  to 
generation,  have  been  of  the  web  and  woof  of  Empire  ;  their 
family  story  cannot  be  detached  from  the  devcloi)ment  of 
those  civiUsations  and  lands  where  two  centuries  ago  Britain 
was  an  rmknown  name  or  almost  so. 

So  much  for  the  past  ;  what  of  the  present  ?  I  beheve 
the  same  parochial  sentiment  is  at  work  knitting  the  British 
Empire  closer  and  closer  together.  Big  families,  but  lower 
in  the  social  scale,  have  been  largely  responsible  for  the 
emigration  of  recent  year's.  Sons  and  daughters  have  gone 
to  the  Southern  Isles  or  the  Ear  West,  leaving  behind  many 
lit  their  kith  and  kin.  Writing,  thanks  to  elementary  educa- 
tion, is  the  accomplishment  of  all,  and  we  know  from  tlu; 
exjjerience  of  the  war  that  vivid  expression  has  nothing  to 
do  with  education  ;  it  is  a  far  comuKiner  gift  than  was  once 
thought.  They  write  Iiouk;  descriptions  of  their  novel  sur- 
roundings ;  more  than  that,  they  send  accounts  of  the 
christening  of  the  newest  arrival  ;  of  the  wedding  of  grandson  jL 
or  granddaughter  and  of  the  Imrial  of  this  or  that  exile, 
riiotographs  follow.  And  so  tlie  British  Em])ire  continues  te 
be  the  i)arisli  of  more  and  more  British  families. 

There  are  certain  vigorous  growths  in  the  vegetable  woild 
which  spread  through  their  roots.  They  extend  under  the 
surface  and  throw  up  new  shoots  at  distant  spots,  in  a  sur- 
prising manner.  The  spread  of  famiFies  through  the  British 
Empire  is  after  this  fashion  ;  it  is  only  when  you  dig  under 
the  surface  that  you  realise  the  close  network  of  the  roots. 
One  is  a  little  apt  to  overlook  this  fact,  especially  when 
more  important  aspects  are  nnder^^disrussion  ;  so  this  article 
lias  been  wTitten,  not  to  deprecate  the  other  points  of  view, 
aiwut  which  we  cannot  hear  enough,  but  to  recall  the  number 
of  souls  in  all  stations  of  life  and  in  all  parts  of  the  world 
for  whom  the  British  Empire  is  nothing  but  one  bit:  parish. 


r 


A]:»ril  26,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


Save  the  Children. 


SAVE    BELGIUM'S 
LITTLE     ONES. 


The  Committee  at  The  Hague,  "  La  Sante  do  I'Enfance  Beige," 
undertakes  to  bring  the  children,  ONLY  THOSL  WHO  ARE 
"CERTIFIED  BY  DOCTORS  to  be  in  DECLINING  HEALTH," 
from  Belgium,  where  at  the  present  moment  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  procure  proper  food,  "  where  indeed  the  price  of  milk  is  1  s.  3d. 
a  quart,  and  only  to  be  procured  with  the  greatest  difficulty." 

There  are  thousands  more  now  waiting  to  be  brought  over  the 
Belgian  frontier  into  Holland. 

Unless  You    Help, 
the   Life-Saving  Work  in   Holland 

Cannot    be    Continued, 
and   Many  Children   Must  Perish. 


With    your   Cheque   or   Treasury   Note  YOU    can  SAVE  A 
CHILD'S  LIFE. 

Donations  should  be  sent  to,  and  cheques  made  payable  to — 
Hon.  Treasurer,   Working    ^Ven's    Belgian   Fund,  32,  Grosvenor 
Place,  LONDON,  5.W.1,   (Regd.  War  Charities  Act,  1916.) 
Eamiarked  for  the  "Sant6  de   I'Enfance  Beige." 


A  New 

THE 


Naval   Safeguard 

BURFRON 


Illustrated 
Naval 
Catalogue 
Post  Free. 


SERVICE 
WEATHER PROOFS 

DurinR  the  War  BUR- 
BERRYS  CLEAN  and 
RE  -  PROOF  Officers' 
*'Butberrys, "  Tielockens, 
linrlrons  ;in'i  Burberr>' 
Trench-M'arms 
FREE    OF   CHARGE. 


FOR  exposure  on  the 
bri(l!,'(',  ill  the 
launcli,  anywhwe 
when  green  seas  are 
l)reaking  over  decks, 
THE  BUPaaiON  offers 
such  amplo  security 
ii.gainst  ;i  dousing  that 
it  leaves  the  oilskin  "  in 
the  cart." 

The  fatal  defect  of. 
waterproof.^  and  oilskins 
is  the  openings  between 
the  buttons  where  the 
foat  fastens  in  front, 
and,  whatover  contriv- 
ance has  hitherto  been 
devised,  this  defett  is 
always  fatal,  especially 
when  seated,  as  it 
."iimply  guides  water  to 
the  seat. 

T  H  E  n  TI  R  F  R  O  N 
neither  fa.stens  at  fmnt 
nor  back.  It  winds 
round  the  figure  without 
ope^iings  anywhere  to 
admit  water,  and  is  held 
together  se<nirely  by  one 
hutton  at  the  neck. 

A  belt  is  not  necessary, 
but  it  .snngs  the  coat 
down  in  cold,  hhisterous 
weather ;  and  gives  it  a 
smart  Service  ajipear- 
ance  and  finish. 


jmy  Jk\/A  1  BURBERRYS  are  experts  in  all  branches  of 
1^  aV  1/  /\  I  Naval  Outfitting,  and  supply  correct  and  well- 
*  ~  •*   *• "  ■*  *  '-^  tailored  Liniforms,  as  well  as  every  detail  of  dress 

U  IN  IrURMS  Complete  KiU  in  2  to  4  Days  or  Rea^y  to  Use. 


BURBERRYS 

Bd.    Malesherbes   PARIS 


Uil 


Haymarket     LONDON 

and   Agents  in    Qiief  Naval  Stations. 


The    Wonderful     New 
Time  and  Labour  Saver 

Equally  effective  for  dry-scrubbing 
dusting,  cleaning  and  polishing. 
The  "  Big  hand"  responds  instantly 
to  your  will,  moving  quickly  and 
easily  in  any  direction  at  any 
angle— reachi  ng  into  remote 
corners,  underneath  tables  and 
chairs,  up  to  tops  of  doors  and 
panellings  —  anywhere  —  every- 
where. Goes  so  easilj'  and  is  so 
light,  a  child  can  use  it. 


HOME 
POLISHER 


For  use  with  RONUK 
SANITARY  POLISH 
A  Ronuked  Home  is 
a  Beautiful  Home. 
There's  nothing  like 
Ronuk  for  polishing 
Floors — it  keeps  your 
Linoleum  bright — 
ma^es  Furniture  look 
just  like  new. 
MOST  ECONOMICAL.  A  UTTLE 
GOES    SUCH  A    LONG    WAY. 


=  Inleresii»n  Booklet  -TIIF.RE'S  THE  RUB  "  sent  gratis  and  post- 
's^ free.  RONUK.  LTD..  Deft.  35,  Porlslade,  BRIGHTON.  Of  all 
^  Stores,  Grocers,  Ironmongers  and  Oilmen,  in  large,  medium,  i^itd 
g  small  Tins.    Also  LIQUID  RONUK  in  upright  tins. 

illllllllllllllllll!llilllll!illllll!ll!llllllllllllllllllllllll!n^^ 


LAND    &     WATER 


Life  and   Letters 


By   J.    C.    Squire 


LAST  week  Mr.  K.  B.  Osbom  observeU  iliat  the^var- 
poetiy  produced  by  civilians  at  home  is  most 'of  it 
not  worth  reading.  The  criticism  was  just :  but 
tliere  are  exceptionsHo  tlie  rule,  and  Jliey  are  mostly 
to  be  found  on  the  outskirts  of  literature. 

•  «•'•-;'  ^'  •  *      • 

I  would  direct  liis  attention,  Tor  in.stance,  to  a  volume 
published  at  Cardiff  and  entitled,  with  almost  startling  apt- 
ness,' Bosch.  ■  The'  author,  in  his  preface,  states  that  : 

the  prevailing  anti-Him  feeling  hit  me  so  hard,  that  I  simply 
had  to  do  something. — or  burst !  I  did  something.  This  is  it. 
— which  is,  at  any  rate,  modester  than  the  announcement  of 
the  New  Zealand  bard  who  said  that  he  had  published  his 
poems  in  order  "  to  confer  i\\e  greatest  happiness  upon  the 
greatest  number."  It  may  ^^e'that  some  of  the  (ientltMuan's 
readers  will  think  that  he  ha'd  done  better  to  take  the  alter- 
native course,  and  burst.  But  the  done  cannot;  be  undone. 
and  at  least  one  person  is  glad  of  it.  Tlje  poems  in  Boscli  live 
up  to  the  preface:  the  author's  finest- feat  perhaps  is  his 
rhyming  of  "  sossidge  "  and  Vossische..  Then,. again,  there 
is  Tlw  Chronicles  of  Man,  by  Mr.  C.  FiUingham  Coxwell 
(Watts  and  Co.,  6s.  net),  an  epic  of  seven,  hundred  pages, 
which  begins  with  "Man's-  origin'  I  ,sing,"  and  ends 
with  the  bombardment  of  tlie  l")ardanelles.  All  human 
histor\'  is  summarised  by  this  remarkable  man  :  and 
the  treatment  of  the  battles  in  the  present '  war  suggests 
that  he  had 'a  hie  of  L.\ni)  &  \V.\tkr  before  him  as  he 
wrote.  The  lordly  progress  of  his  narrative  may  be  illustrated 
by  a  passage  from  the  desciipti(m  of  the  struggle  in  Poland  : 
'"'  "  ■     ■  "  '       ,  Hvil   overtakes 

Once  more  the  hardy. Rtfssanigh  Maznria's  lakes  ; 
Still,  lightlv  falls  the  los.s  on  one  who  can  retreat 
To  nigli  a  wildernes.s.  more  easily  there  meet 
And  conquer  enemies.     ... 

So  gay  lives  Warsaw,  proud,  nor  falls  a  prey,  to, fear 
If  foes  to  cross  the  Rawka, /Bzura,  hurrj-  near,*'^    , 
\\'hilc  Vistula  well  wots,  at  }taad  an  army  lies 
Of  brave'  Siberians,  Cossacks,  guards  of  giant  size  : 
Even  Przemysl  is  woven    into  his  couplets :    though,    for 
once,  he  lets  his  discretion  get  the  better  of  his  valour  and 
spells  it  "  Pennysl."      And  yet  another  work  that  posterity 
sliould  not  willingly  let  die  is  Rationalistic  and  Other  Poenvi 
by  Peshoton  Sorabji-Goolbai-fhrbash,  D.Sc,  F.S.P.,  Phil.  B., 
l-.R.S.A..  M.N'.lC:C.r.,  r.B:i:'S-.-,  I'.P.C.  (Lond'.),  etc.  -It  is 
pubhshed,  at  3s.  n?t,4)y  the  British  Bardic  Brotherhood,  of 
1)9,  Upper  Bedford  Place,  W.C.     I  do  not  know  what  the 
Bardic  Brotherhood  is;   but  I  should  very  much  like  to  see 
it,  in  the  flesh. 

*        «         ♦       ■ »         * 

Mr.  Dubash,  on  whose  degrees  and  diplomas  tlic.sun  never 
;ets,  is  an  Indian.  Most  Indian  authors  in  these  days  write 
rather  better  English  th;ui,MHe{jte. :  Sir  Kabindranath  Tagore's 
prose  is  immaculate,  almost  too  immaculate ;  and  Mrs. 
Naidu's  verse  might  be  written  by  a  lady  who  jiad  never 
spoken  a  word  of  anything  but. English  in  her  life.'  The 
collector  of  eccentric,  verse  should  not  miss  Cowasjee's  flowery 
?pic  on  the  Prince  Consort,  or  that  other  panegyric  on  the 
British  Raj  which  begins  : 

In  ancient  days  ere  Britons  ruled  our  Ind 
Ko  man  but  mocked  at  fai4:h,  at  honour  grinned  : 
But  no%\»  benignant  Briti.sh  banners  have  swiftly  brought 
Security  of  life  and  pelf  and  freedom  of  tho\ight. 
But  these  arc  things  of  tl^ie  past,  and  it  is  now  unusual  to 
strike  an. Indian  fellow-subject  who  has  sudi  revolutionary 
ideas  about  our  prosody  and  syntax  as  Mr.  1  Dubash.     He  is  a 
scientific  man  :  his  ideals  are  lofty  :  liis  poUtical  and  educational 
notions  very  sensible  ;  and  his  sentiments  towards  us  and  all 
mankind   most   generous.     His    form,    however,   is   not   as 
orthodox  as  Ins  matter.     Here,  for  example,  is  the  end  of  an 
extremely  loyal  Ballade  : . 

Wide  India's  sons  impetuous 

To  give  their  wealth*with  dignity. 
And  shed  tlieir  blood  so  precious 

Now  prove  all  British  unity. 
At  home  men  pour  in  dutifully 

From  Colonies  and  India  vast, 
And  so  with  rightful  hberty 
With  British  rule  eternal  last. 
•    Envoi. 
.     King  Emperor,  behold  tlicir  blood 

Of  your  true  Itast,  O.  mu.se,  avast ! 
Be  sure  with  rightful  liberty 
Shall  British  rule  eternal  last. 


But  it  would  be  giving  a  false  imprt-ssRui  il  one  left  it  to  b 
understood  that  .Mr.  Dubash  is  mainly  preoccupied  with  the 
war;   and  a  few  quotations' from  his  other  poems  will'illus' 
tratc  this.  '      <  '  ,  .,^ 

»        •        «        ♦  ,      i'' 
■* - '    "  ^        ■  '  ^' 

Hera  is  the  first  verse  of  a  soi\g,  Whiok  expresses  at  wice 
the  itoiviersality  and  the  intensity  of  th*' maternal  instinct. 
Onendiom  in  it  reminds  one  of  the  distressed  peasant  whose 
letter  is  given  in  Mr.  Lucas's  The  Gentlest  Art,  and  who  said 
he  had  a. "'large  family,  consisting  of  liye  female  women 
and  three  mascuhne,  the  last  of  whictoare  still  taking  milk 
from  mother's  chest,  .and  are' damn?ft)le  n6isefi\l  throng 
pulmonary'  catastrophe  in  their  interior  abdomen": 

Of  friends,  relation.s'.allf    ^ 

A  mother  loves  >  the 'best. 
At  cWld-birth's  painful  call 

It's  life  is  in  herlbrea.st. 
At  baby's  rhymole.ss  squall  . 

She  takes  it  to">h'er^chest  '-- 
,  Of  "friends,  relations  all. 

A  mother  loves  theb('>i 

In  a  sonnet,  alliterative  *  to  . 'a;  degree,,  that  puts  Swinburne 
in  the  shade,  he  expounds  the  power  of  Mfisic  : 

Just  gently  joyous  and  so  softly  swoot, 

Magnetic  music  makes  men's  mental   meals 

The  heart  hurt  highly  hcalthilv  it  heals. 
To  troublous  times  a  tender  timely  treat. 

Its  operations,  howevcj,  are  not  all  so  lii^nelicent : 

.^hough  harmless  yet  not  innocent  art  Thou. 
;      ^^TTh'ou  goadest  gourmands  greedily  "to  glut,  ' 

The  lolling  lazy  loungingly  to  live.     .     .     . 

Ehewiierc  he  probes  somewhat  deeper  into  music,  modilnlinr; 
f)n  tliC'wondeiB  of  the  human  senses  ;"*'• 

All  different  dings'  discordant  dins  that  drum 
'In  ears,  or  measured  music's  healing  hum. 
Although  they  all  vibrate  in  -selfsame  ear, 
It  can  discern  at  moment's  notice  cld^rr" 

'Agreeable  smell  or  some  repulsive  stink. 

How  does  the  nose  di.scern,  we  cannot  think. 

And  this  philosophic  tendency  is  stitt  more  marked  fn  a 
poeni  which  traces  thcu^ourse  of^Evolution:  from  the  be- 
ginning.    The  first  stages  are  described  {xs  follows  : 

O, 

In 
Naught 

Hccn 
Aught. 

From  aught 

So  small 
Came  mucli 

And   all. 

But  at  this 

The  slow  growth 
Did  not  cease. 

But  brought  forth         -,..,. 
Of  this  some  more 

And  more  of  that 
With  growth  encore,     • 
Nor  here  stopped  flat 

But  still  more  create 

And  without  a  stop. 
Hence  the'  world  so  great 

JJid  thus  develop. 

It  seems  likely  thatin  the  first  stanzas  the  poet  rs'attcmptinS 
a  realistic  treatment  of  Primeval  Chaos.  .^t  any  rate,  it 
must,  have  been  something  like  that,  and  when  an  artist 
succeeds,  one' ought  not. to  inquire  too-  closely  into  his 
intentions.  T'ftbservc  that  I  have  got  away  from  the  war. 
But  that,  occasionally,  is  a  good  thing  to  do.  As 
Mr,  Dubash  himself  says,  in  his  poem  on  "  Good  Humour^' : 

'I'lie  quality, 

Possess  wc  sliould 
Is  jolity  .J 

Or  hiimour  good. 
Without  this  gift 

'   This  life  is  .sad. 
For  it  can  lift 

Some  burden  bad 

"Since  it  is'a  journalistic  crime  to  end  an  article'  .witli  a 
•ijlij&tation  in  small  type  I  add  this  sentence. 


April  2(),  1917 


LAND 


WATER 


PLEASE 
WRITE  FOR 
ILLUS- 
TRATED 
BOOKLET  OF 

SPECIAL 
REQUISITES 

■^OR 
THE  FRONT. 


SHHRTAI^E 
nfJOLO  . 
HIGHEST 
PRICES  NOW 
GIVEN  FOR 
OLD  GOLD 

AND 
JEWELLERY 

OF 
ANV  SORT. 


SMITHS'    "ALLIES" 

ANO 

MEDICAL  WATCHES. 

"UNBREAKABLE"  FRONT 

No  more  Watch  Glasses  I 

No  more  Watch  Glass  Protectors  I 

It  is  Imposeible  to  break  the  front  1 


Smith's 

Electric 

Reading 

Lamp 

for  the  Belt. 


Recognized  by 
Officers  s)  the 
,HKST    LAMI» 

^\  ,::..  ;;..  Tl  STI^}«'MAI  S 
r'll.-ll-l'i-rr 


SHORTAGE 
OF  GOLD. 


Sterling     Silver 
"SCREW  IN" 

Oust  and.  Damp 
Proof    Case. 

sterling    Silver,    Lever 

Movement,      Luminous 

Dial,     Pigsliin     Strap, 

Silver  Buckle. 

dca  :  y :  o 


PLEASE 
WRITE  FOR 
ILLUS- 
TRATED 
BOOKLET  OF 

SPECIAL 
REQUISITES 

FOR 
THE  FRONT. 


Size  of  Lamp,  oj  I  SJ  .\  li  indies.   Timekeeper 


Sterling    Silver     Screw 

in  Case  Meaical  Watch 

Luminous   figures    and 

hands,    registering   5th 

of  seconds. 

Invaluable  tor 

Hospital  Work. 

SMITH'S  High  Orade 

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Books  to  Read 

Bv    Liician    Oldershavv 


THOl'GH  not  ciiaiiii;^ui>lii-(.l  bv  yi.in'  <ii  liuuiui 
or  marki-d  originality  of  tliouglit  William  the  Second, 
by  S.  C.  Hammer  (Heinemann,  3s.  iit-t),  is  a  capable 
and  interesting  jncce  of  lx)ok-makin|t;.  It  is  a 
studv  of  the  Kaiser  "  as  seen  in  contemporary  documents 
and  judged  on  I'vidence  of  liis  own  speeches."  The  author's 
conclusion  after  a  careful  and  cahnly  critical  study  of  the 
life  of  W'ilHam  the  Problem  nuiy  l)o  summarised  in  his  own 
words  :  "  We  fully  agree  with  those  wlio  maintain-  -even 
in  England-  that  William  II.  never  consciously  willed  the 
war  ;  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  he  has  btvn  unconsciously 
working  up  to  it  over  since  his  first  threats  on  the  eighth 
anniversafN'  of  Mars  Lji  Tours.  Tiic  German  people  share 
his  guih  indirectly — lx;cause  they  did  not  protest  against  the 
ImjK'rial  declamations,  because  for  twenty-si.K  years  they 
allowed  him  to  trifle  with  war  and  with  the  thoughts  of  war, 
in  tiie  midst  of  a  jjerfect  torrent  of  assurances  of  peace,  so 
that  by  degrees  a  confusion  was  established  between  dreams 
and  realities,  between  theory  and  fact."  Such  confusion  as 
a  symptom  of  madness  and  insanity  is  the  easiest  solution  of 
the  "  Problem.  "  Such  is  the  solution  which  is  put  forward 
in  C.  Sheridan  Jones's  The  Story  of  the  HohcnzolUrn,  whicli 
may  well  Ix?  read  as  a  corollary  to  William  the  ,Sccund.  It 
has  just  been  reissued  in  a  cheap  edition  (Jarrold,  2s.  6d.  net). 

*  «         *        •        • 

The  man  of  letters  at  the  front  has  a  reputation  to  sustain, 
and  he  must  be  a  very  great  man  indeed  if  he  does  not  reveal 
in  his  work  some  of  the  effort  of  sustaining  it.  Here  are  two 
lx)oks  whicii  1  have  grouped  together,  because  of  a  certain 
similarity  of  subject  ami  treatmeait.  They  are  lirst-hand 
studies  taken  chiefly  among  the  wounded  auci  dying,  and  they 
give  us  pictures  of  one  of  whom  we  can  iie\er  heaV  too  much, 
the  gallant  French  soldier.  They  are  written  by  authors  of 
some  distinction-  ]l'ar  ( T.  Werner  Laurie.  2s.  Od.)  net  is  a 
translation  bv  the  l-rench  naval  officer,  so  well-known  to 
fame  as  "  Pierre  I.oti."  and  AVc-m/f  Windoies  (Kdward  .\rnold, 
5s.  net),  is  by  the  iCiiglisli  novelist  who  calls  himself  "  John 
Ayscough."  Both  books  distress  one  at  first  by  a  certain 
air  of  self-consciousness.  l)ul  both  win  one  in  the  end  by  their 
sincerity  and  sympath\. 

***** 

Pierre  Loti  dwells  chietl\-  on  the  things  that  arouse  one's  pity. 
Pity  is  an  emotion  whicli  he  presents,  if  it  may  be  so  said,  as 
an  expert.  In  the  end  he  rises  above  pity  to  a  fierce  and 
righteous  anger  against  those  who  have  caused  so  much 
suffering  in  France  and  Belgium.  "  Oh,  everywhere  let  the 
tocsin  clang,  a  full  jieel.  ringing  from  end  to  end  of  the  earth  ; 
let  the  supreme  alarm  ring  out  and  let  the  drums  of  all  the 
armies  roll  the  charge  !  And  down  with  the  German  Beast  I 
John  Ayscough  is  able  to  interpret  for  us,  as  few  other  English 
writers  can,  the  religious  spirit  in  the  French  peasant  soldier. 
This  will  give  these  papers  their  special  value  to  English 
readers,  also,  as  the  author  hopes,  of  any  French  men  or 
women  who  may  read  them,  "  will  find  in  them  a  \-ery 
humble,  but  very  reverent,  act  of  love  and  veneration  for  the 
great  heart  of  the  French  people." 

***** 

Much  has  now  been  written  from  difl'erent  points  of  view, 
official  and  other,  of  the  great  adventure  of  GalUp<jli,  but 
there  is  still  room  for  such  personal  narratives  as  The  Straits 
Impregnable,  by  Sydney  de  l.oghe  (John  Murray,  5s.  net.) 
This  manly  and  straightforward  narrative  grips  one  from 
its  oi)ening  .scene,  when  Gunner  Lake  answers  the  "call" 
on  the  Australian  farm  where  Jie  is  hoping  soon  to  rea])  the 
fruits  of  liis  labour.  It  holds  one  in  tlie  descriptions  of  the 
early  days  of  training,  the  voyage  and  the  camps  under  tiic 
Pyramids,  and  Jt  reaches  a  crescendo  of  interest  when  it 
reaches  the  deathless  ston,'  of  the  Peninsula.  All  lovers  of 
the  Empire  should  read  this  book. 

*  *        *        *         * 

Charles  Macfarlane's  Reminiscences  of  a  Literary  Life 
(Ji>lin  Murray,  10s.  Od.  net),  is  a  book  of  unusual  interest, 
rescued  from  the  waste-jiaper  basket  by  a  ])erl>y  bookseller 
and  giv("n  to  the  world  with  an  account  of  the  author  by 
Mr.  John  F.  Tattersall.  I  must  confess  that  without  that 
little  biography  I  should  not  have  ha<l  the  slightest  idea  who 
Macfarlane  was,  though  it  so  hapjiens  that  many  vears  ago 
J. read  one  of  his  books.  The  ('amp  o/  Refuge,  or  The  Last  of  li.r 
Saxons.  He  appears  to  have  been  a  most  voluminous  writt  r 
during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  and,  though  he 
died  a  "  Poor  Brother  of  the  Charterhouse,"  to  have  achieved  at 
one  time  some  considerable  success  with  his  \^o\\.  That  he 
iiud  u  multitude  uf  acquaintances  and  friends,  and  a  li\  el\-  and 


.ii;iL(.able  style,  is  prmed  bv  these  fveiiiiniscences,  111  winch 
he  writes  in  a  discursive  manner  about  pi-oplc  lie  has  met, 
starting  with  an  accidental  meeting  with  Shellev',  in 
the  Museum  of  Naples,  and  ending  with  another  chance 
encounter  that  brought  with  it  the  ac'iuaintanceship  of  Sir 
Isambard  Bnmel. 

¥  *  *  t 

<  )ni-  of  lui  f.;M,ii  ili.uin-.  "f  .Ma;hirlaii>  >  ImnK  i->  that  ln' 
nianages  to  give  us  living  pei-sonalities  not  dead  names.  In 
his  pages  Shelle\-,  Keats,  old  Samuel  Rogers,  i)oor  HartU\ 
Coleridge,  Tom  .Moore,  Horace  Smith,  Leigh  Hunt  and  lll-^ 
sponging  wife,  and  a  host  of  other  well-known  writers  of  tin: 
period  appear  to  us  at  dinner  parties,  on  country  walks,  in 
their  homes,  with  as  great  a  sense  of  re;dity  as  they  did  to 
liini.  The  reader  will  naturally  turn  his  attention  first  of 
all  to  these  well-known  names,  but  he  will  not  so  exhaust  all 
the  interest  of  tlu.'  book.  He  may  not  have  heard,  for  ex- 
ample, of  Tom  Gent,  but  let  him  not  neglect  the  entertaining 
chapter  about  this  engaging  old  rascal, who  contrived,  among 
other  things,  to  make  a  reputation  on  jwems  which  he  got  hi 
friends  to  write  for  him.  "  Boozing  Tom  (jent,  roguish 
Tom  (ient,  witty  Tom  (Jent,  Falstaft'  Tom  Gent,"  is  a  new 
portrait  for  tlie  gallery  of  immortal  humbugs.  It  is  tempting 
to  (jiiotc  from  such  a  book  as  this,  and  be  interesting  at  serond- 
liaml,  but  I  am  fortunately  delivered  from  tlu-  temjjtation 
by  lack  of  space.  It  is  a  book  that  all  interested  in  literaix 
matter  will  soon  be  reading.  It  has  its  appeal,  too,  to  tli' 
.student  of  manners.  Let  me  give  one  instance.  ili 
assassination  of  Spencer  Perceval  was  always  associated  in 
Macfarlane's  mind  with  the  smell  of  cigar  smoke,  becaiis' 
the  day  on  which  it  occurred  was  tlu'  first  day  he  ever  saw  .1 
gentleman  smoking  a  cigar  in  the  jiublic  street. 

*  *         *         *         * 

.After  Macfarlane's  Lively  Recollections  Canon  Shcanm  - 
Reminiscences  (John  Lane,  5s.  net),  is  rather  small  beer.  \'' 
it  Jias  its  ])oints  of  interest  and  is  a  friendly,  readable  bonl;. 
Morwenstow,  with  stories  of  Hawker,  Holmbury  St.  Mar\ , 
with  its  artistic  and  literary  inhabitants,  and  Ryde,  witi 
glimpses  of  Queen  Victoria  at  Osborne,  are  tlie  chief  centr> 
of  interest  in  the  book.  If  for  nothing  else,  the  book  won! 
be  worth  while  for  having  jirescrved  this  neat  epigram  on  .i 
gentleman  of  the  name  of  Wellwood,  who  was  addicted  to  the 
habit  of  exaggeration  ; 

"  You  double  eadi  tiilo  that  you  tell, 
You, double  each  sight  that  you  see. 
Your  name  it  is  W,  V.,  double  L 
W,  double  (),  J)." 

*  *  *     ,     ♦  * 

Of  all  difficult  positions  that  of  being  chaplain  at  a  gaol 
must  be  one  of  the  most  difficult.  One  would  imagine  that 
those  who  were  able  to  continue  the  work  for  any  length  of 
time  were  of  two  kinds,  the  man  with  little  imagination  who 
conducted  his  job  in  a  purely  perfunctory  manner,  and  the 
man  with  a  large  jjowor  of  symi)athy  that  required  no  illn- 
sions  to  sustain  his  charity.  "  .\  Hall-Tinier  "  belongs 
to  the  latter  class,  and  consequently  his  Prison  Reminis- 
cences {EUiot  Stock,  2s.6d.  net),  liave  value  and  interest,  and 
his  plea  for  a  wiser  and  more  humane  treatment  of  ex- 
criminals  deserves  consideration.  The  sort  of  jocularity 
which  is  thought  necessary  in  a  book  like  this  will  be  for- 
given by  those  whom  it  does  not  amuse,  because  this  follower 
of  Saint  Koch,  the  Patron  Saint  of  Prisoners,  to  whom  he 
addresses  an  ode  by  way  of  epilogue  to  the  book,  is  no  jxi- 
lunctory  parson,  but  a  man  of  understanding  and  insight. 
He  is  a  good  shepherd  to  his  black  sheep. 
***** 

The  story  of  the  unfortunate  artist— King  Ludwig  II.  m 
Bavaria,  is  retold  in  sensational  lines  by  Madame  Hildegartle 
Ebenthal  in  The  Tragedy  of  a  Throne  (Cassell  and  Co.,  i^s. 
net) .  WTiether  we  agree  or  not  with  the  author's  psychologicaV 
interpretation  of  lier  subject,  the  bare  facts  of  her  narrative , 
set  out  though  they  are  without  nmch  art,  are  sufficiently  ab- 
sorbing. Pnissia  is,  of  course,  th<!  arch  ^■illain  in  this  talc 
of  the  demoralization  of  a  King  and  the  destruction  of  a  free 
country.  Madame  Ebenthal  .sees  in  Wagner  simply  an 
emissary  from  Berlin  sent  to  Munich  with  the  express  in- 
tention of  debauching  the  larrouche  and  sensitive  Wittels- 
bncli  and  unhinging  his  intellect  !  The  most  interesting 
and  si'emingly  the  best  informed  part  of  the  book  is  that 
which  deals  with  Ludwig's  behaviour  while  the  (ierman 
Empire  was  being  created  in  1871.  Here  we  seem  to  see  a 
natiim  on  the  rack  in  the  [XTSon  of  tlie  hapless  but  high- 
minded  degenerate  who  ruled  it. 


April  26,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


UNIQUE  PROCESS 
FOR  RETAINING  and 
REGAINING  BEAUTY. 

By  MLLE.  CHARLOTTE  SIRIER 

Does  your  skin  chap  or 
rou)^hen  easily,  or  become 
unduly  red  or  blotchy  ?  Let 
me  tell  you  a  quick  and  easy 
way  to  overcome  the  trouble, 
and  keep  your  complexion 
beautifully  white,  smooth,  and 
soft.  Just  get  some  ordinary 
mercolised  wax  at  the  chemist's, 
and  use  a  little  before  retiring 
as  you  >vould  use  cold  cream. 
The  wax,  through  some  peculiar 
action,  flecks  off  the  rough, 
discoloured,  or  blemished  skin. 
The  worn-out  cuticle  comes  off 
just  like  dandruff  on  a  diseased 
scalp,  only  in  almost  invisible 
particles.  Mercolised  wax 
simply  hastens  Nature's  work, 
which  is  the  rational  and  proper 
way  to  attain  a  perfect  com- 
plexion,so  much  sought  after,  but 
very  seldom  seen.  The  process 
is  perfectly  simple,  and  quite 
harmless.  «  *  * 
It  is  astounding  the  number  of  women  who  suffer  froi'n  un- 
sightly growths  of  hair  on  the  face,  and  it  will  come  as  a  piece 
of  good  news  to  know  that  tliere  is  a  simple  substance,  known 
as  powdered  pheminol,  which  will  remove  it  immediately  and 
permanently.  Mix  a  small  quantity  into  a  thin  paste  with  a 
little  water,  and  apply  to  the  objectional  growths.  In  two 
minutes  all  trace  of  tlie  hair  will  have  entirely  vanished,  and 
vour  skin  will  be  as  soft  and  smooth  as  a  child's. 

*         *         * 

Tiie  hair  should  be  allowed  to  breathe,  and  the  greasy  film 
aiound  each  strand  must  be  removed  with  a  mild  non-a!kalinc 
shampoo.  Soaps  should  l)e  tabooed.  The  very  best  solution 
for  the  purpose  can  be  made  by  dissolving  a  teaspoonful  of 
stallax  granules  in  a  cup  of  hot  water.  It  stimulates  the  scalp 
to  healthv  action,  and  at  the  same  time  leaves  the  hair  in  that 
soft,  fluffy  condition  so  much  admired.  Any  chemist  can  suppl\- 
you  with'an  original  packet  of  stallax,  sufficient  to  make  twcnty- 
fi\-e  or  thirty  shampoos.       *         *  * 

One  need  not  resort  to  the  very  questionable  expedient  of 
hair-dve  in  order  not  to  have  grey  hair.  The  grey  hair  can 
easily  be  changed  back  to  a  natural  colour  in  a  few  days'  time 
merely  by  the  application  of  a  simple,  old-fashioned,  and  per- 
fectly harmless  home-made  lotion.  Procure  from  your  chemist 
two  ounces  of  tammalite  concentrate,  and  mix  it  \vith  three 
ounces  of  bay  rum.  Apply  this  to  the  hair  a  few  tinies  with 
a  small  sponge,  and  yoU  will  soon  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
your  grey  hair  gradually  darkening  to  the  desired  shade.  The 
lotion  is  pleasant,  not  sticky  or  greasy,  and  does  not  injure  the 
hair  in  any  way. 


^•eet /lei!  g/"01clDrury    ■ 


J.   S.  CARTER, 

EST.   1814.     TEL-:  MAYFAIR  6592. 

The    Original    Maker    In    London    of    the 
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grips  the  head  without  pressure,  and  will  neither  blow  nor  fall  off. 


F 


WEST  &  SON  "Sit^IiSL^^'iSik 

152  NEW  BOND  STREET,  LONDON.  W. 


(Patent 

No. 
12690— 
19U9.) 


-^ r 


u 


LUPTONS 

SPIRAL   PUTTEES 

FASTEDGE 

Worn  extensively  by  Officers  of  Hia 
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If  ordered.  Puttees  made  specially  to  wind  on'Ihe  reverse  way,  and  to  fasten  the  tafc  round 

the  ankle  for  ruling. 


ASK    FOR     LUPTON'.S     PUTTEES. 


t«2d'by  ASTRACHANS  Ltd.,  Albert  Mill,  AiUn  St.,  Bradford 

London  Agent:  A.   STRICKLAND.  38  Bow  Lane,  E.C. 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


April  26,  1917 


11 
II 
II 


II 

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"^  fto/  of  fine  L'tntn  is  a 
kiting  fleaiure  " 

"OLD   BLEACH" 
LINENS 

IV/f  APLE  &  CO  are  now  exhibiting 
^^^  a  splendid  selection  of  these 
famous  Linens,  including  Sheets,  Table 
Cloths,  Napkins.  Pillow  Cases,  Towels, 
etc.,  marked  at  the  lowest  possible  prices 

FINE     HEMSTITCHED     SHEETS     AQIf.     per 
2 J  X  31   yards     'iV/O    pair 

PILLOW    CASES     to     match  /:  /  ^ 

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An    invitation    is    cordially    extended 

to  inspect  these  choice  " Old   Bleach " 

Linens 

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Swan&DJgS' 

^"•^  ^^        Ltd. 


The  Leading    IVest  End  "Drapers, 

REGENT  ST.  8  PICCADILLY.  Wl. 


340W — Crepe  de  CMne  Box- 
pleated  Tunic  B'ouse,  daiiitih 
Kiockeil  and  lii'iiislitolied,  in 
vory,  Pink,  Navy,  or  Blael,, 
33/6. 
AJao   Blouse   to  waist,  82/6 


r 


fex 


>.:^^^ 


siow. 


342W Crepe  Serge  Blouje 

Tunic,  in  Ivory.  Pink, 
Cliampripne,  or  Sk.v.  Dain- 
tily .-moclcid.  anil  outlintd 
cAble    stitcliing.      29/11. 


343W.--Schappe  Crepe  Jumper 

in  lit'nvy  ijuality.  Ivory,  Pink, 
Saxe,  Kosc.  Mative,  Navy, 
Cliampaiinc  or  Cherry,  with 
Floral  Ninon  Facinp^"  to  tone; 
also  in  Ivory  or  Sliell  pink 
Grcnailine    Satin.    42/6. 


341 W.- Crepe  de  Chine 
Coat  in  Ivory,  Pink. 
Urcy,  Navv.  Black 
.Valtler  or  Ji  9r«  Blue. 
*martly  outlined  Cord 
Pipings,  j^aimed  natsl. 
linished  fordid  linttoua. 
63/. 


Names  and  addresses  of  shops,  where  the  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  will  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
addressed  to  Passe- Parlout,  Land  &  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  W.C  2.     Any  other  information  will  be  given  on  request. 


Sprint    Cleaniag 
Time 


The   thorough    cleaning    of    floors    and 

passages  is  facilitated  by  some  capital 
and  uncommon  stuff  known  as  Boston 
Cotton.  This  "  swabs  "  in  a  way  notliing  else  does  on  account 
of  the  peculiar  nature  of  its  weave.  The  name  does  not  indicate 
it .  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  a  great  deal  of  wool  in  Boston 
Cotton.  This  is  worked  into  a  knotted  substance  and  as  a 
result  a  cleansing  grip  can  be  got  on  a  dirty  surface,  and  a 
magical  change  be  quickly  wrought. 

Ordinary  house  flannels  wear  out  in  a  very  brief  space  of 
time.  Kendal  cotton  lasts.  Another  thing  worth  knowing  is, 
that  one  particular  firm  in  f.ondon  keep  it  and  that  they  do  so 
solely  on  the  request  of  old  customers.  In  order  to  supply 
these  demands  they  liad  to  lodge  a  big  order  with  the  manu. 
facturers  and  in  consequence  are  able  to  sell  Kendal  Cotton 
at  a  pre-war  price,  in  spite  of  the  great  increase  in  the  cost  of 
production.  It  is  still  being  sold  here  at  a  shiUing  a  yard,  the 
widtii  being  19  inches. 

Old-fashioned  stuffs  are  often  the  best,  and  old-fashioned 
though  Kendal  Cloth  is,  it  is  simply  unequalled  in  durability 
and  worth. 


How  to  Keep 
Clean 


Furs,  collars  and  things  of  that  kind, 
frequently  leave  an  unsightly  mark  round 
the  neck,  as  numbers  of  women  have 
found  to  their  cost.  The  odd  thing  is  that,  in  this  case, 
ordinary  washing  is  not  of  the  shghtest  use — the  dye  mark 
still  remains,  no  matter  how  energeticaOy  soap  and  water  may 
have  been  applied. 

Furs  in  particular  are  great  offenders  m  this  way,  but 
now  there  is  no  further  cause  for  complaint.  "  Clenzene  "  has 
solved  the  difficulty  in  the  most  magical  way.  A  little  dab  of 
"  Clenzene"  and  the  stain  disappears,  leaving  the  neck 
perfectly  clean.  There  is  no  other  cleansing  preparation  quite 
hke  it,  and  only  a  little  at  a  time  being  required  a  bottle 
lasts  tor  a  very  long  time. 


Tbe  Charm  of 
Chintz 


.\  clever  designer  is  doing  delightful 
things  with  upholsterer's  chintz — not 
the  shiny  kinds  of  chintz  with  an  un- 
pleasantly slippery  surface,  but  the  more  tractable  sort. 
Out  of  chintz  she  is  making  all  kinds  of  attractive  garments,  all 
pre-eminently  suited  to  war-tine  and  war-time  conditions. 

In  the  first  pk  c  ^  some  chintz  gardening  aprons  may 
be  quoted.  They  are  the  most  practical  things  in  the  world, 
yet  at  the  same  time  fascinatingly  pretty.  The  designer  has 
picked  the  smaller  pattern  chintzes  for  choice,  and  those, 
moreover,  in  wliicli  the  surface  is  well  covered  so  that  they 
last  clean  all  the  longer.  One  with  a  tiny  bird  and  flower  design 
isxharming,  and  very  well  it  worked  into  an  enveloping  garden 
apron  with  its  bib  and  l>ig  double  pocket  across  the  front  of 
the  skirt,  to  hold  all  kinds  of  gardening  ace.  ssories. 

Chintz  overall  frocks  are  another  feature  this  year.  A 
covetable  one  of  soft  green  and  rose  colouring  was  piped 
with  green,  and  it  also  iiad  a  practical  double  pocket  across 
the  front.  Into  an  overall  frock  one  can  get  in  a  minute, 
the  fastenings  being  particularly  few  and  siTuple.  For  women 
taking  on  garden  work  they  are  just  the  ideal  garment,  and 
so  also  are  some  delightful  chintz  country  hats  and  sun- 
bonnets,  the  last  having  the  orthodox  sun  curtain  at  the  back 
in  \iew  of  tlie  sun  we  are  so  eagerly  expectting. 


A  Skirt  and  Cape 
Combined 


Great  praise  is  due  to  the  inventor 
of  a  remarkably  adroit  skirt  which  can 
be  changed  into  a  cape  whenever  desired. 
It  iscuton  circular  lines,  and  when  worn  as  a  skirt  is  just  the 
usual  well  hung  garment  turned  out  by  an  expert  tailor  who 
thoroughly  knows  his  business. 

Yet  the  same  garment  hangs  in  equally  accurate  lines 
when  it  is  suspended  from  the  shoulders  and  used  as  a  cape. 
.\s  a  cape  it  is  remarkably  useful  in  slK)wery  weather,  for  it  is 
made  of  showerproof  tweed  and  is  a  great  protection  in  bad 
weather,  esi:)ecially  when  driving. 

For  tliose  who  are  further  curious  how  such  a  metamor- 
phosis can  be  brought  about,  it  may  be  added  that"  the  skirt 
does  up  with  a  row  of  buttons  down  the  front. 

Passe  Partout 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXIX  No.  2869  [yS] 


THURSDAY,   MAY  3,  1917 


rREGISTEREb  .Abl     PUBLISHED  WEEKLY 
LA  NEWSPAPER  J     PUICE    SEVENPENCE 


"' ••  1 '"^  <r(~  Ai  a  f  ^(^,  r^ 


t]i  LcuU  Ratmavktit 


Drawn  exchtiivelu  for  "Land  rf-    Wnter  ' 


The  Two  Giants 

Germany  :     "  I  destroy  !  " 
America  :    "I  create  !  " 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  3,  191 7 


•=       Hv    Vppnlr.tmcnt 


THE    HOUSE 

,  FOK 

LITTLE     BOYS    REQUIREMENTS. 


g  12                                 3 

^  No.  1.   Linen  Tunic  Suit,         No.  2.  Striped  Zephyr  Suit,  Linen         No.  3.  Linen  Tunic  Suit,  B'ack         No.  4.  Linen  B'ister  Suit,  with 

^  Size  O.      -      -    27/6.              Collar  and  Cuffs,  Size  O.  11/9               Patent  Belt,  Size  O.       24/-.               Lawn  Collar.  Size  O.  33/6. 

I  EVERYTHING    OF    THE    BEST    AND    SMARTEST 

=  AT                                                      • 


^YfcarSfc\4lU 


Regent  Street,  London,  W.  I. 


llllllll: 


CARICATURE 

TOBY  JUGS 


S<r  jo'hn  jellicoe, 
K.C.Il  .  C.V.O. 


N.B.  —  Owing  to  con- 
tinual requettt,  one  of 
Sir  Douglat  Haig  and 
Admiral  Beatty  are  in 
eonaideration. 


General  joflVff. 


From  Designs 
BY      F.  C.  G. 


Sir  F.  Carrutherj 
Gould. 


'riie  series  of  the  five  Toby  Jugs,  is  j*s  follows; —  The  i 

MSToifre"        :       :       :       :       :  :       :        '«"«  «-"«ed  to  3So'a.  2   guineas  each. 

Viscounl  French ,?„   ",'  5 

Rt.   Hon.   Uoyd  George '  ••  .•   J3u  a'   ^ 

THL  LATf.  LORD  KITCHtNLR.  the  f.r.,1  Toby  Jug  to  be  fc^ued.was  limited  to  250.'is  n'™ 
completed  and  sold,  we  can  obtain  a  few  reserve  ones,  for  those  specially  wishiT^gll^ 
complete  .set  only,  at  5  guineas  eacli. 

^r^^"L^i:V^i;V^^  '^^^  ^-^  "^"  SEPARATELY.    T. „o„,.  w,,,  B,  ._^.  .^,.._„ ^^^^_. 

SOANE   6?  SMITH.    Ltd..   I^.^S'^^'-i^^UI  462   Oxford   Street.   London.   W-L 

T.lcsrams— "  F.inhenwcdj."  London.        "THE  SPe'cIALITE  HOUSE  OF  ORIGINALITIES."  Telephone— Pad   2634. 


i 

"^  a 'ife^'/ 

/^s      ?^PV| 

>i 

■l^SIS 

a^m    H 

'^SM^ 

,,ww^P[jf 

I^KJg 

'   o^'^kST 

Sir  Jo 
on  tb 

^n  French.  K.C.M.G. 
K.C.B.,  Etc. 

e  comDlelionrf  ihe 

« 


Rt.  Hon.  D.  Uoyd  George- 


,Mav 


191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON.     VV.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828 

THURSDAY,  MAY  3.    1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
\        I 


The  Two  Giants.     By  Louis  Raemafckcrs 

I'ublic  and  Private  Econonn'.     (Leader)  .» 
Wearing  Down  the  Enemy.     By  Hilaire  Belloc                    ,    4 

How  to  Treat  a  Great  Man.     By  L.  P.  Jacks  7 
A  Naval  Holiday.     By  The  Author  of  .1   Grand  Fleet 

Chaplain's  Note  Book  9 

Small  Nationalities.     Bv  M.  A.  Czapliska  lo 

White  Blossoms  and  Col'd  Winds    By  J.   D.  Symon  ii 

The  Eastern  I'Vont.     By  Colonel  Feyler  i^ 

Life  and*Ketters.     By  J.  C.  Squire  ij 
Nesting  Mothers  of  the  Battle  Zone.     By  H.  Thoburn- 

Clarke  ^4 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  i? 

Scenes  from  the  Battle  Area                                *  i**^ 
Les    Trains   reclament    de    I'Huilc    (Poem).     By    Emile 

Cammaerts  i*^ 

Domestic  Economy  -O 

Kit  and  Equij)ment  2,; 

PUBLIC  AND  PRI\'ATE  ECONOMY 

THE  enormous  figures  which  Mr.  Bonar  f.aw  has 
lakl  before  the  House  of  Commons  in  his  Budget 
statement,  ought  to  bring  home  to  the  country  the 
necessity  of  establishing  some  more  effective  control 
of  our  national  expenditure.  The  need'  for  private  economy 
has  been  preached  up  and  down  the  country,  and  great  credit 
is  due  to  all  who  have  lent  a  hand  in  this  useful  campaign. 
Indeed,  from  a  strictly  logical  point  of  view,  the  more  waste- 
ful the  Government  is,  the  greater  is  the  need  for  the  private 
citizen  to  economise.  But  human  beings  are  not  strictlj' 
logical,  and  in  practice  the  ever-present  spectacle  of  pubhc 
waste  directly  discourages  private  economy.  People  say 
to  themselves:  "What  is  the  good* of  our  saving  pence 
when  the  Government  is  wasting  pounds  ?  "  Hitherto 
notliing,  or  practically  nothing,  has  been  done  to  check 
Government  waste. 

It  is  true  that  as  far  back  as  the  autumn  of  1915 
a  Public  Retrenchment  Committee  was  appointed  by  the 
then  Liberal  Government  ;  but  though  the  committee  sat 
for  many  months  and  reported  many  possibilities  of  economy, 
its  recommendations  had  no  political  force  behind  them, 
and  were  mostly  ignored.  Since  then  the  question  of  public 
economy  has  been  quietly  pushed  out  of  sight.  Expenditure 
has  gone  up  by  leaps  and  bounds.  New  Ministries  have  been 
created  for  every  new  purpose  that  has  entered  the  mind 
of  the  Government,  and  each  Ministry  has  set  to  work  to 
prove  its  own  importance  by  creating  a  gigantic  staff.  When 
the  staff  has  been  created  then  the  Ministry  which  it  serves 
has  begun  to  consider  what  to  do  with  it,  and  in  many  cases 
there  has  been  nothing  for  a  large  number  of  those  small  armies 
of  clerks  and  messengers  to  do,  but  to  get  in  one  another's 
way.  So  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  the  Treasury  exercises 
no  oontrol  of  any  kind  over  the  minor  appointments  made. 
If  any  official  wants  a  typist  to  take  down  two  or  three 
letters  a  day,  he  can  get  a  girl  appointed  for  his  exclusive 
use  without  criticism  or  opposition  from  anybody.  If  the 
same  official  thinks  that  it  adds  to  his  dignity  to  have  a 
messenger  for  his  room  on\\,  the  messenger  is  duly  appointed, 
and  the  nation  pays.  This  is  the  main  reason  why  all  the 
new  Government  offices  which  have  sprung  up  like  mushrooms 
arc  swarming  with  girl  typists  and  girl  mes.sengers,  most  of 
whom  never  had  a  real  day's  work  to  do,  and  all  of  whom 
are  under  the  impression  that  they  are  permanent  ser\-ants 
of  t*c  State.  A  Treasun,'  only  begins  to  display  a  faint 
interest  in  the  stuffing  of  these  vast  establishments  when 
salaries  of  £200  a  year  are  reached.  Up  to  that  point  the 
new  departments  are  virtually  free  from  financial  control  ; 
they  can  multiply  minor  jippointments.  In  practice  Govern- 
ment officials,  who  themselves  occupy  only  medium  positions. 


have  the  power  to    apj^omt   as  many  subordinates  as   they 
like.     Nobody  worries  ;    the  nation  pays. 

To  blame  the  Treasury  alone  for  this  costly  chaos  would  be 
unfair.  The  Treasury  only  acts  under  the  orders  of  the 
Government.  If  it  received  instructions  to  scrutinise  depart- 
mental expenditure  more  closely,  it  would  probably  soon 
discover  effective,  means  of  .stopping  part,  at  any  rate,  of  the 
present  waste.  But  such  instructions  are  not  likely  to  be 
given  by  the  present  Cabinet.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  has  many 
striking  qualities,  but  a  love  of  economy  is  not  one  of  them. 
Since  he  became  Prime  Minister,  ]iublic  extravagance,  which 
was  sufficiently  serious  before,  has  increased  enormously. 
The  apparent  view  of  the  Prime  Minister  and  his  present 
colleagues  is  that  because  we  are  compelled  to  spend  several 
millions  a  day  upon  the  war,  it  does  not  matter  if  we  throw 
away  a  few  thousands  a  day  more  on  purely  needless  ex- 
penditure at  home.  That  is  the  kind  of  doctrine  that  leads 
straight  towards  national  bankruptc}-.  For  it  re-acts  upon 
every  branch  of  the  public  service.  The  fighting  services 
themselves  are  directly  affected.  There  is  room  for  many 
minor  economies,  and  some  major  ones,  both  in  the  army  and 
the  navy.  But  soldiers  and  sailors  who  are  risking  their 
lives  for  the  nation  can  hardly  be  expected  to  worry  about 
saving  pence  here  and  pounds  there  when  they  know  that 
civilians  at  home  are  playing  ducks  and  drakes  with  the 
nation's  money  without  rebuke  from  the  Government. 

During  the  past  few  weeks  some  appreciation  of  the  serious- 
ness of  the  situation  seems  to  have  dawned  upon  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  a  considerable  number  of  members  have 
given  in  their  names  in  support  of  a  motion  declaring 
that  :  "  This  House  is  of  opinion,  in  view  of  the 
continued  growth  of  expenditure,  taxation  and  debt, 
that  a  committee  should  be  appointed  consisting  of 
members  of  this  House,  with  power  to  review  all  national 
expenditure,  examine  Ministers  and  officials  and  report  to 
the  House."  It  is  not  cjuite  clear  whether  the  proposed 
committee  is  to  report  upon  the  estimates  of  expenditure 
before  they  have  been  voted,  or  to  review  expenditure  after 
it  has  been  made.  If — as  the  language  of  the  resolution 
implies — the  latter  is  all  that  is  intended,  very  little  will 
be  gained.  The  House  of  Commons  already  possesses  a 
Public  Accounts  Committee,  which  it  owes  to  the  zeal  of  Mr. 
Gibson  Bowles— which  Committee,  in  conjunction  with 
the  Comptroller  and  Auditor  General,  reviews  past  expendi- 
ture. But  except  for  the  puqwse  of  unearthing  irregularities, 
and  so  perhaps  checking  fraud,  this  process  does  not  greatly 
differ  from  the  rather  futile  operation  of  locking  the  stable 
door  after  the  horse  has  been  stolen.  What  is  needed  is  an 
Estimates  Committee  to  report  upon  the  proposed  expendi. 
ture  of  each  department  before  it  is  sanctioned.  Such  a 
committee — if  properly  backed  by  the  House — might  be  of 
incalculable  value  in  protecting  the  nation  against  the  whole- 
sale plunder  that  is  now  in  progress.  But  an  Estimates 
Committee  will  not  be  appointed,  or  if  appointed,  will  not  be 
backed  by^  the  House,  unless  the  countrj'  speaks  with  em- 
phasis in  condemnation  of  the  present  waste. 

We  have  built  up  a  constitutional  system  which  provides 
no  direct  link  between  political  power  and  financial  respon- 
sibility. In  the  ideal  State  every  citizen  possessed  of  a  vote 
ought  to  know  that  he  will  have  to  find  out  of  his  own  pocket 
his  share  of  any  increase  in  public  expenditure.  But  the 
immense  majority  of  the  electors  of  the  United  Kingdom 
pay  no  direct  tax,  while  the  indirect  taxes  Which  they  do 
pay  are  not  desjgned  solely  for  raising  revenue,  and  still 
less  for  bringing  home  financial  responsibility.  As  long  as 
this  primarv  defect  in  our  constitution  continues,  most 
members  of  Parliament  will  remain  indifferent  to  the  duty 
of  defending  the  taxpayer.  Therefore,  if  the  taxpayer  is  to 
be  defended,  he  must  begin  by  defending  himself.  If  there 
were  in  every  constituency  a  group  of  men  and  women 
resolved  to  demand  public  economy  and  purity  in  admini- 
stration, the  politicians  would  begin  to  recast  their  attitude 
towards  the  problems  of  national  finance.  As  matters  stand, 
nobody  speaks  for  the  taxpayer,  and  therefore  members  of 
Parliament  and  Parliamentary  candidates  ignore  his  intere.sts 
and  prefer  to  lend  their  help  in  squandering  the  nation's 
money  in  order  to  multiply  Government  jobs  to  appease 
clamouring   constituents. 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  3,  191 7 


Wearing  Down  the  Enemy 


By    Hilairc   Belloc 


THIS  1^  perhaps  that  moment  in  the  war  when  tlic 
most  critical  events  are  in  process  of  development, 
and  when  at  the  same  time  we  have  less  ability 
than  at  anv  other  moment  to  describe  them  and 
perhaps  less  abilit\-  to  judge  them 

We  know  the  elements  of  the  problem  -we  have  known 
then)  for  many  months,  and  as  the  oftensive  in  the  West 
develops  these  known  elements  are  our  guide.  But  there  is 
necessarilv  wholly  concealed  from  us  the  principal  factor  of 
solution-  which  is  the  numerical  strength  of  the  Allies  in  the 
West,  meaning  by  this  tlieir  strength  in  metal  and  mobilit\ 
as  well  as  in  men.  And  there  is  to  a  great  e.xtent  concealed 
from  us  the  second  factor,  which  is  ilu;  proportionate  in- 
feriority of  the  enemy.  ' 

Let  us  re-state  the  problem  in  .its  simplest  terms.  It 
involves  repetition  of  very  much  already  said,  but  a  sound 
judgment  of  land  fighting  at  this  moment  wlien  tlie  position 
at  sea  is  so  grave,  is  essential  to  the  balance  of  public  opinion, 
and  iteration  of  the  fundamental  truths  governing  the  situation 
is  necessary  and  valuable. 

The  forces  of  the  Central  Empires  and  their  ,\llies  are 
necessarily  composed  of  two  equal  halves.  One  half  is  based 
<>n  the  recruitment  of  the  tierman  Kmpire  :  the  other  half 
on  the  remainder  of  the  group. 

The  remainder  of  the  group  can  lend  no  aid  to  the  German 
Empire  in  its  own  front.  All  the  resources  of  Austria-Hungary 
are  pinned  ;  all  those  of  the  Turkish  Empire  ;  all  those  of 
liulgaria.  So  long  as  any  effective  Russian  pressure  is  kept 
np.  so  long  as  Italian  pressure  is  kept  up,  so  long  as  the 
forces  based  on  Salonika  inmiobilise  the  main  part  of  the 
liidgarian  army,  so  long  as  the  Russians  in  Armenia  and  tlie 
liritish  in  Palestine  and  Mesopt)tamia  contain  the  Turkish 
divisions. 

These  things  being  so,  the  German  half  of  the  combination, 
which  is  also  the  directing  half,  and  has  much  the  best  material, 
human  and  other,  at  its  disposal,  must  tight  its  own  battle.' 
If  the  .Alliance  against  us  holds  to  the  end,  the  decision  will 
fall  with  the  power  of  this  (lerman  half  to  hold  out.  It  is  the 
action  against  this  German  half  and  its  fate  which  will  be, 
decisive 

this  (German  half  may  be  most  usefully  regarded  under 
the  following  aspect.  It  is  in  two  great  groups,  the  army 
as  it  was  before  the  creation  of  the  last  strategic  reserve  on 
th^  one  hand,  and  this  last  strategic  reserve  itself  on  the  other. 

The  first  of  these  groups,  roughly  speaking  one-third,  was 
on  the  East  watching  the  Russians  ;  twxj-thirds  were  on  the 
West  against  the  French  and  British.  The  one-third  that 
was  on  the  East  watching  the  Russians  might  be  regarded  as 
imiiiobilised.  So  long  as  Russia's  determination  to  continue 
the  war  and  her  ability  to  do  so  should  remain,  no  appreciable 
depletion  of  this  Eastern  front  by  Germany  is  possible.  \or, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  an\-  decision  to  be  expected  there  through 
an  enemy  offensive  upon  that  front.  There  remains  the 
Western  front,  and  upon  the  Western  front  the  Germans, 
though  they  had  to  keep  there  two-thirds  of  their  army,  were 
badly  out-numbered  in  men  and  suffered  from  a  still  graver 
superiority  of  the  French  and  English  in  the  output  of  guns 
and  munitionment. 

To  this  superiority,  in  the  shape  of  constant  pressure  of  the 
most  severe  kind,  exercised  by  an  opponent  who  could  choose 
his  time  and  his  place  and  completely  possessed  of  the 
initiative,  the  Germans  were  subject.  Their  subjection  to 
it  moulded  the  character  of  the  whole  war. 

The  Somme  offensive,  imdertaken  not  where  they  chose 
but  where  the  Allies  chose,  hail  compelled  them  to  throw 
into  the  process  of  rapid  wastage  much  more  than  one 
hundred  divisions  and  to  suffer  a  total  loss,  first  and  last,  of 
700.000  men.  ThcV  had  to  face  the  renewal  of  this  process 
on  a  certainly  more  dangerous  scale  in  iqiy.  ■  They  created 
a  considerable  strategic  reserve  and  prepared  *  plan  which, 
so  far  as  we  can  judge,  was  intended  to  help  them  ii.se  this 
strategic  reserve  on  their  own  initiative.  -'' 

Here  again  with  this  second  part  of  their  force,  the  nej^ 
strategic  reserve,  we  have  round  tigures  to  guide  usJ**'  ~> 

The  German  Empire  had  in  sight  as  nnc  material  of  all 
kinds,  counting  returns  from  hospital,  for  the  fighting  .season 
of  1917,  roughly  one  million  men.  Most  (jf  if  was  worse 
material  than  the  old,  but  that  was  the  rough  total.  This  one 
million  men  Was  not  immediately  available.  In  the  first 
months  of  the  year,  roughly  speaking  again,  about  one-half 
were  available  for  training,  an'  vvould  be  ready^cithoe-to  put^ 


into  the  field  imnudiaiely  or  to  lill  up  the  gaps  wiien  lighting 
begii\s.  The  other  half  would  come  in  gradually  as  time 
]iassed  in  the  shajv  of  the  very  last  exempted  men  and 
the  hospital  returns. 

These  figures  giye  us  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  probable 
(ierina  n  strategic  reserve.  > 

Tlie  new  small  Geiman  divisions  counted  g.ooo  bayonets, 
and  rather  more  than  1.5, too  men  all  told.  Som(^  are  now 
even  smaller  than  that,, but  this  was  the  new  establishment 
early  in  the  year.  Half  a  million  men  could,  if  thev  weie 
entirely  used  (or  forming  divisions,  add  the  equivalent, 
therefore,  of  some  3.}  new  divisions.  Of -course,  they  would 
not  all  be  used.  A  \ery  large  proportion  would  be  kept 
back  for  drafts.  On  the  other  hand,  during  the  time  that 
has  elapsed  already  since  the  early  ]>art  of  the  year,  ;i  number 
of  the  remaining  half  million  have  crfme  in  from  hospitals 
and  from  exenyited  men.  We  are  fairly  safe  if  we  talk  of 
^  the  numerical  equivalent  of  this  strategic  reserve  as  some 
25  divisions.  It  may  be  less  ;  it  may  be  as  low  as  20.  It 
can  hardly  be  more. 

Remeiuber  that  all  this  is  mere  inference,  but  it  is  inference 
based  ujwn  certain  known  tigures.  It  must  not  be  imagined 
that  the  process  is  the  simple  one  which  this  cough  sketch  alone 
might  suggest.  It  is  obvious  you  do  not  take  your  half  million 
available  men  and  t\nn  them  into  brand  new  divisions.  Vou 
mi.x  old  material  with  new  ;  you  take  certain  units  from  old 
divisions  to  build  uj)  new  ones  j  you  re-shuffle  and  all  the 
r^st  of  it.  But  the  numerical  effect  is  what  I  have  said,  and 
you  will  be  able,  by  such  a  process  as  I  ha\e  described,  to  have 
in  hand  the  eiiuivalent  of  say,  25  divisions,  or  a  little  less, 
over  and  abo\e  your  armies  alread\-  pinned  to  the  two  fronts. 
You  also  have  behind  them  ample  drafts  to  fill  up  the  gaps 
in  at  least  the  first  few  weeks  of  the  fighting,  and  you  have 
behind  these  again  a  dwindling  stream  of  recruitment  which 
dribbles  in  from  the  men  you  squeeze  in  from  the  last  ex- 
emptions and  from   the  hospital  returns.  •« 

Let  me  rejieat  what  I  was  saying  last  week,  for  it  is  the 
kernel  of  the  whole  matter.  A  strategic  rcser\'e  of  this  kind 
formed  at  the  expense  of  the  future  and  destined  to.  effect 
something  final  during  the  lighting  of  iqij,  or  to  lose  the  war, 
in  other  words  a  gambling  as.set,  must  imperatively  be  in  the 
hands  of  a  commander  possessing  the  initiative.  That  is  the 
whole  point  of  forming  it. 

We  do  not  know  indeed  where  it  was  to  be  thrown  or  where 
a  part  of  it  was  to  be  thrown.  There  vvere  probably  altcrna- 
ti\e  plans.  But  -.we  know  with  regard  to  tlie  West  what  the 
general  line  was,  because  the  enemy's  Government  openly 
proclaimed  it,  with  a  domestic  political  object  in  making  the 
proclamation,  and  they  would  certainly  not'  have  done  this 
if  they  had  thought  it  jjrobable  that  their  expeciations  would 
be  disappointed. 

The  plan  was,  hrst,  to  gain  time  bv  an  unexpected  retire- 
ment coupled  with  an  unexampled  devastation  of  "the  field 
oyer  which  the  pursuit  must  pass.  Secondly,  to  use  the 
lints  so  gained  for  ohtainiha  a  great  and  increasing  advantage 
hver  the  Allies  through  the  progress  oj  the  submarine  campaign. 
Thirdly,  while  the  progress  of  the  submarine  campaign  was 
gradually  paralysing  the  power  of  munitionment  and  supply 
enjoyed  by  the  .-Mlies,  to  keej)  the  war  going  without  a  decision 
against  fiermany  either  (a)  by  creating  a  sudden  new  offensive 
in  an  unexpected  field  with  the  aid  of  the  strategic  reserve 
in  hand  ;  or  (b)  reverting  to  open  warfare  as  much  as  possible 
in  the  West  ancj  using  the  strategic  reserve  there  for  checking 
the  .Mlies  in  such  warfare  ;  or  (c)  a  combination  of  the  two. 

We  know,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  the  second  of  these 
tbj.  was  certainly  contenqilatcd,  for  the  whole  German  public 
was  told  to  expect  it  and  even  had  it  described  to  them  in 
some  detail.  'Ilie  German  retreat  was  to  give  the  German 
army  "elbow  room"  from  wliich  it  could  strike  with  new 
forces.  As  to  the  third  idea,  the  use  of  part  of  the  new  reserve 
in  the  \y est  and  part  of  it  in  some  other  field,  it  is  the  most 
unlikejy  of  all  because  the  German  Empire  has  hardly  the 
^riengili,  reniaining.  f or  such  a  double  purpose. 
•^  .'Vt  any  rate,  what  happened  and  that  is  the  capital  point 
in  the  present  situation  -was  something  verv  difiercnt  from 
what  the  enemy  had  planned.  In  some  points  his  plan 
matured  successfully.  In  others  it  failed,  and  the  combination 
is  what  we  have  before  us. 

The  submarine  programme  was,  in  the  main,  successful. 
The  pressure  which  it  ,was  intended  to  exercise  upon  the 
AHies-iilwjuld  niature  this  sumineror  some  date  not  verv  much 


May 


ICJ17 


LANU    &     WATER 


later  tluiiv.lhHt  wliidi,  the   tjrvcyivv  ,Ija4  bauHpd  upun    when 
l^.\Hng  liis  schewL'  for  tlic  hist   tigliting   srasoii  of  igij. 

fevijrytliing,  therefore,  wouhi  depend  upon  whether  the 
pressure  to  whijch  he  would  be  sul^jected  in.  the  \\  est  and  his 
lX)wer  to  use  his  bijrrowed  strategic  reser\e  in  his  o\\ ji  time 
and  his  own  way.  should  also  develop  as  he  intended.  As 
a   fact  it  has  not  develojjed  as  he  intended. 

(i)  The  pressure  has  been  greater  than  he  expected  — that . 
IS,  the  rate  of  loss  has  been  greater  than  lie  exjiected. 

(2)  The  pressure  has  come  much  earlier  than  he  expected. 

(3)  As  a  consequence  of  i  and  2  his  strategic  reser\'e  is 
already  engaged  and  he  has  lost  the  initiati\-e  in  the  use 
of  it. 

The  whole  great  drama,  tlicrefore,  now  turns  upon  the 
answer  to  a  tiuestion  which  the  future  hides  from  us  :  W'liclhcr 
Ihe  cnemv's  dimppointtncnt  in  the  second,  or  land,  pari  of  his 
plan  and  his  Jailnrc  in  it  <c'ill  proceed  at  such  a  rale  as  lo 
neutralise  his  comparative  success  in  the  first  part  of  tiis  plan, 
Ihe  submarine  campaign  ? 

So  far  as  my  studies  in  these  columns  are  concerned  I 
can  only  deal  with  th?  land  side  of  the  ])roblem  and  attcm])t 
to  estimate — thougii  the  elements  for  such  a  judgment  are  as 
yet  exceedingly  meagre  —the  extent  to  which  the  plan  by 
land  has  failed. 

We  know  by  the  enemy's  awn  declaration  and  by  what 
the  German  public  was  told,  with  perpetual  rejietition  and 
,in  considerable  detail,  that  the  novel  tvix*  )f  retirement  eliected 
from  the  Noyon  salient  in  March  was  expected  to  destroy 
the  Allies  power  of  conducting  a  spring  offensive.  Some- 
times the  thing  was  put  as  the  destruction  of  the  power  of 
offensive  in  general — which  was,  of  course,  an  exaggerated 
way  of  putting  it — somptimes  it  was  jnit  in  a  more  soldierly 
manner  with  c  ilculations  and  th?  delay  to  be  gained  was 
estimated — a  matter  of  two  montlis.  The  effect  of  the  retire- 
ment^would  be  a  postponement  of  se\-ere  ])ressure  upon  the 
(ierman  line  in  the  West  to  sometime  in  May,  the  early  part 
■  of  the  month,  or  even  th?  very  beginning  of  it,  at  the  worst  ; 
much  later  even,  towards  the  end  of  the  month  at  the  best. 
The  dela}'  prolonged  even  for  the  later  period,  would  gi\'e 
the  enemy  the  time  U)  gather  his  reserve  so  as  to  use  it  in 
his  own  fashion,  and  it  would  advance  by  so  much  more  the 
moment  when  the  submarine  campaign  would  begin  seriously 
to  hamper  the  supply  of  the  .\ihes. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  this  time- table  went  wrong  by  any- 
thing between  three  and  six  weeks,  and  the  reason  it  went 


wr<nig,  as,L.ha.ve  had  frequent  occasion  tot  liojnt  out-,;  W^s 
manifold.  The  enemy  had  to  gi\e  up  the  , screen  o^  Wie 
Baj^aume  Ridge  earlier  than  he  intended—  how  much  carher\4;e 
do  not  know.  Consequentij-,  his  retreat  was  more  hurried  th^n 
he  had  intended  ;  consequently,  again,  his  arrangements  JUttv 
devastation  and  for  renewed  lines  was  not  complete  ;  thottgh 
the  former  part  of  the  programme  was  more  complete  than  the 
latter.  Again,  the  })acc  at  which  the  roads  were  mtn^J 
and  the  guns  and  munitionment  brought  up  and  th<!  power  of 
the  pursurers  to  maintain  themselves  in  the  devastated  tract, 
were  greater  than  the  Germans  had  allowed  for.  Lastly?-  the 
weight  of  their  attack,  when  it  came,  that  is  the  number  of 
pieces  sent  u])  and  the  munitionment  for  them,  was  more  than 
the  enemy  iia'l  thought  available. 

Tiie  consequence  of  this  was  that  the  great  spring  offensive 
of  the  Allies  opened,  so  far  as  the  bombardment  was  con- 
cerned, anything  from  three  to  Ine  weeks  earlier  than  the 
enemy  had  cxjwcted.  The  first  intensive  fire  on  the  north, 
that  of  Sir  Douglas  Haig,  began  between  the  7th  and  the  8th 
of  April  and  the  British  infantry  were  launched  in  the  main 
attack  upon  the  qth.  This  blow  covered  the  better  part  of  the 
first  week.  At  the  beginning  of  the  second,  the  correspond- 
ing French  action  was  undertaken,  not  against  the  new  line 
but  against  the  other  line  of  the  salient,  the  old  line  fi^om 
the  Aisne  to  the  Plains  of  the  Canip  of  Chalons.  This  blow 
also  covered  about  a  week.  With  the  third  week  came  tln^ 
development  of  the  third  lilow.  which  we  have  just  witnessed 
immediately  in  front  of  Arras,  occupying  a  restricted  sector 
and  drawing  down  upon  it  with  very  heavy  losses,  great  masses 
of  enemy  reinforcements. 

Now  what  is  the  nature  of  this  (from  the  enemy's  point 
of  view)  premature  attack  ?  We  are  only  at  the  beginning  of 
Mav.  \\"hat  has  ahead}-  been  accomplished,  and  what  is  the 
scheme  upon  which  the  thing  is  developing  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  Allies  ? 

Let  us  summarise  the  elements.  The  enemy  stood  partlv 
upon  a  new  line  which  has  often  been  called  the  Hindenburg 
line,  and  which  it  is  perhaps  more  accurate  to  call  the  St. 
Quentin  line;  partly  upon  his  old  matured  defences,  with 
more  than  two  years  preparation  behind  them.  The  old 
matured  defences,  represented  on  Map  I  by  a  solid  line 
ran  in  the  north  round  Lens,  reposed  upon  the  Vimv 
Ridge  and  so  came  in  front  of  -\rras  ;  thence  they 
turned  into  the  new  St.  Quentin  line  (represented  on  Map  I 
by  a  dotted  line),  the  solidity  of  which  depended  upon  such 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  J.  1917 


hciglits  as  tlioso  of  Moncliy  and  at  Fontaiiu-  by  Croisilks, 
and  so  past  QuooJit.  between  Kibetourt  and,  Miircoing.  tlie 
cross  roads  u])on  Hill  iju,  thence  along  the  St.  yuentin  Canal 
by  Vcndhuille,  over  the  top  of  the  canal  tunnel,  through 
Bony,  then  all  ahjng  the  canal  to  Bellonglise  and  from 
licUinglise  to  Si.  Quentin  itsi-lt.  From  St.  Quentin  (south 
of  which  the  British  did  not  extend)  the  new  line  went  on 
roughly  in  the  same  direction  until  it  struck  the  Aisne  near 
Soissons,  a  little  west  of  Missy.  There  it  turned  a  right  angle 
and  became  the  old  matured  line  again  which  stretched  all 
along  the  Aisne  past  Kheims  and  so  to  the  chalky,  rolling, 
bare  land  of  the  Camp  01  Chalons,  and  the  Plains  of  what 
is  called  the  "  Dusty  Champagne  "  and  at  last  to  the  Argonne. 

The  intention  of  the  Allies  was  to  pound  both  the  old  and 
the  new  line  so  that  its  foremost  defences  could  no  longer  be 
hold.  First,  the  British  would  do  this  towards  the  north. 
..■specially  against  the  kev  jwsition  of  \imy  ;  next  the  French 
>vould  do  it  along  all  the  Champagne  front.  They  relied  for 
:heir  power  to  effect  this  upon  the  great  superiority  of  their 
irtillcry.  Their  infantry  following  the  artillery  action  would 
iccupy  what  had  been  the  strong  points  in  the  originally 
•xistmg  Cierman  line.  In  so  doing  they  would  suffer  loss. 
But  they  would  com[)el  the  Oermans  to  counter-attack 
Continually  and  upon  the  largest  scale,  because  it  would  be 
necessary  for  the  enemy  to  cover  his  imperfect  new  lines 
iK'hind,  and  even,  if  he  could,  to  recover  the  jwints  of  vantage 
such  as  the  X'imy  Ridge  itself,  the  heights  of  Monchy,  the 
heights  by  I.agnicourt,  the  heights  above  the  .\isne  ;  the 
heights  above.  \Ioronvillers,  which  in  a  long  chain  would  give 
observation  and  superiority  of  ground  to  the  Allies  should 
they  be  mastered  in  the  hrst  strokes. 

The  value  of  the  Allied  action  and  the  measure  of  its 
success  could  be  tested  in  only  one  way  :  The  proportionate 
loss  of  the  two  sides  after  the  experiment  lunl  been  tried. 
If  in  men  and  material,  but  parti<ular!y  in  men,  the  pro- 
jwrtionate  loss — the  loss  in  proi>ortion  to  what  they  could 
afford— was  considerably  greater  upon  the  Cierman  than  upon 
the  Allied  side,  full  success  might  be  claimed  for  the  manoeuvre 
a-  a  whole. 

The  sujxTiority  of  hre,  perha()s  of  moral,  certainly  of 
numbers,  would  permit  of  similar  blows  being  ilelivered  again 
and  agaJn  as  the  figliting  season  advanced,  and  it  might 
reiLsonably  be  hojx'd  that  the  jH)wer  of  continued  unbroken 
resistance  would  reach  its  term  before  the  other  limb  of  the 
(ierman  scheme,  the  submarine  campaign,  had  reached  a 
critical  point. 

Now  the  answer  to  this  supreme  question — tlie(i)roportionate 
losses  of  the  two  sides  as  a  consequence  of  these  tlucc  great 
l>lows  so  far,  is  not  befor^  us.  We  d(j  not  jiossess  tlie  know- 
ledge required  for  a  com])lete  answer.  Xo  one  can  give  the 
losses  upon  the  Allied  side  save  the  Allied  Higher  Command, 
whose  particular  business  it  is  to  prevent  the  enemy  from 
knowing  these.  No  one  can  tell  us  the  exact  tosses  upon  the 
enemy's  side,  save  the  enemy's  Higher  Command.  We  have 
nothing  to  guide  us  save  the  reconled  nature  of  the  lighting. 
Jt  justifies  us  m  believing  that^  this  initial  experiment  has 
succeeded  and  that  the  future  of  the  tremendous  offensive 
uixjn  the  West  will  follow  successfully  upon  lines  now  laid 
down  for  it  bv  the  results  of  the  past  three  weeks. 

Let  us  summarise  the  reasons  for  this  general  conclusion  : 
It  is  no  more  than  a  general  conclusion,  but  the  matters  upon 
which  the  inference  is  based  are  worth  examining  and  appre- 
ciating clearly. 

l-'irst,  we  have  the  fact  that  the  enemy  has  without  doubt 
been  comix>lled  to  draw  largel\-  upon  his  new  strategic  reserve. 
It  is  not  an  exaggerated  suggi>stion  that  souH'thing  like  half 
of  it  has  already  been  drawn  into  the  mill.     Next,  we  have 


the  fact  that  he  lias  DCen  compelled  to  ceaseless  counter- 
attack in  very  dense  formations  and  in  what  observers  describe 
as  a  "  reckless  "  loss  of  life. 

The  word  "  reckless  "  is  not  strictly  accurate  in  its  conno- 
tation. He  has  not  wasted  these  great  numbers  of  men  from 
lack  of  calculation,  but  from  necessity.  Only  so  could  he 
hope  to  recover  what  he  has  everywhere  failed  to  recover, 
the  vantage  points  of  his  own  positions ;  onlv  so  could  he 
hold  at  all.  WV"  are  justified  in  saying  from  the  identifi- 
cations established  on  the  .'Vllied  front,  that  the  rate  at 
which  he  has  been  passing  in  new  men  to  hold  out  is  nearly 
if  not  quite  half  as  much  again  as  the  rate  at  which  he  passed 
them  in  during  the  severest  pressure  upon  the  Somme  last  year. 
That  is  the  first  point.  The  general  estimate  that  he  has 
been  losing  at  a  proportionately  much  heavier  rate  than  the 
atta'ck  is  testified  to  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  initiative  in  the 
use  of  his  reserve.  He  is  being  compelled  to  pour  it  into  the 
battle  in  very  dense  bodies  by  the  destruction  (through 
.Mlied  superioi-ity  in  artillery)  of  his  established  fortifications, 
etc. 

Next,  we  have  the  undoubted  fact  that  the  proportion  of 
ammunition  measured  in  weight  and  time  shows  a  heavy 
sujjeriority  u]>on  the  Alliecl  side.  It  is  true  that  in  an  action 
of  this  kind  the  attacking  troops  also  are  subject  to  heavy  loss 
before  they  can  consolidate  their  new  positions.  They  come 
under  the' renewed  bombardment  of  the  enemy  before  they 
can  protect  themselves  against  that  bombardment.  That  is 
the  one  as.set  the  defensive  has.  .\s  against  this,  if  the  offen- 
si\e  has  a  much  superior  weight  of  artillery  it  destroys  whole 
units  behind  and  in  the  enemy's  lines  before  they  come  into 
action  at  all.  We  have  actual  evidence,  for  instance,  of/ine 
(jerman  division,  which  lost  something  like  half  its  effectives 
without    having   come   into   action. 

.\nd  this  leads  us  to  the  third  consideration.  The  Allies 
maintain  their  s\i|)erioritv  in  the  air. 

This  third  point  should  be  remembered  with  some  shame 
here  at  home  when  we  cousitler  the  base  attacks  which  have 
been  made  upon  the  British  Air  Service  by  men  who  have 
no  motives  but  personal  motives  at  conflict  with  the  good  of 
their  country.  Mainly  from  a  difference  in" national  tempera- 
ment, jiartly  from  a  superiority  of  organisation,  the  superiority 
of  obse.'-vation  from  the  air  lias  been  thoroughly  maintained 
throughout  all  these,  great  battles,  and  upon  it  has  hinged  the 
effective  use  of  a  superior  artillery. 

From  this  element  alone,  it  would  not  be  credible,  apart 
from  any  other  elements,  that  the  effect  of  the  Allied  fire  was 
not  far  more  destructive  to  the  enemy  than  his  to  the  Allies, 
let  alone  his  gravely  inferior  supply  of  new  pieces  and  of 
munitionment. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  a  ii;ituation  of  thi.s  sort  cannot  be 
judged  during  this,  which  is  still  the  initial  phase  of  the 
1 91 7  offensive,  by  tlie  mere  graphic  test  of  advance.  There  is 
nothing  to  preveiit  the  enemy,  if  he  would  sacrifice  the  men. 
checking  our  advance  up(jn  a  given  narrow  sector  for  as  long 
a  time  as  his  stream  of  reinforcements  holds  out.  But  he 
docs  so  at  a  price  which  no  one  knows  better  than  himself. 
The  compelling  of  him  to  these  tremendous  counter-attacks, 
some  of  which  must  necessarily  attain  a  measure  of  success, 
is  the  very  heart  of  the  Allied  i)lan. 

It  is  in  this  light  that  we  must  read  the  account  of  last 
week's  fighting  between  Croisilles  aixl  .\rleux.  A  mere  recital 
of  the  fluctuations  of  battle  upon  that  comparatively  narrow 
sector  would  mean  nothing.  But  grasp  what  has  happened 
as  part  of  this  whole  scheme,  and  it  is  very  significant,  nor  is 
the  least  significant  part  of  it  the  extraordinary  way  the 
Ciermans  ha\'c  interpreted  each  successive  e\ent  to  their  owu 
people. 


The  Week's  Fighting 


On  Tuesday,  April  _'4lh,  an  action  which,  too  late  for  in- 
clusion in  last  week's  article,  but  which  had  been  initiated 
upon  the  day  before,  ran  all  the  way  from  Croisilles  to  (iavrelle, 
a  distance  of  about  15,000  yards."  Of  what  nature  was  this 
action  ?  It  was,  as  a  matter  of  initiative,  a  British 
attack  following  upon  intensive  bombardment  and  supported 
by  considerable  masses  of  infantry.  It  was  developed, 
as  the  map  shows,  in  that  breach  through  the  original  (ierman 
line  which  the  main  fighting  of  the  previous  fortnight  had  torn. 
But  its  most  striking  characteristic  was  the  enormous  expanse 
of  the  German  counter-attack.  .\11  that  night  between  Monday 
and  Tuesday  and  all  the  Tuesday  morning,  the  counter- 
attacks continued  over  and  over  again.  No  less  than  seven 
German  divisions  (a  little  more  than  a  mile  to  each  division) 
attacked  and  counter-attacked,  the  line  fluctuated  con- 
tinuall\  ;  a  number  of  British  wounded  were  i>icked  uj)  by 
the  enemv  during  these  fluctuations.  (.-M  the  end.  not  of  this 
day  of  fighting,  but  of  several  days,  the  enemy  claimed  somo- 


Ihiiig  like  ()3o  prisoners)  and  by  the  night  of  the  Tuesday 
all  one  could  say  was  that  the  positions  taken  by  the  British 
in  the  first  attack  were  held  with  the  exception  of  a  small 
group  of  ruins ^o  the  east  and  north  of  Koeux. 
'  Now  what  is  the  les.son  of  a  business  of  that  kind  ?  What 
does  it  mean  ?  It  means  that  the  ga])  haxing  been  torn  in 
the  German  line  the  enemy  had  to  pour  men  in  ceaselessly  to 
^ave  himself  from  disruption.  It  is  not  true  to  .say  that  it 
was  a  fluctuating  combat  between  equal  forces.  It  was  a 
combat  initiated  by  the  British  offensive,  maintained  by  it 
and  comf)elling  the  enemy  to  the  most  expensive  form  of 
re- action.  The  number  of  prisoners,  for  instance,  was 
nearly  five  times  as  great  in  British  hands  as  in  German,  but 
quite  apart  from  that,  which  is  a  subsidiary  point,  the  essential 
thing  to  grasp  is  that  the  enemy's  enormously  exf)ensivp 
counter-action  was  a  maiineuvre  to  which  he  was  compelled 
by  his  opponent  and  not  one  i)roceeding  from  his  own  will. 
Wednesday  saw  a  diminution  of  fighting,  but  towards  the 


May  3,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


evening  anotlicr  counter-attack  was  attempted  against  Gav- 
rellc,  which  broke  down  at  once.  And  as  Gavrelle  village  was 
thoroughly  well  held  by  the  British  the  German  communique 
for  domestic  consumption  told  its  readers  that  :  "  Our  position 
is  now  situated  on  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  village." 
The  whole  story  had  already  been  announced  as  a  great 
enemy  victory,  naturally,  but  the  method  of  this  announce- 
ment was  puerile  and  characteristic  of  the  extraordinary 
change,  which  has  come  over  the  German  communiques  in  the 
last  few  weeks.  Friday  was  a  day  of  comparative  quiet  and 
at  once  the  enemy  communiques  note  "  the  breakdown  with 
heavy  losses  of  British  attacks,"  the  suggestion  being  that 
these  attacks  were  made  in  force  with  the  object  of  a  decisive 
local  result.  ■' 

On  Saturday  another  l)low  was  delivered  astride  the 
critical  Scarpe  valley.  This  blow  happened  to  get  hold  of 
Arleux  and  all  the  hither  side  of  that  slight  slope  north  of 
Plcruvaiu,  which  the  British  have  called  GreenkinrJ  Ifill. 


But  once  more  the  interest  of  the  business  is  not  the  in- 
significant territorial  advance  but  the  jnovocatiou  of  the 
counter-attack.  All  the  Saturday  afternoon  these  counter- 
attacks jjroceeded  in  great  masses  at  intervals  of  two  hours. 
Every,'one  of  them  was  stopped,  checked  and  massacred  by  the 
opposing  artillery  with  the  excejrtion  of  an  especially  heavy 
bolt  launched  at  Oppy,  the  ruins  of  which  the  British  had 
entered  and  from  which  they  were  driven  out. 

In  the  night  between  Saturday  and  Sunday  the  counter- 
attacks continued,  and  tliese  were  again  broken  by  the  British 
fire.  And  during  Sunday  afternoon  British  pressure  south  of 
Oppy  captured  about  a  mile  of  trenches  and  provoked  yet 
again  a  new  system  of  coimter-attacks,  again  defeated. 

It  is  probable  that  a  fair  account  of  these  five  days,  dis- 
tinguishing all  large  counter-attacks  in  mass  from  minor 
efforts,  would  tabulate  no  Jess  than  a  score  of  these,  all  of  them 
immensely  more  expensive  than  the  British  attacks  which 
prov^okcd  them,  and  all  save  one  (that    at  Oppy)  failures. 

.At  the  risk  of  any  amount  of  repetition  it  is  essential  to  insist 
upon  this  character  in  the  fighting.  The  enemy  cannot  live 
in  his  present  insecure  positions  where  the  defences  have  l^een 
broken  down  save  at  this  terrible  expense  in  men  involved 
in  re-action  against  the  pressure  to  whicli  he  is  subjected. 

Monday,  the  last  day  of  which  we  have  notice  at  the 
.moment  of  writing,  was  again  a  lull,  and  once  more  the  German 
communiques  misrepresented  the  conclusion  of  these  affairs 
liy  the  simple  process  of  concentrating  ujion  Oppy  alone. 

The  German  communique  of  the  last  day  of  April  has  a 
further  characteristic  piece  of  nonsense  which  would  never 
have  been  printed  some  months  ago.  After  putting  the  blinkers 
down  on  everything  that  happened  along  the  line  except  at 
Oppy  where  the  German  counter  attack  had  a  local  success, 
it  gives  a  total  of  prisoners  (adding  rather  less  than  400  to  the 
number  already  picked  up  during  the  first  fluctuations  of  this 
long  battle)  and  leaves  the  reader  under  the  impression  that 
the  total  number  (rather  less  than  a  third  of  that  which  the 
British  could  count)  was  due  to  the  slight  <ierman  advance 
in  the  ruins  of  Oppy  alone.  It  is  particularly  to  be  hoped  that 
every  careful  reader  of  the  war  news  will  note  during  the  next 
few  weeks  the  character  of  these  German  communiques.  They 
are  the  more  illuminating  because  they  tell  one  more  of  the 
state  of  the  enemy  than  any  other  documents  at  this  moment, 
and  they  are,  for  those  who  read  them  aright,  a  sort  of  ironic 
commentary    upon    his    excessive    but    unavoidable    losses. 

Action  exactly  parallel  to  the  British  action  concluded 
the  week  when  the  French  on  Monday  seized  another  six 
miles  of  front  line  on  the  Moronvillers  Hills.  There  was  the 
same  shattering  effect  of  artillery  fire,  the  same  compulsion 
for  the  enemy  to  counter-attack  with  very  heavy  loss, 
the  same  inability  of  the  counter-attack  to  make  good. 

We  must  from  now  lienceforward  watch  the  whole  process 
with  patience,  expecting  nothing  startling,  but  appreciating 
the  cumulative  effect  of  this  method  which  is  securely  based 
upon  three  forms  of  superiority  the  enemy  cannot  take  from 
us  :  '  High  superiority  in  artillery  ;  superiority  in  the  air 
and,  upon  the  whole,  superiority  in  moral.       H.  Bklloc. 


We  regret  to  announce  that  Mr.  Pollen's  article 
giving  detailed  arguments  for  making  a  change  in  the 
organisation  and  personnel  of  the  Admiralty,  in  view 
of  the  situation,  has  been  refused  publication  by  the 
Censor. 


How  to  Treat  a  Great  Man 


By  Principal  ly.  P.  Jacks 


IT  is  much  easier  to  say  what  a  great  man  is  not,  than  to 
say  what  he  is.  All  that  can  be  said  on  the  latter 
question  has  been  said  by  Carlyle,  and  I  must  refer  tlie, 
reader  to  his  incomparable  pages  for  further  information. 
A  great  man  is  not  a  combination  of  the  minds  of 
lesser  men.  He  is  not  the  soul  of  a  committee,  nor  even 
of  a  people.  You  don't  get  his  portrait  by  making  a  com- 
posite photograph  of  all  the  little  m.en  in  the  world  ;  you  don't 
get  the  measure  of  his  mind  by  adding  up  the  sum  total  of 
theirs.  All  which  is  only  a  roundabout  way  of  saying  that 
the  great  man  represents  nobody.  This  can  be  proved  quite 
simply.  For  if  a  great  man  represents  a  crowd,  then,  on  occasion 
the  crowd  ought  to  be  able  to  represent  him  ;  and  that  every-; 
body  knows  to  be  absurd. 

One  of  the  hoUowest  fictions  that  have  gained  currency 
in  modern  times  is  the  notion  that  one  man  can  "  represent  ' 
another  man,  which  of  course  is  preciseh'  what  no  human 
individual  could  ever  do  for  any  other  human  individual 
since  the  world  began.  This  fundamental  trutli,  which  is 
apt  to  be  obscured  when  "  average  "  men  are  in  question, 
stands  out  quite  clearly  when  the  great  man,  who  is  obviously 


unique,  steps  upon  the  scene.  How  can  a  great  mind  represent 
a  lot  of  lesser  minds  than  itself  ?  The  thing  is  transparently 
nonsensical.  As  well  talk  of  an  Egyptian  pyramid  representing 
a  suburb  of  jerry-built  houses,  f)r  a  rose  representing  a  fieja 
of  turnips.  If  the  great  man  may  l>e  said  to  represent  any- 
thing at  all,  he  represents  not  what  the  little  men  are  but 
precisely  what  they  are  not.  He  stands  in  his  own  rights. 
Whence  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  when  a  multitude  of 
lesser  men  elect  one  greater  than  themselves  to  do  their  busi- 
ness, what  they  ought  to  want  is  not  that  he  should  act  as 
they  themselves  would  act,  but  that  he  should  act  differently : 
i.e.  more  wisely.  If  what  they  want  is  a  man  who  would  act 
precisely  as  they  would  act  in  the  given  circumstances,  then 
they  should  be  especially  careful  not  to  elect  a  greater  man  than 
themselves — for  it  is  quite  certain  that  he,  justi  because  he  is 
greater,  will  act  differently.  They  should  ch<X)se  one  of  their 
own  number,  and  that,  of  course,  is  what  they  most  fre- 
quently do.  But  let  us  suppose  that  in  the  day  of  crisis  a 
wise  democracy,  knowing  its  own  limitations  (the  chief  part 
of  wisdom),  knowing  that  great  emergencies  are  iDcyond  the 
reach  of  warring  factions,  knowing  that  swords  must  now  be 
i     ■ 


*8 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  3,  IQ17 


used  for  slaNnng  the  loo  and  not  merely  (or;lxMng  shaij^ffned 
im  one  anotiier  let  vis  su])]wse.  1  say.  that  this  wise  jioople 
chooses  its  pilot  and  gives  him  charge  to  wvather  the  st<um. 
How  will  they  treat  him  'f  The  answer  is  given  in  four 
words.     '/Vie'V    it;//   /mat    him.     And    hy    trusting    him,    and 

■  i-ausing  him  to  ftrl  that  hi-  is  tiustKl.  tluy  will  strengtiun 
Jiis  hands.  Herein  thiy  will  know,  and  be  proud  to  know. 
that  they  are  loyal  to  the  democratic  principle  in  its  purest 
form.  No  man  among  them  shall  say  "  yon  pilot  is  a  menace 
to  our  liberty."  They  will  say  rather  "  he  is  the  guardian  of 
our  libertv  and  as  such  we,  who  have  freely  chosen  him  to 
carry  our  burden,  will  trust  him.  honour  him,  uphold  him." 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  tlie  question  how  to  treat  great  men 
is  largely  a  question  of  good  manners.  When,  some  weeks  ago. 
1  wrote  in  L.\.\i)  &  W.vruR  tm  the  importance  of  good  manners 
to  the  health  and  stability  of  a  great'  nation  some  persons 
supposed  that  bygood  manners  I  meant  such  things  as  taking 
off  your  hat  when  \'ou  say  good-bye  to  your  sister,  or  not 
making  a  gobbling  noise  when  you  eat  soup.  I  was  really 
thinking  of  the  "  charity  that  never  faileth  "  and  of  the  other 

.  points  in  good  manners  so  tersely  summarised  In'  St.  Paul  in 
the  Thirteenth  Cliapter  of  First  Corinthians.  .\ik1  1  was 
thinking  oi  all  this  with  particular  reference  to  our  current 
methods  of  treating  great  men.  In  these  there  is  \ery  little 
of  the  charity  that  never  faileth,  nor  of  any  other  of  those 
essential  principles  which  St.  Paul  lays  down  as  the  heart 
and  soul  of  good  manners.  In  fact  the  manners  of  the 
British.  Democracv  towards  its  great  men  are  not  good. 
And  a  consideration  of  the  deplorable  effects  which  follow 
(fom  this  ought  to  convince  the  most  sceptical  that  there 
^re   some    situations   where  good  manners  are  even  more 

.  important  than  good  morals. 

For  example  many  of  us  have  a  disgusting  habit  of 
suspecting  that  every  great  man  wants  to  become  a  dictator 
■^  one  01  the  meanest  motives  ^,ou  could    attribute   to  any 

'  man,  and  a  foul  insult  when  attributed  to  a  great  one.  It  is 
"nil  asinine  and  scoundrelly  thing  to  harbour  such  a  suspicion. 
Who  but  an  ass  would  appoint  a  man  to  perform  a  task  which 
only  an  independent  s])irit  could  tackle,  and  then  suspect 
him  of  wanting  to  be  a  dictator  because  forsooth  he  shows 

..  independence  of  spirit  ?  And  who  but  a  scoundrel  would 
say  to  a  man  "  I  will  trust  you  to  see  this  tiling  through  " 

,:and  then  charge  him  with  personal  ambition,  and  tell  other 

'mean  stories  to  his  discredit  the  moment  he  sets  his  hand 
to  the  plough  ?  And  yet  that  is  the  way  in  which 
many  of  us  are  accustomed  to  treat  our  great  men.  It  is 
a  demoralizing  business  for  all  concerned  ;  demoralizing. 
for  the  great  men,  who  are  sometimes  driven  by  despair  to 
play  down  their  detractors,  and  ,  so.  become  what  they  are 
suspected  of  Ix'ing  ;  demorahzing  for, the  detractors,  whose 
vanity  it  feeds  and  whose  pettiness  it  accentuates. 

The  desire  to  become  a  dictator  is  the  characteristic  vice  of 
a  little  man,  and  we  may  take  it  as  demonstrably  certain  that 
no  man  who  is  truly  great  is  capable  of  harbouring  any  such 
desire.  Yet  the  position  is  .somewhat  paradoxical.  For 
while  it  is  true  on  the  one  hand  that  no  great  man  ever  wants 
to  be  a  dictator,  it  is  equally  true  on  the  other  that  he  cannot 
lielp  dictating.  That  in  tact,  is  what  he  is  for;  what  he 
has  been  appointed  to  do.  If  all  you  require  at  the 
head  of  affairs  is  a  person  who  will  do  what  he  is  told  to  do 
by  the  public,  or  by  the  press,  or  by  the  leading  ladies  of . 
London  Society,  any  diligent  fool,  any  well-groomed  nonentity 
will  serve  your  purpose.  In  fact  the  hero's  valet  will  do  the 
business  Ix'tter  than  the  hero  himself.  Is  it  not  a  folly,  nay 
a  crime,  to  waste  a  hero  by  giving  him  such  a  job  ?  Was 
there  ever  perversity  like  tins  ?  Was  there  ever  an  exhibftion 
of  worse  manners  ?     It   is  vulgarity  gone   mad. 

Now  there  arc  two  tests  of  the  greatness  of  a  people.  One 
is  its  capacity  for  producing  great  men,  so  as  to  have  them 
ready  and  at  hand  when  a  crisis  or  emergency  has  to  be  met. 
The  other  is  right  treatment  of  the  great  men  when  they 
are  produced.  The  two  tests  realjy  go  together.  Great 
men  will  not  be  produced,  or  at  least  they  will  not  come  forward 
unless  there  is  a  fair  chance  that  the  public  will  treat  them 
well.  On  the  other  hand  if  the  public  treats  them  badly  they  will 
Ix-  spoilt,  and  instead  of  ha\'ing  great  men  for  our  examples 
we  shall  have  only  spoiled  great  men,,  that  is  the  worst  kind 
of  example  conceivable.  Put  it  either  way  and  the  result 
is  the  same.  The  public  will  get  for  its  leaders  none  but  the 
second-rate  men  who,  just  iK'cause  they  are  second-rate,  do 
not  wince  when  they  hear  themselves  suspected  of  .wanting 
to  be  dictators,  which  in  their  t~ase  is  conceivably  true, 

.\s  to  the  production  of  great  men— the  actual  b'rieding 
of  them — I  am  not  competent  to  offer  any  suggestions  and 
must  leave  the  whole  question  to  the  liugenists  or  other  ex- 
perts. On  the  whole  I  am  inclined  tii  think  that  in  the  demo- 
cratic communities  the  matter  of  breeding  this  particular 
class  of  men  had  better  be  left  to  look  after  itself. 

To  say  of  any  irum  that  he  is  great  is  only  another  way, of 
saying  he  can  be  trusted.     Lnless  we  trust  him  he  is  of  very 


little  use  to  us.  His  greatness,  so  to  speak,  is  thrown  away. 
•To.  mistnist  hiiu!  or  simply  not  to  trust  him,  is  bad  both 
for  us  and  for  him  :  bad  for  us,  because,  as  I  have  said,  it 
leads  us  to  cultivate  our  own  littleness ;  bad  f(»r  him  because 
it  compels,  him  to  fritter  away  the  time  and  energy  needed 
for  doing  our  business,  in  defending  himself  against  our 
mistrust  or  our  criticisms.  F"or  exami)le,  .Mr.  As<iuitli,  not 
to  s])eak  of  others,  has  had  to  waste  an  enormous  amount  of 
time  in  the  course  of  liis  political  car^r,  and  especiallv  of 
late,  in  defending  himself  from  the  attacks  of  lesser  men  than 
himself.  All  through  his  political  life  he  has  been  standing  up 
to  be  shot  at  by  such  men.  I  think  .Mr.  .^squith  is,  truly, 
a  great  man  ;  but  if  any  one  demurs  to  that  he  can 
substitute  his  own  living  favourite,  or  some  remoter 
personality  like  Gladstone,  or  Pitt,  or  Oliver  Cromwell.  How 
much  of  the  precious  time  and  the  precious  strength  of  such 
men  has  to  Iw  spent  in  beating  off  the  birds  of  prey  whose 
nature  it  fs  topeck  and  hawk  at  tjie  work  of  the  great  ?  One 
can  hardly  think  of  it  without  weeping.  If  only  we  could 
have  trusted  these  men  a  little  more  thev  would  have  yet 
been  greater  iiien  ;  and  they  would  have  done  our  business 
better  though  it  must  he  confessed  that  some  of  them, 
considering  how  we  made  them  waste  their  time,,  did  our 
business  remarkably  well. 

I  am  not  arguing  against  democracy,  in  which  I  fervently 
believe,  but  pleading  that  it  should  mend  its  manners, 
for  its  own  good,  by  learning  to  trust  its  great  men. 
.Among  the  manv  impnjvements  democracy  needs  at  'the 
•moment  I  place  tliis  first.  1  place  it  before  Electoral  Reform 
and  everything  else.  Of  course  it  is  a  difficult  lesson  to  teach. 
Objectionable  as  the  word  is,  I  feel  bound  to  call  it  frightfully 
difficult,  because  as  things  now  are  disasters  seem  to  be  the  only 
means  of  bringing  the  lesson  home.  It  was  in  this  way  that 
the  American  j>eople  learned  to  trust  .\braham  Lincoln — the 
greatest  man  of  modern  times.  And  I  cannot  help  venturing 
the  opinion  that  ever  since  the  time  of  Lincoln,  when  they 
learnt  the  lesson,  the  Americans  have  been  slightly  ahead  of 
us  in  the  matter  of  treating  their  great  men. 

The  difliculty  of  learning  the  lesson  arises,  in  the  first  place, 
from  the  circumstance  that  public  opinion  is  always  sharply 
divided  on  the  question  as  to. whether  any  given  individual 
is  or  is  not  a  great  man.  I  cannot  think"  of  any  statesman 
prominent  at  the  moment  to  whom  one  could  give  that  char- 
acter with  a  reasonable  expectation  that  everybody  would 
agree.  I  may  think  for  example  that  Mr.  Asquith  is  a 
great  man  :  but  somebody  thinks  the  contrary,  makes  him 
his  target  and  shoots  hiin  down.  The  truth  is  that  our 
instinct  for  the  detection  of  great  men  is  deplorably 
undeveloped.  How  to  improve  it  is  a  large  question,  being 
connected  with  our  whole  manner  of  life  and  thought.  It  is 
much  easier  to  say  how  the  needed  improvement  is  prevented 
from  taking  place.  It  is  prevented  by  the  atmosphere,  manners, 
method,  spirit  and  aims  of  party  government — what  I  ven- 
tured to  call  in  a  previous  article  "government  by  debating 
society."  In  party  government  the  prime  object  is  not  to 
get  the  business  done  in  the  best  manner  and  the  shortest 
time,  but  to  dish  your  opponents  ;  and  if  that  is  accomplished 
few  persons  care  a  straw  about  the  great  men  who  are  sacri- 
ficed in  the  process.  liivery  sharp  debater  who  can  shoot 
a  great  mai)  down  thinks  himself  to  be  doing  God  service 
,  and  is  applauded  to  the  skies  for  his  performance.  In 
such  an  atmosphere  the  habit  of  mind  which  thinks  about 
great  men,  meditates  on  their  \-alue  and  learns  to  trust  them, 
has  no  chance  of  forming  itself ;  and  the  instinct  for  detecting 
great  men  becomes  atrophied  in  consequence.  Of  course  the 
shooting  down  tactics  of  the  one  party  may  have  the  effect 
incidentally,  of  increasing  the  devotion  of  the  other  party 
.to  their  chief.  But  this  effect  is  not  altogether  good,  for 
it  leads  the  party  attacked  to  make  their  great  man  into  an 
idol,  which  is  the  next  worse  thing  to  using  him  as  a  target. 
Wrong  treatment  of  the  great  man  is  thus  promoted  from 
both  sides.  I  believe  that  if  we  could  get  out  of  this  atmo- 
sphere altogether  our  instinct  for  detecting  great  men,  which 
is  after  all  a  natural  gift,  would  begin  to  assert  itself,  with 
results  most  beneficial  to  our  public  life. 

Another  difficulty  arises  from  the  intolerable  nonsense  with 
whiyh  some  of  us  are  afllicted  about  the  people  being  "all 
powerful."       Just  as  there  are  some  things  which  no  indi- 
vidual can  do,  so  there  are  some  things  which  no  people  can 
,do.     No  people  can  conduct  the  operations  of  war,  and— 
,  I    would   add  -of   foreign    policy,    without   getting   into   an 
iintolerable  mess  of  cross    purposes,   bad    temper  and  lost 
,opi)ort unities.     When  emergencies  arise  a  great  people  shows 
,,jts  greatness  not  by  trying  to  handle  them  itself,  which  is  the 
act  of  a  fool,  but  by  finding  the  right  man  to  handle  them  and 
trusting  him  accordingly.     To  do  that  is  not  to  surrender 
democratic   principles.     It   is  to   jnit   them   to  their  highest 
use  and  exercise.     It  is  the  ])roof  of  a  highly  educated  demo- 
,  cracy  which  has  learnt  its  own  limitations  aiid  has  the  wisdom 
♦n  keep  within  them. 


May  3,  lyrj 


LAINU    &'    WATER 


A  Naval  Holiday 

By  the  Author  of   "  A  Grand  Fleet  Chaplain's   Notebook 


t: 


^lEKlC  arc  many  advantugL's  in  sea-voyaging, 
wrote  Saudi  the  sweot  singer  of  .Persia  —'"  bnt 
security  is  not  one  of  thom.  '  \\'hicli  shows  that 
it  is  (}uite  possible  for  apoct  t(j  talk  sense  at  times. 
Security  ?  Why,  it  is  not  so  much  a  ciuestion  <jf  "  the  dangers 
of  the  seas  and  the  violence  of  the  enemy  "  -for  preser\ation 
from  which  things  the  Navy  prays  officially  every  morning 
at  J)ivisions  ;  we  can  say  to'the  wind,  like  the  jolly  mariner  in 
The  7'cijtpcsl  "  Blow  till  thou  burst  thyself,  if  room  enough  "  ; 
and  as  tor  the  \iolence  of  the  cnemj',  good  honest  open 
\iolence  is  a  game  that  two  can  play  at  ;  much  more  to  (jur 
minds  is  the  petition,  "  hrustrate  tlieir  knavish  tricks  " -those 
Hunnish  activities  with  which  we  ha\eno  desire  to  comjjete 

Securicy,  as  was  well  rubbed  into  me  at  school,  means 
not  safety,  but  freedom  from  care — {Seciirus-a-iun,  from  sc 
and  ciira,  and  be  careful  not  to  get  mixed  up  with  seciiris 
an  axe) — and,  consequently,  the  only  security,  in  the  classic 
sense,  possible  during  term-time  was  in  the  rare  occasion  of 
a  holiday,  when  freedom  from  care  was  the  great  thing  to  be 
desired  at  that  harassed  period  of  life.  flow  bitter  1  used 
to  feel  against  those  fatuous  middle-aged  peojile  who  would 
persist  in  saying  that  sciiool-days  arc  the  happiest  days  of 
one's  life  !  J'^ven  a  holiday  was  not  alwavs  ail  that  it  pro- 
mised to  be  ;  there  were  days  when — 

But  these  sad  reminiscences  are  swee])ing  down  up.)n  mo 
as  the  result  of  a  naval  holiday,  the  descrij:)tion  oi  which 
may  perhaps  be  more  interesting  than  the  tale  of  bygone 
disappointments. 

The  naval  holiday  to  which  I  refer  was  hot  of  that  sort 
pro])osed  a  few  years  ago,  when  certain  simple-minded  gentle- 
men brought  forward  the  innocent  suggestion  that  Britain 
should  show  her  goodwill  towards  Germany  by  refraining 
from  shipbuilding  lor  a  while  (iermany,  of  course,  to  do  the 
same.  Kather  like  ;>  policeman  offering  to  leave  his  truncheon 
at  home  on  ct)nditioii  that  all  burglars  should  pass  their  word 
to  do  the  like  with  their  crowbars  and  jemmies  ! 

Tlial  naval  holiday,  fortunately,  never  eventuated  ;  where- 
as the  one  I  am  about  to  describe  was  a  holiday  that  actually 
took  place  though  1  am  not  going  to  say  when  and  where, 
or  which  ships  they  were  that  Went  on  tlie  jaunt.  You  can 
guess,  if  you  like,  but  you  will  probably  guess  wrong  ;  for  my 
part,  while  guaranteeing  the  tale  to  be'as  accurate  as  the  fire 
of  our  guns,  f  reserve  the  right  to  maintain  the  same  di.screet 
silence  about  mere  details  as  about  the  remarks  made  by  our 
gunnery  lieutenant  when  it  was  all  over. 

There  is  no  doubt  about  it,  wc  were  thoroughly  bored 
with  being  in  harbour.  Swinging  round  a  buoy  is  all  very 
well  wheayou  can  go  a-^hore  and  follow  the  bent  of  your  own 
sweet  will  in  any  dinction  from  ,  fox-hunting  to  poodle- 
faking  ;  thou^,'h  evefi  these  relaxations  lose  llu'ir  interest  in 
war  tune.  But  when  tln're  is  simply  nothing  to  go  ashore 
for  except  to  pick  a  sp'rig  of  purple  heather  which  with  a  little 
care  can  be  bleached  and  palmed  off  on  your  best  girl  as  a 
genuine  piece  of  the  lucky  wliite  article--fno,  I  haven't  done 
this  myself,  but  there  are  others  not  quite  so  conscientious) — 
let  me  see—where  am  I  ?  Oh,  yes,  1  was  saying  that  vou  can 
get  very  fed  up  indeed  with  being  in  harbour  when"  there's 
a  war  oh,  and  a  day  or  two  of  it  is  quite  enough  for  anybody. 

Well,  we  had  had  more  than  a  day  or  two  of  it,  and  were 
beginning  to  get  very  restless.  We  wanted  to  meet  the  Hun,  and 
didn't  see  any  sense  at  all  in  this  quiet  life  :  the  thrilling  excite- 
ment of  aiming-rifle  practice  failed  to  arouse  any  enthusiasm, 
and  even  the  suggestion  of  having  (ieneral  Drill  next  Mondav 
fell  very  flat  ! 

No  man  ali\e  can  explain  how  it  is  that  any  news  on  board 
a  man-of-war  always  comes  first  from  either  a  flat-sweeper  pr 
a  cook's  mate  or  a  third  writer  ;  nor  by  what  mysterious  means, 
telepathic  or  otherwise,  these  individuals  get  hold  of  their  ' 
information;  but  the  fact  remains  true,  that  their  news 'is 
generally  ])rctty  reliable. 

it  was  so,  in  our  case.  "  1  had  it  from  my  servant,"  ex-  ' 
plained  one  of  the  lieutenants  ;  "  he  says  it  is  ail  over  the  lower  ' 
deck.     I  don't  mind  betting  it's  true!    "  .' 

"  Well,  I  was  told  the  same  thing  down  in  the  engine-room 
five  minutes  ago,"  said  the  Chief  ;  "  funny  thing,  i  ve  heaicl 
nothing  oflicially,  but  if  we  arc  going  out  this  afternoon  you 
would  think  that  1  should  know  something  about  it  before 
a  second-class  stoker,  wouldn't  you  ?  "  But  the  ruihour  was 
true,  and  we  did  streak  out  swiftly  and  silently  at  the  very  tiiiie  ' 
predicted.  I'lirthermore,  the  bux/,  also  got  al)out  that  \ye 
were  out  for  a  proper  stunt  and  were  likely  to  see  scjiuelhi-ng 
doing.  .    ;',         ' 

We  were  as  luipiiy  as  boys  who  ha\e  been  givijn  {in  un- 
expected lioliilay.  In  fact,  it  xcas  a  holiday  for  us,  and  M'e  looked 
for  noni;  better. 


Out  from  the  harbour's  mouth,  away  ajid  onwards  till  the 
coastline  grew  fainter  and  then  disappeared  below  the 
horizon.  Shearing  a  path  through  the  white-capped  seas, 
on  a  straight  course  hour  after  hour,  like  hounds  when  the 
scent  is  strong. 

.  Hour  after  hour,  and  still  no  alteration  of  course.  Plainly 
some  definite  object,  was  the  remark.  That  was  enough. 
What  do  we  underlings  know  of  the  i>lans  and  strategies 
of  the  higher  gods,  admirals,  and  such-hkc  oniniscients  ? 

Yet — it  is  astonishing  how  these  things  get  about,  citlier 
the  cook's  mate  or  the  flat-sweeper  or  the  third  writer  again 
was  probably  the  fount  of  knowledge — th^  idea  grew  and  took 
form  as  an  accepted  fact  that  we  were  trying  to  cut  off  a 
certain  portion  oi  the  enemy's  fleet,  and  might  reckon  on  com- 


'^T^hesc  are  the  critical    days   of  the  war.     Victory 
depends   on  the  efforts    of  the    British  people, 
individually  and  collectively. 

Our  first  duty  is  not  only  to  limit  our  personal 
consumption  of  bread,  but  to  explain  to  all  on 
whom  we  can  exercise  influence  the  urgent  neces- 
sity for  this  form  of  economy.  Extravagance  and 
waste  continue  mainly  because  the  offenders 
have   not  realised  the  seriousness   of  the  situation. 

German  submarines  have  carried  the  war  into 
every  house  in  these  islands,  but  their  attack  on 
national  security  can  be  repelled  successfully  if 
in  every  house  strictest  economy  in  all  food,  but 
especially  in  bread,  is  made  the  daily  rule. 

Complete  military  victory  is  as  much  dependent 
on  bread  economy  at  home  during  the  next  three 
months  as  on  the  spirit  of  our  fighting  men  at  the 
Front  or  on  a  plentiful  supply  of  war  munitions. 


ing  up  with  them  in  about  three  hours'  time.  An  electric 
tlirill  seemed  to  pas^' through  the  ship  ;  such  a  tonic  as  all  the 
bottles  in  the  sick-bay  could  not  provide  appeared  to  have 
been  absorbed  by  all  hands  fore  and  aft  with  instantaneous 
effect.  As  for  the  gunnery  lieutenant,  he  became  like  ai 
entomologist  who  has  been  searching  all  his  life  for  a  specimen 
of  the  extremely  rare  Lesser  Cabbage  White  and  at  last  descries 
one  hovering  in  the  tree-tops  above  him.  I  do  not  know 
whether  I  have  got  the  scientific  details  of  this  simile  corrtct, 
but  the  principle  is  the  same,  and  that  is  the  main  thing. 

Presently  the  helm  went  hard  over,  and  the  ship  made  an 
eight  point  turn.  Did  this  sudden  alteration  of  course  in- 
dicate some  new  development  ?  Those  who  were  able  to  leave 
their  post  for  a  moment  rushed  up  on  deck  ;  but  nothing  was  to 
be  seen  of  the  enemy  as  yet. 

A  few  minutes  later  the  navigating  officer  came  down 
from  the  bridge,  smiling  and  rubbing  his  hands  in  the  manner 
which  is  generally  described  as  "  gleefully." 

"  Aha.  boys,"  he  chortled,  "  you'll  be  going  over  a  mine- 
field in  about  twenty-minutes'  time  ;  it's  long  odds  you'll 
all  be  blown  to  glory  !  /  shall  be  all  right — shall  just  float 
gracefully  off  from  the  bridge  when  it  reaches  the  water-level  ; 
but  I'm  sorry  for  you  !  " 

"  And  how  do  you  know  where  the  enemy's  mine-fields 
are  ?  "     we  enquired  sceptically. 

"  Oh,  this  is  nothing  to  do  with  the  enemy,"  he  replied 
with   airv    nonchalance,   "  it's  one    of    our    mvn  mine-fields ! 

It  makes  a  short  cut  !   " 

***** 

Neither  in  the  sense  of  safety,  nor  in  that  of  freedom 
from  care,  can  there  be  said  to  be  much  security  attached  to 
sea-voyaging  ;  Saadi  was  not  far  out  in  his  remark. 

And  the  end  of  our  naval  holiday?  Well,  I  told  you  it 
was  those  spoiled  and  disappointing  holidays  of  long  ago  that 
brought  this  one  to  my  mind. 

We  just  saw  the  tail  of  the  Hun.  that  was  all  ;  and  even  the 
tail  sli'jipcd  away  before  we  could  grab  hold  of  it. 

True,  wc  also  spoiled  his  little  game,  but  well,  you  should  have 
'heard  what  the  gunncYy  lieutenant  said  !  .All  that  was  left 
'  for  us  was  to  proceed  back  to  our  base,  creeping  unwillingly 
to  school,  so  to  speak,  with  our  holiday  too  disgustful  to  look 
back  upon.  We  were  e\en  glad  to  forget  it  in  the  inevitable 
task  of  "  Coal  Shiu  !  " 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


^la3 


i.ji/ 


Rights  and  Limitations  of  Small  Nationalities 

By  M.  A.  Czapliska 


WHEN  (Icaliiij^  with  the  jirobk-ins  of  Eurojjcan 
iiationaUties  which  have  to  be  liberated  entirely 
or  partly  after  this  war,  we  must  free  ourselves 
from  certain  ]X)puIar  errors  which  hamper  the 
judgment,  l-iri^t  of  all.  the  term  "  small  nationalities  "  is 
rather  misleadnif^,  for  on  the  list  we  ftnd  Poles,  a  nation 
with  a  minimnni  of  20,000,000,  and  Montenegrins,  who 
number  about  _^iK),ooo.  The  name  "  dependent  nationalities  " 
is  perhaps  more  appropriate,  for  tiiough  some  of  them,  such 
as  Belgium  and  Koumania,  were  independent  before  the  war, 
they  are  depciKlent  now,  not  so  much  on  the  (iermans  as  on 
the  ultimate  triumph  or  defeat  of  the  principles  of  justice. 
Hut  it  is  chiellv  the  problem  of  the  nations  whose  fate  before 
the  war  was  almost  as  bad  as  the  fate  of  Belgium  and  Rou- 
inania  at  the  present  tiilie,  which  is  taken  into  account  in 
speaking  of  the  rights  of  small  nations,  and  of  the  fighting  on 
their  behalf. 

Whether  this  war  is  being  waged  on  behalf  of  small  natioii- 
alities  or  great  Powers  makes  no  difference  now.  Great 
and  small  Powers  suffer  alike,  and  for  ail  the  only  course  left 
oj)en  is  to  settle  their  differences  on  principles  of  truth  and 
justice,  and  to  face  facts  as  they  are.  It  has  happened,  as  it 
ought  to  have  happened,  that  out  of  the  five  States  who  were 
the  chief  oppressors  of  other  nationalities  within  their  bound- 
aries— Germany,  Turkey,  Austria-Hungary.  Russia  and 
Ital\' — only  the  last  two  ■were  on  the  side  of  the  Western 
Democracies.  Of  these  two  Russia  has  ceased  to  approve 
of  this  state  of  affairs,  and  Italy  can  scarcely  be  called  an 
oppressor,  though  she  has  under  her  power  a  small  number 
of  Adriatic  Sla\s,  whose  complete  independence  is  merely  a 
high  ideal. 

The  Slavs 

Because  among  the  nations  dependent  un  the  ("entral 
Powers  there  were  some  who  spoke  languages  of  Slavonic 
origin,  an  idea  has  ari.scn  that  these  nations  arc  akin  to  each 
other  just  as  the  Bavarians  are  to  the  Saxons,  and  that  the 
Allies  are  fighting  for  a  Slavonic  world,  and  the  nations 
dependent  on  the  Central  Powers' striving  for  a  high  ideal  of 
Pan-Slavism.  Whether  ajjy  idea  included  in  a  term  beginning 
with  Pan-  and  ending  in  -ism  is  a  high  ideal,  remains  to  be 
seen  in  the  futme.  From  the  experience  of  the  past  we  can 
judge  that  the  one  called  Pan-Germanism  has  been  a  source 
of  manv  troubles  and  horrors  for  the  non-Pari-German  people 
of  Europe,  and  even  for  the  moral  of  the  Pan-Ciermans 
themselves.  So  we  may  assume  that  ethically  Pan-Slavi.sm 
is  more  or  less  another  Pan-Germanism,  only  much  more 
artificial,  a  kind  of  Pan-Germanism  which  would  include  the 
Scandinavian  nations,  and  perhaps  the  people  of  the  British 
Isles  also.  But  if  it  does  not  stand  a  moral  test  it  would  still 
be  a  powerful  agent  if  it  were  based  on  facts.  Here  comes  in 
i  knowledge  of  ethnology,  which  could  usefully  be  made  one 
of  the  chief  compulsory  subjects  for  intelligence  officers  as 
well  as  for  consular  or  diplomatic  servants. 

Out  of  the  several  nations  whose?  fate  hangs  in  the  balance, 
only  three — Poland.  Bohemia  and  Serbia — use  languages 
of  Slavonic  origin.  The  fact  of  their  so  doing,  however, 
does  not  create  anv  similarity  in  a  cultural,  national  or 
ethnic  sense,  and  these  three  countries  would  no  more  think 
of  being  united  with  each  other  than  Scandinavia  would 
dream  of  being  united  with  Gennany  and  German-speaking 
Switzerland.  Wiiere.  then,  is  the  basis  for  the  so-much- 
talked-of  Pan-Slavism,  and  have  the  Slavonic  countries  more 
in  common  among  themselves  than  they  have  with  their 
neighbours  Greece.  Koumania  or  Finland  ? 

A  League  of  Nations  stri\ing  for  independence  would  be 
more  normal  under  pre-war  conditions,  or  during  the  war, 
than  this  re-birth  of  a  Slavonic  race,  as  fabulous  in  origin 
as  the  Celtic  race  is.  But  if  unimportant  and  without  his- 
torical basis,  it  is  still  a  dangerous  phantom,  and  most  unde- 
sirable in  association  with  the  aims  and  war-programme  of  the 
Allies,  for  it  will  always  arouse  an  echo  in  the  German  world, 
and  if  carried  too  far  it  may  end  in  permanently  uniting  the 
two  Germanic  nations — Prusso-(iermany  and  Austria — who, 
until  this  war,   kept    their  nationalities    distinct. 

It  is  true  that  besides  the  Pan-Slavist  propaganda  there 
is  another  trend  of  extreme  feeling  in  this  country,  one  of 
benevolent  indulgence  towards  Austria.  It  would  seem 
that  the  only  fair  position  is  an  intermediate  one— that  is, 
to  work  that  her  bureaucracy  shall  fail  as  the  Russian  bureau- 
cracy failed,  and  that  her  constitution  shall  be  revised  not 
only  as  regards  the  .Austrians  and  the  Hungarians,  but  also 
as  regards  any  small  Slavonic  remnant  which  may  still  remain 
subject  to  her.     How  blind  Austria  is  to  her  true  interests 


api)ears  in  her  scorn  of  the  oi)|)ortunity  given  her  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson  of  keeping  the  peace  with  America,  while  her 
offer  to  Russia  of  a  jieace  based  on  the  sharing  of  various 
Slavonic  territories  is  an  offence  to  Russia,  in  view  of  the 
principles  that  country  has  won  out  of  her  Revolution. 

Unless  we  lay  aside  all  sentiment  —Germanic  as  well  as 
Slavonic — we  can  never  even  ap])roach  the  solution  of  the 
problem  which  awaits  us  after  the  war — the  problem  of  ' 
setting  in  order  the  eastern  part  of  Europe.  It  is  only  natural 
that  people  should  be  sorry  for  Serbia,  Koumania  or  Poland, 
bat  this  interest  does  not  imply  either  that  these  countries 
present  the  same. problem,  or  that  what  would  be  good  for, 
.say,  France  or  Cireat  Britain,  would  be  equally  beneficial  if 
applied  to,  .say,  Serbia. 

What  makes  nationality  ?  It  is  not  numbers  which 
matter.  Numbers  neither  confer  special  rights  nor  limit 
them.  We  must,  then,  tuni  in  our  search  for  a  decisive  factor 
to  questions  of  quality.  A  certain  gradation  must  be  recog- 
nised if  misunderstanding  and  confusion  are  to  be  avoided. 
The  sentimentalists  who  would  .see  in  every  nation  of  Europe 
and  perhaps  of  the  wyrld,  equally  good  material  for  immediate 
indey)endent  existence,  render  as  bad  a  service  to  the  caus(! 
of  a  just  settlement  as  do  the  autocratic  i)owcrs  who  will  not 
admit  the  principle  of  the  possibility  of  cultural  development 
for  "  inferior  "  nations.  Thus  the  old  regime  in  Russia  would 
constantly  place  the  national  claims  of  Finland  or  Poland 
on  a  level  with  those  of  the  Bashkirs  of  the  \'olga  or  the 
Tartars  of  the  Crimea.  And,  again,  we  find  that  the  very 
few  people  in  England  who  know  anything  about  the  Near 
East,  are  too  apt  to  minimise  the  ditlficulties  which  would 
attend  the  foundation  of,  for  instance,  a  Southern  Slav 
State,  or  an  enlarged  Ifehemia. 

In  an  attempt  to  estimate  the  claims  of  nations  to  inde- 
jiendence,  three  aspects  presents  themselves  for  considerati(.)n 
which  should  make  it  possible  to  determine  whether  a  given 
nation  is  in  a  condition  to  enjoy  Lndcpendence  at  once,  or 
whether  it  would  ])rofit  by  Ijeing  gi\en  a  kind  of  Home  Kule . 
under  a  more  enlightened  state  for  a  period  of  education. 
First  of  all,  we  must  consider  whetlier  it  has  territory  be- 
longing to  it  which  it  has  occupied  since,  say,  the  beginning 
of  the  modern  period  ;  second,  whether  it  has  its  own  culture, 
expressed  in  political  and  social  organisation,  science  and  art. 
trade  and  industry  ;  third,  whetlier  the  wish  for  national 
independence  is  common  to  all  the  classes  contained  within 
its  boundaries. 

With  regard  (u  the  territorial  quest  ion.  E.xc'ept 'the  Jews 
we  find  no  nation  in  Europe  which  is  without  its  own  terri- 
tory, but  there  are  some  countries,  such  as  Dalmatia,  Bohemia, 
and  Silesia,  which  have  always  had  some  "  Ulster  "  of  their 
own,  consisting  of  one  or  more  nations  which  have  never 
amalgamated.  This  is  probably  the  reason  why  such  coun- 
tries have  seldom  been  independent  of  their  stronger  neigh- 
bours in  the  past,  and  will  have  to  look  for  the  support  in 
one  form  or  another,  of  those  nations  in  the  future. 

The  easiest  to  deal  with  are  those  territories  which  can  be 
called  "  national,"  in  the  sense  of  belonging  to  one  nation, 
such  as  Bulgaria.  The  most  puzzling  are  the  lands  which 
play,  as  it  were,  the  role  of  "  colonies  "  to  several  "  national  "  ' 
territories.  Such  are  Macedonia,  Transylvania,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  Ruthenia  and  Lithuania.  There  will  be  no 
difficulty  in  returning  to  Serbs  what  is  Serbia  proper,  to 
Bulgars  what  is  Bulgaria  proper,  or  to  Roumanians  and  Poles 
what  is  strictlj-  Roumania  and  Poland.  But  it  is  quite 
another  matter  when  we  come  to  deal  with  the  strips  of 
territory  dividing  these  countries.  Here  there  is  not  only 
opportunity,  but  necessity,  for  international  intervention, 
and  either  the  neutralisation  of  the  given  territory  or  the 
di-sposal  of  it  by  a  plebiscite.  If,  as  is  the  case  with  Trieste, 
for  instance,  this  non-national  territory  happens  to  be  an 
important  port,  neutralisation  seems  to  be  the  fairer  course 
for  the  comfort  of  all  the  nations  of  Europe.  Yet  it  needs 
very  strong  moral  force  to  refrain  from  disposing  of  these 
important  "  colonies  "  to  the  interest  of  one's  own  friends, 
if  opportunity  offers. 

.'l.s  to  the  culture  of  the  people  whose  claim  to  independence 
is  in  question,  it  may  be  argued  that  the  most  primitive 
peoples  always  produce  a  sort  of  culture  of  their  own,  but  of 
course, |in  dealing  with  the  nations  of  F^urope  we  must  demand 
from  them  a  European  standard  of  culture  which  is  something 
more  than  romantic  ballads  or  peasant  art.  If  the  nation  is 
without  its  own  cultural  organisation,  a  sufficient  number  of 
its  own  schools,  universities,  professional  guilds,  of  its  own 
doctors,  chemists,  manufacturers,  merchants  and  traders,  will  it 
.  be  wise  to  let  it  struggle  alone  against  the  powerful  comi)etition 
of  a  better  organised  neighbour,  once  its  sovereign  ?     This  is 


May  J,  1917 


LAND     &     WAllilt 


II 


especially  important  in  tlic  case  of  the  Serbs,  who  niav  be 
strong  enough  to  decide  the  fate  of  their  own  laiid,  wliile  it  is 
very  doubtful  whether  they  could  give  the  same  cultural  ad- 
vantages to  Slovenes  and  Croatians  as  a  well-disposed  Italian 
or  Austrian  government ^coukl  do. 

Of  course  cultural  considerations,  however  important, 
may  sometimes  he  put  aside  for  the  sake  of  national  freedom. 
In  this  case  Serbia  would  waive  any  advantages  which  she 
might  derive  from  Austria  to  gain  lier  own  independence. 
But  the  other  nations  which  are  included  in  the  programme 
of  Southern  Slav  Unity,  if  they  cannot  be  quite  independent 
must  be  left  to  choose  to  which  confederacy  they  will  give 
their  allegiance.  In  culture  and  religion  Croatia  has  more  in 
common  with  Austria,  in  language  with  Serbia,  while  she 
herself  has  a  national  feeling  independent  of  either. 

This  brings  us  to  our  third  point,  the  necessity  for  taking 
into  consideration  internal  tinity  in  national  feeling.  Even 
the  countries  of  homogeneous  population,  without  any 
"  Ulsters  "  to  speak  of,  may  be  misunderstood  abroad,  if  they 
have  no  dii)lomatic  bodies  which  represent,  or  rather  ought  to 
represent,  the  feeling  of  the  whole  nation.  It  is  one  party  or 
another  -usually  the  most  wealthy  political  party— which  sends 
its  representatives  abroad,  and  these  representatives  follow  a 
party  programme  which,  if  it  happens  to  be.  for  example, 
anti-Semitic  or  militarist,  gives  a  wrong  idea  t)f  the  feeling  of 
the  nation  as  a  vviiole  on  these  (juestions.     Tlius  for  a  long 


time  the  anti-Semitic  National  Democratic  Party  of  Po^nd 
created  abroad  the  impression  t-hat  Poland  was  a  homcj  oi 
jiogroms  and  otjier  methods  of  oppressing  the  Jews, '  So  too, 
the  able  representatives  of  the  small  Reformed  Church  of 
Bohemia  do  not  adequately  express  the  views  of  the  Koman 
Catholic  majority  of  the  Bohemian  population.  It  follows 
that  when  dealing  with  the  internal  feeling  of  a  country  all 
sections  of  political  opinion  must  be  considered,  and  the  truti 
will  be  f(.)und  to  lie  in  that  part  of  the  programme  which  is 
common  to  them  all. 

On  the  whole  it  may  be  said  that  nationality  is  a  question  of 
tradition,  which  is  stronger  even  than  racial  heredity. 

'  We  find,  for  instance,  the  non-Aryan  Hungarians  living 
on  European  traditions  for  many  centuries,  and  in  this  case 
it  does  not  matter  whether  the  race  was  originally  from  Eiu'ope 
or  Asia,  so  long  as  it  is  fairly  homogeneous  and  has  long 
occupied  a  settled  position.  But  the  question  is  more  compli- 
cated in  the  case  of  the  Balkan  nations,  where  the  admi.xture 
of  races  has  not  yet  ceased,  with  the  result  that  the  national 
traditions  do  not  reach  sufficiently  far  back  to  render  them 
stable.  It  is  not  the  claims  of  responsible  and  cultivated  nations 
for  their  own  indejjcndence  that  renders  the  problem  difficult, 
but  the  fact  that  some  of  these  nations  tend  to  create  States 
at  the  expense  of  other  nationalities,  and  this  difficulty  can  be 
overcome  only  if  at  the  Peace  Conference  the  idea  of  a  League 
of  Nations  is 'given  preference  o\'er  an  Alliance  of  States. 


White  Blossom  and  Cold  Winds 


By  J.  D.  Symon 


BURK(,)\\1-:RS  in  old  wx-athcr  records  tell  us  tliat 
this  was  the  latest  sj)ring  for  840  years..  They  may 
be  rigiit.  but  the  chronicle  is  incomplete.  The  fact 
remains,  however,  that  ten  years  after  the  Norman 
Conquest,  wintr\-  weather  began  on  November  ist  and 
snow  and  frost  <ontinued  until  April  15th,  1077.  Recent 
months  have  certainly  ]>ut  that  story  out  of  countenance, 
for  we  had  om-  first  snow-showers  and  frost  in  mid-October 
of  last  year,  and  only  just  latelv  have  we  bidden  a  final 
farewell  to  .Vrctic  weather.  Day  after  day  of  qualified  sunshine 
persuaded  country  dwellers  that  now  at  length  spring  was  at 
hand,  and  if  the  evening  closed  fair  we  went  to  bed  trusting^ 
that  to-morrow  we  should  open  our  eyes  upon  a  green  earth  ; ' 
t)nly  to  be  cheated  once  more. 

In  other  years,  it  would  have  been  easier  to  find  com- 
])ensation  ;  for  the  delay  means  a  purer  snow  on  orchard 
boughs,  when  blossom  comes  at  length.  Mild  and  humid 
sjjrings,  when  the  leaves  run  a  good  second  to  the  blossom, 
rob  the  flower  of  its'intensest  white,  and  the  contrast  of  that 
snow  with  bare  grey  stems  loses  its' sharpness,  blurred  by 
the  qualifying  green.  Such  springs^robs  the  cherry  tree  of 
its  prerogative  of  cold  splendour. 

In  normal  years  the  fully  glory  of  the  orchards  is  coincident, 
in  this  climate,  with  the  keenest  airs.  However  genially  the 
earlier  days  may  have  tempted  the  fruit  trees  to  flower, 
when  the  orchards  are  a  cloud  of  snow,  then  look  out  for 
ftost.  There  comes  ail  evening  of  clear  skies  when  the  air 
towards  sunset  nips  shrewdly.  Then  the  winter  overcoat, 
rashly  discarded  at  noon,  has  to  be  resumed  with  repentance. 
Summer  is  not  yet  awhile,  for  all  this  splendour  of  the  country- 
side, and  the  market-gardener  looks  anxiously  at  the  thermo- 
meter, and  trembles  for  his  harvest,  wondering  what  the 
night  may  bring.  Not  for  him  the  selfish  detachment  of  the 
obser^^er  who  regards  this  phase  of  the  spring  landscape  as 
mere  phenomenon,  chill  but  not  unpleasing,  and  curiously 
harmonious  in  its  blending  of  white  blossom  and  cold  airs. 
The  statt>  of  the  observer  is  the  less  gracious,  but  not,  perhaps, 
without  its  uses.  Watching  such  crystalline  sharj)  sunsets 
he  sheds  illusions  and  knows  the  spring  for  a  fickle  enchantress 
whose  smiles  carry  a  heavy  price.  And  therewith  he  may 
learn  to  sympathise  with  the  anxieties  of  his  friend  tlie 
market-gardener,  to  whom  that  drift  of  snow-white  blossom 
is  no    mere    pageant,  but  liis  very  livelihood. 

Some  there  be  who  find  in  white  blossom  at  the  best  only 
a  qualified  pleasure,  in  no  way  comparable  to  the  blaze  of 
autumn.  It  is  ])erhaps  a  matter  of  temperament,  a  question 
of  sensuous  capacities.  Last  year,  during  a  walk  of  an 
ordered  kind,  a  walk  under  discipline  and  therefore  to  be  de- 
scribed as  a  parade,  or  march,  or  some  such  martial  formalitv, 
it  chanced  (the  word  being  given  to  march  at  ease),  that  the 
talk  of  comrades  fell  upon  this  very  theme.  About  the 
advancing  colump  lay  a  countryside  just  starting  into  its 
sprmg  dress,  and  one  man-at-arms  asked  his  fellow  whether 
the  orchards  in  spring  gave  him  more  than  moderate  enjoy- 
ment. For  his  own  part,  he  said,  they  left  him  cold.  He- 
was  all  for  the  russet  and  gold  of  autumn.  Impatient  man  ! 
He  would  have  his  autumn  in  good  time.  Why  should  he 
thrust  himself  forward  in  siiirit  and  miss  the  present  good 


in  longing  for  that  which  is  to  come  ?  It  is  of  the  nature  of 
the  s])ring  pageant  that  it  should  leave  him  cold,  for  cold  it 
is  and  virginal,  to  its  \'ery  essence.  Here,  at  another  time, 
before  the  great  quarrel  arose,  we  would  have  (pioted  a  po(>t 
who  has  a  p-rfect  word  for  the  occasion.  But  his  language 
is  now  forbidden  and  his  undeniable  felicity  untranslatable. 
Besides,  it  is  reminiscent  of  a  notorious  Inqx'rial  phrase  of 
bad  omen.  Our  friend  remained  impenitent.  Spring  is 
not  f()r  him  ;  he  will  not  take  her  as  she  is.  So  we  leave  him 
reaching  forward  to  the  red  autumn  of  his  desire,  for  which 
in  its  own  time  we  have  nothing  but  praise  and  the  li\'eliest 
affection. 

Lucky  for  that  hot  and  eager  spirit,' perhaps,  that  he  had 
not  the  curious  experience  which  came  some  years  ago  to  his 
fellow  disputant,  who  chased  spring  half  round  tlic  world, 
and  twice  recaptured  Iicr.  Her  robes  were  falling  when  he 
left  these  shores,  but  ten  days  later  in  the  orchards  of  New 
England  the  white  hand  was  only  putting  forth  on  the  bough. 
On  the  low  quiet  landscape  around  Lexington  and  Concord, 
in  the  woods  about  Thoreau's  lake,  the  drift  of  snowy  blossom 
gathered  in  a  day.  Massachussetts  had  seen  a  rainy  inclement 
April  and  early  May,  but  in  one  night  everything  was  altered 
and  a  burst  of  sub-tropical  heat  flung  the  Eastern  States  into 
sudden  summer.  But  even  then,  at  sunset,  the  season  was 
tnie  to  herself,  and  the  cold  petals  had  their  countcri)art  of 
colder  winds.  New  England  was  like  Old  England  in  this, 
if  in  little  else.  For  although  in  the  Eastern  States  there  is 
some  general  resemblance  to  the  old  country,  the  one  could 
never  be  mistaken  for  the  other.  We  rniss  our  soaring 
trees  ;  the  woods  of  New  England  are  of  a  humbler  sort, 
rounded  and  bosky,  monotonous,  yet  with  a  quiet  sweetness 
of  their  own. 

So  much  for  the  second  spring.  A  few  days  later  and  the 
traveller,  pushing  north  into  Canada,  saw  the  orchards 
blossom  yet  once  more.  For  our  eager  champion  of  autumn 
this  would  have  been  the  last  straw.  Poor  man,  he  would 
have  taken  to  desperate  courses,  and  might  ha\e  ended 
untimely  a  useful  career,  forgetful  of  what  ecstasies  were  in 
store  for  him,  in  his  chosen  autumnal  paradise,  had  he  been 
content  to  wait  until  the  maple  leaf  was  red.  But  he  might 
have  tbund  solace  in  the  spring  of  the  Fnir  Dominion,  for  by 
that  time  summer  was  upon  us  indeed,  itnd  what  cold  effect 
there  might  still  be  of  flowering  trees,  had  its  compensation 
in  an  almost  torrid  heat.  The  orchards  around  St.  Catherines, 
that  wonderful  httle  garden  city  (not  new)  which  the  visitor 
to  Niagara  should  not  fail  to  make  his  headquarters,  carried 
the  dress  of  spring  under  the  sunshine  of  a  hastened  mid- 
summer. June  with  its  fulness  of  leaf,  had  come  in  mid-May, 
and  the  traveller  from  a  variable  and  chilly  island,  where  the 
hotte^t^  seasons  are  temperate,  learned  for  the  first  time  the 
nieaning  of  really  warm  weather.  And  because  his  delight 
in  white  bloossm  and  cold  winds  is  perhaps  at  the  root 
academical,  he  found  his  third  spring  the  most  exquisite  of 
all,  and  did  not  waste  a  sigh  on  absent  rigours.  These  are 
salutary  and  bracing  for  working  days,  but  the  hour 
was  holiday,  and  with  a  good  conscience  and  nothing 
loth,  M  went  lotus-eating  in  the  warm  meadows  ol 
Ontario. 


LANU    &     WATER 


Ma\   3,  1917 


Strategical  Variations   on   the   Eastern  Frtot 


By   Colonel    Feyler 


T<J  .new  fjicls,  a  proverb  says,  new  couns«'ls  do  hdouj,'. 
Tactics  and  stratc},'y  arc  a  constaut  application  of  it. 
The  resultant  variations  constitute  tin-  art  of  war. 
In  tliis  respect  the  operations  on  the  I'-astern  I'ront 
are  a  rich  mine  for  study  and  iiistrwction.  One  recalls  the 
period — at  the  enil  of  11)14  when  the  armies  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas,  having  con<iuered  (iaiicia  and  threateninj; 
Cracow  and  the  sources  of  the  Oder,  fornietl  a  front  of  columns 
to  the  left  and  marched  off  to  surmount  the  Cari)athians.  NVhy 
tlid  they  do  that  ?  \\'as  not  the  <iernian'annv  the  principal 
adversary,  whose  defeat  would  inevitably  entail  the  destruction 
of  the  Austro-I  hmgarians  who  already  were  more  than  shaken  ' 
NVhy  did  they  leave  the  sul)stance  for  the  sliadow  and  turn 
away  southward  when  the  essential  object  was  westward, 
and  in  almost  inmiediate  proximity  .■" 

The  nianctuvre  may  have  had  some  jiistilicatitm  which  will 
become  apparent  when  docuinentarv-  investigation  shall 
e'nable  us  to  get  precise  knowledge  of  all  the  fads.  It  would 
seem,  howexer,  that  the  principle  was  disregarded  which 
requires  that  the  ])rinci))al  advers.irv'  shall  b(-  collared  at 
the  first  possible  moment,  and  that  metliods  which  will  make 
an  end  of  him  directly  and  promptly  shall  always  be  pre- 
ferred to  indirect  methods  which  will  not  mature  at  once. 

Since  that  period  the  Kastern  l-'ront  has  been  consider- 
ably extended.  The  first  extension  was  the  result  ()f  the 
Ottoman  Alliance.  It  is  true  th;re  was  a  breach  of  continuity 
in  the  Balkans,  but  it  was  not  absolute;  comnumication  was 
possible  across  neutral  territory.  Oil  the  other  hand  the  Central 
Jimpire's  grip  upon  the  Straits  of  Constantinople  entirely 
severed  anv  convenient  conniumication  betwen  tlie  Allies  of 
West  and  Kast.  Finally,  and  more  than  all,  the  lengthening 
of  the  (lermanic  front  towards  the  south-east  constituted  an 
eccentric  but  nevertheless  sericnis  menace  to  the  Russian 
extreme  left  and  to  the.\nglo-I'"rench  right  in  I'-gypt. 

It  looked  therefore  as  if  the  region  of  the  Straits  were  a  sensi- 
tive point  in  the  front  of  the  Central  Kmpires.  Its  occupation 
by  the  .\llies  would  separate  their  own  main  groupings,  the 
one  in  Europe,  the  other  in  Asia.  At  the  .same  time  it  woukl 
entail  speedy  exhaustion  of  the  Turks  by  depriving  them  of 
supplies  from  the  German  Kmnire,  their  real  military  base. 
At  once  the  double  menace  upon  the  Kussian  extreme  left 
and  the  Anglo-l-'rench  extreme  right  would  disap])ear.  Com- 
plete freethnn  of  movcmenr  wouldAie  restored  upon  both 
Ironts  of  the  Allies.  Hence  the  Dardanelles  expedition, 
quite  sound  in  princii)!e  but  def<-ctive  in  execution. 

Jleanwhile,  in  the  spring  of  i()i5,  the  Austro-German 
offensive  in  Poland  and  (iaiicia  began.  The  Russians  were 
turned  out  of  the  Carp.ithians.out  ol  Poland  and  out  of  their 
Baltic  provinces,  and  driven  back  to  more  than  three  hundred 
miles  from  the  source  of  the  Oder  and  from  the  borders  of 
Silesia  wliich  they  had  reached  the  year  before.  When 
autumn  came  the  front  was  established  on  the  very  threshold 
of  Great  Russia.  It  was  then  that  the  intervention  of  Bul- 
garia repaired  the  breach  in  the  continuity  of  the  (iermano- 
Turkish  front  in  the  Balkans.  With  Serbia  conquered,  the 
front  Y'as  virtually  unbroken  from  the  North  Sea  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  Baltic  on  the  other  to  the  Armenian  Caucasus, 
the  Persian  l^iulf  and  tlie  Suez  Canal. 

Once  more  the  situation  underwent  a  change.  The  Salonika 
expedition  liad  succeeded  ,to  that  of  lh.>  Dardanelles. 
It  was  holding  up  enemy  forces  in  the  southern  Balkans. 
IClscwhere,  the  reverses  sul'fered  by  the  Turks  in  .\rmenia  and 
on  the  Suez  Canal,  the  disturbances  in  Arabia  and,  lastly,  the 
necccssity  of  occupying  Mesopotamia  all  these  things 
had  reduced  the  value  of  the  Ottoman  Alliance  for  the  Central 
Empires.  They  themselves  had  Ix'cn  relatively  weakened  as 
a  consequeiKe  of  the  intervention  of  Italy  and  by  their  reverses 
in  Volhynia.  the  disaster  of  \'erdun  and  the  wastage  on  tlu; 
Somme.  The  c|uestion  arose  once  more  of  hnding  a  sensitive 
point  upon  the  Itastern  Front  at  which  't  wouhl  be  advantage- 
ous to  attack  the  Central  Empires. 

There  was  room  for  hesitation  -less  perhaps  about  locali- 
ties than  about  ways  of  ])rocee(ling.  I  mean  that  there  could 
be  differcnct  of  opinion  as  to  whether  recourse  should  be  hatl 
to  pohtical  rather  tlian  to  strategical  considerations.  The 
front  was  again  more  or  less  innnobilised  in  X'olhynia  and 
tialicia,  before  Kovel  and  before  l.emberg  ;  but  in  Bukovina 
and  in  the  Eastern  Carpathians  Hungary  was  again  menaced 
as  she  had  been  at  the  end  of  I()i4,  with  the  further  t)bligation 
imposed  upon  the  Hungarians  of  upholding  the  Habsburg 
Jimpire  before  the  Italians  and  the  Hohen'.ollein  Empiric  in 
the  Balkans.  The  Hungarians  were  fairly  entitled  to 
ask  themsehes  what  they  were  doing  in  all  the  squ;d:»bl(> 
and  what  reason  they  had  to  be  fighting  at  all.  BukMria, 
ior    her  part,  seemed  to    have    the    least   resistance  of    all 


the  Allies  of  the  central  camp,  owing  to  the  'paucity '  of 'Ikjt 
own    material    resources.    .  .  ';.,        f 

The  Russian  ollensive  in  Volhynia  had  still  too  long  a  course 
to  run  for  it  to  appear  an  imminent  menace  to  the  eyes,  of 
Germany.  At  the  end  of  1914  an  attack  on  the  Germans  pre- 
sented tiie  (|uickest  road  to  success  and  an  attack  on  .Austria- 
Hungary  the  most  round  about  and 'longest.  In  i()U)theAustro- 
Hungariaiis  appeared  as  the  most  immediately  oi)en  to  attack 
and  as  opening  up  the  prospect  of  the  earliest  exiuiustion  of  the 
enemy.  J5ut  it  was  also  a  fair  (inestion  whether  it  would  not 
be  advantageous  to  make  the  turning  movement  a  wider 
(me  by  enlisting  the  aid  of  the  Salonika  army  and  by  first 
putting  out  of  action  the  Bulgarians  who  were  further  out  of 
reach  of  sujiport  fioin  thetjcimans  than  the' Hungarians  were. 

Political  Objectives 

Thus  arose  the  dispute  as  to  whether  tlie  political  or  the 
strategical  method  should  be  adojited.  The  object  of  the 
latter  was  the  defeat  of  the  Bulgarians,  which  would  have 
entailed  the  simultanetnis  supi)ressioii  of  the  Turks.  The 
object  of  the  former  was  a  separate  peace  with  the  Hungarians, 
which  would  have  exposed  the  flank  of  the  Austro-Gennans 
and  reacted  by  shaking  the  entire  Balkan  front.  This 
second  method  having  had  to  be  discarded,  the  strategical 
method  won  the  day.  It  entailed  the  entry  of  the  Roumanian 
army  into  the  arena,  but  of  a  Roumanian  or  Russo-Rou- 
maiiian  army,  whose  objective  should  have  been  that  indicated 
l)y  strategy  -namely,  the  widest- possible  turning  movement, 
I'ringing  about  the  defeat  of  the  Austro-Hunganans  through 
the  defeat  of  the  Bulgarians 

This  chapter  of  military  history  still  remains  to  be  written, 
as  indeed  do  all  the  other  chapters  of  (lie  present  war.  All 
we  can  see  is  the  event  which  has  brought  about  a  fourth 
transformation  in  the  general  situation  on  the  Ea.stern  Front 
and  once  more,  as  every  transformation  does,  raised  the 
problem  of  hnding  the  sensitive  point. 

.\l  the  present  moment  the  situation  is  as  follows:  Tlie 
Russian  front  properly  so  termed  has  gained  a'little  gi^ound 
on  the  right  wing,  to  the  west  of  the  Dvina,  where  it  now 
stands  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  liast  Prussia. 
It  seems,  moreover,  to  have  become  immovabh^  again.  In 
the  centre  it  still  i)asses  through  the  Pinsk  marshes.  Further 
to  the  south  it  remains  a  menace  to  Kcnel  and  Eemberg. 
Finally,  it  .scales  the  Carpathians,  a  little  to  the  north  of 
Bukovina.  and  follows  the  crests  along  the  Hungarian  frontier, 
coming  down  again  on  the  eastern  slo])!'  in  the  region  of  the 
Bistrif/a  and  the  Trotus.  western  tributaries  of  the  Screth. 
.\long  the  hue  of  these  livers  and  on  the  Lower  Danube  to  the 
Black  Sea,  it  forms  the  Kusso-Rouinanian  front,  which  also 
has  been  stationary  since  the  middle  of  December,  1916. 
'  If  we  leave  out  of  account  tactical  difficulties,  which  can 
never  be  accurately  estimated  except  on  the  spot,  we  sliall 
be  led  to  regard  the  Hungarian  sector  of  tjiis  immense  front 
as  one  of  the  sensitive  points  of  the  Central  Empires.  After 
the  actual  battle  line  w-as  removed  from  German  soil  in  1915, 
the  sensitive  point  was  fixed  first  in  the  extreme  European 
south,  where  it  could  be  sought  to  sever  the  Ottoman  Empire 
from  its  (ierman  supports,  and  afterwards  it  was  shilted 
northwards,  as  has  just  been  shown.  It  was  fixed  in  Bul- 
garia when  that  country  seemed  to  be  tlangerously  exposed. 
To-day  it  is  fi.xcd  in  the  borders  of  Hungary,  for  the  following 
reasons  : 

The  degree  of  moral  exhaustit)n  reached  by  the  peoples  ol 
the  Central  Empires  and  their  manifest  desire  for  peace  do 
more  than  suggest  that  an' invasion  of  their  territories,  which 
hitherto  have  been  immune,  would  come  ujion  them  as  a 
IiarticiUarly  intolerable  evil.  But  German  teriitory  is  still 
remote,  wjiereas  Hungarian  territory  is  close  at  hand.  The 
moral  effect  to  be  looked  for  from  invasion  would  be  felt  at 
once  in  Hungary  and  would  react  all  the  more  quickly 
Ixxause  the  Germans,  held  up  in  the  West  would  be  mucii 
less   able   to  give  them  any  help  than  they  were  in  1915. 

This  argument  of  political  and  moral  import  is  reinforced 
by  another  of  strategical  import.  No  offensive  victory  could 
lia\e  a  greater  effect  upon  the  situation  on  the  left  wing  of  the 
Eastern  l-'ront  than  one  which  would  bring  the  victor  from  the 
north  to  the  south  on  to  the  rear  of  the  line  of  the  Sercth.  Not 
only  would  the  dream  of  a  march  ujion  Odessa,  which  has- 
been  cherished  in  (iermanv,  have- to  be  abandoned,  but  the 
Koumanians  would  regain  hope  of  recovering  Wallachia, 
while  the  Bulgarian*,  would  for  the  fur-t  time  iH.come  appre- 
hensive about  the  substantialness  of  their  conquests.  They, 
too,  in  their  own  private  interests,  would  be  disposed  to  open 
negotiations. with  their  enemies. 


May  3,  191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


Life  and   Letters 


By   J.    G.    Squire 


IN  this  age  everybody  writes  his  reminiscences.  The 
jockey  fills  five  hundred  pages  with  descriptions  of  how 
Lord  William  Beresford  once  patted  him  on  the  back, 
and  denials  that  he  really  pulled  the  horse  or  made  the 
bet  that  time  when  his  license  was  suspended.  The  journalist 
gives  his  version  of  the  Hawarden  Kite  story,  and  regrets 
tiiat  Fleet  Street  is  not  so  Bohemian  as  it  used  to  be,  though 
(as  he  always  adds)  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  for  sobriety. 
Tlie  politician,  when  he  is  certain  he  is  never  going  to  get 
back  to  ofifice  again,  lets  out  a  little  of  the  truth  about  some- 
thing that  was  done  thirty  years  ago.  The  fashionable  person 
dictates  "  tilings  he  can  tell  "  to  somebody  who  can  write. 
And  the  whole  lot  of  them  say  that  they  once  met  Sir  Henry 
Irving,  and  that  he  was  every  inch  a  gentleman.  Quality, 
however,  has  not  risen  with  quantity.  Any  life  affords  materials 
lor  a  masterpiece,  but  the  number  of  people  w^Im)  know  how 
to  make  use  of  their  materials  is  deplorably  few. 
***** 
Even  people  who  can  observe  and  can  write  do  not  often 
pr(xluce  good  books  of  this  kind,  'fhv  reasons  are  obvious. 
\\'hen  you  sit  down  to  write  what  you  remember,  the  interior 
censor  at  once  gets  to  work.  You  are  mentioning  somebody, 
you  remember  something  about  him  ;  but  it  would  not  do  to 
say  it  while  the  man,  or  his  wife,  is  still  alive,  and  even  if  he  is 
dead  you  will  be  considered  rather  ill-mannered  if  you  say 
that  he  had  a  red  nose  or  took  a  bribe  from  a  gas  company. 
Or  you  were  involved  in  some  enterprise,  the  origin  or  conduct 
of  which  would  greatly  interest  people  if  they  knew  about  it  ; 
but  vou  still  have  friends  (or  even  shares)  in  it,  and  you  put 
the  brake  upon  your  speecli.  We  all  of  us  know  crowds  of 
people  with  whom  we  are  on  speaking  terms,  but  whom  we 
consider  blackguards,  fools  or  weaklings ;  but  ordinary 
manners,  in  some  cases,  and  ordinary  prudence  in  others, 
would  prevent  us  Jfrom  describing  them  faithfully  in  print. 
And  even  if  we  admire  people  we  do  not  care  to  parade  our 
admiration  or  to  rush  into  print  with  stories,  which  they 
would  prefer  to  remain  private,  of  their  nobility  or  generosity. 
The  result  is  that  good  books  of  reminiscences  are  few. 
They  are  written  in  the  main  bv  three  very  small  classes. 
There  are  the  people  who  are  so  free  from  the  desire  of  applause 
that  they  leave  their  memoirs  behind  them  to  be  published 
posthumously.  There  are  the  people  who  care  so  little  for  - 
the  world's  opinion  of  their  character  (Mr.  George  Moore  is 
an  example)  that  they  will  describe,  and  even  libel,  their 
friends  while  they  are  alive.  And  there  are  the  people 
wlio  are  so  simple  that  they  do  not  know  when  they  are 
blurting  out  inconvenient  truths. 

***** 
All  this  refers  to  memoirs  which  are  mainly  the  record  of 
things  seen.  Memoirs  which  state  frankly  what  has  gone  on 
in  a  man's  mind  are  rarer  still.  Even  Pepys  did  not  publish 
liis  self-exposure  in  his'  life-time  ;  he  wrapped  it  up  in  a 
ci]>her.  And  the  more  respectable  the  autlior  the  less 
likely  is  he  to  allow  the  truth  to  aj^pear.  It  is  significant 
tliat  three  of  the  most  interesting  hooks  of  memoirs  of  the 
last  decade  have  come  from  persons  who  were  not  oppressed 
by  position  or  the  need  of  preserving  the  world's  respect  ; 
I  mean,  Mr.  Davies'  Autohiogra(>hy  of  a  Super-  Tramp, 
j'he  Ragged  Tronaered  Philanlliropists,  which  was  written 
by  a  bricklayer,  and  The  Autobiography  of  a  Bath-Chair 
Man.  The  autobiograpiiical  parts  of'  modern  liiograjjliies, 
not  having  been  written  for  publication,  are  usually  a  little 
better  than  ordinary  autobiographies  ;  but  even  these  are 
always  cautiously  treated  by  editors.  For  the  fact  is  that 
the  truth  cannot  be  told  about  one's  contem.poraribs  or  about 
oneself.  Life  would  be  intolerable  if  it  were.  If  we  want  to 
deal  honestly  with  people  or  events,  they  must  have  been 
dead  or  ovit  for  at  least  fifty  j^cars. 

***** 
So  most  "  lives  "  and  i)ooks  of  reminiscences  are  pale 
shadows  of  what  tiiey  might  be.  Yet,  except  when  there  is 
a  paper  famine,  one  would  not  dejirecate  the  general  com- 
pilation of  biographies  and  autobiographies.  Any  bio- 
graphy, whether  th'at  of  a  Colonial  Premier  or  that  of  a  divorced 
princess,  throws  light  on  hinnan  ciiaracter  :  aufl  I  had  rather 
be  left  with  the  reminiscences  of  a  Rural  Dean  than  witli  a 
second-rate  novel.  However  carefully  men  may  labour  to 
hide  their  own  or  other  people's  characterii.tics,  the  truth 
always  peeps  through,  and  the  memoir  has  never  been 
written  which  uives  no  insitiht  into  human  couraije  or  human 


devotion,  human  blindness,  complacency,  sensitiveness, 
callousness  or  vanity.  These  qualities  are  not  exhibited  only 
in  books  of  classic  rank. 

***** 

I  think  the  heaviest  biography  I  ever  read  was  the  two 
volume  Life  of  the  late  Sir  Charles  Tupper.^  It  was  almost 
impossible  to  get  through  its  wastes  of  dead  detail,  and  the 
ghmpses  one  got  into  the  hero's  mind  were  very  rare,  and 
very  desolating  when  one  got  them.  Yet,  as  one  read  on, 
the  effect  began  to  acquire  something  of  the  monumental  ; 
and  one  was  left  with  a  permanent  wonder  at  our  race  which 
can  produce  a  man  at  once  so  able,  so  worthy,  so  dogged,  and 
so  stupendously  uninteresting.  And  there  was  another  feature 
of  it  which  may  be  obsetved  in  all  biographies,  however 
arid  ;  and  that  was  that  after  hundreds  of  pages  of  dead  and 
buried  controversy,  drab  diaries  and  commonplace  letters, 
one  would  come  across  something  which  made  a  permanent 
addition  to  the  picture  gallery  of  memory.  There  was,  for 
instance,  a  meeting  between  the  Canadian  Statesman  and 
Martin  Tupper,  at  which  the  two  men,  with  equal  eagerness, 
tried  to  establish  a  common  ancestry.  And  there  was  a 
beautifully  naive  account,  by  Sir  Charles  himself,  of  a  large 
dinner  on  board  the  yacht  of  King  Edward  (then  Prince  of 
Males)  throughout  which  the  hero  was  in  the  seventh  heaven, 
his  bliss  coming  to  a  chmax  when,  amid  universal  applause 
and  with  great  depth  of  feeling,  Mrs.  Brown-Potter  recited 
Casabianca. 

***** 

In  the  same  way  the  connoisseur  in  humanity  will  find 
something  in  Sir  (ieorge  Reid's  book  My  Reminiscences, 
by  the  Kt.  Hon.  Sir  George  Reid  (Cassell,  i6s.  net).  For  the 
mcvst  part  Sir  George's  chapters  are  filled  with  pohtical  matters 
which  it  would  be  mere  affectation  to  call  exciting.  Those  who 
are  interested  would  prefer  fuller  and  more  accurate  accounts 
than  any  autobiography  could  give  them  :  all  they  w^int 
from  an  autobiography  at  most  is  supplementary  private 
information.  Sir  (jeorge,  like  so  many  other  public  men, 
tends  to  forget  at  times  that  a  public  man  is  only  a  facade 
with  a  private  man  behind  him.  He  does  not  tell  us  what 
sort  of  people  his  friends  and  enemies  were,  and  he  does  not 
deliberately  tell  us  what  sort  of  man  he  is  himself.  He  tells 
us  that  he  became  Prime  Minister  of  Australia,  High  Com- 
missioner and  M.P.  for  St.  George's,  Hanover  Square.  But 
we  never  really  understand  haze/ ;  ancl  we  are  left  pretty 
vague  as  to  his  opinions.  He  tells  us,  lapsing  into  frank- 
ness, that  when  he  was  in  Australia,  his  political  opponents 
used  to  call  him  "  clown  "  and  "  buffoon."  But  this  book 
does  not  bear  out  the  charge  :  it  is,  for  the  most  part,  as 
solemn  as  a  Bluc-Book.  There  is  one  subject  which  he  can 
never  resist :  his-  own  ,  physical  proportions.  These  pre- 
vented him  from  going  into  the  trenches  when  Tie  was  at  the 
Front,  and  compelled  him  to  remain  on  deck  when  he  was 
inspecting  a  Dreadnought.  He  misses,  ^however,  the  best 
opening  that  his  narrative  gives  him.  ^  L'or  he  once  dined  with 
Mr.  Taft,  and  Mr.  Taft,  in  point  of  size,  beats  him  hollow.  (To 
Mr.  Taft  has  been  ascribed  the  politest  act  in  history  :  he 
once,  I  have  heard,  got  up  in  a  tram  and  offered  his  seat  to 
■  three  ladies).  Sir  George  unaccoHntably  fails  to  realise  the 
picturesque  possibilities  of  this  encounter  ;  and  the  best 
jest  he  gives  about  his  physique  was  not  made  by  himself, 
but  by  an  interru])ter  at  one  of  his  meetings  who,  when  the 
speaker  was  observing  that  his  time  was  short  and  he  should 
soon  be  going  to  another  world,  called  out :  "  By  Jove, 
George,  the  fat  wjll  be  in  the  fire  then."  Jokes  on  this 
subject  are  a  little  elementary,  but  one  could  have  wished 
more  of  them,  failing  any  better  ones.  For  Sir  George,  as 
a  rule,  has  assumed  a  seriousness  that  one  feels  is  not  quite 
natinal  to  him. 

***** 

Yet  here,  as  everywhere,., there  are  a  few  anecdotes  worth 
preserving.  The  one  about  Sir  George  telling  King  Edward 
tl;^t  a  friend  of  his  kept  in  a  glass  case  a  cigar  that  his  Majesty 
lK?fl  given  hiin  coiiiun>s  up  a  pretty  picture.  (It  did  not 
ccMiie  (|uite  fresh  to  me,  unfortunately,  as  a  N'orthern  M.P. 
once  told  me  that  an  ex-mayor  of  his  .borough  kept  framed 
in  his  drawing-room  relics  of  a  royal  visit  to  the  station 
waiting-room,  in  thv  form  of  the  butt-end  of  a  cigar  and  a 
piece  of  toast  retaining  the  semicircular  mark  of  the  illastrious 
teeth).  And  quite  fre([uently.  Sir  George,  in  spite  of  all  his 
caution,  allows  one  to  see  the  hidden  springs  of  his  own  mind. 


t4 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  3,  1917 


Nesting  Mothers  of  the  Battle  Zone 


By  H.  Thobiirn-Clarkc; 


TIIK  war  witli  its  upheaval  of  most  of  our  ideas  of 
tlio  effect  of  {junfire  upon  the  ha])its  of  the  nature 
folk,  does  not  apjwar  to  have  troubled  the  migrat- 
ing resident  birds  of  the  Western  battle  zone. 
Already  airmen  have  encountered  vast  flocks  of  migrating 
waders,  ducks,  and  other  birds  flying  at  an  immense  altitude 
far  above  the  sound  of  our  massed  artillery,  and  this  year 
great  Hocks  of  green  plover  have  settled  in  the  marshes,  ami 
appear  likely  to  stay  for  a  while.  Until  early  in  March  I  had 
only  seen  two  or  three  green  plovers  at  ir  time  during  all  my 
two  years  wandering  »ip  and  down  the  battle  front.  Now 
they  liave  settled  down  Iicrc  in  dozens,  but,  so  far,  I  have  not 
seen  any  of  their  absurd  attempts  at  a  nest,  although  they 
are  wheeling,  dipping,  and  fluttering  in  their  dainty  love 
flights  over  the  marshes. 

I.ast  year  wild  ducks  nested  among  the  reed  beds  to  our 
left,  and  brought  off  large  families  of  young  ones.  One  family 
numbered  ten  when  it  first  came  off  the  nest,  and  it  was  most 
amusing  to  watch  the  tiny  balls  of  fl\if(  waddling  uj)  and  dmvn 
an  almost  submerged  stuni])  of  a  tree  tiiat  liad  been  felled 
by  our  gunfire.  The  mother  duck  would  swim  up  and  down 
^  watching  them  anxiously,  making  angry  dashes  every  now 
and  then  at  the  coot  that  was  occupied  with  a  family  of 
seven  black  velvet  balls  of  fluff,  on  the  other  side  of  the  reeds. 
'the  two  mothers  would  meet  with  a  rush  ;  the  duck  would 
grip  hold  of  a  beak  full  of  feathers,  while  the  coot  would  fight 
with  beak  and  claws.  The  fray  generally  lasted  for  a  few 
seconds,  then  the  motliers  would  race  back  to  their  broods, 
each  evidently  considering  that  she  had  triumphed  over  the 
other  !  The  scene  was  rejieated  at  intervals,  day  after  day, 
but  alas,  the  two  broods  grew  daily  smaller,  until  each  motlur 
had  only  one  nestling  left.  'Probably  the  rats  harl  killed  and 
eaten  the  rest. 

A     Young    Coot 

\t  another  time  I  captured  a  tiny  coot  and  took  it  to  my 
dug-out.  I  hoped  to  tamo  it,  but  the  wee  mite  developed 
most  extraordinary  climbing  powers.  It  literally  raced  up 
the  walls  of  the  dug-out,  hurled  itself  out  of  boxes  and  througli 
the  entrance,  and  tore  off  making  by  instinct  in  the  direction 
of  the  river.  It  was  caught  and  brought  back,  but  nothing 
would  tame  its  restless  spirit.  So  in  the  evening  I  crept  down 
to  the  river,  with  the  small  coot  carefully  tucked  into  my 
pocket.  I  could  see  nothing  of  the  old  bird  and  lier  brood. 
She  had  apparently  left  the  scene.  However,  I  took  tlie  little 
coot  out  of  my  pocket,  and  allowed  him  to  call.  Almost 
immediately  I  heard  a  reply  from  the  reeds  on  the  other  side 
of  the  river,  and  the  mother  coot  came  swimming  towards  me. 
1  let  the  little  beggar  go,  and  the  la.st  1  saw  of  him  was  a  small 
black  object  swimming  througli  the  moonlight.  He  joined 
his  mother,  and  they  both  vanished  into  the  shadows  of  the 
ojiposite  bank  and  I  saw  tlieni  no  more. 

Our  gun  i)ositions  are  favourite  nesting  places  for  many 
birds.  Whenever  we  remain  in  the  same  place  for  a  few  weeks 
they  take  possession  of  the  "  structures"  wr  use  for  masking 
the  guns.  Last  autumn  a  blackbird  built  her  nest  in  the 
sand  bag  parapet,  and  in  spite  of  the  storms  andtherejieated 
liring  of  our  gun  she  hatched  out  three  eggs,  and  I  believe 
reared  the  young  ones  successfully.  At  another  ])osition  — 
in  an  orchard  this  time— another  blackbird  made  her  nest 
among  the  teandbagi* ;  this  time  only  about  four  feet  to  the 
side  of  the  muzzle  of  the  gun,  and  stuck  tight  during  the  whole 
time  we  were  strafing  the  Germans,  and  successfully  hatched 
all  four  of  her  eggs,  a  suiprising  feat  when  one  considers  tlie 
concussion.  Not  vcn,-  far  away  a  pair  of  blackcaps  had  built 
their  nest  in  the  gnarled  stiunp  of  an  old  aj)ple  tree.  Then' 
were  unfortunate,  for  a  well  aimed  shell  during  a  (jerman  even- 
ing strafe,  demolished  the  apple  tree,  and  the  nest.  ApparentI  v 
the  blackcaps  did  not  trouble  for  they  built  another  nest  iii 
the  next  tree  sttunp  and  hatched  out  and  brought  up 
their  young  ones  safely. 

Ainmunition  waggons  have  a  great  attraction  for  the  birds. 
A  pair  of  sparrows  endeavoured  to  construct  a  n^t  in  an  empt\- 
one  during  a  dinner  hour,  when  we  were  resting,  and  actually 
followed  us  to  the  next  rest,  but  the  move  on  the  next  day 
discouraged  them  and  they  left  us.  During  one  of  our  stays 
in  a  certain  part  of  the  front  a  pair  of  wrens  succeeded  in 
building  a  nest,  and  when  we  were  moved  half  a  mile  further 
on  the  two  birds  came  with  the  waggon  and  would  no  doubt  ]ia\e 
hatched  out  their  young  ones  if  the  fortunes  of  war  had  not 
]uevented  it.  A  hedge  sparrow  had  her  home  in  a  ruined 
waggon,  and  when  I  found  her  nest,- she  was  patiently  feeding 
a  large  cuckoo  larger  than  herself.  The  hedge  .sparrows  and 
tlicif  fi.-h  r  cliilil  (ic-.ni>i('(l  till"  watri-'on  f'>t-  ;i  Inn;,'  tinv-    nnfi  1 


have  watched  the  two  patiently  feeding  the  cuckoo  while  the 
shells  were  bursting  in  all  dfrections.  At  another  time  I 
lomid  the  nest  of  a  hedge  sparrow  in  the  hub  of  a  broken 
wheel  lying  in  a  position  that  was  continually  being  shelled 
by  the  Germans.  Evidently  she  must  have  stuck  tight  for 
at  the  time  the  nest  was  discovered  it  had  four  young  ones  in  it, 
and  the  parent  birds  were  feeding  their  nestlings  with  serene 
indifference  to  the  dropping  of  shrapnel  and  bursting  of  shells. 

It,  is  extraordinary  how  fond  the  birds  are  of  certain 
localities,  and  quite  a  large  number  of  different  varieties 
will  nest  together.  In  one  wood,  somewhat  to  the  rear  of  our 
]>osition,  during  last  summer,  a  vast  number  of  pigeons, 
magpies,  rooks,  and  crows  were  nesting  in  the  taller  trees, 
while  various  warblers,  tree  creepers,  and  tits  built  their 
dwellings  in  the  undergrowth.  Yet  in  the  early  days  of  the 
war  the  wood  had  been  heavily  shelled,  and  still  bore  marks 
of  gunrtre  in  the  shajjc  of  fallen  trees.  The  conflict  had  been 
severe  enough  to  have  driven  the  birds  to  seek  some  safer 
abode,  but  evidently  they  had  clung  to  the  old  place  and 
declined  to  nest  anywhere  else.  The  numbers  of  pigeons  seem 
to  increase  at  an  extraordinary  rate.  Probably  the  destruction 
caused  by  warfare  does  not  equal  that  in  times  of  peace, 
while  the  quantities  of  mice  and  rats  afford  sufficient  food 
for  the  kestrels,  and  other  birds  that  might  prey  upon  the 
young  nestlings.  Sometimes  in  the  height  of  the  nesting 
season  the  noise  of  the  nestlings  in  the  various  nests  was 
almost  deafening,  all  clamouring  loudly  for  food  the  instant 
they  heard  the  beat  of  their  mother's  wings.  One  would  almost 
imagine  that  each  bird's  wing  had  a  different  sound,  in  that 
respect  resembling  the  tread  of  the  human  footsteps. 

I  have  always  associated  the  nightingale  with  a  certain 
railway  cutting  in  Berkshire,  where  it  is  possible  to  hear 
thein  singing  all  night  through,  but  almost  impossible  to  find 
their  nests,  and  exceedingly  difficult  to  see  the  bird  itself. 
Out  here,  however,  the  shyness  has  vanished.  I  have  heard 
of  nests  in  the  front  line  trenches  ;  of  eggs  being  hatched 
during  a  furious  bombardment  ;  while  close  to  our  billet  six 
pairs  had  l)uilt  in  a  ruined  garden,  and  we  watched  their 
nesting  with  keen  pleasure.  A  blackcap  literally  sang  us  to 
sleep  at  nights.  It  perched  in  a  saphng  that  screens  a  gun 
and  sang  constantly,  its  vivid  notes  punctuated  with  the  boom 
of  distant  firing.  At  another  place,  a  reedy  remnant  of  a 
ruined  moat,  ten  cHfferent  kinds  of  birds  were  nesting  in  the 
weeds  and  rushes  that  clothed  the  bank.  Tits,  far  bluer  than 
any  British  bird,  reed  warblers,  garden  warblers,  blackcaps, 
several  greenfinch.es,  and  many  other  warblers. 

The  martins  and  swallows  are,  I  think,  more  numerous  than 
in  England,  arid  appear'as  pleased  with  the  ruins  as  the  spar- 
rows and  starlings.  I  have  seen  house-martins  nests  built  under 
the  cornice  of  th<'  ruins  of  a  highly  decorated  drawing  room, 
pink  cupids  and  blue  love  knots  contrasting  strangely  with 
the  mud  of  the  nest.  In  most  villages  the  peasants  are 
\evy  superstitions  about  the  swallows  and  house-martins,  and 
consider  that  ill  luck  will  follow  the  destruction  of  a  nest. 
So  the  swallows  and  martins  are  free  to  build  where  they  like, 
and  1  often  wonder  Whether  when  the  ruins  are  reconstructed 
they  will  endeavour  to  reconcile  the  birds  to  a  change  of  (bvell- 
ing.  .At  present  their  nests  are  everywhere.  One  built  on 
the  rack  where  we  hung  our  clothes,  another  on  a  rafter  in  our 
harness  room,  while  several'  occupied  a  shed  in  which  the 
gunners  were  billeted  during  a  "  rest."  The  shed  was  strafed 
and  a  shell  broke  a  large  hole  in  the  roof,  but  failed  to  explode. 
The  swallows  had  previously  used  the  doorway  as  an  entrance, 
but  they  at  once  saw  the  convenience  of  the  shell  hole,  and 
almost  before  the  dust  of  the  broken  roof  had  subsided  they 
were  calmly  flying  in  and  out  with  food  for  their  young  ones. 
Possibly  young  swallows  and  martins  require  more  food  than 
other  nestlings,  for  the  parent  birds  were  feeding  them  from 
the  earliest  dawning  until  it  was  almost  too  dark  to  see  the 
birds.  Yet  the  baby  birds  never  ceased  squealing  for  more. 
Shells  might  burst  and  shatter  the  adjoining  sheds,  even  a 
■■  dud  "  piercethe  roof  that  sheltered  them,  but  still  they  cried 
insistently.  Perhaps  that  is  why  the  nesting  mothers  of  the 
battle  fields  take  matters  so  placidly.  They  have  no  time  to 
waste,  but  must  feed  their  young  ones  in  spite  of  war's  wild 
alarms,  and,  after  all,  it  is  the  quantity  of  food  that  matters 
with  the  wild  folk,  and  they  have  enough  of  that  in  all  con- 
science at  the  Front. 


Since  the  sun  has  shone  again,  the  Zoological  Gardens  in 
Regent's  Park  arc  in  higli  favour.  Much  foolishness  is  talked 
about  the  cost  of  feeding  the  animals.  AVIien  it  becomes  npccssary. 
in  the  Food  Controller's  opinion,  to  destroy  alP  private  dogs 
and  cats,  then  it  will  be  time  to  denounce  the  Zoo,  which  may- 
be fairly  ca,llcd  the  most  popular  pleasure  garden  in  England. 
Meanwhile,  sensible  cconomv  i-*  in  force  there. 


May  3,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


'% 


Ready    to    Wear 

Summer  Frocks 


and  Coats  and  Skirts  will  be 
the  feature  of  a  new  depart- 
ment which  we  are  opening 
on  Monday,  May  7.  It  is 
situated  in  the  Central  Hall 
on  the  ground  floor  facing  the 
main  entrance  to  the  "  Linen 
Hall." 


"  Exmouth  "    Dross   in   cotton   voile . 

(iis  sketch),  liand  smocliing  at  waist, 
cut  on  straight  hncs,  IjoUice  finished 
white  muslin  collar  and  cuHs.     Price 


79/6 


ft    is    perniis.-iible    lo    ivrite     joy    our 

Sfirin^    Cdlaloi;uc    of    ready    to   wciw 

jyoiks    and    coats    and    skirts;       5fKi 

I'ost  free    upon    rctjuest. 


ROBINSON  &  CLEAVER, 

Ltd. 

THE     LINIiN      HALL, 
REGENT    STREET,     W.  i. 


SAVE  BELGIUM^S 
LITTLE  ONES. 


THEY     ARE     BELGIUM'S 

HOPE    FOR    THE    FUTURE. 

A  strong  Belgian  Conimittee,  "L'CEUVR  BE  LA  SAME  BE 
LENFANOK   BELGE."  in   HOLLANB,  receives  from  Belgium 

STARVED,     CONSUMPTIVE, 

RICKETY,    BROKEN 

CHILDREN 

fiives  them  several  woeKs'  InUiisive  I'eeliug,  Houses  Mum,  and  Clotiies 
them.  'ITiey  are  then  returned  -to  Belgium  (for  funds  do  nut  permit 
more). 

YOUR      HELP     JS      REQUIKEB.  THE     WORKING    MEN     IN 

ENGVANIJ  HAVE  Sl'Li.XDIBLY  SUPPORTED  THIS  WORK, 
BUT  THIS  IS     NOT     ENOUGH. 

HELP    THESE    LITTLE    ONES  I   !   ! 

Remittances   to   HON.    TREASURER, 

"WORKING      MEN'S      BELGIAN      FUND" 

Regd.    War   Charities   Act. 

(President,   M.    E.    VANBERVELDE,    Belgian    Minister   of    State), 
32,   Griwveniir  I'bro,    Londox,   S.  W.  1. 

{F.annaTheil  jor  the.   "  Stintc  i/e  I'Knfance  Dtlije."  ul    Tim  /laijiie). 

SUBSCRIPTION    Ll,STS    ON    APPLICATION, 
WITH  REFERENCE. 


When  Wet  and  Cold  combine 
against  Health  and  Comfort 

THE  TIELOCKEN  is  a  veritable  boon.  Proof  against 
downpours  of  rain — impenetrable  by  piercing  winds — 
healthfully  self-ventilating- -airylight,  yet  warm  on 
chilly  daj's — it  enables  the  soldier  to  face  the  worst 
weather,  confident  that,  however  severe  the  ordeal,  he 
will  be  dfy  and  comfortable. 

The  TIELOCKEN 

is  made  in  the  Burberry  material  chosen  by  Sir  Ernest 
Shackleton  for  all  his  Polar  Expeditions.  Proofed  by 
Burberrys'  process,  it  ensures  effecti\-e  security  against 
any  wet  that  falls,  or  wind  that  blows. 

Unlike  coats  loaded 
with  oiled-silk,  rub- 
ber and  other  air- 
tight fabrics,  it  is 
wonderfully  light, 
perfectly  self-venti- 
lating, and  as  com- 
fortable to  wear  on 
warm  days  as  in 
chilly  weather. 


Illustrated 
Naval  or 
Military 
CataloKuei 
Post  Free. 


To  make  security 
doubly  sure,  it  is 
lined  throughout' 
with  Prooied  Wool 
— soft  Camel  Pleece, 
if  desired — which,  in 
addition  to  increas- 
ing its  defensive 
powers,  provides 
snug  warmth  wheir 
the  temperature  is 
low  or  wind  cold. 

The  design  of  The 
TiELOCKEN  ensures 
that  every  vulner- 
able part  of  the  body 
is  doubly  covered. 
From  chin  to  knees, 
there  is  no  possible 
chance  for  rain  or 
wind  to  penetrate. 

Another  advantage 
is  its  quick  adjust- 
ment. A  belt  holds 
it  smartly  and  well 
—  no  buttons  to 
fasten  or  lose. 

Every  Burberry  Garnttnt 
it   labelled  "Biirberri/f." 


MILITARY    AND    NAVAL 
WEATHERPROOFS. 

Duriog  the  War  BURBERRYS 
CLEAN    AND    RE  -  PBOOF  , 

Oflicers*    "Burberrys,"    li^Iock. 
ens,    Burfroos,     and    Burberry « 
Tcench-VVarms  in  tt  ii  days  j 

FREE  OF    CHARGE.        i 


Tlie  collar  can  be  worn  li)  open  as  illus- 
trated; (2)  closed  like  The  Burberry  ;  or  (3) 
turned -up,  when  it  forms  a  close-fitting 
storm  collar  that  prevents  any  possibility  of 
-.vater  tiickling  down  the  ne.ck. 

Officers'  Complete  Kits  in  2 
to   4    Days   or  Ready  for  Use 


OTTDDCDDVC     Haymarket 
OUKDCKKIO     LONDON 

8&  10   Bd.  Malesherbes   PARIS;  and   Provincial  Agents. 


i6 


LAND    &     WATER 


May  3,  1917 


^^F^?"ggg^-^-^^^^«^^^Ai^^AiFWVgpP^i^ 


Gorringes 


Show 

of 

Spring 
Fashions 

THIS  WEEK. 


K  70.'.  Thii      Attractive 

Morning  Robe  is  in  striped 
zephyr,  with  butloiis  of  self 
material,  finished  at  tlio  neck 
witli  collar  of. white  crcpc  ; 
the  patent  leather  waist- 
band gives  a  smart  lini^ii. 
Can  be  had  in  variety  <r>Qi/» 
of  stripes.  Price  Zy/D 


VoMt  Natural  Retoarcts. 


llluslratcd  Bookitt  of 

Blouses   and   Blottse 

Holes  sent  post  Jrte 

upon  request. 


FREDERICK  GORRINGE.  LTD..  BUCKINGHAM  FAUCE   RD.,  S.W.I 


SJ    LEADERSHIP 

alone  wins  battles,  military  or 
manutacturin^.  Dexter  Prooring 
nas  ever  lea  the  "onensive  against 
wet  .  .  to-aay  it  alone  "  pushes 
back  trench  'wet.  Guaranteed 
to  the  enJ.  In  a  Military  Dexter 
you  are  always  dr^,  cosy,  serene. 

"As  British  as  the 
Weather — but  Reliable." 

Supplied     by     Agents      Everywhere 

Ti 


A    Land  of  Fruit  and  Flower* 


BRITISH  COLUMBIA 

An    Ideal    Climate -Magnificent  Scenery     Enormous     Water     Powers -Excellent 
Educational   Facilities    Wonderful    Deen    Sea   and    Inland    Fisheries. 

Tlw  Cai.ailiaii   IToviii.,-   ic.r    Ml\l.l>   r\i:MI\n.  1  1:111    i;i;iiv,iN(;,   sHliHr, 
HOG  \s\)  P()ii.ti:y  nAisiN(,.  ip\iiivi>!.   and  i;\mhin(; 

CANADA'S  MINERAL  PROVINCE. 

Total  Minfinl   iiroiiiution   from  a;i  .-oiircf'^   t(>  (l<iti'    over    £109  000,030. 
A  WORLD  SUPPLY  OF  TIMBEK  FOR  A  WORLD  MARKET. 

llriti.=^h    Cohinihirt    lias     Tiinli*r   in  eiioniioiis   fiiiaii'tit>e>.  in  the  tar:;ei!t  eize^?. 

uiviurpasaod    in    quality,    suitable    for    practic-Hlly   every    use    to  which  wooU 

tail  be  put. 

Full  information   on    application  to  the   Agent  General  for  B.C., 

BRITISH     qOLUMBIA     HOUSE,     1      &      3,     REGENT      STREET,       LONDON. 


Look  for  the 
FOX -HEAD 
Label 


WEATHERPROPFS 

•  •  • 

Head      Depot     in      London 
lOK     Mll.riARY     DE.VriiRS 

GOOCHS.m 

BROMPTON    ROAD,  S.W. 


THE 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


Bv  Dr.   .\KTHl  1:  SlIADWKI.r.. 
By  EDG.\It  Cli-iM.MOXD. 


AND    AFTER 

.AI.W. 
Towards  the  End. 
Ireland's  Part  in  the  War. 
The  Transformation  of  America : 

(1)  America's  Choice.  l)v  MOrUri'dX  FKKWEN. 

(2)  The  United  States  and  the  Peace  Settlement.  Bv  .'ilDXKV  U)\V. 
Italy  from  Adowa  to  the  Great  War.  Bv  I'MtlCO  ('nitR.\niXl. 
The  French  Solution  of  the  Bread  Problem.  By  KDITlt  SELLKKS. 
Maritime  Communications  aod  Imperial  fVoifress. 

Uv  the   liijhl   i;<.M.    l.DKll  sVI)i:\HAM   OF  COMBK,  fl.C.K.I.,  O.O.M.O. 
The  Wisest  of  the  Greeks.  By  W.  X.  ],IT,t,y. 

The  Russian  Revolution:  a  Review  by  an  Onlooker.  Bv  .lOMX  I'OI.IXICK. 

Will  Germany  fallow  Russia's  Example?  B\  .1.  KM. IS  BABKI-:!;. 

Austria  and   Prussia.  Ilv   I.ADV  PACKT. 

A  Torch-Bearer.  Bv  COXST  vy''^  VI.IZABKTH  .M.\l  I). 

The  Business  of  Government.  By  EDWABI)   CEOBGE  HARM.VX.  C.B. 

(foniirrly  a  i'riiiciiiui  ctertc  m  the  Treniurg). 
Mr.  Herbert   Ftsher  and  his  Chances. 

I'.v  th.-  liiclil.  Hi'U.  Sir  fJKOBCi;  l!i:ll>.  fi.C'.B..  o.c.jf.r...  ^t.P. 
The  "  Sincere  Chancellor."  Bj   I'i;ilXANI)  I'.tS^SKT.IX'Q. 

Germany's  Colonial  Empire:  Seven  Reasons  against  Restoration. 

Bv  .lOIIX  H.  TIAr.RIR. 
Sketches  In  England  and  Cermany-Hl4.      By  tiic  Hon.  Mr,.  WAl.Ttl!  FOBBtiS. 

Londou ;    ppotti>\MVMif.    H;ill;nityne    fc    Co..  I.til..   1.  Xew    Htrfpl    Square. 


Motor  Dust. 


Dust  in  the  atmosphere  irri- 
tates the  delicate  mucous  mem- 
bratic  which  lines  the  mouth 
and  throat.  This  weakens  the 
natural     resistance     and     is    a 


direct  cause  of  "  summer  colds." 
You  can  ofTectua  11}' guard  against 
the  attacksof  all  hostile  microbes 
which  affect  the  mouth  and 
throat  b\' keeping  handy  a  box  of 


IfaniiKt :  Sec 
the  raised  bar  on 
each  Pastille  ~ 
this  is  ytntr  safe- 
guard. 


^  EVANS* 


fiastilles 

and  alloWinj;  one  or  two  tn  dissohe 
inthc  moutli  when  danger  threatens. 

(')bi;iinablc  (rom  atl  ("hcniists  and 

Storf";^.  or  Po^t  Free  J  /O  per 
Ironi   the  m.ikt-iN  *  '  ^^  tin. 

Evsas,  Sens,  Lescher  li  Webb,  IK' 
56  Hanover  Street Liveryosl. 

<P  S.C.I. 


.«v>.  "^ic-^^^ 


TRIPLEX  Safety  GLASS 


COCCLCS.      WINOSCNKCNS.      AND      WINDOWS. 


M;i\'  ;,.   1 1)1 7 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By    Lucian    Oldershaw 


17 


IN  a  vnliimo  of  romini^icpnccs  Iw  tlio  man  wiin  practicnlly 
intr.JcliUA'd  the  art  of  iiUcr\ icvving  to  Britisli  jo'unialism 
and  who  held  a  virtual  mouYijJoly  of  its.  practice  for  many 
years  one  expects , to  -find  good  entertainment.  .One 
fmds  both  the  expected' and-the' unexpected  in  Mr.  Raymond 
Blathwayt's  Throuoh  Life  anil  Round  Hie  World  {(',.  Allen  and 
l^nwin,  los.  6d.  net.).  '  Th^.uiJexpected  consists  of  the  author's 
own  experiences  in  a  life  of.imuch  travel  and  variety,  especially 
interesting  being  those  connected  with  his  brief  career  as  a 
"pale  young  curate,"  and  a  short  excursus  into  the  dis- 
tinguished family  history  of  the  Blathwayts.  For  the 
expected,  w-ell,  it  is  what  one;would  expect  !  Mr.  Blathwayt 
tells  us  that  he  took  to  interviewing  as  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance in  journalism,  but  he  lias  not  proved  himself  a  super- 
interviewer  simply  because  lie  was  the  first  in  the  field.  He 
lias  the  pdwer  of  sympathy, Vr  at  any  rate  of  interesting  him- 
self in  other  people's  points  of  view,  and  a  talent  for  that  kind 
of  judicious  flattery  which  beguiles  a  man  into  reveahng  him- 
self. His  subjects  pose  less  than  those  of  most  interviewers, 
or  perhaps  it  is  more  true  to  Say  that  they  pos^^,  in  a  more 
characteristic  and  distinctive  way,  as  did  H^ollygt-s  sitters 
compared  with  those  of  the  old-fashioned  photographers. 
This  is  where  the  artist  comes  in. 

***** 

Mr.  Blathwayt's  catholicity  can  be  clearly  proved  from  th^s 
volume.  He  has  paid  his  tribute  of  sketches  from  life  to 
^lartin  Tupper,  theauthorof  7-"('.s/«,sand the  painter  of  "Derby 
Day  "  ;  he  seems  to  have  shared  all  the  kite  Victorian  and 
Edwardian  enthusiasms,  and  he  is  prepared  to-day  to  admire 
the  Georgian  mystics  and  the  Chelsea  artists,  declaring  the 
while  that  in  essentials  life  in  London  has  changed  very  little 
in  his  time.  'Mr.  Blathwayt  is  indeed  above  all  things  an 
enthusiastic  collectf)r  of  persons.  During  the  next  few  weeks 
one  half  of  l[7)o'.s'  Who  will  be,  according  to  temperament, 
condoling  with  or  congratulating  the  other  half  on  not  being 
in  this  volume,  and  future  collectors  will  classify  the  persons  of 
this   epoch    as   being    either    "known"     or    "unknown     to 

Blathwayt." 

***** 

Another  writer  who  has  made  an  interesting  collection  of 
persons,  though  on  a  less  ambitious  scale  than  Mr.  Blathwayt, 
is  Mr.  Coulson  Kernahan.  His  book.  In  Good  Companv 
(John  Lane,  5s.  net.),  is  a  series  of  desciptions  of  his  relation- 
ships with  scjven  well-known  men.  The  most  considerable 
,  part  of  the  book  is  made  up  of  reminiscences  of  visits  to 
"The  Pines"  at  Putney,  indeed  five  of  the  eleven  sketches  are  ' 
de\oted  to  the  interesting  personality  of  \Vatts-.Dunton, 
.with  a  tendency  to  dwell  over  long  on  some  of  the  stale  and 
-arid^cont.roversics  in  which  li£  and  Swinburne  took  part.  Mr. 
Kernahan  is  generous  to  his  friends  in  intention — but  in  result 
he  often  deals  unintended  blows  at  their  reputations.'  Thus 
his  endeavour  to  do  justice  to  the  memory  of  Oscar  Wilde 
chiefly  succeeds  in  leaving  on  my  mind  the  impression  of  an 
unmitigated  cad.  Perhaps  the  most  successful  bits  of  work 
are  an  account  of  Stephen  Phillips  as  a  reciter  and  h  sketch 
of  Edward  Whymper,  the  famous  climber.  Both  studies 
print  a  clear  i)icture  on  the  m^m  )rv. 

***** 

I  adijnire  the  ctmrage  of  Mr.  W.  L.  George  in  writing  such 
a  book  as  The  Inldliaencc  of  Woman  (Herbert  Jc^nkins,  5s. 
net.).  To  begin  with  there  is  the  implied  claim  to  understand 
women,  a  r^im  which  women  usually  resent  and  men  usually  ■ 
despise.  Perha]is  Mr.  George's  I'^minist  attitude  renders 
him  immune  in  the  direction  from  which  attack  is  most 
to  be  feared,  but  1  should  imagine  that  his  calm  assumption 
that  tliere  is  no  s])ecial  mystery  about  womankind  would  not 
be  pleasing  to  those  who  still  find  a  Sphni.\"-hke  reputation  of 
\alue  in  the  duel  of  the  sexes.  Then  again  .Mr.  (ieorg.- 
:)ascs  his  claim  for  the  greater  emancijiation  of  woman, 
not  on  her  merits,  but  rather  on  lii'r  failings,  ascribing  them 
lo  her  restrictions.  Tiiis  is  the  kind  of  honesty  that  is 
too  often  regarded  as  bad  policy.  Certainly  tiie  book  may 
bring  a  hornets'  nest  about  its  author's  eqrs"  Certainly,  too, 
it  is- an  extremely  interesting."  book,  and  among  much  tiiatis 
disputable  contains  much  thaf  is  tr'iie.  -.I' particularly  coin- 
mend  the  last  chapter  to  those  who  are  studying  thciabour 
problem  "after  the  war." 

*         *         »         *         » 

Another  book  of  sociological  interest,  less  lively  ancflCSS 
littrary  than  Mr.  .George's^,t>ttt -perhaps  more  original  itl  ;its 
revolutionary  proposals,  is  Dr.  F.  li.  Hayward's  Profcsfii^val- 
ism  and  Ori'^inality  {(i.  Allen  and  I'nwin,  6s.  net.).  His  b«)ok 
is  a  forced  and  s'ohiewtJSr'frmtasttc^antithesis  betwceH :|;hc 
"  profesiiional  "    and    tlu'    "  living  "  man.      leading    u|>--4o- 


somo  proposals  for  the  elimination  of  the  former  and  the  en- 
couragement of  the  latter  type,  which  as  far  as  1  can  judge 
from  the  examples  given  in  the  text,  has  hitherto  only  occurred 
in  those  rare  instances  of  such  men  as  by  common  consent  are 
men  of  genius.  Whether  the  operation  of  a  P>()ard  of  Culture 
with  power  to  suppress  such  illiteracy  in  humour,  as  "  Its 
snow  use,"  and  a  more  extens'veuscof  museums  and  picture 
galleries  and  the  issuing  of  books  of  proa  and  cons  on  all  im- 
portant topics  like  Roman  Catholicism  and  the  rest  of  it 
would  tend  to  turn  us  into  a  nation  of  geniuses,  and  whether 
it  would  be  au' advantage  if  this  were  the  result,  are  questions' 
open  to  doiibt.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  Mr.  Hayward 
is  very  much  in  earnest  in  jireaching  his  gospel  of  the  "  living 
man,"  and  also  that  many  stimulating  ideas  and  suggestions 
can  be  derived  from  his  book  even  bv  those  who  do  not  agree 
with  his  main  conteRtions.'' 


Even  if  its  subject-matter  were  of  less  topical  importance,  .. 
considerable  interest  wonld  attach  to  The  Gron'th  of  a  i 
Legend,  by  Fernand  van  Langenhove  (Putnam,  5s.  net), 
for  it  is  a  model  t)f  the  method  to  be  applied  in  such  investiga- 
tion. Its  subject-matter  is  the  (ierman  stories  of  Francs- 
tireurs  and  atrocities  in  Belgium,  which  were  used  as  an  ' 
excuse  for  the  massacres  and  wanton  destruction  that. followed 
the  invasion  of  that  unhap])v  country.  The  author  was 
scientific  secretary  of  the  Solva\'  Institute  of  Sociology  of  ^, 
Brussels,  ami  he  has  been  able  to  nail  these  (ierman  lies 
(which  the,  Ivaiser  perpetuated  in  a  famous  message  to 
President  Wilson)  to  the  counter  of  jjosterity  by  making 
use  of  evidence  supplied  by  the  enemy  themselves.  It  so 
liappened  that  many  of  the  stories  implicated  Belgian  priests, 
whereat  the  Catholics  of  (Germany  took  alarm  and  the 
Catholic  society.  Pax,  started  to  make  enquiries  which 
proved  in  every  case  that  the  stories  circulated  about  atrocities 
committed  by  the  Belgians  were  without  foundation.  How 
they  were  circuIato>d,  how  they  grew  and  the  use  that  was 
made  of  them  form  an  interesting  excursus  on  the  theme 
Fama-vire^  acijiiifi/  eun'io.  Mor6over,  the  book  does  away 
once  and  for  all  with  anv  possible  palliation  of  the  conduct 
of  the  liosche  in  Belgium. 


.  — '^^\y' 

If  aii\'   Cii"!   sliould   giye 

I  ';>  li-.i\i'  lo  flv. 
These  present  deaths  we  live 
Antl  safely  die-^- 
In   tliosei  lost  lives  we  lived   ere  \vc  were  born— 
What  man  but  would  not  hiugh  the  excuse  to  scorn  ? 

Those  who  read  Rudyard  Kipling's  latest  book,  A  Diversify 
of  Creahires  (Ma^cmiUan,  fis.)  will  feel  keenly  thetruth  of  these 
lines.  More  than  any  recent  publication  it  brings  homo  to 
us  that  wc  are  not  what  we  were.  Tlie  murder  of  the  hostile 
airmen  in  Mankelton's  park,  an  incident  in  which  figures 
I.augiiton  O.  Zigler,  well-known  to  readers  of  "  Traffics  and 
Discoveries"  as  The  Captive,  the  "rag"  of  two  young 
subalterns  aided  and  abetted  by  Stalky ;  still  more  the 
gigantic  jest  of  "  The  Village  that  Voted  the  Earth  was 
Flat,"  altliough  they  amuse  and  enthrall,  leave  a  sense  of 
mireality  and  strangeness  so  that  we  stare 

"  At  the  far  show 
Of  unbelievable  years  and  shapes  that  flit, 
i  In  our  own  likeness,  on  the  edge  of.it," 

We  have  outgrown  those  light-hearted  irresponsible  times, 
real  -and  vivid  though  they  seemed  while  we  lived  through 
them.  With  a  sense  of  relief  we  turn  to  the  story  of  Mary 
Postgate,  and  smile  to  think  how  wildly  impossible  it  w'ould 
have  seemed  three  years  ago.  Wc  do  not  admire  Mary ; 
shq  repels,  but  we  earn  understand.  "  Swcj>t  and  Garnished  " 
with  its  sinister  resemblance  to  the  author's  most  beautiful 
acliievf-merit,  "  They,"  carries  conviction  too  and  prepares 
us  for  the  monotonous  throb  of  the  "  Hymn  of  Hate  "  with 
which  the  b'ook  closes.' 

I  Some  of  the  stories,  however,  although  written  in  pre-wai^ 
days,  stand  the  stern  test  of  circumstances.     Among  these 

^may  be  reckcmed  "  I'Yiendly  Brook,"  "  My  Son's  Wife,."  and 

!  "  Regulus  "  The  hrst  two  are  tales  of  Sussex,  breathing  the 
■atmi)spherc  of  that  fair  county  as  no  others  have  done  since 
,""  Pyck  of  Pook's  Hill,"  and  "Rewards  and  Fairies."  The 
last  is  a  school  episode  iii  which  Stalky  and  Co.  appear  once 
m(>f^'.     But   we   cannot    separate   ourselves  from  life  as  we 

'  know  it  now,  and  the  wq.rds  that  ring  in  our  ears  as  we  lay 
'I'XYii  the  book  are  the  refrain  of  the  heart-breaking  dirge 
,wl^t;h  foltows"  The  Honours  of  War  "  :    "  Who  shall  return 

-iisonr  children?  -      .        '  .         . 


i8 


LAND    &     WATER 


May  3,  1917 


Scenes  from  the  Battle  Area     Les  Trains  reclament  de  rHuile 


AHATTLE-FIKLI)  from  the  begiiiiiiiig  of  time 
Ficardy  of  the  rolling  plains  has  siilf>?recl  more 
from  war  tlian  any  other  region  of  the  world. 
L. Tacitus  tells  how  the  Gennans  of  hi?  day  dug  into 
Its  chalk  to  make  refuges  from  the.  enemy  (eosqitc  mullo  in- 
super  jlnio  unerati/.n-i  now!  ) ;  the  Romans  fought  the  l-'ranks 
many  a  year  tor  Cambrai  and  Faidherbe  defeated  the 
J'russians  in  February  '71  at  Baoaume.  Its  crops  have  been 
traiTipled  under  fool,  its  villages  sacKcd  many  a  time,  but 
never  has  such  ruin  been  wrought  in  it  as  to-day.  for  not  on'y 
have  its  buildings  been  burnt  and  destroyed  by  shell  tin\ 
but  all  of  its  surface  has  been  torn  up  for  a  great  deptii. 

So  immense  is  the  lighting  in  this  war  that  few  of  us  have 
been  able  to  attune  our  sense  of  proportion  to  the  under- 
standing of  it.  How  many  people  in  England  realise  that 
the  fateful  Thiepval  was  the  tinie.it  of  \illages  and  its  chateau 
but  a  small  country  house,  or  that  Bapaume,  the  famous, 
liad  less  than  .5,000  inhabitants  ?  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
the  fierce  battles  at  the  end  of  last  week  from  Koeux  in  the 
bend  of  the  Scarpe  up  to  (lavrelle.  dwarfed  the  storming  of 
Badajoz  ?  Rupert  of  Bavaria  had  seven  divisions  of  I'onic- 
ranians,  Rhinelanders  and  Badeners  to  defend  this  position 
against  AUenby's  invincibles,  whereas  Soult  and  Marmont 
hail  (vrtainly  not  100,000  men  all  told,  and  I'hilijipons  garri- 
son was  leJis  than  5,000! 

The  monoton<uis  plains  were  very  fertile  and  highly  culti- 
vated before  the  war,  with  poor  \illages  of  mean  brick  houses 
and  wattle  barns,  nuich  marshland  and,  south  of  the  Scaqi^, 
some  rich  fields  won  from  the  waters.  Beet-sugar  factoiies, 
quarries  and  )nail-pits  dot  tlic  map  ;  but  there  are  very  few 
big  houses  in  the  country.  There  was  Thiepval  cluiteau 
way  back  which  used  to  belong  to  the  counts  of  Breda  ; 
it  was  bought  in  iQii  by  a  muiing  engineer,  a  Monsieur 
I'ortier,  who  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  on  modernizing 
and  decorating  it.  He  had  only  been  li\ing  there  a  week  when 
he,  with  his  invalid  son,  had  to  fly  from  it  before  the  enemy  ; 
the  Germans  made  of  its  cellars  a  ganglion  of  trenches. 
Then  there  was  a  new  large  villa  with  a  pretty  garden  at 
Favreuil  which  M.  Stenne,  brother  of  the  Mayor  of  Bapaume, 
had  just  finishecf  for  himself  in  August  1914,  and  now  we  are 
lighting  round  the  only  big  place  between  .Mbert  and  Cambrai, 
the  chateau  of  Havrincourt.  It  belongs  to  the  Comte 
■  d'llavrincourt  and  was  a  beautiful  jiropertv  before  the  war — 
oil  !  that  terrible  "avanl  la  ^iwrrc  .'"of  Northern  France-  but 
now  with  its  home-farm,  sugar  factory  and  the  rest,  it  is 
in  every  probability  merely  an  undistinguishable  mass  of 
broken  masonry. 

Gavrelle,  whose  capture  will  rank  next  in  importance  to 
the  assault  of  the  Vimy  Ridge,  boasted  about  500  inhabitants 
before  the  war.  The  enemy  had  fortified  it  well,  making  the 
church  and  girls'  school  (sec  plan  below)  a  strong  keep  with 


Hv    JiMn.K   CAMM.\liiaS 

"  HV   are  passing    the  great  Corpse-Conversion- 
Eslahlishmcnl  of  this  Army   Group.     .     .     ." 

(Kaii  Rosner  in  the  Lolfal-  ^  "''''•'•'>'   April  loth.) 

Les  trains  grinccnt  an  dela  du  Rhin, 
Les  trains  rc^'clament  de  I'huile, 
Le  canon  gronde  de  Rheims  a  St.  Quentin, 
Rien  n'est  sacre  que  I'utile.      1 

Les  trains  grinccnt  an  dela  du  Rhin. 

Les  trains  ont  faini.     .     .     . 

"  Ou'on  leur  donne  a  manger,  dit  I'emiiereur, 

"La  graisse— comme  I'argent-n'a  ])as  d'odeur. 

"Que  voulez-vous,   les  femmes .'    L^n  joli   yvtit    (imclirre, 
"  Avec  de  jolies  fleurs  et  de  jolies  croi.\  ? 
"  — C'est  un  luxe,  en  temps  de  guerre  ! 

"  One  voulez-vous,  les  femmes  ?     I'n  coin   jiour  pleurer  ? 

"  L'AUemagne  ne  plaisante  pas  ; 

"  JCntendez-vous  les  trains  grincer  ?  ,' 

"  One  voulez-vous.  les  femmes?     Une  relique.  une  oriere:? 

" — La  graisse  est  bien  trop  chere  ! 

"Ouand  on  sert  son  pays,  il  faut  tout  lui  doniur. 

"  Kn  avant,  en  avant,  de  Rheims  a  St.  (_)nentin, 

"  Rien  n'est  sacre  que  I'utile  ! 

"  Poussez-les,  I'epee  dans  les  reins, 

"Les  trains  reclament  de  I'huile  !  " 

(.]//  Rights  Reserved.) 

immense  dugouts.  He  undoubtedly  considered  it  of  great 
imjwrtance  as  he  attacked  it  again  and  again,  not  only  from 
the  woods  west  of  Fresnes,  but  up  the  road  from  Roeux. 
Roeux  itself  is  also  a  very  valuable  position  as  a  glance  at  the 
map  will  show  ;  it  was  used  for  a  long  time  by  the  (Germans 
as  the  terminus  of  the  transport  by  water  of  ammunition  for 
the  Vimy  sector.  The  \ery  barges  in  the  ])icture  may  have 
served  to  bring  uj)  shell  for  the  enemy  to  u.se  against  us, 
and  probably  the  high  chimneys  shown  behind  Roeux  station 
lielong  to  the  c^iemical  works  so  often  referred  to  by  corr(;s- 
]>ondents  at  the  front. 

Avion  is  an  important  small  town  south  of  Lens,  of  v.hich 
it  is  almost  a  suburb  ;  it  is  one  of  the  gates  of  that  coal-land, 
wliich  is  now  being  restored  to  h'rance.  J.  11. 


/&(  ^^iT^-ic 


Though  Tlaii  oft/ie — ' 
Vilkge  ofGAVJ^ELLE 
/node  6y  a  refugee jsr 


t — Cure'*  bouse  ;    2. — Public  Weigh-shed  ;    3. — Mairie  and  boys'  school  ;    4. — Pond  ;    5. — Abbaye  farm  ;    6.— Church  ;  7. — Girls'  school  ; 
8 -^Deputy  mayor's  bouse;  9. — Mayor's  house:  10, — Windmill;   11, — Cemetery;  12. — M.   Pavv'»  hnusc 


"Sidy  3,  1917 


LAND    &     WATER 


19 


Scenes  from  the  Battle  Area 


Chateau  of   Havrincourt 


t'ark  of  Havrincourt 


Bridge  over  the  Scarpe  at  Roeux 


Marshes  of  the  Scarpe 


Roeux  Stetioa 


Church  of  Gavrelle 


German  Cemetery  at  Avion 


Avion  Station 


20 


LAND    &     WATER 


May  3,  191; 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY. 


Names  and  addresses  of  shops,  where  the  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  will  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
tddressed  to  Passe-Partoiit,  Land  cS:  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  W-C  2.     Any  other  information  will  be  given  on  request. 


Where  to 
«et  It 


The  burning  question  of  food  supplies 
is  engrossing  everybody's  first  attention, 
experts  and  amateurs  alike.  Expert 
advice  of  late  has  largely  figured  round  barley  flour,  whicli 
IS  bound  to  be  used  in  ever  increasing  quantities.  Putting 
wheat  shortage  aside,  it  is  a  valuable  article  of  food  and 
on  that  score  alone  is  important. 

Barley  flour,  however,  is  none  too  easy  to  get  and  is  wortli 
buying  when  and  where  it  can  be  obtained.  A  firm  for 
many  months  past  have  made  a  feature  of  exceptional  offers, 
is  just  expecting  a  large  supply — by  the  time  these  words  are 
in  print  it  should  have  already  arrived.  Seven  lbs.  of  this 
excellent  barley  flour  costs  2s.  3d.  It  should  be  bought  with- 
out loss  of  time,  for  there  is  bound  to  be  an  immediate  rush 
for  it,  and  once  the  supply  is  gone  the  next  dehvery  is  now 
always  problematical. 

Barley  flour  bread  is  capital,  as  most  people  agree;  it  is 
also  very  useful  in  cooking,  while  barley  flour  scones  are 
being  recommended  by  no  less  an  authority  than  the  Ministry 
of  Food.  Tlie  firm  in  question  issues  a  weekly  price  list  of 
absorbing  interest  to  the  housekeeper. 

Necessity,  as  always,  is  the  mother  of 

^h'"*""  invention,    and    rarely    have    inventive 

u  stitute  ininds  had  wider  scope  for  their  energies 

than  at  the  moment.     As  soon  as  any  article  of  food  gets 

scarce  there  is  always  the  question  of  whether  a  substitute' 

can  possibly  be  found. 

:At  last  a  substitute  nas  been  mooted  for  potatoes,  which 
is  not  only  absolutely  adequate,  but  in  some  ways  possesses 
even  greater  food  values.  It  costs  less  than  a  penny  a  11). 
when  cooked,  so  that  it  is  remarkably  economical.  The  in- 
ventor is  to  be  congratulated  on  his  feat,  but  even  more  upon 
the  excellent  use  to  which  he  is  putting  it.  All  the  net  profits 
are  going  to  St.  Dunstan's  Hostel  for  the  BUnd. 

Recipes  and  fuU  particulars  with  a  large  cooked  sample 
will  be  forwarded  post  free  on  receipt  of  a  postal  order  for 
five  shillings.  Three  recipes  will  be  given,  one  for  savoury 
potatoes,  one  for  plain  boiled  potatoes  and  the  other  for  the 
tinger  potatoes  which  look  so  nice  and  taste  so  good.  The 
substitute  lends  itself  equally  well  to  any  of  these  three  varieties 
and  with  St.  Dunstan's  benefiting  into  the  bargain,  charity 
begins  not  only  at  home  but  outside  as  well. 


A    Blou>e 
Improvement 


For  years  the  blouse  has  carried  all  be- 
fore it  in  its  way  to  the  front  rank 
of  the  feminine  wardrobe,  but  its  latest 
development,  the  blouse  tunic,  has  certainly  arrived  to  chal- 
lenge its  place.  For  one  thing,  it  is  the  precise  type  of  garment 
a  majority  of  women  are  now  needing,  for  they  find  that  a 
skirt  and  an  attractive  kind  of  blouse  coat  and  tunic  is  veiy 
practical,  becoming  attire  and  one  in  whic  1  they  always  look 
neat,  no  matter  how  strenuously  employed. 

A  firm  with  many  years  reputation  for  channing  blouses 
are  now  showing  some  of  the  cheapest  blouse  tunics  to  be 
found  anywliere  in  London,  the  price  being  but  8s.  6d.  These 
pretty  models  are  really  jumper  coats.  They  slip  on  over  the 
head,  while  a  belt  at  the  waist  draws  them  into  a  becoming 
basque.  These  blouse  coats  wash  beautifully.  They  are  made 
of  striped  lawn,  with  a  linen  finish  to  it  to  give  it  an  added  look 
of  consistency.  Round  the  neck  is  a  prettily  shaped  sailoi 
collar,  while  a  ribbon  bow  in  front  drawn  through  two  slots 
gives  a  dainty  finish.  They  are  striped  with  different  colours, 
green,  sa.xe  blue,  pink,  navy  blue,  hehotrupe  and  also  witli 
black.  To  the  quick  dresser  they  are  an  absolute  joy,  and  being 
very  comfortable  and  roomy  all  sorts  of  work  can  easily  be  done 
in  them,  such  as  gardening  and  the  like.  The  sleeves  are  the 
customary  shirt  wrist -long  ones, 

•Zephyr  smocks  for  gardening  and  farm  work  can  also  be 
lound  here.  They  are  of  the  rejJ  Farmer  Giles  type,  most 
attractive  and  quite  remarkably  cheap. 


No  Rise  in 
Price 


Many  mothers  gratefully  acknowledge 
the  service  done  to  their  children  by 
Chilprufe  underclothes.  These  beautifully 
:oft-woven  garments,  kept  in  summer  as  well  as  in  winter 
weights,  are  just  the  things  for  the  rising  generation,  liut 
lately  they,  hke  many  other  things,  have  suffered  from  a  rise 
in  price.  This  as  far  as  Chilprufe  as  a  general  rule  was  con- 
cerned, came  into  force  on  .Xpril  ist,  the  increase  being  no  less 
than  twenty  per  cent. 

At  one  particular  shop,  however,  clever  previous  buying  has 
prevented  this  untoward  liapfK'ning.  Cliildren's  Chilprufe 
garments  are  being  sold  here  at  their  former  prices,  and  it 
more  than  pays  everybody  to  buy  here  in  consequence.  Tlie 
summer  weight  garments  are  all  in  stock — combinatiims. 
socks,  various  makes  of  knickers  and  the  Uke,  and  as  u>ual 
the  yam  used  is  nothing  short  of  perfection. 

Perhaps  the  most  useful  form  of  knicker,  useful  for  girls 
and  boys,  alike  is  made  witli  a  ribbed  knee  and  buttons  on  to  • 
an  upper  garment  at  the  waist.  It  costs  from  2S.  6d.,  is 
splendid  wear  for  children,  keeps  them  nicely  warm  yet 
never  over-hot,  and,  like  all  Chilprufe  garments,  is  guaran- 
teed not  to  shrink. 


Stockings    for 
the  Land 


Suitable  stockings  are  very  impt^rtan: 
for  everybody  working  on  the  land,  and 
those  who  buy  really  genuine  good  quality 
are  sure  to  benefit.  A  well  known  shop  is  specializing  in 
hard  wearing  stockings  and  selling  any  number  for  tliis  par- 
ticular purpose.  They  are  made  m  Ireland  and  have  been 
carefully  woven  to  order.  All  the  stockings  are  of  heather 
mixture  cashmere,  very  soft  and  comfortable  to  wear,  and 
certain  to  pass  successfully  through  'the  most  vehemently 
worked  wash  tub.  The  available  colourings  are  really  very 
charming  ones,  greys,  browns,  and  greens  in  subdued  s(jlt 
colourings  being  all  introduced  int(,  various  colour  schemes 

The  same  people  are  alsc  selling  Balbriggan  heather  niix- 
lure  stocK-ings  with  silk  clocks,  and  px-rfect  country  wear  they 
are.  The  weave  is  soft  and  wear-resisting  and  women  gar- 
deners who  wear  them,  through  ])ractical  exprience  bear  wit- 
ness to  their  good  quaUties  and  declare  their  price  of  4s.  6d. 
well  worth  giving. 

Remote  from  the  subject  of  this  note,  but  so  noticeably 
good  as  to  deserve  mention  nevertheless,  are  some  artificial 
silk  stockings  costing  half  a  crown  a  pair.  They  are  made  in 
England  in  blacK,  white,  and  all  colours. 

During  wartime  some  overcoat  makeis 
War  Workers'  l^J^y^,  (.(„n^.  [^^l^y  their  own.     They,  wisely 

^°°'*  enough,    believe    in    speciahzation,  and 

they  have  specialised  in  just  the  kind  of  overcoat  both  men 
and  women  want  under  present  conditions.  Cut,  make,  and 
material  alike  reach  the  high  water  mark  of  excellence.  Tlie 
woollen  materials  are  designed  for  the  firm  in  question  and 
woven  specially  for  them  in  Scotland,  and  every  piece  of  fabric 
being  carefully  inspected  before  using.  All  this  care  is  taken 
so  that  each  individual  customer  shall  be  genuinely  pleased, 
and  on  this  is  based  a  well  deserved  commercial  success. 

Just  now  they  are  making  some  capital  ladies'  light  weight 
summer  coats  on  the  exatt  princi])le  of  a  man's  trench  coat. 
These  are  of  weatlier-prooietl  materials  and  if  liked  can  be 
made  with  an  inner  lining  ut  waterproof  to  make  security 
doubly  secure.  These  c(jats  look  remarkably  nice,  and  wear 
as  well  as  they  look.  Tliey  are  smartly  belted  round  the  waist, 
every  hne  is  practical  and  right,  and  for  utility  they  are  un- 
d<jubtedly  the  last  word. 

The  firm  make  without  a  fitting  if  they  are  given  height 
and  chest  measurement.  They  have  issued  a  booklet  of 
their  designs  which  is  well  worth  sending  for,  and  will  also 
send  coals  on  approval.  Passe  Paetout. 


, 


The  house  of  Price  is  very  well  known  to  English  housewives 
for  their  wonderful  soaps,  h'cus  -hold  and  toilet.  Now  they  have 
added  perfumes  ;  their  Extra  Triple  Eau-de-Cologne  is  delightful : 
it  is  proof  that  England  nei-u  never  go  to  Germany  again  for 
Eau-de-Cologne.     Their  "  Sweet  Lavender  "  is  delicious. 


May  lo,  1917 


Supplement    to      LAND    &    WATER 


IX 


UNLIKE  ORDINARY    PUTTEES.    OUR    NEW 

ALL -LEATHER   PUTTEES 
NEVER   TEAR    OR  FRAY  OUT. 

These  most  comfortable,  good-looking  puttees  are  made  entirely  of  fine 
supple  tan  leather,  and  fasten  simply  with  one  buckle  at  bottom.  They 
are  extremely  durable,  readily  mould  to  the  shape  of  the  leg,  are  as 
easily  cleaned  as  a  leather  belt,  and  saddle  soap  soon  makes  them 
practically  waterproof. 

The  price  per  pair  is  16/6,  post  free  inland,  or  postage  abroad  1/- 
extra,  or  sent  on  approval  on  receipt  of  business  (not  banker's)  refer- 
ence and  home  address.     Please  give  size  of  calf. 


OFFICERS' 

RIDING 
BREECHES. 

We  guarantee  all  the  factors  of 
successful  breeches  -  making- 
fine  wear-resisting  cloths,  skilful 
cutting,  careful,  honest  tailor- 
work,  and  adequate  experience 
—and  in  particular  the  last,  for 
we  have  been  breeches-makers 
since  1821,  ninety-six  years  ago. 

We  keep  on  hand  a  number  of  pairs  of 
breeches,  and  are  therefore  often  able 
to  meet  immediate  requirements,  or  we 
can  cut  and  try  a  pair  on  the  same  day, 
and  complete  the  next  day,  if  urgently 
wanted.' 


GRANT  &  GOGKBORN  IIL" 

LTD. 

25  PICCADILLY,  W.l. 

Military  and  Civil  Tailors,  Legging  Makers. 


nARVEYNlCHOLS 


OF^*      KIS[  I  G  MT  S  ^  R-:i  DOE 


Serviceable  Photo  Frames  &  Bags 


A  Splendid 

J|pillBBr-a°^m 

Selection  of 

Bf-^ 

I "'                '  .^^MM 

Silk  &  Leather 

f 

ss^&i 

Bags 
in  the  latest 

B^'' 

t 

1 

ffl 

fashionable 

i 

1'       1 

Styles. 

iBlMii 

Lsatber  Folding 

Screen* 
in  Brown  and 

Green. 
Talc  Fronts. 
Single  CD. V.  2/3 
Double  Photo  2/|l 
Single  P.C.  and 
Cabinet  ...  2/11 
Double  Pholo  3/9 
Single  Boudoir  5/B 
Double  Photo  6/6 
Single 

Imoerial  6/6 
Double  Photo  7/6 


Leather  Pkoto 
Frames 

Brown  and  Green, 
Glass  Fronts. 

C.D.V.  price,  l/9i 
Postcard     ...    2/3 

Cabinet  ...  2/3 
Boudoir,  7  X  5'3/9 
lmperia!8x6'4'll 
Panel  Ilix7"7/6 
Mendel  11x9"  8/6 


Cross  Grain   Leatl~er  Bdg,  wltH  inner  division  and  outside   pocket. 

Size  8x5'    Price  16/9.   In  Black,  Navy,  Dark  Purple  &  D«rk  Green. 

NEW  SEASON'S  CATALOGUE  SENT  POST  FREE  ON    REQUEST. 


HARVEY  NICHOLS  &  Co..  Ltd..  Knightsbridge.  S.W.I 


--'    THE    ORIGINAL    CORDfNCS,     ESTD.    1839.  - 

The  "Equitor"  Coat 

is  waterproof, 

a  sufficient  statement 
when  upheld  by  a  repu- 
tation for  waterprcof- 
making  which  goes  back 
nearly  eighty  years. 


On  Active  Sirvittc  a  man  must 
above  ali  avcud  that  risky  and 
ntterly  wrctctied  expeirience — 
getting  wet.  and  it  is  simply 
common-sense  to  urge  tii&t  onl.y 
a  positively  waterproof  coat  will 
en«ure  the  essential  protection. 

An  "  Equitor  "  will  Iweip  a  man 
Done  dry  through  the  heaviest 
and  most  lasting  downpour, 
and  if  flcece-Iincd,  will  also 
warmly  protect  him  fromi  the 
cold,  a  necessary  provision  even 
in  i>ummer  months  to  minimise 
the  iU-cffects  of  enforced  ex- 
lK>sure  at  night. 

In  our  ligM-weight 
material,  the  price 
■'  Equitor "  is  92/S; 
No.  23  cashmere,  a 
v.elght  cloth.  115/.; 
attached  riding  apron,  which 
lastcns  conveniently,  out  of 
sight,  when  not  in  use  (either 
cloth),  17/6  less,  with  belt  !/■ 
extra. 

The  detachable  fleece  inner  coat 
can  be  had  in  two  qualities- 
No.    1  (fine  wool),    62/6;    No.  2, 

40/-. 

When  ordering  an  "  Equitor  " 
Coat  please  state  height  and 
chest  measure,  and  send  remit- 
tance (which  will  be  returned 
promptly  it  the  coat  is  not 
approved),  or  give  liome  address 
and  business  (not  banker's) 
reference. 

At  request,  ILLUSTRATED  LIST  o/  Waterproo/  Coals,  Boots,  Portable  Baths,  Air  Beds. 


No.  31 
of  the 
of  our 
medium- 
without 


•/.    C    V^yjRDING   &    Czrh    to  H.M.  the  King. 

Only  AJdrettet  : 

19 PICCADILLY,  W.l,  &35St.jamessst.,s.w.i. 


THE    SHORT 
TRENCH    "MAC" 


A  very  useful  garment  for 
for  the  Trenches,  light  and 
comoact,  yet  very  strong. 

Equal  care  and  skill  go  to  the 
making  of  these  coats  as  to  the 
military  macintosh  and,  in 
addition,  they  are  fitted  with  a 
reinforced  sleeve  which  takes 
up  the  wear  on  the  most  vul- 
nerable point. 

Single  -  breasted  with  deep 
overlap  storm  collar,  belt  and 
shoulder  strap,  in  finest  light" 
weight  Indiana. 


Price 


£2:15:0      1 


Send    a     Card    for 
Officers'    Catalogue. 


unhills 

LTD. 

2  Conduit  Street,   London,  W 

MANCHESTER :  GLASGOW 

90-92  Cron  Street.  72  St.  Vincent  Street 


(is 


Supplement    to       LAND    &     WATER 


May  10,  1917 


Vali 


ise 

Dispenses  with  Wolseley  and 
Blankets. 

Waterproof  Bed  and  Valise 
in  one. 

Vermin  Proof.   Weight  about  1 0  lbs. 

Constructed  to  hold  all  Kit,  and  to 

stand  hard  wear  for  an  indefinite 

period. 

Complete  with  Straps,  i^ame  and 
Tiegiment  painted  on,   5  GuineOM. 

TifiaJ  what  an  Army  Officer  iays, 

(BEF- 
26—4—17. 

Dear  Sirs, 

Yours  to  hand  of  the  16th  insL, 
I  have  received  the  Vsdise  now 
and  am  able  to  tell  you  I  am  most 
satisfied  with  it. 

Firstly,  it  is  beautifully  warm, 
and  secondly,  it  seems  that  it  is 
entirely  waterproof.  In  this  kind 
of  warfare  our  valises  are  put  to  the 
strongest  test  and  more  than  once 
I  have  slept  in  what  one  might  call 
pools,  with  rain  coming  down  all  the 
time,  and  the  valise  has  kept  the 
rain  out  in  a  wonderful  way. 

The    original    of  the    abooe    may    be   seen   by    anyone 
intertiled. 


BY  APPOINTMENT  TO  HIS  MAJESTY  THE  KING. 

Makers  of  the  Celebrated  Aquascutum  Trench 
Coat. 

lOO  Regent  St„  London,  W. 


THE 

LEVER 

POCKLT 

SELF-FILUNG 


(Ideal) 


oombinet  simplicity,   durability,  and   oon- 
vetkience     in     filling;,     with     Uiat     luperior 
quality     and     writing    ativice     which      hav. 
made    Waterman'.    Ideal    the  univerml    .tand- 
ard.       This  pea  is  just  one  of  the  laree  family 
of      Waterman's     Ideals,      which     include,     also 
Safety  and   Regulax  Types.      The  "  Safety  "  Type 
can  be  carried  upside  down  or  in  any  position.    Insist 
always  upon  the  genuine,  and  also  upon  exactly  niting 
you  hand. 
Lever  Pocket   SeJf-fiUing  and   Safety  Types  15s.    and   up- 
wards.      Regular,   10s.    6d.   and   upwards.      In    Silver  and 
Gold    for    Presentation.       Of    Stationer,    and   Jewellers    the 
world  over.      Booklet  free  from 

L  C  SLOAN,  Ltd,  Che^JeniSorttcr,  Kingjway,  London. 


OFFICIAL 


Drawings  of  the  British  Navy 

THE 

WESTERN 
FRONT 

MUIRHEAD  BONE 


PART   5. 


Grand  Fleet 


Number 


ILM.S.  "Lion"  in  Dry  Docit— Taking  Oil  Fuel 
at  Sea— Interior  of  Big  Gnn  Tarret— Boiler 
Room  —  Submerged    Torpedo    Flat,   etc.,  etc. 


2 


S*  Obtainable  of  all  Newsagents  and  Rook- 

sUils.  or  post  free  2/3  from  GEORGE 
NEWNES,    LTD.,   8-11,    Southampton 

NET.  Street,  Strand,  Lonaon,  W.C. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vd.  LXIX  No.  2870  [yf^] 


THURSDAY,  MAY  10,  1917 


tregisterkd  ast    pubu8hed  wckklt 
La  newspaperJ    price  seven 


»•  EN  PENCE 


By    LoMtt    ti€tWl*4k4TI 


Drawn  exel'uively  lor  •'  Land  i    Wattr  ' 

The  Friend  :  "  Don't  stop,   old  chap !    If  you  go  on,   you   will  get  all  you  deserve  " 


LAND    &    WAT^R 


May  lo,  1917 


4  REASONS  WHY 

YOU  SHOULD  INVEST  IN 

5% 

EXCHEQUER  BONDS 

1 

Your   country,  wants   you   to  lend    her   every  penny  to    help  to  win. 

2 

Exchequer  Bonds  are  redeemable  at  par  in  1919  or  1922  as  you  desire. 


Exchequer   Bonds   are  accepted  as  the  equivalent  of  cash  in  payment 
of   Death   Duties,  Excess   Profits   Tax,   or    Munitions   Levy. 


Elxchequer  Bonds  bear  interest  every  six  months  at  the  rate  of  5%  per  annum. 

j0^ 


If  you  have  £5  to  £50  to  invest 

YOU  can  get  a  Bond  for  ^5  or  for 
^^lo  or  for  J[^^o  from  any  Money 
Order  Post  Office,  or  from  a  Banker, 
or  your  Local  War  Savings  Committee 
will  see  that  you  get  what  you  want. 


If  you  haye  £100  or  over  to  invest. 

GET  a  prospectus  from  any  Stock- 
broker or  Banker  or  send  a 
cheque  direct  to  the  Bank  of  England. 
You  can  get  either  Bearer  Bonds  or 
Registered   Bonds  as  you  prefer. 


Invest  in  5%  Exchequer  Bonds  to-day. 

ASK 

YOUR  BANKER  OR  STOCKBROKER 


OR 


YOUR  LOCAL  WAR  SAVINGS  COMMITTEE 

will   explain   everything  to  you. 


]\l;i\-     lo,    iMl 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD      SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828.  


THURSDAY,  MAY  10,    1917 


CONTENTS 


A  Friend's  Advice.     By  Louis  Raemaekers 
Admiralty.  Reform.     (Leader)    j 
Ihc  Mill.'    By  Hilairc  Belloc 
The  Naval  Crisis.     By  Arthur  Pollen 
(lifts  (Poem).     By  N.  M.  F.  Corbett 
Admiralty  Reform  (Correspondence).     By  Prof.  Spenser 

Wilkinson  and  Admiral  W.  H.  Henderson 
Drafts.     Bv  Centurion 
The  Allies' "April  Offensive.     By  H.  Bidou 
Salmon  as  Food  Supply.     By  W.  Baden-Powell,  K.C. 
Petrograd  and  Moscow.     By  E.  S.  Luboff 
A   Voyage  of  Peace  in   War  Time.     By   Rachel   Q. 

Henriques 
Battle  of  the  Marne  (a  Review)                               ' 
Life  and  Letters.     By  J.  C.  Squire 
Jinoks  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldcrsliaw 
War's  Desolation 
Domestic  Economy 
Kit  and  Eciuipment  


PAGE 
1 


4 

7 

0 

<■) 

ir 

12 

14 

1.5 
Id 

17 
i8 

20 
22 
25 


ADMIRALTY     REFORM 

THE    unofficial   announcement    that    a    Naval   War 
Staff  is  to  be  appointed  irrimediately  at   the   Ad- 
miralty  in   Whitehall   is   the   culniination  of    those 
demands  for  reform  which  have  been  persistently 
urged  in  these  columfis.     Last  Thursday  the  weekly  contribu- 
tion by  oiu-  na\al  writer,  Mr.  Arthur  Pollen,    was  suppressed 
by  the  Censor.     We  were  considerably  surprised  to  learn  that 
the  reason,  as  officially  given  in  the  House  of  Commons,  was 
that  the   article   was     "  calculated     to    prejudice     the    dis- 
ripline    and  administration  of  His  Majesty's  Naval  Forces," 
and  that  if  published  "  it  would  have  been  detrimental  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  State  and  an  encouragement    to    our 
enemies."    All  criticism  if  it  be  ably  expressed   must  nece's^ 
sarily  "  prejudice  discipline  "  to  some  extent.     This    is    true 
whether  the  criticism  be  directed  against  the  Prime  Minister 
for  the  time  being  or  against  the  administration  of  a  depart- 
ment, say  the  Food  Controller's.     At  the  present  moment,  for 
intance,  a  section  of  the  press  is  strongly    criticising    f-ord 
Devonport  for  his  failure  to  institute  bread  tickets,  but  the 
Chief  Censor  takes  no  steps  ^o  stop  these  criticisms,  though 
they  may  be.  thought  to  prejudice  that'  discipline  to  which 
the   peoples   of    these   islands    have    voluntarily    submitted. 
The  suggestion,  of  course,  is  that  if  bread  tickets  are  not  at 
once  in  force,  the  country  will  be  in  danger  of  faminVi  before 
the  harvest ;  whether  this  fear  be  justified  or  not,  it  is  surely 
calculated  to  encourage  our  enemies.     But  we  shall  be   in  a 
dangerous  position  indeed  if  we  were  ever  driven  to  hide   the 
truth  from  ourselves  for  fear  of  its  effect  on  the  foe. 

In  fairness  to  Mr.  Pollen  it  should  be  mentioned  that, 
while  liis  article  certainly  criticised  the  organisation  and 
personnel  of  the  Admiralty,  it  was  only  a  summary^a  very 
able  and  cogent  summary,  we  admit — of  the  views  he  has  con- 
sistently maintained  in  L.xxd  &  W.\ter,  and  which  are  now 
being  adopted  by  many  other  organs  of  public  opinion.  His 
arguments,  supported  as  they  were  by  a  "Flag  Officer  "  in  a 
letter  published  in  these  columns,  have  been  the  basis  of  the 
greatest  discussion  which  has  taken  place  over  the  navy  since 
the  war  began.  One  of  our  contemporaries,  the  Sphere, 
alluded  to  Mr.  Pollen's  "  careful  and  well-informed  criticism 
on  naval  matters  as  never  having  erred  on  the  side  of  rash- 
ness." Other  journals  of  such  diverse  political  opinions 
as  the  Spectator,  New  Statesman,  Times,  Daily  Telegraph, 
Daily  Chronicle,  Evening  Neies  and  Westminster  Gazette,  have 
all  opened  their  columns  to  discussions  on  this  subject,  and 
the  majority  have  given  support  to  the  proposals  for  reform 
first  made  in  these  columns.  Moreover,  their  correctness  is 
justified  by  the  fact  that  the  Govcrnvnent  have  in  the  main 
udopted   ihini.     T^V-on    the   enem\-   shows   nervousnes';  of   a 


more  active  spirit  being  evinced  in  tlio  naval  strategy  of  the 
near  future.  The  Dusseldorf  General  Anzeiger,  in  a  long 
article  %vritten  in  a  very  triumphant  tone  about  the  success 
of  the  (/-boats  in  reducing  the  British  mercantile  fleet,  con- 
cludes :  "  Are  hopes  set  upon  American  help  ?  Or  is  it  expected 
that  the  British  Navy  will  adopt  the  offensive  and  destroy  the 
bases  of  our  submarines?  For  thV  latter  purpose  the  whole 
German  High  Seas  Fleet  must  be  xvipcd  out." 

Mr.  Pollen  to-day  summarises  the  arguments  for  the 
reorganisation  of  the  Admiralty,  and  for  this  purpose  omits 
his  personal  opinions,  turning  to  other  journals.  We 
also  publish  letters  from  Admiral  W.  H.  Henderson  and  from 
Mr.  Spenser  Wilkinson,  Chichele  Professor  of  Military  History 
at  Oxford,  .\lready  one  object  for  which  we  have  striven 
has  been  won.  This  was  defined  briefly  in  the  letter  of  "  A 
Flag  Officer "  to  which  we  have  '■already  referred,  in 
which  he  asserted  that  it  was  hopeless  to  expect  the  fighting 
instinct  of  the  navy  to  be  given  full  scope  unless  and  until 
we  distinguished  between  the  authority  responsible  for  the 
military  handhng  of  the  navy  and  the  authority  responsible 
for  its  material  supply.  Truth,  who  in  it's  current  issue 
protests  strongly  against  the  suppression  of  Mr.  Pollen's 
article,  pointing  out  that  it  only  differed  from  other  criticism 
in  that  it  displayed  greater  exactitude  and  insight,  last  week 
itself  dealt  with  the  same  subject  and  in  course  oi  an  article 
on  "  the  weak  spot  at  the  Admiralty,"  wrote  : 

The  constitution  of  the  War  Staff  Group  (at  the  .Admiralty) 
is  saturated  with  office  routine  and  book-knowledge,  but  it 
knows  relatively  nothing  by  e.xperience  of  the  actual  con- 
ditions of  modern  warfare,  and  although  the  I'irst  Sea  Lord 
is  an  exception,  his  only  action,  and  his  own  subsequent 
comments  upon  it,  prove  that  it  may  not  be  advisable  to  have 
at  the  supreme  head  of  a  fighting  service  an  officer  who, 
through  past  experience,  is  necessarily  imbued  above  all 
things  with  the  supreme  care  of  materiel  born  of  years  of  work 
as  an  officer  of  supply — work  which  in  itself  militates  against 
the  study  of  war  and  a  realisation  and  acceptance  of  the  risks 
that  must  be  run  if  victory  is  to  be  achieved. 

This  view  has  now  in  part  been  accepted  by  the  Govenment. 
A  new  era  of  administration  has  been  inaugurated  at 
the  Admiralty  which  must  make  its  influence  felt,  though 
at  the  same  time  it  is  essential  that  the  axiom  should  be 
unreservedly  accepted  that  fighting  is  the"  first  duty  of  the 
Navy  and  that  all  theories  of  excessive  caution  of  which  we 
have  heard  so  much,  should  be  jettisoned  once  and  for  all. 

Admiral  Sir  Reginald  Custance  in  the  course  of  a  letter  to 
the  Times  last  week  observed  that  "  the  submarine  policy 
is  essentially  military  and  not  mechanical.  Its  solution  de- 
pends on  the  correct  military  use  of  naval  armed  force." 
.\nd  he  asked  :  "  Is  the  Prime  Minister  quite  sure  that  the 
great  naval  preponderance  of  the  AUies  has  been  and  is  being 
used  to  the  best  advantage  ?  "  This  question  had  been 
answered  to  all  intents  and  purposes  in  the  negative  even 
before  it  appeared  in  print  by  the  presence  of  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  at  the  Admiralty.  The  nation  is  desirous  to  know, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  permissible  to  make  the  facts  public,  what 
steps  have  been  taken  to  render  our  naval  preponderance 
more  effective.  The  submarine  depredations  have  been 
increasing  during  the  last  few  weeks.  The  jiroblem  is  ad- 
mittedly a  difficult  one,  but  are  not  all  naval  ])robIems 
difficult,   until  they  are  solved  ? 

Never  once  in  this  journal  nor  in  any  other  publica- 
tion, so  far  as  we  are  aware,  has  the  faintest  doubt  or 
reflection  been  cast  on  the  fighting  capacity  of  the  navy. 
Popular  confidence  in  the  fleet  has  ne\'er  stood  higher.  .\nd 
in  this  campaign  the  King's  Navy  has  been  reinforced  by 
the  British  mercantile  marine  and  our  fisher-folk  from  Land's 
End  to  John  o'  Groats.  .Ml  are  equally  engaged  in  defeating 
the  U-boats,  and  we  know  well  that  the  only  fault  to  be  found 
with  British  seamen  is  that  once  they  are  freed  from  higher 
authority  and  left  to  their  own  devices,  they  are  daring  even 
to  recklessness.  One  of  the  glories  of  the  war  is  that  it  has 
proved  conclusively  that  the  fighting  qualities  of  the  British 
blood  are  as  fine  as  at  any  hour  in  its  history.  This  truth, 
ns  we  learn  from  the  writings  of  war  coiTespondents,  is 
exemplified  daily  in  Artois  and  Picardy,  but  though  a  great 
silence  hangs  over  the  sea,  broken  only  now  and  again  by 
whispers  of  daring  deeds,  we  aj-e  well  assured  tliat  grander 
dash  and  courage  have  never  marked  the  annals  of  -Ad- 
miralty than  in  this  tireless  rnmpaign  against  German  pimcy. 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  10,  1917 


The  Mill 

iJy    Hilairc  Belloc 


T}i\:  stcatly  process  ol  sucking  the  German  reserves 
into  the  mill  and  grinding  them  down  has  passed 
tliis  week  through  its  fourth  turn.  It  luis  proceeded 
this  week  after  a  fashion  wliidi  can  he  followetl 
more  easily  tlian  is  usually  tlie  case  with  this  enormous  busi- 
ness, because  the  alternative  days  of  stroke  and  counter- 
attack and  the  alternative  action  of  I'rench  and  Jinglish 
on  the  left  and  on  the  right  of  the  long  line,  happen  to  fall, 
on  this  occasion,  with  great  symmetry. 

We  shall  appreciate  the  character  of  the  week's  work  if  we 
tabulate  it  thus  : 

riiiirsday.  May  ;rd,  was  the  date  of  the  fourth,  the  main 
Knglish  blow  upon  the  broken  sector  already  driven  into  the 
llindenburg  line,  and  marked  the  capture  of  further  portions 
in  that- now  fractured  line  upon  the  extreme  north  and  the  ex- 
treme south  of  the  sector  attacked.  The  capture  or  loss  of 
a  position  in  the  plain  is,  it  must  always  ho  remembered,  of 
subsidiary  interest.  The  real  interest  at  this  stage  lies  in  the 
counter-attack  provoked  and  its  expense  to  the  enemy. 

i'riday.  May  4th,  the  morrow,  was  the  date  of  the  main 
re-action   of  the  enem\-. 

Satiirdiiy  and  Similay,  th(^  5th  and  ()tli,  were  full  of  con- 
tinuing and  still  very  expensive  counter-attacks  of  the  enemy, 
and  the  beginning  of  a  return  to  the  general  bombardment 
which  precedes  and  follows  each  of  these  successive  blows. 
Monday,  the  7th,  still  saw  the  process  at  work  ;  a  last  counter- 
et^ort,  very  expensi\e  and  wholly  broken  in  the  north  near 
Lens.  Beyond  Monday  the  despatches  received  at  the 
moment  of  writing  do  not  carry  us. 

Meanwhile',  far  away  to  the  south  the  French  action  pur- 
sued exactly  the  same  method,  but  was  dated  exactly  24 
liours  later,  that  is,  timed  to  synchronise  with  the  worst 
pressure  in  the  north. 

The  great  I'rench  blow  was  delivered  on  the  Friday,  counter- 
attacks tilling  up  the  Saturday  and  the  Sunday  But  the 
I'rench  action  further  included  a  very  remarkable  local  piece 
of  work  upon  the  Saturday.  The  day  was  not  spent  merely 
•in  receiving  and  massacring  the  German  counter-attacks, 
but  also  (through  one  of  tliose  breakdowns  inevitable  at 
intervals  in  the  German  re-action),  it  was  occupied  in  one 
l)lace — on  the  extreme  French  left — with  an  unexpectedly 
sharp  advance,  and  a  correspondingly  large  number  of 
prisoners. 

Meanwhile,  this  steady  process  of  (a)  the  stroke  breaching 
the  line  further  and  provoking  (b)  the  re-action  which  is 
smothered  and  massacred  by  the  suj^erior  weight  of  artillery, 
Jias  been  represented  upon  the  enemy's  side  in  what  is  now 
the  routine  fashion  of  "  failure  to  break  through." 

The   enemy  must   say  something  of  that   kind,   both  for 

domestic  and  for  foreign  consumption,  and  he  must,  as  a 

.  mere  matter  of  pohcv,  represent  the  great  struggle  as  liaving 

now  degenerated  to  a  futdity  which  may  be  continued  almost 

indefinitely  without  results  to  either  side. 

The  only  difference  Ix^tween  his  despatches  this  week  and 
tl'.e  previous  ones  is,  that  he  has  evidently  been  reading  the 
foreign  comment  made  upon  them,  with  the  result  that  the 
last  despatches  are  a  little  less  rhetorical  and  tJiat  lie  also 
Ijrings  in  matter  which  he  hopes  will  confirm  his  statements. 
F'or  instance,  he  alludes  to  the  concentrations  of  cavalry  which 
are  always  made  before  these  strokes,  for  the  simple  reason 
that,  whenever  the  line  shall  happen  to  show  a  gap,  the  cavalry 
will  have  to  act  at  once.  But  he  talks  as  though  such  con- 
centrations of  cavalry  contradicted  the  Allied  plan  of  "  grind- 
ing." He  al.so  alludes  \aguely,  without  quoting  the  words, 
to  "  orders  captured  on  jjrisoners  showing  that  .-i  very  distant 
objective  was  aimed  at,  "  which  simply  means  that  whenever 
one  of  these  blows  is  delivered  commanders  are  instructed 
how  to  act  in  case  there  is  an  unexpected  enemy  breakdown 
over  and  above  the  set  objectives  of  the  day. 

It  is  necessary  to  spend  a  little  time  explaining  this  purely 
political  action  of  the  enemy's  lest  it  should  have  even  the 
slightest  el'tect  in  deceiving  general  opinion.  But  intellec- 
tually it  is  hardly  worth  the  effort,  for  the  policy  in  question 
is  very  simple  and  transparent.  Until  the  line  wJiich  is  now 
being  so  battered  by  su])erior  power  begins  to  crumble  its 
commanders  can  always  ])oint  out  that  the  crumbling  has  not 
begun.  So  can  the  owner  of  a  skating  |X)nd  point  out  during  a 
thaw  that  the  ice  still  bears.  .Meanwhile,  the  real  test  of 
what  is  happening  is  the  respective  losses  of  the  two  sides 
coupled  with  a  certitude  of  which   side  now  exercises  the 


initiative.  Judged  by  this  double  test,  there  is  no  doubt. 
It  is  wholly  the  Allied  initiative  which  gives  its  character  to 
the  battle,  and  the  enemy  los.ses  are  necessary  and  con- 
sistently -  against  such  u  superiority  of  metal-  highly 
superior  to  those  of  the  Allies. 

With  this  general  scheme  in  mind,  the  British  blcnv  timed 
for  Thursday  with  the  countei'-attacks  it  provoked  for  three 
days,  the  l-rench  blow  timed  for  Friday  with  the  counter- 
attack it  provoked  during  two  days,  we  may  proceed  to  the 
details  of  either  field. 

The    British    Blow 

Before  the  British  Douai,  some  ten  miles  away,  is  vital  to  the 
German  armies.  To  defend  it  the  Hindenburg  line  existed. 
That  line  has  been  breached  from  near  Bullecourt  all  the  way 
to  the  Lens  region.  Still  to  defen<l  Douai  the  Oue.-nit-Dro- 
court  switch  line — jierhaps  not  yet  completed  was  less 
hurriedly  designed.  To  hold  on  in  front  of  that  the  fearful 
losses  of  the  enemy  are  incurred,  and  as  he  pours  men  up 
to  meet  the  pressure  against  him,  all  the  roads  by  which 
they  come  and  every  ]X)int  where  they  are  found  concen- 
trating for  the  counter-attacks  are  under  British  observation 
and  oveiAvhelmingly  superior  British  fire.    • 

That  is  the  ralson  d'etre  of  ("Iiese  successive  blows. 

The  British,  after  the  special  artillery  ])reparati6n  of  last 
W'ednesday,  Ma\-  2nd,  attacked  on  Thursday  the  3rd  upon 
a  front  of  21 ,000  yards,  or  nearly  thirteen  miles.  'The  infantry 
struck  from  the  fields  in  the  north  between  Acheville  and 
Arleux  to  the  village  of  Bullecourt  and  the  fields  immediately 
beyond  it  on  the  south.  'The  line  of  battle  showed  an  arrange- 
ment whereby  on  either  flank  Colonial  troops  were  engaged, 
the  Canadians  in  the  north,  the  Australians  in  the  south  ; 
the  British  troops  from  these  islands  acting  in  the  central 
portions,  what  may  be  called  the  field  of  the  'Three  Rivers, 
the  Scarpe,  the  Cojeul,  and  the  Sensee. 

It  was  just  at  the  end  of  the  night,  after  the  setting  of  the 


t^LENS 


I 


Drocourt 


ThotutxncL    Yaj'ds 


!         3  1 


May  JO,  191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


moon  in   the  earlv  Jiours  ofnlnirscray.'Jra'y  .fr'd',  tliit  the" 
bombardment  lifted  and  the  signal  for  the  attack  was  given. 

The' first  success  consisted  in  the  Canadians  .seizing,  the 
village  of  Fresnov.  It  is  remarkable  that  at  this  point,  upon 
the  extreme  north  of  the  line,  a  German  concentration  was  in 
process  and  was  timed  for  attack  exactly  two  hours  later ; 
three  regiments,  fresh,  and  hitherto  forming  part  of  the 
reserve,  two  of  them  new  '  formations,  had  been  gathered 
coming  up  from  Douai  the  day  before.  Their  prisoners 
report  as  usual  the  heavy  loss  from  the  British  artillery  upon 
the  way.  The  number  of  jirisoners  taken  was  small,  but  the 
enemy's  losses  in  killed  and  wounded  very  heavy. 

All" comments  upon  this  fine  piece  of  work — including  that 
of  the  enemy,— have  remarked  that  the  Canadians  wlio 
accomplished  it  have  been  fighting  continuously  since  their 
first  great  success  a  month  ago  in  seizing  the  Vimy  Ridge,  the 
key  to  all  that  has  followed. 

in  the  centre  Oppy  was  attacked,  the  enemy  making  a 
very  stubborn  resistance  through  his  possession  of  the  little 
wood  immediately  to  the  west  of  the  ruins,  and  here  the  British 
troops  met  the  German  Guards.  The  first  rush  of  the  British 
carried  them  right  into  the  village  and  almost  through  it, 
but  the  wood  behind  them  was  not  cleared,  and  so  far  as  one 
can  gather  from  the  accounts  to  hand,  the  line  here  was  not 
permanently  advanced.     It  was  a  swaying  fight. 

Gavrelle,  immediately  to  the  south,  which  was  in  British 
hands  at  the  beginning  of  the  blow,  was  continuously  held, 
but  there  were  very  heavy  (German  efforts  to  re-take  it.  The 
Germans  concentrated  at  the  farm  called  Mauvillc  upon  the 
rising  ground  just  north  of  Fresncs,  wlience  there  is  a  low 
very  fiat  back  or  ridge  running  towards  Gavrelle,  marked, 
close  to  Gavrelle  village,  by  the  ruins  of  Gavrelle  windmill. 
From  the  farm  to  the  mill  is  just  over  ;],ooo  yards.  This 
concentration  and  the  advance  over  the  open  towards  the  mill 
was  subjected  to  very  heavy  British  artillery  fire,  but  it  got 
home  and  the  mill  was  fought  for  all  the  morning,  changing 
hands  no  less  than  four  times.  The  fight  round  it  continued 
to  rage  all  during  the  day.     It  remained  in  British  hands. 

Further  south  the  Germans  also  hung  on  successfully  to  the 
ruins  of  Koeux  on  the  Scarpe,  but  again  at  a  tremendous  cost  ; 
because  the  ruins  of  this  village,  though  hidden  in  the  hollow 
of  the  Scarpe  vallcv,  are  subject  to  a  converging  fire  from 
west  and  north.  Further  south  again  the  J^ritish  pushed 
on  a  few  hundred  yards  to  the  little  rise  just  in  front  of  the 
Bois  du  Vert,  seized  the  factory  of  St.  Kohart  on  the  Cojeul 
River  and  the  village  of  Cherisy  on  the  Sensee. 

In  this  sector  between  the  Cojeul  and  the  Sensee  rivers,  a 
very  heavy  German  counter-attack  achieved  the  only  (lerman 
success  of  the  day.  The  15ritish  were  com])elled  to  retire  before 
night,  apj)arentiy  to  aijandon  the  factory,  and  certainly  to 
abandon  the  village  of  Cherisy.  It  would  seem  to  be  an 
almost  invariable  rule  in  these  re-actions  of  the  enemy  that 
there  is  thus  some  one  narrow  sector  of  the  whole  line  (in 
this  case  about  2,000  yards  out  of  20,000)  in  which  at  a  very 
heavy  price  he  can  sliow  superiority  of  weight.  We  had  an 
example  of  this  at  the  beginning  of  these  great  actions  of  the 
Artois,  in  front  of  BuUecourt.  But  these  exceedingly  expen- 
sive occasional  local  successes  never  hold.  The  abandonment 
of  Cherisy  had  saved  Fontaine,  but  meanwhile  the  Australians 
had  seized  the  ground  to  the  north  of  BuUecourt  3nd  held  it, 
a  very  important  matter,  because  it  was  another  breach  in  the 
original  Hindenburg  line. 

With  this  success  on  the  extreme  south,  ends  the  story  of 


""t'lie/Thiifsd'ay.  "The  main  blow  had  been  delivered  arid-the 
re-action  was  to  come.  The  results  in  prisoners  were  in- 
significant. A  few  hundred  men,  man\-  of  thgiii  wOUnded, 
picked  up  on  both  sides  as  the  battle  swayed  at  one  point 
or  another,  nor  did  either  party  claim  captured  guns.  But 
the  whole  point  of  the  blow  was  the  nature  and  reception  of 
the  counter-blow  which  it  designed  to  provoke,  and  this 
counter-attack  was  Jjrefaced  by  a  renewed  German  bombard- 
ment during  the  night,  and  launched  upon  the  Friday 
morning. 

The  counter-attacks  had  indeed  begun  after  dark  of  the 
night  before  in  a  very  heavy  attempt  to  recover  the  trenches 
lost  near  BuUecourt.  It  failed  under  the  murderous  fire  that 
met  it,  but  the  principal  work  belongs  to  the  Friday  when  the 
enemy  made  a  determined  eft'ort  against  the  Canadians  stand- 
ing in  the  captured  ruins  of  Fresnov.  The  total  number  of 
counter-attacks  delivered  against  F'resnoy  we  are  not  told, 
but  there  were  several.  The  Guards  in  front  of  Gavrelle 
were  too  exhausted  by  the  fighting  of  the  day  before  to  renew 
their  effort  seriously,  and  no  new  troops  could  be  brought  up 
in-  time  to  begin  again  on  that  sector.  But  Polish  troops 
from  Roeux  were  sent  forward  with  no  result,  and  in  general 
the  counter-attacks  of  the  Friday  left  the  line  where  it  was. 
Nowhere  did  the  enemy  obtain  anything  b}'  his  re-action 
except  at  tremendous  loss,  and  the  warding  of  the  (}ueant 
Drocourt  line  behind  him. 

On  the  Saturday  the  counter-attack  continued,  shifting  this 
time  to  the  south  and  directing  the  weight  of  their  men  against 
BuUecourt.  The  losses  here  were  remarked  as  being  higiier 
even  than  in  the  corresponding  attack  to.  the  north  against 
Fresnoy  of  the  day  before. 

All  through  the  night  between  Saturday  and  Sunday  this 
Cierrnan  effort  against  BuUecourt  continued.  So  far  from 
obtaining  any  success  it  actually  lost  ground,  especially  to 
the  South  of  the  village.  The  official  despatch  comments 
upon  the  exceedingly  severe  los.ses  of  the  enemy  at  this  point. 

On  Monday  yet  another  counter-attack  with  two  divisions 
on  the  extreme  north  was  broken  in  its  turn. 

The  whole  operation,  therefore,  was  of  the  type  whicii 
now  governs  all  this  work  over  the  125  miles  between  Lens 
on  the  north,  and  Auberive,  in  Champagne,  but  especially 
upon  the  two  flanks  of  the  line  :  A  blow,  the  power  of  which 
is  based  upon  the  superiority  of  artillery  (and  to  some  extent 
of  mofal  in  the  troops)  provokes,  now  that  the  main  first 
defences  have  gone,  counter-attacks,  lacking  which  the  whole 
ill-protected  line  would  go.  The  counter-attacks  cannot  ba 
avoided  by  the  enemy  and  yet  are,  to  his  full'  knowledge, 
enormously  expensive.  First,  because  his  concentrations  for 
the  (jurpose  of  delivering  them  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  superior 
Allied  air  work,  and  the  far  superior  Allied  artillery  ;  secondly, 
because  in  the  delivery  of  them  lie  cannot  prepare  the  same 
weight  of  fire  that  the  Allies  can,  and  the  troops  which  he  sends 
to  the  shock  lose  enormously  just  before  contact  and  on  contact. 
There  is  nearly  alwa\'s  some  point  (this  time  it  was  Cherisj',  last 
\  time  it  was  BuUecourt,  and  against  the  French  the  other 
day  it  was  on  the  Nauroy  Road)  where  the  weight  of  the 
counter-attack  just  manages  to  tell,  arid  the  test  of  it  is  loss  of 
ground.  But  even  for  such  success,  the  price  paid  is  too  high  ; 
wliile  along  the  mass  of  the  line  there  is  mere  disproportionate 
loss  without  any  compen.sating  advantage  at  all.  After  each 
such  blow  the  dwindling  reserve  must  be  further  drawn  upon 
and  the  process  continued  inexorably  (short  of  political  failure) 
to  the  military  end  of  disintegration. 


The  French  Blow 


In  its  very  broadest  aspects  the  French  blow  deli\-ered 
this  week  conforms  to  the  same  type.  It  is  the  tremendous 
shock  of  a  superior  artillery  and  better  troops  comparable  to 
the  fall  of  a  weight  which  drives  a  pile  into  mud  ;  it  is  the 
consequent  re-action  of  counter-attack  and  the  massacre  thereof 
when  it  develops. 

But  there  were  particular  features  in  the  Frencn  anair 
which  differentiated  it. 

In  the  first  place,  there  was  the  exceedingly  important 
capture  of  Craonne  ;  in  the  second  place,  there  "was  the  un- 
expectedly large  number  of  jjrisoners. 

When  the  Canadians  took  Vimy  fridge  in  the  very  first 
day  of  the  British  offensive  on  liastcr  Monday,  they  captured 
the  key  points  for  observation  and  made  the  British  mas- 
ters in  artillery  of  the  Uouai  Plain  and  of  the  Lens  region. 

The  French  did  not  obtain  an  advantage  of  this  kind 
when  their  effort  followed  a  week  later  ujxm  April  ibth. 
They  reached  at  certain  points  tin;  ridge  of  the  Craonne 
Plateau,  wliich  is  followed  by  the  Chcmin  des  Dames,  and 
that  was  immensely  valuable"  as  against  tlie  counter-attacks 
that  were  to  follow.  But  as  regards  obsei'vation  they  did  not 
seize  the  capital  point.     It  will  be  remembered  that  I  pointed 


out  in  a  prexious  article  the  very  high  value  of  the  flat  pro- 
montory in  which  the  ridge  terminates,  a  promontory  whicli 
bears  immediately  upon  its  edge  the  village  of  Craonne.  In 
the  old  wars  it  was  a  decisive  position  for  anv  fighting  in  this 
'region,  for  it  dominates  the  whole  plain.  Even  with  tlie  enor- 
mously increased,  ]wwer  of  the  modern  defensive  the  pos- 
session of  the  Craonne  terminator  has  the  supreme  advantage 
of  observation.  I  have  already  compared  it  in  a  previous 
article  to  Black  Down  in  the  South  of  England,  from  whence 
one  overlooks  Su.ssex  and  Hampshire.  Another  parallel 
is  I  the  position  of  the  town  of  Shaftesbury.  The  Craonne 
terminator  hangs  over  the  whole  jilain  of  Western  Champagne. 
You  see  everything  from  it.  From  the  rest  of  the  ridge  you 
■  Kjok  down  into  the  Ailettc  valley,  but  you  see  no  more,"  for 
beyond  the  valley  is  another  high  and  steep  ridge  of  wooded 
liills  to  the  north  A  -B  on  Map  II.  But  this  range  to  the 
north  docs  not  project  eastward  beyond  the  Craonne  Plateau, 
and  therefore  does  not  mask  the  view  from  the  latter. 

When  the  French  attacked  on  Friday,  the  4th  of  May,  they 
seized  the  ruins  of  Craonne  and  the  promontory  1  have  de- 
scribed—not quite  :dl  the  western  part  of  the  hill  on  which  is 
the  still  disputed  and  half  retained  German    redoubt  called 


LAND    &     WATER 


"\l;iv  10,   Kji) 


"  \\'interberg."  but  enough  to  enjoy  all  tlie  value  of  the 
ridge,  for  they  can  now  sec  for  miles  over  the  (ierman 
positions  in  the  plain  of  Champagne  below. 

This  success  does  not  necessarily  mean  immediate  large 
movements  as  it  would  have  meant  in  the  older  warfare.  It 
may  be  days  or  it  may  be  weeks  befon^  the  fruits  of  that  ex- 
ceedingly impoi  tant  success  are  gathered,  but  the  essential  thing 
has  been  done.  Henceforward  nothing  can  move  by  day  in  the 
whole  of  that  sector,  as  far  north  as  beyond  Goudelancourt  or 
anywhere  along  the  railway  between  Laon  and  Kheims. 
or  anywhere  in  the  plain  all  the  way  round,  without  being 
smothered  under  the  superior  artillery  of  the  Allies. 

At  the  same  time  more  elbow  room  was  got  beyond  the  canal 
towards  AguiJcourt.  The  number  of  prisoners  taken  in  the 
Course  of  this  blow  was  small,  only  800  altogether,  but  there 
was  more  to  follow,  due  to  a  small  unexpected  success  which 
has  not  been  fully  described  and  the  course  of  which  I  can 
only  suggest  in  a  moment. 

Upon  Saturday  came  the  inevitable  counter-attacks  ;  a  very 
desperate  one,  as  might  be  imagined,  being  launched  for  the 
recovery  of  the  Ciaonne  plateau.  It  failed,  as  did  another 
only  just  less  expensi\'e.  against  the  ground  seized  beyond  the 
canal  towards  Aguilcourt.  liefore  night  fell  upon  that 
Saturday  very  large  forces  were  concentrated  by  the  (>ermans 
at  Aguilcourt,  and  at  least  two  new  divisions  from  the  reserve 
were  thrown  in  for  the  purpose  of  checking  the  French  here. 

On  Sunday  something  which,  as  I  ha\e already  said,  has  not 
at  the  moment  of  writing  been  fully  described,  took  place 
upon  the  French  left,  west  of  Craonne  in  a  general  advance 
up  to  and  along  the  Craonne  Ridge.  .Although  we  have  as  yet 
not  sufficient  knowledge  of  what  happened,  we  find  in  the 
communique  the  important  news  that  seven  guns  and  a  very 
large  nuiAber  of  new  prisoners  were  got  hold  of  in  this  com- 
paratively small  sector.  The  number  of  ])risoners  counted  by 
Sunday  noon  was  already  over  5,000  and  i)v  the  evening  it  was 
over  b.ooo.  The  major  part  of  this  une.v])ected  success 
seems  to|liave]dp\eloped  halt  way  between  Craonne  and  Soissons 
10  miles  from  either  town  in  front  of  Braye.  To  a  couple 
of  French  divisions  alone  there  fell  nearly  2,000  prisoners  at 
this  point.  We  cannot,  of  course,  measure  the  enormous 
German  lo.sscs  merely  by  the  prisoners  collected.  l)ut  it  may 
be  legitimately  suggested  that  this  success  was  due  to  some 
disorganisation  of  the  enemy  at  this  |K)int,  and  that  is  what 
one  expects  in  the  process  of  crumpling  the  line.  The  weight 
is  against  the  enemy  and  he  cannot  be  (everywhere  equally 
\-igilant  and  equally  ready.  The  whole  of  Sunday  was  takfin 
up  by  counter-attacks,  not  perhaps  quite  as  heavy  as  those  of 
Saturday,  but  still  formidable,  all  of  them  broken  with  very 
heavy  losses.  .Vgainst  the  I-rcnch,  as  against  the  British 
the  weight  of  these  counter-attacks  told  at  certain  points. 
Un  the  extreme  west  beyond  Kiieims  a  certain  number  of 


j)risoners  were  taken,  and  the  total  enemy  claims  at  the  end 
of  the  fighting  were  about  10  per  cent,  of  those  which  the 
French  had  taken  upon  their  side. 

P.S. — In  a  former  article  I  ascribed  the  capture  of  Fa mpoux 
— that  critical  point  on  the  Scarpe — to  the  date  April  loth, 
Easter  Tuesday.  This  was  an  error.  Fampoux  I  am  now 
told  was  carried  on  the  fmi  day  of  the  British  offensive,  April 
9th,  a  point  which  adds  to  the  magnificent  record  of  th  it 
decisive  twenty-four  hours.  H.  Belloc 

Mr.  Hilaire  Belloc  has  kindly  lent,  for  private  exhibition,  a 
new  series  of  French  (Official  Films  of  the  Battle  of  Verdun  and 
the  Battle  of  the  Sonime.  They  are  to  be  shown  to-morrow 
afternoon  at  5  o'clock  at  6,  Cheyne  Walk,  which  has  been  lent 
by  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Trevor  Bighatii.  Mr.  Belloc  will  him.self  give 
the  introductory  lecture  and  explain  the  films ;  Jjjrd  J^yttou 
will  take  the  chair.  Tickets,  jos.,  7s.  and  5s.,  may  be  liad'from 
the  Hon.  Secretary.  J'lie  Children's  Aid  Committee,  50,  South 
Molton  Street,  VV.  Proceeds  are  to  be  given  to  help  the  Com- 
mittee's work  for  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  motherless  children. 

The  second  Ixmnd  volume  of  Tlie  Xnv  Europe,  that  singularly 
well-informed  orga'i  of  international  politics,  is  now  published 
by  Messrs.  Constable  and  Co.  (7s.  6d.  net).  It  includes  the 
thirteen  weeks  from  January  18th — April  12th,  1917. 

A  sign  of  the  times  is  the  publication  of  Woman  and  the 
Church  (Fisher  I'nwin.  3s.  6d.  net).  The  authors  of  this  little 
volume  of  four  essays  are  Canon  Streeter  and  Miss  Edith  Picton- 
Turberville.  Into  the  thorny  question  of  whether  woman  .should 
take  a  more  active  part  in  the  ministry  of  the  Church  than  she  has 
done  hitherto,  the  reviewer  declines  to  enter,  but  the  arguments 
in  favour,  .some  of  whic  h  it  must  be  admitted  appear  cogent,  are 
ably  .set  out  by  these  two  writers  who  ha\'c  e\-idently  given  deep 
consideration  to  this  momentous  subject. 

The  Happy  Carrel,  by  V.  Goldie.  (Heinemaun.  5s.  net),  is  the 
story  of  Hebe  Hill,  materialist  and  hedonist,  told  in  autobiograph- 
ical fashion.  She  suffered  in  earlv  days  from  a  tlrunkeu  mother, 
and  brokcjthe  possibility  of  a  career  for  herself 'bv  nursing  a  con- 
sumptive father  ;  after  his  death  she  came  to  ]london  and  em- 
barked on  an  ainiles.s  sort  of  life  which  con.sisted  very  largely 
m  the  patronage  of  a  nisht  clidi  known  as  "  The  Happy 'Garret.'' 
It  was  noisy,  antl  had  all  the  other  characteristics  of  night  clubs, 
aiul  the  description  "■  ha|)py  "  is  a  bad  misapplication  for  such  a 
place — but  that  may  pass.  Hebe  is  the  main  thing  in  the  book, 
and  though  she  does  not  for  one  minute  command  the  sympathy 
of  the  reader,  she  retains  a  sort  of  fascination  up  to  the  last  page'. 
This  probably  is  on  account  of  the  very-  clever  way  in  which  the 
book  is  written,  its  humorous  and  rather  cynical  outlook  on  life, 
and  the  excellent  (  haracterisation  of  the'  men  who  flit  across 
Heljc's  life,  as  well  as  of  Hebe  herself.  .As  a  picture  of  decadent 
l^ondon  life,  the  book  makes  excellent  reading,  and  thouph  Hebe 
herself  is  frankly  an  unmoral  hedonist,  the  book  itself  is  never 
immoral.  Its  author  has  achieved  the  frankness  necessan'  in 
depictmg  a  night  club  faithfidiv,  without  a  suggestion  -i  .iiiiinf<-<. 
It  IS  the  story  of  a,  materialist,  well  told. 


Mav  TO,    i<)i7 


LAND    &    WATER 


The  Naval  Crisis 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


FOR  the  fnurtli  time  since  the  beginning  of  liostilitics, 
both  the  constitution  and  tlie  personnel  of  the  Higher 
Command  of  the  Britisli  Fleet  are  now  in  dispnte. 
This  is  a  crisis  on  the  right  nltimate  solution  of  which 
tJie  progress  of  the  war  and  hence  the  attainment  of  the 
object  we  have  in  view  must,  to  a  very  great  extent,  depend. 
I  say  itUimale  and  not  immediate,  because  the  problem  is 
higlily  complicated,  men  are  about  to  be  tried  in  new  duties, 
and  many  of  the  issues  are  very  obscure,  it  is  far  from  likely, 
therefore,  that  we  shall  rest  content  with  whatever  reforms 
and  changes  are  made  in  the  present  emergency. 

It  is  unofficially  as.serted  that  the  Prime  Minister  and  the 
First  Lord  of  the  Admiraltj^  have  been  jointly  occupied  in 
giving  their  personal  attention  to  the  reorganisation  of 
Whitehall,  that  extensive  alterations  of  the  system  are  to  be 
carried  out,  and  that  considerable  and  important  changes 
are  to  be  made  liy  ptitting  officers,  now  at  sea,  either  into 
new  posts  to  be  created,  or  into  posts  now  occupied,  where 
fresh  experience  and  a  new  outlook  are  needed.  It  is  also 
stated  that  these  impending  changes  will  put  everything  right 
and  secure  the  carrying  out  of  a  more  vigorous  and  effective 
nayal  policy.  So  momentous  are  the  issues  that  it  is 
devoutly  to  be  hoped  that  the  expectation  raised  for  us 
by  these  anonymous  communications  may  be  realised.  But 
we  do  not  know  either  the  general  character  or  any  details 
of  the  proposed  reforms,  so  that  no  criticism  of  them  is  now 
])ossible.  They  may  be  communicated  to  the  public  before 
these  lines  appear.  It  may  be  they  will  be  [communicated 
iirst  to  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  secret  session  which 
is  to  take  place  on  the  day  of  publication  of  this  article. 
Perhaps,  therefore,  the  only  useful  thing  one  can  do  is  to 
sketch,  very  b4eily,  the  sequence  of  events  that  has  led  to 
the  present  situation. 

On  the  19th  of  last  month — ^when  I  wrote  the  last  article 
of  mine  that  has  appeared  in  this  journal — the  enemy's  sub- 
marine campaign  had  persisted  for  over  ten  weeks  at  a  very 
disconcerting  level  of  efficiency.  There  were  slight  variations 
from  week  to  week,  but  over  the  whole  period  we  had  been 
losing  ships  at  an  average  of  twenty-four  a  week,  while  four- 
teen more  were  the  subjects  of  unsuccessful  attack.  We  were 
not  informed  either  of  the  total  tonnage  that  was  lost,  nor 
of  the  number  of  ships  that  were  injured  without  being  sunk, 
nor  yet  of  the  losses  incurred  by  neutral  shipping — so  that 
we  were  entirely  uninformed  as  to  the  net  deduction  from 
our  carrying  power.  It  was  not  indeed  until  last  week  that 
the  figures,  given  by  the  Aftenfost,  of  the  Norwegian  losses 
were  published  in  tliis  country'.  From  this  it  appeared  that 
during.  March  and  April  this  single  neutral  had  lost  sixty-six 
in  the  first  and  seventy  ships  in  the  second  month.  On  the 
average,  then,  Norway  was  losing  seventeen  ships  a  week. 
If  the  ratio  of  unsuccessful  attacks  on  Norwegian  ships  was 
the  same  as  on  British,  there  may  have  been  twelve  or  thirteen 
weekly.  Thus,  in  addition  to  the  thirty-eight  weekly  attacks 
■n  British  ships,  there  would  be  thirty  on  Norwegian,  giving 
;in  aggregate  of  over  nine  a  day.  This  takes  no  account 
'  ither  of  Allied  ships  or  of  those  belonging  to  other  neutrals. 
The  situation,  then,  on  April  19th,  even  without  knowledge 
as  to  neutrals,  was  clearly  serious.  That  the  effectiveness  of 
the  enemy  campaign  had  been  multiplied  at  least  by  three 
since  November  30th,  when  the  present  Board  of  Admiralty 
was  appointed,  seemed  to  justify  me  in  the  opinion  I  then 
expressed  in  the  following  words  : 

"  The  chiefs  of  the  greatest  navy  in  the  world  have  simply 
failed  in  so  crucial,  yet  elementary',  a  duty  as  protecting 
the  sea-borne  commerce  of  a  sea-girt  people." 

I  then  went  on  to  state  that  we  had  followed  a  wrong  prin- 
riple  in  changing  the  personnel  of  our  chief  command  on 
three  occasions  during  the  war,  without  in  any  way  bringing 
,  the  system  of  Admiralty  administration  into  closer  harmony 
with  the  principles  that  ought  to  underline  the  constitution 
of  any  authority  engaged  in  the  direction  of  fighting  forces. 

In  our  next  issue — that  of  April  26th— there  appeared 
a  contribution  from  "  Flag  Officer,"  the  writer  of  which, 
after  expressing  a  general  endorsement  of  the  opinions  ex- 
pressed by  me,  both  in  the  article  I  have  just  quoted  and  in 
the  contributions  to  these  pages  during  the  last  few  months, 
went  on  to  elaborate  the  theory  that,  unless  the  militar\' 
direction  of  the  fleet  in  war,  and  the  training  and  preparing  of 
it  for  war.  were  completely  divorced  from  the  civil  admini- 


stration, it  was  quite  impo.ssiblc  that  those  fighting  objective:^ 
for  which  the  fleet  is  brought  into  being  could  be  obtainerl. 
Simultaneously  with  the  publication  of  this  letter,  it  was 
announced  that  the  rate  of  destruction  of  British  ships  had 
doubled  in  the  preceding  week.  Whatever  justifica<^on  there 
was,  therefore,  for  saying  on  April  19th  that  our  Higher 
Command  had  failed,  was  greatly  reinforced  when  it  was 
known  that  such  far  graver  results  had  followed  from  it.  It  is 
not  surprising,  therefore,  that  "Flag  Officer's"  letter  was 
extensively  quoted  in  the  press,  led  to  discussions  of  a  most 
interesting  character  in  the  Times  and  elsewhere,  and  brought 
on  a  crisis  in  the  administering  of  the  Navy. 

From  these  discussions  my  own  contribution — intended 
for  publication  here  last  week — was  excluded  by  the  Chief 
Censor  on  the  ground  that  it  would  "  prejudice  the  discipline 
and  administration  of  His  Majesty's  Naval  I'orces  ..." 
and  be  "  detrimental  to  the  best  interests  of  the  State  and  an 
encouragement  to  our  enemies."  If  this  were  really  likely  to 
have  been  the  quite  unintentional  results  of  a  frank  statement 
of  my  opinions,  I  cannot  pretend  to  regret  the  article's  sup- 
pression. But  it  is  obvious  that  all  adverse  criticism  of  naval 
and  military  policy  is  open  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  to  the 


TPhe  King's  Proclamation  to  "  Our  loving  subjects, 
the  men  and  women  of  Our  realm"  states  that 
the  abstention  from  all  unnecessary  consumption  of 
grain  will  furnish  the  surest  means  of  defeating  the 
devices  of  the  King's  enemies. 

By  most  careful  and  economic  use  of  all  kinds 
of  grain,  the  country  may  last  out  until  the 
harvest.  But  it  behoves  each  and  all  of  us  to  see  that 
this  economy  is  in  constant  practice  in  the  home. 
This  personal  duty  we  owe  to  our  King  and  Country. 
It  is  a  small  return  to  our  gallant  sailors  and  soldiers 
to  consent  of  our  own  free  will  to  this  abstinence. 

Let  us  make  no  mistake,  Germany  is  rejoicing  that 
the  British  islands  are  within  sight  of  starvation. 
There  can  be  no  truth  in  this  belief,  if  at  once,  while 
there  is  time,  we  so  alter  our  manner  of  living  that 
the  consumption  of  grain  in  ahy  form  be  diminished- 
The  duty  is  one  that  cannot  be  delegated  ;  we  a|l 
have  to  discharge  it  personally — men.  women  and 
children.      It  were  cowardly  to  dodge  it. 

Every  influence  should  be  brought  to  bear  to 
awaken     in    all     people     a    sense     of    patriotism. 


objection  that  it  undermines  authority,  and  encourages  the 
foe.  Where  a  critic  believes  the  constituted  authorit}'  to  be 
acting  both  on  a  •system  and  on  a  theory  altogether  mistaken, 
and  sees  no  hope  of  altering  either  by  argument,  simply 
because  its  action  is  the  expression  of  convictions  which  are 
unalterable — theii  it  is  almost  his  professed  purpose  to  shake 
confidence,  so  as  to  obtain  a  more  efficient  authority  in  the  place 
of  that  which  he  undermines.  And  it  is  equally  obvious  that 
it  is  exactly  at  this  point  that  the  Government  of  tlie  day  must 
decide  whether  it  is  right  or  wrong  to  allow  coartroversy  of 
this  kind  to  go  forward.  In  the  present  case,  the  decision  is 
against  my  promulgating  my  opinions.  Consequently,  I 
propose  to-ckay  to  put  forward  in  this  matter  no  judgment  of 
my  own,  but  simply  to  summarise  those  opinions  that  have 
been  exprefssed  either  on  previous  occasions  by  me  or  by 
others,  in  these  columns  or  elsewhere. 

During  the  last  fortnight  many  speeches  have  been  delivered 
on  the  situation,  notably  by  Lord  Curzon,  by  the  Prime 
Minister  -and  by  General  Smuts.  The  King  has  issued  a 
proclama,tion  urging  economy  in  breadstuffs  ;  the  first  Lord 
of  the  Acbniralty  has  written  an  important  letter  to  repre- 
sentatives   of    \arious    shipbuilding    interesta.     The    points 


8 


LAJNU    &    WATER 


^fny  in,  1917 


raised  in  "  FlaR-OfTiccr's  "  letter  have  Beon  doak  witli-  at 
length  in  tlu'  columns  of  the  Tiiiii-s  by  Professor  S]>enser 
Wilkinson.  I>v  Admiral  Sir  Reginald  Custance,  by  Admiral 
Henderson,  Mr.  Winston  Chvir.iiill,  Lord  (icorRe  Hamilton 
anil  others.  .A  distingnished  French  writer,  .\dnnral  Di^otiy, 
lla^becnputtint;  forward  ^onie  very  stronj;  views  on  the  situa- 
tion in  France.  These  contributions  to  the  discussion  in- 
clude a  great  variety  of  opinions  that  may  be  summarised 
as  follows  :  ^ 

As  to  the  first  two,  which  were  the  burden^of  the  Prime 
Minister's  and  Lord  Curzon's  speeches,  and  the  King's  Pro- 
clamation, there  is  no  disagreement.  Whether  the  submarine 
campaign  increases  its  efficiency,  maintains  it,  or  falls  away, 
the  utmost  economy  in  foodstuffs  is  the  obvious  duty  of 
evtfy  individual.  Next,  whatever  the  qualification  of  our  sea 
command  now  sho\vn  to  exist,  there  is  no  alteration  in  the 
prospect  of  ultimate  victory.  The  naval  failure  does  not 
ensure  a  military  failure.  On  this  point  the  Prime  Minister's 
speech  at  the  (iuildhall  is  conclusive.  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
we  are  far  nearer  to  danger  than  we  were — but  there  is  no 
evidence  that  danger  is  near  enough  to  be  alarming.  Our 
losses,  as  a  distinguislied  Admiral  has  said,  may  indeed  be 
"  apj)alling."  but  they  are  a  long  way  from  indicating  either 
immediate  or  ultimate  failure.  It  may  Ix'  somewhat  reassur- 
ing to  remind  the  reader  of  a  fact  quite  largely,  but  perhaps 
not  generally  known.  It  is  that  the  rate  of  insurance  over 
the  worst  and  most  dangerous  channels  to  British  jrorts  Jias 
not  yet  passed  10  per  cent. — which  is  itself  50  per  cent, 
lower  than  was  the  rate  from  Gibraltar  for  a  very  long  period 
between  1S12  and  1S15— and  as  this  rate  is  naturally  made 
in  favour  of  the  underwriter,  it  is  probably  true  to  s;iy  that, 
at  the  utmost,  we  are  not  now  losing  more  than  one  cargo  in 
any  twelve  destined  for  this  country. 

.\  third  line  of  discussion  has  been  directed  towards 
enquiring  whether  our  whole,  pohcy  in  the  matter  of  the  sub- 
marine menace  has  not  been  entirely  too  defensive  and — 
lor  various  reasons  all  connected  with  the  character  of  the 
command — unnecessarily  inefficient  even  in  defence.  On 
the  first  of  these  points  the  Daily  Chronicle,  tlie  Sfycclaloi- 
and  other  journals  of  repute,  have  for  some  time  lieen  urging 
some  scheme  of  offensive  operations  against  Zeebrugge  antl 
other  (Jerman  bases,  a  matter  often  touched  ui)on  in  tliese 
columns  and  at  length  in  the  earlier  months  of  this  year. 
The  advocacy  of  such  an  oflensive  has  been  greatly  strengthened 
by  Admiral  Degouy's  recent  pronouncement.  The  weakness 
of  these  lay  recommendations  is  that  they  ignore  the  existence 
of  the  High  Seas  Fleet.  But  it  is  certainly  41  matter  which 
the  (iovernment  will  have  to  consider  very  closely. 

On  the  second  point  a  great  variety  of  criticisms  have 
been  made.  The  following  are  only  selected  as  chance  ex- 
amples. It  is  said  that  too  many  of  the  bases  from  which  the 
anti-submarine  craft  work,  are  under  the  control  of  retired 
oflicers,  who  have,  in  the  matter  of  technical  familiarity  with 
the  craft  and  devices  now  in  use,  too  little  in  common  with 
those  to  whom  the  actual  employment  of  these  craft  and 
devices  is  necessarily  entrusted.  "  It  is  also  said  that  the 
central  authority  is  in  some  matters  over-centralised,  so  that 
the  local  initiative  is  checked  ;  and  in  others  lacking  in  wide 
enough  powers  to  secure  the  co-ordination  of  all  the  forces 
that  must  be  combined  for  the  attack  both  on  submarines 
and  on  their  bases.  It  is,  for  instance,  asserted  that  the  com- 
mand of  the  destroyers,  the  trawlers  and  slow  craft  generally, 
of  the  monitors  and  airships  and  seaplanes,  is  so  divided 
and  cross  divided,  that  at  critical  times  it  is  impossible  to  get 
co-operation  tor  a  common  purpose.  Then,  too,  it  has  been 
questioned  whether  the  anti-submarine  craft  as  a  whole  are 
rightly  distributed  in  the  various  areas,  in  proportion  to 
the  intensity  of  the  submarine  attack  in  those  areas.  Such 
criticisms,  it  will  be  seen,  touch  almost  every  aspect  of  the 
constitution,  co-ordination  and  command  of  the  forces  en- 
gaged in  this  vastly  important  business. 

Fourthly  there  has  been  a  general  question  asked,  whether 
the  creation  of  a  submarine  department  at  the  Admiralty 
is  not  itself  the  admission  of  a  wrong  view  of  the  situation, 
and  simply  because,  if  once  we  suppose  the  function  6f 'the 
(irand  Fleet  to  be  defined  and  its  command  and  supply  pro- 
\ided  for,  tliQ  protection  of  our  shi])ping,  and  all  in  the  way 
of  offensive  and  defensive  that  this  implies,  is  really  to-daV 
the  main,  if  not  the  sole  business,  of  those  responsible  for  the 
military  control  of  our  sea  forces. 

The  fifth  and  si.xth  groups  deal  with  matters  arising  oiit  of 
"  Flag-Officer's  "  letter  of  the  25th.  And  here  it  seems  t6  be 
universally  admitted  that  a  separation  of  the  military  fi^om 
the  civil  side  of  the  Admirahy  is  an  immediate  necessity,' 
and  for  that  matter  the  unofficial  communications  that  have 
been  made  to  the  press  seem  to  promise  that  this  separation 
was  one,  if  not  the  chief  purpose  of  the  Prime  Minister's 
intervention.  This,  of  course,  is  an  admission  that  the  failure  to 
deal  properly  with  the  submarine  is  not  inherent  in  the  nature 


"  Gifts  " 

I'-V    N.    M.    F.  CORPETT 

ENGLAND  hath  givrti  me  these  ; 
To  know,  to  love,  to  keep  : 
Wild  sweet  song  of  a  tlirush 
Sprung  from  his  dewy  nest ; 
Frail  April  primroses  ; 
F'ragrance  of  pine  woods  deep. 
Faint  in  the  twilight  husli 
As  the  sun  sinks  to  rest. 

Pale  flames  of  daffodils 

That  burn  amongst  the  trees, 

Kosy  and  white  with  bloom  ' 

Down  in  the  orchard  close  ; 

Misted  blue  of  the  hills  ; 

Slumb'rous  murmur  of  bees  ; 

And  the  warm,  rich  perfume 

Of  June's  deep-hearted  rose. 

Glory  of  golden  fields 
Of  tall  wheat  gleaming  bright: 
Silence  of  Autumn  woods. 
Crimson,  russet,  and  brown 
When  tender  Twilight  yields 
Shy  lips  t'  oncoming  Night ; 
And  the  deep  peace  that  broods 
Over  the  dreaming  Down 

Knglaiid  hath  given  all  these  ; 
Gifts  beyond  dreams,  without  price. 
Nought  we  can  suffer  is  vain 
If  by  our  pain  we  ensure 
There  shall  in  England  be  Peace. 
Who  counts  the  sacrifice  ? 
So  that  we  know  these  again 
Gifts  that  shall  ever  endure. 


of  the  prol)leni.  but  arises  solely  from  a  defective  command 
— though  it  supposes  thatthe  defect  is  one  of  system,  and 
not  of  military  principle  in  those  that  have  tried  to  work 
it.  We  arc  assured  on  many  sides  that  now  that  this  system 
has  been,  or  shortly  will  be,  changed,  there  need  be  no  fur- 
ther occasion  for  anxiety,  and  for  the  sufficient  reason  that, 
once  the  First  Lord's  chief  j^rofessional  adviser  is  freed  from 
all  extraneous  duties  and,  on  the  purely  military  side  of  his 
duties,  has  the  assistance  of  a  staff  of  his  own  selection,  an 
entirely  new  level  of  efficiency  may  confidently  be  expected. 
But  to  the  exponents  of  the  sixth  form  of  opinion,  these 
assurances  are  apparently  not  convincing.  These  seem  to  follow 
more  what  "Flag-Officer"  implied  than  saidj  namely,  that  it 
was  less  the  actual  effect  of  a  bad  system  ^  the  Admiralty 
than  the  working  of  a  vicious  system  by  th&se  whose  minds 
were  warped  by  wrong  military  principles,  riiat  has  brought 
our  naval  misfortunes  upon  us.  This  view  is  very  apparent 
in  the  second  of  Professor  Spenser  Wilkinson's  letters  and 
both  of  Sir  f^eginakl  Custance's.  It  is  also  implied  in  the 
letter  from  the  distinguished  naval  officer  who  WTites  to  us  this 
week.  It  is  almost  a  summary  of  their  case  to  say  that, 
had  any  of  the  members  of  the  group  that  have  controlled 
the  navy  since  1904  been  conscious  of  the  true  military  mission 
of  the  fleet,  they  could  not  have  been  content  that  the  fleet 
should  l>e  commanded — either  in  peace  or  war — through  an 
organisation  manifestly  incapable  of  allowing  the  fleet  to  realise 
that  mission.  To  these  critics,  therefore,  the  contentinent 
during  the  past  five  months  of  the  present  directing  minds 
of  the  navy  with  the  .\dmiralty  system,  as  it  was  and  as  they 
had  always  known  it  was.  is  evidence  of  the  rest  of  tlieir 
quarrel  with  the  group  from  which  these  advisers  are  taken. 
.-Xnd  their  (luarrelis  just  this,  that  they  have  always  failed  to 
realise  the  main  purpose  for  which  the  fleet  shouJdbe  used. 
Had  this  pur]iose  been  realised,  it  must  have  been  found  that 
the  existing  system  was  prejudicial  to  its  attainment,  and 
then  nothing  could  have  been  simpler,  for  men  who  possessed 
the  full  confidence  of  their  civil  chief,  than  to  have  altered 
and  reformed  it  out  of  hand.  That  the  system  should  not 
be  shattered  on  the  strength  of  three  or  four  articles  and  letters 
to  the  press,  seems  to  these  critics  therefore  no  proof  that  the 
essential  matter  is  secured,  namely,  the  devotion  of  all  our 
iiaval  forces  to  the  attack  and  defeat  of  the  enemv. 

Arthur  Pollen.  J 


May  10,  iyi7 


LAND    &    WATER 

Admiralty  Reform 


To  the  Editor  of  Land  lS;  Wati  k. 

Sir, — You  do  me  the  honour  of  asking  for  my  opinion  on 
the  subject  of  the  letter  signed"  FhigOfificer."  which  you  pub- 
lished on  April  26th.  I  agree  with  "  Flag  Officer"  in  thinking 
flat  the  action  of  the  navy  has  been  liampered  by  the  in- 
mence  of  officers  in  authority  whose  attention  was  concen- 
.Tated  on  the  tools  rather  than  on  the  art  of  using  them. 
The  theory  of  war  taught  in  recent  years  at  the  Naval  War 
College  is  the  contrary  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  all  the 
great  masters  of  war.  This  false  doctrine  was  at  the  time 
of  its  publication  denounced  by  teachers  and  students  of  war, 
both  in  England  and  abroad,  who  pointed  out  then  that  it 
must  lead,  m  case  of  war,  in  the  direction  opposite  to  that  of 
victory. 

"  We  must  distinguish  absolutely,"  says  "Flag  Offtcer," 
"  between  the  authority  responsible  for  the  mihtary  handling 
of  tlie  niivy.  and  the  authority  responsible  for  its  material 
.supply.  Unless  tiiis  is  done  it  is  hopeless  to  think  that  the 
fighting  instinct  of  the  navy  can  be  given  its  full  e.xpression 
or  scope."  This  is  the  truth,  but  it  is  not  the  whole  truth. 
The  art  of  war,  of  directing  forces  against  those  of  an  enemy, 
can  be  mastered  only  by  a  man  who  gives  his  life  to  it.  A 
man  who  has  paid  that  price  for  knowledge  must  be  given 
authority  to  direct  the  militarj'  action  of  the  navy,  and, 
unless  and  until  that  'step  has  been  taken,  common  sense 
bids  us  rather  fear  defeat  than  hope  for  victory.  Is  there 
any  need  for  the  Government  to  go  round,  like  Diogenes 
with  a  lantern,  looking  for  an  admiral  who  answers  the 
description. 

The  proper  place  for  the  admiral  whose  effort  has  been  to 
master  the  arts  of  warfare  is  at  the  head  of  the  navy.  He 
should  be  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  and  be  given  power 
to  organise  the  Admiralty  in  his  own  way. 

If  the  members  of  the  Government  beheve  that  victory 
depends  upon  their  own  tenure  of  the  offices  which  they  hold, 
they  may  prefer  to  retain  one  of  themselves  as  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty.  In  that  case  the  First  Lord's  task  would  be, 
first,  to  see  that  tlie  military  action  of  tiie  fleet  was  directed 
by  the  judgment  of  the  admiral  and  not  by  that  of  the  states- 
men, for  while  the  statesman's  business  is  to  make  good  use  of 
victory  if  and  when  it  has  been  obtained,  the  winning  of 
victory  is  an  admiral's  business,  not  a  statesman's.  Secondly, 
the  statesman  as  First  Lord  would  take  care  that  the  officer 
or  officers  charged  witli  tlie  manning  and  material  supply  of 
the  navy  should  meet  the  demands  of  the  directing  Admiral, 
instead  of  attempting  to  dictate  to  him  what  implements  he 
should  use. 

If  the  office  of  First  Lord  lie  reserved  for  a  statesman,  the 
chosen  admiral  would  be  ai)i)ointed  I'irst  Sea  Lord.  The 
other  Sea   Lords   would  remain   char^'ed  with  the  duty  of  . 


supplying  liim  witli  officers  and  men,  ships,  guns  and  supplies, 
all  according  to  the  First  Sea  Lord's  requirements. 

I  am  unable  to  follow  "Flag  Officer"  in  his  suggestion  of  a 
list  of  Boards  to  be  formed  at  the  Admiralty.      An  admiral 
able  to  direct  the  mihtary  action  of  the  na\'y  will  know  how 
to  organise  the  Admiralty  for  the  purpose  of  victory. 
O.xford,  May  8th,  igi;.  Spe.nser  Wilkinson. 


To  the  Editor  of  Land  &  Waikk. 

Sir,— While  fully  concurring  with  the  views  expressed 
by  "  I'lag-Officer  "  in  your  issue  of  April  26th,  I  think  they 
are  amplilied  by  the  letters  of  Professor  Spenser  Wilkinsoii 
in  the  Times  of  May  4th  and  5th,  especially  the  latter,  and  bv 
the  views  held  by  such  men  as  Sir  John  Sinclair  (whose  name 
is  to  be  found  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biograpliv)  and 
Ind  Barhamat  the  end  of  the  iSth  Centur\-,  whicli  1  was  able 
to  give  in  the  Times  of  the  3th. 

WJiile  the  first  basic  principle  of  all  administrations  is 
tlie  separation  of  command  from  supplv.  it  is  essential 
that  the  former  body  should  be  the  constitutionally  authorita- 
tive body  ;  not  as  is  now  the  case,  a  self  constituted  group. 

We  shall  not  get  full  v^alue  for  any  Admiralty  reorganisation 
if  the  men  who  are  responsible  for'operations  are  sought  out 
from  among  tliose  who  have  only  been  accustomed  to  technical 
and  administrative  work  ;  they  must  and  can  l)e  found  among 
those  who  have  devoted  their  time  to  the  study  of  war. 
These  have  so  far  been  "  tabooed  "  by  the  false  assumption 
of  the  value  of  the  so-called  practical  man,  and  the  erroneous 
application  of  the  behef — neglecting  aptitudes—  "  that  any 
peg  can  fit  any  hole,"  if  only  it  gets  sufficient  experience  in  it. 

Whilst  the  sharpest  brains  in  Europe  ha\e  built  up  from 
historical  sources  a  scientific  system  of  command  aqd  organisa- 
tion which  have  enormously  improved  the  standard  of 
operational  work,  the  British  Navy  has  remained  content 
with  rule  of  thumb  methods  which  were  based  neither  on 
war  experience  nor  the  study  of  war.  The  French  General 
Staff  continually  practices  and  appht's  the  ideas  introduced 
by  Napoleon  and  Moltke,  but  the  British  Naw  has  never 
taken  the  trouble  to  analyse  much  less  apply  Nelson's  doctrines. 
The  (fetish  of  formal  and  centralised  command  and  the 
strictly  defensive  formations  which  he  did  so  much  to  break 
down  were  characteristic  features  of  the  Battle  of  Jutland. 

An  essential  factor  in  modern  war  organisation  is  the 
especial  training  and  employment  of  the  officers  who  are  to 
be  eventually  responsible  for  operations  ;  we  have  failed  to  do 
it,  but  there  are  some  who  have  voluntarily  undertaken  it  and 
their  services  should  be  utilised. 

W.  H.  Hexderso.v,  Admiral  (Retired). 

3,  Onslow  Avenue,  S.W.7.     May  7th,  1917. 


Drafts 

By  Centurion 


THE  O.C.  who  accompanied  me  in  the  tour  of  in- 
.spe(!-tion  was  as  proud  of  his  Base  Training  Camp  as 
though  it  were  tlic  family  estate  entailed  on  him  and 
the  heirs  male  of  his  "body  lawfully  begotten.  I 
told  liim  so.  ' 

"  Hum  !  "  he  said  reflectively,  "  I  hope  I'm  not  tenant  for 
life  of  this  place.  I'd  like  to  "get  back  to  mv  old  regiment 
some  time.     Still,  it's  a  pretty  place,  eh  what  ?"" 

I  looked  round.  I'^ar  as  the  eye  could  reach  was  a  wilderness 
of  sand-dunes  among  which  clumps  of  elder,  sea-nettle,  and 
couch-grass  maintained  a  desperate  struggle  "for  existence. 
Occasionally  a  light  wind  played  over  it,  changing  its  con- 
tours in  a  second,  and  depositing  a  thousand  grains  in  our  eves 
and  nostrils  so  tliat  I  sneezed  and  winked  alternately.  Our 
walk  reminded  me  of  the  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter. 

"  It  inakes  me  wee]),"  I  said,  with  a  handkerchief  to  my 
eyes,  "  to  .see  such  (|uaiitities  of  sand." 

The  O.C.  regarded  this  as  a  reflection  on  the  capita!  value 
of  the  estate.     "  It's  dry."  he  said  argumentatively. 

"  I'm  sure  it  is,"  I  hastened  to  agree.  "  1  am  not  crabbing 
it.  You've  done  wonders."  Aiul  he  had.  "  \\V've  got  our 
])Ians  for  deniiibilization  well  in  hand  ;  we  might  do  worse  than 
begin  to  consider  the  realisation  of  these  assets.  Only  an 
ad\ertiscment  would  express  all  I  feel.  '  I'or  sale  by  private 
treaty,  a  highly  desirable  sporting  estate  with  mine  craters, 
strong-posts,  a^isault-courses,  bombing-trenches,  hutments, 
and  an  op<^**-air  tWatie  witii  oil  drum  fauteuils-tlic  whole  in 
an  c><;ciieiit  ^tatc  ol  preservation.     Inspected  and  thoroughly 


recommended.'     A  Cinema  film  manufacturer  would  make  a 
fortune  out  of  it." 

"  Well,  G.H.O.  might  do  worse  than  take  an  official  film 
of  this  show.  It  might  convince  the  people  at  home  that  the 
Army  knows  how  to  organise.  We've  several  '  stunts  ' 
on — we're  rehearsing  the  Somme  battle  next  week  with  ten 
thousand  '  drafts^'  as  supers  and  no  end  of  black  powder. 
Unfortunately  G.H.Q  won't  lend  us  any  live  Huns." 

But  there  api)eared  to  be  a  multitude  of  inanimate  ones, 
'rhere  must  have  been  a  "  Kadiver  "  factory  somewhere 
in  tJut  camp,  for  in  c^'ery  trench  for  bayonet  and  bombing 
])ractice  there  lurked  an  obscene  figure  of  straw  and  sackcloth 
individualized  as  "  Hindenburg,"  or  "  FTitz,"  or  "  Kamerad." 
according  to  the  taste  of  the  artist.  The  illusion  was  a  trifle 
f)b\ivus,  but  it  seemed  adequate  to  a  i)arty  of  dismounted 
Bengal  Lancers  at  bayonet  drill  on  our  right,  who,  as  they 
lunged.  ga\e  a  homicidal  grunt  of  satisfaction  and  showed 
their  teeth. 

The  OC.  suggested  a  gas  inspection,  and  we  climbe<l  a  slope 
of  saud.  swei^t  smooth  as  a  glacier  by  the  wind.  1  stopped  for 
a  moment  as  I  came  to  a  party  of  men  reclining  on  their 
elbows  on  the  .sand,  chewing  bents  of  grass  with  bovine  content 
while  a  sergeant  discoursed  colloquially  on  the  art  of  taking 
a  trench. 

'  When  you  goes  along  a  trench,  don't  pass  any  one. 
It  ain't  good  manners  to  cut  a  Hun  dead — not  in  a  trojich. 
If  there's  a  German  lying  there,  stick  him.  If  lie's  dead,  he 
won't  feel  it.     If  he's  alive  he's  110  business  to  be  there.    And 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  lo,  1917 


never  leave  a  dug-out  so    long,  as    Ihen's    a    moan   or    a 
groan     ..." 

Jlic  rest  of  this  lethal  discourse  escaped  me  /or  \vc  passed 
on.  A  bombii;g  class  was  being  put  through  its  paces,  and 
as  we  drew  near  the  O.C.  thought  it  discreet  to  take  cover  in  a 
caged  trencli  in  the  rear,  for  they  were  practising  with  live 
bombs.  The  N.C.O.  was  a  realist  and  had  apparently  dis- 
dained such  precaution  for  he  kept  hispupils  posted  in  a  shallow 
trench  in  front  of  us  with  no  other  cover  than  a  few  sand  bags 
grouped  round  the  bomber  who  was  about  to  throw.  The 
bomber  drew  out  the  ])in  with  tin-  thumb  and  forefinger  of 
his  left  iiand  keeping  the  levi-r  tirml>-  clasped  against  the  barrel 
with  his  right. 

"  Now  this  'ere  bomb  is  as  full  of  TXT.  as  a  egg  is  full  of 
meat."  explained  the  N.C.O..  "and  the  meat  in  it  is  pretty 
high.  If  \eT  \vaits  more  than  five  seconds  after  yer  let's  go 
the  lever,  you — well  the  bomb  won't  wait  for  you — see  f  " 

The  boniiber  stood  rigid  as  a  Cireck  wrestler,  his  right  arm 
held  against  his  hip. 

"  That's  it.  Now  rcniemlxT  you  don't  crook  your  arm  as 
if  you  was  bowling  in  cricket,  and  you  don't  hook  it  up  as  if 
vou  was  putting  the  weight  You  "just  throws  from  the  hip. 
It  gives  you  an  ache  in  the  back  like  lumbagij  at  first,  but 
vou  sooii  gets  used  to  that.  Steady  on  there,  my  lad," 
he  said  sharply  as  he  saw  the  bomber  relaxing  one  of  his  fingers. 
'■  Don  t  do  tliat.  A  bloke  what  did  that  last  week,  he's  got 
a  white  cross  now.  He's  what  you  might  cull  '  missing.' 
Now  then." 

The  bomber  threw.  The  bomb  pitched'about  sixty  yards 
ahead — a  good  throw.  For  an  appreciable  space  notliing 
happened  ;  and  one  or  two  eager  spirits  stood  on  tip-toe 
craning  their  heads  over  the  sand-bags. 

"  Keep  yer  blooming  heads  down  !  A  chap  what  put  his 
head  up  last  week  is  in  Blighty  now.  " 

As  they  ducked  there  was  a  report  like  n  b  inch  howitzer, 
a  sheet  of  flame,  and  a  cloud  of  woolly  wliite  smoke. 

"  It's  nc^t  what  you  might  call  King's  Enghsh,"  said  the 
O.C.  to  me  as  we  did  a  half-right  ;  "  l)ut  these  N.C.O.'s  talk 
sense,  and  you  can't  possibly  mistake  what  they  mean." 
Which  is  true, 

We  skirted  a  sand-dune  and  came  upon  a  company  drawn 
up  in  ranks  some  ten  dee]i  listening  to  an  exhortation  from  a 
Corjwral  of  painfully  scientific  attainments  on  the  i)ro- 
])erties  of  noxious  gases.  J  suspect  that  Corporal  of  being 
a  bachelor  of  ^Science  in  ])rivatc  life,  perhaps  a  L'niversit\- 
Lecturer.  He  was  much  too  good  for  this  savage  world. 
The  men,  who  were  standing  easy,  glanced  at  liim  sus- 
piciously from  time  to  time  as  though  they  thought  they  were 

being  "  had." 

"  Never  breathe  into  your  mask."  the  coqM)ral  was  saying. 
"  cr  you'll  get  it  full  of  your  own  .  .  ."  The  wind  carried 
his  voice  away  for  a  moment — "  di-oxide." 

■'  That  bloke  don't  know  what  he's  talking  about ; 
'c's  balmy,"  muttered  a  man  with  a  Cockney  accent  a  few 
yards  away  as  he  examined  his  gas  mask.  "  It  ain't  ox- 
hide ;  it's  flannel." 

"  He  means  the  gas  what  you  breathes  out  of  your  inside, 
Bert,"  said  his  neighbour  helpfully. 

The  speaker  stared  sullenly.  '"  I  don't  breathe  any  gas 
out  of 'my  inside,"  he  retorted  combatively,  "  I  ain't  a  bhnkin' 
sewer  ' 

"  Stop  talking  in  the  ranks,"  shouted  the  sergeant, 

"  Use  the  tube  and  breathe  gently  through  that."  con- 
tinued the  lecturer  in  a  refined  voice  '  Don't  take  deep 
breaths  or  you'll  get  some  gas  in.  It's  owing  to  officers 
and  men  moving  up  and  down  the  line  and  breathing  hard 
that  they  get  slightly  gassed.     Don't  exert  yourselves  too 

much." 

"  Now  he's  talking  sense,"  said  Bert  appro\ingly,  '  what 
price  fatigues  .'  " 

The  O.C.  and  1  had  withdrawn  to  the  shelter  of  a  clump  of 
ciders  to  light  a  cigarette  as  the  lecturer  digressed  to  the 
subject  of  Gas  Blankets  and  Vermorel  solution.  Occasionally 
as  he  raised  his  voice  some  of  his  sacramental  words  such  as 
"cyanosis  "  and  "  pulmonary  epithelium  "  reached  us  followed 
always  by  a  profane  commentary  from  the  furtive  couple 
behind  the  elder. 

"  .\mmonia  inhalatioas  from  the  capsules  should  be 
immediately  given  by  the  stretcher  bearers  "  said  the  lecturer. 

"  They'll  have  to  give  the  poor  bloke  first  aid  with  a 
dictionary  if  they  talk  to  him  like  that." 

"  I  will  now  proceed  to  say  a  few  words  about  teai-shells. 
Tear-shells  look  like  •  duds  '.  They  don't  explode  at  first  ; 
the  fuse  only  burns  enough  to  set  the  gas  going.  The  gas  is 
Phosgene.  This  induces  irritation  of  the  lachrymatory 
glands.     ..." 

"  What's  'e  getting  at  now,  Bert  ?" 

"  I  dunno.     I  fink  he  means  it  makes  yer  do  a  weep  ' 

"  i  wonder  whether   it  'ud  make  a    Jock  weep,"    i-umin- 


ated  the  other  doubtfully.  "  I'umiy  chaps  the  Scotties. 
I  know  a  chap  what  knew  one— knew  one,  mind  yer.  He  used 
ter  say  as  it  took  tw(j  years  to  know  aScotty,  but  after  that 
'e'd  cat  out  of  yer  hand." 

"Ah!  The  Hun's  a  funny  blighter,  Alf.  He's  always 
'  off  side.'  His  notion  of  starting  a  fight  is  to  begin  by  kicking 
you  in  the  guts.  .  .  .  Say,  Alf,  if  you  met  a  Hun  wot  put's 
his  hands  up  and  said  '  I've  got  a  wife  and  ten  children,'  what 
'ud  you  do  ?" 

"  I  should  say  '  Yer  oughter  be  ashamed  of  yourself." 
But  I  dunno.  I  might  give  the  blighter  a  fag  and  tell  him  to 
'op  it.     And  I  might  not." 

"Shun!"  shouted  the  sergeant.  "The  company  will 
now  march  in  single  file  into  the  trench  beginning  with  No.  1 
of  the  rear  rank.  Right  about  t  u  i-rn.  Quick — Mar-rch!  ' 
They  filed  into  the  re\ctted  trench  some  forty  yards  in 
length  in  which  a  small  flask  had  been  placed.  It  was  a  de- 
canter of  Phosgene  of  the  choicest  vintage.  We  moved  up  t<> 
the  exit  of  the  trench.  1  caught  a  whiff  of  something  colour 
less,  pungent  and  sweet  as  pineapjile,  and  my  eyes  smarted 
])aiiifully.  At  that  moment  No.  i  enrerged  from  "the  ordeal,  the 
others  treading  on  his  heels.  They  wept  copiously  and  with 
hilarity  as  though  they  had  all  been  attacked  by  a  fit  of 
hysteria.  But  a  very  phlegmatic  hysteria.  It  would  have 
disappointed  the  Hun. 

"  denuine  sorrow  I  calls  it,"  said  on 

"  Like  pepper."  commented  another.  1  am  i  ^^^i'l 
like  that  since  I  was  a  nipper." 

"  I'm  feeling  that  bereaved  I  fink  1  could  bury  some  pore 
chap,  Alf.  What  price  that  blinking  corporal  ?  " 
"  Fall  in,"  shouted  the  sergeant.  "  'Elmets  on  !" 
Each  man  carried  in  his  hands  one  of  the  old  fashioned 
gas-helmets  of  flannelette,  soaked  in  a  solution  of  glycerine 
and  oaustic  soda,  which  you  slip  over  your  head  like  a  sack. 
But  there  are  different  ways  of  doing  it.  Some  held  it  as 
though  it  were  a  nose-bag  and  began  mouth  first,  tossing  it 
over  their  heads  like  a  horse  determined  to  get  the  last  oat. 
Others  put  it  on  as  a  child  puts  on  a  ])aper  cap  out  of  a '  cracker, ' 
carefully  pulling  it  down  on  both  sides  as  though  afraid  of 
tearing  it.  Tney  all  proceeded  to  tie  the  strings  demurely 
under  the  chin  like  a  dairymaid  with  a  sun-bonnet.  From 
each  helmet  protruded  a  snout  of  gutta-percha,  and  as  they 
breathed  heavilv  little  drops  of  safiva  glistened  on  the  end  of  it. 
They  then  turned  and  glared  at  each  other  through  the  goggh  - 
liko  eye-holes.  Here  surely  was  the  fraternity  of  "  Tli'. 
Black  Hand."    They  looked  like  a  secret  murder  society. 

"  Fancy  that  coming  at  you  in  dead  silence  over  the  top 
with  the  point  of  the  bayonet,"  commented  the  O.C. 

They  filed  off  into  a  subterranean  chamber— with  an 
emergency  exit — where  a  retort  lay  in  wait  for  them  with  a 
gas  of  eight  atmospheres  or  a  pressure  of  about  120  lbs.  to  a 
square  inch.  As  the  man  in  charge  turned  on  the  tap  the 
fog-coloured  smoke  escaped  in  little  wisps  through  the  chinks 
of  the  chamber,  and  gi\-ing  it  a  wide  berth  we  strolled  away. 
A  whiff  of  that  gas  and  you  feel  as  if  the  blade  of  a  knife 
were  going  down  vour  lungs.  The  corporal  was  adding  a  few 
belated  platitudes"  to  his  hooded  pupils  about  the  advisabiUty 
of  reserving  vour  gas  helmet  for  use  against  gas. 

'■  That  fellow  seems  to  alternate  between  the  obscure   and 
the  obvious  "  I  remarked  to  the  O.C.  as  we  walked noisele-ssh' 
,  down  the  sandy  slojx'. 

"  True  "  rejoined  the  O.C.     "  But     there    is    something 
in  what  he  says  about  gas  helmets  being  meant  for  gas.     1  he 
average  Tommv  thinks  they're  meant  for  a  Wolseley  valise. 
You  know  the  story  about  old  S.—  the  G.O.C,  of  my  Division  ? 
No!     I  thought  that  story  was  all  over  the  front,  from  Dan 
even  to  Beersheba.     Well"  he  had  a  passion  for  gas  helmets. 
Every  G.O.C.  and  O.C.  has  a  bee  in  his  bonnet— I  daresay  I've 
got  one  myself    and  it  buzzes  at  times.     With  some  it's 
machine-gun    emplacements,    with    othei-s  it's   dumps,    with 
others  it's  buttons.     With  old  S—  it  was  gas  helmetsr.     And 
when  there  was  nothing  doing  and  he  got  fed  up  with  Divi- 
sional Routine  Orders,  he'd  come  stalking  about  the  back  of 
the  trenches  seeing  if  he  could  catch  anyone  without  his  gas        . 
helmet.     Well  one  day  he  came  up  and  he  suddenly  discovered       I 
he'd  forgotten  his  owii.     So  the  first  soldier  he  met  he  stopped, 
took  his  gas  helmet ,  and  slung  it  o\er  his  arm.    And  the  next 
moment  whom  should  he  meet  but  one  of  our  subs  without 
a    helmet.     'What's    the    meaning    of    this?'     he     fumed. 
Where's   your   helmet?'     The   Sub   stammered   something 
.ibout  having  left  it  in  his  dug-out.     '  I  don't  belieA-e  you  would 
know  how  to  put  it  on  if  you  had  one  '  said  the  G.O.C, '  lake 
mine  and  and  show  me  how  you  put  it  on.'     So  the  Snb  took  it, 
and  opened  it,  and  out  fell  a  pair  of  dirty  socks,  a  still  dirtier 
towel,  a  packet  of  woodbines—  and  an  obscene  postcard.     .     . 
'Vhat  did  yt>u  sty  ?     Oh.  no!      We  never  got  strafed    about 
gas  helmets  again.     Yes,  the  cwporal  was  right.     Mind  that 
wolf-hole  ' — my  men  are  enthusiasts  about  wire.  " 


May  lo,   11JI7 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


The  Allies'  April  Offensive 

By  H.  Bidoii 


In  the  /ollowin^  arliclc  Profcssoi'  Bidoii,  the  very  distin- 
'^tihhed  French  military  critic,  discusses  the  recent  actions- 
of  the  British  and   French  Armies  on  the  Western  Front. 

A  T  the  end  of  April  what  are  the  results  of  the  British 
/%      offensive  which   opened  on  the  9th,     and  of  the 
Z__m    French    offensive    which    opened    on    the'     i6th  .■' 
I      ^»  Regarding  the  matter  from  the  most  general  point 
of  view,  the  Italian  press  is  unanimous  in  declaring  that  the 
offensive  has  diverted  the  menace  which  was  supposed  to  be 
"langing  over  the  Trentino.     The  Gazzetle  del  Popolo  said  as 
iiuch  on  April  14th  :     "  We  are  .confident   that   this   power- 
ul  resumption  of  the  offensive  by  our  Allies  has  made  the 
nenace  of  a  '  punitive  expedition  '  against  Italy  more  remote, 
nd  that  upon  our  front  the  plans  which  have  been  so  much 
I liscussed  will  not  materialise."     On  April  19th  the  Corriered' 
JlaliavfTotc:    "  The  new  I'^ranco- British  action  .  .   .  is  holding 
Hindenburg  up  on  almost  the  whole  Western  Front  and  dis- 
tracting him  from  undertaking  other  enterprises  which  he 
contemplated  in  the  spring."     These  instances  could  easily  be 
multiplied.     Again,  On  April  26th,  the  rr/6/(«a  wrote  :  "  From 
a  militan,-  point  of  view  the  Franco- British  action  is  of  great 
importance  in  the  economy  of  the  war.     While  Germany  was 
preparing  to  collect  all  her  forces  and  reorganise  her  fronts 
with  a  view  to  a  desperate  attack  upon  the  most   sensitive 
])oints  of  the  enemy  defences,  the  Anglo-French  offensive  has 
upset  all  her  plans  and,  at  any  rate  for  some  time  to  come, 
has  entirely  deprived  her  of  the  initiative." 

There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  about  it.  It  is  cjuite  certain 
that  Germany  had  formed  two  large  masses  of  reserve,  one  in 
France,  comjjrising  some  fifty  divisions,  the  other  between  the 
Rhine  and  the  Danube.  Tiie  latter  was  intended,  according 
to  some  people,  to  operate  against  Italy  and,  according  to 
(rthers,  to  assume  the  offensive  in  France.  All  these  hypo- 
theses are  idle.  What  is  clear  is  that  a  ])owerful  strategic 
reserve  existed  in  Germany,  within  practicable  range  of  either 
of  the  theatres  of  the  war.  AnU  it  is  equally  certain  that  the 
Franco-British  offensive  compelled  the  enemy  very  rapidly 
to  expend  an  important  part  of  his  reserves.  On  the  French 
front,  between  Soissons  and  Rheims,  the  hne  was  held  at  the; 
beginning  of  the  action  by  thirteen  divisions  :  the  enemy  flung 
i  wclve  new  divisions  into  the  furnace  anrl  only  at  that  cost  was 
able  to  prevent  his  hne  from  being  broken.  When  it  comes  to 
be  reaHsed,  this  staking  of  the  enemy  reserves  will  be  found  to 
be  the  story  of  the  battle. 

What  is  the  general  plan  of  the  battle  ?  Both  friends  and 
foes  agree  that,  the  Germans  having  denuded  the  centre  of 
their  hne  between  Arras  and  Soissons,  the  Alhes  attacked  on; 
the  two  flanks  between  which  the  enemy  was  retiring,  the 
British  troops  attacking  on  the  Arras  front,  the  French  troops 
attacking  to  the  east  of  Soissons.  It  was  thus  a  question  of 
double  pressure  upon  the  enemy's  flanks :  a  repetition, 
with  much  more  powerful  means,  of  the  plan  of  September  1915. 

British  Troops 

It  is  scarcely  incumbent  upon  me  to  say  anything  here  about 
the  British  offensive,  which  is  well  known  to  the  British  public. 
If,  however,  it  is  permissible  for  a  French  critic  to  express  his 
opinion,  he  will  say  how  greatly  people  have  been  struck  in 
I'rance  not  only  by  the  valour  of  the  British  troops  and  by  their 
offensive  power,  but  also  by  the  plan  followed  in  the  action. 
AH  the  previous  offensives  proved  abortive  because  they  ended 
in  a  point  ;  the  units  which  were  most  jieiietrating,  or  most 
fortunate,  drove  a  wedge  into  the  enemy  line  and  were  speedily 
fixed  thfere  tliemselves.  held  and  strangled  by  their  own  suc- 
cess. In  order  to  avoid  this  danger  the  British  command  pro- 
ceeded on  a  progressively  widening  attacking  front,  on  the 
principle  of  the  rings  caused  by  a  stone  thrown  into  the  water, 
and  the  line  of  progress  of  the  British  Armies  described,  not 
a  sharp  point,  but  a  shghtly  convex  curve.  We  can  see  from 
this  the  mistake  made,  certainly  with  intention,  in  the  German 
communiques  when  they  speak  of  an  attempt  to  break  through, ' 
The  War  Office  was  able  to  retort,  on  April  24th,  that  there 
liad  never  been  an  attempt  to  break  through,  in  the  sense  in 
which  they  used  the  term.  It  was  much  rather  a  stretching 
of  the  enemy  front,  driven  back  everywhere  by  a  divergent 
attack.  And  this  stretching  was  capable  of  bringing  about 
two  consequences  :  one,  that  the  enemy  line,  reaching  the 
limit  of  its  elasticity,  might  break  ;  the  other,  that  while  re- 
tiring on  one  zone  the  enemy  line  might  expose  adjacent  zones 
which  would  form  sahents  bound  to  be  enveloped. 

An  example  of  the  first  hypothesis  is  provided  by  the  region 
to  the  east  of  Arras.     The  fighting  there  was  on'a  line  from 


Arleux  to  Roeu.x.  consisting  of  villages  lying  about  a  mile  and 
a  quarter  ai)art  on  an  average  and  situated  at  the  head  of  val- 
leys open  towards  the  east  and  separated  by  plateaux.  Sup- 
pose the  British  troops  are  advancing  from  a  mile  and 'a  quar- 
ter to  the  eastward.  The  enemy's  new  line  of  defence  will 
still  consist  of  a  series  of  villages,  I'-resnoy — Neuvireuil — Fres- 
nes  —  Biache  ;  but  these  villages,  instead  of  being  a  mile  and 
a  quarter  apart  and  flanking  one  another  so  conveniently, 
will  be  nearly  two  miles  apart  from  each  other  and  their  flank- 
ing will  be  not  nearly  so  good.  Instead  of  being  tucked  away 
out  of  sight  in  the  heads  of  the  valleys,  they  will  be  lower  down 
in  these  same  valleys,  wider  at  this  altitude  and  less  easy  to 
close.  And  lastly,  the  intervening  plateaux,  wider  and  often 
parcelled  out,  will  thus  form  a  much  less  coherent  line  of  defence 
The  front,  which  measures  about  4iimile>  froni  Arlcux  to 
I^oeux,  measures  rather  more  than  hve  between  Fresnoy  and 
Biache.  That  means  another  half  di\ision  to  be  put  into  the 
line  and  taken  from  the  reserves.  Tlius  the  consistency  of  the 
defensive  line  diminishes  as  the  enemy  retires. 

An  e.vampleof  the  second  hypothesis,  namely  the  e.xpostu-e 
of  fi.xed  points  by  the  withdrawal  of  moj^ile  points,  is  furnished 
by  the  region  of  Lens.  Before  the  battle  the  British  lines 
wound  round  that  town  without  enveloping  it  ;  to-day,  as  a 
result  of  the  withdrawal  of  troops  placed  to  the  south,  Lens  is 
enveloped  on  three  sides  and  is  virtually  doomed. 

The  French  Armies 

Let  us  now  pass  to  the  attack  of  tiie  French  armies  between 
Soissons  to  the  west  and  Saint  Hilaire  lo  Ciraiid  to  the  east. 
As  everybody  knows,  this  offensive  was  spread  over  two  days. 
On  the  16th  two  French  armies  attacked  between  Soissons 
and  Rheims  ;  on  the  17th,  a  third  army,  further  to  the  right, 
advanced  in  its  turn  to  the  east  of  Rheims.  The  enemy  can  have 
had  no  difficulty  in  perceiving  that  the  object  of  the  two  first 
armies  was  to  switch  his  reserves  into  their  direction  and  that 
the  attack  of  the  third  army,  supervening  twenty-four  hours 
later,  would  be  of  a  decisive  nature. 

Fach  of  the  armies  engaged  had  an  entirely  different  terrai* 
before  it.  The  army  on  the  left,  between  Vailly  and  Craonne, 
facing  northwards,  started  from  the  banks  of  the  Aisne  and 
had  to  ascend  a  slight  and  long  plateau  stretching  from  west 
to  east  and  separating  the  Aisne  from  the  Ailette.  This  pla- 
teau, which  interposes  a  barrier  more  than  three  hundred  feet 
high  between  the  rivers,  does  not  constitute  a  continuous  wall. 
It  is  indented  with  deep  ravines  which  cut  into  its  mass  and 
give  it  on  the  map  the  appearance  of  an  oak  leaf.  Moreover,  if 
its  elevation  is  observed,  its  base  is  composed  of  clay,  its  centre 
of  sand  and  its  summit  of  a  thick  layer  of  limestone.  The 
plateau  on  the  summit  bears  good  crops  of  grain  and  beetroot, 
but  owing  to  the  lack  of  water  there  are  hardly  any  human 
habitations  on  it.  The  sand  belt  lower  down  is  entirely  covered 
by  light  timber  but  it,  too,  is  as  bare  of  habitations.  These 
arc  found  lower  still,  where  the  sand  meets  the  clay,  where  the 
water  percolating  through  the  limestone  and  the  sand,  flows 
out  on  to  the  clay.  The  plateau  is  thus  surrounded  by  a  girdle 
of  villages  built  at  its  foot.  On  the  side  overlooking  the  Aisne 
there  is  a  village  nesthng  within  every  one  of  its  indentations, 
exposed  to  the  south  and  screened  from  the  north  wind.  On 
the  eastern  side  the  plateau  ends  in  a  point  overlooking  the 
plain  of  Champagne,  just  as  Land's  Knd  overlooks  the  Atlantic. 
The  town  of  Craonne  stands  on  a  terrace  at  this  point. 

The  P'rench  thus  had  a  very  difficult  obstacle  to  surmount. 
What  were  the  results  of  th  eir  offensive  ?  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  on  their  right  they  failed  before  Craonne.  P>ut  people 
who  have  seen  only  their  failure  here  have  not  paid  sufticient 
attention  to  the  excellent  results  obtained  on  the  ceniW  and 
on  the  left.  The  centre  did  not  only  reach  the  summit  of  the 
plateau  but  descended  the  northern  reverse,  which  looks  over 
the  Ailette,  in  the  region  Ailles-Cerny-Courtecon.  The  left, 
co-ordinating  its  movements  with  those  of  the  right  wing  o£ 
the  adjoining  army,  the  army  marching  from  Soissons  to  Laon, 
obliged  the  enemy  to  evacuate  the  whole  of  the  great  plateau 
which  contains  the  Fort  of  Conde,  and  to  retire  three  miles. 

The  army  of  Western  Champagne,  which  attacked  between 
Craonne  and  Rheims,  in  a  north-easterly  direction,  was,  on  the 
contrary,  in  a  plain.  This  plain  is  divided  into  two  sectors  by 
the  Aisne.  The  left  sector,  between  Craonne  and  the  Aisne, 
is  a  kind  of  great  gate  opening  on  to  the  plain  of  Champagne. 
But  this  opening  was  defended  in  its  centre  by  a  strong  jiosition, 
Villo  anx  Bois,  n  kind  of  wooded  islet  subdividing  the  plain 
into  two  lateral  channels.  This  fJirtress  of  \'ille  aux  J  >ois  was 
carried.  The  right  sectoi-,  between  the  Aisne  and  Rheims, 
also  lies  in  u  plain  ;    but  it  is  protected  by  two  successive 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


Mas-  lu,  1917 


cuUings.tlie  canal  between  the  Aisnc  anil  tlie  Mamc  and,  furtlier 
to  tlie  rear,  the  Suippe.  The  prn,t;ress  made  in  this  sector  was 
inconsiderable.  Finally,  in  the  neif^liboiirliood  of  Rheims,  the 
plain  is  studded  with  a  refjular  archipelago  of  raised  islands. 
We  liave  compared  the  Craonne  plateau  to  Land's  lind  and 
the  Chanjpagne  to  the  Atlantic.  The  heights  of  Rheims  emerge 
from  this  .sea  like  the  Scilly  Islands.  The  enemy  is  established 
there  and  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  dislodge  him  frontally. 
The  island  which  is  situated  farthest  to  the  north-west,  the 
lieij^ht  of  lirimont.  has  been  bnached  at  its  foot  by  Loivre 
and  Courcy  ;  but  it  remains  in  the  firm  po.ssession  of  the  enemy. 

The  last  army  engaged,  that  is  the  one  attacking  to  the  cast 
of  Rheims,  had  the  same  archipelago  to  deal  with,  but  on  its 
southern  instead  of  its  western  side.  As  we  have  seen,  it  made 
its  attack  a  diiy  after  the  other  two.  with  extremely  powered 
artillery  and  ver\-  likely  with  an  element  of  surprise.  Unfortu- 
nately April  17th  was  a  day  of  very  bad  weather,  which  robbed 
the  army  of  some  of  the  results  which  it  was  entitled  to  e.\|)ect. 
Ne\-ertheless  it  achieved  a  magnihcent  exploit.  It  completely 
carried  the  highest  and  most  important  of  the  islands  in  the 
l\heims  plain,  the  massif  of  Moronvilliers.  This  is  a  long 
chain  of  heights,  running  from  south-west  to  north-east,  from 
]Mont  Cornillet  to  Hill  227, with  the  crowning  peak  in  the  centre. 
This  crowning  peak  is  called  Mont  Haut  and  is  254  metres  in 
height.  As  om-  soldiers  started  from  an  altitude  of  100 
metres  they  had  150  metres  to  scale, with  the  eniMuy  formidably 
entrenched  in  the  undulations  in  the  chalk  and  in  the  pine 
woods.  Between  the  17th  and  the  30th  the  whole  of  the 
massif  was  won . 

This  is  a  position  of  capital  importance.  It  was  from  here 
that  the  enemy  bombarded  the  left  wing  of  our  attack  in  the 


battle  of  September  2f)th,  it)i5.  The  centre  of  resistance  at 
Auberive,  which  stopped  our  left  wing  in  that  same  battle, 
has  also  been  won,  and  now  supports  Moronvilliers  to  the  south- 
east. The  enemy  has  himself  demonstrated  the  high  import- 
ance of  this  massif  by  multiplying  his  cimnter-attacks  upon  it. 
l-'rom  this  eminence  the  plain  is  dominated  to  an  inunense 
distance  :  and  towards  the  west  one  sees  in  the  rear  the  heights 
of  Nogent  rAbtx,'sse.  whence  the  (^rmans  are  bombarding 
Rheims  ;  the  massif  of  Moronvilliers  is  separated  from  those 
heights  by  a  gap,  the  valle\'  of  Beine  where  the  French  made 
further  progress  on  the  .?oth. 

One  must  visualise  an  entrenched  battlefield  as  an  alterna- 
tion of  strong  centres  of  resistance  and  of  trenches  linking  them 
together,  just  as  in  old  pictures  one  sees  strongholds  composed 
of  alternate  towers  and  curtains.  On  the  front  of  fifty  miles 
as  the  crow  flies,  which  the  French  attacked  on  April  ibth  and 
17th,  the  (Germans  had  fi\e  main  centres  of  resistance. 
On  the  west,  the  ])lateau  of  ("onde,  which  was  carried  ;  then 
moving  towards  the  centre,  Craonne.  which  held  firm  ;  \'illc 
aux  Bois,  which  was  carried  ;  Brimont,  which  held  firm  ;  and 
last,  in  the  east,  Moronvilliers,  the  capital  point,  which  was 
carried.  Add  to  this  20,000  prisoners  and  much  material 
captured,  and  twelve  (icrman  divisions  taken  front  the  general 
reserve  and  thrown  into  battle.  If  the  battle  did  not  result 
in  the  breaking  of  the  enemy's  line  it  certainly  shook  and  im^ 
perilled  it.  The  efforts  of  the  French  attacking  on  the  soutJi 
are  intimately  associated  with  those  of  the  British  troops 
attacking  on  the  west,  and  the  (Germans  are  thus  being  sub- 
jected to  a  most  formidable  pressure  which  will  constitute 
to-morrow's  battle  and,  if  one  may  venture  to  say  so,  to- 
morrow's triumph. 


Salmon  and  Food  Supply 

By  W.  Baden-Powell,  K.G. 


01'  nature's  so\N-ing,  the  harvest  of  salmon  depends 
on  man's  husbanding.  The  potential  necessity  of 
I  his  harvest  has  been  culpably  neglected  by  man. 
Jiven  the  present-day  efforts  of  nature  arc  greatly 
curtailed  and  are  steadily  declining  under  inefficient  legisla- 
tion and  effete  administration,  that  is,  under  ill-treatment 
at  the  hands  of  man. 

To  attempt  to  set  out  the  exact  decrease  of  the  salmon 
harvest,  is,  from  the  nature  of  the  fish  and  the  fishings,  an 
unattainable  tiuantity.  The  salmon  lives  in  the  sea,  out 
of  our  ken,  so  no  man  can  even  estimate  the  stock  there  ; 
it  enters  our  rivers  at  irregular  intervals  for  the  purpose  of 
spawning  ;  it  is  netted  on  a])proaching  and  within  the  rivers, 
and  is  caught  by  rod  and  line.  These  are  the  fish  captured 
and  used  for  food  ;  but  how  many  each  season  is  not  as- 
certainable from  tlic  market  returns,  for  a  market,  such  as 
Billingsgate,  does  not  include  the  salmon  sent  to  the  provinces, 
nor  private  nets,  nor  "rod"  takings.  All  fishings  fluctuate, 
thosi-  caught  in  captures  being  affected  by  weather  and  water. 

The  general  rise  or  fall  of  the  salmon  stock  within  each 
river  is,  apart  from  detail,  well  known  to  all  the  experts  con- 
cerned in  the  fisliing  of  that  ri\er  ;  but  there  are  variations 
from  year  to  year  caused  by  the  nature  of  the  sca.son,  whctluu" 
wet  or  dry,  especially  where  there  are  obstructions  such  as 
dams  or  weirs  :  also  the  /nilh  as  to  amount  of  net,  and  even 
rod,  "  takes,"  is  questionalile.  The  breeding  stock  seen  upon 
the  "  redds."  when  judged  by  the  exjjcrts  of  experience  and 
comjjared  with  former  years,  gives  a  fairly  good  estimate  of 
increase  or  decrease  of  stock  ;  but  on  many  rivers  the  spawn- 
ing places  are  too  widely  separated  or  the  water  too  deep  to 
see  the  fish  to  enable  one  to  join  up  the  reports  into  a 
^•aluable  or  reliable  verdict  on  the  stock. 

Official  reports  of  the  Inspectors  of  I'isherics  and  of  river, 
Conservancies,  seem  to  establish  that  the  stock  of  salmon  found 
■ic'ithin  the  rivers  of  Scotland.  ICngland  and  Irelaml  has  with 
rare  exceptions  decreased  by  nine-tenths  in  the  last  twenty- 
fi\e  years  ;  and  as  to  grilse  and  sea-trout  the  decline  is  reixjrted. 
to  be  "appalling."  The  grilse  is  the  young  of  salmon 
making  its  hrst  return  to  fresh  water  to  breed,  a  fine  stock  of , 
new  blood  -indeed  for  «|uality  a  far  surer  "  stock  "  than  the  ; 
mature  salmon.  But,  with  a  few  exceptions,  they  arc  IK^I, 
allowed  to  get  into  the  rivers,  they  are  <lecimated  by  the  nets 
ill  the  sea  along  the  coast  before  they  can  get  into  their  iutendc(i 
ri\er.  Even  within  the  river,  their  running  time  being  early 
summer,  the  grilse  lind  the  nets  in  full  working.  Here  is  au 
instance  from  the  kji.-;  report  of  the  Scotch  Board  :  Alter  con- 
sidering the  great  difference  in  the  takes  of  grilse  within 
and  outside  the  Dee  the  Inspector  says  "  The  only  alternative 
view  was  that  the  coast  nets  had  killed  so  many  that  very 
few  remained  for  the  river  nets  to  kill,  and,  one  might  add 
tliat  only  a  \ery  biuall  rtmuaul  could  have  usceadcd  liie 


river  to  offer  a  chance  for  destruction  by  the  lure  of  the 
angler,  or  for  reproduction.  " 

Stock  for  reproduction  is  the  main  consideration  ;  and  we 
know  from  the  "  takes"  of  the  coast  and  estuary  all  tiie 
country  over,  that  there  is  immense  stock  in  the  sea  ;  and  we 
know,  to  a  reasonable  degree,  the  ridiculously  low  proportion 
of  spawners  that  are  able  to  reach  the  up  river  nursery. 
Even  so  we  are  faced  to-day,  and  have  been  for  many  years 
with  a  clear  knowledge  that  the  paucity  of  spawners  in  the 
rivers  is  cajiable  of  immense  augmentation  if  the  adminstra- 
tion  of  all  salmon  fisheries  was  on  common-sense  lines  and  all 
laws  and  "  rights,"  public  and  private,  ancient  and  modern, 
were   reviewed  and  revised. 

^^'ith  hundreds  of  rivers  aggregating  several  thousand  miles 
of  water  capable  of  breeding  salmon,  such  as  exist  in  these 
islands,  one  cannot  do  more  than  notice  a  sample  or  two. 
The  reports  of  Fishery  Districts  are  appearing  for  iqib.  The 
Shannon,  probably  the  finest  and  largest  salmon  fishery, 
'reports  a  "  steady  decline,  a  progressive  dechne,  and  those 
interested  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  hatcheries  should 
be  established  if  the  fisheries  were  not  to  be  altogether  un- 
lirodnctive."  The  Severn,  the  largest  salmon  river  in  I'-ng- 
iand,  rejjorts  for  the  net  fishing  of  lyiO  the  "  take  of  salmon 
being  only  12,750,  a  decrease  of  .5,700  on  1<)15 •"  The  ucst 
door  river,  the  Wye,  is  on  the  other  hand  a  marked  example 
of  improvement  "under  new  management ;  "  the  Consi'rvan;y 
report  gives  the  old  state  kill  for  rods  468  fish  in  190b,  and 
in  1916  the  rods  killed  .^,2I5  fish.  But  for  those  ten  years  the 
netting  has  been  in  the  hands  of  the  Association  and  the 
.  river  itself  has  simple  features  compared  to  the  majority 
of  .salmon  rivers.  Even  so  the  report  comments  on  "  the 
remarkable  absence  of  grilse  in  1916  in   spite  of  the  great 

ClcKxl  horses  still  fetch  good  prices  :  at  a  sale  at  Warner, 
Sheppardaud  Wade's  Ke])osit(jry  at  [^cicestcr,  only  the  other  day 
two  hunters  which  belonged  to  the  late  Mrs.  Clayton  Swan,  were 
sold,  one  for  115  aud  the  otlier  for  180  guineas. 

•       Fate  has  not  allowed  all  of  iis  to  travel,  and  even  when  this 

privilege  has  been  permitted,  there  conies  a  time  when  wc  have 

to  Ix;  Content  to  be  stay-at-homes.       Lady  Poorc  is  therefore  a 

"   blessed    benefactress  with    her    new    book,    .In  Admiral's   Wife 

in  Ihr   Mtikiuf;.     (Smith    IClder.    7.S.   fxl.)     She  takes  the   reader 

.)  with  her  all  over  the.  Junpire  and  everywhere  makes  hiui  at  home, 

(   shows   him   the  beauties  of   the  surroundings,   laughing.  liKlUly 

,   at  discomforts.     For  there  is  much  pleasant  laughter  in   I1h'!><; 

i>ages.     Incidentally  we  are  given  a  good  insight  into  tlie  private 

life  of  the  British  Na\'y,  which  is  not  by  any  means  a  lx^d  of  roses. 

Lady  Poorc  was  a  daughter  of  Bishop  Graves  of  Limerick,  and 

though  she  does  not  give  sign  of  possessing  the  poetic  gifts  of  her 

brothers,  she  certainly  commands  happy  prose.     A  more  dclight- 

iul  l)ook  <jf  reminiscences  has  not  been  "published  tliis  year;  it  is 

vaiied  ajid  cheerful,  witty  and  of  a  ^ood  spirit. 


May  10,  191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


13 


cmp-fvf  '  smolts  '  wliich  jcenl-  to  the  sm\n  1015."      But  did 
llif-y  Kft  to  the  sea  ? 

IVfr.  CitldprwiKxl,  tlie  Inspector  of  Scotch  Fisliorics, 
places  great  value  on  grilse,  and  in  his  report  frequently  refers 
to  the  immense  falling  off  of  the  catches  of  grilse;  one  sen- 
tence of  his  is  worthy  of  a  frame  in  the  board  room  of  every 
river  Conservancy — "  The  ratio  between  grilse  and  salmon 
has  enormously  declined  from  what  it  used  to  be.  Without 
lambs  one  cannot  expect  to  have  sheep  ;  without  grilse  one 
cannot  expect  to  have  salmon  ;  in  other  words,  if  we  would 
be  content  to  catch  fewer  grilse  the  sahnon  would  take  care 
of  themselves."  Yes,  but  content  is  the  difficulty.  No  net- 
ting station  is  content  to  catch  one  pound  less  of  grilse  than 
the  nets  can  manage  or  the  law  allows.  Our  rivers  are  cap- 
able of  accommodating,  at  low  estimate,  ten  times  the  fish 
now  found  on  the  spawning  beds. 

Spawning  Fish 

An  uninterrupted  run  from  sea  to  spawning  grounds 
is  the  first  essential.  The  protection  o'f  spawning  fish  is  the 
second,  and  the  third  is  the  protection  of  the  young,  from  the 
time  of  hatching  to  and  on  tlieir  journey  to  the  sea.  The  re- 
arrangement of  coast  and  tidal  water  netting,  both  as  to  mode 
of  working  and  periods  of  non-working,  is  a  matter  demanding 
review  legislative  and  administrative.  A  free  passage  is  to 
the  benetit  of  all  connected  with  each  river,  both  nets  and 
land  owners,  in  the  immense  results  of  better  reproduction, 
and  is  of  immense  public  importance  in  production  of  a 
larger  food  supply  offered  by  nature. 

VVithin  the  river  the  official  reports,  time  after  time, 
have  advocated  a  readjustment  of  the  times  for  using  nets 
and  mode  of  using,  even  to  the  abolition  of  netting  ;  a  difficult 
subject,  I  admit.  Butjdams  or  dykes,  impassable  except  in 
high  spates,  inefficient  ladders  or-  fish-3iasscs,  fixed  traps, 
even  cruive-dykes,  exist  and  are  left  to  bar  the  way  and  aid 
the  poacher.  It  really  affects  all ;  but  the  owners  below, 
who  get  the  stock,  will  do  nothing  ;  the  injured  upper  owners 
are  left  to  do  their  own  poHce  work,  and  to  run  the  risk  of  heavy 
law  expenses;  and  the  coimtry  is  left  with  diminished  and 
tieclining  fish  supplies. 

One  damaging  result  of  caulds  or  dams  near  the  river  mouth 
or  the  too  close  net  bar  is  that  the  salmon  are  driven  back 
to  wait  in  the  sea  off  the  moutli,  and  in  very  many  rivers 
ihey  are  slaughtered  in  hundreds  by  seals.  The  Zoological 
Society's  ("tirator  informs  us  that  an  adult  seal  consumes 
10  lbs.  of  fish  per  day,  so  five  seals  at  work  at  a  river  for  nine 
months  destroy  about  13,500  lbs.,  and  how  many  fish,  wounded 
and  missed,  (lie  also  ? 

The  whole  question  of  free  passage  to  salmon,  the  very 
foundation  of  the  possible  continuance  of  salmon  in  our  rivers, 
has  been  and  still  is  struggling  in  complex  law  and  rarely 
utilised  legal  decisions.  The  whole  matter  of  "  obstructions," 
antiquated  "  rights,"  grants,  dykes,  cmives  and  nets,  urgently 
requires  a  clean  sweep,  and  new  legislation  in  the  fight  of  our 
present  day  scientific  knowledge.  The  existing  state  of  things 
is  against  public  policy  ;  and  on  many  of  our  best  rivers  it  is 
slowly  but  surely  "  killing  the  goose  "which  lavs  the  golden 
eggs-" 

The  separation  of  the  Government  Fishery  Boards  to  three 
countries,  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  instead  of  being  one 
authority  of  joint  knowledge,  experience,  and  one  law,  is 
most  regrettable.  The  admixture  of  the  administration  of 
sea-fisheries  and  freshwater  fisheries  is  bad  for  both  ;  each  is 
of  great  national  importance  ;  but  they  are  now  blended  with 
the  Boaril  of  Agriculture,  with  a  multitude  of  inland  com- 
mercial, technical  and  legal  work,  utterly  foreign  to  fishery 
industry.  How  can  the  liead  of  such  a  complex  department 
be  expected  to  control  ttie  highly  technical  controversies 
arismg  in  fishing  matters  with  expert  ability.  "Fisheries" 
is  surely  a  branch  of  law  and  commerce  meriting  a  depart- 
ment of  its  own,  with  an  official  head  in  Parliament  and 
sulvdivisions  of  sea  and  fresh  water  (including  of  course 
coastal  fishings  affecting  the  rivers)  the  department  administer- 
ing minor  matters  tlirough  District  Boards  of  Conservators. 

When  the  salmon  succeeds  in  running  the  gauntlet  of  the 
nets  and  obstructions  he  has  yet  to  face  many  dangers  in  the 
river,  and  especially  at  the  time  of  spawning.  The  game- 
keeper on  land  shoots  and  traps  all  "  vermin,"  otherwise  he 
would  liave .  neither  stock  nor  young ;  the  river  watcher 
wanders  about  with  a  stick  ;  consequently  otters  abound, 
they  eat  iisli,  and  on  salmon  and  trout  rivers  such  fish  are 
practically  their  main  diet.  An  otter,  according  to  the  report 
of  the  Zoological  Curator,  requires  approximately  5  lbs.  of 
fish  per  day  ;  he  only  eats  a  piece  of  each  large  fish,  so  there  is 
enormous  wastage  if  it  bo  salmon.  What  he  does  ui  putting 
away  salmon  parr  I  know  not,  but  I  have  seen  otters  hunting 
the  shallows  where  no  salmon  could  lie,  and  his  abilities  with 
trout  is  well  known,  and  is  seen  in  a  case  reported  recently 
where  two  otters  cleaned  out  the  whole  of  the  trout  in  tw-o  ' 
miles  of  well  stocked  club-water  in  less  than  a  month. 


The  cormorant  has  "  come  to  stay-"  Reports  from  every 
corner  of  the  country  affirm  the  depredations  of  cormorants.  I 
have  seen  them  as  far  up  as  Grant  own  on  the  Spey,  and  twenlV 
to  tJiirty  miles  up  many  other  rivers.  They  are  usually  ojf 
the  river  by  the  time  the  angler  gets  to  work,  hut  keepers  could 
get  them  by  gun  or  trap.  The  cormorant,  on  the  authority  al- 
ready quoted,  recpiires  two  lbs.  of  fish  ])er  day,  roughly  estima- 
ted about  thirty  baby  salmon  or  sixteen  "  parr  "  a  day  each 
bird  ;  probably  some  2,000  young  fish  eacli  bird  during  April,  | 
May  and  June. 

The  gull  is  a  voracious  feeder  on  small  fisli.  During  tlie 
past  twenty-five  years  the  gulls  have  increased  in  thousands, 
and  liave  taken  to  the  rivers  in  a  manner  never  seen  in  old 
days.  The  Board  of  Conservators  of  the,  lilvvy  and  Clw>'d 
report  for  1916,  says  :  "  The  gulls  increase  year  by  year  and 
cause  great  damage  to  the  fishery.  During  the  whole  3'car, 
and  especially  when  the  rivers  are  low,  large  numbers  of 
them  may  be  seen  feeding  on  young  fish,  and  it  is  noticed 
that  tlicy  arc  most  nmneroiis  where  these  are  mostly  samlets. 
The  injury  they  cau.se  is  incalculable.  .  .  .  The  cormo- 
rants at  Rhyl  end  of  the  river  were  most  destructive."  Many 
other  river  reports  are  to  the  same  eft'ect. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  damage  done  to  an}'  river ; 
the  birds  are  perpetually  on  the  move  and  so  arc  not  count- 
able, and  many  different  breeds  and  sizes  are  there.  I  have 
been  unable  to  obtain  evidence  of  the  amount  of  fish  a  gull 
will  eat  or  requires,  but  I  hava^  seen  them  hundreds  of  times 
at  work  on  the  shallow  ends  of  the  pools  and  along  the  banks 
"  doing  themselves  "  uncommonly  well.  liven  when  they 
are  only  digging  among  the  stones  they,  hundreds  of  them, 
are  getting  the  creeping  food  which  should  go  to  the  young 
salmon  and  trout.  And  they  also  foul  tlic  water  badly. 
Divers  are  often  among  tliem  or  in  deeper  places.  What, 
then,  is  a  reasonable  estimate  of  the  loss  to  each  river  of  its 
already  decimated  supply  of  new  salmon  ?  It  must  he 
hundreds  of  thousands,  may  be  millions,  per  season  ;  and 
each  samlet  might  become  a  salmon  and  return  to  produce 
stock.  The  whole  way  down  the  river,  from  the  spawning 
ground,  the  young  salmon  drops  down  after  getting  over 
the  "  foy  "  stage,  and  with  so  many  enemies  the  wonder  i.s 
that  any  survive  to  get  to  sea.  As  they  become  "smolts," 
they  are  more  able  to  avoid  gulls  and  divers,  but  not  the 
cormorant  and  the  otter. 

Fish-Destroyers 

The  main  cause  of  the  being  and  quantity  of  "  fish' 
destroyers "  is  the  existence  of  the  Wild  Birds  Protection 
Act  and  Amendment  Act,  1880  and  1S94.  So  for  thirty- 
seven  years  the  various  water  birds  have  been  protected 
froin  March  ist  to  August  ist,  and  for  twenty-three  years 
their  eggs  have  been  sacred.  This  is  nothing  short  of  "  State 
protection  of  vermin,"  useless  as  food,  causing  the  loss  to  the 
nation  of  millions  of  young  salmon  per  year,  the  loss  of  many 
thousands  of  pninds  in  money  to  fishing  industries,  and  large 
rents  to  riparian  f)wners  ;  and  what  for  ?  Sentiment !  They 
are  not  "  rare  birds,"  nor  in  danger  of  being  exterminated. 

To-day  we  are  "  on  ratiorts  "  with  food  at  high  price,  and 
hens'  eggs  in  many  places  simply  not  to  be  had.  It  is  the 
breeding  season  of  the  gulls,  and  other  marine  birds.  At  all 
the  shores  around  the  coasts,  and  especially  the  .several 
favourite  breeding  places,  are  now  to  be  found  simply  millions 
of  eggs  ;  they  are  quite  good  to  eat,  the  fresh-laid  ones,  and 
I  am  informed  could  be  retailed  at  about  one-tenth  or  one- 
twelfth  the  price  of  hen's  eggs  ;  they  cost  nothing  to  pro- 
duce. But  this  immense  food  supply  must  not  he  touched. 
The  Act  imposes  a  fine  of  £1  for  every  egg.  There  is  a 
schedule  to  the  Act,  which  names  the  birds  that  are  pro- 
tected, but  it  is  quite  worthless,  in  that  the  Act  further 
gives  power  to  County  Councils  (probably  on  the  advice  of 
the  local  bird-stutler)  to  add  to  or  vary  the  list' of  birds,  so  • 
the  particular  schedule  of  the  locality  must  be  scrutinised 
to  see  what  "  veriliin  "  is  protected. 

The  re-stocking  of  rivers  with  hatched  artificially -reared 
samlets,  in  the  face  of  the  "  fish  destroyers  "  and  "  the  present 
law,"  is  to  my  mind  poor  business,  the  expense  of  hatchery, 
netting,  wages,  etc.,  w''ll  be  a  large  sum  ;  surely  it  would  be 
better  business  for  the  river  interest  to  spend  about  one-fifth 
the  sum  on  clearing  off  the  venuin,  with  perhaps  a  little 
useful  legal  persuasion  to  abate  or  remove  illegal  obstructions. 

The  actual  regeneration  of  a  river,  after  being  cleared 
of  obstructions,  would  be  a  matter  of  three  to  five  years, 
but  the  immediate  want,  or  first  remedy,  is  the  removal  of 
the  Wild  Birds  Act  to  abate  or  remove  the  slaughter  of 
young  fish.  The  next  would  be  a  reasonable  time  of  free 
passage  to  grilse  at  the  summer  run  to  bring  their  new  young 
blood  tip  the  rivers.  And  then  the  reorganisation  of  the 
whole  administration.  The  net  owners'  market  would  suffer 
a  temporary  loss  of  grilse,  but  would  be  repaid  ten  times 
over  for  years  to  come  in  the  immense  increase  of  spawning 
supply  and  consequent  stock. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


May    i'>.    T()I7 


Petrograd  and  Moscow 

By  Hdouard  S.  Luboli" 


MDSCOW's  recent  request  to  be  reinstated  as  tliej 
capital  of  Russia  revives  a  claim  of  very  long 
standing;,  and  reveals  that  the  two  main  differences 
of  opinion  in  Russia  have  survived  the  epoch- 
making'  (lays  of  war  ami  revolution.  As  the  abandoned 
(  apitai.  Moscow  bases  its  claim  on  historical,  geographical 
and  economic  grounds.  The  argument  briefly  amounts  to  the 
assertion  that  .Moscow,  notwitlistanding  the  removal  <>f  tiie 
capital  to  Petrograd,  was  and  remains  tiie  real  capital  of 
Russia  ;  that  historical  associations  and  sentiment  are  in 
favour  of  its  restoration,  that  its  position  is  the  best  adaptc<l 
for  the  requirements  of  a  capital,  and  that  its  wealtli.  com- 
merce, industry  an<l  rich  surroundings  are  factors  of  impor- 
tance in  the  future  development  of  the  country. 

The  people  of  Moscow  claim  that  historical  evidence  tends 
to  prove  that  the  principles  opposing  autocracy  have  been 
wrsistently  active  in  their  city  .since  tlio  earliest  stages  of 
heir  conception,  and  assert  that  the  removal  of  the  capital 
()  Petrograd  was  the  result  of  its  systematic  opposition, 
pspcciallv  bv  its  boyars  and  nobles,  to  the  assumptions 
of  the  rulers.  It  is  pointed  out  that  Peter's  act  in  re- 
moving the  capital  from  Moscow  had  a  precedent  in  his  fore- 
fathers' action  towards  the  municipal  republic  of  Great 
Novgorod ;  fearing  the  growth  of  republican  or  constitu- 
tional ideas,  Peter  reduced  that  great  and  progressive  city 
to  the  rank  of  a  provincial  town.  Evidence  is  also  brought 
forward  that  whilst  Kieff  and  Novgorod— both  abandoned 
capitals— never  lastingly  opposed  Moscow's  position,  Moscow 
has  never  abandoned  its  claim. 

The  Crowned  Revolutionist 

Peter  the  Great  is  considered  to  have  been  the  first  monarch 
who  o])enly  and  energetically  championed  the  Petrograd 
inovcmeht.  To  break  with  all  traditions  and  in  an  almost 
revolutionary  manner  westernize  the  whole  country  is 
claimed  to  be  the  ideal  of  this  movement.  It  is  admitted 
generally  that  Moscow  opposed  "  Westernization  "  with 
all  its  strength,  and  that  Peter,  realising  that  as  long  as  this 
opposititm  remained  his  ambitious  ideas  would  not  make 
lieadway,  endeavoured  at  first  to  break  the  old  tradition  by 
force  of  example  ;  but  such  action  strengthened  rather  than 
lessened  the  opposition.  The  revolutionary  monarch-  - 
or,  as  M.  Anatole  Leroy  Heaulieu  in  his  book  L'Empirc  des 
Tsars  calls  him,  "  the  most  imperious  of  crowned  revplu- 
tionists  " — who  disregarded  traditions  and  prejudices  arid 
hated  ceremony  and  set  formalities,  began  also  to  hate  the 
ceremonious,  dignified,  orthodo.v  Moscow,  and  determined 
to  escape  the  opposing  forces  by  limiting  its  position 
as  a  city.  The  idea  was  to  separate  the  two  mental  tend- 
encies, traditional  and  new,  allowing  the  former  to  die  out. 

Petrograd — calculated  to  become  the  centre  of  the  new 
movement,  the  "  window  into  Europe  "  and  the  "  model  " 
of  a  European  Russia — began  to  be  built.  The  deter- 
mination of  its  founder  and  the  great  assistance  of  his  followers 
are  worthy  of  admiration.  Fighting  all  physical  difficulties 
with  dogged  persistence,  at  tremendous  cost  of  life  and  wealth, 
the  city  arose.  The  <]uestion  of  populating  it,  however, 
brought  Peter  again  into  fierce  conflict  with  Moscow  ideas, 
but  .so  determined  was  he  to  succeed  that  he  populated  it 
compulsorily.  In  1714  heremoved  the  Senate  from  Moscow, 
and  thus  ofhcially  Petrograd  or  St.  Petersburg  became  the 
new  capital  and,  with  its  jjrowth,  the  ideal  which  built  it 
i^pread  and  became  a  force  m  the  Empire. 

To  give  a  resume  of  its  achievements  during  the  two 
centuries,  it  is  necessary  to  point  out  that  its  founder  and  his 
contemporary  supporters  have  imbued  their  descendants 
vith  the  idea  that  foreign  influences  need  not  necessarily 
Jash  with  national  characteristics,  and  that  reforms,  there- 
ore,  can  be  made  without  regard  to  e.visting  conditions. 
To  develop  slowlv  on  certain  national  lines  was  considered,, 
broadly  speaking,  injurious  to  the  whole  system. 

The  people  of  Petrograd  may  be  judged  by  their  city — 
i  splendid  city  of  cosmopohtan  gaiety-,  with  a  population 
which  includes  foreigners  of  almost  every  known  nationality. 
It  has  more  than  400  churches,  also  grand  palaces,  spacious 
official  buildings,  wide  streets  and  is',  generally,  a  delightful 
])lacc  of  abode.  It  has  been  the  means  of  making  Russia 
an  integral  part  of  the  European  political  system,  has 
enabled  her  to  take  a  prominent  place  in  the  affairs  of 
Europe,  and    has  raised   her  to  her  present  position. 

Petrograd  claims  that  initiative  in  commerce  and  industry 
the  introduction  of  Russian  art  to  the  world,  and  general 
economic  and  social  intercourse  with  the  world,  is  due  to  its 


activity.  It  further  claims  to  have  endeavoured  continually 
to  erase  all  that  is  bafl  and  ugly  in  Russia,  and  to  substitute 
for  it  the  good  and  the  beaufifid  to  be  found  in  the  earlier 
« ivilised  West.  We  are  reminded  that  in  the  domain  of  art 
it  was  the  spirit  of  Petrograd  that  put  an  end  to  the  liyzan- 
tine  tradition  in  ])ainting  and  in  national  architecture,  to 
replace  them  with  ICinopean  art.  The  etTects  of  modernism 
obser\'ed  throughout  Russia  and  similar  results  of  national 
progress  are,  it  is  said,  Petrograd's  work. 

The  removal  of  the  capital  did  not  in  an\'  way  destroy  the 
opposition  ;  on  the  contrary-,  it  throve,  assuming  various 
aspects  as  time  went  on.  This  tendency  which  we  now  call 
Moscow  has  an  ancient  history,  having  first  manifested  itself 
l^'uif  to  Moscow  becoming  the  capital.  It  had  been  advocated 
and  nourished  by  the  old  democratic  sj>irit  of  Pskov,  Nov- 
gorod and  other  cities,  whose  inhabitants  were  compulsorily 
exiled  to  many  parts  of  Russia.  These  free  men  carried 
with  them  the  spirit  of  freedom  wherever^they  went,  and  their 
ideas,  associating  with  others  and  changing  in  accordance 
with  time  and  environment,  formed  a  particular  and,  in  many 
ways,  peculiar  school  of  thought.  Believing  that  their  loss 
of  freedom  was  flue  to  f  lie  tyrannical  interference  of  foreigners, 
they  evolved  the  Slavophil  ideal.  The  predominating  idea 
observed  among  the  followers  of  this  school  of  thought  is 
"  anti-foreignism."  On  all  points,  whether  small  or  large, 
this  Moscow  type  of  mind  opposed  foreign  influences,  the  cry 
was  "  Russia  for  the  Russians.  "  Naturally  as  time  pro- 
gressed the  view  became  modified,  but  the  idea  in  its  more 
substantial  forms  remained. 

.  People  of  M0.SCOW  admit  Petrograd's  claim  to  have  raised 
Rus-sia  from  a  semi-Asiatic  into  a  great  European  Power, 
liut  they  argue  that  this  was  achieved  artificially,  and  that 
the  world  was  impressed  more  1)V  the  artificialdom  than  by 
the  reality.  Petrograd's  assertion  that  it  is  responsible  for 
the  modern  progress  of  Russia  is  refuted  by  Moscow  ;  on  the 
contrary,  the  latter  accuses  the  former  of  being  responsible 
for  retarding  progress  through  the  very  foregin  influence  with 
which  it  was  infected.  The  support  of  the  "  Holy  Alliance," 
the  defence  of  the  despotism  of  German  inonarchs  and  such- 
like acts,  which  made  Russia  the  "  gendarme  of  Autocracy," 
are,  it  is  claimed,  the  results  of  Petrograd's  ideal. 

The  dispersion  of  the  Golden-Horde,  the  establishment  of 
an  Empire,  the  election  of  a  Russian  prince  instead  of  the 
descendants  of  the  foreigner  Rurik,  the  establishment  of  a 
National  Church,  the  repeated  opposition  to  autocracy  and 
many  minor  actions,  are  claimed  to  have  been  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  Moscow  ideal.  This  ideal  asserts  that  imita- 
tion of  foreign  ways  and  manners  are  injurious  to  Russia  ; 
it  believes  that  the  adoption  of  Western  methods  should 
proceed  through  a  system  of  assimilation,  and  is  always 
eager  to  j)oint  to  Moscow  as  a  comparison  with  Petrograd. 
Revolutionary  as  Petrograd  and  its  school  of  thought  is, 
Moscow  claims  to  have  been  always  more  successful  in  its 
reforms,  that  it  has  produced  the  bulk  of  Russia's  great  men 
and  is  always  looked  upon  as  the  reflection  of  Russia. 

We  are  also  reminded  of  the  co-operative  movement, 
which  is  said  to  have  been  inaugurated  in  Moscow,  ancl 
numerous  other  institutions  which  are  in  many  ways  in 
advance  of  Petrograd's  Western  ideas,  and  have  come  effec- 
tively to  the  rescue  in  time  of  need.  It  is  asserted  that  the 
attention  of  Moscow  has  been  turned  to  the  proper  equipment 
of  the  city  to  take  her  place  as  the  centre  of  New  Russia  many 
years  ago,  and  that  her  situation,  the  centre  of  the  railway 
system  of  the  country  serving  east  and  west,  entitles  her  to 
the  fulfilment  of  her  request. 

The  Slavonic  side  of  the  Moscow  school  blames  Petrograd 
for  the  recent  trouljles,  for  the  German  influences,  for  the 
"  dark  forces,"  and  is  proud  of  the  fact  that  in  a  time  of  crisis 
it  supplied  Russia  with  men  who,  though  progressive,  re- 
mained Russian,  anrl  have  through  their  influence  averted, 
even  during  and  after  the  revolution,  excesses,  prevented 
chaos  and  anarchy,  all  foreign  to  Russian  temperament,  and  so 
far  successfully  crushed  all  attempts  at  a  counter-revolution. 
On  the  question  of  "  sea-outlets,"  so  longed  for  by  inland 
countries,  it  is  Moscow  and  not  Petrograd  that  is  in  agree- 
ment with  Russia's  Western  Allies,  by  strongly  advocating 
that  Constantinople  should  be  placed  under  Russian  control. 
In  education  Moscow  is  far  in  advance,  because  it  has 
striven  to  give  the  best  educational  facilities  at  home,  and 
thus  avoid  the  emigration  of  its  youth  to  foreign  universities. 
No  matter,  what  the  political  capital  may  be,  the  real 
capital  of  Russia,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  soul  of  the  Slav 
race  which  will  continue  in  the  future  to  control  it<  dr-'-tinies 
whether  through  Petrograd  or  .Moscow, 


J 


"M;.i\    iv,    Kjiy- 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


A  Voyage  of  Peace  in  War  Time 


By  Rachel  Q.   Henriques 


THEKJ'2  is  a  general  idea  in  India  that  tlie  safest 
way  home  is  round  the  Cape.  This  may  be  because 
by  the  old-time  route  one  does  not  get  into  the 
danger-zone  proper  until  the  end  of  very  nearly 
two  months'  sea  voyage.  Danger  two  months  ahead  looms 
a  good  deal  smaller  than  that  which  confronts  the  traveller 
only  ten  days  after  he  leaves  Bombay,  when  he  takes  the 
customary  journey  through  the  Suez  Canal  and  across  the 
Mediterranean. 

I  came  by  the  Japanese  steamer  San  Mam.  It  is  said 
that  among  the  7,000  Gerrrian  prisoners  the  Japanese  took 
at  Kiau  Chau,  and  whom  they  have  threatened  to  shoot  if 
their  passenger-ships  are  sunk  without  ^\•arning,  are  certain 
notabilities  dear  t-o  the  German",  authorities.  They  weie 
described  to  me  as  "  some  knuts  "  by  a  iellow  passenger. 
Whether  Germany  would  really  have  any  consideration  for 
the  lives  of  those  exiled  sons,  now  prisoners  of  war,  can  only  be 
conjecture,  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  Japane.se  Would 
not  hesitate  to  carry  out  their  threat  with  calm  deliberation 
if  incensed  by  Hunnish  "  f rightfulness  "  at  sea. 

Our  purser  bore  out  this  idea  when  I  asked  him  why  we 
carried  no  guns.  "  It  is  our  Government's  policy,"  lie  said. 
When  I  suggested  there  might  be  one  on  board  hidden  some- 
where disguised  as  a  champagne  bottle,  but  only  waiting  to  be 
rigged  uj)  later  on,  he  smiled  his  Japanese  smile,  "which 
means  at  once  su  little  and  so  much,  and  offered  me  d  cigarette. 
He  was  a  man  of  over  six  feet,  bigger  than  one  ever  expects 
a  Japanese  to  be,  and  he  had  the  most  wonderful  bow  in  the 
world,  equally  imposing  whether  he  were  in  naval  uniform, 
or  with  the  kimono  every  officer  Hies  to  the  minute  tjiat  lie 
comes  off  duty. 

At  all  events,  the  San  Mam.  when  we  b(.>arded  her  at 
Colombo,  was  a  much  less  flustered  boat  than  the  Britisli 
steamer  which  had  brought  us  from  Bombay  to  Ceylon.  The 
latter  had  by  no  means  got  over  the  practical  joke  a  British 
submarine  had  played  on  her  in  emerging  almost  alongside  one 
line  day  somewhere  in  the  Mediterranean.  She  was  still 
shivering  and  chattering,  so  to  speak.  Her  sides  were 
festooned  with  coiled  ropes  and  rope  ladders,  and  big  rafts 
much  like  floatable  platforms  with  railings,  hung  ready  to  be 
dropped  into  the  sea  at  a  moment's  notice.  It  seemed  that 
on  her  outward  voyage,  at  least  during  the  first  part  of  it,  all 
passengers  had  been  compelled  to  keep  their  lifebelts  within 
grabbing  distance  day  and  night,  and  about  e\ery  other  day 
they  had  been  treated  to  a  lecture  upon  what  to  do"  in  such  arid 
such  an  emergency,  and  if  the  boat  were  struck  in  such  and 
such  a  region. 

Life-Belt  Drill 

They  told  us  nothing  on  the  San  Mam.  and  made  us  do 
nothing  beyond  mustering, in  life-belts  at  our  allotted  boats 
every  Sunday  morning  after  church-time.  It  was  as  if  the 
graceful  black  and  white  steam  palace  had  been  wound  up  at 
Yokohama  and  bidden  to  stroll  across  the  oceans  of  the  world 
as  an  emblem  of  the  modern  skill  and  ancient  daring  of  the 
East.  As  we  ncared  England  she  hoisted  her  flag,  the  rising 
sun  of  Japan,  and  thus  i)roclaiming  her  name  and  race  to  all 
she  strolled  on,  unarmed  and  unconcerned,  never  stopping, 
never  hurrying,  for  her  speed  at  no  time  exceeded  14  knots. 
She  skirted  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  crassed  the  English  Channel 
by  night,  and  landed  her  load  of  £1,000,000  worth  of  cargo 
and  some  200  human  souls,  safe  and  sound  in  England  only 
one  day  beyond  her  scheduled  time. 

We  were  among  the  last  batch  of  wcjinen  allowed  to  travel 
Ironi  India  by  sea,  the  new  regulations  limiting  passengers 
being  passed  two  days  after  (jur  departure.  Some  of  us  came 
on  board  in  ijerturbation,  but  as  days  lengthened  to  weeks, 
and  even  to  months,  pure  air  and  limitless  peace  of  water  ami 
sky  did  their  work  L^iieasv  nerves  were  soothed,  \cxed 
(|uestioiis  j)ushed  aside,  we  almost  forgot  the  war.  It  seemed 
as  though  this  sea-life  must  last  for  ever.  Nothing  in  exist- 
ence a])peared  more  important  than  our  concert,  and  we 
stop]ied  complaining  of  the  heat  to  arrange  sports,  in  which 
far  the  most  popular  "turn"  was  "bolster-bar"  over  the 
swimming  bath,  an  excellent  excuse  for  an  extra  dip 
beside  the  regulation  morning  and  evening  ones.  A  .sense 
of  security,  false  though  it  may  have  been,  conquered  every 
other  feeling.  We  sat  on  deck  in  one  harbour  and  watched 
every  other  craft  but  our  own  being  armed  to  run  the  gauntlet 
of  the  "last  lap"  with  scarcely  a  qualm.  Our  Japanese 
goddess  must  surely  bear  a  charmed  life.  And  so  with  a 
confident  spirit  we  dropperl  yvv.-iv  from  our  lust  port  of  call  one 
soft  evening,  and  tlie  l-rencli  cruiser,  wntching  the  mouth  of 
the  hiirbour.  dipped  her  flii.q-  i^i  snlnt,.   -,<   \vi_-   pa^^.'.l        Oiv 


evening  in  the  swimming-bath  I  felt  suddenly  an  (;xhilarating 
nip  in  the  hitherto  tepicl  lifeless  w^ater.  I  jjulled  myself  up 
to  look  out  across  the  waves  we  were  rushing  through.  The 
sun  had  changed  from  fiery  red  to  pale  yellow,  he  was  slipping 
down  into  the  sea  with  a  haze  across  his  face.  We  had  left 
the  cruel  sunsets  of  the  south  behind  and  were  beginning  to 
get  the  long  twilights  of  the  north.  Our  boat  was  now 
travelling  through  chilly  seas  ;  the  flying-fish  and  dolphins 
that  had  played  ipund  us  had  long  since  left  us  to  our  journey. 
All  this  came  home  to  me  suddenly  with  a  thrill.  Only 
another  week  and  then  — .  But  a  week  was  too  far  to  Ioo'k 
ahead  :  one  lived  from  day  to  day  these  times.  By  the 
morrow  the  bath  had  been  emptied  and  Norfolk  jackets  and 
sports  coats  appeared  after  5  o'clock.  The  little  Japanese 
sailors  laughed  about  their  work  as  much  as  ever,  but  they 
and  the  officers  already  wore  navy  serge.  Our  captain,  whose 
face  wind  and  sea  had  dyed  their  own  colours  so  that  nobody 
could  have  guessed  his  nationality  from  the  tint  of  his  skin,  still 
had  the  eternal  cigarette  between  his  lips.  He  photographed 
our  children  sometimes  as  they  played  along  the  well-deck. 
He  still  joked  with  the  passengers  when  he  passed  among 
them,  but  he  no  longer  took  part  in  deck  quoits.  A  careful 
observer  from  the  boat-deck  could  have  seen  him  hour  after 
hour,  a  squat  figure  against  the  spotless  white  railings  of  his 
bridge,  his  glasses  glued  to  his  eyes,  looking  out  to  sea. 

First  Sign  of  Land 

There  came  a  day  when  the  few  gulls  which  had  seemed  to 
follow  us  all  the  way,  were  joined  by  flocks  of  friends,  and 
people  said  to  each  other  ;  "  We  can't  be  far  otf  land."  But 
the  tiny  flag  which  marked  our  course  had  been  taken  off  the 
big  map,  and  none  could  tell  with  any  certainty  where  wc 
were,  though  some  of  the  men  talked  very  wise  about  it. 
They  felt  rather  anxious  about  us  women,  so  they  said,  not  a 
bit  for  themselves,  of  course.  We  watched  the  crew  lowering 
the  boats  to  promenade  deck  level,  and  lashing  them  in  the 
most  convenient  positions  for  us  to  get  into,  and  they  stocked 
each  with  a  cask  of  water  and  a  barrel  of  biscuits  as  gaily  as 
though  preparing  for  a  picnic.  A  bold  lady  passenger  had 
the  temerity  to  ask  the  captain  where  we  were,  as  if  it  had 
been  the  most  innocent  question  in  the  world.  We  quite 
expected  him  to  call  forth  a  typhoon  or  at  least  one  of  those 
fearsome  dragons  the  Japanese  paint  on  their  fans  and 
screens  to  swallow  her  up,  but  he  only  said  :  "  Getting 
towards  London,"  and  ran  up  the  steps  to  his  bridge,  puflftng 
away  at  his  cigarette. 

That  night  the  sea  rose,  and  the  next  morning  those  of  us 
who  "  did  not  like  the  motion,"  stopped  in  our  comfortable 
state-rooms  or  took  to  long  chairs  again,  covering  ourselves 
now  with  thick  rugs  resurrected  from  trunks,  and  creased 
with  long  disuse.     Chairs  had  all  been  turned  about  to  face 
the  sea,  for  an  odd  sensation  seemed  to  prevail  that  if  one 
stopped  watching  it  even  for  a  second  "  something  might 
happen."     Conversation    was   punctuated    with    the    wistful 
sigh  of  "  I  wonder  where  we  are  now,"  and  the  inevitable 
reply,  "  I  expect  this  is  the  Bay."     Tempers  grew  shorter 
as  the  hours  grew  longer.     People  came  to  have  a  fixed  look 
in  their  eyes.     In  some  cliques  the  word  "  submarine  "  was 
barred  altogether,  others  discussed    the   danger    boldly   and 
comforted  themselves  by  saying  that  the  German  sea-murderers 
were  powerless  in  any  sort  of  rough  weather.     But  I  think 
we  all  realised  that  the  weather  was  hardly  bad  enough  to 
prevent  them  from  operating,  while  the  choi)piness  of  the  sea 
would  have  made  the  lowering  of  the  boats  an  extremely 
precarious  undertaking.     In  any  case,   the  life  of  a  smail 
boat  in  such  a  sea  could  hardly  have  lasted  as  long  as  the 
increasing  cold   wouid  have  spared   those  of  the  men  and 
women  within  her,  to  say  nothing  of  the  children  !     Though 
we  said  nothing  to  one  another,  not  a  soul  among  us  but 
wondered  how  it  would  be  in  a  cockle-shell,  with  that  de- 
vouring mass  of  gray  water  leajiing  all  around.     And  stilt 
our  engines  throbbed  with  a  regular  reassuring  throb  and  still 
breakfast-time,  lunch-time,  tea-time,  dinner-time  came  and 
went,  and  a  greedy  passenger  raised  a  laugh  by  saying  even 
if  we  were  torpedoed  to-day,  she  hoped  it  wouldn't  be  before 
luncheon.    l*"or  the  food  was  excellent. 

The  wind  fell  towards  evening,  and  the  next  day  dawned 
upon  a  calm  sea,  calm  at  least  to  a  steady  old  rock  like  the 
San  Maru,  though  possibly  v<;ry  different  in  its  treatment  of 
a  smaller,  lighter  \'<ssel.  .\s  we  came  upon  deck,  the  whisper 
went  round,  "  We  shall  sight  land  to-day."  Most  of  ns  merely 
grunted,  we  hatl  almost  come  to  disbelieve  in  the  existence 
of  any  more  land.  Xnd  then  one  of  the  passengers,  a  transport 
,  ;n.f;,;p  ,v  luw,.  I,,.  .1  1,  ..I  i>,.,.,,  mined  about  three  weeks  before. 


l6 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  10,  1917 


and  who  was  on  his  way  home  to  take  another  command, 
trotted  lip  to  our  rather  mournful  group,  his  face  all  one  smile.. 
I  say  trotted,  for  we  all  of  us  raced  and  jmnjied  to  4ieep  our-' 
selves  warm.  One  word,  and  we  rushed  to  the  other  side  of 
the  boat.  There  it  was,  only  a  shadow  on  the  liorizon  at 
first,  and  then  as  we  watched,  clearer  and  clearer,  a  range  of 
smiling  grass-covered  cliffs  flanked  by  a  lighthouse,  our  first 
glimjise  of  Europe— the  coast  of  France.  And  I  shall  never 
know  a  fairer  landfall  than  that  earliest  sight  of  the  broad 
helds  of  Normandy,  between  the  blues  of  sea  and  sky. 

We  were  speeding  merrily  across  the  Ch;uinel,  the  .sun 
tlancing  on  the  ripi)les,  the  sharp  air  singing  past  our  ears, 
depression  fallen  from  us  like  a  cloak.  Incorrigible  invalids 
came  up  f)Ut  of  their  cabins  and  skipped  al)out  the  deck  ; 
individuals  \vho  had  been  at  loggerheads  the  whole  voyage 
leant  together  o\er  the  rail  and  exchanged  confidences.  We 
thought  ourselves  safe  !  And  then  all  in  a  moment  a  voice 
said,  "  What  is  that  ?  "  Over  the  horizon  had  popped  a 
long  grey  boat  ;  then  another,  and  another !  In  an  in- 
credibly short  time  it  seemed,  the  hrst  was  alongside  us. 
She  slid  across  our  bows  like  an  eel,  and  up  ran  a  signal. 
We  seemed  to  turn  on  our  track  like  a  hound  and  in 
scarcely  more  than  a  few  seconds  were  scudding,  all  steam  u]i 
in  the  opposite  direction,  towards  that  friendly  shore.  .\nd 
as  we  steamed,  the  little  destroyers  circled  around  and  about 
us  like  terriers  conducting  a  mastiff,  not  going  over  the 
waves,  but  cutting  straight  through  them,  the  sun  glinting 
on  their  silver-grey  armour,  while  every  time  one  came  near 
enough,  we  cheered  and  shrieked  almost  hysterically,  waving 
caps,  handkerchiefs,  mufflers,  sewing,  knitting,  anything,  at 
the  men  in  oilskins  and  queer  I'Vench  Tam-o'-Slianti-rs, 
standing  on  the  little  drenched  deck.     On  our  notice-board 


appeared  :  "  We  have  been  ordered  to  put  irfto  pi  11  We 
lay  in  port  three  o^:  lour  hours,  among  a  ])enect'fleet  uf  aiiiafor 
ciiaft,  eachutf  which,  like  us.  had  evidently  befiii  war.ned  ;Ai<l 
fetched  back  from  the  path  of  danger  We  vvatcli^f  a^conwv 
depart.  A  line  of  rtve  or  six  ordinary  transports- "  three 
island  boats"  they  are  called,  because  wljon  first  sighted  ,at 
sea,  the  bows.  poop,.ajid  stern. look  like  three  .islands  sticking 
up  upon  the  horizon.  Two  fussy  little  tugs  towing  as  many 
sailing  ships,  graceful  beauties,  most  of  their  sails  now  sadly 
furled,  as  though  in  mourning  for  the  fate  which  had  befallen 
so  many  of  their  comrades.  Our  captain  had  come  half  round 
the  world  alone,  and  he  said  he  would  linish  his  journey  un- 
protected, save  by  his  skilful  .seamanship  and  his  confidence 
m  the  gods  of  his  ancient  people.  We  slipped  away  under 
cover  of  darkness. 

By  nightfall  we  had  passed  through  "  the  Gates,"  and 
were  safely  anchored.  The  pilot  had  come  on  board  and  the 
captain  was  in  bed.  Ne.xt  morning  we  glided  up  Channel 
with  the  crowd  of  transports,  crui.scrs.  destroyers.  ])atrols, 
minesweepers,  and  trawlers  that  throng  here  like  traftic  in 
Kegent  Street  on  a  May  afternoon — for  the  Germans  have 
still  left  us  a  few  !  And,  oh,  it  was  good  to  have  exchanged 
translucent  tropic  seas  for  our  own  grim  pitchy  waters.  We 
also  saw  at  least  three  of  those  sea-batteries  called  "  monitors," 
in  which  all  is  subservient  to  the  one  huge  gun,  guarding  the 
mouth  of  the  Thames. 

Next  day  we  were  riding  in  omnibuses  and  sliopping  in 
Oxford  Street.  That  London  life  which  our  men  at  the 
Front  and  on  the  Fleet  have  enabled  to  roll  on  almost  as 
smoothly  and  unconcernedly  as  ever,  had  absorbed  us, 
exiles  home  from  India.  We  were  already  beginning  to 
forget  our  peaceful  voyage  home  in  war-time. 


Campaign  of  the  Marne 


MAJOR  WHITTON'S  book  upon  The  Marne 
Caml>aipi  (in  the  series  of  Camf>aigns  and  Their 
Lessons,  edited  by  Major-Cicneral  t'allwell,  and 
published  by  Messrs.  Constable  and  Co.),  has  been 
welcomed  as  the  first  professional  account  written  for  soldiers 
and  by  a  soldier  in  this  country,  of  the  great  action  which 
decided  the  form  of  the  war.  It  is  by  far  the  most  important 
book  which  has  yet  aj)peared  upon  the  subject,  and  merits 
a  close  examination. 

The  key  to  the  book  is  the  thesis  that  the  I'.attle  of  the 
Marne  was  essentially  a  retirement  foiced  upon  the  tkrmans 
by  the  menace  to  their  extreme  right  under  von  Kluck. 

There  are  two  schools  witli  regard  to  the  Marne.  two 
theses,  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  which  will  hardly  be  kiK)wn 
until,  if  ever,  we  have  authoritative  evidence  enabhng  us  to 
decide  between  the  two. 

The  one  thesis  maintains  that  the  decisive  act  was  on  the 
extreme  west,  where  von  Kluck  at  the  head  of  the  1st  German 
Army,  on  the  extreme  right  of  the  Germiin  line,  suffered  a 
surprise  which  he  very  rapidly  met,  but  the  consequences  of 
which  he  could  not  undo,  lie  found  himself  attacked  in 
ilank  by  larger  forces  than  he  knew  were  there,  lie  recalled 
his  troops  rajjidly  from  bey<md  the  Marne  river,  to  meet  the 
menace.  The  liritish  and  the  French  5th  Army  followed 
u])  and  after  three  days'  fighting,  he  could  not  hold  and  had 
to  go  back,  coming  to  this  decision  in  the  afternoon  of  Wed- 
nesday. September  qth,  and  actually  effecting  his  retreat 
in  the  night  between  the  ()th  and  lotii.  He  fell  back  to  the 
Aisne,  and  his  necessity  so  to  do  compelled  every  t)tlier  (ier- 
man  commander  all  along  the  line  right  away 'to  the  Argomic 
to  keep  in  step  and  rt!treat  by  varying  degrees  also. 

The  other  maintains  that  the  decisive  act  came  in  tlie 
centre.  It  holds  that  tlie  suri)rise  effected  against  vtm 
Kluck  was  well  met  by  that  General,  but  that  in  meeting  it 
he  was  compelled  to  draw  so  many  troops  towards  the  right  or 
west  that  the  whole  German  line  grew  thinner,  and  wa's  hi 
danger  of  disruption.  This  process  continued  thro'uf^h 
three  days,  and  on  September  9th  gave  an  ojiportunity  for 
F'och,  in  the  centre,  to  get  in  between  two  j>arts  of  the 
Prussian  Guard  and  throw  the  German  centre  into  confusion. 
When  this  had  happened  to  the  centre,  an  immediate  retreat 
there  was  necessar\-,  and  orders  had  to  be  sent  t<>  all  the 
(ierman  (ienerals,  including  von  Kluck,  to  retire  in  conforrtuty 
with  what  had  ha])i)ened  in  front  of  Focii. 

This  dispute  with  regard  to  what  happened  at  the  Battle 
of  the  Marne  could  be  settled  for  good  if  we  had  one  clear 
bit  of  evidence  before  us,  to  wit,  at  what  hour  von  Kluck 
gave  his  hrst  orders  for  a  retirement,  and  the  relation  of  this 
liour  to  the  position  upon  the  evening  <j^  Wednesday,  Sep- 
tember 9th  of  the  French  .(jnd  Division  near  La  Fere  Cham- 
penoise. 

Major  Whitton,  after  consulting  all  available  authorities, 
decides  clearly  for  the  theory  that  von  Kluck  had  already 
i^ivcu  the  Older  to  retire  before  anything  decisive  happened 


in  the  centre.  L'pon  page  200  of  this  book  it  is  suggested 
that  von  Kluck  came  to  this  conclusion  shortly  after  noon 
on  Wednesday,  September  9th.  Major  Whitton  points  out 
that  the  definite  orders  for  a  retreat  were  not  issued  until 
somewhere  about  H  o'clock  in  the  evening,  but  he  says  (pago 
201)  these  orders  were  "anticipated  by  instructions  for  tlie 
immediate  withdrawal  of  troops  not  actually  engaged,  and 
that  during  the  afternoon  the  F'rench  Air  Service  had  reported 
a  full  retreat  of  dense  columns  and  transports  north-eastwards 
by  the  roads  behind  von  Kluck's  army."  The  author  also 
says  with  regard  to  the  complementary  jxiint  (the  condit  ion 
of  F'och  at  the  same  time,  and  particularly  of  the  42nd 
Division)  that  the  latter  was  "  probably  by  this  time  "  (that 
is,  at  nightfall  of  the  yth)  "  somewhere  on  the  line  Connantrc- 
Corroy,  or  in  front  of  it." 

The  conclusion,  therefore,  would  be  that  the  42nd  Division 
had  not  yet  effected  anything  decisive  when  darkness  fell  on 
the  gth.  In  other  words,  that  Foch's  army  in  the  centre  had 
not  yet  turned  the  scale  when  von  Kluck  had  already  deter- 
mined to  retreat  many  hours  before. 

Itverything  turns  upon  these  two  bits  of  evidence  and  the 
whole  of  the  very  valuable  and  scholarly  work  su])porting  the 
j)osition  taken  up  by  Major  Whitton  depends  upon  the  presence 
or  absence  of  this  evidence.  If  it  can  definitely  be  proved  by 
documentary  and  ])ersonal  evidence  after  peace  has  come 
that  the  42nd  Division  was  not  in  the  middle  of  the  Prussian 
Guard  in  the  later  afternoon  of  Wednesday,  Sei)tember  qtli, 
that  on  the  other  hand,  Kluck  had  made  arrangements  to 
retreat  at  the  latest  early  in  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  then 
what  may  be  called  the  "  Gallieni  thesis  "  is  sound.  The 
Battle  of  the  Marne  was  won  upon  the  west,  andever^^thing 
that  happened  in  the  centre  was  only  a  consequence  of  the 
victory  in  the  west.  But  if  the  confusion  into  which  the 
Guard  fell  in  the  centre  (and  that  confusion  was  so  grave 
that  a  great  number  of  guns  were  captured  from  this  corps  by 
the  F'rench)  had  taken  j)lace  by  the  late  afternoon  of  Wed- 
nesday the  9th,  and  if  there  is  no  indisputable  evidence  that 
Kluck's  order  to  retreat  came  earlier,  then  we  can  only  con- 
clude that  it  was  F^och's  army  which  determined  the  final 
result. 

The  strongest  piece  of  evidence  produced  in  Major  Whitton 's 
book  is  undoubtedly  the  reports  of  the  F'rench  .Air  Service 
with  regard  to  the  initiation  of  the  retreat  behind  von  Kluck's 
army  during  the  afternoon  of  Sej)tember  qtli. 

No  notice  of  the  book,  even  one  as  brief  as  this  and  only 
dealing  with  its  main  ])oint,  would  be  complete  without  due 
praise  for  the  very  full  bibliography  which  Major  Whitton 
has  added  a*  the  end.  It  is  tlie  more  valuable  because  the 
writing  upon  the  Marne,  let  alone  the  documentary  official 
evidence  upon  it,  as  yet  publicly  available,  is  still  astonishingly 
meagre.  The  index  also  is  excellent  and  the  maps  very  clear 
and  sufficient.  The  large  pocket  ma])  at  the  end  <)f  the 
\  olunie,  which  gives  the  details  of  the  battle,  is  a  particularly 
i^ood  conspectus. 


J 


May  10,  191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


17 


Life  and   Letters 


By    J.    C.    Squire 


MANY  English  people  tlimk  of  Russian  literature 
as  something  very  gloomy.  In  their  minds  all 
Russian  writers  arc  telescoped  together  into  a 
mass  witli  unpronounceable  names,  and  their 
works  seem  a  single  vast  torturc-chamber-cum-charnel-house 
in  which  brutal  police  oflicers  called  Serge  apply  the  knout 
to  the  shoulders  of  fainting,  but  still  indomitable  heroines 
called  Marya  Alexandrovna  ;  tramps,  covered  in  filthy 
rags,  sleep  in  piles  and  occasionally  rouse  themselves  to  ask 
"  What's  the  use  of  anything  ?  "  or  "  If  I  had  three  kopecks 
I  should  get  some  vodka  "  ;  precocious  children  commit 
suicide  ;  and  revolutionary  students  of  both  sexes  writhe  in 
love-affairs  the  agony  of  which  is  only  interrupted  by  an 
occasional  revolver-shot  at  a  magistrate.  There  is  no  cloubt 
whatever  that-  there  is  some  foundation  for  the  belief  that 
Russian  literature  is  largely  preoccupied  with  pain,  vice  and 
mi.sery.  Dostoevsky  and  Tolstoi  are  harrowing  and  many 
of  their  successors  are  morbidly  horrible.  Hut  two  qualifica- 
tions must  be  made.  One  is  that  literature  is  bound  to  re- 
flect not  merely  the  native  genius  of  a  people,  but  also  its 
conditions  at  particular  periods.  Russia  in  the  nineteenth 
century  was  a  country  which  had  outgrown  its  institutions 
and  in  which  the  war  between  the  new  spirit  and  the  old 
forms  was  waged  tenaciously,  bitterly,  ferociously  on  both 
sides.  The  extremes  of  depression  and  exaltation  were 
the  inevitable  product  of  such .  an  era— pcspecially  with  a 
people  so  mercurial  and  passionate  as  the  Russians.  The 
direct  effect  of  political  conditions  was  very  strongly  attested 
after  the  failure  of  the  rebellion  of  1905  ;  all  hope  seerried  to  be 
extinguished,  and  even  books  which  were  scarcely  concerned 
with  politics  at  all  were  infested  with  the  prevalent  hopeless- 
ness and  shot  with  blood,  and  impotent  violence,  and  the 
perverse  dreams  of  thwarted  desire.  But  granted  a  similar 
struggle,  a  similar  clash  and  transition,  and  a  similar 
physicial  background,  the  jolliest  people  on  earth  might 
ha\'e  become  gloomy.  The  second  point  to  be  noted  is 
that  Russian  products,  even  as  things  are,  have  not  been 
so  uniformly  cheerless  as  the  ordinary  English  reader  seems 
to  suppose. 

***** 
Why  it  is  I  don't  know,  but  for  the  ten  or  fifteen  years 
preceeding  the  war  all  sorts  of  depressed  and  depraved 
modern  Russians  were  translated  whilst  men  of  infinitely 
greater  reputation  and  much  more  sympathetic  outlook 
were  neglected.  Some  of  the  most  illustrious  of  Russian 
classics  are  still  unknown  here  or  only  now  in  process 
of  becoming  known  ;  and  amongst  them  are  several  which  are 
scarcely  scarred  at  all  by  the  marks  of  Russia's  sufferings. 
The  greatest  of  them  perhaps  are  the  books  of  Serge  Aksakoff 
(died  1859),  of  which  the  first  translation  is  now  appearing. 
It  was  before  the  war  that  Mr.  Maurice  Baring  wrote  of 
Aksakofi's  Family  History  :  "  There  is  no  book  in  Russia 
which,  for  its  entrancing  interest,  as  well  as  for  its  historical 
value,  so  richly  deserves  translation  into  English  ;  only  such 
a  translation  should  be  made  by  a  stylist — that  is,  by  a  man 
who  knows  how  to  speak  and  write  his  mother  tongue  per- 
spicuously and  simply."  Yet,  for  some  undiscoverable  reason, 
we  have  had  to  wait  sixty  years  for  a  translation  of  this  master- 
piece. It  has  now  been  published  by  Mr.  Edward  Arnold 
under  the  title  of  A  Russian  Gmtleman  (7s.  6d.  net.)  The 
English  version  is  by  Mr.  J.  D.  Duff,  who  fully  satisfies  Mr. 
Baring's  requirements  and  gives  one  the  feeling  that  Aksakoff 
wrote  in  one's  own  tongue. 

***** 
The  book  is  a  book  of  memoirs  ;  and,  unlike  most  books 
of  the  kind,  it  ends  with  the  author's  birth.  Aksakoff,  long 
after  his  grand  parents  and  parents  were  dead,  sat  down, 
with  family  letters  and  traditions  as  his  materials,  to  recreate 
the  life  they  had  led.  The  family  estates  were  in>the  govern- 
ment of  Orenburg,  between  the  Urals  and  the  Volga  ;  and  the 
narrative  never  goes  beyond  the  district.  The  first  section 
sketches  the  character  of  Stephen  Mikhailovitch,  the 
novehst's  patriarchal  grandfather  ;  the  next  digresses  into  the 
history  of  a  cousin  of  the  family  who  married  a  scoundrel  ; 
the  next  tells  how  Alexyei  Stepanitch,  Aksakoff 's  father, 
got  married  ;  the  next  shows  the  young  couple  on  a  visit 
to  the  old  people  in  the  country  and  paying  calls  on  the 
relations  round  ;  and  the  last  shows  them  living  in  the"  little 
town  of  Ufa  and  ends  with  the  doctor  walking  out  of  thbir 


house  after  the  novelist's  birth  and  remarking :  "  Well 
he's  a  lucky  child!  How  glad  they  all  are  to  have  him!  '' 
It  sounds  ver\'  slight  ;  and  indeed  ihere  is  no  more  "  plot  " 
than  there  usually  is  in  human  lives.  I'ut  these  simj'le  incidents 
have  been  quite  enough  for  Aksakoff  lo  illustrate  the 
characters  ol  a  dozen  ))eople  so  completely  that  we  should 
know  them  if  we  met  thtni.  The  book  is  fascinating  as  a 
description  of  unfamiliar  life  in  a  remote  place — the  serfs 
were  unfreed  ;  the  patriarch  lived  like  Abraham  with  his 
people,  his  flocks  and  his  herds  about  the  house,  and  was 
absolutely  a  law  to  himself ;  and  it  is  continually  interesting 
to  .see  modernism  encroaching,  occidental  books  and  furniture 
invading  an  almost  .'\siatic  place.  But  the  chief  interest  is 
always  the  characters.  Aksakolf's  parents  are  drawn  with 
a  symj)athetic  detachment  that  leaves  Father  and  S(m  in  the 
shade;  it  is  evident  at  once  that  the  son  loved  his  father 
and  luofher  and  that  he  docs  not  jialliate  a  single  one  of  their 
faults.  But  tiiese  and  the  neighbours,  jjleasant  and  un- 
pleasant, the  house-servants,  the  crew  of  malicious  aunts, 
and  the  fat  ancl  flat-faced  grandmother  an^  really  only  a 
setting  for  the  fine  figure  of  the  old  grandfather,  who  dominates 
the  whole  settlement  with  his  eyes  and,  when  these  fail  him, 
with  his  black-thorn  stick..  It  is  not  easy  to  make  one  re;Uly 
fond  of  a  grim  old  autocrat  who,  in  his  maniac  rages,  drags 
his  wife  and  daughter  round  the  house  by  the  hair  ;  one  has 
always  been  biassed  against  this  kind  of  remonstrance. 
But  Aksakotf  does  it  ;  he  is  always  just  to  his  subject  ;  and  in 
the  end  half  persuades  one  that  that  is  the  sort  (jf  grandfather 
to  have. 

***** 

And  throughout  the  book  we  feel  tlie  author's  profound 
love  for  the  fife  and'the  country  he  is  writing  about.  Here 
and  there  he  speaks  of  the  landscape  in  his  own  person  and 
with  marked  emotion.  There  is  a  passage  in  \Vhich  he  laments 
the  invasion  of  the  wilderness  by  human  swarms  who  fell 
the  forests  and  pollute  the  rivers  so  that  the  fish  die  ;  a  strange 
thing — an  l'2nglishman  must  feel — to  come  from  a  Russian 
of  sixty  years  ago  writing  of  the  desolate  steppes  of  south- 
eastern Russia.  We  still  think  of  that  countr}',  and 
with  some  reason,  as  one  of  nature's  most  inviolate 
retreats  ;  but  all  change  is  in  the  direction  of  "  development  " 
and  to  a  Russian  of  tliis  age  Aksakoff's  owti  days  must  seem 
good  old  days  when  forests  still  stood  and  streams  still  ran 
clear  and  the  Tartar  tribes  were  still  untamed.  On  another 
page  all  the  author's  affection  for  the  land  pours  quietly  but 
strongly  out  at  the  mere  memory  of  its  mosciuitoes  : 

The  winged  mosquitoes  swarmed  round  the  bed,  drove  their 
long  probosces  into  the  fine  fabric  which  protected  him, 
and  kept  up  their  monotonous  serenade  all  through  the  night. 
It  sounds  absurd,  but  I  cannot  conceal  the  fact  that  I  like  the 
shrill  high  note  and  even  the  bite  of  the  mosquito  ;  for  it 
reminds  me  of  sleeple.ss  nights  in  high  summer  on  the  banks 
of  the  Boogoorooslan,  where  the  bushes  grew  thick  and 
green  and  all  round  the  nightingales  called  ;  and  I  remember 
the  beating  heart  ol  youth,  and  that  vague  feeling,  half- 
pleasure  and  half  pairi,  for  which  I  would  now  give  up  all 
that  remains  of  the  sinking  fire  of  life. 

But  usually  he  is.  superficially,  more  impersonal.  He 
does  not  sentimentali.se  over  the  landscape  ;  he  does  not  abuse 
it  as  a  picturesque  background.  He  merely  "states"  it; 
its  details,  briefly  named,  come  in  when  they  are  relevant  to 
the  narrative  ;  the  little  towns  with  their  gossipings  and 
festivals,  the  seemingly  endless  prairies  clothed  with  long 
grass,  the  rye-fields  over  which  blue  and  purple  waves  were 
driven  by  the  breeze  ;  the  streams  flowing  slowly  between 
rparshy  banks  ;  the  deep  quiet  pools  full  of  leaping  fish  ; 
the  grinding  water  mills,  the  scattered  manors,  the  new  white 
Churches,  tiie  golden  sunsets,  the  wide  sky  full  f)f  larks.  The 
effect  of  it  all  is  to  leave  one  aching  for  aluit  in  the  province 
of  Ufa,  Government  of  Orenburg,  with  a  fishing-rod,  a  samovar, 
9^4  a  few  devoted  servants.  There  are  weaklings  who  are 
always  stumped  by  Russian  books  because  the  characters  in 
tllem  have  so  many  alternative  names.  They  can  never ' 
remember  whether  Tasha,  Sasha,  Parasha,  etc.,  are  really 
one  person  or  not  ;  which  of  them,  if  any,  is  elsewhere  called 
Ajma  and  which  Sofya  ;  so  they  lose  heart.  To  the.se 
A  Russian  Gentleman  will  present  all  the  familiar  problems  : 
except  for  these,  no  person  interested  in  good  literature  can 
afford  to '  neglect  this  book,  which  is  a  consunmiate  picture 
of  life,  exquisitely-  written  and  finely  translalcd. 


i8 


LAND    &    WATFR 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian    Oldershan 


M;n-    UK   i<ii; 


]..  Woods-"  in  hat  l^^''^^  iL  tl^n SinK  of  poetry 
behind  u'i  into  the  ^ulf  of  ^'^^^  J,.,'^:^";^''-^'"^,,  in  the  later 
was  already  ccasnig  to  be  .^"f/.^^^.^^.^j  ,bv.  Now  we 
Nineteenth  Century,  as  a  ^''f^'^^'-X  .f'"™  l"  filing  birds.' 
can  sav  that  Kngland  is  agaui  u  ne^t  o  -^ng'^f>  ,,^,^ 
i'oetrv'is  once  more  felt  to  be  '"^/"^'''Xh  escape  the 
way   of   expressing   emotions  and  ideas  wmcn  i 

mesh  of   bare   words." 

Mr..  Woo*,  hcrldf  a'poct '»  of  [<'!;»«;\™';«',|',!:'",^|ra' 

ntrodues  to  »>   four  younger  poetesse.      1  V*^'^"  '^. '"  '  ..,^t  a 
single  poem  in   .t  ^'•^'^»%«f\),%Sir which  is  full  of  the 

;-ssrt;;>:ror«^"^|  s^s^sss;^ 
rctr;S'r;r.;::i^T,'a-rr..'*S';e..on„r 

natural  emotion.     _^         ,        ,        »        * 

The  hunter  and  Ihe  ^o^ier  also  writes  ^^^^^^^^^^ 
No  new  ^^l«me  of  ^^^^^  ^^ fj^d^^^r  5    b"      to  which 

The  Poetm  o  «''»«»,  •«'''"''"^.(J^''",„,'^'unt  of  the  gallant 
Miss  M.  P.  Willcock'scomnbutes  an  account  ot  the  g^ 

voung  author  s  life  and  death^  AU  ^ho  have  Deen  ^^^._^^^ 
-in  rist  Africa  knew  Bmn  Brook-  ,  T«^tJ-^i^„  ,;„p,rds 
Brooke  was  Korongo,    the  Big  Man    %n  no  recognised, 

^vith  a  spear,  and  whose  honesty  ^^^J  ^^"J.'^g^Vi^'^.e  was  '  the 
white  man  as  he  was  ;  .^;hile    o  tl^e  Egeam 
Boy.'  as  full  of  jesting  gaiety  of  the  dare  deNU  t>pe  a  ^^^^^ 

which    is   pitiless    to    the    P^^-Pf  rat«rs   «i    crue'^^^^ 

r.,hting  in  ^l^^^t^^iZ^^^^^^  -n-  ^P*"^ 
received  on  the  hr^t  aay  oi  ur  -  .       ,      u-\a\^^,^i  sense 

c,f  the  wanderer  and  of  the  «P"rtsnan     J  ^^^J^^^^  i,„t 
of  that  much  misused  word,  are  leflected  in  these  u  sf, 
moving  poem 


<•'      •  ,  /n    H    RHrkwell    ''s.  dd.  net),  is 
His  book,  .Sones  on  Service  (B.  H.  lilacKwui,  - . 

dedicated  to  Mr.  Lloyd  (.eorge  : 

Because  you  love  our  own  dear  mountainland 

Because,  in  (act.  (this  is  the  cliief ''  iy^^^(^." 
The  soul  ami  inspiration  of  the  poet. 

Itis  mftTbook  to  pass  unnoticed  among  the  mas^  -f  ,.  .cut 

\\:ir-1iiic1r\". 

*       *       *       *  .,    , 

I       wiiii-imc's   rhvmes   may   lie   described   as 
"  occasional  verse     of  the  war.     ' "  "   ,  vveturn  witli 

in  the  most  ,>olisli«^  T^^^^r^c^  ol,^  Ver^C 
delight  ulantunpa^mo     » ^.^j/^,^  ,,,       ,).     When 

::L"hi;knri  Alitor  of  ^^ij^^^tS'^i^:^ 
--f^i^irsiirsM^^^ 

5^?  Sl^^^'I^Sr'i  BeliSwimenting,  as  a. 

■■  tn^rSrder."  V/,.  J^y--^// i^'g^'j^Lf  S^^u.     The 
Tolal  I^rohibiHon  o    Adjectives  by  ^'^^   Press  mrea 
chtl-poems  of  this  vohime   Part^ctikry    To   ^^^\;\^ 

S:^^  ^:^  :r?S  ^^  rKar^ntuMor  of  our 
Times  '  I  quote  this  stanza  from  it  . 

\  firkle  Patron  and  a  lalse  Ally  .,.  .      . 

to  V>Sv"l  his  McMic  an<l  proctamnl  1,»  trccJ. 
TiirninK  tioblesie  Mhe-  into  n  CloKe 

^  A  * 


"  ^"^'^'^  ''^'^  .  •  ,         ,    .    .,,.  ■■  don't  know  what  orders  mean 

^We^{'Z'l\^ot  just  quite-well,  he's  not  ourtc  right. 

Oh   i  daresay  he  may  liave  the  guts  to  flght, 

}iut  he's  only  a  Volunteer. 

Bullets,  like  hail,  were  raining,  dowti  on  I^nRJj'^  sjde  ■ 

In  a  volunt'ry  sort  ol  way.  _ 

iS'^Le;;^rSot;:£eSv«£ 

For  now  I  am  off  on  the  warpath  trail  and  the  sky  in  the  front 

For  Thtrliie  song  of  the  winds  that  wail,  and  I  know  that 

The  iiL^^^uTunt'anHthe  jackal  l^rk.  and  the  .ebra  will 

The  SwiUp-S^n  the  lonely  dark  and  Korongo  will  not 

Dear^ot'her,  who  made  my  childhood  sweet,  mourn  not  for 

In  tr:L:;^^'^tin;;  we  wm  surdy  meet  :    till  then,  dear 
Mother,  good-bye. 


Let  us  turn  from  verse  to  li^n^,^^  ij-^nt^o^ 
of  an  accomplished  guide  showing  ;i^  '^J^'^.^jl^  ^  describe 
of  the  ago.     For  in  ^"-^^ wise  one  can   man       y^^^^^^^ 

Tifentieth  Century  Fyame,  hy  ^J.  ^^*';^";,  ■■  ,ay-  the  autho.-, 
and  Hall,  los.  b<l.  net.)  I ^h  Inix^S  its  ashes  after  the 
••  is  shown  France  rising  as  a  ^Jf™  trom  us  ^^^^^^^^ 

turmoil  and  disruption  "VK%f  "f  1  novvledge  and  sympathy 
lulwards  is  well  equipped  ^«th  ii    kn  vvledge  an      >     ,^^^^^ 

to  interpret  modern  1;  ranee  to  Fn,  is  ^^^f^^  inlelkcUi^l 
l.-rance  neither  as  a  f^^^'f/^^^'^^^'l-fnC  normal  iiabit 
but  as  an  adopted  daughtei,  ^ecmg  her  ^  "^r  ^^ 

.,(  life.  Her  book  is  «'f «!"";,  ^1,^  "he  is  ta"^'"«  ""^ 
revelation,   charm  and  '"Merest,   whetheTS^iei.  b 

French  colonial  expansion  '",  Northern  Africa,  otsiu  y 

acliievements  as  1^^^"^ teter  s  Dictionai^y  or^^u'^^^^^^^^^ 
of  the  Revolution,  of  the  triumphs  of  tlu^remimst  ^^^ 

or  of  the  characteristics  of  Jacques  ^onhommf_     ^^ 
perhaps  a  book  for  those  who  '^^^'"J"  ^^"^.^^rprctensions 
the  averge  P:nglishman  or  woman  with  no  sucn  i 
it  will  have  much  value  and  delight. 

There  is  some  ^^7^^-^  ^f  J^,!^ 
'^^,  Ti!:  uS's      y  ou£  Z:iL  Kknglish  fa^y. 

?harsirSg:;SpubH^^^^ 

during  the  war,  and  is  f"''l^f  is  \h"/Sor's  experiment 
,onventional  beliefs.  1  do  not  fi"d  the^auUiOT^  \  ^^^^^ 
in  realism  so  attractive  as  '"^""^f "^ic  work,  ^^^  ,^^^^^^^^_ 
bis  book  wih  unflagging  /"te":f .  ^"^^^^j  ^^tl  e  publisher  of 

conclusion  to  tlie  proi^lems  which  he  raises. 


May  lo,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


SAVE  BELGIUM'S 
LITTLE  ONES. 


THEY     ARE     BELGIUM'S 

HOPE    FOR    THE    FUTURE. 

A  strong  Belgian  Committee.  "liA  SANTE  DE   L'ENFANCE  BELGE," 
in  Holland,  under  the  patronage  of  H.S.H.  the  Princess  A.  de  Ligne, 
receives  from  Belgium 

STARVED,     CONSUMPTIVE, 

RICKETY,    BROKEN 

CHILDREN. 

gives  thera  several  weeks'  Intensive  Feeding.  Houses  them,  and  Clothes 
them.  They  are  then  returned  <to  Belgium  (for  funds  do  not  permit 
more). 

YOUR      BELP     IS     REQUIRED.         THE     WORKING    MEN     IN 

ENGLAND     HAVE     SPLENDIDLY     SUPPORTED       THIS     WORK, 

BUT  THIS  IS     NOT    ENOUGH. 

HELP    THESE    LITTLE    ONliaj  I   t   I 

Remittances   to   HON.    TREASURER, 

'*  WORKING      MEN'S      BELGIAN      FUND " 

Regd.   War   Charities   Act. 

(President,    M.    E.    VANDERVELDE,    Belgian    Minister    of    State), 
32,   Grosvenor  Place,    London,   S. W.  I. 

{EaTmarked  jor  the   "  Sanli  de  I'Enfance  Beige  "  ) 

SUBSCRIPTION    LISTS    ON    APPLICATION. 
WITH  REFERENCE. 


The  burberry 

Naval   Weatherproof 

IN  torrents  of  rain,  saturating 
mist,  or  bitter  winds,  the 
O.l^cer,  equipped  with  THE 
BURBERRY,  carries  on  with  the 
comforting  assurance  that,  how- 
e.er  grim  the  conditions,  his 
weatherproof  will  see  Uim  through. 

Its     airylight,      densely     woven 
material-  the    cloth    chosen    by  Illustrated 
Sir  Ernest  Shacklcton  for  all  his  Ji*^"' 
Polar   Expeditions-  provides  the  p^^fp^e 
most    effective   antidote    to    bad 
weather  available. 

To  make  security  doubly  sure,  it 
is  lined  with  proofed  wool — de 
tachable  Camel  Fleece,  if  desired 
— which,  in  addition  to  increasing 
its  defensive  powers,  provides  a 
plentiful  supply  of  warmth  in 
cold  weather. 

THE  BURBERRY  is  supreme 
for  healthfulness,  as  well  as  for 
weather-resistance.  Unlike  oil- 
skins and  coats  loaded  with  rub- 
ber, oiled  silk,  or  similar  airtight 
fabrics,  it  is  faultlessly  self-venti- 
lating and  fully  satis..es  every 
hygienic  cond  tion. 


Evtiy   Burberry  Garment 
is    labelled  "Burberrys." 


SERVICE    W.EATHER PROOFS. 

During  the  War  BURB  -  R  RYS  CLEAN 
and  KE-PROOF  Offlcere'  "  Burberrya," 
rielockens,  Burfrons,  &  Burberry  Trencti- 
W<irms  in  ten  days 

FhE'-  of  CHA''GE. 


BURBERRYS  are  expert.s  in  all  branches  of 
Naval  Outfitting,  and  supply  correct  and  well- 
tailored  Uniforms,  as  well  as  every  detail  of  dress 

I  TVTIC/^DKil  C'^"'^  equipment  at  reasonable  prices. 

U  IN  Ir  LrKlV;  O  Complete  KiU  in  2  to  4  Day*  or  Re««iv  to  U»e; 


NAVAL 


BURBERRYS     Haymarket     LONDON 

Boul.    Malesherbes   PARIS  ;    and  Agents  in  Giief   Naval  Stat  ons. 


10,000 

yards  of  our  famous 
Irish  dress  linen 

n  colours  and  white 

36    46    50    inches, 
i/ii  2/.  2/11  per  yd. 

Patterns    sent    post   jree 
upon  application. 


Tailor-Cut    Shirt 

No.  401. —  Tailor-out  Shirt  made  in  washing  Giepe, 
thoroughly  rei-ommtnded  for  hard  wear.  Stocked  in 
a  large  variety  of  coloured  strides  oi  white  gro  ind. 
Sizes     13    to    15 Price    29/11 

It     is     perm'ssibic     ro     write     for     our     New    Spring 
Catalogue   of   blouses.  Costumes,   etc.,    free  on  request 

ROBINSON  &  CLEAVER, 


THE     LINEN      HALL, 
REGENT   STREET,     W.  i. 


Ltd. 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  10,  1917 


War's   Desolation 


WE  reproduce  on  the  opposite  page  two  of  the 
water-colour  drawings  of  the  British  firing-hne 
winch  are  being  exiiibited  by  2nd  Lieutenant 
E.  Hundley- Read  ^Machine  Gun  Corps)  at  the 
LeicrsTcr  Gall<-nes  in  Leicester  Squy^re.  Tuey  convey  in  a 
mos    jKiignant  manner  the  desolation  of  war. 

Tins  exiubit  ion.  winch  is  crowded  duly,  and  which  is  shortly 
to  be  enlaigid  by  further  drawings  from  the  same  brush,  is  an 
education  in  itself.  After  a  visit  to  it  the  battles  now  being 
fought  on  the  Western  Front  assume  a  new  reality.  The 
artist  concerns  himself  with  nature  and  inanimate  subjects 
rather  than  with  man,  and  he  brings  home  most  vividly  the 
sadness,  misery  and  wicked  wantonness  o(  the  whole  business. 
He  Mm-^if  writes  of  the  scenes  as  follows  :  "  Wandering 
from  Albert  to  PoziSre*,  through  Devil's  Wood  and  the 
many  ruined  villages  that  go  to  make  up  this  place  of  tragedy, 
over  roads  inches  deep  in  all  kinds  of  mud.  and  shell  holes 
full  of  slime  to  the  brim,  a  trap  even  to  the  most  wary,  passing 
Kttle  forests  of  wooden  crosses  and  solitary  graves  in  unlikely 
spots,  threading  a  difficult  path  along  the  edge  of  a 
shppery  or  crumbling  trench,  impeded  by  tangled  wire,  step- 
ping gingerly  over  unexploded  bombs,  dud  shells  and  unbuned 
human  wreckage,  every  horror  soon  ceases  to  astonish." 
As  it  was  between  Albert  and  Pozieres  when  these  words 
were  written,  so  is  it  to-day  from  Lens  to  St.  Quentin  and  along 
the  valley  of  the  Scarpe — a  collection  of  brick  and  masonry 
ruins,  of  broken  fields,  of  the  maimed  skeletons  of  trees 
and  woods,  with  tatters  not  only  of  military  equipment  but  of 
men  themselves.  There  is  also  another  side  of  battle  which 
this  exhibition  illumines.  It  is  the  almost  solemn  magni- 
ficence of  a  heavy  bombardment  by  night.  Of  course  we  gaze 
without  the  terrible  roar  and  din  of  the  guns  in  our  ears 


and  so  obtain  a  false  impression.  But  the  pictorial  effect 
is  most  impressive,  and  is  a  further  proof  of  that  truth,  wlucl. 
has  been  more  than  once  stated  in  these  columns,  that  despiti 
khaki  unilorms,  modern  appliances,  etc.,  etc.,  war.  for  all 
its  horror,  must  ever  keep  a  splendour  and  glory  of  its  own. 
In  these  rooms  in  Leicester  Square  you  can  behold  both  war's, 
splendour  and  war's  pitifulness  and  should  have  no  difficulty 
in  striking  a  balance  between  the  two. 

This  is  the  second  exhibition  which  Mr.  Handley-Keaa 
has  held  during  the  last  two  years,  and  his  work  shows  grea: 
strengthening.  He  seems  more  definite  in  his  ideas,  surer  ol 
touch  and  able  to  impart  conviction  more  readily.  He  was 
an  artist  before  the  war  ;  enlisted  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  and 
subsequently  went  into  the  Artists  Rifles  with  whom  be 
remained  for  some  time.  Afterwards  he  joined  the  Machini.- 
Gun  Corps  as  a  private  and  worked  his  way  up  to  Quartet 
Master  Sergeant  Instructor.  He  has  now  received  a  Com- 
mission, but  remains  with  the  Machine  Gpn  Corps.  Thai 
Mr.  Handley-Read  is  a  devoted  lover  of  Nature  is  made  very 
plain  in  this  fine  passage  that  concludes  the  brief  introduc- 
tion to  -his  catalogue  : 

"  Detail  and  incident,  at  first  a  shock  to  the  understanding, 
soon  take  their  places  as  natural  results  of  human  conflict  on 
such  an  immense  scale.  An  impression,  however,  is  left  out- 
standing—at first  passed  over  in  the  great  chaos.  It  is  bom 
of  the  tortured  trees,  twisted  into  unnatural  shapes,  splintered 
at  their  bases,  uprooted  and  bent  or  stretclung  gaunt  arms  to 
the  sky.  Here  is  a  veteran  of  the  forest  battered  and  torn, 
there  a  slender  and  graceful  trunk  with  a  few  twigs  as  yet 
only  bullet-clipped.  Sturdy  willows  are  seen  hurled,  root 
upwards,  into  a  shell  hole.  Such  sights  fix  themselves  in- 
etifaceably  in  the  mind.  Everywhere  the  murdered  trees 
haunt  the  vision.  It  is  the  most  weird,  the  most  uncanny 
remembrance  of  the  Somme  " 


I>XJTTEES 

(Patent) 

Mad-e  from  the  finest  Egyptian  Cotton 
anfl  best  Para  Rubher.  They  are  very 
tturahle,  waterproofed,  and  arc  both  re- 
veri^ihle  and  int  rchangeable,  Fastone<i 
by  Patent  Hooks  top  and  bott/ocn.  making 
them  easy  to  put  on  and  take  off. 

.\tarlf  ill  hph'  A-  d   rklhii><  i.  fi-irk  viff.  *  blavk. 

Boyd'8  Elastic  Puttees  are  ctaimed  to  be 

a    preventative    aciatn^t.     and     cure   for, 

varicose  veins. 

OfollU'iilinp  M  lit  rn  iai/or$JtOmtffiter:Ifane 
(itjficultp  ill  proruri»{/,mrite  (o  tht  HoU  Mmkertt 

fXtra  Ui  K.K.P.  M.  Wright  &  Roiu.  btd..  (^lorn  Mill^^  nr  toughltorough. 


IJojd's  Kla-^tif  Piitteee  are  neat 

in  appearance,  nnd  bting  elattic 

th  ,v   st-n  ly    firip     the  leg    and 

permit  the  normal  action  of  the 

veins  and  muscle*.    The  lep-t'-redneee  and 

foot-heaviness    from   which  so  many   men 

suffer    is    cau.sed    by     wearing    ordinary 

Puttees,  whirh  mu$t  be  tiehtly  wound  to 

keep  in  position. 

BOYD'S 


A   Land  of  Fruit  and  Flower*. 


BRITISH  COLUMBIA 

An    Ideal    Climatfr— Magnificent  Scenery— Enormou*     Water     Po»»er»— Excellent 

Educational   Facilities— Wonderful    Deep    Sea   and   inland    Fisheries. 
The   Caniulian    ProviiKe    for    MIXED    KARMIXG.   FRUIT    OHOWINO,    SHBEP, 
HOG    AJS'D    POUl.TKY    RAI.SING.    DAIRYINO    AKD    RANCHING. 

CANADA'S  MINERAL   PROVINCE. 

Total  MiiKial  i>r<Miii<tion   from  all  eources  to  date  over   flOO.OOO.OM. 
A  WORLD  SUPPLY  OFTIMBEH  FOR  A  WORLD  MARKfT' 
British    Columbia  ,  bas     Timl)er  in  enormous  quantities,  in  th*;  iftrc^st  sizes. 
uiMUrpassed    in    quality,   suitable    for    practically  every    'tte    to  which  wood 
can  be  put. 
Full  Information  on  application  to  ttie  Aeent-Gen<»^l  lor  B.C.i 
BRITISH     COLUIMBIA      HOUSE,      I      &      3,      REGENT      STREET,       LONDON. 


TERMS    OF     SUBSCRIPTION     TO 

"LAND    &     WATER" 

(ESTABUSHEU       1862.) 

AT    HOME — Twelve   Months  £i  15    o 

CANAD.\ — Twelve  Months  £1  15    o 

ELSEWHEREABROAD— Twelve  Months  £1  19    6 
The   above  'ates    -vcluiie    a'l    'ifrcia'  Numbers    and   postage. 


LAND  &  WATER,  Old  Serjeants'Inn  Chancery  Lane,  London,  W.C.2 


T 


May  10,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


War's    Desolation 


Stones  of  Ypres 


uy    iiHU  hitiui,  it.  iiuiiuitjf-iitiuu 


The  Bapaume  Road 


By  ind  Lieut.  £.  UmMey-Htad 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  lo,  1917 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


Names  and  addresses  of  s/tops.  where  the  articles  mentioned 
tan  be  obtained,  will  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
addressed  to  Passe-Partout,  Land  iS:  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  W.C  2.     Any  other  information  will  be  given  on  request. 


DnstleM 
Dusters 


Not  SO  very  long  ago  a  well  known 
woman  in  a  daily  newspaper  told  how 
she  liad  reduced  her  domestic  staff  from 
six  to  four  servants  and  subsequently  from  four  to  two. 
At  the  same  time  she  was  good  enough  to  give  some  hints 
as  to  the  means  by  wliich  she  had  done  this  successfully. 
Amongst  her  labour-saving  appliances  were  dustless  dusters, 
and  that  these  deserve  her  mention  everybody  using  them 
will  agree. 

Dustless  dusters  make  dusting  surprisingly  light  work. 
They  are  cliemically  treated  in  such  a  way  that  they  not  only 
absorb  all  the  dust,  but  also  polish  and  clean  the  furniture  in  a 
most  accommodating  way.  They  have  been  awarded  a  cer- 
tificate of  merit  by  the  Institute  of  Hygiene. 

Their  advantages  are  manifold  but  some  may  perhaps  be 
cited  here.  All  the  dust  is  collected  in  the  fabric,  no  shaking 
is  needed,  no  lints  are  left,  and  after  washing  the  duster  is  as 
good  as  new.  Passing  it  over  any  piece  of  furniture  seems 
to  collect  the  dirt  by  magic,  and  all  this  advantage  is  secured 
by  sevenpence  halfpenny,  the  duster's  modest  cost. 


Hospital  pyjamas  and  shirts  ready  cut 

A  Valuable  War        quj.    ^q    measure    with    simple    enclosed 

■  directions  are  things  worth  Inowing  about. 

Both  are  badly  needed  at  many  V.A.D.  hospitals,  so  that  there 

is  useful  war  work  ready  at  hand. 

Pyjamas  have  often  struck  the  uninitiated  as  a  difficult 
thing  to  make.  When  they  are  ready  cut  out,  collar,  pocket, 
girdle,  jacket,  buttons  and  all  such  small  details  included, 
the  sewing  together  is  a  very  simple  affair.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  firm  responsible  have  gained  general  congratulation  en 
a  brilliant  idea.  With  an  eye  to  warmer  weather  they  are  now 
cutting  out  the  pyjamas  in  Ceylonette.  This  is  a  cool  cotton 
fabric  brushed  to  look  like  wool,  and  the  essence  of  comfort 
for  a  disabled  man.  Pyjamas  in  this,  ready  for  making, 
cost  4s.  I  id. 

Shirts  and  pyjamas  are  also  being  cut  out  in  linen,  though  at 
the  moment  Ceylonette  undoubtedly  has  somewhat  taken 
its  place.  With  the  shirts  as  with  the  pyjamas,  every  piece 
is  in  readiness  even  to  the  buttons. 


A  Hat  to 
Have 


Travelling  is  undoubtedly  a  thing  to  be 
avoided  if  possible,  but  from  time  to 
time  everybody  must  take  the  railroad 
wh'  ther  they  wish  to  or  no.  When  this  happens  economy 
in  luggage  space  is  of  first-rate  importance,  and  everything 
conducing  towards  it  is  sure  of  eager  welcome. 

.■\  squashable  straw  hat  is  one  of  the  best  means  yet  put 
forward.  The  astonishing  thing  is,  that  though  these  hats 
squash  as  flat  as  the  proverbial  pancake  in  a  corner  of  dressing- 
bag  or  suit  case,  and  emerge  looking  not  a  penny  the  worse, 
they  are  quite  in  the  category  of  "  bettermost"  hats  suitable 
for  almost  any  occasion.  Made  of  very  pretty  silky-looking 
straw  lined  up  with  a  contrasting  colour,  they  are  trimmed 
in  a  bow  and  tie  of  soft  ribbon  velvet,  while  a  tiny  piquet  of 
flowers  adds  yet  another  lovely  note  of  colouring. 

On  the  head  these  hats  are  most  obligingly  becoming,  for 
they  can  be  bent  any  way  best  suiting  their  wearer.  In 
spite  of  this  pliability  they  are  by  no  manner  of  means  of  the 
sK'iipy-floppy  tvne,  there  is  a  good  substance  to  the  straw 
which  is  maint  iied  to  the  very  last  moment  the  hat  is  in 
existence.   They  can  be  made  in  any  combination  of  colours. 


The    Perfect 
Veil 


A  woman  with  the  flair  for  dressing 
only  a  limited  few  possess,  cites  shoes, 
gloves  and  veils  as  the  three  most  impor- 
tant items  of  a  toilet.  When  these  are  really  good,  she  says, 
the  rest  can  take  care  of  itself,  and  since  this  is  expert  opinion 
it  is  worth  consideration  even  if  it  is  not  all  who  agree.  A 
new  charming  veil,  however,  undoubtedly  does  work  wonders 
in  the  general  appearance,  and  some  very   special   veils  of 


most  unusual  kind  deserve  to  the  full  the  attention  now  being 
shown  them.  They  are  carefully  woven  to  shape,  this  being 
so  cunningly  contrived  that  they  fit  to  the  face  and  any  shape 
hat  like  a  glove.  There  is  no  need  for  pins  cither  at  the  front 
or  back.  The  veil  ties  at  the  back,  and  there  it  is,  perfectly 
arranged  in  the  way  that  only  an  expert  in  veil-adjusting 
formerly,  could  accomplish. 

These  veils  are  woven  in  a_very  clear  becoming  mesh  and  are 
washable.  They  are  kept  in  black  and  in  all  colours,  amongst 
which  a  delightfully  becoming  beige  colour  is  perhaps  the 
most  noticeable.  Beige  coloured  veils  are  to  the  fore  this 
spring,  and  these  shaped  ones  mean  the  successful  finish 
to  any  hat. 

The  price  is  the  most  reasonable  one  of  half  a  crown,  and 
from  first  to  last  the  veils  are  one  of  the  greatest  aids  to  good 
dressing  ever  broached  in  their  particular  direction. 


A   chain   of   circumstances   has   enabled 
Exceptmnal  Summer     j^    famous    firm    to    make    s<  rae    unique 
™°  '  propositions   in   the   summer   nock  way. 

Quite  delightful  gowns  in  floral  voile  are  being  sold  ready  to 
wear  at  29s.  6d.,  37s.  6d.  or  45s.  Each  variety  is  shown  in  a 
small  separate  catalogue,  designs  and  a  full  range  of  patterns 
being  given  on  each.  As  most  people  know,  all  catalogues, 
owing  to  Government  -regulations,  must  now  be  applied  for. 
Sometimes  this  provt  s  a  thankless  task,  but  never  was  a  small 
amount  of  trouble  better  worth  taking  than  for  the  catalogues 
in  question.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  these  dresses 
will  be  the  greatest  boon  to  all  without  too  much  money  to 
spend  and  not  yet  su])plied  with  summer  frocks. 

Taking  those  at  the  cheapest  price — 29s.  6d. — it  is  amazing 
how  far  this  comparatively  small  sum  is  made  to  go.  Frocks 
of  charming  design  are  made  in  any  one  of  a  big  range  of 
colourings  as  the  bunch  of  patterns  fixed  to  the  descriptive 
catalogue  discloses.  Up  and  down  the  designs  range  through 
a  long  scale  of  colourings,  one  or  two  with  dark  grounds  and  an 
all-over  pattern  in  lovely  blurred  colouring  being  perfect  for 
morning  wear  in  town,  while  others  of  lighter  hue  are  just  the 
thing  for  the  country. 

.^11  the  frocks  are  made  in  a  number  of  different  sizes, 
an  1  as  a  contribution  to  economical  dressing  deserve  our 
gratitude  and  support. 


Cleaning 
Cloths 


Cleaning  of  all  kinds  engrosses  house- 
hold labour  to  such  an  extent  that  any- 
thing tending  to  lessen  it  is  welcome. 
Of  this  genre  are  a  little  collection  of  cleaning  cloths,  each  one 
of  which  fulfils  very  thoroughly  a  different  purpose.  The 
Redio  Rouge  Cloth  is  for  gold,  silver  and  plate.  When  silver 
is  exceedingly  badly  stained,  it  should  as  a  preliminary  be 
cleaned  in  the  old  laborious  manner,  but  once  it  is  cleaned  it 
can  be  kept  absolutely  bright  if  rubbed  up  from  time  to  time 
witli  this  cloth.  No  powder  or  any  cleanser  is  needed,  the 
cloth  does  the  work  and  very  quickly  too. 

Then  the  Redio  Green  Cloth  is  capital  for  brass  and  copper. 
With  this  cloth  the  taps  all  over  a  house  can  be  kept  clean 
with  the  minimum  of  effort. 

The  Redio  Yellow  Cloth  is  for  nickel,  pewter  and  aluminium. 
Either  of  these  kinds  cost  but  6Jd.,  and  one  if  not  all  three 
should  find  its  way  into  every  house  with  some  claim  to  the 
title  "  labour-saving."  '  Passe  Partoui 


Soane  and  Smith,  of  Oxford  Street,  have  chosen  the  psychological 
moment  for  their  floating  flower-bowls  to  appear.  With  their  aid  no- 
body need  spend  an  extravagant  amount  of  money  on  flowers.  Just  a 
very  few  suffice  to  give  a  charming  effect.  Flowers  stalked  and  floating 
on  the  water  in  this  way  also  last  a  far  longer  time  than  when  arranged 
in  the  ordinary  manner,  so  that  from  the  outset  the  economy  is 
twofold.  .Soane  and  Smith  are  nothing  if  not  original,  and  their  float- 
ing flower  bowls  are  very  unusual  and  delightful  ones.  ,\mongst 
them  the  solid  Black  Basalt  by  Wedgwood  and  the  old  I'uce  Colour 
(llass  gain  first  place,  mainly  because  of  the  remarkable  way  in  winch 
th-ir  simplicity  and  dullmss  set  olf  flower  colouring.  Other  delight- 
ml  floating  flower  bowls  are  made  of  Alabaster.  This  substance  is 
b.'uig  produced  in  exquisite  translucent  colourings— green,  blue  and 
rose  colour  amongst  them.  An  alabaster  glass  bowl  electrically 
illuminated  is  the  most  fascinating  device  seen  for  many  a  long  day 
and  it,  with  all  its  comrades,  is  ready  for  everybody's  inspection. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXIX  No.  2871  [yIJ^kJ 


THURSDAY,  MAY  17,  1917 


rk  egistered  ast   published  weekly 
La  newspaperJ   price  sevenpence 


I 


Drawn     xcl  ailety  lor  "Land  &    llaler  ' 


^«  •^"p^^e  nrv  t( «»  Ufr  r  5-^ 


On  Land  and  Water 

The    End    of   the    Hindenburg    Line? 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  17,  1917 


TO  111- 
MAjtSTV    IHt   KING 


TO  HER 
.MAJESTY   THE  QUEEN. 


PARENTS- 

WHO  ARE  LOUKINQ    FOR    BOYS'    EXCEPTIONALLY    WELL-CUT 
AND  WELL-MADE  UARMENTS. 

IN  ALL   RESPECTS  EOUAL  TO  BESPOKE.  BUT    MUCH    LESS 
EXPENSIVE.  SHOULD  SEE 

READY-FOR-DELIVERY  GARMENTS 

Tlit'y   retain   t!n'ir  8ha|K-   ani   goo.1   appearance  to  tlie   last. 

(§  llJCA  fiSe  ]//€HS  ^^O-  &°0UTFITTEiIs! 
REGENT    STREET.    W.  . 


ANNOUNCEMENT 


CONCERNING 


Lightly-Knitted  Woollen 
Sports  Coat,  with  two 
large  patch  pockets.  In  i 
variety    of  color^.      52/6. 


KNITTED 
SPORTS  COATS 

COME  are  light  aitd  loose 
fitting,  others  are  thick 
and  just  the  thing  for  chilly 
days.  The  perfection  of  style 
and  quality  is  indisputable. 
For  indoor  or  outdoor  wear, 
of  finest  Silk  or  thickest  Wool, 
we  have  a  choice  of  Knitted 
Sports  Coats  to  suit  every 
taste    and    for    all    occasions. 


Our  booklet  "  Distinctive  Fashions 
toith  IVar-time  Economy  "  sho\^s 
mnny  examf>ks  and  also  illustrates 
Gloves,  Undertveai  and  Hosiery, 
lie.  Post  free    on    request. 


JAYS'    LTD. 


REGENT    STREET 
LO  N  DON,    W.  I 


One  of  the  Successes  of  the  War 


THE  'DA VON" 


I'ATENT 


MICRO  -  TELESCOPE 


Jhe  power  of  the  microscope  is  applied  l« 
the  telestopc  with  the  result  that 

It  is  small  and  light  (12|  In.  and  18     z.). 

It   has    variable   power    x    16,   20,    25,   n  to  JS. 
It  has  good  fie!f,  definition  and  illumination. 

It  has  a  range  of  item  6  ft.  ts  Infinity, 
It  gives  stcrnoscopic  vision,  and   can  be  used  in 
cramped  observation  posts. 


ItRtGADIi:!'.  OP.NKRAL 


writes :  "I  have  u-si-d  one  s^Jtri-  May  lfll5,  la 
fact  I  am  nover  without  it,  end  liave  foaimi  it  invaluable. 

"I  appro%'«  of  the  '  Davon  "  telo-<ope  becrtitef  of  its  Ughtneft:;.  port- 
ability,  wide    field,  and  *<.'loar  definition. 

■'  The  higher  power*  are  verj  uscfur  in  ptrmiinenv  artillery  ol>.-;4Tvation 
po<tj).  and  tan  he  used  to  suit  varyinj;  desrees    of  vtsihilitv.'* 

"  It  i3  of  the  :.T«ite  t  value.  especoJly  in  detecting  If  wire  ha*  \>evn 
rtfl  iently  cut.  or  otht^rui-*,  aixl  in  tlris  way  a'on«  inay  i»ave  ntany  lives 
and  prevent  failure  in  jittack."  — Maiok  ,  H.F.A. 

"  It  has  bcL-n  of  the  utmost  value 'in  the  rwent  advance  over  unknown 
country."— Colonel ,  K.F.A. 

"  \A  is  a  pcrfeit  '  God-<sefid  '  to  us  In  our  cramped  observation  posts."— 
Major  .  K.F.A. 


Complete  with  Tripod  and  Gimlet 
In  Solid  Leather  Sling  Case- 


£9  15  0 

Or  with  Large  Aperture  Object      X?  1  Q     1  O    D 


War   Risk   lU'snranc*  and  i>ostasc  to  Fram*  5^- 
on  cjuh,  else\shere  abroad  5  p^-r  <-enl.  on  co.-t. 

THE  MICRO-TELE    PERISCOPE. 
THE    MICRO-TELE    DIRECTOR. 

Inspection  CordiaUy  Invited.    Difrriplive  lirochure   Post   Free. 

Fr4AVir>QO.M   A-   Cn         Manufacturing  Opticians, 
.    l-»/\  V  liy.J»-»l'l    OC  V^U„  2,^  GREAT  PORTtAND  ST..  LONDON.  W. 


Men's  Shirt 
Department 


LADIES' 
TAILOR=MADE    SHIRTS 


THE  INDISPENSABLE 
COMPLEMENT  OF  A 
SWART  TAILORED 
COAT     AND     SKIRT. 


K\OWN  AND  WORN 

ALL    OVER    THE 

WORLD. 


Cllsr.   I 

1/6  and  I  - 

evtra, 

accoroinsi 

to  materiat. 


^ 


PLEASE     WRITE      FOR 

Patterns  &  Self-Measurement  Forms 


/;/  Zephyrs, 
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TOTTENHAM   COURT   ROAD,    LO.NDON.    W.i. 


May 


11)17 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 


OLD 


SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON,     W.C 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  MAY  17,  1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

On  Land  and  Water.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

A  Genius  for  Discipline  (Leader)  3 

The  Poiitical  Factor.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 
Under  Three  Flags.     By  Our  Washington  Correspondent        6 

Admiralty  Reforms.     By  Arthur  Pollen  9 

Land  and  Water  and  the  Admiralty  '^^ 

How  much  should  we  Eat  ?     By  H.  Onslow  i3 

"  To  the  Unknown  God."     By  J.  C.  Squire  i5 
The  Little  Princess  of  Riverside.     By  L.  Cope 

Cornford  i" 

The  Atlantic  Alliance.     (Correspondence)  I7 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  i8 

Domestic  Economy  ^o 

Kit  and  Equipment  23 


A     GENIUS     FOR     DISCIPLINE 

THE  most  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  British 
people  has  been  said  to  be  its  genius  for  discipHne. 
Immediately  before  the  war  this  statement  was 
regarded  as  almost  ludicrous,  in  view  of  the  acute 
differences  and  divisions  which  were  apparent  in  all  ranks 
of  [life.  There  was  revolt,  passive  or  active,  in  the  political, 
religious  and  industrial  worlds  ;  it  had  extended  even  to  the 
sexes,  so  that  war  between  transient  man  and  the  eternal 
feminine  had  come  to  have  a  new  and  concrete  meaning. 
But  the  instant  a  greater  issue  appeared  and  it  was  realised 
that  the  nation  was  engaged  in  a  death  struggle  with  Ger- 
many, these  superficial  cleavages  and  quarrels  vanished  ; 
the  genius  for  discipline  instinct  in  the  race  reasserted  itself, 
and  the  people  willingly  accepted  the  orders  of  their  leaders, 
and  of  their  own  accord,  as  it  were,  fell  into  arderly  ranks, 
resolute  to  march  to  victory.  As  we  look  back  over  the 
events  of  the  last  three  years  (for  we  are  fast  approaching 
that  period  of  war)  we  can  to-day  discern  how  again  and 
again  the  Government  has  relied  implicitly  on  this  quality- 
¥.ven  at  this  time  when  a  new  unrest  is  apparent  in  several 
quarters,  it  is  ob\nous  that  the  Government  places  its  trust 
in  "  the  good  sense  of  the  people,"  which  is  only  another  way 
of  expressing  the  same  truth,  for  as  no  army  without  discipUne 
can  hope  to  win  victory  in  the  field,  so  can  no  nation  without 
discipline  expect  to  win  victor^'  in  this  war  of  nations.  This 
is  more  especially  true  in  the  light  of  Sir  William  Robertson's 
recent  saying  tliat  a  nation  in  its  civil,  political,  industrial 
and  economic  elements  represents  75  per  cent,  of  the  forces 
employed  in  modern  warfare.  This,  perhaps,  is  thC'  most 
important  statement  publicly  made  in  recent  months  by 
a  distinguished  officer.  The  people  have  confidence  in  the 
Chief  of  the  General  Staff ;  they  know  he  would  not  have  given 
utterance  to  this  opinion  if  he  did  not  agree  with  it. 

Disciphne  does  not  imply  the  harsh  rule  of  the  drill- 
sergeant,  such  as  is  and  has  been  practised  in  Germany. 
When  appUed  to  a  British  regiment,  good  discipline  signifies 
that  the  men  are  as  well  conducted  off  parade  as  on  it  ;  that 
they  know  how  to  enjoy  rationally  a  large  measure  of  personal 
liberty  ;  that  if  under  the  accidents  of  military  service  a 
platoon  finds  itself  in  a  tight  corner  it  will  carry  on  in  the  same 
Spirit  as  though  the  battalion  were  in  force.  Loyalty  between 
all  ranks  is  a  first  essential  of  good  disciphne  ;  there  must  be 
mutual  confidence  between  officers,  non-coms.,  and  men  as 
between  the  varying  grades  of  officers,  and  the  feeling  must 
be  engendered  that  the  reputatioh  of  the  regiment  is  the  first 
thought  in  every  ntan's  breast  from  the  CO.  downwards,  and 
t  hat  not  one  is  out  to  play  his  own  game  or  to  use  his  fellows 
as  pawns  for  his  personal  advancement.  But  it  will  inevitably 
happen  that  now  and  again  insubordination  will  occur.  It 
must  be  instantly  repressed  with  stern  justice  if  discipline 
is  not  to  suffer.     But  above  all  there  must  be  good  leadership  ; 


contradictory  orders  are  fatal  in  that  they  denote  a  muddled 
mind  or  a  feeble  character.  It  is  contrary  to  human  nature 
to  place  reliance  on  a  man  whose  actions  and  words  con- 
stantly vary.  All  that  we  have  written  here  about  a  regiment 
applies  with  equal  force  to  the  people  as  a  whole. 

An  American  gentleman  resident  in  this  country,  an  acute 
observer,  asked  the  other  day  why  the  Food  Controller  did 
not  rely  more  on  this  universal  respect  for  law,  which 
struck  him  as  being  perhaps  the  strongest  trait  in  the 
British  character.  It  is  a  fair  question.  We  believe  that 
this  quality  might  be  utilised  to  much  better  advantage 
than  has  been  the  case  hitherto.  Were  an  order  promulgated 
by  the  Food  Controller  or  by  higher  authority  decreeing  a 
fixed  bread  ration,  and  instructing  all  households  which 
obtain  their  bread  through  a  bakery  to  deal  vvith  a  single 
baker,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  order  would 
be  willingly  obeyed  in  95  per  cent,  of  the  homes  of  this  land. 
This  order  must  be  expressed  in  clear  and  simple  language 
and  the  quantity  allowed  per  head  stated  in  number  of  loaves 
of  a  fixed  weight.  It  should  be  nrade  the  duty  of  the  baker 
to  know  the  number  in  each  household  he  supplies — both  of 
those  who  customarily  take  all  their  meals  at  home  and  of 
those  who  buy  one  or  more  meals  daily  outside.  As  it  is, 
half  the  people  do  not  know  how  much  bread  thej^  may  cat, 
under  the  conditions  of  their  work  or  calling,  if  there  is  to  be 
enough  until  the  harvest.  Tiie  whole  question  is  chaos  ;  and 
the  Food  Controller,  while  hesitating  to  introduce  bread 
tickets,  fails  to  issue  clear  and  definite  orders  which  the 
well-discijjlined,  who  form  the  vast  majority  of  the  popula- 
tion, would  obey  willingly. 

The  first  objection  to  such  an  order  is  that  it  would  be 
difficult  or  impossible  to  enforce  obedience  by  punishment. 
Lord  Devonport  has  conducted  the  business  of  his  Depart- 
ment without  any  resort  to  disciplinary  measures  until 
the  last  few  days;  though  now  waste  is  being  punished. 
Food  profiteering  is  universall}-  regarded  as  a  sin  against 
the  community.  At  one  time  officials  strenuously  denied 
the  existence  of  it.  But  it  was  only  the  other  day  that  Lord 
Devonport  disclosed  in  the  House  of  Lords  the  scandal  of  the 
speculation  that  had  arisen  over  Rangoon  beans  directly  it 
was  realised  they  were  possible  substitutes  for  potatoes. 
Though  much  was  said  about  the  offence,  not  a  word  was 
said  about  the  offenders.  No  punishment  was  suggested  nor 
were  names  mentioned.  Are  the  pubHc  to  understand  that 
speculation  in  foodstuffs  is  still  a  legal  operation,  and  that 
the  law  allows  prices  to  be  artificially  raised  for  private  profit, 
even  in  these  days  of  submarines  ?  No  man  or  woman 
outside  Mincing  Lane  can  understand,  for  instance,  why  the 
wholesale  price  of  tea  should  be  at  its  present  high  level 
in  the  face  of  visible  supplies.  Is  it  not  possible  to  check 
the  exploitation  of  the  shortage  of  certain  staples  or  of  the 
general  increase  of  temperance  without  undue  interference 
with  the  laws  of  supply  and  demand  ? 

The  war  is  not  over  by  any  means.  As  much  has  to  be 
done  at  home  as  on  the  battlefields  if  complete  victory  is  to 
be  won.  The  present  industrial  unrest  causes  perplexity  to 
our  Allies  ;  they  do  not  understand  how  at  the  very  moment 
when  the  country  is  deriving  the  first  full  benefit  of  the 
strenuous  toil  of  the  last  two  years,  the  home  workers  should 
weary  and,  as  it  seems,  lose  heart. .  It  would  appear  to 
them  as  though  this  were  the  very  moment  when  all  other 
thoughts  and  considerations  would  be  merged  in  the  single 
resolution  to  finish  even  more  brilliantly  what  they  had  begun 
so  well.  There  are  doubtless  numerous  comphcations  in  the 
strikes  which  only  those  intimate  witli  the  full  facts  can 
appreciate  at  their  right  worth  ;  biit  we  do  not  believe  that 
national  discipline  will  suffer  if  the  Government  behaves 
in  a  firm  and  sensible  manner  ;  but  there  must  be  good 
leadership  on  the  part  of  Government  and  a  complete  clearance 
as  far  as  it  is  possible  of  all  misunderstandings  and  mis- 
conceptions. Never  in  the  history  of  modern  industriahsra 
has  popular  sympathy  been  more  entirely  with  the  workers ; 
wc  know  what  they  have  accomplished,  both  on  the  fields 
of  France  and  in  the  workshops  of  these  islands,  but  the 
public  also  realise  that  there  is  one  paramount  issue 
at  the  moment — the  winning  of  the  war.  Nothing  must  be 
allowed  to  interfere  with  that,  otherwise  all  the  terrible 
sacrifice  bitherto  offered  will  be  wa,ste. 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  17,  1 91 7 


The  Political  Factor 


By    Hilaire  Belloc 


IT  is  plain  to  every  observer  that  a  critical  moment  of 
political  character  lias  come  upon  the  war.  It  was 
inevitable  that  such  a  crisis  should  come  coincidently 
with,  or  very  nearly  coincidently  with,  the  military 
crisis  which  we  are  already  rapidly  approaching. 

All  that  has  hitherto  appeared  in  these  studies  of  the  great 
campaign  in  Land  &  Water,  has  dealt  with  the  military 
aspect  alone.  It  has  been  a  chronicle  of  the  military  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  war.  The  task  has  been  confined  to  the 
elucidation  of  movements  by  maps,  tbe  pointing  out  of  alterna- 
tive routes  and  movements  ;  most  important  of  all,  the 
estirrtatc  of  numbers.  This  last,  as  it  is  the  only  secure  basis 
for  any  judgment,  has  also,  I  am  glad  to  say,  been  proved 
constantly  accurate  by  the  event  ever  since  fairly  full  evidence 
was  available. 

Now  in  all  this  the  political  factor  has  been  postulated  as  a 
constant  ;  not  because  that  factor  was  really  constant,  but 
because  one  must  eliminate  it  in  order  to  present  the  purely 
military  side  of  any  campaign.  It  is  impossible  to  describe  the 
military  effect  of  a  particular  movement  save  under  the 
supposition  that  the  two  parties  are  each  occupied  in  attempt- 
ing the  military  destruction  of  the  other,  and  therefore  all 
such  descriptions  presuppose  a  given  political  condition. 
The  aims  of  the  existing  opponents,  the  character  and 
numerical  power  of  the  two  warring  aUiances,  are  taken  for 
granted.  But  at  the  same  time,  we  ^11  know  that  the  pohtical 
condition  of  any  great  campaign,  though  more  stable  than 
the  military,  is  not  really  a  constant  by  any  means.  It 
•changes  slightly  from  month, to  month  with  the  temper  of 
■  each  alliance,  etc.  There  nearly  always  comes  a  moment 
before  the  close  of  a  war  (there  has  always — throughout 
history — come  such  a  moment  before  the  close  of  a 
complicated,  widespread  and  prolonged  war) — when  the 
change  is  rapid  and  very  great.  At  such  a  moment  the 
new  condition  of  the  pohtical  factor  must  be  noted  lest  one's 
further  study  of  the  purely  military  side  should  lose  all  touch 
,with  reality. 

■,     Take  the  following  historical  instances  :  .      . 

.  The  Prussian  General  Staff  in  1870,  laid  a  p'.an  to  destroy 
the  military  jwwer  of  Nappleon  III.  They  were  more 
successful  than  had  been  any  of  their  predecessors  in  modern 
European  war.  Within  a  few  weeks  of  the  first  actions  all 
■the  regular  forces  of  Napoleon  III.  were,  in  a  military  sense, 
out  of  the  field.  The  arrnv  in  Metz  was  securely  contained  ; 
..tlje  only  other  army,  that  of  Sedan,  had  surrendered  in  its 
entirety. 

;.A  rnan  following  from  week  to  week  the  process  of  that 
■campaign  would  have  had  a  right  to  say,  on  September  3rd, 
1870  :  "  Victory  has  been  achieved  :  it  has  been  achieved 
at  such  and  such  a  cost  in  men,  and  at  such  and  such  a  cost  to 
.the -enemy."  Indeed,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  negotiations  for 
peace  were  suggested  immediately  after  these  decisive  Results. 
.Jftut  the  political  factors  which  such  a  student  would  neces- 
isarily  have  taken  for  constant  up  to  that  date — it  being  a 
necessity  to  eliminate  political  variation  if  one  is  to  con- 
centrate upon  the  military  problem  of  the  moment — suddenly 
changed,  and  that  in  so  drastic  a  fashion  as  would  have 
compelled  the  student  to  revise  his  terms  in  speaking  of  the 
war.  The  Kmpire  was  overthrown  ;  a  provisional  govern- 
ment of  Radical  barristers  took  its  place.  From  mamly  or 
partly  dynastic,  the  war  became  entirely  national,  and  the 
student  of  its  further  phases  had  to  consider  such  factors  as 
the  military  value  of  raw  levies,  the  chances  of  the  country's 
holding  out  ;  the  state  of  the  opinion  of  Paris  under  the  new 
condition  of  affairs ;  the  possibihty  of  civil  war  among  the 
•French  themselves,  etc.,  etc.  '.,"/ 

Here  is  another  historical  example  of  which  we  know  mxich 
.less,  but  which  js  more  applicable  to  the  present  great  cam- 
paign— the  close  of  the  Second  Punic  War.  The  Carthagmians 
iai  that  great  effort  put  themselves  at  the  head  of  a  very 
mi.xed  Alliance,  which  was  wholly  dependent  upon  their '6ne 
strict  command.  The  nucleus  of  their  armed  force  %as 
'Carthaginian  :  the  rest  Gallic,  Numidian,  Iberian.  "Their 
oltject  was  to  destroy  the  rising  European  civilisation  of 
Italy  under  the  headship  of  Rome.  In  the  earlier  part  of 
-the  war  they  succeeded  after  a  fashion  which  probably  snr- 
•pfised  themseh'es  and  certainly  surprised  all  onlookers,  and 
no  one  more  than  their  opponents.  The  tide  turned — largely 
Uirough  the  gradual  wearing  down  of  the  invader's  effectives. 


At  last  there  came  a  moment  when  Rome ,  could  be 
certain  of  imj)Osing  some  peace,  but  had  to  decide  what  sort 
of  peace  she  would  aim  for.  There  came  a  moment,  that  is, 
when  it  was  no  longer  doubtful  that  Carthage  must  abandon 
all  idea  of  success,  and  could,  for  the  future  (like  Prussia 
to-day)  only  hope  to  save  herself  in  some  degree,  greater  or 
less.  In  other  words,  ther6  came  a  moment  when  the  original 
jx)htical  factors,  to  wit,  the  determination  on  either  side  for  a 
complete  victory,  were  in  process  of  change.  Rome — 
happily  for  us — decided  for  continued  effort  and  for-  the 
greatest  result  obtainable.  The  war  was  carried  into  Africa. 
The  power  of  Carthage  was  destroyed  for  ever,  and  with 
this  event  ti  e  civilisation  which  we  have  since  enjoyed,  was 
saved.  Europe  had  conquered  Africa  ;  our  gods  had  thrown 
down  the  gods  of  T'ear. 

In  this  critical  moment  when  alternative  policies  for  the 
end  of  the  war  lay  before  the  Roman  mind,  no  one  could  or 
did  survey  the  merely  military  aspect  of  affairs ;  all  were 
compelled  to  consider  first  the  pohtical  change  that  wa&  in 
progress.  •  .  •  . 

Here  is  a  third  instance. 

T  multiply  these  instances  because  no  one  historical  example 
will  ever  fit  the  present,  and  because  a  number  of  them, 
therefore,  provide  better  counsel  than  an  isolated  one. 

Napoleon  invading  Russia  in  1812  could  take  as  a  political 
constant  for  his  military  plans,  his  own  hegemony  over  the 
whole  continent  west  of  the  Niemen.  He  could  take  as  a 
constant  the  continued  hostility  and  vigour  of  Great  Britain, 
whose  maritime  power  defied  his  efforts.  After  his  declara- 
tion of  war  against  the  Czar,  he  could  also  take  as  a  constant 
the  determination  of  the  Russians  to  withstand  his  invasion 
as  best  they  might,  though  at  first  badly  handicapped 
numerically,  and  to  support  a  very  heavy  strain  before  he 
could  force  them  to  yield  to  his  will.'  Napoleon  could  further 
take  as  a  constant  his  own  well  defined  political  object, 
which  was  not  the  conquest  of  Russia — an  impossible  task — 
but  the  acquirement  of  an  agreement  with  Russia  to  stand 
by  him  against  England  and  to  share  with  him  the  mastery 
of  Europe. 

Very  welU  With,  these  political  factors,  regarded  as  con- 
stant he  undertook  and  carried  out  the  campaign  of  1812. 
Even  after  it  was  clear  that  he  had  failed  to  reach  his  political 
object  in  Russia  ;  even  when  the  retreat  from  Moscow  had 
begun,  a  contemporary  observer  would  have  been  justified 
in  reckoning  the  continued  hegemony  of  Napoleon  oVer 
Central  and  Western  Europe  as  a  jiolitical  constant  in  the 
military  situation.  A  student  could  still,  on  November  1st, 
i8i.>,  have'  said  with  justice:  "Without  discussing  the 
political  situation  we  may  contrast  the  Emperor's  recruiting 
power  of  such  and  such  numbers  per  annum  with  that  of  his 
opponents."  In  this  recruiting  power  such  a  student  would 
have  properly  counted  very  much  more  than  the  French 
recniiting  field.  He  would  have  included  the  Allied  German 
States,  the  Italian  Kingdom,  etc. 

But  long  before  the  retreat  had  ended  in  its  final  disasters, 

a  continued  purely  political  calculation  of  this  sort   would 

have  lost  touch  with  reality.     No  analysis  of  contemporary 

military  events  would  have  had  value  which  did  not  envisage 

a    change   in    Napoleon's   old    ppsition.     It    was    clear   that 

certain  Allies  would  be  temptetl  to  abandon  him,  and  that 

their  example  might  l)e  followed  by  others.     As  a  matter  of 

fact,  the  Hohenzollcrns,  while  outwardly  professing  to  keep 

'  their  treaty  with  Napoleon,  secretly  joined  his  enemies,  and 

there  were  other  changes  culminating   in  the  famous  volte 

^'Tacc  of  the  King  of  Saxony  at  l.eipsic.     Within  15  months  of 

"'"the  Be'resina  thepolitical  situation  had  so  comj)letely  changed 

'"Jthat  Napoleon'  was  left  dependent  upon  little  more  than  the 

'French  recruiting  field  for  his  further  supply  of  men. 

Such  instances  of  a  critical  political  change  in  war  might 
"be  added  to  indefinitely.  Every  great  campaign  supplies  its 
'■''owrt  example  of  the  kind. 

This,  the  greatest 'of  all  wars,  has  now  clearly  reached  a  stage 
in  which  the  original  political  circumstances  must  be  revised 
'  if  we  are  to  estimate  the  actual  military  situation. 

Two  political  events  of  capital  importance  have  just  come 
into  play  almost  at  the  same  moment.  Each  of  them 
suddenly  creates  a  great  military  factor  which  was  absent  a 
very  short  time  ago.  liiach  of  them  creates  a  new  set  of 
political  conditions. 


May  17,  1917 


XAND    «&    WATER 


The  first  of  tiicse  I'vcnts  is  tlic  Russian  Revolution  ;  the 
bccpnd  IS  the. dcterhii nation  bl  tiie  American  Goveniinent  and- 
people  to  Join  the  Allies.  .  . 

The  Rusisian  Revolution  is  still ,  passing  through  very 
rapidly  changing  phases  of  development.  Those  who  know 
tin;  country  best  cannot  pretend  to  judge  what  the  next  phase 
will  be.  They  can  do  no  more  than  state  each  position  as  it 
arises  and  leave  the  future  f|uite  dark.  But  in  spite  of 
this  there  are  certaiti  main  features  produced- by  this  enormous 
change  which  we  all  recognise.  Unity  of  direction  is  for 
the  nionifnt  jeopardised.  Varying  views  of  the  political 
end  which  tlie  Russian  pcojile  now  set  before  themselves 
each  have  weight  and  are  each  in  conflict  witli  the  rest — from 
a  powerful  section  wliicli  desires  to  change  the  old  formula 
of  the  Allies  to  the  still  maintained  official  programme,  a 
repetition  of  which  was  definitely  pledged  only  the  other 
day  by  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  Russian  leaders. 
At  the  same  time  there  has  necessarily  been  considerable 
disorganisation  in  the  Russian  armies,  and  a  rearrangement 
is  still  in  progress  in  the  various  conunands.  .     • 

All  this  does  not  concern  Russia  alone,  nor  even  Russia 
and  her  Allies  alone.     It  reacts  upon-  the  whole  field  of  war. 

To  take  two  opposite  poles  of  its  effect  :  It  suddenly 
weakens,  in  Sweden,  a  deeply  rooted  historic  mistrust  of  her 
eastern  neighbour;  it  changes,  in  some  degree  at  least, 
the  nature  of  any  negotiations  which  might  be  undertaken 
with  the  Turkish  Government.  .  . 

Meanwhile  the  entry  of  tlie  American  Republic  does-  this  : 
It  ehminates  from  the  list  of  neutrals  (and  the  neutral  attitude 
towards  our  blockade  of  the  Central  Empires  was  of  immense 
importance)  that  one  which  is  by  far  the  chief  of  those  neutrals. 
The  effect  of  this  is  already  felt  not  only  upon  the  policy  of 
blockade,  but  also  upon  the  whole  of  Allied  finance.  Later 
it  will  be  felt  in  the  department  of  man-power  as  well.  Further 
it  is  felt  in  all  the  present  discussions  upon  the  chances  of  the 
enemy's  submarine  programme. 

Those  two  prime  changes,  however,  altering- though  they  do 
the  whole  political  face  of  the  war,'  are  not  the  only  matters 
which  have  produced  the  critical  political  character  of  the 
present  moment.  We  have  added  to  them  the  fact  that 
the  next  few  months  are  the  height  of  the  season  in  which 
military  action  can  be_  developed  with  the  greatest  intensity, 
in  the  West  at  least  ".  better  visibility,  longer  dayhght,  drier 
ground,  less  sickness.        i 

Add  to  this  the  fact  that  these  very  same  months  are  also 
those  in  which  the  strain  for  food  will  be  especially  severe 
in  all  belligerent  countries.  Add  as  a  last  isolated  point -of 
great  importance,  that  this  is  the  moment  from  which  onwards 
the  original  fully  conscript  belligerent  Powers,  and  in  par- 
ticular the  Central  Empires,  necessarily  decline  in.  numerical 
strength,  leaving  the  Powers  which  came  later  into  the 
struggle  or  developed  their  military  resources  later,  to  throw 
in  their  decisive  weight. 


The  Two  Policies 


r: 


All  these  considerations  being  passed  in  review,  and  each 
given  its  due  weight,  there  has  arisen — on  account  of  their 
number  and  complexity — a  division  of  general  opinion.  There 
has  arisen  (1)  a  group  of  opinion  wlrich  looks  to  a  deliberate 
prolongation  of  the  war — what  is  called  in  the  shortest 
terms  "  marking  time  "  ;  and  (2)  there  is  another  group  of 
opinion — which  is  also  happily  that  of  all  those  responsible 
for  our  pubhc  action — ^which  has  decided  that  the  present 
season  determines  the  result  of  the  war. 

These  words  do  not  mean  that  anyone  is  so,  foolish  as.  to 
prophesy  an  actual  decision  within  ■  such  and  such  limits  of 
time,  but  that  the  school  of  opinion  here  cited  has  no  doubt 
whatever  that,  according  to  the  vigour  of  the  effort  in  this 
summer  of  191 7,  will  be  the  degree  of  the  final  victory..  In 
other  words,  this  second  school  says  to  the  first :  "  Marking 
lime,  in  spite  of  your  ar<;uments  in  favour  of  it,  is  throwing 
away  the  war." 

At  this  stage  it  is  very  necessary  to  distinguish  between 
the  proper  function  of  journalism  and  the  exceedingly  im- 
proper and  fantastic  functions  which  journalists  have  ^00 
often  undertaken  since  the  outbreak  of  hostilities.  A  writer 
following  and  commenting  upon  the  campaign  is  merely 
impertinent  when  he  pretends  to  give  advice  to  soldiers.  VYar 
cannot  possibly  be  conducted  by  opinion.  It  is  necessarily 
conducted  by  the  men  in  authority  over  it,  by  the  men  who 
actually  experience  each  of  its  reactions,  and  by  the  men 
who  alon(;  arc  in  i>osscssion  of  that  huge  complex  of  iuforniatiou 
without  which  the  pretence,  to  plan  any  movenient  is  the  act 
of  an  idiot.  When  any  man,  even  were  he  possessed  of  great 
past  experience,  proposes  topiaise  or  blanie  or  even  support, 
let  alone  to  ciiticisc,  without  some  knowledge  of  existing 
(and  recent)  conditions,  he  is  necessarily  incompetent,  Jhe 
atteini)t  to  act  in  this  fashion  by  men  who  ha\c  no  pretence 


even  to  general  principles  in  war  is  ridiculous. 
.-••Wlrat  "the-  journalist  can  ■uscftflly  and  ',  dutili^ly,  jlflws 
to  inform— v,ithin  the  limits  that  lin|it  all  .public"*-!  j- 
formation.  The  value  of  such  a  task  is  that-  it  supp^  is 
-  and  confirms  civilian  opinion  during  the  strain.  It  hasj  10 
other  value  ;  but  that  work,  if  it  is  properly  undertal^  n. 
may  be  justly  regarded  as  a  contribution  to  the  forced'  qj[  a 
nation  at  war.  •'     ,      ,     .  \^' 

In  the  matter,  therefore,-  of  these  two  policies,'  aih'km.t 
journalists  can  effect  of  a  u.seful  kind  is  to  support  the 
determination  which  the,  authorities  have  clearly  undertattn 
to  make  the  effort  of  1917  the  supreme  effort  of  the  war  ;  ^o 
point  out  why  such  a  decision  is  necessary  and  vital  anAo 
show  how  it  fits  in  with  the  various  conditions  under  wl»;h 
this  last  phase  of  the  great  series  of  campaigns  is  being  fouglit 
out. 

The  school  which  would  spsak  of  "  marking  time  "  is, 
happily  not  in  power  and  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
Ix;  in  power.  None  of  the  men  actually  at  grips  with  the 
strain  would  tolerate  it  for  a  moment.  "  But  though  we. .all 
feel  instinctively  that  this  concentration  upon  the  effort  of 
1917,  upon  the  present  fighting  season,  is  an  absolutely 
vital  matter,  we  shall  be  the.  better  p/epared  to  comprehend 
the  few  months  before  us  if  we  analyse  the  conditions  that 
make  it  so. 

Arguments  for  the  Right  Policy 

There  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  political  or  psychological 
effect  of  time.  The  war  has  already  lasted  close  upon  three 
years.  It  has  lasted  far  longer  than  any  commander, ':siave 
one,  had  thought  possible  when  it  broke  out.  It  has  developed 
wholly  unexpected  and  novel  conditions  of  fighting,  which 
may  yet  be  added  to  before  its  close  ;  above  all,  it  has  allowed 
us  to  judge  of  how  rapidly  under  the  pressure  of  intense 
emotion  a  political  situation  can  develop.  ; 

I  will  illustrate  this  factor  of  time  and  its  effect  on  policy 
by  the  example  of  Poland.  Many  others  might  be  chosen, 
but  it  is  the  clearest  of  them  all.  We  arc  assisting  at  'the 
recreation  of  Poland  under  our  very  eyes.  I  will  take  that 
one  point  and  examine  it  thoroughly,  making  it  serve  the 
place  of  a  wider  survey,  for  it  is  a  sort  of  test  of  the  policy 
of  which  I  speak.  ■       - 

When  the  war  broke  out,  and  for  many  months  after  it 
broke  out,  the  reconstruction  of  Poland  was  a  pious  hope, 
or  a  vague  formula,  or — worst  of  all,  a  taboo.  Men  dated 
not  define  their  policy  for  Poland  in  either  camp.  It  was 
certainly  still  in  this  condition  when  the  great  Russian  retreat 
through  Poland  began.  I  think  we  may  say  that  it  was 
still  in  this  condition  even  some  weeks  after  the  advance'  of 
the  Austro-German  armies  had  reached  its  limit  and  was 
stayed. 

Look  at  the  poUtical  position  to-day,  and  observe  the 
tremendous  change  which  the  last  twelve  months  have  wrought. 
There  is  now  a  clean  cut  opposition  between  two  political 
objects  in  Poland  and  it  is  the  strain  which  1917  shall  impose 
upon  the  enemy,  the  result  attd  success  of  that  strain,  which 
'will  decide  ivhich  object  may  be  attained :  our  enemies'  or  our 
own.  ■''  ■  :'■ 

On  the  one  hand  you  have  the  plan,  formulated,  con- 
crete, ''  in  possession  "  so  to  speak,  which  suits  the  Central 
Powers.  A  Poland  is  to  be.  The  Prussian  crime  of  the  iSth 
century,  the  mere  murder  of  a  nation,  has  failed.  Althoiitgh 
America  has  now  entered  the  Avar,  and  although  therefore -the 
authorities  at  Berlin  have  less  need  than  they  had  to  oon- 
sider  the  American  ideal  of  freedom  ;  although  Berlin  can 
profess  to  feel  the  Eastern  menace  less  ;  although  the  scheme 
for  a  Polish  recruitment  has  broken  down — yet  the  Central 
Empires  are  constrained  to  recreate  Poland  in  some  fashion- 

&at   what   is  that   fashion?     It   is  proposed  to  erect,  an 
autonomous  inland  state,   monarchical,   mutilated,  restricted 
to   the   boundaties   of   the   so-called    "Russian"    provinces, 
.with  the  Prassian  and  Austrian  provinces  retained  as  hostages. 
.',  .'fwo    things    the    Central    Empires    cannot  give  consistently 
with  their  dynastic  and  national  objects  in  continuing  their 
defence.     They  cannot  give  unity  to  Poland,  that  is  completion 
'  arid  restoration  of  the  whole  Polish  soil;  they  cannot  give 
^'"t>^^izic  and  the  door  upon  the  Baltic.     A  Poland  that  was 
"vipfv" great  would,  in  proportion  as  it  was  great,  menace  the 
,  ,,vevy  heart  of  Prussia,  whose  role  it  has  been  to  crucify  Poland, 
and  the  very  meaning  of  Hapsburg  Austria  whose  role  it 
,,'lias  been  to  lead  or  to  group — at  any  rate  to  bo  the  political 
liead  of — the  Catholic  Slavs,  and  whose  method  (if  she  is  to 
cojiiinue  at  all)  is  to  divide  tlie  races  ruled. 
,,    As  against  tiiis  clear,  concrete  and  afmost  detailed    con- 
ception of  the  Polish  solution — which    is  the  enemy's  ton- 
ception  actually  at  work  to-day — you  have  the  ob-vious  cout»tcr- 
policy  of  the  Alhes !    A  completely  united  and  strong  Poland 
with  full  access  tu  the  Baltic  and  with  Dannie  fur  its  pbft  ; 


LAND    &    WATER 


May 


17.  1917 


a.  Polaod  at  thi'  same  tiiiic  completely  lite  and  establishing 
by  its  Western  culture  and  traditions,  its  military  terajxT  and 
its  mere  extent  of  territory,  a  coimterpoisc  to  the  ruined 
Ciermanio  influence  over  Central  Europe. 

The  most  timid  compromiser  cannot  flatter  himself  that 
there  is  now  any  third  course.  Either  there  will  be  a  f^rcat 
Poland  curbing  the  Germans,  or  there  will  l>e  a  mutilated 
Poland  under  Oerman  tutelage.  Either  there  will  be  a  Poland 
making  German  aggression  weaker,  or  a  Poland  making  Ger- 
many vastly  stronger — the  wt)rd  Germany  meaning  hen) 
that  mass  oi  tradition  and  speech  which,  under  the  headship 
of  Prussia  has  challenged  ICuropc  and  done  all  these  things 
which  are  now  of  perpetual  and  shameful  record. 

Well,  it  should  be  clear  that  time  is  here  predominant. 
l\iland  to-day  is  actually  occupied.  It  has  been  occupied 
lor  the  better  part  of  two  years.  It  has  been  more  and  njore 
organised  under  Prussian  direction  and  towards  the  Prussian 
idea  with  every  month  that  has  passed.  Thv  continuance 
of  the  blows  upon  the  IVtst  'which  are  eating  up  the  enemy's 
nicn  is  a  necessary,  condition  of  giving  to  Poland  to-day  the 
continued  prospect  of  full  freedom,  the  consequent  lailL  to  attain 
it  and  the  faith  that  it  can  be  attained.  But  what  effect  would 
follow  in  this  particular  from  a  calculated  delay  ?  A 
cr^'stallised  accepted  Polish  policy  strengthened  by  habit 
and  working  and  wholly  German. 

(z)  Now  consider  another  aspect  of  the  matter.  It  is 
sometimes  called  financial,  but  the  word  is  only  a  mask  for 
what  is  really  economic  and  deals,  not  with  symbolic  counters, 
but  with  things  :  steel,  wheat,  oils  and  ships. 

The  process  of  economic  exhaustion  has  struck  the  whole 
world.  It  has  struck  the  Central  Empires  more  heavily 
than  the  Western  AUies,  but  it  has  struck  every  one.  Such 
a  strain  may  Ik;  endured  as  a  necessity.  To  play  with  its 
prolongation  as  a  {)ohcy  is  quite  another  nmtter.  There 
will  be  a  tem])orary  relief  to  tlie  strain  throughout  tiic  enemy's 
tenit(jry  in  foodstuffs  (tliough  not  in  fatty  matters  nor — 
still  less— in  labour  jjowcr)  as  the  summer  turns  into  autunm. 
If,  before  that  jx-riod  the  maxinmm  of  miUtary  strain  has  been 
iiiiposed  upon  llic  suffering  enemy,  that  relief  will  not  mean 
what  it  would  mean  should  it  come  after  a  relaxation  of  effort 
even  tliough  that  relaxation  were  ephemeral  and  calculated. 

It  is  one  tiling  to  obtain  momentary  physical  relief  on  the 
top  of  a  rest  and  recruitment — quite  another  to  obtain  it 
while  you  are  breaking  under  another  and  continued  strain. 

(j)  Next  consider  the  position  from  the  point  of  view  of 
munitionment.  It  is  the  one  factor  which  the  pubUc  at 
home  tinds  hardest  to  realise.  Indeed,  if  one  may  say  so, 
it  would  setni  that  the  tJiree  great  tests  of  superiority 
jjossessed  by  the  Western  Allies  over  the  Central  Empires 
twid  to  be  put  by  civilian  opjnion  in  an  order  inverse  of  the 
true  one. 

People  consider  first  movement,  next  numbers  of  men 
and  last  of  all  munitionment.  But  the  superiority  of  the 
Allies  at  this  monx-nt,  and  increasingly  for  months  to  come, 
is  of  the  very  opposite  type.  Munitionment  is  the  capital 
point.  The  enemy  has  been  passed  and  the  pace  is  increasing. 
The  entrj'  of  America  into  the  war  has  here  made  what  was 
already  certain  doubly  certain.  The  reserves  of  man  power 
(due  to  the  fact  that  Great  Britain  developed  the  war  later 
than  the  conscript  countries)  comes  next  last  of  all,  and 
far  and  away  the  least  important,  comes  local  movement 
during  the  process  of  grinding  down.  To  use  this  superiority 
of  munitionment  while  we  have  it  and  while  it  is  growing,  to 
compel  tlirough  it  a  corresponding  dilemma  upon  the  enemy's 
side  between  the  leaving  of  men  in  factories  and  the  taking  of 
them  lor  diafts,  to  press  the  existing  advantage  for  its  full 
worth,  is   at  once  an  obvious  jxjlicy  and  an  essential  one. 

(4)  And  what  of  the  held  of  recruitment  ? 

Here  is  another  consideration  pointing  to  exactly  the 
same  conclusion.  It  is  futile  to  argue  at  this  time  of  day 
uixjii  the  details  of  the  matter  ;  the  large  lines  of  it  are  known  to 
the  whole  world. 

The  Central  Powers  are  exhausted  because  they  entered 
tlie  war  as  fully  conscript  powers  ;  the  Western  Allies  are 
similarly  exhausted  in  the  case  of  but  one  of  the  three  Powers 
concerned.  Use  such  an  opportunity  while  it  exists  and  it 
l>roduces  its  ma.ximum  effect.  Delay  and  you  bring  into  ])lny 
the  ■'  annual  income  in  men  "  which  the  much  larger  human 
resources  of  the  Central  Powers  and  their  occupied  territory 
have  available  if  the  delay  is  indefinitely  prolonged. 

(3)  There  is  yet  another  consideration.  The  dependent 
and  quasi-dependent  nationalities  now  acting  as  the  vassals 
of  Prussia — already  doubtful — can  be  made  to  suffer  increas- 
ing strain  so  long  as  the  blows  of  1917  are  delivered  with  full 
effect.  It  is  the  more  difficult — so  long  as  the  pressure  con- 
tinues— to  feed  them  and  more  difficult  to  munition  them, 
and  the  defection  of  any  one  would  be  the  lieginning  of  the 
i-nd  for  our  enemies.  But  let  there  be  delay  and  observe 
wliat  happens,  ^'^e  harvests,  even  though  not  sufficient. 
%re  reaped  at  a  moment  when  the  moral  strain  on  them  has 


ijeen  deliberately  lelaxid.  Tiieir  munitionment  at  onc«>  lakes 
a  leap  upwards,  and  the  factor  of  time,  already  alluded  to, 
works  adversely  to  us  in  the  case  of  Bulgaria,  Turkey  and 
even  Hungary  on  the  moral  side.  A  reprieve  from  the  strain 
works  for  a  consohdation  in  their  habit  of  subservience. 

(()J  What  of  the  submarines. 

Their  effort  is  not  the  province  of  these  articles.  But  it  sliould 
be  almost  self-evident  that  so  far  as  it  may  affect  the  military 
situation,  our  ignorance  of  what  development  the  sub- 
marine menace  may  take  in  the  future  makes  directly  for  a 
jxilicy  of  continuous  an<l  effective  action  upon  intensive 
lines. 

Added  to  these  various  arguments  let  me  close  with  one 
which  is  to  my  mmd  quite  conclusive.  I  mean  the  necessitv 
of  preserving  the  initiative  now  that  it  is  obtained. 

Importance  of  Retaining  the  Initiative 

The  Great  Offensive  of   1917,  now  but  little  more  than 
jiionth  in  progress,  having  reached,  say,  a  fifth  of  its  ma.xi 
mum  extension  in  time,  has  already  clearly  and  defiuitel) 
given  the  Western  Allies  the  initiative. 

But  this  word  with  its  technical  sound  must  be  translated 
if  we  are  to  understand  the  enormous  importance  of  its  con- 
tinuance. 

The  initiative  is  to  battle  what  the  grip  is  to  wrestling. 
You  cannot  enjoy,  once  you  have  obtained  this  superiority, 
the  continuance  of  it  and  at  the  .same  time  a  relaxation  of 
your  effort.  Such  a  relaxation  is  inviting  the  initiative 
to  i)ass  to  your  enemy. 

This  truth  is  so  elementary  that  in  the  narrow  field  of  a 
particular  battle  on  the  old  scale — a  tactical  effort  covering 
a  few  miles  and  decided  in  a  few  hours — it  is  self-evident.  It 
ought  to  be  equally  self-evident  upon  any  scale  of  warfare. 
It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  initiative  is  often  recovered 
by  a  retreat  ;  as  in  wrestling  by  a  skilful  "  breaking  away  "  ; 
but  only  when  it  has  already  been  lost  by  the  party  so  acting, 
and  when  the  party  so  acts  because  he  has  discovered  his 
inferiority.  That  is  precisely  what  l.udendorff  did  last  March. 
He  retired  the  German  line  over  a  narrow  belt — but  all  he  could 
manage — in  the  hope  that  the  pursuit  would  be  so  far  checked 
as  to  give  him  time  to  recover  the  initiative  over  the  PYencli 
and  British.  We  all  know  now  how  and  why  he  failed. 
The  Staff  work  and  the  engineers  of  the  pursuit  were  too 
much  for  him. 

A  force  that  has  lost  the  initiative  may,  I  say,  attempt 
to  recover  it  in  this  fashion.  The  retreat  after  Guise  to  the 
Marne  was  nothing  else.  But  for  a  force  already  superior, 
increasingly  superior  and  fully  possessed  of  the  initiative  to 
abandon  it  upon  some  vague  theory  of  postponement,  is  a 
thing  unknown  and,  I  think  one  may  fairly  say,  inconceivable 
in  military  history. 

At  the  present  moment  the  enemy  is  enormously  out-gunned 
and  out-munitioned.  In  the  capital  point  of  observation  he 
is  completely  mastered  both  as  to  fixed  points  and  as  to  work 
in  the  air.  The  single  point  in  which  he  can  say  that  he  is 
not  thus  overborne  is,  for  the  moment,  in  the  point  of  numbers, 
and  that  is  of  itself  the  strongest  possible  proof  that  he  is 
bending  under  the  pressure  applied  to  him.  For,  as  we  must 
never  be  tired  of  repeating,  this  extremely  rapid  throwing  in 
and  using  up  of  reserves  which  had  been  intended  for  action 
elsewhere,  is  the  price  he  pays  and  is  condemned  to  j)ay,  for 
having  lost  his  observation,  liis  old  superiority  in  munition- 
ment, and  his  direction  of  the  battle. 

There  is,  perhaps,  only  one  strong -force  at-  work  inimical 
to  the  full  and  enthusiastic  support  of  the  Allied  Cximmands 
who  have  rightly  determined  to  press  the  enemy  this  year  to 
the  extreme,  and  to  decide  his  fate  within  the  shortest  hmits 
of  time.  This  force  is  the  effect  jjroduccd  upon  the  civilian 
mind  by  long  acquaintance  with  the  terrible  conditions  of 
modern  war,  and  the  almost  inevitable  visualising  of  these 
conditions  in  our  own  and  not  in  the  enemy's  lines. 

Such  a  point  of  view  is,  of  course,  wholly  false  and  mis- 
leading. At  the  worst  the  strain  is  equal.  At  the  best— 
and  that  is  the  case  to-day — the  comparison  is  heavily  against 
the  enemy. 

'I'here  is  a  bitter  irony  in  the  refh'ction  that  when  a  terribly 
outnumbered  British  force  was  receiving  five  shells  to  tme 
that  it  could  return,  opinion  at  lionic  had  not  yet  been 
visuaUsed,  for  there  had  not  yet  been  time  to  effect  this— the 
awful  business.  Now,  though  it  is  the  British  who  are  de- 
Uvering  five  shells  to  the  enemy's  one,  so  much  time  has 
passed,  so  many  men  have  returned  with  the  experience, 
that  opinion  is  ahve  to  what  modern  artillery  means — 
but  principally  as  to  its  effect  upon  our  lines.  We  should  be 
at  least  as  much  alive,  if  we  wish  to  judge  the  war  rightly,  to 
what  modern  artillery  means  to-day  for  the  enemy :  it  is  he 
who  is  now  l>eing  subjected  to  our  iiow  final  mastery  in  that 
arm. 

And  another  way  to  look  at  it  is  this : 


Ma>-  I 


/. 


I  or 


LAND    &     WATER 


There  is  a  trick  that  artists  use  to  correct  their  drawing 
with  a  mirror,  The  reflection  doubles  and  makes  plain  any 
deflection  of  line.  Represent  the  events  of  the  last  year,  and 
particularly  those  of  the  last  six  weeks  turned  the  other 
way  about.  It  makes  an  instructive  picture.  Let  me  set  it 
down. 

The  British  and  French  armies  were  conducting  a  great 
combined  offensive  last  spring  against,  let  us  say,  the  region 
of  Lille.  They  had  lost  far  more  than  half  a  million  men 
without  reaching  the  town  and  had  inflicted  (unfortunately) 
a  far  less  number  of  casualties  upon  their  opponents.  Towards 
tJie  close  of  this  great  but  unfruitful  and  disappointing  effort 
the  Central  Empires — even  Austria,  which  was  thought 
exhausted — brought  up  vast  new  forces  and  an  unexampled 
concentration  of  guns  on  the  Oise  opposite  Noyon  on  a  front 
of  thirty  miles. 

The  effort  against  Lille  had  to  be  abandoned.  The  battle 
of  the  Oise  goes  on  with  increasing  violence  throughout  the 
summer  of  1916.  The  Allied  commanders  discover,  witli 
increasing  concern,  that  the  offensive  in  this  case  is  losing 
less  than  tlie  defensive.  The  German  and  Austrian  aero- 
planes fly  over  tliem  at  will.  The  French  and  English  armies 
are  pushed  back  over  an  ever-increasing  crescent,  losing  belt 
after  belt,  nearly  snapping  under  the  strain.  They  lose  in 
prisoners  double  what  they  themselves  have  taken  in  front-  of 
Lille.  Their  total  casualties  are  50  per  cent,  greater  than  in 
that  battle,  and  as,  autumn  approaches  the  bending  is  at 
Compiegnc— and  beyond. 


The  change  of  season  does  halt  the  advance,  out  does 
not  modify  the  enormous  and  incre  asing  superiority  in  the 
weight  of  metal  which  rains  upon  them. 

The  Allied  commanders  take  advantage  of  winter  to  raise 
a  last  reserve.  Class  1918  (which  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
French  are  still  training  at  their  leisure)  is  thrown  hurriedly 
into  the  active  formations.  The  civilian  opinion  of  Britain 
and  of  France  is  prepared  by  vague  but  repeated  despatches 
for  the  necessity  of  a  retirement,  and  that  retirement  is 
effected  in  the  month  of  March.  It  brings  the  AlHes  back 
another  thirty  miles. 

It  is  in  vain.  Hardly  is  it  completed  when,  on  April  9th, 
the  forces  of  the  Central  Empires  strike  again  and  prove  them- 
selves numerically  still  stronger  than  in  the  preceding  year, 
and  ever  stronger  in  the  mass  of  metal  at  their  disposal.  By 
the  middle  of  May  the  Allies  confess  to  losses  proceeding  at 
nearly  double  the  rate  of  the  massacre  already  suffered  the 
year  before  on  the  Oise,  and  find  that  they  have  lost,  in  valid 
prisoners  alone,  50,000  men  in  little  over  five  weeks — and 
this  though  the  fighting  season  of  1917  has  hardly  begun,  and 
the  strain  promises  to  increase  indefinitely  I 

Let  anyone  who  is  doubtful  of  the  present  situation  so 
reverse  things,  putting  the  Allies  in  the  place  of  the  enemj' 
and  vice  versa,  and  I  think  that  his  doubts  will  not  long 
remain.  Can  he  believe  that  in  such  a  situation  the  enemy, 
did  he  enjoy  it,  would  suddenly  proceed  to  relaxation  of 
effort,   and  would   "  mark  time  "  ? 

The  question  answers  itself. 


Bullecourt  and  Roeux 


The  names  of  the  two  vOlages  of  Bullecourt  and  Roeux 
have  formed  the  main  matter  of  the  news  from  the  front  this 
week.  It  is  important  that  we  should  understand  why  these 
two  particular  points  were  attacked  and  carried. 

First  let  us  repeat  the  essential  condition  governing  the 
whole  of  the  pressure  against  the  Germans  upon  the  Arras 
front.  The  object  is  not  to  attain  territory.  It  is  to  cause 
the  enemy  line  to  crumble.  That  line  depends  upon  Douai 
as  its  chief  nodal  point.  The  old  Hindenburg  line  ran  from 
near  Arras  through  Queant  southward  to  the  neighbo'urhood 
of  St.  Quentin.  As  we  know  all  that  line  was  broken 
from  a  little  north  of  Bullecourt  right  away  northward  to 
beyond  the  Vimy  Ridge.  It  is  clear  that  the  enemy  did  not 
expect  such  a  breach.  He  constructed,  and  is  perhaps  still 
strengthening  a  switch  line  to  cover  Douai,  but  only  covering 
it  at  a  distance  of  five  to  six  miles  or  8,000  to  10,000  yards.  And 
this  switch  line  is  the  Drocoiirt-Queant  line,  of  which  we  have 
read  so  much,  and  to  which,  it  seems,  that  the  Germans  give 
names  taken  from  the  opera  stage  that  need  not  concern  us. 

The  Drocourt-Queant  fine  is  vital.  In  a  sense  it  is  the 
object  of  the  British  effort  to  reach  it  and  to  break  it  in  its 
turn,  whereupon  the  whole  system  of  the  existing  German 
defences  falls  and  an  attempt  at  a  new  general  retirement 
is  necessary.  But  if  the  matter  were  put  thus  unquahfied 
it  would  give  a  very  false  impression.  The  attacks  leading 
nearer  and  nearer  to  this  line  and  threatening  it  more  and 
more  compel  the  enemy,  though  thoroughly  outgunned, 
mastered  in  aerial  observation  and,  as  we  are  assured,  mastered 
also  in  the  quality  of  the  infantry  fighting,  to  bring  up  men 
— and  to  lose  them — at  a  more  rapid  rate  and  at  a  greater 
expense  than  the  rate  of  relief  and  expense  in  casualties 
attached  to  corresponding  movements  upon  the  British  side. 

The  attacks  do  not  mean  that  a  place  attacked  was  neces- 
sarily taken  or  even  if  taken  necessarily  held.  What  they 
mean  is  that  each  by  its  threat  to  something  vital  compels 
the  enemy  to  use  up  his  remaining  reserves  of  strength  at  a 
pace  far  exceeding  the  estimate  which  he  had  framed  before 
the  great  battle  of  Arras  began. 

What  part  in  such  a  scheme  is  played  by  the  two  particular 
points  Bullecourt  and  Roeux  ?  In  other  words,  what  com- 
pulsion is  here  exercised  upon  the  enemy  to  mass  men  con- 
tinually and  to  lose  them  at  this  tremendous  rate.  We  can 
only  answer  this  question  by  noting  the  essential  contours  of 
the  ground. 

The  gradual  decline  of  the  ground  from  the  watershed  all 
the  way  down  to  the  Douai  plain  normally  gives  the  British 
observation  over  their  foes.  But  at  certam  points  spurs  rise 
isolated,  giving  counter-observation.  Monchy  was  one  of 
these,  for  instance,  and  the  carrying  of  Monchy  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  operations  was  of  the  very  greatest  effect  in 
compelling  the  enemy  to  waste  very  large  numbers  for  over 
four  weeks  in  the  attempt  to  recover  it.  When  the  attempt 
was  abandoned  all  that  expense  had  been  undertaken  in  vain 
and  the  enemy  was  by  that  amount  depleted  of  his  remaining 
power. 

Now  looked  at  in  this  light  Roeux  is  the  first  step  towards 
^ho  nrrupation  "f  'ini-  '^iiib   (if  tlie  higher  spurs  which  the 


British  soldiers  have  surnamed    Greenland     Hill.     I    have 
marked  it  on  Map  I.  with  a  capital  letter  G. 

The  British  line  before  the  attack  went  from  in  front  of 


2kfU^ 


• 


Frttnoy 


^  Drocourt 

X 


Mez^its  above,  \sss^ 


8 


LAND    &    WATER 


Mav  :;,  1017 


■SavrcllOi  across,  tlie  western  slopes  o(  Greenland  liill  (it 
hiust  be  remonibered  tliat  these  elevations  are  very, slight), 
■iu'ssing' Rpenx  railway  station  and  only  apprbacliinj^' the  mit-' 
•^ferts  of  the  \iliage.  It  then  crossed  the  Siarpe  rivi-r  an<l 
jlitiMt  eastward  to  ituliidc  Mnneliy.  The  (lernians  remained, 
iffid-  still  remain  in  jKissession  of  the  summit  of  tjreenhuul 
'iwCnt  <T.  Jf  we  shade  everything  upon  tlie  map  which  is 
above  the  80  metre  contour  (or,  say,  Ironi  roughly  100  feet 
above  the  water  levels  of  the  district),  we  shall  see  what  this 
means. 

•'■The  Germans  on  the  summit  of  Greenland  Hill  at  G  have 
observation  back  over  our  lines  and  hold  the  point  that  would 
give  «s  observation  forward  over  their  positions  right  away 
t^  Douai.  From  the  top  of  this  hill  one  looks  down  both  on 
the  railway  close  by  and  on  the  main  road  which  leads  to 
Douai,  and  between  it  and  Douai  there  is  no  eminence. 
Therefore,  anything  that  threatens  Greenland  Hill  compels 
ail  intense  counter-attack  on  the  part  of  the  enemy. 

'Now  the  ruins  of  Roeux  down  in  the  valley  merely  flank 
Greenland  Hill  at  G.  But  after  Roeux  the  next  point  of 
resistance  is  Plouvain,  and  if  this  be  reached  the  Germans 
can  no  longer  hold  the  summit  of  Greenland  Hill  at  G  just 
above.  Roeux  is,  therefore,  the  first  step  to  the  possession 
of  G.  To  save  G  all  this  immense  German  effort  has  been 
made  and  has  so  far  been  made  in  vain.  The  strongest  kind 
of  counter-attack  has  been  provoked,  ir hashed  to  the  urual 
very  high  losses  which  follow  upon  such  attacks,  and  therefore 
the  immediate  object  of  this  offensive  has  been  attained. 

Bullecourt,  six  miles  away  to'  the  south,  has  a  similar  im- 
jyortance,  modified  by  the  conditions  peculiar  to  its  special 
cbnditions  of  ground.'  Just  as  Roeux  is  the  first  step  to  the 
height  of  Greenland  Hill  at  G,  so  is  Bullecourt,  between  seven 
ahd  eight  miles  south  of  Roeux,  the  first  step  to  the  height  of 
Riencourt  at  R,  and  the  capture  of  Bullecourt  is  an  imme- 
diate threat  to  the  height  at  R,  which  again  in  its  turn  is  the 
'  last  height  to  afford  observation  m  this  part  of  the  line. 

■  There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  capture  of  Bullecourt  is  less 
important  than  the  capture  of  Roeux.  For  the  hill  at  R  is 
in  no  way  outflanked  by  the  capture  of  Bullecourt  and  further 
progress  from  Bullecourt  will  only  necessitate  some  form  of 
direct  attack  upon  R.  But  this  "is  a  minor  point  compared 
*:ith  the  exceedingly  important  one  that  the  hill  at  R  is 


right  on  the  hinge  or  junction  of  tlie  \ital,Droc«iiri-(hu^amt 
line.       .  r        '.    •    " 

Now  it  is  clear  that  if  you  have  built  vour  shortest  defensive 
line  joining  uji  with  an  old  line  just  below  the  jioint  where 
that  old  line  has  been  broken,  then  to  ;have  the  junction 
smaNlied  is  fatal.  An  attempt  to  defend  positiftns  further 
in  the  rear  would  lead  to  a  stretching  ci'^scenf  of  defence, 
getting  wider  and  wifler  and  harfler  an<l  harrier  to  hold. 
Bullecourt  and  its  organised  ruins  just  in  front  of  the  hinge, 
or  pivot;  or  junction  where  the  new  line  is  switched  oft  from 
the  old,  has  been  fought  for  as  has  hardlvany  other  point  on 
the  whole  front  during  the  last  few  weeks.  It  has  dragged 
uj)  not  only  great  masses  of  the  enemy  to  save  it,  but  units  of 
a  particular  quality.  It  has  sucked  in  the  Givard,  and 
Pomeranian  regimeiits.  which  the  enemy  particularly  values, 
and  the  men  holding  the  organised  ruins  have  not  only  been 
picked  for  their  (]uality  of  resistance,  but  have  been  under 
strict  orders  to  make  that  resistance  absolute. 

We  must  not  judge  the  value  of  what  has  occurred  by  the 
mere  fact  that  the  ruins  of  Bullecourt,  which  some  days  ago 
lay  in  front  and  to  the  east  of  the  Australians,  now  for  the 
most  part  lie  behind  and  to  the'  westward  of  them.  That 
is  not  the  point.  The  point  is  that  this  piece  of  ground  is  so 
essential  to  the  enemy  that  he  has  poureci  up,  and  lost,  in  the 
defence  of  it,  all  and  more  than  all  that  it  was  thought  he  could 
be  compelled  to  pour  up  into  it  and  lose.  Let  him  do  what 
he  di(;l  at  Fresnoy  the  other  day,  and  with  the  same  very  great 
concentration  as  at  Fresnoy  (it  was  three  divisions)  re- 
establish himself  temporarily  in  the  ruins.  The  thing  would 
look  bad  upon  headlines,  but  it  would  none  the  less  be,  as  the 
phrase  goes,  "  a  part  of  the  Clockwork."  The  continued 
pressure  on  this  spot  would  effect  what  was  intended. 

What  is  true  of  Roeux  and  of  Bullecourt  to-day  will  be  truer 
still  of  Greenland  Hill  and  Riencourt  (G  and  R  on  Map  1.) 
to-morrow.  The  conditions  are  inexorable.  The  enemy  is 
sucked  into  a  whirlpool  not  of  his  own  creation.  The  pres- 
sure exercised  upon  him  is  exercised  just  on  those  points  where 
it  has  its  fullest  effect  and  the  consequence  is  the  steady  but 
immensely  rapid  expenditure  of  men.  .'^hd  all  this  because 
the  form  of  the  battle  is  British  and  not  his^  so  is  in  the  main 
the  observation  fmm  the  air,  and  so  is  the  superiority  in 
artillery.  "  H.  Belloc. 


Under  Three  Flags 

By  a  Special  Correspondent ' 


■    'Washington  April  29th.  1917. 

TO-DAY  three  flags  are  flying  in  the  sunlight  from 
the  roof  of  an  open  temple  in  Virginia,  overlooking 
the  Potomac.  Within  the  temple  is  a  plain  tomb, 
and  within  the  tomb  the  remains  of  General  Washing- 
ton. The  Stars  and  Stripes  have  long  flowTi  there,  perhaps 
also  the  Tricolor,  I^ut  1  doubt  if  that  portion  of  Virginia 
has  seen  the  Union  Jack  since  some  day  earlier  than  1776. 
when  La  Fayette  had  not  yet  crossed  the  .Atlantic,  and  the 
revolutionary  Tricolor  was  yet -unborn. 

1  The  three  flags  fly  there  side  by  side  to-day.  and  every 
ship  of  war  passing  up  or  down  to  Chesapeake  Bay  salutes 
Moimt  Vernon  with  the  haunting  bugle  notes  of  the  "  Dead 
Steps";  officers  and  men  stand  at  attention  ;  the  rest  uncover  ; 
and,  when  the  last  echo  has  died  away  over  the  water  and  in 
the  sun-shot  woodland,  the  crash  and  stamp  of  the  ""  Star 
•Spangled  Banner  "  complete  the  ritual. 
"  The  spirit  of  Washington  broods  over  Washington's  home 
and  chosen  resting-place.  Pious  hands  hav^e  kept  the  grounds 
as'helaid  them  out,  with  the  box  hedges  that  he  planted  and. 
within  them,  only  such  old  flowers  as  he  knew ;  from  the 
■colonnaded,  white-walled,  red-roofed  mansion  of  the  Virginia 
country  gentleman,  with  its  Adams  decoration  and  half-circle 
of  laundrj-,  smoke-house,  kitchen  and  spinning-house,  you  may 
look  past  the  magnoha  that  young  La  Fayette  set  thefe, 
through  the  gap  in  the  tree  belt  to  the  lodge  half  a  mile  away, 
Where  Washmgton's  guests  drove  in  from  the  neighbouring 
♦ownship  t>f  Alexandria.  On  Sundays  he  received  no  visitors  ; 
and  the  Regents  who  preserve  his  house  and  grounds  as  he  If  ft 
them  allow  no  visitors  on  Sundays.  To-day  an  exception 
was  made,  for  a  British  and  French  Mission  were  come,  to 
America  to  discuss  the  war  which  had  united  all  three. in  a 
rommon  bond  and  a  joint  crusade,  therefore  "  God  Save 
the  King  "  was  played  in  sight  of  the  Capitol  when  the  British 
Mission  appeared  ;  therefore  the  "  Marseillaise  "  greeted 
Marshal  Joftre  and  Monsieur  Viviani  ;  therefore  three  flags 
fltiated  side  by  side  over  the  tomb  at  Mount  Vernon. 

A  month  ago  General  Washington  was  the  English  settler 

'who  had  -withstood   English  misgovernment  and  tyranny, 

organised  n  successful  rc\olution,  beaten  the  English  in  the 


field  and  created  a  nation.  La  Fayette  was  the  crusader 
from  overseas  who  had  given  his  sword  and  his  youth  to  a 
people  struggling  for  freedom.  The  two  were  friends  as  well  as 
brothers  in  arms.  When  the  American  Revolution  was 
accomplished.  La  Fayette  returned  home,  and  the  breath  of 
liberty  tasted  .by  his  troops  was  one  of  many  influences  in 
bringing  about  the  French  Revolution  which  for  a  time  he 
ruled.  Washington,  at  the  other  side  of  the  world,  watched 
the  travail  of  old  France  and  the  birth  of  another  republic. 
When  the  Bastille  fell.  Tom  Paine,  "  rebellious  needleman," 
possessed  himself  of  the  key  and  sent  it  by  the  hand  of  La 
Fayette  to  Washington,  in  whose  house  it  still  hangs.  And, 
when  his  own  revolution  had  seemingly  gone  awry.  La  Fayette 
took  up  the  threads  of  the  old  friendship  at  Mount  \'ernon  and 
would  sit  up  all  night,  talking  of  it  all.  The  two  are  twin 
heroes  ;  the  Tricolor  may  fitly  float  side  by  side  with  the 
Stars  and  Stripes. 

And  a  month  ago  the  English  were  the  descendants  of  those 
others  whom  Washington  had  been  compelled  to  withstand  ; 
they  must  regard  him  as  a  rebel.  He  had  beaten  them  ;  they 
n^ist  regard  him  with  bitter  resentment.  English  and 
French  might  sink  their  differences  in  face  of  a  common 
enemy  ;  French  and  Americans  had  no  differences  to  sink  ; 
but  there  was  an  enduring  antagonism  between  Americans 
and  Enghsh,  emphasised  and  acerbated  f>y  the  memory  of 
:  iFrance.  Yet  to-day  the  three  flags  fly  together,  and  of  the 
.'two  wreaths  laid  on  Washington's  tomb  one  was  placed  there 
by  the  I'Yench  Mission  and  the  other  by  the  British. 

It  may  be  claimed  by  Washington  that   he  begot  a  nation, 

.but  England  begot  Washington.     As  La  Faj'ctte  crossed  the 

.Atlantic  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  so  the  men  of  Washington's 

.race  will  re-cross  it  in  the  same  cause  and  will  find  their  old 

,.  antagonists  and  their  old  .\llies   fighting  side  by  side  under 

.  their  united  flags.      There  has    been  no  greater  diplomatic 

revolution  since  177&.     On  the  plain  tomb  lie  the  two  wreaths 

•in  token  of  amnesty  ;  -overhead  floats  the  Union  Jack  in 

unaccustomed  company     and  up  through  the    woods   from 

the  Potomac  comes  the  dying  note  of  the  bugle,  while  on  board 

the  President's  yacht  "  Mayflower"  Americans,  French   and 

British  stand  uncovered  in  the  afternoon  sunshine. 


May  17,  1917 


LAND    &     WATER 


Admiralty  Reforms 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


Glendower  :  /  can  call  spirils  fjom  the  vusly  deep. 
lIorsPUK  :    Why,  so  can  I ,  or  so    can.    any  man;    but    will    they 
come  when  von  do  call  lor  them  ? 

Ileniy  IV. — Part  1.— Act  3. — Scene  I. 

ON  Muiiday  afternoon  Sir  Edward  Carson  announced 
certain  changes  in  the  Board  of  Admiralty,  and  an 
official  statement  of  tlieir  twofold  object  suggests 
the  broad  lines  on.  which  tlie  work  of  the  several 
members  will  be  distributed.  From  this  we  gather  that  the 
First  Sea  Lord  will  have  associated  with  him  as  responsible 
colleagues— instead  of  merely  as  advisers — ^the  two  chief 
members  of  the  present  naval  staff,  so  that  Sir  John  Jellicoe, 
Sir  Henry  Oliver  and  Rcar-Admiral  Duff  are  to  be  free — ■ 
not  entirely,  be  it  noted,  but  as  far  as  possible — from  admini- 
strative work,  in  order  that  they  may  concentrate  their 
attention  on  the  naval  conduct  of  the  war,  Major-General 
and  Vice-Admiral  Sir  Eric  Geddes  joins  the  Board  as  head  of 
a  naval  Ministry  of  Munitions.  Rear-Admiral  Halsey 
becomes  Third  Sea  Lord,  and  will  pi'esumably  be  responsible 
for  advising  Vice-Admiral  Geddes  as  to  the  technical  require- 
ments of  the  construction  and  manufacture  desired  by  the 
navy.  V'ice-Adiniral  Burney  remains  Second  Sea  Lord  and 
Rear-Admiral  Tothill  becomes  Fourth  Sea  Lord.  The  naval 
staff  outside  the  Board  is  to  be  strengthened  by  the  addition 
of  officers  transferred  from  the  active  sea  service. 

These  changes  have  undoubtedly  been  brought  about  by 
the  recent  awakening  of  the  public  mmd  to  the  deplorable 
scale  and  gravity  of  our  naval  failure.  This  failure  has  been 
discussed  in  these  columns  from  week  to  week  now  for  many 
months  ;  and  the  conjunction  of  "  Flag-Officer's  "  letter  with 
the  unexpected  doubling  of  the  submarine  successes,  brought 
nrntters  to  a  head.  In  this  issue  is  printed  a  series  of  ex- 
tracts from  the  press,  from  letters  of  various  naval  authorities 
and  from  speeches  in  Parliament,  setting  out  this  cumulative 
indictment  against  Whitehall,  the  chief  reasons — personal 
and  organic — for  the  inefficiency  displayed,  and  the  remedies 
that  have  been  proposed.  How  far  do  the  reforms  announced 
by  the  First  Lord  meet  the  case  that  has  been  made  ?  The 
case  is  briefly  as  folJows  : 

(i)  The  navy  has  failed  in  its  fundamental  business — the 
defeat  and  destruction  of  the  enemy's  fleet. 

(2)  Because  it  has  failed  in  this,  it  has  also  failed  to  protect 
our  sea  supplies. 

(3)  Both  failures  arose   from  the  fact   that  the  supreme 
command  has  since  1904  been  monopolised  by  a  group  of_ 
officers  who  have  prepared  the  navy  for  war  and  guided  and 
commanded  it  in  war  on  wrong  military  principles. 

(4)  That  these  wrong  principles  may  be  said  p*rtly  to 
ha'W  grown  out  of  a  wrong  system  of  administration  and 
partly  to  have  created  it. 

(5)  The  principal  evil  of  the  system  was  that  it  failed  to 
discriminate  between  the  military  function  of  command  and 
the  civil  business  of  construction,  manufacture  and  supply. 

To  deal  with  these  evils  it  was  proposed  : 

(i)  To  revert  to  the  old  system  of  governing  the  navy  by 
two  distinct  Boards,  the  first  a  Board  of  Admiralty  to  com- 
mand, the  second  a  Board  of  Supphes. 

(2)  To  appoint  to  the  Board  of  Admiralty  only  officers 
whose  known  principles  and  record  assured  the  adop- 
tion and  execution  of  an  active  offensive  on  right  military 
lines. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  changes  made  do  not.  in  any  part, 
achieve  the  whole  programme  proposed  in  Parliament  and 
elsewhere.  The  navy,  for  example,  still  remains  subject  to 
'  a  single  Board  of  Admiralty.  But  it  is  obviously  not  a 
Board  which  has  jointly  to  consider  and  to  adopt  all  the 
vital  decisions  which  have  to  be  made,  so  that  each  member 
should  be  jointly  and  severally  responsible  for  them.  We 
began  the  war  with  four  Naval  Lords  and  five  Civil  members 
of  the  Board.  There  are  now  seven  Naval  Lords,  one  new 
Lord  naval  by  adoption,  and  the  five  civil  members  as  before. 
If  we  count  Sir  Eric  Geddes  as  a  civilian,  there  are  seven 
naval  officers  to  six  laymen.  This  body  is  too  large  and  the 
business  too  great  and  various  for  joint  action  and  several 
responsibility  to  be  possible.  Wc  must  infer  froiii  Sir  Edward 
Carson's  statement  that,  in  spite  of  constitutional  unity,  there 
is  to  be  a  functional  division.  This  is  perhaps  as  near  the 
establishment  of  two  separate  Boards  as  the  actual  state  of 
naval  administration  permits.  Probably  no  more  drastic 
reorganisation  is  possible  in  war  time.     So  that  the  substance 


of  the  differentiated  control  may  btf  really  achieved.  The 
best  guarantee  of  this  achievement  lies  in  the  personality,  of 
the  new  Controller.  There  is., no  man  in  England  who  has 
been  tried  in  more  diverse  or  more  difficult  tasks,  or  who  ])as 
passed  each  trial  with  more  perfect  and  assured  success.  ,It 
has  been  said  that  the  iwvai  Lords  have  been  constantly 
thwarted  in  the  attainment  of  their  military  objects  by  the 
ill-organised  machine  tluough  which  they  have  had  to  work. 
No  such  difficulty  will  obstruct  the  new  "  honorar)?  aud 
temporary  "  \'ice-Admiral.  The  man  who  knows  precisely 
what  he  wants  done  nm).  how  it  should  be  done,  knows  also 
how  to  remove  obstruction  from  whatever  quarter  it  may 
come. 

The  first  of  the  reforms  demanded  in  these  columns  a,nd 
elsewhere  -  namely,  a  dividing  line  between  the  civil  and  the 
military  at  Whitehall,  is  likely  then  to  be  realised  in  fa^ct. 
And  this  is  great  gain  for  obvious  reasons.  Tlie  Government 
conceded  a  very  high  proportion  of  the  supply  of  raw  material 
and  of  the  resources  of  the  countrj-  in  shipbuilding,  engineer- 
ing and  manufacture  to  the  -Admiralty  from  the  very  first  days 
of  the  war.  This  vast  monopoly  has  never  been  disputed 
by  the  army  or  by  the  Munitions  Department,  for,  in  tjiis 
matter,  no  one  has  ever  questioned  the  prior  claims  of  ,t,he 
navy  in  a  war  in  which  sea  power  should  be  decisive.  But 
it  has  for  a  long  time  been  very  questionable  whether  the 
Admiralty  has  put  this  monopoly  to  good  use.  It  has  inclosed 
been  almost  unquestionable  that  it  has  not  done  so.  Nor 
would  it  have  been  reasonable  to  have  expected  so  great  a 
miracle,  W'c  have  made  enormous  efforts  in  recent  years 
to  turn  some  of  our  ablest  nj^val  officers  into  civilian  admipi- 
strators — and  not  entirely  without  success.  But  no  officer 
so -converted  had  ever  attqnpted  the  task  set  to  Rear-Admiral 
Tudor.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  if  the  rate  of  supplvjof 
small  craft,  mines  and  other  things  necessary  for  fighting 
submarines,  bears  no  relation  to  that  at  which  materiel  is 
furnished  to  the  army  by  the  Munitions  Ministry.  And,  as 
the  efficiency  of  the  anti-submarine  work  depends  very 
largely  'upon  the  numbers  of  units  and  the  abundance  of 
materiel,  the  assurance  that  supply  is  now  in  the  most  efficient 
possible  hands  is  of  immense  military  moment. 

Vice-Admiral  Geddes 

'     Briefly,  then,  the  inclusion  of  Vice-Admiral  Geddes  in  the 
Board  should  have  two  results  of  inestimable  value.     First, 
■we  shall  get  much  needed  materiel  ia.r  more  quickly.  Sccoudl\-, 
in  getting  this  he  will  have  to  speed  up  and  simplify  the 
■.Admiralty  departments  through  which  he  works,  so  that  Ave 
shall  be  left  with  a  far  more  efficient  administrative  machine. 
But,   great   as  is  the   value  of  this   much-desired  materiel 
and  important  as  are  all  administrative  reforms,  the  main 
object  of  the  Admiralty  critics  was  that  the  military  command 
should  be  as  different  as  it  could  possibly  be  from  that  which 
has  held  sway  at  Whitehall  hitherto.     Do  the  present  reforms 
secure  this  ?    There  are  voices,, in  the  press  that  are  extra- 
ordinarily   confident.     The    Daily    Chronicle,    for    instanci;, 
which,  amongst  the    daily    press  has  led  the  criticism,  now 
holds  up  these  changes. as  a  final  and  complete  triumph  of  the 
right.     It  is  not  content  to  say  that  the  naval  administration 
•has  been  .put  on  to  more  scientific  lines.     It  tells  us  that  these 
changes  embody  exactly  the  principle  for  which  it  has  been 
contending — the    establishment    at     the     .Admiralty     of,  a 
'   V  fighting  body,  "  equivalent  to  the  General  Staff  at  the  War 
'  Office.     Now  a  fighting  body  is  undoubtedly  what  we  have,  all 
■Ijeen'  crying  for.     But  the  body  presented  to  us  is,  so  far  as 
■persons. arc  concerned,    exactly    the    same    as    that  which, 
.' since  December  last,  has  been  directing  the  manifold  opera- 
.  ■'tions  of  the  fleet.     The  only  difference  in  its  constitution  is, 
-that   two  officers  who  were  formerly  the   First   Sea   Lord's 
'^  Advisers  only,  now  become  his  colleagues  and,  we  must  suppose. 
II  ijointly  responsible  with  their  chief  for  the  policy  recommended 
•'  toithe  Government.     How  far  does  this  carry  us  towards  the 

DaOy  Chrqnicle's.principlG}  ■  ■■ '■ 

'.  Until  these  changes  were  made,  the  First  Lord  alono  was 
'  the '  responsible  adviser  of  the  Government.  Our  policy, 
tvhatever  it  was,  was  then  his  policy — unless  indeed  he  was 
intent  to  have  it  overborne  by  others,  or  made  nugatory  by 
inefficient  subordinates.  If  it  was  not  enough^  of  afightijag 
policy,  would  it  not  seem  that  its  defects  were  those  of  its 
originator  ?     This    jouinal    and    the    Daily    Chronicle   were 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


-Miiy  17,  i(ji/ 


on  coiuinon  f;tound  in  thinking:  this  policy  defective.  Our 
contemporary  nwv  assumes  that  the  addition  of  Sir  Henry 
Olivei  and  Hear- Admiral  J^uti  as  colleagues,  will  secure 
that  the  joiiit  jwbcy  of  the  three  Admirals  will  be  a  lighting 
one.  I  >ield  to  none  in  ])referring  the  Board  principle  to  the 
staff  principle.  Yet  it  is  a  remarkable  result  to  expect.  All 
will  sincerely  hope  that  the  expectation  may  be  realised.  Hut 
what  a  curious  light  this  throws  on  the  whole  controversy  ! 
And  Hotspur's  question  will  occur  to  many. 

Looking  at  these  changes  as  a  whole,  they  are,  while  much 
less  than  was  asked,  or  even  hoped,  a  marked  step  in  the 
right  direction.  They  are,  to  begin  with,  an  admission  by 
the  Government  that  the  fact  of  naval  failure  is  recognised, 
and  that  that  failure:  is  in  part  to  be  explained  by  a  muddled 
system  of  administration.  But  it  is  significant  that  whereas 
the  critics  asked  for  a  reform  of  .system  primarily  to  secure 
a  more  efficient  military  command,  the  most  drastic  of  the 
reforms  is  diiected  solely  towards  bettering  the  civil  side  of 
the  administration.  There  is  an  obxious  rea.son  for  this. 
It  is  a  matter  in  which  the  Prime  Minister  is  hiinself  an 
expert.  The  man  who  originated  the  Ministry  of  Munitions 
has  a  right  to  be  an  optimist  on  tlie  help  that  the  lavish 
supply  of  material  can  afford  to  a  fighting  force.  And  he 
tjuite  understands  how  tp  secure  that  the  supply  shall  be 
la\'ish.  But  the  right  professional  control  of  the  navy  is  a 
more  recondite  matter.  To  understand  it  requires  tedious 
study  ;  to  select  from  the  Ser\ici!  those  likely  to  ensure  it, 
needs  both  a  comprehension  of  the  jirinciples  in  issue  and  a 
real  knowledge  of  the  qualifications  of,  let  us  say,  the  senior 
two  hundred  officers  on  the  Navy  List.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
no  one  outside  the  navy  combines  these  two  forms  of  know- 
ledge—and  very  icw  within  it.  Let  our  linal  obser\'ations 
on  the  changes  be  this.  They  jjromise  a  higher  degree  of 
success  in  obtaining  a  very  important,  but  withal  the  least 
important,  need  of  the  naxT  to-day.  It  will  need  time 
before  the  second,  and  more  important,  reform  can  be 
sulficientlv  understood  to  be  reahsed 

How  hard  an  affair  it  is  to  understand  and  ajiply  tlie 
principles  of  sea  war  may  be  gathered  from  a  contribution  to 
tjie  recent  correspondence  in  these  columns  and  the  Times. 
Lord  George  Hamilton,  admitting  the  rightness  of  the  principle 
put  forward  by  Sir  Reginald  Custance,  wrote  as  follows  in  a 
I  letter  pubUshed  on  May  8tli  : 

"  Wliy  liave  not  the  very  conijK'teiit  naval  ,oliticers  who  have 
Ix^n  controlling  operations  adopted  tlie  policy  (of  destroying 
the  enemy's  armed  fleet)  during  the  present  war  ?  I  assume 
the  answer  is  incontrovertible — that  ttie  power  of  the  defensive 
in  the  shape  of  submarines,  forts  and  Jong  range  guns,  has  so 
enormously  increased  in  proportion  to  offensi\e  power,  that 
to  attempt  to  force  an  action  upon  a  fleet  so  protected  i^  to 
incur  almost  certain  disaster  for  the  attacking  units." 

Lord  George  then  continues  as  follows  : 

"  The  defensive  in  warfare,  both  on  sea  and  land,  has  of 
recent  years  obtained  a  mastery  over  the  oSensive,  and  the 
old  slap-dash  methods  of  attack  either  on  .sea  or  land,  are 
impracticable  unless  disaster  is  to  be  cultivated." 

He  went  on  to  raise  a  point  with  regard  to  the  submarine 
war  and  with  this  and  the  allegation  that  the  old  methods  of 
war  were  slap-dash,  Admiral  Custance  dealt,  in  what  seems  a 
very  final  minner.  But  the  Admiral  left  the  rest  of  the  two 
statements  that  I  have  quoted  without  comment.  They 
amount  to  tliis  : 

(i)  A  fleet,  protected  by  submarines,  forts  and  long 
range  guns — and  Lord  George  might  have  added  mines — 
cannot  be  attacked  by  another  fleet  without  the  certainty 
of  a  disaster. 

(2)  In  sea  war  generally,  the  defensive  has  obtained  a 
mastery  over  the  offensive. 

These  two  propositions,  his  lordship  takes  to  be  incon- 
trovertible.    Let  us  see  if  this  is  so. 

The  British  Grand  Fleet  certainly  cannot  attack  the 
High  Seas  Fleet  in  harbour  while  protected  by  submarines, 
mines  and  forts.  It  was  not  built  for  this  kind  of  fighting. 
But  a  fleet  proof  against  torpedo  and  mines  and  almost  proof 
against  gunfire,  could  certainly  be  built.  Such  a  fleet  could 
probably  be  brought  close  enough  to  destroy  a  fleet  in  harbour, 
certainly  close  enough  so  to  obstruct  its  exit — wth  mines  and 
other  suitable  devices — as  to  neutralise  the  fleet  for  a  con- 
siderable period.  Many  schemes  for  this  kind  of  attack 
were  worked  out  before  war  began  and,  had  our  policy  been 
determinedly  offensive,  it  could  have  been  prepared  for  and 
made  effective  without  inordinate  loss.  Has  it  ever  been 
even  considered  ? 

Lord  George  Hamilton's  second  proposition  is  far  wifier. 
He  would  have  us  lielieve  that  in  a  sea  battle,  the  <lefensive 
has  recently  obtained  the  mastery.  But  is  not  the  exact 
reverse  of  this  the  truth  ?  Before  the  war,  everyone  seemed 
positive  that  modern  Dreadnought  fleets— so  deadly  was  the 
accuracy  and  so  temfic  the  j)owcr  of  their  guns — would 
destroy  cacli  other  with  grim  rapidity.     It  is  still  pretty 


certain  that  jiu  capital  shiji  of  to-day  could  survive  thirty 
hits  from  its  own  guns  at  any  range.  And,  as  a  hundred  rounds 
can  be  lired  in  less  t]ian,tcn  minutes,  a  moderate  success  in 
hitting  would  justify  the  pre-war  anticipation.  Never  in  the 
history  of  naval  war  has  the  relative  sujieriority  of  the  gun 
o\-er  its  target  been  greater.  The  reason  actions  have  been 
indecisive  or  prolonged  is  not  due  to  the  masterful  defensive 
j>roperties  of^  modern  ships,  but  to  tlie  fact  that  the  re- 
quisite hitting  has  not  taken  place.  Tlie  Gfieiscnau,  for 
instance  was  m  action  from  one  o'ch)ck  till  six,  not  because 
she  could  stand  five  hours'  hammering  by  sixteen  12-inch 
guns,  but  because  it  took  five  hours  for  sixteen  12-inch  guns 
to  make  the  dozen  or  so  hits  that  finally  knocked  her  out. 

The  only  new  thing  in  tlie  way  of  defensive  that  a  modern 
fleet  possesses  in  action  is  an  advantage,  which  may  be  only 
temporary,  in  the  use  of  torpedoes.  It  is  an  advantage 
that  only  accrues  when  it  is  in  retreat.  If  a  torpedo  and  its 
target  are  approaching  from  opposite  directions,  the  effective 
range  must  necessarily  be  nmch  greater  than  when  the 
torpedo  is  pursuing  a  shij)  which  retreats  in  the  same  direction 
as  itself.  A  run-away  fleet,  then,  has  two  long  range  weapons 
while  the'ptu'suing  fleet  has  only  one.  But  if  the  conditions  of 
the  action  are  such — as  when  fleets  are  on  parallel  courses  and 
opposite  each  other — that  the  attacking  fleet  can  close  to 
short  range,  say  six  or  seven  thousand  yards,  then  the  condi- 
tions will  be  the  same  for  both  sides  aJikc  in  the  tise  of  the 
torpedo  and  of  the  gun. 

Tlie  issue  raised  by  those  who  question  our  tactics  at 
Jutland  is  simply  this.  Should  the  menace  held  over  an  attack- 
ing fleet  by  the  torpedoes  of  tjte  weaker  be  faced  if  facing 
the  risk  affords  the  only  chance  of  decisive  victory  ?  Those 
who  say  tliat  the  risk  cannot  be  faced  explain  the  refusal 
to  do  so  by  the  behef  that  a  torpedo  hit  is  necessarily  fatal. 
But  the  facts  do  not  justify  them.  In  1915  two  modem  ships, 
the  tierman  Mol/ke,  and  the  British  Roxburc^h,  were  torjjedocd 
by  submarines.  At  Jutland  eleven  German  and  one  British 
capital  ships  were  hit.  Since  then,  one,  if  not  two,  enemy 
Dreadnoughts,  one  enemy,  and  two  British  cruisers,  and  at 
least  one  of  our  destroyers  have  been  hit  also.  Of  these 
eighteen  or  nineteen  instances,  only'one  German  capital  ship 
and  the  two  small  British  cruisers  were  sunk.  It  is  unlikely 
that  the  Pommtrn  was  destroyed  by  a  single  torpedo,  and, 
in  the  case  of  Falnujulh  and  NoUingluim,  we  know  that  one 
was  struck  by  four  and  thi;  other  by  three  torpedoes  And 
Marlborough,  torj)edoed  quite  early  in  the  Jutland  fight,  kej^t 
her  place  in  the  squadron  and  fired  with  \igour  and  regularity 
afterwards.  There  seems,  then,  to  be  very  little  case  for  saying 
that  the  torpedo  risk  should  be  a  legitimate  deterrent. 

On  the  other  hand,  other  experiences  of  war  show  that 
the  single  shot  from  a  big  gun  may  liring  about  results 
which  few  anticipated.  In  the  Dogger  Bank  affair  Lion 
was  incapacitated  by  a  shell  which  damaged  one  of  her  engines. 
It  is  true  that  she  was  not  lost,  but  the  chances  of  victory  were, 
so  that  this  unhappy  shot  may  be  said  to  have  been  decisive. 
.-Vnd  at  Jutland  there  seems  to  be  every  reason  for  believing 
that  Queen  Mary,  Indefatigable,  and  Invincible  were  none  of 
them  crushed  by  gunfire  and  gradually  reduced  to  impotence 
and  then  destroyed,  but  that  all  simply  fell  to  single  unlycky 
hitsthat  caused  internal  explosions.  .Actually  then  experience 
of  war  teaches  us  that  thirteen  capital  ships  may  be  struck  by 
single  torpedoes  without  one  being  sunk,  while  of  the  coin- 
paratively  smtUl  number  of  battle  cruisers  that  have  been  in 
action,  four  were  destroyed,  or  eliminated  from  the  battle 
by  single  shells.  Would  anyone  on  these  facts  hold  that  a 
fleet  of  battle  cruisers,  twice  as  numerous  as  that  of  tho  enemy 
and  with  anything  from  three  to  four  times  its  gunfire,  must 
as  a  mailer  of  course,  be  kept  outside  the  range  of  the  enemy's 
guns  ?  It  seems  a  wildly  absurd  proposition — though  it  is 
of  course,  true  that  when  the  Dreadnought  type  was  designed 
one  of  the  tactical  advantages  claimed  for  it  was  that  such 
a  ship  would  be  able  to  destroy  its  enemy  while  keeping  out 
of  the  enemy's  range.  But  in  theory  I  can  see  no  way  of 
distinguishing  between  the  shell-  risk  and  the  torpedo  risk. 

How  are  we  to  explain  how  so  accomplished  and  ex- 
jxjrienced  a  student  of  naval  affairs  as  Lord  George  Hamilton 
should  set  up  the  proposition  that  the  mastery  of  the  defensive 
at  sea  is  "  incontrovertible  ?  "  I  suggest  that  he  does  so, 
I)ecause  this  was  the  principle  which,  as  a  simple  matter  of 
fact,  governed  the  command  of  the  British  Fleet  at  Jutland, 
and  it  is  inconceivable  to  Lord  George  that  the  principle  can 
be  erroneous.  .\nd  does  not  this  in  turn  explain  our  con- 
tinued proclivity  to  the  school  that  holds  such  doctrines  ? 
The  predominant  minds  in  this  Cabinet,  just  as  in  its  six 
l)redecefv;ors  back  to  1906,  have  been  accustomed  to  believe 
a  certain  naval  policy,  arising  out  of  certain  principles,  un- 
<luestionably  right.  They  assume,  therefore,  that  what  has 
followed  from  this  poHcy  in  action,  must  be  right  also.  Events 
therefore,  that  appear  to  others — who  hold  different  principles 
— to  be  almost  stupefying  in  their  error,  seem  to  them  just 
natural  and  incvitabh'!  Aktiiur  I'olle.s. 


May  1/  ,   1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


Land  and  Water  and  the  Admiralty 

Genesis  of  the  Changes  at  Whitehall 


THE     INDICTMENT 

Land  &  Watek,  April  icjtli. 

■'  The  Chiefs  of  the  greatest  navy  in  the  wurld  have  simply 
failed  in  so  crucial,  yet  elementary,  a  duty  as  protecting  the 
sea  borne  commerce  of  a  sea-girt  people." 

Land  &  Water, — Feb.  8th,  191 7   (page  7.) 

"  In  August  1014  people  asked  how  Germany's  invincible 
land  army  could  he  balanced  by  Great  Britain's  invincible 
sea  fleet.  It  is  ])art  of  the  topsyturvydom  in  which  we 
li  ve  that  the  greatest  land  force  and  the  greatest  sea  force 
in  the  world  have  achieved  everything  expected  of  them— 
except  victory.  The  failure  to  achieve  victory  has  given  time 
to  each  side.  Time,  in  which  we  have  been  able  to  produce 
a  new  kind  of  army  that  Germany  will  not  be  able  to  resist, 
time  for  Germany  to  produce  a  new  kind  of  navy  which  we  do 
not  seem  yet  able  to  light." 

Land  &  Water, — Feb.  15th,  1917. 

"  The  Admiralty's  two  immediate  functions  have  during 
the  last  two  months  been  made  the  care  of  an  organisation 
very  greatly  extended  from  that  formerly  charged  with  it, 
and  the'  direct  head  of  this  organisation  is  the  First  Sea  Lord 
himself.  The  two  main  aspects  of  the  submarine  campaign 
then  are,  and  for  two  months  have  been,  directly  imder  Sir 
John  Jellicoe.  He  has,  to  carry  out  the  policy  resolved  on, 
an  oiganisation  of  captains  and  commanders  directed  by  a 
n.'ar-admiral." 

Land  &  Water,  -Feb.  22nd   (page  12.) 

"  The  chief  vice  of  the  Fisher  system  was  this.  The  First 
Sea  Lord  was  to  be  an  autocrat.  He  was  surrounded  by 
advisers.  Controller.  Director  of  Naval  Ordnance,  etc.  ; 
each  of  whom  was  an  autocrat  too,  so  long,  of  course,  as  he 
did  not  interfere  with  the  major  autocracy  of  his  chief.  The 
elfect  of  this  was  to  create  a  special  caste  quite  distinct 
and,  with  one  or  two  notable  exceptions,  (juite  foreign  to  the 
naval  service.  It  could  only  continue  by  the  suppression 
of  all  independent  thinking  in  the  Navy." 

THE  REASONS  FOR  FAILURE 

(1)   The  Personnel  of  the  Higher   Command 

"  Mr.  Balfour  has  hitherto  thought  it  premature  to  change 
(his  advisers),  probably  for  the  reason  that  the  course  of 
the  war  has  not  indicated  with  sufficient  clearness  those 
who  are  marked  out  to  succeed  them.  This  vagueness 
as  to  the  fitness  of  men  is  part  of  the  penalty  we  pay  for 
the  fact  that,  in  the  ten  years  preceding  the  war,  naval 
administration  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  one  school  of 
naval  thought  which  had  held  the  study  of  the  principles 
of  naval  war — as  exhibited  by  history  and  analysis — in 
absolute  contempt.  This  predominance  had  the  result  that 
almost  all  officers  who  had  less  faith  in  mere  material  than 
in  military  principle,  who  beUeved  that  war  could  be  trained 
for  by  scientific  methods,  were  ostracised  both  from  high 
'  commands  and  from  posts  of  administrative  responsibility. 
What  may  be  called  the  historical  and  technical  schools  of 
thought,  therefore,  never  had  a  chance  of  achieving  that 
welding  of  past  experience  with  modem  weapons  on  the 
achievement  of  which,  as  everyone  can  now  see,  the  suc- 
:essful  use  of  new  material  can  alone  be  based.  It  was  the 
proscription  of  these  officers  that  really  explains  the  anar- 
:hy  of  thought  that  prevailed  at  Whitehall  in  the  closing 
years  of  peace,  and  it  is  no  wonder  if  it  is  a  difficult  thing 
now  to  pick  out  the  men  who  best  combine  personal  ability 
with  the  grip  of  the  right  principles  on  which  their  energies 
should  be  employed,  Mr.  Balfour,  having  once  found  that  the 
situation  had  not  been  met  by  the  blind  acceptance  of  the 
advisers  he  inherited,  may  now  find  that  it  may  not  be  his 
first  or  even  his  second  cJwice  of  advisers  that  will  meet  the 
case.  But  the  past  at  least  has  this  lesson,  that,  could  a  new 
occasion  for  revising  appointments  arise,  it  may  be  acted 
on  with  great  alacrity." — Land  &  Water,  Nov.  30th,  igi6. 

(2)  The  System 

"  The  function  of  the  Admiralty  is  to  produce  and  command 
a  purely  military  force,  the  fleet.  The  production  and  admin- 
istration of  this  force  constitute,  no  doubt,  a  colossal  task, 
but  nine-tenths  of  it  is  purely  civilian  in  its  character  .  .  . 
I  believe  that  the  real  reason  why  the  Admiralty  has  broken 
down  in  this  war,  is,  first,  that  we  have  jumblcr'  all  the  fur.-  - 


tions,  civihan  and  military,  together,  and  sliu\ed  them  on  to 
a  single  Board. 

"  It  remains  to  j)oint  the  moral  of  this  experience.  If  we 
wish  our  sea  forces  put  to  their  proper  use,  it  is  an  indispensable 
first  step  to  arrange  that  the  chief  command  shall  be  organised 
on  scientific  principles.  This  is  impossible  without  recognis- 
ing two  axioms.  First,  we  must  distinguish  absolutely 
between  the  authority  responsible  for  the  military  handling 
of  the  navy,  and  the  alithority  responsible  for  its  material 
supply.  Unless  this  is  done  it  is  hopeless  to  think  that  the 
fighting  instinct  of  the  navy  can  be  given  its  full  expression 
or  scope.  Next,  in  arranging  for  its  military  direction,  we 
must  recognise  what  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  discovered, 
to  wit,  that  the  employment  of  sea  force  is  surrounded  by 
so  many  and  such  subtle  problems  that  the  supreme  con- 
trol .cannot  be  entrusted  to  a  single  individual,  but  must  be 
carried  on  by  a  Board,  the  chief  professional  member  of  which 
though  the  chief,  is  only  primus  inter  pares. 

"  The  application  of  these  principles  to  present  circum- 
stances would  necessitate  the  partition  of  the  work  of  the 
Admiralty  between  two  bodies — one  a  Board  of  Admiralty, 
the  other  a  Board  of  Supply."—"  Flag  Officer  "  in  Land  '&. 
Water,  April  26th. 

(3)  The  Voice  of  Authority 

"  The  chief  department  of  any  figliting  oiganisjition  sliould 
surely  be  that  which  designs  and  directs  the  fighting.  What  I 
understand  "  Flag  Officer  "  to  desire  is  that  the  duties  of  military 
design  and  direction,  with  all  that  properly  belongs  to  them, 
should  be  grouped  into  one  department,  at  the  head  of  which 
should  be  placed  an  Admiral  selected  fur  his  capacity  as  a 
iisar'  commander  or  director.  That  arrangement  wottkl  leave 
the  supply  of  the  navy,'  with  its  materiel,  to  the  Third  Sea 
Lord,  or  Controller,  the  manning  and  discipline  to  the 
Second  Sea  Lord,  and  the  supplies  and  transport  to  the  Fourth, 
while  it  would  provide  the  Government  with  a  qualified 
adviser  in  regard  to  the  strategical  distribution  of  the  Navy 
in  the  person  of  the  First  Sea  Lord     ... 

"  What  'Flag  Officer  '  now  asks  the  members  of  the  Cabinet 
to  do  is  to  fill  up  a  gap  in  the  organisation  by  appointing  a 
special  officer  to  take  charge,  under  their  own  authority,  of 
the  conduct  of  the  naval  war.  The  moment  they  decide  to  do 
that  they  will  see  the  advisability  of  selecting  for  the  task 
some  officer  who  has  taken  the  only  means  of  acquiring 
mastery  of  that  particular  business — has  devoted  his  life  to 
nothing  else." — Professor  Spenser  Wilkinson  in  the  Times 
on  May  4th. 

"  Out  of  twelve  and  a  half  years  immediately  preceding 
the  war.  Sir  John  Jellicoe  spent  nearly  eight  at  the  Admiralty 
and  more  than  six  in  taking  care  of  materiel,  which  is  cer- 
tainly not  the  best  training  either  for  a  Commander-in-Chief 
or  for  a  First  Sea  Lord  in  war  time,  when  our  first  considera- 
tion is  not  so  much  the  preservation  of  our  own  materiel 
as  the  destruction  of  the  enemy's  at  a  legitimate  cost." — • 
Truth,  May  2nd. 

"  The  Prime  Minister,  in  his  recent  speech  at  the  Guildhall 
is  reported  to  have  said  that  one  way  to  deal  with  the  sub- 
marine was  to  destroy  it  or  to  render  it  innocuous.  He  added 
that  '  the  best  brains  available  in  this  country  and  America, 
and  to  a  more  limited  extent,  in  France,  are  applying  their  en- 
ergies to  that  problem.'  This  seems  to  meah  that  rehance  is 
placed  on  some  mechanical  invention  to  soh'e  the  present 
difficulties.  May  I  be  permitted  to  point  out  that,  while  it  is 
most  necessary  to  make  the  utmost  use  oi  all  mechanical 
ability  in  the  Allied  countries,  no  mechanical  invention  will 
be  of  any  avail  if  the  military  policy  is  unsound  ?  The  problem 
is  essentially  mihtary,  and  not  mechanical.  Its  .solution 
depends  upon  the  correct  military  use  of  the  naval  armed 
force.  Is  the  Prime  Minister  quite  sure  that  the  great  naval 
preponderance  of  the  Allies  has  been,  and  is  being  used  to 
the  best  advantage  ?  " — Admiral  Sir  Reginald  Custance  in  the 
Times  of  May  4th. 

"  The  cause  of  the  tactical  failure  to  take  aclvantage  of 
the  opportuinties  to  destroy  the  German  armed  ships  was  ex- 
plained by  Admiral  Sir  John  JelUcoe  in  his  speech  at  the 
iMshmongers  Hall  on  January  nth,  1917.  He  is  reported  to 
have  said  that  '  the  torpedo,  as  fired  from  surface  vessels,  is 
effective  certainly  upt6  10,000  yards'  range,  and  this  requires 
that  a  ship  shall  keep  beyond  that  distance  to  fight  her  guns.' 
This  is  the  logical  result  of  the  doctrine  that  the  destruction 
of  the  enemy's  armed  ships  is  only  of  secondary  importance. 
.V  superior  fleet,  however  favourable  may  be  the  opportunity. 


12 


LANU  .  &    WATER 


.M,ay  17,  ..19^7 


is  not  to  close  to  decisive  huh  ranges  because  some  of  the; 
ships  may  bo  hit  by  torpedoe**.    '  Of  wJiaf'  jisc  is'  a  greatly  ; 
superior  fleet  if  no  part  ol  it  is  to  be  risked  when  the  decisive  ^ 
moment  arrives  ? 

"  On  these  salient  facts,  /'s  Ihcrc  not  reasonahre"  ground- 
to  believe  Hint  the  directing  naval  minds  during  recent  years 
have  not  been  imbued  laith  true  conceptions  of  war,  and  that 
our  present  dilliculties  are  tmceable  to  that'  cause  ?  Is  it 
likely  that  any  chan)-;es  in  the  mechanism  of  the  administration 
uill  be  of  any  avail  so  loni;  as  the  controlling  minds  believe 
that,  even  under  circumstances  fa\()ural)le  to  victory,  the 
safety  of  our  ships  is  mure  important  than  the  destruction  of 
the  f/KTwy.-'"  Admiral  Sir  Reginald  Custance  in  the 
Times  on  May  7th. 

THE     PRESS 

"  Wliijf  not  necessarily  agreeing  with  all  his  \ui«>,  wc  have 
long  been  nmch  impressed  with  Mr.  I'oUens  argument  lor  the 
reorganisation  of  the  Admiralty  anil  the  formation  of  a  proper 
General  Staff  there,  and  we  notice  an  endorsement  of  it  by  a 
■  Flag  OHicer  '  in  this  week's  l.ASD  &  Water  which  inerits 
special  attention  in  the  circmnstances." — Nciv  Statesman, 
April  -'isth.  .      ' 

■•  It  is  conceivable  that  rio  other  administrative  order 
than  that  wliich  at  present  rules  within  the  Admiralty  would 
liave  succeeded  ;  but  the  present  order  has  failed.  A  writer 
in  Land  &  Water,  apparently  exceedingly  well  infornicd, 
suggests  that  there  is  room  for  a  far  more  scientific  division 
of  functions  among  the  Sea  Lords  and  the  civilian  members 
than  is  at  present  practised." — Daily  Naas  leading  article, 
JVpril  27th 

"  The  bare  statement  of  these  facts  is  enough  to  prove  that 
the  constitution  of  the  War  Staff  Ciroup  is  essentially  defective. 
It  is  saturated  with  oHice  routine  and  book-knowledge,  but 
it  knows  relatively  nothing  by  experience  of  the  actual  condi- 
tions of  modern  warfare,  and  although  the  First  Sea  Lord  is 
an  exception,  his  only  action,  and  his  own  subsequent  com- 
ments upon  it  prove  that  it  tiiay  not  be  advisable  to  have  at  the 
supreme  head  of  a  fighting  service  an  officer  who,  through 
past  experience,  is  necessarlfy  imbued  above  all  things  with 
the  supreme  care  of  materiel  born  of  years  of  work  as  an  officer 
of  supply — work  which  in  itself  militates  against  tlie  study 
of  war  and  a  realisation  and  acceptance  of  the  risks  that  must 
be  run  if  victory  is  to  be  achieved." — Truth,  May  2nd. 

"  We  venture  to  say  that  this  action  (the  suppression  of  Mr. 
Pollen's  article  by  the  Censor)  will  excite  the  most  profound 
dissatisfaction  in  every  tlmuglitful  mind.  Mr.  Pollen  is  beyond 
all  ciuestion  the  best  and  the  ablest  writer  on  naval  matters 
not  only  in  this  country-but^in  all  the  Allied  coimtries.  His 
reputation  is  hardly  second  to  that  of  the  late  Admiral  Mahan. 
Throughout  the  war  he  has  consistently  expounded  the  views 
of  the  Senior  Service.  He  has  in  our  view  gone  too  far  in  his 
fidelity  to  the  official  hierarchy,  and  in  his  effort  to  represent 
everything  that  has  been  done  or  left  undone  in  the  most 
favourable  light."— S/ar  leading  article.  May  3rd. 

W  hy  may  not  Mr.  Pollen  say,  with  or  without  variations, 
what  "so  many  of  us  have  already  said  ?  The  only  answer 
that  I  can  see  to  that  question  is  that  he  went  a  good  deal 
beyond  everybody  else  in  dotting  his  i's  and  crossing  his  t's. 
Not  content  to  confine  himself  to  abstract  principles  of 
administration,  he  pointed  out  that  various  episodes  in  the 
present  war,  which  the  public  has  been  taught  to  regard  as 
glorious  victories,  have  really  e.xemplified  the  vicious  results 
of  the  system  wliich  he  condemns.  He  impeached  a  "  school  " 
which  has  grown  up  at  Whitehall  under  the  present  system  ; 
he  did  not  except  the  First  Sea  Lord  from  his  criticism  ;  and 
he  insisted  that  we  must  not  only  reform  the  constitution  of 
the  Admiralty,  but  sweep  away  a  "  dynasty  "  in  the  Russian 
manner.  Now  all  this  may  sound  like  sedition  in  the  ears  of  the 
mandarins  ;  but  it  is  rather  a  large  order  that  they  should 
take  upon  themselves  to  decree  that  nothing  of  this  nature 
may  be  uttered  in  war  time. — Scrutator  in  Truth  May.g^th. 

DEBATE  IN  PARLIAMENT— May  ^ti 

Mr.  G.  Lambert  :  It  seems  to  me  that  the  Admi^a^'t^y'arc 
showing  too  great  a  sensitiveness  to  criticism.  They  supp'rt'ilsed , 
or  the  Censor  suppressed,  an  article  in  Land  &  VVater^  think 
it  was  in  last  week's  issue.  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  r&adrng 
that  article,  and  although  I  disagree  with  Mr.  Pollen,  ^%o 
wrote  it,  there  is  not  one  single  word  in  that  article  wlu^  is 
not  inspired  by  the  most  patriotic  sentiments.  It  ,is  Said 
that  to  publish  this  article  would  give  encouragement  ^to  our 
enemies.  I  hardly  agree,  but  1  do  say  that  it  exposes  the 
Admiralty  to  the  charge  of  trying  to  suppress  criticisni  of 
their  owii  action  when  they  censor  an  article  like  Mr.  Pollen's, 
which  was  inspired  only  with  a  desire  to  spur  the  Admiralty 
on  to  greater  exertions. 


Mr.  Hoiston,:  It  would  lie  tlic  irony  of  fate  if  we,  the 
greatest 'iuiyab  and-' maritime  Power  in  the  world,  should  be 
winning  tlie  war  on  lancl'aiid  be* checkmated  on  the  sea, 
and  by  reason  of  one  branch  of  naval  architecture  of  which 
the  irountry  had  warning. 

Mr.  Houston  :  The  submarine  \wi\\  ought  to  have  been 
seen,  and  was  seen.  W  liy,  then,  was  it  not  dealt  with  ? 
liecause  the  .\dmiralty  was  in  a  state  of  somnolence  or  sleeping 
sickness  for  a  considerable  period.  I  know  a  good  deal  wliich 
1  dare  not  say,  but  I  would  like  to  know  many  things  iu 
connection  with  the  A<hniralty  that  were  in  existence  there 
when  the  |)resenl  I'iist  Lord  went  there. 

CoM.MANDiR  Kki.i.airs  :  1  Would  venture  to  say  tp  the 
ni)resentatives  of  the  Adniiralt\'  that  they  must  not  Jlie  too 
intolerant  towards  critics.  After  all,  Mr.  Pollen  is  a  very 
responsible  critic,  aiul  he  is,  in  my  judgment,  one  of  the  best 
informed  critics,  if  not  the  best  informed  critic,  in,  the  public 
Press  to-Uay.  Now  that  naval  officers  themselves  are-  prc- 
.\ented  from  criticising,  and  prevented  from  discussing  things 
in  public,  we  caiuiot  too  much  encourage'  critics  of  the  calibre 
of  Mr.  Pollen. 

Mr.  Princ.le  :  An  article  was  writen  by  Mr.  Pollen,  a  very 
distinguished  naval  expert,  who,  1  think,  has  written  oif 
naval  affairs  every  week  continutmsly  from  the  beginning  of 
tlie  war.  He  has  contributed  to  many  publications,  and  I 
think  he  lias  established  with  the  publiv,  generally,  a  reputa- 
tion for  sobriety  and  soundness  of  criticism  to  which  few 
military  or  naval  experts  can  lay  claim.  W'cll,  one  of  his 
usual  articles  was  sent  to  Land  6i  Wati;r  last  week,  and  the 
right  to  publish  it  was  refused  by  the  .\dmiralty.  We  do  not 
know  the  precise  grounds  ;  wc  know  that  this  was  an  article 
criticising  the  Admiralty  administration.  We  know  that 
criticism  was  ex.pressed  in  very  strong  terms.  I  think  the 
article  stated — 1  have  not  seen  the  article,  but  I  am  so  told-— 
that  the  situation  in  regard  to  the  Admiiralty  had  become  so 
serious,  that  it  was  now  a  question  whether  the  army  would 
be  able  to  win  the  war  before  the  navy  lost  it.  That  has 
been  said  in  other  periodicals.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  justi- 
fication for  such  a  statement.  Undoubtedly  the  inaction 
and  negligence  of-  those  at  present  responsible  for  the 
Admiralty  was  subjected  to  very  .seve^fe  criticism.  What  is 
the  .situation  ?  This  article  was  submitted  precisely. td  the 
people  who  were,  criticised.  They  naturally  decided  that  the 
criticism  was  unjustifiable,  that  it  might  cause  alarm  and 
disquiet  in  the.  country  and  possibly  that  it  would  give 
information  to  our  enemies.  Apparently  these  were  the 
grounds  on  which  publication  was  refused. 

We  require  stjme  more  detailed  defence  than  has  yet  been 
given.  The  country  is  not  at  all  satisfied  with  regard  to  the 
record  of  the  Admiralty  in  respect  to  publicity  in  the  past. 

Dr.  M.uwamara  :  I  deny  any  suggestion  that  we  use  the 
censorship  because  we  do  not  want  to  be  criticised. 

Mr.  Holt  :    Do  I  understand  that  the  Admiralty  would 
object  to  an  article  which  does  not  show  that  an  officer  holding 
-a  high  naval  command  is  professionally  incompetent  ? 

Dr.  M.\cnamara  :  The  only  objection  we  should  take  to 
criticism  wou.ld 'be  based  on  a  sense  of  public  duty.  I  noticed 
fliat  that  observation  was  a  source  of  considerable  merriment 
to  my  hon.  Friend. 

Mr.  Holt  :    Yes. 

Dr.  M.\cnam.ar,\  :  Well,  leave  it  at  that!  This  particular 
article  was  not  in  any  way  one  the  purpose  of  which  was  not 
to  attack  the  civil  authorities.  The  chief  Censor  came  to  the 
conclusion  deliberately  that  its  publication  would  be  calcu- 
lated to  prejudice  discipline,  and  the  First  Lord  fully  and 
completely  concurred,  and  gave  his  view — which  I  have  already 
stated  to  the  House — considering  that  it  would  certainly  be 
not  less  calculated  to  encourage  the  enemy.  That  its  author, 
like  all  of  us,  was  patriotically  minded,  I  have  no  doubt. 
That  the  last  thing  he  desired  to  do  was  to  encourage  the 
enemy,  I  have  no  doubt. 

THE     SEQUEL 

On  Monday,  May  14th,  it  was  announced  that  Sir  John  ■ 
Jcllicoe,  First  Sea  Lord,  was  to  have  the  additional  title  of 
Chief  of  the  Naval  Staff,  that  Vice- Admiral  Sir  Henry  Oliver 
was  to  join  the  Board  of  Admiralty  as  Deputy  Chief,  and 
Rear-Admiral  Alexander  Duff  as  Assistant  Chief  of  the  Naval 
Staff.  Major-General  Sir  Eric  Geddes  was  to  become  a  'Vice- 
.\dmiral  and  Controller  of  the  Navy  ;  Rear-Admiral  Halsey, 
Third  Sea  Lord  and  Rear-Admiral  Hugh  Tothill,  Fourth  Sea 
Lord.  The  object  of  these  changes  was  twofold.  The  first 
is  to  free  the  b'irst  Sea  Lord  and  heads  of  the  naval  Staff 
"  as  far  as  possible  for  administrative  work  "  so  that  they 
may  concentrate  their  attention  on  the  naval  conduct  of  the 
war.  The  second  object  is  to  prd^^idc  a  naval  parallel  to  the 
Ministry  of  Munition^.  Tlie  significance  of  these  changes  is 
commented  on  bv  Mr.  Pollen  in  his  article  to-dav- 


May  17,  1017 


LATSID    &    WATER 


13 


How  Much  Should  We  Eat? 


By  H.  Onslow 


The  wriler  (ij  nii\vaUta}>lc  article  :on  food  valuer  ix  on  the 
staff  of  the  Cambridge  Bio-Chemical  Laboratory,  under 
Projesxhr  Hopkins 

T\\\l  shortaf;c  of  home-grown  food  and  the  activities 
of  ('-boats  in  sinking  our  imports  have  made  the 
question  of  food  a  subject  of  the  greatest  interest 
in  the  eyes  of  the  public.  The  alarming  increase 
in  the  number  of  ships  attacked  and  sunk  may  render  the 
solution  of  the  problem  the  decisive  factor  in  winning  the  war, 
and  it' has  already' made  a  system  of  compulsory  rationing 
imminent.  In  spite  of  this  there  still  exists  an  e.xtraordinary 
degree  of  ignorance  in  the  minds  of  even  educated  people. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  the  following  paragraphs  to  enurnerate 
as  briefly  as  possible  the  food  requirements  of  the  human 
body,  as  well*  as  some  of  the  factors  which  determine  the 
amount  of  food  necessary  to  maintain  the  healtli  of  different 
people  under  varying  circumstances. 

Special  Uses  of  Food 

Food  is  used  by  the  body  for  threes  main  purposes.  ^ifBt, 
to  maintain  the  heat  of  the  body,  and  to  provide  the  eiiergy 
for  muscular  movement ;  secondly,  to  supply  material  for 
the  normal  waste  of  tissue  as  well  as  for  the  growth  of  new 
tissues  ;  and,  thirdly,  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  body 
for  a' series  of  substances  whose  function  may  be  said  to 
resemble  the  lubricant  of  a  machine'. 

•  Heat  and  energy  as  is  well  known  are  mutually  con- 
vertible. The  principal  energy  producers  of  the  body  are 
•represented  by  two  classes  of  foodstuffs.  These  are  the 
starchy  foods  and  the  sugars,  known' collectively  as  carbo- 
hydrates ;  and,  secondly,  the  fats  or  oils.  Sugar  and  starch 
are  for  the  purpose  hi  the  body  similar,  because  starch  is 
rapidly  converted  into  sugar  by  ferments  in  the  saliva  and 
elsewhere,  and  is  thus  absorbed  by  the  blood.  The  chief 
sources  .of  carbohydrate  are  bread,  potatoes,  and  sugar. 
Much  sugar  is  derived  from  sweets  and  the  large  proportion 
of  milk-sugar  present  in  milk  is  a  very  important  factor  in  the 
food  of  infants.  Large  quantities  of  carbohydrate  are  neces- 
sary to  supply  muscular  energy,  so  that  bread  and  potatoes 
become  a  most  essetitial  constituent  in  the  diet  of  labourers 
arid  soldiers. 

The  chief  sources  of  fat  are  milk  and  milk  products,  fat 

•  meat,  nuts  and  vegetable  oils  so  largely  found  in  margarine. 
They  serve  much  the  same  purpose  as  carbohydrates,  but  are 
digested  more  slowly  and  absorbed  less  easily.  This  accounts 
for  the  fact  that  "  rich  "  dishes  are  more  indigestible  than 
lean  meat  and  tend  to  remain  longer  in  the  stomach.  The 
rhost  important  use  of  fat,  however,  is  to  supply  heat,  and  for 
this  purpose  it  is  more  than  twice  as  effective  as  su'gar. 
Fats  also  can  be  stored  by  the  body  in  the  form  of  adipose 
tissue,  thereby  serving  the  purpose  of  a  reserve  material  in 
periods  of  privation,  a  protective  coat  for  many  organs  as 
well  as  a  non-conducting  layer  to  maintain  warmth,  a  function 
which  reaches  its  extreme  development  in  the  blubber  deposits 
of  the  Eskimo  and  arctic  animals. 

The  class  of  food  substances  known  as  proteins  differs  greatly 
from  those  already  described.  Proteins  are  chiefly  derived  from 
lean  meat,  milk  and  cheese,  as  well  as  oatmeal,  flour,  and  a 
number  of  leguminous  vegetables  such  as  beans  and  lentils. 
Though  we  are  accustomed  to  derive  most  of  our  protein 
from  meat,  that  from  vegetables  is  equally  good  and  should, 
of  course,  be  largely  drawn  upon  at  the  present  time.  Protein 
can  serve  a"?  a  source  of  heat  and  work  just  as  carbo-hydrates, 
but  it  has  certain  specific  uses  ;  such  as  to  provide  material 
to  replace  the  normal  >VJiste  of  tissue'.  In  the  case  of  adults 
this  is  an  insignificant  quantity,  but  with  children  and  con- 
valescents it  is  of  f^r  greater  importance,  because  additional 
material  is  needed  to  build  tissue  and  to  make  good  the 
ravages  of  disease.  .An  equally  important  function  is  the 
supply  of  the  "  lubricants  ".  of  the  body  already  mentioned, 
which,  though  not  actually  proteins  themselves,  are  derived 
from  protein.  These  ser\'e  many  .  purposes,  all  of  them 
essential  to  life,  such  as  the  digestion  of  food,  which  is 
accomplished  by  a  series  of  ferments.  They  include  secretions 
of  certain  glands,  which  initiate  and  regulate  growth,  control 
the  development  of  the  voice,  beard  antl  other  sexjial 
characteristics,  and  generally  regulate  and  co-ordinate  the 
diverse  organs  of  the  t)ody.    '     . , 

•  Finally,  protein  has  the  effect  of  stimulating  the  body  to 
deal  more  vigorously  and  effec-tively  with  the  other  food 
present.  It  may  be  said  to  cause  the  fire  to  burn  more 
briehtly  and  can  be  compared  to  the  effect  of  air  in  a  draught 


furnace.  This  specific  action  is  of  extreme  importance  to 
soldiers  or  athletes  wlio  may  be  suddenlv  called  upon  to 
perform  great  feats  of  endurance,  and  who  require  large 
amounts  of  energy  always  available  in  case  of  emergency. 

The  process  by  which  protein  is  transferred  from  the  stomach, 
whtTo  It  exists  as  food,  and  is  absorbed  by  tlie  blood,  to  be 
eventually  incorporated  in  the  tissues  themselves,  is  one  of 
extreme  interest.  WTien  protein  is  acted  upon  by  digestive 
]ui((^  it  is  broken  down  into  a  series  of  simple  crystalline 
nitngonons  substances  called  amino-acids.  These  bodies  are 
■  absd-bed  from  the  intestine  as  fast  as  they  are  made,  and 
arc  It  once  carried  away  by  the  blood  stream  from  which 
theyare  picked  up  by  the  various  tissues  in  the  exact  pro- 
poitnns  required.  So  rapid  is  the  transference  that  it  was 
only  recently,  by  means  of  an  improvement  in  chemical 
methds  devised  by  an  American,  the  increase  in  amino  acids 

•  -rl^  atually  been  detected  in  the  blood  after  a  full  meal. 
Ihis  k-eak  down  of  the  proteins  into  simple  chemical  bodies 
has  hn\  illustrated  by  an  ingenious  analogy.  Suppose  for  a 
momet  that  the  word  albumin  were  broken  up  by  digestion 
'  u*'*  ^'^J«'tters  a,  b,  i,  1,  m,  n,  u,  then  if  these  letters  were 
absortxl  they  could  be  reconstructed  into  "  albumin  '  again. 
In  thisvay,  albumm  for  instance,  is  broken  d(nvn  in  the  blood 
to  discinected  letters  (amino  acid.s)  so  that  the  albumin  in 
the  tisses  can  select  the  appropriate  letters,  arranging  them 
so  as  tGpell  "  albumin."  All  proteins  are,  in  fact,  reduced 
to  a  cmmon  currency,  and  every  protein  in  the  body 
IS  capale  of  making  itsowTi  specific  rearrangement  from 
the  conion  stock  of  amino-acids,  so  that  it  matters  not 
one  whit^hat  proteins  are  ingested,  provided  all  necessary 
amino-ads  are  present  in  sufficient  quantities.  Some 
proteins,  however,  lack  ,  certain  amino-acids  altogether 
and  in  a.protems  they  are  present  in  widely  differing  pro- 
portions. It  IS  obvious,  therefore,  that  if  the  diet  lacks  one 
or  more  cthe  essential  amino-acids,  as  when  gelatin  alone  is 
consumed)ris  deficient,  as  when  some  plant  proteins  are  used 
the  body  mnot  possibly  grow.  A  mixed  diet  is  an  obvious 
necessity  all  the  diverse  proteins  of  the  body  are  to  obtain 
their  vane;  constituents  in  the  adequate  amounts. 

Amounbf  Food  Required 

Since  f0(  is  needed  to  enable  the  body  to  do  work  as  well 
as  to  mauiin  its  normaL  tempei^ture.'it  is  clear  that  the 
amount  ne^sary  will  be  more  for  men  doing  hea\'v  muscular 
work  than  r  professional  men  doing  intellectual  work  which 
requires  noechanical  energy.  Similariv,  a  man  expo.sed  to 
great  cold  suffering  from  a  fever  requires  more  food  to 
supply  the.tra  heat  radiated.  It  is  trae  that  in  a  cold 
chmate  the-at  given  off  may  be  partly  adjusted  by  regula- 
ting the -clung,  but  it  is  a  common  experience  of  arctic 
ex-plorers  01  to  be  warm  at  night  after  a  full  meal 

There  mabe  some  difficulty  in  understanding  how  the 
body  can  dee  heat  from  snibstances  like  bread  and  meat. 
1  hey  are  as  natter  of  fact  burnt  by  the  body  just  as  coal  is 
burnt   m  tkfumace.     The   body   burns  or  oxidises  food 
with  the  aid  axygen  from  the  lungs  and  the  end  products 
m  both  casdre  identical,  nameiv  carbon  dioxide   (CO.) 
which  IS  expd  by  the  lungs,  and"  water  which  is  excretccl 
by  the  skin  ngs  and  kidneys.     Further,  the  actual  heat 
geiierated  bygfam  of  sugar  when  completely  burnt  in  the 
body  IS  the  se  as  if  it  were  burnt  to  the  same  degree  in  a 
closed  vessel,  his  amount  can  be  determined  in  a  laborator\' 
and  from  thista  the  heat-value  of  any  food  sample  can  be 
easily  deducechc  heat.is  measured  in  calories,  a  caloric  bein" 
^he  amount  o;at  required  to  raise  one  litre  of  water  one 
t^egree  Centigr.     Experiment  shows  that  • 
I  gram  of  sugai-es  40  cals.        i  gram  of  .starch  gives  4- 1  cals. 
Hit*"      .■■?"    ■     93    ..  1     ,.       ..protein,,     4-1 

'Now  if  the    of  the  con.servation  of  energy  is  to  hold 

.gOAd  in  the  bo  the  total  energy'  of  the  food  must  exactly 

1  fft^?M^c  ^um  c  c  work  done  and  the  heat  given  out.     This 

,,^^  repeatedly  1,  proNed  true  by  placing  men  in  a  chamber 

..a,^;^'!'-!'  ti°  Eradiated  can  be  macPe  to  raise  the  tern- 

„;pera;tur9,  of  a  «„  volume  of  water.     Eavoisier  first  made 

tjif^, experiment  ,lacing  a  guinea-i>ig  within  a  hollow  block 

,  nl  i^e..   Alter  a  I  be  was  able  to  measure  the  water  melted 

.„\)y  the  heat  of  tViimal. 

•  :  Tl^ 'practical  .tion  that  arises  is  the  number  of  calories' 
required  under  .rent  conditions,  fhe  amount  of  'heat 
radui  ed,  etc  an,o  work  of  the  heart  and  lungs  is  shown 
in  lable  I  Ihis-ther  with  the  cnergN-  required  for  bodily 
movement  in  a  .ntary  occupation  amounts  to  2700 
calones.     With  a.onal  work  more   calories  arc  required 


14 


LAND    &    WATliK 


M 


I  V 


'7. 


iyi; 


(Table  II.).  The  navvy,  for  instciiioe  needs  5,200  raloiies.  Tliise 
ligna^s  arc-  lor  a  .man  wci{,'liing  11  stone,  but  sox,  age.  state, 
of  liealtli  and  climate  are  all  sinnilicant.  Babies,  for  instance 
requin;  relati\cly  much  more  i)rotein  to  supply  growth,  aiitl 
more  licat-(<iving  food,  because  being  small  their  skin  surface 
^s  relatively  larger  and  therefore  radiates  more  heat.  A 
^lewbom  baby  nquires  100  calories  for  every  kilo*,  and  in 
later  life  70  calories  (see  Table  III).  A  woman  usually  <ats 
about  08  of  a  man  8  ration,  and  in  old  age  the  heat  iei\uir<  1 
may  be  reduced  by  20  to  25  jier  cent.  Individual  peculiantu  s 
may  not  be  verj'  significant,  but  differences  of  build  are  nhist 
important.  The  short  squat  man  has  a  much  smaller  icin 
surface  than  the  tall  spare  man.  The  additional  heat  radiated 
accounts  perhaps  for  the  fact  that  tall  thin  people  often  ton- 
sume  more  food  than  others  without  getting  any  fatter 

Some  correction,  about  13  per  cent.,  is  also  necessarj  for 
the  loss  of  food  in  cooking.  Roughly,  if  3,800  calorit^  are 
bought,  3,500  are  eaten  and  3,200  utilised  by  the  bcxly.  /The 
relative  amounts  of  fat  ;uk1  carbohydrate  are  largely  a  iiptter 
of  taste,  l>ecause  they  are  interchangeable,  both  being  oaiised 
in  the  body  to  the  same  substance.  I'at  is  imleed  lesspsily 
oxidised  and  absorbed,  but  it  contains  over  twice  the  <iergy 
of  carbohydrate,  and  the  amount  eaten  in  cold  weather  lay  be 
increased  with  advantage.  The  fat  supply  of  arctic  aimals 
illustrates  this  heat-value,  for  the  milk  of  the  walrus  ciitains 
ten  times  as' much  fat  as  cows'  milk.  Also  largely  aiiatter 
of  habit  is  the  source  of  the  protein.  Thus  the  Asiaticlas  ac- 
quired the  habit  of  maintaining  himself  on  a  diet  of  ri<.  For 
a  European  this  would  be  as  impossible  as  to  liveon  the 
purely  carnivorous  diet  of  the  Eskimo.  The  amour 
tein  usually  consumed  by  an  advilt  is  100  grm.  a 
children  relatively  require  more  (sec  table  III), 
liberal  allowance  and  though  the  evidence  is  too  co^ 
and  controversial  to  l)e  dealt  with  here,  there  car 
doubt  that  adults  leading  sedentary  lives  could  re 
quantity  to  60  grm.  without  harm,  nay,  even  with  jnefit. 

Nothing  has  yet  been  said  with  regard  to  thecheapest 
sources  of  protem  and  carbohydrate,  or  the  best  aprnatives 
to  meat  and  bread.  Full  lists  can  be  found  in  je  workst 
mentioned  below  ;  further  details  are  not  necessa 

Accessory  Food  Factors 

We  have  seen  that  a  suitable  diet  must  conin  carbo- 
hydrate, fat  and  protein.  But  even  when  all  thesJre  present 
there  may  be  lacking  minute  traces  of  certainubstances 
absolutely  essential  for  growth,  though  not  (ways  for 
the  maintenance  of  health  and  weight.  Thesiubstances 
arc  present  in  sufficient  quantities  in  fresh  Ilk,  butter 
and  vegetables,  though  actually  the  quaty  is  so 
small  that  it  can  hardly  be  determined.  Thei  bodies  are 
known  as  "  accesson,'  growth  substances,"  o  sometimes 
'■  vitamines."  \'ery  little  is  known  of  th  coniposi- 
tion  or  action  except  that  their  presence  isssentialto 
all  growth.  This  property  has  been  shown  in  airy  striking 
manner  by  feeding  mice  who  have  been  inocited  with  a 
rapidly-growing  cancerous  tumour.  After  beinffd  for  some 
time  on  a  diet  free  from  the.se  growth  substancJhe  tumour 
had  scarcely  grown  at  all,  but  when  the  moup\'as  subse- 
quently fed  on  ordinary  food,  the  tumour  jr'  in  a  few 
weeks  to  be  nearly  as  large  as  the  mouse  itself. 

These  growth  substances  are  easily  removed  j he  prepara- 
tion of  food  or  destroyed  in  its  manufacture,  h  interesting 
to  learn  that  our  soldiers,  operating  in  count  where  the 
provisions  are  necessarily  almost  entirely  tinnPr  otherwise 
jireserved,  are  given  a  dried  extract  of  yeastpemely  ricli 
in  the  substances  that  are  deficient. 

A  striking  ex.unple  of  the  necessity  of  thcsfcessory  sub 
stances  is  found  in  the  case  of  natives  who  feJxclusively  on 
white  rice  polished  by  machiner\'.  They  suftJom  a  disease 
called  ben-beri,  a  form  of  neuritis  which  can  bjred  either  by 
.  the  substitution  of  a  mixed  diet  or  by  the  additpf  the  husk  of 
the  rice  wliicli  contains  the  substance  in  cpiesti^n  this  respect 
war  bread  is  superior  to  white  bread  in  that  f  ntains  a  large 
percentage  of  "  offal."  Scurvy  is  caused  fbe  lack  of  a 
similar  factor,  as  was  well  known  by  Captaipok  and  other 
explorers,  •whose  custom  it  was  to  cure  theien  by  admini- 


*  A  kilo  —  2-2  lbs.     30  grams  =  t  oz. 
t     Those  who  wish  to  obtain  further  informal 
suit  the  following  works,  to  which  the  author 
figures  quoted  : 

J'amy'-i---   "••      ■■"  '■■■"1-viJue  : — 

J  lime.     ByT.  B.  Wi 

J'  nj  Dietetics.     By  R, 

liuliehti,  Ao.  if>. — C.S.  Oept.,  of  Agritultui 

Food  Value!:,  what  they  are  and  how  to  ci*c  them 
McKillop. 
Books  on  NutriUon  :-  — 

77  ■  ' '••  •  ' '  Ilofii  ,./  Kidnhoii.     By  rf'"  Lusk. 

A.  By  Chittenden. 

7/  ,   Food  and  }icononi\  in  JCt^V  W.  M.  'R.-vvIi^s 

The  Vhysioiifgy  0/  Protfin  Mftaiiolism.     B»'-  Cathcart. 


ndvLsed  to  con- 
icbted  for  many 

d  F.  G.  Hopkins, 

liison. 
-shington. 

By.M. 


stenng  an  infusion  Of  pine-needles  or  any  other  green  plant 
available.  It  has  been  suggested  that"  even  rickets  and 
pellagra  may  be  due  to  a  like  cause. 

Jinally,  there  are  certain  substances  lousuly  ctjlled.  stimu- 
lants which  are  principally  derived  from  meat.  These  are 
the  extractives,  etc.,  present  in  meat  juice.  They  can,  for 
mstance,  .stimulate  the  flow  of  the  gastric  juices  and  excite: 
the  appetite.  It  is  in  this  way  that  they  are  important  in 
the  diet  of  invalids.  The  mere  sight  and  .smell  of  foixl,  if 
well  sen'ed  and  of  appetising  appearance,  is  similarly  of  great 
importance  in  stimulating  by  a  psychologies  process  the 
involuntary  mechanism  that  regulates  the  digestive  juices. 

Overeating  and  Starvation 

The  ill-effects  of  overeating  are  not  at  present  so  serious  as 
the  great  waste  it  entails.  It  mav  be  thought  that  an  excess 
"I  food  eaten  one  day  may  be  utilised  later,  l^nfortunately, 
the  body  lias  a  very  limited  power  of  storage.  A  little  carbo- 
hydrate accumulates  in  the  liver  as  glycogen  and  fat  is  <le- 
jxisited  as  adipose  tissue,  but  protein  cannot  be  stored  at  all. 
V\  hen  the  energy  requirements  of  the  body  have  been  supplied 
what  IS  to  become  of  the  excess  food  consumed  by  the  '  good 
healthy  appetite  "  so  often  and  so  erroneously  praised  ?  As 
It  cannot  be  stored  the  onlv  alternative  is  to  bum  it  away  as 
soon  as  possible.  This  wasteful  and  perhaps  harmful  over- 
production of  heat  is  going  on  without  doubt  in  nnst  of  us 
who  do  not  do  heavy  muscular  work,  so  that  at  present  we 
coukl  reduce  our  food  nearly  one-third  without  harm  and 
probably  with  considerable  benefit  to  ourselves. 

In  the  event  of  starvation,  the  reserve  of  glycogen  is  used 
first  ;  next,  the  fat  is  consumed,  and  then  if  ncj  other  food  is 
available,  the  protein  of  the  body  itself.  In  this  process 
It  IS  the  muscles  that  sufier  most  and  characteristic  wasting 
commences.  If  starvation  is  complete,  finally  the  vital  organs 
are  used  and  death  ensues.  The  first  effects  of  starvation^ 
m  the  degree  to  which  it  is  no  doubt  at  present  being  ex- 
perienced in  Germany,  is  a  decreased  output  of  work— the 
effect  obviously  of  a  lack  of  fuel.  This  is  probably  accom- 
panied by  a  lowering  of  the  body's  resistance  to  disease,  and 
together  they  may  have  very  serious  results. 

Clearly,  therefore,  a  man  may  exist  for  some  time  by  con- 
suming his  own  body,  and  this  he  frequently  does  in  disease. 
Very  often  one  has  heard  how  an  invalid  has  been  kept  alive 
for  many  days  on  beef  tea  or  meat  juice.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  It  was  his  own  fat  and  muscles  he  was  Uving  on,  for 
there  is  no  food  value  in  such  substances,  though  they  may 
.stimulate  flow  of  gastric  juices  and  the  appetite.  It  would, 
in  fact,  require  ten  pints  of  the  best  beef  tea  or  a  pound  of 
concentrated  Bovril  to  supply  the  protein  for  one  day,  and 
animals  fed  on  J.iebig's  extract  soon  starve  to  death. 
It  has  even  been  said  that  "  all  tht;  bloodshed  caused  by 
Napoleon  is  nothing  to  the  number  who  have  died  from  a  mis- 
placed confidence  in  beef  tea."  Invalids  are  often  very  un- 
fortunate in  their  choice  of  food.  Arrowroot,  for  instance. 
IS  believed  to  be  very  "  nourishing."  whereas  m  reality  it  i- 
devoicl  of  body-building  material  and  only  suppUes  heat.  The 
same  is  true  of  cornflour  or  tapioca.  There  are  many  similar 
fallacies  the  reader  can  no  doubt  supply  himself,  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  myths  such  as  the  use  offish  for  "  brain  food  " 
or  blood  in  ana-mia  are  no  longer  belie\-cd  b>-  anybody. 


(,i>.i  >  aioru's  ])i'i' 


T.IlBle  I. 

Kadiation  from  the  clothed  bodv 
hour)  . .  .  .  _      ' 

Evaporation  of  water  at  skin  and  itings    . . 
1  leating  of  respired  air 

Heating  of  food  and  drink  to  body  temperature 
Work  of  heart  and  lungs      . . 
Two  hours  walking    . . 


'J'otal 


Tai'.ii    ff. 


Professional  men  .^ 

Farmers   .  . 

Klacksmith  or  na\'\'y  . . 
Kider  in  six-dav  bicycle  radc 


Child  under  a  years? 
„    .3  to  5  years 
„    0  to  9    ., 
„     10  to  13     „ 
Girl    14  „  Ki    „ 
Tioy    n  ,,  ifi    ,, 
Woman        ^  ^ 


Table  III. 

T(ital 

Calorics. 

1050 

1400 

1 750 

_       2100 

-  2450 
2800 

-  2.S00 


Total 

Calories. 

2700 

5200 
10000 


C.rani,<; 
Protein. 

70 
71 
79 


alories. 

i.'i.V' 
01  I 

S.) 

27" 


Calorics 
jxT  kilo, 

.3« 
.so 
7.5 


Per  cent, 
of  farmer's 
diet. 
0-3 
0-4 
o'5 
o-i. 
0-7 
0-8 
0-8 


May  X7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


"  To  the  Unknown  God  " 


By   J.  G.   Squire 


ATHEISM  is  no  longer  widely  professed.  Thirty 
f^L  years  ago  people  were  common  who  held  that  the 
/  ^  non-existence  of  God  was  completely  demon- 
X  _^.strated  by  the  fact  that  the  ourang-outang  could 
stand  on  his  hind-legs  and  eat  an  apple  like  a  man.  As 
Mr.  H.  G. -Wells  observes  in  the  preface  to  his  proclamation 
of  faith  {God,  the  Invisible  King,  Cassell,  bs.  net),  there  is  a 
general  inclination  amongst  men  who  are  outside  the  churches 
to  profess  belief  in  a  God.  The  tendency  has  naturally  been 
welcomed  by  the  orthodox  :  but  this  welcome  Mr.  Wells 
resents.  It  is  not  the  Christian  God,  he  says,  to  whom  he 
and  "  the  new  believers  "  adhere,  and  there  is  no  reason  why 
parsons  should  "  swell  with  self-complacency  "  when  anyone 
who  has  left  the  Christian  community  declares  that  he  has 
found  the  Deity.  Here  he  does  the  parsons  an  injustice. 
When  Charles  Bradlaugh  was  struggling  to  get  into  the  House 
of  Commons,  an  elderly  Conservative  said  that  it  would  be 
all  right  if  the  new  member  would  only  acknowledge  "  some 
sort  of  a  God."  He  was  laughed  at  for  the  phrase  :  but 
obviously  a  belief  in  some  sort  of  God  is  evidence  of  a  better — 
a  more  humble,  for  instance— frame  of  mind  than  downright 
negation.  It  also  shows  that  a  man  has  some  sense,  and  it 
admits,  as  far  as  it  goes,  that  the  Church  has  something  to 
say.  At  any  rate,  Mr.  Wells  has  a  God  :  and  he  beUeves  his  God 
is  the  God  of  many  people  outside  the  Church,  and  many 
inside  who  do  not  really  believe  in  its  formulas. 


He  states  in  his  preface  that  wliatever  his  religion  is  it  is 
not  Christianity.  But  he  alio  says  that  there  is  nothing  in  his 
book  "  that  need  shock  or  offend  anyone  -who  is  prepared  for 
the  expression  of  a  faith  different  from  and  perhaps  in  several 
particulars  opposed  to  his  own."  This  sentence  is,  to  say 
the  least,  optimistic  from  a  writer  who  talks  of  "  an  outrageous 
mythology  of  incarnation  and  resurrection,"  and  "  that 
bickering  monopohst  who  will  have  none '  other  gods  but  me'  "; 
and  who  refers  to  the  sacrament  as  "  an  obscene  rite  of 
symbolical  cannibaflsm."  Undergraduate  profanity  still  has 
charms  for  Mr.  Wells  :  but  he  really  has  been  at  some 
pains  to  study  the  history  of  Christian  doctrine,  which  is  to 
be  found  in  quantities  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica.  Un- 
fortunately, his  study  of  the  fathers  has  been  conducted  in  a 
scarcely  sympathetic  spirit.  He  seems  to  think  that  the 
Church  was  dealing  merely  with  words  and  with  ideas  spun 
like  cobwebs  without  any  relation  to  reality  ;  he  does  not 
seem  to  realise  that  an  early  Christian  can  have  had  a  brain, 
though  one  can  quite  imagine  Mr.  Wells  taking  part  in  (and 
being  turned  out  of)  the  Council  of  Nicasa  himself.  At  any 
rate  there  it  is.  He  finds  it  all  ridiculous,  and  the  Trinity  most 
of  all.  And  having  dismissed  the  Christian  Trinity  as  a  "  fan- 
tastic, unqualified  danse  dtrois,"  Mr.  Wells  proceeds  to  outline 
the  "  fine  and  subtle  theology  "  which  "  the  new  believers," 
"  we  of  the  modern  way,"  are  evolving.  A  hush  :  Swift 
whispers ;  And  as.  the  limbs  of  the  new  cosmogony  appear 
one  by  one  we  receive  them  with  precisely  that  thrill  of 
excitement  that  we  felt  at  the  advent  of  the  giant  rats  in  The 
Food  of  the  Gods  and  the  octopuses  in  Mr.  Wells's  grimmest 
short  story.  The  vague  and  floating  beliefs  of  half  the 
world  have  reached  "  the  phase  of  definition  "  (the  word 
"  definite  "  is  about  the  most  frequent  adjective  in  the  book) 
and  Mr.  Wells  produces — a  new  Trinity.  It  consists  of  two 
Beings  and  a  God.  There  are  three  ;  but  they  do  not  happen 
to  be  three  in  one. 

***** 

First  of  all.  there  is  that  which  underlies  all  phenomena. 
Of  this  Mr.  Wells  says  we  know  nothing,  and  he  cidls  it  the 
Veiled  Being. 

The  Veiled  Bcinj;,  enigmatical  and  iiiconiprcheiisiblc,  broods 
over  the  mirror  upon  which  the  busy  shapes  ol  life  arc  moving. 
It  is  as  if  it  waited  in  a  great  stilhiess.  Our  lives  do  not  deal 
with  it.  and  cannot  deal  witli  it.  It  may  be  that  they  may 
never  be  able  to  deal  with  it. 

The  Veiled  Being,  says  Mr.  Wells,  in  a  not  very  helpful 
sentence,  "  may  be  of  practically  [my  italics]  hmitless 
intricacy  and  possibility."  It  is  "  altogether  outside  good 
and  evil,  and  love  and  hate." 

And  coming  out  of  this  veiled  being,  proceeding  out  of  it    in 

a  manner  altogether  inconceivable,   i.s  another  lesser  being. 

This  is  the  maker  of  our  world  Life,  the  Will  to  Be ;  and  it 

is  "  conceived  of  as  both  good  and  evil."     A  first   Being 

incomprehensible,  a  second  inconceivably  proceeding  (it  is 


strange  how  useful  is  the  terminology  01  what  Mr.  Wells  calls 
the  "  burlesque  "  Athanasian  Creed)  :  and  with  the  third  wc 
come  to  God.  God  is  the  God  in  the  Heart  and  he  is  "  a 
strongly  marked  and  knowablc  personality,"  with  very 
definite  characteristics.  He  is  "  the  Captain  of  Mankind," 
"  a  huge  friendliness  "  :  he  does  not  necessarily  know  much 
more  than  we  do  about  the  Veiled  Being,  and  "  the  fact  that 
God  \s  finite  is  one  upon  which  those  who  think  clearly  among 
the  new  behevers  are  very  insistent."  He  is  "  a  young 
God  "  ;  a  person  "  as  real  as  a  bayonet  thrust  or  an  cm- 
brace."  He  is  not  Providence :  he  does  not  replenish 
bank  balances  or  save  lives,  in  response  to  prayer.  But  he  is 
a  stimulant  and  a  friend.  And  finally,  if  you  want  another 
name  for  this  stimulating  friend,  you  get  it :  "  He  is  the 
undying  human  memory,  the  increasing  human  will."  In 
other  words,  he  is  the  Spirit  of  Man,  or,  as  some  call  it,  "  the 
spirit  of  the  herd."  One  might  almost  call  him  "  Public 
Spirit."  It  is  an  odd  thing  to  worship.  But  no,  Mr.  Wells's 
God  is  not  worshipped. 


Mr.  WeUs  talks  enthusiastically  about  his  beliefs  as  being 
the  religion  of  the  future.  He  hopes,  apparently,  to  link 
up  all  the  Higher  Thought  Centres,  and  in  the  end  to  achieve 
a  theocracy.  God  will  be  the  Invisible  King  of  all  the  world. 
Wc  shall  not  allow  portraits  of  other  kings  to  appear  upon  our 
stamps  :  for  God  must  be  on  "  our  letters  and  receipts  " — 
though  how,  Mr.  Wells,  who  seems  otherwise  to  object  to  sym- 
bols, does  not  explain.  But  indeed,  as  Mr.  Wells  woultl 
say,  there  does  not  seem  enough  in  this  theology  to  justify 
hopes  of  a  world-wide  Church.  What  is  new  iis  not  "  very 
definite,"  and  what  is  definite  is  not  new.  In  his  preface 
Mr.  Wells  does  show  an  inclination  to  confess  that  the  com- 
pass of  theologies  has  been  boxed,  and  at  one  point  we  half 
expect  the  New  Machiavelli  to  proclaim- himself  the  New 
Manichffian.  But  his  prevailing  weakness  is  an  underlying 
assumption  that  the  mere  fact  that  he  lives  at  this  point  in 
time,  that  he  is  "  modern,"  implies  that  he  has  novel 
spiritual  experiences  and  enables,  or  rather  entitles,  him  to 
discover  new  truths  about  Eternity.  Both  his  passion  for  the 
latest  thing  and  the  antique  quality  of  his  experience  come 
out  sometimes  in  his  very  phraseology.  "  In  the  reeling 
aeroplane  or  the  dark  ice-cave  God  will  be  your  courage." 
It  is  true  that  our  benighted  ancestors  did  not  know  the  aero- 
plane (or  trinitrotoluol),  and  therefore  could  not  use  it  as  an 
Olustration  :  but  they  spoke  with  some  fervour  of  the  great 
deep  and  the  vadley  of  the  shadow  of  death.  The  contempla- 
tive man,  throughout  all  recorded  time,  has,  like  Mr.  Wells, 
felt  the  workings  of  conscience  and  marvelled  at  the  immensity 
of  the  heavens  and  the  surging  luxuriance  of  life.  He  has 
heard  a  still  small  voice  within  his  heart  and  been  comforted 
when  he  listened  to  it,  and  known  the  blessedness  of  self- 
sacrifice  ;  he  has  surveyed  the  material  world  and  guessed 
at  the  Power  working  behind  it.  Life  is  still  the  same,  the 
heart  is  still  the  same,  and  the  "  starry  vault  "  js  still  the 
same,  as  they  were  when  Augustine  was  alive  or  Plato  or  the 
magis  of  Chaldsea.  The  problems  and  our  inadequacy  to 
understand  them  remain  unchanged  :  and  a  man  has  the 
option  of  learning  "  the  Grammar  of  Assent,"  and  accepting  a 
revealed  religion  and  an  established  creed  ;  or  of  giving  the 
incomprehensibles  new  names  with  capital  letters  which 
do  nothing  to  explain  them;  or  of  merely  saying  that  he 
believes  in  "  some  sort  of  God,"  and  leaving  it  at  that.  That 
IS  what  Mr.  Wells  would  have  been  wise  to  do.  His  atternpt 
to  make  a  system  out  of  his  haziness  is  a  hopeless  failure. 
He  seems  at  one  moment  to  realise  where  he  stands  when  he 
says  tliiit,  although  (iod  is  finite,  yet  "  if  the  reader  believes 
that  God  is  Almighty  and  in  every  way  infinite  tiie  jiracticid 
outcome  is  not  very  different."  We  shall  not  sec  that  Church 
with  its  remarkable  creed  beginning; 

"  I  believe  in  one  finite  God  who  never  ha.s  made  anvthiug  and 
never  could  make  anything.    .     ." 

And  however  numerous  the  new  gropers  may  be  they  will  not 
get  their  dubious  hypothesis,  the  Mind  of  the  Race,  upon  the 
postage  stamps. .  One  may  believe  in  a  God  without  belonging 
to  the  Church,  but  one  is  not  going  to  build  out  of  odds  and 
ends  of  psychology  and  metaphysics  a  "  new  subtle  theology  " 
which  will  purge  the  human  race  of  its  sins.  I  should  hke  to 
.see  Mr,  Wells's  own  powers  of  sarcastic  criticism,  which  are 
great,  turned  against  this  i^emarkable  compost  of  the  nebulous 
and  the  arbitrary. 


lO 


LAND    &    WATER 


MAy  17,  1^1"'' 


The  Little  Princess  of  Riverside 


7«^ 


'  By"  L.  n^ope  Goriiford 


'K.  T.  Craduck,  boat-lmildor,  enjoys  tlic  rcs]icct. 


L^tecin  and  custom  of  tlie  scafurinf,'    inlnibitants 


- , 

of  Kivcrsidi-.  If  n  waterman  s  wlierry  is  run 
down  bv  a  DutoU  cargo-boat  the  aggrieved  parties 
meet  in  ^rr.  (  radock's  yard,  and  tlie  otticial  assessor  defers 
to  Mr.  Cradock's  opinion.  '  If  a  wherny'  parts  her  ni(>onngs 
and  drifts  down  with  the  tide,  they  are  Mr.  Cradock  and 
young  Alt  his  son  wlicr  briiig^lier  in  and  repair  her  broken 
strakcs.  If  the  Custom  House  wants  a  new  boat,  Mr.  Cradock 
builds  of  Knt-'lish  oak  a  twentv-foot,  broad-beamed,  hajidsomc 
craft  for  His  Majesty  the  King,  casually  remarking  to  his 
friends  that  he  is  "engaged  on  Gover'ment  work." 

At  the  back  of  his  tall,  gabled  wooden  house,  Mr.  Cradock  s 
yard  ojx-ns  uixm  the  river-watl,  whence  a  wooden  stair  de- 
scends to  a  wooden  causewas .  Hence  it  is  that  Mr.  Cradock  s 
workshop  and  yard  are  used  as  a  tlioroughfare  to  and  from 
the  river  :  "  the  same,"  as  Mr.  Cradock  says,  "  as  it  was  with 
my  poor  old  dad,  open  to  all,  free  and  hearty  like  a  Methody 
chapel  service,  as  you  may  say— though  I'm  Cliurch  myself— 
what  there  is  of  it."  . ,,      ,  , 

Young  Alf  works  with  his  father.  \  oung  Alf.  wlio  volun- 
teered lor  service,  has  been  pronounced,  not  once  but  several 
times,  medieallv  unlit  for  t]ie  army  by  reason  of  a  weak 
heart  ;  an  affection  which  inspired  at  least  three  trd>unals  to 
treat  him- as  a  kind  of  unconvicted  criminal.  But  young 
Alf  took  these  things  with  composure,  his  mind  being  occupied 
with  other  affairs.  _  »,,   , 

It  was  at  dusk,  when  Mr.  Cradock  and  young  AH,  by 
the  light  of  a  single  gas-jet,  were  busy  about  the  varnishing 
of  the  new  boat  for  the  King,  that  a  girl  entered  the  work- 
shop, and  greeting  the  two  men  with  a  word,  passed  into  the 
yard,  and  stood  on  the  dA'cr-wall  gazing  out  upon  the  dim 
nvcr.  v.^c- 

"  Wlio's  that  then'?     ;  said  Mr.  Cradock.  _ 

"  Bessie  Cookson,  her  name  is,"  replied  young  Alf.  i^he 
works  at  the  electric  engineering." 

"  What,  Scrymgeour's— the  Blooksucker  s  ?  Not  much 
wages  attached  to  it,  I'll  lav." 

"  Threepence  an  hour  the  girls  get.  if  you'll  believe  me, 
said  young   Alf  gloomily.     "They   work   ten   hours.     And 
then  there's  lines  and  deductions."  .  ,   ..     , 

"  It's  a  marvel  to  me  they  don't  find  a  better  job,  ob- 
served Mr.  Cradock,  varnishing  steadily.  •  1  f  ■  1 
"They  can't,"  pursued  ^oung  -^1^-  with  a  kind  of  tired 
melancholy,  "  Ifs  a 'controlled  factory  ;  and  under  Section 
seven  of  the  Act;  if  tHey  give  notice,  they  can't  get  a  certihcate 
for  another  job  for  six  weeks." 

"  God,  to  think  of  that !  "  said  Mr.  Cradock.  Stay  or 
starve,  or  stay  and  starve,  as  you  may  put  it." 

"  It's  leave  and  starve  with  Miss  Cookson,"  said  young 
Alf.  "  She  iold  me.  She's  been  through  here  two  or  three 
time  of  a  night." 

Mr.  Cradock,  whose  head  was  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat, 
heaved  up  his  short  body  and- stared  through  the  dim  window 
looking  on  the  river.  Poised  on  the  river-wall,  the  figure 
of  the  girl  darkened  uiwn  the  broad  field  of  water.  Tfie 
tide,  glazed  with  cloudy  moonlight,  waVracing  to  the  sea. 
Here  and  there,  ships'  riding  lights  glowed  steady  and  still  ; 
beyond,  a  round  green  eye,  the  starboard  light  of  a  steamer 
.^lid  through  the  twihght  with  the  flood.  Mr.  Cradock, 
wearing  a  perplexed  countenance,  lifted  his  hard  hat  with  both 
hands  and  settled  it  4gi»in  tightly  on  his  head.  ■  Young  Alf 
regarded-  his  parent  with '  an  anxious  eye. 

"Ain't  she  got  no  one  to  look  after  her,  then  ?  "  asked  Mr. 
Cradock,  still  gazing  through  the  window.       •     ,    ./         ^ 

"  Only  an  aunt,  somewheres  in  London,  and  they  don  tget 
on  together,  Bessie  tells  inc!"  .... 

"  Because,"  pursued  Mr.  Crddock,  "'thercj's.no  knowing, 
when  a  young  woman  fik*  her  comes  to  studying  the  river, 
like,  what  tiioughts  she  won't  get  into  her  head.  I've  never 
had  an  accident  off  of  my  yard  yet,  nor  my  poor  old  dad  before 
me.  We  don't  want  no  Ophelia  act  here,"  said  Mr.  Cradock 
with  unwonted  gravity." 

"  1  thought  of  that  myself, 'ft Ttid  young  .\lf. 
"  Go  you  and  fetch  her.in,%iy  lad,  as  .she's  a  friend  of 
yours,  and  ask  her  to  take  a  bit  of  supi)er  with  us." 

Followed  by  young  Alf  the  girl  entered  liie  shadowy  work- 
shop.    She   woie    the   rough   overcoat   and   the   loose   green 
cap  of  the  munition  worker.     In  the,  light,  her  f^e|.oi  an 
extreme  pallor,  wore  the  look  of  a  hunted  creature.        g' *    , 
"  I'm  sure  it's  very  kind  of  yuu,   Mr.  Cradock,  but  f  duu  t 
:     Hunk  as  I  ought,"  said  Bessie.  ,        -  . 

"There  ain't  no  ought  about  it.  Ought,  multiplied  by 
ought  stands  for  nought  which  is  nothing.,  ^is.  I  ,luiuncd  at 
school,"  said  Mi.  Ciadock,  cheerfully.     "Young 'Alf  tells  me 


you  haven't  any  engagement  just  now,'  lie  added,  dehcatclv- 
"(liven  the  Blooksucker  .notice,  I  understand." 

"  That's  right.     1  adildn't  stick  il  no  longer. 

"  Well,  well,  \ou  talk  it  over  with  my  old  lady.  ,  She  s 
one  of  the  work-brittle  ones— what . you  call  a  practical 
mind.     And  here's  Lil  with  the, beer." 

Miss  Cradock.  aged  se\'enteen,  her  round  face  a  demure 
feminine, copy  of  her. father's  pug  visage,  took  Bessie  up  the 
narrow  winding  stair,  followed  by  the  two  men. 

Bessie,  sitting  at  the  lamp-lit  table  under  the  motherly 
eye  of  Mrs.  Cradock,  leaned  back  in  her  chair.  '     ,  •;, 

"  I  beg  pardon,  I'm  sure.  1  thought  I  was  hungry 
It's  God's  truth  I've  had  nothing  to-day  but  a  cup  of  tea, 
ami  now  1  couldn't  touch  a  morsel.     I'd  better  be  going, 

Mrs.  Cradock."    ,  , ,   ,      ,    ^^^^      ■     1   j  •• 

"Why,  my  dear, .  perhaps  you  would  be  better  in  bed, 
said  Mrs.  Cradock.  sympathetically. 

"  Not  much  of  th"at,"said  Bessie.  "  We're  that  crowded, 
the  night-workers  sleeps  in  the  bed  by  day,  and  the  day- 
workers  by  night,  week  about.  I'm  on  the  night  turn'at  the 
works— or  should  be— so  there's  no  bed  for  ni"." 
.  Young  Alf  here  interposed  to  the  effect  that  as  the  var- 
nishing of  the  boat,  being  Gover'ment  work,  must  be  done 
before  morning,  his  bed  was  available.  "  I  couldn  t  sleep, 
anyhow,"  he  added,  dismally. 

Baid  Mrs.  Cradock  to  Mr.  Cradock,  when  the  house  was  stiU, 
"  Now  I  know  what's  the  matter  with  our  Alf." 

"  Didn't  know  as  there  was  anything,"  said  Mr.  Ciadock. 

in  surprise.  ■  .  ,  .j.      l-    j  n 

"  Why,  this  poor  girl.     M^an  to  say  you  haven  t  noticed  .'' 

Him  working  all  night  and  ail." 
"  Ho,"  said  Mr.  Cradock,  enUghtened.     "  Case  of  Roineo 

and  Juliet."  „      . ,   ,,'      r-      11 

•'  I  don't  know  nothing  about  them,  said  Mrs.  Cradock. 
■'  But  our  Alf  has  gone  all  quisby.  I'm  right  down  sorry 
for  the  girl,  but  I  can't  have  her  here."  ^ 

Mr.  Cradock's  house  was  constructed  like  a  boat,  tfie 
external  walls  clincher-built,  the  rooms  separated  by  bulk- 
heads ;  and  Bessie,  lying  wakeful  in  bed  m  the  next  cabin, 
overheard  the  conversation.  And  very  early  next  morning, 
a  pale  girl  stood  with  a  haggard  youth  m  the  cold  workshop, 
redly  illumined  by  the  glow  of  the  sunrise. 

••"It's  no  good, "Alf."  said  Bessie.  "I  m  as  fond  of  you  a.i 
can  be,  but  I'm  a-going  out  hke  the  tide."  She^  glanced 
out  of  the  window,  upon  the  sullen  river,  stained  faintly 
crimson.  "  Best  if  I'd  done  myself  in,  last  night,  as  I  meant 
to.     I'm  a  hospital  job.     You  can't  marry  a  hospital  job. 

"  You're  under  the  weather,  that's  what  it  is,  returned 
young  Alf.     "  You'll  get  well,  when  you've  had  a  rest. 

'•  I  don't  know  as  I  want  to."  The  girl  sluvered  } 
:'4bnt  seem  to  want  no  more  of  it.  I'm  used  up,  and  there  s 
'lio  sense  in  being:  a  burden  on  people,  these  tunes. 

"  No  burden  at  all.     Mother  will  be  glad  to  keep  you. 
"  Don't  think  of  it,  Alf.     I   couldn't  stay.     I  ve  had  a 
sleep,  and  I'm  going." 

"Where,  then?  "     .  .     .    ^     „„    ^,  .  , 

"I  don't  know.  "After  all,  what  is  it?  What  s  a  gid 
making  munitions,  compared  with  a  soldier,  and  they  dies 
every  hour?     Mustn't  grumble." 

"  And  what  about  me  ?  "  asked  young  Alf.  . 

"  The  boys  what's  killed  have  girls  at'  home.  You- ain  t 
w^'orse  than  them."  »ir      n     1 

"  They  won't  have  me  for  a  soldier,"  said  young  Alt,  sullenly. 
"'Tis  no  fault  of  mine."  ,     I  •• 

"  No,  no,  I  didn't  mean  that.     I  meant  it  s  the  war.  _ 
"  It  ain't  the  war,  like  you  say,"  cried  young  All.        Its 
the  Bloodsucker,  what's  sweated  you  to  death,  sos  he  can 
make  a  bigger  profit."  .     ,  ,. 

"  what  the  good  of  talking,  Alf  ?    I  m  tired. 
'     "Somethings  got  to  be  done,"  said  young  Alf. 
"  Hospital,  I  reckon."^ 
"  It's  full  of  soldiers." 
■  "  So  it  is.     And  quite  right,  too.     Hospital  s  off,  then. 

The  two  stood  and  looked  at  each  other,  and  a  chill  shadow 
seemed  to  rise  between  them.  Young  Alf,  at  his  wits  end, 
stared  about  him  at  the  familiar  workshop,  in  which,  strangely 
illumined  with  the  red  light,  everything  looked  unfamiliar. 

Footsteps  tapped  upon  the  pavement,  and  a  face  looked  m 
it  the  unshuttered  window.  ,      ,    •  i  * 

"  Good  moruuig,"  said  a  cheerful  voice.  '  Youie  bright 
and  early."  .,       ,  .         „  ,  . 

'  "  It's  the  Little  Princess,"  said  young  Alf.  taking  off  his 
tap.  He  went  to  the  door,  a  sudden  hispiiation  seizing  hiin. 
"  Would  you  pleate  to  come  in.' Miss?  "  .  '      .    . 

Wvciside  had  bestowed  the  title  upon  Miss  Virgima  Smith. 


May  17,  1917 


LAND 


There  was  a.  vague  legend  in  the  town  tliptshe  yt'as  descended 
from  one  of  the  fir;4  ^IvenfArejs.inf  tjf(|  Ne\*  AV'orld,\  whQ 
married  the  daughter  of  ah  Indian  chieftain,  and  brought  lipr 
liome.  Princess  Smith  died  in  the  ship,  lying  off  J^iverside  ;. 
and  they  buried  lier  (tJiey  say)  in  tlie  old  church.  But  it  is 
projiable  that  the  people  called  her  Princess  because  she 
niled  them  with  a  rod  of  kindness. 

■  Bessie  stood  silent,  while  young  .Alf  shyly  told  their  troubles 
to  the  Little  Princess  ;  Bessie  only  interrupting  to  declare 
she  didn't  want  no  charity.  Nevertheless,  she  yielded,  and 
the  Little  Princess  took  her  away. 

A  week  went  by,  and  another,  and  still  another,  and  it  was 
Sunday  afternoon.  Mr.  Cradock  stood -in  his  yard,  gazing 
upon  the  river.  He  was  dressed,  excepting  the  coat,  in  his 
best  blue  suit,  and  his  white  shirt  sleeves  were  rolled  back 
from  his  powerful  forearms.  From  within  his  house  sounded 
a  lively  music.  The  door  leading  from  the  workshop  opened, 
and  the  Little  Princess  appeared.  Mr.  Cradock  instantly 
jerked  his  hard  hat  vertically  upwards  and  downwards. 

"  Your  family  sounds  very  cheerful,  Mr.  Cradock,"  said 
the  Little  Princess,  glancing  up  at  the  discreetly  curtained 
windows,  whence  the  music  rang  and  tinkled. 

"  We  thought  a  little  party,  with  some  music,  like,  would 
cheer  up  young  Alf.  Though  the  music,"  said  Mr.  Cradock, 
apologetically,  "  ain't  quite  the  Starboard  Martyr,  I  know." 

The  Little  Princess  understood  Mr.  Cradock  to  refer  to  the 
composition  better  known  as  the  "  Stabat  Mater,"  and  nodded 
sympathetically.  "  There's  the  real  Starboard  Martyr  '  for 
you,  over  there,  in  a  manner  of  speaking."  Mr.  Cradock, 
lowering  his  voice,  indicated  the  still  figure  of  young  Alf, 
who  stood  at  the  riverward  end  of  the  yard,  leaning  against 
the  stern  of  a  boat,  his  head  bowed.  "Port  and  starboard, 
too,"  said  Mr.  Cradock,  improving  upon  his  parable.  "  He's 
troubled  about  the  girl  Bessie,  you  see.  Miss.  He  tells  me 
the  poor  thing  has  got  to  die,  and  though  I  tell  him  there's 
as  good  fish  in  the  sea  as  ever  came  out  of  it,  he  don't  take  no 
notice.  ,  Lost  his  spirit,  like.  Case  of  first  love.  Only  last 
night  he  says  to  me,  '  Dad,'  he  says,  '  I've  given  up  hope. 
They've  killed  her,'  he  says.  '  Killed  her  when  she  was 
doing  her  best  for  the  Country.'  It's  true,  too,  when  you 
come  to  think  of  it,  Miss." 

"  It's  not  so  bad  as  that.  She's  turned  the  corner. 
She'll  pull  through.     I  came  with  a  message  from  her." 

"  Come,"  said  Mr.  Cradock,  "  that's  the  best  I've  heard. 
Better  than  drink,  as  they  say.  Would  you  speak  to  the 
boy.  Miss  ?  " 

■  It's  all  your  kindness,  Miss,"  said  young  Alf,  presently 
"  All  your  great  kindness.  If  it  hadn't  been  for  you,  she 
would- have  gone  out,  for  sure.     There's  a  many  that  do." 

"Many,"  said  the  Little  Princess.    ■■''  They  arc  at  rest." 

An  Atlantic  Alliance 

To  the  Editor  of  L.-^nd  &  W.\tkr. 

Sir, — Is  it  generally  recognised  that  the  whole  of  the  Atlantic 
ocean-board  in  this  hemisphere  from  the  Hebrides  to  Cape 
Town  is  now  in  the  hands  ot  Great  Britain,  France,  Spain  atid 
I'ortugal,  while  all  the  American  Atlantic  coast  is  Anglo- 
Saxon  or  Latin  ?  This  means  that,  given,  an  understanding 
between  an  Atlantic  Alliance  in  Europe  and  an  Atlantic 
Alliance  in  America,  or,  let  us  say,  one  great  Atlantic  Alliance 
of  Anglo-Sa.xons  and  Latins,  the  Atlantic  Ocean  becomes  an 
immense  commercial  preserve  held  by  the  greatest  combina- 
tion of  arms  the  world  has  ever  known.' 

Commercial  FVance  was  so  mucli  in  love  with  tlie  idea 
before  the  war  that  she  was  studying  very  earnestly  the  project 
of  making  a  railway  fronfTangier  to  Dakar,  whence  to  Pernam- 
buco,  the  nearest  port  of  Brazil,  tiiere  are  only  some  1,500  miles 
of  ocean.  This  would  bring  Southern  America  within  eight 
or  nine  days  of  Paris  and  London.  Germany's  reckless 
attempt  to  win  for  her.self  a  port  in  the  Atlantic  at  Agadir, 
halfway  between  Gibraltar  and  Dakar,  was  a  move  against  this 
great  enterprise  ;  but  Germany  failed,  and  the  London-Paris- 
Madrid-Gibraltar-Tangier- Dakar  line  will  come  into  being 
so  soon  as  things  are  again  normal  and  I'rancc  and  Spain  shall 
have  pacified  Morocco.  This  line  will  have  short  tributaries 
to  Cadiz,  Lisbon  and  Bilbao,  and  it  pa,sses  through  Bordeaux, 
so  that  it  will  be  splendidly  situated  for  commercial  purposes. 
From  London  to  Gibraltar  it  has  been  ait  work  for  years; 
certain  alterations  on  the  Spanish  portion  will  have  to  be  made 
for  the  gaining  of  time,  but  this  is  no  great  affair.  The  harbour 
of  Gibraltar  has  been  completed  quite  recently.  All  therefore 
that  remains  is  to  construct  a  harbour  at  Tangier  and  build 
the  line  thence  via  Fez  to  Dakar.  Until  this  is  done  Dakar 
can  be  served  from  Gibraltar  by  fast  steamers. 

The  military  advantages  of  the  Atlantic  Alliance  arc  too 
obvious  to  require  much  elaboration  here  ;  indeed,  mihtary 
ejcigencies  have  almost  made  the  AUiance.  It  is  an  accom- 
plished fact  but  for  the  adhesion  of  Spain  and  some  of  the 
Republics  of  Southern  and  Central  America.  J-  H. 


Comfort  in  All  Weathers 


In  lorrent.s  of  rain— saturating  mist— continuous  drizzle 
— muggy  heat — piercing  winds  the  Soldier  equipped 
withihe  all-protective  BURBERRY  faces  the  worst 
conditions,  assured  that,  whatever  befalls,;  his  weather- 
proof .will  keep  him  dry  and  comfortable. 

The  burberry 


made  in  Burberry-woven  and 
proofed  cloth  —  the  same  as 
chosen  by  Sir  Ernest  Shackleton 
for  all  his  Polar  Expeditions- 
provides  an  efficient  safeguard 
against  any  wet  that  falls,  or 
wind  that  blows. 

To  make  security  doubly  sure, 
it  ,  is  lined  throughout  with 
proofed  wool — detacha:ble  Camel 
Fleece,  if  preferred — which,  in 
addition  to  increasing  its  de- 
fensive powers,  ensures  snug 
warmth  when  the  temperature 
is  low  or  wind  cold. 


Illustrated 
Naval  or 
Military- 
Catalogues 
Post  Free 


THE  BURBERRY,  whilst  un- 
rivalled for  weather-resistance, 
is  so  wonderfully  light  and 
faultlessly  self-veritilating,  that 
it  is  as  comfortable  to  wear  in 
hot  sinnmer  weather,  as  on  a 
cold,  drenching  day. 

Unlike  coats  loaded  with  rubber, 
oiled-silk  or  similar  air-tight 
fabrics,  which  afford  temporary 
security  by  sacrificing  hygienic 
ventilation,  THE  BURBERRY 
maintains  equable  temperature 
and  obviates  overheating  in  the 
closest  weather. 


SERVICE 

WEATHER- 

PROOrS. 

During  tlie  War 
BURBERRYS 
CLEAN  AND 
RE  -  PROOF 

Officers'  *'  Bur- 
berry?," Tielock- 
er„s,  Burfrons,  and 
Burberry  Tryich- 
Warms  in  14  days 
FREE  OF 
rHARr.F.. 


Kvertf 
Burberry 
Garment 
is  labelled 

'  BuThtrrys.' 


BURBERRYS  ^^^^^t 

8  &   10   Bd.  Malesherbes  PARIS ;  and   Provincial  Agents. 


iS 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershavv 


May  17,  lyi; 


TO  be  well  informed  on  all  topics  concerned  with 
Britain  beyond  the  Seas  is  a  matter  of  paramount 
importance  to  every  Englishman  nowadays.  The 
vaUie  of  what  can  be  learnt  on  such  subjects  from 
books  is  no  doubt  as  liable  to  be  overestimated  as  it  is  to  be 
underestimated.  There  arc  some  people  who  never  learn 
anytiiing  from  books,  just  as  there  are  some  jieople  who  nev'er 
learn  anything  from  travel.  Something  must  be  brought  by 
tlie  student  both  to  the  journey  and  to  the  book  if  he  is  to 
take  awaVianything  valuable.  It  is  httle  good  hunting  for 
ores  unless  one  is  something  of  a  geologist.  On  the  matter 
in  question  most  of  us  have  to  depend  chiefly  on  lH>oks  and 
they  are  at  any  rate  useful  to  all  of  us  to  correlate,  confirm 
and  classify  information  otherwise  acquired.  Moreover  the 
desire  to  leani,  bred  of  the  new  knowledge  that  the  war  has 
brought  to  many  of  us  that  we  are  not  alone  in  the  world,  is 
the  beginning  oi  wisdom. 

***** 

Such  ])edag<igic  retlections  are  induced  by  reading,  Tlie 
New  Map  of  A/rica,  by  HerlxTt  Adams  Gibbons  (The  Century 
Co..  S^.oo  net),  Cmtuda  ihf  Spfllhinder,  by  Lilian  Whitin;.,' 
(J.  M.  Dent  and  Sons,  (s.),  and  also  two  volumes  of  the 
British  Kmpire  Section  of  the  excellent  International  In- 
formation Series  (Allen  and  Unwin,  Ltd.  is.  net  each.)  So 
much  must  be  placed  to  the  discredit  of  these  books,  for  when 
they  become  reflective  their  style,  hke  mine,  generally  tends 
to  be  platitudinous.  Otherwise  I  have  nothing  but  good  to  say 
of  them.  Miss  Whiting'  s  book  may  he  described  as  a  glorified 
guide-book  with  a  good  map  and  numerous  photographs. 
In  saying  this  I  do  not  mean  to  disparage  it,  for  I  am  one  of 
those  who  love  to  travel  by  guide-book  and  do  not  disdain 
to  use  one  when  actually  travelling — especially  if  there  is 
glory  in  it.  Miss  Whiting  takes  one  by  rail  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific,  but  stops  continually  to  point  out  places  of 
interest  and  beauty,  and  to  recall,  with  pardonable  pride, 
what  the  builders  of  Canada  have  achieved  and  how  Canadians 
are  developing  the  Dominion  and  adding  to  its  renown. 
*         *         *         *         » 

Mr.  IL  A.  Gibbons,  formerly  Professor  of  History  at 
Kobert  College,  Constantinople,  is  already  well  known  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  the  author  of  The  New  Map  of 
Europe.  It  was  evidently  while  compiling  that  book  that 
he  realised  how  large  a  part  problems  connected  with  Africa 
will  play  in  any  future  settlement,  and  it  was  in  the  light  of 
that  discovery  that  he  set  to  work  to  complete  a  book  he 
had  had  in  hand  previously  on  Kuro]>ean  Colonisation  in 
Africa.  The  New  Map  of  Africa  is  the  fullest  and  most 
important  book  yet  published  on  the  historical  geography.of 
the  Dark  Continent,  whose  darkness  is  now  but  a  relative  term. 
A  mere  glance  at  the  political  maps  of  Africa  in  1850  and  in 
1902  and  at  the  railway  map  of  1914  will  show  both  how 
greatly  the  tlarkness  of  Africa  has  been  dispelled  during 
quite  recent  times  and  how  intricate  a  skein  of  diplomatie 
and  warlike  relations  Mr.  <>ibbons  has  set  himself  to 'unravel. 
He  has  made  use  of  all  available  material  in  the  way  of  books 
and  has  i)aid  recent  visits,  with  opportunities  of  reaching 
the  best  sources  of  information,  to  Kgypt  and  other  places. 
'The  result  is  a  book  of  signal  importance  and  interest. 
****** 

The  two  first  volumes  of  their  British  Empire  Scries  issued 
by  the  International  Information  Committee  are  The  Re- 
soi*rces  of  the  Empire  and  The  Defenees  of  the  Empire.  The 
former  book  is  by  Dr.  J.  Watson  Grice  and  is  a  mine  of  valuable 
well  arranged  and  easily  assimilated  inforniation.  The 
other  lx)ok  is  in  the  capable  hands  of  Mr.  Archibald  Hurd. 
Both  lx)oks  are  admirably  suited  for  use  in  secondary 
schools,  and  dealing  as  they  do  with  live  subjects  frf)m  the 
vantage  jxiint  of  the  latest  jxissible  information,  might  well 
replace  some  of  the  dead  and  drv  books  on  history  and 
geography  now  in  use.  It  is  possible  that  there  are  occa.sion- 
ally  views  expressed  which  are  not  imiversaUy  held,  but -such 
views  are  ex])ressed  temperately  and  the  books  are  for  the 
most  part  ])urely  informative.  1  have  not  found  any  in- 
accuracies in  thns<?  ])oints  J  have  tested  by  verification. 
***** 

Many  of  the  sonnets,  of  which  John  Masefield's  new 
volume,  l.ollin'^don  Downs  and  other  I'nenix  (Heinemans. 
3s.  fxl.  net),  c'liiefly  consists,  are  truly  Shakespearean,  not 
only  in  form  but  also  in  ease  of  diction.  Their  subjects  are 
mainly  a  series  of  amplifications  of  the  fiucslion,  "  Who  and 
what  am  I  ?  "  framed  in  a  questing  but  not  uniovful  spirit  of 


doubt.  This,  though  by  no  means  the  most  beautiful,  may 
be  taken  as  a  characteristic  sample  : 

Is  it  a  sea  on  which  tfve  souls  embark 

Out  of  the  body,  as  men  put  to  sea  ? 

()r  do  we  come  hke  candles  in  the  dark 

In  the  rooms  in  cities  in  eternity  ? 

Is  it  a  darkness  that  our  flowers  can  light  ? 

Is  this,  our  httle  lantern  of  man's  love, 

A  help  to  find  friends  wandering  in  the  night 

In  the  unknown  country  with  no  star  above  ? 

Or  is  it  sleep,  unknowing,  outlasting  clocks 

That  cmtlast  men,  that,  though  the  (xjck  crow  ring. 

Is  but  one  peace,  of  the  substance  of  the  rocks  ; 

Is  hut  one  -space  in  the  now  unquickened  thing  ; 

Is  but  one  joy.  that,  though  the  million  U»'c, 

Is  one,  always  the  same,  one  life,  one  fire  ^ 

This  is  one  Masefield,  the  exquisite  lyrist.  The  other 
Masefield  is  also  represented  in  this  volume  in  sucj^  wise : 

"  Stop  Ix-ating  sister, 

.    Or  by  Cod  I'll  kill  you  !  " 

Kvrle  was  full  of  liquor. 

Old  Kyrle  .said  :  "  Will  yon  ?  " 

From  a  similar  inspiration  criticism  too  becomes  colloquial  and 
comments:  "  ^'ou  pays  your  money"  (as  I  hope  you  do, 
for  the  book  is  worth  it)  "  and  you  takes  your  choice." 

**•**' 

While  Masefield  leaves  the  war  alone  in  Lollingdon  Do'tcnts, 
Charles  Murray  wiites  A  Sough  o'  U'er,  (Constable;  and  Co. 
IS.  net.)  Here  we  learn  once  more  from  a  musical  lyrist 
of  Scotland  in  the  War  : 

An'  burrdly  men,  fae  strath  and  glen, 

An'  fhepherds  fae  the  brecht  an'  hill 
Will  show  them  a',  whate'er  beta', 

Auld  .Scotland  counts  for  something  still. 

The  dialect  is  not  always  easy  for  the'  mere  Southron' 
as  in  the  argument  to  that  charming  j)oem  "  Hair}-  Hears 
Jvie  Home  "  ; 

The  aul'  man  starts,  gey  grumbie  as  ye  see, 
Syne  the  gweed-wife  taks  hand  an'  cairries  on, 

Mary,  the  neiper  lass  pits  something  tee 

An'   last   comes  Sandy — he's  a  nickum  thon. 

But,  let  me  reassure  you  there  is  a  glossary  ! 

***** 

It  is  by  an  easy  stride  that  we  get  from  verse  to  .•^hantinikelan 
(Macmilian  and  Co.  4s.  M.  net),  which  is  the  name  of  the  famous 
school  of  Sir  Rabindra  Nath  Tagorcj,  where  the  poet's  songs  are 
sung  by  the  pupils,  morning  and  evening.  The  school  and 
its  aims  arc  very  interestingly  described  by  Mr.  W.  W. 
Pearson,  who  has  e\idently  come  very  completely  under 
what  we  may  perhaps  be  allowed  to  call  its  Montessoriental 
atmosphere,  and  who  writes  with  a  catching  enthusiasm. 
The  book  also  c(mtains  a  story  told  to  the  pupils  by  one  c 
their  favourite  masters  who  has  recently  died— -a  youth.  I 
gather,  of  great  promise. 


Burke's  Peerage,  once  irreverently  called  the  English  gentle- 
woman's Hible,  is  a  joy  for  ever  to  those  who  delight  in 
tracing  out  the  pedigrees  or  relationships  of  families  possessing 
hereditary  titles.  Tlie  edition  of  1917  has  just  been  issued 
by  the  Booksellers  to  the  King,  Messrs.  Harrison  and  <  o., 
4i,  Pall  Mall  {(,2  2s.)  As  usual,  it  is  edited  by  Mr.  Ashworth 
Burke,  who  contributes  a  most  interesting  preface.  A  remark- 
able feature  of  the  peerage  history  of  iqib  was  the  calling  out 
of  abeyance  of  five  baronies,  one  of  which,  Strabolgi,  had 
been  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation  since  i.^bg.  It  is^ 
curious  to  reflect  that  punishment  incurred  through  com- 
plicity in  the  Walter  Raleigh  conspiracy  of  1603,  should  only 
have  been  finally  remitted  in  1916.  Such  is  the  case  of  the 
baronies  <-f  Burgh  and  Cobham.  The  House  of  Lorfls, 
whatever may  be  its  failings  and  <lefects,  still  contains  repre-  - 
sentatives  of  famous  houses  closely  linked  with  the  growth  f 
and  development  of  hmgland.  It  may  be  added  that  the 
older  the  house  the  more  certain  it  is  to  have  been  the  home 
of  rebels  at  some  period  or  other  of  its  existence. 

Extreme  care,  as  ustial,  is  taken  in  compihng  these  pages. 
The  work  has  been  immensely  increa.sed  by  the  war,  with 
its  tragic  roll  of  honour  and  its  long  lists  of  promotions  and 
rewards.  Pew  people  realise  the  immensity  of  the  labours 
involved  in  this  task,  but  Burke  has  a  great  reputation  to 
live  uj)  to  aiul  this  volume  of  i<)i7,  notwithstanding  the  matiy 
changes  in  both  peerages  and  baronetages  (luring  the  preceding 
twelve  months,  fully  maintains  its  honourable  record.  This 
issue  is  ri>markable  for  the  fact  that  the  Royal  peerages  of 
Albanv  and  Cumberland  are  omitted  from  its  naws. 


Rla}'  17    1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


PERFECT-FIT  SHIRTS 

There  is  a  two-fold  excellence  about  a 
Harrods  Shirt,  plainly  recognised  in  its  appear- 
ance, and  still  more  plainly  recognised  in 
the  extraordinary  ease  and  comfort  it  affords. 

That  is  the  reason  why  so  many  well  dressed  men 
order  and  re  order  shirts  from  Harrods,  even  from 
distant  places  of  the  world. 


HARRODS  Ld 


Richard    Barbidge 
MaDagiag  Director 


KHAKI 
SHIRTS 

Harnxls  Khaki  Service 
Shirts  are  made  on  the 
premises.  t'hey   are 

made  from  materials 
specially  selected  for 
taieir  TOUGHNESS 
and  NON-SHRINK- 
•IXO    qualities. 

In  Warm    Flannel 

16/6  and  12  6 

Taffeta    (light  or 

dark   shade)    -  12/6 

Medium   Weiglit 
Flannel       (light 
shade)     -        -    10/6 
Twill  Cotton      -     6/6 
Oxford  or  Zephyr    T jQ 

LONDON   SW 


Willi 
Hllf-Hantcr 
CoTCr» 

£3  15 


£3/3 


J.  W.  BENSON 

LTD 

•Active  Service'  WRISTLET  WATCH 
Fully  Luminous  Figures  &  Haiidt 
Warranted  Timekeepers 

n  Silver    Cases  with     Screw    Hrrel 

and  Back.  JU!!   Sis.   Gold,  ^H. 

With     Hunter    or    Hall-Hunter    cover 

Silver,   an    los        Gold,  *:8  lOs. 

Others  in   Silver    Irom     Al'-Z    ills. 

Gold   Irom   JI2f5. 

.    Military  Badge  Brooches 

Jlny  Regimental  ^adge  Perfectli/ 
Modelled. 
PRICES  ON  APPLICATION 

Sketches  sent  /or  approval. 

£8"      25  OLD  BOND  ST.,  W.I. 

and  62&64  LUDQATE  HILL.   B.C.  4. 


KLIS 


FLEXIBLE 
PUTTEES 


expand   Ukii  elastic,  yet    there  is  no  rubber  in  tliem. 

Tlieir  wonderful  elafitioity  is  entirely  du*  to  a  special  method  at 
weaving,  winch  enables  the  clr-th  to  expand  on  preevSiire,  and, 
iTitniediately  it  is   removed,  to  spring  back  to  its  normal  proportions. 

It  is  impofts-ible  to  put  Klis  Puttee.^  on  wrongly,  as  there  is  no 
right  or  Ictt,  and   no  twists  to  make. 

They  fit  perfectly,  whether  -wound  fro«n  kn«e  down  or  ankle  up, 
and  n^ever  restrict  eiither  the  muscles  or  blood-vessels. 

"  Tke   most    comfortable    puttees  that    I    have    ever 
come  across  during  over  32  years'  Army  Sendee.'* 

~H.  B.  Vaii'ghan  {Bt.-Col). 
Wool  only.      Price  8/6.      Tartan  Khaki,  Navy  Blue  or  French  Grey. 

BURBERRYS     Haymarket    LONDON 

8   &    10  Boul.   Malesherbes    PARIS,  also  Agents. 


Shoo'bred  t.  Finest 

APRICOT ■>  1/*i    PEACHE     MAX 
PEARS  1/6         Porl.rgel,     */^2 

APPLES  '^.1:.^^°'^ 


Peeled    «nd  Cored 


2/11  P 


Tin 


YELLOW 
PLUMS 

In  i  Gsllcn  Jars        m/" 


Per 
Pot 


GOOSEBERRIES 


Quarts 

9id. 


Masnumt         Double   M'ss 

1/1  1/4 


SALMON 


SMUGGIER BRAND    \  lA 
PER  LARGE  TIN       */^ 


GALIFORNIAN 
PLUMS 

READY    COOKED  2,1-  ?^' 
/        Tin 

datIes 

For  itewini  with  Rhubarb  flij^      lU 
No  Sugar  required  *'2^'    *"• 

MINERAL  WATERS^ 

Manufactured  upon  the  Premise-' ^ 

Lowe«t  Pricea. Finest  Quality. 


TRIPLEX  Safety  GLASS 


GOGGLES,      WINOSCRECNS.      AND      WINDOWS. 


20 


LAND    &     WATER 


May  17,  1917 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


Use  Corn 
Sjrrup 


A'afncs  and  adiirfsses  0/  s/wps,  ifJu'rc  the  articifs  men/toned 
can  be  cbtained,  will  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
addressed  to  I'asscParlout,  Land  tS:  Watkr.  5,  Lliancery 
Lane,  W.C  2.     Any  oilier  in/ormaJion  uill  be  given  on  request. 

]{cfore  very  long  now,  many  a  good  house- 
wife will  bo  turning  her  thoughts  to- 
wards jam  making  and  fruit  preservii.g. 
and  the  question  of  sugar  will  prom])tly  arise.  Owing  to  the 
sugar  shortage  the  Board  of  Agriculture  suggests  that  a  pro- 
portion of  com  syrup  should  be  used.  This,  last  year, 
was  tried  with  excellent  results,  both  jam  and  preserves 
in  which  corn  syrup  played  a  part  being  excellent. 

Com  syrup  is  made  from  maize  and  is  a  \'ery  wholesome 
product  possessing  peculiar  and  valuable  properties.  The 
right  proportion  to  use  in  jam  making  is  one  part  of  com 
syrup  to  two  of  sugar  though  the  quantities  vary  in  other 
recipes.  The  clever  and  experienced  buyer  of  a  big  London 
grocerj-  department  is  a  great  believer  in  com  syru]),  having 
studied  the  question  from  an  independent  point  of  view 
directly  the  Board  of  Agriculture  mooted  it.  The  syrup  is 
useful  in  jam-making  apart  from  the  saving  of  sugar  it  entails, 
becau.se  crystallisation  of  sugar  is  prevented,  while  the  yield 
in  jam  is  considerably  augmented. 

This  last  point  makes  its  chief  claim  to  economy.  There  is 
also  a  pleasant  tinge  of  patriotism  over  using  com  syrup, 
since  there  are  big  stocks  in  this  country,  and  it  naturally 
s;i\-es  the  available  supplies  of  sugar.  It  is  sold  in  seven 
pound   tins  costing  4s.   6d. 


Suede  Fi:i!shed 
Lisle 


A  firm  whose  gloves  are  always  un- 
usually good  are  now  scoring  a  great 
success  with  some  of  suMe  finished  lisle, 
so  like  suede  that  it  is  nothing  short  of  an  effort  to  detect  the 
difference.  These  gloves  are  beautifully  made  and  are  silk 
lined,  thus  making  them  fit  as  perfectly  as  the  most  expensive 
suede  glove  in  the  market  —now  a  costly  affair.  They  wash 
quite  beautifully  and  their  life  is  probabU^  quite  twice  as  fong 
as  that  of  the  ordinary  wash-leather  glove,  if  not  indeed  even 
a  little  longer.  I^eople  who  are  wearing  them  are  delighted 
with  the  adv-antage  the  silk  lining  gives,  for  not  only  do  they 
mould  the  hand  very  accurately  as  already  mentioned, 
but  they  make  the  glove  slip  on  and, off  in  the  most  delight- 
fully easy  fashion. 

Tnese  gloves  are  kept  in  black,  white,  yellow,  and  all  kinds 
of  pastel  colours,  in  exquisite  shades  of  beaver  and  grey. 
The  silk  lining  is  always  white  and  the  workmanship  througaout 
is  first  class.  The  gloves  have  a  couple  of  fasteners,  and  the 
price  is  3s.  gd.  Also  of  suede  finished  lisle  are  some  slip-on 
sacque  gloves,  white  or  black.  The  wrists  of  these  turned  back 
show  a  soft  silk  top  lining,  and  very  smart  the  whole  thing  is. 

Then  there  are  some  unlined  gloves  of  this  wonderful 
skin-resembhng  fabric.  They  cost  2s.  iid.,  and  repay  their 
initial  cost  over  and  over  again  before  their  career  is  ended. 


A  Wonderful 
Tool 


The  myriads  of  home  gardeners  should 
pay  heed  to  a  wonderful  little  tool, 
known  as  the  steel  hand-plough  and 
trench-hoe.  With  this  the  least  experienced  gardener  can 
get  over  the  land  in  a  remarkably  quick  way  and  do  a  great 
deal  of  useful  work  without  much  effort.  The  front  part  of 
the  tool  breaks  up  the  land,  the  back  hoes  or  weeds  it,  clean- 
ing the  most  neglected  soil  in  a  speedy  and  efficacious  manner. 
When  received  the  tool  must  be  put  firmly  on  the  handle, 
quite  an  easy  operation.  It  is  light  and  balances  so  well 
that  everybody  using  it  declares  it  indisjxjnsable. 

Already  it  has  been  adopted  with  good  results  in  Kew 
Gardens,  and  any  amount  of  lecturers  on  land  work,  si).^aking 
throughout  the  kingdom,  have  signed  it  with  the  seal  of  then- 
approval.  The  maker  sent  a  number  of  his  tools  to  various 
horticultural  authorities,  wishing  to  get  their  opinion  on  it 
before  he  finally  placed  it  on  the  market.  Their  opinion  was 
favourable  with  flattering  unanimity,  and  the  instrument  has 
Ixen  used  in  many  demonstrations. 
Such  a  tool  is  infinitely  better  than  the  majority  of  some- 
Ht  clumsy  garden  implements  that  fall  to  oi:r  lot.  They  in 


themselves  are  sufficiently  fatiguing,  but  a  clever  little  con- 
trivance hke  this  makes  labour  ligat  and  a  hard  task  easy  in 
an  almost  incredible  way. 

It  will  be  sent  post  free  anywhere  for  3s.,  carriag-'  being 
paid.  Since  it  first  became  known,  it  has  been  seiu  broad- 
cast to  all  parts  of  the  country,  those  concerned  being  in- 
cessantly employed  packing  and  despatching  it  and  always 
coping  with  Iresh  orders. 

Some  dropstitch  lisle  thread  hose  have  at 

Cool  Summer  \^^^  arrived  in  this  country  from  France, 

IOC  mgs  after  a    consi:'.erable    delay,    and    repay 

buying.     As  a  matter  of  fact   they  were   actually  ordered 

a  t.vclvemonth  ago,  and  this  enables  them   to  be  sold   at  a 

lower  price  than  the  next  consignment  can  carry. 

The  quahty  of  these  stockings  is  first  rate.  Though  all 
lisle,  they  possess  the  silky  finish  the  French  have  a  unique 
knack  of  imparting'  to  their  bettermost  thread  good^,  a 
knack  that  we  are  only  just  beginning  to  acquire  ourselves 
in  our  stocking  manufactures.  The  dropstitch  pattern, 
reaching  all  the  way  down  the  stocking  is  not  only  a  very 
pretty  and  effective  one  but  makes  it  just  the  thing  for  warm 
weather  wear.  Another  feature  is  that  these  stockings  are 
reliable  ones,  having  the  sp)ecial  recommendation  of  the 
famous  firm  selling  them — a  recommendation  which  sensible 
people  consider  always  worth  hiving. 

They  are  kept  in  black,  white,  Lincoln  green,  navy  blue, 
a  range  of  browns  and  more  tiian  one  shade  of  grey,  and  their 
price  of  3s.  gd.  per  pair,  in  view  of  all  contingent  circumstances, 
is  worth  giving. 


Gardening 
Gloves 


Slip  on  gloves  made  on  the  precise 
principle  of  a  housemaid's  glove  are  most 
useful  wear  for  gardening  or  duties 
inside  the  house.  They  are  of  lamb-skin  and  are  made  in 
large  sizes  so  that  they  slip  on  the  hand  very  easily  and  do  not 
confine  it  in  any  way. 

The  thumb  is  specially  strenglihened  and  the  glove  being 
a  strong  one  the  hands  are  protected  when  gardening,  even 
when  quite  rough  work  is  being  done.  Wlien  dirty  these 
gloves  can  be  easily  washed,  for  the  skins  are  reliable  and  good 
and  do  not  suffer  in  the  soapsuds.  The  amateur  gardener 
or  farm  worker  would  be  well  advised  to  invest  in  a  pair  of 
these  gloves  before  she  has  damaged  her  hands  needlesslv. 
Once  this  is  done  it  is  hard  and  tedious  work  to  get  them  into 
even  tolerable  condition  again. 

The  gloves  are  kept  in  two  kinds,  the  lighter  weight  pairs 
being  2s.  6d.,  and  the  heavy  weight  variety  3s.  They  arc  being 
boug.it  up  so  quickly  by  the  many  women  now  doing  con- 
siderable work  in  their  gardens  that  they  should  be  secured 
without  too  long  a  lapse  of  time. 


Washing 
Corsets 


The  comfort  of  really  reliable  corsets 
which  will  wash  without  injury  either 
to  their  bones  or  themselves  is  immense 
as  soon  as  summer  approaches.  It  is  not  every  corset  claim- 
ing to  be  washable  which  can  do  so  with  perfect  ivsHce.  Some 
now  being  sold,  however,  fulfil  to  the  very  utmost  all  that  they 
set  out  to  do  and  can  be  confidently  relied  upon. 

Many  points  mark  them  for  notice.  In  the  first  place 
they  are  very  lightly  boned,  a  feature  several  women  appreciate 
in  the  warm  season  of  the  year,  and  som?  few  all  the  year 
round.  The  bones  there  are,  are  of  real  whalebone,  so  there 
is  no  need  to  remove  them  when  the  corset  and  washing  tub 
meet.  Then  they  are  of  good  quality  coutille,  and  are  planned 
throughout  on  very  hygienic  lifies  and  specially  suitable  for 
V.A.D.  and  all  kinds  of  war-workers.  Added  to  all  this  the 
price  is  the  most  reasonable  one  of  9s.  6d.  in  all  sizes. 

Most  women  know  to  their  cost  the  ease  with  which  a  corset 
gets  soiled  round  the  waistline,  and  the  annoyance  it  is  until 
the  mark  is  removed.  In  the  usual  way  this  means  a  visit 
to  the  cleaners,  always  la.her  a  business.  These  washable 
corsets  simpHfy  the  probkm  promptly  and  most  conveniently, 
making  cleaning  at  home  a  cheap  and  a  very  easy  task. 

Passe  Partout. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXIX  No.  2873  [^TA] 


THURSDAY,   MAY  31,  1917 


-REGISTERED  AST     PUBUSHED  VVKEKLT 
_A  NEWSPAPER  J     PRICE    8EVENPENCE 


ttUli    IAfiV»fT> 


Oi-I^C^r^ 


By  Loui,    Kaemaeker,  D,awn  excUtiielu  lor  -Land  i    WnteT' 

John  Bull  :  "  A  hearty  welcome !     Gome  in,  mate  " 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  31    TQ17 


My  dear,  I  have  found 
the  Ideal  Polisher— 


the  very  kind  I  have 
wanted  for  ages. — Yes,  it's 
as  light  as  a  feather  and 
works  splendidly.  The  de- 
lightful part  is  that  it  enables 
you  to  polish  the  floor  with- 
out pulling  heavy  furniture 
all  over  the  place.  How  is 
that  ?  Well,  the  head  is 
swivelled  so  that  you  can 
work  under  tables,  chairs, 
sideboards.      It  is  called  the 


For  use  with  RONUK  Sanitary  POLISH. 

The  perfect  polishing  medium.     A  Ronuked 

surface    has   a   charm   and   a    distinctiveness 

unattainable  by  any  other  meant. 


0/  Stores,  Groccri,  Ironmongers  and  Oilmen, 
in  large,  medium,  and  small  TINS  ontij. 
Jilso  LIQUID  RONUK  In  upright   'Cm,. 


RONUK,  Ltd.,  ;°St1?n'- 


HOME 
POLISHER 

av.t    the    price    is    anly 

5  6 

It  is  absolutely  no  trouble 
to  polish  the  floor  now.  and 
it  used  to  take  such  a  long 
lime  and  was  such  jolly  hard 
work  with  the  old  methods. 
Besides  being  a  floor- 
polisher,  it  has  all  sorts  of 
other  uses,  and  I  really  could 
not  do  without  it  now. 
Why  don't  you  write  for 
their  inlerestmg  little  free 
booklet  which  tells  you  all 
about  it  ?  It  is  _ called 
'There's  the  Rub,"  and 
they  send  it  free  to  you  if 
>ou  drop  a  post  card  to 
RONUK,  Limited,  DejL  35. 
Fnrts'ade.  Briehlon. 


Compact  Light  Tents. 


"BIVOUAC"    TENT. 

(Regd.  I>Mtgn.) 
Made  in  three  «lze«.  Weight  of  smallest 
only  22  ounces.  Alwve  illustration  will 
give  some  idea  of  what  it  will  stand  in 
the  way  ot  hard  weather  and  rough  usage. 
White,    green   or   brown   roofs. 


"IMPROVED  GIPSY"  TENT. 

(Ucpd.  Bt-eign.) 
Note  extension  bacK  and  double  roof,  also 
overlap  to  carry  rain  from  tent'base.  Roof 
in  white,  green  or  brown  colours.     Weight 

only  40  ounces. 

V^e  specialise  in  supplying  light- 
weight tents  for  service  in  the 
field,  as  already  supplied  to 
thousands  of  Officers  of  the  British 
Expeditionary  Forces- 


"LITEWATE"  FOLDING  BATH 

TIGHTEST   ON   TUB   M.\RKKT.) 


Always  Safe  from 
W^eatner  Raids  in 

a  Dexter  .  .  •  neither  -wet  nor 
mud  can  get  tnrougn  Dexter 
Proofing  .  .  .  tlie  only  proolmg 
guaranteed  to  the  end  .... 
Dexter  Ventilation  is  as 
fine  a  safeguard  irom  smotner. 

"As  Britisn  as  the 
Weather — hut   Reliahle. 

Civilian  55/-  to  84-  Military  70'-  to  105/- 
Supplied      by     Agents      Everywhere 


Li'ok  for  the 
FOX -HEAD 
Label  — 


WdUacc,     Scott    Sc    Co.     Llvl.     (Wholesale),     Glasifow. 

o  •  • 

1 1  e  a  tl      Depot      in      London 
lOR      MILIIARY     DKXTKRS 

GOOCHSiTn 

BROMPTON   ROAD,  S.W.3 


"MOTOR"    TENT. 

(U*«d.  DeiiRD.) 
Weight  complete  with  poles,  peg«  and 
lines,  only  7  lbs.  As  suppliid  to  officers 
ol  the  1st  and  2nd  Lite  Guards  lor  Active 
Service  at  the  Front.  Root  in  green  or 
brown. 


citJuut 


lioyd's  Elastic  Putties  are  neat 
in  appearance,  and  btino  Qlaztxc 
tlh.v   senily    grip     the  leg    and 
permit  the  normal  action  of  the 
veins  and  muscles.    The  Ieg-tiredne«3  and 
foi>t-henviness    from  which  €0  many  men 
sTifTer    is    cauRe<i    by     wearing    ordinary 
Puttees,  which  mu%i  be  tightly  wound  to 
keop  in  position. 

BOYD'S 


F»XJTTEES 

(Patent) 

Made  from  the  finest  Egyptian  Cotton 
anil  be.st  Para  Rubber.  They  are  very 
dtnable,  wateiT)roofed,  and  are  both  re- 
versible and  intirchanseable.  Fastened 
by  Patent  Hooks  top  and  bovooin.  making 
them  easy  to  pnt  on  and  take  off. 

Mini*  in  liiihl  (€■  d'lrl,  '■/I'l^f.  dark  niirv.  <{-  tjliirk. 

Boyd's  Elastic  Puttees  are  claimed  to  be 

a    preventative    against,     and     cure    for, 

varicose  veins. 

OfnllIf<tftiy)(i3Stlit  rp  Tailors  A  Ontf/tfflr».  If  any 
'HJficttlt}/  in  procuririiJ,  urrite  to  the  Sole  Stokers: 


^^  riglit  &  Sons,  L*td.,  t^iiorn  Mill.",  nr.  Loiiphtxirough. 


Our       COMFY      SLEEPING  BAG.  rtfleasurement»-Open :    Diameter   28    ins. 

(Read.  T>i<iicn.)  depth,   Uin.      Closed:    Diameter   10   Ins., 

The    Warmrst    and   latest    Sleeping    Bafi,  lent^th   13  ins.      Width   of  parcel  4^    ins. 
ftcsignod  to  pack  up  very  small.     Weight  i      Weight  (wmi.lol.,'  «ith  s  wooden  sup 
from  1i   lbs.     Stuffed  real  elderifown.  port.s)  Only  15}  Ounces. 

LIGHTM/EIGHT  TtNT  Co.  (Dept.  U.  61  High  Holborn,  London/W  C. 


TERMS     OF     SUBSCRIPTION     TO 

"LAND     &     WATER 

(ESTABLISHED       l862.) 

AT    HOMF,— Twelve    Months  £z  15    0 

CANAD.\ — Twelve   Months  £1  15     0 

ELSEWHEREARROAD— Twelve  Months £1  19    6 

The    above  'ates    :nclude    all    St>er.;a!.  }Jumherf    and    posiaee. 


J) 


LAND  &  WATER.  01  i  Serjeants'Inn  Chancery  Lane,  London,  W.C.2 


M 


ay  31.  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


3 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  MAY  31.    1917 


CONTENTS 


John  Bull's  Welcome.     By  Louis  Raemaekcis 
Loyalty  of  Labour.     (Leader). 
Policy  of  the  War.     III.     By  Hilaire  Beiloc 
Jutland:  Twelve, Months  After.  ,  By  Arthur  Pollen 
Campaign  in  East  Africa.     By  Owen  Letcher 
From  the  Other  Side  of  the  Atlantic.     By.  A  Special 

Correspondent 
Salonika  and  its  Weather.     By  H.  Collinson  Owen 
Germans  and  the  Russians.     By  J.  C.  Van  der  Veer 
Ralph  Hodgson's  Verse.     By  J.  C.  Squire 
Books  to  Re'ad.     By  Liiiian  Oldershaw 
Cruise  of  the  "  Washpoij  '     By  Benet  Copplestone 
Amiens  in  War  Time.     By  an  Officer 
Domestic  Economy. 
Kit  and  Equipment. 


Page. 

I 

2 

4 

9 
II 

12 

13 
14 
15 
i6 

17 

20 
21 
25 


LOYALTY    OF     LABOUR 

THE  Prime  Minister  announced  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  innnediatcly  before  the  recess,  the  apiwint- 
ment  of  Commissions,  distriUuted  over  seven  areas 
of  tlic  United  Kingdom,  to  inquire  into  the  present 
industrial  unrest,  to  report  upon  the  operation  of  all  labour 
emergency  Icgishttion  and  to  make  recommendations  which 
will  tend  to  minimise-this  unrest  during  the  continuance  of  the 
war.  These  Commissions  are  to  set  to  work  at  once  and  their 
reports  are  to  be  handed  in  without  delay.  Mr.  Asquith 
spokb  admirably  on  the  question,  giving  expression  to  the 
thought  which  occupies  many  minds  in  respect  to  the  labour  - 
unrest  ;  for  it  is  widely  felt  that  it  indicates  difficulties  which 
may  become  increasingly  serious  in  the  future  relations  of 
labour,  not  merely  to  capital,  but  to  its  own  organisations  and 
to  the  State.  "  We  are  apt  " — these  are  Mr.  Asquith's 
words  and  they  define  a  vital  truth — "  to  think  in  the  terms 
of  the  nineteenth  century  or  of  the  early  years  of  the  present 
century  and  to  regard  the  economic  organisation  of  the  State 
as  it  then  developed  as  something  permanent,  as  a  fixed 
conviction  of  things.  It  is  very  difficult  for  most  of  us  to 
have  cither  the  imagination  or  the  sympathy  which  are  needed 
in  order  to  envisage  those  new  problems  emerging  under  new 
conditions,  calling  for  new  methods  of  treatment."  Yet 
these  problems  must  be  envisaged.: 

"During  the  recent  engineering  strike,  it  came  by  chance  to 
the  notice  of  the  present  writer  that  in  two  works  in  different 
parts  of  England,  when  the  men  "  went  out,"  they  expressed 
genuine  regret  to  their  employers  at  liaving  to  take  the  step. 
The  strike  was  conducted  in  perfect  good  temper  ;  there  was 
no  attempt  to  coerce  or  interfere  with  non-Union  men  '• 
the  Trades  Unionists  simply  withdrew  to  their  homes  until 
the  question  was'  settled,  when  tliey  returned  to  work.  One 
of  the  factories  was  engaged  on  important  munition  work 
of  a  very  tecfmical  character,  and  when  the  men  declared  that 
in  throwing  up  their  jobs  they  must  be  loyal  to  their  Union, 
the  question  was  ask^d  :  "  Do  you  then  consider  loyalty 
to  your  Trades  Union  comes  before  loyalty  to  your  country  or 
loyalty  to  your  fellows  in  the  firing  line  ?  "  The  answer 
was  :  "We  prefer  you  do  not  put  the  matter  in  this  light." 
But  it  is  the  very  light  in  which  it  should  be  placed.  Which 
loyalty  is  to  come  first,  when  country  and  trades  union  arc 
in  conflict.  It  would,  however,  be  a  not  unreasonable  retort  that 
the  country  must  Jirst  display  loyalty  to  labour  before  it 
has  the  right  to  demand  loyalty  in  return  ?  In  Mr.  Asquith's 
words,  "  We  have  to  seize  the  present  opportunity  to  bring 
the  whole  atmosphere  of  public  opinion  into  an  enlightened 
and  healthy  relationship  to  the  future  development  of  social 
and  industrial  jjroblems." 

Were  evidence  necessary  that  British  labour  in  the  mass 
is  loval  to  the  prosecution  of  the  war  until  military  victory 


is  complete,  it  would  be  lurnished  by  "fast  Sunday's  meeting 
in  Hyde  Park  of  the  British  Workers'  League.  It  was  a 
remarkable  demonstration  which  concluded  with  a  deputation 
to  the  Ambassadors  and  Ministers  of  our  Allies,  pledging  all 
patriotic  Britons  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  in  the  Domin.ons 
beyond  the  Seas,  "  to  continue  the  war  until  Europe  is  liberated 
from  the  menace  of  German  thraldom."  But  without  this 
demonstration,  the  loyalty  of  labour,  as  a  whole,  could  never 
have  been  in  doubt.  Our  armies  in  France  would  not  have 
existed,  far  less  inflicted  constant  defeat  on  the  German 
cohorts,  without  its  active  and  willing  co-operation.  We  ought 
to  recognise  that  this  loyalty  imposes  the  duty  on  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole  of  studying  the  problems  of  labour  with 
Sympathy  and  preventing  its  sense  of  loyalty  being  exploited 
no  matter  by  whom  or  in  what  connection. 

Two  weeks  have  passed  since  we  asked  here  whether 
speculation  in  foodstuffs  is  still  a  legal  operation,  and  whether 
prices  may  be  raised  artificially  for  private  profit,  even  in  these 
days  of  submarines  ?  Though  the  offence  continues  and  be- 
comes more  flagrant  every  week,  no  names  have  been  disclosed. 
If  a  man  shows  cowardice  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  he  is 
sentenced  by  a  court  martial  to  death,  and  is  shot.  The 
whole  nation  stands  to-day  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  ;  and 
surely  to  make  money  out  of  the  necessities  of  one's  own 
countrymen  at  a  time  like  the  present  and  thus  to  render  the 
difficulties  of  livehhood  more  severe  for  the  poor,  is  an 
infinitely  meaner  and  more  dangerous  sin  than  a  soldier's 
cowardice.  Yet  these  contemptible  offenders  not  only  arc 
not  brought  to  justice,  but  are  saved  by  officials  from  the 
pillory  of  public  opinion.  No  wonder  labouV  is  perturbed  when 
it  is  authoritatively  informed  that  the  excessive  prices  it  is 
called  on  to  pay  for  its  food  arc  not  due  to  the  war,  but  to 
the  disloyal  machinations  of  profiteers,  who  have  no  otliCj. 
thought  than  their  own  pockets.  It  is  high  time  that  a 
severe  example  was  given,  that  will  act  as  a  deterrent  to 
this  most  contemptible  form  of  offence  against  the  realm- 
Owing  to  LiOrd  Devonport's  health  giving  way  a  new  F"ood 
Controller  is  to  be  appointed.  Whoever  he  may  be,  he  will, 
we  trust,  enter  on  his  work  with  the  fixed  determination  to 
suppress  the  profiteer.  It  is  not  easy,  and  the  only  way  to 
succeed  is  to  attack  the  biggest  offenders.  Go  for  the  tiger 
and  leave  the  jackals  alone- 

Another  question  which  is  causing  considerable  and  in  our 
opinion,  reasonable  annoyance  to  labour,  is  the  talk  about 
prohibition.  To  reduce  or  even  tq  discontinue  the  brewing 
of  beer  in  order  to  win  the  war  is  one  question^  but  to  make 
the  war  an  excuse  for  a  crusade  against  alcohol,  a  subject  on 
which  opinion  is  sharply  divided  in  all  classes  of  society,  is 
quite  another  matter.  There  was  published  in  the  Times 
on  Monday,  a  letter  from  a  working  miner  in  South  Wales, 
a  well-educated  man,  who,  in  temperate  language,  pointed 
out  the  benefit  of  beer  to  a  man  engaged  in  heavy  muscular 
work.  Why  should  these  hard-working  and  loyal  men  be 
denied  the  reasonable  stimulant  they  have  been  accustomed 
to  siinply  to,  please  a  particular  school  of  reform  ?  This 
is,  we  are  sorry  to  say,  only  one  of  the  many  pin-pricks  fJ 
which  the  working-classes  have  been  subjected  by  the  stupidity 
of  their  so-called  superiors  since  the  war  began.  We  use  the 
'word  "  stupidity  "  advisedly  for  to  this  trait  is  due  lack  of 
sympathy  and  ignorance  of  true  conditions  which  are  at  the 
root  of  the  trouble.  The  slanders  about  war-babies  and  the 
drinking-habits  of  soldiers '-wi-^es  are  not  forgotten  ;  and  the 
exaggerated  stories  of  the  thriftlessness  of  munition  workers 
is  even  fresher  in  the  public  mind.  Why  Labour  should  be 
expected  to  be  free  from  the  normal  frailties  of  human  nature, 
or,  possessing  them,  be  regarded  as  devoid  of  all  the  virtues 
is  one  of  those  things  no  fellow  can  understand.  It  is  a 
commonplace  to-day  that  in  the  army  class  distinctions  have 
all  but  vanished  ;  men  drawn  from  all  walks  of  life  under- 
stand one  another  in  a  way  unheard  of  before  the  war.  This 
wider  understanding  should  be  put  into  practice  in  civil  hfe, 
for  we  shall  never  cultivate  better  relations  with  ourcountry- 
men  until  we  take  some  little  trouble  to  understand  them. 
And  until  we  do  understand  them,  we  shall  never  compre- 
hend the  principles  andideals  for  which  labour  is  striving  and 
for  which  it  is  prepared  to  wage  a  bloodless  war  on 
socictv  in  order  to  attain  the  end.  If  the  loyalty  of  labour 
is  uudoubted,  so  too  is  its  tenacity. 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  ji,  1917 


The  Policy  of  the  War- III 


By   Hilaire  Belloc 


The  Enemy's  Last  Plan 

IT  1^  iKjw  clear  what  plan  the  enemy  has  devised  for  his 
uext  apj>eal  to  the  conscience  of  civilisation.  To  put  it  in 
one  phrase  he  will  proclaiiii  his  own  conversion  to  the 
national  jaiinciple,  and  his  -projHJsal  to  establish  it  in 
the  areas  he  still  holds.  ,  ■    . 

Well,  if  that  establishment  includ(*  the  CQnjiervation  of 
I'russia  with  its  power  for  armament,  its  historic  continuity 
and  oq^wnic  life,  Eurojie  is  defeated.  \ 

Not  only  is  Europe  defeated  but  Great  Britain  and  all  the 
c.\tended  scheme,  which  has  Great  Britain  for  its  centre,  has 
lost  forever  that  secufity  which  is  essential  to  its  being.  Its 
future  is  abandoned  and  its  catastrophe  has  begun. 

W  hy  can  one  say  at  the  present  moment  that  the  enemy  has 
been  driven  to  such  straits  that  he  is  compelled  to. deny  the 
whole  of  his  past  and,  as  it  were,  his  very  soul  ? 

The  enemy  is  Prussia.  What  we  call  Germany  is  only  the 
Germans  organised  as  Prussians  and  by  Prus.sians,  while  the 
other  half  of  the  huge  combination  agamst  Europe  and  right 
living  is  now  entirely  vassal  to  Prussia.  Now  the  whole 
history  of  Prussia  for  200  years  has  been  the  negation  of 
national  right  and  of  the  national  idea — in  general,  of  Free- 
dom. This  is  not  an  inference,  or  a  deduction  made  against 
men  who  deny  it.  It  is  a  statement  drawn  from  their  own 
lips  and  their  own  writing,  not  only  from  all  that  they  have 
done,  but  from  all  that  they  have  said  and  jiroclaimed  and 
laid  down  as  their  creed.  Hence  the  form  of  this  war.  Hence 
the  insolent  proclamation  of  conquest  in  1014  ;  hence  the 
amazing  and  hitherto  unparalleled  ultimatum  to  Serbia ; 
hence  the  cynical  contempt  for  all  treaties  ;  hence  the  viola- 
tionof  Belgium  amid  the  universal  aji^irobation  of-the  German 
j;)eopJe  ;  hence,  later,  the  enslavement  of  th«>u;ivilian  pojju- 
lation  ;  hence  the  murder  of  non-combatants  ;  hence  the 
ridicule  of  the  democracies,  especially  when  they  were  national  ; 
lience  the  conception  that  there  was  in  noble  enthusiasm 
something  weak  '.  lience  the  base  but  terribly  dangerous  poison 
wliich  has  been  introduced,  during  our  generation,  into 
the  history  and  into  too  much  of  the  philosophy  of  Europe. 

When  Prussia  ])retends  to  a  respect  for  national  freedom 
and  for  national  right  it  is  as  though  the  Erench  had  aban- 
doned the  conception  of  glory  or  the  British  that  of  law  ;  why 
» an  we  predicate  that  so  enormous  a  revolution-  superficial 
though  it  be  and  purely  diplomatic,  and  only  for  the  mement — 
has  been  imposed  upon  the  enemy  by  the  increasing  su()eriority 
of  hi?<  \\  estern  foes  ? 

We  have  it  in  the  following  indications  : 

The  enemy  has  already  long  insisted  upon  the  injury  done 
to  small  and  neutral  nations  upon  his  frontiers  by  the  blockade. 
He  had  already  many  months  ago  begun  the  thesis — utterly 
new  to  him,  unheard  in  his  lips  since  before  the  days  of 
Frederick — that  there  was  something  sacred  about  freedom 
and  international  law. 

He  has  called  for  "  the  freedom  of  the  seas."  He  has  argued 
like  any  ])edant  for  particular  points  of  custom  in  the  European 
comity  and  has  professed  a  strange  regard  for  ideals  which  he 
alone  opposed  at  the  Hague. 

Next  came  a  far  more  important  thing.  He  plumped  for 
the  resurrection  of  Poland. 

There  was  to  be  a  Poland  once  more  ;  mutilated,  under 
tutelage,  defined  by  alien  powers,  but  at  any  rate  a  nation. 
Thi>.  from  the  murderers  of  Poland,  was  something  much  more 
astonishing  than  opinion  in  the  noise  and  tumult  of  the  Great 
War  could  at  tirst  recognise.  It  was  a  landmark  in  that  decline 
of  Prussian  power  which  the  Great  War  has  effected  and  is 
tffet  tin^'  more  and  more  thoroughly  with  every  passing  day. 

But  the  last  sign  that  this  policy  of  pretending  to  a-settlement 
upon  just  national  lines  and  therefore  to  a  peace  that  shall  save 
the  assassin  from  the  scaffold  is  the  mSst  significant  of  all. 

The  Austro-Hungarian  Empire  has  perfected,  and  will  be 
urged  bv  its  master  to  propose,  a  plan  which  w  ill  seem  to  those 
who  half  know  their  Europe  the  very  solution  for  which  the 
war  was  waged.  It  is  without  the  least  doubt  a,plan  for  the 
full  recognition  of  nationalities — where  those  nationalities 
do  not  interfere  with  the  continuance  of  Prussian  military 
power— that  is,  with  our  own  future  doom. 

Remember  for  a  moment  what  the  Crown  of  the  Hapsburgs 
represents.  The  house  of  Hapsburg-I.orraine  governs  by 
various  titles  what  are  roughly  three  groups  of  races;  the 
Gcrman-spcaking  Austriaas.  the  independent  Magjais,  the 


separated  Uidies  of  Slavs.  The  latter,  though  scjjaratcd  not 
only  in  space  but  in  soul  by  differences  of  religion,  of  custom 
and  even  of  language,  arc  yet  the  majority.  E.xactly  lifty 
years  ago  when  Vienna  still  pretended  to  the  recovery  of 
4eadershi])aAong  the  Germans,  a  comiironiisegavethc  Magyars 
an  equal  seat  in  jiower  with  the  German-speaking  portions  of 
the  Empire  upon  the  basis  of  a  mutual  oppyssion  of  all  that 
was  not  Magyar  or  German,  that  is,  in  the  rough,  the  Mag\ar- 
Austrian  Alliance  was  founded  upon  a  mutual  oppression  of 
the  Slav  fracfions.  That  opjiression  was  a  far  milder  thing 
than  the  savage  brutality  of  Prussia,  but  it  was  none  the  less 
a  denial  of  nationality,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Magyars  qn  open 
.  proclamation  that  the  races  concerned  were  rto'i  subjects  of 
the  common  crown  upon  equal  terms. 

The  spirit  of  that  compromise  has  departed.  Central  Euroi)e 
dragged  into  complicity  with  the  Prussian  crime  with  all  to 
lose  or  gain  together  has  no  further  use  for  Magyar  privilege, 
and  the  scheme  is  to  come  forward  with  a  re-establishment  of 
nations  under  the  Hapsburg  Crown,  and  in  its  neighbourhood 
each  enjoying  something  of  self-realisation.  The  Galici;ui 
Poles  shall  be  in  the  mam  attached  to  the  new  autonomous 
Poland,  the  Cxpchs  shall  have  their  State  ;  Serbia  sliallre-arise 
within  limits  regarded  afi  properly  her  own.  Bulgaria  will 
be  gratified  with  the  districts  the  loss  of  which  moyed  her  so 
profoundly  and  led  her  into  the  Alliance  against  theWest  and 
to  a  fellowshin  with  tlie  Turk.  It  is  evm  possible  that  some 
concession  will  be  made  to  the  Roumanian  people  in  Tran- 
sylvania. 

In  other  words,^  tl^e  house  of  Hapsburg-Lnrraine  can,  when 
the  moment  is  rij*.  come  forward  before  Europe,  and  say  that 
the  principle  for  which  in  the  main  Europe  had  fought  is  con- 
ceded. It  miy  well  allows  plainly  Itahan  fringes  to  revert  to 
Italy  ;  it,  will  still  more  readilvallow  a  popular  vote  in  the 
disputed  belts  close  by.  The"  new  l':mi)eror  has  dismissed 
from  his  councils  the  man  who  stood  most  for  the  old  Magyar 
dom  nation  over  the  Slavs  ;  he  has  accepted  among  the  new 
men  two  Germanised  Bohemians,  and  BcrclitoW,  who  is  but 
half  German.  The  new  reign  has  put  it  about  through  the 
Press  of  Europe  that  the  largest  concessions  will  be  made, 
esjiecially  to  the  Pohsh  claim,  and  Prussia  upon  her  side  has 
widely  advertised  at  once  the  violent  protests  of  politicians 
andrjournahsts  who  do  not  count  and  the  conyjysion  of  those 
who  do. 

The  plan  coincides  with  the  moment  when  the  Parlia 
mentary  sociahsts — tiny  and  desi)erafelv  unpf)pular  minorities, 
but  given  ]x>wcr  by  the  strange  modern  development  of 
professional  politics— arc  in  all  I'arlianientarv.  countries 
alternating  (under  what  .secret  guidance  we  do'  ric^  know) 
to  rob  us  of  victory.  ' 

As  their  evil  activity  develops,  the  moment  when  Prussia, 
acting  through  Austria,  can  proclaim  her  conversion  grows 
nearer.     It  is  perhaps  already  nearly  due. 

How  would  this  scheme  when  the  moment  Tor  putting  it 
forward  m  its  fulness  is  ripe,  affect  Prussia,  who  alone  is  the 
mistress  and  the  Vralculator  of  the  whole  ?'  It  would  be  the 
salvation  of  Prussia  :  that  is  the  result  in  (me  word.  For  th(i 
Polish  provinces  nothing  would  be  simpler  than  to  jirrange 
a  vote  which  would  gi\e  now  to  one  little  district  adhesion 
to  the  new  KingdQm  of  Poland-  now  for  another  a  German 
majority.  For  a  third  so  doubtful  a  situation  that  no  "  prac- 
tical man  "  could  insist  upon  its  restoration  to  Poland. 
Prassia  has  all  the  officials,  all  the  secret  police,  all  the 
machinery.  Prussia,  in  her  census  counts  everything  German 
that  can  speak  German.  Danzic,  without  which  Poland  could 
never  live,  would  be  hopelessly  lost  to  Poland  under  such 
a  scheme.  The  necessary  port,  the  necessary  access  to  the 
sea  would  remain  Prussian.  The  religious  differences  of  the 
Masurian  region  would  play  their  part  ;  ths  mineral  wealth 
of  Silesia  would  quite  certainly  be  \'oted..iiito  the  Prussian 
scheme,  and  Poland  would  re-arise  not  a  great  State  defending 
our  Western  ideals  upt)n  the.  further  flank  of  our  loes,  but  a 
crippled  State  vassal,  under  a  nominal  freedom,  to  Cicrman 
jjower. 

And  what  upon  the  other  front?  To  •'restore"  Belgium 
without  indemnity  and  with' Prussia  still  standing,  simply 
means  that  Prussia  can 'at  will,  and  at  anv  moment,  reach  the 
Narrow  Seas.  and.  that  Antwerp  shall  '  he  for  the  future 
yirtuallv  a  German  town.  It  means  that  Holland  technically 
free  shall  be  under  German  domination. 

As  for  the  evacuation  of  the  strip  uf  France  still  held— that. 


May  31,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


without  indemnity  and  without  punishment,  is  license  given 
lor,  and  tiiiinipli  in,  every  crime  of  which  u  nation  can  be 
guilty ;  lor  rajie,  for  arson,  for  enslavement  and  for  the  rest 
which  you  j<now.  Upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  that  same 
principal  of  a  ]>opular  vote  after  more  than  a  generation  of 
enforced  colonisation,  after  a  war  which  has  ruined  the  man- 
hood of  the  oldest  stock,  after  fifty  years  of  a  Prussian 
bureaucracy,  would  leave  I  know  not  what  grotesque  frontier — r 
and  certainly  the  iron  by  whicli  she  can  destroy  us — to  Prussia. 

Upon  the  narrow  Danish  belt  the  scheme  quite  certainly 
leaves  Prussia  the  mistress  of  the  canal  between  the  two 
seas  and  possessed  of  the  ]>ower,  as  in  the  case  of  Holland 
and  of  Belgium,  at  will  and  at  any  moment,  to  command  all 
Denmark  and  the  natural  issues  of  the  Baltic. 

All  this  can  be  effected.  Prussia  not  only  saved,  but  saved 
insolent  and  immune  by  a  scheme  that  shall  pretend  to 
recognition  of  national  rights  at  last,  and  to  concede  the  ideal 
for  whicIi  the  noblest  have  died,  and  in  restraint  of  which  the 
basest  in  Europe  liave,  thank  God,  in  greater  numbers,  been 
killed. 

The  best  way  to  prevent — in  the  old  and  full  sense  of  the 
word  "  prevent  "that  is,  to  come  before  and  to  stop — such  a 
catastropjie,  is  to  recognise  its  preparation,  to  be  forewarned 


against  it  and  to  know  its  nature,  not  only  for  the  hypocritical 
thing  it  is,  but  for  the  mortal  danger  to  this  country  which  it 
conceals. 

There  is  for  all  the  West,  and  in  particular  for  Britain,  but 
one  solution  other  than  surrender  and  rapid  decline.  Mr. 
Asquith,  has  put  it  more  simply  and  better  than  any  other 
public  man  :  The  Allie;s  must  obtain  complete  restitution, 
complete  reparation,  and  more  important  than  either  of  these, 
complete  guarantees.  These  three  things,  thoroughly 
achieved,  make  up  victory ;   less  than  this  is  defeat. 

To  prophesy  defeat  or  victory  is  the  part  of  a  tool,  and  it 
is  a  tolly  in  which  this  war  has  abounded  upon  every  side — 
though  more  (as  was  characteristic)  upon  the  enemy's  side 
than  upon  our  o\vnr'^  To  define  defeat  and  victory  is  another 
matter.  It  is  the  part  of  every  man  who  claims  to  intelli- 
gence, and  to  a  sense  of  justice  in  this  world-wide  affair,  which 
will  decide  everything  for  our  children  and  for  their  children 
and  their  children  again. 

But  there  is  still  this  ol^ection.  Why  should  we  say 
that  there  is  thus  only  the  vivid  alternative  of  defeat  or 
victory  ?  Why  should  we  say  that  the  enemy's  apparent 
concession  is  a  certain  humiliating  and  disastrous  defeat  ?  I 
propose  in  the  last  of  this  series  to  answer  this  question. 


The  Russian  Front 


f 


The  Russian  Revolution  and  its  immediate  consequence 
of  confusion  has  led  to  a  good  deal  of  loose  talking  about 
the  Russian  front.  I  mean  by  "loose  talking"  talking;  in 
general  terms  of  advantages  the  enemy  has  obtained. without 
any  detailed    consideration  of  his  real  position. 

The  uncertainty  on  this  front  has  been  recently  modified 
to  our  advantage  ;  but  it  is  still  true  that  the  enemy  can 
count  on  a  certain  larger  measure  of  relief.  He  cannot 
count  on  suck  relief  as  this  summer  would  have  afforded  him 
ij  the  old  regime,  strongly  organised  and  united,  had  Concluded 
a  separate  peace.  But  he  has  at  least  the  asset  of  divided 
counsels  among  those  who  oppose  his  Eastern  front,  and  until 
such  divisions  are  resolved  the  position  will  remain  indeter- 
minate. 

Meanwhile,  the  problem  is  sufficiently  determinate  to  permit 
of  careful  examination,  and  the  conclusion  of  such  an  exami- 
nation is  that — as  things  now  stand — the  enemy  cannot 
afford  to  weaken  his  Eastern  forces  in  any  considerable 
degree. 

Looking ,  at  the  problem  on  its  .very  broadest  lines,  it 
is  clear  that  with  so  uncertain  a  position  before  him  a 
commander  must  at  the  very  least  safeguard  himself  against 
the    future. 

Though  the  enemy's  lines  upon  the  Eastern  front  be  reduced 
till  it  is  only  strong  enough  for  the  niere  task  of  watching  its 
opponent,  it  must  at  least  be  strong  enough  for  that  task. 
It  must  be  able  to  garnish  even  the  quietest  sectors,  and  it 
cannot  afford  a  gap  anywhere.  Now  we  judge  very  ill  of  the 
situation  if  we  imagine  that  the  watching  of  so  immense  a  line 
is  a  negligible  business,  even  though  offence  against  it  be 
delayed.  Down  to  the  Danube  alone — that  is  excluding  the 
Macexlonian  front — the  enemy  is  concerned  with  more 
than  double  the  length  of  line  he  has  to  watch  on  the  West, 
and  he  can  afford  no  solution  of  continuity  in  that  lint. 

Let  us  grant,  then,  as  a  first  principle,  that  with  matters  in 
their  present  condition  something  more  than  a  thousand  miles 
of  line  or  more  than  1,700  kilometres*  have  got  to  be  at  the 
very  least,  guarded.  Let  us  go  into  the  detail  of  this  task 
so  as  to  protect  ourselves  against  vague  statements  of  an 
alarmist  character. 

We  must  begin  by ''dividing  this  great  line  into  two  distinct 
portions. 

There  is  a  portion  north  of  and  a  portion  south  of  the  Pripet 
river  with  its  extensive  marshes.  These  two  portions  af^ofd 
very  different  military  problems  and  are  treated  by  the  enemy 
in  very  different  ways. 

Roughly  speaking,  it  is  the  south  of  the  Pripet  Marshes  that 
the  chief  anxiety  for  the  enemy  exists.  Roughly  speaking, 
again,  this  anxiety  increases — in  other  words  the  efficiency  of 
the  pressure  he  suffers  or  may  have  to  suffer  increases — as  you 
go  from  the  Pripet  Marshes  southward  to  the  yEgean  Sea  and 
the  Macedonian  front,  that  is,  from  left  to  right. 

The  Northern  portion  from  the  Pripet  Marshes  to  the  Baltic, 
which  is  rather  less  than  half  the  whole,  is  that  portion  where  he 
can  afford  to  put  his  worst  troops  and  to  attempt  a  holding 
of  the  line  with  the  smallest  numbers.  The  Southern  calls 
for  greater  and  greater  efffrt,  and  that  in  an  increasing  degree 
as  the  .(Egean  is  approaclled. 

*  From  the  Danube  to  <hp  Baltic  the  existing  Une,.without  allowing 
for  innumerable  localins  and  outs,  and  measured  only  in  its  simplest 
and  most  general  form,  is  1,640  000  metres  lonM. 


There  are  for  this  position  several  cgiuses. 

There  is  first  a  political  cause  which  it  is  not  necessary  to 
discuss  at  length  but  with  which  everyone  is  fairly  familiar, 
including  the  fact  that  the  Allied  Western  armies  are  in  full 
strength  upon  the  Mgea.n  front  and  are  untouched  by  the 
political  situation  in  Russia. 

Next  there  is  the  constitution  of  the  forces  opposed  to  the 
enemy  on  this  front,  and  their  density  ;  next,  there  is  the 
climatic  condition.  The  Northern  part  of  the  front  dries 
much  later  and  the  opportunities  for  action  come  from  a 
month  to  six  we«ks  after  similar  opportunities  for  action  in 
the  South. 

There  is,  again,  the  strategical  truth  that  the  ^Egean  front 
is  vital  to  the  enemy  because  it  protects  his  communication 
with  Turkey  and  the  Roumanian  front ;  equally  vital  because 
it  protects  a  considerable  field  of  supply. 

I'lie  Carpathian  front  in  its  turn,  and  that  of  Volhynia  to 
the  north  of  it  he  must  regard  more  jealously  than  the  Polish 
and  Lithuanian  front  because  it  has  immediately  behind  it 
territory  the  invasion  of  which  would  be  very  grave,  and  such 
points  as  Kovel  and  Lemberg  further  west,  while  immediately 
in  front  of  the  Bukovina  you  have  the  passes  leading  into 
Hungary.  However  much  we  -discount  the  chances  of  a 
successful  offensive  at  any  point  here — and  that  is  a  matter 
of  opinion  or  rather  of  judgment  upon  the  internal  affairs 
of  our  Ally — it  is  not  ab.sent  from  the  problem.  It  cannot 
de  eliminated  and  it  certainly  cannot  be  neglected  :  nor  has 
the  enemy  neglected  it  as  we  shall  see  in  a  moment.  The 
Northern  half,  on  the  other  hand,  between  the  Pripet  Marshes 
and  the  sea,  covers  only  vast  Polish  and  Lithuanian  stretches 
of  territory  which,  however  important  as  a  political  asset  to  the 
enemy,  are  not  part  of  his  patrimony.  A  fluctuation  of  the 
line  here,  should  it  occur,  would  have  no  grave  results  for  the 
enemy,  unless  it  were  on  a  very  large  scale. 

Lastly,  we  must  note  the  geographical  conditions.  North 
of  the  Pripet  River  vast  forests,  marshes,  and  very  numerous 
lakes  and,  for  the  last  part  of  the  line,  a  strong  river  obstacle, 
reduce  to  a  minimum  the  number  of  men  required  to  hold 
the  line.  South  of  the  Pripet  marshes,  all  the  way  to  the 
Danube  there  is,  save  in  a  few  special  sectors,  no  natural 
obstacle  on  which  the  line  can  rest  and,  save  on  the  extreme 
north  next  to  the  Pripet  Marshes  themselves,  there  is  fairly 
open  country. 

It  is  true,  as  against  all  this,  that  probably  the  ease  of  muni- 
tionment  is  greater  ip  the  North  so  far  as  mere  communications 
are  concerned,  but  that  is  certainly  more  than  balanced  by  the 
political  situation,  and  the  proximity  of  the  revolutionary 
committees  in  the  capital. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  state  of  affairs  we  find  that  of  four 
great  army  groups  only  one,  that  commanded  by  Eichorn, 
is  concerned  with  the  watching  of  the  line  north  of  the  Pripet 
Marshes.  From  the  River  Pripet  itself  where  this  special 
sector  begins,  up  to  the  Baltic,  the  German  line  extends  over 
nearly  500  miles — 880,000  yards—  if  we  take  it  in  its  simplest 
pcssible  form,  without  allowing  for  any  detail  at  all. 

If  we  were  to  take  it  in  all  its  local  sinuosities  it  would  come, 
of  course,  to  much  more. 

In  other  words,  we  are  dealing  with  far  more  'than  800,000 
yards.  Almost  certainly — if  we  had  every  yard  to  measure — 
with  more  than  900,000  yards. 

Now  to  hold  this  very  extended  line  the  enemy  has  detached 
a  great  deal  less  than  one  man  to  the  yard.     Even  if  we  allow  the 


LAND    &     WATER 


May  31.  1017 


averag:e  number  of  mon  in  his  now  depleted  divisions  to  be  a 
lull  I5,ooo--which  it  almost  ctTtainly  is  not—he  would  only 
have  045,000  men  with  which  to  watch,  say,  tKX),ooo  yards 
of  front.  He  has,  or  had  (just  before  the  pres<!nt  Anglo-French 
offensive)  the  equivalent  of  just  4.]  divisions  between  the 
Pripet  and  the  Baltic  Of  these  nearly  all  were  German,  only 
the  equivalent  of  li  divisions  were  Austrian. 

It  is  true  that  lakes,  marshes  and  woods  continually  inter- 
rupt this  line  and  save  a  number  of  men.  Were  it  not  so  he 
could  not  dream  of  holding  with  so  few  men.  In  the  west, 
lor  instance,  three  times  this  number  of  men  would  hardly 
suffice  for  such  a  lepgtli  of  line. 

Not  only  is  this  portion  of  his  front  thus  denuded  of  men 
but  it  is  also  thi-  portion  upon  which  he  has  put  his  worst 
(]uality  of  men.  .Something  like  half  his  total  here  is  l^nd- 
sturm  or  reserve,  and  the  remainder  shows  no  units  taken 
from  his  best  recruiting  fields. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  liow  a  line  of  that  sort  can  Ix-  further 
weakened.     It  is  the  bare  minimum  for  merely  watching. 

He^may  indee<i  u^esuch  a  district  as  a  sort  of  resting  ground  ; 
taking  from  it  elements  which  have  been  tried  by  no  severe 
lighting  for  many  months  and  replacing  them  by  the  fatigued 
remnants  of  those  who  have  pa.ssed  through  the  ordeal  of  the 
West.  But  it  is  obvious  that  he  cannot  effect  even  this 
mutation  upon  any  very  large  sc^le.  It  would  involve  too  com- 
plicated a.  system  of  movemeni  and  far  too  nnicii  congestion 
of  his  railway.s.  TMoreover,  the  liuman  material  he  would 
bring  back  westward  by  such  m\itations  would  not  be  the 
equivalent  in  fighting  value  by  a  long  way  of  the  active 
divisions  retired  from  the  west.  What  the  quality  of  the 
troops  doing  his  j)ainful  work  of  resistance  upon  the  West  is, 
we  know  from  the  names  of  those  who  have  specially  [distin- 
guished themselvesi  We  have  had  divisions  of  the  (iuards, 
we  have  had  the  3rd  and  5th  Bavarian,  etc.  ;  we  have  had 
Pomeranian  regiments,  and  other  of  his  best  selected  troops. 
He  has  httle  or  nothing  of  that  kind  upon  the  Dwina. 

So  much  for  the  first  northern  halt  which  is  being  looked 
after  by  a  single  army  group,  that  of  Eichorn.  It  has  to 
watch  something  not  much  less  than  900,000  yards  of  the 
easiest  sector  (or,  at  any  rate,  a  line  much  nfcarer  that  figure 
than  «oo,ooo),  is  but  only  just  equal  to  that  task  :  no  more. 

When  we  come  to  the  line  south  of  the  Pripet  we  find  a  very 
different  state  of  affairs.  There  is  first  of  all,  to  cover  the 
uninvaded  portion  of  \'o!hyniaand  Cialicia  (Kovel,  Lemberg, 
the  roads  converging  on  the  latter  capital,  and  the  Galician 
front  to  the  south  of  them),  Lissingen's  army  group,  which, 
though  it  has  not  300  miles  to  watch — it  has  not  perhaps  in 
all  its  sinuosities  as  much  as  280  miles  to  watch — counts  no 
less  than  4()  divisions ;  three  more  than  all  those  employed  in 
%vatching  the  immensely  longer  line  north  of  the  Pripet  I 
Of  these  4()  divisions  two  are  I'urkish,  24.!  are  Austrian,  iqi 
are  German  divisions — and  of  these  only  4!  are  reserve.  The 
rest  are  of  better  material  which  the  Genirians  had  to  throw 
in  to  save  Austria  when  General  BrussilolT,  almost  exactly  a 
year  ago,  broke  the  Austrian  front  and  destroyed,  in  the  mili- 
tary sense,  something  like  40  divisions  of  his  opponents. 
Lissingen's  group  takes  the  line  down  to  the  Bukovina 
opjxjsite  Kolomea. 

South  of  this  comes  a  third  army  group,  that  of  the  Austrian 
Arch-Duke,  which  watches  the' Carpathian  front  (densely 
wooded  mountains  with  very  lew  roads),  and  extends  to  the 
lines  of  the  SeretJi-  that  is,  to  the  place  where  the  continuous 
trenches  across  |thc  Roumanian  Plain  begin.  This  third 
army  ^roup  is  a  small  tme  and  almost  entirely  .Austrian. 
It  counts  only  i/J  divisions,  of  which  onlv  four  are  German. 
It  is,  one  may  confidently  say,  that  sect«>r  of  the  Eastern 
front  south  of  the  Pripet  where  the  enemy  feels  most  secure. 

But  once  the  line  leaves  the  Carpathian  mountains, and 
begins  to  cross  the  Roumanian  plain  to  the  Danube,  along 
what  are  called  the  lines  of  the  Sereth,  we  come  to  a  very 
different  state  of  affairs.  Here  is  something  vital.  To  hold 
securely-  what  is  now  covered  by  the  enemy  lines  from  the 
Carpathians  to  the  Danube  is  to  hold  Bukharest.  and  more 
than  half  the  Roumanian  corn  lands  and  all  the  Roumanian 
oil  fields. 

I'urther  to  the  south  again  you  have  the  Macedonian  front 
which  is,  in  the  enemy's  strategy  as  well  as  in  the  enemy's 
political  scheme,  the  most  imjwrtant  of  all  he  is  defending  in 
the  East  :  it  secures  the  Bulgarian  alliance  and  the  railway 
to  Constantinople. 

All  these  troojis,  from  the  Carpathians  across  Roumania, 
to  the  Danube,  ands  again  from  the  .-Egean  to  the  Adriatic  are 
in  some  general  fashion  under  Mackensen's  command.  What 
that  fashion  is,  how  the  authoritv  mav  be  divided  or  by  what 
regulation  the  two  minor  Allies,  especiallv' the  Bulgaria-ns  work 
with  the  .^ustrians  and  the  Germans,  I  do  not  know.  But  it  is 
sound  to  regard  the  army  of  the  Danulx-  and  the  army  of 
Macedonia  as  one  group  :  and  here  we  find  the  two  sections, 
each  only  about  100  miles  in  length  or  a  little  more  (for  the 
mountains  between  the  Adriatic  and  Macedonia  hardly  count. 


and  there  is  no  deieiii-i'  needed  lieiw<'pn  the  l)anul)e  and  the 
.Egean)  looke<l  after  by  no  less  than  34  divisions,  among  the 
lx»st  fighting  material  to  lx>  found  on  tlie  enemy's  Eastern 
front.  There  are  11  good  (jernian  divisions  ;  five  Austrian, 
five  Turkish,  and  no  less  than  13  Bulgarian  ;  and  this  force  is 
the  equivalent  of  far  more  than  any  34  divisions  further  north, 
because  the  13  Bulgarian  divisions  are  each  of  them  much 
larger  than  any  (ierman.  Austrian  or  Turkish  divisions.  Some 
of  them  are  probably  nearly  double. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  nothing  can  be  withdrawn  from  this 
fourth  army  group  so  long  as  the  Salonika  force  is  exercising 
its  pressure. 

Reviewing  the  situation  on  the  Eastern  front,  thei^fore, 
as  a  whole,  we  find  no  ground  for  believing  that  any  con- 
siderable diminution  of  the  forces  there  can  be  effected — • 
as  the  political  situation  now  stands.  This  latter  proviso  is, 
of  course,  essential  to  our  judgment  here,  as  in  every  other 
military  calculation.  We  can  only  deal  with  things  as  they 
are  politically  for  the  moment.  As  those  things  are  it  is  not 
credible  that  any  one  of  these  four  gro\ips — Eichorn's, 
Lissingen's,  the  Archduke's,  "  and  Mat  kensen'*— can  be 
appreciably  weakened. 

It  will  be  of  great  use  if  we  now  look  aj  the  matter  from 
another  point  of  view,  and  see  what  the  burden  up<jn  (iennany 
is  in  particular,  as  distinguished  from  her  Allies,  and  to 
what  situation  Austria-Hungary  especially  has  been  reduced. 
."Xn  analysis  of  the  round  numbers  already  given  will  make 
this  clear. 

The  whole  Eastern  front,  including  the  Macedonian  and 
taken  right  up  to  the  Baltic  accounts  for  130  divisions.  Of  these 
much  more  than  half,  not  less  than  yb,  are  (ierman.  When 
one  says  "  divisions,"  one  means,  of  course,  not  only  fully- 
organised  divisions,  but  also  "  the  et^uivalent  "  of  divisions. 
I'or  instance,  the  excellent  Alpine  troops  which  Mackensen 
has  under  his  command  in  the  4th  Army  (iroup  are  distri- 
buted rather  sp<^iadically  and  not  organised  together  in  any 
one  division,  and  this  is  true  of  other  fractions,  botl)  of  the 
.\ustrians  and  of  the  Gorman  forces  in  Roumania  and  .Mace- 


I 


Ziyer 


XbCpmecc 
S'Buiovtna. 


£e0tMnu-ig  of    .. 
Uuiesoftheiiereth. 


from  r      _^ 


May  ji,  1917 


LAI\D    &    WATliK 


donia.  But  if  we  adtl  up  llic  brigades,  llie  isolated  battalions, 
the  organised  divisions,  etc.,  we  arrive,  as  I  have  said,  at  a 
total  ot  130,  in  which  much  more  than  half,  76,  are  German. 

But  there  is  more  than  this.  Of  the  remainder,  of  the  74 
divisions  which  make  up  the  balance^  only  34  are  Austrian ! 
It  is  a  singular  proof  at  once  of  the  exhaustion  of  Austria- 
Hungary  and  of  the  tremendous  pressure  which  our  Itahan 
Allies  are  successfully  exercising.  Those  who  have  hesitated 
to  accept  tlie  figures  of  Austrian  concentration  upon  the 
Italian  front  might  do  worse  than  to  correct  theii'  scepticisni 
by  considering  the  order  of  battle  on  the  east. 

There  is  more  again. 

Of  the  non-German  divisions  upon  tiie  Eastern  front, 
very  nearly  40  per  cent.,  jo  out  of  54,  are  01  a  sort  that  cannot 


be  used  elsewhere  at  all.  They  are  1  urkish  and  Bulgarian  ; 
and  when  we  consider  that  the  Bulgarian  divisions  are  very 
much  larger  than  the  rest  we  are  sate  in  saying  that  at  least 
half,  and  probably  more  than  half  of  the  non-German  elements, 
are  strictly  confined  to  the  Eastern  front  without  possibility 
of  mutation.  The  whole  study  of  this  front  in  its  present 
condition,  or  at  least  in  the  condition  which  it  showed  upon 
the  eve  of  the  great  Western  offensive  (and  it  cannot  have  very 
greatly  changed)  shows  three  main  features  : 

(i)  The  line  is  held  by  the  least  nmnber  necessary  for  that 
task,  given  the  existing  political  situation. 

(2)  The  main  burden  falls  upon  German  shoulders.    • 

(3)  Austria,  in  ])articulur,  is  severely  bufiering  {rom  the 
cxliaustion  of  the  war. 


The  Italian  Victory 


Tlie  fust  thing  to  giasp  with  regard  to  the  great  success 
with  which  our  Italian  Allies  have  marked  the  second  anni- 
versary of  their  entrance  into  the  war  is  that  it  must  be  judged 
upon  precisely  the  same  lines  as  every  other  offensive  con- 
ducted against  the  common  enemy  since  the  tide  turned 
against  hnn.  It  is  to  be  measured,  not  by  movements  upon 
the  map,  but  by  the  moral  and  the  material  effect  of  the  blow 
delivered.  The  expense  in  men  upon  either  side,  the  com- 
pulsion exercised  upon  the  enemy  to  counter-attack,  and  to 
reinforce  hurriedly  as  best  he  can  ;  the  particular  effect  of 
exhaustion  upon  him  and  upon  us. 

This  being  so  we  next  note  in  connection  with  this  victory, 
that  it  has  been  achieved  by  three  elements  of  superiority, 
two  of  which,  long  present  upon  the  Anglo-French  front,  are 
now  happily  present  also  upon  the  Italian  ;  while  the  thiid 
we  may  congratulate  our  Ally  u])on  having  produced  in  an 
exceptional  fashion  which  has  been  quite  his  own. 

The  first  two  are  (i)  superiority  in  the  air,  and  (2)  superiority 
in  artillery.  Tlic  third  is  an  element  of  sui"prise  in  a  degree 
greater  than  we  have  been  able  to  compass  elsewhere. 

The  superiority  in  air  work  has  been  most  striking.     We 


have  no  full  reports  as  yet,  but  tlie  statistics  given  tell  their 
.•    own  tale.     Observation  from,  the  air  and  the  bombing  of  com- 
'    munications  has  been  thoroughly  in  the  hands  of  the  Allies 
since  the  23rd  of  May,  the  date  upon  which  this  new  attack 
&,  began,  while  the  weight  of  fire  has  equally  clearly  been  with 
y  the  Italians  and  has  been  aided,  as  we  have  all  been  glad  to 
■!   note,  by  the  presence  of  British  batteries  and  British  guns. 
The  element  of  surprise  is  perhaps  mere  repiarkable.     What 
was  done  could  not  have  been  done  Imd  not  the  enemy  been 
deceived  into  believing  that  the  maim  effort  would  come  on   ■ 
the  north,     It  wtis  the  blow  against  the  Monte  Santo  Ridg;a 
beyond  the  Isonzo  described  in  our  last  issue,  which  collected 
north  of  Gorizia  most  of  the  local  reserves  the  Austrians  'nad 
in  hand,  and  perjnitted  the  unexpected  blow  to  the  soi/th  a 
lew  days  later  to  achieve  so  signal  a  success.  ^ 

The  battle  is  still  continuing,  and  y/c  can  only  anrilysc  its 
details  u\)  to  the-  point  of  last  Mondsiy  night,  to  which  the 
last  despatch  airiik'ed  at  the  time  of  writing  refers. 

The  object  of  ooir  Allies  was  to  reac  h  and  attack  the  main 
Austrian  position -across  the  Carso  and  fnom  the  C^rso  to  the 
boa.    They  arc,  a^the  moment  of  writing,  imraediately»iu  front 


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8 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  31.  1917 


of  that  main .  position.  Whether  they  will  destroy  it  in  its 
turn  as  they  have  destroyed  the  defences  covering  it  only  the 
luture  can  show.  To  follow  these  details  we  must'consult 
the  sketch  map  appended. 

Before  the  intensive  artillery  preparation  was  undertaken 
(bcf,'inninK,  1  beheve,  upon  Wednesday  last,  the  22hd),  th^' 
Austriaji  positions  across  the  Carso  and  down  to  the  Adriatic 
followed  a  pecuUar  trace.  They  ran  as  does  the  doftcd  line 
i-i-i-i  upon  Map  II.  Leaving  the  plain  of  the  V'ippaco  (the 
great  town  of  which  is  Gorizia  to  the  north)  at  the  issue  of  the 
Isonzo  Gwrge,  the  Austrians  lay  in  trenches  which  ran  up  the 
northern  escaqjment  of  the  Carso  plateau  rather  south  of 
east  and  then  ran  almost  due  south  to  cover  Kostaiijevica, 
and  the  twin  summits  of  the  Faiti.,  Upon  reaching  the 
neighbourhood  of  Kostanjevica  they  titrned  almost  due  east 
and  west,  covered  the  village  of  Hudi-Log  and  then  turned 
sputh  again  to  the  southern  escarpment  of  the"  C^rso.  .Upon 
reaching  the  crest  of  this  (the  steep  wall  by  which  the  Carso 
falls  upon  the  Adriatic  plain  and  lower  foothills,  the  cultivation 
of  whibh  contrasts  with  the  hard,  bare  limestone  of  the  plateau 
above),  the  line  went  east  and  west  again,  covering  the  village 
of  Jamiano  to  a  foothill  marked  with  tlie  letter  A  upon  Map 
II.,  and  thence  turned  due  south  to  the  Adriatic  tiirough  the 
Hot  Baths  of  Montfalcone  at  the  point  marked  Bagni  and 
across  the  marshes  to  the  sea.  ^'* 

Line  in  Echelons 

It  will  at  once  be  noted  that  this  line  makes  three  odd  steps 
in  other  words,  that  the  Italians  stood  in  three  eciielons,  eadi 
one  to  the  south  being  further  west  than  its  northern  neigh- 
bour. .  The  cause  of  this  has  been  well  pointed  out  by  tl.e 
Italian  military  writer  Barone,  Monsieur  Bidou's  quotation 
from  whom  I  am  following  in  this  matter. 

The  enemy  has  for  his  chief  object  the  covering  of  Trieste. 
Not  only  because  the  ])olitical  and  strategic  importance 
of  that  great  jwrt  is  \-ery  high,  nor  even  because  a  retirenrcnt 
beyond  it  would  dangerously  lengthen  his  hne,  but  still  more 
because  with  Trieste  in  Italian  hands  'the  Istrian  Peninsula 
as  a  whole  and  especially  the  all-important  naval  base  of 
Pola,  would  go.  The  reason  of  this  in  its  turn  is  clear  enough 
if  one  looks  at  a  railway  map.  The  sole  connection  of  Pola 
with  the  Austrian  munition  factories,  etc,  i^  a  line  of  com- 
munication, a  railway,  driven  through  very  difticult  country 


be  successfully  covered.  It  is  ifpoh  this  accouht'tbat  the  big 
Italian  effort  of  last  year  led  our  Alhes  to  the'-curicmsly  shap«l 
line   l-i-i-i  just  -described.  '         - 

Now  behind  this  line  there  runs  what  is  the  main  defence  of 
Trieste  ;  just  as,  far  away  in  France,  the  Drocourt-Queant  hne 
is  the  main  defence  of  Douai.  I  have  marked  it  on  Sketch  II. 
by  the  full  line  3-3-3-3.  It  is  very  strong.  It  holds  the  second 
and  highest  summit  of  the  Faiti  (Hill  464)  ;  just  covers 
Kostanjevica ;  comes  down  to  the  southern  escarpment  t)(  the 
Carso  covering  Brestovica,  and  then  mounts  to  and  holds  the 
highest  and  strongest  summit  of  all,  that  of  Hermada,  or  Hill 
^2^,  a  nearly  isolated  height  of  about  1,000  feet,  covered  with 
muclj  oak  and  dominating  the  Adriatic  and  the  coast  road 
and  railway.       m 

It  is  upon  the  possession  of  the  Hermada  that  the  battle 
really  turns.  For  with  the  Hermada  as  an  observation  post 
the  whole  country  to  the  east  is  under  direct  observation  up 
to  a  line  of  heights  hi, 000  yards  away,  the  sunmiit  of  which  is 
Mount  Lconartlo,  and  which  are  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
lx)urhood  of  Trieste.  So  long  as  Hermada  remains  in  the 
enemy's  hands  all  the  Italian  advance  is  under  the  direct 
observation  of  the  Austrians.  >    't 

At  the  moment  <jf  writing  this  main  position  3-3-3-3  is 
still  intact.  Tlic  Italians  hold  the  westrrnmost  and  lowe^t 
summit  of  the  Faiti,  i)ut  they  have  not  yet  reached  Kostan- 
jevica, and  are  only  upon  the  western  slopes  of  the  Hermada. 
The  line  they  have  reached  is  roughly  the  line  2-2-2-2  upon 
Map  II.  They  are  at  the  St.  (iiovanni  and  at  Mcdeazza  ; 
but  the  oak  woods  of  the  Hermada  Hill  stand  above  them  full 
of  and  hiding  the  enemy's  tro'ops  and  guns,  an  exceedingly 
difficult  position  to  carry. 

Meanwhile,  tlic  FTeet,  including  a  number  of  British 
monitors,  have  been  bombarding  along  the  shore  in  the  zone 
between  the  two  arrows  marked  on  Map  II.,  and  have  been 
.striking  with  particular  insistence  upon  the  i)oint  X,  the  most 
vulnerable  point  of  the  Austrian  communications  in  this 
region. 

It  will  be  seen  that  two  railways  lead  from  Trieste  to  tlie 
front  and  heJp  to  nmniti<jn  the  tn)o])s  Imlding  Hermada. 
These  two  unite  at  the  point  X,  which  is  al.'^o  a  point  highly 
vulnerable  from  the  sea.  Of  the  two  railwavfi  that  whicli 
follows  the  sea  coast  is,  in  peace  time,  T  believe,  tbe  principal 
line.  It  is  now,  however,  under  direct  hre  front  the  sea,  save 
just  behind  the  point  and  castle  of  Miramar.  But  the  other 
line  running  inland  is  protected  from  direct  observation  by 
a  line  of  heights,  which  here  runs  everywhere  parallel  to  the 
sea  coast.  H.   Bemoc. 


an4  passing  close  to  the  east  of  Trieste  itself.  The  direct  line 
of  advance  upon  Trieste,  therefore,  that  by  the  Adriatic  coast, 
has  drawn  tpwards  it  the  best  and  the  largest  number  of  the 
Austrian  forces  in  this  region.  Where  it  was  a  question  of 
sacrificing  one  of  another  of  several  points,  the  northern  was 
sacrihced  rather  than  the  southern  in  order  that  Trieste  might 


Mr.  Perry  Robinson  comes  of  a  gifted  family  of  writers, 
l)ut  not  one  has  done  finer  work  than  he  in  this  story  of  the 
Sonnne  battle.  He  has  felicitously  eiuitled;\bis  book  The 
lurning  Point  (Heineniann,  ()s.  net).  Every  week  that  passes 
makes  it  more  obvious  tiiat  July  ist,  191O,  the  day  on  which 
the  Somme  battle  opened,  was  one  of  the  mt^it  momentous 
dates  of  the  war.  We  still  continue  the  work  that  was  then 
begun  ;  and  when  it  is  at  last  completed,  victory  should 
be  within  the  gra.sp  of  the  Allies.  Mr.  Perry  Kohins'on  is  the 
special  correspondent  of  the  Times  and  the  LYaih  News  ; 
the  readers  of  those  journals  are  familiar  witli  his  brilliant 
despatches.  This  volume  is  one  which  having  been  read 
with  avidity,  will  ])e  placed  m\  the  bookslielf  fou  future 
reference  ;  it  tells  the  story  of  the  historic  figlits  and  battles 
of  last  autumn  with  a  simple  directness  that  stirs  the  bloixl. 

The  extraordinary  swiftness  with  which  Czardom  was  at 
the  last  swept  away  i.s.  hardly  yet  fully  comprehended  in  this 
country.  Nor  is  this  suqjrising  when  we  read  the  record  of 
events  in  Petrograd  last  March  as  set  down  by  an  eyewitness, 
Mr.  Stinton  Jones,  who,  in  this  \o\nmc'\Riiss'ia  in  Revolution, 
Herbert  Jenkins.  5s.  net),  gives  the  first  connected  narrative 
of  that  dramatic  episode.  It  seemed  as  though  fate  were  on 
this  occasion  entirely  on  the  side  of  the  people,  for  in  the 
short  week  of  revolution,  more  than  once  the  future  of  demo- 
cracy hung  by  a  hair,  and  the  least  untoward  occurrence 
would  have  instantly  given  despotism  the  upper  hand. 
Had  the  revolution  been  suppressed,  the  first  thing  that 
would  have  happened  would  have  been  a  separate  peace  with 
Germany  ;  and  all  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  rising  would 
have  been  punished  with  utter-  brutality.  As  it  was,  blood 
tlowed  freely  in  the  streets  of  the  capital,  the  Czar's  secret 
police  being  the  chief  offenders  ;  not  unnaturally  there  was 
some  retaliation.  The  special  wonder  is  the  extraordinary 
good  nature,  orderliness  and  restraint  of  the  people  during  a 
l)eriod  when  no  authority  existed.  Mr.  .Stinton  Jones'  book 
has  an  historical  value  apart  from  its  exceptional  local  interest. 
It  ought  to  be  widely  read,  for  it  is  illuminative  of  the  events 
that  led  up  to  the  revolution  as  well  as  dcsc'riptive  of  the  actual 
upheaval.  A  more  rapid  ami  dramatic  revolution  has  lievcr; 
happened,  and  it  reads  almobt  like  a  fairy  tale. 


May  31,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


Jutland  :  Twelve  Months  After 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


^SM 


I  Have  just  been  reading  in  the  May  number  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  U.  S.  Naval  Institute,  an  interview 
given  on  April  12th  to  a  representative  of  the  Associated 
Press  by  the  First  Sea  Lord.  I  do  not  know  whether  this 
interview  has  been  published  in  England.  If  so,  I  have  been  so 
unobservant  as  te  miss  it.  If  it  has  not,  it  should  be,  for  though 
exclusively  addressed  to  our  Allies  across  the  Atlantic,  it  con- 
tains agreat  deal  of  matter  ourBritish  public  might  very  profit- 
ably chgest.  Not  its  least  remarkable  feature  is  its  frank- 
ness and  detachment.  You  would  Kardly  tielieveia  reading  it 
that  the  First  Sea  Lord  of  to-day  was  Second  Sea  Lord  for  the 
twenty  months  preceding  the  war.  Fftr  at  least  one  crucial 
omission  of  our  war 'preparation  is  set  out  with  a  luminous 
candour  hardly  to  be  expected  in  these  circumstances.  I 
hope  on  a  future  occasion  to  deal  fully  with  other  points  that 
the  interiview  rai.ses,  but  writing  on  the  eve  of  the  anniversary 
of  the  battle  of  Jutland,  I  propose  to-day  to  confine  myself  to 
the  reflections  which  the  date  suggests,  and  to  certain  lights 
which  this  interview  throws  upon  the  strategy  and  tactical 
ideas  that  led  up  to,  and  were  illustrated  by,  that  very 
tremendous  event. 

I  think  anyone  who  reads  the  newspapers  of  June  2nd,  1916, 
and  the  si.\  following  days,  and  bears  in  mind  the  while  the 
fuller  information  we  now  iiossess,  botli  about  the  actual 
happenings  at  Jutland  and  about  the  strategy  and  tactics 
that  inspired  the  various  commanders  on  the  two  sides,  can 
hardly  fail  to  be  struck  by  certain  truths  which  may  pardon- 
ably have  escaped  him  when  he  read  them  for  the  first  time 
a  year  ago.  What  surprised  me  most  is  the  curious  fact 
that  neither  of  the  original  official  communiques  claimed  a 
victory.  The  British  version  said  that  a  naval  engagement 
had  fakai  place  on  the  30th  May,  that  "  the  brunt  of  the 
lighting  "  tell  on  the  Battle  Cruiser  Fleet,  that'the  "  German 
•fleet  avoided  prolonged  action  with  our  main  forces,"  and 
returned  to  port.  There  was  no  word  of  victory  or  even  of 
success.  The  obvious  inference  was  that  there  had  been 
failure,  but  a  failure  not  without  excuse.  The <ierman  version 
said  that  the  Higii  Seas  Fleet — while  on  "  an  enterprise 
directed  towards  tlie*  north,"  — "  had  met  a  considerably 
superior  portion  of  (our)  main  battle  fleet  "  and  that  a  number 
of  "severe,  and,  for  us,  successful  engagements  de\'eloped  "  and 
continued  all  night,  and  it  ended  with  the  significant  admission 
that  "  the  High  Seas  Fleet  returned  to  our  harbours  in  the 
course  of  "  June  2rtTl.  Here,  too,  the  inference  was  obvious, 
the  "  enterprise  "  had  failed — but  not  without  at  least  tactical 
and  moral  mitigations.  Both  sides  in  short  seemed  to  be 
making  the  best  of  a  bad  job. 

The  British  Admiralty  was  severely  criticised  at^ the  time, 
for  its  intolerable  dwelling  on  the  ships  sunk,  when  so  little 
was  told  us  of  the  fighting  or  its  purpose.  There  were  ten 
paragraphs  in  the  communiques,  and  no  less  than  five  dealt 
with  losses  of  the  British  fleet.  Three  only  told  of  the  damage 
we  iioped  we  had  inflicted  on  the  enemy.  The  Germans  re- 
versed the  procedure.  There  were  eight  paragraphs  in  the 
German  statement,  of  which  four  dealt  with  British  losses 
and  only  two  with  the  German.  The  ctmtrast  did  not  end 
here.  In  the  paragraph  in  our  version  dealing  with  the  de- 
stroyers sunk,  five  were  mentioned  by  name  and  it  was  stated 
that  six  others  had  not  been  heard  of.  It  turned  out  later  that 
three  of  these  six  returned  safely  to  p<irt,  so  that  our  total 
losses  were  but  eight.  The  version  therefore  suggests  that 
the  losses  might  be  considerably  greater  than  they  were.  The 
Germans,  on  the  other  hand,  were  silent  as  to  the  sinking  of 
the  Lutzme,  Roslok  and  Elbing.  and  made  no  pretence  to" 
enumerate  the  lost  destroyers.  The  three  ships  named  were 
admitted  later.  But  no  full  statement  of  the  German  losses 
has  ever  yet  been  officially  published  and  no  one  beUeves  that 
those  admitted  exhaust  the  tale.  -Whether  the  event  was  a 
success  or  a  failure  then,  our  Admiralty  made  no  effort  to 
minimise  the  price  paid.  And  we  gained  something  in  inter- 
national prestige  by  our  brutal  frankness. 

The  Making  of  a  Victory  v. 

The  conversion  of  Jutland  into  a  British  victory  was  i;eally 
the  work  of  the  Press.  N.^val  writers  were  put  into  a  difficulty 
by  the  Admiralty.  The  oflicial  story  as  it  siood  on  the  evening 
of  Friday,  June  2nd,  and  even  as  amended  on  the  morning  of 
Saturday — when  somewhat  wider  claims  to  damage  inflicted 


on  the  enemy  were  put  forward— suggested  ,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
failure  rather  than  a  victory,  and  for  that  matter,  a  failure 
that  was  very  inadequately  explained.  It  was  known  that 
contact  between  the  main  forces  had  certainly  been  made,  for 
it  stated  that  the  enemy  received  severe  damage  frorrf  our 
battleships.  The  vessels  of  the.  Grand  Fleet  were  certainly 
not  inferior  to  their  Gerrpan  opponents  in  speed.  Once 
in  contact,  then,  it  looked  as  if  the  Germans  should  certainly 
not  have  escaped,  and  low  visibility  seemed  an  insufficient 
reason  for  their  doing  .so.  It  looked,  in  short,  as  if  the  enemy 
could  not  have  broken  away  unless  his  escape  had  been  per- 
mitted. In  other  words,  either  the  battle  plan  was  faulty  or 
it  had  miscarried  gravely.  This,  I  say,  was.  on  the  wording  of 
the  dispatch,  the  natural  conclusion  at  which  to  arrive.  But 
how  could  any  writer  put  atisuch  a  conclusion  forward,  when 
the  announcement  itself  contained  no  word  of  blame  or 
criticism  ?  Had  there  really  been  a  failure,  was  it  not  clearly 
the  Admiralty's  business  to  say.at  least,  that  the  circumstances 
were  being  investigated  ? 

The  sijence  of  the  authorities  and  the  gathering  chorus  of 
the  German  Press  left  us,  I  think,  no  alternative  but  to  put 
the  most  favourable  possible  meaning  on  the  facts  conveyed 
to  us.  They  were,  after  all,  consistent  with  our  fleet  having 
been  merely  unfortunate  in  being  robbed  of  a  Trafalgar  by  the 
weather.  Hence  there  were  many  voices,  first  on  Saturday 
morning  and  then  on  Saturday  evening — and  they  gained  in 
unanimity  arid  volume  as  the  days  went  by — all  speaking  of 
the  event  as  a  victory ;  until  before  the  week  was  out  this 
verdict  came  to  be  generally^accepted ;  and  finally  got  a  kind 
of  half-hearted  official  endorsement  from  the  First  Sea  Lord 
at  the  Admiralty.  The  point  to  note  is,  that  for  eight  days  after 
the  battle  there  was  no  official  statement  issued  from  Whitehall 
that  put  any,  interpretation  whatever  upon  the  events  of 
May  31st..  If  seemed  clear  then  that  Mr.  Balfour,  in  speaking 
on  June  31st,  was  following  and  not  creating  public  opinion  in 
the  matter. 

The  thing  became  a  victory  in  Germany  with  far  greater 
rapidity  ;  but  here  too  we  shall  find  the  professional  men  speak- 
ing in" terms  very  different  from  those  of  the  joumahsts  and 
politicians.  Admiral  Stebbinghaus  announced  the  event  in  the 
Reichstag  on  June  2nd — the  day  when  the  communique  was 
published — and  on  the  whole  he  kept  to  its  language 
and  put   his    claim    no   higher    than  that  the  engagements 

.  had  developed  successfully  for  the  German  force,  that  the 
greater  portion  of  the  fleet  had  returned  undamaged  to  har- 

,  hour,  knd^that  the  total  losses  could  not  yet  be  ascertained. 
The  Presicfent  of  the  Reichstag  thereupon  spoke  of  it  as  "agreat 
and  splendid  success,"  but  even  he  did  not  use  the  word 
"victory."  •  This  was  left  to  the  Press,  and  the  King  of  Saxony 
and — three  days  later — the  Emperor  in  the  course  of  a  long  and 
bombastic  speech  to  his  seamen,  told  the  world  that  '  the 
British  fleet  was  beaten"  and  that  "  the  first  great  hammer  blow 
was  struck  "  and  that  "  the  nimbus  of  British  worldsupremacy 
has  disappeared."  Mr.  Balfour  followed  him  two  days  later 
at  the  Cannon  Street  Hotel.  He  did  not  put  our  title  to  victory 
very  high.  The  battle  had  been  indecisive  in  the  sense  that 
the  G^rnhan  fleet  was  not  destroyed,  but  as  showing  that  the 
German'^fteet  could  not  fight  ours  on  an  equality,  it  had  been 

.  anything  .but  indecisive."  The  victory,"  he. added,  "  is  not 
merely  a  victor j'  on  paper,  in  which  the  side  which  drives  the 
other  off  the  field  of  contest  into  defeat,  with  justice  claims 
to  be  the  victor.  It  is  more  than  that."  This  was  the  first, 
and  so  far  as'I  know,the  only  occasion  on  which  any  spokesman 
of  Whitehall  used  the  word.  And  he  was  not  speaking  for 
the  Board.  The  letter  of  approval  published  with  the 
Commander-in-Chief's    dispatch    uses     no    such    expression. 

Was  the  Communique  Right  After  All  ? 

Undoubtedly  what  led  the  writers  on  naval  questions  to  take 
a  more  heady  view  of  'the  event  than  the  truth  perhaps 
justified,  was  the  enthusiasm  created  by  the  magnificent 
leadership  of  the  Battle  Cruiser  Fleet,  and  the  preposterous 
criticism  of  the  Vice-Admiral's  "  rash  and  impetuous  "  tactics 
which  our  heavy,  but  accidental  losses  provoked.  To  have 
questioned  too  much  would  have  seemed  ungracious  in  view 
of  the  heroic  sacrifices  that  had  been  made.  At  that 
stage  the  event  had  to  be  treated  as  a  whole.  And  there  was  one 
good  reason  at  least  why  we  could  not  Jae  intelligibly  critical. 


TO 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  31,  10T7 


even  if  wo  wished.  It  was  simply  that  we  were  entirely  ig- 
norant of  what  the  disposition  and  tactics  of  th,e  Grand  Fleet 
had  been.  \Vc  only  knt-w  that  in  the  bad  lifht.  the  (k-nnans  liad 
been  able  to  break  off  the  action  and  escajMf.  For  tliat 
matter  we  know  very  little  more  now.  The  admission 
HI  the  Connnander-iii-Chief's  dispatch,  that  the  enemy  had 
■'.opened  the  range  under  cover  of  torpedo  attacks," — that 
is,  had  either  deterred  ns  from  pursuit,  or  driven  us  off, our 
courses  by  the  torpedo  threat  ;  the  discussions  that  arose  in- 
'vitably  out  of  Mr.  Churchill's  statements,  first  that  victory 
\\as  unnecessary  "  because  we  had  all  that  the  most  victorious 
111  battles  could  give  us;  "  and  next,  that  seeking  victory  at 
dose  range  was  impossible,  bi>cause  battleships  were  not 
armoured  against  torpedoes ;  and  tinally  the  utujualijied 
coiitinnation  of  the  last  of  these  statements  by  Sir  John 
Jellicoe.have  since,  of  course,  put  Jutland  into  a  new  perspective. 
\N  e  have  simply  lieen  compelled  to  debate  what  we  have  l(>st 
by  the  German  Fleet  haying  escaped  destnictioii,  and  to  raise 
tile  issue,  did  it  escajse  for  an  adequate  reason  r" 

The  question  that  one  is  driven  to  put  to  oneself  in  re- 
reading the  story  is  this :  Taking  it  for  all  in  all,  is  not  the 
version  put  forsvard  by  the  British  Admiralty,  on  the  evening 
of  Friday,  June  2nd,  that  which  will  in  its  implication  stand 
the  test  of  time  ?  In  other  words,  can -more  be  said  of  Jutland 
than  that  such  British  success  as  there  was,  was  partial — the 
work  of  a  portion  of  the  fleet  (mly — and  that  the  achievement 
f>f  the  main  puqwse  for  which  the  fleet  exists  was  not  attained 
because  a  certain  tactical  doctrine  was  held  to  govern  the 
situation  ?  Put  in  this  way.  the  enemy  has  somewhat  the 
Ix'st  of  the  argument  -  because  he  could  liardly  have  expected 
more  from  the  forces  at  his  disposal.  But  it  should  not  be 
j)Ut  this  way  without  adding  that  the  losses  inflicted  by  him 
on  the  British  Fleet  would  have  been  trivial  but  for  his  luck 
in  finding  a  weakness  of  construction  in  three  of  our  capital 
ships,  whereas  the  losses  that  he  sutfered.  both  by  guniire 
and  torpedo,  were  the  nonnal  consequence  of  our  superior 
wea{ions  and  our  greater  skill  in  using  them. 

The  New  Tactical  Doctrine 

It  is  irnpossible  to  review  this  great  event  without  con- 
Fidering  again  the  cogency  of  the  new  doctrine  that  battle- 
ships must  not  be  risked  against  torpedoes.  It  was  this 
doctrine  which,  as  we  all  know,  explains  how  it  was  that 
l>etween  O.13  and  S.30  the  vastly  superior  batteries  of  the 
(irand  F'leet  were  not  brought  to  a  short  enough  range  for 
the  German  battleships  to  have  been  destroyed.  Distant 
gunnery  in  the  bad  light  was  impossible,  and  action  at  six  or 
seven  thousand  yards  -would  have  meant  bringing  all  our 
ships  through  a  zone  of  torpedo  barrage.  In  dealing  with 
this  question  on  rriany  previous  occasions  in  these  columns, 
1  have  always  maintained  that  the  doctrine  acted  upon  was 
not  that  the  ships  could  not  ever  be  risked  in  such  circum- 
stances, birt  that,  had  they  been  so  risked  on  this  particular 
occasion,  the  weather  conditions  were  such  that  there  was  no 
Certainty  that  the  inevitable  losses  would  have  been  redeemed 
by  the  destruction  of  the  enemy.  A  good  many  corre- 
spondents have  pointed  out  to  me  that  the  First  Sea  Lord's 
I'ishmongers'  Hall  speech  is  not  compatible  with  my  version. 
As  1  have  said  above,  his  statement  of  the  Churchill  theory  is 
unqualified— ships  cannot  be  brought  within  torpedo  range. 
The  question  is  a  vital  one,  and  no  doubt  can  never  be 
answered  authoritatively  until  the  prpfession  as  a  whole  is 
free  to  give  its.verdict.  .Ml  the  layman  can  do  is  to  set  out 
1  ertain  considerations  that  seem  applicable.  And  I  am 
encouraged  to  revert  to  this  matter  to-day,  because  of 
certain  statements  in  the  interview  to  which  1  have  referred 
above,  which  seem  to  throw  some  light  on  its  origin,  and, 
lH'rhai)S  foreshatjow  its  abandonment. 

Here,  it  must  be  assumed.  Sir  John  Jellicoe  is  expressing 
the  official  view  of  naval  strategy.  If  so,  he  tell  us  for  the 
first  time  of  a  radical  change  of  view  from  pre-war  days. 
We  learn,  for  instance,  that  our  historical  naval  policy  was  one 
of  definite  offence,  and  that  we  have  had  to  change  this  as  a 
consequence  of  our  enemy's  use  of  submarines  to  attack  our 
trading  ships,  since  our  only  active  enemy  is  now  the  under- 
water boat,  engaged  in  piracy  and  murder,  and  because  all 
surface  ships  have  been  driven  from  the  sea.  But  in  another 
paragraph  the  First  Sea  Lords  tells  us  that  one  of  the  disadvan- 
tages under  which  we  suffered  during  the  early  part  of  the  war 
was  that  "  we  had  no  harbour  in  the  North  Sea  big  enough 
to  hold  the  growing  (irand  Fleet,  where  it  could  be  within 
easy  striking  distance  ofethe  enemy." 

Note  first  with  regard  to  this  that  it  was  a  disadvantage 
which  only  existtd  during  the  early  part  of  the  war.  But,  if 
it  was  necessary  to  our  historical  ix)licy  of  the  definite 
offensive  to  place  tlie  main  striking  force  where  it  could 
f.ill  immediately  on  an  enemy  the  moment  he  emerged,  and  if 
no  harbour  necessary  for  such  a  disposition  was  available  in 


the  early  part  of  the  war,  would  it  not  seem  as  if  the  directing 
minds  of  the  navy  who  -as  we  are  constantly  told— ever 
since  1904  had  been  pre])aring  specilically  for  war  with  Ger- 
many, had  overlooked  an  essential  element,  if  our  fleet  was 
intended  to  play,  in  these  days,  the  r6le  rt  had  assumed  iu  the 
olden  wars  from  which  our  historical  strategy  derived  ? 
And,  as  the  disadvantage  only  accrued  in  the  early  part  of  the 
war,  it  must  be  supposed  that  it  was  remedied  in,  let  us  say, 
six,  nine  or  twelve  months.  How  is  it  that  none  of  the 
Boards  over  which  Mr.  Churchill  presided  drew  attention  to 
this  singular  departure  from  a  well-established  tradition 
— and  one  that  could  so  swiftly  be  remedied  ?  .  For  an  answer 
to  this  question  we  shall  no  doubt  have  to  wait.  In  the 
meanwhile,  Sir  Reginald  Custance,  who  has  more  than 
once  of  late — and,  1  believe  on  many  occasions  before  the  war 
—drawn  attention  to  the  strategical  importance  of  placing  the 
fleet  as  near  the  enemy's  main  base  as  ix)ssible,  will  doubtless 
feel  a  mild  gratificttion  on  learning  that  a  doctrine  tiiat  h>' 
has  long  ipaintained  to  be  axiomatic —but  without  success 
in  seeing  it  interpreted  into  action— is  now  admitted  to  be 
part,  though  a  strangely  neglected  part,  of  our  historical  naval 
l»olicy. 

But  if  our  strategy  had  foreseen  the  offensive  in  every  possible 
form  as  the  first  necessity  of  war,  we  should  have  tlone 
something  more  than  prepare  a  harbour  from  \v1iich  to  strike 
at  an  emerging  enemy  with  the  greatest  advantage.  We  should 
have  contemplated  the  attack  in  every  one  of  its  aspects  and 
having  prepared  for  the  tactical  aggressive,  the  historical 
authority  for  which  is  even  stronger  than  that  which  urges 
ns  to  a  forward  strategy,  we  should  have  shaped  our  initial 
measures  towards  forcing  the  enemy  to  give  us  an  opportunity 
fwr  the  attack  we  had  prepared.  VVe  should  hav(»  begun  the 
war  by  blockading  him  ruthlessly,  and  this  would  have  implied 
not  the  mere  stoppage  of  his  ow'ntrading  ships,  but  the  closing 
of  his  ports  to  every  neutral,  and  the  closing  of  every 
neutral  jxirt  to  any  goods  intended  for  the  enemy. 
VVe  should  in  other  words,  have  been  ready  in  August  4th,  1914, 
with  the  policy  that  we  did  not,  as  a  simple  matter  of  fact, 
adopt  until  the  best  part  of  eighteen  months  afterwards  and  we 
should  have  done  this  with  the  deliberate  intention  of  bringing 
about  battle.  ^  How  is  it  possible  to  escape  the  inference  that 
we  took  neither  of  these  two  steps,  the  prepared  base  or  the 
blockade,  to  force  the  enemy  to  fight,  except  on  the  suppo- 
sition that  we  had  no  wish  to  compel  him  to  do  so  ? 

And  if  our  tactics  had  been  intended  to  be  offensive, 
should  we  not  have  been  prepared  for  these  likewise  ? 
Once  the  long  range  torpedo  was  an  achieved  reality,  it  was 
abundantly  clear  that  the  naval  battle  of  the  future  would 
differ  radically  from  that  which  w'oufd  have  been  expected, 
say  up  to  1908-1909.  Did  we  foresee  and  were  we  ready  for 
the  change  ?  It  is  no  sufficient  answer  to  say  that  we  increased 
the  calibres  of  our  guns  and  pushed  our  battle  practice  cnit  to 
longer  ranges.  True,  these  measures  did  look  like  being 
ready  or  keeping  out  of  torpedo  reach.  But  only  superficially, 
because  torpedo  attack  does  not  originate  witli  the  battle  fleet, 
which  It  is  our  business  to  destn)y,  but  witii  destroyers  that 
might  be  5,000  or  6,000  yards  nearer  to  us  than  the  fleet  thev 
.had  to  protect.  If  it  was  the  distance  from  the  destroyers  tlrat 
was  to  be  the  test  of  the  safety  from  torpedoes  that  "must  be 
sought  at  all  co.sts,  one  of  two  things  would  have  been  foreseen 
as  following  inevitably.  Either  the  long  range  gunnery  we 
were  prepared  with  would  have  to  be  effective  at  16,000  or 
18,000  yards,  thus  limiting  battle  to  the  very  finest  weather 
and  to  the  hours  of  broad  daylight,  or  else  remembering  that 
the  speed  of  destroyers  would  enable  toi-i)edo  attack  to  be 
directed  at  us  from  any  quarfer,  and  without  warning,  there 
could  hardly  be  a  moment  in  action  when  a  battle  fleet,  if  it 
were  to  avoid  a  menace,  would  not  be  driven  to  abrupt  changes 
of  course.  But  to  put  on  the  helni  is  to  throw  guiis  out  of 
action.  Was  it  not  clear  tJieii  that  unless  ships'  artilleiy  were 
rendered  once  and  for  all  independent  of  helm,  that  an  enemy 
could  almost  at  will  terminate  a  gunnery  attack  whenever 
he  wished  ? 

Not,  of  course,  that  the  offensive  in  tactics  can  be  secured  by 
good  gunnery  alone,  though  without  it  no  wide  liberty  of 
tactical  movement  is  conceivable.  To  offensive  tactics  there 
IS  required  a  sound  theory  of  decentralised  command  and 
methods  of  disposition  and  deployment  a  little  more  aggressive 
than  the  single  line-.  It  has  been  said  that  our  strategy  and 
statics  were  all  consistently  '  defensive  because  we  held  the 
doctrine  which  Mr.  Churchill  somewhat  incautiously  let  out. 

It  seems  that  we  really  did  think  that  a  fleet  which  the 
enemy  could  not  defeat  must  give  precisely  the  same  results  in  a 
war  as  a  fleet  that  had  defeated  the  enemy.  It  is  surely  all  to 
the  good  that  the  present  first  Lord  and  Chief  of  the  Staff  is 
wide  awake  now  to  the  errors  of  the  former  Boards  in  wiio.se 
councils  he  assisted.  May  we  not  hope  that  from  the  new 
reorganizations  that  have  taken  place,  the  revi.sed  theory  of  the 
offensive  may  lind  a  wider  and  wider  application  ?     " 

Arthi^r  Poi.i.f.n. 


May  7,T,  jqiy 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


The  Campaign  in  Central  East  Africa 


By  Owen  Letcher 


At  he  time  of  writing  (April)  the  very  rainy  season 
/  %  'f. ^.'•awinp  to  a  close  in  that  part  of  East' Central 
/—^  Alnca  in  which  the  (lermans  are  makine  a  last 
J.  ^desperate  resistance.  In  a  few  weeks'  time  the 
climatic  conditions  w.U  enable  serious  offensive  operations  to 
be  resumed,  and  it  is  hardly  likely  that  Von  Lettow  Vorbeck's 
slender  and  wasted  forces  will  be  able  to  hold  out  at  most  for 
more  than  a  tew  months  longer.       ' 

The  German  Commander  has.  Jiowever,  proved  himself 
t.)  be  an  e.xceedingly  resourceful  and  courageous  foe  andsiv 
months  ago  it  seemed  scarcely  possible  that  -lie  could  withstand 
the  all  round  i-ressureexertedon  him  by  the  several  converging 
columns^  for  more  than  a  few  weeks  at  the  outside  The 
position  m  September  Jast  was  that  General  Smuts'  forces 
advancing  from  the  British  East  African  border,  had  occupied 
he  whole  of  the  North  and  Mid-Eastern  portions  of  the 
territory  down  to  the  valle\-  of  the  Kufiji  Kiver 


lie  Belgians,  advancing  through  Kuanda.  had  occupied 
Tabora  and  driven  Wahle's  forces  out  of  the  North- Western 
tracts  of  East  Africa.  In  the  .South  Brigadier-Genera" 
Nor  hey  s  Nyassaland  and  Rhodesian  Eield  Forces  had  occu- 
pied the  country  as  far  North.as  Iringa,  and  as  far  East  as 
the  Eastern  spurs  of  the  I'tshungvw  M.mntains 

On  the  East    toast,  naval  and  militar\'  forces  had  seized 
Tanga    Sadam,  Bagamoyo.  Dar-es-Salam,  Kilwa  and  Lind 
nV  1     hn     ^rr,^  were  holding  the  line  of  the  Kovuma  Kiver, 
nnd  thus  all  the    railways,  ports,  and    chief   towns   of    the 
t)l  the   Teuton  colonies  were  in  our  possession 

Ihe  Germans  l^id  retreated  into  the  low-lying  and  unhealthy 
Mahenge  district  and  the  extreme  south-eastern  portion  of 
tlie  ternt(,ry  lowards  the  end  of  last  Octobe,-  General 
\\ahles  forces,  driven  out  of  Tabora  by  the  Belgians,  retired 
ma  south-easterly  direction,  and  broke  thn.igh  General 
J^ortheys  thin  Imes  of  communication  between  New 
Eangenburg  (Northeys  base)  and   Iringa 

wiil,  T'""\"^^'''''r  ™'""^"^  succeeded  in  linking  up 
With  Major  Krantss  forces  in  the  Mahenge  area  but  his 
command  suffered  very  heavily  in  this  operation 

In  the  early  part  of  the  current  year  General  :Smuts,  before 
eavmg  East  Africa    employed  his  Northern  column;,  rein 

resH  t«  ili  <  bfr    ^'™"?  .Keginients,   in  an  offensive  which 
resulted  m  the  Germans  being  driven  out  of  the  Rufiii   delta 
During  the  rainy  months  (November-April)  the  Germahs 

racflv  nit"\V^'  "I*?  ^^"^'^  IT"  "'"fin'^d  in  the  unheaThy 
tract  lymg  to  the  north-east  of  Lake  Nyassa,  and  it  is  known 
the.r  ranks  have  been  thinned  by  disease  and  privations 

A  Remarkable  Resistance 

Von  Lettow  Torbeck  is,  however,  still  carrying  on. 
Although  he  ,s  a  typical  Prussian  and  an  enemy,  one  cannot 
but  admire  the  resistance  he  has  put  up  against  forces  su- 
perior .»  numbers,  moral  and  equipment.  It  is  scarcely 
onceivable  that  he  is  not  short  of  f/.odstufls.  He  has  retired 
S  ^""J^''"'?.  "f  "l''es,  and  his  Askari  (black  troops)  are 
t:^I^Su,  J"''  '''''''  -en,  too,,  are  tired  of  continUg  a 

As  to  munitions,  it  is  known  that  in  the  early  part  of  last 
}car  the  Germans  %yere  running  seriously  short  of  modern 

c.r  hX"''"'  "'''ir' ■  ^^?y  ^'"""^  ^''""g«  ""'"'^^'•s  "f  '^'=i^k  powder 
cai fridges  for  their  old  ii-raillimetre  rifles,  but  the  tell-tale 
smoke  irom  these  gave  us  an  enormous  advantage  in  bush 
I'gliting.  In  March  1916,  help  came  in  the  shape  of  a  ship 
owned  by  one  of  our  friends  the  "  neutrals."  This  boat 
eluded  our  worships  oft  the  coast  and  landed  a  valuable 
cargo  01  7.9  millimetre  ammunition,  machine  guns  and  modern 
10.5  centimetre  held  howitzers,  together  with  clothing  and 
nedical  supplies  near  Lindi.  But  for  the  arrival  of  this  boat- 
load the  enemy  would  have  been  unable  to  carry  on  for  more 
than  a  month  or  two. 

The  blockade  runner  also  landed  a  Couple  of  German  officers, 
one  of  whom  was  an  envoy  from  the  Kaiser  himself,  and  he 
lirouglit  to  Vorbeck  a  message  from  His  Imperial  Master,  bid- 
ding um  carry  on  to  the  last  man  if  need  be.  Von  Lettow 
lias  obeyed  his  orders  m  a  way  that  cannot  but  compel  our 
admiration. 

"If  Colonel  Von  Lettow  Vorbeck  were  to  die  or  be  killed,  the 
campaign  would  come  to  a  conclusion  almost  immediately," 
remarked  a  captured  German  officer  to '-me  at  Iringa  last 
Jctober.  We  are  all  tired  of  a  campaign  that  can  have 
mly  one  ending.  But  Vcrbeck  and  Vorbeck  alone 
keeps  us  m  the  held.  He  is  a  brilliant  soldier  and  a  hard 
man,  but  hard  on  himself  as  well  as  to  others.  He  has  been 
iwice  wounded  in  this  campaign.  He  goes  out  on  patrols'him- 
^ell.  and  with  his  own  hands  he  h,.'-  m:»l,.  ,„wnn,.r-^  in  t  I,i<  w,,-  '■ 


There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  German  G.O.C  has  well 
earned  the  Order  pour  le  Merite  with  Oak  Leaves  recently 
conferred  on  him  by  the  Kaiser.  ^ 

Inn?''  ^.f  *  ^^'■''-■=?"  campaign  has  now  lasted  for  almost  as 
long  as  the  Boer  War.  it  is  only  a  subsidiary  enterprise  of 
or  wilr  fh""fi'  '^"t  "^ertheless  a  great  and  important  one. 
for  with  the  hnal  defeat  of  Vorbeck's  troops  the  whole 
African  continent  will  be  freed  of  the  last  taint  of  Prussian 
rule  Both  m  blood  and  treasure  the  campaign  has  been  a 
cosdy  one  ;  exceedingly  costly  having  regard  to  the  number 
01  men  engaged. 

Transport  in  this  country  of  vast  distances  has  been  enor- 
mously e.xjwnsne,  and  munitions  and  supplies  by  the  time 
they  have  reached  the  fighting  columns  represent  a  cost 
e.xceedingly  m  excess  of  the  original  outlay 

Brigadier-General    Northey's    little    army    in    the    remote 
south-wes  ern  corner  of    ■'  (ierman  "  East  Africa.  %as    the 
mos  .costly  force  in  the  world  to  maintain  in  the  field,  and 
ntil  the  central  railway  was  seized  and  repaired,  and  the    ' 
nes   6i   commumcation    were    thereby    greatly    shortened  ' 

.nH  .r'^'-R?""'"'"^  ,^™'".  *'"^  ""^*'^'  ""d*^'-  ^'"i^'-al  Smuts 
tu.    ^''^V'^f'S'^"'^  ""der  General  Tanbeur  co-operating  with 

he  British  column  under  Brigadier-General  Crewe,  were 
very  neariy  as  costly.  ' 

Much  blood  has.  "too.  been  .shed  in   this  campaign.      The 
deaths  m   action    and   from  wounds  have    been   greatly  in 

iShs  .n^l  t''*"  H  '""^   *'T^-^'  '^''''''-       ^"'1  a%rt  -from 
d.aths  and  wounds,  some    thousands    have   been   invalided 
through  malarial  fever,  blackwater  fever,  and  dysentery 
ful  connTrt"     u  ^'^  ^^"'"^  ''  ^  wonderfully  fertile  and  beauti- 

t  formpH  th  '!  ^  "^f-  *""  4"o.ooo  square  miles  in  area,  and 
It  formed  the  most  brilliant  gem  in  the  diadem  of  the  German 
oyeiseas  empire.  It  has  a  population  of  between  seven  and 
eight  million  natives,  and  in  the  last  few  years.  hSs  ^tnes'ed 
a  very  considerable  amount  of  industriafdeveiopment 
and  the'^rpff^'f '^  "^  ^50  miles  with  several  h^ie  harbours. 

m-Tvi  /,''''''•  ?"  \^'  '^''•'*''''"  ^™"t'ers  constitute  what 
may  be  termed  an  inland  sea-board. 

nVhf  '!f  ^'''?  ""f  Iways-one  of  which.;the  central  line,  cuts 
rigl  through  the  country  from  Dar-es-Salam  (the  caS 
on    he  Indian  Ocean)  to  Kigoma  Bay.  on  Lake  Tanganyika 

canf^Zlfjrr^r.  ^'^^'^  ""^^  ^^«"^  these  ?aSS 
FquIto^r^lAfr°''''"TK'^' "*''"'  '^^  g-'eater  portion  of  Eastern 
itquatonal    Africa.     The    country    possesses    several    large 

•  It  notl'^'^''  ^«'-  ^  considerable-distance  from  their  mout  J 
JJrJ,  ''\  '"'"eral-  as  well  as  agricultural  wealth,  and 
e\ery  type  and  gradation  of  climate,  topography,  and  scenery 
Ss  of  M"°^"f,?P^'^  ^"^'^1^  "^  giant ^KiLTanjan;  to  tfe 
SSrolttllufi'lllliL^"'  '^""^"  ^"'^  ''^  Iow^ying  fever 

k.^^ye'TJ'r'''^^'"^^^''  "''""*'■>■•  *^'^'^"  '"  conjunction  Mith 
nffll'al  ^  "^^^^■'"'"-  "^fen  a  great  obstacle  to  the  -conquest 
It,  f '"'^  territory.     Extreme  variations  of  climate  have 

£  thnSr'^-  ^i"?"  ^^''l^^  "'^^^^'ly  predfsposed  lo  sick- 
itfss  thiough  tropical  di.sease. 

dei/'nfT""^'''"''"'  .^"'^  ^^"'^'y  ^'^'"ested  nature'of  a  great 
defence  whiH?"K-^  ''''  ^''y^^'^  ^  «^™^  "f  "^tural  lines  3 
as  thev  hn  ^''''^  ^r''^'^  ^•'^  '^'""d  t"  '"^^♦'^t  or    envelop 

T    -^  v^""  Z''^'^"  ^"'^'y  *"  ^"ack  by  frontal  a.ssault. 
huJ'Ltnfr    "'**"'■'  °^  'H  "°""'^y  ^"d  t'l^  enormously 

Si  r.  in  ..       "'""',^^*'*'"  ^^'"'  l^'^'-'^d  «''^"^t  insuperable 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  tran.sport.  and  during  the  advance  of 
General  .Smuts  from  the  north,  his  commmissariat  broke  do w^    ' 
on  several  occasions  and  the  men  were  on  starvation  rations, 
on    'uTl     t  '^'V^e  '"cn  cannot  march  and  fight  for  long 

on  shoit  rations.     The  ravages  of  fever  and  dysentery  soon 

.Ttfn.S  "Pf  "■\'^-''*"  r^^''  ^^^y  ^^"  ^'^"^  Wl  medical 
attention  and  sustaining  food.  An  initial  error  was  made  in  not 
providing  every  man  of  the  East  and  Central  Africa  Ex- 
peditionary Force  with  mosquito  nets.  The  number  of 
doctors,  too,  was  insufficient,  and  at  times  the  supply  of 
qumine  and  other  drugs  fell  woefully  short  of  requirements 

The  King  s  African  Rifles,  which  has  played  a  prominent 
part  in  the  campaign,  is  a  black  force  oflicercd  by  whites  The 
men  are  mainl3-  recruited  from  the  warlike  Wawemba,  Angoni, 
^ao.  Watonga,  Wakamba,  Soudanese  and  Nubian  tribes  and 
on  many  occa.sions  in  this  campaign  and  in  the  fightiW  a 
few  years  ago  m  Somaliland.  they  proved  their  mettle  in  battle 

With  a  view  to  bnnging  the  campaign  to  a  conclusion  this 
dry  season,  additional  white  troops  are  now  being  sent  forward 
and  It  is  probable  that  further  considerable  fighting  will  be 
heard  of  in  the  near  future.  To  those  who  are  possessed 
of  no  knowledge  of  the  country,  the  prolongation  "  of 
llK'      German      luist     African    campaign    is    as     difficult 


12 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  31,  i<)i7 


to  understand  as  it  has  beon  disappointing.  But  due  allow- 
ances have  not  been  made  by  the  pulilic  at  large,  for 
the  size  and  dHficult  nature  of  the  country,  nor  for  tlir  climatic 
acN'antages  the  Germans  have  had  in  possessing  seasoned 
troops.  In  a  country  of  dense  bush  and  forest  sfich  as  Central 
East  Africa  is,  the  advantages  are  enormously  in  favour  of  a 
defensive  and  retreating  force,  and  correspondingly  against 
an  <irtensi\e  and  advancing  nrmy.-  A  skeleton  rearguard  with 
a  sin, 'le  Well-concealed  machine  gun  can  hold  up  a  whole 
column  advancing  along  a  narrow  bush  path. 

liirtune,  too,  lias  favoured  the  (jermans.  On  more  than 
one  occasion  the  riiain  bulk  of  their  forces  has  been  almost 
surrounded,  and  but  for  one  or  two  unfortunate  incidents, 
the  campaign  would  have  lieen  over  months  ago. 

I'he  end  does  now,  however,  appear  to  be  definitely  in 
sight.      The  i-iiemv  fnrcf>.;  are  all  ciiiilini'd  in  a  ((imjiaratively 


small  area,  and  our  lines  of  communication  have  been  put  in 
order.  We  can  menace  von  l.ettow  \'orbeck"s  forces  at  any  point 
we  like,  and  it  will  be  of  much  interest  to  observe  the  tactics 
the  wily  Teuton  will  adopt  when  what  promises  to  be  the 
final  offensive  operations  are  begun. 

N'orbeck  will  probably  prefer  breaking  up  'his  army  into 
several  small  columns  to  offering  battle  en  masse.  There 
seems  to  be  some  reasons  for  thinking  that  he  will  try  to 
break  the  line  of  the  Kovuina  and  enter  Portuguese  territory. 
General  Smuts  hinted  at  this  possibility  in  a  speech  made  at 
Cape  Town  just  before  he  sailed  for  Europe. 

It  may  be  remembered  that  these  were  the  tactics  adopted 
by  the  remnant  of  the  German  .troops  in  the  Cameroons.  But 
in  that  instance  they  broke  over  into  neutral  Spanish  territory, 
whereas',  in  th<^  case  of  the  Central  Kast  African  campaign, 
tliev^  are  hemmed  in  b\'  enemies  on  all  sides. 


From  the  Other  Side  of  the  Atlantic 


By  a  Special  Correspondent 


Washington.  Way  7th,  1917. 

LIKE. Gaul,  at  the  time  when  Julius  Cesar  invaded 
it,  the  United  States,  at  the  time  when  I  invaded 
them,  were  and  are  divided  into  three  parts.  There 
is  the  East,  the  Afiddle.  and  the  West.  There 
svoiild  lie  less  criticism  and  more  understanding  of  American 
foreign  policy  if  this  elementary  division  were  biirne  in  mind. 
"  ."Xnierica  wants  this,  America  ought  to  do  that,"  says  the 
hasty  traveller  qu  his  n>turn  to  Europe  from  tlie  Eastern 
States ;  }ie  buttresses  his  contentions  with  voluminous 
extracts,  in  the  largest  known  type,  from  the  Eastern  press. 
And  you  feel  that  there  is  no  more  to  be  said. 

No  more,  at  least,  imtil  you  go  to  Illinois  or  Iowa.  "  That 
is  the  real  America,"  said  my  neighbour  at  luncheon  yester- 
day, "  where  you  get  men  bom  and  brougJit  up  and  sent  to 
college  and  making  their  pile  and  living  and  dying  with  a 
thou-sand  miles  of  land  between  thcni  and,  Ihe  sea  on  either 
side.  My  other  neighbour  was  from  California,  and  told  a 
different  tale.  And  1  was  left  thinking  that  no  single  part  of 
the  States  is  the  real  America,  but  the  lowest  common 
denominator  of  them  all.  The  President  and  the  .Adminis- 
tration of  America,  which  governs  America^  have  to  remember 
that  ,  others  are  not  so  obliged. 

It  is  unprofitable  to  criticise  the  cities  who  proclaimed 
amid  quotations  from  the  Eastern  press  that  America  was 
thirsting  for  war  two  years  ago,  and  that  President  Wilson 
was  iKjIding  her  back.  It  was'  true  of  t^e  East  ;  the  Middle 
and  West  were  never  put  to  the  proof.  (Jn  the  day  of 
writing,  tlie  Selective  Draft  Bill  has  passed  through  Congress 
with  a  majority  at  which  no  one  need  cavil :  the  Middle  and 
V\est  are  covered  by  its  operation  and  will  undoubtedly 
respect  it,  but  the  driving  force  behind  the  Bill  in  press 
and  Coijgress,  came  from  the  East  ;  so  urgent  was  the  news- 
paper campaign  on  behalf  of  conscription,  so  unanimous  too, 
that  you  wondered  where  the  opposition  was  to  be  found. 
Again,  it  was  in  the  Middle  and  the  West,  which  have  accepted 
the  fact  of  war  but  are  far  from  realising  its  demands. 

This  broken  continuity  in  the  chain  from  Atlantic  to 
Pacific — an  antagonism  of  race,  policy  and  thought  every 
whit  as  pttmounced  as  the  antagonism  between  South  and 
North  sixty  years  ago — is  one  of  the  things  which  it  is  hoped 
^the  war  in  general  and  the  Selective  Draft  in  particular  will 
cure.  Universal  service  appeals  to  the  Republican  mind- 
appeals  unduly,  would  say  anyone  who  had  seen  the  im- 
possibiHty  of  exacting  equality  of  sacrifice  in  war;  it  seems 
the  obvious  reply  to  Alarshal  joffre's  call  for  men,  the  obvious 
fulfilment  of  the  promise  that  America  was  entering  the  war 
with  all  her  resources.  It  is  the  obvious  imitation  of  the 
policy  ado]>ted  by  the  other  Allies  and  may  rouse  emulation 
in  Canada  and  Australia,  which  now  stand  in  an  anomalous 
position.  But  almost  before  everything  else  it  seems  the 
means  of  unifying  the  United  States.  The  old  Iwast  that 
America  was  the  melting  pot  of  the  world  has  not  been  heard 
so  much  of  recent  years ;  too  many  hard  new  elements  were 
poured  in  for  the  pot  to  retain  its  transmuting  heat,  and  un- 
melted  blocks  of  Ireland,  Italy,  Ruthenia,  Poland  and  Ger- 
many lay  scattered  over  the  wide  soil  of  the  States — Italian, 
Polish,  German,  anything  but  American.  Reflective  writers 
have  long  pointed  out  that  the  American  type  was  no  longer ' 
being  produced  and  that  the  American  ideal  was  being  lost 
^  to  view.  Conscription,  which  will  unite  the  country's  youth 
under  a  common  discipline  and  for  a  common  cause,  is  wel- 
comed— at  least  in  the  purer-blooded  "Eastern  States — as  a 
great  and  necessary  uniformer. 

And  what  the  Selective  Draft  is  expected  to  do  for  the 
tizens  of  America,  the  war  itself  is  exuected  to  do  for  the 


world.  In  the  East  it  has  long  been  felt  that  America  has 
outgrown  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  It  is  one  thing  to  keep  out 
of  Kurojjean  diplomatic  embodiments  when  these  are  confined 
to  Europe  ;  quite  another  when  the  submarine  cable  and 
wireless  system  have  conspired  to  violate  the  privacy  of  the 
western  World  and  interfere  with  its  development  ;  when 
Germany  seeks  to  starve  England  from  fhe  Atlantic  home 
waters  of  the  States  and  the  whole  of  her  diploinatii"  and 
espionage  artillery  is  erected  on  emplacements  in  the  heart 
of  America.  It  is  impossible  to  keep  out  of  the  war,  even 
were  it  desirable  ;  and  it  is  being  increasingly  felt  that  one 
of  the  richest  nations  in  the  worUl,  with  a  population  of 
iTO,ooo,ooo-and  its  own  cherished  ideal  of  civilisation,  should 
not  even  attemjit  to  evade  its  share  of  work  in  moulding  the 
world's  destinies.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  served  a  valuable 
purpose,  but  it  would  now  only  hinder  and  weaken  where  once 
it  helped  and  protected. 

"  We  .Americans  are  iKid  starters,"  to  quote  my  neighbour 
again,  "  but  we  don't  quit."  They  thoughft  o%-er  the  change 
of  policy  before  they  made  it.  but  once  made,  they  will  not 
revoke  their  decision.  Monev  is  to  be  had  for  the  asking 
— 20o,ooo,ocK)  dollars  for  Great  Britain  this  week — and  men 
as  soon  as  they  can  be  traii>ed.  It  is  no  disparagement  to 
their  goodwill  to  say  that  they  have  leapt  in  tlie  dark  ;  they 
will  make  all  necessary  sacrifices,  though  I  fear  that  they 
have  no  conception  of  what  the  war  has  cost  the  Allies  in 
men  and  money  or  how  "  the  spring  has  been  taken  out  of 
the  year."  All  they  ask  is  guidance,  rasdising  that  their 
war  administration  is  non-existent  and  hoping  to  profit 
by  the  mistakes  of  others.  "  (iuess  you  had  to  buy  your 
experience,"  is  the  exordium  to  eve^y  discussion  of  the 
war,  until  you  wonder  whether  your  own  abused  and  derided 
(iovernment  made  so  many  mistakes  after  all.  Almost  you 
are  tempted,  when  conscription  is  passed,  because  the  volun- 
tary system  failed  so  signally  in  Britain,  to  remirid  your 
'.•is-a-iis  that  5, 000,000. men  were  recruited  under  it.  But 
the  spirit  of  willingness  to  serve  and  eagerness  to  learn  how 
to  serN'e  the  common  caifse  is  too  good  to  mar.  So  far  no 
preparations  have  been  made,  but  tliey  are  being  undertaken 
with  almost  revolutionary  ardour.  The  cultivatioh  of.  the 
land,  the  scientific  distribution  of  man-power,  the  no  les.s 
scientific  substitution  in  industry,  the  perfection  of  trans- 
port and  the  conservation  of  the  country's  material  and 
monetary  wealth  are  being  worked  out  day  and  night,  without 
waiting  for  legislation,  by  semi-private  committees  whose 
one  aim  is  to  have  ready  a  proved  and  practicable  scheme 
for  the  moment  whei\.;the  Administration  requires  one. 

.The  Union  Jack  Club 

The  following  subscriptions  have  been  received  by  us  from 
time  to  time  for  the  Union  lack  CInl)  : — 

,(    s.     d. 

Major  Herbert  Sykes  lu    o    'i 

W-.  Welsh,  Esq.  50 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  I.  de  Rougemont    . . 

Mrs.  Shawcross 

Commander  G.  Elias 

Grimsby  Pontoon  Club 

J.  M.  Dawkins,  Esq. 

Ex.  Libris 

Herbert    Price,    Esq. 

Miss  Robertson 

Lt.-Col.  G.  G.  Thatcher,  R.F.A. 

A.N. 

H.  H.  Cassells,  Esq.    ..         ..         ..         ..         ..       10 

Miss  Peggy  de  Fonblanque        ' 5 


•J 

2     o  o 

2  O  O 
200 
200 
I  10  o 
I   I   0 

lie 
lie 

IOC 


May  31,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Salonika  and  its  Weather 

By  H.  CoUinson  Owen  (Editor  of  The  Balkan  News). 


13 


IT  may  be  laid  down  as  an  axiom  that  he  who  has  spent 
a  full  year  in  Salonika  feels  as  though  he  has  been  there 
ten.  it  seems  ages  since  I  first  arrived  in  Salonika  on  a 
precociously  hot  afternoon  in  early  spring,  and  an  hour  or 
so  afterwards  was  conducted  by  a  friend  to  the  Olympos  res- 
taurant for  dinner.  A  considerable  experience  of  cosmopoli- 
tan dining  establishments  did  not  prepare  me  for  the  extra- 
ordinary mixture  oi  people  who  were  gathered  in  the  large 
room  overlooking  the  busy  cjuay.  The  dinner  was  indifferent, 
but  the  air  was  vibrant  with  the  strenuous  conversation  of  some 
hundreds  of  people  all  talking  together  in  at  least  half  a  dozen 
languages — when  they  were  not  calling  loudly  for  the  waiters 
or  summoning  them  with  insistent  handclaps.  And  the 
diners  were  dressed  in  a  striking  medley  of  uniforms.  The 
Serbs  had  just  arrived  on  the  hrst  stage  of  their  return  home- 
wards, and  formed  a  large  proportion  of  the  gathering. 
There  were  British,  French  and  Greek  (it  was  before  the  time 
of  the  Russians  and  the  Italians)  and  all  sorts  of  nondescripts 
whom  f  hf  newcomer  could  not  possibly  hope  to  distinguish. 

Individual  conversation  in  that  sustained  uproar  Was 
impossible,  but  the  novice,  all  alive  for  first  impressions,  bent 
forward  eagerly  to  catch  all  that  his  host  had  to  say  :     « 

"  You  see  that  man  at,the  next  table — the  dark  chap,  with 
the  strong  hawk-like-  profile  ?  That's  the  fellow  who 
assassinated  Mahm')ud  Shcfket  Pasha ! " 

Oh,  joyand  rapture  !  I  was  a  little  hazy  as  to  the  precise 
circumstances  of  the  late  Pasha's  death,  but  impressed 
beyond  measure  at  the  idea  that  I  was  dining  at  the  next 
table  to  his  distinguished  slayer.  Could  anybody  have  desired 
a  more  fitting  introduction  to  the  romantic  atmosphere  of 
Salonika  ?  And  the  assassin  went  calmly  through  his  dinner 
as  though  he  had  not  the  shadow  of  a  crime  on  his  conscience. 
In  a  week  or  so  I  was  painting  out  the  assassin  of  Mahmoud 
Shefket  Pasha  to  new.arrivals,  who  were  all  suitably  impressed 
-and  paid  due  tribute  to  the  sponsor  wh6  knew  his  Near  East 
so  intimately.  Hoon  one  got  quite  used  to  the  assassin, 
because  one  saw  liim  lunching  or  dining  somewhere  or  other 
every  day.  He  was  merely  one  of  our  stock  Hnes,  to  be 
dismissed  with  a  casual  reference ;  and  then  suddenly  he 
disappeared  from  circulation,  and  his  hawK-Iike  profile  was 
seen  no  more.  Hut  whether  he  was  really  the  assassin  of 
Mahmoud  Shefket  Pasha,  or  whether  successive  generations 
of  new  arrivals  slandered  him  most  unjustly,  I  have  neyer  been  . 
able  to  discover. 

****♦. 

At  the  moment  of  writing,  higii  summer  has  come  back 
with  a  leap  to  Salonika.  A  hot  wind  blew  suddenly  up  the 
Gulf  somewhere  about  mid-day  ;  the  picturestjue  medley  of 
sailing  craft  which  thrust  their  noses  over  the  sea  wall  at  once 

I  became   surprisingly  agitated;    a   most   unusual   "popple" 

'  appeared  on  the  water  ;  and  before  lunch  was  half  way  through, 
bouncing  hearty  waves  that  recalled  the  front  at  Brighton 
or  Blackpool,  were  leaping  over  into  the  road  ;  and  the  tram- 
way lines  on  the  Front  (or  the  Quai  de  la  Victoire  or  Odus  Nikhi 
or  whatever  one  may  choose  to  call  it)  were  submerged  under 
two  feet  of  wjiter.  Durijig  one  period  of  five  or  si^  weeks,  it 
was  the  custom  every  day  to  interrupt  lunch  to  watch  the 
daily  Boche  aeroplane  being  shelled  by  the  Allied  guns. 
To-day  the  sudden  hot  wind  brought  an  unusual  spectacle 
and  everybody  crowded  to  the  club  balcony  to  see  British 
lorries  and  French  camions  and  pushful  young  Fords 
belonging  to  all  nations.ploughing  their  way  through  the  flood 
that  had  blotted  out  our  main  street. 

It  may  be  only  what  military  experts  call  a  diversion,  and  ■ 
not  real  summer  at  all,  to  be  followed  by  a  sudden  attack  of 
more  cold  or  rain.  Either  way  would  be  disagreeable.  The 
rain  brings  mud;  and  what  Salonika  is  like  in  the  mud  could 
only  have  been  adequately  described  by  Dante  and 
illustrated  by  Dorc  'fhe  only  happy  people  under  such 
circumstances  are  the  drivers  of  motor  cars.  They  smother 
every  pedestrian  in  a  grape  and  canister  fife  of  flying  "  quidge," 

i      and  attain  extraordinary  skillin  reaching  particular  targets. 

"  And  as  to  the  heat — who  that  went  through  the  boiling  ordeal 
of  last  summer  can  look  forward  with  equanimity  to  the  next  ? 
It  is  no  joke  living  in  a  climate  where  the  clinical  thermometers 
burst  from  sheer  joy.  But  the  general  impression  is  that  the 
mud  season  is  over,  and  that  the  heat  and  dust  season  will 
soon  be  firmly  established  once  more. 

It  seems  an  age  since  Vcnizelos  Street  and  the  Place  de  la 
Liberte  were  filled  with  British  soldiers-  in  sun  helmets  and 
khaki  shorts,  and  when  brown-baked  subalterns  came  in  from 
up  country  and  told  us  stories  of  120  dcgi  in  their  "  bivvies." 
Until  the  last  few  days  the  furry  coat  that  makes  its  wearer 
look  vcrv  much  like  a  performing  hear  has  been  greatly  in 


vogue,  and  the  jump  from  fur  garments  to  bare  knees  may 
be  only  a  matter  of  a  week  or  so.  To-day  I  saw  an  officer 
in  a  motor  car  wearing  blue  sun  goggles.  One  pair  of  blue 
goggles  does  not  make  a  summer,  but  he  is  certainly  the 
harbinger  of  the  languid  days  when  ij:  will  be  an  effort  even 
to  raise  to  the  lips  the  refreshing    citronnade  glacee. 

Heat  is  romantic.  How  many  youngsters,  their  imaginations 
fired  by  tales  in  the  boys'  papers,  have  grown  up  to  mature 
age  with  the  secret  conviction  that  to  wear  white  ducks  and 
a  pith  tielmet,  with  for  preference- a  six-shooter  thrust  into 
the  hip-pocket,  was  the  finest  thing  that  life  could  hold  ? 
For  thousands  of  those  who  were  once  youngsters,  the  dream 
has  come  true,  even  if  a  khaki  shirt  and  shorts  have  ti^ken  the 
place  of  the  more  becoming  white  duck.  From  bank  and 
counting  house  and  factory  they  have  been  translated  to  a 
land  .where  there  are  fierce  wolves  in  winter  and  fiercer  mos- 
quitoes in  summer.  And  the  youngsters  of  the  next  generation, 
instead  of  merely  reading  of  these  things,  will  hear  of  them 
from  the  lips  of  ^leir  own  romantic  dders.  We  are  preparing 
a  wonderful  store  of  fiiture  enterprise.  The  next  generation 
will  go  out  to  seek  it.  with  an  appetite  as  keen  as  that  of  Francis 
Drake  and  his  bright  sashed  sailors. 

***** 

All  this  was  written  some  little  time  ago;  and  the  interval 
showed  that  the  hot  wind  that  came  up  the  Gulf  was  only  a  diver- 
sion after  all ;  for  only  a  few  days  since  we  were  subjected  to  an 
attack  from  the  famous  Vardar  wind,  which  came  down 
from  the  Russian  steppes  bringing  a  plentiful  snow-fall  to  the 
front  fine,  and  causing  a  temporary  outbreak  of  fur-coats  in 
-Saloriika.  But  all  the  same,  we  know  now,  quite  apart  from  the 
calendar,  that  summer  is  really  about  to  come  upon  us,  for 
an  Army  order  has  decreed  that  sun  helmets  are  to  be  worn, 
which  is  sufiicient  proof  for  anybody.  Li^e  the  man  with 
a  new  chronometer,  who  remarked  complacently  that  the  sun 
was  three  minutes  behind  time,  the  order  may  have  anticipated 
the  sfjasons  by  a-4^  or  two;  but  it  is  an  excellent  thing  in  war 
time  to  look  a  little  alifad.  And  in  any  case,  the  helmets, 
with  their  neatly  folded  puggarees,  arc  very  becoming. 

We  may  not  in  the  past  have  been  a  military  nation,  but 
the  British  have  always  had  the  real  sense  of  uniforms,  and 
unrivalled  opportunities  for  comparison  in  this  respect  exist 
in  Salonika.  As  to  our  sun  helmets,  they  are  just  right. 
No  man  can  look  insignificant  in  one  and  nearly  all  men  look 
splendidly  martial.  The  officers  and  men  of  the  British  Army 
here,  many  of  whom  learned  their  soldiering  in  France,  some- 
times feel  very  exiled.  They  belong  to  one  of  the  "  far-flung" 
fronts,  and  often  think  enviously  that  people  in  France  are 
twelve  hours  from  London.  But  at  least  the  men  in  France 
never  have  the  priviiege  of  doffing  the  tin  hats  of  the  front 
line  to  put  on  a  suri  helmet  when  they  are  behind.  It  is  some 
small  compensation  for  those  who  know  nothing  of  the  boon 
of  short  leave  and  a  quick  passage  to  Blighty. 

And  by  the  time  these  notes  reach  the  place  of  all  our  dreams, 
the  constant  blue  sky  of  summer  will  be  with  us,  and  the 
white  dust  storms  will  rise  uj)  on  the  Lembet  road  with  e\ery 
puff  of  wind.  Already  the  perambulating  "  lemonade  mer- 
chants "  have  been  with  us  for  several  weeks — wonderful 
men  who  carry  a  huge  metal  receptacle  shaped  something  like 
a  Chinese  pagoda. over  their  shoulders  ;  a  beautiful  work  of 
art  as  they  no  doubt  consider  it,  adorned  with  spirals  and  rings, 
and  bells  that  tinkle.  Round  their  waists  they  carry  a  broad 
leather  belt  that  supports  a  tray  containing  half  a  dozen  tum- 
blers. In  their  right  hand  is  a  metal  jug  containing  water. 
This  is  to  wash  out  the  glasses.  The  lemonade  merchant 
works  with  the  swiftness  and  precision  of  a  gun  team.  A 
quick  and  economical  jet  of  water  washes  out  the  glass,  and 
then  with  a  skilful  "  hike  "  of  his  shoulder  a  stream  of  lemon- 
ade comes  pouring  out  of^the  dragon's  mouth,  that  serves  as 
spout  to  the  pagoda,  into  the  poised  glass.  Like  the  famous 
expectorating  American,  the  litnonaiagki  never  misses.  On  a 
really  hot  day  he  will  get  rid  of  his  six  glasses  and  stand  idle 
and  waiting  inside  of  a  circle  of  ingurgitating  customers,  all 
within  the  space  of  about  ten  seconds.  The  linwnalaglii  is  a 
common  sight  all  over  the  Near  East,  but  he  is  an  unfaihng 

source  of  interest  to  our  Tommies. 

*         *        *        *        • 

At  the  momejit  of  sending  tiiis  to  the  censor  we  are  suffering 
from  a  two  days'  concentrated  downpour  of  rain  which  has 
completly  washed  out  the  adivities  of  the  limonatagki  and 
brought  the  mud  season  at  its  worst  back  to  Salonika.  But 
after  all,  there  is  a  limit  to  the  number  of  changes  of  weather 
that  can  be  dealt  with  in  one  article^moreover  it  is  certain 
tliat  at  any  moment  the  limonalaghi  may  come  definitely  into 
his  own  and  be  with  us  constantly  until  October. 


14 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  ji,   itji; 


Germans  and  the  Russians 

Bv  John  C.  Van   der  Veer  (London  Editor  of  the  Amsterdam  Telegraaf) 


HAVING  for  fifteen  years  advocated  the  cause  of 
i^ussian  freedom  in  the  Dutch  press,  I  am  firmly 
confident  that  the  Russian  ptxiple.  regenerated  by 
their  gained  freedom  at  home,  will  not  run  into 
any  of  the  traps  set  by  their  arch-enemies,  the  remaining 
autocracies  of  Central .  liurojx-.  From  that  quarter  the 
Russian  jx-ople  have  never  received  any  assistance,  encourage- 
ment or  hope.  Tliey  found  these,  in  their  direst  needs,  only 
among  the  democratic  nations  of  Western  Europe  and  the 
United  States,  with  whom  they  are  and  will  remain  lighting 
lor  the  liberty  of  the  world.  While  Russian  reformers  found 
among  those  democratic  nations  welcome  Uospitahty  and 
free  scope  to  promote  their  cause  in  Russia,  they  were  always 
thwarted  and  pursued  by  the  Central  Powers  of  Europe. 
Germany,  in  particular,  has  been  always  their  enemy,  as  she 
was  the  chief  active  supporter  of  Russian  autocracy.  In 
obstructing  the  Russian  people  during  their  struggle  for 
freedom,  Germany  even  bullied  and  brought  pressure  to  bear 
on  small  countries  like  Holland  and  Switzerland,  to  prevent 
them  sheltering  active  Russian  reformers. 

Wlien  towards  the  end  of  August  1914  the  Russian  army, 
after  beating  back  .the  first  German  onslaughts,  appeared  in 
East  Prussia,  the  whole  German  press  heaped  the  wildest 
insults  on  the  Russians.  The  llamburi^er  Nadtrkhtcn  of 
August  ioth,  1914,  called  them  "  the  beasts  of  the  East," 
"  coarsi;  Tartars,"  and  "  Tartar  hordes  "  ;  and,  forgetting 
the  brutal  atrocities  already  committed  by  the  German 
army  in  Belgium,  that  German  newspajxjr  had  the  hardihood 
to  sjxak  of  "  the  bloodthirsty  rapacity  of  the  infamous 
'lartar  rabble."  Professor  Richard  Meyer  wrote  in  the 
Herlincr  Tageblall  of  August  25th,  1914 :  "  Nobody  was 
indeed  suri)rised  when  from  behind  the  mask  of  Euroixian 
culture  appc>arcHl  the  semi-bestial  savagery  of  Russia.  Bel- 
gium surpris<'d  (sic)  us,  for  there  wc  thought  to  find  civilisa- 
tion. In  regard  to  Russia  we  always  believed  the  old  saying 
'  ScrajX'  a  Russian,  and  the  Tartar  ajipears'.  Such  a  mon- 
strous mass  of  i)eoplc  cannot  he  civilised." 

Tlu;  Local  Amcigir,  which  is  particularly  favoured  by  Court 
circles  in  Berlin,  stated  in  its  issue  of  August  25th,  1914,  that 
it  would  be  necessary  to  "  disinfect  "  the  villages  of  ILast 
Prussia  which  I^ussian  troops  had  occupied,  and  that  those 
villages  would  be  "  rebuilt   better  at  Russia's  cost." 

I  have  taken  at  random  but  a  few  examples  of  the  many 
insults  which  the  German  press  threw  at  the  army  and 
people  of  Russia.  The  Gennan  soldiers  showed  equal  con- 
tempt ami  hatrwl  for  the  Russian  tr<x>ps.  whom  they  treated 
iji  cajitivity,  even  when  wounded,  most  barbarously. 

A  Remarkable  Book 

There  lies  at  my  side  a  remarkable  German  book,  pub- 
lished in  1915  under  the  auspices  of  the  Wagner  Society,  and 
spread  in  all  neutral  countries  as  a  comjx>ndiuin  of  Ciilttir. 
Various  German  writers  contributed  to  it.  The  title  which  is 
jirinted  on  the  cover  in  big  red  type  is  The  Dcalrvction  of  the 
hnf^li^h  World- Power,  with  the  addi4:it)n  in  small  black  tyjK'  : 
And  ol  kitssian  Czarism  by  [the  Triple  Alliance  and  Islam. 
According  to  that  title,  the  destruction  of  Ru-ssian  Czarism 
was  for  Germany  but  of  secondary  importance  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  English  World-Power,  which,  as  a  shield  for  the 
liberty  of  nations,  always  stood  and  will  stand  in  the  way  of 
Germany's  coveted  world  domination,  (ircat  Britain  nuist, 
therefore,  lie  huml)le(l.  With  her  the  (iermans  wanted  no 
palched-u|)  jHrdce.  also  knowing  too  well,  that  they  c(»uld 
never  win  the  free  Britisli  nation  over  t(j  any  such  scheme. 
But  with  Russian  C/^rism  Germany  was  last  autumn  eager 
enough  to  conclude  a  separate  jieace,  in  order  to  use  Russian 
autocracy  as  a  bulwark  against  European  national  freedom. 
The  Vossischc  Zeilun^  admitted  November  13th,  191b, 
quite  frankly,  that  it  had  never  entered  German  minds 
"to  liberate  oppressed  nationalities."  Of  course  not.  I3ut 
that  paper  found  it  "  not  conflicting  with  German  interests 
to  give  the  Russian  part  of  Poland  freedom,  always,  of 
course,  "  under  Prussian  control."  The  radical  Vossische 
Zeitung  of  the  date,  pleaded  warmly  for  an  "  understanding  " 
between  Germany  and  the  still  autocratic  Russia.  Had  that 
object  succeeded.  Emperor  William  would  have  seen 
the  chains  were  riveted  afresh  <jn  the   Russian  people. 

This  German  book  is  remarkable,  because  it  throws  a  flood 
of  light  on  the  real  r.erman  attitude  towards  the  Russian 
jx-ople.  Professors  I^udolf  Eucken  and  Ernest  Haeckel 
state  in  a  combined  essay :    "  England  fights  in  favour  of  a 


Slavic,  semi- Asiatic  power  against  the  German  worlu.  She 
not  only  fights  on  the  side  of  barbarism,  but  also  on  tin;  side 
of  moTid  injustice,  for  it  must  not  Ix'  forgotten  that  Russia 
Ixgan  the  war,  because  she  disfavoured  a  thorough  at>we- 
inent  for  a  miserable  murder."  Tlic  iimocent  Cicrmans  have 
never  been  able  to  come  to  any  agreement  on  whom  to  lay 
the  blame  for  this  war.  They  cast  it  alternately  on  "  wicked 
f^ritain"  and  "barl>arous  Itussia."  Only  "iioly  (iermany"  is 
free  from  blame !  But  let  the  Russian  people  note,  how  they 
are  judged  in  this  German  propaganda  book.  Dr.  R.  W. 
Drechsler  of  Berlin,  sjxaks  with  Prussian  disdain  of  "  dull, 
semi- Asiatic  Russia,"  wluch  Dr.  Richard  Strahl,  the  jurist, 
called  '  a  .semi-barbaric  State,"  in  contrast  with  the  Ger- 
manic ixx)ple,  "  whose  disciplined  rigidity  and  organised  order 
always  stood  against  the  effeminate  and  sensitive  Slavic 
character."  I  lor  one  share  with  the  "  effeminate  and' 
sensitive"  I^ussians  an  aversion  from  German  "  manUness," 
which  stoops,  to  Prussian  "  disciplined  rigidity  "  and  an 
"  organised  order  '•  as  manifested  at  Zabern  I 

So  particularly  friendly  are  the  Germans  to  the  real 
Russians,  that  Dr.  Konrad  Alliricht  would  tolerate  them  no 
longef"  on  the  European  continent.  He  insists  in  this  volume 
"  on  the  'necessity  to  confine  the.  uncultured  mass  of  great 
I'iussians  to  their  original  abode."  And  he  hails  Gennany's 
war  "  as  a  struggle  of  pure  Germanism  against  Slavs  and 
latins,  a  struggle  of  geniality  against  half-rotten  and  sinking 
cultures,  and  against  barbarians  who  too  long  have  disturbed 
the  I{uro]X'an  ]x?ace."  To  that  German  "  genialty."  of  which 
tlie  sinking  of  hospital  shijis  is  a  typical  sign,  the  Russian 
"  barbarians  "  should  bow  their  heads  and  show  their  heels. 
\es,  show  their  heels.  Eor  Herr  Axel  Ripkc  is  anxious  to 
drive  them  from  the  shore  of  the  Baltic  Sea.  In  his  contri- 
bution to  the  Destrm/ion  of  tlic  English  World  Power,  wc  find 
this  promising  prospect  :  .V  friendly  combined  rule  by  Ger- 
mans and  Russians  over  the  Baltic  is  im[>ossible  ;  therefore, 
says  Herr  .^xel  Ripkc,  "  we  must  extend.  German  dominion 
along  the  shores  of  that  sea.  Tlie  German  must  become 
the  ruler  of  the  Baltic,  and  he  will  not  rest  until  the  Russian 
Tartar  is  finally  cut  off  from  the  Baltic,  and  goes  back  to  Asia, 
whence  he  came."  And  Herr  Ripke  can  find  no  greater 
compliment  for  the  Russian  ])eoj)ie  than  comiwring  them 
with  pigs.  .Speaking  of  the  Baltic  Germans,  he  recalls  a 
saying :  "  A  horse  born  in  a  jwg-sty  remains  a  horse,  and 
does  not  become  a  pig." 

That  (Jermany  was  bent  6n  conquest,  at  the  cost  of  Russia 
too,  apjxared  frequent  enough  in  the  German  press,  and  in 
numerous  other  German  publications  issued  dming  the  war. 
Poland  had,  in  the  first  place,  to  be  torn'from  Russia.  Even 
Herr  Schiedemann,  the  leader  o^  the  majority  of  the  Gennan 
Socialist  Party,  said  last  autumn  at  their  Conference : 
'■  Should  wc  insist  that  Poland  remains  Russian  ?  In  the 
Balkans,  in  the  Near  East  and  in  Africa,  etc.,  must  tevery- 
thing  remain  as  before  ?  "  According  to  the  Vossische 
Zeitung  of  September  26th,  191b,  Scheideniann's  followers  at 
that  Socialist  Conference,  cheered  that  statement.  And 
while  the  Germans  were  out  "  to  grab,"  they  had  apparently 
last  autunm  intrigued  with  the  then  Russian  rulers  that  they 
should  leave  Serbia  in  the  lurch  and  further  the  territorial 
claims  of  Bulgaria..  The  radical  Vossiscltc  Zcifiing  said  on 
November  13th,  191(1,  commenting  on  Mr.  Ascpiith's  tiuild- 
hall  speech  of  that  month  :  "  Mr.  Asquith  went  in  his  cunning 
a  step  further,  if  that  were  possible.  Among  other  things 
lu-  raised  the  question,  how  the  restoration  of  Serbia  stands. 
He  overlooked  the  fact,  that  the  new  orientation  in  the 
Balkans  will  in  the  near  future  also  haVe  a  lively  interest  for 
Russia,  and  that  I^ussia,  drawn  into  the  war  so-called  for 
Serbia,  lias  ])erha])s  meanwhile  formed  an  opinion  for  a  totally 
different  Balkan  settlement.  The  question  of  Serbia's  restora- 
tion will,  therefore,  be  anything  but  pleasant  for  the  Russian 
rulers."  What  a  disappointment  for  the  secretly  conspiring 
Germans  to  find,  that  the  question  of  Serbia's  restoration 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  pleasant  for  the  liberated 
noble-hearted  Russian  people  ! 

That  the  German  mind  finds  the  full  freedom  which  the 
Russian  people  now  enjoy  "  anything  but  pleasant,"  can  be 
illustrated  by  a  final  quotation  from-  the  German  propaganda 
book  under  review.  Its  editor,  Herr  Walter  von  der  Bleek 
says  :  "  Everywhere  in  Russia,  in  her  north,  south,  and  west, 
one  finds  residues  of  past  and  dying  cultures.  Their  frag- 
ments circumscribe  the  whole  Russian  Empire,  and  nothing 
can  be  put  in  their  place.  Remains  of  Byzantine  art  and  a 
varnish  of  borrowed  Europ<'an  culture  form  the  threadbare 
clokc  that  covers  the  repulsi\e  nakedness  of  the  Colossus." 


May  31,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


.15 


Ralph  Hodgson's  Verse 


By   J.  G.  Squire 


THKRE  are  Englishmen  alive'  of  all  ages,  from  Mr. 
Bridges  and  Mr.  Hardy  downwards,  who  have 
written  fine  poetry.  The  torch  has  never  gone  out. 
But  there  has  been  a  great  revival  in  poetry  during 
the  last  ten  years  :  and  all  tlio.talk  about  whether  the  war 
would  turn  youpg  men  to  poetry  is  wide  of  the  mark,  because 
almost  all  the  young  men  of  genius  or'  talent  were  writing 
j)oetry  years  before  the  war  began.  Some  of  the  group  repre- 
sented in  Georgian  Poetry  (iqi3)^two  of  the  most -gifted, 
J^upert  Brooke  and  ].  S.  Flecher,  have  recently,  to  the  great 
loss  of  English  literature,  died  on  the  Uireshold  of  their  })rime 
— have  begun  to.  come  into  their  own;  but  others  are  still 
unrecognised  by  many  who  would  not  willingly  overlook  good 
contemporary  work  if  they  knew  where  to  find  it.  One  of 
these  is  Mr.  Ralph  Hodgson,  a  volume  (Poems,  3s.  (k\.  nej) 
by  whom  has  just  been  published  by  Messrs.  Macmillan.  It 
is  a  book  of  only  seventy  pages,  and  contains  e\-erything  Mr. 
Hodgson  has  written  for  several  years.  That  Mr.  Hodgson 
is  still  not  better  known  is  partly  due  to  the  infrequency  of  his 
publications,  and  partly  to  Jiis  horror  of  self-advertisement 
and  a  peculiar  shyness  (he  must  forgive  this  intrusion  into 
his  private  life)  which  has  resulted  in  many  men  knowing 
him  for  years  without  realising  that  his  principal  occupations 
were  not  attending  boxing-matches  and  acting  as  judge  at 
bull-dog' sliows.  The  present  collection,  Jiowever,  will  greatly 
extend  his  reputation. 

*         *         *         *   .- 

Mr.  Hodgson  is  a  naturalist.  He  writes  ot  wild  life  vrith 
the  famiUarity  of  Jeflries  or  Mr.  W.  H.  Hudson.  This  is  a 
very  unusual  thing  in  a  jwet :  and  indeed,  there  is  no  reason 
why  poets  should  know  mare  about  rare  birds  and  elusive 
beasts  than  anybody  else.  The  lark  arid  the  nightingale 
are  one  thing  :  but  Jones's  Warbler  is  another.  Mr.  Hodgson, 
however,  does  not  write  like  a  mere  naturalist,  putting  names, 
colours  or  shapes  down  merely  because  he  knows  or  has  noticed 
them.  But  whenever  he  is  most  deeply  moved  it  is  to  wild 
creatures  that  he  turns,  both  for  his  major  symbols  and  for  his 
minor  imagery.  His  animate  world  is  one  and  indivisible  : 
man  is  but  the  King  of  He.ists,  and  a  questionable  sort  of 
monarch  at  that. 

The  meanest  slujj  with  midnight  goive 
Ifas  left  a  silver  trace. 

And  whatever  his  subject,  Jie  is  sure  to  be  arrested  by  tlie 
physical  beauty  of  living  things  and  the  spear-like  straightness 
of  their  impulses  to  sing,  to  love,  and  to  fight.  In  Eve  he  ' 
turns  the  temptation  of  man  into  an  idyll,  light  and  delicate, 
but  not  insincere.  The  evil  one  accosts  the  jnaiden  as  she 
stands  knee  deep  in 'tlie  grass  picking  berries.  But  even  the 
tempter  has  his  points  to  one  M'ifh  an  eye  for  grace: 

Tumbling   in  twenty  rings 
Into  the  grass. 

and  it  is  characteristic  of  this  poet  that  when  lie  comes  to 
the  tragedy  of  the  expulsion  he  can  express  it  l>est  through 
the  sorrow  of  the  titmouse  and  the  wren.  The  only  poems 
in  which  he  is  angry  and  indignant  are  those  in  which  lie 
belabours  "  the  j»iinj)  of  fashion,"  who  scours  the  world  for 
plumes,  and  similar  bku-kguardly  or   ignorant  exterminators. 

*  *  *  4t 

Mr.  ITodgson's  two  finest  poems  are  The  Bull  and  The 
Song  of  Honour.  They  are  complementary,  and  they  exhibit, 
taken  together,  his  emotional  reaction  (he  does  not  theorise 
at  all)  to  the  spectacle  of  heaven  and  earth.  The  birds  and 
beasts  liere  are  as  vividly  seen  and  felt  as  ever,  but  they  arc 
before  everything  manifestations  of  the  creative  energies  of 
the  universe.  In  The  Song  of 'Honour  he  climbs  a  hill  "  as 
light  fell  short."  The  stars  come  out.  There  is  a  silence- 
and  then  it  is  broken. : 

*  There,  sharp  and  sudden,  there  I  heard- 

Ah  !   some  wild  lovesick  singing  hird 
1 1  'oke  singing  in  /lie  trees  ? 
I'he  nightingale  and  halMe  wren 
Were  in  the  linglish  greemvood  then, 
A  nd  you  heard  one  of  these  ? 

The  bablile  wren  and  niglif-ngale 
Sang  in  the  Abyssinian  vale 
'■  That  season  ot  the  year  ! 

Vet,  true  enoiigli,  I  lie.inl  tliem  jilain. 
1  heard  them  tnith  again,  again. 
As  Klinrp  and  sweet  and  clear 
As  If  the  Abyssinian  tree 


Had  tlirust  a  bough  across  the  sea, 
Had  thrust  a  bough  across  to  me 
With  music  lor  my  ear. 
1  heard  them  l)oth,  and,  oh  !   1  lieard 
The  song  of  e^■ery  singing  bird 
That  sings  beneath  the  sky. 

-And  then  comes  in  stanza  after  stanza,  necessarily  breathless 
and  disjointed,  the  catalogue  of  the  adoring  "  Sons'  of  Light : " 
courage,  generosity,  and  beauty  where\'er  found : 

The  music  of  a  lion  strong  . 

That  shakes  a  hill  a  whole  nighf  luniT, 

A  hill  as  loud  as  he, 

■Jhe  (witter  of  a  rnouse  among 

Melodious  greenery, 

'Jhe  ruby's  and  the  rainlx)w's  f^ong, 

The  nightingale's — all  three. 

The  song  of  life  that  wells  and  flows. 

From  every  leopard,  lark  and  rose 

And  everything  that  gleams  or  goea 

J^ack-lustre  in  the  sea. 

The  attempt  to  write  about  "  the  whole  harmonious 'hvmn  of 
bemg,"  has  often  been  made,  and  with  a  much  greater 
equipment  of  metaphysical  conception  and  polysyllabic  phrase : 
but  Mr.  Hodgson's  simply-worded  p;ean  convinces.  When 
he  has  heard  his  own  "  Amen  "  to  it  and  stands  dizzy  on  the 
hill,  staring  and  staring  at  the  stars,  one  is  left  with  none  of  ^ 
that  uneasy  sense  of  affectation  that  one  so  frequentU-  gets 
when  men  attempt  to  chant  the  Cosmos. 
*  «  *  * 
The  Bull  gives  the  other  side  of  the  medal..  Here,  too,  life 
strains  and  writhes,  but  its  beauty  is  terrible,  and  its  effort 
ends  in  failure  and  death.  In  one  ])oem  the  mystery  of 
goodness  and  joy  is  sung,  in  the  other  the  mystery  of  pain 
and  evil.  It  is  a  hot  moist  land  of  marsh  and  forest  where 
there  are  no  men.  The  old  bull,  until  now  leader  of  a  thou- 
sand bulls  and  cows,  has  been  dethroned  and  cast  out  and  lie? 
in  the  undergrowth  awaiting  death,  whilst  gaudy  parrots, 
and  tree-cats,  and  monkeys,  flit  about  above  him  and,  in  the 
slush  below,  flies  and  beetles  afid  spiders  treep  ab(jut,  and  a 
'  "**"'   ' ^    -  -1  -1  -       -I       .         ...  watch  on  all 


dotted  serpent,  C(jiled  round  a  tree,  "  keeps  a  watc 
the  world."     He  wanders  aimlessly,  dreammg  of  tht 


le  past 


See  him   standing,  dewlap-deep 
In  the  rushes  at  the  lake, 
Surly,   stupid,   half  asleep,. 
Wailing  fur  his  heart  to  break  ; 
And  Ihe  birds  to  join  the  ilies 
I'easting  at  his  bloodshot  eyes  ; 

Standing  with  his  head  hung  clown 
In  a  stupor,  dreaming  things: 
<;reen  savannas,  jungles  brown. 
Battlefields   and    bellowings, 
i-Sulls  undone  and  lions  dead 
And  vultures  flapping  overhead. 

He  dreams  of  his  early  wanderings  at  his  mother's  tail,  until 
he  left  her  and  "  looked  to  her  no  more  "  ;  of  the  growth  Of 
his  legs  until  the  day's  journeys  were  "  not  so  long  "  ;  of  the 
emergence  of  his  horns  and  his  mock-battles  with  the  other 
little  bulls  ;  of  his  ambition  to  lead  and  his  success  ;  of  his 
lK)wer  when  "  not  a  bull  or  cow  that  erred  In  the  furnace 
of  his  look  Dared  a  second  worse  rebuke  "  ;  of  snakes, 
leopards,  lions  and  Iwars  all  in  dread  of  him.  Now  he  is 
supreme  only  in  the  delusions  of  his  "  daft  old  brain."  .Only 
the  tameless  heart  is  as  it  was  : 

Pity  hint  that  he  must  wake  ; 
JCven  now  the  swarm  of  flies 
Blackening  his  bloodshot  eyes 
Biirsts  and  blisters  round  the  lalce. 
Scattered  from  the  feast  half-fed, 
By  great  sliadows  overhead. 

And  the  dreamer  turns  away 
From  his  visionary  herds 
.And  his  splendid  yesterday, 
'i'urris  to  meet  the  loathly  birds 
Flocking  round  him  from  the  skies. 
Waiting  for  the  flesh  that  dies. 

It  is  all  the  time  a  bull'with  which  we  are  feeling,  and  not  a 
man  in  a  bull's  hide.  The  poem  is  perfect ;  a  greater  success 
than  The  Song  of  Honour,  not  because  of  a  greater  degree  of 
sincerity  and  vision  in  the  author,  but  because  he  has  chosen, 
in  this  instance,  a  single  manageable  symbol.  Mr.  Hodgson 
IS  a  poet  of  unusual  infertility;  but  had  he  written  nothing 
but  The  Bull,  he  would  still  have  been  remembered,  '^ 


16 


LAND    &    WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian    Oldershaw 


May  31.  1917 


I  AM  tempted  to  forget  for  a  while  the  hooks  I  have 
been  reading  and  t6  talk  of  Oxford  revisited  in  this  third 
vear  of  war  now  drawing  to  its  murderous  close.  It 
should  be  Eights  Week  here  l  youth's  most  splendid 
■evel  in  the  joy  of  life.  The  weather' is  providing  a  perfect 
jetting  for  merry  scenes  on  the  river,  and  in  the  college 
quadrangles.  But  the  barges  are  silent  and  deserted  and 
there  are  no  window  boxes  in  Peckwater  or  down  the  High. 
This  golden  frame  of  sun  and  buttercups  encloses  a  very 
different  picture  from  that  of  other  ^Vhitsuntides.  The 
bright  muslins  and  flannels  that  then  made  gay  the  Meadows 
are  now  represented  bv  khaki  and  white-banded  caps.  In 
ttie  quads  tht-  voice  of  the  undergraduate  calling  to  his  friend 
is  replaced  by  the  staccato  word  of  command  and  the  pande- 
monium of  whistle,  rattle  and  shouting  on  the  tow-path  by 
the  heavy  drone  of  aeroplanes.  'A  changed  Oxford  in  a 
changed  world. " 

•  »  »  ♦  .  • 
•  All  change  is  sad,  especially  to  anyone  who  lias  absorbed, 
however  imperfectly,  the  intense  cbnsen'atism  of  Oxford. 
Sad  thoughts  must  perforce  crowd  out  all  others  on  first 
revisiting  Oxford  is  war-time.  At  every  other  oak  it  seems 
one  is  reminded  of  a  friend  that  is  no  more,  and  clubs  and 
'■  digs  "  have  the  same  poignant  memories.  The  Steward 
at  the  Union  tells  one  of  other  names  in  the  casualty  lists 
that  1  had  not  noticed.  .  .  .  But  there  is  another  side— 
the  right  side— to  the  tapestry.  Mr.  C.  L.  Graves  had  some- 
thing-to  say  in  his  recent  volume  of  verse  about  this  other 
side  in  two  graceful  poems  contrasting  Oxford  before  the 
war  with  Oxiord  to-day.  The  growing  (Towd  of  cadets 
which  is  taking  the  place  of  the  fast  dwindling  band  of  under- 
graduates are  carrying  on — aye,  and  adding  to — ^^the  traditions 
of  the  place.  1  have  with  me  my  small  .son,  who  is  visiting  the 
University  for  the  first  time,  and  I  want  to  find  him  a  book 
to  remind  him  of  this  first  visit  and  to  impress  on  his  mind 
the  link  between  the  old-world  and  the  new.  WitJi  such  an 
object  I  can  think  of  no  better  book  to  give  a  boy  than  that 
early  romance  of  "  Q.'s "  The  Splendid  Spur.  Do  you 
remember  Master  Tucker's  "  dying  councell  to  way  far- 
dingers,"  that  sounds  the  motive  of  the  romance  ?    It  ends  : 

"  This  nrh — this  round 
Of  .sight  and   sound, 
fount  it  the  lists  that  (lod  hath  built 
For  haughty  hearts  to  ride  a-tilt." 
•         »         •         *■''.• 
Thas  I  come  back  from  sentimentalising — may  I  be  for- 
given for  it ! — to  books  and  my  duty^  and  the  transition  is 
made  the  easier  in  that  I  have  before  me  a  volume  of  poems 
by   a   daughter  of   Oxford,   who  expresses   with   grace  and 
feeling  the  University's  response  to  the  call  of  the  war.  Miss 
May  Cannan  gives  evidence  in  her  book,  In  Wur  Time  (B.  H. 
Blackwell,  2s.  (xl.  net),  fif  a  grievous  personal  loss,  but  the 
clarion  note  of  Jiigh  endeavour  sounds  above  the  suffering. 
Thus  she  testifies  in  her  dream  of  England's  victory  : 

Remember  they 
•   Gave  of  their  best.     Kriendship  they  gave;'  the  love  they 
hardly  knew  ; 
All  the  dear  little  f(X)lish  things  of  earth. 
And  all  tlie  splendid  things  they  meant  to  do  : 
Siin.sets,  and  dawns,  and  grey  skies  breaking  blue, 
.\11  undiscovered  worlds,  and  fairy  seas, 
■    And  the  lips  of  their  girl-lovers. 

Her  love  of  English  ground,  learnt  on  the  river  of  Oxford,  is 
prettily  expressed  in  a  pre-war  poem,  "  The  Song  of  a  Canoe," 
W'hich  recalls  Belloc's  "unforgettable  lines  on  the  "  tender 
Evenlode,"  while  the  scorn  for  the  baser  England,  which 
Oxford  and  all  else  that  is  true  English  should  make  stand 
against,  is  expressed  in  "  Kitchener  of  Khartum  "  : 

You— you  took  all  he  gave  ;   he  who  took  up 
Burden  ot  Iimpire  that  was  yours  to  bear, 
And    walked    through   hills   you'll   never   know   to   find 
The  hard-won  wisdom  of  a  soldier  there  ; 
And  went  out  into  .silence  on  the  sea, 
And  left  his  meraon,'  to  your  keeping  here. 
You  that  are  each  this  JCngland,  you  who  live 
As  England  lives,  by  such  great  travailing. 
Have  yon  at  this  high  hour  no  better  gift 
Than    your    safe    smug     disparagement   ran    bring  ? 
He  that  died,  died  for  England  ;   ]'2ngland  lives, 
•  And  you  are  England  ;    that's  the  bitter  thing."  . 
*'         •  *       '  *         It 

In  The  London  NigMs  of  Belsize  (John  Lane,  Gs.),  Vernon 
Rendall  invents  a  new  type  of  amateur  detective  with  un- 
limited wealth  (of  which  he  is  somewhat  boastful),  some  of 


the  methods  of  Sheriock  Holmes  and  an  affectation  of  literary 
knowledge  that  sometimes  bores  one.     His  golden  rule  of 
life  comes  to  him,  with  his  wealth,  from  an  uncle,  a  silk- 
merchant,  in  the  form  of  an  Oriental  proverb :    "  Patience 
and  a  mulberry-leaf  will  make  a  silk  gown."     The  stories  of 
ffelsize's  adventures  are  occasionally  witty,  often  ingenious 
and  always  entertaining.     1  particularly  en)oyed  the  com- 
paratively boisterous  humour  of  "  The  Elimination  of  RoUin- 
son,"  a  stor>'  rif  how  he  rid  his  club  of  a  bore,  and  the  clever 
analysis  of  a   Sherlock    Holmes   tale,    "  The   Adventure    of 
the  Three  Students,"  which  is  made  to  appeiit*  as  in  reality  ' 
a  triumph,  not  for  Holmes,  but  for  Dr.  'VVatson. 
•         »         •         *         » 
Away  with  fictional  psychologists  and  all  other  intellectuals  '. 
Here  is  one  wlio  can  tell  a  tale  after  my  own  heart.     'J'he 
Smaslier  (John  Lbng,  6s.),  shows  that  the  hand  of  the  veteran 
Nat  Gould  has  not  lost  its  cunning.     It  is  a  tale,  with  an 
Australian  setting,  of  gold-hunting,  racing  and  love.     The 
real  heroine  of  it  is  a  mare,  Silver  Tail,  and  its  jeune  premier 
is  undoubtedly  that  lady's  foal,   Silverton.     Of  course,   it 
follows  the  good  conventional  lines.     Virtue— or  comparative 
virtue — in  the  person  of  Pedrick,  "  the  Gold  King,"  is  trium- 
phant, and  undoubted  vice,  in  the.  person  of  Asher  Kitz 
comes  to  a  bad  end.     No  teller  of  tales  need  be  ashamed  if 
he  can  prove  himself  as  good  as  Gould. 

•  •  ♦  •  • 
The  full  schettie  of  Lord  Bryce's  committee  is  to  be  found 
detailed  and  explained  in  Proposals  in  the  Prevention  of 
future  Wars  (Allan  and  I'nwin,  Ltd.,  is.  net).  All  those  who 
look  forward' to  a  rule  of  right  among  the  nations,  even  those 
who  believe  that  war  never  can  be  prevented  entirely,  should 
study  these  proposals  carefully,  for  they  are  the  most  weighty 
at  present  in  the  field,  and  they  difler  little  from  the  proposals 
(»f  the  American  '  League  to  Enforce  Peace,"  which  are  also 
summarised  in  this  volume.  Such  proposals  must  have  the 
sense  of  the  nation  behind  them  if  they  are  to  be  effective, 
and  should  therefore  be  well  considered  before  they  are  sprung 
upon  the  peace  congress  that  may  come  some  day. 

The  articles  on  banking  and  trade  problems  which  Mr, 
Arthur  Kitson  has  from  time  to  time  contributed  to  these 
columns  have  atrracted  a  great  deal  of  notice,  especially  in 
the  commercial  world,  and  at  the  request'of  numerous  readers 
of  L.AND  &  W.^TER,  he  has  now  collected  and  revised  them 
and  published  them  in  volume  form  under  the  title  Trade 
Fallacies  (P.  S.  King  and  Son,  5s.)  The  first  chapter  is  on 
the  psychological  factor  in  war  and  the  last  pn  the  psychology 
f)f  the  workshop,  and  intervening  ones  deal  with  capturing 
(ierman  trade,  the  inadequacy  of  our  banking  system,  Lon- 
don's gold  market,  etc.,  etc.  Mr.  Kitson  brings  to  bear  on 
these  subjects  exceptional  experience,  for  he  has  been  a 
manufacturer  both  in  the  United  States  and  England,  has 
had  important  business  connectiofis  on  the  Continent,  is 
himself  an  inventor,  and  has  experienced  the  difficulties  of 
trade  development  under  our  banking  system  in  the  past, 
(iifted  with  a  fluent  pen,  he  has  been  able  to  utilise  his  excep- 
tional e.xperiences  to  the  advantage  of  manufacturers  and 
traders  who  have  had  to  face  similar  difficulties. 


THE 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

AND    AFTER 

Italy,   Auitria    and  Europe.  Jl'M'.  uy    ENRICO   Cor.UADIXI. 

New  Ligm  on  Cermany'a  Treachery:  A  remarkable   French   Indictment. 

By  H.   W.   WILSON. 
The  {4ew  Departure  in  Balkan  Oiplomaoy.  B>    NOKI,    lU  \'IX>N.    M.P. 

Monarchy   and  •'  Democraoy."  Hy  WAl.TliR  SICHKI-. 

Thinking  and  Aeting  at  the  Admiralty.  By  .lOHX   I£YI<AM). 

The  BueincM  ot  Ocvenimein  oon.'luded).     Uy  EiUWARtX  liI'X>K(:K   HAiKMAM, 

C.B.   (foTTiifrh   a   HriiH-ipal   (  Itrk  in  thv  Treurtury). 
Church  and  Slate:   A  Reply   to  eonw  Criticisms  on  the   Report. 

\^\    tlh-  lli^lrt    Hi>n^  tlie    I'.AtU.  ol"  .*KUi(kRiNE.    K.G. 
The  German   Menace   to    Antiq«ities     B>    M'.TIII  r.    i:.    I>.     WKIiiAIX     (lute 

In^pfct<»r  (jfiitral.'cf   .\11li1411itifs,    l',K>ptiuii   (ifivcnwii-pnl). 
The  Nation's   Children  and  our   Duty  towards   them. 

By  Ur.   MARY    SCttARLIEB. 
On  Fifth  Avenue  in   1917.  .:.  By    URKTRUDF;    KreOSTON. 

The  Future  o4   Eduoation;  T 

(I)  A   Birds-Eye  View  of  Educational  Reform.' 

Hv    rU)ri>ESLFV     BRFHiETON'. 

(7)  Education   in    our   Public   Sdiools:   A   Critical    Defence  of    the  Present 

System.      B»    (VIMl,  1:.   IIOBIN.SOX  1  A^ivi^tajit  \1.i»Ut  at   Wiinlif ^t«.n. 

<J)  Educational  Ideals-  the  Way  of  Peace,     l-.v  Sir  PHIIJI*  MAU.Vir.s,  M.P. 

The   Psal  Shakespeare  Problem:  A  Reply   to   Mr.   Cordon  Crosse. 

Hv  Sir   <;E(>R<:i,  OUCTr^WOOD.   M.P. 
A    Conspiracy  ot    Silence.  Bv    ARTBUJl   B.  KOPB.S. 

War  Finance:   the  F.Tth    War    Budget.  By   .1.  A.  R.  MAIUUOTT,  M.P. 

Sketches   in  England    and   Cermany— 1914.     II. 

Bv  tlie  Hon.  .Mr.'.  WAITER  FOiiBES 
Commecourt.  By"  IJeuteiiaBt    OlX»mu-:V    l>li.AK.M>Ji . 

londoo:   SpotUswoode,    Ballantyna   *    Co.,  Lt4..  1,  New   6tre«t   Square. 


May  31.  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

The  Cruise  of  the   "  Washpot " 

By  Bennet  Copplestone 


17 


There  are  more  things  in  Heaven  and.   Earth  and  upon 
■the  Sea,   Horatio  Nelson,   than  were  dreamt  uf  in  your   ■ 
philosophy. — Hamlei  (revised). 

I  MET  him  last  summer  in  an  hotel  at  Portsmouth,  whither, 
if  you  have  patience,  and  will  sit  in  the  smoking  room 
long  enough,  all  your  friends  in  the  service  will  drift 
ill  to  you. 

1  had  known  him  as  the  captain  of  a  battleship,  yet  he 
appeared  before  me  wearing  the  three  plaited  rings  and  loop 
of  a  Commander  R.N.A. 

"  So  you  have  come  down  in  tJie  world,"  said  I. 

"  Not  a  bit.  1  have  been  devilish  lucky.  There  are  lots 
of  men  senior  to  me,  even  Admirals,  with  nothing  better  than 
armed  hners  on  the  Atlantic  patrol.  While  I,  a  junior 
Captain  (retired;  have  a  real  fighting  tub  of  my  own.  She's 
as  broad  as  she's  long  and  will  steam  five  soUd  knots  when  my 
Engineer  Lieutenant  whacks  her  up.  The  Washpot  is  a  real 
peach." 

"  It's  a  queer  name." 

"  When  we  feel  polite  and  respectful  we  call  her  Moah. 
But  to  the  lower  deck  she  has  always  been  the  Blurry 
Washpol.  In  the  confidential  Navy  List  she  is  the  Princess 
Something  or  Other." 

"  And  what  is  the  Washpot  ?  "  I  asked  patiently. 

"  A  monitor,"  said  her  commander  proudly.  "  One  of  the 
latest  model,  warranted  proof  against  mines  and  mouldies. 
A  sure  warranty,  for  I  have  tried  her  with  both.  But  though 
a  crazy  brute  to  steer  the  Washpot  is  a  lovely  gun  plat- 
form.    You  should  see  her  two  big  guns." 

'•'  I  have  heard  of  those  weird  craft,"  said  I, 

"  The  best  or  the  worst  ?  "  he  enquired.  "  The  best 
is  very  good,  but  the  worst  is  unspeakable.  It  took  us  five 
hours  to  persuade  her  into  dock  here.  She  sort  of  shied  at 
the  gates.  When  I  take  her  out  she  may  go  ashore  at  Eastnej' 
jr  Ryde  or  butt  into  one  of  the  old  Spithead  forts,  one  never 
knows.  She  takes  her  own  course,  bless  her,  and  waddles' 
sideways  at  live  knots.  But  she's  a  lovely  gun  platform — 
when  she  doesn't  turn  round  and  round  as  we  fire." 

"  A  bit  cranky  to  navigate,"  I  obseiVed. 

"  One  d(K>sn't  navigate  the  Moab,"  said  he  calmly  ;  "She 
just  butts  along  on  her  own.  It  is  up  to  other  craft  to  get 
out  of  her  way.  If  they  aren't  pretty  slippy  when  she's 
around  she  just  heaves  her  fat  rump  into  them. 

"  She  does  not  sound  very  useful." 

"  Not  useful !  "  protested  the  Moab's  owner  indignantly. 
"  Not  useful !  .  I  tell  you  she's  a  peach  when  slie  ^ets  into 
position  and  the  guns  begin  to  shoot.     She  gave  Fritz  beans 
only  last  week.     1  laughed  all  the  tiiiic  she  was  firing. 
,    -"  Suppose  that  you  explain  things  a  bit,"  said  I. 

"  The  Moah  is  a  shallow  draijght  monitor  for  coast  bom- 
bardment \"  he  said,  as  if  that  sentence  e.vplained  everything. 
That  is  the  worst  of  the  Navy  ;  they  expect  one  to  under- 
stand their  mysteries  without  any  telling.  Presently  my 
friend  the  Commander  K.N.R.  became  more  communicative 
and  revealed  to  me  the  Cruise  of  the  Washpot. 
*         *         *         * 

"  In  the  early  days  of  the  war,"  said  the  Commander, 
"  we  used  some  river  craft  which  had  Been  built  for  Brazil. 
They  were  dainty  enough  monitors,  but  their  guns,  six  inch, 
were  too  light  for  big  work,  and  their  bottoms  went  scat  when 
they  bumped  against  mines.  So  we  designed  othen,  great 
round  flat  brutes  with  under  water  protection,  but  we  had 
no  time  to  build  the  guns  for  them. 

"  The  ll'as/j/)o/, seems  to-be  a  sporthig  ship." 

"  She  is  that.  Especially  in  a  tideway.  She  can  make 
.  four  knots  sideways?  to  five  knots  ahead.  In  the  Straits 
where  the  tides  cross  she  will  turn  round  and  round  for 
hoyrs  togetlier.  Sooner  or  later. a  heavy  tug,  cursing  and  laugh- 
ing, has  to  come  and  tow  us  clear.  Three  of  us  were  out  in 
mid  Channel  once,,  cuft.sying  round  one  another  like  the 
'  Tliree  Graces,'  bang  in  the  centre  of  our  own  mine  iield. 
We  had  to  pull  clear  as  best  we  could,  for  no  one  would  help 
us  out.  Oh,  we  are  jolly  useful  when  in  position,  but  it's 
the  devil's  own  Job  to  get  us  there.  Driving  pigs  is  a  play 
to  it."  ■  ■  ■ 

"  Have   you   done    much    work    with    these    remarkable 
vessels  ?  "   I   asked. 

"Lots.     We  can  go  anywhere.     You  may  not  believe  me," 
he  added  solemnly,  "  but  we  are  much  improved  by  being 
,  torpedoed." 

"  Go  steady,"  I  implored.  . "  As  you  are  strong,  be  merci- 
ful to  me,  a  landsman."   ■ 
"  Fact,"  declared  he,  "  1  will  prove  it  to  voii.    The  Moab 


is  in  dock  yonder  for  repairs.     You  can  see  her  to-morrow. 
About  ten  days  ago  we-  went  out  with  the  Dover  Patrol, 
just  to  tell  Fritz  that  we  were  ahve  and  to  give  him  some  ^ 
repair  jobs  at  Zeebrugge   and  at  another  place.     First  \ye 

went  up  Schleswig  way  to  make  things  lively  at where 

the  big  airship  sheds  are.  There  were  three  monitors — the 
Moab  and  two  sisters  with  obscene  names — a  crowd  o{ 
destroyers  and  steam  drifters  whose  job  it  was  to  s,weep  for 
mines  and  submarines  and  to  protect  us  from  surface  attack. 
There  were  light  ^pjuisers,  too..  But  none  of  tliem  except,  us 
could  do  much  harm  to  Fritz.  We  had  the  guns.  The 
Admiral  ordered  us  to  keep  well  away  from  the  rest  of  the 
flotilla.  We  could  bang  into  each  otiier  as  inucli  as  ws 
liked,  he  said.  But  he  wasn't  going  to  have  his  precious 
drifters  rammed  by  armoured  tea  trays.  It  took  us  three 
days  to  work  up  to  the  .north-east  beyond  Heligoland,  and 
while  we  waddled  along  indifferent  to  periscopes,  tlie  des- 
troyers and  drifters  put  the  fear  of  God  into  Fritz's  U-boats. 
I  musn't  tell  you  how  they  did  it.     It  was  a  fine  morning  when 

we   reached  our  objective — the  airship  sheds  at  . 

We  lay  out  a  few  miles  from  the  coast — a  nice  range  fo^ 
our  big  guns — while  the  fast  craft  roamed  about  inshore  of 
us.  We  did  not  worry  much  about  Fritz's  batteries.  We 
were  so  far  away  and  lay  so  low  that  his  gunners  could  scarcely 
see  us,  while  we  could  make  out  his  sheds  fine  ;  they  were 
as  big  as  Olympia,  four  of  them,  double  sheds.  I  manfeuvred 
to  fire  straight  ahead,  for  if  one  trains  a  monitor's  guns  on 
either  beam  the  recoil  soon  makes  her  slew,  which  is  the  deuce. 
F'ritz  got  busy  on  the  fast  craft  inshore  lon^  before  we  were 
ready  to  strike  into  the  orchestra.  I  don't  believe  that  at 
first  he  could  see  us  at  all.  We  were  so  many  miles  distant, 
hull  down  on  his  horizon — what  there  was  to  us  of  hulls — and 
from  the  observation  posts  on  the  low  hills  must  have  looked 
mere  blobs  on  the  shining  sea.  ..It  was  early  morning  in  July, 
and  the  sun  away  to  the  north  of  east  lighted  up  the  tin  roofs 
of  the  airship  sh'eds  so  that  they  glittered  like  great  con- 
servatories— the  jewel  of  a  mark.  The  three  of  us  were  lying 
a  mile  or  so  apart,  all  bow  on  to  the  land,  and  when  we  had  all 
taken  and  checked  the  range  carefully  we  let  fly  salvoes 
one  after  another.  It  was  great.  To  Fritz  the  siiells 
must  have  seemed  to  come  from  nowhere,  just  sj)at  out 
of  space  to  biff  him  in  the  eye.  My  first  two  shots  went  over. 
I  saw  the  smoke  of  the  bursts  on  the  hillside,  b'ut  the  ne.xt 
salvo  landed  full  on  a  shed  and  sent  it  to  Heaven  in  a  htter 
of  girders  and  corrugated  iron.  There  was  n'>  flash,  so  that 
the  shed  was  empty  of  a  Zcpj).  When  we  had  straffed  all  the 
sheds  which  had  taken  Fritz  six  months  to  put  up,  we  searched 

,  for  the  shore  batteries  which  had  already  begun  to  notice.  Tliey 
mounted  nothing  bigger  than  9.2  inch,  pretty  guns  but  'out- 
classed by  our  sweet  monsters.  We  didn't  seem  to  find 
them.  Fritz  mounts  his  shore  guns  on  armoured  platforms, 
running  upon  rails.  Wt  could  not  silence  them,  but  they  had  a 
forlorn  job  firing  at  us.  As  a  mark  we  were  rotten  and  at  the 
distan<;e  he  could  not  reach  us  except  with  a  high  pitched  shot. 
All  the  while  I  was  wondering  what  had  become  of  the 
Zepps  which  ought  by  rights  to  have  been  in  the  sheds  we  had 
come  to  rummage.  As  it  was  sheer  waste  of  good  shell 
to  hunt  any  more  moving  batteries  we  laid  off  the  guns  and 
took  to  Zepp  gazing.  I  climbed  up  the  tripod  mast  to  the 
lookout  platform  which  we  call  the  spotting  top.  It  sounds 
good.  The  small  craft  were  still  raging  about  inshore  making 
a  show  of  being  busy  ;  it  is  a  little  way  they  have.  FVitz 
was  still  pitching  his  g.2  .shell  about  us,  but  nothing  came  of 
it  all.  I  had  nothing  to  do  but  smoke  up  there  in  the  .spotting 
top  and  look  for  Zepps  which  did  not  come.  The  sea  was  like 
a  pond  and  the  sky  cloudless.  It  was  all  rather  jolly  and 
peaceful  but  deadly  dulf ;  I  began  to  wish  that  F>itz  would  hit 
us  or  do  something  to  make  one  remember  there  was  a  war. 

About  an  houi'  after  the  action  began  a  destroyer  ran  up  to 
say  that  the  sheds  had  been  thoroughly  busted  up  and  a 
German  torpedo  boat  sunk.  There  was  nothing  more  doing 
and  we  began  to  think  of  making  a  shift.  While  we  lay  around 
waiting  for  the  Admiral's  orders  the  lookout-  man  near  me 
cilled  and  pointed  away  to  the  west,  towards  England,  and 
following  his  eye  I  saw  first  one,  then  two,  then  half  a  dozen 
airships  flying  fast  and  low  towards  their  burrows  which  we 
had  destroyed.  We  had  a  small  gun,  mounted  for  high- 
angle  fire,  just  to  kelp  Zepps  from  trying  to  drop  bombs  on 
to  us,  but  they  were  much  too  far  away  for  a  pop  gun  like 
that.  So  for  a  rag,  I  got  down  to  the  turret,  trained  the  two 
big  guns  at  extreme  elevation  on  to  the  Zepps.  and  let 
fly  a  salvo  of  common  shell,  set  with  time-fuse,  into  the  brown 

'  of  them.     It  was  worth  the  waste  of  shell  to  see  them  scatter. 
"  Go  on  "  said  I,  for  he  had  ^topped  to  laugh. 


15 


LAND    &    WATER 


May  31,  igi; 


"  The  Zepps  spotted  their  wrecked  homes  and  then  sailed 
high  over  us  chucking  bombs  about.  thouKli  not  matiN . 
I  expect  that  they  had  already  pitched  most  of  their  cargo  into 
the  English  eastern  counties.  We  let  fly  at  them  with  tlie 
high  angle  gun,  and  presently  they  disappeared  towards 
Heligoland.  We  had  come  a  day  too  Ikte.  Twenty-four 
hours  earlier  and  we  might  have  blown  up  the  airships  with 
the  sheds.  It  was  poor  luck.  As  there  was  now  nothing 
more  to  do  tiie  Admiral  drew  off  the  whole  flotilla  and  set 
us  tramping  down  the  coast  towards  Zeebrugge.  On  the  way 
he  let  us  and  two  other  Pots  plump  a  shell  or  two  on  old 
Heligoland,  just  by  way  of  being  civil  to  Fritz.  It  was  there 
that  I  got  blown  up  by  a  mine."' 

"  What!"    I  cried. 

"  You  needn't  worry,"  said  the  Commander  serenely, "  W'e 
arc  meant  to  be  blown  up.  It  was  a  floating  mine.  We 
took  it  full  on  the  starboard  beam,  and  the  burst  of  it 
drove  us  fifty  yards  to  port  and  smothered  us  with  water 
and  foam.  I  was  ^till  trying  to  get  the  smart  of  salt  spray 
out  of  my  eyes,  when  a  destroyer  dashed  up  to  enquire  if 
we  were  hurt.  Hurt,  indeed,  as  if  a  mine  more  or  less  would 
hurt  US.  '  Young  fellow '  I  said,  '  run  away  and  tell 
the  Admiral  that  the  Moab,  I  mean  the  Princess  what 
d'you  call  it,  will  be  at  Zeebrugge  when  she  is  wanted." 
Fancy  being  asked  of  you  are  hurt  two  minutes  after 
being  blown  up  by  a  four  foot  mine !  I  asked  the  qusirtci  - 
master  how  she  steered,  and  he  said  that  she  didn't 
steer.  She  never  had,  and  didn't  seem  hkcly  to  begin. 
After  a  bit  of  questioning  he  .conceded  that  she  might  be 
worse  "  She  'as,  sir,"  said  he.  "  now  that  she's  been  blown 
up  a  steady  lurch  to  port.  I  'olds  the  wheel  according  and 
it  comes  a  bit  easier.  She  don't  waggle  both  ways,  sir,  like 
she  did  before." 
,    :"  The  'Waslipol'    is  indeed  a  peach,"    I  Observed. 

"  Yc*s,  isn't  she?"  purred  her  proud  skipper,  "  Mucii  more 
fun  than  a  silly  Dreadnought.  In  the.evening  the  lingineer- 
Lieutenant  came  to  me  scratching  his  liead  and  griiuiing.  Her 
broke  to  me  gently  the  surprising  fact  that  i\wMoah  was  doing 
six  knots  instead  of  the  old  five.  I  said  that  the  mine 
must  have  waked  her  up,  shaken  the  newness  out  of  he 
joints.  '  I  exjiect,'  said  he,  '  that  she's  had  a  big  slice 
chopped  off  to  starboard  and  feels  freer  for  the  loss  of  it.'  It 
was  quite  likely." 

■  ("onie,  come,  "  protestwl  1,  "  1  swallowed  the  yarn  al)out 
her  steering  kindlier,  but  this  one  about  the  increased  speed 
is  a  shade  ton  ^,teep  c\cn  for  me.     Surely  you  don't  claim  that 


being  blown  up  by  a  mine  gave  thcWiishpot  vi  knot  of  speed,* 
I  do,"   cried  lie."  I  will  show  you  the  log  if  you  like," 
Proceed,"  I  said  with  resignation., 

"  We  went  on  to  Zeebrugge  where  the  submarines  come 
from. 

At  Zeebrugge  we  got  to  work  scientifically  in  the  early  morn- 
ing and  pounded  the  place  to  bits,  a  Uttle  at  a  time.  Fritz 
loosed  o(f  all  his  heavy  stuff,  about  ir  inch,  but  he  didn't 
hit  us  any.  We  lay  out  some  miles  so  as  to  pitch  on  to 
him  nice  and  steeply  as  if  we  were  howitzers.  It  was  at 
Zeebrugge  that  I  got  a  moukly  to  port.  1  was  a  ])it  anxious 
about  my  starboard  side  after  the  mine  had  scatted  it.'  So 
I  trained  my  guns  off  the  port  broadside — to  giv'e  F'ritz 
the  other  cheek,  as  it  were.  It  was  as  well  I  did,  for  a  German 
mouldy,  fired  from  4,000  yards  away,  hit  the  old  Moab  bang 
in  the  ribs,  and  heaved  her  most  out  of  the  water.  When  she 
sploshed  back  my  head  nearly  went  tluough  the  cotmin.g  tower. 
Ragged' bits  of  steel  stuck  up  out  of  the  water  and  the  men 
grumbled  mightily  at  Dover  because  they  couldn't  bathe  off 
either  side  without  getting  their  feet  cut." 

"  How  was  her  steering  after  that.''"    I  enquired  gravely. 

"  Damned  bad,"  grumbled  the  Commander.  "  Her  two 
sides  were  busted  so  unevenly.  Fritz  is  a  clumsy  beast  with 
his  mines  and  mouldies.  On  the  starboard  side  I  had  been 
scatted  near  the  bows  and  on  the  "jwrt  side  right  amidsliips. 
The  poor  dear  wobbled  worse  than  when  she  was  whole.  But 
the  speed— it  was  glorious  !     Seven  knots  easy." 

"  ()h,  come,"  I  groaned  wearily. 
.  "  Fact,"  he  chirjxxl.  "  The  Admiral  ordered  us  here  for 
repairs  and  i  brought  her  down  at  sincn  knots  all  the  way. 
We  yawed  like  blazes,  and  everything  with  steam  fled  at  the 
sight  of  us,  but  we  kept  her  going  all  tlie  way  at  seven  good 
knots.  I  was  a  proud  Owner.  I  wouldn't  take  a  tow  and  nearly 
,  sank  the  Victory  with  my  broad  snout.  It  took  us  live  hours 
to  make  th(>  d<>ck,  but  I  did  it  at  last  under  my  own  steam. 
You  may  s<.>e  her  to-morrow,  naked  ami  shameless. 
'  I  accepted  the  offer  ;  I  saw  her  though  I  may  not  describe 
what  I  S;iw.  As  I  stoorl  under  her  pigeon  breast  in  dry  dm-k, 
1  could  have  wept.  That  shapeless  pot-bellied  monstnjsity 
the  last  word  in  naval  design  !  It  was  pitiful.  The  Commander, 
late  Capt.  K.N.,  grinned  into  my  long  face.     " 

"  She's  not  much  t<j  look  at,  but  a  lovely  gun  platform.  ' 
said  he. 

"  She   won't    steer,"    I    groaned, 
knots." 
.^    "Se\en   after  she's  been   busted 


and  makes  only    Ine 
corrected   he  ])ri)udly. 


^'FLYING"  REPRISALS  COMPETITION 


AND 


THE  GREAT  FOLKESTONE  AIR  RAID. 


rlli  great  German  Aeroplane  Raid  on  Folkestone  and  other  districts  has  aroused  wide- 
spread interest  in  tliis  Competition. 

In  "all  districts"  no  fe\vtn-  than  76  peiM>ii^  wvu-  killed  and  174  injuieU.  (Ji  thcbc  27 
women  and  23  children  were  killed,  and  43  women  and  19  children  were  injured. 

In  Folkestone  alone  there  were  66  deaths. 

How  can  these  Aeroplane  Raids  be  prevented  ? 

Is  there  any  form  of  reprisals  whic^j  will  deter  the  Germans  frf)m  butchering  our  women 
and  children  in  broad  dayhght  ? 

The  British  people  are  slowly  realising  that  reprisals  arc  a  practical  method  of  self-defence 
against  German  barbarism.  They  feel  that  reprisals  constitute  a  military  weapon  which  can  be 
and  ought  to  be  used,  not  merely  for  the  purpose  of  retaliation^  but  for  the  purpose  of  prevention. 

The  military  use  of  reprisals  has  not  been  sufficiently  studied  by  the  British  people.  Th^ 
Folkestone   Raid  proves  that  they  are  urgently  needed  in  self-defeiice. 

The  Proprietors  of  FLYING  believe  that  the  problem  of  Preventive  Reprisals  can 
be  solved,  and  they  therefore  offer  a  series  of  Prizes  for  the  best  solution  of  the 
Reprisals  Problem.     It  must  be  practicable,  eflective,  and  thoroughly  worked  out  in  detail, 

THE    PRIZES. 

THE  FIRST  PRIZE  wiU  be  the  original  painting,  by  Mr.  Charles  Pears,  entitled  "  Aeroplanes  Leaving  Dover 
for  an  Attack  on  Zeebrugge,"  a  reproduction  of  which  was  presented  with  the  first  numbci'  of  FLYISd.  The 
picture  is  worth  _5o  Guineas. 

THE  SECOND  PRIZE  will   be  Ten   Guineas,  and  the  THIRD  PRIZE  will  be  Five  Guineas. 
(-'om/mliturs    iini«t  fill  up  and   send   in    llib   cou/ioii   jmhlislieil  in  FLYI M(l , 


May  31,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


HAIL,  COLUMBIA! 

THE  advent  of  America  into  the  war  has  been  hailed 
with  enthusiasm,  but  even  now  the  far-reaching  conse- 
quences that  this  event  portends  are  not  fully  realised.  To 
show  more  clearly  the  immense  possibilities  in  America's 
action,  and  to  bring  still  closer  together  by  mutual  under- 
standing the  people  of  this  country  and  those  of  the  United 
States,  a  special  number  of  LAND  &  WATER  will  be 
published  on  Thursday,  June   7th. 

Among  the  special  features  of  this  American  Number  will 
be:  "The  Genius  of  Raemaekers,"  by  Theodore 
Roosevelt;  "America's  Military  Effort,"  by  Frank  H. 
Symonds,  the  well-known  Associate  Editor  of  the  "New 
York  Tribune";  "The  Nelson  Touch,"  by  Rearr Admiral 
Bradley  A.  Fiske,  U.S.N. ;  "American  and  British  De- 
mocracy," by  L.  P.  Jacks;  "Our  Tone  in  Transatlantic 
Discussion,"   by  G.  K.  Chesterton;    "Organising  America's 

Food  Supply,"  by  Herbert 
Hoover;  "American  Humour," 
by  J.  C.  Squire;  A  Poem  by 
Henry  van  Dyke;  "What  the 
United  States  proposes  to  do  in 
the  Air,"  by  Henry  Woodhouse,a 
leading  authority  on  Aeronautics 
in  the  States ;  and  the  usual 
Military  and  Naval  articles  by 
Hilaire  Belloc^and  Arthur  Pollen. 
These  together  with  a  Double 
Page  Cartoon,  by  Raemaekers, 
2:0  to  make  what  will  be  one 
of  the  most  interesting  and 
important  special  numbers  that 
"Land  &  Water"  has  yet  issued. 

THURSDAY,  JUNE   7th.       Price  One  Shilling. 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 

Amiens  in  War  Time 

By  An  OflScer 


May  31,   1917 


E\T£N  in  peace  time,  Amiens  is  one  of  the  most 
agreeable  cities  in  the  whole  of  France.  With 
a  light-hearted  atmosphere,  an  atmosphere  of  good 
tood,  good  shops,  and  clean  streets,  it  combines 
the  cloistral  simplicity  of  a  cathedral  town.  It  is  the  sort  of 
place  where  everylx)dy  stays  a  nigjit. 

It  is  a  curiously  definite  town.  '  It  does  not  straggle,  but 
begins  like  a  compact  block  of  buildings  and  ends,  as  it  were, 
with  the  last  house.      You  enter  it  by  a  long  leafy  boulevard 
full   of  children   and   nurserymaids — or  rather  those   merry, 
hatle§s,  shawl-covered  girls  who  take  their  place  in  France, 
who    wheel    perambulators   and    herd   babies.     Immediately 
— leavi.ig  behind  the  malaise  of  theSomme,  its  flies  and  stinks, 
its  indefinable  atmosphere  of  stale  war — you  seem  to  enter 
(how  shall  1  say  it  ?)  the  new  zest,  the  holiday  spirit  of  Amiens. 
That — and  a  kind  of  friendUness  and  the  renewal  of  acquaint- 
ance with  civilisation — is  what  makes  it  so  attractive  to  the 
man  from  the  trenches.     At  first,  you  feel  strange,  exotic, 
out-of-place.     It   is  as  though — in    faded    and    very  disre- 
putable   khaki^you    had    suddenly    been    dropped    by    an 
aeroplane  in  the  centre  of  a  great  European  city  hundreds 
of  miles   from  the   war.     It  is  as  though  after  a  long  day's 
shooting   you    had    strolled    into   a    London    dra\ying-rooin. 
At   the  same  time,   this  is  a  very    charm  ng   feeling.     It  is 
delightful   to  see  men   running  about  in  billycock  hats  and 
dark  clothes — even  French  billycocks  ;  it  is  interesting  to  see 
trams  and  fashionably-dressed  women  and  big  bright  shops. 
It  is  extraordinary  to    hear    the    sound  of  the  trams — that 
indefinably  civihsed  sound,  witli  associations  of  the  "  Elephant 
and  Castle"  and  the  Vauxhall  Bridge  Road  on  wet  days — of 
the  fiacres  rattling  past,   of  the   feet   tapping  the  pavement, 
of  the  street-vendors  seUing  newspapers  and  tilings. 

Sunday  Scenes 

Such  crowds  in  the  broad  main  street — ^it  might  be  Paris 
in  the  height  of  an  extraordinary  season,  only  there  are  more 
uniforms  here.     Everywhere  the  vivid  sky  blue  of  the  French 
officers ;  one  feels   that    they    might    have   stepped   straight 
ftom  the  pages  of  La  Vie  Parisienne.     It  is  Sunday,  and  for 
their  visit  to  town  they  have  put  on  all  their  crosses,  medals, 
and  what  not.     Most  of  them — especially  the  Flying  Corps 
officers — are  wearing  four  or  five  decorations.     Occasionally 
you    will    see    dark    green    uniforms    with    gold    facings — 
probably  those  of  Engineers,  Poilus,    too,    are   numerous — 
poilus   m    tin    hats,    and    sturdy    httle    Chasseurs    Alpins, 
with    rakish    tafti-'o-shanters.-     Now  and    then    you-  meet 
enormous  negroes  from   the  Colonial  Corps  wearing  a  kind 
of     fez — great     grinning     fellows,    standing    6    ft.    3    in., 
with    broad    flat    noses    and    thick    red  lips ;  and   Zouaves 
in  short     jackets     and     baggy    pantalons.       Belgians    there 
are  also,  and,  of  course,  a  large  sprinking  of  English  khaki. 
Here  comes  a  Sikh  on   horseback.     To  this  varied  throng, 
Australians  with  their  slouch  hats,  and  Canadians,  all  coppery- 
faced  and  sun-tanned,  bring  a  suggestion  of  far-distant  climes. 
Civihans,  smartly  dressed  little  ladies  in  the  latest  from 
Paris,  showing  plenty  of   open-work   stocking   and    shapely 
limb,  trip  along  in  two's  and  three's  naively  laughing  and  ex- 
changing   jokes — always     laughing.      Soberly-dressed,    com- 
fortable   looking   gentitmjn    carrying   heavily-tasselled   um- 
brellas, wife  on  arm — some  wife — are  taking  their  Sunday 
morning  promenade  ;  they  bow  to  each  other  solemnly  across 
the  road.     Doubtless  they  are  the  chief  tradesmen  or  municipal 
officials  of  the  town.     Tlie  trees  of  the  gardens  at  the  further 
end  of  the  main  street  look  green  and  cool,  and  a  number  of 
people   are   strolling   beneath   them   or   sitting   contentedly 
on  the  seats.     There  is  even  to  be  seen  that  delightful  and 
unchanging  Frenchman  who,  since  the  beginning  of  time,  has 
sat  under  the  trees  of  a  public  garden,  reading  a  newspaper. 
Nor  is  there  any  lack  of  wheeled  traffic.     The  main  street 
simply  shrieks  with  it.     Enormous  motor-cars,  usually  con- 
taining English  or  French  generals  or  French  Flying  Corps 
officers,   constantly  rush   past   at    breakneck  speed,  hooting 
furiously.      Fiacres    rattle    briskly  over    the    cobble-stones. 
Motor  bicyles  add  greatly  to  the  noise  of  the  thoroughfare 
and  do  their  best  to  knock  everybody  down  within  reach  ; 
bicycles — without  whicli  no  French  town  would  be  complete 
— tear  in  and  out  among  the  other  vehicles,  creating  by  their 
frantic  bcll-ringing  a  S])ecial  frenzy  of  their  own.     Although 
it  is  Sunday,  most  of  the  shops  are  open  and  their  coloured 
awnings  in  the  brilliant  sunshine,  lend  a  summery  aspect  to 
the  scene.      Already  the  cafts  are  crammed  and — quite  in  the 
dear  old  manner  of  \ersailles  or  the  Avenue  de  I'Opera — 
crowds  sit  at  the.  marble  top  tables  amid  the  little  orange 


trees,  or  out  on  the  pavement,  sipping  strange  coloured  drinks. 
Hard  to  think,  as  you  look  down  the  street,  so  gay,  so  sunny 
that  barely  two  years  ago  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the  invader  ! 
Hard  to  think  that  not  twenty  miles  away  one  finds  the  silent 
stink-ridden,  death-stricken  world  of  the  trenches  !  Ah, 
well !  They  deserve  their  fun,  these  jeitnes  hommcs.  At 
the  same  time,  one  has  the  fancy  that  here  in  this  motley 
cosmopolitan  throng — not  in  London  or  Paris  or  Petrograd — 
is  the  living  hub  of  the  world  to-day. 

After  drawing  the  necessary  amount  of  money  at  the  bank 
and  indulging  in  a  hair-cut  and  a  shampoo,  we  repair  to  that 
Mecca  of  subalterns,  the  Hotel  du  Rhin.  Now  there  is  a 
choice  of  several  hotels  in  Amiens  and  some  prefer  the  Belfort 
or  its  rival  next  door.  For  my  part,  however,  I  have  no 
doubt  about  the  Rhin.  Here  you  get  not  only  an  excellent 
luncheon  and  excellent  wines,  but  you  are  amused  which, 
after  all,  is  the  best  appetiser.  Yes,  you  get  a  luncheon 
as  well  cooked  as  any  ever  eaten  at  the  Carlton  or  the 
Ritz.  There  is  melon,  hors  d'oeuvres,  fish  or  omelette, 
beefsteak  or  poulet  roti,  and  glace  or  anything  you  like  to 
follow.  The  place  is  full  of  officers,  French  and  English, 
but  chiefly  the  latter.  Never  was  an  Amiens  hotel  so  animated 
in  ordinary  times.  At  a  table  near  by  sits  a  merry  party  ; 
some  young  Frenchmen  have  brought  out  their  wives  or 
sweethearts,  and  they  are  all  chattering  at  once  amid  peals  of 
laughter.  One  or  two  widows  may  be  seen  in  the  peculiarly 
becoming  black  costumes  of  their  country.  Not  far  away  a 
couple  of  Parisian  ladies  are  sitting  ;  you  can  pick  them  out 
in  a  moment  by  their  dashing  hats,  their  very  short  and  wide 
frocks,  their  indefinable  air  of  entei-prising  chic. 

We  drink  coffee  on  a  verandah  that  looks  out  over  a  pleasant 
shady  garden,  then  return  to  exploration.  There  is  much 
shopping  to  be  done.  The  chocolate  shops  in  Amiens  are 
irresistible  and  one  cannot  depart  in  peace  without  buying 
some  of  the  delicious  "  roc  "  that  hterally  melts  in  one's  mouth. 
To  all  outward  appearances  the  town  is  precisely  the  same 
as  ever,  even  to  the  pigeons  and  jackdaws  which  circle  about 
the  Cathedral  or  chatter  raucously  from  its  numerous  pinnacles. 
Only  when  you  walk  round  to  the  front  you  discover  that 
that  wonderful  fa9ade  is  completely  sandbagged  up.  Within 
are  to  be  seen  the  usual  small  parties  strolling  round,  but 
most  of  them  now  are  composed  of  English  or  Coloni;J  soldiers. 
At  the  side  of  the  great  Cathedral  where  in  a  patch  of  rank 
green  grass  lie  many  lichen-grown  slabs  of  stone,  tomb-heads 
and  the  like,  it  is  pleasant  to  watch  the  play  of  sunlight  on 
the  old  grey  sacristy  and  to  imagine  oneself  a  tourist  again. 
Such  a  corner  could  belong  to  almost  any  cathedral  close  of 
England  or  France. 

Having  seen  the  chief  spectacle  of  the  place,  we  visit  the 
shops  again,  and  then  sit  awhile  outside  a  cafe,  watching  the 
endlessly  varied  human  stream  flow  by.  After  tea  we  hire  a 
fiacre  and  drive  ponderously  but  happily  round  the  outskirts, 
of  the  town.  The  driver  is  drunk  and  the  chaise  rolls  solemnly 
from  side  to  side  of  the  road  at  the  nag's  pleasure.  But  what 
matters  it — one  knows  the  poor  beast  can't  run  away.  It  is. 
pleasant  thus  to  clatter  through  some  of  the  narrow,  "cobbled, 
old-fashioned  streets  where  the  houses,  white,  pink,  and  pale- 
green,  huddle  together  in  crooked  confusion.  Here  you 
have  a  different  atmosphere  to  that  of  the  Grande  Rue. 
The  gamins  run  beside  the  chaise,  calling  for  coppers  and  some- 
how the  green  Venetian  shutters,  the  snatches  of  song  and  the 
whiffs  of  garlic  that  come  from  high  narrow  windows,  remind 
you  of  Italy.  So  does  the  twisting  straitness  of  the  streets 
and  the  hatless  young  women  strolling  arm-in-arm  with  the 
sallow  dark-eyed  young  men.  Then  it  is  pleasant  to  pause 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  town  by  the  river  where  {he  tall  poplars 
stand  in  rows  and  to  watch  the  level  evening  sunbeams 
light  up  the  green  flat  country  beyond  ;  boats  rock  lazily  on  the 
river,  people  are  wandering  beside  it  or  lying  sleepily  about  on 
the  banks  ;  it  is  such  a  peaceful  scene  that  you  might  fancy 
yourself  in,  say,  Cambridge,  at  midsummer. 

Dinner  at  the  "  Rhin  "  is  a  gorgeous  meal.  The  place  is 
packed  and  brilliantly  lighted  and  the  atmosphere  one  of  great 
hilarity.  Most  of  the  people  who  were  at  dejeuner  are  here  again. 
The  champagne  is  excellent,  and  if  towards  the  end  of  the 
evening  some  of  the  company  have  obviously  had  enough  of  it, 
well,  that  is  surely  the  proper  spirit  in  wliich  to  face  a  fifteen- 
mile  drive.  Nobody  feels dep/essed,  thj.efore,  wiien  soon  after 
ten  o'clock  the  moment  comes  to  leave  these  gay  scenes  and 
go  out  into  the  inky  darkness.  Everything  is  silent  and 
deserted  now,  scarcely  a  footfall  echoes  along  the  street,  while 
far  away  in  the  Eastern  sky  you  can  see  the  old  familiar 
flicker  of  the  guns. 

The  carcgirries  us  swiftly  towards  them. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXIX  No.  2874  [^TaW 


THURSDAY,  JUNE  7,  1917 


rREGlSTERED  AST     PUBLISHED  WFEKLY 
La  NEWS  PAPER  J     ONE      S  H  I  t,  L  I  N  0 


Photo  of   bu*(  by  Jo    David.ion 


The  President  of  the  United  States 


'  There  is  no  hate  in  our  hearts  for  the  German  people,  but  there  is  a  resolve  which  cannot 
be  shaken,  even  by  misrepresentation,  to  overcome  the  pretensions  of  autocratic  government '' 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


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Oireclorr  : 


EDWYN  FREDERICK 

BARCLAY,  Knq. 
Sib  J.   H.   BETHELL,   Babt.. 

M.P. 
Capt.  Sir  H.  AOTON  BLAKE. 

K.C.V.O. 
E.   CLIFTON  BROWN,  Esq. 
W.  S.  MORGAN  BURNS,  Esq. 
TtiF   Rt.    Hon.    Lord 

R](  HARD   CAVENDISH. 
CMC 
IX)RD   CHARLES 

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M.P. 
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Vhe      DUCHESSE      D'ANGOULEME 

■TV  AUCJHTER  of  Louk.WI.  and  Jlaric  .\ntoinette,  wlien  a  visitor 
*-^  to  London  in  the  early  days  of  the  hist  century,  made  her 
home  at  "  firillon's  Hotel,"  a  house  very  popular  with  the 
aristocracy  of  the  period.  Here  she  held  iiuuiy  famous  receptions. 
Oooupying  the  siimc  spot  and  catering  foi'  "  the  Quality  "  of  today — 
iis  represented  by  the  best  County  Families — stands  the  Coburg 
Hotel. 

/^  N  a  site  which  joins  the  two  most  aii.-itociiitic  and  historii  al 
^^  squares  in  London — Berkeley  and  Grosvenor;  Squares— its 
situation  is  unique.  Away  from  the  rush  of  traffic,  it  is  yet  adjacent 
to  OxfoKi.  Regent  and  Bond  Streets,  near  Hyde  Park,  and  within 
ten  minutes  of  the  Farthest  West-end  Playhou.se. 

'y  HE  Coburg  has  a  cac/ict  all  its  own,  which  appeals  to  Naval  and 
Military    Officers     who    in    their     hotel     environment     seek    h 
quietude  not  always  possible  in  laige  caravansaries. 

The 

COBURG 

HOTEL 

May  fair 
W. 


One  of  the  Successes  of  the  War 

THE  "DAVON"p,™ 

MICRO  TELESCOPE 


THE     POWER     OF     THE     MICROSCOPE      IS 
APPLIED   TO  THE   TELESCOPE    WITH  THE 

RESULT  THAT 
It  is  small  and  light  OU  in.  and  18  oz.). 
It  has  variable  power  x  16,  20,  25,  30  to  45. 
It  has  good  field  detinition  and  illumination. 
It  has  a  range  ol  from  6  It  to  infinity. 
II  gives  stereoscopic  vision,  and  can  be  used 
in  cramped  observation  posts. 


Brigadier  .General 


_  ^ —   writes:    "I    have    used   one    since   Majr   1915,   in 

fact  T  am   never  without  it,   and   have  found  it  invaluable. 

"  I  approve  of  the  'Davon '  telescope  Because  ol  its  lightness,  port 
ability,  wide  field,   and  clear  definition. 

"  The  higher  powers  are  very  useful  in  permanent  artillery  observation 
posts,  and  can  be  used  to  suit   varying  dtgrees  ol   visibility." 

"  It  is  ol  the  greatest  value,  especially  in  oetccting  if  wire  has  been 
efficiently  cut,  or  otherwise,  and  in  this  way  alone  may  save  many  lives 
and  prevent  failure  in  attack."    Ma|or  .  R.F.A. 

"  It  has  been  of  the  utmost  value  in  the  recent  advance  over  unknown 
country."-  Colonel .    R.F.A. 

"  It  is  a  perlect  '  Cod  send  '  to  us  in  our  cramped  observation  posts."— 
Major ,   R.F  A. 

Complete  with  Tripod  and  Gimlet,  f»Q     1  C    f| 
In  Solid  Leather  Sling  Case  dJZJ     L%J    \J 

Or  with  Large  Aperture  Object  ^  1  "5     10    0 

War     Risk    Insurance    and    postage     to    France    5/. 
on    each,    elsewhere    abroad    5    per    cent,    on    cost. 

THE  MICRO-TELE  PERISCOPE, 
THE  MICRO-TELE  DIRECTOR. 


I 


lu'pcction  Cordially  Invited.    DeKcriplire    llrochurt   Post   Free. 

F.  DAVIDSON  &  Co.,  Manufacturing  Optichrs 
29     Great    Portland    Street,     London,     W 


June  7,  1917 


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LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,     W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  JUNE  7.   1917 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I 

3 
4 
5 
6 


The  President  of  the  United  States.     (Photograph) 

Ameriea  and  tlie  War.     (Leader) 

Damn  tlie  torpedoes  !     Go  ahead.     (Cartoon) 

Anieriea's  Military  Effort.     By  Frank  H.  Symonds 

First  Days  of  \Var.     By  An  (Jnlooker  in  America 

Organising  Fo(j(l  Supphcs.     By  Herbert  Hoover 

American  and   British  Democracy.     By   L.   P.   Jacks 

Pohcy  of  tlie  War.— IV.     By  Hilairc  Belloc 

America  and  the  Sea  War.     By  Arthur  Pollen 

The  Nelson  Touch.     By  Admiral  Bradley  Fiske,  U.S.N.       17 

The  Genius  of  Kaemaekers.     By  Theodore  Roosevelt 


Our    Tone    in    Transatlantic    Discussion 

Chesterton 
The  U.S.  Air  Policy.     By  Henry  Woodhouse 
Goaks  and  Humour.     By  J.  C.  Squire 


9 
II 

15 


19 


By    G.    K. 

20 
21 

~  -    ^^ 

Mr^Baffour  at  \Vashingtoii''s  Tomb.     (Photo)  24 

America's  Job.     (Double  Page  Cartoon).     By  Kaemaekers  26 

Feeding  Starving  Belgium.     By  Percy  Alden,  M.P.  28 

Mr.   Wilson's   War  Efficiency.     By   Norman    Hapgood  31 

The  Crown  of  Thorns.     By  Xenturion  35 

Books  to  Kead.     By  Lucian  Oldershav.  4^ 

Domestic  Economy  44 

Kit  and  Equipment  49 


! 


AMERICA     AND     THE     WAR 

IHE  great  war  for  righteousness,"  is  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
phrase.  It  is  the  final  sentence  of  his  appreciation 
of  the  genius  of  Kaemaekers  we  are  enabled  to 
publish  to-day ;  and  it  epitomises  the  American 
outlook,  which  will  grow  wider  as  the  weeks  go  on.  It  waS 
only  after  President  Wifeon's  historic  address  to  Congress 
that  pubHc  opinion  in  this  country  realised  in  their  entirety 
the  difficulties  which  confronted  him  in  persuading  the  United 
States  tp  enter  "  the  great  war  for  righteousness  "  with  its 
full  strength,  physical,  intellectual  and  spiritual.  Even  now 
there  exist  across  the  Atlantic  not  inconsiderable  sections  of 
popular  sentiment  which  are  apathetic  towards  the  war  as  a 
whole.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  nothing  remarkable  in 
this  circumstance,  considering  the  vast  distances  that  intervene 
between  American  homes  and  the  battlefields  and  between 
the  sea  and  the  Middle  West.  "  He  jests  at  scars  who  never 
felt  a  wound  " — he  laughs  at  submarines  who  has  never 
seen  or  wished  to  see  the  sea.  Also  we  have  to  remember 
that  it  took  many  months  for  the  British  people  to  envisage 
the  war ;  their  education  was  slowly  accomplished  by 
Zeppelins,  raiding  cruisers  and  aeroplanes,  and  submarines, 
with  letters  and  visits  from  men  in  the  trenches  which  by 
degrees  penetrated  even  to  every  hamlet  in  these  islands. 
More  remarkable  still,  for  at  least  the  first  eighteen  months 
of  invasion,  there  were  people  in  some  of  the  southern  pro- 
vinces of  France,  who  used  to  speak  of  the  war  to  their  fellow- 
countrymen  from  the  North  as  "  your  war."  So  that  when 
we  learn  that  outside  the  Eastern  States  and  certain  sections 
of  the  general  community  defined  by  an  "  Onlooker  in 
America"  on  another  page,  there  is  no  excessive  war  en- 
thusiasm in  the  United  States  but  a  good  deal  of  apathy  that 
at  times  deepens  into  dislike  of  the  President's  pohcy.  we  are 
only  facing  a  condition  of  affairs    perfectly  intelligible. 

This  condition  of  things  is  true  only  of  the  individual.  As  a 
nation  the  United  States  has  thrown  its  full  force  into  this 
struggle  for  righteousness.  Already  its  battleships  furrow 
the  narrow  seas,  and  its  destroyers  open  a  lane  of  security 
for  our  food  ships.  Its  stupendous  wealth  is  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Allies,  and  the  financial  future  is  rendered 
free  from  harassing  doubt.  The  organisation  of  its  food 
supplies  has  been  taken  in  hand.  And  it  will  not  be  long 
before  the  first  companies  of  its  armies  are  training  in  those 
wonderful  schools  for  war  that  have  been  formed  in  France, 
where  every  tactic  and  manoeuvre  of  the  offensive  and  de- 


fensive are  practised  until  nothing  can  hapj)cn  in  the  firing 
line  to  amaze  or  disconcert  an  intelligent  iighting-man.  'ilie 
practical  thoroughness  with  which  war  is  conducted  in  F'rance 
will  appeal  to  the  American  nature,  with  its  instinctive  appre- 
ciation of  men  who  "  get  there,"  through  the  practised  skill 
that  comes  of  intelligent  training.  It  is  barely  two  months 
since  America  took  up  arms,  and  already  she  has  made  her 
power  apparent  on  the  sea,  and  the  first  signs  of  it  on  land 
are  visible.  There  has  been  no  waste  of  time,  but  as  all  the 
fighting  nations  have  found  to  their  cost,  Germany  among 
them,  war  cannot  be  rushed  if  victory  be  the  goal. 

Victory  is  the  single  reason 'why  America  has  thrown  her 
lot  in  with  the  Allies.  As  her  President  has  said,  she  will 
CKcrt  all  her  powers  and  employ  all  her  resources  to  bring  the 
Government  of  the  German  Empire  to'terms  and  end  the  war. 
These  terms,  as  we  know,  can  only  be  gained  by  the  shattering 
of  Prussian  militarism,  which  is  the  foundation-stone  of  the 
autocratic  government  whose  pretensions  it  is  the  fixed  resolve 
of  our  Ally  to  overcome.  The  German  Government  has 
proved  conclusively  she  has  no  real  friendship  for  the  United 
States,  and  the  intercepted  Note  to  the  German  Minister  at 
Mexico  City,  indited  before  war  was  declared,  is  a  document 
of  treachery  that  will  never  be  forgotten.  The  great  war 
resembles  a  burning  lake  of  lava  into  which,  as  it  spreads, 
mountain  peaks  topple,  adding  to  the  roaring  cauldron. 
Such  a  peak  was  the  United  States,  and  it  will  only  be  when 
the  battle  is  quenched  and  the  white-hot  ardour  withdrawn 
from  the  molten  mass  that  mankind  will  understand  all  the 
changes  which  have  been  effected  through  the  blazing  up- 
heaval. We  firmly  believe  tliat  humanity  in  the  end  will  be 
purified  thereby,  tfiat  the  gold  will  be  largely  freed  from  the 
dross  in  so  far  as  human  governments  are  concerned,  and  that 
the  fiery  maelstrom,  as  it  cools  in  process  of  time,  will  be  found 
fruitful  ground  for  the  cultivation  of  noble  virtues. 

"  Only  free  peoples  can  hold  their  purpose  steady  and  their 
honour  steady  to  the  common  end,  and  prefer  the  interests  of 
mankind  to  any  narrow  interest  of  their  own."  It  is  this  form 
of  freedom,  so  defined  by  Mr.  Wilson,  for  which  all  the  Allies 
arc  fighting,  and  which  they  all  are  of  the  fixed  opinion  is 
worth  the  enormous  sacrifices  that  are'oeing  offered  up  hourly. 

Civilisation  itself  seems  to  be  in  the  balance  ;  but  right  is 
more  precious  than  peace,  and  we  shall  tight  for  the  things 
which  we  have  always  carried  nearest  our  hearts — for  demo- 
cracy, for  the  right  of  those  who  submit  to  authority  to  have  a 
voice  in  their  own  government,  for  the  rights  and  hberties  of 
small  nations,  for  the  universal  dominion  of  right  by  such  a 
concert  of  free  peoples  as  will  bring  peace  and  safety  to  all 
nations  and  make  the  world  itself  at  last  free. 

Noble  words  !  They  will  endure  as  long  as  the  English  tongue 
lasts.  In  that  speech  from  which  they  are  taken,  the  President 
of  the  United  States  gave  to  mankind  a  new  charter  of  liberty, 
a  new  gospel  of  armed  freedom.  He  raised  war  to  a  higher 
plane  in  the  mind  of  man,  for  though  the  principles  here 
defined  had  been  tacitly  accepted  by  the  democratic  powers  of 
Europe,  they  were  so  overlaid  with  ancient  traditions  and 
interwoven  with  inherited  rights  and  jealousies  that  they  could 
only  be  interpreted  into  words,  which  were  absolutely  free 
from  suspicion  and  above  and  beyond  slander,  by  the  head  of 
a  Government  that  had  hitherto  been  careful  to  stand  outside 
the  sway  of  the  passions  engendered  by  the  horrors  of  war. 
That  speech,  now  that  it  is  being  translated  into  action,  is 
bound  to  exercise  a  marvellous  influence  on  the  future  of  the 
world.  It  will  in  ages  to  come  be  appealed  to  again  and 
again  ;  it  destroys.for  ever  the  cherished  illusion  that  war  is 
never  justifiable  under  any  circumstances.  America  gathers 
strength  and  puts  forth  her  full  might  to  the  trumpet- 
call  sounded  on  that  April  day  in  the  Capitol  of  Washington. 
It  is  the  death-knell  of  autocracy ;  it  heralds  the  birth  of  a 
larger  freedom  for  man.  Germany  is  no  longer  deceived 
regarding  the  future  ;  the  acts  and  utterances  of  her  Govern- 
ment testify  to  the  truth  of  this  statement.  But  victory  can 
only  come  through  the  complete  military  defeat  of  her  armies  ; 
and  no  matter  how  long  it  may  take,  most  surely  it  will  be 
accomplished.  The  alliance  of  America  is  all  the  stronger 
in  that  it  is  not  committed  to  documents,  but  has  been  created 
solely  to  establish  right  "  which  is  more  .precious  than 
peace."  There  can  be  no  weakening  until  that  object  is 
attained,  no  matter  how  often  the  fierce  blows  of  the  Allies 
have  to  be  delivered  on  the  defence  of  the  Central  Powers. 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  lijiy 


((  T>  ,  ""  ™'""V  •■'      The    \rw    York    Tnncr 

Uamn   the  torpedoes!    Go  ahead" 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


«? 


America's  Military  Effort 

By    Frank    H.  Symonds  (Associate  Editor  of  the  V^ew  York  Tribune) 


The  ivriter  of  this  article  is  America's  most  eminent  military 
critic.  He  has  recently  returned  to  New  York  from  an 
extended  tour  along  the  Western  Front.  The  military 
difficulties  that  confront  America   are   stated    here  plainly. 

JT  is  with  great  hesitation  that  any  American  will  speak 
to    a    British    audience    upon     America's     prospective 
mihtary  effort  in  the     war,  because  he  is  conscious  of 
the  fact  that  what  America  has  to  do  to-day,  Britain  has 
done,  and  that  the  method  by  which  the  great  work  of  arming 
a  democracy  is  accompHshed  is  known  to  the  British  nation 
and  as  yet  remains  unknown  to  the  American  people.         •  ^    , 
The  mihtary  situation  of  the  United  States  to-day  is  com- 
parable with  that  which  Great  Biitain's  would  have  been  in  • 
August,  1914.  had  there  been  no  Expeditionary  Army  and  ■ 
had  England  had  no  Boer  War  in  her  relatively  recent  years.  , 
While  we  have  a  regular  army  which  numbered  about  one 
hundred  thousand  before  the  present  recruiting  began,  and  a  , 
militia  force  theoretically  of  about  equal  strength,  the  utmost, 
that  could  at  the  present  moment  be  drawn  from  the  regular 
army  for  foreign  service  would  be  a  division  and  a  half.  ,  The; 
balance  is  necessarily  occupied  in  coast  defence,  garrisons, 
and  in  the  garrisoning  of  over-seas   possessions.     The  militia  ^ 
is  not  comparable  in  efficiency  or  organization  with  the  British 
Territorials  of  the  before-the-war  period. 

In  the  matter  of  artillery,  the  United  States  Army  has  not 
enough  three-inch  guns  to  equip  an  army  corps  for  foreign . 
sti  vice.     It  has  no  guns  available  comparable  with  the  German 
5.f)  pieces.     In  the  matter  of  aviation,  we  have   only  a  few 
slow  aeroplanes,  and  we  have  none  arlned  and  no  present ' 
system  of  arming  them  "  '  •      '.  ►. 

If  one  is  to  face  the  question  of  American  participation . 
in  the  war,  it  is  necessary  to  recognise  that,  allowance  being . 
made  for  a  division  and  a  half  of  the  regular  army  which  may 
be  soon  sent  to  France,  all  American  preparation  must  start  at , 
the  beginning  of  things.     We  have  available  many  milUons  of 
good  material,  almost  none  of  it  with  any  military  instruction. 
We  have  no  reserves  of  officers  comparable  even  to  that  of 
British  reserves  drawn  out  of  over-seas    garrisons  and  from' 
the  Indian  Army.  ... 

Such  general  officers  as  we  have  are  without  any  training ' 
in  the  handling  of  men  larger  than  a  regiment,  or  at  most  a 
brigade.  '  No  fully  equipped  division  has  been  used  iti  the 
American  Army  since  the  Civil  War.  The  training  of  the 
American  Army  in  the  Philippines  and  in  the  Spanish  War' 
has  not  been  of  a  sort  to  give  even  that  degree  of  farnilfarity- 
with  military  operations  which  British  officers  acquired  in  the. 
South  African    War.  ,        .  ^ 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  hopeful  sign  that  at  the  outset  of ' 
the  war,  the  United  States  has  adopted  conscription.  This 
assures  us,  without  long  delay,  of  a  very  large  immediate 
supply  of  man-power,  but  the  question  of  how  this  man- 
power will  be  organised  is  one  that  is  at  the  present  moment 
open  to  the  widest  discussion.  There  is  a  very  considerable 
element,  particularly  in  the  General  Staff,  which  desires  to 
see  the  training  done  in  the  United  States  and  to  delay  the' 
transport  of  these  troops  to  Europe  until  atthe  end  of  such' 
training.'  The  theory  is  that  in- that 'fashion  an  American 
blow  can  be  delivered  effectively  by 'an  Anierican  Army. 

Thanks  to  Marshal  Joffre,  this  idea, '  which'  seems'  to  be 
wholly  fallacious,  has  been  rudely  shaken.  •  There  is  a  growing' 
appreciation  that  not  in  one  year,  and  perhaps  not  in  two,' 
would  it  be, possible  to  train  men  in  this  country  and  give 
tliem  the  instruction  that  would  make  them  available  for 
clfective  service  on  the  Western  front.  There  is  a  growing' 
appreciation  that  only  through  the  assistance  of  British  and 
French  officers  and  by  the  use  of  training  schools  under  the 
direction  of  French  and  British  officers,- can  the  American- 
army  be  properly  prepared  with  sufficient  promptness  to 
enable  them- to  take  part  in  a  campaign  of  1918. 

Out  Allies  in  Britain  and  in  France  can  do  no  more  useful 
thing  to  further  the  common  cause  and  to  accelerate  the 
speed  of  American  preparation  than  by  contributing  to  the- 
knowledge' of  the  American  people  about  the  actual  con- 
ditions under  which  men' are  trained,  and  by  supplying  illus- 
trations from  the  mistakes  of  both  France  and  England 
which  will  break  down  the  prejudices  against  sending  un- 
trained troops  to  European  training  camps. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  readiness  and  the 
willingness  of  the  mass  of  the  American  people  to  contribute 
their  share,  not  alone  in  money,  ships  and  food,  but  also  in 
man-power,  in  so  far  as  they  know  that  men  are  needed. 
More  than  anybody  in  Europe  can  realise,  the  war  has  been 


misunderstood  and  disregarded  in  America,  even  by  pro- 
fessional soldiers.  America's  ultimate  effort  will  be  in  pro- 
portion to  her  resources  and  her  wealth,  but  whether  America 
participates  in  the  campaign  of  1918  or  not  must  depend 
upon  the  degree  to  which  the  American  people  are  educated 
to  understand  that  American  participation  is  essential,  and 
what' the  training  of  a  civilian  population  means,  and  how 
impossible  it  is  to  train  such  a  population  with  none  of  the 
instruments  and  none  of  the  conditions  at  hand. 

It' seems  to  me  that  if  the  facts  can  be  put  before  the 
American  people  in  time,  it  will  be  possible  to  send  not  less 
than  six  or  seven  divisions  to  Europe  between  now  and  next 
April,  if  transport  can  be  found.  It  will  be  impossible  to 
provide  these  divisions  here  with  artillery  and  with  many 
'oi  the  other  necessary  adjuncts  to  modern  war.  It  will  be 
'impossible  to  train  them  here  in  anything  but  the  merest 
preliminaries. .  Siich  things  a^  bomb  practice,  trench-digging 
ah(i  wave-attacks  are  out  of  the  question,  and  it  seems  to  me 
inevitable  that  at  least  six  months,  of  additional  training  in 
Europe  will  be  necessary  before  any  of  these  troops,  with  a 
possible  exception  of  one  division  of  the  regular  army,  could 
be, put  at  the  front,  although  Iknow  that  the  French  accom- 
plished miracles  with  the  Russian. division  at  Camp  de  Mailly. 

The  Enghsh  people. must  recognise  at  the  outset  that  no 
matter  how  earnestly  America  tries,  her  .  mrlitarv  pro -ress 
will  be  slow,  and  the  same  sympathetic  understanding  which 
the  French  had  for  Britain's  difficulties  in  training  her  armies 
will  have  to  be  extended  to  the  .^jjierican  Army.     , 

'The  American  people  have  adopted  conscription  with  a 
readiness  which  has  surprised  those' of  us  who  have  most 
earnestly  advocated  it.  The  American  people  are  to-day 
taking  up  the  question  ot^sending  armies  to  Europe  in  a 
fashion  that  no  one  would  have  suspected  a-year  ago.  There 
is  an  earnestness,  there  is  a  desire  that  America  shall'do  her 
full  dutyin  tlie'matter  of  supplying  men,  which  is  quite  the 
most  hopeful  sign  of  recent  years. ,  But  there  is  no  machinery 
in  existence  for  a!ccomplishmg  that  which  the  nation  wishes 
to  have  accomplished.  -We  have  some  millions  of  men  and 
a- bare' handful  of*  officers  without  the  smallest  experience  in 
the  handling,  not  of  army  corps,  not  of  divisions,'  not  of 
brigades,  but  for  the  most  not  even  of  regiments,  and  we  have 
lio'  considerable  amount  of  information  supplied  since  the 
war  began.  -It  is  useless  to  speak  now  of  American  military 
effort' in- the  terms  of  armies  that  will  be  effective  in  1918. 
Such  troops!as  we  may  be  able  to  send  to  the  front  before 
1919  will  be  only  a  sign  of  our  determination  to  send  armies 
and  will  be  a  moral  rather  than  a  material  contribution. 
'  This  great  American 'democracy  means  to  transform  itself 
into  an  effective  military  machine  for  the  common  cause.  Its 
failures  will  be  exactly  th*  failures  that  the  British  people 
have  known,  in  their  owfli  case,  larger  perhaps  because  of  a 
far  less  considerable  milkary  estabUshment  or  undertaking 
at  the  outset.  America  is  in  the  war,  and  America  feels  her- 
self in  the, wir  with  a  determination  and  an  eagerness  to  do  a 
proportionate  part,  but  it  depends  very  considerably  on  tiie 
help,  sympathy  and  advicq  of  our  British  and  French  Allies 
how  soon  and  how  great  A)  ti erica's  part  will  be. 
■  There  is  one  other  point  that  I  mention  with  some  hesita- 
tion, butit  seems  to  me  tha4t  considerable' harm  will  be  done 
in  America  if  each  minor  success  of  the  Allies,  however 
valuable  ■  arid  promising,  is  magnified  into  a  sure  sign  of 
German  collapse.  It  is  the  view  of  most  military  observers 
in  America  that  the  war  will  go  another  year  at  least.  It 
is -on  that  basis  that  we  an  2  trying  to  bring  home  to  the 
American  people  the  jiecessity  of  organising  for  a  considerable 
effort.  If  the  American  people  are  convinced  that  Germany 
is  at  the  point  of  collapse,  or  that  a  victory,  like  the  recent 
British  success  at  Arras,  is  the  prelude  to  a  German  surrender, 
it  will  be  very  difficult  to  ke(?p  military  preparations  going. 
We  have  been  constantly  handicapped  in  this  country  by  the 
optimism  in  certain   quarters    in  England  and  in    France. 

On  the  other  hand,  frank  statements,  such  as  Mr.  Balfour 
and  his  associates  and  Marshal  Joffre  and  his  colleagues  are 
giving  us  as  to  the  probable  need  of  American  troops  and 
American  effort,  have  proved  a  wholesome  stimulus  and  have 
already  produced  a  striking  c  hange  in  the  American  point 
of  view.  If  we  can  only  keej  >  before  the  American  people 
the  gravity  of  the  situation  and  the  necessity  for  American 
action,  there  need  be  no  limit  t.o  the  American  contribution, 
but  for  reasons  that  may  be  quite  comprehensible  in  luigland' 
it  is  difficult  to  keep  a  popular  ii  iterest  and  energy  going  when 
there  is  a  general  notion  tihat  the  end  of  the  war  will  come 
the  day  after  to-morrow. 


LAND    &    WATER 


Juno  7,  T.)T7 


The  First  Days  of  War 

By  An  Onlooker  in  America 


A  RE  all  democracies  congenitally  incapable  of  going 
/%  to  war  eliectively  ?  For  nearly  two  years  war 
A — m  clouds  have  been  piling  up  over  the  Atlantic  in  full 
r^  -m.view  of  the  United  States.  For  nearly  two  years 
It  has  been  patent  to  thoughtful  people  that  "they  would 
sooner  or  later  reach  the  coast  and  burst.  Vet,  now  they  have 
burst,  the  American  people  and  (iovernment  appear  outwardly 
less  prepared  for  war  than  were  the  people  and  Government  of 
Great  Britain  when  the  bolt  landed  upon  them. 

Superficially  the  parallel  between  England  in  1914  and 
conditions  in  the  United  States  to-day  is  as  striking  as  it  is 
depressing.  There  is  the  same  amateurishness  in  Government 
circles ;  the  same  "  life  as  usual  "  atmosphere,  somewhat 
disturbed  by  hysteria,  throughout  the  country.  There  are 
the  same  patchworky  attempts  on  the  part  of  private  and 
ofticial  patriots  to  galvanise  things.  There  are  "  Wake  up 
America  "  days  and  parades.  Newspapers  and  other 
organisations  get  up  recruiting  rallies.  Suffragists  and 
actresses  support  picturesquely  the  more  silent  api>cal  of 
the  recruiting  sergeants.  Kecriiiting  posters,  modest 
copies  of  our  own  early  efforts,  blossom  on  taxicabs  and 
hoardings.  Every  other  house,  motor,  cart  and  caniage  is 
gay  with  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Sometimes  one  comes  on  a 
galaxy  of  the  Hags  of  all  the  Allies.  Society  and  the  social 
leaders  who  are  as  necessary  to  a  well  conducted  American 
community  as  a  town  hall  or  a  soda  water  fountain,  wallow 
hectically  in  war  work.  Everybody  has  her  committee  to 
prepare  for  the  nursing,  feeding  and  general  edification  of  a 
still  mainly  unformed  soldiery.  There  are  committees  galore 
for  the  propagation  of  econopiy  in  clothes  and  food  and  for 
every  sort  of  war  activity,  conceivable  and  inconceivable. 

Unconvincing  Activity 

But,  especially  wlien  one  remembers  how  little  similar 
manifestations  really  did  in  England  to  win  tlie  war,  all  this 
activity  IS    not  particularly  convincing.     One  looks  in  vain 
lor  the  sign  of  any  great  national  impulse.     One  realises  that 
the     American     public,    like    the     British     public     before 
the   war,    has  had   its   moral  and  physical  energies  dulled 
by  a   too  steady  peace  and    a    too    assiduous   worship  at 
the     altars    of    a    sheltered    individualism.      The     United 
States^   in  fact,   is   suffering  from    too  much    liberaUsm   of 
the    facihst    domestic    reform  variety.     One    sees    every- 
where the  clfect  of  that  liberalism  with  its  attendant   care- 
lessness of  foreigi;  afifairs..    It,  was  written  large  upon  the 
1  resident  s  policy  of-  neutrality.     It  has  still  many  exponents 
in  Congress.     It  f^as  been  reinforced  liyrnational  traditions,  by 
the  tradition  of  self-centred  isolation  -created  by  Washington 
when  he  urged  his  people  not  to  get  entangled  in  Europe; 
officiaUv-  established   by  P:       "         .Yonroe  when  he  enun- 
ciated   his   doctrines    of    1  :,.can    etclusiveness,    and 
lor  generations  sanctioned  m  a-  pre.ctical  way  by  the  fact 
that  with  Its  virgin  continent  still   undeveloped  the  United 
states  was  m  point  of  fact  econon«<:ally  as  well  as  poUtically 
self-sufficing.     Let   us  remain   alof,f,   let   us   be   neutral   in 
thought  as  well  as  action,  and  in  tWe  end  we  shall  be  powerful 
enough  and  independent  enough  id  play  the  "  honest  broker  " 
yi   the   restoration   of  peace.      .rSuch   was    the   President's 
VUtial  interpretation  of  the  duty  of  America  towards  herself 
and  towards  the  belligerents. 

By  her  lawless  brutality,  Germany  forced  the  United 
States  into  war.  But  the  ways  of  a  nation's  thought  are 
wot  changed  overnight.  The  o  auntry  has  gone  into  war 
because  It  has  been  told  to,  not  because  it  was  impelled  to 
by  the  promptujgs  of  conscie  nee  or  even  self-interest. 
*.erman  atrocities  have  been  too  Q<>mmon  for  another  batch 
ot  them  to  make  a  deep  impres)  ;iori.  The  President's  noble 
message  about  service  to  human,"  ity  and  about  the  oneness  of 
America  s  ideals  with  those  of  the  Allies  have  clashed  too 
obviously  with  his  earlier  decb  rations,  that  the  causes  and 
ongins  of  the  war  were  too  n,  ^mote  and  too,  muddled  to 
concern  the  United  States  save,  indirectly. 

Hostilities,  moreover,  have ,  begun  in  an  unimpressive 
w-ay.  There  is  none  of  the  p<  ,mp  and  panoply  <}f  martial 
adventure,  no  hosts  of  marcl  ling  soldiers  to  awaken  en- 
thusiasm no  returning  woundec  !  to^stir  the  spirit  of  avenging 
self-.sacnfice.  The  militia,  it  if  ,  true,  Iwve  been  called  out  ; 
the  regulars  are  mobilized  ;  tt  .e  fleet  is  getting  ready  but 
the  same  things  happened  o- ,;er  Mexico,  and  Mexico  has  ■ 
come  to  nothing. 

All  this  hampers  preparatios  t  i  n  two  ways.  The  regular 
army,  at  present  not  much  lai  gc  r  than  the  original  British 
lixpeditionary  Force,  is  still  be^  nv  tlie  l-'gal  peace  footing  niul 


needs  over  150,000  men  to  be  on  a  war  footing.  The  Navy 
is  so  shorthanded  that  a  considerable  fraction  of  the  fleet  can- 
not be  mobilized.  All  this  is  public  property.  Yet  recruiting, 
except  for  the  aviation  curps,  the  glamour  of  which  appeals  to 
the  adventurous  spirits  among  the  ui)per  and  ujiper  middle 
classes,  is  distinctly  bad.  True,  a  con.scription  law  has 
been  passed  which  will  remedy  this  situation  after  the 
lengthy  process  of  registration  has  been  completed.  But 
even  conscription  without  the  right  kind  of  administration 
behind  it  does  not  automatically  solve  all  war  problems. 

And,  as  I  indicated  above,  the  United  States  has  not  yet 
got  a  war  Government,  any  more  than  Great  Britain  had  one 
at  the  start  and  long  after  the  start.  There  is  much 
confusion  in  the  Washington  Department.  The  spirit  is 
willing  but  the  organisation  weak.  Professional  poli- 
ticiarus  and  bureaucrats  jostle  each  other  hopelessly. 
The  War  Departnu-nt,  with  its  pacifist  Secretary  and  its 
sometimes  rather  superannuated  soldier  chiefs  of  "divisions, 
has  yet  to  get  down  to  business.  The  Navy  Department', 
with  a  politician  of  the  Bryan  type  as  its  head,  while  it  has  a 
better  instrument  to  work  with,  has  not  yet  laid  its  jiJans 
for  co-operation  with  the  Allies  as  they  would  have  been 
laid  in  Utopia.  It  may  be  doubted,  in  fact,  whether  outside 
finance,  the  immediate  result  of  the  Balfour  and  Viviani 
missions,  \viU  be  quite  what  an  enthusiastic  press  expects. 

Is  the  American  democracy  even  slower  at  going  to  war 
than  the  British  democracy  ?  Is  it  worse  than  the  British 
democracy  inasmuch  as  it  failed  to  profit  from  the  lessons  of 
the  initial  mistakes  of  the  other  ?  The  answer  is  neither 
in  the  negative  nor  in  the  affirmative  :  but  it  is  a  hopeful 
answer  both  for  the.  United  States  and  for  the  Allies. 

There  are  to-day  two  ■  Americas.  There  is  the  America 
that  IS  producing  the  state  of  affairs  described  above.  It 
is  an  America  powerful  in  peace  because  it  has  the  vote  : 
but  in  war  time  it  cannot  and  does  not  control. 

The  entry  of  the  United  States  into  the  war  has  Ix^n 
brought  about  by  the  other  America,  the  comparatively 
small  America  of  earnest  journalists  and  college  professors, 
of  a  group  of  powerful  bankers,  far-seeing  statesmen  and 
cosmopolitanly  educated  thinkers,  mainly  of  the  East, 
who  have  realised  from  the  beginning  where  the  interests  and 
duties  of  the  United  States  lay.  They  are  the  people  who 
will  more  and  more  run  it.  Having  converted  the  President, 
they  are  proceeding  to  insinuate  themselves  into  his  Goverment 
and  organise  things.  At  present  they  are  working  at  a 
disadvan^ge.  As  shown  above,  the  "  hang-over "  of 
Liberalism  and  peace  politics  i5  strong.  Were  the  United 
States  called  upon  to  defend  herself,  the  situation  would 
indeed  be  grave.  But,  luckily,  it  is  an  economic  war  which 
she  has,  at  first  at  any  rate,-to  fight.^  Tonnage,  food, 
munitions  of  war  from  cannon  to  railw^  equipment  and 
money  to  buy  them  with  is  what  the  Allie  want  more 
than  military  or  even  naval  assistance.  And  these  they  are 
in  a  fair  way  to  get.         .  ( 

A  wonderful,  if  little  advertised,  work  Is  being  done  in 
Washington.  While  the  politicians  and  minor  officials 
muddle  and  worry  in  the  approved  Anglo-Saxon  style,  the 
business  men  and  economists  are  pushing  things  forward 
with  true  American  hustle.  A  body  called  the  Council  of 
National  Defence  has  been  called  into  being.  It  consists  of 
half  a  dozen  Cabinet  Ministers,  and  as  many  first-class  men 
of  affairs  who  have  thrown  up  their  own  work  to  be  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Government.  The, Council  fs  taking  time  by 
the  forelock  in  a  way  which  tho.se  who  went  through  the  first 
two  years  of  war  organisation  in  London  majf  well  envy.  The 
question  of  food  supply  has  lately  been ,  insistent.  Instead 
of  wasting  weeks  in  parliamentary  and  pubUc  discussion  the 
Secretary  of  Agriculture,  a  memlx-r  of  the  Council  of  Defence, 
and  one  of  the  few,  non-political  Cabinet  Ministers,  has  take^ 
hold.  He  has  at  his  disposal  one  of-  the  best  organised 
Government  Departments  in  the  world,  a  department  ii^ 
which  the  scientist  and  not  the  politician  rules  the  roost. 
He  has  intimate  relations  with  the  State  and  local  Boards 
of  Agnculturc.  The  farmers  trust  him.  It  has  consequently 
been  possible  to  .set  in  motion  overnight  a  machinery  for  the 
ultimate,  though  not  (as  people  in  England .  should  realise) 
the  immediate  production  of  extra  foodsupphes  everywhere 
from  the  illimitable  corn  fields  of  the  W'est'to  the  suburban 
back  gardens  of  New  York  and  Boston.  Farmers  are  being  ' 
instructed,  distributors  organised,  labour  mobilised,  and  prices 
may  be  fixed. 

The  swift  and  economical  disposal  of  food  and  raw  materials 
hke  cotton  steel  and  copper,  which  the  Allies  need  nearly 
as  much  as  food,  depends  largely  upon  railway  transportation. 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


There  have  been  cumulative  difficulties  in  that  respect.. 
Again  the  Council  of  Defence  steps  in.  Its  railway  member 
is  one  of  the  foremost  railway  presidents  in  the  country. 
He  takes  counsel  with  his  colleagues  and  in  a  jiify  the  nation's 
resources  are  overhauled.  Another  expert  is  attending  to 
the  economical  collection  and  marketing  of  raw  materials. 
Yet  another  is  engaged  in  co-ordinating  the  manufacturing  of 
kvar  supplies,  with  a  result  that  not  only  the  American 
Governmien,t  but  the  Alhes  will  soon  have  their  bills  cut  down 
and  the  flow  of  supplies  expedited.  The  question  of  tonnage, 
the  building  of  new  ships,  etc.,  is  in  the  hands  of  a  recently 
appointed  Federal  Commission  of  experts,  with  Colonel 
Goethals,  the  builder  of  the  Panama  Canal,  in  practical  charge. 
The  floating  of  loans  falls  to  the  Federal  Reserve  Board, 
another  expert  commission. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  against  organised  business  in  the 
United  States.  It  has  been  accused  of  subverting  democracy 
in  the  interests  of  plutocracy.  There  has  been  much  truth 
in  the  accusation.  So  long  as  the  conservative  Republicans 
were  in  power  the  alliance  between  "  big  business  "  and  the 
politicians  was  too  close.  It  produced  unhealthily  high 
tariffs.  It  encouraged  the  "  Trusts  "  and  other  monopolistic 
abuses.  But  it  is  now  the  business  man  who  is  coming  to 
the  rescue  of  a  democracy  dazed  by  the  prospect  of  unac- 
customed war.  He  has  given  the  United  States  off-hand  the 
nucleus  of  the  economic  organisation  which  Great  Britain 
so  long  lacked,  distrusted  by  the  Radicals  and  Liberals  in 
power,  he  is  going  to  vindicate  him.self  in  the  factories  and 
country  houses  no  less  effectively  than  the  equally  distrusted 
British  aristocracy  and  plutocracy  have  vindicated  them- 
selves on  the  ba,ttlefield.  He  will,  especially  after  consulting 
with  Mr.  Balfour's  commission,  enable  the  United  States  to 
wage  the  most  effective  sort  of  war  while  the  Government 
is  sloughing  off  the  remains  of  its;  liberal  pacifism. 

Not  that  it  need  be  doubted  that  eventually  the  United 
States  will  do  what  may  be  needed  of  her  in  a  military  sense 
as  well.  And  in  the  meanwhile  it  is  all  to  the  good  from  the 
Allies'  point  of  view  that  the  President's  former  aversion 
from  large  armies,  and  his  refusal  to  admit  that  the  war  clouds 
could  carry  across  the  Atlantic,  should  have  prevented  the 
formation  of  huge  masses  of  half-trained  men  to  equip  whom 
American  supplies  of  munitions  would  have  been  held  back 
from  F'rance,  Flanders,  and  Russia  where  they  are  so  insis- 
tently needed.  Paradoxical  though  it  seems,  the  superficial 
carelessness  of  the  .American  people  about  the  war  will  increase 
for  some  time  to  come,  the  value  of  their  recruitment  to  the 
posse  comitatus  of  civilization. 


Cartoons  and  Posters 

THE  cartoon  occupies  a  position  in  the  dailij 
journalism  of  .'\merica  whicii  can  only  be  compared 
with  leading  articles  in  English  daily  newspapers' 
It  epitomises  current  opinion  in  a  forcible  and  pic- 
turesque manner,  its  object  being  not  so  much  to  amuse  as 
to  drive  hard  home  a  particular  point  of  view.  So  the  typical 
illustrations  of  this  essentially  American  form  of  journalism 
which  are  given  on  these  pages  represents  public  opinion 
even  more  closely  than  if  we  nad  extracted  long  passages  from 
the  leading  articles  of  our  new  Ally's  Press.  Uncle  Sam  is  a 
very  favourite  figure  with  American  cartoonists,  more  so 
perhaps  than  John  Bull  is  with  ours,  possibly  because  so  much 
greater  expression  can  be  thrown  into  his  lithe  figure.  We 
see  him  full  of  humour  and  activity  starting  off  to  hold 
Olympics  on  his  own  in  Berlin  on  a  following  page.  And 
elsewhere  he  appears  as  a  business  man  and  as  a  much 
puzzled  elderly  gentleman,  who  thinks  the  time  has  come  to 
take  a  hand  in  the  war. 

Directly  war  was  declared  there  was,  as  might  be  expected, 
a  wonderful  outburst  of  poster  activity,  especially  on  the 
part  of  the  Naval  Department.  This  has  taken  all  manner 
of  forms,  the  most  striking  perhaps  being  the  adaptation  of 
the  famous  poster  "  It's  your  money  we  want,"  so  familiar 
at  one  time  on  London  hoardings,  which  is  reproduced  on 
page  31.  America  is  not  only  learning  from  our  blunders, 
but  has  not  disdained  to  take  a  few  hints  from  our  war 
advertising  campaigns,  and  New  York  is  as  gay  with 
war  posters  as  ever  our  English  cities  were  in  1915. 

The  full-page  cartoon  "  Damn  the  torpedoes  !  Go  ahead," 
that  by  the  courtesy  of  the  ^ew  York  Times,  is  reproduced 
to-day  in  Land  &  W.\tp;r,  promises  to  become  a  classic  among 
cartoons,  for  it  .so  exactly  hits  off  the*spirit  in  which  the  United 
States  have  entered  the  war.  Germany  is  to  be  taught 
what  "  the  freedom  of  the  seas  "  really  means — a  .phrase 
which  she  only  adopted  in  order  to  abuse  and  misapply.  It 
has  been  our  object  in  making  this  selection  of  cartoons  and 
posters  to  convey  to  our  readers  how  the  war  presents  itself 
to  American  minds.  Opinion  naturally  is  not  unanimous 
throughout  that  vast  country,  but  we  can  see  that  as  it 
becomes  more  apparent  democracy  is  at  grips  with  auto- 
cracy, pubhc  resolution  to  win  complete  victory  will 
strengthen  and  harden.  Already  activity  progresses  apace, 
and  public  ppinion  as  expressed  in  the  Press  grows  more 
defined  on  the  futiu^e  part  it  will  play  in  the  war. 


^ 


^ 


Bij  vonrtesy  of  "The  Chicaijo  Tribune" 

**  Wonder  if  it  ain't  purty  near  time  to  begin 
to  load  her  up  ?  " 


By  courtcfij  of  "TJie  BrooUlyn  CitUtn" 


"You've  started  something,  Kaiser!" 


6 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


Organising    Food    Supply 

By   Herbert   Hoover 

Mr.  llcrberi  Hoover  ivrdc  the  following  just  before  leaving  for  Washington  xvherc  he  has  tiow  assumed  the  position  of  rood 
Controller.  There  is  no  man  living  to-day  uho  has  had  the  same  practieal  experience  of  obtaining  ami  distribuling  food 
supplies  under  circumstances  of  extreme  difficulty  as  that  possessed  by  this  writer.  The  jvork  is  described  fjy  Mr.  Alden,  M.P..  on 
page  28.     The  experience  will  be  invaluable  to  Mr.   Hoover,  who  is  a  man  of  exceptional  energy  and  administrative  ability. 


A 


By  ctiurlfsi/  nl   '■  Chicago  Hladc' 

A  Merchant  Marine  Cartoon 


you  have 
asked  me 
to  say  a 
.few  words 
about  my  new  work 
and  the  position  of 
America  in  this  war 
I  very  gladly  com- 
ply, but  it  must 
be  remembered  that 
I  have  only  just 
accepted  the  posi- 
tion of  Food  Con- 
troller at  the  re- 
quest of  President 
Wilson, and  I  imag- 
ine that  the  post 
has  been  offered  to 
me  because  of  the 
experience  that  has 
been  gained  in 
feeding  7,000,000  of  Belgians  and  over  2,000,000  of  French 
in  territory  occupied  by  the  Germans. 

My  position  as  chairman  of  the  Neutral  Commission  meant 
that  I  was  chiefly  engaged  in  negotiating  with  the  German 
authorities  with  a  view  to  getting  better  conditions  for  the 
liardly  pressed  Belgian  people.  My  colleagues  who  so  generously 
came  to  my  assistance  have  had  nearly  all  the  detailed  work 
to  do  and  I  owe  them  a  debt  of  gratitude  which  I  can  never 
lepay.  I  am  still  remaining  as  chairman  of  the  Commission. 
but,  of  course,  I  shall  not  be  able  to  give  so  much  time  to  this 
work  as  in  the  past ;  and  indeed  half  my  occupation  is  gone  in 
that  respect  since  1  am  no  longer  able  to  go  either  to  Berlin  or 
to  Brussels.  1 1  has  been  a  very  difficult  and  complex  problem , 
this  question  of  feeding  people  by  the  million  in  another 
country,  where  at  least  two  languages  arc  spoken  and  where 
in  addition  the  German  language  also  became  a  necessity 
both  in  Belgium  and  Northern  France  The  task  of  organising 
relief  has  been  quite  unprecedented  and  only  the  untiring 
devotion  of  the  Belgium  and  French  Committees  could  have 
made  the  work  possible. 

I  think,  however,  that  our  system  may  be  said  to  have 
proved  a  complete  success.  It  was  economical  and  unbureau- 
cratic.  The  food  reached  the  people  in  the  quickest  possible 
space  of  time  without  loss  an4  without  deduction,  except  in 
rare  instances.  Perhaps  we  may  add  that  it  cost  less  than 
similar  food  would  have  cost  anywhere  else  in  Europe. 

As  to  my  future  work,  it  will  be  chiefly  to  organise 
America's  share  in  the  war  so  far  as  the  production  and  distri- 
bution of  food  are  concerned.  The  President  no  sooner 
signed  the  general  resolution  by  which  Congress  declared 
that  in  America's  judgment  Germany  was  an  enemy  to  the 
democracies  of  the  world  than  the  Council  of  National  i3efence. 
comprising  six  Cabinet  Ministers  and  six  distinguished  business 
men,  began  to  take  vigorous  measures  with  a  view  to  placing 
100,000,000  Americans  on  a  war  basis. 

Wc  shall  have  greater  difficulty  even  than  the  English 
democracy  in  getting  into  harness,,  for  although  the  framers 
of  the  American  Constitution,  wise  in  their  generation,  drew 
up  that  historic  document  in  such  a  way  as  to  enable  the 
President  in  time  of  war  to  take  absolute  and  single  control 
of  all  the  military  agencies  of  the  nation,  yet  at  that  time  the 
control  of  economic  and  social  forces  as  of  equal  importance 
with  military  forces  had  not  been  considered.  As  a  result 
there  are  many  difficulties  in  applying  these  forces  to  the  new 
and  amazing  circumstances  in  which  we  find  ourselves. 
Some  patience  and  ingenuity  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  will  be  required  to  work  out  such  control  as  may  be 
necessary  in  all  directions,  but  already  we  have  taken  some 
important  steps  such,  for  instance,  as  the  following  : 

(1)  We   have  arranged   to   provide   the   Allies  with  all   the 
money  necessary  to  pay  for  their  purchases  abroad. 

(2)  We  have  advanced  large  sums  of  money  for  the  Allies  in 
order  to  tide  over  their  immediate  difticulties. 

(j)  We  liave  instituted  a  system  of  rapid  ship  construction. 
lx>th  wooden  and  steel. 

Col.  (.ioethals,  who  built  the  Panama'  Canal,  has  been  placed 
iu  charjsc  of  this  rapid  ship  construction  of  the  United  States. 


The  same  energy  and  ability  which  built  the  Canal  will  build 
ships  and  arrange  for  the  utihsation  of  the  German  interned 
vessels.  One  very  important  point  is  the  necessity  for  inter- 
national co-operation  in  the  control  of  shipping. 

My  problem  is  that  of  the  food  supply,  not  only  for  the 
Allies,  but  for  America.  It  is  one  of  extreme  difficulty 
because  owing  to  the  decrease  in  man  power  in  the  Allied 
countries  and  the  consequent  decrease  of  the  harvests  of 
France,  Italy  and  England,  and  owing  also  to  the  shortage 
in  the  harvests  of  both  hemispheres  last  year  and  the  jjartial 
failure  of  America's  winter  wheat,  the  whole  world  is  faced 
with  a  period  of  short  food  supplies.  There  is  nothing  in  it 
that  cannot  be  overcome  with  good  management  and  rigid 
economy,  but  the  necessity  for  such  economy  must  penetrate  to 
every  dinner  table  in  the  whole  of  the  Allied  countries.  There 
is  no  occasion  for  panic  or  hoarding  ;  but  there  is  occasion, 
and  plenty  of  occasion,  for  self-sacrilice. 

An  Allied  Food  Board 

Unless  all  the  Allies,  including  my  own  citizens  in  America, 
are  prepared  to  make  far  greater  sacrifices  than  have  so  far 
been  asked  of  them,  there  may  come  a  day  when  scarcity  of 
food  supplies  may  rob  civilisation  of  its  complete  victory. 
We  shall  have  to  set  up  an  Allied  Food  Board  which  can  .speak 
with  an  authoritative  voice  as  to  the  needs  of  all  the  countries 
concerned.  It  .is  not  enough  to  leave  it  to  an  individual  Food 
Controller  in  each  country .  They,  naturally,  do  their  best  for 
their  people  ;  but  what  is  required  is  that  all  the  nations  war- 
ring against  the  Central  Powers  shall  be  regarded  as  a  unit  for 
this  purpose.  Finally  I  am  anxious  to  dispel  the  view  lliat  now 
America  has  entered  into  the  war  there  will  beplcnty  of  foo;' 
for  all.  From  the  figures  at  my  disposal  I  am  convinced  that 
while  tnerc  are  sufficient  cereals  in  America  to  Iced  our  own 
people  the  supplies  do  not  begin  to  reach  the  ((uantity  neces- 
sary for  the  Allies  in  Jiurojje.  To  enable  our  European  ])ai  t- 
ners  to  carry  the  war  to  a  successful  conclusion  the  American 
people  will  not  only  have  to  increase  largely  their  normal 
production  of  wheat,  but  to  reduce  their  present  consumption 
of  wheaten  bread  and  flour,  and  wherever  possible  to 
substitute  maize  for  wheat. 

You  will  have  seen  that  the  great  meat-packing  firms  of 
America  have  already  turned  over  their  organisation  voluntar- 
ily to  the  Food  Board  and  have  undertaken  to  operate  with- 
out profit.  Other  interests  concerned  with  the  production  and 
distribution  of  food  are  likely  to  follow  suit ;  and  before  long 
I  trust  we  shall  have  assured  sufficient  supplies  from  America 
to  enable  the  Allies,  if  rigid  economy  be  exercised,  to  carry 
over  from  this  harvest  to  the  next.  It  seems  fairly  certain 
that  the  Council  of  National  Defence  will  completely  prohibit 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of  alcoholic  liquor  throughout  the 
United  States  and  this  will  at  once  free  an  enormous  quantity 
of  grain  for  Erigland,  France  an<l  Italy.  I  do  not  think 
that  the  grain  when  imported  into  the  I'nited  Kingdom  should 
be  used  for  alcoholic  liquor.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  tell  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  what  they  ought  to  do,  but  sacrifice 
on  one  side  ideserves  some  sacrifice  on  the  other. 

I  do  not  believe  in  any  system  of  conipulsorv  rationing 
unless  driven  to  the  last  necessity  of  national  'extremity. 
A'oluntary  methods  combined  with  control  of  the  food  supplies 
will,  I  hope,  prove  .satisfactory.  There  must  be  a  tremendous 
amount  of  waste  in  labour  if  you  set  up  a  huge  bureaucratic 
machine  to  deal  with  the  question  of  rationing.  In  lielgium. 
where,  however,  the  problem  of  destitution  is  simpler,  there 
are  some  55,000  volunteers  with  50,000  minor  einplovecs 
daily  employed  in  supervising  the  distribution  of  rations  to 
a  ]>opulation  of  10,000,000.  For  the  United  Kingdom  it 
would  probably  be  necessary  to  secure  the  work  of  some 
400,000  distributors,  inspectors  and  officials.  You  can  get 
these  people  in  Belgium  because  there  are  so  many  unemployed, 
but  it  would  not  be  ea.sy  to  get  them  in  Great  Britain. 

1  am  under  no  delusion  with" regard  to  the  difficulties  that  I 
shall  have  to  face,  and  after  trying  most  experiments  and 
studying  all  others,  1  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
only  real  solution  is  to  be  found  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
St.  Matthew— the  feeding  of  the  imiltitude  in  the  wilder- 
ness. However,  wc  will  do  our  best  with  the  resources  at 
our  disuosal. 


June  7,  191: 


LAND    &    WATER 


American  and  British  Democracy 

By  Principal  L.  P.  Jacks 


f 


IF  a  friendly  visitor  should  come  to  our  shores  at  the 
])resent  moment  it  would  be  almost  literally  true  to  inform 
nim  tliat  the  British  nation  is  "  not  at  home."  The  pitli 
of  it,  or  rather  the  flower  of  it,  is  abroad,  figliting  our 
battles  and  defending  our  liberties.  The  number  of  tho.se 
who  are  tluis  engaged,  if  the  attendant  services  are  counted 
in,  is  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  British  electorate,  and  being 
what  they  are,  in  quality  as  well  as  in  number,  they  may  be 
said  t(j  "  represent  "  the  nation,  for  they  are  the  best  it  can 
jiroduce.  If.  therefore,  the  object  of  our  visitor  were  to  study 
British  democracy  in  being,  he  would  see  that  his  proper 
course  was  to  wait  until  these  men  returned  to  civil  hfe.  In  the 
meantime  he  might  employ  his  leisure  in  studying  the  spirit 
of  this  vast  army  of  absentees,  and  in  asking  himself  what 
difference  that  spirit  would  make  if,  when  the  war  is  over,  it 
were  to  be  brought  back  with  the  returning  hosts,  and  were 
to  become  a  factor  in  our  domestic  politics. 

Nothing  tlie  war  jias  produced  is  more  remarkable  than 
1  he  good  temper  of  the  men  who  compose  the  fighting  forces 
oi  Britain.'  That  so  many  millions  of  men.  belonging  to  all 
classes  in  society,  should  suddenly  find  themselves  on  the 
best  of  terms  with  one  another,  consciously  bound  together  in 
tlie  fellowship  of  a  sacred  cause,  may  surely  be  reckoned  a  por- 
tentous social  phenomenon.  It  forms  a  striking  contrast  to 
tile  eminent  bad  temper  which  characterized  our  civil  life 
u])  to  the  moment  when  war  broke  out.  Our  splendid  soldiers 
and  sailors  can  do  more  for  us  than  win  the  war.  They  can 
bring  back  into  civil  life,  into  politics  and  into  social  reform, 
a  breath  of  that  spirit  of  comradeship,  of  high  spirits,  of  un- 
complaining give-and-take,  which  every  observer  who  has 
visited  the  figliting  fronts  has  been  quick  to  note  and  to  feel. 
That  spirit  is  needed  for  the  work  of  peace  as  much  as  for  the 
work  of  war,  nay,  more  needed  ;  and  the  need  of  it  will  be 
ispccially  great  when  we  come  to  face  the  tremendous  and 
exasperating  problems  which  await  us  after  the'  war.j 

Evil  of  Bad  Temper 

Of  all  the  obstacles  to  human  progress  I  reckon  bad  temper 
the  chief.  Its  symptoms  and  effects  in  national,  and  inter- 
national, life  are  precisely  the  same  as  those  with  which 
\ye  ourselves  are  so  familiar  in  individual  men  and  women, 
perhaps  in  ourselves.  When  a  man  loses  his  temper  he  loses 
liis  head  and  becomes  an  unreasonable  being  ;  sees  everything 
in  false  proportions  ;  does  the  wrong  thing  almost  infallibly  ; 
])roduces  Ins  worst  work ;  talks  nonsense  ;  and  generally 
makes  liimself  ridiculous.  Groups,  parties,  whole  nations 
which  have  lost  their  temper,  betray  the  same  symptoms 
with  the  same  effects. 

Bad  temper  is  one  of  the  peculiar  products  of  domestic 
])olitirs,  as  they  are  pursued  in  the  democratic  countries  of 
iuirop?,  especially  in  our  own.  By  some  ill  chance,  or  mis- 
carriage, democracy  in  our  part  of  the  world  has  egregiously 
failed  m  what  might  reasonably  be  regarded  as  the  main  part 
of  its  mission — that  of  keeping  all  parties,  classes,  groups  and 
individuals  on  good  terms  one  with  another.  This,  I  venture 
to  say,  is  the  final  test  by  which  the  success  o^  de  nocracy  should 
be  judged.  Its  greatest  triumphs  will  not  be  achieved  until 
it  has  permanently  sweetened  the  temper  of  the  community, 
filling  the  air  with  the  spirit  of  good  fellowship,  of  camaraderie, 
like  that  which  now  prevails  in  the  British  Army.  Unless  it 
does  that,  all  its  achievements  in  the  way  of  legislation  will 
not  count  for  very  much  as  factors  in  the  progress  of  mankind. 
And  it  is  just  here  that  British  democracy,  up  to  date,  seems 
to  me  to  have  missed  its  mark.  It  may  well  be  doubted  if 
the  world  ever  contained  a  worse-tempered  household  than 
that  represented  by  the  population  of  these  islands  in  the 
early  summer  of  1914.  Ideally,  we  were  making  ourselves 
ridiculous.  It  is  hardly  too  "much  to  say  that  tlie  main 
part  of  our  political  energies  and  intelhgence — at  least,  so 
much  of  our  intelligence  as  the  vile  temper  of  the  time  had 
not  eclipsed — were  being  spent  in  quarrelling.  A  score  of 
needed  reforms,  which  calm  common  sense  could  easily  have 
jjrovided,  were  held  in  suspense  or  permanently  blocked  by 
the  bad  temper  of  the  parties  concerned.  Our  public  life 
was  all  in  a  rage,  andfif  a  breath  of  sweet  reasonableness  was 
wanted  it  was  only  in  private  life  that  it  could  be  enjoyed, 
and  with  difficulty  even  there. 

The  thing  had  gone  so  far  that  the  two  sexes  were  at 
loggerheads  ;  we  were  actually  threatened  with  a  war  of 
the  sexes  ;  and  the  women  were  especially  nasty.  I  saw  a 
riot  in  which  they  took  part,  and  for  sheer  atrocity  of  temper 
on  both  sides  I  have  never  .seen  a  more  disgusting  nor  a  more 
disquieting  spectacle.     In  spite  of  the  assurances  that  were 


given  us — most  of  them  quite  hollow — that  society  was  making 
progress,  and  that  everything  would  presently  be  mended  by 
Act  of  Parliament,  the  human  part  of  us  was  being  outraged 
every  day,  and  many  of  us  could  not  hel])  the  feeling  that 
hfe  was  becoming  quite  intolerable  -thanks  to  the  abomin- 
able humours  that  were  active  everywhere. 

Democracy,  we  need  to  remember,  has  a  human  side  dis- 
tinct from  that  which  appeals  to  the  constitutional  lawyer, 
the  politician,  or  even  to  the  ardent  promoter  of  social  reform. 
Tiiese  have  their  own  measure  of  progress  ;  they  prove  it  by 
statistics  which  no  doubt  have  their  relevance.  The  human 
side,  though  vastly  more  important  than  the  statistical,  is 
not  so  easily  dealt  with.  There  is  no  yard- stick  by  which  you 
can  measure  the  growing  contentment,  neighbourliness,  mutual 
respect,  friendly  co-operation  and  intelligent  good  humour 
of  a  great  people.  Yet  these  are  the  things  that  really  count 
when  human  welfare  is  in  'question,  and  which  democracy 
must  promote,  along  with  its  other  achievements,  before  it 
can  claim  to  be  on  the  road  to  success.  Statistics  being  here 
unavailable,  I  cm  only  appeal  to  those  who  vividly  remember 
the  state  of  public  life  in  Britain  before  the  war  to  ask  them- 
selves, quite  candidly,  whether  these  qualities  were  increasing 
or  the  reverse.  I  say  they  were  on  the  wane.  The  increase 
was  in  their  contraries. 

Now  it  is  in  respect  to  this,  the  human  side  of  democracy, 
that  the  widest  difference  exists  between  the  American  variety 
and  our  own.  The  American  democracy  is  the  best  tempered 
in  the  world.  I  do  not  say  that  its  temper  is  perfect,  a  state- 
ment that  any  American  who  reads  the  words  would  at  once 
recognise  as  nonsense.  But  on  the  whole  it  is  better  than 
ours  and  better  than  the  French  ;  which  is  as  much  as  to  say 
it  is  good  enough  to  be  an  example  to  the  rest  of  us.  It  is  on 
the.se  lines  that  we  may  expect  it  to  exercise  a  great  influence 
on  the  other  democracies  with  which  it  is  now  so  happily  as- 
sociated in  defending  the  public  liberties  of  mankind. 

In  the  political  Hfe  of  America  there  is  indeed  abundant 
gnashing  of  teeth,  as  everyone  knows  who  is  familiar  with  its 
Press.  But  I  have  yet  to  meet  an  intelhgent  American  who 
takes  the  gnashing  quite  seriously,  or  believes,  as  some  Britons 
believe,  that  the  fate  of  his  country  depends  on  which  side 
can  gnash  the  hardest.  In  nothing  does  the  pohtical  good 
sense  of  the  American  show  itself  so  plainly  as  in  his  capacity 
for  rating  these  things  at  their  proper  worth — I  had  almost 
said,  in  his  readiness  to  laugh  at  them.  He  treats  them  as  a 
side-show,  on  the  whole  an  amusing  side-show,  to  matters  oi 
infinitely  greater  importance.  It  has  been  said  of  the 
Enghsh  that  they  take  their  pleasures  seriously.  It  might 
be  added  that  we  take  our  politics  seriously  too,  which  in 
the  abstract  is  a  good  thing  ;  but  never  do  we  take  them  so 
seriously  as  when  we  have  least  reason  for  taking  them 
seriously  at  all,  that  is,  when  we  are  all  making  ourselves 
ridiculous  under  the  malign  influence  of  bad  temper.  That 
is  not  a  good  thing. 

The  American  takes  neither  his  pleasures  nor  his  politics 
as  seriously  as  we  do.  So  far  as  politics  are  concerned 
this  no  doubt  has  some  disadvantages,  as  every  American 
is  fully  aware  ;  but  inasmuch  as  politics,  of  all  things  in 
the  world,  are  the  most  susceptible  to  the  infection  of  bad 
temper,  and  to  the  absurdities  thence  arising,  the'  balance 
works  out  on  the  side  of  gain.  The  gain  is  that  in  the  daily 
life  of  the  American  paople  common  sense,  kind  feeling,  and 
good  manners  are  real  guarantees  for  the  decent  behaviour 
of  the  average '  citizen.  These  qualities  are  the  true 
police  of  the  country,  and  though  they  are  not  alVvays  to  be 
counted  on,  and  may  sometimes  take  a  ■wrong  turn,  yet  on 
the  whole  they  wotk  eft'ectively  and  good-humouredly,  and 
are  justly  to  be  counted  a  political  force  of  the  first  magnitude. 
The  temper  of  the  American  nation  in  peace  is  not  unlike 
that  of  the  British  army  in  war. 

Many  years  ago  when  I  was  a  student  at  Harvard,  I  had  a 
conversation  about  these  things  vrith  the  late  Edward 
Everett  Hale,  the  famous  author  and  divine  and  Chaplain  to 
the  House  of  Representatives.  In  those  days — it  was  in  the 
late  eighties — I  shared  the  common  opinion  of  the  young  men 
of  the  time  that  the  social  millennium  was  not  far  off.  I 
thought  that  one  or  two  sweeping  Acts  of  Parliament,  if  only 
I  and  my  friends  had  the  framing  of  them,  would  suffice  to 
establish  society  on  a  basis  satisfactory  to  everybody.  These 
views  I  presented  to  Dr.  Hale,  no  doubt  with  a  good  deal  ol 
assurance. 

I  informed  him,  that  in  my  judgment,  the  fiolden 
.-\ge  would  never  dawn  in  America  so  long  as  the  "  best 
])eople  "    of  the  country  kept  aloof  from  politics. 

"  My  dear  young  man,"    he  replied,   "we  want  our  best 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  191 7 


people  for  more  important  things."  ,.    .   ' 

"  But,'*  said  I,  "  there  is  nothing  more  important  than 
pohtics." 

This  remark  seemed  to  amuse  rather  than  to  impress  th? 
venerable  Dr.  Hale,  and,  alter  indicating  his  amusement  in 
-an  appropriate  manner,  he   presently   said,     "  Thank    God. 
we    need  very  little    government    in    this  country." 

"  But  what,"    I  asked,  "  takes  the  place  of  government  "  ? 

"  Good  temper,"   said  he. 

This  conversation,  1  say,  took  place  many  years  ago,  and 
since  then  I  have  been  several  times  in  America  and  convinced 
myself,  by  meditation  on  the  spot,  of  the  essential  truth  of 
the  words  of  Dr.  Hale.  I  have  further  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  is  an  even  closer  connexion  between  the 
facts  than  his  words  conveyed.  It  is  precisely  because  the 
Americans  have  attempted  less  than  ourselves  in  the  way  of 
centralised  government  that  they  have  achieved  more  in  the 
way  of  good  temper.  It  has  not  been  sufficiently  noted 
by"  ptjlitical  philosophers,  that  the  process  of  law-making, 
especially  under  party  go\ernment,  is  not  conducive  to  sweet 
reasonableness,  but  to  sour  unreasonableness  ;  and  is  a  process 
therefore  which  should  always  be  kept  within  the  narrowest 
limits  compatible  with  order  by  any  people  which  values  its 
good  temper  above  the  mere  forms  of  law.  Even  Jeremy 
Bentham,  the  father  of  innumerable  laws,  regarded  all 
legislation  as  an  evil.  Law-making  feeds  bad  temper  in 
three  ways  :  first,  by  the  multitude  of  quarrels  engendered  in 
the  actual  process  of  making  the  law;  secondly,  by  the  re- 
calcitrancy of  the  citizens  who,  in  spite  of  the  assurance  that 
the  law  has  been  made  by  their  own  representatives,  and  there- 
fore ultimately  by  themselves,  often  persist  for  good  reasons 
in  believing  the  contrary,  and  kick ;  thirdly,  by  the  bitter 
disappointments,  and  the  consequent  recriminations,  whicii 
loUow  the  discovery — always  made  after  each  new  piece  of 
legislation — that  it  does  not  produce  half  the  good  the  law 
expected  of  it.  All  which  might  be  abundantly  illustrated, 
if  space  permitted,  by  our  own  political  history  from  the 
time  of  Free  Trade  to  the  passing  of  Mr.  Lloyd  George's 
Insurance  Act. 

These  facts  when  attentively  considered  lead  up  to  the 
moral  that  a  wise  democracy,  one,  that  is,  which  values  good 
temper  as  the  greatest  of  all  political  assets,  will  try  to  manage 
its  common  liie  with  the  minimum  of  legislation,  will,  in  fact, 
endeavour  so  to  educate  the  citizen  as  to  make  good  temper 
do  the  work  of  government,  and  will  resolutely  turn  its 
back  on  the  notion  that  the  maximum  of  legislation  is  the 
democratic  ideal. 

In  this  country  we  have  never  understood  the  American 
democracy,  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  hoped,  indeed  it  is  certain, 
that  from  now  onwards  we  shall  begin  to  understand  it  and 
thereby  learn  something  for  our  own  good — something  too, 
that  will  deeply  influence  the  future  career  of  democracy  all 


over  the  world.  The  American  nation  has  appeared  to  us 
an  undisciplined  nation,  and  some  political  doctrinaires  have 
been  led  by  this  appearance  to  entertain  a  doubt  as  to 
whether  the  Americans  were  a  nation  at  all.  We  have  not 
recognised  that  beneath  the  apparent  want  of  discipline  tJiere 

,  was  an  inner  organization  of  good  temper,  a  thing  which 
cannot  be  reduced  to  any  system,  nor  embodied  in  the  letter 
of  any  constitution  or  statute  of  the  realm,  but  which  none 
the  less  holds  the  secret  of  a  unity  and  a  power  far  beyond 
anything  which  centralized  legislation  has  so  far  accomphshed 
in  the  w-orld  -as  the  Germans  will  presently  discover.  By 
her  isolation,  hitherto,  from  the  entanglements  of  European 
politics.  America  has  gained  a  freedom  to  develop  her  owTi 
interqal  structure  which  no  other  democracy  has  enjoyed. 
The  rest,  our  own  in  particular,  have  been  checked  and  to 
some  extent  diverted  from  our  true  line  of  development  by  the 
menace  of  powerful  neighbouring  autocracies,  which  were  call- 
ihg  the  tune  in  European  politics— as  they  w'ill  continue  to 
do  so  long  as  any  of  them  remain  extant  on  the  eatth.  l<reed 
from  this  menace  the  American  democracy  has  grown  up  on 
human  fines.  Not  clearly  enough  it  is  true,  but  more  clearly 
than  any  other  nation,  the  Americans  have  seen  that  the 
success  of  democracy,  and  the  greatness  of  the  i)eo])le  who 
adopt  it,  is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  number  and  efficiency  of 
the  police,  but  by  the  good  temper  which  renders  the  interven- 
tion of  the  p.ilice  unnecessary.  It  is  the  soundest  form  of 
jioUtical  idealism. 

These  thoughts  I  humbly  commend  to  those  persons, 
now  a  great  multitude,  both  American  and  British, 
who  are  engaged  in  schemes  for  reconstructing  society 
after  the  war.  Among  the  many  sciiemes  of  this  kind, 
some  of  them  very  ambitious,  which  it  has  been  my 
lot  to  examine,  1  have  not  seen  one  which  would  find  the 
world  unanimous  in  its  reception.  But  I  have  seen  many 
which  would  put  the  fat  in  the  fire  with  a  vengeance — 
of  which  perhaps,  the  League  to  enforce  Peace  may  be 
instanced  as  the  chief.  Is  it  too  much  to  plead  with  all 
reconstructors  that  they  shou^d  carefully  consider  the 
danger  ahead  ?  The  danger  is  that  the  effect  of  their 
proposals,  which  are  intended  to  do  good,  may  be  to 
proniote  quarrels,  and  so  make  the  temper  of  mankind 
even  worse  than  it  now  is.  In  that  event  they  will  do  nu 
good  at  all.  For  my  own  part  1  look  with  greater  hope  to 
that  man,- if  any  such  man  there  be,  wJio  can  give  some  hint, 

.  or  speak  some  word,  or  do  some  deed  which  will  put  ci\-iliza- 
tion  in  a  good  temper.  America  perhaps  will  provide  the 
world  with  such  a  man.  He  will  bear  a  resemblance  to 
Abraham  Lincoln.  It  was  a  most  promising  sign  that  in 
President  Wilson's  great  speech  to  Congress  there  was  no 
bad  temper.  How  much  greater  a  thing  it  is  to  go  to  war  in 
a  good  temper  than  to  plead  for  peace  in  a  bad  one  !  At  this 
alone  a  wise  Germany  would  have  trembled. 


r 


/))/  roiirloj/  of  ".NVir  Yorl  Fren'mn  WnrU.' 

••  We'll  hold  those  Berhn  Olympics  ourselves,  by  Heck  " 


Tune'7,  1917 


r.AND    &    WATER 


II 


The  Policy  of  the  War— IV 


By    Hilaire  Belloc 


Victory  or  Defeat 

THE  war  ripens.  It  is  in  the  consciousness  of  all 
Europa  that  its  turning  point  is  at  hand.  The  length 
of  time  already  past,  the  doubts  of  international  finance 
upon  the  fortunes  of  further  loans,  the  pouring  out  of 
lives,  and  the  staleness  of  the  strain,  are  bringing  us  to  the 
]()int  where  the  exhausted  enemy  can,  for  the  first  time  in 
•  the  long  process  of  his  agony,  play  a  strong  political  'card, 
lie  is  piaying  it  with  all  the  energy  remaining  to  him — he  js 
jilaying  it  not  only  in  Russia  and  at  Stockholm,  but  in  public 
statement  through  the  suggestion  and  the  repetition  which 
he   hopes  may  shake  resolution  even  in   France  and  lingland. 

It  is  the  moment,  if  ever  there  was  one,  in  this  great  busi- 
ness, when  opinion  must  make  itself  secure  once  and  for  ever, 
l)()tli  by  memory  and  by  anticipation,  of  what  the  core  of  thiS 
great  conflict  has  been  and  must  continue  to  be. 

We  have  before  us  now,  as  the  summer  of  1917  opeus,  very 
plainly  contrasted,  Victory  or  Defeat.  If  we  refuse  the  first 
in  any  degree,  we  accept  the  second. 

The  will  is  the  same  as  ever,  but  the  intellectual  confusiort 
is  greater.  We  must  reduce  that  confusion  if  wc  are  te  pro*- 
ceetl. 

The    will,     1    say,     is         _______ 

sountl  enougli. 

With  tiie  exception  of 
a  tiny  group  of  men, 
every  individual  in  the 
Allied  Western  nations  is 
])erfectly  clear  in  the 
matter  of  the  will.  Tiic 
enemy  must  suffer  mili- 
tary defeat.  The  Alliance 
must  be  mihtarily  vic- 
torious. For  that  the 
l>lain  man  who  is  the 
i^:p?  of  the  nition  has 
already  sacrificed  very 
much  indeed,  and  for 
that  he  [is  as  ivmW  as 
ever  to  sacillicc  all  the 
rest.  It  is  a  mere  accident 
of     our     time,    with    its 

absurd    exaggeration    of 

intellectual  tccentricities, 

and  its  vile  professional 

politics  that  the  insignificant  number  (they  arc  ihs'ghiiacafit 

ill  character  as  well  as  in    number)    wh<'    fear  or  oislike  or 

are    for    reason   of  parliamentary  intrgje  opposing  the  idea 

of    victory,    sjiould  have    been  lieard  at  all.      Tiie  masi  is 

absolutely  sound.  '  -n' 

Hut  the  moment  it  comes  to  a  delii.ition  of  what  victory 
means  it  is  curious  to  note  what  a  hotchpotch  of  clelinitiohs 
you  receive.  For  one  man  the  definition  involves  a  lot  of 
htrange  abstractions  ending  in  "  ism."  We  are  to  majce 
"  nationalism  destroy  militarism,"  and  so  forth.  For  another 
we  are  to  free  millions  of  Germans  who  are  panting  for  a  thing 
called  Democracy,  and  to  relieve  them  from  their  crUel 
taskmasters  who.  it  seems,  are  called  Junkers.  Many  another 
well-meaning  man  will  tell  you  that  th<:  whole  war  being  due 
to  a  person  called  "  the  Kaisfr,-'  the  object  of  the- war  is^to 
dethrone  that  wicked  man.  Yet  another  will  assure  you  tljat 
this  country  is  fighting  for  no  sfnmd  concrete  object  bot 
merely  from  indignation  a,gainst  evil  at  large.  "*■ 

'Iherc  is  no  real  discic])aney  between  these  various  defini- 
tions, because  they  are  each  of  tliem  but  portions  of  a  general 
spirit  which  all  men  share.'  One  iriafi  may  be- wrofig  about 
the  personal  causes  of  the  war,  another  about  the  constitution 
of  the  enemy's  society,  but  all  are  at  liottom  agreed  that  they 
are  f-ghting  something  which  is  deadly  '  to  the  continued 
haj)piness  and  greatness  of  this  nation. 

To  clear  up  this  sort  of  confusion  and  to  get  our  minds 
steady  upon  the  issue  is  exceedingly  important.  For  if  we 
are  not  clear  upon  it  we  shall  have  no  determined  goal  to  which 
the  whole  national  energy  may  be  set  the  moment  victory  is 
in  s'ght.  •  .      • 

The  enemy  has  such  a  goal,  and  has  always  had  one  :    It 

IS  the  expirision  of  the  German-speaking  tribei  their  preserice 

abroad,  their  acquirement  of  wealth  and  their  power  of  control 

\er  subject;  races  at  the  expense  of  our  ancient  European 


civili.sation  and  particularly  of  this  country.  Failing  to  attain 
this  by  his  first  attack,  in  spite  of  long  secret  and  treacherou!^ 
preparation,  he  is  condemned— for  the  moment,, and  under  the 
hard  pressure  of  necessity — to  self-defence  only,  and  to 
saving  as  much  as  he  can  save  of  his  national  power.  He 
still  believes  his  aim  must  ultimately  prevail  ;  if  not  in  this 
war  then  in  some  future  war.  If  not  by  war  then  by  industry 
and  organisation  during  peace. 

The  enemy,  1  say,  is  m  no  doubt  upon  the  goal  of  his  efforts 
at  all,  and  npver  has  been.  His  Allies,  who  are  also  his 
servants,  may  have  their  divergent  views.  Hut  he,  the  Prus- , 
sianised  German,  is  perfectly  simple  in  his  ends.  If  he  cuts 
down  his  programme  at  all  it  is  simply  because  he  must  for 
the  moment  cut  it  down.  He  in  no  way  abandons  the  spirit 
or  even  the  ultimate  scope  of  that  progiamme.  We  canno,t 
read  a  typical  modern  German  book  or  even  a  typical  modern  . 
newspaper  article  without  seeing  that  this  is  the  case. 

Well,  we  must  meet  that  determine^  act  of    will"  on  tlye'' 
enemy's  part,  based  as  it  is  on  clear  thinking,.hy  an  ,equalU' 
definite  act  of  will  based  on  an  equally  clear  state   of  minj. 
To  arrive  at  it  we  ?hall  do  well  to  isolate  for  the  moment  the 
particular  necessities  of  this  jiatioji. — Great  Britain  and  all 

her    system  —  from     the 

gmeral   necessities  of  the 

••         F-uropean  Alliance  as    u 
whole,,   Let  us    considcj- 
'^at       is,      meant       for 
lingland  .by  Victory   anU-. 
Defeat.   '  _  '  .  ' 

The  word  "  victory," 
as  -  applied  to  the  actio(i 
of  itrmics  in  the  fieki,  • 
signifies  the  putting  uf 
one's  oppiment's  army 
out  of  action.  Whether 
this  be  by  disintegratioji 
or  bv  surrender,  or  by 
exhaustion,  or  even  by 
e.\terminati,on,  ■  that  fs 
wl,iat  victory  in  the  iielil 
means,-  ~\'-ou  disarm  yoiir 
enemy.  And  in  pr*;- 
portion    as    you_  disan^i 

■      .      j_;         tiim  in  that  propbi;tion  is 

your  victory  corriplete.  • 

•  But  victory  in  the  fiefd 

is   only   tlie   preliminary  and  •  the   me^ns    to    full   victory. 

Victory  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word  is   a    political  thing; 

'  it    is    defined  as  tiio  imposition  of    the   will   of   the   victor 

lipon     the   vanipiished.       Victory   is   achieved   wlipii    what 

:  the  victorious  party  desires  politically  is  accomplished.       If 

it  is  only  imperfectly  accomplished  in   the  political  sphere, 

then-,  however  complete  the  mU'tary  victory  wliich  preceded 

it,  the^  real   victory  is  incomplete:  ;  But  if  after  the  success 

of  the  armiestthe  political, A^bj^ct  is  attained,  then  you  have 

.  true  victory.:  .■:.'■,-(-)-;?". 

:lu)r  instance,  Prussia,  fifty  years  ago,  desired  to  put  undcf 

-her  own  guidance  all  who  spoke  the  German  tongue:  To.des- 

.  tnoy  the   power  of   foreigners,  against   suclj   aunifijCation  of 

the  :  (icmians   under   her  .hegemony,   to   hold  alien .  frontier 

•  ])opulatif)ns  ;is,a  safegimrd.agrt'nst  future  enemies, ^ and  ^0 

develop  by  her  own  methods  tiie  asitftte  so  acquired. 

Her  military  victories  were -complete  ;  first  against  other 
Gi'ilTians,  thi'n  agcrinst  .tJir  mixed  powers  of  the  limpire,  then 
against  Uic  French.  Hut  if  (»h.e  had  not,, under  the  inspiration 
of  Bismarck,  proceeded  -tu  .translate  military,  victory  into 
political  achievement,  isiic'iwould I  not  have  l>een  truly  vjc- 
toricHus.  ■  She.  was  ttruly .  vjctoriou^,  with  all  ,thc  enormous 
consequences  tliat.iollowed  uix>n  her  victory,  because  lier 
political  aims  were  well  .defined  yiuj  carried  out.  She  took 
over  just  what  slie.'intefrdcd/  (and  mJ  more)  of  direct  political 
control  nn  North  Germany. ;  She  maxl^^'^ubseryient  to  her, 
though-  in  part'  autonomous,  M4iat  she  knew  she  could  not 
directly  absorb.  She" retained  the  military  power  over,  and 
the  inspiration  , of,  the  ndw  German  Empire.  Slie.  treated 
defeated  Austriaf  ini.just  that  fashion  >vhich  made  it  most  pro- 
hablf  that  the  future. -would  .see  all  the  German-speaking  part 
gradually  turn  into  her  .own, orbit ,  and  the  rest.  Magyar  and 
SlaV^,'  remain  -  sufficiently  -attached  to  the  German-speaking 
part  to  prevent  disruption,  and  to  form  a  secure  alliance. 


Wc  have  the  honour    to  publish    the  following 
messiige  from  H.E.  the  Anwricah   Ambassadors'^ 

TIT'ITH  all  Americans,  I  appreciate 
the  courtesy  of  Land  &  Water  in 
publishing  a  special  American  edition, 
which  is  still  another  evidence  of  the 
British  welcome  of  the  United  States 
"  into  the  war  to  save  the  world. 

.:  WALTE%  H:  "PAGE 


13 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  Kji; 


France,  her  formidable  and  permanent  rival,  she  did  lier  best 
to  destroy,  and  the  only  flaw  in  hei  success  was  licr  inaliitity 
to  achieve  this  altogether.  She  went  very  far  towards  accom- 
plishing it  I  These  things  done  she  proceeded  to  develop 
upon  her  own  lines  the  new  material  power  of  the  German 
peoples  and  their  common  consciousness.  The  success  was 
colossal.  The  whole  thing  from  1864  to  1914  is  a  model  of 
what  victory  means  in  the  full  political  sense  of  the  word. 

Now  let  as  ask  ourselves  what,  under  the  present  circum- 
stances, a  similar  victory  means  for  us. 

Great  Britain  and  her  Dominions  arc  fighting  in  alliance 
with  the  French  and  others  to  defeat  Prussia  and  her  Allies 
.n  the  held.  That  is,  to  disarm  Prussia  and  her  .\llies.  Hut 
with  what  political  object  ?  The  deeper  you  go  into  that 
object,  the  more  successfully  vou  detine  it,  the  nearer  you 
get  to  the  simple  word  "  security."  There  must  be  seciii"ity 
in  the  future  for  the  existence,  for  the  civilisation  of  liurope  to 
live  in  its  own  fashion.  But  especially,  and  in  particular  for 
Britain,  tiiere  must  be  security.  There  must  be  security  for 
the  arrival  of  material  without  which  Britain  cannot  live,  and 
for  the  communications  between  Britain  and  the  Depend- 
encies and  the  Dominions.  Behind  all  this  there  must  be 
security  for  that  ancient  civilisation  of  Furope  by  which  Bri- 
tain, though  patriots  may  be  reluctant  to  admit  it,  lives  as  by 
the  breathing  of  a  common  air. 

We  have  learnt  in  these  last  years  to  appreciate  only  too 
vividly  what  that  spirit  of  Europe  is.  We  have  seen  it  con- 
trasted with  a  spirit  usually  in  rebelHon  with  the  traditions  of 
Europe  and  through  that  contrast  we  have  awakened  to 
the  truth  that  the  tradition  of  European  civilisation  is  the 
very  air  we  breathe.  A  man  would  hardly  know  there  was 
such  a  thing  as  breathable  air  unless  he  were  at  times  in  part 
deprived  of  it.  We,  in  these  last  years,  have  seen  what  it 
means  to  be  deprived  by  the  barbarian  of  the  decencies,  and 
the  sanctities,  which  make  up  the  tradition  of  Hluropc.  We 
used  simply  to  take  it  for  granted  that  the  medical  service 
in  modern  war  was  immune  ;  that  prisoners  would  never  be 
.turned  into  slaves  ;  that  certain  poisons,  though  known  to 
and  available  by  our  high  modern  science,  would  not  be 
allowed  to  tarnish  the  record  of  war  ;  that  our  great  inheri- 
tance of  monuments  from  the  past  was  a  thing  no  one  would 
to-day  dream  of  destroying.  We  even  took  it  for  granted, 
most  of  us,  that  by  something  necessary  to  the  soul  of  Europe 
neutral  soil  was  inviolable,  etc.,  etc.  It  is  only  by  the  German 
negation  of  these  things  one  after  the  other  that  we  have  come 
to  learn  both  their  positive  value  and  the  peril  in  which  they 
stand.  The  German  peoples  who  have  rebelled  against  the 
right  reason  of  Europe  have,  point  by  point,  broken  all  those 
laws  which  we  took  to  be,  as  it  were,  in  the  nature  of  things. 
They  will  break,  before  the  end  coines,  many  more  which  we 
still  think  universally  sacred.  There  is  no  limit  to  their 
l>ower  of  desecration,  for  they  are  base  and  in  full  revolt. 
When  the  baser  thing  breaks  out  and  defies  its  master,  we 
know  what  follows. 

Well,  then,  that  word  security  applied  most  generally  to  the 
security  of  European  tradition,  is  our  main  object.  It  is  that 
•which  must  be  achieved.  But  it  will  not  be  achieved  and 
cannot  be  achieved  unless  the  enemy  is  finally  defeated  in  the 
field.  Let  him  escape  and  he  is  stronger  than  ever.  The 
future  will  be  full  of  his  pride  and  power.  Let  him  be  broken 
thoroughly,  then  and  then  only  is  he  tamed. 

Now,  there  is  for  Great  Britain  in  particular,  a  meaning 
attaching  to  this  word  "  security  "  which  gives  it  a  sjiecial 
value  for  these  islands.  Every  habit  of  the  English  mind, 
every  rule  and  practice  of  the  constitution  at  the  centre,  and 
of  daily  life  at  the  circumference,  presupposes  a  most  ample 
security.  The  tolerant  spirit  that  can  be  so  easily  earned 
to  an  excess,  the  refusal  to  organise,  the  conservation  of 
custom,  all  these  obvious  things,  and  from  them  down  to  the 
very  details  of  art,  clothing,  and  building,  presuppose  this 
security.  The  whole  economic  system  of  the  country  with  its 
vast  development  of  industry  based  upon  imported  material, 
presupposes  this  security.  All  the  pleasant  illusions  pre- 
supposed it,  but  so  did  also  all  the  stronger  virtues  of  the  race. 
It  was  not  a  security  granted  by  climate,  or  any  other  geo- 
graphical circumstance,  or  by  any  accident,  still  less  was  it 
a  gift  from  others.  It  was  a  security  acquired  by  a  certain 
internal  discipline  coupled  with  a  sufieriority  in  the  building 
and  handling  of  ships.  And  both  of  these  have  been  guaran- 
teed by  certain  limits  beyond  which  it  was  believed  that  our 
neighbours  would  never  go  in  the  prosecution  of  attack. 
Certain  savage  and  distant  peoples,  we  knew,  would  transgress 
tiiose  limits,  but  then  they  were  not  possessed  of  the  material 
power  to  destroy  the  security  by  which  wc  hved.  We  all 
took  it  for  granted  that  tlie  man  civilised  in  mind  had  also 
the  monopoly  of  sujierior  instruments.  That  the  sort  of  man 
who  would  sink  hospital  ships  or  burn  a  cathedral  or  enslave 
wuineii  was  liere  in  Eurnpf,  ))ossessed  of  our  common 
Euinptaii  science,  llt:il  we  never  dreamt. 

Huv,',  at  the  present  nioiucut,  in  view  ul  what  has  passed 


and  after  the  revelation  the  enemy  has  made  of  himself,  all 
this  fundamental  condition  is  in  jeopardy  and  at  stake. 
Unless  we  can  reach  as  a  result  of  victory  certain  political 
objects  which  will  re-establish  the  security  of  which  1  speak, 
the  war  has  been  fought  in  vain,  and  we  shall  lie  under  the 
burden  of  heavy  defeat.  The  German  armies  might  have 
withdrawn,  payment  for  wanton  destructicm  might  have  been 
made — and  yet  that  security  would  be  finally  lost  and  we 
should  come  out  of  the  war  a  defeated  country — with  further 
humiliation  before  us. 

How  is  that  goal  of  security  to  be  reached  ?  What  is  the 
method  by  which  true  victory  can  be  reached  and  main- 
tained ? 

To  this  question  the  answer  too  often  given  is  cither  one 
of  mechanical  arrangement — which  may  be  more  properly 
called  paper  arrangement — or  of  sheer  illusion 

.As  an  example  of  mechanical  or  paper  arrangement,  you 
have  the  innumerable  .schemes  for  international  conferences,, 
an  international  Court  and  the  rest  of  it,  which  shall  in  some 
mysterious  fashion  have  power — though  no  man  is  willing  to 
die  for  it,  though  it  has  not  even  an  army  at  its  back.  And 
this  Court  in  some  equally  mysterious  waV,  is  going  to  concern 
itself  specially  with  the"  security  of  (ireat  Britain  and  her 
system,  and  to  prove  indifferent,  or  even  harsh  to  interests 
which  conflict  with  her  owii. 

Such  ideals  in  their  insular  exaggeration  are  absurd.  But 
the  conception  of  general  peace  though  a  sort  of  European 
conscience,  is  not  ignoble  nor  even  fantastic,  always  supposing 
that  there  is  an  opinion  re-established  in  Europe  which  will 
support  it.  The  crux  lies  in  the  re-estabhshment  of  that 
opinion  :  nothing  short  of  defeat  will  enforce  it  on  Germany. 

As  for  illusions  they  also  take  their  place.  Some  seem  to 
think  that  the  mere  possession  of  the  persons  of  the  Prussian 
Hohcnzollern  family  will  in  some  fashion  make  the  enemy  turn 
into  something  other  than  what  he  is  and  what  he  has  proved 
himself  to  be.  Others  have  persuaded  themselves  that  the 
Germans  would  never  have  been  i'ailty  of  these  nameless 
horrors  save  for  the  orders  of  wicked  taskmasters  ;  others 
hark  back  to  some  idea  that  the  German  enthusiasm  for  evil 
is  passing,  and  that  it  will  disappear  as  the  result  of  the 
"  bleeding,"  already  suffered,  even  if  peace  were  made  to-day. 

No  one  of  these  mechanical  arrang  ments  or  of  these  illusions 
can  secure  true  victory.  The  illusions  or  anything  ba.sed  upon 
the  illusipns  would  sirnply  throw  victory  away.  The  mechanical 
arrangements  would  simply  work  in  the  void— if  the  enemy's 
organisation  survives. 

Just  Retribution 

One  thing  only  will  restore  security  and  that  is  a 
\ictory  over  the  armed  forces  of  the  enemv,  his  di-;- 
armament,  and  then  the  exaction  of  just  retribution.  If 
that  is  not  done  from  lack  of  will  and  tenacity,  then  we  have 
voluntarily  lost  in  the  great  debate,  and  we  .shall  no  longer  be 
ourselves  again  for  ever.  If  it  cannot  be  done  from  lack  of 
power,  then  we  have  comptilsorily  lost  the  future  of  luigland. 
If  it  is  done — and  only  if  it  is  done— can  the  security  of 
Britain  with  all  that  it  means,  be  restored. 

Retribution  is  a  part  of  justice  and  still  more  in  the  present 
connection  a  necessary  part  of  folicv.  Those  who  have  de- 
liberately destroyed  must  restore.  Those  who  were  guilty  of 
breaking  the  public  law  of  Europe,  must  suffer  a  penalty.  For 
there  is  nothing  final  that  is  not  rooted  in  the  spirit,  and  if 
yon  do   not   break   the   evil   will   you    do  not  conquer  evil. 

The  Eng  ish  papers  have  not  printed  the  greater  .part  of  the 
evidence  against  the  enemy.  The  reason  they  ha\e  not  done 
so  is,  I  think,  in  the  main,  that  sort  of  reticence  with  regard  to 
things  physically  repulsive  which  is  a  very  maiked  character 
in  the  modern  Enghsh  temperament.  But  if  any  one  will  ask 
those  of  his  friends  who  can  bear  '  vidence  as  to  what  has 
happened  in  the  invaded  countries,  if  any  one  will  ask  such  a 
man  for  his  own  particular  experience,  ";ind  m:my  such  men 
for  their  own  particular  experiences,  I  think  he  will'be  app  ilkd. 
It  is  not  only  a  record  of  cruelty,  it  is  a  record  of  amazing  and 
inhuman  dirt.  It  is  not  only"  a  record  of  amazing  and  in- 
human dirt,  it  is  a  record  ofdiabolic.il  things  in  the  way 
of  calculated  insult  and  oppression.  When  that  spirit  gets 
into  an  individual  or  into  a  communitv.  you  must  extirpate  it. 
You  must  kill  it  or  it  will  kill  its  neighbours,  and  amongst  its 
neighbours  'k  yoilVself.  You  can  only  extir])ate  it  by  breaking 
its  will,  and  you  can  only  break  its  will  by  punishment.  There 
will  be  fno  true  victory  unless  by  its  own  labour  the  German 
comnfunity  which  has  done  these  things  of  its  own  free  will, 
and  even  with  delight,  is  compelled  to  restore  the  material 
part  of  that  which  it  has  destroyed.  There  will  be  no  victory 
unless  a  very  large  number  of  men  personally  and  demon- 
strably guilty  of  the  evil  deeds  are  personally  punished  for 
thrill  ;  and  there  will  be  no  victory  unless  the  instrument 
-  I  mean  the  tierman  army— by  which  these  things  were  done 
with  the  full  consent,  remember,  the   full  aiiproval  and   full 


June  7,  1917 


LXND    &    WATER 


13 


support  of  the  Gennan  people  as  a  whole,  is  broken  up  and 
forbidden  to  re-arise. 

My  readers  will  see  that  I  am  here  arguing  for  a  very  drastic 
policy,  and  1  know  what  can  be  said  against  it,  both  in  the 
moral  sphere  and  in  practical  argument.  1  will  conclude  by 
reviewing  what  I  believe  to  be  the  gist  of  both  those  arguments 

In  the  moral  spliere  I  shall  be  told  that  complete  victory  of 
this  kind  and  full  retribution  is  wrong,  because  it  gives  pain 
to  other  men.  That  is  tlie  first  principle  from  which  all  plead- 
ing in  favour  of  the  Germans  and  of  a  shameful  peace  derives. 
Now,  in  morals  this  is  bad.  It  is  bad  morals  to  say  that  the 
giving  of  pain  to  an  evil  man  in  order  to  destroy  the  evil,  both 
in  himself  and  as  a  menace  to  others,  is  in  itself  an  evil  thing. 
-The  whole  of  human  society  is  ccmducted  and  must  be  con- 
ducted upon  tlie  very  opposite  of  that  principle. 

But  these  pages  do  not  lend  themselves  to  ethical  aigament. 
I  do  not  propose  to  pursue  it.  I  would  propound  something 
which  comes  much  nearer  home  to  most  people  than  intel- 
lectual vagaries  which  always  spare  the  wicked  when  they  are 
stiong,  and  always  forget  the  oppressed  and  the  weak.  1  will 
])ropose  to  those  who  would  spare  Germany  that  they  are 
themselves  personally,  and  all  those  they  love,  in  imminent 
danger. 

In  this  matter  England  is  at  stake,  and  if  you  once 
clearly  perceive  that  there  are  but  two  alternatives  for  her 
future,  true  victory,  or  irremediable  decline,  you  cannot 
<  scape  the  conclusion.  Short  of  some  insane  fanaticism  which 
jM-eftrs  even  the  decline  of  England  to  full  victory  over  the 
(■ermans,  even  the  objector,  must— reluctantly,  perhaps, 
because  he  is  unused  to  vigorous  action — demand  the  full 
results  of  victory.  Nothing  less  is  worth  having.  So  much, 
1  say,  for  the  moral  argument. 

Now  the  practical  reply  with  which  I  also  have  to  deal  is 
this  :  "  It  is  talking  very  big  to  lay  down  the  law.  as  to  what 
sliould  be  done  when  the  armies  have  achieved  victory. 
Wait  first  until  victory  is  achieved  and  discover  its  degree 
before  any  programme  is  attempted.  Moreover,  a  complete 
subjugation  sucii  as  you  suggest  is  impossible,  etc.,  etc." 

To  this  I  reply  that  I  am  concerned  not  with  the  possibility 
of  victory,  but  with  its  nature  and  with  its  alternative — which 
is  defeat. 

If  you  are  convinced  that  a  complete  victory  is  unattain- 
able "(and  I  am  convinced  of  the  e.\act  opposite — believing 
that  tlie  issue  a'Ttually  may  be  near  at  hand,  and  in  any 
case  only  depends  upon  tenacity),  then,  whether  you 
like  it  or  not,  you  are  admitting  defeat.  England 
simply  cannot  live  so  long  as  there  remains,  autono- 
mous, capable  of  action,  full  of  the  memories  of  a  successful 
resistance,  an  organised  and  armed  community  which  has 
l.)roken,  and  will  break  again,  those  conventions  of  public  law — 
])articulaily  in  maritime  warfare — upon  which  the  life  of  this 
countrv  depends.  Say  that  victory  in  the  complete  sense  is 
impossible,  if  you  will — but  then  have  the  intellectual  candour 
to  admit  the  immediate  consequence,  which  is  the  abyss  of 
failure.  .  For  if  victory  is  not  complete  in  this  supreme 
crisis  of  the  world,  there  is  no  victory  at  all,  but  sheer  defeat. 

The  things  that  Germany  has  done,  that  the  whole  German 
nation  has  enthusiastically  done,  in  this  war  will  either  be 
made  impossible  in  the  future  through  the  memory  of  terrible 
ininishment,  or  else  they  will  not.  Either  the  will  and  the 
Very  soul  of  this  evil  will  be  broken  up  or  they  will  remain. 
If  they  remain  all  that  we  have  known  in  the  past  as  England 
cannot  remain  side  by  side  with  them.  The  artery  of  English 
life,  which  is  the  sea,  will  be  cut.  Security,  which  is  the  root 
of  English  character,  will  be  lost  and — perhaps  most  profound 
of  all  in  its  effect — the  years  to  come  will  be  Hved  out  under 
an  increasing  sense  of  failure  and  humiliation. 

There  arose  in  Europe  a  novel  thing  which  said  :  "I  propose 
to  live  my  own  life  in  spite  of  Europe.  I  will  break  treaties, 
I  will  annex  and  despoil — I  will  consume  all  that  feeds  me, 
even  if  my  increase  is  the  death  of  others."  At  its  fullest 
development  it  challenged  what  it  had  long  threatened.  It 
was  opposed  by  a  league  representing  older  and  better  tilings. 
In  this  league  the  two  principals  were  the  ancient  western 
civilisations  of  I'rance  and  England. 

We  know  what  followed.  The  violation  of  Belgium,  the 
sudden  invasion  of  France,  arson,  rape,  murder,  the  de- 
gradation of  the  very  name  of  soldier,  the  defilement  of 
altars  and  of  homes  and  even  of  the  tombs  by  the  filth  of 
these  men.  Then  came  the  miracle  of  the  Marne — and  thence- 
after  a  war  of  siege  behind  the  lines  of  which  the  evil  thing 
besieged  has  committed  one  abomination  .after  another,  so 
that  each  in. its  crude  enormity  makes  us  forget  the  last. 

Now  either  this  evil  place  and  spirit  so  besieged  will  be 
carried  and  the  war  won,  or  it  will  hold  out.  If  it  holds  out— 
that  is  if  peace  is  permitted  it  as  to  an  unreduced  fortress, 
then  those  who  set  out  to  restore;  public  law  and  to  avenge 
Iiurope  are  defeated.  No  verbiage  can  disguise  that  truth, 
and  very  bitter  reality  \vould  undeceive  in  the  W.sue  the  most 
perverted  or  the  most  blind  of  those  who  read  this  war  as 


though  it  were  one  of  the  old  wars  and  could  be  closed  by  com- 
])romise.  It  cannot  be  so  closed.  The  enemy  thing 
unbroken  is  incompatible  with  us.  Either  it  lives  and  we 
die,  or  we  live  and  it  dies.     There  is  no  third  event. 

THE  SITUATION  IN  THE  WEST 

Much  the  most  remarkable  thing  that  has  happened  this 
week  in  connection  with  the  Western  situation,  is  the  declara- 
tion made  by  the  (ierman  Emperor  last  Friday,  that  the  Anglo- 
I'lench  offensive  was  at  an  end,  and  the  simultaneous  declara- 
tions by  the  Emperor  Charles  that  the  Italian  effort  had  broken 
down  against  the  resistance  of  his  troops,  and  by  the  vassal 
ruler  of  Bavaria  that  the  Allies  were  now  finally  exhausted. 
Compared  with  declarations  of  this  kind,  the  comparati\ely 
small  operations  which  have  taken  place  during  the  week  (up 
to  the  moment  of  writing)  in  France  and  Italy  are  negligible. 
It  is  not  credible  that  such  statements  should  lia\'e  been  made 
out  of  mere  wantonness  or  perversity.  They  are  on  the  face 
of  them  false  and  even  silly,  but  it  is  in  the  highest  degree 
improbable  that  their  falsity  was  devoid  of  calculation,  or  that 
their  obvious  fatuity  was  devoid  of  calculation  either. 

The  enemy  knows  perfectly  well,  indeed  it  is  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  situation,  that  the  oft'ensive  power  of  the  Allies 
in  Italy  and  in  France  continues  to  be  what  it  was  and  that  he 
may  expect  at  any  moment  that  resumption  of  extreme 
pressure  which  is  the  normal  termination  of  each  period  of 
preparation  after  each  blow.  Why,  then,  was  such  a  group 
of  statements  issued  at  sucli  a  time  ? 

The  obvious  answers  to  this  question  are  first  :  The  declara- 
tions were  made  at  a  moment  when  the  Stockholm  Conference 
was  the  great  subject  in  everybody's  mind.  The  period  of 
preparation  through  which  we  have  just  passed,  unaccom- 
panied by  any  movement  upon  the  map,  was  just  of  the  sort 
calculated  to  depress  all  uninstructed  opinion  on  our  side 
and  to  ripen  any  false  mood  for  peace.  -Anything  that  .would 
strengthen  such  a  mood,  however  wild  it  might  look  when 
soberly  examined,  was  worth  while. 

The  second  consideration,  equally  obvious,  was  the  neces- 
sity of  supporting  opinion  at  home.  The  exact  degree  of 
civilian  exhaustion,  economic  and  moral,  in  the  enemy  coun- 
tries is  a  matter  of  doubt.  But  that  that  exhaustion  is  very 
severe,  and  that  it  has  entered  an  exceedingly  critical  period 
which  will  last  at  least  until  the  harvest,  is  common  know- 
ledge. 

We  further  possess  an  exact  numerical  test  of  military  ex- 
haustion in  the  case  of  the  German  Empire.  Class  1918,  which 
in  France  is  under  training,  but  still  far  from  being  used  in  the 
fighting  line,  has,  in  the  case  of  the  German  Empire,  been  put 
into  the  fighting  line  long  ago.  There  is  none  of  it  left  in  the 
depots,  unless  we  call  depots  those  drafts  immediately  behind 
the  fighting  line,  and  in  the  zone  of  the  armies  from  which  gaps 
are  locally  replaced.  Class  1919,  which  has  not  yet  been 
touched  in  France,  is  already  for  the  greater  part  to  be  found 
in  the  German  depots  under  training.  Seven-tenths  of  it  was 
called  up  last  month.  The  remaining  three-tenths  are  under 
warning  to  present  themselves  later  in  the  summer.  The 
situation  created  for  the '  German  armies  by  the  Western 
offensive  has  made  these  extreme  measures  necessary.  Tne 
equivalent  of  no  less  than  119  divisions  were  drawn  into  the 
whirlpool  or  mill  of  the  defence  in  Artois  and  in  Champagne 
before  the  first  six  weeks  of  the  fighting  were  over.  The 
.figures  for  the  last  fortnight  are  not  available.  But  in  those 
six  weeks  no  less  than  92  divisions  were  identified,  27  of 
which  after  being  withdrawn  in  a  broken  condition  and 
reorganised,  appeared  for  the  second  time  ;  in  other  words, 
six  weeks  of  the  191 7  offensive  accounted  for  nearly  as  many 
divisions  as  did  the  whole  of  the  Battle  of  the  Somme.  The 
Battle  of  the  Somme — that  is,  the  offensive  of  1916 — 
accounted,  if  we  add  to  the  divisions  identified  the  second 
appearance  of  a  certain  number  and  even  the  third  appearance 
of  a  small  number,  to  the  equivalent  of  133  divisions.  In  less 
than  a  quarter  of  the  same  time  the  oflensive  of  1917  has 
accounted  for  119— almost  exactly  90  per  cent.  It  is  a  pro- 
digious rate  of  loss  and  upon  a  scale  quite  unprecedented 
hitherto  even  in  this  war. 

If  the  divisions  of  the  German  army  at  the  present  moment 
were  of  the  same  average  strength  as  they  were  in  I9i(),  and  if 
the  line  of  battle  were  as  restricted,  these  figures  would  mean 
that  the  rate  of  wastage  this  year  was  more  than  three  times 
as  great  as  the  rate  of  wastage  last  year,  but  that  would  be  a 
very  grave  exaggeration  for  two  reasons.  The  line  of  battle 
is  much  more  extended  than  it  was  on  the  Somme,  and.  we 
know  that  the  German  divisions  are  now  on  the  average 
much  weaker.  They  are  perhaps,  taking  them  all  round, 
not  very  much  more  than  three-quarters  of  what  they  were 
last  year.  The  French,  in  particular,  have  frequently  dis- 
covered in  front  of  them  units  of  which  the  battalions  were  not 
more  than  750  bayonets  strong,  of  whicli  only  boo  could  count 
as  combatants,  and  the  divisions  are  now  normally  of  only  nine 
battalions  instead  of  12.     The  extension  of  the  lineof  battle 


1-4 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


also  meant  that  a  larger  prtiportion  of  German  divisions  were 
present  upon  comparatively  quiet  sectors  at  any  moment,  and 
the  shrinking  of  the  size  of  the  divisions  meant,  of  course,  that 
the  using  up  of  so  many  chvisions  was  not  equivalent  in  men 
to  the  using  up  of  a  simiUir  number  last  year.  Thus  the  rate 
of  wastage,  therefore,  is.  not  three,  nor  anything  like  three 
times  what  it  was  last  year ;  though  it  is  probably  not  double 
what  it  was  last  year,  it  is  still  very  much  higher.  ,  It  is 
certainly  more  than  50  per  cent,  and  ]ierhaps  nearer  75  per 
cent.,  and  it  is  this  enormous  new  rate  of  wastage  which 
conditions  the  whole  military  problem  in  the  West  for  the 
enemy  during  the  summer  of  1917. 

We  all  know  the  uncertain  factor  in  the  business.  It  is 
the  Russian  situation.  1  showed  last  week  what  that  situa- 
tion was  numerically  I  mean  the  situation  of  the  enemy  upon 
till-  Eastern  front  when  he  had  reduced  his  cuitain  of  men  there 
to  a  minimum,  and  I  said.  I  think  rightly,  that  so  long  as  the 
]x>litical  situation  remained  what  it  n(jw  is,  this  minimum 
could  hardl\-  bi^  reduced.  It  is  clear  that  this  great  "  if  " 
dominates  the  whole  thing. 

If  the  enemy  must  remain  at  least  watching  a  still  doubtfvd 
situation  in  the  East,  if  he  is  compelled,  say  throughout  June 
and  July,  to  maintain  a  continuouf^line.  then  his  rate  of  wastage 
which  will  continue  upon  the  West  is  of  the  very  gravest 
character  for  his  fortunes.  Hut  if  in  tiiat  ])eriod  things  change 
so  th;tt  he  can  seriously  reinforce  from  the  East,  it  will  be  a 
very  «Iit?erent  matter. 

Meanwhile,  everyone  at  home  ought  to  understand  clearly 


that  these  apparent  lulls  of  which  that  of  the  last  fortnight  has 
been  the  most  conspicuous,  look  very  different  indeed  at  the- 
front  from  what  they  do  at  home.  The  Allied  bombardment  is 
continuous  ;  the  shells  that  strike  at  once  the  moral  and  the. 
numbers  of  the  enemy  are  delivered  against  him  in  over- 
whelmingly greater  numbers  than  his  against  our  lines.  There 
are  many  now  writing  in  the  Enghsh  Press  who  have  seen  the 
sight  for  themselves-  I  saw  it  last  week — and  it  is  conclusive. 
All  day  and  all  night  this  terrible  shelling  continues,  and  the 
pressure  in  mere  weight  of  metal  is  wholly  against  the  enem\  . 
Hut  more  important  even  than  this  preponderance  in  weight 
of  metal  is  the  accuracy  with  which  it  is  handled,  and  that  we 
owe  to  the  continued,  ami  let  us  hope,  invincible  superiority  in 
the  air  which  has  long  been  attained  by  the  Allies. 

To  take  counter-battery  work  alone,  that  is,  the  work  of 
tlie  gutis  wcupied  in  destroying  or  sih-ncing  the  guns  of  the 
other  side.  It  would  not  be  an  exceptional  day  in  which  twice 
as  many  shells  sought  the  enemy  batteries  from  the  British 
side  as  sought  the  British  batteries  from  the  enemy's  side. 
It  would  not  be  an  exceptional  day  in  which  the  two-fold  eftort 
of  the  British  counted  50  per  cent,  successful  hits,  that  is,  the 
striking  of  the  gun  pits  aimed  at,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  silencing 
of  their  pieces,  as  compared  with  a  25  per  cent,  measure  of 
success  on  the  ])art  of  the  enemy.  And  that  sort  of  superioritj* 
is  cumulative  in  its  effect  and  is  going  im  day  after  day,  though 
there  is  no  appreciable  movement  upon  the  map,  anil  the 
despatches  leave  us  hardly  anything  to  record. 

II.  Bfiloc. 


The  U.S.  Navy  in  the  War 


By    Arthur    Pollen 


THOSE  that  follow  the  German  press  closely  remem- 
bering, as,  of  course,  they  do,  that  nothing  appears 
there,  whether  on  one  side  of  any  particular  con- 
troversy or  the  other,  unless  it  serves  directly  or 
indirectly  the  various  pobcies  of  the  Higher  Command, 
gimerally  learn  more  from  noticing  the  subjects  which 
may  not  be  mentioned  than  from  particular  statements  of 
tact  or  opinion  on  the  subjects  that  may.  For  many  weeks 
now,  in  fact  ever  since  the  last  mention  of  it  by  the  Chan- 
cellor in  the  Reichstag,  German  public  speakers  and  writers 
have  been  almost  entirely  silent  on  the  part  our  new  Ally  is 
to  ]>lay  in  the  war,  with  the  single  exception  of  Harden, 
who  has  been  allowed  to  warn  his  countrymen  that  to  under- 
rate American  power  will  be  as  foolish  a  blunder  as  was  the 
original  behttling  of  Great  Britain.  This  boycotting  of  the 
subject  is  significant.  There  is  manifestly  a  strong  pohtical 
reason  why  the  change  created  by  American  intervention 
should  not  be  too  early  brought  home  to  the  people  of  Ger- 
many. Many  explanations  occur  to  one,  not  the  least  pro- 
bable is  that  the  Central  Powers  are  likely  to  make  an  early 
•liter  of  peace,  that  they  \^s1j  tji^  President  and  Congress  to 
be  on  their  side  when  the  offer  is  made,  and  so  are  wisely 
abstaining  from  discussions  which  might  lead  to  provocative 
and  insulting  language,  and  so  to  a  further  exasperation  of 
American  sympathy.  For  a  similar  reason  no  attack  of  any 
kind  has  yet  been  made  upon  any  American  seaboard  town. 
Whether  or  not  American  shipping  is  being  deliberately 
omitted  from  submarine  attentions  we  can  hardly  judge  ; 
for  we  do  not  know  the  facts,  nor  how  the  policy  of  secrecy 
is  being  applied  to  them.  But  it  is  certainly  significant  that 
we  have  heard  of  so  few  American  ships  and  so  far  no  liner 
being  sunk,  or  even  attacked,  by  submarines. 

It  is  then  a  possibility  of  the  situation  that  the  Germans 
for  the  moment  are  domg  all  they  can,  not,  of  course,  to 
keep  America  out  of  the  war,  but  to  prevent  Americans  from 
being  spurred  on  to  make  greater  efforts  in  it.  Now  what 
is  the  most  natural  deduction  ?  It  is  that  the  enemy  is 
none  too  happy  with  the  possibihties  of  the  situation.  These 
may  develop  in  two  directions.  The  Conscription  Bill  has 
])a.ssed  both  Houses — and  the  machinery  for  raising  the 
hrst  half-milhon  is  being  set  up.  Eong  before  the  snow- 
is  off  the  ground  next  spring,  the  first  American  armies,  of 
100,000  men  each,  will  be  taking  their  place  with  their  arms, 
pfjuipment  and  reserves  complete  ;  and  a  second  half  million 
will  be  getting  ready  to  support  them  before  summer  passes 
into  autumn.  This  is  not  a  prospect  that  can  be  faced  with 
any  equanimity.  If  the  numl^ers  and  tenacity  of  the  older 
Allies  are  not  equal  to  inflicting  a  final  military  defeat  on 
tiermany  before  the  first  of  the  American  armies  take  the 
field  in  ic)i>'.  that  these  armies  can  secure  t.hat  military  defeat 
before  wmter  comes,  must  appear  even  to  the  most  sanguine 
of  Huns  a  mathematical  certainty.  But  this  is  only  one  of 
the  possibilities  of  the  situation. 

The  iikiinate  sliaro  of  the  .American  iia\y  in  the  wnr  ni.nv 


seem  to  be  only  less  obviously  decisive,  because  we  b.ave  got 
used  to  looking  upon  the  preponderance  of  the  British  flett 
in  the  North  Sea  as  a  thing  so  well  established  as  to  need  no 
reinforcement.  This  general  view  of  this  question  is,  how- 
ever, based  on  rather  too  .simple  a  view  of  the  existing  political 
situation.  It  certainly  does  not  take  account  ot  changes 
which  are  far  from  improbable.  For  example,  we  have 
learned  in  the  last  fortnight  certain  facts  about  the  Nor- 
wegian losses  by  submarines,  which  can  hardly  be  added  to 
without  effect  on  the  attitude  of  that  country.  Since  the 
beginning  of  the  war  Norway  has  lost  over  5<jo  ships,  dis- 
placing approximately  750,000  tons.  It  represents  a  diminu- 
tion of  the  mercantile  marine  by  over  a  third,  and  half  ot 
this  loss  has  been  incurred  in  the  first  four  months  of  this 
year.  That  country  has,  in  fact,  been  lo-ing  ships  since  the 
beginning  of  the  ruthless  campaign  at  a  rate  exceeding  50 
per  .cent,  per  annum  of  their  peace-time  tonnage.  There 
may  bi^  ten  thousand  reasons  why  Norway  should  keep  out 
of  the  war.  There  is  here  manifestly  one  reason  why  she 
should  come  in.  And  if  it  is  emphasised  by  further  losses 
the  argument  it  ])resents  may,  be  irresistible.  It  has  con- 
stantly been  pointed  out  in  thest:  columns  that  the  (ierman 
effort  to  cut  our  sea  communications  is  just  as  directly  a 
declaration  of  war  against  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark, 
Holland,  Spain  and  Greece,  as  it  is  an  act  of  war  against 
France,  Great  Britain,  Russia  and  Italy.  Holland  and 
Denmark  are  quite  possibly  so  placed  geographically  as  to 
make  active  resentment  entirely  out  of  tlie  question.  The 
lesson  of  Belgium  has  not  been  lost  upon  them.  Hut  Spain, 
Holland  and  Sweden  stand  in  a  different  relation.  How  d<R'S 
American  belligerency  affect^it  .' 

;  There  is  first  the  moral  and  intellectual  effect  of  a  demo- 
cratic country — with  no  objects  of  its  own  to  gain  and  with 
but  very  moderate  material  interests  to  defend— throwing 
oft  the  oldest  and  most  cherished  of  its  political  traditions 
and  making  the  cause  of  Europe  its  own,  without  ulterior 
purpose  than  the  preservation  of  our  common  standards  of 
right  conduct  between  nations.  In  Sweden,  Norway  and 
Spain  the  institution  of  monarchy  is  of  the  British,  not  of  the 
German  character.  In  all  three  countries  it  is  the  repre- 
sentative assemblies  of  the  nation,  not  the  crowned  sovereign, 
that  rule.  It  is,  therefore,  in  the  voters  and  noi,  cither  in  a 
single  autocrat,  in  the  army  chiefs,  or  in  the  government 
ortices  that  the  source  of  national  power  is  to  be  found.  In 
all  three  countries,  therefore,  the  effect  of  the  American 
example  has  been  profound.  In  Norway,  and  still  more  in 
Sw«len,  the  effect  of  the  Russian  revolution  can  hardly  have 
been  less.  With  Finnish  liberties  restored,  all  fear  of  Russian 
aggression  from  the  north  has  been  removed,  and  the  great 
Scandinavian  Peninsular  can  now  have  no  possible  fear  of 
invasion  by  land.  The  traditional  distrust  of  Russia,  then, 
that  made  Sweden  look  to  Germany  immediately  for  sym- 
l^athy  and  ultimately  for  help,  is  gone  for  ever.  Loyalty  to 
I  hi-;  tt;i(liti,in  Ii;is  in  f  lie  (•■^<,■  uf  Sweden   survived  the  ;i«lniind- 


J 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


ing  series  of  insults  to  her  Sovereignty.  And  no  doubt  the 
action  of  Norway  in  having  to  endure  the  steady  destruction 
of  lier  marine  has  been,  first  a  consciousness  tiiat  Sweden  was 
very  unhkely  to  co-operate,  and  secondly,  a  not  unreasonable 
doubt  that  Great  Britain's  hands  might  in  a  naval  sense  be 
too  full  to  aftord  her  the  help  that  belligerency  would  make 
imperative.  It  is  exactly  at  this  point  that  American  inter- 
\cntion  changes  the  entire  situation. 

A  Possible  North  Sea  Base 

\\'ith  eighteen  battleships,  whose  aggregate  gunpower  is 
vastly  superior  to  that  of  the  whole  German  battle  and 
battle  cruiser  fleet,  the  Americans  are  in  a  position,  should 
Norway  elect  for  belligerency,  to  establish  a  North  Sea  base 
directly  threatening  both  the  Sound,  Heligoland  and  the 
exits  of  the  German  fleet,  which  would  have  a  far  more  pro- 
found effect  on  North  Sea  strategy  than  the  mere  menace  ui 
the  German  battle  fleet  implies.  For  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  one  of  the  main  advantages  that  the  enemy  has  derived 
from  the  neutrality  of  the  Scandinavias,  is.  his  liberty  to  use 
their  territorial  waters,  either  for  running  cargoes  directly 
into  his  own  harbours  or  into  those  of  countries  powerless  to 
resist  his  demand  that  contraband  should  be  shipped  through 
to  him.  With  Norwegian  territorial  waters  no  longer  neutral 
and  with  the  Sound  no  longer  an  open  passage,  the  problem  of 
the  closer  blockade  is  entirely  revolutionised.  Add  to  this 
that  American  belligerency  gives  to  the  Alliance  a  new 
power  of  checking  the  shipping  of  supplies  ultimately  destined 
lor   the  enemy,   and   an  entirely   new  situation   is   created. 

But  there  is  another  cpiestion  to  which  attention  has  been 
directed  here  more  than  once  during  the  last  six  months,  and 
tliat  is  the  possiliility  of  direct  offensive  operations  against 
the  German  bases.  I  am  still  of  opinion  that  such  operatibns 
cannot  be  undertaken  with  any  hope  of  success,  without 
special  preparations  which  may  take  six  months  or  more  to 
complete.  The  character  of  those  preparations,  the  special 
construction  which  they  will  involve,  the  demands  they  will 
make  on  the  shipbuilding,  the  gun-making  and  the  munition 
])iodncing  capacities  of  the  older  and  the  new  belligerents, 
need  not  be  sj)ecirted.  But  it  is  clear  that  here  again  the  whole 
character  of  the  problem  is  changed  by  the  fact  that  the 
American  navy  is  ready  to  take  a  most  active  jjart. 

Finally,  there  is  the  iiuestioa  of  Spain.  We  have  recently 
seen  the  more  progressive  elements  in  that  country  have  been 
protesting,  with  every  circumstance  of' public  sincerity  and 
indignation,  against  the  cruelties  and  humiliation  that 
Germany  has  inflicted  upon  that  proud  and  ancient  kmgdom. 
That  German  influence  with  large  and  influential  classes  in 
Si)ain  has  been  great  was  for  a  long  time  painfully  obvious. 
If  the  Spanish  press  is  to  be  trusted,  it  is  hardly  to  be  doubted 
that  the  enemy's  submarine  campaign,  both  in  the  Bay  of 
Biscay  and  in  the  Mediterranean,  has  largely  been' made 
possible  by  the  help  that  Spanish  sympathisers  have  afforded 
to  the  pirate  crews.  Nothing  has  been  published  about  anv 
representations  on  this  subject  to  the  Spanish  Government 
by  our  Foreign  Office,  but  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  remind 
the  reader,  whether  such  protests  have  been  made  or  not, 
should  it  be  proved— and  again  I  say,  if  the  Spanish  press 
is  to  be  trusted,  the  evidence  is  irresistible— that  such  help 
has  been  given  and  that  the  Government  has  been  negligent 
in  permitting  it,  a  situation  results  in  which  the  Spanish 
Government  is  responsible  for  the  losses  which  submarines 
so  assisted  have  caused.  On  this  point  the  precedent  of  the 
Alabama  claims  is  final. 

Now  if  such  a  state  of  affairs  as  this  has  existed  in  Spain, 
if,  as  we  seem  to  learn,  at  least  one  large  section  of  the  Spanish 
people  is  protesting  and  asking  for  an  entire  change  of  (iovern- 
nient  attitude  towards  (iermany,  we  may  here,  too,  be  drifting 
towards  a  political  development  of  the  utmost  imi)ortance, 
and  it  is  exactly  here  that  once  more  the  influence  of  American 
sea  jxjwer  may  turn  out  to  be  paramount,  for  the  ties  between 
S|?aiu  and  the  Southern  American  States  that  are  Spanish  in 
origin;  though  politically  non-existent,  arc  commercially 
strong.  We  are  already  familiar  with  the  list  of  South 
American  States  who  are  either  at  war  with  Germany  or 
have  broken  off  relations,  or  are  preparing  to  do  so.  Spain 
is  thus  being  bnnight  face  to  face  with  a  unanimity  of  senti- 
ment in  the  new  world,  north  and  south,  which  may  decide 
her  attitude.  Should  she  elect  for  belligerency,  the  ])ossi- 
bilities  for  naval  co-operation  from  a  continuous  string  of 
bases  from  Kirkwall  to  Gibraltar  opens  a  new  field  for  the  sea 
arms  of  all  tlie  Allies. 

That  there  are  objections  and  quite  serious  objections  to  the 
American  fleet  basing  itself  in  the  North  Sea,  instead  of  in 
America,  is  obvious  enough.  There  is  at  once  a  new  demand 
made  upon  ship])ing,  which  would  otherwise  be  devoted  to 
supplies,  and  this  might  mean  a  reduction  which,  at  our 
present  rate  of  loss,  would  perhaps  be  grave.  So  far  from  it 
l)eing  the  least,  it  is  in  all  resuects  the  most  serious  of  the 


results  of  the  submarine  campaign,  that  it  must  have  this 
chrect  effect  in  limiting  the  exercise  of  naval  power  just  as  it 
has  luuloubtedly  limited  militaiy  jiower  by  excluding 
the  possibilities  of  amphibious  operations  in  the  Meditei- 
ranean,  where  a  flank  stroke  at  the  Turkish  communications 
would  clearly  make  the  whole  dilierence  both  to  the  Palestine 
and  to  the  Tigris  operations.  Th.c  extension  of  American 
activities  then  is  not  a  (juestion  that  can  be  answered  sim])ly 
by  ascertaining  whether  or  not  Norway  or  Spain  wish  to  joiii 
the  Allies,  or  whether  the  American  battle  fleet  would  like 
to  take  its  place  in  the  European  field  of  war.  There  is  no 
immediate  answer  possible  to  the  first  ouestion,  though  the 
answer  to  the  second  is  obvious 

The  truth  of  the  matter  seems  to  be  that  we  are  face  to 
face  with  a  strategical  position  in  which  the  enormous  sea 
power  of  the  Allies  is  an  incalculable  potenliul  force,  but  that 
this  application  of  it  in  any  particular  direction  is  beset  witii 
extraordinary  difficulties,  both  technical  and  political.  It  is 
manifestly  a  case  for  deep  study  by  the  best  strategical  brains 
we  can  muster,  and  in  choosing  one  course  or  other — out  of 
the  many  that  offer— the  strategists  will,  themselves  have  to 
be  limited  by  the  technical  feasibility  of  each  plan  l)y  the 
resources  available  for  producing  the  craft  and  devices  - 
many  of  which  must  be  of  new  patterns — for  carrying  any  of 
these  plans  into  effect  ;  and  by  the  economic  resources  which 
a  marauding  enemy  has  left  to  us. 

And  in  this  connection  it  must  again  be  emphasised  that 
the  problem  of  the  submarine  can  never  rightly  be  solved, 
unless  it  is  recognised  from  the  first  that  our  policy  with 
regard  to  it  must  be  based  t^rimarily  on  military  and  only 
ucondarily  on  ecoiuimic  princi])les.  The  intervi<>w  with  the. 
First  Sea  Lord,  to  which  I  alluded  last  week,  makes  a  strong 
point  of  the  distinction  between  the  campaign  directed 
tiiwards  extinguishing  the  menace  of  the  submarine  and  that 
directed  towards  protecting  merchant  shipping.  As  to  the 
first,  said  Sir  John  Jellicoe,  effective  means  are  still  to  seely. 
There  is  here  the  field  for  the  inventor.  As  to  the  second, 
numbers  can  only  bring  security.  It  is  pleasant  to'  find  that 
a  point  insisted  onin  these  columns  so  long  ago  as  July 
i()i5  is  thus  conhrmed  on  the  highest  official  authority. 
It  was  in  an  issue  of  that  month  that  it  was  assumed  that 
tlie  moment  the  submarine  campaign  was  threatened  in 
Decemiier,  that  our  destroyer  programme  was  proportionately 
enlarged  to  meet  it.  And  that  since  the  threat  materiahsetl 
in  February  this  magnified  programme  had  been  "  doubled, 
trebled  and  quadrupled."  It  was  also  pointed  out  that, 
%«th  these  vastly  multiplied  resources  there  should  come  a 
narrowing  of  the  submarine  field  by  the  direction  of  all  traffic 
into  areas  it  would  be  possible  to  patrol,  so  that  in  a  com- 
bination of  guarded  routes  and  protected  convoys  safety 
could  be  sougnt.  I  take  no  credit  for  this  statement,  for  the 
o])inions  were  common  to  everyone  who  knew  the  rudiments 
of  the  situation.  But  the  fact  that  they  should  need  emphasis 
now  from  the  First  Sea  Lord  seems  to  suggest  that  these  arc 
not  the  principles  on  which  his  predeces.sors,  the  Admiralty, 
acted  during  the  last  two  years. 

In  this  matter,  then,  as  in  so  many  others,  we  have  to 
make  a  special  appeal  to  our  nfew  AUics  to  help  us.  They 
have  been  extraordinarily  prompt  in  offering  us  what  aid 
was  available,  and  the  efficiency  of  the  craft  already  over 
here  is  hardly  surpassed  by  the  goodwill  and  energy  "of  the 
ofliccrs  that  command  them.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the 
mere  presence  of  so  vigorous  an  Ally,  accompanied  as  it  has 
been  by  a  return  of  our  submarine  losses  to  the  level  of 
February  and  March,  should  have  put  fresh  heart  into  the 
pubHc.  There  is  no  question  that  public  confidence  is  higher 
to-day  than  it  was,  say,  a  month  ago.  But  there  is  a  grave 
\>zr\\  in  this.  Ministers  and  writers  in  the  press  have  told  us 
vaguely,  that  the  anti-submarine  caminiign  is  more  effective 
than  it  was.  This  may  well  be,  without  tliis  deduction  being 
]>ermissible,  that  the  submarine  is  any  less  threatening  than 
it  was.  The  public  deceives  itself  if  it  supposes  that  any 
variation  in  the  rate  of  loss  can  rightly  be  interpreted  to  show 
a  proved  limit  of  the  submarines'  ])ower.  I  believe  the  idea 
that  we  have  reduced,  or  can  yet  reduce,  the  number  of  sub- 
marines to  negligible  proportions,  is  as  baseless  as  the  theory 
that  only  to  lose  i«  ships  a  week  displacing  over  1,(100  tons 
each,  is  a  state  of  aft'airs  we  can  look  upon  with  complacency. 
If  ]>eopIe  would  but  remember  that  this  takes  no  account  of 
neutral  losses  and  leally  represents  a  level  of  destruction 
considerably  more  than  twice  as  high  as  was  ever  attained  in 
any  of  the  submarine  campaigns  in  the  preceding  two  years, 
they  would  understand  that  there  is  not  yet  here  any  matter 
for  congratulation.  Thus,  whatever  aspect  of  the  naval 
position  we  look  at,  we  are  brought  back  to  the  same  point, 
the  burning  neces.sity  of  a  new  strategy,  offensive— because 
warlike— in  its  purpose,  and  one  that  is  shaped  in  view  of 
the  vast  dilfeitnce  in  our  resources  that  the  American 
AUiance  lias  introduced- 

Arthur  Pollen. 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


Reorganisation  of  the  Admiralty 


Admiral  W.  H.  Henderson,  in  this  carefully  considered 
Idler  to  the  Editor  of  Land  &  Water,  deals  uilh  a  very 
impurtant  aspect  of  Admiralty  reorganisation. 

The  Conditions  of  Success 

Sir,— In  1902.  I  addressed  a  letter  to  tlie  Committee  on 
the  Training,  Promotion  and  Retirement  of  Executive  Officers, 
of  which  Lord  Goschen  was  the  Chairman  ;  in  which  I 
stated  that,  in  addition  to  sound  professional  and  pliysical 
qualifications,  the  three  attributes  required  of  a  Flag  Officer 
were  (i)  Strategical,  U)  Tactical,  (3)  Administrative,  and  I 
suggested  means  of  securing  and  employing  these.  With 
the  advance  of  scientific  knowledge  all  professions  tend  to 
become  more  and  more  a  system  of  specialised  groups,  super- 
imposed on  a  foundation  and  training  which  is  common  to  all 
of  them.  The  Navy  is  no  exception  to  this  rule  ;  its  specialia- 
sations  which,  in  the  middle  of  Irst  century,  numbered  only 
three — navigation,  gunnery  and  the  then  nascent  steam 
engineering — now  number  a  dozen,  all  tending  to  difterentiate 
more  strongly  from  each  other,  as  do  the  specialities  in 
modern  medicine,  law  and  engineering.  But,  whereas  in 
these  and  other  professions,  except  to  a  certain  extent  in  the 
army,  they  remam  specialities  practically  for  the  whole  period 
of  an  individual  career,  in  the  navy  they  arc  conhned  to  the 
junior  ranks  until  they  coalesce  again  on  to  the  common 
loundation — the  main  "function  of  which  is  command  of  a 
ship— when  Captain's  rank  is  reached,  especially  in  tl;e 
junior  employments  of  that  rank,  becoming  reaccentuated  as 
seniority  increases.  As  promotion  to  Captain  terminates 
the  first  part  of  an  officer's  career,  so  does  promotion  to  Flag 
rank  terminate  the  second,  and  then  begins  the  third,  when 
these  attributes  come  into  play.  The  development  of  these 
should  be  carefully  watched  during  service  as  a  Captain,  so 
that,  as  I  stated  in  my  letter  in  Land  &  Watkr  of  the  13th, 
'■  the  right  pegs  may  be  put  into  the  right  holes." 

These  three  qualifications  are  of  an  entirely  different 
psychological  order.  There  are  hardly  any  instances  in 
history  where  all  three  are  found  combined  in  the  same 
individual ;  sometimes  two  are  :  generally  only  one  exists 
in  a  prominent  degree.  The  efficiency  of  a  cohesive  whole, 
such  as  the  Navy,  depends  on  this  factor  of  "  attributes  " 
being  recognised  and  applied.  This  has  not  hitherto  been 
done,  and  it  has  been  assumed  and  acted  upon,  that  because 
an  individual  showed  special  capacities  in  one  of  these  factors, 
therefore  he  must  be  good  at  any  of  the  others,  which  is  against 
both  nature  and  human  experience. 

1  now  come  to  a  consideration  of  these  attributes  and 
their  application.  The  strategical  is  the  rarest,  the  most 
difficult  and  requires  the  greatest  amount  of  time  and  study. 
It  can  only  be  developed  by  means  of  a  Staff  College  and  a 
ir)perly  organised  War  Staft.  When  found,  its  possessor 
should  be  stuck  to  at  all  hazards,  even  if  he  is  deficient  in  the 
other  two.  The  tactical  requires  rapidity  of  decision,  courage, 
determination,  all  the  qualities  of  leadership  in  the.  highest 
degree,  for  i's  task  is  the  application  of  forces  for  their  ultimate 
purposes,  the  principles  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  history, 
though  the  methods  may  vary  with  the  development  of 
weapons.  In  "  The  Transformations  of  War,"  Introduction 
P.  a\'.,  Commandant  J.  Colin,  of  the  French  War  School, 
says  : 

"  It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  that  the  phenomena  of  war 
arc  by  nature  and  by  reason  of  their  material,  intellectual 
ami  nioral  elements,  so  complicated  that  it  is  difficult  to  form 
an  e.Nact  idea  of  them.  They  provoke  endless  discussions  in 
which  it  is  impossible  to  mark  error  down.  History  tdonc 
leads  us  to  solid  conclusions  which  nothing  can  shake  ;  and 
whence  convictions  spring." 

It  is  tlie  combination  of  correct  strategy  with  right  tactics 
that  results  in  the  successful  prosecution  of  war.  The  admini- 
strative is  of  a  different  order  and  is  the  complement  of  tlie 
other  two  ;  its  application  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  routine  as 
so  many  seem  to  imagine,  but  requires  organising  faculties 
and  a  study  of  the  latest  business  methods.  It  was  the 
development  of  these  in  the  United  States,  a  couple  of  decades 
ago.  that  made  us  sit  up  and  is  the  reason  why  most  of  our 
methods  nowadays  are  of  .\merican  origin. 

Officers  reach  high  positions  through  acquaintance  with 
subjects  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  war.  either  in  its 
strategical  or  tactical  aspects.  The  doctrine  of  command  is 
not  studied.  No  text  books  exist  or  have  been  i)reparcd, 
and  no  portion  of  the  .study  of  war  is  included  in  any  ])art 
of  the  training  of  an  officer"  Training  is  an  integral  part  of 
staff  work  ;  it  is  the  soul  without  which,  plans,  shipbuilding, 
gunnery  ct  line  nentis  omuc,  are  mere  words  and  practices. 

The  matcri.ilist  school  lia\e  never  understood  statt  work, 
and  their  failures  aie  deeper  even  iu  their  own  suhere  of 


technique.  Not  only  was  their  failure  to  ascertain  the  best 
use  of  weapons,  but  the  effects  of  long  range  fire,  which  was 
so  much  advertised,  were  not  even  considered  and  defence 
provided  against  it  by  a  redistribution  of  armour  which,  up 
to  the  war,  provided  protection  only  from  short  range  and 
low  angle  fire.  There  was  no  security  against  explosions  in 
magazines  and  there  was  defective  under-water  protection. 

The  foregoing  will  explain  why  the  princijjles  of  naval  war 
are  not  now  clearly  understood  and  it  is  due,  largely,  to  this 
fact  that  we  have  no  organised  and  trained  War  Stalf  for  the 
study  of  war  problems  and  the  application  of  true  principles 
to  them.  Without  such  a  staff  and  without  such  a  doctrine, 
the  Admiralty  is  not  fitted  to  command  in  war.  Hetween 
1900  and  1904  a  great  wave  of  opinion,  really  anxious  for 
reform  on  true  principles,  swept  tlirough  the  Service.  This 
movement  was  crushed  and  diverted  from  its  purpose  by 
those  who  became  the  directing  minds  of  the  Navy  at  that 
date.  The  Service  fell  under  an  autocracy  which  had  all  the 
defects  and  limitations  of  autocracy.  It  hpynotised  a  press 
which  did  not  realise  its  responsibilities,  and  forced  popular 
opinion  to  the  sole  contemplation  of  viewing  naval  ])ower  in 
terms  of  material  only.  Thus,  the  Service  and  the  public  got 
to  think  of  naval  war  in  terms  of  Dreadnoughts,  super- 
Dreadnoughts  and  big  guns  only.  And  this  occurred  at  that 
period  when  the  development  of  the  long  range  toijiedo  and 
the  submarine  should  have  warned  people  that  the  big  ship, 
could  never  again  be  the  sole  unit  o|  naval  power.  It  was  a 
cardinal  mistake  for  that  nation,  to  whom  sea  power  meant 
most,  to  inaugurate  so  great  and  so  reckless  experiments. 
We  should  have  confined  ourselves  to  seeing  that  our  ships 
were  as  good  as  those  produced  by  other  Powers  and  more 
numerous.  In  1904.  this  was  our  position,  and  the 
superiority  we  thus  enjoyed  was  thrown  away. 

The  success  of  any  Admiralty  organisation  wilt  mainly 
depend  upon  the  special  aptitudes  and  suitability  of  officers 
appointed  for  operational  duties.  An  officer  writing  on  this 
subject  before  the  war  said  : 

The  Navy  has  plenty  of  clever  men,  but  cleverness  docs  lu.t 
mean  the  intensive  power  of  thinking  or  creative  thought. 
The  great  defect  in  the  Navy,  a  defect  largely  charactcrisiug 
all  authoritative  systems,  is  the  strangling  cf  tree  th<  uglit 
and  expression  of  opinion  and  so  the  thought  facidtics  bcecnio 
atrophied.  The  mildest  criticism  under  the  word  "  submit" 
comes  back  to  be  reworded. 

The  German  military  mind,  chastcnoii  by  its  Napolccnic 
experience, "was  fertilised  by  Moltke  and  learned  to  put  its 
faith  in  intelligence,  and  Moltke  established  a  precedent  imd 
circles  of  intelligent  men  who  in  their  turn  handed  down  the 
torch,  and  intelligence  bred  and  encouraged  intelligence. 
A  department  has  a  heredity  just  as  much  as  a  liunian  being. 
Mediocrity  breeds  mediocrity  and  the  mediocre  man  surrcuiuls 
himself  with  mediocre  men. 

Now  in  peace  time  the  Navy  placed  a  very  high  premium 
on  a  certain  kind  of  naval  officer — the  great  executive  type 
who  kept  his  ship  clean  and  smart,  got  in  the  coal  ijuickly 
and  made  a  few  more  hits  on  the  taig't  than  his  next  door 
neighbour.  It  is  a  very  valuable  type  in  any  war  service 
but  it  does  not  necessarily  include  any  special  aptitude  for  tne 
operational  side  of  naval  war.  Power  of  creative  thought, 
trained  judgment,  and  reasoned  imagination  enter  into  every 
problem  of  strategy  and  tactics,  and  such  faculties  are  blighted 
and  destroyed  by  a  continual  concentration  on  the  every  day 
round  of  executive,  administrative  and  technical  work. 

In  peace  time  some  of  the  Navy's  finest  intellectual  capital 
was  thrown  on  the  scrap  heap  because  it  did  not  conform  to 
the  accepted  standards.  There  was  confusion  between  the 
meaning  of  discipline  in  executive  work,  which  is  necessary, 
and  conformity  in  thought  and  suggestion  which  is  fatal  to 
all  progress.  It  was  not  understood  that  the  critical  faculty 
is  the  obverse  of  constructive  thought  and  that  if  one  is  sup- 
pressed the  other  ceases  to  exist. 

Are  the  Admiralty  sure  that  such  ideas  have  been  aban- 
doned and  that  officers  arc  being  employed  according  to  tlu:ir 
special  aptitudes,  or  does  like  still  call  to  like  ?  In  his  far;;- 
well  orders  to  the  Manchiirian  army,  Kuropatkin  wrote  : 

Men  of  strong  in<lividuality  are' with  us,  untDrtunately,  often 
l)ass^d  over  intcal  of  receiving  accelerated  promotion. 
l^-!cause  they  rtirc  a  source  of  anxiety  ti)  some  otlicers  in  peace 
tim?,  they  get  suppressed  as  being  headstrong.  The  result 
is  that  they  leave  the  service  :  whilst  others  who  possess 
neither  force  of  character  nor  conviction,  but  who  are  sub- 
servient and  always  ready  to  agree  with  their  superiors,  are 
liromoted. 

After  looking  back  on  the  v;ist  drama  in  which  he  had  played 
so  great  and  melancholy  a  part,   he  jironounced  the    final 
dictum  :     "  There  is  only  one  thing  that  matters  and  that  is 
the  truth.  " 
May  31st,  1917.  W.  H.  Henderson. 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


17 


The  Nelson  Touch 

By    Rear    Admiral    Bradley   A.    Fiske,    U.S.N. 

[  Published  by  pemission  of  the    U.S.   Navy  Department  ] 


Admiral  Fiske,  xe>ho  /s  on  the  staff  of  the  U.S.  Naval  War 
Cnllege,  has  u>un  distinction,  not  only  as  a  naval  officer,  but 
as  an  inventor  and  a  publicist.  His  work  "  jileclricity 
in  Theory  and  Practice,'  published  over  thirty  years  ago, 
is  a  classic.  He  has  invented  range  finders  ;  a  fire-control 
system:  a  nn^thoi  oj  steering  torpedoes  by  Hertzian  waves, 
etc.,  etc.  In  ic)05  he  received  the  gold  medal  oj  the  U.S. 
Xaval  Institute  for  his  e.s.say  on"  A  merican  A'ara/  Policy.' ' 

IF  any  na\-al  officer  should  try  to  explain  to  a  civilian 
the  order  of  battle  that  Nelson  issued  a  few  days  before 
he  met  the  enemy  fleet  near  Cape  Trafalgar,  he  would  be 
puzzled  to  find  any  distinctive  features  of  tactical  bril- 
liancy or  originality  on  which  he  could  dilate.  It  would  be 
difticult  for  him  to  show  any  new  conception,  any  special 
tactical  insight,  or  the  expression  of  any  principle  of  military 
or  naval  attack  that  was  distinctly  novel.  If  it  had  not  been 
for  Rodney's  battle  fought  long  before  in  the  West  Indies. 
Nelson's  proposed  attack  miglit  be  said  to  hold  an  element  of 
originality  ;  but  since  Rodney's  attack  and  the  victory  result- 
in,g  were  already  known  to  everybody,  and  since  the  general 
principle  of  attacking  a  portion  of  an  enemy's  force  when 
separated  from  another  portion  was  as  old  as  military  history, 
he  would  find  it  a  difficult  task  to  impress  a  layman  with  the 
idea  that  Nelson's  order  was  a  flight  of  genius,  and  he  would  be 
considerably  embarra.ssed  if  he  tried  to  point  out  just  how  the 
order  gave  evidence  of  having  received  as  its  crowning  finish 
The  Nelson  Touch." 

Apart  from  the  matter  of  originality,  or  brilliancy  of 
conception,  Nelson's  now  famous  order  showed  a  bold  in- 
tention, an  intention  distinctly  Nelsonian.  But  boldness 
of  intention  was  not  a  thing  exclusively  Nelsonian  ;  for  bold- 
ness of  intention  and  boldness  of  execution  had  always 
been  the  distinguishing  qualities  of  the  British  seamen, 
and  v.cre  as  old  as  the  British  navy.  Yet  the  words,"  the 
Nelson  Touch  "  do  convey  an  idea,  or  at  least  a  suggestion, 
vague  though  the  idea  or  the  suggestion  seems  to  be. 
'l"he  phrase  conveys  some  such  feeling  as  is  conveyed 
by  the  word  "  touch,"  in  speaking  of  any  act  performed 
witii  consummate  skill  ;  we  speak  for  instance  of  the 
touch  of  Paderewski,  or  of  any  great  artist  of  anv  kind  ; 
we  speak  even  of  the  touch  of  a  gentle  nurse  upon  the  forehead 
of  a  patient,  and  we  know  from  Shakespeare  that  "  one 
touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin."  What  is  the 
vague  and  yet  positive  impression  the  word  gives  to  us  in 
the  well-known  phrase,  the  Nelson  Touch  ? 

Clearly  Jt  must  be  something  distinctive  of  the  person  who 
gave  the  touch,  or  at  least  of  the  skill  with  which  he  gave  it. 
It  must  be  something  characteristic  of  the  man  or  of  his  art. 
If  it  is  charactcris;ic  of  either,  it  is  characteristic  of  both  ; 
for  the  art  of  the  artist  is  his  most  salient  characteristic,  and 
Nelson  was  the  greatest  naval  artist  that  ever  lived  ;  the  man 
who  practised  the  naval  art  with  more  skill  than  any  other  man 
who  had  lived  before  him,  who  lived  at  the  time,  or  who  has  ' 
lived  since.  Looked  at  from  this  point  of  view,  the  Nelson 
touch  was  the  touch  of  the  great  artist ;  the  touch  so  perfect, 
so  delicate,  and  yet  so  strong,  that  nobodv  else  has  ever  been 
able  to  even  approximate  it. .  Why  could  Nelson  give  that 
touch  ? 

The  easiest  way  to  answer  would  be  to  say  that  Nelson  was 
a  genius.  Doubtless  he  was  a  genius  ;  but  when  we  say  he  was 
a  genius,  we  merely  use  a  word  that  is  vague  in  its  meaning, 
and  that  is  always  employed  to  explain  why  a  certain  man 
can  do  a  certain  thing  that  other  men  cannot  do.  Such  an 
explanation,  while  convenient,  does  not  explain  at  all,  and 
rather  clouds  the  subject  than  clears  it  up,  because  it  distracts 
the  attention  by  the  question  that  must  subconsciously  arise, 
"  What  is  genius  ?"  Such  an  explanation,  furthermore, 
by  ascribing  the  cause  of  a  man's  achievements  wholly  to  the 
Almighty,  who  alone  can  inspire  a  man  with  genius,  diverts 
us  from  such  an  analysis  of  his  character  as  might  assist 
other  meii  to  see  how  a  great  man  did  great  things,  and 
possibly  help  them  to  do  great  things  themselves. 

(iranting,  however,  that  Nelson  was  a  genius,  but  realising 
that  he  was  a  man  besides,  and  not  only  a  man,  but  a  man 
with  certain  faults,  perhaps  a  little  reflection  will  make  it 
clear  that  the  Nelson  touch  did  not  depend  upon  genius  so 
much  as  upon  a  certain  combination  of  qualities  ;  and  that 
these  qualities  were  not  rare,  though  the  combination  of  them 
in  one  man  unquestionably  was. 

In  tliinking  (if  Nelson,  the  quality  that  first  impresses  one 
IS,  of  course,  his  courage.  As  courage  is  ordinarily  divided 
into  two  kinds,  physical  and  moral,  we  may  say  that  the  kind 


of  courage  in  Nelson  which  has  most  impressed  the  crowd 
was  his  physical  courage.  This  is  not  strange,  for  the  crowd 
loves  physical  courage  ;  and  the  pages  of  history  can  be 
searched  without  success  for  the  name  of  any  man  who 
cisplayed  physical  courage  more  brilliantly,  more  frequently, 
or  more  consistently  than  Nelson.  Yet  if  there  was  any 
quality  in  which  Nelson  was  not  pre-eminent  among  the  men 
'  of  the  British  navy,  it  was  in  physical  courage  ;  for  the  history 
of  the  British  navy  is  a  continuous  record  of  deeds  of  physical 
courage  that  cannot  be  surpassed,  and  the  jirevalence  of 
physical  courage  was  at  its  greatest  height  during  the  time 
when  Nelson  lived. 

Moral  Courage 

But  in  the  matter  of  moral  courage.  Nelson  was  pre-eminent. 
Although  the  words  "  moral  courage  "  are  often  incorrectly 
used,  and  although  physical  courage  must  be  a  moral  quality, 
yet  there  is  a  meaning  generally  accepted,  according  to  which 
the  phrase,  "  physical  courage  "  means  courage  to  dare  a 
danger  to  the  physical  body,  and  "moral  courage?  "  means 
courage  to  dare  a  danger  to  the  reputation  or  tlic  material 
interests.  Accepting  these  meanings  we  may  say  that  in  the 
matter  of  moral  courage,  we  see  Nelson  standing  out  clear 
and  sharp  against  the  background  of  the  others.  Nelson's 
moral  courage,  as  shown  in  his  willingness  to  assume 
re.sponsibility,  led  him  sometimes  to  positive  disobedience 
of  orders  ;  in  some  cases  the  disobedience  was  justified 
and  even  laudable,  while  in  other  cases  it  was  not 
justified,  but  distinctly  reprehensible.  In  the  former 
cases.  Nelson  was  guided  by  patriotic  considerations  only  ; 
in  the  latter  he  was  swayed  unduly  by  vanity  ami 
personal  affection  ;  and  his  greatest  admirers  must  admit 
that  vanity  and  personal  affection  occasionally  led  him  astray, 
and  sometimes  seriously  so.  The  fact  that  this  is  true, 
however,  does  not  in  the  least  contravene  the  statement  that 
Nelson  possessed  moral  courage  in  a  superb  degree. 

Of  the  two  kinds  of  courage  which  Nelson  possessed  in  so 
great  measure,  it  is  impossible  to  say  which  was  the  more 
vitally  necessary  to  his  success,  since  they  constituted  two 
links  of  the  chain  by  which  he  gained  it.  It  is  perfectly  safe 
to  say,  however,  that  it  was  his  moral  courage  which  influenced 
most  powerfully  those  actions  of  Nelson  which  were  great. 
His  physical  and  his  moral  courage  had  somewhat  the  same 
relation  to  each  other  and  to  him,  as  had  his  physical  body 
and  his  mind.  Without  his  physical  body  and  without  his 
mind.  Nelson  could  not  have  been  Nelson ;  and  equally 
without  his  physical  courage  and  his  moral  courage  Nelson 
could  not  have  been  Nelson. 

In  the  ordinary  affairs  of  an  ordinary  man,,  moral  courage 
has  its  field  of  usefulness  in  relation,  mainly,  to  the  personal 
concerns  of  his  private  life  ;  but  when  a  man  occupies  a  high 
public  station,  especially  in  military  life,  in  which  decisions 
involving  momentous  risks  ha\e  to  be  taken  without  time 
for  reflection,  or  the  opportunity  of  securing  advice  from 
others,  then  moral  courage  influences  international  events, 
and  takes  on  an  importance  which  the  imagination  of  most 
men  fails  to  grasp.  It  is  this  quality  of  moral  courage,  more 
than  any  other,  that  stamps  the  great  and  successful  leader. 
No  great  leader  has  ever  appeared  who  did  not  have  it  ; 
no  great  leader  could  exist  who  did  not  have  it.  No  matter 
how  brilliant  the  conceptions  of  the  mind  may  be,  no  matter 
how  powerful  the  combinations  it  may  form,  no  matter  what 
situations  of  advantage  it  may  create,  nothing  can  be  ac- 
complished in  military  or  naval  life,  if  there  be  not  moral 
courage  to  risk  the  adventure  which  the  mind  prescribes : 

He  either  dreads  his  fate  too  much  or  his  desert  is  small. 
Who  fears  to  put  it  to  the  touch  to  win  or  lose  it  all. 

In  Nelson  there  was  never  any  such  fear.  Whatever  his 
judgment  said  should  be  done,  and  whatever  he  had  the  power 
to  do.  Nelson  did  ;  and  like  his  great  antagonist.  Napoleon, 
he  did  it  instantly,  before  other  people  realised  that  anything 
was  to  be  done  at  all.  Like  Napoleon,  his  mind  operated 
with  extraordinary  quickness,  and  brought  him  to  decisions 
towards  which  he  himself  possibly  did  not  see  the  intervening 
steps.  But  the  process  of  reasoning  up  to  his  decision  was  no 
more  rapid  than  was  the  action  of  the  mechanism  of  the  will, 
whereby  was  started  the  plan  decided  on.  Both  Napoleon 
and  Nelson  realised  the  deadly  effect  of  mere  delay,  and  threw 
into  their  mental  processes  and  their  physical  and  spiritual 
activities  all  the  propelling  force  of  an  ardent,  impatient 
temperament. 

Yet  Nelson,  like  Napoleon,  was  cautious  in  the  extreme. 


iS 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1 917 


Nobody  ever  weigliod  with  more  painstaking  exactness  all 
the  factors  in  an  important  problem,  or  gauged  more  carefully 
their  relation  to  each  other.  It  is  impossible  for  ordinary 
minds  to  comprehend,  even  dimly,  activities  like  theirs, 
unless  we  can  find  analogies  in  the  commonplace  acts  of  life, 
which,  by  bringing  the  pictures  into  a  compass  small  enougli 
to  let  \is  see  them  wholly,  enables  us  to  form  mental  conceptions 
which  are  reasonably  dear,  and  which  in  the  main  are  true. 
Such  an  analogy  we  see  suggested  in  the  performance  of 
ihf  trained  shar])-shooter,  who  instantly  makes  u,»  his  mind 
when  to  ])ress  the  trigger  as  his  sights  come  into  line  agi'inst 
the  background  of  a  target,  but  who  cannot  be  induced  to 
l)ress  his  trigger,  until  those  sights  do  come  exactly  into  line. 
And  just  as  much  moral  courage  was  required  in  Nelson  not  to 
do  things  when  he  was  not  ready,  as  to  do  things  instantly 
when  he  was  ready.  In  fact,  in  his  special  case,  even  more 
moral  courage  was  required  ;  because  it  had  to  overcome  the 
influence  of  his  kindly  nature  which  besought  him  continually 
to  do  as  others  wished,  and  because  it  had  to  combat  the 
natural  impatience  of  his  temperament,  aggravated  by  pain 
and  weakness,  which  constantly  tempted  him  to  do  anytliing 
whatever,  so  as  to  relic  v.'  the  nervous  tension  brought  <)n  ^^\■ 
Continually   waiting  in   circumstances  of   excitement. 

Next  to  Nelson's  courage,  both  ))hysical  and  moral,  the 
thing  that  strikes  a  man  who  thinks  of  Nelson  is  his  line 
mcntalil\'.  The  ])roof  of  its  existence  is  shown  not  so  nnicli 
in  his  corresijondence,  or  in  his  written  orders,  as  in  the  fact 
that  in  professional  mattirs,  he  nearly  always  "  gue^d  right." 

Nelsons  e<lucation  had  not  grounded  him  in  the  jirinciples 
of  any  art,  except  the  seaman's  art  ;  so  that  the  grasp  he 
ultimately  attained  of  strategy  and  policy  was  self -acquired, 
tind  gotten  not  so  much  by  study,  or  even  by  observation,  as 
by  incessantly  thinking  about  them  and  talking  about  them 
with  his  friends.  Now,  it  was  this  continual  and  almost 
continous  thinking  about  matters  of  naval  tactics  and  naval 
strategy-  that  gave  Nelscm  a  skill  in  his  art- comparable  to  that 
of  Faderewski  in  his  art.  or  of  Hyron  in  his  art,  or  of  Napoleon 
in  his  art.  To  say  that  these  men  are,  or  were,  "  genmses," 
is  simply  to  evade  the  (juestion  ;  but  to  say  that  these  men, 
and  eviry  oth«r  man  who  has  ever  attained  great  .skill  in  any  art, 
were  perpetually  working  at  it  in  their  minds,  is  to  state  the 
simple  truth,  an<l  to  bring  us  nearer  to  an  understanding  of 
how  they  gained  their  skill 

A  great  deal  that  is  written  about  the  "intuition"  of 
Nelson.  Napoleon  and  others  is,  to  the  mind  of  the  writer, 
merely  a  series  of  illustrations  of  how  mental  processes,  with 
accompanying  decisions,  can  be  exercised  so  frequently  as  to 
become  almost  automatic.  In  the  life  of  every  person,  such 
automatic  actions  are  of  continual  occurrence,  especially  to 
every  person  who  exercises  any  art  whatever.  V\'e  cannot 
even  think  of  a  person  exercising  an  art  except  as  exercising 
it  somewhat  automatically.  Can  anyone  imagine  a  singer  on 
the  stage,  or  artist  at  his  easel,  or  a  typist  at  a  writing  machine, 
who  has  to  go  through  a  laborious  mental  process  preliminary 
to  each  act  ?  In  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  we,  become  so 
accustomed  to  these  manifestations  of  automatism,  that  we 
seldom  even  remark  them  ;  but  occasionally  some  event, 
beyond  the  limit  of  the  ordinary,  leads  us  to  say  that  a  certain 
person  showed  great  "  presence  of  mind,"  great  "  intuition," 
etc.  If  we  examine  any  case,  however,  we  are  fairly  sure  to 
fmd  that  the  person  snowing  the  presence  of  mind,  or  the 
intuition,  had  so  often  been  confronted  with  situations  like 
the  one  so  skilfully  met.  that  he  was  mentally  prepared.  The 
fact  that  the  observer  noted  it  with  surprise  was  because  the 
observer  was  not  mentally  prepared.  At  the  battle  of 
Trafalgar,  Nelson's  actual  advance  to  the  attack  was  not 
exactly  according  to  the  lines  he  had  originally  laid  down,  but 
Ins  mind  was  so  thoroughly  trained  by  continuous  thinking 
about  tactical  situations,  that  he  was  no  more  unprepared  to 
act  when  a  slightly  novel  situation  presented  itself,  than  a 
trained  political  speaker  is  when  suddenly  interrupted  with  a 
question.  In  Nelson's  case,  as  in  the  case  of  all  great  artists, 
a  simple  explanation  of  his  skill,  as  shown  in  great  emergencies, 
is  sitnply  the  possession  of  a  mind  naturally  acute,  which  he 
had  continuously  exercised  upon  a  given  kind  of  problem.  An 
explanation  like  this,  seemingly  so  commonplace,  surely  does 
not  detract  in  the  least  from  the  glory  of  the  success  attained  ; 
and  it  encourages  us  all,  by  showing  a  little  beam  of  light  that 
may  guide  us  towards  achieving  a  little  moderate  success 
ourselves. 

The  next  salient  characteristic  of  Nelson  .seems  to  be  his 
sense  of  duty.  Perhaps  this  was  really  his  most  salient 
characteristic  ;  but  if  it  were,  it  is  not  the  one  that  impresses 
the  ordinary  mind  most  clearly.  The  sen.se  of  duty  in  Nelson 
was  the  guiding  influence  of  his  life.  It  directed  all  the 
energies  of  his  being  ;  and  to  it  his  physical  and  mental 
powers  were  merely  accessory  and  subservient.  The  fact  that 
Nelson  was  a  son  of  a  clergyman,  and  therefore  brought  up 
in  childhood  under  the  influences  of  religi«)n,  was  undoubtedly 
one  reason  for  the  strong  sense  of  tlut\'  which  he  held  ;  and  the 


fact  that  he  entered  so  early  into  the  naval  service  is  another 
factor.  But  these  two  factors  were  only  minor  factors: 
the  main  factor  was  the  heart  of  Nelson.  A  keen  sense  of 
duty  was  naturally  leagued  in  Nelson  with  a  keen  sense  of 
justice  ;  and  the  two  together  combined  to  lead  him  along 
an  official  path  of  extraordinary  rectitude,  though  they  were 
not  sufficient  in  his  personal  life  to  overcome  the  onslaught  of 
a  mastering  i)assion.  That  Nelson  should  have  been  so  moral 
])i<)fessionally,  and  so  immoral  personally,  struck  some  ])et)])le 
with  sui])rise,  and  yet  the  ex])lanation  seems  not  diliicult. 
During  all  his  early  life,  and  until  he  met  I.ady  Hamilton, 
.Nelson's personal  lifi-had  received  only  a  small  share  of  Nelson's 
personal  care.  Nelson  was  an  officer  first,  and  an  individual 
afterwards.  For  all  the  emergencies  of  liis  professional  and 
official  life,  he  was  prepared  to  a  degree  not  surpassed  by 
man  in  history  ;  but  under  the  assault  of  a  beautiful  and 
unscrupulous  woman,  he  went  down  at  the  first  salvo.  After 
that,  the  very  ardour  of  his  temperament,  the  very  generosity 
of  his  nature,  and  the  very  forcefulness  of  his  character, 
combined  to  continue  him  under  the  influence  of  a  passion 
which,  it  seems,  he  never  attempted  to  nsist. 

Insistence  upon  Rights 

The  record  of  Nelson,  especially  during  his  latter  years, 
shows  an  insistence  that  personal  honors  should  be  accorded 
him  which  is  sometimes  almost  offensive.  That  Nelson  was 
insistent  upon  his  rights  cannot  be  denied  ;  but  neither  can 
it  be  denied  that  he  was  insistent  upon  the  rights  of  others. 
The  very  justice  of  his  nature,  the  very  strictness  with  which 
he  followed  the  path  of  duty,  made  him  insistent  that  others 
should  follow  it  as  well  ;  while  the  moral  courage  of  which 
we  fiave  just  spoken,  led  him  to  disregard  criticism  which 
might  come  from  his  insistence.  That  he  should  exaggerate 
unduly  his  own  deserts  and  the  deserts  of  those  associated 
with  him  was  to  be  expected,  and  is  certainly  to  be  pardoned, 
because  his  complaints  were  always  frank,  because  he  never 
made  attempts  to  use  improper  influences,  because  he  never 
tried  to  distort  facts,  and  because  he  hijnself  was  not  only 
ju.st  to  others,  but  even  lavish  of  praise,  and  rarely  otherwise 
than  magnanimous.  His  generous  treatment  of  Admiral 
Sir  John  Calder,  whom  certainly  he  hail  no  rea.son  to  like, 
went  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  magnanimity,  to  a  limit  that 
Nelson  himself  knew  to  be  militarily  unwise. 

The  characteristic  of  Nelson  which  the  world  at  large  seems 
to  appreciate  the  least,  but  without  which  Nelson  would  not 
hii\-€  been  Nelson,  and  Nelson's  successes  would  not  have 
been  attained,  was  Nelson's  personal  unselfishness.  Insis- 
tent as  he  was  that  all  honours  and  rewards  should  be  accorded 
which  he  thought  to  be  his  due,  that  insistence  was  not  for 
the  benefit  of  Nelson  the  man,  but  for  the  proper  recognition 
of  Nelson  the  admiral.  No  man  ever  risked  human  lives  more 
daringly  than  Admiral  Nelson  ;  no  man  was  ever  kinder  or 
gentler  in  daily  life  than  Horatio  Nelson.  He  risked  others' 
lives  as  he  risked  his  own  ;  and  he  credited  every  man  under 
his  command  with  the  same  willingness  tcr  sacrifice  his  life,  if 
need  be,  as  he.  Nelson,  felt  willing  to  sacrifice  his  life.  Per- 
sonally unselfish  to  an  extreme  extent ;  loyal  to  the  flag  he 
fought  for  ;  eager  with  all  the  passion  of  his  soul,  not  for 
wealth,  not  for  material  possessions  of  any  kind,  but  for 
glory  and  even  more,  for  honour  ;  possessing  the  facultj'  for 
friendship  in  a  rare  degree  ;  affectionately  devoted  to  the 
officers  and  men  with  whom  he  served ;  morally  and  physically 
brave  ;  apprehending  with  trained  skill  all  tactical  and  strat- 
egical situations  as  they  arose  ;  physically  weak  at  all  periods 
of  his  life,  and  during  the  latter  years  hampered  with  a  blind 
eye  and  a  painful  amputated  arm,  he  so  idealized  the  people 
about  him,  and  so  invested  them  in  his  imagination  with  his 
own  rare  and  beautiful  traits,  that  they  seemed  to  him  almost 
a  part  of  himself,  in  such  a  kindly  way  did  he  regard  them, 
and  so  wholly  did  he  trust  them.  "  The  effect  of  this  spirit  in 
him  was  to  impart  in  a  measure  the  same  spirit  to  gU  ;  so  that 
e\ery  man,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  had  but  one 
enemy,  and  that  was  the  enemy  of  his  country.  Every  man 
knew  that  so  long  as  he  did  his  duty  as  well  as  he  knew  how, 
no  matter  what  mistakes  he  might  make,  or  how  weak  he 
might  be.  Nelson  would  be  his  friend. 

Thus  it  happened  tli.it  the  officers  ;ind  men  of  Nelson's  fleet 
Were,  as  he  saiil.  a  band  of  brothers  ;  that  all  were  mu'led  in 
the  common  cause,  with  a  conmion  will  ;ind  a  common  spirit. 
Thus  it  happened  that  their  leader  was  to  them  an  inspira- 
tion actually  sublime  ;  that  Nelson's  devotion  and  Nelson's 
unselfishness  and  Nelson's  heroism  entered  into  every  man. 
Thus  it  happened  that  these  qualities  seemed  to  enter  into  even 
Nelson's  ships,  and  that  they  advanced  with  conscious  valour 
against  the  foe.  and  received  with  conscious  fortitude  the 
wounds  their  shot  inflicted.  Thus  it  happened  that  officers 
and  men  and  ships  were  vivified  with  the  spirit  of  all  that  is 
fine  in  war,  and  that  naught  was  needed  on  Trafalgar  Day, 
but  the  final  Nelson  Touch. 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


The  Genius  of  Raemaekers 


By  Theodore  Roosevelt 


This  fine  appreciation  oj  the  genius  of  Raemaekers  icas 
specially  written  for  the  Century  Edition  of  Raemaekers' 
Cartoons,  published  in  New  Yorli,  by  the  distinguished 
ex-President  of  the  United  States.  It  appears  in  Europe 
,  for  the  first  tims  to-day.  Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  the  course  cf 
it,  defines  the  attitude  which  he  has  consistently  maintained 
towards  the  war  since  the  invasion  of  Belgium.  He  has 
seen  clearly  from  the  first  that  the  defeat  of  Germany  is 
essential  if  righteousness  is  to  prosper  among  the  nations. 

Sagamore  Hill,   April  i6th,  191 7. 

THE  cartoons  of  Louis  Raemaekers  constitute  the 
most  jjowerful  of  the  honourable  contributions  made 
bv  neutrals  to 
the  cause  of 
civilisation  in  the  World 
War.  Of  course  it  is  the 
combatants  themselves 
who  have  furnished,  for 
good  or  evil,  the  heroes 
who,  in  history,  will  stand 
out  lor  evermore  as 
towering  figures  of  light 
or  gloom  against  the  lurid 
background  of  the  war. 
The  weak  neutral  nations 
lacked  the  power  to  do 
aught,  and  are  free  from 
blame.  The  one  neutral 
sufficiently  powerful  to 
have  played  a  great  ])art 
-  the  United  States — long 
failed  to  play  that  part  ; 
but,  thank  Heaven,  before 
it  was  too  late  for  our 
nation  to  save  its  soul, 
we  awoke  to  our  duty 
and  entered  the  war.  In 
these  neutral  countries 
certain  prominent  persons 
did  mean  things,  either 
through  timidity  or  be- 
cause of  greed  and  gain. 
Among  those  who,  on 
the  contrary,  acted  man- 
lully,  Louis  Raemaekers 
stands  foremost  m  the 
influence  he  has  exerted. 
Peculiar  credit  attaches 
to  him,  and,  in  con- 
sequence, to  his  country, 
Holland  ;  for  Holland  lay 
under  the  very  shadow  of 
Germany,  and  therefore 
for  a  Hollander  to  beai 
testimony  against  the 
iniquity  of  Germany 
showed  a  dauntless  soul. 
He  had  no  national 
feeling  against   the   Ger- 

mans ;    he    was    himself  Ex-President 

halt    German    by    blood. 

Doubtless,  had  the  wrong  been  done  by  England  and  France, 
he  would  have  assailed  them  with  the  same  flaming  sincerity  of 
truth-telling  that  he  has  shown  in  dealing  with  Germany.  He 
decided  his  course  of  conduct  as  regards  nations  just  as  he  would 
have  decided  in  the  case  of  individual  men.  He  judged  them 
on  their  conduct  in  the  crisis  under  consideration.  This 
is  the  hne  that  we  all  ought  to  take.  Exactly  as  we  admire 
the  Germany  of  Korner  and  Andreas  Hofer  in  its  struggle 
against  the  tyranny  of  Napoleon's  France,  so  we  should 
sternly  condemn  and  act  against  the  Prussianised  Germany 
of  the  Hohenzollerns  when  it  sins  against  humanity. 

Germany  enticed  Austria  into  beginning  the  war  by  en- 
couraging her  to  play  the  part  of  a  bully  toward  little  Sefbia. 
She  began  her  own  share  of  the  war  by  the  Belgian  infamy, 
and  she  has  piled  infamy  on  infamy  ever  since.  She  brought 
Turkey  into  the  war,  and  looked  on  with  approval  when  her 
ally  perpetrated  on  the  Armenian  and  Syrian  Christians 
cruelty  worthy  of  Timur.  She  had  practised  with  cold 
calculation  every  species  of  forbidden  and  abhorrent  brutality, 
fiom  the  use  of  poison  gas  against  soldiers  to  the 
use  of  conquered  civilians  as  State  slaves  and  the  wholesale 
butchery   of   women   and   children.     No    civilised   nation   in 


any  war  for  over  a  century  has  been  guilly  of  a  tithe  of  the 
barbarity  which  Germany  has  .practised  as  a  matter  of  cold 
policy  in  this  contest.  Her  offences  against  the  United  States, 
including  the  repeated  murder  of  American  women  and 
children,  have  been  of  the  grossest  character  ;  and  all  upright 
far-sighted  citizens  of  our  country  must  rejoice  that  we  have 
now  declared  that  we  shall  take  part  in  the  war,  both  for 
the  sake  of  our  own  honour  and  for  the  sake  of  the  international 
justice  and  fair  dealing  among  the  nations  of  mankind. 

One  of  the  chief  of  Mr.  Raemaekers'  services  has  been  his 
steady  refusal  to  fog  the  issue  by  denouncing  war  or  militarism 
in  terms  that  would  condemn  equally  a  war  of  ruthless 
conauest.  such  as  that  waged  by  Germany  against    l^elgium, 

and  a  war  in  defence  of 
the  fundamental  rights  of 
humanity,  such  as  that 
waged  by  Belgium  against 
Germany.  Timid  souls 
who  lack  the  courage  to 
stand  up  for  the  right,  and 
utterly  foolish  souls  who 
lack  the  vision  to  stand 
up  for  the  right,  and  who 
yet  feel  ashamed  not  to 
go  through  the  motions 
of  doing  so,  find  a  ready 
and  safe  refuge  in  an 
empty  denunciation  of 
war.  This  is  never  ob- 
iected  to  by  the  wrong- 
doer. On  the  contrary, 
it  is  in  his  interest  ;  for 
to  denounce  war  in  terms 
that  include  those  who 
war  in  defence  of  right  is 
to  show  oneself  the  ally 
of  those  who  do  wrong. 
The  Pacifists  have  been 
the  most  effective  allies  of 
the  German  Militarists, 
The  whole  professional 
Pacifist  movement  in  the 
United  States  has  been 
really  a  movement  in  the 
interest  of  the  evil  mili- 
tarism of  Germany. 

Raemaekers  possessed 
too  virile  a  nature,  too 
high  a  scorn  of  all  that  is 
base  and  evil,  to  be  guilty 
of  such  short  -  comings. 
His  soul  flamed  within 
him  at  the  sight  of  the 
horrible  evil  wrought  in 
Belgium  by  the  German 
invasion.  He  was  stirred 
to  the  depths  by  the 
knowledge  seared  into  his 
soul  that  the  worst  mani- 
festations of  wrong-doing 
were  due,  not  to  the 
sporadic  excitement  of 
private  soldiers  who  cast  the  shackles  of  disciphne,  but  to  the 
methodical,  disciplined,  coldly  calculated,  and  ruthlessly  ex- 
ecuted designs  of  the  German  military  authorities.  With  extra- 
ordinary vigour  he  has  portrayed  phase  after  phase  of  the  evil 
they  have  done,  sketching  with  a  burning  intensity  of 
sympathy  the  sufferings  of  the  women  and  children. 

He  has  left  a  record  which  will  last  for  many  centuries, 
which,  mayhap,  will  last  as  long  as  the  written  record  of  the 
crime  it  illustrates.  He  draws  evil  with  the  rugged  strength 
of  Hogarth  and  in  the  same  spirit  of  vehement  protest  and 
anger.  He  draws  sorrow  and  suffering  with  all  Hogarth's 
depth  of  sympathy.  His  pictures  should  be  studied  every- 
where. Doubtless  they  would  do  most  good  in  Germany  ; 
but  with  the  exception  of  Germany,  the  country  that  needs 
them  most  is  our  own 

(iermany  wronged  the  helpless  ;  we  beheld  the  wrong-doing 
and  failed  to  take  effective  action  against  the  wrong-doers. 
All  Americans  worthy  to  call  themselves  the  spiritual  heirs 
of  the  men  who  followed  Washington  and  upheld  the  hands 
of  Lincoln,  give  fervent  thanks  that  at  last  we  also  ha\e 
joined  the  other  free  peoples  of  the  world  in  the  great  war 
for  righteousness. 


Stanley  and  Co. 


Roosevelt 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


Our  Tone  in  Transatlantic  Discussion 

By  G.  K.  Chesterton 


IT  is  a  common  yet  a  curious  fancy  that  we  are  all  living 
at  the  end  of  the  world  ;  and  e%'en  at  the  other  end  of 
the  world — from  the  other  people.  It  is  equally  odd, 
thou4;h  equally  obv-ious,  that  we  even  stand  simul- 
taneously at  two  opposite  ends  of  the  world,  for  the  races 
from  whom  we  are  remote.  For  the  Russian  our  island 
seems  one  of  the  clouds  of  sunset  and  for  the  American  one 
of  the  clouds  of  sunrise.  And  tliis  trick  of  geographic  re- 
litivity  is  but  the  symbol  of  a  moral  relativity  wc  are  even 
more  in  danger  of  forgetting.  It  is  inevitable  that  foreign 
criticisms  should  be  inconsistent  even  when  they  are  true  ; 
and  tliat  England  seen  from  the  cast  and  west  should  look 
like  two  different  objects.  Many  Russians  regard  us  simply 
as  a  people  that  has  long  had  a  ParUament.  Many  Americans 
regard  us  simply  as  a  people  that  still  has  a  King.  Many  of 
the  latter  do  not  realise  how  little  despotism  is  implied  in 
having  a  King  ;  many  of  the  former,  we  may  add,  do  not 
realise  how  very  little  democracy  is  implied  in  having  a 
Parliament.  Distant  criticisms  always  simplify  even  when 
they  do  not  falsify.  And  the  most  acute  aliens  are  often 
thus  misled,  both  by  the  subtlety  and  the  snobbery  of  our 
society. 

A  Chicago  millionaire  will  stand  before  an  English  lord 
as  sentimentally  as  if  he  were  standing  before  a  tomb- 
stone ;  and  be  quite 
unaware  that  he  is 
standing  before  a 
mushroom  quite  as 
new  and  possibly  quite 
as  vulgar  as  himself. 
In  the  same  way  a 
■Russian  refugee  will 
often  hail  a  Radical 
M.P.  named  Binks  as 
a  Tribune  of  the 
Plebs.  risen  on  the 
wreck  of  privileges  ; 
and  be  quite  unaware 
that  he  holds  the 
family  seat  from  Sir 
Thomas  Binks,  has  the 
powerful  support  of 
Lord  Binks,  and  is 
one  of  a  large  un- 
failing family  of  Par- 
liamentary Binkses. 
It  is  clear  that  these 
cross-purposes  at  a 
great  crisis  have  some 
elements  of  danger  ; 
for  mistakes  about 
moral  material  are 
always  dangerous. 
One  of  our  Allies  over- 
rates our  democracy  ;  another  of  our  Allies  underrates  our 
democracy  or  rather,  perhaps  we  should  say,  overrates  our 
aristocracy.  And  it  is  always  in  the  long  run  a  disadvan- 
tage to  be  overrated ;  even  where  it  is  perhaps  a  case 
rather  of  overstating  than  overrating.  And  about  the 
mortal  matter  of  the  great  war,  it  is  very  necessary  to 
simplify  the  strange  and  congested  yet  courageous  and  very 
living  compromise  we  call  England. 

In  dealing  with  very  distant,  very  different  and  even  still 
doubtful  persons,  even  when  they  are  Allies,  it  is  far  more 
desirable  to  secure  a  minimum  than  to  risk  a  maximum  of 
agreement.  It  is  more  imp(  rcant  that  our  truth  in  certain 
things  should  be  trusted  absolutely,  than  that  a  varying 
number  of  our  beliefs  should  be  more  or  less  believed.  Now 
that  we  arc  dealing  with  types  so  utterly  contrasted  with 
our  own  as,  for  instance,  an  Irish-American  Democrat  or  a 
mystical  Russian  Tolstoyan,  we  must  not  expect  them  to 
praise  English  policy  in  the  same  language  as  we  dQ,  or 
anything  like  so  much  as  we  do.  We  must  not  expect  them 
to  say  that  England  is  the  champion  of  liberty  and  justice 
in  all  ages  and  all  over  the  world.  But  we  can  expect  them 
to  see,  as  a  simple  »act,  that  England  is  one  of  tlie  champions 
of  liberty  and  justfce  at  this  definite  and  deadly  minute  by 
the  clock.  Wc  must  not  ask  them  to  believe  that  we  are 
wildly  and  exceptionally  idealistic  about  tins  business  ;  for 
it  is  not  our  reputation  about  any  business.  We  are  in  many 
ways  less  idealistic  than  Americans  :'  and  we  are  certainly 
far  less  idealistic  than  Russians.  But  we  can  ask  them  to 
beUeve  that  we  are  honest  about  this  business  ;  because,  as 
a  simple  fact,  we  are  honest  about  it. 


The  Mirage 
A    Red  Indian's  Vision  of  Civilisation 


When  an  English  politician,  as  our  sjx)kesman.  says  that 
wc  are  horrified  at  Prussianism,  and  especially  Prussianism 
in  Belgium,  he  is  telling  the  truth.  I  can  cjuite  understand 
Irish-American  Fenians  saying  he  is  a  liar,  who  has  no  right 
to  be  believed  even  when  he  is  telling  the  truth  ;  but  he  i's' 
teUing  the  truth.  I  can  quite  understand  the  Russian 
revolutionist  thinking  we  are  much  more  materiahstic  than 
he  is  ;  for  it  is  a  fact  that  we  are  .much  more  materiahstic 
than  the  Russians.  But  it  is  also  a  fact,  in  precisely  the  same 
cold  classification,  that  we  are  much  less  materiahstic  than 
the  Prussians.  And  indeed  this  more  modest  estimate  of 
ourselves  is  the  one  damning  estimate  of  our  enemies.  It  is 
not  that  England  is  so  good  that  she  wanders  over  the  world 
like  a  knight-errant,  defying  and  destroying  every  evil,  it 
is  that  (iermany  is  so  bad  that  she  has  startled  a  very  insular 
and  individualistic  merchant  into  minding  something  more 
than  liis  owti  business,  in  the  presence  of  a  particular 
evil  wliich  manifestly  must  be  defied  and  destroyed.  We 
must  be  a  httle  more  conscious  of  the  things  that  are  said 
against  us,  before  we  can  even  drive  home  the  truth,  far  less 
the  sincerity,  of  the  things  that  we  say  against  Germany. 
We  must  not  merely  patronise  the  yojng  R  ssian  Bear  by 
saying  he  has  most  of  his  troubles  before  him.  We  must 
not    merely    smile    at    the    American    Eagle,    and    suggest 

that  he  has  taken  a 
long  time  to  make  the 
ornitiiological  dis- 

covery that  he  is  not 
a  dove  ;  still  less  must 
we  sneer  at  him  and 
suggest  that  the  func- 
tion of  the  dove  has 
been  merely  to  flaunt 
the  white  feather. 
The  first  necessity,  to 
follow  out  the  fable, 
is  that  the  British  Lion 
should  not  seem  to  be 
claiming  to  be  the 
king  of  these  beasts 
and  birds,  that  the 
lion  should  not  be 
credited  with  demand- 
ing the  lion's  share 
even  of  the  credit.  The 
point  on  which  we 
must  insist  is  not  that 
the  German  Eagle 
must  perish  because 
it  has  crossed  the 
lion's  path,  or  even 
because  it  has  wan- 
tonly twisted  the  lion's 
tail.  It  is  that  the 
German  Eagle,  in  itself,  is  so  disreputable  a  fowl  that  even 
the  other  eagles  have  to  quarrel  with  it  ;  that  even  birds 
of  its  feather  will  not  flock  with  it  any  more.  Or,  to 
abandon  the  apologue,  the  point  is  not  to  defend  our  repu- 
tation from  the  charge  of  human  faults,  but  to  defend  our 
lives  from  something,  the  faults  of  which  are  frankly 
inhuman.  Patriotism  is  very  practical  just  now  ;  and  it  is 
much  more  necessary  we  should  be  supported  than  that  we 
should  be  praised. 

For  what  we  want  to  be  supported  in  is  a  drastic  and 
destructive  policy  against  the  Prussian  power.  I  suggest 
that  we  make  our  moral  claims  modest,  precisely  because  we 
must  make  our  political  claims  severe.  We  can  accept  all 
that  a  Russian  or  an  Irishman  might  say  about  our  lack  of 
political  imagination,  and  be  content  to  answer  that  one  does 
not  need  to  be  a  social  philosopher  in  order  to  desire  the  des- 
truction of  Prussian  power,  any  more  than  one  needs  to  be  a 
dog-fancier  to  desire  the  destruction  of  a  mad  dog.  We  need 
not  pretend  to  be  democratic  in  the  American  sense  ;  we  ma\' 
concede  that  our  ideal  has  been  the  gentleman  rather  thaii 
the  citizen.  But  we  can  still  claim  that  our  ideal  gentleman 
has  not  been  a  gentleman  who  lashes  a  private  across  thj 
face  while  he  stands  at  attention  ;  or,  in  other  words,  that 
even  our  snobs  admire  a  gentleman  who  in  some  degree 
behaves  like  a  gentleman.  We  need  not  pretend  to  be  devout 
in  the  Russian  sense  ;  we  may  admit  that  we  have  too  often 
upheld  respectability  ratiier  than  religion.  But  wc  can  still 
claim  that  our  respectability  is  comparatively  respectable, 
when  it  prevents  us  (as  it  would  certainly  prevent  us)  from 
using  any  sacrament  on  any  altar  as  a  target  for  very  leisurely 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


21 


pistol-practice  ;  as  was  fully  proved  of  the  German  soldiers 
in  France.  Then,  having  dealt  with  our  own  limitations 
with  all  sobriety  and  sincerity,  we  can  ask  the  democrat 
what  will  be  the  probable  effect  on  the  Prussian  officer  of 
having  so  lashed  his  men,  and  lashed  them  to  comparative 
victory  ;  just  as  we  can  ask  the  devotee  what  will  be  the 
probable  effect  on  the  blasphemer  of  having  ostentatiously 
defiled  the  altar  and  suffered  no  apparent  disadvantage  from 
God  or  man.  We  can  appeal  to  the  same  common  sense  that 
allows  tor  those  limitations  to  admit  that  the  Prussian's 
escape,  or  anything  he  can  call  his  escape,  must  mean  that 
his  pride  will  be  henceforth  unlimited.  He  will  certainly 
say,  in  a  sense  he  would  be  a  fool  if  he  did  not  say.  that  to 
lash  a  soldier's  face  is  evidently  the  way  to  prevent  him 
turning  his  back  to  an  armed  league  of  nations  ;  and  that  the 
pistol  that  was  pointed  at  the  altar  was  eminently  successful 
when  it  was  pointed  at  the  world.  We  can  appeal  to  the 
same  common  sense  to  see  that  the  longer  we  seem  to  be  waging 
a  doubtful  war,  the  less  we  can  afford  to  have  a  doubtful  settle- 
ment. Until  this  chain  that  has  been  girt  about  Eur.ope  is 
unwound  to  its  last  link,  its  mere  length  will  more  and, more 
support  the  legend  that  it  is  endless.  If  it  is  once  thought  to 
be  endless,  man  will  sit  down  for  ever  in  chains.  If  it  is  not 
endless,  we  must  follow  it  to  the  end  ;  and  its  end  is  not  in 
.\hace  or  Belgium,  but  in  Berlin. 

I  always  deprecated  any  disdain  for  America's  long  regime 
of  peace  ;  and  I  am  very  glad  of  it  now.     For  American  peace, 


or  even  American  pacifism,  is  now  the  strongest  argument 
for  American  war,  and  even  American  ruthlessness.  America 
would  never  have  gone  to  war  if  it  had  not  been  an  extra- 
ordinary war  ;  a  war  that  desecrated  all  that  even  war  holds 
sacred.  If  that  extraordinary  war  could  be  followed  by  any 
ordinary  peace,  the  deadly  distinction  would  be  lost  for 
ever  ;  and  nothing  in  war  or  peace  would  ever  be  held  sacred 
again.  The  hour  will  come  when  Americans  will  be  asking 
like  ourselves,  in  a  collective  but  none  the  less  literal  and 
awful  sense,  "If  Prussia  be  not  a  monster  beyond  all  mere 
enemies,  why  do  we  die  daily  ?  " 

Britain,  France,  A.merica 

By  Henry  van  Dyke. 

(Formerly  U .S.  Minister  to  the  Netherlands.) 

The  rough  expanse  of  democratic  sea 
Which  parts  the  lands  that  live  by  liberty 
Is  no  division  ;    for  their  hearts  are  one. 
To  fight  together  till  their  cause  is  won. 

For  land  and  water  let  us  make  our  pact, 
And  seal  the  solemn  word  with  valiant  act  : 
No  continent  is  firm,  no  ocetin  pure, 
Until  on  both  the  rights  of  man  are  sure. 


United    States    Air    Policy 


By  Henry   Woodhouse 


Member  of  the  Board  of  Governors    Aero  Club  of  America  ;  Publisher  of  Flying  (monthly),  and  Aerial  Age  (weekly). 


f 


WHAT  the  United  States  proposes  to  do  in  the 
air  is  already  fairly  well  defined.  The  war, 
supijorted  by  the  educational  campaign  of  the 
Aero  Club  of  America  and  the  Aerial  Coast 
Patrol  Commission,  has  taught  the  United  States  the  fact  that 
supremacy  in  the  air  is  the  key  to  supremacy  on  land  and  at 
sea.  There  are  two  famous  quotations  which  everybody 
knows  by  heart  in  the  United  States  and  they  are  (i)  the 
saying  of  Mr.  Arthur  J.  Balfour  : 

"  The  time  is  here  when  the  command  of  the  sea  will  be  ol 
no  value  to  Great  Britain  witliout  corresponding  command 
of  the  air  " 
{>)     The  statement  attributed  to  Lord  Kitchener  : 

"A  well-trained  and  equipped  aviator  is  worth  .an  army 
Corps." 
These  statements  can  be 
read  and  heard  in  the  re- 
motest part  of  the  United 
States  as  well  as  in  the 
House  of  Representatives 
and  in  the  leading  publica- 
tions. 

As  a  member  ot  the 
Board  of  Governors  of  the 
Aero  Club  of  America,  who 
served  as  delegates  at  the 
Conference  Committee  for 
National  Preparedness 

from  the  very  first  meet- 
ings, I  know  by  heart 
just  what  had  to  be  done 
to  get  men  of  military  age 
to  take  steps  to  prepare 
themselves  for  service.  The 
practical  American  mind 
began  to  realise  that, 
whereas  it  would  take 
about  two  years  to  train  a 
civilian  to  make  him  worth 
about  half  a  soldier,  he 
could  be  trained  to  pilot 
an  aeroplane  and  be  worth 
a  thousand  soldiers  at  the 
end  of  six  months.  Ameri- 
cans are  practical  people, 
and  once  this  fact  became 
known  hundreds  of  young 
men  responded  to  the  call 
of  the  Aero  Club  of  Ameri- 
ca and  the  National 
Aerial  Coast  Patrol  Com- 
mission and  volunteered 
not  only  to  enhst  in  air 
service — which      by      the 


A  Navy  Recruiting  Poster  :  "  Here  he  is,   Sir.' 


way  they  could  not  do — but  actually  undertook  to   pay    for 
their  own  training. 

On  June  29th,  igi6,  I  was  a  member  of  the  Committee 
which  called  at  the  White  House  to  submit  to  President 
Wilson  the  fact  that  thousands  of  young  men  were  begging 
to  be  admitted  to  the  Air  Service,  and  that  there  was  no  way 
for  the  army  or  navy  to  take  them  into  the  Air  Service,  there 
being  no  provision  for  the  same.  Fourteen  days  later  Presi- 
dent Wilson  authorised  the  organisation  of  the  Aerial  Reserve 
Corps,  which  opened  a  way  for  admitting  civilians  to  the 
United  States  Army  Aerial  Reserves.  At  about  the  time  of 
the  call  at  the  WTiite  House,  our  Committee  also  called  on  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  of  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives  and  Senate  to  find  out  what 

the  opportunities  were  to 
get  a  reasonably  large  ap- 
propriation for  military 
aeronautics. 

The  estimates  under  con- 
sideration then    for    aero- 
nautics for   the  army  and 
navy    amounted    to    only 
about  ffioo,ooo.     The  Aero 
Club  of  America  appealed 
to  the  country  and  within 
a  few  weeks  Congress  was 
flooded  with    requests    for 
larger  appropriations.    The- 
result    was  that   Congress 
allowed  over  three  and    a 
half  millions    sterling    for 
aeronautics  for  the    army 
and  navy.    Thanks  to  that 
campaign   there  is  to-day 
a     promising      aeronautic 
industry     in    the     United 
States  and  there  are  thou- 
sands of  young  men  ready 
to  take  up  aviation  train- 
ing, many  of  them  only  too 
anxious  to  cross    the    sea 
and  fly,  as    the    members 
of  the  Lafayette  Corps  flew 
with     the      French      and 
British  aviators  for  the  one 
good  cause  in  which  we  are 
now  at  last  united. 

Pubhc  opinion  has  given 
an  idea  of  what  the  United 
States  should  do  in  the  air. 
Public  opinion  wants  the 
United  States  to  send  be- 
tween 5,000  and  10,000 
aviators     to     France     to 


22 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,   1917 


maintain  for  good  the  Allies'  mastery  of  the  air.  Public 
opinion  also  recognises  the  fact  that,  as  the  United  States 
is  to  ship  billions  of  dollars'  worth  of  supplies  to  the  Allies, 
every  ship  must  be  protected,  as  they  are  when  they  approacli 
or  leave  the  British  ports,  bv  aerial  coast  patrol. 

We  shall  also  have  to  protect  every  ship  that  leaves  or 
approaclies  an  American  jM)rt  against  submarines  and  mines, 
and  to  do  that  we  shall  need  a  substantial  aerial  coast  patrol, 
at  least  twice  as  large  as  the  aerial  coast  patrol  which  is 
protecting  the  thousands  of  shijjs  that  arrive  in  or  clear  from 
I'nited  Kingdom  ports.  It  means  having  to  get,  train  and 
cquii)  about  2,000  aviators  and  about  500  dirigible  and 
observation  balloon  pilots  for  home  defence,  making  a  round 
total  of  about  10,000  aviators  and  dirigible  and  balloon  pilots 
which  must  be  trained  and  equipped  as  soon  as  possible. 

How  will  that  be  done  ?  We  need  not  fear  about  getting 
the  men.  Our  main  trouble  at  the  present  time  is  that  we 
have  thousands  of  apphcations  from  young  men,  mostly  college 
men,  well  fit  physically  and  mentally  as  aviators  must 
be,  to  be  ofhcers  in  the  air  services.  Himdreds,  including 
sons  of  most  prominent  American  famUies,  have  been  training 
in  the  operation  of  aeroplanes  at  their  own  expense  at  privately 
established  aviation  Ciunps  where  everythmg  is  conducted 
under  the  strictest  mihtary  discipline. 

In  a  short  time,  as  soon  as  the  British  and  French  com- 
missions officially  inform  the  American  Government  of  their 
desire  to  have  us  send  5,000  aviators  to  Europe,  to  be  sent  in 
small  units  as  fast  as  they  can  be  trained  and  equipped,  steps 
will  be  taken  to  establish  a  chain  of  large  aviation  training 
camps  throughout  the  United  States.  No  other  country 
has  so  much  suitable  ground  and  so  much  protected  water 
suitable  for  aviation  training  stations  as  the  United  States. 
We  can  estabhsh,  if  necessary,  100  schools,  each  large  enough 
to  accommodate  from   100  to  200  aviators. 

We  are  also  in  a  position  to  supply  the  aeroplanes  needed  for 
the  training  and,  later,  the  fighting  machines  needed  to  equip 
the  aviators  going  to  Europe,  in  any  quantity.  1  say  this 
advisedly,  with  full  knowledge  of  the  exact  status  of  the 
American  aeronautic  industry.  A  year  ago  there  were 
between  20  and  30  small  aeroplane  firms  and  two  or  three 
large  ones.  The  appropriation  of  three  and  a  half  millions 
sterling  for  army  and  navy  aeronautics  brought  to  the  small 


firms  the  capital  needed,  and  a  dozen  of  them  which  were 
given  contracts  by  tlie  Government  last  autumn,  have 
developed  fairly  large  plants  and  have  trained  thousands  of 
workmen.  The  larger  plants  ha\'e  grown  to  the  point  where 
they  can  deliver  six  aeroplanes  a  day  and  can  double  and 
triple  their  output  in  from  tliirty  to  sixty  days. 

Besides  tlie  present  aeroplane  manulacturers,  there  are 
any  number  "of  large  industrial  concerns  ready  to  take  up 
the  manufacture  of  aeroplanes  and  aeronautic  motors  ; 
and  we  have  now  a  sufficient  number  of  well  trained  aero- 
nautic engineers  to  insure  turning  out  efficient  aeropLines  as 
well  as  a  sufficient  number  of  trained  men  and  trained  aviators 
to  supervise  the  instruction  of  thousands  of  aviators. 

All  these  resources  are  now  only  waiting  for  the  British  and 
French  Commissions  to  request  the  American  Government  to 
supply  5,000  trained  and  equipped  aviators.  Then  the 
machinery  will  be  set  moving  and  within  a  few  weeks  the 
]>rogress  will  be  such  that  it  will  astonish  the  world. 

Only  recently  I  was  part  of  a  Committee  of  authorities 
which  studied  our  aeronautic  industry  to  compare  American 
aeroplanes  and  motors  with  foreign  aeroplanes  and  motors. 
After  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  mass  of  evidence  and  com- 
parison of  types,  designs  and  performances,  the  Committee 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  American  aeroplane  and  motor 
manufacturers  can  produce  machines  which  are,  type  for 
type,  equal  to  the  best  European  products.  That  is  true  of 
the  small  fighting  machines,  the  speed  of  which  goes  up  to 
130  miles  per  hour  ;  of  the  larger  machine  used  in  connection 
with  artillery  ;  of  the  still  larger  machine  used  for  bombing 
raids,  and  of  the  large  seaplanes  used  for  submarine  hunting 
and  aerial  coast  patrol. 

And  there  are  some  important  surprises  to  look  forward  to, 
inventions  of  a  revolutionary  nature,  about  which  I  am  not 
at  liberty  to  speak,  but  which  will  undoubtedly  be  available 
within  a  few  months  to  assist  the  Allies  in  maintaining  supre- 
macy in  the  air  on  land  and  at  sea.  An  idea  of  how  exten- 
sively the  United  States  is  ready  to  go  into  aeronautics  can 
be  gained  from  a  statement  recently  made  to  our  Com- 
mittee by  Secretary  Daniels.  He  said  :  "1  have  $150,000,000 
to  spend  on  aeronautics  and  we  will  start  training  aviators 
and  getting  equipment  as  soon  as  we  can  get  the  advice  of 
the  Allies  on  this  subject." 


'RUTHLESS   SUBMARINE  V/ARFA 
SO  SPAKL  THE  FIEND  AND    V/H 
NECESSITY, THE  TYRANTS    PL^. 
EXCUSED   HIS  DEVIUSH  DEEDS '"| 

ENLIST  IN  THF.  J 
U-S  NAV¥         4 
AND  UPHOID 
CIVILIZATION     ' 


^ 


\ 


This  is  a  specimen  of  the    impressive    posters    which    are    being    emplovcd    in  America  to   stimulate 
naval  recruiting.      It  is  reproduced  here  by  special   permission  of  the  U.S.    Navy  Recruiting  Office 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


23 


Goaks  and  Humor 


By   J.  G.   Squire 


THERE  arc  a  great  many  books  about  Wit  and 
Humour.  Hobbes  thouglit  one  laughed  because  one 
felt  superior  ;  Bergson  thinks  that  the  comic  is 
always  the  animate  imitating  the  mechanical ;  and 
Kant  tlKHight  something  else,  I  forget  what.  The  last  treatise 
I  read  was  by  the  German  Professor  Freud,  who  appeared 
anxious  to  prove  that  wit  and  humour  are  a  kind  of  sexual 
perversions.  But  I  still  do  not  understand  what  they  arc, 
and  I  have  something  better  to  do  than  make  my  head  ache 
by  attempting  to  invent  satisfactory,  or  even  unsatisfactory, 
definitions  of  them.  If  it  is  difficult  to  define  wit  and  humour, 
it  is  equally  difficult  to  discriminate  precisely  between  the 
humour  of  one  nation  and  the  humour  of  another.  There 
certainly  are  differences.  But  probably  there  is  no  special  form 
of  joke  that  can  be  appreciated  by  every  American,  and  by 
no  Englishman,  or  vice-versa.  And  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
American  humorous  writing  which  might  have  been  done  by 
Englishmen.  We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  our  humour, 
at  its  best,  as  a  quieter  and  wiser  thing,  urbane  and  sym- 
pathetic. But  Washington  Irving  and  Holmes  are  (subject 
matter  apart)  as  English  as  Lamb,  if  those  are  our  qualities  ; 
and  many  other  Americans,  in  some  ways  very  Transatlantic 
(().  Henry  and  Twain  are  examples),  are  masters  of  the  richer 
and  deeper  humour  as  well  as  of  the  other  sort.  Bret  Harte's 
Condensed  Novels,  again,  might  have  been  written  by  a  very 
restrained  European  parodist.  And  when  Choreau  said 
that  "  the  profession  of  doing  good  is  full,"  and  Ambrose 
Bierce  defined  a  bottle-nose  as  "  A  nose  fashioned  in  the 
impge  of  its  Maker,"  their  mots  were  in  the  traditional 
Euiopean  mould.  There  are,  however,  kinds  of  humour 
in  which  the  Americans  have  speciahsed ;  the  body  of 
American  humorous  literature  is  as  peculiar  as  it  is  extensive. 
We  have  had  practitioners  in  dialect  and  humorous  bad 
spelling  ;  but  there  is  a  difference  between  them  and  Josh 
Billings,  Artemus  Ward,  who  invented  the  Goak,  and  Mr. 
Dooley.  We  have  had  humorous  travellers,  but  they  are  not 
like  Mark  Twain.  Where  lies  the  difference  ? 
***** 

.\merican  humour,  of  the  distinctively  American  sort, 
gains  something  from  the  peculiar  flavour  of  the  American 
dialect.  There  was  a  man  who  travelled  in  a  sleeping  car  on  a 
railway.  During  the  nigiit  he  wai' annoyed  by  vermin,  and 
he  wrote  to  the  headquarters  of  the  company  to  complain. 
He  received  back  from  the  administrative  head  a  letter  of 
immense  effusiveness.  Never  before  had  such  a  complaint 
been  lodged  against  this  scrupulously  careful  line,  and 
the  management  would  have  suffered  any  loss  rather  than 
cause  annoyance  to  so  distinguished  a  citizen  as,  etc.,  etc. 
He  was  very  delighted  with  this  abject  apology.  But  as  he 
was  throwing  away  the  envelope  there  fell  out  a  slip  of  paper, 
which  had,  apparently,  been  enclosed  by  mistake.  On  it 
was  a  memorandum  :  "  Send  this  gvy  the  bug-letter."  One 
need  not  explain  how  this  joke  gains  from  the  peculiarity  of 
the  lan^'uage.  (It  has  incidentally  another  feature  which  is 
traditionally  a  characteristic  of  much  American  humour — 
namely,  laconicism.  All  nations  have  their  laconics  ;  but 
brevity  has  always  been  a  popular  cult  in  the  U.S..\. 
A  typical  example  both  of  this  and  of  an  equally  common 
habit  of  allusiveness  is  the  remark  of  the  Yankee  at  the  Zoo, 
who,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  saw  a  giraffe.  He  looked 
at  it  long  and  hard,  and  then  observed  :  "  I  don't  beHeve  it.") 
The  language  does  give  a  tinge  to  American  jests  :  and, 
naturally,  an  even  more  important  element  is  the  sum  of 
American  social  conditions  and  history.  The  unique  circum- 
stances of  American  life  are  directly  responsible  to  some  of 
the  striking  things  about  .American  humour. 
***** 

A  noticeable  thing  about  American  humour— one  doesn't 
mean  merely  the  efforts  of  a  few  prominent  humorists-  is 
the  range  it  covers.  Few  things  are  sacred,  and  few  are  too 
serious  to  be  jested  about.  Cutting  loose  from  Europe  and 
all  its  traditions  (the  breach  here  is  rather  closing  up  than 
widening),  and  living  in  a  new  country,  where  the  normal  life 
was  adventurous  and  changeful,  and  anything  might  turn  up 
at  anv  moment,  the  .American  developed  a  curious  detach- 
ment.' With  this  came  a  philosophic  whimsicality,  which 
treated  everything  liglitly  and  saw  everything  on  the  comic 
plane.  We  in  Europe  have  all  sorts  of  taboos.  We  are 
serious  about  many  things  ;  and  if  we  are  serious  about  a 
thing  we  do  not  (unless  we  are  exceptional  people)  jest   about 


it.  The  normal  .American  humorist  jests  about  everything 
(however  strongly  he  may  feel  about  it)  from  his  wife  down- 
wards. He  will  even  make  jests  about  millionaires,  a  thing 
which  to  most  Englishmen  seems  shocking.  If  you  detach 
yourself  suflTciently  from  things,  everything  on  earth 
will  a])pear  a  little  comic,  as  mdeed  it  is.  This  habit  of 
standing  outside  things  has  been  general  in  America.  When 
Artemvis  Ward  wrote  his  letter  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  : 
"  Friend  Wales — You  remember  me.  I  saw  you  in  Canady 
a  few  years  ago.  I  remember  you  too.  I  seldom  forgit  a 
person.  ...  Of  course,  now  you're  married  you  can 
eat  onions,"  he  was  not  merely  the  Republican  being  familiar 
with  the  Royal  Prince  :  he  was  doing  what  he  would  have 
done  to  the  Head  of  his  own  State.  Even  a  Republican 
Englishman  would  probably  have  been  slightly  shocked  by 
such  irreverence.  It  was  an  American,  again,  who  discovered 
that  "  the  cow  is  an  animal  with  four  legs,  one  at  each  corner." 
As  a  scientific  fact  this,  I  need  scarcely  say,  had  been  long 
known  :   but  it  took  a  new  pair  of  eyes  to  see  it  precisely  in 

this  way. 

***** 

.\  European  of  Mark  Twain's  abihties  ';and  position 
would  scarcely  have  written  his  book  about  the  Court  of 
King  Arthur.  We  have  too  many  inhibitions.  They  are 
great  and  small.  But  the  American  habit  of  putting  remarks 
m  a  whimsical,  humorous  form,  whatever  they  are,  and 
whatever  the  occasion,  is  so  widespread  that  one  often  finds 
Americans  of  the  most  sober  and  humourless  kind  putting 
things  humorously  out  of  sheer  force  of  national  habit.  An 
English  employee,  giving  his  employer  notice,  will  either  say 

that  he  cannot  stand  this place  any  longer  or  else  apologise 

in  an  embarrassed  way  for  causing  inconvenience.  The 
.American  is  more  likely  to  come  up  with  a  normal  expression 
and  observe,  "  Say,  Doc,  if  you  know  anybody  who  wants 
my  job,  he  can  have  it."  Everything  is  susceptible  of 
humour  ;  and  the  more  extravagant  the  humour,  the  better. 
.American  humour  is,  strictly  speaking,  pervasive.  The 
kcturer  who  announced  on  his  programme  that  he  was 
"  compelled  to  charge  one  dollar  for  reserved  seats,  because 
oats,  which  two  years  ago  cost  30  cents  per  bushel,  now  cost 
one  dollar  ;  hay  is  also  one  dollar  75  cents  per  cwt.,  formerly 
50  cents,"  was  carrying  his  systematic  h'gh  spirits  into  a  place 
where  few  British  entertainers  would  have  thought  of  being 
funny.  It  all  springs  from  the  state  of  mind  which  lea, 
some  years  ago,  to  tne  formation  of  Smile  Clubs,  institutions 
that  no  other  jieople  would  have  dreamed  of.     Jocosity  is 

the  best  policy. 

***** 

There  is  an  American  story  about  a  man  who  invented  a 
pneumatic  life-saving  device,  to  be  attached  to  the  body 
when  jumping  from  a  window  during  a  fire.  He  announced 
an  exhibition  test.  He  sprang  from  the  top  <5f  a  sky-scraper, 
and  then  "  he  bounced  and  bounced  and  bounced  until  we 
had  to  shoot  him  to  save  him  from  death  by  starvation." 
There  is  another  about  a  dispute  between  two  fishermen 
as  to  the  relative  size  of  fish  in  their  respective  waters.  Smaller 
fry  having  been  catalogued,  one  man  said  that  he  once,  when 
after  very  large  tarpon,  got  a  whale  :  to  be  met  by  the  blase 
repartee,  "  In  my  State,  sir,  we  bait  with  whales."  And 
there  is  another  (where  it  comes  from,  I  forget),  about  two 
brothers  who  went  out  hunting  with  two  rifles  iind  a  single 
bullet,  and  brought  the  bullet  home  after  killing  a  hundred 
head  of  buffalo.  Their  method  was  this.  They  were  very 
crack  shots  ;  and  they  used  to  stand  one  on  each  side  of  the 
doomed  beast.  The  bullet  was  fired  by  one  brother,  went 
through  the  victim,  and  was  received  by  the  muzzle  of  the 
other  brother's  rifle.  An  Englishman,  hearing  these  stories, 
would  know  where  they  had  come  from.  We  can  appreciate 
them,  but  we  do  not  as  a  rule  make  them.  We  illustrate 
the  qualities  of  men  and  things  by  telling  lies  about  them, 
but  we  do  not  tell  such  thumping  big  ones.  Our  fishing 
stories  are  only  slightly  over  the  borders  of  the  credible  ; 
a  foolish  person  might  be  taken  in  by  them  :  the  American 
ones  are  such  lies  that  narrators  have  no  hope  that  even  the 
most  innocent  will  believe  them.  This  obvious  difference 
between  the  usual  American  and  the  usual  EngUsh  method  of 
treating  a  thing  humorously  may  be  illustrated  by  examples. 
Ten  years  ago,  or  so,  the  London,  Chatham  and  Dover  Rail- 
way reached  its  nadir,  and  all  British  humorists  were 
making  jokes  about   the  slowness  of  the  trains.     Some  of 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


Mr.  Balfour  at  the  Tomb  _i>f  Washington 

on  Sunday,  April  2,ik,  Mr.  Balfour  paid  aJsU  to  ike  tornt  «/  ^^^Z  W  -^^^^^^  'f  .:■— 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


25 


these  jokes  were,  for  us,  fairly  drastic  :  the  summit  of  achieve- 
mcr,t  was  reached,  I  think,  by  a  report  that  a  cow  had  met  its 
death  by  charging  an  L.C.D.  express  from  behind,  and  that 
the  Directors,  at  an  emergency  meeting,  had  decided  to  place 
cow-catchers  at  the  rear  end  of  all  trains.  But  try  to  imagine 
what  would  have  been  said  had  the  London,  Chatham  and 
Dover  Railway  been  in  America.  The  most  luxuriant  of  our 
conceptions  would  have  been  feeble  compared  with  the 
miracles  of  metaphor  that  would  have  been  coined  to  show 
the  extraordinary  slowness  of  those  trains.  In  American 
aescriptions  they  would  not  have  gone  at  a  walking  pace, 
they  would  not  even  have  crawled  at  a  snail's  :  at  their 
fastest  the  snails  would  have  overtaken  them,  and  mostly 
they  would  positively  have  gone  backwards  so  that  passengers 
would  be  compelled,  aiming  at  a  certain  destination,  to  board 
trains  ostensibly  proceeding  in  the  opposite  direction.  Now 
1  think  of  it,  I  do  seem  to  remember  something  about  a  cow 
boarding  a  train  and  biting  the  passengers.  This  delight 
m  giving  the  extra  turn  ol  the  screw  ttiat  destroys  the 
last  shred  of  verisimiUtude  for  the  sake  of  a  fantastic  effect 
is  to  be  seen  everywhere  in  American  humorous  writing, 
and  one  may  take  an  illustration  horn  the  other  side  at  ran- 
dom. Mr.  Stephen  Leacock's  description  of  how  he  tried  to 
borrow  a  match  from  a  man  in  the  street  will  do.  The  account 
throws  light  on  a  common  experience,  and  the  various  stages 
of  the  man's  struggle  with  his  pockets  and  production  of 
toothpicks  and  other  articles  from  his  coat-tails  whilst  his 
parcels  fall  all  round,  might  have  been  done  by  an  English- 
man. But  in  the  end  he  cannot  help  rounding  it  off  by  a 
piece  of  sheer  gusto  that  would  scarcely  have  occurred  to 
anyone  but  an  American.  Full  of  compassion  at  the  would- 
be  match-lender's  state  of  desperation,  the  author  puts  an 
end  to  his  suffering  by  throwing  him  under  a  /raw— -that  is  to 
say,  a  "  trolley  car."  Mr.  Leacock  happens  to  be  a  Canadian 
and  not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  But  in  this  rigard 
they  share  the  same  tastes  and  the  same  habits. 


In  fact,  as  has  been  said  ten  thousand  times  before,  they 
love  Exaggeration.  All  little  American  communities  in  the 
old  days  had  Characters  of  whom  they  were  proud  :  and  the 
Character  was  almost  always  an  abnormal  Exaggerator  or 
Vituperator — which  comes  to  the  same  thing.  He  was  a 
man  with  a  fine  flow  of  the  extravagant  or  the  grotesque  ; 
in  other  words,  a  Champion  Liar.  The  pleasure  that  such 
aitists  take  in  their  work  is  the  pleasure  of  the  fantastic 
embroiderer  or  the  mediaeval  carver  of  gargoyles.  American 
essays  in  the  Preposterous  are  of  various  sorts.  Continually 
one  gets  the  monstrously  absurd  simile,  or  the  mild  over- 
statement of  a  single  fact.  All  American  funny  men  make  a 
practice  of  this.  It  usually  becomes  a  habit  with  them  ; 
they  state  everything  in  this  form.  Mark  Twain's  ordinary 
level  is  typified  by  "  Twins  amount  to  a  permanent  riot. 
And  there  isn't  any  real  difference  between  triplets  and' an 
insurrection  " — which   is   rather   tired   and   mechanical. 


O.  Henry,  a  writer  who  is  far  more  than  a  jester,  was  very 
good  in  this  way.  One  may  quote  from  his  account 
of  the  Mayor  who  was  lying  ill  in  bed,  with  what  seemed  a 
grave  stomachic  complaint  :  "  He  was  making  internal  noises 
that  would  have  had  everybody  in  San  Trancisco  hiking  for 
the  parks."  I  suppose  one  is  forced  to  explain,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  forgetful  British  reader,  that  the  population  of  San 
Francisco  lives  in  dread  of  earthquakes.  But  the  more 
admirable  kind  of  invention  is  the  Impossibility  upon  a  larger 
scale  ;  the  calculated  and  nicely-worked  out  mendacity 
which,  in  proportion  to  its  gross  incredibility,  is  worked  out 
with  the  highest  attainable  degree  of  simplicity  and  gravity, 
the  frankly  absurd  story  which  is  told  you  as  the  state  of  the 
weather  or  your  grandmother's  health  might  be  told  you. 
In  the  perfection  of  this  species  we  have,  I  think,  the  finest 
achievement  of  American  humour. 


Max  Adeler's  famous  account  of  the  poet  who  was  engaged 
to  write  In  Memoriam  verses  to  go  in  the  obituary  column  ol 
the  local  paper  and  brought  the  mob  of  infuriated  parents 
down  upon  the  editor's  head  is  an  early  approach  to  this  style. 
It  is  monstrously  impossible  :  but  it  is  conducted  with  a 
considerable  amount  of  restraint.  Later,  authors  have  gone 
further  in  the  self-suppression  which  eschews  the  incidental 
auctorial  intervention  or  flamboyance  of  phrase  for  the  sake 
of  the  whole  story.  Mark  Twain  frequently  did  this  sort  of 
thing  with  great  circumspection.  For  instance,  the  dialogue 
with  the  Chief  of  Detectives  in  The  Stolen  White  Elephant. 
The  detective  wants  to  know  what  the  missing  animal  usually 
eats  : 

'■  Now,  what  does  this  elephant  eat,  and  liow  much  ? 

"  VW>11,  as  to  what  he     eats — he  will  eat  anylliin;;.     He  will 


eat  a  man,  he  will  eat  a  Bible — he  will  eat  anything  lietween 
a  man  and  a  Bible." 

"Good — very  good  indeed,  but  too  general.  Details  are  neces- 
sary— details  are  the  only  valuable  things  in  our  trade.  Very 
well — as  to  men.  At  one  m:a' — or,  if  you  prefer,  during  one 
day — how  many  m.°n  will  he  eat,  if  fresh  ?  " 
■'  He  would  not  care  whether  they  were  fresh  or  not  ;  at  a 
single  meal  he  would  eat  five  ordinary  men." 

Very  good  ;  five  men  ;  we  will  put  that  down.  What 
nationalities  would  he  prefer  ?  " 

"  He  is  indifferent  about  nationalities.      He  prefers  acquaint- 
ances, but  is  not  prejudiced  against  strangers." 
"  Very  good.     Now  as  to  Bibles.     How  many  B'bles  would 
he  cat  at  a  meal  ?  " 
"  He  would  eat  an  entire  edition." 

It  is  hardly  succinct  enough.  Do  you  mean  the  ordinary 
octavo,  or  the  lamily  illustrated  ?  " 

"  I  think  he  would  be  indifferent  to  illustrations  ;  that  is,  I 
think,  he  would  not  value  illustrations  above  simple  letter- 
press." 

No,  you  do  not  get  my  idea.  I  refer  to  bulk.  The  ordinary 
octavo  Bible  weighs  about  two  pounds  and  a  half,  while  the 
great  quarto  with  the  illustrations  weighs  ten  or  twelve.  How 
many  Dore  Bibles  would  he  eat  at  a  meal  ?  " 
"  If  you  knew  this  elephant,  you  could  not  ask.  He  would 
take  what  they  had." 

Well,  put  it  in  dollars  and  cents,  then.  We  must  get  at  it 
somehow.  The  Dore  costs  a  hundred  dollars  a  copy,  Russian 
leather,  bevelled." 

"  He  would  require  about  fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth — say 
an  edition  of  five  hundred  copies." 

"  Now  that  is  more  exact.  I  will  put  that  down.  Very  well  ; 
he  likes  men  and  Bibles  ;   so  far,  so  good." 

That  is  businesslike  ;  that  is  sober  realism.  Given  the 
leading  idea  everything  is  related  with  complete  propriety. 
The  elaboration  of  it  was  clearly  a  labour  of  love  to  its  author. 

«         *         *         «         ♦ 

A  more  modern  instance  is  Mr.  Ellis  Parker  Butler's  Pigs 
is  Pigs,  a  short  story  which  may  or  may  not  have  been  pub- 
Hshed  in  this  country.  A  pair  of  guinea-pigs  are  transported 
from  one  town  to  another  by  an  Express  Delivery  Company. 
An  obstinate  official  insists  in  charging  thirty  cents  a  head  on 
them,  the  rate  for  pigs  ;  an  equally  obstinate  consignee  refuses 
to  pay  more  than  the  twenty-five  cents  due  on  pets.  Pending 
agreement  the  guinea-pigs  are  left  in  the  office.  The  man- 
in-charge  writes  to  headquarters  about  it,  and  causes  great 
bewilderment  by  mentioning  two  animals  in  his  first  letter, 
eight  in  his  second,  and  32  in  his  third.  The  struggle  con- 
tinues (an  enormous  bill  for  cabbage-leaves  being  run  up) 
until  the  office  is  one  large  range  of  hutches  and  the  guinea-pigs 
number  very  many  thousands.  The  man  has  only  to  step 
(or  rather  creep,  for  there  is  little  space)  into  the  street  for 
five  minutes,  and  on  his  return  he  finds  that  there  are  a 
hundred  more.  This  story  is  told  with  perfect  composure  : 
there  is  only  one  joke  in  it,  and  that  is  the  whole  story.  The 
effect  of  this  kind  of  thing  is  the  effect  of  parody.  It  is  parody 
of  life  and  close  to  the  humour  of  Butler's  Erewhon.  No  one 
can  equal  the  American  humorist  at  it.  The  Americans — 
I  use  the  word  in  the  most  complimentary  sense — -are  the 
Greatest  Liars  in  Creation. 

*  *  *  •  ^.  * 
Professor  Leacock,  in  his  essay. trpon  American  Humour 
says  :  "  Essays  upon  American  Humour,  after  an  initial 
effort  towards  the  dignity  and  serenity  of  literary  criticism, 
generally  resolve  themselves  into  the  mere  narration  of 
.\merican  jokes  and  stories.  The  fun  of  these  runs  thinly 
towards  its  impotent  conclusion,  till  the  disillusioned  reader 
detects  behind  the  mask  of  the  literary  theorist  the  anxious 
grin  of  the  secondhand  story-teller."  How  untrue  that  is; 
and  how  unfair. 

***** 

In  order  to  get  back  on  him  for  his  gratuitous  malice,  I 
shall  steal  from  his  Literary  Lapses,  a  final  example  of  his 
great  gift  of  making  an  idiot  of  himself.  He  sets  himself  to 
consider  whether  or  not  the  bicycle  is  a  nobler  animal  than 
the  horse. 

I  find  that  the  difference  between  the  horse  and  the  bicycle 

is  greater  than  I  had  supposed. 

The  horse  is  entirely  covered  with  hair  ;    the  bicycle  is  not 

entirely  covered   with  hair,   except  the   '89   model  they  are 

using  in  Idaho. 

In  riding  a  horse  the  performer  finds  that  the  pedals  in  which 

he  puts  his  feet  will  not  allow  of  a  good  circular  stroke.     He 

will   observe,    however,    that   there   is   a   saddle   in    which — 

especially  while  the  horse  is  trotting — he  is  expected  to  seat 

himself  from  time  to  time.     But  it  is  simpler  to  ride  standing 

up  with  the  feet  in  the  pedals. 

There  are  no  handles  to  a  horse,  but  the  1910  model  has  a 

string  to  each  side  of  its  face  for  turning  its  head  when  there 

is  anything  you  want  it  to  see. 

Coasting  on   a  good   horse   is  .superb,   but   should   be   under 

control. 

1  should  like  to  hear  Professor  Freud's  views  on  the 
hidden  implications  of  this. 


26 


**  ^ 

T||i' 

% 

\ 

t 

\ 

^M 

% 

America  :    "  I  know  *i^ 

[  This  cartoon  by  Raemaekers  is  printed  in  England  for  the  first  time.     It  has  been  reproduced  in  more  I  0^ 


27 


ol;    I've  done  it  before" 

Y  ■  nerican  newspapers  and  is  being  used  by  the  United  States  Navy  Department  as  a  recruiting  poster] 


28 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


Feeding    Starving    Belgium 


By   Percy   Alden,    M.P. 


THE  greatest  piece  of  philanthropy  that  tlic  world  has 
ever  seen  is  in  all  probability  the  Commission  for  Relief 
in  Belgium,  begun  at  the  instance  of  Americans 
and  largely  organised  by  them  in  conjunction  with 
the  Spanish  Embassy.  It  will  be  remembered  that  by 
October  1914,  practically  the  whole  of  Belgium  was  in  German 
hands,  which  meant  according  to  the  German  interpretation 
of  the  Hague  Conventions  the  seizing  of  Belgian  food  supplies 
to  maintain  the  occupying  army.  Even  in  times  of  peace 
Belgium  is  compelled  to  import  three-quarters  of  its  food. 
In  time  of  war,  when  supplies  have  been  destroyed  or  seized, 
and  when  all  industry  is  at  a  standstill,  much  more  is  re- 
quired. It  is  beyond  a  doubt  that  had  it  not  been  for  the 
United  States,  the  Belgians  in  large  towns  like  Liege,  Brussels, 
Antwerp,  Charleroi  would  have  been  deprived  of  nearly  all 
their  food  by  the  German  army,  would  have  rioted,  and  been 
shot  down.  In  the  early  stages  of  the  invasion  the  Belgian 
.American  Committee  had  been  formed  to  alleviate  the 
destitution  in  Brussels.  Before  long,  however,  it  became  clear 
that  much  more  must  be  done  ;  and  Mr.  Millard  Shaler,  an 
.American  engineer,  was  sent  to  London  on  behalf  of  the 
Brussels  Committee.  Mr.  Hugh  Gibson,  Secretary  of  the 
.American  Legation  in  Brussels  followed,  and  these  two  men 
with  the  co-operation  of  the  Belgian  Minister  and  the  American 
.Ambassador  approached  the  British  Government  with  a  view 
to  obtaining  a  permit 
for  the  export  of  emer- 
gency relief.  The  Ameri- 
can Minister  in  Brussels 
together  with  Mr.  Page, 
who,  as  Ambassador  to 
St.  James's  has  won 
for  himself  a  great 
reputation,  appealed  for 
help.  The  Spanish  Am- 
bassador in  London 
was  instructed  by  his 
Government  to  co- 
operate ;  and  finally  the 
relief  of  Belgium  was 
jointly  undertaken  by 
the  American  and 
Spanish  Legations. 
These  were  the  con- 
ditions leading  up  to 
the  formation  of  the 
Neutral  Commission  for 
Relief  in  Belgium. 

Mr.  Hoover,  who  was 
in    London,   had    been 

called  upon  to  assist  in  organising  relief  for  Americans  who,  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  found  themselves  stranded  in  this 
country.  His  capacity  for  organisation  was  so  marked  and 
his  work  so  successful  in  this  direction,  that  Mr.  Page  sent  for 
him  to  ask  what  was  to  be  done  about  Belgium,  and  invited 
him  to  take  control.  He  immediately  called  upon  his  fellow- 
countrymen  for  the  sacrifice  of  their  money  and  their  time 
in  this  difficult  task  of  keeping  the  Belgian  nation  ahve. 
He  formed  a  Committee, of  Americans  in  London  and  an- 
(^ther  in  New  York,  and  an  appeal  was  issued  to  the  American 
people  with  the  approval  of  King  Albert,  and  '5,000,000 
dollars  were  raised  within  twelve  months  in  that  country. 
In  Brussels  a  similar  Committee  was  established  consisting  of 
Belgians — the  Comite  National.  It  included  bankers 
and  business  men.  The  Comite  National  has  grown  until  it 
now  has  scattered  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
Belgium,  50,000  voluntary  helpers  who  personally  supervise 
the  distribution  of  all  the  food  supplies,  and  undertake  that 
they  shall  reach  the  people  for  whom  they  are  intended. 
But  America  did  not  stop  short  at  Belgium.  In  March  1915, 
at  the  request  of  the  French  authorities  the  Commission 
undertook  to  arrange  ior  the  feeding  of  the  people  in  the  oc- 
cupied portion  of  Northern  France.  In  April  of  the  same 
year,  the  National  Committee  for  Relief  in  Belgium  was 
foimed  with  Mr.  Goode  as  Hon.  Secretary.  The  special  func- 
tion of  that  Committee  on  which  I  have  served,  was  to  pro- 
vide charitable  funds  contributed  by  the  British  Empire  for 
the  relief  of  the  people  of  Belgium,  remitting  all  such  sums 
to  the  Neutral  Commission  and  assuming  no  responsibility  for 
the  administration  of  these  funds,  except  when  directly  author- 
ised by  H.M.  Government.  With  regard  to  that  fund,  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  in  addition  to  considerably  over 
£1,000,000  contributed  by  .America  the  British  Empire  has 
contributed  up  to  the  end  of  April  1917  £2,387,269.     In  all 


Wh 


more  than  £5,000,000  has  been  contributed  by  the  benevolent 
in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

The  facts  can  be  stated  quite  briefly.  The  Commission, 
together  with  the  Belgian  Comite  National  in  Brussels  an^ 
the  Northern  France  Committee,  have  been  responsible  for  the 
leeding  of  about  10,000,000  people  ;  3,500,000  in  Belgium  and 
2.000,000  in  France  being  totally  destitute.  Up  to  the  end 
of  April  this  work  has  cost  approximately  £65,000,000. 
More  than  3,000,000  tons  of  food  have  been  sent  into  Belgium 
and  France,  bought  by  the  Commission  in  the  world's  markets, 
and  carried  by  50  or  60  cargo  steamers  from  all  quarters  of  the 
globe. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  deal  at  length  with  the  political  or 
economic  aspects  of  this  great  benevolent  enterprise,  but  a 
few  facts  may  be  jotted  down  for  the  guidance  of  food  con- 
trollers and  other  important  officials.  The  Commission  bought 
its  wheat  in  Chicago  and  it  was  purchased  on  that  day  on  which 
few  orders  came  in  and  when,  therefore,  it  was  at  its  lowest 
price.  Arrangements  were  made  for  special  charges  for 
conveyance  to  New  York.  The  wheat  was  then  loaded  on 
steamers  at  a  figure  considerably  less  than  the  prevailing 
rates  because  the  Commission  possessed  its  own  ships,  and 
because  all  agency  services  were  given  free.  The  London 
office  of  the  Commission  which  kept  an  eye  on  the  rate  of 
exchange  in  one  year  saved  509,650  dollars  (slightly  more  than 

its  entire  "  overhead" 
expenses)  by  the  way 
in  which  it  paid  for  the 
wheat  supplied.  At 
Rotterdam  a  floating 
elevator,.  purchased 
from  the  city  of  Ant- 
werp, enables  the  Com- 
mission to  load  its  own 
barges.  Tlie  mill  at  La 
Louvic're  grinds  the 
torn  at  a  minimum 
price,  because  there  is 
continuous  work  and  no 
bad  credit,  and  finally 
the  food  in  the  shape 
of  loaves  found  its  way 
to  all  the  head  depots, 
and  was  distributed 
with  the  help  of  the 
Comite  National.  The 
same  system  applies  to 
.  the  handling  of  bacon, 

Ither   r  lard,    nee     and     many 

other  articles. 
One  more  word  is  necessary  to  explain  what  may  be  called 
the  benevolent  side  of  the  Neutral  Commis.sion  s  work. 
The  whole  cost  of  feeding  the  people  lias  to  be  paid.  Some 
of  this  money,  as  I  have  explained,  comes  from  charitable 
sources  and  the  rest  is  obtained  by  the  profits  on  the  sale  of 
food  to  those  Belgians  who  are  able  to  pay.  Notwithstanding 
this  fact,  owing  to  skilful  management  and  scientific  organ- 
isation the  people  in  Belgium  who  were  rich  enough  to  buy 
their  commodities  paid  lower  prices  for  tl  e  same  articles  than 
they  would  have  done  in  London.  It  is  true  that  we 
can  no  longer,  owing  to  the  entry  of  America  into  the 
war,  obtain  the  full  services  of  men  like  Mr.  Hoover, 
who  has  been  appointed  Food  Controller  by  the  United  States 
Government,  but  we  shall  still  reap  the  result  of  the  wonderful 
systefn  which  Belgians  and  Americans  combined  have  set  up 
in  that  stricken  countrj-,  and  the  Allies  will  never  forget  the 
patient  and  courageous  work  for  humanity  which  Mr. 
Hoover  and  his  gallant  colleagues  have  so  faithfully  rendered. 


liif  couTtetiy  oj   "Lijc, 


"  Greater  freedom  in  Russia  will  make  for  European  peace. 
The  Russian  people,  as  its  traits  are  revealed  in  its  wonderful 
literature,  is  a  kindly  folk.  Among  the  Russians  the  instinct 
of  fraternity  seems  stronger  than  among  any  other  Europeans, 
and  this  instinct  reaches  beyond  the  Russian  and  even  beyond 
the  Slav  world  ;  it  is  a  feeling  of  human  brotherhood.  A 
victory  of  the  Central  Empires  would  mean,  on  the  contrary, 
the  perpetuation  of  militarism,  both  in  these  Empires  and  in 
Russia.  In  the  Teutonic  Empires,  because,  as  Bismarck 
said,  no  war  against  Russia  can  be  final.  Russia  may  be 
defeated,  but  it  cannot  be  crushed.  And  a  defeated  Russia 
must  remain  militaristic  in  order  to  be  better  prepared  for 
the  next  war." — Monroe  Smith  in  "  -America  and  the  World 
War,"  North  American  Review. 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


29 


r^^^a^v^ 

i 

■'^  ka 

1 

/g^ 

R 

SOUVENIRS 

OF  THE 

GREAT  WAR 


./iltributed  to 
Adnniral  Jellicoe, 
Marshal     Joffre, 
Lord  French, 
Rt.  Hon.  D.  Lloyd 
George. 


ONLY  A  FEW  LEFT. 


N.B.  — Owing  to  continual 
requests,  one  of  Sir  Dou- 
glas Haig  and  Admiral 
Bsaltyarein  consideiation 


CARICATURE 
TOBY    JUGS 

From  Designs  by  F.C.G.  (Sir  F.  Carrutbers  Gould). 

Itsue  limited  to  350 

each,  after  which  the 

mould*      wilt     be 

destroyed. 

Either  0/  the  four  Jugs 
can  be  purchased  separ- 
ately at 
2    GUINEAS    EACH. 

The  lale  Lord  Kitchener. 

the    subject    ot    the    first 

Toby  is  completed, 

Coiltrolk-d  Kxcliisively  by 

Soane  &  Smith, 

Ltd., 
'The  SpeciiUte  Houia  of 
Origir.alilies  " 

462    OXFORD     STREET 
LONDON.  W  1 


l\  Hi!  Jiii   iarticulars 


BURBERRY 


WEATHERPROOF 

NAVAL   KIT 


Naval    Burberry 

An  efficient  and  healtliful 
substitute  for  oilskin.s  and 
macintoshes. 


Illustrated 
Naval 
Catalogue 
Post  Free 
on  Request 


Naval    Uniforms 

for    R.N.,    R.N.R.,    E.N.V.li.,     and    R.N..\.S. 
supplied  at  the  shortest  notice. 

Officers'     Complete 


Naval    Burfron 


Winds  round  the  figure  with- 
out leaving  openings  anywhere 
to  admit  wet  or  wind. 


Kits  in  2  to  4  Days 
or   Ready    for    Use 


DURBERRYSare  experts  in  all  branches  of  Naval  Outfitting, 
'^  and,  as  skilled  craftsmen,  supply  correct  and  well-tailored 
Uniforms,  in  addition  to  every  detail  of  dress  and  equipment, 
at  reasonable  prices. 

DURBERRY  NAVAL  KIT  is  unrivalled  for  its  powers  of 
*^  excluding  wet  or  cold,  and,  whilst  lightweight,  is  so  strong 
and  durable  as  to  be  capable  of  withstanding  continuous  ex- 
posure to  every  kind  of  weather,  as  well  as  the  rough  wear 
inevitable  on  Active  Service. 

DURBERRY  NAVAL  CLOTHS- 
•'-'  woven  and  proofed  by  special 
Burberry  processes -have  stood  the  test 
of  many  years' hard  usage,  and  their  splen- 
did weather  and  wear-resisting  properties 
have  been  vindicated  by  many  distin- 
guished Officers  of  the  senior  branch  of 
His  Majesty's  Service. 

TJ  Eoery   Burherr\)  garment  i.   labelled  "  Burberrys  " 


N.WAL  &  MILITARY 
WEATHERPROOFS 

During  tlic  War 
BURBERRYS   CLEAN 
AND    REPROOF 

Officcra'    "  nurberr  ys," 
Tielockens,  Biirfmiis,  and 
Burberry    Tre;ich-Waruis 
in  14  days 
FREE    OF   CHARGE 


BURBERRYS  ^^{^^^t 

Bd.  Malesherbes  PARIS  ;  &  Agents  in  Chief  Naval  Stations. 


^o 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917. 


Please  write  for  Particulars 
and  Join  our  Waiting  List. 

D  •  N  APiER  82  Son,  Lt"? 

AcTOiSDOH,w.     W.NeW  Burlinaton  Slreel,London,W. 


Contractors  to  bhe 
British.Frehch.Russian 

&  BELGIAN  GC^^ERTIHEHrS 


■.fa»ismmmmtmmmu 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


31 


Mr.  Wilson's  War  Efficiency. 


f 


By  Norman  Hapgood 


THE  amount  that  the  United  States  can  acomplish  in 
the  war  must  depend  of  course  largely  on  the  nature 
of  the  people  themselves  ;  on  the  youth  and  the 
business  men.  The  youth  will  turn  out  to  be  good 
fighting  men.  Most  of  them  go  to  college  and  have  a  resulting 
increase  of  responsibiUty  and  honour.  The  business  men 
have  been  accustomed  to  large  units  and  will  be  found  to  be 
capable  of  the  work  of  organising  as  they  are  called  on  by  the 
Government.  Efficiency,  however,  will  depend  also  in  large 
part  on  the  political  leadership.  It  must  depend  on  Mr. 
Wilson  more  than  is  the  case  in  any  other  country  ;  not  only 
because  his  powers  are  so  great  but  also  because  they  are  so 
secure.  Lloyd  George,  Lvov,  Ribot,  or  Hollweg  might  be 
displaced  at  any  moment,  bat  Wilson  is  secure  in  office  until 
March  4,  192 1. 

British  newspaper  correspondents    have  sometimes  drawn 
analogies  that  left  this  and  simiUar  differences  out  of  account  ; 
as  for  example  when  they  have  suggested  the  advisabihty  of  a 
Coalition     Cabinet,    and 
have     even      named    as 
possible     members      the 
most  intransigeant  mem- 
bers of    the    Opposition 

party.       It  is  no  doubt  '*•■  , 

always  well  for  the 
President  to  use  men  of 
any  party  when  they  are 
the  best  men  for  the 
actuil  work.  It  may  even 
De  necessary  for  him  to 
place  certain  conspicuous 
Republicans  in  certain 
positions  when  they  are 
not  the  best  men,  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  quel- 
hng  factional  agitation  in 
newspapers  and  in  Con- 
gress. But  under  our 
system  of  government  it 
certainly  would  not  be  an 
advantage  to  introduce 
opposed  political  leaders 
into  the  Cabinet  itself. 
An5'body  who  is  put  in 
the  Cabinet  on  account  of 
the  war  will  be  put  there 
for  efficiency  alone  and 
not  for  the  sake  of  hold 
ing  the  support  of  the 
RepubUcans  of  the 
country.  Congress,  or  the 
Press. 

The  President  is  so 
much  of  a  student  and  a 
writer  that  it  is  some 
times  overlooked  that  he 
is  essentially  a  man  of 
action.   I  see  pictures  of 

loirn  in  London  shop-windows  marked  "  Dr.  Wilson,"  which 
is  a  misleading  emphasis.  Nobody  who  appreciates  the  Presi- 
dent s  record  would  think  of  calling  him  Dr.  Wilson,  or  of  in 
any  way  seeking  to  give  an  academic  suggestion  about  his 
character.  A  modern  College  President  in  the  United  States 
is  a  man  of  action.  He  is  necessarily  a  business  man.  He 
may  chance  to  be  a  scholar,  as  Mr.  Wilson  is  ;  but,  if  successful, 
an  enterprising  and  active  executive  he  absolutely  must  be. 
As  President  of  Princeton  Mr.  Wilson  was  a  dominant 
administrator,  and  at  the  same  time  an  innovator;  doing  the 
regular  college  business  energetically,  and  at  the  same  time, 
with  notable  spirit,  undertaking  fundamental  improvements. 
It  was  as  Governor  of  New  Jersey  that  he  proved  to  the 
general  public  throughout  the  country  that  it  was  in  his 
nature  to  "  do  things,"  as  they  like  to  say  in  America. 
He  does  not  use  the  prevailing  expressions  about  doing  things 
and  "  hustling,"  but  he  does  drive,  albeit  without  noise,  and 
he  does  accomplish  to  a  distinguished  extent.  Foreigners  can 
hardly  be  expected  to  know  that  the  first  four  years  of  his 
presidency  saw  more  important  constructive  legislation  put  on 
the  statute  books  in  Washington  than  have  been  put  there 
in  any  other  dozen  years  since  the  reconstruction  amendments, 
or  that  the  President  was  the  force  that  took  the  lead  both  in 
formulating  this  legislation  and  in  successfully  forcing  it 
through  Congress.  Much  of  it,  as  the  Federal  Reserve  Act, 
the  new  Tariff  Act,  the  Shipping  Act,  the  Act  creating     a 


NAVY! 

Uncle  Sam   is  calling  YOU! 
'^         ENLIST  in  Ih.  Navv! 


DO  IT  NOW! 


I   want  you ! 


Federal  Trade  Commission,  and  the  Rural  Credits  Act,  brought 
along  with  it  new  administrative  bodies  which  are  of  peculiar 
use  just  now. 

In  selecting  men  for  these  bodies  the  President  is  subject 
to  fair  criticism  in  a  few  instances,  but  only  in  a  few.  In  the 
main  they  are  composed  of  men  of  appropriate  ability ;  and 
perhaps  the  very  names  of  the  bodies  will  indicate  why  their 
existence  makes  far  easier  tlian  it  would  otherwise  have  been, 
the  task  of  organising  a  large  country  for  modern  war.  In 
fact,  if  the  big  effort  the  United  States  is  now  called  on 
to  make  turns  out  to  be,  as  I  anticipate,  decidedly  successful, 
it  will  be  in  no  small  degree  because  of  what  President  Wilson 
did  before  the  country  went  into  the  war  at  all. 

Could  any  better  illustration  be  asked  of  war-tests  than 
the  increased  appreciation  of  Secretary  McAdoo  and  Secretary 
Houston  in  the  last  few  months  ?  Mr.  McAdoo  is  imaginative, 
daring,  untiring,  ,and  combatant.  I  have  heard  several 
highly  qualified  judges  speak  of  him  as  the  most  resourceful 

American  Secretary  of 
:he  Treasury  since 
Alexander  Hamilton. 
Politically  he  is  a  Radical 
and  the  privileged  in- 
terests do  not  like  him. 
Foreigners  travelling  in 
America  in  social  and 
financial  circles  have 
usually  heard  ill  of  him. 
Since  the  United  States 
went  into  the  war,  Mr. 
McAdoo's  powers  of 
initiative  and  labour  have 
stood  out  conspicuously 
and  have  widely  increased 
the  general  appreciation 
of  his  exceptional  value. 
In  spite  of  his  support  of 
drastic  taxation  mea- 
sures, the  complaints 
from  a  few  of  the  wealthy 
have,  as  far  as  I  can  judge 
from  abroad,  gained 
comparatively  little 
backing.  Before  the  war 
is  over  it  wiU  be  much 
more  fully  realised  that 
the  selection  and  reten- 
tion of  Mr.  McAdoo,  much 
used  against  the  Presi- 
dent, is  one  of  the 
strongest  proofs  of  his 
ability  to  act  and  to  lead. 
Secretary  Houston  is 
an  example  of  a  different 
kind.  He  is  not  a  fighter 
by  preference,  but  a  re- 
tiring, steady,  exact  and 
most  comprehensive  mas- 
ter of  his  subject.  He  has  not  been  attacked,  but  it  has 
until  recently  been  impossible  to  make  the  country  at  large 
realise  the  full  importance  of  what  he  has  been  doing  for 
agricultural  production  and  distribution  ;  for  variety  and 
suitability  of  crops,  for  organisation,  for  markets,  for 
spreading  information,  for  bringing  together  supply  and 
demand.  It  has  been  said  that  he  knows  less  how  to 
advertise  the  accomplishment  of  his  department  than  any 
other  man  in  tlie  Gov'ernment. 

Now  it  will  be  realised  that  our  entrance  into  the  war  found 
the  food  question  far  on  the  way  towards  solution,  through 
what  Mr.  Houston  had  done  already,  and  what  Congress  had 
done  along  the  lines  largely  pointed  out  by  him.  With  Mr. 
Hoover  to  share  the  war  aspect  of  this  work,  notably  on  the 
side  of  the  needs  of  the  Allies,  it  will  be  as  well  conducted, 
I  think,  as  is  humanly  possible.  From  the  standpoint  of  the 
Allies  the  food  question  and  the  shipping  question  are  of  course 
closely  related.  The  members  of  the  Shipping  Board  were 
chosen  after  I  left  America,  but  I  know  some  of  them,  and  am 
convinced  that  the  board  is  likely  to  be  of  decided  value  from 
the  war  point  of  view.  If,  by  the  way,  Mr.  McAdoo  and  the 
President  had  not  been  beaten  in  Congress  in  their  attempt  tc 
increase  shipping,  early  in  the  war,  through  government 
participation,  we  should  be  in  a  much  stonger  pdsition  to-day. 
The  shipping  interests,  their  allied  interests,  and  others  calling 
themselves  practical  men.  and  condemning  visionaries,  were 


A  tnfltnjiwtr 


32 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,   1917 


able  to  defeat  the  Shipping  Bill  at  one  session  and  to  weaken 
it  at  the  next. 

The  two  Departments  that  control  specifically  the  army 
and  tlie  navy  have  borne  much  criticism,  especially  the  navy 
department.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Mr.  Daniels  has  been  attacked 
much  more  on  account  of  his  social  and  political  ideas  and 
manners,  which  are  those  of  Mr.  Bryan,  than  for  any  failure 
in  efficiency,  as  to  which  his  record  is  on  the  whole  good.  Mr. 
leaker,  before  accepting  the  War  Department,  had  been  a 
successful  mayor  ol  the  big  city  of  Cleveland.  He  is  quick, 
modern,  and  efficient.  The  attacks  made  on  him  are 
exclusively  political.  With  the  co-operation  that  will  be  fur- 
nished to  him,  in  his  immensely  increased  work,  he  will  emerge. 
I  am  convinced,  with  an  admirable  war  record. 

President  Wilson's  efficiency,  in  short,  has  been  in  peace 
times  of  a  kind  to  promise  efficiency  in  war  times.  He  has 
mainly  selected  men  of  superior  and  fit  ability;  he  has  led  them 
to  work  together,  and  he  has  trodden  unknown  paths  with 
more  positive  results  than  any  other  President  since  the  Civil 
War.  It  seems  impossible  that  there  should  be  any  such  un- 
pleasant surprises  as  the  United  States  met  in  the  war  with 
Spain,  when  we  had  a  President  who  had  been  for  many 
years  a  political  leader,  who  was  the  favourite  of  (the  business 
interests,  who  had  no  enemies,  and  whom  nobody  ever  called 
academic.  In  the  Presidential  campaign  of  last  summer  and 
autumn,  with  the  world  in  upheaval,  it  was  most  difficult  to 
centre  the  attention  of  the  voters  on  administrative  efficiency. 
They  re-elected  Wilson,  as  far  as  they  were  aware  of  their 
motives,  because  they  thought  him  levelheaded  on  the  war 
question,  because  Mr.  Hughes  wobbled,  and  because  the 
country  was  prosperous.  Unconsciously,  however,  they  were 
influenced  by  an  established  general  confidence  in  the  man. 
This  confidence  was  built  up  during  several  years  in  which  the 
public  observed  that  his  plans  were  laid  carefully  and  wisely, 
and  carried  out  with  force  and  efficiency. 

Of  course  our  administrative  machinery  will  not  run  with 
perfect  smoothness.  Early  in  the  war  what  country  exce])t 
Germany  was  there  in  which  it  did  run  smoothly  ?  I  think, 
however,  that  there  is  no  reasonable  doubt  of  our  satisfying 
reasonable  expectations,  in  finance,  agriculture,  transport,  and 
fighting.  We  are  somewhat  better  organised  in  a  business 
way,  and  indefinitely  better  organized  and  better  led  in  a 
poUtical  way,  than  when  we  went  to  war  with  Spain.  What- 
ever the  difficulties,  the  work  on  the  whole  will  be  done  well. 


Columbia  Galls 


A  very  effective   recruiting   poster   which   has   been 
widely  used  throughout  the  United  States. 


CARLSBAD 


MARIENBAD 


BADEN-BADEN 


German     Spas    Crossed    off     the     Map 

Doctors  now  Prescribe   Kruschen  Salts 


ONE  of  the  results  of  the  Great  War  has 
been  the  discovery  that  the  habit  of 
going  to  foreign  watering-places  to 
seek  for  health  has  been  a  piece  of 
sheer  superstition — since  a  far  more  simple  and 
efficient  remedy  for  rheumatic  and  gouty  ail- 
ments has  lain  all  the  time  at  home.  The 
German  spas  have  therefore  ceased  to  exist, 
not  only  for  the  duration  of  the  war,  but  for  all 
time.  The  "  spa  "  habit  has  given  way  to  the 
"  Kruschen  "    habit. 

The  greatest  need  of  the  moment  is  that 
every  man  and  woman  in  the  Empire  should 
keep  tit,  strong  and  well.  People  who  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  taking  Kruschen  Salts  have 
never  needed  to  go  to  German  spas  for  their 
health  ;  and  now  that  these  spas  are  closed 
once  and  for  always,  everyone  will  be  free  to 
look  nearer  home.  What  will  they  find  ? 
Something  better,  something  cheaper,  some- 
thing that  is  sure  and  certain,  something  that 
is  reliable — Kruschen  Salts,  the  standard 
British  remedy  for  rheumatism,  gout,  and  all 
kindred  ailments. 

The  "  Kruschen  "  habit  has  the  virtue  of 
combining  its  known  efficacy  with  the  simplicity 
i\at  is  the  hall-mark  of  all  really  great  things. 


Simple,  that  is,  from  the  patient's  point  of 
view — -he  merely  takes  a  half-teaspoonful  of 
Kruschen  Salts  every  morning  for  a  few  weeks 
in  a  tumbler  of  hot  water,  and  feels  each  day 
how  his  aches  and  pains  are  leaving  him  and 
being  replaced  by  the  vivacity  and  vigour  of 
good  health.  Not  so  simple  from  the  manufac- 
turers' standpoint— they  had  generations  of 
experiments  to  undertake,  long  years  of  ex- 
perience to  gain,  and  endless  scientific  investiga- 
tions to  make  in  the  production  of  their 
"  simple  "  remedy.  Simple  again  from  the 
doctor's  point  of  view,  who,  when  he  says  "  Save 
time,  save  money,  and  save  your  health  by 
taking  the  '  Kruschen  '  course  in  your  own  home 
amidst  your  customary  surroundings,"  leaves 
you  in  possession  of  a  remedy  which  he  knows 
has  brought  relief  to  thousands  of  sufferers  all 
over  the  world. 

It  was  a  wholly  wrong  idea  of  what  the  body 
really  needs  that  used  to  lead  so  many  seekers 
after  health  to  go  abroad  in  search  of  it  The 
body  needs  cleansing  regularly  of  impurities, 
and  in  this  the  organs  of  elimination  often  need 
assistance.  Kruschen  Salts  acts  gently  but 
efficiently  upon  the  liver  and  kidneys,  and 
stimulates  them  to  perform  their  functions  in 


a  normal  way.  There  is  nothing  violent  or 
unnatural  in  this  :  the  organs  are  assisted  to 
do  their  ordinary  work  properly — nothing  more. 
The  result  is  a  return  to  the  health  that  Nature 
intended  everyone  lo  enjoy. 

Hut  Kruschen  Salts  is  more  than  a  mere 
aperient  and  diuretic.  It  also  possesses  tome 
properties  that  render  it  pre-eminent  above 
all  other  depuratives,  the  effect  of  which  is 
generally  negatived  by  failure  to  maintain  the 
tone  of  the  organs  during  the  cleansing  process. 
Lassitude  is  tlie  inevitable  result  of  such  one- 
side  procedure,  and  it  is  open  to  tjuestion  whether 
the  net  result  is  even  a  slight  improvement  in 
the  concUtion  it  was  purposed  to  correct.  Witli 
the  "  Kruschen  "  course  there  is  no  period  01 
being  "  worse  before  you  are  better  " — no 
pain,  no  discomfort,  no  temporary  indisposition 
Kalher  your  mental  and  physical  state  begins  ai_ 
once  to  improve,  and  continues  so  to  do  as  you' 
continue  to  use  this  truly  beneficent  remedy. 

Kru^ch' n  Salts,  which  is  an  entirely  British 
product,  may  be  obtained  the  world  over — of 
all  chemists,  is.  6d.  per  bottle,  or  post  free  ol 
!•;.  Griffiths  Hughes  (Kruschen),  Ltd.,  68 
Deansgate  Arcade,  .Manchester.  It  is  also 
obtainable  at  all  British  Expeditionary  Force 
canteens  at  the  above  price. 


June  7,  1917. 


LAND    &    WATER 


33 


Military    Badge 
Jewellery 


-"-  ."■'i' i'-i.*  J 


Royal  Flying  Corps  Badge  Brooch.  Fine 
quality  Diamonds,  set  in  Palladium  and 
Lnamel       ....        £46:0:0 


Royal  Engineers  Bad^e 
Brooch,  fine  quality 
Diamonds  and    E,namel. 

£18:0:0 


Nayal  Crown  Brooch,  fine 
quality  Diamonds  and 
Lmeralds      -       £13:0:0 


THE  Goldsmiths  and  Silversmiths  Company's  Badge  Jewellery 
is  of  the  highest  quality ;  it  is  correct  in  detail,  and  of 
finest  workmanship.  The  Badge  of  any  Regiment  can  be 
reproduced  in  Palladium,  Gold.  Silver,  and  Enamel,  or  set  with 
diamonds  and  other  precious  stones.  Naval  Emblems  and 
Ships'  Badges  also  can  be  made  in  similar  manner.  An  illustrated 
Catalogue  of  Military  Jewellery  will  be  sent  post  free  on  application. 

'T'HE  Goldsmiths   and  Silversmiths   Company  have   no   other 
■■  establishments  in  Regent  Street,  Oxford  Street,  or  elsewhere  in 
London,  and  no  branches  in  the  provinces  or  abroad. 

THE 

s  &  Silversmiths 

nr  13    ■H'^^  -H^^ie/^  is>  ineoppoTxited  TEe  GoCdsmit^^ 
i  &  a  ^a:ianeeM'/J?BMi)o7H/<S-So/2^)£sra6/'is^ed/rj/. 

Experts  in  Gem  Jewellery. 

112    Regent    Street    London    W.l. 


34 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917. 


Thi 


a 


LAND  &  WATER 

Wrist    Watch 

With    unbreakable   glass   and  luminous   dial 


>> 


MOST  wrist  watches  are  "  gay  deceivers 
Some  are  always  in  a  hurry.     Some 
are  lazy  ;    and  some  are  steady 
and   sure,    telling    the    time 
truthfully  year  in  and  year  out     Of  th( 
last  kind  is  the  "  Ltind  &  Water." 

The  ••  Land  &  Water  "  is  one  of  tlio 
greatest  achievements  of  the  watch- 
maker's skill.     It  is  the  finest  quality 
timekeeper  obtainable  and  has  been 
proved    by    practical    tests   in   the 
trenches  equal  in  accuracy  to  a  40- 
guinea  chronometer.     For  Naval  and 
Military  men  it  is  the  ideal  watch.  It 
i?   built  to  stand  the  jars    and   jolts 
inseparable    from    the   conditions     of 
modem  warfare.     The  screwing-in  of  the 
movement  into  the  specially  built  silver 
case,  which  is  different  to  the  ordinary 
way,  renders  the  watch  far  more  dust,  damp 
and  waterproof  than  any  other  pattern.      The 
movement  is  fully  jewelled  and  fitted  with  micrometer 

The  "Land  &  Water"  Wrist  Watch,  with 
glass  and  luminous  dial,  post  free 

Special  non-magnetic  Model,  white  dial, 

9-ct.  Gold  Model,  white  dial   only 

Stevel  Wrisllet  extra. 


unbreakable 
Jt4    0  0. 

JL4  10  0. 

£.8     0  0. 


A  Thoroughly  Reliable  Compass 

at  about  half  the  price  usually  charged  for 
one  of  similar  quality  and  finish.  The  Com- 
pass is  accurate,  fully  luminous,  with  a  lumin- 
ous si^ht  line  on  the  ^lass  so  that  it  is 
e<)ually  useful  for  day  or  night  work. 

The  card  steadies  with  unusual  rapidity,  en- 
abling observation  to  be  taken  quickly,  and 
the  bulk  of  the  in.strunient  is  no  more  than  that 
of  a  flat  dress  watch. 

It  is  the  best  Compass  obtainable  for  Service 
work  at  a  reasonable  price,  and  will  fulfil  all 
uses  but  those  in  whicli  a  prism  sight  is 
essential. 

In  nickel  or  oxydised  finish,  12  6. 


regulator  for  extra  fine  adjustment.     Each  watch  is 

tdjusted   and   compensated  for  all    positions 

and  temperatures  and  is  backed  by  a  two 

ars'  guarantee  from  the  makers-  a  firm 

ith  a  century's   good   name   at   stake. 

READ  THIS  FROM  THE  TRENCHES. 

Messrs.  Birch   and    Gaydon  ;     Dear  Sirs, 

I     thought    you    might     like     to     have 

some    details    about    the     wrist    watch 

I   purchased  from  you   eighteen  montlis 

ago.       I     have    just    arrived     back     in 

Ix)ndon   on    leave   after    fifteen     montns 

in     the     trenches.       The    hands    of    tlie 

watch    have    never    been     sot     since     1 

left      England,     and     on     checking     the 

variation     1      find     that    the    watch    has 

gained  less  than  two  minutes  in  the  fifteen 

months,     Durin,'    this    time    the    watch    has 

always    been    on    my     wrist,    and    has    been 

tlirough  many  attacks  in  the  Somme    Battle, 

including    the    taking    of    • ,    etc.,      and 

on    countless    occasions    has    been    subject     to     very 
severe  dampmg.— A.H.H.,  loth  Bn.  Koyal  Fusiliers. 

STEVEL  WRISTLET  (as  illustrated),  self  adjustable.     Fits  all  wrists 
— slender    or    stout.       No    straps,     buckles,     or    other    inconvenience. ' 
Enibles  the  watch  to  be  slipped  up  the  arm  at  wdsh-time,  or  turned  face 
downwards,   thus  doing  away  with  dial  protectors.     Strong  and  durable. 
Nickel-plated,  post   free   2/3. 
Silver        „  ,,  2/9. 
Gold         ..              „           5/3. 


The  "  Q  "  Pocket  Alarm  Watch 

With  luminou*  dial. 

This  Watch  is  a  remarkably  accurate  time- 
keeper. The  movement  being  of  the  best 
quality,  fully  jewelled,  perfectly  balanced  and 
compensated  for  all  temperatures.  It  is  par- 
ticularly recommended  for  the  use  of  officers 
in  timing  attacks,  bombardments,  etc.  Equally 
suitable  for  civilians  who,  if  they  possess  it, 
need  never  depend  upon  memory  for  punctu- 
ality in  keeping  appointments.  The  back  of 
the  case  opens  so  that  at  night-time  the  watch 
may  be  stood  at  bedside  ready  to  awaken  you 
in  the  morning.  The  alarm  is  simple  to  set, 
and  at  the  very  moment  of  the  appointed  time 
a  lengthy  repeater-like  sound  will  compel  your 
attention.  Should  you  fail  to  hear  it  (which 
is  hardly'possible  unless  surrounded  by  noise), 
its  vibrations  are  unmistakably  insistent. 
Each  Watch  is  fully  guaranteed  by  the  makers. 
(State  wketlier  black  or  wkite  dial  preferred). 


Oxyd 


ised, 
4s. 


Silver, 
£5. 


The  "Land  &  Water" 
Stop    Watches 

are  accurate  instruments  for  all  Service  and 
Scientific  purposes.  The  1/100  second  Model 
is  ideal  for  ARTILLERY  and  AEROPLANE 
observation  work.  It  is  one  of  the  most  won- 
derful pieces  of  scientific  mechanism  yet  pio- 
duced  and  is  guaranteed  equal  to  the  usual 
article  sold  at  £15  In  addition  to  giving 
correct  reading  to  1/lOOth  part  of  a  second,  it 
also  shows  the  total  number  of  seconds  up 
to  00. 

THREE    MODELS  : 

1  100  seconds,         1/10  seconds,        1/5  seconds, 

70/-.  40/..  30/-. 


Obtainable    only    from 


BIRCR    6    GAYDON,   Ltd., 

Technical  &   Scientific  Instrument  Makers   to    the  Admiralty   &    War   Office, 
t^*%       T*  L  LOi  I  1  V    /^      *%  WEST    END    BRANCH    [Late   John  Barwite) : 

15j    renchurch    M.,   London,    L.t.J.,    19  Piccadilly  Arcade,  London,  S.Wl. 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


35 


The  Grown  of  Thorns 


By  Centurion 


"  J.a  conronne  dti  '^oldal  ea!  tine  couronne  d'epincs.  ' — De  Vigny. 

MY  friend  paused  for  a  moment  and  stared 
reflectively  at  the  pattern  of  the  dado;  "  Coyrago. 
W'liat  is  courage  ?  1  don't  know.  Courage  in 
tile  heat  of  action,  we've  all  got  tliat,  I 
su])pose.  It's  an  animal  instinct.  There's  a  certain 
gregariousnesB  in  it,  the  instinct  of  the  herd,  tiie  eyes 
of  other  fellows  on  you.  And  after  all,  to  face  Death 
requires  far  less  courage  than  to  face  life,  which,  at  any 
rate  by  the  time  you  are  forty,  is  much  the  more  terrible 
of  the  two.  But  there's  another  kind  of  courage — the  courage 
to  take  lonely  decisions  amid  a  dance  of  ctmflicting  ideas,  to 
resist  the  importunities  of  pity,  or  may  be  of  prudence,  and 
all  the  beckoning  spectres  ot  Imagination,  that  kind  of  courage 
— resolution,  in  fact — well,  that's  not  so  common.  I  mean 
what  that  chaj)  Conrad  calls  a  jiower  to  ignore  '  the  solici- 
tation of  ideas. '  That's  what  1  call  the  courage  of  the 
Higher  Command.  The  courage  of  a  subaltern  is  one  thing  ; 
the  courage  of  a  commanding  officer  is  quite  another.  You 
know  what  I  mean  ?  A  fellow  may  be  a  good  observer,  a 
good  judge  of  positions,  perfectly  cool  in  charge  of  the  fire- 
control  when  the  enemy's  ranging  and  gets  a  bracket  on  you — ■ 
and  yet  Jie  may  be  utterly  unfit  to  command  a  battery,  still 
more  a  brigade,  incapable  of  knowing  when  to  take  his  guns 
out  of  action,  for  example  ;  he  may  hang  on  too  long  or  not 
long  enough.  He  may  think  too  much.  It's  really  not  a 
question  of  cowardice  at  all — a  man's  more  often  undone  by 
fear  for  the  safety  of  others  than  by  fear  for  his  own — by  a 
want  of  hardness  in  his  composition,  if  you  know  what  I 
mean." 

"  Yes,"  I  said,  "  I  know.  It's  a  distinction  not  unknown 
to  military  law,  after  all.  Physical  cowardice,  cold  feet, 
blue  funk,  means  undue  regard  for  one's  personal  safety, 
as  the  charge  sheet  puts  it  ;  moral  cowardice,  irresolution, 
doubt,  all  that  we  call  '  conduct  to  the  prejudice  of  good 
order  and    military  discipline.'  " 

"Quite.  And  it's  the  second  that  is  really  seductive.  It's 
not  danger  that  intimidates  the  man  of  forty  but  responsi- 
bility. Even  his  affections  may  betray  him!  I  knew  an  O.C. 
who  never  got  over  having  his  battalion  cut  up  and  losing 
three-fourths  of  his  officers — it  broke  his  nerve,  he  always 
got  calculating  prospective  losses  in  an  attack  ;  it  wasn't  his 
own  life  he  valued  but  the  lives  of  his  men.  I  often  think 
he  courted  the  bullet  that  put  an  end  to  his  perplexities, 
poor  chap.  The  Hun,  who  thinks  of  everything,  thought 
all  that  out  long  ago — Do  you  remember  that  passage  in  his 
text-l)Ook  in  whicli  he  warns  the  German  officer  against 
'  the  contagion  of  humanitarian  ideas  ?' 

"  Now  I  knew  a  case,  a  hard  case  if  ever  there  was  one, 
one  of  those  dilemmas  of  Duty  and  Conscience  that  De  Vigny 
used  to  say  were  th6  baneful  lot  of  the  soldier  who  thinks  too 
much.  Yes,  I'll  tell  it  to  you.  It  happened  during  the 
Retreat  from  Mons.  I  sujjj)ose  there  never  was  a  show 
which  called  for  greater  resolution,  for  all  that  one  under- 
stands by  moral  courage,  than  that  ;  for  uncertainty  brooded 
over  us  like  a  nightmare.  It  was  not  what  we  knetu  we  had 
to  face  but  what  we  did  not  know  that  troubled  us. "  There 
were  we  constantly  reconnoitring  and  taking  up  a  position 
and  then  being  ordered  to  abandon  it,  continually  getting 
alarms,  sometimes  firing  a  round  point-blank  with  the  fuse 
at  zero  through  a  hedge  in  a  village  at  Uhlans  who  were  not 
there,  despatch-riders  rushing  in  from  encounters  with  enemy 
])atrols  and  magnifying  them  into  armies,  and  the  inscrutable 
woods  dogging  us  the  whole  way,  dark  and  sinister.  The 
air  was  thick  with  rumour  and  suspicion,  and  every  day  came 
rresh  orders — orders  against  spies,  against  intermittent  smoke 
:rom  chimneys,  against  guides,  against  refugees.  I  never 
:ook  my  clothes  off  the  whole  time — except  on  the  28th  when 
some  damned  fool  of  a  staff  officer  sent  out  the  order  to  burn 
all  officers'  kits,  and,  seeing  I  might  just  as  well  burn  my 
old  tunic  and  breeches  instead  of  my  new  ones  in  the  valise, 
I  did  a  quick  change.  We  never  unlimbered  after  Le  Cateau  ; 
and  that  night-  I'm  coming  Ito  it  in  a  moment-  we  didn't 
even  unirarness  ;  the  horses  sle])t  on  their  feet,  and  the  drivers 
beside  them.  Talk  about  scares  !  One  never  knew  what  was 
behind  one — no,  nor  what  was  on  our  left  or  on  our  right. 
Why,  I  remember  the  Corn  walls  received  one  of  our  supply 
columns  in  the  dark  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  We  moved  in 
a  mist — a  mist  of  conjecture,  rumour,  invention,  exaggeration 
and  doubt.  Mind  you,  I'm  not  saying  the  men  ever  got  the 
wind  up.  Oh  no  !  not  they  !  Besides  every  O.C.  told  his 
men  that  it  was  all  part  of  a  great  strategic  plan  to  lure  the 
Germans  on  and  catch  them  in  a  trap.  And  the  men  believed 
it.     So  did  we  officers  for  that  matter,  but  our  trouble  was 


that  we  did  not  know  what  that  plan  was.  We  did  not  know 
we  were  ])Iaying  a  big  game — we  knew  the  rules  of  the  game 
but  we  did  not  know  what  the  game  might  be.  I'd  have 
given  anything  to  know  exactly  what  we  were  up  against.  At 
las!:  we  got  that  Intelligence  Summary  of  tlie  jrst.  It  told  us 
something  like  this.  '  77;<'  march  of  a  German  column  five 
hours'  lont^  was  observed  yesterday  on  the  road  from  Amiens 
to  St.  Juste  en  Chaussee-. aerial  reconnaissance  establishes  the 
movement  of  strong  and  hostile  columns  fifteen  miles  long, 
preceded  bv  cavalry,  from  Roye  to  Compii'gne,  also  of  a  force 
South-Easi  tmf.irds  Monldidier,'  and  so  on.  Pretty  stiff, 
wasn't  it?  And  yet  I  felt  posi  iv 'ly  bucked  up.  Yes, 
bucked  up.  Anyhow,  I  thought,  bad  news  is  better  than  no 
news — and  so  it  is,  in  war..  But  that  was  on  the  31st,  remem- 
ber. The  story  I'm  going  to  tell  you  happened  before  that, 
at  a  time  vyhen  no  one  kn-ew  anything. 

"  It  was  in  the  retreat  from  Le  Cateau.     I. didn't  see  very 
much  of  the  battle  itself.     As  you  know,  a  gunner  never  does, 
unless  he's   observing,    ami  my  battery  was  well  under  cover 
behind  rising  ground.     In  fact  beyond  stray  shells  searching 
for  our   wagon-line   positions,  which  I  had,  of  course,  placed 
carefully    about    400    yards     back    on    the    flank    of    the 
battery,  we    didn't    get    it  very    hot.     But    about    2    p.m. 
there    was   a  great  .volume  of   enemy    artillery    fire,    the 
crackle  of  our  musketry  came  nearer  and  nearer,  and  I  knew 
that  we  were  being  driven  "back.    My  battery  received  orders 
to  retire  to   a    position   to  cover   the    retreat   of  the  other 
batteries.     The  infantry  began  retiring  past  us,  the  cavalry 
helping  to  cover  their  retreat.     Jolly  well  they  did  it  too — 
they  were  everywhere.     Acting   the   part  of  a   stage   army, 
dismounting,  putting  in  a  few  rounds    rapid,  then  mto  the 
saddle     and     starting     the     same     game    somewhere   else, 
so    as    to    give    the    enemy  the    impression    of    our   being 
in    greater    strength   than    we    really  are.      That  went    oa 
till     nig/itfall     when    the    battery    received     the    order    to 
retire,    which    we     did,     wagons      leacUng     so     as     to    1>g 
ready  for  '  action  rear '  at  any  moment.     But  a  lot  of  the 
infantry  were  still  behind  and  our  Brigadier  ordered  us  to 
halt  for  them  to  catch  us  up  in  order  that  we  might  take  as 
many  as  possible  on  our  Hmbers,  for  they  were  dead  beat 
and  dropping    in    their    tracks.     We    took'  them    up,    eight 
to  twelve    on  a    carriage,    all    clinging   to    each    other    like 
tired   children   to    prevent    their    faUing  off,    and    nodding, 
nodding,   nodding  their  heads  fike  clock-work  dolls.     That 
halt   was   nearly   fatal  because  the  rest  of  the  column  had 
gone  on  ahead  of  us  ;  the  night  was  dark,  the  road  unmetalled, 
and  they  had  vanished  out  of  sight  and  hearing  like  ghosts. 
"  I  felt  pretty  uncomfortable,  I  can  tell  you,   for  that  had 
happened  once  before  and  I  had  heard  of  columns  taking  the 
wrong    road    and    marching    straight    into      the     Germans 
and  never    being     heard     of    again.     I  -  had    no     instruo 
tions  as  to  the  route  and  all    the    country     people    seemed 
to  have   fled.     -And   there   was   I,   with     the    tail     end    of 
the   column    at    a    place    where    five  cross   roads    met.     I 
legged  up  a  sign-post,  flashed  my  torch  on  to  it  and  hung   on 
there  perplexed  and  profane,   with  the  moths  fluttering  in 
my  face,  when,  as  luck  woiild  have  it,  up  came  General — ■ — ■, 
our  Divisional  G.O.C.  with  a  staff  officer  of  his.     He  put  us 
right.     He  told  me  to  stop  where  I  was  and  see  that  all  the 
column  followed  the  correct  road  towards  a  certain  place 
and  then  to  ride  along  it  and  report  if  the  whole  of  it  was 
closed  up  and  of  what  units  it  was  composed. 

"  It  was  a  strange  business,  uncanny  you  might  say.  The 
night  was  dark  and  the  order  had  been  given  that  tlicre 
was  to  be  no  smoking  or  talking  in  the  columns.  One 
heard  nothing  but  the  steady  tramp,  tiamp,  tramp  on  the 
road  as  the  shadowy  frieze  of  tired  men  marched  past 
in  a  cloud  of  dust  like  a  river  mist,  silent  and  half  asleep  on 
their  feet.  Every  now  and  then  a  man  would  pitch  forward  on 
his  face  and  lie  where  he  fell  as  though  struck  by  a  bullet.  I 
was  half  asleep  myself,  but  woke  suddenly  as  a  cockchafer 
came  .straight  at  me  and  with  a  buzz  hjt  me  in  the  face.  The 
faint  whisper  of  the  poplars  gradually  grew  louder,  the  wind 
rose,  and  rain  began  to  fall.  Everv  few  yards  I  pulled  up, 
in  order  to  identify  the  units,  and  called  out  "  Who  are  you?" 
At  that  some  sleepy  O.C.  would  pull  up  his  horse,  halt  the 
column,  the  men,  who  held  their  lifles  at  "  the  carry,"  would 
suddenly  eome  to  the  "  on  guard  "  position  with  the  bayonet, 
and  the  O.C,  ranging  up  beside  me  and  peering  into  my  face 
with  his  hand  on  his  revolver,  would  sav  "  Who  the  devil 
are  you  ?  What  do  you  want  to  know  for?"  The  whole  ol 
'em  would  he  suddenly  most  unpleasantly  wide  awake.  Oh  ! 
they  were  topping  !  You  sec  I  wasn't  a  staff  officer,  afid 
for  all  they  knew.^I   might. be  a  German  si)y— such   things 


36 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7.  1917 


happened .  more  th.in  nnre.  T  had  many  altercations  but 
I  alwav!-"  satislie<l  thfin  or  1  w'uuMh't  be  hen- 'now.  diiif 
or  twice  mv  hur^c  st()ii]»r<l  ^\^■M\,  Ihr.iwint;  me  lorward  nn  lui 
neck,  and  shieil  at  a  tiark  iii)ject  ivin'<  iTiDtiunK-ss  nn  ihcioad. 
1  peered  down  and  saw  it  was  a  soldier  fast  asleep.  'I'lieV  la\' 
everywhere  as  they  had  fallen  out,  sleeping  like  corpses. 

"I'm  telling  \ou  all  this  so  that  you  may  understand  what 
thetension  <if  that  night  was— antl  remember  there  had  been 
several  nights  like  it  before  Le  Cateau,  and  some  of  the  men, 
as  you'll  hear  in  a  moment.. were  not  so  lucky  as  these  were, 
but  had  got  strayed  far  from  the  column  and  were  wandering 
thnaigh  hedges  and  ditdus.  far  away  to  our  left  with  the 
(iermans  on  tlieir  flanks.  It  was  worse  for  them  because  they 
were  away  from  the  latteries,  and  it's  wonderful  liow  the 
sight  of  a  battery  will  i)ut  heart  into  an  infantry-man  it 
makes  him  feel  he's  being  looked  after.  I  collected  r(j)orts 
(mm  practically  every  unit,  though  there  was  one  derelict 
bat'tahon  without  itsO.C,  and  wiiat  was  stranger  still, 
quite  ignorant  of  what  had  hapjiened  to  him.  1  thi-n  rode 
nliead  of  the  cohunn  to  report  to  the  (ieneral  and  found  him 
in  a'Cottage  with  the  rest  of  his  staff.  A  staff  ofticer  sleepily 
j>ointed  to  an  inner  room.  I  knocked  ;  there  was  no 
ansW'er.  1  gently  opened  tM^  door  and  saw  the  General  in  a 
chair  with  his  head  resting  tipon  his  arms  which  were  extended 
on  the  tal)le.  He  was  fast  asleij).  and  from  a  tallow  candle 
burning  limi)ly  in  a  bottle  the  hot  ^^rease  dripped  upon  the 
back  of  his  tiand  and  stuck  there.  1  coughed  loudly  but  the 
< ieneral  slept  on.  Then  I  deliberately  kicked  over  a  chair. 
The  (ieneral  raised  his  head  and  stared  dully  at  me  as  I 
saluted  and  made  my  report.  Before  I  had  fmished  he  was 
last  asleep  again. 

','  I  could  find  no  shelter  of  any  kind  for  myself,  and  the  men 
lay  in  the  streets  -  many  of  thenrwithout  overcoats — amid  the 
rain  which  was  now  drizzluig  steadily.  They  did.not  even  pile 
arms,  every  man  slgpt  with  his  rifle  beside  him,  and  of  course 
no  fires  were  lit.  Each  unit  had  been  ordered  to  provide  its 
own'  out-posts— one  or  twu.ofhcers  and  from  ten  to  twenty 
men  posted  on  the  high  ground  on  eacji  ^ide  of  the  road.  I 
lay  down  against  a  haystack-  or  was  it  a  shock  of.  corn  ?  ■  I 
can't  remember  -  -  in  a  ^tlibblefield;  but  the  night  was 
so  cold  that,  tired  as  I  was,  1  could  not  sleep.  So  I  got 
up  and  walked  about  and  masticated  bully  beef  to  get 
SI  ine  warmth  into  me.  1  shall  never  forget  that  night 
the  my.sterious  silence^,  broken  only  by  the.  steady  hiss  of 
the  rain,  the  statuesque  figures  of  the  outposts,  the  recum- 
bent forms  of  the  men,  some  of  whom  now  and  again  turned 
and  muttered  in  their  sleep,  and  far  away  to  the  north  the 
^are  of  burning  homesteads  lighting  up  the  sky.    At  4  a.m. 

the  whole  column  got  the  order  to  move  towards .     We 

led  and  watered  our  horses,  and  every  man  in  my  battery 
found  time  to  shave  and  was  as  spick  and  ^pan  as  though  we 
>  were  (m  parade.  And  the  infantry  marched  off  in  column 
of  fours  in  perfect  step,  singing  "  Tipperary  "  as  though  they 
hadn't  a  trouble  in  the  world.  Anu  this  you  will  remember 
■was  after  days  and  nights  of  marching  and  fighting  with  not 
more  than  a  few  hours'  sleep  on  a  pave  street  for  a  spring 
mattress.  P'you  know,  I've  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
■JiTnglish  soldier's  always  at  his  best  when  things  are  at  their 
worst.  There  be  three  things  that  are  too  wonderful  for  me 
— the  way  of  a  Tommy  in  a  hole,  the  way  of  a  Tommy  up  a 
tree,  and  the  way  of  a  Tommy  in  the  midst  of  a  rearguard 
action.     Selah !    .     .     . 

"Where  was  I  ?  Oh  yes.  Well  now,  my  story  really 
I  _  begins  where  I  personally  leave  off  because  it's  concerned 
with  the  fortunes  of  the  missing  unit  (or  what  was  left  of 
it),  and  their  O.C,  whom  the  night  had  swallowed  up 
like  the  vasty  deep.  But  I've  had  to  tell  you  all  this 
in  order  that  you  might  realise  what  that  night  must 
have  meant  for  them.  Trying  as  it  was  for  us  it  was  much 
vyorse  for  them  because,  as  I've  said,  they'd  got  hopelessly 
lost  and  were  practically  isolated  away  on  our  left  in  the 
direction  of  the  Germans.  It  was  only  afterwards  that  I 
learnt  what  I'm  going  to  tell  you — never  mind  how  !  They'd 
got  away  from  the  battlcjthe  men  being  thrown  into  "  artillery 
formation  "  to  reduce  as  much  as  possible  the  risks  of  shrapnel, 
and  somehow  the  file  that  some  of  them  were  following,  led 
by  their  0.(".,  got  separated  and  they  lost  their  connection 
with  the  main  body.  They  halted  at  a  village  at  dusk  and 
snatched  some  sleep  for  •  an  .  hour  or  two — all  of  them 
except  the  O.C.  who  was  afraid.to  go  to  sleep- as  he  had 
no  one  he  could  rely  on  to  wake  h«m  up.  He'd  been 
walking  arm  in  arm  with  his  adjutant  (before  he  lost 
sight  of  Inm)  like  two  drunken  men— the  two  of  them  having 
agreed  on  tliis  as  the  likeliest  way  of  keeping  each  other 
awake.  That  O.C.  had  been,  if  I  recollect  rightly,  without 
sleep,  for  five  nights — perhaps  you  know  what  tliat  means. 
And  he  had  no  horse ;  his  horse  had  gone  lame.  Well, 
they  marched  more. or  less  throughout  the  night,  steering 
south  by  the  comp.iss,  and  fetched  up  about  mid-day 
in   a   certain    place     of     wliich   we    are    hearing    a    good 


deal  just„  now.  There'd  been  much  coming  and  going 
-  (rf-our  staff  il^'^that^p^ac<•:^L)ut"-l♦^•.nfi^ll-tirue■:the  d:<  and  his 
men  got  there  everybod\-  hail  cltarcd  out,  for  llic  Huns 
were  it]><>rt(<i  in  great  sti:ing^i ,  in  the  neighbourhood, 
shells  had  been  falhitg  orr  tlieirrij'ttt  some  distan<<'  outsitle 
the  town,  and  as  they  crawled  ii1^i,?it  a  motor  cyclist,  hatless, 
h\  id,  crouching  over  his  machine^wnth  the  thiotile  (.pened  out 
for  all  he  was  worth,  sliouted  tij  thiin  that  he'd  betn  chastd 
by  Uhlans  who  had  cut  up  a  I'rench  civil  guard.  Also  other 
things — most  of  them  unintelligible  l)ut  all  of  them  bad.  .Then 
he  clisapp(\ired.  The  O.C.  halted*  his  men  in  the  station- 
yard  and  made  inquiries  aboiit  tr'aihs.  There  was  not  a  sign 
of  a  K.T.O.  and  no  one  in  Ihe'Mtion  except  a  distracted 
station-master  who  informed  him  that  there  wasn't  so  much 
.  as  a  trolley  left.  A  panic-strickerv  French  civilian  rushed  up, 
beckoned,  pointed  vaguely  towarcis  the  rrorth-east,  auii 
shouted  "  Allemands,'  then  ran  hell  for  leather  out  of  tiie 
deserted  station-yai'd. 

"  The  O.C.  was  at  his  wits' end  to  know  what  to  do.  He 
told  his  men  to  stand  easy  while  he  wi-nt  off  to  the  mairie  to 
find  out  how  matters  really  stood.  The  maire,  who  was 
tearing  up  and  down  the  room,  running  his  hand  through 
his  beard,  looked  at  him  with  eyes  full  ol  terror. 

"  '  Oh,  man  Dieu.  c'est  fmi.' hv  cv'wd  -.it  the  sight  of  the 
officer,  and  taking  him  by  the  arm  he  drew  him  towards  lire  door 
and  begged  him  to  clear  out. 

".'  But  why?  'said  the  bewildered  ofltcer,  who  could  not 
understand  why  the  sight  of  a  British  uniform  should  be  so 
unwelcome. 

"  '  Oh.  nion  Dieii !  :we  are  all  undone  if  you  stay.  Go  !  Go  ! 
Leave  us,  I  beg  of  you.  The  (iermans  surround  the,  town. 
Hark  !  '  The  windows  rattled  in  their  frames  as  the  thunder 
of  distant  artillery  reached  their  ears.  '  You  do  not 
.*  imderstand,  No  ?  .If  the  (iermans  find  you  and  your  men  here 
theyvvill  destroy  us  all.  You  have  heard  what  they  have 
i\o\w  in  Belgiirm— yes  ?  Oh,  «»)« />/t«,  think  of  the  "women 
and  children.  If  tht-y  find  you  here,  they  will  say  it  is  not 
"  an  undefended  town"  They  will  burn  our  roofs  over  our 
heads,  they  will  shoot  us,  hitsbands  and  fatliers,  against  the 
wall  and  tlien— ah  !  apres  •  Think  of  the  women  and  little 
'children.' 

We  will  defend  you,'  said  the  officer  with  a  confidence 
he  drd  not  feel. 

.     '■;  You  !  [  How  many  men  have,you  got  ?  '    shrieked  the 
mayor. '  ' ""'  '      ^^' 

■^  '  About  two  hundred,'  said  the  officer. 
"'Two    hundred!     It  is  a  ieat— line  mauvaise  plaisatiterie. 
The  Germans — they  are  an  Army  Corps. ' 

"  The  officer  went  back  to  the  station-yard.  He  looked 
at  the  men  who  lay  sleeping  on  the  cobbles.  They  hiid 
cast  down  their  packs,  and  many  of  them  had  taken  the 
boots  off  their  blistered  feet.  '  They're  done  up  sir,'  said 
the  sergeant-major,  and  it  was  pretty  obvious.  What  was 
the  O.C,  to  do  ?  It  was  doubtful  whether  the  men  were 
capable  of  marching  out  of  the  town  or  whether,  if  they  were, 
they  wei;e  physically  capable  of  putting  up  a  fight  when  they 
got  outside.  On  the  other  hand,  if  tl:ey  remained  under  anns 
where  they  were,  their  presence  would  give  the  (iermans  jirst  the 
kind  of  excuse  which,  as  you  know,  they  are  not  slow  to  seize, 
an  excuse  for  wreaking  a  fury  of  lust  and  slaughter  upon 
the  unoffending  inhabitants  the  commanding  ofiice.  decided 
that  the  only  thing  to  do  was  to  wait  until  his  men  had  slept  off 
something  of  the  deadly  fatigue  which  drugged  them  like  an 

opiate,  and  in  the  meanwhile Well,  there's  the  rub. 

Now  I'm  not  going  to  defend  what  he  decided  to  do.  No  ! 
I'm  not.  There  are  several  things  he  ought  to  have  done 
first — he  ought  to  have  sent  out  a  party  to  reconnoitre  and 
discover  where  and  in  what  strength  the  Germans  really  were. 
He  ought  never  to  have  signed  that  paper,  or,  at  any  rate, 
he  ought  never  to  have  put  in  those  words  about  '  uncondi- 
tional surrender  ' — but  more  of  that  in  a  moment.  He  ought, 
at  the  worst,  to  ha\'e  sent  out  a  flag  of  truce  and  put  a  bold 
face  on  it,  and  bluffed  the  Huns  with  talk  of  terms  as  though 
he  were  in  great  force.  He  ought  to  have  done  anything 
but  what  he  did  do.  Still  it's  easy  for  me  to  say  a"ll  this 
after  the  event,  sitting  in  a  club  arm-chair,  after  a  good  dinner 
and  a  nif'it  between  linen  sheets.  Oh  yes !  Well,  he 
ordered  the  N.CO.'s  to  fall  the  men  in  and  he  then  began 
a  short  speech.  .^He  tojd  the  men  there  was  no  chance  of  escape 
and  that  to  attampt  to  defend  the  town  would  merely  provoke 
a  massacre  of  the  inhabitants  when  the  Germans  arrived. 
Then  he  asked,  the  men  if  arixMUriltVJf  them  would  '  like'-- 
'  lik^'  mind  you— to  fight  their^way  .out.  When  an  O.C. 
throws  the  reins  on  the  neck  of.l>|sowp  men  like  that,  well, 
things  are  in  a  pretty  bad  way— it^s-micommonlv  fike  abdica- 
tion. What  could  you  expect?  f^'The- men-  stared  at  each 
other,  not  knowing  what , to  makf;.  of  it.  ";Some  ,  said  '  Yes  ' 
some.said  "  No.:,others  said  notiimg<it;  all,  "wondering   what 


f 


was  coming  nex1?.v>_ 


{Continued  on  THigf  38\ 


June  7,  19 17 


LAND    &    WATER 


57 


^ 


i^^^:4<'^^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiTiifTriiM 


A  test  out-testing  all  others ;  and  differing  from 
all  others  in  that  it  is  applied  to  each  single 
machine  and  not  merely  to  one  or  two  of  a  series. 

That    test    is    the    test    of   war    service.     It   is  they    reveal    to    car    buyers    is    the    unequalled 

competitive      in      the       highest       degree.        It  success    of    the    25    h.p.    Vauxhall      staff    car 

is     applied     over    the     widest     possible    range,  —"the    finest    car    on    active    service."      Have 

It     is     the    severest     known      in      the     annals  your  name  added  to  the  wailing  li»t  for  the  new 

of     motoring.        Its      findings      are      therefore  25  h  p.  Vauxhall  to  be  brought  out  on  the  arrival 

unimpeachable,      and      the      outstanding      fact  of  peace.      Write    for    waiting    list    particulars. 

VAUXHALL      MOTORS     LIMITED,     174  182    GREAT    PORTLAND    STREET. 

And    a-     Petrograd.  LONDON,      W.l.  Works;     Luton,     Bedfordshire. 


• 


38 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  igi; 


{Continued  Jrom  page  36) 

"  '  Well,'  said  llii'  ().C.  after  apaiisc.  '  you'riiJiisoncisuf  war. 
it)U  must  disarm,' and  lir  ordered  tlic  N  (  .O.'s  to  stack  tlir 
,  drms  in  a  sh<!d.  The  men  were  restivfi  at  this,  the  N.C.O.s 
.  took  counsel  together  apart,  and  at  last  one  of  em  spoke  up 
and  said  something  about  wliat  was  the  use  of  ptoppiiij;  tlicrc 
and  getting  their  throats  cut.  The  O.C.  pondered  on  tiii>. 
and  at  last  lie  said  it  was  all  right,  he  would  sec  that  e\ervtliint; 
was  in  order  and  have  a  paper  ready  for  the  Germans  tellini; 
them  it  was  a  formal  surrender.  The  men  had  the  most 
implicit  faith  in  their  O.C,  and  they  had  t(,-  he  content  with 
that.  And  mind  you,  that  O.C.  was  one  ot  Mie  bravest  men 
who  ever  wore  the  King's  uniform — Oh  yes  !  'there's  no  doubt 
about  that.  Me  didn  t  care  a  brass  "farthmg  for  his  own 
life,  but  he  cared  a  great  deal  for  the  lives  of  the  women 
and  children  in  the  town,  and  tired,  dead  tired,  faint  and 
drugged  with  want  of  steep,  perplexed  in  the  extreme,  he  - 
weli,  there's  no  more  to  be  said.  Perhaps  l:c  hoped  to  gain 
.  time — to  secure  a  mental  armistice  for  the  conflict  of  ideas  in 
his  brain,  until  he  and  his  men  were  lit  to  march  and  could 
relieve  the  town  of  their  compromising  presence. 

Anyhow,  he  went  off  to  the   mairic  to  sign  that  paper. 

Never  mind  what  was  in  it— the'  less  said  tiie  better.     Enough 

that  there  were  two  words  that,  as  it  happened,  could  never 

be  blotted  out,  and-thodt  two  words  were  "uiiconditional 

surrender." 

^  ^     "  The  hours  dragged  on.     The  sun  passed  its  meridian, 

he  shadows  deepened  in  the  yard,  and  the  men  lounged  about 

without  their  arms,  some  of  them  washing,  some  of     them 

asleep.     The  O.C.  sat  in  a  room  that  looked  out  on  the  .scjuare, 

'  only  half  awake,  wlicu  he  was  stai  tied  by  a  clear  young  voice 

outside. 

"  '  Now  then,  yOu  men,  wiiat  the  devil  arc  you  doing 
there?     Turn  out!     Come  on!     Get  your  arms.     Fall  in!' 

"  The  oflicer  sprang  to  his  feet  and  rushed  out. 

"  There  was  a  young  cavalry  subaltern — only  a  boy,  faced 
by  a  group  of  sullen  men  now  reinforced  by  an  O.C.  old 
enough  to  be  his  father.    •    ^    ^  -  ,        . 

"  '  What  d 'you  mean  liy  ordering  my  men  about  ?'  said 
th.'  O.C. 

"  I  never  learnt  the  name  of  that  young  cub.  but  1  umst  say 
he  was  a  topper.  He  faced  the  O.C.  without  turning  a  hair 
and  said  coldly  :    '  Whe»8i  arc' their  arms  ?' 

"  It  was  a  deadly  thrust,  tnvon't  repeat  all  that  followed 
it  was  pretty  painful.  Let  it  -  pass.  The  O.C  tried  to  explain- 
,  The  explanation  was  horribly  like  an  apology,  and  this  from 
an  O.C.  to  a  subaltern  in  the  presence  of  the  men  !  The 
subaltern  turned  his  back  and  once  more  ordered  the  men  to 
fall  in.  1  suppose  that  brouglit  the  O.C.  out  of  his  trance. 
He  stepped  forward  and  told  the  men  that  thi;  situation 
had  changed  and  that  he  would  march  out  at  the  head  of 
them.  '  * 

"  '  But  what  about  the  paper  ?'     said  a  voice. 

"'The  paper.  What  paper?'  said  the  subaltern  fixing 
his  eyes  on  the  O.C.  And  then  the  whple  story  came  out. 
The  subaltern  said,  nothiiy|,  but  when  the  O.C.  said  he 
would  go  to  the  maim  and  destroy  the  paper,  the  subaltern 
followed  him.  They  walked  there  side  by  side  in  absolute 
silence.  Whon  they  arrived  the  O.C.  asked  for  the  paper,  but 
as  the  maire  held  it'out,  the  ^baltern  stepped  forward,  seized 
it,  and  put  it  in  Ws  pocket., L 

"  '  It  is  my  duty  to  keep  this  for  the  G.O.C,  sir  !'  he  said 
quietly. 

"  The  O.C.  said  nothing.     What  could  he  say  ? 

"  A  few  minutes  later  the  men  limped  out,  their  O.C.  at 
the  head  of  them,  fsllowed  by  a  string  of  carts  carrying  those 
who  were'top  lame  to  walk.  When  they  had  gone  about  three 
miles  and  were  safely  on  the  right  road,  the  subaltern  reined" 
in  his  horse,  saluted,  and  said,  '  I  think  1  can  be  of  no  further 
use,  sir — I  will  push  on  to  H.Q.' 

"The  O.C  returned  his  salute,  and  after  a  inomentary 
hesitation  that  must  have  been  unspeakably  painful  to  .see, 
put  out  his  hand.  The  sub.  was  surj)rised,  as  any  sub.  would 
have  been,  at  this  civilian  gesture.  But  I  guess  he  under- 
■  stood  what  a  hell' thc^ot her  must  be  going  through,  and 
leaning  down  from  the  saddle,  he  shook  the  outstretched  hand. 
Then  lie  put  spurs  to  his  horse  and"  vanished  in  a  cloud  of 
dust. 


There  is  no  London  hotelier  with  more  friends  than  Jules 
of  Jermyn  Street.  He  has.  we  regret  to  say,  just  lost  his 
second  son,  Harry,  in  the  war.  Harry  worked  in  the  restaurant, 
where  every  one  who  knew  him  liked  him,  till  last  Christmas 
when  he  joined  the  H.A.C  At  the  end  of  .April  he  went  to 
France,  entered  the  trenches  on  May  13th  and  two  days  later 
met  a  hero's  death.  He  leaves  a  Nvidow  and  a  baby  girl. 
His  elder  brother,  who  is  in  the  French  Army,  went  through 
the  Verdun  battle  unscathe^.  Wide  sympathy  is  felt  with 
Jules  and  Mme.  Jules  and  the  widow  m  their  sorrow. 


IWr.  HEIJNEMANN'S  LIST 


General  Literature 

POSTHUMOUS    POEMS 

of  ALGERNON    CHARLES    SWINBURNE 

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LOLLINGDON    DOWNS 

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THE    OLD     HUNTSMAN 

And  other  Poems  by  SIKGFRIKD  SASSOON.  5/-  net. 

THE      LO  V  E  RS    ^  story  from  Real  LHo 

By   FC.   R    PENNEI.L.     Foolscap  8vo.  2/6  net. 

THE   HOUSE   OF    LYME 

By  THK  LADY  NKWTON.     Beautifully  illustrated.  21/-  net. 

"  Ihf?   prodiicliun   of  «Mrli    works  shotild    bo   uunlc   compulsory    by    Act  of 
Parlianifnt." — times. 


WoMT  War  Books- 


THE  TURNING   POINT 

Hv  H.  pr 

MY 


<THE    BATTLES    OF    THE    SOMME) 

By  H.  PERRY  ROBINSON      Deniv  8vo.  6/-  net. 

Reminiacencea    of    n    Gunner    In    a 
'75  mm.  Battery 

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ZEI.LA    SEES    HERSELF 
REGIMENT    OF     WOMEN    (uJ  Imp). 
LEWIS    SEYMOUR     (.:ii'l  Imp)., 
BEEF,  IRON  and  WINE 
THE    HAPPY    GARRET 


/•:.  >i.  Ph.i.Ai-ini.n 

CI.KMIiXl  L  DAM. 

OEORGE  MOORI 

JA(  K  I.Air 

r  '■oLOii: 


Wm.  HEINEWANN.  21   BEDFORD   STREET,  W.C.2. 


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-iiui  iLduion. 
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FURTHER  FOOLISHNESS.  Sketches  and  Satires 
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"  An  '  x-  client  autidote  to  war -worry." — Morning  l^ost. 

POEMS  OF  CAPTAIN  BRIAN  BROOKE.  With  a  Fore 
word  hv  M.  P.  WiLLCOCKS,  and  y  IliiLstrations.  Crown  Svo. 
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side  of  Liudsav  Gordon's  pof  ms  on  the  shelves  of  all  tho^  who  love  the  poetry  of 
out-ot-dnors."^/.(iw</  and  Water. 

THERE    IS    NO    DEATH.     Poems  by  the  late  Kichard 
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(iirof  tly  ir■'u^  .i  he.ut  uiifVn-  hiiigly  bra\e  and   gay." — Times. 

IPfTERIORA  RERUni :   or  The  Inside  of  Things. 

By  yuivis.     Crown  Svo.  3s.  6d.  net. 
This  K  a  collection  of  thoughts  frti    piiv.nte  rn.idmf?  oh  "subjects  wHicb  as  a 
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"  The  ,\ulhor  has  written  with  rehncinent  and  knowledge  and  sympathy  upon 
nianv  thmus." — Counlry  Life. 

PICTURES  OF  RUINED  BELGIUm.  Seventy-two 
Pen  and  lnl(  Sketches  drawn  on  the  Spot  by 
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illustr.ited  by  Lous  Kj^e.maeker.s.     t  rown  Svo.     6d«  not. 


EXCELLENT 
A  LITTLE  WORLD  APART. 

2nd  tdilinii.  Ity  tii  OK'.i-  Sir.vi  s- 
SON  (..Vutlior  ot  ■■  lopliains 
l-'olly,"  etc.; 

-1  uy  Itatly  and  linally  that  '  A  I. lute 
IVniM  A  part '  is  a  mastcrpicc.  an>l  that 
OorKB  Stevenson  ought  to  l.e  fa(n«\is 
before  die  lUtfoflils  are  dea.1."- jAMt'S 
D"l'f;LAS.  in  !l:e-Star. 

THE  MAGPIE'S  NEST.    By 

IsoBFL  Patkr^on  (Aulhof  of 
"The  Shadow  Uidtr-^ "). 
Th»  title  of  tins  new  novplUtak(^R  from 
Ik  I'reiich  pToverh  which  says  Th«t  liappl- 
nessiitolKifound  in  rhe  niaypie'siiesi.  ffir 
t)ie  iiiAgpie  alwayi  btiilds  it  uiit  cf  rcjich. 


,6s.    NOVELS. 

THE  LONG  SPOON.    By  Mre. 

*HARii,s  fiR\'K  f.\iithor  of  •*  Mrs. 
Van<l'i^t(:n'=.  J'-wc-Ib,"  rlc). 

Mr*.  Itrycr  has  hithi-no  been  known  to 
the  public  for  herdeleirtivcstorieK,  but  iit 
bcr  nevf  noirrt  stie  XuVks  as  her  motif  tbe 
iin  ttf  rii-sttf  necromaiT.  y 

THE  LONDON  NIGHTS  OF 
BELSIZE.  By  VbRNCs  Ken- 
dall. 

Mr.  V'cn^on  KendnU.whtKename.  thoiiffh 
well  known  in  literary  circles  is  new  to 
fictMn.liAf  written  what  iDAy  be  described 
as  a  detective  novel,  which  is.  cntiraly 
orif^ioal  in  its  point  of  view  attd  it>i 
charji  ter<. 


JOHN  LANE,  THE  BODLklY  HEAD,  VIGO  ST.,  W.I . 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


39 


1311 


mrifri 


Where  is  your  Boy? 


THROUGHOUT  the  warld  the  Y.M.C.A.  keeps  pace 
with  the  far-flung  Battle  line.  Wherever  our  Soldiers 
are  fighting,  there  will  you  li*^d  the  Y.M.C.A.  caring  for  the 
spiritual  and  physical  welfare  of  our  men.      Where  is  yqpr  boy  ? 

Is  he  in  France?  ^    |  In  Egypt  or  Palestine? 


The  Y.M.C.A.  hat  429 
Centres  there.  Fieki-Mar- 
shal  Sir  Uouglas  Haig 
wrote  : 

"  No  one  can  be  long  in  this 
country  without  reahsing  the 
immense  value  of  your  or- 
ganisation, and  the  constant 
extension  of  your  activities 
itself  testifies  to  the  high 
regard  in  which  it  is -held  by 
our  soldiers. "       » 


In  India  or  Mesopotamia? 


The  Y.M.C.A.  has  S8  Cen- 
tres there.  Lieut.  General  J. 
G.  Maxwell,  Commanding 
the  Force  in  Egypt,  wrote : 
"TheY.M.C.A.inKgypthas 
done  and  is  doing  very  gooil 
work  amongst  our  Soldiers. 
It  not  only  deserves  but 
should  gel  material  support 
from  all  those  interested  in 
the  spiritual  and  material 
welfare  of  our  Soldiers." 


The  Y.M.C  A.  has  47 Cen- 
tres in  Mesopotamia  and 
45  in  India.  Lt.-General 
Sir  Stanley  MauDr  wrote  :. 
■4"  "The  Y.M.C. .-V:  is  doing  ex- 
cellent work — its  efforts  are 
appreciated  immensely  b^  all 
ranks  in  this  force.  Experi- 
ence of  Y.M.C.A.  work  in  the 
Army  has  long  since  con- 
vinced me  how  invaluable  its 
services  are  to  us — both  in 
Peace  and  War." 


/  \  M"E*<>'»urAJVtA 


In  Salonica  or  Malta? 


The  Y.M.CA.  has  35  Cen- 
tres  in  the  MeditetraHean. 

His  Excellency  Field  Mar 
shal  LORDMinni'FN  wrote: 

"It  is  extremely  difTicult  to 
speak  in  moderate  terms  of 
the  benefits  derived  from  this 
Association  by  the  66,000 
patients  who  have  either 
passed  through  or  are  still 
in  Malta  hospitals." 


i^>^: 


lAI-ONlCA 


Is  he  training  at  Home? 


tThe  Y.M.C.A.  ha*  a  thou- 
sand   Centres     at     Aom(. 

Held  Marshal  Viscount 
F'HENCH,  wrote  : 

"This  War  has  demanded 
more  in  the  way  of  nerve  and 
courage  than  any  in  the  past, 
and  one  cannot  help  thinking 
that  the  magnificent  courage 
which  has  been  shown  is  to 
be  traced  to  the  work  of  such 
institutionsastheY.M.C.A." 


Is  he  in  the  Navy? 


The  Y.M.C.A.  has  Centres 
at  all  the  important  Naval 
Bases,  .'\dmiral  Sir  JoiiM 
Jellicok,  wrote  : 
"  I  need  hardly  say  that  the 
Y.M.C.A.  institutions  are  of 
utmost  value  to  the  men  of 
the  F*et,  and  they  deserve 
all  the  support  which  can 
possibly  be  given  to  them. 
They  are  immensely  appre- 
ciated by  the  men,  and  very 
much  used  by  them." 


£100,000  Urgently  Needed 

WiU  you  help? 


.-J. 


■Never  has  the  work  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  been  more 
greatly  needed,  more  deeply  appreciated  than  now.  It 
must  not  be  allowed  to  suffer  for  want  of  funds.  ^He|p 
us  to  meet  the  growing  requirements  of  our  soldfers  arid 
sailors  in  the  critical  months  that  are  at  hand.  The  gift 
you  send  inay  help  to  lighten  the  burden  which  your 
own  boy  and  his  comrades  have  to  bear. 


Donations   should  be    addressed  to    Major    R. 
Barclay,    Y.M.C.A.    National     Headquarters, 
Russell  Square,  London,  W.C.  1. 


L. 
1?' 


PLEASE  POST  THIS  TO-DAY. 

To  Major  R.  L.  Barclav,  Hon.  Treas..  Y.M.C.A.  Fund, 

12,  Russell  Square,  London,  W.C. 

I  have  pleasure  in  enclosing    £ towards  the 

Special  Work  of  the  Y'.M.C.A.  for  the  Troops. 

Name , 

Address 

I.AXn  AKn  WATER.  


40 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


For  Members  of  the  Expeditionary  Forces  % 
and  Prisoners  of  War.  I 

HORLICO  MTION ! !  T 


OF 


MALTED  MILK  TABLETS. 


A  round  airlig^t  tin  weig>ting  7  oza., 
'  I'onUiifiiig  •  80  highly  •  iimipresstHl 
tiiblets.  Kioni  iO  U>  20  tiihlets'.lis- 
siilved  ill  the  niuiitli  as  reiiiiircil 
!iii|iply  th»  mjiiri»hineiit  givf  11  by  an 
crcJinaiy  meal.  'I'lie  coiiU'iit*  of  diie 
till  are  siiffi<  iriit  In  iniiiMtiilii  slrenot:i 
und  vigour  fur  24  Iiiiiiia  willioiil  any 
•  ithtT  fiHxl,  the  t-'iblels  ;il«o  relieve 
thirst  and  <iiiiikly  restore  energy 
and  vilalitv. 


ik. 


g      Send  one  to  "ypUR  Soldier   to-day.      M 
>M  Price  1/6  each,  post  free  to  any  address.  M 


II  your  Chemist  canno*  supply  you,  we  will  »nd  the  tin  post  free  to  any 
addren  on  receipt  ol  1  C.  GWe  FULL  name  and  address  to  which  you 
wish  the  ration  sent,  alsi  state  your  own  name  and  address  and  write  plainiy. 

He  puttii'iilur  to  sive  re  iiiK-iilul  iiniiiJM'r,  rank,  iminf,  ««iu.(clri.ii  or  coiiipany. 
Iiatlalioii.  Iiattery.  reiiiiMii!  (or  other  liliit),  «lall  a|>ii<>illtliii'lit  or  ili'iiart. 
iiM-iil.      Also  state  1*^  wllioli  Gxpeilitionur}'  Force  yoiir  soldier  is  serving. 

S««    that    OUT   name  ttppearM    on   tvtry   container. 


I  HORLICK'S  MALTED  MILK  Co.,  f 
1         SLOUGH,    BUCKS,     ENGLAND.  | 


SIR    JAMES     HORLICK,     Bart.,     President. 


m 


1 

■i 


""FAMOUS   "STRATEGICAL"    MAPS"""'% 

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Each  size  48  in.  by  37  in.,  with  full  inJcx. 
4.  Tha  Balkans.      5.  Meaopotamla. 

Phlllpa-    Stpatagioal     Map    of    tha     British    Front. 

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REGIMENTS  AT  A  GLANCE  "^ 

■A  handbook  of  Regimental  Badges  and  Traditions,  2Si  net. 
I'uUy  illu.strated.     Hy  K.  E.  DorUng,  M.A.,  K.S.A. 

The  latest  addition  to  Philips'  "AT  A  GLANCE"  Books,  including 

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Ribbons  and  Medals;    Naval,  Military  and  Civil,  2s. 

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GEORGE    PHILIP   A   SON,    LTD.,    32    Fleet    StPaat.    K.0.4     1 


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Books  to  Read 

By  Lucia  n  Oldershavv 

\\\'0  books  that  must  find  a  place  in  any  select  library 
of  War  Literature  sliiill  be  our  first  roneern  this  week. 
A  sombre  ami  imi)iessive  mominit  nt  to  the  V'aiulalisin 
of  tlie  Bofche  is  to  be  found  in  I'ictiircs  of  Ruined 
lielptim  (John  Lane,  7s.  <)d.  net).  Tliis  quarto  vohiine, 
which  in  its  general  get-up  is  a  credit  to  its  ])iil)hsher,  consists 
of  s(>venty-two  pen  and  ink  sketches  by  Louis  Harden,  ;ac<nn- 
panied  by  an  account,  in  I'rencii  and  Knglish,  of  the  (lernian 
atrocities  in  Helgium,  summarised  iiy  (ieoiges  Verdavaine 
from  the  ortieial  reports.  Thisis  a  story  that  has  been  often 
told  and  must  not  be  forgotten.     It  is  peculiarly  impressive 

■  in.its  pn'sent  setting.     Here  is  no  exaggeration,  no  theatrical 

■  etjccts.  The  ruins,  starkly  pictun^d,  have  no  romance  about 
theni,  simply  the  sordid  appear.ince  of  something  that  has 
been- destroyed.  The  rubbish  heaps  that  were  once  the 
bemities  of  Termonde,  Lieire  and  Louvain.  ap]K'ar  in  picture 
after  picture,  not  as  gliosis,  but  as  crii)ples  crying  out  for  the 
iilnis  of  the  world  and  the   vengeanct-  of  tlie   Lord. 

♦  •  *  •  * 

^ly.lS  (  Heineinann,  3s.  fid.  net),  has  already  beennci>g- 
nised  as  one  of  the  great  Imoks  that  tlie  war  jias  product d. 
Its  author,  Paul  Lintier,  was  a  young  French  gunner,  and  the 
book  is  his  diary  recording  without  reserve  or  riiodoiiiontade 
his  experiences  and  his  impressions  from  the  mobilisation  till 
he  was  wounded  towards  the  end  of  St-])teniber  K)!^.  He 
subsecpiently  rejoined  his  battery  and  was  killed  at  the 
beginning  of  last  year.  The  book  is.  of  course,  thi;  work  of  an 
educated  man,  somewhat  self-conscious  therefore,  and  used 
to  handling  the  pen,  but  it  gives  one  the  impression  of  record- 
ing faithfully  the  feeling;  of  the  averag.'  French  soldier  during 
the  epic  of  the  first  two  months  of  the  war  -  the  sense  of  adven- 
ture on  going  out  to  figiit,  the  dull  anger  engendered  by 
retreat,  the  elation  of  victory,  and  beneath  all  the  solid 
pediment  of  patri(,tism.  there  is  also  the  ])articiilar 
l)oint  of  view  of  the  gunner,  who,  Lintier  generously 
allows,  is  a  fortunate  ])erson  compared  w^th  the  foot  soldier. 
In  fine  My  75  is  truly,  and  not  in  the  imchanical  language 
of  tired  criticism,  a  human  document  of  the  first  intcnst. 

•  *         •         *         * 

There  are  surely  enougii  poets  in  F2ngland  to-day  to  make 
a  Poet's  Battalion.  Here  are  another  four  of  them.  Bernard 
Pitt,  who  was  an  assistant  mastei;  at  the  Cooi)ers'  Company's 
School,  was  killed  in  action  on  A])ril  30th  ol  last  year.  His 
friends  have  collected  some  of  his  literary  remains  and  jnib- 
iished  them  in  a  little  volume,  Essays,  I'oems,  Letters  (FVancis 
Edwards,  2s.  bd.  net).  Pitt  was  obviously  a  man  of  un- 
common ability  and  of  a  particularly  attractive  character. 
A  series  of  essays,  forming,  as  they  well  might,  the  basis  of  a 
new  primer  of  English  literature,  give  testimony  to  his 
intellectual  gifts.  His  letters  show  a  warm  heart  and  hi> 
poems  a  sense  of  style  and  a  vivid  imagination.  Pitt's 
literary  criticism  is  particularly  stimulating.  The  ]>otms  aif 
the  well-fashioned  literary  e.vercises  of  one  who  knows  well 
and  loves  well  our  native  poets.  ,  But  there  are  lyrics  wliicli 
are  more  than  this,  such  j)articularly  as  "Kew  Gardens  in 
July"  and  "  Aphrodite  in  the  Cloister."  Here  are  two 
verses  of  "  Strand-on-the-Green  ".: 

When  I  shall  fight  and  hurl  myself  at  the  foe 
With  a  heart  seething  with  anger,  leaping  with  pride, 
1  will  launch  one  well-aimed  shot,  I  will  drive  one  blow. 
For  a  dear  little  nixjk  that  1  know  of,  down  by  Thames  side 


Here  have  the  men  of  my  name  walked  at  evening's  end,  ' 
Here  have  I  loitered  and  dreamed  through  the  bine  noon-tide. 
Here  are  my  heart-strings  knit  ;    and  if  I  can  defend 
They  shall  build  tlieir  l;arge.s  for  ever  down  by  Tliames  side. 

***** 
Bernard  Drew  has  a.Veady  established  some  reputation  as  a 
poet,  anel  he  will  sustain  it  by  his  new  volume,  /I  Garden  of 
Dreatns  (A.  C.  F'ifield,  2s.  net).  If  he  is  not  what  Walt 
Whitman  calls  an  "  Answerer,"  he  is  a  singer  whose  noies 
are  always  in  tune.  It  comes  as  s^tmcthirg  e>pectfd  whir 
reading  through  the  book  erne  tur  ns  up  this  'To  Catullus  "1: 

For  while  on  earth  there  are  men,  for  while  man  yet  draweth 

breath,       ■ 
Down  the  long  ages  of  Time,  down  the  long  rrons  to  be 
Shall  the  full  tide  of  thy  song  swell  in  tumultuous  glee, 
I.ydian  laughter  shall  wake  chimes  on  the  fathomless  dcop; 
Sirmio,  happiest  of  isles,  happv  since  dear  unto  thee,  | 

Shall  in  the  light  Of  thy  smile  like  immortality  kecji.       j 

It  is  with  themes  like  this  that  Mr.  Drew  is  happiest,  Injt  I 
like  l)est  the  little  intimate  ^pictures  aL-nature__tli.at_ai^ear 

[Vunlinued  on  jtaiit  42) 


1 


June  7,  1917 


LAND    &     WATER 


4r 


The  "EASYRISE '  ADJUSTABLE  BEDSTEAD 


This  Bedstead  has  been  designed 
to  supply  a  long-felt  want  in 
Hospitals  and  Institutions  also 
for  Invalids  in  their  own  Homes. 

Adjustable  to  any  angle  BY 
THE  PATIENT  in  an  instant. 

No    Machinery    to    get   out  ot  order 

Old-fasliioned  Bed  Rests  entirely 
superseded. 

Comfort    Assured. 


If    you    have    tried    other    mechanical    bedsteads    and    found    tliem     of      little 
practical    utility    don't    pass   this    by.  Write    for    descriptive     pampldet. 


S.U  Agents:  HOSPITAL  &  GENERAL  CONTRACTS  CO.,  LTD., 

Telephone  :  ^"tuseum  3140,  3141. 


19.    21,   25,    29,    33    &    35    Mortimer    Street, 
LONDON.   W..1. 

Con(f ..otois  lo  tlic  War  Office,  Tlic  Admiralty,  and  British  Red  Cross.  Society. 


Take  Care  .t  Kids 


bereavement 

pital  Care;  Legal  and  general  Advice; 
Hostels  for  Soldiers  home  on  leave ;  Guides  for  persons 
visiting  the  Wounded  ;  care  of  wayward  and  flighty 
girls  ;  New  Homes  overseas  for  widows  and  orphans; 
these  are  some  of  the  many  forms  of  ministry  con- 
tinually going  on, 

TOMIWrS    CARE    TAKES    WING    WHEN    HE    KNOWS 
THE  ARMY  LASSIE  WILL  ENTER  HIS  COTTAGE  DOOR. 

Help  is  urgently  needed  to  maintain  this  world-wide  service. 

Ch.g„M  .hnuld  he  m.de  n»y.hl.  lo  GENERA  I.   BOOTH.  cr,M.Md"  Bank  «^^^  Cnur,. 

Branch.   War  Fund  a/c."  and  wnt  ro  him  al  OUEEN  VICTORIA  STKKF.l.   LONDON.   K  (.4 


When  Tommy  says  good-bye,  his  last  words   are:    "Look 
after  the  Missus,"  or  "Take  care  of  the  Kids." 

By  its  widespread  and  resourceful   ministry,    the   Salvation 
Army  is  endeavouring  to  do  both. 

NO  OTHER  ORGANISATION  IN  THE  EMPIRE  HAS 

BEEN   MORE  COMPLETELY    MOBILISED    OR    IS 

BETTER   FITTED   FOR   THE  TASK. 

Thousands  of  Army  Women  spend  their  time  daily  in  visiting 
the  wives  and  dependents  of  our  Soldiers  and  Sailors,  coun- 
selling them  in  their  perplexities,  helping  them  in  their  difficul- 
ties, searching  for  their 
missing  relatives,  com- 
forting them  in  their 
Maternity  and  Hos- 


42 


LAISU     &     WATER 


June  7,  191.7 


Advance  Spring  "HOW  TO  DRESS 

WITH    GOOD    TASTE    AND    ECONOMY."  -Posl  h'rer  on  %f,,ucil. 


tfc 


-  WhiW  Stii<M«<1   llHiclie   C'outil, 


atmc  (rf  comfort ;  'Jl  to  ^  iiw.  ' 


Zi/-    ,i^iiiiV<i    i<>r     111. ■.Hum     vMii  t.         I.\     Ift/g 
(luisitt-lv  (lit.   .  lit  to  :iK   imlies.  »w/ »» 

Swan&EOgSi^l 


-Type  71.    ^k\ 

The 
Lea  Jin  1 

End 
rapeis, 
REGENT  STREET   and    PICCADILLY,    LONDON.  W.L 


fi(lp^e5 


Clhildren^s 
Wear. 


We    specialize    in    waler- 

proots.    watcriirool    ciipes 

and   sou'westers  (or 

children  of  all  ages. 

^   Little    Gir:»'    Waterproof 
Cape,  in  white  only,  wilh      ^ 
hood  lined  Tartan,    ■t'y^ 
sizes  24   ins.  1^  " 

rising  1  A  for  every    "I  fi  1 
3  inches  to  36  ins.    *"'  " 


Notice. 

Special  S  a  l.c 
of  Antiquo  Laces 
cind  Lnibroideries 
during  this   week. 


Illustrated  Fashion 

Catalogues  and  Depart- 

mental    Booklets    Post 

Free  on  request. 


Post  Orders  receive  prompt  and  careful  attention. 


DICKINS  &  JONES  Ltd.,  fsi  '' 


London,  W.I. 


((Jolttin'ifd    Irmn   ^lai/r  40) 

here  and  there  in  tho  book,  and  the   obvious  music  of  such 
a  song  as  "  TIk-  Call  of  the  Road  "  : 

The  long  white  road  is  calling  where  the  Dfvon  hills  arc  .set, 
.•\n<l  there's  scent  ot  ling  and  heather  in  the  hreezft  ;••-'■  -  • 
-Xnd  1  see  a  cottage  dreaming,  and  I  smell  the  mignonette. 
In  a  garden  that  is  murmurous  with  bees. 
•         •.*»♦ 
In    The  Red  Plane/  and  0/fier  Poems,  iiy Hormcin  Cross 
(.■\.  C.  Filield,  2S.  net),  tliere  is  more  striving  after  individuality 
of  expression  than  in  Mr.  Drew's  poems.      I'hc  result  of  this  is 
a    greater    unevenness    in     the     workmaushij)    but   a   more 
interesting  \olume.     Often  his  tortured   .sentences   are    hard 
to  unravfi  as' in  this  opening  verse  of  "  The    Backslider  "  ; 

You  ask  me  :    How  shall  a  man 

Tenif>l  Heareit  with  a  lie  ? 
Well,  what  shall  a  coward  less  than, 

The  hour  he  dreads  to  die^-' 

liut  M>ni(timcs  thoi'giit  and  words,  are  use<i  in  a  liarmony 
worthy  of  the  nmsiiian  he  loves,  "  Beethoven.  Lord  ol  Song, 
unrobed  of  word,  .Magnificent,  pure,  nuked  soul  of  sound,  "as 
in  this  final  strophe  ol  "  .Milestones  "  :        ,yi..    W  i 

.\iu!  summer  skies  have  never  know«  since  then 

■'Not  to  he  filmed  with  gray: 
.^nd  fancy  has  curbed  her  bold  cxulierant  wings, 

H'jpc  strikes  on  muted  strings./    ■ 
Such  are  the  .\nniversaries  of -men 
So  the  ol(J  Memories,  unchidden,  stav     .     ,     , 
So  the  years  pass  away. 

There  is  also  whimsicahty  arid  satire  in  thc-booli  sonu  times 
iichieving  an  effective  imago.  There  i.s,'  for  instance,  a 
tniili  not  ina])tly  expressed  m  this  descriptio-n  of  the  Latest 
\i  I  he  melody  was  like  the  nap  oir' cloth.  Or  fluff  on 

lldinul,  iliin,  unlineal.  "  I'niineal  "  is  .surely  good. 
«  *  *  *  -'* 
.\nother  gallant  book  of  war-verse  is  Hidiard  Dennys's 
\  here  is  no  DeaUi  (John  Lane,  2s.  (xl.  net).  It  is  introduced 
with  a  pleasant  tribute  to  the  author — another  young  man  of 
])romise  never  here  to  come  to  the  fruition  of  liis  powcrs.-- 
by  Desmond  Coke,  an  ex-cditor  of  the  Oxford  Isis  (how  re- 
luctant I  am  to  leave  the  place  !)  and  well  known  as  a  novelist- 
Let  his  friend  write  the  commencement  of  Dennys's  epitaph  in 
prose  : — "  He  was  an  essential  amateur  ;  not  in  the  vile 
lodern  sense,  but  in  the  fine  old  meaning  of  that  territf}- 
treated  word.  Beauty  in  every  form  lie  loved,  and  Jiis 
whole  life  was  beautiful  m  a  degree  that  covdd  never  be  cotjj- 
nnmicated  to  anyone;  who  liad  not  known  him.  He  was  a  mf^ 
to'  kmnc,  and  to  be  thankful  for  lia\ii-,g  known."  Let 
Dennys  complete  his  own  epitaph  in  characteristic  vcrM  ; 

My  friends  the  hills,  the  sea,  the  sun. 

The  winds,  the  woods,  the  clouds,  the  trees — 

How  feebly,  if  my  youth  were  done, 
■  i  Could  I,  an  old  man,  relish  these  ! 

With  laughter,  then,  I'll  go  to  greet 
What  I'ate  has  still  in  store  for  m?. 

,\nd  welcomj  Death  if  we  ^hoidil  nirl, 
And  h:ax  him  willing  comparu 

Ct)nic  when  it  may,  the  stern  decree 

For  me  to  leave  the  cheery  thrpng 
And  <]uit  the  sturdy  company       "'  ' 

Of  brothers  that  I  work,  among. 
No  need  for  me  to  look  askance. 

Since  lio  regret  my  prospect  mars. 
My. day  was  happy— and  perchance 

The  coming  night  is  full  of  stars." 
*  *  *  *  » 

After  the  spontaneity  of  such  y(nuhful  verse  I  must  confess 
a  certain  element  of  tlie  factitious  in  SirWilliam  Watson's 
latest  volume  of  poems,  The  Man  Who  Saw  (John  Murray 
3s.  bd.  net),  disturbs  my  usual  aclmiration  lor  the  most 
classic  of  our  ])oets.  The  voice  that  damned  Abdiil  ore 
rotnndo  grows  almost  tenuous  in  withering  the  Kaiser  with 
slirill  blasts,  as  thus  : 

Last   product   of  ('■crniaii   {'ultiirc 

There  leave  liini,  to  make  a  meal 
L'lir  some  not  too  dainty  vulture— 

l.c  diablc — hi-bas — dans  I'ilc. 


,||g|. 


.N 


"Whenever  peace  is  rc.stoi;ed,  tlicr'c  iS  certain  to  .be  a  big  influx 
of  .\meri<an  visitors  to  London.  Since  laotcKs  in  the  British 
nictroiwlis  l]a\e  been  so  greatly  improved,  the  popu!;i.rity  of 
F*ndon  as  a  pleasure  resort  has  increased,  and  before  the  war 
if  was  running  Paris  close  in  the  opinion  of  -Americans.  A  good 
type  of  the  modern  hotel,  where  comfort  and  dignity  are  com- 
bined amid  the  most  fashionable  surroundings,  is  the  Coburg 
Jlotel,  which  lies  just  between  (Jro.svenor  Square  and  Berkeley 
Square,  liverything  is  done  there  in  the  best  style,  and  at  the 
same  time  guests  are  made  to  feel  as  much  at  home  as  though 
they  were  at  home.  The  Coburg  is  very  pf)piilar  with  the 
British  aristocracy  and  with  county  families.  And  it  is  alsrj  most 
favourably  regarded  in  the  best  circles  across  the  Atlantic. 


June  /,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


s 


How  Sanatogen  revives 
the  Exhausted  System 

A  cupful  of  Sanatogen  goes  to  your 
brain  as  surely  as  a  nip  of  whisky — invigorat-' 
ing,  exhilarating  and   fatigue-suppressing. 
But  there  is  no  reaction,  no  poisoning  of 
the    tissues,  no   harmful  effect  whatever. 

Soon  after  you  have  drunk  ^Sanatogen 
it  is  swimming  through  your  blood-stream 
in  pure  lymph,  bathing  all  your  cells  and 
fibres  in  the  very  nutriment  they  need  to 
energise  and  repair  them. 

And  a  cupful  of  genuine  Sanatogen  costs 
you  about  twopence  ! 

What  will  probably  surprise  you  most  —  if  you  are 
taking  Sanatogen  (or  the  first  time  —  is  the  deligluful 
feeling  of  vigour  and  freshness  which  it  imparts.  You 
would  naturally  expect  that  feeling  to  vanish  after  a 
short  time,  but  it  does  not ;  as  you  go  on  taking  Sanatogen 
it  increases  and  gradually  becomes  permanent.  That  is 
simply  because  Sanatogeri  has  been  causing  your  nerve 
cells  to  manufacture  and  store  up  additional  supplies  of 
nerve  energy — and  nerve  energy,  as  a  physician  recently 
said,  is  "the  true  petrol  of  the  human  motor,  the  real 
driving  power  of  body  and  mind,  indispensable  to 
health,  happiness  and  efficiency." 

Together  with  this  increase  in  nerve  energy  there  is 
a  corresponding  improvement'  in  blood-formation  and 
general  nutrition — a  point  worth  noting  in  these  days  of 
food-economy.  With  Sanatogen  you  can  eat  less,  yet 
be  better  nourished  ;  so  it  saves.its  cost  in  food  alone. 
For  Sanatogen — apart  from  its  medicinal  properties — is 
the  purest  and  most  concerttfat^d  nurture  :  it  also  causes 
other  foodstuffs  to  be  better  assimilated  and  utilised, 
because  of  its  invigorating  action  on  the  nerves  con- 
trolling the  stomach  and  digestive  organs. 

Buy  a  tin  at  your  chemist's  tq-day— from  1/9  to  9/6— 
and  see  that  it  is  labelled:  "Manufactured  at  Penzance," 
otherwise  it  will  not  be  genuine. 

GENATOSAN.    LIMITED 

(BRITISH   PURCHASERS   OF  THE  SANATOGEN  CO.) 
Chairmui;  Lady  Maokworib.    12.  Cbcnin  St..  London,  W.C.  I 

NOTE  —  Sanatogen  tiiili  later  on  be  re-noMed 
GinatOian  to  distinguish  it  from  inferior  substilules. 


FLOATING  FLOWER  BOWLS 

FOR     ECONOMY    IN 

ARTISTIC    FLOBAL    DECORATIONS. 


< 


W^ 


Wedgwpod  Solid  Black  Basalt  Ware,  in  in  original  and  exclusive  Form. 
Tloating   Flower    Bowl,  16'    diameter,   Classical    Figure  of  '  Cnpid'  or 

'  Psyche'  as  desired  on  Polished  Blackwood  Stand . 
Complete   as    lllastratioh  ...  ...  £4;10:0 

Floating  Flower  Bowls,  in  old  Puce  Colour  glass ,  Wed^jyood  Solid  Black 
Basalt  Ware,  and  Rose.  Green  or  Blue  Tinted' AtrtJaster  glass,  in  numer- 
ous exclusive  forms,  specialised  by —  Write  for  Particulars, 

SOANE  &  SMITH  LTD. 

"THE  SPECIALITE   HOUSE   OF  ORIGINALITIES." 

462    OXFORD    STREET.   LONDON,   W. 

Telephone  :  Paddington  2634.  Telegrams  :   ' '  Eartkenwesdo,  London." 

The  "House"  for.  the  Hand-Modelled  and    Painted 

Jam  Boxes,   from.  Mentone  on  the   French   Riviera. 


[ 


THE    "WESTFIELD"   SOFT    SERVICE    CAP 

with  or  without  back  curtain. 

Fitted  With  waterjiroof  lining  and  greaseproof  sliields 

16/6 

The  accepted  design  for;  both   home   and   active    service  wear 
grips  the  head  without  pressure,  and  will  neither  blow  nor  fall  off. 

WEST     S?     vSOM    '^'L/TARY  TAILORS, 
TTJIrfVjl      V9       OV/rN     BREECHES  MAKERS. 

152  NEW  BOND  STREET.  LONDON.  W 


ORS,      I 

:ers,  I 


00 


Owes  its  delicate  flavour  to  the  heather-sweet  water 
from  the  ORKNEY  HILLS. 

MCCONNELfS  DI.STILLERY  LTD. 
SCOTCH  WHISKY  DI.STILLERS 
Dacre  HouM,  Arundel  Street.  W.C. 
Prttritlors  mf  STKOMSESS  DISTIU.RKY. 
ORKNEY,    SCOTLAND. 


44 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


ThcHallMarkof  the  Smart  Woman  IH 


By  MIMOSA. 

To  lie  really  smart  a  woiiimi  must  convt-y  ,tlio  impression 
of  heiiig  (huiitilv  fustidioiis  refjardiniL,'  lier  in-i'sonul  lii'lonj»ings 
imd  ajipeurance.  Her  luiir-und  skiji  must  look  as  tliougli 
lliey  retained  the  ajipeanuiceOf  yoiitlifiiliifSs  as  a  I'esidt  of 
eleanliness  and  <'are.  This  is  iin[)<>ssibie  wliere  the  skiu  is 
spasmodieally  siihjectod  to  exiierinients  with  all  sorts  of 
l>reparations.  The  really  smart  woman  will  know  what  sho 
is  using,  and  those  who  follow  this  adviee  will  use  oidy 
sim])le,  pure  ingredients  that  can  he  procured  in  original 
packages.  If  the  chemist  docs  not  have  what  you  want,  lu' 
can  easily  obtain  it  for  you,  if  you  insist.  In  iimny  instances 
you  will  find,  however,  that  the  articles  you  require  are  at 
hand  iu  your  own  home. 


"Claminy  Hands." — After  washing  your  hands,  rub  ovpf  them  e,  little 
fuller's  enrtli  mixed  with  orris,  powdered.  I  think  you  will  find  that  this 
will  help. 

"IJoauty's  Clieeks." — Some  face  cieiims  have  a  lemleiuy  to  induce  a  growth 
of  down  on  the  face.  Von  can  be  on  the  .safe  .side  Ijy  avoiding  made  up 
creams,  using  instead  the  natural  mercolised  wax.  It  will  protect  your 
face  in  niotoiing,  and  holds  the  powder  perfectly.  It  is  the  last  word  in 
smart,    effective   toilet  luxury. 

"iJeantiful  Lashes." — Th«  character  of  the  eyebrows  and  laches  certainly 
has  much  to  do  with  the  beauty  of  the  face.  Get  about  an  onm«  of 
niennaline  and  apply  a  little  at  night,  brushing  gently  in  the  morning. 
This  will  bring  ubout  a  decided  imj>rovement  in  tlic  texture  of  your  eye^ 
brow.s  and  lash«s.  .....j.  .  - 

"W.i.shing  Hair  Brushes." — Scra|)ulous  cleanliness  of  the  bru.shes  is  neces- 
sary if  you  wish  to  keep  your  hair  in  good  condition.  The  best  wa-y  is  to 
ii.se  curd  soap  and  a  Iit4.ie  liousehold  ammonia  in  warm  water.  Let  the 
brushea  soak  for  a  short,  time,  then  wash  them  thoioughly.  Rub  as  dry 
as  possible  and  air  in  the  sun. 

"Velvet  _Skin." — Instead  o.f  several  layers  of  face  oieam  and  powder  try 
a  solution  of  cleminite.  Get  an. ounce,  dissolve  it  in  four  ounces  of  water, 
and  bathe  face  with  the  solution,  rubbing  it  quite  dry.  You  will  have  a 
"skin  liki'  velvet"  effect  that  wiil  last  for  hours. 

".Scanty  Ivocks." — Thick  glossy  coils  of  your  own  hair  means  devoting 
time  to  brushing  and  scab)  ma.'^sage,  also  an  occasional  use  nf  hair  tonic 
to  keep  the  hair  hciallhy.  The  best  and  simplest  tonic  is  bay  rum  and 
lioraninm.  Get  about  an  ounce  of  boranium  in  a  small  original  packet, 
mix  it  with  i  pint  of  bay  rum.  This  will  clear  off  any  dandruff  and 
materially  aid  in  producing  the  desired  result. 

*'I*arge  Pores  and  Hlackheads." — This  is  the  formula:  Obtain  a  few  stymol 
tablets  from  the  chemists  and  dissolve  one  in  a  cup  of  hot  water;  after 
the  efferv(V5<enc*  has  riibsidcd.  djb  the  face,  usinj;  a  small  sponge.  The 
result  is  quite  .startling.  This  is  an  excellent  astringent.  Used  every 
day,  will  close  the  enlaj'ged  jwres  and  prevent  wrinkles. 

"Bloom  of  Health." — The  use  of  rouge,  if  obvious,  is  rather  vulgar.  Yon 
can  get  over  the  difficulty  and  still  have  nice  rosy  cheeks  by  using  pow- 
dered colliandum.  Get  a  small  tin  and  apply  a  little  with  the  tips  of 
the  fingsrs.  It  js^quite  harmless,  and  its  natural  colour  blends  with  the 
tint  of  the  skin,  so  its  use  can  flever  be  detected  it  it  is  applied  properly. 

"In  Bad  Odour." — I  do  not  know  of  any  safe  way  to  check  excessive 
pe:spiration,  but  you  can  instantly  kill  the  odour,  which  is  not  only 
unpleasant  to  you,  but  to  tliase  about  yuu,  by  applying  a  little  powdered 
pei-gol. 

"f'npid's  Bow." — The  best  thing  to  use  for  your  lips  is  ju»t  a  .stick  of 
mift-prolacfum.-  Rub  this  over  the  lips,  and  it  will  give  them  the  desired 
colour  ajid  keep  them  £oft  and   fresih. 

"Supeffiuous  Hair."— You  can  remove  that  undesirable  down  on  your  face 
with  pheniinol.-  Get  an  oujicw  and  apply  a  little  to  the  hair,  which  can 
«')on  be  rubbed  off,  leaving  the  skhi  quite  clear.  It  is  very  simple  to  use, 
and  has  tlie  effect  of  so  weakening  the  roots  that  the  hair  will  not  return. 

"I<ack-lu»tre  Hair." — If  your  hair  is  dull  and  lustreless  after  a  shampoo, 
you  are  nting  .ijmething  that  is  too  soapy.  Try  just  plain  stallax.  Get 
an  original  package,  as  it  i.s  more  economical.  A  teaspoonful  in  a  cup  of 
hot  waU'r  f<.r  each  fliamjwo  is  sufficient,  as  it  foams  tremendously  and 
rinses  off  easily,  leaviiig  the  hbir  lustrous  and  fluffy,  with  a  dainty  sug- 
gestion of  perfume. 

"Premature  Greynefs." — Thi.s  trouble  may  be  easily  overcome,  and  the 
hair  i-estore<l  to  its  natural  colour,  by  using  concentrate  of  tammalite. 
Mix  it  with  about  the  same  quantity  of  bay  rum,  and  apply  with  a  small 
Bjionge. 


Names  and  addresses  of  shops,  where  the  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  ztiill  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcan^ 
addressed  to  Passe-Partout,  Land  &  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  W.C  2.     Any  other  information  mil  be  given  on  request. 


Bivouac 
Cocoa 


Everybody  knows  that  in  the  first  (lav's 
of  war  countless  preparations  were 
brought  out  for  the  men  at  the  front. 
Some  of  them  were  good,  some  utterly  worthless  and  of 
mushroom  growth  in  consequence.  Those  that  were  leal'y 
reliable,  however,  have  had  a  long  life  \yhicli  still  shows  n(» 
signs  of  waning.  Bivouac  Cocoa,  though  first  proposed  f<jr 
the  froiit,  proved  itself  so  good  that  it  has  H'een  largely  taken 
into  domestic  use  as  well;'  It  is  a  quite  capital  ])rcparation. 
being  not  only  good  to  taste  but  the  acme  of  simplicity  to 
prepare.  With  a  ration,  of  Bivouac  Cocoa  in  the  house, 
anyone  at  any  time  can  make  themselves  a  delicious  hot  cuj) 
of  cocoa^most  refreshing  and  sustaining.  All  tha  t  is  necessary 
is  the  addition  of  some  boiling  water — milk,  sugar  and  cocoa 
being  combined  in  the  ration  itself.  The  quality  is  imdeniable, 
the  cocoa  is  first  rate,  and  the  milk  and  sugar  alike  good. 
It  is  amazing  to  think  that  in  one  smallration  all  the  necessi- 
ties for  a  cup  of  cocoa — saving  the  water-are  contained, 
but  such,  nevertheless,  is  the  case.  The  ration  should  be 
crumbled  as  it  is  put  in  the  cup,  then  it  dissolves  re.idily. 
A  tin  containing  si.\  rations  costs  ninepence. 


A  Chance 
!n  Corsets 


Why  Keep  Useless  Jewellery  ? 

We  give  highest  possible  prices  for  Old 
Gold,  Silver,  Diamonds,  Pearls,  Emeralds, 
&c.  Gash  or  offer  per  return  c*'"  post.  Gall 
or  write.     Representatives  sent  upon  request. 

SESSEL  (B;,urne.  Ltd.),  14  8  14a,  New  Bond  Street.  W. 


Sheer  good  value  has  brought  the  Twilfit 
Corsets  to  the  fore.  Considering  how 
remarkably  moderate  is  the  price  they  are 
absolutely  wonderful  stays.  They  are  an  all-I3ritish  stay, 
being  a  British  manufacture  by  British  workers.  They  won 
recognition  on  their  marvellous  merits  alone  from  those  who 
saw  them  directly  they  were  introduced  some  years  ago,  but 
the  war,  removing  enemy  competition,  has  given  them 
their  great  chance. 

^his  chance  was  promptly  taken,  and  there  has  been 
nothing  short  of  a  revolution  in  the  corset  trade.  A  great 
London  firm  are  now  having  a  big  show  of  Twilfit  Corsets, 
having  been  wise  to  recognise  this.  Nothing  so  good  as  this 
''stay  has  ever  been  seen  for  the  money.  Cut,  material  and 
♦finish  alike  are  exceptional  and,  what  is  more,  the  stays  are 
fitted  with  unbreakable  spiral  steels.  These  steels  mean  ail 
the  dift'erence  to  a  cor.set  now-a-days.  They  make  it  light, 
very  flexible,  and  yet  give  the  most  perfect  support  to  even 
the  most  difficult  figure. 

Twilfit  Corsets  are  made  in  every  conceivable  style,  and 
a  booklet  giving  full  particulars  and  illustrations  of  the  different 
models  well  repays  sending  for. 

Amongst  the  many  shapes  is  one  at  8s.  iid.  in  silk  finished 
cloth,  boned  with  unbreakable  featherweight  steels  and 
bound  round  the  top  with  satin.  It  is  an  amazing  stay  for  the 
money,  but  there  are  many  even  cheaper,  as  the  briefest 
glance  at  the  corset  book  discloses,  all  of  .which  beat  anything 
previously  offered.  Never  in  future  need  anyone  pay  fancy 
prices  for  corsets ! 


Gloves 
to  Buy 


Dressing  well  on  a  small  allowance  — 
never  an  easy  matter— positively  bristles 
with  difficulties  now-a-days.  Every- 
thing is  steadily  mounting  in  price,  and  only  those  who 
first  seek  out  good  opportunities,  and  then  snap  them  up 
promptly  benefit,  :      i 

Such  an  opportunity  is  held  out  at  present,  and  it  is  infinitelv 
worth  while  taking.  Summer  suede  gloves  in  white,  black 
and  all  the  usual  colourings  are  being  sold  at  3s.iid.  .Others 
of  still  finer  quality  cost  4s.  (xl.  or  4s.  iid.  These' gloves  are 
all  French,  and  as  the  expert  knows,  a  French  suede  glove  is 
simply  unrivalled.  They  are  the  result  of  some  very  clever 
buying  by  the  head  of  a  famous  glove  department.  This 
transaction  took  place  some  time  ago,  and  so  in  spite  of  tlie 
constant  rise  in  glove  prices — and  particularly,  owing  to 
import  difficulties,  in  French  gloves — they  can.still  be  offered 
at  a. reasonable  price.  Once  these  gloves  are  sold  out  they 
cannot  be  repeated  at  anything  like  the  same  prices. 

In  the  same  category  sflnje  French  white  glace  kid  gloves 
can  be  classed.  They,  too,  cost  3s.  iid.  and  represent  a  chance 
in  a  thousand. 

(Continued  on  page  46) 


JuLie  7,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


45 


SHnRTACF. 

rjef  h 

nF.Goin. 

1     1 

HIGHEST 

t^i-mmA 

PRICES  NOW 

iHUihil 

GIVEN  FOR 

SsKII 

OLD  GOLD 

tffrFwIfu/J 

AKD 

nna^mil 

JEWELLERY 
OF 

1''""' 

AN»  SORT. 

■fiijlipl 

PLEASE 

WRITE  FOR 

ILLUS- 
TRATED 

BOOKLET  OF 
SPECIAL 

REQUISITES 
iFOR 

THE  FRONT. 


SMITHS'    "ALLIES" 

AND 

MEDICAL  WATCHES. 

"UNBREAKABLE"  FBONT 

No  more  Watch   Glasses! 
No  more  Watch  Glass  Protectors  I 
It  is  ini^osfihle  to  break  the 


Smith's 

Electric 

Reading 

Lamp 

/or  the  Belt. 


Recognized  by 

O/ficers  at  the 

UKST    I.  A  Ml* 

(W  riT  lor  T|.;sTlMOMAl-b) 

Push-piece. 


SHORTAGE 
OF  GOLD. 
HIGHEST 
PRICES  NOW 
GIVEN  FOR 
OLD  GOLD 

AND 
JEWELlERr 

OF 
ANY  SORT 


Sterlinc;     Silver 
"SCREW  IN" 

Dust  and  Damp 
Proof  Case. 


sterling    Silver,    Lever 
Movement,      Luminous  _ 

Dial,     Pigskin     Strap,  ^  ^ > 

Silver  Buckle. 
*3  :  a  :  O  Size  of  Lamp.  5*  x 


_ 


PLEASE 
WRITE  FOR 
ILLUS- 
TRATED 
BOOKLET  OF 

SPECIAL 
REQUISITES 

FOR 
THE  FRONT 


Sterling    Silver     Screw 

In  Case  Medical  Watch 

Luminous   figures    and 

hands,    registering    5th 

of   seconds. 

Invaluable  tor 

Hospital  Work. 

SMITH'S  High  Grade 

Lever  Movement. 

Guaranteed     pj.11;  A 

Timekeeper     H.ia:V 

L  extra. 


Extra  batteries        ]/6  each 

Hermetically    scaled    in    Tin    box. 


^^  X  If  inches 

Price      Complete  20/-     '"'and  Postage,       6d. 
,v.   ,     ,   .,.  ^*^^l  -  Foreign    1/-  extra 

Or   Including   one  extra    bulb   in    lid.  21/-. 

Extra  bulbs     1/-  each. 

Further   particulars  on   apiillcation. 


Fine  Sapphire  and 
Diamond  Ringt 
£4  ISs. 


A  Uae  Assorlmeat  of  RI/^OS  and 
JEWELLERY.      Always  la  Stock. 


Wedding  Rings  a  Speciality, 


Fine    Double   Cluster 
Diamond  Ring, 

£fO  10a. 


Fine  3-stone  Bril 

Oosi  Over, 

£5   15s. 


Fine  Brilliant  and  Pea'l  Brooch  with 
Palladium  Front,  £4  168. 


S.  SMITH  &  SON,  Ltd. 

6  Grand  Hotel  Buildings,  Trorolgar  Sqnare,  w.c. 


Fine  Fancy  Brilliant 
Clust«r.  Pall  r'jum 
Settinss*   £6  15s. 


Estd.  1851 

And  68 

PIcoadllly,  W. 


By   Appointment  to  H.M. 
the  late  King  Edward  Vll. 


Watch    and     Chronometer 

Makers  to  the  Admiralty. 

Holders  of  5  Royal  Warrants. 


Elvery's  Waterproofs  are   wor/d-reaowaed 
and  have  stood  the  test  of  years. 


FEATHERWEIGHT 
SILK  WATERPROOFS 

The  coat  illu.'itratod  is  cut  vith  an  exceptionally 
deep  armhole  in  ordnr  that  it  niay  l>e  worn  easily 
iind  tonifortably  over  other  coats;  the  upper  part 
is  lined  with  silk,  and  the  modl?.hly  full  skirt  is  of 
(■overall  lenatli.  wlwle  the  collar  and  <.iifFs  are  made 
to  fa-sten  closely  to  the  ne<-k  and  wri.'ts.  Another 
:-eDsiliIe  point  is  that  the  coat  fastens  right  down 
in  the  base.  It  is  made  in  eijiht  shades;  two  nice 
yreys.  a  smart  fawn,  navy  blue,  creen.  purple, 
mole,  and  black,  and  it  is  most  moderately  priced 
at  r)^s.  M.,  for  it  is  of  euperior  quality  and  finish 
tlirouahout.  Though  eo  Hcht,  the  silk  it>  absolutely 
waterproof,  and  the  coat  i'^,  stocked  in  all  sizes  to 
fit  every  fi^uro.  it  being  only  necessary  to  send  the 
chest  measurement  in  order  to  be  correctly  fitted. 
Another  model  i-s  also  produced  at  the  very  mode- 
rate price  of  47s.  .\n  envelope-shaped  case  to 
match  for  carrying  the  coat  may  be  iliad  3/6  extra. 

JV.B.— Theee  speciol  prices  can  ouTy  obtain  whiiUt 
our  present  stock  la.'^ta. 


Price 

Elvery'tt      Special  Pocket       r%g\  i g^ 

Waterproof  (lightweight)       ^M/O 

Absolutely        stormproo*'.       ^^^^ f  ^^ 

An  Ideal   Waterproof  for  War  Workers, 


Si 


Wate'nroof   Speclsllstt 

I         Est  '85.  ^        31  Conduit  St.,  LONDON.  W.I. 

i_1  \^J\  1  i  ^^  (One    linor    from    Now    V,m\i\    Slrrrl.) 

Limited  ^^ 


Coats  sent  oo  approval. 


And  at  Elephant  House,  Dublin,  and  Cork. 


^^BRmSH 
BArT£KIES<^ 

Aio>e 
AMERICAN  CAIIS 
\J i. 


Strength  :  Efficiency  :  Reliability 

Manufactured  by  the  firm  re- 
nowned throughout  the  world  as 
the  pioneers  in  the  making  of  Gar 
Lighting    and    Starting    Batteries. 


End  your  Lighting  and  Starting  Troubles  I 

American  Car  owners  are  invited  to 
write  for  Special  American  leaflet  of 
the  British  Battery  that  is  correct  in 
size, '  vol tage  and  capacity  for  any 
make    or    model   in    general    use. 


ACTON  .  LONDON  .W. 


Illllllllllllllillllillllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllilllllllllli 


iiiii 

^=  Capt.   M — .  B.E.F.*  Francs,  writes  r— 

^  ^                                           "Youf  Soles  are  absolutely  O.K.*' 

P  Sir  H.  H.  A.  HOARE,  Bart,  write,  r- 

="  They   arc    in  every  way  thorouBhly  «ati»factory." 

I  Phillips'    'Military' 

I        SOLES   AND   HEELS 

g    ^  Thin   rubber  plates,  with    raised   sluds,  to  be 
=  attached  on  lop  of  ordinary  soles  and  heels,  giving 

p    complete  proteclion  from  wear.  The  rubber  used  is 
g    six  times  more  durable  than  leather. 
=    ^  They  impart  smoothness  to  the  tread,  give  grip, 
^         and    prevent    slippin)!.     Feet    kept  dry  in  wet 
=    weather.       Ideal  for  Golf. 

FROM  ALL  BOOTMAKERS. 

STOUT  (Active  Service)    •        -    4/9  per  ••! 

LIGHT  (Town  Wear.  Golf,  etc.)    3/9      ,. 

LADIES  (General  Wear)  -         .     3/0       „ 

Will,  silclil  cslra  cliariji.  for  fixing. 


U.S.A  li 
Canadian 

Pitrati 
for    aleoi 

Llcen*.. 


//  anydiflcuJty  in  oblaining,  send  pencilled  ouUine  ol  sole  and 
keel,  wiA  P.O.  lor  Sample  Set,  to  the  makers.  Sent  Post  Free 

PHILLIPS'    PATENTS,    Ltd,   (Dept.    F.3) 
142-6  Old  Street,  LONDON,  E.C.I. 

lOlllllll 


Real  Pipe- Joy  for 
the  Fighting  Man 

Here   i«   the   Proof 

•■The  IVyse  Pif>e  is  the  only  ptpe 
for  all  weathers  ;  you  can  ride 
.against  any  wind,  and  there  is  no 
nr mm'inm  ■  I'lowing  out  of  tobacco 
■"  andno Sparks  inyour 
Lieut.  R.D. 
B.E.F. 


Whatever  your  normal  fancy  in  pipes  may 
be  you  need  the  Wjvse  Pipe  for  Active 
Service  on  Laiul  or  Sea.  localise  it  is 
WEATHER  PROOF— the  "roofed  In"  top 
(.see  diagram)  maizes  it  so.  No  smoke  or 
liot  .i-shcs  in  your  eyes,  rain  and  wind 
cannot  |«it  it  out.  It  shows  i.o  lictrayinc 
light  at  night.    Thousands  in  use. 


se  Pip( 


The  Famous  Trench  Pipe 

Tlw  Wyse  Pipe  burns  from  the  bottom 
upwards,  yet  has  the  appearance  of  a 
high-class  ordinary  pi|ic,  furthermore 


nesc  TKO  tiDHis  emv^nj  the  tobacco  w  ashcs 


THE      ASHES      DO 
NOT     DROP     OUT. 


OFFICERS"  SPECIAL  QUALITY  ^''^:^  ..ST'^.^^Klin^^ler;! 

procf^'i.  iTiount<Nl  or  iinmounti'<l,  Vijr,.  Straicht    cniins   from    12/6. 
6/- i   7/6. 

Sold  by   Harrods,  Selfridges,  &c. 


French  hriai 
.V  the  Wyse 
Other  priceis. 


iisk  /or  Illustrated  Booklet  No.  3, 

te6,2 

Ttlcplione,  Recent  .(,(8i. 


u.  D.  HTdC,       /.,,,„„,  t,,,,)'     Suite  6, 22  Gerrard  St.  London,  W.l. 


46 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  igi^* 


>^  Attack  on  attack 
IS   repelled   by 


Dexter  Proofing.  WKetKer  as 
storm  or  mud  'WET  cannot  get 
through  this  Dexter  defence  .... 
as   supreme    at    the    Front    as    for 

many  years  at  Home 

guaranteed      to     the     last. 

"As  BritisL  as  tte 
Weatter— but  Reliatle." 

Civilian  5S,'-  to  84'-  Military  70'-  to  105/. 
Supplied     by     AtfcDtt     Everywhere 


Look  for  the 
FOX -HEAD 
—  Label  — 


WEATHEBPRCDFS 

Wfltdtc,     btolt    &    Co.     Lta.     (Wholesale),    CiUseovr. 

•  •  • 

Head     Depot     in     London 
FOR     MILITARY     DEXTERS 

GOOCHS.xa 

BROMPTON  ROAD,  S.W.3 


SESSEL    PEARLS 


SESSEL  PEARLS 
are  the  finest  repro- 
ductions existing. 


'•  They  are  made 
by  a  secret  and 

;  scientific  pro- 
cess which 
imparts  tothem 
the  same  sheen, 
delicacy  of 
tone,  texture, 
and  durability 
of  Genuine 
Oriental  Pearls 


Brochure  No.  14  on  requett 
post  free. 


Beautiful  Necklet  olSESSEI. 
PEARLS  In  Sited  case  with  18-«t. 
Gold  Clasji. 

£4  4s.  Od. 


lUwl  Diatnond  Clasps 
«ith  SKSS^L  Peart, 
Knicrald,  Sapphire  or 
Uuby  centre,  (roin 
S2  2s.  Od. 

SE8SKL  Pewl  E&r- 
rings.  Studs,  Scart 
Fins,  Rings  -  -with 
Solid  Gold  mount- 
ings, from 
SI   10s.  Od. 


OIrt  Cold,  Silver,  Diamonds,   elo., 
taken  in  eiehange  or  purchased 
lor  cash. 


SESSEL  (Bourne.  Ltd.).  U  &  14a  New  Bond  Street, 

LONDON,    W,  (Directly  opposil}  Aspreys) 


DOMESTIC    ECONOMY 


Milkmaid 
Skirts 


The  Ideal  Garden 
Smock 


(Continued  /rum  jhkjc  44) 

Many  women  have  a  considerable  nura 
ber  of  blouses  slightly  the  worse  for  wear 
yet  hardly  bad  enough  to  be  abandoned. 
They  and  very  many  others  will  acclaim  the  milkmaid  skirt. 
This  most  original  creation  has  roused  an  absolute  furore, 
the  milkers  having  all  they  can  do  to  keep  pace  with  orders. 

The  skirt— full  and  very  graceful — is  put  on  to  a  corselet 
bodice  laced  across  with  black  or  some  contrasting  colour. 
There  are  no  slee%'es  nor  indeed  any  top  i)art,  a  strap  going 
over  cither  shoulder  and  keeping  the  whole  thing  up.  This 
fascinating  model  is  being  made  in  all  sorts  of  different  fabrics, 
but  for  summer  days  some  most  attractive  thick  flax  linen 
is  unsurpassed.  In  this  it  costs  three  and  a  half  guineas  and 
is? 'worth  it.  Another  delightful  medium  is  French  cotton 
canvas,  most  of  which  boast  a  quaint  ringed  pattern,  while  1 
all  kinds  of  odd  lengths  of  cretonnes  and  crepons  are  being  j 
made  up  with  brilliant  consequences. 

The  Milkmaid  Skirt  also  appears  in  stockinette,  checks, 
navy,  black  or  cream  serge,  and  it  is  quite  charming  in  soft 
satin.  In  this  last  guise,  worn  over  a  little  blouse  of  chiffon 
or  georgette,  it  makes  just  the  right  kind. of  evening  frock  for 
an  hotel— never  an  easy  tiling  to  find.  ,j 

Very  novel  and  absolutely  practical  is 
new  kind  of  garden  smock,  though  indeed  \ 
to  be  strictly  accurate  it  is  more  a  cross 
between  an  overall  and  garden  apron  than  anything  else.  It 
is  sleeveless,  but  covers  the  rest  of  the  bodice  and  most  if  not 
all  the  skirt  completely.  It  belts  neatly  round  the  waist,  and 
a  great  part  of  the  front  of  the  skirt  is  taken  up  with  a  very 
capacious  double  pocket. 

No  words  can  tell  the  value  of  this  pocket  to  the  amateur 
gardener.  In  it  all  kinds  of  garden  etceteras  can  be  kept, 
and  what  is  more  never  mislaid.  This  garden  smock  is 
utilitarian  from  beginning  to  end.  No  suspicion  of  fancy  dress 
lurks  here.  It  is  a  workmanlike  garment  destined  for  a  hard 
working  wearer,  and  a  tremendous  comfort  it  will  prove  to  her. 

It  is  made"  of  strong  jean,  a  remarkably  durable  material, 
and  is  kept  in  navy,  brown,  or  drab.     The  price  is  9s.  iid. 

At  this  time  of  year  ifght  weight  garments 
Featherweight  ^^c  metaphorically  speaking  worth  their 

Sports  Coats  ^^^^^^^^     j^      ^^j^j       ^^^^     ^^^^:^^^      jig|,t 

weight  sports  coats  of  alpaca  lace  wool  well  deserve  praise 
not  -only  on  account  of  their  lightness  but  because  they  are  also 
quite  charming.  • 

Tliey  are  made  in  white  and  coloured  stripes,  and  have 
white  collars,  sashes  and  facings.  Some  of  the  colourings  are 
H5Vely.  A  Royal  blue  and  white  appeals,  so  does  a  cherry 
and  white,  whilst  other  stripings  are  sky,  brown  and  purple. 
When  packed,  these  golf  coats  go  practically  into  nothing— 
in  spite  of  this,  however,  they  are  very  fairly  warm,  and  worn 
over  a  light  summer  frock  give  quite  ah  jidditional  covering. 
Their  price  is  59s.  6d.  and  that  they'^an  be  repeated  once 
the  present  stock  is  CKhausted  is  problematical  —anyhow  at 
that  figure. 

The  proper  choice  of  soap  in  a  household 
is  of  first  rate  importance.  It  is  essen- 
tial it  should  be  as  pure  as  possible,  and 
this  without  doubt  explains  the  immense  popularity  of  some 
special  Castile  soap.  The  peojile  selling  it  have  had  it  imported 
to  them  from  the  olive  oil  fields  in  France.  It  is  free  from 
alkali  or  colouring  matter,  and  has  absolutely  no  scent— a 
point  appealing  with  special  force  to  many  folk. 

The  ingredients  are  such  as  to  make  it  a  delightful  soap  for 
people  with  sensitive  skins.  For  this  reason  also  it  is  a  most 
refreshing  summer  time  soap. 

,Thosc  who  once  use  this  soap  arc.channed  whli  it  and  con- 
tiniic  doing  so.  If  is  i)ut  up  in  one  i)ound  blocks  and  seven 
pound  bars,  and'  costs  elevenpnce  a  pound.  Special  prices 
are  quoted  for  quantities  of  fourteea  pounds, and  upwards. 

Puff  pots  of  Italian  marble  in  exquisite 

Po-s  from  colours  are  dainty  trifles  worth  buying 

V  V*'^  while    the    supply    lasts.     These    come 

fromltaly,  and  once  those  now  in  this  "country  are  sold  cannot' 

be  repeated,  their  irnport  being  forbidden. 

A  puff  pot  suchas  anyone  of  these  maj^  a  fascmatiiig  and 
also  a  very  interesting  present.  Italian  marble  is  aiascinating 
thing,  as  those  already  acquainted  with  it  know.  It  is  cool 
looking,  very  decorative,  and  gives  a  pretty  note  of  colour 
to  any  dressing  table.  The  .putf  pots  to  be  seen  here  arc  in 
many  different  shapes  and  various  colours,  pale  pink,  golden 
amber  colour,  a  warm  shade  of  rose,  mauve,  and  a  particularly 
translucent  tone  of  green  may  all  be  found. 

The  price  of  any  variety  is  not  excessive,  ranging  from 
2s.  up  to  5s.  6d.  only.  Passe  Partoit 


Pure  Castile 
Soap 


June  7,  1917  LAND  &  WATER  47 


TO   MEMBERS  OF  THE 
American  Military  Contingent 

CL  As  the  foremost  Military  Store  in  Britain  we  extend  you  hearty 
greetings  and  good  wishes. 

CI,  You  come  well   equipped,   your  requirements  will  be   small— 

we  know  that,  but  our  welcome  bears  none  of  the  coldness  of 
commerce. 

C  As  part  of  the  Nation,   as  a  cog  in  the  Military  Machine,  we 
speak   our  welcome. 

C  In    succession    we  have    formerly    welcomed   our    Canadians, 
Australians,   and   South  Africans. 

Already  some  of  you  have  found  the  Store— JUNIOR  Army 
and  Navy  Store,  just  off  Piccadilly  Circus,  the  hub  of  London. 

^he  Military  Store  with  expert  experience  of  -- 

every  ^  campaign    during   the    last   38  years. 

There  is  a  welcome  for  each  of  you — and  for  those  that  follow  you — the  Store  is  open 
even  if  yoo  only  want  to  know  the  time.     We  supply  equipment  and  kit,  the  very  best 
at  the  lowest  possible  ^prices.     Your  friends  at  home  can  arrange  to  seindjoa^rceb  of^ 
comforts  through  us.   ". 

Our/ Equipment  Booklet  gladly  sent  Post  Free. 

BRITISH    SOLDIERS    AS    WELCOME   AS    EVER 

'^fris    advertisement,    though  sincere,  is  a  curiosity.     We  will  gladly 
provide  ./imericans  with  copies  on  art  paper  to  send  home  as  souvenirs. 


The  First  Service  Stores 
WITHOUT  TICKETS 


ARMYSc 
NAVY 

LIMITED 

15  Regent  Street,  London,  S.W.I 

Piccadillv  Circus  by  Tube  from  everywhere^ 


48 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


Radium-lighted  Watches. 

RADIUM  is  the  most  expensive  mineral  substance 
in  the  world,  and  yet  it  is  the  substance  em- 
ployed to  give  the  luminous  power  to  the  figures  and 
hands  of  the  Ingersoll  "Radiolite"  watches.  I  rue. 
the  proportion  of  radium  used  is  infinitesimal,  but 
imprisoned  within  the  crystals  of  another  substance 
containing  several  other  4S^  minerals,  it  causes 
the  substance  to  glow  I  mk^'^'^^  ^  brilliancy  that 
would  be  quite  impossible  I  /M  were  radium  not  used 


23\e 


Midget  "Radioliie" 

A  small,  neat-looking, 
inexpensivetimekeeper. 
A  fine  tvatch  for  boys 
or  eirls. 


Other  Ingeritoll  models 
froni9  -to27;6.  NVarly 
all  ilKxlels  call  be  sup- 
plied with  "  Kadiolite  " 
figures  and  hands  for 
5/.  extra. 


Ingersoll 

Wrist 

"Radiolite" 

With  cnt  out  Pro- 
lector  as  shown, 
1/.  extra. 

A  MOst  seniiceabU 
watch  —the  favottriie 
with  the  "Tommies:' 


Waterbury, 
"Radiolite"  Figures 

A  jewelled  watch, 
dependable  in  e^iery 
way.  Very  suitable 
for  business  men. 


The  "RadioliU"  grade  of  Imninoua  material  is  used  exclu.iively  on 
InceisoUs.  whirh  arc  sold  l>v  thousands  of  shopkeepers  thi-oiighont 
the  Kincdoni  ;  but  if  votir  dealer  laiinot  supply  you,  any  IngerscU 
model  you  wi.«h  will  be  sent  post  free  upon  receipt  of  l)nce. 
Handsome    illustrated  catalogue  sent  post  free  upon  request. 

INGERSOLL  WATCH  Co.,  Ltd.,  121  Regent  House,  Kingsway,  W.C.2. 


Compact  Light  Tents. 


"BIVOUAC"    TENT. 

CKe^A.  Desitrn.) 
Made  in.  three  sizes.  Weight  of  smallest 
only  22  ounces.  Above  illustration  will 
give  some  idea  of  what  it  will  stand  in 
the  way  of  hard  weather  and  rough  usage. 
White,    green  or  brown   roofs. 


■MQTOR      TENT. 

(f;f2<l.  Dfsiaii.) 
Weight  complete  with  poles,  pegs  and 
lines,  only  7  lbs.  As  supplied  to  officers 
of  the  Ist  and  2nd  Life  Guards  for  Active 
Service  at  the  Front.  Roof  in  green  or 
brown.  


Our  'COMFY    SLEEPING  BAG. 

(i;.--ii.  D.'-i^T.) 
The    Warmest   and   latest    Sleeping    Bag, 
designed  to  p.ick  up  very  small.     Weight 
from  11   lbs.     Stuffed  real  eiderdown. 


"IMPROVED  GIPSY"  TENT. 

Note  extension  beck  and  double  roof,  also 

overlap  to  carry  rain  from  tent-base.  Roof 

in  white,  green  or  brown  colours.     Weight 

only  40  ounces. 

^fle  specialise  in  supplying  light- 
weight tents  for  service  in  the 
field,  as  already  supplied  to 
thousands  of  Officers  of  the  British 
Expeditionary  Forces. 


"LITEWATE"  FOLDING  BATH 

.(LIGHTFST  ON  THE  MARKET.) 


\0fCH 


roLDCD 

Measurements— Open :    Diameter    28    Ins., 
depth,    I2in.      Closed:    Diameter   fO   Ins., 
length    13  ins.      Width   of  parcel  4i   ins. 
Weight  (<-on>|*l<'t<'  with  .«i  wowlen  sup- 
ports) Only  ISi  Ounces. 


LIGHTWEIGHT- TliNT  Co.  (Dept-  L),  61  High  Holborn,  London.  WC. 


GIEVES 


Limited 


Royal  Naval  Outfitters 

to  the 

R.N. 

R.  N.  R. 

R.  N.  A.  S. 

R.  N.  V.  R. 

R.  N.  M.  B.  R. 

i  Inoenlors  and  'Patentees  of  the 

"GIEVE"    LIFE-SAVING     WAISTCOAT. 

In  every  branch  of  H.M.'s  Services 

The  "GIEVE" 

Life-Saving  Waistcoat 

has  proved  indispensable. 

The  Torpedoed  Lusitania. 

Several  survivors  owe  their  lives  to  ihe  "  Gieve  "  Waislcoat. 
H.M.S.  Formidable. 

Of  13  survivors  II  were  wearing  the  "Gieve"  Waistcoat. 
H.M.S.  Goliath.     H.M.S.  Triumph. 

Several  officers  wearing  their   "  Gieve "   Waistcoats  were  saved  alier 

floating  about  for  many  hours  in  an  unconscious  condition. 

Patrol  Boats  and  Mine  Sweepers. 

Such  excellent  results  have  been  recorded  that  ihey  are  too  numerous 
to  detail. 

Mercantile  Marine. 

In  every  disaster  the  press  has  openly  recorded  the  fact  that  fhany 
rescues  were  due  solely  to  the  "Gieve"  Waistcoat,  notably  in  the 
case  of  the  "  Maloja  "  and  the  "  Persia,"  when  Lord  Montagu  was 
saved  after  30  hours'  exposure. 

Overseas  Transportr,  River  and  Canal  Work. 

It  is  here  that  our  soldier  men  run  great  risks,  and  they  should  give 
better  thought  to  their  own  safely  in  cases  of  sudden  immersion. 
When  provided  with  a  "  Gieve "  Waistcoat,  as  they  most  certainly 
should  be,  they  are  safely  protected  agaii:sl  some  of  the  greatest  dangers 
of  modern  warfare — without  a  "  Gieve  "  risks  are  taken  which  might 
easily  be  avoided. 


PRICE 


■y^' 


I    r,// 


n[i 


■■■■/. 
n 


Provide 
your  man 

with  a 
"Gieve." 


»*.v.v.v.v.".*.v  'i.-^      .    !^       Z^ 


50/- 

NET. 

MADE   TO   ANY    SIZE. 


Worn   as    an    ordinary 

waistcoat,      fitted    with 

brandy  flask. 

On  view  and  on  Sale  at 
all  Leading  Stores,  and 
at 


HT  F  VF  Q  ¥  *  J    LONDON :  65  South 
UllLfVILrOLtd.  Molton     street,    W. 

EDINBURGH:    118  Princes  Street.  PARIS:  5  Rue  Auber. 

Alio  at    Gicvei   Branchei   at    Portsmouth.   Dcvonporl. 

Chatham,    Weymouth.     Sheerneii,     Harwich,     Dover. 

NEW  YORK:    B.  Altman  fit  Co..  Fifth  Avenue.      NEW  YORK. 


June  7,   1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


49 


Kit  and  Equipment 

We  shall  be  pleased  io  supply  mformation  to  our  readers 
as  to  where  any  of  the  articles  mentioned  are  obtainable,  and 
we  invite  correspondence  from  'ojficcrs  on  active  service  who 
care  to  call  our  attention  to  any  points  which  would  be  advan- 
tageous in  the  matter  of  comforts  or  equipment,  etc. 

Letters  of  inquiry  with  reference  io  this  subject  should,  be 
addressed  to  KIT  AND  EQUIPMENT  "  Land  &  Water.'l 
Old  Serjeant's  Inn,  5,  Chancery  Lane,  London,  W.C.2. 


The  "  Human  Lifeboat." 

This  contrivance,  which  is  called  a  "  safety  suit  "  by  its 
makers,  liails  from  the  western  side  of  the  lierring  pond, 
and  rumour  has  it  that  the  makers  have  men  stationed  with 
supplies  on  the  quays  from  which  the  liners  start,  and  that 
these  men  are  constantly  sending  messages  to  headquarters 
for  fresh  supplies.  It  is,  in  any  case,  a  unique  device  ;  it  may 
best  be  described  as  a  combination  suit,  with  weighted  soles 
for  the  boot  parts,  so  that  the  wearer,  if  thrown  into  the  water, 
cannot  help  keeping  right  end  up.  The  outer  shell  is  made 
of  waterproof  fabric,  which  reaches  right  up  to  the  wearer's 
neck,  round  which  fits  a  rubber  ring,  so  that  the  garment 
^or  whatever  it  may  be  called,  fits  tightly  enough  to  exclude 
water  at  this  top  edge,  but  not  tightly  enough  to  choke  the 
wearer.  Inside  the  waterproofed  outer  fabric  are  two  big 
])ads  of  kapok  fibre,  so  that  even  if  the  suit  were  to  leak, 
wliich  is  almost  impossible,  the  wearer  still  could  not  sink. 
After  it  has  been  pulled'hip  over  the  body,  a  hirige  of  very 
ingenious  and  perfectly  watertight  design  closes  the  part 
that  goes  over  the  head  in  front.  It  takes  less  than  a  minute 
to  put  on,  and  will  keep  its  wearer  dry  from  feet  to  neck — and, 
as  it  keeps  the  head  well  above  water,  the  whole  of  the  body 
and  head  are  kept  dry,  except  for  splashes  in  the  face  from 
surf.  Its  buoyancy  is  such  that  it  wiU  support  no  less  than 
six  people  in  water  in  addition  to  the  wearer;  which  justifies 
its  title  of  "  human  lifeboat."  Whether  it  will  be  taken  up 
to  any  extent  by  people  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  remains 
to  be  seen,  but  Americans  have  realised  its  value  and  are 
buying  it  in  large  quantities  for  sea  voyages. 

The  Stop  Watch 

Artillery  officers,  and  those  in  other  branches  of  the  services 
as  well,  need  more  minutely  divided  instruments  for  measuring 
time  than  the  ordinary  stop  watch,  but  hitherto  the  instru- 
ments registering  fractions  of  a  second  above  a  fiftieth  have 
only  been  procurable  at  almost  prohibitive  prices.  There  has 
now  been  produced  a  form  of  recorder  which  registers,  by 
means  of  'ts-main  index  hand,  looths  of  a  second  ;  a  second  re- 
cording dial  enables  observations  lasting  for  any  period  up  to 
three  minutes  to  be  registered,  and  the  register  shows  accur- 
ately to  looths  of  a  second  the  time  required.  This  instru 
ment  is  sold  at  a  price  which  places  it  within  reach  of  any 
officer  who  needs  it  ;  it  is  absolutely  accurate,  strongly  made 
and  cased,  and  thoroughly  suited  to  service  conditions  of 
work.  An  even  cheaper  grade  of  instrument,  though  just  as 
well  made  and  finished,  will  register  up  to  15  minutes  in  tenths 
of  a  second.  In  the  first  of  these  instruments,  the  rr\ain  hand 
travels  round  the  dial  in  three  seconds  ;  in  the  one  registering 
to  tenths,  it  travels  round  in  thirty  seconds.  Both  are  high- 
grade,  well  finished  articles,  perfectly  timed  and  accurate, 
;md  well  suited  to  all  classes  of  work  in  which  minute  timing 
observations  are  required. 

Safety  Lenses 

Some  time  ago,  attention  was  drawn  in  these  columns  to 
the  extreme  value  of  a  form  of  glass  which  is  so  built  up  with 
celluloid  as  to  be  unsplinterable,  if  not  actually  unbreakable. 
Wlien  struck  this  glass  stars,  but  no  splinters  fly,  and  conse- 
quently it  isinvaluable  for  windscreens,  goggle  glasses,  and  the 
like.  A  new  development  consists  of  the  making  of  spectacle 
and  eyeglass  lenses  of  this  safety  glass  >  it  is  merely  a 
matter  of  grinding  the  lenses,  but  for  some  time  it  was  thought 
that  this  would  be  an  impossibility  ;  it  has,  however,  been 
achieved,  and  it  forms  a  distinctly  valuable  addition  to  the 
uses  of  this  kind  of  glass  ;  For  one  need  not  be  "  on  service  " 
to  api^rcciatc  the  value  of  eyeglass  lenses  that,  although  they 
may  break,  will  not  splinter  for  any  kind  of  blow  ;  many 
accidents  occur,  apart  from  the  risks  of  campaigning  work, 
in  which,  if  an  eyeglass  lens  splintereti',^it  would  totally  destroy 
the  sight  of  the  user  ;  with  these  new.  lenses,  such  an  accident 

[Continued  on  page  ix.) 


r 


-  CAMP     ' 
EaUIPMfcNT 

-  MAKERS   - 

For  all    Services 
Climates  &.  Conditions. 

Catalogues  on  Request 

TUNICS.  SLACKS, 
BREECHES.  WARMS. 
CAPS.  PUXXEES. 
BOOTS.  LECCINCS, 
TRENCH  COATS, 
SAM  BROWNE  BELTS. 
W^EB  EQUIPMENTS. 
O^MP  KIT&  NECESSARJES. 
TROPICAL  &  INDIAN 
OUTFITS 

High  Grade  Kit  only. 
Pkt  Moderate  Prices 

4' PRINCES  ST 
HANOVER  SQ 
.LONDOM'W'I 

.MAYFAIR  4071 


The  value  of  Hazel  Kit 
is  demonstrated'  in  its 
durability,  its  construction 
and  the  usefulness  of  all 
its  parts.  Quality  is  not 
sacrificed  to  price,  but  it  is 
economical  because  of  its 
lasting  properties.  '  It  is  the 
embodiment  of  100  years' 
experience  iu  Military 
Outfitting. 


Tunic,  HVhipcord 


£    s. 
^   4  10 

\5 


Slacks 


Breeclies,  Bedford 
Cord,  buckskin 
strappings,  'from 

Trenclv-Gaberdine 
Coat 

Trcncli  Oilskin  Coat 

Sam  Browne  Belt, 
Brace  and  Frog . . 

Wolseley  Vahse 

Kit  Ba;.' 


i: 


5 
17 

and 

2 


0 

0 
6 

0 


3    3    0 


15 
15 


1  10 
3  3 

3     7 


PRACTICAL       KIT 


OFFICERS'     LOADED    STICKS,     WHIPS, 
AND     FLY  WHISKS 


No.  43L. 


No.  l.\.-Lo«(K'(l  sfcick.  wlialelwiie  c^Titrc,  plaiM^aTI  over  kangaroo  Iiide.    wrist 

strap.    ^cjikUi   .'iO   iiii'lit'..*    or  .%   incli^s  

\o.  JH.— TJitto.  vliak'l»cnc  <'^iitri',  c-ov<'red  all   ovtp  pigskin.  slUliiit;   wr'st  strap 
No.    IB.— Ditto.  ^.^tp^I,  .centre,  covt-red    all  ovor  pigskin,   sliding  uri?t   strap 

No.    I'C. —  DitUi,    ...liort   ]en'_'tii.  "for    riding      

No.   3.- Oflii-er'.'*. -Newniurki^t    Whip)   v/lialottone    centre,   plaited    raw    liido,    witli 

kangaro.)  hide  lialiilpart.   loaded  end,  silver  collar,  and  tliong       

Ditto,  p^u'ted  all  io\er  kangaroo  l;ide.    l(vade<i  end.   witli   tlion;.'      

No.   19.\.-Ilcst  all   "whaLelwne  plaited   kangaroo  liide   Cutting   Whip    and   Wrist 

iJtrap         

No.  20-V.— Swagger  .^ti^k,  ebony  eilvcr  Iwill  and  tip,  with  liifle  I'rigade  or  K.U.U. 

<Test      eluhossed         

No.   23B.— Ditto,    Mala«;a  cane   with   any  regimental    crc.st  embos.sed  to  order... 

No.    200.— Ditto.   Malacca  cane    with  plain   silver  ball    and   tip  

No.  431,.— I'ly    W  hisks,  covered   pigskin    wiUi  white,    black,   or  red  hair,  leather 

wrist    loop ■     ... 

Ditto,    ditto.    Loaded    Initt  ..;  •      . 

Ni>.    v.:.-   Ash    r.r    ..HI,',    uitli     lOiilc    .ir    black     liair      


10  0 

2  0 

8  6 

2  S 

18  0 

1S  0 


1   12    • 


SAM     BROWNE    BELTS. 

Best  hriiilc  leallicr    £2   IO  O. 


One  shouldcf  stVHp   aiul  sword  dog. 
Hitto,  Stitclicd  I'iRsUin  £3   fO  O. 


Poslage  Io  B.E.F.  1 1-  extra.      Send  for  rttW  /lluslrated  Li^t  uj   War  [Equipment. 

SWAINB      6»       AOENBY, 

By  appointment  to  H.M,  The  King. 

185     PICCADILLY.     LONDON.    W. 


50 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  7,  1917 


HEAD 

BAND 


Price  15  -  Net. 
Tracking  in  u^oad  box  and  postage  to  (he  Front,  2/- 


Ladies  desiring  to  send  one  of  these  linings  to  a  relative  or 
friend  at  the  Front  should  send  us,  if  possible,  a  top  hat,  bowler, 
or  straw  boater  of  his  from  which  to  lake  the  exact  shape  and 
dimensions  of  his  head,  otherwise  state  ordinary  hat  size. 


IMITATION 


is   the 


Sincerest  Form  of  Flattery 

INSIST 


ON    THE 


''  L.  B.     Adapter   Lining 

CReglslercd  Dei/gn). 
Originated  by 

Messrs.  LINCOLN  BENNETT  &  Co.,  Ltd. 

which  ensures  absolute  fit  and  per- 
fect comfort  for  your  Steel  Helmet, 

IT  IS  STILL  THE   ONLY  LINING   SOUNDLY  CONSTRUCTED 
ON    AN    EFFICIENT    PRINCIPLE 

Thousands  in  use  at  the  Front  prove  its  efficiency. 

Anyone  can  fit  it. — No  fastenings  require  J- — Distributes  weieht. — 

Equalises  balance. — Provides    ventilalion. — Minimises   concussion. 

Obtamable  in  all  sizes  and  shapes  of  heads. 


IVrite  to  ; 


Lincoln  Bennett  &  Co.,  L 

40   Piccadilly,   London,    W., 

And  78  LOMBARD  STREET,  E.C. 

For  T)escriptive   'Pamphlet.     


TO. 


TRENCH     COAT 

with      Seatleu      Shorts. 

Only  Heicht  tnd  Chttt 
MwituromcBt  required. 


FIELD  &  TRENCH  COATS 

WATERPROOF    YET    SELF-VENTILATING 

We  owe  the  unprecedented  success  we  have  experienced  with  these  coats  to  the  recommendations 

of  thousands  of  satisfied  Officers,   also  to  our  principle  of  never  supplying    a    coat    unless    we    are 

confident  of  its  giving  ENTIRE  SATISFACTION. 

SELF   PRAISE   IS   NO    RECOMMENDATION. 

READ  what   an   Officer   says  about  Aquascutum. 

B.E.F.  Received  21.5.17. 

Dear  Sirs, — I  am  sending  you  by  this  post  my  Trench  Coat  which  I  bought  from  you 
about  two  years  ago.  It  has  given  every  satisfaction,  and  I  am  more  than  pleased  with  it- 
It  has  been  in  all  kinds  of  weather,  and  has  never  let  in  one  drop  of  rain.  I  have  been 
in -the  rain  for  thirty-six  hours  on  end  and  never  got  a  bit  wet. 

Will  you  please  have  same  repaired,  &c.,  and  let  me  have  it  as  soon  as  possible, 
as  I  cannot  do  without  it. 

The  Original  may   he  seen  hy  anyone  interested. 

Sold    in    all    principal    towns    by    our    recognised    Agents. 

Tkere    is    only   one    AQUASCUTDM.       Do    not   accept    inferior    imitations. 


100 


By  Appointment  to  Hie  M«jeety  the  King. 

Waterproof  Coat   Specialists  for  over  50  years. 

REGENT    STREET.    LONDON.    W.  1 


June  7,  19 17 


LAND    &     WATER 


IX 


KIT    AND    EQUIPMENT 

{Continued  from  page  49.) 

is  an  impossibility.  A  further  advantage  is  that,  if  the  giasseg  are 
dropped,  or  subjected  to  any  blow  by  which  they  are  craclced, 
they  are  still  usable  ;  this  has  been  proved  by  experiment, 
which  shows  that  the  distortion  due  to  the  cracking  of  this 
unspHnterable  glass  is  iiot  sufficient  to  spoil  the  lenses — 
they  can  still  be  used  until  such  a  time  as  it  is  convenient 
to  get  new  ones.  The  value  of  such  lenses  can  hardly  be 
overrated. 

Trench   Coat  Ventilation. 

Except  for  work  in  the  depth  of  winter,  one  of  the  main 
points  on  which  one  should  exercise  care  in  the  selection  of  a 
trench  coat  is  that  of  adequate  ventdation  and  means  to* 
prevent  "  sweating  "  of  the  fabric  through  condensation  of 
moisture  from  tiie  body.  This  in  one  of  the  best  pattern 
~oats,  is  attained  by  a  slit — or  rather,  a  series  of  horizontal 
slits^at  the  back  qi  the  coat  just  under  the  shoulders.  It  is 
as  if  the  part  of  tlie'  coat  that  covers  the  shoulders  had  been 
made  separately,  and  then  laid  on  to  the  piece  that  covers 
the  back  so  as  to  overlap  it  an  inch  or  two,  and  then  sewn  on 
at  half  a  dozen  points,  leaving  the  rest  of  the  space  between 
the  two  pieces  open.  Since  the  top  piece  overlaps  the  lower 
piece,  no  wet  can  penetrate  to  the  inside  of  the  coat,  and  yet 
the  half  a  dozen  or  so  of  slits  afford  adequate  ventilation  to 
the  wearer  of  the  coat,  and  prevent  condensation  of  moisture 
inside.  Otherwise,  the  coat  is  just  a  trench  coat,  which 
means  that  it  is  made  of  first  class  fabrics  throughout,  built 
so  as  to  give  the  wearer  the  maximum  of  freedom  of  movement 
with  the  maximum  of  protection,  with  a  collar  that  will  really 
keep  out  the  wind  and  .,wet,  a  detachable  Uning  for  wear  in 
cold  weather,  and  a  belt  that  holds  the  coat  in  to  the  body 
if  requiied  and  conduces  to  warmth  and  the  absence  of  fioppi- 
ness — characteristics  of  all  good  trench  coats.  The  method 
of  ventilation,  and  its  effectiveness,  are  the  main  things  in 
summer  weather,  and  by  this  means  the  coat  is  rendered  as 
w  ell-ventilated  as  a  rainproof  without  the  impervious  inter- 
lining. 


The  Hymans — the  unique  new  pocket  Range- Finder — may  be  had 
on  trial  for  one  week  on  receipt  of  cheque  for  price  (^3  complete  in 
case).  Inland  postage  is.  Price  refunded  if  returned  in  good  con- 
dition within  time  stated.  Descriptive  pamphlet  free  from  the  manu- 
facturer, Chas.  Hyraaus  {Dept.  F.)  St.  Andrew's  Street,  Cambridggj— - 
(Advt.) 


Messrs.  Price's  "  Court  Bouquet  "  series  of  toilet  soaps  are  a  pleasure 
few  dainty  women  deny  thenjselves,  finding  that  hardly  any -Othffr 
make  suits  them  half  so  well.  ._, 

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LAND    &    WATER  June  14.  1917 


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June  14,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON,     W.C, 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  JUNE  14,    1917 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Only  Securities.     By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 

The  Plain  Issue.     (Leader)            '  3 

Wytschaete  Ridge.     By  Hilaire  Belloc  4 

Germany's  Lost   Opportunity;     By  Arthur  Pollen               7 

Past  and  Future.     By  Jason  9 

The  Stockholm  Conference.  By  H.  M.  Hyndman  i« 
An  Affair  of  Machinery.     By  The  Author  of  "  A  Grand 

Fleet  Chaplain's  Notebook  "  12 

Success  of  Mr.    Balfour's  Mission.     By  an  Onlooker  in ' 

America                                                    '  j-] 

Simple  Strategy.     By  Stephen  McKenna  14 

Memory.     By  J.  C.  Squire  if) 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldershaw  i<S 

On  the  Western  Front.     (Photographs)  19 

Domestic  Economy  20 

Kit  and  Equipment  23 


THH     PLAIN     LSSUE 

A  SERIES  of  articles  which  have  appeared  in  this 
paper  during  the  last  few  weeks,  and  the  sense  of 
many  others  which  have  distinguished  the  British 
-Press  since  the  war  entered  its  final  phase,  can  be 
conveniently  and  profitably  summarised  at  this  moment. 

Roughly  speaking  there  are  now  throughout,  civilisation 
two  groups  of  opinion  ;  one  which  is  that  of  a  wearied  or 
bewildered  minority,  aided  by  a  tiny  fraction  of  visionaries  ; 
the  other  which  is  that  of  the  vast  majority  and  which  has  no^ 
changed  with  the  changing  fortunes  and  the  increasing 
length,  and  therefore  strain,  of  the  war.  The  first  group 
(which  is  to  tlie  second  as  perhaps  i  is  to  100,  but  which  in  the 
nature  of  things  includes  too  many  of  the  Intellectuals), 
thinks  in  terms  of  negotiation.  It  regards  the  words 
"  defeat  "  and  "  victory  "  as  rhetorical  terms  with  little 
precise  meaning  attached  to  them.  It  envisages  certain 
schemes  of  settlement :  "  Can  we  obtain  this  ?  Shall  we 
by  prolonging  the  conflict  lose  that  ?  Was  June  or  was 
October  the  time  when  we  could  have  obtained  most  from 
the  Germans  ?  "  and  so  forth.  The  other  group,  which  is 
that  of  the  whole  mass  of  the  populace  and  of  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  educated  men,  thinks  upon  the  contrary 
in  terms  of  victory  or  defeat,  distinguishes  broadly  between 
negotiations  which  proceed  between  two  foes,  neither  of 
whom  has  definitely  conquered  the  other,  and  the  capitulation 
of  a  broken  foe.  Negotiations  of  the  first  sort  it  regards  as 
the  very  proof  of  failure.  Capitulation  is  the  only  goal  at 
which  it  aims. 

Which  of  these  two  schools  is  right  does  not  perhaps  depend 
upon  their  relative  numerical  strength,  though  in  these 
universal  issues  where  you  may  say  that  all  mankind  is 
engaged,  the  overwhelming  vote  of  mankind  is  not  to  be 
neglected  even  as  an  index  to  truth.  But  though  we  eliminate 
such  a  consideration  and  ask  for  a  better  proof  of  judgment 
than  mere  majority,  we  can  find  it  in  history. 

For  history  clearly  distinguishes,'  if  it  is  read  in  the  largest 
manner,  between  those  wars  which  we  cafl  dynastic  or  partial 
or  local,  and  which  have  for  their  object  some  detailed  re- 
settlement of  complex  and  disputed  things,  and  those  other 
wars  in  which  the  whole  soul  of  each  combatant  is  at  stake. 
The  ambition  of  Louis  XIV.,  for  instance,  provoked  against 
him  a  powerful  coalition  which  ultimately  curbed  his  power 
and,  upon  negotiation,  left  him  but  in  part  possessed  of  all 
that  he  had  desired.  The  Crimean  War  was  a  war  in  which 
ri  certain  balance  between  opposing  forces  was  desired 
and  for  a  time  attained  by  the  victors.  But  there  are 
(though  at  rare  intervals)  in  the  history  of  Europe,  enormous 
quarrels  between  incompatible  spirits  and  destinies,  and  in 
these  quarrels  one  or  the  other  entirely  siu:cumbs.     It  must 


be  so.  because  the  conflicting  things  are  not  ambitions 
dynastic  or  even  merely  national,  but  universal  spirits.  In 
these  wars  the  protagonists  are  really  fighting  for  something 
much  greater  than  themselves  :  for  the  whole  future  of  man- 
kind. A  typical  example  is  the  early  Greek  defence  against 
the  Persian  Monarchy.  Had  the  Persian  invasion  succeeded 
nothing  of  our  civilisation  would  be  what  it  is  to-day.  The 
Grecian  effort  was  a  mere  defensive  though  a  successful  one, 
but  it  contained  in  itself  the  germ  of  what  followed,  the 
Hellenisation  of  the  Near  East  and  all  the  incalculable  conse- 
quence to  Europe  and  to  the  world.  The  Punic  wars  are 
another  instance :  others,  the  tremendous  and  obscure 
but  happily  victorious  struggle  of  the  Dark  Ages  against  the 
Northern  Paganism,  and  the  bitter  war  between  Islam  at 
its  highest  and  Europe,  of  which  the  Mediterranean  was  the 
principal  theatre,  but  of  which  the  critical  moment  came  quite 
early  when  the  invading  Mohammedan  was  overthrown  as  far 
north  as  Poitiers. 

Now  it  is  the  whole  gist  of  all  that  sane  men  write  and 
speak  to-day,  it  is  the  very  core  of  their  argument,  that  this 
great  war  is  of  the  latter  kind.  It  is  a  hopeless  misjudgment 
to  think  the  business  could  be  settled  were  some  ambition 
of  a  German  dynasty  on  the  one  hand,  or  some  French 
.  historical  memory,  some  British  claim  to  this  or  that  law 
of  the  seas  satisfied  upon  the  other.  The  forces  at  work 
in  this  war  are  indefinitely  larger  than  such  motives,  which 
are  but  the  symptoms  of  its  action.  For  we  had  in  the 
launching  of  this  war  by  the  German  people  a  challenge, 
and  as  they  thought,  a  victorious  challenge,  thrown  down 
to  the  whole  spiritual  tradition  of  Europe.  This  is  not  a 
matter  for  discussion,  as  of  theories  ;  it  is  a  plain  matter  of 
historical  fact.  Their  books,  their  speeches,  their  newspaper 
articles,  their  whole  expression,  proposed  a  doctrine  of  racial 
superiority  and  for  that  matter — to  put  it  plainly — of  making 
a  perversion  conquer. 

The  German-speaking  folk  as  a  whole — all  those  within 
the  new  German  Empire  and  in  a  lesser  degree  those  outside 
that  Empire — had  been  indoctrinated  for  now  more  than  a 
"generation  with  two  principles  which  they  had  come  to  regard 
at  least  as  demonstrably  true.  The  first  was  that  the  morals 
and  traditions  of  the  general  civilisation  of  Europe,  its  music, 
its  religion,  and  the  rest,  had  grown  old  and  were  breaking 
down,  were  no  longer-worthy  of  respect  and  might  actually 
be  reversed  to  a  new  art  and  even  a  new  morality.  How 
revolting  to  us  that  morality  was,  and  if  it  were  possible  how 
still  more  revolting  that  art,  we  need  not  pause  to  consider, 
but  the  whole  work  of  modern  Germany  is  there  to  prove 
that  this  constant  doctrine  of  the  traditions  of  Europe  being 
outworn  had  everywhere  permeated.  And  the  second  prin- 
ciple held  even  more  devoutly  than  the  first  and  more 
generally  that  the  conquering  agents  of  the  great  change  were 
to  be  the  German-speaking  tribes. 

This  rhood,  which  its  enemies  have  called  insane  (but  that 
is  rather  begging  the  question)  was  manifest  not  only  on  the 
large*  lines  of  general  expression,  but  in  a  million  details  of 
daily  living.  It  has  shown  itself  in  the  rmmentionable — and 
also  innumerable — acts  of  defilement  of  altars  and  tombs ; 
in  the  equally  inumerable  acts  of  cruelty,  of  which  only  the 
most  famous  reach  our  ears,  and  perhaps  most  of  all  in  the 
rooted  conviction  that  nothing  can  forbid  the  triumph  of 
those  who  act  thus. 

Now  a  spirit  of  this  sort  is  either  broken  or  it  survives.  If 
it  is  broken,  that  is,  if  its  will  power  is  broken,  and  it  is  com- 
pelled by  enfo'rce'd  impotence  to  acknowledge  defeat,  that 
which  opposed  it  will  continue  to  live.  If  it  is  not  broken,  if 
it  treats  for  peace  as  an  equal,  and  can  pretend  at  the  end  of 
the  struggle  to  proud  negotiation,  then  the  thing  which  it 
challenged  is  itself  doomed.  It  is  with  a  contrast  of  this  sort 
as  with  a  contrast  between  a  living  organism  and  a  sub- 
stance poisonous  to  that  organism.  You  have  no  choice 
between  eradicating  the  poison  or  the  death  of  the  organism. 
So  it  is  with  Prussian  Germany  and  Europe. 

To  conclude  with  a  test  point  to  which  we  shall  return  : 
Shall  England  and  France  continue  until  they  have  the 
power  of  punishing  the  individual  German  men  guilty  of 
these  novel  crimes  in  this  war  ?  If  we  do  not  proceed  to  that 
point  then  we  acknowledge  the  defeat  of  civilisation,  and  we 
shall  henceforward  uninterruptedly  decline. 


JLAINLT     iSc      WATER 


june  14,  1917 


Wytschaete  Ridge 

By   Hilaire   Belloc 


AITER  a  prolonged,  accurate,  and  increasingly 
intense  bombardment,  which  bore  witness  to  the 
perjX'tual  increase  of  our  material  superiority 
over  the  enemy,  (ieneral  Plunvr's  second  army 
on  Thursday  last  achieved  the  greatest  individual  success  of 
the  war  upon  the  West  since  that  war  liecame  a  war  of  siege. 
In  a  lew  hours  by  far  the  strongest  of  the  German  positions 
had  been  carried,  everj'  objective  exactly  reacheXl,  six  enemy 
divisions  broken,  some  seven  thousand  prisoners  taken,  some 
30,000  of  our  opponents  put  out  of  action,  every  point  of 
observation  commanding  the  plain  of  Lille  secured — and 
all  this  at  an  expense  of  not  ten  battalions. 

The  victory,  of  high  value  in  itself,  will  have  an  enhanced 
value  if  it  helps  to  convince  opinion  at  home — distracted  and 
vitiated  as  it  has  been  by  uninstructed  and  violent  writing  — 
that  the  enemy's  increasing  exhaustion  is  determining  the 
war. 

The 'operation  which  has  thus  so  singularly  illustrated  the 
past  week  may  best  be  described  as  the  seizing  of  the  "  White- 
sheet  "  Ridge.  The  purpose  of  that  operation,  its  success 
andthe  consequences  that  should  flow  from  it,  will  be  the 
subject  of  this  article. 

■  Whitesheet  Ridge  "  is  not  a  name  given  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  locality  to  this  piece  of  land,  nor  is  it  perhaps  the 
most  general  term  used  by  the  British  soldiers  uf>on  the  spot. 
It  is  spoken  of  more  often  as  the  Messines  Ridge.  iJut 
"  Whitesheet  " — the  EngUsh  version  of  the  Flemish  Wyts- 
chaete— is  a  better  chosen  name,  because  this  village  stood 
upon  much  the  highest  point  of  the  formation — nearly  sixty- 
feet  above  Messines. 

Neither  in  itself,  nor  as  referred  to  the  British  and  German 
fronts,  was  the  position  nearly  as  simple  a  one  as  the  \'imy 


Ridge.  Upon  a  first  glance  at  tne  co:itours,  the  stu<lent  of 
this  locality  is  a  little  puzzled  to  grasp  its  peculiar  importaiue. 
The  comparative  isolation  uf  the  ndge  does  not  stand  out 
from  the  contours  alone,  and  it  Ls  curious  what  a  difference 
there  is  here  between  the  map  and  the  eftect  produced  by 
the  ridge  upon  the  e>e.  To  one  standing  below  the  ridge, 
or,  better  still,  upon  Mount  Kemmel,  and  looking  eastward, 
the  line  of  the  ridge  against  the  sky  is  very  clearly  defined, 
and  tlie  slope  up  to  it  with  its  obstacles  of  wood  and  hedge 
is  simple  in  character.  It  must  be  my  task  to  try  and  trans- 
late the  somewhat  complex  map  into  this  real  simplicity  which 
the  formation  bears.  ' 

The  two  contour  lines  which  are  here  of  .special  use,  are  the 
40  metre  and  the  bo  metre.  The  water  levels  and  flats  of  the 
district  run  roughly  about  20  metres  above  the  sea.  The 
moated  flats,  for  instance,  upon  which  the  ruins  of  Ypres 
stand  are  at  about  this  level,  and  the  manufacturing  town  of 
Armentieres  at  the  other  end  of  the  line  at  much  the  same 
elevation.  The  rise  of  60  feet,  from  the  general  20-metrf 
level  up  to  the  40-nietre  contour,  is  gradual  and  presents  few 
accidents  of  ground.  But  with  the  40-metre  contour  one  gets 
the  star^  of  these  low  hills  and  it  may  be  taken  everywhere  as 
the  base  of  the  formation.  The  60-metre  contour  marks  the 
salient  heights  of  the  ridge,  but  if  we  emphasise  it  (as  I 
have  been  compelled  to  do  ujjon  Sketch  I  ),  it  rather  takes 
away  from  the  true  character  of  the  elevation.  The  back- 
bone of  the  affair,  so  to  speak,  is  the  50-metre  contour. 
Nowhere  in  all  its  trace  upon  this  hill  did  the  heights  on  which 
the  Germans  had  their  observation  posts  fall  below  the  50- 
metre  contour  save  at  one  very  short  saddle  where  the 
.  canal  and  the  railway  from  Vpres  to  Comines  worked  through 
the  hill.     Hill  60  at  the  northern  end  of  the  trace,  shows  by 


June  14,   1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


its  name  to  what  height  it  reached.  WTiitesheet  Village  (at 
"2  ")  is  the  highst  point— -85  metres  above- the  sea-;  Messirtes' 
Village  (at  "  i  ")  is  65. 

The  W'hitesheet  Ridge  is  again  somewhat  confused  as  an 
isolated  hill  by  the  high  ground  which  joins  it,  as  by  a  bridge, 
to  the  much  higher  Mount  Kemmel  ;  and  the  opposing  line 
of  trenches,  as  they  stood  for  2|  years  before  this  recent- 
success,  crossed  this  neck  of  high  ground  just  under  \\'hite- 
sheet  Village.         ■ 

In  spite  of  this  apparently  confused  character,  the 
simplicity  of  the  advantage  given  to  the  enemy  by  the 
possession  of  the  ridge  ana  the  still  greater  advantage  now 
gained  b\  the  British  from  their  conquest  of  it.  will  be  easily 
apparent  if  we  grasp  tlic  fact  that  it  forms  a  series  of  perfect 
observation  points,  giving  to  those  holding  them  a  complete 
view  over  the  approaches  to  Ypres  on  the  one  hand,  and  over 
the  great  plain  of  Lille  upon  the  other.  This  essential  line 
of  observation  was  covered  on  the  west  for  two  and  a  half 
years  by  the  German  trench  system  which  swung  out  in  front 
of  it  hke  a  wall  securing  its  possession  to  our  enemy.  Since 
last  Thursday  it  is  covered  on  the  east  by  the  new  British 
trench  system  which  seciu-es  its  possession  to  the  A41ies. 

To  appreciate  this  let  us  draw  an  imaginary  line  like  that  of 
the  crosses  upon  Sketch  I.,  following  the  highest  points  every- 
where. Such  a  line  starts  from  beyond  Hill  60,  crosses  the 
summit  of  that  little  elevation,  runs  south-westward  over  the 
saddle  immediately  below  Hill  60  (where  the  railway  and  the 
canal  used  to  cross  the  hills),  and  then  goes  up  a  long  spur  to 
the  height  of  VVhitesheet  at  "  2."  Thence  it  turns  south- 
easterly again,  nearly  coincident  with  the  main  road  from 
Armentiereh  to  Ypres,  reaches  the  ruins  of  Messines  at  "i,"  and 
falls  sharply  down  to  the  valley  and  the  brook  called  the  Douve. 

So  distinguishing  the  crest  we  see  how,  during  all  these  30 
months  and  more,  the  enemy  has  held  trenches  which  every- 
where covered  this  line  of  the  highest  points  upon  the  ridge, 
and  he  was  possessed,  through  his  hold  upon  those  highest 
l)oints,  of  a  complete  series  ot  observation  posts  commanding 
the  whole  of  the  Ypres  salient  and  of  the  British  trenches 
south  of  it.  "  He  not  only  had  the  advantage  (by  the  trace  of 
his  trenches)  of  lying  to  the  south,  upon  the  flank  of  the 
Ypres  salient,  and  therefore  of  holding  it  under  a  converging 
hre,  but  he  had  direct  and  complete  observation  of  all  that 
passed  within  that  salient  and  of  all  movement  to  and  from  it. 

If  the  \\'hitcsheet  Ridge,  however,  had  only  had  this  local 
importance— that  it  made  tiie  liold  of  the  Y'pres  salient 
expensive  and  difficult-^its  capture  would  have  been  of  only 
local  interest.  It  would  riot  have  been  the  very  considerable 
landmark  in  the  offensive  of  1917,  which  it  will,  as  a  fact, 
certainly  prove.  The  great  value  of  this  successful  opcra^ 
tion  is  not  that  it  relieves  the  salient  of  Ypres  (though  this 
fact  should  not  be  neglected),  but  that  it  gives  complete 
observation  over  tiie  plain  of  the  Tys,  that  is.  over  all  the 
country  which  flanks  Lille  to  the  north.  It  is  not  conceivable 
tiiat  an  enemy  retirement  in  the  future  could  pivot  upon  any 
otlier  point  than  Lille.  Therefoie,  to  hold  LUle  to  the  last 
is  essential  to  him  ;  but  the  flank  guard  of  LUle,  ori  the  north, 
so  far  as  observation  is  concerned,  was  the  VVhitesheet  Ridge. 

Tlie  inset  on  Sketch  I.  will  show  what  I  mean.  With 
W'hitesheet  Ridge  in  British  hands,  all  the  comparatively  flat 
country  north  of  Lille  was  for  the  hrst  time  under  direct 
ubservation  in  the  direction  of' the.  arrows  in  the  inset. 

This  plain,  which  the  observers  upon  the  ridge  can  now 
completely  command,  should  be  more  famous  in  British 
history  than  it  is.  It  is  the  sceite  of  another  great  action  in 
which  the  discipline  and  tradition  of  the  British  Army 
played  a  great  part,  though  the  battle  as  a  whole  was  lost. 
It  is  the  field  of  Tourcoing,  the  first  of  the  dgt^mining  actions 
of  170)4.  All  the  points  famous  in  that  conflict,  Warneton 
and  \Vervicq,  where  the  Austrians  crossed  t^ie  river  top  late; 
Meiiin,  where  the  French  General  Staff  came  so  near  to 
capture,  and  twenty  other  sites,  lie-spread  out  before  the  eyes 
of  one  who  watches  from  Whitcsheet  Hill,  from  Messines,  or 
from  anywhere  from  the  lineof  Sle  l^eiglus  up  to  Hill  60. 

The  plain  of  the  Lys, which  is  a  sort  of  gateway  into  the 
low  countries,  is  far,  of  course,  frorh  being  a  perfect  level. 
The  40-metre  contour— Everywhere  in  this  country,  the 
beginning  of  such  elevations  as  catch  the  eye — is  reached  in 
several  isolated  points  scattered  over  the  view  ;  and  the 
height  just  to  the  south  of  Wervicq  (one  of  the  most  sharply 
contested  positions  in  the  battle  of  Tourcoing),  as  also  that 
soutii  of  Menin,  are  rivals  to  the  low  summits  of  the  ridge 
itself.  But  there  is  no  Continuous  interruption — no  cover 
from  the  eye  ;  and  the  genefjii^cffect  is  that  of  a  great  flat 
over  which  one  gazes  almost"  liuinterruptedly,  though  the 
It  vation  from  which  one  cotnnia rids  it  is  insignificant. 

In  character  the  operation   was  of  a  sort  with  tiie  two 
similar  actions  round  Vrrdun  in  October  and  December  of 
last  \ear.     There  was  the  -.j)rolonged  /Tcheai'sal,   the  usq  of~ 
models,    the   concentration   (it  buniburdiiient    upon   a  'crrtit-' 
\)aratively  narrow  front,  thu  Cunsidciahlc  taU;  ul  prisoners 


and  the  astonishingly  light  casualty  list. 
"Indeed,  the  parallel  may  be  carried   further,  for  the  two 
French  actions  were  fought,  as  this  one  was  fought  in  the 
main,  for  observation. 

The  action  has  other  characters  which  it  is  still  worth  our 
while  to  note  in  this  phase  of  the  w'ar. 

Everj'one  has  noted,  for  instance,  the  delaj'  that  the  ^nemy 
was  compelled  to  suffer  between  his  loss  of  the  positions  and 
his  counter-attack.  More  than  24  hours — more  like  30  hours 
if  we  put  the  various  accounts  together — were  allowed  to 
pass  between  the  German  loss  of  the  salient  and  the  launchiiig 
of  the  first  strong  reaction.  It  is  further  noteworthy  that 
this  reaction  completely  failed.  The  enemy  claims  some  few 
yards  of  sucress  on  the  extreme  north  near  Kleine  Zillebecke, 
but  it  means  nothing,  for  the  note  of  the  succeeding  days  has 
been  the  power  of  tlie  British,  while  they  consohdated  their 
new  positions,  to  thrust  out  forward  yet"  further  to  the  east 
wherever  they  desired  to  cover  some  important  point.  They 
have  done  this  just  beyond  Oostaverne  and  east  and  south-east 
of  Messines.  But  the  longer  an  exhausted  enemy  is  com- 
pelled to  delay  his  counter-attack,  the  more  thoroughly  the 
original  assailants  can  dig  themselves  in,  and  the  more 
costly  and  probably  the  more  unsuccessful  the  counter- 
attack when  it  comes.  The  enemy  did  not  thus  delay  (to  his 
grievious  disadvantage)  of  choice.  He  had  no  alternative. 
He  had  been  hit  too  hard. 

A  further  character  in  the  action  which  meets  the  eye  at 
once  is  the  way  in  which  the  attack  everywhere  reached  the 
objectives  assigned  to  it.  This  comes  out  most  vividly  upon 
the  map,  where  one  may  see'  the  new  British  line  stretched 
with  almost  mathematical  exactitude,  as  the  chord  to  thu 
arc  which  the  old  salient  formed. 

Phase  of  Limited  Objective 

But  indeed  we  should  always  remember  in  this  phase  of  th  e 
war  that  a  limited  objective — the  striking  of  successive  powerful 
blows  intended  to  shake  more  and  more  the  front  opposing  to 
us  and  not  the  older,  prolonged  and  (when  it  failed)  highly 
expensive  action  (aiming  at  an  immediate  rupture  in  the 
wnole  line) — is  the  character  of  all  these  new  efforts.  Tl  ev 
succeed  each  other  and  they  wll  continue  to  succeed  each 
other  with  the  object  of  grinding  down  at  once  the  numerical 
and  the  moral  power  of  the  increasingly-strained  forces  opposed 
to  them.  Wnen  they  are  very  successful,  as  was  the  case 
with  this  stroke  between  Y'pres  and  Armentieres,  the  contrast, 
between  the  superior  offensive  power  and  the  sorely  tried  defen 
sive,  bettt  een  the  AlUed  poWer  to  strike  and  the  German  power 
to  parry,  is  startling.  Tiie  total  of  valid  prisoners  in  British 
hands  is  not  very  much  less  than  the  total  of  all  British 
casualties.  The  one  is  now  given  at  somewhat  over  7,000, 
and.  the  other  at  more  than  eignt  and  less  than  ten  thousand, 
of  whom  some  three-quarters  were  light  casualties.  The 
correspondents  have,  upon  official  information,  told  us  that 
the  enemy  total  losses  are  estimated  at  some  30,000.  We 
know  that  he  opposed  to  us  six  divisions  upon  this  sector  ; 
his. front  was  broken  and  the  estimate  is  reasonable. 

'It  ouglit  to  be  generally  appreciated  that,  as  the  result  of 
this  and  former  actions  in  the  .\rtois  and  Champagne,  the 
Allies  have  accounted  in  some  eight  weeks  for  about  one- 
third  of  a  million  in  enemy  casualties  ;  that  of  these  not  far 
short  of  70,000  are  prisoners,  and  that  in  no  single  case  during 
the  successive  phase  of  the  Western  offensive,  has  the  enemy's 
counter-effort  permanently  succeeded. 

Opinion  unhappily  tends  to  fluctuate  during  what  are 
called  the  "  lulls."  But  if  the  public  would  see  the, things  as  a 
whole  and  would  always  keep  in  mind  the  large  lines  of  the 
problem,  there  would  be  no  danger  of  such  fluctuation.  Upon 
the  conclusion  of  this  last  exceedingly  successful  affair,  we  were 
still  at  a  point  in  the  year  three  weeks  earlier  than  the  be- 
ginning of  the  great  oftensive  of  1916.  Of  what  the  enemy 
had  ready  for  his  so-called  strategic  reserve  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year  (in  January),  much  the  greater  part  have  disappeared 
in  the  casualty  hsts  cif  the  last  eight  weeks.  His  use  of  that 
strategic  reserve  for  action  elsewhere  has  been  forbidden.  The 
whole  of  his  class  1918  has  been  drawn  into  the  mill.  There 
remains  to  him,  for  filling  up  gaps  in  aU  the  fighting  that  is 
to  come  this  year,  only  Class  iqig  (which,  in  France,  has  not 
yet  been  touched)  and  his  hospital  returns. 

The  situation  with  regard  to  the  German  Class  1919  (in 
all  sonte  half  million  boys  of  18  and  under)  is  known  pretty 
accurately.  About  70  per  cent,  of  it  have  been  under  training 
in  the  depots  now  for  some  weeks,  and  it  is  intended  to  call 
the  remaining  30  per  cent,  during  the  summer.  It  is  hoped 
that  the  calling  of  them  may  be  postponed  as  far  as  August. 

In  general,  then,  we  know  the  limits  of  the  strain  to  which 
the  enemy  can  be  subjected  upon  the  West,  and  those  limits  are 
tts  nearly  calculable  as  anything  can  be  in  which  the  vari- 
able factors  of  human  will  and  human  tenacity  appear.  Un- 
forlunateh-,  as  we  all  know,  there  is  an  element  of  uncertainty 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  1-1,  Kji; 


which  may  render  all  purely  occidental  calculation  valueless, 
and  that  is  the  clement  of  uncertaint)-  with  regard  to  the 
situation  upon  the  Eastern  front.  As  it  is,  the  negative  effect 
of  that  situation  has  been  serious.  We  saw  in  a  former 
article  to  what  an  extraordinarily  tenuous  line  it  had  per- 
mitted the  encmv  to  reduce  the  troops  watching  thenorthern 
half  of  the  Eastern  front.  He  has  left  between  the  Pripet 
and  the  Baltic  very  little  more  than  one  man  to  every  two 
yards,  and  even  though  his  forces  are  necessarily  more  con- 
siderable in  \'olhynia  and  Rouniania,  the  whole  of  the  vast 
extent  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic  is  held  by  forces 
which,  German,  Austrian.  Bulgarian  and  Turkish  combined,  are 
far  less  than  the  German  forces  upon  the  Franco- Belgian  front 
alone.  As  things  now  stand  we  can  still  count,  however, 
upon  at  least  the  continuation  of  tbat  state  of  affairs.  It  has 
hurt  us  negatively,  but  there  has  not  yet  been  any  positive 
evil  resulting  frornit.  not  any  calculable  accession  of  strength 
to  the  enemy  through  the  Eastern  situation. 

For  the  rest  the  operation  is  universally  admitted  in  private 
and  pubUc  accounts  to  be  the  most  successful  of  its  kind.  All 
the  tests  of  success  in  affairs  of  this  sort  can  be  applied  and 
found  to  answer  true. 

Take  the  chief  test  of  all,  co-ordination  :  The  accurate 
timing  of  every  movement  worked  better  in  this  last  offensi\e 
than  it  has  ever  worked  before.  Confusion  iisually  comes 
here,  not  in  the  reaching  of  the  hrst  objectives,  but  in  the 
next  steps  to  the  second  and  the  third.  In  this  case  all  three 
steps  went  exactly  according  to  the  time-table. 

•The  excellence  of  the  air  service  was  the  most  remarkble 
factor,  perhaps,  of  all,  Acurate  and  intense  bombarding  from 
the  air  of  the  enemy's  aerodromes,  of  the  nodal  points  in  his 
communications.'and  of  his  dumps,  had  immediately  preceded 
the  action  and  had  cut  the  ner\es  of  the  defence. 

The  co-operation  between  the  various  arms,  ])articularly 
the  double  co-operation  between  artillery  and  aircraft  and 


and  infantry  and  aircraft  reached  a  perfection  which  it  had 
not  reached  before.    . 

The  aircraft  must  also  have  the  honour  of  having  directly 
and  completely  checked  the  enemy's  counter  use  of  the  same 
arm.  This  superb  work  of  the  Flying  Corps  was  remarkable  in 
one  detail  of  capital  impf)rtance,  to  wit,  that  the  offensive 
aircraft  so  efficaciously  covered  the  artillery  machines  that  in 
live  days  not  one  artillery  machine  was  lost.  In  other  words, 
during  all  those  five  days  the  checking  of  the  artillery  fiie, 
wliich  was  the  essential  ]ireparation  of  the  victory,  could  be 
conducted  without  interruption. 

Incidentally,  the  battle  as  a  whole  emphasises  the  now 
decisive  importance  of  the  air.  Not  of  a  command  of  the  air. 
which  is  impossible,  but  of  a  permanent  superiority  in  the  air 
maintained  throughout  the  course  of  a  prolonged  preparation 
and,  as  it  were,  acknowledged  by  the  enemy. 

Granted  a  similar  moral  for  land  fighting,  the  product  of 
a  similar  civilisation  ;  granted  a  common  science  (which  all 
white  nations  have),  then  the  production  of  artillery  and  of 
numitionmcnt  for  it,  the  training  of  infantry  and  their  value 
in  attack  and  defence,  will  be  largely  a  matter  numerically 
calculable,and  also  perhaps  on  the  material  side,  a  matter  of 
access  to  raw  material. 

But  with  the  air  you  have  factors  which  are  not  measurable 
and  which  at  once  differentiate  between  rival  forces.  National 
character  will  distinguish- -perhaps  more  and  more  as  time 
goes  on — between  the  races  or  nations  which  excel  in  the 
adventure  of  flying,  in  the  rapidity  and  accuracy  of  tliis  most 
rapid  form  of  observation,  and  in  the  element  of  daring. 

It  is  a  matter  worthy  of  prolonged  examination  that  this 
country  should  have  been,  as  it  has  proved  to  be,  the  leader 
in  a  thing  so  novel,  and  that  now  as  the  third  year  of  the 
(Jrcat  War  draws  to  its  close,  the  superiority  of  the  linglish- 
man  over  the  German  in  the  air  should  be  so  incontestably 
proved. 


The  Turkish  Strength  and   Its  Disposition 


A  depaitnient  of  the  war  which  requires  study,  is  the  pro- 
bable strength  of  the  Trkish  aimy  and  its  disposition. 

The  four  Allies  who  are  our  enemy  in  Eastern  and  South- 
eastern Europe  are,  in  the  main,  watching.  They  have 
suffered  no  recent  reverse.  They  are  not  in  strength  to  attempt 
any  present  great  movement.  But  the  Turkish  armies  in  Asia 
are  not  in  this  situation.  One  of  them  has  suffered  a  severe 
reverse,  and  lost  the  political  centre  of  Bagdad  ;  the  other 
lias  maintained  a  successful  defence  in  front  of  (iaza  ;  a  third 
finds  its  task  in  Armenia  quite  changed  through  the  action 
of  the  Russian  Revolution. 

We  have,  therefore,  here  great  possibilities  of  movement 
and  change.  It  has  occurred  to  everyone  that  the  new 
Russian  situation  might  release  considerable  bodies  of  the 
enemy  on  the  Armenian  front  for  work  elsewhere,  and  that 
therefore  the  two  distant  British  forces,  that  on  the  edge  of 
Palestine  and  that  in  Mesopotamia,  may  either  of  them  meet 
in  the  near  future  with  much  stronger  opposition  than  they 
have  felt  in  the  imnu'diate  past. 

Whether  this  development  will  occur  or  no  nothing  can  tell 
us  but  the  event.  Meanwhile,  it  is  greatly  to  the  purpos(^  to 
examine  the  probable  situation  of  the  Turkish  armies  as  they 
were  just  before  the  successful  advance  through  Mesopotamia 
and  the  Battle  of  Gaza.  I  say  "  probable,"  because  there  are 
many  doubtful  parts  in  the  scheme.  There  has  not,  I  believe, 
been  a  full  identification  of  all  the  divisions,  and  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  guess-work  in  the  whole  matter,  but  the  general 
situation  would  seem  to  have  been  somewhat  as  follows  : 

Though  the  Turkish  divisions  in  the  field  were 
numbered  up  to  50  and  perhajis  just  over  50,  the  cffectKe 
strength  is  believed  to  be  equivalent  to  not  more  than  45 
divisions  ;  certain  of  the  divisions  with  numbers  below  iifty 
having  been  broken  up  and  used  to  repair  other  divisions 
which  remain  in  being.  Of  these  45  divisions  nine  could  be 
accoimted  for  in  liurope.  We  may  take  it  that  these  nine  are 
still  to  the  West  of  the  Bosphorus.  There  is  no  sign  of  with- 
drawal of  the  two  divisions  in  Galicia,  of  the  divisions,  in 
Macedonia,  or  of  the  divisions  in  Rouniania. 

This  should  leave  some  36  divisions  for  the  Asiatic  business. 

Now  the  first  thing  to  grasp  with  regard  to  these  Asiatic 
armies  is  that  they  were  disposed  under  the  old  state  of  affairs, 
before  the  Russian  Revolution,  in  three  main  categories. 
These  three  main  categories  were  : 

(i)  Comparatively  small  forces  operating  at  distant  points  ; 
guarding  Palestine,  sent  against  the  revolted  Arabs  further 
south  ;  holding  the  front  which  co\'ered  Bagdad  ;  operating 
in  Persia. 

(2)  A  certain  number  of  divisions  kept  in  reserve  right  be- 
hind the  armies  in  Syria  and  in  the  region  of  Diarbekir. 

(3)  Far  the  most  important,  a  large  group  of  divisions 
preparing"  for  what  was  regarded  as  the  the  main  military 


task,  the  resisting  task   of  the   expected   coming   pressure 
of  the  Russian  armies  based  on  Erzerum  and  Trebizond. 

Roughly  S])eaking,  these  three  groups  were  numerically — 
that  is  without  regard  to  the  quality  of  the  various  units — 
in  the  following  proportion  : 

llie  first  category,  the  armies  actively  operating  against 
the  British,  and  the  revolted  Arabs  in  Persia,  etc.,  give  us  13 
divisions  all  told.  The  reserve  zvas  oi  about  eight  divisions. 
But  not  less  than  15  divisions  constituted  the  main  force  in 
Armenia  facing  the  Russians. 

In  other  words  of  the  total  number  of  divisions  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Turkish  F-mpire  in  Asia,  not  less  than  41  per 
cent,  were  necessary  under  the  old  conditions  to  the  holding 
of  the  Armenian  front,  only  35  per  cent,  were  accounted  for 
by  all  the  various  fighting  elsewhere,  and  the  very  con- 
siderable proportion  of  22  per  cent. — nearly  a  quiuter  of  the 
total  forces — were  kept  back  as  a  reserve  mainly  for  the 
support  of  the  anxiously  watched  line  which  was  withstanding 
the  Russian  jircssure  based  on  Erzerum  and  Trebizond.  These 
round  figures  show  us  how  overwhehning  a  factor  in  the  situa- 
tion under  the  old  conditions  was  the  Russian  advance  from 
Armenia  towards  Anatolia,  and  everything,  of  course,  turns 
now  upon  the  extent  to  which  this  situation  has  been  reversed, 
releasing  at  once  troops  from  the  Armenian  front,  and  from 
the  reserve  which  was  kept  mainly  to  reinforce  that  front. 

It  is  not  without  interest  to  go  into  the  details  of  this 
organisation,  although  it  has  already  pei  haps  been  modified  : 

The  nine  divisions  which  are  still  in  Europe  were  made  up 
of  two  divisions  in  Macedonia,  .five  in  Roumania,  and  two 
(the  19th  and  20th  of  the  15th  corps)  in  Galicia.  Of  the 
remaining  3O  in  Asia,  the  great  group  in  Armenia  was  formed 
thus  : 

The  Ilird  army  under  Veliib  Pasha  consisted  of  two  corps 
the  nth  and  the  1st.  But  each  of  tjiese  corps  contained  an 
abnormal  number  of  divisions.  Instead  of  the  two  divisions 
which  are  normal  to  a  Continental  Corps,  the  Turkish  nth 
corps  contained  no  less  than  four  divisions  and  the  first  corps 
three.  This  llird  army  reposed  its  left  uiwnthe  Black  Sea  and 
stretched  its  right  to  opposite  Erzinghan.  The  llnd  army 
continued  the  line  southward  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
lirzingham  to  that  of  BitUs,  and  was  under  the  command  of 
Izzet  Pasha  and  consisted  of  four  corps  the  2nd,  4th,  .— th  ? 
and  i6th  Corps,  each  corps  consisting  of  the  normal  two 
divisions  and  the  Ilnd  army,  accounting  for  eight  divisions. 

In  Mesopotamia  and  Persia  was  the  Vlth  anny  composed  ol 
the  two  divisions  of  the  13th  corps,  acting  in  Persia  and  the 
three  divisions  of  the  i8th,  which  faced  the  British  advance 
upon  Bagdad.  These  five  divisions  were  under  Halil  Pasha, 
I  believe.  Of  the  eight  divisions  of  reserve,  two  were  in  the 
region  of  Diabekir,  two  in  Anatolia,  and  perhaps  fom-  in 
Syria.    The  remaining  eight  divisions  watching  the  Palestine 


' 


Juno  14,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


front,  acted  against  the  Arabs,  and  part  of  them  were  also 
]jerhaps  organised  as  a  local  reserve  for  all  these  operations. 
But  it  would  seem  that  the  position  even  as  long  ago  as  last 
autumn  of  these  remaining  eight  divisions  was  more  obscure 
tlian  that  of  the  rest,  as  is  only  natural  considering  the  much 
greater  difficulty  of  identification. 

We  have  seen  in  what  proportion  these  details  were  distri- 
buted for  the  task  as  it  stood  before  the  Russian  Revolution. 
Nearly  half  were  held  by  the  Russians  in  Armenia  and, 
counting  reserves  much  more  than  half. 

We  must  repeat  that  the  whole  problem  turns  upon  the 
power  the  enemy  may  now  have  in  this  field  of  withdrawing 
troops  from  Armenia,  and  the  further  power  he  may  have  of 
using  his  reserve.  If  we  had  more  information  of  the  character 
and  real  strength  of  that  reserve  and  of  the  true  situation  on  the 
Armenian  front,  we  should  have  more  power  to  solve  the 
]jroblem  of  a  possible  counter-attack.  As  it  is  we  may  say  that 
he  lias  on  paper  the  power  of  at  least  doubling,  and  probably 
more  than  doubling  his  striking  force  either  upon  the  Mesopo- 


tamian  or  upon  the  Palestine  front. 

The  value  of  striking  on  the  Palestine .  front  is  not  very 
apparent.  He  is  there  holding  good  territory  with  an  un- 
broken hne  of  supply  behind  him.  He  has  in  front  of  him  the 
desert  on  the  fringes  of  which  his  opponent  still  stands, 
supplied  with  a  great  expense  of  mechanical  appliance. 

With  the  Mesopotamian  front  it  is  otherwise.  If,  as  we 
are  told,  he  was  operating  there  with  only  live  divisions,  the 
three  which  were  beaten  back  by  the  British  at  the  advance  on 
Bagdad,  and  the  two  which  successfully  effected  their  retreat 
from  Persia,  it  is  clear  that  this  comparatively  small  force 
could  be  largely  augmented  with  profit.  Further,  if  he  can 
withdraw  divisions  from  the  Armenian  front,  the  distance 
these  divisions  would  have  to  go  to  join  the  Mesopotamian 
Army  Group  is  not  very  great,  though  all  the  communications 
are  by  bad  roads  and  most  of  them  over  mountains.  It  is 
equally  clear  that  a  successful  operation  upon  this  front 
would  yield  more  fruit  politically  than  upon  any  other. 

H.  BELLOC 


Germany's  Lost  Opportunity 

By  Arthur   Pollen 


TAKE  it  for  all  in  all,  the  most  remarkable  thing 
about  the  naval  war  is  that  it  took  the  Germans 
by  surprise.  They  had  planned  the  most  perfect 
thing  imaginable  in  the  way  of  a  scheme  for  the 
conquest  of  all  Europe.  It  had  but  one  flaw.  They  left 
England  out  of  their  calculations — left  us  out,  that  is  to  say, 
not  as  ulterior  victims,  but  as  jjrobable  and  immediate  com- 
batants. We  were  omitted  because  Germany  assumed  that 
we'shoidd  either  be  too  proud,  too  rich,  too  frightened,  or  too 
unready  to  fight.  Sathat,  of  all  the  contingencies  that  could 
be  foreseen,  a  sea  war  with  Great  Britain  was  the  one  for  which 
almost  no  preparations  had  been  made.  Hence  to  undo 
Germany  utterly  at  sea  proved  to  be  very  simple. 

Mucii  has  been  made  of  this  statesman  or  that  admiral 
having  actually  issued  the  mandate  that  kept  the  Grand 
Fleet  mobilised  and  got  it  to  its  war  stations  two  days  before 
war  was  declared.  But  there  is  here  no  field  for  flattery,  and 
no  scope  for  prai.se,  and  the  historical  interest  in  identifying 
the  actual  agent  is  slender.  It  has  always  been  a  part  of 
the  British  defensive  theory  that  the  main  Fleet  shall  be 
ever  ready  for  instant  war  orders.  Of  the  fact  of  its  being 
the  plan,  we  need  no  further  testimony  than  Mr.  Churchill's 
first  Memorandum  after  his  elevation  to  the  control  of  British 
naval  policy  and  of  the  British  Fleet.  The  thing,  therefore, 
that  was  done  was  the  mere  mechanical  discharging  of  a 
standing  order. 

Once  the  Fleet  was  mobilised  and  at  its  war  stations, 
German  sea  power  perished  off  the  outer  seas  as  effectually 
as  if  every  .surface  ship  had  been  incontinently  sunk.  There 
was  not  a  day's  delay  in  our  using  the  Channel  exactly  as  if 
no  enemy  were  afloat.  Within  an  hour  of  the  declaration  of 
war  being  known  no  German  ship  abroad  cleared  for  a  German 
port,  nor  did  any  ship  in  a  German  port  clear  for  the  open 
sea.  Tlie  defeat  was  suffered  without  a  blow  being  offered 
in  defence,  and,  for  the  purposes  of  trade  and  transport,  it 
was  as  instantaneous  as  it  was  final. 

Nor  was  it  our  strength,  nor  sheer  terror  of  our  strength, 
tliat  made  the  enemy  impotent.  He  was  confounded  as  much 
by  surprise  as  he  was  by  superior  power.  In  point  of  fact, 
the  disparity  between  the  main  forces  of  the  two  Powers 
m  the  North  Sea,  though  considerable,  wa>  not  such  as  to 
liave  made  Germany  despair  of  an  initial  victory — and  that 
l)ossibly  decisive — had  she  been  free  to  choose  her  own 
method  of  making  war  on  us,  and  had  she  chosen  her  time 
wisely.  In  August  1914,  three  of  our  battle  cruisers  were  in 
theMeditcrranean,  one  was  in  the  Pacific,  one  was  in  dockj'ard 
hands.  Only  one  German  ship  of  the  first  importance  was 
absent  from  Kiel.  In  modem  battleships  commissioned  and 
at  sea,  the  German  High  Seas  Fleet  consisted  of  at  least  two 
Konigs,  five  Kaisers,  four  Helgolands,  and  four  Westfalens. 
Ail  except  the  Westfalens  were  armed  with  12.2  guns — 
weapons  that  fire  a  heavier  shell  than  the  British  12-inch. 
The  Westfalens  wer)^  armed  with  ii-inch  guns.  They  could, 
then,  have  brought  into  action  a  broadside  fire  of  no  12-inch 
guns  and  40  ii-inch.  Germany  had  besides  four  battle 
cruisers,  less  heavily  armed  than  our  ships  of  the  same  class, 
quite  as  fast  as  our  older  battle  cniisers  and  much  more 
securely  armoured.  So  that  if  protection — as  so  many  seem 
to  think — is  the  one  essential  quality  in  a  fighting  ship,  they 
were  more  suited  to  take  their  share  in  a  fleet  action  than  our 
baft  le-cruiseis  could  have  been  expected  to  be. 

On  our  side  we  had  twenty  battleships  and-four  armoured 
croisers.  In  modern  capital  ships,  then,  we  possessed  but 
twontv-fonr  to  nim^teen-   n  porcentaijf  of  superioritv  of  only 


ju.st  over  25  per  cent.,  and  less  than  that  for  action  purposes 
if  the  principle  alluded  to  holds  good.  It  was  a  margin  far 
lower  than  the  public  realised.  It  certainly  was  not  a  margin 
that  made  inglorious  inactivity  compulsory  to  an  enemy, 
had  he  been  resourceful,  enterprising,  and  willing  to  risk  all 
in  the  attack. 

If  the  German  Government  had  realised  from  the  start  that 
in  no  war  that  threatened  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe 
could  we  remain  either  indifferent  or,  what  is  far  more  im- 
portant, inactive  spectators,  then  they  would  have  realised 
something  else  as  well,  something  that  was,  in  point  of  fact, 
realised  the  moment  Germany  began  her  self-imposed — but 
now  impossible — task  of  conquering  France  and  Russia. 
For  the  gigantic  nature  of  her  error  stood  at  once  exposed. 
She  would  have  realised,  as  then  she  did,  that  if  Great  Britain 
came  into  the  war  her  intervention  would  be  decisive.  It 
would  have  to  be  so  for  very  obvious  reasons.  With  France 
and  Russia  assured  of  the  economic  and  financial  support 
of  the  greatest  economic  and  financial  Power  in  Europe, 
Germany's  immediate  opponents  would  have  staying 
power  :  time,  that  is  to  say,  would  be  against  their  would-be 
conquerors.  The  intervention  of  England,  then,  would  make 
an  ultimate  German  victory  impossible.  Everything  would 
therefore  turn  on  an  immediate  conquest  of  France.  In  a  long 
\var  staying  power  would  make  the  population  of  the  British 
Empire  a  source  from  which  armies  could  be  drawn.  Eng- 
land, beginning  by  being  the  greatest  sea  Power  in  the  world, 
would  necessarily  end  in  becoming  one  of  the  greatest  mihtary 
Powers  as  well.  The  two  things  by  themselves  must  have 
spelled  military  defeat  for  Germany.  Nor  again  was  this  all. 
For  while  sea  power,  and  the  financial  strength  which  goes 
with  sustained  trade  and  credit,  could  add  indefinitely  to  the 
fighting  capacity  and  endurance  of  Russia  and  France,  sea 
power  and  siege  were  bound,  if  resolutely  used,  to  sap  the 
fighting  power  and  endurance  of  the  Central  Powers. 

To  the  least  prophetic  of  statesmen— just  as  to  the  least 
instructed  students  of  mihtary  history — the  situation  would 
have  been  plain.  And  there  could  be  but  one  lesson  to  be 
drawn  from  it.  To  risk  everything  on  a  quick  victory  over 
France  or  Russia  was  insanity.  If  the  conquest  of  Europe 
could  not  be  undertaken  with  Great  Britain  an  opponent, 
the  alternative  was  simple.  Either  the  -conquest  of  Great 
Britain  must  precede  it  or  the  conquest^of  the  world  be  i^ost- 
poned  to  the  Greek  Kalends. 

Was  the  conquest  of  Great  Britain  a  thing  so  unattainable 
that  it  liad  only  to  be  considered  to  be  discarded  as  visionary  ? 
No  doubt,  had  we  been  warned  and  upon  oiu^  guard,  ready  to 
defend  ourselves  before  Germany  was  ready  to  strike,  then 
certainly  any  such  scheme  must  have  been  doomed  to  failure. 
But  I  am  not  so  sure  that  a  successful  attack  would  have  been 
beyond  the  resources  of  those  who  planned  the  great  European 
war,  had  they,  from  the  first,  grasped  the  elementary  truth 
that  it  was  necessary  to  their  larger  scheme.  For  to  win 
the  conquest  of  Europe  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  crush 
England  finally  and  altogether.  All  that  was  required  was  to 
prevent  her  interference  for,  say,  six  montlis,  and  this,  it 
really  seems,  was  far  from  being  a  thing  beyond  the  enemy's 
capacity  to  achieve. 

The  essentials  of  the  attack  are  easy  enough  to  tabulate. 
First,  Germany  would  have  to  concentrate  in  the  North  Sea 
the  largest  force  of  capital  sliips  that  it  was  possible  to  equipj 
Her  own  force  I  have  already  enumerated.  Had  Gennany 
contemplated  war  on  Great  Britain  she  wonld,  of  course,  not 
liave  sent  fiie  (ioeben  awav  to  the  Straits.     The  nucleus  of  the 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  14.  1917 


Oprman  Fleet,  then,  wowld  have  been  twenty  and  not  nineteen 
ships.  To  these  mi^ht  liave  been  added  the  three  completed 
Dreadnoughts  of  the  Austrian  Fleet,  the  ]'iribus  Cni/is, 
Tegetthoj,  and  I'riti-  liiisien—M  of  whirh  were  in  eoinmission 
in  the  summer  of  n>i4.  They  would  have  eoiUributtd  a 
broadside  tire  of  ;\(->  12-inch  fjuns — a  very  formidable  reinforre- 
ment — and  brought  the  enemy  fleet  to  an  almost  numerical 
equality  with  ours.  A  review  at  Kiel  would  have  been  a 
plausible  excuse  for  bringing  the  Austrian  Dreadnoughts 
mto  German  waters.  Supfwjsing  the  British  force,  then,  to 
have  been  undiminished,  the  war  might  have  opened  with  a 
bare  superiority  of  5  per  cent,  on  the  British  side. 

But  there  is  no  reason  why  British  strength  should  not  have 
been  reduced.  Knowing  as  we  now  do,  not  the  i)otentialities. 
but  the  practical  use  tnat  can  be  made  of  submarines  atid 
destroyers,  it  must  be  plain  to  all  that  had  Germany  intended 
to  begin  a  world  war  with  a  blow  at  England,  she  might  well 
have  hoped  to  have  reduced  our  strength  to  such  a  margin 
before  the  war  began,  as  to  make  it  almost  unnecessary  to 
provide  against  a  fleet  action.  Most  certainly  a  single  surprise 
attack  by  submarines  could  have  done  all  that  was  desired. 

By  a  singular  coincidence,  an  opportunity  for  such  an 
attack — an  opportunity  tiiat  could  have  hardly  failed  of  a 
most  sinister  success — offered  itself  at  the  strategic  moment. 
All  our  battleships  of  the  first,  second,  and  third  lines,  all  our 
battle-cruisers  commissioned  and  in  home  waters,  almost  all 
our  armoured  cruisers  and  fast  light  cruisers,  and  the  bulk 
of  our  destroyers  and  auxiliaries  were,  in  the  fateful  third 
week  in  July,  gathered  and  at  anchor — and  completely  un- 
.  protected — in  the  fairway  of  the  Solent.  There  were  to  be  no 
manoeuvres  in  1914,  but  a  test  mobihsation  instead,  and  this 
great  congregation  of  the  Fleet  was  to  be  a  measure  of  the 
.Admiralty's  capacity  to  man  all  our  naval  forces  oF  any 
lighting  worth. 

■  The  fact  that  this  'great  naval  gathering  was  to  take 
place  on  a  certain  and  appointed  date  was  public  property 
in  the  month  of  ^farch.  A  week  or  fortnight  before  the 
squadrons  steamed  tme  by  one  to  their  moorings,  a  plan  of  the 
anchored  lines  was  ])ublished  in  every  London  paper.  Tlie 
order  of  the  Fleet,  the  exact  location  of  every  ship,  the 
identity  of  every  ship  in  its  place  in  every  line,  might  have 
been,-  and  probably  were,  in  German  hands  a  week  before  any 
single  ship  was  in  her  billet.  From  Cuxhaven  to  the  Isle  of 
Wigiit  is  a  bare  350  miles — a  day  and  a  half's  journey  for  a 
submarine,  and  in  July  1914  Germany  possessed  between 
twenty  and  thirty  submarines.  It  was  a  day  and  a  half's 
journey  if  it  had  been  all  made  at  under-water  speed.  What 
coidd  not  a  dozen  W'eggidens  and  Hersings  have  done  had 
they  only  been  sent  upon  this  felt  mission,  and  their  arrival 
been  timed  for  an  hour  before  daybreak  on  the  morning  of 
July  i8th  ?  They  surely  could  have  gone  far  beyond  wiping 
out  a  margin  of  five  big  ships,  which  was  all  the  margin  we 
had  against  the  German  Fleet  alone.  They  could,  in  the  half 
light  of  the  summer's  night,  have  slipped  torpedoes  into  a 
dozen  or  more  battleships  and  battle-cruisers.  They  could 
have  attacked  and  returned  undetected,  leaving  Great  Britain 
largely  helpless  at  sea  and  quite  unable  to  take  part  in  the 
forthcoming  European  war. 

Germany  could,  of  course,  have  done  much  more  to  com- 
plete our  discomfiture.  F'ive  score  or  so  of  merchant  ships. 
each  carrying  three  brace  of  4-inch  guns,  and  sent  as  peaceful 
traders  astride  the  distant  trade  routes  ;  the  despatch  of  two 
score  or  more  destroyers  to  the  approaches  of  the  Channel 
and  the  W'esterij  ports,  and  all  of  them  instructed — as,  in 
fact,  eiglit  months  afterwards,  every  submarine  was  in- 
structed— to  sink  every  British  liner  and  merchantman  at 
sight,  without  waiting  to  search  or  troubling  to  save  passengcis 
or  crew — raids  organised  on  this  scale  and  on  these  principles 
could  have  reduced  our  merchant  shipping  by  a  crippling 
peicentage  in  little  more  than  forty-eight  hours.  The  two 
thmgs  taken  together—the  assassination  of  the  Fleet,  the 
wholesale  murder  of  the  merchant  marine — must  certainly 
have  thrown  Grerft  Britain  into  a  paroxysm  of  grief  and 
panic. 

What  a  moment  this  would  have  been  for  throwing  a 
raiding  force,  could  qne  have  been  secretly  organised,  upon 
the  utterly  undefended,  and  now  indefensible,  Eastern  coast. 
Secretly,  skilfully,  and  ruthlessly  executed,  these  three 
measures  could  have  done  far  more  than  make  it  impossible 
for  Great  Britain  to  take  a  hand  in  the  defence  of  France. 
They  might,  by  the  sheer  rapidity  and  terrific  character  of  the 
blows,  have  thrown  us  so  completely  oft  our  balance  as  to 
make  us  unwilling,  if  we  were  not  already  powerless,  to  make 
further  efforts  even  to  defend  ourselves.  At  least,  so  it  must 
have  appeared  to  Germany.  F'or  it  was  the  essence  of  the 
German  case  that  the  nation  was  too  distracted  by  jwlitical 
differences,  too  fond  of  money- making,  too  debilitated  by 
luxur>'  and  comfort,  too  conscious  of  its  weak  hold  on  th6 
self-governing  colonies,  too  uncertain  of  its  tenure  on  its 
oversea  Imperial  possessi6ns,  to  stand  by  its  plighted  word. 


'  The  nation  has  since  proved  that  all  these  things  were  a 
delusion.  But  it  was  no  delusion  that  (ireat  Britain  would  be 
very  reluctant  to  particij^ate  in  any  war.  And  we  need  not 
ha\e  fallen  so  low  as  Gi-rmany  supposed  and  yet  be  utterly 
discijinposed  and  incaiKibie  of  further  effort,  had  we  indeed, 
in  quick  succession  or  sinniltaneously,  received  the  triple 
onslaught  that  it  was  well  within  the  enemy's  power  to 
inflict. 

F-ven  had  these  blows  so  failed  in  the  completeness -of  their 
several  and  combined  effects  as  to  crush  us  altogether,  had  we 
recovered  and  been  able  to  strike  back,  what  would  have  been 
the  situation  ?  It  would  have  taken  us  some  months  to  hunt 
down  and  destroy  100  armed  German  merchantmen.  If 
lou  000  or  150,000  men  had  been  landed,  the  campaign  that 
would  have  ended' in  their  defeat  and  surrender  could  not 
have  been  a  very  rapid  one.  Our  re-assertion  of  the  com- 
mand of  the  seas  might  have  had  to  wait  until  the  dockyards, 
working  day  and  night  shiftSi,  could  restore  the  balance  of 
naval  power.  Suppose  then  we  escaped  defeat  ;  suppose 
these  assassin  blows  had  ended  in  the  capture  or  sinking  of 
100  merchantmen  in  the  final  overthrow  of  Germany's  sea 
power — could  these  things  have  been  any  loss  to  Cierniany 
in  a  F-uropean  war  ?  In  the  unsuccessful  attack  on  Verdun 
alone  she  has  thrown  away  not  150,000  men  but  three  times 
that  number.  There  is  not  a  German  merchantman  afloat 
that  has  been  worth  si-xpence  to  her  country  since  war  was. 
declared,  nor  is  there  any  military  purpose  that  can  be  said 
to  have  been  achieved  by  Germany's  war  fleet  that  can 
counterbalance  what  Germany  has  lost  by  our  troops  being 
free  of  the  French  ports.  The  sacrifices  then  would  have 
been  trivial  compared  with  the  stake  for  which  Germany  was 
playing.  ■  If  it  resulted  in  keeping  us  out  of  the  Continent 
for  six  months  only,  our  paralysis,  even  if  only  temporary, 
might  have  dei-.ided  the  issue  in  Germany's  favour. 

Greatly  as  (iermany  dared  in  forcing  war  upon  a  F^urojie 
altogether  surprised  and  almost  altogether  unready,  yet  m 
point  of  fact  she  dared  just  too  little.  Abominably  wicked 
as  her  conduct  was,  it  was  not  wicked  enough  to  win  the 
justification  of  success.  If  war  was  intended  to  be  inevitable 
from  the  moment  the  Serbian  ultimatiim  was  sent,  the 
capacity  of  (ireat  Britain  to  intervene  should  have  been 
dealt  with  resolutely  and  ruthlessly  and  removed  as  a  risk 
before  any  other  risk  was  taken.  It  sobers  one  to  reflect 
how  changed  the  situation  might  have  been  had  (ierman 
foresight  been  equal  to  the  German  want  of  scruple.  Looking 
back,  it  seems  as  if  it  was  but  a  \ery  little  thing  the  enemy 
had  to  do  to  ensure  the  success  of  all  his  plans. 

Had  anyone  before  the  war  sketched  out  this  programme 
as  one  which  Germany  might  adopt,  he  would  perhaps  have 
been  regarded  by  the  gieat  majority  of  his  countrymen  as  a 
lunatic.  But  to-day  wc  can  look  at  Germany  in  the  light  of 
two  years  of  her  conduct.  And  we  can  see  that  it  was  not 
scruple  or  tenderness  of  conscience  or  anv  decent  regard  for 
the  judgment  of  mankind  that  made  her  overlook  the  first 
essential  of  success.  We  must  attriimte  it  to  quite  a  different 
cause.  I  am  quoting  fn.m  memory,  but  it  seems  to  m.""  that 
Sir  FVederick,  Pollock  has  put  tlit-  truth  in  this  matter  into 
these  terms:'  , 

The  Getnmms  will  go  down  to  Itistory  as  people  who  joraaw 
everything  except  what  actually  happened,  and  calciilafei 
everything  except  its  cost  to  themselves. 

It  is  the  supreme  example  of  the  childish  folly  that,  lor  tlic 
next  two  years,  we  were  to  see  always  hand  in  hand  with 
diabolical  wickedness  and  cunning.  And  always  the  folly 
has  robbed  the  cunning  of  its  prey. 

In  the  edifying  tales  that  we  have  inherited  from  the 
Middle  .\ges,  when  simple-minded  Christian  folk  personified 
the  principle  of  evil  and  attributed  all  wickedness  to  the 
instigation  of  the  Devil,  we  are  told  again  and  again  of  men  who 
bargained  with  the  FZvil  One,  offering  their  eternal  souls  in 
payment  for  sorhe  preseiit  good — a  grim  enough  exchange 
for  a  man  to  make  who  believed  he  had  a  sou!  to  give.  But 
it  is  seldom  in  these  tales  that  the  bargain  goes  through  so 
simply.  Sometimes  it  is'ihe  sinner  who  scores  by  repentance 
and  the  intervention  of  Heaven  and  a  helpful  saint.  But 
often  it  is  the  Devil  that  cheats  the  sinner.  The  forfeit  of  the 
soul  is  not  explicit  in  the  bargain.  There  is  some  other  pro- 
mise, seemingly  of  plain  intent,  but  in  truth  ambiguous,  which 
seems  to  make  it  possible  for  sin  to  go  unpunished.  Too  late, 
the  deluded  gambler  finds  the  treaty  a  "  scrap  of  paper." 
The  story  of  Macbeth  is  a  ca.se  in  point. 

Does  it  not  look  as  if  Gerriiany  had  maxle  some  unhallowed 
bargain  of  this  kind— as  if  this  hideous  adventure  was 
started  on  the  faith  of  a  promise  of  success  given  by  her  evil 
genius  and  always  destined  to  be  unredeemed  ?  Is  it  alto- 
gether chance  that  there  should  have  been  this  startling  blind- 
ness to, the  most  pilpable  of  the  forces  in  the  game,  such 
inexplicable  inactidti  where'  the  right  action  was  so  obvious 
andso'easv?  ■■■■'■■■  Arthi-r  Polten 


J  Line  14,    1917 


LAND    &    WATER 

Past  and  Future 

By   Jason 


II  is  the  intention  of  Land  tS;  Water  to  revieio  from  week 
to  week  the  present  eiianges  in  national  life,  some  of  whieh 
are  obvious  but  othe/s  not  so  apparent,  and  endeavottr  to 
discern  the  outlines  of  the  future  State  towards  which  the 
changes  are  tending.  The  writer,  who  will  be  known  as 
"  Jason,"  has  been  for  months  a  close  student  of  these 
problems,  and  has  also  been  brought  .into  direct  contact 
with  many,  social  questions.  In  the  present  article  he 
revieios  the  past  and  recalls  several  facts  which  are  much 
too  generally  overlooked  by  those  who  contrast  the  present 
with  the  social  conditions  of  a  centnry  ago. 

THE  character  of  Britain  in  the  nineteenth  century 
was  determined  dliring  the  war  with  France  ;  the 
character  of  Britain  in  the  twentietli  century  will  be 
determined  by  the  war  with  Germany.  If  then  we 
wish  to  understand  what  this  new  Britain  is  going  to  be  like, 
we  must  begin  by  grasping  one  or  two  important  truths 
about  the  effect  of  events  which  happened  a  century  ago  on 
the  structure  and  spirit  of  our  society.  For  the  reconstruction 
which  is  before  us  will  be  largely  guided  by  a  revolt,  and  we 
shall  find  a  clue  to  its  leading  ideas  in  examining  the  system 
of  which  our  age  is  becoming  passionately  impatient. 

A  man  who  was  alive  at  the  end  of  the  struggle  with 
Napoleon,  had  he  been  a  man  of  real  insight,  like  Cobbett  who 
knew  the  world  of  agriculture,  or  John  Fieldcn  who  knew  the 
world  of  industry,  would  have  noted  two  main  legacies  from 
the  generation  which  passed  through  the  struggle.  The  first 
legacy  was  a  fall  in  the  standard  of  life  and  freedom  for  the 
mass  of  the  nation  on  a  scale  without  precedent  in  British 
history.  The  second  legacy  was  a  philosophy  that  sought 
to  find  an  explanation  for  this  state  of  things  that  would 
reassure  the  human  mind  as  to  the  future  of  civilisation.  In 
this  article  the  social  changes  of  that  period  will  be  summarised 
briefly  and  the  theory  by  which  these  changes  were  explained 
will  be  analysed  and  discussed. 

Economic  Independence 

A  considerable  class  of  workpepple  before  the  revolutions 
of  this  period,  the  one  agrarian  and  the  other  industrial, 
■enjoyed  a  certam  degree  of  economic  independence.  In  the 
village  the  basis  of  this  independence  was  of  course  the 
])ossession  of  common  rights.  The  landless  man  was  almost 
unknown,  for  though  there  were  many  labourers  who  did  not 
own  or  rent  a  strip  in  the  common  fields,  there  were  few  that 
did  not  pasture  an  animal  on  the  common  waste.  In  the 
unenclosed  village,  that  is  to  sav,  the  labourer  Was  not  merely 
a  wage  earner  receiving  so  much  money  for  his  labour  and  buy- 
ing his  food  at  a  shop.  He  received  wages  as  a  labourer  but 
in  part  he  maintained  himself  as  a  producer  ;  the  village 
common  supplied  him  with  firing,  with  pasture  and  some- 
times with  food.  Generally,  too,  his  earnings  were  supple- 
menterl  by  a  domestic  industry  which  gave  employment  to  his 
wife  and  children.  , 

Industry  was  begining  to  assume  its  modern  capitalist 
character  before  the  French  Revolution,  but  at  the  time  of 
that  Revolution  the  ordinary  workman  was  a  domestic  pro- 
ducer. Many  of  these  producers,  it  is  true,  did  not  own  the 
material  on  which  they  worked,  and  they  were  dependent 
both  for  their  material  and  for  thi;  marketing  of  their  finished 
goods  on  the  clothiers  who  employed  them.  But  there  were  a 
large  number  of  cottage  manufacturers  who  bought  their 
own  material,  worked  it  up  and  sold  their  finished  article,  to 
the  merchant  at  the  Cloth  HaU.  The  important  woollen 
industry  of  Yorkshire,  for  example,  was  of  t}iis  type. 
Generally  speaking  the  domestic" 'workers  had  gardens,  and 
even  when  they  becajiie  dcpc^iul'eiit  upon  their  employers 
lliey  had  much  more  relative  freedom  than  the  typical 
domestic  worker  of  to-day  who; belongs  to  a  sweated  trade, 
bamuel  Bam  ford  has  left  on  record  ap  Account  (if  his  uncle's 
lilc  as  a  Lancashire  weaver,  and  F'elkiri  has  drawn  an  alluring 
picture  ot  the  stocking  makers  of  Nottingham  (the  men  who  were 
a  terwards  known  as  Luddites)  "  eacli  had  a  garden,  a  ban  el 
of  home  brewed  ale,  a  week-day  suit  of  clothes  and  one  for 
bundays,  and  plenty  of  leisure,"  seldom  wording  more  than 
t  iree  days  a  week.  Mweover  music  was  cultivated  by 
them.  ■    ■  '  ^.^  -1  .      '^ .    ■.  ■  ■  ■         ■' 

The  two  revolutions,  the  aijraHan  revolutioii^  a$fe6ci£(tbci 
witl.  the  enclosures  and  capitalist  farming,  and  the  industrial 
I  evolution  associated  with  the  rapid  development  of  what  the 
I'lcncli  call  la  gtande  in$uslrie,"'  destroyed  :this  worid. 
-u  the  end  of  the  war  wjth  .Napolepu  ccrtaih 'fcatiires  of  the 
new  civdisation  were  already  aDoarent.    "For  our  pliiposts  W  is 


chiefly  important  to  note  that  the  agrarian  revolution  increased 
immensely  the  food  production  of  the  country  but  depressed 
the  condition  of  the  agricultural  labourer,  and  the  industrial 
revolution  increased  immensely  the  economic  power  and  re- 
sources of  the  country  but  depressed  the  conditions  of  the 
industrial  worker.  Judged  by  statistics  of  corn  production  "5 
the  country  was  much  more  prosperous  in  1815  or  1830  than 
in  1780  ;  the  figures  of  the  cotton  industry  would  show  an  even 
more  striking  advance.  For  example,  between  1870  and  1833 
the  imports  of  cotton  wool  rose  from  three  million  lbs.  to  300 
miUions.  People  talked  of  progress  and  the  march  of  mind  as  if 
they  were  the  commonplaces  of  discussion,  and  men  like 
Thomas  Love  Peacock  who  (questioned  this  optimism  were 
regarded  as  eccentrics.  , 

But  in  the  same  period  the  working  classes  had  suffered 
a  terrible  decline.  This  decline  showed  itself  in  our  rural 
civilisation  in  the  appalling  figures  of  the  poor  rate,  the  bar- 
barous laws  against  poaching,  the  growth  of  crime  and  of 
savage  punishment.  It  culminated  in  1830  in  a  rising  in  most 
of  the  southern  counties,  which  terrified  the  Government  and 
the  magistrates  and  was  suppressed  with  great  cruelty.  In  our 
industrial  civilisation  it  showed  itself  in  the  sudden  creation 
of  a  great  proletariat  living  in  squalor  and  wretchedness  with 
a  steadily  falling  standard  of  life.  In  January  1817  Brougham 
made  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons  reviewing  the  state  of 
the  country,  in  which  he  said  that  the  average  weaver's 
wages  had  fallen  to  4s.  3Jd.  a  week  and  labour  had  become  so 
cheap  that  it  was  not  worth  the  manufacturers'  while  to 
extend  the  power  loom. 

The  misery  of  the  times  found  expression  in  the  disturbances 
of'1811,  commonly  called  the  I.uddite  riots  in  Nottingham, 
Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  and  the  march  of  the  Blanketters 
in  1817.  It  was  the  punishment  of  the  Luddite  disturb- 
ances that  provoked  Byron's  famous  declaration  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  that  in  all  the  course  of  his  travels  amongst 
the  victims  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  he  had  never  seen  such 
squalor  and  destitution  as  he  had  seen  since  his  return  to 
England.  If  we  read  Chadwick's  report  on  the  industrial  slums, 
Sadler's  reports  of  the  factory  children,  and  Cobbett's  pictures 
of  the  village  paupers,  we  have  some  idea  of  the  degradation 
of  the  times.  And  about  that  degradation  we  have  to 
remember  an  important  truth.  In  times  of  crisis  there  is  a 
great  deal '  of  poverty  and  suffering  incidental  to 
temporary  disorganization. 

The  misery,  associated  with  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  partly  due  to  violent  fluctuations  of  trade,  to 
speculation  in  the  new  South  African  markets,  to  political 
measures  such  as  the  Orders  in  Counsel  and  Napoleon  s  Berlin 
decree,  in  short  to  the  special  conditions  created  by  the  great 
war.  But  over  and  over  all  these  we  have  to  note  a  permanent 
loss  of  strength  and  power  in  the  working-class  population, 
and  the  worst  feature  of  the  new  system  was  lasting,  the  gi- 
gantic system  of  child  labour  of  which  Oastler  could  say 
without  exaggeration  that  it  was  more  inhuman  than  the  slave 
-^  system  in  force  in  the  plantations  of  Jamaica. 

This  then  is  one  great  fact  that  meets  us  on  the  threshold 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  association  of  great  industrial 
expansion  with  a  momentous  decline  in  the  condition  of  the 
working  classes.  The  other  fact  is  not  less  important  ;  it  is 
the  rise  of  a  philosophy  which  explained  this  state  of  things, 
reconciled  this  age  to  the  prospect  of  its  permanence  and 
created  a  spirit  of  fatalism  which  clung  to  all  economic 
speculation  during  most  of  last  century.  Curiously  enough 
this  philosophy  reassured  the  age  not  by  supposing  the 
degradation  of  the  time  to  be  a  mere  passing  accident,  but  by 
accepting  it  as  a  permanent  condition  of  progress. 

The  imagination  of  the  age  was  captured  and  governed  by 
the  spectacle  of  a  new  power  in  the  world — the  power  of  capital. 
Capital  in  industry  was  not  new  in  itself,  but  the  difference 
in  degree  between  the  scale  on  which  capital  was  employed 
before  and  after  the  rise  of  machinery  was  so  great  as  to  amount 
to  a  difference  in  kind.  The  industrial  revolution  gave  an 
immense  field  to  this  power  and  contemporaries  came  to  regard 
■  all  industry  as  its  creation.  The  capitalist  was  the  omni- 
potent benefactor  who  provided  employment,  and  men  and 
women  and  children  were  part  of  his  machinery.  For  the 
ideal  of  economic  power  determined  the  status  of  the  work- 
})eople.  The  difference  between  the  civilised  and  uncivihsed 
country  was  the  difference  between  a  country  in  which  men 
had  savings  to  invest  and  invested  them  in  industrial  plant 
and  in  the  country  in  which  there  was  no  wealth  for  invest- 
ment, or  no  disposition  to  invest  it  in  reproductive  undertak- 
ing.' The  security  of  property  and  the  unquestioned  authority 
of  capital  were  the  conditions  of  progress.  Nothing  was  to  be 
done  to  frighten  or  alienate  this  power,  and  as  the  capitalist 


lo 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  i,\,   ujiy 


was  the  best  judge  of  the  condition  that  made  his  investment 
profitable,  it  Was  his  right  to  dictate  to  society  the  general 
anangements  of  its  life.  If  the  cotton  spinner  said  that  he 
could  only  make  a  profit  by  working  children  for  15  or 
20  hours," the  State  might  regret  but  could  not  dispute  the 
necessity.  The  State  existed  in  short,  not  to  promote  the 
good  life  for  its  citizens,  but  to  provide  the  most  encouraging 
atmosphere  for  capital.  Men  and  women  were  thought  of 
cnlv  as  instruments. 
^  The  economic  theorv  which  led  to  resistance  to  the  Factory- 
^  Act  and  caused  it  to  be  believed  that  the  lot  of  the  working 
classes  could  never  be  radically  improved,  was  developed  partly 
from  this  awe  and  respect  for  the  power  of  capital,  and  partly 
from  the  observations  of  conditions  which  are  in  truth  abnor- 
mal but  were  believed  to  reflect  some  general  law.  The  enclo- 
sures, the  destruction  of  common  rights,  and  two  or  three  years 
of  famine  prices  brought  the  villages  in  the  closing  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  to  the  verge  of  starvation.  The  ruling 
class  adopted  as  a  remedy  the  practice  of  supplementing 
wages  from  the  poor  rates  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
children  in  a  family-  Thus  at  the  ven,"  time  at  which  the  res- 
traint on  ])opulation  to  be  found  in  the  possession  of  a  certain 
economic  independence  was  removed  by  the  enclosures  and 
the  extension  of  the  factory  system,  a  great  stimulus  was 
offered  to  the  growth  ai  population  by  this  habit  of  sub- 
sidising wages.  The  natural  result  was  a  wild  increase  in  the 
birth  rate. 

Malthus  with  this  phenomenon  before  him  propoundetl  a 
theory  which  came  to  be  inteqireted  as  meaning  that  poverty 
and  vice  were  the  means  by  which  nature  kept  this  tendencj' 
in  check. 

It  was  believed  that  population  tends  to  increase  faster  than 
the  resources  of  nature  and  that  pON-erty  and  misery  were  the 
safeguards  of  society.  This  was  an  iron  law  which  reformers 
had  to  recognise,  for  if  the  poor  were  made  too  comfortable 


the  food  of  the  world  would  not  go  round.  Tiic  whole  of  this 
gospel  of  des[)air  was  produced  in  short  by  an  exceptional  phase 
which  led  to  this  jianic  about  over-population.  Meanwhile 
another  iron  law  was  invented,  based  upon  Ricardo,  the  dis- 
covery that  the  share  of  the  profits  of  industry  which  goes  to 
labour  was  fixed  by  economic  forces  over  which  all  the  will  and 
intelligence  of  man  had  no  influence.  That  share  might  be 
distributed  differently  between  the  recipients,  but  it  could  not 
be  increased.  As  Professor  Marshall  has  shown,  the  political 
economy  of  the  time  was  profoundly  affected  by  the  ascen- 
dancy of  the  mathematical  sciences,  and  mathematical  laws 
were  applieil  to  the  working  of  industry.  The  Wage  Fund 
theory  which  John  Stuart  Mill  disowned  in  i86g  was  an 
example  of  this  kind  of  reasoning.  The  economists  had 
interpreted  the  phenomena  of  their  time  by  elaborate  mathe- 
matical laws  and  they  twisted  those  laws  into  a  knot  in  which 
they  tied  up  the  human  will.  Thus  the  view  that  Trade 
Unions  were  wicked  and  mischievous,  that  the  working- 
classes  must  necessarily  live  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  of 
ignorance  and  squalor,  that  the  needs  of  industry  should  dictate 
the  laws  of  the  State,  and  that  it  was  essential  to  industry  that 
women  and  children  should  be  sweated,  the  general  gloom  of 
the  science  which  deserved  its  name  of  dismal  was  produced 
by  the  effect  of  the  rise  of  the  new  industry  on  the  imagin- 
ation of  the  age.  The  circumstances  of  the  great  war  aggra- 
vated its  disturbing  conditions  and  to  contemporary  observers 
they  seemed  permanent  and  to  belong  rather  to  human 
nature  than  to  special  circumstances  of  time  or  place. 

This  philosophy  depreciated  human  life  and  human 
character,  limited  men's  ambitions  for  their  society,  and  set 
up  an  ideal  which  involved  a  semi-servile  status  for  a  large 
number  of  its  citizens.  The  first  crude  extravagances  were 
arrested  as  time  went  on  but  the  nineteenth  century  never 
(juite  escaped  from  its  shadow.  \Vc  shall  see  in  our  next 
article  what  the  war  has  done  to  destroy  it. 


The    Stockholm    Conference 


By   H.    M.    Hyndham 


1  knew  well  tliat  anything  given  up,  in  passing  from  war 
lo  peace,  is  lost  to  the  careless  .side  ;  since,  when  people 
sencraily  have  once  made  up  their  minds  for  peace,  they  will 
not  renew  the  war  for  the  sake  of  what  lias  been  sacrificed  ; 
tlii.s,  therefore,  remain.s  in  possession  of  the  holders- 
i)cmosthencs  on  "  The  Embassy." 

THE  principal  aim  of  the  Germans  at  the  pic^ent 
time,  as  it  has  been  for  many  months  past,  is  to  open 
serious  negotiations  for  peace  while  their  armies 
are  not  manifestly  beaten,  while  their  forces  occupy 
Beigmm,  Serbia,  Russia, "  Poland,  a  great  portion  of  Rou- 
mania  and  the  wealthiest  manufacturing  districts  of  France, 
while  their  Alliances  are  practically  intact  and,  above  all, 
wnile  the  Hohenzollern  Hynasty  isstill  in  complete  control 
of  Germany  itself.  Their  General  Staft  knows  perfectly  well, 
and  the  German  people  are  slowly  learning  the  truth,  that  the 
main  objects  for  which  the  war  was  entered  upon— the 
leadership  of  liuropc  and  world- domination — cannot  possibly 
he  achieved  by  the  Central  Po'vers  ii.is  time.  The  battle  oi 
the  Mame  v, as  the  first  important  set-back  to  the  plan  which, 
we  can  now  see,  was  so  nearly  successful.  'Since  then,  in 
sjMte  of  all  victories  on  the  Eastern  front,  every  cLiy  that  has 
passed  has  pushed  the  aggressors  farther  back  from  their 
real  goal.  Now  the  great  question  arises  for  them:  "How  can  we 
make  use  of  our  present  position  to  cajole  the  Allied  Govern- 
ments and  peoples  into  peace  chaflerings  which  will  save  the 
appearance  of  defeat  and  leave  us  such  advantages  that  we 
may  begin  afresh,  when  conditions  are  much  more  favourable 
to  us  than  they  have  proved  to  be  on  the  present  occasion  ?  " 
That  is  the  qiiestion  now  exercising  the  German  mind.  And 
the  answer  to  it  must  be  given  quickly.  . 

We  may  set  aside  the  idea  of  revoliition  in  Germany. 
This,  if  it  comes  at  all.  will  not  come  during  the  war.  At 
present,  no  real  distinction  can  be  made  between  the 
German  Government  and  the  German  people.  The 
whole  nation  has  been  completely  hypnotised  from  above 
with  the  ideas  of  the  fitness  ..of  the  Fatherland  for 
world  supremacy,  Deulschland  Vber  Alles,  the  majesty 
and  rectitude  of  organised  and  successful  force,  the 
superiority  of  the  individual  Germans  to  the  men  of  any 
other  race,  the  holiness  of  victory  won  in  the  great  cause  of 
the  Prussianisation  of  humanity.  These  conceptions  domi- 
nated every  section  of  German  society  when  the  war  began. 
There  is  little  to  show  that  they  do  not  dominate  it  now. 
Those,  therefore,  who  reckon  upon  popular  risings  in  the 
Central  Empires  to  shorten  t!ie  war  deceive  theiuselvcs  just 
as   completely   as   the   highly  placed    politicians   here    at 


home  who,  in  the  face  of  all  w.uiiingi  to  the  contrary, 
belie\ed,  in  July  1014,  that  the  German  Social  Democratic 
Party  could  stcj)  the  war. 

It  is  not  iiiternid  trouble  of  a  revolutionary  kind  that 
compels  ^  German  generals  and  statesmen  to  intrigue  for 
peace.  They  feel  the  growing  j)ressurc  upon  their  military 
resources  in  every  tjcpartment  ;  they  recognist;  the  submarine 
campaign  to  force  the  Allies  to  negotiate'will  probably  fail  ; 
they  doubt  whether  their  troops  can  stand  up  much  longer 
against  the  British  and  French  on  the  West  front,  and 
the  entry  of  the  United  States  into  the  war  on  the  side  of 
Germany's  enemies.  There  is  now  no  hope  for  Germany  of. 
eventual  success.  The  longer  the  war  goes  on,  with  America 
coming  in  to  strengthen  her  opponents  in  every  way,  the 
worse  it  will  be  for  Germany  and  her  friends.  Even  wholesale 
disaster  is  now  within  the  bound.-;  of  [jossibilitj'. 

Rut  it  would  never  do  for  Germany  to  propose  definite 
terms  of  peace,  whether  she  intended  to  break  them  imme- 
diately, as  usual,  or  to  maintain  them  just  so  long  as  she 
could  not  help  doing  so.  To  set  forth  definite  proposals, 
such  as  the  Allies  would  be  in  the  least  likely  to  accept,  would 
be  a  public  confession  of  failure,  which  even  German  soldiers 
could  not  but  read  as  a  virtual  surrender.  The  thing  to  do. 
consequently,  is  to  get  peace  talked  about,  as  if  the  Central 
Powers  were  most  reasonable  in  every  way,  and  only  the  mf)n- 
strous  pretensions  of  the  .Allied  (Governments  would  prevent 
the  peoples  from  securing  forthwith  that  cessation  of  the  war 
wliich  they  all  ardently  desire.  Nations  are  weary  of  the 
war  :  the  tremendous  sacri^ic.es  in  men  and  money  are  telling 
very  heavily  even  upon  Great  Britain  :  the  suicide  of  the 
white  race  is  being  regarded  as  a  dc«<perate  fact  which  may 
]iroduce  incalculable  results ;  never  did  peace  sound  so 
blessed  a  word  to  many  of  the  winning  combination  as  it  does 
to-day.  There  is  a  growing  section,  even  in  France,  which, 
would  welcome  a  settlement  upon  almost  any  terms. 

Now  there  are  two  quarters  from  which  Germany  could 
rely  upon  getting  valuable  help,  which  would  enable  her  to 
produce  general  uneasiness  and  favour  her  underhand  peace 
piopaganda  without  in  anyway  committing  herself.  The  first 
quarter  is  the  neutral  States  of  Europe.  These  countries 
have  made  enormous  profits  for  their  mercantile  and  com- 
mercial classes  during  the  war.  Though,  at  heart,  greatly 
afraid  of  Germany,  the  Mammon  of  unrighteousness  has 
greased  their  palms  and  salved  their  consciences.  They 
have  served  the  pCirposcs  of  the  aggressors  excellently  well. 
But  now  they,  too,  are  beginning  to  feel  the  pinch  of  hard 
times,  and  the  (.lermans,  by  their  submarine  campaign,  and 


June  14,  1917 


LAND    &    WATHK 


II 


in  other  ways,  have  taken  care  that  the  nip  should  be  both 
painful  and  insulting.  So  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  Switzer- 
land, and  above  all,  Holland,  are  ready  to  "  show  zeal  "  in 
favour  of  their  great  military  neighbour ;  fear,  not  love, 
being  the  impelhng  motive. 

German  Social  Democrats 

But  there  is  another  set  of  men  who  arc  still  more  amenable 
to  German  designs  and  can  be  still  more  effectively  used,  on 
account  of  their  legitimate  influence  with  considerable  numbers 
of  working  people.  These  are,  of  course,  the  Socialists  of 
the  various  countries,  who  are  entirely  opposed  to  the  war, 
on  the  ground  that  a  victory  for  Germany  could  not  make 
the  condition  of  the  wage-earners  of  all  nations  worse  than 
it  is,  and  that,  consequently,  this  war  is  a  hideous  holocaust 
of  working  men,  carried  on  in  the  interest  of  the  capitalist 
class  which  ought  to  be  put  a  stop  to  at  once.  Now  Gemiau 
statesmen  have  at  their  command,  ready  to  do  their  bidding 
in  any  way  whatever,  the  majority  of  the  Social-Democrats 
of  Germany.  Men  like  Scheidemann,  Siidekum,  Ebert, 
David,  Heine,  Noske  and  others  are  the  official  agents  of  the 
German  Government.  Their  paper  Vorwdrts — whose  record 
in  the  past  was  honourable  enough — has  become  a  semi- 
official  organ  of  the  Wilhelm  Strasse.  They  themselves  have 
vigorously  supported  the  Junker  Party  in  all  its  campaign 
of  atrocities,  and  were  but  yesterday  as  eager  for  annexations 
as  any  of  their  employers.  The  fact  that  Scheidemann  and 
Siidekum  were  intimate  friends  and  correspondents  of  the 
Independent  Labour  Party  in  England,  and  in  particular  of 
Mr.  Ramsay  Macdonald,  before  the  war,  is,  from  the  German 
])oint  of  view,  another  advantage.  Nothing,  in  fact,  could 
be  more  convenient. 

So  it  was  that  Scheidemann  and  a  comrade  were 
sent  off  on  a  fishing  expedition  to  the  neutral  States,  in  order 
to  ]>repare  the  way  for  a  really  imposing  "  International  " 
Sociahst  Peace  Conference — seeing  that  the  Conferences  of 
the  Pcace-at-Any-German-Price  Sociahsts  at  Zimmerwald 
and  Kienthal  have  failed  to  deceive  anybody,  except  those 
who  had  taken  pains  to  deceive  themselves  beforehand. 

It  was  not  a  bad  trick.  Quite  a  large  number  of  well-meaning 
people  might  be  taken  in"!  The  leopard  was  discarding  his 
spots  and  the  negro  was  changing  his  skin  in  the  presence  of 
all  men.  The  transformation  was  dexterous.  And  the 
-(jmmittee  of  Dutch  Socialists  appointed,  with  Camillc 
Huysmans  the  Secretary,  to  carry  on  the  detail  business  of  the 
International  Socialist  Bureau  during  the  war,  were  con- 
veniently manipulated,  in  such  wise  that  they  were  persuaded 
to  hold  up  the  screen  while  this  strange  transformation  was 
being  effected.  In  other  words,  the  Dutch  Committee  went 
out  of  its  way  to  summon  an  International  Socialist  Con- 
ference at  Stockholm,  in  accordance  with  Scheidemann's 
secret  suggestions  elsewhere  on  the  part  of  the  German 
Government.  The  Dutch  Committee  has  no  mandate  what- 
soever to  summon  .such  an  International  Socialist  gathering 
in  order  to  discuss  tlic  terms  of  peace  ;  there  was  no  agenda 
formulated,  of  any  kind  ;  the  Socialists  fighting  at  the  front 
could  not  either  send,  or  vote  for,  delegates  ;  and  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  International  Socialist  Bureau,  M.  Emilc  Vander- 
velde,  the  Belgian  Minister,  expressed  his  determination  not 
to  attend.  But  what  of  that  ^  The  Dutch  section  issued 
their  invitations  all  the  same.  M.  Hjalmar  Branting,  a 
SwecUsh  Socialist  of  high  reputation  and  a  strong  pro-Ally 
man,  was  induced  to  accept  the  post  of  chairman  ;  and 
although  tlie  British  section  of  the  "  International  "  voted 
against  being  represented,  by  a  large  majority,  and  the 
French  Socialists  at  first  did  the  same,  active  preparations 
for  the  assembly  of  the  Conference  continued  to  be  pressed 
steadily  forward. 

What  ought  to  have  warned  the  entire  Socialist  world  as 
to  the  real  meaning  of  the  Conference,  was  the  visit  to  Berlin 
of  M.  Trcelstra,  the  Dutch  Deputy  and  the  strongest  member 
of  the  Dutch  Committee,  who,  before  the  war,  denounced 
German  machinations  against  the  rights  of  Holland  in  The 
I'orlnighlly  Revieic  and  elsewhere.  Arrived  at  the  German 
capital.  Tra'lstra  actually  had  a  long  private  interview  with 
Herr  Zimmermann,  the  German  Foreign  Minister.  That, 
to  my  mind,  was  the  most  significant  incident  in  the  whole 
intrigue.  Troelstra  may  have  intended  to  act  in  all  good 
faith  ;  but  this  private  conversation  with  a  German  official 
of  Herr  Zimmerrnann's  standing,  stamped  the  whole  Con- 
ference, coming  as  it  did  after  Scheidemann's  efforts,  as  a 
pro-German  plot  from  start  to  finish.  Not  even  Branting 
Chairmanship,  nor  Huysman's  action  with  the  Dutch  con- 
veners can  change  this  aspect  of  the  aftair. 

Observe  that,  Qven  so  far,  and  presuming  that  the  Con- 
ference, from  one  cause  or  another,  is  not  held,  Germany  has 
to  a  large  extent  gained  her  ends.     She  has  set  SociaUsls  to 


work  in  every  belligerent  country  discussing  terms  of  peace 
and  filling  the  public  mind  with  ideas  of  settlement,  though 
not  one  of  her  statesmen  has  propounded  any  peace  terms  for 
Germany  herself.  All  the  time,  too,  she  has  been  carrying 
on,  first  with  the  Emperor  Nicholas,  his  Court  camarilla  and 
ministers,  and  then,  alter  the  Revolution,  witli  the  Russian 
anti-Nationalists,  elaborate  negotiations  for  a  separate  peace. 
What  von  Jagow  and  Stijrmer  had  begun,  and  nearly  siic- 
ceeded  in  effecting,  was  continued  by  Zimmermann  with 
the  aid  of  Lenin  and  others.  The  Committee  of  Workmen 
and  Soldiers,  also,  were  by  no  means  disinchned  at  first  to 
listen  to  similar  overtures.  The  Russians,  too,  following 
.the  lead  of  the  Dutch,  are  now  anxious  to  call 
an  International  Socialist  Conference  themselves ;  though 
they  have  even  less  right  than  the  Socialists .  of  Holland 
to  do  so,  and  the  basis  of  the  Conference,  as  set  forth,  renders 
it  certain  that  International  Socialism  must  sufter  greatly 
should  it  meet.  Failing  this,  they  say  their  delegates  are 
going  to  Stockholm. 

Now,  however,  comes  the  most  extraordinary  surprise  of 
all  in  this  queer  business.  The  French  have  more  reason  to 
feel  deep  and  lasting  anger  against  the  Germans,  their 
Scheidemanns,  Siidekums  and  the  rest  of  the  champions  of 
piracy  and  general  German  infamy,  than  any  people  except 
the  Belgians.  Yet  when  Marcel  Cachin,  Moutet  and  Lafont 
return  from  their  mission  to  Petrograd,  they  bring  with  them 
appeals  of  such  a  startling  character  from  their  Russian  Allies 
that  the  Frencii  Socialists  turn  right  round  upon  themselves. 
Majority  and  minority  vote  unanimously  in  fa^-our  of  sending 
delegates  to  Stockholm,  there  I  i>resume,  to  embrace,  with 
truly  fraternal  rapture,  the  very  men  who  betrayed  the  whole 
Socialist  movement  in  August,  1914,  and  from  that  time  to 
this  have  looked  on  and  applauded  every  outrage  and  horror 
inflicted  upon  Fiance. 

French  Socialists 

What  the  full  arguments  used  by  Cachin  and  Muutet  to 
beguile  their  comrades  and  to  persuade  them  thus  to 
give  way  to  Scheidemann  and  Co.,  were,  I  do  not  know. 
But  one  statement  made  by  Cachin  is  so  utterly  ridiculous 
that  if  it  is  a  sample  of  the  rest  the  French  .Socialists  are 
being  terribly  misled.  Cachin  said  that  Russia  has  10,000,000 
soldiers  and  100,000  ofticers  ready  to  resist,  and  to  attack,  the 
enemy.  The  truth,  of  course,  is  that  she  has  not,  equij)ped 
and  prepared  for  war,  at  this  moment,  more  than  half  the 
troops  we  English  have  under  arms  ;  that  is  to  say,  she  may 
have  at  the  outside,  2,500,000  men.  I  believe  this  last 
figme  to  be  an  exaggeration.  Moreover,  without  nnmitions 
and  supplies  from  us,  even  that  army  could  not  carry  on. 
As  an  old  Social  Democrat  I  deeply  regret  that  my  French 
comrades,  for  whom  I  have  always  had  the  highest  regard, 
should  palter  with  the  destinies  of  their  glorious  country  at 
this  critical  moment.  I  consider  that  M.  ^Ribot  was  quite 
right  to  refuse  them  their  passports  to  Stockholm.  I  wish 
our  own  Foreign  Office  were  not  always  afraid  of  its  own 
shadow,  and  tlial  it  would  for  once  pluck  up  a  little  courage 
and  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  American  President  and  tlie 
French  Premier. 

What  the  (jcrman  .Sociahsts,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  great 
majority  of  them,  really  want  is  tlie  victory  of  their  own 
aggressive  militarism,  no  matter  how  obtained.  They  will 
all  subordinate  every  other  consideration  to  that,  at  Stock- 
holm or  anywhere  else.  'Wliat  does  Victor  Adler,  of  Vienna, 
frankly  tell  us  ?  That  Germany  and  the  Germans  must  un- 
questionably have  control  of  the  International  Socialist 
Bureau,  and  the  International  Sociahst  movement  generally, 
after,  as  before  the  war.  It  is  their  right  !  And  their  prestige 
to  be  used  again,  I  supj/ose,  when  convenient,  to  betray  us 
ail  again  as  they  did  nearly  three  years  ago  ?  That  is  the 
general  German  view.  F""or  my  pait,  I  regard  with  the  gravest 
suspicion  any  efforts  for  peace  made  either  by  Sociahsts  or 
others  until  the  (icrmans  arc  beaten  and  have  .stated  their 
terms  for  cessation  of  hostilities.  W'e  must,  therefore, 
shake  off  all  war  weariness  and  even  distrust,  however 
justifiable,  while  this,  the  greatest  menace  that  has 
threatened  the  progress  of  humanity,  is  being  finally  crushed 
down. 

Those  who  oppose  the  policy  of  the  nation  and  its 
AlHes  must  be  fought  tooth  and  nail.  The  French  majouty 
thought  to  win  over  the  minority  by  fair  words  and  fraternal 
deeds.  Consequently,  the  less  has  swallowed  the  greater. 
That  ought  to  be  a  lesson  to  us.  I  am  more  of  a  revolutionary 
Social  Democrat,  if  possible,  than  ever  I  was.  But  I  am 
quite  convinced  that  until  German  jackbootery  and  wholesale 
infamy  are  proved  to  be  nnsHcccssfid  and  nnprofilable  there 
is  no  hope  for  the  Co-operative  Commonwealth,  National  or 
International,  and  that  pro-German  pacifism  is  treachery 
to  the  human  race. 


LAND    &     WATER 


June  14,   1917 


An    Affair    of    Machinery 

By    tbe    Author  of   Ji   QranS.    FIcel    Chaplain  s    Note   ^ook 


A[.1T TLE  little  while  ago  I  was  ashore  for  an  after- 
noon, and  hnding  nothing  more  exciting  to  do  I 
went  over  a  distillcrj'.  The  gentleman  who 
_sl)owed  me  round  was  partitularly  careful  to 
..\plain  that  none  of  the  produce  of  the  stills  at  any  stage 
»)(  Its  manufacture  was  lit  for  present  consumption.  After 
telling  you  this,  it  seems  ;dniost  unneccessary  to  state  that  the 
locality  was  somewhere  in  Scotland. 

It  was  a  fairly  large  distillery,  and  a  good  deal  of  machinery 
was  installed  for  various  purposes. 

"  IJo  you  employ  an  cngmeer  to  look  after  all  this  ?" 
1  (juestioncd  my  guiUc. 

■'  No  ]>recisely  an  engineer,"  he  replied  ;  "  we  mak'  shift  wi' 
ha  I -breeds  "  !  Well,  the  Navy  has^grown  to  such  an  enormous 
e.\tent  since  the  war  that  we  have  supplemented  the  regular 
na\al  staft  of  active-service  engineers  by  drawing  largely 
upDU  volunteers  from  engineering  works  and  firms  ashore  ; 
and  so,  if  these  temporary  officers  will  allow  me  to  use  the 
expression  without  oftcnce,  we  too  "  mak'  shift  wi'  ha'f- 
breeds  "  to  assist  our  needs. 

Only  "  half-breeds  "  so  far  as  naval  routine  and  ship  life 
are  concerned,  be  it  well  understood  ;  in  most  cases  the 
■'  Engineer  Lieutenant,  R.N.,  Tempy  "is  a  regular  deus  ex 
muchina — (as  a  classical  quip  1  think  that  is  rather  smart !) — 
and  an  engineering  expert  of  all  sorts  of  qualifications.  Some- 
times, perhaps,  he  is  just  a  httle  apt  to  make  his  first  appear- 
ance in  the  engine-room  rather  with  the  air  of  an  Kdison 
asked  to  take  charge  of  a  clockwork  mouse  ;  but  in  a  ven^' 
brief  space  of  time  he  discovers  that  there  are  as  good  engin- 
eering fish  in  the  sea  as  ever  stayed  out  of  it,  and  there  are 
])roblems  and  difficulties  in  a  ship  enough  to  engage  all  the 
attention  and  skill  of  tlie  best  man  going.  So,  adapting  himself 
to  his  new  surroundings,  he  quickly  becomes  indistinguishable 
from  the  pukka  old  Navy  hand,  and  proves  himself  a 
thundering  good  messmate  into  the  bargain. 

Vou  might  think,  perhaps,  that  in  these  days  of  turbine 
engines  and  oil  fuel  there  can  be  very  httle  to  do  beyond 
turning  a  few  taps  and  switches  ;  everything  is  so  simple. 
Exactlv  !  There  was  a  man,  once  up.on  a  time,  who  said  he 
knew  all  about  women  ;  they  were  simple  creatures,  perfectly 
easy  to  understand,  and  what  knocked  him  was  how  people 
could  make  any  difficulty  about  the  matter.  He  fell  in  love  after 
that,  and  then  he  began  to  learn.  Well,  to  be  attached  to  one 
of  the  fair  is  very  like  being  appointed  to  a  ship  ;  and  you 
ne\er  know  how  little  you  know  until  you  find  out  by 
fxp'.'rience  ! 

Now  ours  happens  to  be  the  best  steaming  ship  in  the  whole 
o(  the  Grand  Fleet.  I  trust  that  the  mention  of  this  fact 
will  not  disclose  her  identity,  though  1  am  afraid  it  will  ; 
especially  if  I  add  to  that  she  is  also  the  best  shooting  ship 
and  the  cleanest  ship  and  the  happiest  ship.  This  practically 
gives  the  whole  show  away.     No  matter  ! 

But  to  be  the  best  steaming  ship  in  the  Fleet  means  much 
the  sam'j  as  when  you  say  that  you  have  got  the  finest  crop  of 
potatoes  in  the  whole  allotment-patch  ;  that  is,  it  means  that 
you  have  worked  hardest  at  it.  F'or  the  engines  of  a  battle- 
ship and  their  attendant  engineers  resemble  the  various 
members  of  a  football  team,  who  must  learn  laboriously  to 
transform  themselves  into  one  single  working  unit  before  they 
are  any  use  at  all  as  a  team,  however  good  they  may  be 
individually. 

We  rattled  and  hurtled  along — at  Jutland.  And  down 
below  the  engines  hummed  a  ciuiet  tunc  ;  for  turbine  ships 
are  not  noisy  vulgarians  like  those  of  the  old  "  Push-and- 
Pull  "  order.  And  the  words  of  the  quiet  tunc  which  the 
turbines  hummed  were  "  Come  along,  you  other  ships,  can't 
you  keep  up  with  me,  can't  you  keep  u])  with  me  ?" 

And  the  other  shijte  heaved  their  shoulders  and  shoved 
forward  through  the  water  and  did  their  best,  and  somehow 
managed  to  keep  up.  IJut  why  ?  Because  down  below 
were  the  experts,  tlic  engineers,  watching  the  machinery  in 
the  same  spirit  of  utter  detachment  as  a  bacteriologist  examin- 
ing a  microbe  culture.  The  incessant  roar  of  the  huge  turret 
guns  overhead  was  nothing  to  them,  nor  the  chance  of  an 
imminent  and  very  impleasant  death.  Their  business  was 
to  attend  the  engines  and  to  supervise  the  sweating,  toiling 
men  in  engine-room  and  stokehole. 

And  so  they  passed  that  day,  half-breeds  rind  full-breeds 
together,  temporary  men  and  acti\c-service.  But  to  the  half- 
Invrds  is  the  greater  credit  due  ;  because,  when  all's  said  and 
(\nw,  if  you  enter  the  .service  for  a  full  due  yoti  do  so  with 
your  eyes  o])en  and  realise  that  you  area  "  hired  assassin  "  with 
risks  concomitant  to  the  position  :    Imf  it  U  a  very  different 


matter  for  a  man  who  has  hitherto  woiked  at  his  profession 
in  a  motor-factory  or  a  cotton-mill. 

A  ><ignal  from  the  Adnural  flicked  out  on  the  air  ;  he  wanted 
to  detach  a  sfiuadron,  and  wanted  that  squadron  to  steam 
most  remarkably  quickly.  And  if  you  could  have  looked 
down  from  the  seaplane  which  at  the  "moment  was  flyihg  higli 
over  the  fleet,  you  would  have  seen  a  jwrt  of  the  line  suddenly 
swerve  aside,  just  as  part  of  a  flock  of  starlings  will  sometimes 
swerv^e,  and  all  the  ship,  would  have  been  seen  to  forge  ahead 
with  instantaneously  increased  speed,  like  a  bunch  of  sj);  inters 
at  the  head  of  a  race  spurting  and  breaking  away  from  the 


ruck  behind. 


'f 


That  meant  that  down  below  in  .every  several  ship  there 
was  an  engineer  officer  with  a  hand  on  a  valve  and  an  eye  on  a 
revolution  indicatoi;,  and  apparently  fifty  other  hands  and  a 
hundred  other  eyes  all  fixed  on  as  many  different  adjustments, 
playing  delicately  and  skilfully  as  a  virtuoso  on  his  beloved 
instrument. 

Not  infrequently  one  hears,  in  wardroom  circles,  the 
flight  and  interchange  of  what  old  Homer  used  to  call  "  winged 
words  ;"  shafts  aimed  with  great  skill  and  accuracy  and 
pointed  in  such  a  special  manner  that  though  they  hit  the 
mark  and  p.metrate  yet  they  never  cause  the  slightest  pain 
nor  leave  the  slightest  trace  of  a  scar.  For  it  must  be 
understood  that  naval  wit  most  frequently  takes  the  form  of 
remarks  such  as  an  outsider  would  construe  as '  deliberate 
insults  of  a  personal  nature ;  and  so  perhaps  they  may  be, 
in  outward  form  ;  but  in  their  inward  and  spiritual  meaning 
they  merely  indicate  a  proper  feeling  of  good  fellowshi]i. 
It  is  very  much  on  the  same  lines  as  when  a  fond  mother  calls 
her  babe  "  Little  Ugly,  '  having  exhausted  all  the  words  in  her 
vocabulary  to  express  handsomeness  and  beauty  ;  or  when 
a  schoolboy  addresses  his  chiun  as  "  You  silly  rotter," 
meaning  that  he  is  the  finest  fellow  in  exi.stence. 

Possibly  this  is  not  a  very  ex;Uted  form  of  humour  ;  but 
you  cannot  expect  us  all  to  be  Sheridans  or  Chestertons— 
especially  m  war  time,  when  we  have  to  make  the  best  of  the 
scanty  materials  at  our  command  in  the  conversational  line. 

So  you  will  understand  perfectly  what  is  meant  when  an 
executive  lieutenant  addresses  an  engineering  ditto  in  such 
terms  as  these  : 

"  Look  here  you!  Who  gave  you  permission  to  sit  on  the 
same  settee  as  me  ?  Get  down  to  your  stokehole— proper 
place  for  the  likes  of  you  !" 

To  which  the  correct  retort  is—"  And  why  aren't  you  up 
on  deck,  or  on  the  bridge  ?  What's  the  use  of  my  keeping  the 
ship  m  the  state  of  high  efficiency  down  below,  if  you  just 
slack  about  herq  and  are  too  tired  to  stroll  about  on  the  bridge 
while  the  quartermaster  does  the  work  ?" 

"  On  the  bridge  ?"  Comes  the  Retort  Courteous.  "  Why 
haven't  I  been  up  there  the  whole  blessed  fftrenoon,  getting 
half  blinded  by  the  disgusting  smoke  vou  have  been  chucking 
up  through  the  foremost  funnel  ?  Bad  stoking,  that's  what 
It  IS  !  I  can  see  I  shall  have  to  come  below  myself  and  teach 
you  your  job  !" 

Or,  with  special  reference  to  one  of  the  "  half-breeds  " 
sitting  quietly  in  the  corner  of  the  wardroom— well  within 
earshot,  of  course — "  Well  I  must  say  it's  pretty  hard  on  the 
Chief,  having  to  put  up  with  these  engineering  stiffs  from  the 
beach.  Oh,  there  you  are,  Carburet  !  Sorrv,  I  didn't  know 
you  were  anywhere  near  !"  (Which  is,  of  course,  obviously 
and  openly  untrue  !). 

To  this,  the  Counterclicck-not-at-all-t|uarrclsomc  may  take 
the  form  of  bodily  assault  ;  and  as  Mr.  Carburet  is  frapiently 
a  hefty  s])ccimeii  well  exercised  in  a  strenu<ms  life  ashore, 
the  result  is  not  always  to  tl)(e  advantage  of  the  R.N. 

In  any  case,  perfect  amity  charactcrtses  the  whole  of  the 
IJioceedmgs  frf)m  start  to  fiiw^h. 

Once,  long  ago.  in  one  of  the  i>cry  old-fashioned  shi])s,  I 
heard  the  First  Lieutojiant  gently  attyempting  to  pull  the  leg 
"f  ;i  Senior  engineer  by  asking  liiiii  : 

"  Why  can't  you  build  our  ships  like  they  do  those  Clyde 
Puffers,  where  the  captain  \n\ts  the  links  over  by  himself  and 
works  everything  in  the  engine-room  from  the  bridge  ?  Then 
we  could  do  without  you  fellows  altogether  !" 

1  forget  the  precise  wording  of  the  Reproof  Valiant  in  this 
case  ;  but> jiowadays,  in  a  very  modern  ship,  there  is  little  that 
does  not  come  directly  or  indirectly  under  the  charge  of  the 
engineering  staff. 

Boats,  which  used  to  be  laboriously  hoisted  by  hand,  taking 
nearly  the  whole  of  a  ship's  company  to  raise  a  cutter  to  the 
davit  iieads,  are  now  swiftly  hrtisted  in  by  motors.  Turrets 
are  an  amazing  mass  of  hydraulic  or  electrical  contrivances  ; 


June    14,  1Q17 


TAND    &    WATER 


13 


and  the  old  idea,  sanctified  by  generations  of  gunnery  officers, 
that  a  ship  is  a  floating  gun-platform  and  nothing  else,  lias 
long  given  place  to  the  fact  tliat  a  modern  battleship  from 
stem  to  stern  is  just  an  affair  of  machinery. 

And  so,  too,  is  a  modern  naval  battle.  The  guns  may  he 
the  decisive  and  final  factor,  but  it  is  as  well  to  keep  in  mind 
that  you  must  "  First  catch  your  Herr,  then  cook  him." 
and  the  very  necessary  part  of  tir.st  catching  him  devolves 
entirely  upon  the — well,  there  are  better  words  than  mine  to , 
expr§s.s  my  meaning  : 

It  must  never  ba  forgotten,  however,  that  the  prehide  to 
action  is  the  work  of  the  engine-room  department,  and  that  during 
action  the  officers  and  men  of  that  department  perform  their 
most  important  duties  without  the  incentive  which  a  knowledge  of 


the  course  of  action  gives  to  them  on  declc.  .  . , 

Or  again. 

As  usual — (note  that  ax  iisuai) —ihn  engine-room  departments 
of  all  ships  displayed  the  highest  qualities  of  technical  skill; 
tliseipline,  and  endurance.  Jligh  speed  is  a  primary  factor  in  the 
tactics  of  the  squadrons  under  my  command,  and  the  I'.ngine- 
Koom  departments  never  fail. 

You  may  recognise  tlie  quotations.  The  first  is  from 
Admiral  Jellicoe's  despatch  ;  the  second  that  of  Admiral 
Beatty.  ' 

They  show,  I  venture  to  say,  that  the  affair  generally 
referred  to  by  the  affectionate  name  of  "  The  Jutland  Scrap  "" 
was  very  largely,  like  most  things  cj»nnected  "witli  the  Navy 
of  to-day,  an  Affair  of  Machinery.'"-  •  ''   ' 


Success  of  Mr.  Balfour's  Mission 

By  An  Onlooker  in  America 


Washington,  May  i8th,  1917. 

BEFORE  this  can  appear  in  print  Mr.  Balfour  will 
have  returned  to  London.  From  many  points  of 
view  the  mission  has  been  wonderfully  successful. 
It  has  been  a  real  personal  triumph  for  its  leader. 
Thanks  to  Mr.  Balfour's  tacthd  ehxpience  and  power  of 
exposition,  whether  in  public  or  private,  it  has  immensely 
developed  the  Transatlantic  understanding  of  the  war.  It 
lias  shown  Americans  as  nothing  before  had  shown  them, 
how  important  the  objects  for  wliich  we  are  fighting  are  for 
the  whole  world.  It  has  exploded  the  idea  that  it  is  simply 
a  case  of  the  iuiropean  nations  bickering  blindly  and  bloodily 
over  the  readjustment  of  the  European  Balance  of  Power. 
It  has  shown  that  the  real  tie  between  the  United  .States  and 
the  Empire  is  not  the  tie  of  blood,  but  the  infinitely  more  real 
tie  of  a  kinship  of  ideals.  By  doing  so  it  has  made  it  easier 
for  the  President  to  marshal  behind  him  his  racially  compli- 
cated country.  ' 

Too  much  must  not,  however,  be  expected  in  the  wav  of 
immediate  practical  results.  Eventually,  the  United  States, 
partly  thanks  to  the  influence  of  Mr.  Balfour  and  his  French 
colleagues,  may  be  expected  to  play  a  \ery  important  part 
in  the  war.  But  it  will  be  some  time  before  she  makes  her 
weight  felt  save  in  the  psychological  sense.  The  naval 
assistance  she  has  seiit  ns  is  useful,  but  not  decisive.  It  may 
be  a  year  or  more  before  she  really  begins  to  turn  out  the 
huge  number  of  small  craft  which  might  really  smash  the 
submarines.  It  has  virtually  been  decided  that  troops 
shall  be  .sent  to  France  as  sooii  as  possible  ;  but  it  will  again 
be  a  year  before  they  can  arrive  in  numbers  of  real  military 
sigpificance.  Washington  is  most  anxious  to  do  her  share 
in  soh'ing  the  food  j)roblem.  She  is  preparing  to  build  ships, 
to  reorganise  her  land  transportation,  and  increase  her  tilled 
acreage.  But  here  again  her  activities  Will  not  bear  real 
fruit  until  1918.  The  American  people  are  showing  their 
desire  to  help  us  out  of  the  abundance  of  their  riches.  All 
the  Allies  need  money !  But  even  without  the  United  States 
they  could  have  carried  on  for  another  twelvemonth. 

Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem  for  a  Mission  that  was  rightly 
idvertised  to  be  purely  practical,  the  first  fruits  of  its  work 
;vill  thus  be  political  rather  than  practical.  It  has  cleared  the 
way  for  great  things  rather  than  brought  great  things  about. 
It  will  obviate  disappointment  if  this  fact  and  the  reasons  for 
It  can  be  firmly  grasped  in  England.  They  should  not  be 
difficult  to  grasp  unless  the  British  people  are  quite  oblivious 
tif  their  own  experiences.  The  United  States,  not  to  put  too 
hne  a  point  upon  it,  is  in  precisely  the  same  position  as  the 
Lnited  Kingdom  was  in  1914  and  indeed  1915.  ,  Neither 
the  Government  nor  the  country  are' prepared  for  war. 

The  situation  has  been  aggravated  by  a  factor  which,  in 
fairness  to  the  United  States,  deserves  particular  attention. 
Washington  and  thoughtful  opinion  outside  Washington 
realised  at  once  that  the  contest,  especially  for  the  United 
States,  IS  at  least  as  much  an  economic  as  a  military  venture. 
I  hey  are  trying  to  do  offhand  what  it  took  us  years  "to  accom- 
plish. They  are  trying  simnltaneousH'  to  expand  a  weak 
fighting  machine  into  something  that  will  be  worthy  of  the 
country  and  the  cause,  and  to  turn  the  industrial  and  business 
organisations  of  the  nation  into  a  source  of  supplies,  not  only 
for  that  machine,  but  for  the  Allied  nations  as  well.  It 
would  be  a  gigantic  task  of  co-ordination  and  co-operation 
even  m  a  community  which  was  not  intensely  individualistic 
and  whose  Government  was  not  handicapped  by  the  checks 
and  balances  of  a   Federal   Constitution. 

The  original  constitutional  war  machinery  of  Washington 
IS  very  simple.  The  President  is  titular  Commander-in-Chief 
of  both  Army  and  Navy.  Beneath  iiim  are  the  Secretaries  of 
War  and  of  the  Navy,  alwaVs  civilian  politicians,  to  run  the 
wneral  organisation  of  tlie  two  branches  which,  for  fightinj; 


purposes,  are  controlled  by  the  General  Staff  of  the  Army  and 
the  General  Board  of  the  Navy.  Beneath  these  heads  the 
two  Departments  function  on  orthodox  bureaucratic  prin- 
ciples. But  a  system  which  might  have  been  all  very  well 
in  the  Napoleonic  days  has  clearly  to  be  profoundly  modified 
and  amplified  to  meet  the  standard  of  comprehensive  warfare 
which  the  most  responsible  American  opinion  has  set 
for  itself.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  expand  an  army  which  has 
been  kept  in  miniature  in  times  of  peace  and  a  navy 
whose  organisation  has  not  yet  been  affected  by  the  lessons  of 
tiie  war,  or  to  improvise  the  necessary  machinerj'  for  economic 
warfare  without  copious  reference  to  Congress,  whose  digestion 
of  new  ideas  is  always  bad,  and  which  is  traditionally  jealous 
of  that  kind  of  executive  "  usurpation  "  without  which  success- 
ful warfare  is  impossible. 

Such  are  the  main  rocks  in  the  reef  against  which  the  great 
desire  of  Washington  to  help  the  Allies  is  now  breaking. 
Immediately  after  the  declaration  of  war,  new  parts  began  to 
be  added  to  the  war  machine,  either  from  the  existing  Govern- 
ment or  out  of  the  air.  When  the  possibility  of  war  was  first 
reluctantly  envisaged,  a  body  called  the  Council  of  National 
Defence  was  improvised.  It  consists  of  six  Cabinet  Ministers 
and  an  Advisf)ry  Board  of  seven  business  men.  When 
war  was  declared,  the  Board  went  into  permanent  session. 
But  it  does  not  pull  together  either  with  itself  or  the  rest  ol 
the  (iovernment,  and  is  suspected  by  Congress.  Its  members 
of  the  Cabinet  have  their  own  departments  to  attend  to. 
Also  they  do  not  by  some  strange  oversight  number  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  among  them.  Hence  it  has  fallen 
more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  its  non-political  members. 
Being  strong  and  far-seeing  men,  they  have  gone  ahead 
with  their  own  plans.  One  of  them  is  deaUng  with  trans- 
portation ;  another  with  raw  materials  ;  another  with  muni- 
tions ;  another  with  food,  and  so  on.  They  are  being  helped 
in  their  rapidly  expanding  offices  by  volunteers  from  among 
the  best  of  the  business  world,  but  they  are  not  yet  properly 
co-ordinating  their  activities  with  those  of  the  Government 
and  its  various  departments  and  boards. 

One  example  of  what  this  means  will  suffice.  From  the 
point  of  view  both  of  the  United  States  and  the  AUies,  food 
is  one  of  the  most  pressing  problems.  The  growing  of  food- 
stuffs is  important.  But  their  transportation  is  more  im- 
portant still.  To  arrange  for  it  and  for  the  moving  of  other 
supplies  has  been  one  of  the  primary  tasks  of  Mr.  Balfour's 
mission.  Yet  it  has  not  so  far  been  able  to  get  much  done 
because  of  the  division  of  authority  here.  Railway  transpor- 
tation is  in  the  hands  partly  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  a  permanent  Federal  body,  an4  partly  of  the 
Council  of  National  Defence  under  the  directorship  of  Daniel 
Willard,  head  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Company.  The 
question  of  ocean  tonnage,  though  patt  of  the  same  problem, 
is  dealt  with  by  the  Federal  Shipping  Board,  and  also  by  the 
Council  of  Natibnal  Defence,  which  has  entrusted  to  Colonel 
Goethals,  the  brilliant  and  forceful  engineer  of  the  Panama 
Canal,  the  problem  of  shipbuilding.  Much  preliminary 
confusion  has  resulted  from  this  arrangement.  But 
already  there  are  signs  of  improvement.  Mr.  Hoover,  as 
Food  Controller,  ought  to  be  able  to  pull  the  all-important  food 
and  transport  problem  together. 

Nor  does  it  matter  that  Mr.  Balfour  has  returned  before 
the  process  of  readjustment  has  been  finished.  He  has 
left  behind  him  various  experts  in  trade,  military',  and  naval 
matters,  from  the  drilling  of  troops  to  the  arrangement  of 
hospital  units.  That  he  should  have  done  so  is  the  best 
possible  earnest  that  it  is  only  the  organisation  of  Washington 
that  is  weak,  for  it  was  the  policy  of  Mr.  Balfour,  when  he 
arrived  here,  not  to  suggest  any  form  of  co-operation  or  help, 
but  to  leave  everything  to  the  initiative  of  his  hosts. 


14 


LAND    4k    WATER 


June  14,  1917 


"Gingering   Up. 


yj 


Brains  and  the  Army. 

It  would  take  tbo  pen — and  the  brain — of  a  Kipling  to  do 
full  justice  to  the  euruestuess  with  which  Officers,  N.C.O.'s,  and 
ineuof  the.Aniij' are  sMixing,  quite  voluntainly,  to  "  ginger  up" 
to  that  tremiendously  high  standard  ol  eflficieucy  required  in  the 
present  wai-. 

For  Anny  life  is  no  longer  merely  an  affair  of  marching, 
fighting,  and  bivouacking;  brnrnii  are  called  into  service  at  every 
minute  of  every  day.  The  keener  the  brain  the  more  efficient  the 
Boldier.  Tliis  is  well  ivfStja^d,  and  it  is  good  to  see  such,  an 
enthusiasm  for  "  Pehnanism  ''  as  the  voi-ious  units  of  the  Service 
display. 

Artillery,  infantry,  transport,  flying  men.  Medical  Service, 
and  the  Staff,  have  taV'u  up  I'elnnuiism  witii  gratifying  thorough- 
n*)8».  No  fewer  than  20  General  Officers  are  >>tiidying  it,  aii»l 
their  experience  of  its  value  in  "gingering  up  "  has  led  to  many 
of  them  sending  tliwr  regimontn-il  and  staff  officers  io  enrol  for 
the  I'elman  Institute's  Course. 

Astonishing  Results.  > 

'J'here  is  ample  evidence  of  the  a.stonJshing  results  of  tliis 
remarkaljle  system  Of  efficiency  training  w'hicii,  foitunately,  is 
very  easy  to  follow,  and  which  does  not  occupy  nu>re  than  a  few 
uiiuutes  daily. 

1  have  seen  nnmerous  "letters  from  the  Front,"  in  France, 
and  elsewhere,  giving  (in  confidence)  benefits  attaancil  as  the 
{direct  result  of  "  IVhnanizing. "  A  glimpse  at  these  would  convert 
the  most  confinned  sceptic.  Here  are  a  few  random  quotations 
from  letters  I  have  seen.  "  As  a  direct  ii»nseqnence  of  Lesson 
II.,"  writes  a  Lieut.-Colonel,  "  I  have  gamed  a  step  in  raiUc.  "-- 
"The  Special  Pelman  Service  Pjxea-cises, "  writes  a  General, 
"  should  be  very  useful  in  strengthening  the  powei-s  of  (}uick  per- 
ception and  memor}-." — "The  text-books  are  splendid,  and  I  derive 
much  benefit  from  "them  "  ;  this  from  the  Conmiander  of  a  famous 
battle-cruiser  (for  the  Navy  is  every  whit  as  keen  on  Pelman  as 
the  Anny).  "The  pnx>f  of  the  good"  the  Pelman  Course  has  done 
me,"  writes  another  Navy  msui,  "  is  that  1  have  been  promoted 
to  Commander  by  selection,  not  seniority." — An  Anny  Captain 
■writes:  "  My  brother  officere  rt>mark  that  I  have  come  out  of 
my  shell,  and  I  am  feeling  more  confident  and  fit  for  work  than 
ever."  From!  a  Lieutenant:  "The  Pelman  Course  is  a  rook  to 
me,  and  a  long  way  the   best  investment  I  ever  made." 

The  Short  Cut  to  Promotion. 

In  soJ)er  fact  the  Pelman  Coui-se  has  convincingly  proved 
itself  a  relialrle  "  short  cut  "  to  promotion.  And  not  only  promo- 
tion, for  the  Pelman  registei-s  show  a  very  fair  sprinkbng  of 
D.S.O.'s,  M.C.'s,  and  other  decorations  (including  the  V.C), 
amongst  its  Military  and  Naval  students.  "  My  name  appeared 
in  the  New  Year's  Honours  Jvist,"  writes  one  of  them,  "  which, 
1  think,  reflects  great  credit  on  the  Pelman  System'. 

But  one  miglit  go  on  endlessly  quoting,  quoting.  The  record 
of  successes  possessed  by  the  Pelman  Institute  is  simply  amazing, 
and  quite  explains  why  so  many  otticere  miake  the  Institute  their 
first  place  of  call  when  coming  home  on  leave.  It  also  explains 
the  eagerness  of  an  officer  in  the  MesopotcUnia  Ai-rny,  who,  as 
soon  as  Biigdad  fell,  cabled  from  the  "  City  of  the  Caliphs  "  liis 
wish  to  be  enrolled  as  a  Pelman  student.  Similai-ly,  numbers  of 
wounded  officers  (ind  men  stndv  the  Pelman  System  whilst  in 
hospital. 

"Truth"  Speaks  Out. 

The  subject  htis  hatl  .Tm])le  justice  done  to  it  by  our  famous 
contemporary,  "Tnith,"  which  has  just  embodied  the  results  of 
its  investigations  into  the  Pelman  System  in  a  Special  Iteport. 
The  facts  disclosed  in  this  Report  have  aroused  such  widespread 
interest — esi)ecially  in.  the  Anny  and  Navy — that  100,(XXJ  reprints 
have  been  pi-epared  lot  free  distribution.  A  considera.ble  number 
ot  these  have  already  been  despat-ched  to  applicants,  but  any  : 
reader  of"  Land  and'Wat*.r"  can.  by  prompt  application  to  the 
address  below,  se'"-'  -^  "opy  of  this  highly  important  i-ejiort. 

We  have  de:.:  here  with  the  value  of  "  IVlmanism  " 

to  Military  and  N;i\ai  «<Nieera,  but,  of  course,  its  value  to  business 
and  professional  men  is  even  more  pronounced.  As  "Truth'' 
points  out,  there  is  not  an  occupation  or  profession  known  to 
these  islands  wherein  the  Pelman  System  has  not  proved  ot 
Bterling  service,  resulting  in  greater  efficiency,  a  vivified  mentality, 
and  development  of  latent  powei-s,  a  stimulant  of  energy,  enter- 
prise, and  ambition,  and  a  means  of  promoting  better  business, 
rapid  advancement,  and  truly  sensational  increases  of  income  and 
salary. 

Write  To-day. 

To  secure  a  free  copy  of  "  Tnith's  "  Report,  and  also  a  free 
rnpy  of  "  Mind  and  Mcinory  "  (in  which  the  Pelman  System  is 
fullV  described  and  explained),  wri(<i  to-day  to  The  Pelman 
Institute,  39  Wenham  House,  Bloontsbury  Street,  London, 
W.C.L 

Thfi  Overse/i-it  adihenafs  of  t/u>  Institute  ore  .'fO  Market  StreM,  MKf.- 
JiOl'liyf'^' ;  l'>  ToruiUo  Slrepl,  Tm;mto  :  an<l  i'h,},  Ar^n.U,  /J/'/.'/i.t  X. 


Simple    Strategy 

By  Stephen  McKenna 

THe  Military  Attach^  was  so  unlikely  a  person  to  be 
I'^^und  washing  down  a  three-course  supper  with 
"on-alcoholic  orange-cup  that  the  Private  Secretary 
Crossed  the  restaurant  to  institute  enquiries  antl 
borrow  a  match.  As  he  approached  the  table,  his  wonder 
grew  ;  for  the  King's  Messenger  wiis  there,  in  white  waistcoat 
and  gardenia,  sitting  between  the  Millionaire  and  the  Iron 
King,  and  there  were  two  flushed  and  exultant  strangers. 

"I  thought  one  had  given  up  parties  of  this  kind  during  the 
war,"    began  the  Private  Secretary,  a  httle  disparagingly. 

"  Parties  of  what  kind  ?  "  demanded  the  Militaiy  Attach^  ; 
"  this  one  is  sui  generis." 

The  Private  Secretary  took  leisurely  stock  of  the  usual 
salmon  mayonnaise,  poulel  en  casserole,  and  strawberries. 
The  supper  was  only  sui  generis  in  the  sense  that  lie  had 
not  been  invited,  and  this  distinction  was  effectively  re- 
moved when  he  drew  up  a  chair  and  helped  himself  from  the 
open  cigar-bo.\. 

■■  I  suppose  you  want  to  tell  me  all  about  it,"  he  remarked 
with  resignation. 

"  No,"  said  the  Military  Attache ;  "  we  have  been  to  a 
nnisic-h.-ill  and  now  we  are  having  su})per.  That  is  all.  IIk- 
Millionaire  is  paying,  partly  because  he  is  a  millionaire,  and 
partly  because  he  has  lost  a  bet.     We  went  to  the  Cosmos—" 

"  I  heard  every  seat  was  booked  for  six  weeks,"  interrupted 
the  Private  Secretary,  helping  hi  nself  to  a  match  andpocketing 
the  box. 

"  The  Millionaire,  too,  heard  that,"  continued  the  Military 
Attach^'.  "  They  told  us  the  same  story  at  the  box-office- 
standing  room  only  on  the  Promenade.  "  It  was  then  that  we 
arranged  our  bet."  The  Millionaire  nodded  and  smiled  to 
shew  that  he  felt  no  resentment. 

"  It  was  a  piece  of  very  simple  strategy,"  explained  the 
Military  Attach^.  "I  had  seen  it  performed  with  Pathan 
tribes  in  '78  and  again  in  '8r.  Your  fighting  is  done  for  you  ; 
there  are  no  casualties,  and  the  ruse  lias  never  been  known  to 
fail.     You  may  find  it  useful  yourself  some  day." 

The  Private  Secretary  bowed,  and  the  Military  Attache 
leant  comfortably  back  in  his  chair. 

"  The  box-office  was  quite  right,"  he  said.  "  Every  seat 
was  taken.  I  went  on  to  the  Promenade  and  looked  "round 
the  house.  There  were  six  of  us,  and  the  Royal  Box  was  the 
obvious  accommodation  that  we  neetled.  Unfortunately  the 
Royal  Box  was  in  the  occupation  of  a  corpulent,  dark  man 
with  black-pearl  studs  and  two  rings  on  each  finger.  It 
was  clearly  for  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number  that 
we  should  be  in  the  Royal  Box,  and  that  our  coqiulent  friend 
should  be  elsewhere.  l"  felt  so  strongly  on  the  subject  that  it 
hardly  seemed  worth  while  arguing  about  it.  On  the  naval 
principle  of  striking  first,  striking  hardest  and  striking  all  the 
time,  I  formed  the  party  up  in  ((shimn  and  led  the  way  out  of 
the  Promenade  to  the  back  of  the  boxes.  When  \ve  came 
to  the  Royal  Box,  I  tapped— and  walked  in. '  The  cor- 
pulent man  opened  the  door  in  time  to  see  the  Iron  King,  who 
was  marching  last.  When  we  came  to  the  end  of  the  circle, 
we  turned  about  ;  and  this  time  the  Iron  King  tapped.  .Again 
the  df)or  opened,  and  this  time  our  coqwlent  friend  saw 
me  bringing  up  the  rear.  He  asked  if  I  had  knocked.  Truth- 
fully enough,  1  said,  "  No."  At  the  other  end  of  the  circle,  wc 
fell  out  and  re-formed,  with  the  Millionaire  leading  and  the 
King's  Messenger  at  the  end.  Tiie  evolution  was  repeated 
until  all  six  had  tapped,  and  the  corpulent  man  had  seen  six 
different  men,  all  of  whom  denied  that  they  had  knocked.  I 
may  say  that  the  corpulent  man  was  beginning  to  look  serious- 
ly annoyed,  so  I  led  my  party  away  to  the  bar  and  ordered 
two  bottles  of  ginger-ale'. f 

The  Military  Attache 'gmiled  and  turned  to  the  Private 
Secretary,  who  had  allowed  his  cigar  to  go  out  and  was 
accusing  the  King's  Messenger  of  having  stolen  the  matches. 

"  You  know  the  Cosmos,"  he  Said  ;  "  and  I  expect  you 
know  the  sort  of  people  who  go  there.  You  know,  too,  that 
you  cannot  enter  the  bar  without  discovering  at  least  three 
men  wath  black-pearl  studs  and  diamond  rings  paying  their 
respects  to  the  ladies  behind  the  counter.  To-night  was  no 
exception.  I  had  my  choice  of  five,  and  only  hesitated  until 
I  had  decided  which  of  the  five  was  most  meet  for  sacrifice. 
Eventually  1  selected  one  whom  I  made  certain  of  being  own 
brother  to  our  friend  in  the  Royal  Box.  Then  I  tied  a  scarf 
round  my  left  hand,  picked  up  one  glass  with  the  right,  and 
stood  with  an  air  of  peqilexity,  trying  to  get  hold  of  the  second 
glass  with  the  same  hand.  1  need  hardly  tell  you  that  the 
appointed  sacrifice  rushed  to  my  aid." 

'  Can  I  be  of  any  aththithanthe,  thir  ?  '  "  he  asked. 

"  '  Oh,  i>Ie;ise>  don't    trmilili-  '  "  F  ^;iirl. 


June  14,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


"  •  It'th  no  trouble,  I  aththure  you,'"  lisped  the  sacrifice. 

The  Military  Attache's  voice  took  on  a  note  of  challenge. 

"  I  want  you  to  study  the  ethics  of  the  position,"  he  told 
the  Private  Secretary.  "  So  far  L  had  tapped  once  on  a  box 
door  and  I  had  ordered  two  drinks.  That  was  all.  I  accept 
111)  responsibility  for  anything  more  than  that.  I  had  sought 
no  help,  I  was  interfering  with  the  destiny  of  no  man.  When 
the  sacrifice  thrust  his  offer  of  assistance  upon  me,  I  repelled 
him.     When  he  repeated  his  offer,  I  said, 

'■  '  Will  you  be  so  kind  as  to  take  this  drink  to  a  man  who 
is  sitting  inthe  Royal  Box?' 

■'  Thertainly,  thir,'  said  the  sacrifice." 

The  Military  Attache  shrugged  his  shoulder^. 

"  it  would  have  been  uncivil  to  do  less,"  he  went  on.  "  The 
Mcrilicc  hurried  out  of  the  bar,  tumbler  in  hand,  and  tapped 
n)  the  door  of  the  Royal  Box.  There  was  no  reply.  He 
tapped  again,  and  finally  opened  the  door.  I  have  told  you 
that  our  corpulent  friend  was  beginning  to  look  annoyed  ; 
when  the  door  opened,  he  was  standing  half  behind  it,  witii 
an  ebony  walking  stick  raised  in  the  air.  Another  moment, 
and  the  stick  was  broken  in  two  pieces  over  the  head  of  the 
sacrifice." 

The  Private  Secretary  gave  a  little  shudder  of  delight,  and 
successfully  pocketed  a  second  box  of  matches. 

"  What  happened?"    he  asked,  eagerly. 

"  The  sacrifice  seemed  surprised,"  answered  the  Military 
.\ltache,  ':  surprised,  pained  and  resentful.  By  a  miracle, 
no  less,  the  s]iarkling  draught  had  not  been  spilt  in  the  opening 
skirmish,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  throwing  it  in  the  face  of  his 
assailant,  following  up  the  attack  with  the  empty  tumbler.  As 
soon  as  the  coqiulent  man  had  finished  coughing,  he  picked 
the  pieces  of  broken  glass  out  of  his  hair,  set  his  teeth  firmly 
and  started  to  effect  what  I  have  no  doubt  was  I14S  first 
murder." 

Here  the  King's  Messenger  took  up  the  running. 

"  I  felt  it  was  time  for  sometliing  to  be  done,"  he  expUuned 
decorously.  "  I  murmured  to  the  Iron  King,  '  This  is  a  very 
disgraceful  affair."  " 

"  It  was  the  sort  of  murmur  that  makes  the  orchestra 
wonder  what  has  happened  to  ,its  instruments,"  observed 
the  Military  Attache.  "  A  crowd  immediately  collected,  and 
the  usual  voice  from  the  usual  timid  man  well  at  tiie  back 
was  lieard  to  say,  '  Throw  them  out.'  For  myself,  I  never 
mind  a  really  healthy  display  of  the  noble  art,  though  I  am 
bound  to  admit  that  the  corpulent  man's  teeth  were  now 
meeting  in  the  neck  of  his  opponent.  The  Iron  [King,  who 
had  so  far  played  a  silent  but  impressive  part,  now  enquired 
\\her(>  tlie  police  were.  The  Sporting  Man  had  hurried  out  of 
the  stalls  and  was  making  a  book  with  a  wounded  officer  ; 
and  a  Canadian,  on  leave,  offered  tot  hrow  out  any  three  men 
single-handed.  Mea'nwhile  the  performance  on  the  stage  was 
suspended,  and  people  in  the  gallery  were  clamouririg  to  have 
their  money  back.  " 

The  Military  Attache  paused  to  replenisli  his  glass  witli 
non-alcoholic  orange-cup  and  absent-mindedly  surrendered 
his  match-box  to  the  outstretched  hand  of  the  Private 
Secretary. 

"  I  will  not  weary  you  with  the  imseemly  details  of  very 
unscientific  fighting."  he  resumed.  "  The""  tide  of  battU; 
ebbed  and  flowed  :  at  one  moment  tlie  sacrifice  had  both 
thumbs  within  his  assailant's  eye-sockets,  at  another  only 
one.  The  usual  door-keepers,  whose  work  was  not  regarded 
by  the  Tribunals  as  being  of  national  importance,  Iiad  been 
called  up  with  tlieir  classf  s  ;  and  their  elderly  substitutes  were 
not  to  be  found.  The  Canadian  was  preparing  to  create  a 
ilesolation  and  call  it  peace,  the  Sporting  Man  was  lodging 
lu  objection,  and  the  King's  Messenger  was  repeating — with 
.1  certain  monotony,  if  I  may  say  so  without  oltence — that  it 
was  a  very  chsgraeeful  aliair,  when  a  programme-seller  entered 
:it  the  double,  followed  by  t)ie  police.  We  then  went  into  the 
Royal  Box  and  closed  the  door." 

The  Mihtary  Attache  glanced  at  his  watch  and  ordered  the 
bill  to  be  brought  to  the  Milhonaire. 

"  .\nd  so  we  had  comfortable  seats,"  he  concluded.  "  And 
so  I  won  my  bet." 

"  TIu:  police  asked  us  if  we  could  give  evidence,  but  the 
Iron  King  said  that  he  had  not  watehed  very  attentively,  as 
he  thought  it  was  prearranged  for  the  benefit  of  a  cinemato- 
graph operator.  The  elderly  door-keepers  were  still  sprinkling 
sawdust  when  we  left.  They  seemed  to  think  that  the  cor- 
pulent man  might  in  time  recover  the  partial  use  of  one  arm, 
but,  of  course,  I  have  no  means  of  saying  if  they  were  in  a 
position  to  judge."  • 


Tlierc  have  been  savings  since  the  War  Loan,  and  those  who 
wish  to  help  their  country  with  their  money  should  invest  new 
savings  in  the  new  5  per  cent.  Exchequer  Bonds.  A  Bond  for 
'5.  ;£^e.  or  £^0  can  be  obtained  from  any  Money  Order  Post 
Office,  or  from  a  Banker,  or  the  local  War  Savings  Committee 
will  help  the  prospective  inve.stor.  Persons  having /loo,  or  over. 
to  invest  mnv  set  a  prospectus  from  any  Stockbroker^  or  Banker. 


The  Burberry 

Affords  effective  .security  against  any 
wet  thiit  fails  or  wind  tliat  blow.f, 
without  the  ai<l  of  rubljor,  oilodsilk 
or  other  unhealthy  air-tight  fabrics. 


The  Tielocken 

KiTini  neck  to  knees,  it  doubly  safe 
guards  every  vulnerable  part  of  thi 
body.  Fastens  with  a  single  .strap 
and-buckle  instead  of  buttons.  • 


A  Hall  Mark 

If  quality  be  measured  by  staunch,  unfailing  service 
to  the  welfare  of  mankind,  then  the  name  of  Burberry 
may  well  be  accepted  as  a  synonym  for  perfection. 

For  more  than  thirty  years,  Burberry  Weatherproof! 
have  successfully  materialised  the  ideals  which  led  tc 
their  conception,  by  ensuring  healthful  protection 
and  comfort  in  every  kind  of  weather. 

Each  Burberry  garment,  whether  intended  for  Naval 
Military  or  Civilian  use,  fulfils  the  definite  purpose 
of  giving  dependable  and  enduring  service  under  all 
conditions,  in  all  seasons,  in  all  climates  ;  and  safe- 
guards health  against  weather  emergencies  with  that 
unequivocal  certainty,  which  superiority  in  material, 
weaving,  proofing  and  workmanship  alone  can  assure. 

Complete  Kits  for  France  or  the  East 
in  2  to  4   Days  or  Ready- to -Put -On. 

Illustrated 
Naval  or 
Military 
Catalogues 
Post  Free. 


The  Burfron 

Winds  round  the  figure  without 
leaving  openings  anywhere  to  admit 
%et  or  wind,  and  is  held  together 
securely  by  a  button  at  the  neck. 


Burberry  Trench- Warm 

Tlu'ce  coats  in  one  garment.  A  reli 
able  Weatherproof ;  a  Camel  Fleeci 
British  Warm ;  and  a  staunci 
Trench-coat.   Separately  or  together. 


BURBERRYS  ""'^""'''^ 


LONDO^ 


8  &  10  Boul.  Malesherbes  PARIS;  and  Provincial  Agenta 


i6 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  14,  1917 


Memory 

By   J.  G.   Squire 


Mi:N.  in  privacy,  do  all  sorts  of  trivial  actions  tfiat 
tluv  never  mention  to  each  other,  and  do  not 
leaiise  that  fitter  people  also  do.  I'or  example, 
men  tind  tliwnselves.  at  times,  in  the  bath  with 
the  unly  visible  soap  at  tl-.c  other  end  of  the  rq;  m  :  they  arc 
annoyed,  but  it  is  an  annoyance  which  they  for-^ei  when  tlicy 
dress  and  do  not  mention  afterwards.  Until  I  wrote  the 
other  day  about ..Jhe  J\oyal  Academy,  1  had  never 
mentioned  to  anyortt-Hihe'  fact  that  I  'was  accustomed 
.  to  remember  the  order  of  Down  Street  and  Dover  Street 
by  recalling  that  Down  St.cet  is  farther  Down  and  that 
Dover  Street  is  nearer  Dover  which  is  east  of  London. 
There  iire  other  things  that  I  remembtr  in  the  sam^ 
way.  From  earliest  youth  I  have  distinguished  the  j-osition 
of  the  port  and  stiu^board  light.-,,  by  reflecting  that 
''  port  "  wine  is  "  red,"  and  that  if  you  take  too  much  of  it 
vou  will  not  be  "  right,"  but  will  probably  get  "  left."  A 
inuinent's  thought  would  Lave  made  one  feel  certain  tliat 
other  people  must,  in  those  fantastic  places  ,that  they  call 
-their  minds,  go  through  the  same  absurd  performances. 
But  as  a  fact,  this  had  never  occurred  to  me.  '  And  now  a 
correspondent,  who  read  my  article,  writes  to  say  tb.at  systems 
for  training  the  memory  arc  usually  based  upon  this  :^ort  of 
thing,  and  sends  me  a  book  to  prove  it.  The  book  is  called 
J.oiseile.  It  was  copyrighted  in  i8g',)  ;  its  author  was  Prof. 
A.  I.oisette.  an  American  gentleman  of  Bismarcluan  appear- 
ance ;  its  jmblishcrs  are  Funk  and  VVagnalls  ;  its  title  is 
Assimilalirc  Memory  or  How  to  Attend  and  Never  ror«ct, 
and  its  price  is  half-a-crown.  That  is  cheap  i<yi  a  system  of 
Memory  Training. 

*  j>  *  *  * 
This  \-o6k  teaches  you  to  rememl^ur  anything.  You  grasp 
tlie  three  main  laws  of  Memory — the  law  of  Inclusion  (ovei- 
l:ii)ping  of  meaning,  idea  or  sound),  F.xc'usion  (antithesis) 
and  Concunencc  (sequence  or  co-e.vistence  of  impressions 
or  ideas  that  have  been  either  accidentally  or  causally  to- 
gether),  and  with  their  help  you  commit  to  mumory.  and 
retain  witliout  elfort,  any  fact  or  series  of  facts  you  are  likely 
to  come  across.  You  can  get  hold  of  the  order  of  the  American 
Presidents  by  a  most  ingenious  series  of  assonances  and 
associations — (for  example,  a  James  followed  a  John,  James 
and  John  being  the  sons  of  Zebedee)  :  \i>ii  'an  remember 
foreig}!,     words— (for     example,    heai !  heart -sick 

.  .  .  fainting  .  .  .  cordial  .  .  .  vor)  and  you 
can,  by  a  simple  plan,  carry  in  your  head  any  figures  you 
care  to.  The  \-arious  consonants  grouped  together  according 
to  phonetics,  stand  for  various  numerals.  You  carry  the 
M«ries  of  consonants  in  your  head  by  the  sentence  .Si.'?ney 
Mt'rlhh  gave  a  ba\\"  (the  fine  old  English  surname  of  Mcrlish 
will  easily  stick  in  your  head)  and  the  significance  and  groupings 
of  the  consonants — (for  example,  "  t  "  with  "  tli  "  and  "  d  '  ) 
are  retained  by  sentences  like  "  Onfe  Tankard  this  Day  "-- 
which  might  certainly  mislead  some  people  by  turning  up, 
w/ien  an  attempt  at  recollection  is  made,  as  Five  Tankards 
this  Day- thus  throwhig  the  whole  concern  out  of  gear. 
8  ("  f "  and  "  v  ")  is  remembered  by  "  8  'Varsity  F'ellows,"' 
presumably  those  who  row  in  boats.  Given  this  you  can  get  i 
the  length  of  the  great  wall  of  China  (1,251)  miles),  by  ca  rymg  , 
in  your  head  the  sentence  "  7"/jey  Mow  a  high  wa/i  see." 
The  date  of  Herbert  Spencer's  birth  is  legistcred  in  the 
significant  sentence  "  He  dcfiucs." 

•♦'•♦»* 

"  Poems  Lone  or  Short  Easily  learned  by  Heart,"  is  the 
lieading  of  one  !»ction.     The  first  advice  gi\en  is  reasonable  : 

Before  atteinptiag  to  memorise  any  selections  of  Pro.sc  or 
Poetry,  never  fail  first  to  read  it  card  ulty  to  a.scertain  what 
it  is  all  about,      ,   ,      .  ' 

but  the  applications  of  the  Science  of  Mnemonics  which;" 
fellow  make  me  shudder.  The  specimen  taken  is  Foe's' 
The  Hells.  Four  kinds  of  bells  are  dealt  with.  These  are- 
silver,  golden,  bra/en  and  iron  ;  and  you  are  adjur,'d  lo;; 
remember  them  by  the  fact  that  the  precious  metals  come  first,; 
ill  reverse  order  of  value,  and  that  the  others  follow  in  actual' 
( rder  of  value,  "the  cheapest  of  the  four"  coming  la-jt.; 
Line  by  line  is  taken,  line  by  line  the  idcasand  woids  are;, 
embedded  in  the  "student's  memory."  Finally,  we  comet 
to  the  tuain  difficulty  which  is  (the  I'rofessor  certainly  hitj 
the  nail  on  the  head)  "  to  remember  the  number  of  tiniesj 
the  word  "  bells  "  is  repeated  in  the  different  lines":  I 

We  n»u>t  keep- tO' the  text  and  not  resort  to  any  foreigikj 
matter  lo  lieJ^j  the  feeble  memory,     'flic  words  pcean,  Ihrobtiinu'  ' 


sohhiiig.  rotiing,  and  tolling,  occur  lu  the  lines  where  the 
"  bells  "  arc  mentioned  (except  in  that  next  to  the  last  line, 
where  "  bells  "  occur  three  times,  and  there  is  no  other  word 
in  that  line),  and- in  the  last  line  "  bflls  "  is  found  once,  and 
tlie  words  "  moaning  "  aiul  "groaning  "  appear.  Memorise 
these  .seven  words  of  .\nalysis,  to  wit  :  pa-an.  throbbing, 
sobbing,  rolling,  tolling,  "moanino;  and  groaning.  Thus 
pcEuH — a  song  of  triumph — might  cause  heAvt-ilirobbing, 
an  inward  act  accompanied  in  the  present  instance  by  sobbing, 
and  tfiis  outward  manifestation  ol  grief  would  be  intensiiied 
by  the  rotting  of  the  bells  ami  llieir  lotting..  Moaning  and 
groaning  are  figurative  expressions  for  (he  moaning  and 
groaning  of  the  mjurners. 

I  'daresay  it  would  work.     I3ut  in  wliat  a  way  and  at  what 
a  cost  ! 


Suppose  you  want  to  learn  tl*  order  of  the  hues  in  the 
spectrum.  These  are  Violet,  Indigo,  Blue,  Green,  Yellow 
Orange,  Red.  Now  to  attempt  to  construct  a  word  out  of 
their  initials  is  hopeless.  Anybody  who  could  remember  the 
word  \'ibgyor  could  remember  anything  ;  and  spelt  back- 
wards as  lioygbiv  it  is  more  ho])cless  still.  Our  Professor's 
method  is  infallible.  You  let  each  word  in  turn  suggest, 
)  automatically,  some  other  word  to  which  it  is  linked  by 
sound  or  association.  Havipg  once  gone  through  this  i)rocess 
of  linking  you  never  fail  to  repeat  it.  The  little  table  runs 
as  follows  : — 

Violet  .  .  .  .  let  go 

Indigo  .  .  .  ,  indigestion  .  .  "  blues  " 

Blue  . .  .  .  blue  sea  .  .  .  .  sea  green 

(Jreen  .  .  .  .  green  corn  . .  npo  corn 

Yellow  ..  ..  yellow  fruit 

Orange  ..  ..  i  )ranf;cnien  ..  fight 

Ked  . .  . .  blood  spilt  . .  bl(Md-red 

You  need  not  commit  it  deliberately  to  memory.  You  have 
only  to  "  take  it  in."  And  there  you  are  ;  fitted  up  withthu 
spectrum  for  the  rest  of  your  life. 

«         *         *         *         * 

But  here  wo  come  to  a  drawback.  I  have  never  before  been 
able  to  retain  the  order  of  these  colours  nor  knew  where 
to  start:  I  shall  not  go  wrong  again  ;  which  is  something 
gained.  But  what  have  1  not  lost  ?  Henceforward  I  shall 
never  be  able  to  divorce  the  spectrum  from  that  trail  of 
irrelevant  and,  in  some  cases,  deplorably  material  associations. 
The  beautiful  colours  of  the  prism  will  conjure  up  in  my 
mind  a  mixture  of  \cllow  fruit  and  indigestitm,  whilst  a 
preposterous  jingle  of  "  let  go,  Indigo,  let  go.  Indigo,"  soimds 
in  my  ears.  And  my  heart  will  refuse  to  leap  up  when  I 
behold  a  Rainbow  in  the  sky  for  the  simple  reason  that  across 
the  Rainbow  tljcTq  will  stream  a  vision  of  battling  hosts  o{ 
Sir  F^dward  Carbon's  and  Mr.  Kedmoiid's  followers  throwing 
rivets  and  bottles  at  each  other's  heads  and  shouting  "  T,i 
Hell  with  King  William  "  and  "  To  Hell  with  the  Pojxjs." 
One  of  n.-iturc's  most  magnificent  spectacles  hencefortli  will 
find  me  emotionless,  with  horn-blind  eyes.  And  scrawled 
across  everything  else  will  be  the  iiame  and  jwrtrait  of  Pro: 
fessor  Marcus  Dwiglit  Darrowe  (Loisette)  from  whom  I 
learned  the  detestable  scries. 

***** 

Therefore,  I  hold  that  my  correspondent  did  mc  a  bad  turn 
in  sending  me  this  book.  He  told  me,  in  his  coveting  l-jtter, 
that  with  .the  help  of  this  and  similar  systems,  comm- rcial 
travellers  have  doubled  their  iniomes,  simple  subalterns  have 
won  positioiis  in  the  Intelligence  (yoir  can  remember  by  a 
simple  associative  device,  •  that  intelKgence  officers  wear 
green  tabs -7I  dace  npt  indicjite  my,method  of  remembering 
who  weais  red  ones),  that  works-managers  have  doubled 
their  outputs  and  oufside  brokers  theii  commissions.  AdvaU' 
tagos  are  offered  to  me  too.  When  one  word  suggests  anothef 
I  shall  obviously  never  be  at  a  loss  for  another.  But  to  ,go 
thrcugti  life  and  find  that  every  idea  has  a  siring  of  multi- 
coloured irrelevancies  tj ailing  after  it  like  a  kite's  tail,  and 
that  1  cannot  think  of  Bethmann  without  publishers  (the 
liitt  of  bookmakess  is  obvious),  or  of  Mr,  Balfour  without 
thinkingof  the  Four  of  S|)ade,s  !  1  envy  people  with  a  g(j -d 
natural  memory.  But  the  mechanical  aid  to  memory  whicli 
assists  you,  by.meags  of  a  .sentence  of  awful  gibberish,  to 
remember  how  many  pet)ple  t-liere  wqre  in  Sydney,  N.S.W,, 
in  the  year  -iStH— no,  1  W(mld  prefer  my  income  to  remain 
where  it  is.  ■ 
'■ " •^' f  hav'eTcHtn  ifedTny  tx)ri c5|>ondeiTt  liis  book. 


June  14,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


T7 


The  Reprisals  Problem 

Was  Marshal  Marmont 
right  in  declaring  that 
Reprisals  are  always 
useless  ? 

Or  is  there  any  effec- 
tive means  of  retaliation 
for  German  outrages  ? 


MARSHAL  MARMONT,  one  of  Napoleon's  generals, 
affirmed  that  reprisals  are  always  useless.  But 
modern  Prussia  did  not  exist  in  the  Napoleonic  age, 
and  a  dictum  which  held  good  then  does  not  hold  good  in 
the  Great  War,  with  its  unexampled  Prussian  barbarities. 
There  is  no  precedent  for  the  atrocities  perpetrated  by  the 
Prussian  High  Command  upon  women  and  children  in  the 
invaded  lands,  upon  the  civilians  in  those  lands,  upon  open 
towns,  upon  merchant  ships,  both  belligerent  and  neutral, 
and  upon  hospital  ships. 

The  Sailors'  and  Firemen's  Union  reports  that  a  German 
submarme,  after  torpedoing  a  British  merchant  ship,  fired 
a  surface  torpedo  at  a  small  boat  which  was  rowing  towards 
a  rescue  ship.  The  torpedo  went  clean  through  this  small 
boat,  and  the  captain  and  crew  in  her  were  all  drowned. 
This  is  a  typical  German  barbarity. 

The  Proprietors  of  FLYING  believe  that  the  problem 
of  Preventive  Reprisals,  intended  to  prevent  this  and 
similar  outrages,  can  be  solved ;  and  they  therefore  offer 
a  series  of  Prizes  for  the  best  solution  of  the  Reprisals 
Problem.  It  must  be  practicable,  effective,  and  thoroughly 
worked  out  in  detail.  Any  sort  or  kind  of  reprisal,  whether 
military,  naval,  aerial,  political,  economic,  or  purely  moral, 
will  be  carefully  examined. 


THE    PRIZES. 

THE  FIRST  PRIZE  will  be  the  original  painting,  by  Mr.  Charles 
Pears,  entitled  "  Aeroplanes  Leaving  Dover  for  an  Attack  on 
Zeebrugge,"  a  reproduction  of  which  was  presented  with  the  firet 
niuiiber  of  FLYING.     The  picture  is  worth  50  (niineas. 

THE  SECOND  PRIZE  will  be  Ten  Guineas,  and  the  THIRD 
PRIZE  will  be  I'ive  Guineas. 

RULES. 


I. 
2. 

3- 


Suggestions  must  not  exceed  500  words. 

They  must  be  written  on  one  side  of  the  paper. 

They  must  be  posted,  with-  the  coupon  (.'^eeibelow),  in  an 
envelope  marked  "  Reprisals,"  to  FLYING,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  W.C.  -4.  not' later  than,  July  15th,  IQ17. 

4.  A  competitor  may  send  in  any  i\umb,cr  of  suggestions  provided 

that  each  suggestion  is  accompanied  by  a  coupon. 

5.  We  cannot  enter  into  corre'Sponden'ce  wi'tli  competitors. 

The  decision  of  the  Editor  mus,t  be  accepted  as  final.  The  Pro- 
prietors of  FL  YING  reserve  the  right  to'  publish  anv  competitor's 
suggestions  (not  necessarily  with  his  name),  which  will  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Press  Bureau  before  pubhcation. 

COUPON. 

The  Competitor  must  fill  up  and  send  in  the  Coupon 
which  is  published  in  the  current  number  of 

FLYING. 


Hunt  Servants'  Benefit  Society 

and 

Hunt  Servants'  Health  Insurance  Friendly  Society 

The  foi'ty-fifth  An'iual  General  Meeting  ot  the  Hunt  Servants'  Benefit 
Society,  and  th«  fif.h  Annual  General  Meeting  of  the  Hunt  Servants' 
Health  Insurance  Friendly  Society  will  be  held  in  the  Subscription  Room 
at  Messrs.  TattersaU's.  Knightsbridge,  London,  S.W.,  on  the  morning  of 
Thursday,  June  28th,   at  11  o'clock. 

Nominations  of  Candidates  for  Election  to  the  Committee  of  Management 
of  the  latter  Society  must  be  given  in  writing  to  the  Secretary  not  less  than 
seven   davs  before  the  Annual  General  Meeting. 

H.    W.    WRIGHT,    Secretary, 

^        "W,   Brompton   Road,"  London. 

S.W.3 


00 


Owes  its  delicate  flavour  to  the  heather-sweet  water 
from  the  ORKNEY  HILLS. 


MCCONNELL'S  DISTILLERY  LTD. 
SCOTCH  WHISKY  DISTILLERS 
Dflcre  House.  Arundel  Street.  W.(L 
Fnprielors  0/  STROMNESS  DISTILLER  Y. 
ORKNEY.    SCOTLAND. 


i3 


LAND    &     WATER 

Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian    Oldershaw 


June  14,  1917 


THOUGH  I  am  quite  disposed  and  even  anxious  to 
ieani  the  national  lessons  that  the  great  European 
catastrophe  has  to  teaeh  us,  I  must  confess  that  1 
come  away  from  reading  most  "  after  the  war  " 
books  in  a  state  of  bewildered  agnosticism.  Have  we  really 
been,  as  a  nation,  such  incompL'tent  muddlers  as  many  of 
them  make  out  ?  Have  none  ot  our  pre-war  institutions  and 
customs  been  of  any  value  ?  Has  it  been  merely  a  lucky 
accident  that  the  present  emergency  has  l^een  met  in  so  line  a 
spirit  and  with  s<j  much  success  ?  1  must  confess  that  1  should 
really  like  for  a  change  to  stumble  on  a  book  which  traced 
the  reasons  for  such  part  of  our  national  endeavour  as  has  not 
been  a  failure  and  which  jKiinted  out  what,  in  conse<iuence, 
was  worth  preserving  instead  of  merely  what  should  be 
destroyed  ,or  what  sliould  be  created.  In  addition  to  the 
assumption  so  usual  in  such  books  that  all  is  wrong,  or  has 
till  recently  been  wrong,  with  lingland,  there  is  an  ama/.ing 
variety  in  the  panaceas  suggested  for  putting  her  right. 
It  sometimes  seems  as  if  the  family  doctor,  having  pro- 
nounced sentence,  every  tpiack  in  the  land  had  been  sum- 
moned by  despairing  relatives  to  the  patient's  death-bed.  1 
can  even  see  the  latter  creeping  away  from  the  heated  dis- 
putants around  him  and  becoming  cured  by  the  innate 
vigour  (if  his  constitution,  or,  as  the  Scotsmen  had  to  do. 
'When  there  was  no  doctor  within  scores  of  miles.  "  jist  deoing 
a  natural  death."  Such-  generalisations  as  the.se.  however, 
do  not  do  justice  to  the  vast  aniount  of  really  useful  work 
which  IS  Ix'ihg  done  by  way  of  taking  stock  of  the  nation's 
resources,  material,  spiritual  and  intellectual,  wth  a  \i'\v  to 
a  useful  national  development  after  the  war. 
'  »         *         »         *         * 

Granted  (as  it  too  seldom  is  just  now)  that  England  has  in 
her  the  seeds  of  a  sj^eedy  regeneration,  it  is  well  that  the  soil 
should  be  rendered  fertile  for  their  reception.  Such  a  book, 
for  exam])le,  as  After-War  I'rohlems  ((icorge  Allen  and 
Unwin,  Ltd.,  7s.  bd.  net),  cannot  fail  to  clarify  and  stimulate 
thought  on  the  various  subjects' treated  therein  by  acknow- 
ledged experts.  '  To  show  its  value  it  is  only  necessary  to 
give  some  indication  of  what  it  ('ontains.  In  it,  for  example. 
Lord  Haldane  deals  in  a  characteristically  thorough  fashion 
with  National  Education,  showing  us  what  we  niay  learn 
(if  it  be  only  to  avoid  similar  mistakes)  from  the  experiences 
of  Germany,  the  late  Lord  Cromer  deals  broadly  with 
Imperial  Ju'deration,  and  Ldrd  Meath  with  The  Cultivation 
of  Palriotiam.  There  are  articles  on  the  Relations  between 
Capital  and  Labour,  the  standpoint  of  the  former  being  ably 
presented  by  Sir  Benjamin  Browne,  and  that  of  the  latter  by 
Mr.  G.  H.  Roberts.  Then  Mrs.  Fawcett  writes  on  The 
Position  of  Women  in  Economic  Life,  Professor  Mar.-;hall  on 
National  Taxation  after  the  War,  Sir  William  Chance  on 
Unsolved  Prnblcms  of  the  English  Poor  Law,  and  Mr.  Arthur 
Sherwell  <m  National  Thrift.  And  still  some  of  the  most 
useful  and  readable  articles  remain  unmentioned.  Mr.  \V. 
H.   JJawson  has  been  responsible  for  editing  this  work. 


Much  of  the  value  of  such  a  book  as  After-War  Problems 
naturally  lies  in  its  variety.  It  is,  on  the  other  hand,  unity  of 
thought  that  particularly  makes  interesting  Mr.  W.  C. 
Dampier  W'hctliam's  book  on  The  War  and  the  Nation  (John 
Murray,  6s.  net).  This  is  perhaps  the  most  suggestive  book 
that  has  yet  been  written  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  really 
believe,  as  most  men  profess  to  do,  that  they  have  cast  off 
the  trammels  of  pre-war  politics.  Mr.  Whetham  offers  to 
such  people  a  new  jiolitical  creed,  that  of  Tory  Socialism,  and 
might  have  found  a  stronger  historical  justification  than  he 
does  find  for  his  position  in  George  IIl.'s  tentative  experi- 
ments in  this  direction.  Mr.  Whetham  smites  the  old  parties 
hip  and  thigh.  He  taunts  the  I'arty  for  which  he  has  most 
predilection  with  "  the  sordid  details  of  Tariff  Reform." 
■'  Conservatives  became  Unionists  ;  but  the  Union  for  which 
they  strove  was  formulated  too  much  by  the  unmovable 
Drangeman  and  the  manufacturer  seeking,  perhaps  un- 
consciously, protection  for  his  own  industry  under  the  guise 
of  Colonial  preference."  The  Liberal  Party  fares  even  worse 
at  his  hands.  "The  Liberals,  too,  came  more  and  more 
under  the  control  of  grou])-;  of  doctrinaires  and  faddists  ; 
and  these  Liberal  Scril)es  and  Pharisees  were  more  offensive 
to  good  taste,  and  probably  did  more  harm,  than  the  Unionist 
Publicans  and  Sinners." 

*         ♦         *         »         * 
Mr,  Whetham  is,  however,  something  more  than  a  critic 
of  the  recent  regime  in  England.     He  outlines  a  con.structive 
policy  in  which  tlie  main  planks  are  the  protection  of  key- 


industries  for  the  benefit  of  the  State  and  not  of  the  in- 
dividual, certain  measures  of  nationalisation,  a  more  equable 
system  of  taxation,' favourable  to  the  increase  of  the  race 
and  the  wider  distribution  of  wealth  and  a  system  of  agri- 
cultural wage  boards.  Mr.  Whetham  treats  these  subjects 
with  thoroughness,  peisuasiveness  and  above  all  with  an 
independence  of  attitude  that  is  in  itself  attractive.  There 
is  much  to  be  leanit  from  his  book,  e\en  by  those  who  Cannot 
accept  his  ])r«gramme  en  bloc.  This  is  more  especiallj'  the 
case  when  he  deals  with  such  problems  as  those  of  racial 
loss,  which  arise  directly  out  of  the  war.  He  is  not  one  of 
the  writers  on  after-war  problems  who  think  the  war  can  be 
ignored  in  any  future  policy  of  reconstruction. 

*  »        *        •        • 

e 

It  is  interesting  to  turn  from  Mr.  Whetham's  book  to  hi 
wife's  treatise  on  The  Upbringing  of  Daughters  (Longmans, 
(ireen  and  Co..  5s.  mi).  Mrs.  Whetham  slian's  wath  her 
hu'^band  in  tiie  adoption  of  a  general  attitude  which  movt 
people  would  call  paradoxical  together  with  a  capacity  for 
elaborating  it  with  witty  common  sense.  Mr.  Whetharii,  as 
I  have  jiointed  out,  is  that  rare,  but  by  no  means  illogical 
bird,  the  Tory  Socialist  ;  Mrs.  Whetham  (I  know  nothing  of 
her  personal  habits)  is  an  early  Victorian  with  a  cigarette. 
1  had  not  read  much  of  her  book  before  I  found  my.self  recalling 
verses  from  the  poems  of  Anne  and  Jane  Taylor,  and  was 
pleased,  later  on,  to  find  the  author  recommending  their 
admirable  work  for  the  nursery  library.  The  different 
subjects  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Whetham's  books  is  symbolical. 
The  standpoint  of  The  Upbringing  of  Daughters  is  that  of  the 
jnother  and  the  keeper  of  the  home.  Mrs.  Whetham  never 
loses  sight  of  the  fact  that  as  she  puts  it,  the  position  of 
women  "  relative  to  the  future  generation,  has  an  entinly 
different  index  number  "  from  that  of  men.  Her  book  is  a 
useful  corrective  to  the  tendency  of  the  feminists  to  ignore, 
probably  from  exasperation  at  its  obviousness,  tliis  funda- 
mental position.  Eor  the  rest,  though  it 'does  not  entirely 
escape  the  sententiousness  almost  unavoidable  in  such  works, 
it  is  full  of  good  practical  advice  on  such  subjects  as  dress, 
scholastic  instruction,  money  matters  and  the  like,  and  of  a 
broad  sympathy  that  is  particularly  attractive.  It  represents 
the  constructive  Toryism  of  the  home.   ' 

*  *         *  *         « 

A  book  written  by  a  wounded  officer  to  relieve  the  tedium 
of  convalescence,  promises  also  to  be  a  relaxation  for  a  mind 
weary  with  war  and  after-war  problems.  Moreover,  In  the 
Night  (Longmans,  Green  and  Co.,  4s.  bd.  net),  is  a  detective 
story,  the  best  of  all  anodynes,  and  Mr.  R.  Gorell  Banies  has 
adopted  the  most  satisfactory  plan  for  such  a  story,  namely 
that  of  taking  his  reader  into  full  confidence  throughout. 
As  we  investigate  the  violent  death  of  the  dnpopular  Sir 
Roger  Penterton,  we  learn  all  that  the  local  police,  the  Scot- 
land Yard  detective  and  the  investigating  amateurs  discover 
as  soon  as  they  do.  We  can  form  our  own  conclusions  from 
their  discoveries — and  we  shall  be  wrong  !  That  is  the 
triumph  of  the  tale.  Of  course,  Mr.  Gorell  Banies  cannot 
actually  take  us  over  the  site  of  the  crime,  if  crime  it  were, 
in  person,  or  we  should  probably  have  noticed — but  I  must 
not  give  away  the  suqirisc  of  an  exciting  novel. 
,    *        •         »         »         ♦ 

Here  is 'another  quite  readable  yarn,  something  after  the 
style  of  the  late  Jack  London.  Mr.  James  Oliver  Curwood 
in  The  Girl  Beyond  the  Trail,  dwells  on  the  curative  influence, 
especially  on  a  mind  diseased,  of  the  frozen  wilds  of  the 
extreme  north  of  Canada.  It  is  not  perhaps  every  heart- 
broken man  that  would  have  had  the  good  luck  of  David  Raine 
in  meeting  so  much  distracting  adventure  and  romance  in 
so  desolate  a  district,  but  tliat  he  does  do  so  is  all  to  the 
advantage  of  the  reader  who  will  follow  the  frozen  trail  with 
an  absorption  only  disturbed,  if  he  chances  on  a  copy  similar 
to  that  which  came  my  way.  by  an  unfortunate  error  in 
setting  up  tlie  f)o(j]c  which  results  at  an  exciting  period  of  llio 
tale  in  onlv  being  able  to  reac^  every  other  pace. 


The  new  comedy  at  the  St.  James's  Theatre,  Sheila,  is  deliglit- 
fiil.  It  is  very  light,  and  the  aspect  of  life  it  deals  with  not  by 
any  means  new,  but  it  is  played  admirably,  Miss  Fay  ("omptoii 
being  wonderful  as  the  foolish  wife.  Mr.  Aubrey  Smith  as  the 
kind-hearted  husband  also  rejoices  the  unsophisticated  who 
fmd  real  i)leasure  in  a  comedy  of  errors,  in  which  charm  of 
ni,T,nner  and  good-humour  compensate  for  foolishness  and  irri- 
tating faults.  Sheila  received  an  excellent  reception,  and  though 
it  is  never  wi.se  to  prophecy  the  future  of  a  play,  especially  with 
the  temperature  at  summer  heat,  it  had  all  the  promise  of  a  bic 
anil  en  (hiring  success.     May  it  prove  so. 


June  14,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


On  the  Western  Front 


^■*     ^v^ 


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20 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  14,  1917 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY. 


.\  limes  un.i  addresses  oj  slwps,  where  the  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  will  be  joriDarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard, 
addressed  to  Passe-Partoiit,  Land  lS:  Water,  5.  Chancery 
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Japanese 
Kimonos 


Tlic  unusual  time  and  their  unusual 
features  mean  that  clever  shopping  can  now 
and  then  be  done  by  those  who  are  in  the 
kiiow,  so  to  speak.  Just  at  the  moment  one  of  those  unre- 
peatable chances  centres  round  some  embroidered  Japanese 
crepe  cotton  kimonos.  These  are  not  only  emp!iaticully  good 
\.ilde  in  themselves,  but  they  happen  to  be  unusually  worth 
bu\nng  owing  to  the  jirohibition    of    imports. 

fhese  fxirticuUir  kimonos  were  bought  as  long  ago  as  last 
November,  and  they  have  been  stored  ever  since;  ready  and 
waiting  for  the  wann  weather.  As  a  summer  dressing  gown 
thev  sunply  excel.  The  crepe  is  a  specially  good  looking  one, 
and  tiie  embroidery  very  eifcctive,  white  flourishing  thread 
Ix-'ing  worked  into  a  bold  arresting  pattern.  Tlien  the  price 
is  not  the  least  point  in  it?  favoiu",  8s.  iijd.  being  actually  all 
that  is  asked. 

Each  kimono  has  a  sash  and  is  finished  with  cool,  clean-looking 
wiiite  facings.  They  can  be  had  in  pink,  rose  colour,  saxe  blue 
and  \iolet,  and  witliout  shadow  of  doubt  no  praise  is  too  ex- 
aggerated to  give  them. 

Anj-thing  more  delightful  for  the  summer 
Silk  and  Wool  ^1-,^^^  some  silk  and  wool  mixture  stock- 

ings can  simply  not  be  imagined.  Of 
light  weight  and  very  cool  in  use  they  are  so  nice  that  any 
women  once  wearing  tliem  favour  in  future  no  other  kind. 
These  stockings  wash  and  wear  remarkably  well,  outlasting 
almost  any  other  make.  They  are  a  restful  kind  of  stocking 
in  use,  which  some  of  their  confreres  emphatically  are  not. 
Silk  stockings  are  particularly  tiring  to  some  feet,  and  in 
the  summer  woollen  hose  is  practically  out  of  the  (Question. 
These  stockings  are  a  very  happy  compromise  between  the 
two,  and  as  such  score  an  immense  and  well  deserved  success. 
Another  original  feature  at  the  same  shop  are  lisle  thread 
stockings  with  cashmere  feet:  These  are  much  more  comfort- 
able to  wear  than  a  stocking  which  is  lisle  thread  all  through, 
and  the  price  of  3s.  6Jd.  is  worth  giving. 


A  Special 
Jumper 


Catch  prices  are  the  custom  at  every 
shop  now-a-days — that  is  to  say,  some 
charming  model  is  priced  unusually  low 
in  order  to  be  a  special  attraction.  Of  this  genre  is  a  jumper 
blouse  in  white  cotton  voile  costing  but  7s.  iiJd.  It  is  an 
unusually  attractive  fetching  little  garment,  just  the  kind  of 
thing  to  buy  and  find  useful  for  the  summer. 

It  is  cut  with  the  new  square  neck,  the  front  being  made 
with  a  centre  panel.  Tlie  collar,  belt,  tops  to  pockets,  and 
the  attractive  border  finishing  the  jumper  are  all  of  coloured 
voile,  and  here  a  choice  of  colours  lie.  There  are  white  and 
pink  jumpers,  white  and  pale  blue,  or  white  allied  to  heliotrope 
or  champagne. 

Such  a  jumper  as  this  is  the  neatest,  most  alluring  little 
garment  seen  for  many  a  long  day,  and  happens  to  be  a  gar- 
ment infinitely  worth  securing. 

I  have  just  been  introduced  to  quite  the 
The  "All  One '  Nail  most  perfect  manicure  case  it  has  ever 
been  my  good  fortune  to  meet.  Every- 
thing goes  into  the  nail  polisher— nail  scissors,  file,  orange 
sticks,  tweezers,  nail  polish  and  cuticle  cream  boxes  complete. 
How,  is  amazing,  but  the  fact  remains  that  it  does  so. 

The  polisher,  like  most  of  its  kind,  is  about  five  inches  long, 
so  that  for  travelling  this  manicure  "  case  "  is  quite  the  most 
compact  thing  possible.  It  is  not  the  easiest  thing  in  the 
world  to  draw  a  word  picture  of  such  a  unique  contrivance 
but  the  nail  pohsher  really  resolves  itself  into  a  little  hollow 
box.  Pulling  u])  the  handle  reveals  the  array  of  manicurint^ 
articles  inside.  To  the  uninitiated  it  is  only  a  pad,  in  reality 
it  is  everything  necessary  to  the  tending  of  a  well  kept  hand. 

The  manicure  pad  fits  into  a  leather  sheath,  so  that  what- 
e\er  happens  to  it — whether  it  is  packed  or  stands  ready  for 


use  on  the  dressing  table — the  polisliing  leather  is  protected. 
A  detachable  rim  permits  of  the  leather  being  changed. 

This  brilliant  idea  is  very  popular  in  America.  0\'erhere 
in  London  a  renowned  firm  ha\e  the  sole  rights.  They  are 
seUing  it  in  silver— either  plain  or  engine  turned — tortoise- 
shell,  ivory,  silver-gilt,  and  in  various  enamels  of  excep- 
tionally lovely  colourings. 


Moth  Proof 
Bags 


Our  regular  readers  will  doublless 
remember  that  wonderful  moth  proof  bags 
were  mentioned  in  this  paper  last  year. 
Never,  however,  can  the  praises  of  a.  really  good  thing  be  too 
often  sung,  and  this  is  the  psychological  moment  for  their 
reiteration.  Everyone  now,  liaving  gone  through  the  merry 
#  and  often  uncertain  month  of  May,  is  patting  their  furs  away 
and  casting  som^  anxious  thoughts  on  their  safe "  storage. 
These  marvellous  moth  proof  bags  make  this  a  very  simple 
and  very  secure  matter.  Once  furs,  coats,  stoics,  muffs  and 
the  like,  are  safely  stored  within  them,  their  owner  need  not 
give  them  another  thought  until  she  takes  them  once  more 
into  wear. 

They  are  the  invention  of  a  clever  furrier,  and  the  m j.st 
convenient  thing  known.  Proof  against  moth  though  they 
are,  no  disagreeable  chemical  smell  pervades  them.  Tlius 
they  can  easily  be  hung  into  a  cupboard  with  other  clothes. 
Inside  each  bag  is  a  little  row  of  hooks  on  which  coats  can 
be  hung.  Tiie  bag  itself  is  hermetically  sealed  by  a  patent 
fastener,  and  remains  aU  through  the  summer  the  most  per- 
fect system  of  home  storage  for  furs  yet  invented. 

These  bags  are.  kept  in  three  sizes  costing  7s.  iid.,  9s.  iid. 
and  I2s.  6d.  respectively — postage  is  sixpence  extra. 

Since  that  wonderful  fabric  Luvisca  was 
Luvisoa  Blouse         fjj-st  placed  on  the  market,  hundreds  of 
°"*  women     have     had     ample     reason     to 

sincerely  sing  its  praises.  As  a  fabric  it  is  simply  without 
rival.  It  washes  and  wears,  wears  and  washes  with  almost 
monotonous  regularity,  it  has  the  most  wonderfully  silky  look 
— a  look  that  does  not  vanish  with  time — yet  strange  to 
say  there  is  no  silk  in  its  composition. 

In  a  certain  London  shop,  tempting  propositions  are  per- 
petually the  order  of  the  day,  and  not  least  among  them  are 
some  new  Luvisca  bloust*  coats.  These  delightful  garments 
are  a  cross  between  a  blouse  and  a  sports  coat,  combining 
very  effectually  both  functions  in  one.  They  are  the  ea:?iest 
thing  in  the  world  to  sUp  on,  fastening  with  a  few  buttons  down 
the  front,  belting  round  the  waist  and  being  in  short  the 
ideal  garment  for  a  woman  busy  about  the  house  or  in  her 
garden  during  the  day. 

The  available  colourings  are  pink,  pale  blue,  mauve,  brown, 
navy  blue,  black,  white  and  fawn,  with  various  coloured 
stripes,  while  the  price,  iSs.  iid.,  is  a  wholly  reasonable  one. 


Wonderful  Sun 
Blinds 


Most  things  have  mounted  incredibly 
in  cost  since  the  war,  but  some  quite 
unique  sun  blinds  must  not  be  counted 
amongst  them.  These  sun  blinds  in  a  cool  looking  shade  of 
rather  dark  green  cost  the  exceedingly  small  sum  of  5s.  6d. 
complete,  with  pulley  and  cord.  They  resolutely  exclude 
the  sun,  yet  their  clever  construction  is  such  that  at  the  same 
time  they  admit  the  air.  What  their  comfort ^means  during 
the  hot  summer  weather  words  can  h.ardly  tell,  but  it  is  very 
certain  that  they  mean  all  the  difference  between  whether  a 
house  is  bearable  or  the  reverse.  -^ 

Getting  things  fixed  is  a  problem  nowadays,  hut  with  these 
bhnds  no  difhculties  loom  in  the  path.  The  veriest  amateur 
can  fix  them,  either  inside  the  window  or  out,  though  outside 
is  where  the  majority  of  people  place  them.  When  up  they 
quite  impro\e  the  look  of  a  house.  The  blinds  can  be  raised 
or  loweieJ  to  all  heights  by  means  of  the  pulley.  Drawing 
the  cord  slightly  to  the  right  causes  the  blind  to  stay  fixed  at 
anv  distance  from  the  window  sill,  so  that  every  variation  of 
sun  can  be  met  and  duly  coped  with. 

The  five  and  sixpenny  bhnds  are  thirty-six  by  seventy- 
two  inches.  Other  sizes  can  be  got,  increasing  six  inches  and 
rising  ninepence  a  time.  Passe  Pariout 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXIX  No.  2876  [^^l\] 


THURSDAY.  JUNE  21,  1917 


rREGISTERED  AS"!     PUBUSHED  WEEKLY 

La  newspaper  J   price  sevenpence 


JL-Jotiis  ^"^ct en^ark^rs. — 


By   Louil    Raemaekem 


America's  Choice 


Djawn  excVisively  Jor  "  Land  S:    Water  ' 


America  refuses  the  olive  branch  from  "  the  ugly  talons  of  the  sinister  power  " 

{President   Wihon'g  Address  on  Flag  Day,  June   14) 


I 


i 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  21,  191 


"SOFT  AS  A 
SLIPPER" 


The  "  Forlmason "  Marching  Boot,  is  very 
strong,  and  J  lb-  Hghter  than  any  similar 
boot.  Special  wear  resisting  sole?.  Worn  by 
thousands  of  Officers  at  the  Front,  50/- 
Sizes  lOJ  upwards,  55/-. 


FORTNUM&  MASON, 

Ltd. 

182  Piccadilly,   London,  W.  I. 


A  Neutral's  Indictment 


OF 


GERMANY 

during  1916 

A  Superb  Edition-de-Luxe  of 
Sixty  specially  selected 

CARTOONS 


BY 


RAEMAEKERS 

A  NEW  VOLUME,  with  Historical 
Record,  will  be  published  at  the  end 
of  June.  The  Edition  is  strictly  limited, 
and  is  the  only  one  signed  by  the  Artist. 

Price  £5  :  5   :  0  if  ordered  prior  to  publication. 
£6    :    6    :    0    on  publication. 

Prospectus  on  application  to  the  Publishers  : 

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June  21,  1917 


LAND    ^     WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN.     LONDON,    W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 


THURSDAY,  JUNE  21.    1917 


CONTENTS 


America's  Clioico.     By  Louis  Kaemaekcrs 

Use  of  Reprisals.     (Leader) 

The  Contrast.     Bv  Hilaire  BeUoc 

Story  of  the  Koenigsberg.     By  Arthur  Polku 

Value  of  the  Mark 

Past  and  Future.  — IL     By  Jason 

The  New  Morality.     By  Arthur  Kitson 

The  Residue.     By  J.  C.  Squire 

The  Rocking  Stone.     By  Helen  Ashton 

Letters  to  the  Editor. 

Books  to  Read.     By  Lucian  Oldersliaw 

Village  of  Messines.     1914-1910.     (Photographs) 

Domestic    Economy 

Kit  and  Equipment 


r.VGi-: 
I 
.1 
4 
7 
9 

10 
II 
13 
14 
'17 
18 

19 
20 

23 


USE    OF    REPRISALS 

THE  air  raid  upon  London  has  )>rovokcd  a  renewal 
of  the  discussion  upon  reprisals,  which  was  prominent 
a  few  weeks  ago.  It  is  as  well  to  get  our  ideas  clear 
upon  this  matter,  becau.se  we  shall  certainly  have  to 
(leal  with  it  as  a  matter  of  policy  in  the  near  future. 

The  first  thing  to  note  is  that  the  problem  is  essentially  a 
military  one.  It  is  the  character  of  all  war,  and  of  this  Great 
War  more  than  any  other,  that  the  facts  uj)on  which  alone  a 
secure  judgment  can  be  based  are  known  to  veiy  few  men, 
and  that  we  simply  must  trust  these  men  and  leave  matters 
in  their  hands  if  we  arc  to  avoid  worse  blunders.  Only  those 
in  command  of  the  army  and  in  possession  of  all  the  facts, 
can  judge  whether  any  machines  should  be  spared  for  so  auxi- 
liiry  a  form  of  work  as  reprisals,  what  type  of  machine  woulti 
be  required  and  in  what  numbers,  and  whether  the  releasing 
of  the  machines  for  this  purpose  would  or  would  not  affect 
our  present  assured  superiority  in  battle. 

But  though  the  main  question  is  military,  there,  is  another 
aspect  of  the  thing  which  civilians  cannot  and  ought  not  to 
lose  sight  of,  for  it  is  a  point  upon  which  the  civilian  can  judge 
as  well  as  the  soldier,  and  that  is  supposing  the  soldier  decides 
that  the  releasing  of  a  certain  number  of  planes  is  advisable, 
what  would  be  the  poUtical  effect  cf  such  a  release 
upon  the  Germans  ?  That  is  a  matter  to  be  judged  entirely 
by  our  estimate  of  the  German  character  at  the  present 
moment  and  in  connection  with  tliis  particular  strain. 

Now  it  is  clear  from  a  number  of  indications  that  one  of  the 
strongest  supports  afforded  to  the  resistance  of  the  enemy  is 
the  fact  that  the  war  has  not  yet  appeared  upon  his  own  soil- 
We  all  know  from  our  own  experience  how  strong  that  factor 
can  be.  It  produces  an  illusion  and  is  therefore  probably 
ultimately  a  mihtary  weakness,  but  of  the  strength  of  the 
illusion  none  can  doubt.  The  very  change  that  takes  place 
in  our  own  emotions  when  some  considerable  raid,  hkc  that  on 
Folkestone  or  t lie  recent  one  on  London  takes  j)lace,  is  proof 
of  this.  Moreover,  the  modern  German  is  peculiarly  subject 
to  emotions  of  this  sort.  He  is  very  easily  led  into  illusions, 
especially  if  they  are  of  a  sentimental  kind,  and  we  have  only 
to  consult  the  German  Press,  the  mass  of  pamphlets  issued 
to  neutrals,  or  even  the  documents  dropped  over  the  French 
lines,  to  appreciate  the  violent  effect  upon  the  enemy's  mind 
of  anything  which  brings  the  war  home  to  him.  There  is  an 
actually  hysterical  note  in  the  complaints  made  of  the  now 
far-distant  Russian  raid  into  East  Prussian  territory,  and  of 
the  successful  French  aerial  bombardments  of  the  Rhenish 
towns. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  severe  reprisals  would  have 
a  strong  military  effect  in  that  they  would  sh^ke  the  moral 
of  the  enemy  in  a  much  higher  degree  than  our  own  moral  is 
shaken  by  his  action  upon  tiic  «imc  hncs.  We  nuist  re- 
member in  this  connection  that  the  policy  is  entirely  his  own. 


No  one  ever  dreamt  ol  bombarding  open  towns,  especially  in 
tliis  novel  fashion,  until  the  German  Government  took  the 
initiative.  Just  as  no  one  ever  dreamt  of  sinking  a  hospital 
ship  or  attacking  civilian  passenger  ships.  In  the  case  of  this 
sort  of  moral  anarchy,  which  is  characteristic  of  the  German, 
you  clearly  liave  a  perfect  moral  right  to  take  any  steps  at 
your  disposal  to  repress  and  destroy  the  anarch.  Your  moral 
right  is  founded  upon  the  simple  and  obvious  truth  that  if 
you  do  not  destroy  the  anarchist  he  will  destroy  you  and  all 
moral  order  at  the  same  time.  We  may  conclude,  there- 
fore, that  reprisals  of  the  most  severe  kind  are  justified  and 
are  expedient  in  themselves.  They  would  have  an  excellent 
effect  and  they  would  be  without  the  least  doubt  an  instru- 
ment towards  the  winning  of  the  war.  But  there  remains 
the  initial  quaUtication  with  which  this  article  opened.  Behind 
any  discussion  or  judgment  upon  the  value  of  reprisals  in 
themselves,  there  runs  the  primary  question  :  "  Do  the 
military  chiefs  approve  ?  "  They  alone  can  decide,  and  in 
their  hands  it  should  be  left.  If  the  only  men  who  have 
any  accurate  or  detailed  knowledge  of  .what  instruments  are 
available  and  in  what  number  and  for  what  purposes  they  had 
best  be  used,  decide  that  the  bombardment  of  enemy  towns 
is  for  the  moment  a  waste  of  power,  it  ought  really  to  be 
obvious  that  civilians  must  be  silent  and  give  them  a  com- 
pletely free  hand — and  the  word  "  civilian  "  here  applies 
quite  as  much  U\  the  pohtician  as  it  does  to  the  mass  of  pubhc 
officials.  But  if  the  issue  be  the  more  general  one,  which  we 
can  all  judga  for  ourselves,  of  whether  reprisals  (always 
supposing  that  the  mihtary  chiefs  approve  of  them)  are  right 
and  should  be  effected  as  a  matter  of  policy,  then  there  can  be 
little  doubt  upon  the  .verdict. 

At  the  same  time,  there  isa principle  to  be  observed  which 
is  not  often  mentioned  and  which  is  yet  of  the  utmost  value. 
That  principle  is.  the  clear  definition  by  the  Allies  that  they 
themselves  regard  their  action  as  exceptional  and  only  use  it 
for  the  curbing  of  anarchy  and  of  the  peculiar  evil  represented 
by  Prussia  in  the  modem  world,  and  do  not  intend  fcr  one 
moment  to  incorporate  it  in  the  precedents  of  war. 

It  is  too  much  the  fashion  nowadays  to  laugh  at  such 
declarations,  but  if  we  will  but  look  back  over  the  short  space 
of  three  years,  we  shall  see  that  the  conventions  of  civilised 
warfare  were  of  binding  moral  effect  upon  a  11  Europeans 
until  this  detestable  people  broke  them.  They  were 
observed  by  both  parties  in  Manchuria,  in  South  Africa,  in 
the  Turkish  War.  Not  only  are  the  Germans  responsible  for  so ' 
awful  an  exception  to  Christian  morals,  but  they  prove  their 
own  baseness  by  the  fact  that  they  fell  into  it  as  by  a  sort  of 
temptation .  Heaven  knows  that  they  were  vile  enough  in  the 
first  acts  they  committed  against  the  civilian  population  of 
Belgium — acts  for  which  you  will  find  no  parallel  in  modern 
times.  But  the  deliberate  bombardment  of  open  towns,  tlie 
sinking  of  merchant  shipping  without  warning,  of  hosintal 
ships  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  did  not  come  at  once.  Even 
the  Germans  were  ashamed  at  first  of  these  things. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  for  us  all  to  recollect  tliat 
even  were  we  compelled  to  pay  back  the  enemy  in  his  own  coin 
for  the  sake  of  our  common  livelihood,  we  are  not  establishing 
a  precedent.  We  are  not  granting  h  is  right  to  the  abominable 
practices  he  has  initiated,  and  we  have  no  intention  of  ]iur- 
suing  them  in  the  future,  but,  on  the  contrary,  of  ridding 
Europe  once  and  for  ever  of  the  political  power  which  has 
made  such  things  possible.  Prussia  deliberately  challenged 
intelligence  and  traditions  higher  than  her  own.  Her  action 
\vas  like  the  adtion  of  an  animal  which  foolishly  attacks  a 
man,  not  knowing  what  reserves  of  power  the  human  brain 
has  against  the  beast.  If  reprisals  be  agreed  to  by  those 
military  chiefs  who  alone  have  the  power  of  judging  the 
situation,  the  Germans  may  be  well  assured  they  will  be 
conducted  more  severely  and  with  more  effect  than  anything 
they  can  do  against  us.  The  air  service  of  the  Allies,  and 
particularly  the  British,  is  altogether  superior  to  the  air 
service  of  the  enemy.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  important 
lesson  of  this  long  war  in  its  last  stages,  and  a  lesson  which 
in  this  country  particularly  we  should  Uiy  to  heart,  that  tin* 
Gcrinan  is  less  in  civilisation,  culture,  abilities  of  every  sort 
than  the  older  civilisations  which  he  was  mad  enough  iu  liii 
nuiddy    pride  to  challenge. 


JLAINU    &    WATER 


June  Ji,  i(ji7 


The    Contrast 

By   Hilaire  Belloc 


Pl'RHAFS  tlu'  best  exercise  lor  those  wlio  are  now 
nltectedby  Hie  strain  of  the  war,  its  prokmf^ation, 
its  severity,  and  those  elements  in  every  sief;e  since 
Troy  which  )nake  a  siege  seem  intermmablc,  is  to 
set  down  oii  pajx-r  what  kind  of  fruit  must  be  exix-cted  <m 
Hie  one  hand  from  a  negotiated  peace  and  upon  the  other 
from  a  true  victory.. 

The  distinction  between  a  negotiated  peace  and  a  true 
\ictory  has  been  developed  at  great  length  in  these  nthnnns, 
but  that  particular  aspect  of  the  distinction,  tiie  difference 
in  result,  has  not  yet  been  dealt  with  in  any  detail. 

Let  us  consider  first  what  kind  of  EurojX'  it  was  whicli  the 
Allies,  or,  at. any  rate,  the  great  Western  Allies,  and  in  par- 
ticular the  ancient  civilisations  of  France  and  England, 
envisaged,  when  the  German  Emperor  forced  war,  just 
after  the  harvest  of  191^. 

1  think  it  is  a  fair  statement  of  the  Western  mind — the 
nnnd  of  our  older  European  civiHsation — to  put  it  somewhat 
as  follows  : 

"  Europe  has  during  all  this  generation  suffered  increasing 
strain.  The  voung  manhood  of  the  nations'  has,  upon  the 
Continent  at  least,  suffered  the  severity  ot  c(.,nscri])tion. 
Three  of  the  best  years  of  a  man's  life  have  been  taken  from 
liim  in  a  fashion  quite  unknown  to  our  father^j.    ■ 

"  The  efforts  to  rearrange  society  in  juster  fashion  have 
been  hamjx^red  by  the  perpetual  threat  of  war. 

"  We  know  that  this  ceaseless  menace  proceeded  from 
Prussia.  We  knew  it,  it  is  true,  in  a  sort  of  naif-conscious 
wa\'.  Some  cf  us  admired,  the  mass  of  men  were  ignorant 
of,  the  development  of  Germany  under  Prussian  guidance; 
but  we  all  knew  at  bottom  that,  whether  the  catastrophe 
to<  k  place  or  no,  the  menace  of  it  was  a  Prussian  menace. 

"  Europe  is  one  society.  In  that  society  was  a  member 
Avho  had  acted  in  the  past  against  the  common  conscience 
and  who,  in  his  extreme  expressions  at  least,  had  suggested 
anarchy  ;  the  subsistence  and  expansion  of  himself  at  the 
expense  of  the  whole.  Prussia  has  challenged  Europe.  We 
now  know  that  she  was  prepared  and  that  she  has  chosen 
her  day.  Wc  were  not  prepared  and  the  date  is  not  ours." 
But  the  challenge  having  gone  out,  we  will  accept  it,  for  it  is 
.1  matter  of  hfe  and  death.  We  shall  suffer  "  (very  few  men 
knew  at  how  great  a  length  or  in  what  degree),  "  but  in  the 
end  i>ur  success  is  certain. 

"  Of  Russia  we  know  little.  Our  judgment  upon  it  is 
iiii))erfect.  But  it  is  our  Ally.  Apart  from  that  the 
older  civilisation  of  Europe  cannot  fail.  It  is  in  the  nature 
of  things  that  it  should,  after  some  trouble,  conquer 
and  restore  normal  conditions.  Those  normal  conditions 
involve  first  of  all  the  liquidaticm  of  all  that  nightmare  of 
doubt  and  fear  for  the  future  under  which  our  lives  have  been 
passed. 

"  Next,  they  involve  the  estabhshment  of  Government 
upon  the  basis  of  the  consent  of  the  governed.  They  further 
involve  the  chastisement  of  those  who  wantonly  broke  the 
j)eace,  and  tliat  a  chastisement  so  severe  that  no  further 
attempt  of  the  kind  shall  be  possible.  Something  insane  is 
abroad.  It  shall  be  killed.  Upon  its  destruction  we  will  sore- 
arrange  the  Euroix-an  affair  that  men  shall  live  in  reasonable 
ease  and  with  a  rej^sonable  elbow  room  for  the  construction  of 
security  and  goodwill.  Prussia  shall  be  beaten.  She  shall 
suffer  military  defeat.  After  that  crisis  we  can  make  a  Europe 
that  will  endure  and  that  will  be  happy." 

This,  interpreted  in  detail,  meant  that  the  natural  con- 
sciousness of  many  jjeoples  divided  by  artificial  frontiers  and 
oppressed  by  foreign  rulers  shall  have  its  freedom,  and  thus, 
|)erhaps  what  is  the  strongest  passion  of  man  to-day. 
dniost  his  religion,  the  devotion  to  his  own  people,  shall  be 
able  to  act  without  hurt  to  others. 

The  Europe  that  was  to  follow  the  peace  would  include,  as 
it  must  necessarily  fnclude,  a  France,  the  high  civihsation  of 
which  should  be  a  beacon  in  Europe  imdisturbed ;  an  Italy 
no  fraction  of  wliich  should  be  suffered  to  lie  under  the 
domination  of  foreign  officials,  and  Itahan  seas  again  rightly 
Itahan  as  well.  Even  in  the  tangle  of  the  Balkans  this  spirit 
of  which  I  speak  thought  it  possible  to  arrange  delimitations 
which,  roughly  at  loast,  would  leave  the  Greeks  all  Greek,  the 
Bulgarians  all  Bulgarian,  the  Southern  Slavs  all  one  people, 
or  at  least  all  one  federation. 

It  saw  the  European  and  Christian  elements  of  the  Turkish 
Emi>ire  restored  to  autonomy.  The  entry  into  the  Black  Sea 
^strategically  and  economicallv  the  key  of  everything  in  the 


East)  open  and  secwe.  It  saw  Poland,  that  mighty  and 
wholesome  nation,  re-established.  It  saw  the  smalltr  nations 
assuming  their  ancient  function  and  \ivifying  Europe  by 
their  multitude  of  peculiar  characters.  Each  nation  (accord- 
ing to  this  opinion)  was  guaranteed  in  such  a  scheme  its 
ineans  of  life.  Great  Britain  should  certainly  remain  free  of 
import  by  sea  and  so  be  secure  in  the  livelihood  of  a  vast 
IHjpulation  restricted  to  so  small  an  island. 

Ireland-  it  was  the  trend  of  the  time — should  recover  her 
own  traditions  also.  Belgium,  which  some  have  thouglit  an 
artificial  creation,  which  was  divided  between  two  races  and 
jxrhaps  in  another  sense  between  two  religions,  or,  at  any 
rate,  two  i)hiloso]>liies,  ha«l  now  so  long  lived  in  unity  as  to 
discover,  and  ha\e  the  rigiit  to  maintain,  her  national  exist- 
cnce.  The  ?amc  was  true  of  the  Netherlands  and  of  the  three 
Scandinavian  {>eoples. 

We  were  the  richei"  for  all  these  diverse  elements  in  Europe. 
We  thought  the  diversity  good  morally  in  its  .eftects,  a])Hrt 
fnmi  our  doctrine  that  nations  were  of  right  free.  And  tlun. 
jx-rhajK,  over  and  above  these  mcchanic.il  arrangements  of 
irontiers  we  might  attain  roughly,  but  sulliciently,  domestic 
pace  within  each  and  revise  tlie  injustice  of  a  worhl  whirh, 
in  its  industriahsed  portions  at  least,  had  concentrated 
economic  power  in  the  hai.ds  of  a  few  for  whom  the  ma'-.s,  with 
increasing  discontent,  accumulated  wealth  by  their  labour. 

That  was  the  vision  before  the  eyes  of  those  who  accepted 
the  Prussian  challenge.  Let  it  Ix;  carefully  lemembered  and 
repeated  over  and  over  again  (for  it  is  of  vast  importance)  that 
this  ideal,  \arying  with  varying  men  but  upon  the  whole  what 
I  have  described,  was  to  be  the  result  of  victoiy. 

Such  an  effort  is  not  made  until  men  are  provoked  to  it. 
The  Prussian  challenge  provoked  us  to  the  expectation  of 
things  not  hitherto  attained  and  also  to  the  restoration  of 
things  which  once  were  and  ought  to  be  again. 

Magnitude  of  the  Task 

In  this  plan  there  was  necessarily  ini.ved  u\>,  .i^  liiciu  is 
in  every  enthusiasm,  that  violence  of  the  mind  which,  to  use  a 
metaphor,  "  short  circuits  "  the  processes  of  time.  We  thought 
the  goal  much  nearer  than  it  was.  Wc  saw  it  clearly  as  we 
still  see  it— but  we  imagined  that  the  road  was  shorter.  In  tlie 
humble  circumstances  of  physical  life  many  men  have  ex- 
perienced this  .same  illusion  :  so  docs  a  port  seem  within  half 
an  hour  to  a  man  saihng  oversea  when  it  is  jierhaps  half  a  day 
before  he  will  reach  it  :  so  does  a  mountain  climber  seem  a 
matter  of  a  morning  when  it  is  a  matter  of  two  days. 

Nothing  is  commoner  than  the  reproach  that  the  enthusiasts 
for  Europe  under-estimated  their  task,  but  nothing  is  truer 
than  the  truth  that  this  task  was  undertaken  with  a  full  com- 
prehension of  its  necessity. 

The  passage  of  time  has  not  deflected  in  direction,  but  it 
has  certainly  modified  in  texture  the  character  of  the  effort 
in  most  men's  minds.  1  think  that  it  has  so  modified  the 
texture  most  of  all  inthose  large  urban  populations,  character- 
istic of  this  country,  which  are  swayed  by  the  Press,  wliich  are 
denied  direct  experience,  and  which  must  feed  upon  the 
secondary  evidence  of  things  told  to  them  and  not  appreciated 
by  the  senses. 

The  war  became  in  the  West,  after  the  victory  of  ^e  '•rarne, 
a  siege  war,  and  for  the  character  of  a  siege  war  the  popular 
mind  was  ill-pr: pared. 

The  character  of  a  siege  everywhere  and  in  all  times  ha , 
been  a  wearing  down.  Never  was  a  siege  yet  wliich  prf)vided 
the  spectacular  effect  of  war.  In  every  siege  which  the 
historian  can  mention,  victory  has  been  granted  to  the  greater 
tenacity,  the  greater  vision, "the  greater  length,  both  of  will 
and  of  view.  In  every  siege  the  resistance  sta1Ki^il  unbroken 
and  apparently  unbreakable  right  up  to  the  last  moment. 
And  in  every  siege  up  to  the  last  moment,  the  men  in  the 
outer  hues  have  said  "  This  will  never  end." 

But  a  siege,  like  any  operation  of  war,  involves  victory 
or  defeat.  If  the  besieged  compel  their  opjxments  to  n;:go- 
tiate,  if  they  maintain  their  position,  and  having  maintained 
it  secure  the  core  of  what  they  suffered  for,  then  they  have 
gained  a  victory  as  truly  as  any  victory  is  gained  bv  rapid 
movement  in  the  field.  Had  Metz  not"  fallen  by  treachery, 
had  Paris  been  relieved  by  the  army  of  the  Loire  in  J870, 
thoi'gii  the  I'lxnch  shotdd  have  suffered  imasion  and  have 
gained  ii'itliMig.  yet  there  would  have  remained  with  them 
a   certain    tradititm    of   .success,     it   sounds   an   imi'ossiblc 


June  21,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


tiling  to  say  in  the  ears  of  those  wlio  have  known  the  Europe 
of  the  last'  fifty  years,-  but  -i-t  is  a  true  saying  ;  defeat  and 
victory  are  ultimately  things  of  the  soul,  and  the  terms  of 
victory  are  an  outward  expression  of  tliose  things. 

A  siegp  warfare  conducted  to  it«;  conclusion,  the  imposilion 
of  the  will  of  the  victor  upon  the  vanquished,  is  tlie  most 
conclusive  of  all.  Precisely  because  the  besieged  have  been 
able  under  the  conditions  of  the  defensive  to  put  in  their 
last  reserves  of  strength,  precisely  for  that  reason  is  it  that 
when  they  fail,  they  fail  iitterly. 

But  a  siege  which  ends  by  the  confession  of  the  besieger 
that  the  task  is  too- much  for  him,  that  he  will  parley  with  his 
opponent  and  come  to  an  agreement  while  the  fortress  still 
stands,  is  morally  a  triumph  for  the  besieged. 

A'ow  if  the  siege  upon  which  the  Allies  are  at  present 
occupied  concludes  thus  in  any  negotiation  with  the  be- 
leagured  under  the  "  best  terms  "  that  can  be  obtained,  note 
what  follows. 

1  have  put  forward  what  I  believe  to  be  roughly  a  true  state- 
ment of  the  \ision  before  the  Allies  when  this  challenge  was 
lirst  thrown  down. 

Ix't  me  contrast  with  it  .the  actual  thing  that  will  follow 
in  fuirope  if  the  enemy  shall  succeed  in  wearying  the  tenacity 
ol  his  opponents  and  in  establishing  the  conditions  first  of 
a  tiuce  and  lastly  of  a  settlement. 

i.et  us  suppose  that  such  a  settlement  required  the  evacua- 
tion of  territory  now  occupied  and  even  the  renovation  of 
damaged  t-owns — but  that  not  at  the  command  of  the  victors 
but  by  the  consent  of  an  unvanquished  foe.  Let  us  suppose 
that  in  name  at  least  the  independence  of  the  nations  were 
recognised  and  that  the  new  Europe  of  which  men  have 
dreamed  were  established  so  far  as  the  mechanical  arrange- 
ment of  frontiers  can  establish  it— but  that  not  at  the  dictation 
of  a  conquering  army,  but  by  the  permission  of  those  which 
the  army  had  hoped  to  defeat  and  had  failed  to  defeat. 
What  would  be  the  effect  upon  the  soul  of  Europe  ?  What 
would  be  tlie  effect  upon  its  will,  its  traditions,  its  ideals, 
above  all,  what  would  be  the  effect  upon  its  future  of  such 
a  surrender,  for  surrender  it  would  be  ? 

In  the  first  place,  the  coming  generations  would  be  under 
the  spiritual  domination  of  Prussia.  Prussia  and  the  Germany 
which  she  has  indoctrinated  would  say  with  justice,  "  All  the 
world  ci^me  against  us.  Upon  the  Plast  we  were  victorious 
for  we  dissolved  the  pohtical  cohesion  of  our  enemies  there. 
Lpon  the  West  blow  upon  blow  was  met  %vith  entire  resistance, 
and  we  emerged  from  the  great  ordeal  triumphant."  Prussia 
would  say  tins  with  justice,  and  the  opponents  of  Prussia, 
though  they  might  deny  such  a  truth  with  their  lips,  would 
acknowledge  it  111  their  iieaits.  The  German  people,  inclined 
m  some  measure  to  regard  their  crimes  as  the  universal  con- 
science regards  them,  will  be  able  to  sav,  "  Yes,  we  did  ill, 
but  we  did  it  in  a  good  cause  and  the  Prussian  nation  has 
survived." 

Men  would  naturally  and  inevitablv  sav  that  the  power 
which  had  so  defended  it.self  successfutlv  was  in  the  order  of 
thingi.  They  would  imitate  it  even  where  they  did  not 
revere  it. 

Jii  general,  the  Europe  of  the  future  would  suffer  (for  I 
think  It  is  a  suffering)  from^the  modern  German  attitude 
towards  the  world.  ■  ^ 

I  will  not  discuss  whether  that  attitude  be  good  or  evil  at 
this  point.  To  most  of  us  it  is  intolerable.  We  see  in  it  a 
mishandling  of  all  the  works  of  men— bad  building,  bad 
thought,  bad  morals,  bad  architecture,  bad  cooking,  bad 
everything.  There  are  those  who  think  otherwise.  There 
are  those  to  whom  the  German  is  pleasing  and  even  his  con- 
fused intelligence  a  charm.  They  are  welcome-  to  their 
opinion.  But,  at  any  rate,  if  the  German,  pleasing  or  un- 
I'leasmg,  according  to  taste  holds  the  fort,  he  is  the  master 
ol  our  luture.  The  national  soul  of  the  various  aUied  peoples 
would  be  under  the  impression  of  defeat.  The  national  soul 
ol  the  Germans  would  be  under  the  impression  of  victory. 

That  IS  the  first  large  aspect  of  the  thing. 

You  cannot  escape  it.  You  cannot  by  any  use  of  words 
veil  that  truth  from  your  minds.  For  the  war  to  end  without 
tlie  deleat  of  Prussia  would  mean  that  the  generations  to 
come,  I  know  not  for  how  long  a  time,would  suffer  increasingly 
from  the  Prussian  flavour  and  be  tinged  with  the  Prussian 
roloiu.  It  is  so  and  has  always  been  so  in  Europe  when 
something  which  has  challenged  Europe  has  proved  victorious 
in  arms. 

But  let  us  go  into  points  more  concrete  and  detailed.  The 
war  has  jiroduced  more  strikingly  tht^n  anything  else  a  number 
ot  new  acts  m  war,  which  may  or  may  not  become  precedents. 

The  enemy  has  made  use  of  weapons  which  had  been 
thought  ruled  out  of  our  civilisation.  He  has  used  treachery, 
lie  has  torn  up  treaties.  He  has  used  poison.  He  has 
tortured  prisoners.  He  has  enslaved.  He  has  murdered 
non-combatants.  He  has  sunk  innumerable  non-combatant 
ships    without    warning,  neutral  as  well  as  Allied.     He  has 


terror'snl  civilians  by  (he  bombardment  of  op.n  towns.  II 
those  things  remain  without  punishment  they  have  conje 
to  stay.  There  are  tho.se  who  say  that  they  have  corhe 
to  stay  in  arty  case.  I  am  not  of  their  opinion-  As  it  seems 
to  me,  history-  pro\'es  the  jiower  of  the  human  mind  to  recovtr 
itself  and  to  be  rid  of  abnormal  evil.  But  only  upon  the 
conditit'n  that-  abnormal  evil  is  made  to  -suffer  something 
that  shall  be  a  lesson  to  it  and  a  warning. 

We 'know  how  it  is  with  an  individual' life.  A  man  will 
.sink  slosvly  into  a  habit  which  destroys  his  soul.  By  what  is 
he  rescued  ?  Not  by  argument  or  by  persuasion,  but  by  a 
shock.  -Some  great  suHcring,  some  moral  proof '  of  the 
difference  between  what  he  was  and  what  he  is  wakes  him 
up.  So  it  will  be  with  Europe.  If  those  who  have  done 
these  things  are  heavily  punished  for  them — and  only  military 
success  can  secure  that  effect— I  do  not  believe  that  they  will 
re-arise  in  Europe. 

But  if  there  is  no  punishment  then  war  has  changed  into  a 
much  more  evil  thing  than  our  race  ever  knew  before,  and 
into  a  thing  that  will  oe  wholly  destructive  to  our  civilisation. 
Con.sider  for  a  moment  what  will  follow  if  these  things  do 
become  precedents,  and  if  the  future  regards  what  has  been 
gradually  imposed  upon  modern  war  by  Germany,  as  actions 
normal  to  all  war. 

Of  the  effect  upon  this  country  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
It  will  be  at  the  mercy  of  constant  immediate  unforeseeable 
attack  upon  its  merchandise  by  sea  and  upon  its  civiUan 
population  by  air.  The  strain  of  preparation  against  such 
attack,  awful  as  it  was  before  1914,  will  become  far  greater 
than  ever  it  was  before.  The  instability  from  which  Europe 
suffered  for  so  long  will  become  something  worse  than  in- 
stability. It  will  become  (and  the  process  of  its  coming  will 
not  last  long)  a  sort  of  toppling  ;  a  crash  that  may  come  at 
any  moment. 

We  can,  if  we  will,  but  only  by  a  complete  victory,  eliminate 
the  thing  for  good.  We  can  make  it  impossible  for  it  to  enter 
the  mind  of  the  European  that  he  should  torture  or  should 
enslave,  that  he  should  murder  upon  the  high  seas,  that  he 
should  break  a  treaty  with  impunity.  But  that  change  of 
the  mind  has  for  its  absolutely  necessary  condition  military 
success,  complete  success  in  the  field. 

Consider,  again,  what  sort  of  nations  those  would  be  who 
would  arise  in  this  new  and  Prussianised  Europe.  There 
would  be  a  Poland  no  doubt.  It  would  be  a  Poland  moderated 
and  controlled  from  Berlin.     That  is  inevitable. 

It  would  be  forbidden  access  to  the  sea.  It  would  be 
mutilated.     It  would  be  under  tutelage. 

There  would  be  a  Scandinavian  group— a  Holland  and 
perhaps  a  Belgium,  but  not  one  of  those  five  small  nations 
would  exist  save  at  the  will  of  the  German  organisation,  of 
which  they  would  be  the  fringe. 

There  would  be  a  I">ance,  as  there  will  always  be,  but  it 
would  be  a  France  that  said  to  itself  :  •"  1  was  beaten  once  in 
war.  In  the  second  occasion  I  made  the  supreme  sacrifice, 
I  took  the  brunt  of  the  fighting,  I  drove  the  vastly  superior 
enemy  to  earth;  I  wore  him  down  till  he  was  just  on  breaking, 
point.  But  the  fruit  of  that  vast  and  salutary  efibrt  was 
not  gathered.  The  AUiance  failed,  and  I  received  nothing 
save  what  I  received  at  the  will  of  my  enemies."  And  there 
would  be  an  Italy,  an  Italy  that  would  say,  "  I  helped  the 
Alliance,  and  for  my  reward  I  have  incorporated  this  or  that 
district  which  is  of  my  own  blood,  but  the  Power  wliicli  held 
them  once  may  hold  them  again,  and  my  seas  are  not  mine 
own." 

:-!ore  especially  there  would  be  an  England  which  would 
say  to  itself — and  the  more  bitterly  bevcapse  men  would 
hesitate  to  say  it  publicly  and  openly;  "I  accepted  the 
challenge  and  1  fought  hard,  but  I  could  novt  do  my  will,  and 
now  at  every  moment  with  these  new  fashions  of  war  I  am 
in  peril.     My  old  pride  is  gone  and  my  old  State." 

It  is  perhaps  wise  to  conclude  such  a  suryey  with  the 
most  intimate  question  of  all — a  question  that- has  exercised 
the  mind  of  every  thinking  man  in  our  generation  :  I  mean 
the  relation  between  the  few  who  possess  and  the  man  y  who 
work  for  them. 

What  does  a  Europe  in  which  Prussia  is  the;- model  promise 
to  those  who  are  most  concerned  with  this  mo.'  t  vital  matter  ? 
The  Prussian  attitude  towards  this  tremendous  business  of 
domestic  or  social  organisation  is  wel  1  known  to 
us.  We  have  seen  it,  not  only  in  the  Pruss,tan  losses,  but 
most  striking.-y  in  the  attitude  of  the  Prussian  .Socialist  party 
and  in,  I  do  not  say  the  unwillingness,  but  the  incapacity  of 
the  Prussianised  German  to  act  save  under  -orders.  His 
inability  to  organise  from  below. 

The  modern  German  conception — the  Prussia  n  conception 
of  a  .settlement  in  this  vast  affair,  is  tho:t  the  proletarian 
majority  shall  be  givi-n  a  certain  security  ai  td  sufficiency 
by  law,  but  that  all  power  and  direction,  aritl  (ujovment 
for  that  matter,  shall  remain  with  the  possessing:  few.  What 
we  have  copied  from  Prussia  in  recent  \imi  •■,  in.uir  ligislatioii 


LAND    &    WATER 


Juno  2T,  1917 


is  prerififly  tiiat  idea.  Xo  scheme-  which  leaves  power-r- 
espt'cially  ('conomic  j.K>\ver — in  the  hands  of  the  populace,  has 
■anv  mean  ng  to  the  Prussian  mind.  It  conceives  of  the  mass 
, as  a  herd — to  be  kept  efficient,  ordered,  trained  to  work  for 
masters.  And  the  Prussian  herd  agrees.  Well,  in  the 
strictest  sense  of  the  term  that  idea  means  servitude.  It 
means,  using  the  words  in  their  most  accurate  sense,  without 
rhetoric  and  without  violence,  the  return  of  slavery  in  Europe". 

The  thing  is  so  great,  the  two  spirits  engaged  so  over- 
shadow all  mankind  that  one  hesitates  to  write  it  thus  in  an 
epiieineral  article  lest  we  should  seem  to  be  debating  too  lightly 
tilings  upon  which  the  future  of  mankind  must  turn. 

That  is  the  truth.  If  Prussia  conies  out  of  tiiis  war  un- 
conquered,  slavery  will  re-arise  in  Europe. 


The  jiower  of  the  people  to  order  their  lives,  the  power  of 
acting  from  below,  the  renascence  of  human  dignity  in  tlie 
mass,  is  lost.  Of  sucii  magnitude  is  this  war.  Upon  such  a 
scale  is  the  business  upon  whicli  we  all  in  our  various  capacities 
are  engaged.  And  those  who  continue  to  thitik  of  this  war  in 
terms  of  the  old  diplomacy,  of  arrangement  for  this  and  for 
that,  of  whether  this  decayed  family  or  that  shall  nominally 
wear  a  Crown  and  the  rest  of  it,  are  like  children  playing  with 
toys  when  there  is  mortal  illness  in  the  house.  Take  care.  We 
are  within  the  ne.\t  few  months  to  decide  whether  all  that  we 
have  knowTi  as  Europe  and  all  that  we  have  known  as  England 
is  to  continue  or  no,  and  if  the  siege  is  not  prosecuted  to  its 
full  conclasion  and  if  complete  victory  is  not  attained,  we 
have  lost. 


Effects  of  the  Battle  :    Wytschaete  Ridge 


Xow  that  we  liavo  more  details  of  what  happened  during 
and  after  the  defeat  of  the  enemy  a  fortnight  ago.  two  things 
bfcome  clearer  than  ever.  First,  this,  the  most  successful 
operation  of  the  British  army,  contained  a  large  elemtnt  of 
surprise.  Secondly,  the  blow  was  of  cpiite  exceptional 
severity. 

The  two  points  are,  of  course,  closely  connected. 

The  blow  wt>uld  not  have  been  what  it  was  had  not  the 
element  of  surprise  been  present.  The  fact  that  it  was 
present  is  proved  upon  several  pieces  of  evidence.  Thus,  the 
3rd  Bavarian  division  was  caught  in  actual  process  of  relieving 
its  colleagues.  These  unfortunate  troops  were  thrown  into 
action,  broken  and  their  remnant  taken  out  of  the  battle  all 
within  .;6  hours.  Another  proof  of  the  element  of  siuprise 
i-i  the  inability  of  the  enemy  to  re-act.  We  know  from  (locu- 
mentary  evidence  that  he  had  especially  i)repared  a  powerful 
counter-attack,  which  must  have  Ikh-u  designed  for  use  a  littU^ 
Later  than  the  moment  when  the  blow  actually  fell.  His 
idea  certainly  was  to  hold  the  ridge  against  the  hrs.t 
assault,  which  perhaps  ho  expected  on  the  t*th  or  qtii, 
and  then  to  throw  into  the  battle  fresh  troops  which 
would  save  the  position.  Even  if  we  had  not  evidence 
on  these  points,  it  is  incredible  that  he  could  have  acted 
otherwise.  The  Wytschaete  Ridge  is  of  more  importance 
to  him  than  any  other  part  of  this  line.  The  sentence 
sounds  strong,  but  I  beHeve  it  to  be  accurate.  He  cannot 
retire  without  pivoting  on  Lille,  and  the  plain  north  of 
Lille  is  dominated  by  the  ridge.  To  hold  Lille  he  must  hold 
the  line  of  Lys,  and  the  bridgeheads  on  the  north  of  that  river. 
These  bridgeheails  you  see  quite  clearly  from  Messinesto  long 
past  Gimmmesand  alldown  the  little  river  for  ten  miles.  The 
screen  to  all  that  vital  line  was  the  ridge,  and  the  enemy  quite 
certainly  meant  to  keep  it. 

Furtlier.  the  position  just  behind  the  ridge  was  and  is 
awkward.  There  is  a  triangle  between  the  canal  and  the  Lys 
in  the  plain  below  wiiich  can  only  be  supplied  by  bridges 
across  the  two  waterways,  and  this  ugly  corner  is  directly  looked 
down  upon  from  Messines.  The  enemy  can  remain  in  that 
rorner  if  he  likes  and  suffer  very  heavy  losses  as  the  price 
of  remaining  there,  or  he  can  fight  a  rearguard  action  as  it  were 
to  cover  his  retiremeait  from  it,  but  in  neither  case  does  he 
escape  without  quite-disproportionate  losses.  He  must  before 
the  battle  have  known  how  important  it  was  not  to  have  a 
force  cooped  up  between  the  canal  and  the  river.  And  even 
after  he  lost  the  battle  he  made  very  vigorous  effort  to  prevent 
further  advance  jjy  the  British  upon  this,  the  left  of  his  line. 
He  has  not  lieen  successful.  Three  days  after  the  battle  the 
British  carried  La  Poterie  and  later  the  N-illage  of  Gapaard 
to  the  north. 

It  is  very  dffficult  for  readers  at  home  to  represent  to 
themselves  the  total  effect  of  such  a  victory  as  this.  They 
have  for  their  principal  elements  of  calculation,  even  when 
they  are  fairly  close  to  the  campaign,  little  more  than  the 
movement  on  the  niaj)  the  numbers  of  jvrisoners  and  the 
guns. 

But  those  are  not  the  chief  elements.  The  one  great 
fact  aboiit  a  bi'ow  of  this  sort  is  its  effect  as  an  im]>act,  and 
if  you  add  to  that  the  possession  of  observation  by  such  a 
success  you  get  a  very  large  result  indeed. 

Tabulate  w.'.iat  the  German  Higher  Command  now  knows 
about  the  reverse.  It  knows  that  the  British  reached  without 
a  check  every  objective  laid  down  before  the  battle. 

It  knows  that  reaction  was  impossible,  for  very  nearly 
two  days. 

It  knows  that  it  lost  numerically  three  men  to  the  British 
one.  • 

It  know.s--that  it  has  lost  the  screen  that  covered  the  plain 
of  Lys,  and.  most  important  of  all,  it  knows'that  it  has  lost 
all  this  upon  a  clear  challenge  and  with  a  definite  issue  before 
it.  It  knows  tha  t  its  own  communiques  in  the  Press  about  an 
attempt  to  "  bn;ak  throutih  "  are  nonsense.  The  two  forces 
opposed  had  eac  b  a.  perfectly  clear,  a  glaringly  obvious  task. 


It  was  the  business  of  the  Germans  to  hold  the  ridge,  to  main 
tain  their  power  of  obser\'ation.  to  forbid  any  menace  against 
Lille  by  the  northem  flank.  The  test  was  whether  they  would  or 
would  not  remain  in  possession  of  the  ruins  of  Messines  and 
Whitesheet  or  be  diiven  back  to  the  plain.  The  BritLsh  object 
was  to  seize  the  ridge  and  drive  them  back  to  the  plain.  The 
(iermans  failed  in  their  task  and  the  British  succeeded  in 
theirs.  Though  the  operation  was  local,  and  conducted 
upon  a  front  of,  say,  six  divisions  only,  it  was  the  most  com- 
plete thing  of  its  kind  which  has  happened  in  the  West  since 
the  siege  warfare  began. 

A  blow  of  this  kind  has  a  certain  moral  effect  also  whidi 
must  not  be  overlooked.  When  >'ou  have  a  perfectly  <lear 
issue,  "  I  challenge  y<)u.  I  will  try  to  do  this,  and  you  will 
try  and  prevent  me."  When  there  is  ample  warning  of  the 
ordeal— the  preliminary  bombardment  <ov<>red  many  days 
and  was  longer  than  any  <ither  in  the  record  of,  the  war — 
when  on  the  top  of  all  that  you  fail  it  means  that  you  will 
fail  under  the  same  con<liti()ns,  and  that  a  definite  su]>eriorily 
of  your  opponent  over  yourselves  is  established. 
Everybody  knows  what  that  means  in  any  form  of  com- 
petition when  organised  human  efforts  are  pitted  one  against 
the  other.     It  means  that  the  future  is  lost. 

There  were  in  this  business  no  ambiguous  elements.  If 
the  enemy  could- not  hold  Whitesheet  Ridge  he  will  not 
succeed  in  any  other  similar  challenge  upon  a  direct  isstie. 
The  war  as  a  whole  will  be  built  up  in  the  future  of  many  such 
things.  The  capture  of  the  ridge  is  but  one  of  what  may  have 
to  be  a  gi"eat  number  of  similar  blows,  but  the  point  is  that 
the  blow  can  i>ow  be  certainly  determined  and  that  superiority 
is  definitely  established. 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  tlie  delay 
imposed  upon  the  enemy  before  he  could  get  forces 
together  for  his  counter-attack.  The  British  infantry  went 
out  of  the  trenches  at  dawn  upon  June  7th.  In  the  first 
part  of  the  day  they  had  the  summit  in  their  hands.  There 
was  no  reaction.  The  afternoon  came  and  a  second  and 
di.stinct  operation  advanced  their  positions  down  the  slope 
eastward.  It  began,  I  believe  at  a  quarter  past  four  on  June 
7th.  There  was  no  reaction.  All  that  evening  and  through- 
out the  night  the  consohdation  of  the  position  gained  was 
established.  The  artillery  fire  of  the  enemy  was  naturally 
severe,  but  no  infantry  work  interrupted  the  es.sential  task 
of  digging  the  new  trenches.  It  is  conceivable  that  the 
British  Command  expected  the  strangely  delayed  counter- 
attack during  the  morning  of  the  8th.  It  did  not  come. 
The  whole  day  passed,  adding  with  every  hour  to  the  security 
of  the  British  gains.  It  was  not  till  sunset  of  the  8th  that 
the  enemy's  fresh  forces  arrived  and  were  able  to  assault. 

Altogether  40  hours  passed— 40  hours  of  extreme  import- 
ance to  the  enemy  during  which  he  had  proved  unable  to 
strike  out.  At  last  when  the  great  assault  came  it  filled  the 
twilight  of  the  8th  and  the  short  hours  of  darkness,  but  by 
midnight  it  w'as  completely  broken. 

That  time-table  is  of  the  highest  significance.  Never 
before  since  the  victory  of  the  Mamc  drove  them  to  ground 
and  established  siege  conditions,  has  the  power  to  react  on  the 
]>aTt  of  the  Germans  been  so  straitened. 

The  length  of  the  struggle  has  had  upon  our  minds  effects 
which  have  been  discussed  to  weariness  in  these  columns,  and 
which  need  not  be  repeated  here.  But  anyone  who  will  have 
the  wisdom  to  sur\'ey  even  this  single  point  of  the  40  hours 
of  incapacity  following  upon  the  launching  of  the  blow  will 
understand  what  the  exhaustion  of  the  enemy  now  means. 
Ho  knows  it  well  enough  and  anyone  indulging  in  the  mourn- 
ful luxury  of  woe  in  the  presence  of  such  an  event  has  himself 
to  blame  for  the  mood  that  follows  that  indulgence. 

It  is  a  suggestion  worth  considering  that  when  the  history 
of  the  war  comes  to  be  written,  the  work  done  by  the  second 
army  between  June  7th  and  the  14th,  will  stand  out  as  one  of 
the  half-dozen  cardinal  points  upon  which  the  campaign  has 
turned.  H.  BEi.r.oc 


June  21,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


fHM 


Story  of  the  Koenigsberg 


By  Arthur  Pollen 


THE  story  of  the  destruction  of  the  Koenigsberg  by 
the  monitors  Severn  and  sMer^cy,  in  the  Kuftji  Delta, 
on  July  II,  1915,  has  an  interest  that  far  transcends 
the  intrinsic  mihtary  importance  of  depriving  the 
enemy  of  a  cruiser  already  useless  in  sea  war.  For  the  nar- 
rative of  events  bring  to  our  attention  at  once  the  extreme 
complexity  and  the  diversity  of  the  tasks  that  the  Royal 
Navy  in  war  is  called  upon  to  discharge. 

The  Koenigsberg  was  a  light  unarmourcd  cruiser  of  about 
3,400  ton.s  displacement,  and  was  laid  down  in  December  1905. 
She  carried  an  armament  of  ten  4.1-inch  guns,  and  was  pro- 
tected by  a  2-inch  armoured  deck.  On  the  eve  of  the  outbreak 
of  war,  she  was  seen  by  three  ships  of  the  Cape  Squadron  off 
Daar-es-Salaam,  the  principal  port  of  German  East  Africa. 
She  was  then  travelling  due  north  at  top  speed,  and  was  not 
seen  or  heard  of  again  until,  a  week  later,  she  sank  the  British 
steamer  the  City  of  Westminskr  near  the  island  of  Socotra. 
Again  followed  three  weeks  in  which  no  news  of  her  where- 
abouts reached  us.  At  the  end  of  the  month  it  was  known 
that  she  had  returned  south  and  was  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Madagascar.  At  the  end  of  the  third  week  in  September  she 
came  upon  H.M.S.  Pegasus  off  Zanzibar.  Pegasus  was  taken 
completely  unawares  while  she  was  cleaning  furnaces  and 
boilers  and  engaged  in  general  repairs.  It  was  not  possible 
then  for  her  to  make  any  effective  reply  to  the  Koenigsberg's 
assault,  and  a  few  hours  after  the  Koenigsberg  left  she  sank. 
Some  time  between  the  end  of  September  and  the  end  of 
October,  the  Koenigsberg  entered  one  of  the  mouths  of  the 
Kuhji  River,  and  was  discovered  near  tlie  entrance  on  October 
31st  by  H.M.S.  Chatham.  .  From  then  onwards,  all  the  mouths 
of  the  river  were  blocked  and  escape  became  impossible.  Her 
captain  seemingly  determined,  in  these  circumstances,  to  make 
the  ship  absolutely  safe.  He  therefore  took  advantage  of  the 
high  water  tides,  and  relying  partly  on  his  own  engines,  partly 
on  beidg  towed,  and  possibly  partly  on  polling,  forced  his  vessel 
some  twehe  or  more  miles  up  the  river.  Here  she  was  located 
by  aeroplane  at  the  end  of  November. 

The  problems  which  the  existence  of  the  Koenigsberg  pro- 
pounded were,  first,  was  it  worth  while  to  attempt  to  destroy 
her  ?  Second,  how  would  her  destruction  be  effected  ?  The 
importance  of  destroying  her  was  great.  If  she  was  not  des- 
troyed, a  close  blockade  would  have  to  be  rigidly  maintained, 
and  it  was  a  question  whe  ther  the  maintenance  of  the  blockade 
would  not  involve,  in  the  end,  more  trouble  than  her 
destruction. 

If  the  ship  was  to  be  destroyed,  what  was  to  be  the  method 
of  her  destruction  ?  She  could  not  be  reached  by  ship's  guns. 
For  no  normal  warship  of  superior  power  would  be  of  less 
draught  than  the  Koenigsberg,  and  unless  this  draught  were 
very  materially  less,  it  would  be  impossible  to  get  within 
range,  except  by  processes  as  slow  and  laborious  as  those  by 
which  she  had  attained  her  anchorage.  Was  it  worth  while 
attempting  a  cutting-out  expedition  ?  The  boats  would 
(irocced  under  steam  and  would  not  be  lowed ;  they 
would  not  sally  out  to  board  the  enemy. and  light  his  crew 
hand  to  hand,  but  to  get  near  enough  to  start  a  torpedo  at  him, 
discliarged  from  dropping  g<;ar  in  a  picket  boat.  The 
enemy,  it  was  known,  iiad  not  only  considerable  military  forces 
in  the  colony,  but  those  well  supplied  witli  field  artillery.  And 
there  was  on  board  the  Koenigsberg  not  only  the  4.1-inch  guns 
of  her  main  armament,  but  a  considerable  battery  of  eight, 
or  perhaps  twelve,  3-inch  guns — a  weapon  amply  large  enough 
to  sink  a  ship's  picket  boat,  and  with  a  single  shot.  The  attack 
by  boats  then  promised  no  success  at  all,  for  tlie  simple  reason 
that  it  would  be  the  simplest  thing  on  earth  for  the  enemy  to 
defeat  it  long  before  the  expedition  had  reached  the  point 
from  whicli  it  could  strike  a  blow  at  its  prey. 

There  was  then  only  one  possible  solution  of  the  problem. 
It  was  to  emjjloy  armed  vessels  of  sufficient  gun-power  to  do 
the  work  quickly,  and  of  shallow  enough  draught  to  get  to  a 
lighting  range  quickly.  If  the  thing  were  not  done  quickly,  an 
attack  from  the  masked  banks  mignt  be  fatal.  If  these  guns 
could  have  their  fire  corrected  by  observers  in  aeroplanes, 
they  might  be  enabled  to  do  the  trick.  Fortunately,  at  the 
very  opening  of  the  war,  the  Admiralty  had  purchased  from 
the  builders  three  river  monitors.  They  drew  but  a  few  feet. 
Their  free  board  was  low,  their  centre  structure  ^forded  but  a 
small  mark  ;  the  big  guns  they  carried  were  protected  by  steel 
shields.  They  had  been  employed  with  marked  success  against 
the  Germans  in  their  first  advance  to  tlie  coast  of  Belgium. 
When  the  enemy,  having  established  himscU'  in  the  nciglibour- 


hood  of  Nieuport,  had  time  to  bring  up  and  cmplace  long-range 
guns  of  large  calibre,  the  further  employment  of  these  river 
monitors  on  this,  their  first  job,  was  no  longer  possible. 
F'or  the  moment,  then,  they  seemed  to  be  out  of  work,  and 
here  was  an  undertaking  exactly  suited  to  their  capacity- 
Of  the  three  monitors,  Mersey  and  Severn  were  therefore  sent 
out  to  Mafia  Island,  which  lies  just  off  the  Rufiji  Delta, 
and  had  been    seized    by    us    early  in  the  proceedings. 

The  first  aeroplanes  available  proved  to  be  unequal  to  the 
task,  because  of  the  inadequacy  of  their  lifting  power.  The 
atmosphere  in  the  tropics  gives  a  totally  different  buoyancy 
from  that  in  colder  latitudes,  and  a  machine  whose  engines 
enable  it  to  mount  quite  easily  to  a  height  of  4,000  or 
5,000  feet  in  Northern  Europe,  cannot  in  Central  Africa  rise 
more  than  a  few  hundred  feet  from  the  ground.  N^ew  types  of 
machines,  therefore,  had  to  be  sent,  and  these  had  to  be  tested 
and  got  ready  for  work.  I-'or  many  weeks  then,  before  the 
actual  attack  was  undertaken,  we  piust  pictrure  to  ourselves 
the  Island  of  Mafia,  hitherto  unoccupied  and  indeed  un- 
touched by  Europeans,  in  the  process  of  conversion  into  an 
effective  base  for  some  highly  complicated,  combined  opera- 
tions ofaircraft  and  sea  force.  The  virgin  forest  had  to  be 
cleared  away  and  the  ground  levelled  for  an  aerodrome.  The 
flying  men  had  to  study  and  master  machines  of  a  type  of 
which  they  had  no  previous  experience.  The  monitors  had 
to  have  their  guns  tested  and  their  structural  arrangement 
altered  and  strengthened  to  fit  them  for  their  new  undertak- 
ing. And  indeed  preparii^g  the  monitors  was  a  serious  matter. 

The  whole  delta  of  the  Kufiji  is  covered  with  forest  and 
thick  bush — nowhere  are  the  trees  less  than  sixty  feet  high, 
and  in  places  they  rise  to  between  twice  and  three  times  this 
height.  To  engage  the  Koenigsberg  with  any  prospect  of 
success,  five,  six,  or  seven  miles  of  one  of  the  ri\er  branches 
would  certainly  have  to  be  traversed.  There  was,  it  is  true, 
a  choice  of  three  mouths  by  which  these  vessels  might 
])roceed.  It  was  imperative,  to  protect  the  monitors  from 
such  gun-fire  as  might  be  <;ncountcred,  and  to  take  every 
step  possible  to  preserve  their  buoyancy  if  a  mine  or 
torpedo  were  encountered. 

The  Trent  had  come  out  as  a  mother  ship  to  these  two  un- 
usual men-of-war,  and  from  the  moment  of  their  arrival,  she 
became  an  active  arsenal  for  the  further  arming  and  protec- 
tion of  her  charges.  Many  tons  of  plating  were  laid  over  their 
vulnerable  portions — the  steering  gear,  magazines,  navigating 
bridges,  etc.,  having  to  be  specially  considered.  The  gun 
shields  were  increased  in  size,  and  every  precaution  taken  to 
protect  the  gunners  from  rifle  fire.  Between  these  spells  of 
dockyard  work,  the  monitors  were  taken  out  for  practice  in 
conjunction  with  the  aeroplanes.  Mafia  Island,  which  had 
already  served  as  a  dockyard  and  aerodrome,  was  now  once 
more  to  come  in  useful  as  a  screen  between  the  monitors  and 
the  target.  The  various  operations  necessary  for  indirect 
fire  were  carefully  studied. 

The  First  Attempt 

At  last  all  was  ready  lor  the  great  attack.  The  crew  had 
all  been  put  into  khaki  ;  every  fitting  had  been  cleared  out  of 
the  monitors  ;  they  had  slipped  off  in  the  dark  the  night  before 
and  were  anchored  when,  at  3.30  in  the  morning,  all  was  ready. 
I  will  now  let  a  participant  continue  the  story  : 

"  I  woke  up  hearing  the  chatter  of  the  Secdee  boys  and  the 
voice  of  the  quarter-master  telling  someone  it  was  3.20.  I 
hurried  along  to  my  cabin  and  was  dressed  in  three  minutes, 
khaki  shirt,  trousers,  shoes,  and  socks.  A  servant  brought 
me  a  cup  of  cocoa  and  some  biscuits,  and  I  then  made  my 
way  up  to  the  top. 

■'  It  was  quite  dark  in  spite  of  the  half  moon  partly  hidden  by 
clouds,  and  men  wandering  about  the  docks  putting  the  last 
touches.  It  was  impossible  to  recognise  anyone  as  all  were  in 
khaki  and  cap  and   helmet.      By   3.45  all  were  at   general 

quarters  and  at  ■ —  we  weighed  and  proceeded.     Both 

motor-boats  were  towing,  one  on  either  side  amidships.  Two 
whalers  anchored  off  Komo  Island,  and  burning  a  single  light 
each,  acted  as  a  guide    to    the   mouth.       We  soon  began  to 

see  the  dim  outline  of  the  shore  on  t|ic  right  hand,  and 

declared  he  could  distinguish  the  mouth.  There  were  four  of 
us  in  the  top.  We  arranged  ourselves  conveniently,  ■ — — —  and 
, taking  a  side  each  to  look  out.  The  gunnery  lieuten- 
ant took  the  fore  big  gun  and  starboard  battery,  t  had  the 


8 


LAiNU    &    WATER 


June  21,  1917 


after  d-incli  anrt  port  battery.  I  dozed  at  first  for  about  ten 
minutes,  but  as  the  island  neared  woke  up  completely.  .-  We 
liad  no  idea  wliat  sort  of  reception  we  sliould  have,  and 
sjM'euIated  about  it.  It  was  iiuite  cold  looking  over-  the 
tuji.  The  land  came  nearer  and  nearer.  Suddenly  when 
we  were  well  inside  the  ri{<ht  bank,  we  heard  a  shot  fired 
on  the  staiboard  quarter,  but  could  not  see  the  Hash.  Then 
came  another,  but  only  at  the  third  did  we  see  where  it  came 
lron>.  It  was  a  field  gun  on  the  right,  but  we  had  already 
j)a»sed  it,  and  both  it  and  the  pom-pom  were  turned  on  the 
Mersey  astern  of  us. 

"  -At  least  nothing  fell  near  us.  It  was  still  not  light  enough 
for  us  to  judge  the  range,  but  as  the  alarm  had  been  gi\en  we 
opened  fire  with  the  starboard  battery,  at  the  field-gun.  As 
we  came  up  to  the  point  on  the  port  side  I  trained  all  the  port 
battery  <m  the  foremost  bearing,  and  opened  firing  as  soon  as 
tiie  guns  would  bear.  We  were  now  going  pretty  well  full 
speed.  Some  snipers  were  hidden  in  the  trees  and  rushes, 
and  let  us  have  it  as  we  went  past.  The  report  of  their  rifles 
sounded  ([uite  different  from  ours,  but  we  were  abreast  before 
they  started,  and  were  soon  past.  It  was  just  getting  light. 
We  were  inside  the  ri\er  before  the  sun  rose,  and  went  quite 
last  up.  It  was  just  about  dead  low  water  as  we  entered, 
neap  tides.  The  river  was  about  700  yards  broad.  The  banks 
were  well  defined  b\'  the  green  trees,  mangro\'es  probajjly, 
wliidi  grew  right  down  to  the  edges.  The  land  beyond  was 
quite  flat  on  the  left,  but  about  four  miles  to  the  right  rose  to 
quite  a  good  height — Pemba  Hills.  Here  and  there  were  native 
huts  well  back  from  the  river  ;  we  could  see  them  from  the 
top  though  they  were  invisible  from  the  deck.  On  either  side 
as  we  passed  up  were  creeks  of  all  sorts  and  sizes  at  low  tides, 
more  of  them  on  the  port  side  than  on  the  starboard.  -As  we 
passed,  or  rather  before,  we  turned  the  port  or  starboard  bat- 
teries on  them  and  swept  either  side.  The  gunlayers  had  orders 
lo  fire  at  anything  that  moved  or  looked  suspicious.  We  con- 
trolled them  more  or  less,  and  gave  them  the  bearing  of  the 

creeks.     was  in  charge  of  those  on  deck,  and  the  crews 

themselves  fired  or  ceased  fire  if  they  saw  anything  or  had  sunk 
anything.  We  checked  them  from  time  to  time  as  the  next 
creek  opened  up.  We  were  looking  ahead  most  of  the  time, 
but  I  believe  we  sank  three  dhows  and  a  boat.  Whether  they 
were  harmless  or  not,  I  don't  know,  but  it  had  to  be  done  as  a 
])rccaution.  We  made  a  fine  noise,  the  sharp  report  of  the 
batteries  and  the  crackle  of  the  machine  guns  must  have  been 
heard  for  miles.  The  Hyacinth,  the  tugs,  the  Trent,  the  Wey- 
tnotitli,  and  other  odd  craft  were  demonstrating  at  the  other 
mouths  of  the  Kufiji,  and  we"  could  hear  the  deep  boom  of 
their  big  guns  now  and  then. 

■'  I  had  thought  that  the  entry  would  be  the  worst  part, 
but  it  was  not  much.  A  few  bullets  got  us  and  marked  the 
l)lates  or  went  through  the  hammocks,  but  not  one  was  hit, 
and  as  our  noise  completely  drowned  the  report  of  their 
rifles  I  doubt  if  many  knew  we  were  being  sniped.  The 
forecastle  hands  knew  all  about  it  later  on.  As  they  hauled 
in  the  anchor  or  let  it  go  they  nipped  behind  any  shelter 
there  was,  and  could  hear  the  bullets  zip-zap  into  the  sand- 
bags. The  Mersey  astern  was  blazing  away  into  the  banks 
just  as  we  were.  There  was  probably  nothing  in  most  of  the 
creeks — but  we  did  not  know  it  then. 

"  It  was  6.30  o'clock  by  the  time  we  reached  '  our 
island,'  where  the  river  branches  into  three,  at  the  end  of 
which  we  were  to  anchor.  We  were  steering  straight  up  the 
middle  of  the  stream,  and  then  swung  slowly  round  to  port, 
dropped  the  stern  anchor,  let  out  seventy  fathoms  of  wire, 
tlroi)ped  the  main  anchor,  went  astern,  and  then  tightened 
in  both  cables,  so  that  we  were  anchored  fast  bow  and  stern. 
As  soon  as  we  steadied  down  a  bearing  was  taken  on  the 
chart  and  the  gun  laid— about  eight  minutes'  work.  It  was 
then  found  that,  thanks  to  the  curious  run  of  the  current, 
the  fore  big  gun  would  not  bear,  and  we  had  to  take  up  the 
bow  anchor  and  let  it  go  again  to  get  us  squarer  towards  the 
Kocnigsbcrg. 

"  We  could  sec  the  aeroplane  right  high  up,  and  received 
the  signal  "  open  fire."  Wc  were  not  quite  ready,  however. 
IVum  the  moment  when  wc  turned  to  port  to  take  up  our 
liriug  position  to  the  time  we  were  finally  ready  and  had 
laid  both  guns,  occupied  about  twenty  minutes.  The  Ko- 
enigiberg  started  firing  at  us  five  minutes  before  we  were  ready 
to  start,  i'heir  first  shot  (from  one  gun  only)  fell  on  the  island, 
the  next  was  on  the  edge  of  it,  and  very  soon  she  was  straddling 
us.  Where  they  were  spotting  from  1  don't  know,  but  they 
linist  have  Ix-en  in  a  good  position,  and  their  spotting  was 
excellent.  They  never  lost  our  range.  The  firing  started, 
and  for  the  next  two  hours  both  sides  were  hard  at  it.  I 
tlon'l  lielicve  any  ship  has  been  in  a  hotter  place  without 
being  hit.  Their  shooting  was  extraordinary  good.  Their 
sahoi^  of  fire  at  first  dropped  too  short,  50  over,  20  to  the 

light then  straddled  us- then  just  short^then  all  around 

us,  and  so  on.     Wc  might  have  been  hit  fifty  times— they 
could  not  have  fired  better  ;    but  we  were  not  hit  at  all, 


though  a  piece  ol  shell  was  picked  up  on  the  forecastle. 

"The  river  was  now  a  curious  sigiit,  as  dead  fish  were 
coming  to  the  surface  everywhere.  It  was  the  Kvenigsbcrg's, 
sliells  bursting  in  the  water  which  did  the  damage,  and  there 
were  masses  of  them  everywhere — mostly  small  ones. 

"  We  were  firing  all  the  time,  of  course.  I  attended  to 
the  wireless,  and  passed  the  messages  to  the  Guitnery  Lieu- ' 
tenant,  who  made  corrections  and  jKissed  them  to  the  guns. 

"We  got  H.T.  fairly  soon,  and  the  Koenigsbcrg's  salvoes 
were  now  only  four  guns.  They  were  firing  much  more 
rapidly  than  we,  aiKl  I  should  think  more  accurately,  I)ut 
if  I  had  been  in  the  Kocnigsberg  I  should,  probably,  ha\e 
thought  the  opposite  !  .All  this  lime  the  smaller  guns  had 
occa.sional  outbursts  as  they  saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  some- 
thing moving.  Occasionally,  too,  the  smoke  and  fumes 
from  our  funnel  drifted  across  the  top,  and  it  was  unpleasant 
for  a  minute  or  two.  We  could  see  now  where  the  Kvenigi,- 
berg  was,  and  the  smoke  from  her  funnels,  or  that  our  shells 
made.  She  was  tiring  salvoes  of  four  with  great  rapidity 
and  regularity,  about  three  times  a  minute,  and  every  one  of 
them  close.  Some  made  a  splash  in  the  water  so  near  that 
you  could  have  reached  the  place  with  a  boat  hook. 

"  At  7.40  (so  I  am  told,  as  though  I  tried  1  lost  all  count 
of  time)  a  shell  hit  the  fore  big  gun  of  the  -Mersey  and  a 
column  of  flame  shot  up.  Four  were  killed  and  four  were 
wounded.  Part  of  the  shield  was  blown  away.  Only  one 
man  remained  standing,  and  after  swaying  about  he  fell  dead. 
One  had  his  head  completely  blown  olf.  .Vnother  was  lying 
with  his  arm  torn  out  of  his  shoulder,  and  his  body  covered 
over  with  yellow  flames  from  the  lyddite  charge  which  cauglit. 
The  K.N.R.  Lieutenant  in  charge  was  knocked  senseles>, 
and  covered  with  blood,  but  had  only  a  scratch  on  the  wrist 
to  show  for  it.  The  gunlayer  had  an  extraordinary  escape 
and  only  lost  three  fingers.  Two  men  escaped  as  tliey  had 
just  gone  forward  to  weigh  the  anchor.  .'\  burning  charge 
fell  into  the  shell  room  below,  but  was  fortunately  got  out. 
.Another  shell  burst  in  the  motor-boat  alongside  the  Mersey 
and  sank  it.  One  burst  in  the  water  about  a  foot  from  the 
side,  and  we  thought  she  was  holed.  The  Mersey  captain 
then  wisely  moved  and  went  down  river,  taking  up  a  position 
of  1,000  yards  down,  by  the  right  bank  (looking  at  the  Koenigs- 
berg).  She  started  in  again  with  her  after  gun,  the  other 
being  disabled.  For  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes  we  went 
on,  and  the  Koenigsberg's  salvoes  came  steadily  and  regularly 
back,  as  close  as  ever.  It  seemed  as  if  it  could  not  go  on 
much  longer.  We  registered  four  hits,  and  the  salvoes 
were  rcducea  from  four  to  three,  and  later  to  two,  and  tlien 
to  one  gun. 

"  The  aeroplane  spotting  had  been  fair,  but  now  someone 
else  started  in  and  made  the  signals  unintelligible.  Then 
we  got  spotting  corrections  from  two  sources — both  diifer- 
ing  widely.  Finally,  the  aeroplane  made  "  W.O."  (going 
home).  We  weighed  and  took  up  station  again  by  the 
Mersey.  She  moved  to  get  out  of  our  way,  and  when  another 
aeroplane  came  we  started  it  again.  The  replies  from  the 
Koenigsberg  were  not  so  frequent,  and  nothing  like  so  accu- 
rate. It  was  as  if  they  could  not  spot  the  fall  of  shot. 
The  aeroplane  soon  disappeared,  and  as  we  could  see  the 
masts  of  the  Koenigsberg  (I  could  only  see  one, ,  personally) 
and  a  column  of  smoke  which  varied  in  thickness  from  time 
to  time,  we  tried  to  spot  for  ourselves.  It  was  useless  as, 
though  we  saw  the  burst  (or  though  wc  did)  in  line  with  the 
masts,  we  did  not  know  whether  they  were  over  or  sliort. 
F'inally,  we  moved  up  the  river  nearer,  still  keeping  on  the 
right  side,  and  set  to  work  again.  ^ 

"  There  were  two  cruisers— lFcy>«o/(//i  and  Pyramiis,  1 
think — at  the  mouth.  The  Weymouth  did  a  good  deal  of 
filing  at  Pemba  Hill  and  a  native  village  close  to  us,  where  there 
might  be  spotters. 

"  Wireless  corrections  now  were  of  no  use.  Most  were 
'  did  not  observe  fall  of  shot,'  or  boo  short.  Wc  went  up  1,000 
but  still  received  the  same  signal — whether  fromlhe  aeroplane 
or  the  Koenigsberg,  I  don't  know.  It  was  most  confusing. 
We  crept  up  the  scale  to  maximum  elevation.  Innally,  we 
moved  up  the  river  again,  but  ])ut  our  nose  on  the  mud.  We 
were  soon  off,  and  moved  over  to  the  other  side  and  continued 
firing,  spotting  as  well  as  we  could  (but  getting  nothing  de- 
finite) till  four  o'clock,  when  we  packed  up  aiui  prepared  to 
come  out.  We  swept  the  banks  again  on  both  sides,  but  only 
at  the  entrance  was  there  ojiposition.  We  made  such  a  noise 
ourselves  that  wc  drowned  the  report  of  any  shots  fired  at  us. 
Two  field-guns  made  good  jMactice  at  us  from  the  right  bank 
(looking  af  the  Koenigsberg).  One  came  very  close  indeed  Id 
the  top-  so  much  so  that  we  all  turned  to  look  at  each  otlier, 
thinking  it  must,  have  touched  somewhere.  It  burst  alxurl 
live  yards,  over  us.  Another  burst  fifteen  yards  from  the 
Mersey,  and  a  second  hit  her  sounding  boom. 

"  It  was  getting  dusk  as  we  got  outside  at  full  sjiecd.  Tin 
secure  was  sounded  at  about  4.45.  We  had  been  at  general 
quarters  for  thirteen  hours,  and  eleven  of  them  had  been  Uiidei 


Juno  21,   191 7 


LAND    &    WATER 


fire.  Outside  tlie  oLlier  ships  wore  waiting  for  us  near  Komo 
Island,  and  we  went  straif^ht  alongside  the  Trent.  Each  ship 
cheered  us  as  we  jHissed. 

"  Tuesday,  luly  btti,  was  the  day  of  the  first  attempt,  and 
one  of  the  worst  1  ever  had  or  am  likely  to  have.  We  were 
at  our  stations  from  3.45  a.m.  till  4.43  p.m.,  and  eleven  hours 
of  that  were  under  iire.  Tiie  engine  room  people  were  not 
relieved  tlie  wiiole  time,  and  they  were  down  there  the  whole 
time  in  a  temperature  of  I32'^-I35'' !  " 

On  luly  nth  the  second  attack  was  made,  but  made  in  a 
very  different  inanner'from  the  first.  Once  more  let  us  allow 
the    same  writer  to  complete  the  story: 

"  We  went  to  General  Quarters  at  10.40  a.m.  and  were  in- 
side the  entrance  by  ii.4or  How  well  we  seemed  to  know  the 
place  1  1  knew  exactly  where  the  beastly  field  guns  at  the 
mouth  would  open  fire  and  exactly  when  they  would  cease- 
as  we  pushed  in,  and  so  if  their  shots  went  over  us  they  would 
land  on  the  opposite  bank  among  their  own  troops.  Very  soon 
came  the  soft  whistle  of  the  shell,  then  again  and  again — 
but  we  were  nearing  the  entrance  and  they  turned  on  the 
Mersey.  They  hit  her  twice,  wounding  two  men  and  knock- 
ing down  the  after  big  gun  crew — none  were  hurt  however.  We 
spotted  a  boat  straight  ahead  making  across  the  river  for  dear 
life — they  may  only  have  been  natives,  but  we  fired  at  them 
till  they  leapt  ashore  and  disappeared. 

"  Up  the  river  we  went.  I  knew  each  creek,  and  almost  each 
tree,  and  as  before  we  blazed  into  them  just  before  we  passed. 

"  We  left  the  Mersey  at  the  place  where  we  anchored  last 
time  in  the  hope  that  she  would  draw  the  Koenigsberg's  fire 
and  leave  us  a  free  hand.  The  Koenigshcrg,  however,  fired  one 
salvo  a.t  lier  and  then  for  the  rest  of  the  day  concentrated 
on  us.  She  was  plugging  us  for  seventeen  minutes  before  we 
could  return  her  fire.  The  salvoes  of  four  were  dropping 
closer  tiian  ever  if  possible,  and  afterwards  almost  every  man 
in  the  shij)  found  a  bit  of  German  shell  on  board  as  a  souvenir. 
They  were  everywhere,  in  the  sandbags,  on  the  decks,  round 
the  engine-room — but  not  a  soul  was  even  scratched  ! 

"  We  went  on  higher  up  the  river  than  last  time  and  finally 
anchored  just  at  the  top  of  '  our  '  old  island.  As  the  after 
gun's  crew  were  securing  the  stern  anchor  two  shells  fell,  one 
on  either  side,  within  three  feet  of  the  side,  and  drenched  the 
quarter-deck.  It  was  a  very  critical  time.  If  she  hit  us 
we  were  probably  finished,  and  she  came  as  near  as  possible 
without  actually  touching.  I  had  bet  5s.  that  she  would  start, 
with  salvoes  of  four  guns,  and  I  won  my  bet.  They  did  not 
last  long,  however,  once  we  opened  fire.  It  was  a  near  thing, 
and  had  to  end  pretty  quickly  one  way  or  another.  We  had 
received  orders  that  she  must  be  destroyed,  and  the  captain, 
the  night  before,  had  told  all  hands  assembled  on  the  quarter- 
deck that  we  had  to  do  it.  We  intended  to  go  up  nearer  and 
nearer,  and  if  necessary  sight  her.  Of  course  we  could  not  have 
gone  through  it — but  there  is  no  doubt  that  on  the  nth  it  was 
either  the  monitors  or  the  Koenigsberg. 

We  iiad  no  sooner  anchored  and  laid  the  guns  (the  chart 
proved  to  be  one  mile  out  in  the  distance  from  us  to  the 
Koenigsberg  !)  than  the  aeroplance  signalled  she  was  ready 
to  spf)t.  Our  lirst  four  salvoes,  at  about  one  minute  interval, 
were  all  signalled  as  "  Did  not  observe  fall  of  shot."  We 
Came  down  400.  then  another  400  and  more  to  the  left.  The 
next  was  spotted  as  200  yards  over  and  about  200  to  the  right. 
The  next  150  short  and  100  to  the  left.  The  necessary  orders 
were  sent  to  the  guns,  and  at  the  seventh  salvo  we  hit  with 
one  and  were  just  over  with  the  other.  We  hit  eight  times  in  the 
next  twelve  shots  1  It  was  frightfully  exciting.  The  Koenigs- 
berg was  now  firing  salvoes  of  three  only.  The  aeroplane 
signalled  all  hits  were  forward,  so  we  came  a  little  left  to  get  her 
amidshi])s.  The  machine  suddenly  signalled  '  Am  hit  :  com- 
ing down  ;  send  a  boat.'  And  there  she  was  about  half  way 
between  us  and  the  Koenigsberg  planing  down.  As  they  fell 
they  continued  to  signal  our  shots,  for  we,  of  course,  kept  firing. 
The  aeroplane  fell  into  the  water  about  150  yards  from  the 
Mersey  and  turned  a  somersault  ;  one  man  was  thrown  clear, 
but  the  other  had  a  struggle  to  get  free.  Finally  both  got 
away  and  were  swimming  for  ten  minutes  before  the  Mersey's 
motor-boat  reached  tiiem — beating  ours  by  a  short  head.  They 
were  uninjured  and  as,  merry  as  crickets  ! 

"  We  kept  on  firing  steadily  the  whole  time,  as  we  knew 
we  were  hitting — about  one  salvo  a  minute.  The  Koenigsberg 
was  now  firing  two  guns;  it  is  hard  to  be  certain,  as  there  was 
much  to  do  and  a  good  noise  going  on.  Still  within  seventeen 
minutes  of  our  oi>ening  fire  I  noticed  and  logged  it  down  that 
she  was  firing  two.  She  may  have  been  reduced  to  that  before, 
l)ut  she  never  fired  more  after. 

"  In  a  very  short  time  there  was  a  big  explosion  from  the 
direction  of  the  Koenigsberg,  and  from  then  on  she  was  never 
free  from  smoke — sometimes  more,  sometimes  less  ;  at  one 
moment  belching  out  clouds  of  black  smoke,  then  yellow,  with 
dull  explosions  from  time  to  time.  We  kept  on  firing  regularly 
ourselves,  one  salvo  to  the  minute — or  ptyhaps  two  salvoes  in 
three  minutes,  but  the  gun-layers  were  told  to  keep  cool  and 


Value  of  the  Mark 

TTIK  out^tanding  feature  of  the  past  week  has  been 
the  very  strong  decline  in  the  value  of  the  mark  in 
the  neutral  countries  surrounding  Germany,  h'or 
many  months  tiie  downward  movement  has  been 
continuous,  but  the  recent  fall  is  quite  phenomenal. 

Germany  uses  every  endeavour  to  restore  her  cn-dit.  but 
evidently  without  success.  Neutral  exporters  look  askance 
at  German  paper,  and  Germany  finds  it  increasingly  difficult 
to  pay  for  the  goods  she  imports  without  releasing  her  gold. 
A  recent  measure  aiming  at  the  restoration  of  German  credit 
abroad  is  the  purchase  bv  the  State  of  all  Swedish,  Danish 
and  Swiss  securities  held'  in  Germany.  Down  to  May  25th 
their  sale  was  voluntary,  but  since  that  date  ithe  State  has 
exercised  powers  of  compulsory  purchase.  A  Swedish  paper 
estimates  that  the  Swedish  securities  in  German  hands  are 
worth  about  8oa,ooo,ooo  Kroner — normally  about  45  millions 
sterling. 
Rates  are  for  Den-    Sweden.  Nor-      Hoi-     Switzer- 

100  Marks.  mark.  way.      land.      land. 

,      kr.  kr.  kr.  fi.  fr. 

Par  of  exchange       88-88     88-88     88-88     59-26     123-44 
Rates  on  Mar.  15     56-50     53' 40     55-75     39"  20   ,    80 
-„       „    Apl.  12     5r7.5     50-90    5^'5o    37'3o      78-20. 

„  „    •    „     16     53-50     51  52-25     38' 37      78-60 

„       „     May  10     53' 75     5i'3o     S^'^o     37' 5^      7^' ^5. 

„      „        ,',     30    52-60     50  51-90    3»'43      75-00. 

„       „     June  5      51-80,    49-50     50- qo     35-90       74-60 

„       „         „     12     48-50     46.         48- .^o     33-75       70-25 


Present  extent    of\        0/ 
depreciation  about  i    '^^  " 


48"o 


1-0,/ 

4d  /o 


43    0 


■  4j  ,0 


make  sure  of  their  aim.  There  was  one  enormous  explosion 
which  shot  up  twice  as  high  as  the  Koenigsberg's  masts,  and  the 
resulting  smoke  was  visible  from  our  deck. 

"  For  some  time  now  we  had  had  no  reply  from  the  Koenigs- 
berg. At  12.53  i  fancy  she  fired  one  gun,  but  I  was  not  certain, 
She  certainly  did  not  fire  afterwards.  Fine  columns  of  smoke, 
black,  white,  yellow,  and  occasionally  dull  reports  rewarded 
us,  but  we  were  making  no  mistake  and  kept  at  it.  The  aero- 
plane was  not  available,  and  we  had  no  one  to  spot  for  us,  re- 
member ;  still  we  could  see  the  K's  masts  from  our  foretop  and 
the  smoke,  etc.,  told  its  own  tale. 

"  Another  aeroplane  turned  up,  and  we  now  signalled  the 
Mersey  to  pass  on  up  stream  and  Open  fire  nearer. 

"  We  raised  our  topmast  and  had  a  look  at  the  Koenigs- 
berg. She  was  a  fine  sight.  One  mast  was  leaning  over  and  the 
other  was  broken  at  the  main-top,  and  smoke  was  pouring  out 
of  the  mast  as  out  of  a  chimney.  'The  funnels  were  gone,  and 
she  was  a  mass  of  smoke  and  flame  from  end  to  end.  We  had 
done  all  the  firing  which  had  destroyed  her.  The  il/enscy  only 
started  afterwards.  That  was  part  of  the  plan.  Only  one  ship 
was  to  fire  at  a  time,  and  then  there  could  be  no  possible  con- 
fusion in  the  spotting  corrections  ;  it  was  a  ie^on  we  learned  on 
the  Tuesday  before  !  We  started.  The  Mersey  was  then  to  move 
up  past  her  and  fire  for  an  hour,  and  so  on.  Fortunately  it 
was  not  necessary,  and  as  it  turned  out  would  have  been  im- 
possible. If  we  had  gone  on  we  should  probably  bL«  there  now 
When  the  Mersev  passed  us  she  struck  a  bar  about  1,000  yards 
higher  up,  and  after  trying  to  cross  in  two  different  places  100 
yards  apart,  anchored  for  firing.  There  was  only  eight  feet! 
of  water  on  the  bar  and  the  tide  was  falhng.  If  we  had  got  up 
we  should  have  had  to  wait  twelve  hours  for  high  tide,  and 
the  Germans  might  have  annoyed  us  from  the  banks  ! 
■  "  The  Mer.'iev  fired  about  twenty  salvoes  and  made  several 
hits,  and  as  the  aeroplane  had  signalled  '  O.K.'  (target  tles- 
troyed)  we  prepared  to  leave  the  river.  Before  we  went  the 
Gunnery  Lieutenant  and  myself  went  to  the  top  of  the  mast 
to  get  a  jjetter  view,  and  I  took  a  photo  of  the  smoke,  resting 
the  camera  on  the  very  top  of  the  topmast  !  The  Captain  came 
up  too,  and  there  were  the  three  of  us  clinging  to  the  lightning 
conductor  with' one  arm,  glasses  in  the  other,  and  our  feet  on 
the  empty  oil  drum  we  had  fixed, up  there  as  a  crow's  nest. 

•■  fust  as  we  were  starting  back  we  saw  some  telegraph  poles 
crossing  a  creek  behind  us.  It  was  undoubtedly  the  communica- 
tion used  by  the  German  spotters.  We  let  fly  with  every- 
thing and  smashed  them  up.  A  pole  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  hit 
and  I  expect  the  destruction  of  those  two  cost  the  Government 
about  £'300  in  ammunition. 

"  Tvvo  tugs  were  waiting  over  the  bar,  and  after  giving  us. a 
cheer  took  us  on  tow  to  help  us  back  to  Trent.  The  Wey- 
mouth, with  the.Admiral  on  board,  came  round  and  then  passed 
us  at  speed  :  all  hands  lined  the  ship  and,  led  by  the  small  white 
figure  of  the  Admiral  on  the  bridge,  gave  us  three  splendid 
Cheers.     It  was  one  of  the  finest  sights  1  have  ever  seen." 

Arthur  Pollen. 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 

Past  and  Future 

Bv   Jason 


June    -?T,    TOT7 


In  this  article  the  writer  cxanuncs  the  social  structure  of 
(iermany  and  Great  Britain.  He  ahozvs  thai  the  former  is 
a  purely  military  State,  and  that  the  latter  in  ]'ictorian 
times  uas  built  up  on  a  -wrong  conception  of  the  industrial 
system.  The  war,  which  has  compelled  Great  Britain  to 
discover  Iter  full  strength,  ha'i  brought  about  a  nem 
appreciation  of  the  true  valtu  of  individual  life. 

DURING  the  ninete^ntli  century  the  ideas  that 
grew  up  witlj  Die  Industrial  Rcvohition  governed 
mtire  ur  less  consciously  our  outlook  on  life.  >Iany 
l)eo|)Ie  wotild  have  said  to  themselves  quite  frankly 
that  there  were  economic  laws,  as  absolute  as  the  laws  of 
nature,  which  determined  the  distribution  of  wealth,  and 
that  by  those  laws  a  larj^e  proportion  t)f  the  population  was 
condemned  to  a  life  of  ignorance  and  poverty.  Many  who 
would  have  shrunk  from  so  painful  an  admission  were  none 
the  less  discouraged  from  expecting  any  substantial  improve- 
ment, because  these  ideas  were  present  in  what  some 
psvrhokigists  call  the  sub-liminal  consciousness. 

Political  economy  had  produced  a  Calvinism  for  this  hfe 
which  closetl  the  door  of  hope  as  effectually  as  the  Calvinism 
which  theology  Jiad  produced  for  the  life  »)f  the  next  world. 
The  fundamental  cause  of  this  pessimism  was  the  habit  of 
thinking  of  society  exclusively  as  an  economic  community. 
eoni])eting  with  other  economic  communities,  which  couUl 
only  succeed  by  the  ruthless  disregard  of  human  rights  and 
h'elings.  The  Industrial  Kevolulion  put  capital  in  power, 
for  men  argued  that  capital  created  the  wealth  which  society 
existed  to  secure  and  defend,  and  that  it  was  therefore  the 
place  of  capital  to  dictate  to  the  State  the  laws  and  arrange- 
ments of  its  life.  The  most  extreme  application  of  this 
doctrine  was  seen,  of  course,  in  the  resistance  to  the  Factory 
Acts  when  men  like  Lauderdale  argued  that  a  mill  owner 
was  to  be  allowed  to  work  a  child  of  eight  as  many  hours  of 
the  day  and  the  night  as  he  pleased  unless  we  meant  to  put 
a  stop  to  all  progress  in  the  world. 

The  war  has  shaken  this  whole  set  of  preconceptions  as  no 
destructive  criticism  could  have  shaken  it.  In  any  great 
struggle  of  this  kind  there  is  a  certain  confhct  of  ideas  which 
iiftects  the  imagination  of 'the  combatants.  Thus  in  our  long 
war  with  Kevolutionary  l->ance,  our  ruling  class  became  more 
and  more  reactionary,  because  they  came  to  associate  all  ideas 
of  liberty  and  reform  with  France,  with  the  atrocities  of  the 
Terror  and  her  disturbing  energy  in  Europe.  The  fear  of 
what  Pitt  called  in  a  brilliant  phrase  "  the  liquid  hre  of 
Jacobinism  "  overshadowed  the  fear  of  French  power  which 
iiad  dominated  British  p'ohtics  before  the  Revolution. 
Similarly  in  this  war  we  are  fightting  not  merely  against  a 
powerful  enemy,  but  against  a  theory  of  life  as  well. 

Rougiily  speaking,  we  may  say  that  Germany  represents 
in  F.urope  the  ideal  which  makes  the  army  the  model  for  the 
State.  When  the  father  of  Frederick  the  Great  gave  to 
Prussia  the  most  perfectly  drilled  infantrj'  in  the  world,  he 
gave  her  the  basis  on  whicJi  later  rulers  were  to  build  up  her 
civilisation.  The  essential  features  of  a  m»Iitar\-  organisation 
of  a  very  rigid  type  have  been  copied  into  all  her  civil 
institutions.  Our  Ambassudor  at  Beriin,  in  1777,  described 
the  impression  made  on  Ws  mind  by  the  success  with  which 
Frederick  the  Cireat  had  applied  t<>  all  the  problems  of  admini- 
stration the  method  and  discipline  which  his  father,  first 
and  last  a  drill-ser;t,'eant,  had  employed  to  make  Prussia  a 
military  power.  '  Ihe  Prussian  Monarchy  reminds  me  of  a 
vast  prison  in  the  centre,  of  which  appears  the  great  keeper 
occupied  in  the  care  of  his  captives."  More  than  a  century 
later,  a  few  years  before  the  outbreak  of  this  war,  Biilow 
gave  us  the  ideal  of  Ge.nnan  administration  when  he  said  in 
his  book  on  Imperial  Ecmomv,  that  "ev^ry  department  should 
be  organised  as  if  war  "were  going  to  break  out  to-morrow." 
Germany  is  a  military  State  and  evcrytliing  is  subordinated  to 
the  needs  of  military  power. 

What  many  people,  had  overlooked  before  the  war,  wlien 
a  certain  indiscriminate  admiration  of  Gennan  administration 
was  in  fashion,  was  t  fiat  this  ideal  underlies  all  that  is  humane 
and  considerate  in  lier  ])olitica.l  system  as  well  as  all  that  is 
brutal  and  peremptory.  The  care  bestowed  cm  education, 
health,  housing,  tjown  planmng,  springs  from  a  definite 
anxiety  for  the  efltciency  of  the  army.  Kvery  German  is  a 
])otential  soldier,  i-flid  every  German  child  who  dies  or  grows 
into  a  delicate  rrran  is  a  loss  to  the  army.  -The  (ierman 
(iovernment  thus  •fosters  life  in  the  spirit  in  which  a  fieneral 
would  seek  to  ctxinbat  disease  in  Mesopotamia  or  Palestine. 
But  the  same  motive  that  makes  the  (ierman  State  insure 
the  Workman  and  consider  his  health  and  housing  makes  i' 


refuse  Ijim  the  right  of  free  speech,  and  any  control  over  the 
affairs  of  his  national  life  :  he  is  never  allowed  to  forget  that 
he  owes  obedience,  even  in  his  thoughts,  to  the  ruling  caste. 
For  the  fact  that  Germany  is  a  military  State  governs  all  the 
relations  of  social  life  and  the  claims  of  personal  freedom. 
The  statesman  asks  about  a  German  workman  not  what  he 
should  expect  as  a  citizen,  but  how  he  should  be  treated  and 
brought  up  if  he  is  to  become  a  good  and  obedient  soldier, 
ready  to  shoot  foreign  enemies,  but  ready  also,  as  the  Kaiser 
has  said,  to  shoot  his  own  parents,  if  the  autocrat  requires  it. 

Now  this  theoryi  in  many  respects  the  antithesis  of  the 
commercial  theory  that  sprang  from  the  Industrial  Revolu- 
tion, has  one  important  feature  in  common  with  it.  In 
both  there  is  the  same  underlying  refusal  to  think  of  the 
workman  except  as  the  instrument  of  a  system.  The  early 
economists  could  only  think  of  the  workman  as  the  instrument 
of  the  Capitalist, the  modern  (Jcrman  can  only  think  of  him  as 
the  instrument  of  the  fighting  State.  In  both  cases  all  the 
interests  of  a  comnninity  are  grouped  around  a  single  idea, 
and  jjoliticians  ask  about  the  mass  of  the  people,  not  what 
their  minds  demand  or  what  they  have  a  right  to  expect, 
but  how  they  can  best  be  adapted  to  the  requirements  of  a 
general  and  sim])le  scheme  of  lih'.  We  can  see  what  a  State 
becomes  if  it  moulds  all  life  and  conduct  to  the  needs  of  an 
army,  and  we  begin  to  understand  what  a  State  becomes  if  it 
moulds  all  life  and  conduct  to  the  needs  of  the  mill.  The 
resistance  to  the  brutal  demands  made  upon  luirope  by  a 
Power  which  makes  its  citizens  subordinate  everything  to 
military  force,  awakens  in  the  combatants  a  new  suspicion  of  a 
theory  which  subordinates  everything  to  economic  force. 
The  (ierman  says  :  "  Our  military  system  is  the  origin  of  our 
power  and  therefore  the  source  of  such  happiness  and  wealth 
as  our  people  can  attain  -consequently  any  course  that  tends 
to  make  men  and  women  less  tiseful  and  less  patient  instru- 
ments of  that  system  will  ultimately  bring  ruin  and  misery 
upon  them."  ()ur  forefathers  put  the  case  for  their  view  of 
the  relation  of  the  Capitalist  system  to  society  in  much  the 
same  way. 

Characteristic  Barbarity 

Germany  is  carrying  out  her  principle  with  characteristic 
thoroughness  and  the  barbarity  of  her  methods  of  war  is  part 
of  her  system  of  life.  Behind  it  all  there  is  this  fatal  con- 
fusion of  means  and  ends,  and  the  nations  that  are  paying  for 
that  confusion  with  their  blood  and  sacrificing  everything 
to  prevent  this  philosophy  from  overpowering  the  world  are 
beginning  to  look  more  closely  into  means  and  ends  in  their 
own  civilisation.  We  who  aie  sparing  no  effort  to  save 
J^urope  from  the  creed  that  says  that  no  human  rights  count 
against  military  power  are  beginning  to  attach  a  new  value 
to  tho.se  rights  that  we  have  been  tempted  to  surrender  to 
industrial  power. 

This  reaction  against  the  tendency  to  think  of  men  and 
women  as  merely  instruments  is  immensely  strengthened  and 
animated  by  the  experience  of  the  soldier.  It  has  often  been 
argued  that  it  is  the  efiect  of  raihtary  service  to  make  men 
more  docile,  to  weaken  initiative  and  individuality,  to  give, 
the  sense  of  an  enveloping  and  overwhelming  system.  But 
there  is  a  great  difference  between  barrack  life  in  peace  and 
trench  life  in  war.  Nobody  who  has  been  trained  in  one  of 
the  great  camps  can  mistake  the  deadening  atmosphere  of 
these  places,  or  the  monotonous  and  sombre  rhythm  of  their 
life,  and  it  is  not  difticiilt  to  understand  that  man\'  people 
expect  military  service  to  be  an  enslaving  influence.  There 
is  indeed  no  doubt  that  special  care  is  needed  to  make  camp 
life  as  it  develops  when  the  army  becomes  more  of  a  machine 
even  tolerable  to  men  of  Britisli  habits.  But  this  experience 
of  camp  life,  which  for  most  soldiers  is  comparatively  brief 
and  intermittent,  is  not  going  to  be  the  decisive  influence 
on  the  character  and  imagination  of  the  new  army. 

The  important  fact  is  that  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
men,  very  many  of  them  at  an  impressionable  age,  taken  from 
the  counter  or  the  stool,  the  mine  or  the  factory  or  the  work- 
shop, have  passed  through  a  revolution.  They  have  been 
brought  under  new  and  emancipating  influences,  the  Hfe  of 
danger,  the  life  of  the  open  air,  the  life  of  comradeship,  a 
wide  range  of  experience  and  adventure,  and  each  of  these 
influences  is  helping  to  form  their  character  and  outlook,  to 
break  the  bonds  of  custom  and  tradition. 

Now,  though  it  is  a  commonplace  in  sermons  about  war 
that  war  makes  the  life  of  man  cheap,  it  does  not  make  a 
man's  life  cheap  in  his  own  eyes.  The  more  ready  he  is  to 
'i-k  it,  the  higher  the  value  he  puts  on  it,     He  offers  it  to  his" 


Jnno  2T,  tot; 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


country  as  tin;  liigliest  sarrificc  lie  can  make,  l)nt  the  very 
fact  that  his  life  is  trembling  in  the  balance  gives  it  a  new 
significance  and  value.  For  this  reason  the  man  who  endures 
all  the  discomforts,  and  the  hardships  and  the  dangers  of  • 
this  war  will  not  put  up  with  the  standards  that  seemed 
tolerable  before  the  war.  No  man,  whatever  his  power  or 
his  riches,  can  give  more  to  his  country  than  the  man,  stand- 
ing in  the  cold  trench  at  early  dawn  with  bayonet  fixed 
waiting  for  the  attack,  who  a  year  ago  occupied  as  insignificant 
a  place  as  you  can  find  in  the  economy  of  industry.  War 
in  this  sense  is  an  equalising  revolution  in  social  life  destroying 
the  arrogance  of  rank  or  intellect,  for  a  common  heroism 
puts  rich  and  poor,  plain  man  and  intellectual,  on  one  level  of 
service.  And  men  who  accepted  the  general  atmosphere  of 
a  society  which  treated  them  rather  as  instruments  than  as 
citizenswill  certainly  revolt  against  this  tradition,  for  the 
life  which  they  did  not  grudge  to  their  country  has  a  higher 
value  from  the  moment  it  was  offered  :  a  value  outside  and 
apart  from  the  economy  of  industry.  Those  who  have  seen 
much  of  the  army  know  that  soldiers  count  it  not  the  least 
of  their  sacrifice  that  they  became  the  instruments  of  a 
mihtary  system  in  a  great  crisis,  and  they  are  determined 
to  be  something  more  than  instruments  when  that  crisis  is 
past. 

For  in  the  world  of  sacrifice  and  struggle,  in  which  he 
finds  himself,  the  soldier  begins  to  reflect  on  larger  issues, 
which  wen^  obscure  and  rather  unreal  to  him,  because  they 
were  shrouded  in  an  atmospliere  of  conventional  acquiescence. 
He  feels  that  if  men  are  to  sulfer  the  indescribable  misery 
he  sees  about  him,  the  system  that  calls  for  these  sacrifices 
must  be  brought  into  a  much  closer  relatioi\  to  the  freedom 
and  happiness  fif  men  and  women.  He  begins  to  put  the 
question  with  which  all  revolutions  start,  "What  bearing  has 
this  elaborate  system  of  social  life  on  my  life  and  the  lives  of 
others  ?  "  The  economists,  whose  legacies  our  civilisation 
has  been  carrying  on  its  back,  asked  the  converse  question, 
"  Wliat  liearing  have  the  lives  of  men  and  women  on  this 
elaborate  social  system  ?  "  For  the  economist  started  from 
the  system  and  explained  man's  life  in  relation  to  tliat  system, 
whereas  the  men  of  the  new  army  start  from  life  and  ask  of  a 
system  how  it  satisfies  the  natural  wants  of  men  and  women. 

There  is  again  another  important  respect  in  which  the 
war  has  emajicipated  our  minds.  When  a  people  is  thrown 
on  its   resijurces,  it  discovers   new  and  unsuspected  powers. 


That  happened  to  Franco  in  1792.  Burke  thought  in  1700 
that  she  haif  ceased  to  count  in  Europe  :  "  I'rance  is  at  this 
time  in  a  jiolitical  light  to  be  considered  as  expunged  out  of 
the  system  of  Juirope.  Whether  she  could  ever  appear  in 
it  again  as  a  leading  Power  was  not  easy  to  determine  ;  but 
at  present  I  consider  France  as  not  politically  existing, 
and  most  assuredly  it  would  take  up  much  time  to  restore  her 
to  her  former  active  existence.  Gallos  quoque  in  bellis 
floruissc  audivimus  might  possibly  be  the  language  of  the 
rising  generation."  This  was  the  prediction  of  a  man 
generally  regarded  as  a  kind  of  seer  about  a  people  that  a  few 
years  later  was  ruling  over  half  of  Europe.  France  became 
not  a  leading  Power,  but  the  leading  Power,  because  Europe 
by  attacking  the  Revolution  obliged  her  to  discover  and 
develof)  her  full  strength. 

This  is  what  has  happened  to  Great  Britain  in  this  war. 
In  1914  Germany  was  prepared  for  war  down  to  the  last 
button.  We  were  so  unprepared  that  we  were  actually 
embarrassed  to  find  the  necessary  drafts  for  our  modest  little 
army  in  time  of  peace.  To  the  historian  of  this  period 
the  effort  of  the  last  three  years  vtdll  read  like  a  miracle.  If 
anybody  had  said  before  the  war-  that  we  should  be  able  to 
raise  an  army  of  five  millions,  to  withdraw  some  millions  in 
addition  from  productive  employment  and  yet  supplv  our- 
selves and  help  largely  towards  supplying  our  Allies  with  the 
necessaries  of  life  and  war,  he  would  have  seemed  a  madman. 
For  it  was  not  imtil  we  were  thrown  on  our  resources  that  we 
learnt  our  strength.  This  experience  lias  removed  the  word 
"  impossible  "  from  the  language  of  politics.  It  has  destroyed 
the  superstition  of  the  iron  law  which  has  checked  and 
hampered  all  our  hopes.  It  has  brought  a  new  faith  in  human 
])ower  :  a  new  sense  of  the  freedom  and  the  range  of  the  human 
will,  an  escape  from  an  atmosphere  of  doubt  and  paralysis. 
It  is  like  the  breaking  of  a  long  frost. 

Thus,  whereas  on  one  side  men  are  Ioo4cing  to  self-deter- 
mination as  their  ideal,  judging  the  institutions  of  society  by 
the  opportunities  they  give  to  men  and  women  to  satisfy 
the  needs  and  impulses  of  their  character,  asking  infinitely 
more  of  their  civilisation  than  they  asked  before  the  war, 
on  the  otiier  side,  the  war  has  emancipated  and  widened 
fiur  imagination,  teaching  us  that  we  have  much  more  power 
over  our  future  than  we  supposed.  It  is  from  the  com- 
bination of  these  two  forces,  new  ambition  and  new  con- 
fidence, that  the  motive  powerof  Reconstruction  will  come. 


The  New  Morality 


By  Arthur  Kitson 


THE  war  has  brought  to  view  many  strange  and 
curious  sights,  but  surely  nothing  stranger  or  more 
curious  than  the  new  Moral  Code  which  Pacifists 
are  busy  preaching  and  expounding.  When  the  news 
of  the  Hun  horrors  perpetrated  m  Belgium  and  Northern 
I'Yance  first  aroused  the  anger  and  indignation  of  the  civilised 
world,  there  arose  a  strangely  discordant  cry  from  several 
little  groups  of  persons  who  liave  hitherto  claimed  an  abnor- 
mally high  standard  of  moral  culture,  who  pose  as  the  friends 
of  humanity,  and  who  regard  Nationality  and  Patriotism  as 
beneath  cont';mpt. 

The  cry  of 'these  persons  was  raised,  not  against  the  German 
savages  for  their  butcheries  and  unspeakable  atrocities  com- 
mitted upon  the  inoffensive  citizens  of  a  country  their  Govern- 
ment had  sworn  to  protect,  but  against  the  Allies,  who  were 
the  subjects  of  German  treachery, "jand  especially  against  their 
own  country  for  following  the  path  of  dutv  and  honour. 
It  seems  incredible  that  any  really  intelligent  and  civilised 
person  could  be  found  capable  of  offering  moral  support  to  the 
enemies  of  God  and  man,  which  the  Germans  have  shown 
theinselves  to  be:  But  when  we  are  told  that  this  Anti- 
British  pro-German  attitude  is  the  result  of  supremely  high 
moral  considerations,  we  begin  to  wonder  what  new  kind  of 
morality  is  this  which,  whilst  denouncing  the  saviours  of 
civiHsation,  refuses  to  censure  or  endorse  the  punishment  or. 
"  humiliation  "  of  those  who  are  engaged  in  blotting  out' 
whole  races  that  refuse  to  submit  to  the  Teuton  rule! 
As  to  the  main  facts  of  the  war,  its  origin,  its  authors, 
its  ruthlessness  and  savagery.  Pacifists  remain  discreetly 
silent.  It  is  true  that  at"  the  beginning  of  the  war 
several  of  the  Pacifist  leaders  made  shamefully  libellous 
charges  against  this  country  and  Russia,  which  "they  must 
have  known  were  absolutely  false,  either  at  the  time  they 
made  them  or  very  soon  after.  But  as  they  have  never  witli- 
drawn  them  or  offered  any  apology,  it  is  only  fair  to  conclude 
that  their  assertions  were  the  result  of  an  embittered  prejudice 
against  their  own  country. 

Apart    from   these   men,   there  are  n.o  douljt   others  who 


were  and  are  still  opposed  to  this  country's  participation  in 
the  war,  from  what  they  believe  to  be  conscientious  motives. 
Their  moral  code  contained  no  provision  for  hostilities,  hence 
they  fell  back  on  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance.  The  doctrine 
of  non-resistance  is  an  old  one  and  has  been  courageously 
followed  by  thousands.  We  properly  revere  and  praise  the 
memories  of  "  the  noble  army  of  martyrs  "  who  have  in  all 
ages  suffered  for  what  they  believed  to  be  the  truth  and  met 
aggression  with  non-resistance.  Are  the  Pacifists  entitled 
to  rank  as  martyrs — although  in  an  unworthy  cause  ?  Are 
these  people  honestly  sincere  in  wishing  to  forgive  and  forget 
the  villainies  of  the  Huns  ?  No  doubt  there  are  some  here 
and  there  who  believe  they  are  following  the  teachings  of 
Christianity  ;  but  there  are  certain  facts  which  throw  sus- 
])icion  on  the  general  movement.  The  New  Morality  does  not 
consist  in  merely  "  loving  your  enemies  "  and  "  submitting 
to  evil."  Judging  by  the  actions  and  sayings  of  these  people 
"  loving  your  enemies,"  implies  hating  your  own  people  and 
country,  and  "  submitting  to  evil"  is  apparently  confined  to 
the  evil  of  foreign  aggression.  The  same  people  who  profess 
to  wish  their  coimtry  to  turn  the  other  cheek  to  the  Hun 
smiter,  fiercely  resent  not  merely  being  smitten  themselves, 
but  even  being  controlled  by  their  own  Government. 

TJie  most  nottible  difference  between  the  old  martyrs  and 
modem  I'acifists  is  that  the  former  did  not  ask  others' 
to  suffer,  they  offered  themselves  as  victims.  Not  so  the 
present  Pacifists  and  Conscientious  Objectors.  These  are 
willing  to  have  others  suffer  whilst  they  occupy  places  of 
security  and  ease.  One  can  understand  and  even  respect  a 
person  who,  regarding  war  as  a  crime,  refuses  under  any 
conditions  to  take  part  in  it.  But  it  is  difficult  to  comprehend 
tliose  who,  fleny  the  moral  right  of  a  nation  to  defend  it.self 
against  aggression  whilst  seeking  to  justify  the  aggressors. 
To  condemn  the  police  for  invading  a  home  in  order  to  appre- 
hend a  burglar,  and  at  the  same  time  to  plead  extenuating 
circumstances  for  the  burglar  himself,  is  topsy-turveydoni. 
Curious  as  it  may  seem,  the  Pacifists  appear  to  harbour 
hatred     against      their     own      covmtry,      because     of     its 


12 


.LAND    &    WATER 


June  21,  1917 


deffnre.  of   B«*lt,'iniTi    and.  ilu-    ii},'hts   of    small    natioiw, 

\on-k-esistanre  is  iifitiicr  m\v  nor  cftectivo.  Under  ])resent 
ron(!itit)ns,  with  tin-  t-xistcnco  of  an  ambitious,  anK''f'>^'^t' 
anil  unscrupulous  Power^  such  as  (lerniany  is,  n<.ii-resistaniv 
would  mean  the  enslavement  of  every  nation  that  accepted  it. 
And  witli  such  enslavement,  conscript it»n  wuuld  ininiediatelv 
L)llaw,  with  the  result  that  we  sin  uld  have  no  choice  in 
tightinf?  for  and  in  accordance  with  the  Kulturi^l  metlioas 
and  manners  of  the  lluns.  and  at  the  last  beinx  reduced 
to  corpse-fat.  Non-resistance  as  a  national  policy  means 
national  suicide,  and  is  therefore  outside  the  sphere  of  serious 
consideration.  Ij  is  d.)ubtful,  however,  whether  the  advo- 
cates of  this  policy,  in  spite  of  their  professions,  would  continue 
their  propaganda  if  they  honestly  believed  it  would  ever  be 
realised.  .\t  ])resent  it  is  used  by  many — probably  the 
majority— of  so-calkxl  Conscientious  Objectors  as  an  excuse 
lor  shirking  their  patriotic  duties.  For  it  is  self-evident  that 
under  present  conditions  the  lives  and  liberties  of  non-resisters 
and  C.O.'s  depend  entirely  upon  the  strcnjjlh  of  the  resis- 
tance offered  by  the  Allied  armies,  by  men  wliose  more  robust 
consciences  tell  them  it  is  better  to  resist  and  destroy  evil 
than  to  be  overcome  by  it. 

Failed  Pacifists 

Then  there  is  a  certain  class  of  Pacifists,  chiefly  political, 
whose  ambitions  liave  been  seriously  crippled  by  the  war, 
and  in  their  anger  have  turned  all  their  hatred  against 
those  whom  they  hold  responsible  for  their  failure. 
Tiit>;e  an.'  known  as  the  Xotman-.Angellites,  w'ho  formerly 
dreamt  of  a  great  confederation  of  the  Nations  of  the  World 
under  the  batmer  of  Pacifism.  The  enthusiasm  which  a  fvw 
suiHTficial  writers  and  politicians  had  displayed  over  these 
teachings,  turned  their  heads  and  led  them  to  believe  they 
really  an.ouiited  to  something  in  the  running  of  the  wtrld's 
at'laivs.  The  war  destroyed  this  Angellic  Illusion  and  the 
world's  deliverers  found  themselves  out  of  a  job.  They  saw- 
that  which  they  hoped  to  make  their  life's  work  suddenly 
thn.wn  d(Avn,  and  their  rage  knew  no  bound.s.  They  had 
ass\ired  a  confiding  and  credulous  public  that  Germanv 
meant  no  harm.  Indeed  they  denounced  as  "  jingoes  ' 
and  "  alarmists  "  those  who  dared  even  to  suggest  that  the 
Kaisei  most  likely  was  not  building  his  navy  and  preparing 
war  material  on  a  colossal, scale  merely  for  his  health,  or  to 
ke(>p  his  peunle  busy,  but  that  after  all  he  might  mean  mischief. 
■'  How  could  tlie  Kaiser  be  so  treacherous  ?  "  said  they  ; 
"  has  he  not  extended  to  Mr.  Ramsay  MacDonald  the  '  glad 
hand  ?  '  Has  not  Mr.  Norman  Angell  himself  addressed 
audiences  in  Germany  ?  Did  not  several  German  Socialists 
assure  the  late  .Mr.  Keir  Hardie  that  the  German  workers 
would  never,  no  never,  allow  Uieir  rulers  to  declare  a  European 
War,  and  if  he  did  would  not  every  German  toiler  strike  ?' 

When  the  crash  came  and  the  beautiful  dream  of  Pacifism 
vanished  into  thin  air.  these  dreamers  had  the  choice  of  con- 
fessing their  disappointment  and  errors  or  of  brazening  it  out. 
They  chose  the  less  honourable  path  and  very  much  of  their 
ctinduct  since  the  war  is  to  be  explained  by  their  desire  to 
square  their  original  attitude  with  the  unforeseen  events  of 
the  past  three  years. 

This  whole  Pacifist  movement,  however,  is  a  symptom  of  a 
disease  which  has  permeated  all  classes  in  this  country  for 
many  years.  There  has  been  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the 
average  ICnglishrnan  for  generations  to  depreciate  everything 
done  by  his  fellow-countrymen  and  to  give  preference  to 
everything  of  foreign  origin.  Self-depreciation  has  long 
been  our  national  failing.  \\'e  can  see  evidences  of  it  in  every 
branch  of  trade,  science,  art,  invention,  and  manufactm'e. 
Prior  to  the  war' an  article  stamped  ''.Made  in  (lermany  " 
sold  better  than  a  simihr  article  made  in  England.  V\e 
applauded  the  inventions  and  discoveries  of  foreigners  where 
those  of  many  of  our  own  people  went  unnoticed.  Indeed, 
it  often  happened  that  our  ow-n  inventors  had  to  make  their 
successes  abroad  in  order  to  obtain  recognition  in  their  own 
land.  It  has  been  the  same  in  art.  British  musicians,  in 
many  instances,  have  had  to  adopt  foreign  aliases  in  order 
to  secure  a  hearing  among  their  own  people,  whilst  others  have 
had  to  make  their  fame  in  Germany,  Italy  and  America  to 
ensure  success  at  home.  A  similar  spirit  was  disclosed  in  the 
management  of  our  Ccmsular  service,  w-here  in  pre-war  times 
the  l-'oreign  Oftice  allowed  British  Consulships  to  be  filled 
with  Germans,  Swedes  and  others  of  foreign  extraction  under 
the  belief  that  the  foreigner  was  superior  to  the  Briton ! 

In  our  judicial  treatment  of  foreigners  the  same  marked 
discrimination  in  favour  of  aliens  and  against  our  own  people 
may  also  be  witnessed.  British  Courts  of  Justice  have  in- 
variably regarded  the  decisions  of  Foreign  Courts  as  valid  - 
unless  it  could  be  shown  that  such  decisions  were  the  result  of 
false  or  insufficient  evidence.  A  German  who  secured  jtrdg- 
ment  against  an  Englishman  in  (iermany  could  have  his  judg- 
ment enforced  here,  without  a  trial  before  a  British  court. 


P.ut  no  (ierman  roiut  would  ever  leg.ard  the  judgment  of  a 
British  ooirrt  as  valid  against  a  subject  of  the  Raiser. 

In  no  country  in  the  world  is  this  disjwsition  to  sub- 
ordinate the  interests  of  one's  own  p.-ople  to  those 
of  foreigrrers  so  conspicuous  as  here.  ■  In  fact,  tins 
attitude  is  unknown  outside  the  British  Empire,  idealism, 
altruism,  modesty  and  hirmilit\-,  are  admirable  nualities 
in  the  individual,  although  even  here  they  ha\'e  their  limita- 
tions. (Jne  cannot  affor<l  to  be  chivalrous  or  hund)li'  iir  the 
])resence  of  a  snake,  a  mad  jackal,  or  an  armed  Ilun  !  Arrd 
chivalry,  like  charity,  should  begin  at  h<mie.  The  man 
whose  politeness  to  strangers  may  gain  him  the  sobriquet  of 
iin  beau  chevalier,  would  be  regarded  as  a  humbug  and  a 
hypocrite  if  it  was  found  that  he  beat  his  wife  and  neglected 
his  children.  But  qtrahties  which,  pos)«esscd  by  the  ordinary 
individual  are  admirable,  may  be  laolish  in  the  statesman. 
A  ruler  has  no  right  to  be  chivalrous  towards  Foreign  Powers  at 
the  risk  of  ruining  liis  own  people.  A  banker  can  be  as  generous 
as  he  pleases  with  his  own  money,  but  if  he  starts  philan- 
throi)ic  schemes  at  the  expense  of  nis  depositors,  he  would  be 
rightly  regarded  as  a  criminal. 

Codes  of  virtue  which  are  suitable  to  individuals  are  not 
always  practicable  on  the  part  of  corporations  and  States. 
F'ailure  to  recognise  this  distinction  is  responsible  for  many 
errors  on  the  part  of  British  Cabinet  Ministers  in  the  past. 
They  have  attempted  to  base  the  foreigri  policy  of  this 
country  upon  the  princii)les  which  govern  their  own 
private  lives  and  conduct,  .^nd  the  results  have  been  de- 
])lorable.  To  this  we  owe  the  unfortunate  "'  Declaration  of 
London  "  which  hampered  our  navy  ff>r  the  first  tw()  years 
of  the  war.  It'was  no  doubt  chivalrous-  but  it  was  suicidal ! 
It  is  the  same  error  which  has  prevented  the  Government  in 
the  p^t  from  making  the  necessary  retaliation  which  might 
have  saved  many  lives  and  spared  much  of  the  misery  inflicted 
up:>n  Britons  hjld  captive  by  the  enemy.  It  is  this  which  is 
carrying  our  Russian  AllJesto  such  delusive  and  dangerous 
extremes.  The  first  duty  of  a  Go\ernment  is  the  safety,  care 
and  welfare  of  its  own  subjects. 

Tfuise  who  endeavcur  to  establish  international  policy 
based  solely  upon  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  seem  to  be  cliasing 
shadows.  Those  teachings  were  mtended  primarily  for  the 
guidance  of  indiv  iduals'in  their  own  private  lives.  They 
cannot  rightly  be  ap})lied  to  nations  in  their  coqwrate  capacity  , 
under  the  conditions  which  now  exist  and  which  have  existed 
in  the  jiast.  When  the  young  man  was  advised  to  sell  all 
he  had  and  give  to  the"  poor,  the  advice  did  not  imply 
that  he  should  di.spose  of  any  funds  entrusted  to  his  care  be- 
longing to  others.  .And  it  is  not  the  part  of  a  Government  to 
sacrifice  or  endanger  the  lives,  liberties,  or  interests  of  the 
subjects  whose  welfare  they  have  sworn  to  protect,  in  the 
pursuit  of  some  merelv  idealist,  or  altruistic  purpose. 
X'iscount  Grey's  solicitation  for  the  welfare  of  ne'utrals.which 
was  prompted  by  the  highest  moral  considerations,  involved 
the  sacrifice  of  certain  interests  of  this  country. 

The  strength,  safety,  well-being  and  happiness  of  a  nation 
depends  not  so  much  upon  the  exercise  of  mercy,  love,  charity, 
chivalry,  or  altruism,  but  upon  juslice.  The.  prevalence  of  our 
national  moral  disease  .self-depreciation — of  which  Pacifism 
and  the  New  Morality  are  meri-ly  symptoms,  is  directly  trace- 
able to  a  lack  of  a  national  sense  of  justice,  justice  to 
one's  self,  to  one's  country,  as  well  as  to  one's  enemies.  And 
the  object  of  this  war,  should  be— as  was  admirably  defined  by 
the  French  Premier,  M  Ribot— the  establishment  and  enforce- 
ment of  justice.  A'o/  m:rcy  but  justice  ix  the  surest  anchor 
for  national  safety. 

Whilst   it   may    be    true  that    "  in  the  course  of   justrce  v 
noni!   of    us    should   see    salvation,"    it     is    quite    certain 
that  none  of  us  will  see    justice   or  salvation    if    mercy    be 
permitted   so   to    "  season  justice  "  as  to  leave  the  German 
unbroken  and  unpunished. 


Colonel  I..ord  Montaguof  Beaulieu,  C.S.I. , is  to  delivera  lecture 
on  ■'  Tlie  World's  Air  Koutes  and  their  Reguldtion  "  at  the 
Central  Hall,  Westminster,  this  evening.  .\  certain  miniber 
ol  seats  are  to  be  thrown  open  to  the  public,  but  there  will  be 
no  charge  for  admission.  The  lecture  will  be  illustrated  by  large 
scale  maps,  lantern  slides  and  dragraius. 

.\n  extremely  interesting  exhibition  of  "pictures  is  being  held 
at  the  galleries'of  the  Fine  .\vt  Society,  New  Bond  Street,  in  the 
lorm  of  a  .series  of  drawings  by  Lieutenant  Keith  Ftenderson  ; 
most  of  these  di'awings  have  been  done  while  actually  on  ser%'ic.e, 
and  the  majority  of  tlieni  represent  service  subjects.  "A 
Wounded  Tank,"  and  "  I'eronne  Cathedral,"  the  latter  sketched 
just  after  the  (Jei'inan  evacuation  of  Peronne,  are  noteworthy 
examples  of  Lieut.  Henderson's  work,  and  the  half-score  or  sn 
of  portraits  which  complete  the  exhibition  are  finely  artistic 
studies.  It  is  a  typical  wartime  exhibition,  even  to  the  medium 
which  the  artist  was  compelled  to  usi-,  and,  though  evidently  he 
lias  ome  under  the  intluencs  of  p.ist-impre.ssionisni,  this  in  rio 
wav  impairs  the  force  and  delicacy  oi  Lieut.  Henderson's  series  of 
"  inuiressions  "  of  the  Westerti  I'"ro''.t. 


June   21,  1917 


i^AINU    &     WATER 


ij 


A  Residue 

By   J.  G.  Squire 


THE  poet  Swinburne,  wlien  lii^  table  was  covered 
with  papers,  would  sweep  them  into  a  heap,  tie  them 
up  in  a  current  newspaper,  and  deposit  them  on  a 
high  shelf  never  again  to  be  disturbed.  After  his 
death  these  parcels  were  searched  for  manuscript  by  Mr. 
Gosse,  Mr.  Thomas  VVise  (one  of  the  greatest  of  living  biblio- 
j)hiles),  and  Watts-Duntoa,  whose  "  interest  in  the  matter  " 
{.says  Mr.  Gosse),  "  had  become  entirely  a  financial  one." 
iManusciipts  were  found  ;  Watts-Dunton  disgorged  them 
for  a  very  large  sum  of  money  ;  and  some  of  them  are  now 
IJublishcd  in  Poslhimions  Poems  by  Algernon  Charles  Swin- 
burne, edited  by  Edmund  Gosse,  C.B.,  and  Thomas  James 
Wise  (Hcinemiinn,  6s.  net).  The  publisher's  note,  which 
comes  to  the  reviewer,  describes  them  as  "  Pothumous." 
The  word  has  an  agreeably  Bacchanalian  air.  One  is  led 
hiilf-consciously,  to  expect  lively  verses  :  perhaps,  as 
Swinburne  was  a  classical  scholar,  translations  of 
Anacrcon  into  English  Alcoholics.  The  expectation 
is  defeated.  Such  verses  exist  apparently :  Swinburne 
seems  to  have  recited  some  of  them  to  Jowett  in  a  cab.  But 
l)ublication  of  these  is  postponed.  What  we  have  here  is 
eleven  early  Border  Ballads,  thirty-five  miscellaneous  poems 
of  all  periods,  a  long  Ode  to  Mazzini  (1H5-),  and  parodies  on 
Tennsyon  and  Swinburne  himself. 

***** 

Mr.  Gosse,  who  writes  an  interesting  introduction,  attaches 
very  great  importance  to  the  Border  Ballads,  which,  he 
guesses,  were  only  not  published  by  Swinburne,  because  they 
were  too  much  like  the  real  rough  primitive  ballads  to  please 
Kossetti.  Whatever  one  may  have  to  say  about  publishing 
posthumous  works  as  a  rule,  one  certainly  cannot  but  wel- 
come these  ballads.  They  are  not — many  of  the  old  ballads 
in  Professor  Child's  great  collection  arc  not — great  poetry. 
But  they  are  the  most  superbly  skilful  exercises  in  the  whole 
history  of  literary  imitation.  Swinburn'e  was  a  modern  man, 
reproducing  an  old  form  and  employing  an  archaic  language  : 
he  could  not  feel  his  themes  as  the"  best  of  the  old  balladists 
felt  them  ;  he  could  not  rise  to  the  heights  of  Clerk  Saunders 
or  'I'lie  Wife  0/  Usher's  Well.  But  there  arc  very  few  lapses 
in  J'/ic  Worm  of  Spindclstonhciigh  and  Lord  Soidis  which 
would  betray  their  date.  He  has  every  trick  at  his  com- 
mand :  and  n;ore  than  once  he  actually  moves  one. 
***** 

The  miscellaneous  poems  are  in  a  different  category  :  about 
most  of  them  there  is  no  question  but  that  Swinburne  sup- 
pressed them  on  their  merits  and  not  in  deference  to  his 
friends.  The  poem  on  Sir  John  Pranklin,  with  which  he 
failed  to  win  the  Newdigate,  is  well  worth  having  ;  almost  all 
the  others  arc  variations  of  familiar  tunes.  Who,  hearing 
this,  would  know  whether  it  came  from  Swinburne's  published 
or  from  his  unpublished  works  ?  : 

All  the  noise  of  the  night. 

All  the  thunder  of  things. 
All  the  terrors  be  hurled 
01  the  blind  bnite-forcc  of  the  wurld, 
All  the  weight  of  the  light, 
All  men's  violent  might. 

All  the  confluence  of  Kings. 

The  truth  is  that  Swinburne's  few  masterjiieces  are  already  so 
swamped  by  the  great  mass  of  his  imperfect  work,  work 
vitiated  by  his  diffuseness,  his  looseness  of  phraseology,  and 
his  subordination  of  sense  to  sound,  that  any  new  poems, 
however  skilful,  which  are  merely  "  characteristic,"  n,uist 
be  regretted.     "  It's  plain  as  a  newspaper  leader,"  he    says    ' 

That  a  rhymester  who  seribliles  like  me 
May  feel  perfectly  sure  that  his  reader 
Is  sick  of  the  sea. 

It  is  quite  true  :  and  the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  Mazzini, 
Hugo,  Landor,  token,  broken,  spoken,  light,  bright,  might, 
light  and  jight  ;  for  half  his  time  he  was  using  these  things 
merely  as  counters.  He  writes  a  poem  on  the  death  of 
Browning.  Presumably,  he  felt  that  deatii  :  but  he  cannot 
communicate  his  emotion  because  he  cannot  escape  from  his 
rhetoric.     He  begins  with  a  sunset  : 

All   the   west,    whereon    the   sunset   sealed    the   dead    year's 

gforious  grave 
Fast  with  seals  of  light  aiul  lire  and  cloud  that  light  and 

tire  illume. 
Glows  at  heart  and  kindles  earth''aiid  heaven  with  joyous 

blush  and  bloom, 


Warm  and  wide  as  life,  and  glad    ol    death    whicii    only 

slays  to  save. 
As  a  tide-reconquered  sea-rock  lies  aflush  with  the  influent 

wave. 
Lies  the  light  aflush  with  darkness,   lapped  about   with 

lustrous    gloom. 

.Swinburne  undoubtedly  saw  that  sunset  ;  but  his  reader  has 
to  struggle  again  and  again  through  his  magnificent  verbiage 
before  discovering  what  sort  of  suilset  it  was.  Swin- 
burne persistently  attempted  description,  but  very  seldom 
described.  And  more  of  his  failures  nobody  can  conceivably 
vvant.  The  new  collection  contains  nothing  worse  than 
his  worst,  but  nothing'as  good  as  his  best. 
***** 
The  editors  promise,  or  half-promise,  more.  It  (hey  do 
not  bring  them  out  somebody  else  will.  Almost  every  iiim;- 
tcenth  century  poet  has  had  this  posthumous  e.\i)crience. 
Fragments  of  Shelley  were  dribbled  out  tiiroughout  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  Mr.  W.  M.  Kossetti  has  several 
times  added  a  little  more  to  the  works  of  his  brother^ 
without,  however,  inducing  anyone  to  say  "  the  little  more 
and  i'low  much  it  is."  In  the  last  two  or  three  years  we 
have  had  Miss  Morris's  additional  poems  of  William  Morris, 
Sir  Sidney  Colvin's  new  Keats  poems  (one  of  which  was 
deplorable).  Sir  Frederick  Kenyon's  almost  voluminous 
collection  of  unpublished  poems  by  Robert  and  Elizabeth 
Barrett  Browning,  and  Mr.  A.  C.  Benson's  new  poeirts  by 
the  Brontes.  Where  unpublished  works  are  not  accessible, 
editors' devote  themselves  to  the  exhumation  of  poems  that 
their  authors  have  published  and  thei>  suppressed.  An 
interesting  and  little  known  volume  of  this  kind  is  Tlia 
Suppressed  Poems  of  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson,  edited  by  J.  C. 
Tiiomson  (Sands  and  Co.,  1910),  a  liundred  and  sixty  pages  of 
verse,  from  the  Prize  Poem  Timbucloo  onwards,  of  which  the 
poet  thought  better.  It  is  very  rarely  that  anything  approacli- 
ing  a  masterpiece  is  discovered  after  a  man's  works  have  been 
once  issued  in  a  competent  collected  edition.  As  a  rule, 
these  ferretings-out  of  scraps  of  paper  only  result  in  swelling 
the  volume  of  the  poet's  inferior  work,  usually  (luitc  largo 
enough  for  comfort  already.  One  cannot  blame  the  editors, 
as  given  an  opportunity  oneself  would  probably  act  as  they 
do.  The  excitement  of  discovery  is  great  :  and  the  man  who 
should  find  a  new  sonnet  by  Keats  and  not  print  it  would 
have  to  have  the  tenacious  austerity  of  a  S.  Anthony.  The 
only  possible  conclusion  is  that  authors  must  learn  to  look 
after  themselves. 

***** 

I    would,    therefore,    tender   the   following   advice  to   any 
eminent    or    prospectively    eminent    poets    who    may    be 
reading    these   lines.       If    you    have    about     your     house 
metrical   tokens   of   affection   addressed  by    you    to    your 
Nurse  at  the  age  of    Seven,    destroy   them.       If     you    are 
in  the.  habit   of   enclosing    verses   in   your   letters   to  your 
friends,  think  twice  before  you  send  them,  for  you  may  end 
by  regretting  them,  and  once  they  are  out  of  your  hands 
no  menaces,  no  imprecations  in  your  last  Will  and  Testament 
will   prevent    posterity   from   giving   them   immortality.     If 
there  are  pages   in   your   manuscript   books   which   contain 
lyrics  that  you  consider  worthy  only  of  Mrs.  Ella  Wheeler - 
Wilcox  or  trial  stanzas  which  have  been  rejected  as  failures, 
tear  those  pages  out.     Put  them  in  the  fire.     Watch  them 
take  the  flame.     Stare  at  them  as  they  cris])  and  blacken 
and  roll  up  and  blow  to  pink  and  tinkle  into  fragment;. 
'  Then,  as  you  contemplate   the   ])allid   marks  on  the  asheu 
fragments  in  the  j,'rate,  take  pleasure  in  thinking  that  here  at 
least  is  something  you  have  done  which  will  never  "  out." 
No    spectacled    grubber    after    your    sillier    or    incompleter 
thoughts  will  ever  be  able  to  get  at  them.     No  triumphant 
"scholar,"  by  burrowing  in  your  chests  of  drawers,  will  be 
able  to  produce  an  Only  Complete  Edition  SuiX'iseding  All 
Others,   at   the  same  time   making  you   look  a   fool.     You 
are   bound  to   produce   weeds.     If  you  do   not   burn  them 
l)ostciity  will  go  about  wearing  them  in  its  buttonholes.     So 
u|)  now  ;   search;  ruthlessly  destroy.     And  when  thy  mortal 
body  has  gone  to  its  last  rest,  thy  shade  shall  hover,  serenely 
smiling,  above- thy  library,  whilst  thy  e.xecutois,  hunting  for 
thy  literary  remains,  shall  find  nothing  but  letters,  the  unpaid 
bills  of  thy  butcher  and  thy  laundress,  and  copies  of  thy  best- 
known  works  written  out  in  a  fair  round  hand.     These  last 
they  may,  should,  and  will  sell. 


^t 


LAINL»     efc     WATER 

The  Rocking  Stone 

By   Helen   Ashton 


June  21,  19 1 7 


HE  liad  come  to  the  inn  at  tlie  head  of  the  valley  the 
night  before,  and.  looking  up  at  the  peaks  that 
blotted  out  the  sky.  had  felt  a  sense  of  honie-coin- 
ing  that  surprised  him.  Now  he  stood  by  the  gate 
tliat  led  out  to  tlic  heather.  The  path  up  the  stack  w-as  before 
him.  He  had  been  told  thai  the  climb  was  easy,  and  he  liad 
taken  it  for  his  first.  He  had  a  week,  and  he  meant  to  use 
every  day  of  it.  He  was  very  eager,  for  he  had  never  climbed 
before  ;  and  lie  was  glad  to  be  alone,  for  he  had  not  the  trick 
of  sharing  his  experiences. 

The  dew  was  on  the  grass  about  him  as  he  set  forth.  Wis  feet 
were  soon  wet  with  it.  He  smelt  the  crushed  bracken  as  if 
it  were  sometliing  burning.  He  crossed  one  rough"  field,  and 
another  that  had  httle  grass  among  the  heather.  The  walls  that 
he  climbed  were  of  rock,  and  slipped  under  him  in  the  gaps. 
The  sheep  were  grey  in  colour  like  the  rock-  ;  very  small  and 
short  and  ridiculous,  like  toy  sheep  in  a  nursery.  They  lay 
.  quiet  among  the  heather,  so  that  often  he  thought  them  .stones 
until  they  moved.  When  they  called  to  one  another  it  was 
as  if  the  stones  cried  out.  ^-  - 

111'  followed  a  stream  upwards.  It  came  out  f!f  n  deep 
crack  in  the  hill  side,  arched  over  with  mountain  rowans  and 
beeches.  He  climbed  down  to  the  foot  of  the  place,  for  the 
sheer  joy  of  drinking  from  that  pool,  ten  feet  deep,  into  which 
the  waterfall  drove  down  its  torrents  of  white.  Standing 
beside  it,  he  looked  up.  and  saw  the  leaves  against  the  sky, 
thirty  feet  above  him.  The  place  was  almost  dark,  and  as  cold 
as  a  cellar.  He  had  not  before  realised  how  great  was  the  heat 
outride. 

He  followed  the  stream  up  to  the  tarn' that  fed  it.  The  water 
there  seemed  black  from  the  reflection  of  the  great  precipice 
that  the  country  people  called  Noah's  Stack.  The  swamp 
around  the  lake-side  was  black  with  peat-water  and  stretches 
of  peat.  The  climber  made  his  way  from  one  stone  to  another, 
and  heard  the  marsh  sucking  and  bubbling  around  him.  After 
skirting  the  j^ccipice  he  toiled  foi  more  than  three  hours  in  the 
bed  of  the  stream  up  a  great  and  barren  valley.  The  slopes  of 
the  hills  were  yellow  with  faded  grass  and  quite  empty.  The 
rocks  among  which  he  wrenched  his  feet  were  black  and  grey ; 
only  under  water  they  seemed  to  be  of  all  colours,  red  and 
blue  and  green.  He  drank  the  water  once  or  twice.  It  was 
bitter  and  very  cold. 

At  the  head  of  the  valley  he  was  forced  to  climb  seriously 
for  a  few  moments.  Once  his  foot  turned  on  a  shpjKuv  place. 
He  swung  in  the  air  by  his  hands,  and  saw  them  grippiiig  their  . 
hold  with  instinctive  desperation.  A  patch  of  lichen  on  the 
rock-face  uiider  his  ^-es  became  extraordinarily  important, 
as  did  the  sight  of  blood  oozing  from  a  cut  in  his  left  wrist . 
Then  his  mind  worked  consciously  again,  and  he  drew  himself 
up  to  secure  a  footing.  He  looked  down  curiously  at  what  lav 
below  him.  For  the  first  time  it  struck  him  that  he  was  very 
high  up.  The  ground  fell  away  sharply  beneath  his  feet.  A 
very  little  way  above  him  rose" the  twin  peaks,  Noah's  Stack 
and  the  Haystack.  They  were  giant  clusters  of  the  pillar  for- 
mation common  in  basalt,  the  sky  was  blue  and  white 
behind  and  seemed  to  rest  upon  them.  The  climber  felt  his 
breath  come  quicklv  at  the  sight  of  what  ajipeared  to  threaten 
him.  h'or  a  moment  he  hesitated.  Then  he  Hftcd  his  shoulder 
and  headand  went  forward. 

The  path  let^him  eastward  under  Noah's  Stack.  Me  passed 
it  by  and  came  (jut  on  to  the  plateau  where  the  stream  rose. 
The  sun  was  blindingly  hot,  and  the  bog  shiunnered.  There 
were  a  great  many  little  pools  all  strung  together  in  a  network 
across  two  miles  of  open  ground.  By  some  trick  ol  light  they 
were  exactly  the  same  colour  as  the  sky  ;  they  seemed  an  under- 
world breaking  through.  The  climber  had' the  idea  that  this 
plateau  swung  giddily  above  the  void,  that  if  he  went  to  tlje 
edge  of  one  of  those  pools  he  would  shp  through  into  nothing- 
ness. His  brain  reeled  under  the  sun,  and  he  went  forward  un- 
steadily.    The  httle  Haystack  peak  was  across  the  bog. 

The  going  vras  bad  here.  He  laboured  among  mos.ses  anil 
great  tufts  of  grass.  He  felt  the  peat  sucking  at  him  as  he 
went,  and  the  ground  quivering,  and  he  could  not  find  any 
track.  Once  he  came  to  a  bog-hole,  very  black  and  sullen, 
with  its  banks  yawning  round  it  like  toothless  gums  drawn  back 


from  an  open  mouth.  Idly,  he  pushed  his  shck  down  into  the 
IK-at-water,  and— found  y\o  Iwttom.  The  cotton-grass  shook 
daintily  in  the  wind  on  the  further  side. 

He  came  to  the  foot  of  thq.  Haystack,  that,  with  its  outer 
bastion,  the  Distaff,  commands  the  far  \alley.  It  is  a  small 
conical  peak,  steep  enough  from  the  side  where  he  appreached 
it,  and  perfectly  sheer  into  vacancy  on  the  other  three.  It 
rises  above  the  bog  for  perhaps  three'hundred  feet,  and  the  face 
of  it  is  broken  rock.  A  climber  would  think  nothing  of  it. 
For  this  man,  who  could  not  climb  at  all,  it  perhaps  had  its 
dangers.  Of  this  he  did  not  think.  He  set  himself,  withoiit 
hesitation,  to  scale  it. 

For  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  way  he  did  well.  The  foot- 
holds were  easy,  and  he  avoided  looking  around.  Then  the 
temptation  overcame  him.  He  looked  at  his  own  hand, 
clasping  a  rock,  at  the  empty  air  beyond,  and  at  the  leaves  of  a 
little  tree  shaking  in  the  wind.  Imagination  presented  to  hipi 
almost  at  once  the  depths  below  him.  He  moved  a  foot.  The 
shale  beneath  it  rattled  away.  He  clung  to  the  rock-face, 
sweating,  and  shut  his  eyes. 

His  fear  endured  until  the  moment  when  he  felt  his  lingers 
giving  away.  He  looked  up  despairingly,  and  beheld  the  sum- 
mit not  ten  yards  above  him.  The  sight  nerved  his  body  to 
action,  even  whilst  his  brain  refused  it.  He  struggled, 
scrambled,  clung,  and  succeeded.  Over  the  edge  he  draggecl 
himself,  and  lay  all  his  length  there,  his  arms  extended  along 
the  ground  as  if  to  hold  it  to  him.  It  seemed  to  his  fancy  that 
the  mountain  heaved  beneath  him,  indignant,  striving  to  cast 
him  off.     He  had  not  strength  to  do  more  than  lie  trembling. 

After  a  time,  however,  he  sat  up  and  felt  the  wind  blowing 
over  him.  The  short  turf  of  the  summit  was  under  his  hands , 
that  were  torn  and  smeared  with  blood.  He  looked  across  the 
conquered  hill  to  wh(  ri:  the  Distaff  juttect  into  the  valley,  with 
the  Kocking  Stone  upon  it '  and'-  "  That  is  where  I  must  go," 
came  to  him  as  a  command  from  without.  He  got  to  his  feet 
and  went. 

The  Distaft  was  one  of  those  rock  ])illais  which  arc  some- 
times found  detached  from  the  main  jieak,  yet  joined  to  it  by 
a  neck  of  stone.  On  all  sides  it  went  down  j)erfectly  sheer  into 
the  valley.  The  Rocking  Stone  was  perched  upon  its  summit. 
Beyond  it  were  the  mountains,  and  the  chasms  of  the  air. 

"  That  is  the  place,"  said  the  young  man  to  himself. 

He  gut  down  the  rocks,  and  stood  upright.  One  step  took 
him  on  to  the  neck,  another  into  the  middle  of  it.  He  had  foot- 
hold, nothing  more.  He  looked  down  two  hundred  feet,  and 
saw  the  ridge  upon  which,  if  he  fell,  his  back  would  be  broken. 
A  raven  swept  out  from  just  above  it,  and  sailed  into  the  valley, 
croaking. 

The  climber  went  a  step  further,  and  la*d  his  hands  upon  the 
Rocking  Stone.  It  was  about  ten  feet  long,  and  narrow,  and 
lay  across  his  path.  It  swayed  gently  as  he  touched  it.  He 
made  his  spring,  and  sat  it  like  a  horse.  It  lurched  sickeningly 
beneath  him.  He  shut  his  eyes,  and  twisted  his  knees,  about  the 
thing,  crouching  upon  it.  His  face,  in  the  sunlight,  was  per- 
fectly white.  "The  stone  oscillated,  and  came  to  rest.  The 
chmbcr  sat  U). right. 

"  I've  done  it,"  he  said  to  himself.     "  I've  done  it." 

He  waited  a  little  time,  and  the  blood  ran  warm  through  his 
veins.  He  looked  down  into  the  valley.  Some  of  the  rocks 
there  moved  and  fell,  .\fter  a  few  seconds  he  heard  the  roar 
of  them,  and  following  it  the  rattle  of  the  loose  shale,  that  had 
already,  when  he  heard  it,  ceased  to  move.  The  fields  in  the 
bottom  of  the  valley  were  like  stained  glass,  cut  up  into  odd 
shapes  by  the  lead-lines  of  the  boundary  wall.  The  moun- 
tains beyond  lay  clean  in  the  sunhght.  They  were  hkc 
animals  asleep.  They  were  all  his  fo  conquer  and  ride,  as  he 
rode  the  stone  beneath  him.  He  would  mount  their  flanks  and 
scarred,  rebelhous  shoulders,  and  make  them  lift  him  up  to  the 
stars.  They  were  his,  and  he  feared  them  no  longer.  Indeed 
they  seemed  to  him  hke  his  own  house. 

He  got  to  his  feet,  and  walked  back  across  the  narrow  way 
It  was  all  over  now.  He  was  hungry  and  his  hmbs  shook  under 
him  with  fatigue.  He  went  down  to  the  south  side  of  the 
Haystack,  and  found  a  sheltered  place  where  he  could  eat  the 
provisions  he  had  brought  with  him    ... 


GOGGLES 

WWO- SCREENS 
AWINCX3W5 


'^  THE  ONUY^ 
SAFETY  GLASS 


Juno  21,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


15 


A  Coat  Without  Front  Openings 

™'  BURFRON 

F 


OR  exposure  on  the  bridge,  ia 
the  launch,  anywhere  when 
green  seas  iire  breaking  over 
decks,  THE  BURFRON  offers 
such  ample  security  against  a 
dousing  that  it  leaves  the  oilskin 
"  in  the  cart." 

The  fatal  defect  of  waterproofs  and 
oilskins  is  the  openings  between 
Ihe  buttons  where  the  coat  fastens 
n  front,  and,  whatever  contrivance 
has  hitherto  been  devised,  this  de- 
fect is  always  fatal,  especially  when 
sitting,  as  it  simply  guides  water 
to  the  seat. 

THE  BURFRON  winds  round  the 
figure  without  leaving  openings 
anywhere  to  admit  water,  and  is 
held  together  securely  by  a  button 
at  the  neck. 

A  belt  has  two  advantages:  (1)  it 
snugs  the  coat  down  in  cold,  blus- 
terous weather  ;  and  (2)  gives  it  a 
smart  Service  appearance. 

Every  Hurherry  Harmtnt 
is   labelled   "  BurbtTrys."  ^ 


SERVICE    WEATHERPROOFS. 

During  tin-  War  BURBFRRYS  CLEAN 
AND  RE-PROOF  Offiars'  "Burberrys" 
TielockenH,  Burfrons  and  Burberry 
Trench-Warms    FREE  OF  CHARGE 


NAVAL 

UNIFORMS 


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i6 


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GOOD  COMPANY— 
"  GREYS."  Big,  whole- 
some  cigarettes,  giving  just 
such  a  gratifying  smoke  as 
men     of     to  -  day     demand. 


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hOK  SENDING  TO  THE  FKONT 
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H.  B.  VAUGHAN  (Bt.  Col.). 
KIU  Puttees  expand  like  elastic,  yot  there  is  no  iiihbor  in  tliem. 
Their  wonderful  einsticity  is  entirely  due  to   a  special   method    of 
weavinc.     which    enables     the    cloth  to   expand    on    pres-^urp,  .ind, 
ininKjdiately  It  H  reniovt-d,  to  ^spring  b.»ck  to  its  nonmd  proportion'*. 
It    is    iinpuft-iibie   to  put    Khs   Putteea  on  wronjily,  as  there  i^  no 
riyht  or  left,  and  no  t\\ists  lo  make. 

They  fit  perfertiv,  whether  wound  fri>fn    knee  down   or    ankle  np, 
anil  never  reUiict  either  the  muscles  or  bloodve<-seU, 

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LAND    &    WATER 


17 


Letters  to  the  Editor 


A    Badge    of    Honour 

Sir, — Whatever  iiiuy  have  been  tlie  original  idea  o.f  the  gold 
stripe  granted  to  men  wounded  in  action,  it: has  become  a 
l)adge  of  honour  in  the  sense  that  the  V.C.  or.D.S.O.  is  an 
award  tor  gallantry  or  good  work  done,  not  in  any  particular 
>,ainpaign,  but  simply  a  badge  of  mrrit.  - 

According  to  regulations  this  badge  of  lioucur — that  is, 
tlie  gold  stripe — can  be  worn  by  those  who  have  been  wounded 
in  tuis  war  on  any  of  its  various  fronts.  Could  this  iKt 
111'  extended  to  oihcers  and  men  W(,uudeci  in  our  ])revious  wars  ? 
They  ha\'e  equally  risked  their  lives  in  the  ser\ice  of  the  Jiimpire 
and  slicd  their  blood  as  ()ur  men  are  nobly  doing  to-day. 
Ti  ue,  the  conditions  on  the  Western  front  are  such  that  we 
"  have  never  been  called  on  to  face  before,  but  tiie  other  fronts 
arc  not  so  much  greater  or  entail  severer  hai'dships  than  our 
men  were  called  on  to  face  in,  say  the  Boer  War! 

There  are  to-day  mdny  bearing  hoilfiurable  sc^rs  who  aie 
unable  to  take' an  activc.partin  the.jM"eseij,t  struggle  either 
owing  to  yicse  scars  or  because  •  their  duties  lie  in  another 
direction.  -It  docs  seem  an  injiistice-t<^  them  that  the  regula- 
tions should  ignore  the  suflcring  and  pain  they  bore  as  their 
brothers  are  doing  in  these  times.  '  The  War  Otticc  has  often 
lacked  imaginati'on,  but  its  present  head  is  a  man  of  different 
stamp.  Could  not  L.\.vD..&  WArHR  take,  up  this  inequity  and 
therein' ease  the  heart-burning  that  exists  ? 

Cential  Provinces,  India.  Old  Soldier. 

Mentioned  in  Despatches 

Sir,  -Special  distinction  en  the  field  of  battle  is  rigiitly 
c(«isidered  to-day,  an  honour  which  should  descend  upon  a 
brave  man's  children,  widow  or  intimate  relations,  whether  he 
lives  or  dies.  The  King  hands  to  the  next  of  kin  the  V.C. 
or  medal  which  has  been  won  by  gallantry,  but  which  the 
rightful  recipient  has  not  survived  to  receive.  This  is  as  it 
should  be 

Now  I  would  plead  that  this  honourable  custom  be  carried 
a  stej)  further  and  be  made  to  apply  to  "  Mention  in 
Despatches."  There  can  surely  be  no  difficulty  in  issuing  to 
the  next-.ofrkin  a  diploma  ur  certificate  cmbody.'Ug  this 
distinction,  when  the  man  on  whom  it  was  bestowed  has  not 
survived  to  enjoy  it.  Only  the  other  day  1  heard  of  a  case 
of  a  gallant  officer  who  died  leading  his  men  into  action  on 
the  very  day  his  name  was  mentioned  in  despatches.  It 
also,  by  the  way,  happened"  to  be  his  birthday: 

it  seems  only  just  that  in  some  way  or  other  thiij  hoiK)ur 
should  be  memorialised  in  the  family  of  a  brave  man  who  has 
sacrificed  his  life,  but  how  is  it  possible  except  in  the  wav  I 
buggest  ? 

St.  James's  Club,  Piccadilly.  'iii.XE.x. 

Royal  Titles 

SiK.-The  King's  act  of  reforming  the  titles  of  the  Royal 
hamily 'will  give  especial  pleasure  in  the  Dominion  "of. 
Canada.  We  are  loyal  supporters  of  the  Tnrone,  but  have 
hnind  it  difficult  to  be  enthusiastic  over  the  lesser  titles 
with  their  German  twang.  This  new  Order  will  immensely 
strengthen  the"  position  of  the  Throne  in  the  Greater 
Britains.  A  Canadian. 

Too  Many  Sea  Gulls 

Sir,— I  wonder  how  many  readers  of  Mr.  Baden-Powell's 
article  on  Salmon  and  Food  Supphes  in  your  May  loth  issue 
will  have  realised  the  vast  importance  of  the  subject  of  wliich 
he  so  ably  treats,  and  the  important  part  enacted  by  sea  gulls 
in  diminishing  the  fish  suppiy  of  this  country.  My  remarks 
do  not  especially  apply  to  Liveipool  and  kindred  seaports 
wliere  the  birds  can  pick  up  abundance  of  food  from  passing 
shiiJS,  but  apart  from  Lancashire  and  away  from  rivers  and 
estuaries,  the  damage  to  the  crops  which  they  are  responsible 
for  is  almost  incredible.  In  addition  to  devouring  millions 
of  immature  fish  annually,  they  have  become  a  perfect 
nuisaitce  in  the  country. 

Since  the  passing  of  the  Wild  Birds  Protection  Act,  they 
Iiave  increased  to  an  enormous  extent,  far  beyond  their  natural 
food  supplies,  and  have  entirely  changed  their  mode  gf  feeding. 
No  doubt  in  moderate  numbers  they  are  beneficial  to  agri- 
( ulture,  but  since  the  passing  of  the  Wild  Bird  Protection 
.\ct  and  The  Gun  License  Act,  their  habits  have  completely 
■  hanged.  In  former  times,  when  feeding  inland,  they  only 
ite  worms,  insects,  and  grubs,  but  now  for  several  months 
lliev  feed  almost  entirely  on  grain. 

The  damage  they  do  before  and  during  the  harvest  is  very 


great,  as  they  alight  in  thousands  in  the  cornfields,  and  not 
only  do  they  consume  a  large  quantity  of  grain,  but  they 
break  down  the  crops  and  shake  out  more  than  they  consume. 
They  also  do  a  great  deal  of  damage  to  the  turnip  ciops 
during  the  winter.  They  are  very  destructive  on  grouse 
moors — eating  the  eggs  and  young  birds. 

I  have  been  informed  by  men  interested  in  salmon  fishing 
that  they  do  a  great  amount  of  harm  in  the  estuaries  of  rivci> 
by  eating  the  salmon  smolts  as  they  desccml  to  the. sea, 
but  as  to  this  I  cannot  speak  from  per.s(inal  knowledge.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  what  Mr.  Bade n-Powelf  has  to  say. 

I  have  all  along  thought  the  Wild  Bird  Protec'tion  Act  ,t 
great  mi.steke.  If  needed  at  all  it  should  jiave  apjjlicd  only  to 
any  spacies  which  was  becoming  rare  ;iik1  likely  to  beconiu 
extinct,  and  perhaps  to  purely  insectivorous  birds,  altliougli 
as  to  the  latter  I  do  not. feel  at  all  sure,  as  any  species,  if  it 
increases  beyond  its  natural  food  supply,  is  apt  to  change  its 
mode  of  feeding  like  the  sea  gull  has  done.  Now  it  is  about  the 
most  common  bird  we  have,  and  it  eats  great  quantities  of 
grain,  fruy:  and  the  eggs  of  other  birds:  .-Almost  all  birds  are 
cpiite  capable  of  looking  after  themselves  and  rcqiiire  no  leg'al 
protection.  '  *■'  ;    "  jt       .^, 

Sea  gulls  are  real  sanitary  evils  ;  in, addition  t^  befouling 
th(^  decks  of  the  stationary  training  ships  they  fly  from  one 
coast  farm  to  another,  they  propagate  foot  and  mouth  disease, 
and  probably  arithrax.  Sentiment  plays  a  large  part  in 
their  preservation,  they  are  admired  for  their  undeniable 
beauty  and  grace,  but  tbcre  need  be  no  misgiving,  they  are 
never  doomed  to  become  extinct. 

They  have  already  been  withdrawn  from  protection  in  Scot- 
land, and  this  should  now  be  adopted  in  the  food  interests  of 
this  nation  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  British  Isles. 

C.   BURLAND,   M.D., 
Liverpool  Senior  Medical  Inspectw,  Board  of  Trade. 

Question    of  Reprises 

Sir, — The  best  answer  to  the  iccent  German  air  attacks 
on  "  The  Fort  of  London  "  is  an  offensive  aimed  at  an  objective 
vital  to  the  German  military  machine.  The  Observer  urges 
that  attacks  should  be  made  on  Essen  and  other  centres  of  the 
production  of  war  material.  So  far  so  good  :  but  may  I  again 
urge  the  importance  of  putting  to  the  test  of  actual  experience 
a  sustained  attack  on  the  bridges  over  the  Rhine  ?  They 
form  the  most  vital  points  in  the  German  lines  of  communica- 
tiom  on  the  Western  front.  Over  these  bridges  comes  practically 
the  whole  army  with  its  guns,  munitions,  and  food. 

If  our  military  authorities  find  that  the  task  is  impossible 
on  account  of  the  targets  being  small  and  well  defended, 
they  might  consider  the  alternative  of  persistent  attacks  on 
the  railway  tracks  leading  to  the  bridges.  The  largest  woukl 
be  of  indefinite  length  and  not  likely  to  be  so  well  guarded, 
and  so  the  airmen  would  be  able  to  come  down  lower  to  mal»j 
sure  of  their  aim.  A  series  of  bomb  craters  in  the  per- 
manent way,  with  fresh  craters  made  daily,  would  break 
the  lines  of  communication  and  put  the  whole  Western 
army  in  jeoparady. 

The  bridges  themselves,  as  forming  the  necks  of  the  bottles, 
are  the  better  objective,  but  the  destruction  of  the  permanent 
way  near  to  them  would  be  easier  ;  but  as  the  damage  could 
be  more  easily  repaired,  the  attacks  woukl  have  to  be  more 
numerous    and  more  persistent.  •► 

New  House,  Wadhurst.  J.  W.  Williams. 


The  British  and  Russian  matinee,  which  is  to  take  place  at 
Drury  Lane  Theatre  nejct  Thursday  afternoon,  the  2.Sth,  in 
aid  of  British  and  Russian  prisoners  in  Germany,  promises 
to  be  a  most  disthiguished  affair.  It  is  organised  by  Lady 
Newnes,  who  has  gathered  together  a  wonderful  coinpany. 
Sir  Thomas  Beecham  is  to  gi\'e  the  first  act  of  Boris  Godouuov  ; 
Madame  Clara  Butt  will  sing,  and  Lady  Tree  recite.  The 
second  part  will  consist  of  tableaux  based  on  incidents  in 
Russian  history  collected  and  arranged  by  Lady  Newnes  from 
books  in  the  British  Museum.  Sir  Phillip  Burne  Jones,  Mr. 
Solomon,  and  Mt;.  P.  Macquoid  are  helping  to  arrange  them. 
Amongst  those  who  will  take  part  are  the  Marchioness  of 
Downsliire,  Lady  Florence  Pcry,  Lady  Greville  and  her  small 
son  Ronald,  Lady  Swaythling,  Lady  Mary  Strickland,  Hon. 
Mi)yra  Brodrick.  Hon.  Mrs.  Arnold  Henderson,  Lady  Abbot 
Aitdersou,  and  t  ountess  Isabel  De  Lalaing.  Lady  Newnes 
is  >yalso  taking  part  in  a  tableau.  The  dresses  will  be 
autheiiti.:  ]()th  Century  Russian  n^bes.  The  matinee  itself  is 
under  the  patronage  of  Oueen  Alexandra. 


i8 


LAND    &    WATKR 


June  -'I,  KJ17 


Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian    Oldershaw 


Al'REX'IOl'S  edition  gave  ino  an  opiioitunity  to- 
cxprcss  in  tlicst;  ci)lumns  my  opinion  of  the  cs^nys 
and  addresses  of  Dr.  James  M.  Beck  collected  in 
The  War  and  Humanity  (I'utman.  Si.so  net). 
A  new  edition,  revised,  with  additional  material,  enables  me 
once  more  to  commend  to  Knglisii  readers  this  reasoned 
examination  of  the  ethics  of  the  war  by  an  eminent  jurist  and 
a  1,'ood  friend  of  France  and  England.  "  It  is  the  kind  of 
book,"  says  Mr.  Roosevelt,  "  which  every  self-respecting 
Americanj  who  loves  liis  country',  should  read.  I  believe  that 
its  circulation  throughout  the  whole  land  would  ha\e  a  very 
real  effect  in  educating  public  opinion  to  the  duty  of  America 
in  this  great  world  crisis."  American  readers  have  now 
sifted  and  given  judgment  on  what  Dr.  Beck,  in  a  previous 
volume,  called  J  he  Evidence  in  the  Case,  but  neither  to 
American  nor  to  Englishman  does  it  come  amiss  to  have 
tontinualh'  before  him  a  clear  view  of  the  ethical  grounds  on 
\yhich  he  is  fighting.  Such  books  strengthen  resolutions  and 
destroy  cobwebs  and  "  sinister  iutrigdes." 


If  others  are,  like  myself,  avid  of  all  that  concerns  our 
"  Old  Contemptibles,"  they  will  not  need  from  me  any 
introduction  to  ("apt.  R.  V.  Dolbey's  book  other  than  a  bare 
statement  of  what  it  contains.  Part  of  this  is  conveyed  in 
the  title,  .1  Regimental  Surgeon  in  War  and  Prison  (John 
Murray.  5s.  net),  and  part  in  this  restrained  note  by  the 
publisher  :  "  Graphic  descriptions  of  the  tiring  line  in  France 
m  the  early  da\s  of  the  war,  as  seen  by  a  doctor,  and  of  the 
conditions  in  four  (ierman  prisoners-of-war  camps."  It  only 
remains  for  me  to  underline  the  word  "  graphic,"  and  to  add 
that  Cajit.  Dolbcy  was  not  taken  prisoner  till  after  the  lirst 
battle  of  Vpres.  So  that  his  book  coveni  the  turning  point  of 
the  Marne  as  well  as  the  Retreat,  and  theautjior  has  opinions 
•o  express  on  men  and  things  t]iat  are  individual  and  virile. 


The  reast)n  for  the  publication  of  such  a  book  as  .1  General's 
Letters  to  his  Son  on  obtaining  his  Commission  (Cassell  and 
Co.,  is.  net),  is  well  put  in  General  Sir  Horace  Smith-Dorrien's 
preface.  After  alluding  to  the  large  numbers  of  young 
officers  who  have  to  be  trained  in  a  short  time,  he  goes  on  : 
"  Owing  to  the  paucity  of  officers  versed  in  the  traditions 
of  the  Service  and  lack  of  time,  it  is  impossible  to  provide  the 
guidance  for  these  young  fellows  which  is  necessary  if  they  are 
to  conduct  themselves  and  carry  out  their  duties  up  to  the 
high  standard  of  officers  of  pre-war  armies."  In  short, 
this  book  is  to  make  up  in  part  either  for  the  training  in 
tradition  that  comes  from  Sandhurst  and  the  mess  of  a  Service 
regiment  or  from  (what  is  perhaps  even  more  valuable)  a 
family  influence  that  cherishes  the  ideals  of  the  Service  ;  in 
fact,  such  a  father  as  this  son  is  fortunate  to  possess.  Much 
of  this  advice  in  points  of  honour,  money  matters  and  the 
like  will  necessarily  be  Polonius-likc  in  its  obviousness  to  such  • 
a  <me.  But  there  are  many  young  officers  who  do  not  know 
and  who  would  really  like  to  know,  and  to  them  I  cannot  do 
better  than  repeat  the  words  of  General  Smith-Dorrien  ; 
"  These  letters  give  all  necessary  information  ;  and  if  young 
otticers  will  only  study  them  carefully  and  shape  their  conduct 
accordingly,  they  need  have  no  fear  of  proving  unworthy  of 
liis  Majesty's  Commission." 


Somi'  many  years  ago  (it  nnist  have  been  shortly  alter  he 
."eached  his  majority).  John  Buchan  abanrloncd  a  fairly  success 
ful  career  as  a  novelist  (begun  presumably  hi  his  teens)  and 
turned  his  attention  to  sterner  work.  It  must  have  been 
even  carUer,  to  judge  from  internal  evidence  derived  from 
Poetns  Scots  and  English  (T.  C.  and  ¥..  C.  Jack,  Ltd.,  3s.  6d. 
net),  that  he  gave  up  the  pleasant  habit  of  writing  those  easy- 
flowing  verses  which  gained  so  much  when  he  read  them  at  the 
Horace  Club  at  Oxford  from  a  certain  tang  in  the  voice  that 
was  not  got  this  side  of  the  Tweed.  And  now  in  war  time, 
while  his  work  grows  more  strenuous  and  is  crowned  with 
achievement,  he  seems  to  be  returning  with  zest  to  the 
pursuits  of  his  youth.  He  has  written  a  successful  novel  and 
he  has  published  this  volume  of  poems  and,  most  signilicant 
of  all,  the  poems  written  during  the  last  three  years  (and  they 
appear  to  form  the  bulk  of  the  volume)  are  written  in  the  Scots. 
As  the  hero  of  his  beautiful  ballad.  "  On  Leave,"  made  his 
peace  with  God  in  the  places  he  "  had  kenned  as  a  bairn," 
so  Colonel  Buchan  seems  to  be  finding  himself  in  a  resumption 
of  old  habits,  never  perhaps  completely  abandonefl. 
Throughout  the  book  the  note  ia  brave  and  debonair,  but  I 


like  cspeciall\'  the  recent  Scots  poems,  more  particularly  those 
that  have  to  do  with  the  war.  They  express  with  real  ease, 
Jiot  mere  fluent  facility,  the  individual  thoughts  of  a  man  about 
nun  facing  the  great  adventure.  Let  me  give  an  e.\amplc 
from  the  poem  I  have  already  mentioned  in  which  a  soldi(>r , 
home  for  a  week's  leave,  goes  out  from  burying  his  child  to 
ivander  among  the  hills  : 

A'  the  hills  were  graves. 

The  graves  o'  the  dcid  laiigsyiic, 
\\\i  somewhere  <iot  in  the  West 

Was  the  grummhn'  battle-line. 

But  up  frae  the  howc  o'  the  glen 
Came  the  waft  o'  the  simmer  een. 

The  stink  gacd  oot  u'  my  n^>sc. 
And  I  sniffed  it,  caller  and  clean. 

The  smell  o'  the  simmer  hills. 

Thyme  and  hinny  and  heather, 
jenipcr,  birk  and  fern, 

Kose  in  the  lown.Junc  weather. 

It  minded  mc  o'  auld  days. 

When  I  wandered  baretit  there, 
Guddlin'  troot  in  the  burns, 

Howkin'  the  tod  frae  his  lair. 

if  a'  the  hills  were  graves 
There  was  peace,  for  the  folk  aneath 

And  peace  for  the  folk  abune, 

.\nd  hfe  in  the  hcrt  u'  death.     .    ,     . 


To  one  who  never  uses  a  l)icycle  except  for  the  dire  necessity 
of  catching  a  train  or  some  other  necessary  business,  tliere 
is  something  faintly  Iiumorous  about  such  books  as  Sir  Frank 
Bowdcn's  Cycling  for  Health  and  Points  for  Cyclists  (The 
Criterion  Press,  is.)  It  is  a  very  serious,  almost  solemn, 
little  book,  and  every  point  about  such  things  as  oiling  and 
c  eaning  the  cycle  and  feeding  and  clothing  the  cyclist  is 
gone  into  with  the  earnestness  of  the  enthusiast.  But  I  am. 
far  from  despising  such  enthusiasm.  I  am  quite  sure  the  book 
will  be  extremely  useful  to  those  for  whom  it  is  meant. 

*         *         *         •         • 

The  short  story  is  beginning  to  be  popular  again,  and  to 
.America,  the  home  of  the  raconteur,  must  l^e  allowed  the 
leadership  of  the  linglish  speaking  peoples  in  this  particular 
branch  of  fiction.  On  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  we  should 
find  it  difficult  to  name  more  than  one  author  to  balance 
against  Edgar  Allen  Poe,  Bret  Harte,  Frank  Stockton  and 
"  O.  Henry,"  and  here  is  a  new  writer,  Jack  Lait,  who  seems 
to  me  likely  to  take  rank  among  the  best  of  them.  Beef, 
Iron  and  Wine  (Heinemann,  3s.  6d.  net),  a  collection  of  some 
of  this  author's  tales,  almost  justifies  this  extravagant  praise 
of  him  by  the  author  of  the  Chicago  Herald.  "  I  always  think 
of  him  as  the  Human  \-ray.  He  is  the  interpreter  of  the 
subcutaneous  of  life.  He  seems  to  divine  in  all  manner  of 
folks  the  exact  emotions  which  generate  there.  He  surprises, 
even  embarrasses  us,  often,  by  his  frank,  plain  exposition  of 
what  we  have  been  thinking,  and  what  we  have  been  thinking 
no  one  knew  we  were  thinking.  And  Lait  not  only  sees 
below  the  surface,  but  also  illuminates  the  little  "things 
which  really  arc  the  big  things  of  hfe.  He  analyses  the  very 
commonplace,  and  we  wonder  why  we  have  found  no  novelty 
in  that  which  is  old."  Certainly  the.se  tales  of  Chicago 
crooks,  chorus-girls  and  cinema  actors  are  full  of  entertainment 
and  told  with  coiusunmiate  art.  He  is  not  so  good  at  begin- 
ning a  tale  as  at  ending  it,  and  both  his  weakness  and  his 
strength  may  be  summed  up  by  saying  that  ho  out-Heurys 
O.  Henry, 

Village  of  Messines  1914—1916 

ON  the  opposite  page  we  arc  enabled  to  print  some  in- 
teresting pictures  of  the  village  of  Messines,  which 
were  published  as  post-cards  for  the  German  nth 
Reserve  Infantry  Regiment  by  "  Edit.  S.D."  129 
rue  Rogier,  Brussels  ;  they  are  bound  into  a  red  cover  with  the 
title  "  Messines,  1916  :  Einst  und  jetzl  "  ("  once  and  now."). 

Messines  before  the  war  was  so  small  that  Baedeker  does  not 
even  acknowledge  its  existence  in  his  "  Belgium  and  Holland," 
but  this  month  Sir  Herbert  Plumer  has  made  it  almost  as  big 
as  Waterloo.  Poor  little  place,  it  boasted  an  ugly  httlc  street 
which  it  called  Rue  courte  cl  belle  (the  street  which  is  called 
short  and  beautiful).  Its  town  hall  was  a  very  real  Hotel  dc 
Villc.  as  will  be  seen  in  the  first  picture.  J.H- 


June  21,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


Village  of  iMessines,  1914-1916 


t' 

:..JM 

Lm 

^ 

1 

1 

The  Town  Hall 


Rue  Gourte  et  Belle 


The  Church,   1914 


The  Church,  1916 


Rue  des  Remouleurs,    1914 


Rue  des  Remouleurs,  1916 


Rue  d'Ypres,  1914 


Rue  d'Ypres,  1916 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  21,  1917 


DOMESTIC 
ECONOMY 


Names  and  addresses  0/  s/u>ps,  where  the  articles  mentioned 
can  be  obtained,  will  be  forwarded  on  receipt  of  a  postcard 
addressed  to  Passe-Partout,  Land  A:  Water,  5,  Chancery 
Lane,  IV. C.  2     Any  other  inf  or  motion  will  be  given  on  request. 


A   Fireleft 
Cooker 


Saving  and  storing  coal  for  the  winter 
is  a  matter  of  enormous  importance, 
and  everything  tending  towards  tliis 
end  is  much  more  than  welcome.  The  fireless  cooker  is  one 
of  the  greatest  helps  to  economy  ever  mooted,  its  makers 
claiming  that  it  saves  no  less  than  eighty  per  cent,  of  the 
fuel  bill.  It  is  an  improved  edition  of  the  old  Norwegian 
cooking  pot,  and  has  been  used  immensely  in  the  U.S.A. 
where  domestic  service  is  a  continual  problem. 

In  this  Cooker  food  can  not  only  be  cooked  but  can  be 
kept  hot  for  any  length  of  time.  The  method  by  wliich  this 
desirable  end  is  reached  is  simplicity  itself.  It  is  fitted  with 
removable  heat  radiators  or  rather"  soUd  discs.  These  have 
to  be  heated  for  twenty  minutes  over  a  gas  flame,  coal  lire 
or  Primus  stove  and  no  other  heat  of  any  kind  is  needed. 
Then  they  are  put  back  in  the  cooker  with  the  cooking  utensils 
(which  contain  the  food)  on  top,  the  Cooker  is  closed  and  the 
heat  absolutely  maintained  until  the  time  it  is  opened. 

Not  only  docs  this  Fireless  Cooker  cook  all  food  perfectly 
but  it  does  not  overdo  anything— with  the  exception  of 
macaroni  and  potatoes,  both  of  which  need  timing.  Full 
particulars  about  this  and  many  other  points,  will  be  found 
in  a  booklet  telling  all  about  this  invention. 

This  booklet  will  be  sent  anywhere  on  request,  when  full 
information  can  be  gleaned  about  all  the  three  different 
sizes  available  and  the  necessary  instructions  for  roasting . 
baking  or  boiling  read.  With  a  fireless  cooker  anybody  can 
go  out  anywhere  knowing, that  a  hot  meal  awaits'  them  on 
their  return,  even  though  the  beautifully  cool  kitchen  is 
deserted  in  the  meanwhile. 


A    Novel 
Idea 


Nothing  more  compact  or  convenient 
has  been  seen  for  a  long  time  than  the 
"  Makaria."  There  is  more  in  this  name 
than  appears  at  first  sight,  for  it  is  in  short  an  easily  carried 
mackmtosh.  This  delightful  waterproof  when  not  wanted 
stows  away  into  an  exceedingly  small  valise,  being  the  most 
compact,  lightest  packet  possible.  It  can  be  most  easily 
earned  slung  over  or  across  the  shoidder  by  means  of  the  belt, 
wliich  IS  readily  detachable  from  the  waterproof  and  serves 
the  dual  purpose  of  a  carrying  strap. 

Many  points  mark  this  waterproof  in  a  class  by  itself.  It 
is  Hght,  durable,  well  cut,  well  made,  absolutely  stormproof 
and  at  the  same  time  exceedingly  cheap,  for  27s.  6d.  is  all 
that  is  asked  for  it.  It  can  be  buttoned  up  to  the  neck, 
where  a  storm  collar  combats  the  elements,  and  is  cut  on  the 
full  sensible  lines  every  good  judge  appreciates.  The  small 
valise  requires  an  extra  half-crown. 

Those,  however,  who  do  not  want  this  will  find  that  there 
IS  a  most  convenient  arrangement  inside,  a  clip  fastening  on  to 
the  collar  or  someu  here  on  the  shoulder,  enabling  the  water- 
proof to  be  earned  in  safety  and  convenience  this  way.  These 
capital  coats  will  be  sent  willingly  anywhere  on  approval. 
Height  and  bust  measurement  should  be  given  so  that  a 
suitable  sine  is  duly  dispatched. 


A   Wonderful 
Apron 


A  famous  London  firm  who  are  equally 
famous  manufacturers  have  just  pro- 
duced quite  the  best  Nurse's  A])ron  on  the 
market.  If  they  did  not  happen  to  have  factories  and  special 
facilities  of  their  own  it  is  \ery  certain  that  such  an  apron 
could  not  be  made  at  tiie  price — or  indeed  anywhere  near  it. 
It  was  brought  lionie  to  those  in  control  that  aprons  aie  a 
tremendous  expense  to  \'.A.D.  and  other  nurses,  and  tliis 
started  the  idea  of  producing  one  which  would  eclipse  all 
others.  Now  the  idea  has  become  a  ])ractical  reality  and 
those  concerned  are  to  be  congratulated  on  it. 

Ttie  apron  is  being  sold  at  2S.  gd.  during  the  summer  sale, 
and  it  can  honestly  be  said  that  nothing  has  ever  touched 
it  in  value.  It  is  the  crispest,  cleanest  and  nicest  looking 
apron  possible  and  of  snowy  whiteness.     For  its  de:iign  praise 


is  justly  due.  It  comes  right  up  to  the  neck — a  point  the 
matrons  of  most  hospitals  insist  upoh.  Then  it  is  very  full, 
covering  the  skirt  very  thoroughly,  while  two  large  pockets 
are  most  useful  additions.  Anybody  nuising  the  wounded 
should   investigate   this  apron  for  themselves. 


Gardeninf 

Skirts 


Inexpensive  washing  summer  skirts,  just 
the  thing  for  gariiening  and  similar 
forms  of  outdoor  woik,  could  hardly  be 
mooted  at  a  better  time.  At  one  particular  shop  there  are 
quite  a  number  of  different  examples.  Amongst 
them  two,  perhaps,  stand  out  pre-eminently.  The  cheaper  of 
the  two  is  of  cotton  cord,  a  capital  material  to  some  extent 
resembling  corduroy.  This  makes,  as  can  be  imagined,  into 
very  cool  practical  skirts  and  is  moreover  exceedingly  durable. 
This  skirt  is  short,  full,  and  built  upon  workmanlike  lines. 
It  buttons  down  the  front,  is  fitted  with  two  particularly 
large  pockets  and  in  a  practical  earth  colour  is  just  the  type 
of  thing  a  woman  can  wear  and  comfortably  do  considerable 
work  in.     The  price  is  7s.  iid. 

The  second  skirt  of  clay -coloured  drill  costs  8s.  iid.,  so 
it  also  is  far  from  being  an  extravagance.  The  beauty  of 
this  skirt  is  that  it  fits  almost  anybody.  There  is  a  clever  piece 
of  elastic  run  in  at  the  back  of  the  waist  and  held  in  place  by  a 
couple  of  large  hook  clips.  This  can  be  detached  in  a  moment 
for  washing  and  adds  immensely  to  the  tidiness  of  the  skirt, 
it  being  kept  tautly  in  position  at  the  back  of  the  waist  no 
matter  what  its  measurement  may  be. 


No  Starch 
Needed 


The  latest  commodity  the  patriot  is 
learning  to  do  without  is  starch,  and 
tablecloths  for  which  no  starch  is 
needed  appeal  with  special  emphasis  as  a  result.  They  are 
unusual,  these  tablecloths,  but  none  the  less  delightful  on 
this  score.  Made  of  blue  and  white  checked  printed  cotton 
they  bring  a  note  of  gladness  into  a  room,  brightening  up  the 
dining  table  in  a  very  happy  way. 

Not  only  do  these  tablecloths  need  no  starch  as  has  already 
been  said,  but  they  can  quite  easily  be  washed  out  at  home. 
They  cost  from  7s.  6d.  upwards,  according  to  size,  and  three 
sizes  are  available. 

Blue  and  white  checked  woven  tablecloths  are  also  be- 
ing made,  and  will  be  fascinating  things  when  finished. 
Weaving,  however,  is  a  process  that  takes  some  time  now- 
adays, and  it  is  not  yet  certain  when  these  last  will  be 
delivered,though  they  should  by  now  be  well  on  the  way. 


The   Perfect 
Tray 


Wooden  trays,  the  acme  of  simphcity 
and  good  workmanship,  are  so  essentially 
clean  looking  in  themselves  that  no  tray 
cloth  is  needed.  This  means  a  saving  in  the  laundry  bill 
right  away- — a  consideration  nowadays  as  every  house- 
keeper is  only  too  well  aware. 

These  trays  are  made  of  unstained  washable  wood,  and  are 
the  result  of  a  revolt  against  the  japanned  horrors  which  have 
formerly  fallen  to  our  lot.  They  are  well  made,  strong,  very 
durable,  and  have  been  planned  with  that  careful  considera- 
tion of  the  smallest  detail  typical  of  the  place  where  they  may 
be  found. 

Each  tray  is  fitted  with  sensible  handles  so  that  carrying 
them  even  when  laden  is  an  easy  matter.  If  good  wine  needs 
no  bush,  good  wood  certainly  needs  no  cloth,  as  everybody 
seeing  them  discovers.  ^      Passe  Paktout. 


Charles  Lee,  of  Wifeniorc  Street,  is  having  a  special  sale  of  fox  furs, 
and  offering  some  very  wiimlerful  bargains.  For  some  while  past 
Mr.  Lee  has  gained  a  wtU-dcserved  reputation  as  one  of  London's 
foremost  furriers  ;  this  sale  will  do  mnch  to  enhance  it.  Kvcry  con- 
ceivable kind  of  fox  pelt  i.-s  here —black,  white,  blue,  natural  colour 
cross  fox,  and  that  most  b.iautiful  creature,  silver  fox.  Connoisseurs 
agree  that  a  better  collect  ion  has  rarely  been  seen.  Added  to  this  is 
the  inducement  of  reduced  summer  pi  ices  so  that  a  very  few  guineas 
can  pick  up  a  choice  specimen.  Lovely  white  fox  furs,  to  the  making 
of  which  a  single  skin  h«is  gone,  cost  from  eight  and  a-half  guineas. 
Real  sohd  value  is  obtainable  here,  and  tlie  same  is  true  of  some  cross- 
foxes,  these  having  beautiful  markings  and  the  desirable  dark  necks. 
There  is  already  a  vogue  Un  blue  lox,  Paris  acclaims  it,  a<nd  Loudon, 
after  seeing  .Mr.  Lee's  collection,  will  without  doubt  loUow  her  example. 
.\U  his  furs  are  of  newest — not  to  say  advance — shapes. 


LAND  &  WATER 


Vol.  LXIX  No.  2877  [yfA] 


THURSDAY,  JUNE  28,  1917 


rRHGlSTERED  AST     PUBUSHED  WEEKLY 
La  NEWSPAPERJ     price     bEVENPENCE 


(     OM  I  '^    \  ~'\<^  <r-»wcc  c^T<^ 


filf    LouM    Aaemac/fers 


Draa?n  excrijioeii/  /or   "  Land  i:    V^ater  ' 


Reprisals 

The    only    answer 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  28,  1917 


INCOME     TAX 

You  should  write  to  us  at  once  for  our  little  Booklet,  which  clearly  shows  when 
and  what  Tax  can  be  recovered.  Look  at  these  few  examples  of  actual  cash 
repayments  that  can  be  obtained  without  trouble  or  difficulty  for  past  three 
years  : — 

(A)  l"'rom  £2<i  lo  ^i(M)  ulna  your  total  income  is  undor  £700  a  year.     This  also  applies  to 
the  rncoine  of  ("hiklreu  under  a.tje. 

(B)  5/-  in  the  £  on  the  whole  of  the  interest  paid  by  you  to  your  Bankers  on  Loans  for 
Private  or  Investment  purposes. 

(C)  5/-  in  the  £  on  the  whole  Income  from  Foreign  and  Colonial  Securities  (subject  to  certain 
restrictions)  when  permanently  resident  abroad. 

(D)  3/-  to  5/-,  in  the  £  on  Life  Insurance  Premiums. 

(E)  From  6d.  to  2/-  in  the  £  on  the  whole  of  your  Unearned  Income  if  the  total  income  be 
under  ,^2,000  a  year. 

You  may  have  been  losing  money  for  years  past  without  knowing  it.  Write 
to  us,  and  the  Booklet  will  be  gladly  sent  to  you  post  free  and  free  of  charge- 
It  will  probably  enable  you  to  recover  a  considerable  sum  of  money  and  save 
you  much  in  the  future.  All  inquiries  as  to  possibility  of  recovering  Income 
Tax  answered  gratis. 

If  you  reside  permanently  abroad  you  should  write  for  our  Special  Pamphlet,  "  Income- Tax 
Claims  by  Foreign  Residents,"  which  gives  a  clear  explanation  of  what  claims  may  be  made 
on  the  English  Revenue. 

Messrs.   INCOME   TAX    CLAIMS,  Ltd., 

41,  Carlton  House,  Regent  St.  (Waterloo  Place),  London,  S.W.I. 


TELEPHONE  :  .  REGENT  4327. 


INCOME     TAX 


YOU 

Can  Help  Us  to  Save 
Belgium's  Little  Ones! 


Send  your  cheque  now  and  help  to  save  a 
suffering  little  life.  A  Belgian  Committee  in 
Holland,  "  I'Oeuvre  de  la  5ante  de  I'Enfance 
Beige."  under  the  Presidency  of  H.5.H. 
Princess  A.  de  Ligne,  receives  from  Belgium 

STARVED,    CONSUMPTIVE, 
BROKEN      CHILDREN; 

Feeds,  Houses  and  Clothes  them.     They 

are  then  returned  to  Belgium    'for   funds 

do  not  permit  more). 

Help    These    Little    Ones! 

Remittances  to  Hon.  Treasurer,  Working  Men's 
Belgian  Fund  (Registered  War  Charities  Act, 
1916),  32  Grosvepor  Place,  London,  5.W.1, 
Earmarked     for     the     "  Belgian     Children's     Fund." 


the'TORTMASON" 


A  Field  Boot,  soft  as  a 
Slipper,  waif  rprof  f ,  very 
strong,  and  lighter  than 
any  other  Service  Boot. 
Special  wear -resisting 
Soles.  Worn  by  thou- 
sands of  Officers  at  the 
front.       £6:6:0. 

Sizes     1 0^    upwards, 
£6:  17  :6. 


FORTNUM&  MASON, 


Lid. 


182  Piccadilly,   London,  W.  1 


\ 


June  jS^  1917 


LAND    di     WATER 


LAND  &  WATER 

OLD     SERJEANTS'     INN,     LONDON,    W.C. 

Telephone     HOLBORN  2828. 

THURSDAY,  JUNE  28.   1917 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Reprisals.  By  Louis  Raemaekers  i 
Past  and  Future.  (Leader)  3 
Transformation  of  War.  By  Hilaire  Bclloc  4 
German  Disintegration  on  the  West.  By  Edmund  Dane  6 
Motherbank.  By  The  Author  of  A  Grand  Fleet  Chap- 
lain's Notebook  8 
Why  We  Must  Have  Victory.  By  G.  K.  Chesterton  9 
British  Salmon  Fisheries.  Letter  by  Maurice  Portal  10 
Past  and  Future. — III.  By  Jason  ,  n 
Recitations  in  Public.  By  J.  C.  Squire  i.> 
liooks  to  Read.  By  Lucian  Oldershaw  15 
The    Charity    that'  Continued    Abroad.     By    Stephen 

McKonna  16 

Ypres  Salient.     (With  Photographs)  18 

Domestic  Economy  20 

Kit  and  Equipment  25 

PAST    AND    FUTURE 

HE  who  has  seen  a  village  or  town  that  has  been 
bombarded  can  never  forget  the  shock  caused 
him  by  the  hrst  sight  of  a  house,  the  outer  wall  of 
which  had  been  broken  down  by  shell-fire. 
It  was  not  so  much  the  desecration  of  a  home  that  created 
this  painful  impression  as  the  fact  that  its  intimacies  were 
brutally  laid  bare  ;  its  dignities  and  joys  ruined  and  be- 
{ouled,  its  household  gods  maimed  and  shattered.  No  repair 
of  such  a  house  were  possible  ;  the  broken  walls  must  be 
pulled  down  and  a  new  home  built  on  the  site.  Only  after- 
wards, when  the  first  sense  of  horror  had  passed  away,  did  the 
thought  occur  that  this  rebuilding  would  give  an  opportunity 
for  construction  on  a  better  plan,  one  more  adapted  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  day,  and  into  whicli  the  newest  comforts 
and  conveniences  of  science  and  modern  life  might  be  happily 
introduced.  Such  a  war-broken  home  is  symbolical  of  the 
li\-es  of  the  great  majority  of  us,  and  certainly  of  our  national 
existence.  The  question  may  well  be  asked,  are  the  plans 
for  the  great  rebuilding  being  prepared  ;  are  skilled  archi- 
tects busy  on  the  designs  and  estimates,  so  that  when  the  hour 
strikes  there  shall  be  no  delay  in  putting  the  necessary  work 
i  n  hand  ?  War  has  destroyed  many  conventions  and  customs, 
good,  bad  and  indifferent.  Are  we  both  individually  and 
collectively,  through  the  Government,  getting  ready  to  replace 
them  with  better  customs  and  conventions  that  shall  embody 
the  higher  ideals  and  nobler  freedoms  which  these  terrible 
times  have  fostered  ? 

Under  the  title  that  appears  at  the  head  of  this  article, 
a  writer  closely  in  touch  with  the  more  urgent  problems  of 
reconstruction  is  contributing  a  series  of  artiw'es  to  L.\nd  & 
\Vater  which  go  deeply  into  the  question.  Last  week 
Jason,  for  so  he  signs  himself,  pointed  out  that  "  when  the 
father  of  Frederick  the  Great  gave  to  Prussia  the  most  per- 
fectly drilled  infantry  in  the  world,  he  gave  her  the  basis  on 
which  later  rulers  were  to  build  up  her  civilisation,"  German 
civilisation  is  the  organisation  of  camp  and  barrack  square 
carried  into  every  department  of  national  existence.  Her 
spiritual  pastors  and  masters  are  merely  drill  -sergeants  in 
different  coloured  uniforms.  "  The  same  motive  that  makes 
the  German  State  insure  the  workman  and  consider  his  healtli 
and  housing,  makes  it  refuse  him  the  right  of  free  speech  and 
any  control  over  the  affairs  of  his  national  life."  He  con- 
trasted the  military  civilisation  of  Germany  with  the  con- 
ditions that  have  been  called  into  e.xistence  in  this  country 
by  the  exigencies  of  war,  and  he  showed  that  beneath  a 
superficial  resemblance  there  is  a  vast  radical  difl'efence. 
So  far  from  military  service  compelling  the  men  of  Britain 
to  yield  their  personal  rights  to  flic  drill-sergeant,  it  is  inspiring 


them  to  set  a  new  value  on  these  rights.  "  The  more  ready  a 
man  is  to  risk  his  own  life,  the  higher  the  value  he  puts  on  it- 
He  offers  it  to  his  country  as  the  highest  sacrifice  he  can 
make,  but  the  very  fact  that  his  life  is  trembhng  in  the  balance 
gives  it  a  new  significance  and  value.  For  this  reason  the 
man  who  endures  all  the  discomforts  and  the  hardships  and 
the  dangers  of  this  war,  will  not  put  up  with  the  standards 
that  seemed  tolerable  before  the  war."  Can  we  expect  it 
of  him  .'  It  is  true  that  the  State  only  asked  for  his  service 
for  three  years  or  the  duration  of  the  war.  But  having  given 
his  service  to  the  State  and  having  taken  his  share  of  the 
risks  and  perils  it  involved,  it  is  inconceivable  that  the  State 
can  regard  its  duty  to  him  ending  when  the  war  ends.  It  will 
only  begin  then,  for  in  the  future  State  which  the  manhood  of 
Britain  has  rendered  possible,  every  man  will  demand  and 
rightly  demand  a  larger  share  of  liberty  than  he  has  enjoyed 
in  the  past,  except  he  belonged  to  the  small  privileged  class- 
And  he  looks  to  the  State— that  is  to  the  Government,  as 
things  are,  to  obtain  it  for  him. 

The  same  writer,  in  the  present 'issue,  discloses  the  meaning 
of  industrial  discontent.  Can  any  reasonable  being  read 
through  the  article  to-day  without  finding  his  respect  for  the 
working  man  increased  ?  We  have  before  this  remarked  how 
irrational  it  is  to  proclaim  tenacity  and  loyalty  to  one's 
fellows  when  exercised  at  home  as  heinous  offences,  but  when 
displayed  in  the  firing  line  as  splendid  heroism.  No  man 
that  is  true  to  himself  keeps  a  different  suit  of  virtues  for 
different  circumstances.  The  war  has  proved  that  the  martial 
character  of  the  blood  has  suffered  no  deterioration  since 
Magna  Carta  was  signed  at  Runnymedc  or  the  New  MAdcl 
army  charged  on  Nascby  field  ;  that  being  so  it  has  to  be 
recognised  that  the  liberties  on  which  the  people  have  set 
their  heart  will  be  won  by  them  sooner  and  later.  We 
maintain  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Government,  without  relaxing 
its  prosecution  of  the  war,  to  prepare  plans  whereby  these 
liberties  may  be  obtained  when  civil  life-is  restored.  But 
first  of  all  the  Government  must  purge  itself  of  those  bureau- 
cratic methods  which  have  brought  the  Ministry  of  Munitions 
into  disrepute  in  labour  circles.  Espionage  is  so  utterly 
Opposed  to  the  spirit  of  this  country  that  the  eqpployment 
of  ''  secret  agents  "  in  factories  and  works  is  bound  to  breed 
discontent.  We  are  relieved  to  know  that  this  anti- English 
practice  is  not  hkely  to  be  revived.  It  was  a  grievous  blundci" 
and  could  not  be  justified  by  any  circumstances. 

The  failure  of  National  Service  has  proved  how  numerous 
and  difficult  are  the  intricacies  and  obstacles  which  have  to 
be  avoided,  mastered  and  overcome  if  success  is  to  be  certain 
on  a  large  scale.  We  can  never  go  back  to  the  old  days  ,"  only 
the  hopelessly  indolent  or  the  selfishly  comfortable  desire 
it,  but  to  combine  what  was  best  in  the  past  with  what  is 
best  in  the  present  and  so  construct  the  future  is  a  stupendous 
task.  We  do  not  yet  comprehend  the  full  significance  of  the 
new  education  of  women,  for  it  is  education  in  the  broadest 
and  most  liberal  sense  which  has  taken  ^lace  in  this  country 
during  the  last  three  years,  and  not  emancipation  as  some 
seem  to  think.  Woman  has  learnt  both  her  power  and  her 
weakness.  The  vote,  in  our  opinion,  will  make  a  much 
smaller  difference  than  its  more  ardent  advocates  and  antago- 
nists imagine.  Woman  will  not  be  content  to  revert  to  the 
narrow  spheres  to  which  her  energy  and  usefulness  were 
confined  before  the  war,  nor  would  we  have  it  so,  for  in  all 
communities  where  the  sexes  stand  on  the  closest  level  of 
physical,  intellectual  and  spiritual  freedom,  progress  and 
liberty  flourish  best. 

The  greatef  employment  of  female  labour  is  bound  to  con- 
gest the  labour  market  unless  action  is  taken  in  good  time 
to  increase  the  industrial  output.  Then  looms  up  that  most 
horrid  rock  of  all — unemployment.  Employment  must  be 
found  for  every  man  and  woman  who  honestly  desires  to 
work,  and  those  who  of  their  own  choice  refuse  to  work, 
should  be  compelled  to  do  so.  How  few  the  latter  really 
are,  is  evidenced  by  the  almost  total  lack  of  unemployment 
that  exists  at  present.  It  is  dreadful  to  reaUse  that  war  has 
made  possible  a  higher  level  of  comfort  and  industry  among 
the  lower  classes  of  this  land  than  peace  with  all  its  blessings. 
This  cannot  be  tolerated  in  the  future,  but  it  can  oiUy  bo 
prevented  by  taking  thought  in  good  time. 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  28,  1917 


The  Transformation  of  War 


By   Hilaire  Belloc 


THJi.  lengili  ol  time  over  which  the  war  has  already 
spread,  the  great  change  in  liabits  which  it  lias 
produced,  c specially  in  this  country,  and  the  impossi- 
bility pi  fixing  a  term  for  its  conclusion,  have,  between 
them,  made  men  regard  it  as  a  sor^of  separate  epoch  deter- 
mining a  new  world. 

The  change  it  will  produce  in  the  general  arrangement  of 
European  attairs  will  probably  not  prove  at  once  so  vast  as 
expectation  or  fear  no\V  proclaims.  The  political  change, 
especiallv  in  the  arrangement  of  frontiers,  may  be  consider- 
able, but  an  intimate  change  within  the  structure  of  society 
is  always,  and  necessarily,  a  slow  thing. 

There  is  a  particular'  department,  however,  with  which 
these  columns  arc  concerned,  in  which  change  has  already 
been  ajjparent  and  mav  hs.  apparently,  continued  in- 
definitely and  upon  an  indefinitely  increasing  scale.  This 
department  is  that  of  the  military  art. 

It  is  of  great  practical  import  and  occupies  the 
attention  of  many  students,  especially  in  this,  country, 
since  the  striking  object-lesson  of  the  Wytschaete 
Kidge  ;  though  the  obvious  truth  that  war  had  changed  in  the 
course  of  the  last  three  years  and  had  taken  on  certain  new 
forms,  many  of  which  might  be  permanent,  has  long  been 
apparent  to  all. 

^It  is  of  practical  import  to  study  these  things  liecause  it  is 
always  a  practical  thing  for  a  nation  to  prepare  itself  as  well 
as  it  can  for  the  realities  of  the  future.  It  strengthens  the 
State  for  citizens  not  to  be  too  far  WTong  upon  the  develop- 
ments that  are  to  come.  No  man  can  foresee,  but  one 
can  judge  of  probabilities,  estimate  existing  tendencies, 
and  arrive  at  a  conclusion  which  is  the  best  within  our 
]X)wers.  Such  a  process  always  guides  and  informs 
though   it   can   never  pretend  to  accurate   foreknowledge. 

There  are  two  main  group.i  of  novelty  in  development 
which  the  war  has  shown  :  unexpected  general  effects,  as  in 
linancial  resources  and  national  feeling ;  and  unexpected 
technical  effects  not  yet  exhausted. 

The  first  wholly  unforeseen  action  of  modern  war,  the  fii>t 
negation  which  it  has  imfxjsed  upon  all  previous  judgments, 
js  the  neglected  one  that  war  upon  such^  a  scale  and  so 
prolonged  should  be  possible  at  all. 

It  is  fair  to  say  tliat  all  the  judgments  passed  upon  this 
coming  European  decision  (for  most  men  who  knew 
their  Europe  took  it  for  granted  that  it  was  coming  when 
once  Prussia  had  been  permitted  to  erect  a  new  immorality  of 
her  own  a  generation  ago,  and  so  to  destroy  the  cohesion  of 
Europe)  not  one  but  either  took  for  granted,  or  implied,  or 
explicitly  said  that  the  strain  of  conflict  between  whole  nations 
mobilised  would  neccessarily  be  a  sliort  one  :  a  matter  of  a 
few  days  or  weeks,  hardly  of  months.     The  pace  would  kill. 

Now  in  the  issue  we  have  found  this  by  actual  experience 
to  be  entirely  false.  For  close  upon  three  years  all  Central 
Europe  and  the  French  Republic — ev-erything  between-  the 
Pyrenees  and  the  Vistula,  you  may  say,  and  between  the 
.Alps  and  the  Baltic — has  been  fully  mobilised  and  suffering 
tiie  full  strain  of  war.  Great  Britain,  by  a  slower 
jirocess,  has  come  to  be  fully  mobilised,  and  in  their  degrees 
Italy  and  what  was  the  F-mpire  of  Russia. 

The  countries  which  were  fully  mobiUsed  at  the  origin  and 
have  fought  with  their  full  powers  the  whole  time,  now  feel 
the  strain  most,  of  course,  and  are  the  most  exhausted.  The 
Dual  Monarchy  is  nearest  to  the  stage  of  complete  exhaustion. 
Next  to  tlie  Dual  Monarcliy  the  German  Empire.  Judged 
merely  in  loss  of  men  these  belligerent  groups  stand,  in 
])rop;)rtion  to!  their  populations,  in  a  degree  of  exhaustion 
tliffering  with  each  State  by  about  5  per  cent,  or  a  little  less. 
F\>r  instance,  Austro- Hungary  was  compelled  to  put  into  the 
firing  line  recruits  of  the  1918  class  and  to  call  up  for  training 
.  recruits  of  the  iqig  class  rather  less  than  a  year  ago.  The 
German  Empire  called  up  the  1918  class  a  few  months  later 
and  put  it  into  the  firing  line  tlys  spring,  and  it  called  up  for 
training  the  1919  class^the  greater  part  of  it — last  May — 
Seven  weeks  ago. 

The  French  Republic  called  up  its  191S  class  much  later 
and  still  has  it  under  training :  it  has  not  yet  been  put  into 
the  field  ;  nor  have  the  French  as  yet  been  compelled  to  call 
up  the  19 19  class  at  all. 

But  though  these  originally  mobilised  Great  Powers  arc 
thus  suffering  from  \arious  degrees  of  exhaustion,  the 
exhaustion  is  severe.  With  the  difference  applicable  to 
a  later  full  mobilisatiou  a  corresponding  degree  of  exhaustion 


appoar.s  in  the  other  bclhgciciii  naiions.  As  yet,  of  course 
it  is  far  less  severe  among  tlicni  than  among  the  origina 
fully  mobilised  powers  ;  this  is  true  of  even  Great  Britain, 
which  has  had  to  make  side  by  side  with  its  military  effort 
an  industrial  effort  and  a  naval  effort  out  of  proportion 
to  its  population. 

Now  the  remarkable  tiling  is  that  both  on  the  moral  side 
and  on  the  material  the  exhaustion  prophesied  did  not  come 
at  anything  like  the  pace  that  was  expected. 

The  problem  of  financial  exhaustion  was  misread,  as  it 
always  is,  through  the  apparently  ineradicable  illusion  that 
the  means  of  exchange  govern  the  process  of  production. 
People  talked  of  there  being  "  no  money  "  to  carry  on  this 
great  camp.iign,  forgetting  that  money  in  all  its  forms — 
cheques,  bdls,  notes,  written  credits  and  the  most  informal 
verbal  or  even  implied  credits  (for  all  these  are  "  money  ")— 
is  but  a  machinery  permitting  the  exchange  of  wealth. 
Wealth  is  nothing  else  but  things  to  which  economic  values 
are  attached  by  human  labour.  And  this  war  has  shown  what 
wc  now  sec  to  be,  after  all,  pretty  obvious,  that  so  long  as 
there  was  labour — that  is,  man-power  to  produce  the  material 
things  by  which  men  were  fed  and  clothed,  iioth  civiHans  and 
military-  and  so  long  as  men  were  determined  to  continue 
the  struggle,   the  economic  process  stood   firm. 

Economic  Strain 

If  there  were  exact  calculation  between  the  productive 
power  of  mankind  as  a  whole,  neutral  and  belligerent,  and  an 
exact  knowledge  of  who  would  be  neutral  and  who  would  be 
belligerent  throughout,  it  would  be  possible  so  to  anaiige 
combatant  and  non-combatant  activity  as  to  niakc  certain 
that  war  would  never  fail  from  a  merely  economic  cause. 
The  reason  that  we  arc  now  at  last  feeling  a  true  economic 
squeeze  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  presence  or  absence  of 
money  (credits  have  been  indefinitely  extended)  ;  it  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  proportion  of  belligerent  to  non-belligerent 
has  changed  beyond  the  power  of  calculation,  and  that  the 
earlier  part  of  the  war  was  organised  by  all  the  belligerents 
under  tlie  impression  that  the  conflict  would  be  a  short  one. 

In  other  words,  none  of  the  original  belligerents  allowed 
enough  to  productive  labour.  All  of  them  took  away  too 
large  a  proportion  of  labour  for   military  activity. 

But,  at  any  rate,  in  general,  the  greatest  novel  condition 
produced  by  this  war — and  the  one  most  ominous  for  the 
future — is  the  conviction  by  experience  that  even  the  modern 
complex  nation  fully  armed  can  continue  an  intensive  struggle 
for  a  very  long  time  indeed. 

The  next  novel  condition  should  be  carefully  noted,  and  is 
only  second  both  in  importance  and  in  unexpectedness.  It 
is  the  fact  that  the  modern  F-uropcan  (at  present,  at  any 
rate)  makes  of  nationality  a  sort  of  religious  feeling,  some- 
thing more  sacred  than  any  other  motive.  The  great  mass 
of  European  men  has  not  only  passively  endured  things 
which  were  thought  impossible  of  endurance,  but  has  actively 
done  the  things  which  were  thought  impossible  of  perform- 
ance— for  example,  fighting  in  the  air — under  the  motive  of 
nationality.  Even  the  great  issue  between  capitalism  and 
the  proletariat  in  industrialised  countries,  which,  it  was 
thought  would  cut  across  the  sentiment  of  nationality,  has 
proved  insignificant  compared  with  patriotism.     . 

People  perhaps  hardly  recognise  to-day  how  insignificant 
not  only  in  number,  but  in  influence,  are  the  eccentrics 
who  weaken,  or  tone  down,  the  sentiment  of  patriotism. 
The  educated  classes  hear  a  lot  of  them  because  your  crank 
is  always  a  man  of  some  education —indeed,  a  superficial 
education  is  nearly  always  his  banc.  The  politicians  provide 
an  absurdly  large  proportion  because  -well,  because  pro- 
fessional politics  are  what  they  are.  But  the  mass  of  F^nglish- 
men.  Frenchmen,  Germans,  hardly  listen  to  the  waverers 
except  with  the  sort  of  annoyance  provoked  by  any  interrup- 
tion during  a  grave  stiain. 

It  may  be  said  then  that  of  these  two  general  things, 
neither  of  them  concerned  with  the  technical  process  of  war, 
surjirisc  has  been  as  it  were  in  favour  of  war.  War  upon  so 
enormous  a  scale  has  i)roved  more  possible  and  its  coiUinuuKcc 
more  possible  than  was  expected. 

But  if  we  turn  to  the  technical  side  of  the  matter  we  find 
tliat  the  military  art  has  been  compelled  by  experience  to 
considerable  new  decisions.  These  may  roughly  be  classed 
ill  three  fields- 


June  28,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


First,  there  are  the  novelties-. due  to  the  scale  upon  which 
the  struggle  lias  developed  :  As,  for  instance,  siege  hues  of  a 
thousand  miles. ._  , 

Secondly,  there  are  the  novelties  due  to  the  unexpected 
excesses  ct  tiie  (ieiiiians  and  their  abandonment  of  our  common 
morals :  as,  for  instance,  the  absence  of  neutral  territory 
dtlining  a  field  of  war  and  the  added  strain  on  medical  sei  vices. 

Thirdly,  there  are  tlie  novelties  due  to  the  unexpected 
effects  cf  new  weapons  and  new  inventions  :  as,  for  instance, 
and  in  particular,  air-craft. 

As  to  the  first  of  these  :  It  behoves  every  student  of  war 
to  think  as  clearly  as  he  can  and  to  distinguish  between 
quantity  and  quality.  It  is  a  very, difficult  task  ;  so  difficult 
tliat  all  students  of  this  war,  I  think,  have  been  misled 
during  its  process  by  some  confusion  between  the  two.  On 
the  one  hand,  a  very  great  expansion  in  scale  may  properly 
be  treated  as  no  more  than  the  magnifying  of  conditions 
originally  known.  On  the  other  hand,  a  great  difference  in 
scale  inevitably  produces,  after  a  certain  point,  differences  in 
cliaracter.  The  whole  scheme  of  development  in  any  depart- 
ment of  activity  presupposes  that.  Great  differences  in 
quantity  begin  at  some  stage  to  produce  difference  in  quality. 

It  is  our  business  to  see  the  process  so  that  we  do  not 
mistake  the  one  for  the  other,  and  to  discern  the  moment  at 
wJiicli,  through  the  expansion  in  quantity,  change  in  quality 
begins.  For  instance,  upon  the  west  and  south — that  is  upon 
the  front  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  North  Sea,  what  the 
victories  of  the  French,  the  British  and  the  Italians  have 
established  is  a  war  of  positions.  It  is  a  siege — a  pressure 
against  lines  to  which  the  enemy  was  driven  and  within  which 
he  is  confined. 

These  siege  lines  all  told  are  in  round  .numbers  from 
800  to  900  miles  long,  but  it  is  just  as  true  that  they  are 
siege  lines  as  it  was  true  of  the  few  miles  of  Torres  Vedras  a 
century  ago,  or  of  Alesia  two  tliousand  years  ago. 

There  is  upon  the  south  and  west,  and  has  been,  for  more 
tjian  two  years  in  most  places  and  for  nearly  two  years  in  all, 
the  continuous  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  AUies  to  reduce 
these  positions  of  the  enemy,  and  spasmodic  attempts  of 
that  enemy  to  break  the  containing  force  at  some  point  (the 
first  battle  of  Ypres,  the  second  battle  of  Ypres,  Verdun,  the 
Trentino.  etc.).  There  followed  the  fail;ire  of  these 
"  sorties,"  a  first  shortening  of  the  line,  the  abandonment  of 
an  advanced  salient  (the  Noyon  salient  after  the  Somme  this 
year).  There  is  now  proceeding  a  mere  resistance  to  blows 
directed  by  the  superior  containing  power.  All  this  is  the 
normal  process  of  a  siege.  In  this  sense  the  change  is  only 
one  of  scale.  Instead  of  dealing  with  a  few  thousand  yards 
you  are  dealing  with  a  million.  Instead  of  a  breach  in  a 
wall,  or  in  a  simple  trace  of  earthworks,  you  are  dealing  with 
a  breach  in  a  complex  trench  system.  Instead  of  impact  by 
lire  against  a  sector  of  some  yards  you  are  attempting  a 
breach  (when  you  do  attempt  it)  upon  a  sector  of  many  miles. 
Instead  of  the  gradual  battering  of  the  defence  and  gradual 
wearing  down  of  the  defenders  by  shot  at  a  few  hundred  yards, 
or  by  battering  rams,  you  are  effecting  the  same  slow  process 
by  great  isolated  local  actions,  called  the  Aisne,  Moron- 
villiers,  \'imy  Kidge,  Messines. 

Now,  the  fact  that  tlie  scale  is  so  much  larger  has  none  the 
less  differences  of  quality  which  were  not  foreseen. 

Differences  of  Quality 

Let  me  tabulate  some  of  these  differences  of  quality. 

1.  The  raY^idly  rising  proportion  of  heavy  artillery  which 
would  be  demanded  was  in  no  way  foreseen.  It  must  be 
noted,  however,  that  the  enemy  (not  because  he  foresaw 
a  siege  war,  but  because  he  wrongly  thought  that  it  would 
help  him  in  a  war  of  movement),  was  at  first  far  better 
prepared  with  heavy  artillery  than  the  Allies. 

2.  It  has  increased  the  necessity  for  the  munitionment  of 
lieavy  guns  in  so  enormoiis  a  fashion  as  utterly  to  disturb  the 
calculated  relations  between  civilian  necessities  and  military 
necessities.  Behind  a  modern  army  undertaking  a  siege  of 
this  sort,  or  defending  the  besieged  positions,  you  have  to  have 
a  nation  largely — I  had  almost  written  mainly — occupied 
in  provisioning  and  munitionment.  As  a  matter  of  fact  thase 
novel  conditions  early  resulted  in  this :  that  the  nation 
fully  mobilised  at  the  beginning  had  to  depend  for  munition- 
ment more  and  more  upon  its  less  mobilised  Ally  or  upon 
neutrals.'or  occupied  populations. 

3.  The  lengthy  process,  multiplied  by  its  severity,  has 
necessitated  a  re\ision  in  the  process  of  reliefs.  Taking  units 
out  of  action,  their  reorganisation,  and  their  replacement  at 
a  rate  never  before  dreamed  of. 

For  instance,  we  compelled  in  five  weeks — between  April 
9th  and  May  17th  (I  have  no  later  figures)  92  German  divi- 
sions out  of  a  total  nominal  164  and  an  available  possible 
148,  upon  the  Western  front  to  pass  through  the  mill  of  the 
Artois  and  Champagne  battles.     Of  these  92  we  compelled 


the  enemy  to  put  in  27  twice  over  during  that  strain. 

Again,  the  other  day,  we  had  the  striking  instance  of  the 
Third  Bavarian  Division  being  sucked  in,  broken  and  thrown 
out  all  within  36  hours,  on  the  Wytschaete  Ridge. 

No  doubt  it  would  be  more  interesting  to  the  student  if  he 
could  compare  this  unpleasant  situation  of  the  enemy  with 
the  corresponding  cost  upon  our  side.  That  is  not  ain;Hter 
for  discussion.  It  is  sufficient  to  remember '  that  in  pro- 
portion to  their  numbers  the  strain  on  the  Western  Allies  is 
constantly  and  increasingly  less  than  it  is  on  the  enemy. 

This,  by  the  way  (if  I  were  free  to  treat  of  it  here)  is  the 
true  key  to  the  present  position.  The  war  will  be  won — • 
granted  the  necessary  political  tenacity  and  domestic 
cohesion — by  the  group  which  can  wear  down  the  other  : 
compelling  that  other  to  refit  its  units  faster  and  faster  until 
the  process  leads  to  a  breakdown.  The  thing  is  a  mill.  Each 
is  making  the  other  grind  his  mill  faster  and  faster. 

Tbe  procJ\iGtion  of  a  siege  upon  so  gigantic  a  scale  Jias 
introduced  a  difference  in  quality. 

It  has  not  only  transformed  the  civilian  population  behind 
the  army  into  a  population  of  workers  supplying  the  army.  It 
has  also  altered  the  condition  of  surprise. 

Condition  of  Surprise 

Preparation  against  any  sector  of  the  front  has  to  be  made 
upon  a  scale  which  secures  to  your  opponent  the  advantage 
of  knowing  where  he  Will  be  attacked. 

It  is  so  far,  apparently,  impossible  to  prevent  this.  Latterly 
it  has  proved  upon  the  gigantic  scale  of  the  artillery  work 
required  quite  impossible.  The  only  element  of  surprise 
you  can, establish — and  surprise  is  the  essence  of  success- 
is  the  actual  moment  when  your  infantry  will  be  launched. 

Here  there  appears  another  parallel  to  the  old  sieges, 
which  the  scale  of  the  present  one  has  transformed.  It  was 
a  matter  of  judgment  in  the  old  days  of  battering  your 
opponents'  ditch  and  wall,  when  the  moment  had  exactly 
arrived  for  launching  the  attack.  To  misjudge  that  moment 
was  fatal.  For  you  lost  great  quantities  of  men  without 
result.     To  judge  it  was  the  verj'  cause  of  success  in  the  siege. 

That  is  equally  true  to-day.  Luckily  for  the  Allies  there 
is  this  difference.  You  don't  in  the  present  fighting,  para- 
doxical as  it  may  seem,  exhaust  yourself  as  utterly  through  the 
misjudgment  of  this  moment  as  was  the  case  against  the  old 
smaller  fortress.  The  proportion  of  effectiveness  lost  if  the 
moment  is  misjudged  is  less  in  proportion  to  the  whole  than 
was  the  case  in  an  old  fashioned  siege.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  was  very  much  easier  in  the  old  days  to  judge  when  the 
moment  had  comc.than  it  is  to-day. 

You  may  read  in  the  despatches  of  other  centuries  a  phrase 
such  as  this  "  a  breach  having  been  effected  I  told  so  and  so 
commanding  so  and  so  to  attack." 

The  essential  words  "  a  breach  having  been  effected " 
cannot  to-day  be  used.  You  don't  see  the  defensive  crumbling 
materially  in  front  of  you.  Aircraft  report  results.  But  you 
have  not  that  immediate  vision  which  was  possible  to  the 
men  who  took  Badajos  or  the  Malakoff. 

Yet  another  consequence  of  the  enormous  extension  of 
siege  lines  is  that  your  concentration  of  men  as  well  as  of 
material  is  slow. 

You  have  to  re-group  men  for  each  particular  effort, 
which,  whether  it  be  an  effort  to  pierce  or  the  mere  blow  of 
a  battering  ram  will,  after  it  is  developed,  necessitate  a  very 
long  time  for  re-concentration  elsewhere.  All  the  problems 
of  staff  work  have  increased  in  complexity  and  in  magnitude 
so  much  that  something  in  their  nature  is  changed  as  well 
as  in  their  scale. 

Lastly  you  have  in  this  connection  what  J  may  call  the 
factor  of  absolute  as  compared  with  comparative  exhaustion. 

In  the  old  days,  and  with  professional  armies — even  with 
conscript  aimies  which  did  not  really  train  the  whole  popu- 
lation, you  did  the  work  ;  if  you  failed  through  exhaustion, 
either  on  the  defensive  or  on  the  offensive  side,  you  said  to 
yourself,  "After  all  I  might  have  orgartised  the  nation  better,  " 
or  ■'  after  alL  the  Government  ought  to  have  supplied  me 
with  more  men."  To-day  (it  is  another  paradox)  the  prob- 
lem, though  so  immensely  larger  is  actually  simpler  because 
you  know  that  the  maximum  of  effort  is  available.  You  take 
it  that  all  the  nation  can  do  will  be  doine  upon  both  sides  and 
therefore  ycu  deal  with  known  maxim.um  figures,  and  granted 
poHtical  tenacity  and  sincerity,  with  more  calculable  result. 

It  is  this  element  in  the  great  war  which  (to  those  who  ara 
accustomed  to  calculation  fand  use  it  without  predjudice) 
determines  its  piobable  conclusion.  It  is  this  which  has  caused 
the  enemy  repeatedly  to  sue  for  peace  amd  the  Allies  as  repeat- 
edly to  refuse  his  advances.  H.  Belloc. 
{To  be  continued). 

Mr.  Belloc  is  in  France  this  week,  and  has  therefore  been 
unable  to  contribute  his  usual  summary  and  analysis  of 
current  military  events.     He  ivill  resume  kis  article  next  week. 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  c8,  1917 


German  Disintegration  on  the  West 


By  Edmund  Dane 


BOTH  the  German  attack  upon  the  French  position^ 
^<Juth  of  the  valley  of  the  Ailettc — the  various  and 
successive  enemy  efforts  here  all  formed  part  of  one 
enterprise — and  the  results  of  that  attack,  so  far, 
merit  particular  attention.  From  the  German  standpoint 
the  attack  was  undertaken  as  an  effort  of  rtrst-class  import- 
ance, and  the  evidence  goes  to  show  not  only  careful  and 
complete  preparation  to  ensure  success,  but  that  the  pre- 
I)aration  was  inspired  by  hopes  of  very  significant  political 
conseipiences  if  success  followed. 

Hy  success  in  this  connection  has  to  be  understood  such  a 
breach  in  the  French  position  as  would,  by  destroying  their 
tnntinuity,  have  compelled  the  abandonment  of  all  those 
parts  <)f  the  Craonne  Ridge  and  tothe  westwarcl'of  it  from  which 
the  ]>ench,  holding  them,  have  direct  observation  over  the 
enemy  lines  in  the  valley  o{  the  Ailette,  and  eastward  of 
<  raonne  over  tjie  enemy  lines  in  the  valley  of  the  Aisne,  and 
its  tributaries  the  .Miette,  and  the  Suippe.  Anything  short 
of  that  woukl.not  be  success.  The  seizure  liere  and  there, 
for  exami)le,  of  the  first  line  of  French  trenches,  or  even  the 
seizure  hen-  or  there  of  a  salient  in  the  French  front  would 
not  be  a  success,  for  such  local  gains  tcere  not  the  objective. 
Much  less  would  such  local  gains  be  a  success  if  they  proved 
merely  temporary  :  still  less  if  the  cost  of  such  local  gains 
turned  out  to  be  high.  All  these  arc  no  more  than  several 
degrees  of  failure. 

It  is  i-vident  that,  in  the  preseiit  situation  of  the  German 
forces  in  hYance,  an  fftort  of  this  kind  was  not  one  lightly 
to  be  undertaken.  If  hopes  of  significant  poUtical  conse- 
quences rested  upon  its  success,  military-  consequences  hardly 
less  significant  must  result  from  its  want  of  success. 

As  was  the  case  to  begin  with  regarding  the  German 
attacks  at  Verdun,  the  meaning  of  this  counter-offensive 
along  the  valley  of  the  Ailette  lia's  apparentlv  been  involved 
in  some  mystery.  It  may  help  to  clear  that  mystery  up, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  show  the  importance  of  the  attempt 
from  the  German  standpoint,  if  the  matter  be  considered 
lirst  under  its  strategical  aspect  ;  next  with  reference  to  its 
political  pur-pose  ;  and  lastly,  in  the  light  of  the  tactics  em- 
l)loye<. 

Primitive  Notions 

(I).  The  German  began  the  war  with  comparatively  up-to- 
date  theories.  There  was  no  question  then  that  the  chief  aim 
was  to  destroy  the  hostile  forces,  and  in  the  briefest  possible 
time.  But  as  the  war  has  gone  on,  those  theories 
haw  been  either  modified  oV  abandoned  in  favour  of  notions 
curiously  primitive.  The  fortification,  for  instance,  of  heights 
and  plateaux,  and  the  holding  of  them  as  fixed  positions, 
takes  us  back  to  the  campaagns  of  Julius  Casar,  for  that  was 
precisely  tlie  sort  of  resistance  offered  to  his  legions  bv  the 
i.auls.  And  the  reason  foir  its  resurrection  by. the  Germans 
in  tins  war  is  exactly  the  reason  why  it  was  resorted  to  by  the 
Gauls.  They  were  unab'ie  to  meet  the  legionaries  in  the 
op<n.  The.  Germans  in  this  war  have  never  fought  the 
Western  Allies  in  the  open  since  the  battle  of  the  Marne. 
The  Marne  was  a  test  of  their  abiUty  to  do  so,  and  a  \ery 
complete  test.  So  far  .as  they  are  concerned,  all  of  what  may- 
be called  the  finer  part  of  the  art  of  war,  skill  in  manoeuvre 
and  evolution,  has,  in  this  Western  campaign,  gone  by  the 
board. 

Another  primitive  -noiion  is  that  of  annexing  territory  by 
squatting  on  it.  and  of  defending  it  by  corporeal  possession. 
Tills  IS  the  barbarian  iciia  of  defence,  "because  it  is  an  idea 
antecedent  to  treaties,  or  international  comity  or  relation- 
ships. In  a  word,  both  in  this  respect  and  in  tlie  fortification 
of  heights  and  plateau:  <  the  Germans  have  acted  precisely 
as  would  their  progcnitj  jrs  2,000  years  ago. 

Hoth  these  practices,  which  reduce  the  German  professions 
of  military  science  alnn  1st  to  ridicule,  have  influenced  their 
proceedings  to  an  extrac  rdinary  degree.  We  have  to  suppose 
that  they  desire  absolut  sly  to  retain  as  much  of  the  territory 
f>f  l-'rance  as  possible,  a  r  alternatively  to  hold  it  to  ransom. 
Hut,  despite  that  desire  ,  the  safety,  not  to  say  the  fate,  of 
their  forces  in  France  m  ay  come  in  the  last  resort  to  depend 
upon  mobility.  They  n  lay,  that  is  to  say,  have  to  sink  the 
desire,  and  the  barbarian  practice  of  squatting,  in  the  necessity 
(<i  self-preservation.  \i  so  thev  must  be  ai)le  to  retreat  as 
an  army,  or  they  will  -nr  ver  retreat  at  all. 

Tlieir  front  betwecni  N'erdun  and  the  sea  still  forms  a  huge 
pronounced  salient- -a  .--onvex  which  involves  the  maximum 
of  exposure  to  attacj^  w/^h  the  minimum  power  of  resistance 


to  attack.  Under  pressure  on  both  faces  of  the  salient  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  it  also  means  immobility.  At  present 
the  immobility  may  not  signify  a  great  deal,  but  in  view  of 
the  disadvantages  inherent  in  the  conformation  of  the  front, 
immobility  may  very  well  come  to  signify  everything.  To 
hold  such  a  front,  for  instance,  calls  for  a  great  weight  of  troops, 
and  there  is  a  limit  below  which,  so  long  as  the  front  remains 
what  it  is.  that  weight  of  troops  cannot  be  allowed  to  fall. 
Coincidentally.  to  have  to  employ  a  great  weight  of  troops 
with  the  maximum  of  expf)sure  to  attack,  implies  something 
like  the  maximum  rate  of  losses.  Indeed,  the  rate  of  losses 
is  only  to  the  slightest  extent  in  such  circumstance.-)  under 
control,  and  if  tiie  hostile  force  has  a  superiority  in  guns  and 
in  air  work,  the  control  over  the  rate  of  losses  may  for  all 
practical  purposes  be  left  out  of  account  as  negligible. 

Now  manifestly  that  is  a  very  serious  position  for  any 
army  to  be  in,  and  although  the  desire  to  get  out  of  it  may 
conflict  with  the  desire  to  stick  to  what  the  Germans  have 
come  undoubtedly  to  look  upon  as  their  own,  yet  the  desire 
to  be  able  to  get  out  if  need  be,  must  always  be  present  as  a 
motive. 

The  one  way  of  ensuring  withdrawal  in  the  event  of  necessity 
is  to  have,  at  any  rate,  one  face  of  the  salient  secure.  Assum- 
ing it  to  be  secure  the  troops  on  the  other  face  might,  should 
necessity  dictate,  fall  back.  One  purpose,  at  any  rate,  of  the 
(ierman  defences  along  the  Aisne  and  across  Champignc  was, 
as  it  were,  to  keep  an  open  door  for  the  enemy's  right  wing. 
In  the  first  instance,  those  fortifications  were  intended  to  form 
the  pivot  for  offensive  operations  on  that  wing.  But  as  the 
campaign  on  the  West  shaped  itself,  these  works  became  in 
purpose  purely  defensive.  They. were  the  first  laid  out,  and 
the  Germans  clung  to  them  from  September  I()i4  to  May 
1917.  despite  every  assault.  In  May,  when  they  were  lost  to 
the  French,  the  German  position  in  the.  West,  as  a  whole, 
was  radically  altered.  There  was  increased  exposure  to 
attack  with  an  increased  total  rate  of  loss,  and  there  was  set 
lip  the  condition  of  immobility.  These  were  three  heavy 
disadvantages,  the  last  a  disadvantage  which,  if  not  remedied, 
tnighl  prove  fatal.  The  term,  immobility  is  employed  in  this 
connection  in  its  military  sense.  It  is  not  suggested,  and  , 
nobody  would  suggest,  that  they  could  not  as  individuals,  or 
as  groups  more  or  less  large,  retire  from  their  right  between 
the  Oise  and  the  sea  if  and  when  they  choose.  The  point 
is  their  retirement  as  an  army,  that  is  to  say  as  a  fighting 
organism.  Such  a  retirement  is  altogether  a  different  tiling 
from  tlie  withdrawal  of  a  crowd,  or  of  groups,  for  it  is  an 
operation  of  great  delicacy  and  risk,  and  ^s  such  strictly 
dependent  upon  the  conditions  imposed  by  strategy. 

(II).  The  German  Government  want  a  peace.  They  want  a 
peace  because  of  their  own  difficulties  over  man-power,  labour, 
foodstuffs  and  materials,  and  credit.  They  want  a  peace 
because  of  the  situation  in  Austria,  Bulgaria,  and  Turkey, 
and  because  of  the  developments  in  Greece.  But  they  want 
a  peace  which  will  save  the  autocracy  and  the  standing  and 
privileges  of  the  junkers,  a  peace  that  is  which  will  enable 
Germany  to  dodge  insolvency,  otherwise  certain  ;  a  jieace 
that  isay  be  proclaimed  as  a  .success.  The  question  is  how 
to  bring  about  such  a  peace  before  American  intervention  begins 
actively  to  take  effect.  It  is  as  clear  as  noonday  that  with  the 
military  situation  what  it  is  American  intervention  must  be 
the  last  straw. 

How  can  such  a  peace  be  brought  about  in  advance  of  active 
American  intervention  ?  There  is  here  an  evident  time  limit. 
Neither  the  U  boat  campaign,  nor  the  Stockholm  manoeuvres, 
nor  the  intrigues  and  the  promoting  disorders  in  Russia  are  in 
any  sense  of  the  word  certainties.  But  American  inter- 
vention is  a  certainty,  and  tlie  only  doubt  attaching  to  it  is 
how  long  the  prcjiarations  may  take. 

If  we  adopt  as  far  as  we  can  the  present  Gorman  point  of 
view,  the  chief  obstacle  to  such  a  peace  will  readily  aj)pear  to 
be*  l-rance.  The  only  means  of  dealing  with  England  is 
isolation.  But  France  is  possibly>  just  possibly — this,  of 
course,  is  a  hypothesis  of  German  opinion  and  not  my  viere — 
an  obstacle  that  is  removable.  Undeniably  civilian  agita- 
tion in  France,  without  influence  or  following,  is  the 
flimsiest  of  flimsy  straws.  But  the  would-be  conquerors  of 
Europe  in  1914  cannot  afford  to  neglect  straws  in  1917.  Is 
it  possible  in  the  circumstances  to'  doubt  that  the  openly 
expressed  discontent  with  the  French  army  and  with  its 
leading,  ill-informed  and  irresponsible  as  that  expression  is, 
has  influenced  German  designs  and  given  birth  to  German 
hopes  ?  Is  it  ]K)Ssible  to  doubt  that  five  Germans  now  con- 
sider Russia  as  a  fighting  quantity  counted  out  ? 

(ITI).     Tli''<''  ^i "-dilations,  let  lis  suppose  it  said,  may  bf. 


June  28,  ]()i7 


LAiNU    &     WATER 


interesting,  but  altfi  all  ihcy  arc  nu  nioru  than  speculati(jii.-. 
However  probable  they  cannot  be  accepted  as  facts.  But 
let  us  sec  what  furtlier  light  is  thrown  on  the  matter  from  its 
tactical  aspect.  The  first  point  that  comes  into  view  here  is 
the  appearance  on  the  scene  of  the  so-called  "  stosstaippen  " 
or  shock-troops.  They  seem  to  have  been  evolved  from  two 
sources — one  the  usual  selection  from  the  army  at  large  of  the 
most  physically  fit  men  ;  the  other,  the  transfer  of  divisions 
from  the  front  in  Russia  and  Roumania,  divisions  which, 
according  tothe  German  standard,  are  or  were  of  the  "crack  " 
variety.^  Again,  there  seems  to  be  between  the  "  stoss- 
truppen,"  and  tlie  now  apparently" obsolete  "  sturmtruppen," 
a  ditference  which  justifies  tlie  change  of  term.  The  "  stoss- 
tmppen  "  are  the  admitted  product  of  a  study  of  Allied 
tactics.  The  German  has  observed  tJiat  Allied  tactics  have 
given  results  which  his  own  troops  have  not  been  able  to 
rival.  As  his  manner  is  he  puts  this  down  purely  and  simply 
to  the  method.  To  copy  the  metho<l  is.  according  to  his 
thinking,  to  ensure  the  results.  That  is  perhaps  not  an  unfair 
sununary  of  .his  argument.  Its  weak  ])oint,  that  is  to  say  its 
fallacy,  consists  in  looking  upon  men  as  automata,  who  will 
act  in  the  same  way  if  only  the  strings  be  manipulated  in  the 
same  way.  Starting  from  tliat  as  a  self-evident  proposition 
the  "  stosstruppen,"  selected  and  transferred,  are  exercised 
and  trained  after  the  Allied  manner,  and  ought  in  theory  to 
hoist  the  engineer  with  his  own  petard. 

In  passing  two  observations  suggest  tliemselves.  The  first 
relates  to  this  peculiar  German  practice  of  selection — a 
practice  which  has  marked  the  Prussian  military  service  since 
the  days  of  the  Elector  who  collected  all  the  giants  of  Europe. 
Not  so  much  pcrha}>s  was  heard  about  crack  corps  in  the 
time  of  the  elder  Moltke,  for  the  chances  are  that,  being  a 
capable  soldier,  he  did  not  believe  in  them.  But  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war  the  crack  corps  idea  was  ram]}ant,  and  the 
weakness  of  the  German  army  was  that  the  bulk  was  not 
equal  to  the  face.  .So  far  from  having  died  out  during  the 
war,  this  practice  of  j-utting  a  "  face  "  on  the  force  has  become 
still  more  accentuated.  It  is  one  of  the  devices  for  restoring 
moral  sliaken  by  reverses.  I'irst  there  were  particular  regi- 
ments picked  out  for  mention  ;  then  there  were  the  "  sturm- 
truppen "  as  a  grade  by  themselves  ;  now  we  have  the 
"  stosstruji|)en."  With  every  successive  draft  upon  it  of  this 
kind  the  fighting  value  of  the  bulk  is  lowered.  And  the  very 
necessity  of  creating  such  classes  is  at  once  a  revelation  of  the 
real  opinion  which  the  German  Command  entertains  con- 
cerning the  mass,  and  a  confession  of  the  Allied  superiority. 
Further,  every  successive  defeat  of  these  "  face  "  troops  means 
for  the  (krman  army  a  doivmiard  step  ivhich  cannot  be  retrieved. 

The  second  observation  is  that  the  practice,  for  that  reason, 
involves  military  risks  to  which  the  German  Higher  Command 
assuredly  is  now  oblivious. 

If  then  this  enterprise  against  the  French  was  one  that 
called  for  the 'creation  of  "stosstruppen"  and  for  their 
training  on  the  Allied  model,  it  must  have  been  considered 
an  enterprise  of  first-class  consequence.  There  is  again  the 
time  necessary  for  the  evolution  of  such  troops.  The  be- 
ginning no  doubt  was  made  with  crack  divisions  transferred  to 
the  West,  and  the  training  of  the  selections  went  on  in  the 
meantime.  AW  the  probabilities  point  to  the  design  being,  as 
a  design,  of  by  no  means  recent  date.  It  was  probably  antici- 
pated by  the  French  offensive  in  May.  and  it  was  undoubtedly 
interruiited  by  the  defeat    at    wytschaetc  and   Messines. 

Looking  at  these  careful  tactical  preparations,  at  the 
strategical  situation,'and  at  the  urgencv  of  the  political  motive, 
few  Ciwi  be  surprised  to  find  the  sciieme  taking  precedence 
of  every  other  demand. 

It  is  not  open  to  'question  that  the  battle  of  the  Somnie 
enlightened  the  German  Command  as  to  the  modern  capa- 
bilities of  the  attack,  and  it  does  not  need  the  free  entry  of  the 
Cierman  Headtiuarters  to  infer  witii  every  confidence  that 
there  was  a  thorough  study  of  their  own  methods  at  V'erdun  as 
contrasted  with  those  of  the  Allies  on  the  Somme.  To  this 
study  Vimy  Ridge  must  have  given  a  further  impetus,  while 
the  loss  of  the  Aisne  and  Champagne  positions  must  have  added 
to  it  the  sharp  edge  of  fear  of  revenge. 

(IV).  The  one  fact  that  stands  out,  and  is  left  by  re- 
flection unchallenged,  is  the  momentousness  of  these  opera- 
tions from  the  enemy's  standpoint.  To  suppose  that  so  many 
risks  were  run  both  on  the  P:ast  in  tlie  withdrawal  of  troops 
and  on  the  West  in  a  further  application  of  the  selection 
idea,  and  all  for  the  sake  of  seizing  a  few  odds  and  ends  of 
advance  trenches  which  in  the  sum  total  of  the  battle  make 
no  dift'erence  whatever,  is  a  redtictio  ad  absurdum.  The 
issues  at  stake  were  the  safety  of  the  German  army,  and  the 
conclusion  of  the  war  as  a  disaster  never  to  be  retrieved,  or 
as  some  sort  of  "  victorious  "  peace. 

But  the  success  had  to  be  a  definite  success,  and  not  one  or 
another  of  the  several  degrees  of  failure.  Was  such  a  success 
expected  ?  .-\fter  the  Somme,  \\m\.  and  Messines  unquestion- 
ably it  was.     Were  not  the  •'  stosstruppen  "  trained  as  Allied 


iiiiautry,  and  besitics  such  Iraiuuig,  were  they  nut  Gcimans, 
that  is  to  Say,  superior  to  anything  the  Allies  could  pro- 
duce ?  Why  then  should  not  they  sweep  the  French  out  of 
these  positions  ? 

Of  course  the  fallacy  of  the  reasoning  is  to  any  impartial 
mind  nothing  less  than  glaring.  To  begin  with,  and  this  is  a 
capital  fact,  the  importance  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  over- 
estimate, the  whole  of  the  French  and  British  infantry  if  it 
comes  to  that  are  "  stoSstruppen."  They  are  ''  stosstruppen  " 
armies.  The  difference  is  a  difference  of  system,  and  the 
difference  of  system  is  founded  ultimately  on  race,  or  character, 
the  character  being  the  resultant  of  political  freedom  and  of 
history.  Two  currents  of  history  meet  in  the  clash  of  battle, 
one  the  expression  of  self-reliance  and  indejiendence,  the  other 
the  expression  of  servility  organised  l^y  officialism,  that  is  to 
say  CsEsarism,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  This  is  the  real 
Nemesis  the  over-blown  ambition  of  Ger"man  autocracy 
has  conjured  ujj,  in  challenging  the  free  nations  of  Europe 
and  America  to  arms.  • 

Strategic  Hesults 

(V).  If,  therefore,  there  be  an  impression  that  the  latest 
episodes  of  the  battle  in  France  are  but  of  minor  consetjuence, 
that  impression  is  wrong.  The  repulse  of  these  German  attacks 
along  t-he  valley  of  the  Ailette  has  been  the  withering  of  a  great 
German  hope — great  though  ill-founded.  It  has  been  ;i 
phase  of  the  battle  that  will  contribute  materially  to  the 
German  autocracy's  final  discomfiture,  and  to  its  destruc- 
tion. The  strategical  results  too,  are  not  to  be  overlooked. 
With  the  repulse  of  an  efi'ort  of  this  kind,  and  more  so  with 
the  repulse  of  every  succeeding  effort,  the  situation  of  the 
German  army  with  its  deadly  disadvantages  becomes  the 
more  confirmed.  The  persistent  battering-ram  blows  of 
the  British  army  owe  no  small  jiart  of  their  eft'ect  to  the 
(ierman  immobility.  Indeed,  in  no  slight  degree  they  are 
the  more  severe  as  shocks  because  they  carmot  be  avoideil. 
In  standing  up  to  them,  the  (jermans  make  a  virtue  of  neces- 
sity. Not  to  stand  up  to  them  would  be  to  precipitate  dis- 
integration, for  it  wouldbeattem]3ting  a  practically  impossible 
manoeuvre.  In  the  meantime  disintegration  proceeds  apace. 
It  may  be  thought  that  the  appearance  of  "  stosstruppen  " 
indicates  German  resourcefulness  in  organisation.  It  is.  a 
sign  of  disintegration,  because  it  is  a  sign  of  falling  moral. 
The  non-success  of  such  a  device  is  felt  over  the  enemy  force  as 
a  :wholc.  Setting  up  a  distinction  between  the  mass  of  tiie 
army  and  a  minority  of  "  heroes,"  it  not  only  by  implication 
reveals  the  limited  confidence  felt  in  the  mass,  but  it  inevitably 
causes  the  mass  to  conclude  that  where  the  heroic  minority 
cannot  succeed  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  them  to 
succeed.  .  It  is  just  the  sort  of  idea  to  commend  itself  to  a 
shallow  intellect  enamoured  of  catch-words. 

The  material  losses  of  the  enem\-  are  important,  but  they 
are  after  all  only  half  the  tale.  The  lowering  of  moral  must 
be  kept  in  mind  if  we  are  to  form  a  truthful  picture.  Contrast 
the  operations  at  W  ytschaete  and  Messines  with  this  fighting 
along  the  Ailette.  The  task  set  to  the  German  assaulting 
troops  in  the  latter  instance  was  not  a  whit  more  difiicnlt 
than  thAt  apparently  set  before  the  British  troops  in  the 
former.  Indeed,  it  was  less  difficult,  so  far  as  the  defences 
to  be  taken  were  concerned. 

The  truth  remains  that  men  are  men,  and  are  not  reduced 
by  military  discipline  to  atoms  or  molecules  of  a  system. 
An  army  is  not  a  mechanism,  it  is  an  organism,  and  the 
central  fact  of  an  organism  is  vitality.  It  is  the  intensity 
more  or  less  of  the  vitality  as  the  organism  which  is  called 
moral,  that  quality  to  which  soldiers,  and  most  of  all  soldiers 
of  experience,  attach  such  supreme  importance.  The  phti- 
nomenon  presented  to  us,  if  we  choose  to  regard  it,  in  this 
fateful  conflict  in  France  is  only  in  a  minor  degree  the  gain 
or  loss  of  positions.  In  the  major  degree  it  is  the  decline  in 
the  vitality  of  t;he  German  organism,  and  the  coincident 
intensification,  in  the  vitality  of  the  Allied  organisms. 

Consider  the  state  of  matters  disclosed  by  the  latest  raids 
and  attacks  along  the  British  front.  A  British  raid  is  now 
more  often  than  not  the  signal  for  the  enemy  to  bolt.  The 
Germans  used  to  take  to  earth,  but  that  proved  to  be  too 
dangerous.  We  may  say  if  we  like  that  these  local  and 
temporary  retreats  are  an  expedient  for  reducing  casualties. 
But  thev  leave  the  defences  to  be  destroyed,  and  the  labours 
of  months  to  be  wiped  out  in  half  an  hour.  There  was  a  time, 
but  a  few  weeks  back,  when  apparently  the  defences  counted 
for  more  than  the  defenders.  If  that  estimate  has  been 
reversed  either  the  defenders  are  no  longer  plentiful  enough 
to  be  sacrificed,  or  they  cannot  be  held  up  to  it.  In  all  likeli- 
hood something  of  both  numbers  and  moral  enters  into  the 
explanation.  At  any  rate  the  disintegration,  and  the 
lowering  of  the  German  army's  organic  vitality  goes  on  day 
by  day.  and  the  non-success  of  the  operations  along  the 
Ailette  has  banged  and  bolted  the  last  possible  exit. 


-b 


LAND    &    WATER 


June 


1917 


Motherbank 

By    the    Author  of  Ji  Qrand  Fleet    Chaplains   Note   ^ook 


JOHN  WILMOT  TALLIS,  retired  Conunander  R.N.. 
stood  at  a  window  in  his  house  near  Cowes,  and  swore 
saftly  to  himself  as  he  looked  down  upon  the  ancient 
ships  lying  in  the  Motherbank. 

Tlu'v  reminded  him  too  forcibly  that  his  own  day,  like 
theirs,"  was  done  :  the  Navy  had  no  more  use  for  him  than 
it  had  for  these  vessels  whose  names  appeared  only  at  the  end 
of  the  Navy  list  under  the  heading  of  Obsolete  and  for  sale. 
Moreover,  the  bitterness  was  increased  by  the  fact  that  at  least 
two  of  the  craft  beneath  his  eyes  were  ships  in  which  he  had 
served  years  before ;  and  smart  ships  too,  they  had  been 
in  their  liay. 

But  theirday  was  over,  long  ago.  Row  after  row  ef  such 
obsolete  vessels  lay  bnnched  together  in  the  Motherbank  ; 
old  battleships,  old  cruisers,  old  gunboats  and  torixido-craft  ; 
vessels,  in  short,  of  iilmost  every  typ)e— a  complete,  if  small, 
iiavv  in  themselves  ;   and  all  of  them  hopelessly  out  of  date. 

There  was  surely  some  kindly  sentiment  that  suggested  the 
Motherbank  as  a' last,  jesting"  place  for  these  ancient  ships. 
The  verv  name  seemed  to  promise  a  peaceful  shelter  for  them 
—as  thiiugh  a  tender  mother  were  gathering  her  tired  children 
to  rest  in  her  arms  after  a  long,  long  day. 

Commander  Tallis.  however,  was  not  deceived  by  any  such 
seniiment  ;  lit-  knew  that  the  old  ships,  rotting  and  rusting 
in  the  Motherbank,  were  in  a  like  case  with  those  old  worn- 
out  j'.orscs  that  wait  for  the  knacker's  yard.  From  time  to 
t.ra;  a  ship  would  disappear,  sold  to  be  broken  up  ;  and  it 
was  rather  ghastly  to  look  at  the  ever  dwindling  remainder 
and  wonder\vhich' would  be  the  next  to  be  led  away. 

As  a  mitter  of  fact,  both  ideas  were  quite  mistaken — 
the  dismal  idea  equally  with  the  sentimental  one.  Ships  are 
very  much  alive,  and  have  very  highly  developed  personali- 
ties of  their  own,  as  every  sailor  knows  ;  and  their  being  placed 
on  the  Retired  List,  so  to  sjx^ak,  had  no  more  effect  on  these 
old  Salts  than  on  Ccmmandcr  Tallis  himself. 

.\live  they  were,  and  all  their  old  characteristics  still  clung 
to  them,  accentuated  even  by  increasing  years.  Brought 
together  by  chance,  and  doomed  to  long  companionship 
with  one  another,  the  sliij)s  constituated  a  sort  of  Club  :  a  club 
into  which  all  sorts  of  incongruous  members  liad  obtained 
entran -e,  and  where  even  ladies  had  gained  a  footing. 

Oh,  the  times  that  have  been  !  And  Ah,  the  days  that 
we've  seen  !  That  formed  the  subject-mittcr  of  most  of 
the  converse  on  tlie  Motherbank.  Wild  days,  too,  some  of 
them,  by  all  accounts  ;  as  the  ground-swell  gently  rocked  the 
\cterans  you.  could  have  sworn  they  were  shaking  their 
great  sides  and  chuckling  over  their  rerriiniscences  ! 

"  You  mustn't  judge  me  by  what  I  am  now,"  said  the 
great  battleship  Hood  ; — "  you  should  have  seen  me  in  my 
old  Channel  Fleet  days  !  My  sides  were  as  black  as  your  hat 
then,  and  shining  like  a  dollar — none  of  your  nasty-  grey 
])aint  that  they  spoil  ships  with  nowadays  !  And.  as  for  my 
bright  work — why,  it  positively  made  you  winls  !  Oh,  I  tell 
you,  1  was  some  ship  in  those  days  !" 

This  remark  was  intended  for  the'  benefit  of  a  little  knot 
of  smaller  ships  lying  near. 

"  1  shouldn't  be  surprised,"  growled  the  old  admiral  Anson, 
"  if  we  wera  to  get  a  look  in,  even  yet.  They  may.  be  glad  of 
us  before  things  are  finished  with  !" 

"  I  shouldn't  be  surprised,"  growled  retired  C6mmander 
John  Wilmot  Tallis  as  he  stood  at  his  window  and  swore 
softly  to  himesif — "  I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if  some  of  .us 
retired  fellows  were  to  get  a  look  in  yet .  They  may  be  glad  of  us 
before  it  is  all  over."  Then  he  held  forth  for  quite  a  long 
tiinc  on  the  degeneracy  of  naval  men  of  the  present  time  as 
compared  with  those  of  his  own  day.  There  was  nobody  to 
listen  to  him,  but  it  relieved  his  mind. 

At  least,  he  thought   there  was  no  one  to  listen  to  him. 

Gillian,  his  daughter,  coming  up  behind  him  quietly,  put 
a  soft  hand  over  his  mouth. 

I  regret  to  say  she  giggled.  "  It  ought  to  be  ashamed  of 
itself,  so  it  did,  saying  all  those  naughty  words,"  she  ad- 
monished him.  as  she  tucked  her  arm  into  his  and  led  him  out 
through  the  French  window  on  to  the  lawn. 

Gillian,  I  am  afraid,  did  not  take  her  father  very  seriously. 
To  do  her  justice,  however,  she  was  always  ready  to  make 
excuses  for  liim.  "  Vou  can't  blame  him,  after  all,"  she  used 
to  say.  "  if  he  does  get  a  bit  qiiarter-decky  at  times,  after  the 
poor  darling  has  sfjcnt  all  tho.se  years  at  sea  !" 

Lieutenant  Dane  agreed  on  this  jwint  with  Gillian.  Though, 
to  tell  the  truth,  there  were  very  few  points  on  which  he  did  not 
agree  with  her,  because  he  lifted  her  very  much  indeed  - 
as  you  would  have  done  too,  if  you  had  known  her.  Jack 
Dane,  having  lately  obtained  his  lieutenant's  stripe,  and  ser- 


ving as  he  was  in  one  of  the  newest  and  fastest  light  cruisers, 
could  afford  to  be  indulgent  towards  those  who  were  un- 
fortunate enough  to  have  Ix-en  left  out  of  the  war. 

"  It  must  be  awfully  rough  on  your  Governor,"  he  said, 
"  being  stuck  on  the  be^ch  and  obliged  to  watch  us  other 
blighters  getting  all  the  fun.  Doesn't  he  hate  it  ?  Why 
doesn't  he  try  to  get  taken  on  again  ?" — "As  if  he  hasn't 
tried !"  Laughed  Gillian.  "  Why,  the  poor  dear  has  been 
badgering  the  Admiralty  to  give  him  a  job  since  the  very  day 
the  war  broke  out  !" 

"  Well  it  seems  jolly  hard  lines,"  commented  Jack.  "  lie 
might  do  very  well — not  of  course,  in  a  modern  ship,  but 
there's  many  a  billet  that  would  suit  him.  Why,  \»  might 
cover  himself  with  glory  and  medals — you  never  Jknow  !" 
Again  this  undutiful  daughter  giggled.  "Fancy  Dad  being 
a  Little  Hero!"  she  replied;     "can  you  imagine  it?" 

By  a  curious  coincidence  it  happened  that  just  about  that 
very  time  a  rumour  became  current  amongst  the  ships  of  the 
Grand  Fleet  to  the  cft'ect  that  some  of  the  ancient  vessels 
in  the  Motherbank  were  to  be  put  into  commission.  Jack 
Dane's  ship,  the  Caroline — (an  inveterate  gossip,  Caroline)^ 
came  alongside  the  Iron  Duke  one  day  and  spread  the  yarn. 
"  Have  you  heard  the  news  ?"  she  sniggered  ;  — "  they 
are  actually  going  to  comniisiion  old  Hecuba  !  What  good  can 
she  be  ?  Why,  she  has  been  out  of  the  Navy  for  yeais  and 
years,  laid  up  at  the  Motherbank  !" 

The  majestic  Iron  Duke  looked  down  upon  the  little  chatter- 
bo.x  with  a  slight  frown.  It  was,  he  felt,  somewhat  lowering  to 
his  flignity  even  to  permit  himself  to  be  addressed  in  such  a 
frivolous  manner.  So  he  replied,  courteously  yet  conclusively, 
"  The  older  vessels  are  by  no  means  to  be  despised."  And 
Caroline  flicked  her  screws  and  sheered  off  with  a  hoity- 
toity  bows-in-the-air  attitude. 

It  was  a  great  day  for  Commander  Tallis  when  he  received 
an  appointment  to  the  Hecuba,  in  command.  Not  so  for 
Jack  Dane,  sent  to  the  same  ship  and  taken  out  of  his  modern 
cruiser-;  though  the  fact  that  tlie  Hecuba  was  cummissionod 
"  for  special  service  "  hel])3d  to  mitigate  his  chagrin,  since 
the  termri  of  such  a  commission  seemed  to  hold  out  Iioikjs  of 
something  (jut  of  the  ordinary  —peiiiap>  the  chance  of  a  scrap. 
And  now  behold  the  old  Hecuba  renewing  the  days  of  her 
youth  !  True,  she  felt  strange  at  first  in  her  ncwgrey  dress  — 
but—if  one  may  express  it  thus  coarsely — she  had  a  very 
satisfied  feeling  below  the  b'.'lt,  now  that  her  magazines  and* 
storerooms  were  filled  as  of  olden  days.  And  it  was  good 
also  to  feel  the  deep  Atlantic  beneath  her  keel.  So  she 
flung  up  her  head  coquettishly  on  meeting  the  long  rollers, 
old  acquaintances  of  the  bygone  days,  and  tossed  the  white 
spray  aside  in  her  playfulness.  Oh,  it  was  a  fine  thing  to  be 
a  "Ship  of  War  at  Sea  "  again,  and  not  a  sheer  hulk  lying 
helpless  and  useless  at  the  Jlotherbank  ! 

Commander  Tallis  had  veiy  much  the  same  sort  of  feeling.  . 
But  the  greatest  day  of  all,  both  for  ship  and  ship's  company 
was  the  day  that  they  met  the  German  raider  and  fought 
that  description  of  fight  which  is  the  highest  ambition  of  a 
sailor — a  single-ship  action. 

For  full  three  hours  they  kept  at  it,  hammer  and  tongs, 
ding-dong,  up  and  dowii,  manceuvring  for  position,  and 
blazing  away  for  all  tliev  were  worth.  The  German  was  a 
much  larger  vessel  and  carried  a  heavier  armament,  but  the 
old  Hecuba  stood  up  to  her  and  gave  as  good  as  she  got.  She 
was  badly  knocked  about ;  already  several  fires  had  been 
extinguished  with  difficulty  and  at  the  same  time  the  carpenters 
had  to  cope  with  the  water  that  poured  in  at  the  watcrlinc. 
Casualties  were  many,  and  TaUis  himself  was  carrying  his 
left  arm  in  an  improvised  sling.  But  the  German  ship  was  in 
no  better  case,  and  had  received  just  as  severe  a  hammering. 
Neither  vessel,  however,  had-been  ]iut  out  of  action  even  after 
all  this  fighting,  and  it  looked  as  though  the  engagement 
might  continue  for  many  hours  more  at  this  rate. 

"There  came  a  time,  though,  when  the  raider's  fire  began 
to  slacken.  And  just  about  the  same  period  of  the  action 
Lieutenent  Dane,  who  was  in  the  battery,  dashed  up  to  the 
captain  with  a  ruuful  face  to  report  that  all  the  ammunition 
was  expended  :  the  last  round  had  been  fired,  and  the  guns 
were  now  useless  ! 

lividently  the  raider  was  fast  approaching  the  same  con- 
dition ;  but  she  had  not  (luilc  arrived  at  it  yet,  and  was  still 
liring,  though  only  intermittently. 

Now,  th(v//('f»/;rt  had  been  doing  a  power  of  thinking  iluriiig 

all  these  strenuous  hours.     Something  about  her  opponent 

\aguely  recalled  a  dim  memory,  and  she  racked  her  brains 

in  vain  to  try  and  recollect  it. 

Ub  yes,   it  dawned  on  her  after  a   while ;    she    had    met 


Ju»: 


2?S. 


T917 


LAND .  it     WATER 


^hat  ship  Ix'lore !  But  just  when  and  wliorc  she  could  not 
remember,  any  more  than  she  could  put  a  name  to  her. 
There  was  a  certain  unpleasantness  connected  with  this 
vaj^'ue  memory  too.  What  a  nuisance  that  she  was  unable 
to  recall  the  details,  try  how  she  might!  Then  all  of  a  sudden, 
it  came  back  to  her,  iiist  at  the  very  mon^ent  when  Dane  was 
making  his  report  about  ammunition.  "  By  jove,  yes ! 
She's  the  old  Hertha !  The  clumsy  beggar  that  drifted 
across  my  bows  in  'q^  and  carried  away  my  starboard  sponson  ! 
I'll  sponson  her  now,  see  if  1  don't  1  This  is  where'  i  get  a 
bit  of  m}'  own  back  !" 


And  with  a  quick  leap  ahead  she  charged  at  her  ancient 
enemy  arid  rammed  her  amidships,  .^nd  that  was  the  last 
of  the  Hertha  ! 

Afterwards,  when  Jack  Dane  told  Gillian  that  her  father 
had  fought  his  ship  magnificently,  she  said  "  1  told  you  so  ! 
And  yet  you  laughed  at  me  for  calling  him  a  hero  !  Now, 
then  '.""-Which  was  just  like  Gillian.  And  when  the 
n^ws  reached  Motherbank  the  old  ships  recked  happily  with  the 
tide,  well  pleased  that  one  of  their  number  liad  achieved 
immortal  fame  ;  for  they  felt  that  the  glory  was  reflected  on 
them  all — all  the  ships  of  the  Motherbanlc 


Why  There  Must  be  Victory 

By  G.  K.  Chesterton 


OUR  attention  would  probably  bt  arrested,  if  we 
walked  along  the  street  and  saw  a  butcher's  shop 
in  which  the  dead  bodies  of  human  beings  were 
hung  up  for  sale.  We  should  think  it  an  innovation 
of  serious  import  ;  and  any  explanations  offered  would  leave 
us  vaguely  dissatisfied.  We  might  be  told  it  was  only  a 
detail  in  the  terms  of  peace  recently  made  with  the  King  of 
the  Cannibal  Islands,  after  a  war  in  which  that  prince  was 
foiled  in  his  ambitions,  and  forbidden  to  kidnap  foreigners 
for  the  national  food  supply.  We  might  be  assured  that 
1he  traffic  was  now  strictly  confined  to  the  subjects  of  this 
foreign  state.  It  might  be  explained,  for  instance,  that  the 
shop  supplied  only  those  diplomatists  attached  to  the  Embassy 
of  the  Cannibal  islands  round  the  corner.  It  might  be  said 
that,  even  for  this  purpose,  it  was  confined  to  the  corpses  of 
criminals  legally  t'xecuted  by  the  Cannibal  Commonwealth. 
But  all  this  would  but  ])artially  appease  a  sense  of  unrest 
and  i^erhaps  unreasonable  repugnance  ;  a  vague  atmosphere 
of  regret  and  alarm  wliich,  when  approximately  analysed, 
would  resolve  itself  into  two  fundamental  impressions. 
One  would  be  an  impression  that  the  King  of  the  Cannibal 
Islands  had  not  been  very  badly  beaten.  The  other  would 
be  the  impression  that  people  in  London  had  lost  something  of 
the  first  freshness  of  their  horror  of  cannibalism. 

Now  to-day  one  question  underlies  all  other  questions  m 
Eurojie.  Is  this  \Aar  to  wash  the  world,  or  to  stain  it  for  ever? 
There  are  many  other  reasons  for  refusing  the  cosmopolitan 
conipromise  with  whicli  some  humanitarians  would  now  con- 
clude the  war.  But  of  the  two  or  three  reasons  which  I  wish 
to  note  here,  I  will  ])ut  first  this  psychological  point  of  a  habi- 
tuation to  horror  ;  of  which  the  above  paragraph  is  not  at 
all  an  exaggerated  parable.  Indeed,  so  far  from  being  an 
exaggeration,  it  is  rather  an  understatement.  The  mere 
eating  of  human  corpses  is  a  matter  of  taste,  compared  with 
some  of  the  departures  of  Prussianised  Germany  in  what  are 
clearly  matters  of  morality.  As  for  the  defence  of  it  in  theory, 
it  would  be,  like  most  sophistry,  a  matter  of  insane  simplicity. 
I  could  myself  j^roduce  in  twenty  minutes  the  scheme  of  the 
monumental  "  Defence  of  Anthropophagy  "  which  a 
Prussian  professor  could  produce  in  twenty  years.  It  would 
be  a  matter  of  talking  ideally  about  the  dignity  of  digestion, 
of  de.-5cribing  the  line  between  beasts  and  men  as  a  matter  of 
degree,  of  sympathising  with  the  savages  who  eat  a  brave 
enemy  as  a  compliment,  of  misinterpreting  the  language 
which  refers  to  eating  as  a  sacrament  ;  of  calling  canniba- 
lism "incorporation,"  or  the  highest  form  of  human  unity. 
The  Prussian  professor  need  say  no  more  than  this  nonsense  ; 
though  he  would  fill  several  volumes  with  the  statistics  of 
the  savage  tribes  and  the  description  of  the  digestion,  with 
diagrams.  He  could  find  historical  inspiration  in  the  heroic 
lore  of  the  German  lM)lk  ;  for  there  was  cannibalism  in 
Germany  as  late  as  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  German  thought 
might  any  day  propose  the  revival  of  anthropophagy,  as  it 
is  already  in  some  quarters  proposing  the  revival  of  polygamy. 
The  point  is  that  the  presence  of  this  thing  after  a  war  with 
its  champions,  its  presence  though  merely  tolerated,  though 
carefully  conditioned,  though  theoretically  limited  to  its 
present  sphere — the  presence  of  their  shop  in  our  street  would 
prove  that  something  had  appeared  on  earth  that  was  stronger 
than  civilisation. 

Now  (iermany  has  in  this  war  committed  cruelties  worse 
than  cannibalism.  She  has  publicly  confessed  and  commanded 
acts  that  had  hitherto  been  considered  exactly  as  we  consider 
cannibalism.  Her  soldiers  have  not  only  done,  but  been 
ordered  to  do,  things  the  wickedness  of  which  has  long  been 
a  popular  proverb  ;  such  as  poisoning  wells.  They  have 
carried  off  women  and  children  into  literal  bondage,  in  the 
manner  attributed  to  literal  heathens  and  literal  barbarians 
by  every  historian  or  moralist  who  has  distinguished  between 
such  barbarians  and  Christendom  or  modern  Europe.  They 
h.nve  done  things  that  nobody  had  ever  ihought  of,   far    less 


palliated,  such  as  crucifying  babies.  Everyone  was  aghast 
at  tflSSe  unheard-of  things  when  they  were  first  done  ;  a 
few'Senied  them  ;  nobody  dreamed  of  merely  accepting  them. 
They  have  only  come  to  be  recognised  by  being  repeated  ; 
as  if  the  sensationalism  of  a  murder  grew  milder  because  it 
turned  into  a  massacre.  Now  these  things  will  really  become 
human  habits  unless  one  thing  is  secured  ;  unless  the  horror 
we  all  felt,  when  v^e  first  had  to  deal  with  them,  is  expressed 
in  our  attitude  when  we  finally  have  to  deal  with  them. 
The  way  we  end  the  war  must  express  the  amazement,  as 
well  as  the  abhorrence,  we  felt  at  the  way  they  began  the  war. 
We  must  keep  inviolate  the  virgin  astonishment  of  our  anger. 
If  we  do  not,  it  means  that  they  have  not  only  degraded  war, 
but  they  have  degraded  us.  It  means  that  they  have  not 
only  dulled  the  conscience  of  their  subjects,  but  the  conscience 
of  their  enemies.  It  means  that  what  our  own  souls  once, 
saw  as  a  dance  of  devils  has  become  for  us,  as  for  the  blinded 
Prussians,  a  dull  routine  of  discipline  ;  that  henceforth  the 
corpses  of  a  massacre  will  be  a  mere  self-repeating  pattern 
like  the  uniforms  of  a  regiment ;  that  henceforth  a  column 
-of  slaves  will  go  by  with  as  mechanical  a  beat  as  a  column  of 
soldiers  ;  and  that  even  a  child  nailed  to  a  door  would  tell 
us  little,  except  that  it  was  as  dead  as'  a  door  nail.  But  it 
would  not  be  the  child  that  was  dead. 

That  is  the  first  and  most  elemental  fact  ;  .that  if  the  end 
does  not  somehow  express  the  holy  horror  of  the  beginning 
— then  for  our  enemies  as  for  ourselves  there  will  be  no  pur- 
gation but  only  perpetuation.  Blood  shamefully  shed  will 
have  soaked  into  the  earth  and  the  smell  of  it  will  never 
depart.  There  will  be  more  wars,  of  course,  and  in  every  war 
these  monkey  tricks  will  have  become  military  models. 
But  even  the  peace  will  be  full  of  this  war  ;  of  the  lost  stan- 
dards and  sickening  pessimism  of  such  a  war.  There  is  only  one 
way  to  wake  from  such  a  nightmare,  and  that  is  to  punish 
Prussia  as  one  punishes  something  quite  new  and  unnatural 
in  history.  And  the  only  way  to  punish  Prussia  is,  of  course,  to 
conquer  "her.  If  we  allow  her  stately  diplomatists  to  dictate 
this  and  that  in  the  terms  of  an  ordinary  treaty— well,  it  is 
precisely  as  if  we  allowed  the  stately  diplomatists  of'  the 
Embassy  of  the  Cannibal  Islands  to  keep  a  camiibal  shop 
round  the  corner.  We  are  admitting  an  entirely  new  sort  of 
butcher  into  our  social  circle.  We  condone  something  we 
can  never  afterwards  condemn.  This,  I  say,  is  the  first  fact, 
psychological  or  rather  spiritual.  But  for  those  for  whom  this 
is  what  they  would  call  too  mystical,  and  I  should  call  too 
moral,  there  are  quite  cold  and  practical  reasons  that  drive 
us  directly  to  the  same  end.  The  first,  of  course,  is  the 
inevitable  imminence  of  another  war  ;  which  again,  being 
a  fact,  has  many  facets.  Perhaps  the  simplest  way  of  sta- 
ting it  is  this  ;  it  can  be  proved  that  all  Prussia's  original 
reasons  for  prompting  this  war  will  remain  and  will  indeed 
be  renewed. 

The  opinion,  or  rather  the  certainty,  that  Prussia  will,  if 
she  can,  return  to  the  charge,  is  not  in  itself  any  part  of  the 
accusation  against  Prussia.  It  is  part  of  the  defence  always 
offered  for  Prussia  ;  of  the  only  defence  ever  offered  for 
Prussia.  The  one  plea  made  for  modern  Germany,  of  which 
we  have  all  of  us  heard  hundreds  of  times  wherever  there  was 
any  difference  of  opinion  about  modern  Germany,  was  the 
argument  that  modern  Germany  is  too  big  for  its  boundaries. 
We  were  told  it  would  be  forced  to  overflow  ;  and  it  was 
the  friends,  not  the  enemies,  of  Germany  who  told  us  it  was 
forced  to  overflow.  More  often  it  was  not  even  the  friends  of 
Germany  so  much  as  the  Germans  themselves.  Whether 
we  think  this  a  weak  or  a  strong  reason  for  the  removal  of 
a  neighbour's  landmark,  it  is  quite  self-evident  that  it  re- 
mains as  weak  or  as  strong  as  before,  after  a  peace  that  merely 
restores  the  neighbour's  landmark.  It  is,  of  course,  a  ma- 
terialistic argument  ;  it  represents  a  German  demand  in  the 
sordid  sense  in  which  we  talk  about  supply  and  demand. 
But  it  is  plain  that  a  policy  of  no  annexations  is  a  policy  of 


10 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  cS,  1917 


no  answors  to  this  demand.  If  there  ever  was  any  evolu- 
ticniiry  or  ethnical  excuse  for  the  Teutonic  tribes  making 
this  movnient  there  will  be  the  same  excuse  for  their 
making  another  movement.  In  short,  the  most  practical 
reason  for  saying  that  a  peace  of  the  status  quo  must  not  sat- 
isfy us  is  the  fact  that,  on  their  own  showing,  it  cannot  pos- 
sibly satisfy  the  GcrTnans.  ■  The  Germans  at  any  rate  have 
been  tau{<ht  to  make  this  material  claim  :  and  the  Gerinans 
Jiappcn  to  live  under  a  power  which  has  simply  blazoned  it  • 
as  a  motto  that  he  who  has  a  material  claim  has  no  need 
of  a  moral  claim.  These  rulers  arc  sincerely  convinced  that 
there  is  no  international  morality.  We  do  not  accuse  Prus- 
sians of  saying  this,  any  more  than  we  accuse  them  of  living 
in  Prussia.  It  is  simply  the  fact  that  they  do  say  it.  Then- 
lias  never  been  a  great  political  spokesman  of  Prussia  from 
i-roderick  the  Great  to  Bismarck  who  did  not  say  it, 
and  who  was  not  praised  by  the  Pnissians  for  saying  it.  For 
the  Prussians  to  deny  it  now,  in  the  attempt  to  dodge 
defeat,  is  exactly  as  if  Englisiimen  professed  to  hnd 
a  painful  subject  in  the  saying  that  they  are  the  masters  of 
the  sea.  Annexation  is  not  a  Prussian  conspiracy,  it  is  a 
Prussian  glory.  The  jjroblem  is,  therefore,  what  happens 
when  a  huge  population,  taught  that  it  has  a  natural  right 
to  new  territories,  is  ruled  by  captains  who  are  particularly 
proud  of  having  achieved  every  tme  of  their  successes  by 
aggressive  war.  It  does  not  seem  very  difficult  to  imagine  what 
would  happen — especially  when  it  has  happened  already. 

At  this  third  stage  of  the  debate  the  friend  of  a  cosmopolitan 
compromist'  intervenes  and  says  in  substance  "  But  will 
<iennany  not  have  learnt  a  lesson?"  Yes;  Germany  will 
certainly  have  learnt  a  les.son.  If  the  war  ends  in  any  such 
compromise,  Germany  will  have  learnt  a  most  memorable 
and  historic  lesson.  She  will  have  learnt  her  strength.  She 
will  have  learnt  that  she  is  at  least  as  strong  as  the  largest 
combination  that  can  be  brought  against  her ;  and  tiiat 
civilisation  is  either  unable  or  unwilling  to  refuse  any  innovation 
she  may  afterwards  introduce  .  into  international  ethics. 
At  some  favourable  occasion  in  the  future,  let  us  say,  Berlin 
may  ccmsider  it  a  sufficient  substitute  for  the  old-fashioned 
declaration  of  war  to  seize  the  British  Ambassador  and  tor- 
ture him  to  extract  British  diplomatic  secrets.  She  may 
at  the  same  time  invade  Switzerland,  not  only  kill  the 
Swiss,  but  cook  and  eat  them— from  motives  of  economy 
and  efficiency.  There  would  be  an  outcry  at  the  offence  ; 
but  not  a  greater  outcry  than  there  was  against  the  Belgian 
massacres  or  the  Atlantic  piracy  ;  there  might  be  a  com- 
bination against  the  offender,  but  not  a  greater  combination 
than  that  which  now  Unks  up  the  continents  of  Europe  and 
America.  And  the  Germans  would  know  by  that  time  that 
such  an  outcry  always  dies  down  to  a  diplomatic  chat,  and 
such  a  combination  alwavs  falls  to  pieces  before  it  can  effect 
anything  but  the  huriied  payment  of  blackmail  to  the  black- 
guard That  is  the  weakness  in  the  invocation  of  a  European 
Tribunal  and  a  League  of  Nations.  They  e.xist  in  this  case 
as  completely  as  they  could  exist — if  any  revolt  against  them 
were  large  enough  to  require  their  services.  And  the  very 
people  who  invoke  them  for  the  future  dare  not  use  them  in 
the  present.  If  the  rest  of  civilization  cannot  punish  the 
immoralist  mutiny  of  the  Germanies,  it  will  never  be  abl<^ 
to  punish  any  mutiny  large  enough  to  be  worth  punishing. 
In  the  present  case,  as  I  say,  the  result  will  be  simple  enough  ; 
the  Germanics  will  have  discovered  that  they  are  too  big  to 
l>e  punished.  If  the  the  war  ends  now  with  any  mere  "  terms  " 
the  moral  for  all  Germans  must  be  and  can  onlv  be  that  the 
world  cannot  conquer  (jt-rmany  From  that,  by  every  possible 
liistorical  analogy,  there  can  be  but  one  step  to  the  position 
that  Germany,  with  better  luck  or  care,  can  conquer  the 
world,  The  Germans  would  be  more  than  human,  instead 
of  being  if  anything  rather  less,  if  they  did  not  make  thes<'  ~ 
deductions  from  our  dropping  of  the  sword,  suddenly  and  in 
silence. 

We  have  therefore  three  plain  facts  ;  a  people  taught  that  it 
must  expand  in  the  futun-  ;  a  ruling  ])ower  te-aching  that'allits 
expansions  have  been  iiy  the  higher  morality  of  aggression  ; 
and  the  failure  (or  apparent  failure)  of  the  whole  world  to 
prove  itself  stronger  than  that  power.  What  will  liappen 
next  I  should  have  thought  a  babj'  could  see — especially  as 
its  faculties  might  well  be  sharpened  by  the  anticipation 
of  being  crucihed  on  a  door. 

It  is  true  that  tliis  Prussian  Mctory  is  a  delusion,  which  a 
few  more  blows  will  dissolve  for  ever.  Are  we  therefore  to 
refuse  to  dissolve  it  ;  are  we  deliberately  to  let  the  delusion 
harden  into  a  idee  fixe  for  ever  ?  It  is  true  that  this  uncon- 
<pierable  Germany  is  a  dream  :  for  them  a  day-dream  and 
for  us  a  nightmare.  Are  we  therefore,  to  go  out  of  our  way 
to  make  the  dream  come  true  ?  I  fear  I  must  fail  back  inti) 
that  mystical  \ein  in  wliich  I  began,  but  if  there  be  I)eyon(l 
events  a  purgation  to  which  all  our  punishments  are  approxi- 
mate, it  may  well  be  the  riviliz.-d  .Miles,  and  not  the  half-savage 
Germans,  who  will  theil  answer  to  (ind  for  having  ordered  , 
the  return  o  f  slavery  and  savaKery  and  prehistoric  night. 


British   Salmon   Fisheries 

To  the  Editor  of  L.^M)  &  Water. 

Sir, — In  his  article  "  Salmon  and  Food  Supply  "  Mr.  W. 
Baden  Powell,  K.C.,  made  the  suggestion  that  one  of  the 
main  causes  of  the  decline  of  Britisli  salmon  fisheries  is  the 
protection  afforded  to  "  fish-destroying  birds."  Most  of 
those  who  have  had  experience  of  the  rapid  deterioration  of 
salmon  fisheries  during  the  past  40  years  might  have  inclined 
to  place  the  pollution  of  rivers  and  excessive  netting  in  the 
fore-front  of  the  contributing  causes,  and  the  suggestion 
that  the  Wild  Birds  Protection  Act  has  been  the  "main  cause" 
deserves  a  little  more  examination  than  the  writer  of  the 
article  accorded  to  it.  What  are  these  "fish  destroying  birds"  ? 
Gulls  "and  divers  (unspecified)  are  alone  referred  to. 

By  ■•  divers,"  cormorants,  gooseanders  and  mergansers  are 
presumably  referred  to,  for  none  of  the  other  "divers"  habitu- 
ally enter  in  any  numbers  the  waters  in  which  young  salmon 
live.  The  "  divers"  are  therefore  reduced  to  three,  the  two  last 
though  no  doubt  very  destructive,  are  not  common  birds, 
and  very  uncommon  in  the  spring  and  summer  months.  The 
cormorants  and  gulls  must  therefore  be  the  "vermin"  to  which 
the  Wild  Birds  Protection  Act  is  said  to  afford  protection. 

On  enquiry-  Mr.  Baden  Powell  will  find  that  localities,  if 
such  exist,  in  the  British  Isles  where  connorants  are  protected 
are  a  very  great  exception  to  tJie  rule,  and  that  the  eggs  of 
gulls,  so  far  from  being  protected  as  he  suggests,  are  at  many 
uf  the  great  breeding  stations  (e.g.  Fame  Islands)  on  the 
British  coast,  annually  collected  by  thousands  for  human 
consumption.  There  has  been  much  controversy  about  the 
damage  done  by  gulls,  and  the  evidence  by  no  means  points 
all  one  way,  nor  are  all  gulls  equally  destructive. 

.'Assuming  that  a  good  case  can  be  made  by  withdrawing 
protection  from  all  the  gulls,  the  removal  of  the  Wild  Birds  Act 
land  with  it  protection  for  all  wild  birds)  is  indeed  a  sur- 
prising suggestion  as  a  means  of  carrying  out  that  which  has 
been  done  in  many  parts  of  England  by  the  simple  process  of 
excluding  gulls  from  the  scliedule  of  protected  birds. 

The  damage  done  to  salmon  fisheries  by  the  natural  enemies 
of  the  salmon  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  ill-effects  of  the 
artificial  condition  of  the  rivers,  and  the  destruction  caused 
by  mail.  A  hundred  years  ago,  apart  from  the  birds  already 
mentioned,  the  chief  natural  enemies  of  the  salmon  were  the 
seal,  otter,  osprcy,  and  heron.  No  one  will  be  found  to 
assert  that  any  of  these  exist  to-day  in  numbers  in  any  way 
comparable  to  those  of  a  century  ago.  The  seal  has  been 
totally  banished  from  many  of  its  former  resorts  and  is  no- 
where as  abundant  as  fonnerly.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
otter  and  the  heron,  while  the  osprey  has  become  almost,  if 
not  completely,  non  existent.  Moreover  it  must  be  remembered 
that  all  these  were  destroyers  of  grown  fish,  and  as  such  were 
far  more  destructive  than  destroyers  of  spawn  or  fry. 
The  decrease  in  the  natural  enemies  of  the  salmon  is  as 
marked  as  the  decrease  in  the  salmon  themselves,  and  an 
attempt  to  ascribe  the  present  deplorably  rapid  deterioration 
of  British  salmon  fisheries  to  the  increase  of  "fish  destroying 
birds"  will  hardly  carry  conviction  to  any  student  of  natural 
history. 

The  great  "fish  destroyer"  has  been  man.  His  devices 
and  notably  the  obstruction,  pollution  and  netting  cf  rivers 
and  estuaries — have  in  a  few  decades  reduced  (in  the  ca.se  of 
some  rivers  to  vanishing  point)  the  salmon  upon  whose  vast 
numbers  centuries  cf  unceasing  competition  with  their  natural 
enemies    had  mad''   no   impression  whatever. 

In  Palestine.  M.MIRICE  PoRT.vi.. 

June  6,  1917. 


2s,  6d.  net.       Postage  4d.  extra. 
THE 

HIB&ERT  JOURNAL 

riiixciPAT,  c<)XTi:NT,s-.ur,v 

Reconstruction:  - 

(1.)    Peiwmality  the  Fin,il  Aim  of  Social  Eugenict. 

lu    Profe-isor  .lAJXF.S  W.\I!n. 

(II.)    Reconstruction -Of   Wl<at?  "  Hv    HBLKX    BOS.WQUKT. 

(III.)     Educational   ReoonEtriictlon.  llv   3.  A.    It.  MARKIOTT.  .VI. 1'. 

(IV.)    The  Now   Religion.  Hv   tlif!   Coiiutws  of  WAIlWK'K. 

(V.)    Practical    Religion.  liy  JOHN    HRATTIK  CKOZIRR.    IX.D. 

(VI  j    Towns   to  Live  In.  liy  W.   li.  l.l.THAin. 

Survival  and   Immortality.  liy  the  DKAN  nf  ST.  PAULS. 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge  and  the   Scientific  World.        Ii\    CUARLliS  Air.KClKK,   MJ). 

The  Theory  ot  Survival  in  the  Light  of  its  Context.  Il.v  I..  P_.  JACKS. 

Toler.incc   from  a   Russian  Point  ol  View.  liy  Huron  A.  HKYKfNO.   Ph.D. 

The   Englishman  and  his  Law.  By  EDWAKl)  JKNK.s. 

Juvenile   Delinquency :  The  Facts   and  its    Cause.  „ 

llv    tiie   R.'v.   Cnnnn    RAWNRtEV. 
The  Pulpit  and  Its   Oiiportunitles.  Hy  1'.   H.  OUTCMITK. 

StmSCRlPTION  :    10s,  per  Annum,  Post  Free. 


London:     WILLIAMS     &      NORGATE, 

14,  Henrietta  Street.  Covent  (]arden,  W.C.2. 


June  28,  1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


II 


Past  and  Future — III 

The  Causes  and  the  Meaning  of  Industrial  Discontent 

By   Jason 


THE  years  immediately  preceding  the  outbreak  of 
war  were  marked  by  a  series  of  striKes  extending 
from  the  best  organised  classes  of  workpeople  like 
the  miners  to  the  worst,  like  the  carters  and  the 
dockers.  There  was  a  great  railway  strike,  a  great  coal  strike, 
a  great  transport  strike,  and  a  strike  in  Dublin,,  which  con- 
tained a  lesson  of  its  own,  for  it  was  a  reminder,  unhappily 
unheeded,  that  there  comes  a  point  at  which  human  nature 
must  either  revolt  against  brutalising  conditions  of  life  or 
accept  sentence  of  despair  and  degradation.  (Some  day  the 
jiistorian  will  be  able  to  trace  the  relation  of  that  neglected 
warning  to  the  more  tragical  catastroi)he  of  last  year). 
Everybody  began  to  discuss  this  disquieting  phenomenon  of 
labour  unrest,  wondering  whetlier  we  were  on  the  eve  of  some- 
thing like  civil  war,  and  whether  it  was  beyond  the  power  of 
our  statesmanship  to  allay  this  threatening  and  bewildering 
trouble. 

It  is  possible  that  none  of  these  great  strikes  was  really 
quite  so  significant  as  a  strike  which  probably  most  peop'e 
have  quite  forgotten.  Ifi  December,  iqi2,  an  engine  driver 
of  (Jateshcad  was  brought  before  a  magistrate  on  a  charge  of 
drunkenness  and  convicted.  The  manager  of  the  North 
Eastern  Railway,  in  accordance  with  the  settled  and  intelligible 
pohcy  of  the  company,  reduced  him  to  the  position  of  pilot 
driver.  To  the  ordinary  middle-class  observer,  the  matter 
ended  there.  It  is  manifestly  important  that  a  man  wlio 
drives  the  engine  of  a  passenger  train  should  be  sober  and 
clear  headed.  He  may  be  a  murderer  or  a  thief,  or  a  gambler, 
or  a  bigamist  without  danger  to  the  public,  but  there  is  an 
obvious  danger  to  the  public  if  his  habits  are  such  as  to  cloud 
his  mind  or  his  sight,  for  the  lives  of  hundreds  of  people  may 
depend  on  the  accuracy  and  prcmptness  of  his  attention.  If  a 
man  gets  drunk  when  off  duty  he  may  miss  a  signal  or  overrun 
the  points  when  in  charge  of  a  train  travelling  sixty  miles  an 
hour.  In  this  case,  the  driver  of  an  express  train  had  been 
convicted  and  there  seemed  nothing  improper'  in  his  tem- 
porary suspension  from  the  charge  of  liis  engine. 

To  the  workmen  tJie  matter  was  not  quite  so  simple,  and 
the  decision  of  tlie  manager  was  followed  by  a  demand  from 
the  local  branch  of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Railway 
Servants  for  the  reinstatement  of  the  engine  driver.  The 
demand  was  refused,  and  there  followed  a  strike  on  the 
North  Eastern  system.  The  men  challenged  the  justice  of 
the  conviction,  and  on  a  re-examination  of  the -case  by  a 
London  magistrate  sent  down  by  the  Home  Office,  it  proved 
that  the  men  were  right.  The  engine  driver,  Knox,  had  a 
peculiar  walk  and  a  policeman  had  blundered.  Knox  was 
reinstated,  the  strike  was  at  an  end,  and  the  men,  to  the 
general  surjirise,  agreed  to  forfeit  six  days'  pay  for  their 
conduct  in  t^ecuring  the  redress  of  injustice. 

In  th.is  case  there  was  behind  the  conduct  of  the  nien  a 
motive  which  goes  far  to  explain  the  spirit  of  unrest  as  it  has 
developed  in  particular  duiing  the  last  few  m:mths.  These 
railwaymen  felt  tliat  one  of  their  coftirades  liad  suffered  an 
•  injustice  and  that  his  personal  rights  had  been  infringed. 
He  had  been  punished  twice  for  an  offence  he  had  not  com- 
mitted, and  the  second  punishment  represented  a  claim  on 
the  part  of  an  employer  over  the  life  of  a  workman  outside 
of  his  employment  which  every  trade  unionist  had  lo  watch 
very  carefully.  His  fellow  unionists  were,  therefore,  prepared 
to  use  all  their  power  to  secure  him  justice,  and  though  not 
one  of  them  had  any  direct  or  financial  interest  at  stake,  they 
were  ready  to  make  a  very  considerable  financial  sacrifice  for 
that  purpose.  This  was,  in  fact,  the  use  by  a  union  of  its 
collective  strength  for  the  defence  of  the  rights  of  an  in- 
dividual member.  It  was  in  the  eyes  of  the  trade  union  a 
blow  struck  for  personal  iiljerty.  Observers  called  it  a  per- 
verse proceeding  to  striKe  against  a  railwav  company  and  to 
In't  the  public  as  a  protest  against  the  mistake  of  a  magistrate, 
but  tlie  men  answered  that  they  had  no  ctner  weapon. 

Tiie  Knox  strike  should  have  opened  the  eyes  of  observers 
\/ho  are  inclined  to  regard  all  labour  dis]iutes  as  wage  dis- 
putes, and  to  tljink  that  every  strike  is  a  quarrel  between 
employers  and  employees  over  the  distribution  of  profits. 
it  illustrates  the  growing  jealousy  of  their  personal  inde- 
pendence wliich  is  an  e.-;sential  feature  of  the  discontent  bf  the 
workmen.  Yet  it  has  often  /been  assumed  during  the  troubles 
that  have  been  smouldering  for  many  months  tliat  all  that  tlie 
munition  workers  cared  about  was  an  increase  of  wages. 
Ministers  themselves  have  been  tempted  to  act  on  the  assump- 
tion tliat  the  workpeople  are  prepared  to  accept  any  and 
every  kind  of  restriction  so  long  as  employment  is  ccuVstant 


and  wages  are  kept  up.  To  understand  the  spirit  of  the 
labour  world,  it  is  necessary  to  give  a  brief  account  of  the 
history  of  munitions. 

Of  the  patriotism  of  the  working  classes  in  this  war,  there 
can  be  no  question.  The  facts  of  voluntary  recruiting  are 
overwhelming  evidence.  Not  less  important  to  those  who 
appreciate  trade  union  history  has  been  the  surrender  of 
trade  union  customs.  Here  again  we  have  to  be  on  our 
guard  against  the  hasty  judgments  of  those  who  see  in  these 
customs  nothing  but  devices  for  protecting  the  status  of  this 
or  that  craft  or  this  or  that  species  of  monopoly  in  industry. 
That  there  is  this  element  of  trade  union  regulations  is,  of 
course,  true.  The  skilled  trade  unionist  feels  about  the  intro- 
duction of  an  unskilled  worker  on  his  own  job  as  a  qualified 
doctor  feels  about  the  introduction  of  an  unqualified  doctor, 
and  the  fitter  draws  a  jealous  line  between  his  province  and 
the  province  of  the  plumber,  just  as  a  barrister  draws  a  jealous 
line  between  his  province  and  the  province  of  the  solicitor. 
But  if  there  were  no  more  than  this  in  trade  union  customs 
and  regulations,  generations  of  men  and  women  who  have 
no  special  province  and  no  special  status  to  protect  would 
not  have  endured  all  the  privations  of  strikes  for  no  other 
])urpose  than  to  secure  the  recognition  of  trade  unions.  No  ; 
the  body  of  trade  union  custom  is  sacred  to  the  trade  union 
W>orkman,  because  it  is  the<charter  of  his  freedom  in  the  world 
where  jmwerful  forces  are  continuallv  threatening  his  free- 
dom. That  code  may  be  compared  for  its  moral  effect  on  the 
industrial  population  with  the  civil  code  that  gave  to  the 
victims  of  feudal  power  on  the  Continent  a  century  ago  a 
status  and  rights  before  the  law. 

The  Changed  Spirit 

What  then  has  happened  to  change  the  spirit  of  the  work- 
people so  that  instead  of  the  outburst  of  enthusiasm  which 
filled  the  recruiting  stations  in  the  autumn  of  1914  and  made 
possible  the  relaxation  of  trade  union  law  we  find  in  the  third 
year  of  the  war  something  like  a  general  strike  in  the  Munition 
Works  ?  There  is  no  single  answer,  but  we  may  reply  in 
general  that,  whereas  the  workpeople  were  prepared  to  make 
any  concession  so  long  as  they  were  treated  as  responsible 
partners  in  the  national  effort,  they  look  with  a  different 
temper  on  a  pohcy  which  seems  to  them  to  be  demanding 
great  sacrifices  on  some  quite  different  principle  and  to 
be  treating  them  more  and  more  as  instruments  and  less  and 
less  as  citizens.  Suspicion  is  like  a  microbe  which,  invading 
the  blood  at  some  point,  gradually  spreads  over  the  entire 
system.  Let  a  man  come  to  suspect  the  Ministry  of  Munitions 
for  one  reason  or  another,  and  he  will  learn  to  suspect  the  whole 
policy  associated  with  the  treatment  of  which  he  complains. 
I  The  working  classes  are  not  pacifist  in  the  sense  of  accepting 
Mr.  E.  D.  Morel's  whitewash  of  German  conduct  and  German 
intentions,  but  there  is  a  growing  element  in  the  industrial 
population  which  is  uneasy  and  bewildered  about  our  war  aims, 
because  they  judge  those  aims  by  the  spirit  of  measures 
which  they  see  and  feel.  And  the  more  they  see  of  the' 
administration  of  munitions  the  more  Suspicious  have  they 
become.     Why  ? 

I  When  dilution  was  first  proposed  the  Government  of  tlie 
day  realised  that  they  were  asking  a  momentous  surrender 
from  the  trade  unions.  Mr.  Asquith  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
both  made  a  most  solemn  promise  that  trade  union  customs 
should  be  restored  after  the  war,  and  secondly,  that  dilution 
should  only  apply  to  war  work.  Tiiese  promises  occupy 
an  important   place  in  the  history  of  industrial  discontent; 

,  it  was  with  that  guarantee  that  the  engilieers  accepted  dilu- 
tion. 

But  it  seemed  to  the  authorities  that  dilution  was  not 
enough  to  guarantee  the  output  of  munitions.  That  output 
might  be  interrupted  by  strikes,  by  disputes,  by  the  obser- 
vance of  minor  trade  union  customs,  by  slackness,  irregularity, 
drunkenness,  and  a  hundred  and  one  causes  that  may  obstruct 
industrial  efficiency.  How  were  these  influences  to  be 
checked  ?  It  was  here  we  think  that  the  first  serious  mistake 
was  made.  There  were,  roughly  speaking,  two  methods  by 
which  peace  and  discipline  could  be  obtained  ;  the  first  the 
method  of  democracy,  the  second  that  of  bureaucracy.  As  it 
ha])]),med  the  machinery  for  the  first  method  was  ready  to  hand 
in  the  form  of  joint  committees  representing  employers  and 
rinployed  in  the  chief  industrial  areas.  In  the  early  montl>s 
of  iqi.S  a  North  East  Coast  Committee  w,ts  set  up  to  consider 
the  wli.ile  i^rnblem  of  organising  and  mobilising  labour  for  tlie 


12 


LAINU     H:     WATER 


June  28,  1917 


production  of  munitions.  We  have  had  cxjieriencc  of  this 
inetluid  ill  the  casi-  of  the  coal  industry,  wheie  jjint  com- 
mittees were  set  tip  to  check  absenteeism.  It  has  been  found 
that  the  moral  pressure  of  tliis  democratic  association  is  a 
real  p.)wer  in  enforcing  chsiMpiine.  These  committees  have 
reduced  absenteeism  in  some  tiistricts  to  a_  point  below  tiie 
normal  jjeace  conditions  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they junfier 
uid  more  vigorous  men  are  lieing  replaced  in  many  rases  by 
ii.-n  less  able  to  stand  the  strain  of  continuous  work. 

Unfortunately,  tlie  (iovenmient  i)rcferred  another  method. 
They  drew  up  an  elaborate  scheme  for  the  controlled  tirms 
to  be  administered,  not  by  organisations  representing  the 
workmen,  but  by  a  new  department. 

L'nder  this  system  a  minute  network  of  restrictions 
envelops  the  life  of  the  workman.  The  munition  tri- 
bunals are  nominated  by  the  Ministry,  who  ch.joses  a  presi- 
dent, an  employer  and  a  workman.  The  right  to  strike  was 
withdrawn,  dilution  was  to  be  introduced,  the  munitions 
tribunals  could  forbid  any  jiractice  that  was  likely  to  hinder 
the  output,  and  the  tribunals  could  punish  irregul-,irity  and 
such  vague  crimes  as  that  of  encouraging  worknTPn  to  con- 
tinue to  c  )mply  with  a  trade  union  custom  declared  illegal. 
The  (i.ivernment  thus  intioduced  a  most  complete  and 
elaborate  s\-stem  of  discipline  without  giving  the  workpeople 
the  recognition  they  demanded  for  their  trade  unions.  To 
the  workman  there  is  a  great  difference  between  surrendering 
his  freedom  to  a  body  that  represents  him,  and  surrendering 
it  to  the  Ciovernment  acting  with  the  class  which  employs 
him. 

It  does  not  need  much  imagination  to  understand  the 
kind  of  grievance  that  arises  in  this  atmosphere.  It  came 
out  the  other  day  that  a  woman  had  l>een  fined  for  absence 
when  the  cause  of  her  absence  was  the  death  of  her  baby. 
The  control  of  a  department,  itself  working  under  great  stre.-s 
and  j)ressure.  does  not  liecome  less  exacting  as  time  goes  on,  and 
it  is  tlu'  instinct  of  bureaucracy  to  trust  more  and  more  to 
regulations  and  red  tape.  The  workman  found  himself 
virtually  tied  to  one  employer  under  the  system  of  leaving  certi- 
ficates. It  was  as  if  the  workman  had  said  to  the  Government : 
"  .So  long  as  the  war  lasts  we  will  not  object  to  the  employ- 
ment of  unskilled  men  and  unskilled  women  on  tasks  usually 
reserved  for  the  skittefl,  and  we  will  allow  the  munition  factory 
to  be  managed  without  regard  to  the  rules  and  restrictions 
that  we  seek  to  enforce  in  competitive  industry."  And  as 
if  the  (lovemment  had  answered  :  "  We  will  put  you  under  a 
very  drastic  discipline,  treating  you  not  as  citizens  helping 
us  to  win  the  war,  but  as  employees  whose  only  duty  is 
blind  :ilie(lience." 

Hy  degrees  then  the  workman  has  found  that  his  jiersonal 
liberty  has  gone,  and  that  his  rejiresentati.ve  organisati.jn  has 
lost  its  p*jwer  to  jirotect  him.  Mis  traxle  union  was  a  real 
strength  to  him  when  he  had  only  the  employer  to  meet  ; 
lie  has  now  cmi>loyer  and  bureaucrat,  and  his  trade  union 
has  lost  more  than  half  its  authority.  Military  conscription 
lias  brought  another  element  of  compulsion  in  liis  life  and  the 
anomalies  and  injustices  inevitable  in  the  administration  of 
conscription  by  local  tribunals  has  embittered  his  sense  of 
helplessness. 

Why  did  this  discontent  come  to  a  climax  this  spring  ? 

It  will  Ixr  remembered  that  Mr.  Asquith  and  Mr.  Lloyd- 
George  gave  a  very  solemn  promise  when  dilution  wai  first 
introd.icod  that  it  would  be  apjolied  only  on  war  work.  To 
the  munition  workers  this  pledge  was  of  immense  importance, 
for  it  meant  that  over  part  of  the  field  of  industrv  trade 
union  rules  still  prevailed.  In  the  course  of  time,  Jhe  pressure 
cf  the  army  and  the  need  of  shipbuilding  obligedllje  Govern- 
ment to  economise  man  power  still  further;  and  for  this 
purpose  they  devised  two  i)lans.  The  first  was  the  aboliticn 
of  the  Trade  Card  System  by  which  certain  trade  unions  could 
reserve  certain  skilied  men  and  e.xempt  them  from  military 
service,  and  the  other  the  extension  of  dilution  to  ccmmercial 
work.  There  has  been  a  tendency  in  many  quarters  to  think 
that  all  the  trouble  has  arisen  because  a  number  of  young 
men  want  to  keep  out  of  the  army  and  certain  trade  unions 
claim  a  special  privilege  in  respect  of  military  .service.  This 
is  a  short  sighted  view.  In  all  epidemics  of  discontent 
different  men  are  influenced  by  different  things,  and  that 
there  is  this  element  in  the  troubles  in  the  engineering  shops 
is  true.  But  even  in  this  connection  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  existence  of  the  Trade  Card  Scheme  has  a  symbolical 
valui*',  because  it  means  a  recognition  of  the  trade  unions. 

?-!ilitary  conscription  is  under  any  circumstances  a  momen- 
tous disturbance  of  all  our  habits  and  customs,  and  it  is 
amazing  that  it  has  worked  with  such  comparative  smooth- 
ness. Among  the  workmen  on  strike  last  month  there  were 
doubtless  some  vvho  were  in  revolt  against  the  abolition  of 
iB-adc  cards,  because  they  were  opposed  to  the  war  or  opposed 
,to  compulsory  service.  There  were  many  more  who  were 
iTot  opposed  to  the  war  and  were  quite  ready  to  go  into 
kliaki,  who  still  resented  the  proposed  measures  on  the  ground 


that  the  ^.funition  .\cts  and  military  conscription  combined 
amounted  to  setting  up  industrial  compulsion.  The  bitter 
hostility  of  the  workmen  to  industrial  conipnlsion  was_  re- 
affirmed at  the  recent  conference  of  the  ,  rriple  .\llia'nce 
representing  miners,  railwaymen  and  transport  worker-., 
when  ?'r.  J.  H.  Thomas,  a  supporter  of  the  war  who  has 
rendered  important  service,  made  a  passionate  declaration' 
on  the  subject.  The  trade  card  systenrT  w'hith  is  open  ta 
critici.sm  on  the  ground  that  it  makes  invidious  distinction 
between  this  union  and  that,  was  at  least  the  recognition  of 
some  representative  power  outside  militarv  tribunals  and 
munition  tribunals,  and  the  workpeople  attached  great  im- 
jxjrtance  to  the  system  on  that  ground.  To  abolish  the  system 
and  to  extend  dilution  simultaneously  confirmed  all  these 
suspicions.  • 

The  main  element  in  the  discontc-iit  is  suspicion 
of  the  motives  of  the  Government  and  the  belief  that  the 
extension  of  dilution  to  commercial  work  is  a  conspiracy  to 
extinguish  trade  unionism.  The  workmen  have;  attached 
great  importance  to  tlie  ])roinise  that  dilution  should  be 
restricted  to  war  work,  for  in  their  anxiety  about  the  restora- 
tion of  trade  union  customs,  they  felt  that  as  long  as  this 
])romisoheld,  they  preserved  their  position  in  all  that  kind  of 
industry  that  represents  competitive  enteqirise,  and  that 
the  concessions  were  given  a  temporary  character  by  the  fact 
that  they  were  confined  to  national  war  work.  .It  is  obvious 
then  that  the  greatest  care  and  tact  were  necessary  if  the 
workmen  were  to  be  asked  to  make  another  surrender  in  a 
matter  of  such  capital  importance. 

Bureaucratic  Methods 

Unhappily,  the  Ministry  of  Munitions,  becoming  more 
and  more  immersed  in  the  atmosphere  of  bureaucracy, 
appreciated  less  and  less  the  importance  of  studying  the 
atmosphere  of  the  workshops,  and  they  thought  that  in  view 
of  the  urgency  of  the  crisis  the  simplest  method  was  to  proceed 
at  once  to  legislate.  A  new  Bill  was  consequently  intro- 
duced, the  trade  union  leaders  were  consulted,  and  some  of 
them  accepted  it,  but  the  great  body  of  workpeople  were 
ignojed.  And  to  them  it  looked  as  if  tlie  Government  had 
wantonly  broken  a  promise,  and  they  thought  that  promise 
was  broken,  not  because,  the  nation  was  in  difficulties,  but 
because  the  (iove.rnment  wanted  to  create  another  obstacle 
to  the  restoration  of  trade  union  customs.  Meanwhile,  the 
whole  system  and  working  of  munitions  had  tended  to  weaken 
the  prestige  of  the  trade  union  leaders,  and  it  was  all  the  more 
important  that  the  workpeople  themselves  sliould  be  con- 
vinced of  the  bona-Jldes  of  the  Government.  The  Bill,  that  is, 
(Might  not  to  have  been  introduced  until  the  case  for  it  had 
been  put  before  the  W'orkpeople  in  the  munition  centres, 
until  the  Government  had  ascertained  what  modifications 
were  possible  and  desirable,  and  it  ought  to  have  been  made 
clear  that  the  (iovernment  did  not  think  lightly  of  the  promise 
from  which  they  wished  to  be  released  ;  for  it  makes  all  the 
difference  whether  A  asks  B  to  free  him  fiom  his  promise, 
or  whether  he  tells.  B  that  he  has  decided  not  to  keep  it. 
In  fact,  the  conferences  which  have  been  held  during  the 
last  fortnight  should  have  been  held  some  montlLS  ago. 

All  this  atmosphere  of  suspicion  has  been  inflamed  and 
aggravated  by  the  re-introduction  into  industrial  life  of  a 
system  of  espionage  which  recalls  the  worst  days  of  the  early 
nineteenth  century.  There  are  circumstantial  stories  in  many 
industrial  centres  cf  the  activity  of  detectives  and  secret 
agents  who,  it  is  stated,  have  been  acting  as  "  agents  provo- 
cateurs." It  is  asserted  that  in  many  pases  these 
agents  have  been  inciting  the  workmen  to  strike.  This  matter 
ought  to  be  probed  to  the  bpttom.  It  is  intimately  associated 
with  the  bitter  and  revolutionary  temper  which  is  growing 
up  in  some  places,  and  it  is  obvious  that  it  must  poison  the 
whole  spirit  of  mutual  confidence  on  which  democracy  relies. 

The  task  to  which  the  Government  should  now  address  all 
its  energy  and  skill  is  the  task  of  restoring  the  spirit  which 
prevailed  in  the  early  months  of  the  war.  That  spirit  has  been 
destroyed  by  suspicion.  The  workmen  think  that  fortunes 
are  being  made  put  of  the  necessities  and  difficulties  of  the 
nation,  that  the  Govermncnt  has  cea.sed  to  respect  the 
liberties  of  the  workpeople  and  the  rights  of  trade  unions, 
and  that  at  the  end  of  the  war  they  will  find  themselves  with 
a  great  flood  of  non-unionist  labour  in  the  workshops,  no  trade 
union  rights,  and  little  prospect  of  recovering  those  rights. 
Nothing  can  dispel  that  suspicion  but  frank  dealings,  full 
discussion,  the  absolute  abandonment  of  espionage,  and 
a  change  in  the  spirit  of  the  Ministry  of  Munitions. 
Above  all,  if  the  Government  is  wise,  it  will  discard 
every  restriction  on  the  normal  trade  union  life  of  the 
workpeople  which  is  not  clearly  essential  to  the  produc- 
tion of  munitions.  The  love  of  discipline  for  the  sake  of 
discipline  is  a  bad  guide  in  the  management  of  tired  and 
overstrained  men  and  women  with  a  strong  sense  of 
grievance  and  bitter  present imeats  about  tlic  future. 


June  28,  1917 


LAND    &     WATER 


i.i 


Life  and  Letters        Recitation 


By  J.  C.  Squire 


in   Public 


LAST  week  there  was  given  in  London  a  public 
recitation  of  poetry-  Eleven  authors  delivered 
passages  from  their  own  works  to  an  audience  of  a 
hundred  and  fifty  ladies  wlio  paid  two  guineas  each, 
the  nuiney  going  to  a  charity.  As  two  of  the  regular  con- 
tributors to  this  paper  were  amongst  the  performers  I  had 
better  say  nothing  about  the  performance.  Only  this  :  That 
one  of  the  two,  gallantly  endeavouring  to  get  his  verses  off 
without  referring  to  liis  book,  got  tied  up  towards  the  end. 
He  left  lines  out,  put  lines  in,  got  hnes  in  tlie  wrong  order, 
and,  being  resolved  not  to  break  down,  shamelessly  vamped 
and  gagged.  Apparently,  the  candour  of  his  demeanour 
was  such  that  nobody  noticed. 

*  *  *  *  * 
It  is  highly  probable  that  these  recitations  will  become 
a  permanent  institution,  analogous  to  Chamber  Concerts. 
The  prevailing  notion  is  that  there  is  something  ridiculous 
about  standing  up  in  public  and  reciting  poetry.  But  all 
human  actions  are  ridiculous,  properly  regarded  ;  and  this 
one  is  certainly  no  more  ridiculous  than  acting  or  playing  the 
flute  in  public.  Flute-players,  in  fact,  are  most  ridiculous. 
It  is  quite  evident  that  verse  ought  to  be  spoken  aloud.  If  a 
man  takes  pains  to  make  his  work  musical,  it  is  more  than 
ridiculous  that  it  should  never  be  heard  save  by  the  "  inward 
ear."  In  earlier  ages  nobody  questioned  this.  When,  as  Mr. 
Kipling  elegantly  puts  it  :  "  'Omer  smote  'is  bloomin' 
lyre,"  his  lyre  was  merely  the  background  of  his  declamation, 
and  tho  finest  early  English  poetry  has  reached  us  by  oral 
transmission.  When  minstrels  turned  into  authors  recita- 
tion died — -or,  rather,  was  left  to  the  unintelligent.  In 
this  country,  xmtil  recently,  the  general  craving  to  hear  verse 
well  spoken  has  been  ministered  to  only  by  imbeciles.  Who,  at 
liazaars  and  smoking  concerts,  make  audiences  shufHe  uneasily 
in  tiicir  seats  wliile  they  roar  Out  with  the  Lifeboat,  Kissing 
Clip's  Race,  or  Tennyson's  The  Revenge.  Millions  at  functions 
in  aid  of  the  Choir  Outing  or  annual  concerts  of  local  literary 
societies  must  have  heard  this  last,  and  felt  their  flesh  creep 
as  the  orator  leant  forward  and  daintily  fluttered  his  fingers 
when  he  came  to  "  a  pinnace  like  a  fluttered  bird  cams  flying 
from  far  away."  The  poets  themselves  have  abstained 
from  ])ublic  appearances.  But  their  knowledge  that  recita- 
tion was  better  than  silent  reading  has  usually  led  them  to 
read  aloud  in  private.  Tennyson,  "  rolling  out  his  hollow 
oes  and  acs,"  was  heard  by  many,  and  Swinburne,  as  we  now 
learn,  would  oblige  if  asked,  and  chant  his  compositions  in  a 
shrill  voice  which,  at  exciting  points,  rose  into  a  scream. 
If,  however,  good  verse  gains  by  being  read  aloud,  it  is 
obviously  illogical  to  restrict  such  performances  to  private 
houses  :  and  in  the  last  few  years  the  recognition  of  this 
fact  has  spread.  The  revival  is  mainly  due  to  Mr.  Yeats, 
who  thought  out  and  perfected  a  technique  of  recitation 
and  began  giving  readings  from  his  own  poems.  To  his 
inspiration  was  probably  due  the  action  of  the  proprietors  of 
the  Poetry  Bookshop  in  Devonshire  Street,  who  have  for 
some  years  given  recitals  at  regular  and  frequent  intervals, 
amongst  those  who  have  appeared  being  Mr.  Yeats,  Mr. 
Hewlett,  Mr.  Masefield,  Mr.  St  urge  Moore,  and  Rupert 
Brooke.  The  Americans,  who  have  a  passion  for  lectures 
of  all  sorts,  have  taken  to  arranging  tours  of  English 
poets  ;  two  or  three  of  them  (^  there  now,  reading  to 
immense  audiences  at,  I  hope,  great  'profit  to  themselves. 
The  practice  is  go.ng  to  gi-ow.  And  for  two  reasons. 
One  is  that  good  recitation  is  artistically  interesting  :  the 
other  is  that  there  will  be  money  in  it. 

*        ♦         *         *         • 

Now  there  is,  unhappily,  no  reason  to  suppose  that  because 
a  man  can  write  a  musical  thing,  he  will  necessarily  be  a  good 
reader.  For  instance,  he  might  be  duinb.  Failing  that  quite 
disabling  infirmity,  he  may  have  a  bad  voice,  he  may  have 
an  imperfect  control  over  his  voice,  he  may  have  a  physical 
appearance  so  unimpressive  that  no  amount  of  emotional 
force  can  counterbalance  it,  or  he  may  be  so  reserved  that  he 
is  quite  unable  to  display  his  intimate  feelings  in  public. 
It  is  one  thing  to  wear  your  heart  on  your  sleeve  in  print  : 
and  quite  another  to  stand  face  to  face  with  an  audience  and 
expose  your  tendercst  emotions  and  noblest  aspirations.  If 
an  author  himself  has  the  necessary  histrionic. gifts,  voice, 
and  audacity,  he  is  the  best  person  to  hear  ;  as  he .  should 
know  better  than  anyone  else  exactly  the  ilow  and  stress 
of  liis  language.     But  the  important  thing  is  not  that  we 


should  hear  the  words  spoken  by  the  person  wlio  wrote 
them  (if  it  were,  recitations  from  dead  poets  would  be  im- 
possible), but  that  they  should  be  spoken  by  people  with 
sufficient  intelligence  to  understand  them.  Most  Shake- 
spearean actors  do  not  understand  Shakespeare's  verse,  and 
have  no  idea  whatever  about  rhythm.  They  either  si)out 
their  lines  with  tlie  mechanical  regularity  of  a  metronome, 
or  gabble  and  garble  them  with  the  avowed  object  of  making 
them  resemble  prose  as  closely  as  possible.  What  is  wanted 
is  a  reciter  with  all  a  good  poet's  critical  taste  :  one  wlio, 
whethqr.or  not  a  practising  artist  himself,  can  give  language 
and  rhythms  the  values  that  tlie  composer  meant  them  to 
have. 

***** 

My  observations  at  last  week's  performance  led  to  several 
conclusions,  whicii  may  be  worth  recording.  One  is  that 
there  is  more  in  the  technique  of  .recitation  than  many  good 
natural  readers  might  su])pose.  A  man  may  have  all  tlie 
necessary  attributes  of  voice,  Understanding  and  emotional 
force  ;  but  there  is  room  for  study.  This  is  especially  so 
with  poets.  The  line  about  Tennyson's  "  oes  and  aes " 
is  significant.  To  a  poet  a  musical  line  has  a  tendency  to 
present  itself  as  a  succession  of  beautiful  vowel  sounds. 
Vowel  sounds,  in  certain  sequences,  nre  beautiful.  Properly 
enunciated,  with  right  tonal  inflexion,  the  syllables  "  la,  la. 
la,  la,"  may  be  delivered  so  as  to  produce  quite  melting  effects. 
Why  that  is  so  may  be  left  to  Students  of  Evolution  to  deter- 
mine ;  they  will  probably  establish  a  connexion  with  the 
love-song  of  the  megatherium  to  its  mate;  or  the  tuneful 
warnings  addressed  to  the  herd  by  the  chief  bull  bison 
when  he  scented  danger.  At  any  rate,  people  who  read 
musical  verse  aloud  are  apt '  to  dwell  so  lovingly  on  the 
vowels  that  they  forget  to  make  the  consonants  clear  :  the 
word  "  bite  "  at  the  end  of  a  line  sounds  to  the  audience 
like  "  bi."  I  think,  again,  that  the  lighting  of  the  audit- 
orium wants  considering,  However  much  in  harmony 
the  souls  of  the  audience  may  be  with  tliQ  reciter,  what  ho 
sees  in  a  lighted  room  is  not  their  souls  but  their  hats  : 
which  are  distracting.  The  darkened  auditorium  has  its 
drawbacks  :  it  makes  one  feel  rather  unnatural  ;  and  if 
it  is  accomi)anied,  as  it  is  at  the  Poetry  Bookshop,  by 
lighted  candles  on  the  platform,  it  produces  so  ecclesiastical 
an  atmosphere  that  the  audience  dare  not  applaud  or  laugli 
without  a  sense  of  sin  or  at  least  solecism. 
***** 

But  the  most  important  thing  is  this  :  that  if  the  Art  of 
Recitation  is  to  have  a  fair  chance,  it  should  be  understood 
that  to  get  much  out  of  a  recital  you  ought — unless  tho 
subject  matter  is  very  simple — to  be  fairly  familiar  before- 
hand with  the  works  recited.  The  ordinary  concert-goer  docs 
not  expect  to  "  take  in  "  a  new  symphony  properly  the  fust 
time  he  hears  it  ;  and  he  habitually  gets  most  of  his  pleasure 
out  of  hearing  again  things  that  he  has  heard  before.  You 
do  not  follow  verses  half  so  well  the  first  time  you  hear  them 
as  you  do  the  first  time  you  read  them  :  the  ear  cannot 
take  the  sort  of  instantaneous  survey  that  the  eye  takes. 
The  simplest  poem,  if  unfamiliar,  sounds  obscure  when  read 
aloud.  Finally,  it  is,  I  think,  evident  that  a  programme  with 
several  names  on  it  is  better  than  a  programme  filled 
by  a  single  executant.  One  man's  voice — in  a  public  as  in 
a  private  room — if  heard  for  two  consecfltivc  hours,  almost 
inevitably  reduces  one  to  a  condition  of  mental  coma  if  it 
does  not  actually  send  one  to  sleep. 

These  remarks  .are,  I  know,  fragmentary.  But  noliody 
who  has  heard  good  recitaticm  could  tail  to  appreciate  the 
unexploited  possibilities  of  the  craft.  And  if  it  develops  it 
will  have  the  incidental  advantage  of  supplying  poets  with 
incomes.  Homer  sang,  probably,  in  the  open  air,  and  got 
.nothing  but  his  keep.  But  two-guinea  seats,  or  even  five- 
shiUing  ones,  mean  something  ;  and  even  if  the  authors  do 
not  themselves  recite  and  do  not  even  get  a  percentage  ou 
proceeds,  there  never  was  so  effective  a  form  ol  advertise- 
ment of  their  books.  The  greatest  trouble  with  good  niudern 
literature  has  been  to  make  people  who  would  like  it  aware 
of  its  existence. 


]\fessrs.  Funk  and  Wagnalls,  the  publishers  of  ''  Loiselle."  a 
book  on  tnemory  which  was  recently  referred  to  on  this  page, 
ask  us  to  mention  that  the  price  of  it  is  los.  (jd.,  not  2s.  bd. 


14 


LAND    &    WATEK 

Memory 

By  the  Director  of  Instruction  of  the  Pclman  Institute 
(A  reply  to  Mr.  J.  C.  Squire). 


June   jy,   I<ji7 


) 


T  DO  uui  .at,  I  the  lists  to  defend  Prof  L«'f:"«Tf  1*^""?^ 

I  he  is  long  since  dead  and  cannot  defend  »»"^^^f^\f-«'"^;^ 

I   offer  some  criticisms  of  the  arguments  l^'«»gl   .^<»^  ^J^ 

■  bv  Mr.  T.  C.  Squire  in  his  attack  on  memory  techn  que . 

xfTh  Jome  ai  these  criticisms  I  find  myself  'H^l^^^J^'^^  ^, 

Loisettes  system  is  now  an  old  one,  and  much  progress  has 

been  made  since  his  day.  ,     „,nnni-r  in 

Mr.  Squire  appears  to  be  annoyed  with  tfie  manner  u 
which  it  is  suggcl^ed  we  should  remcmlHT  the  order  o  the 
lines  in  the  Spectrum:  violet,  mdigo.  blue,  l^^J^'l: 
orange,  and  red.  The  f\rst  letters  of  the  ^^en  words  - 
«fcgn.r,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  that  is  how  r}}^'-llf^^^;;^\X^, 
it  in  their  memories.  But  Mr.  Squne  says  .  Anj,  ?dy  who 
could  remember  vibgyor  could  remember  anything.  i 
cannot  take  that  view  ;  indeed,  the  bizarre  "^t";^^  "fj^^^" 
word  itself  greatly  assists  us  in  recal  ing  it  ^^'hen J-equ.rcd. 
Hence  I  agree  tluit  Loisette's  system  is  i^«t  necessary  ,  but 
the  m.//K,rf  of  it  is  not  wrong  on  that  account  He  ^^^^io- 
one  called  "  intermediates  "  to  connect  the  colour  woids  to 
gether ;  thus — 

Blue  blue  sea  sea  green  green 

Green  green  com       npe  corn  ye«o«' 

This,  indeed,  is  an  intelligent  use  of  tlie  laws  of  ass<.ciat.*m 

and  medical  students  especially,  with  great  masse^  of  dat.e 

i,rc-i)are  for  examination  purposes,   have  employed  it  wiU 

I    it  Advantage.     I  hope 'Mr'  Squire  is  not  arguing  on  tie, 

t    uUti^  th^t  the  SpLtrum  catenation  ,s  unP«n^''"»ji-  " 

If    he   is    the  weight   of  tcstimonv   is    against  him.     troi. 

ieima   n      ne  of'the  greatest  authorities  on  the  memory 

fmicS.  has  admitted  freely  that  the  ;•  ----'"- J^"^'^^, 

in  itself  is  not  inconsistent  with  psycj.ology.     1  ^ /"^^/^'\;'^ 

easier  to  remember  discrete  and  discomiected  data  by 

ring  ng  then  Tnto  artificial  association  with  one  ano  her,  no 

s  xhological  blunder  is  made,  so  long  as  the  Ifn^^iple   s  not 

bused."     {Tl^  Psychology  of  Lcarmng  V-  ^^^-^^^-^^J^t 

a   u^  the  principle  sometimes,  but  that  does  not  ^validate  i 

Whit  troubles  Mr.  Squire  is  that  if  he  memoruscs  the 
siH-ctum  colours  in  the  manner  described,  he  bclieAes  he  will 
^T^M^\'^  think  of  -indigo"  without  thinking  o 
•  ,•  .•  "  .,„ri  "  Wbie-i "  He  need  not  wonv-  In- 
;;.SeSs  d;^f  outt'he  "urse  of  time  ;  they  serve 
Vld  inred^^^^^^  purpose  and  disappear,  except  in  those  case. 
^  J"  '  trnation  has  been  formed  and  not  used  veiy  Ire- 
t^.  In  that  event  the  intermediates  remain  until  coi. 
'.  »  ,,^f.  has  rendered  their  presence  unnecessary.  But 
Mrsoulres  not  vTrv  logical  in  his  objection  to  Loisettes 
metSl     men  Loisette  offers  a  bad  intermediate,  as  in 

Violet  let  go  Indigo 

Mr  Souirc  savs  the  preposterous  jingle  of  -  let  go  Indigo  let 
?.o  iSo  "wHll  sound  in  his  ears  and  spoil  everything.  Ihis 
U  exceUent  fooUng,  of  course,  but  the  critic  lays  himself  open 
to  the  ckin^e  of^  inconsistency.  He  says  in  the  opening 
to  the  c»a  |,  ..  accustomed  to  remember 

paragraph  of     IS  aruc  ^^^^^^        ^^.^^^^.^^^  ^,^^^^ 

tl,c  urdcM  "f '.'7'\,-'^\'.\\^,,,  and  that  Dover  Street  is  nearer 
Down  street  is  far  he    l)Hvna^  ^^^^.^^^  ^  ^^^^.^ 

'i'Z:'^^W^-^^'  ^'-  ^-^^  and  starboard  lights  by 
n.flSn'  hat  pent  wine  is  '  red.'  and  that  ,f  v.ju  take  too 
mSch  oat  you  will  not  be  '  right.'  but  will  probably  get  left. 


He  says  it  was  an  "  absurd  performance        Not  at  all.     It 
was  a  serviceable  little  scheme  designed  to  avoid  contusion 
and  ensure  recollection.     It  has"  weaknesses  no  doubt      I'or 
instance,  in  what  sense  is  Down  Street,  farther  rfou^H.^  And 
when  Mr.  Squire  has  fallen  in  love  with  white  port,  wU   t  not 
confuse  hisfnnemonic  for  remembering  the  diftercnce between 
the  port   and   starboard  hghts,   seeing   that   the  statement 
■•  port  wine  is  red  "  is  the  basis  of  the  thing  ? 
.  Since    Loisette's    day,     mnemonics     have    found     their 
right  place,  which  is  to  aid  in  recalhng  data  tliat  by  reason 
of  their  intricacy  and  lack  of  relationship,  are  ^^'^^■whnRly 
dithcult  to  memorise.       I  wonder  how  long  it  would  take. 
Mr   Seniirc  to  learn  the  table  of  atomic  weights,  or  the  Bn- 
mingham  metal  gauge  ;  also,  how   long    he    qovdd  retain    t 
after  he  had  once  learned  cither  of  the  tables  without  any 

""'But  the  modern  and  truly  psychological  method  of  training 
memory  is  to  awaken  the  interest  I  .n  erviewed  a  man  some 
tune  ago  who  could  not  recall  telephone  numbc|^s,  dates 
of  orders,  <,uantities,  sizes  and  cvther  details  "t  "f  j?^  Jj"^ 
He  complained  bitterly  of  Ins  bad  ni<^'""'-v-  »  >t  1  J"'  ^  Jj 
was  a  walking  encyclopaedia  of  football  data^  ."^.-'^ ^^^J 
everything,  and  could  have  given  pomts  to  a  Spo  ts  di  . 
He  was  inicrcsicd  in  football,  but  not  in  business  .  for  th  ne 
he  had  a  prodigious  memory-for  the  latter  none  at  all. 
Where  your  heart  is,  there  is  your  memory  also. 


J.  W.  BENSON 

LTD. 

^.' Active  Seroict   WRISTLET  WATCH 
»(.„lly    LiiiniDOu»     Figure*  &    Hands 
Warranted  Timekeepers 

Oliver    C.»M  wilh    Sc«»    Brrr' 

•and  BkU,  XXi   .U.  Oolii.  XH. 

With     Hunlcr    or    H»lt-Hunlcr   coyer. 

Silver.  «y«    I'"-      Gold,  i-H  lO,. 

Othtrs  in    Silver   from     «^    H"- 

Gold  from  :*iH. 

Military  Badge  Brooches. 

a.ty  Regimental  So</ge  Ptrfectlii 
Modelled. 
pklCEB  ON  APrHOAIlOH 

^keiclies  sent  tor  approval. 

25  OLD  BOND  ST.,  W.I. 

and  (.2  &  64  LUDUATE  HU.i-  E.C.  ■«■ 


I  do  not  say  this  is  the  wh-.le  story.     It  'sn't^     r>ut  it  is 

th    m  tUH-  poL'r  of  all  mental  abilitv.      1    lave  h^'fore  me  a 

■tter  from  one  of  the  most  distinguished  philosophers  of  the 

av    who  says:     "  I   never  could  remember  any  "clate, 

Sorv  till  I  got  an  interest  in  a  certain  period,  then  all  the 

hers- gradually  centred  round  that."     Such  a  confession  has 

it?  Jupliaites   in   every   sphere   of   '^""^I'^'lgejind   acbon^ 

Xaturallv,    interest    cannot    do   everything,    and   the   most 

ent Elastic  medical  student,  relies  on  ninemomca    aids  to 

recall  tabular  data.     To  train  '^^VTfTshL^     mmerorv 

incorrcctlv  phrases  it)  has  gone  out  "« /f^f '"?;  .^^^  ^^^y 

siss^veSrssrtis^^^ 

"Memor';tr"iing tr  people  in  health  often  consists  of  tlic 
nrfctcc  of  exercises  designed  to  bring  the  weaker  memories 
nt    the   evS  of  the  stronger  memories.  To  arouse  the . nter- 
S.  to  quiilln  the  power  of  S;erception  to  deep^^^^^^^ 
concentrate,  and  to  strengthen  the  wiU-th^^V  "^^^  ^^c  modem 
methods  of  training  memory.     M"emome  device     on  psycho 
logical  lines,  for  difhcult  tormuhe,  are  perm  ss.blc      but  to 
confine  the  subject  too  much  within  ,^"  '  .  *'"^l'^^„v^,^^^^^^^ 
Loisette's  fatal  errors,  and  issues  in  diatribes  such  as  mat 

""'^^^^  Si::-Pe.man  Institute  are  open  to  all  who 
definfte  results  we  have  achieved. 


A  Great  Wild  West  Novel 

Naomi  of  the  Mountains, 


Cassel  &  Co.,  68. 


First  Edition  exhausted  three  weeks 
after  publication. 

A     thrilling,     intensely     hiiman,     Cowboy 

Story,  by  an  cx-Cowboy,  that  is  appeahng 

to  all  classes  of  readers. 


Ask  for    it  at  your  Library 


June  2^,  T917 


LAND     &     WATER 


'J  ( 


Books  to  Read 

By   Lucian   Oldershaw      j 


THERE  come  times  when  one  is  bemused  by  much 
reading  about  the  war — its  causes,  its  conduct  and 
its  aims — sidehghts,  headhghts  and  flashlights  on 
the  war,  and  one  is  inchned  to  say  :  "  Away  with 
all  this  talk  about  it  and  about.  We  know  what  we  are 
hghting  and  what  we  are  fighting  for.  •  In  such  an  emergency 
as  this  it  is  not  words  that  are  wanted  but  deeds.  Words 
befog  the  issue  and  unnerve  the  arm.  Let  us  destroy  the 
evil  thing  that  menaces  us  and  then  we  can  settle  dowm  in 
peace  and  talk  to  our  hearts  content."  This  is  a  natural  but 
surely  not  a  right  attitude.  It  is  an  impatience  bred  of 
latigue  or  of  an  incapacity  for  hard  thinking.  Much  that 
is  published  we  could  no  doubt  do  without  (especially  those 
of  us  to  whose  lot  it  falls  to  read  most  of  it),  but  it  is  often 
unwise  to  say  of  any  particular  book  that  it  is  of  no  use  when 
it  m.ay  act  either  as  a  reminder,  an  instructor,  a  stimulus  or  a 
whetstone  to  some  other  class  of  readers.  Moreover,  we' 
cannot  all  be  figliting  and  those  that  fight  are  not  fighting 
ail  the  time.  It  behoves  us  to  spare  what  time  we  can  to 
study  the  problems,  immediate  and  prospective,  that  the  war 
has  created.  Alertness  of  mind  is  ohviousiy  as  necessary  to- 
day as  alertness  of  body. 

Many  of  us  may  even  need  to  be  reminded  continually 
why  we  are  at  war.  Such  a  book  as  Odon  Halasi's  Belgium 
Under  the  German  Heel  (Cassell  and  Co.,  6s.  net),  reminds  us 
of  more  than  that.  It  reminds  us  that  the  cause  of  war  is 
still  operative.  The  author  is,  so  we  are  informed,  a  prominent 
Hungarian  journalist  who  was  given  facilities  for  seeing  by 
what  methods  German  Kultur  is  being  imposed  on  the 
l-5elgians,  and  who  in  a  book  appropriately  decorated  on  the 
frontispiece  with  a  picture  of  Burgomaster  Max  gives  a 
restrained  but  telling  description  of  an  attempt  to  enslave 
the  soul  of  a  proud  people.  The  book  opens  with  a  portrait 
of  the  spirited  Burgomaster  of  Brussels  ;  it  finishes  with  a 
charmmg  little   picture  in  words  of  Cardinal  Mercier. 

***** 

Another  thing  that  we  ought  to  furnish  ourselves  with 
is  the  means  to  appraise  properly  the  efforts  of  our  Allies. 
VVe  ought,  therefore,  to  be  particularly  grateful  to  Mr.  Herbert 
Vivian  for  his  comprehensive  study  of  Italy  at  War  (J.  M. 
Dent  and  Sons,  6s.  net).  We  are  inclined  to  take  too  little ' 
account  of  Italy's  intervention  and  to  forget  what  a  large 
clement  of  truth  there  is  in  Mr.  Vivian's  statement  that 
"  Italy  saved  Europe  when  she  took  the  civilised  side." 
We  are  inclined,  too,  relying  on  maps  that  are  bound  from 
the  very  nature  of  her  two  theatres  of  war  to  be  inadequate, 
to  underestimate  the  scope  of  her  efforts.  With  a  book 
like  Mr.  Vivian's  before  us  we  have  no  further  excuse  for  such 
ignorance  of  our  gallant  Ally.  He  makes  us  vividly  ac- 
quainted with  all  her  war  activities  from  those  of  her  fighting 
monarch  and  General  Cadorna,  to  those  of  the  ordinary' 
soldier  in  the  trenches  or  on  the  mountain  heights.  Nor  does 
he  confine  himself  to  the  war.  There  are  sketches  abounding 
in  humour  of  everyday  life  in  Italy,  such  as  "  The  Mystery 
ot  Macaroni,"  or  the  extremely  interesting  description  of  the 
sport  of  pigeon-catching  at  Cava  dei  Tirreni,  which  was  intro- 
duced by  the  Longobards  in  892  and  has  flourished  ever 
since.  Italy  at  War  is  an  unusually  entertaining  and  informing 
livre  de  circonstance. 

***** 

The  causes  of  the  war  and  its  incidents  ^re  not,  save  in  the 
latter  case  to  the  General  Staff,  the  subjects  which  need  the 
closest  application  of  the  conscientious  citizen.  What  we 
are  fighting  for,  the  aims  of  the  war,  and  the  means  of  securing 
them,  should  be  eontimially  and  carefully  considered  from 
eveiy  point  of  view.  Here'  we  need  the  most  patient  and 
well-mformed  thought,  and  here  we  afe  most  apt  to  get 
impatient  for  the  destructive  clement  in  our  objective  is  so 
much  more  obvious  and  urgent  than  the  constructive.  I  must 
admit  that  I  read  Mr.  Eowes  Dickinson's  The  Choice  Before 
Us  (George  Allen  and  Unwin,  6s.  net),  with  considerable 
impatience.  His  aloof  attitude  towards  the  beUigerent 
parties,  as  of  the  erstwhile  John  Chinaman,  irritated  me. 
His  clean  cut  between  the  militarist  and  the  pacifist  position 
seemed  to  me  more  logical  than  real.     Yet  there  is  no  denying 


his  highmindedness  and  the  clearness  of  his  thought.  He 
pleads  with  the  English  pacifists  to  realise,  from  French 
inspiration,  that  pacificism,  as  he  sees  it,  "  is  notan  obstruc- 
tion, a  refusal.  It  is  the  fire  at  the  heart  of  the  world." 
He  has  definite  and  well-considered  views  as  to  how  the  future 
peace  of  mankind  can  be  secured  and,  as  no  one  can  desire 
to  go  back  to  the  status  quo  with  all  that  it  implies  of  re- 
cuirent  catastrophes  on  the  scale  of  the  present  war,  his 
views  deserve  attention  even,  or  perhaps,  more  especially 
by  those  who,  like  myself,  do  not  like  the  tone  in  which  they 
are  uttered.  I  do  not  wish  in  this  necessarily  brief  note  oil 
an  impjnant  book  to  bias  anyone  against  the  author  by  my 
personal  impressions,  so  let  me  quote  one  sentence  from  the 
preface  to  show  Mr.  Lowes  Dickinson  starts  from  ground 
common  to  the  great  mass  of  his  countrymen  :  "I  agree  ~  with 
the  general  view  that,  after  the  invasion  of  Belgium,  it 
wculd  have  been  neither  right  nor  wise  for  us  to  abstain." 
*         «         *         *         *       ■ 

'Another  book  with  somewhat  similar  aims  to  The  Choice. 
Before  Us  is  Mr.  Arthur  Capel's  Refections  on  Victory,  to  which 
he  adds  the  optimistic  sub-title  •■  And  how  to  secure  it  noio" 
(T.  Werner  Laurie,  2s.  net).  The  author  tells  us  that  the  book, 
was  written  in  France  after  eighteen  months'  service.  It  is 
a  hearty  denunciation  of  the  old  system  of  the  Balance  of 
Power  and  an  urgent  pleading  for  a  Federation  of  Europe. 
Mr.  Capel  suggests  the  caUing  now  of  a  convention  of  the  Allies 
and  the  British  Dominions  to  draft  a  scheme  of  Federation, 
iind  argues  that  no  greater  ^blow  could  be  struck  at  Prussian 
militarism.  The  interest  of  the  book  is  enhanced  by  historical 
retrospect,  and  as  an  introduction  Henry  IV. 's  Grand 
Dessein  is  quoted  from  Sully's  Memoirs.  Are  we  measur- 
ably nearer  the  accomplishment  of  that'grcat  vision  ? 
***** 

Here  is  a  first  novel  that  should  attract  readers,  for  the 
author  has  in  him  the  root  of  the  matter  of  story-telling. 
Naomi  of  the  Mountains,  by  Christopher  Culley  (Cassell  and 
Co.,  6s.  net),  arrests  attention  at  the  outset  by  its  picture  of 
the  down-at-heel  Englishman  in  the  saloon  "of  Finos  Altos 
and  holds  it  throughout — an  exciting  tale  of  cowboys,  Indians 
and  Mexican  bandits,  with  for  feminine  interest  the  solitary 
figure  of  a  mad  missionary's  daughter.  I  have  not  enjoved 
a  tale  of  this  type  so  much  since  1  read  The  Deerslayer,  which 
,  I  think  was  the  last  of  Fennimore  Cooper's  books  I  re-read. 
Not  that  the  book  is  by  any  means  flawless,  even  looked  on  as 
a  moving  (I  had  almost  said  "  movy  ")  tale,  and  it  has  greater 
ambitions  than  that.  It  shows  continuallv  the  apprentice 
hand,  particularly  in  a  marked  uncertainty  of  direction.  The 
reader  is  too  often  taken  by  a  surprise  that  is  not  quite 
intended.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  not  uninterest- 
ing characterisation.  Mr. "  Culley,  for  example,  plays  the 
rather  dangerous  game  of  leaving  the  reader  in  doubt  as  to 
which  of  two  persons  he  wishes  to  secure  the  most  sympathv, 
and,  whether  intentionally  or  not,  I  could  not  be  quite  certain, 
blows  now  hot,  now  cold,  upon  their  characters.  I  fancy 
this  is  laVgely  a  matter  of  construction,  and  that  much  of  the 
uncertainty  would  not  have  existed  had  the  rescuing  cowbov 
been  introduced  to  the  reader  before  his  chum,  the  rescued 
Englishman.  I  look  with  interest  for  Mr.  Culley's  next. 
*    .     *         *         *         « 

How  it  would  appear  on  the  stage  I  know  not,  but  Dr. 
Marie  C.  Stope's  play  Conquest  or  a  Piece  of  Jade  (Samuel 
French,  Ltd.,  is.  net),  is  a  little  crude  for  reading.  Some  of 
the  scenes  have  a  certain  effectiveness,  notably  the  recruiting 
scene  in  a  far-away  station  in  Australia,  but  the  machinery 
of  the  German  prisoner-spy  would  require  extremely  con- 
vincing altering  to  take  off  the  rough  edges  of  the  melodrama, 
and  we  fear  that  the  'heromc's  peace-league  heroics  would  be 
boring.  For  all  that,  there  is  a  "  certain  liveliness,"  and  an 
intense  sincerity  in  the  play. 

_  \  society  for  promothig  the  stiidv  of  French  literature  in 
this  country  is  being  formed  by  a  number  of  iidtnirers  of  our 
gallant  Ally,  and  it  is  hoped  to  hold  a  series  of  meetings  next 
wiuter  for  the  di.scussiou  of  the  works  of  great  French  writers. 
Student.s  of  the  French  language  and  literature  who  desire  fur- 
ther particulars  should  communicate  with  :  Mr.  VV.  G.  Hislop, 
Co,  Muswell  Koad,  N.io. 


GOGGLES 

WJHD- SCREENS 
<ScWSNDOW5 


\  ,.^<5^i^  •:y 


*   THE  ONUY 
SAFETY  CLASS 


16 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  28,  1917 


The  Charity  that  Continued  Abroad 


By  Stephen  McKenna 


I 


T!IOUr,HT  it  was  a  Foreign  OBiro  bap:  wlien-yoii 
hanclt'd  it  ovor  so  carefully  to  the  Captain,"  said  tho 
Thirsty-LtMikinf;  Man. 

Souring  experience  had  taught  tlie  Kind's  Messenger 
to  discourage  intimate  discussion  of  official  business  with 
chance  smoke-room  acquaintances  1 

■'  Oh,  er,  yes,"  he  simpered  ;  adding,  with  excessive  serious- 
ness, "  Gad,  I've  left  my  cigarette-case  in  my  cabin." 

As  he  hiirried  away,  the  Thirsty- Looking  Man  gave  a 
practised  backward  jerk  of  the  head. 

'  Try  one  of  these,"  he  drawled,  slowly  producing  a  case  ; 
and.  wlien  the  King's  Messenger  for  very  politeness  accepted 
a  straight-cut,  with  the  mental  reser\'ation  that  he  had  for- 
gotten to  order  China  tea  in  the  morning.  !'  1  was  in  the 
l-.O.   myself  one  time,'.',  (and,  allusively)  : 

"  To  save  our  injured  feelings, 

'  i  anil  time  to  go  ; 

lieh  '       ...     :   (-k  anil  Dartmoor, 

Ahcatrfay — Callao. 

The  King's  Messenger  resumed  his  seat  and  touclicd  the 
belt.  .. 

'■  Thanks,  thanfaf  "-sjGd  the  Thirsty-Looking  Man.  with  a 
regretful  shake  of  the  head.  ""  liet\vecn  meals — Are  you 
havipg  one  yourself  ?;  Well,  ,  I  really,  can't  let  you  drink 
alone.  Hacardy  cocktail,  plea.se."  'He  leaned  back  and 
exhaled  cigaretfb-smoke  from  his  ivose,  as  from  the.  nose  of 
one  who  has  effected  a  successful  coup.  "  Yes,  I  was  in  the 
l-'oreign  Office  at  one  time,"  he  repeated.  "^  And  now." 
lie  laughed  without  bitterness.  '  My  own  name  wouldn't 
convey  anything  to  you,  but  I  wonder  if  you  know  Sir  Charles 
guantock?  "  '  .  ---^   ■ 

"Our  Ambassador  at ?  "  asked  the  King's  Messeryger. 

The  Thirsty-Looking  Man  drained  Ins  cocktail  at  a  gdlp. 

"  That's  theiboy"  he  as.severated.  "  You're  nf)f  a  son  or 
nephew  ? "  I^o  ?  K«jer  met  him,  even '?  Well,  no  more  have 
I,  if  it  comes  toftiat.  though  we've  made  a' connection,  as  the 
Americans  say,"  lie  raised" his  glass,  observed  that  it  was 
empty,  held  it  aloft  absent-mindedly  until-  the  King's 
Messenger  also  had  observed  that  it  was  "empty,  then  spiritedly 
resumed. his  monologue.     -       -    '■.•-:.'.     *»■ 

■■  My  name's  l^rsims,"  he  volunteered,  "and  I'm  no  re- 
lation of  Parson's.^t0res  in  Kegenj;  Street,  not  even.a  deben- 
ture-holder. Parsorus!"  He.  hiccoughed  and  apologised 
sirnultaneously.      "  What's  in  a  name  ?  " 

The  Kings  Messenger  became  non-committal.  "  There's 
a  great  deal  in  that,"  he  said  gravely. 

■  \nu  bet  there  is.  If  my  name  had  been  Smith  or  Brown. 
I  might  have  Jieen  Undcr-Secrstary  by  now.  You  wouldn't 
care  to  hear  the  stoFj',  I  suppose  ?" 

The  King's  Messenger  liailed  a  passing  steward  and  held 
up  two  fingers. 

'■  If  it's  not  reviving  piiinful  memories,"  he  said. 

The  Thirsty-Ijinking  Man  laughed  ■  mirthlessly  and  sat 
silent  until  the  second  cocktail  had.ap])eared. 

"  I  was  in  the  War  Department  at  the  time,". Ife  explained. 
"  and  one  day  a  letter  was  brought  me  from  Pekin.  It  had 
come,  by  bag.  and  it  took  me  some  time  to  get  the  hang  of  it. 
■  (lentlemti),'  I  remember  it  began.  '  1  enclose  order  for  a 
further  twelve  dozen  bottles  and  six  dozen, pifitg  of  your 
Family  Champqgnc  at  24s.  (twent^vjour  .shillings)**  dozen. 
1  take  this  opportunity  of  .pointing  out  that  you  made  a 
mistake  over  the  last  order  and  sent  me  your  High  Class 
Champagne  at  30s.  a  dozen.  As  the  mistake  was  entirely 
your  own  fault,  4  have  no  intention  of  payir^j  the  differ- 
ence and  must  ask  you  to  be  more  careful  in  future. — 
Yours  faithfully,  Kllen  Ouantock."  " 

The  Thirsty-Looking  Man  paused  until  the  King's  Messenger 
had  rung  the  bell  again. 

•  I  was  flummoxed  for  a  time,"  he  resumed.  "  Then  I 
saw  that  the  letter  was  not  for  me  at  all  ;  it  was  for  John 
Parsons.  Limited,  the  big  Regent  Street  grocers,  and  the" man 
who  had  distributed  the  bag  had  .sent  it  to  me  by  mistake. 
I  put  the  letter  in  a  new  envelope,  sent  it  off  and  thought  no 
more  of  it  for,  1  suppose,  six  months.  Then  Charlie  Starman 
called  on  me.  He  was  passing  through  London  from  The 
Hague  on  liis  way  to  take  charge  at  Pekin.  We  got  talking 
abou  Pekin  and  the  Ouantocks.  and,  remembering  the  letter 
1  had  seen,  1  felt  it  was  onlv  charitable  to  warn  Charlie  in 
confidence  that  he'd  better  call  for  whisky  and  soda  if  Lady 
Ouantock  tried  him  with  the  Family  Champagne  at  24s.  a 
rlozen.  He  thanked  me  and  said  good-bye^  and  thereafter 
1  never  gave  another  thought  to  Charlie  or  the .  Ouantocks 
or  their  champagne  until  I  read  iii  the  Times  a  year  or  two 
later  that  Hilda  Ouantock,  the  daughter,  was  marr>-ing 
Leonard  Phipps,  who'd  met  her  in  Pekin  before  he  was  "sent 


as  First  Secretary  in  the  American  Embissy  in  London.  I 
knew  Phipps  and  half  thought  of  warning  him,  as  I'd  warned 
<"harlie  Starman,  but  it  wouldn't  have  been  the  thing  to 
})reiudice  a  man  against  his  father-in-law's  cellar  -that's 
one  of  the  risks  of  matrimony — and  I  left  him  to  his  fate." 

The  Thirsty- Looking  Man  picked  up  his  empty  glass.  Imt 
as  the  King's  Messenger  refused  to  look,  he  sighed  and  went 
on  with  his  narrative. 

"  According  to  Phipps'  story,"  he  said,  "  there,  were  other 
people  less  tactful  or  more  charitable,  and  he'd  not  been 
half  an  hour  in  the  P.O.,  saying  good-bye,  before  nine  in .n 
had  warned  him  aganist  Ouantock's  champagne.  The  lilt- 
man  started  it,  a  messenger  carried  on,  and  members  of  every 
department  hurried  into  my  room,  one  after  anothef,  to  repeat 
the  warning. 

What's  the  mailer  with  the  champagne? '  Phipps  asked. 
I've  never  tasted  it,'  I  said,  as  I  showed  him  to  the  door. 
"  From  that  moment  there  was  an  epidemic  of  warnings. 
Phipps  was  to  be  married  in  I'ekin  and,  being  a  bit  run  down, 
went  the  long  way,  by  boat.  When  the  Benares  got  in,  the 
Ouantocks  could  not  meet  him  but  an  attache  went  down  and 
introduced  hiriiself.  They  had  a  little  general  conversation 
on  their  way  to  the  Legati.on,  and  at  the  end  of  it  the  attache 
started  in  to  say  that  he  wasn't  a  judge  of  wine  himself,  but  he 
had  been  given  to  understand,  and  tfie  rest  of  it." 

The  Thirsty-Looking  Man  was  seized  with  a  painful  (it  of 
cougliing.  "  Throat  gets  so  dry,  talking,"  he  gasped.  The 
-King's  Messenger  con.siderately  poured  him  out  a  glass  of 
water,  only  to  have  it  waved  almast  reproachfully  away. 

"  Better  now,"  panted  the  Thirsty- Looking  Man  with  an 
effort.  "  Let  me  see,  where  had  I  got  to  ?  Oh,  about  Phijips 
arriving  in  Pekin.  Yes.  Well,  I  told  you  that  the  Ouantocks 
couldn't  meet  the  boat  ;  they  weren't  due  back  at  the  Legation 
till  the  evening,  so  that  Attache  trotted  his  charge  round  to 
the  Club  and  left  him  there,  promising  to  call  for  hiria  in  time 
to  dress  for  dinner. ,  Phipp.s  yawned  the  afternotm  away, 
counting  the  hours  till  he  could  see  his  bride-elect  and  wonder- 
ing what  sort  of  fellow  his  father-in-laW  would  turn  out  to  be. 
Quantock  had  been  away  sick  when  Phipps  was  in  Pekin 
before,  and  the  two  had  never  met.  Five  o'clock  came,  and 
Phipps  had  a  peg.  Six  o'clock,  and  he  had  a  cock  tail.  By 
seven  tliere  was  still  no  sign  of  the  Attache,  and  Phipps  decided 
to  stroll  back  alone.  The  party  he'd  been  sitting  with  broKe 
up  at  that  moment,  and  a  quiet,  insignificant  little  fellow 
asked  Phipps  if  he  could  give  him  a  lift. 

Which  way  are  you  going  ?'  Phipp.^  asked. 
The  British  Legation,'  answered  the  other. 
Oh,  I'll  cjm:  along  too,  if  I  may.'  said  Phipps.     "  You're 
dining  there  by  any  chance,  are  you  ?  ' 

"  The  quiet  little  man  looked  a  bit  surprised. 
I  am,'  he  said.     '  Why  ?  ' 
"  '.  Well,  one  good  turn  deserves  another,' said  Phipps  from 
his  corner  of  the  carriage.     '  I'm  given  to  understand  tiiat 
the  Minister's  champagne  is  a  thing  to  avoid  !  ' 

That's  very  interesting,'  said  the  (juict  little  n\an. 
'  As  a  matter  of  fact,  1  never  drink  champagne  myself,  but 
my  wife  would  be  interested  to  hear  what  you  say.  She 
orders  all  the  wine  for  the  Legation.' 

"  Poor  Phipps  had  the  worst  five  seconds  of  his  life. 

"  '  Yau're  not  the  Minister,  are  you  ?  '  he  asked. 

"  '  I  am,'  said  the  quiet  little  man.     '  Let  me  see, ' 
met  before?  ' 

"'My  name  is  Leonard  Phipp.s,'  was  the  answer.  'No, 
this  is  our  first  meeting.'  " 

The  Thirsty  I.X)oking  Man  then  gathered  himself  together 
for  departure. 

"That's  the  story,"  he  said,  with  a  hiccough.  "Lady 
Quantock  was  considerably  annoyed  to  find  the  world-wide 
reputation  of  her  champagne  and  made  Phipps  turn  King's 
evidence.  The  trail  was  followed  through  Charlie  Starman 
and  up  to  me.  There  was  considerable  unpleasantness  at  the 
Foreign  Office,  and  a  general  feeling  that,  even  if  I  hadn't 
opened  other  people's  letters,  I'd  behaved  very  indiscreetly. 
So  I  cleared  out.     Good-night." 

•  ■      *  •     '♦        •        * 

The  King's  Messenger  sat  musing  on  the  mutability  of 
human  affairs.  The  Thirsty-Looking  Man  crossed"  the 
smoke-room  and  sat  down  beside  a  young  officer. 

"  Excuse  me,  but  may  1  a,sk.  you'if  you  ever  had  an  elder 
brother  m  the  Rifle  Brigade?  "  he  began.  "No?  That's 
curious— such  a  striking  resemblance.  I  was  in  the  army 
myself  once  ;  and  I'll  make  no  bones  about  it ;  I  was  aske'd 
to  send  m  my  papers.  I  suppose  vou  wouldn't  care  to  hear 
the  story?  Thanks,  on  my  honour  never  between  meals. 
.     .     .     n  ell,  if  you're  really  having  one  yourseU."     .     .     . 


, have  we 


' 


June  2«,  1917 


LAIN  U     &     WATER 


n 


mm^ 


Costume  Skirts 


Qrcal  IJariety. 


.  Xo.  'JO  L.W.C. 
W>ll-ciJt  Skirt  ill  aiiicl 
iinality  White  I>iill. 
Made  witli  two  ptx-kfts 
Hlld  shnpcd  hand  cover- 
ing gathered  hiiek. 


■i  L.W.C. 
WelltailOTe<l  Skirt, 
in  WMiit?  Drill  or 
Pique,  with  two  new 
shaped  |)cel;ets, 
trim  ni  e  d  huttons, 
gatlicred    hack. 

16/11 


8/6 


Carriage  Paid  on  Drapery 

Orders  over  2/6  in  value 

ttircughout      United 

Kinsdom. 


-No.  7  L.W.C. 
Tailor  made  Skirt,  in 
cocxl  White  l>rill  or 
Picjue,  two  new  ijcokets, 
and  detaeliahlc  J)elt, 
gath'Ted  at   hack. 


18/11 


290  to  322  Oxford  St.,  London,  W.l. 


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LANU    tV     WATER 


Juv.o.  28,  191 7 


The    Ypres     Salient 


Tl  1 1:  Yprcs  Salient  may  well  be  called  the  mo^t  famous 
iKiltU-ground  from  a  British  point  of  view  of  all  the 
lighting'  area  in  France  and  Belgium.  It  is  certamly 
the  most  detested.  Never  a  f-ood  word  is  siv)ken  of 
it  by  any  whose  duty  it  has  been  to  occui>y  its  miry  trenches 
during  all  the  montlls  it  has  existed,  which  now  almost  total 
tlirce  years.  Its  desolate  wastes  have  been  the  scene  of  the 
most  "heroic  fighting;  its  sodden  soil  the  grave  of  many 
brave  men.  In  a  sense,  the  Ypres  Salient  has  ceased ; 
for,  since  the  battle  of  Wvtschaete  Ridge,  the  actual  salient 
has  disappeared,  but  the  trenches  are  still  there  and  the 
fighting  continues  as  persistently  as  e%'er.  Lieutenant  Paul 
Nash,  one  of  the  younger  artists  of  the  London  School,  has 
done  well  to  inmiortalisc  these  wastes  of-  battle  while  war 
still  rages  over  them,  and  his  exhibition  of  water-colour  draw- 
ing's (four  of  which  are  reproduced  here  and  on  the  opposite 
page)  at  the  C.oupil  t.alleries.  5,  Kegeiit  Street,  will  attract 
on  aca)unt  both  of  the  subjects  of  his  drawings  and  of  the 
manner  in  which  they  arc  portrayed.     .  ,    ,         , 

ilr  Nash,  whose  work  was  favourably  known  before  the 
war.  originally  joined  the  Artists  Kifles,  and  subsequently 
received  a  commission  in  the  Hami>shirc  Regiment.  He 
Las  been  many  months   at 

the  Front,  and  as  his  friend 

m.  John  Cournos,  mentions         r^^^ZikZ^^'^mT^- 
in    the    appreciation    pub-  f    ' '^  ■  •     - 

•  lished  below,  not  a  few  of 
his  pictures  were  drawn 
under  shell  fire.  The  work 
is  veiy  fine,  and  every  one 
of  the  pictures  leave  a  cleep 
impression,  for  it  is  obvious 
the  artist  has  realised  to 
the  full  the  beauty  and  the 
tragedy  of  the  scenes  he 
depicts.  There  are  two 
views  of  the  front  line  at 
St.  Floi,  two  of  Voormc- 
zcele  ;  the  Wytschacte  Ridge 
appears,  and,  though  it  ha,s 
no  direct   connection    with 

•  the  Salient,  yet  for  many  it 
has  been  the  prelude  to 
that  unsavoury  region  ;  the 
Seine  at  Rouen  is  also  the 
subject  of  a-  drawing.  This 
little  exhibition  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  of 
which  the  war  has  been 
the  direct  cause. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
some  attempt  is  being 
made  by  the  authorities  to 
form  a  permanent  collection 
either  at  the  Tate  Gallery 
or  elsewhere,  of  the  more 
famous  ])icturcs  of  the 
battlefields    and     trenches 

the  work  of  younj^  combatant  officers.  Beyond  (luestioii, 
the  righting  man,  who  may  at  any  moment  be  tailed 
on  "  to  go  over  the  "top,"  does  finer  and  mote  efiettive 
work  than  the  civilian-artist  who  pays  occasional  brief  visits 
to  the  firing  line.  Living  with  his  men  in  these  "  unhealthy  " 
places  ;  .  exposed  to  danger  at  every  hour  of  the  day  and 
night,  tiie  mind  constantly  on  the  alert,  the  surroundings 
inevitably  cut  deeper  into  the  nature  of  a  soldier  who  is 
also  a  clever  artist,  and  give  to  all  his  work  a  strengtii 
and  sincerity  which  must  be  absent  from  the  paintings  of 
thr-  casual  observer.  Mr.  Nash  and  other  combatant  olhccrs 
should  be  given  every  opportunity  to  visit  all  parts  of 
the  line.  We  leave  the  merits  of  "  these  drawings  to  Mr. 
Cournos  to  discuss  ;  he  writes  as  follows  : 
•         *         •        •         « 

"  Lieutenant  Paul  Nash's  drawings  from  the  front,  some  of 
them  done  under  shell  fire,  reveal  an  invagination  which 
uses  reality  only  as  material  subject  to  its  will  and  does 
not  make  of  reality  a  fetish  in  itself.  His  intimate  and 
orderly  vision  sees  "life  as  a  kind  of  decoration,  not  less 
deep  or  solid  because  of  the  fantasy  with  which  it  is 
invested.  This  curious  blend  of  vision  and  reality  the 
artist  displayed  even  Ix-fore  the  war,  but  the  present  draw- 
ings show  a  marked  advance  in  spontaneity, 

"This  artist's  natural  expression  is  landscape,  preferably 
with  trees,  and  the  beautiful  thing  about  his  art  is  that  each 
tree  is  drawn  with  an  eye  to  its  distinct  individuality  and 
architecture,  as  though  it  were  in  fact  a  hnmHn  being.    There 


is  more  than  a  touch  of  tnc  Fast  and  of  Eastern  mysticism 
in  this  solicitude  for  trees,  and  this  solicitude  naturally  deter- 
mines the  'firm  bounding  line  '  that  BLike  s]Haks  of; 
trees  en  tiuisse.  blended  by  light  or  mist  into  indi-terminate 
mountain-like  sha!)es,  hardly  interest  him;  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  he  achieves  the  general  through  the  particular, 
which  is  another  Blakian  secret.  It  is  a  method  that  belongs 
more  to  the  East  than  to  the  West  ;  we  have  only  to  compare 
a  wave  bv  Turner  and  a  wave  by  Hokusai,  and  a  landscajx-  by 
Cotman  and  a  landscape  bv  Hirishigi,  to  mark  the  antithesis. 
Lieutenant  Nash  appears  to  have  come  by  this  vigorously 
decorative  note  in  his  art  quite  honestly— that  is,  naturally. 
He  is  moved  by  a  genuine  nostalgia  for  a  world  of  tranquil 
appearances. 

■  To  have  achieved  this  tranquil  world  in  one's  art  under 
conditions  so  violent  and  distressing  as  those  which  prevail 
in  the  warfare  in  France  is  surely  a  tribute  to  the  artist's 
spiritual  integrity,  which  refuses  to  compromise  with  a  world 
of  transient  facts  and  wrests  therefrom  the  moment  that  is 
eternal.  In  a  drawing  like  '  Chaos  Dccoratif/  which  is 
reproduced  on  the  opposite  page,  we  see  an  eloquent  example 
which   delines    this  attitude.      The  very  title  is  suggestive 

of  it.  Chaos  and  decoration 
are  superficially  a  contra-" 
diction,  yet  all  art,  like 
the  creation  of  a  w-orld, 
starts  essentially  from  chaos. 
Faced  with  this  chaos,  one 
artist  will  endeavour  to 
select  and  arrange  the  more 
susceptible  part?,  another 
will  endeavour  to  detect 
and  visualise  the  qualities 
of  structure  and  order 
existing  in  chaos  itself. 
Thus,  if  an  artist  set  out  to 
])aint  a  picture  which  he 
called  '  Confusion,'  he 
would  still  have  to  present 
the  'subject  with  greatest 
possible  order :  that  is, 
he  would  have  to  follow 
all  the  inevitable  laws  of 
artistic  composition.  'Chaos 
Decoratif,'  though  on  a 
small  scale,  belongs  to  this 
la^t  category.  Consider  the 
subject;  broken  and 
wounded  trees,  which  had 
suffered  hardly  less  than 
human  beings  in  the  Almost 
unceasing  bombardment  in 
Ypres  salient.  Think  how 
Dor6  would  have  treated  it 
as  a  tortured,  hellish  thing, 
in  a  mood  of  ,  strained 
macabre  !  But  Mr.  Nash's 
own  peculiar  fantasy,  de- . 
tachcd  from  all  transient  sentiment,  saw  in  it  first  of  all  its 
harmonious  arrangement  of  colour  and  line,  for  his  is  cssen- 
t  ially  a  painter's,  not  an  illustrator's  vision.  Unfortunately,  a 
black  and  white  reproduction  tloes  not  do  full  justice  to  the 
original,  in  which  colour  and  line  arc  blended  into  an  appear- 
ance of  beauty  as  abstract  and  as  melodious  as  a  musical 
theme.  It  would  be  interesting  to  see  how  far  the  artist  can 
sustain  a  similar  effort  (m  a  larger  scale. 

••  Somo  one  has  described  a  certain  poet's  work  as  possessing 
the  quality  of  '  accurate  mystery,'  that  is  mystery  expressed 
with  precision,  for  in  many  people's  minds  the  idea  of  mystery 
is  not  dissociated  from  vagueness  and  mistiness.  '  It  is  this 
growing  tendency  towards  precision  that  is  perhaps  the  most 
valuable  quality  in  Mr.  Nash's  method.  He  draws  reality, 
he  draws  accurately  what  he  sees,  yet  what  he  sees  is  not 
what  the  cam.'ra  sees.  His  drawing  of  '  The  Front  Line. 
Evening,'  (which  appears  on  this  page)  is  a  case  in  point. 
It  is  to  all  appearance  an  accurate  drawing  of  a  trench, 
but  if  you  liad  put  the  figures  of  Dante  and  Virgil  in  it, 
and  called  it  the  '  (iate  \o  Hell,'  the  appropriateness  of 
the  title  could  not  be  questioned.  With  all  its  accuracy^ 
it/is  as  mystical  as  a  drawing  by  Blake. 

"  Naturally  the  scene  of  war  offers  many  opportunities  for 
the  Dantesque  and  the  macabre,  but  whether  the  subject  of 
this  note  is  one  or  the  other  or  purely  deccrativ<',  one  quality 
appK^ars  never  to  desert  him  :  his  tranquillity  and  aloofness  of 
vision.  .\nd  that  surely  is  no  small  triumph  of  the  spirit 
over  matter." 


The  Front  Line,   Evening 


' 


June  28,   1917 


LAND    &    WATER 


19 


The  Ypres  Salient 


British  Trenches 


"Chaos  decoratif  " 


Desolate  Landscape  towards  Hill  60 
\  Photographs  ot  Water-colour  Drawings  by  Lieutenant  Paul  Nash,  on   view  at  the  Goupil  Galleries  j 


20 


LAND    &    WATER 


June  28,  191'/ 


THERE  is  a  subt'e  charm,  an  aromatic  elegance  and 
a  distinctive  flavour  about  TURF  CIGARETTES 
which  is  all  their  own.      It  is  so  hard  to  explain, 
and  so  easy  to  appreciate.      Produced  from  the  world- 
famed    Oid    Be't   Virginia   Leaf,    they  represent  smcke 
VALUE  and  Tobac:o  QUALITY. 


TURF 


Blendini  by  modern 
icitntitc  melhod. 
U  tb*  Mcrel  o' 
TURF     Cif»rell«. 


Alexander    BOGUSLAVSKV.    Ltd., 

Specialists  in  Cigaretlcs, 

55    PICCADILLY. 

London,  W. 


It)  E.L.M. 


II 
II 
II 

II 

II 
II 
II 
II 
II 
II 


"  J  chtit  of  fint  Linen  ij  a 
lasting  plcusure  " 

"OLD   BLEACH" 

LINENS 

MAPLE  &  CO  are  now  exhibiting 
a  splendid  selection  of  these 
famous  Linens,  including  Sheets.  Table 
Cloths.  Napkins.  Pillov/  Cases.  Towels, 
etc.,  marked  at  the  lowest  possible  prices 

FINE     HEMSTITCHED     SHEETS     AQIA.     per 
2)  X  3i    yards     ^7/U     pair 

IMI.I.OW     CASES     to     matcli  f.'_      „^^.h 

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1-I.NE    DAMASK    TOWELS      Jrom      -l  1     Q      per 

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An    invitation    is    cordially    extended 

to  inspect  these  choice  "Old   Bleach" 

Linens 

MAPLE-Ce 

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The  Success! ui 
Garden 


Wise  folk  this  year  %Mth  an  incli  oi 
Kround  to  call  theii  own  have  planted 
it   np  as  fully   as  possible   and  are  just 

l;^n   voted  wonderfuUv    efficacious     by     many    competent 
"^1^  "St^  Sprayal.   a  guaranteed.  «>medy   for 
poSto  and  tomato  blight,  ^mildew  and  ^l"  ^^^-^^^f^^Sef 
plants.  Full  dir.-ctions  as  to  its  use  are  printed  on  each  pacUt 
licse   being   as   simple   as   A  B  C.      With  th.  use  of  Sprayal 
^claimed  that  not  only  will  the  valuable  potato  crops  of    he 
•ear  be  preserved.but  that  the  spraying  actually  co»s.dera., ly 
increases^  the  yield  of  the  crops.     A   P^'^^*^'  .^♦^,^^'':,.'*^- 
carriage  paid,  a  dozen  packets  being  I2s..  and  the  applica 
tion  worfe  out  at  an  absurdly  small  sum  a  rod^     Ifu.  people 
selling  this  contrivance  have  others,  all  of  great  Tabic  to  the 
gardener.     Land  Vital  is  amongst  them,  this  bang  a  nutnent 
and  plant   food   sold   to   promote  vigour  as  well  a.s  grow  h 
Then  there  is  a  well  tested  remedy  to  combat  those  afU 
en.-mics  of  every  gardener,  slugs  and  grubs,  be«dc*  special 
sprays  and  unique  gardening  tools.  ,  .      „  ,       ..„,. 

Owners  of  gardens  would  be  astonished  by  the  good  results 
obtained  through  tlitse  means  and  should  get  into  touch  with 
this  enterprising  lirm  without  loss  of  time.  They  moreovei, 
will  welcome  our  readers'  suggestions  on  all  kinds  of  and  to,,ls, 
preparations  and  remedies,  .heir  wish  being  not  only  to  keep 
abreast  of  these  unusual  times,  but  ahead  as  much  as  possi!)le. 

The  difficulty  of  obtaining  sugar  has  well 
Boitling  Without  jjjgi]  passed  into  a  truism,  it  being  a  self- 
Sugar  evident  fact.  Fruit  growers  are  naturally 
somewhat  agitated  over  ja  n  making  and  bottlmg.  Luckily 
enough,  however,  fiuit  cm  be  hotileU  without  sugar.,  and 
preserved  a  verv  long  time  piovided  a  certain  process  is 
followed.  Fruit"  promises  to  be  particularly  abundant  tins 
year,  and  even  those  who  have  none  of  their  own  will 
doubtless  buy  their  supplies  when  cheapest  in  the  market, 
and  lik,e  all  good  housewives  conserve  for  the  winier. 

Not  only  can  this  be  done  without  sugar,  but  it  is  by  no 
manner  of  means  a  troublesome  proceeding.  The  proper 
outfit  must,  however,  be  used,  and  the  direciions  sent  out 
with  each  one  very  faithfully  followed.  A  famous  firm  ar.^ 
making  a  great  featuie  of  these  outfits,  realising  that  this 
above  all  others  is  the  time  they  are  needed.  These  outhts 
are  sold  with  any  quantity  of  bottles  and  can  be  had  in  quite 
large  sizes  for  large  consumers.  Bottles  at  the  same  time 
are  daily  growing  scarcer,  and  the  farseeing  housekeeper 
>ji(.uld  buy  her  outfit  without  loss  of  time,  happily  secure  in 
the  knowledge  that  siie  can  thriftily  supply  her  store  cup- 
board and  yet  follow  the  principles  of  the  Food  Controller. 

A  complete  outfit  with  twelve  bottles  (total  capacity  six- 
teen pints)  and  a  s  -If-registciing  thermometer  costs  20s. 
larger  sizes  being  sold'  at  a  pioportionate  price.  E.xtrii 
bottles  are  still  available,  but  the  run  on  these  outfits  is  so  great 
that  customers  siirjuld  not  delay  with  their  orders. 


Some  Sale-time 
Suits 


Tliosr  who  really  know,  and  whosr 
opinion  miy  be  taken  seriously,  arc  ad- 
vising pv;ople  to  bay  co.its  and  skirts  now. 
or  at  any  rate  bolore  the  end  of  July. "  Kobody  ciin  tell  what 
the  future  will  bring  forth,  but  one  idea  is  that  an  official  permit 
may  have  to  be  obtained  with  every  yard  of  woolki' 
material.  Anyway  it  is  very  certain  that  woollen  mit.^ial 
in  the  fall  of  the  year  will  iiot  only  be  very  difficult  to  gel 
at  all,  but  mast  be  enormnisly  advanced  in  price,  and  that 
the  economist  will  do  some  pre-buying  in  consequence. 

A  certain  coat  and  skirt  departmmt  has  built  its  enviable 
reputation  solidly  upon  the  ground  of  value      The  values 
ottered  here  are  unprecedented,  the  clever  head  of  the  de- 
l)irtm:nt   miking   it   her  proud   boast  to  give  nothing  else 
Ti.ough  true  at  all  times,  now,  when  the  summer  sale  is  on 

[Continiifff   '>n  ]i"(/c  22)  1 


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